Recent Posts

10951

Living Room / Re: Recommendations for small, 4-port USB hub?

« Last post by 40hz on December 15, 2008, 09:42 AM »

From my experience, any of the major brands seem to work equally well. I tend to buy Belkin, more out of habit than for any solid technical reasons. I'd recommend getting one with an AC adaptor, or purchasing one to go along with it. I quickly discovered you'll need it more often than not.

I use this puppy:

http://www.newegg.co...Item=N82E16817394008



I bought it primarily for the two vertical plugs, since I do a lot of things with my collection of flash memory keys.

The only complaint I have with it is that it is very light. If you have some quality cables plugged in and hanging off the back of your desk, it tends to be dragged around. A hunk of masking tape solved the problem.

Nowadays, I have a 4-port PCI card and 4 more USB connectors on my mobo, so anything that tends to stay plugged in gets one of those ports. I also keep a multi-plug USB cable permanently attached to one of the ports on the mobo for anything that doesn't like to be on a hub.

If I were buying a new hub today, I'd probably go with this:

http://www.newegg.co...Item=N82E16817394030

What I'd really like would be for someone to do this idea up as a 4-port USB + 2-port Firewire version; and include a multiple memory card reader socket. That would be too cool.

10952

Living Room / Re: How will the Earth end?

« Last post by 40hz on December 15, 2008, 12:24 AM »

I stand by my comment - the only real hope for most other species on this planet is human extinction

-Carol Haynes (December 14, 2008, 08:18 PM)

'Giving up does not absolve us of the responsibility to do what is right."

10953

General Software Discussion / Re: Bear Bottoms Freeware: A very nice high-quality software site

« Last post by 40hz on December 15, 2008, 12:11 AM »

People are getting pretty antagonistic on this thread -- can i remind the DC regulars that the way we demonstrate tolerance and good manors here, is by acting respectful and showing by example how we expect people to behave, not by going on attack.

-mouser (December 14, 2008, 10:55 PM)

Very true.

Nevertheless the following does sound like a threat, doesn't it?

I own several companies that use contract coders, all of us are familiar with DC, it's fine reputation. I hate seeing it besmirched by association with slime.

-Silverstein (December 14, 2008, 06:56 PM)

I find that statement to be rather interesting. In order for DC to be besmirched, somebody would need to do the besmirching.

Is Silvertein implying that there will be "consequences" for DC because one of its members posted a link and comment about Bear Bottoms Freeware?

--------

A few thoughts:

First, I think it would be nice if somebody who came in making accusations like Silverstein would give us all a little more background on who he/she is? How about a real name and verifiable e-mail address for openers? Since Silverstein has stated he is a long time poster on ACF under his real name, it would do no harm to post it here.

Second, this is DC - not ACF. If Silvertein wants to provide supporting information to backup comments or allegations, he should provide them in the posting.  DC forum readers should not have to go searching ACF or browsing unverifiable web alias URLs to find that information.

Third (last time I checked) this is a country based on laws - not opinions, feelings, or secret knowledge. If Silverstein actually "knows" what Mr. Bottoms did or didn't do, then he should be talking to the relevant authorities, and not flaming about it like an adolescent blogger.

And FWIW, being "thoroughly investigated by the ACF" isn't really relevant. The ACF is not a court, nor is it police agency.

This country has recognized legal mechanisms and agencies for dealing with criminal and civil infractions. These mechanisms are based on law and derive their authority from legislation passed by elected representatives. The agencies that investigate infractions and enforce compliance with said laws, are also bound by the same laws, and subject to regulation and oversight. Anything outside of that is merely vigilantism.

Fourth, it may come as a surprise, but there are laws against defamation.

From Wikipedia (emphasis mine):

Slander per se

The four (4) categories of slander per se are (i) accusing someone of a crime; (ii) alleging that someone has a foul or loathsome disease; (iii) adversely reflecting on a person’s fitness to conduct her business or trade; and (iv) imputing serious sexual misconduct (especially the chastity of a woman). Once again, all you would have to prove is that someone had published the statement to a third party. No proof of special damages is required.

