Recent Posts

3426

Developer's Corner / Re: Some circuit magic

« Last post by wraith808 on September 29, 2015, 10:14 AM »

I was convinced there was a battery in the switch... until he connected LEDs not adjacent to the switch... beats me!

But I'm really posting because that's a pretty cool way of prototyping. His solder connections aren't real strong, I wouldn't guess, but he did it with two hands and no aids. I've never seen someone dose solder that way before.

-ayryq (September 29, 2015, 08:17 AM)

EM Field underneath the table.  It's wireless energy.

3427

General Software Discussion / Re: Any tips for setting up a new Win7 laptop and installing lots of software fast?

« Last post by wraith808 on September 27, 2015, 04:31 PM »

there is something wrong. This page won't fully open, keeps saying Connecting to wraith808.com...

 

-Curt (September 27, 2015, 01:35 PM)

My server was down, so probably it was trying to get my .sig image.  It would happen with anything that's offsite, and has nothing to do with DonationCoder

3428

General Software Discussion / Re: AVG Antivirus Plans to Collect & Sell Your Personal Data to Advertisers?

« Last post by wraith808 on September 27, 2015, 12:56 PM »

I'm not sure John McAfee is a valid reputable source for anything computing-related anymore. Not only has he been out of the industry for years, but there is that whole 'delusional on an exotic island under the influence of bath salts, accused of at least one murder, and insisted he was the target of a drug cartel in spite of there being no evidence to the contrary' back-story.

The man does not have both oars in the water.

-Innuendo (September 27, 2015, 10:45 AM)

Of course, there is the official account of actions.  But there's always another side to every story.  And everyone is entitled to their read of whatever is posed.

I'm on the other side of that.  He seems quite rational, quite engaging, and quite credible.  And I remember the story of others who have tried to pull the wool out from over our eyes, which makes him more credible, not less.  And the others who have quite credibly and separately verified part of his claims.

* wraith808 shrugs

3429

General Software Discussion / Re: Any tips for setting up a new Win7 laptop and installing lots of software fast?

« Last post by wraith808 on September 25, 2015, 08:03 PM »

I just tried to create a system repair disc, before carrying on with the installation.

But my laptop did not come with a CD/DVD drive. I tried to burn over the Homegroup network using my old PC's DVD drive, but something just wouldn't let me write onto it (although it would let me read)--though I don't know if such a thing is normally possible.

In the end the only way I was able to create that repair disc was by mounting a virtual DVD writer using KernSafe TotalMounter (it was suggested here). There are some very mixed reviews of it out there, but I couldn't find any other solution, and it worked fine.

But it's a bit strange that the system repair disc creation setup would insist on requiring a DVD drive on a system that doesn't have one...

-dr_andus (September 25, 2015, 06:29 PM)

Mine allows you to use an external drive or a USB drive for just this reason.

3430

General Software Discussion / Re: Klingon Support

« Last post by wraith808 on September 25, 2015, 02:27 PM »

LCARS? 

Update: I was being funny.  But a little googling brought up this:

http://www.klingon.o...es/software_mac.html

http://www.klingon.o...ces/software_PC.html

and Max OSX: http://fairerplatfor...2/mac-klingon-qapla/

3431

General Software Discussion / Re: Any tips for setting up a new Win7 laptop and installing lots of software fast?

« Last post by wraith808 on September 25, 2015, 11:34 AM »

I'd personally leave those alone.  In general (my dells are like this now) instead of including boot media and such, they include recovery partitions.  So unless you're changing drives, or your drive fails, everything is there.  My two newest ones, I just press f10 and get into the recovery tools.  So unless they include a way to create recovery media separate from these, and you've already done it, I'd leave it alone, personally.

3432

General Software Discussion / Re: AVG Antivirus Plans to Collect & Sell Your Personal Data to Advertisers?

« Last post by wraith808 on September 24, 2015, 10:41 PM »

I'll just leave this here:

http://thenextweb.co...e-antivirus-is-dead/

3433

Developer's Corner / Re: Unity 5 now free for everyone!

« Last post by wraith808 on September 24, 2015, 10:39 PM »

Ditto! 

3434

General Software Discussion / Re: AVG Antivirus Plans to Collect & Sell Your Personal Data to Advertisers?

