Recent Posts

10076

Living Room / Re: Truely amazing piece of animation art

« Last post by 40hz on July 02, 2009, 12:10 AM »

would be great having the executable version so you could run it as a screensaver or whatever

-f0dder (July 01, 2009, 07:21 PM)

Yeah, I though so too. I suppose we could either wait for one, or do our own.

Most apps that will covert a MOV directly into an SCR are on the pricey side. However, there is a fairly decent freebie called Instant Storm that will convert SWFs into screensavers. So all I should need to do is convert the MOV to SWF and then run it though Instant Storm.

(Probably also need to edit to the MOV to make it loop smoothly since it looks like there's some frame overlap at the very end.)

Hmmm...

10077

Living Room / Re: Where did your DC user I.D come from?

« Last post by 40hz on July 01, 2009, 06:07 PM »

I should go about a name change

-Loki15 (June 30, 2009, 05:34 PM)

Never! Loki15 is a great forum handle.

10078

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox 3.5 [FINAL]

« Last post by 40hz on July 01, 2009, 05:53 PM »

I can't see any of the major online services switching to HTML 5 any time soon. The standard is still far from being approved, and indeed the video/audio formats supported by Firefox are not set in stone either. They'd not be supported in IE for some time, and I've no doubt Adobe will be peddling Flash like some retarded monkey over the next few years.

Ehtyar.

-Ehtyar (July 01, 2009, 03:46 PM)

I think E-man hit the nail right on the head.

Simple fact is: IE is not going to go away. And neither is Silverlight. Or Bing...

And since so many business and financial sites are designed primarily for IE (no matter how popular Fox, Opera, or Chrome may be getting), until HTML5 gets full support from Microsoft, it's not going to be the actual standard. No matter what people want to believe.

The only thing that might take Microsoft out of the loop would be if Win7 fell flat on its face coming out of the starting gate, and everybody bought Macs or switched to Linux.

And there's not enough booze or drugs in the world to convince me that's what's going to happen come October 2009.

10079

General Software Discussion / Re: free scaled down word replacment

« Last post by 40hz on July 01, 2009, 03:20 PM »

Polyedit is great: fast, small, easy to use, all the features you need without the bloat. Try it.

-criss (July 01, 2009, 06:08 AM)

@ criss: re:Polyedit. Great find!

@Techidave:  Polyedit is probably a better choice than the two I suggested since it can read and write .doc format files.

10080

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for modem comm / testing freeware

« Last post by 40hz on July 01, 2009, 03:08 PM »

Open up any terminal application (Hyperterm in Windows or a portable copy of PuTTY), select the modem and issue the following commands followed by a return at the prompt:

Note: you may need to enable LOCAL ECHO in your terminal application to see what you're typing. If you're comfortable typing "blind" then don't worry about it. These commands are short and not case sensitive.

Enter AT (the modem should respond Ok)

Then enter AT V1 (sets modem to respond in verbose mode using words)

Then enter AT L2 (sets the speaker volume to medium loud. You can also enter L1, L2, or L3)

Then enter AT H1 (takes the modem off hook)

If you hear the  dial tone coming from the modem's speaker, your line connection is good


Now you can test your connection to make sure everything is working correctly.

Enter AT H0 (hangs up modem)

Then try dialing out to a known modem number:

Enter ATDT {some phone number} (Example: ATDT 2225551212 - you'll hear it dialing, and it should connect.)

That's all there is to it.

------

If you don't have Hyperterminal on your machine, grab a free copy of PuTTY Portable from this link:

http://portableapps....ernet/putty_portable

If you're doing any kind of tech support you need to have a copy of this great little app. Spend some time getting to know it. It's a very useful tool to have on a USB key.

 

10081

Living Room / Re: Torrent Giant, The Pirate Bay sold, will go legal

« Last post by 40hz on July 01, 2009, 01:37 PM »

From TPB blog:

I hope everybody will help out in that and realize that this is the best option for all. Don't worry - be happy!

