Recent Posts

11426

Living Room / A tool to help "Get Me Out of Here"

« Last post by 40hz on September 02, 2008, 09:32 AM »

Have you ever had to go to what you knew would be interminable meeting and found yourself wishing your phone would ring so you'd have an excuse to leave?

Well, why leave it to chance?

Getmooh is an automated call back service. It is designed to help you escape a variety of situations by calling you automatically on your phone at a pre-specified time and playing you a recording which will either instruct you on what to say to elude your tormentor(s), or which will simply give a convincing sense of you being on an important call.

http://www.getmooh.com/index.asp

Notes

1. Caller ID Policy: Getmooh run a very simple Caller ID policy. At the end of every call, the mobile number of the person who placed the called is read out very distinctly by a computer generated voice.

2. Availability of minutes: Getmooh can only make a certain number of calls a day. As people add calls, the minutes available get used up. Select the closest time to when you want a call. If the time you need is completely booked out we apologise...we are working to increase the number of calls we can make all the time.

3. Number of Calls: You can only use the service for a maximum of two calls a day! If you need more than that you should consult a health professional.

4. Prank or Crank Calling: If you are going to set a call for a friend be sure that if they call us and identify themselves as the owner of the number we can happily verify who gave them the call.

5. Why is Getmooh free?: Because Google exists.

11427

Living Room / Re: Hands on A Hard Body Documentary: Full Length on Google Video

« Last post by 40hz on August 31, 2008, 02:37 PM »

Thanks for the updated link Mouser. It is from my hometown. It's a shame it had to end this way but in this lawsuit happy time it was a matter of time till it ended. I feel sorry for the guy's family but the lawsuit in my opinion was baseless, the guy knew the risks going in.

-Rocker452 (August 30, 2008, 06:06 PM)

Funny how easy it is to absolve someone of behaving irresponsibly by saying somebody else "knew the risks going in."

There are dozens of different ways this competition could have been conducted without resorting to something as dangerous as sleep deprivation - while still providing "strong entertainment value."

Time was when most people understood the meaning of the words "needless" and "sadistic."

Yeah guys, I definitely think there's a moral here. Just not the one the car dealership is pimping.

Sad. Really.

11428

Living Room / Re: Video chat: Why don't people like it?

« Last post by 40hz on August 29, 2008, 04:23 PM »

And, yes, pyjamas are the preferred mode of dress when shirking from home.
One shies away from the image of 40hz who, apparently, takes informality to yet greater... um... lengths. 


[edit: can't punctuate]

-cranioscopical link=topic=14612.msg126704#msg126704

To be sure. I'm usually wearing an informal 'Tux' when I'm shirking.



This is my current favorite. Available from cafepress.com

http://clothing.cafe.../golf-shirt/19154748

11429

Living Room / Re: What are your favorite gadgets and gizmos?

« Last post by 40hz on August 29, 2008, 08:41 AM »

I hate AC Adapters so I'm a big fan of "Power Liberators."

http://www.hometech....liberator/index.html





They're really nothing more than a short extension cord that plugs into your power strip or UPS. Now you can use all the sockets on that fancy power strip you paid so much for.

Simple, cheap, and effective.

11430

Living Room / Re: Video chat: Why don't people like it?

« Last post by 40hz on August 28, 2008, 10:32 PM »

That is because, when talking to a client, one has to change out of pyjamas!

-cranioscopical (August 28, 2008, 06:37 PM)

What are pyjamas?

11431

Living Room / Re: Video chat: Why don't people like it?

« Last post by 40hz on August 28, 2008, 10:28 PM »

I don't like video chat because when I'm on the internet, I like my relative anonymity.

-Deozaan (August 28, 2008, 10:22 PM)

Besides, it's not usually a good idea to let the person who called you with a computer question see how often you flip him the bird. There's just no way for him not to take it personally.

11432

Living Room / Re: Video chat: Why don't people like it?

« Last post by 40hz on August 28, 2008, 10:22 PM »

Yea I know... The 80s? DOS? Commodore 64? MAN! HOW OLD ARE YOU PEOPLE! (just kidding... sort of... lol)

-wreckedcarzz (August 28, 2008, 07:52 PM)

Old enough to know that many people (depending on the time of day) would not want to get what they see if we were to regularly video chat!

Be grateful.

(Just kidding. Sort of...  )

11433

Living Room / Re: If somebody offers you swapping your PC for a mac cold turkey: would you do it?