I don't know how it works in Louisiana, but up here in Connecticut, most of the statements Silvertein has posted would be considered legally actionable. And in the absence of any criminal or civil convictions against Mr. Bottoms, it wouldn't take long to get a judgment against Silvertein.

--------

In the end,  it all comes down to "put up or shut up" as the saying goes. But considering the seriousness of Silverstein's accusations, DC is hardly the place for that.

10954

Living Room / Re: Cyan plans to release MystOnline as open source

« Last post by 40hz on December 14, 2008, 10:49 PM »

It will be interesting to see what kind of license we end up with if they're looking for user contribution. A heavy handed one might see a lot of people alienated.
Any info on what language/dependancies we'll be looking at?

Ehtyar.

-Ehtyar (December 14, 2008, 04:12 PM)

Nyet so far on anything.

Guess we'll just have to wait. Hope they don't make you solve a puzzle first.

10955

Living Room / Cyan plans to release MystOnline as open source

« Last post by 40hz on December 14, 2008, 02:01 PM »

There was an interesting bit of news recently posed over at Heise Online.

http://www.heise-onl...pen-sourced--/112247

Seems that Cyan, creators of the legendary Myst series of interactive fiction games, now plans to release the source code for their ill-fated MystOnline MMO venture. Details are sketchy, and the announcement over at MystOnline is interesting although specific details are absent.

http://www.mystonline.com/

Open Source Uru Live

Shorah fans of Cyan,

As you may be aware, Cyan's situation has not improved on the "resources" front. We continue to work on small projects (including Myst for the iPhone/iPod Touch), and it looks like we will only be able to concentrate on projects that are fully funded for the foreseeable future.

However, all of us at Cyan and everybody that has ever worked on the creation and building of the dream called UruLive (a.k.a. Mudpie, Until Uru, MystOnline:UruLive and MORE) can not just let it die! (My definitions: "UruLive" is the original dream of the virtual world. And "MystOnline" is the current implementation of UruLive.)

So, Cyan has decided to give make MystOnline available to the fans by releasing the source code for the servers, client and tools for MystOnline as an open source project. We will also host a data server with the data for MystOnline. MORE is still possible but only with the help from fans.

This is a bit scary for Cyan because this is an area that we have never gone before, to let a product freely roam in the wild. But we've poured so much into UruLive, and it has touched so many, that we could not just let it whither and die. We still have hopes that someday we will be able to provide new content for UruLive and/or work on the next UruLive.

This is also a bit scary for the fans. We realize that this could turn UruLive into the "wild west" and lead to many fractured and diverse MystOnline servers. But it is our hope that with the help of dedicated core fans (if you are reading this, it probably means you) that a safe and secure MystOnline server set (many servers from around the world working together as one) can be created that will let people explore and live in UruLive.

We also are pretty sure that releasing MystOnline will result in some pleasant surprises for us. Our fans have always been so innovative, creative, and resourceful!

This release will probably be accomplished in stages, but we hope to get things ready for the first stage very quickly. More details to surely follow.

Exactly how this will play out, and how much control Cyan will retain on code access and use, remains to be seen.

Making code "open source" does not automatically mean it will be "free and/or unrestricted." Take a look at Java, or Microsoft's latest "open source" forays, and you'll see how the term "open" can take on many different meanings. There is no indication that Cyan is contemplating anything like a GPL licensing model at this point. And it's doubtful that they will go that route.

In some respects it almost sounds like Cyan is asking for a code and content bailout (as opposed to a  cash bailout) from its fanbase.

In the end, it all depends on what rights they retain; and under what legal terms they integrate outside contributions into their codebase. Hopefully they won't behave like Sun does with OpenOffice.

Still, if you're a coder (or just an armchair "code reader" like me), this looks to be an excellent opportunity to get a firsthand look at how a large-scale commercial MMO game is written. It's bound to be educational even if you never get directly involved.

Could be quite interesting.

 

10956

Living Room / Re: Repeated drive corruption

« Last post by 40hz on December 13, 2008, 02:28 PM »

Oh yeah, one other thought. Check the connector "pins" on the drive. Give the two connectors a little wiggle and see if it feels loose, or there are any cracks in the board they're part of. I did slightly crack a connector one time when I was plugging in the cable too forcefully (probably because I wasn't pushing it on straight) and the drive would format for a while before it failed.

