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2201

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows goes Open Source?!!

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 05, 2015, 03:11 PM »

People said the same thing about .NET.

-wraith808 (April 05, 2015, 11:18 AM)

One difference.  .NET was documented.  To program Windows using the API without being left behind you had to get "undocumented Windows" programming books.  Some guy had to sit there for months debugging the OS to see what MS did when they wrote their own programs that they didn't tell us.

It's hard to believe a company that didn't want to document the Programmer's API calls would open up the source to the whole enchilada.  But if I see it I'll believe it.  But if they are really going open source do they have to do these trial balloons?  Like if people react with "so what?" they won't but if people say "oh wow!" they will?  Strange business.

2202

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows goes Open Source?!!

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 05, 2015, 10:42 AM »

I'll believe it when I see it.  For one thing people could look at the code for the File Explorer.  I bet there are modules going back to Win95.  It would be rather embarrassing.  I think the press releases with "would could should might may" wording are picked up because W10 is on the horizon.  Otherwise the tech reporter would say "Great.  Call me when it is open source.  Don't call to tell me what you think you might do until you change your mind."

2203

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

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 05, 2015, 08:47 AM »

Knowing the future could come in handy in clutch situations.  I know it would shift my perspective.

-MilesAhead (April 05, 2015, 06:58 AM)

Happy Easter!

So all the little baby chickens around is a ... clutch situation!

   

-TaoPhoenix (April 05, 2015, 07:40 AM)

It don't make no differential to me man.  I go where angels fear to tread. 

2204

General Software Discussion / Re: Busy Body Browsers

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 05, 2015, 08:44 AM »

The entrepreneur explains "I made millions in Real Estate.  Now I want to help people." 

-MilesAhead (April 05, 2015, 06:55 AM)

Your problem is solved; ask nicely and he can give you a house! He'll feel better and you'll have done him a favour.
 

-cranioscopical (April 05, 2015, 07:38 AM)

I'm afraid he'll insist I learn to flip it.  Anything larger than a one bedroom condo I'd probably throw my back out. 

2205

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

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 05, 2015, 06:58 AM »

Then there's the one about the car which used an extra set of front gears for self-starting and could foretell the future by precognition.

-bit (April 03, 2015, 01:38 PM)

Knowing the future could come in handy in clutch situations.  I know it would shift my perspective.

2206

General Software Discussion / Re: Busy Body Browsers

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 05, 2015, 06:55 AM »

IT CAN'T BE ANY GOOD IF HIS NET WORTH IS LESS THAN A BILLION DOLLARS."

-TaoPhoenix (April 04, 2015, 11:41 PM)

Heh heh.  That reminds me of this radio ad playing now.  Yet another "system" for making big bucks with other people's money in Real Estate.  The book is free the class is free so the announcer asks why that is.  The entrepreneur explains "I made millions in Real Estate.  Now I want to help people."  Right.  And the used car salesman just volunteered to nurse those suffering from Ebola.  Never give a sucker an even break. 

2207

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 04, 2015, 03:04 PM »

^^ chromium had a command line switch to limit the number of exe instances.  It was something about max render whatever.  I searched for a similar switch in google chrome.  I couldn't find it.  Like right now I have 5 tabs open and there are 11 exe instances running.  It is fast though. 

-MilesAhead (April 03, 2015, 09:56 AM)

Has to be fast so it can be quick enough to send all your browser activity back to the mothership in real-time.

Sorry...couldn't resist.

-Innuendo (April 04, 2015, 09:57 AM)

That's why I try to use chromium.  It's open source.  But now they have it so flash won't work with it.  At least I couldn't get it to go.

As far as the mother ship goes, I come from a Paternalistic Planet.  What you Earthlings call the "Mother Ship" we call, roughly translated, the "Father Barge."  It's quite massive.  It moves slowly in space.  An Earthling on a bicycle could beat it 0 - 40 MPH easily.  But it moves quite quickly through time.  That's why you must forgive us if we seem annoyed.  It's just that we have witnessed all this planet's mistakes many times over.  The first 100 or so times it's like a movie where you can watch it again every now and now(for time travelers it is always the present) because you forget the one-liners.  But like M*A*S*H there comes a time when you know when Hawkeye is gonna' do his Groucho impression yet again.

Still, it manages to amuse sufficiently to earn benign neglect. No one has proposed obliteration in a long time now.

2208

General Software Discussion / Re: Busy Body Browsers

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 04, 2015, 11:17 AM »

I think there is an Avira browser and maybe an AddOn for Firefox or two that allows scan on the backbone before downloading to your machine.  But how reliable is that anyway?  It seems like the most accurate detection is for tracking cookies and perhaps a few very specific rootkits.

