Recent Posts

426

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

« Last post by Vurbal on October 01, 2013, 06:26 PM »

I've said it before and I'll say it again. The exponential increase in government overreach and secrecy are primarily the result of electing entirely inexperienced and unqualified individuals presidents. It's no secret that Dick Cheney had complete control of the intelligence expansion to the point where his office made a point of keeping secrets from the Attorney General's office to avoid adverse legal opinions getting in the way.

While Biden doesn't have the defense industry connections that Cheney does, during his lengthy tenure on the Senate Judicial Committee he was consistently the FBI's go to cheerleader for increasing their surveillance powers and secret legal proceedings. He attempted to push through one of their pet bills which strongly foreshadowed the Patriot Act all the way back in 1995.

I'd be willing to bet his office is just as hands on with both law enforcement and intelligence agencies as Cheney's was. That would certainly explain why Brazil was apparently a significant target of NSA surveillance. As perhaps the only US ally that's both a major economic power but not willing to be steamrolled by our trade policy they're one of the biggest targets for US IP lobbying. Add in the fact their state owned oil company is now bigger than all but one of their US competitors and it's not hard to figure out the government's motivation.

427

General Software Discussion / Re: wont boot normally!

« Last post by Vurbal on October 01, 2013, 04:12 PM »

One giveaway for overheating issues is spontaneous rebooting. Also lockups or chkdsk/bad sector warnings on bootup. If the problem is thermal and it's occurring on boot, odds are pretty good theres already damage to a component or components so it may be too late for a cleaning to help.

-40hz (October 01, 2013, 03:37 PM)

Maybe there's damage and maybe not. It's primarily going to depend on how well the thermal shutdown mechanism has worked and how many times it's happened. Chances are it would have reduced the lifespan of the CPU, but in my experience most of the time when overheating is causing crashes the CPU is still entirely functional and will still work fine once you solve the heat problem.

Even if it's not, if you suspect that's the problem but aren't sure it's a good way to check. If there's damage it won't fix the problem obviously, but if it does fix the problem you don't need to keep looking. Of course if it doesn't and you still suspect overheating the next step should be to start using a temp monitor.

428

Living Room / Re: The LED lights in your home could be spying on you!

« Last post by Vurbal on October 01, 2013, 02:59 PM »

Which would make it only slightly less useful than the much simpler, more readily available, and mature technologies that have been available for decades.

-Vurbal (September 30, 2013, 10:09 PM)

Except that unlike the typical RF bug this can't be swept for - no transmitter to catch per se - Which puts it in the parabolic or laser mic class oh shit category.

Remember back when it was "safe" to just shut off your cell phone..?

-Stoic Joker (October 01, 2013, 06:39 AM)

Actually it can be swept for. Modern bug sweeping technology already includes the capability to find the solid state circuit which would be embedding the audio in the light. That's in no small part because there are already plenty of tricks for making RF bugs resistant to RF sweeps. Bugs can transmit in microbursts, rotating frequencies, or simply close enough to normal RF frequencies like TV or radio to be indistinguishable from normal background noise. Even relatively simple spread spectrum broadcasts are nearly detection resistant.

And as you point out, remotely accessing every day devices is already a reality. Considering most people have one or more electronic devices with transmit capabilities on their person most of the time that's a much more efficient, and obviously scarier, way to eavesdrop.

What scares me the most isn't the technology that's available but rather how little thought most people give to intentionally transmitting sensitive data here, there, and everywhere. That makes finding and exploiting vulnerabilities easier by an order of magnitude which ultimately impacts even those of use who are obsessively careful.

The question isn't whether you're paranoid. It's whether you're paranoid enough - and very few people are. If you've got nothing to hide you haven't given it enough thought.

429

General Software Discussion / Re: wont boot normally!

« Last post by Vurbal on October 01, 2013, 01:45 PM »

I'm just thinking out loud in the direction of heat. Like something along the lines of dust buildup or a CPU/chipset heat sink that is no longer seated well.

-Stoic Joker (October 01, 2013, 12:28 PM)

I would definitely look into this possibility. It would explain not only long load times for Windows but also frequent BSODs. I've run into this problem a few times with poorly designed cases that let a lot of dust in. Over time the dust can fill in the spaces in between the heat sink fins, blocking air from the fan from getting through.

It may be something else entirely, but at this point I would definitely recommend cracking open the case to thoroughly clean and reseat (unplug plug in) anything and everything. If it's a somewhat old computer, which it sounds like it is if you're running XP, I'd also clean the dialectric (thermal paste) off the CPU and heat sink and apply a new coating. Make sure to spread it as thin as possible because all it's for is filling in the microscopic air gaps.

