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1576

General Software Discussion / Re: Video player: What's the quickest (fastest/lightest)?

« Last post by JavaJones on February 23, 2010, 12:42 AM »

I believe it's part of the first-start "configuration wizard", which might indicate it is before it stores settings in registry entries.

- Oshyan

1577

General Software Discussion / Re: Video player: What's the quickest (fastest/lightest)?

« Last post by JavaJones on February 21, 2010, 12:26 AM »

There is a "save settings to ini file" option. I haven't tried it but it may avoid some of the registry "polluting" you mention.

- Oshyan

1578

Living Room / Re: Stephen's Weekly Tech News - Edition 2

« Last post by JavaJones on February 20, 2010, 07:11 PM »

I sure hope Google opens up On2's VP7... come on guys!

- Oshyan

1579

Living Room / Re: People are really (really, really) stupid

« Last post by JavaJones on February 20, 2010, 05:38 PM »

I think a huge part of the security problems on the Internet stem from the fact that people just seem to have their brains turned off when online. Imagine if you were walking down the street to your favorite coffee shop, you come to where it should be and step inside, yet it's totally different, there is no menu, it's filled with shoes, and the staff is different. Do you A: walk up to the counter and start yelling at them about getting you coffee or B: walk back outside and see if you stepped into the wrong door and realize that it's one door down? I'd like to think most people, even the idiots in that comment thread, would opt for B. That being the case, why the hell didn't they apply the same common sense to their online navigation? Yeesh!

- Oshyan

1580

General Software Discussion / Re: Why OpenOffice? Why Microsoft Office? Each one makes their argument

« Last post by JavaJones on February 20, 2010, 04:31 PM »

I'll have to check out RagTime. Looks interesting. Of course you cannot save non-standard design to a "standard" DOC or similar format. But I would think you could "export" just the appropriate bits...

- Oshyan

1581

Living Room / Re: People are really (really, really) stupid

« Last post by JavaJones on February 20, 2010, 04:19 PM »

As I said before, what shocked and saddened me wasn't necessarily that people were using this method to find their sites - I get that it's basic ignorance, or just what they've found easiest/most intuitive to do. It was the fact that once they got to the site that looked totally different than Facebook and had none of the Facebook content and had an obvious article written *about* Facebook, they didn't stop to think maybe they got the wrong site, they just assumed someone had "broken their Facebooks!!1!1" and then proceeded to make incredibly retarded comments about it. *That* is stupid. Yes, I stand by that. Did it not even cross these people's minds that it could be another site? They've been to other sites on the Internet besides Facebook, right? Or at the least they know other sites *exist*... so, they're idiots. 

- Oshyan

1582

General Software Discussion / Re: Word 2007: Styles with ridiculous spacing

« Last post by JavaJones on February 19, 2010, 08:28 PM »

Nice, thanks Andy.

- Oshyan

1583

Living Room / Re: Antivirus companies support virus writers?

« Last post by JavaJones on February 19, 2010, 07:17 PM »

Recently I've heard of malware that actually cleans systems of other malware so that it gets exclusive access to system resources. One wonders about the possibility of software that replicates and distributes like a virus, but only does removal of other nasties...

- Oshyan

1584

General Software Discussion / Re: Why OpenOffice? Why Microsoft Office? Each one makes their argument

« Last post by JavaJones on February 19, 2010, 06:57 PM »

I haven't tried SoftMaker Office, but I'm a long-time OOo user, as well as a long-time MS Office user. I find approximately equal levels of frustration with both! Usually in different areas though. OOo is slow and that's probably one of my biggest complaints. It's also a bit clunky. 3.2 has sped up a bit, so you might want to check that out if speed was your main concern in the past. It's still not MS Office speed though.

I have also gone through a shift from MS Office 2k, to OOo 2.x-3.x, and back to MS Office 2k3/2k7 organizationally, and it has shown me some interesting things. I feel pretty confident now saying that there are a similar number of problems with both and in fact interestingly enough we had users complain about some features missing in MS Office that OOo had (particularly in Excel vs. Calc). the vast majority of issues though come from file interchange and format differences, which is true of both MS Office and OOo. It's pretty frustrating that this is the case, and I'm frankly a bit surprised that these issues remain so prevalent. MS's refusal to accept ODF as a standard pretty much guarantees that this retardness will continue, along with the continued default install of apps like MS Works in which you apparently cannot set the default save format as anything by the proprietary WKS. Ugh!

