Messages

26

Mini-Reviews by Members / Stormboard

« on: April 06, 2014, 02:15 AM »

Basic Info

App Name	Stormboard
App URL	https://www.stormboard.com
Test System Specs	Iron browser
Supported OSes	Web
Support Methods	https://www.stormboard.com/main/help
Upgrade Policy	https://www.stormboard.com/main/pricing

Pricing Scheme	Free, $5 per month, $10 per month
Relationship btwn. Reviewer and Product	None. Tried the app

Intro:

Online Sticky Board.





Who is this app designed for:

Collaboration between users. Focus on startups and teams. Even the sign-up asks for a company name.


The Good

Arguably one of the best and simplest online collaboration board out there. The price for the paid version is cheap too.


The needs improvement section

Vague export name called reports. No lines to connect the relationship between two sticky notes. Unclear templates requiring you to view every preview to see where the lines are.

Why I think you should use this product

The interface is pure KISS and it is one of two apps that I've seen use an aerial view to maneuver through lots of notes.

How does it compare to similar apps

It lacks reminders to be a Google Keep competitor. It lacks lines to be a mindmap competitor. It lacks a public version to be a social media competitor despite having votes.


Conclusions

Right now, I think this would be my default sticky note software despite it being team-oriented and I'm using it for single user needs.

Not sure how it would scale but it's one of those web apps that feel seamless on first use and everything just feels like the developers have their goals clearly set to providing a unique enough experience from your regular app.

Links to other reviews of this application

http://edtechreview....asy-fun-and-flexible

The ability to draw sketches in addition to text, photo and video sticky notes.
The ability to add documents to a storm.
A more modern and consistent design and user experience.
Improved compatibility with touchscreens.
Enhanced searching and filtering options.
Attractive reports in Excel and PDF formats.

27

General Software Discussion / Nimblebox - Evernote plus Twitter client

« on: March 22, 2014, 06:11 PM »

http://nimblebox.me/

Video: http://vimeo.com/68486671

It uses markdown from the video but I haven't installed it.

28

Living Room / Re: In Need of Searchable Database For a Card Shop

« on: February 05, 2013, 12:07 PM »

I think I am going to go with wordpress, because I already know how to use it, so I won't have to learn anything new, which will make things so much easier when I go to explain to the shop owner how to use it. Each card will be a blog post. And each blog post will have a category tied to it. (creature, enchantment, artifact, etc.) And then to further make it easier to search for a card, each blog post will also have tags tied to it. (eg. a green elf shaman would have the tags: green,forest,elf,shaman) then to make it look less like a wordpress blog, and more like a card database website, I disabled the pages tab at the top of the theme (there is only one page anyways, the news/anouncments page), and then added to the sidebar the categories widget, and named it card database, so that people can get a list of cards based on card type. (creature, enchantment, etc.)

-nite_monkey (February 05, 2013, 11:53 AM)

If you're going to resort to Wordpress, I think it would be more convenient to take advantage of services like Evernote, Springpad, Tumblr (compare their archives with Wordpress) and Pinstamatic.

Wordpress tags...are kind of iffy.

You are bound to end up with something like this:

http://www.cyborgani...y/the-core-workflow/

When you should be aiming instead for something like this:

http://zoywiki.com/i...p/LoH/Genesis/Common

29

General Software Discussion / Re: Mozilla Add-ons: "Not available for Firefox 11". But it's Waterfox 18!

« on: January 29, 2013, 02:34 AM »

I have not used Waterfox but try these other methods but the most common method for FF add-ons as mentioned here is to disable add-on compatibility. Simplest being installing nightly testers tool: http://www.reddit.co...y_the_xpi_to_use_in/

There's also this:

Go to about:config then search for extensions.checkCompatibility and set it to false.

RES works perf

and this:

    Rename XPI to ZIP
    Extract
    Edit one of the files to change compatibility settings (I think its one of the few in the root folder from memory)
    Rezip
    Rename to XPI
    Load

Find an addon that is compatible, and look at their files to figure it out if you're still having trouble. It's been a while since I was working with XPI files, but I used to have to do this in order to make the addon we were developing work with Firefox beta browsers.

30

Living Room / I did not realize how bad Google has become

« on: January 29, 2013, 01:05 AM »

http://focusontheuser.org/

How It Works

When you search for "cooking" today, Google decides that renowned chef Jamie Oliver is a relevant social result. That makes sense. But rather than linking to Jamie's Twitter profile, which is updated daily, Google links to his Google+ profile, which was last updated nearly two months ago. Is Google's relevance algorithm simply misguided?

