Messages

301

General Software Discussion / Re: Nirsoft's Antivirus Hall of Shame

« on: October 22, 2015, 12:39 PM »

Most importantly, force people to get in the habit of actually reading the messages that are presented to them. I've been informally training both our in-house staff, and the staff at our clients for years, and it's been quite successful. I do frequently get calls from client locations asking about strange messages/behavior from time to time ... But it's at the 'Just click no!' stage that I can get them out of on the phone now about 95% of the time.

-Stoic Joker (October 21, 2015, 05:56 AM)

This.  100x this.  Winpatrol is great... if you read the messages.  It, more than anything else, has saved me from countless hours working on relatives' machines.  But it does take attentive computing.

-wraith808 (October 21, 2015, 11:28 AM)

For workplaces, it's one thing, but for the broader at-home audience, who will train them to read?

A while back MS put out some design guidelines for buttons where you had larger and smaller text on the buttons and they were anchored to the sides of the form that they were in so that you had very large, wide buttons.

As the buttons are the action items themselves, they promote actually reading the text more than when you have the text outside the buttons and simple yes/no/cancel text on the buttons.

That's one tactic to get people to read, but it could be improved. I think a wizard-like UI with buttons like that for more complex decisions could be used to get people to read more -- sort of like a "choose your own adventure" set of paths.

But getting people to read? Not all that easy.

I had one guy complaining about how my software didn't work after he bought it... he couldn't open any files, etc. etc. Turns out he never even installed it!!! You just can't compete with that kind of ignorance.

302

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« on: October 22, 2015, 03:50 AM »

303

Living Room / Re: Programming/Coder humor

« on: October 21, 2015, 11:33 PM »

304

Living Room / Re: Are RFID Skimmers FUD? Or a real, present threat?

« on: October 21, 2015, 09:54 PM »

I just don't like back pocket wallets anymore.

-wraith808 (October 21, 2015, 08:02 PM)

I gave them up a few years ago. (5 I think.)

This is the wallet that I've been using ever since:



Mine's a bit worn though.

I put the chips of my cards down in past the metal and wrap the cash bills around the cards. 

But yes - RFID hacking is very real:

305

Living Room / Re: Apple leads the charge: Root access is no longer root access

« on: October 20, 2015, 11:23 PM »

But it's not really *your* computer. It's Apple's.

John Deere has gone this route with "sales" merely being perpetual licenses with you not being permitted to repair or alter *their* machinery.

http://www.wired.com...wnership-john-deere/

We Can’t Let John Deere Destroy the Very Idea of Ownership

Meanwhile, they're giving tractors to universities for $1. Does anyone remember Netscape?

All these things are related on one level or another. It's about control, and taking control away from YOU.

Paging Richard Stallman...

306

General Software Discussion / Re: Nirsoft's Antivirus Hall of Shame

« on: October 20, 2015, 11:15 PM »

ALYac     0     0     0     0     100

Woohoo for ALYac and my buddies over at ESTsoft~!

I really don't think it's that difficult to do.  I think it's less a matter of changing the functionality than the communication with the user.

-mouser (October 19, 2015, 04:48 PM)

I think you are overestimating how easy it is there. Communicating with the user is very, very far from easy for this kind of software.

1. They don't care.
2. Stop using big words.
3. like wtf heristick lip gloss huh lol?!!11!!1!\
4. wut wuz i doin
5. pron gam3z 4evah!!!!!1111!1

Or something along those lines.

You've got a very broad audience where computer literacy ranges from god-like to near zero. Addressing that range of people is tough, and the less computer literate they are, the more important the communications are.

And you've got the issue of not nagging them, but at the same time making sure that important notices aren't dismissed by reflex.

Can it be done? Sure. But I think the effort required for those communications (and the infrastructure to support the communications) is far more than most companies are willing to even entertain, even if they had the imagination for the task (which I doubt is there as it requires reimagining standard and common practices).

307

General Software Discussion / Re: The Hostile Email Landscape

« on: October 20, 2015, 10:00 PM »

I've flagged MS emails as not spam, but they still end up there. Not sure why. I figured it was just Google being malicious as I can't imagine them not being able to figure out that MS isn't a spammer.

