Recent Posts

2001

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

« Last post by Innuendo on June 07, 2009, 09:22 PM »

4wd, betanews.com is popular for people like that. The ones who have to state the same thing in every review for every version knowing full well the product in review will not change.

-Josh

:: cough :: D.u.k.e.b.o.y.z :: cough ::

2002

General Software Discussion / Re: Is it time to start a new AntiVirus/Internet Security Suite review thread?

« Last post by Innuendo on June 07, 2009, 09:17 PM »

Yes, NOD32 is a very good product. It's been slipping down in the AV rankings, but I'm sure it'll bounce back.

Anyone looking to buy NOD32 should keep an eye out for NewEgg sales. Every so often they put it on sale for $9.99 w/ free shipping. You definitely can't go wrong at that price.

2003

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

« Last post by Innuendo on June 07, 2009, 06:02 PM »

Josh, I know it will still work once the subscription runs out, but it still annoys me whether it's a rational annoyance or not.

40hz, I'll take your word for what you are saying, especially regarding PBS, but it seems like every time I am channel surfing (or more accurately surfing the program guide) any time I notice what's on PBS, it's almost always Lawrence Welk.     And on the off-chance they do have something on that I might be interested in watching I've already watched it months/years ago on a cable channel.

And as for NPR, they may have changed, but the last time I really tried listening to them they were going through some kind of Earth Day/Hippie phase. And that's what I meant by telling people what to think. Hopefully, they are over that by now. They are going to have a hard time surviving as things shift more towards satellite & internet radio. Heck, even regular broadcast radio is feeling the pinch of those and MP3s in general. Who wants to spend an hour listing to 35 minutes of music and 25 minutes of commercials? (Yay! Another annoyance for the thread!) More and more people are heading out to the car with their MP3 player full of songs and podcasts for their drive to work or around town.

2004

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 7 evaluation

« Last post by Innuendo on June 07, 2009, 05:49 PM »

Josh, was just getting ready to come in here with an update. What transpired exactly was I did an upgrade install from build 7137 to build 7201 and I dutifully uninstalled Daemon Tools like the Upgrade Installer told me to before performing the upgrade.

What the Upgrade Installer should have told me to do was to uninstall the SPTD layer as well. Once I performed some registry permission mojo I was able to get Daemon Tools working again. Yay me. Boo Microsoft.

2005

Living Room / Re: The Retro Avatar Fad

« Last post by Innuendo on June 07, 2009, 05:45 PM »

I'm so retro I have never used an avatar on a forum ever.

2006

Living Room / Re: Good TV series. What do you watch? I used to watch Lost to unwind need successor

« Last post by Innuendo on June 07, 2009, 01:50 PM »

Lexx is awesome...I never got to watch the show when it originally aired & I was for darn sure not going to pay the going prices for what the DVDs are going for these days, but I was fortunate enough to get the DVDs by other means...

But that show was razor-sharp. Beyond all the surrealism there was some smart writing with clever plot devices that have not been seen before or since. However, I don't think this show, as good as it is, fits the spirit of the thread. It wasn't a sit & unwind type of affair. It demanded your full attention & if you didn't give your full attention you ended up missing lots of clever bits & pieces.

Eva Habermann was better. Unfortunately, contractual obligations cut her participation in the series short. She's stated in interviews that she would have loved to play the part through the entire series run. Alas, it wasn't meant to be.

2007

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

« Last post by Innuendo on June 07, 2009, 01:45 PM »

Josh, I have no problem paying per version, but having my time ticked off on a calendar before a program shuts down chaps my cheeks.

PBS is in trouble. Back in the days before cable they filled a niche, but their niche has been over-run by the Discovery & History Channels and others like them. NPR stopped being relevant when all of their broadcasting was overcast with a "We're going to teach you the right things to think in order to be a 'properly' enlightened person."

I haven't listened to NPR in years...and haven't watched PBS in *decades*.

2008

General Software Discussion / Re: The Best TV Show Renamer Around (afaik):theRenamer

« Last post by Innuendo on June 07, 2009, 10:13 AM »

Why download and install plugins, if this piece of software does it job very good?

