Recent Posts

226

General Software Discussion / Any (Free) VPN service to recommend?

« Last post by Mark0 on June 03, 2010, 12:50 PM »

Hi!

Say someone can connect over a internet cafè provided Wi-Fi, but don't fully trust the connection, fearing that there may be sniffers around.

Is there any (preferably) free VPN service that can be used on the fly to make a secure connection?
Speed would not be important at all - just usable would be OK.

Thanks!

227

Living Room / Re: Deceitful Software Awards

« Last post by Mark0 on April 07, 2010, 08:30 PM »

This thread reminded that I had already promised myself to get rid of those "awards" when the previous thread was posted!
So, better late than never, I deleted them! 

228

General Software Discussion / Stop Forum Spam

« Last post by Mark0 on March 29, 2010, 07:00 AM »

A nice service that collect info about forum spammers.
It offer the ability to search for IP, username and mail address, and also expose a simple API for integration with forum software.

http://www.stopforumspam.com/

229

General Software Discussion / Re: Waze - crowd sourced navigation

« Last post by Mark0 on March 22, 2010, 02:32 PM »

[...] by leveraging an existing mapping service and laying their data on top, e.g. Google Maps API.

-JavaJones (March 22, 2010, 02:17 PM)

That could have been possible in some places, maybe specifically in the USA, but non everywhere. In the USA, Google have now his own cartography, so they can use it, share, etc. as they see fit in their strategies. Elsewhere, for example in Europe, Google use data licensed from Tele Atlas (and maybe Navteq), with some specific restrictions on the usage: turn by turn direction come to mind, for example, and that explain why Google Maps Navigation isn't available (officially) here.

Waze anyway does have some deal with other cartography providers; in some regions they used such data to draw a basic grid of unnamed roads.
But I think that their general idea is in facts to come up with new, user generated maps.

230

General Software Discussion / Waze - crowd sourced navigation

« Last post by Mark0 on March 21, 2010, 07:48 PM »

Anyone used Waze?

http://world.waze.com

What are waze drivers building?

Waze is a social mobile application providing free turn-by-turn navigation based on the live conditions of the road.
100% powered by users, the more you drive, the better it gets. Join the community of drivers in your area today!

Here's also a video introduction: YouTube - Waze guided tour

It's a free navigator, with free map, traffic and warning info. The cool thing is that the map is dynamic, and one could actually contribute to it simply driving around, tracing new roads, or going to the online map editor and fixing things (only on the travelled routes).

They started in Israel some time ago, and now they claim to have the best map & traffic data for the region. On some countries they start providing a base map obtained trough some parteners, while in others they start with a blank canvas (like in Italy, currently).
I looked at it time some months ago and my zone was basically clear. I retried the other day, and found many streets around here, including some recent features / modifications that haven't showed up yet on the cartography from the usual suspects, Tele Atlas and Navteq.
Some friends from major cities (like Rome, or Milan) say that they are actually already using it for their commute, since the reaction times on changing traffic conditions are very good.

The actual navigation application is available for Android, iPhone, WM and Symbian (not sure for BlackBarry).

231

Living Room / Re: Show us the View Outside Your Window

« Last post by Mark0 on January 12, 2010, 03:31 PM »

Awesome! 

232

Living Room / Re: Show us the View Outside Your Window

« Last post by Mark0 on January 12, 2010, 10:28 AM »

Just some days before Xmas:

Not exactly a typical sight near Venice! 

233

Living Room / Re: Are my EBook Reader dreams going to be answered in 2010? A full size reader?

« Last post by Mark0 on January 08, 2010, 02:12 PM »

At least that's the impression that it give to me.

234

Living Room / Re: Are my EBook Reader dreams going to be answered in 2010? A full size reader?

« Last post by Mark0 on January 08, 2010, 12:45 PM »

A very nice thing about the Skiff is that's phisically flexible.
Smaller devices are one thing, but with a big screen like that I would start to be very worried about how & where I use it; being flexible it should add a bit of peace of mind.

235

Living Room / Re: Are my EBook Reader dreams going to be answered in 2010? A full size reader?

« Last post by Mark0 on January 07, 2010, 11:17 AM »

If the resolution would be high enough, then even a screen a bit smaller would work perfectly full page, with no pan & zoom.
But the contrary is also true: if the resolution remain the same (seems that 1600x1200 is the top currently), even if the screen is 1 or 2 inches taller won't necessarily make it more readable / useful.