Also if there are filters for the case fans make sure to give them a thorough cleaning to make sure they're not obstructing airflow. If the case fans don't have filters, especially any intake fans, I highly recommend adding them.

430

Living Room / Re: The LED lights in your home could be spying on you!

« Last post by Vurbal on September 30, 2013, 10:09 PM »

If I understand the video correctly, the LED would need to be modified with a microphone and a circuit to encode the source into the light frequency carrier. Then someone with equipment that can capture the light frequencies can extract the sound information, right?

I guess my point is that the LED bulb would have to be 'bugged' for this to work.

-mwb1100 (September 30, 2013, 07:02 PM)

Correct. A microphone is needed to pick up the sound, which is then placed into the light where the light serves as a carrier wave.

It would need to be purposefully done, but if you check the setup he has, it's relatively simple and can easily be done by anyone with access to the needed tools/equipment.

-Renegade (September 30, 2013, 07:14 PM)

Which would make it only slightly less useful than the much simpler, more readily available, and mature technologies that have been available for decades. In other words yes, surveillance is relatively easy and cheap. In other news water is wet.

Oh yeah, and keep your damn hands away from my tin foil hat. 

431

Living Room / Re: Alice in Wonderland Rabbit Hole Math Thread!

« Last post by Vurbal on September 30, 2013, 10:05 PM »

This post and related is about the cases in RPG dealing with what is the perfect right curve to level up, monster stats, gold/weapons/magic/___/___ goodies ratios both layout and realtime speed, character vs combat, and more.

-TaoPhoenix (September 30, 2013, 07:09 PM)

The correct answer is to switch to Hero System to expand the possibilities and accomplish most of it during character generation. Both simpler and more complex, but that's what happens when your game is designed by an engineer. 

432

General Software Discussion / Re: Which MP3 tagger do you use?

« Last post by Vurbal on September 28, 2013, 10:32 AM »

Mp3Tag is also my go to choice for every day tagging but like Tuxman I keep MusicBrainz Picard around for its fingerprint capabilities.

433

Living Room / Re: Jazz Recommendation Thread

« Last post by Vurbal on September 26, 2013, 09:12 AM »

It's hard for me to judge what other people hear in music since my perception is (literally) quite different, but based on those tracks I'd definitely recommend Kind of Blue by Miles Davis. And my personal favorite from Coltrane is A Love Supreme, although that may be more avant garde than you're looking for. You might also want to check out some Thelonious Monk.

Perhaps further away from your tastes, or maybe not, would be the Dave Brubeck Quartet. My dad was a huge jazz lover and I'll never forget the day he introduced me to their album Time Out. Blue Rondo a la Turk is still one of my favorite songs of all time.

434

General Software Discussion / Re: cloud|fleet - be the captain of your data

« Last post by Vurbal on September 13, 2013, 04:49 PM »

I also had not heard of that hardware platform.  Has anyone heard anything (good or bad) about it?

-wraith808 (September 12, 2013, 04:14 PM)

Funny you should mention those. I ran across them a few days ago while I was researching ARM Linux appliance hardware. I can't really say much about them in particular but they're built around Freescale hardware which seems to be the trend in embedded Linux boxes. IIRC Freescale has primarily been an industrial controller company in the past which means they have lots of experience designing and building hardware on this scale.

The problem I would have with any sort of DIY ARM-based appliance at this point is it just doesn't make a lot of sense for me as an individual user. The second hand PC market is currently flooded with off lease Small Form Factor PCs which typically have dual core CPUs (either Core 2 Duo or AMD 64 x2), SATA, and both PCIe x1 and x16 slots. In fact that's what I'm planning to use to build a set-top box and 1 or more appliances for my home network.

For $50 or less I could get a HP SFF box with an 80GB HDD and onboard ethernet. Spend $40 - $50 on a nice Intel PCIe x1 wireless card with a high quality antenna and another few bucks on a second wired interface and I can turn it into a spectacular appliance for my home network.

If I get one of the newer models which are frequently sold with 200 - 300 GB hard drives all I need is a relatively cheap video card and remote plus a couple USB ATSC tuners (and maybe a sound card) and it should make a nice little DVR. SFF boxes are already decent enough looking to sit in the living room and since ATSC is MPEG-2 all the video card really needs to do is provide DVI and/or HDMI for the TV.

Now if I were building a business box I could see going with ARM but I'd be looking for something along the lines of a SOB (System On a Board) setup to build a cheap and low cost Beowulf cluster out of.

