Messages

251

Living Room / Re: Movies I Love to Listen To: Dialects and Accents

« on: April 01, 2011, 12:12 PM »

Much as I wish I could hate him, I think Brad Pitt is a phenomenal actor. I think the speech patterns he used in the movie Snatch were fascinating.

Also, I'm continually amazed by Eric Idle's ability to gush forth enormous amounts of text, almost a monologue, while smoothly inserting wordplay into it. I can't imagine the amount he must have rehearsed. See for example, Monty Python's Travel Agent Sketch. (Transcribed here)

252

Living Room / Re: A Parrot Riding a Car's Windshield Wipers

« on: March 31, 2011, 04:31 PM »

....why would any animal stay in a location it considered stressful.

-nudone (March 31, 2011, 03:16 AM)

... a nailgun.

-4wd (March 31, 2011, 04:35 AM)

Look, I took the liberty of examining that parrot when I got it home, and I discovered the only reason that it had been sitting on its perch in the first place was that it had been NAILED there.

253

General Software Discussion / Re: Anyone testing Daminion Media Manager ?

« on: March 31, 2011, 11:51 AM »

I looked at this briefly, about a week ago, after seeing it recommended elsewhere. I didn't even bother to download, when I couldn't find a price tag mentioned anywhere.

The prices mentioned above seem pretty steep -- $100 - $200. That doesn't compare favorably with what are, in my mind, the other competitors: ACDSee ($70 - $240 for a well established, proven product), or photools.com's IMatch ($65, again, a well established program).

Looking at the Daminion web site, the product looks interesting, but I don't see anything compelling above what these other products offer. Does anyone have insight into its features?

254

Living Room / Re: A Parrot Riding a Car's Windshield Wipers

« on: March 31, 2011, 11:38 AM »

Doesn't a bird normally experience high-velocity wind in its normal life in the wild? I don't know the speeds at which this kind parrot typically flies, but in the avian kindgom, birds flying at speeds equivalent to a car's highway speeds is pretty normal. Peregrine falcons dive at speeds over 200mph.

So I'm having trouble understanding how that bird would be either uncomfortable or scared.

255

General Software Discussion / Re: SQL query newbie: Help me work through my first project?

« on: March 26, 2011, 10:11 AM »

You've chosen just about the hardest thing to get a relational database to do . They really don't lend themselves well to hierarchical data, although it is possible with some work.

There are a number of ways to attack it, but it's highly dependent on the specifics of the problem, and varies greatly depending on the database engine being used (I'm a SQL Server expert, not Oracle).

My recommendation is to get a copy of Joe Celko's Trees and Hierarchies. He explains all your options, with pretty good examples.

256

Living Room / Re: In Western societies, how can a man have a hyphenated name? (and why!)

« on: March 04, 2011, 12:36 PM »

Since my family name -- Wuestefeld -- is all but unspellable, my wife (fiance at the time) suggested we use her family name instead: Yu (pronounced like the word "you"). But while it's much shorter, it also caused great confusion. She'd always get into a "who's on first?" kind of thing:

"What's your name"

"Yu."

"No, I need to know your name."

So she started to answer "Yu: y - u", spelling it out to make it clear that she wasn't saying "you". She thought that was working until she got something in the mail addressed to "Cathy Uyu".

In the end, we mostly did the traditional thing. But since she was going through immigration at the time, and had the opportunity to make official whatever she wanted, she took her full Chinese name as two middle names, so now she's officially "Cathy Cen Yu Wuestefeld".

257

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Browser history as a tree/graph

« on: March 04, 2011, 12:23 PM »

Way back in the beginning of time, IBM's OS/2 Warp operating system shipped with a web browser (sorry, I can't remember its name) that would show your browsing history as an outline.

258

Living Room / Re: A Point About Grammar

« on: March 03, 2011, 11:56 AM »

The more you learn about language and "correct" writing, the more you discover the amount of rules that aren't taught in school (or not my school, any way).

For example, I was never taught what a transitive verb is (see Wikipedia if you don't know). But I notice this occasionally with my wife. (She's an immigrant, and with English as her third language, she does remarkably well, so much so that in casual conversation you wouldn't know she's not native.) But every once in a while she comes out with a clunker, all the more surprising because you can forget she's not a native speaker. And this is one of the common problems.

Another thing that most natives just get right from having heard it so much, but isn't really taught explicitly, is when a determiner is necessary. One of the things my wife finds most difficult is deciding when a noun needs a "the" in front of it.

Finally, there's an error that I see committed almost universally, and demonstrating how much it's not taught, I don't even know what the correct terminology is. I think of it as parallelization of lists. When giving a list, the items in the list need to all be of the same part of speech and conjugation. For example: "My dog Buster likes to chase a ball and poops in the woods". This is incorrect. I need to either change "poops" to "to poop" so that the list of what Buster likes is all of the same type, or I need to change it to "... and he poops..." so that it's not a list of what he likes to do.

