Recent Posts

3401

Living Room / Re: Moving up to ESET NOD32 v5

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 18, 2011, 06:24 PM »

I have seen many computers now running Norton, MacAfee, NOD32 suite, Avast Internet Security, AVG suite that have been infected and actually most of them were pretty open to attack because the users didn't know how to respond whan a pop-up says do you want to allow SVCHOST to access the internet etc.. Users either say  yes to everything or they say no to everything.

-Carol Haynes (November 18, 2011, 06:16 PM)

B~I~N~G~O!  

Our sales manager blew himself out of the water, just last week doing exactly that. (He thought he could "handle" an install by his-self...) Customer had a copy of I'm-On-Mc(crack)Afee and the firewall asked of app X couled access the internet ... He said clicked no. The app in question was the printer driver install he was in the process of running.

It was a 70 mile round trip (the next day) for me to go rescue is his ass.

3402

Living Room / Re: Moving up to ESET NOD32 v5

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 18, 2011, 06:16 PM »

... and MSE did not find malware, so you have none?

-Tuxman (November 18, 2011, 05:10 PM)

Between that and the occasional spot checks with a variety of other utilities, yes. The key is in reduced permissions ... If the user doesn't have permission to break the machine, then neither does the bugg. It's Just. That. Simple.

Anything else is just a waste of processor time.

3403

Living Room / Re: Moving up to ESET NOD32 v5

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 18, 2011, 05:07 PM »

Because MSE is not reliable. Lame heuristics, questionable "security status", niot really flexible, average detection rate.

-Tuxman (November 18, 2011, 04:56 PM)

And you base this assertion on what size test group? I've got a total of 100 machines, that have been running in various locations, for about 2 years now.

3404

Living Room / Re: A light-field camera? Ok. This is very cool!

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 18, 2011, 12:28 PM »

Lytro's desktop software (which you'll need to open and export .lfp files) is currently Mac only, with a Windows version in development.

  (Burn the witch, burn the witch!)

3405

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 Pledge: Printer PaperSource Explorer

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 17, 2011, 05:55 PM »

Okay, I'll watch for a beta - There's like a couple hundred printers at the office I can test it on for ya.

3406

General Software Discussion / Re: COMPLAINT! Word 2010 & Acrobat X (links, bookmarks, MEGA-fail!)

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 17, 2011, 04:51 PM »

I'm going to trust the new version until I have evidence that it's not working.

-superboyac (November 17, 2011, 03:56 PM)

The .docx files piss me off too, but I have been warming to them a bit as of late. I think the key is in moderation; be only as fancy as is necessary.

3407

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 Pledge: Printer PaperSource Explorer

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 17, 2011, 04:44 PM »

Interesting... So does this interact with the printer directly at any point, or just read the info available to/through/from the driver?

3408

Living Room / Re: Moving up to ESET NOD32 v5

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 17, 2011, 11:37 AM »

I want programs that work now, and I want them to be as lightweight, quick, and responsive as possible.  Those are my criteria.

-superboyac (November 17, 2011, 10:14 AM)

+1 

MSE & UAC get my vote. You can waste processor cycles by the ton hoping that whatever babysitter you pick is vigilant (read CPU intensive) enough to catch some sparkling new zero day exploit. Or... You can go the reduced permissions route (std User acct + UAC), which never uses any processor time and actually be relatively safe.

I just don't see it as much of a contest.

3409

Living Room / Re: New Consumer Protection for Broadband Customers (FUNNY!)

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 17, 2011, 06:28 AM »

I was thinking of speeds expressed something like this:

Expected Speed: 20 Mbps with a standard deviation of 2 Mbps

-Renegade (November 17, 2011, 12:50 AM)

I know... That's what should happen. But as App103 covered so nicely, I'm predicting what will happen. It's a numbers game, and the house always wins. Which is why CenturyLink is my former ISP...I just got tired of having to explain things to the mindless flowcharting drones.

3410

Living Room / Re: "Save the internet"

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 16, 2011, 06:55 PM »

I suspect that quite a few talented IT types - that have been staying on the sidelines - will step wistfully off into the abyss of the (hacking) dark-side the instant this POS passes if it does.

3411

Living Room / Re: "Save the internet"

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 16, 2011, 05:48 PM »

Signed ^that one^ too.

3412

Living Room / Re: multiple monitors vs large monitor?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 16, 2011, 05:25 PM »

I say both.

Get multiple large monitors.

-Deozaan (November 16, 2011, 05:16 PM)

Hay! ...Nothing wrong with compromize...

3413

Living Room / Re: multiple monitors vs large monitor?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 16, 2011, 05:00 PM »

For trying to monitor a remote server that's in the process of doing, stuff... While also trying to have a life. the dual monitors cannot be beat. I can do a full screen for the server on monitor 1, while continuing with my stuff on monitor 2. Ya can't do that with a single wide monitor.

And if you're thinking why not put the remote server in a window? That's because the remote server is an entry point to several other machines that are also being accessed on the remote network, that are running in windows. So if I'm tied into multiple remote networks (happens frequently), I really need to keep the who's who separated to avoid creating more problems than I'm currently trying to solve.

3414

Living Room / Re: multiple monitors vs large monitor?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 16, 2011, 02:09 PM »

I've got two 17" monitors at home, and one 22" widescreen monitor here at work. When I'm at work, I really miss the two 17s ... And when I'm at home, I never miss the 22.

