Messages

76

General Software Discussion / Re: Newest malware now able to target virtual machines?

« on: August 24, 2012, 12:47 PM »

Wow. That was to me? Okey-doke.

77

General Software Discussion / Re: Newest malware now able to target virtual machines?

« on: August 24, 2012, 12:28 PM »

What makes Crisis interesting is that it appears to be specifically looking for virtualized environments and is therefore believed to be the first malware to spread onto a virtual machine.

Looks like they left out an adverbial phrase there.

78

Living Room / Re: Help me pick a midrange Android phone?

« on: August 23, 2012, 10:22 AM »

Whatever you do, don't be tempted to get an older Galaxy S II unless it has Ice Cream Sandwich installed OEM.  They are very nice phones, but I have dealt with too many horror stories of people who had one with Gingerbread, did the update to ICS and it completely broke multiple functionalities.  If you find, like, and purchase one with Gingerbread, DO NOT UPDATE IT.  It is not worth the pain...

-Edvard (August 14, 2012, 12:03 PM)

Does this advice apply to OEM manual updates?

http://support.t-mob...le.com/docs/DOC-3029

79

Living Room / Re: Help me pick a midrange Android phone?

« on: August 23, 2012, 06:14 AM »

Interesting article here: Why I'm ditching the Verizon Galaxy Nexus, about why a Verizon contract Galaxy Nexus isn't a real Galaxy Nexus. He switched to a $30/month T-Mobile prepaid plan.

-daddydave (August 19, 2012, 08:15 AM)

Until I found this article, I was under the impression from the T-Mobile web site that the $30/month plans and Bring Your Own Phone were mutually exclusive. Perhaps because that's how other carriers do it, and perhaps because both of the pages with the value plans listed direct you to the phones they sell.

80

Living Room / Re: XKCD makes online ratings easy to understand

« on: August 22, 2012, 10:07 AM »

In the end, the success or failure of a movie depends on critical mass and the ability to hit a cross-section a combination of things, not the opinion of one particular person.

-wraith808 (August 22, 2012, 09:47 AM)

The reason I am more dependent on popular ratings than most people is that I have found the best movie critics can make a crap movie sound awesome and an awesome movie sound like crap. So I am trying to blunt the effect of relying on one particular voice to decide what movie to watch.

Plus I don't like to watch movies alone. If I am the only one who enjoys the movie, it is not a "win" at my house. So popularity means something, although it obviously doesn't mean everything.

Even hitting that, it still doesn't allow for individual tastes.  It's sort of like that conversation we had on why people make new software.  I usually try to find a couple of critics that seem to grade and think the way that I do, then follow them.  It's better to me than some random cross section- whether it is critics or the general masses.

(emphasis mine)

I haven't had much luck with finding a critic who thinks like me consistently.

81

Living Room / Re: XKCD makes online ratings easy to understand

« on: August 22, 2012, 08:29 AM »

My rule of thumbs for movie ratings:

Ignore the (5 star) Netflix ratings, and go by the (10 star) IMDB ratings, because you get a bit more diverse (and international) group doing the ratings.

Anything with a rating over 8 is suspect. It is probably either one of the following (there are exceptions):

• Something with A Good Message but no story and no interesting characters (these always seem to find their audience, to the delight of lazy directors).
  
• Or, an old movie that people have irrational nostalgic feelings for, not because the movie was great, but because of where they were in life at the time.
  
• Or, a 20 year old movie that was 5 years ahead of its time. Exactly.

Anything with a rating 5 of less has universal negative appeal, I haven't had much luck finding "undiscovered gems" in that category.

So an IMDB rating of 6 to 8 seems is where I check for movies that might be worth watching, if they have 100 votes or more.

82

Living Room / Re: Google Stabs You in the Back...

« on: August 21, 2012, 06:59 AM »

If their search results are still based on relevance, but they also have a shopping results tab, then it seems like its two different parts of the service.

-wraith808 (August 21, 2012, 06:45 AM)

I agree with your general point, I think, but are you literally seeing a tab like that on the Google Products web site, or do you mean generally for that type of web site?  If I search for Vizio Costar, I get 5 results, none of which is a Vizio Costar. If I click on "Why these products?", I get the blurb:

Products and offers that match your query. Google is compensated by some of these merchants. Payment is one of several factors used to rank these results

.

It says "some" of these merchants, but it looks like the old metasearch results are gone completely, otherwise it would have found something.

And you can still sort by Relevance, so they kept their "promise," lol.

83

Living Room / Re: Google Stabs You in the Back...

« on: August 21, 2012, 06:38 AM »

Google previously stated that it would only base search results based on relevance.

-Renegade (August 21, 2012, 06:19 AM)

When did they say this exactly?

84

Living Room / Re: Google Stabs You in the Back...

