Recent Posts

1026

Living Room / Microsoft Provides Funding For Surveillance

« Last post by Tinman57 on November 07, 2012, 09:13 PM »

Microsoft provides fusion center technology and funding for surveillance
Did you know Microsoft helps fund the National Fusion Center Association which, in turn, helps police departments buy surveillance tech?

http://www.networkwo...community/node/81735

1027

Living Room / Big Data Spying

« Last post by Tinman57 on November 07, 2012, 09:10 PM »

When does Big Data become a tool to spy on consumers?
Where should businesses draw the line when it comes to data mining?

http://www.smartplan...py-on-consumers/4815

1028

General Software Discussion / Re: softonic-for-windows

« Last post by Tinman57 on November 07, 2012, 08:52 PM »

I have not tested it, but I expect many "recommended" apps will turn out to be shareware.
How else should this freeware be funded? 

-Curt (November 07, 2012, 02:25 PM)

  What I'm thinking is it's probably loaded with adware and most likely phones home everything you have installed on your computer.  Not something I would trust without a review from a trusted source.

  But that's just me....wearing my tin hat and all....   

1029

Living Room / Re: Good Luck to Our US Friends!

« Last post by Tinman57 on November 06, 2012, 07:14 PM »

Where before I'd shit on them by name, I try only to shit on them all now~!
No...

-Renegade (November 06, 2012, 10:49 AM)

  So what your saying is your an equal opportunity shitter?   

1030

Living Room / Re: First Time With Win 8

« Last post by Tinman57 on November 06, 2012, 06:39 PM »

He's a little geek, a little goofy, and REALLY opinionated. The problem is that despite being "famous" for being a geek he really has only a very superficial level of knowledge. Enough to convince MSNBC anchor people he's a geek but not enough to ever contribute anything meaningful to tech journalism. He's the Wolf Blitzer of technology.

He's a brash, whiny troll. And he gets the girl. All of them.

-allen (November 05, 2012, 11:13 PM)

  Funny that you mentioned that he don't contribute anything meaningful, because what I've seen of him he just talks about stuff that's already been covered elsewhere, he's just repeating other peoples views.  Like it's not official until he talks about it or something.  lol
  Either way, I just can't get past his goofiness and his shrill voice....

1031

Living Room / Re: First Time With Win 8

« Last post by Tinman57 on November 06, 2012, 06:31 PM »

From what little I've seen from him I came to the conclusion that he's a geek and a little goofy.  But his wife is totally hot.   

-Tinman57 (November 05, 2012, 07:13 PM)

Out of curiosity, which one?

-40hz (November 05, 2012, 08:11 PM)

  I guess the one he's married to now...

1032

Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by Tinman57 on November 06, 2012, 06:17 PM »

I'd love one of those - or two, frame them showing both sides.

I'll repeat: "where's the link?" (apparently there's been a few versions already released but I couldnt find these ones)

-tomos (October 04, 2012, 03:33 PM)

You can get them all over the place. Here are a few links:

http://www.ebay.com/...bitcoin+copper+round

The mint:
http://mjbmonetaryme...ls.co.uk/copper.html

http://copperrounds....s=1+Oz+Copper+Rounds
Goes to ==> http://www.ebay.com/...&vectorid=229466

http://www.preciousm...-1oz-roll-of-20.html

I have not purchased from any of those places, so I can't vouch for them, but they all seem ok.

-Renegade (October 05, 2012, 01:07 AM)

Darn Renegade, you missed a perfect opportunity to use:
http://lmgtfy.com/?q...oin%2Bcopper%2Bround   

1033

Living Room / Campaign Ad Awards

« Last post by Tinman57 on November 06, 2012, 05:57 PM »

The 2012 FactCheck Awards
Our Election-Day sampler of funny, scary and just plain bizarre campaign ads.

http://factcheck.org...12-factcheck-awards/

1034

Living Room / Re: First Time With Win 8

« Last post by Tinman57 on November 05, 2012, 07:13 PM »

Also, I am obligated to say this as I say it any time I see reference to him -- Chris Pirillo is a troll whose Internet career should have ended 12 years ago.

-allen (November 05, 2012, 11:29 AM)

  Gee, don't hold back, tell us how you REALLY FEEL!   

