Recent Posts

1876

Living Room / Re: DC/Indie/coder/startup house/condo/etc

« Last post by 40hz on May 17, 2014, 04:27 PM »

I know I've said this half jokingly before, but in all seriousness if we could find a multi-family property where 10 of us like-minded individuals/families that work from home could each put up our share of a mortgage -- a place with some retail ground floor space where we could have a little board game shop or maker space or teaching space or something, a place that could be improved and developed over the course of a few years.. maybe a shared car or two, i'm ready to put in my share and labor. Seriously.  Anyone?

Someplace near upstate ny would work best for me but i'm open to literally anywhere.

-mouser (May 12, 2014, 07:54 PM)

Wow! Talk about reviving memories! I was involved in a music/art living arrangement like that many years ago (back in the late commune days - although this was more an art-focused voluntary community rather than a commune) and it worked out amazingly well for everyone involved. As people got older, and started families or found employment elsewhere, it gradually faded away - but with a group of about 10 people who already knew where they wanted to put some roots down - and the admittedly more realistic and diverse mindset of today - you could probably make a go of it.

Suggestion: make sure the finances are all worked out well in advance. The thing that made it work for us was that money never became an issue because it was all mapped out - and with as many possible contingencies as possible planned for.

The best advice anybody ever gave us when we were setting up was to make sure the money questions were addressed and settled before anyone said "I do." This guy had organized several voluntary communities and said they were just like marriages - because more marriages break up over money problems than anything else. And from what I've seen, he was right.

Damn! If I wasn't locked in where I am right now (with major caretaker responsibilities for some elderly parents) I'd definitely be interested. Unfortunately, I'm not going anywhere for at least a few years. And where I am is not the type place (i.e. cost of living way too expensive) where you'd want to attempt a living arrangement like that.

1877

Non-Windows Software / Re: LINUX: Linux Lite - viable 1st Linux alternative for XP and Vista users

« Last post by 40hz on May 17, 2014, 03:21 PM »

A requirement of 1024x768 rules out my netbook. )c: It's a measly 1024x600.

-Deozaan (May 16, 2014, 02:53 PM)

I don't know how hard and fast that requirement is. An older version (v1.0.4) of Linux Lite was demoed on a 1024x600 Dell Netbook and it seemed to be fine with it.

Since it ships as a live CD it's easy to try on whatever you want to use prior to installation.

--------------------------------------

@Deo - ADDENDUM: Just dropped over to their IRC channel and one of their devs (Valtam) confirmed 1024x600 screen res should work just fine on all LL releases to date.

1878

General Software Discussion / Re: Create a profiles for users on a Workgroup and disable Homegroup options & wifi

« Last post by 40hz on May 17, 2014, 08:53 AM »

If you have a small enough device pool accessing the WAP you can also restrict access by device MAC Addresses.

Royal PITA to stay on top of with more than a dozen or so devices. But it's a pretty effective (and free) access security boost in an SMB/SOHO environment. Keeps people's personal smartphones off the company network if nothing else.

And while it's true you can spoof MAC, doing so is beyond the knowledge level of the bulk of the people you'd want to restrict. Keeping out a real pro hacker is a whole 'nother smoke - but that's for another discussion. Usually one you'd have to pay someone to have with you.

1879

Living Room / Re: Groundhog Day Loops

« Last post by 40hz on May 17, 2014, 08:21 AM »

Let's also not leave out Vonjegut's Slaughterhouse Five.

Not so much a loop as being "unstuck" in time. Vonnegut posits that since time is a linear continuum in our reality, what would happen if you could move your consciousness to whatever points on the line you wished.

The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist. The Tralfamadorians can look at all the different moments just that way we can look at a stretch of the Rocky Mountains, for instance. They can see how permanent all the moments are, and they can look at any moment that interests them. It is just an illusion we have here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone it is gone forever.

When a Tralfamadorian sees a corpse, all he thinks is that the dead person is in bad condition in the particular moment, but that the same person is just fine in plenty of other moments. Now, when I myself hear that somebody is dead, I simply shrug and say what the Tralfamadorians say about dead people, which is: "So it goes."

Billy, the protagonist, ultimately realizes all lives have their moments of light and darkness. So the smart thing to do is to spend all your time in the bright moments of your lifetime and to avoid the rest.

