Recent Posts

2376

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

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 06, 2013, 08:58 AM »

...
The old monk replied in a choked voice, "The word is 'celebrate'! "

-IainB (May 06, 2013, 08:52 AM)

That's a good joke Iain. The even better part is it's somewhat true!

http://www.revelife....tery-bible-misprint/

"A 1631 King James Bible, known as the "Wicked Bible," is on display through Sept. 6 at the Hardin Center as a special limited addition to the exhibit "Ink & Blood: Dead Sea Scrolls to Gutenberg." Meant to be a reprint of the King James Bible, the Wicked Bible contains an error in Exodus 20:14, where the Seventh Commandment reads, "Thou shalt commit adultery." The printers, Robert Barker and Martin Lucas, are said to have been fined 300 pounds for the offense, a huge sum at that time, and had their printers' license revoked. Many believe that the error was deliberate on the part of a typesetter to discredit the printer. A thousand "Wicked Bibles" were printed, but King Charles I ordered them to be destroyed, making the "Wicked Bible" one of the rarest English Bibles in history. It is believed that only 11 of the original 1,000 have survived. The remaining "Wicked Bibles" are very seldom on public display; the one in the rare books collection of the New York Public Library is almost never made accessible to the public."

From another article:
http://www.wisegeek....the-wicked-bible.htm

"The Wicked Bible also contains a second lesser-known error in the book of Deuteronomy. Instead of translating one passage as the Lord showing his "glory and greatness," the verse actually suggests the Lord showed His glory and "great arse." Had this second, and in some ways even more egregious, typographical error been discovered in time, Barker and Lucas may have been forced to pay a much higher price for their unfortunate errors."

I just moved to NYC, so now it's almost a Holy Grail! Indiana Jones and Monty Python, here we come!

2377

Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 06, 2013, 08:51 AM »

Bleh.
Bitcoins is an example of someone with IQ 150 behind the math, who will lure in the geek crowd, and someone else with IQ 180 behind the Social Construct campaign, who will fleece them to make a killing!
 

2378

Living Room / Re: How *not* to do a crowdsource project appeal

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 06, 2013, 08:50 AM »

It's not too often you see such a perfect example of 'how not to do something' that doesn't border on being a parody of itself.

-40hz (May 06, 2013, 08:09 AM)

Oh I know this one!

I have an IndieGogo project superficially about something while parodying the process of IndieGogo! Contribute Today!

2379

Living Room / Re: May the 4th Be With You... (cue Star Wars music)

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 05, 2013, 10:17 PM »

(see attachment in previous post)Oops... crossing the memes there.  (Perhaps even three times...)

-wraith808 (May 04, 2013, 01:04 PM)

Who's that first one?

-app103 (May 05, 2013, 10:14 PM)

Tom Baker the Fourth Doctor Who!
 

2380

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Scrubby

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 05, 2013, 06:04 PM »

Before I make an official release I'll let the members here play with this new version it a bit. I removed the hoykey and it now just uses the default windows clipboard hotkeys and works in the background. It does not hook the hotkey at all anymore. I also removed the double space option under append clipboard option, if you need an extra line then copy it. :-) There were a few small bugs also and the paste special dialog should not show anymore when pasting.

You can download the beta version HERE and view the new help file here -> http://www.evernote.com/shard/s1/sh/191852d2-1ce4-4888-a800-6e910012ac84/568f32e82ed7c16289f485852fddcb01

The help link in the beta still points to the old help file for now.

Please let me know how it goes. :-)  (@TaoPhoenix :-) )

-c.gingerich (May 05, 2013, 03:41 PM)

Here we go! I get to be a pest! 

In general I like the feel of the "work in the background" which I just realized gets even more important because another finesse I use from Skwire's side of the forum is "auto-xmouse" which changes window focus, so if we can get rid of these dialog popups, those won't get trapped out of focus. (I think. I didn't get that far in testing, I just thought of it now as if I were doing this for real.) But yes, with in-background, I didn't get the AdBlock pulls or as much "fighting for hotkeys" as last time.