308

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« on: October 20, 2015, 09:58 PM »

^ Them looks like some mean farts in the making... 

309

Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"

« on: October 20, 2015, 09:57 PM »

^Dafuq?!?

They're going to have fun trying to regulate that.

-Stoic Joker (October 20, 2015, 03:47 PM)

Yep. The cat is most definitely out of the bag.

Applying for a concealed weapon license...(I have no clue and.or interest how applying for weapon licenses works in real life, but it sounded funny in my head) 

-Shades (October 20, 2015, 07:33 PM)

Hahaha! 

Yeah... you've got to have those really baggy pants I suppose.

310

Living Room / Re: Our experiences with LED light bulb replacements

« on: October 20, 2015, 07:48 PM »

I'd forgotten about this thread.

I saw the title of the thread and got all excited, but nobody has addressed the issue that troubles me. I cannot SEE with these awful replacements.

Where I live, it has been almost impossible to find a 100W incandescent for several years. In any event, I knew the end was coming, and so I started experimenting with different bulbs. NOTHING comes close to the efficiency of the now outlawed lighting I have enjoyed all my life.

My experience with LEDs has been even more disappointing than my experience with CFLs.  Because the little desk lamp in my computer room, with its tiny bulb, puts out such nice bright light, I expected the same from whatever LED I put in my reading lamps. But, no.  I cannot see. I read. I write, I work cross-word puzzles.  I sketch.  I paint my fingernails.  And, what will happen when those big round bulbs that light my bathroom die? How will I see to apply make-up?

I haunt Lowe’s lighting section. They are tired of me, and my questions, and my returns. Packaging may say “Replaces 100W incandescents” but for light output, that just isn’t so. I don’t care about heat. I don’t care about electrical usage. I don't care about life span. I just want illumination.

For my reading lamps, which is what I really care about, 1600 lumens should work, but part of the problem is what Mouser said here: 
3. Spotlight effect.  The LED bulbs are more directional -- which can be especially troublesome for fixtures where the bulb is pointing up.

But I’ve also had noise and flicker from both CFLs and LEDs. Horrible, horrible, and no relief in sight. 

-sazzen (May 23, 2014, 02:56 PM)

And...

3. Soft White is the only way to go, the cool temp bulbs get annoying very quickly.

-mouser (October 20, 2015, 05:07 PM)

I'm the opposite - I like cool white. It's easier to read and see with.

Cool white is closer to natural sunlight, while soft white is closer to the light cast by fire.

@sazzen - Grab this piece of software (recommended by @IainB):

https://justgetflux.com/

Play with it and see how the colour temperature drastically affects your perceptions.

My bet is that you'll fare better with high colour temperature lighting. Look for 5,000K to 6,500K or so. Those should be better for you to see/read/etc.

Incandescent lamps have a high CRI, which means they have a fuller light spectrum. CFLs and LEDs tend to have large gaps in their colour spectrums, and that makes visibility harder.

You'll need to do some research, but check into lamps with higher CRI ratings -- those will likely also help you out better than lower CRI rated lamps. As your minimum, look for lamps with a CRI of 80 or higher. Ideally, you want 100, but consider finding something around 90 as awesome.

Regarding the spotlight effect, LEDs come in a broad range, from 20 to 120+ degrees. Part of that is the lens used for the LED lamp. Bead and SMD lamps have broader dispersion than the 20~30 degrees of "hat" LEDs, though those can also be up to around 45 deg. So, there's a pretty wide range out there -- it depends a lot on the specific device and how it is built.

Here are some sites that get into a lot of detail about lighting:

http://www.ceolas.net/

http://freedomlightbulb.blogspot.com/

http://freedomlightb.../resource-links.html

http://greenwashinglamps.wordpress.com/

There's a good amount of science in those to explain why incandescent lighting is better for some purposes.

This page here is absolutely ESSENTIAL reading:

https://greenwashing...comparison-overview/

The charts are very informative.

311

General Software Discussion / Re: The Hostile Email Landscape

« on: October 20, 2015, 02:22 PM »

How, exactly, is that the case? People don't like spam and detecting it automatically is non-trivial. Reputation-based blocking is not an unreasonable approach to the problem. It definitely has flaws, but it doesn't seem like a general anti-competitive conspiracy to me, more a consequence of a messy technological landscape in the email and security domain. It requires crude solutions because better ones (with equal efficacy) aren't readily available.