« Last post by wraith808 on September 24, 2015, 06:02 PM »

So we have different experiences.  That's cool.  But I have it installed along with winpatrol and malwarebytes on 9 computers.  That combination along with an aware user has stopped everything that has tried to infect.  With an unaware user, not so much.  So each person to their own experiences and preferences.  You can argue the point, but I won't argue along with you on this. 

-wraith808 (September 23, 2015, 05:47 PM)

Oh, we're not arguing...just a friendly discussion. Honest.

However, you are running complementary programs alongside MSE in order to provide accurate security. WinPatrol and MalwareBytes are both awesome products. Have you ever seen MSE stop anything from installing other than a keygen/crack, though?

-Innuendo (September 24, 2015, 05:54 PM)

Yes, ! That's exactly what I said earlier  All three have caught various things.

3435

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« Last post by wraith808 on September 24, 2015, 12:24 PM »

More complaints  The poll has nothing to do with the topic - it doesnt make any sense to have it here....

-tomos (September 23, 2015, 01:07 PM)

Yes, it does. Sandboxie has a new version(5.04) for Win 10. I was interested in how many people here use it and would want to get the Win 10 version. I also wanted to get a more general idea of how many Sandboxie users were here and not just people with Win 10.

-Arizona Hot (September 23, 2015, 11:59 PM)

I don't think that people are complaining, just pointing out that if you really intend to get that information, or are interested it culling it, you might be better served with it in a new thread.

3436

DC Gamer Club / Re: Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee free for the next 24 hours (Sept. 23, 2015)

« Last post by wraith808 on September 23, 2015, 08:10 PM »

Thanks for the heads up!

3437

General Software Discussion / Re: AVG Antivirus Plans to Collect & Sell Your Personal Data to Advertisers?

« Last post by wraith808 on September 23, 2015, 05:47 PM »

In your experience.  In mine?  I've had it protect against things in downloads, things on pages, and just things in general.  And the icon doesn't change in my experience- it pops up.  The icon is based on whether you're protected.

-wraith808 (September 23, 2015, 11:11 AM)

In my experience and in the experience of many other people I know who have had to work on many computers that are 'protected' with MSE that has the green icon, no pop ups, and even doing a full scan on the PC tells you that your computer is safe, all the while malware is causing popup ads and other evilness to prosper on the computer.

Independent AV tests rarely have MSE score better than 60% in tests. Microsoft's reply? It's baseline protection. It's not meant to be comprehensive or catch everything. They probably don't want security software devs to band against them for a lawsuit in the EU.

MSE is the consumer version of Microsoft Forefront Security, which BTW, is a discontinued product. We're saddled with it at work & at least once every couple weeks the desktop IT team has to spring into action to go cleanse a virus off someone's workstation. I rarely have extremely strong opinions about something preferring to each person to have their own tastes, but MSE is garbage and I'll defend my position to the bitter end.

-Innuendo (September 23, 2015, 05:29 PM)

So we have different experiences.  That's cool.  But I have it installed along with winpatrol and malwarebytes on 9 computers.  That combination along with an aware user has stopped everything that has tried to infect.  With an unaware user, not so much.  So each person to their own experiences and preferences.  You can argue the point, but I won't argue along with you on this. 

Onward! 

3438

Found Deals and Discounts / Personal Knowbase on sale on BDJ (2015-09-23)

« Last post by wraith808 on September 23, 2015, 03:06 PM »

Personal Knowbase is on sale today on BDJ.  It's half off the normal $49.95 price tag. 

From their site:

Personal Knowbase is a program for organizing free-form information using keywords. Build a personal knowledge base of all your notes, messages, and ideas. Store and index your information in one place for easy retrieval using keywords that you choose. The attachment feature even associates disk files and Internet addresses with your notes, so you can access any computerized information using the same set of keywords.

I'm most impressed with the replies of the support person to my questions, and the rapidity of providing the reply.  She was quite frank in the limitations and capabilities, which you don't find much these days.  After thinking about it, I'm not going to get it- Evernote works well enough for me.  But I figured I'd post it here.  It's been mentioned tangentially, but never a full view done on it.

3439

General Software Discussion / Re: AVG Antivirus Plans to Collect & Sell Your Personal Data to Advertisers?

