Messages

26

Developer's Corner / Need help coding website with music and database

« on: March 26, 2014, 08:06 AM »

So I have a really cool idea for a website (I think it is anyway) and basic web skills.

This is what it might look like http://www.jsongs.comuv.com/

So, songwriters load demo songs, they get their own page with the songs on them and each song gets it's own page.
That can be done in HTML. I don't predict will get too big so it won't be too hard to manually manage.
BUT on the homepage, it wants a shuffle music player so people listening to a song can skip until they find something they like.
Which means that the song need to be in a database so that they can be shuffled then the corresponging song, songname, artist and artist pic can be dynamically loaded.
I can handle the Javascript (just) but then I need PHP or somthing to work the database.
I was hoping to work out something that will run on an Access database since I have enough troubles without SQL.

Can someone point me in the right direction on which set of languages to use?
Keep in mind that, if it is successful, I want it so that artists still have to be manually set up and screened, but after that they can add songs easily and the song pages will be dynamically created.

Thanks,
Fred

27

Living Room / Fight back against the NSA

« on: February 06, 2014, 07:11 AM »

We all want our privacy back,
This idea looks good, it just needs more support.
https://thedaywefightback.org/

I like it. I vote we ask Mouser to put the banner on DC.   


Incidentally, to go with it, my idea of fighting back starts with always using a fake name online. ALWAYS. Especially FB. It makes it just that bit harder to search and profile people.

Does anyone else have any opinons on this movement, or any tips for fighting back?


Just remember, if you have ever been glad that you can break minor regulations like picking flowers in a park and get away with it, you have a moral obligation to do something to stop us being totally monitored.

28

Living Room / Re: Security Questions (humor)

« on: November 14, 2013, 05:15 AM »

That is classic.
First employer can be yourself. Although then I have to remember if it was self, myself, self-employed, Fred, Fred Nerd, Fred Nerd Carpentry. Maybe I should just walk out into a better world like that guy.

29

Living Room / Re: Windows Phone 8 (lumia 920) vs. Android 4.4 Kitkat (Nexus 5)

« on: November 12, 2013, 05:31 AM »

And sadly Google has announced it won't be getting OS updates anymore, so it may be time to get a Nexus 5 soon. (c:

KitKat is meant to be designed for lower spec phones and should speed everything up again. Google isn't releasing it for the earlier phones, by there's custom ROMs out there already.
I might have to try one. I'll have to kill the phone manually to get a new one.

Actually I lost it a while back, and my best bet to replace it was an identical one 2nd hand for $90. Why pay more?

30

Living Room / Re: Windows Phone 8 (lumia 920) vs. Android 4.4 Kitkat (Nexus 5)

« on: November 11, 2013, 06:01 AM »

Good to know. I like the idea of getting a Nexus 5. Problem is my Nexus S is still holding it's own. Only just but not bad enough to justify upgrading.

31

Living Room / Re: YouTube finally forces creation of google+ A/C to comment

« on: November 10, 2013, 04:49 AM »

So basically it's all moving towards everything being linked in. I'm just glad I guessed it would happen and have several fake identities that were created a long time ago.
Even now I have too much with my real name. I have changed it on Facebook but I know it remembers it. It told me I could only change it once more so make sure I put my real name in. Suffice to say I didn't.
It's not that I don't like everything tied together, it's just that if everyone does, it will get more and more enforced. If everyone kept creating false accounts, and untying everything, they wouldn't try to force it so much.

Not to mention the issue of identity theft.

And the whole attraction of the internet was so you could post anonymously. You can say honest things. Such as on this forum no-one knows me, so I could tell you things that happen locally, and report it exactly without worrying about offending anyone. If this was linked to FB or G+, this would be posted there and someone could take offence.
I want to be allowed to post that I think shooting kangaroos is a good idea without losing my friends who disagree.

If we let things link, we'll get a lot of yes people, or a lot of fashionable haters.

32

Living Room / Re: Privacy Study

« on: July 01, 2013, 08:03 AM »

I always find it amusing to read the comments in these sorts of articles where some person brags about being free of the system of FB, twitter etc, BUT will put comments on news articles. I'm sure Big Brother is more interested in what you're reading than in what you had for dinner.

33

Living Room / Re: Bug Bounty From MS

« on: June 24, 2013, 06:13 AM »

So basically they want you to keep all the bugs you find a secret so that you can be the only person claiming the bounty. This way no-one will put all the bugs up on the net to be laughed at.

Smooth move.

34

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« on: June 14, 2013, 06:59 PM »

INVITATION
We're having a charity concert for those who struggle to reach orgasm.
If you can't come, let me know.



PS. I am NOT trying to reconnect with my ex's.

35

Living Room / Re: Wrigley Making Caffeinated Gum - New Alert Energy Caffeine Gum

« on: March 22, 2013, 12:39 AM »

The chocolate covered beans are nice but have too much chocolate. Just chew on straight coffee beans. Leaves your teeth with bits stuck in them. 

36

Living Room / Re: Wrigley Making Caffeinated Gum - New Alert Energy Caffeine Gum

« on: March 21, 2013, 08:03 AM »

Where can I buy it? I want some, could keep a packet so it's available when I need it.
I live on coffee and energy drinks. Yes, it's expensive, but it get's things done, and I get paid more if I get more done. Also I don't have to waste daylight when driving long distances.

37

Living Room / Re: Emperor's New Clothes Kickstarter

« on: March 11, 2013, 07:12 AM »

Love it, it's totally awesome.

I want one. I'll keep it for visitors, "let's have a game, you can be crosses, Here you go, have these tokens"

38

Living Room / Re: "Half of our users block ads. Now what?"

« on: March 11, 2013, 07:00 AM »

My opinion on this is that on one hand I like things being free especially for younger people etc. BUT on the other hand I would much rather pay then see ads.
Part of the my plan would be copy protection that wouldn't be TOO hard to get around so that kids could use their brains and pirate what they need, BUT you'd be reminded you should pay for it. Like the DC way of paying for it or being reminded to renew your licence.
Remember back in the 'good old days' of Windows 98? Kids who grew up then learnt to use lateral thinking to get things you couldn't afford, with plenty of viruses to catch you out AND then to learn how to fix it when you downloaded photoshop_crack_win.exe
Was really good fun, and you learned to think. Still didn't get anything productive done, but it was fun.

Anyway, I use an ad blocker since I hate ads so much that if I see an ad I'll boycott the company for annoying me. Unless it's an 'infomercial'. If I'm looking at a site to buy building products, they can try to tell me that I should own the latest nail gun, that makes sense.

But basically, I'm happy for a lot of blogs and bloggers to go broke. They don't work as hard as I do, and seem to know less as well. Anyone I like can ask for donations or premium services and I'll pay.  
Same with Android apps, less ad supported only, more crippleware with a pay option. More prestige in owning a phone with everything paid for.

39

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« on: February 24, 2013, 03:35 AM »

A Salute to Rodney Dangerfield

A 21-joke salute to comedian Rodney (who died in 2004 at age 82) -- his best one-liners.

---

1. I was so poor growing up! If I wasn't a boy, I'd have had nothing to play with.

2. A girl phoned me the other day and said, "Come on over; nobody's home." I went over. Nobody was home.

3. During sex, my girlfriend always wants to talk to me. Just the other night she called me from a hotel.

4. One day I came home early from work. I saw a guy jogging naked. I said to the guy, "Hey buddy, why are you doing that?" He said, "Because you came home early."

5. Its been a rough day. I got up this morning, put a shirt on and a button fell off. I picked up my briefcase, and the handle came off. I'm afraid to go to the bathroom.

6. I was such an ugly kid. When I played in the sandbox, the cat kept covering me up.

7. I could tell my parents hated me. My bath toys were a toaster and radio.

8. I was such an ugly baby. My mother never breastfed me. She told me that she only liked me as a friend.

9. I'm so ugly, my father carries around a picture of the kid who came with his wallet.

10. When I was born, the doctor came into the waiting room and said to my father, "I'm sorry. We did everything we could, but he pulled through."