(The manufacturer denied a warranty claim on that drive BTW. And sad to say - rightly so! )

10957

Living Room / Re: Recommend some music videos to me!

« Last post by 40hz on December 13, 2008, 01:06 PM »

[

Is it just me?

Thanks to xkcd.com for this. Great webcomics. Check it out!


Kidding aside, some technoish favorites:

Gary Numan - Down in the Park
http://www.youtube.c...&feature=related

and the classic Cars
http://www.youtube.c...&feature=related

Thomas Dolby - Radio Silence
http://www.youtube.c...&feature=related

Thomas Dolby - Windpower
http://www.youtube.c...&feature=related

Thomas Dolby-Airwaves
http://www.youtube.c...&feature=related

10958

Living Room / Re: How will the Earth end?

« Last post by 40hz on December 13, 2008, 12:30 PM »

but ultimately the only real hope for the planet and all other lifeforms is the extinction of the human cancer

-Carol Haynes (December 11, 2008, 04:06 AM)

Hope not.

10959

Living Room / Re: Repeated drive corruption

« Last post by 40hz on December 13, 2008, 11:27 AM »

Most likely the drive is screwed up. WD is not IMHO as reliable as they used to be.

If you want to eliminate other possibilities, you could also try the following:

Start simple. Try doing a partition boot sector repair on the drive followed by a reformat. Here's instructions if you don't already know how to do it:

http://pcsupport.abo...ht/newbootsector.htm

Other possibilities:

- Firmware issues. Check to see if your BIOS or chipset firmware needs updating? I've found a lot of problems (80%) get fixed by installing the most recent BIOS and chipset drivers.

- Bad/marginal data cable. Swap with known good.

- Power. Try switching wire from PS to drive.

- Bad SATA port/controller on mobo. Try switching drive to an alternate port and retry.
  (Also check SATA settings in BIOS.)

Good luck, and let us know how you make out.

10960

General Software Discussion / Browser security handbook now available for web developers

« Last post by 40hz on December 13, 2008, 11:03 AM »

This spotted via the Heise Security RSS feed:

http://www.heise-onl...ok--/features/112243

Worth Reading
The Browser Security Handbook


The Browser Security Handbook (BSH) is a reference for developers and security experts that covers the security features and mechanisms available in different browsers. The BSH currently covers Internet Explorer 6 and 8, Firefox 2 and 3, Safari, Opera, Chrome and the Android embedded browser.

It's in three sections, the first looks at the basic concepts involved, from URLs and Unicode, to HTML and JavaScript, then it moves on to the security features that browsers implement to prevent abuse or manipulation. This include detailed explanations how Same Origin policies are applied to cookies, Flash, XMLHttpRequests and Java, and how it affects developers. The final section looks at legacy and experimental security mechanisms.

from the handbook Introduction page: http://code.google.c...ki/Main#Introduction

Introduction

Hello, and welcome to the Browser Security Handbook!

This document is meant to provide web application developers, browser engineers, and information security researchers with a one-stop reference to key security properties of contemporary web browsers. Insufficient understanding of these often poorly-documented characteristics is a major contributing factor to the prevalence of several classes of security vulnerabilities.

Although all browsers implement roughly the same set of baseline features, there is relatively little standardization - or conformance to standards - when it comes to many of the less apparent implementation details. Furthermore, vendors routinely introduce proprietary tweaks or improvements that may interfere with existing features in non-obvious ways, and seldom provide a detailed discussion of potential problems.

10961

Living Room / Re: Windows software RAID

« Last post by 40hz on December 12, 2008, 01:25 PM »

40hz:[/b] server and desktop windows versions should have the same RAID implementation, really - there's a lot of code shared between the two, so really the difference mostly comes down to different registry defaults and some add-on stuff for the server editions.

-f0dder (December 12, 2008, 12:30 PM)

True. But Microsoft has become quite adept at limiting (i.e. crippling) features between the various versions of Windows; so I'm not sure it would work the same on all versions despite the fact that the underlying code may be identical. "Vee haf vays..." as the saying goes.

