Messages

476

DC Website Help and Extras / Re: chat blocked

« on: February 20, 2008, 09:57 AM »

Can we move off efnet?
I can connect to gamesurge.net!

477

Living Room / Re: Myth or Last legend

« on: February 20, 2008, 09:53 AM »

Fox News? Oh, dear. There goes credibility out the window.  

-BigJim (February 20, 2008, 09:39 AM)

Fortunately, they didn't break the story--they just discovered that someone else had and wanted to make fun of it.  The people on the show were quite convinced the video was BS, so . . . there may be some truth to it!

do i need to set up a special sub-forum on the site for LochNess Monster Related Discussions?

What, you don't like us waxing mythic in your living room?

478

Living Room / Re: Myth or Last legend

« on: February 20, 2008, 09:36 AM »

The video is pretty unimpressive -- which is either a sign that its creator is smart, and understands that some times "less" is "more" or who knows? Maybe there's something in there. It's not nessie, though--it's a giant squid tentacle.

--Meanwhile, those Fox News desk jockeys are positively idiotic.

479

General Software Discussion / Re: newspond: prettier, smarter app enters the news aggregation scence

« on: February 20, 2008, 09:28 AM »

I'm the odd man out here, I think it looks too pretty. Partially because their obvious attraction to making a beautiful website makes me worried they won't let me utilize its content via rss in the future. . .

My silly anti-aesthetic tendencies aside, the important stuff--what's going on behind the scenes--seems really solid.  I love that it's real news scoured off the net by a machine, I have no stomach for pseudo-news scoured off the net by idiots ala  Digg, etc. 

Since it won't be pumping into my feed reader automatically, there's a good chance I'll forget it exists--but it is my intention to try to get some use out of it.  Fortunately it seems to work fine in opera 9.5 betas.

480

Living Room / Re: Myth or Last legend

« on: February 20, 2008, 09:01 AM »

I'd be curious to see the video.  I've been enamoured with these surreal stories--Loch Ness Monster, Yetti, Chupacabra -- I'd love nothing more than for these stories to prove true.  But, of course, they seem unlikely. It's not unreasonable to assert that there are massive, undiscovered creatures of the deep oceans and dense forests -- but Nessie seems a bit unlikely.

But of course, they can't be *disproven*, as that would require categorically knowing everything that *was* with which to eliminate everything that isn't.  So here's to hoping, or at least imagining.

481

Living Room / Re: Ring the bells!!! The HD Format war is OVER!!! Toshiba forfeits

« on: February 20, 2008, 06:55 AM »

I really never cared about the format war much; as it stands, about the only thing I had vested in it was a preference to the utilitarian, function over form name "HD DVD".

Things that benefit the absolute most from HD, in my opinion, are video games and programming on television -- Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, Travel Channel.  I don't really enjoy a movie any more than I would have just because now, I can see his makeup -- actually, the few times I saw Bluray in action, I hated it.  I don't *want* the actors to look like stage actors in makeup! Give me 1970's sci-fi space opera film grain any day.  But that's just a matter of preference.

For me, the reality of it is that I love watching movies but hate DVD's -- and that loathing is sure to extend to BluRay. I find that there are precious few I actually will re-watch frequently enough to justify the cost of the media and the space it occupies thereafter.  And this is all assuming neither my son nor dog get their hands on (and ruin) it.

I prefer to rent -- either from a video rental place or just snag it on PPV.  At 2-5 dollars, I'd have to watch the movie 4-10 times ( depending on price v. rental fee, of course). With the exception of a handful of real favorites, I'm unlikely to watch the same movie more than once in 2-3 years.  Increase the price, now, with a new storage/playback medium, and the rental becomes all the more attractive.

482

Living Room / Re: Free Polo Shirt From Microsoft for answering Vista quiz

« on: February 18, 2008, 12:26 AM »

Legally speaking...

You must be a Local OEM Channel Partner. Definition of a Local OEM channel partner (“partners”) includes resellers and System Builders who resell other branded hardware (PCs and Servers) with Microsoft OEM Licenses or who build hardware to sell directly to end customers.