I did a few tests in Notepad to try to catch LibreOffice-specific errors/bugs.

1. Basically none of the toggles work for me. I burned out of trials (the new Beta starts where the old one left off!) because the program only seemed to notice the changed settings when I closed and re-opened it. So I had to check or uncheck a desired setting, then close and open it again. So I need a kludge to test your next version!

2. In that Short Story page, if I copied the two lines (story title with a link and the author name below) this time LibreOffice wants to pull in the "text import" dialog.

3. "Append to Clipboard" isn't a bad start - I could live with making two rows of data, by first copy-and-scrubbing the story titles into a complete clipboard, then pasting it, then doing the authors on the second row, and if I'm not a blind wombat they would line up in paired columns of data. However, there seems to be a blank line that keeps appearing into the accumulating clipboard. So "Remove Blank Lines" doesn't seem to be working too well.

4. When "Trip Whitespace" is checked, I keep getting a dialog box that says nothing but "here" ??! (So you have to keep clicking okay?!)

Whew! I'm a modular tester, so I'll stop there, because when enough bugs get changed/attempted-fixed, all kinds of stuff pops up as I just noted above! But yes, in general this is starting to look really useful!
 

2381

Living Room / Re: New PC double-take

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 05, 2013, 05:29 PM »

^Agree.

Microsoft hasn't been too successful in strong-arming corporate IT to knuckle under to Windows 8. At least in its present incarnation. Something which will (of necessity) change if Microsoft doesn't want to be sitting with a complete desktop flop on their hands.

As long as Microsoft wants to maintain its present dominance on today's main productivity hardware platforms, they'll continue to sell Windows 7.  Even if they have to lie about it and fudge the sales statistics by only selling Windows 8 -  but with 'downgrade rights' to 7 - same as they did with Windows 7 to XP.

But long before that issue comes to a head, I think you'll see Windows 8 ship with the option to install with a default 'traditional desktop' and probably a "desk toy" to bring back something very similar to the old start button, even if they never call it that - or officially support it.

Most big businesses hate it when they're wrong about their most recent brainstorm or pet initiative. And Microsoft hates being told they're wrong more than most businesses. Possibly because they've been proven so wrong so often.

At least Apple has the advantage of having a mindset that is immune to criticism and scorn. But Apple is a cult masquerading as a technology company. So the rules that govern most of the tech world simply don't apply to Apple. And probably never will.

Unfortunately for those who covet Apple's unique position, the world will only tolerate one maverick or "bad-boy" company at a time. Apple can just because they're Apple. Microsoft can't because they're not. Simple as that.

Which is something Microsoft has yet to realize. Or accept.

So, nope! Windows 7 will be here for some time. Or will until such time as Microsoft can force the vast majority of its business users into their cloud services and hosted software offerings. Something they are most aggressively striving to accomplish as we speak.
 

-40hz (May 05, 2013, 12:25 PM)

I'm starting to giggle and think Microsoft has a Moth-Flame liking to being wrong! They keep trying to be some strange hybrid of Chinese Knockoff and Bully-Pulpit Industry-Mover. Their branding suffers badly from their old heritage of becoming dominant and then forcing whatever they want. On the music side, if they had bothered to do any competent audience impression testing, they wouldn't have made anything as half-baked as the Plays-For-Sure --> Zune --> Windows Phone 7 fiasco.

On the OS side, Vista was a desperation move, and they knew it wasn't ready, so they just resolved to "fake it" until Windows 7 came out. Meanwhile, no, they're not going to fix anything for Windows 8, *because they are now pretending to go to Yearly Releases and the next one is sorta ready! "Windows Blue" is indeed rumored to undo a lot of the PITA factor of Windows 8 ... and so they'll just leave Win8 sitting there!

I do believe they bulk license a ton of OEM copies, and then it does take a fairly long time for the makers to straggle their way through their licensed copies. Windows Vista was lurking until half past the intro of Win 7.

Just look at this history of branding! (With a couple minor omissions)
3
3.11
95
98
2000
Me
XP
7
8
Blue

... Really?!

2382

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Scrubby

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 04, 2013, 06:56 PM »

I think I am going to rethink how I wrote the app. I use an auto hotkey app to make the hotkey. I think I am going to remove that and just leave Ctrl+V as is and do all the scrubbing by watching the clipboard. That may fix some of the clashes as it will just be the native windows hotkey.

-c.gingerich (May 04, 2013, 06:11 PM)

I like that as a concept if you can make it work. The clashes didn't surprise me, because it makes sense for programs to clash over the same shortcuts. I've seen it before other apps like this including I think a couple from here.

2383

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Scrubby

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 04, 2013, 06:06 PM »

Thanks again for the input! I'll take a closer look at these and try to add what I can and fix the bugs. As far as the registration, I usually keep it so that if it is paid for once there are no upgrade fees. Unless there is a big update that would cost me a lot but I don't see that happening on this app.

-c.gingerich (May 04, 2013, 05:55 PM)

Maybe glance over and put some notes in the help file that a lot of the combos coincide with functions in other apps, and they seem to be fighting a bit with Scrubby.

2384

Living Room / Re: May the 4th Be With You... (cue Star Wars music)

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 04, 2013, 05:23 PM »

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forth

2385

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: Mouseware

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 04, 2013, 05:21 PM »

  I came across this in a PCWorld newsletter yesterday:

Free Clipboard Help+Spell adds a lot of power to your clipboard

On their own, X, C, and V are just three random letters. But combine them
with the Ctrl key, and you get one of the most iconic keystroke trios in the
history of computing. Cutting, copying, and pasting data is something we all
do on a daily basis, so doing it more efficiently can translate into major
time savings. Clipboard Help+Spell is a donationware utility by Mouser that
does just that. Note: The "Download Now" button below the full review and on
the Product Information page will download the software to your system.

-Tinman57 (May 04, 2013, 05:09 PM)

Can you put the link in for us? Did PCWorld smash it into one of those infested installer packages or is it a direct link to here?

2386

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Scrubby

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 04, 2013, 05:06 PM »

On a different topic, maybe clarify your intended upgrade policy for the paid versions.

We've seen cases where you pay for your version, only for V2.0 to come out and then it denies you the upgrade! Some places do a "payment good for only one major version upgrade", but this doesn't feel like a long running app that will go to V4.8 or whatever.

2387

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Scrubby

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 04, 2013, 04:56 PM »

I have updated Scrubby and added a few more features and removed the per-scrub alert. Went down to only 15 uses (per execution not per scrub). Please see the help file for more info. You can download Scrubby and view the help file here -> http://starpunch.blogspot.com/2013/04/scrubby.html

@TaoPhoenix Does this new version satisfy your post? :-)

-c.gingerich (May 04, 2013, 03:50 PM)

Hi Chris! That's close!

Yes, the basic feel is much better. Especially because I was toggling on and off the Scrubbing, see below, it's WAY better that it didn't force me to burn scrubs! (Heh and I am still burning through sessions but I think that's a bit different, more bugtesting per se.)

I am digging a little into bug fixes and feature tweaks. The most annoying one is that when it creates the unformatted text, LibreOffice doesn't see it as "regular text" to paste, but instead pulls into "Paste Special" which is a big ugly diagram box that in a way defeats the spirit of the utility. Do you know/can you figure out what that's about?

There might be a bit of an elusive bug where if you toggle on and off the app over and over, it was looking like the toggle wasn't working right, but I haven't nailed that down yet.

Some other things that are probably more feature upgrades but feel pretty basic to me, listed in order of "Begg-iness" : )

Bugs:
- Put a (toggable?) check in so that if something starts as regular text, it stays regular text and Scrubby leaves it alone. This matters if for example you're doing alternating copy-paste, one is a web link and one is text, that "converted text" currently keeps pulling in that Paste Special box whereas regular text wouldn't.

