Messages

351

General Software Discussion / Re: cloud processing for end users - when? already?

« on: October 12, 2011, 04:14 AM »

Speaking of, I just wrote an expanded version of an article I wrote on getting around censorship:

http://cynic.me/2011...ip-internet-freedom/

Summary:

VPN + DNS

-Renegade (October 11, 2011, 06:47 AM)

That solution assumes that there are still places to open VPN tunnels to, and there are still honest DNS servers.

ACTA is bent on remedying that loophole. Just wait for a couple of years.

352

Living Room / Re: Good quality thesaurus program that integrates with Word 2007?

« on: September 25, 2011, 07:54 AM »

I know this isn't the solution you are looking for, but you might want to check Roget's Thesaurus online as a stop-gap measure.

And as always, the *nix world has a neater solution: Lexica

353

Living Room / Re: Good quality thesaurus program that integrates with Word 2007?

« on: September 25, 2011, 03:48 AM »

Have you tried Wordweb?

-nosh (September 25, 2011, 02:57 AM)

I took the liberty to correct the url in the quote.
I adore the license for the free wordweb.

WordWeb free version may be used indefinitely only by people who take at most two commercial flights (not more than one return flight) in any 12 month period. People who fly more than this need to purchase the Pro version if they wish to continue to use it after a 30-day trial period.

They go out of their way to encourage limiting emissions. One should respect that attitude.

354

Living Room / Re: Good quality thesaurus program that integrates with Word 2007?

« on: September 25, 2011, 03:44 AM »

I haven't been able to find a thesaurus program that is really good--that has a LOT of options for words that really apply.

-raindew01 (September 25, 2011, 02:19 AM)

What is it that you don't like in Word's own thesaurus? Perhaps we can suggest alternatives on the basis of what you need?

355

ProcessTamer / Re: Consider Affinity?

« on: September 19, 2011, 02:38 AM »

I would recommend something for us power users: add affinity control.

-dcrypt3r (November 14, 2010, 10:45 AM)

Yes, yes, please.

356

General Software Discussion / Re: Have all UI designers gone insane? (Warning: very short post)

« on: September 17, 2011, 04:40 AM »

Yeah, I felt like I should have a word or two with the genius behind the ribbon, but was postponing it till I will absolutely definitely should and must and have to move out of the xp+office 2003 ecosystem. Sometime after 2015 I mean.

357

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Captcha Brotherhood

« on: August 19, 2011, 01:37 AM »

Ah well, if you awarded credits can only be used for solving other captchas and there's no dollar-payout, it might not be that bad.

-f0dder (August 18, 2011, 05:10 PM)

Yup, this one does not sell credits, and there is no dollar payout. Individuals may sell their credits through transfer function, but they would have to find themselves buyers.

In any case, where this matter stands with your morals is a personal issue. I can't pass a judgement for all.

358

Mini-Reviews by Members / Captcha Brotherhood

« on: August 18, 2011, 09:48 AM »

App name	Captcha Brotherhood
App url	http://ocrhood.gazcad.com/default.aspx
App version reviewed	Beta v1.1.5
Test system specs	Run of the mill XP box
Supported OS	Windows with Jdownloader
Support methods	forum, email
Upgrade policy	N/A
Pricing scheme	What pricing? This program exists so as to avoid paying money

Intro

There was a time when web was populated only by human beings (and spiders). Then came bots of every kind. Web site owners invented captcha to verify that the visitor of their site was a human being, and not a spammer bot. Then captcha began to be abusive and tiresome for humans. Especially with the advent of file sharing sites. You had two options to download a multi-part file from the likes of rapidshare: You either sat alongside your computer for long hours, or paid up to become a member. Then humans responded with download managers like JDownloader. However captchas stood as a barrier against long download nights. Captcha brotherhood appeared as a solution.

Now you run captcha brotherhood whenever you are available before your computer. You answer captcha checks received by others in the brotherhood. You collect points for your correct answers. And then those points are used for your downloads whenever you are not available for captcha monkeyhood. Some other person available thousands of kilometers away will do the work for you then.

