Recent Posts

526

Living Room / Re: Gadget WEEKENDS

« Last post by f0dder on March 01, 2013, 01:45 PM »

So, payday and stuff - new gadgets.

Been wanting to consolidate some of my external drives for a while, as they take up a fair amount of shelf space... and on top of that, those old drives are prettttty slow. Disk#1 and #2 are 500gig and have USB2 and FireWire400 (much faster, but still slow... but my current workstation doesn't have FW) - and, fortunately, eSata, which I had forgotten - nice surprise to rediscover that . Disk#1 is chugging along at 50MB/s right now.

So, enter the Western Digital My Passport 2TB USB3!

Disk#3 is much newer than 1&2, but only has USB2 - fortunately, getting the drive out was as easy as unscrewing four screws and the drive slid right out. I expect it to be able to go a fair bit faster than the 50MB/s of 1&2. USB2 would've been dreary though - 1TB at that speed is something along the lines of 8-10 hours of transfer.



Not a super fancy and interesting gadget, I guess, but it's nice getting that data consolidated - will probably donate the old disks to p3lb0x. Oh, and apart from consolidation, the speed is nice - along the lines of 100MB/s read and 90MB/s write, that was a deciding factor as well

527

Living Room / Re: Bizarre old-school spyware attacks governments, sports Mark of the Beast

« Last post by f0dder on February 28, 2013, 12:03 PM »

The first thing that hit my min when I saw the topic of this post: "Oh, Renegade, you!"

As for grammar'nstuff: "Unidentified attackers have infected government agencies and organizations in 23 countries with highly advanced malware that uses low-level code to stay hidden and Twitter and Google to ensure it always has a way to receive updates." might not be elegant, but I didn't find any problem parsing it: it uses low-level code to stay hidden, and it parses tweets and g+whatevers as a C&C channel - in a very inelegant and obvious way, it seems - why don't they stega-hide the info on sites with pictures of lolcats? It's 10+ years since I had that idea, and it can't really be a very unique idea, IMHO.

Yeah, it does say the updates themselves are stagenographically hidden in images (I wonder if it's real stega or just plain old EXIF or unused GIF blocks or whatever), but the content of the tweet in the picture has obvious payload.

Queued Kaspersky and CrySys reports for later. I snickered a bit at the Ars article - "Then there's the multilayered technical agility of the malware, including its ability to dynamically scan all functions from memory instead of importing them." - as if any of that is rocket science or requires much skill to do

528

Developer's Corner / Re: DIY Debian Wheezy Local Git Server With Git Lite Workflow

« Last post by f0dder on February 26, 2013, 11:11 AM »

VS 2012 has Git support now, btw, official from MS - it works with normal repositories as well as the new TFS Git support.

Unless I'm missing something, the support is extremely basic, though.

529

Living Room / Re: PayPal users are frauds :-(

« Last post by f0dder on February 25, 2013, 06:43 PM »

Hmm.. well that is shady.. paypal should not charge you a fee if they refund the buyer due to no mistake on your part. 

-mouser (February 25, 2013, 05:37 PM)

Paypal acting shady is news to you?

530

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Free Software from Microsoft.

« Last post by f0dder on February 25, 2013, 06:39 PM »

http://en.wikipedia....isual_Studio_Express

It may depend on what language you are using, but the Express versions may subject you to one or more of the following (this isn't an all inclusive list):

-app103 (February 25, 2013, 10:33 AM)

I looked at the Wiki page, and IMHO your summary list makes it sound worse than it really is (2010 could do x64 without much hassle, 2012 has it built-in - at least according to the wiki).

For the 2012 C#/C++ editions, I'd say that no essential features are cut, and you still get an IDE that's quit a good bit beyond other offerings. Worst part might be not getting add-ons, but you do get static code analysis which rocks (it's not at the level of PVS-Studio, but neither is the pricetag ).

Sure, there's some pro features removed, but if there's any free IDEs that pack more punch than the VS Express editions, I'd love to know.

531

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Free Software from Microsoft.

« Last post by f0dder on February 25, 2013, 09:54 AM »

For an indy developer or hobbyist, taking advantage of these offers is much cheaper than buying or upgrading, and less restrictive than the free Express versions.