« on: August 21, 2012, 05:36 AM »

I am going to take a minority opinion here and state that Google has every right to make Froogle into a search engine for ads: after all, some of the sites I depend on are basically that: pricewatch.com and dealnews.com. However those are a little more narrowly focused on tech products, and that's probably why I find them useful.

That said, I don't think I will be using the new Google products search site for general not-necessarily-tech items. For now I am using PriceGrabber (which also accepts advertising) instead. Any other suggestions for alternative sites? Seems like they all accept advertising, are there any that show unadvertised items as well?

85

Living Room / Re: Help me pick a midrange Android phone?

« on: August 19, 2012, 08:15 AM »

This would be good time for Google to lower the cost of Galaxy Nexus to about $200 so it can keep its OS market share.

Interesting article here: Why I'm ditching the Verizon Galaxy Nexus, about why a Verizon contract Galaxy Nexus isn't a real Galaxy Nexus. He switched to a $30/month T-Mobile prepaid plan.

86

Living Room / Re: Help me pick a midrange Android phone?

« on: August 19, 2012, 08:09 AM »

Two forces at work here obviously.

On the one hand, I want to stay within some kind of budget. On the other hand, I don't want to buy a disposable phone.

87

Living Room / Re: Help me pick a midrange Android phone?

« on: August 19, 2012, 07:55 AM »

So I decided to ratchet up my battery talk time (according to the Phone Arena database) to an insane 20 hours (since they don't show data use time).

-daddydave (August 17, 2012, 05:04 PM)

I've decided 15 hours is also insane, so I am seriously eyeballing the Galaxy Nexus (about $300 on ebay/swappa)

UPDATE: This may be the one Stephen suggested in his first reply, I'm not sure, there appear to be several Nexi.

88

Living Room / Re: Go dark for IE - October 26, 2012

« on: August 19, 2012, 07:40 AM »

I think the only people who are using old versions of IE as their main browser are the ones being forced to by the fat, lethargic, too-big-to-manage companies they work for. After the Go Dark campaign, those companies will continue to be fat, lethargic, and too big to manage.

This post will be deleted in 24 hours.

89

Living Room / Re: Help me pick a midrange Android phone?

« on: August 18, 2012, 05:43 AM »

BTW, I also still have a working Axim x5, x50v and Asus MyPal 716.

-J-Mac (August 15, 2012, 11:15 AM)

How are the digitizers on those devices? I seem to be a bit rough on them, all of my devices have had the digitizer go bad, and I have proven myself incompetent at replacing them.

-daddydave (August 17, 2012, 04:49 PM)

Mine look great! I have always used clear screen protectors on them.

Jim

-J-Mac (August 17, 2012, 10:33 PM)

Mine always seem to stop tracking stylus/finger, even with the screen protectors.

90

Living Room / Re: Help me pick a midrange Android phone?

« on: August 17, 2012, 05:04 PM »

OK, I found a way to make things a little simpler. Or should I say, and now the Shocking Conclusion to "Help me pick a midrange Android phone?" (sic).

I came to realize Android 4.x (ICS) is a firm requirement, because Android 4.0 is the first version that supports Devanagari script (and font management on Android seems to be about the same as font management on Palm OS, you'd have to either overwrite the one Unicode font or use an application specific font). I need this for my personal project of learning Hindi, which I have slacked off on lately.

Further, I don't want to rely on aftermarket OS upgrades, that seems to be iffy on a lot of different models and causes features to be lost.

The original reason for wanting Android 4.0 was something I think I read on Google+ but can no longer find, about applications can make better use onboard memory cards, haven't been able to find it again lately so I was waffling on that requirement.

As far as battery life, the only way I know to compare apples to apples is to use the Phone Arena web site to find phones by feature, otherwise it is very hard to compare different anecdotes.

So I decided to ratchet up my battery talk time (according to the Phone Arena database) to an insane 20 hours (since they don't show data use time).

Sorry I can't get this link to work in either BBCode or as just a bare URL. Tried urlencoding it to get rid of the square brackets, still no joy. It's the Phone Arena advanced search with the desired phone options selected.

Code: Text [Select]

1. http://www.phonearena.com/phones/full/?ft=2&f[120]=1292&f[341][]=1836&f[341][]=1822&f[341][]=1795&f[341][]=1784&f[341][]=1783&f[341][]=1782&f[341][]=1642&f[492][]=1690&f[3]=20&f[362]=1&f[5][]=1224&f[5][]=1225&f[5][]=1226&f[5][]=1227

There are only two phones. Of the two search results, only one of them, the Samsung Galaxy S III, has a removable battery. You will notice I also have the quad bands checked and scratch resistant glass checked. If you uncheck scratch resistant glass, you get one more, the Galaxy Note. The Droid Maxx is the other one, with the non-removable battery.