Entry is only open to Australian residents residing in NSW, VIC, QLD, NT, or SA who are Microsoft OEM Channel Partners. The promotion commences at 09:00am (Sydney time) on Friday 14th December 2007 and closes at 11:59pm (Sydney time) on Friday 14th March 2008 (“Promotional Period”). The Promoter’s decision in relation to all aspects of this promotion is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

...which counts most of us out, anyway. I suspect they'd notice the shipping address wasn't AU.

483

General Software Discussion / Re: What's your music player of choice?

« on: February 17, 2008, 10:38 AM »

Just a small heads-up for users of Billy. It recently got a update 

Version 1.04i beta - Feb 15 2008
FLAC support
Last.fm support (playing history)
ID3v2.4 tag support (view only in properties)
Musicbrainz support and replaygain values extracted, no support yet.
Recording with "pre" functionality in radio streams
Dedicated shortcuts for Shuffle/Repeat
Thanks all for the patients..

Quite a nice update if you ask me. Definatly ensured its spot on my usb stick

-ThalSwe (February 17, 2008, 10:21 AM)

Wow! I really didn't expect to see Billy updated, ever. . . thanks for the head's up!

484

Living Room / Re: KITT returns!

« on: February 17, 2008, 10:10 AM »

I have to admit to, when it was on, watching Knight Rider. Every episode. At least once. So my DVR is set. I expect the new one will be a superior show -- the original was very hasselhoff. Which is to say, cheesy.

There've been a lot of great revisitations of classic properties in recent years-- Dr. Who is by far my favorite to date.

485

DC Website Help and Extras / Re: chat blocked

« on: February 17, 2008, 08:06 AM »

Same problem . . .
[sigh]

486

DC Website Help and Extras / chat blocked

« on: February 16, 2008, 07:51 AM »

So, lately when I try to join the chat, I get this:
You are banned from this server- Temporary K-line 1440 min. - Blacklisted IP found. Visit the website openrbl.org/dnsbl?i=72.87.52.2 for info. (2008/2/16 08.38)

I know my isp is a small company run by monkeys, and very likely has been abused by people more competent than them (There are so many haaxors here in northern maine...) but why must I suffer? There any way to convince openrbl I'm not a spammer?

487

General Software Discussion / Re: Mini-HowTo: Handling Cookie Privacy the Right Way

« on: February 12, 2008, 06:54 AM »

Mmmm, a tool to sync cookies? Is that even possible?

-Lashiec (February 12, 2008, 06:42 AM)

I don't see why not -- as it stands, Firefox can import cookies from IE and maybe Opera. Just need someone who knows enough obout the big three's cookie storage formats to convert them back and forth a bit.

488

General Software Discussion / Re: Mini-HowTo: Handling Cookie Privacy the Right Way

« on: February 11, 2008, 10:27 PM »

One of the things I like about Opera is site preferences. I have configured the browser to accept all cookies, but delete everything on exit, except for those sites that I visit often, and keeps settings in them, which are configured to not being deleted.

-Lashiec (January 20, 2008, 02:25 PM)

This is precisely how I do it as well -- I'd once upon a time started out blacklisting everything and allowing only preferred cookies, but that made browsing . . . difficult.  After adopting this method, my cookie jar became just right. Not too many cookies, just my favorites. Easy to find without digging.

My general feeling is that it's not a big deal at all.. I think it's fine to leave all cookies alone forever and don't worry about it.  But on the other hand i get a small sense of happiness when i wipe out all these annoying cookies that i don't want   Sort of like the feeling out of having a clean house

-mouser (January 21, 2008, 06:22 AM)

My sentiments exactly. I'm not really *worried* about the cookies, I just prefer to have things a bit tidy.

--Anyone know a good tool for synchronizing cookies among browsers? I'd love to copy my tidy opera cookies over to IE/FireFox.  I used to have an Opera/IE/Netscape app that did that, but it stopped being useful back before Netscape died. . . d'oh.

