Recent Posts

226

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm Steaming About Steam

« Last post by tinjaw on April 13, 2009, 08:25 AM »

As for the general topic of buying games online, I prefer it to traditional physical box retail sales. I use Steam, Direct2Drive, Impulse, and GOG.

227

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm Steaming About Steam

« Last post by tinjaw on April 13, 2009, 08:23 AM »

That's quite a horror story :/

Sucks that there isn't any proper support! So... pray tell, what was the problem & solution? You found the lost password, or was it something sneaky?

-f0dder (April 12, 2009, 06:19 PM)

I installed a new firewall/IPS/proxy system on my network  a few weeks ago and typo'd on one of the packet filtering rules. I wasn't properly letting UDP traffic pass on a few ports.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Liberated Games..

« Last post by tinjaw on April 12, 2009, 04:22 PM »

Thanks for letting us know they are back! 

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General Software Discussion / Re: I'm Steaming About Steam

« Last post by tinjaw on April 12, 2009, 04:18 PM »

It has been over one week since my "issue" began. Here is an update.

First of all, in the interest of full disclosure, let me say that during the back and forth exchange with support I was a complete @55h0le. I'm not making excuses, but I began this exchange believing, based on past experience with dozens and dozens of technical support requests, that I had a 1% chance of getting an intelligent response. I was already angry that I would have to go though yet another futile waste of my time.

It started when I updated the steam client and somehow my password was no longer remembered by the steam client. I had lost the piece of paper with my password so decided to use the automated means available in the steam client to reset it. That process didn't work and I wasn't getting any emails from steam.

I opened an support case and my password was reset, however, I explained that the reset mechanism wasn't working and I wasn't getting any emails. I also stated that I was 100% positive they didn't end up in a spam folder.

I got a reply, obviously a cut&paste  job, that said my password was reset by support and that I should check my spam folders.

They did not address the question as to why I wasn't getting emails from the steam client, but I was getting them from support.

The reset password allowed me into the steam client. I reset my password using the steam client.

I then noticed that I it prompted for me to login to the store. Why? I had already logged into the steam client.

Turns out it didn't change my password to the store, it remained what support had changed it to.

Again the change password didn't work.

A reply to support got the same exact reply. It did not address my problem. I had taken the time to describe my problem in detail, but that didn't matter.

Then I got angry and mean.

I told support that they didn't answer my question but simply blindly reset my password. And they did this twice. I wanted an answer. I wanted it fixed.

To make things worse, it was taking 24-hours between replies. Days were going by with my locked out of steam.

To make things even worse, I had ordered, and paid for 2 new games, that weren't showing up in my client.

I complained and further explained my problems.

I got another email, the same as before, cut&paste, resetting my password.

I blew my top. I demanded to have the case escalated. It wasn't. Several more days past.

In the end, all I got from steam after one week was three password resets. My problem was never addressed. I wasn't provided any assistance to determine the cause of my problem. Not once was it suggested that any research was being done on my problem.

All I got were robotic password resets.

I eventually determined the cause of the problem, on my own, with absolutely no help from steam.

I expected them to provide *some* help and I didn't want to try a bunch of stuff between what they wanted me to test, so all this time I just waited.

In the end, I spent way too much time angry -- screaming and yelling. I wasted many hours of my very valuable time. Steam support made the count 1,000 and 1 times that support proved to be, not only worthless, but actually caused more pain and suffering than just attempting to solve the problem myself.

I am so sick and tired of absolutely horrible support from software companies, mostly gaming related, Steam just happens to be the latest one providing a textbook example of $hi++y support.

Will I ever learn my lesson? I doubt it.

230

Developer's Corner / Re: Unit Testing - Do you do it? If so, how?

« Last post by tinjaw on April 12, 2009, 03:27 PM »

I want to do TDD on every project, but I am not there yet. I am a Python coder so I can tell you that TDD is very easy in Python and it is almost universally practiced by the major coders and projects.

The best list of testing tools for Python is at:
http://pycheesecake....TestingToolsTaxonomy

I use nose and find it easy to use.

Hmm, what to suggest for getting started is tough to say. If you are willing to lay out some money, I would suggest the book Expert Python Programming. It is an excellent book and has some good introductory information on unit testing in Python.

Dive Into Python has a good chapter on Unit Testing.

I haven't read this, but it looks like a good introduction.

231

General Software Discussion / I'm Steaming About Steam

« Last post by tinjaw on April 09, 2009, 06:12 PM »

I'm to angry to post anything more right now. I'd probably get a law suite thrown at me.

I am soooooooooooooooooooooooo angry with the @#%(#@$%&ers at Steam. I have been going back and forth with them for FOUR days, and they still have not addressed my issue. I asked a specific question and gave very specific replies and they have me off on some wild goose chase.

Just venting some steam now.

Has anybody had experience with Steam support? Good or Bad?

