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8051

Developer's Corner / Re: Creating Vista Ready Applications with Delphi (and C++ Builder)

« Last post by f0dder on October 19, 2006, 05:31 PM »

Is this "how to use some custom control and have your app look like vista even though it isn't really using the new APIs, but it will look like vista on other windows versions too, COOL!" kind of thing?

Skimming through the article, I hate Vista just a little bit more than I already did

8052

Living Room / Re: Buying New PC. Suggestions?

« Last post by f0dder on October 19, 2006, 04:55 PM »

F0dder, I'm glad you finally see the light. Although sad to see it confirmed once again that this is how Dell is addressing its bottom line. I wonder how much they really make from these bundles...

-JavaJones (October 18, 2006, 09:09 PM)

Weird though - I've bought five or so other computers through them, and all those were pretty clean

8053

General Software Discussion / Re: The Vista "kernel access" controversy - what does DC think?

« Last post by f0dder on October 18, 2006, 07:41 PM »

Another point of concern:

With late model Pentium4 and AMD64 machines, Virtualization stuff was introduced (pacifica and whatever other codenames). This can be abused by malware, so basically OSes need to be updated to be eiter hypervisor-based, or to turn off the feature (which can't be software-enabled without a CPU reset - nice thinking from intel and AMD ).

Problem is? Well, I dunno how big a company you need to be or how much cash you need... but it takes something to be able to use HyperVisor technology under Vista. Quite affordable for VMWare I bet, but for smaller developers? Not likely. And again, malware authors won't care about licensing. Of couse breaking a hypervised machine is supposed to be difficult, but it will be doable in one way or another.

8054

Living Room / Re: Buying New PC. Suggestions?

« Last post by f0dder on October 18, 2006, 06:30 PM »

Interesting, thanks for the link dk70! - bookmarked.

I still think I'd prefer doing a *clean* install, to make absolutely sure every bloody last trace of all that crapware is gone

8055

Living Room / Re: Buying New PC. Suggestions?

« Last post by f0dder on October 18, 2006, 05:30 PM »

Okay, I take back my kinds words for Dell.

The boxes I've had so far from them didn't really have any extra fluff on them, and worked great. The most recent box I got for the museum though, while working great, had an insane amount of trial crap installed; corel paint shop pro, roxio software, mcafee antivirus suite and whatnot. And darn it was quirky getting rid of mcafee!

I think I'll go as far as installing a clean XP Pro on it, just hope the included license key will work for a non-dell CD...

(and yes, this was a business line box, not a home-user one).

8056

General Software Discussion / Re: The Vista "kernel access" controversy - what does DC think?

« Last post by f0dder on October 18, 2006, 05:27 PM »

On this system, Kaspersky has around 37 kernel hooks, and daemon-tools 3.47 has two (could be more, if it hooked some functions which kaspersky subsequently re-hooked). Kernel hooks are one of the things Microsoft is stoping (or trying to stop - the bad guys will always find a workaround) with Vista. Check http://www.resplendence.com/hookanalyzer .

Stopping unsigned drivers is also bad, imho. As I already mentioned, legitimate programs like some sysinternals software (regmon, filemon) need drivers to work. By only allowing signed drivers, Microsoft makes sure only companies that has a whole bunch of cash and a relatively high profile will be able to do drivers... no more sysinternals-like startups. And again, the malware authors will find a way around this.

8057

General Software Discussion / Re: The Vista "kernel access" controversy - what does DC think?

« Last post by f0dder on October 18, 2006, 03:24 PM »

There's two levels to this.

One is allowing unsigned drivers - which is bad enough; several of sysinternals tools need drivers to run, and the malware authors will find ways to bypass this anyway.

The next level is the "patchguard" system or whatever it's called, which will hang the system if certain kernel mode structures are modified. Yes, malware tends to modify these structures, but so does antivirus and firewall software, and stuff like sysinternals filemon/regmon.

Obviously the bad guys will, once again, find a way to bypass patchguard, while legitimate users will be hurt.

Abandon ship, abandon ship...

