Recent Posts

501

Living Room / CISPA Is Back! Update

« Last post by Tinman57 on April 08, 2013, 06:50 PM »

CISPA voting session slated for this week
Summary: Should firms be exempt from lawsuits stemming from data sharing, and should citizen privacy become a victim?

By Charlie Osborne for Zero Day | April 8, 2013 -- 08:08 GMT (01:08 PDT)

Follow @ZDNetCharlie
If the current cybercrime space prompts firms to share citizen data, should companies be held liable in citizen lawsuits?

Many firms, including AT&T, Verizon and Boeing, do not think so. This is the issue that is coming before the House Intelligence Committee this week, and the governmental body may pass a bill which would provide large companies lawsuit immunity in the case of data exchange and unhappy, privacy-conscious Americans.
  See the rest here:
http://www.zdnet.com...this-week-7000013663

502

Living Room / Bitcoins As Sole Currency

« Last post by Tinman57 on April 07, 2013, 07:41 PM »

[  Looks like it's really taking off....]

Online electronics store buys into bitcoins as sole currency

An online electronics retailer, Bitcoinstore, has had such a successful trial run accepting only bitcoins for payment that it will continue operating.

http://www.pcworld.c...s-sole-currency.html

503

General Software Discussion / Re: Independent desktop shopping compare software

« Last post by Tinman57 on April 06, 2013, 09:04 PM »

  When I shop and compare software and hardware I use:
http://pcworld.pricegrabber.com/

504

Living Room / Re: Who's Going To Buy The Facebook Phone?

« Last post by Tinman57 on April 06, 2013, 08:34 PM »

  I've never done facecrooks, and sure won't buy a phone from them.  I can only imagine how much software and/or hardware tracking that's built in....

505

Living Room / Re: Internet freedoms restrained - SOPA/PIPA/OPEN/ACTA/CETA/PrECISE-related updates

« Last post by Tinman57 on April 06, 2013, 08:32 PM »

demandprogress.org asks for action to block CFAA, in a circular email:

Already posted here: https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=34560.0

-IainB (April 06, 2013, 02:10 AM)

506

Living Room / Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA)

« Last post by Tinman57 on April 05, 2013, 08:06 PM »

  A copy of an email I received from the IDL, to which I'm a member, about another bad proposal from our politicians:

We need to beat back a bad proposal to expand the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) -- in a hurry.  So we're asking the Internet Defense League to snap into action on Monday and Tuesday of next week.  (April 8th and 9th.)

Our friends at Demand Progress have created code for an embeddable contact-Congress widget. Read more and grab the code here. Internet Defense League code will be available soon:

http://www.fixthecfaa.com/

You'll be joining Fight for the Future, Demand Progress, EFF, Boing Boing, Reddit, and other great groups and sites as we stand together against this awful proposal.

As many of you probably know, our friend (and friend to many of you) Aaron Swartz committed suicide earlier this year, while he was being prosecuted for downloading too many academic articles from the JSTOR cataloguing site.  Prosecutors were hanging four decades in prison over his head!

Aaron was charged under the CFAA, a law that passed in the mid-80s, before more than a handful of Americans even had personal computers -- let alone Internet access.

Yet law enforcement interprets this statute so broadly that it claims it criminalizes all sorts of mundane Internet use: potentially even breaking a website's fine print terms of service agreement.  Don't set up a Myspace page for your cat.  Don't fudge your height on a dating site.  Don't share your Facebook password with anybody, ever.  You could be committing a federal crime.

We've been pushing to change this, and have made some progress: Reps and Senators are pulling together a proposal called "Aaron's Law".

But... then last week members of the House Judiciary Committee floated an audacious proposal that would actually expand and harshen certain parts of the CFAA.  Think of it as the opposite of Aaron's Law.  And we're hearing that it could come up for a vote as soon as next week.

We need your helping beating back this awful proposal and to build momentum for Aaron's Law.

Please click here to read more and grab Demand Progress' code for our embeddable widgets (IDL code coming soon):

http://www.fixthecfaa.com/


Reforming the CFAA is a real chance for the US Congress to make laws governing the Internet better and fairer.  And it's a chance for the coalition that came together around SOPA to actually pass positive reform.  If all of us take action next week, it won't just kill a bad bill, it will help us build real momentum to passing positive change in the wake of Aaron's death.


Thanks!

Holmes Wilson

Internet Defense League

507

Living Room / Re: Cheap LED torches/flashlights - any good?

« Last post by Tinman57 on April 04, 2013, 08:03 PM »

...has that "reach out and touch someone" power, and is what I use with my 12 gauge at night....

-Tinman57 (April 04, 2013, 06:36 PM)

WTF? here's hoping I never actually meet you at night  

-Target (April 04, 2013, 07:14 PM)

  LOL!  I live out in the middle of the forest on my ranch.  There are critters around here that like munching on horses and outside pets, so I need something super bright at night to spot these evil critters.  My 30-30 has a night-vision scope on it so I can really reach out there and touch something.     And yes, if it's a human being sneaking about at night around my house, obviously they're up to no good and will be dealth with appropriately...   

