Recent Posts

2401

Living Room / Re: Windows S and Surface Laptop

« Last post by wraith808 on May 03, 2017, 05:40 PM »

If Google's goal was for the Pixel to be a symbolic leader to make Chrome OS a success, then it succeeded, as Chromebooks now dominate US classrooms, are the best selling laptops, and possibly the only traditional laptop category that is still growing.

-dr_andus (May 03, 2017, 05:24 PM)

Certain Chromebooks succeeded despite themselves.  The Pixel definitely wasn't one at $999.  Price was one of the big selling points, just like netbooks.  And Chromebooks are also being driven by an active App store.  Windows doesn't have that advantage to even drive it that far.

And I think that the reason that sales have accelerated is because of the lower end products, and the fact that Google listened to the customers with offline mode and the availability of Apps.  Microsoft doesn't have the offline mode to get past (at least I don't think so), but they do have the downside of the availability of apps.

2402

Living Room / Re: Windows S and Surface Laptop

« Last post by wraith808 on May 03, 2017, 01:25 PM »

If overpriced meant automatic failure then few companies would exist these days. Not to say I think this will be a success but it won't be because of price it would be because of the differences like brand recognition and app store quality.

-rgdot (May 03, 2017, 01:03 PM)

There's still the word 'relative' on pricing.  You can get a comparable laptop for that price that is not hobbled.  You can get one for a lot less, in all honesty.  That's what the Pixel's problem was, by all indications.

2403

Mouser's Zone / Re: Bug report: automatic screenshotter stops

« Last post by wraith808 on May 03, 2017, 11:30 AM »

Have you checked the Event Viewer to see if there might be some other information there?

2404

Living Room / Windows 10 S and Surface Laptop

« Last post by wraith808 on May 03, 2017, 11:28 AM »

So, Microsoft launched the Surface Laptop with Windows S.  The Surface has needed to be updated for years (Microsoft's financials show this).  The Book and Pro have given them a good name in the hardware market, but new people entering the market has really diluted their market share, and people are doing a good job of emulating what they've done, and catching up to them.

So, their plan?  Release Windows S, which is another failed attempt at Windows RT.  They just don't have the app support to try do do the things that the Pixel does (and that's not particular a smashing success, considering Google is abandoning the Pixel Laptop).  And then they sully the Surface name with the Surface Laptop, which seems to fit in the product line in name only.

It's very subpar:

128GB SSD
4GB RAM
Intel® HD Graphics 620

All that priced at $999?

What are they thinking?  And it seems they know it, as until the end of the year, they'll offer an upgrade to Win10 pro for free, and after that, they'll offer an upgrade for $50.  Like they already knew it would fall flat on its face.

Other perspectives:

https://www.theverge...ing-system-confusion

https://www.theverge...e-specs-release-date

2405

Living Room / Re: Can somebody buy me SimCity 4 on GOG (I return money with DonationCredits)?

« Last post by wraith808 on May 02, 2017, 08:08 AM »

(But I don't do it on Steam anymore after they locked down my account until I promised not to.)

-Deozaan (May 02, 2017, 01:24 AM)

What?  What happened there?

2406

Non-Windows Software / Re: Android Raindrop.io or alternative

« Last post by wraith808 on April 28, 2017, 08:25 AM »

I use xmarks and pinboard to sync up between all of my devices.

2407

Living Room / Re: How to uninstall games from Win8.1

« Last post by wraith808 on April 26, 2017, 06:12 PM »

Go to that same view and right click on the tile.  There should be uninstall there, unless it is a program that is installed by default.

2408

Living Room / Re: What books are you reading?

« Last post by wraith808 on April 26, 2017, 08:24 AM »

Not to be a spoilsport, but this has gone on for several pages, and this is a thread I keep track of to see new books.  Should I just stop keeping track of it?  Or can we perhaps take the puns to a different thread?

2409

DC Member Programs and Projects / Re: MFCRecorder - Continued

« Last post by wraith808 on April 23, 2017, 04:06 PM »

The person that was doing the development hasn't been on this forum since Oct 2016.  The link for the original source from his post about getting permission is no longer available.  So I'd consider this line pretty much dead.

