Recent Posts

251

General Software Discussion / Re: Stardock doesn't treat you like a criminal!

« Last post by cthorpe on July 03, 2008, 11:39 AM »

Cool! I hope if they give us a discount it will include their games.

-Deozaan (July 03, 2008, 11:17 AM)

I made sure to specifically ask for discounts on their games as well as their utilities.  I am really interested in Sins, and my wife wants Political Machine.

Carl

252

Living Room / Re: Woot.com Bag of Crap post

« Last post by cthorpe on July 03, 2008, 01:19 AM »

Stay tuned for another load of crap.  I've got another mystery shipment coming soon from another source...

253

Living Room / Woot.com Bag of Crap post

« Last post by cthorpe on July 02, 2008, 03:12 PM »

I'm sure most, if not all of you reading this know what woot.com is.  Well, in addition to the normal "Deal of the Day" stuff they offer, they occasionally do something called a "Woot-Off."  During a Woot-Off, items appear on the site for a short time (sometimes a few hours; sometimes a few minutes) for extremely low prices.  Wooters in the know watch the Woot-Off obsessively looking for a great deal on cool gadgets.  For example, this past Woot-Off saw a refurbed Creative media player sell for about $100 that usually sells for $400+.

But the gadgets aren't the biggest prize of all.  Nay, the biggest prize is crap.  Random crap.  A Bag of Crap.  When you purchase crap, you decide how many craps you want in your order up to a maximum of 3.  Each crap costs a dollar, and it costs $5.00 flat to ship crap to you wherever you are.  So the natural choice is to get all three craps in your box.  So $8.00 +tax if you live in Texas, and you have an order of crap winging its way to you via Smart Post.  Wait, did I say winging its way?  More like limping.  Crawling even.  As in it takes 12 days for this crap to finally arrive.  That's not too healthy if you ask me.  And that's if you were lucky enough to get crap at all.  This past Woot-Off, crap was on sale for mere minutes, and 4500 craps were bought by the Wooting masses.  According to the site, crap was selling at a rate of $243,378.45 worth of crap per hour.  That's a lot of crap if you believe those numbers.

Now you may be asking yourself why crap is such a hot commodity.  Let me share from some other, luckier Wooters who post their crap on the internet.

3 GE Insta-Jacks
2 Sansa 2gig mp3/FM players
I Earbud set
1 Usb Adapter for the Sansa's
1 ATI x600se PCI-E Video Card
1 MiracleBeam Clip-Lite
1 Awesome Red Backpack
1 Extra set of foamies for the earbuds

One red backpack
Three instajacks
One Darth Vader Dashboard Driver (press a button to make him talk)
One miniature r/c helicopter

1 Backpack
1 CS Bracelet
3 Instajacks
1 SanDisk 2 gb c250 (missing Battery)
1 SanDisk 2 gb e250 (no cable)
1 SanDIsk 8 gb e280 (no cable)

1 - Boston Acoustics Center Channel
1 - Reebok Heart Rate Monitor
3 - InstaJack Extensions
1 - WOOT! Beer Bucket #659 (ideal for July 4th!)

As you can see, there is some interesting crap in there.  In the past, craps have included fully working Roombas (those robotic vacuums), refurbed ipods, computer components, etc.  Even with some oddities such as missing cables, much of that crap is useful.


So the weekend of June 20th, I had absolutely nothing to do.  My wife was out of town.  Nothing to watch on the TV.  Nobody around for entertainment, so I joined to obsessive quest for crap during a Woot-Off.  Around 5pm, crap appeared, and with trembling hands I clicked a few times and ordered my first Woot crap (3 craps in case you are wondering).  My crap arrived today.  I could barely contain myself as I brought the box inside and tore into it.  Now, for your viewing pleasure, I am going to show you my crap.


Box looks good.  Nice size.  Rather light however.  Big fluffy craps?


Alright, here we have some of those inflatable air pads.  Looks like I might have some crap in there worth protecting.  Breakable crap.  You can see a vtech box.  They make decent cordless phones, so that's promising.


This box is actually heavy for its size.  I wonder what could be in it?