-Gothi[c] (July 01, 2009, 12:19 PM)

Works for me! That's exactly what we told our cat just before we took him to the vet for a certain 'minor surgical procedure.'  

10082

Living Room / Re: Torrent Giant, The Pirate Bay sold, will go legal

« Last post by 40hz on July 01, 2009, 11:55 AM »

I still stand by what I said though, I'm not sure how else this could have gone down in the end.

Ehtyar.

-Ehtyar (July 01, 2009, 07:08 AM)

Oh, I couldn't agree with you more Mr. E. I personally don't think something like what they were doing was worth going to jail for. (Then again, I didn't set up a torrent, shoot my mouth off, thumb my nose at the courts, and generally act like the back end of a pony during my 15 minutes of fame - but that's just me.)

Still, to hear all their hype and pseudo-socialist posturing, I would have given them credit for a little more grit and backbone than they showed when it started getting real. By now, I think it's fairly obvious Pirate Bay was little more than children playing at 'dress-up' games rather than a movement by people who truly believed in what they were doing.

And that saddens me. Because every protest, or other act of civil disobedience, has a window in which to effect real change. Pirate Bay had that window. They had support. They had sympathetic press coverage. They had the public and the politico's attention. Serious questions were being raised. Even the courts were uncomfortable issuing a decision that the current laws virtually compelled them to make. And everybody (including the music industry) was waiting for the next round of the battle to begin.

And then Pirate Bay walked away...

Even worse, when they took an industry offered "out" these Pirates became Janissaries.

The real problem is that Pirate Bay left their supporters holding the bag. Now it will be ten times harder to get people to back the next person who decides to lock horns with the media giants - even if that person is willing to take it all the way. And it will also embolden the media monopoly to push harder since I'm sure they are now convinced that they can intimidate anybody in the end. And so far, the media monopoly is absolutely correct in thinking that way. And they'll remain correct until someone shows them otherwise.

Make no mistake, this will hurt the anti-DRM/anti-monopoly cause.

It's easy to support, a lot harder to spearhead...

-wraith808 (July 01, 2009, 10:44 AM)

I agree with that comment 100%.

And from the looks of it, so does Pirate Bay.

10083

Living Room / Re: Truely amazing piece of animation art

« Last post by 40hz on July 01, 2009, 10:37 AM »

Somebody post a direct-download URL for the lazy of us? pretty please?

-f0dder (July 01, 2009, 07:19 AM)

There isn't a link specifically set up to do a download.

But here's the direct URL for the video:

http://motionographe...vilization_final.mov

I used the DownThemAll extension in Firefox to grab it. But in Firefox, you can also go to the Tools menu, open up PageInfo; then look under the Media tab to find civilization_final.mov; and do a SaveAs from there.

(This also works for snarfing copies of all those pictures on Flickr they don't want you snarfing. )

 

Don't be so relieved, tinjaw. Obviously, you missed the fine print. In Heaven, the dancing women will all look like Scarlett Johansson. In That Other Place, they'll all look like Rosie O'Donnell.

So don't give up on your good behavior just yet.

-Innuendo (July 01, 2009, 09:53 AM)

Wow. Now there's an image for you!

Talk about a big incentive to be good!  

And talk about an even bigger disincentive to be bad!!!

(There are some people* you just don't wanna see dancing!  )

*With all due respect to Ms. O'Donnell, who I'm sure is a very nice person; and who likely also has her admirers. De gustibus not est disputadum, and all that... Now if she could just get off the 'holier than thou' kick she always seems to be on, and lighten up!

10084

Living Room / Re: Torrent Giant, The Pirate Bay sold, will go legal

« Last post by 40hz on July 01, 2009, 06:02 AM »

Standing up for what you believe in is a wonderful thing, but it needs to stop when it starts to ruin your life. Good on them for quitting while they were ahead.

