Topics

76

Unicode Image Maker / meme outline feature

« on: July 31, 2013, 12:32 PM »

Mouser, for the sake of meme creation, can you add a feature that adds an outline around the font being used?  Basically, standard mame font is the impact font plus an outline.

77

Living Room / Please help superboyac build a server (2013 edition).

« on: July 30, 2013, 04:20 PM »

Modified 8-15-2013
Mini-Me Test-Run Storage Server:

ITEM	BRAND	MODEL	PRICE	STORE
Motherboard	SuperMicro	X10SAE (ATX form factor)	$216	===
CPU	Intel	Xeon E3-1245V3 (BX80646E31245V3)	$289	Newegg
RAM	Kingston	32GB (4x8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Registered DDR3 1600 Server Memory DRx4 Intel (KVR16R11D4K4/32I)	$347	Newegg
NIC	Intel	Networking Card Ethernet Server Adapter I340 Quad Port PCI Express Copper 1Gb (E1G44HTBLK)	$250	Newegg
Case	Cooler Master	Storm Stryker	$169.99	Newegg
Power Supply	===	===	$===	===
OS	FreeNAS	v9.1	$0!	===

Note: HBA Card or SAS expanders or anything like that is not necessary because the motherboard can already support 8 SATA3 drives, and I don't plan on having more than that in this tower.
**

HARD DRIVE	BRAND	MODEL	CAPACITY	RPM	CACHE	INTERFACE	QUANTITY
#1-4	HGST	Deskstar	4TB	7200	64MB	SATA 3	x4

TOTAL:

16TB

x4

Storage Server:

ITEM	BRAND	MODEL	PRICE	STORE
Motherboard	SuperMicro	===	$===	===
CPU	===	===	$===	===
RAM	===	===	$===	===
Graphics Card	===	===	$===	===
Case	Cooler Master	Storm Stryker	$169.99	Newegg
Power Supply	===	===	$===	===
OS	FreeNAS	v9.1	$0!	===
HBA card	IBM	m1015	$110	ServerSupply
SAS-to-SATA cable (SFF-8087)	(N/A)	1m, forward breakout cable	$10	Monoprice

*
**

HARD DRIVE	BRAND	MODEL	CAPACITY	RPM	CACHE	INTERFACE	QUANTITY
#1-4	Western Digital	Black Caviar	2TB	7200	32MB	SATA 3	x4
#5-6	HGST	Deskstar	2TB	7200	64MB	SATA 3	x2
#7-8	HGST	Deskstar	3TB	7200	64MB	SATA 3	x2
#9-12	HGST	Deskstar	4TB	7200	64MB	SATA 3	x4
#13	HGST	Deskstar	2TB	7200	32MB	SATA 2	x1

TOTAL:

36TB

x13

OK, folks, I know I've done this before and I'm doing it again.  But this time I think I'm REALLY going to do it.  I'm going to build my massive (and I do mean that literally, see below) server.  I've collected about a year or two of notes, and while I have not figured everything out yet, a little more back and forth here and I'll be ready to go.

First, here are the related threads so far:

https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=20801.0
https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=32359.0

And my first request that built my rock-solid desktop:
https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=16186.0

Eventually, I'll add a table of the parts and everything here.  The primary goal is to hold a lot of drives, over 20 of them.  The rest of the decisions will basically be built around that one.  I didn't want to go through the standard server rack route because the noise that results in cramming all those drives into a tight space.  The other thing I want to accomplish is that I want this to be the only computer in the house (other than laptops and tablets), so it will be in one room, and the rest of the house will be wired with ethernet/etc.  I haven't figured all that out yet, but that's the goal.  In the rooms, I just want monitors and keyboards/mice, but the computing is being done on this machine.

OK, here's what I have so far:
I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with the MASSIVE Caselabs TX10-V case ($800).  I like how people there say it will be the "last case they ever buy".  I like that.  I love the room it offers.

