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1701
Developer's Corner / Re: FREE Programming eBooks! (and a C++ book for C# devs)
« Last post by app103 on October 20, 2012, 01:34 PM »
And don't forget my free programming ebooks directory. Lots of good stuff there.

Just a sampling from the C based languages:

There are plenty more categories. Quickest way to browse the entire site is the Table of Contents.


1702
General Software Discussion / Re: I love this click
« Last post by app103 on October 17, 2012, 01:47 PM »
That would probably be Filebox eXtender, as I also have that installed and love the feature.

I don't know anything about getting it to work in Win 7 or what other tools can be used to have the same feature. (I am still on XP)

All I can suggest is that you check your settings and make sure you have the correct option selected.

Screenshot - 10_17_2012 , 2_50_13 PM.png

1703
Living Room / Re: Social media icon set, including one for DC
« Last post by app103 on October 17, 2012, 01:38 PM »
Maybe it could stay grey if the grey background was darkened a bit.

But then it wouldn't match the shading of the other icons, especially any of the white icons. Don't look at the icon by itself...consider it with the rest of the set.

If I had done the icon in the exact same style, it would have been only an outline of Cody (like the twitter one) and you wouldn't have been able to tell at all, what it was supposed to be.
1704
Living Room / Re: Social media icon set, including one for DC
« Last post by app103 on October 17, 2012, 12:30 PM »
Thanks for the kudos, but to be honest, mine was mostly an experiment in response to Mouser asking about a higher contrast button.
I'm actually still partial to app's original Cody icon; I dig the subtlety.  :Thmbsup:

That was kind of what I was going for, to keep with the more subtle look of most of the icons in the set. I could have just as easily put Cody on one of the blue icons if I had wanted more contrast, but I didn't think it would look as good next to the other icons, when using more than one.
1705
Living Room / Re: What A Different World Than What I Grew Up In :(
« Last post by app103 on October 16, 2012, 07:06 PM »
While I am not an expert in law, and especially not Canadian law, I do believe that Canada has laws against the possession and/or distribution of child pornography.

Considering the nature of the photos that were in his possession and the age of the victim, they could probably nail him for possession, at the very least. And his posting it online could probably be considered distribution.

If Canada has anti-stalking laws, him showing up at her home in the middle of the night could constitute stalking, as well as some of his online actions.

I don't know how the laws in Canada define manslaughter, but in both New York and my home state of New Jersey, a bully or cyberbully can be charged with manslaughter if the victim of the bullying takes their own life.

1706
Living Room / Re: What A Different World Than What I Grew Up In :(
« Last post by app103 on October 16, 2012, 03:12 PM »
Okay... So can anyone cite an actual example of an outed cyber bully that really was tortured to death in the (digital) town square??

Seriously. Is the true crowd reaction actual, or assumed? ...The masses easily get bored (and move on) in a week I'd assert.

Here ya go...a recent one...

http://abcnews.go.co...viral-video-16634279
http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=UyHKtJRYkjI

The kids received death threats, police had to respond to a hostage situation that turned out to be a hoax, over 1000 threatening text messages sent to one of the kids, in a single night. This wasn't limited to threats against the bullies; their parents, brothers, and sisters were also threatened.

1707
Living Room / Re: What A Different World Than What I Grew Up In :(
« Last post by app103 on October 16, 2012, 12:59 PM »
Exposing a bully does exactly that.

If all it were was exposing them, I'd agree with you. If all he got from the internet was dirty looks wherever he went, that would be fine. If something good came from it, like an arrest and conviction, that would be an acceptable resolution.

But you know it won't stop there. This guy will receive death threats, people showing up at his home, his job, etc. And it will affect not only him. The people he lives with...maybe family, children...will also become the victims of the retaliatory bullies from the internet. And if they live in a multi-family home, other people that live there, who have nothing to do with what happened, will also become victims, when something like a brick intended for the bully's window misses and hits theirs.

He was one bully, bullying one girl. And yes, it ended badly, but he will be not just bullied, but terrorized by the internet, lots and lots of people behaving badly, thinking that the wrongs they commit will make it right.

Exposing him says bullying is wrong. Encouraging people to bully him by giving out his address is saying bullying is ok. It says that vigilante justice is a good thing. You make him the victim of an internet lynch mob who will show up with the equivalent of torches and pitchforks. And I can't support that.

and two wrongs never make a right.