435

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Review of Zeus Edit

« Last post by Vurbal on September 11, 2013, 03:48 PM »

Based on what's been completed of this review I decided to try out the program and compare it against my current editor of choice - Komodo Edit - because the overall philosophy behind them seems similar. Since I mostly deal with HTML I could never justify purchasing Komodo IDE for close to $400.

So far I have to say my first impression seems pretty accurate. There's a lot for me to learn to translate what I do in Komodo Edit to Zeus but I'm already very impressed with the amount of work put into making it work with so many freely available tools and proactively providing solutions (via the support forum) for numerous scenarios.

436

Screenshot Captor / Re: The Great Screenshot Captor Ruler Debate Thread

« Last post by Vurbal on September 10, 2013, 03:44 PM »

In my extensive experience that's by far the most efficient approach. However that may be somewhat unique to the mass quantity of screenshots I typically deal with at once since it's normally when I'm working on a big software guide. It also may have something to do with my workflow. I use a Nostromo gamepad to speed up my workflow.

Sort of like Douglas Englebart's MOAD presentation in '68. Ironically I hadn't heard of it when I started working this way.

437

Screenshot Captor / Re: The Great Screenshot Captor Ruler Debate Thread

« Last post by Vurbal on September 10, 2013, 02:42 PM »

Personally I would rather have editable text fields for origin, width, and height with arrow buttons that also respond to the mouse wheel and keyboard arrow keys. In fact that's typically what I rely on in GIMP.



I'm jut not sure where you would put them or how they should be laid out. A popup dialog? Or maybe a checkbox at the bottom of the window similar to the one at the top for the thumbnail panel.

438

General Software Discussion / Re: MailPile: Secure FOSS Crowdfunded E-mail with Simple-to-use Encryption

« Last post by Vurbal on September 10, 2013, 09:35 AM »

I'm really not that interested in improving email at this point. It's essentially a walking dead technology already and for good reason. Email is, and always will be, the electronic equivalent of intra office memos. It's simply not an appropriate model for people's modern day needs.

I don't know what the solution will look like but I am convinced it will be peer to peer rather than server-client oriented. The bigger question is how to build a distributed but still user friendly security model. That probably starts with some combination of hardware and software/firmware which doesn't exist just yet but is likely just over the horizon.

439

Living Room / Re: Making a new page of "DonationCoder's Favorite Web Sites" - suggestions?

« Last post by Vurbal on September 10, 2013, 09:05 AM »

For good reviews on PC power supplies I lean heavily on JonnyGuru.  You almost can't help getting an education on power supply performance and construction reading through them.

440

Living Room / Re: NSA surveillance: A guide to staying secure (by Bruce Schneier)

« Last post by Vurbal on September 06, 2013, 02:28 PM »

You can't add security to code as an afterthought. It has to be designed and incorporated into the very core to have any real hope of being effective.

-40hz (September 06, 2013, 12:18 PM)

Adding security rather than incorporating it doesn't automatically make it an afterthought. In fact I would argue that separating security rather than incorporating it is the optimal solution. Incorporation is the primary weakness the NSA is exploiting right now.

Here's one of the more obvious examples. Let's say you're using Windows 8. If you use a Microsoft cloud-based login, use BitLocker to encrypt your drives, and SkyDrive to store files on the cloud all the NSA has to do is get insider access to Microsoft to compromise all of that. And in fact that's exactly what they've done.

The solution isn't incorporation but rather separation and redundancy. You are absolutely correct that it needs to be designed into the system, but one of the essential elements of that design is that it can't be a single, monolithic system. Eliminating single points of failure is one of the core elements of good security.

Much like any of today's operating systems, network protocols, or applications - security is as much a product of "good enough" engineering as everything else.

That's certainly a good point at least on the OS and application levels. However I would argue network protocols are simply the wrong place to focus on security. The primary focus of networking protocols is, and always should be, reliable connections and delivery. Anything that interferes with or complicates that, including security, will always be an afterthought.

Besides if you haven't already addressed security before you reach the network you've already conceded the battle. Good security needs to use the network, once again to eliminate single failure points, but it needs to be separate from the network. The network needs to be just another (relatively small) component of security.

Like I said you're absolutely right it's a systemic rather than isolated problem, but as I've said elsewhere the solution is to rethink the entire system from the ground up. That means starting with the user and hardware, working your way up to the OS, then the applications. At each point where new hardware or user interaction comes into play you back up and start from that level again. That's how you create a system that's both functional from a technological level and still usable on a human level.

And of course that actually starts with the human element in government. Without transparency and accountability any and all security measures are weakened or even nullified completely. As I've been saying for the last couple months, though, that's already happening and will continue to happen. The US government's primary source of power is the illusion of their significance to the rest of the world.

