Recent Posts

651

Living Room / Re: Computer mods: What odd things have you done?

« Last post by Lashiec on July 14, 2008, 07:31 PM »

Also I had a friend one time who for some reason ran short on fans and bolted a standard box fan to the side of his case in place of one of the case panels.

-Edvard (July 14, 2008, 10:15 AM)

He ran a Preshott

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Living Room / Re: WOT: Web Of Trust -- Interesting Community-driven Security Rating Website

« Last post by Lashiec on July 11, 2008, 08:56 PM »

Just a comment: Sami Tolvanen is the original developer of Eraser, so we're not exactly talking about security newcomers.

I miss more information about the sites. A trust value is OK, but it would be nice to know why a site should be trusted or not, by each reputation category, I mean, comments by users linked to each category. Also, the linkback thing is a good idea, but I saw a few "Trusted blogs" entries, which they explain as "Referenced in blog of trusted authors", but I could not find info about what conforms the criteria for a trusted blog, nor a list of these blogs.

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Living Room / Re: Where's my TCP/IP?

« Last post by Lashiec on July 10, 2008, 08:58 PM »

Bummer ... but I suppose at least you have a system that is working and running smoothly. Have you managed to retain all your useful data?

-Carol Haynes (July 10, 2008, 08:39 PM)

Yep, I copied all the important data, so everything it's there, and an extra 99% of files I don't need, since I did not even bother to make selective copies.

Uninstalling a netwiork device really shouldn't have that effect - something seriously screwy was going on. If it wasn't malware I wonder if you had a corrupted registry. If you remember a while back I had a problem with my system constantly rebooting - swapping motherboards, memory and CPU failed to fix the problem - I reinstalled and all was OK again I can only conclude there was a registry or driver corruption. Sounds like you got hammered by the same thing.

Mmmm, that could be a cause yeah, it would explain many of the problems. In theory, the registry was all right, or at least things like PageDefrag compacted it without problems, but in my infinite wisdom I once used jv16 PowerTools to do that job, and God knows despite using the Windows APIs, Macecraft Software is able to screw things up, and without giving a proper explanation or fix.

Anyway you have had a bad experience but hopefully you can relax again now!

I hope I can do that after I finish installing and setting up things, time consuming, but you get this fuzzy feeling of a fresh system

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Living Room / Re: Is More Memory Better? - a bit-tech.net article

« Last post by Lashiec on July 10, 2008, 08:33 PM »

I'm also always amazed at the amount of discussion given over to boot times. Why something like a 10, 20, or even 120 second boot delay should be all that important puzzles me to no end. Might be important if you're launching a strategic retaliatory strike, but otherwise?

-40hz (July 09, 2008, 09:34 AM)

It's always nice to have a fast-booting PC, and there is this point from which a longer boot starts to feel exasperating, for example when you have to wait in front of the PC for it to stop starting. Not my case, but certain Firefox ex-developer takes like 5 minutes to boot up his machine

In any case, just as I thought 4 GB seems to be the sweet spot for Vista. Until resource hungry games come about and demand your RAM, of course

655

Living Room / Re: Flash Game of the Week: Totem Destroyer

« Last post by Lashiec on July 10, 2008, 08:21 PM »

Hmmm, it looks like a Flash version of Boom Blox

656

Living Room / Re: Do websites need to look exactly the same in every browser?

« Last post by Lashiec on July 10, 2008, 08:16 PM »

BTW Text shadow is supported in Opera 9.5 only. OK, being honest: I don't know about Safari too.

-fenixproductions (July 09, 2008, 06:17 AM)

It also showed a shadowed text in Konqueror, so I guess Safari would do the same (sharing up to some extent the same engine, and all)

657

Living Room / Re: What happened to rootly.com?

« Last post by Lashiec on July 10, 2008, 07:28 PM »

Well, that Mark Daher seems to be the Rootly founder, perhaps you could inquire him

658

Living Room / Re: Opera 9.5

« Last post by Lashiec on July 10, 2008, 06:42 PM »

Try reading the comments on 43Folders, e.g.

http://www.43folders...-cool-tools#comments

-JennyB (July 08, 2008, 11:38 AM)

Uh, nasty, I think I'll fill a bug report if you don't mind.

659

Living Room / Re: Where's my TCP/IP?

« Last post by Lashiec on July 10, 2008, 06:38 PM »

Well, the issue is sorta fixed, I'll explain myself :D

So, I did what Carol suggested, rebooted, and when I came back in, Windows tried to install the drivers. I could not stop it, but the OS threw an error box telling me they could not be installed. Fine, I disabled the ports again, Windows threw another error, it needed a reboot to disable the Ethernet ports. Rebooted, and the same situation repeated. Then I opted for reinstalling the drivers directly from the CD, with the result of the error I mentioned above, Windows could not find a certain file. OK, I said to myself, I shall delete it altogether. Uninstalled the nForce package, rebooted, and... a black screen.

