Messages

376

Living Room / Re: DC Forum Members -- Tell Us About Your Website

« on: June 30, 2008, 09:37 PM »

I maintain a few...
Theprawn.com is my primary personal repository, with links to my (generally useless, if not pseudo-luddite) web toys including a wiki, some harder-to-use image generators and my pseudo-1995 chat script.

rereplace.com is my most useful, it's a web based PCRE search and replace solution

protempore.org really hasn't been used in several years, but was my hand-rolled poetry hosting solution for myself and a few friends who had a falling out with pathetic.org's pensiveness over free speech.

jarday.com Really should be my personal website, as it's an acronym/composite of my name but instead stands as the placeholder for my not-updated web development portfolio and services offered. I'm rather embarassed by it, not so much because of the design (I'm no designer, I like to stick with the backend development) but the general spiel there is... lousy. Ack.

377

General Software Discussion / Evernote Beta now Open

« on: June 30, 2008, 08:49 PM »

Evernote version 3 is now in Open beta, no invites are necessary to sign up.  Space is unlimited, bandwidth is is 40 megs for free users and 500 for "premium" users -- dropping 45 bucks for a year of premium will net you a free Evernote T-shirt. (A really nice looking shirt, in my opinion)

The web version has been completely redesigned and their web clipper has also been improved.  Not much new to offer for the Evernote 2.0  users who are disappointed in what might be considered a number of regressions moving forward to 3.0, but its current state is much improved from when I first started using the beta.  Also much to my delight, the updates are coming far more frequently.

There are still a great number of issues I'd like to see addressed--mostly having to do with non-overlapping features between the web and client versions and how it's much easier to do some things from one and other things via the other, which I've mentioned at length a number of times on their forums. Of course, so long as they leave the "Beta" suffix on the version, I am not too upset with the state of it.

378

Living Room / Re: Opera 9.5

« on: June 12, 2008, 10:41 PM »

Dont confuse security with lack of use.

-Josh (June 12, 2008, 08:20 AM)

Cheap jab. Don't confuse lack of hype with lack of substance.  In the future, if something isn't canidae or at least prone to humping canine, I'll remember to refrain from announcing it.

379

Living Room / Opera 9.5

« on: June 12, 2008, 08:19 AM »

Opera has released version 9.5 of their web browser for windows, linux and mac in 29 languages. Lots of great changes, including the fastest browser getting even faster, tighter security, a web developer tool suite "DragonFly", improved address bar, improved tab handling, and a slew of other features, tweaks and fixes.

. . . of course, since most of the Opera users here have been using the betas for some time the download won't change much!

380

General Software Discussion / Re: Opera 9.5 — New Skin

« on: June 10, 2008, 12:25 PM »

Allen: yes breeze simplified micro will get some TLC when Kestrel goes gold. I'll also make a version of the standard skin that is much more screen-space efficient. Lots of small changes have been made to Opera's skinning engine for the better in kestrel too...

-nontroppo (June 10, 2008, 10:27 AM)

Excellent news!

381

Find And Run Robot / Re: Minimal web pages which fit into FARR HTML View

« on: June 10, 2008, 09:58 AM »

Neither plurk nor twitter's mobile versions will work as Internet explorer doesn't know how to use the mime type "application/xhtml xml " ?!?!. Ungh.

Anyway, Evernote is great, also using RTM (previously mentioned).
Evernote | htmlviewurl http://preview.evernote.com/m/


I've made the necessary alias setup for chacha.com but it's not working atm, chacha appears to be having a problem with its mobile bit.
ChaCha | htmlviewurl https://chacha.com/u/$$1

Mobile versions of plurk and twitter are below, in case anyone can figure out how to make IE not choke. I . . . don't know my way around IE very well.
Plurk | htmlviewurl http://plurk.com/m
Twitter | htmlviewurl http://m.twitter.com

--and just for kicks chat | http://theprawn.com/...From%20DonationCoder

382

General Software Discussion / Re: Opera 9.5 — New Skin

« on: June 06, 2008, 03:39 PM »

. . . and it has already been Updated

383

Living Room / Re: $10 cell phone?