Nope. But three lefts do! ;)

I had a feeling someone was going to say that.  :-[
1708
Living Room / Re: Tracking Brainwaves to Protect Our Borders
« Last post by app103 on October 16, 2012, 12:35 PM »
Here's a thought... Instead of worrying and whining about all those pesky Mexicans sneaking across the border to snap up all of the highly sought after kitchen, gardening and janitorial positions ...

Emphasis, mine. I know you were trying to be sarcastic there, but the truth is that these jobs are highly sought after, and at a legal wage. There are a whole lot of people out of work that would jump at the opportunity to earn a living, even if it means doing work like that.

My husband, who has worked in a kitchen his whole life, and has been out of work since July 4, would like to have one of those kitchen jobs, and would prefer to be paid at least the state minimum wage, if possible. If he can find one that is willing to hire an American, he will likely be expected to work off the books for $5/hr, like the illegals he will be working alongside. That's $2.25 less than the state minimum and over the course of a 40 hour work week comes out to being shorted by $90. Over the course of a month, that's about $360. Over the course of a year, that's $4680. I don't know about you, but my family can sure use that extra money. It can mean the difference between having the basic necessities of life and doing without.

Not to mention that if he were to lose that job he wouldn't be able to collect Unemployment.

Americans that do take these jobs can't complain or they risk being fired for something trivial or losing their jobs if the place ends up getting shut down for hiring illegals.

I don't know how to solve the problem, and I don't blame the illegals for it existing...they need to eat, just like everyone else.

It's the fault of the business owners that choose to pay an illegal wage, figuring that illegals will work for whatever they can get and won't mind being cheated. It is the fault of business owners that decide to only hire illegals, when people like my husband can't find a job...not the fault of the illegals they choose to hire. They do it to pay lower wages. They do it to avoid paying employment taxes. They do it to avoid paying Social Security/unemployment/disability taxes. They do it to avoid providing health insurance to their workers.

What they are doing is equal to outsourcing jobs to 3rd world countries, but they are doing it within the borders of the US.

THAT is what you need to stop. Forget border patrolling. Concentrate your efforts on the businesses that make this country attractive to come to illegally. The businesses that cause there to be more Americans on welfare because they can't find jobs, jobs that if they paid legal wages and hired Americans, would pay more than welfare does.

Start with the entire restaurant industry. Maybe get in there and monitor them all, especially the ones that seem to be (on the books) small mom & pop places with "no employees".

If that kind of business practice isn't stopped, it will spread, eventually affecting everyone, with lower wages across the board in all occupations...and higher taxes to support those that can't find jobs...and higher taxes to make up for the lost tax revenue from those businesses paying their workers off the books.
1709
Living Room / Re: What A Different World Than What I Grew Up In :(
« Last post by app103 on October 16, 2012, 11:43 AM »
Cyber-bulling is some really messed up stuff, and stopping it is something we all have to try to do when we see it happening, which is what I am about to do right now...

Posting the personal info of a bully only encourages more bullying. What do you think others will do with that info? No matter how wrong the guy was, bullying him for it is just as wrong, and two wrongs never make a right.
1710
Living Room / Social media icon set, including one for DC
« Last post by app103 on October 16, 2012, 11:21 AM »
I recently decided to build a few websites and found a need to have a set of social media icons to link to all of the related profiles for each site. Since some of them have associated profiles on more recently created social networks, I had to find a nice full set that included icons for sites like Google Plus and Pinterest.

Elegant Themes has a really nice set with a lot of different icons, including the more recent social networks. The set is GPL licensed, so you can use them in Wordpress themes and plugins, intended for distribution or sale. This set is now my default for using when building sites and blogs.

icons-preview.jpg

While building my portfolio site, I found the need to have an icon that matched that set, to link to my DC profile.

After editing the included Flickr icon, I now have a matching one with Cody, which I am now sharing with anyone that would like to use the set provided by Elegant Themes, and have a matching icon to link to their DC profiles.

donationcoder.png
1711
Living Room / Re: 3D Printing Under Attack
« Last post by app103 on October 15, 2012, 12:28 PM »
I always had issues with certain sci-fi stories that depict the future as rather steampunkish in appearance (I am looking at you, Firefly). I could never understand how we get from where we are now to a sort of backwards styled but advanced future. Now I know. Now it all makes sense. It's all due to DRM in 3D printing forcing people to use very old copyright/patent expired designs and building from there.  :D
1712
Living Room / Re: 3D Printing Under Attack
« Last post by app103 on October 15, 2012, 11:10 AM »

Really? A cheap untraceable gun suitable for use at close range doesn't inspire all sorts of creative thinking?

