Computer Questions Not Worth Their Own Thread II

[aimeeandbeatles]

The site says its stored locally (on your machine). hmm. It says this fancy stuff

AES utilizing 256-bit keys.AES-256 is accepted by the US Government for protecting TOP SECRET data. AES is implemented in JavaScript for the LastPass.com website, and in C++ for speed in the Internet Explorer and Firefox plug-ins. This is important because your sensitive data is always encrypted and decrypted locally on your computer before being synchronized. Your master password never leaves your computer and your key never leaves your computer. No one at LastPass (or anywhere else) can decrypt your data without you giving up your password (we will never ask you for it). Your key is created by taking a SHA-256 hash of your password. When you login, we make a hash of your username concatenated with your password, and that hash is what's sent to verify if you can download your encrypted data.

and this

Has your software been verified by an independent 3rd party?

3rd party verification is on our road-map. Members of Mozilla Corporations' Firefox Add Ons team have reviewed some parts of our Firefox code base and individual end-users have carried out their own external audit of our software to verify that it does what it purports to do. Namely:

Confidential data in your vault is encrypted before it is sent to LastPass
Encryption is performed using your LastPass Master password
Your LastPass Master password and encryption key generated from it never leaves your computer - so you are the only person who can decrypt your data

Steve Gibson, a respected security industry expert reviewed LastPass in his Security Now podcast and concluded 'This thing is secure every way you can imagine. And it's simple.'

 

[Cynovolans]

I need to compress a file into a .dazip file(for a game) but WinRAR will only let me compress it into a .zip or .rar file. Anyway I could compress it into a .dazip?

Or alternatively, is there a way I could stop my browser from turning files I download into .zip files?

 

[Genocidicbunny]

.dazip is equivalent to .zip. Just rename it.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Question: Why does OS rely on extensions and not file headers to figure out what program to open. Isnt that sorta unreliable?

Also is there a program that you put unknown (e.g. no extension) file in and it tells you what header says.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

It doesnt. In Linux and Unix file extensions are entirely optional, and they only serve to indicate the content of the file.

Windows is silly in that way -- it should recognize the file based on the header, not filename, but then again, Im not the system architect for Windows, so what do I know.

As for a tool, it's called a hex editor. You open the file and see what the header is.

 

[Cynovolans]

.dazip is equivalent to .zip. Just rename it.

I right-clicked on it, and then selected rename but now the files says its a .dazip.zip. Is there another way to rename it?

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

It doesnt. In Linux and Unix file extensions are entirely optional, and they only serve to indicate the content of the file.

Windows is silly in that way -- it should recognize the file based on the header, not filename, but then again, Im not the system architect for Windows, so what do I know.

As for a tool, it's called a hex editor. You open the file and see what the header is.

Wouldn't it all be in numbers? Also, whats a good free hex editor. I googled that and got a dozen.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I right-clicked on it, and then selected rename but now the files says its a .dazip.zip. Is there another way to rename it?

You have to turn on file extensions and specifically delete it. If it works you should get a message saying that renaming it will corrupt the file or something but you can ignore that.

 

[Cynovolans]

.dazip is equivalent to .zip. Just rename it.

You have to turn on file extensions and specifically delete it. If it works you should get a message saying that renaming it will corrupt the file or something but you can ignore that.

Thanks, I fixed it now.

 

[Bratmon]

Also is there a program that you put unknown (e.g. no extension) file in and it tells you what header says.

I don't know about Windows, but UNIX derivatives usually include the file utility, which is excellent in that regard.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Hmm.

Why is it that a power flicker that will set all the clocks in the apartment to 12:00 doesn't turn off my computer? It just oddly happened. No UPS.

 

[ecuwins]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor <-- these things store power like a battery, it only lasts for *seconds*, though.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

So the clocks in the house don't have those things? Or less of them? Or a smaller one?

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Uhh, id just like to point out that capacitors can store power near indefinitely, as long as they are not actually connected anything that will complete a circuit and allow a discharge.

So the clocks in the house don't have those things? Or less of them? Or a smaller one?

If they're digital, they probably do, but they're not designed to maintain the state of the clock. They're there to condition the power input.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Its a digital clock.

Why is a "ping" called that.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Ping is based on the Ping utility, written in 1983 By Mike Muuss. He supposedly named it after the pulses of sound active sonar sends out to measure distance and bearing to objects using an echo (similar to what the Ping utility does) which is colloquially called a ping.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

i was wondtering if that had to do with the sound. Does that 1983 prognram still exist?

 

[Genocidicbunny]

http://www.webcitation.org/5saCKBpgH

and more specifically:
http://ftp.arl.army.mil/pub/ping.shar

 

[cardgame]

You can ping an IP with cmdprompt

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Yes you can. Aimee was wondering if the original program still exists.