   Why do you have it in for him?  I've only read a couple of Pirillo's writings, and watched about 30 seconds of one of his videos before stopping it.  I just couldn't handle his whiney shrill voice.  From what little I've seen from him I came to the conclusion that he's a geek and a little goofy.  But his wife is totally hot.   

1035

Living Room / Re: Anonymous Protest Canada's surveillance

« Last post by Tinman57 on November 04, 2012, 08:08 PM »

Yes... The fascists have taken control of Canada too...

Pretty much whatever horror takes place in the US is mirrored in Canada. And every now and then, Ottawa manages to 1-up Washington D.C. in proving that they can be better tyrants. Not often, but every once in a while.

And the Canadian sheeple say, "baaaaa!"

-Renegade (November 04, 2012, 07:52 PM)

  It's sad too.  I would have never thought that Canada would follow in the footsteps of the New World Order .....uh..... U.S.

1036

Coding Snacks / Re: Single click focus, double click bring to front

« Last post by Tinman57 on November 04, 2012, 08:04 PM »

I've searched high and low for one unsuccessfully. If you can find the name of the app, I would really appreciate it!

Or... anyone want to code it? Please?

-bendecker (November 03, 2012, 08:17 PM)

  I just went to PCWorld to look for that file.  Imagine my surprise when I found that PCWorld did away with their downloads!  I've been using PCW services since the W-95 days, looks like I'm going to have to find other sites now.  It's a shame.....  Probably afraid they're going to get sued with all these take-down notices crap....

1037

Living Room / Re: Now this is a Windows 8 review I heartily applaud

« Last post by Tinman57 on November 04, 2012, 07:03 PM »

I use FARR and LBC for common stuff but i still have a deep start menu of EVERYTHING installed on the PC so that i can find things by category.

I think one of the problems is that most people dont know how to organize their start menu.  When organized it's a wonderful tool.
Instead of making it easier to organize, MS is trying to kill and hide it.  Very bad choice.

There is a real benefit to having a hierarchical organization of everything installed on the computer.

-mouser (November 04, 2012, 02:56 PM)

 Exactly!  I see people just dumping shortcuts all in one place instead of organizing.  I have mine set up in categories; Games, Accessories, Multimedia, Communications and System Tools, with sub-categories to break things down even more.  Much more simple, easy to navigate, just the way I like it.....

1038

Living Room / Re: History of CP/M

« Last post by Tinman57 on November 04, 2012, 06:48 PM »

Agree. I "lost" my Amiga1000 in a move many years ago. Of all the computers I no longer own, that is really the only one I truly regret no longer having.

For those who are wondering what we're going on and on about, there's a nice half four long video on YouTube called Why use Amiga in 2011? (AmigaOS 4, MorphOS, AROS, AmigaOS 3.9) that will give a good idea of what that amazing machine was all about. If Commodore didn't stupidly shoot itself in the foot so many times, the Apple Macintosh would have been the historical curiosity, and we wouldn't have had the pleasure of putting up with Steve Jobs all those years - or living with his legacy today.

-40hz (November 04, 2012, 12:11 PM)

  I still have my "Tweaked Out" Amiga 500 in my closet.  Just didn't have the heart to get rid of it.

  Don't know if you remember, but Commodore was investigated by congress.  Seemed that the Amiga (and Commodore) was purposely sabotaged into foreclosure.  One of the big investors (from Saudi-Arabia) was supposedly killing the company for MicroSoft, in which he also had a big share in.  Don't know where it went from there, kind of just magically "went away" along with Commodore.
  As for the new AmigaDos, it's not 100% backward compatible.  From what I understand it's just a Windows machine with Amiga Forever installed (which I also have).

1039

Living Room / Re: Smartphone Jailbreaking and Video Remixing Rights

« Last post by Tinman57 on November 04, 2012, 06:19 PM »

That's excellent!

A lot of documentaries out there remix various other sources to comment on and explain things. Good to see that sanity has won a battle at long last! 

-Renegade (November 03, 2012, 07:40 PM)

  Yeah, but it's one step forward, three steps back.....

