Recent Posts

10251

General Software Discussion / Re: Company audited my computer. Found many "unauthorized" software. Lol.

« Last post by 40hz on May 20, 2009, 10:30 PM »

"We personally believe Mouser is executive material."

10252

General Software Discussion / Re: Company audited my computer. Found many "unauthorized" software. Lol.

« Last post by 40hz on May 20, 2009, 02:32 PM »

you up for something like that?

sure.

however my limited experience with companies tells me they won't approve it unless i charge them a very high fee for a corporate site license.  that seems to be the main way they know it's legitimate software 

and so i will include a bill for $10,000.

-mouser (May 20, 2009, 01:11 PM)

Mouser! This is large, hulking, no-brain corporate IT you're gonna talk to.

Stop thinking so small.

Make it at least $50K for the initial license plus $7K for annual maintenance and upgrades. Play your cards right and they might even cough up an additional $10K for 'training' and 'support' tokens.

(Don't laugh. I've seen some of the Big Boys go for deals as ridiculous just to get the issue off their desks. They were going on vacation the following week and wanted it 'done' before they left.  )



"Now you're negotiating!"

10253

General Software Discussion / Re: SIMPOL is here!

« Last post by 40hz on May 20, 2009, 11:21 AM »

So, what is this? A payware closed-source frankenBASIC using wxWidgets?

-f0dder (May 19, 2009, 06:28 PM)

Don't be so harsh. 

It's a descendant of Superbase, which was one of the first database RADs for personal computers. (MagicPC  and Clarion were two others.) It was way ahead of its time when it first came out. Surprisingly powerful too. Sort of an early version of MS Access.

One company I worked with had a German subsidiary that was actively developing all sorts of neat business and financial apps with Superbase for internal use. And they were running Superbase on Amigas!!! (Which tells you how long ago that was! )

 

10254

Living Room / Re: How many countries represented here on DC ?

« Last post by 40hz on May 19, 2009, 01:19 PM »

Still doesn't work! 

-CleverCat (May 19, 2009, 03:12 AM)

Being on the wrong screen can be a pin in the arras.

-cranioscopical (May 19, 2009, 10:21 AM)

And that's 'curtains' for sure!

10255

Living Room / Re: Wolfram Alpha - Impressions On Launch

« Last post by 40hz on May 18, 2009, 10:40 AM »

I gave it a try.

1) My impressions after using it: Interesting. With a lot of work, it might actually be useful...someday.


2) My take on most of the claims currently being made for it:




Wolfram-WOW!!!


 

10256

General Software Discussion / Re: What's your favorite computer game from when you were young?

« Last post by 40hz on May 16, 2009, 05:58 PM »

I could never narrow it down to just one.

M.U.L.E., Seven Cities of Gold, Elite, and Ultima III Exodus on the Commodore 64







-------------


Zork on the TRS-80. One of the best text adventures ever written

-------------

Cosmic Osmo (first Cyan game) on the Macintosh



Also check out this great link if you're interested in When Multimedia Was Black & White:

http://www.smackerel.../black_white_01.html




OK. OK. If forced, I'd have to say Elite was my favorite.

10257

General Software Discussion / Re: accountancy software

« Last post by 40hz on May 15, 2009, 05:33 PM »

It's not so much the size of the company as the number of data records I was thinking about.

My (small) company uses Peachtree Accounting. It doesn't have the function you're looking for, and I'm not sure if there are any off-the-shelf packages that do. But what almost all of them do have are data export capabilities. Some also provide integrated or 3rd party report writers that allow for fairly complex reports to be generated from the underlying data.

By way of example, we need several work order analytical reports that Peachtree doesn't provide. We get around that by exporting the relevant raw data which we then import into a series of macro driven Excel spreadsheets. MS Office Excel and Word then generate all the nifty management reports we need. The entire process is now script driven and fairly easy to do. (Note: Peachtree also has 'bigger' and more capable accounting packages available. But they're fairly expensive and border on overkill for my organization so I can't comment on how well something like that would work for your company.)

