Recent Posts

1751

General Software Discussion / Re: Another 'Lifetime' license bites the dust

« Last post by Josh on December 12, 2008, 07:28 AM »

What data does AnyDVD hold hostage? it works after your year support. You just dont receive updated versions. No data is held from you. Or am I missing something?

1752

General Software Discussion / Re: Another 'Lifetime' license bites the dust

« Last post by Josh on December 12, 2008, 04:07 AM »

And you know why this is right? People can't live off of lifetime licenses. As much as the free software fanatics would love to think so, people have to earn a living. Doing stuff for free or for a one time fee just doesn't pay the mortgage anymore. I fully support any company which switches from this licensing method. I do ask that they honor those who purchased under that licensing scheme however, which most companies will do (collectorz did, slysoft did/is, ad muncher is).

One thing I do hope people realize is that this is for UPDATES not UPGRADES also. Upgrades, such as the HD addon for AnyDVD, have always been at a charge but up until the HD genre, there was never a need to have an "upgrade".

1753

Living Room / Does Windows media center serve its interface via a web url?

« Last post by Josh on December 11, 2008, 01:53 PM »

OK Folks, a little background. I am attempting to look for a solution which will allow me to stream the windows media center interface, preferably via a web url on the local system running MCE, to my PS3. I know I can setup sharing and access all of my data via the dlna option which treats my shared folders as a folder structure on the ps3, however, I have seen several programs which export various details of a dvd collection to html or to media center directly so that you can browse those details in a nice easy to use interface.

My question is this, does MCE offer an option to allow you to "stream" it's primary interface to another device, or access said interface, via a standard url such as http://SYSTEMNAME/mce or something similar?

If I am not 100% clear, please tell me, as I am trying to make this as easy to understand as I can, however, it is 1230AM here so I am a bit tired.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks

1754

General Software Discussion / Re: Collectorz.com Book Collector 6

« Last post by Josh on December 11, 2008, 11:38 AM »

Cloq: Read here

1755

Living Room / Re: How will the Earth end?

« Last post by Josh on December 10, 2008, 10:58 AM »

I say the world will end when microsoft and redhat and the mozilla corporation merge to form "Hyper Global Compu-Mega Net Enterprises".

1756

Living Room / Re: How will the Earth end?

« Last post by Josh on December 10, 2008, 09:48 AM »

Just pull an old favorite and repent when the first signs of the apocalypse are afoot. And by apocalypse, I mean when Zaine Ridling acknowledges that linux is missing a feature windows does very well and when mouser actually manages to go a summer with a completely working air conditioner.

These statements are meant in good fun and are not intended as an attack on anyone. I ask those mentioned to reply in a similar manner which might further the attempt at humor found above.

1757

Living Room / Re: How will the Earth end?

« Last post by Josh on December 10, 2008, 09:16 AM »

It's either that or you and app both attack them for Windows ME. I'd say pick the easier of the two battles for eternity

1758

Living Room / Re: How will the Earth end?

« Last post by Josh on December 10, 2008, 08:45 AM »

The world will end in a kernel panic as the linux fanboys attack the windows fanboys. All this will occur while the mac fanboys are making videos making fun of the two feuding OS fanatic groups. While this is occurring, Carol Haynes will be attacking Microsoft for their poor OS quality while zaine ridling is attacking the OOXML department. At this time, mouser's college will attack him in an effort to have their one student, whom has taken the longest amount of time to get a PhD, actually complete the degree.

Oh, and scancode will be attacking motorola for not making their phones more hacker friendly.

1759

Living Room / Re: A rant on religiousness about OSes

« Last post by Josh on December 09, 2008, 06:10 AM »

AMEN AMEN AMEN!

Did I say AMEN? If not, AMEN!

I grow very tired of either an OS religious zealot or the ever popular amongst DC "Converted" or "Born again" OS Zealot. The last one really annoys me to no end because they act as thou this magical OS they have discovered is the best thing since sliced bread and often times will not admit to it's shortcomings.

The fact of the matter is, this NEW os that you have discovered is not that fantastic, it's just different. It's like getting rid of that toyota corolla you've owned for 10 years and buying a ford mustang. It's not some new technology (It is, but it's not like it just appeared recently), it's just a change from what you are used to which most people welcome.

iphigenie, I commend you on an outstanding post. Thank you for the outstanding read!

1760

Living Room / Re: Why Vista's DRM Is Bad For You and other jewels by Bruce Schneier

« Last post by Josh on December 09, 2008, 04:37 AM »

Nope, not at all. Most of them allow you to hit MENU to bypass them but I design a custom disc for my daughter so she can insert and watch without having to worry about menus. I try to make things as simplistic for her as I can so she doesn't have to fumble with our remote or break the player. Just insert a disc and away it goes. Is it a violation? Yes. Do I care about said violation? No. Is it a negative affect? No because most discs are designed so that an adult will be working the controls. To me, there is absolutely no bother in having to do this.

