Topics

51

Living Room / Techno Life Skills -- anything you buy, you must maintain

« on: May 04, 2011, 01:58 AM »

Nice post over at Technium that tells us what we know about growing up in a high-tech age, but this ain't your Grandpa's century either.
http://www.kk.org/th.../techno_life_ski.php

• Anything you buy, you must maintain. Each tool you use requires time to learn how to use, to install, to upgrade, or to fix. A purchase is just the beginning.
• You will be newbie forever. Get good at the beginner mode.
• Quality is not always related to price.
• Every new technology will bite back. The more powerful its gifts, the more powerfully it can be abused.
• Be suspicious of any technology that requires walls to prevent access. If you can fix it, modify it or hack it yourself, that is a good sign.
• The older the technology, the more likely it will continue to be useful.

and so on.

52

Living Room / The internet in 1990 -- holy smokes!

« on: May 03, 2011, 05:09 AM »

I was there, and I don't remember the graphics, just the text. But man did that suck!
http://www.dailyeo.c...he-internet-in-1990/

53

Living Room / The Best Linux Book Available

« on: April 29, 2011, 02:38 AM »

http://www.amazon.co...mming/dp/0131367366/

In a rare article about a book, Chad Perrin reviews the reviews of "the best Linux book available" over at TechRepublic (A Practical Guide to Linux Commands, Editors, and Shell Programming):

This book is the best distro-agnostic foundational Linux reference I’ve ever seen, out of dozens of Linux-related books I’ve read. Finding this book was a real stroke of luck. If you want to really understand how to get things done at the command line, where the power and flexibility of free UNIX-like OSes really live, this book is among the best tools you’ll find toward that end.... The density of knowledge contained between its covers is prodigious, well-organized, and quite thoroughly relevant. This book is clearly designed with both beginners and experts in mind — a promise made by many books, but truly fulfilled only by a very rare few, including this specimen.

54

Living Room / Science Fiction and Fantasy Reading List

« on: April 27, 2011, 07:08 AM »

Bob Sutor updated his science fiction and fantasy reading list recently and I'm wondering which of these other DC members have enjoyed. As more websites and blogs die, I have more time for reading.
http://www.sutor.com...ading/reading-scifi/

55

General Software Discussion / You didn't get this from me, but Win8 Build 1 is out!

« on: April 12, 2011, 11:11 PM »

via Window8center.com:
If you want it, you can have it:
http://windows8cente...7850-download-leaks/



Win7 has been so stable. Will Windows users adopt Win8 early, or wait until the next new computer buy? Should be a fun year once it hits.

56

General Software Discussion / ARS reviews Linux Gnome 3.0

« on: April 12, 2011, 06:58 PM »

ARS reviews the new Gnome 3.0:


http://arstechnica.c...-your-linux-lawn.ars

The new version also represents a major architectural overhaul, with many important enhancements to the GNOME platform's technical underpinnings. But it's not all good news: The new GNOME Shell is built largely with the Clutter drawing toolkit and depends on composited rendering to function properly. If you don't have compatible graphics hardware or drivers, you won't get to run the new shell. It will instead punt you back to a more conventional 2.x-style desktop with regular GNOME panels.

Love the app launcher, though!

57

Living Room / 10 Ingenious iPad Self-Portraits

« on: April 08, 2011, 04:07 AM »

Clever!


http://mashable.com/...ipad-portraits-pics/

58

General Software Discussion / What the Linux kids are watching today

« on: April 08, 2011, 03:57 AM »

The Story of Linux: Commemorating 20 Years of the Linux Operating System
http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=5ocq6_3-nEw

Celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Linux with us. Watch the Story of Linux to remember -- or learn for the first time -- how Linux disrupted a market and has begun to change the world. Do you see yourself in its story?

59

General Software Discussion / Why I was wrong about Microsoft (by Glyn Moody)

« on: April 04, 2011, 05:47 AM »

We all make mistakes. Glyn Moody discusses how Microsoft is going after the little guys to cut down on competition. Four-minute reading time.
http://www.h-online....crosoft-1218798.html
______________
The Microsoft-created features protected by the patents infringed by the Nook and Nook Color tablet are core to the user experience. For example, the patents we asserted today protect innovations that:

• Give people easy ways to navigate through information provided by their device apps via a separate control window with tabs;
• Enable display of a webpage’s content before the background image is received, allowing users to interact with the page faster;
• Allow apps to superimpose download status on top of the downloading content;
• Permit users to easily select text in a document and adjust that selection; and
• Provide users the ability to annotate text without changing the underlying document.

