Auto-Detecting Driver Installers

Grok Headline matches for Auto-Detecting Driver Installers

Easy installers for PHP scripts

Easy installers for PHP scripts 11/12/2003 10:15 PM

I tried out FUDforum last night, after Rasmus Lerdorf recommended it in a comment on Jeremy Zawodny's blog. Feature wise, it's pretty impressive but still doesn't quite do it for me - I want something that's trivial to integrate with an existing authentication system and outputs valid HTML (or XHTML) out of the box. Rasmus says it's the only board he's seen that doesn't have obvious security holes though so it's probably worth checking out if you need to set up a forum of that kind.

That said, what impressed me about FUDforum more than anything else was the installation process. The forum is distributed as a zipped archive, but when you extract it the only file you need to copy to your web server is a single 4.5 MB file called "install.php". You drop that in to a web facing directory and access it from your browser. It then steps you through the rest of the install, telling you which directories to chmod 777 so that the installation process can access them, asking for your database settings and automatically creating all of the scripts, database tables and configuration files it needs to run. It even refuses to let you in to the admin panel at the end until you've deleted the install.php file from the server. Pretty slick.

Of course, the need to chmod anything 777 in a shared hosting environment is a little bit worrying, but that's been a common problem with server side web development for as long as I can remember.

Prevent installers from running as root

Prevent installers from running as root 11/25/2003 10:30 PM
I've noticed that many many installers like to run as with administrator privelages (root) that do NOT need to. Take MS Office for example; the last thing that I want them to do is have unlimited access to my machine, not to ...

Advisory: Sun's jre/jdk 1.4.2 multiple
vulernabilities in linux installers

Advisory: Sun's jre/jdk 1.4.2 multiple
vulernabilities in linux installers 10/31/2003 12:49 PM
Stan Bubrouski (Oct 30 2003)

Detecting hardware from outside the box

Detecting hardware from outside the box 02/05/2005 09:48 PM
Linux comes with several good utilities for getting detailed information on what's inside the box. Here are three recipes for getting information from lspci, dmesg, and /proc.

Detecting Bioterrorism

Detecting Bioterrorism 06/07/2004 07:28 AM
The systems designed to collect early-warning biodetection and surveillance data are still sorely lacking, according to two new reports.

The Latest In Lie Detecting

The Latest In Lie Detecting 11/05/2003 02:55 AM
Everybody knows that the old polygraph test is a joke that isn't particularly accurate. So, the next question is whether or not it's possible to build a system that can actually catch people telling a lie? It looks like there are a lot of different projects underway to invent the next generation of lie detector. Researchers are trying out all different methods, many of them sponsored by the Department of Defense. There are certainly a number of ethical issues with "looking into someone's mind", but the researchers appear to have come to terms with those issues (or, perhaps we should test them on their own machines to see how they feel on that issue...).

Detecting RAS and VPN Clients

Detecting RAS and VPN Clients 05/29/2004 04:53 AM

Lie detecting eyeglasses

Lie detecting eyeglasses 01/19/2004 11:43 AM
V Entertainment has been showing off a pair of eyeglasses that they claim comes with a built-in lie detector with LEDs that flash red when...

Detecting Photoshop Hacks

Detecting Photoshop Hacks 07/29/2004 06:47 PM

For Doctored Photos, a New Flavor of Digital Truth Serum: A group of folks out at Dartmouth College are breaking new ground in the art of detecting if images have been altered or not. You just can't believe a picture anymore. Especially not on this site.

For example, when two images are spliced together — like the picture of a shark attacking a helicopter that has circulated around the Internet in the past few years — one or both of the original pictures usually has to be shrunk, enlarged or rotated to make the pieces fit together. And those changes, no matter how artful, leave clues behind.

Take a picture that is 10 pixels by 10 pixels, for a total of 100. Stretch it to 10 by 20 pixels, and image-editing software like Adobe Photoshop will assign the picture's original pixels to every other slot in the new picture. That leaves 100 pixels "blank," or without values. Image-editing software fills in the gaps by examining what their neighbors look like, and then applying an average. To oversimplify, if pixel A is blue, and pixel C is red, the blank pixel B will become purple.

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Detecting Speech Without Microphones

Detecting Speech Without Microphones 04/10/2005 12:50 PM

Landmine detecting plant

Landmine detecting plant 02/10/2004 02:44 AM
Aresa Biodetection, a Danish biotech company, has genetically modified the Thale Cress weed to turn red when its roots sense...

