It’s time to get a new computer system.  My current system has reached its limit of upgrade-ability.  I can’t even watch streaming HD video over the Internet.  I need a faster processor and/or a faster graphics card.

My 5 year old motherboard has an AGP slot, whereas, in order to upgrade the video card, I need a PCI Express slot.  This forces me to purchase a new motherboard, and therefore a new CPU and RAM, and even new hard drives (they’re all SATA nowadays, not IDE).  So, rather than put everything in my existing case, having my old motherboard, CPU, RAM, and hard drives collect dust, I’m buying a new case as well to build an entirely new system.  My current system will be given to my wife after a clean reinstall of the OS.

The NewEgg debacle

So, I load up my shopping cart at NewEgg.com.  They have tons of rebates, so the price is looking good.  I apply for the finance option (0 percent for 12 months) so I can pay it off over at least a couple months.  I get turned down.  Twice.  Reason: supposedly, they’re “unable to verify” my information.  That answer is so vague and could be used for any reason to deny a person credit.

So, I’m forced to use my credit card, and when I click submit, the order seems to go through.  I log in later, only to find that my order’s status is “void”.  I call NewEgg about this, and in the mean time, they block my account entirely, so I can’t even log in.

Apparently, somebody had fraudulently used my credit card on a different NewEgg account, but this was two years ago.  They caught the fraud and blocked it.  Then, when I tried to use the credit card, it raised a red flag, and my account got blocked.  It took me four days and three phone calls to get this straightened out so that I could use a different credit card to place an order.

Comparison shopping

In the meantime, while I was waiting for NewEgg to unfoul my account, I had time to price compare the new system at a few competitors, with Tiger Direct being one of them.  As it turns out, Mwave.com, TigerDirect.com, and NewEgg.com were all within $10 of each other for total cost after shipping.

I still wanted to use NewEgg for most of my order because they seem to have a more extensive rebate program–there were more mail in rebates if I went through NewEgg.

Ordering from TigerDirect.com

The price was lower at TigerDirect.com for the graphics card, regardless of rebate.  So, I ordered the card from TigerDirect.  There was also a $1.99 shipping sale on that item, so I had it shipped to me for only $1.99 via ground (supposedly 5-7 business days).  As it turns out, TigerDirect has a warehouse in Illinois, and that $1.99 5-7 business day ground shipping got me the graphics card the next day.

I’m still waiting for NewEgg.com to process my order.

I probably haven’t ordered from TigerDirect.com in over 10 years. They’ve been around for a lot longer than NewEgg.com.  I made the switch to NewEgg.com thanks to NewEgg’s often cheaper and speedier shipping methods and decent return policy.  However, as time has gone by, NewEgg.com has tightened their policies, and if NewEgg.com is your favorite too, and you haven’t done so yet, it’s time to re-evaluate them.

Comparing NewEgg.com and TigerDirect.com

NewEgg.com’s return policies are now very strict, especially regarding video cards and CPUs.  TigerDirect.com’s return policy is still 30 days on everything.

NewEgg.com does NOT do price protection.  TigerDirect.com will give you store credit for the difference if any item you purchase lowers in price within 30 days of the purchase (except for CPUs and RAM, and things that include CPUs and RAM, such as desktops, bundles, etc.).

TigerDirect.com apparently has multiple warehouses, so you’ll very likely get speedy deliveries on most items, even without paying for 2 or 3 day shipping.  NewEgg.com charges for 2 or 3 days shipping on everything, even if the closest warehouse is down the street.

TigerDirect.com is back

It’s been awhile since I ordered from TigerDirect.com, but I think, after this new purchase from them, and this first reimpression, they’ve won me back.

I’ve read some other reviews about the PC version of Fallout 3, and most of the reviews are favorable, but I think that most of the reviews fail to explain exactly what is different about Fallout 3 that makes it so fun to play.

Fallout 3 is immersive.  From the very beginning, you are immersed into the Fallout 3 world, beginning with life inside the vault.  You eavesdrop on many conversations and can talk with most characters that you encounter.  People act and react believably, and you feel like you’re there.

Every survival decision includes a moral choice.  Will you try to be honest and fair?  Will you put your own needs above others no matter the consequences?  When there are tough decisions to be made, will you be able to make them?

There are so many different skills to choose from, how can a vault dweller understand which skills to improve?  What skills are useful in the wasteland?  It’s tough realizing that you have to live and die with your own decisions.  This is life outside the vault.

