Recent Posts

901

DC Gamer Club / Re: Microsoft Flight Simulator - Free!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 31, 2012, 11:09 AM »

For Orbiter sound you have to download and install the sound bits separately. Not sure why they did it that way.

Sounds works for me but I don't find the sound terribly inspiring - mainly just roaring noises of the engines.

902

Living Room / Re: I'm Going to Build a PC. Suggestions?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 31, 2012, 08:11 AM »

Given that 1920x1080 is the standard resolution for HD and screens of 60" show BluRay in all of its 'glory' I doubt there is much difference in crispness between a 21.5" and a 24" screen.

Or maybe it is just my eyesight!

903

Living Room / Re: Best USB/Bootable recovery and "utility" tools

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 31, 2012, 07:16 AM »

Anyone know of Vista and Windows 7 equivalent of "UBCD for Windows".

In particular I miss the registry tool for manually applying System Restore points when System Restore fails.

You can do also this manually from anything that accesses the hard disk in Windows XP but I haven't found a way of doing it Windows Vista or 7.

904

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Free & always will be, get Portable Virtual Operating System, Prayaya V3

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 31, 2012, 07:04 AM »

I suppose you could set up a 32-bit VM you want in VirtualBox or VMware and then use this to put it on a USB stick

905

Living Room / Re: I'm Going to Build a PC. Suggestions?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 31, 2012, 04:40 AM »

Works in Chrome here.

Personally I would find 21.1" a bit small these days (no 'double entendre' intended)

How about this one: http://www.globalcom...90492&CatId=4420 (24")

or a few dollars cheaper here: http://www.amazon.co...onitor/dp/B005BZNDS0 (lots of good reviews too)

906

General Software Discussion / Re: What is the good part of 1Password

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 29, 2012, 11:12 AM »

I didn't say 1Password isn't safe - just asked the question.

Actually people may worry about LastPass but almost all apps access the internet because generally apps we trust are allowed to traverse our Firewall and unless you do packet inspection it is very difficult to tell which ones are genuinely safe.

I retain my worries about DropBox - there has been enough coverage of that already!

907

Living Room / Re: What's Your Internet Speed/Reliability SATISFACTION?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 29, 2012, 06:37 AM »

Thoroughly pissed off ...

-Carol Haynes (October 19, 2011, 06:39 PM)

Update: Forgot to update this after three weeks of daily calls to a Mumbai call centre I finally got them to reprofile properly and am not getting about 7.2mbps.

Its interesting that I have been looking at others' speeds using the same ISP off the same exchange and whilst I am by far the furthest I have checked from the exchange I get consistently much faster speeds. One friend could hit the exchange with a rock out of his window and only gets 2mbps. Shows it pays to have the argument.

908

Living Room / Re: Encrypted DNS queries via OpenDNS dnscrypt for Windows / linux / BSD / iOS / OSX

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 29, 2012, 06:29 AM »

So because the DNS lookup is taken away from the ISP it makes it harder for them to block your surfing because they would have block IP addresses rather than block access to the domain name? Is that the point?

Surely ISPs that want to block sites can just use their own DNS server to setup IP blocking so it won't make it any easier to get to blocked sites - or are we relying on ISPs to be lazy?

909

Living Room / Re: I'm Going to Build a PC. Suggestions?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 29, 2012, 06:06 AM »

[Edit from above...] I was just about to edit my post when the annoying backup kicked in!

Sorry I didn't look at the attachment.

I'm still not sure I would go for 4+2+2 though. Buy the package and then flog the memory on eBay or Amazon and go for 4+4 Vengeance paired memory.

If you must go for that package you would be better with 2+2+2+2 or 4+4+2+2 - with two matched pairs appropriately installed.

When I built my system I went for 4+4+4+4 and really haven't regretted it.

910

Living Room / Re: I'm Going to Build a PC. Suggestions?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 29, 2012, 04:00 AM »

Why go for 4gB + 2x2Gb ?? Just go for a matched pair of 4Gb sticks from Crucial - any DDR3 RAM will do so go for the fastest you can find.

Alternative Crucial Vengeance is very good and comes with heat sinks (and when I looks wasn't appreciably different in price to Crucial).

If you go for 2 x 4Gb it is easy to add another matched pair later if you need to. I can't really see any rational for 4+2+2 other than it won't use the memory to its full potential as you won't have dual channel (except perhaps on the 2Gb sticks depending on how you arrange the memory).

Edit- see below: Personally I think the PSU/RAM bundle you mentioned is too cheap - you need a good quality PSU (poor/cheap PSU's are a major cause of intermittent headaches) and the best RAM you can find. Never had any problems with Corsair or Crucial memory.