I've also seen complaints on various forums bemoaning how RAID is nowhere near as simple to set up on Vista as it is on Windows Server, so I suspect there might be something else going on. It probably has something to do with Vista's UAC, but again I don't know for sure. I only have Vista on one test machine, and I don't use it very much. I'm one of those people doing the "hold-on-XP-and-wait-for-Win7" thing.

Maybe this will help out. Here's a short article for newbies about going through the setup of a mirror on a small Win2k3 server. You could compare it to what you need to do for RAID on Vista:

http://technet.micro...gazine/cc160781.aspx

Basically, you install your drives ; format them as NTFS; install Windows Server; do your WSUS updates; convert your NTFS volumes to dynamic volumes (and you will get sick of rebooting when you do this step); mirror the first drive to the second; reboot and test.



And that's all there is to it if you use Windows Server. Easy.

10962

Living Room / Re: Email etiquette How to Decline Fowards/Junk?

« Last post by 40hz on December 12, 2008, 12:40 PM »

I'd also like to point out that this thread seems particularly sensitive to e-mail etiquette. Well, in my opinion, it is not proper e-mail etiquette to mass forward e-mails at all.

-Deozaan (December 12, 2008, 02:10 AM)

There was an interesting article up on 43Folders that touches on this most touchy of topics:

Link: http://www.43folders...008/12/09/pretending

[via trivium]

The High Cost of Pretending

danah boyd is finishing her dissertation, then going on vacation for a month. While, she’s gone, she’s not accepting email. At all. Got that?

No apology. No “vacation message” to pretend she’ll read it later. And no implied promise that the stuff people send to her will magically be tended to by an invisble army of interns and elves. While she’s away, every message she receives is simply discarded with a friendly response as to why.

Worth a read even if you find there's much you disagree with.

10963

General Software Discussion / Re: Outlook & 2GB PST limit

« Last post by 40hz on December 12, 2008, 09:16 AM »

Here's a link to a freeware attachment "stripper" like EZ Detach mentioned above

but there are a number of applications such as EZ-Detach and DetachPipe that can automatically save attachments to a location of the user's choice and insert a link to the new location.

http://www.kopf.com.br/outlook/

I have'n't trialled it yet as have only just discovered it.

-Clive (December 11, 2008, 09:41 PM)

Very cool find! Gonna have to give that a checkout this weekend.

10964

Living Room / Re: Windows software RAID

« Last post by 40hz on December 12, 2008, 09:06 AM »

I'm not laughing! I've had RAID hardware (Adaptec) malfunction and take out an entire array. The only way it could be 'fixed' was to do a recovery from external backups.

Windows mirroring provides acceptable performance on the server side.  I've got some departmental/small office installations (i.e. <= 25 users on WinServer2k3) that are performing quite nicely using software RAID-1. It does require you use 'dynamic' disk partitions. AFAIK, it does boot from the actual mirror partition.

Can't vouch for the desktop implementation since I'd rather just have a sane "recovery image & backup" procedure for those. I avoid RAID on desktops because it's expensive for what it gets you (unless you need striping for video or related media use) - and it tends to give you a false sense of security. Everybody I ever met who has RAID on their desktop box doesn't do backups because they think they're already protected.

10965

Living Room / Re: Linux holds kids back - that's what the teacher says! Windows fundamentalism?

« Last post by 40hz on December 11, 2008, 09:25 PM »

I've read the comments in his blog. This Ken guy's pretty skilled when it comes to yanking people's chains.
At the risk of being completely *wrong* in the face of, well, the world, I don't buy it. I just...don't buy it.

-SKesselman (December 11, 2008, 08:58 PM)

Yeah. Excellent point. On reflection, it does seem a little too extreme to be true.

The legal threat in the message  is what makes it particularly questionable. That's not something teachers do. Parents maybe, or school administrators, but not teachers.

And why no name or other information on the sender? That too seems very odd, since the Blog of Helios isn't usually shy about "naming names."

I'd be really surprised if "Helios" would be so stupid as to completely fabricate this thing themselves. But I wouldn't be surprised if somebody were jerking Ken Starks around a little bit. He's kicked over a few anthills in his time.

