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FUNCTION RANDOM - All Things Technological On Your Mind

Started by Camazotz Automat, August 17, 2012, 04:04:35 AM


Quote from: Taaroa on May 31, 2017, 12:16:17 AM
That's NZ, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was common practice everywhere. In the last 12 months I had my ISP send me a new router while threatening to disconnect my services if I didn't start using it.
Yup, but I'm pretty sure Vodafone covers Australia too.  ;)
http://www.vodafone.com.au/network/coverage-checker
Mark down your settings, and flash the bastard to OpenWRT, DD-WRT, or Tomato. It'll negate the back-doors they've installed, and give you complete control over the router / modem. You might want to look into installing pfSense on your main system too.  ;)
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=pfsense

Here's an advanced pfSense tutorial for a specific setup:
https://nguvu.org/pfsense/pfsense-2.3-setup/

But here is the documentation:
https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Tutorials

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

A bit harder to set up, but offers different options (OpenWRT)
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/what-is-openwrt-and-why-should-i-use-it-for-my-router/
And LEDE
https://lede-project.org/ Embeded OS for the router

or Tomato:
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/what-is-openwrt-and-why-should-i-use-it-for-my-router/

Comparison:  http://vpnpick.com/dd-wrt-vs-tomato-vs-open-wrt/

Oh, and change your DNS. ;) No need to let your ISP filter what you can and cannot see. OpenDNS is safe to start with, until you do some research on other DNS providers.
https://www.opendns.com/setupguide/

If you're a tech geek, set up your own DNS caching proxy. It really speeds things up, just make sure to lock it down. ;)
Here's an old, but excellent tutorial. (Of course you have to adjust the commands for your distro, but this gives you the general gist of it.
https://embraceubuntu.com/2006/08/02/local-dns-cache-for-faster-browsing/

Setup DNSMasq to work with pfSense:
http://thomasloughlin.com/pfsense-dnsmasq-advanced-setup/

Hell, don't even let your ISP know how you're resolving IP names:  https://www.dnscrypt.org/#about It's none of their damn business anyway. (They can legally sell this information to third parties now. Can you say 'NSA/GCHQ Profiling' ?  :o )

From the homepage:
"   DNSCrypt is a protocol that authenticates communications between a DNS client and a DNS resolver. It prevents DNS spoofing. It uses cryptographic signatures to verify that responses originate from the chosen DNS resolver and haven't been tampered with.

It is an open specification, with free and opensource reference implementations, and it is not affiliated with any company nor organization.   "

If you are still using Doze, there's not much I can do for you. :(

Hope I didn't overload your cicuits. ;)

If you tweet, check this out.   
"  The new policy, which goes into effect on June 18, includes changes to data collection, data sharing, and digital advertising.   "
http://www.activistpost.com/2017/05/care-privacy-change-twitter-settings-right-now.html

Taaroa

Quote from: (Sandman) Logan-5 on June 01, 2017, 01:46:36 PM
Hope I didn't overload your cicuits. ;)
Nah it's more just a lot of work for someone as lazy as me.  ;)

At the very least I've been meaning to look into the DNS thing, since the government has started blocking websites and as far as I know it's only implemented through DNS blocking.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-15/federal-court-orders-pirate-bay-blocked-in-australia/8116912

FallenSeraph

I posted this in the video games thread too. Just looking at all the topics over here makes me skittish. I DON'T BELONGGGGGGGG IN THE TECH THREADS!

I'm probably going to get mocked here, but I'm trying to venture out of the land of Mac and buy a decent gaming laptop, if there is such a thing. I want a VR-ready one. But dang, buying a PC is kind of terrifying and confusing when you've spent your life on a Mac. I'm looking at an MSI GS63VR Stealth Pro-230, but it feels like there are 900 different configurations of it. And whenever I read user reviews of it, they're like "REMOVE THE BLOAT FIRST!" "REPLACE THE T1!" "DON'T GET 4K RESOLUTION!" and I get too paralyzed with fear to hit "Buy."