I can't decide on a motherboard yet.  I want a physically large motherboard with lots of PCI slots. But I also want as many USB 3.0 slots as possible, and esata if possible.  I know I have to figure out which of those SAS expander or whatever cards to get because of all the drives (I have lots of notes, just have to sort through them).  But I mention the USB 3.0 and esata because I like those and they seem to be rare.  Also, I probably don't have to worry about this, but recently I experienced problems transferring 4TB drives between computers because one of them required a "intel rapid storage technology" (I'm guessing it was before the large drives were common) and because I didn't have it installed, it sort of corrupted the drive, and I had to do a chkdsk and recover all that stuff.  I don't want to deal with that.  I don't want anything to happen to the drive when I plug it in to stuff.  I've experienced similar issues with a third-party USB 3.0 PCI controller I just got.  I don't like it, it worries me.
Please discuss!  Talking through all these things really helps me.

78

General Software Discussion / Can someone make available to me the DC software installers? (read inside)

« on: July 18, 2013, 09:26 AM »

My work blocks dc software because they are malicious.  can someone provide the installers somehow on some offsite location (like MEga or something)?  I just got a new computer and I need:
screenshot captor
CHS
Find and run robot
dcupdater
unicode image maker SC
launchbar commander


Thanks!  much appreciated.

79

Living Room / Why the Surface hasn't sold well. (idiots)

« on: July 17, 2013, 03:51 PM »

http://www.businessi...snt-sold-well-2013-7
So this article is going to reveal the difficult mystery of why the surface has not sold well.

He told the resellers to bring their customers to a Microsoft Retail store and show them the Surface devices there: "You should feel free to use our store as an extension to your office," he said. "Bring your customers there."

Bob Venero, CEO Future Tech

Future Tech

Bob Venero, CEO Future Tech
Bob Venero, CEO of Holbrook, N.Y. reseller Future Tech, was incredulous.

"Really? Hey guys, let's bring our customers in and tell them, 'Look at all of this cool stuff. By the way, you can't buy any of it from us.' What? It's insanity," Venero told Business Insider.

Keeping the Surface away from the channel is also "an emotional issue" for resellers because the Surface is supposed to represent the best Windows 8 PC possible, he said. Why wouldn't Microsoft want its partners to be able to sell the best, he wonders.

Microsoft's reorganization last week doesn't look like it will solve the problem anytime soon.

"I"m trying to figure out the rationale, to understand why they put the Surface under a retail scenario. Xbox is retail. Where clearly the direction we're told from Microsoft is that Surface is for corporate [users] and it wants to drive it into the enterprise."

Read more: http://www.businessi...2013-7#ixzz2ZL0Bo02b

First, it's a dumb article.  Second, it's an idiotic article.

Why beat around the bush?  What is the big mystery?  Let me list all the DUH points:
--Why mess around with the whole start button nonsense?
--it's too locked down, not "messing around with" friendly.

Microsoft is not stupid, but they are pretending to be to hide their true agenda.  EVERYONE wants the start button back, and they are holding off on it as long as possible.  Secondly, the entire windows community is used to the hacker friendly operating system of the past 20 years.  This is the opposite.  Why would windows user desire an apple-like OS?  Doesn't microsoft realize there has been always was a raging rivalry between the two? Holy cow man.

And these are windows users!!  Not apple users who want the glitz and polish!  You are expecting nerdy, hacker, gadget loving, registry messing, service disabling, freeware loving communists, Windows IT users to gladly go to a windows 8 OS and take away all the things they love about computers?  Geez.

And I won't even get into the whole retail store, business/marketing argument that the article is addressing.

Idiots.

80

Living Room / I'm sooo exhausted with the overhyping of everything.

« on: July 12, 2013, 09:57 PM »

I consciously try to avoid to popular media to great degrees, and I'm STILL exhausted by hearing about all the nonsense, overhyped things going on in recent years.  Maybe it's always been this way, I don't know.
Lebron
the 41 megapixels of the lumia
zimmerman
pac rim
anything smartphone related
the economy
the president

tgi-flippin-F

81

Living Room / KPMG: Say it ain't so.

« on: July 01, 2013, 02:53 PM »

http://www.washingto...f0c195a79_story.html

Ex-KPMG partner pleads guilty in insider trading case; authorities say he was plied with cash

By Associated Press, Updated: Monday, July 1, 12:26 PM

LOS ANGELES — A former partner at the giant accounting firm KPMG LLC pleaded guilty Monday to a securities fraud charge that authorities said involved providing insider information to a friend who plied him with cash, a Rolex watch and other luxury items.

