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1176

Living Room / Re: Win9 will be FREE!

« Last post by 40hz on October 01, 2014, 11:16 AM »

Why not jump to LibreOffice which is much better and doesn't rely on Java and is actively being developed?

-Carol Haynes (October 01, 2014, 10:59 AM)

This!

Or Softmaker's FreeOffice if you don't want a FOSS product. Linux version available too for that day when and if you decide to walk away from Windows.

WPS Office Free 2014 is another viable alternative. The Windows version is mature. Kingsoft has been around for years. Their Linux version is still officially an alpha, but it is available for public download. Links to do that can be found here. FWIW I use it ( the deb version) regularly and it's a very stable alpha. I've had no surprises at all in a year+ of regular use.

YMMV

1177

Living Room / Re: Win9 will be FREE!

« Last post by 40hz on September 30, 2014, 08:11 AM »

Windows OS goes monthly ...(today's letters become F and O)... Stoic Joker Goes Linux.

-Stoic Joker (September 30, 2014, 07:46 AM)

I bit the bullet and really started using NIX a while back. More as a hedge in case Microsoft went psychotic. So far they haven't. The Office 365 deal (in its present form) is pretty decent and makes sense for many people.

But despite all that, I still ended up preferring Linux over Windows on the desktop. Windows just feels clunky and looks cartoon-ish to me. Virtually everything I do for myself these days is done under Linux.

Windows Server is still a fine OS however. I have very few issues with using or recommending Microsoft's server products.

Just my . YMMV

1178

Living Room / Re: Win9 will be FREE!

« Last post by 40hz on September 29, 2014, 06:38 PM »

^I don't think they really care.  

Seriously, their big money is from corporate, institutional, and government. As long as Word and Excel are the dominant desktop apps - and .NET rules the waves for custom apps - Windows future is secure. Home users will pay the toll, or do without updates, after something like one year following purchase. Especially if OEM Windows gets replaced by a 1 or 2-year subscription copy.

Besides, everybody thought Adobe was committing suicide with their Creative Suite. Last I heard, it's working beautifully for them. And pretty well for their customers too. Intuit disables online functions on Quickbooks and Quicken after a certain amount of time. It'll only be a matter of time before they pull shrinkwrap and standalone versions from the market and follow Microsoft and Adobe.

The subscription model is very doable for any software title that completely dominates its market. Excel, Word, Photoshop, Quicken, etc. are good examples of apps that could (or already do) easily survive completely as subscription-only products.

Ditto for Windows as an OS. Subscription licensing was the only way to buy mainframe and minicomputer software a few decades ago. UNIX, VMS, VAX, and all the old operating systems used to be "sold" that way. And that way only.

It's all coming back in one big circle IMO.

"So it goes."

1179

Living Room / Re: Win9 will be FREE!

« Last post by 40hz on September 29, 2014, 06:18 PM »

've read that upcoming Windows versions will be "rolling releases" anyway,

-Tuxman (September 29, 2014, 07:02 AM)

That's because Microsoft will soon be shifting completely over to a subscription model for their OS. Just like they are doing with MS Office, which is gradually transitioning over to Office 365.

Since you'll be paying monthly or annually, a rolling release is the only thing that would make sense once their 'boxed' products get pulled off the market.

Figure within the next three years give or take.

1180

Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by 40hz on September 29, 2014, 04:15 PM »

 This may be of interest to Bitcoiners.  It's called BitKey. It's by the folks that brought us Turnkey GNU/Linux. It's a bootable Linux distro running from a USB key that allows you to perform highly secure "air-gapped" Bitcoin transactions.

No opinion since I don't trade in Bitcoinage nor do I have the expertise to comment on the effectiveness of the build. That said, I have found Turnkey GNU/Linux targeted solutions worked very well for me in the past.

Worth a look at any rate.

1181

General Software Discussion / Re: Linux bash exploit discovered

« Last post by 40hz on September 26, 2014, 08:42 AM »

You can run a quick test to see if your version of bash has the vulnerability.

Enter the following in your terminal (sudo not necessary):

env x='() { :;}; echo vulnerable' bash -c "echo this is a test"

If the vulnerability is present you will receive this output:

vulnerable
 this is a test

If not, it will display:

bash: warning: x: ignoring function definition attempt
 bash: error importing function definition for `x'
 this is a test

With thanks to Ars Technica. More info on this vulnerability test and what it means can be found in this article.

Several major distros already have the first pass patches uploaded to their repositories so the normal software updates should handle getting the patch to you. Check with your distro website for more info.
 

1182

Living Room / Re: The One Word Game!

« Last post by 40hz on September 06, 2014, 03:23 PM »

Elevator

1183

Living Room / Re: The One Word Game!

