Recent Posts

401

Living Room / Re: When a home server goes to the dark side: A hands on experience

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on December 01, 2008, 01:02 PM »

Late reply, I *just* got my 300 or so emails (I should check that more often)

What's the name of the malware? It's been a long time since I've seen anything that actually infects EXE files, these days it's mostly "just" a trojan+rookit. Pretty nasty getting your system hammered that bad.

-f0dder (November 20, 2008, 09:35 PM)

Not sure. I couldn't ID it before I gave up, so I can't say. It was bad though - anything that ran was infected, and the infection had apparantly been there for several hours before anyone noticed (it seemed to show itself only at reboot). I guess it was idle for so long that it went on a rampage of some type and had a blast with my hard drives (one for Windows, downloads (all computers) and µTorrent, and one for backups).

Morale of the story? NEVER USE DMZ, be sure to have Windows Firewall enabled, and be careful what you synchronize... you really only should be syncing data files, not executables. Oh, and try to run as non-admin (on Vista: with UAC enabled)

I wonder how the malware got in, anyway. Your "server" was both DMZ and didn't have Windows Firewall? Does anybody ever use it for browsing, mails, etc?

-f0dder (November 20, 2008, 09:35 PM)

I sync my Visual Studio project folder through 3 computers - the EXEs that got through were compiled projects that were infected with the rest of the exes. The laptop was also reformatted, with a Vista disk I received in a trade last year (I tried 2 XP disks, and they won't work with the DVD drive ($150) that I bought for it, so I took a chance). Believe it or not, 1.6Ghz (single core, I might add!) and 512MB of RAM runs Home Premium without a hitch. Good thing I got a dedicated GPU though

I am reformatting it now with the (original, 1.0) Windows XP disk. That won't take long to update!

-wreckedcarzz (November 20, 2008, 09:01 PM)

You might want to consider slipstreaming SP3 into XP before you reinstall. nlite is probably the easiest way to do that. Just a thought - and good luck.

-40hz (November 20, 2008, 09:48 PM)

I was going to slipstream, but I simply didn't care enough to take the time to do so. I installed from scratch and updated to SP2 in about 45 minutes, and then let automatic updates have at it. I really should look into it though...

402

Living Room / Re: Why does it say paper jam when there is no paper jam?!

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on November 27, 2008, 02:08 AM »

Great little video. Not sure how they got the cat to do it, but it sure is funny. My sister got a kick out of it, too.

403

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: SnapSuite program family/Free online computer help

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on November 27, 2008, 12:15 AM »

Alright, it is almost Thanksgiving here in the US - happy holidays everyone

I have setup a forum at my WikiDot site (http://wreckedcarzz.wikidot.com/) that I will try to keep maintained - no promises though. I have to setup a registration/login system still, but it [the forum] appears to be functioning and all that. It should include source code (I have been promising this for a while now), along with various sections to get help and for me to keep posting updates. Gotta love Web 2.0

Visit the forum here: http://wreckedcarzz....idot.com/forum:start

EDIT: You can now sign up here: http://wreckedcarzz....idot.com/system:join

404

Living Room / Re: When a home server goes to the dark side: A hands on experience

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on November 20, 2008, 09:01 PM »

Just figured I would update, the server was recovered but the virus did irreversible damage to Windows Explorer and several other components. I am reformatting it now with the (original, 1.0) Windows XP disk. That won't take long to update!

EDIT: I did beat it on 2/3 of the computers though, my gaming (main) PC and laptop made it out without significant damage. Simple re-installs of a couple apps will bring them back to full cycle again.

405

Living Room / When a home server goes to the dark side: A hands on experience

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on November 20, 2008, 04:51 PM »

NOTE: Watch for overuse of bold-ed words

When a home server goes to the dark side: A hands on experience - brought to you by your local forum idiot, wreckedcarzz!

I'm sure everyone here at DC has had the overjoying ... feeling (if you want to call it that) of knowing that your system has been hosed by a <insert malicious software type here>. But I figured I would give my experience here, just because it is a little on the oddball side.

