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1576

Official Announcements / Re: NANY 2014 - OFFICIAL ROUNDUP OF ALL ENTRIES

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on January 14, 2014, 07:21 AM »

Nice Roundup. :  )

1577

N.A.N.Y. 2014 / Re: NANY 2014 Roundup Prep

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on January 13, 2014, 07:48 AM »

I'd dub 5 or 6 of my 13 entries as "decent". The rest are trivial. This year's Sudoku app was a *@!# to code...

-kyrathaba (January 11, 2014, 04:58 PM)

I bet! From what little I know there are some nasty edge cases!

1578

Living Room / Re: Interesting funding discussion regarding JayIsGames.com

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on January 12, 2014, 06:51 AM »

This looks like a fairly typical discussion, which is "interesting" because it's a "small site industry wide topic", but otherwise generic in that I don't see anything "fascinating" about that exact site. I've never heard of them, and you can take that discussion and do a search and replace for their name and the next one, and the discussion remains the same. We had one here a while back, with a different result, that Mouser wasn't happy with the results of his ads and turned them off again.

(Hoping I get the tone of this next bit right!)

It seems to me that they're missing a hysterically funny obvious educational moment!

The problem "isn't that hard" - meaning that it's a pretty easy set of equations to describe.

A. Page Views
B1. Actual Ads Loaded - Effects of AdBlock
B2. Plea to turn off AdBlock
C. Donate Button
D. Sell Direct Ad Space
E. Write smaller reviews that are cheaper
F1. Other1
F2. Other2

But everyone's treating this in all Hushed Tones!

So ... make a Flash Game! It would be a piece of cake to write.

Possible joke - only show it to people who use AdBlock!

1579

Living Room / Re: New form of cryptanalysis - "Rubber Hose"

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on January 11, 2014, 06:54 AM »

xkcd basically closed the case on this. : )

1580

Living Room / Re: What are Your Favorite YouTube Channels? Here are Mine for Board Games

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on January 10, 2014, 09:17 PM »

A word on Accents. King's accent is closer to "Received Pronunciation". Martin's is a different kind of dialect. (Northern? Half-Cockney without the slang?)

-TaoPhoenix (December 24, 2013, 04:36 PM)

No expert here, but Martin's is more London (reminds me of the snooker player Steve Davis). King's seems more generic ('Essex'?), but I'll restate that I'm no expert ;-)

-tomos (December 25, 2013, 04:13 PM)

Heh well if you have that potential correction, I am no expert either!

But as a bit of a digression, "generic" is a fascinating term for an accent! What does that even mean? What is a "generic" American accent? Mid-West NewsCaster?

However, I think I became creepily attached to "Generic Modified British Accents" because a lot of movie villains use those kinds of long vowels.  : )

1581

N.A.N.Y. 2014 / Re: NANY 2014 Roundup Prep

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on January 10, 2014, 09:14 PM »

Hallo.

I didn't want to get into a video with my suite of prototypes, but I would like the badge if that can be worked out.

And someone do please look at them and tell me if anyone finds at least one of them useful!

1582

Living Room / Re: DuckDuckGo over 1 BILLION searches in 2013

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on January 10, 2014, 08:47 AM »

https://duck.co/blog...riends-newsletter-45

DuckDuckGo friends, happy new year!

In 2013, over one billion searches were made on DuckDuckGo. Needless to say, it was a great year for us.
...

Congrats to them on a job well done!

-Renegade (January 10, 2014, 07:55 AM)

What's their business model?

1583

Living Room / Re: Why George Orwell wrote 1984

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on January 10, 2014, 08:10 AM »

Unfortunately, in these circumstances, being pragmatic matters. All too often it becomes "A, B, or get shot." So you're not "permitting" them to frame things, you're trying to live until Tuesday might be a better day to fight it all.

-TaoPhoenix (January 10, 2014, 07:42 AM)

When it comes down to being coerced into making a decision, that's an entirely different matter. Threatening to kill you, imprison you, or take away your livelihood or everything you own is coercion.

