Recent Posts

2101

Living Room / Re: The law is for YOUR protection. Honest!

« Last post by app103 on June 27, 2011, 11:51 PM »

Now imagine you are an inventor who wants to avoid this scenario. What is your due diligence? An exhaustive patent search of any patent that might potentially cover the technology you're thinking of inventing? Better be a rich guy to start with. And once your search is done, you may find that any device you create (or part of any device you create) could conceivably be described by one or more existing patents. So you give up and switch to gardening, which stifles innovation - the exact opposite of the system's original intent.

-Jimdoria (June 27, 2011, 12:06 PM)

Gardening isn't exactly safe from patents, either. Don't plant more than one type of any plant too close to each other or you might cross-pollinate by accident and infringe on someone's patent with your new type of flower.

And if you are growing vegetables, you might end up with a letter from Monsanto's lawyers.

http://www.humanflow...patents_potted_gold/

2102

Living Room / Re: Geocities Returns!

« Last post by app103 on June 26, 2011, 06:42 AM »

all browsers should come with animated gif turned off by default!

-lanux128 (June 26, 2011, 01:42 AM)

But then you'd miss stuff like this! 

2103

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: Gentlemen (and Ladies), Start Your Engines!!

« Last post by app103 on June 24, 2011, 02:42 AM »

Whatever gets posted to the DC blog gets automatically posted to the facebook page, twitter, and friendfeed.

2104

Living Room / Re: Anyone Using Bitcoins Yet?

« Last post by app103 on June 24, 2011, 02:41 AM »

I don't have faith in the value of bitcoins and I won't until mainstream retailers start accepting them for payment. Until then it's a waste of my money/electricity to generate or buy bitcoins.

2105

Living Room / Re: The Commodore 64 is BACK~!

« Last post by app103 on June 21, 2011, 10:16 PM »

In case anyone feels like looking back on a past discussion from about a year ago, when the news about this first hit, here's the thread: https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=22147.0

2106

General Software Discussion / Re: How to stop forum spam ?

« Last post by app103 on June 21, 2011, 10:09 PM »

But then the second is an attack by a determined and human opponent.  You *cannot* prevent these people from spamming your site, or whatever.  You just can't.  The best you can do is set up your OWN human defense to discover them quickly when they do and make remediating their spam/attack as quick and painless as you can.

-mouser (June 21, 2011, 03:32 PM)

And this is why I report all spammers on WOT. When I get an email alert about a first post in gmail, I can see the WOT reputation rings on the links and if they are red, it's a good sign that they have spammed us or someone else before. I know this without reading a single word of their post.

2107

General Software Discussion / Re: How to stop forum spam ?

« Last post by app103 on June 21, 2011, 06:28 AM »

Actually, now that I've seen app's WOT profile, I think my post should refer app and not mouser So, hurray for app's cat

-jgpaiva (June 21, 2011, 06:14 AM)

I report ALL spammers on WOT, not just the ones I ban, so it's not all my doing. I referred to that link only as a way of seeing what actually goes on behind the scenes here. Also, that list doesn't give you any idea how many of them are repeat offenders, since I can only report and rate them once.

I think you were correct when you credited mouser for the bulk of the spam removal. As a forum admin it's a little different when he bans a spammer and removes their posts...when he does it, it's gone forever to a land where nobody can see it, not even us moderators. When a moderator bans and deletes spam, other moderators can still see it in the deleted posts section.

2108

General Software Discussion / Re: How to stop forum spam ?

« Last post by app103 on June 21, 2011, 06:00 AM »

Forum member Wordzilla made a little tool awhile back that some of us moderators use to keep an eye on the forum. We see each and every post made within seconds and can quickly click the link to the profile from it and ban any spammers.

In the event that nobody running this app is at their computer and paying attention, the feed is posted by mouser's IRC bot into our IRC channel and anyone noticing any spam through there usually alerts a moderator by typing the word "spam" repeatedly till someone in the channel goes and deletes it.  

Moderators also get email alerts when new members make a post, and we get alerts whenever anyone edits an existing post (some spammers will come back a month later and add their spammy links to what otherwise would have been an innocent looking post).

Mouser has also modified the forum slightly to make it less attractive to spammers, including nofollow links in posts made by new members, no signatures for new members, and no profile info visible on new members (we got tired of cleaning up profile spam on people that register just to make a profile of spammy links and never making any posts)

If you would like to see just how much post spam DC really gets, take a look at my commenting history on WOT, where reporting forum spammers has gained me gold member status: http://www.mywot.com...user/148822/comments

2109

Living Room / Re: Non-tech, off-the-wall topic: Gasoline/Petrol, does grade matter?