Another big one.  This doesn't help the suspicions of those (like me) who find it hard to believe that these financial companies that handle massive transactions play completely by the rules.  Hopefully, this is an isolated incident.

82

Living Room / How to choose email address without using your name?

« on: June 29, 2013, 05:17 PM »

I was wondering what you guys would do if you had to choose an email address without using your name?  But you also want it to be business friendly, adult friendly, resume friendly, etc.  I've been using my superboy thing since a teenager, and i want a new one.  I don't want to use my name, so I was just wondering how you guys think through it. 

83

Living Room / Help me choose my next smartphone

« on: June 25, 2013, 09:43 AM »

Until the end of the month ATT is offering an exchange of contract smartphones while waiving the "activation fee".  I have a windows phone 8 (lumia 920) currently.  It's ok, does the job.  But it sucks at a lot of things.  it is the most unconfigurable phone I've ever seen.  The battery life is bad, most of the time it will drain in less than 6 hours whether I'm using it or not.  The wireless charging pad is really cool, but I'd prefer having a phone that doesn't make me worry about it.  if I use the gps map app to navigate an hour trip, often that will drain the battery by over 50%.  So that's my complaint, plus I can't really play with the phone.

The good thing is that it syncs with my office Outlook flawelssly.  I've read Android and the Blackberry Z10 have issues (please confirm, I'd like to know more).  I've used Android before but I can't remember how the Outlook syncing was.  I do remember it being really hard to do.

So here's the plan: tomorrow the htc one "google edition" comes out.  I'm going to get that so i can have a "play" phone.  (this is not part of the exchange).  The google edition phone will allow me to get my geek on and I can try out crazy apps, try different ROMs, etc.  But I need a business phone also just in case (I don't actually need two).  It's just the Outlook thing bothering me.

my priority for the exchange:
1) Blackberry Z10 (good message hub, fast, good size for biz)
2) Galaxy S4 (just to compare to HTC One)
3) Galaxy Note 2 (great overall phone, but big)

Any thoughts/experiences?  Please share!

84

Living Room / clever and easy music distribution ideas

« on: June 20, 2013, 12:18 PM »

On my new website, where I'll be posting my music, I want to make the actual songs available for free (for now) and I want to leverage the latest and greatest technologies we have available.  If anyone has suggestions, please throw them out!

the goal:
I want the music to get on the devices and pc's of users even if they can barely use a computer.

My ideas so far:
I have the mp3 file available as button download for desktop users).  For itunes (and other music management software), I'm hoping when they click on the button to download (links directly to the mp3 file), itunes will immediately pop up and add it to the library (is this correct?).
I also want a QR code with a direct link to the file so people can do the same with their mobile devices, whether it's an iphone, android, or whatever.. Once again, if the QR links to the direct file, it should always work, right?


edit, here's the website, for reference:
http://tbgentertainment.com/

85

Living Room / WTF? A serious news story about 50-foot tall humans on a planet??

« on: June 13, 2013, 11:54 AM »

Is there a joke I'm not getting here?
http://guardianlv.co...h-with-super-humans/

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has discovered over 50 new alien planets (Sept 12), which includes 16 so-called “super-Earths” and a Super Earth with Super Humans. The newly found alien planets consist 16 Super Earths with one called HD85512 which is apparently dominated by more than a dozen 50 feet tall Super Humans.

“This is the lowest-mass confirmed planet discovered by the radial velocity method that potentially lies in the habitable zone of its star, and the second low-mass planet discovered by HARPS inside the habitable zone,” said exoplanet habitability expert Wendy Waldman of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany and Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Boston.  “It’s the only one we’ve seen with outsized human beings.”

86

Living Room / More legislation regarding privacy.

« on: June 06, 2013, 12:58 PM »

Administration, lawmakers defend NSA program to collect phone records

It's funny how I'm pretty sure the "administration, lawmakers" that are making these decisions are personally probably uber-paranoid about privacy and wouldn't let a shred of their own personal privacy be affected.