V.A.T.S. (the replacement for turn based combat)

I really like the game system.  Fallout 3 is basically a first person shooter, but you can pause combat at any time using the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System (V.A.T.S.).  V.A.T.S. allows you to perform bullet time attacks by targeting individual enemies, including specific body parts, and even the enemy’s weapon.  However, you will most likely find yourself quickly running out of action points, so you must combat in first person shooter mode until your action points regenerate.  Your agility skill will determine the number of action points you get in V.A.T.S. mode.

It’s unfortunate that while in V.A.T.S. mode, the only thing you can do is target enemies.  In previous Fallout games, you could also move your character while in turned based combat.  Half of combat is maneuvering and effective use of cover, but since you can only shoot (or strike) in V.A.T.S. mode, you simply end up trading blows with the enemy.  Exchanging blows with the enemy is never a good strategy.

Some oddities

It’s amazing how trusting people are, leaving unsecured items out for you to steal.  The average person in the modern world has a tough time passing up such opportunities.  Placed in the post apocalyptic wastelands, it baffles me how people leave their items laying around for you to steal, unseen, with the only penalty being a loss of karma.

There seem to be a lot of bugs in the initial release of Fallout 3.  Make sure you save often.

It’s strange that if you hack a computer, then later find the password, the password wasn’t the same as the one you used to hack it.  In my opinion, that’s a bug.

Tips

Make sure you read the manual because the in-game training does not explain every abbreviation that you see in the HUD.

The in-game map is not very detailed, so try to learn the layout of the land as you walk through it and memorize landmarks.

Don’t try to steal a knife when you already own a pistol.  It’s not worth the trouble if you get caught.  Weigh the risk versus the reward.

Don’t believe the minimum requirements

Unfortunately, my computer only meets the minimum requirements for the game.   When fighting multiple enemies, even on the lowest video settings, the game is too slow and too unresponsive to be able to aim in first person shooter mode, so I am stuck with using V.A.T.S. for even close combat where I wouldn’t normally miss.  I run out of action points, and then I take damage from the enemies until I get enough action points to fight again.  The game is impossibly hard to play like that.

The game certainly lies about the minimum requirements.  Perhaps when they first started designing the game, they tested it with the minimum requirements and it was playable, but the final release is not playable with the minimum requirements.

If you can play Fallout 3 at medium video settings or above, please post a comment with your system specs so that I know what I need to upgrade.

Here are my specs:

• Windows XP SP2
• Pentium IV 2.4 GHz
• 2 GB RAM
• NVidia 7600 GS 256 MB

To play or not to play

If you are fanatic about Fallout 1 and Fallout 2, and you simply crave more quirky wasteland charm and drama, then you will get some of that, but in a much more bland and bleak way.  V.A.T.S. does not replace turn based combat, and the dialog trees are much smaller in Fallout 3.  The world just isn’t as complex, but it is prettier to look at.

If you are looking for an immersive, single-player, hybrid RPG/first person shooter game, set in a post apocalyptic world, with mildly adult themes, then this game is for you.

Is it worth $50 for the PC version?  In my opinion, it’s not.  It’s all a bit too short and simple.  Wait until the bugs are fixed, and the price comes down.  However, if price is no object, and you don’t demand a lot of value for your money, then buy it yesterday.  It is fun.

This allows you to use the proxy as a raw TCP proxy to route other TCP traffic.  yProxy can be used as a raw TCP proxy in such a manner simply by disabling the “yEnc Decode” feature, which turns it into a pure TCP proxy.

yProxy as a web proxy

For example, try the following setup in yProxy:

Be sure to set the port numbers also, and click the Start button to start the proxy server.  Then try entering this URL in your browser address bar:

http://localhost

You’ll see Google’s homepage show up.  What you’ve done is load Google’s homepage through the proxy.  Actually, you’ve got a little bit more work to do if you want to keep going through the proxy at this point because anything you click on goes to a google.com address instead of “localhost”, but you’ve gotten the point that yProxy can be a down and dirty proxy for redirecting TCP traffic.

yProxy’s TCP proxy options would be best used for other types of TCP traffic like email or FTP, where the client doesn’t try to make connections to other domains.

yProxy as a remote web proxy and port obfuscator

The above example doesn’t really make much practical sense, but imagine that your school or work attempts to blocks all web traffic by blocking all traffic on outgoing port 80, but they do allow SSH traffic over port 22.  Leave yProxy running at your home with the following configuration:

Disable yProxy’s ”Run Locally Only” option and, as before, click Start to start yProxy.

