Recent Posts

10026

General Software Discussion / Re: Lists Of Microsoft's Fame And Shame - 2008

« Last post by Renegade on April 08, 2008, 05:36 PM »

...they act as if everyone (or at least everyone who matters) is a developer.

-Jimdoria (April 08, 2008, 01:57 PM)

...Microsoft does (generally) treat developers well, and this attracts developers and leads to a profusion of applications and utilities...

-CWuestefeld (April 08, 2008, 03:21 PM)

BINGO!

This is what Microsoft really "gets". They understand that they need other people to develop for their platform for it to be succesful. They're far better than any other company at attracting developers and they really do treat them very well.

MS has numerous high-level SDKs available for free. They make tools available for free. They have the Empower Program and the Action Pack to make things easily affordable for developers.

I don't want to be a fanboy here, but MS really does get things "right" in this area, and they're leaving every one else in the dust.

The article was a good read. He's obviously done his homework and really bangs a lot of things right on the head really well. I particularly liked the part on VistaDB. It's a fantastic product to work with. (I have a VistaDB subscription myself.)

10027

Living Room / Re: Vista source code leaked!

« Last post by Renegade on April 06, 2008, 09:15 PM »

I liked that!

I'm not in the Vista Hate Camp, but the copy size analyzing thing does annoy me. I've also turned off the indexing as I pretty much know where things are. But I have no really major complaints with Vista.

10028

Living Room / Re: BEAT THIS! ;)

« Last post by Renegade on April 06, 2008, 09:12 PM »

f0dder

Renegade and you at least have a  semi -plausable excuse.

-ljbirns (April 06, 2008, 08:03 PM)

AH! The truly hardcore digital junkies come out to play!

10029

Living Room / BEAT THIS! ;)

« Last post by Renegade on April 06, 2008, 05:03 PM »

I just got back from a quick visit with my aunt and uncle in Hong Kong and the whole time there, I only checked my email 1x per day in the morning!

Impressive, eh?

Other than that, my only computer usage was showing my aunt and uncle a few things.

So my fellow digital junkies, how d'ya think you'd fare? Email anxiety after 30 minutes? 1 hour?

But then again, I get home and the first thing I do is turn on the computer... I'm totally hopeless in the long run!

10030

Developer's Corner / Re: Latest Jeff Atwood (Coding Horror) Column: UI-First Software Development

« Last post by Renegade on April 06, 2008, 04:59 PM »

This is one of those things that Microsoft really "gets". The Expression series are ideal for this kind of thing.

10031

Living Room / Re: 25 interesting things that you learn about computers only in the movies

« Last post by Renegade on April 03, 2008, 04:05 PM »

...
Worst of all, i hate this thing that you can see in 95% of spy movies :
- Hey what's this ? There, this little dot in the background ? Zoom 8000% please...
- Ok, done.
- Hmm, looks like a face but it's blurry, sharpen the image...
- Done.
- Wow ! It's the killer !

I hate that. I hate that i hate that i hate that i hate that i hate that. In 24, they even zoom on a picture taken from Jack's cell phone to read a serial number on a object in a terrorist's pocket. I hate that.

-ak_ (April 03, 2008, 08:34 AM)

Amen!

However, that is technically more likely/possible than the all too common scenario:

- So, can you crack the password or what?
- It's impossible! It's got a 8,192 TB keyspace and...
- I don't want to hear "can't!" Just TRY!
- Ok, but I told you... I'll just run this handy-dandy program that I wrote while you were saying "Just TRY!"... Done! There's the password! We're in!

Yeah. Ok.

Lesson learned: Everyone that writes security software in the movies and TV is a complete idiot, and everyone that creates a password makes it obvious and easy to crack so that even your dog can get into the NSA super-secret computers that nobody knows about inside of 3 seconds.

THAT ticks me off. There are a lot more too.

But the list was very fun!

10032

Living Room / Re: Aviary invitations (I have 5 to give away)

« Last post by Renegade on April 03, 2008, 09:24 AM »

Wow! That looks just so totally cool!

I already have professional level tools for the things that they offer that I need, but it still looks very cool!

Incidentally, I went to get an Adobe Air application for Twitter, but it wanted "UNRESTRICTED" access to my computer. Ummm... NO! I bailed out. There's no way in Hell I'm letting something run like that on this machine. I know Silverlight has good security, but Air? Not sure about that. And "unrestricted"? Talk about a great way to scare the bejeezuz out of me!

In any event, looks like a very cool site.

10033

Developer's Corner / Re: The DC Coders' Breakfast Club

« Last post by Renegade on April 02, 2008, 01:21 AM »

Tinjaw is on twitter.

-tinjaw (April 01, 2008, 08:17 PM)

Followed!

Renegade is there too!

