Messages

251

General Software Discussion / Re: Maybe Vista doesn't suck?

« on: December 03, 2007, 12:20 PM »

Isn't the porn industry riddled with piracy?  All that stuff has to be coming from someplace, and I can't believe it's all public domain.

Yet it still appears to be a profitable industry, otherwise all the online porn shops would've gone out of business years ago.  So maybe the sheer volume of material allows a monumental amount of theft and still delivers profits?  Or are porn counter-piracy measures sufficient to keep things under control?

Didn't we have a user here who works in the adult industry?  Maybe we can ask him.

252

Site/Forum Features / Re: Subscribe to certain posters

« on: December 03, 2007, 11:38 AM »

Ralf Maximus: http://www.ponyfish..../feeds/25450YpadjpUO

Wooo!  My own feed.  Now I can see all the crap I've been posting in one place!

253

Living Room / Re: Recommended Gifts for the Tech Savvy?

« on: December 03, 2007, 10:49 AM »

Give this nifty No Raptors t-shirt from the xkcd.com store ($17 USD).  Lots of other nerdly goodness there, some of it guaranteed to leave normal humans delightfully baffled.

254

Site/Forum Features / Re: Subscribe to certain posters

« on: December 03, 2007, 10:38 AM »

I'm still happy with app103's live webcam feed.

Though I'm worried that cat's gonna run out of toilet paper soon...

255

General Review Discussion / Re: Best spreadsheet

« on: December 03, 2007, 10:36 AM »

Yeah, but Excel pivots are a pain in the butt to use... the demo makes it look absurdly easy in Quantrix. 

In fact I can easily imagine myself accidently creating a million-cell Quantrix spreadsheet.

256

General Software Discussion / Re: Shut Up About Vista, Already

« on: December 03, 2007, 10:25 AM »

I'd be shocked if VSC wasn't present and running in Vista, since the backup function relies on it, right?

257

Living Room / Re: Any old Amiga users among us?

« on: December 03, 2007, 09:24 AM »

I've never found another keyboard that's nearly as good.

-cranioscopical (December 03, 2007, 09:15 AM)

They still make 'em:
http://www.pckeyboar....com/customizer.html

Not exactly the Omnikey, but tough-as-nails, either "quiet" or IBM PC buckling-spring clunky varieties, and they're not terribly expensive.

258

General Software Discussion / Re: Maybe Vista doesn't suck?

« on: December 03, 2007, 09:01 AM »

Also, remember, those were the days before the internet, and one person could share a song with millions of people, not just a few friends with a cassette mix tape.

-zridling (December 03, 2007, 06:55 AM)

That is an excellent point, sir.  Perhaps it's the internet they fear most.

259

Living Room / Re: Any old Amiga users among us?

« on: December 03, 2007, 08:26 AM »

Whelp, in 1984 an Amiga 1000 (first gen) cost $1295.  That got you 256K of RAM, and a floppy drive.  With a monitor, figure $1700.  For reference, a Commodore 64 sold for $299 at that time without discounts.

As the IBM PC was selling for $5000, that was a big deal.  PC clones (like the Compaq and Kaypro) were in the $2000-$3000 range. 

One thing that sold a lot of Amigas for us was the promise of the "IBM compatibility box" (sorry, forget the product name) that would allow Amiga to emulate an IBM PC for a coupla hundred bucks more.  People bought Amigas like crazy, expecting to be able to do everything an Amiga could + run all the IBM software at some point in the future.  Note that the IBM box was delayed for a loooong time, but that didn't stop people from placing advance orders for it.  It was crazy.

When it finally did come out, it was a bit of a disappointment.  The "compatibility box" consisted of a separate module (and power supply?) that actually had an Intel processor and RAM on it.  It connected to the Amiga's motherboard via a ribbon cable and allowed the user to dual-boot into the Amiga or MS-DOS.  But not both at the same time.  Which was kind of retarded.

Nobody had hard-drives or CD-ROMs; those were freakishly expensive.  I think I special ordered a 3rd party Amiga hard-drive once and it was over $5000.

We started accepting orders for the Amiga 1000 a full year before we ever saw one.  On the strength of the brochure alone we took in many dozens of advance orders.  When shipments first arrived, the machines were beautiful... but very fragile.  One had the impression Commodore was cranking them out the door 24/7 without regard for build quality.  Our technician spent much of his time the first months after deliveries started resoldering broken traces on the Amiga motherboard.

Near riots would break out when we'd get our shipments, as customers learned our schedule and would stake out the store.  We'd get maybe six or twelve machines at a time (despite our having ordered hundreds from Commodore; they were soooo backordered) and I was the lucky one who'd break out The List and call the next lucky customers at the top.  It was almost a lottery atmosphere, with people jumping in the air and yelling if they happened to be in the store when I was reading off The List.

