Recent Posts

1101

Living Room / Re: Is technology killing old loved books?

« Last post by 40hz on October 28, 2014, 02:37 PM »

I don't think it’s so much the technology as changes in the publishing business and the gradual elimination of the "mid" or "middle list" by most publishers.

If it ain't selling in large quantities (~50K and up), a title is either tossed on the bargain rack or into a shredder fairly quickly these days. New tax rules for how back and mid stock inventory has to be valued also plays a part. Nobody can afford to carry"slow inventory" on their financial books any more.

The end result is that the only books by major publishers that can be sure of survival are the ones that cater to the lowest common denominator. Classic, cult, and niche interest titles disappear fairly quickly after their first press run. So in some respects, electronic editions make many more titles available for longer since there's no production costs or physical inventory to carry. Under this scenario, it actually behoves a publisher to keep their entire catalog available electronically. Something they can't do with paper.

Oh yeah...just for the record, I still prefer paper and enjoy buying and giving away used books. That's something you can't always (or simply or aren't allowed to) do with e-books.

 

1102

Living Room / Re: The Emergency Broadcast System ?

« Last post by 40hz on October 28, 2014, 02:14 PM »

In CT they activated the EBS at one point during Hurricane Sandy. It was a "take cover" announcement.

Most of the people who received the alert (because they still had power as opposed to the rest of us) bitched because it kept popping up over the TV show they were watching.

Radio is ok. Internet...meh!

I still think the old fashioned mechanical SD-10 air raid sirens that went off at noon every Saturday post WWII till about 1980 were the most reliable. (A steady siren meant: "alert" A rising and falling tone meant: "Sit down; face the nearest concrete wall; put head between legs - kiss ass goodbye!" as the saying went.

At least with those you could always hook a gas engine or car battery up to them (by design) and get them to work. If the grid is down, all the technology in the world becomes nothing but inert PC boards stuffed with electronics.

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

@Miles - Those were the bad old days weren't they? Remember when the two civil defense radio frequencies were marked with a CD logo right on the AM dial of every radio sold in the USA?

1103

Living Room / Re: Your favorite cartoons of yesterday and today?

« Last post by 40hz on October 28, 2014, 07:52 AM »

When I was a kid I really liked the 1940's era Superman cartoons by Paramount Studios.

One good punch solved everything in Superman's world. So American! 



Low on plot, silly stories - but at least the characters looked like they did in the comic books. The artwork was superb. Nice art deco look.

Somebody posted a bunch of them up on Youtube. If you're interested, best watch or download before it gets pulled:

 

1104

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for a project time tracker/nag tool that keeps me writing billable notes

« Last post by 40hz on October 28, 2014, 07:27 AM »

Sorry, but unless this solution reads application window titles and automatically tracks hours based on activity in the respective windows (which I suppose it doesn't) -- it is only one of the many (sorry again) USELESS "solutions" for time tracking and billing which instead only puts another layer of complexity on top of one's projects.

-David.P (October 28, 2014, 05:47 AM)

Um..."useless" is a pretty harsh characterization. Wouldn't it be more correct to to say it's "USELESS" for your purposes? 

Just sayin'

1105

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for a project time tracker/nag tool that keeps me writing billable notes

« Last post by 40hz on October 28, 2014, 07:21 AM »

I would suggest rather a better time tracking software from Replicon as it has helped in better time management for our business activities. It got great usability and at the same time can be accessed from any location using a web browser and can be quickly implemented in any office environment.

Try it and you would definitely like it for sure!!

-SonyRaycom (October 28, 2014, 05:37 AM)

One thing about this product and company that I find particularly annoying is the complete absence of pricing information available on their website. I know some folks still like to follow the old 50's era "sell the sizzle, not the steak" mantra by being overly coy about pricing. Apparently with the belief that, if you can demonstrate the usefulness of your product to a potential buyer, they will somehow magically come up with the money to buy it, no matter what.

Guess what? This isn't the go-go 90s any more. Businesses are more budget conscious than ever. If the product doesn't fall within their budget, it's a non-starter no matter how perfect a fit. So stop wasting everybody's time.