Not a bad philosophy when you think about it.


-----------

And what about games?

It just occurred to me that computer adventure games (and games in general) are prime examples temporal loops. Same goes for simulations. Get it wrong? Reset or go back to a previous save and try again. I must have died a thousand deaths working my way through the Ultima series. Can't loop more than that!

I always found it interesting that even young children have an innate sense that what passes for 'reality' is largely consensus. When a child says "let's pretend" it's an invitation to experience and explore an alternate reality - with a built-in escape clause. And that reality gets repeated (i.e. looped) and usually embellished with repeated play.

1880

Living Room / Re: Looking for a 6U rackmount atx chassis.

« Last post by 40hz on May 16, 2014, 07:24 PM »

@SJ - a gigging computer is a PC that usually packs into a 4U fiberglass flight case and is trucked around to music gigs by a musician. Most are built in a ruggedized rack mount form factor which slots very nicely into these cases.

That Antec is nice. But it wouldn't last half a road trip tossed in the back of a band van with a ton of keyboards, amps, and guitars.

@SB - FWIW, Sweetwater has these PCs last I heard. Configured, tested and ready to roll.

But question: why not a laptop instead?  And more to the point, why not a Macbook or iPad? That's pretty much the defacto go-to platform for mobile/road use. Moog has even released  iPad-only based synths. And ProTools runs on Mac...so...

 What apps are you planning on running on it?

1881

Living Room / Re: Net Neutrality is REALLY dead

« Last post by 40hz on May 16, 2014, 05:27 PM »

ISPs are the new railroad barons.

Every time a new frontier gets opened up, the first people in (after the all the dead pioneers get buried) are the self-nominated "gatekeepers" and "developers" - aided and abetted by a clueless and jealous government which feels anything "new" it can't find a major role for itself in (and doesn't understand) needs to be handed over to "responsible and trusted business parters" in order to control it - since the government itself has no real legal authority to do so.

The Internet is too empowering to be allowed to continue in its present form. The Occupy Movement, the Snowden revelations, Wikileaks, and the Arab Spring were good examples of what can happen when the general public gets its hands on too good and unstoppable a communications system. Governments worldwide are terrified.

They should be. Accountability is a bitch.

1882

Living Room / Re: Our experiences with LED light bulb replacements

« Last post by 40hz on May 16, 2014, 02:39 PM »

However, I am motivated by the decrease in heat output -- in the summer my incandescents can generate a large amount of heat and i'm very keen to reduce that.
Additionally, i would like the ability to run brighter bulbs in my existing light fixtures that are currently limited to 60w.

-mouser (May 16, 2014, 01:30 PM)

Those are two considerations I can get behind. Especially the heat reduction part since our AC operation costs did a financial number on us last summer. So anything to reduce BTUs is welcome.

I think if LED does become the dominant home lighting technology we'll see fixtures designed to use them with a far less expensive and kludgey form factor than squeezing them into an Edison style bulb.

When it comes to dimming, I think there will always be a loss of smoothness and subtlety since very few LEDs have variable brightness capabilities. Most dimming will probably be done by switching off elements to reduce overall brightness which is more like a 3-way bulb works with it's fixed brightness levels. Dimmers seem to have largely gone out of vogue anyway.

So yes...please keep us posted on what you discover. Right now I have two LED lamps - both with 60W light levels. I can't say I care for either although the rock solid absolutely flicker-free illumination is nice. And they don't seem to be bothered by the crappy fluctuating voltage levels our local utility company furnishes. Unlike our standard lights which have a tendency to need replacement about every three months because of it.

1883

Non-Windows Software / Re: LINUX: Linux Lite - viable 1st Linux alternative for XP and Vista users

« Last post by 40hz on May 16, 2014, 02:20 PM »

It also appears to have some native provision for the Hyper-V extensions as it's not capturing the mouse and forcing me to break it out with a hot-key when I transition from guest to host.

-Stoic Joker (May 16, 2014, 01:48 PM)

That is really interesting. Maybe I'll ask the maintainers if they did do something with that.

And no...I'm not excited about it that much either. But I've been at this for a long time and very little in the Linux world is so "Oh wow man!" that It'll make me want to blow off the rest of the day and go party.