And I took a *lot* of abuse from folks who'd paid their money and were still waiting.  And honestly, I didn't blame them.  The only thing that kept me alive was that they could see the small shipments from Commodore themselves.  Not our fault.  But I could easily imagine a convoy of pissed off customers driving to King of Prussia, Pennsylvania to torch Commodore headquarters.

Eventually the frenzy died down and shipments came in regularly, and build quality came up.  We stopped crossing our fingers whenever we'd hand somebody a new Amiga box.

Then the cycle repeated itself when the 256K memory expansion modules were announced...

260

Living Room / Re: Everything you always wanted to know about your IP address (via yoho's blog)

« on: December 03, 2007, 08:05 AM »

(and for a good laugh, read the disclaimer)

-zridling (December 03, 2007, 08:00 AM)

*chuckle*  Think he's gotten a few emails?

261

Living Room / Re: Recommended Gifts for the Tech Savvy?

« on: December 03, 2007, 08:00 AM »

RFID experimentation kit from ThinkGeek. 

1001 uses!  Chip the dog and train your computer to automatically tell it to stay off the sofa.  Chip yourself and login to your PC without touching the keyboard, or scatter sensors all over the house and turn your PC into Big Brother.  Using the scanner it comes with, look for and identify embedded RFID chips in everyday products, and become afraid, very afraid.

About $99 USD.

262

General Review Discussion / Re: Best spreadsheet

« on: December 03, 2007, 07:53 AM »

Another strong candidate for top spreadsheet is Quantrix:
http://www.quantrix.com/

Take the tour - if you find it gets a bit tedious after a few mins you can hop through the modules and see how it works.

-Plasma Man (November 30, 2007, 09:08 AM)

Wow, Quantix looks fantastic.  It's pretty revolutionary; I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft bought them and incorporated bits of their stuff into Excel.

One of the few times I've watched an online demo and wished I has a use for what I was watching.  Very nice!

263

Living Room / Re: Any old Amiga users among us?

« on: December 03, 2007, 07:18 AM »

I sold Amigas.  Does that count?

264

Living Room / Steven Jobs: iRobot

« on: December 02, 2007, 10:33 PM »

We learn from The Disney Blog news of Steve Jobs' participation in a Walt Disney World exhibit:
http://www.thedisney...steve-jobs-to-a.html

EPCOT is currently revamping their Spaceship Earth ride/exhibit -- the 180-foot-tall golfball thingie at the front of the park -- and expects to reopen early in 2008.  Spaceship Earth is the world's largest buckyball, and contains an elaborate historical show that spans "the entire history of mankind".  But since it's not been updated in awhile, time seems to have stopped in 1997 or so.

Many of EPCOT's rides have corporate sponsors, and Spaceship Earth's old sponsor -- AT&T -- just didn't give a damn.  The new sponsor, SIEMANS has spared no expense to overhaul every aspect of the ride, even re-theming it to include a stronger "technology" presence.  (Interesting aside: one sponsor considered but not selected was Microsoft, who wanted to build a high-speed thrill ride called "Time Chasers".  Unfortunately nobody told them it's impossible to gut a 25-year-old, 200-foot tall iconic symbol with any kind of efficiency, and when Microsoft saw the price tag they probably bolted.)

So long story short, we have SIEMANS running the place.  Which has nothing to do with Apple or Steve Jobs.  Huh?

Well, Steve's also head of Pixar.  Which was bought by Disney.

And since the ride overhaul involves a strong technology section, one diorama will depict a young Steve building the first Apple.  Presumably, as a Disney robot -- one of their audioanimatronics.  I just hope and pray the ride doesn't get stuck when I'm next to RoboJobs shouting "Insanely Great!" over and over again.

Conspicuously absent will be Steve Wozniak, Jobs' co-inventor of the Apple.  One must only assume that Woz holds no Disney stock.

Here's one scene I hope they don't do:


fig 1: In The Beginning

(Images snarfed from Guardian Unlimited and this lovely picture blog.)

265

DC Website Help and Extras / Re: Donation Coder Seals

« on: December 02, 2007, 09:43 PM »

Okay, I'm sold.  I want a badger badge.  Now.

266

Living Room / Re: Recommended Gifts for the Tech Savvy?

« on: December 02, 2007, 09:18 PM »

Xmods Radio-Controlled cars.  They're detailed, realistic, and best of all -- customizable.  Body, suspension, wheels, drive system.  And inexpensive; Barricade (pictured) is $49 USD.

From Radio Shack, of all places.

267

General Software Discussion / Re: Maybe Vista doesn't suck?

« on: December 02, 2007, 05:07 PM »

Right you are.  I looked it up:
http://en.wikipedia....assette_deck#History

Apparently I'm about 5 years off, in that "regular folk" could afford a hi-fi stereo cassette deck by the mid 1970's.  Audiophiles had them a few years earlier.

I remember having a Radio Shack "Archer" mono recorder the size of a suitcase in 1969, and I used it to record everything.  Had a speaker maybe 2" across.  But it wasn't what you'd call "high fidelity" and I doubt anyone was worried about using it for piracy.

