Computing desk
< August 20	<< Jul \| August \| Sep >>	August 22 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Computing Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

August 21

Burning time differences

I was just curious if anyone could tell me why MKV files of the same size as AVI files take about 5 times as long to burn to disk on my mac superdrive. Thanks.--108.46.107.181 (talk) 01:14, 21 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It is probable that you are doing more than just burning - you may be simultaneously transcoding. It will help us diagnose the root-cause if you can explain the process you are performing, and the software you are using. Nimur (talk) 21:16, 22 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I am using Toast Titanium to burn television programs to DVD. Often these are programs of the exact same size--same number of usually about 370, but an avi file will take 20 minutes to burn, and an mkv file will take two hours.--108.46.107.181 (talk) 09:30, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

best proxy to avoid detection

can someone suggest me a proxy i can run on my home pc to be anonymous and avoid detecting my IP as my bro in law has been bothering with his IT skills and invading my family's privacy, its getting serious now.. please help — Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.199.76.30 (talk) 08:02, 21 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Can you be a little more specific about what you want, with perhaps an example of your brother in law's activity? Has your brother-in-law had access to your computer? Comet Tuttle (talk) 16:39, 21 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

If you want to surf the internet anonymously, use TOR. I've never actually used TOR myself, but I've read that it provides good anonymization. Rocketshiporion ♫ 18:42, 22 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

How will Tor help? It sounds like the terminal and the local network may be compromised. Routing outbound traffic through Tor will accomplish nothing. To ensure your communications with the internet remain private, you need to, in the following order:

Ensure your computers or devices are not compromised (no key-loggers, root-access by a third-party, or so on). Usually, this means reinstalling your operating system using a trusted, master-copy of the disc.
Only use HTTPS, or other SSL / encrypted communication. Usually, this means only visiting websites that support secure protocols.
Keep your computer/device "clean" from malware, by being very careful about what software you install.

These are general best-practice rules for ensuring secure communication with the outside world, even though you are communicating on a network that you know is compromised. Nimur (talk) 00:01, 23 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

If the attacker has physical access to the machine, you will want to encrypt everything on your harddrive. See TrueCrypt; it will let you encrypt your entire re-installed operating system and require a password on bootup. This will prevent the attacker from (re)installing a keylogger on the drive or other forms of surveillance (as long as they don't know the password), and it won't matter how securely you've connected to the Internet if the attacker can install malicious software on the computer. Remember that full encryption is the only effective way of preventing unauthorized access to your machine. Don't be fooled by Windows and BIOS passwords; removing the drive and doing the dirty work on another computer is trivially easy. And shut down the computer when you're not using it.--el Aprel (^facta-_facienda) 22:57, 24 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I question that advice. TrueCrypt makes it harder for someone with continous (meaning including occasional) physical access to install a keylogger or otherwise gain access to the information. It doesn't make it impossible, not even close and our own article on TrueCrypt says so evidentally sourced from the documentation. Whole disk encryption is useful (amongst other things) if you are worried someone is going to get access to your computer or disk drive and find the information (e.g. if you lose the drive or computer or if someone steals it). It's of limited use if someone has continous physical access. They could use anything from a hardware keylogger (a random search proves they don't cost that much [1]) to a spycam to in the case of TrueCrypt and probably most other whole disk encryption systems, using a modified bootloader like TrueCrypt#The "Stoned" bootkit to a bunch of more complex methods. You may be able to detect these if you're careful (if it's only occasional access and you know every time, you could check), but I wouldn't count on it if it matters. The best advice if you're worried about someone with physical access is not to give them physical access. Nil Einne (talk) 16:08, 26 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Adobe InDesign favour

Resolved

I have an important (and quite large - 91Mb) file saved as an InDesign (.indd) file. InDesign has full support for turning this into a PDF; however, it's suddenly stopped working and time is not on my side. Could anyone with InDesign convert it for me? I'll email it if anyone could. There shouldn't need to be anything complicated. Grandiose (me, talk, contribs) 09:00, 21 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

If you can upload it somewhere and give me an e-mail address to send the PDF to, I could definitely do in by the end of today. Message me via my talk page. It's worth noting that InDesign files have terribly backwards and forwards compatibility. I have InDesign CS5 at home and CS6 at work; if you're more than 1 versions different from either of these, I'm not going to be able to open them, I don't think. --Mr.98 (talk) 14:56, 21 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

If it doesn't have any embarrassing personal information in it, just upload it somewhere public and link to it here, then whoever is available at that moment can help you out. ¦ Reisio (talk) 20:40, 21 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It's here (I think you'll need to "save target as" or similar); I think you an email me though here, if not it's usergrandiose [.at.] gmail.com. (As you can see, it's designed for this sort of thing.) Grandiose (me, talk, contribs) 20:44, 21 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

OK, it's been done. Thanks whoever that is! Grandiose (me, talk, contribs) 21:02, 21 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

No problem. --Mr.98 (talk) 21:11, 21 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]