Recent Posts

1726

Living Room / Re: DC Front Page

« Last post by rgdot on February 12, 2011, 03:28 PM »

Additional link and page that sorts software by type. The current software page which is by author and challenge (N.A.N.Y., etc.) is useful but having the other way adds another layer of usability.

EDIT:
Forgot to add: The Home page can be sort of reversed, perhaps the wider column can highlight DC releases and updates first and foremost instead of them being mainly in the left column

1727

Living Room / Re: A question for Google -- why are you so desperate to have me switch to Chrome?

« Last post by rgdot on February 07, 2011, 10:04 PM »

I think you have to look at a slightly different and 'earlier' angle (ie the benefits of spying), web is almost mature enough to be able to question the value of data mining. At best it means relevant ads, what else is gained by google even if it is actively spying?

EDIT

More to the point of this thread, I would like to add the following:
Google tablet, netbook or whatever should and will be measured by its own sales not by its OS (Chrome and apps) Google is after a hardware market, of course it is running its own nice little thing, but hardware sales will judge its success

1728

Living Room / Re: A question for Google -- why are you so desperate to have me switch to Chrome?

« Last post by rgdot on February 07, 2011, 03:32 PM »

I am being totally serious when I say this:

If you can answer 'why is google spending so much on something like street view?' then you can answer everything else they do.

1729

Developer's Corner / Re: Choosing a CMS

« Last post by rgdot on January 30, 2011, 05:40 PM »

That's because people start small or blog-oriented sites with Wordpress because it's easy to use and then later want to do more with it but don't want to leave their familiarity with WP behind. So the demand for addons that make WP more like a full-blown CMS is high. That doesn't make WP a good CMS to start a *new* site with by any means though. I see that this may be a direction WP wants to go in the future, but I think it would take some very significant work to do it well. Part of the magic of WP's simplicity and ease of use is in its focus on a smaller set of features. If WP could do everything Joomla could do, well, it would be more complicated. If they do go down the road of trying to turn it into a more general CMS, I think they might be better served doing it as a new core and adapting the original WP to be an addon or integrated with it, but keep the UI approach and usability model. Maybe make a "Site Press" with "Word Press" component.

- Oshyan

-JavaJones (January 30, 2011, 04:58 PM)

All true.

Depending on third party addons is risky unless you have 'in house' expertise.

1730

Developer's Corner / Re: Choosing a CMS

« Last post by rgdot on January 30, 2011, 04:25 PM »

Wordpress is a "CMS" in the same sense that SMF (the system this forum uses) is a "CMS". It manages "content", yes. But it's not what most people think of when they think of "CMS". It's not a general-purpose system that's actually *made for* making average, non-blog websites. Wordpress was made for and is still best for *blog* sites. If you have no intention of doing blog-style content, or if blog-style content is not the *core* of your site, then Wordpress is in my opinion not the best solution. You'll be working against the system and/or with lots of hacks and addons to get it to do normal stuff that works out of the box with other more generalized CMS platforms. That being said other CMS systems don't give you blog functionality that is as nice and complete and easy to use, in most cases. So again if blog-type content (not even necessarily a real "blog" per se, but sequentially posted blog-roll style content/articles) is your goal, then Wordpress may still be best. For all else, set it aside.
- Oshyan

-JavaJones (January 29, 2011, 03:29 PM)

But these are not the words you would hear, for the most part anyway.
The CMS aspect is so much the buzz there that a recent thread (http://wordpress.org...1-hold-for-wordpress) on the WordPress forums where Jane Wells (one of the WP leads) asked about feedback is full of suggestions that relate to CMS. Not only they pretty prominently showcase CMS sites (http://wordpress.org/showcase/) but the users, the type who would look to give feedback, are into it and asking for it.

1731

Developer's Corner / Re: Choosing a CMS

« Last post by rgdot on January 29, 2011, 11:26 AM »

They are insertable in the content, see get_post_meta -- and that's without delving into functions.php.  You can further expand it to add fields to custom post types, really going into "real cms" territory.  The developer-side to make that happen isn't as easy as it could be (I'm sure that'll be addressed...) yet, but the functionality is there without modifying the core or bringing in plugins.

-allen (January 29, 2011, 10:12 AM)

Good point, haven't delved too deep into get_post_meta (or custom_fields for that matter) other than playing around with it. In my opinion the next step after this will bring real CMS to WordPress

1732

Developer's Corner / Re: Choosing a CMS

« Last post by rgdot on January 29, 2011, 10:05 AM »

WordPress is really the best in most cases, become a big fan myself. However it has a bit to go to justify the CMS tag that's been hyped for it.
I wouldn't call it a true CMS until those custom fields become 'true' content blocks that are insertable within the content. In CMS content really needs to be divided into areas or blocks.

1733

Developer's Corner / Re: Choosing a CMS

« Last post by rgdot on January 28, 2011, 10:39 AM »

Very well described by Stoic Joker

all the fancy stuff tucked away (but readily accessible) so as not to intimidate the user

However as soon as you get into adding modules you are almost guaranteeing problems at the next upgrade. Of course this is true for most if not all but *in my experience* it is more so with CMSms. I have tried to stay away from most of the fancy stuff and and use it as a sort of stripped down page creator.

