Recent Posts

1376

Living Room / Re: Samsung hard drives - don't buy them unless you like subliminal mental torture

« Last post by Edvard on August 13, 2011, 07:00 AM »

So, sam sunging is normal behavior?

-nosh (August 13, 2011, 05:42 AM)

(with a thousand apologies to Neil Diamond...)

Sam Sung Blue, everybody loathes one
Sam Sung Blue, every write a low hum

Hard drive screws
Are subject to a little noise now and then
But when you hear that noise and it's a hum
You take it back again...
They'll send it back again

Sam Sung Blue, weeping like a willow
Sam Sung Blue, head under my pillow

Funny thing, but if you fling it with a cry of rejoice
A bitter crack then it's silenced for good
You simply got no choice...
You simply got no choice

Sam Sung Blue, I'll never buy another one
Sam Sung Blue, 'cause I just can't trust 'em...

1377

Living Room / Re: Amazing algorithms to enhance or transform images

« Last post by Edvard on August 12, 2011, 09:38 PM »

whoa.


Amazing stuff, things we only dared to dream about even a scant 10 years ago, and now it's just a lowly plugin, given away freely.
Wow... just wow.

1378

Living Room / Re: xkcd - password truth

« Last post by Edvard on August 11, 2011, 01:02 AM »

I have learned many things from xkcd, but the most important lesson on password security I have EVER learned, I learned from LulzSec:

Your password is only as secure as the server it's stored on.

OK, having a password like "password" or "1234" is stupid, but let's face it, once a nefarious individual gets into the system, it doesn't matter one flipped bit whether you keep one password or a hundred, use Keepass, Lastpass, etc. or if your password is "mickey mouse" or "1h&3bo(8tH45Tew9@hGn=p]#6b".
What does matter is how your password is stored and accessed at the security point.

That said, I use personally use reasonably complex matrix-based passwords (so they're easily remembered) to prevent 'casual' hacking of outside resources, but my home router is locked down enough that I feel confident using a very simple password for my desktop login, just for convenience.

Much has been said regarding plain text vs. encrypted vs. client-side authorization via encrypted hash (or something like that), and I am now in the process of taking up the issue with any company, individual or group that has any claim on any information I would like to see secured.
My bank, my email provider, my social networks, everything.

So then, Mouser old buddy... how secure are the DC passwords?

1379

Living Room / Re: Film vs. Movie?

« Last post by Edvard on August 10, 2011, 01:33 PM »

^ +1.

I don't think I've EVER referred to motion picture entertainment viewed in my own home on the television as a "film".
My dad's super-8 home movies projected on a bedsheet tacked to the wall, ehhhh... OK.
Also, if it's on Tape, DVD or YouTube, it's even more commonly referred to as a "video", so we have another category to deal with, but I agree that "film" and "video" are terms inherited from the medium they are taken from, rather than a reference to the actual presentation.

So,
If it's a feature-length motion picture presentation, it can always be called a "movie", regardless of the medium.
If it's viewed at a theater, "movie" and "film" equally apply, although weighted toward "film" if it's of foreign (e.g. Anywhere but the US ) origin.
If it's viewed at home on a television or monitor, "video" and "movie" equally apply, but never "film".
If it's viewed at home on a television or monitor and it is not a feature-length motion picture presentation, it will only be a "video", never a "movie".
My dad's super-8's projected on the bedsheet are never a "video", always a "movie" (with the qualifying prefix "home", as in "home movie"), but may qualify as a "film" if it's one of his amateur feature-length productions (of which he made two, BTW).

There's a Venn Diagram waiting to happen here...

1380

Living Room / Re: Kick procrastination's ass: Run a dash [2005]

« Last post by Edvard on August 03, 2011, 01:07 AM »

Oh, no you don't... I've got my procrastinating on a very tight schedule:
https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=3850.0

Hold on... I've got something very important to put off or else it's NEVER gettin' done...  

1381

Living Room / Re: I was wrong - again! (cheap monitor theory invalid)

« Last post by Edvard on August 02, 2011, 11:22 AM »

I don't do this often enough,

So, you need to increase your frequency?
I'm sure some of us could help you monitor that... 

