Recent Posts

5926

Living Room / Re: What's the best registry cleaner? Ask Leo says: none

« Last post by Stoic Joker on March 20, 2009, 09:44 AM »

I sound like a broken watch but registry cleaners are pointless and dangerous. So you have a few out of date entries knocking about (so what) and you probably have hundreds of unused entries installed by common applications such as Windows and Office (to name only two) that deliberately insert empty registry keys that are only filled when you download a particular plugin or what ever.

Just because you don't perceive immediate problems doesn't mean they don't appear down the line. The main problem is that by the time you have a problem you don't even think to blame the registry cleaner.

I am not saying MS is perfect (I know they are not) but if you have a few minutes to spare try installing in VirtualPC Windows Vista or XP clean install (you don't need to activate it) and an MS Office product. Then run any of the registry cleaners and look at how many 'errors' exist on a newly installed system. Many cleaners will literally find hundreds.

I used to use JV Powertools but gave up after I noticed that in a multiboot system it was 'fixing' registry problems in automatic mode with files on the wrong partition (i.e. a different version of windows altogether).

-Carol Haynes (March 18, 2009, 01:23 PM)

Um... Actually I think it's "broken Record"... ...But either way I'll signup to sit with you on the replayed point as I agree completely.

5927

Living Room / Re: Building a Quiet PC

« Last post by Stoic Joker on March 20, 2009, 09:29 AM »

I'm running an Asus Commando Mboard (with a passively cooled chipset) in an  Antec 900 case. The case fans have individual speed controls allowing me to have all of them running slowly and whisper quiet.

The almost 7" fan in the top of the case finally address the simple fact that heat rises... (duh!) ...and moves a huge amount of air even at its (silent) slowest setting.

The machine has been running 24/7 for the two years since I built it and still doesn't need dusting (internally). I have wipped a bit of buildup off the front grill two or three times, but the internals look fine due the the CPU having an auto fan speed control and the rest being a high volume of slow moving air.

5928

Living Room / Re: Why I Avoid Apple Products

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 20, 2009, 06:28 PM »

I just feel that iPods and iPhones have become a cultish phenomenon which rather belie common sense. I cannot understand why the iPod has become ubiquitous when other media players have equal functions, equal quality in construction and sound, are cheaper to purchase and have replaceable batteries and yet struggle to sell.

-Carol Haynes (February 19, 2009, 04:54 PM)

Just think fashion accessory/status symbol ... and you've answered your own question.

I want my phone, to be a phone, nothing more nothing less. I don't need it to make a statement about me...thats what the attitude I've been carefully cultivating for 44 years is for.

...I cringe at the insanely placed Apple logo's on TV also.

5929

General Software Discussion / Re: Dangerous Adobe Reader Vulnerability In the Wild

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 20, 2009, 06:06 PM »

And on the other side of the coin...

(As a comparison) How many times has any systems been penetrated/crashed because of .txt file misuse?!?

PDF Stands for Portable Document Format, it supposed to be read & editable on any platform (Hence the portable part). That's all it was supposed to be, and it should have stayed that way. It was generally never a problem, until Adobe decided to try and make it all things to all people for all reasons. Which was stupid. It's turned into a multidimensional "display" vortex that will suck-up and run anything anyone cares to embed in it ... and it's the anything part that's biting us in the ass now.

You can not put that much potential in one application with out taking some responsibility for what might happen. It was only supposed to be a document reader ... now its turned into the elbbubmug that ate Chicago.

I'm all for boycotting Acrobat, and the nightmare that flash has turned into until they nail the damn things down (/shut) so they quit causing problems that never should have existed in the first place.

Hay nobody had a problem riding Microsoft's ass when Word or Excel had/caused/came up with holes ... why should Adobe get a free pass for making a huge mess.

5930

General Software Discussion / Re: What's your mouse of choice?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 20, 2009, 05:16 PM »

I like the basic Microsoft USB optical mice.  They feel great in my hand, seem to last forever, and don't cost very much.

-mrainey (February 20, 2009, 01:57 PM)

Me too, two buttons & a wheel are enough for something I gota operate with my right hand (I'm left handed).