-JavaJones (October 20, 2015, 01:51 PM)

Am I the only one who always sees all email from Microsoft go directly to the spam folder of my Gmail interface?

312

Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"

« on: October 20, 2015, 02:15 PM »

Phased plasma rifle in the 40-watt range.

-The Terminator

Now you can make one at home. Kinda...

https://www.yahoo.co...fires-134325053.html

3D printing used to make first real handheld railgun, which fires plasma projectiles at 560 mph

313

General Software Discussion / Re: The Hostile Email Landscape

« on: October 20, 2015, 01:05 AM »

In order to remain civil, I'll keep my comments short and focused on a very tiny little bit...

Gmail filters emails from Microsoft as spam on a regular basis.

Do I need to say anything more?

Please run through every curse word you've ever heard, and then amplify that by several orders of magnitude, because my tidbit there is just the very tip of the top of the highest snowflake on the iceberg.

There is a Satan, he is very real, and no depth of evil you can possibly imagine can compare to him. Email is proof.

314

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Zen Magnets are still attracting...

« on: October 20, 2015, 01:00 AM »

I was just looking at some today and wondering if I should try to get into the same market. I have few qualms about pissing in the face of stupid regulations.

If you want, check here:

http://www.aliexpres...archText=ball+magnet

Lots available for much cheaper. You could buy from the manufacturer and sell them for much more.

Also, I had a shipment of other magnets arrive today.

315

Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« on: October 13, 2015, 11:13 PM »

StoicJoker is right.

I'd started a post before, but never clicked "Post" because I was simply ranting about how Gary North is just a complete buffoon when it comes to Bitcoin. I really like him. He just loses his mind and sounds like a complete moron when it comes to the topic of Bitcoin.

What Gary misses, as SJ noted, is that you can accept BTC and convert on the fly. Barcodes have ZERO to do with anything, and again, SJ has already noted that.

In transaction processing, bitcoins are really not that much different than debit cards.

I can go to pretty much anywhere I want and stick my bank card into the reader and pay for damn near anything I want with zero problems. BTW - that bank card is in Korean won (KRW).

The difference between paying in KRW and paying in BTC is that there is a lower transaction cost for paying in BTC.

These things are really not that hard to understand if anyone takes the time to understand different payment systems.

Now, it does require a bit of knowledge about payment systems, transaction costs, and settlement procedures, but it's not really all that complicated.

For those that want to look into it, the more complicated the system gets, the more expensive it gets. (If anyone wants, call me out on it and I'll give you basic examples that you can verify for yourself.)

With Bitcoin, the procedures are all very simple. You're talking about a maximum of 2 layers of transaction processing to achieve an objective --- the payment processor and the exchange. It doesn't get simpler than that.

With fiat currency... oh god... the layers are insane. Bank to bank to bank to bank... And that very often means that Chase Manhattan gets their cut because f**k you pay me.

I wish that Gary would just take the time to learn about what he's writing about with Bitcoin because I really like him and hate when he makes a total ass of himself. ;(

316

Living Room / Re: Show us a picture of your.. CAR!!!

« on: October 13, 2015, 10:47 PM »

My 2014 Camry.
[ Invalid Attachment ]

-dspelley (October 12, 2015, 03:33 PM)

Woohoo for the Camry!

They're actually made about 4~6 km from where I live now, depending on the route you take there (and 2~3 km as the crow flies). I used to work right across the street from where they are.

Buy more Camry cars everyone~!

(Yeah... I'm a total fanboi for local businesses and the local economy wherever I live. )

My parents have one, and they're nice to drive. 

OK, I'll join the game.
[ Invalid Attachment ]
It's a '13 Hyundai Genesis Coupe, Grand Touring Edition.

-CWuestefeld (October 13, 2015, 03:17 PM)

When I was a kid, my mom had a Hyundai Stellar. I loved that car. That was quite a while back.

But... Having lived in Korea for so many years, and having worked on some Hyundai marketing campaigns, I do have a soft spot in my heart for Hyundai.

