Messages

326

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Steam Sale: 50% off Guild Wars Trilogy

« on: May 14, 2010, 03:04 PM »

That's an interesting idea- I think I'll do the same on my blog.  (Of course, I could be playing during that time, but that would make too much sense LOL )

UPDATE: So a partial list for me is now at http://wraith808.com/blog/?p=36.  This is only my PC games, and only those purchased since 1/1/2009 (to go any older would probably make me ill...)

-wraith808 (May 09, 2010, 10:45 AM)

I think in similar honesty I will update my list with unplayed / played only a little

Steam + gog + Impulse have added a lot, but I was always bad before.

Normal sales and ebay

And why? Because games disappear, so even if you dont have time to play it now, if you want to explore it some day you better grab it while it is still findable...

I know many people desperate for System Shock 2 or Planescape Torment (that finally got rereleased). I have both, and I played both

327

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Steam Sale: 50% off Guild Wars Trilogy

« on: May 09, 2010, 09:42 AM »

I never forgot the names of my characters - but then I played with an RP guild, so my characters have a life of their own

And if it comes to unplayed games list size, i bet i beat everyone...  

-iphigenie (May 08, 2010, 06:56 AM)

I'll take that bet  That's sort of the reason that I forget some names... some MMOs I bought, and played for a month or less.  I've played just about every MMO out there (and bought more than that)...

-wraith808 (May 08, 2010, 08:30 PM)

You certainly will win on the MMO front, I have only played a small number: WoW, Guild Wars, WAR, Runes of Magic and Dofus - ah no, I bought Fallen Earth and never started it, due to a crazy work project this winter that started right after I bought it . Let's hope it still exists this summer when i might have time

This was the situation in 2007 http://iphi.net/inde...t_buy_any_new_games/

Anyway, here’s the summary:
New: 3
Actively playing: 6
Finished or nearly finished: 17
Not played enough: 55
Gave up on: 150+

since then I would have added about 50, between bargain bins, digital distribution (steam, impulse, gamers gate, direct2drive,  and gog.com) and direct from developers

A more up to date partial list http://iphi.net/inde..._buy_any_more_games/  

I keep meaning to update it as soon as I refresh/rebuild the side... hasnt happened yet, i cringe when i have to go near HTML or css these days

328

General Software Discussion / Re: Need some input on CMS for a kinda, sorta webby ...

« on: May 08, 2010, 07:01 AM »

For simple needs it's also worth mentioning CMSMadeSimple and WebSiteBaker - both open source, easy to get started, quite featured, and very easy for the final site owner to manage day to day

There's a new release of Silverstripe this week, saw it yesterday. Havent tried it in years, might take a peak (i usually stop at "horror, what is that for a templating system" when i look at any cms)

329

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Steam Sale: 50% off Guild Wars Trilogy

« on: May 08, 2010, 06:56 AM »

I never forgot the names of my characters - but then I played with an RP guild, so my characters have a life of their own

And if it comes to unplayed games list size, i bet i beat everyone... 

330

Living Room / Re: The conflict of interest that is Google

« on: May 02, 2010, 08:52 AM »

As someone who has been involved in search, the only way in which google can be considered "relevant" is because it is the default - people are used to it and its quirks and all the noise in it

331

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Steam Sale: 50% off Guild Wars Trilogy

« on: May 01, 2010, 12:19 PM »

Guild wars is probably the most mileage I have ever had in a game for the money 

332

General Software Discussion / Re: Source Code / Code Snippet Manager

« on: April 29, 2010, 10:07 AM »

I need to try the programs in this thread

Back in the 90s I registered a neat program called webgal - it was a snippet manager organised by context, for web development. It could even contain media, so your frequently used graphics tricks could be stored with image. I tried reinstalling but i cant get the registration to work and spidersoft no longer does webgal...

Anyway, recently bought clipcache to see if i can use it for that, but will try these tools here too

333

Developer's Corner / Re: Best way to track the time you spend on each project

« on: April 28, 2010, 11:00 AM »

I used to have to juggle a lot of different clients and projects in parallel in the web agency I owned, since i did sales, client partner, support, general development (no, it wasnt just me, we were 20, but the buck stopped with me so i dipped a toe in a lot).