I guess I'm just checking here to see if anyone has any opinions or suggestions. I'm tired of trying to slog through games with crappy graphics on a MacBookPro. I've read something like 9,000 reviews in tech magazines. It came down to Stealth, Alienware or ... an Asis one.  :-\

I'm going to scuttle away in shame now.

Quote from: Seraphim27 on June 13, 2017, 08:16:59 AM
I posted this in the video games thread too. Just looking at all the topics over here makes me skittish. I DON'T BELONGGGGGGGG IN THE TECH THREADS!

I'm probably going to get mocked here, but I'm trying to venture out of the land of Mac and buy a decent gaming laptop, if there is such a thing. I want a VR-ready one. But dang, buying a PC is kind of terrifying and confusing when you've spent your life on a Mac. I'm looking at an MSI GS63VR Stealth Pro-230, but it feels like there are 900 different configurations of it. And whenever I read user reviews of it, they're like "REMOVE THE BLOAT FIRST!" "REPLACE THE T1!" "DON'T GET 4K RESOLUTION!" and I get too paralyzed with fear to hit "Buy."

I guess I'm just checking here to see if anyone has any opinions or suggestions. I'm tired of trying to slog through games with crappy graphics on a MacBookPro. I've read something like 9,000 reviews in tech magazines. It came down to Stealth, Alienware or ... an Asis one.  :-\

I'm going to scuttle away in shame now.
Hi Seraphim :)
Nothing to be ashamed of.
It sounds like you are overwhelmed by the hardware aspect.
A few questions:
1. Will this new purchase be strictly a gaming rig ?
2. What's your budget ?
3. Have you forked out any jing for games (requiring you to be able to run them on the new machine ?)
4. Do you use Steam ?
5. How technical are you ? Can you find and install required graphics drivers and set up a system, or are you looking for
    something  turn-key (plug and play ?)
6. Are you looking for entry level, mid, or a high end gaming rig ?

( If you want a VR capable laptop, you're heading into big boy territory.  $$$  You usually need a fully blown gaming rig for
    that. )

7. What VR were you planning to use ?

"  Virtual Reality gaming on Oculus Rift, HTC Vive or OSVR requires a PC and a pretty powerful one at that. "
http://www.psychsoftpc.com/psyborg_extreme.htm
The above are 'Doze units.
These guys (and M-Tech) specialize in gaming rigs. If you want a laptop, look into M-Tech to be able to handle VR.
(Link Below) They build some powerful lappy's.  ;)

Sager might be able to handle VR too - you'll need their higher end machines though.
http://www.xoticpc.com/custom-gaming-laptops-notebooks-clevo-sager-notebooks-ct-95-51-162?_escaped_fragment_=/dir%3Dasc%26limit%3D100%26no_cache%3Dtrue%26order%3Dprice#!/dir=asc&limit=100&no_cache=true&order=price

M-Tech:  http://www.m-techlaptops.com/ShopOnline/pc/Gaming-Laptops-c78.htm
If you give these guys a call, they can help you decide what's the best system for your needs.

Linux has some custom spins just for gaming.  http://howtouselinux.net/best-linux-distro-for-gaming/

and some resources: http://www.penguspy.com/linux-gaming-resources/
I don't know about the VR aspect though.
Here are some articles about it.

(From Feb.)
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/destinations-dota-vr-hub-are-now-available-on-linux.9157
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/steamvr-for-linux-is-now-officially-in-beta.9156


https://vrgamesfor.com/platform/linux/


Play on Linux works well also, if you have a favorite Linux Distro.  https://www.playonlinux.com/en/

The new Linux Distro's aren't hard to learn if you are used to a mac.