That said, I do like this little distro. It works and has just enough "enough" to be genuinely useable, easy for a newcomer to get their head around, and simple (for closet BOFHs like us) to support if we had to.

For what it is, I think it's actually a nicely balanced little penguin.

1884

Living Room / Re: Looking for a 6U rackmount atx chassis.

« Last post by 40hz on May 16, 2014, 02:07 PM »

Seems a bit steep to me...

Of course 90mm gives you an area of roughly 283 square mms whereas 120mm yields an area of 377 sq mms which is about 33% more fan area for a $150% increase in price....I don't know how much better airflow that 33% yields in efficiency since I'm not an engineer - and I'm also not about to calculate
overall fan efficiency where η = η F × η T × η M × η C !!!

But unless it yielded a very significant reduction in overall noise levels, I'd likely go cheaper and maybe put some of the savings into a few extra fans I could just run at slower speeds to make up the difference if I really needed the extra airflow. But that's me.

At stage volumes, I don't think fan noise is going to cause much (if any) audience distraction. Sure, in a studio setting you want zero noise. But in a club? Who really cares as long as it's not feeding distortion or artifacts into the house PA mains. The fan noise coming from the average club's cheap-ass overworked HVAC system is usually far louder anyway. As are your guitarist's amp and single-coils - especially if she's rocking P90 pickups.

Interestingly, the RF noise most guitars and guitar amps are prone to goes with the turf - and are generally deemed part of the price you have pay to get "that sound."

Keyboardists might want to think about that a bit...

1885

Living Room / Re: Looking for a 6U rackmount atx chassis.

« Last post by 40hz on May 16, 2014, 11:55 AM »

Take a look at this article and website for lot of good info and guidance on PC noise factors and noise reduction.

1886

Living Room / Re: Looking for a 6U rackmount atx chassis.

« Last post by 40hz on May 16, 2014, 11:25 AM »

Short of finding one on EBay, I don't know where else to suggest. 6U is an awfully specialized chassis size, so there aren't going to be that many choices (new or used) to begin with.

If you're willing to come down to 4U or smaller, places like Directron offer very affordable cases you might want to look at. These won't all be from top-shelf makers (or built to data center specs) but for something like a large home server that's mostly  going to stay put and not be constantly ditzed with, they'll work just fine.

Maybe Stoic has some recommendations for this one since he gets involved in more hardware purchases than I do?

Luck!

1887

Living Room / Re: Groundhog Day Loops

« Last post by 40hz on May 16, 2014, 11:00 AM »

An interesting variation on the theme is the Nicholas Cage movie Next.

Deals with a man who can see a very small number of minutes into his own future, allowing him get repeated - albeit immediate - "do-overs". Sort of like Groundhog Day but on steroids. Clever (and refreshingly original) in that the window to repeat keeps moving forward - so if he hesitates to make a revised move, the window of opportunity closes and he moves forward like everyone else. Think walking backwards on an escalator rather than the 'climb 20 flights of stairs - then take an elevator trip back to the lobby' mechanism Groundhog Day uses.

Hangs together remarkably well and makes me wish I had a gift like that.

 

1888

Living Room / Re: Groundhog Day Loops

« Last post by 40hz on May 16, 2014, 10:42 AM »

And lets not forget the classic Monty Python treatment:

 

1889

Non-Windows Software / LINUX: Linux Lite - viable 1st Linux alternative for XP and Vista users

« Last post by 40hz on May 16, 2014, 09:58 AM »

The good folks over at Linux Lite have just announced the release of version 2.0 beta of their already fine distro which is geared up for first time Nix users and reluctant refugees from Windows XP and Vista.



Based on Ubuntu LTS releases, the goal is stability, ongoing software support, a familiar interface, and high out-of-box usability. System requirements (700Mhz CPU/512Mb RAM/5Gb disk space/VGA 1024x768) are very modest and should run smoothly on anything Windows XP is currently running on.. If you're interested in seeing what this whole Linux thing is all about - or you're reaching the point where you have to move off Windows XP for whatever reason, this is an excellent distro to at least try out.

Here is a quick overview of the current v1.0.8 stable release:

Look for more information on Linux Lite here.