236

Living Room / Re: Are my EBook Reader dreams going to be answered in 2010? A full size reader?

« Last post by Mark0 on January 07, 2010, 11:02 AM »

The Skiff Reader seems promising:

Engadget - Skiff Reader is largest yet, will be hitting a Sprint Store near you

1600 x 1200 11.5-inch flexible touchscreen. Still not big enough tough.

237

General Software Discussion / Re: e-readers -- not quite the death of paper

« Last post by Mark0 on January 06, 2010, 06:47 PM »

I don't think the Sony in the picture is the Touch, is it?

-Dormouse (January 06, 2010, 06:33 PM)

Right, that seems more the very old PRS 500, from about 4 years ago.

238

General Software Discussion / Re: (Semi-NSFW) How Fanboys View Operating Systems

« Last post by Mark0 on January 06, 2010, 06:05 PM »

Awesome! 

239

General Software Discussion / Re: e-readers -- not quite the death of paper

« Last post by Mark0 on January 06, 2010, 06:04 PM »

I would say he probably had too high expectation, or didn't really know what to expect from these devices & present state of the technology.

240

Living Room / Re: Are my EBook Reader dreams going to be answered in 2010? A full size reader?

« Last post by Mark0 on January 06, 2010, 06:01 PM »

On a slightly different note, an interesting idea:

YouTube - CES 2010 video - enTourage eDGe beyond ebook readers
A TFT + ePaper dual screen combo, Android based, to be used for reading, annotating, surfing, etc.

241

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

« Last post by Mark0 on December 05, 2009, 10:10 AM »

Oh the horror

-Josh (December 05, 2009, 08:26 AM)

YouTube - The Horror!!!

 

242

General Software Discussion / ICU64 - C64 emulator hacking tool

« Last post by Mark0 on November 17, 2009, 06:05 AM »

You just have to see this one:

YouTube - ICU64: Real-time Hacking of a C64 Emulator

It's awesome in so many level: the realtime seamlessly zoomable memory map, the Mathematica interface... 

Here's the project's homepage, with even more videos / samples: ICU64

243

Living Room / Re: Open source remake of the classic game Elite

« Last post by Mark0 on November 10, 2009, 06:42 AM »

Tau Ceti & Mercenary made more fun than Elite.

-Crush (November 10, 2009, 06:21 AM)

That remind me the time spent on the Amiga with Damocles, witch if I'm not wrong was a sort of remake / evolution of Mercenary.
Being able to go from planetary to inside a building gave an amazing scale to the game!

244

Living Room / Re: Google demonstrates new communication platform "WAVE": mail, chat , wiki, ..

« Last post by Mark0 on November 09, 2009, 01:41 PM »

Yes! 

245

Living Room / Re: Google demonstrates new communication platform "WAVE": mail, chat , wiki, ..

« Last post by Mark0 on November 09, 2009, 01:11 PM »

Got it! Thanks rgdot!

246

Living Room / Re: Open source remake of the classic game Elite

« Last post by Mark0 on November 03, 2009, 08:48 PM »

Absolutely loved the original Elite! 
Last game that reminded me a bit of that atmosphere was Indipendence War II: Edge of Chaos. Aside from the nice storyline and excellents combat & newtonian physics, it have a certain degree of liberty and commerce too.

247

Living Room / Re: Anybody else playing with Wave?

« Last post by Mark0 on October 15, 2009, 11:54 AM »

I too would surely like to play a bit with it.
Thanks!

248

Living Room / Re: Google demonstrates new communication platform "WAVE": mail, chat , wiki, ..

« Last post by Mark0 on October 15, 2009, 04:24 AM »

One here please!

Thanks,
Bye!

Edit:
Whops, seen the PM part just now!  

249

General Software Discussion / Re: 10/GUI

« Last post by Mark0 on October 13, 2009, 11:33 AM »

Yes! Not cheap maybe, but since some may have one already, it could be a nice way to put it at (even more) good use.

250

General Software Discussion / Re: 10/GUI

« Last post by Mark0 on October 13, 2009, 11:23 AM »

In fact a separate 7" touch sensitive LCD, to be used as a sort of keyboard with programmable layout would be a very interesting addition to any existing setup, and probably quite cheap to. It would be just a matter of a nice software to manage the programming, theming, etc.
ECK! It could even be a DonationCoder Do-It-Yourself project!