Then from your school or work computer enter the following URL into your browser’s address bar:

http://10.2.0.96:22

You’ve just loaded Google from your home over port 22.

Note: I cheated in my example.  10.2.0.96 is actually a private IP address.  You’ll need type your public IP address into your web browser.  If you’re behind a NAT router at home, you’ll have to find out what your public IP address is and enable port forwarding or plug your computer into the DMZ port.  To find your public IP address, go to http://ifirefly.com.

yProxy as a remote FTP proxy

What if your friend is running an FTP server, but for security purposes, he only allows you to connect from your home IP address.  You’re going to be on the road though, and you still need to access the FTP server, but you don’t want to bother your friend to change his server’s configuration.

Use the following configuration for yProxy:

Well, FTP uses a second port for data, so you’ll need another instance of yProxy running to actually download anything:

Again, you need to turn off the “Run Locally Only” option for yProxy and press the Start button to start the proxy servers.

Now, you can enter this address into your FTP client or web browser:

ftp://10.2.0.96

Your computer at home is connecting to your friend’s FTP server, and you’re connecting to your computer at home, so as far as your friend’s server is concerned, you’re still at home.

yProxy is more than just a yEnc decoder

There are other legitimate uses for a TCP proxy.  Please let me know what you come up with.

yProxy stands apart from other yEnc decoders.  yProxy is a true TCP proxy underneath.  Have fun.

If you are ecrypting files on your Windows NTFS partition using the built-in encrypted file system (EFS), your files are NOT secure.

If you are on a network domain at work, do you know that by default your system administrator can decrypt your EFS encryped files?  The administrator has a shared key.  In fact, your administrator can even disable the feature, not allowing you to encrypt files at all.

EFS is only as secure as your login password.  If someone finds out what your login password is, they can login as you and access your encrypted files.

If you leave your computer turned on and logged in, there is software that can steal your session key and decrypt your files.

Basically, EFS is very breakable.  Do not rely on EFS for security.

Instead, you should use a robust On The Fly Encryption (OTFE) system that includes session timeouts.

On The Fly Encryption works similar to EFS, except that you can mount OTFE file systems as partitions (the partitions appear as drive letters on your system).  When you want to access files stored on the OTFE mount, you simply start a session by entering your secure password.

The files are decrypted and encrypted in real time.  State of the art OTFE systems will automatically expire your session after a specified time period.  The OTFE partition is stored as a single file on your hard drive and lacks any file signatures, so nothing can be guessed about the encrypted partition.

TrueCrypt is the leading open source OTFE system.  TrueCrypt allows you to set automatic session timeouts–the shorter the better, and TrueCrypt uses AES and other very strong ciphers for encryption.

TrueCrypt also blocks write access to unencrypted file systems while your session is open to avoid you accidentally writing your secure data to the unencrypted system.  TrueCrypt even includes a feature to disable Windows paging, preventing Windows from using the hard disk as virtual memory, which could lead to unencrypted data being stored in the system cache.

TrueCrypt is cross platform and available on Linux and Windows, with precompiled binaries available for Windows.

If you wish to keep your data away from pyring eyes, use OTFE for secure storage of files.

The binary groups I frequented started getting a fair amount of yEnc posts.  About 10% of the posts were yEnc encoded.  I couldn’t read yEnc encoded attachments with my existing newsreader, so I simply conceded to the fact that I would miss out on the content.  However, as more and more of the valuable content was yEnc encoded, I either had to find a yEnc decoder, or keep missing out on the yEnc content.

My news reader, Forte Agent, did not decode yEnc attachments.  It only handled MIME and UUE.  I downloaded yEnc32.  In order to decode attachments with yEnc32, I had to first export the messages to text files, then processes those text files with yEnc32.  While this wasn’t very difficult to do, it was time consuming.

I am a software developer, and one of my specialties is developing web and network utilities.  As a network developer, I was able to apply the pipelining and streaming paradigm to this problem, yielding a proxy as a solution.

What is a Proxy?

A proxy is a generic term in networking for a utility that sits between a client and a server and acts on behalf of the client.  Generally, a proxy filters and/or caches some type of traffic that flows between the client and server.