232

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for: Stability - System - Stress Test to run in Windows

« Last post by tinjaw on March 29, 2009, 05:49 AM »

Thank you for your suggestions, but those programs are not the kind I am looking for.

Sandra and Everest are programs focused on producing a hardware and software inventory and system benchmarks. I am not looking to produce pure inventories or raw benchmarks.

Prime95 and System Stability Tester are simple burn-in programs that test your CPU and RAM.

The more I think about what I am looking for the murkier it gets.  I guess I am looking for something that really can't be written because it would be too complicated. Also, I think that the tools I need are probably a combination of things like Sandra, System Stability Tester, a pad of paper, a pen, the Internet, and lots and lots of time.

After getting some sleep, I guess I now see that I just wanted some program to do the work that I don't have the time to do myself. Or more correctly, I guess I now see that I should have just stuck to my better judgement and not abandonded keeping tighter records of what I did to my computer over the months of use instead of just installing, uninstalling, reinstall, and tweaking without keeping track. 

Time to get out the operating install disks, Total Uninstaller, Acronis True Image, and those other tools and start from scratch... again. 

233

General Software Discussion / Looking for: Stability - System - Stress Test to run in Windows

« Last post by tinjaw on March 28, 2009, 09:59 PM »

I put in a piece of USB hardware in my computer today that started a chain reaction of things that caused by system to be unstable. This got me thinking that I would like to find a program that will test the stability of my *operating system*.

Not a mobo burn-in tester, but the equivilent for an existing running Windows system. I would like to find out what isn't working right and why in terms of the operating system and the various drivers I am using.

I am NOT looking for something that does a "tune-up" by degragging the HDD, checking the registry, deleting temp files etc.

The types of things I would like to see reported that it might find would be things like my HDD not reading and writing as fast as it should based on the hardware in the system and a list of the drivers involved in the R/W process and suggestions as to where the bottleneck might lie. It might help me by automatically taking various third-party hardware and virtual drivers out of the loop one at a time to track down the bottleneck.

Is there anybody out there that knows of a test suite like this? I guess I also don't want some $1000 suite that a full-time system builder would use in their business, as that would not be something I could afford as a "home user". But I would be willing to pay $50 for a program and would ideally pay $50 to $100 per year if it was updated at least monthly to keep up with the latest changes in the OS, hardware drivers, software drivers, etc.

If somebody makes a good enough find to result in me making a purchase, I will provide a donation credit bounty to the finder.

234

Developer's Corner / Re: What JavaScript libraries should I look at? Prototype?

« Last post by tinjaw on March 23, 2009, 12:21 PM »

Thanks everybody.  jQuery is the hands-down winner.    I'm going to learn that. Thank you all.

235

General Software Discussion / Re: Your most used SPECIAL programs

« Last post by tinjaw on March 23, 2009, 12:19 PM »

So I came to ask if any of you guys know about a more reasonable priced IMAGE ENLARGER that is far better than average?  :tellme

-Curt (March 23, 2009, 09:30 AM)

Ask all the people in TV and Movies that seem to have a 1-click application to enlarge images with higher fidelity than an electron microscope.

Queue actor: "Can you enhance that?" 

236

Living Room / Re: What is Twitter: A Funny Sarcastic Cartoon

« Last post by tinjaw on March 23, 2009, 11:58 AM »

I explain Twitter as SMS for computers.

237

Developer's Corner / What JavaScript libraries should I look at? Prototype?

« Last post by tinjaw on March 22, 2009, 04:09 PM »

I am going to be doing some website stuff and was wondering what is state of the art is in JavaScript libraries.

I just now learned that there is a conflict between overLIB and Lightbox 2.

My guesses are Prototype and Mootools. I also need to learn JQuery.

What do you folks recommend I take the time to learn?

238

Developer's Corner / Re: 7 Reasons Not to Direct Link to a Developer's Download Files

« Last post by tinjaw on March 19, 2009, 06:33 AM »

app,

I think you mistook the tone of my reply. I'm was not commenting on how, when, or why direct links should or shouldn't be made. I was only commenting that there are plenty of ways to track downloads if it is something that is desired.

239

Developer's Corner / Re: 7 Reasons Not to Direct Link to a Developer's Download Files

« Last post by tinjaw on March 18, 2009, 05:33 PM »

So how would one do this when they are using a free/cheap host that doesn't allow anything but static html pages? (no cgi, php, perl, or anything else)

-app103 (March 18, 2009, 09:41 AM)

Honestly, is that really a concern? I can't imagine somebody producing something who is worried about this issue being limited to only static html pages. Plus, you get different free/cheap host that does.

240

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: resolver one, python spreadsheet (no sheet limits) 60% off today only

« Last post by tinjaw on March 17, 2009, 07:20 PM »

Oh! I just spotted this post. I made my purchase earlier today. I'm a Resolver One fanboi. I live the idea of Excel with Python instead of Excel with VBA. The coolest thing for you, urlwolf, probably, is that people are already integrating it with with stuff like R.

