Recent Posts

1001

Living Room / Re: Obscene # of Tabs in FF

« Last post by JavaJones on December 21, 2010, 07:18 PM »

I routinely have more than 30 open... in each of 2-4 different browsers (Chrome, FF, Opera, IE). So a total of at least ~100 quite often. I find separating my browsing "subjects" by actually using different browsers works pretty well. Each one remembers where it left off when I reboot, too.

Speaking of tab organization, has anyone played with the new tab stacking in Opera 11 yet? I haven't had much fall for it so far...

- Oshyan

1002

General Software Discussion / Re: Word Lens goes viral

« Last post by JavaJones on December 21, 2010, 06:46 PM »

Actually, it looks like the military sees cell phone technology as sufficiently advanced - presumably more so than anything they already have - that they're thinking of giving every soldier a smart phone:
http://communication...es-every-soldier.htm

So perhaps our ideas of the universally advanced nature of military tech are a bit overblown. These days the consumer sector is often where seriously mind blowing futuristic stuff is happening. Hooray for us!

- Oshyan

1003

General Software Discussion / Re: Powerpoint sucks - what to use instead?

« Last post by JavaJones on December 21, 2010, 06:31 PM »

Hey, thanks for reminding me about this project. Gotta put it in my project manager for future reference. I still think this could be useful, although with the increasing prevalence of web-based everything maybe it should be a web service...

- Oshyan

1004

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

« Last post by JavaJones on December 21, 2010, 06:29 PM »

Excellent! Glad to hear it. And of course, if you do go over 2GB, you can pay (a reasonablea mount), or I think there are some other similar options out there with e.g. 10GB free.

- Oshyan

1005

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

« Last post by JavaJones on December 18, 2010, 09:29 PM »

The speed issue is why having everything constantly synced across, like DropBox or SugarSync, is probably the best approach. FTP, VPN with drive mapping, or any other tech is going to be way too manual, slow, and annoying IMHO. But then I'm still not sure I really understand the original requirements...

DropBox, SugarSync, and others can appear as regular drives on your system, accessible by all apps using the normal file system. While these systems also of course cannot make the transfers go *faster*, the simple fact that syncing is done automatically and in the background means it's likely that when you need a file in both places, it will already be there, instead of having to wait on a file transfer done manually.

- Oshyan

1006

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 :: Entry Ideas & Requests

« Last post by JavaJones on December 18, 2010, 05:37 PM »

I would love to have an app like that too, but a Windows solution would be needed for me.

- Oshyan

1007

General Software Discussion / Re: Word Lens goes viral

« Last post by JavaJones on December 17, 2010, 06:05 AM »

Thank god "the future" finally arrived!

- Oshyan

1008

Living Room / Re: WikiLeaks: Important petition for all Australians and supporters of free speech

« Last post by JavaJones on December 16, 2010, 04:05 PM »

Er, well yes, I agree. So... what are we arguing about again?

- Oshyan

1009

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

« Last post by JavaJones on December 16, 2010, 03:41 PM »

I don't really know of any good tutorial resources out there, but then I've usually been the kind of person who just starts using an app and muddles my way through. Consequently I've become pretty good at that, though I think it does bias me away from manuals and tutorials perhaps too much at times. But anyway I think such a resource *should* exist already, almost has to. I just don't know where. Hopefully someone else does.

By the way I totally feel your pain about longer-than-expected dev time. Not only is that a classic thing with software dev in general, but I have personal experience with it, not as a dev, but as a principle in another software company that has had its share of release deadline creep.

- Oshyan

1010

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

« Last post by JavaJones on December 16, 2010, 03:06 PM »

Rob, how much of what you're considering documenting is specific to Sagelight? E.g. histogram. Is that not a concept that is fairly widely used, and hence probably already explained somewhere? Or are there unique aspects that need explaining here? If a general "image processing tutorial set" does not already exist, certainly one should be created! But I don't know if I'd nominate you to do it, I'd rather see Sagelight progress faster. Hopefully such a thing exists already and can just be pointed to as an additional/foundational resource.

- Oshyan

1011

Living Room / Re: WikiLeaks: Important petition for all Australians and supporters of free speech

« Last post by JavaJones on December 16, 2010, 03:01 PM »

The similarities are in how the government is responding. I'm more trying to just understand what your perspective is though. It *seemed* like you were against people breaking their national security agreements to reveal confidential information. Is that correct? If so does that hold true in the case of Ellsberg? I don't think we'll ever totally agree here, I just want to understand what your actual position is, and it seems rather murky at present to me. Maybe just a summary of your stance.

