Recent Posts

10451

Living Room / Re: Should we have a yearly Best Avatar award on DC?

« Last post by 40hz on March 25, 2009, 12:33 AM »

Cool  quick response, one of the best movies ever in my opinion

-rgdot (March 25, 2009, 12:29 AM)

I agree. The now classic scene with Julie Hagerty and Otto the inflatable autopilot was absolutely priceless - as was Robert Stack's performance throughout.

 

10452

Living Room / Re: Should we have a yearly Best Avatar award on DC?

« Last post by 40hz on March 25, 2009, 12:28 AM »

Mine is not best or award winning but who can identify it? 

-rgdot (March 25, 2009, 12:23 AM)

Bob Hayes as Ted Striker in Airplane?

10453

Living Room / Re: Should we have a yearly Best Avatar award on DC?

« Last post by 40hz on March 25, 2009, 12:26 AM »

App wins, hands down!

-nosh (March 24, 2009, 10:35 PM)

I'm in awe of App's absolutely awesome avatar. It's clever on so many levels.

(Though you should verify that those images that cat is Googling are SFW before handing it to her.)

But wouldn't that depend on who the W is?

----------

P.S. Josh's little 'bug thing' is pure evil. Every so often I forget and try to squash it. (Yee-hah! Go Josh!   )

10454

General Software Discussion / Re: Your most used SPECIAL programs

« Last post by 40hz on March 24, 2009, 06:34 PM »

I once got a tour of a state forensic lab. It looked just like where I went to grammar school: beige cinderblock walls, yellowed linoleum floors, garish overhead fluorescent lights, doors with 200 coats of dark green paint...

-40hz (March 24, 2009, 09:07 AM)

So we can't expect to find a Temperance Brennan working there as well

-Lashiec (March 24, 2009, 05:48 PM)

Well, there was one very attractive 30-ish woman (who had the whole Elizabeth Mitchell* thing going for her) walking around with a lab coat on. But she was also sporting a large diamond wedding ring, so...

---
*

In case you're wondering:

10455

Living Room / Re: What is Twitter: A Funny Sarcastic Cartoon

« Last post by 40hz on March 24, 2009, 05:22 PM »

Here's a cody-fail for anyone that needs it on March 28th.

10456

General Software Discussion / Re: Free HTML/PHP IDE

« Last post by 40hz on March 24, 2009, 05:04 PM »

Just out of curiosity, why is the Drupal plug-in twice as expensive as the other ones?

P.S. Very elegant looking app by the way.

10457

Living Room / Re: "Society doesn’t need newspapers. What we need is journalism."

« Last post by 40hz on March 24, 2009, 04:45 PM »

40hz, in the age of twitter, Digg and MySpace, can you really say your professor was right? 

-Paul Keith (March 24, 2009, 10:01 AM)

I think so. But I (like him) differentiate between talk and mindless vocalization.

I think Twitter does too. Otherwise why would they call a member's posting a tweet?

(You didn't actually think they were trying to be clever did you? )

10458

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

« Last post by 40hz on March 24, 2009, 03:05 PM »

since there's bi-lingual regulations, don't you suppose that somebody, somewhere would be able to read Welsh before the sign was printed?

-f0dder (March 24, 2009, 12:06 PM)

Yeah, you would think they'd do that wouldn't you?

But if your government agencies are anything like they are in my town...

What's even worse is when you depend on web-based translation services...
 (see attachment in previous post)
 

-Edvard (March 24, 2009, 02:42 PM)

Hope it wasn't meant to say: Fire. Evacuate building immediately!

10459

Living Room / Re: Linux vs. Vista for an absolute beginner? (+related Vista/hardware query)

« Last post by 40hz on March 24, 2009, 02:07 PM »

3) there's also the aspect that I'll get called on if there's a problem - while I might cope with Vista, I've never used Linux so have no idea how that might be

-tomos (March 24, 2009, 10:41 AM)

End of discussion. Spare yourself a lot of grief. Have them go with Vista.

The specs sound pretty OK for Vista, btw. RAM might be a bit in the low end, but I don't suppose they're going to be heavy users. Run the thing through vLite and they should be OK

-f0dder (March 24, 2009, 12:22 PM)

+1 with f0dder on that.

10460

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

« Last post by 40hz on March 24, 2009, 09:55 AM »

When autoresponders strike back!

Link: http://revealingerro...onder_road_sign.html



Text for a street sign in Swansea (Wales) was sent out for translation to comply with bi-lingual sign regulations. Unfortunately, what came back says:

"I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated."

Apparently the translation request hit somebody's autoresponder and was mistaken for a human reply.

10461

Living Room / Re: "Society doesn’t need newspapers. What we need is journalism."