2410

Living Room / Re: Game Design Kit

« Last post by wraith808 on April 21, 2017, 08:27 AM »

Some people have said various things that align with what Edvard is saying.  I think that focus is on people that are already designers.  However, what I view this project as is a starting place for new designers- to get them into getting the ideas out of their head easily.

From the brick and mortar section:

This product was priced to be an auto-purchase for your customers who're interested in game design. What starts with your recommendation will end, we hope, with a lifelong customer who’s grateful that your advice helped them get started in game design, and who's happy to buy dice, meeples, card sleeves, and games from you for years.

And it isn't just a handbook- but essays from well established designers, that can help with that goal, and more esoteric topics like randomization and other such things.

2411

DC Gamer Club / Re: GOG Connect - DRM-free access to your Steam library

« Last post by wraith808 on April 20, 2017, 06:00 PM »

Thanks!

2412

Living Room / Game Design Kit

« Last post by wraith808 on April 20, 2017, 12:42 PM »

There was a thread a while back about prototyping games, and the high costs of doing so.  But now, there's a kickstarter for that.



The White Box: A Game Design Workshop-in-a-Box

The White Box is a learning, planning, and prototyping tool for tabletop game designers.

It contains a book of 18 essays on game design and production, covering subjects like where to find a great concept, how to use randomness, what to ask playtesters, and whether it’s wise to self-publish.

It includes an abundance of components to get you started right away, from cubes and meeples to dice, discs, and chits.

Maybe you have a golden idea inside you burning to come out. Maybe you want to tell a story or explore a problem. Do you dream of seeing your name on a box at your local game store? Or perhaps you see game design as a path to fame, fortune, and a satisfying career.

The White Box is for aspiring professionals, creative young people, and literally anyone who’s ever wanted to build their own game without having to plunder their game library for bits.

2413

General Software Discussion / Re: Text program with good search for tablet? (Windows, Android, iPad)

« Last post by wraith808 on April 19, 2017, 03:48 PM »

SQL allows for searching/grouping of any records that contain value x in field a, value y or z in field b, and so on, and at the very least value x or/and value y in LINE a; RegEx search provides the latter functionality at least also for text files. But if I put my textfiles into an outliner or a wiki, I even lose this functionality of combining values x and/or y in the same line, meaning the same record, since the records in an outliner or wiki are not the text lines in an item, but the items, and "search for value x and/or y within item a" would NOT display just the corresponding textlines then, but any outliner/wiki item in which ANY of the textlines/records would comprise these values, which is obviously not the needed result.

-ital2 (April 19, 2017, 03:15 PM)

The wiki I referenced above does have RegEx search over all of the contents.  The contents are also stored plain text- wiki-fying is up to you if you want it.  It just renders based on that syntax if it exists.

2414

General Software Discussion / Re: Chrome Extensions: Your favorite or most useful

« Last post by wraith808 on April 19, 2017, 01:48 PM »

The Great Suspender

Allows you to keep tabs open, but manage the memory that they use by suspending them.

2415

General Software Discussion / Re: Text program with good search for tablet? (Windows, Android, iPad)

« Last post by wraith808 on April 18, 2017, 10:06 AM »

And to put a bit into the actual topic, I use ema personal wiki.  It's on PC and android, and includes a pretty robust search, uses dropbox for sync, and is open source.

http://janwillemb.gi...o/Ema-Personal-Wiki/

http://jwbs-blog.blo...for-android-and.html

http://jwbs-blog.blo...ows-application.html

He's varied in his support of the program, but the open source bit is enough to make me not care about that.

2416

General Software Discussion / Re: Text program with good search for tablet? (Windows, Android, iPad)

« Last post by wraith808 on April 18, 2017, 08:57 AM »

^ Your links are a bit munged above.  Just FYI for you and anyone clicking through.

2417

Living Room / Re: Get legal access to paywalled research and science papers free with Unpaywall

« Last post by wraith808 on April 17, 2017, 02:27 PM »

unpaywall.org doesn't resolve at this end of the globe. The add-on I could download.