8058

Living Room / Re: MouserMon - a silly tool that lets you know when the Boss is/not on the forum

« Last post by f0dder on October 18, 2006, 11:51 AM »

Bwaha

great little idea

8059

fSekrit / Re: Beta: fSekrit 1.3 beta thread

« Last post by f0dder on October 18, 2006, 11:49 AM »

Not bad, allen - when are you popping by Denmark? . I'd fancy a bit of Absinth as well, if you don't mind

8060

Living Room / Re: (Defend the) Final Fortress - Flash Game of the Day

« Last post by f0dder on October 18, 2006, 11:48 AM »

Argh >_<

But yeah. Those di... cannons worked very well

8061

Living Room / Re: Forum Discrimination....

« Last post by f0dder on October 18, 2006, 06:37 AM »

I guess it depends on the forum... if that happened here, it would probably be because the moderators simply didn't see your thread . But yeah, on most forums there will be a tendency to favour the "regulars", in varying degrees, and depending on the topic at hand...

8062

Living Room / Re: An alternative view on VISTA activation and WGA ...

« Last post by f0dder on October 18, 2006, 05:17 AM »

Sounds cute...

8063

General Software Discussion / Re: Cool Open Source file-sharing app: HTTP File Server (HFS)

« Last post by f0dder on October 18, 2006, 05:03 AM »

herbiman: my mum is still on 2048/512 TDC, and while it's one of the more stable ISPs, their support SUCKS when it's more advanced questions (like: "ok, WHY did you change our static IP when we got speed boosted, and wtf can't we get it back?"). They're a bit more competent if you have one of their business lines, but well...

I've moved to CyberCity SOLO, 350DKK/month for the 4096/512 line (which should only be 256 up, but I'm not complaining ). You lose all tech support, except if there's something wrong with the line or the router. But you can't call them for help on configuring stuff etc. Stability seems as good as TDC, it's certainly cheaper, and I do get the advertised speed.

Fibre in the Århus and Horsens regions is around 400/month for 10/10, cheaper for 1/1. In Silkeborg, it's insanely expensive... depends on the energy company as well the fibre provider.

8064

Living Room / Re: A whole new world...

« Last post by f0dder on October 18, 2006, 02:10 AM »

Well, to quote a friend from IRC:

<c> oh god no
<c> not a duet
<c> haha peter andre
<c> even his own country hates him

8065

Living Room / A whole new world...

« Last post by f0dder on October 18, 2006, 02:01 AM »

of pain. And horror. And tearing your ears off.

It's the last thing anyone could want for Christmas.

http://www.news.com....0041-5006002,00.html

8066

General Software Discussion / Re: Cool Open Source file-sharing app: HTTP File Server (HFS)

« Last post by f0dder on October 18, 2006, 01:42 AM »

jgpaiva: kbit or kbyte? If it's kbit, then christ >_<. I wish it was easier to get fiber when you live in an appartment block... as it is now, we'd have to get everybody in the block interested, AND our landlord. But it'd be nice...

Currently we give EUR47/month for 4096/512. Switching to a fiber company would mean paying EUR54/month for 10/10, and probably somewhat better ping time too (though it's not too shabby on the ADSL).

8067

General Software Discussion / Re: Cool Open Source file-sharing app: HTTP File Server (HFS)

« Last post by f0dder on October 17, 2006, 05:24 PM »

I don't know what it's like where you are fodder, (suprise!) but where i live you pay a tarrif for say 256kbps upload,, more for 512kbp, more for 1mb and so on up the scale. (Banding?) Download works the same way.

For ADSL here in .dk, it's the upstream that's (insanely) expensive. Typically the rates are like 8092/512, 4096/256, 512/128... for some reason I got 4096/512 though I was supposed to have 256, but I'm not complaining unless the bill is higher

I was really referring to the fact that some ISPs just block port 80 (HSF default) -- but it works for any port.

Haven't seen that - but most block incoming SMTP (some of them offering workarounds with some pointing back and forth between yours and their servers... still allowing you to run a SMTP server, but removing the possibility for open-relay exploiting).

I've heard that, in other countries, it's becoming common to throttle torrent traffic.

rejetto: Nice to see you here! Sounds good that uPNP is on the way, it makes things SO much easier for the novice users, and still easier for the power users (certainly a lot faster than entering router password, configuring, saving, ...). By the way, I've heard rumours that Microsoft's uPNP API doesn't always work properly, and the author of µTorrent told me he wrote his own code - just something to keep in mind / research before you spend time on the quirky MS API.