I recently had a client spend a dozen or so hours evaluating a product only to discover it was priced several orders of magnitude higher than the highest amount they could even consider. And they didn't find this out until they spoke to something called a "solution specialist" who reluctantly gave them the pricing schedule. Talk about a total waste of time.

1106

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

« Last post by 40hz on October 27, 2014, 09:55 PM »

Blast from the past here. A an "alt" band I really liked called Garbage with Shirley Manson on vocals.

Stupid Girl:

and I Think I'm Paranoid.:

1107

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

« Last post by 40hz on October 27, 2014, 08:49 PM »

^Yeah. Pretty awesome wasn't he? Yet another Boston music scene original - with a capital 'O.' Totally unique sound and approach to the role of bassist. I really miss him and that band.

This probably my fav:

Some of the sleaziest sounding vocal, bass, and sax lines since Lou Reed's Take a Walk in the Wild Side.

1108

Living Room / Re: (Hypothetical): If DC Grouped Together...What could be achieved?

« Last post by 40hz on October 27, 2014, 08:46 PM »

Almost 3.5 years later and I am sitting here with the feeling that I should have just gone ahead and done it, and handed it to mouser. And it still bothers me enough that I am considering just doing it and calling it my NANY project for this year.  

-app103 (October 27, 2014, 09:51 AM)

Sounds like a plan! And why not?  

-40hz (October 27, 2014, 04:04 PM)

I can tell you why not... it's not her site.  That's just one reason that I'd think of if it was me.  But I think that's the big one that's been holding her back if you look between the lines.

-wraith808 (October 27, 2014, 06:44 PM)

@Wraith - I don't see how submitting a software repository project as a NANY entry steps on anybody's toes or needs anybody's permission. There's nothing to say it has to be deployed at DoCo. I'm sure it could find an audience outside of this website regardless of whether or not it finds a home here.

Just sayin'

1109

Living Room / Re: (Hypothetical): If DC Grouped Together...What could be achieved?

« Last post by 40hz on October 27, 2014, 04:04 PM »

Almost 3.5 years later and I am sitting here with the feeling that I should have just gone ahead and done it, and handed it to mouser. And it still bothers me enough that I am considering just doing it and calling it my NANY project for this year. 

-app103 (October 27, 2014, 09:51 AM)

Sounds like a plan! And why not? 

1110

Living Room / All Simpson's episodes available for streaming free to US cable subscribers

« Last post by 40hz on October 27, 2014, 03:11 PM »

If you're a Matt Groening fan, this is pretty cool.

From the Verge (article here)

Landing syndication rights to The Simpsons was a huge deal for the FXX network, and it's trying to make the absolute most out of them. It's now made every single episode of the show available to stream online and through apps for iOS and Android. They'll also be available to stream through the FXNow app for the Xbox One, Xbox 360, Apple TV, and select smart TVs and other streaming boxes. A cable subscription with Comcast, Time Warner Cable, or several other US providers is required, but streaming episodes is free beyond that.

The streaming service is being called Simpsons World, and FXX is loading it up with clips, quotes, and playlists designed to help viewers explore the show's catalog. It'll even display the current popularity of each episode across each season, as well as how many views they have. It's clear that a good amount of time was spent tailoring this service to the show, and that should make it a pretty appealing way for a lot of people to start streaming.

1111

Non-Windows Software / Re: LINUX: It's official - Mint 17 "Qiana" released to distribution

« Last post by 40hz on October 27, 2014, 02:08 PM »

Is there any way to upgrade an older installation to the latest version? I have a working Mint 15 install. Instead of starting it all over from scratch, it would be nice if I could tell it to upgrade itself. I went into the Update Manager and updated everything, but it still says it is running Mint 15.

-Deozaan (June 30, 2014, 04:21 PM)

You can...but it's not recommended. Especially if you have a bunch of PPAs added to your repositories. Many of those are version specific so you'd need to remove and install the correct ones for the version of Ubu underneath Mint.

And even though Ubuntu has a do-release-upgrade command, you'll need to manually update your software sources list first for it to work.

I've done upgrades that way (in the past) and I learned they made for far more work than they saved. About the only time I've found Debian's apt-get dist-upgrade or Ubuntu's do-release-upgrade really useful was for upgrading servers. Desktops just have too much "other stuff" loaded for either upgrade command to work reliably.

