Recent Posts

1976

Living Room / Re: Help Proofreading a submission

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 13, 2013, 12:54 PM »

I've updated the sources (including Google Docs) after radio silence for a while.  The deadline has been pushed to the 31st of Oct, but I'm still trying to get it done ASAP.  I'm having trouble on the resolution- I've posted what I have for that last chapter, but I'm not convinced it's the right direction.  It could be phantom limb pain as in my aggressive edits I removed a whole combat and action sequence, but looking at the goal of the wrap up and what I'm trying to accomplish, as cool as the setup on that last mission was, it wasn't really necessary.  But now I'm struggling with how to convey the situation without telling it.

-wraith808 (September 12, 2013, 12:30 PM)

(Disclosure - my focus has been bad again, I haven't read it - these are macro level comments!)

Hmm. Is there a word limit? (Why else wouldn't you just tell a situation?)

And about something being in the "right direction", what total overall mood are you trying for? I for one could suggest various things but if the desired mood is not what is actually there, it would go off track.

1977

Living Room / Re: A Proposal for Improving Quality of News-Related Threads

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 12, 2013, 12:00 PM »

Regarding the same 5 people, what can I say? Some people will always prefer to lurk - and that should be their prerogative. I'd personally like to see a lot more people join in the discussions. But in any assembly there will always be a more active group that invests considerably more time and effort to keep 'the gab' going.

-40hz (September 11, 2013, 08:07 PM)

This is actually "a thing". It hits all groups. So your choice of percentages, but X % of any group are the ones that post a lot.

1978

Living Room / Re: Help with Proofing?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 12, 2013, 11:56 AM »

Heh Renny password protected zip file is a bit overkill!

Why bother? The NSA read it already! They think you need better temporal exposition to set the scene. Joe told me so!

1979

N.A.N.Y. 2014 / Re: N.A.N.Y. 2014 - New Apps for the New Year - Welcome Thread

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 12, 2013, 11:49 AM »

I don't have the funds to commission a NANY this year!

However, NANY is in  the top seven fun words to say here!

NANY NANY NANY NANY!

1980

Living Room / Re: A Proposal for Improving Quality of News-Related Threads

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 11, 2013, 07:44 PM »

Heh Mouser you're describing giving someone a "job".



I knock out a lot of first posts just to be sure the "data point" is here for the general anti-Orwellian theme that we specialize in, but then I quite often don't care about the small aspect of the issue other than it's part of this year's whole NSA-Revelations arc, like a TV season arc!

I'm almost to the point of writing my own large exhibit on that stuff, but I don't quite yet have the catalyst kicker showpiece news nugget to really kick it over the edge to make it worth 100 hours of work. Right now it's simmering badly, but we're all a bit trapped. But see as simple examples that the big corporate legal departments are taking their first nudge steps while eye-ing each other to log the first proto-steps to turn all this around.

(But I spidey-sense there's an awesome info-graphic here, some kind of Super-Madlibs of "_____ said/did ____ that took ____ right away from you and/or oppressed your overall freedom". And also I have the fun idea of "pointilism links" where each link consists of a single "dot", ((a triple pun play on the whole "here" "here" "here" "here" "here" thing!))

And then you can wave your mouse over which section of oppression you want to survey and 100 articles are linked in a big overall graphic!

1981

Living Room / Re: A Proposal for Improving Quality of News-Related Threads

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 11, 2013, 07:13 PM »

There needs to be a clear direction as to whether a thread is a discussion, or just a series of disconnected comments about a news article.

-wraith808 (September 11, 2013, 04:11 PM)

And then there's the angle that there are multiple discussions going on in a meaty news thread! So in my view it would take a *lot* of work to keep outlining all the developments!

See? I couldn't make it past seven sentences without two discussion fragments to update!

1982

Living Room / Re: A Proposal for Improving Quality of News-Related Threads

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 11, 2013, 07:10 PM »

The first post of the thread is maintained and updated by the original poster with the best summary and links to 3rd party articles/essays/resources.

-mouser (September 11, 2013, 03:55 PM)

What if the OP doesn't want the work to maintain the thread? I've been the first poster on a modest number of threads simply because I read Slashdot 3X daily, and have cross posted some starter info over here. But then I am usually content to let the thread go where it may!

1983

General Software Discussion / Re: typing in web browser makes it freeze

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 11, 2013, 07:04 PM »

Not sure, but I was having similar problems with FF a while back. It came and went as a problem with upgrades. How many versions of Chrome has this been true for?

1984

Living Room / Re: Programming/Coder humor

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 11, 2013, 07:02 PM »

Do like my husband, and wear a Red Sox hat with a Yankee jersey. 