They've really come a very, very long way.

The big thing that pushed me towards the Dodge Grand Caravan was the "Stow-n-go" seating. I wanted cargo space, and that was just a killer feature.

No balls like the GC there, but it does what I need for now.

317

Coding Snacks / Re: Safe Internet

« on: October 13, 2015, 10:27 PM »

Just as another thought, could he use a VM for surfing or whatever? Then just delete the VM every so often and copy a backup to use again? That's what a lot of people do.

318

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« on: October 13, 2015, 09:05 PM »

Did some people not learn BEDMAS? I didn't find much humour in that 6-1*0+2/2 stuff. It just seemed sad that some people couldn't manage that.

But, in my FAVOURITE calculator...

Have you ever wondered WHY we have adopted the order of operator precedence that dictates multiplication and division happen before addition and subtraction?
There is a nice discussion of it here:
http://mathforum.org...math/view/52582.html

Like many things that we accept as "settled" -- there is an entire fascinating history and culture of debate, discovery, and disagreement underlying all of it.

-mouser (October 13, 2015, 09:00 AM)

Thanks for that. 

319

Living Room / Re: thinking of some earning

« on: October 13, 2015, 08:55 PM »

Do try AdSense, but don't get your hopes up. You need to drive a LOT, and I mean a **LOT** of traffic to make anything worth mentioning. Experiment with the ad placements as well, because that can make a big difference.

I've run relatively high-traffic sites before with AdSense, and at the end of the day, it was... meh... But I didn't put a lot into pushing the ads either as I wanted them to be relatively low-key and not over-power the site. Today that doesn't matter so much, so take my own experience with a grain of salt -- the online world is different now.

That being said... I have a million Google AdSense emails telling me to fix some info so I can get paid... Haven't looked yet, and I'm not expecting it to be much.

320

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« on: October 10, 2015, 01:24 AM »

But ... these are all campaign promises.  Methinks alovus know how valuable those might be.  C'mon, if yer gonna mount a campaign, do it, don't just tease (like unto the current US presidential contestants [?]). 

-barney (October 10, 2015, 01:08 AM)

Bah! Heretic! Blasphemer! Apostate! Me thinks Cthulhu will eat you first~!

(I couldn't run as I just moved across continents and was pretty busy with things like getting a new home, etc. )

321

Living Room / Re: IPFS - Is this the future of the internet?

« on: October 10, 2015, 01:21 AM »

Seems promising. Any moves towards decentralization and redundant storage are generally good ones. But, like everything in tech, the devil is in the details. As well as the ultimate implementation.

About the only real issue I think it may have is if it collides with some of the crazy regulations that either already exist or are being proposed. For instance, how will this fit in with the EU's "right to be forgotten" laws. As a decentralized system, there's no direct route to establishing who the content holder is. And no clear lines of responsibility. So it would be very difficult to order the takedown of any content - legal or otherwise.

I suppose they could pass yet another law that makes everyone on the IPFS swarm equally liable for everything on the swarm. But that's incredibly heavy-handed and obvious. And being obvious about what they're trying to accomplish is the last thing most governments want at this point when it comes to the Internet.

I too would be very interested in what Ren thinks about this. Because his technical and coding skills far exceed mine. An he's an even bigger cynic than me if such a thing is possible. 

-40hz (October 09, 2015, 07:29 AM)

You flatter me~! 

I think decentralisation is a great thing. And so what if it's beyond the control of THTSB (the powers that shouldn't be)? Good.

It would provide a very strong incentive for people to actually BEHAVE properly.

If you don't want pictures of you smoking crack during an orgy while doing a straight arm salute and kicking a puppy... hey... just don't do it.

The "lines of responsibility" then purely rest in the individual, with no nanny to mitigate the damage that people can do to themselves, or to mitigate their successes, which is arguably the more important thing. *cough* defense distributed *cough* Cody Wilson kicks ass *cough*

However, none of this is technical or coding related. It's simply about the virtues of decentralisation.

tl;dr -- Give people as much rope as they want, and let them either hang themselves or create wonderful systems of pulleys and stuff.