It doesn't even need to be durable. All it needs to do is be able to fire a single shot (or six) with a fair degree of reliability and voila - Disposable guns! One step better than the so-called 'Saturday Night Special.' Doesn't even need to be that accurate as long as it keeps fairly close to the direction it's pointed in. Look at the flare guns found on boats. Most are now made of plastic. And they perform for their intended use as well as the old-fashioned durable variety.

So much for even having (highly flawed) ballistic or manufacturer's data to fall back on for traceability when a weapon has no pedigree whatsoever. Especially if it's ground up and recycled (or even melted a bit and tossed) shortly after it's been used. It's almost like saying: "Imagine a gun."

 8)

You made me think of this again.

At one time, its inventor tried to get it classified as a medical device, with the possibility of Medicare picking up the costs for any elderly or disabled person that wanted one. http://rawstory.com/...or_seniors_1208.html

FDA didn't buy his claims and rejected it. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28116693

And that one resembles this one, which I am sure the patent has long since expired. I bet this one would be a perfect candidate for 3D printing (without the worry of DRM protected designs), if/when the technology does get to a point where guns could be printed.
1713
Living Room / Re: Dumbing-down of the educational system?
« Last post by app103 on October 15, 2012, 09:46 AM »
I think my father summed it up best when he stated, "The primary purpose of the public school system is to teach students to sit down, shut up, and do what they are told."

And the big threat to those that refuse to learn this lesson is a career where they get to stand up and talk all day (would you like fries with that?)

This is all in preparation for their future, where no matter which direction they go (sitting or standing) they will be expected to allow themselves to be exploited for profit, by working for someone else.

In other words, schools are factories that produce obedient drones. The rejects are still, for the most part, just drones.

Most people do not have the luxury of being able to afford to send their kids to a school that has a goal of producing anything other than obedient drones. It is very expensive to send your child to a school where they learn how to be the drone controller, the one that exploits the drones for profit.

Take a look at the wealthiest people in the US, the ones that own the big companies, the ones that are founding the companies that will be big in the future. How many of them went to an ordinary public school? How many of them went to one of the less expensive public colleges and universities? Why do the rest of us aspire to become smart enough to be accepted to one of those expensive colleges and universities? Why do we hope for scholarships to be able to pay for it? Because it's the difference between being a drone for the rest of your life and having much better.

The dumbing down reflects the need to have your drones only know enough to do their drone jobs well, and not enough to rise above their status as a drone. Drones do not need to know how to think...just need to know how to do, do what they are told, do what the drone controllers want.

It's the drone controllers that must know how to think. By knowing how to think, and especially knowing how to manipulate how drones think, they can stay in control of the drones.

Politicians usually have law degrees. Law is an area primarily based on being able to manipulate a jury of drones into thinking a certain way, to get the results you want. A pretty good skill to have to get yourself elected by the masses of drones that you will be controlling, for the benefit of the other controllers. They rarely ever have law degrees from the same schools as the lawyers that advertise themselves on TV. No, they go to much better schools, where controlling drones is raised to a very high art form, comparable to the works of Leonardo Da Vinci; with the TV lawyers pretty much at the level of coloring book scribbles.
1714
Living Room / Re: 3D Printing Under Attack
« Last post by app103 on October 13, 2012, 11:45 AM »
Did I mention that it is legal for the Australian government to deploy chemical weapons against the Australian people for absolutely no other reason than "they can"? And that it's illegal to prosecute anyone for that?

In the US, too.

There's 1 difference -- in the US, illegal is a specialty of the govt. They just do whatever they want without any respect for the law. The current president is a good example. (I'm sure the next one will be a better example. :P ) The law is completely irrelevant to the govt.

The law I'm referring to above is an actual law that permits the use of chemical weapons against people. i.e. The Australian govt seems to like to cross its t's and dot its i's before they murder people. A degree of ceremony entirely lacking in the US. :P ;D

While the experimenting itself may have been illegal, there were no laws that forced them to inform the public of what they were really doing. There were no "right to know" laws that covered secret government sponsored military testing of radioactive chemicals on large groups of private citizens, when they couldn't find any volunteers.