259

General Software Discussion / Made the plunge changing to DVD Profiler

« on: February 21, 2011, 11:18 AM »

I've finally switched to DVD Profiler.

As with others here, I refused to "upgrade" my Collectorz software. And the version I had continued to deteriorate, such that it could only scrape from two sources anymore.

DVD Profiler suffers from the same approach as the newer versions of Collectorz, in that it's a closed system: no scraping from various web sources, just from the company's own repository. It's not quite the same as with Collectorz, though, because the DVD Profiler community is rabid about the quality of their data. Although the same questions about availability of data persist (I've got a fair chunk of Chinese videos, for example), what's there is almost certainly good.

This is a mixed blessing, though. To ensure quality (and to avoid copyright issues), DVD Profiler is militantly anti-IMDB. For those videos that aren't in their repository I'd be happy to scrape in IMDB data (it's much better than nothing), even if it prevented me from uploading that data to their own servers. But they won't have any of it: I'm not allowed to have IMDB data at all. I could transcribe it all by hand, but they wouldn't even be happy about that. (So far I've said to myself "screw them", and copied at least some key data: cover scan, overview, running time; I'll be good and not upload that). It seems to me that I'd be better off if they let me worry about the accuracy that I want in my own database, and not worry about it; they can implement whatever they need to flag records that have been "tainted" by IMDB.

DVD Profiler has a different pricing model from Collectorz. The latter has switched to a subscription, but DVD Profiler still operates on a single one-time charge (and a very reasonable one at that).

But the main decision point was how flexible DVD Profiler is. In particular:

• Reporting is completely customizable, with a real GUI tool to do the customizing.
• Searching is far more robust.
• The "movie pick" tool, which helps you find a movie to watch based on similarity to other movies, is wonderful.

The process of migrating from Collectorz to DVD Profiler took me probably 3-4 hours. Although there are user-supported plugins that should do the job, I wasn't able to make it work for some reason. But one prolific member of the community, mediadogg, was kind enough to actually take my exported Collectorz data and import it for me, putting the resultant DB onto his web server for me to download. Thanks for the help!

From there it was a matter of, first, patching up the data that was missing. There was a good-sized list of videos that didn't import fully because they weren't in the DVD Profiler database. This was due to a mixture of being oddball titles (like the Chinese stuff I mentioned earlier -- there is international coverage in their repository, but it seems not as robust as USA), and, more frequently, because I'd done a bad job of entering the data into Collectorz.

A final step was to build a report that matched my needs. Most of the canned stuff, and available from the community, tends to focus on attributes that I don't care about. In particular, many of them are concerned with where you purchased a video, and how much you paid. I track finances in Quicken, and use that tool to make sure I'm not over-budget; after that I'm not too concerned with the price I paid for my copy of Avatar specifically. I just want a list of movies next to the TV so I can decide what to watch. That involved finding a similar report, ripping out stuff I didn't care about (studio and DVD features, for example), and replacing them with more Genre information and a rating (their repository provides for user-supplied reviews).

I'm pretty happy with the way things have turned out. I think I did the right thing, and a conversion to DVD Profiler is a good way to get away from the hated Collectorz.

260

Living Room / Re: Never Defragment an SSD ?

« on: February 17, 2011, 11:58 AM »

If you look at benchmarks, all the SSDs have different speed characteristics when dealing with linear reads/writes compared to scattered smaller I/O. It can matter a lot for writes, but also matters for reads.

-f0dder (February 17, 2011, 04:12 AM)

That's true. But I think that the scales are different. Disc blocks are relatively big. We're not talking about defragging at the byte scale. Even if a file has hundreds of fragments, it's not going to make any noticeable (or probably even measurable) difference in the overall access times.

261

Living Room / Re: Unable to compete with the Kindle, Apple wants a cut of ebook sales

« on: February 03, 2011, 11:51 AM »

They're going to keep saying that the e-ink displays are better on the eyes vs the tablet screens, but that's a bunch of bullshit. Whatever little truth there is in that, it's the only point they are hanging on to.  i read pdf's on my ipad, and it's a great experience.

-superboyac (February 02, 2011, 11:07 AM)

The quality of the display is fantastic, but there's another really awesome feature of e-ink readers like Kindle: the batteries last freakin' forever. Seriously, it can go *weeks* of normal usage on a single charge. When I got mine for Christmas I charged it overnight. Since then, the only time I've plugged it in is when I've loaded new content. And those little dribbles have been enough to keep it going for 6 weeks.

And like johnk said, one can use Calibre to load up darned near any content you want, so while technically Kindle is a closed, proprietary system, in fact it's open to anything you're likely to want.

262

General Software Discussion / Re: Photo managers with face recognition?