5931

Living Room / Re: [NSFW - Parody] Sony Releases New Piece Of Technology

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 14, 2009, 02:11 PM »

Me I don't mind the swearing at all, actually if you compare the video's dialog to the dialog of an average person when trying to cope with the techno-babble contained in most translated 5 time into 8 different languages electronic device's "documentation" ... I'd say the video was spot on.

I haven't laughed that hard all week.

5932

Living Room / Re: Windows Secrets jumps shark

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 14, 2009, 01:28 PM »

Giving them quarter is one thing, but it would take a complete do-over to forgive/forget/fix that one. Getting an acronym wrong is one thing (like DNS vs DSN), but getting the technology wrong when completely spelled out? Zoiks! That's a kick to the groin credibility dent for sure.

On a side note; I thought they fixed the VNC Man-in-the-Middle vulnerabilities a while ago.

5933

Developer's Corner / Re: MS Visual Studio Update Killed T-Clock x64

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 08, 2009, 11:08 AM »

That's cool (I gota work for a living too)

I haven't had time to explore Eoin's input in depth either. Altho I did spend quite a bit of time (back when) tracing through the buffers to make sure I wasn't going to blow myself out of the water by adding:
#define _CRT_SECURE_NO_DEPRECATE 1

to the main header file (Don't yell at me I know it's bad...). There were too many (200+) depricated API warnings when I compiled it to fine the (other) errors I was looking for ... So I put that part on the To-Do-Later list (mayhapps it is haunting me?).

I do appreciate your looking into it for me

Stoic Joker

5934

Developer's Corner / Re: MS Visual Studio Update Killed T-Clock x64

« Last post by Stoic Joker on February 07, 2009, 08:55 AM »

You guy's forgot me, didn't you.

5935

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for simple backup software

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 27, 2009, 11:09 PM »

One of our clients has a user that spends most of their time on the road which makes backing up to the server impossible. Given that heavily used laptop hard drives are grenade prone ... I set them up with an external hard drive and setup MS's (free) SyncToy as a scheduled task that runs every night.

So far it's worked fine.

@Carol - I agree but, if a traveling user blows a drive in Kanses there is no guarantee they'll be able to restore the NTbackup job file to a usable state (e.g. I don't want to spend that much time on the phone, do you?). The external drive will leave them functional enough to get the job done in a pinch.

5936

Living Room / Re: Going Into Frugality Mode -- What are your Tricks and Tips

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 27, 2009, 10:54 PM »

• Cultivate cheap hobbies. Hunting, fishing, season tickets to Pro sports, motorcycles, etc. will eat you alive over the years.
  

-zridling (January 26, 2009, 10:24 PM)

Oh no, you don't get to pick on my hole-card. When gas here hit $4.25 a gallon I parked my truck which ran $60+ to fill (a week), and got my 1987 Harley FLHTP back on the road (Dress up job be damned). My scoot gets 54mpg and will still go 0-60 in under 3sec ... Try that in a Toyota Prius

Beyond that my job is my hobby (60-70+hr weeks), I have always done all of the general household/vehicle/etc. repairs (altho at 44 it's starting to take longer), and the wife and I haven't "Gone Out" much in years.

*Sigh*

These days my life is to boaring to be expensive. ...I did try to quit smoking awhile back, and was then told not to as a public safety issue (guess I was a bit tense that day...)

5937

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Neobyte's Titan Backup v1.5 free full version over at TechSupportAlert

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 27, 2009, 10:30 PM »

Most cool, Thank You!

5938

Developer's Corner / Re: MS Visual Studio Update Killed T-Clock x64

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 26, 2009, 10:07 PM »

It should; currently the only available shell I can afford to keep crashing is a RDC to my Server 2003 x64 Domain Controller (They're both based on the same code branch).

5939

Developer's Corner / Re: MS Visual Studio Update Killed T-Clock x64

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 25, 2009, 02:54 PM »

If the program was just straight crashing on load, I'd agree but it isn't. (Perhapps I described the issue badly). The program doesn't actually crash (x64 only) until it's forced out of memory (e.g. task manager-> end process tree) ...Which is actually kind of normal behavior for a shell hook being treated that way.

The program typically inserts the hook in the Windows Clock window erases the contents, and then inserts its own. Most of this is still happening. Only the last (inserts its own) part fails, which makes it impossible to get the (modified) clock's context menu and exit the program gracefully. If the clock is left to run (albeit clocklessly) the shell is perfectly fine, it's only the forced exit that "kills it".