But sometimes we are not coerced into choosing evil.

When you choose evil without coercion, even if it is a lesser evil, there's something seriously WRONG there.

The strongest people with the strongest convictions are able to refuse to choose evil in the face of imminent death. Those people are rare. I don't think that I have that in me. I think few people do.

I don't think that it is fair to blame someone who is coerced for what they do. It is more sensible to have pity for them and their situation.

"Live to fight another day" is pretty much always a good thing.

-Renegade (January 10, 2014, 08:02 AM)

Decent choice of words Renny. I tried to get into this with the idea of "soft coercion". Where your life is not at stake but "my my my, wouldn't it be nice to get a Pepsi right now?"

1584

Living Room / Re: YouTube finally forces creation of google+ A/C to comment

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on January 10, 2014, 08:08 AM »

G+ hate builds...

And then, this happened...  

Google is today making a change to Gmail that will further bake in Google+ to its webmail product in a way that’s actually somewhat practical, though also potentially invasive. Going forward, you’ll now be able to directly email your Google+ contacts from Gmail, even if you don’t know their email address. And by default, anyone on Google+ will be able to email you as well, thanks to this new option, if you don’t adjust your settings.

http://techcrunch.co...opt-out-is-provided/
 (see attachment in previous post)

-nosh (January 10, 2014, 08:00 AM)

My college class on boiling frogs starts in two weeks... It's a "Business" class!

((Just Kidding!!))

1585

General Software Discussion / Re: In search of ... assistance with a tenacious BHO ...

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on January 10, 2014, 07:56 AM »

You can eliminate nearly all of the attack vectors that affect Java by just disabling Java in the web browsers you use. You can then use it for desktop applications while nothing 'evil' from the net can slip in through a Java vulnerability.

-Innuendo (January 07, 2014, 08:48 PM)

good to know, thanks Innuendo

-tomos (January 08, 2014, 04:37 AM)

Just find a way to remember you did this. For all of these security reasons, I did this once last year. Then months later, some random website mysteriously wasn't working. Came to find out, it had a Java component call. But that didn't exactly throw a specific error. All we saw was "website cannot log in."

That's basically why I like a lot of low tech tricks. I used to keep trying about every two years to install NoScript. But I like to roam the web rather far and wide, and I just got more upset than benefit out of every single site not behaving right. Instead, I have a simple 1-click toggle that nukes all Javascript upon a re-load of a page. So I click that, then I load the *next* page (sometimes on the same site domain!), where I *want* the Javascript on, and toggle it back on. So sure, a few things slip by.

In contrast, Adblock seems to have a much better middle ground of nuking the worst ads, and leaving a lot of everything else alone.

1586

Living Room / Re: Malware attack hits thousands of Yahoo users

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on January 10, 2014, 07:51 AM »

But now after seeing that thread, I want a dinosaur. 

-Innuendo (January 10, 2014, 07:19 AM)

(Glowering B movie bad guy) Mortal, you dare to question corporate branding?!

1587

General Software Discussion / Re: [concept feedback] Workload management software

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on January 10, 2014, 07:49 AM »

Whilst it's one thing to write software to capture a particular style of working, there is no point if is this software is already available (Trello, which I was already using lol).

This all dances around the discussion of opinionated software (eg Apple stuff), which tries to work very well for a specific use case versus 'unopinionated' software, which supports any workflow even if it's ineffective or damaging to the software (eg Linux distributions).

My software tends to be opinionated and therefore appeals to a smaller group but this workflow management software would have to be so opinionated only I could use it therefore defeating the purpose of having a community discussion around it ;-)

-justice (January 10, 2014, 03:27 AM)

Well, there's a "middle ground" where not unlike I, and Mouser who did it better than I, wrote a lot of core tech to be used by anyone, and the figurative Last Mile is almost a "plugin" for you alone. Not unlike how Firefox works. I think as a conceptual model that idea is up near the top ten I've ever heard of in the world of software.