This latest trend to devise and deploy legal strategies against open source seems to me to represent an admission on Microsoft's part that it can no longer compete on technology. Instead, the dinosaurs have decided that it's time to play really dirty – and nothing is dirtier than enforcing bad monopolies using worse laws.

60

Living Room / Cracking the credit card code (I always wondered)

« on: April 04, 2011, 05:11 AM »

"Those 16 digits are there for a reason and, knowing a few simple rules, you could actually learn a lot about a credit card just from its number. This infographic shows you how to crack that code."


http://www.mint.com/...-card-code-01202011/

61

Living Room / The mouse is dead: Introducing Gmail Motion [01-04-11]

« on: April 01, 2011, 10:49 AM »

The mouse and keyboard were invented before the Internet even existed. Since then, countless technological advancements have allowed for much more efficient human computer interaction. Why then do we continue to use outdated technology? Introducing Gmail Motion -- now you can control Gmail with your body. "No longer will people be required bend to the will of technology. Instead, technology will now bend to our will."



__________________
Everything online today is a joke: you've been warned.

62

Developer's Corner / Researcher Nabs $500K to Work On "Green Software"

« on: March 28, 2011, 02:52 PM »

I don't know what to say.


http://www.fastcompa...wards-green-software

A computer scientist from Binghamton University has recently scored about a half million in funding--$450,000 from the National Science Foundation, and $50,000 from Google--that will help support his interested in "green" software development. Green software? It's an issue we've looked at before--some computer code is said to be "greener" than others, for instance, if it operates faster and therefore is more energy-efficient. "Saving energy is an activity that should come from many layers," said Binghamton's Yu David Liu, the recipient of the grants, who has been at the university since 2008, in a release. And it should even come in lines of computer code.

63

General Software Discussion / Graphical depiction of web browser popularity from 1995-2011

« on: March 28, 2011, 02:44 PM »

Graphical depiction of web browser popularity from 1995-2011

64

General Software Discussion / Can't wait for Flash to die!

« on: March 27, 2011, 03:20 PM »

And I'm not alone in the feeling. Apple hates it (which makes me think I should reconsider), Ubuntu will no longer default to installing Flash, Google (and Apple) have long been pushing HTML5.* Now IE9 does HTML5 with ease. When you look at the resource hog that Flash has become (in the browser), it's a real shame, and doesn't transfer well with mobile computing and I'm wanting more of those YouTube videos converted!

65

Living Room / Which cartoon character do you most relate to (and why)?

« on: March 13, 2011, 01:46 AM »

_______________________________
There are hundreds more, and dozens of genres. Think about it and let us know!

66

Living Room / The 10 idiosyncrasies of Steve Jobs

« on: March 08, 2011, 09:26 AM »

Think you know Apple’s enigmatic leader? Think again. The great man is famously secretive, but we’ve unearthed some nuggets of info from work and home that provide a glimpse to what he’s really like, from his car’s numbers plates, how he decorates his house, to where he parks. And it may surprise you to learn he’s as fastidious about the products he buys as about the ones Apple makes.



1. Buying habits
2. He does his research before spending
3. Driving with no number plates
4. An irreverent approach to parking
5. Home furnishings
6. A deep design ethos
7. The designers report directly to him
8. A hands off approach
9. Expanding his horizons
10. A dislike for focus groups

http://electricpig.c...asies-of-steve-jobs/

67

Living Room / In Western societies, how can a man have a hyphenated name? (and why!)

« on: March 01, 2011, 11:04 PM »

Someone explain this to me. I'm seeing more and more professional athletes artificially hyphenating their mother and father's surnames on their uniforms. Why! And how could you do this until you go through the legal process of changing your name? Me not understand the phenomenon, please help. The ones below sound like a Graham Norton skit:

Poore-Sapp
Looney-Ward
Little-Wang
Crapp-Beer
Long-Wiwi
Best-Lay
Wang-Holder
Hardy-Harr
Traylor-Hooker
Little-Gay

68

General Software Discussion / Splashtop: Linux for Windows users

« on: March 01, 2011, 10:50 PM »

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols (or SJVN as I call him), piles on with the various corporatized names of the Splashtop browser OS for Windows that's actually Linux. It's built for Windows users wanting to get on the web, check their mail or social media fast. At least that's the first impression most users have. It's essentially a dual boot, but it defaults to Bing as the search engine, Chrome as the browser, and pre-installs Flash. It's been around for a few years, but it coexists with Windows very well.

http://www.splashtop.com/os
http://www.zdnet.com...r-windows-users/8379

69

Living Room / Listen to the new REM album in its entirety before it's released

« on: March 01, 2011, 10:29 PM »

Over at  NPR's First Listen, you can listen to REM's Collapse Into Now album. It's a comeback and it's good.