-Ehtyar (July 01, 2009, 01:48 AM)

Thereby invalidating the whole point of their original arguments and making fools of the people that supported them and spoke out on their behalf? I don't think so.

Deals like this make me wonder if this was part of their plan all along. Especially today, when the business 'strategy' for many startups is not to build a business, but rather to become a big enough thorn in some megacorp's paw that they'll buy you out.

I dunno...to me, it's startin' to sound like the 80s (80's? ) all over again. That's when so many of the former 'anti-war' and 'socially conscious' college crowd went out and got corporate jobs - or went to work for Wall Street.

Back then the saying was: "I didn't sell out - I got smart and bought in."

10085

Living Room / Re: Truely amazing piece of animation art

« Last post by 40hz on June 30, 2009, 09:33 PM »

I wonder how long it will last before the MPAA shuts it down for copyright infringement...

-Innuendo (June 30, 2009, 03:33 PM)

I'd guess right after one of the following conditions gets met :  

• it gets written up in the New York Times or The Wall Street Journal  -or-
• another six weeks goes by

Fair use?

-Eóin (June 30, 2009, 09:15 PM)

Yeah...it's good to have a dream...  

10086

Living Room / Re: Where to find music artist?

« Last post by 40hz on June 30, 2009, 08:59 PM »

I tried my hand at composition with a couple of the more popular trackers at the time and ended up just getting more and more embarrassed as time wore on. For nostalgic purposes, I dredged up my collection, here are my two best favorites.

-Ehtyar (June 30, 2009, 08:01 PM)

I'm impressed.

Maybe you can do up a theme for DoCo's podcast if they ever start it up again.

10087

General Software Discussion / Re: fully free software utilities for biz use - discussion

« Last post by 40hz on June 30, 2009, 06:15 PM »

re: SanityCheck

Looks like we're going to need to remove that entry after all. This from the splash screen (emphasis added):

Home Edition notice
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This version of SanityCheck is free for use at home only. If you would like to use this software at work or in a commercial environment you should get the professional edition.

Too bad. Looked like a handy app to have.

10088

General Software Discussion / Re: fully free software utilities for biz use - discussion

« Last post by 40hz on June 30, 2009, 12:49 PM »

Angel Writer added to office and word processing, although it could use a contact and/or EULA check.

-Steven Avery (June 26, 2009, 06:00 AM)

re:Angel Writer:

There isn't anything like a EULA (or even a FAQ) up on their website. I sent an email to the Angelic Software asking for a clarification as to what's allowed. Will let you know what they say when I hear back.

10089

Living Room / Re: Truely amazing piece of animation art

« Last post by 40hz on June 30, 2009, 11:38 AM »

Weird...I saw the pic and at first it looked like a screen cap of Mordor from a Lord Of The Rings movie.

-Innuendo (June 30, 2009, 11:03 AM)

It gets better.  

Be sure to visit the link to see it in motion.

There's all kinds of things going on: Arnie Schwartzenegger flexing, Princess Leia reclining, the Ghostbusters' Stay-Puff Marshmallow Man marching, Hitler dancing in the Broadway musical The Producers, Jessica Alba's dance clip from Sin City...

It's definitely one of the best video montage works I've ever seen. For me, it falls more in the "Wow" rather than the "Gee Whiz!" category because the technology is so well integrated that it doesn't draw attention to itself. It's only later on, when you think about what was involved in producing this piece, that you begin to appreciate the degree of artistry involved.

10090

General Software Discussion / Re: some basic questions about IT science

« Last post by 40hz on June 30, 2009, 10:24 AM »

Btw, a machine's bitsize isn't determined from how many bits goes in it's bytes (which is 8 on most architectures). We have the machine's natural word size (or register width), along with it's address space width.

-f0dder (June 30, 2009, 10:17 AM)

I stand corrected.
How soon we forget some of the things we learned in school as we grow older. Sad how that goes.