I have a total of 6 (working) computers in my house, 5 connected to the internet. Of those 5, 3 are now equipped with security measures. As of 24 hours ago, 1 of them was equipped with similar measures. During those 24 hours, I experienced something that was both aggravating and frightening: my homebrew "home server", was the target of a seemingly random (and lucky) IP hit-and-run virus infection. Now that wouldn't be an issue if the target had been this PC (my gaming machine), that I recently got advice for on securing, because it is quite solidified now. The problem would lie elsewhere, due to my own fault and/or laziness.

Yesterday, November 19th, 2008:

I came home with a friend and was ready to play some COD4 on the LAN. No problem. We both booted the machines (he plays on the Gateway "server"), and loaded the map. But the Gateway timed out. This repeated for some time as I tweaked the console to enable longer timeouts, but the FPS was staggeringly low and map load times were at least 10x longer than normal. He asked to switch PCs so I could fix it, and I found that BOINC and LogMeIn had errors when I tried to start them. I ran the usual maintenance scheme (Cleaning, registry cleaning, reboot, prep for defrag) - but I didn't get to the defragment. When the computer rebooted, a command prompt window opened, touting the name "dl.exe". However a quick C+A+D reveals that the actual filename is (I'm guessing here, it has since been deleted) "nvbdl.exe". Hmm... but that file appears to be (according to its properties) a "Microsoft Windows Operating System" file. OK, it must be legitimate. I rebooted again and it reappeared, so I opened up the D:\ drive and launched the Spyware Terminator installer. Once again I get an error that it cannot start. This happens with ANY EXE in the folder, so I try something else. It launches fine. I managed to get Windows Defender to scan over the network, but it came up clean. Well... maybe... lets do a Windows XP Repair!

About 3 hours later, everything is the same, just Windows seems... better. As my friend leaves, I move the hard drive to my gaming computer and run a scan with Windows Defender (this time it is a local disk). Again, clean. I gave up for the night and concluded that "I did have a virus, and the only thing that hadn't gone wrong today was that my room hasn't caught fire [yet]".*

Today, November 20th, 2008:

I come home from school on early release and get to work on the Gateway. I put the hard drive back in the original machine and manage to get Firefox to load the Spyware Terminator download. 2 hours later, at over 1500 entries, ST has completed its scan and has quarantined the EXEs - if I had to guess, I would say at least 80% of them on the machine. It is a miracle that Windows' core files didn't take a beating. Maybe the Repair helped after all.

I'm currently running another "Full Spyware & Virus Scan", with nothing coming up, but the battle hasn't ended nearly that easily.

Following a recommendation I found here at DC, I downloaded and now use a great piece of software called GoodSync. It does a fantastic job. If you already know where this is going, you haven't seen half of it.

As I install Spyware Terminator and System Protect (related programs, same publisher) onto all the systems, the laptop starts to "freak out". Windows (GUI, not the OS) start to lag. The control panel throws a fit and won't respond. The installation pushes on.

An hour later, the laptop is still scanning with 555 virus entries and counting. Now, if you don't understand how the laptop was infected, it may help to know that:

• The laptop syncs with the Gateway
• The Gateway was still scanning and removing at laptop boot time
• The laptop syncs at logon
• The laptop only has Windows Defender and Windows Firewall

Therefore, while the Gateway was being rid of its viruses, the laptop was receiving them, but in a legitimate file sync.

The other computers' status are unknown, but appear clean.

The Gateway is still running its scan, and it is far from secure, but I guess that's the price of running a fileserver on an unsecured LAN (the computers, not the Wi-Fi) in the router's De-Militarized Zone (like I said, I'm lazy, and it hosts a LOT of games). Plus, Windows hadn't had it's non "Urgent" updates yet. It's like leaving the keys in front of the open door with a pot of gold in the living room. And I just got burglarized.


Moral of this story: Don't let this happen to you.


Now I'm off to go download and copy ALL those 40GB of files back onto the D:\ drive... oh boy, what a great week...

* On a side note, I had a REALLY crappy day

406

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Recieve signals from remote control

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on November 18, 2008, 11:34 PM »

Doesn't want to work for me, the X10 plugin complains of some error and not being able to start, so it can't detect my remote.

Other suggestions?