1761

Living Room / Re: What annoys you to no end?

« Last post by Josh on December 09, 2008, 03:59 AM »

Here is one for you all, websites with forms which auto-advance you once you fill the field completely (like telephone numbers, area codes and zip codes). THIS PISSES ME OFF! If i want to change it I have to be very quick to hit DELETE so I can make the change. STOP IT!!!!

1762

Living Room / Re: Why Vista's DRM Is Bad For You and other jewels by Bruce Schneier

« Last post by Josh on December 08, 2008, 11:22 PM »

That would be a negative affect of the RIAA not DRM. DRM has yet to negatively impact me, again. The RIAA is the one taking me to court, not the DRM. And last I checked, a preview of "You don't mess with the zohan" is not DRM, but merely content.

1763

Living Room / Re: Why Vista's DRM Is Bad For You and other jewels by Bruce Schneier

« Last post by Josh on December 08, 2008, 10:58 PM »

OK, so I am in violation of customizing a disc for my daughter. The only thing AnyDVD is set to remove is the forced previews of other movies. I am not redistributing it, the disc is still being played back in accordance with the terms of their license which is "For private home viewing". But regardless, they do not control my system as gladly watch previews when it comes to my wife and I watching a movie as it makes it seem more like a theater, especially when you have auto-dimming lights and a 46 inch LCD. By the way, isn't this thread about why DRM is so bad and not the legality of AnyDVD? I still don't see the use of AnyDVD in the manner I am using it as proof that DRM has negatively affected me. As said above, it's not something I use for 99% of my DVD viewing because most of my viewing is done on a PS3.

1764

Living Room / Re: Why Vista's DRM Is Bad For You and other jewels by Bruce Schneier

« Last post by Josh on December 08, 2008, 02:22 PM »

I still fail to see how the movie studio controls my PC? I use AnyDVD which removes any and all nasties from the DVD and even without that, playing a DVD/BRD takes absolutely no effort at all. Am I missing something here? Would you tell me that the movie industry controlled my VCR because of Macrovision protection built into every VHS tape? This just sounds like a bunch of paranoid hooey to me as again, I have yet to experience any issues with DRM up to this day.

1765

Living Room / Re: Why Vista's DRM Is Bad For You and other jewels by Bruce Schneier

« Last post by Josh on December 08, 2008, 05:36 AM »

Ehtyar: I own my physical disc, I own the case it came in. I do not own the movie. The movie is licensed out, as has always been the case. The company places measures on the disc to ensure I do not attmept to rip and distribute it. In the society where a good majority of teenagers who are internet saavy feel that all media should be free, what is the industry to do? With the internet age comes a new method of pirating materials in a manner far easier than ever before. Now, I am not saying I do not pirate, but I have calmed down almost 300 fold compared to my earlier days because now, I can afford to purchase what I want. The companies have every right to protect THEIR property which is being licensed to us for private home viewing, not distribution by means other than what they wish.

Microsoft hasn't gone to the same extent? What is product activation, WGA, and the other methods microsoft is employing to protect it's products? It started with Windows 3.11 where you had to have a code to install it (Or was it Windows NT 4), granted you could use the famous ALL 1 code, but still they attempted to protect their software by requiring a key to install. And now they have inspired many major software companies to do the same.

1766

Living Room / Re: Why Vista's DRM Is Bad For You and other jewels by Bruce Schneier

« Last post by Josh on December 08, 2008, 04:55 AM »

Deozaan: I agree. I for one have not been affected either positively or negatively by "DRM" in vista. Everything I have attempted to play has played in vista provided I have the codec/software to play said file/media/disc. The only thing that has ever affected me was stuff built into a disc like securom and only once have I been affected by that and that was the SPORE game. I am all for fair use and equal rights when it comes to media, but I also support that the companies producing said content have a right to protect their product. The fact of the matter is that, even on this very forum, people admit they often times rip copies of stuff they obtain from netflix. I for one am proud of the fact that I have purchased every movie I own. Call me a "sheep" if you want, but I believe in supporting good art and almost every movie I own I would consider art. I often times find myself purchasing most movies that I see on netflix after I watch them as I feel a good portion of them are worth owning.