I discovered that I get so into the moment that I do not stop to record the swap from task to task, the interruptions, phone calls, or the meetings

A tool that helped me was one that records the details of the title bar and open files of the apps I have open, how much focus time and %of CPU they had. It also pops up a little window if I am been inactive for 5 minutes asking "what did you do? break?meal?phone call? meeting? for which project?" in an easy to deal with dialogue (5 seconds max).

With that tool I can review at the end of the day and tell it which project each line was related to. I can make the assignment sticky (i.e. "file xy in word is project z" "site T in firefox is project R" "donationcoder.com is break" "email thread topic Q is .." etc) so after a week the daily review is quick.

It is the only way I ever found out to actually get an overview, all the systems that rely on doing it while it happens failed myserably. I am too much in all the things I juggle to have that meta "record task swap" moment

There's a utility here, is it called titlelog, that does a simple version of this, without all the mapping and reporting (which you could do in excel or...)

334

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Nitro PDF Pro v6 US $40

« on: April 11, 2010, 12:55 PM »

What I hoped it would have that it doesn't is the pasting of a vector version of my signature - for that I still have to use Inkscape.

-iphigenie (April 11, 2010, 07:38 AM)

Would it be acceptable to have a separate PDF of your signature, and add it to the end of the main data PDF using, say, PDFTK, if you want a freeware?

-rjbull (April 11, 2010, 10:44 AM)

It probably would be - the first time I did my expenses I hadnt figured out the inkscape trick so I just sent my signature in the email recopying the "this expense report is correct and accurate" blah blah, and it went through

Right now I open the one page that needs a signature in Inkscape, paste and resize my svg signature on the dots where the document expects it (converted from an old wmf i did years ago), save the one page to a new file, and open the original file all in nitro to replace that page with the new one in the document.

Sounds like a lot of work? you should hear what I have to do with the receipts to emulate a "scan to pdf"

335

DC Gamer Club / Re: Sniper Elite for $2 on Steam

« on: April 11, 2010, 07:48 AM »

I did buy it because of this thread - havent tried playing it, stuck travelling on a work laptop that probably cant run it

336

Living Room / Re: How the big boys win the race for most popular website and rake in the dough

« on: April 11, 2010, 07:46 AM »

What's strange is that so many corporations end up acting like unsocialised 7 year olds

337

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Monkey Dash mini review

« on: April 11, 2010, 07:44 AM »

I remember testing it trying to get some colleagues to play it with me..

I'll have to grab it for the various birthday gifts this year

338

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Nitro PDF Pro v6 US $40

« on: April 11, 2010, 07:38 AM »

I bought it mostly because I have been using their PrimoPDF free export-to-pdf tool (tested a few and this one worked most consistently) - it had a few features that seemed handy and why not buy from the people who give a good free tool? (they have several single focus freeware apps=

At full price Nitro was a bit too much (i could use some features but many are lost on me) but with the rebate it was a better fit.

My main PDF needs besides just "save as" has been with °§¬|@ expense reports. Theoretically I'm supposed to scan receipts, upload them into the system, then print a summary report, sign it, scan it back and send it to india for checking... Alas I am on the road a lot on this project and finding and using printers and scanners are not what I want to waste time on. So I have been combining different tools (digital camera, photo editor, pagemanager) to avoid using a printer or scanner.

What nitroPDF adds that I didnt have with pagemanager is the ability to swap a page within the PDF if I got something wrong. What I hoped it would have that it doesn't is the pasting of a vector version of my signature - for that I still have to use Inkscape. But as Inkscape only allows single page PDF editing, the page swapping of nitro helps

339

Living Room / Re: People are really (really, really) stupid

« on: March 12, 2010, 02:34 AM »

There's another issue here besides the fact that most people arent interested in their computer that much to learn about it, they just want to write and email, chat with friends and return to their lives.