-app103 (February 25, 2013, 09:34 AM)

Which restrictions are you thinking of? AFAIK there's no restrictions on commercial use of the stuff you build with the express editions, and (at least for the 2012 versions) the stuff that's removed compared to the nonfree editions isn't too bad - you still get a very feature-rich IDE.

532

Living Room / Re: Chinese Cyberattacks

« Last post by f0dder on February 23, 2013, 07:05 AM »

Knowing the wonders possible with Photoshop

-40hz (February 21, 2013, 07:59 AM)

It's definitely a 'shop. I can tell by some of the pixels. And from having seen quite a few 'shops in my time!

-Deozaan (February 22, 2013, 03:33 AM)

Yeah. Chinese sweat shop!

533

JGPaiva's GridMove and Ahk Tools / Re: GridMove at github

« Last post by f0dder on February 23, 2013, 06:57 AM »

Also, like you, I'm not a big fan of GPL, and it looks like it's sort of the standard these days.

-jgpaiva (February 23, 2013, 05:26 AM)

It's been so for ages, and that's probably the reason so many people GPL-license their things - not because they've made a conscious choice and understand the various licenses, but because GPL is the default fallback... for good and for worse.

I wonder if the FSF would answer a license-question email along the lines of "ohaithar, you haz real software license comparable to CC-BY-NC-SA, canhazpzlkthx?" :-)

534

ProcessTamer / Re: Installing an executable with limited execution priority

« Last post by f0dder on February 23, 2013, 06:54 AM »

Well, what else can it be? Sometimes (75% of the time) I can run the game and exit without any problems. Other times, if I enter, then exit the game for 5 seconds, things are sluggish afterwards. Logging out and back in always fixes it immediately.

-superticker (February 23, 2013, 12:49 AM)

That is a very good question - I just wouldn't expect anything as "near kernel level" as thread scheduling to be fixed by a mere relog.

It might be the game latches on to a Windows resource and fails to release it upon exiting. Logging out simply releases that resource. I've tried debugging it with process explorer without success. What other monitoring utility would you recommend that shows system resource allocations?

-superticker (February 23, 2013, 12:49 AM)

Process explorer would be my best bet to start with. There's nothing fishy to spot? Is CPU and memory usage (both the overall as well as looking at individual processes) at normal levels, or is anything spiking? Can you describe the effects of the sluggishness?

I've never used Process Tamer. I was hoping to setup some special priorities on these problem executables so I wouldn't need Process Tamer in the first place.

-f0dder (February 22, 2013, 05:13 PM)

Ah, I thought you had already tried PT since you posted in this forum

Anyway, would you care to name the game? Perhaps somebody else could take a look at it and try to reproduce, or perhaps there's known quirkiness or something.

535

JGPaiva's GridMove and Ahk Tools / Re: GridMove at github

« Last post by f0dder on February 22, 2013, 06:06 PM »

Now all that's left is to add a github link to the dcmembers page

-f0dder (February 22, 2013, 05:06 PM)

Done! http://jgpaiva.dcmem...rs.com/gridmove.html

-jgpaiva (February 22, 2013, 05:46 PM)

Nifty - but to be the eternal nitpicker I am, perhaps you should include the word github? "Source repository @ GitHub" or something like that? (Dunno about other people, but that would hit three of the keywords I look for wrt. source code ).

536

ProcessTamer / Re: Installing an executable with limited execution priority

« Last post by f0dder on February 22, 2013, 05:13 PM »

It's so bad, that after quitting this program, the time-slice quantums are adjusted by Windows XP to make all the other programs sluggish.

-superticker (February 22, 2013, 04:19 PM)

What? - is that actually what happens? (there is - or at least used to be - some quantum/timeslice config you could go at in the registry, but afaik that required a reboot, and I'm not sure the settings work any longer... and if a game messed with them, it would seem weird that logging off/on would restore if quitting the game didn't).

Differently privileged stuff on XP (and everything before it) was a headache, Vistas UAC is actually quite a godsend in that regard. You could probably create a non-privileged user and use "run as user", but it's been years since I messed with it (thankfully!) so the details are hazy. Other methods to drop privileges are flaky.