« Last post by 40hz on August 28, 2008, 10:09 PM »

There are different choices for video and sound but the professional tools available on both platforms are very good. ProTools on the Mac probably has the edge but only if you want to have a pure recording studio setup  and don't use the computer for anything else. Even so there is probably much greater choice on a PC even at professional level when you take into account the purely PC manufacturers producing video and audio equipment and software.

-Carol Haynes (August 28, 2008, 12:54 PM)

The choices are better (or at least more numerous) on the PC side. I use Cubase, Sonar, and GigaSampler. But anybody that does serious music work on a PC will tell you that, unless you want to have a grand day out troubleshooting constant bits of weirdness, you'd best dedicate your studio machine to your music app(s) and nothing else. General rule of thumb is start with a clean ultra-minimal Windows install and then only load  your music software. That means no antivirus, firewall, or other security software; no power management; minimal (or no) network protocols; etc. - which IMHO renders the machine unsuitable for general computing use.

And yes, there are more hardware choices for Windows music apps. But the industry heavies and big studios pretty much all use ProTools. If you ever get a crack at working with a ProTools studio setup you'll understand why. It's very fast and fluid once you learn it - and time is money in the recording industry.

Years ago the complaint was levelled that Windows was not truly WYSIWYG for publishing - but that complaint really died with the introduction of TrueType Fonts.

Not so much TrueType per sce. What really did it was that the makers of various high-rez output devices (i.e. Linotronic, Fiery, et al) finally caved on their "Postscript Only" position and updated their raster image processors (RIPs) to correctly handle TrueType. Later on they added the ability to directly RIP Adobe PDF files and the issue became moot for most of the places that wanted to use TrueType. They just sent PDFs and that was the end of it.

Personally, I think the best quality type output comes from a RIP of either a Quark or InDesign file using "foundry quality" Postscript Type-1 fonts. PDFs always lose something in the translation. The letter shapes and metrics get distorted. It's subtle but still there if you know what to look for.

But most people have never seen old school typography so it doesn't really matter. If you've never seen it it doesn't exist.

11434

Living Room / Re: If somebody offers you swapping your PC for a mac cold turkey: would you do it?

« Last post by 40hz on August 28, 2008, 09:33 PM »

Yeah... I've never really understood the received wisdom that graphics and video editing is better on a Mac. I mean, I understand the source of the "myth" but over the past 7 or 8 years (or more) as far as I know/can tell, it hasn't applied. Having said that, I think that 40hz point was more that the software that is available for the Mac platform for graphics and video manipulation is as good as that available for Windows...

-Darwin (August 28, 2008, 12:38 PM)

Not so much that.

I think what I was trying to say (obviously not too well) was that you need to take into consideration what happens once your file leaves your desktop and goes out to a 4-color printshop, professional CD mastering studio, or design agency.

These people are expecting Mac files. (At least around where I live.) Show up with a file generated under Windows or Linux and you get put on notice that the money-back guarantee does not apply to your file if anything goes wrong.

It's a little like sex. Whatever you do in the privacy of your own home (or desktop) is pretty much your own business. What you do outside it is subject to local community standards, customs and ordinances.

11435

Living Room / Re: McKinnon to Face Trial in the US

« Last post by 40hz on August 28, 2008, 09:19 PM »

Although I am personally appalled by some (ok many) of the things the US government is doing in the name of the "war on terrorism," I can't really sympathize with Gary McKinnon.

...he fears he could be treated as a terrorist, tried in a military tribunal and ultimately imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay.

If he is half as smart as he thinks he is, what did he honestly expect?

If you are attempting to illegally access government networks after 9/11 you are messing with The Man. If you 're going to do that you had better be either very smart, very brave - or just incredibly naive. Whichever label applies you definately have a closet death wish.

Back in my college days there used to be a saying in the Campus Computer Center: "If your screwing with The Man, don't get caught. And if you do get caught, make sure it's not for something where they're looking to set an example."

Gary got caught. And they are looking to set an example. Which makes him their new "Poster Boy."



I wish him the best of luck. He's gonna need it.

11436

Living Room / Re: Phalanx2 Rooting Linux

« Last post by 40hz on August 28, 2008, 08:25 PM »

FYI: If you're worried, Phalanx2 is easily detectable with utilities available for download such as chkrootkit and rkhunter. If they're not on your Linux box - they should be.

rkhunter can be found at http://www.rootkit.n.../rootkit_hunter.html

chkrootkit can be found at www.chkrootkit.org

<<Edit-added this>> An argument can (and has) been made that this problem is largely the fault of Sysadmins getting sloppy with the use of SSH (i.e. accessing root with weak or passphraseless keys), or their using weak passphrases when SSH keys are being generated. While this may be true, I think the Linux community would be doing itself a major disservice to accept that argument.