Depending on the complexity of the reports, and the size of the data sets, our simple approach may or may not be viable for your company. However, if the accounting package you use has an SQL type database underneath it, you should be able to easily extract whatever you want and have some custom programs/scripts/reports written to meet your requirements.

If you go this route, the single most important criteria for selecting an accounting product would be the degree of 'granularity' in your data sets. Your accounting app would need to keep detail records of the data you need in its database. Not all accounting packages do. Some summarize and regularly purge detail records as part of a closing process or file maintenance procedure, so you'll have to ask the package's vendor just what data is tracked, at what level of detail, and how long it's retained.

Best bet is to do a mock-up of the report(s) you want and ask "Can your package do this?" And if not, "Can I get at the data needed to do it myself?"

Many accounting package vendors can arrange to provide a working demo of their product. Take advantage of that before you buy if they offer one. Also inquire into what training and support options are available. If you're going off manual accounting and onto a computer-based system for the first time, you'll want as much help, training, and support as you can get. It's a big job. Doable, but still a lot of work.

Hope this helps. Post any other questions or concerns here and I'll do my best to help you out.



Luck!

10258

General Software Discussion / Re: What the hell is OpenCandy?

« Last post by 40hz on May 15, 2009, 04:50 PM »

If you haven't seen the YouTube video I put up yesterday, it's available here: http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=7Wr5DIbOAaA

-drapps (May 15, 2009, 03:09 PM)

I watched it and, quite frankly, I didn't like it. To my mind, it felt a bit like when a sales clerk attempts to do an "up sell" on me while I'm trying to check out.

Just my 2¢

I also asked four other people to watch it, and made it a point to say nothing other than: What do you think about this service? All four said it wasn't something they much cared for. One of them went so far as to say she though it 'presumptions.'

Just their 2¢

Between them and me you now have a dime's worth of customer input! 

10259

Living Room / Re: Flight simulator site avsim.com loses 13 years of community data to hacker

« Last post by 40hz on May 15, 2009, 01:40 PM »

Backup strategies aside, I think it's still important to remember that this loss was not caused by technical problems or lack of offline backups. It was caused by a malicious individual (or individuals) who consciously decided to destroy something of value for no justifiable reason.

This was not a hack or an exploit. This was an act of criminal vandalism.

It's especially sad because this site was probably a "soft target" from a hacker's perspective, and therefor won't garner much by way of "bragging rights" in those circles where crashing a server is viewed as a form of entertainment.

Very sad story.

I would be nice if all the real hackers out there got together and hunted down the parties responsible.

10260

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by 40hz on May 15, 2009, 01:22 PM »

f0dder: I agree it doesn't fit the meme exactly, but as you well know, the rules of many memes are frequently bent to the dismay of a thousand 4channers...

-Edvard (May 15, 2009, 12:09 PM)

It also all depends on whose même you're citing. To my way of thinking, MasterCard came up with the original, and their message was that, whatever 'priceless,' applied to was always to be taken as a positive outcome.

And just because a bunch of sarcastic webkiddies and trolls decided to hijack it, and make a cottage industry out of parodying those MasterCard ads, doesn't mean that I have to go along with it. 

"Those who can't do, teach. Those who can do neither, mock."

You're just mad cause it's a fanboi shirt

Edvard! Priceless!!! 

10261

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by 40hz on May 14, 2009, 11:29 PM »

the whole point of the "priceless" meme is that the priceless thing is supposed to be something negative

-f0dder (May 14, 2009, 07:10 PM)

Um...not where I come from!

In the USA, the word 'priceless' would (in this particular context and joke framework) be interpreted to mean a combination of "delightfully amusing" and "having a value beyond any price" (see definition 1a & 3 below).  Neither interpretation suggests negativity.

'Priceless' is also frequently (and incorrectly IMHO) used as a synonym for the word 'perfect' where I live.

from Webster's Dictionary

Priceless

Pronunciation: \ˈprīs-ləs\

Function: adjective

Date: 1594

1 (a) having a value beyond any price : invaluable (b) costly because of rarity or quality : precious

2: having worth in terms of other than market value

3: delightfully amusing, odd, or absurd

I do think, however, that the last two sentences don't really work. It would have read better if the author left them out.

