Recent Posts

401

Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on June 22, 2015, 12:22 AM »

It's all a little beyond me!

They're gonna try to censor and control stuff, anyway.

So it seems a little unnerving that just like anything can be a weapon, "anything can be abused into propaganda" just by the arts of altering an otherwise rational premise.

On another shard of the crystal, the agencies are busy hollering "but ... encryption is used by terrorists! So put in backdoors that we know about and that they'll never find (until they do, at which point it's the dev's fault!)."

402

Living Room / Re: Bing moving to encrypt search traffic

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on June 21, 2015, 04:09 PM »

...

Does anyone have an actual referrer string?

-TaoPhoenix (June 20, 2015, 03:21 PM)

...
And it's quite possible that you're right. The problem is that they passed up the chance to just say that in plain English, choosing instead to dance around the specifics ... And that - These days - throws up a flag.

-Stoic Joker (June 21, 2015, 07:47 AM)

Right, and I was raising the possibility it was much more sinister *hidden* under harmless doublespeak.

Some combination of weaseling like the way Firefox did it, to the effect of "Your name is personal info. Everything else is not. Therefore we do not share personal info."

But then there's the famous (EFF Foundation?) study that showed that people's browser configs *are* so unique that it *IS* actually personally identifying info. And they know that. But they then hide that behind straight faced lawyers with hypnotic diction to snow the public into complacency. Also, there was that AOL case where "non-personal aggregated data for a study" had a flaw, got ripped apart, and became personal.

So I don't trust them at all, which is why I was hoping one of us was on the other side of a fence and we could do that trick where "oh look, there's a sudden surge in searching for Mauve Zebras". And follow that through the back end.

403

Living Room / Re: Bing moving to encrypt search traffic

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on June 20, 2015, 03:21 PM »

Does anyone have an actual referrer string?

404

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on June 20, 2015, 02:03 PM »

You may have a pretty good shot of it working what with MS trying their best to write Windows 10 so it will not only work on desktops and laptops, but tablets as well.

I have a feeling it will all depend upon your netbook. Some netbook manufacturers put the equivalent of a basic laptop inside a netbook shell. Other manufacturers took....cheaper routes and went with more basic components.

-Innuendo (June 20, 2015, 10:37 AM)

My comp is "decent but older", so I was really hoping MS would take some time to try to really drill down and tune Win10 to run clean.

I'm just nervous about this whole upgrade thing - I've been pondering a dual boot with a full install so I'll have to ask some of y'all if any of you do that route in a couple of months.

405

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Windows Firewall Control - Mini Review

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on June 19, 2015, 12:54 PM »

Broadly, this program behavior bothers me immensely, and you have done (part of?) a service towards us in general!

The details of this next bit are certainly sideways enough to spawn off into a new thread soon, but you just gave me an idea for a very low level anti-malware tool!

"Assume incompetence before malice", let's assume that it *wasn't* a prank or malware, but just disastrously made and a grouchy developer. What if there was a very low level tool that simply blocked any process except white-listed, from having more than one process instance at a time? Going into Task Manager, the only ones I always have are svchost.exe, and there could be a rule that allows two instances because either browsers, or even reg programs like my copy of chessbase tend to open twice if you keep trying to open while the machine is busy doing something. But then no un-whitelisted process should need three or more!

Anyone have quick ideas before I make this a general thread discussion?

406

General Software Discussion / Re: Softmaker Office 2016 released

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on June 19, 2015, 04:08 AM »

...
I still think you're being harsh on Softmaker in particular - as said, this is a problem for all software developers. I'm happy to pay for that "bundle of 3 years of service packs" - no matter how it's dressed up. And let's be honest, no software markets those three years of updates, but many do just that - and much of it very good software (Syncovery comes to mind). The other option is subscription which I dont want. Or free e.g. Libre Office, which, while good, is not up to the compatibility standards I need.

