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2276

General Software Discussion / Re: What's up with Flash crashing all the time lately?

« Last post by Renegade on October 17, 2013, 07:01 AM »

Flash's little brother Javascript is climbing up there as a Thing To Avoid too, but much more complex! The signature case is Chessbase, who last week decided to do live pulls from its game server, making me want to block scripts on the news summary page, and then turn it back on to use the game replayer script!

Since I'm no genius with NoScript, I just toggle that QuickJS addon back and forth all day!

Tumblr is up there with the world's most obnoxious slider! if your mouse strays over the "Facebook Icon", the ENTIRE page slides to the right to show a "Like us" ad! But if you totally turn Javascript off, then the auto-pic-loader stops working! At least Element Hiding Helper for AdBlock helps a little there!

-TaoPhoenix (October 17, 2013, 06:14 AM)

JavaScript is a different case. It seems to me like you're complaining about people being obnoxious when they code up some JS stuff. JS doesn't crash your browser or system.

Flash on the other hand crashes your browser and can crash your system, especially when combined with the typical BS you get from video card drivers.  poo + poo = poopoo.

I've had problems with Flash & video drivers giving be BSODs or freezing my machine. Crappy consumer hardware + crappy use of Windows by component/application software = unhappiness.

My guess is that your Flash problems are linked to your video drivers, but, other people have already chimed in on that. And it's all still a "feature".

2277

Living Room / Re: Razors and Intellectual Property (Patents)

« Last post by Renegade on October 17, 2013, 06:29 AM »

I dunno, of all the awful chaos of IntProp, somehow shaving is the least of the fallout that I care about! I treat electric shavers as a total commodity of the type that everyone makes a commodity when a primary patent runs out.

-TaoPhoenix (October 17, 2013, 06:10 AM)

I think you're missing what he's getting at there. And I don't think the author would disagree with you:

This lesson is a dire warning about the threat of intellectual property to our quality of life. The razor business is an old-fashioned one, not nearly as important to the lifeblood of the economy as high-tech enterprises such as Apple and Google.

The “Gillette effect” is already starting to distort the process of innovation in high-tech sectors. Witness the on-going patent wars over mobile technology.

These developments are harbingers of what lies ahead if we continue our self-destructive obsession with intellectual property. The end result is clear: crappy, expensive technology which is a pain in the follicle.

The article is isn't about razors at all. However, razors are about the best example you can find out there to demonstrate some of the concepts that he's gone over in the article. Gillette developed a new business model, and he's walking through that and how the business model affects us. (The model depends on patents.)

The latter part of the article is where he brings high-tech into the mix. You're kind of left on your own to make those inferences prior to that though.

2278

Living Room / Re: Silk Road Seized - Dread Pirate Roberts Arrested

« Last post by Renegade on October 17, 2013, 06:21 AM »

Fair warning: Fire up your super-powers of not-pants-pissing because you're going to need them.

 

I hate that song, but this somehow makes it ok.

2279

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

« Last post by Renegade on October 17, 2013, 04:26 AM »

I just happened across this, but it's mature CMS written in Python that I'd either completely ignored or never heard of before:

http://plone.org/

I'm not sure if you've seen it or if it might be helpful for a few ideas or for snipping a bit of code from.

From the sounds of things, it is mature and has a large user-base. It might be worth peeking at for ideas/inspiration/whatever.

2280

Living Room / Razors and Intellectual Property (Patents)

« Last post by Renegade on October 17, 2013, 02:37 AM »

This is a rather interesting essay on IP and patents.

http://makkai.com/20...troyed-mens-shaving/

How Intellectual Property Destroyed Men’s Shaving
BY CALLUM | PUBLISHED APRIL 23, 2012
Well over a century ago, a salesman named King Gillette patented the design for his safety razor and went on to found the Gillette Safety Razor Company. His invention made him wealthy as American men rushed to buy his razor blades.

Gillette did not invent the safety razor itself, but rather found a way to manufacture disposable blades that were cheap yet held an edge well. In so doing, Gillette challenged at least two professions: the barber with his straight razor and the blade sharpener with his strop.

It’s a classic example of the principle outlined in Andy Kessler’s book, Eat People. Gillette eliminated the cost and hassle of going to the barber or maintaining one’s razor by providing American men with disposable blades. Now they could shave themselves cheaply and effectively at home.

But that success set the stage for a pattern that would repeat itself over and over again through the twentieth century. See, patents expire after two decades or so, and as they did the Gillette company and its competitors sought new patents in order to protect the lucrative disposable razor business.