Re. sound card: Most motherboards come with reasonably decent sound built in (usually 5.1 or 7.1 surround if you want that). With a system with bit of power it should be more than adequate for most purposes. It is easy to add a sound card at a later date if you feel you need to but I would certainly see what the onboard sound is like first.

If you do what a sound card I have found the Creative XFi range to be pretty decent for the price. The only issue is that they drivers can be annoying to install (once installed they have been fine but it took me a while to figure out why they weren't installing correctly - but then Windows was new then and I suspect the software will be more stable now).

911

General Software Discussion / Re: What is the good part of 1Password

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 29, 2012, 03:40 AM »

But slighting the other software's security when I know its encrypted on my computer with a private key that they don't have seems a bit backhanded... /shrugs

-wraith808 (March 28, 2012, 08:15 AM)

Not sure I understand that comment? I didn't say anything about 1Password since I have never used it (or made any other password manager except RoboForm - a company I now despise and wouldn't trust at all).

My recommendation for LastPass (at least worth a look) was based on the poster's original comments:

I also find 1Password has  a windows version. I installed it and find it is very basic.
...
So My question is: Why so many people like 1password? Because it is the only nice password management software in Mac? In windows platform, is 1Password worth the money?

-rail4you (March 26, 2012, 07:12 PM)

I was offering LastPAss as a viable alternative and you just seemed to want to rubbish it with comments that weren't, in my opinion, actually valid - such as:

• 'LastPass has access to all your passwords' - they don't
• 'Encytion doesn't take place on your computer' - it does
• 'It doesn't work offline' - it does

I was just trying to set the record straight.

I also think that because of their hacker scare (where no user data was actually hacked as far as we know) they have really upped their game on security way beyond most, if not all, of the other password managers. The fact the the multifactor security means that you can tell your account not to allow access from unknown computers with fairly complex verification and there are also two methods of requiring a physical device to be present (YubiKey or USB with Sesame software) makes it a much more secure system that any other system I have tried - and I have tried most of the free and paid offerings (except 1Password).

912

Living Room / Re: Encrypted DNS queries via OpenDNS dnscrypt for Windows / linux / BSD / iOS / OSX

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 28, 2012, 04:46 PM »

How does this actually work then?

So you use OpenDNS-Secure to look up a website IP but when you visit the website the IP address you are going to is still clear??? Surely anyone who wants to can just do a reverse look up to find where you were going (or if is is your ISP reporting back to Big Brother lust look up the IP at their own DNS server!!!)

Am I missing the point?

Or is OpenDNS acting as an Anonymizer type service and all the traffic goes through there server so your ISP only sees you going to OpenDNS ???

Can someone explain?

913

Living Room / Re: Windows 8 is just a Service/crapware pack for Windows 7

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 28, 2012, 06:57 AM »

Balancing article on ZDNet:



Full article

Not sure I agree with him (and ZDNet do seem to be MS apologists these days).

914

Living Room / Re: Windows 8 is just a Service/crapware pack for Windows 7

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 28, 2012, 03:20 AM »

Pursuant to another thread can we bring this back on topic please 

915

General Software Discussion / Re: What is the good part of 1Password

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 28, 2012, 03:14 AM »

Does 1Password have lifetime licensing or do you have to buy upgrades regularly? In which case $12 a year doesn't seem so much.

On the Lastpass front, they *have* to be able to decrypt them somehow... or how can you access it from the web?  Hmm?

From the lastpass website (my emphasis):

SECURE YOUR DATA - Protect against identity theft! Your sensitive data is encrypted on your PC. Only your LastPass password can unlock your data and only YOU have it.

The security is apparently done by public/private keys. Presumably similar to secure webpages. So latspass never sees your data on their servers because it is not there in unencrypted format.

As far as I can tell you can also use LastPass locally - they even suggest you can use it on mobile devices in Airplane mode. Data is stored (in encrypted format) on your computer and if there is no internet access you can use the local cache. I assume you could, if you want, use your firewall to block LastPAss from accessing the network/internet and only use the local copy. You can also export that data for use on another computer (which would need to be authenticated - just do that before importing the data and blocking access).

If you want to see details of mutltifactor security see: https://lastpass.com...rt.php?lpnorefresh=1 (4th section middle column).

Even if you do store your data online and someone does access their server they would have to crack the encryption method separately for every single user account to get at your personal data because it isn't just password protection (the password is used with a private key to generate your LastPass private key, but it isn't the private key itself).

916

General Software Discussion / Re: What is the good part of 1Password

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 27, 2012, 07:45 PM »

LastPass can fill applications - you use the LastPass application desktop client app!

917

Living Room / Re: I'm Going to Build a PC. Suggestions?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 27, 2012, 06:59 PM »

And I have added a few edits above ...

