Messages

5551

Living Room / Re: Windows VISTA Basic GUI scrapped after negative user feedback

« on: July 10, 2006, 06:34 PM »

Is it just me, or does anybody else think that all of the themes that MS has come up with, from XP on, are ugly, childish, or just plain stupid?

I hope for the sake of my eyes that they will always include the classic 9x look in future versions of Windows. Taking that away would send me running at top speed for a Windows alternative.

5552

Living Room / Re: Ancient Technology (Computers)

« on: July 10, 2006, 01:51 PM »

LOL
I did not!

Just because most of my crap is old doesn't mean it's that old.

5553

Living Room / Re: Interesting Article about Dual Income Family Financial Issues

« on: July 10, 2006, 01:43 PM »

P.S. On a side note, I just hit your website, app103 and i was #1337 on your web counter 

-Edvard (July 10, 2006, 12:31 PM)

|-|4 |-|4 |-|4   

5554

Developer's Corner / Re: PHP Compilers to make standalone PHP-Exes

« on: July 10, 2006, 04:17 AM »

Bookmarked!

Sooner or later someone is going to ask me about something like this and I'll just send them here.

Thanks joto!

5555

Living Room / Re: Interesting Article about Dual Income Family Financial Issues

« on: July 09, 2006, 07:46 PM »

I wonder...

If women hadn't entered the workforce in droves, what would be the average current rate of pay for most careers? My guess is it would be a lot higher than it is now.

I also think that parents take the wrong approach with saving for their children's education. I think it would be better to cut the amount they dump into college funds in half, and put it in a retirement fund for their kids instead...and the rest into their own retirement fund.

Try not to end up as a burden to your children in your old age and help them not to be one to their kids.

It was something I wrote about in my blog a bit back:

http://cranialsoup.b...ee-is-expensive.html

I, too, an part of a single income family...I chose to be a stay at home mom...and now am a stay at home wife. (unfortunately I married a very old fashioned guy who doesn't like the idea of his wife having any sort of career even when the kids are all grown)

I think being there when my daughter was growing up was a good thing for all of us, especially her,  and I don't regret that part of it at all.

Yes, it has been a struggle, and continues to be one, but I don't think my daughter would be as great of a person that she is today if she was raised by babysitters so I could work.

And raising kids on 1 income has a great effect on the family...teaches us all what is and isn't important. You don't need designer clothes and ipods to be happy.

And making due with what you have brings out the creative side in people. I am an expert at creating something from nothing and tend to think up rather inexpensive creative solutions to what would be a costly problem to someone else. I am one of the goddesses of creative frugality and have passed on my wisdom to my daughter. We have raised it to an art-form!

5556

Living Room / Re: free game for blogger if you write a review (positive or negative)

« on: July 09, 2006, 05:05 PM »

You know, good or bad, a review with a link to his site raises his google ranking... so he wins either way.

But giving away a free copy in exchange for an unbiased review isn't that bad of a marketing idea.

'unbiased' is the keyword here.

Plus a bad review lets him know what to improve.

And the eyes of a developer isn't the same as a user, so a review from a user is much more useful, since you code games for users, not other developers.

5557

Living Room / Re: Anyone know any good free font sites

« on: July 08, 2006, 12:59 AM »

do you know if it okay to use these fonts for commercial purposes?

-nudone (July 08, 2006, 12:34 AM)

Probably not.

Most likely they are the same freeware fonts you could spend forever finding from search after search on google for various free font sites.

The difference is that you don't have to do any work and they come to you and in a small enough quantity at a time that you can appreciate them more.

There will most likely be the addition of the appropriate holiday fonts to go with each season sent out as well.

Maybe if you are lucky you might even get some exclusives. There could be a font artist on AOL that may decide to send their stuff in to be distributed. It wouldn't be the first time something like that has happened. There was one on a mailing list I subscribe to that sent in about 50 of his/her original fonts all in one zip file. Those fonts are still out there traveling from mailing list to mailing list.