87

Living Room / The real difference between a desktop pc and every other gadget you have.

« on: June 03, 2013, 03:13 PM »

I've been trying to identify what the fundamental difference is between a desktop pc and everything else, and it is this:
You can build the desktop pc from top to bottom yourself.

That's pretty much it.  Everything else, the phones, the gaming consoles, the tablets, laptops...you can't.  What's interesting is that all the pieces for the other devices can totally be made available like the desktop pc parts, but it appears that the only thing holding it back is basically politics.  You can build your own cellphone if you could get the antenna at a store or something, but you can't.  I don't quite understand why the DIY laptop didn't really take off.  Tablets should also be doable.  i don't buy the "it's too small and cramped" argument for why it isn't accessible.  If the demand was there, someone would make a standard laptop form factor case to hold all the other standard laptop parts.

ANyway, just some mental excretions...

88

General Software Discussion / Custom webmail recommendations (to switch from gmail)

« on: May 31, 2013, 10:35 AM »

I'd like to know what my options would be if I were to ween myself off of gmail and go to my own custom webmail service.  Does anyone have some recommendations?  I have server space and everything, so what application would be the best?  The default cpanel webmail options are ok, but nothing special.  I figure there are some open source gmail alternatives out there or something.

I'd love to eventually get off gmail and control my own destiny, so to speak.  I like gmail's simple search and the quality of results you get.  Other than that, there isn't much I see in gmail that is particularly important to me, other than some of their nice interface elements.  I'm sure with html5 and everything, the alternatives can look good also.

89

General Software Discussion / Recommendation for mosaic/tiled live screensaver that reads folders of pictures?

« on: May 16, 2013, 10:00 PM »

I want a screensaver or a software that can display a bunch of pictures from a group of folders.  But I want it to display the pictures like dozens at a time, not just one or two at a time.  Like a mosaic or tiled interface.  I'd like some snazzy effects, and the pictures to change often randomly, and the tiles don't have to be consistent sizes, they can be all over the place.

Anyone know of such a software?

90

Living Room / Recommend? USB 3.0 + eSATA hub for desktop tower

« on: April 27, 2013, 08:56 PM »

OK, here's what I need:
Some kind of hub to attach mount to my desktop so I can have USB 3.0 and eSATA connections.  Right now, I have neither, although the tower has two unused usb 3.0 slots, but the motherboard has no place for it (doesn't support it).  I have two PCI-E slots available.  I've looked around, I've found a couple of PCI-E things that have two of each connection on it.  I don't know why this seems to be the limit (4 total) but it is everywhere I look.

I also have a bunch of unused 5.25" bays, so I'd like to mount a hub in one of them that has few of each connector on it.  I'm not having much luck finding it, but as far as that goes, how would it connect to the motherboard?  I'm guessing the 5.25 hub would connect through a normal usb 3.0 or sata cable to some pci-e device, but I'm not sure.

Any recommendations?

Here's an interesting one...I like how the bay plugs into the motherboard directly with some funky pci-e cable!
http://www.aliexpres...ll-in/722192611.html

91

General Software Discussion / Finally! A private, non-cloud file-sharing service

« on: April 23, 2013, 04:15 PM »

http://arstechnica.c...x-no-cloud-required/


This is the one I've been waiting for!  See this post:
https://www.donation....msg296807#msg296807

I've always been interested in a way to access your files from everywhere, like dropbox, but without the cloud and without the size limitations.  So this is a very interesting development.  The main issue with private file access like this is that most residential upload speeds are so slow that downloading anything other than simple word documents would be a pain.  And you don't have all the seeders of a torrent to share the bandwidth and make it faster, so that seems to be the main obstacle for me.  That's where the benefit of a cloud comes in.  But with the cloud, there's the privacy issue and normally the size limitations.

92

Adventures of Baby Cody / Baby Cody is in Los Angeles

« on: March 03, 2013, 07:57 PM »

Baby Cody has arrived here in the City of Angels.  He'll never be the same.

93

General Software Discussion / Why did WinRAR Unplugged (portable Winrar version) get discontinued?