Recommendation: Don't. Just do a clean install. You'll save more time in the long run.

-40hz (June 30, 2014, 05:26 PM)

Does anyone know if this has changed now that Mint has changed its upgrade path? That is, if I install some version of Mint 17, should I then be able to update to Mint 17.x without having to do a clean install?

-Deozaan (October 27, 2014, 12:35 PM)

Yes. You can.

I made an error in my original reply (since corrected) because I got sloppy about the difference between a release upgrade and a version or 'dist' upgrade. (It's a common error for which I apologise.  )

Within the same major version, apt-get dist-upgrade is fine and probably a good idea to run since dist-upgrade will also attempt to intelligently upgrade any dependencies along with the installed packages plus resolve any dependency conflicts that may result. The regular update only updates the installed packages themselves. It will not update, add, or remove anything else - including any new dependencies or unneeded packages. Additionally, any update that would change the status of another installed package won't get downloaded or installed using just apt-get update.

To clarify - a "dist upgrade" is not the same thing as a "release upgrade." "dist-upgrade" works within the same release since it uses the same repositories as a regular update.

 

1112

Living Room / Re: Do we have any musical people on DC?

« Last post by 40hz on October 27, 2014, 01:49 PM »

There's a saying that there's a time and place for everything. In my case, the time was the mid 70s and the place was Boston/Cambridge MA. Although I've done sessions, sat in, or just played with a lot of people since then, I haven't gone at it hammer & tongs (i.e. that professionally) since.

My band's name was Maelstrom ("High-Energy Rock!"). Your classic rock quintet: two guitars (Gibson SG + Fender Telecaster), percussion (Rodgers), bass (Gibson L9S/Fender Jazz), and vocals (1 lead/2 harmony). We were an "all original" rock band trying to get signed at the dawn of the disco error era. Two guesses how far that went despite having a good local following.  

Our favorite venue was the now legendary and sadly departed Rathskeller (known as "The Rat") on "Comm Ave." in Boston.


This is sorta what you'd see at The Rat. Pretty cute, huh? And miniskirts in the dead of Boston's winter? Boy, those were the days!

The Rat was the quintessential "rock dive" bar. Sorta of like Boston's answer to CBGB's which opened one year earlier in 1973. Great music. Great bands. And an unique cast of 'characters' out in the audience. I recently discovered my band was listed on The Rat's Wikipedia page under "Notable Acts." Not too shabby considering some of the bands on that list went on to real fame and fortune.

Sorry I don't have any pictures, videos, or recordings to share. This was before the advent of digital. Recordings were mostly done in a $$$ recording studio on reel-to-reel and then dubbed to 30 min cassettes or mastered to 45 RPM vinyl. Very expensive in those days. Video was totally beyond the financial resources of most groups. About the only way you'd ever score a video was if you appeared on some local public TV station. (No DVDs, MP4s, VHS or Betamax cartridges for playback yet either. If you had a video it was on a studio grade tape reel.) And all (if any) pictures of us probably went out the door with the girlfriends of the band members after we (not very cordially) ended our musical relationship.

Too bad. It was a really good little group. Haven't done anything I've enjoyed that much since. Sniff!

1113

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

« Last post by 40hz on October 26, 2014, 08:17 PM »

Electric bass. Though I'd seen them all. Fretted and fretless...4-string...then 5-string...then 6-string...then 8...then 12...

Then along came Mark Sandman of the band Morphine with his unique 2-string slide bass technique. At which point I thought I had heard it all too.

But now there's a pedal steel bass dubbed the "Slideking Bass" made by Jackson Steel Guitar Co. and played by none other than Zane King.

Learn something new every day.

 

1114

Living Room / Mr. Bassman Jack Bruce dies, age 71

« Last post by 40hz on October 26, 2014, 07:26 PM »

Another musician from the Golden Age of British Rock dies.



 This from Music Radar:

Jack Bruce, legendary Cream bassist, dies
Cream co-founder passes away, aged 71

Will GrovesOctober 25, 2014, 17:39 UTC


Jack Bruce, singer, bassist and co-founder of '60s titans Cream has died aged 71, of liver disease.

Bruce's death was announced on his website and confirmed by Claire Singers, his publicist, who said "He died today at his home in Suffolk surrounded by his family."

