Recent Posts

651

General Software Discussion / Re: Password Protect File Or Folder?

« Last post by steeladept on February 21, 2009, 01:47 AM »

TrueCrypte is the most popular freeware but it's not exactly secure but most users consider it secure enough.

-Paul Keith (February 20, 2009, 09:22 PM)

I am no expert, Paul, but I thought TrueCrypt was as secure as any consumer/enterprise security system available (note I am specifically excluding governments as they *MAY* have more secure algorithms).  Why do you say it is not exactly secure?

Also, I can say from my experience that TrueCrypt is quite stable.  The only time I ever had ANY issue with it dealt with entering a wrong password because I didn't realize I was adding non-printing characters somehow. (Actually I know how - NEVER copy and paste your password into it!)  Once I passed that minor issue, it has worked flawlessly.  Well provided access flawlessly.  I sometimes have issues with the mounting of favorite partitions not working as smoothly as I think it should, but this has nothing to do with accessing it - only with accessing several mounts at once.

652

Living Room / Pixelshock Tower Defense

« Last post by steeladept on February 18, 2009, 08:12 PM »

Here is another decent Tower Defense game for you mouser  (and everyone else, of course).  It isn't terribly difficult but they do have a few twists that are interesting.  I haven't tried them all out, but the multipath ones are rather fun.  Gates is an interesting, but ultimately boring (to me) alternative.  I am looking forward to trying Maze, but haven't got that far yet.  You can give it a shot here:

http://www.games.pixelshocks.com/tower2/

[attachthumb=#1][/attachthumb]

EDIT:  Okay, having issues with the expanding thumbnail.  Sure, now it works.

653

General Software Discussion / Re: Creating a partition on an external HD for an encrypted Volume

« Last post by steeladept on February 18, 2009, 11:31 AM »

Not to beat a dead horse or anything, right fodder 

However, he does have the right of it.  If your drive is D: formatted as FAT32 and you want to move to NTFS, just use the convert tool.  You already have it and it converts everything to NTFS without destroying your data.  If you do need your FAT32 partition (for whatever reason, though I can't think of any unless you still use Win9x), then you should look at the multiple partitions talked about by others.

As for my earlier post, the fact that it has a 300GB HD instead of USB stick is irrelevant (even though I did misread that part of it).  Truecrypt doesn't care about the media type.  As long as it runs on the media and has some location for storage that it can address, it will work.  My little script just runs against Truecrypt, so it will likewise function.

654

Living Room / Re: Crazy brits crossing railroads

« Last post by steeladept on February 14, 2009, 03:05 AM »

I know one girl who died from something like this.  Except in her case there was two trains and no guard rails.  She was waiting on her bicicle for the train to pass and when it finished she started to cross.  Just then a second train came the other way on the other tracks, shielded from her view by the train she waited for.  Needless to say it was not open casket...

With thoughts like this, it amazes me that people just casually and intentionally ignore the safety signs available like that!

655

Living Room / Re: Please tallk me off the ledge... Intervention needed!

« Last post by steeladept on February 14, 2009, 02:54 AM »

I have seen that before with a couple of HP laptops we had when I was doing deskside support.  Usually they are just little voids or other manufacturing defects in the cast aluminum.  Occasionally, with enough use/abuse, they just break.  For us, it was a simple call to HP since we have the support contracts for it.  If you can find the piece, it is REALLY easy to replace.  The hard part is getting the piece and at a reasonable price.  It looks like your laptop may be an HP/Compaq?  If so, be sure you get the correct side.  Those hinges (at least on our laptops) are not interchangeable from side to side.

Also, another note on image shack - proxies.  Our proxy blocks the site even if I wanted to allow access to it...not that I would ever look at this site during work hours, No, not that....

656

General Software Discussion / Re: Creating a partition on an external HD for an encrypted Volume

« Last post by steeladept on February 03, 2009, 11:48 AM »

Or you could just reformat the USB stick to NTFS natively.  It is just like formatting a hard drive, but you just target the Stick instead.  Another alternative that I use (though I use it on an NTFS formatted USB stick) is to create multiple Truecrypt containers.  Each container can be a different partition or just a file in the partition.  You can then use TrueCrypt to mount the files as favorites.  Lastly you can even make the containers have a single password and use a script to pass that password to each file.  I wrote one like that already that is quite useful.

657

General Software Discussion / Re: copy paste between 2 computers on separate networks?

« Last post by steeladept on January 29, 2009, 03:26 PM »

Hi,
Maybe try this paying online service https://secure.logmein.com/ (there is a 15 days trial ). I use the free version (no transfert possible with it - you can maybe send to yourself an email with the documents attached... or use web service like yousendit.com ...)

-jity2 (January 29, 2009, 08:37 AM)

If you are even considering this, then you might want to look at crossloop which is about the same thing.  Of course what these really are is just VNC preset to use as a sight-hosted service instead of you setting up the connections manually, but it works fairly well at any rate.

658

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

« Last post by steeladept on January 29, 2009, 03:06 PM »

I am a big fan of DBAN  , however, if you want something slightly less destructive through inadvertent use, you can always boot to linux from cd (note this is different than a liveCD), and then use the dd command.  That way it doesn't start automatically from just a button press.