What they still don't understand is that not only do other countries not need us (meaning our economic infrastructure) the way they did even 10 or 20 years ago, but also that the same goes for US citizens.

441

General Software Discussion / Re: MailPile: Secure FOSS Crowdfunded E-mail with Simple-to-use Encryption

« Last post by Vurbal on September 05, 2013, 07:16 PM »

Apparently, they figured that out (or it was pressure)

-wraith808 (September 05, 2013, 06:34 PM)

I think we know which one it was.

442

Screenshot Captor / Re: Screenshot Captor Early Beta Release: v4.6.4 Beta - Sep 11, 2013

« Last post by Vurbal on September 05, 2013, 12:03 PM »

Well, to be more consistent, shouldn't it just be referred to as "Image" instead of "Image bitmap", or "Image / region Bitmap", or "Bitmap"? Bitmap to me implies a *.bmp filetype. If you don't have bitmap set as your default image filetype, then it could be confusing. Why not just refer to it as "Image" in the Edit>Copy to Clipboard menu and Post Capture Options settings?

-bubbajunk (September 03, 2013, 01:56 PM)

While I can understand how it would be confusing, it's actually more complicated than that and bitmap is probably the least obscure terminology to use. If you're saving to PNG or TIFF format when you open the file you'll still have the original bitmap to work with. But if you're converting to JPEG  after capture but before editing it's not a bitmap (ie raster) file any more.

When you open your JPEG it will be decoded to a bitmap but it won't be identical to the bitmap you captured. JPEG compression results in a sophisticated mathematical approximation of the original bitmap. It's sort of like the difference between the original audio ripped from a CD and a MP3 file. You might not notice or care about the difference but if you do it's an important distinction.

443

Living Room / Re: Short Sell Nokia NOW! :P

« Last post by Vurbal on September 04, 2013, 08:57 PM »

Patents remain with Nokia, meaning Android handset makers may get sued twice.

-40hz (September 04, 2013, 10:50 AM)

Giga-what?  Can they even do that?!?  That just seems capital Wrong!

-wraith808 (September 04, 2013, 05:20 PM)

Well it looks like I had this exactly backwards. It appears what this deal does is allow Nokia to start suing more Android handset makers over their patents. Technically they could have been doing that before except that it would have been counter productive given their partnership with MS.

OTOH Motorola Mobility and Nokia already had a cross-licensing deal which is now transferred to Microsoft. IOW this protects MS from Google suing them over Motorola patents. It also covers similar deals with all kinds of of other companies.

Sure they can - as long as there isn't already a licensing deal in place with Nokia for those patents. The prior MS shakedowns only cover their own patents. If I had to guess, though, I'd say the primary goal is going after Motorola Mobility since Nokia can't compete with Google's deep pockets. Microsoft probably had to promise a nominal licensing fee or a fixed percentage of any lawsuits or licensing agreements - whichever is more.

Nokia already has a licensing deal with Apple and IIRC they're still in the middle of lawsuits against HTC. However depending on the terms they're giving Microsoft (ie whether MS will takeover 3rd party licensing altogether) they may have to drop those suits. My guess is MS will attempt to use the threat of lawsuits over Nokia patents to strongarm Android handset makers into making (or continuing to make) Windows Phones.

The bigger question is how well Nokia's patents will stand up to examination. I suspect on the whole their phone patents aren't significantly stronger than the ones Google got with Motorola. I know at least one Nokia claim against HTC (over Google Play) wasn't going well in Germany. However if MS is the sole source for third party licensing the German courts will most likely hold off on anything permanent pending the results of any US lawsuits. In fact that's possibly a factor in this deal. Put the rights in Microsoft's hands and they get a do over.

444

Living Room / Re: Short Sell Nokia NOW! :P

« Last post by Vurbal on September 04, 2013, 07:36 AM »

One of everyone's favourite companies to dis has just bought Nokia:

http://www.huffingto...6.html?utm_hp_ref=tw

Time to short sell Nokia and make a fortune~!

Microsoft buying Nokia's devices and services business, will license patents for about $7.2B

 Microsoft says it is buying Nokia's devices and services business, and getting access to the company's patents, for a total of 5.44 billion euros ($7.2 billion) in an effort to expand its share of the smartphone market.

Nokia confirmed the deal in a joint news release from the two companies Monday night.

In the statement, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says the deal will bring Nokia's capability and talent in hardware design, engineering, manufacturing, sales, marketing and distribution to Microsoft.

Does anyone see this ending well?

-Renegade (September 04, 2013, 01:47 AM)

What's most interesting is the possibility of Stephen Elop becoming Microsoft's new CEO. Some people have alleged this buyout was his plan all along and I'm not entirely convinced they're wrong.