1382

Living Room / Re: Android tablets to rival iPad

« Last post by Edvard on August 01, 2011, 10:33 PM »

Apparently Graffiti is available for many platforms:
http://en.wikipedia....affiti_%28Palm_OS%29

1383

Living Room / Re: Android tablets to rival iPad

« Last post by Edvard on August 01, 2011, 11:34 AM »

Well here's something Android has that iWhatever doesn't...
Sentience!
(I know it's on a Motorola phone, not a tablet device, but it's entertaining nonetheless...)
3 days to go!!

1384

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

« Last post by Edvard on July 31, 2011, 12:31 PM »

Jaw, meet floor...

http://www.dump.com/...-thunderstorm-video/


I've always thought that song was a good example of decent songwriting.
It's definitely not my favorite song nor genre, but I can't knock it either, and these folks do it pretty good.

1385

General Software Discussion / Re: I want to download streaming content (specificially videos) from ANY browser.

« Last post by Edvard on July 31, 2011, 12:12 PM »

My son discovered that the latest version of RealPlayer does this.
Whether it's IE or Firefox (he hasn't tried Chrome) it pops up a little "Download This Video" tab at the corner of whatever video player applet is going.
I would expect that Real would only give you the option to download in RealMedia format, but I think I remember it being more generous than that; I could be wrong.

When I can take another gander at his laptop, I'll report back...

1386

Living Room / Re: I was wrong - again! (cheap monitor theory invalid)

« Last post by Edvard on July 30, 2011, 07:32 PM »

+1 on refresh frequency.

The first time I used an LCD screen, it was blurred no matter what I did (this was a while ago; don't remember if it was VGA or not).
I tried all kinds of resolutions, a different video card, etc.
Some settings were slightly better, many were worse, but nothing would get rid of the blur.
What did the trick?
Setting the refresh to 60 Hz...  

I was so used to setting frequencies of 75 Hz and above on my CRT monitors for flicker-free performance that it was the first thing I set on the LCD monitor.
I can't remember what it was that inspired me to try it, but as soon as I set it to 60 Hz the image was flicker-free and crystal clear.

1387

Living Room / Re: IDEA: cancel elevator music

« Last post by Edvard on July 30, 2011, 01:07 AM »

 
Sure!: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_pressure^w

1388

Living Room / Re: IDEA: cancel elevator music

« Last post by Edvard on July 29, 2011, 01:50 AM »

+1

I was also going to say that dB's don't add like normal numbers, but that was aside the main point, so I let it pass.

Actually, the way consumer-grade noise canceling works, you're not adding or subtracting dB's at all; you're adding a reverse-phase signal to the normal signal, which has an attenuating effect which CAN be measured in dB's.
0 dB is actually not silence, but the threshold of human hearing (at 1kHz); roughly the sound of a mosquito at 3 meters away.

Don't worry, as a semi-musician and somewhat aspiring sound engineer, I work in this kind of stuff all the time and it still confuses me.
 

1389

Living Room / Re: IDEA: cancel elevator music

« Last post by Edvard on July 28, 2011, 06:42 PM »

As an example: if you have a 100db sound, and you block it with another 100db anti-sound. is the ambient sound pressure at that point 0db or 200db? Or simply, will you not even hear the sound that shattered your eardrums?

Due to the sheer physics I alluded to, it would never be 0, nor would it go over the original volume.
As an experiment, take any sound editing program, record something mono, clone it and reverse-phase the clone.
Since it's a perfect mirror, you get silence as a result.
But since the path from microphone -> amplifier -> speaker -> air -> eardrum seriously impedes the generation of a perfect phase mirror, headphones simply give you a substantial attenuation of lower-frequency sounds.

From subjective experience, noise-canceling headphones give one the aural sensation of having a massive head cold or the feeling of needing to "pop" the ears after traveling up a mountain road.
Not at all uncomfortable, and the attenuation effect is startlingly nice.

1390

Living Room / Re: IDEA: cancel elevator music

« Last post by Edvard on July 28, 2011, 11:57 AM »

Noise-canceling headphones work very simply; a microphone attached to the headphones (or in close proximity) feeds an amplifier which inverts the signal and feeds it into the headphones, so basically you are hearing the background and it's mirror-image at the same time, which results in cancellation.

Due to various technical considerations (like latency, phase distortion, proximity effect, etc.), noise-canceling is much more effective for low-frequency and continuous noise sources, like trucks passing on the freeway or the low hum of a refrigerator.
Unfortunately, elevator music does not fall into that scope. 