No. If you search Google for Jamie Oliver directly, his Twitter profile is the first social result that appears. His abandoned Google+ profile doesn't even appear on the first page of results. When Google's engineers are allowed to focus purely on relevancy, they get it right.

So that's what our "bookmarklet" does. It looks at the three places where Google only shows Google+ results and then automatically googles Google to see if Google finds a result more relevant than Google+.

Talk about a tongue twister of a bookmarklet.  

Unfortunately I don't use Google+ so I don't know what I'm missing.

31

DC Gamer Club / Crazy story behind the 64-bit Windows Pinball

« on: January 29, 2013, 12:53 AM »

From: http://www.instantfu...ball-and-how-to.html

When Windows 95 came out, one of the features of the new operating system was that it provided a great platform for gaming, and lots of developers were clamoring for a piece of the action. The game was originally developed by a game developing company called Cinematronics, who sold licensing rights of the game to Microsoft for inclusion in Microsoft Plus for Windows 95. For Cinematronics, a small software company then, it meant exposure to millions of Windows users and thousands of developers. The very next year Cinematronics was bought by Maxis, another game developing company, that eventually got acquired by Electronic Arts another year later.

Spoiler

    One of the things I did in Windows XP was port several millions of lines of code from 32-bit to 64-bit Windows so that we could ship Windows XP 64-bit Edition. But one of the programs that ran into trouble was Pinball. The 64-bit version of Pinball had a pretty nasty bug where the ball would simply pass through other objects like a ghost. In particular, when you started the game, the ball would be delivered to the launcher, and then it would slowly fall towards the bottom of the screen, through the plunger, and out the bottom of the table.

    Games tended to be really short.

    Two of us tried to debug the program to figure out what was going on, but given that this was code written several years earlier by an outside company, and that nobody at Microsoft ever understood how the code worked (much less still understood it), and that most of the code was completely uncommented, we simply couldn't figure out why the collision detector was not working. Heck, we couldn't even find the collision detector!

    We had several million lines of code still to port, so we couldn't afford to spend days studying the code trying to figure out what obscure floating point rounding error was causing collision detection to fail. We just made the executive decision right there to drop Pinball from the product.

I can't tell if this is good or bad news that Linux is lacking a game of this demand out of the box. 

32

Post New Requests Here / Important To-do/Anuvu equivalent of Important Tabs

« on: January 29, 2013, 12:38 AM »

https://addons.mozil...ddon/important-tabs/

It kind of functions like a pin tab but one where you can close all not important tabs.

Btw side request for Anuran, I think one way to manage the constant schedule pop-ups is to have an option that only pops the box open when a command like a closed window was done instead of a specific cycle of time.

33

General Software Discussion / The great "are exploits good or bad for the concept" have moved towards GOTD

« on: January 29, 2013, 12:28 AM »

http://www.instantfu...etup-files-with.html

A protection software included with the download makes sure that you cannot install the program once the 24 hour giveaway period has expired, even if you’ve still got the installer.

But there was a weakness in the Giveaway of the day wrapper that was exploited last year to extract the original installer of the program. Without the security of the wrapper, this program could then be installed at any date irrespective of the current giveaway at GOTD. It took the website’s programmers a few months before the loophole was fixed. The exploit doesn’t work anymore.

The new wrapper is more secure that stops people from keeping the software for future installs and it reportedly utilizes a technology similar to rootkits. But the wrapper’s security has been broken once again, this time by Maximus, a member of the cracking group REVENGE Crew. It is a tiny portable executable, that allows you to extract the original setup installer from the new wrapper and keep it for later use, just like before.

IMO these things are great provided the developers can understand that it will hurt the current sales of their products but boost the sequels but what dev will really appreciate 'theft demand'?

34

Living Room / Re: Debate: Effects of technology on modern youth

« on: January 28, 2013, 11:29 PM »

I'm not a parent but I could swear I stumbled on some articles that deal with this subject but I just did not have them bookmarked. (Nothing specific but it dealt with the issue.)

Short answer is yes. There's really no choice but up for technology at this point and the better the child understands the technical background of technology, the more they are less affected by the magnetism of social networks. (Photos are not that impressive to a teen if they are just more technical photo albums for example. Neither are status messages if a human understands that the status is better data mined than be the one being data mined.)

There's a plethora of Videogame can enhance the brain such as this article that can be startpage.com'd (this link is more for FPS): http://www.npr.org/2...-multitasking-skills

Time is less important than context.

A competitive game can improve dedication provided a kid is pushing the limits of being a better fighting gamer but once the genre gets liquidated into simply "the next best game with new characters to select/create" then it's a cash drain and it all depends on how pro the person is at wanting to seek this path in their life.