- If I have scrubbing on, copying a web link and hitting "control-v" seems to pull up
Ad Block (Element helper?) "Blockable items on the page" here in DC. I have no idea what that means! But I suspect it's not unrelated to LibreOffice's pulling into Paste Special - that some kind of other control characters are getting in there. Any ideas?
With Scrubbing Off the address is:
http://www.aphelion-...sections/shorts.html

Features:
-  Put a "Change Font Formatting Only" option. Because there are at least a couple of places that if you copy a link, the link travels which in that specific case is fine, but then your entire workspace is plain 8 or 10 point and the link "with full formatting" keeps coming in 12 point bold italic!

3. This one is just me wishing a little, but then it's how I think when I see related-apps:
Remember this story page?
http://www.aphelion-...sections/shorts.html
Let's say you copy a story and author like:
Henchmen Academy
By Spencer Carvalho

When it comes through to LibreOffice, it pastes into two cells *down*. I even went to LibreOffice Calc and changed "Upon enter key move right" in the settings. But still pastes down.

It would be REEEELY nice if it pasted *across* into two cells *across*! Is that doable?  


Heh I had another small point or two but I'm starting to forget for now with this long post! : )

2388

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for voice acting service

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 04, 2013, 08:26 AM »

I'd say just sign up and post to an Anime board. I know a voice acting service/group but 1 word is a little thin of a job. : )

On an anime board the fans would likely do your one word for you by a couple different people.

2389

General Software Discussion / Re: "Contest" - The most difficult Opt Out screens on installs!?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 03, 2013, 02:52 PM »

^I run multiple normally unplugged separate hard drives with backup copies of my OS.
I'm not sure if it would deal with a Rootkit, as I understand those can actually infect the mobo, or am I mistaken?
Rootkits are about as unethical and nasty as you can get.
Maybe someone should write a 'Babylon remove & restore tool'.
Or something 'resident' to protect against it.

-bit (May 03, 2013, 02:47 PM)

I'm not aware of very much software that can go all the way to hardware!

Well, as for the "resident to protect" thing it's kinda also my whole thread point, it's amazing all that stuff gets on there even if you miss an opt-out button.

Mark Russinovich had a Rootkit detector, but I haven't run it in a while. One of these days when I do another whole day of Comp maintenance I might.

2390

General Software Discussion / Re: "Contest" - The most difficult Opt Out screens on installs!?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 03, 2013, 02:39 PM »

Yes my question was serious, and now I just found this:
How to Remove Babylon Search Toolbar
It seems CNET has been offering downloads that include being infected with the 'PUP' or 'Potentially Unwanted Program' a.k.a. 'Babylon Search Toolbar'.
It seems CNET is an 'ennabler' in infecting computer OSs with the 'Babylon Search Toolbar', which exhibits many traits of a virus:
"It's technically not a virus, but it does exhibit plenty of malicious traits, such as rootkit capabilities to hook deep into the operating system, browser hijacking, and in general just interfering with the user experience..."

Rootkit...??

Yes, I actually believed -up until now- that TUCOWS, softonic, and CNET were all "developers' darlings"; sites where you could get 'safe' downloads of really cool neat stuff.
Not any more, and my sincere thanks to the contributors to this thread.

-bit (May 03, 2013, 02:33 PM)

That's bad news, because no matter how sneaky the downloads are, per the "rule" of my initial thread they were supposed to be clean if you ever managed to get through the "DoubleDare Physical Challenges"!


But I think I recall a Babylon Toolbar showing up, and I had no idea where it came from, so if it's mashed into supposedly safe programs that's not good!

2391

Living Room / Re: Cute jokes' thread

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 03, 2013, 12:53 AM »

Whenever someone claims to be multi-tasking, this is the kind of image that pops into my head:
...

-app103 (May 02, 2013, 05:45 PM)

Heh instead this ditty popped into my head inspired by yours!
http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=LQURd7pIFyA

 

(That new one is even faster than the old one, it's tightened up near the end.)