Ah, we have three "GE Instajack for Phones Extension Units."  For use with GE model TL26595 Instajack for Phones system.  Apparently you plug these craps into wall outlets and it allows you to add a phone jack anywhere.  These are only extensions, however, are are useless without the main base unit.  I don't have a need for extra phone lines anywhere anyway.  Well, I guess that's three craps for the price of one.


Here we have a backpack.  The material seems kinda flimsy, but it could do in a pinch to carry crap.  Except none of the zippers work.  That's right, they are all broken.  The main zipper separated and won't mesh back together at all.  The zipper on the front pocket won't slide at all.  Useless crap again.


A long black box... could it be a pen and pencil set?  What kind of crap could fit in there?


No, it's a "diamond" tennis bracelet.  The metal smells horrible and made my hands stink from touching it (well, it is crap after all).  I don't even want to think of what kind of reaction it would cause on someone's arm.  I closed the clasp, and it got stuck.  Trying to open it broke the whole crap.


Finally we get to the vtech phone.  Here we have a 5.8ghz cordless phone system with two handsets, a digital answering system in the main base, and an extra base to keep the second handset charged.  It's a refurb, and the box is rather beat up.


Inside, we find all the parts.  They look alright, though one of the phone handsets is scratched up pretty bad.  At this point, I was actually rather pleased with this crap, as our cordless interferes with our wireless network in the house.


Unfortunately, after plugging everything in and trying it out, it looks like this is the extent of the working equipment in the box.  The main base doesn't seem to want to charge anything and many of the scratched up phone's buttons don't work.  Since the extra base doesn't actually plug into a phone line and provide service, the whole crap is a bust.  I'll fiddle with it a bit more before calling it a loss.

Interestingly, the digital answering system on the base unit still works, and there were 3 messages on it.  The first 2 were telemarketers, but the last was a breathy woman named Linda calling to speak with Gary. She seemed... excited about the prospect of the conversation and rather disappointed that he wasn't there to pick up the phone.  The working handset had numbers in the caller ID, including one for a Linda.  Fun could be had with that, I suppose.


In all, the crap lived up to its name.  I can't say there was anything in there to make me say it was worth it.  Of course, the next time a Woot-Off comes along... who knows... I might be there vying for more crap.

So there  you have it.  I've shown you my crap.  Anybody have any crap of their own to share?


(Now all the pictures should work)

254

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Jungle Disk Mini-Review: offsite data storage

« Last post by cthorpe on July 02, 2008, 11:22 AM »

Well, unless you plan on constantly moving a lot of data the lower performance shouldn't be too much of an issue.  Just schedule Jungle Disk to do the transfers when you aren't on your computer.  When I first installed it, I transferred about 2 gigs worth of data over the first couple of days.  Since then, I only move a few MB per day.


Carl

255

General Software Discussion / Re: Stardock doesn't treat you like a criminal!

« Last post by cthorpe on July 01, 2008, 02:24 PM »

I just emailed Stardock to inquire about a DC discount on their programs.  I'll let you all know when I hear back from them.

256

General Software Discussion / New version of FirstDefense-ISR

« Last post by cthorpe on June 30, 2008, 05:55 PM »

For anyone who purchased a copy of FirstDefense-ISR before it disappeared, the developers of the actual ISR software have a new version available.  They are offering the upgrade free of charge to anyone who purchased ISR form any of the various distributors it has had over the past few years.  To get it, head over to the official support forum at Wilderssecurity.com (http://www.wildersse...orumdisplay.php?f=84) and read the sticky post a the top.  I haven't installed it yet, so I can't comment on the new features/fixes.

Carl

257

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Jungle Disk Mini-Review: offsite data storage

« Last post by cthorpe on June 30, 2008, 12:24 PM »

Jungle Disk 2.0 (Final) was just released.  It is a free upgrade for registered users.  The original review was for the beta of this release, but for anyone who balked at using a beta for critical backups, you can rest easy now.

