Messages

1

General Software Discussion / Re: uTorrent alternatives?

« on: April 03, 2012, 05:47 PM »

Another vote for Tixati.  UI shows what I want to see.  Easy controls.  Been using it for about a year without an issue.

2

Living Room / Re: Why I Pirate - An Open Letter to Content Creators

« on: April 03, 2012, 05:43 PM »

Disregard

3

Living Room / Re: All-In-One Multi-Touch Computers - Thoughts?

« on: February 15, 2012, 12:34 PM »

Back in the fall I put in a whole new network (only 3 stations) for a chiropractor to go with his new software that was mandated by the US Government (Medicare).  It was touch-screen compatible and he was excited by possibilities.  We opted for All-in-Ones, which came with wireless keyboard and mouse, given the price/size of standard touchscreens.  As soon as I saw them I knew I wanted no part of supporting them.  In construction they are basically laptops writ large.  I told him that he had to go through the manufacturer for support but I would assist if I could.  In the process of setting up the two All-in-ones I came to the conclusion that they're nice for limited use but ergonomically incompatible with any kind of intensive use.  Most people's shoulders won't take it, I know mine didn't.  If you can get it below and fairly close to you you're fine, but anything else is literally a pain.  Also touch is fine with programs that are designed with touch in mind i.e. Larger buttons and fields but the operating system (Win7) is not optimized for touch even if it is capable.  Icons are fine but to enter information in fields and interact with drop-down lists is difficult because they are so small on a 20 inch screen at max resolution.  I can't count how many times I hit the wrong line on something.

I would suggest that you stick with a standard desktop if that's where you're leaning.  Laptops are nice but I find the keyboards on most regardless of size to be uncomfortable to use. I have yet to find a current one that is even remotely close to feeling like a regular keyboard.  Oh, and I hate trackpads.  But both of these are easy to overcome by using usb peripherals.  However, now you're dealing with extra space for the keyboard and mouse not to mention that kind of hinders portability.  If your wife still has her iPad or whatever, you don't really need to worry about portability.  A desktop will be generally less expensive, however with the price of hard drives right now you're not going to get as much for your money.  

J-mac, I believe I know the fan you are looking for and I have at least one used one on hand.  If you want to leave a message, I would be more than happy to give it to you for the cost of shipping.

I'm with 40hz on Acer.  I recommend them to all my customers if that is what they want.

4

N.A.N.Y. 2010 / Re: NANY 2010 Teaser: Crush MCP (Master Control Program)

« on: December 27, 2009, 10:33 PM »

The education system in Germany currently tries to teach young children British English. While I thought that B.E. is not so popular at all, the main problem is that not everybody will work for an IT company in his forthcoming life, so basically he should be taught to speak good German when talking to other Germans.

I just can't stand my fellow men talking Denglish all day. It is, surely, a culture loss.

Tuxman, Deutsch should absolutely be taught as the primary language of Deutschland!  Any other should only be taught as a secondary.  I can completely understand your frustration that your language is being mongrel-ized with English.  We have similar, though not identical, problems in the U.S.  

Standards are alright, but the language I communicate in is not standardized, it is chosen individually. The new German foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, forced a scandal when a British journalist wanted to ask him in English during a German press conference and he just said "we're in Germany here". Now try to imagine the other way: A German journalist trying to talk German to an English politician in England (or, let's say, the States). What would you say?

A media company should not send a correspondent to any country if they can not communicate in that country's native language.  It is appalling to me that such a thing would happen.

Standards are absolutely necessary.  That is the best way for a product be made accessible to the most people.

Still talking about arrogance? Oh, come on!

Sorry about that.  Don't know what you've heard, but there are a great, great many of us here who absolutely despise that man.


Crush and all, thanks for ignoring my rant. 

5

N.A.N.Y. 2010 / Re: NANY 2010 Teaser: Crush MCP (Master Control Program)

« on: December 26, 2009, 12:06 AM »

Tuxman, if you want Obama, he's yours.  That aside, inventing something is different from making it accessible to the masses.  Whoever invented it, IBM , a company in an English-speaking nation, made the computer accessible to everyone.  But what this is really about is standards.  The OS community talks about standards all the time.  English has been the standard language in international business and shipping for a long time.  It has become the accepted standard for software as well.  I would hope that you could understand the need for standards.  If not, go ahead and try to make a living coding exclusively in German and see how much revenue that creates.  As for the rest of the content of your posts, if I thought like Obama, I would apologize for the arrogance of the U.S., and beg for forgiveness.  I don't so I won't.  If the education system in Germany failed to teach you why English has become dominant, I'm certainly not going to try to do so.   

6

General Software Discussion / Re: Want to print artist/album list of ogg/mp3 files

« on: May 30, 2009, 10:41 PM »

I used Karen's Directory Printer.  I set it to print only folder and file names.

http://www.karenware...s/ptdirprn-setup.exe

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Living Room / Re: Recommend to me the BEST USB stick to get

« on: April 24, 2009, 03:19 PM »

I'm with sgtevmckay on this one.  I've had the OCZ DIESEL 16GB for about 3 months now.  It's small, has a no slip exterior, and the cap shows no signs of becoming worn to the point of coming off on its own.  It's fast too.  This is the drive I use for work so its been tested pretty hard.

8

General Software Discussion / Re: Creating a partition on an external HD for an encrypted Volume

« on: February 17, 2009, 10:00 PM »

I've always had good luck with GParted.  It runs from a bootable disk however.  I've read good things about Esaeus and have a copy but haven't tried it yet.

9

Living Room / Re: Things your kids will never know - old school tech!

« on: November 05, 2008, 04:30 PM »

MTV- Music television only played music videos,  the same for VH1

  I'm 41. When I was a kid our phone was on a party line.  Easy way to spy on the neighbors.
  I learned to type on an IBM Selectric. Talk about dB level,  imagine a room with 30 of them all going at once while taking a speed test.
  The first camera i took a picture on was a Kodak instamatic.  I still have an unused Flashcube for some reason.
  I remember watching astronauts on the moon on a B&W TV.
  I still have a Mimeograph machine.  And I have an old Royal manual typewriter to make the stencils for the mimeograph.  Electrics sometimes didn't strike hard enough to cut through the stencil.
  I still have a TV antenna.  I have satellite TV but if we have a large storm it has a tendency to go away.  I switch back to the antenna and only get 4 channels.