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2126

Living Room / Re: Prim Does Your Laundry. Pickup, Wash, Fold, Delivery, Awesome (techcrunch.com)

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on July 27, 2013, 02:36 PM »

$25 for a bag of laundry? Man... I'm so cheap I won't even use the coin-op machines at my apartment and just beg family or friends to let me come do laundry at their place. There's no way I'd waste that much money on a load of laundry.

-Deozaan (July 27, 2013, 02:22 PM)

From another perspective, since I also don't like hassle, let's say another reason this is expensive depending where you live. In my sections of Queens NYC I walk across the street *any time I want* between 8AM and 4PM-ish and drop off my laundry. It's done in a few hours. Then I walk back and pick it up. A "medium bag" is about $12. If I drop it off much later than 4 it just slides into the next day.

I'm no expert penny pincher, but $12 laundry isn't going to be the thing that sinks me! Not when it saves 4 hours of nuisance!

2127

MEWLO Web Framework / Re: The Mewlo web framework - I'm Looking for Teammates

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on July 27, 2013, 02:03 PM »

But can you get any traction to make progress? As an outsider, when I read tech stories, I giggle a little when a few otherwise well meaning groups doing useful stuff get hyper conservative with version numbers and you get something like:
"After 12 years of developent, we are releasing Alpha 0.03".

Then again I do that myself, but at least I don't claim to have any timeline! : )

2128

Living Room / Re: U.S. Agency Trashes Computers For Malware That Wasn't There...

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on July 27, 2013, 02:01 PM »

I near peed myself when I read that. Throwing out the mice? Wow. The depths of idiocy in government just knows no bounds.

-Renegade (July 26, 2013, 09:14 PM)

You really should see a doctor about that Renny! Followed by opening a porn site! 

2129

Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on July 27, 2013, 01:59 PM »

Ya know, we might be closing in on a Johnny Mnemonic moment. Just suppose some version of all that Prism data gets out into the wild for real. "Everything everyone has ever clicked, ever". THAT might be the data nuclear winter that finally wakes people up!

 

2130

Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on July 27, 2013, 01:56 PM »

...
Yeah. That statement seems a bit embarrassing at the very same time Obama's administration is threatening trade sanctions against anyone who grants asylum to Ed Snowden. Also... at the same time that we get to see how whistleblower Bradley Manning's "full access to courts and due process" will turn out. So far, it's been anything but reasonable, considering that the UN has already condemned Manning's treatment as "cruel and inhuman." And people wonder why Snowden left the country...

-40hz (July 27, 2013, 07:36 AM)

Heh. Yep. Though I didn't read the whole article a few posts above, that snip posted here said "we promise not to use the Death Penalty. So we're confident this takes care of concerns he has" or something.

Omit much? Skipping the cheap shot about "disappearing him", they'd just give him a Life Term while conveniently doing little things to upset him until his health cracks and he keels over.

And that part about Whistleblowers - isn't the very definition of that being someone exposing ugly things? But now we get to add the *other Orwell book* to our reading list (Animal Farm).

"Oh, we like Whistleblowers as long as it's something harmless. But Some Whistleblowers are More Protected Than Others."

2131

Living Room / Re: Movie Banned By Censors Becomes a Piracy Hit With Kiwis

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on July 27, 2013, 04:21 AM »

I wonder if we're drifting off topic in a way.
Exhibit A: "Film cannot be shown in theaters or released on DVD."

So what precisely is the "legit" revenue stream again? iTunes/other Only?

So if you have this movie which has *no legal way to be seen* (or vanishingly close etc etc) what part of Lost Sales are the result of "Piracy" again"?

Is this the way out? To take a film and *amp it up* so it *cannot be shown* ... and then therefore there are no lost sales!? Blah Blah Kiddies etc, but for everyone else of age, is that the loophole!?

2132

Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on July 25, 2013, 06:34 PM »

Okay, here we come to a "power move".

Slashdot's summary:

An anonymous reader points out this story about the latest effort by the U.S. to get Edward Snowden back in the country. "A U.S. Senate panel voted unanimously on Thursday to seek trade or other sanctions against Russia or any other country that offers asylum to former spy agency contractor Edward Snowden, who has been holed up for weeks at a Moscow airport. The 30-member Senate Appropriations Committee adopted by consensus an amendment to a spending bill that would direct Secretary of State John Kerry to meet with congressional committees to come up with sanctions against any country that takes Snowden in."

http://www.reuters.c...dUSBRE96O18220130725

Discuss as you will.

2133

Living Room / Re: NSA Can't Search Emails Of Agency Employees

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on July 25, 2013, 02:11 AM »

This belongs over here!