But are you sure it's a high vs. low privilege thing? Could it be something else, like the CPU/GPU overheating and causing thermal throttling - and that "logging out fixes it" is because of the time it takes doing the relog jig, rather than the act of relogging?

As for flash, it's a well-known hog, and I doubt there's much you can do about it in Firefox (apart from uninstalling ) - Chrome doesn't use the default Adobe plugin, they have their own tweaked version. If Process Tamer on plugin-container doesn't help, I dunno - my experience is that flash is generally a pretty sluggish hog.

537

JGPaiva's GridMove and Ahk Tools / Re: GridMove at github

« Last post by f0dder on February 22, 2013, 05:06 PM »

Cool beans!

Now all that's left is to add a github link to the dcmembers page

538

General Software Discussion / Re: 2013 Version: Browser Wars

« Last post by f0dder on February 22, 2013, 08:13 AM »

If you have tried it, what is your judgment about Lunascape?

-Giampy (February 22, 2013, 08:08 AM)

Haven't tried it, but triple the attack vectors in one browser? Might be convenient, but security-wise it's a nightmare. (And how much bother is it, really, to open a separate browser for a no-good browser-dependent site? How many of that kind of sites do you visit these days?)

539

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows Batchfile can't recognize long file name...!!!!

« Last post by f0dder on February 21, 2013, 05:32 PM »

Unless you've disabled 8.3 naming[/b] you can do dir /x at a CLI to get the short name.

-4wd (February 19, 2013, 07:37 AM)

Iirc it's disabled on some recent Windows versions, although I can't remember which - might only be server versions. I thought it was disabled as early as possibly Vista, but just realized I have those nasty peckers on my current Win7 installation - "fsutil 8dot3name set 1" and "fsutil 8dot3name strip" time >_<

540

General Software Discussion / Re: How-to on taking ownership of your new UEFI equipped PC

« Last post by f0dder on February 20, 2013, 01:57 PM »

My single-core 64-bit is nx-capable, but I can find NOWHERE in the BIOS how to enable it.  Wonder, indeed.

-Edvard (February 19, 2013, 07:25 PM)

Funny thing is (if memory serves me right): NX is enabled by default after a CPU reset - you have to actively disable it in software (after which it cannot be software-enabled without a CPU reset).

So why do BIOSes do this? I'm guessing two possible reasons: 1) marketing worms that wanted to use NX-enabled as an upsell. 2) buggy BIOS SMM^w. 3) (least likely) known hardware implementation bug.

541

Living Room / Re: Hangover Pill

« Last post by f0dder on February 19, 2013, 02:08 PM »

The other pill, discovered in the 1920's, is sold as Antabuse. It pretty much guarantees that you will not get drunk.

-Renegade (February 18, 2013, 10:42 PM)

Only if you're not hardcore!

Also, one could keep taking enough amphetamines to keep a high alcohol tolerance, that might do the job as well.

Or perhaps, dunno, pretty much unthinkable I realize, but... drink less?

542

DC Gamer Club / Re: Pre-Purchase Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army 4-Pack

« Last post by f0dder on February 19, 2013, 02:06 PM »

Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?

-f0dder (February 18, 2013, 06:35 PM)

Beg pardon?

-skwire (February 18, 2013, 07:17 PM)

I think it's the third time I use the phrase on DoCo without anybody realizing where it's from

543

General Software Discussion / Re: Opera to move to webkit/chromium rendering engines

« Last post by f0dder on February 19, 2013, 02:02 PM »

Hm…
http://www.digi.no/9...-sendte-90-paa-doren

-fenixproductions (February 19, 2013, 06:28 AM)

So, Opera fires 90 people, basically most of the Core engineers. Even if switching to webkit, that seems... somewhat short-sighted.

544

Living Room / Re: CyberGhost VPN Special Deal (worth a look)

« Last post by f0dder on February 19, 2013, 01:56 PM »

Could someone clarify for the dumb end user aka me.
Are VPNs useful for doing banking in public hot spots?

