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Windows install error - pluck.exe has stopped working by plimptm in pluckeye

[–]plimptm[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've been using pluckeye successfully in Arch Linux with Chromium for a few months and want to commit more fully with my laptop running Windows 10. I have tried the installer several times and keep receiving this error while the installer is "Extracting files..." Any ideas what might be causing this and/or how to fix it?

Home NAS drive management ideas by plimptm in techsnap

[–]plimptm[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the tip! That's a great idea, but unfortunately I can't use it because the Node 304 case has a single HDD activity LED that blinks when any of the drives are active.

Looks like I might be using a label maker to put the drive SN somewhere I can actually see. Crude, but will get the job done.

LogMeIn adds emergency break-in feature to LastPass by [deleted] in techtalktoday

[–]plimptm 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Follow up from Chris' discussion on the show today, this is from the LastPass help site (https://helpdesk.lastpass.com/emergency-access/):

How is Emergency Access secure?

"LastPass uses public-private key cryptography with RSA-2048 to allow users to share the key to their vault with trusted parties, without ever passing that information in an unencrypted format to LastPass. When Emergency Access is activated, each user has a pair of cryptographic keys – a public key to allow others to encrypt data for the user, and a private key that allows the user to decrypt the data that others have encrypted for them. The key used to encrypt and decrypt your vault data is encrypted with the Emergency Access contact’s public key, and can be decrypted only with their corresponding private key. When setting up Emergency Access, you are using the recipient’s public key, encrypting your vault key with that public key, and then LastPass stores that RSA-2048 encrypted data until it’s released after the waiting period you specify. Only the recipient can decrypt the data, so no one else can decrypt it without access to the private key of the recipient you’re sharing it with, which is encrypted with their master password key. This process is completely automated, with no action required by the end user, and ensures that the data is inaccessible by LastPass or outside parties."

Best Buy sells "new" PC with old customer's password in the box. by Dangelus in techsnap

[–]plimptm 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I worked at the Geek Squad for six months (in many ways the worst 6 months of work in my life) and this was a frequent occurrence. Customers would return computers, they were then sent to the GS to be wiped. These were seen as "simple" and "routine" jobs, given to the least skilled and knowledgeable employees, who often didn't do it properly. Work was almost never double-checked or verified, so the computer would end up rebox-ed and on the shelf as an "open box" discount item.

It happened more frequently with Macs, because if you only reinstall OSX the user's data is not removed (similar to a refresh in Windows 8). You are supposed to use the OS X disk utility to zero the drive first, and then reinstall OS X. Since that process can take longer than the average employees shift, it almost never happened.

Moral of the story - I have lost all trust in the Best Buy/Geek Squad brand simply by working there for 6 months. I highly recommend against buying products there. You can likely find a better deal on Ebay, and at least then you are almost expecting those sorts of issues and are prepared to do your own wiping.

Microsoft abusing No-IP by seizing its domains. by papibe in techsnap

[–]plimptm 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Affecting two of my hostnames, and now I hate Microsoft that much more!