« Last post by app103 on June 21, 2011, 02:25 AM »

Every car comes with an owner's manual that specifies the octane that should be used. Follow that as your guide. Too low and as mwb1100 said, you'll get knock & ping, which isn't good for your engine. Too high will also not do your car or wallet any good. Both will shorten the life of your car.

If you follow the owner's manual and the octane they recommend causes a problem, go up to a higher octane only long enough till you can get the problem fixed, so you can go back to what you should be using.

2110

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

« Last post by app103 on June 20, 2011, 10:38 PM »

Cat gets caught barking like a dog. Watch the transition from barking to meowing...it's quite funny.

2111

General Software Discussion / Re: When your word processor begins openly mocking you, it's time to call it a day

« Last post by app103 on June 20, 2011, 07:20 PM »

Well that's a clever (and somewhat frightening) solution. I take it WordPad didn't quite do what she wanted?

-Stoic Joker (June 20, 2011, 06:46 PM)

Wordpad on Win98 vs the beta of AOL 6.0? No comparison! I know it's hard to believe but AOL's email formatting options were better, easier to use, and more reliable.

2112

General Software Discussion / Re: When your word processor begins openly mocking you, it's time to call it a day

« Last post by app103 on June 20, 2011, 05:21 PM »

My daughter had similar battles with Word 97 back in the day. She had to save her reports and reboot before printing, otherwise it gave her a BSOD and she would lose whatever wasn't saved.

One time she forgot to do this and it not only gave her a BSOD that forced a reboot and lengthy scandisk check, upon attempting to open the report again to print it, the file was corrupted...she lost the whole thing. She didn't get any sympathy from her teacher and ended up having to pull an all-nighter rewriting it for only 80% of the grade she deserved.

That was when she discovered that AOL email windows are pretty good for formatting reports, as long as you didn't fill in the sendto and subject boxes. That's what she ended up using for the rest of her high school years. (she still hates Word and would rather use Notepad than to ever trust it again)

2113

General Software Discussion / Re: graphs software

« Last post by app103 on June 18, 2011, 08:32 PM »

I found something interesting today:

XML/SWF Charts:

XML/SWF Charts is a simple, yet powerful tool to create attractive charts and graphs from XML data.

Create an XML source to describe a chart, then pass it to this tool's flash file to generate the chart. The XML source can be prepared manually, or generated dynamically using any scripting language (PHP, ASP, CFML, Perl, etc.)

XML/SWF Charts makes the best of both the XML and SWF worlds. XML provides flexible data generation, and Flash provides the best graphic quality.

There is both a paid and free version, and it makes stuff that looks like this:

2114

Living Room / Scented USB Drives?

« Last post by app103 on June 17, 2011, 03:54 PM »

Your co-worker in the next cubicle had burritos for lunch and they didn't quite agree with him.

As they say, this is a good place for a stick-up but unfortunately, you don't have one. Nor do you have one of those Glade plug-in air fresheners.

But luckily you do have your scented USB drive and can plug that in, at least till your co-worker's digestive track stops spazzing. And while it might be better if it were pina colada scented, anything is better than smelling Bob's burritos.

http://www.maxell.eu...media/usb/Aroma.html

2115

General Software Discussion / Re: A browser maker

« Last post by app103 on June 15, 2011, 09:28 PM »

Brothersoft has the V2.1 freeware edition if you're comfortable grabbing something from Brothersoft.

-40hz (June 15, 2011, 07:02 PM)

I would probably feel better about getting it from PC World.

2116

Living Room / Re: More Copyright Nuttiness - 10 Strikes? Go to jail. Do not pass go...

« Last post by app103 on June 15, 2011, 08:46 PM »

I don't think that was what Stoic Joker meant.

-app103 (June 15, 2011, 03:32 PM)

Quite Correct!

@Stoic Joker, if you are worried about going through that site to send a message to Congress, thinking you might end up spammed to death or something, then it's time to get familiar with who your representatives are and how to contact them. Info for where to send email, snail mail, phone calls shouldn't be too hard to find. It's considered public information. You don't need to use a 3rd party.

-app103 (June 15, 2011, 03:32 PM)

That distinction only dictates in what form and by whom you will be bothered going forward. Being that I run my own mail server, I've no problem blacklisting offenders. So I much prefer electronic communication whenever possible ... Assuming of course that the site in question is endorsed as being reputable by someone who's opinion I trust. Hence the question...