His family have also issued a statement: "It is with great sadness that we, Jack's family, announce the passing of our beloved Jack: husband, father, granddad, and all round legend. The world of music will be a poorer place without him but he lives on in his music and forever in our hearts."

1115

Living Room / Re: Let's have some weekend Science and Tech! (A bit of a roundup!)

« Last post by 40hz on October 26, 2014, 06:56 PM »

The ESA's Rosetta Lander is scheduled to be deployed Nov 12th.

ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft arrived at Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko on 6 August after a ten-year journey through the Solar System. The landing site, currently known as Site J and located on the smaller of the comet’s two ‘lobes’, was selected just six weeks after Rosetta arrived at the comet.

The mission’s lander, Philae, will be deployed on 12 November at 08:35 GMT/09:35 CET from a distance of 22.5 km from the centre of the comet. It will land about seven hours later, with confirmation expected to arrive at Earth at around 16:00 GMT/17:00 CET.

This is awesome! Why is there virtually nothing on US media about this?

1116

Living Room / Re: looking for scientific calculator like this

« Last post by 40hz on October 26, 2014, 06:51 PM »

Also HP.

Look here.

1117

Living Room / Re: Your favorite cartoons of yesterday and today?

« Last post by 40hz on October 26, 2014, 06:48 PM »

Mr. Magoo, hasn't he been around like forever?

oh Magoo, you've done it again!

-techidave (October 08, 2014, 09:33 AM)

+1!



Especially fine was Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol with ol' Magoo playing it straight as Ebnezer Scrooge. One of the best adaptations of Dickens I've ever seen.

1118

Living Room / Re: Antilock-breaking (ABS) vs Stabilty Control (ESP) vs Traction Control Video

« Last post by 40hz on October 26, 2014, 01:27 PM »

ABS attempts to stop a skid -- sometimes, in some conditions, releasing & reapplying the brakes *may* help, by essentially giving the tires a 2nd, 3rd etc. chance to grab. For it to work traction must already be lost. Skids can be intentional, sometimes directed, sometimes controlled, and skids to some extend can often be countered. Control is not always completely lost, though it requires the driver not panic, & it obviously helps of they've prepared themselves beforehand, e.g. by practicing to know their vehicle's characteristics & limits.

-mikiem (October 26, 2014, 11:46 AM)

+1

I've generally found the ABS feature on Fords to be more startling for the driver than actually useful. I'm a big believer in anticipating and preparing in advance whenever possible. As the Top Gun school allegedly says: You don't rise to the occasion - you default to your level of training. So first snowfall, I make it a point to get a little "skid practice" as soon as I'm in a safe place to do it. Especially since people seem to be stupidest after that first coating of snow. After they get some experience with it over the following day or two, 90% are fine. So the sooner you're prepared the better off you are.

Same goes for a 'new' car. An empty lot and a spare hour getting a real feel for the individual vehicle is time well spent.

1119

Living Room / Re: 58 Cognitive Biases That Screw Up Everything We Do

« Last post by 40hz on October 26, 2014, 01:12 PM »

So what would it be like to live with no irrational cognitive biases?  Boring?  Enlightened?  Insane?  I really wonder...

-Edvard (June 20, 2014, 09:18 PM)

Inhuman. 

-40hz (June 20, 2014, 10:08 PM)

Truth.  I don't think that biases are a bad thing- I think that unrecognized bias or denial that they exist is the bad part of it.  You have to know your audience, and you have to conversely know who is speaking to you.  Then you can add context around the bias that is transparent.  But when we deny bias, we deny that context.  Which leads to inefficiency in communication.

-wraith808 (October 26, 2014, 12:21 PM)

+1! We, of necessity, work with the tools we have - and play the cards we're dealt.

I think that's called adaptability - which some have argued is the human species best (or possibly only) real skill.

1120

Living Room / Re: (Hypothetical): If DC Grouped Together...What could be achieved?

« Last post by 40hz on October 26, 2014, 10:53 AM »

You need a champion/project owner that has the vision that people submit to... and everything is measured against that vision- and you have his development side- the architect/designer.

-wraith808 (October 26, 2014, 09:37 AM)

Interesting...

I never realized coding projects invariably need an 'overlord' to get them to work. Or that every project needed to start from a completely bank page if I understand you correctly. Seems almost inefficient by design.