(Renny, who works for the NSA, wrote)

Not sure if this has been posted before (and don't care to spend an hour to find out), but it's funny:
...

-Renegade (July 24, 2013, 10:47 PM)

2134

General Software Discussion / Re: Freeware = CRAP!

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on July 24, 2013, 12:29 PM »

I have to admit that, sometimes, I wish I had never got ... I'm hooked on it so bad that I am now unable to function on a PC without first installing ...
Curse you ... Curse you a thousand times! You know full well what you have done to me!
Software madness. I'm not hitchhiking anymore, I'm cruising!

It's not FREEWARE - it's ADDICTIONWARE!  Don't touch it!

-IainB (July 24, 2013, 11:08 AM)

Let's make this more general!

I'm up to some twenty programs that this goes for!

When being presented with a new PC for my use (as opposed to simple tech for someone else) it takes me the better side of a week to get all the little goodies on there!

 

2135

MEWLO Web Framework / Re: Yumps reboots as Mewlo - I'm Looking for Teammates

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on July 24, 2013, 12:27 PM »

I have restarted my Yumps project from scratch, this time coding in Python.

-mouser (July 17, 2013, 09:17 AM)

And I'd like to know what the behind-the-scenes emphasis on Python is!

I've heard about the famous usage of "spacing as syntax" (I think it's about removing those hanging section braces for a "cleaner" look, right?)

But what was it before, and why did that require/inspire a language change, and of all the choices, why Python? I'd thought Python was more of a "middle-app" language that began to creak at the seams for huge projects!

2136

Living Room / Re: NSA Can't Search Emails Of Agency Employees

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on July 23, 2013, 09:38 PM »

Wouldn't Edward Snowden have something to say on that!?

Ms. Blacker seems to be playing a risky gambit with the "denial as usual"!

2137

Living Room / Re: Sci-fi novel due on Amazon and B&N in August or September

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

@40hz, your name will be included under Proofreader's in "Acknowledgments" in next upload.

-kyrathaba (June 14, 2013, 07:06 PM)

A little late, but this walks into a funny little joke!
Can you spot the proofreading mistake in that sentence?

2138

Living Room / Re: Extracting Audio from Pictures

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on July 23, 2013, 01:37 PM »

Heh memories, I had a good run with Mad Mag as a kid. It hit a sweet spot of being "exactly PG-13" so parents wouldn't freak, but a kid could feel "safely naughty". (However saying any of those comeback lines in real life would have led to grounding!)

2139

Developer's Corner / Re: Is it appropriate to post a prospective page for opinions?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on July 20, 2013, 09:19 PM »

Which version did you download and install?  The Settings link would tell us that.

-note-taker (July 20, 2013, 08:14 PM)

Knowledge NoteBook Settings
Generation 2 Version 4.50

But for me to take notes, is a big topic that I spent a year on, and I don't want to sink your app. Maybe we can chat in PM's.

2140

Living Room / Re: Sci-fi novel due on Amazon and B&N in August or September

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on July 20, 2013, 08:16 PM »

You know, this thread has been read 19K+ times. If everyone who's reading this would visit my FB author page (see sig) and click "Like", that would help a lot to create buzz ("word of mouse...")

-kyrathaba (July 20, 2013, 04:11 PM)

Eew.
Facebook, the Evil Empire!

2141

Developer's Corner / Re: Is it appropriate to post a prospective page for opinions?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on July 20, 2013, 07:31 PM »

It looks interesting but I think I'm out of the target market because I went on a big search for note taking apps last year so I know what I like.

2142

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

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on July 20, 2013, 07:15 PM »

Renegade: What about income tax in Monopoly?

-Arizona Hot (July 20, 2013, 02:19 PM)

That just shows that it's not *that* old.

-wraith808 (July 20, 2013, 04:02 PM)

Well, to spoil the joke, the income tax dates to 1913, and Monopoly dates to the Great Depression.

2143

Developer's Corner / Re: Is it appropriate to post a prospective page for opinions?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on July 20, 2013, 07:06 PM »

I installed it and I don't understand why it wants to call an address of "http://127.0.0.1:8600/knb2/"

Anyone, is that a security flaw?

2144

Living Room / Re: Movies or films you've seen lately

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on July 19, 2013, 05:42 PM »

We should expand this to TV series. I just watched about 18 episodes of "Doc Martin". (British version of House.)

2145

Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on July 19, 2013, 05:41 PM »

"White is making mistakes, and letting Black have "Compensation".