A couple of points for gaming lappy's, you might get by with a 7,200 rpm HDD, but an SSD is what you need. (speed) You may want to order your laptop without a hard drive or SSD, and do some research into the fastest, most reliable SSD's currently on the market, (R/W speeds) and go with that.
Look at the gaming card shootouts and reviews, or x vs x gaming cards (for laptops.) 
Ex. search query: best laptop graphics cards 2017 ,  2017 laptop graphics card shootout  ,  2017 laptop graphics card reviews, etc.
RAM, the most you can stuff into the system - preferably DDR-4. (This will be especially important if you're trying to drive a set of VR goggles.) Put your research into the hardware aspects, you'll need to do due diligence here, especially if you want to get into VR. Also look into high performance work-stations as most HP-WS use the same principles as gaming rigs. (Laptops and desktops are just a collection of parts, the principles are universal.  ;) )
The Graphics card is probably the most important aspect of a gaming rig. The more, and faster, the memory of the card, the better. Gaming cards are different from compute cards (Co-Processors, Accelerators.) Stick with gaming cards unless you have a computer science degree or the equivalent in experience to make it work.   ;)

You'll need some seriousf horse-power to run VR on a laptop. I don't even think a mid tier will be sufficient.


albrecht

It would appear that the "right-wing" news site WND has been hacked. Or they didn't pay their bills and someone else took over the domain.
www.wnd.com and www.worldnetdaily.com redirects to http://media.wnd.com/ a "WND Media
Just another WordPress site"

Quote from: albrecht on June 14, 2017, 01:34:06 PM
It would appear that the "right-wing" news site WND has been hacked. Or they didn't pay their bills and someone else took over the domain.
www.wnd.com and www.worldnetdaily.com redirects to http://media.wnd.com/ a "WND Media
Just another WordPress site"
My first guess would be a DNS hack ?  ???
(I was on wnd this morning - just re-checked; all good. (don't use your isp's DNS servers, and for gawds sake, don't use 8.8.8.8. Google censors everything applying a left-wing bent to the search results.   ;)  ))

Power grids are now hackable. It looks like there was just a test run over in Europe. Do you think they named it what they did because of the end of the movie ? (It seems to have pluggable modules to easily adapt to any SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition \[System]  ) - including ours)




CrashOverride:  http://www.thedailybeast.com/newly-discovered-nightmare-cyber-weapon-is-already-causing-blackouts

albrecht

Quote from: (Sandman) Logan-5 on June 14, 2017, 03:30:07 PM
My first guess would be a DNS hack ?  ???
(I was on wnd this morning - just re-checked; all good. (don't use your isp's DNS servers, and for gawds sake, don't use 8.8.8.8. Google censors everything applying a left-wing bent to the search results.   ;)  ))

Power grids are now hackable. It looks like there was just a test run over in Europe. Do you think they named it what they did because of the end of the movie ? (It seems to have pluggable modules to easily adapt to any SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition \[System]  ) - including ours)




CrashOverride:  http://www.thedailybeast.com/newly-discovered-nightmare-cyber-weapon-is-already-causing-blackouts
Weird. Just checked and now WND.com works as normal. Not sure what happened. Yeah, about the power grid. I recall hearing rumors years ago that ,and maybe Chinese, already had "stuff" in our power grid system and was just waiting in case they wanted to do it. Codenamed "Energetic Bear," "BlackEnergy" etc were the names of the trojans back then. Bad stuff.


Quote from: albrecht on June 14, 2017, 03:43:30 PM
Weird. Just checked and now WND.com works as normal. Not sure what happened. Yeah, about the power grid. I recall hearing rumors years ago that ,and maybe Chinese, already had "stuff" in our power grid system and was just waiting in case they wanted to do it. Codenamed "Energetic Bear," "BlackEnergy" etc were the names of the trojans back then. Bad stuff.
Yeah, it's not like this is a new threat.
http://www.businessinsider.com/nsa-director-yes-china-can-shut-down-our-power-grids-2014-11
The systems were never designed for security, I'm just surprised it hasn't been unleashed before now. It could be a possible ace-in-the-hole waiting to be loosed in a co-ordinated attack. (Back-up Genny's only have so much fuel capacity, and fuel doesn't store like it used to since they started oxygenating it back in '97.  :(  ) 

Juan

I had a friend 10-years ago whose job was securing power grid systems. It seems they would have worked out a lot in that amount of time.