 

10262

Living Room / Re: Looking for a newsgroup news reader

« Last post by 40hz on May 14, 2009, 10:44 PM »

I am little flaky regarding checking out sources nowadasy because of the tasks I need to finish.

-kartal (May 14, 2009, 10:43 PM)

Boy do I know that feeling. Try to get some rest. Ciao!

10263

Living Room / Re: Looking for a newsgroup news reader

« Last post by 40hz on May 14, 2009, 10:41 PM »

The thing is that it is hard to tell what kind of groups they run and the level of activity. I am sure there are all kinds but is this a private or connected to other usenet groups as well?

-kartal (May 14, 2009, 10:17 PM)

If you go to the homepage, there's a link to the complete list of groups they carry There's also a search box to check for specific groups if you know the name.

Astraweb is a private company that provides individuals with access to Usenet news groups. AFAIK they are not connected with any specific Usenet group or affiliated with any other newsgroup provider.

Posting activity will vary depending on the group itself. Astraweb has no control or influence over that. But postings to active groups show up almost immediately on Astraweb's servers as far as I can determine. If I refresh the headers in my newsreader while I'm in a very active group, I'll almost always see several additional new posts each time I hit the button. And any time I've posted, I've seen my header show up in the group within a few minutes.

(Too bad Astraweb doesn't offer a free 14-day trial like Giganews.com does. )

10264

Living Room / Re: Looking for a newsgroup news reader

« Last post by 40hz on May 14, 2009, 10:09 PM »

Not a problem. I guessed that was what you meant.

In that case, Astraweb's pay-by-download plans are definitely the most economical.

10265

Living Room / Re: Looking for a newsgroup news reader

« Last post by 40hz on May 14, 2009, 10:04 PM »

Which news server is good nowadays for checking back archieves or new posts? I do do binaries or other stuff, I just want to be able check out some culture, computer, news ,language related stuff maybe.

-kartal (May 14, 2009, 09:34 PM)

I use Astraweb. Currently providing 270 days retention - and also in the process of going to a fulll 365!

Plans are available at different price points.

Link: http://www.news.astraweb.com/index.html

If you're not downloading a lot of binaries, one of their less expensive "Pay by Download" plans would be your best option.

The Pay-by-Download plans are designed to give you the freedom to use Usenet when you want, as you want. There are no fixed monthly terms, just pay as you download. The Pay-by-Download plans include:

- No time limits
- No censoring
- No monitoring
- No posting limits
- No expiry date on your credits
- Maximum 50 simultaneous connections
- Headers are not counted towards your downloads

$10/25GB or $25/120GB of total downloads (with no expiry date) should last you close to forever. Especially if you are primarily interested in reading posts and aren't in the habit of grabbing files you probably shouldn't be downloading anyway. 

10266

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by 40hz on May 14, 2009, 06:55 PM »

10267

Living Room / Re: My daughter kind of stuck in France

« Last post by 40hz on May 14, 2009, 03:32 PM »

She could always spend a few weeks in London.

Since every Aussie will sooner or later find themselves working behind a bar in the UK she might as well get it over and done with now 

-katykaty (May 13, 2009, 12:27 PM)

10268

Living Room / Re: Looking for a newsgroup news reader

« Last post by 40hz on May 14, 2009, 03:26 PM »

I still use Luu Tran's marvelous XNews.

Link: http://xnews.newsguy.com/

It won't win any beauty pageants. And it hasn't been updated in years. But it's simple to use, has excellent binary file support, does everything I want it to - and (more importantly) nothing I don't.

These days, I really can appreciate software like that.

I've tried all the big names out there: Forte Agent, Plucker, NewsGator, SharReader - and Pan and Liferea on Linux. But I always keep coming back to Xnews.

10269

General Software Discussion / Re: What the hell is OpenCandy?

« Last post by 40hz on May 14, 2009, 09:27 AM »

Just out of curiosity, what made the developers decide to use the word "open" as part of the product name? I'm curious since doing so usually makes people think such products are GPL/FOSS applications.