R.E.M. has followed a familiar trajectory for big bands that have been around a long time. After releasing a few groundbreaking albums in the early and mid-'80s, the band signed with a major label and became one of the biggest acts in the world.



Michael Stipe and company owned the early '90s with the albums Out of Time, Automatic for the People and Monster. But, inevitably, the band stumbled with later releases, especially after drummer Bill Berry retired from the group in 1997. Not much from its past several albums has fully captured the magic of R.E.M.'s earlier work, but the new Collapse Into Now sure does. The band's most rewarding album in 15 years, Collapse Into Now is a beautifully produced collection of intimate and reflective ballads ("Oh My Heart") and distorted, thumping rock numbers ("Discoverer," "All the Best"). While Bill Berry is still absent, the record features stunning appearances by Patti Smith, Eddie Vedder, Peaches and other guests.

Highlights include the anthemic singalong toward the end of "It Happened Today" — as joyous and infectious as anything R.E.M. has done, the song brings to mind classics like "Me in Honey" or "Belong" from Out of Time. The haunting closer "Blue," mixes experimental, ambient sounds with Stipe's somber narration, before morphing back to the driving melodies of the opening track, "Discoverer" — as if to say this is really the beginning, not the end, and there's still plenty to celebrate. As a longtime (and huge) R.E.M. fan, I figured we were done getting truly great, inspired albums from the group. But Collapse Into Now reaffirms R.E.M. as a vital, thoughtful and gifted band with plenty left to say. I can't wait to hear what comes next.

http://www.npr.org/2...-m-collapse-into-now

70

Living Room / Should ebook users have any rights?

« on: February 28, 2011, 12:16 PM »

ReadWriteWeb has a better question:  Do E-Book Users Need a Bill of Rights? (Librarians Think So.)
http://www.readwrite...hts_librarians_t.php



Publishers like HarperCollins are already jumping in and setting limits to what users can and cannot do with ebooks, viz., a lot less than you ever could with paper books! This includes broad DRM schemes that tie books to specific devices, composing them in proprietary formats, limiting the number of times they can be read, limiting whether they can be shared, and if so, for how long, and whether a distributor like Amazon can remotely delete your ebooks without your approval. Put simply, ebook consumers want to be treated with respect rather than as a pre-criminal. They suggest not buying DRM books in any form, which includes Google not letting you download the ePub file of purchased books.

71

Living Room / [Humor]: An update is available for your computer!

« on: February 24, 2011, 11:48 PM »

http://yfrog.com/gzxcwzbj

72

Living Room / Ten Stunning Science Visualizations

« on: February 24, 2011, 07:16 AM »

From Wired Science: 10 Stunning Science Visualizations
http://www.wired.com...ualizations-gallery/



Wow.

73

General Software Discussion / Most Pirated Software?

« on: February 23, 2011, 04:43 PM »

Two votes are available if you need it. I have no idea which is the most pirated, just curious about what DC'ers perceive. This list does not include games, of course. I figure Call of Duty wins that one every year.

74

Living Room / Should I be concerned that my wife opened a Facebook account?

« on: February 23, 2011, 03:01 AM »

Dear DC,
Not a day goes by that I don't see another report of someone being fired (or not hired) for something posted on their Facebook page. I know little about Facebook, but she has a great career in management and though her posts are plain and among her few friends and family, I find it a bad idea to risk your economic future to someone else's perception of your Facebook profile/posts/friends. It seems a lot of employers are using Facebook to get around employment law, e.g., the Human Resources manager who might say: "She's an atheist? Get that heathen out of my company!"

Signed,
Concerned and Worried

________________________________
Example article:
http://itmanagement....s-to-the-HR-Dept.htm

75

General Software Discussion / 20 New User Misconceptions about Linux

« on: February 22, 2011, 06:10 PM »

Matt Hartley's points are true to my experience. Point is, not to believe the rumors, rumors about rumors, and counter-rumors! 

http://itmanagement....ions-about-Linux.htm