« on: June 06, 2008, 08:30 AM »

That actually looks like my kind of phone! None of that extra carp with text messages and cameras and videos and game.

-Deozaan (June 05, 2008, 08:50 PM)

Voice communication is my least favorite part of the cell phone! I was tempted to get the cheap text-only plan for my phone

Although I think I would miss the built in address book. That's a useful feature that kind of requires a screen.

Someone could make a buck off of an address book service--where you call in and store numbers, stating the name to associate with it. Call and say who you want to talk to and connect.

384

General Software Discussion / Re: Opera 9.5 — New Skin

« on: June 06, 2008, 08:25 AM »

I like it a lot better than the old default--I especially like the panel bar, it's sleek.  I don't use the main toolbar or the tab bar but enabled them briefly to take a look. I think my biggest complaints would be 1) As mentioned, the tab bar doesn't scale 2) The tab bar is the coolest looking aspect of it . . . and I don't use it. D'oh!

I'm not sure if this will ultimately replace Breeze Simplified Micro for me though--at least as long as Breeze is available. (Do plan to keep updating it, nontroppo?)

385

Living Room / Re: Recaptcha Porn?

« on: June 04, 2008, 04:48 PM »

If only the captcha was a caption!

Well, seems like this one wanted to prove that I'm a man.

Priceless!

386

Living Room / Re: Opera and fancy AJAX sites: not much luck on my side of things...

« on: June 03, 2008, 11:52 PM »

Speed, configurability ( you can make Opera "your own" moreso than firefox, despite addons) and (to me) most importantly keyboard configuration. Plus, Opera is the ONLY browser that supports MDI. I hate tabs.

Opera is the only browser I can configure to the point where I'm genuinely comfortable and "at home".

387

Living Room / Google Shell

« on: June 03, 2008, 06:53 PM »

I don't know that there is any practical use for this, per se . . . but effectively combines two of my favorite things--google and the shell--to create a pretty cool little interface.



Visit Goosh The Unofficial Google Shell

388

Living Room / Opera Stumbler

« on: June 03, 2008, 06:37 PM »

The Opera/AJAX thread reminded me of something I've been greatly enjoying for the last few weeks and have failed to mention here.

While StumbleUpon's website works flawlessly with Opera, the devs at StumbleUpon have insisted it wasn't possible to bring StumbleUpon to the Opera community citing Opera technical shortcomings.   I've disagreed, and limped along using a number of custom buttons I'd made that allowed me to do most of the core functions--rating, commenting, et cetera.  More ambitiously, Kyle Anderson developed a custom menu/toolbar for Opera that effectively brings all of Stumbles features over to Opera seamlessly.  Even better, in its menu form I find it far more keyboard friendly than the official StumbleUpon toolbar.



Opera Stumbler

389

Living Room / Re: Opera and fancy AJAX sites: not much luck on my side of things...

« on: June 03, 2008, 06:28 PM »

Is Opera cursed to be ignored, no matter how technically brilliant it may be?

-urlwolf (June 03, 2008, 05:44 PM)

I've been asking that same question for a decade . . .

I can't tell you how many times I've been told by support that they don't feel Opera users are a large enough demographic to invest their time in supporting Opera, always ending it with "Get firefox it's free" -- I find it downright insulting, some times.  What I'm curious about is just how inaccurate their usage statistics are, as a great number of Opera users have to mask as non-opera users in order to get passed browser sniffers or, in worse cases, actually use another browser -- not because they want to but because they have to.

As Lashiec said, though, it's not as bad as it used to be. And the sniffers that just automatically reject Opera users are becoming quite rare.

Remember the Milk is a shining example of a website that's built wholly on Ajax, and supports all browsers flawlessly. The exception being google gears, but that's no fault of their own (and, honestly, I've really never quite "got" the google gears appeal anyway).