So for example maybe only 6 other people in the world use my trick of taking a staples lined desk calendar and using it as a desk mat with the answers to the 30 most annoying questions ever, but then all the rest can use the basic note software he's looking at.

1588

Living Room / Re: Why George Orwell wrote 1984

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on January 10, 2014, 07:42 AM »

I don't think supporting evil really ever works out very well.

-Renegade (January 09, 2014, 06:16 PM)

I think Orwell was being excessively pragmatic in that instance, opting to do what he felt was doable, as opposed to doing what he felt was right.

That's always going to be a problem whenever you permit the "other side" to frame, and define the terms of, the debate.

So whenever given a choice between A and B, it's important to remember there's also a third option: neither.

-40hz (January 09, 2014, 09:58 PM)

Unfortunately, in these circumstances, being pragmatic matters. All too often it becomes "A, B, or get shot." So you're not "permitting" them to frame things, you're trying to live until Tuesday might be a better day to fight it all.

1589

Living Room / Re: Why George Orwell wrote 1984

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on January 09, 2014, 07:45 PM »

...

George Orwell Explains in a Revealing 1944 Letter Why He’d Write 1984
Posted: 09 Jan 2014 04:45 AM PST
...

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

    "...Already history has in a sense ceased to exist, ie. there is no such thing as a history of our own times which could be universally accepted, and the exact sciences are endangered as soon as military necessity ceases to keep people up to the mark. Hitler can say that the Jews started the war, and if he survives that will become official history. He can’t say that two and two are five, because for the purposes of, say, ballistics they have to make four. ... That, so far as I can see, is the direction in which we are actually moving, though, of course, the process is reversible.
...

    Yours sincerely,
    Geo. Orwell

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
...

Things to think about as we enter a new year.

-40hz (January 09, 2014, 01:25 PM)

At the slight risk of studying plague beetles on one single apple tree in an entire orchard, I think this section is worth pondering.

I truncated certain portions to make his broader point clearer "in today's / tomorrow's world".

(Paraphrased) "For the purposes of a weapon which you wish to kill someone with, 2+2=4 and that can't be changed because you need your scientist to make you more weapons that kill people and for that they need to work, and for that, the math needs to work. But if you say things like 'America is overrun by terrorists! Ban all Apple Juice from Airplanes!', then 2+2=5 because no natural phenomena are 'hard coded' to it."

Slashdot likes its Correlation vs Causation arguments about once a week, so yes, brainwashing people "does stuff", but it's a "soft effect". The herds of masses mostly do what you want, then you shoot the rebels.

Whereas if you have a nice shiny gun pointed at your enemy, and somewhere in its design it has an equation where 2+2=5, it's liable to shoot 135 degrees polar on the vertical axis (or however it's phrased) and shoot YOU in the heart. So after the first three of those deaths, the troops point it at their own heads. Except this batch is made correctly, so they also die.

Not good for an army. 

But these "soft people things", you can twist them forever, and if you wind it tight enough, they can't ever fully break out of the Zork Maze of Twisty Little Mental Passages.

1590

General Software Discussion / Re: [concept feedback] Workload management software

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on January 09, 2014, 08:50 AM »

Hi Justice.

Although your exact work flows and styles are likely different from mine, I have thought off an on about this stuff.

Some conceptual thoughts:

This area falls into the category of "Get Things Done" to use the now famous phrase. The subtle trick to watch for is that "the solution isn't worse than the problem". So if you don't need to-the-suggestion level reporting, consider a little bit of "low level" paper/manual support around the edges to keep the "power software" in this concept thread leaner. A couple of the tricks I have used at various points:

1. Paper Pre-Filters:

A. (Paper) 4x4 inch lined Stickies. I just took a certification test to prepare for an upcoming new job as a tax preparer this season. For the test I had to do a bunch of medical expense calculations. They're not exactly hard, but there's no way anyone but an arithmetic savant could do them in his head. So I used a lined 4x4 inch sticky for each problem, five in all.