This drive for new “patentable” razor technology gave us some minor improvements in the classic double-edged safety razor, and after WWII, it gave us the Schick single-bladed injector razor. By the 1970s most patents for the double-edged safety razor and the single-edged injector razor had expired.

More at the link, and it does get more interesting.

Later in the article it gets into implications for technology today.

2281

General Software Discussion / Re: What's up with Flash crashing all the time lately?

« Last post by Renegade on October 17, 2013, 01:38 AM »

(Parody!)
"And then the Solution and the Problem became so indistinguishable that you could no longer tell one from the other..."
"The Other Orwell Book"! (Animal Farm)

Gawdammit why was that man so awfully, horribly right on?

-TaoPhoenix (October 16, 2013, 11:36 PM)

Problem. Reaction. Solution.

He knew his Hegelian dialectic very well.

There's even a song for it:

OFF-TOPIC - An explanation of the Hegelian dialectic with examples

2282

Post New Requests Here / Re: comma remover and name order changer

« Last post by Renegade on October 16, 2013, 10:18 PM »

This is what I use for those kinds of things:

http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/

So for what you're looking for:

Find:
([^,]+), (.+)\.jpg

Replace:
$2 $1.jpg

Or maybe:
\2 \1

I forget which syntax it uses for replacements at the moment.

2283

Living Room / Re: Peer Review and the Scientific Process

« Last post by Renegade on October 16, 2013, 09:27 PM »

We have to learn to use rational-critical thinking. It's not something we are born with, but a skill that we have to learn - like riding a bike.

-IainB (October 16, 2013, 09:13 PM)

There are a few skills that are innate (a priori).

A (Given)
A --> B (Given)
-------
B (Follows)

A & -A (False)

etc.

But beyond a few simple things like that, well, nope. They need to be learned.

To understand a deeper potential significance of this, consider The Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30; Luke 19:12-28). In this case, the Intellect is one of our servants.
Why would we deliberately continue to squander, cripple or imprison our intellects in ignorance, shuttering it up, uneducated, in a dark box, throughout the duration of our lives, when once we can understand this simple truth: that everything of ourselves has been given to us - a gift of Life - and that it is up to us to make the fullest use of our gifts, and that it is never too late to start?

-IainB (October 16, 2013, 09:13 PM)

+1

Though it is very hard for a lot of people to go back to learning.

And logic skills do get rusty. It's always useful to brush up. I know I need it in some areas.

I would prefer to exist in the light, and am still working on it.

-IainB (October 16, 2013, 09:13 PM)

+1

Harder than it sounds. Much harder. Fortunately a lot of things get easier once you set yourself on the right path.

2284

Living Room / Re: The DonationCoder.com 30-Day Healthy Eating and Exercise Challenge!

« Last post by Renegade on October 16, 2013, 09:12 PM »

On the healthy eating front, I did have a mini-break down. Had a small bag of cookies and some chocolate covered raisins, but not too bad.

I've pretty much swapped out cola (that I use for mixing most often), and subbed in a much healthier drink, though I'm not using it for mixer: water, lemon or lime juice, stevia for sweetener. It's actually really, really good.

The lemon/lime juice is just that bottled stuff off the shelf, and isn't nearly as nice as fresh lemon/lime, but it's easy, convenient, and I can simply keep the bottle on my desk along with the bottle of stevia (liquid) and a pitcher of water. That makes it easier to avoid going to the kitchen, chopping a lemon, juicing it, cleaning up, etc. Much faster this way.

Liquid stevia is nice. You only need a few drops. It's really simple to just have those 2 bottles and a pitcher of water on my desk.

I'm down about 40lbs and in the best shape I've been in... a long time. I've definitely been in the "a little bit every once in a while" camp, life isn't worth it without the little pleasures.

-allen (October 04, 2013, 11:16 PM)

Wow! That's fantastic!

I managed to lose a lot of weight a few years back, but gained it all back. I'm not "fat", but could still lose a bit. I've adjusted my diet again, so I'm expecting to lose some more now.

One of the ways I lost weight before was to consume a lot of limes. Worked like a charm. I wasn't even trying to lose the weight. I just cut out sugar 100%, ate purely food I could cut with a knife and eat raw, and drank water with lots, and lots of lime.

2285

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

« Last post by Renegade on October 16, 2013, 11:27 AM »

Not sure if I posted this. Saw it a couple days ago:

http://www.wired.com...urvive-surveillance/

Richard Stallman chimes in on the topic.