Evernote 3 beta is almost unusable in Opera, plurk has quite a few issues.  Last time I used Basecamp's apps, their problems weren't too bad and I expect with Opera 9.5 they're gone.  Gmail has been hit or miss with Opera, but is working pretty well now though it seems to constantly lose keyboard focus, forcing me to resort to my mouse in order to be able to use my keyboard shortcuts again. (Vexing!)

390

General Software Discussion / Re: Troupware, another unknown gem

« on: May 30, 2008, 10:20 PM »

The Beatle handles . . . slowly, very, very slowly.  I'll just chock it up to beta and return to VU Player/Billy.

391

Living Room / Re: satellite radio

« on: May 29, 2008, 10:21 PM »

I've been a Sirius subscriber for several years and am happy with it, but I think you'd have to go XM as they have the exclusive on MLB.  Sports and the occasional talk host are really the only things that differ between the two in terms of content, the music selections are pretty comparable.  (Sirius has Howard Stern, Maxim, NASCAR, NFL, NBA; XM as MLB and I don't know what else (don't use them)).

I believe Sirius is in the process of acquiring XM, having just within the last month or two received FTC approval to do so.  What that will mean for exclusive content or anything else, I haven't a clue.

As far as players go . . . I know that Sirius offers a couple of really cool options for portability--including a "Stiletto" portable mp3-esque player as well as a number of small "dockable" players. So you can get a "boombox" to dock it in for on foot, a car docking station for on the road, a home docking station for your home stereo, et cetera.  I'm sure XM provides similar.   I just have a really old car model with no bells and whistles for my pickup.  I listen to the stations in my house via Internet stream. (Another cool feature I'd expect/hope XM supported).  The bottom line is that you get all the same content regardless of your listening method.  If I were you, I'd go to Amazon.com or similar and browse product reviews to find something in your price range with the features you want/need.

edit: I was wrong, the FTC still hasn't signed off on it -- it was the Justice Department that recently gave the go ahead.  There is an interesting story on it here.

392

Living Room / Re: 7 Years Heidi

« on: May 28, 2008, 09:06 AM »

Thanks much to those of you who have already stopped by and left her comments, she was thrilled.  Maybe you'll manage to lure her in here some time, not like she doesn't get her hands on the occasional piece of software being an IT Manager :)

393

General Software Discussion / Re: Troupware, another unknown gem

« on: May 28, 2008, 09:00 AM »

Beatle... the name alone makes it worth a look-see in my opinion 

-Darwin (May 27, 2008, 07:35 PM)

It piqued my interest as well.

-skybright (May 28, 2008, 01:09 AM)

Me, also! -- and the screenshots look very promising. Clean, to the point, note covered in candy-esque graphics.  Installing now.

394

DC Gamer Club / Re: quitting PC version of Assassin's Creed

« on: May 28, 2008, 07:42 AM »

I really enjoyed it on the 360 . . . getting out is a lot easier, there. Generally because getting out doesn't rely on the game letting me go (as aforementioned, alt+f4 PC users!).

That's got to be the most ridiculous, convoluted exist routine ever . . . obviously quitting was (and just barely, at that) an afterthought.

395

Living Room / 7 Years Heidi

« on: May 27, 2008, 02:47 PM »

Recently my wife entered Adrian J. Cartwood’s 7 Million in 7 Years contest in hopes of being taken under his wing to be guided to independent wealth by means of good old fashioned pragmatism and financial sense.

Being selected for the contest requires (beyond willingness and enthusiasm) generating a bit of attention for herself. Beyond that, I'm not sure what all it entails--this is her baby. I've resolved for my role to be one of support and obedience.  Living up to that, I'm asking for my generous friends here at donationcoder to donate just a minute of your time to check out her entry and, if you would, leave some words of encouragement.

Her "introduction" is located here -- which is presumably the more important link as it's under Mr. Cartwood's umbrella.

Additionally, you can find her personal blog here.  We've only begun working on it, so please don't mind the cobwebs, clutter and other potential hazards of a construction zone.  One thing I can say for Heidi, my bride, is that when she goes for something she goes for it with an uninterruptable fervor--and she's always keen to help others.  I expect before too long, her blog could be both interesting and informative.  Your attention, words of support and encouragement getting through the badlands of new beginnings would be most appreciated.

