Messages

126

Living Room / Re: Thoughts on "Piracy".

« on: November 26, 2014, 06:57 PM »

I say we keelhaul 'em all! 

-Renegade (November 26, 2014, 06:44 PM)

What did you expect? They are the grandsons of criminals exiled to down under. I say burn them all. But only after we pile stakes through them.

127

Living Room / Re: Thoughts on "Piracy".

« on: November 24, 2014, 12:24 AM »

The current state of IP is such a complete disaster that there's really nothing that can be done other than to tear the whole thing down.

Should people be compensated for creating things? Sure.

Who should compensate them? The people that use/consume the creation.

But that's not what happens now, even without piracy. The MAFIAA taxes blank media. That's not just compensation because it steals from people who aren't consuming MAFIAA creations.

One. Big. Mess.

Burn it down.

-Renegade (November 23, 2014, 08:58 PM)

Today IP is abused to skew the distribution of wealth. Its primary purpose is to make commodities out of thoughts and ideas, so that capital can buy them, and subsequently sell them to consumers at a substantial profit. The "compensating artists" point is no longer relevant, for most, albeit not all, of them earn their living by appearing on events and shows, rather than through royalties.

From this thoroughly political perspective, my conscience is free with respect to downloading things released by billion dollar firms.
For shareware released directly by the programmer, however, I check out the trial version. If I like it, I write to the programmer and tell them $39.99 is a lot of money here in Turkey, and I'd be really happy if they would give me a discount. They often do. Regardless of the discount, in the end I buy the software.

128

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox windows and CPU slow-downs and restarts

« on: November 18, 2014, 08:59 AM »

Really, truly, sincerely... Firefox ESR.

129

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox windows and CPU slow-downs and restarts

« on: November 18, 2014, 05:37 AM »

Really, stay on Firefox ESR.

We're no longer 20-somethings, let someone else be the beta tester. You (I mean me) have less time remaining to spend on this planet, and troubleshooting a new version of web browser every 6 weeks or so is not something I intend to do.

ed.: "the" use for non-native speakers.

130

Living Room / Re: Please recommend a Canadian domain name registrar to me

« on: November 15, 2014, 06:56 AM »

The United States Marshals Service had my blog taken down today. (I have it back up now.) My registrar is in the US, but my hosting provider is in Canada. I want to ditch everything to do with the US and get all my domains into Canada. (I ditched my server in Texas to host with a Canadian company in Canada.)

-Renegade (November 15, 2014, 06:53 AM)

What was your blog about?

131

Living Room / Re: Please recommend a Canadian domain name registrar to me

« on: November 15, 2014, 01:54 AM »

I no longer trust US based ones, after so many domain name seizures by captured US government agencies such as ICE. Not that I have anything illegal on my domains (mom's recipes site, wifey's company's site etc.), but a government should not be able to seize a domain name without court orders. US govt does that.

So my motive is political.

132

Living Room / Re: Please recommend a Canadian domain name registrar to me

« on: November 15, 2014, 01:31 AM »

I use easydns. A bit more expensive than namecheap, but it's based in Canada. It is highly recommended by techdirt.

133

General Software Discussion / Re: 32bit vs 64bit question

« on: November 11, 2014, 06:49 PM »

...
No other practical difference.

-eleman (November 11, 2014, 05:58 PM)

Forgive a Turbo-Newb butting where he doesn't belong, but I think it makes a TON of "practical" difference!!

When you change a "bit" addressing amount, you unlock things that weren't possible before. Lots of examples. Discuss.

-TaoPhoenix (November 11, 2014, 06:36 PM)

I say none, you say lots. I believe the onus lies with you, rather than me, for non-existence is a tad harder to prove than proving existence. See the debate on agnosticism.

I really think the only practical difference for 4.99 percent of the population is the address space limit. There maybe a few others for the 0.01 percent, that I am not aware of, and that you will hopefully name. For 95 percent, no difference whatsoever between 32 and 64 bits.

ed.: removed a "the". I will never master these things.

134

General Software Discussion / Re: 32bit vs 64bit question

« on: November 11, 2014, 05:58 PM »

Nope, the bit count refers to the width of the memory addressing system. So pretty much the only difference is that 32 bit systems can address a memory space of 2^32 bits, while 64 bits can address 2^64.

So 64 bits allows you use programs which require much more memory. Think about photoshopping a 10m(eter) x 2 m banner for instance.

No other practical difference.

135

Living Room / Re: location triggers for android

« on: November 03, 2014, 03:35 PM »

Tasker does that.