One rule I learned when I was taking a system design course was this:

"If something always has to be done a certain way, then it shouldn't be necessary for somebody to do it at all. Automate it."

So if the obvious security problems are caused by people making mistakes, add in procedures and code to not allow them to make those mistakes. Or at least make it a lot more difficult to do so. 

11437

General Software Discussion / Re: The Great Software List.. For Linux

« Last post by 40hz on August 28, 2008, 08:08 PM »

Excellent site. Very well done.

11438

Living Room / Re: If somebody offers you swapping your PC for a mac cold turkey: would you do it?

« Last post by 40hz on August 28, 2008, 09:39 AM »

Simply put, there's no decent software that I want to use that will run on a Mac.

-Renegade (August 28, 2008, 08:32 AM)

I guess you don't do any commercial graphics, publishing, or media work!

11439

Living Room / Re: If somebody offers you swapping your PC for a mac cold turkey: would you do it?

« Last post by 40hz on August 27, 2008, 06:53 PM »

@40hz: yes, this is at work. Which could be a problem since at home I wouldn't have a mac and synch'ing could be painful (it already is within the same OS).

I suspected as much.

Posted by: Darwin
I don't like the provision about having to swap your machine... Why do you have to give it up? I suppose the answer is that it will be re-allocated to someone in a group that isn't Mac-biased? Anyway, given what can be done with Parallels and BootCamp, I'd go for it, if it will make life easier at work (and hey, you get to add knowledge of another OS to your repetoire).

Dormouse does make some good points though... However, given that (I think) you *could* triple boot OSX, Linux, and XP if you wished, for the most part I don't see a problem WRT hardware.

So, er, verbose way of saying I'd go for it!

   
D'accord. All other factors being equal, I'd have to go with Darwin. I especially agree with the observation that adding another OS to your repertoire could be beneficial to your career. Never miss out on a chance to learn something new. Especially if somebody else is willing to foot the bill.

The only problem I can see would be if: (a) you are doing development work; (b) are already very productive with your current programming environment; and (c) you will be facing serious deadlines. If this is the case, I'd point that out to them. Maybe that would get you a Mac and still let you keep your old setup.

I'd look at it this way. Macs are expensive. The simple fact they're offering to  get you one and give someone else your hand-me-down tells you something.

11440

Living Room / Re: What May Happen in the Next 100 Years (Predictions from 1901)

« Last post by 40hz on August 27, 2008, 03:31 PM »

....which brings Rudy's Rutabaga Rule into play all over again...    (You're a cold ghoti...)  

Jim

-J-Mac (August 27, 2008, 11:18 AM)

Yes, rather sad isn't it?

11441

Living Room / Re: If somebody offers you swapping your PC for a mac cold turkey: would you do it?

« Last post by 40hz on August 27, 2008, 11:19 AM »

By 'group' do you mean where you work?

11442

Living Room / Re: What May Happen in the Next 100 Years (Predictions from 1901)

« Last post by 40hz on August 27, 2008, 11:01 AM »

Just as long as I can still have ghoti and chips!

-cranioscopical (August 25, 2008, 10:23 AM)

An old proverb, modified for the way things seem to be going in the 21st Century:

"Give a man a ghoti and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to ghoti and you can shoot him for poaching. (Problem solved.)" 



We sure do solve our problems differently these days!

11443

Living Room / Re: What do you do during your free time?

« Last post by 40hz on August 26, 2008, 09:56 PM »

If I remember correctly, the 70's were (in)famous because of colour...the mix and match of colours in the house would make your eyes bleed more or less. So how happy would one be to be able to afford all those colours?  

-Shades (August 24, 2008, 11:00 PM)

As I recall, there were only three colors:

   Tangerine (dull orange), Avacado (dull green), and Goldenrod (dull yellow).

If you wanted anything other than those, you could choose:

   "Paisley" (looked like the culture of a bacterial warfare experiment on acid),

   "Wood Grain" (mimicked the 'natural' pattern of no known tree),
     
    or a "Peace Flower" print (of which the less said, the better).

They say you can never go back. We should be grateful. 



Peace!

BTW: If you remember the 70's correctly, you probably weren't there!