« Last post by wraith808 on September 23, 2015, 11:11 AM »

I understand what you are saying, but MSE doesn't stop *anything*. I've watched people get infected by a drive-by ad banner while 'protected' by MSE. Dialog boxes popping up willy-nilly on the screen auto-installing this or that through Java, Flash, and Silverlight vulnerabilities. All the while, that happy little green MSE icon stays green till the bitter end.

-Innuendo (September 23, 2015, 07:26 AM)

In your experience.  In mine?  I've had it protect against things in downloads, things on pages, and just things in general.  And the icon doesn't change in my experience- it pops up.  The icon is based on whether you're protected.

3440

Developer's Corner / Re: Ethics in Technology

« Last post by wraith808 on September 23, 2015, 11:08 AM »

The OP seems to be making the judgement/assertion that AVG, Microsoft, and Volkswagon have somehow been unethical/immoral and worked against the public good.
Is that necessarily true?

-IainB (September 23, 2015, 09:06 AM)

That's a bad read, though not necessarily untrue.  What I'm saying is that the programmer's facilitated their wrongdoing.  The bit with VW was definitely against the public interest.  Compromising privacy?  With or without notification- that's against the public good also.

I clarify it a bit more in a later post.

Google isn't Evil, and neither is Microsoft.  And it's not the policies coding our future away.  It's people with livelihoods.  But by not asking the hard questions and pondering in advance over what you would do, or how much do you really care about these issues, we become part of the problem, and get paid to do it.  How soon do we become exactly what we don't like because of pragmatism and practicality?

-wraith808 (September 22, 2015, 12:44 PM)

3441

General Software Discussion / Re: Web Shop recommendations

« Last post by wraith808 on September 23, 2015, 07:44 AM »

If I was in that position, I'd go with Storefront on WooCommerce on Wordpress if you wanted something to host yourself and have control over or Gumroad if not.  ShopperPress is also something that I've seen, but WooCommerce was just bought by Automattic, which is what gives it the nod to me (and at it's basic level, it's free). There are other options- but those are the ones I'm familiar with.

3442

Living Room / Re: Is it reasonable to *require* phone nr. when purchasing software?

« Last post by wraith808 on September 23, 2015, 07:33 AM »

One thing about fake numbers- sometimes they have to verify the purchase because of the credit card company.

-wraith808 (September 22, 2015, 06:26 PM)

I think this might be the case in the UK as well. I suspect phone numbers and email addresses get tied to your physical address and your credit card number, in the name of identity fraud detection or something... Which is not to say that they are not harvested for direct marketing along the way somewhere. Unfortunately in the UK even the local government sells voter registration data, which is just shameful.

-dr_andus (September 23, 2015, 05:04 AM)

I've actually had the credit card company contact me based off of a purchase to make sure it's me.  My card hasn't been stolen... but it gives me a measure of peace to know that they do that.

3443

Developer's Corner / Re: Ethics in Technology

« Last post by wraith808 on September 23, 2015, 07:31 AM »

Highlights what I was trying to say for Ethic and Profit Making. Boss is always...

http://www.commitstr...ware-worth-billions/

Regards,

Anand

-anandcoral (September 23, 2015, 05:16 AM)

But that's still just the boss.  We can't blame him if we didn't have the stomach to do something different.  HE didn't code it, WE did.

3444

Living Room / Re: Chromium bug... turned into a game?

« Last post by wraith808 on September 23, 2015, 07:24 AM »

My Chrome tab goes to "Aw snap" as soon as I hover anywhere on those images. Tree or not.

-rgdot (September 22, 2015, 10:51 PM)

Mine did it as advertised.  Not sure why yours is different behaviour.  The code and the rationale behind it is really simple too.

From https://github.com/szhu/3030/blob/master/src/game.py

Code: Python [Select]

1. yield '[ohai]: http://www.berkeley.edu/'
2. yield '[onoe]: http://www.stanford.edu/%%30%30'

That's the two lines that replicate the bug.  The bears are linked to berkeley, and the trees are linked to stanford.  And I'm sure there's something behind that.

Those are arranged by a python script into arrays with the images, using a map file to position them in markdown.  So with it being that simple, not sure why it wouldn't work.

One caution that I found out the hard way... if you do this too many times, you can corrupt your chrome for any other tabs you have open.  That's why they said close all tabs, even though it only messes with one.  After that, since I had amazon up, when I tried to browse, Amazon would lock up my machine.  I cleared the cache for the last hour... and it started working again.