Detecting Faked Photographs Gets Easier

Detecting Faked Photographs Gets Easier 07/24/2004 01:14 PM

Forum Stories: Detecting File Changes

Forum Stories: Detecting File Changes 02/19/2004 06:10 PM

Love Detector Seems Better At Detecting
Excuses

Love Detector Seems Better At Detecting
Excuses 04/12/2004 03:44 AM
Well, I'd like to give Techdirt's readers the benefit of the doubt and assume that they would all be fairly skeptical of a product called "The Love Detector" that promised to tell you, just by hearing someone speak, if they were in love with the person they were speaking to. They even claim that it's accurate with 96% confidence - though when a Reuters reporter tested it out, he found it didn't seem to work at all, though a recording from the IRS seemed to indicate at least some special interest. This isn't the first time that articles like this have been written, but what's especially amusing is the excuses that the company comes up with every time they're confronted with examples of the system not working. It appears the company may have spent much more time coming up with excuses than actually making sure the device did what it's advertised to do.

Buying or Detecting Geo Based Domains
and Web Hosting

Buying or Detecting Geo Based Domains
and Web Hosting 12/19/2004 03:08 PM
Now that local search and country based searching is a reality, it is more important than ever to make sure your site is hosted in the same country as the host country for the TLD.

Germans develop bad breath-detecting
mobe

Germans develop bad breath-detecting
mobe 09/22/2004 06:12 AM
Mouth like a camel's armpit? Siemens can help

Detecting Worms and Abnormal Activities
with NetFlow

Detecting Worms and Abnormal Activities
with NetFlow 08/17/2004 11:25 AM

Detecting proximity over the Internet
and other dumb DRM notions

Detecting proximity over the Internet
and other dumb DRM notions 12/27/2004 10:39 AM
Cory Doctorow: One of the recurring themes in the DRM negotiations I sit in on is figuring out how far away two different computers are from one another, so that an entertainment company can enforce crazy, paranoid "business models" like, "Buy a movie for viewing on as many PCs as you'd like provided that they're all within 10 feet of one another."

My cow-orker, EFF Staff Technologist Seth Schoen, has posted a little blog entry about the inherent failings in all the DRM vendors' systems for determining "proximity" of two devices over the Internet.

...DRM vendors are falling back on other tricks. One you hear a lot about is "IP TTL" (a part of the Internet Protocol specification where routers are supposed to subtract 1 from a header field, to prevent a misaddressed packet from floating around the Internet forever). That doesn't provide evidence either, though, because (1) IP headers like TTL are under the minute control of end-users wielding firewall software, and (2) "bridging" software doesn't subtract 1 from TTL in the first place because conceptually it is not acting as a router.

So the last resort of people trying to use TCP/IP and get evidence about locality or proximity has been to measure latency -- how long it takes for one device to communicate with another. Latency is harder to tamper with because there are physical limitations like the speed of light. For example, you can never get any message from New York to Paris in under 19.5 milliseconds because that is how long it takes light to go from one to the other. If you're using a satellite in geosynchronous orbit, there is a magic number around 250 milliseconds (depending on your latitude) because geosynchronous orbits can only occur at one particular altitude and it takes light about 250 milliseconds to cross that entire path. (Geosynchronous orbit is far away!) So some systems have been adopting rules about not sending some programming to devices that take more than a certain number of milliseconds to answer you when you say hello and ask them for acknowledgment, on the theory that devices that answer really quickly plausibly are on the same local network, whereas device that answer more slowly probably are not.

Link

Detecting lies by watching blood flow

Detecting lies by watching blood flow 03/14/2005 05:29 PM
David Pescovitz: New Scientists reports on the development of a lie detector that works by tracking blood flow through the blood vessels in your face. The system is being developed by (natch) the Us Department of Defense.

As I relax into the chair, the questioning begins. An automated voice instructs me to answer a series of questions with a simple yes or no. "Is your name Susan?" Yes. "Do you understand that I will not ask any trick questions on this test?" Yes. "Did you stab that woman downstairs this afternoon?" No.

My voice remains calm and even, and I feel no sense of flushing as I continue answering questions and read through a list of potential murder weapons, including the one I guiltily remember using earlier, a screwdriver. But as Ryan's colleagues look through the data afterwards, they pull out two images and set them side by side. The first image looks normal. On the second, large highlighted rings of blood encircle my eyes.

If I were a real criminal, that picture could be big trouble for me.