The current level of general surveillance in society is incompatible with human rights. To recover our freedom and restore democracy, we must reduce surveillance to the point where it is possible for whistleblowers of all kinds to talk with journalists without being spotted. To do this reliably, we must reduce the surveillance capacity of the systems we use.

More at the link.

2286

Living Room / Re: Peer Review and the Scientific Process

« Last post by Renegade on October 16, 2013, 11:15 AM »

Here's a fun site:

http://lesswrong.com/

About Less Wrong

Interested in improving your reasoning and decision-making skills? Then you've come to the right place.

Less Wrong is a large, active website for people who try to think rationally. To get a quick idea of why rationality is important and how to develop it, try reading Your Intuitions Are Not Magic, The Cognitive Science of Rationality, or What I've Learned From Less Wrong.

It's kind of off-topic, but still relevant to the general topic of reasoning and logic.

2287

Living Room / Re: Internet freedoms restrained - SOPA/PIPA/OPEN/ACTA/CETA/PrECISE-related updates

« Last post by Renegade on October 16, 2013, 10:00 AM »

Diane Feinstein. Gee. Go figure. She's a very dangerous psychopath, and certainly one of the top most dangerous ones out there.

They just will not stop. I only see one reasonable solution to put this to rest.

2288

Living Room / Re: Silk Road Seized - Dread Pirate Roberts Arrested

« Last post by Renegade on October 16, 2013, 09:20 AM »

A list of darknet markets:

http://pastebin.com/sJ5mDGxm

Black Market Reloaded gets slagged for its design all the time, but there are quite a few vendors with a lot of different products, and a lot that you might not expect. e.g. You can get weapons, fireworks, alcohol, tobacco, etc. And drugs.

2289

General Software Discussion / Re: What Android Apps Do You Use?

« Last post by Renegade on October 16, 2013, 04:48 AM »

Unfortunately, it seems I can't use Android Firewall as it requires root access and I've failed to root my device - spent a couple days on it and failed due to some bizarre scrolling issue that I couldn't resolve. Maybe I'll try again sometime when I have time.

-Renegade (October 15, 2013, 10:29 PM)

Well that's what happens when you get older, I meant to mention it needed root but then 30 seconds passed and .... what was I saying?

-4wd (October 16, 2013, 02:49 AM)

BWAHAHAHAHA~!

Way off topic... The cheer leaders at Seoul Women's University are known as the SWURS - Seoul Women's University Rooting Squad. And my, oh my, oh my...

2290

General Software Discussion / Re: What's up with Flash crashing all the time lately?

« Last post by Renegade on October 16, 2013, 02:32 AM »

Lately, roughly about the last year or so, flash is crashing all the time.  firefox, chrome, doesn't matter.  At least multiple times a day for me.  All different computers...work, home, laptop, etc.  ESPN...like every day I think.

-superboyac (October 15, 2013, 10:41 PM)

I think you're quite mistaken.

It's not "crashing". It's not a bug. It's a FEATURE. It's there to help you stop goofing off on the Internet all the time. Those thoughtful little software engineers at Adobe! Gotta love 'em~! 

2291

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

« Last post by Renegade on October 16, 2013, 02:30 AM »

^ 

2292

Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by Renegade on October 16, 2013, 02:29 AM »

This is hilarious! 

2293

Living Room / Re: Core Internet Institutions Abandon US Government

« Last post by Renegade on October 15, 2013, 10:30 PM »

I think you're being a little too easy on them but I'm not sure you could be harsh enough without sucking the Internet into the resulting singularity of anger and malice. 

-Vurbal (October 15, 2013, 10:19 PM)

What can I say? I'm just a big softie~!

2294

General Software Discussion / Re: What Android Apps Do You Use?

« Last post by Renegade on October 15, 2013, 10:29 PM »

New phone, so a couple of new apps:
 (see attachment in previous post)Network Connections - Powerful tool that displays and monitors (tracks) all inbound and outbound connection from and to your Android device.  The unlock key to enable all features is available ->free<- for a limited time, (until 20131019), here.  After that the normal unlock key will be ~$2.
 (see attachment in previous post)Android Firewall - It's a firewall    You can allow/block based on the network, eg. LAN, VPN, Roaming, Data (2G/3G/4G), and WiFi.

-4wd (October 15, 2013, 09:52 PM)

Ah! Excellent!

Unfortunately, it seems I can't use Android Firewall as it requires root access and I've failed to root my device - spent a couple days on it and failed due to some bizarre scrolling issue that I couldn't resolve. Maybe I'll try again sometime when I have time.