3445

Living Room / Chromium bug... turned into a game?

« Last post by wraith808 on September 22, 2015, 07:52 PM »

Courtesy of Make Use Of:

Chrome’s Terrible Bug Turned Into a Game

As of Monday, Chrome is vulnerable to a bug that can crash any tab, just by hovering over links with certain characters in succession. This is obviously terrible, but you know the old saying: when life gives you bugs, make bug-based games.

3030 is a simple game where you move your mouse through a maze of potentially browser-crashing links. Don’t touch a tree!

https://github.com/szhu/3030/tree/master

From the page

Mouse your way through the map without touching the deadly trees! (Chrome, Opera, etc. only)

WARNING: Do you have important, unsaved work open in other tabs?
You need to close this tab RIGHT NOW. Go save your work. Come back. Enjoy!

3446

General Software Discussion / Re: AVG Antivirus Plans to Collect & Sell Your Personal Data to Advertisers?

« Last post by wraith808 on September 22, 2015, 06:28 PM »

Because Ultratastic AV or not, it always comes down to a dialog box that says Ok/Cancel ... And you either choose wisely at that point, or you don't.

-Stoic Joker (September 22, 2015, 06:00 PM)

This x1000.  Winpatrol and Malwarebytes have saved my family more times than any AV.  Thankfully, I have lifetime to both.

3447

Living Room / Re: Is it reasonable to *require* phone nr. when purchasing software?

« Last post by wraith808 on September 22, 2015, 06:26 PM »

One thing about fake numbers- sometimes they have to verify the purchase because of the credit card company.  It can get rejected because of invalid phone number, then that payment processor will not take that card again.  Ask me how I know...

3448

Living Room / Re: Movies you've seen lately

« Last post by wraith808 on September 22, 2015, 05:27 PM »

Trust (2011)

Stellar cast, especially the lead actress.  Very hard to watch at times, but a very good movie.

Excerpt from Review by Roger Ebert:

The bravest thing about David Schwimmer’s "Trust" is that it doesn’t try to simplify. It tells its story of a 14-year-old girl and a predatory pedophile as a series of repercussions in which rape is only the first, and possibly not the worst, tragedy to strike its naive and vulnerable victim. It’s easy to imagine how this story could have been exploited and dumbed down. It works instead with intelligence and sympathy. "Trust" doesn’t offer soothing solutions. Annie will survive, but has been damaged perhaps more by the aftermath than by the rape itself. The movie is merciless in depicting the methods by which pedophile predators operate; Charlie is the embodiment of evil. But society is lacking in instinctive sympathy and tact for Annie, and society isn’t supposed to be evil. Catherine Keener does a warm, unobtrusive job of loving and comforting her daughter, but that’s not enough — not when her husband grows more concerned with vengeance than with healing. It is all too tortuous and complicated. Liana Liberato does such a poignant job of showing how, and why. She has three scenes in particular where her wounded feelings spill out in words of anguish, and they are so well-written and well-acted that they’re heartbreaking. David Schwimmer has made one of the year’s best films: Powerfully emotional, yes, but also very perceptive.

3449

Living Room / Re: Raspberry Pi's $35 Linux PC

« Last post by wraith808 on September 22, 2015, 05:19 PM »

21's Bitcoin Computer is a Raspberry Pi-powered mining tool

Raspberry Pi - the DIY computer celebrity.

-Arizona Hot (September 22, 2015, 02:11 PM)

Hrm, sounds like a moneygrab. Even with a "custom mining chip", it's hardly going to be able to generate any worthwhile amount of BC, considering people are running massive amounts of monstrous custom ASICs.

-f0dder (September 22, 2015, 04:44 PM)

I'd agree.  They're taking advantage of a the fact that a lot of people don't know how mining actually works.

3450

Living Room / Re: Is it reasonable to *require* phone nr. when purchasing software?

« Last post by wraith808 on September 22, 2015, 05:18 PM »

I have a throw away google voice number for this.  Many (Most?) Payment processors just require numbers.

-wraith808 (September 22, 2015, 04:22 PM)

google voice only works for incoming calls with a US number AFAIK --  will have a look tomorrow.

-tomos (September 22, 2015, 05:06 PM)

That is incorrect.  I have it, and use it for outgoing calls all the time.  As to whether it's US only, I'm not sure.