Recent Posts

1751

General Software Discussion / Re: The Great Software List.. For Linux

« Last post by zridling on August 29, 2008, 10:35 PM »

Holy crap, I will add Beyond Compare 3, mwang. I appreciate it!

1752

General Software Discussion / Re: The Great Software List.. For Linux

« Last post by zridling on August 29, 2008, 10:34 PM »

veign: Does Linux not have the capability to get porn?

Would I be using it if it didn't?  

Although I keep a Windows machine, I can't honestly recommend software I don't use every day. But there are so many good 'software list' sites out there, that they'll carry the ball better than I could!

1753

Living Room / Re: If somebody offers you swapping your PC for a mac cold turkey: would you do it?

« Last post by zridling on August 28, 2008, 04:47 PM »

Once again, this shows the real issue isn't the underlying OS, it's How can we collaborate among them?

However, of the big three, Apple is the most restrictive. I'd rather take a bullet in the knee than suffer the consequences of vendor lock-in. It's 2008 and I want control of MY data. Anyone or any company that seeks to lock me in and lock others out makes me walk. Still, if your company is forcing you to eventually use a Mac, then make a deal for them to provide conversion software for your home systems when you have to work there.

1754

Living Room / Re: Opinions on Netflix?

« Last post by zridling on August 28, 2008, 04:39 PM »

TheQwerty, I hope you've shared your data and results with Netflix! They'd appreciate such detailed feedback.

1755

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox Tweak Guide -- Is there a way to customize keyboard shortcuts?

« Last post by zridling on August 28, 2008, 04:33 PM »

Thanks sri. I'm a keyboard shortcut nut and of all the programs you use, your file manager and browser ought to allow you to change the keys to the way you work. Opera has long done that and it has kept me there. But I'm wanting to master FF3 now that it's out.

1756

Living Room / Re: Opinions on Netflix?

« Last post by zridling on August 28, 2008, 07:44 AM »

J-mac, the calculator says that the 3 movies at a time plan is your best value, and here's why. Get AnyDVD and CloneDVD and just copy the movies to your HD or to a disc, then watch them at your leisure. I've done that for years and now have over 1400 movies, series, documentaries, fantastic foreign films, Trailer Park Boys, music, all kinds of things I would have never watched, given the time. I have not, however, tried watching a film online.

I've never had a problem with Netflix. Some weeks their delivery seems slow, but then they make up for it the next couple of weeks. And as mouser mentioned, one of its coolest features is that Netflix allows you to suspend your account for up to 3 months each year. During this time of year, I don't have the time to watch movies, so I put my account on hold. I can still add movies to my queue and so on, but I'm not being charged during that time. Pretty cool.

1757

General Software Discussion / Firefox Tweak Guide -- Is there a way to customize keyboard shortcuts?

« Last post by zridling on August 28, 2008, 07:29 AM »

Looking back at this Firefox Tweakguides topic by mouser (nod to dk70, btw) got me thinking: Is there a way to customize keyboard shortcuts in Firefox?



I haven't finished studying the entire Firefox Tweak Guide, but surely there's an extension available? Gratis.

1758

General Software Discussion / Re: Mozilla Ubiquity Prototype Available

« Last post by zridling on August 27, 2008, 06:27 AM »

First, check out Glyn Moody's explanation over at his Open Enterprise blog. Then check out the ubiquity tutorial.

As more and more services are routed through the browser, this will make the browser easier to use. And yes, the hype doesn't match the reality!

1759

General Software Discussion / Re: opera downward spiral into oblivion: most sites don't work, they don't care

« Last post by zridling on August 26, 2008, 03:40 PM »

urlwolf, 9.52 works fine for Bank of America/US. I just have to make sure all the Java trash is turned on.

1760

General Software Discussion / Re: Elite Freeware: Great Software Blog

« Last post by zridling on August 23, 2008, 12:16 AM »

Wow, gexecuter, that's really a great way to show off great freeware, and you've done a lot of hard work to date. Thanks!! I added it to my blogroll.

1761

General Software Discussion / Re: You, too, can be a kernel hacker!

« Last post by zridling on August 18, 2008, 03:52 PM »

Tom Espiner had a nice follow-up interview on this idea. Start small and work your way up.

Torvalds wrote that nobody should expect to start sending "big and complex" patches early, as it takes time for new contributors and established coders to learn how to interact effectively.

"The worst thing anybody can do is to study the kernel alone and try to learn things in private, and then, however many months later, present all the established kernel developers with a big patch that just comes out of the blue," wrote Torvalds. "That's just going to be frustrating for everybody."

Torvalds advised new contributors to "start small" by sending "trivial patches."

"It may not sound exciting but, quite frankly, I don't think anybody who starts out believing that they want to rewrite some big piece of the kernel should even bother. Reality isn't that simple."

1762

General Software Discussion / Re: GNU/Linux Desktop Market Share is 4%

« Last post by zridling on August 16, 2008, 04:56 PM »

Wow, the Al Lowe toon is GREAT. Bring on the fembot babes! Thanks for the link, urlwolf; I registered. Btw, I hear OS X is almost hitting 8% now.

1763

Living Room / Re: Favorite part of the Beijing Olympics so far?

« Last post by zridling on August 16, 2008, 01:06 AM »

OMG, Edvard, that is perfect!

1764

Living Room / Do you remember your first programming job?

« Last post by zridling on August 15, 2008, 03:28 AM »

Paid or unpaid. What, when, where? I'm curious.

1765

Older Newsletters / Re: --> Newsletter For August 14th, 2008 - Codename "Software Summer Sizzle"

« Last post by zridling on August 15, 2008, 12:41 AM »

These newsletters make my week. I really appreciate mouser and Darwin for their hard work. I enjoy revisiting topics after a while and seeing things in the corners of the forum I never visit.