The deceptive part is in being able to differentiate general false brain games that claim to improve memory from videogames and online materials that connect, curate and simulate the passion of your child.

It's not as clear cut as a child playing SimCity wants to be a mayor or a teen playing Grand Theft Auto wants to steal or a person investing heavily on Minecraft wanting to be a lego sculptor. It sounds obvious but with hysteria not only on the dangers of videogames but on the positive power of videogames, you can't really tell.

For example, lots of racers use racing videogames to sim the tracks because it saves time. Lots of army men use shooting sims because of the tactics.

You can't mistake these for gun sims. They are there to desensitive the environment and relieve anxiety and promote tactical routes for the participants but in no way do they form a person's desire to just steal a gun or unload with violence.

In the same concept, there are kid's games that are more harmful despite their kiddie exterior and there are adult videogames that can promote better learning interest for your kid while they are still a kid than when they play these same videogames as an adult (assuming correct mentor guidance to extend the kid's passion).

The real time web is much more complicated but the good news is that kids, as they grow, adapt faster than adults provided they have the right tech circle to influence them.

A kid who has Facebook friends is not the same as a kid who can see Facebook as a platform to bravely attempt bad videos on youtube that they will then transmit on Facebook.

However, a parent pretending to be much more knowledgeable than a child in browsing or other tech related subjects, is more likely to simulate turning a child's love of reading into a homework. It can only translate so much before the child hates to read in general unless they are a genius, creative or really have capable parents.

Those are all my impressions from the articles I read. Basically it all comes down to this, children are still human and the children that is best parented into maximizing technology in the most positive manner is the children that's treated equally like an adult by the parent. This means if the parent does not know a technical subject and a parent is not interested in knowing it, it transfers to the child unless chaos plays a role and a child is influenced by a friend or a site. Vice versa, children's first human interaction tend to be their parents so every chance a parent can transfer that "passion" for learning that technical concept to their children is one human being better adapted to that technical concept. This does not mean handing the child the product though but handing the child the learning tools to better utilize a technological concept beyond what it advertises itself as or beyond what the parent has already done with the product. It does not mean things like parental control don't help focus a child's attention but they simply don't learn and over time create a negative learning interruption for that child that weakens their resolve for learning and exposes them more to using the web as a form of escapism once the lock is off.

35

Living Room / Re: Story of how NewEgg Defeated a Patent Troll

« on: January 28, 2013, 11:10 PM »

This part is crazy:

So the case filed against Newegg and seven other retailers was closely watched. It went to trial in 2010 with Newegg as the only remaining defendant; all the other companies settled. It was a classic East Texas-style trial; a jury was picked on Monday, and the case wrapped up by Friday morning.

36

Living Room / Re: Debate: Effects of technology on modern youth

« on: January 28, 2013, 09:41 PM »

  Gee, where to start.....  For one, a very short attention span, always wanting to get back to texting and such.  Then there's the anti-social aspect when they spend their time online and not dealing with people face to face.  And of course not getting enough physical exercise because they're always on their electronic devices.

  Just too many aspects of this, need more input!   

-Tinman57 (January 28, 2013, 08:36 PM)

Cha-ching!

37

General Software Discussion / Re: 2013 Version: Browser Wars

« on: January 28, 2013, 09:34 PM »

Never really got into Opera, too much like the old Netscape Navigator, tries to do everything instead of doing one thing really, really well, (yes, I know I can just not use the parts I don't want to but then...why have them there in the first place?).

-4wd (January 28, 2013, 08:11 PM)

Convenience and exclusivity when you just need things to work.

There are no other notepad/browser hybrid that is as lightweight as Opera's. (Maxthon cloud comes closest but more because it has a built-in app launcher for an actual external notepad.)

Torrents are meant for seeding but sometimes you just want a no-nonsense quick install of an iso and here again, there are no torrent programs that have a native built-in browser for this type of purpose.

The same can be said for a native Speed Dial, a native RSS Reader, a native mail client.

It's more of a remote control than an I don't need it problem.

The features are nice in theory because they are exclusive to Opera in a pure .exe type of situation. There really is no singular executable out there that does what Opera does at providing a seamless torrent client or a seamless panel notes and many of the seamless features was then adopted by more modern browsers such as cloud sync for notes, active extensions in tray for Chrome (the old Widgets of Opera that need not have Opera open) and things like cascading windows are still trying to be mimicked by tiletabs, vertical splitters and other clunky features in other browsers.

It's really all great exclusive features IF Opera does not bungle up the presentation...but it's still exclusive one of a kind features that when other browsers took it, they were able to present it as a way to differentiate their browser.

