Recent Posts

2151

General Software Discussion / Re: VoicePics - A Toy App that encourages toddlers to Babble

« Last post by app103 on May 12, 2011, 12:45 PM »

I should note that while this toy app is not suitable for teaching your kids how to pronounce words, it is very useful for preparing them at an early age for the frustrations of using a Speech Recognition system. 

-mouser (May 12, 2011, 05:39 AM)

2152

General Software Discussion / Re: Google Music Beta Now Live

« Last post by app103 on May 10, 2011, 11:36 AM »

The description that Google is offering on this new service sounds a lot like what LaLa was. (If Apple wanted to offer something like this, maybe they shouldn't have killed LaLa after they bought it.)

I am curious to see where Google plans on taking this and whether or not they plan on integrating social networking into it like LaLa did, and syncing with last.fm.

2153

DC Website Help and Extras / Re: missing separaters in forum topic displays

« Last post by app103 on May 10, 2011, 11:21 AM »

I have seen this happen before in FF 3x, but not lately.

2154

Living Room / Intellivision®: Programmer Home Movies 1983/1984

« Last post by app103 on May 07, 2011, 03:54 PM »

A glimpse inside the Mattel Electronics video game department by the Intellivision programmers.

2155

Living Room / Re: Charities

« Last post by app103 on May 07, 2011, 02:08 PM »

I am more inclined to donate to individuals rather than an organized charity, and more inclined to donate what they need rather than money (I usually don't have much of that to give any way)...and under no circumstances do I ever support any religion based charities.

I prefer to literally share my food with the hungry, give a coat to someone cold, let a homeless person sleep on my sofa (not a complete stranger, though).

2156

Living Room / Re: College Recommendations?

« Last post by app103 on May 06, 2011, 09:52 PM »

If you are looking to cut costs, you might want to do your first 2 years at a local community college and then finish up the rest at the full college of your choice. It could save you around 50% or more for those first 2 years. But do your research before you go ahead and do something like that, and know where you are going after, and check with that school to know which credits will be transferable, otherwise you may find yourself repeating classes, which will increase the total cost. This is an approach that needs to be planned well.

2157

Living Room / Can Download Sites Be Held Responsible for the Software They List?

« Last post by app103 on May 06, 2011, 06:38 PM »

There is a group of rappers that think they should, suing CNET for having listed Limewire on downloads.com, along with review and tutorial content on how to use it.

CBS Interactive, CNET and Lime Wire have been named as defendants in a copyright infringement complaint filed this past Tuesday by a group of  fifteen people, a vast majority of whom are rappers. While Lime Wire is no stranger to copyright infringement claims, the current lawsuit must have certainly come as a surprise to the other defendants, who are being accused of distributing and profiting from “software applications used to infringe copyrights on a massive scale.”

http://www.maximumpc...imewire_distribution

2158

Living Room / Re: Daily Autohotkey

« Last post by app103 on May 05, 2011, 10:53 AM »

• lanux128's OSD-Mute
• my own DriveKeysAtoZ
• Skwire's Trout

2159

Living Room / Re: Tinjaw, gone?

« Last post by app103 on May 05, 2011, 10:09 AM »

From what I understand he has been really busy with stuff and hasn't had much time for online fun. But that may change soon. Just the other day he popped up back on Facebook, so maybe here is next.

2160

General Software Discussion / Re: Pirated Software and Viruses? Ahem... No. I don't want to help you...

« Last post by app103 on May 02, 2011, 04:35 PM »

You know, you could offer to help him, but maybe not with the kind of help that he originally had in mind.  Ask for a list of the software titles he wants help with and return him a disk full of high quality open source and freeware alternatives. 

Explain to him that this software is good, needs no cracks, and doesn't come loaded with malware...and best of all, it's legally free.

Ask him to do a favor for you...that since you bothered to take the time to create this collection for him, he should bother to take the time to try every single application on your disk.

Because if you don't help him in some way, he will find someone else that will. And they are likely to do exactly what he asked you for. And if you can do this before he asks someone else, maybe he will still ask someone else, but maybe he won't pirate all the things he originally planned on.

If he keeps just one of the free apps and uses that instead of pirating something on his original list, consider it a partial victory, and maybe it will make him just a little more open to the idea of using free legal alternatives in the future, if he doesn't feel like paying for it.