The most common type of proxy related to the Internet is a caching web proxy.  A caching web proxy intercepts all web requests and attempts to fulfill the request from its cache.  For example, one person might request a photo from the Internet.  The web proxy retrieves the photo from the Inernet and delivers it to the client.  The second person that requests the photo from the proxy is sent a copy of the photo that had been saved to memory or disk.  This saves Internet bandwidth.

yEnc Decoder Proxy

A yEnc decoder proxy also sits between the server and the client, sending requests on behalf of the client.  When the client asks for a yEnc encoded attachment, the proxy requests the attachment from the server in yEnc format and converts it to a more accepted format before sending it to the client.

A yEnc Decoder proxy is also considered a plug-in because it’s a third party utility that adds functionality to an a separate program.

I figured a yEnc Decoder proxy would be the perfect solution to my problem.  The only problem, of course, was that there wasn’t such a thing.   I would have to write one.

yProxy: The Original yEnc Decoder Proxy

I wrote the first, beta, version of yProxy over the weekend and released it to the public.  I also alerted Forte so that they could recommend the free utility to their users until they added yEnc support to Agent.  Unfortunately, Forte never responded.  Yet, Forte did add yEnc support to Agent shortly after, and anyone with a recent version of Forte Agent has native yEnc support.

Still, the word about yProxy spread via the newsgroups and quickly became the yEnc Decoder solution for many people who either weren’t entitled to upgrades for their existing newsreaders, or whose newsreaders just plain didn’t support yEnc.  For example, the most popular free newsreaders are still Outlook Express, Windows Mail, and Mozilla Thunderbird.  None of those newsreaders support yEnc.

With a yEnc Decoder proxy between your newsreader client and the news server, you can continue using your existing newsreader and still be able to read yEnc content, even if your newsreader does not support yEnc natively.  Most yProxy users, therefore, are Outlook Express, Windows Mail, and Mozilla Thunderbird users.

Jurgen, the inventor of yProxy, became one of yProxy’s biggest advocates.  People who had previously complained that their newsreaders didn’t support yEnc were directed to use yProxy and stop complaining.

yProxy is the Leading yEnc Decoder Proxy

yProxy Pro’s biggest competition is the free version of yProxy, which is still available on the yProxy website via the FAQ page.

I stopped counting after one million people downloaded yProxy, which occurred within the first year that it was available.  There is even a French version that a considerate user translated.

yEnc has more advantages than simply being smaller in size.  yEnc also ensures that the file has been delivered intact via two methods:

• CRC32 Error Checking
• File Size Checking

If you yEnc decoder doesn’t support the above features of yEnc, not only are you losing out on some of the benefits of yEnc, but your yEnc decoder is not even yEnc compliant.

CRC32 Error Checking

yEnc CRC32 error checking uses a technology similar to what CDs and DVDs use to check for errors.  It uses a mathematical algorithm at creation time to generate a checksum value based on the data and stores that checksum on the data.  At play time, the value is recomputed against the data and compared against the stored value.  If the checksums do not match, then an error has occurred while reading the data.

In order for a yEnc Decoder to be compliant with the latest yEnc standards, a yEnc Decoder must include CRC32 error checking.  All yEnc attachments have the CRC32 checksum, and if your yEnc Decoder isn’t evaluating the checksum, then you won’t know when you’ve downloaded a file that has been corrupted or modified since it was created.

You may download that treasured song that you’ve been looking for, then when you go to play it back, it may not play or it may contain defects.  At that point, it may be too late to try to download the song again from another source.

Embedded yEnc Decoders will not provide CRC32 error alerts.  yProxy notifies you immediately when an attachment with an error has been detected.  yProxy beeps and changes the system notification icon to one with a large red exclamation mark, in addition to logging the error.  None of yProxy’s competing yEnc proxies provide CRC32 error detection.

File Size Checking

The file size is also computed at creation time and stored in every yEnc attachment.  All yEnc compliant yEnc Decoders must check the final file size against the stored value.  If a file has been truncated by the news server or parts of it are missing, the file may be unusable.  It is important for your yEnc decoder to be able to determine the difference between a corrupt file and an incomplete file.

If the file is incomplete, you may simply need to try again later after the file has finished propagating.  An incomplete file may still be usable, depending on the type of file.  An MPEG video file with the last second missing will still be playable, and you may not notice that missing second.  Therefore, it is important for your yEnc decoder to distinguish between a corrupted file and an incomplete file.

yProxy notifies you immediately if the downloaded file size does not match the expected size.  yProxy will beep and place an exclamation mark in the system notification icon, in addition to logging the error.  The error displays the expected file size and the actual file size so that you can determine the extent of the problem.

