Recent Posts

1701

Living Room / Re: News Article: Two Arrested For ATM Fraud

« Last post by zridling on September 25, 2008, 06:18 AM »

Ehtyar, maybe we should consider a "news" child board for these articles that can be found everywhere else online? By the time I get to DC, I've read or seen these in several other places (cnet, zdnet, google news, slashdot, eweek, all things digital, etc.) Better, combine them into a larger post.

Just a suggestion. 

1702

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 7 -- ribbons for everyone!

« Last post by zridling on September 21, 2008, 11:19 PM »

Grorgy, the problems you describe came about because Microsoft itself kept dumping more and more bloat into MS Office and marketing them as "features." Office 2003 was very similar Office 97 on purpose -- once you mastered MS Office, you had the skill. People didn't gripe about new menus, but they did bitch about those insane personalized menus. Again, the reason personalized menus were introduced was because Microsoft kept loading Office with more stuff they claimed users wanted when in reality they were giving everyone and anyone what they wanted. The menus had become so complex that they were collapsing under the sheer weight of the program's features and functions. It didn't help that apps within the same suite didn't naturally share keyboard shortcuts for the same functions.

Thus, there was no reason for anyone to even bother with a competing app, and OpenOffice didn't become attractive until ODF came along with version 2.0. You certainly were not going to get more features by using WordPerfect, for example.

1703

General Software Discussion / Re: Any Lynx(text based browser) lover-user?

« Last post by zridling on September 21, 2008, 10:19 AM »

There's certainly beauty in minimalism. Any app that does not get in your way is your friend.

1704

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 7 -- ribbons for everyone!

« Last post by zridling on September 21, 2008, 10:15 AM »

I know there are good arguments on the other side, but I wish Microsoft would upgrade all these OS apps -- NotePad, Paint, WordPad -- and offer them as either a downloadable package for Windows users or within Automatic Updates if the user clicked the option. They don't have to be the greatest apps, but would a better, more feature-rich WordPad really take out other competition, since the only app competing anymore (for money) is WordPerfect?

Like mouser and others, I'd much rather see Microsoft scale "Windows" down to a core OS and let its customers decide what more they want to plugin to it.

1705

Living Room / Re: [NSFW Humor]: The funnier side of Mac vs. PC

« Last post by zridling on September 20, 2008, 11:10 PM »

I think it was the Joy of Tech site, or maybe a google search. I don't remember.

1706

Living Room / Re: video players

« Last post by zridling on September 20, 2008, 06:39 AM »

Thanks for the link, fenix! 

1707

Living Room / [NSFW Humor]: The funnier side of Mac vs. PC

« Last post by zridling on September 20, 2008, 06:30 AM »

________________________________________
It's the weekend. Add 'em if you got 'em.

1708

Living Room / Re: video players

« Last post by zridling on September 20, 2008, 05:31 AM »

Dave, also take a look at SMPlayer, which is open source and cross-platform, and Kaffeine (Linux only).



SMPlayer uses the MPlayer engine, while Kaffeine uses the Xine engine. They both have subtitle support and many features you'll want, such as remembering video position and settings after closing the app in SMPlayer, and Kaffeine also reads DVD menus across several discs when on your HD.

1709

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 7 -- ribbons for everyone!

« Last post by zridling on September 19, 2008, 09:01 PM »

For me, the ribbon carries several disadvantages:

• it's too 1st grade-looking, as if I'm too stupid to use a menu;
  
• eats up a ridiculous amount of valuable screen space (float this thing as a sidebar since we're all using WIDEscreens now);
  
• it diminishes the role -- and efficiency -- of keyboard shortcuts.

And as someone mentioned, it defeats the purpose when you only have two tabs in these simple apps. Seriously, does anyone use WordPad or MSPaint... ever?

1710

General Software Discussion / Windows 7 -- ribbons for everyone!

« Last post by zridling on September 19, 2008, 09:06 AM »

Thom Holwerda has a new post at OSNews.com on Microsoft's ribbons for Paint and WordPad.

Microsoft blogger Stephen Chapman... claims that certain default Windows applications such as Paint and Wordpad have received the ribbon overhaul. "Yes, both Paint and WordPad have finally received the royal treatment. Via permission given to me to remotely access build 6780 to play around a bit, Paint and WordPad both look great and have much-needed updates." Not only the interface has been overhauled, but the feature set of both applications have been improved and modernised as well.

Love it or hate it?

1711

General Software Discussion / Re: FinePrint vs. priPrinter

« Last post by zridling on September 18, 2008, 09:50 PM »

Being able to print pages into image files is something I use more and more these days.