508

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: New program: Ethervane StopWatch (freeware)

« Last post by Tinman57 on April 04, 2013, 07:58 PM »

  What good is it if there's no audio alarm telling you when the countdown reaches 0?  We're not always glued to the monitor.....  Just a thought....

509

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by Tinman57 on April 04, 2013, 07:00 PM »

  Humor and what is humerous is different from country to country.  What the British think is funny (British Humor) may not be funny in China, and visa-versa.

510

Living Room / Re: Cheap LED torches/flashlights - any good?

« Last post by Tinman57 on April 04, 2013, 06:36 PM »

I'm sure I can't be the only one that doesn't like the type of light that LED's put out.  How do I explain this?  I mean...I don't like the glowy, overall subdued light that most LED flashlights give off.  I much prefer the type of light that a traditional incandescent flashlight produces.  I feel that they illuminate much better than LEDs.  More detail, IMO.  Maybe I'm alone here?

-skwire (April 04, 2013, 10:22 AM)

  You'll note that all military and police-grade flashlights (torches) are the bright white LED's.  The ones I have are adjustable from narrow to wide beam.  The narrow beam is most excellent to light up a subject, has that "reach out and touch someone" power, and is what I use with my 12 gauge at night.  The wide beam though, to me, seems to throw out that glow that gets reflected by moisture or pollution in the air.

511

Living Room / Re: Data Disclosure

« Last post by Tinman57 on April 04, 2013, 06:23 PM »

California? 

I'm stunned.

-Renegade (April 04, 2013, 10:19 AM)

  I know, right?   

512

Living Room / Re: Bigger than Wikileaks - ICIJ obtains 200GB of data on offshore money havens

« Last post by Tinman57 on April 04, 2013, 06:17 PM »

There's a new posse in town it seems. A group called the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has obtained over 2.5 million files with detailed confidential information on over 120,000 offshore money accounts. Accounts with estimated assets totaling somewhere between $20 and $32 trillion dollars.

The information in this info haul raises serious questions about exactly what sort of business is being conducted by banks in the British Virgin Islands. Because it seems that this well organized and secretive banking industry is the go to place for government officials, former dictators, large banks, multinationals, hyper-wealthy individuals, and pretty much anybody else with huge amounts of money, if they want to hide it. Or make their financial transactions extremely difficult to trace.

Full ICIJ write-up here.

Interesting reading...

Which also raises another question: Isn't this the exact same thing some governments are going after Wikileaks for?  

-40hz (April 03, 2013, 11:14 PM)

  Careful now, some have lost their lives for exposing smaller things than this.   

  Besides, you know this is a hot topic for Renny.   

513

Living Room / Re: Beautiful Pictures From Herschel

« Last post by Tinman57 on April 03, 2013, 07:57 PM »

(Edited your topic tile from "Beautifu" to "Beautiful")

-Stephen66515 (April 03, 2013, 03:16 PM)

  Thanx Stephen.  I have a new ergonomic keyboard that's not broke in.  I type so fast and don't notice the missed letters sometimes.

514

Living Room / Re: Prenda Law shall troll no more.

« Last post by Tinman57 on April 03, 2013, 07:52 PM »

  True justice would be disbarring those lawyers involved in this scam, fining the hell out of them, and putting all their asses in jail.

-Tinman57 (April 02, 2013, 07:26 PM)

I'd like to see one more - some judicial advisory precedent to future courts so that they or their proteges can't just bubble back up and do it all over again in similar circumstances.

-TaoPhoenix (April 02, 2013, 10:57 PM)

  Yeah, that too!   

515

Living Room / Data Disclosure

« Last post by Tinman57 on April 03, 2013, 07:25 PM »

[ California got this one right....]

California Considers Pushing Data Disclosure Envelope Again
California, which set the standard for data breach notifications nationwide, is again seeking to set a precedent by becoming the first state in the nation to require companies upon request disclose to California consumers the data they've collected and to whom it was shared during the past year. They would be required to respond within 30 days and provide the report for free.

http://threatpost.co...nvelope-again-040213

516

Found Deals and Discounts / RoboSizer Now Free

« Last post by Tinman57 on April 02, 2013, 08:53 PM »

Automatically resize images on the fly with Robosizer

If you send images over the Internet, you know how much of a pain it is to have to keep shrinking them, especially in email. Robosizer is a free app that sits in your Windows tray and automatically resizes images to your pre-set specifications as they are being sent.

http://www.pcworld.c...-with-robosizer.html

517

Living Room / Beautiful Pictures From Herschel

« Last post by Tinman57 on April 02, 2013, 08:24 PM »

[ Amazing and beautiful pictures...]

A galactic star gazer takes a final look before bowing out (pictures)

The Herschel Space Observatory is about to run out of fuel. But its nearly four-year mission has produced a wealth of new knowledge about our universe.

http://www.techrepub.../6410613#photopaging

518

General Software Discussion / Re: Registry cleaning software debunked...