489

General Software Discussion / Re: Do You Purchase Software on Impulse?

« on: February 11, 2008, 10:38 AM »

I've gotten better about it, but I still have the occasional "Drink too much, crave a new app to play with, buy the first thing I find" occurrence. It's how I ended up with a Core FTP license fairly recently.  I was struggling with a bad ftp connection and it became obvious I needed to use other means of uploading files than I was presently using, as neither my text editor nor rcftp handle their connection being dropped mid-transfer well at all.  I decided it was time to shop around for a new ftp client, and wanted to use one I'd never used before. Discover a little known, great ftp application.  Enter CoreFTP.  It's not the *worst* ftp client I've ever used . . . but certainly the most disappointing one I'd ever paid for.  After purchasing I came to find it offered almost no keyboard shortcuts, and really in general just isn't a contendor for "Best" or even "Good" ftp client, all things considered.  To make matters worse, feature requests, bug reports and general inquiries go unanswered -- support is allegedly offered via e-mail for paying users, but I'm not having any luck with it.

Long story short, impulse buy that turned out to be money thrown in the wind.  The upside is, my horrible experience with Core inspired me to bring my CuteFTP license up to date.  Much better.

490

Living Room / Aquaria (An independetly developed game beneath the ocean)

« on: February 10, 2008, 05:47 PM »

I'm surprised no one has posted this here yet, as Aquaria has been out for a couple months now.

Aquaria by Bit-Blot is an independently developed game that exudes brilliance, style and beauty.

It's an underwater exploration/adventure game that really seems to hale back to the glory days of SNES adventuring--but is an experience all its own.  It features a large, open ocean for exploration.  Rather than walking around land in a 3d over head view (ala zelda) or running and jumping (ala metroid), you swim about an open ocean surrounded by gorgeous sea life (hostile and benign alike).  There's a great variety of things to discover -- materials from killed sea life to use for cooking (lots of recipes to discover), treasures/decor for your home, new outfits (most of which are not merely cosmetic but lend you different assistance, from healing to armor).

The games ambience (both aesthetic and aural) is positively stunning.  It's a fun and immersive game well worth checking out.  I haven't finished it yet (I think I'm getting close). . . have bene playing it rather leisurely and have logged 25 hours in game time.  It's fun, yet difficult; brilliant. The pacing is a bit different -- as it's more open than most games I've played, making it easy to find yourself unsure what to do next.  But I've found it a positively enjoyable experience.

A massive ocean world, teeming with life and filled with ancient secrets. Join Naija, a lone underwater dweller in search of her family, as she explores the depths of Aquaria. She'll travel from hidden caves, shrouded in darkness, to beautiful, sunlit oases, all lovingly handcrafted by its two creators.

Naija's story, narrated fully with voice overs, will become yours, as you join her on this magnificent adventure.

491

General Software Discussion / Re: Process Tamer.. The Drink

« on: February 10, 2008, 04:25 PM »

Challenge of the week, Mouser, make a drink with Cointreau that doesn't make me gag. *shudders* I finally finished my bottle of the stuff, took me about 5 years. Ungh.

492

Developer's Corner / Re: Source code colors: Contrast / Readability / Ergonomics

« on: February 10, 2008, 04:23 PM »

Slightly updated recently, little brighter in a few places . . . still generally prefer light on dark.

493

Developer's Corner / Re: Comments That Make You Smile :)

« on: February 09, 2008, 11:43 PM »

A few I don't remember making, but must have. . . a quick grep has left me mildly amused.

# It's over!

// I should idiot proof this. I'm not sure I'm qualified.
// I'll forget about this anyway.

// I'm one lazy bastard.

# 'I'm sorry'" => "I'm thinking . . . fuck you, asshole"

// Any idiot could figure out how to do this [more cleanly]
// And I really mean ANY idiot.
// I need to try this bit sober some time.

494

General Software Discussion / Re: Opera M2 + Gmail + IMAP = not recommended

« on: February 09, 2008, 08:15 AM »

The good news, it seems to be in order now. I'd turned off body downloading til it downloaded all the message headers -- the index taken care of, I re-enabled message bodies. I have not [yet] frozen. Progress!