-Coeluh

Because Total Commander is one-stop file management. Yes, this piece of software does its job very well & I may end up using it myself pretty soon, but if I can get the same functionality in Total Commander I'll go that way because that way, without switching programs, I can rename, sort, copy, move, archive, and even FTP transfer the episodes with using just a few keypresses after I rename them.

If all you are going to do is rename an episode then you can't do much better than this, but if after renaming you have to copy or move it somewhere whether it's on your PC, a PC on your network, or somewhere halfway across the internet then this program won't do any of that. 

2009

Living Room / Re: Good TV series. What do you watch? I used to watch Lost to unwind need successor

« Last post by Innuendo on June 07, 2009, 10:07 AM »

Oh, another recommendation....if one likes quirky characters with quirky plots with some smart writing I'll recommend Sci-Fi Channel's Eureka. It'll be entering its third season this coming July and it's a great show to sit down and be entertained while one unwinds.

2010

Living Room / Re: Good TV series. What do you watch? I used to watch Lost to unwind need successor

« Last post by Innuendo on June 07, 2009, 10:04 AM »

Miles, I know what you mean...I think I only saw one Bada Bing girl in the entire series run that I found really attractive. As for the show ending, the official reason was that they wanted to go out on top before they started to run out of ideas and the show became lame and sad. The unofficial reason, and the one I believe to carry more weight, is that HBO was tired of paying Gandolfini over one million dollars per episode.

I hope he stashed his money away because I am willing to bet him doing that Tony Awards gig didn't pay too many bills.

2011

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 7 evaluation

« Last post by Innuendo on June 07, 2009, 09:59 AM »

Directory Opus (version 9.1.2.0.3429.x64 - which is the newest as far as I know) seems to work perfectly in Windows 7 RC1. When you start the install a warning pops up that says something like "this OS isn't supported".

-Hirudin

You'll be fine with DOpus as long as you don't do something crazy like trying to replace Explorer. That's the only reason why that message pops up. Fortunately, you are smart enough to realize that so I'm just reiterating that for someone who is thinking, "Everything else seems to be working...let's give it a try." It won't work & windows 7 will not be amused.

Maybe that means slipstreaming is back too.

Slipstreaming is gone never to return. It's all about WIMs nowadays. That's a shame because I thought slipstreaming Office & Windows was such a cool feature. Now the new way just seems like a hack.

Innuendo: if you don't need the "sneaky-stuff" that Daemon-Tools do, try out Virtual CloneDrive - free and works with win7.

-f0dder

Virtual CloneDrive is inferior to MagicDisc. It's also free & works with Windows 7, but supports up to 15 drives and has image support for a lot more formats than Virtual CloneDrive including MDF/MDS and BWI/BWT. It's the only virtual disc program I've found besides Daemon Tools and Alcohol 52%/120% that supports MDF/MDS. No copy-protection & DRM support, though. One still needs Daemon Tools for that, but handles unprotected disc images beautifully.

And regarding vLite, yeah...using that is bad. MS even put up a KnowledgeBase article on that subject that basically says in a round-about way, "Hey, use vLite if you want to, but you're most likely going to have to reinstall Windows 7 if you do."

EDIT: Forgot to include the link to MagicDisc: http://www.magiciso....gicdisc-overview.htm

2012

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

« Last post by Innuendo on June 07, 2009, 09:45 AM »

What annoys me is subscription-ware. Programs that can only be registered in time-measured ways like anti-virus software. Other types of programs use the payment model, but AV is the most prevalent.

I absolutely hate to see the days of my subscription tick down till there's nothing left. And if I go out of town on vacation for a week? OMG! That's 7-9 days down the drain where I didn't get to reap the benefits of said program and it feels like money wasted.

This annoyance is why I registered Newsbin Pro rather than Newsleecher. It's also why I made sure I registered AnyDVD before they raised the prices and went to a more subscription-oriented pricing scheme. You can still get a lifetime update scheme from Slysoft, but oh man, you pay royally through the nose now for the privilege.