-tomos (June 19, 2015, 01:48 AM)

Well, it's a Softmaker thread so there's always the tug between specific and general.

"Epochal" software is only X % of the mix - the others are varying stages of in between. Certainly I am pondering the same overall theme across the sweep of software, office and not. And I'm certainly no Softmaker expert - I know almost nothing about it, except a quick glance a while back. And I'll take your word for "which year means what". "2010" came in fact from my experience of Microsoft Office 2010, which to me felt like a solid jump up from 2003 / via-tangentially  2007 / when they made it so you could custom design ribbons down to the micro-function almost anywhere in the program. So, to me, as a "way station", it felt to me like one of the "stopping points" that would have been "enough" over 2003, and then park there again. It also felt like a waystation before all the "cloud/saas/other" experiments began to go on there.

That's my overall strategy for upgrades - every X one has something new and powerful, and the kicker point is often the upgrade prices between two versions are more "mechanically" determined, making one upgrade the good value, the other only medium.

407

General Software Discussion / Re: Softmaker Office 2016 released

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on June 18, 2015, 09:44 PM »

^in fairness, apart from any changes, you're also paying for multiple service packs over the next few years. But yeah, it is the problem as described above (how to get revenue).

-tomos (June 18, 2015, 05:40 PM)

The problem here for me is that it's drifting over into abusing truth-in-advertising. "____ Edition" to me, means a fairly big package, full of stuff, and yes, it happens to update the support.

I don't buy "new edition, same as the old edition, because it has new service packs". If it were called "bundle of 3 years of service packs", it wouldn't look as flashy now would it?

Revenue aside/sideways, it's also abusing the much older tech culture where we wanted to be on the cutting edge with betas, new editions, new features/tech/stuff. Now if we turn to a typical smart analyst we trust to vet it for us, and the report comes back "bleh, 2010 version is fine, this just adds Belgian language support", some of us who don't need the bleeding-with-a-razor-burn edition can just go our way satisfied that we have all the core features that matter.

408

General Software Discussion / Re: Softmaker Office 2016 released

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on June 18, 2015, 03:08 PM »

Am I the only one getting annoyed with the labeling of products as "2016 edition" well before 2016 (even the fiscal year) even arrives? The car industry is notorious for this, but it appears to be hitting the software world too. Is there some psychological aspect to make people think "Wow, they released the 2016 edition in the middle of 2015, this must be that much better!"

</rant>

-Josh (June 18, 2015, 01:00 PM)

Something like that, and also stuff like "well, there were pretty big changes between 2003 edition and 2010 edition, now we just changed the dictionaries, so let's call it 2016!" It's like a bit of desperate cheap psychology when a manager suddenly notices a revenue stream is drying up!

409

General Software Discussion / Re: change chrome browser fonts?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on June 18, 2015, 03:01 PM »

Just for discussion, are you looking for the Chrome equivalent of the FireFox Tools/Options/Content --> Fonts settings?

410

General Software Discussion / Re: Nifty FREE Utility to do almost anything to a filename in Windows

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on June 17, 2015, 07:22 PM »

Does it rename those "nearly impossible" files? There was that thread a few weeks ago with the one that resisted like seven of the usual tricks.

411

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on June 17, 2015, 07:16 PM »

I tried that and it still wouldn't show up on my Netbook. Now I'm even more certain that it doesn't meet the minimum requirements. 

-Deozaan (June 15, 2015, 03:32 PM)

Netbooks are dastardly creations that are the bane of every person everywhere who has to support one of them. One of the criteria of manufacturing a netbook seemed to be to make it barely adequate to run the current Microsoft OS of the time and sometimes they didn't even do that.

I wouldn't have any sort of expectations that your netbook will be able to ever run anything except for the OS it left the factory with.

-Innuendo (June 17, 2015, 12:23 PM)

In a weird case of "exactly what it says on the tin", (see tv tropes!), that's exactly what it is! Well, that and struggling to run a browser to "check the net".