Link

A Search Engine for Detecting Sites
Using Your Content

A Search Engine for Detecting Sites
Using Your Content 07/07/2004 07:54 AM
There used to be a site that allowed you to enter a chunk of text and find other sites on the 'Net using that same text-chunk. I think that site's...

Study Yields Biomarkers for Detecting
Cancer

Study Yields Biomarkers for Detecting
Cancer 08/17/2004 09:05 PM
Researchers find three new biomarkers for ovarian cancer that may greatly improve diagnosis at an early stage, reducing the mortality rate.

Detecting Required Applications with
Windows Installer (I)

Detecting Required Applications with
Windows Installer (I) 05/23/2004 12:05 PM

Where'd we put 'em? US to buy Stealth
bomber detecting radar

Where'd we put 'em? US to buy Stealth
bomber detecting radar 05/20/2004 08:45 AM
Stymies sale to China

Detecting Patterns in Complex Social
Networks

Detecting Patterns in Complex Social
Networks 02/16/2004 01:14 PM
BoingBoing reader Roland Piquepaille says:

So-called social networking is very popular these days, as show the proliferation of services like Friendster, Orkut and dozens of others. But do the companies behind these services have any idea of what is hidden inside their complicated networks? When these networks reach a size of millions of users, it's not an easy task. A researcher at the University of Michigan is trying to help, with a new method for uncovering patterns in complicated networks, from football conferences to food webs. This overview contains more details and references about this non-traditional method. It also includes a spectacular representation of the Internet and another image showing a food web at Little Rock Lake.

Link

Detecting Worms and Abnormal Activities
with NetFlow, Part 1

Detecting Worms and Abnormal Activities
with NetFlow, Part 1 08/16/2004 10:27 PM

Detecting Worms and Abnormal Activities
with NetFlow, Part 2

Detecting Worms and Abnormal Activities
with NetFlow, Part 2 09/23/2004 12:42 PM

Apple aims to patent fall-detecting iPod

Apple aims to patent fall-detecting iPod 12/24/2004 12:40 PM
ZDNet Dec 23 2004 7:13PM GMT

Researchers Develop New Machine for
Detecting Signs of Life on Mars

Researchers Develop New Machine for
Detecting Signs of Life on Mars 02/01/2005 09:58 PM

Apple files patent application for
[iPod] fall-detecting technology

Apple files patent application for
[iPod] fall-detecting technology 12/24/2004 01:07 PM
osOpinion Dec 24 2004 4:45PM GMT

Auto-Run SysPrep

Auto-Run SysPrep 07/31/2004 12:31 AM

Auto MySqlBackup

Auto MySqlBackup 04/21/2004 12:56 PM
The project stated

Auto Drool

Auto Drool 12/30/2004 09:08 AM
Technology Review Dec 30 2004 1:31PM GMT

Auto Draw

Auto Draw 06/22/2004 12:54 AM
Auto Draw

Auto-mesh

Auto-mesh 04/30/2004 12:10 PM
Glenn Fleischman writes: The CUWiN [Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network ] project wants to allow self-forming, noncentralized, mesh-based Wi-Fi networks using standard, old PCs with no configuration. Slightly more advanced units could be ruggedized boxes using Compact Flash, but the basic unit would be a 486 or later PC with a bootable CD-ROM or bootable floppy that bootstraps a CD-ROM. Once booted, a unit finds other similar units without any other configuration or control and forms a mesh. Clay comments over at Corante Many2Many: As with straight Wifi, the obvious uses of a simple meshing tool are to replace wireline networks...

Config-Auto-0.05

Config-Auto-0.05 02/10/2004 10:30 AM

Auto Wreck

Auto Wreck 04/09/2005 12:38 AM
The queue looked lonely, so I thought I'd share with you kids a short story I wrote many years ago...

Auto save, anyone?

Auto save, anyone? 03/14/2005 05:38 PM
I feel Adam's pain! The TEXTAREA does generally suck. Maybe someone will come up with a great ajax application for...

Auto Onslaught

Auto Onslaught 10/31/2003 05:16 PM
20031031 - Cancelled Meeting

Auto overflow

Auto overflow 12/02/2003 01:55 AM
I discovered a css property I was previously unaware of: overflow .  This enables me to address a pesky little problem whereby the center column encroaches on the rightmost column when the data is too wide.  If your browser supports this css property, try shrinking the width of the brower window when viewing these entries.
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Auto-Detecting Driver Installers

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