918

Living Room / Re: I'm Going to Build a PC. Suggestions?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 27, 2012, 06:49 PM »

You don't really need the USB card - there will be quite a few USB sockets on the motherboard.

I haven't looked at the case you suggested but I would guess that will have front panel audio and USB connectors (they have cables with header to plug direct to the motherboard)

If you want an alternative case this one is truly excellent:

http://store.antec.c...-761345-45003-4.aspx

My preference for a PSU would be Corsair - I have built a few systems using their PSUs now and they are beautifully built and come with a 3 year warranty. Here is one around the same price mark but 600W:

http://www.amazon.co...00CXV2/dp/B004W2T2UQ

Personally if I was building a system now I would go for Core i7 if you can squeeze it into the budget.

Have a look at some of these motherboards:

http://www.gigabyte....d=0&p=2&v=28

(I really like Gigabyte boards - well made and they use ultra durable capacitors - I have been burned on other boards before!)

How about :

http://www.amazon.co...rboard/dp/B0064Z6Y9G
(full details here: http://www.gigabyte....age.aspx?pid=4049#ov)

and

http://www.amazon.co...cessor/dp/B004EBUXSA

I know they are a bit more expensive. (You may find them cheaper elsewhere)

What do other people think?


You may also want to think of a non-stock CPU cooler. The Antec case I mentioned above is big enough to take one of these beasts:

http://www.amazon.co...earing/dp/B00631QFG8

(be warned they are shockingly large and you need to check it will fit on your motherboard - note this particular one is for Core i7 processors only)

They are a brilliant cooling solution and very quiet.

You didn't have a graphics card listed on you shopping list. How about:

http://www.amazon.co...aphics/dp/B005C8RTTU

This is the one I bought recently and I have found it to be brilliant - plus if you fancy expanding later it supports up to 3 displays (either as standard extended displays or one humongous EyeInfintiy display - great for gaming!!)

(I only used Amazon as a quick catalogue - you can probably find things cheaper on other sites. Not being in the US I don't know the best places to look. Having said that you can't knock Amazon's support and returns policy and their prices are usually pretty competitive.)

919

Living Room / Re: Windows 8 is just a Service/crapware pack for Windows 7

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 27, 2012, 05:08 PM »

That's an interesting approach actually. Just turn Metro into a launchpad for real (virtual) operating systems!

920

General Software Discussion / Re: What is the good part of 1Password

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 27, 2012, 05:07 PM »

LastPass passwords are encrypted ON YOUR OWN COMPUTER - unless someone at LastPass is really telling huge, enormous, self-destructive lies.

Any of these password managers have access to your passwords and access to the internet.

The only way to remove risk/paranoia from the internet is to pull the plug on your computer and never go online.

Who is to say 1Password is safe - and you use DropBox to sync (!!!!) - my God that makes LastPass look like Fort Knox!

921

General Software Discussion / Re: What is the good part of 1Password

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 27, 2012, 10:53 AM »

LastPass now have pretty strong security measures and from what I can tell the 'hacking incident' didn't compromise anybody's passwords. The security is multilayered and can include authorising machines before allowing access to your data via a handy grid system (I carry mine with me in my purse - it wouldn't matter if I lose it because anyone finding it would have to have my other security details first and I can quickly generate a new random grid).

You can also add a phsical key (Ubikey) that has to be present on the system before you can use it).

You can also use it offline with a local password store if you want.

With a $12 a year subscription, LastPass is also available on mobile devices (I use it on my Blackberry) and you can use it for storing passwords for apps that require credentials to use them. I haven't tried it but it is almost certainly possible to store serial codes etc. for future installations too. There is also a portable version (with 0 install footprint).

LastPass also has the advantage that your passwords are available when you are away from your computer through any standard browser so if you are away and your device gets damaged, stolen or develops a fault you can still access your passwords.

I took some convincing with LastPass after RoboForm killed lifetime upgrades but now I have been using it for a while I really like it.

922

General Software Discussion / Re: What is the good part of 1Password

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 27, 2012, 09:03 AM »

LastPass is cross platform and seems to work in most common broswers (including Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Safari) plus it is free.

923

Living Room / Re: Kazakhstan's glorious anthem mishap

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 26, 2012, 02:13 PM »

I love the idea that the 'downloaded the wrong anthem from the internet'.

When do the copyright police arrive?

924

Living Room / Re: Windows 8 is just a Service/crapware pack for Windows 7

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 26, 2012, 07:56 AM »

Server Editions are a lot of money too ...

925

Living Room / Re: I'm Going to Build a PC. Suggestions?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 26, 2012, 07:55 AM »

Looks like a good spec - but I would go for a Core i7 CPU/motherboard if you can squeeze that into the cost.