3415

Living Room / Re: New Consumer Protection for Broadband Customers (FUNNY!)

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 16, 2011, 11:34 AM »

It would nice to see "expected speed with variance in standard deviations" advertised.

-Renegade (November 16, 2011, 07:14 AM)

Superficially a standard deviation would be nice (because sheeple can't grasp the whole traffic concept - even when they're stuck in it on the freeway...), but... (in reality) It would unfortunately only end up opening the door for Zero to be one of the standards it deviated to...More often than not.

 So when the "freeway" grinds to a screeching halt (Speed=0) it will be construable as an acceptable part of the (fine printed) "Norm"...Because it is within the "standard".

3416

Living Room / Re: New Consumer Protection for Broadband Customers (FUNNY!)

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 16, 2011, 06:56 AM »

While it's tempting to laugh, I can't help but wonder what they're raising said bar (to 10%) from. 1%? Less?

Why is it we constantly have to spend (waste) so much time trying to make sure we're not getting screwed?

3417

Living Room / Re: "Save the internet"

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 16, 2011, 06:28 AM »

signed

3418

General Software Discussion / Re: COMPLAINT! Word 2010 & Acrobat X (links, bookmarks, MEGA-fail!)

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 15, 2011, 11:07 PM »

I have a client that was having difficulties with large (50+ pages - lots of pictures etc.) Word document reports. While researching why they kept "exploding" after a (seemingly) random amount of time, I ran across the formatting as a cause theory also. The difference was in that what I found was not so much stressing the old vs. new ... as it was consistency.

The client standardized the version of Office used, and the staff got together and agreed on what formatting was to be used for various things/sections of the reports. Since then they haven't had a Word doc go pop in over 2 years.

Have, or can you break the document down into sections to see which parts are most likely to piss-off Acrobat?

3419

General Software Discussion / Re: Need replacement for MS Uptime.exe

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 15, 2011, 10:56 PM »

From a command prompt

systeminfo | find "Time:"
systeminfo /s \\192.168.1.1 | find "Time:"

-Josh (November 15, 2011, 08:43 PM)

Um...

C:\Users\Stoic Joker>systeminfo /s \\192.168.0.4 | find "Time:"
System Boot Time:          10/4/2011, 7:01:38 PM

...Yes, I am too lazy to do-the-math...

...Are you trying to subtly point me at the apparent fact that I'm going to have to write the damn thing myself? 

3420

General Software Discussion / Re: handy security tool

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 15, 2011, 08:54 PM »

True, but I find it a bit hard to trust a program that says it can't find a file that I'm looking at.


I usually just go with:
tasklist /svc /fi "IMAGENAME eq svchost.exe"

...In a pinch, but its lacking the file name/path info does make your GUI there interesting.

3421

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: Pledge: Fentwiss (a simple calculator / converter)

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 15, 2011, 08:39 PM »

I think that part was covered in the "I do not live is a browser" statement.

3422

General Software Discussion / Re: Need replacement for MS Uptime.exe

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 15, 2011, 08:36 PM »

NTToolkit - http://netikus.net/p...oolkit.html?SESSION=

PSTools - http://technet.micro...ysinternals/bb896649

-PhilB66 (November 15, 2011, 06:52 PM)

Thanks, but neither fits the requirements.

NTToolkit is dependent on VC9 runtime files, and its uptime only does LM. I need to be able to check the uptime of a remote machine, and optionally dump the event logs for either a LM or a remote machine.

PSTools I currently already use for other things...Specifically PsExec which is incredibly handy for all sorts of things. Unfortunately PsInfo is dependent on the Remote Registry service being started on the remote machine ... And while it is relatively trivial to launch the service manually as/if needed ... It really doesn't qualify (with the extra steps) as a quick answer. It also will not dump the event logs.

The output from the screenshot above would typically only take about 2 seconds even when run against a remote machine, and its only requirement was that the target machine must be running. That is the type of quick answer I'm looking for.

3423

General Software Discussion / Re: handy security tool

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 15, 2011, 06:38 PM »

It is interesting, but it flagged a bunch of things as can't find/suspect that were standard parts of Windows (Win7 x64 on Domain). *Shrug* YMMV

3424

General Software Discussion / Re: Need replacement for MS Uptime.exe

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 15, 2011, 06:23 PM »

http://uptimeexe.codeplex.com/#

-Josh (November 15, 2011, 06:03 PM)

That's only for getting the current uptime for local machine...And it is a .NET app (total deal breaker). The absolute last thing I ever want to even consider doing is installing anything on an unstable machine, especially if it's a server.

I'm looking for something that can query both local and remote machines. And that can do a complete dump of the event log boot records (as shown above).

3425

General Software Discussion / Need replacement for MS Uptime.exe

« Last post by Stoic Joker on November 15, 2011, 06:01 PM »

Greetings
   For many years one of my favorite utilities has been the incredibly brilliant and tiny MS Uptime.exe. It will give the current uptime of either LM, or any machine on the network. It will also dump the event logs (local or remote) of all the shutdown/reboot/BSOD & boot events which made creating a (up)timeline a snap for troubleshooting.

  But... It was written back in 1999, and is (for whatever reason) no longer reliable. It tends to crash when trying to get a list of when/why the (local or remote) machine was rebooted.

Here is a sample of it output (run locally):



  Lacking the time to scratch write it myself, I was hoping someone knew of a comparable alternative that was currently available (that works). CLI is preferable, but I'll suffer through a GUI if I have to.