11. I'm so ugly, my mother had morning sickness after I was born.

12. I remember the time that I was kidnapped and they sent a piece of my finger to my father. He said he wanted more proof.

13. Once when I was lost, I saw a policeman, and asked him to help me find my parents. I said to him, "Do you think we'll ever find them?" He said, "I don't know kid. There's so many places they can hide."

14. My wife made me join a bridge club. I jump off next Tuesday.

15. I'm so ugly, I worked in a pet shop, and people kept asking how big I'd get.

16. I went to see my doctor. "Doctor, every morning when I get up and I look in the mirror, I feel like throwing up. What's wrong with me?" He said, "I don't know but your eyesight is perfect."

17. I went to the doctor because I'd swallowed a bottle of sleeping pills. My doctor told me to have a few drinks and get some rest.

18. With my old man I got no respect. I asked him, "How can I get my kite in the air?" He told me to run off a cliff.

19. Some dog I got. We call him Egypt because in every room he leaves a pyramid. His favorite bone is in my arm. Last night he went on the paper four times -- three of those times I was reading it.

20. One year they wanted to make me poster boy -- for birth control.

21. My uncle's dying wish was to have me sitting in his lap; he was in the electric chair.

40

Living Room / Re: Iron Pants

« on: February 16, 2013, 11:03 PM »

The title is wrong. Iron pants are still legal, just not aluminium.

I consider this discrimination against those who are not into heavy metal.

41

Living Room / Re: Ever had a question you wanted to ask Bill Gates?

« on: February 12, 2013, 03:27 AM »

I have the Microsoft Vista for Dummies book, if you need it.

   

[–]Crookward 2412 points 14 hours ago

The new edition is one page long. It says, "upgrade to Windows 7".

   
[–]Oceloctopus 351 points 13 hours ago

That's interesting, given that previous editions were also one page saying, "Downgrade to Windows XP"

42

Living Room / Re: Ever had a question you wanted to ask Bill Gates?

« on: February 12, 2013, 03:16 AM »

[–]thenss 435 points 13 hours ago

What's your opinion on linux?

   

[–]PLanPLan 43 points 9 hours ago

I'm sure Linux tests Bill's patents ... I mean patience.

 

43

Living Room / Re: Bill Gates has donated over $36,854,000,000 in his lifetime

« on: February 09, 2013, 07:59 AM »

The parable isn't meant to be a guilt trip to give more, but to stop the rich from thinking they are holier than thou because they can afford to give more to charity.

So exactly; it means more for an average person to give $5 to a homeless person than for Bill Gates to give away many billions.

Having said that, I have always been pretty impressed that he never made too much fuss about it. I mean, the donations could have come from Microsoft and then have all MS products branded as 'supporting cancer research' etc. (which would really give them leverage over Ass'le)

We know about his donations mainly just because media likes to talk about him, so I think; God Bless him for it, it may not mean as much as what a normal person does, but he should be rewarded for it rather than just told that it's not enough. Plenty of people give none and are not criticised for it.

44

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« on: February 08, 2013, 04:48 AM »

Found a FB page of really bad jokes the other day, here are some of the 'better' ones:

My wife said I should try to see things from her point of view, so I went and looked out the kitchen window.

Broken mirror, 7 years bad luck, no big deal. Broken condom......

Alcohol is a solvent, when combined with soluble solids, the result is a solution. Which means that, according to chemistry, beer is indeed a solution.

Really offensive one below, don't click if you are a feminist or get easily offended.

Spoiler

To all feminists who think women weren't meant to do the cooking, well how come you were born with eggs and milk?

45

Living Room / Re: Debate: Effects of technology on modern youth

« on: January 30, 2013, 08:12 PM »

As a 25 year old, I just missed the online/technology social revolution.

The main thing I notice is that young people (and a lot of older ones) don't get the concept of criticism and mild insults.
People get so used to disconnecting/blocking any negative that they can't don't know how to deal with it properly, AND then are scared of giving a negative comment in fear of being deleted.
So people are used to a diet of 'likes' and no longer know how to turn criticism into a joke and deal with it.
Which leads to emperors new clothes scenarios, everyone too scared to say anything but the person is actually totally useless.