By the late 70's near-audiophile quality cassette decks were available for a coupla hundred bucks, which to my mind was the point of panic for the recording industry.  When any schmuck with $300 can knock out studio-quality recordings... that had to ring alarm bells.

268

Living Room / Re: When you make your 100'th Post

« on: December 02, 2007, 03:33 PM »

Holy smokes, I didn't know we had that!  A dating service?

Is there anything DonationCoder can't do??

269

Living Room / Top 10 Reasons Ralf is Still Awake after 31 Hours

« on: December 02, 2007, 03:27 PM »

10. About 50 liters of coffee.

9. Round yellow hot thing in the sky robs the earth of all darkness.

8. Screaming voices in his head got a nap around 3:30 AM and are now refreshed.

7. Still a whole season of Futurama to go.

6. Afraid to go to sleep because the crab-creatures will come out from beneath the bed.

5. Unshaven homeless look is teh new hotness.

4. Because when you sleep, that's when the pod people steal your conciousness.

3. Experimenting with new 40-hour workday.

2. Sleeping skills pushed out of brain by debit/credit accounting code.

1. Stupid customer forgot to mention an emergency must-have requirement, and Ralf learned of it yesterday afternoon.

270

General Software Discussion / Re: Maybe Vista doesn't suck?

« on: December 02, 2007, 03:16 PM »

Whelp... 1980 was 27 years ago.  Somebody who just turned 60 now would've been 33 years old.  A 70-year-old, 43.  High quality cassette tape recorders were just starting to become affordable right about then.

If you're thinking of VHS/Betamax, that would've been around 1975 or so.

Oh christ!  Are you using that fancy european metric time?

271

Living Room / Re: Name the screensaver.

« on: December 02, 2007, 03:11 PM »

While I love the electric sheep, a couple of things are good to know before you dive headlong into electric sheep land:

- I used it for awhile and it hammered my workstation in terms of CPU utilization.

- Because it's constantly communicating with the electric sheep network, it also used a lot of bandwidth.  Not sure how much, but it was definitely hitting the 'net hard, such that it was noticeable on other workstations in my network.

- It uses something like BitTorrent to transfer sheep around, so if you're nervous about security vulnerabilities (or are ignorant of what ports P2P uses, and how many) you might want to be careful.

- Because it uses P2P all the time while your screensaver is active, you might incur the wrath of your ISP (*cough* Comcast *cough*) and attract unwanted attention.  Using P2P once in awhile is safe, but running it 24/7 might be risky.

Like I said, I think it's a brilliant program and the images are quite beautiful.  But be aware of what you're really installing before just setting and forgetting.  For instance, installing it on every PC in a workgroup might suck up all available bandwidth.

UPDATE: Forgot to mention... if you want to see the animations without actually installing the screensaver, you can download gigabytes of sheep movies from the electricsheep.org website.  They'll work in any media player that can handle .mpeg files.

272

General Software Discussion / Re: Maybe Vista doesn't suck?

« on: December 02, 2007, 01:50 PM »

The funny thing is those who were home taping in those years are the ones directing the companies pushing DRM down everyone's throat.

Or maybe they were the ones who refused to do it, got laughed off by the cool kids, and now they're taking their revenge

-Lashiec (December 02, 2007, 12:51 PM)

Interesting idea, but most of the RIAA top dogs are wrinkly white dudes in their 60's and 70's.  That would put them in their 30's or 40's during the "recoding on tape is the new Apocalypse" era.  Not saying they WEREN'T guilty of that which they accuse the world, but they weren't kids.

Which, if they were engaging in such heinous activities, makes their hypocrisy even worse.  Kids can use the defense that they don't know any better.

273

General Software Discussion / Re: RAM Use Pie Chart?

« on: December 02, 2007, 01:32 PM »

Thanks, Plasma Man & Lashiec.

The TuneUp pie-chart looks interesting, but it appears to show only one process slice at a time.  I was hoping to pin down a particular process' memory hogging behavior by looking at the chart and the offender leaping out at me.

Oh well... I guess I'll go back to PE and keep doing what I've been doing: sort the "Working Set" column and try to catch the transgressor that way.

The pie chart would've just made me hungry anyway.

274

General Software Discussion / RAM Use Pie Chart?

« on: December 01, 2007, 10:28 PM »

Anyone know of a real-time resource monitor thingie (like Sysinternals Process Explorer) that displays the amount of RAM used by each process, but with a summary pie-chart?  I envision each process having a slice of the pie, the biggest slices going to the biggest resource hogs.

Anyone?  Anyone?

Beuller?

275

Living Room / Re: Signs You're a Crappy Programmer (and don't know it)

« on: December 01, 2007, 10:20 PM »

You know, you're right. 

Microsoft Bob sucked harder than anything else I've ever seen.  Bad idea, poorly executed, for a market that didn't exist.

Besides, "Microsoft Bob" is funnier.  Thanks; I changed it.