1040

Living Room / Re: NSA Wiretapping Secrets

« Last post by Tinman57 on November 04, 2012, 06:17 PM »

Look, I found Cody's cousin working for the NSA!

http://blogs.compute...less_wiretapping.jpg

-TaoPhoenix (November 04, 2012, 12:16 AM)

  I love how everything is tied into an AT&T "box".  lol

1041

Living Room / Anonymous Protest Canada's surveillance

« Last post by Tinman57 on November 04, 2012, 06:12 PM »

[ Looks like Anonymous are the new Freedom Fighters.]
Anonymous protests planned over government surveillance
The shadowy hacker collective is upset over the tracking and profiling of citizens.

http://www.pcworld.c...nt-surveillance.html

1042

Living Room / NSA Wiretapping Secrets

« Last post by Tinman57 on November 03, 2012, 08:04 PM »

There's no reason other than they don't want interference.

NSA Claims 'Privilege' 62 times in 1 Court Document to EFF
The NSA has claimed the 'state secret' dozens of times in a submission to the Court in EFF's litigation over warrantless wiretapping.

http://blogs.compute...1-court-document-eff

1043

Living Room / Smartphone Jailbreaking and Video Remixing Rights

« Last post by Tinman57 on November 03, 2012, 07:34 PM »

EFF Wins Renewal of Smartphone Jailbreaking Rights Plus New Legal Protections for Video Remixing

EFF won renewal of critical exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in a new ruling, including the upholding of jailbreaking rights for smartphones as well as new and significantly expanded legal protections for video remixing. However, the Copyright Office declined to expand the jailbreaking exemption to tablets and video game consoles, arguing that the category of "tablets" is not well defined and that jailbreaking video game consoles might lead to more copyright infringement.

https://www.eff.org/...al-protections-video

1044

Living Room / Windows 8 Guide From MicroSoft

« Last post by Tinman57 on November 03, 2012, 07:06 PM »

From Lockergnome

Microsoft is aware of the struggle that some may experience when first attempting to navigate this new operating system, and has taken peremptory action by offering a free Windows 8 guide for IT Professionals. This guide covers many of the features that you most likely will be using, and is available for all versions of Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro, Windows Enterprise, and Windows RT. In addition, the manual offers some tips and tricks as well as revealing some of the hidden features as it guides you through the new operating system.


http://download.micr...Free_Preview_PDF.pdf

1045

Living Room / First Time With Win 8

« Last post by Tinman57 on November 03, 2012, 07:02 PM »

Hilarious.  Users first time with Windows 8

1046

Living Room / Win 8 Zero-Day Exploit

« Last post by Tinman57 on November 03, 2012, 06:48 PM »

VUPEN Researchers Say They Have Zero-Day Windows 8 Exploit

Controversial bug hunters and exploit sellers VUPEN claimed to have cracked the low-level security enhancements featured in Windows 8, Microsoft's latest operating system.

http://threatpost.co...ows-8-exploit-110112

1047

Coding Snacks / Re: Single click focus, double click bring to front

« Last post by Tinman57 on November 03, 2012, 06:31 PM »

Anyone...? Anyone...? Is there a technical reason as to why this is difficult? I'm happy to pay someone who knows what he/she is doing to code this utility.

Anyone...?

-bendecker (November 03, 2012, 06:05 PM)

  I'm not positive, but I remember seeing an app on either PCWorld.com or ZDnet that does exactly what you are talking about.


  BTW, I still have my old Amiga 500 in the closet, still in the original box.  lol

1048

Living Room / Re: History of CP/M

« Last post by Tinman57 on November 03, 2012, 04:47 PM »

This brings back memories. My first computer was a Kaypro II, CPM based transportable. Like my first car, I wish I had kept it.

-edbro (November 02, 2012, 09:22 PM)

  My CP/M machine was a Commodore 128C.  The 128C had 3 OS's, CP/M and the C-64 and C128 OS's.  About the only command I remember when booting up the 128 was "Go 64", which would boot up in C-64 mode.  Great little machine, I had a lot of fun on it.

1049

Developer's Corner / FundaGeek

« Last post by Tinman57 on November 03, 2012, 04:31 PM »

Have a new software idea? FundaGeek wants to help fund it.

This brand-new crowdfunding platform is targeted specifically at software developers.

http://www.pcworld.c...to-help-fund-it.html

1050

Living Room / History of CP/M

« Last post by Tinman57 on November 02, 2012, 08:39 PM »

  I've had this CP/M History file since the 80's.  For you old pharts like myself that remember the CP/M days, you may or may not find this interesting.  But it does show just how underhanded MS was in it's stolen code and the eventual death of CP/M, which was by far superior to MS's OS at the time.  Unfortunately this file got trashed long ago, and when I recovered it the first headers that gave credit to the author were munged, and it's been so long ago that I can't remember where I got it.  But I do know it was from a credible source, originating from a magazine.  Happy reading...

If many people today know of CP/M at all, they think of it as "the predecessor to DOS". Here's the real story of the birth, life and death of this once dominant operating system.

Birth

"Necessity is the mother of invention" the old saying goes. And its true; but as we all know it takes two to make a baby and in the case of CP/M the father was a man named Gary Kildall, who in 1975 was working as a consultant to Intel (inventors of the 8080 chip which at that time powered the majority of non-Apple microcomputers).

Kildall's task at Intel that year was to design and develop a language called PL/M for the 8080 chip, to be used as a systems development language. At the time, the chips themselves barely existed and Intel was just then starting to design a computer system that used the 8080. The plan was for Gary to use the 8080 emulator Intel had running on their big PDP-10 minicomputer, but he preferred to work directly on the 8080 itself, in part because by working on his own machine at home he could avoid the 50 mile drive to Intel to work every day. The only 8080-based computer Intel had available was called "Intellec-8", but it didn't have any software or disk storage attached to it. So Kildall obtained a used test floppy drive free from Shugart Associates, attached it to the Intellec-8 with a controller designed by his friend John Torode, and wrote a primitive operating system for it which he called CP/M.

CP/M was developed on Intel's 8080 emulator under DEC's TOPS-10 operating system, so naturally many parts of CP/M were inspired by it, including the eight character filenames with a three-character extension that every MS-DOS/Windows 3.X user still lives with today.

Developing and debugging an operating system is a tough job, and it always takes longer than you thought it would (probably because if you were realistic about estimating the true time and effort it will take, you wouldn't have the heart to begin). By the end of 1975, Kildall at last had CP/M version 1.0 ready and had started on PL/M, but Intel was no longer interested in the systems development language by that time. Gary offered CP/M to them, but the company saw no potential in it and declined to market it.

By 1976, the world was moving onward and upward. Intel was so busy selling bucketloads of 8080 chips to the many small and growing computer manufacturers that it didn't miss a dubious opportunity to get into the software business one bit. Many of these new companies had neither the time nor expertise to write their own proprietary operating systems (as the first pioneers in the field, or tried to do, with little success). A company called IMSAI, which built a very successful 8080-based system, had just started marketing their own floppy disk system, and needed some software to use it -- fast. They heard about Kildall and his CP/M, and contacted him.

They wanted it, and he wanted to sell it, but the trouble was CP/M was written to only use "standard" IBM-compatable soft-sectored floppy disks. IMSAI had a different, incompatible flavor of floppy. At this point, most ordinary programmers would simply have changed the operating system to use the different format and sold it, but Gary Kildall had a better idea. What he did was separate out the parts of CP/M version 1 that addressed the specific format of the diskettes, and placed them in a separate module he called the BIOS, for Basic Input/Output System. That way, the system could easily be adapted to new hardware without having to rewrite or even revise the complex heart of the software.

His decision to "do it right", even though it took extra time and effort, led to the establishment of CP/M as the first cross-platform operating system. Other new hardware startups need not write their own software, they could buy CP/M and adapt it themselves to their unique hardware. Further, because CP/M operated the same way on every 8080-based computer, other software developers were also relieved of the necessity of adapting their software products to each new machine -- they could write to be compatable with CP/M, and let it take care of the details of doing the I/O.

Kildall was an engineer, not a businessman, but he could recognize a gold mine when he saw one. He rapidly formed his own company, called Intergalactic Digital Research, to market and further develop CP/M and other products such as his abandoned PL/M.

Life

The company's seminal product was CP/M 2.0, which fully separated the three components of the operating system into logical pieces: the CCP (console command processor); the BDOS (Basic Disk Operating System); and the BIOS. Only the BIOS need be provided by anyone to get CP/M running on a new machine, the CCP and BDOS would be unchanged. CP/M 2.0 was quite buggy, and was quickly followed by 2.1 as a fix-up release. However, 2.1 was limited in its internal capacity to small floppy drives, and by 1977, hard drives were coming on the scene. CP/M version 2.2 added expanded disk formatting tables which could allow access to up to 8 (eight) megabytes per drive in up to 8 (eight) total drives. It was version 2.2 that became the megahit that dominated microcomputing almost from its outset.

It was CP/M's adaptability that gave it appeal and launched it on the road to success, but any operating system that had that characteristic might have succeeded in a similar way, given the right timing and some luck. But CP/M was more than just lucky -- it was good. It packed a surprizing amount of power in a tiny package, and did so in a simple, clean logical way. Many of its critics bemoaned its sometimes cryptic commands (rightly) and also its lack of powerful features. But it must be remembered that CP/M was designed in an age when it was a rare, high-end computer owner that could afford the thousands of dollars it took to fill up the whole 64K of the 8080's address space. The entire operating system took only 8K of the computer's memory, and would run in a mere 16K of total memory with room left over for any of its system development utilities to run. More features would have swelled the system to the point where decently featured applications would have had no room to execute.

And it was the applications that moved this operating system out of the realm of the computer enthusiasts and into the hands of "real users" (people who don't care if their computers are powered by hamsters, so long as they run their necessary applications reliably). The first real "killer app" for CP/M was probably WordStar, a word processing program that became very widely used. Also famous was the first microcomputer database application, dBASE II. These and many, many other applications and utilities eventually made CP/M a useful tool for a wide range of ordinary people.

By 1978, CP/M 2.2 had been ported to nearly every 8080 and Z80 based microcomputer built. In the end, more that 500,000 computers would be sold with CP/M as their operating system. It so dominated the microcomputer world by 1980 that it seemed hardly conceivable that any other operating system would ever be used on Intel-based computers.

Death

By 1981, the apogee of the CP/M orbit, a new generation of Intel microprocessors was on the horizon -- the 8086 and 8088 16-bit chips, which could address an incredible 1 megabyte of memory. This seemed at the time more than anyone could ever figure out a use for, so Digital Research focused much of their attention on producing CP/M 3.0 for the dominant 8080/Z80 platform. There were plans of course to port CP/M to the new 16-bit chips with a version called CP/M-86, but it was not a priority at the time.

But IBM planned on entering the microcomputer market in a serious way in 1981, and the computer giant had its own priorities and a great deal of money and marketing power to back them up. IBM chose the new 8088 chip as the heart of their new PC, and of course they needed an operating system to run on it. Instead of writing their own, as they generally did with a new machine, time and the demands of the market led them to Digital Research's door to license the ubiquitous CP/M for the new IBM-PC.

As the now-famous story goes, Gary Kildall was not there to open that door when IBM came calling -- an avid amateur pilot, he was flying his private plane on a business trip to the Bay area. His wife and business partner, confronted with IBM's imposing code of secrecy and nondisclouse agreements, refused to sign even enough for talks to begin. Rebuffed by what they considered arrogance, the IBMer's went elsewhere -- to Seattle and another small young software firm called Microsoft. A deal was struck there, and as they say, the rest is history.

While DR did finally announce CP/M 3.0, a more full featured successor to the successful 2.2, the upgrade was only for 8080/Z80 based systems which were no longer seen as the coming thing by the public. And CP/M-86 was ported to the IBM-PC, but by that time IBM was practically giving away the new PC-DOS operating system. Except for a diehard core of those that loved it for what it was, CP/M began rapidly to vanish from the land of living operating systems.

But like a ghost from the past, CP/M refuses completely to die. It's familar A> prompt is echoed in the MS-DOS prompt, which is still a part of the Windows and OS/2 DOS boxes today. At a deeper level, the first 36 DOS system calls mirror their CP/M counterparts with a strange concurrance. There were and still are rumors that the original code of MS-DOS 1.0 was copied from CP/M by its designer (who worked for a company called Seattle Computer Products from which it was purchased by Microsoft). Long after the dust had settled, Gary Kildall himself told several interviewers "Ask Bill [Gates] why the string in function 9 is terminated by a dollar sign. Ask him, because he can't answer, only I know that.".