407

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Recieve signals from remote control

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on November 18, 2008, 10:16 PM »

I looked into it late last night and the download link was dead (lead to a blank page), and I had to google to find this page with all the releases on it to download it. I'll give it a whirl and see what it can do...

408

Post New Requests Here / IDEA: Recieve signals from remote control

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on November 17, 2008, 09:47 PM »

After an hour of searching and trial/error, I can not figure out how to get AutoHotkey to recognize my Happauge Windows Media Center remote, so I am turning to the AHK gurus here to see if you all can help me out

I have no idea how IR works other than the fact that it is an invisible beam of light and all that... but I simply need to be able to press a button on my remote control and have it open my (one and only) DVD drive. I have skrommel's EjectCD and CloseCD, so it doesn't even need to do anything, just launch those two apps (but if that could be built in that would be just awesome). Not sure if it can be done, but that's why I'm asking

If possible, can it have:

• User-specified button(s)
• User-specified action(s)
• Multiple options (Red button does X, Green button does Q, etc)

Hope someone has the expertise to pull this off, and if nothing else, it should be a challenge

409

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: SnapSuite program family/Free online computer help

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on November 17, 2008, 05:16 PM »

Just an update:

I've been busy the last few weeks so I haven't done much at all... the GUI plan Walt posted above is underway at a standstill currently, but I will get it done ASAP eventually. I've done a bunch of programming on the side in a seemingly random fashion, so I am in the process of somehow cleaning up all these random bits and pieces and making something usable out of them, but that may take a while. So don't expect anything from me anytime soon (I might be able to cram for NANY, though).

But I am still here, just a bit overstressed and overworked

410

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: SnapSuite program family/Free online computer help

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on November 11, 2008, 12:26 PM »

Walt asked me to make a small, hotkey controllable media player. It would sound like a trivial task, but it took me about 4 hours to get where I am now, so I figured it was post-worthy (just images at this point). It has hotkey control (obviously), ID3 v1 tag support (most MP3s have v1 and up), and I am working on it acting more like a library based app and less like a "Build-a-player", as have been my previous shots at WMP based media players (PlayMe, MediaControl, etc).

For fellow programmers (and the tech minded): it uses an array, and only one global variable to keep RAM usage to a minimum. The array may be pulled as well, if I can keep the code clean without it.

I plan on adding a couple different "themes" and some options, as well as a lot more functionality. But right now it works, it's my first app in VB with keyboard global shortcuts, and is the cleanest media player I have made to date (excluding one TINY one I made for a friend, but that wasn't a anything near a full media player).

Thoughts, opinions and all that good stuff is welcome
-Brandon

411

DC Gamer Club / Any fellow PSP users/modders here?

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on November 10, 2008, 08:01 PM »

I have gotten my 2nd PSP (first was lost, long story) and am looking into modding again. I can do soft-mods and just basic things, but it would be nice to be able to dive into it and maybe even program for the thing (http://www.psp-programming.com/tutorials looks promising). I know we have a couple DS players and whatnot, but there have to be some gamers here at DC that have PSPs

Also, while not exactly on topic, looking into the same thing with iPods, but I have absolutely no experience with modding those...

412

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: YourFonts - Generate a font based on your handwriting

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on November 05, 2008, 11:34 PM »

I went by the website again today, hoping to repair my last attempt at a handwritten font (first page of this topic). This time around I got a little nervous because I didn't see the BETA text anywhere, but it did say on the site that it is now Free, so I went ahead and did it.

As bad as my handwriting is, it'll take me a few tries to get it looking half decent on a computer screen, but it shows how YourFonts is able to process just about any form of handwriting... legible or not.

413

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / FloorIt 2 Alpha 1 Download

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on November 04, 2008, 12:19 AM »

BUMP!

Yea, I'm back. Its been a bit of a strange month, so not much going on. I decided to take yet another crack at an update to FloorIt, this time making it as good as I was able to with a minimal amount of time spent on it. I managed to get everything in this beta (see download below) complete within 180 minutes. I put past knowledge together with learned class lessons and ended up with a (IMO) very good outcome. It isn't the best code, but it is logical and isn't hard to follow (figure I might post it in the dev section to see what people think), and it uses system resources as well as I know how to make it at this point.