The real issue here is the power of google - what most people see, use and know of the internet is what google chooses to show them on the top 3 links on the first page. An algorithm totally secret, commercially motivated, and one that really can make or break a site

Even facebook could be affected if google chose

340

General Software Discussion / Re: have you tried mind maps?

« on: March 12, 2010, 02:23 AM »

Been using commercial product ConceptDraw - their mindmap and project tools are linked, so you can break down an idea in the mindmapping tool, with notes, estimates, whatever - then switch to the project view and see it as a gantt chart, add dependencies, assign resources - and go back and forth.

The project tool is not a full blown PM app, but the seamless switch between map and charts is a great way to keep things updated, communicate and discuss etc.

341

Living Room / Re: You are what you charge

« on: March 12, 2010, 02:20 AM »

I always say that the higher they pay for your services the more likely they are to:
a)listen to you
b)respect your time and skills
c)do what you suggest they do
d)use what you build/create/write for them

To me the price I am paid is a measure of the attention, value and respect my work will get, and that goes for salaried work too.

If they know they dont pay you what you're worth they will abuse it, disrespect your time, and are unlikely to listen to your professional advice. There are of course some exceptions, but you'd better be sure it's an exception before you throw away weeks of your life on something that will never be valued...

342

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Digital Game Stores

« on: December 29, 2009, 09:01 AM »

I have bought games on the top 5 on your list, as well as from trygames which you dont list. I love digital distribution, was on steam from day 1 and on Impulse when it was still called the Drengin Network. But I have noticed some areas where it falls far short from what it could be, and some of these issues are crippling:

* geographical limitations - a total absurdity left over from a 1980s model of publishing and distribution. They apply when you buy, but keep applying over time for reinstalls etc. - so if you move countries in the future you might suddenly be unable to reinstall your game (happened to me on steam, impulse and trygames), and if a platform loses a publisher for a country you might again not be able to install a game again (happened to me on trygames!). D2D is one of the worst for the geographical restrictions, you can forget about buying a game while you travel...

* price - at least in the UK many games can be found cheaper at retail, because the retailers have the option to change their price whenever they want. Steam, Impulse etc. cannot discount without publisher approval. For example right now steam has a well advertised sale, but even with 40 to 60% off most games can be found cheaper elsewhere

* no interoperability - most of these platforms are quite locked down, if you buy a game on steam you have to buy the expansions on steam, and if you want an expansion you must have the game on the same platform. And obviously if you want your friends to know you are playing a game you didnt buy on steam, you're out of luck. Stardock's partner matching system currently only works for Impulse game, although they intend to open it wider later.

* lockup and DRM - steam especially is very annoying with that - you have to be online to launch most games (offline mode is supposed to work but for me many games dont start in offline mode). Steam Downloads take forever but forget about having steam downloading a large game on one of your PCs while you play on another, not allowed. Impulse, GOG and gamersgate are more flexible on that front

343

General Software Discussion / Re: The DonationCoder "Superior Antivirus" Award/Certification

« on: December 22, 2009, 09:12 AM »

What i'm interested in is motivating these companies to stop the deceptive alerting that scares people like the boy who cried wolf, is harmful for developers because of all the false positives, and currently is without incentive to correct.

-mouser (December 20, 2009, 07:16 PM)

Hm... So, you're shooting for kinder gentler heuristics. (or rather...) If the AV companies are forced to (justify) clarify exactly what they're on about and why, they'll start being a bit more careful about flipping (erroneous) messages on the screen (to avoid looking foolish) and much of the other stuff will get ironed out in the resulting ripple effect.

-Stoic Joker (December 20, 2009, 09:22 PM)

It doesnt even need gentler heuristics as much as qualified heuristics - heuristics with a confidence rating perhaps showing simple scales showing a)how active the suspected menace is at the moment, how precise (large) the matched signature is (i.e. could it be a fluke) leading to a rating going from "this is very serious even if you trust the program the file came from be very very paranoid" to "if you know and trust the program in question then you might ignore this warning"

344

General Software Discussion / Re: Drupal is f*cked

« on: December 04, 2009, 03:29 AM »

Drupal is a typical example of a platform that was built for developers. They have at least realised that and are working hard at improving the user and manager experience, but it's still a very coder centric system.

Not helped by the fact that most PHP templating systems are very messy and the choices made in Drupal are no exception

But still, in the PHP sphere, if you want an open source web engine that is powerful and customisable, with some social features, Drupal is the main choice.

345

General Software Discussion / Re: Freeware that offers Livetrace like Adobe Illustrator?

« on: December 03, 2009, 05:40 AM »

I used the tracing option in aviary.net online vector tool Raven, and that is of various quality but for certain images it produced stellar results

346

Living Room / Re: do you know good photo collection hosting site

« on: December 02, 2009, 03:34 PM »

Some I have found with various interesting takes

http://www.expono.com/ Interesting features are the facetagging, geotagging, organization and relationship options, editing of meta information and it claims sophisticated groups and permissions

 http://www.ipernity.com/ they dont describe the features much but just looking at the resulting image blogs it might be quite interesting to organise. It's more like a bloggier flickr, and multi lingual. Possibly copies flickr too much.

http://www.dropshots.com/ Simpler looking but seems quite good at organizing.

ourdoings: Self organising site, recommended by one of his authors: "Just use a few hundred images taken with phones or digital cameras and try out OurDoings. They're organized as soon as you upload them. All you do is click calendar icons then "Edit" to add a story to go with a group of pictures. (They're initially grouped by the day they were taken.) You can know in 20 minutes if it's for you: http://ourdoings.com/" (they even have an "upload via dropbox" option, neat idea)

347

General Software Discussion / Re: How do you launch stuff?

« on: December 02, 2009, 06:45 AM »

I launch stuff most of the times using task commander - it creates a list of apps automatically whenever something is started (whether it is started manually, from a file, from the start menu). I like that I dont have to add new apps (or old apps after a reinstall of the OS) to get them in the menu, and the only management I have to do is hide/remove one-off programs to keep the list short.

Feels like less work to me

It has not been updated for windows7 so if recenx has been, it might provide the same kind of functionality for me in the future

348

Living Room / Re: I'll donate $20 to Donation Coder if DC member PMs me a valid Google Wave invite

« on: November 28, 2009, 01:05 PM »

@iphigenie, I am sure you will receive them and before long you can't give them away. Already seeing less response (for example when I tweet that I have invites)

-rgdot (November 27, 2009, 01:12 PM)

That's when you go through your contact list and see who you might want to have ribbon style discussions with

I think if I tweeted I would be swamped still (considering I have 6 invites left I wont tweet, enough people could benefit still)

349

Living Room / Re: Be careful with your credit cards!

« on: November 27, 2009, 03:28 PM »

I've ran a web agency that had lots of ecommerce websites - our clients had some truly fraudulent orders, some that common sense should have spotted - and a good number of fraud claims turned out to be fake fraud, i.e. people trying to claim they didn't buy the things they did once the credit card bill hit (a spike of those in January). Strangely enough the banks did not seem interested in correcting those, even when presented with the evidence that the signature on the delivery slip at that "not my home" address was the same as that on the crime report (which means either they did it, or perhaps their son imitating their signature, or something along those lines)

I think nowadays the web is safer than the phone, because banks are more likely to take your word for it, refund, chargeback to the merchant or claim it on insurance.

Although I suspect in the case of April they are a bit careful because to them it does not look like fraud, just an "honest" mistake around exchange rates - and a "proper" company on the other side. Although normally in case of mis-billing, all you need to do is show that you tried to get it rectified (in short, wait a while) then write and they do cancel. I had that with a subscription service once, and hsbc made me write a letter explaining what I'd tried, (to cover their ass) then did a chargeback

If they don't, appeal to the card "brand" - mastercard or visa - they might do something as some of these things are part of the "card guarantee" long shot, though

350

Living Room / Re: Be careful with your credit cards!

« on: November 27, 2009, 08:41 AM »

I would push a bit on the HSBC side - that doesn't seem logical on their part, and it might be the person you spoke to didnt quite understand?