However, that's all pretty much moot as private keys determine who can see what. So you could post all the naked selfies that you want, but without those private keys, nobody could see them. The issue there is then whether or not you want to make a set of private keys publicly available, and then whether there's a set of keys to change permissions, etc. etc. etc.

Distributed and decentralised storage is coming. It's only a matter of *when*.


***********

For the issue of liability... again... it's a matter of keys. Those that store information can opt to never download keys, and thus remain ignorant and impartial. There is nothing illegal about having information that has had its entropy maximised (encrypted/compressed) and not having the ability to tell what it is. Random garbage is random garbage... until you can decrypt/decompress it.

There will be court battles over it though. Those that want to stop information will be on the wrong side of technology. You cannot stop it. Someone will figure out a way to make things even more opaque against TPTSB.


We're in for a wild ride over the next few years. (Stay tuned at http://techdirt.com for details!)

322

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« on: October 10, 2015, 12:29 AM »

I suppose that it's no surprise to anyone that knows me even a little bit that I love to screw with people.

This is my car:



I've also done a lawn sign. This was my original design that I axed:



But this is what I settled on:



I like the Cthulhu one better, but... sigh... just how many people are literate in 1920's horror stories?

I saw this a while ago and saved it. I'm sure a few people will get a kick out of it.



Satan, Cthulhu, Nobody, or Rick Astley... What excellent choices~!

323

Living Room / Re: Show us a picture of your.. CAR!!!

« on: October 10, 2015, 12:09 AM »

I went with Cthulhu.  It's not overtly religious, and actually a little more subversive.

-wraith808 (October 09, 2015, 11:34 PM)

Hahaha~!

Actually, I went through the "Cthulhu" logic, and simply figured that Satan is better known and the logic of the argument/humour would be more readily understood than with Cthulhu.

I really did want to go with Cthulhu, and that was the first version of my lawn sign. For my lawn sign, I went with a "Nobody" theme.

Still, I'm thinking I might want to change the "O" in VOTE to an inverted pentagram...

Oh... the many different ways to "pimp my ride"~!


-- I'll post my "Cthulhu" and "Nobody" lawn signs in the silly humour thread as they're a bit out of place here.

324

Living Room / Re: Show us a picture of your.. CAR!!!

« on: October 09, 2015, 10:08 PM »

A week or so ago I saw a 12"x24" whiteboard magnet for sale in the store for a measly $1.99 a sheet -- you know that flexible kind of magnet that a lot of businesses use to put their contact info on so that you can slap it on your fridge? That stuff.

With it being election season, my mind instantly went into "let's screw with people" mode...

And I decided to pimp out my ride...



My parents had a conniption when they saw it~!

325

Living Room / Re: Gadget WEEKENDS

« on: October 09, 2015, 09:56 PM »

I've had a particular post in the back of my mind for, oh... let's see... Around about 2.5 years now. Here's the snippet that's been stored in the long term renegade archive:

Basically they just vibrate at high speeds and can accept different saw-like heads.  They are very similar in spirit to the ubiquitous dremel (rotary tool), in that there a million different little tasks that they can make quick work of.

Note: A Dremel is as essential, if not more so, than an oscillating tool -- so start with one of those if you don't own one already.

-mouser (April 14, 2013, 09:05 PM)

And tonight I finally got one:



I'd been looking for one for a month or so, and finally managed to pick up one second-hand (used once) for less than 1/3rd the retail price.

My first little project was to drill holes in the PCB at the tip of the Dremel and then solder on a 12VDC power jack that I ripped out of an old Netgear router.

Other gadgets in the picture there are some "magic hands" or "helping hands" -- the thing with the soldering iron in it and the magnifying glass, and a set of 4 eye loupes from 2.5x to 10x magnifying power - great for reading the text on small chips or the +/- symbols on little LEDs like the ones beside the Dremel (the symbols are about 1mm wide).

I'm trying to shift my development away from the desktop world into the embedded/device world. I'm not interested in doing mobile applications as the markets have just become stupid for any small developer. (For every success story, there's a trail of blood & tears across a wasteland littered with indie corpses.)

I have sooo many more gadgets that I've recently bought, but many aren't remotely interesting to a wider audience, though I'm sure some of the developers in here would be. Maybe another time... after I get the damn card reader on my NEW Dell working... grrr...