But those test examples were based on 2012 tax law! It so happens that for tax return year 2013 / Winter 2014, the IRS changed the rule that had been there for 20 some years! (Now less favorable to the taxpayer!) So I'll never need those practice test problems ever again, and except for Amended returns, I won't really need to have examples of the older way to do the calculation. (Tax law is an example where knowledge "becomes dead".)

Finally the other use for the stickies is for quick tasks that no one really cares about that are short term and volatile. For example I had to feed my brother's cats for a week while he was on vacation. Sure. 3 min to set up a quick 1 week 3 column chart on that lined sticky. Cats Fed. After that week, no one cares about the now "decaying" factoid of the cat feeding details.

B. Paper Spreadsheet", I found that sometimes if I already have too much work/"tasks" going on with my comp in front of me, and someone wants a recurring but irrelevant factoid, to have a (carefully curated) piece of paper just on my desk with the "greatest hits". That way I don't have to stop what I am doing, open up yet another thing on my screen, and waste mine and maybe someone else's phone-call time. Examples are my parents' three addresses, the number for the AT&T phone plan refill customer line, my Boss's cell phone number, and the two sets of trains it takes to get to the new job (because they are different in each direction.) (FYI I now live in Queens NYC, after having lived in small towns all my life, this stuff isn't natural for me.)

All that stuff is random, but keeps being useful. So the trick I found is a simple Staples desk calendar "magically" has 30+ blocks of lined boxes, almost like 30 "permanent stickies". Just take a big black marker and wipe out the dates.

That calendar then keeps those pages organized, so then you make a couple of the sheets the "factoids". Then you just flip the page and make the next three "quick ideas and suggestions". That's room for some 100 suggestions and ideas! These pages are removable, so you just keep the "factoid" pages safe, but slowly work on and chop at the ideas and suggestions.

After about a month, 50 of those suggestions migrate their way into some existing big project, and 30 more just die off either being solved or not useful. You just take a pencil and cross off the boxes of the done/useless ideas. The last final 20 actually go into your "Suggestions" area of the power program as being long term, but not able to be done for a chunk of time but too important to forget.

2. So what filters through and goes into the note program is any big, evolving study project. A main section simply has ever evolving accumulating knowledge. Your ideas/received suggestions go into the big note program *at the next level of processing*! So your quick idea was captured on the desk paper spreadsheet. Then you do something at it, with some chunk of processing, and then the *result* goes into your note program!

Whew! That's a lot of words. But the overall idea is it keeps the big note system focused on durable, important work. If "Stickies" are too "scattered" and "look bad" then do it as a box of flash cards that can all stay nice on the box. It's not perfect, but I've been bitten a couple times to "manage everything in note software" only for it to spiral out of control when I stopped knowing where to look! Do you organize it by topic? By priority? Both? Then you waste time tagging stuff "to do" and "done"! I have a hobby of collecting fortune cookie messages. So the paper slips themselves ARE the task. I just line them up in a corner of my desk. When I get about 20 of them, I type them all up, then throw them away. I don't need "20 to-do's" to create "tasks" to type them up!

Does all of that help at all?

Cheers,

--Tao

1591

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 Release: RecursiView

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on January 09, 2014, 07:54 AM »

This is another neat little thing I am coming to late in the party!

But it looks really useful to "vet" a machine to be sure stuff isn't "hiding" buried in a folder. And it looks much faster than boring Windows Search on my XP box!

1592

Living Room / Re: Evernote, the bug-ridden elephant.

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on January 08, 2014, 09:43 PM »

...
I figured the phone synced, but the wrong way. I figured that the local note on the phone was overwritten by the... er... lack of a note, online. That was the best logical explanation I could come up with at the time.

So yeah, I've experienced data loss with Evernote. I'm not sure if it's the same issue this guy mentioned in the article, but it put me off using Evernote, and I haven't really used it at all since, especially since Google Keep was released.