« Last post by 40hz on September 05, 2014, 08:25 PM »

team

1184

Non-Windows Software / LINUX: Remarkable - a very simple previewing Markdown editor for Linux

« Last post by 40hz on September 05, 2014, 07:28 PM »

It's called Remarkable.

It's a markdown editor with real-time preview.

It has some very nice features.

Sometimes some screenshots are worth a thousand words:

     

And a short action video is even better:

Available for free. Donations accepted.

Installer packages available for: Debian, Fedora, and Arch based distros. Downloads here.

Cool tool. Get it!

1185

Living Room / Re: Anyone have a recommendation for a USB voice recognition headset

« Last post by 40hz on September 05, 2014, 04:20 PM »

for times when clarity is key, the consensus does seem to be plantronics.

-wraith808 (September 05, 2014, 01:10 PM)

Yeah. I'm getting that too! Nuance rates them highly on their HCL. Maybe I'll just get a Plantronics Blackwire 320M (~$45) and be done with it.

1186

Living Room / Re: The One Word Game!

« Last post by 40hz on September 05, 2014, 04:13 PM »

hole

1187

Developer's Corner / Re: Markdown (and what do you do when a community outgrows your contribution)

« Last post by 40hz on September 05, 2014, 04:05 PM »

Microsoft built an entire industry based on the proposition that, in the absence of an industry standard, any standard is better than none.

Microsoft provided a missing standard for the personal computer desktop (not a good standard - just a missing one) and went onto unbelievable success and industry dominance.

The wild and woolly frontier is fine as long as it's still a frontier. But once you have towns and cities, and people trying to collaborate and share, standards become desirable for pragmatic reasons if nothing else.

Trying to avoid a standard when it becomes obvious one is both wanted and needed by a large number of users makes zero sense. And I can't follow what Gruber's argument or point seems to be - other than him saying "this is my child - leave it as it is."

In many respects his behavior reminds me of Aesop's "dog in the hayloft." The people who want to extend and standardize markdown seem to be bending over backwards to acknowledge and show respect for Gruber's contribution when they could have just as easily forked and been done with it. But they very much wanted to keep "markdown" in the name and involve Mr.Gruber in the process. However, for some reason, Mr. Gruber seems to be highly offended by their overtures.

Dunno...guess you had to be there or something. I just don't get it.

1188

Living Room / Re: The One Word Game!

« Last post by 40hz on September 05, 2014, 02:58 AM »

front

1189

Living Room / Re: The One Word Game!

« Last post by 40hz on September 04, 2014, 09:21 PM »

cast

1190

Living Room / Re: Your favorite podcasts?

« Last post by 40hz on September 04, 2014, 06:34 PM »

Mostly lit and sci-fi audio stories for me:


Escape Pod

Escape Pod is the premier science fiction podcast magazine. Every week we bring you short stories from some of today’s best science fiction stories, in convenient audio format for your computer or MP3 player.

We pay our authors, but we will always be 100% free. We are supported through listener donations and sponsorship, so if you like what you hear, please consider donating via our PayPal button!

Escape Pod is produced and distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Clark's World Magazine

The Clarkesworld Podcast features all of our fiction in audio form. Each episode is hosted by Kate Baker and features an original story from our current issue. By visiting this page, you can sign up to have each episode sent to you via iTunes or email. If you use Stitcher, you can find us here. Best of all, we offer this service completely free of charge.
Episode Schedule

A new episode is added to our site on the 1st, 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th of each month.
Prior Episodes

A complete archive of all our podcasts is available here. You can listen to them at any time.

The Drabblecast

The Drabblecast is a weekly podcast featuring flash fictions from a variety of genres. Its singular message is that of off beat, funny, eclecticism. It is a paying fiction market, accepting submissions (see the submissions page for more information). The Drabblecast is the winner of the 2010, 2011 and 2012 Parsec Awards for Best Speculative Fiction Audio Magazine.

PodCastle

Fantasy fiction. Some R-rated.


Pseudopod

Welcome to Pseudopod!


You’ve found the world’s premier horror fiction podcast. Pseudopod brings you the best short horror in audio form, to take with you anywhere.

WARNING: This is a podcast of horror fiction. The stories presented here are intended to disturb. They are likely to contain death, graphic violence, explicit sex (including sexual violence), hate crimes, blasphemy, or other themes and images that hook deep into your psyche. We do not provide ratings or content warnings. We assume by your listening that you wish to be disturbed for your entertainment. If there are any themes that you cannot deal with in fiction, that are too strongly personal to you, please do not listen.

Pseudopod is for mature audiences only. Hardly any story on Pseudopod is suitable for children. We mean this very seriously.