Frankly I'm tired of the whole "Office Suite" paradigm and the traditional document authoring model. Why should I need a separate, sophisticated design tool like InDesign if I want to make my document look really nice and print well? And if I do work in InDesign, why do I lose all spelling and grammer checking? Why does my document authoring team have to edit a document which gets sent to the designer for entry into InDesign, after which the document authoring team have to pass all changes through the designer, instead of doing them directly in a referenced document? Why is document formatting so quirky and hard to control, even today? Why is presentation template support still so limited? (MSO 2k7 was the first notable progress on this IMO) Why if I'm authoring a document for hand-out and presentation is it not easier to combine the two and maintain updates across files (e.g. reference a bulleted list from Word in Powerpoint and have it dynamically update as you edit the latter)?

Imagine if you will a single document development application, with intelligent "modes", customizable workspace and workflow systems, sophisticated (but easy to use) referencing and instancing systems, and a "view"-based methodology for interpreting your document into different models. For example, highlight a block of text, right-click and specify as slide 1 of a presentation, then go to the presentation layout and further edit with transitions, etc. If you have changes to make, do them in the document edit layout and they're automatically reflected in the presentation.

Really, can't they do any better than this?

- Oshyan

1585

General Software Discussion / Re: Word 2007: Styles with ridiculous spacing

« Last post by JavaJones on February 19, 2010, 06:19 PM »

I'm with you superboyac, I've long been annoyed by the same things. I have to think there's some "good" reason for this preset of leading and trailing space in most word processor styles (it's in OpenOffice too). I get that it's "best practice" to do things this way instead of using newlines or whatever. But I agree it has always proven less convenient and more cumbersome in practice. Maybe I just don't know the right shortcuts for adjusting leading/trailing space, but it seems a bit excessive to bother with that if I can control things reasonably well with newlines, "wrong" though it may be.

I'll say this for certain - docs that I've done with 0 leading and trailing space have a reasonably consistent, if not "sophisticated" look with using newlines for appropriate space, whereas any that I've ever done using leading/trailing space often less consistent and more jarring differences in spacing throughout, making them more annoying to read IMO.

- Oshyan

1586

Living Room / Re: Google does no evil; kills reMail

« Last post by JavaJones on February 19, 2010, 06:01 PM »

Interesting. Was the iPhone app their only product? Perhaps it's just retaliation for Apple not approving Google Talk.

Btw, I always thought Gmail's existing, built-in search was pretty much "lightning fast"...

- Oshyan

1587

Living Room / Re: Anyone playing Mass Effect 2 game yet?

« Last post by JavaJones on February 19, 2010, 05:51 PM »

You guys may find this useful: http://www.masseffectsaves.com/
Basically you can find a save that matches the path you decided to take in the previous game, even if it was on the 360, and then continue on from that.

- Oshyan

1588

Living Room / Re: [Project] Combining network devices into one SOHO Router/Server

« Last post by JavaJones on February 19, 2010, 05:44 PM »

Sounds good. I'll definitely be watching.

- Oshyan

1589

General Software Discussion / Re: Best jukebox that is NOT iTunes?

« Last post by JavaJones on February 19, 2010, 05:39 PM »

Cool, I'll check out Jaangle. For my part I always use separate ripping and burning apps for maximum power and flexibility, so I don't need those integrated. But unfortunately the less savvy average users I often deal with do need more integration, so I'm still looking for that solution...