-app103 (September 11, 2013, 03:14 PM)

Oh, that's awesome, even if as light social trolling!

I have the Yankees cap already (aka backwards), so I have to go look for a cheapo $7 Red Sox tshirt! And then I have to pay a little care that it's best on days when both teams are playing.

1985

Living Room / Re: A Proposal for Improving Quality of News-Related Threads

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 11, 2013, 12:02 PM »

Let me try to be a littler more concise and concrete:

Can we try to think about making Definitive threads on issues? Where the first post is made by someone who intends to follow an issue, and will keep the first post updated with a good balanced summary of the issue and an updated annotated list of links where they can read the best articles on the issue from different sides?

With that in place, i think the discussions that follow will be better, and new people will be able to inform themselves and then join in.

-mouser (September 11, 2013, 11:58 AM)

We posted ours at the same time.

I don't think there IS a definitive thread until MONTHS or YEARS later!!

I think it has to thrash out as necessary messiness.

1986

Living Room / Re: A Proposal for Improving Quality of News-Related Threads

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 11, 2013, 12:01 PM »

I never got that impression that it was noise Mouser, I think the Dialectic is Alive and Well! Stories come out in waves, and a big ticket topic takes over two months to play out, so the early stories full of "breaking news" sound silly when the next week's update comes out.

I think this is what forums do well - people respond with the next parcel of the conversation as they see it, quoting for extra credit when their jump point is four points back. Perfect would be a Mind Map tree, but forums can only be linear.

As a super raw example, this *year*'s story is Edward Snowden, and he did (what? I'm lost...) a few things right that kicked his story over the top into mainstream news where now as a direct corollary these encryption stories are coming out, and of course that affects tech professionals. (Look for contrast how they just barely had enough old school clout left to bury Bradley Manning.)

So I'm not so sure a Mega Post of 15 links is quite the right answer either!

1987

Post New Requests Here / Re: Remember where I got the Download

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 11, 2013, 11:49 AM »

As a data hoarder, the approach I would generally recommend is to always automate creating/maintaining a record of downloaded files, by automatically capturing the data and logging it at the time of the download.
...

-IainB (July 22, 2013, 11:06 PM)

Hi Iain,

I might be a bit on the Apples and Mangoes department, but I can't think of how I'd automate my file name mnemonic style because about four keywords in filenames have to do any four of fifteen things depending on what group they are part of! And at a holistic level, surely stuff that's relevant for research PDFs makes zero sense for music files, but even within category, for example I have a hobby that I take a song and make about four more custom versions where I drop the speed, pitch, tempo, add echo, amplify, and maybe slice out some dumb four seconds of something.

And on and on!

1988

Living Room / Re: Programming/Coder humor

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 11, 2013, 11:44 AM »

...a Red Sox or Yankee fan...

-Renegade (August 13, 2013, 08:09 PM)

What's a guy who moved from Boston to New York to do when a Yankees Sox game comes on?!!

1989

Living Room / Re: A School System goes NSA-Lite

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 10, 2013, 05:03 PM »

I think this is going to whip around a bit quicker than the school thinks though.

The students can then make their own group that monitors the teacher's social media, and then we see how they like things on their own terms.

I actually wanna see that play out! 10k is *not* a lot of cash for someone to fund the reverse op for the students. (Fewer teachers).

I see this as a huge next step, because the NSA is so big and so hidden, we all sigh. But within a single school run by a chump company, that tail might taste mighty fine to the Ouroboros.

And then this becomes tailor made for a test case in court!

1990

Living Room / Re: The feds pay for 60 percent of Tor’s development. Can users trust it?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 09, 2013, 02:00 PM »

I dunno what to think. I never suspected a budget angle. I did hear how the exit nodes got taken over, and so I didn't really trust it from that angle.

I also think that all of these concepts were legit maybe around 1997, before the big machinery ramped up. But to paraphrase a depressing vision I had around 2000, we're all staring into an abyss, without a lot of exciting real new tech, so that's the perfect environment for all this govt encroachment to grind itself into place.

1991

Living Room / Re: Is 'the cloud' becoming the 'SkyNet'?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 09, 2013, 01:18 PM »

The "Cloud" is sorta a Big Mainframe in the sky.

I'd put bets on the NSA's surveillance getting out of control first! Because that actively *is* processing data with intent to label people as Bad People. So then one too many automated efficiencies later...

Boom!

1992

Living Room / Re: What books are you reading?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 09, 2013, 05:38 AM »

I liked it. No nonsense included - less than 200 pages.