Or you can prepare the disk and then clean the malware off his pc and install everything for him, placing the shortcuts on his desktop like this:

• OpenOffice (MS Office)
• GIMP (Photoshop)
• xchat (mIRC)
• etc.

That way he knows what he has and what it compares to when he wants to accomplish a task, and he won't get lost trying to figure out what all that new stuff is. 

2161

Living Room / Re: The great toilet paper debate

« Last post by app103 on April 30, 2011, 07:18 AM »

While I myself prefer the over method, I see #2 (for under) as an extremely compelling practical reason for the under method but only if you have a frequent problem with children or pets or earthquakes unraveling your toilet paper.

-Deozaan (April 29, 2011, 07:23 PM)

It was a problem with a child that initially converted me to the over method...

In the middle of the night, when my daughter was half asleep and cranky, having it set so it came out from under wasn't a good idea. When she was very young, she had a habit of smacking the roll to get the free end loose. If it was set over, this was easy. But when it was under, no matter how many times she smacked it, the roll would just spin and the free end wouldn't come loose. At about the 4th or 5th smack she would begin to get frustrated and tears soon followed. Not wanting this to keep happening every night, I started putting it so it was over instead of under. No more half asleep, frustrated crying child in the middle of the night. 

2162

Living Room / Re: USA Deadly Tornadoes

« Last post by app103 on April 29, 2011, 06:11 PM »

Another simple weather website, that not only answers the question "Do I need a jacket?" but also defines how heavy that jacket should be, whether you also need sunglasses, umbrella, hat, gloves, scarf, etc...by showing you images of how certain people would look when dressed for the weather.

Obama is the default, but you can also choose from Bender, House, Angelina Jolie, Bruce Lee, and Ashton Kutcher.

2163

Living Room / Re: The great toilet paper debate

« Last post by app103 on April 29, 2011, 05:24 PM »

BTW, last year I discovered that those CD/DVD spindles that hold 100 discs work pretty well as a toilet paper dispenser. Depending on how thick (circumference) the roll is, you can slide it on the spindle and then put the plastic case on it to keep the roll from getting smashed. Then just stick it in the back of your car as part of your emergency kit.

-Deozaan (April 29, 2011, 04:39 PM)

Oh, great idea! I have this habit of hiding a few rolls in the bathroom closet behind a bunch of things, just in case someone forgets to go to the store or argues with me about the current price (to which I usually suggest they keep a phone book handy if they don't feel like paying for it)

2164

Living Room / Re: USA Deadly Tornadoes

« Last post by app103 on April 29, 2011, 06:45 AM »

Do I need a jacket?

-Stoic Joker (April 28, 2011, 11:37 AM)

Look here.

-40hz (April 29, 2011, 04:15 AM)

Not quite as straight-to-the-point as goingtorain.com. I had to type in my zip code, then select from a bunch of nearby locations. It was actually slightly confusing.

-Deozaan (April 29, 2011, 04:52 AM)

GoingToRain requires a zip also, but I already had it saved (long time ago). Next time you visit it jumps to the point. I saved DINAJ now too.

-Stoic Joker (April 29, 2011, 06:38 AM)

And a simple foul language forecast (I love it!)

I was talking to a friend of mine that lives in Alabama the other day...told him I heard on the news there was grapefruit sized hail down there. He said it was more like bowling balls.

2165

Living Room / Re: iPhone in White

« Last post by app103 on April 28, 2011, 06:12 PM »

"Apple, we took a year to get white right."

-nudone (April 28, 2011, 03:37 AM)

Unlike Sony, who got it wrong and ended up having to pull their ad campaign after a number of people thought it was racist.



I guess creating a white product isn't as easy as one might initially think.

2166

Living Room / Re: The great toilet paper debate

« Last post by app103 on April 27, 2011, 06:23 PM »

If you mount the holder vertically, it ends the argument. Arguing about the end on the left or right isn't quite the same and doesn't carry the same passionate beliefs. 

2167

General Software Discussion / Re: DLS: Mozilla publishes name and shame list of slow Firefox add-ons

« Last post by app103 on April 26, 2011, 01:09 PM »

Interesting...Mozilla has removed most of the list they had previously published, now limiting it to 9 add-ons.

2168

ProcessTamer / Re: 为什么不更新了

« Last post by app103 on April 26, 2011, 03:55 AM »

app103
I have seen similar one/two liners (mainly Chinese)  in other english forums, eg. on k-meleon forums, and mostly these are spam.