« on: January 31, 2011, 04:24 PM »

I've been thinking about this same thing for some time now. I've been meaning to embark on a giant project of properly organizing 20K-30K images. I've had ACDSee Pro for quite some time, but I've never actually gotten started. Part of the reason for this is that it seems that face recognition would be such a big jump start to the project, and ACDSee doesn't have it -- nor does it look like they *will* have it in their upcoming v4.

But reading this thread prompted me to look around a bit more, and I found a couple of things that might allow the overall workflow to be doable.

I think the conclusion for now is that Picasa is the best for the actual face recognition itself. It looks like with some extra tools, one could create a workflow where the images, once dumped to disc and maybe after RAW developing, get run into Picasa for face recognition. Then use a 3rd party tool to dump the Picasa face data into the image metadata, and then proceed as normal through your later editing and organizing (assuming that your editing will preserve those tags).

I found two such 3rd party tools that can dump Picasa's data into the image metadata. Quoting from their respective web pages:

• AvPicFaceXmpTagger - This program was written because of the new Google Picasa 3.5 face recognition feature. Due to the fact that Picasa 3.5 doesn't store the face recognition data inside JPEG pictures, this program fetches that data and stores it as XMP-MP meta tags inside the JPEG pictures. http://www.anvo-it.d...icfacexmptagger:main
• Picasa Face Embedder - Picasa Face Embedder takes the face data generated by Picasa and embeds it into your images. This enables Windows and software such as Adobe Photoshop and ACD Systems ACDSee to use the data. The software uses the database files that Picasa generates. These files hold the names of people that Picasa recognises in your photos and the rectangles defining where each person is. Picasa Face Embedder takes this information and embeds it into the files themselves thereby binding the information to your photos so that when you copy or rename your photos the information is still present. The software uses a simple drag and drop interface. To start using the software simply drag a folder containing your photos onto the main window and the software will begin processing your photos. http://cris.lovell-s...picasa-face-embedder

263

Living Room / Re: Darwinism + geneticism + two-wheeled vehicles = ... awesomeness.

« on: January 28, 2011, 01:31 PM »

@Deozaan - I'm pretty sure that your guess about "goal" score is incorrect. That's just not how genetic algorithms work. You can't pre-set an expected fitness level. The best you can do is to take the best specimens from the generation whatever they are.

It appears that in this implementation, brand new specimens are ONLY generated at generation 0. Thereafter, everything comes from either

• A combination of attributes from two parent specimens who scored well in the previous generation
• Carrying over verbatim a good specimen from the previous generation
• Taking the result of one of the previous operations and applying a random value to an attribute, with a likelihood given by the slider bar at the bottom (defaulting to 5%)

I believe that the graph's two curves show (a) the best specimen of the generation in red, and (b) the average specimen in the generation.

That said, I've got no idea what that parenthetic value really does mean. But it regularly shows an absurdly high value -- far higher than any of my cars have ever reached. And in the succeeding generation, it is *not* the case that my cars that all scored lower than this are discarded. They continue to evolve (generally) forward, using the rules I listed.

264

Living Room / Re: Darwinism + geneticism + two-wheeled vehicles = ... awesomeness.

« on: January 28, 2011, 11:33 AM »

I was playing with this last weekend. I tried three times, for at least 8-10 hours each, and never was able to evolve something that could get past around 213.

265

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Sagelight Image Editor - pay what you want promo (Apil 2010)

« on: January 21, 2011, 12:25 PM »

Here's a good page for comparison of various demosaicing algorithms: http://www.rawtherapee.com/RAW_Compare/

From that page, it seems clear that RawTherapee's EAHD is the best, but of course these things vary from photo to photo. Unfortunately you can't just pick up the algorithm, though. In many cases they're proprietary, or perhaps even patented.

Rob, I wonder if your work on color spaces could be leveraged here. I wonder if the non-proprietary non-patented algorithms might work better when they're operating in alternate color spaces.

266

Living Room / Re: XBox racing; mad at Microsoft

« on: January 19, 2011, 04:34 PM »

So.... anybody know anything about racing wheels for the XBox 360?

267

Living Room / XBox racing; mad at Microsoft

« on: January 19, 2011, 12:29 PM »

Microsoft's XBox 360 platform has the best racing games in the world, with Forza, F1, etc. But as far as I can tell, there's not a single racing controller still in production for it: every product from every manufacturer (Microsoft, Mad Catz, Logitech, Fanatec) has discontinued their product.

My old XBox-1 recently died, so I asked the wife for a new 360 for my birthday, and I got Forza for it as well. I assumed I'd be able to find a new steering wheel for it, like I had for my old console. But it looks to me like there's absolutely no way to buy a new one. And all that's left on eBay is either crap, or costing a fortune.

Does anybody know anything about (a) new XBox 360 wheels coming out; or (b) some dark corner of the world where I can still buy one of the older products?