-JavaJones (December 16, 2010, 02:34 PM)

If you break the law, then you should be prosecuted.  The means do not justify the ends.  In the case of revelation of legal misconduct, and the inability to report such wrongdoing through the channels that are set up for such things, there can be some leeway.  But we are a country of laws, and they are created for a reason.  In the case that laws are not broken, such as in Assange's case, it becomes more of a moral issue, than a legal one.  Whomever was responsible for the leak is the only one that can be held accountable for breaking their relevant oaths.  But Assange made no such oaths, and thus has done nothing of legal consequence.

-wraith808 (December 16, 2010, 02:57 PM)

You mean the *ends* don't justify the means? How many laws do you know of that you perceive to be unnecessary, unfair, or downright morally wrong? I can think of quite a few. Just because something is a law doesn't mean it's "right". Does it need to be followed? Yes, if you don't want to be arrested and prosecuted. This is tricky stuff though, because legality doesn't equate to morality or "rightness"; legality should not be a universal shield behind which any wrong or right can be obscured. A right can still be right, even if illegal, and a wrong can certainly still be wrong even if legal. What is anyone to do when they see a right being punished or a wrong going unpunished due to issues in the current legal system? Petition their congressman? Good luck with that. When the system has a selfish interest in the status quo and maintenance of power, it's hard to trust it to enact meaningful change. So what options are left?...

- Oshyan

1012

Living Room / Re: WikiLeaks: Important petition for all Australians and supporters of free speech

« Last post by JavaJones on December 16, 2010, 02:58 PM »

I see what Justin Assange is doing as an act of heroism.

Personally i don't care if he gets replaced with someone else or gets sued by government, what i care is - Wiki leaks attempt to bring things out. That's what matter more than Justin.

-mahesh2k (December 16, 2010, 02:47 PM)

Absolutely, though I appreciate the willingness of him and those like him to put their life and freedoms on the line for what I see as a very good cause. Ultimately this is just like file sharing or any other distributed, crowd-driven system; it's a Medusa, chop off one head and another one takes its place. It's difficult or impossible to stop given sufficient motivation by the crowd. And I think these are examples of modern-day revolutionary action. It's a "sign of the times", an indication we've gotten to a certain level of dissatisfaction with government and the status quo, that we have this kind of thing happening regularly and on a large scale.

- Oshyan

1013

Living Room / Re: WikiLeaks: Important petition for all Australians and supporters of free speech

« Last post by JavaJones on December 16, 2010, 02:34 PM »

The similarities are in how the government is responding. I'm more trying to just understand what your perspective is though. It *seemed* like you were against people breaking their national security agreements to reveal confidential information. Is that correct? If so does that hold true in the case of Ellsberg? I don't think we'll ever totally agree here, I just want to understand what your actual position is, and it seems rather murky at present to me. Maybe just a summary of your stance.

- Oshyan

1014

Living Room / Re: WikiLeaks: Important petition for all Australians and supporters of free speech

« Last post by JavaJones on December 16, 2010, 01:47 PM »

Ah, I see, and I rather disagree. The reason I asked the original question was because I felt it was relevant to the current consideration about Assange. While they are not by any means *the same* situation, there are strong similarities. Ellsberg himself has said so, which to me is rather compelling.

- Oshyan

1015

General Software Discussion / Re: Anyone have experience with Acronis Online Backup?

« Last post by JavaJones on December 16, 2010, 12:19 AM »

You're welcome. I have been doing research to figure out my own backup situation after a big data loss issue (fortunately 99% recovered), and CrashPlan looks most applicable to my needs.

You should however be aware that there have been some recent discussion threads on the CrashPlan forums with some concerns about occasional non-restorable file issues. I don't know how widespread these issues are, they seem very isolated, but a lot of noise has been generated by a few users over them. I'm currently reading through the full discussions, e.g. https://crashplan.ze...ently-corrupted-data

That being said I'm still quite likely to go with CrashPlan.

- Oshyan

1016

Living Room / Re: WikiLeaks: Important petition for all Australians and supporters of free speech

« Last post by JavaJones on December 16, 2010, 12:04 AM »

Wraith, I don't really understand your answer. Can you be more direct? How does your answer apply to the case at hand with Assange and Wikileaks as a whole?