Tor.com Audio: Fiction with Mur Lafferty

For over a year, Tor.com has brought you excellent short fiction on our site, but now, podnovelist extraordinaire Mur Lafferty is making the audio of these stories available to you in podcast form. We’ll be bringing you both new fiction and our archived stories, so don’t worry if you’ve missed anything archived on the site. The podcast will also include mention of the recent topics on the Tor.com blog, convention reports, and interviews from time to time.

There's many more podcasts I regularly follow. But these will do for a start.

Oh yes....one more...

If you're a Blues fan, The Roadhouse  ("The finest blues you never heard.") is a must listen. Straight blues, blues-rock, roots, Chicago-style...this podcast covers it all. Something for everyone.

The Roadhouse is a true labor of love, intended to present the full range of blues music to a broad Internet audience.

I’ve often heard folks who are unfamiliar with blues note that it’s “such simple music.” Indeed, it is. But the range of blues styles is breathtaking. From the Delta to Chicago, from pre-war to jump, acoustic, electric, harps, horns – it’s difficult, if not impossible, to describe the emotions conveyed with such a simple form. Blues music is, in my mind, that last great act of defiance; a declaration to the world that, “You gave me your toughest shot and, yes, I’m still standing.” Blues lovers everywhere understand.

With that in mind, I’m dedicated, via The Roadhouse, to preserving this priceless musical form, to presenting a broad range of blues each week (much of it by artists that even hardcore blues fans may not be aware of), and to promoting gleeful chair-dancing with each and every show.

1191

Living Room / Anyone have a recommendation for a USB voice recognition headset

« Last post by 40hz on September 04, 2014, 02:30 PM »

I finally bit the bullet and upgraded to Dragon Premium 13. (I was still using 9.)

Anybody have a recommendation for a decent USB headset primarily intended for voice dictation use? I've heard good things about the MS Life Chat LX-6000 and the Logitech H650e. But I have very little experience with headphones and boom mics outside of pro audio products. And I'm embarrassed to admit I have been using the very cheap mic/headset which had been included with my old copy of Dragon ever since my snazzy old (now obsolete) Logitech USB headset gave up the ghost about a year or so ago. About all I can say for the one Nuance included was that it worked surprisingly well once Dragon got retrained. But it (and me) have both seen better days - so it's time to buy a better headset. Or keep the headset and replace me, whichever is easier.

So - DoCo voice recognition/dictation users...what do you recommend? I'd like to stay below $100 if possible - and wireless isn't a must since I don't tend to pace around when I'm dictating things. Head back with eyes closed - and a fresh cup of Earl Gray in one hand - is more my style.

Sorta like this:

                      

...except wearing clothes and a headset...and holding a mug of tea.

 

1192

Living Room / Re: What age is too young for a mobile phone?

« Last post by 40hz on September 03, 2014, 11:35 PM »

Cripes - there are plenty of more common and more mundane situations that happen every day that a phone would make things easier for kids or parents.  For example, missing the bus or letting a parent know that you're going to stay after for some special project.

-mwb1100 (September 03, 2014, 07:33 PM)

Agree.

See my earlier post here which said the same thing:

"From a parent's perspective, most small kids don't need a full fledged phone. They need the functional equivalent of a StarTrek communicator. They need to be able to communicate with "The Bridge" of "StarFleet" for instructions; to ask or get permission; to request a beam-up; or (worst case) to scream for help."

1193

Living Room / Re: What age is too young for a mobile phone?

« Last post by 40hz on September 03, 2014, 11:29 PM »

At the risk of this degenerating to a basement thread, police, parents and/or cell phones were not involved in any way in escalating what happened at Sandy Hook: http://www.cnn.com/i...sandy-hook-timeline/

-mwb1100 (September 03, 2014, 07:33 PM)

I'm not sure exactly what you meant by "escalating what happened." The situation was what it was. And nobody said anything about cellphones having anything to do with anything. Where is there anything that could potentially "degenerate" into a basement thread?

I was simply referring to the massive turnout of parents, police tactical units and fire rescue responders at the school prior to the resolution of the situation. There were a large number of heavily armed police with weapons drawn conducting car and area searches for a second suspected gunman, which turned out not to be true. I'm not knocking the police. It was a very bad scene with parents and kids all over the place while that was going on.. But any time you have a large number of civilians and armed police in close proximity - in a situation where law enforcement is actively looking for an unknown gunman - the likelihood of 'accidents' increases exponentially.

 Hope that clarifies.

1194

Living Room / Re: What age is too young for a mobile phone?

« Last post by 40hz on September 03, 2014, 03:50 PM »

^Actually, in the case of Sandy Hook, the real danger was just about every police department in the state sent their tactical units in. There were so many hopped up young cops in riot gear with military grade hardware ready "to take decisive action" it's a wonder nobody was shot and killed by accident. 