241

Developer's Corner / Re: 7 Reasons Not to Direct Link to a Developer's Download Files

« Last post by tinjaw on March 17, 2009, 06:58 PM »

Even after all your comments about PAD files and updaters, I still stand by my suggestion of using a script as the download URL. You can then take into consideration all of those things and act accordingly.

I would even go one step further and offer up UIDs for anybody who requests on via a form on your website. Then have them pass that UID along with the URL and you will be able to easily track where the download request is coming from. You would be able to provide custom responses based on the UID, or the lack of a UID in the request.

app, as for your concern about disk space, besides the script making your concern moot, you can also do the same via hard links. Then the file only need be on your drive once and linked to from multiple locations. You can use hard links in Windows using a program like Link Shell Extension.

242

Developer's Corner / Re: 7 Reasons Not to Direct Link to a Developer's Download Files

« Last post by tinjaw on March 17, 2009, 07:32 AM »

Justice said what I wanted to say. That is how I would handle things. Don't even have a direct link on your site. Have the link be to a script (CGI, PHP, whatever) that only serves up the file if clicked from your page.

243

Developer's Corner / Gotta Share

« Last post by tinjaw on March 11, 2009, 01:43 PM »

I am attending a conference via Second World. It is a Defense department related conference on game technologies, to include virtual worlds. There is a person, Tami, physically at the location where the meatspace portion of the conference is taking place in Orlando Florida. The speaker was talking about Qwaq.com. They use croquet and python. I typed in the chat window on SL, "Can we get Tami to yell, "Python Rocks!". All of a sudden, on the audio stream I hear "Python Rocks!" from the conference audience and the speaker starts to laugh and tell an anecdote about how much they love python and their clients often say, "Cool, now I have a way to convince my boss to learn python."

It was totally cool that she actually yelled "Python Rocks!" 

244

Living Room / NIN Coming to Kansas City

« Last post by tinjaw on March 09, 2009, 11:14 AM »

Presales tickets to NIN official website members tonight at 5 p.m.

I'm asking for the following night off from work right now.

What?!?!?!?

You don't think this is important news for DC folks!?!?!?

You obviously don't understand how important NIN is to the software industry. They are probably one of the most potent productivity drugs known to programmers around the world.

245

General Software Discussion / Re: What is the currently best Desktop Search software?

« Last post by tinjaw on March 04, 2009, 10:25 AM »

25 pages!?! Ugh.

I have been using Locate32 on all my computers. I have also been using Search GT on my XP boxes for those times when I just installed some software and haven't reindexed yet and I need to find a file. However, since Search GT isn't working on Vista yet, I need to use something else.

What can I use to do realtime index-less NTFS searches in Vista?

246

General Software Discussion / Re: Log Monitor - Great Free Tool for Monitoring Files+Dirs and Acting on Changes

« Last post by tinjaw on March 02, 2009, 12:34 PM »

I searched through some old emails and it turns out that the developer is/became part of BITRIX. I never went further than that. I might be worthwhile emailing them and seeing if they can put you in touch with him. Or you might want to try via this webpage.

247

General Software Discussion / Lazyweb: Your recommendation for a FOSS trouble ticket system, please.

« Last post by tinjaw on February 23, 2009, 02:45 PM »

I would like to implement a web-based trouble ticket system here at my workplace. It will be to provide a means of requesting, tracking, and providing technical support to our "customers" who use a variety of simulations.

Ideally it will be easy to use so we will actually use it. 

Trouble ticket systems often seem to die an quick death from neglect as it takes too long to input stuff into the system.

An integrated knowledge base would be a plus.

248

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: White Smoke 70% off

« Last post by tinjaw on February 23, 2009, 02:40 PM »

As some people here mentioned, it looks like they are just blowing white smoke up your @$$. They continue to have the 75% off sale every day. The banner changes as to why there is a 75% off sale, but every day there is a 75% off sale. I think they need to eat their own dog food and put their own website through their software and I am sure that it will suggest that a sale that goes on day after day really isn't a sale.

So, the lesson here is that they regularly sell their stuff at 75% off, so don't let that be a contributing factor to your purchase decision.

249

Living Room / Re: Should I switch from Dreamhost?

« Last post by tinjaw on February 23, 2009, 02:23 PM »

Thanks for taking the time to comment. I think I will re-up with Dreamhost. I've been happy so far and nothing I've seen or heard so far leaves me to believe that the grass is any greener on the other side. Your comments helped reassure me that I am not just succumbing to laziness and not really wanting to move everything. I feel better about renewing now. Thanks.

250

Living Room / Should I switch from Dreamhost?

« Last post by tinjaw on February 22, 2009, 11:04 AM »

My two year contract with Dreamhost is coming to an end this April. I have been happy with them and don't plan on leaving, but I figured I would ask you folks if you have come across any full service hosting companies that compete with Dreamhost for price, features, and customer service before I sign up for another two years.