Lately I’ve started disabling the Java plugin in Chrome (my main browser) on my own computers to avoid infection and I just came across someone else who had the same idea: http://superuser.com/questions/201613/disable-java-plugin-in-google-chrome

Jeff Atwood, renowned author of Coding Horror started a discussion on superuser.com regarding his experiences with drive-by-installs delivered via Java browser plugins and suggests that users should go as far as to remove Java unless you know you have to use it.

My advice to anyone looking to avoid drive-by-installs (which should be everyone) is to disable Java browser plugins (if only temporarily) to protect yourself while you browse the web. Not to mention you should update your JRE installation and remove old, exploitable versions and their browser plugins.

namebench DNS Benchmark Results

Like me, you’ve probably read all sorts of great things about the public DNS service OpenDNS, but one thing you should find out for yourself is how it will impact the speed of your web browsing.

After using OpenDNS name servers for months at work I started to notice that page load times at home (on a much slower connection) were considerably more “snappy” with my ISP provided DNS servers. A quick Google brought up the comprehensive Open Source namebench DNS benchmark tool.

A run of namebench resulted in a pretty html file with numbers and graphs that confirmed my suspicions. My ISP’s (Comcast) DNS servers were 174.4% faster than OpenDNS on average, with Google’s Public DNS coming in a close second place.

It should be noted that namebench is rather smart and it rifles through your browser history in order to compile a personalized set of domains for its testing, so my results are potentially unique – and this is just one test (actually I did three, I also used Alexa top domains for a source to avoid DNS caching – and the results were all similar), at one location. Although once I switched to my ISP’s DNS servers I experienced a noticeable difference in page load times.  Not to mention that my results may change in the future due to server load, poor caching, etc. But with OpenDNS, there was always a slight wait before a page would even start to load, and now that wait is gone. And that’s on a 36Mbps downstream connection.

My points are simple:

1. Switching to OpenDNS (or any other DNS service) may be a bad thing.
2. Your DNS server does matter.
3. namebench is awesome.

It may be a matter of milliseconds but it all adds up, many large websites require dozens of DNS queries for ads, images, scripts and more. Do your own testing before believing the hype.

Regardless, OpenDNS is still a great service: if I ever have the need for a basic content filtering system I will turn to OpenDNS.

Download namebench (for Windows, Mac, or Linux/Unix) and see for yourself how your current DNS stacks up.

But, in a fresh Arch Linux install you still need a few gstreamer packages to enable totem-video-thumbnailer to do its job…

1. Install necessary packages (as root):

pacman -Sy --needed totem gstreamer0.10-{{bad,good,ugly,base}{,-plugins},ffmpeg}

2. Delete old video thumbnails to force generation of new ones:

rm -rf ~/.thumbnails/fail

3. Browse a folder of video files in Nautilus:

In some cases you may need to restart Nautlius for the changes to take effect:

killall nautilus

…or simply log out and log in again.

System Info

• Arch Linux – Kernel 2.6.31-ARCH
• Gnome 2.28.0
• packages gnome & gnome-extra

Source

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Common_codecs

Versions

• Starter is weak (for netbooks) 32-bit only, OEM pre-install only
• Home Basic is for emerging markets (we probably won’t see it in the US much)
• Home Premium is what most consumers will end up with
• Professional is the lowest version to include features such as Remote Desktop Serving, Domain Joining, and Windows XP Mode
• Enterprise is the same as Ultimate but with volume licensing and they both include BitLocker
• Ultimate has all possible features (of course)

Wikipedia detailed Windows 7 Version Comparison Chart

General

• Supposedly 7 can be installed from a USB drive (without hacking).
• Internet Explorer 8 can pretty much be removed – many parts are integrated into the OS, but the browser can go bye-bye.
• The sidebar is gone but Gadgets remain, and are more efficient and movable.
• There is an overly hyped new taskbar.

So, its 4:00 AM and I’m in the lab finishing up my Ghost disk-to-disk imaging on the remaining machines…

Total time to break remaining boxes and yank HDs + Ghost imaging time = 30 mins.

Time wasted to get to this point = 3 hours.

If anyone can prove me wrong concerning the shortcomings of Clonezilla, please do (and comment, duh).

• Platform: Windows XP Pro SP3 + Java 1.6.0_13
• jEdit Version: 4.3pre16

Utilities -> Global Options -> jEdit -> Text Area:

Anti Aliased  smooth text: subpixel

UNCHECK: Fractal font metrics (for better smooth text display)

The combination of subpixel antialiasing (a must) and Fractal font metrics (makes little difference) causes the unbearably slow scolling.

Thanks to the jEdit Community Forums.

Source:

http://community.jedit.org/?q=node/view/4148

As root edit “/etc/ssh/sshd_config” and add the line “UseDNS no“.

This can also be done by running the following command:

sudo echo "UseDNS no" >> /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Sources:

This issue is documented at OpenSSH.org

Fix and more details available at: http://tech.waltco.biz/2008/02/02/ssh-slow-to-connect-in-ubuntu-710-gutsy-gibbon/

In order to stop the Administrator account from showing as a login option on the Welcome Screen in Windows Vista you need to set the Administrator account to not active with the net user command from an Administrative cmd prompt as follows:

net user Administrator /active:no

Some people report that the “/” causes the command to fail, try it without:

net user Administrator active:no

From then on the the Administrator account should no longer show on the Welcome Screen.

SOURCE:

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/08/10/activate-enable-and-show-administrator-account-in-vista-welcome-screen/

“configuring updates stage 3 of 3. 0% complete”

and then an automatic reboot and the same message over and over again in an endless loop.

Some people say to just let it sit while plugged in to the ‘net or to try a repair install but without any restore points you aren’t going to get anywhere.

For some odd reason they removed the Method 3 from this MS help article, here is a copy of it:
Method 3:

Rename the Pending.xml file, and then edit the registry.

To rename the Pending.xml file and to edit the registry, follow these steps.

Start Windows Vista and go to the System Recovery options:

1.       Insert the Windows Vista installation disc in the disc drive, and then restart the computer.

2.       When you are prompted to restart from the disc, press any key.

3.       When you are prompted, configure the Language to install, Time and currency format, and Keyboard or input method options that you want, and then click Next.

4.       On the Install Windows page, click Repair your computer.

5.       On the System Recovery Options page, click the version of the Windows Vista operating system that you want to repair, and then click Next.

Use the System Recovery options to rename the Pending.xml file and edit the registry:

1.       On the System Recovery Options page, click Command Prompt.

2.       Type cd C:\windows\winsxs, and then press ENTER.

3.       Type ren pending.xml pending.old, and then press ENTER.

4.       Type regedit, and then press ENTER.

5.       Select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.

6.       On the File menu, click Load Hive.

7.       Locate the following folder: C:\windows\system32\config\components

8.       When you are prompted for a name, type Offline_Components.

9.       In Registry Editor, locate and then delete the following registry subkey:

HLKM\Offline Components\AdvancedInstallersNeedResolving

HKLM\Offline Components\PendingXmlIdentifier

Exit Registry Editor:

1.       At the command prompt, type exit to exit Registry Editor.

2.       Press ENTER.

3.       Click Restart.

When you can actually log in again, the following hotfixes are supposed to prevent the loop from returning – I haven’t had much luck in installing them (usually says I don’t need them) but maybe they will help you:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5639710d-dfbf-4527-806e-9a1634d0cc8e&DisplayLang=en

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=1adf1d6c-ad46-4d09-a99c-ba3b1d9bcf4f&displaylang=en