Embedded yEnc decoders cannot check the file size and none of yProxy’s competing yEnc proxies provide file size checking.

yEnc Decoder Compliance

CRC32 error checking and file size checking are valuable features of yEnc encoding.  yEnc decoders must support both CRC32 error checking and file size checking in order to be compliant with the latest yEnc standards.  yProxy is the only yEnc decoder proxy that is yEnc compliant.

The computer that I was attempting to view the movie on has one Pentium 4 3.20 GHz CPU with hyperthreading, and 2 GB of RAM.

Hyperthreading separates the processor into two logical processors.  They do share some of the pipe, so it’s not quite as good as two actual logical processors.  The thing about hyperthreading though, is instead of one 3.20 GHz processor, I effectively get two 1.70 GHz processors.

Well, a 1.70 GHz processor isn’t enough to decompress the file in real time.  So, I had to turn off hyperthreading in the computer’s setup menu to get a single logical CPU that runs at 3.20 GHz, providing all of the CPU power to the movie player process.

Unfortunately, even that wasn’t quite fast enough, but it was close.  I haven’t noticed any decrease in performance since I’ve turned off hyperthreading, and I’d like to keep the CPU power on hand for the next time I need it.  So, I’m leaving hyperthreading off.

In my normal use, I’d rather have one process get finished very quickly, than have two processes take longer and finish at the same time.  I usually just have one process that I’m waiting on.

%KEYWORDS%TITLE

Seriously, if you’re going to run a spam bot, at least learn to use it or run a test before you click the start button.  Otherwise, you’re just wasting bandwidth.

We are also seeing the number of Usenet groups that have fresh content decrease, as supergroups evolve that contain the majority of Usenet’s quality content.

Usually, yEnc will take over an entire news group, and all downloaders of that group end up having to find a yEnc decoder solution.

Most high volume groups transition to yEnc rather quickly.  Therefore, due to the high volume posted to these supergroups, and the decreasing number of groups, the percentage of content that is posted using yEnc is very high.

Interestingly, spam is typically not posted with yEnc.  Spammers want to reach the largest audience, so they don’t want to exclude those without yEnc decoders.

Therefore, yEnc use is also becoming a good indicator of legitimate content.  Content that is not yEnc encoded is more and more likely spam.  New posters, or infrequent posters, also may not have the proper tools to post in yEnc, but the quality of their content is marginal for most categories.

Even the yEnc test newsgroup will sometimes have some surprisingly good content, and it’s mostly barren of spam.

As the ability of news servers to filter out spam increases, and the amount of spam on peer to peer systems increases, Usenet is making gains over other file sharing methods.

I believe that the popularity of Usenet is likely to spike up in the near future, barring unforeseen, new alternatives.  In addition, yEnc usage will continue to increase until it has mostly saturated the binary newsgroups.

Recently, we hit the file quota limit on our Brawny Lads site.  There are two quotas in place for our web hosting account:

• Disk usage
• Number of files

Our quota limits us to 100,000 files, which seems like it should be enough.  However, we hit the limit, which prevented me from receiving emails or even checking my mail via the web mail system.

I searched for new files and found that there were many new files in our old forum’s folder.  We used to run Ikonboard for our forum, but we retired that forum when we moved to phpBB.  Ikonboard doesn’t use a database, so each new post creates one or more new files.

When our webmaster made the switch, he changed all of the links on our site from the Ikonboard forum to the new forum.  Basically, he hid the old forum by removing all links to it.

So, how were we still receiving new posts, all of which were spam? 

Ikonboard was installed in the default Ikonboard folder, which is /cgi-bin/ikonboard.  Apparently, some spam bots were accessing that folder directly rather than spidering through our website to find the forum, or they found the old forum by following an outdated link from another website.

Dangers of simply removing links

So, when you retire old software or web pages from your website, it’s not enough to simply remove the links for the following reasons.

• You may miss a link
• Other websites may be linked to it
• Once a spider visits and archives your site, that link may always be remembered
• Default locations are well known

Proper removal of web pages or software

When it’s time to retire an old web page or software, it’s best to do one or more of the following:

• Delete it completely
• Rename the folder or file to a new, unguessable, name
• Change the permissions so it can’t be viewed or run

Software that you leave laying around, thinking that you’ve properly retired it, may be a serious vulnerability, especially if you no longer keep it updated.