Quote from: Juan on June 14, 2017, 04:23:30 PM
I had a friend 10-years ago whose job was securing power grid systems. It seems they would have worked out a lot in that amount of time.
It's probably up to the department heads. Certain areas (within the CONUS grid) may be more secured than others. ( I've found some interesting stuff on Sxxxxxn, though.  ;)  ) Updating  security on a system that was never designed with security in mind is always expensive. You can't just slap on a firewall and expect all to be good. The core OS, and 2C design architecture needs modifications.
Ask your friend about it (if you can), I'd be interested in what his / her take on this is.
(S)He might be interested in CrashOveride too, if (s)he doesn't already know about it. 

Dr. MD MD

Whenever I try to insert an animated gif into a post they never seem to animate. I see others here doing this successfully. What am I missing? Is it a certain type of file?

Quote from: Dr. MD MD on June 14, 2017, 06:51:51 PM
Whenever I try to insert an animated gif into a post they never seem to animate. I see others here doing this successfully. What am I missing? Is it a certain type of file?
Shit dude, your Turbo-Mode has been revoked.  :o


Dr. MD MD

Quote from: (Sandman) Logan-5 on June 14, 2017, 07:24:10 PM
Shit dude, your Turbo-Mode has been revoked.  :o

Huh...you'd think it would be automatic for anyone who made top right.  ::)

Dr. MD MD

It looks cool but yikes! The price takes me back to the 80s. I think I'll wait for an Apple iteration of this as I don't do well in the Windows environment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFwBti4wkjU



Dr. MD MD

Anyone know where I can get some A21PX 4.5V alkaline batteries cheap?




Dr. MD MD

Quote from: (Sandman) Logan-5 on June 19, 2017, 03:12:05 AM
Best price I could find is $8.00 ea., (some places wanted over $30.00 ea.)

I've never used any of these sites, so I can't vouch for them.
http://www.zbattery.com/TR133A-4-5V-Alkaline-Battery

http://www.batterymart.com/p-exell-a21-a133-4_5v-alkaline-battery.html

http://batteriesnbulbs.com/batteries/exell-a21px-4-5v-alkaline-battery-523-en133a-pc133a-px21-1306ap.html

and one for $9.00 ea. http://shoponlinebase.com/shop/electronics/exell-battery-a21px-4-5-volt-alkaline-battery-white/

Yeah, I guess I'm just going to have to bite it on this one. It's what I get for trying to revive some ancient macintoshes. I'm probably going to have to buy a new long torx T15 driver to crack the cases on these things too. I thought I had one somewhere but can't find it now.  :-\

Do you use a fitbit ?
Do you use Chrome instead of the more secure Chromium ?
Do you have 'smart' appliances ?
Read this:
Feb 2017-
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/02/05/chrome_56_quietly_added_bluetooth_snitch_api/


Edit:
Chromium API: http://www.chromium.org/administrators/policy-list-3#DefaultWebBluetoothGuardSetting
Templates are also available: http://www.chromium.org/administrators/policy-list-3

Should also work for Chrome.

Rule of least privilege:  If you don't use it, disable it.  ;)



If you're a registered voter, give a round of applause and special thanks to TargetPoint Consulting, Inc., Causeway Solutions, and Data Trust.
They left your personal data exposed for anyone to steal.
198 Million voter credentials exposed through negligence.

"  UpGuard’s discovery â€" of perhaps the largest known exposure of voter information in historyâ€"is corroborated by technical evidence, as well as by the public statements of the responsible firms and political staffers.  "

https://www.upguard.com/breaches/the-rnc-files

albrecht

One of the few "new" sources of Art and Knapp material is not working today. I get firefox saying "cannot connect" and the "is it down site" says "site is down for everyone." I hope iHateMedia, Inc hasn't gotten to him or something worse. Too bad.



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