10034

Developer's Corner / Re: The DC Coders' Breakfast Club

« Last post by Renegade on April 01, 2008, 07:35 PM »

Ok -- this is not working very well... Nobody is posting much.

How about people join Twitter and post stuff there?

10035

Living Room / Re: Windows Vista SP1 Now available....as toilet paper

« Last post by Renegade on April 01, 2008, 07:33 PM »

Yep, only in Japan...
 (see attachment in previous post)
(istartedsomething)

-PhilB66 (April 01, 2008, 04:51 AM)

Huh? What?

At first glance I thought it was a box of tampons...

Yeah... Only in Japan... 

10036

General Software Discussion / Re: Creative Labs

« Last post by Renegade on April 01, 2008, 06:46 PM »

Think Phil O'Shaughnessy will get fired for that? Cause he's really done a LOT of damage, especially considering his position. Not handled very well at all...

-Renegade (April 01, 2008, 01:38 AM)

Why would he? If they do it as a desperate attempt of damage control, then that has HYPOCRITES stamped all over it, since he just represents official corporate decisions.

-f0dder (April 01, 2008, 09:10 AM)

This is why:

Phil O'Shaughnessy
VP Corporate Communications
Creative Labs Inc.

He totally dropped the ball in how he wrote that up. For a Vice-President of Corporate Communications to botch things that badly... Yikes! He should know better.

He should have first emailed Daniel Kawakami without dragging things out into the public eye. Failing that, in an open forum, something a bit more palatable would be in order. I'll write up a quick sample here:

Hello Daniel Kawakami,

While we appreciate your efforts to extend support for Creative products through modded drivers, Daniel, I unfortuneately need to request that you stop distributing certain packages. Please allow me to explain.

Though most of the technology in our drivers is directly from us here at Creative, we also license technologies from other companies and those licenses come at significant expense and with certain restrictions. We are not really at liberty to use those technologies in some product lines. When you repackage those technologies for use in products that they are not intended for, you create tension between us and our technology vendors, which can damage our ability to negotiate with them in the future. This can lead to higher prices for Creative products, which we'd of course like to avoid. It is our goal to provide a good product at a good price.

It is not our goal to stop you from assisting people that use Creative products with issues on Windows Vista, or to make unreasonable demands of you. We only request that when you distribute modded Creative driver packages, that you consider the intellectual property issues behind them and act accordingly.

Should you need help with legal issues, I would be happy to provide you with contact information here at Creative.

Again, your support for the community is appreciated.

yadda yadda yadda

That's a quick writeup, and certainly isn't something that I'd publish, but it's a step in the right direction. The tone is what matters.

The point is that it's possible to say things in a way that makes people feel good, even when the news is bad. Phil didn't do that. He went out and got all aggressive towards someone that he should have been expressing gratitude for. "No good deed goes unpunished." Seems very true at Creative, and now they're paying for it.

But you may be right about the hypocritical thing there.

10037

General Software Discussion / Re: Sony BMG Sued For Using Pirated Software

« Last post by Renegade on April 01, 2008, 06:19 PM »

Why is this something to laugh at? I guarantee every major corporation in existence can find at least one pirated app on one of its machines. There are very few which dont rely on it. Most just never get caught.

-Josh (April 01, 2008, 05:33 PM)

It's just hilariously ironic. As Deozaan pointed out, Sony has been at the forefront of "anti-piracy" efforts in the music industry. Now they've just been caught with their pants down. It's awesome!

I rather doubt any judge will have a lot of sympathy for Sony when it comes time for trial if they don't settle out of court.

10038

General Software Discussion / Sony BMG Sued For Using Pirated Software

« Last post by Renegade on April 01, 2008, 05:11 PM »

http://www.alleyinsi...ing_pirated_software

You read that headline right -- Sony BMG, ardent foe of music piracy, is in trouble for using pirated software.

Hahahahahaha~!

I'm quite sure that I'm not the only one laughing my butt off!

10039

General Software Discussion / Re: Creative Labs

« Last post by Renegade on April 01, 2008, 01:38 AM »

Holy mother!

That's insane!

Think Phil O'Shaughnessy will get fired for that? Cause he's really done a LOT of damage, especially considering his position. Not handled very well at all...

10040

Living Room / Re: Got to Love Flickr

« Last post by Renegade on March 31, 2008, 07:26 PM »

It's the kind of thing you'd see in a magazine ad for cosmetics or something, so I didn't figure it was too harsh (hence the "not for everyone"). I'll turn up the sensitivity meters in the future though.

The CC license is really becoming quite popular. I can see how it can work to help attract attention to the creators kind of how the FOSS/consulting business model works, or the recorded music / concert model works.

But quite right about Flickr being difficult to use --- it's just SOOOO big. With the stock photo sites, you pretty much get A-grade stuff right off the bat without any digging.