1734

Living Room / Diaspora

« Last post by rgdot on January 28, 2011, 10:30 AM »

Have a few invites for the 'Facebook alternative' that got some attention last year and is rolling out very slowly. So far it's basically communicating with your 'aspects'. Aspects are pretty much segregated groups that you create to direct conversations to only those you choose.

Mentioned briefly here
https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=22979.0
https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=24342.0

If interested you know what to do

1735

Living Room / Re: Naming and Shaming Bad Forums with Bad Ethics

« Last post by rgdot on December 29, 2010, 12:46 PM »

In my opinion worst than RTFM or google it are format, clean install or you have a virus.

1736

Living Room / Re: Need Help Finding a Domain Name

« Last post by rgdot on December 26, 2010, 04:02 PM »

They probably did but the misspelled version 

1737

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Release: NANY Excuse Manager (v0.96 as of 12/30/10)

« Last post by rgdot on December 25, 2010, 02:47 PM »

  What happens to the 'Results' field?

1738

General Software Discussion / Re: Any better Clipboard program.

« Last post by rgdot on December 22, 2010, 01:02 PM »

I have reviewed quite a few clipboard programs on my site, mostly less known ones like Clipboard Master for example. Clipboard Help+Spell is the best though, hands down.

1739

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: Clipboard Help+Spell - Top Priority Requests for 2011

« Last post by rgdot on December 22, 2010, 08:37 AM »

May be an odd request but I will ask.

Lock the tree and/or confirmation when moving items. Believe it or not I have found myself moving items into My favorites that I didn't need to.

1740

Official Announcements / Re: DonationCoder.com NEW SERVER ACTIVATED Dec 17, 2010

« Last post by rgdot on December 17, 2010, 11:45 PM »

Yahoo!

-Stoic Joker (December 17, 2010, 10:35 PM)

Altavista!

Thanks guys

1741

Finished Programs / Re: The Mouser Utility - Requested by App103

« Last post by rgdot on December 15, 2010, 11:22 PM »

My AV said it's not good




















kidding 

1742

Living Room / Re: I wish I'd had this when I was learning physics

« Last post by rgdot on December 15, 2010, 02:20 PM »

Memories of high school and university. Thanx

1743

DC Gamer Club / Re: Humble Indie Bundle (pay what you want sale)

« Last post by rgdot on December 14, 2010, 07:19 PM »

I am not a gamer so forgive me if this common. (Publicly) keeping track of average purchase is one thing but average purchase per platform is hilarious and not necessarily in a good way...

-rgdot (December 14, 2010, 06:17 PM)

I'm not a gamer either - but I don't necessarily understand what would be "not necessarily in a good way" about it.  It's mildly interesting, but I don't see it as being important in either a good or bad way.

I would be (again, mildly) interested to see the statistics on how the payments were divided up (ie., how much was designated to charity vs. the game developers and Humble Pie).  But that's not charted as far as I can tell.

-mwb1100 (December 14, 2010, 06:41 PM)

I don't feel strongly about it either, just pointing out what seemed somewhat silly to me.

The 'not necessarily in a good way' was because of the following reason: if the current trend continues, it can basically only be used to say 'Windows users something something'. I can't think of any other purpose to collect this kind of info, let alone make it public. I doubt they are conducting any sort of scientific experiment or poll or collecting site visitor analytics based on who pays.

1744

DC Gamer Club / Re: Humble Indie Bundle (pay what you want sale)

« Last post by rgdot on December 14, 2010, 06:17 PM »

I am not a gamer so forgive me if this common. (Publicly) keeping track of average purchase is one thing but average purchase per platform is hilarious and not necessarily in a good way...

1745

Living Room / Re: Crime pays - and our governments love it.

« Last post by rgdot on December 13, 2010, 03:44 PM »

Government spending and waste or incompetence do not bother me anywhere as much as those who are part of it and benefit from it but claim it is a bad thing.

1746

Living Room / Re: Where do you get your news from?

« Last post by rgdot on December 12, 2010, 04:16 PM »

In no particular order:

www.guardian.co.uk
www.huffingtonpost.com
www.thestar.com
www.bbc.co.uk
twitter

1747

Official Announcements / Re: DonationCoder.com New Server Migration Coming in a Few Days

« Last post by rgdot on December 11, 2010, 12:43 PM »

Wasn't there an alternate site set up for when main DC goes down? I have it bookmarked but it's lost in the maze that is my bookmarks.

1748

Living Room / Re: Need Help Finding a Domain Name

« Last post by rgdot on December 11, 2010, 12:40 PM »

iamrenegade.com

rsdot.com  

1749

Living Room / Re: Fast Food: Ads vs. Reality

« Last post by rgdot on December 08, 2010, 10:22 AM »

Advertising is pretty much by definition 'enhanced' version of the truth, to put it mildly.

I don't eat at fast food places often at all but I am not as anti-fast food as some. The way I see it good food is one you control from start to finish. So even more expensive and non-fast food places are not all that much better. Certainly in terms of using non-hormone meat and amount of calories most places are not good, not just fast food restaurants.

1750

Official Announcements / Re: Preparing for a new master DonationCoder server

« Last post by rgdot on December 06, 2010, 11:47 AM »

Keep up the great work, a bit that I can afford will be sent soon-ish (don't ask what soon-ish means  )