The timing of the announcement essentially killed both Symbian and MeeGo. That wouldn't be particularly odd except for the fact it was shortly before Nokia's last Symbian phone went on sale and more than a year before the first Nokia Windows Phone. Combine that with Elop's previous stint as a Microsoft exec and his apparent future as their CEO and it has the stink of corruption at the very least.

Ok, jokes aside, I really don't know what this will mean for the mobile market. It could very well be a good thing. I guess it all depends on Google and Microsoft though, as we know that there's not a snowball's hope in Hell of Apple doing anything good for people. Though they did sign up with the NSA to spy on people later than the other 2... oh cripes - we're hosed!

I wouldn't be so quick to accuse Google of "signing up" with the NSA. They were the first company to start publishing data on government data requests and also the ones who pushed the government to let them provide at least general information about National Security Letters. In fact back in March, after a judge in California ruled NSL's illegal, they immediately filed a motion challenging 19 orders they had recently received.

445

Living Room / Re: Vocab tune-up

« Last post by Vurbal on August 30, 2013, 04:26 PM »

congratulations on your novel!

Oh! Thanks!

I you want an ebook copy, you can get one for $0.90 USD here: williambryanmiller.com

If you want a paperback and are in the US, I can get it for you cheaper than you can buy it yourself on Amazon.

Sadly, the novel doesn't distinguish itself by using any of the words mentioned in the link referenced in my OP...

-kyrathaba (August 30, 2013, 03:31 PM)

I literally have no money to spend right at the moment but it's on my short list of books to check out when that changes.

446

Living Room / Re: Vocab tune-up

« Last post by Vurbal on August 30, 2013, 06:52 AM »

Hey Vurbal, forgive my tardiness in welcoming you to the site. Welcome!

-kyrathaba (August 29, 2013, 07:35 PM)

Thank you!

And congratulations on your novel!

447

Living Room / Re: Vocab tune-up

« Last post by Vurbal on August 29, 2013, 04:04 PM »

I guess the negativity is to do with the dumbing down of language (and entertainment, and maybe even life in general...).

-tomos (August 29, 2013, 08:04 AM)

+1 - Nailed it!

Sorry Vurbal, tomos and I are changing the meanings of a few words to allow for "properly" conveying the English language's newly acquired level of dumber-ness. 

-Stoic Joker (August 29, 2013, 12:06 PM)

I'd love to see how you measure that. 

-Vurbal (August 29, 2013, 01:13 PM)

Why using the formula you gave us earlier in another post of course!
2 + 2 = fish

-Stoic Joker (August 29, 2013, 03:46 PM)

You got me there. I can't very well argue with that reasoning. 

But now I know who was foolish enough to read it 

448

Living Room / Re: Apple Trying to Trademark "Startup"

« Last post by Vurbal on August 29, 2013, 02:33 PM »

Not that I am defending Apple, but startup is not really a word in the dictionary, start-up is. So really it's not surprising that they (or anyone) would want to try and trademark it.

-c.gingerich (August 29, 2013, 01:33 PM)

Being in the dictionary isn't actually relevant to trademarks (at least not in the US). Apple is in the dictionary. That was never an issue since it doesn't describe their business. The word startup OTOH is a common word in the sense of any technology business. As in Silicon Valley startup or tech startup or fill-in-any-of-description-from-Apple's-trademark-application startup.

449

Living Room / Re: Vocab tune-up

« Last post by Vurbal on August 29, 2013, 01:13 PM »

I guess the negativity is to do with the dumbing down of language (and entertainment, and maybe even life in general...).

-tomos (August 29, 2013, 08:04 AM)

+1 - Nailed it!

Sorry Vurbal, tomos and I are changing the meanings of a few words to allow for "properly" conveying the English language's newly acquired level of dumber-ness. 

-Stoic Joker (August 29, 2013, 12:06 PM)

I'd love to see how you measure that. 

450

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Apple Mighty Mouse - Wireless (Bluetooth) Model No.A1197 - Mini-Review

« Last post by Vurbal on August 29, 2013, 12:08 PM »

Got to thinking about it and there is something worse than a laser mouse on glass. A few years ago (okay several) when laser mice were just gaining popularity. Dell started using a holographic logo on the mouse pads that they included with their new computers. One of our clients still has these infernal pads in their exam rooms and I have to toss the things in a corner every time I'm there to get control of the mouse...or deal with it spastically ricocheting all over the screen.

-Stoic Joker (August 29, 2013, 11:38 AM)

That reminds me of my idiot moment (okay it was a couple hours) when I tried using my first optical mouse on a glossy black and green book cover.