-Deozaan (January 08, 2014, 02:50 PM)

I think there's a hint of the larger downsides of "Cloud Sync" in general here. Coupled with for example the end of EditGrid, it seems like this Scylla & Charybdis.
(Wiki link - http://en.wikipedia....Scylla_and_Charybdis)

We keep seeing fanfare "Go to / collaborate / sync with the cloud!" ... and then the cloud begins to dry up...

So then you're back to Old School local copies, but without all the magic of the cloud when it does work.

The confusion between the two is maddening!

1593

Living Room / Re: When you make your 100'th Post

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on January 08, 2014, 03:35 PM »

Taoman waxes philosophical @ 3,000
 (see attachment in previous post)

-tomos (January 08, 2014, 01:43 PM)

Haha! Good catch Tomos!
Usually I am a numbers freak, but I had no idea that was even in the works!

1594

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

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on January 08, 2014, 01:30 PM »

lol my thesis

-Arizona Hot (January 08, 2014, 11:59 AM)

"The essence of Philosophy boils down to sitting in a rocking chair mentally masturbating all day long."
 

1595

Living Room / Re: Programming/Coder humor

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on January 08, 2014, 12:38 AM »

That vid is just epic. He has some other useful vids, but that one is where he's like "just ruin yourself now, don't ever ever do time zones"! : )

1596

Living Room / Re: Malware attack hits thousands of Yahoo users

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on January 08, 2014, 12:31 AM »

This thread is one of the reasons I think long and hard before ever disabling that little cow that sits down in my system tray.

-Innuendo (January 07, 2014, 08:50 PM)

Which cow!?

1597

N.A.N.Y. 2014 / Re: NANY 2014 RELEASE: Weather Station Warlock

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on January 07, 2014, 12:59 PM »

Stations are saved for me -- maybe yours is running someplace where it can't save settings? I think it tries to save settings in the directory it runs from.

-mouser (January 06, 2014, 04:31 PM)

Oh, I think I figured it out. For a lot of these little apps I tend to extract them to my desktop and play with them, then move them to my "resources" folder (aka utilities). So I must have moved the app and it lost contact with its settings.

The second time I tried it and moved the whole self contained subfolder over, it looks like it's staying put now.

1598

N.A.N.Y. 2014 / Re: NANY 2014 Release - epCheck

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on January 07, 2014, 08:58 AM »

Yes, you are correct about that data, and I haven't added it (yet) for two reasons: 1) I haven't decided WHERE to put that data.  2) If I add the network time, it stands to reason that folks will want that time converted to their timezone.  To see why I'm hesitant about that, watch this video: https://www.youtube....re=player_detailpage

-skwire (January 06, 2014, 05:39 PM)

OMG! That's an awesome video! 

-app103 (January 07, 2014, 07:13 AM)

He's got a couple of other good ones too. : )

1599

Developer's Corner / Re: How to seamlessly verify a unique identity without requiring username/password?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on January 06, 2014, 10:59 PM »

You know this falls under the scope of things i'm trying to solve with my Mewlo system - to make it easier for people to create community-based custom web services.

-mouser (January 06, 2014, 10:26 PM)

Random comment Mouser, sometimes a Framework gets so low level that no one actually works on it!

5% experience, see my pseudo-Nany, that no one touched.

1600

N.A.N.Y. 2014 / Re: NANY 2014 RELEASE: Weather Station Warlock

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on January 06, 2014, 04:29 PM »

Hi Ham Radio,

Some thoughts:

- Currently when I close it, the stations are lost. What if you made some feature where your stations are saved?
- Maybe you could make the text copyable because then you can make notes, send it in an email, and the whole shebang.
- Add a Minimize to the Tray
- This could be the counterpart to Skwire's sWeather. A buddy of mine is a Flight Attendant, so he always wants to know the weather here. So between the two, I can do a quick forecast and give your detailed warlock data of "current conditions".