-panzer (August 07, 2013, 03:29 AM)

Ah! That's good! Far too many books just blather on with complete nonsense that just wastes your time. I really like when they just cut to the chase and get to the point.

-Renegade (August 07, 2013, 04:17 AM)

[/quote]

Heh I often like to go the other way, because sometimes short books glaze over the stuff "without doing any work". I made a small joke I called the "500 page club" - if the author has to fill much more space, then it's more likely there are some nice juicy details in there!

1993

Living Room / Re: Mentioning a Site Could Be Criminal Now

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 09, 2013, 05:33 AM »

Sigh... It might just be shorter to list what doesn't get you sent to jail.

Bizarre when information is a crime.

-Renegade (September 08, 2013, 09:46 PM)

Is there any such [politically acceptable] list?!?

-barney (September 08, 2013, 11:19 PM)

Yes in a way. Basically any info which is not likely to be useful breaking the bonds of tyranny is fine. Also, anything rated PG 13 and under is generally fine. So I feel it's "quite easy" to stay out of trouble. It's just that we shouldn't *be* in trouble for lots of those categories!

1994

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Winboard 4.5 Accessible Chess for the Blind and Quadriplegic

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 08, 2013, 02:26 PM »

While not handicapped myself, I am a modest fan of text to speech devices, and I dunno if this is in there.

But it would be cool to have different voices selectable on server chat vs the program reading moves.

1995

Living Room / Re: Mentioning a Site Could Be Criminal Now

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 08, 2013, 02:23 PM »

"The following seven TV episodes describe beating a polygraph" - go to jail.

1996

General Software Discussion / Re: What is the currently best Desktop Search software?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 07, 2013, 06:07 PM »

I tend not to need search inside capability, but I don't exactly use a desktop search per se. I still stand by the slightly unusual method of doing a drive read via Karen's Directory Printer, and then searching the resulting text file! Doing the drive read from the "desktop down" takes some five minutes. And then good ol' Control-F in the text file finds stuff *instantly*!

1997

Living Room / Re: printer to repair or not repair

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 07, 2013, 06:02 PM »

Mouser, I can partially agree with if we are talking about a hundred dollar printer, then yeah, repairs probably wont be worth it.  But brand new the P3005 and 4100 HP are many hundreds of dollars.  The 4100s are known to be real workhorses and some probably have a million or more pages.  Te older ones tend to have heavier and possibly more metal parts in them than the newer plastic printers.

-techidave (September 07, 2013, 05:58 PM)

And the Kyoceras we used to have at work ran to several *thousand*! So see above, at least see if you get lucky on a quote.

1998

Living Room / Re: printer to repair or not repair

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 07, 2013, 06:01 PM »

I'd put a voice in for at least getting some info. (These examples assume the repairman is legit, no scams etc). It sounds as if you don't know exactly what's wrong. So I'd at least get a quote. And with that quote, ask if there is a *warranty on the repairs*! In other words, done right, you don't expect the thing to conk out next Tuesday.

Other types of repairs are really cheap proportionally - you know it won't last forever but a lot of printers have some dumb little piece of plastic, or the guiding metal bar gets crooked, or whatever. So then you can escape with say $100, and then *next year* you finally have to bite the bullet and buy new, but as we say in accounting, "next year is next year's problem".

1999

Living Room / Re: Designers discuss the new Yahoo Logo: "Logo, Bullshit and Co., Inc."

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 07, 2013, 08:33 AM »

Okay, a bit of "Devil's Advocate" position here, just to get a few chuckles!

What if it's an elliptical "out of the box result" where the key phrase is "we had great fun"!? To me the logo doesn't stand for anything at all! I as a medium informed consumer, using what I consider Yahoo's last core product (Yahoo Mail!), have no idea what else Yahoo is any good at! After all, they are officially out of the search game, being "powered by Bing". I think they might have some good sports stuff (vague 5th hand hearsay). But what else? I have no idea!

But what if they are doing a bit of a snub on the whole "logo is big business" thing and just having some fun in the middle of an exhausting turnaround? Let them have some fun fiddling with the logo!

I will basically only "care" about them when they unleash something completely new and unexpected! Is *anything* left as a game changer in online tech? Or are we just going to jockey about for the next X years with the same roster of output that we have now? (I was gonna say players but that might move around, aka the MS buyout of Nokia.)

Being a bit facetious, they have a "few bucks left" ... so is it worth it swiping Google's now discarded "20% rule"?

2000

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 05, 2013, 08:14 PM »

I always giggle at that. You get 500 programmers who can write 500 lines of code but they can't get the *same seven* grammar points right.