11444

Living Room / Re: What May Happen in the Next 100 Years (Predictions from 1901)

« Last post by 40hz on August 26, 2008, 09:01 PM »

Perhaps the most interesting thing that can be learned from a history of predictions is just how misplaced our present concerns end up being. Be it because we come up with solutions or, as the past would seem to suggest, a new technology comes along which so completely changes the playing field that we end up with a completely new and unrelated set of concerns.

-Eóin (August 26, 2008, 05:29 PM)

Gerald Weinberg mentioned Rudy's Rutabaga Rule: Once you eliminate your number one problem, number two gets an immediate promotion.

11445

General Software Discussion / Re: Mozilla Ubiquity Prototype Available

« Last post by 40hz on August 26, 2008, 07:09 PM »

some cool stuff.

personally though the apple-like "oh my god shhh.. this is going to revolutionize the world" marketing-style way it's talked about does kind of rub me the wrong way, especially given that 90% of what they are doing is what FARR and other launchers do.. of course it would kind of spoil the story if they acknowledged that..

still, some cool things they can do since it's integrated into the browser.

-mouser (August 26, 2008, 06:57 PM)

Agree completely w/Mouser on both points.

It is FARR, or maybe Launchy, for all intents and purposes.

And the "breathless" quality of the spiel doesn't go down to well with a crotchety New Englander like me either. I'm of the "Sounds great - does it actually work?" school of  thought. (Boy do they hate me at FOSS demos.  )

But it is cool. And it is integrated with the browser. And it is running under Mozilla's banner - which means we'd best be up on what it is about. Because it's probably gonna be what gets used even if it winds up not being all that great.

When you're Mozilla, OK is good enough.

it's especially annoying given that 90% of what they are doing is what Find+Run Robot and other keyboard-based launchers do.. Of course it would kind of step on their narrative if they acknowledged that, so instead we are treated to a discussion of something that purports to be a totally new concept.

Agree. Thought: Why not disabuse them of that notion. Maybe the authors of various launchers could bring that up? I personally suspect they are totally ignorant of keyboard launchers running under Windows. They sound like they're straight out of the Macintosh and/or BSD world. The main page is open to comments. No point letting a "myth in the making" get out of hand.

Edit: Last minute add on: the respected ghacks.com explicitly makes that comparison:

From: http://www.ghacks.ne...-killer-application/

Ubiquity is a Firefox prototype add-on that is similar to Launchy but located in the browser. Launchy is a Windows launcher that makes things much easier. Ubiquity takes that concept to the web.

11446

General Software Discussion / Mozilla Ubiquity Prototype Available

« Last post by 40hz on August 26, 2008, 06:46 PM »

Today, Mozilla Labs announced the availability of the prototype Ubiquity extension.

http://labs.mozilla....ntroducing-ubiquity/

Ubiquity is a technology that promises to radically change the way we extend the functionality of the browser.

From the website (emphasis added):

The Problem: Extending the Browser is Too Hard

Being relatively new to the Mozilla world, we found it difficult and time-consuming to write extensions to Firefox. There is something largely last-decade about requiring restarts to add a new feature to your browsing experience. It’s ironic that the entire Web is on a push model, yet the browser—the most fundamental tool of interacting with the Web—is on a pull model.

The fundamental problem is that extending the browser, and hence the web, is too difficult. The closer new browser functionality can be packaged to look like standard HTML and JS, the larger and more diverse a community will create it. The desktop paradigm for extension development, while powerful, has a high cost of adoption. Right now we have a short tail of browser functionality with thousands of add-ons. There should be millions. We can get to that long tail using a more web-like model for functionality development — tools that are accessible to hobbyists and tinkerers, but that scales to professionals.

A Solution: The Ubiquity Platform

Ubiquity treats extending the browser like writing websites. It’s an experiment in lowering the barrier to fundendemental enhancing the browsing experiment.

Introducing Ubiquity

An experiment into connecting the Web with language.
It Doesn’t Have to be This Way

You’re writing an email to invite a friend to meet at a local San Francisco restaurant that neither of you has been to.  You’d like to include a map. Today, this involves the disjointed tasks of message composition on a web-mail service, mapping the address on a map site, searching for reviews on the restaurant on a search engine, and finally copying all links into the message being composed.  This familiar sequence is an awful lot of clicking, typing, searching, copying, and pasting in order to do a very simple task.  And you haven’t even really sent a map or useful reviews—only links to them.

This kind of clunky, time-consuming interaction is common on the Web. Mashups help in some cases but they are static, require Web development skills, and are largely site-centric rather than user-centric.

It’s even worse on mobile devices, where limited capability and fidelity makes this onerous or nearly impossible.