1195

Living Room / Re: Movies or films you've seen lately

« Last post by 40hz on September 03, 2014, 01:40 PM »

+! for Clockwork Orange. Especially the soundtrack. Wendy Carlos's "electronic realization" of Beethoven's Ode to Joy on Moog synthesizer is still a masterpiece. (Oddly, you can't seem to find the original cut anywhere on YouTube. What's usually posted is the remix. For some reason, the original gets taken down almost as quickly as it's put up. Must be some weird contractual issue - or Carlos being Carlos.)

spoiler alert

You'll also never think about Gene Kelly or hear the song Singin' in the Rain quite the same way ever again once you watch Clockwork Orange. That scene (which originally netted the film an X-rating before it was re-edited for US release) is easily one of the most difficult three or four minutes you'll ever sit through while watching a movie. Still brutally shocking - even after all these years.

Here's the Kelly original:

I'll leave the locating of the Clockwork Orange scene as an exercise for the reader.

1196

Living Room / Re: What age is too young for a mobile phone?

« Last post by 40hz on September 03, 2014, 01:05 PM »

They already had them.  They apparently didn't take off as much as you intuit they would.  It says something about the market when Disney can't even market this niche.

-wraith808 (September 03, 2014, 12:30 PM)

I'm talking more like one of those "life-alert" type gadgets.

And yeah...

But it was Disney who pooched it royally by attempting to push their content and other crap as part of their kiddie-mobile service. It was a complete turn-off for most parents. Even the ones with half a brain soon saw it for what it was - a "wedge" product Disney could use to "upsell" your kids with once they got one. That poisoned the well a bit. And unfortunately, several other mobile providers attempted to follow in Diz's footsteps. Some even stooped so low as to pitch "your first real phone" directly to the kiddies themselves. Soon, your kid's "street cred" took a serious hit in the cut-throat K-3 world if their classmates saw them haul out a Firefly. The cool kids all had real phones - or at least their Dad's hand-me-down.

But I was talking more like one of those "life-alert" type gadgets. And I still think (if marketed honestly) it could sell - provided the price point was right for the device and the subscription. Otherwise, might as well just get a standard smartphone bundle and put one of those "parental control" apps on it. Which is what has seemed to have happened.

1197

Living Room / Re: The One Word Game!

« Last post by 40hz on September 03, 2014, 11:05 AM »

non-essential

1198

Living Room / Re: What age is too young for a mobile phone?

« Last post by 40hz on September 03, 2014, 11:02 AM »

I'd suspect the feeling is it's never too young now that incidents like Sandy Hook School are behind us.

Simple suggestion - remove the numeric keypad & restrict inbound callers. Problem solved.


Parents really want something like this:



From a parent's perspective, most small kids don't need a full fledged phone. They need the functional equivalent of a StarTrek communicator. They need to be able to communicate with "The Bridge" of "StarFleet" for instructions; to ask or get permission; to request a beam-up; or (worst case) to scream for help.


If the mobile market were smart, for little kids, they'd create a simple "phone home" model that only had three buttons: (1) call home, (2) call mom/dad's mobile; (3) call 911. And this same phone would require either a PIN entry or a number previously stored on the phone to connect an inbound caller. That way only people authorized to call the kid would be able to do so.

Older kids would get a scrollable directory of numbers they were allowed to call instead of a few simple buttons. Inbound restriction to authorized numbere and PIN callers would still apply.

Do This and the average parent would likely get a phone (and pay for an account) for everybody in the household - including their newborn and the family dog.

1199

General Software Discussion / Re: collaborative software, note strong, for small biz

« Last post by 40hz on September 03, 2014, 10:37 AM »

So Zoho is on for now.

-Steven Avery (September 03, 2014, 09:30 AM)

Much as I'm not a big fan, if I were putting together a project team or a small creative endeavor today - with a limited budget and on very short notice - I'd most likely go with Zoho or Office 365. Office 365 for your standard "business' sort of operation. Zoho for creative/research/education/activism efforts.

Zoho also because most of the people I would end up doing non-biz things with with are either primarily Mac or Nix based (you know they type ) - so missing Microsoft's weltanschauung is not a problem. That lack might even be considered a "plus" by most of them.

If 'real' world considerations necessitated 100% Microsoft compatibility for certain things (i.e. grant applications, financial filings, interfacing with legal or government entities) we can always spring for a single Office 365 subscription and set it up on a PC to be used as/if/when needed. Since the people I usually work with all know each other, we're very comfortable "hoteling" whenever we team up on a project. Saves huge amounts of time. space, and money.

Ah the joys of networked technology...  

     Q: Where is our office?

      A: (1) Nowhere; (2) Everywhere

 

1200

Living Room / Re: Buying a 125CC Motorbike...Your Opinions Wanted!

« Last post by 40hz on September 03, 2014, 08:56 AM »

+1 w/Renegade. Definitely talk to SJ.