Who is this app designed for:

Script kiddies, habitual downloaders, anyone who is fed up with or does not want to pay to download sites.

The Good

Works as advertised. The new autominimize option makes it less distracting. You can also transfer the points you have collected to friends.

The Bad

Distracting banner. Too frequent updates. Gets confused if you install it to a non-standard location. This software is in the grey area of legally accepted conduct, but so are the file sharing sites that require captchas.

Conclusion

Do not pirate software. Pay if you ever come across something called a not-shitty hollywood movie these days. But if you don't want to for any reason, this program may serve your needs.

359

Living Room / Re: Intelligence and Internet browsers

« on: August 02, 2011, 01:03 AM »

Curt, I honestly mean no offense, but for purposes of full disclosure I should ask:

You use IE, don't you?

360

General Software Discussion / Re: What is Mozilla trying to do?

« on: July 21, 2011, 12:17 PM »

Here is an article by someone who had given more thought into the issue than I did. The gist of the argument is that there is no substantial reason to make changes in the browser, and change just for the sake of change is not a good idea.

361

Living Room / Re: Am I alone in not using or wanting to use the "Cloud" ...

« on: July 16, 2011, 09:22 AM »

Nope, you're not alone.

Noone actively wants to use these buzzword technologies, save for the firms that sell them, and a few transnational corporations for whom it makes sense.

But the vast majority does not think about the matter very much. Instead people passively rely on the information they had been fed through advertisements. Hence the feeling that cloud or any other buzzword is useful.

362

Living Room / Re: nearby lightning skrike kills neighbours computers (and mine)

« on: July 01, 2011, 09:46 AM »

But she's unusually nervous about "being down."

And quite wealthy.  

-40hz (July 01, 2011, 09:38 AM)

Wealth is a poor substitute for peace of mind.


edited to make the phrase sexier.

363

Living Room / Re: nearby lightning skrike kills neighbours computers (and mine)

« on: July 01, 2011, 09:09 AM »

Having just been through this, I realize that I should keep a log of the changes made to my main machine — I missed some. It all sounds very tedious but if one makes it a routine it's no worse than doing the dishes. When the crunch comes, you'll thank that previous you for spending an hour, then, to save you five minutes now.

-cranioscopical (July 01, 2011, 07:03 AM)

If we are really insistent on complete redundancy, why not buy two of the same machine, make them identical on, say, a weekly basis through an imaging program like clonezilla or ghost if you are feeling particularly and ridiculously rich?

364

Living Room / Re: nearby lightning skrike kills neighbours computers (and mine)

« on: July 01, 2011, 01:32 AM »

The sad reality is that Paraguay has a lot of power failures/spikes/noise which results in a lot of prematurely dying power supplies.

-Shades (June 30, 2011, 07:17 PM)

Consider using UPS. Even cheap ones should provide some protection against voltage fluctuations and line noise.

365

Living Room / Re: nearby lightning skrike kills neighbours computers (and mine)

« on: June 30, 2011, 06:36 AM »

Here is an interesting piece on surge protectors and connected equipment warranties. Worth to read.

366

Living Room / Re: nearby lightning skrike kills neighbours computers (and mine)

« on: June 30, 2011, 04:43 AM »

eleman, how do we tell if we have an online UPS or not?

-mouser (June 30, 2011, 04:36 AM)

It should write on the box. Here is the site I buy my hardware from:
http://is.gd/g0oG0Q
The page is in Turkish but you can see that they state whether an UPS is line interactive or online, right next to the VA rating. So I guess it is a pretty significant specification.

367

Living Room / Re: nearby lightning skrike kills neighbours computers (and mine)

« on: June 30, 2011, 04:28 AM »

i look forward to hearing whether a UPS would actually protect you against such a thing.

-mouser (June 30, 2011, 04:20 AM)

An online UPS would save you (though probably die valiantly in the effort), while with line interactive (cheaper) ones your guess is as good as mine.

368

Living Room / Re: I Finally Bought a Kindle Book...

« on: June 28, 2011, 01:30 AM »

Just how much of my pissing and moaning about DRM is practical?

