Nerd alert! (Welcome Mary Ann to Eater)

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Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

@bravo95

Rover

Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2012 6:00 pm

SOOI

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

Connie

Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2012 8:41 pm

^^^I gave up the yoke of authority a few years ago.

Master of Master Baiters Joined: 30 Mar 2012 Posts: 949

*sigh*

My IBM keyboard (the one I had used since high school) died about 6 years ago. Crying or Very sad

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

bohigal

Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2012 10:58 pm

TS..(Jackboot) Razz

Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2012 10:58 pm

Juan...

Posted: Fri Nov 30, 2012 12:07 am

Jose

Posted: Fri Nov 30, 2012 1:36 am

Ima..grrrrrrr

419Eater Admin Joined: 30 Sep 2003 Posts: 7469

I'm late to the pay on this one, but BRAVO!

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

Shiver

Posted: Fri Nov 30, 2012 5:33 pm

I get an easy one....

The dog bites. (Don't say I didn't warn you.)

Wannabe Baiter Joined: 16 May 2007 Posts: 83

...And to necro it once again, Unicomp bought the patent from Lexmark after IBM spun off that market to them. They still sell keyboards, even USB's. I have one on my Christmas list, hence the research.

http://pckeyboard.com/page/category/UKBD

And the Das Keyboard is built in a similar way, though I haven't used one, they get good reviews:

http://www.daskeyboard.com/

And a source for the originals:

http://www.clickykeyboards.com/

I've found that the PS2->USB can be flaky, depending on the keyboard. The earliest Model M's require more current than most of those converters provide.

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

^ I got mine off the Ebay. A bit pricey, but well worth the money. I bet there are Government warehouses somewhere stacked with them, NIB.

Quote:

I've found that the PS2->USB can be flaky, depending on the keyboard.

I've found that the PS2->USB can be flaky, depending on the OS.

FTFY /linux nerd

Wannabe Baiter Joined: 16 May 2007 Posts: 83

Actually, I'm a Linux nerd too. The only Windows machines I support any more belong to family members. In fact, I keep meaning to write up a tutorial about my Linux VM running TOR to bait so I can get anonymisation while still using Thunderbird to access gmail. Maybe over Christmas break.

Which is the better VM platform to write the tutorial to, VMWare or VirtualBox? I prefer VirtualBox myself, but I'm open to suggestions.

...And my comment still stands about the converter. PS/2 provides a minimum of 275 mA at 5v. A quick google search tells me that the Model M uses up to 112 mA. And the original USB spec provided for 100 mA at 5v if the device doesn't properly request more from the host. This can lead to low power issues which can make things flaky if the PS/2->USB converter doesn't ask properly on initialization, though, yes, the OS can always just issue the command the USB controller in place of the device.

Very Happy

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

MememeYouYouYou wrote:

Actually, I'm a Linux nerd too. The only Windows machines I support any more belong to family members.

I quit doing that years ago. Whenever I did 6 months down the line they would click on iamnotavirus.exe and call to complain that I broke their computer.

I like VirtualBox. I quit using TOR for baiting years ago, I guess one could boot the TOR browser bundle from a stick and set up a baiting account from there.

I didn't know that the Model M sucked that much juice, luckily my old MB has a legacy port for it.

Wannabe Baiter Joined: 16 May 2007 Posts: 83

I actually run it on a full-fledged VM so that I can run any software that will accept a proxy. That way I can use gmail without having to use gmail.com's awful interface, and not have to worry about it coming back to my real location.

I've been pondering just building a virtual appliance with everything ready to plug in names and e-mail addresses. I think it might help newcomers.

...And the solution for the 6-month call is the very simple notion that de-crapping and/or re-imaging their computer costs $50 or a case of beer, up front when the machine gets dropped off. If I have to make a house call, the price doubles. So far, that's only happened once.

Pretty much means I always have (essentially free) beer, so it seems a worthwhile tradeoff.

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

What do you use to image the install? When I was in the business of fixing friends computers I would DBAN them and reinstall an image (from Acronis). They pissed and moaned that some of the bookmarks and cat pictures were gone.

Thankfully, I am out of that business.

Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2012 9:05 am

You mean to tell me all those old working keyboards in the back of my closet may be wanted by someone??? Crap I was hoping to throw them away Confused

Wannabe Baiter Joined: 16 May 2007 Posts: 83

Imaging is booting RIP Linux, then dd, netcat, and a 3TB file server. I clone the image once it's on the file server, and only modify the clone to ensure that I have an "Oh Sh--" backup. Then I use kpartx to mount the partition within the image as a loopback device, and clamav to give it a good once over. Then I mount the image as a secondary drive on a freshly-snapped Windows VM to clean the drives, running MBAM, ccleaner, defraggler, and other tools as required, such as tdsskiller or combofix. I then re-order the drives inside the VM to boot off the image and run Windows Update including optional updates and install Microsoft Security Essentials (used to use AVG, but it got bloated, then MSE came along for XP). After running any other required updates (Adobe especially) I then clone that partition back onto the original machine's partition after DBANing the destination partition, again with RIP, dd, and netcat. Boot the machine and make sure it finds the correct drivers again, and Bob's your uncle.

If the above shows too much of the OS gone to be repairable, I troll the disk image, making sure I back up Favorites, bookmarks, movies, music, Documents, etc, then place those documents back onto the Desktop of the fresh OS install in a folder labeled "Recovered," then run recovery.

When the machine is returned, they get a report about the whats and whys, and a few tips on making sure they don't have to pay me again. Usually it boils down to "Limewire is not your friend," and/or "that codec update is not required to view your porn, no matter what the popup says."

So far, no complaints.

Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2012 5:55 pm

How did I get that virus?

PIBCAK is normally the answer.

Problem Is Between Chair And Keyboard..

I'm forced to upgrade a Vista machine later today.. and save all of the cat pictures.. along with email settings..

If he was not my brother... Rolling Eyes

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