2295

Living Room / Re: Core Internet Institutions Abandon US Government

« Last post by Renegade on October 15, 2013, 10:14 PM »

hating the ITU

-Vurbal (October 15, 2013, 09:59 PM)

What you should be asking is whether it's time to put the ITU out to pasture.

Yes. Unceremoniously. Bullet to the back of the head. Or in the face. Or maybe bludgeoned with a shovel so as to not waste ammunition. In the back fields. Where the stench of the rotting carcass won't bother anyone. And the wildlife can have a free meal. Don't use the shovel to dig a hole - there are hungry animals to be fed. See? It's charity!

When the Democrat in the White House is in complete agreement with the Republicans in Congress who are marching in lock step with pretty much every elected official in every country that's even marginally our ally you know the people who brought them together are some world class scumbags.

-Vurbal (October 15, 2013, 09:59 PM)

 

2296

General Software Discussion / Re: Zuckerberg and Gates contribute to coding tutorials initiative

« Last post by Renegade on October 15, 2013, 09:22 PM »

Everything that MS and Gates do isn't bad...   There was an outcry because MS contributed to Ghost, which was complete BS.

-wraith808 (October 15, 2013, 09:26 AM)

Most? /jk

Here in the US we have a rich tradition of robber barons who decide at some point in their life to become someone important in a historical sense and that the best way to do that is public service on a scale only they can accomplish.

Take Andrew Carnegie for example. His steel business was perhaps an order of magnitude worse than Microsoft ever was when it comes to underhanded dealings with everyone from the public to his own employees. But the impact of that pales in comparison to his generous donations to build more than 2,000 public libraries, improve colleges, and even today in funding public television programming. Whatever evil he may have perpetrated during his business career are nothing compared to that.

-Vurbal (October 15, 2013, 08:47 PM)

Carnegie was also a staunch eugenicist. The Carnegie Foundation was instrumental in bringing about the Council on Foreign Relations. Etc. etc. etc.

Nothing is free. The same kinds of people that you're talking about have continually forced concessions on educational institutions in exchange for their "support".

Prior to the robber barons support of medical schools, there was far greater variety. They essentially restricted medicine to the allopathic school that now dominates. "Competition is a sin." These people were not capitalists by any stretch - they were predatory monopolists.

Based on Gates' philanthropic undertakings over the last few years I think it's clear that's his goal and I say good for him.

-Vurbal (October 15, 2013, 08:47 PM)

Leopards changing their spots? I'm not so easily swayed.

For the article, I'm still skeptical. I wonder what the hidden agenda is, because there always is one. e.g. How medical schools were forced to drop non-allopathic methods from their curriculum.

Perhaps I'm paranoid. Can you blame me when the "Department of Defense" is in charge of waging war, "Homeland Security" makes people less secure, "USAID" commits medical attrocities, etc. etc. You can very often accurately determine what an organization actually does by taking the opposite of whatever its name (or mission) is.

It makes me wonder how coding can be perverted through education (or how programming education can be used to pervert people). I can think of a few things, but, that's all just speculation.

2297

Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"

« Last post by Renegade on October 15, 2013, 11:00 AM »

About beer & drinking in the US:

http://www.businessi...ers-by-state-2013-10

A couple fun infographics there.

2298

General Software Discussion / Re: Zuckerberg and Gates contribute to coding tutorials initiative

« Last post by Renegade on October 15, 2013, 09:08 AM »

Interesting. Not sure what to think. The donors page (http://code.org/about/donors) and having an MS chief counsel on the board... Hmmm...

2299

DC Gamer Club / Re: UBER-CRYPTO CURRENCY COOLNESS! FOR GAMES!

« Last post by Renegade on October 15, 2013, 08:55 AM »

If I recall correctly something like this was tried a few years back with a quake clone. Didn't last long, however, with bitcoin I could easily see it garnering a small dedicated fan base.

-p3lb0x (October 15, 2013, 08:28 AM)

I'm not familiar with that.

I think this has an excellent chance though as it lets you gamble on your gaming skills. I can see it growing to the point that there are tournaments, high stakes games (e.g. 2 bitcoin entry fee), more games being added, etc.

Thing is, you can MAKE MONEY PLAYING GAMES!

They'll need to deal with botters though, but a lot of games already have anti-bot gamemasters and infrastructure to sniff out bots.

2300

Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by Renegade on October 15, 2013, 08:22 AM »

Semi-quasi-cross post:

https://www.donation....msg340024#msg340024

If you're a gamer, you're going to crap yourself. LeetCoin is for you.