10041

Living Room / Got to Love Flickr

« Last post by Renegade on March 31, 2008, 11:15 AM »

This isn't for everyone:

http://www.flickr.co...atmarsh25/387368999/

But it's a good example of the fantastic work available on Flickr. A lot of people have put in some serious work to make pictures available. Flickr may someday supplant istockphoto and others like it.

10042

Living Room / Re: Good Names for Your Child :)

« Last post by Renegade on March 31, 2008, 11:11 AM »

My daughter says this is me: (see attachment in previous post)It's from the last part of a 5 part story that begins here.

-app103 (March 31, 2008, 12:50 AM)

That's a great series. This is a favorite of mine:



From "The Princess Bride". (IMDB -- Wikipedia) Dread Pirate Roberts

It's one of my favorite films. I have it on video tape and have seen it at least 20x. (Probably 30x+)

I love allusions!

10043

Developer's Corner / Re: The DC Coders' Breakfast Club

« Last post by Renegade on March 30, 2008, 09:11 PM »

First day without a dayjob!

YEAH~!

So, what's up for today? Got some running around to do, but other than that, I'll be doing some cool FFT stuff and working on Guitar & Drum Trainer!

I am SOOOOO stoked about this! I'm going to get more done in the next month than I have in the last year!

10044

Developer's Corner / Re: [Solved] C# Arraylist

« Last post by Renegade on March 30, 2008, 09:08 PM »

...I come from an actionscript / PHP background that just doesn't have these things...

-mediaguycouk (March 24, 2008, 05:49 AM)

Once you get used to this kind of stuff in C#, and see how really well designed it is, you'll shake your head and wonder about dynamically typed languages like PHP. Not that there's anything wrong with dynamic types and the like, but static typing is really just a lot easier to deal with.

I've done both kinds of languages, and I really do prefer static typing. It just seems neater and cleaner.

Kind of as an aside, in C# you can also do things like this:

Code: C# [Select]

1. private void Something(MyCustomClass thing)
2. {
3.     MyCustomClass temp;
4.     temp = thing;
5. }

It's a similar issue to what you have above.

10045

Developer's Corner / Re: Association of Shareware Professionals

« Last post by Renegade on March 30, 2008, 09:00 PM »

Bump!

Just bumping this to see if anyone that reads this forum is in the ASP. I posted in Living Room, but just in case people don't read there...

10046

Living Room / Re: ASP Members/Posters, Come Out of the Woodwork!

« Last post by Renegade on March 30, 2008, 08:57 PM »

@tinjaw

So, did you join? I posted in that thread, but didn't see anything about what you'd decided on.

@mouser

I'm a bit surprised there. I find it's a pretty darn good value. There's stuff in the NGs there that you would NEVER see posted publicly in a forum like this that anyone can read. The membership is filtered and checked out, so Stephen Huff isn't in there.

Can I ask why you didn't find it worth renewing?

@Veign

If you're interested, there's a lot more stuff about PAD in the private groups (asp.committee.pad_spec). At the moment the next PADGen beta is available. It's a fantastic improvement over the existing one.

I'm hoping to get time to create a download site (not a PADkit one) and get some extra value in there unlike all the PADkit clones. Not sure if I'll have time as it's a big job. I'll talk to you though when I've got it going. (First I've got another project centered around PAD that I'd like to get done -- hopefully in May.)

10047

Living Room / ASP Members/Posters, Come Out of the Woodwork!

« Last post by Renegade on March 30, 2008, 06:49 AM »

Ok, so I'm going through the ASP NGs when I see this post in a thread that I'm reading and I take a double-take.

NO_SPAMsupport@veig...

The from column cuts off the rest, but I think to myself, "Sounds familiar..." At the end I read a name I recognize, then come back here to check. Sure as guns, it's Veign.

So, is anyone else in the ASP here or post in any of their public forums?

Just curious. It's a small world.

@Veign, I'll likely contact you in a few months about your PAD post there.

Cheers!

10048

General Software Discussion / Re: How often do you reinstall Windows?

« Last post by Renegade on March 30, 2008, 12:30 AM »

I never reinstall. I've got boxes that have been running for years (2, 4, 4, 3, 7) that have never had more than 1 install.

10049

Living Room / Re: Anyone registered with www.thebox.bz ?

« Last post by Renegade on March 29, 2008, 09:43 PM »

What is it? Some kind of Dr. Who fan site?

10050

General Software Discussion / Re: Small Apps

« Last post by Renegade on March 28, 2008, 10:54 PM »

http://www.fiastarta...PrtScr/Download.html

-cmpm (March 23, 2008, 12:58 PM)

NAPALM is a fun tool for the desktop vandals (from the maker of Ptr Scr).
 (see attachment in previous post)

-PhilB66 (March 23, 2008, 02:13 PM)

The video there is kind of cool. They use "Firestarter" by the Prodigy for background music.