1712

General Software Discussion / FinePrint vs. priPrinter

« Last post by zridling on September 18, 2008, 09:15 PM »

patteo wrote a fantastic mini-review of FinePrint, but was wondering if anyone is using Pelikan Software's priPrinter and what their thoughts are?

1713

Living Room / Re: Sad Weekend....

« Last post by zridling on September 15, 2008, 08:27 PM »

Theft is unpreventable in many ways -- if they want it bad enough, they're coming in. But taking a man's laptop, that's just damn wrong.

I learned this harsh lesson via a bad storm back in 1992. I had spent the summer preparing for a new position teaching statistics at Indiana University when the day before classes started a massive electrical storm blew out the transformer at my cheap apartment and lightning struck the building, burning out all the wall sockets, and subsequently frying my bright new ($4200) PC! I spent the entire year working from behind and without a computer of my own, it was nearly impossible to do my job. I even had replacement insurance (along with a special rider) on that very machine, but when I went to my agent, he said: "Sure, get three estimates to average the cost of replacing your PC, you replace the machine, bring us the receipts, and we'll reimburse you in six months." I was broke, couldn't afford to do that, and PC-less for a year.

Mind you, I've never spend another GD nickel on insurance since that day!

1714

General Software Discussion / Re: the actual browser divide: plugins

« Last post by zridling on September 15, 2008, 08:15 PM »

[Paul K]: For me the hype is overblown because I think many proponents are ignoring the value of the prosumer consciousness. The usefulness of semantic web comes from the idea of better and more intelligent searches. The outcome is something that provides you with a list of search results extracted from meta-tags which in turn gives you this whole view of search results but in much more details and in more categories than you would normally get from using Google + keywords.

That's part of it, but if coders are able to build the software correctly, this effect could be factored in. The reality for the semantic web to come about is redesigning and rebuilding the tools that make the very pages on which we throw content.
__________
Finally, don't confuse [software] marketshare with quality. In any medium, this seems to be true -- watched TV lately and the #1-rated shows each night? Driven the "best-selling" car? Point is, while lots of superior software has gone under, the fact that Firefox is open source insulates it from market whims. (Disclosure: I'm a huge Opera fan, though I enjoy Firefox as my 2nd browser daily.)

1715

Developer's Corner / Re: OSNews.com Multi-part Article on User Interfaces and Usability

« Last post by zridling on September 15, 2008, 08:01 PM »

I've been following this series, too, and it's always fun to see what's been discarded in the past... that worked! That Apple Mac graphic is probably from 1984-86, and it still retains more clarity than most today! Holwerda has serialized all the links here:

Common Usability Terms

1716

General Software Discussion / Re: the actual browser divide: plugins

« Last post by zridling on September 15, 2008, 06:49 AM »

[urlwolf]: the killer feature is right now plugins.

I think you're right on this. When you can take an essential app on every computer and directly improve it via customization, it's the difference between night and day for users. As long as users support Firefox, it will continue to thrive and compete with anything out there (because users know what they want).
__________________
urlwolf, you also mentioned the semantic web. If/when that ever comes about, we will evolve to the next level as a species.

1717

Living Room / Re: You might want to skip the whole Blu-Ray generation

« Last post by zridling on September 15, 2008, 06:37 AM »

Three problems I see.
(1) The longer you're in the [computing] game, the more expensive this problem becomes.
(2) The whole exercise is a time sink. I'm coming close to online storage of my essential data, but that opens an entirely new set of problems.
(3) HDs are the cheapest storage solution as Dormouse and f0dder pointed out, but yes, you do have to eventually transfer data between the next bus/controller generation, not to mention filesystems. I haven't had a HD failure in over a dozen years now, so I feel lucky in that regard.

Would it ever be possible to develop a universal format?
(4wd: holographic crystals! at the least dilithium wouldn't react with antimatter)

I have several data sets from the mid-80s that are ongoing and I've been transferring them since the 5.25 floppy disk days.

1718

Living Room / You might want to skip the whole Blu-Ray generation

« Last post by zridling on September 14, 2008, 01:22 AM »

Blu-Ray, I hardly knew ya; thank goodness I never bought one!

Samsung: Blu-ray has 5 Years Left, OLED HD on the Way:

Samsung has said that it sees the Blu-ray format only lasting a further 5 years before it is replaced by another format or technology. "I think it [Blu-ray] has 5 years left, I certainly wouldn't give it 10", Andy Griffiths, director of consumer electronics at Samsung UK told Pocket-lint in an interview.
________________________
My big dilemma: On what storage medium should I store my [long-term] data, since it's perpetually being replaced?