1767

General Software Discussion / DeviantArt or WinCustomize Wallpaper Rotator

« Last post by Josh on December 06, 2008, 12:59 PM »

OK Folks, here is my question. I frequent various sites like deviantart.com or wincustomize.org, however, I am in need of an application which will rotate through various pictures as my desktop wallpaper based on a selected category. Does such an application exist? I am a huge fan of abstract 3d art, such as the attached image, but dont like having to visit every day to find out what's been newly released. I want something where I can say, change wallpaper, and it picks one based on a random number out of a category I select.

I know it's highly unlikely that such a thing exists, but I would sure love to see it.

Any ideas?

1768

General Software Discussion / Re: Opera 10.0 Alpha 1

« Last post by Josh on December 05, 2008, 12:32 PM »

OK Lashiec, that may be the case, but after tracking opera since v5, I have noticed that most of the major additions to opera's major versions occur in the alpha/beta phase. If they were to add any of the things that a majority of the NON-Forum dwelling users want, it would surely appear in the alpha builds to allow bugs to be worked out, wouldn't you think?

1769

General Software Discussion / Re: Opera 10.0 Alpha 1

« Last post by Josh on December 05, 2008, 07:55 AM »

AMEN! AMEN! AMEN!

Opera is so proud that they are 100% standards compliant that they neglect other functionality in favor of said compliance. What good is a browser to me if I cannot do with it what I want? OOOH! It renders pages as intended, but it still breaks others which is not of a concern to me as an end user, just that they display properly. It doesn't let me work the way I want by adding things to my browser which make MY LIFE easier.

1770

General Software Discussion / Re: Opera 10.0 Alpha 1

« Last post by Josh on December 05, 2008, 05:28 AM »

Even with that list, those seem like features which don't warrant a major version change. I really wonder how many MAJOR new features opera has added to warrant them being at V10 already.

1771

General Software Discussion / Re: Education Management Software?

« Last post by Josh on December 04, 2008, 10:45 PM »

I have to give you all credit, mouser was right. You all are just a wealth of knowledge. I am trialing studentlife at the moment as it seems to be the most complete program for this task, but will also look at FET.

Thanks for all of the links. I will post my results when completed.

1772

General Software Discussion / Opera 10.0 Alpha 1

« Last post by Josh on December 04, 2008, 10:35 PM »

OK Folks, here it is, the long awaited Opera 10. Now, the changelog is posted below:

• Presto 2.2 Engine
• Performance boost
• 100/100 and pixel-perfect on the Acid3 test
• Auto-update
• Inline spelling checker
• Opera Mail improvements, including rich text composition and delete after X days
• Widget Improvements on Linux

Now, that said, the auto-update is nice and once again opera can claim to maintain a 100/100 on the acid test (as if it shows real world validity), but am I the only one who finds this "changelog" to be rather dismal? As I've stated in the past, I love opera, it is a great browser and I would love to use it full time, but when is opera going to let me make the browser TRULY "MY BROWSER"? I am not just talking about roboform, yes I would kill to see that in opera and hopefully the new "Selectors" support will allow roboform to tie into opera's DOM, but I wish I was able to add little things to help personalize my browser to the full extent. The problem right now is this, You can customize opera to almost any extent visually and can use UserJS for some ok tasks, but I really do not enjoy being limited to what a group of developers feel I should be using or how I should be doing my business on the web.

Anyways, enough of a rant from me, this is a good browser and I don't want to take away from all of the positives that this browser does offer (it is very fast), what are your thoughts? Were you expecting more from this release or series of releases? Of course this is an alpha, so perhaps they are holding back some MAJOR features from the public for now, but we shall see. To me, a major version increase means major features, which none of these really seem to be.

Thoughts?

1773

General Software Discussion / Education Management Software?

« Last post by Josh on December 04, 2008, 10:41 AM »

To all,

My wife is starting school, as I've discussed a couple of times here, and we are preparing for her initiation date. As such, I am looking for a program which she can use to manage her various schedules (quizzes, assignments due, hours required to be online per week per class, etc). I know most calendars can do this but I have a feeling someone out there has something already designed with just this purpose in mind. I would also like something, if not the same program, which can help you manage financial aid information, required documents, keep track of digital copies of docs, etc.

Does anyone know of such a monstrosity? Does one even exist?

Only time, and a few of you smart people here, will tell!

Thanks!

Josh

1774

Living Room / Re: Your favorite quotes?

« Last post by Josh on December 04, 2008, 07:35 AM »

• Unix is user friendly, it is just picky who it's friends are
• I am attempting to install a piece of software that said it required Windows 98 or better, but everytime I try and load it on ubuntu it fails. Why is that?

1775

Living Room / Re: Your favorite quotes?

« Last post by Josh on December 03, 2008, 01:29 PM »

Most of mine reside at http://quotes.dcmembers.com