So the possibilities have narrowed considerably. The Samsung Galaxy S III is a fairly new phone. I cannot get it with a prepaid plan unless I use something like StraightTalk and a Bring Your Own Phone unlimited plan ($45/month). I can get the phone off of ebay for $500 (an unacceptable upfront cost).

So then I look at 2 year contract plans. Then I could get the phone for $100 from Sprint via Amazon Wireless or $180 from T-Mobile, either way it is going to be $70/month minimum, which is also unacceptable.

So yes, I have cornered myself into Mission Impossible, but it is nice to have that clarity at least. Let's just call it Phase 2, and my search for a Phase 1 phone begins. Because for Phase 1, I'll settle for a "whatever" phone and pay Virgin Mobile $30 month for 300 minutes + unlimited data. Knowing the phone will be a doorstop outside the U.S. makes insane battery life far less necessary. And I can still get an Android 4.x phone for Phase 1. A year or two from now, I will take another crack at getting a Phase 2 phone. By then the Galaxy S III should be a lot cheaper used, and the prepaid carriers may even sell it. I remember when you couldn't even get an Android phone on a prepaid plan, so it could be a lot worse.

Every comment here was extremely helpful, thank you all for your assistance in helping me think through this.

91

Living Room / Re: Help me pick a midrange Android phone?

« on: August 17, 2012, 04:49 PM »

BTW, I also still have a working Axim x5, x50v and Asus MyPal 716.

-J-Mac (August 15, 2012, 11:15 AM)

How are the digitizers on those devices? I seem to be a bit rough on them, all of my devices have had the digitizer go bad, and I have proven myself incompetent at replacing them.

92

General Software Discussion / Re: recognize blocks in pdf, align them and edit them

« on: August 17, 2012, 03:39 PM »

I've had some luck editing documents with SodaPDF word processor style, although on some files, I've seen it do crazy things with the fonts, and I haven't had a need to test it extensively, I have only done minor edits. It is payware, but there was a decent discount at the end of the trial period, I should have that discount link somewhere.

Update: Here's the discount link. But by all means run the trial first to see if it does what you want.

93

Living Room / Re: Help me pick a midrange Android phone?

« on: August 17, 2012, 08:20 AM »

Good luck finding that - and really, the screen on any phone is too small for that.

-f0dder (August 14, 2012, 01:18 PM)

Should be an improvement over my previous devices (Palm Tungsten T3, Dell Axim x51v, iPod Touch 2) at any rate. I'm not expecting it to be a Kindle.

However, it depends on the reading material, too. I think if I am reading to learn, there is a real benefit to a bigger page, especially if I am dealing with charts, tables, source code listings, etc., and also because I seem to absorb some of it through peripheral vision. But a lot of my "ebooks" are things like RSS feeds and reference documents where that is less of an issue.

-daddydave (August 15, 2012, 05:18 AM)

Dave, I have had a LOT of handheld computers - I'm calling them that because I am referring to devices before they were mobile phones. From the Apple Newton way back, through all generations of Palm/Handspring devices, and on through Windows CE and PPC and finally Windows Mobile 5. I even wrote some software for Palm and Windows PPC. (OK, pretty rudimentary stuff, but still...)

The Axim x51v had the most readable/watchable screen of all the devices I owned. Even now it still beats the hell out of my Droid Razr screen. Granted the Razr has a pretty lousy screen compared to most Samsung devices. But the x51v was VGA, which stepping from QVGA to VGA and quadrupling the pixels was pretty shocking visually. Unfortunately about half the developers had no idea how to use it and so their programs just showed up at 25% of their previous size with 4 times the content onscreen. Nice if you could actually decipher text, etc. that tiny! But the devs who properly changed their apps to take full advantage of VGA by not decreasing the size as much but greatly increasing the detail made using the Axim x51v a fantastic experience. That was when I actually did start reading ebooks and watching TV and movies on it without straining my eyes! And the 3D games.. heck I still have a good working x51v and I still play 3D games on it! 3.7" diagonal screen. Beats anything I can view on the Razr!

BTW, I also still have a working Axim x5, x50v and Asus MyPal 716.   

Jim

-J-Mac (August 15, 2012, 11:15 AM)

Fascinating and somewhat depressing post.

94

Living Room / Re: Windows 8: Yes, it's that bad

« on: August 16, 2012, 04:34 PM »

Two questions:

1. Does Windows 8 Final/RTM have a 60 trial thingy like previous versions of Windows?
2. If so, where can I download a legitimate ISO to try it out on a VM?

-Deozaan (August 16, 2012, 04:05 PM)

Deozaan, at the moment the RTM version seems to be available only to MSDN and TechNet subscribers (separate links for each therein).