Because if it were a real computer? They'd call it a laptop computer!

412

General Software Discussion / Re: Maxthon Browser Users: Maybe one of you has already solved this

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on June 17, 2015, 08:48 AM »

Let's just give you stuff. Filenames? Like 'StrmExt'?

-TaoPhoenix (June 17, 2015, 12:40 AM)

They must like you, top result in Google, Yahoo, and StartPage was StrmExt.dll on x64 Windows for me, (not bad considering I'd never used Yahoo before).

-4wd (June 17, 2015, 01:37 AM)

Bleh! Serves me right for "making up conceptual examples"! Just saying that I'm getting a lot of non-exact matches even on Advanced Searches.

413

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Wise Care 365 Pro [free]

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on June 17, 2015, 08:44 AM »

Well, important to know is:
"By giving us your email, you give us permission to send you daily newsletters about Windows, Mac, Android, and/or iPhone & iPad software and apps from SharewareOnSale and our sister website, HungryForApps. You can unsubscribe at any time from the bottom of each email, and once you unsubscribe you will not be added again the next time you download from us. We will not sell your email. If this is not acceptable to you, please leave now."

So for ex in my email system I made a junk email that could catch it, but I could see it could really annoy someone!

414

General Software Discussion / Re: SourceForge takes over GIMP for Windows’ account to peddle adware

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on June 17, 2015, 01:00 AM »

It's things like these that make me wish we had "expendable" people who could infiltrate as a low level staffer, sit in a couple of these meetings, then whistleblow the exact transcript portions of how these companies come to these decisions.

"Well, they are bundling 3rd party stuff, so Legal says that takes away their "defense of innocence" so we can too! The extra $4,233 of revenue will go into next month's quarterly report. The 40k of lost good will will then be written off at the best time Accounting says the net benefit to us is best, most likely Fiscal 01 next year for tax usage. ... Oops. Finance is reporting the lost goodwill at 227K, way higher than my brother's nephew's guess of 40. So okay, we stop the bundling... for now!"

415

General Software Discussion / Re: Maxthon Browser Users: Maybe one of you has already solved this

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on June 17, 2015, 12:40 AM »

I look at tackling a search engine as an exercise in lateral thinking rather than a chore ... I always find something interesting even if it's not what I was originally after.

-4wd (June 17, 2015, 12:27 AM)

Well, lately the engines are getting pretty bad about ignoring stuff in "advanced search". I used to get results by building clever queries purposely designed to only return like 5 results.

Now the engine goes "ho hum, include exact phrase? Nah. Let's just give you stuff. Filenames? Like 'StrmExt'? Nah, I'm sure you meant 'Storm Extension' so let's give you a lot of building contractor sites!"

416

General Software Discussion / Re: SourceForge takes over GIMP for Windows’ account to peddle adware

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on June 16, 2015, 07:12 PM »

That's a bit of an odd wording. I'll try chopping it up a bit:

"
(While we had recently)

tested {{testing what?}} presenting

(easy-to-decline)

third party offers

(with a very small number of unmaintained SourceForge projects,)

we discontinued this practice promptly based on negative community
feedback.
"

Let's see:

- Surprisingly clear actual language, and not buried in mountains of biz speak
- Let's assume the last line is not a lie
- "third party offers" doesn't contain "over-sell words" like "valuable offers"

So then the main "missing animal behind the curtain" is what were they testing ... and what did they *predict* about the negative community feedback?

I'll leave it open ended for a bit there for y'all.

417

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Greasemonkey script etc to hide Slashdot Video box?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on June 16, 2015, 06:54 PM »

Sure, some day when I have a matching couple of pages to hack at!

I have glanced at web mag code, it's kinda clean as far as it goes. That's why I like your method (pun intended?) - because after a pseudo code like

header
news
video
comments

then it goes something like "begin red-mountain advert slider".

So you just nuke the whole thing and be done with it.