8068

Living Room / Re: Windows Vista Pronunciation

« Last post by f0dder on October 17, 2006, 05:18 PM »

I pronounce Vista "shit"

8069

Living Room / Re: (Defend the) Final Fortress - Flash Game of the Day

« Last post by f0dder on October 17, 2006, 05:13 PM »

freudian shit >_<

8070

General Software Discussion / Re: Cool Open Source file-sharing app: HTTP File Server (HFS)

« Last post by f0dder on October 17, 2006, 09:08 AM »

HFS works with most download managers, including Flashget, so resuming downloads isn't a problem.

-herbiman (October 17, 2006, 06:53 AM)

This does require the downloader to install a download manager though - he might as well have installed a torrent client then . But for hassle-free downloads for non-techy users, HFS does seem like a great solution.

I'm a great Torrent fan too, but HFS is quite fast -- it depends what you pay for at yor ISP. I get upload speeds around 200 kbs if i don't run eg Torrent at the same time.

There's actually a pretty good point there - some stupid ISPs throttle torrent traffic. Some do it for default ports, some do it at protocol level, some do heuristics (hm, 500 clients trying to connect to this port, it must be torrent traffic, throttle). I don't think there's (m)any that throttle regular HTTP traffic though?

EDIT: haven't checked out HFS yet and probably won't have time to do so before work, but if it has uPNP support and can show you your external IP without requiring you to go to one of those ad-festered sites, it would be really great for letting non-techy users share files.

8071

General Software Discussion / Re: Cool Open Source file-sharing app: HTTP File Server (HFS)

« Last post by f0dder on October 17, 2006, 05:55 AM »

That kind of stuff is really great when you just need to share a few not-insanely-large files (like my younger brother with his weird home-made music ). It's also okayish even for larger stuff, but then the downloader should preferably use something like flashget to grab - or at least something with resume and a bit more solid than internet explorer...

For larger stuff, I prefer the torrent protocol. Even if there will only be one "seeder" (ie, you're a file sending directly to a friend), the per-piece hashing and retransmit on error makes it worthwhile. And with µTorrent with it's built-in tracker and .torrent file creator, it's easy-peasy as well

8072

fSekrit / Re: Beta: fSekrit 1.3 beta thread

« Last post by f0dder on October 17, 2006, 05:49 AM »

Carol, if you write in hex it's just 32 - no big deal

8073

fSekrit / Re: Beta: fSekrit 1.3 beta thread

« Last post by f0dder on October 17, 2006, 04:40 AM »

Thanks, people

And not, it certainly wasn't depressing... got powdered in cinnamon (seems to be a Danish-only tradition?) since I'm now 25 and not married. A friend got so drunk he passed out and pissed our sofa, finally giving us the last excuse to toss that 15-year-old piece of junk and buy a new one. And a friend who studies physics showed up pretty drunk already wielding two coffee cans full of liquid nitrogen. So not depressing at all, rather much a barrel of fun

8074

General Software Discussion / Re: 12 Windows Explorer Alternatives Compared

« Last post by f0dder on October 17, 2006, 04:36 AM »

vegas: back when xPlorer^2 was 2xExplorer, the author stated that he wouldn't do a single-pane version... but lo and behold, with xPlorer^2 I can toggle dual-pane with ctrl+o. Extremely useful feature, glad he saw the light!

8075

Living Room / Re: Vista licensing - will it kill enthusiasts interest ?

« Last post by f0dder on October 17, 2006, 04:11 AM »

You are almost guaranteed to have to reactivate XP if you change a netowrk card (because of the number of points awarded to a network card).

-Carol Haynes (October 17, 2006, 03:53 AM)

Most NICs are onboard these days, so most people won't be changing NICs... but if you change your motherboard, oh boy... that would be a NIC (or two!), integrated sound, possibly integrated video, and the motherboard as well.

The major difference to me is that in Windows XP if you need to reactivate you get no questions asked if it has been 90 days since you last activated - and that to me seems to be a sensible compromise.

-Carol Haynes (October 17, 2006, 03:53 AM)

Almost sensible - but if you're forced to do a two-step upgraded because of your monetary situation, it might be mobo+cpu with one paycheck, then graphics card with the next. 3 months inbetween? Not necessarily.

Seems like Microsoft is doing all they can to alienate users.