I never really seriously considered my mother's claims of secret govt. experiments involving spraying chemicals on low income urban areas in 1965, leading to the increase in the Newark, NJ area of certain birth defects around that time (especially ones involving the presence of extra or double organs), to be valid...till now. She claims that my being born with 3 kidneys may have been the result of these experiments. She told this story often, when I was growing up. I always thought her tin foil hat was highly polished with a mirror finish.  :D

Maybe there is some truth to her claims. Of course that also leaves me wondering how she knew about it. Where did she get her info, if this was such a big secret that it didn't come to light till now?
1715
Living Room / Re: 3D Printing Under Attack
« Last post by app103 on October 13, 2012, 11:08 AM »
Did I mention that it is legal for the Australian government to deploy chemical weapons against the Australian people for absolutely no other reason than "they can"? And that it's illegal to prosecute anyone for that?

In the US, too. (and more) And if you want to read her complete dissertation about the whole thing, it's available for free, right here.
1716
Living Room / Re: 3D Printing Under Attack
« Last post by app103 on October 13, 2012, 10:58 AM »
I'd hardly consider that theme as being fiction any more. :tellme

Well, when you die in debt and your creditors bring you back from the dead to work as a slave till your debt is paid off, then it won't be fiction any more.  ;)
1717
Living Room / Re: 3D Printing Under Attack
« Last post by app103 on October 13, 2012, 09:08 AM »
^^ Sounds like a very prejudicial book...

It's pretty much a dystopian sci-fi novel about capitalism run amuck.
1718
Living Room / Re: 3D Printing Under Attack
« Last post by app103 on October 13, 2012, 08:58 AM »
The idea of patents and copyrights is to allow the holders of those rights the exclusive ability to profit from their work. It is supposed to delay competition, allowing the holder time to regain their investments and make a profit, without anyone hindering their ability to do so.

The idea of DRM in 3D printing, while it is thought to serve the same purpose, actually can lead to stopping people with novel ideas from entering their product into the market.

A couple of examples:

GM has the 3D rights restricted for printing one of their car designs to stop people from printing their own cars, forcing them to buy the cars from them...or paying high fees for the right to print their own.

Someone wants to print one of their cars...but not full size...much smaller. The tiny car will in no way interfere with GM's ability to make money from their full sized cars (GM is not in the toy business)...but the DRM doesn't allow this miniature to be made.

Someone else decides not only does he want to print one much smaller, he doesn't even want to print it out of metal and plastic...he wants to print it out of chocolate. Imagine a chocolate car, about the size of a birthday cake, being blocked by GM's DRM, even though a small chocolate car would in no way compete with their actual cars.

Nike has DRM on their shoe designs, preventing people from printing their own shoes to wear.

But again, what if someone wanted to print giant ones, made of chocolate...like say the size of a car?

Or what if someone wanted to combine designs and print a real car...a convertible...that looks like a giant shoe? This would in no way compete with the original shoe manufacturer or the original car maker. There really wouldn't be much of a market for that type of car, but the DRM on both would likely prevent even one from ever being made, even for the 3D printer owner's own use.
1719
Living Room / Re: 3D Printing Under Attack
« Last post by app103 on October 13, 2012, 07:41 AM »
... and most of them missed the current IP craze.

K.W. Jeter's Noir

If you don't have a copy of that in your collection yet, you should.

One of the main character's jobs is to hunt down IP infringers and dish out a punishment worse than death...a punishment so horrific, that it completely eliminates copyright infringement. Of course that creates a bit of a catch-22 situation, where there becomes no need for enforcers, but if you fire all the enforcers the problem comes back. You can't just pay them to sit around and do nothing, so you give them a quota...one that is impossible to meet unless innocent people get punished. If they don't meet their quota, they get fired.

Producers of IP earn their living by selling their mind. Infringers are essentially, stealing pieces of their mind. The appropriate punishment, therefore, is that the IP owner should get to have the infringer's mind. Enforcers are sent out to remove the infringer's brain and central nervous system, carefully preserved, for the purpose of it being inserted into some sort of electronic gift, which is then given to the IP owner that was violated. The infringer's consciousness trapped in something like a toaster, forever.