495

General Software Discussion / Re: Opera M2 + Gmail + IMAP = not recommended

« on: February 09, 2008, 08:04 AM »

It was "frozen" all night last night -- successfully.  The "problem" is it doesn't want to download the message bodies when checking, as it works ok if I don't. But the whole point of this exercise was/is to have a local searchable store of my e-mail.  Maybe if I kick it a few times . . .

496

General Software Discussion / Re: Opera M2 + Gmail + IMAP = not recommended

« on: February 09, 2008, 06:45 AM »

I'm using 9.5 beta (build 9770) -- or, I was yesterday.  My issue of the day is the fact that I can't use Opera . . . it goes so far into the synchronization process and then crashes, every time. *sigh*

497

DC Website Help and Extras / Re: Tab to Submit

« on: February 08, 2008, 08:31 PM »

I want to tab! Alt+S requires un-doing years of cyber conditioning!

Anyway, it still requires clicking reply to open the extended reply do-hicky, which I have no need for other than having the option for the shortcut. So it's compounding additional clicks and keystrokes to compensate for the expected action being absent.

Edit:

While we're quoting:

With a Quick-Reply you can use bulletin board code and smileys as you would in a normal post, but much more conveniently.

It's not being as convenient as it ought, the documentation supports my kvetching.

498

DC Website Help and Extras / Tab to Submit

« on: February 08, 2008, 08:21 PM »

From the editor box when replying to a post . . . when I hit tab, I'm not taken to the submit button immediately beneath the text editing field but back to the top of the page.  Is there a workaround (or hope for a fix?) for this?  Interestingly enough, here in the new post maker, hitting tab jumps past all the toggle junk and straight to the Post button. I guess I could just start putting all my posts in new threads

499

General Software Discussion / Re: Process Tamer.. The Drink

« on: February 08, 2008, 08:17 PM »

i don't really drink cocktails/mixed drinks.. i'd much rather go for a few pints of guinness at the pub.

but all tinkerers like to tinker, regardless of the materials.  experimenting with a cocktail shaker and miscelaneous ingredients is fun.

-mouser (February 08, 2008, 03:47 PM)

Fair enough, just so long as you're not packing in questionable content that you yourself haven't test driven first!

As for Guines, I was pleasantly surprised to find Ruby Tuesday (The finest dining within 200 miles of my home!) has recently added it to their draft.  Good times!

500

General Software Discussion / Re: Opera M2 + Gmail + IMAP = not recommended

« on: February 08, 2008, 08:14 PM »

Encouraged by your experience, I went ahead and gave Opera/Imap another whirl.  Having used gmail since its early Beta, I've become quite accustomed to (and fond of) its simpler approach.  While I used to use The Bat! and painstakingly organize my mail into an abyss of folders, I've found the bigger the collection of mail the more a lack of organization (with emphasis on an efficient search system) pays off.  The ability to use gmail and M2 together with synchronisity has always been a bit of a dream -- and it looks like, for the most part, that's now a reality.

So far things are looking good. My biggest problem right now is a bit opposite yours -- M2's spam filter is hitting false positives like crazy -- even with my correcting it, it's still tagging a *lot* of good mail as spam.  I emptied my spam folder to eliminate actual spam, so it's more a nuissance than a problem -- just marking a lot of mail as not spam.  Hopefully, at some point, the filter will catch on.

I'm optimistic; I've used M2 previously--once downloaded my entire gmail message base via pop 3 and the spam filter, once trained worked amazingly -- but I've never seen so much false positive action in my life.  It'd bizarre. I'd sort of hoped you had the same problem, perhaps indicative of an imap bug or something.  I must just have bad luck. The messages that are being flagged really don't seem particularly suspicious to me . . . well formed, literate correspondence with web development clients and the occasional mailing list message (Which is also being appropriately detected as mailing list messages...).  I'm a bit baffled. Might have to try to figure out how to reset the spam filter.