Not to mention that the x86 version still runs fine which gives me the impression this is a 64bit only issue. Either way I need help in resolving this as I've not a clue how to even get started addressing it.

5940

Developer's Corner / MS Visual Studio Update Killed T-Clock x64

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 25, 2009, 11:19 AM »

Okay bear with me on the topic title as I wasn't really sure what to call this issue. But here's a thumbnail sketch of how i got here.

About 2 years ago I created a 64bit version of TClock which Kazubon originally wrote back in 1995.

I had a catastrophic motherboard/disk array failure that resulted in the loss of most of my code library, including the as released code for T-Clock32 & T-Clock x64.

I work for a living so it has taken some time to (try and) put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

I still have an intact ("Working") copy of a pre-release build of the project that I'm trying to get back off the ground with ... But the 64bit code doesn't run correctly anymore (e.g. it crashes the shell).

Now... I'd been asuming that part of the project file was damaged, but the copy I'm working with was on my web server at the time of the crash and therefore not involved in the crash. The compiled binaries included with it run fine. problem is when I recompile the project, the binaries are slightly larger than they should be (were) and the crash the shell instead of displaying the clock.

My version of the code was originally developed on an XP x86 machine and tested on an XP x64 machine. Now I'm running Vista x64 with all servicepacks & updates, and it appears that therein lies the issue.

As a measure of last resort, I created an XP x86 VM, installed MSVS 2005(RTM), updated nothing, and compiled the code. It ran perfectly. ...Which now begs the question...Why?

So far I have run the following (compile & run) tests:
Vista x64 SP1 & MSVS2005 SP1 with all updates applied - Compiles fine (is 1KB larger) and crashes the shell
Vista x86 SP1 & MSVS2005 SP1 with all updates applied - Compiles fine (is 1KB larger) and crashes the shell
XP x86 SP2 & MSVS2005(RTM) with no updates - Compiles fine (is the "right" size) and Runs fine.
XP x86 SP2 & MSVS2005 SP1 with no other updates - Compiles fine (is 1KB larger) and crashes the shell

Notes:
All combination of the 32bit(x86) version of the project compile and run fine.
The TClock project consists of two files tClock.dll which contains the ShellHook code and always compiles to the same size, and Clock.exe which compiles to either 152KB (working code) or 153KB failing code.
Both T-Clock32 & T-Clock x64 use a single common source code pool that allows the project file (and some conditional #define statements) to define if it will be compiled as 32 or 64bit code.


So, does anyone have a clue why one of the changes in MSVS2005 ServicePack 1 would cause a 64bit shell hook to fail?
I'll gladly make the project file available to anyone willing to help.

Thank You,
Stoic Joker

5941

Living Room / Re: Secure deletion: a single overwrite will do it

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 18, 2009, 03:40 PM »

The multi pass thing always did bother me as it just didn't make sense. As tightly packed as data is on modern drives the possibility of information being left over in the between space just never struck me as rational. Sure on the old magnetic tapes (Like 8-Tracks) there was plenty of room for that to happen but as tightly as they're packing data these days I doubt there is really between space left.

Thanks 40hz

5942

General Software Discussion / Re: I am looking for easy to set up, small memory print ,free smtp server

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 17, 2009, 03:24 PM »

No. Spam filter black lists don't block domain names, they block IPs. One of the more common ones (i forget which) specifically blocks all of the dynamic IP ranges used by (most) ISPs. Dynamic DNS may (sort of) get you past the MX record requirement (reverse DNS and other filter checks look for it) when validating the sending server but future reliability will be next to nonexistant with that type of setup.

5943

Living Room / Re: Can a Linux man survive in Windows Land?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 17, 2009, 03:12 PM »

Stoic Joker: it's nice to see that he's giving it a fair shot, yes. And I don't feel that I'm "picking apart the details", I just find it's relevant noting that buggy drivers can bring down an OS whereas a usermode application won't... and I've been bitten by ACPI bugs (I assume ) on linux.

-f0dder (January 17, 2009, 10:00 AM)

lol I wasn't trying to imply you were wrong for targeting the details, I simply ment I wasn't going to jump into it also (it's too easy at that angle) as any Windows guy knows IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL is flakey driver issue.