2013

General Software Discussion / Re: set external TFT's brightness etc. with software?

« Last post by Innuendo on June 06, 2009, 05:54 PM »

Might not be what you are looking for, but some manufacturers have software that you can use to control all the facets of monitor adjustment using your mouse and keyboard instead of having to resort to using the sometimes klunky controls built into the monitor.

2014

General Review Discussion / Re: Free Total Commander licences

« Last post by Innuendo on June 06, 2009, 05:52 PM »

Yes, how happy am I...but I'm like a kid at Christmas waiting to unwrap my present. Hope those three other people show up soon.

2015

Living Room / Re: Good TV series. What do you watch? I used to watch Lost to unwind need successor

« Last post by Innuendo on June 06, 2009, 05:51 PM »

Miles, laughs...that could very well be, but I had always thought the series was going to be the rise and fall of Tony Soprano. What made that show so good, I guess, is there are so many ways to interpret what happened over the run of the show.

And where's that OP? He must be off enjoying all the shows we have suggested thus far. 

2016

Living Room / Re: Good TV series. What do you watch? I used to watch Lost to unwind need successor

« Last post by Innuendo on June 06, 2009, 01:31 PM »

Miles, we loved The Sopranos over here and with no disrespect to your opinion we thought that phase of the series was very well-done. Here was a mob boss who had been expanding his crews areas of influence and operation coming to realize that he was becoming too big of a threat for the authorities to ignore. He wisely decides that he needs to drop into the shadows and put a few layers of plausible deniability between him and the crimes.

He also wisely surmised that he was getting older and he needed to start grooming a replacement to head the crime family. What better choice than Christopher who is blood and he's been mentoring all along? Now here the writers could have taken the easy way out by making Christopher out to be a stunning pupil and protege by taking over the family like gangbusters and taking their crime sprees to new heights.

Instead, we thought it was a much better story point to go the way they did. Christopher was always a screw-up. It should have been no surprise to everyone that when given bigger opportunities Christopher was going to screw up in even bigger ways.

We thought it was always a wonderful plotline that Tony had great things planned for Christopher, but Christopher just wasn't cut out for the life. He lacked the skillset to become a great mafioso & thereby Tony had to resort to following behind Christopher cleaning up his messes because he had a great love for Christopher living in denial that the boy wasn't cut out for that kind of life till the very end when Tony finally realized that Christopher was endangering their entire mafia operation and very hard choices had to be made.

Sometimes the people you choose to follow in your footsteps don't have the motivations or abilities that you think they have or should have and the Tony/Christopher story arc showcased that point perfectly, in our IMHO.

But yeah, if you thought Christopher was going to shine when given his time in the son becoming the new Al Capone or something then yeah...you were sorely disappointed. However, if you go back and look at the early Christopher episodes it's easy to see he was in way over head and wasn't taking things anywhere near seriously enough.

Oh, one last unrelated thing...Rod Serling was magnificent. There's never been anyone remotely like him anywhere.

2017

General Software Discussion / Re: Can somebady help me with an ISO burning question?

« Last post by Innuendo on June 06, 2009, 01:09 PM »

RE: LCIsocreator....it is beyond awesome. I've been using it for years and it's been flawless for me.

RE: Nero...Never have I seen a program reach such heights of brilliance in the early versions to reach such depths of crapitude in later versions. They have not only lost their way, but refuse to try to find their way back to the right path of software development.

2018

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 7 evaluation

« Last post by Innuendo on June 06, 2009, 01:06 PM »

Stoic Joker, yes...details are probably best left undiscussed & while I still have a lot to say on the matter I think we best let this part of the discussion drop.

I managed to get my mitts on Windows 7 Build 7201 and was more than a little disappointed to find out that Daemon Tools is broken...again. 

2019

Living Room / Re: Brief rant Re:mIRC

« Last post by Innuendo on June 06, 2009, 01:00 PM »

From the thread you linked the current behavior has always been the way things worked. The author said that the reaction you are getting from the program now had only a very small chance of showing up in the random rotation. You probably were very lucky not to get it...up till now.