« Last post by 40hz on March 24, 2009, 09:42 AM »

A philosophy professor of mine once argued that the bulk of human language is directed at bringing about a result or desired action rather than to transmit information.

When people talk to other people, it's usually for a reason: do this; believe this; buy this; get angry about this; like this; come to bed with me...

Most of what passes for journalism supports this contention.

10462

General Software Discussion / Re: Your most used SPECIAL programs

« Last post by 40hz on March 24, 2009, 09:07 AM »

So I came to ask if any of you guys know about a more reasonable priced IMAGE ENLARGER that is far better than average?  :tellme

-Curt (March 23, 2009, 09:30 AM)

Ask all the people in TV and Movies that seem to have a 1-click application to enlarge images with higher fidelity than an electron microscope.

Queue actor: "Can you enhance that?" 

-tinjaw (March 23, 2009, 12:19 PM)

Yeah! And why are all those forensic labs swathed in shadows and mood lights? You never once see overhead florescents and 'institution green' walls on these shows.

I once got a tour of a state forensic lab. It looked just like where I went to grammar school: beige cinderblock walls, yellowed linoleum floors, garish overhead fluorescent lights, doors with 200 coats of dark green paint...

And it didn't smell all that great either...

(Now there's something you won't get watching those movies and TV shows.)

10463

General Software Discussion / Re: Best password manager?

« Last post by 40hz on March 24, 2009, 06:42 AM »

Am I the only person in the world that has a real problem   with storing a password list online, no matter who with? I don't even allow my e-mail client or browser to remember them.

-40hz (March 22, 2009, 04:13 PM)

I'm with you. I'd never trust my passwords to an online entity (well, storing an encrypted document that I have complete control of would work).

-f0dder (March 22, 2009, 06:46 PM)

Actually, that's not a bad idea.

I'd still use some 'fake-outs' on the list - but saving an encrypted attachment in a GMail account that someone could be given access to in an emergency might be something worth considering.

That would yield three independent levels of security: the GMail account password; the encryption key and methodology used on the attachment; and advance knowledge of the fake-out scheme employed within the password list.

Since I'm a nobody (i.e. "having little power, wealth, or influence") that would be more than enough security for my uninteresting life.

10464

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox Extensions: Your favorite or most useful

« Last post by 40hz on March 23, 2009, 09:47 PM »

I've recently become rather fond of Canaware's NetNotes application. Sort of a cross between TreeNotes and Taboo. It can be set up to work with either Firefox or Explorer.



Link: www.canaware.com

Canaware NetNotes is a handy tool which offers you the ability to capture, save and organize your favorite Web pages into your own knowledge base.

You can capture a complete Web page or the portion you like such as images, specific paragraphs or source code snippets by a right-clicking in the Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox , and the potential dangerous scripts hidden in the Web page will be removed automatically.

You can also categorize, organize, view, edit and search the articles in the knowledge base with a WYSIWYG article editor.

 

10465

Living Room / Re: What is Twitter: A Funny Sarcastic Cartoon

« Last post by 40hz on March 23, 2009, 06:24 PM »

I always wondered what happened to all those homeless people I used to see wandering around New York City - the ones that were always gesticulating and laughing and mumbling non sequiturs to invisible friends...

Now I know.

10466

Living Room / Re: BIOS Level malware attack

« Last post by 40hz on March 23, 2009, 06:06 PM »

The concept has been proposed before. And there have been several urban legends about so-called rogue BIOS infections. However, if this story turns out to be true, this is the first time anybody who figured out how was willing to demo it.

Either way, it's worth noting that in order for something like this to work, somebody has to flash the BIOS. It doesn't install itself. It requires user intervention. Or does until they start to deploy  self-updating BIOS chips. (Don't hold your breath on that one! ) And even then, requiring a simple hardware switch setting to flash the BIOS would stop it cold.

Unfortunately, there's nothing anybody can do to completely protect a system from its owner's actions.

So how much has changed in the wake of this development? Not much really. I don't think this is going to be all that big a security threat. It's just going to be one more potential risk we'll need to be aware of and watch out for.

In the past, we never used to worry all that much about flashing our BIOS. Now, maybe we should. Just a little...

 

10467

Living Room / Re: What would it take to create and then sell a very successful website?

« Last post by 40hz on March 23, 2009, 03:36 PM »

Let me know what you guys think.

-gary1095 (March 23, 2009, 02:16 PM)

I'm pessimistic. And I hope you prove me completely wrong.

I wish you the best of luck in your venture.

 

10468

Living Room / Re: What would it take to create and then sell a very successful website?

« Last post by 40hz on March 23, 2009, 01:10 PM »

Of course there's also that tiny little detail about how to prevent others from just taking your idea and running with it if it proves viable. Especially if they have deep pockets.