I crafted the GUI based off of Piriform's Defraggler (see comparison image here) and brought back Eusing as the registry cleaner.

Along with that, I am now using Smart Install Creator for (un)installing, and have a fully working update system (not included in this, because it is just a rough base of what the end result will be).

So enough chatter, if you want to see what you think about it, go ahead and download (don't forget to post back!)

-Brandon

Last minute addition for those whom download:
The red/orange/green colored balls indicate the status of FloorIt. A red ball indicates that it is idle, an orange ball indicates an error (that FloorIt has recovered from), and a green ball indicates that all systems are go and processing is underway.

All errors that are caught (no Windows error message) are shown below the computer/ball icons). While not very descriptive, they will help in case something does go wrong. Let me know if you get any [errors].

414

Activation/License/Language Help / Re: Error Inserting Free License Key

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on October 28, 2008, 01:42 AM »

All's well that ends well, glad you didn't give up 

Maybe i'll add some text to that page to make it clearer.

-mouser (October 25, 2008, 02:25 PM)

Maybe a more detailed error message?

ex: "Please make sure you are giving a key for " <program name here> "."

415

General Software Discussion / Re: BlueGriffon

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on October 24, 2008, 05:51 PM »

Oooh, I like! Simple, familiar and based on Gecko.

*Downloads*

416

Living Room / Re: When you make your 100'th Post

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on October 24, 2008, 05:39 PM »

Three boxers ftw!

417

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: My First Ubuntu Program (MFUP) by Wreckedcarzz

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on October 22, 2008, 05:51 PM »

Hi brandon!
Could you just upload the images to DC?
It's more confortable to open them, and we're always assured that as long as the forum exists, the images will exist also

-jgpaiva (October 22, 2008, 04:02 AM)

*Editing now*

The images are too big for DC to hold - it keeps erroring and throwing me in the "Create New Topic" page.

Mono is supposed to be .net for linux. Also supposedly it supports .net 2.0, but not the cool stuff from 3.x.

Congratulations for your first ubuntu package. I think making a proper package is very important. I like it when programs can be uninstalled as easily and swiftly as they had been installed.

 

-housetier (October 22, 2008, 04:25 AM)

I'll have to check out Mono. Thanks - I tried to make the in/uninstall as easy as possible

418

Living Room / Re: Things your kids will never know - old school tech!

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on October 22, 2008, 02:18 AM »

(see attachment in previous post)  (see attachment in previous post)
I'm 47 next week and today it struck me the things the next generation -- and to a large extent, the current one -- doesn't know in reference to many technical things. For example, will kids know:

• What a party line ever was? Or a 'land line'?
  
• What a 'CD' was? Or an album? or a 45? or all the 'file sharing' we did with cassettes!
  
• What 8.5x11 means or A4? (how many of us spit out paper for our non-letter writing?)
  
• What 'batch processing' meant? (now that's old school, baby!)
  
• DOS, damnit! It was simple, and could be fixed in a snap.
  
• A slide rule?
  
• What a 35mm camera was? What 'film' was?
  
• The tank weight, power, and decibel output of an IBM Selectric!

I'm finally beginning to understand what Grandma was talking about way back when I was a kid. But I miss sure that Selectric.

-zridling (October 21, 2008, 01:13 AM)

I know everything on that list except the last one - never even heard of the machine.

How about:

• Arguing about who would get up to change the channel or turn up the volume
• Being able to tell someone your phone number in only 7 digits (and sometimes even fewer!)
• Wind in your hair as you ride your bike without a helmet
• Why those little things in a form are called radio buttons

-CWuestefeld (October 21, 2008, 10:59 AM)

I know of all these too, but am I mistaken that original phone numbers were 6 digits long?

CWuestefeld, good points. I'd forgotten about pre-remote days. How about:

• The days when they played music on the radio?
• Leaded gasoline!
• The BBS days?

-zridling (October 21, 2008, 01:25 PM)

There is still some AM/FM (non-sattelite) radio music, and I have often asked why the heck it is still called "UNLEADED Gasoline" (hasn't it been long enough? Like those "ONE DAY ONLY" sales that go on for like 5 months?), but what is the BBS?