Thx f0dder!

10091

General Software Discussion / Re: Radio Software with Webinterface

« Last post by 40hz on June 30, 2009, 10:19 AM »

Possibly VLC Media Player using its server capabilities? It's logo is kinda orangy.

10092

Living Room / Re: Where did your DC user I.D come from?

« Last post by 40hz on June 30, 2009, 09:53 AM »

So my role on DC is to be blamed for anything bad that happens? Hmm I knew I had a meaning in life

-Loki15 (June 29, 2009, 10:59 PM)

Yup. Got the serpent, the cup, and the girl all ready and waiting should that happen.

10093

General Software Discussion / Re: some basic questions about IT science

« Last post by 40hz on June 30, 2009, 09:51 AM »

homework?

-justice (June 30, 2009, 07:11 AM)

And here I was thinking I'm the only one who was thinking that!

10094

General Software Discussion / Re: some basic questions about IT science

« Last post by 40hz on June 30, 2009, 06:40 AM »

thanks for your replies

why letter a is 01000001? why a letter or generaly character is represented by 8 bits?
since I suppose the total number of possible characters is less than 99,999,999, so why not representing letters/characters as 4 bits, or 6 bits, etc

-kalos (June 30, 2009, 05:46 AM)

It's just an arbitrary design decision that got made based on the available resources of the architecture in question. I suspect that a=01000001 seemed logical to the person designing the system.

The more bits you have in a byte, the more items of information that can be represented by each. If you use 8-bits, there are 256 possible things each byte can represent. Using 4-bits drops it down to 16 possible things. These things can be letters, numbers, machine states, stack counters, machine instructions, information stored in memory, location in the memory address space, etc.

So the greater the number of bits you use for the basic architecture of your system, the more "bitspace" you have to represent whatever you want. And because most CPUs are designed to work by moving bits around on the byte level (hence 8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit, 64-bit architectures) the general rule of thumb is: the more bits in a byte, the more powerful the architecture. If you think of a byte as a word and a bit as a letter, then a machine with more bits (or letters) has the potential for having a much bigger vocabulary. And since it has a bigger vocabulary, it also (theoretically) has the potential to be used for much more complex and elegant tasks.

At least on paper. (Note: There's a lot more involved in CPU design than just how big its bitspace is. Instruction sets, cache design, multithreading, and a pile of other things are also crucial to the overall performance and power of the system.)

You might want to read Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder. This book tells the real life story of how an actual computer, code-named "Eagle", got designed and built. Although the technology described in the book is somewhat dated (the story took place in the 70s) the methodology, challenges, frustrations and politics of designing a computer have not. Well worth the time to read. It's a classic.

I make it a point to reread this book every couple of years. Each time I do, I never cease to be amazed at just how much - and just how little - has actually changed between readings!

 

10095

Living Room / Re: Where did your DC user I.D come from?

« Last post by 40hz on June 29, 2009, 10:53 PM »

turns out he was a shape shifting, gender changing god.

-Loki15 (June 29, 2009, 09:46 PM)

Not to mention a backstabbing coward - not really the most flattering god from Norse mythology

-f0dder (June 29, 2009, 09:51 PM)

Maybe not flattering. But readily recognized - and often respected in much the way you would a "worthy adversary."

Loki's role as a tempter, prankster, and manipulator is absolutely crucial in the framework of most mythologies.

There's always someone that needs to go around dissing the gods and generally screwing up the divine plan for things. How else could you account for why so many things always seem to go wrong in the world? Good thing we get somebody like Loki to blame when bad things happen. Because if we didn't, we'd have to blame Odin for either being incompetent or malicious.

And supreme deities, like Odin, usually didn't take too kindly to people feeling that way about them.

Similar mythic entities can be found in most cultures. Take a look at the North American Indian's Coyote, the Aztec Huehuecoyotl, the Hindu Krishna (or even a certain well known serpent) to see the shape-shifting Trickster and Adversary in yet another of his/her/its many manifestations.