If you are going to register it I hope you get to take advantage of the 50% disount the author alluded to his his reply.

And while I cannot speak for others, I don't think there's any need to apologize for anything, including your tone. You very plainly and clearly proclaimed your post as a rant. Those coming in here looking for calm and rational posts were only deluding themselves. Rants are rarely calm and are usually not rational.

You just needed to blow off some steam about how a program you had been using for some time seemingly changed the way it operates before your very eyes. I think you have quite a bit in common with the people posting in the Collectorz thread.

2020

Living Room / Re: Brief rant Re:mIRC

« Last post by Innuendo on June 06, 2009, 10:02 AM »

I am going to brush aside the fact that you installed the software and were advised of a 30-day trial and once you crossed the threshold of that 30 days you were still able to use the software going beyond the limits set by the author and by your own expectations seeing as how you knew the software could die at any time after 30 days.

But...and this is a serious question not trying to get a rise out of you or flame you...why are you upset that you got a longer trial period than was advertised or you expected?

However, that question is just to satisfy my own curiosity. Onward to other things, having read the thread you linked to the author states that on start-up mIRC randomly chooses from a number of different messages including the one you got demanding for payment. Have you tried re-starting the program a few times to see if the app randomly chooses one of the other, less restrictive messages? Have you tried a clean install of mIRC?

If neither of those work it sounds like you at least are given a link to buy the app at a discount, maybe even as high as 50%.

Oh, and about the rant...what are you ranting about exactly? First you talk about your situation with mIRC then you rail against freeware turning into shareware which, you quickly point out, mIRC doesn't fall into this category. So why did you bring up mIRC at all? And if your main beef is with mIRC, why bring up the freeware/shareware thing?

Maybe I missed your point, too, but I'm trying really hard to see it. Help me understand.

2021

Living Room / Re: Good TV series. What do you watch? I used to watch Lost to unwind need successor

« Last post by Innuendo on June 06, 2009, 09:45 AM »

Boston Legal was great, too. I felt they switched cast members too often, though.

I seem to think that we're all just shooting in the dark so far. It'd help immensely if the OP would let us know what they were looking for & refine their criteria for what they think is a good TV show.

Heck, just coming back and posting something in the thread would be nice. The OP hasn't posted again in this topic since they started it.

2022

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 7 evaluation

« Last post by Innuendo on June 05, 2009, 09:05 PM »

f0dder, yes, the sysprep...I was trying to be simple. Maybe I over-simplified it. It's a dang shame that most OEMs do not give clean re-install media to customers. I usually tell people that the sticker on the side of the case is their license for the OS software. If their OEM won't give them satisfaction with reinstall media there's usually some place on the internet where they can find it. Just so long as they install the version of Windows they bought using their key then they should be in the legal clear.

Dell used to include a clean Windows install disc with each machine. Then I think they went to a $20 charge for it. These days I don't know if you can get such a disc at any price.

MilesAhead, I understand what you are saying now. If you do a Google search I'm sure you could find the change you need to make to the .ini to get Windows 7 Home Premium. You'd be limited to 30 days as there are no Home Premium keys right now, but you'd get an idea of what to expect.

2023

General Software Discussion / Re: Can somebady help me with an ISO burning question?

« Last post by Innuendo on June 05, 2009, 08:57 PM »

I'm late to the party, but what I was going to say has already been said. The only difference between a CD data ISO and a DVD data ISO is the size it can be. Bootable or not, they are the same when it comes to burning.

2024

Living Room / Re: Bad-Actor ISP Shutdown by FTC

« Last post by Innuendo on June 05, 2009, 03:17 PM »

Or maybe one of those "Longest joke in the world" jokes... 

-Edvard4

I've always loved that joke!

2025

Living Room / Re: Good TV series. What do you watch? I used to watch Lost to unwind need successor

« Last post by Innuendo on June 05, 2009, 03:14 PM »

I would have suggested if you were a sci-fi buff to watch Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, but it got canceled.