« Last post by Tinman57 on April 02, 2013, 07:52 PM »

ERUNT for registry backup is an excellent suggestion. More people should take that to heart. If you really want to speed up your XP/2003 PC, check for partition alignment. Chances are that the partitions on your hard disk aren't. I did do this alignment on my XP PC and it does make a noticeable difference.

-Shades (April 01, 2013, 05:27 PM)

  I've owned a PC since W95, and the only time I have ever heard about "Alignments" was with the old C64 drives that had head alignment problems over time.  So what exactly is this alignment that you speak of?

519

Living Room / Re: Cheap LED torches/flashlights - any good?

« Last post by Tinman57 on April 02, 2013, 07:35 PM »

  The cheaper torches will throw out good light, but they're built from inferior quality parts. Just dropping one from a few feet will normally put an end to their use.  The higher end (MagLite, etc) can be ran over by cars as in their commercials and still work.  I own several Maglites and a few other high quality torches, have had them for years and years now and still work like new.

  Just remember the old (but true) adage "You get what you pay for" and "If it's too good to be true, it probably isn't".

520

Living Room / Re: Prenda Law shall troll no more.

« Last post by Tinman57 on April 02, 2013, 07:26 PM »

  True justice would be disbarring those lawyers involved in this scam, fining the hell out of them, and putting all their asses in jail.

521

Living Room / Re: A Netware server that's been running non-stop for 16+ years

« Last post by Tinman57 on April 02, 2013, 07:20 PM »

  It's hard to beat those old Quatum SCSI drives.  I used to use them on my old system, and they were extremely fast and reliable.  I think if they weren't so darned expensive more people would be using them...

  As for the tungsten being 4X thickness, that would be a defect.  That much more tungsten would cause the bulb to use more wattage and run a lot hotter, with the advantage of being brighter.  If it was rated as a 60 W bulb and used in a socket that was only rated at 60 watts, chances are it would have caused a fire.

  If anyone has ever used a shop lightbulb, you'll notice that the tungsten is thicker to aid against shock breakage, and the glass is also a little thicker to deal with the excess heat and punishment of being used in a shop-light.  They're also a hell of a lot more expensive than a standard bulb.

  Of course this is all a mute point considering the old incandescent bulbs are going by way of the dinosaur....

522

General Software Discussion / Re: Registry cleaning software debunked...

« Last post by Tinman57 on April 01, 2013, 05:20 PM »

I'm on an XP puter, and I can tell a big difference.  As far as why removing unused reg keys would make a difference, the registry is constantly being accessed by the system and running apps where most all preferences are stored, the difference between scanning a registry that's 60 or 80 MB to scanning one that's been cleaned down to 47 MB AND optimized (defragmentation) makes a whole lot of difference, the CPU don't have to work as hard.

-Tinman57 (March 31, 2013, 06:02 PM)

That's plain silly - keys are alphabetically sorted, so they can be searched with binary search... which means that doubling your registry size would require all but one extra comparison. And that's for infrequently-accessed keys, stuff that's used frequently is cached.

-f0dder (April 01, 2013, 10:32 AM)

  Well it might be silly in your mind.  But if your on an XP machine and using a process viewer or monitor, you can see where there are constant reads & writes to the registry.  When those writes happen, the cache has to be refreshed as well, though there are some exceptions depending on the app.

  Either way, it works for me on my system, and when my system starts getting sluggish a good cleaning always speeds things up.  If something were to break, though I've never had it happen with XP, that's why I use ERUNT.

523

General Software Discussion / Re: Registry cleaning software debunked...

« Last post by Tinman57 on April 01, 2013, 05:07 PM »

Because:
1. SSD has negligible seek time.
2. You can not defrag a SSD.

-tslim (April 01, 2013, 07:17 AM)

Agreed, but neither of those had anything to do with my reason for partitioning the SSD.

I too have PerfectDisk which I still use on XP, after trying several others first I have never found a better program for the job.
I also use Defraggler, again on XP, for individual files.

-pilgrim-online (April 01, 2013, 07:37 AM)

  I use Defraggler myself.  Really great program that's small and remarkably fast.

524

Living Room / Re: Has my browser been hi-jacked?

« Last post by Tinman57 on April 01, 2013, 04:50 PM »

And to become an expert user (or just fake it), keep a detailed record of all the problems you have had and their solutions, that way if you (or a friend/family member) ever have them again, you'll have your own cheat sheet to refer to and won't have to go crazy with searching the web for solutions or asking others for help (unless the fix you have listed in your personal cheat sheet, fails).

-app103 (April 01, 2013, 02:58 PM)

  I have text "Help Files" on just about every subject in a special "Help-Tips-Fixes" folder.  Every problem I've had in the past, and some others have had, with solutions, is stored in an appropriate sub-folder.  Anytime I have a problem that I or others have had in the past, I just go to my special Help-Tips-Fixes folder and refresh my memory.  It has saved my bacon hundreds of times over the years....

525

Living Room / Re: Worlds Largest Cyberattack Slows Internet

« Last post by Tinman57 on April 01, 2013, 04:21 PM »

and this was your post number 1001 

-Curt (April 01, 2013, 02:49 AM)

  LOL, I didn't even notice....  Guess I'm typing too much or something.