(Note: the homepage does not seem to be working correctly. So if you have trouble navigating the site, just return to www.linuxliteos.com/linuxlite.html. The tour and other pages don't appear to have this problem.

The 688MB 32-bit ISO can be directly downloaded from here.

1890

Living Room / Re: Groundhog Day Loops

« Last post by 40hz on May 15, 2014, 05:41 PM »

I would think there must be at least one Twilight Zone episode with a time loop.  I can't think of one at the moment.  But I can just picture Rod Serling coming up with something where some dude gets nagged by his wife forever or something similar. Like the main character is the only one aware it's going around in circles.

-MilesAhead (May 14, 2014, 05:43 PM)

Good lordy! Paradoxical loops were a mainstay of the Twilight Zone! In the first season alone there were several stories that used some sort of a loop as a central element in their plot:

Judgement Night

   Judgment Night

        Writer: Rod Serling
        Director: John Brahm
        Producer: Buck Houghton
        Director of Photography: George T. Clemens
        Music: stock
        Cast:
            Lanser: Nehemiah Persoff
            Captain Wilbur: Ben Wright
            First Officer: Patrick MacNee

    "Her name is the S.S. Queen of Glasgow. Her registry: British. Gross tonnage: five thousand. Age: indeterminate. At this moment she's one day out of Liverpool, her destination New York. Duly recorded on this ship's log is the sailing time, course to destination, weather conditions, temperature, longitude and latitude. But what is never recorded in a log is the fear that washes over a deck like fog and ocean spray. Fear like the throbbing strokes of engine pistons, each like a heartbeat, parceling out every hour into breathless minutes of watching, waiting and dreading. For the year is 1942, and this particular ship has lost its convoy. It travels alone like an aged blind thing groping through the unfriendly dark, stalked by unseen periscopes of steel killers. Yes, the Queen of Glasgow is a frightened ship, and she carries with her a premonition of death."

   Carl Lanser is a German on board the Glasgow. He has no memory of how he got there, but he has a strange feeling that he knows the passengers. Lanser is certain that they are being stalked by an enemy sub. He also feels something is going to happen at 1:15 a.m. At 1:15 a.m. a U-boat surfaces. Looking through binoculars, Lanser sees that the captain is himself. The U-boat sinks the boat, and machine-guns the survivors. Later a lieutenant on the U-boat suggests that they may all face damnation for their actions. Kapitan Lanser dismisses the idea - not realizing that he is doomed to repeat the sinking of the ship for eternity.

    "The S.S. Queen of Glasgow, heading for New York, and the time is 1942. For one man, it is always 1942 - and the man will ride the ghost of that ship every night for eternity. This is what is meant by paying the fiddler. This is the comeuppance awaiting every man when the ledger of his life is opened and examined, the tally made, and then the reward or the penalty paid. And in the case of Carl Lanser, former Kapitan Lieutenant, Navy of the Third Reich, this is the penalty. This is the justice meted out. This is judgment night in the Twilight Zone."

And When The Sky Was Opened

    And When The Sky Was Opened

        Writer: Rod Serling (based on a short story "Disappearing Act" by Richard Matheson)
        Director: Douglas Heyes
        Producer: Buck Houghton
        Director of Photography: George T. Clemens
        Music: Leonard Rosenman
        Cast:
            Col. Clegg Forbes: Rod Taylor
            Col. Ed Harrington: Charles Aidman
            Maj. William Gart: James Hutton
            Amy: Maxine Cooper

    "Her name: X-20. Her type: an experimental interceptor. Recent history: a crash landing in the Mojave Desert after a thirty-one hour flight nine hundred miles into space. Incidental data: the ship, with the men who flew her, disappeared from the radar screen for twenty-four hours. [Narration interrupted by character action and dialogue.] But the shrouds that cover mysteries are not always made out of a tarpaulin, as this man will soon find out on the other side of a hospital door."

    Three astronauts have returned from this first space flight. Major Gart is hospitalized with a broken leg. The other two, Colonels Harrington and Forbes head for a bar. Harrington gets a strange feeling and calls his parents. They inform him they have no son. Harrington then disappears, with nobody remembering him but Forbes. When Forbes tells Gart what happened, Gart says he doesn't remember Harrington either. Forbes runs out the door screaming, "I don't want this to happen!" When Gart gets to the door, Forbes has disappeared. Then Gart and their ship vanishes, wiping the last evidence of their existence off the face of the Earth.