-Shades (April 17, 2017, 10:03 AM)

Did you try http://isup.me/ to check it?

2418

Living Room / Re: Get legal access to paywalled research and science papers free with Unpaywall

« Last post by wraith808 on April 17, 2017, 09:22 AM »

Thanks!  Great find!

2419

General Software Discussion / Re: will Win 10 not 'do' a 1920x1080 monitor?

« Last post by wraith808 on April 14, 2017, 08:40 AM »

That makes a lot of sense.  There's also dual-DVI vs Single-DVI, and sorry I didn't see earlier your supposition, as this might or might not cause you issues.  Either 1920x1080 is the highest for single-link, or just outside the spec.  Hopefully, either you got dual link, or it's in the single link area.  I had to troubleshoot that issue for a couple of days before realizing it, so I wanted to throw that out there just in case you have that problem.

(And funny, it's the machine that I was saying I could do that resolution with that I had that problem on!  It seems like I would have remembered that frustration... sorry again.)

2420

Living Room / Re: 1986 dial-up bulletin board system has brought the old Web back to life

« Last post by wraith808 on April 14, 2017, 07:55 AM »

It could be because I was younger, and there were more things that I was intensely passionate about, but it seemed that the slow transmission of text and images, also slowed down the stream of the negative consequences of online socialization.  It seemed that the flame wars I did see were over something of more substance than the latest reality star antics.  And they were rarely as vicious and long lived.

Something on this very subject:

http://massis.lcs.mi...line2006-1/0180.html

And a guide to Bulletin Board Systems still in operation:

http://bbs.guide/

2421

Living Room / Re: 1986 dial-up bulletin board system has brought the old Web back to life

« Last post by wraith808 on April 14, 2017, 06:53 AM »

Ah... the... wonder... of... the... 300... bored... modem.  I... wonder... how... long... this... will... take...

-cranioscopical (April 14, 2017, 05:43 AM)

That was before we knew any better.  It was a lot faster with 2400 baud    Well... relatively 

2422

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« Last post by wraith808 on April 13, 2017, 10:30 PM »

Dynamic Lock lets you automatically lock a Windows 10 PC when you’re away from it.

Is this 1995 or something 

I know it's more than just that, well at least it better be lol.

-rgdot (April 13, 2017, 08:24 PM)

I think the idea is that it detects the presence of a Bluetooth device (such as a smart watch) and locks when you're away and automatically unlocks when you come back.

-Deozaan (April 13, 2017, 09:28 PM)

It could also be an extension of Windows Hello, which is pretty cool now that I have it on my Surface Pro.

2423

General Software Discussion / Re: imgur bbcode?

« Last post by wraith808 on April 12, 2017, 09:55 AM »

imgur used to have a button to copy the bbcode for pasting in foums.  I tried wrapping the image address in image tags.  No good.  Anyone know the secret and why they did away with the convenient button?



The above smudge is what happens when using the image file url inside image tags. 

-MilesAhead (April 12, 2017, 09:02 AM)

You have to use the version of the link that has the extension at the end, i.e.

2424

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: CintaNotes Pro with 50% discount

« Last post by wraith808 on April 11, 2017, 10:46 AM »

Thanks!  It's a shame.  I like a lot about CN, but this is a show stopper for me, and the reason I didn't use it after I had it as much as I would have otherwise.

2425

General Software Discussion / Re: Adobe Acrobat - is there an alternative?

« Last post by wraith808 on April 11, 2017, 10:42 AM »

Reader can be fast, but it can also be slow.  Depends on the PDF.  I find that PDF XChange opens at the same speed no matter the PDF, which is why I always switch my default to it.

-wraith808 (April 11, 2017, 06:54 AM)

I was commenting more on launching the app. If I am opening a PDF file without the app running yet, then Acrobat Pro launches more quickly than PDF-XChange. Once they are both running, this difference disappears when opening additional files.

-dr_andus (April 11, 2017, 09:31 AM)

Ah... I always open with a file, so I hadn't noticed this.