It would really be disappointing if it turns out that Ken knew this was a bogus e-mail, but still decided to be "taken in" by it so he could get up on the soapbox.

Oh well. The web is a big place. Sooner or later, the truth will come out.

10966

General Software Discussion / Re: advice needed.....FirstDefense-ISR, ShadowProtect, ShadowUser, Rollback Rx???

« Last post by 40hz on December 11, 2008, 08:29 PM »

With the registered version you can choose on the fly to save data at shutdown or not. With the free version you have to turn protection off, reboot, install your program or changes, turn protection back on and reboot.

-edbro (December 11, 2008, 08:21 PM)

Thanks edbro! Found that out 10 minutes after I shot my mouth off.

The really sad part about this is that I have the registered version. I just haven't installed it yet. I forgot I bought it. Talk about "dumb and dumber."

That is why it is a good idea to have your data files on a drive other than the system partition.

-edbro (December 11, 2008, 08:21 PM)

Excellent point. In my case, they usually are. I had moved some of them back to C because my secondary drive was failing and I hadn't gotten around to installing the new one by the time I decided to get stupid.

10967

General Software Discussion / Re: advice needed.....FirstDefense-ISR, ShadowProtect, ShadowUser, Rollback Rx???

« Last post by 40hz on December 11, 2008, 08:14 PM »

Anyone? Ok, to be more specific, what I don't get is doesn't either Returnil or ShadowProtect already back up your files on their own?

So how does having two backups secure the pc more than either program alone?

-Paul Keith (November 21, 2008, 08:24 AM)

Returnil isn't so much a backup as it is a prophylactic snapshot.

It creates a bootable virtual system partition that is used for as long as you are in the Returnil protected session. Once you reboot, you go back and boot off the real system partition that existed at the time you invoked Returnil's protection mode.

It's great for testing software. The only potential problem is that everything is running in virtual while Returnil is active. I once forgot to turn it off when I was finished with it. By the time I needed to reboot several hours later, I had forgotten Returnil was on. In the meantime, I had composed a draft report, received and answered several e-mails, downloaded a 600Mb ISO to my desktop, and did some software updates.

When I rebooted my machine, all of that vanished into thin air.

From the Returnil website:

Returnil virtualization technology clones a computer's System Partition and boots the PC into this system rather than native Windows, allowing you run your applications in a completely isolated environment. Hence the session and all activity, malicious or otherwise, will happen in the virtual environment, not in the real PC environment. If the PC is attacked or gets infected, all you need to do is to simply reboot the PC to erase all changes. After reboot, the system will be restored to its original state, as if nothing ever happened. All of this without sacrificing computer performance or usability while helping to reduce technical support intervention and the need for routine maintenance.

EDIT: I've just found out that the new Pro version of Returnil now supports disk caching as well as RAM caching, so stupid people like me won't have the problem I spoke about above:

http://www.returnilv...m.com/comparison.htm

From website FAQ:

Will I always have to reboot my system to change my System Protection mode?
No, but you will require a reboot to turn protection OFF. To turn ON protection without a reboot, simply use the Session Lock feature available from the Main Interface, the Tray Icon menu, or the Toolbar. The second issue here, "Turn off System Protection without reboot", is not a trivial thing to solve due to the design of Windows itself. We are exploring several ideas to address this, but remember there is a reason why even Microsoft itself must require a system reboot when installing some critical updates and patches.

> What is the difference between the System Protection and the Virtual Partition features?
The System Protection feature will clone a copy of your computer's System Partition in memory. The Virtual Partition is a feature that employs a file to simulate an actual partition on your hard disk drive so you can save data while the Protection is ON.

> Can the user choose to exclude files & folders when using System Protection or Session Lock?
No, when protection is ON, all changes made to the System Partition will be lost with a reboot. If you save the content within the Virtual Partition or on an alternate drive, then the data saved in the VIRTUAL PARTITION remains following a reboot.

> Why haven't you included a feature to allow exclusion in Returnil?
Either you save data within your Virtual Partition or you do not (no exclusion or inclusion list required). Unless you are an UBER system tweaker, developer, program tester, or researcher there is no overriding need to exclude anything from protection on the System Partition; break your default Windows save directory addiction!