    "Once upon a time, there was a man named Harrington, a man named Forbes, a man named Gart. They used to exist, but don't any longer. Someone - or something - took them somewhere. At least they are no longer a part of the memory of a man. And as to the X-20 supposed to be housed here in this hangar, this too does not exist. And if any of you have any questions concerning an aircraft and three men who flew her, speak softly of them... and only in the Twilight Zone."

The Hitch-Hiker

 The Hitch-Hiker

        Writer: Rod Serling (based on a radio play "The Hitch-Hiker" by Lucille Fletcher)
        Director: Alvin Ganzer
        Producer: Buck Houghton
        Director of Photography: George T. Clemens
        Music: stock
        Cast:
            Nan Adams: Inger Stevens
            Hitch-Hiker: Leonard Strong
            Sailor: Adam Williams
            Gas Pump Boy: Lew Gallo

    "Her name is Nan Adams. She's twenty-seven years old. Her occupation: buyer at a New York department store, at present on vacation, driving cross-country to Los Angeles, California, from Manhattan. [Narration interrupted by character action and dialogue.] Minor incident on Highway 11 in Pennsylvania, perhaps to be filed away under accidents you walk away from. But from this moment on, Nan Adams' companion on a trip to California will be terror; her route - fear; her destination - quite unknown."

    After a blowout, Nan Adams repeatedly sees the same hitch-hiker. She tries to run over him, only to be told by a sailor to whom she's given a lift that there was no one on the road. She calls home and learns her mother suffered a nervous breakdown after the death of her daughter in a car wreck. Nan returns to her car, where the hitch-hiker - his purpose and identity known - awaits.

    "Nan Adams, age twenty-seven. She was driving to California, to Los Angeles. She didn't make it. There was a detour - through the Twilight Zone."[/b][/i]

        

The Last Flight

    
   The Last Flight

        Writer: Richard Matheson
        Director: William Claxton
        Producer: Buck Houghton
        Director of Photography: George T. Clemens
        Music: stock
        Cast:
            Flight Lt. Decker: Kenneth Haigh
            Major Wilson: Simon Scott
            General Harper: Alexander Scourby

    "Witness Flight Lieutenant William Terrance Decker, Royal Flying Corps, returning from a patrol somewhere over France. The year is 1917. The problem is that the Lieutenant is hopelessly lost. Lieutenant Decker will soon discover that a man can be lost not only in terms of maps and miles, but also in time - and time in this case can be measured in eternities."

    During a World War I mission, Decker deserts his best friend, who is surrounded by enemy planes. He flies through a strange white cloud, and lands at a modern-day American air base in France. Decker discovers that the man he left behind went on to become a hero in World War II, and is due to inspect the base that very day. Decker, realizing he's been given a second chance, overpowers the major, returns to his plane, and takes off. Later, when Decker's friend arrives to inspect the base, he says Decker did return to save him - at the cost of his own life.

    "Dialogue from a play, Hamlet to Horatio: 'There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy.' Dialogue from a play written long before men took to the sky. There are more things in heaven and earth, and in the sky, than perhaps can be dreamt of. And somewhere in between heaven, the sky, the earth, lies the Twilight Zone."

Mirror Image

 

 Mirror Image

        Writer: Rod Serling
        Director: John Brahm
        Producer: Buck Houghton
        Director of Photography: George T. Clemens
        Music: stock
        Cast:
            Millicent Barnes: Vera Miles
            Paul Grinstead: Martin Milner
            Ticket Agent: Joe Hamilton

    "Millicent Barnes, age twenty-four, young woman waiting for a bus on a rainy November night. Not a very imaginative type is Miss Barnes, not given to undue anxiety or fears, or for that matter even the most temporal flights of fancy. Like most young career women, she has a generic classification as a, quote, girl with a head on her shoulders, end of quote. All of which is mentioned now because in just a moment the head on Miss Barnes's shoulders will be put to a test. Circumstances will assault her sense of reality and a chain of nightmares will put her sanity on a block. Millicent Barnes, who in one minute will wonder if she's going mad."