Windows loaded, but nothing appeared in the screen, I could see and hear the drives loading the system, but nothing was shown. It was very weird, because I saw all the booting process with my eyes. OK, let's try with safe mode. It reached the logon screen, and when I grabbed the mouse, shivers went down my spine. The cursor didn't move. I tried with the keyboard. Nothing. I checked the batteries, and they were charged.

So I grabbed the nearest Linux Live CD, copied all data to the secondary drive, and formatted. Everything is fine now, no "scheduled" hiccups, and the TCP/IP protocol is where it should be. What's more, everything seems to run smoother now, I don't know if it's because of SP3 (which I didn't install before), the lack of all the cruft of more than 150 individual updates, or that something was really broken, either by my hand, software misbehavior or malware action.

I think it's difficult the TCP/IP absence was caused by malware, because I did not saw anything with the analysis tools, and all scanners did not detect a single thing as well (apart from tracking cookies). Maybe I caught something new, and borked everything, which could be the case, as the other day I found myself without administrator rights (solved by a reboot).

Funny enough, in other of the forums I hang around, people were complaining about this same problem, in this caused by the action of Microsoft updates, which was not my case (as I did apply that particular update after everything went berserk). Most probably something was wrong with the LSP, as lanux suggest, so I'll bookmark the thread for future reference. Thanks guys :)

EDIT: Rephrasing, typos, etc.

660

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: a-squared Anti-Malware 50% Discount

« Last post by Lashiec on July 10, 2008, 06:11 PM »

Interesting numbers, because the free version of a-squared "only" has 1.429.277 signatures, so it may signify that the paid version detects quite more malware (or it's full of bogus sigs). The only way to know if one is really better than the other is to throw complex tests at them, to see how they perform detecting malware, and even in that case, there would be other factors at play that could yield different results on different computers. Going to a spyware infected site would not show much, and you may end with a infested computer as well, there's no watertight protection, unfortunately (unless you're using a Linux distro from a Live CD).

661

FARR Plugins and Aliases / Re: Updated plugin: FARR MostRecentlyUsed 0.4.0

« Last post by Lashiec on July 10, 2008, 06:00 PM »

Oh, sorry you have to do all the work to prepare a debug-capable version, but due to problems beyond my control I had to rebuilt the entire system, and thus reinstall everything, and surprisingly enough, the plugin works perfectly now. It may be, but maybe I had something wrong in my FARR installation (or in the computer). Anyway, if something happens again, I'll let you know :)

662

Living Room / Re: Opera 9.5

« Last post by Lashiec on July 08, 2008, 10:13 AM »

Yep, it's broken with a fresh install as well. About the reload, I don't really know, I saw some sites that tend to reload themselves (like Techarp), but they do that to load new ads (or to check you are not blocking them). I think I saw one that does that constantly, but I can't remember which one. If you care to provide an example... :)

EDIT: For Google groups, there's a fix. I saw similar behaviour in other Google sites, so I guess if they fix that, they'll fix the others.

663

Living Room / Where's my TCP/IP?

« Last post by Lashiec on July 08, 2008, 10:04 AM »

During the past days, I've been having connection problems, suddenly the pages are inaccessible, IM is disconnected, and file transfers drop to 0. I swear these problems use a timetable, because during the afternoon, everything is rock solid, but at night or in the mornings, it's a nightmare. I have to punch my ISP, but first I want to fix this particular problem, and see if it's connected somehow.

The thing is that the other day, while I suffered one of the first disconnections, I went to see the status of the connection, and I encountered this:

I went like crazy, because clearly something was not right there. First, the entry for the TCP/IP protocol is nowhere to be found; second, the dialog is not showing which Ethernet port is providing the connection; third, I can't uncheck any of the entries (and I unchecked the first two when I installed Windows). I thought it was because of the disconnection, but no, it stays the same when things go back to normal. Clearly, there is a connection, otherwise I could not be posting this, and everything is working as usual.

I tried to install the protocol, but I get an error box: "Can't find the file". What file? There is no prompt to search for one, and putting the installation CD in the drive does not get me anywhere. I tried to configure the hardware from that dialog as well, but I can't solve anything like that. I searched Google, and there lots of results, but no solution, since everyone recommends what I've already tried (including resetting the TCP/IP protocol per this Microsoft article), and the people with these problems can't solve them after applying the fixes as well.

I can't remember the last time that dialog showed what it should, but I did not see anything wrong in the computer that might suggest something is at work (no viruses, trojans or anything similar). I wonder if maybe I broke something in the registry, or some tweak or change in the system caused this. Any ideas?

664

FARR Plugins and Aliases / Re: Updated plugin: FARR MostRecentlyUsed 0.3.0

« Last post by Lashiec on July 08, 2008, 09:40 AM »

Yep, it shows nothing.

665

FARR Plugins and Aliases / Re: Updated plugin: FARR MostRecentlyUsed 0.3.0

« Last post by Lashiec on July 08, 2008, 09:30 AM »

The new version does not show any item

666

Living Room / Re: Opera 9.5

« Last post by Lashiec on July 08, 2008, 09:26 AM »

I guess that might be because of installing over an older version. Upgrading from Opera 9.2x to Opera 9.5x has given many headaches to most users, so probably a fresh install will solve the problems.