136

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox windows and CPU slow-downs and restarts

« on: October 31, 2014, 04:51 AM »

When I started using Firefox regularly a few years ago I did find it slowed down and would crash when I had a lot of tabs open.  Over time it has improved.  But I noticed a real speed improvement when I installed extensions "Ad Block Plus" and "Do Not Track Me" - I think the reason is that Ads and tracking are loaded and take time and memory.  I use Session Manger and was using TabGroups Manager - would sometimes get up to 500 tabs open and I did not feel it slow down - I do have 16GB of memory and an i7 processor.  Now did it crash occasionally - yes and that is why to use Session Manger and save backups regularly.  I do push the number limit it seems with tabs.  Recently my Firefox crashed and would not open so I created a new profile and reloaded my extensions and am now trying Tab Mix Plus.  I do find the need to group is necessary.  TabGroups Manager is good I like that it gives a number count for each tab group and Tab Mix Plus does not.  Tab Mix Plus gives a lot more control over tab and toolbar appearance also.  open tab count widget gives a total count of tabs open.  Caution - you may have some trouble, like me, playing audio or video sometimes - if I trust the site I will unblock it in Do Not Track Me, sometimes I have to copy the url and open it in another browser that is not blocking.

-kenmuse (October 30, 2014, 07:18 PM)

Using paragraphs can also help

Anyway, I also agree with you, that adblocking helps with memory consumption.

137

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox windows and CPU slow-downs and restarts

« on: October 23, 2014, 12:32 PM »

Don't underestimate the power of casting off gmail to another browser. It really helps.

138

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox windows and CPU slow-downs and restarts

« on: October 23, 2014, 12:09 PM »

Don't use any unnecessary add-ons.
Use flashblock (or firefox's built-in function).
Restart firefox. Restart early, restart often. This may help.
Last but not least, don't use ajax-heavy sites (i.e. gmail) on firefox. Use a dedicated browser such as IE for them.

139

Living Room / Re: Chip Wars: AMD vs Intel .... GO!

« on: October 22, 2014, 11:20 PM »

I think the only one I was really happy with was the AMD 5200+ Dual Core.  That machine ran smooth and quiet.  It performed fairly well considering it only had 2 GB ram.  But it had one of those crippled Intel on the motherboard video chips with only 8 MB ram on the chip.

-MilesAhead (October 22, 2014, 06:20 PM)

How on earth were you able to run an AMD cpu on Intel chipset?

140

Living Room / Re: when will we eventually be able to

« on: October 20, 2014, 12:07 PM »

Have you heard of this new invention called the wheel?

-eleman (October 20, 2014, 11:59 AM)

oh we don't have it here in UK
where are you based? do you have it?

-kalos (October 20, 2014, 12:04 PM)

I'm in Turkey, and all major fuel distributors offer systems like these. Most firms and fleets buy fuel for their cars using systems like these. You can track almost everything and set any limits. I use an equivalent system from another brand, but couldn't find an english language site for it, so you have shell's instead.

141

Living Room / Re: when will we eventually be able to

« on: October 20, 2014, 11:59 AM »

Have you heard of this new invention called the wheel?

142

General Software Discussion / Re: Satnav for android

« on: October 15, 2014, 12:11 AM »

Give Yandex.navi a try. Google Maps does not speak in Turkey, so we use this one instead.

143

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for a EXTREMELY basic Multi Clipboard software

« on: October 06, 2014, 06:23 AM »

Please, for the love of god, thor, satan whatever, change your avatar. I can't look at the screen long enough to read your post, even though I'm always all ears for a light weight clipboard software.

144

Living Room / Re: Unlimited Energy Solution Found!

« on: September 28, 2014, 03:20 AM »

Unfortunately the butter would wither away gradually due to hawking radiation. Therefore the energy output is not infinite in this design.

Yeah, that's the only objection that comes to mind.

145

Living Room / Re: Your favorite podcasts?

« on: September 05, 2014, 02:38 AM »

Here are my favorites:

Australian BC's Big Ideas:
Big Ideas brings you the best of talks, forums, debates, and festivals held in Australia and around the world, casting light on the major social, cultural, scientific and political issues.

British BC's documentaries:
An indepth look at stories and issues from around the world.

146

Living Room / Re: Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee

« on: August 24, 2014, 08:51 PM »

Please elaborate?

147

Living Room / Re: My cat needs your thoughts | RIP Saffron my dearest cat

« on: August 07, 2014, 12:26 AM »

Saffron survived anesthesia and just got back home to begin some rest and recuperation 

-mouser (August 06, 2014, 05:44 PM)

I'll drink to that

148

Living Room / Re: My cat needs your thoughts | RIP Saffron my dearest cat

« on: August 06, 2014, 09:56 AM »

You'll be just fine Saffron. Sleep a tad now, and you'll wake up with healthy teeth.