Key examples:

Maxthon's "Cloud" Browser is pretty much Opera Unite with an interface and a lot less powerful.

Firefox's exclusive Scrapbook add-on is pretty much Opera not being smart enough to integrate Obook.

Opera mail and rss is pretty much an early edition of Flock's sidebar. (Flock was even smart enough to empower their notes sidebar as a clipper but dumb not to mimic Opera's basic plain text notes for non-clipped content)

Opera links is basically an underpowered resource sniffer that Maxthon has sold as a way to quickly download youtube and image files.

Opera torrent is/was basically the only torrent client that can trick you into thinking a torrent download was a regular download.

Opera widgets is basically one half K-meleon preloader/other half Google apps that stay active when the browser is closed.

Opera MDI like cascading windows is an under-animated illusion that gave the Chrome the illusion of having lightweight separate process tabs.

Opera stacks is a fully featured successor of the Taboo Firefox Add-on if Opera understood not to delegate it to opened tabs.

Opera sessions is still one of the native sessions that could save active window only and can recover full windows via a separate trashcan but Opera just insists on not making it easy to manage it like their bookmarks.

Opera's start bar was the reason why Google's chrome star was better integrated as a lightweight feel bookmarks than Firefox's star which of course Firefox also kind of took and Opera kind of took away.

Opera's keyboard shortcuts are still uniquely it's own for being to switch around tabs by using 1-2 and using gestures right mouse hold - left mouse to move back and forth between pages because of how powerful and unanimous the keyboard shortcuts allow it to be.

...these are not your regular "add-on developers will develop for it" add-on designs nor are these your typical Opera has innovative concepts that get stolen theory. Presented, named and given the same focus as Opera likes to give focus to their Speed Dial and Extensions correctly...these things changed the other browsers and still could have changed the desktop software world forever. There's just no software that presented these ideas other than Opera and by present, I don't mean introduced or included the feature but literally present a product that literally competed and out-exclusive other non-browser software if Opera only went to "update" these features to their modern capability.

(Example, torrent download could have been marketed as a unified download manager that combined the explanation Maxthon has for it's resource sniffer with torrents in general and then re-combined with the wand for private torrent usage while adding some statistics like how many times you leeched/seeded specifically from a wand account but not just for torrents but like a download history integrating with notes log and a wishlist bookmark integrating with weblinks that function as a native way of say...viewing a piratebay link reminder when you are viewing an IMDB page.)

38

Living Room / Re: [Cracked.Com] You're 90% to Blame for Journalists Getting Fired

« on: January 28, 2013, 09:13 PM »

It depends. For someone who has been in the receiving end of many Teal Deer, I find it more honest especially if it's a subject where you're not an expert but are willing to discuss.

It's usually the follow-up sentence to the TL;DR post by the same poster that's the ad-hominem attack since sometimes people will act like you were oblivious to the fact that you wrote something long. Other times people will accuse you of not replying to something they wrote despite the length of the reply.

39

Post New Requests Here / PopUpWisdom and Calibre Import of This App

« on: January 28, 2013, 03:55 PM »

http://books.knightlabprojects.com/

Basically you type your Twitter username to get book recommendations.

Would be cool to get quote recommendations or book recommendations by any DC member who share their Calibre and PopUp Wisdom file in DC.

On a Side note: Wow! I typed in freewaregenius and got this Amazon.com book with only 3 reviews as it's 1st recommendation. If only modern search engines were as thorough!

Spoiler

http://www.amazon.co...amp;showViewpoints=1

This is another excellent book from a series of excellent books by the Pythagorean Illuminati. The Pythagorean Illuminati are an ancient secret society of rational free thinkers officially founded by the great polymath Pythagoras. Some of the most creative geniuses in history have been members of the Illuminati including: Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Empedocles, Plato, Simon Magus, Hypatia, Leibniz, Goethe, and Hegel. The Illuminati are Gnostics and Meritocrats. Their goal is to end the insanity that is currently infesting this planet and bring about a New World Order based on reason, justice, altruism, merit, and the ultimate project of allowing all of humanity to attain Gnosis. If you feel drawn to the ideas of the Illuminati then you need to read all of these books asap. You should also check out their website armageddonconspiracy .co.uk and their facebook page Ancient Order of The Illuminati. Remember too that these books are not meant to just be read, they are meant to change the world. As you read this series of books figure out what talents you can contribute to the crucial goal of changing the world. Once you know what to do go out into your community and get active.