667

Living Room / Re: Show us your (physical) desktop

« Last post by Lashiec on July 08, 2008, 09:04 AM »

Well, at least I have the consolation that my monitor is 80 pixels taller than mouser setup. And the desk has less dust as well

Errr, no, only the dust

668

General Software Discussion / Re: Opera: copy text WITH formatting

« Last post by Lashiec on July 07, 2008, 06:01 PM »

Incidentally, it seems that it does not work for every Opera user out there, from what I saw in the Opera forums, but until the Opera guys add the functionality (which although I don't use, in the 21st century it's expected to have it there), it's the closest thing. Although on closer inspection, it may be a different method.

Up next: A way to add full support for Roboform under Opera...

669

General Software Discussion / Re: Edit Middle 2: Firefox Addon for the AwesomeBar

« Last post by Lashiec on July 07, 2008, 05:13 PM »

CyberNet added the Edit Middle functionality to its CyberSearch extension. This way you'll get extra functionality instead of simply bugfixing Firefox

670

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox's Phishing Filter

« Last post by Lashiec on July 06, 2008, 10:30 AM »

Mmmm, are we sure that this is what Firefox 3 is doing right now? The sites you're linking to provide information about how the mechanism works in 2.x, not 3.x, and I don't see they were updated for the new version, maybe because the feature works in the same way in 3.x, or maybe because they're lazy to update it.

In any case, I think it's an acceptable compromise, the URL is only submitted when you encounter a phishing site, and frankly, in the case of these kind of pages, I don't see a privacy concern. It would be a good idea to submit only the domain, but the URL is also OK when it comes to this (mostly because phishing sites usually don't have anything else than a front page).

But there's a problem. The safe browsing feature was also expanded to include malware-infested sites, and perhaps not many people would be happy that Google knows about their ventures on warez and/or porn sites. While the current way safe browsing works is much better than the Google-backed option in Firefox 2.x (which meant your entire history was seen by Google), the explanation given by Google in the wiki (that again, could not be correct with 3.x) is at least nonexistent.

"We need to collect these information to improve our statistics". What's the ultimate outcome of this? In which way is Google using the information users are submitting to improve the service they're providing?

"You don't have to contribute any info to the service if you do not want", but from what I understand, this is unavoidable if you encounter a "bad" site, as it's performed automatically whatever option you choose, well, I guess if you close the tab nothing is submitted then.

While it's the typical Google behavior, perhaps the Mozilla team should try to provide the technical details over how everything works, at least for the sake of information, which would be beneficial to clear a bit my perception that maybe Google ways are getting too much presence in the Firefox project.

671

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: a-squared Anti-Malware 50% Discount

« Last post by Lashiec on July 06, 2008, 09:43 AM »

Hehe, you actually need that coupon to get the price cut. It does not work if you buy the app directly from Emsi Software site, though.

Have any idea as to whether better than SpyWare Doctor?

-BCHOWDHURY (July 06, 2008, 02:27 AM)

It's a decent antimalware program, though it does get too many false positives. I don't know if it's better than Spyware Doctor, as there is not enough money in the world to convince me to install such resource hog in the computer.

672

Living Room / Re: Firefox 3 annoyance: Keying-in disabled in file upload control

« Last post by Lashiec on July 04, 2008, 05:42 PM »

If it's the name of security, at least they could give some explanation of the real possibilities of taking advantage of a possible exploit, this is not the first time that the Mozilla team decides to alter features that come as defaults in the rest of the browsers without giving a proper explanation and/or (what's it's worse) documenting it. While it's nothing that the majority of the users are going to miss, but in a way they're going against stablished standards just for a perceived increase in security.

<insert rant of angry Opera users for removing file extensions in the cache for the new version and access to the shell, without a mention in the changelog>

Personaly, i really can't understand why they've done that, and seriously hope Opera doesn't choose to do the same :(

-jgpaiva (July 04, 2008, 11:36 AM)

Ssssh! Don't give ideas! ;)

673

General Software Discussion / Re: COMPLIMENT (!): RAPIDSHARE.COM

« Last post by Lashiec on July 04, 2008, 05:31 PM »

Now this is some readable captcha:

At first, I thought I were lucky, and was able to snag a drink slot during the lucky hour. Now the system relies only on waiting times, just like other sites out there. A big for them

674

Living Room / Re: Switching to Linux; how do you not flop back to the world of Windows??

« Last post by Lashiec on July 04, 2008, 05:23 PM »

And KDE is experiencing some technical and philosophical issues that are best avoided by anyone other than an experienced KDE user. Check out http://practical-tec...its-time-for-a-fork/  and http://arstechnica.c...snt-need-a-fork.html   to get a feel for what's going on with that.

-40hz (July 02, 2008, 10:07 PM)

Wow, I'm putting myself up to date in the KDE4 controversy, and the discussion went ugly real fast, the level of bitterness in some opinions is Vista-quality. And that's not counting direct personal attacks and incessant whining.

675

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox 3 Released

« Last post by Lashiec on July 04, 2008, 05:17 PM »

Sandbox it, or use a VM