10968

Living Room / Re: Linux holds kids back - that's what the teacher says! Windows fundamentalism?

« Last post by 40hz on December 11, 2008, 07:41 PM »

Wow!

The thing I find telling isn't the smack directed at Linux. It's this particular teacher's attitude that I find alarming.

I wouldn't care if she were bashing Linux, Windows, or anything else so much as I'm disturbed by the self-righteous and arrogant tone coming out of every sentence she's written.

And when you add in her hostility and general cluelessness, it goes beyond alarming and starts getting downright scary.

I wouldn't want someone like her allowed to be anywhere near a child.

10969

Living Room / Re: Recommend some music videos to me!

« Last post by 40hz on December 11, 2008, 07:26 PM »

Try Richard Galliano's album "Luz Negra" - I think you'll enjoy it

-tsaint (December 11, 2008, 05:29 PM)

Amazing.

I already had my credit card out after the second sample on Amazon. How long has this been going on?

http://www.amazon.co...229042975&sr=8-1

I especially liked: Tangaria; Chat pître; and Barbara. But I was completely blown away by Indifférence!

I'm thinking of what Indifférence would sound like scored for bass, jazz drums, and two flutes. It might be fun to arrange it so that the two flutes divide the melody and  "chase" each other back and forth like a couple of dueling sparrows. Ah, the possibilities... (hmm...maybe I'd better get started on that...)

Thank you ever so much.

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

Seems there's a lot of videos of Mssr. Galliano up on YouTube:

Enrico Rava And Richard Galliano play Spleen
http://www.youtube.c...&feature=related

Exquisite number with one of the arguably greatest trumpet players that ever lived. Enrico Rava was superb back when he played with Gato Barieri.  He's gotten even better since.

And this:

Richard Galliano Trio with Gary Burton - Il Postino
http://www.youtube.c...&feature=related

And...

(Oh Bloody! Now I know what I'm going to be doing for the next few days whenever I get a spare moment... )

10970

General Software Discussion / Re: Outlook & 2GB PST limit

« Last post by 40hz on December 11, 2008, 03:55 PM »

Microsoft say they fixed it with the new 2003 file format (but I'm not sure they succeeded - and it seems to introduce new problems of its own).

-Carol Haynes (January 22, 2008, 08:14 AM)

Unfortunately, they didn't manage to fix it then and I doubt they'll ever be able to unless they rethink the storage format. In my opinion, storing everything in a single file like this is usually a recipe for disaster and should be avoided at all cost. I just don't understand why they couldn't just store the emails as individual text files, or at least give you the option to. Sure you'd lose a little space due to cluster sizes etc., but with the average storage space people have available today I don't think anyone would really care, and the advantages more than outweigh this slight drawback.

-Dirhael (January 22, 2008, 08:27 AM)

Unfortunately, using any e-mail application as a PIM or database is asking for trouble. Almost as dangerous as using spreadsheet application for a database.

It may help to remember (or learn) that Outlook is primarily designed to be the desktop front-end for Microsoft Exchange. Once you take a look at how Exchange works, Outlook's internals start to make a lot more sense.

The big problem is message attachments. Messages themselves are not very large byte-wise. But once you add on all the attachments (PDFs, jpegs, mp3s, etc.) they can balloon to phenomenal sizes. A couple of hundred messages with some healthy PDFs (or videos) attached can easily put a mailbox over the 2Gb limit. I've seen that happen more than once.

With an Exchange Server and IMAP, the whole PST filesize limit becomes moot. There are huge savings in corporate drive space since attachments are stored as a single instance and aren't replicated and stored to individual user folders or mailboxes. In an Exchange environment, message attachments are pointers which link to the actual single-instance file. This might not sound like such a big deal, but when you're attaching a 6Mb PDF (say something like a copy of the new company health benefit package) to an announcement going out to a list of 2000 employees, the space savings is huge.

So yes, there is a reason why MS does it the way they do.

But that's a small consolation when you're using Outlook as a standalone app.