418

General Software Discussion / Re: Scam/adware from Mozilla update; how do I find the culprit?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on June 16, 2015, 06:51 PM »

Well, it stays Danish for me.

But that's a pity, I didn't know this was a vector for addons! My guess is that when you install and maybe update addons, some of them like to send you to webpages "thank you for installing Ghostery!" or something.

Except maybe one of them had the page taken over so it sent you there. But I don't know which one!

419

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Greasemonkey script etc to hide Slashdot Video box?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on June 16, 2015, 04:41 PM »

"We reference the HTML that contains this class using .outerHTML, this will also include all its descendents, (the following <span> tags, etc), until the end of the tag."

That's really the magic bullet, and I think it can be surprisingly adapted to ...
well ... nuke stuff.

I'm betting it will eat a lot of those sliders, and maybe lots of other ad scripts, complementing adblock.

Meanwhile slashdot isn't known for pushing fast code changes, so I bet the basic one will work for a good while, and I'll try to report back in with some good "nukes".

Stay tuned!

420

General Software Discussion / Re: LastPass alternatives? (including premium LP)

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on June 16, 2015, 04:39 PM »

Most of my passwords are pretty complex, I've just always made a point of remembering them (Although I've always been good with remembering things like this...but useless at remembering peoples names/birthdays haha)

-Stephen66515 (June 16, 2015, 02:48 PM)

(Overheard in Stephen's home)
"Honey! You forgot our anniversary again!"
"Sorry babe, you know how it is ..."
"Well, I got an idea. I signed you up for that KeepSake Reminder service. Your username is Stevie."
"What's the password?"
"Our anniversary!"

(Stephen Facepalms!)

 

421

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Greasemonkey script etc to hide Slashdot Video box?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on June 16, 2015, 06:15 AM »

Whee!
See? 2 lines of code! Bye bye videos!

Smart people beat the common denominator every time! Go DC!
 

422

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Greasemonkey script etc to hide Slashdot Video box?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on June 16, 2015, 01:27 AM »

Recall, I was saying I never used scripts before, can you give me a primer on what to do with it?
Something bothers me, it looks too short ...

Also I don't exactly understand how it works, but a guess was a script could look for the starter and closer and nuke everything in between.

423

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Greasemonkey script etc to hide Slashdot Video box?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on June 15, 2015, 09:37 PM »

Glad my guess was good!
I can fake pretending most of the other stuff Dice is doing doesn't matter, but that one is in a league of its own!

(They also had the bright idea to stick polls into the news section, but at least those start minimized and I can just decide to ignore minimized things. But the video one is brutal!)

Hehe Actually, are you ready to make *two* of them? Because if you can make it so easy even I can use it, I'm gonna post it ON slashdot in like 9 comment threads, and watch them then get grumpy and change it!

(But then the people that catch on can just change the script themselves/their tech buddy.)

 

424

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Greasemonkey script etc to hide Slashdot Video box?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on June 15, 2015, 08:46 PM »

Do you have a link to a page with it on?

I don't get it just looking around the site, (not even with uBlock/etc disabled), so maybe it's specific pages or a geo-localised object.

Edit: Just tried with a VPN and still don't see it, (using IE, Pale Moon, Dragon, or IceDragon).

-4wd (June 15, 2015, 08:19 PM)

That's really weird!
Geo-Localized!? Where are you?
I get it on EVERY day's front page!


It's about 6 down on the page for me right now, and about there every time. Slashdot does a "rolling live update" with a script, and it always is forced to be about that spot on the page.

425

General Software Discussion / Re: LastPass hacked

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on June 15, 2015, 06:35 PM »

"They claim ..." - I don't even know how to believe stuff like that anymore. Because if that data were breached? Instant bankruptcy? Lawsuits?

This is the "other shoe dropping" that's always bothered me:

1. Put all your passwords to your entire life into a service
2. Service gets hacked

Uh ...