What I would do is open the fonts like I explained earlier, and see if there is contact info or a URL listed in the preview. Then either visit that site for more info or email the creator and ask.

If I come up with any more of these font lists that are open to people not on AOL, I'll be sure to post them.

5558

Living Room / Re: Anyone know any good free font sites

« on: July 07, 2006, 09:47 PM »

I received this in an email today in reply to a request for font sources:

http://groups.yahoo....p/TotallyKrazyFonts/

This is a list that used to be on AOL only, and has since moved to Yahoo Groups and now anybody can join. Despite this, it's still an AOL style mailing list. (If you join, you will learn what that means)

What you will receive is 10 fonts in your email inbox every day, Monday thru Friday. They will arrive as email attachments, one attachment per email. (no zips) This means each font will have its own email for a total of 10 each day. There will be a graphic in each email to preview the font that is attached. Keep the ones you like, delete the ones you don't.

Keep your mailbox from getting full and make sure you do what you have to to prevent any mailings from the list ending up in your filters as spam. If there is a  bounceback you will most likely be removed from the mailing list instantly. Make sure your settings will allow attachments.

You don't have to do anything but sign up in order to get them. You are allowed to share the fonts you receive with others and even forward mailings from the list to your friends.

The group was founded on Yahoo in 2004, currently has 791 members, and has been very active. June's email count was 209 messages.

Enjoy!

5559

General Software Discussion / Re: SiteAdvisor - or do YOU like spam, spyware, & safety threats?

« on: July 07, 2006, 10:27 AM »

Strange - I have just done a manual search (using firefox page search) of all my messages this year and the word "Advisor" doesn't appear (apart from this thread). I know I posted about SiteAdvisor ... IIRC I even post an image ?

-Carol Haynes (July 07, 2006, 08:55 AM)

Codey has it hidden away in his stockpile somewhere.

you know what might be a nice feature -
an option to have the forum email you any post you make, for your permanent records.

-mouser (July 07, 2006, 09:46 AM)

great idea!

5560

Site/Forum Features / Re: Ads On The Website

« on: July 07, 2006, 10:22 AM »

Personally I find it hilarious that AOL are suggesting they will go to an ad supported model - do they seriously mean that the current AOL isn't ad supported! Having seen AOL on other peoples' systems it is hard to work out where the ads end and the 'service' starts in the subscription version - if they up the advertising in the next version it is going to be horrendous and unusable!

-Carol Haynes (July 07, 2006, 08:46 AM)

They are moving to a free ad-supported service...as opposed to the current paid ad-supported service. If it gets any worse it will be a clone of Juno 4.0 with the big always on top ad filled bar that blocks you from accessing your desktop. (I really hope I am joking and not predicting the future here).

This is one of the reasons why I use their tray dialer instead of the traditional software every other AOL user connects with. I get just a strong stable connection that's even compatible with my other pc's ancient X2 modem, without all the extra crap. I have to use external applications for everything...just like normal people do.

5561

General Software Discussion / Re: SiteAdvisor - or do YOU like spam, spyware, & safety threats?

« on: July 07, 2006, 08:23 AM »

I just installed SA and I think it's great...but my default browser is not supported. 

Hopefully AOLex is one of the ones they plan on supporting in the future.

5562

Living Room / Re: Don't Click It

« on: July 07, 2006, 02:18 AM »

I don't like this at all...I am one of those people that's pretty click happy.

and just like f0dder my mouse is all over the place.

and I don't like the idea of giving up my middle clicking to open in new tab...or right clicking for other purposes.

I have seen things similar on a few websites to activate popup ads...didn't like it at all!

5563

Living Room / Re: Article(s) on Googles New Pay Service, controversies, and my experiences

« on: July 06, 2006, 11:04 AM »

Doesn't ebay own paypal? or paypal own ebay? or something like that?

5564

Living Room / Re: Man shows crowds fallen piece of his skull

« on: July 06, 2006, 10:57 AM »

ewwwww!! 