10971

General Software Discussion / Re: Collectorz.com Book Collector 6

« Last post by 40hz on December 11, 2008, 03:08 PM »

They do this, actually. If I'm understanding it right, when a user searches ISBN through BoC, if it isn't found in Collectorz database it'll look for it in other sources. I found a book in the Norwegian national library this way. Also, when a user has searched this way (like I have), the result will be available in the database when the next user searches for the same ISBN. So, I suppose that's some user input that is used after all...

-TucknDar (December 11, 2008, 02:36 PM)

Just out of curiosity - is there any good technical reasons why anybody would want to do it that way? What is the advantage to shoehorning all that data, and all those queries, through a keyhole. I'm not challenging their right to do it, since I'm not a customer, but I just don't get what the advantage would be.

If you're just writing webscripts for queries from individual users, it would be one thing.  Amazon et al.  might not like it, but it's doubtful they'd go after (or even notice) a lot of individual hits from different IP addresses. But if you're using your customer's queries to add to your own database, and all the hits come from one place, it starts to look a lot more like you're scraping content.

If Collectorz is worried that somebody like Amazon or Borders might come down on Collectorz for accessing their databases, doing it this way seems to have a lot more potential for legal action.


Just a thought.

10972

General Software Discussion / Re: Collectorz.com Book Collector 6

« Last post by 40hz on December 11, 2008, 02:43 PM »

Given the thousands of books that are released each year alone it means that the (I presume) relatively small user base of Book Collector 6 will never be able to keep up

-Carol Haynes (December 11, 2008, 02:22 PM)

R.R. Bowker's Books In Print® tracks 200,000 new titles annually. There are something like 3+ million titles in their databases.

so users will be left with useless bar code readers

May be less of a problem than anticipated. Many of these cataloging apps use the same barcode readers.

and a lot of typing.

But only if they're using a proprietary or locked database format.

One of the biggest selling points for me about BookCAT was that it uses MS Access datafiles. And the tables are fully documented in the user manual. If the company ever goes under, or if I want to repurpose my data, I can get at everything.

(BTW: I would have preferred they used MySQL; but you can't have everything. )

10973

General Software Discussion / Re: Collectorz.com Book Collector 6

« Last post by 40hz on December 11, 2008, 02:13 PM »

I did just start building a library in Library Thing, an online collection vehicle. Interesting so far.

-J-Mac (December 11, 2008, 01:36 PM)

You're putting the catalog up online?

Great googelly-moogelly Jim!!!



Do you have any idea what StarFleet Command will do once they find out
the kind of books this crew likes to read?

All kidding aside, I tend to think of my bookshelves as a window into my soul. Maybe that's why I always scan book, DVD, and CD collections whenever I'm visiting. Book and movie collections always give me a "vibe" about a person. I'd guess most people that read do the same.

 

10974

General Software Discussion / Re: Collectorz.com Book Collector 6

« Last post by 40hz on December 11, 2008, 12:24 PM »

I use BookCAT from FNPrg.com. It costs $40 USD.

I tried a bunch of other apps and ended up buying this one. Not the cheapest - and for Windows only. Meh!

Nevertheless, of all the book cataloging programs, this one worked best for me.

They also have versions for music, DVD, software, and stamp collections.

You can download complete documentation, and 30-day full evaluation copies at the website.

http://www.fnprg.com/index.html

Note: If you're really into tinkering or rolling your own, the PDF documentation (available for download) provides complete MSAccess table listings which you could use as a starting point for coming up with your own database design.
 

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Living Room / Re: Email etiquette How to Decline Fowards/Junk?

« Last post by 40hz on December 11, 2008, 11:59 AM »

im, I didn't know about Spamex, but I have been using Spamgourmet for a few years now (and I'm very happy with it  ). While going over the features of Spamex, I realized they don't seem to be much different than those of Spamgourmet (which is free). I wonder if you have tried SG and, if you have, how does Spamex compare with it.

-city_zen (December 11, 2008, 06:39 AM)

You could also take a look at TrashMail.

Basic service s free. And you can create as many temporary addresses as you like. Free accounts will only allow 10 forwards per address, and the addresses will expire after a maximum of 30 days.

Registration will cost you $3.99 USD/2,99EURO annually, and allow for unlimited forwards and forwarding time per address.

There is also  a very handy Firefox extension available.

www.trashmail.net