What else is like this?

• "Dial" telephone
• "B&W" TV
• "Organic" food

-CWuestefeld (October 21, 2008, 01:47 PM)

The spinning takes-an-hour-to-dial phones! And black and white TV (I Love Lucy and other older shows I watch are in Black and White, before "Technicolor")! Organic food (non-man/machine/pollutant/mutant made) is available, if you know where to look...

I got no idea what a 45 is, a dot-matrix printer, or a LP is, though. I have seen a tube based TV, 5" floppy (litterally) disks, an 8 track player and the old tape backup drives, but not much else I can think of.

In-car phones spring to mind, though. Those were fun to play with while your parents are barking at you to stop playing with them going down the road at 60 MPH...

419

Older Newsletters / Re: DonationCoder.com Article - One Year Report on our Experiments with Donationware

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on October 21, 2008, 09:17 PM »

Maybe something to put in the newsletter? More ideas is always better...

420

General Software Discussion / Re: Ten Tips for Windows users making the switch to Linux

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on October 21, 2008, 08:27 PM »

The Wubi install was a bust - not only did I misunderstand that you have to boot it separately from Windows, but when i figured that out, GRUB nor the Windows Boot Manager appeared on boot. Uninstalled.

Ubuntu 8.10 is on my new (old) IDE drive (I'm running it now) - it took a truckload of updates and an insane amount of bandwith, but I am running on all the latest versions of everything.

Changes that I've noticed (negative items):

• Nautilus's tabs are a PITA. I'm not used to tabs (Windows Explorer is my only file manager in Win32 world).
• Glitches with the tray icons - I had Pidgin telling me my AC adapter had been unplugged (and the laptop hadn't been connected in almost 4 hours? ).
• The private folder thing has to be installed (??? WHY ???) via the Terminal (again, WHY?!?!?!?!) - and it sits openly on your desktop (do I need to repeat myself again?). Seriously. Waste of resources and disk space.
• The network manager works ... most of the time. My Dynex WGPUSB wifi card worked out of the box on the first boot, now it asks me all the time for my key, and when I show the characters that it has in the box when it opens up asking, it is something like "89gfbh9g87hg945hgj". What does that have to do with anything?? Its not even encryption! Something has to be SAVED to be encrypted. Thats just idiotic corruption.
• The "Allow Panel To Be Moved" option is nice, if it would change when you clicked on the thing. You have to click it, drag it (like the Windows taskbar), then let go and THEN the menu item changes. Click the item again to lock the panel in place. Ugh.
• The new desktop SUCKS. It just sucks. I seriously thought I messed up my laptops LCD when it first came up. The circular desktop was better. This is just sad.
• Upon installing a panel plugin update (a specific one), it gives you instructions to click the button in the information window to complete the action. Except the action needs a panel applet to be open, and it isn't open by default, giving an odd error. Again, WHY?!?!!?
• Uhh... where the h*** did my trash go? Oh, I see it, that 16x16 thing in the right of the bottom panel... EVERYONE looks there. Put it on the desktop. Jeez. (This can be done in the Configuration Manager, but for newbies, that is UNACCEPTABLE!)
• My mute button on my laptop doesn't work. Why? Who knows - 8.04 it worked, Windows it works, but NOOO - that would be convenient and user friendly. *Slap* - WE WANT TO BE MORE LIKE MICROSOFT!
• Too many menu items are hidden by default, and it gets annoying. Show all the items. Jeez.
• There needs to be a TUTORIAL with VIDEO and AUDIO and IMAGES like the one in XP (from 2001.. hint hint hint...) and even 95 (yea, if you had the CD, there was an instructional application). Can you say BEHIND SCHEDULE? ("Ubuntu, thats how!")
• "I can has Vista nao?" Yea, thats Vista without SP1 - Ubuntu 8.10 programs lock up and then respond again ALL THE TIME. It's so freaking annoying. If I'm on my laptop and a program becomes unresponsive, the program dims - and I run 99% of my programs maximized. So I have to check and make sure the power cable has moved (fallen out, or I pushed it in), and if it hasn't, I increase the LCD brightness - then when the program responds and un-dims, I get blinded. This problem is just sad.
• (See counterpoint on themes below, in good section) - Human2 theme dies with update, has to be reset. Once again, Ubuntu is looking more like Windows every day!
• Lack of preinstalled AND 3D games. I installed about 10 new ones from Synaptic, but still.
• Sometimes the Trash will freak out and take like 15 minutes to empty 1 file. Jeez. Windows again!
• MORE security prompts. Windows... again... ugh...
• DRIVER ISSUES! I don't want to compile my drivers in a C compiler or get tarballs or source code. Windows Vista (pre SP1).....again.....
• EDIT: And where did the freaking autorun programs list go? I want Pidgin to run at startup, but the manager isn't here anymore. WTH??EDIT 2: I was able to find it after some more searching (took me 15 minutes!). Still should be its own menu item.

