Messages

176

Living Room / Re: Bitcoin mining craze

« on: January 23, 2014, 06:16 PM »

Now did my reading, but I'm still none the wiser as to why do we burn power? Assume that I'm not a huge fan of Ron Paul, so the "alternative to government conspiracy" brand of arguments would also not make much sense to me.

177

Living Room / Re: Bitcoin mining craze

« on: January 23, 2014, 05:03 PM »

uhh.. yes, obviously missed those. Thanks for pointing them out. I'll be reading now

178

Living Room / Bitcoin mining craze

« on: January 23, 2014, 04:38 PM »

I wonder what's all the fuss about this. Computing power costs electricity. Here in Turkey, a 7/24 draw of 300 watts would cost about 25 Dollars a month. Does the bitcoin mining thingie produce more than this (+ the capital expenditure of course)?

And why are the people make their computers burn fossil fuel (albeit indirectly) to solve useless hash algorithms? I can justify folding@home, and even seti@home... but as far as I can see, the computing power used for bitcoin mining is used just for the sake of proving it is used. Like counting sands on a beach. No use whatsoever.

Am I the only one who does not get it?

179

Living Room / Re: email provider for multiple accounts

« on: January 12, 2014, 04:53 PM »

Oh ok. Outlook allows you to do that too

180

Living Room / Re: email provider for multiple accounts

« on: January 12, 2014, 04:50 PM »

outlook.com (latest incarnation of hotmail) allows you to do that.
Like google apps did when it was free.

Here's a guide.

181

General Software Discussion / Re: need freeware .vob to MP4 converter

« on: January 03, 2014, 01:55 PM »

Handbrake

182

Living Room / Re: Elitists of the World - UNITE!

« on: December 05, 2013, 09:06 AM »

Bad spellers of the world, UNETI!

183

General Software Discussion / Re: So-called upgrades that ruin good programs

« on: October 22, 2013, 02:48 AM »

Any office with ribbon (i.e. 2007 and newer).
Especially when imposed on you on a tiny netbook screen.

184

Living Room / Re: National debt/defecit: what does it REALLY mean??

« on: September 20, 2013, 07:56 AM »

States don't have banknote printing presses.

It is a small detail, but a very crucial one.

185

Living Room / Re: National debt/defecit: what does it REALLY mean??

« on: September 18, 2013, 11:36 PM »

1. Probably never, the debt circulates.
2. Theoretically yes. But no one in his/her sane mind would demand wholesale repayment. It would hit the global economy incomparably harder than 2008.
3. As long as it is in a currency you can print freely (in Dollars for US, in Drachmas, not in Euros in Greece) sky is the limit. Don't worry.
4. Mostly to 401(k) people. Some to Chinese government, some to Japanese and European banks.
5. See answer 2.
6. If they did ask it back, US government would put a Benjamin Franklin pictures on blank sheets of paper, and sell it to the creditors $100 a piece. When you do that on a 1.6 trillion dollar scale, hyperinflation ensues. No one on this planet (well perhaps except north korea's latest great fantastic leader) wants dollar hyperinflation because it is the de facto global currency. Everyone has some receivable in it. You don't want your receivables to lose value.
7. Not necessarily. But bigger guns wouldn't hurt (you).
8. The debt is not directly related with the income equality. It has mostly to do with your taxation system and tax breaks, as well as legal system (legal costs are astronomical, so poor can't defend their rights against the incursions by the rich). Anyway, the interest rates on US government bonds is so low that it does not make the creditors richer.
9. Who said the debt is getting paid?

These are my personal views, though some like Paul Krugman would concur with most of them.

186

General Software Discussion / Re: memory use and reason

« on: September 16, 2013, 11:14 AM »

Considering Firefox starts with around that and easily climbs to 3X or more the longer it runs, I wouldn't be too surprised or concerned if you're not concerned about using Skype to begin with.

-40hz (September 16, 2013, 10:58 AM)

Firefox shows things. A small bitmap image of size, say, 400x300 alone would take 480 KB of ram, just to show it. And I don't even mention javascript and other memory hogs.

But skype?
How hard could it be just to provide a chat facility? (at the moment I saw the 160MB memory consumption, there was no audio/video business, just plain old keyboard chat with two friends.)

187

General Software Discussion / memory use and reason

« on: September 16, 2013, 09:49 AM »

Skype taking 160 MB of memory?

What the f is NSA running on my computer?

188

General Software Discussion / Re: Programs pryority in task manager

« on: August 29, 2013, 01:20 AM »

You're looking for Process Tamer.

189

General Software Discussion / Re: nag window software

« on: August 17, 2013, 10:50 AM »

I guess something can be done with autohotkey's #ifwinactive#.
But how, that I don't know.

190

General Software Discussion / Re: Freeware = CRAP!

« on: July 24, 2013, 07:07 AM »

I too have to jump to the defense of Screenshot Captor.  I work in the Irish Financial Sector and I have being using it in work for years without any issue.  The software had to be 'vetted' before being allowed into our organisation.

-dluby (July 24, 2013, 06:52 AM)

On an unrelated note, for some reason, Irish financial sector's vetting does not make me much more confident

But seriously, Screenshot Captor is a very nice program, and certainly is not malware.

191

Living Room / Discount on subscriptions to Nature

« on: July 12, 2013, 08:10 AM »

Nature offers huge discounts on subscriptions as a promotion.

Me likey.

192

Living Room / Re: XBone (XBox One) and Microsoft's desktop view

« on: June 20, 2013, 12:48 AM »

  They've got another way of boning everyone hidden somewhere.  I think it's pretty sad that you have to connect it to the internet and register it just to be able to use it.  What about the people that don't have internet?

  I wouldn't buy one anyway......

