How to determine the number of bits used when generating a CSR

I was looking for an answer to this question today and stumbled across a page on the MaximumASP site, which indicates that looking at the first few characters of the CSR will provide the answer.

I still want to do a bit of research to verify that what they have said is true, but it seems to be, based on my limited test. I generated CSRs for 512-, 1024-, 2048-, 4096-, 8192-, and 16384-bits* and examined the first few characters. My generated CSRs for 512- and 1024-bits matched the MaximumASP page. Here are my results.

How to determine if a mobile number is on the Verizon network

Need to find out if a mobile number is considered in-network for Verizon? There’s a page on Verizon’s site that let’s you find out easily and quickly: Determine if a mobile number is in the Verizon Wireless Mobile to Mobile Calling Family.

Microsoft LifeCam software crashes

Microsoft LifeCam software crashes upon startup. It seems to not be specific to my parent’s computer, but several potential solutions have been proposed. Here’s what I tried.

1. Moved 04Geometric*.dll files from C:\Program Files\Microsoft LifeCam\Effects directory into C:\Program Files\Microsoft LifeCam\Effects Backup per this post. — This one change has allowed the camera software to run normally.

At the same time, the Skype software crashes, also when the camera kicks in. I assumed that it’s the same problem in both cases, but that assumption seems to be invalid.

I started Skype after making the change mentioned above and Skype still crashed after selecting the web cam.

I created a Visual Backup 2 directory as a sibling to the other one and moved all the other DLL files from the Effects directory into it and started teh LifeCam software again. It ran and didn’t show any effects from which to choose, as expected. I disabled TrueColor and closed the software, hoping that would help Skype. A few seconds later the LifeCam software crashed.

Inspecting the error report technical details that were sent to Microsoft showed that the LifeCam software was still at least referencing the moved DLL files, so I moved them completely outside the LifeCam directory tree and tried again. Same results.

The next thought was make sure that we had the most recent version of the software installed. One of the forum posts gave a link to the Microsoft page with the software and I downloaded both the most recent LifeCam software and the firmware update for the camera. The firmware program indicated that the camera was already up-to-date (which doesn’t surprise me as I applied the firmware update the day I unboxed the camera), and an inspection of the Version tab of the properties of one of the LifeCam executable files indicated that it was already at version 3.21 (the same as the software I just downloaded). I decided to try reinstalling the software anyway and was told that I had to uninstall and reboot first. So I did.

After the reboot, I noticed that the camera was still listed in the My Computer window, so I right-clicked and chose Properties. A quick Test Camera yielded an all-is-well dialog box. Going back to My Computer and double-clicking on the camera brought up a window with the live camera feed. Closing the window worked fine–no crash. I looked for the C:\Program Files\Microsoft LifeCam directory and it’s nowhere to be found. Just to see what would happen, I started Skype and selected the camera for both the audio and video devices and clicked on Save. Normally Skype crashed at this point, but it didn’t this time. I grabbed my laptop and started a video call between it and my parent’s computer and everything worked just as it should. Even ending the call didn’t result in a Skype crash like it used to.

At this point, I’m considering the issue resolved. The only thing I wish we still had is the TrueColor correction, but I’m willing to live without it if it means that Skype isn’t crashing.

Seth’s Blog: Consumer debt is not your friend

“Debt seems like fun for a long time, until it’s not. And everyone does it. We’ve been sold very hard on acquisition = happiness, and consumer debt is the engine that permits this. Until it doesn’t.”

“It’s simple: when the utility of what you want (however you measure it) is less than the cost of the debt, don’t buy it.”

Read Mr. Godin’s blog post–I can’t say it better than he can.

Seth’s Blog: Consumer debt is not your friend.

Pumpkin Cookie Cakes

Ingredients

• 1 package (18.5 oz) butter cake mix
• 1/2 cup oil
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups pumpkin pie filling
• 1 c. oats
• 1 c. flour
• Optional: 6 oz white chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Combine cake mix, oil, eggs and mix.
3. Add pumpkin pie filling and mix.
4. Stir in the oats and flour in a bowl. Batter will be slightly lumpy.
5. Add the white chocolate chips and mix.
6. Bake for 12 minutes at 375 degrees F.
7. NOTE: These cookies don’t settle as they bake.

Adapted from Cake Mix Cookies on cooks.com.

Word Study: Poieo and Prasso

Definitions

Poieo and prasso are both often translated “to do” in our English Bible, but they have very different flavors. Prasso has “to do” as a primary definition and “to practice” as a secondary definition. The feeling here is very physical and control-oriented–I take out the trash, paint the barn (Manley), make the bed, vacuum the floor. Those activities are prasso. I get tired as I do these things. Often times I have to make a conscious effort to make myself do those things. The common usage of prasso during Bible times was with regard to business. Prasso is always about results and ability (how something gets done).

Malware infection: Total XP Security

My church’s secretary called me a few days ago and indicated that she saw a number of popups on her computer screen that seemed suspicious. She wasn’t able to catch anyone by phone at the time, so she did the next best thing she could think of–she shut down the computer without clicking on anything.

It was a day and a half before I was able to make it to the church to look at the PC and I discovered that the pastor had booted it during that day and allowed it to run normally (it serves as a file and print server in addition to being the secretary’s primary workstation). After a partial run of ClamWinAV (which I had downloaded, updated, configured to run in standalone mode, and burned to a CD so I wouldn’t risk infecting my USB drive, I decided to take the machine home and scan the drive on a computer with a known good Antivirus/antimalware program (Microsoft Security Essentials [MSE]).

MSE scanned the drive and found only one problem, which I had it remove. I loaded the drive back into the church’s computer and headed back to the church. Upon booting the computer, everything appeared to be normal. I quickly discovered, however, that all was not well. None of the shortcuts on the desktop worked. Neither did any other program I tried to run. I would always get an “Application not found” or the “Open with” dialog box. Right-clicking on a shortcut or executable file gave me the normal Open, Run as…, and Scan with AVG Free options, but I noticed a new “start” option.

Checking the registry for the .exe class (HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.exe\shell\open\command) showed that the (Default) action was now ‘”C:\Documents and Settings\User\Local Settings\Application Data\ave.exe” /start “%1″ %*.’ A quick Google search indicated that this was part of the Total XP Security fake antivirus program.

Some more quick searching via Google turned up some excellent instructions for removing Total XP Security at BleepingComputer.com.

I also discovered another useful tool during this process: Norton Safe Web. Norton Safe Web scans sites for security problems and gives a report on its findings. It also allows visitors to rate and comment about sites. While Googling for instructions to remove Total XP Security I found several sets of instructions on sites that were not rated well by Norton Safe Web. BleepingComputer.com, however, has an excellent rating.

Following the BleepingComputer.com removal instructions has gotten my church’s computer on the right track again. The Malwarebytes Anti-Malware program took about 20 minutes to run and found over 40 infected files/rogue registry keys! It was able to remove them (with a reboot).

I have since removed the AVG virus program and replaced it with MSE. Let’s hope that we don’t end up in this situation again!

This does lead to another question, though. Is MSE enough protection on a PC? Some people don’t think so.

Running MSE and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware side-by-side.