2146

Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on July 19, 2013, 05:40 PM »

Darn I'm almost ready to map this out : )

-TaoPhoenix (July 19, 2013, 04:35 PM)

You should. It would make a pretty fine looking pile of post-its and arrows on a whiteboard. I'm tempted myself - but I diagram things like that in my head so easily that I seldom ever bother to write any of it down. Also kinda hard to get a 2D drawing to adequately convey one of my linked multidimensional data stacks anyway.

(Hmm...I'm thinking of getting back into LISP programming. Just picked up a few books last weekend and the old magic with that former 'girlfriend' came back in a flash. Maybe I should....

-40hz (July 19, 2013, 04:42 PM)

Not sure what LISP has to do with it ... but I can't map it out until I decide if the opening is a King's Indian or Queen's Gambit or a Sicilian. : )

2147

General Software Discussion / Re: Swapping Out Software?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on July 19, 2013, 05:37 PM »

er...what is the name of that program?

-superboyac (July 19, 2013, 04:38 PM)

Heh if names matter, TreeDBNotes was the Problem Child, MyInfo was the solution!

2148

Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on July 19, 2013, 05:33 PM »

...
I say this because it's all too quiet on the public channels. The open threats have failed. As have the bluffs, spin control, threats of economic sanctions, Olympic boycotting, and diplomatic arm-twisting. Domestic popular support is dwindling for the administration. And international anger and lack of cooperation is increasingly apparent.

So now it's time to save face and work something out that everybody can semi-live with.

As many have pointed out, the damage to the secrecy of what's been going on has been done. Cat's out of the bag big time. Now that most of the moves to trigger political and social action have been played the only thing remaining is Snowden's deadman switch - which supposedly is the only thing left guarding the rest of his datacache.

Looks like something really serious is lurking in there, and the government knows it. Because they've had more than sufficient time by now to determine exactly what information Snowden has in his possession.

Good chance Snowden has already sent them a copy just to prove he has it. Because all discussion of how much information plus the number of documents he took has disappeared from the official announcements. Which seems to indicate he really has something BIG that the current administration does not want anybody to see - or even be aware of.

Snowden apparently also has enough documented technical expertise to make his threatened scorched earth option credible because (at least so far) the US hasn't tried anything too physical.

Be interesting to see who will end up laying down their king in the end.

-40hz (July 19, 2013, 05:13 PM)

As a compound reply:

It's def. "too quiet" - but the "game" is *far from over*. Chess contains a lot of "threaten this, move that" sequences which are understood to be processed in "batches", not meant as actual threats. So a lot of that is going on here. It's still one game. 3...(pawn)a6 (attacks Bishop) 4. Ba4 (moves away from pawn) stuff is a lot of what we're seeing here. I'm looking for the big ticket moves that signify stuff.

If the US wins a "Magician Sweep" maneuver, they get to bury it all under "yay last month's news so who cares". That is a deadly maneuver that has a real chance of working. Snowden and US are not negotiating. It's still into Spin Control. I do think Snowden is close to the "right time" to do this - the same message means different things in different years...

And of course Snowden has a couple of tech tricks up his sleeve... he was an *analyst* gosh darnit, not the janitor. But yes, he did put a bit of work into his plan, and countered a couple of the cheaper moves by the US Gov.

2149

Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on July 19, 2013, 05:27 PM »

But there's been increasing news snips about "fighting for more transprency" at all levels of news.

-TaoPhoenix (July 19, 2013, 04:35 PM)

I'd liken those more to side games right now.

-40hz (July 19, 2013, 05:13 PM)

I'll argue, def. not. "The Game" is "Snowden vs US Secret Agencies". The fact that "misc threats" go on is *part of the game*. Chess contains up to 40 threats per game, so this is def. still the "same game".

2150

Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on July 19, 2013, 05:25 PM »

...but I diagram things like that in my head so easily that I seldom ever bother to write any of it down.

-40hz (July 19, 2013, 04:42 PM)

Heh so if you do, I need your help! Assuming we use chess as a metaphor, roughly Snowden is White King vs "Nebulous USA" as Black King. Then we get to assign up to some 20 elements on both sides, not known until they announce something, so it's a bit more like a Wild Variant.

Clear so far:
Snowden is def playing White. Either 1. e4 or 1. d4, I'm not sure yet.
USA is def. on defensive. Still in the air is if they've built enough coiled energy to be a "King's Indian Defense" or if it's more all-out containment vs a Sicilian.

Consider that real chess takes place in about "six ply blocs" - aka the Ruy Lopez (Which I don't see here) has a bunch of "attack Bishop,Bishop moves" "Obligatory moves" that are important not to mis-count.

So I'd say we're at about move 12-15 by now, with some recent moves "for White" (and we may have to group a couple of news stories in a batch and assign misc null US moves)