5565

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: lock the pc after certain time (for youth house)

« on: July 06, 2006, 09:22 AM »

This might be something you could try...and it's free:

Parental Lock Guard v1.2

5566

Living Room / Re: Article and blog entry: Are drugs effective past their expiration date?

« on: July 06, 2006, 03:52 AM »

I would love to see a full list of the drugs they tested and extended if anybody has access to that information.

At least 1 of the drugs mentioned in the article that blog post links to, is taken by a family member in my home, and now we can save a ton of money by buying it in bulk and not worrying about it expiring.

There is one that wasn't mentioned that I am curious about: Provental asthma inhalers.
I wonder if that was tested, and if so what the results were.

I stock piled a certain OTC asthma drug when I discovered that they had changed the formula on it. The new formula is less effective and can make people's heart race (it contains ephedrine instead of theophylline). Before they changed the formula, it was the only source of OTC theophylline you could buy in the US. My father did the same stock piling that I did and neither one of us have had any problems with the drug after it's expiration date.

I wish I had stock piled decongestants containing phenylpropanolamine before the FDA pulled it off of every shelf in the country. It was the only one that worked for me. (I suffer from very painful debilitating sinus toothaches during the spring)

They recalled it primarily for the reason that there were too many idiots taking diet pills containing it at the same time as cold pills containing the same drug and as a result they were suffering strokes caused by overdose.

This decongestant was available for over 20 years before the big recall, and is still available in many countries outside of the US. In Canada it was never approved as a weight loss drug and was only available in cold remedies...and in the entire history of the drug being available in Canada, there was only 1 report of anybody ever having a stroke from taking it.

If I had some sort of advance warning that they were going to recall this, I would have stocked up on a lifetime supply of this for myself.

It seems the laws & regulations only favor the businesses and people that have health insurance that covers prescriptions. People that pay out of their pockets for their health care and medications are the ones that suffer, tossing their money in the trash when they don't have to.

5567

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: spring cleaning

« on: July 06, 2006, 01:51 AM »

for all the old school Atari 2600 freaks:

a compact Atari 2600 (NTSC...not PAL)
This is not the huge unit that was made in the 70's, it's the much smaller, nicer one that was made in the 80's.

a bunch of games:
(I have doubles of these)

Combat
Donkey Kong
Pitfall
Dodge 'em
E.T.
Asteroids
(list will grow as I find out what games the family doesn't want and are willing to part with)

These will be included with the necessary (2) keyboard controllers:

BASIC Programming
Hunt & Score
Codebreaker
Brain Games

Additionally, I have a trackball controller that can be used in place of a joystick that will be included.

not included: joysticks, paddle controllers, a universal AC adapter, the cable to connect it to the TV (you will have to supply these)

package deal...one person gets them all. I don't want to split this up. I'll ship it to anybody in the US.

5568

Living Room / Re: Anyone know any good free font sites

« on: July 06, 2006, 12:52 AM »

I have over 12,000 fonts but I don't keep them all in my Windows fonts folder. That would be crazy.

I keep them in another folder on another drive sorted by type.

I only add the ones I will use on a regular basis to the Windows fonts folder.

When I want to use one or more from my other folder, I just click and open them, then minimize them to the taskbar. They then appear in the font list of whatever applications I use(mainly just used for digital art). When I am done, I just close them and they are removed from the list.

This is a great way to temporarily install a font that avoids all the messy stuff that can result from having too many fonts.

5569

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: spring cleaning

« on: July 05, 2006, 02:50 AM »

I have a copy of Dee Brown's Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee that I finished reading and now it's time to pass it on. Any takers? (great book)

5570

Living Room / Re: calling all creative game inventing type people.. READ IN

« on: July 04, 2006, 09:59 PM »

There was a board game I used to like to play back in the 80's that was a series of egg timers that you moved across an hour glass shaped board. It was called Quicksand. (I don't think it was very popular as nobody I know has ever heard of it.)