268

Living Room / Re: Windows 7 Breaks Week Numbering

« on: January 18, 2011, 11:10 AM »

This sounds the same as a bug in VB5 I submitted to Microsoft, a couple of eons back. The problem isn't with the OS, but with the library.

In some years, the end of the last week of the old year extends into Jan 1, Jan 2, etc. If you ask about the week # with respect to the old year, you get the right answer (that it's wk 53 or whatever). But if you ask that same question with respect to the new year (i.e., "what's the week number for Jan1, 2011"), then it assumes that it's part of the new year, without considering that it might be the old year's dying days.

Microsoft said that this was the intended behavior, and declined to fix it. 

269

Find And Run Robot / Re: Wish: Run as Administrator

« on: January 04, 2011, 04:39 PM »

Cool! Ask and ye shall receive.

270

Find And Run Robot / Wish: Run as Administrator

« on: January 04, 2011, 04:30 PM »

I've been running Windows 7 for some time, and I'm frequently annoyed by the need to execute certain tasks under special authority. Part of this annoyance is that I rely on FARR to start my apps, but when I need to run as Admin, I have to go to the Start menu and find the darned thing there.

So, I wish that in FARR I could either Control-Click to "Run as Admin", or maybe choose it from a context menu or something. Whatever the UI might be, I'd like to be able to use FARR to execute something such that it runs as administrator.

271

Living Room / Re: Anyone want to write an eBook in 2011?

« on: January 04, 2011, 12:36 PM »

I hope I don't discourage anyone, but you ought to have your eyes open regarding what you're getting yourself into.

I'm a co-author of a real dead-tree-type technical book [1]. I did it with two other friends. I wrote about 40% of its 600 pages. The time investment necessary to accomplish this is tremendous. For about 6 months I invested every hour -- evenings and weekends -- that I wasn't actually at work (except I reserved Thursday night with my wife, we'd watch Friends together).

Now, I certainly got a great feeling of accomplishment out of this, and it's obviously good for putting on your resume. It will *not* get you rich.

But if you're looking to produce a substantial professional-quality book, be prepared for that kind of commitment.


[1] Inside ISAPI, which is a mostly-obsolete technology for building web sites. Actually, it was mostly obsolete almost from the time the book was published. See it described here.

272

General Software Discussion / Re: Upgrading RoboForm from v6 to v7: worthwhile?

« on: December 17, 2010, 10:28 AM »

I just went back and looked at the KeePass page. It looks to me like there's a new plugin for integrating with FireFox (unfortunately it won't help for other browsers)

PassIFox extension for Firefox

Implements a transparent replacement for the built-in Firefox password storage

As I read it, this should do the integration properly. Anybody care to try (I'm going away for the next week, won't have a chance).

273

General Software Discussion / Re: Upgrading RoboForm from v6 to v7: worthwhile?

« on: December 17, 2010, 08:54 AM »

OK, so we're all agreeing that we're not very interested in paying for a RF7 upgrade.

As far as I can see, the alternatives are either LastPass or KeePass. I evaluated these some time ago. As 40hz said earlier, it doesn't seem right to store this stuff in a web service, so I eliminated LastPass. I installed KeePass, but I was entirely unable to get any browser integration to work at all.

Does anybody know of a tutorial on how to get KeePass to integrate with the web browser?

274

Living Room / Re: Can we compare file transfer protocols?

« on: December 16, 2010, 04:07 PM »

Sorry this isn't going to add to the discussion, but seeing this question just brought on a moment of nostalgia, and I wanted to share it.

I can remember, say, 20 years ago, thinking how great it was that I can download Commander Keen so much faster over Zmodem than the old Xmodem protocol.



It's remarkable how much this stuff has improved since the early days. The protocols have improved tremendously, but the hardware that allows for speeds of 10Mbps at my house, rather than the 300bps at the beginning, or the 14400bps that I was probably using on that Cmdr. Keen download, are just amazing.

275

General Software Discussion / Re: Upgrading RoboForm from v6 to v7: worthwhile?

« on: December 16, 2010, 12:28 PM »

Roboform 6 is fantastic. It's got some annoyances particularly around the user interactions, but it does what it's intended to do very well. From the quote above, it sounds like v7 might smooth some of the UX annoyances, but I'm not sure it's worth the $$.

They are also going towards a ribbon like interface

-superboyac (December 16, 2010, 12:11 PM)

I'm a big fan of the ribbon in Office (although I hope this comment doesn't spur further debate!). But I have to say that it's not always appropriate. In particular, I think that it's been a bad thing for SnagIt. At least the way they've divided up the various ribbons, it now takes me quite a few extra clicks to do my usual thing, compared to the old version. My point is that a ribbon in RF could be a positive or a negative, it's not clear until we actually interact with it.