Otherwise the closest you can get is the release preview version.

95

Living Room / Re: Help me pick a midrange Android phone?

« on: August 16, 2012, 08:54 AM »

I am strongly considering making myself a Scriptish/Greasemonkey user script that puts an asterisk in front of phones without removable batteries so I will not waste time reading about them.

The list so far (of phones with non-removable batteries):

• *HTC One S
  
• *HTC One X
  
• *HTC One V
  
• *Motorola Droid Razr Maxx
  
• *Nokia Lumia 800
  
• *Nokia Lumia 900
  
• *Motorola Droid 4

The asterisk convention was used in Kurt Vonnegut's novel Galapagos to let the reader know a character would die before sunset. Not quite the same, since these phones are already dead to me.

96

Developer's Corner / Re: Visual Studio 11 Express to only build Metro apps

« on: August 16, 2012, 05:26 AM »

According to this blog post, the new VS comes with native Unit testing support for all VS editions. The post is not so clear about if this is also true for Code Coverage though.

-phitsc (August 16, 2012, 02:26 AM)

Interesting tidbit here:

Coming Soon!

We’ve announced two things that will arrive in a few months:

    An update that will enable targeting Windows XP

Isn't Windows XP the IE6 of operating systems at this point?

97

Living Room / Re: Help me pick a midrange Android phone?

« on: August 15, 2012, 12:44 PM »

802.11n wi-fi (not just g)

-daddydave (June 27, 2012, 07:42 PM)

Why? Flash memory can probalby not do much more than g speed anyway.

-f0dder (August 14, 2012, 01:18 PM)

Because about the only way I can think of to NOT meet this requirement is to go buy my old Dell Axim x51v again. (Well, that wasn't a phone, but you get the idea.) If it only supports 802.11g, the device is probably too ancient to meet the other requirements anyway (for example, it is going to have a QVGA screen or something).  I have bad memories of trying to keep it connected to the home network, although that was not so much 802.11g's default, it was a 802.11b device but there was a registry hack to make it think it was 802.11g.

Also because then I would have to change my router settings to allow 802.11g devices. Which, in informal testing, doesn't seem to really slow the network down at all but I still feel good banning G devices for some reason.

ADDED: The reason I gave the seemingly irrelevant QVGA example is I have this perception that there was a period of time where PDAs were becoming smartphones, there were no touch screens, so PDA screens had to give up space for those awkward QWERTY keyboards, and for a while it seemed like decent sized screens on a portable device were a thing of the past. And rightly or wrongly I think of that as the 802.11g, or pre-802.11g era.

98

General Software Discussion / Re: HighLight chm files

« on: August 15, 2012, 09:50 AM »

May I suggest a workaround?

Print to PDF (right click on each book and "print to selected heading and all subtopics" for each book -- if you use BullZip PDF or PDF Creator (trickier), you can append to previous book so you end up with one PDF). This would be a good AHK script candidate actually unless there is something out there that already converts CHM to PDF directly.

Then open up the PDF in PDF X-Change Viewer (lite / free), and highlight and annotate to your heart's content.

99

Living Room / Re: Help me pick a midrange Android phone?

« on: August 15, 2012, 05:35 AM »

Whatever you do, don't be tempted to get an older Galaxy S II unless it has Ice Cream Sandwich installed OEM.  They are very nice phones, but I have dealt with too many horror stories of people who had one with Gingerbread, did the update to ICS and it completely broke multiple functionalities.  If you find, like, and purchase one with Gingerbread, DO NOT UPDATE IT.  It is not worth the pain...

-Edvard (August 14, 2012, 12:03 PM)

Thanks for the warning, I was indeed tempted to do exactly that!

At this point, I'm strongly considering throwing most requirements out the window and going with a Virgin Mobile $35/month plan (300 minutes + unlimited data), and choose from the handful of phones they have. I'm paying $15/month currently for a dumb phone plan so that's a little easier to stomach. The cheapest "bring your own phone" plan I've seen in $45/month for unlimited everything, which I don't need.

Or I can just keep waiting, and the available options may improve.

100

Living Room / Re: Help me pick a midrange Android phone?

« on: August 15, 2012, 05:18 AM »

Good luck finding that - and really, the screen on any phone is too small for that.

-f0dder (August 14, 2012, 01:18 PM)

Should be an improvement over my previous devices (Palm Tungsten T3, Dell Axim x51v, iPod Touch 2) at any rate. I'm not expecting it to be a Kindle.

However, it depends on the reading material, too. I think if I am reading to learn, there is a real benefit to a bigger page, especially if I am dealing with charts, tables, source code listings, etc., and also because I seem to absorb some of it through peripheral vision. But a lot of my "ebooks" are things like RSS feeds and reference documents where that is less of an issue.