149

Living Room / Re: My cat needs your thoughts | RIP Saffron my dearest cat

« on: July 30, 2014, 10:27 PM »

Get well soon kitty. There are still many youtube videos you'll star in.

150

Living Room / Re: Thinking of switching to WP8 from Android

« on: July 30, 2014, 01:49 AM »

In one word: Don't.

In more: WP8's pros are not worth the jump. And there are significant cons too.

WP8 is not bad, and gets better by the time. For instance the new 8.1 update will bring a proper notification center. Previously you had to use live tiles (the rectangles, large and small squares on the home screen) to provide notifications. But they provided only limited notifications, and even then they were not accurate. For instance samsung's chat-on client did not reliably show the messages in the tiles until you opened up the app itself. It may be an error on part of the app, but I saw the same problem with numerous apps. Android's notification system looks much more issue-free in comparison.

WP8 is not that customizable. Sure, it's customizable in comparison to apple's banknote press, but in comparison to android, it fails bad. Just an example: you can't switch to another keyboard like swype. WP8 keyboard is not bad. Just what you expect out of a stock keyboard, but you may be looking for something more, and there is no option to get it. So switching to WP8 effectively limits your options.

The APIs WP8 offers are thoroughly locked down. You don't get a proper file manager, because many sections of the file system are off limits to third party apps. There are rudimentary file managers, but they are not of much use. In a similar vein, you can't record (as audio files) the calls you make. Android apps like callx are not possible in WP8. If you need that function (mom does not, but I do; speaking to tens of clients each day, I can't always take notes of what they order, so I record the calls) WP8 is not an option. You can't add apps like blacklist because there are no APIs for those functions. These are just a few examples. WP8 is much more locked down compared to android, that you can't do much with it.

If you like tinkering with your phone, have rooted or consider rooting the thingie, WP8 is not an option. No rooting whatsoever. End of story. But as I said, the customization options are limited even compared to non-rooted android.

Appstore is growing, but still is way, way behind android. Just out of my mind, there is no booking.com app for windows phone. And no, this isn't for windows phone. You have to do with the also-ran hotelz.com. And because the APIs are thoroughly locked down, the app store will never be as rich as that of android.

The settings are crowded and disorganized (or at least organized in a way incomprehensible to me). Some functions such as call forwarding are located in weird places.

Battery life is nothing to brag about. Nokia, I don't know why, uses very conservative batteries. For instance, my LG L4 II has a bigger battery compared to wifey's lumia 820, despite mine being a single core and small screen phone. I get 3-4 days use out of a full charge, wifey often does not get 1. There are exceptions to this rule, I hear. For instance lumia 720 is better in the battery life scale, but I don't hear praises about 1520 either.

WP8 does not really multitask. When you switch apps, the old app is not just pushed to the background. It is suspended in effect. There are exceptions to this, for instance the music player and voice guided navigation seems to work in the background, but as a general rule, the app you push to background stops. When you return to it, it just resumes from where you left. So you can't have apps like noom, because once in the background, they will not be able to continue counting your steps. sucks. really. hard.

On the bright side, the OS is more responsive, especially compared to landfill android. Yeah, I get better battery life, but my phone often makes me wait for a couple of seconds, especially when I am in a hurry. WP8 feels way faster in comparison. Not just high-end devices like 820, but lower end ones like 620 too.

Nokia's here maps and navigation suite is way way way better than what android offers, assuming you don't have (or don't like to use) data connection. Google maps and yandex maps are not bad, but they need constant data connection (which is not an option when you are roaming, or low on battery). Nokia's maps are offline and very good. You just download the map for the country you live in (or you will be visiting), and you're good to go. I know there are offline maps you can download on google play, but they all suck. really. hard. Openstreetmap based solutions are not an option if you need a reliable map. And they are not an option if you are in or will be visiting developing countries like Turkey, period. The maps is the single most important advantage Nokia's phones offer over android, and they may be important enough for you to justify the jump to WP8.

Finally, the updates: Microsoft seems to offer updates to the whole WP8 line, regardless of how old or how underpowered your phone may be. The platform as a whole gets new updates. So every WP8 phone will move to 8.1 in the near future. But your guess is as good as mine about what will happen when WP9 comes out.

edit: typo fix.
edit^2: Nokia released its maps software for Android. So you have one less plus for WP. Thanks goes to 4wd for alerting me to it.