Jungle Disk 2.0 includes major upgrades in functionality, performance, and ease of use. Here are some of the highlights:

    * New User Interface
          o New first-time setup wizard makes setup a snap
          o New configuration dialog to organize our growing list of features
          o New backup preview dialog so you can see exactly what will be backed up
          o New backup selection dialog makes it faster and easier to set up automatic backup
    * Support for new Jungle Disk 2.0 buckets
          o Instantly rename files and directories
          o Optionally encrypt file & directory names
          o Change encryption key (bucket password) for existing files instantly
          o Unlimited number of buckets supported
    * Support for Compatibility buckets, which can be shared with other S3 tools
    * Support for European S3 buckets (note: Jungle Disk Plus not supported)
    * Support for connecting to multiple buckets at the same time
    * Support for multiple backup jobs with independent scheduling
    * Expanded bandwidth limiting feature
          o Applies to both network drive and automatic backup traffic
          o Set limits on both upload and download rates
          o Change limits on the fly
          o Set schedules for limits
    * New Previous Versions features
          o Set minimum and maximum number of previous versions to keep
          o Exclude file types and directories from previous versions
          o Customize previous version settings on a per-backup-job basis
    * New command line options to integrate with external task schedulers and batch jobs
    * Greatly improved performance for large directories and large cache sizes
    * ..and much more!

-http://blog.jungledisk.com/2008/06/23/jungle-disk-desktop-20-released/

258

Developer's Corner / Re: Programatically determining your IP Address...

« Last post by cthorpe on June 30, 2008, 03:40 AM »

k, here is a test run... This application should grab the source from http://checkip.dyndns.org/ and use a simple string manipulation to find your external IP address... Please post and let me know the results.

-Codebyte (June 30, 2008, 12:02 AM)

Worked for me as well.

259

Living Room / Re: How Interesting is Your IP Address?

« Last post by cthorpe on June 26, 2008, 08:35 AM »

Mine was only a 6.

Here's and interesting one:

http://www.ipspottin.../?IP=166.127.161.157

The IP translates to Wednesday 20th June 1990 as a UNIX date
On this day:
LOTR: Sauron attacks Osgiliath (+1)

I would think that would be worth more than +1


edit by jgpaiva: fixed quote tag

260

Mini-Reviews by Members / Mini-Review: Obulis (game)

« Last post by cthorpe on June 23, 2008, 09:38 PM »

Basic Info

App Name	Obulis
App URL	http://www.ionfx.com...roduct_pc_obulis.htm
App Version Reviewed	1.0
Test System Specs	Vista Home Premium with SP1 Core2 Quad Core @ 2.4GHz 4.0GB Ram NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT w/ 512MB of video RAM
Supported OSes	Vista/XP/2000/ME/98 with Pentium 4 or better and 128MB Video RAM
Support Methods	Email using contact form at http://www.ionfx.com/contact.php
Upgrade Policy	Unknown at this time
Trial Version Available?	Demo version available with reduced level set
Pricing Scheme	$19.99 USD
Screencast Video URL	Official trailer video: http://www.ionfx.com...videoplayer_OBPC.htm Also, look for the Screencasts in the review below (see note at end of review about screencasts)
Relationship btwn. Reviewer and Product	I am not affiliated with IonFx in any way, nor do I receive any compensation of any kind from the company as a result of sales generated by this review.  I am a registered user of two of the company's PocketPC games.  The developer sent me a free license to Obulis for PC.  At no time did the developer ask me to write a review of this program, nor did I imply to him that I would be reviewing it in exchange for the free license.

Intro:

Obulis is an outstanding physics based puzzle game for the PC.  It began as a pair of excellent PocketPC games (Obulis and Obulis: The Second Epoch), which recently were named in a list of "All-Time Top 10 Games" by Smartphone and PocketPC Magazine (April/May 2008).  Now that the game has made the transition to the desktop, there is no reason not to install the demo and take a look.  You won't be disappointed.




Who is this app designed for:

This game is designed for anyone who likes to use his or her brain, is looking for a casual game that doesn't take hours to learn and play, and can't stand the thought of another "Match 3" or "Sim Something-Or-Other" clone.  The game does occasionally require rapid mouse movements and clicking on small objects.