- Oshyan

1590

Living Room / People are really (really, really) stupid

« Last post by JavaJones on February 19, 2010, 04:53 PM »

From Betanews: "Last week, hundreds of Facebook users who type "Facebook" into their Google search bar rather than use the URL in the address bar were routed to a ReadWriteWeb article instead of Facebook when Google temporarily shuffled the search rankings. What followed is one of the most tragically hilarious comment threads of all time."
http://www.readwrite...r_one_true_login.php

WOW. Just.... wow. OK, so the method of typing in a site's name or even URL into Google to find it, I get that it's common, and maybe it's not totally retarded. And I guess muscle memory or simple habit trains people to click that first link that comes up in their search engine when they do this, and they just trust it'll be the right thing when they do. That's all well and good, it's not a sign of the stupidity apocalypse.

What shocks me about this is 1: 100's or even 1000's of people didn't even think to go back and check the search engine's results that they clicked on, they just assumed the site they went to was Facebook and it had undergone a complete and total redesign despite 2: the URL in the address bar not being anywhere close to right. Worse still, when they did weigh in with their question, opinion, comment it 3: was universally retarded, e.g. "wtf is this bullshttttttttttt all about. can i get n plzzzzzzzzz".

No wonder so many people get taken in by Facebook scams and other online hazards. I am sad for the future of mankind. 

- Oshyan

1591

General Software Discussion / Re: Best jukebox that is NOT iTunes?

« Last post by JavaJones on February 18, 2010, 10:18 PM »

4 years later and there are still no outstanding obvious iTunes replacements IMO. Which is to say, I hate iTunes with a fiery passion, but when I want to put something *else* on a novice user's system that's easy to use and accessible, light on resources, supports all major formats, has "media library" capability, podcast support, ripping and burning to high quality formats at full speed (no limitations like Winamp and MediaMonkey), streaming support, portable music player support, etc., I really don't find any options that I'm truly satisfied with. MusikCube hasn't been updated since v1 in 2006. MediaMonkey is decent enough, but has limitations. Winamp has the same issue, and isn't quite as intuitive for the layman as MediaMonkey I think. I haven't tried SongBird lately. If only Apple would make iTunes not suck on Windows...

Edit: Perhaps Amarok for Windows is the answer? Will have to test. Has anyone tried it?

- Oshyan

1592

Living Room / Re: [Project] Combining network devices into one SOHO Router/Server

« Last post by JavaJones on February 18, 2010, 12:25 AM »

I doubt I'll ever attempt anything like this as I have a fear of Linux. But it's an interesting project and I'll certainly be watching your progress.

2 comments. First, do you have any experience with MagicJack, or at least looked into it a fair amount? I ask because we've tried to use it in 2 totally separate locations, with different 'net connections, in different states, one of which has a pretty fat pipe and very solid connection, and in both cases it has been *miserable*. Intermittent audio dropouts, beeps and clicks, dropped calls, busy signals, on and on. I wouldn't recommend it. Skype is at least less of a "closed box", and I think there are even other audio chat systems that might interface better with Linux. If it's connection to standard land lines you're after (as I suspect), your options are probably more limited, but I bet there's a VOIP provider out there that has Linux support either directly, or through 3rd party software.

Second, you mentioned eBox, so it's probably safe to assume you've looked into all the other existing Linux variants that focus on routing/firewall/gateway. But just in case, here's a reminder: look into it. I'm fairly sure there are some good off-the-shelf solutions. Whether they will work with your hardware is another question, and whether they'll offer you the customization you want is another question still, but I reckon the latter is surely satisfied by at least one distro out there...

- Oshyan

1593

General Software Discussion / Re: Why the aversion to .NET Frameworks?

« Last post by JavaJones on February 17, 2010, 11:57 PM »

Well, I can try to say what I think other people dislike about .NET, or talk about my own issues with it. My own are more personal, from actual experience, and so perhaps more interesting/relevant? I'll start there.

My main beefs with .NET, not necessarily in any particular order, are:
1: I don't want to have yet another framework
2: Another target for security issues, and they seemed to happen relatively frequently, especially in earlier frameworks
3: Matters less now, but still download and more so install size are large and annoying - I can't help but expect bloat (but maybe this is imagined?)
4: Speed of execution for many apps is slow, whether due to framework bloat, or poor coding practices, or...?
5: This may be a myth or simply misunderstanding, but I tend to feel like .NET and accompanying languages and tools (e.g. C#) makes things easy enough that code can get sloppy easier (or just seems to *be* sloppier from my experience, regardless of the reasons one might guess at)
6: 4+ different versions of the same framework, none backwards compatible? Really? Java manages to avoid this, why can't .NET?