The Illuminati are in the process of giving the mathematical answers to the greatest questions of existence. The Illuminati have discovered what scientists have been trying to find for years: A Grand Unified Theory of Everything. The foundation of this Grand Theory is mathematics. Through mathematics the Grand Theory reconciles all of humanities most important subjects of thought: philosophy, science, politics, history, sociology, psychology, religion, and the paranormal (which you will learn isn't even "paranormal" at all).

As you can guess some of these books contain challenging information; the amazing writing abilities of the authors takes care of that. These books are not written like dry academic text books though they surely could have been. The authors of these books write with passion and that passion rubs off on the reader. You quickly realize that the subjects we were all basically taught to hate in school are actually the most important information in the world. These subjects can't even be considered "subjects" at all. They are literally the answers to life's most mysterious questions. This is why religions and new age gurus make so much money, because they claim to know the answers to these questions (though their true goal is to control people). People flock to these prophets, priests, rabbis, imams, and gurus for security. They want these dominant people (mostly men) to give them the answers. They hope that will happen if only they pay enough money, have enough faith, and pray hard enough. And then along come the Illuminati with the most powerful idea: You don't need anyone to give you the answers, the only one you need is you. The Illuminati show that the answers to all of these great questions are hidden in the subjects most people would never think to look. The Illuminati also show that if you work hard enough on these subjects you too can begin to find the answers. Like I said the whole Grand Theory of the Illuminati is based on the only thing that can't be argued or debated with, mathematics.

The Illuminati are not interested in money or "followers". The vast majority of these books are free on their website and they would all be free if it weren't for thieves and plagiarizers. But even the prices of these books are ridiculously cheap, none are more then $4.99 and most are $2.99. Three to five dollars for the most important, unique, and life changing information in the world. The Illuminati also aren't concerned whether we believe them or not, they are simply offering the truth of existence to those who care to learn.

As for this book "The Illuminati's Six Dimensional Universe", it is one of my absolute favorites in the series. Every one of the books by the Illuminati blows my mind but some go above and beyond others. This is one of them. The other reviewer of this book, "Charlie", is a particle physicist and his review is perfect. As you can probably tell, I love the Illuminati's books, but I was a professional fighter for years and I took many, many punches to the head so my brain may not be up to par! But when a particle physicist tells you a book about a six dimensional universe is good, you had better listen!

40

Living Room / Springpad just had their own GOE for January

« on: January 28, 2013, 02:58 PM »

Unfortunately since there does not seem to be any sub-forum for this year's GOE, I'm just pasting it here:

http://nationalorganizationmonth.com/

Nothing jaw breaking so far but some cool looking hacks:


2013 Bubble Calendar

mouser's labeller was also mentioned: http://springpad.com...anizeyourlife/blocks

As well as the Belkin WeMo

developing a better system here in Kansas. Spreadsheet base and relying upon Windows Search. The main idea is to make a unique word out of a thing for which I might search. Say it is an ordinary clipboard for writing that is alluding me. I simply make a note anywhere saying that my clllipboard is located at a certain location on this date. This keeps me from finding instances of things in my clipboard program or casual references to any clipboard in general correspondence or notes. I keep a general running Daily Diary (like USMC days) that is kept in the my documents folder. I a small pocket notebook reminds me to make entries about things that I might notice in the car, shop or grounds. I just enter it at a convenient time into the Daily Diary.

On the down side, it really shows the limitations of SpringPad. Too much loading. Too many aesthetic and not enough work done on moving back and forth through objects. I don't really recommend opening multi-tabs for each notebook.

41

General Software Discussion / Re: 2013 Version: Browser Wars

« on: January 28, 2013, 02:21 PM »

Oh wow, I totally forgot about K-meleon.

To be fair to K-meleon, they don't really have the staff to go head to head with something as innovative as Opera and at least by not being more cross-platform they are more stable than Midori. (At least based on the comments I hear for it.)

Plus I don't know if it's still the same today but I recall K-meleon having one of the fastest loading (surpassing Chrome and Opera) for plain webpages back in the day. Could be false memory but I really wanted that gold gecko to have matured. Unfortunately it does not seem to have taken some of the mature features of other mainstream browsers.

42

Living Room / [Cracked.Com] You're 90% to Blame for Journalists Getting Fired

« on: January 28, 2013, 02:06 PM »

I just like the implications that communication problems is just not a "you failed to communicate" concept and felt this Cracked.com article summed up well what's wrong on the other end:

In the article about the human heads, no one actually opened a package and realized that it contained the trophies of a serial killer. Those were specimens being transferred from one medical lab in Rome to another in the U.S., something that happens all the time. The most interesting part of the story is that the paperwork mentioned what was inside. That's it. The real story is that a delivery guy read some paperwork. Neither one of those sensational stories is actually much of a story at all when all the facts are accounted for, and this type of thing happens all the time. Now, while that may sound dangerously irresponsible on the part of news organizations, you're also about 90 percent to blame for the phenomenon.