- Oshyan

1017

General Software Discussion / Re: Anyone have experience with Acronis Online Backup?

« Last post by JavaJones on December 15, 2010, 01:06 AM »

For really large remote backup needs, look for a service that offers a "seeding" option, where they send you a hard drive (or you can send one of yours) with an initial full backup, and then you just sync the differences (usually much smaller) from then on. This can also be really handy for restoring later on too, if they offer a service to send you a drive with your e.g. 1TB of data on it, rather than spending a month downloading it so you can restore. CrashPlan is one such service (see the entry "Seeded backup and restore to your door"). I'll be signing up for them very shortly and will report on their service once I've had a few weeks of it.

- Oshyan

1018

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Teaser: JottiQ

« Last post by JavaJones on December 15, 2010, 12:41 AM »

Ooo that looks darn useful. Nice one!

- Oshyan

1019

Living Room / Re: WikiLeaks: Important petition for all Australians and supporters of free speech

« Last post by JavaJones on December 14, 2010, 10:36 PM »

Wraith, do you think Daniel Ellsberg should have gone to prison for what he did then?

- Oshyan

1020

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

« Last post by JavaJones on December 14, 2010, 06:01 PM »

I don't really understand, SFTP isn't going to be particularly easy or automated to use for bi-directional syncing, nor does it easily handle differencing and limiting unnecessary file transfer. All of the Dropbox-like tools are quite simple to use and automated, and in many cases can transfer only changed parts of large files, for example. And they come with "buttons and nice, simple dialogs". The only drawback is they're not free...

- Oshyan

1021

General Software Discussion / Re: Web App: DropMocks - Easily create and share image galleries.

« Last post by JavaJones on December 13, 2010, 10:30 PM »

Wow, that is genuinely awesome. I'm always on the look out for stuff that's simple enough for my less computer savvy friends to use to do stuff I take for granted (like tossing up a web gallery). A lot of times the biggest complaint is needing to sign up, so this looks like a great option. Good find!

- Oshyan

1022

General Software Discussion / Re: how to create graphics like these?

« Last post by JavaJones on December 13, 2010, 09:18 PM »

Yes, those charts are clearly not made to have actual meaning, so they were probably done in a 3D app. But the main difference between those and what you can do natively in PPT with plugins appears to be down to reflectivity mostly (as far as visual effects). If that particular effect is not a requirement, the Powerpoint plugins do a pretty darn good job and, importantly, on the actual data (so if you change or add to the data, your chart can update quickly, easily, automatically).

Here's another example:
http://oomfo.com/
http://www.fusioncharts.com/

- Oshyan

1023

General Software Discussion / Re: how to create graphics like these?

« Last post by JavaJones on December 13, 2010, 08:49 PM »

Why bother doing it manually and statically when you can do it automatically on the dynamic data?

http://www.crystalgr...ions/charts.main.asp
http://www.perspecto...gallery_3dcharts.cfm

Keywords used: "powerpoint 3d chart"

- Oshyan

1024

Living Room / Re: WikiLeaks: Important petition for all Australians and supporters of free speech

« Last post by JavaJones on December 13, 2010, 08:19 PM »

But barring one of these occurrences, living in a world with multiple governments run by humans with very real human failings and ambitions, the only way that could happen is to the detriment of the government that adopted this stance.  Not from the people that want to work with the government, but those that do work against it.  What it seems is that people don't realize or conveniently forget when such things come up that naughty men that plan evil deeds still run about.  And that's just to speak of the known enemies; at certain times allies can be worse than our enemies.  And to enter into dealings with such people with everything that you know, and even worse, everything that you don't know in full public view is to handicap yourself.

-wraith808 (December 13, 2010, 11:04 AM)

How, specifically, is it a "handicap", and is that only true because of the way politics is conducted today? If so, can that change to remove this "handicap", or do you consider it a fundamental reality of international relations?

- Oshyan

1025

General Software Discussion / Re: move a text box from a position to another with an animation in powerpoint

« Last post by JavaJones on December 13, 2010, 08:12 PM »

I think maybe you need a Powerpoint class, tutorial site, or book. You're asking so many specific questions about using it, it's clear you need a more comprehensive source of Powerpoint-specific knowledge. For example: http://www.actden.com/pp/ or: http://www.lynda.com...ourses.aspx?lpk0=146

- Oshyan