Another annoying thing if I try to scan one of my zip files with VirusTotal and it has already been scanned(who knows how long a history they use) instead of scanning the file it says "this has already been scanned" and offers to show the results.  Gee that's really helpful.  The old version showed 2 bad reports out of 57 scanners so we will never look at a file with this name again.  Just tell you it was "bad" once upon a time in the west.

2209

General Software Discussion / Re: Busy Body Browsers

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 04, 2015, 08:34 AM »

It is a double-edged sword but their edge is the sharper.  That stuff is annoying!   

-cranioscopical (April 04, 2015, 08:00 AM)

I prefer the definition of "swordsman" that has more to do with loving than fighting. 

2210

General Software Discussion / Re: Busy Body Browsers

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 04, 2015, 08:31 AM »

Miles, I had the same reaction -- it's not quite as bad as saying "We refuse to download this software because it will probably give you cancer", but you can see where we are going -- scaring people away from downloading stuff made outside of their channels.
The intentions in this case may be good -- to keep people from installing malware -- but independent developers are going to suffer.

-mouser (April 04, 2015, 08:16 AM)

You may have a more benign estimation of humanity than I.  I have the tin foil hat patent.  I don't charge licensing fees in order to encourage widespread usage. 

2211

General Software Discussion / Busy Body Browsers

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 04, 2015, 05:31 AM »

Now I see that every time I download one of my utilities from my page using chrome browser, after the download is complete I get a reg circle with a minus sign in the middle and this message "yadda yadda is not commonly downloaded and could be dangerous"  A Discard Button is displayed.  The Keep Button is only accessible after hitting a drop down arrow.

I can see how this is going.  If not made by one of the big boys all software will have a scare blurb attached.  They don't even virus scan it now..  Just slam it as "not one of ours."

2212

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 03, 2015, 09:56 AM »

^^ chromium had a command line switch to limit the number of exe instances.  It was something about max render whatever.  I searched for a similar switch in google chrome.  I couldn't find it.  Like right now I have 5 tabs open and there are 11 exe instances running.  It is fast though. 

2213

General Software Discussion / Re: Bookmarking client

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 03, 2015, 09:48 AM »

It's too bad some WiFi blocks ftp.  I could simply upload bookmarks.json from firefox backup.  I just started using chrome again.  I found that instead of fooling around with the bookmarks if I delete both the bookmarks and bookmarks.bak and start chrome, it is gung ho to import my bookmarks complete with bookmarks toolbar, from firefox. It puts a duplicate on the toolbar that says "bookmarks imported from firefox" which is easily deleted.

Opera still allows the supplanting of all its bookmarks by importing from Firefox then editing the adr file.  Just chop out the folder that says Firefox bookmarks and the remainder of the file will be loaded in to the top level as if it was all Opera bookmarks.  You may have to open the bookmarks folder and drag the toolbar items onto the toolbar.  But once set they work as normal.

IE favorites I don't know if there's a kludge to fix it up.

It seems every one of the sync things I tried eithr creates a ton of dupes or hoses my favicons.  So I just backup and load bookmarks using either json or html format then run an AddOn that fetches all the favicons.

2214

General Software Discussion / Re: Notice on every shutdown? Norton WSC Integration may be culprit

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 03, 2015, 08:05 AM »

Of course there is the conventional wisdom that if you're silly enough to install Norton on your computer you must be a glutton for punishment. 

-Innuendo (April 02, 2015, 07:56 PM)

Unfortunately when you Best Buy a tower/keyboard/mouse box it is part of the crapware bloat.  I think the last thing Norton I liked was The Peter Norton Assembly Language Book for the IBM PC

Back then there was no diskette in the book or download site to get the source code.  You had to type the stuff in and assemble it.  Thirteen files which, when assembled and linked, created a little diskette byte editor utility.  Not only that, when you walked home from school five miles with no shoes in the blizzard...   

2215

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 02, 2015, 02:49 PM »

Posting this from the new Project Spartan browser in Windows 10 b10049 ... It's definitely fast. Really, really fast.

-Stoic Joker (April 02, 2015, 02:10 PM)

Does it use multiple executables?

2216

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

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 01, 2015, 05:40 PM »

If I could run the collider from a smart phone maybe I'd buy one. 

2217

Post New Requests Here / Re: Pastebin command-line app for windows

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 01, 2015, 04:36 PM »

This is the only thing I found that looks close.  Not much detail though.