1719

Living Room / Re: Micro-review: New TV Series "Fringe"

« Last post by zridling on September 13, 2008, 12:39 AM »

I didn't find the 'Fringe' previews enough to watch the show. Thanks for the review.
___________
I wish TV programming was universal; that we could pick from programs from all over the world. I'd start in Britain and work my way out. And damnit, the Indian channels have some of the most hilarious comedians you'll ever see (along with dropdead gorgeous femmes)! German TV in interesting because most of their shows are character-driven and they have a very good staple of actors that spend half their time in movies we all recognize. Lots of cooking and fishing on the Italian channels.

My American TV has been overwhelmed with cop/CSI/vigilante shows for the past 30 years, and frankly, I'm sick of it. And whenever they do have a good idea, they either breakup the cast and create several spin-offs, or everyone rushes in to copy them. There's so much reality show BS anymore that it makes for an insanely bad experience.

1720

General Software Discussion / Re: Google Chrome - What Will It Take

« Last post by zridling on September 13, 2008, 12:28 AM »

Actually, this a great topic idea, Ehtyar. The only reason I'm not scared of Chrome is because of Google's past track record with regard to privacy.

I've been a Gmail user since the beginning and haven't had any problems. And for me, if they really want to market to me, they'll know that I spend most of my computer time simply reading -- about software, chess, science, Linux, some politics, and a little sports. The rest is porn. That's my computing life laid bare. I'm still porn-spammed, even in Gmail. But I'm not alone there.

Point is, don't trust a corporation. Even if you've always trusted them, hold them accountable and keep watching. The history of business is that if you allow corporations an inch, they'll take 100 miles. I remember turning off Automatic Updates in Windows only later to read that Microsoft forced [some] updates on its users whether it was turned off or not. I was seriously pissed to the point that I started planning my exit strategy toward the platform.

1721

Living Room / Re: Would you surf porn in a public space?

« Last post by zridling on September 13, 2008, 12:08 AM »

Yea, exposing others to visual porn is almost as bad as making me listen to your cellphone conversation at 85db. Some people are super-sensitive. I will never forget the scene my older brother made when he demanded that me and Mom follow him out the door because he was offended by one scene in the movie we were watching: City Slickers (1991)!

He thought the scene -- just a visual, really -- where they were holding icepacks on their crotches was pornographic and no woman should be subjected to it. Jeezus.

____________
Mr. Sensitive sat in the car the rest of the movie while we enjoyed the rest of it.

1722

Living Room / Would you surf porn in a public space?

« Last post by zridling on September 12, 2008, 07:00 PM »

I don't think I'd have the guts, much less the inclination. Still, this story caught my eye:
This Is Your Captain Speaking: Will the Gentleman in Seat 21A Please Stop Surfing Porn!

Blogger Dave Simmer has the opposing view, in Who Asked You, B*tch? on reading Maxim magazine in public.

1723

Living Room / Happy birthday GNU, free/libre software!

« Last post by zridling on September 12, 2008, 07:26 AM »

Happy birthday GNU! from Stephen Fry, one my all-time favorite Brits, right after Charles Darwin, and this next guy, Glyn Moody, who provides the backstory, a must read short history of free/libre software.


click for video link

Stephen Fry is famously a huge Mac fan. I've seen the footage of him clearing out entire Apple stores! Here's Moody:

In founding his GNU project, Stallman was trying to recreate the lost paradise of MIT as he had experienced it as a young hacker, where everybody had shared their code. He was hoping to achieve this, by transposing an even older tradition of collaboration - that of science – to the world of computers. In the process he wanted to give back coding freedoms that had been lost as commerce had reared its head in academia.... One of Stallman's many insights was that science flourished because it was based on sharing discoveries so that others could build on them, without needing to re-invent the wheel.... The closing of software meant that it was impossible to do this, since the last thing that corporate owners of that code wanted to do was to make it freely available. Stallman's idea was to create a movement that would contribute code to the computing community just as scientists contribute knowledge.

1724

Living Room / Microsoft granted patents for PageUp and PageDn keystrokes!

« Last post by zridling on September 10, 2008, 08:09 AM »

As if (U.S.) patents couldn't get anymore pointless, the very idea of applying for such a patent is pretty damn sad. What, the spacebar patent was already taken?

The software giant applied for the patent in 2005, and was granted it on August 19, 2008. US patent number 7,415,666 describes "a method and system in a document viewer for scrolling a substantially exact increment in a document, such as one page, regardless of whether the zoom is such that some, all or one page is currently being viewed".

source: ZDnet

1725

General Software Discussion / Re: Yet another Hotkey app!

« Last post by zridling on September 10, 2008, 05:42 AM »

Okay, that's a great avatar, app!