    Millicent Barnes is confused by the actions of various employees at the bus station. The ticket taker tells her that she has repeatedly asked when the bus is going to arrive, and that her suitcase has already been checked. The washroom attendant claims she was there a few seconds earlier. Yet she hasn't done any of these things. While in the washroom, she sees herself sitting on a bench out in the bus station. She runs out, but the room is empty. Paul Grinstead, a businessman, becomes concerned for Millicent. They go to board the bus, but Millicent runs back in after seeing her other self already on the bus. Paul stays to comfort Millicent, who now says she knows what is happenning: a mirror image of herself from another world has entered this world, and must take her place to survive. Paul, certain she's mentally ill, calls the police. After the police take Millicent away, Paul chases a man who he believes has stolen his case. As the man turns around, Paul realizes that the man is a duplicate of himself.

    "Obscure metaphysical explanation to cover a phenomenon, reasons dredged out of the shadows to explain away that which cannot be explained. Call it parallel planes or just insanity. Whatever it is, you find it in the Twilight Zone."

A Stop At Willoughby

   A Stop At Willoughby

        Writer: Rod Serling
        Director: Robert Parrish
        Producer: Buck Houghton
        Director of Photography: George T. Clemens
        Music: Nathan Scott
        Cast:
            Gart Williams: James Daly
            Jane Williams: Patricia Donahue
            Mr. Misrell: Howard Smith

    "This is Gart Williams, age thirty-eight, a man protected by a suit of armor all held together by one bolt. Just a moment ago, someone removed the bolt, and Mr. Williams' protection fell away from him and left him a naked target. He's been cannonaded this afternoon by all the enemies of his life. His insecurity has shelled him, his sensitivity has straddled him with humiliation, his deep-rooted disquiet about his own worth has zeroed in on him, landed on target, and blown him apart. Mr. Gart Williams, ad agency exec, who in just a moment will move into the Twilight Zone--in a desperate search for survival."

    Gart Williams is a very unhappy man. He has a terrible boss and a shrewish wife. Riding home on the train one day he falls asleep, and dreams it is 1880, and he is entering a small town called Willoughby. The conductor tells him Willoughby is a town where "a man can slow down to a walk and live his life full measure." Williams realizes this is the place for him, but he receives only ridicule from his wife. The pressure of his job being too great, he finally cracks. He calls his wife to tell her he is quitting, but she hangs up on him. On the train home, he suddenly finds himself back in Willoughby. The townsfolk all greet him by name. He's there for good this time. Meanwhile, the train has stopped. A Mr. Williams has jumped from the train yelling something about "Willoughby." The body is loaded in a hearse that bears the name "Willoughby Funeral Home."

    "Willoughby? Maybe it's wishful thinking nestled in a hidden part of a man's mind, or maybe it's the last stop in the vast design of things - or perhaps, for a man like Gart Williams, who clmbed on a world that went by too fast, it's a place around the bend where he could jump off. Willoughby? Whatever it is, it comes with sunlight and serenity, and is part of the Twilight Zone."

The After Hours

   The After Hours

        Writer: Rod Serling
        Director: Douglas Heyes
        Producer: Buck Houghton
        Director of Photography: George T. Clemens
        Music: stock
        Cast:
            Marsha White: Anne Francis
            Saleswoman: Elizabeth Allen
            Armbruster: James Millhollin

    "Express elevator to the ninth floor of a department store, carrying Miss Marsha White on a most prosaic, ordinary, run of the mill errand. [Narration interrupted by character action and dialogue.] Miss Marsha White on the ninth floor, specialties department, looking for a gold thimble. The odds are that she'll find it--but there are even better odds that she'll find something else, because this isn't just a department store. This happens to be the Twilight Zone."

    Marsha buys a gold thimble from a rude saleslady on the ninth floor. When she goes to complain, she is informed there is no ninth floor. She points out the saleslady, but is shocked to find it is just a store mannequin. She is helped to a store office where she falls asleep. When she wakes up, she finds she is locked in the closed store. She hears voices coming from the mannequins as she wanders through the empty store. She backs into the elevator which takes her to the ninth floor. There the mannequins all come to life one by one, including the saleslady and elevator operator. They explain that she too is a mannequin, and that each of them is allowed a one month journey among humans. She forgot her true identity and didn't return on time. She apologizes, then turns back into a mannequin.