This makes up only about 25% of the story, at most. There is a lot of other good scary stuff in it, bound to make you fear the future, especially as you see the world slowly inching towards making it a reality.
1720
N.A.N.Y. 2013 / Re: NANY 2013 Pledge: Bead Designer
« Last post by app103 on October 12, 2012, 05:48 PM »
Do you have a roadmap for what features you're going to include?  Just asking b/c I know my daughter loves doing this, and as you said, she uses graph paper and colored pencils right now.

Most of the project info can be found here, and I will continue to update that page as the project progresses. Also contains a list of existing software that I have found. Your daughter can try one of those if she can't wait for mine.

1721
N.A.N.Y. 2013 / Re: NANY 2013 Pledge: Bead Designer
« Last post by app103 on October 12, 2012, 12:03 PM »
Is this intended for designing stuff that would actually be made, or is it for creating images (or both)?

Both. One does not even need to know how to do bead weaving to have fun with this! But if they do know how, it can be used to plan small projects...the kind that one would do on those small looms that they sell in toy stores.

I do this kind of work, myself, and for years I have planned my projects on graph paper with colored pencils. I never even knew that any software existed for this until I went and checked, after getting this far on my project.

Most of the software I found is quite complex compared to what I am making and not the sort of thing designed for an 8-10 year old child, a beginner, or the casual bead weaver. Almost all of them are pretty serious applications. You'll probably spend almost as much time (if not more) trying to figure out the software as you would designing your first project. And none of them are really of any use to anyone that doesn't do bead weaving.

And that is what is keeping me going on this project.

I will finish this one, just don't know if I will be able in time for this year's NANY. This project has a lot of stuff that I have never done before and I am bound to hit a lot of snags getting it to work right. (already got one that is driving me bonkers) But I will finish it, because I want to use this, myself.

This is one of my favorites of the screenshots. It's pattered after an actual Ojibwa design.

Screenshot - 9_18_2012 , 7_56_53 PM.png
1722
N.A.N.Y. 2013 / NANY 2013 Withdrawn: Bead Designer
« Last post by app103 on October 12, 2012, 03:42 AM »
NANY 2013 Entry Information

Application Name Bead Designer
Version --
Short Description Lightweight application for designing Native American style beadwork designs
Supported OSes Windows
Web Page http://arussoproject...12/09/bead-designer/
Download Link --
System Requirements--
Version History--
Author app103


Description
A simple application for designing patterns for Native American style loomed bead weaving, that actually looks like finished beadwork.

Screenshots

Teaser:

Screenshot - 9_16_2012 , 6_18_50 AM.png

I don't know if I am going to be able to pull this one off, but I will give it a try. Been having a lot of fun playing with it just as it currently is, but it is quite obvious that this is an unfinished project.

I have a project page up but this will not be the final location for it when it is finished. http://arussoproject...12/09/bead-designer/

1723
General Software Discussion / Re: Does the browser Opera suck?
« Last post by app103 on October 10, 2012, 06:43 PM »
I have had some issues in the past with Opera and security dialogs asking if I wanted to proceed to a site which either was insecure (not https) or had something funky with its security certificate. Normally it would not be an issue to me, except that when it asked on some sites, it did it twice, and on the 2nd dialog the option to proceed was not clickable...so you couldn't. You'd have to reload the page, and then the same thing would happen again.

In most other browsers there is a setting to turn off the asking, but I could never find it in Opera.
1724
Living Room / Re: New captcha system uses empathy to block bots (and sociopaths)
« Last post by app103 on October 10, 2012, 06:06 PM »
The lower the score, the higher the risk of dealing with a sociopath, who would be expected to disagree with this.  ;)

But the point isn't to block sociopaths...only bots. The fact that the captcha deals with assumptions about how all humans should feel about something is one of its flaws. Sociopaths are human and shouldn't be blocked by a captcha, but this one could.
1725
Living Room / Re: Open Dyslexic Fonts
« Last post by app103 on October 09, 2012, 01:07 AM »
I've been wondering if there are any web fonts that would be better for dyslexics than the standard Arial/Verdana/Georgia that most web designers work with. I'd be more than willing to start using them on all my sites and blogs, if I knew what to use.

My brain had come up with tricks for me to get around it. It's such an individual thing

Being dyscalculic, I know exactly what you are talking about. My bag of tricks made teachers think I was gifted. As long as they never saw my scratch paper (and they never did), they never knew I was doing things like solving long division with addition...and counting domino dot patterns in my head.
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