I always thought there were enough coding standards, documented "best practices" and development models that, by now, the days of starting with a a completely empty whiteboard wasn't a given. But I'm not a coder. The few real dev projects I was involved with go back before "objects" and the web. They involved several individuals, and getting everybody on the same page wasn't a challenge. We knew what needed to be done, what the deadlines were, who was best qualified for which roles and pieces, and it went from there to successful conclusions.

Apparently things have changed somewhat over the years. (Read Tracy Kidder's book Soul of a New Machine for a good write-up of how things worked back in the day.) Today it seems more like people are jockeying for who's gonna be (resentfully) acknowledged as "Chief Pecker" in the neighborhood boy's club than anything else.

But maybe that's just me looking at it from the perspective of a former insider who is now an outsider?

1121

Living Room / Re: (Hypothetical): If DC Grouped Together...What could be achieved?

« Last post by 40hz on October 26, 2014, 08:29 AM »

Overall, this is probably one of the most depressing threads I've read in a long time.  

I'm not a coder. But I am a musician. And if musicians (as a collective) can routinely gather "fiercely independent personalities" (including the occasional hyper-talented albeit bona fide sociopath) to collaborate on artistically valid, and financially remunerative projects...I'm wondering why coders can't do the same?

Is this 'problem' real? Or is it just something coders have programmed themselves to believe?

1122

Non-Windows Software / ALERT - do NOT install or use ownCloud server from Ubuntu repositories

« Last post by 40hz on October 25, 2014, 07:39 PM »

If you're an Ubuntu user running an ownCloud server - and you installed it from a Ubuntu maintained repository - see below for some important security info courtesy of the Web Upd8 blog:

ownCloud Ubuntu Package Affected By Multiple Critical Security Issues, Nobody To Fix It

Author: Andrew | Date: Friday, October 24, 2014


ownCloud developer Lukas Reschke has sent an email to the Ubuntu Devel mailing list, requesting that ownCloud (server) is removed from the Ubuntu repositories because the package is old and there are multiple critical security bugs for which no fixes have been backported. He adds that:


   "Those security bugs allows an unauthenticated attacker to gain complete control about the web server process".


However, packages can't be removed from the Ubuntu repositories for an Ubuntu version that was already released, that's why the package was removed from Ubuntu 14.10 (2 days before its release) but it's still available in the Ubuntu 14.04 and 12.04 repositories (ownCloud 6.0.1 for Ubuntu 14.04 and ownCloud 5.0.4 for Ubuntu 12.04, while the latest ownCloud version is 7.0.2).

Furthermore, the ownCloud package is in the universe repository and software in this repository "WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu security team" (you should see this if you take a look at your /etc/apt/sources.list file) so it's up to someone from the Ubuntu community to step up and fix it. "If nobody does that, then it unfortunately stays the way it is", says Marc Deslauriers, Security Tech Lead at Canonical.

You can follow the discussion @ Ubuntu Devel mailing list.

So, until (if) someone fixes this, if you're using ownCloud from the Ubuntu repositories, you should either remove it or upgrade to the latest ownCloud from its official repository, hosted by the openSUSE Build Service <more>

 

1123

Living Room / Re: (Hypothetical): If DC Grouped Together...What could be achieved?

« Last post by 40hz on October 25, 2014, 06:58 PM »

Perhaps roast one of those giant Japanese hornets with our body heat? (kidding...just kidding...)

1124

Living Room / Re: Favorite Sci-fi movies?

« Last post by 40hz on October 25, 2014, 06:41 PM »

On a lighter note I'd add:



GalaxyQuest One of the best Trek spoofs ever. Featuring Tim Allen, Alan Rickman, and Sigourney Weaver demonstrating the amazing powers of a Wonderbra! Talk about alien technology!

That's a nice...um...NEW look for you Sigourney

1125

Living Room / Re: Online harassment affects 40% of US adults, report says

« Last post by 40hz on October 25, 2014, 03:44 PM »

The vast majority of harassment took place on social networking sites, according to the research.

-Stephen66515 (October 25, 2014, 02:44 PM)

Which just might be why that 60% who are not experiencing online abuse most likely eschewed "social media" to begin with.