-Clive (February 18, 2013, 08:40 PM)

Web banking should use SSL connections, and thus should be safe without a VPN - except that there's nastyness like DNS poisoning, so don't do it (and get hold of something like the FireFox Certificate Patrol addon, which lets you spot SSL certificate tampering).

A VPN connection would add safety in this situation, but you've got to have trust in the company you get the VPN through.

Personally, when I'm on public WiFi I SSH to my home server, and use that as a socks4 proxy. Ultimate trust, and no extra cost

545

General Software Discussion / Re: How-to on taking ownership of your new UEFI equipped PC

« Last post by f0dder on February 19, 2013, 01:52 PM »

re-edit: [/color]re-reading the advice, I (again) think it said No. The lack of "NX" is vital, isn't it?

-Curt (February 19, 2013, 01:57 AM)

Hmmm, which CPU do you have? It has to be of almost archeological quality to not support NX (the ability to mark memory, in page-sized (4k) regions, as "not executable" - a security feature that was added ages ago).

You might have disabled NX support in your BIOS, though. (And some really lame, especially laptop, BIOSes turn NX-support off without offering you a way to enable it, even though the CPU is capable. One has to wonder, sometimes ).

546

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows Batchfile can't recognize long file name...!!!!

« Last post by f0dder on February 19, 2013, 01:38 PM »

hulkbuster: your animated gif shows that you're using the start to (try to) launch stuff with spaces in - as rjbull wrote, you need a quoted "window title" (which is unused for most stuff, so you can just pass "").

For running executables, you should be able to launch a quoted path without using start, unless you need some of the parameters you can use with the start command.

547

DC Gamer Club / Re: Pre-Purchase Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army 4-Pack

« Last post by f0dder on February 18, 2013, 06:35 PM »

...Sniper... Nazi... Zombies?

Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?

548

General Software Discussion / Re: How-to on taking ownership of your new UEFI equipped PC

« Last post by f0dder on February 18, 2013, 06:31 PM »

I have Windows 8 Pro, but has not installed it because the Microsoft Upgrade Adviser said No!

-Curt (February 18, 2013, 06:07 PM)

Interesting - it's the smoothest Windows experience I've had so far, and should run better than XP (at least the bloated SP3 pig) even on old hardware

549

General Software Discussion / Re: How-to on taking ownership of your new UEFI equipped PC

« Last post by f0dder on February 18, 2013, 05:59 PM »

Especially since it's so unnecessary to implement it the way they have. And how effective SB will be still remains to be seen.

-40hz (February 18, 2013, 03:34 PM)

Unnecessary? The overall design is actually pretty open and flexible. If you want a trusted boot sequence, it could be done a helluva lot worse. Yes, the UX is clumsy, but (for UEFI implementations that do have key management features), you actually have full control and quite a bit of flexibility, and you aren't limited to One Master Key To Bind Them.

As for effectiveness, we'll see indeed. There's no such thing as perfect security, and if you can escalate your exploit-code to kernelmode you'll probably be able to defeat SecureBoot easily. And UEFI is a big and complex beast, so there's probably exploitable bugs in it. But the key architecture seems sound, and security is about a mix of breadth and depth - and SB does raise the bar against pre-OS attacks.

I do predict a lot of people are going to work hard on attacking it, though, since it's such a hated featured and high-profile target.

A computer can officially only run Windows 8 if it has the very same "new UEFI secure boot platform", so it doesn't matter what else I might be planning, if my plans included Win 8

-Curt (February 18, 2013, 04:35 PM)

While UEFI+SB might be a requirement to get the "designed for windows 8" certification, Win8 works just perfectly without SecureBoot, and it doesn't need UEFI either, works fine with BIOS booting.

550

Developer's Corner / Re: Discourse - A discussion platform by StackExchange's Jeff Atwood

« Last post by f0dder on February 17, 2013, 03:51 PM »

F0dder, can you say what makes ASP.net better than rails? This is the first time I hear this.

-urlwolf (February 16, 2013, 11:27 PM)

I've already outlined why in posts above

But to recap: Ruby is dead slow (and can't handle threading, so you kinda need one process per request - this makes it even slower), and rails is a rats nest of vulnerabilities.