OK, on to the positives! (Yes, there are good things about 8.10!!! ... sort of...)

• Compiz has been updated! But there is still no settings for it that are built in. You have to download and install a separate freaking application to edit the options. I can't even be bothered to type "WHY?!?!?!" anymore. It's just implied.
• The new logout button is nice, but it lowers system security and is kind of... to put it plainly... retarded. You go to click it, and the menu pops up - OK, cool. But with multiple users on the system (not logged on, just other users), they APPEAR IN THE MENU. OK, that just made the whole "Type your username" prompt at startup POINTLESS. If you know the username, your half way there. And it doesn't log in, it just takes you to the log in screen. (Implied "WHY?!!?!?!?" goes here)
• Installation of programs is easier, and more programs come preinstalled. Nothing negative here... well, yet.
• The new themes are cool... uhh... that does sooo much for functionality... </sarcasm>
• My laptop's LCD works if I close the lid while booting Ubuntu (8.04 wouldn't do this)

Seriously, it is nice, but... freaking annoying as can be to get past the bugs. Wait till November 10th-ish (right after my birthday!) to update or give it a shot. If you try it now... well... see the above. I'm not leaving it, but I spent time on it and I can mind the bugs ... for now.

-Brandon

421

Living Room / Re: My computer is older than YOUR computer!

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on October 21, 2008, 07:58 PM »

deozaan: I figured he was referring to this guy: Comic Book Guy^w.

-jgpaiva (October 21, 2008, 04:27 AM)

Correct.

If you live in Santa Cruz, CA, that has GOT to be my old computer. Across the room is its successor, a Packard Bell Multimedia M415 that was purchased in 1995. Until August of 2004, it was my only computer. Until September 1st of this year, it was still used daily. I can't bring myself to dismantle it.  I confess, I loved Windows95. I was comfortable with it, didn't mind trying every tweak I came across and didn't mind digging around in the registry. If something went awry, I just dug out the Windows95 disk and reinstalled over everything. No problem. If I needed help I phoned Microsoft and a real person walked me through the solution. The phone calls were free -- for a year.  Best of all and the reason I can't let go of it, was the software. If I need to do really serious work, I can always walk over to the corner and fire up WordPerfect 6.1 or Excel 97.

-sazzen (October 19, 2008, 09:33 AM)

Hehe, I'm a ways to the east (Glendale, AZ) - I love Windows 95 (A, never tried the B version) - we had a Compaq with 95a on it, my first computer, when I was about 3 - we got rid of it before we moved, when I was about to turn 7. Loved that machine. Screwed everything up all the time (dad reformatted constantly). But thats how I learned probobally 50%+ of what I know now about Windows. There was this one time where I went through and ran a disk checking program to see what files/folders were taking up the most space, and whan I found out "Program Files" was the culprit, I concluded that because I know shortcut files are ~1kb and EXE files are big, I should make shortcuts to all the EXEs and delete the EXEs!

A shortcut filled desktop and empty Program Files later, I know not to do that

422

DC Gamer Club / Re: Counter-Strike Fun

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on October 21, 2008, 07:14 PM »

brandon -- concentrate on your school work and take a break from games and DC.
This is the #1 rule of DC: No one is allowed to let their work or school suffer here.