I was just taking a stab at being positive about the article's intent.

P.S. Did you ever get my PM, or are you trying to ignor it?

5944

Living Room / Re: reporting group policies

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 17, 2009, 02:37 PM »

Have you tried the (Resultant Set of Policy (RSoP) snap-in) graphical version of gpresult?

5945

Living Room / Re: 7.7.7.0 Browser Hijack Virus

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 17, 2009, 02:11 PM »

Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware = Yes

When dealing with end user/client machines 90% of the time Spybot Search and Destroy works for me, the other 10% requires Malwarebytes.

...Okay, 5% of the time I just flatten the box... But Malwarebytes is an excellent utility which is also (highly) MS MVP recommended.

5946

General Software Discussion / Re: windows 7 beta available for free Jan 9 (!)

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 17, 2009, 01:52 PM »

Well given the tone of this thread, I’ll have to sign in as one of the Idiot Virtual PC users … however I have ran upwards of 8 OS simultaneously on this box with it and experienced zero lag anywhere (so it works for me).

That being said, I already had a (alternately sourced) copy of Win7 Milestone2 (unsure of the build, but it was just before the new taskbar was added) running in a VM so I took a shot at upgrading it to see what would happen. The VM was only given a 20GB HDD and 512MB RAM to work with to make things nice and difficult…

The upgrade took 2 hours… and 5 reboots.

While the host machine has an extremely fast SATA RAID5 array, due to the enormous I/O load the upgrade caused this was the first time I have ever seen this machine lag. Processor usage never went over 50% and memory usage wasn’t even worth mentioning, but getting anything on or off the hard drive wasn’t gona happen soon … and waiting for things a clicked to happen (eek!) was new…

All went back to normal after the install finished. The VPC addons had to be reinstalled to get them working, and the (Win7 VM) sound didn’t work. The volume icon had a red X and the new Action Center had a (persistent)” Can I fix” it balloon message sticking out of it. Being in the habit of dismissing wizards, I told it to go ahead (and fail since it wouldn’t go away) and damn if it didn’t actually resolve the issue…without asking any silly questions.

While I haven’t had time to beat on it extensively, I did browse around looking for the basic move it, find the network, get on the internet, & open a bunch of dumb stuff to see if it will complain behavior. Surprisingly even with only 512MB RAM it never managed to violate my “If it takes more than 1 second to get a response, you suck” rule. Vista (RTM) failed that test (with 512MB RAM) on native hardware opening MS Word.

Granted the transparency doesn’t work and fancy graphics render badly in VPC, but I don’t give a damn if it’s pretty … I want it to work, and Windows7 (works) is looking like a very good thing.

5947

Living Room / Re: The last Mac vs. PC video?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 17, 2009, 10:43 AM »

I'm guessing here, but...
the moral of the story is it takes 3 Macs with automatic weapons to beat 1 PC in a fist fight...?

5948

General Software Discussion / Re: I am looking for easy to set up, small memory print ,free smtp server

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 17, 2009, 10:18 AM »

I've been using the IIS POP3/SMTP combo included with Windows Server 2003 for years here in my home office with zero issues. I even virtualized it about 6 months ago.

however depending on your intended usage and configuration, you could run into major (reliability)issues with mail being refused/blocked by spam filters if you're on a residential connection (Even business connections can be a bear to get setup these days).

Can you give a bit more detail about what you are planning to do, and what was wrong/missing/bad about the options you've tried?

5949

Living Room / Re: Can a Linux man survive in Windows Land?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 17, 2009, 09:51 AM »

Meh, it's too easy to pick apart the details...and the auther is a Linux guy that is giving Windows a (second) shot. He's aloud to miss some stuff (Hell I do every time I try screwing with Linux).

He seems to be giving it a fair shot, and is actually happy with some of his findings. So it apears that the answer to the Title Question (so far...) is yes.

...Hopefully the story will continue as it should have an interesting ending.

5950

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox not safe at all

« Last post by Stoic Joker on January 12, 2009, 02:59 PM »

Even being an IE fan, I'd have to call that "report" total BS. And if Symantec was doing a crappy software list...I can think of a few of their own products that should have been on the top of that list...