2392

Living Room / Re: Cute jokes' thread

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 03, 2013, 12:45 AM »

PS App what is your oDesk handle and how much do you charge? 

On another topic via ChrisG and you if you made a pre-priced app, it's not that $6 will break the bank, it's about trusting the payment mechanism. I trust DC (via that other payment processor I can't recall the name of!) and I trust oDesk.

-TaoPhoenix (May 02, 2013, 01:21 PM)

That's subject is probably better discussed elsewhere and not in the cute jokes thread. 

-app103 (May 02, 2013, 05:43 PM)

Yeah, I agree! My fault!
Prob half PM and half that one of the other monetizing threads about application prices.

2393

Living Room / Re: One year without the internet: An Interesting Read

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 02, 2013, 03:57 PM »

Gawd knows I shouldn't be talking, but maybe some things "Just Are". I have trouble getting started on a website, but I believe I have the material to update one.

A website is just one of the rawest modern things to show you noticed it's not 1992 anymore. At least get to 2004!
 

2394

General Software Discussion / Re: Ghost - a new "just blogging" platform now fully funded on Kickstarter

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 02, 2013, 03:55 PM »

What is Markdown?

-TaoPhoenix (May 02, 2013, 03:26 PM)

It's totally awesome!

See here and here and here.

-40hz (May 02, 2013, 03:47 PM)

That's too many "Here" 's. They make me allergic!

2395

Living Room / Re: Microsoft Mohoro OS?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 02, 2013, 03:54 PM »

Are you guys aware that I have deleted accounts because of "worshippers"?

-app103 (May 02, 2013, 03:26 PM)

It's not so much worship as we're egging you on. It's been kinda quiet around here since Renegade went on hiatus.

-40hz (May 02, 2013, 03:51 PM)

RIP Renegade!

2396

General Software Discussion / Re: Ghost - a new "just blogging" platform now fully funded on Kickstarter

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 02, 2013, 03:26 PM »

What is Markdown?

2397

Living Room / Re: One year without the internet: An Interesting Read

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 02, 2013, 03:22 PM »

Nah, it's a really complex topic and he didn't do enough mental prep.

The "internet" is way more varied than that, to "cut it out cold turkey". There's a REASON 1,000 niche industries thrived on the inherent lack of information before the internet age. Remember the point of Guinness Book of Records? It was to settle silly bar bets that could last for weeks or even months and ruin friendships. An hour on Snopes.com can usually fix that now... if not Guiness's own site!

Scammers? Except for the REALLY slick ones, they get busted say in about a month, and then their bust is permanently searchable forever.

Simple research? THAT's the gold mine we all take for granted! Print a quick map of new places, check the service hours, menus, shopping, etc etc etc, save *weeks* of your life in twelve days.

So no, while we have a *bit* too much info going on, just cut it back. All the news I specialize in, the IP/Copyright stuff, appears *nowhere else*. So thank you very much, I like my Internetz.

2398

Living Room / Re: MegaUpload Comeback?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 02, 2013, 03:10 PM »

Less publicized, the other servers are going down too.

WatchSeries went down sometime this winter, and 1channel.ch seems to be struggling this week!

I haven't done research if these are man in the middle ISP attacks or not.

2399

General Software Discussion / Re: Ghost - a new "just blogging" platform now fully funded on Kickstarter

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 02, 2013, 03:06 PM »

Hmm, Sept 2013? Does it take that long for good blogging software to be written!?

I have trouble keeping the Long Game in mind these days!  

2400

Living Room / Re: Microsoft Mohoro OS?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 02, 2013, 02:15 PM »

I keep reading this title as "Microsoft Moron OS"

-Ath (May 02, 2013, 02:09 PM)

Heh that, but it's actually "animal-smart", aka not IQ-180 smart, but sneaky and threatening to work like the way no animals are "smart" but that won't keep them from ripping you to shreds.