This is written without any qualifications and shouldn't be considered a critical study unless you agree with it.

46

Living Room / Re: I did not realize how bad Google has become

« on: January 30, 2013, 07:11 PM »

Do you also use Web Of Trust?
The really nice site that tells you what is safe, THEN 'accidentally' blacklists a site and charges a lot to try to get reviewed and off the list.

I hate it when I see it recommended

47

Living Room / Re: I did not realize how bad Google has become

« on: January 29, 2013, 09:36 PM »

I know google has a lot of haters (with good reason) BUT I still respect them.

I they make no secret that we are a product, and are (reasonably) open about the ads that they are always trying to sell us etc.
The fact that they haven't tried to fight against ad blockers is pretty impressive. I'm sure they could get around them if they tried (random, changing ad servers to start with).

And compare Gmail to Facebook. Gmail uses standard protocols to allow you to change at will if you are dissatisfied. One has no problem migrating to and from a Gmail account. And Facebook locks you in, and once you have no options, it force feeds you ads, and it gets them past ad blockers by putting them in the newsfeed. "Your friend likes 'dodgy deals dogfood'" When it was only once, 2 years ago but its still in my newsfeed....

So I don't mind Google trying to get people to discover G+. Come on, if there worst offence is to use their position to gently push one of their products then I will forgive them for that. Besides, I wish more people did use G+, then I could ditch my Facebook and have a much more elegant, effective, and open social network.

48

Living Room / Re: Name 1 Technological Feature That You Think Is Good

« on: January 16, 2013, 05:27 AM »

GPS. As a pilot, it's made things so much easier.

It's not approved to be relied on for navigation, but even with the few accidents it may mave caused due to people being dependant on something that can fail, it's saved lives when people get lost above the clouds and can know where they are and what height they can descend to before they run into mountains.

NB. These scenarios should NEVER happen, but sadly they do.

49

Living Room / Re: Electric shock from USB cable

« on: January 14, 2013, 04:50 AM »

I remember Jaycar trying to use a slogan of 'It's a coincidence, but it's not a fluke' for their multimeters.
Cheap analogue meters can be better in some cases since the current required to move the needle puts a draw on the circuit and can show up bad connections by the voltage drop. Sort of like using a test light and taking note of how bright it it.

Back to the printer, it's got a figure 8 plug on the printer itself (reversable, no earth), so it would be easy for an imbalance to occurr and come out through the USB cable.  I was mainly wondering if this was common since its easy to leave peripherals unplugged and the plugs in reach of kids. It could get nasty.

On electric shocks, it depends a LOT on how dry your skin is. Normal skin is about 1k ohm (enough for an autoranging meter to make make you think that you've got continuity when you hold the probes on by hand). I can't remember off hand what wet is, BUT if they are wet with salt water, it's a lot worse again.
Before LED lights, I'd go catching prawns (shrimp) with a car battery and a 50watt light. The car battery was floated in an esky and towed behind you. My original light just had the wires attached to the terminals by rubber bands. Worked fine, BUT if they accidentally came off, there was no way I could put them on with wet hands, it was very painful.

And there are no RCDs in this old place, just fuse wire so it will blow a few seconds after I'm dead to prevent the owners getting a huge power bill....

I would upgrade the printer, but I want to wait for a 3d one, then I can print business documents on fake marble carvings.

50

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« on: January 14, 2013, 04:24 AM »

-Renegade (January 11, 2013, 10:04 PM)

  I'd still do her......

-Tinman57 (January 12, 2013, 06:55 PM)

Pretty much the bluntest thing I have ever read on DC...

-Stephen66515 (January 13, 2013, 06:35 PM)

  Nah, between Renegade and Fodder, I think they have me beat.....

-Tinman57 (January 13, 2013, 07:51 PM)

Hey!  what about me?!

-superboyac (January 14, 2013, 12:43 AM)

What about you? Do you want someone to mention that they'd 'do you....' in a public forum as well?