That being said since MS has continued with it, I think .NET has lost some of its bad reputation. Eventually I guess it'll just be included with all versions of Windows like DirectX and no one will think much of it. But there's still the cross platform issue...

- Oshyan

1594

General Software Discussion / Re: simple software to facilitate reading screen full of text ...

« Last post by JavaJones on February 17, 2010, 10:53 PM »

Interesting idea. I've always just selected bits of text as I went, to mark my place. But this can often have unintended consequences. So a more purpose-built tool would be great, though would have to be system-wide.

- Oshyan

1595

Living Room / Re: Which is better windows mobile or android os or iphone os?

« Last post by JavaJones on February 17, 2010, 12:36 AM »

I reckon Android phones can do just about anything a "PocketPC" (phone form factor) could do. There are actual mini-PCs that run full blown Linux or even Windows implementations that might be considered pocketable, and so might fit the moniker, but generally speaking the high end modern cell phones are the "Pocket PCs" of our times.

- Oshyan

1596

Living Room / Re: Which is better windows mobile or android os or iphone os?

« Last post by JavaJones on February 16, 2010, 10:25 PM »

If you go Win Mobile now it's going to be outdated and probably not upgradeable by end of year (Win Mobile 7). MS (and partners) have a history of not allowing major OS upgrades on phones. Whereas there are fairly early Android phones that are starting to be able to run 2.0/2.1, and that will probably remain possible. The changes are also usually more significant than with WinMo for equivalent "major" version #s. Add to that the open development environment and more vibrant (considering its much younger age) app marketplace, and I think you'll probably be happier with an Android phone longer-term. Mind you I have a WinMo 6.1 phone (Motorola Q9C) which has been ok, but not great. I don't have 6.5 experience, but it doesn't seem that much better. Android seems far ahead of it in UI, app functionality, etc. But of course you have to factor in carrier requirements, contracts, etc. etc...

I wouldn't be surprised to find an Android CLI app...

- Oshyan

1597

General Software Discussion / Re: The best Media manager?

« Last post by JavaJones on February 16, 2010, 09:31 PM »

Hmm, tall order. Organize *and* play a large variety of media formats, but *don't* be a "media center" type app, *and* must be cross platform? I'd say something like KMPlayer, but it's Windows-only. Honestly I'm not terribly familiar with Linux options aside from the various "media center" apps.

It really seems like there should be a way to disable the functions you don't want on those apps - many are open source, and should be tweakable (maybe simply removing the "download album cover art" plugin?).

The only other app that comes to mind is VLC, which has *basic* support for many of these things, but probably not as mature as you'd like.

- Oshyan

1598

Living Room / Re: Low-cost laptop in February 2010. Comments anyone?

« Last post by JavaJones on February 15, 2010, 08:34 PM »

I don't know what stores you have available to you in Canada, so it's hard to give a specific model for buying advice as price will vary. Generally Acer's are good little budget systems. They're not always the cheapest though. This is one option I'm recommending to local US purchasers, but I imagine Best Buy is not available in Canada?
http://www.bestbuy.c...11&skuId=9755437

Also, on sale for President's Day (again not applicable to Canada  ):
http://www.bestbuy.c...27&skuId=9716078

- Oshyan

1599

N.A.N.Y. 2010 / Re: NANY 2010 Release: Twigatelle

« Last post by JavaJones on February 14, 2010, 11:12 PM »

New level = awww. Nice one. Although it is somewhat date-specific.

Assassin is *wicked* on levels 8 and 9 (makes them a lot more do-able).

And now, drum roll please... new high score, 3 mil!

- Oshyan

1600

Living Room / Re: You'Dont'Tube In Aussy

« Last post by JavaJones on February 13, 2010, 06:14 PM »

But then who decides what is "extreme". Personally I don't think it should be Google's responsibility to do this.

Anyway, 'net filtering is bad, mmmkay?

- Oshyan