659

N.A.N.Y. 2009 / Re: NANY 2009 Release: LifeSaver diary

« Last post by steeladept on January 26, 2009, 08:29 PM »

Okay, I really like this, but I find myself not using it nearly as much as I thought I would, mostly because my girls (ages 3 & 1) are taking more and more of my time and I am on the laptop less and less.  What might be useful to me though is if you actually did target the WindowsMobile platform as you mentioned.  If that is reasonably simple, perhaps I can test it out for you? 

660

General Software Discussion / Re: RedHat Linux: Fedora 9

« Last post by steeladept on January 23, 2009, 10:16 AM »

I honestly don't know why these various groups can't just decide on a good way to describe these different systems!  That said, in Fedora's case, they mean the i386 to be a Wintel compatible 32 bit OS.  The x86_64 is the 64 bit Wintel.  I think they used this notation because so many people write 64 bit as AMD_64 which (I guess) specifies the AMD 64 bit extensions as well as the 32 bit core.  AFAIK AMD64 and Intel64 are completely compatible when it comes to most 64 bit client OS's.

With that explaination, unless you want to use a 64 bit OS and have a 64 bit processor, I strongly suggest the i386 version.  As for the live CD option, that is not a bad way to go so you can see how it works.  If you like it, *most* live CD's have an installer right on the desktop that you can then use to permanently install the system on your hard drive.  With what you already have, that may or may not be an issue.

661

Developer's Corner / Re: Tool to convert HTML pages website into a secure EXE

« Last post by steeladept on January 16, 2009, 12:38 PM »

I could go to a book store and buy a paperback or hardcover book dirt cheap off the clearance table, take it home, read it, and then loan it to a friend who reads it and returns it to me. And I can keep loaning it out until every friend & family member I have has read it.

I can then take that book and sell it on EBay (possibly for more than I paid for it, and thereby making a profit on it) and the buyer of the book can do the same, loaning it to all his friends & family, and then either sell it like I did or donate the book to a library where 1000's more people get to borrow and read it...all without the original author, publisher, or distributor receiving any additional compensation beyond the original discounted purchase price I paid when I bought the book at the book store...AND THAT IS LEGAL.

What I don't understand as a consumer is how anyone can possibly think it's fair to stop me from doing the same with a digital product I have purchased. Why can I not give it away after I have read it or listened to it, like I can with a physical copy? Why are my rights to pass it on when I am finished, or loan it out, or sell it, or donate it to a library, being trampled upon? Why has there not been a way for people to be able to do this, built into any existing DRM scheme yet?

-app103 (January 16, 2009, 11:02 AM)

April, I am sure you already know the answer to this, but for the benefit of readers, I will give you the simple answer.  The reason is because your distribution to others deprives you of the benefit of the book; whereas doing so digitally does not.  It is not difficult, even with copy prevention, to spawn another copy that others can use while you still reap the benefits.  Until respawning and distribution can be prevented, you will never have the same rights to digital media as you do for physical media.
 

662

DcUpdater / Re: DcUpdater Feature Requests

« Last post by steeladept on January 15, 2009, 05:21 PM »

It is funny.  I had to reinstall a hard drive, and found many things I would like to see out of this updater, yet when I got here, it looks like Deo got them all covered.  Just as a bump and second, I want to point out in particular:

4) Room for a real, detailed description of the application. Maybe when it is clicked it expands a bit, kind of like Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel. Along with this, information about the changes in the latest version.

5) A way to filter/sort applications by website, author, or something along those lines. It would be neat to be able to expand or collapse sections for Mouser's Software, Skrommel's 1-Hour Software, etc. This should also be available in the "Available for Installation" tab.

I would also like to add that it would be nice to select several and install all at once for these supposedly infrequent, but never the less common, occurrences.  Okay, in retrospect, I see this may be the last part of part 5, but I just wanted to make this request explicit.

663

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2007 / Re: Mark Forster seeking beta testers for Autofocus

« Last post by steeladept on January 14, 2009, 11:11 AM »

I am not a GOE participant, but this did intrigue me as I said earlier.  I have been trying it out and I will stick with what I have been saying.  His site is horrible.  Finding information or sharing it is cumbersome at best.  That is the bad news.

The good news, for me, is that his system seems to be working reasonably well.  It doesn't hurt that this is a formalized method VERY similar to how I organize my life anyway.  The big difference I have seen is 1) I can't use it for scheduled items - the very nature is rather freeform.  This isn't a big deal, because scheduled items are rarely issues anyway.  2) It puts everything on paper so I don't forget or dismiss items without consideration first.  Previously, if I wrote it down, it was in a calandar and would be missed if I didn't get to the date.  Todo lists never worked for me in the traditional sense, because the only time I would use them is when I wanted to enter something I didn't want to forget.  You need to look at it at other times too  . Not that I am much better with this system, but since I am giving it a fair shot, I have been pretty good about it.  We will see if I stick with it.