2218

General Software Discussion / Re: MxNitro Browser

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 01, 2015, 04:08 PM »

Actually I just use a few bookmarks and I type the rest in the address bar, the history does the rest...  But maybe I am really visiting just a few websites a day.

-MerleOne (April 01, 2015, 12:27 PM)

As alternative I tried using Chromium.  For some reason I can't get a recent release to work with Flash.  I hate to give in and use chrome.  Seems there's never a happy medium.  

Edit: Downloaded the PortableApps chrome.  It has the flash already set up.  I'll still try MxNitro for streaming.  I'll give it a chance.

Edit2:  I have to admit that chrome is fast.  If I leave all that predictive page load stuff enabled, pages snap right up.  Of course it likely makes the prediction by sending all my activity to google servers.    But what can you do?

Firefox 37.0 is out.  It seems ok, but nowhere near as snappy as chrome.

2219

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 01, 2015, 04:04 PM »

Now I have an excuse not to VM 10041.  I'll just wait for the 10049 ISO. 

2220

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

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 01, 2015, 09:25 AM »

I'm pretty sure it was Polish Philosophers.  But I don't recall any of their names.  

-MilesAhead (April 01, 2015, 07:49 AM)

O'lympiodorus?

-cranioscopical (April 01, 2015, 09:16 AM)

Wasn't her brother Governor of Massachusetts?  
He ran for President some time back.  Some say he tanked the election though. 

2221

Developer's Corner / Re: Best programming language to pick up for applications?

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 01, 2015, 09:04 AM »

but I've got a 'big picture' way of thinking. I can look at a whole and easily break it down into modular components

-Innuendo (March 31, 2015, 08:15 PM)

My older brother used to talk about being able to see The Big Picture(tm) all the time.  When he was a hardware tech for DEC he lugged an oscilloscope around.  The guys who used nice little lightweight digital meters laughed at him.  Until he started getting the fixes when sent out on jobs.  Then he got a trainee to do the lugging. 

He became a Senior Software Engineer eventually.  He also started out as an auto mechanic before getting the computer bug.  Unfortunately he passed away some years ago.  But he lived the way he wanted to for the most part.  I have to admire that.   

2222

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

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 01, 2015, 07:49 AM »

Funny joke. But how come the Irish guy has a name but the Polish guy doesn't?

-Deozaan (April 01, 2015, 01:20 AM)

Yeah, I noticed that. It's the sort of thing that has been puzzling philosophers for centuries.

-IainB (April 01, 2015, 02:46 AM)

I'm pretty sure it was Polish Philosophers.  But I don't recall any of their names. 

2223

General Software Discussion / Re: MxNitro Browser

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 01, 2015, 07:46 AM »

I'll say one thing for it.  They seem to have some marketing panache. Instead of the usual wizard the update installer(more like an unpacker since it was portable) had a big green arrow and looked cool.  What was uncool was that it just stuck the folder in my user settings without asking.  But at least it looked good doing it.  

-MilesAhead (April 01, 2015, 06:06 AM)

I agree, the default installation folder that can't be changed is annoying, that's why I use the portable version.

-MerleOne (April 01, 2015, 06:11 AM)

I am using the portable version.  It told me there was an update.  I downloaded and ran it.  It put the thing in my settings folder.  I just deleted the old portable and moved the folder over.  So far the main thing that irks, that I sent in feedback about, is there's no Bookmarks Toolbar.  I have to go through a bunch of clicks to use a bookmark.  If they could fix that it might be usable.

Edit: The other bad news is it does not support multiple urls on the command line.  I can't even overcojme the Bookmark Bar deficit by using BrowserBunch to launch a bunch. 

2224

General Software Discussion / Re: MxNitro Browser

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 01, 2015, 06:06 AM »

I'll say one thing for it.  They seem to have some marketing panache. Instead of the usual wizard the update installer(more like an unpacker since it was portable) had a big green arrow and looked cool.  What was uncool was that it just stuck the folder in my user settings without asking.  But at least it looked good doing it. 

2225

General Software Discussion / Re: Notice on every shutdown? Norton WSC Integration may be culprit

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 01, 2015, 06:01 AM »

Those who don't have it to spare have to spend time.

-MilesAhead (March 31, 2015, 05:42 AM)

Agreed...but sometimes there's also the challenge just to see if you can fix it.

-Innuendo (March 31, 2015, 08:16 PM)

Yeah.    In this particular case it was just an annoyance.  I mean it's not all that unusual to get that screen on Windows shutdown.  But it was happening almost every time.  Now and then a bit of luck helps.  I stumbled on the cause.