@4wd:
When you said "Woofer Stopper" I thought you meant some way to stop the neighbor's kid from jacking his car subwoofer volume to vitriol-inducing levels. 

1391

Post New Requests Here / Re: [Request] Tell me who said what first!

« Last post by Edvard on July 27, 2011, 11:28 PM »

Most deposition and courtroom transcribing softwares do this, and can provide an optional alphabetically-sorted word list with page references as an appendix.
They typically exclude conjunctions and the like, e.g. "and", "from", "to", etc.
RealLegal.com's products do this, and produce .PTX files that can be read and printed with the E-Transcript Viewer.

I think that's something like what OP wants, but instead of a static document generator or reader, it should be an interface that allows the user to extract word lists dynamically sortable by first occurrence, speaker, and frequency; perhaps even generate a report based on the sorting criteria.
I'm sure some of the heavyweight legal software like IproTech, CTSummation, Concordance, or CaseMap have methods for this, but they also tend to be huge, expensive, and only useful to lawyers and paralegals.

Skwire, if you can pull this off, I believe you'll be tapping a market bigger than you know...

1392

Living Room / Re: Android tablets to rival iPad

« Last post by Edvard on July 27, 2011, 09:54 PM »

Ooh, I like this one: the Bento Box Laptop hybrid...

http://www.yankodesi...-kinda-like-voltron/




Android would be a good fit for it; although it's vaporware for the moment, I think it's a sound concept.

1393

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

« Last post by Edvard on July 25, 2011, 11:05 PM »

Ummm... WTH is going on?

http://wimp.com/japanesepop/

1394

General Software Discussion / Re: Why crack offered for freeware and tiny app uploaded on Megaupload ?

« Last post by Edvard on July 25, 2011, 09:24 PM »

LOL, when I first read the subject line, I got an image in my head of some weirdo trading crack for freeware. 

"Hey kid! How 'bout a couple rocks for that Screenshot Captor you got there?"   

1395

General Software Discussion / Re: Another one 'bytes' the dust

« Last post by Edvard on July 25, 2011, 09:19 PM »

I searched around the interwebs, and it appears the actual software (client, kernel patcher) are GPL2, but the service and and actual kernel patches are (were) available on a subscription basis.
So, if this is going to fork, then every distribution that offers it is going to have to dedicate a team to preparing, testing, and deploying appropriate kernel patches.
If it's true that it is GPL and a fork is possible, I could definitely see this as a way for distros to make money from their server lines (SLES, RHEL, etc.) by offering a comparable service.

On a side note, apparently Microsoft has patented the idea, but as far as actual implementation goes, Raymond Chen says they can, but won't.

:\

1396

Living Room / Re: Post Your Funny Videos Here [NSFW]

« Last post by Edvard on July 19, 2011, 11:37 AM »

 

1397

Living Room / Re: Post Your Funny Videos Here [NSFW]

« Last post by Edvard on July 18, 2011, 09:17 PM »

Those Dmitri videos are awesome.
I've recently stumbled upon a few videos that made me laugh out loud.

Backstory: I like cats, and especially like to watch my cats flipping out over imaginary prey or predators.
I also like cheesy horror movies featuring creepy music that resembles weird free jazz experiments, but nothing prepared me for...
Kitten vs. Scary Thing!!




I thought I had learned my lesson, but then came...
Kitten vs. TWO Scary Things!!




 

1398

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

« Last post by Edvard on July 18, 2011, 08:59 PM »

Buffalax has done similar treatment to other videos, but his account on Youtube is no more.
Others have reposted, so they're still available, but you gotta dig.

My favorite, the original of which made the viral rounds a few years ago (warning: also very infectious):
http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=rdG_fey4_ow




BTW - What is it with Hindi pop that makes it so damn catchy? 

1399

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: Icon Menu Launcher

« Last post by Edvard on July 18, 2011, 08:36 AM »

Shortpopup does something similar, just point it at a folder of subfolders/shortcuts/etc and it'll display a nice menu.
I notice it can be a bit laggy though...
http://www.digitalli...hortPopUp/index.html

1400

Developer's Corner / Re: Bourne / Bash Shell Scripting Resources

« Last post by Edvard on July 16, 2011, 02:15 AM »

 

It's actually functionally equivalent to "ls -bartsimponcl" because all those letters are simply arguments that can be passed to the ls command and splitting the arg line and repeating letters doesn't affect the operation.

Still; quite amusing.