-mouser (October 21, 2008, 05:44 AM)

I've pulled my math grade up back to a B and my Biology is at a 66.6 (bad number, in more than 1 way), and rising (turned in a big lab, expecting a mid C this week)

A little CS:S won't hurt

423

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / My First Ubuntu Program (MFUP) by Wreckedcarzz

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on October 21, 2008, 06:51 PM »

Background information:

As most of the forum regulars know, I program heavily in Visual Basic .NET for Windows - mostly for personal use, but I do publish a few applications here at DC ("SnapSuite", "MiniBrowse", etc). I have been looking for a way to program in Ubuntu for a while now, trying to avoid C/C#/C++, as well as Java at all costs. WINE won't run Visual Studio, and there is no .NET for Linux.

After several months of searching, I stumbled upon Gambas 2 while finalizing my Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex install. The website seemed to imply that it is geared to C# and GTK#, but I gave it a shot anyways - it seemed like a good program from what I was reading. I had issues with the initial setup on my desktop (my own fault), and ended up giving up for the night.

Today, I started a project on my laptop in Gambas, just messing around in class. This time I didn't check the option as I did previously (the one giving me the error), and was able to build a GUI without much trouble. I ended up coding the thing up in the principal's office (unrelated), and figured out how to make a .deb package for Ubuntu. I had some real fun making the About box as well

Information:
This program doesn't really DO anything, it is more like a show of "this can be done". Just sort of interesting to tinker with for a couple minutes - everything works as it should.

How to install:

Download, extract and locate the .deb file - it should be called "test_0.0.3-1_all.deb"

Launch the .deb file and you should get a prompt similar to this:

Click "Install Package" and wait for installation to complete:

When the installation finishes you should see something like this:

Now close that dialog and the "Install Package" button should now say "Reinstall Package":

Installation is complete! You can close the Package Installer now!

Program in action:

Navigate to your Applications -> Other menu, and find "MFUP by Wreckedcarzz" - click to launch it:

This is the main GUI, just a few controls - the scrollbar at the bottom is locked in place:

The About box, IMO, priceless :

How to uninstall:

Navigate to your Applications -> Accessories menu, and find the Terminal:

In the terminal, type "sudo apt-get remove test":

Hit Enter and wait for a Y/N prompt to appear in the Terminal:

Press Y, followed by Enter to complete uninstallation:

Uninstall complete!

If you like it (or if you don't), let me know - I do plan on making actual Ubuntu applications (ones with a purpose), but I figured that this little project was interesting enough to post here

-Brandon

424

General Review Discussion / Re: Opinions on remote PC control software

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on October 21, 2008, 12:41 AM »

I gave TeamViewer a shot about a month ago attempting to replace LogMeIn free for my backup PC admin tasks, and it is similar to CrossLoop (in a negative way) - as far as I could tell it could be assumed that TV could be used as a remote control application:

TeamViewer establishes connections to any PC all around the world within just a few seconds. You can remote control your partner's PC as if you were sitting right in front of it.

But you have to have a person at BOTH computers to use it, and the process to establish the connection is strange and annoying; to add to that, if you go the way I did and assign a TV access password to the box, and someone gets the password (so they also have physical access to your machine), you have two compromised computers already. There was no simple way to change a password that I could find (but I lost interest quickly after finding it wouldn't accomplish what I needed anyways).

Needless to say I'm still riding with LMI Free - if only CrossLoop would make a "remote admin" mode to go along with the tried-and-true helper setup they have now... (hint hint to any passing CrossLoop devs... )

425

General Software Discussion / Re: Ten Tips for Windows users making the switch to Linux

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on October 19, 2008, 11:52 PM »

I'm downloading the 8.10 Ubuntu beta right now (Intrepid Ibex) and I plan to install it as a Windows application and run it from within Windows (never done it before, but I want to be able to use my X-Fi while running Ubuntu, along with some other things that Ubuntu still has iffy support for (*cough* 3D GAMES *cough*). I've heard this is the best way for Windows -> Ubuntu users to give it a shot, but I am not sure if it needs to have a separate partition or not. Even if it does, the "real" install does too, so its not any more work.

I can have my Ubuntu and eat it too! Er.. how does that go again?