Read more: http://www.cracked.c...fault/#ixzz2JIn6oOlt

Gawker

The whole reason they aren't completely accurate is because each article absolutely has to be click-friendly to an online audience. In the example of the story about human heads, you can watch the progression of titles as the story makes its way across "news" sites. The Chicago Sun Times, where the story originated, initially led with the header, "Inquiry into Research Facility Holds Up 18 Human Heads at O'Hare." Then Fox News felt comfortable enough tweaking the story to "18 Human Heads Found at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport," and finally Gawker tested the full elasticity of the truth by titling it "18 Severed Human Heads Discovered in Package at Airport; Everyone Being Very Chill About It," because they know that the only way to ensure that people read it is to make the story into something startling enough to become viral.

Read more: http://www.cracked.c...fault/#ixzz2JIncxa9q

Finally the coup de grace

Now, it's no secret that we don't read newspapers anymore; countless Heralds, Tribunes, Posts, Times, and whatever they read in other countries have folded because we've proven that we prefer our news from blogs and content aggregators like Reddit. And good riddance, right? The newspaper industry is a relic, we're living in the future! Reddit knows how to trim out the fat and give us the very best news from around the world. Everything on Tumblr and the other blogs we follow is guaranteed to be fascinating and specifically catered to us because we handpicked the people who provide it.

But here's the problem: The stories still have to originate somewhere. Someone has to do the fact checking, and the source checking, and the interviews, and break the stories, but those people are all getting fired left and right because we've ensured that journalism isn't a viable career option anymore. So the only way for lean and desperate news outlets to get traffic from aggregators and blogs is if each article is absolutely shocking. As a result, the stories get fudged a little until they're more sharable for an online audience.

It's easiest to think of these refined, processed news stories as Reese's Pieces that make up a tiny portion of your online consumption. They're a nice treat once in awhile, but when they are the entirety of your information diet, the part of your brain that used to be responsible for breaking down the complex, nutrient-filled, TL; DR carbohydrates has nothing to do anymore and starts to atrophy. You start to lose the energy and the will to ask questions about the story and instead cave to the insatiable urge to just keep ingesting.

That's why fake news stories can surge through Twitter before anyone has a chance to debunk them. The Internet allowed for the creation of a fast food version of information that's not particularly good for you but still triggers that same pleasure zone in the brain. You're essentially fattening yourself up with information obesity, because the news outlets, in the end, are businesses that know they can stay in the black by feeding you what you want as opposed to what you need. Meanwhile, reason and rationality rot like neglected teeth. Or maybe it's journalism that's rotting like teeth. I don't know anymore, that metaphor kind of got away from me.

Read more: http://www.cracked.c...fault/#ixzz2JIoS3DN4

I will add this: For someone who has lived in a country where tabloids are considered on par with newspapers but have never ever lived and experienced yellow journalism. All I can say is thank you, English speaking internet posting web users from across the globe.

Edit: This comment post is also really really good compared to most Cracked.com comebacks.

The Internet was invented precisely as a vortex to CONTAIN our crazy. I scream into it not so much for attention, but as a release: much in the same way that some people hang a heavy-bag in their basement and wail away at it after a stressful day at work to release their aggression. I cannot use a heavy-bag, however, as my hands have become extremely arthritic, frozen in "action figure gun grip" mode (a side effect of earlier forays into using the Internet for a different type of "release"- a trap that all too many of my brethren fall into... often 4 or 5 times a day...)

The Internet was invented by the US Government in the 60s as an offshoot of ARPANET, as a way of providing research scientists working on highly sensitive projects to release their stress (caused by their often exasperating work on batshit crazy projects like weaponry and chemical warfare) by typing long tirades about how they were developing "murder machines" and "man's downfall" into simple text documents and sending them to their colleagues in hopes of exorcising their inner demons, like a kind of therapy. This worked for MANY decades, helping some of the government's brightest minds slog through their horrible workdays consisting of figuring out how to invent the most efficient devices for liquifying human beings and making their insides attack them in the most horrific ways imaginable.

Later on in the 90s, Tim Berners-Lee recognized the capabilities of this communication technology, and that as corporate interests continued to streamline productivity and increase output demand, he saw that the average worker would soon likewise need an outlet for "hauling off on the boss anonymously in such a way as to express their deepest outrage for workplace inequalities and a general desire to painfully insert large objects into their supervisors' orifices as a means for swift revenge" [citation needed]. Lee built a graphical interface and protocols for ease of access that now allow the average person to adeptly fire off threatening screeds and hateful sermons to any and everyone capable of absorbing such maledictions in the most common mediums of not only text, but also audio, video, and the super-efficent format of cat-pictures.