Lots more examples here if you're interested:
http://en.wikipedia...._in_various_cultures

10096

Living Room / Truely amazing piece of animation art

« Last post by 40hz on June 29, 2009, 10:28 PM »

Incredible art sometimes shows up in the most unlikely places. But how often would you expect to find it in a hotel? And more to the point, how often would you expect to find it in a hotel elevator?

The latest collaboration between visual artist Marco Brambilla, and a production company that goes by the name of Crush, has produced a work that is impressive from both a technical and an artistic perspective. The title of the piece is Civilization. Civilization is a video mural now on permanent display at the Standard Hotel in New York.

Civilization depicts a journey from hell to heaven interpreted through modern film language using computer-enhanced found footage.

This epic video mural contains over 300 individual channels of looped video blended into a multi-layered seamless tableau of interconnecting images that illustrate a contemporary, satirical take on the concepts of Heaven and Hell.

http://marcobrambill...om/civilization.html

As a purely visual work of art, Civilization is stunning in and of itself. But what really sets it apart is the way it has been installed, as opposed to displayed. This video mural is synchronized with the speed of the elevator to give the viewer a totally unique experience while viewing this work.

Notes from Crush Senior Artist Sean Cochrane

We at Crush already had a previous relationship with Marco as we helped him create a piece of video art shot in a train station in Berlin and we had done post on a few commercial he’s directed.

We love working with Marco as he is very creative and he likes to work very fast. When new ideas are unearthed during the creative process, you have to be ready to go with him and explore those ideas or you simply don’t keep up with him. When he asked us to work with him on Civilization, a vision he had of taking hundreds of stock footage, movie footage and original clips and combining them to create a moving landscape depicting the ascension from hell to heaven, we knew that it was going to be huge challenge but one we were very excited about.

Marco is very gutsy and bold but also has great respect for collaboration and discovery of ideas that blossom during the process. The project had two huge challenges. Firstly we needed to figure out how to create content that could move with the elevator where it would ultimately be viewed. The idea was this, when you go up in the elevator the content goes down and when you go down it goes up. Not unlike a ride film this project was designed to be synced to the moving environment of the hotel elevators in New York. We wanted to synchronize the footage to the movement of the elevator as best as we could.

The second challenge was creative. What are we seeing through this ‘elevator window’? We only really knew at the beginning that the canvas or environment would be very tall and skinny due to the physics of elevator travel and we wanted to go from a hellish landscape to a heavenly one.

We began with exploring the idea of using a game engine to house the project. Seemed easy, map footage onto planes in space, attach a PC to the elevator and we can move up and down in the game environment all day. Unfortunately, once we started to collage the clips together in the Flame we knew the game engine idea wouldn’t fly. We approximated that we would have 250 looped HD clips in the environment and our Flame could barely handle it (in the end it was closer to 500 looping clips). We compromised by locking ourselves into the idea that we would create a huge vertical canvas that we would scan up and down on once the elevator was in motion. The final piece was approximately 1920 x 7500 pixels.

http://motionographe...mbilla-civilization/

Small-sized versions of this work can be found on various websites. But to get the full effect, make it a point to view the larger, hi-rez version (along with production notes) at this link:

http://motionographe...mbilla-civilization/

I'd suggest you download this version and run it full screen. After you've watched it, run it a few more times and see how many static and moving images within the piece you can identify. (I particularly enjoyed spotting the flame-whip wielding Balrog from Lord of the Rings.) The more you watch it the more you can appreciate just how much imagination and effort went into creating this piece.

 

Note: If you're even slightly interested in motion graphics, take a little time to browse around the rest of the Motionographer (rhymes with "oceanographer") website at:  www.motiongrapher.com

10097

Living Room / Re: Need NAS Enclosure recommendation

« Last post by 40hz on June 28, 2009, 06:59 PM »

Be sure to tally up the power requirements of each component in your build. Then do the math to get a correctly sized PS.