I do think the era of Internet Cinderella stories is pretty much over. You have too many well-funded and technically adroit companies actively monitoring just about everything that's going on for there to be much opportunity to slip below their radar.

YouTube, Yahoo, and all the other success stories made their mark before the 'big boys' caught on. The Big Boys won't make that mistake again. Look at online movie delivery. All it would take to sink Hulu is for the movie studios and TV networks to decide they would only allow streaming from their own sites and Hulu and the rest of them are doomed.

I think you'd need to come up with something totally unique and unintuitive before you stood a chance of creating a new multimillion dollar web niche.

10469

Living Room / Re: What would it take to create and then sell a very successful website?

« Last post by 40hz on March 23, 2009, 12:52 PM »

I think the key issue is what value is being offered by the website.



There are thousands of great ideas. But not all of them are viable as businesses. That's why we have charitable organizations and government. Those are the institutions we've created to provide needed services that don't make sense from a business perspective.

About once a week somebody suggests to me that I really "need" to start offering in-home tech support for people without much technical knowledge or money. "There's an incredible NEED for somebody to provide that." I'm told. (That much I can agree with.) But then they show how little they understand business by concluding: "You could make millions doing that."

Hmm...let me see...I should start a business to provide onsite hand-holding to 'high maintenance' clients that don't have a lot of money to spend...


See the problem? It's a nice idea - and it addresses a genuine need - but here's no business there.

-------------
BTW: Don't be afraid of being the nay-sayer. The age old business questions will always remain, no matter what market you try to enter: Who is going to buy your product. Does anybody want it? Does it address a significant need? How will people pay for it? How can you protect your product from competition? yadda-yadda

Old joke:

Q: How do you make a small fortune on the Internet in just 90 days?

A: Buy our book - and start with a large fortune.

10470

General Software Discussion / Re: Best password manager?

« Last post by 40hz on March 22, 2009, 04:13 PM »

Am I the only person in the world that has a real problem   with storing a password list online, no matter who with? I don't even allow my e-mail client or browser to remember them.

10471

General Software Discussion / Re: WINDOWS 7 THREAD (ongoing)

« Last post by 40hz on March 22, 2009, 04:06 PM »

It just kills me that Sun did what Microsoft could and should have done in the first place instead of FUD-ing and fighting. They used freely available open source code to build seamless, intuitive support for ODF into MS Word. No unmaintainable XSLT. No funky, redundant additional menu items. No tortuous workflow designed to make users treat ODF as second class. No pre-requisite for the OOXML add-in to make it work.

Now if we could start to work on an open filesystem for Windows....

-zridling (March 21, 2009, 04:31 AM)

Well...if you're gonna confuse the issue with common sense and logic, we might as well end the discussion right here.

10472

Living Room / Re: Who else is sick of difficult word verifications on the web?

« Last post by 40hz on March 22, 2009, 01:53 PM »

10473

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

« Last post by 40hz on March 22, 2009, 01:30 PM »

Sheep as pixels? Extreme shepherding?


(Looks like the boys were hitting the Stout pretty hard again...  )

Found this video over at Daily Cup of Tech.

Link: http://www.dailycupo...ixels/#comment-47479

Some of it is obviously photo manipulated, but it doesn't detract from the cleverness of the idea.

(Even if it does nothing more than prove that being out all alone with a flock of sheep for too long does something to a guy.  )

10474

General Software Discussion / Re: OpenOffice has its own aggregated news 'Planet' site -- cool!

« Last post by 40hz on March 21, 2009, 12:44 PM »

Nice find Zaine! I'll be adding this one to my feed list for sure.

10475

General Software Discussion / Re: Freeware Image Organizer (Especially Tags/Keywords)?

« Last post by 40hz on March 21, 2009, 12:41 PM »

You might want to take a look at PhotoMesa.



Link: http://www.windsorin....com/photomesa.shtml

PhotoMesa is a zoomable image browser.  It allows the user to view multiple directories of images at once, and uses simple navigation commands to smoothly zoom in and out.

PhotoMesa requires only images on disk, and does not require any annotation, importing to a database, or other organization.

    * Easy to get started
    * See multiple folders at once
    * Browse thousands of photos
    * Find all the photos on your hard drive
    * Supports many image filetypes:
      JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, EMF, ICON, TIF, WMF
    * Easy name, category and caption annotation
    * Fast search by any kind of annotation
    * Preview in place on mouse over
    * Drag and drop into email
    * Easy enough for a child to use -
      left click zooms in, right click zooms out

The interface lets you concentrate on the images, without having to manage scrollbars, menus, or pop-up windows.