    "Marsha White in her normal and natural state: a wooden lady with a painted face who, one month out of the year, takes on the characteristics of someone as normal and as flesh and blood as you and I. But it makes you wonder, doesn't it? Just how normal are we? Just who are the people we nod our hellos to as we pass on the street? A rather good question to ask - particularly in the Twilight Zone."

With thanks to The Croc's Domain for the above synopses. You can also find entries like the above for all the original TZ episodes plus a wealth of additional information and links at this 'labor of love' website. A great resource for script, TV series, and Rod Serling fans. Find it here.

(Note: He has created episode guides for the newer TZ series plus the Night Gallery too! Awesome! )

1891

Living Room / Re: Groundhog Day Loops

« Last post by 40hz on May 14, 2014, 01:36 PM »

You could add

But it would spoil the surprise reveal knowing that...

Lunopolis

Also the film Run Lola Run

Worth it just to watch the incredibly underrated actress Franke Potente.

 

Also that recent Tom Cruise flick Edge of Tomorrow that loops but also does the Cassandra Predicament riff sorta...very close to Groundhog Day in "high concept." (Emily Blunt looking great while doing one of her trademark understated characters in this one.)

The epic action of "Edge of Tomorrow" unfolds in a near future in which an alien race has hit the Earth in an unrelenting assault, unbeatable by any military unit in the world. 

Major William Cage (Cruise) is an officer who has never seen a day of combat when he is unceremoniously dropped into what amounts to a suicide mission. Killed within minutes, Cage now finds himself inexplicably thrown into a time loop—forcing him to live out the same brutal combat over and over, fighting and dying again...and again.
But with each battle, Cage becomes able to engage the adversaries with increasing skill, alongside Special Forces warrior Rita Vrataski (Blunt). And, as Cage and Rita take the fight to the aliens, each repeated encounter gets them one step closer to defeating the enemy.

You might also want to consider Dark City. There is a groundhog loop - admittedly engineered every 24-hrs by an alien social experiment where everyone gets "reset" each night - but to the humans who are subject to it, it adds up to the same thing.

1892

Non-Windows Software / Re: Recommend Debian based image for VMWare Player on W8?

« Last post by 40hz on May 13, 2014, 09:49 PM »

I'm still trying to figure out how to switch between cinnamon and mate.

-MilesAhead (May 13, 2014, 06:04 PM)

Should be a piece of cake after you install the MATE metapackage. (It's huge btw... a 111 MB download that unpacks to 291 MB on disk. Yoiks!)

From within the Cinnamon desktop, just open Software Manager and do a search for mint-meta-mate.

Install it and reboot.

On the GRUB startup menu you should see the option to select either Cinnamon or MATE to boot into.

You'll need to reboot each time you want to switch the desktop environment.

 

1893

General Software Discussion / Re: 4 (Maybe more) Absolute top go-to programs

« Last post by 40hz on May 13, 2014, 01:56 PM »

I was in college and got one of those gigantic computer review magazines.  THere was an email client roundup, I was using Eudora at the time.

-superboyac (May 13, 2014, 11:52 AM)

Interesting...I switched from Eudora to Pegasus around the same time - and happily used it as my main e-mail app for several years afterwards...

(I used to install a lot of their Mercury Mail Transport System mailservers back in the Netware/WinNT4 era. I see Mercury is still around too!)

1894

Living Room / Re: Hey Mouser... you still drowning in student loan debt?

« Last post by 40hz on May 13, 2014, 01:42 PM »

gallivanting

-MilesAhead (May 13, 2014, 12:50 PM)

Awesome! My grandmother's favorite word to describe what her working daughters were doing Fridays after work instead of coming home for dinner!

FYI: she was a nice Canuck girl from Fall River. She married an equally nice guy from Fall River with an Anglo-Norman surname. They first met at the mill they were working in back when Fall River MA was a thriving textile center. Wasn't long before 'Anita' (Anouk actually) and 'Bill' became"an item" and decided to get married. Their respective families were absolutely mortified! A mixed marriage? How could they do that to their parents??? 