-Stoic Joker (June 15, 2011, 07:43 PM)

Going through a 3rd party would only result in them sending it to the same email address you could have in the first place, or possibly the wrong one, while the 3rd party gets some info about you and where to send the political spam in most cases. It won't give your message any extra power. In fact, it would probably have a better chance of being read (and possibly responded to) if you sent it yourself. You will at least know it is going to the correct representative. (but don't count on the congressman himself doing it...probably will be handled by one of his aides.)

The point is the old saying: If you want something done right, do it yourself.

If everyone handles it themselves, then all of congress will receive messages from the citizens they represent, rather than a single congressman or some general info email address that nobody pays attention to.

2117

General Software Discussion / Re: A browser maker

« Last post by app103 on June 15, 2011, 04:23 PM »

About the closest thing I have ever seen, that doesn't really require any programming experience was something called Browser Bob, which allowed you to make custom IE/Trident based browsers. Artistic talent was necessary for best results. It wasn't suitable for an open source project, but it sure was fun and the results were pretty cool.

Unfortunately, it was pretty expensive for the Pro version and it seems to be abandonware now, so I am not sure if you can still buy it, which means you would be stuck with the limitations of the trial version and after 30 days you wouldn't even be able to use it any more.

You might still be able to get your hands on the older v2.1 freeware from somewhere though.

2118

Living Room / Re: More Copyright Nuttiness - 10 Strikes? Go to jail. Do not pass go...

« Last post by app103 on June 15, 2011, 03:32 PM »

...how safe is the signup to tell congress no bit on the top right of that page?? Do we know/trust the site well enough to all jump in and fire off a letter through it?

-Stoic Joker (June 15, 2011, 06:46 AM)

Good question. In this modern world, I'd expect someone to show up with a subpoena if you did. How good are you with proxification!! 

-zridling (June 15, 2011, 01:11 PM)

I don't think that was what Stoic Joker meant.

@Stoic Joker, if you are worried about going through that site to send a message to Congress, thinking you might end up spammed to death or something, then it's time to get familiar with who your representatives are and how to contact them. Info for where to send email, snail mail, phone calls shouldn't be too hard to find. It's considered public information. You don't need to use a 3rd party.

2119

General Software Discussion / Re: Not bad article on The Sins of Ubuntu

« Last post by app103 on June 10, 2011, 01:16 PM »

I also have the impression that Ubuntu quickly adds new features, and break some old ones, in ways that can confuse users who had just gotten to grips with the old.

-Nod5 (June 10, 2011, 01:12 PM)

And this is why I removed it from my computer. If they didn't keep breaking stuff on every update and weren't so hell bent on making you get lost every time you booted up, it could have been a nice OS.

2120

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

« Last post by app103 on June 09, 2011, 07:19 PM »

Blimp in the night.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=160851

-autohost (June 08, 2011, 02:26 PM)

My stomach hurts from laughing! 

2121

General Software Discussion / Re: Google's ChromeOS Laptops for $20/month

« Last post by app103 on June 09, 2011, 06:14 PM »

it's a portable WebTV for the modern age...that's all it really is. And the same kinds of people that bought WebTV back then will be the same kind of people that go for this.

2122

Living Room / Re: Recommend some music videos to me!

« Last post by app103 on June 08, 2011, 08:31 PM »

Hauntingly beautiful music...

Sunwrae - Chinook Winds

This appeared on the CC licensed compilation album The Silent Ballet: Volume 11, which you can download for free from archive.org.

2123

Living Room / Re: xkcd - why we should fear the cloud

« Last post by app103 on June 06, 2011, 02:18 PM »

There's planned downtime every night when we turn on the Roomba and it runs over the cord.

2124

Living Room / Re: Microsoft unveils new UI prototype - Windows 8?

« Last post by app103 on June 06, 2011, 01:13 PM »

Problem with the Targus Stowaway fold-ups was that they were device specific. AFAIK they only did them for the Palm, Handspring, and Clie.

-40hz (June 06, 2011, 12:48 PM)

They also made them for the HP Jornada (what I have) and iPaq.

2125

Living Room / Re: Microsoft unveils new UI prototype - Windows 8?

« Last post by app103 on June 06, 2011, 02:17 AM »

Yes, I do and it's pretty good. You can actually plug the keyboard in so you can run your PDA without draining its battery and actually charge it while you are typing. It's a full sized laptop style keyboard and the keys are actually larger than the ones on the keyboard of my desktop computer.

Targus made keyboards like that for a lot of handheld devices, and I thought they would end up making one for the iPhone too, but for whatever reason they never did and seemed to stop making keyboards of that type right about the time the first iPhones hit the market.