-Renegade (June 28, 2011, 12:58 AM)

All the dead trees of my grandfather are still readable, even though their publishers are mostly out of business. What will happen to the books I "purchase" from amazon when that one goes the way of some not so feasible businesses?

See this one for instance, and replace "H.B. Fenn"s with "Amazon":

Canadian publishing was shaken yesterday by news that H.B. Fenn and Company, Canada’s largest book distributor and a stalwart in the industry for 30 years, had begun bankruptcy proceedings and appears to be shutting down, leaving its clients and authors scrambling. Fenn issued a brief statement Thursday, saying that it had filed a Notice of Intention to Make a Proposal under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act.

You think you bought the book, but DRM'ers think you just "license" it. You didn't "license" the money you gave them for the book. Did you?

369

General Software Discussion / Re: What is Mozilla trying to do?

« on: June 23, 2011, 06:58 AM »

Linkification was updated for FF4 "long ago". Why Mozilla doesn't reflect this, I don't know. Go to http://yellow5.us/firefox/linkification/ for version 1.3.9

-Curt (June 23, 2011, 06:50 AM)

Yeah, I know about that update, but I made a habit of using only add-ons which had undergone review by Mozilla (if the code is beyond my ability to understand).

370

General Software Discussion / What is Mozilla trying to do?

« on: June 23, 2011, 06:31 AM »

I waited for a while to jump on the bandwagon of Firefox 4, to give some time to add-on authors to adapt to the version change. When I finally made the jump on June 1st, one of the add-ons I use (linkification) was still not updated to work with FF4. I know this is about the developer of the add-on, rather than Mozilla, but the version change did certainly not help.

Now they bumped the version number to 5. Four more add-ons I use will be out of service with this update. Is it worth the change one wonders.

If I preferred to use a browser that changed the major version number every quarter just like Chrome does, I would use Chrome. Wouldn't I?

Why is Mozilla adopting this weird scheme of development, do you have any idea?

I don't need a fresh add-on compatibility nightmare every three months, so I'll not upgrade. Will you?

371

General Software Discussion / Re: How to stop forum spam ?

« on: June 21, 2011, 06:07 AM »

escape his sight because his cat distracts him

-jgpaiva (June 21, 2011, 06:04 AM)

That must be one skillful cat to distract mouser even for a split second. Hurray for the cat then.

372

General Software Discussion / Re: How to stop forum spam ?

« on: June 21, 2011, 04:48 AM »

I don't know how they do that but spam messages get immediately deleted as far as I understand, but not before the notification system sends a notification about the new topic, if you have that board on the notification list.

373

Living Room / Re: Non-tech, off-the-wall topic: Gasoline/Petrol, does grade matter?

« on: June 21, 2011, 01:52 AM »

Here are a few general tips about fuel economy. There are no miracle cures like "pump gas for 2 seconds, hit the brake 3 times and signal to the left and your milage will increase by 50%". Fuel economy is more about the car (smaller the better, diesel the better, newer the better), and also about driving with less adventure.

For instance, when you think you will have to stop at a red light, leave the gas alone, and let the vehicle drift to a stop. Do not increase your speed and hit hard brakes upon the red light.

I know these are no brainer, but I have trouble making wifey apply such principles

That being said, higher grade (or octane) does not help fuel economy. See wikipedia.

374

General Software Discussion / Re: Difficulties with JottiQ & Virus Total

« on: June 16, 2011, 07:28 AM »

I can offer you two tips:

1. Using virustotal uploader.

2. Relaxing a little bit. If the installed antivirus has no problems with a file, chances are virustotal (or jottiq, or another antivirus) will have none either. If a file is a virus for antivirus A, and not a virus for antivirus B, you almost certainly have a false positive in case of antivirus A.

375

General Software Discussion / Re: iBooks vs Stanza displaying an epub on iPod Touch/iPhone

« on: June 10, 2011, 02:55 AM »

Dragging and dropping files onto an iDevice? Is that even possible?

-Deozaan (June 10, 2011, 02:34 AM)

I am as ignorant about iAnything as I am about e-books, but doesn't Apple always brag about how they invented the GUI? Drag&drop shouldn't be missing in a gui. Or should it?