The problem is that we have conflated what the Internet's true purpose is: it was NEVER a place for rational people to share important ideas and beneficial information across complex social networks almost instantaneously. It was supposed to just be an infinite nexus to absorb all of our crazy, so we could focus on doing those things *IN THE REAL WORLD* instead, where they would effect the most immediate good. Not until the rest of the world realizes that the Internet is just the layer of distraction it was always intended to be, and *NOT an actual place to accomplish things*, will we ever move forward and progress together.

In summary: eat s**t Mr. Robertson in Accounting, I'll have those reports on your desk as soon as I'm done jacking-off to this picture of your wife you left on your desk.

43

General Software Discussion / Re: 2013 Version: Browser Wars

« on: January 28, 2013, 01:56 PM »

Agreed.

Still you have to admit, there are people who seem to really hate Opera.

After IE, Opera became the whipping child of Firefox. After Firefox, Opera became the whipping child of Google with their constant breaking of Opera's sites regardless how many times they try to fix it. After Google, Opera just happened to not catch fire in the tablet market. (though I have no clue which is the most used browser on those end).

44

General Software Discussion / Re: 2013 Version: Browser Wars

« on: January 28, 2013, 01:22 PM »

About the best I can say is that I'm glad I didn't have to pay for any of them. Which is probably at the root of what the problem is with browsers and browser development in general: Who's paying for it?

I would gladly pay for a browser if somebody did a really good one that wasn't quietly gearing up to make money by trying to become my next desktop.

-40hz

You can't say Opera did not try but you weren't paying enough for either it's ad-free version and Opera Mini. 

45

General Software Discussion / Re: 2013 Version: Browser Wars

« on: January 28, 2013, 11:58 AM »

You don't really judge Chrome's speed nowadays by how fast Chrome is but by how fast SRWare Iron Portable Version is. At least on Windows system.

https://www.srware.n...re_iron_download.php

Iron is still faster than Chrome and Firefox.

46

Living Room / Publishing Button - The Crusade

« on: January 28, 2013, 11:56 AM »

From: http://blogs.berkele...betray-aaron-swartz/

But with the birth of the internet, scholars no longer needed publishers to distribute their work. As NYU’s Clay Shirky has noted, publishing went from being an industry to being a button.

Had the leaders of major research universities reacted to this technological transformation with any kind vision, Swartz’s dream of universal free access to the scholarly literature would now be a reality. But they did not. Rather than seize this opportunity to greatly facilitate research and education, both within and outside the academy, they chose instead to reify the status quo.

From: http://lists.ibiblio...-January/008284.html

Spoiler

> **Aaron Swartz recognized something. In his own words, "Information is
> power. But like all power, there are those who want to keep it for
> themselves." —[Guerilla Open Access Manifesto][2]**
>
> [![Aaron Swartz][3]][3]
>
> Based on an image by [Jacob Applebaum][4] via [Wikimedia][5]. [CC-BY-SA
> 3.0][6]
>
> Many of us have spent time grieving together on message boards, email
> lists, and with friends. While we mourned the loss of a brilliant hero
> to a [broken and backwards criminal justice system][7], an outpouring of
> support for his work roared to life. Almost overnight, recognition of
> the importance of his mission spread across every corner of the web.
> What now?
>
> Aaron understood that the way we experience and interact with the world
> is [inseparable from the media and technology around us][8]. He knew
> that only when they are [free from private ownership][9] can we hope to
> harness their liberatory potential and gain control over our own lives.
> He has been an invaluable force in the free software and free culture
> movements, working against the privatization of information, culture,
> and knowledge.
>
> Aaron fought to tear down the walls that hide big secrets and lock up
> human knowledge for the profit of the gatekeepers. The pressures which
> drove him to suicide — up to 50 years in prison and $4 million in fines
> — were brought against him for a victimless crime. These egregiously
> harsh punishments for [releasing public domain papers][10] locked up on
> JSTOR may have been due to Aaron's support of [ Private Breanna
> Manning][11] and [ties to Wikileaks][12]. Either way, Aaron should have
> been rewarded.

> There are already plenty of places to publish and share [free cultural
> works][22], but this is only half of the battle. The remaining question
> is how to usurp proprietary knowledge sources. The answer, then, is to
> eliminate their value by taking the knowledge they amass and release it
> into the world. **Our own rejection of locking up knowledge should be
> taken for granted.** **To continue Aaron's work, we must create an
> organized movement to take down the gatekeepers which keep hoards of
> information secret and lock our cultural productions behind their
> walls.**

I wonder if there's a way we could promote libre knowledge (which is freely
licensed and in free formats) over individuals just posting links to their
work.