As for the system itself, do not feel as if you can't try it out.  Mark Forster is still having an open beta on it - in fact over 500 new participants have joined since it started.  Thanks, longrun, for the heads-up.

664

General Software Discussion / Re: Large Text File Viewer

« Last post by steeladept on January 12, 2009, 05:20 AM »

Maybe I am missing something, but what (apart from log files that aren't really managed) would ever be in such a large text file?  I mean that is larger that our entire library if it is only text data!

If it is for logs, maybe it is just me, but shouldn't they get cut off at certain points regularly anyway?  Say every month, or every day, or whatever?  That way you can organize them if you need to keep them that long?  I realize I may just be being naive, but I really do want to know since so many people make a big deal about this capability.

Inquiring minds....

665

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for random map generator.

« Last post by steeladept on January 12, 2009, 03:51 AM »

May be a little late here, but I was just looking at the various proposals, and while I only started, I must say for your plans, something like primap MapCreator 2.0 personal might be very useful - especially if you just take a cut of any part of the world as shown, export it to one of the formats, then run it through some sort of picture distortion software.  That would allow you to start with all the terrain features from any given part of the world and change them semi-randomly so it doesn't look like our world as we know it at all.  Just a thought.

666

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Relog

« Last post by steeladept on January 05, 2009, 08:09 PM »

I would have to double check (I can do so at work tonight), but I thought you could use TweakUI to login on logoff as well.  As I recall, it isn't very difficult even by registry settings - as long as you know which two or three settings to chage.  I suppose regshot and TweakUI may be able to tell us that if I can get TweakUI to do what you want.

667

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2007 / Re: Mark Forster seeking beta testers for Autofocus

« Last post by steeladept on January 05, 2009, 08:16 AM »

Hate the site, but I eventually found out enough about it to be intrigued.  I have NEVER went in on the whole Time Management thing - it never made sense to me.  I don't know the details about the Autofocus system, but his points to the issues with existing systems resonated with me so strongly that I have to learn more about it.  Thanks for the heads up.

668

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Relog

« Last post by steeladept on January 05, 2009, 07:46 AM »

Maybe I don't quite get the details you are looking for, but I believe TweakUI can do this (of course MS didn't make one for Vista - there is a pay version called TweakVI though).  We use it at work on kiosk machines in case someone logs off or shutsdown - it automatically restarts and logs in to the kiosk user account.

Edit:  As a clarification, the pay version is by a third party and they do have a free version.  However, the free version does not appear capable of this and the premium (for pay) version appears to have the capability you are after.

Of course you could always search key by key through the entire registry and learn how to set these yourself...

669

Post New Requests Here / Re: Wish list program

« Last post by steeladept on January 04, 2009, 07:47 AM »

Just a quick FYI -

The tooltip on the New button is not working.  It does on the other buttons, however.

670

Post New Requests Here / Re: Wish list program

« Last post by steeladept on January 04, 2009, 07:43 AM »

Man, and the only thing I had was to up the priority from 3 to 5 possible selections...

Great suggestions Kamel and awesome work (again) Codebyte...

Now I have to download again

671

Post New Requests Here / Re: Wish list program

« Last post by steeladept on December 31, 2008, 06:46 PM »

That is awesome Codebyte.  I didn't even think of needing something as straightforward as this and yet it looks VERY useful.

672

Living Room / Re: What does it mean when unplugging the computer makes it forget the bios date?

« Last post by steeladept on December 24, 2008, 02:46 PM »

Yes, typically that means a dead battery - though I suppose Chris could be right too.

673

Living Room / Re: Christmas Gift Ideas Under $25... Make a List!

« Last post by steeladept on December 24, 2008, 02:42 PM »

My wife has read that series several times.  Now she has me hooked on them.  Grr...

674

Living Room / Re: Please help me build my new computer, DC!

« Last post by steeladept on December 24, 2008, 01:13 PM »

I agree with Lashiec on the CPU.

As for the AllInWonder, I recall that now.  Thanks Carol.  I suppose I should have looked.  I had heard they were not all that great, but all the people I had talked to that got them had no problems and loved them.  Of course they were IT/Engineering students at school, but I had hoped they worked out those issues or killed the line.  I guess neither is the case though.

Wow, those new Matrox cards really HAVE jumped in price!  Again, I haven't priced them in about 3 years.  The G450's go for under $100 though (roughly equivalent to an NVidia 6800 series or ATI 9800 series), and their next one up (550) goes for under $150.  You can even get the P690 for around $200.  However, if you want any of their latest and greatest, you are right the prices get up there ridiculous fast.  That said, I would not be surprised to find NVidia AND ATI offerings that are equivalent or better at lower prices.

Edited for clarity and to correct a typo or two.

675

Developer's Corner / Re: The All Day Coding Dojo

« Last post by steeladept on December 24, 2008, 12:50 PM »

I wonder if the concept could be expanded: let people finish projects or meet their goals instead of having them "do work".

-housetier (December 21, 2008, 06:54 PM)

Bah, what kind of IT system would that be?  Someone actually completing something?  Next thing you know you are going to be introducing Unicorn's and Dragons....