It was a 2 player game.

Each player had 4 timers that started empty.

You took turns rolling a single die that had (2)1's, 2, 3, (2) S's

You couldn't move a timer unless you had sand actively moving in it. If you ran out of sand the timer had to be moved back to start.

You would roll and move the number of spaces on the die, or if you got an S you would flip a timer...yours or your opponent's. You had to use the S...even if that meant giving yourself less time.

The object of the game was to get your timers to the other side without running out of sand in any of them...they all had to be active at the end of the game.

I have never seen a version that could be played on a pc. I loved this game! It was an idea I had a few years ago to someday make a game similar to this one that could be played on a computer.

Now I am going to be honest...I haven't tried to do this because I don't think I have either the programming skills...or digital art skills...to do something like this yet.

5571

Living Room / Re: Anyone know any good free font sites

« on: July 04, 2006, 09:34 PM »

I promised you a list and here it is. I checked each site to make sure there wasn't anything funny about it and rejected any that had popups or redirected you to go vote.

I also downloaded a few from each site just to be sure it wasn't a site full of dead links or malware installers.

http://www.1001fonts.com/
http://www.1001freefonts.com/
http://www.abstractfonts.com/
http://www.actionfonts.com/
http://www.all-free-fonts.com/
http://www.beautifulfonts.com/
http://www.blambot.com/fonts.shtml
http://www.bvfonts.com/  (nice site but takes awhile to load)
http://www.dafont.com/
http://www.dingbatdepot.com/
http://www.downloadf...fontfiles/afonts.htm
http://www.eknp.com/
http://www.fontasy.de/
http://www.fontfreak.com
http://www.fontgarden.com/ (the sample text graphics are funny)
http://www.fontparadise.com/
http://www.fontreactor.com/en
http://www.fontso.com/
http://www.fontsville.com/main.html
http://www.freefonts.org.uk/
http://www.freefontsnow.com/
http://www.free-typewriter-fonts.com/
http://www.fryfonts.com/
http://www.getfreefonts.info/
http://www.greatfreefonts.com/  (loads slow)
http://www.highfonts.com/
http://www.larabiefonts.com/fonts.html
http://www.lottes.dk/fonts/
http://www.nofonts.com/
http://www.scrappinfun.com/fonts.html (lots of handwriting fonts)
http://www.simplythebest.net/fonts/
http://www.sketchpad.net/freefonts.htm
http://www.typenow.net/  (use drop down menu at top)
http://www.wantedfonts.com/

These should keep you busy for awhile. 

5572

Living Room / Re: Prediction: In the year 2010, all Digg Stories will be about Digg

« on: July 04, 2006, 12:58 PM »

I think it will happen much much earlier. Next AOL Time Warner et al. will enter the "market".

-housetier (July 04, 2006, 05:36 AM)

It has already happened...take a look at the new netscape.com.

5573

Living Room / Re: Motivational sticky-notes

« on: July 03, 2006, 02:20 PM »

Yeah, but it should keep track of the focused window (the work window).
Eg: when visual c++ is focused, the alarm counter doesn't count, but it starts counting down as soon as the window goes out of focus.
You'd have to be able to define the 'work' window. Otherwise the alarm would go off while working.

-Gothi[c] (July 03, 2006, 01:47 PM)

whoa...that sounds almost like a coding snack request 

and a great idea too!

5574

Living Room / Re: Cody Figurines

« on: July 03, 2006, 02:19 PM »

mine was made from Sculptey

5575

Living Room / Re: Motivational sticky-notes

« on: July 03, 2006, 01:28 PM »

This can work too:

It has an alarm that is set to go off once per hour. I find that a real sticky on the monitor either falls off and becomes a cat toy or I soon become blind to it and don't notice it any more.

and I was just thinking...

This could be a useful purpose for Dr Windows. Instead of a prank full of silly messages that distract, it can be a useful tool full of fun reminders to help keep your focus.