"Posting our PDFs is all fine and good, but the real way to honor Aaron
Swartz is to combat this pervasive institutional fecklessness and do
everything in our power to make sure no papers ever end up behind pay walls
again."

—
http://blogs.berkele...betray-aaron-swartz/

How can we promote
 * Public Library of Science <https://www.plos.org/>, BioMed
Central<https://www.biomedcentral.com/>,
and other freely licensed academic journals
 * AcaWiki <http://acawiki.org/> and
Wikiversity<https://en.wikiversity.org/>for collaborative summaries of
and notes on books and academic papers
 * Connexions <http://cnx.org/> and Wikibooks
<https://en.wikibooks.org/>as collaborative course materials and
textbooks

-Kyra

47

Developer's Corner / Re: Blackberry is Back... And Looking to Usurp Some Androids... :D

« on: January 28, 2013, 10:59 AM »

Misleading title. This does not create competition. This is akin to saying you can view Facebook in Rockmelt instead of Google Chrome i.e. the Ubuntu model for Linux. Get from the community, rarely give back to the community.

48

Living Room / Re: [Reddit] I couldn't learn Erlang so I invented it

« on: January 28, 2013, 10:52 AM »

Thanks for the keyword "functional programming".

The irony is that, based on what little I can understand of the wikipedia re-direct link Functioninal Programming for the Rest of Us this is how I viewed OO.

Now I'm confused as to what OO really is. Correct me if I'm wrong but is FP conceptually similar to OO but it teaches OO to have an "else" statement or are the two entirely different concepts? Some of the descriptions in that link reads like a wikipedia explanation of what a blackbox is for airplanes but FP being the blackbox of OO.

49

General Software Discussion / Re: 2013 Version: Browser Wars

« on: January 28, 2013, 09:21 AM »

Flash/Shockwave crash a common story for Linux on all browsers.

Btw I disagree.

Vanilla and Strawberry can't be used for mud facials like chocolate - Opera, is the most gracious, has an extension for speed dial reminders, has a long click on link to create background tabs, has stacks

Chocolate and Strawberry tend to ruin Coffee unlike Vanilla - Firefox overall has the best cross-platform stability and integration. It has unique add-ons like Scrapbook Plus. It has the most advanced session manager. With less than 50 tabs, Firefox is still better than both Chrome and Opera

Strawberry may not be as unique as Vanilla or as robust as Chocolate but it mixes well with both - Chrome's link to google account means it has the most guaranteed "you already have this account" for online sync, it also has some unique feed readers like FeedSquare and News Factory that is not just your regular RSS Reader Prettifier. It has unique to-do lists like My Time Organizer and Do it Later Alligator. It may crash pages but most session managers for it also treat session links like checkboxes. Coincidentally it also has context for extension icon management and it has the most unique and colorful library synching with the look of tablets.

If you're a dedicated web reader, it really has been "locked in to this feature or no alternative" for a while with the exception of IE and that's only because of Maxthon. If Flock is not dead, it would have been offering users another unique sidebar taste. (But god I hate how it slows down and the orange icons).

2013 Browsers Wars are the Browser PIM wars i.e. the Extension and Exclusive Feature Wars

If you use Zotero, you would be highly leaning towards Firefox.
If you play HTML5 games, the apps of Chrome is much more friendly.
If you like native smart drag, Maxthon.
If you like fit width to screen, you go Opera

...and that's just some of the examples of recommended extensions for recommended programs. It's the coders nowadays that have the simpler choice. Regular users have to use, experience and browse all the new extensions all the time as blogs have gone totally commercial on the list of top extensions to install on browsers thread while user reviewers have been extremely harsh on one end while extension developers have gone through a dry spell of resurrecting old extensions. Anything that's banned from Google Chrome's extension list probably won't be blogged or praised. Anything that has barely any reviews on Firefox Add-ons probably won't have much people pointing out the existence of that extension. Anything that's on Opera will be mostly ignored. Maxthon won't even make a dent.

50

General Software Discussion / Re: POSTING 101

« on: January 28, 2013, 08:18 AM »

Not from within the interface although I always did wonder what software will read the xml in the export all pms option. That could sort it out but importing it in something commonly installed like LibreCalc seems to have only imported the name.

You could theoretically use labels named as dates to jump back and forth between the outbox and singular pms but nothing that would be one seamless button.