-40hz (June 28, 2009, 12:30 PM)

Or let someone else do the math: eXtreme Power Supply Calculator

Why burn out your braincells ?  

Using the combo above plus 4 Green SATA HDDs gives a system power figure of 68W, (which I'd say is pretty close), and it will be less because there will be no keyboard/mouse connected normally.
So a 150W PSU is ample and will actually not be running at peak efficiency since it's well under %80 load all the time.

-4wd (June 28, 2009, 06:34 PM)

So there you have it Josh. More capacity, more power, better component quality - and best of all - it's done your way! What's not to like about that?

 

10098

Living Room / Re: CD archive and copying

« Last post by 40hz on June 28, 2009, 06:49 PM »

I'm 100% with f0dder on his recommendation for using EAC to rip using the FLAC codec.

I have my entire music collection archived this way. Whatever bells & whistles EAC lacks is more than made up for by the superb (no exaggeration BTW) rips it generates. I have never heard anything better than the EAC+FLAC combination. I've tried over a dozen excellent audio rippers before I selected EAC.

So if sound quality is your main concern, definitely use EAC. It's worth whatever else you'll have to do to get the rest of the items in your "wish list"accomplished.

Luck!  

10099

General Software Discussion / Re: free scaled down word replacment

« Last post by 40hz on June 28, 2009, 06:37 PM »

There's another decent wordprocessor available from NativeWinds Software called Tomahawk PDF+, which is the freeware edition of their flagship Tomahawk Gold product.

One nice feature is its ability to export documents directly to a PDF file. It's also a portable application, so all you need is the standalone .exe to run it. Works very well running off a USB key too.

Tomahawk PDF+ is free for personal use. NativeWinds also allows for use by non-profits and schools free of charge.

Non-profit and educational organizations may obtain a free site license for Tomahawk PDF+ (This free site license is NOT for Tomahawk Gold) by sending us a request on their company or business letterhead along with a copy of their 501c3 status (or similar status verification for your country). See address above for mail requests. Similar status verification would include any current official documentation that proves you are a charitable or "Not for Profit" organization.

Info and download: http://www.nativewin...ftware/tpdfplus.html

If you need more features, Tomahawk Gold is a steal (IMHO) at $36 per copy

10100

Living Room / Re: Need NAS Enclosure recommendation

« Last post by 40hz on June 28, 2009, 12:30 PM »

@4wd - Nice build! w00t!  

I was going to spec one as an example, but you beat me to it - along with the price point I came up with. (My configuration came in at $138!)

-----

@Josh -  If you do build something like this, get over the natural tendency to try to cram everything into the smallest enclosure possible. Especially if it's a server that's going to be tucked out of sight behind a desk somewhere.

A decent quality mid-tower gives you the best bang for the buck, along with more airspace around your hot components. Recycling is also an option. Take the savings and invest in a better quality power supply if you have extra cash left over.

Small enclosures build up a lot of heat once you put a CPU and some hard drives in them. They're generally harder to work with, and cost a lot more to purchase.

Most of the power supplies that ship with small box enclosures also lack the capacity needed for  multiple hard drives. So if you're planning to install more than one HD, start thinking outside the 'little' box.

Be sure to tally up the power requirements of each component in your build. Then do the math to get a correctly sized PS. You'll also want to factor in some additional capacity since your server will probably be left on 24/7. In situations like that, you never want to run your PS at near-100% load. Giving yourself an additional 20-30% will improve stability, increase operational life, and reduce generated heat. If the power supply has a variable speed fan, those lower temperatures will also result in quieter operation.

-----

Another alternative to building from scratch is to look into some of the remarkably inexpensive "bare-bones" computer kits. Do a Google search on barebones computer to get and idea of what's available.