-Tinman57 (June 19, 2013, 07:28 PM)

If they don't already have, they may implement it in the future. See Sony's removal of boot to other os option from PS3.

193

Living Room / Re: Protests in Istanbul

« on: June 18, 2013, 11:27 PM »

Is @eleman in any of the photos here, I wonder?
In Turkey, a New Form of Protest: Standing Silently for Hours.

-IainB (June 18, 2013, 07:18 PM)

I'm not in those photos but the form of protest went viral:
See.
The police is also puzzled about the order to take people into custody for just standing still.

194

Living Room / Re: Messed Up in Miami

« on: June 10, 2013, 11:49 PM »

Sorry about the troubles. I hope you'll get back on your feet soon.

195

Living Room / Re: Protests in Istanbul

« on: June 06, 2013, 03:03 PM »

Here's a nice and fun summary of the crisis.

And here's a catchy song by the protesters (with English subtitles).

The issue is dead serious, yet we try to preserve our sense of humor. It helps.

196

Living Room / Re: Protests in Istanbul

« on: June 05, 2013, 07:10 AM »

Thank you for the support.

@eleman: I hadn't realised you would be able to see the DC Forum. No Internet blackout?

-IainB (June 05, 2013, 06:58 AM)

Nope, this is a country with a GDP exceeding one trillion dollars. I guess you can't turn off the internet above a certain threshold, it gets too costly.

197

Living Room / Re: Protests in Istanbul

« on: June 05, 2013, 03:54 AM »

News update: Democracy under attack: #OccupyGezi – Turkish Police now using live rounds

"Live rounds"? Is that a euphemism for "real bullets"?
If it is, then I'm not sure whether this sort of method to "strengthen its democracy" would necessarily be par for the course for a potential or actual EU member state, but then one really never knows.
@eleman is probably a pretty brave person to deliberately go into a fight stacked with those odds.

-IainB (June 05, 2013, 03:09 AM)

I'm not sure about the live rounds. Disinformation is rife nowadays, since the mainstream media is under tight control of the government. The only news you can get is via twitter and facebook, which are not the beacons of accuracy and reliability.

Despite the protests the prime minister is not stepping back while the crowds feel that this is the point of no return. If we can't make him step back on this one, there will no longer be a substantial resistance, and he will use the government's powers to impose the islamist-conservative life style throughout Turkey. So it's the make or break point. I don't know if I'm brave or not, but I sure feel like I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place.

198

Living Room / Re: Protests in Istanbul

« on: June 02, 2013, 05:11 AM »

Well I was at Taksim square for 7 hours yesterday. I got 4 shots of pepper spray canisters falling close by. My eyes were burnt badly despite swimming glasses I had to buy after the first shot of tear gas. Operating masks helped a bit with the breathing, but not much.

Police often attacked protestors with pressurized water, tear gas, and batons. Due to continuous police harassment (such as this one), peaceful protests began to take a turn for more violent action.

The protests were a culmination of events where the government increased the repression levels, confident in its tight control of the media and Islamist voter base. Throughout May, police repression and unpopular government policies followed one another. First the police attacked May Day protestors in a fashion similar to the recent brutality. Then a bombing took place in a town near the Syrian border. It is not clear who did it, but government claims that the Syrian regime perpetrated it. The majority of the people does not believe in that. Conspiracy theories are numerous, but there's a telling detail: People in the bombed town (Reyhanlı) protested against the prime minister and his policies of meddling in Syrian affairs, as well as harboring Al-Qaida fighters and mercenaries who fight against the Syrian regime. The prime minister was able to visit the town only after two weeks, during which the police achieved full control over the town. Imagine George Bush visiting ground zero only on 25th of September, no sooner.

Well, I'm not inclined to make any guesses about the future, but it looks like some things are about to happen around here.

199

Living Room / Protests in Istanbul

« on: May 31, 2013, 04:49 PM »

Well, I know politics per se is not in the focus of DC, but tomorrow morning I'll be at Taksim square in Istanbul, joining the protests against the increasingly authoritarian government. If any DC members are around (and is willing to get a sniff of pepper spray from the police) I'd be glad to meet them there. My phone number is +90-541-3770399.

Çağrı

200

Living Room / Re: SSD's - How They Work Plus Tips

« on: May 14, 2013, 03:59 AM »

I have 5 tips to add:

1. Move the tmp folder to a hard disk. You shouldn't use your valuable write cycles for temporary files.

2. Move (if you must have one) the page file to a hard disk. I have 4 gigs of ram on my win7, I sometimes get the insufficient memory notification when firefox leaks too profusely and I try to play world of tanks at the same time. With 8 gigs you wouldn't see even that one. So page files are mostly redundant if your specific needs (using photoshop to prepare 10m x 24m banner prints etc.) don't dictate it, get rid of the page file. But if you must have, move it to a hard disk.

3. Move firefox (or ie, or chrome, whatever) cache to a hard disk. Yes this will make it somewhat slower, but your SSD's write cycles would be spared. If the speed penalty is too much, disable on-disk caching completely. On-memory caching will probably do (it does for me).

4. If you use a mail client such as outlook, thunderbird, bat, eudora etc., move the mail storage to a hard disk. Yes, it will degrade performance, especially when you need to search among thousands of mails, but it will help the longevity of the SSD.

5. If you have a busy database running on your computer (you may not even be aware of it. For instance I use Trados, a computer assisted translation tool, and it runs on top of a database.) you may consider moving it to a hard disk. The performance hit will be immense (depending on your usage pattern) though. I don't use this trick personally. I would not want to waste 10-20 minutes a day just to extend the life of a $80 SSD drive by 10%. But if you can bear the performance hit, you can extend the life of the drive.