396

Living Room / Re: The last time your AntiVirus saved you!

« on: May 27, 2008, 01:51 PM »

The only viruses that I have had intercepted on my system . . . were found by full system scan sitting in a backup of a spam or trash folder in my e-mail client.  Which is to say, I've never had a virus intercepted that would have otherwise been unleashed onto my system.

397

Living Room / Re: Online Game: Kingdom of Loathing

« on: May 17, 2008, 03:11 PM »

Fortunately, ascension has slowed down (a tiny bit) with the advent of NS13 -- the Hardcore awards (and especially oxycore/badmoon) are really enticing, and no one is doing a 1 day oxycore or badmoon run

But yeah. There are some crazy power ascenders . . . but at that point, it really looks more tedius than fun (to me).

If I'm going to be using a computer analytically, I'd rather be coding -- my games are for pure stupid time.

398

General Software Discussion / Re: Dilemma - Free AVG8 - Buggy; Updates for Free AVG 7.5 ending May 08

« on: May 17, 2008, 11:59 AM »

I've been using Avira for several years now . . . my only complaint is the nag screen that popus up with each update (Always, and I'm almost positive this isn't coincidental) while I'm doing something on my computer -- never when I'm afk.  I can't really fault them for it, after all it is a *free* product -- and it's effective, it's so annoying I have many times considered paying for it just to turn it off (and give myself the ability to change the schedule of updates) -- but usually at those times, I'm so annoyed by the popup that I refuse to reward them for it.  Stuck in an infinite loop, here.

In the past I had a lot of problems connecting to their update server . . . it doesn't seem to be a problem with the virus updates, anymore, though I seem to be having difficulty getting the product update to work (updating the client software itself).  Paying users connect (as they should) to a premium server.

Also: The pay version will allow you to create a bootable rescue CD.

399

Living Room / Re: Online Game: Kingdom of Loathing

« on: May 17, 2008, 09:38 AM »

I have completed it 1.5 times and thought it was a bit too grindy for my tastes, but I highly recommend that anyone plays through it at least once

-p3lb0x (May 17, 2008, 04:40 AM)

Interesting, I sort of feel the opposite about it.  It's a different kind of grind, I guess. I burn out on the long, grueling grinds of most rpgs but you only need a dozen levels to "beat" KoL.  While games that you play a single character to max level tend to stagnate once you reach epic proportions, for me the possibility to new game + in KoL really makes it shine.  Always improving your character, without the drudgery of epic level grinding or the halt of having reached the top.

I'm only on my fifth or sixth ascension, after two years . . . but I tend to just play it at a really casual pace, enjoy softcore leisure play.  What's amazing is the people that ascend every week . . . madness!

400

Living Room / Online Game: Kingdom of Loathing

« on: May 16, 2008, 04:07 PM »

A recent discussion with mouser about the need for more games that focus on hillarity over skill brought it to my attention that there has been very little mention here of one of my all time favorite games -- Kingdom of Loathing.

The Kingdom of Loathing is a web based role playing game.  The gameplay is primarily single player, as your character proceeds to acquire equipment, food, booze, and meat (the game's currency) as means to progress on various quests.  In that regard, it's pretty standard as an RPG.  Where it's truly uncommon is its character -- from the character classes to the areas to the enemies, everything is an extremely absurd parody of something. It's funny, irreverent and generally fun.



There are also some multiplayer aspects to it, as you'd expect from an online game.  The economy is purely player driven, most items in the game able to be bought and sold player to player.  It features a chat where players can communicate in real time, clans for players to team together to help one another out and some simple player versus player mechanics.

Whether you just sit back, relax and play it casually or delve deeper into the economy or making faster, more effecient "ascensions", there's plenty to do.  New items are added constantly and new quests and areas are added every now and then as well.  I've been playing KoL for a little over two years now and am still amused enough by it to continue playing for years to come.  If you do sign up, look up "Terrae", that's me!