1766

General Software Discussion / Re: What would your ideal Operating System be like?

« Last post by zridling on August 15, 2008, 12:34 AM »

f0dder knows of what he speaketh -- wow!  

1767

Living Room / Re: What do you do during your free time?

« Last post by zridling on August 15, 2008, 12:30 AM »

I play way too much chess. Otherwise, I'm obsessive about getting rid of clutter in closets, the garage, and the basement. (My mom is one of those nuts who hasn't thrown anything away since the 70s and it FREAKS ME OUT.)

1768

Living Room / Re: Which part of the Internets crack you up?

« Last post by zridling on August 15, 2008, 12:27 AM »

It's gassy, but:

http://www.poopreport.com/

1769

General Software Discussion / [announcement]: Win7 blog up!

« Last post by zridling on August 14, 2008, 07:30 PM »

If you want to keep up with the progress and release of Windows 7, the blog is live at:

http://blogs.msdn.co...8/08/14/welcome.aspx
_________________________________________________________
“In leading up to this blog we have seen a lot of discussion in blogs about what Microsoft might be trying to accomplish by maintaining a little bit more control over the communication around Windows 7 (some might say that this is a significant understatement). We, as a team, definitely learned some lessons about ‘disclosure’ and how we can all too easily get ahead of ourselves in talking about features before our understanding of them is solid. Our intent with Windows 7 and the pre-release communication is to make sure that we have a reasonable degree of confidence in what we talk about when we do talk. Again, top of mind for us is the responsibility we feel to make sure we are not stressing priorities, churning resource allocations, or causing strategic confusion among the tens of thousands of partners and customers who care deeply and have much invested in the evolution of Windows.

“Related to disclosure is the idea of how we make sure not to set expectations around the release that end up disappointing you—features that don’t make it, claims that don’t stick, or support we don’t provide. Starting from the first days of developing Windows 7, we have committed as a team to ‘promise and deliver’. That’s our goal—share with you what we’re going to get done, why we’re doing it, and deliver it with high quality and on time.”

1770

Living Room / Re: Favorite part of the Beijing Olympics so far?

« Last post by zridling on August 14, 2008, 04:05 AM »

[CWuestefeld]: The thing about the swimming that amazes is the world records. Here's a sport that's been essentially unchanged in modern times, but every olympics the athletes are resetting the records.

Remember though, that they've added 2 outside lanes that remain empty during competition as well as increased lane width now, and the pool is twice as deep as in previous years, both of which reduce wake and resistance. Breaststrokers are now allowed to dip their head completely under water, which allowed for a longer stroke and faster time. Add in that a split stroke in the breaststroke start and turns have been added to help speed up the stroke. Backstrokers are now allowed to turn on their stomachs before the wall in order to perform a "flip-turn." Previously, they had to reach and flip backwards. Throw in the hi-tech compression suits and I'm willing to bet the swimmers of old could keep up.

Finally, do you ever think about swimming outside of the Olympics, except once every four years? Heck, throw them all in the English Channel. Those that don't drown get a medal! 

1771

Living Room / Re: Skimp or splurge?

« Last post by zridling on August 14, 2008, 03:52 AM »

SPLURGE:
Good keyboard, comfortable mouse.

SKIMP:
Sunglasses. (I lose them anyway.)

1772

General Software Discussion / Re: What would your ideal Operating System be like?

« Last post by zridling on August 14, 2008, 03:13 AM »

Hmmm.... seems like mouser, kartal, and Target stole my thunder.

• Every superfluous driver would be stripped, and every extraneous piece of code placed onto a spare DVD to be used only if we called for it.
  
• Remove all but the core command sets. All obscure executable items and 99% of such things as fonts, sounds, and stock photos should be loaded only when requested. Ask for the media or, better yet, download it from a secure/authenticated Web site at run-time, when needed. This alone would allow most operating systems to be held on a single gigabyte USB stick. No flexibility would be denied. Bloat would evaporate.
  
• Stability of Linux.
  
• Speed of Windows x64 versions.
  
• VMWare would be mandatory.
  
• Rock-solid, stupid-easy data backup.
  
• Choice of filesystems -- Ext3, WinFS, Reiser, or ZFS. GPL them so we no longer must appease proprietary, standards-less, incompatible applications. And make them run on all processor families (no special flavors).
  
• The greatest text editor ever conceived by the human mind.

1773

General Software Discussion / Re: GNU/Linux Desktop Market Share is 4%

« Last post by zridling on August 13, 2008, 04:35 PM »

I think part of that 4% can be attributed to cost. As energy costs squeeze consumers from every angle, people are looking for more bang for their Euro/dollar. It helps that Dell and Intel are tailoring hardware and drivers for Linux.

1774

General Software Discussion / Re: New Linux Distro specifically designed for programmers

« Last post by zridling on August 13, 2008, 04:29 PM »

40hz, 1.5 seems to be about right. Great find!

1775

Living Room / Re: Favorite part of the Beijing Olympics so far?

« Last post by zridling on August 13, 2008, 04:26 PM »

veign: No Swimming as an option?

Sorry, I am biased. When you can set a world record every single time you jump in the pool, something's fishy. There have been 42 swimming world records broken (in the 24 Olympic events) in past four years. Until I see a drug screen and HGH test, I can't celebrate. It seems like after any record is broken in the US, the athlete is later found to have cheated. Now IF they had a full-out chemically-aided Games, then that might get interesting.... "In lane 4 swimming for GlaxoSmithKline, the Incredible Hulk!" Or maybe skip directly to this fellow: