Coconut Monkey Cornerclub

[Brian Boru]

Synchronized swimming or synchronized flying, which do you prefer?

"Flying's for me", he murmured.

 

[ZedClampet]

Synchronized swimming or synchronized flying, which do you prefer?

"Flying's for me", he murmured.

That's always amazed me. And also made me run for cover. Nothing's funnier than someone else getting hit with bird poop.

 

[Frindis]

Insane deal on Bitdefender Total Security at Fanatical right now for anyone interested. Bought myself 3 extra years of protection since you can apply the code and extend the subscription for a few years. Keep in mind that you can't have more than a total of 5 years of subscription on your account.

 

[ZedClampet]

The UK cave cheddar cheese is by far my favorite cheese and Aldi has been out of it for over a month. I guess when you age cheese for at least a year that when you run out, you run out. Can't just whip some more up. Better believe I'm going to be rude and hoard it the next time I notice they have it. Didn't do it with Covid toilet paper, but I'll do it with cheese.

 

[Pifanjr]

Insane deal on Bitdefender Total Security at Fanatical right now for anyone interested. Bought myself 3 extra years of protection since you can apply the code and extend the subscription for a few years. Keep in mind that you can't have more than a total of 5 years of subscription on your account.

Is there any reason to pay for a security program nowadays? It's never seemed worth it to me. I haven't used anything besides Windows Defender for years now.

 

[BeardyHat]

Is there any reason to pay for a security program nowadays? It's never seemed worth it to me. I haven't used anything besides Windows Defender for years now.

I haven't used one in... Damn, I don't know how long. Generally Windows Defender has been perfectly great since Windows 7, especially when paired with a general suspicion and vigilance.

Saturday my friend gave me his old resin 3D printer and I've done nothing but tinker with it since then. Didn't really care too much about them prior and figured I wouldn't ever bother getting one, as it's a hobby unto itself and I was always content to just buy prints off eBay. But now that I have one? Wow. I love it.

I've only printed a few things so far, some of which have failed, others came out great and another with some flaws, but it's been fun none the less. The only problem is, it really stinks up the house, so I moved it over into my utility room today and am waiting on a duct fan from Amazon to plump it into the window and hopefully keep the fumes down.

But I absolutely love that I can print very specialized models for my various wargame interests. I've already expanded my British 8th Army slightly and am soon going to ape **** on various Battletech mechs and terrain.

https://imgur.com/a/xfHlDPR

 

[ZedClampet]

I haven't used anything besides Windows Defender for years now.

I am also a Windows Defender only person.

 

[Zloth]

Ah, `tis a wonderful time of the year. It's cool enough that a cold glass of water doesn't soak my desk with condensation, but it isn't so dry that I risk electrocuting my PC every time I sit down and touch my mouse.

Battletech mechs and terrain.

Stay away from those dirty clanners!

 

[BeardyHat]

Ah, `tis a wonderful time of the year. It's cool enough that a cold glass of water doesn't soak my desk with condensation, but it isn't so dry that I risk electrocuting my PC every time I sit down and touch my mouse.


Stay away from those dirty clanners!

Unfortunately, my son is already one of them. I took him to pick out a box for his birthday and he picked a Clan Star, so when we play, It's all my Inner Sphere vs. his Clan Star.

 

[Brian Boru]

Nothing's funnier than someone else getting hit with bird poop

How about a group art project?

 

[Brian Boru]

Is there any reason to pay for a security program nowadays?

when paired with a general suspicion and vigilance

^ should be enough for normal use, WD has been top-rated for years with the security guys I keep an eye on.

We have MalwareBytes here since we got a nice deal a long time ago and it plays very nicely with WD—as we run a small online biz, we indulge in some paranoia

But if MBAM ever starts conflicting with WD or hogging resources, we'll drop it and run WD only—backed up of course by the Beardy formula

 

[Frindis]

Is there any reason to pay for a security program nowadays? It's never seemed worth it to me. I haven't used anything besides Windows Defender for years now.

It depends on what you are looking for. I'm looking for better overall control/configuration since I now have multiple users and also for less resource impact. Windows Defender has gotten much better in the last few years so going with that and Malwarebytes or Malwarebytes and AVAST (I used the latter for several years ) is a good choice. I only changed from AVAST because it started to get annoying with the popup ads wanting to sell me something because I used the free version.

 

[ZedClampet]

^ should be enough for normal use, WD has been top-rated for years with the security guys I keep an eye on.

We have MalwareBytes here since we got a nice deal a long time ago and it plays very nicely with WD—as we run a small online biz, we indulge in some paranoia

But if MBAM ever starts conflicting with WD or hogging resources, we'll drop it and run WD only—backed up of course by the Beardy formula

Suspicion and vigilance always come first. With enough of that, you'll never have to test your antivirus.

@Frindis I wouldn't use Avast. Also, I have this general feeling, based only on personal experience, that Malwarebytes is not as capable as it used to be. I've had to work on both of my kids' computers in the last year removing malware that MB wasn't ready for. I told them to ditch it and turn on Defender.

Also, the cybersecurity company I used to work for and where my wife works now uses only Defender, and those guys know what they are doing.

 

[Brian Boru]

ditch it and turn on Defender

Why didn't they run both together, since they had both? As I said, they play very nicely together.

cybersecurity company … uses only Defender, and those guys know what they are doing

Key bit is at the end there

For general protection for everyone else—ie not a security company—I've never seen an expert say anything other than a layered approach is best, and no one solution will catch all the stuff all the time. But that's mitigated for most people by not visiting dodgy online neighborhoods, so a top performer like WD will keep almost all of them safe.

My own approach encourages prevention, but doesn't rely on it. I base my defenses on 'when I get hacked', not 'if'. Iow I focus on minimizing loss or damage. It's less stressful that way

 

[ZedClampet]

Why didn't they run both together, since they had both? As I said, they play very nicely together.



Key bit is at the end there

For general protection for everyone else—ie not a security company—I've never seen an expert say anything other than a layered approach is best, and no one solution will catch all the stuff all the time. But that's mitigated for most people by not visiting dodgy online neighborhoods, so a top performer like WD will keep almost all of them safe.

My own approach encourages prevention, but doesn't rely on it. I base my defenses on 'when I get hacked', not 'if'. Iow I focus on minimizing loss or damage. It's less stressful that way

Well I don't know who your "experts" are, probably dudes on YouTube (zing!), but it's unnecessary to run them both and can cause actual problems. For instance, if you didn't go into Malwarebytes and turn off registering itself with Security Center, then Windows Defender is actually not running on your system. Most of its background processes have been turned off because both Windows 10 and 11 only allow you to run one antivirus at a time. If you open up your security page in Windows and it shows Malwarebytes, then Defender isn't fully active. It will only come awake every now and then to run scans. Also, if you do get them both working at the same time, your PC will take a decent performance hit.

Every single real cybersecurity person will tell you that vigilance should be your first priority. You never want your antivirus to have to catch anything, and it isn't inevitable that you will eventually get malware or a virus. Unless, of course, you aren't vigilant, then you will definitely get into trouble because Malwarebytes only catches so much.

 

[Frindis]

@Frindis I wouldn't use Avast.

Not too bad, I would say: https://www.av-comparatives.org/tests/real-world-protection-test-july-october-2023/ https://www.av-comparatives.org/vendors/avast/

 

[Frindis]

I tried using https://labs.masterpiecex.com/genai? for making a 3D-generated Cyberpunk Lion. The result is...well...something.

 

[Brian Boru]

experts

Main ones are Brian Krebs, Graham Cluley, Amanda Rousseau, Neil Rubenking and Steve Gibson.

Defender isn't fully active

Quite right, that's how I run it. While WD is fine for what it is, MBAM has extra goodies which I like to have.

 

[ZedClampet]

Quite right, that's how I run it. While WD is fine for what it is, MBAM has extra goodies which I like to have.

I don't really want to resurrect this conversation again, but you aren't layering protection. In your scenario, WD is turned off and only runs the standard Windows scans when scheduled. That's not a problem. Malwarebytes is very good, but you said you were layering protection.

In any event, the financial institutions, many of them quite large, that we worked as consultants for were put on Windows Defender. It was less confusing for the banks than trying to layer, which could have led to them having no antivirus at all; we didn't think layering was better due to potential conflicts between the two different software that could lead to errors; and, very importantly, banks typically use very underpowered PC's that don't do a good job of handling too many things running at the same time.

*****

I'm at my mother-in-law's house for Thanksgiving. Her Internet works at a remarkable 400 KB per second. No idea what she's paying for this, but I guarantee it's too much.

 

[Pifanjr]

We had a very traditional Thanksgiving. Our tradition is that half of the planned dishes don't get prepared because we run out of time, while half of the ones that do get prepared aren't done yet by the time we're supposed to start eating. None of this stops us from eating too much food.

 

[Brian Boru]

I don't really want to resurrect this conversation again, but you aren't layering protection

Good idea, let's let it rest. I was referring to more comprehensive layering, not only software-based anti-malware. You are right in what you say, as are the industry stalwarts I pay attention to—they're just different scope and their advice is not limited by personnel and equipment, so over and out

---

Burp

 

[BeardyHat]

Damn, I am toast from this last 7 days. I'm an introvert, but I very much enjoy socializing and talking to people, but it just absolutely smokes me; my wife, however, is an extrovert and she can't get enough of it, so this time of year, I reach my max and then keep being pushed to the point of exhaustion.

Saturday we had a "Friendsgiving", which was a very large party (like 50+ people), but was very fun.

Tuesday we went to visit some of the friends that were at that Friendsgiving for their weekly "Pizza Tuesday", which involved around 30 people and an hour and 45 minutes of driving for us.

Thursday was of course Thanksgiving for us in the US, which involved my own family, which is generally pretty chill, but still.

Tonight my wife invited over 1/4 of her family for "Game Night", so we've got somewhere between 7 and 10 people coming over tonight. I've declared to all of them that I will be hiding out in my office and not interacting with them.

Though I suppose that that's a little bit of a lie, because I do want to see my Niece and Nephew at least a little bit, since I don't get to see them too often.

I'm very much over socializing right now.

 

[Frindis]

I absolutely hate mingling, so I normally just gather people for some kind of competition of sorts. That way I don't have to mingle anymore

 

[Zloth]

FOUR parties in less than 7 days? I hope you took the whole week off from work!

 

[BeardyHat]

FOUR parties in less than 7 days? I hope you took the whole week off from work!

Oof, I wish. Unfortunately, my job doesn't come with any vacation days, so I'm on the hook still.

Thankfully, it's just family tonight and my beer fridge is fully stocked, so as soon as I'm proper worn from interaction, I'll go hide in my office and pilfer my beer supply.