« on: January 24, 2013, 07:06 PM »

Anyone have any information about why the portable version of winrar got discontinued?

94

Living Room / Ubuntu Linux smarthphone coming this year?

« on: January 02, 2013, 05:03 PM »

http://www.crn.com/n...coming-this-year.htm

Could this be as exciting as it sounds?  Please!

95

Living Room / Best router and configuration for VPN?

« on: December 16, 2012, 10:35 PM »

For the first time, I am starting to consider using a VPN.  What is the best router/modem/configuration for using a VPN.  I know Renegade has mentioned Privacy.io (and others).  I'm trying it and it's very easy to use, which is nice...I find VPN an intimidating thing.  My issue now is trying to make sure I get the fastest speeds possible.  I don't mind a bandwidth speed hit, but not a lot.  Currently with the Open VPN options, my speed goes from about 1 MBps to less than 200 KBps using the Open VPN option.  That sucks.  I'm pretty sure it's a configuration or hardware thing, but I have no idea how to analyze it, so I need help.

I'm willing to get a new router, doesn't have to be cheap.  I'm willing to install things like DD-WRT if it helps also.  I just want to have some discussions about it with the folks here, thanks.

96

Living Room / Why does Google keep changing the bar menu order/visibility??

« on: December 16, 2012, 08:03 PM »

Before everyone starts explaining HOW to fix this (which I'm interested in also), the main question is WHY google is doing this.  Google seemingly changes what appears in the black bar every few days.  It's very annoying.  The main ones I use are web, news, shopping...probably in that order.  Now, the news keeps going away.  Why?  doesn't make sense.  Then I click on the "more" drop down, and there's only like 4 things there, and I have several inches of screen below it.  Instead of listing a whole bunch in there, they make me clikc "even more".  I mean, this is not only intentional, but a little suspicious.  If someone says this is for simplicity or something, i won't buy it.

I know the basic fix: log in with your account and customize it.  But I don't want to log in, because I don't like googling while logged in.  All the companies are ramping up their BS tactics.  2013 is going to be a very annoying year politically.  Guns & internet will be the issues all year long.  And I don't think the companies are going to lose, unfortunately.

97

General Software Discussion / Say what?! FCC opening up spectrum?

« on: December 12, 2012, 08:51 PM »

http://arstechnica.c...riers-give-wary-eye/

FCC may open some spectrum for "small cell" usage.  It's not clear what that means, but anything in this direction is quite exciting.  Of course, the mobile carriers are going to bitch about it.  Hopefully, this is a step in the nice direction of personal independence and the human progress and ingenuity.  Sorry to be over-dramatic, but that's basically what it means.

98

General Software Discussion / Are the new Firefox versions coming with adware built in?

« on: December 12, 2012, 08:43 PM »

I noticed recently that I've been getting these "coupondropdown" ads every once in a while, like so:


Before I try to blast with all the tools, I was wondering if this was built into the new firefox versions?  Because I normally never get any ads or anything, and the only changes lately have been the firefox updates.  I see them in wikipedia occasionally as well.

99

General Software Discussion / Zoot XT: Anyone have any good experience with this?

« on: December 07, 2012, 04:46 PM »

http://www.zootsoftware.com/index.html

Can anyone describe what you like about this software?  How do you use it?  What does it do well, specifically?

I've tried it many times over the years, but it's one of those softwares where you only "get" it when you use it for a long time, and your information collects and you start doing interesting things with the organization, etc.  So trialling it doesn't give you a proper taste of what it really does.

100

Living Room / clever google: httpS <--ok ad blockers, you have your hands full now

« on: December 01, 2012, 11:49 PM »

So if you guys have noticed, google is sticking the https on all their stuff lately.  First, it started with their google searches, they are now default https whether you are logged in or not.  That's why you may have noticed the yellow ads at the top of your searches now, where your ad blocker would have blocked it before.  Also, for the first time in however many years, I am now seeing ads on youtube.  I have never seen Ad Muncher miss an add previously on youtube.  And i look up, and lo and behold, the https is there.

So google is now implementing this clever little trick.  So Ad Muncher, I hope you soon figure out how to block https.