If anyone can prove me wrong, I can offer my apologies.

Ska

-SKA (April 25, 2011, 10:57 PM)

But what is the purpose of spam? Without any sort of advertisement or any links to a site in his posts, profile, or signature, it can't be spam.

All he is saying is he loves Process Tamer and wants to see more updates and improvements. There is nothing wrong with that.

If at any point he comes back and edits his posts or profile to add any sort of spam links, I will get an automatic email notification, so I can check for it. Only then can it be considered spam.

2169

Living Room / Re: Techno-Addicts

« Last post by app103 on April 25, 2011, 11:19 PM »

Confused about this cricket rule:
'Bat out of hell'

Is that a zone in the playing field or what? 

-Shades (April 25, 2011, 11:13 PM)

I thought it was a 30+ year old meatloaf entree.

2170

ProcessTamer / Re: 为什么不更新了

« Last post by app103 on April 25, 2011, 09:53 AM »

inspite of amazing generosity & tolerance of above DC members , I think this is spam.

Ska

-SKA (April 25, 2011, 09:48 AM)

I am not sure why you would think it is spam. It contains no links, no mention of other products, and the person's profile contains no links or any other signs of spam.

Until it contains any of those, I vote to leave it alone.

2171

Living Room / Re: Cute jokes' thread

« Last post by app103 on April 23, 2011, 06:54 PM »

This would be the other typography joke.

2172

Living Room / Re: The Foreclosure Scam

« Last post by app103 on April 23, 2011, 04:25 PM »

Makes me glad to be a renter in an apartment building.

2173

Living Room / Re: Happy Birthday Renegade!

« Last post by app103 on April 23, 2011, 04:22 PM »

Happy Birthday!

I am now 4.

Decades rather than years, but hey... I'm 4~!

-Renegade (April 22, 2011, 11:17 PM)

If you were a turtle, you'd still be too young to leave home. 

2174

Living Room / Re: Anyone here using a standing desk?

« Last post by app103 on April 21, 2011, 07:18 PM »

I used to use a standing desk at a job that had them to save space. I only worked there 3 days a week, on weekends (Fri-Sat-Sun) answering phones and writing down orders. Halfway through the day (often sooner) my feet would start killing me. I would end up having to grab a chair and adjust the height so I could rest one knee on it, in order to keep one foot off the floor, alternating feet, for the rest of the day.

My employer wasn't too crazy about this, as it created an issue because my desk was located in a high traffic area and the presence of the chair and my foot sticking out created a bit of an obstruction problem. (she kept walking into my foot)

Even with doing this, Monday morning I'd start my day off with my feet still killing me and the pain wouldn't go away enough for me to be fully functional till about Wednesday.

You don't really move around as much as you would think with a standing desk, and that was the problem for me. I can walk for hours without any pain, but standing in one place too long will bother me.

I used to think it was my shoes that were to blame, but after years of experience and plenty of different shoe types, I have learned otherwise. It's the lack of motion.

When I am at a sit down desk, my feet are almost always in motion, flexing and bending, all day. At a stand up desk, they are not.

I suppose if my desk had been attached to a treadmill, I wouldn't have had the foot problems that I had with the standing desk, but then it would have taken up much more space that we really didn't have.

2175

Site/Forum Features / Re: I think we should close the Company Complaints and Compliments Section

« Last post by app103 on April 21, 2011, 06:38 PM »

I agree with mouser.

Before we had this section, we posted our rants in the Living Room or the General Software Discussions sections. And we didn't have many threads like this.

When this section started, it was for complaints only, not for compliments.

But having a section for complaints seems to imply we need to have something to complain about, and that is a suggestion that tends to make people look for things to complain about, even when they normally might not. It was for this reason why I originally wasn't too keen on adding this section.

Then to balance things out, it was decided to add compliments to this section too. But it failed to give it balance. I guess the suggestion to complain is much stronger than the suggestion to compliment...or we were still posting our compliments in the other sections of the forum instead of here.

Removing the section and putting the existing threads in the correct remaining sections of the forum will remove the suggestion that we complain about something, and restore the balance that once existed, without stopping anyone from posting a complaint or compliment if they really have one.

It will also discourage anyone from unnecessarily dragging up an old complaint when they are visiting the section.

Right now, the older complaints do not get buried as easily as most other threads do. Having them in a section that isn't as active tends to make them hang around on the main page of the section much longer than would be considered healthy.