Most people do not have an easy way to manage the vast resources of the Web to simplify their task at hand. For the most part they are left trundling between web sites, performing common tasks resulting in frustration and wasted time.
Enter Ubiquity

Today we’re announcing the launch of Ubiquity, a Mozilla Labs experiment into connecting the Web with language in an attempt to find new user interfaces that could make it possible for everyone to do common Web tasks more quickly and easily.

The overall goals of Ubiquity are to explore how best to:

    * Empower users to control the web browser with language-based instructions. (With search, users type what they want to find. With Ubiquity, they type what they want to do.)
    * Enable on-demand, user-generated mashups with existing open Web APIs. (In other words, allowing everyone–not just Web developers–to remix the Web so it fits their needs, no matter what page they are on, or what they are doing.)
    * Use Trust networks and social constructs to balance security with ease of extensibility.
    * Extend the browser functionality easily.

There is an authoring tutorial available to get you started coding your own commands at:

https://wiki.mozilla..._0.1_Author_Tutorial

Here's  your chance to get in on the ground floor of something that looks to become an important new way of enhancing browser functionality..

11447

General Software Discussion / Re: Desktops V1.0 - a virtual desktop manager from Sysinternals

« Last post by 40hz on August 26, 2008, 05:46 PM »

2kartal
I can say you're lucky if this works for you after all.

For me: this is the first tool from SysInternals which doesn't work like it supposed to. I have the same desktop four times only.

-fenixproductions (August 24, 2008, 02:27 PM)

It behaves like some apprentice coder's first foray into programming a utility.

Same here. Hotkeys work erratically when they do work at all (about 25% of the time.)  and can't be reassigned on my machine - and I'm using a Microsoft keyboard. What's up with that? All my other apps let me map shortcuts.

Open apps are also replicated to every desktop.

I'm amazed this came out of SysInternals. 

11448

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: HP Media Center PC Deal

« Last post by 40hz on August 26, 2008, 03:07 PM »

...The whole thing has kind of a "Land-of-Broken-Promises" feel to it. *Shrug* Maybe there is a good explanation ... Just nobody's heard it yet.

-Stoic Joker (August 26, 2008, 02:06 PM)

Somewhat true alas! Still, the deal on the HP hardware seemed pretty good.

Being a Linux dweeb (and something of a tinkerer) I've put my money in a linuxMCE box:
http://video.google....=2176025602905109829

Mainsite: http://www.linuxmce.org/

Although I'll probably be giving elisa MEdia Center a try soon. (I can afford to since it won't cost me anything to download and install it. ) :

http://elisa.fluendo.com/screenshots/

Here's a (very biased) video showing off linuxMCE if you're interested:

http://www.youtube.c...&feature=related

If you decide to explore one of these products, please remember that this is Linux we're talking about so the usual caveats about proprietary drivers and DRM nonsense applies.

11449

Living Room / Re: Fedora Code-Signing Server Breached

« Last post by 40hz on August 26, 2008, 02:13 PM »

Indeed f0d man, but had I not phrased it like that, I would have been shot down by anyone other than you for being alarmist tongue

Not at all. And I'm a Linux diehard.

It's both disturbing and oddly vindicating when something like this happens. It's disturbing for obvious reasons. It's vindicating in that it shows that Linux has reached a big enough installed base that it would make an action like this worth it to somebody.

I guess it's one more sign that NIX is coming of age.

"The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot for ever fence it out."     
(Gildor to the hobbits in: The Lord of the Rings - Fellowship of the Ring)

11450

General Software Discussion / Free Internet Tools for Tin-Foil Hat Wearers

« Last post by 40hz on August 26, 2008, 01:36 PM »

Interesting blog post. Fun read - but take about half of the sites mentioned with a grain of salt.

50 Free Internet Tools for Tin-Foil Hat Wearers

August 11, 2008 at 10:36 am · Filed under Security, Web Tools

By Alisa Miller

If your wardrobe includes a shiny tin-foil hat, then you will love these free Internet tools. Whether you want to protect yourself from Internet snoopers, want to spy on those out to get you, or want to be able to track trends that you know will lead to something big, then these tools will help you get the job done.

Link: http://www.great-isp...in-foil-hat-wearers/

I was surprised the list didn't have http://internettrafficreport.com/ which is one of the more interesting traffic monitoring sites. Like the Weather Channel - except it's for the Internet backbone. Great place to look when you suspect something really big is going down. Take a look here next time your tracert query stalls at one of the major routers. Very cool site.