(My how times have changed huh? And in this context, very much for the better.  )

1895

General Software Discussion / Re: Create a profiles for users on a Workgroup and disable Homegroup options & wifi

« Last post by 40hz on May 13, 2014, 08:17 AM »

+1 with Stoic . (We have similar jobs so we have similar biases. ) The only good (i.e. effective and reliable) way is using a domain and group policies. Workgroups are bad ju-ju and not worth struggling with.

Have you looked into using something like Windows Server 2012 - either Foundation or Essentials? Dell and some other suppliers can set you up with a preconfigured entry-level server for under a grand. This wouldn't be "enterprise by any stretch. But for 20 or so users it would solve 98% of all your security issues and give you some attached storage space as well.

Something to think about.

1896

Living Room / Re: Apple Patents Making You SHUT UP!

« Last post by 40hz on May 13, 2014, 05:56 AM »

In a world where the USPTO just recently awarded Amazon a patent for taking pictures of objects against a white background, anything is possible when it comes to patents.

1897

Living Room / Re: Free Software Requirements

« Last post by 40hz on May 13, 2014, 05:51 AM »

It may be more the developers starting to cover their asses in anticipation of possible legal exposure now that the tide is slowly turning and the general public is getting fed up with data gathering and surreptitious spying.

The PBS Frontline program will be airing a two part show this week called The United States of Secrets that explores how 9/11 gave some elements in government carte blanch to "do whatever is necessary" to protect Americans - even if that meant turning their nation into a police surveillance state. This is bound to raise awareness and trigger a genuine discussion some people in government (and business) would rather not see this nation have.

1898

Non-Windows Software / Re: Recommend Debian based image for VMWare Player on W8?

« Last post by 40hz on May 12, 2014, 03:50 PM »

^It's far more than a penchant.

It's a Microsoft strategy that's been dubbed: Embrace-Extend-Extinguish.

You take somebody else's idea or standard, embrace it with fanfare, load it up with proprietary additions and actively push the hell out of your "enhanced" version (which you control), and thereby extinguish the non-proprietary version.

Sad part is, it (mostly) worked beautifully for Microsoft so far.
 

1899

Living Room / Re: Hey Mouser... you still drowning in student loan debt?

« Last post by 40hz on May 12, 2014, 02:44 PM »

Have you thought about working for a non profit? You can get paid and at same time get loan forgiveness. Same with a govt job.

-nickodemos (May 11, 2014, 06:44 PM)

@Miles

Non-profits don't pay all that much where I am. But government jobs do pay quite well, offer very good benefits (especially medical and retirement), and have union protection. Many of the positions have some flex in the requirements to apply - and degrees aren't required for every position. Those that do have firm degree requirements often offer a "career trainee" track that can get you in at a junior level and allow you to apply for the "real" position after a year or two of on-the-job experience.

Time was when government jobs paid less but offered better security. Not any more. It's almost impossible to get laid off or fired from a regular government job in my state. And CT state jobs pay as well (and often much better) than private sector jobs with similar entry requirements.

My GF works for the state. She said the only downside is that you occasionally end up having to work with some totally useless people that cannot be fired - and will never leave government employment. Primarily because there's no place else they can get a job that pays $50K+ per year and only requires a high school diploma.

Seriously - do yourself a favor and go look at your state's website employment pages. Also be aware of the many "target candidate" considerations that can tilt the table in your favor when applying for a position. Affirmative action may be slowly disappearing. But it's not gone yet. And most government employment makes at least a token effort to maintain some level of diversity in their workforce. So if there's anything you can use to get in (age/race/gender/veteran status/disability/special hardship/etc.) - use it. Because it can work for you.

Maybe it's not the ideal way to go about securing employment - but "What price dignity when a stomach is empty?" as my grandfather used to say. I've been there - so I know.

Luck!

1900

Developer's Corner / Re: TextAdept: Lua-extensible Editor

« Last post by 40hz on May 12, 2014, 02:20 PM »

Maybe we need a text-editors-only sub-forum

-phitsc (May 12, 2014, 01:25 AM)

Subforum? You could do up an entire community website plus a forum on that topic.