 

I'm also a little puzzled by this comment you made:

I didn’t expect to wake up this morning to a Google Alert about OpenCandy being raked over the proverbial coals.

It seems to me that running an early warning system such as this indicates that there has been serious concern on the part OpenCandy about negative comments to the extent that "Big Brother Google" is being used to seek out and monitor them. I think this says quite a bit about the mindset of the company.

I'd also take issue with your characterization of some of the early posts on this topic as: OpenCandy being raked over the proverbial coals. To my way of thinking, that comment seems to display a rather defensive attitude on the part of OpenCandy.

Which leads me to this question: How much negative pushback are you getting with this? Since you're monitoring via Google, I'd guess you'd have some very solid statistics you could share with us on on that topic beyond the usual "overall response has been very positive" PR boilerplate.

10270

General Software Discussion / Re: accountancy software

« Last post by 40hz on May 14, 2009, 09:09 AM »

Is this needed for a small or a large business?

Also, what product is this business currently using for for its accounting?

10271

General Software Discussion / Re: EC wants software makers held liable for code

« Last post by 40hz on May 14, 2009, 06:40 AM »

Who lets these people be in charge of things they know nothing about? How did the world get this way?

-Deozaan (May 13, 2009, 09:27 PM)

It's called democracy, baby.

Capitalism has made it this way - good old-fashioned fascism will take it away!

* f0dder ducks and covers.

-f0dder (May 14, 2009, 01:57 AM)

I forget who once said that the United States was a country founded on the principle that it was far better to ruled by a hundred idiots than one mad king.

I guess the EU just had to try it out for themselves to see if it was true.

*40hz pulls f0dder out of his foxhole, and after dodging a few stray bullets, takes him out for a drink. 

However, I am going to play devil's advocate and say that Ehtyar's assertion that open source and free software must be held to a different standard is something that can't last forever, just putting a text file saying this software is "as is" is not just ok. Don't expect that kind of a thing to be workable/acceptable in 10 or 20 years time.

-rgdot (May 13, 2009, 09:53 PM)

If somebody is going to held completely accountable for every possible consequence of anything they do, then the only intelligent response to such unlimited risk is to do nothing at all.

Perhaps we'll all soon reach the conclusion that the computer Joshua did in the film War Games:

"A strange game. The only winning move is not to play."

 

10272

General Software Discussion / Re: Drupal is f*cked

« Last post by 40hz on May 12, 2009, 06:03 PM »

James Thurber said it best: Mighty oafs from little icons grow.

-40hz (February 14, 2009, 01:59 PM)

And the icon doesn't fall far from the free.

-cranioscopical (May 12, 2009, 10:43 AM)

You never cease to amaze me.

10273

Living Room / Re: How many countries represented here on DC ?

« Last post by 40hz on May 12, 2009, 05:58 PM »

Canada

-rgdot (May 12, 2009, 01:47 PM)

Ah Halifax!  One of my favorite places. Home of the International Buskers Festival. May it never change.

10274

Living Room / Re: How many countries represented here on DC ?

« Last post by 40hz on May 12, 2009, 12:59 PM »

has there been any tabulations of the data presented here? would make a nice reading..

-lanux128 (May 12, 2009, 05:27 AM)

Maybe have a flag page like some websites?

10275

Living Room / Re: Tell me what your software DOESN'T do... (a rant)

« Last post by 40hz on May 12, 2009, 12:40 PM »

Dear mister generic developer, please tell me what your software does not do. Upfront-like. Thank you.

great point -- we would all be better off if programs gave us some bullet points of what they don't do, or don't do well.

-mouser (May 11, 2009, 05:58 PM)

The only problem with that is when somebody like Microsoft includes this verbiage in all their product licenses (emphasis added):

...provided AS IS without warranty of any kind. Microsoft disclaims all implied warranties including, without limitation, any implied warranties of merchantability or of fitness for a particular purpose.

Translated into standard English, this basically states that they don't claim their software can do anything. Period.