The Good

The goal in this game is simple: get the colored balls into the matching containers.  To do this, you have to cut the connectors that are holding the balls in place when the stage begins.  Cut a connector by clicking on it first with the left mouse button to select it and then clicking the right mouse button anywhere on the screen or pressing space, and the ball will fall or swing, bouncing off objects, and starting other balls rolling or swinging on their own connectors.  During this process, everything acts like you would think it would act in the real world.  Balls have mass, momentum, and inertia (you'll even make use of fully functional Newton's Cradles on more than one occasion).  If all goes well, all the balls will end up in the correct containers and you will win the stage.  If something goes wrong, such as a ball ending up in a mismatched container or one of the colored balls falling off the bottom of the screen or rolling off the edge, then you will "fault" on the level and have to start over.  Other times, you won't get a fault, but it will be impossible to win the level because of a mistake you made, so you will have to click the restart button or press the r key on your keyboard to reload the level.



Screencast Here is a screencast of a simple level.

This simple premise continues through the 151 levels of the game, but additional devices and types of balls will appear to help and hinder you.  You will find plenty of silver balls that act just like the colored balls, however they will cause a fault if they fall into any containers and they can be dropped off the screen or rolled off the edge with no penalty.  You will also come across catapults, elevators, gears, slingshots, bouncy surfaces, and other devices to move balls from one place to another.  Some are controlled by you (cut the cord holding a catapult's arm down to allow it to shoot a ball across the screen), and others are constantly moving or trigger automatically when a ball comes into range.  On top of all of that, you have to take into account the physics of the objects you are working with.  Big balls have more mass and aren't affected as much when small balls hit them, and they can really get a small ball moving if dropped on it.  Some balls are connected to chains that cause some irregularity in the swing when hit by other balls, while others are connected by poles which cause the ball to remain a set distance from the pivot point at all times.  Still other balls are connected with elastic cords that will cause the ball to snap back after being released from another connector.

Screencast Here is a screencast showing gears and slingshots.

If you get stuck, you can always click on a button to see the solution to the level, but that's cheating isn't it  .  As you complete each level, you move on to the next on a map screen.  Many times you will have a choice of which direction to go on the map, so if you are stuck somewhere you can always try a different direction and come back to a puzzle later.



The graphics in this game are well done, with each area having a different look ranging from grasses and flowers to quasi-eqyptian to dark and forbodeing forests.  One cool part about the scenery is the foreground layer of unfocused foliage in the grassy and forest areas.  This foliage waves back and forth and is blurred and translucent so you can see the balls behind it.  It's a really cool effect that you have to see to appreciate.  Here are some screenshots of a few more of the environments:



The sound for the game is probably the weakest part.  The music seems like it was an afterthought.  It's not bad or annoying, but it's not memorable either.  Likewise, the sound isn't very lively, however there's only so much you can do with balls hitting each other.  You can mute the music or sound effects independently of each other in the game settings if you want to listen to your own music or if you find the effects bothersome.


The needs improvement section

Gameplay: I think there should be more of a deterrent to using the solution button.  As it is, there doesn't seem to be any penalty for using it.  Make sure you don't resort to it until you've really given yourself a chance to figure the puzzle out.  Also, it would be great if you could hit the solution button, and then stop it before it shows how to solve the whole thing.  That way it could help you figure out the first step and then you could go from there.  Right now it plays the entire thing and there doesn't seem to be a way to stop it midway.

Technical: As I mentioned above, the sound is the weakest area of the game.  About the only other thing I see that could be better would be if the program could be run in a window.  As it is now, it must be played full screen.  Luckily it seems to behave itself when Alt-Tabbing to other programs, so it's not too much of a problem.

Why I think you should use this product

It's a awesome puzzle game that has a fresh gameplay mechanic.  With a fully functional demo (limited level set), you can get a feel for the game and decide if it is as compelling for you.  If you are a fan of the PocketPC games, you are probably already sold on this for the simple fact that it is more levels of Obulis goodness.


How does it compare to similar apps

The only similar games I can think of are the two PocketPC editions of the game which are available from the same developer.


Conclusions

Puzzle fans will find a lot to like here, and with 151 levels it will last you for quite some time.  It's a refreshing change of pace from the seemingly endless supply of puzzlers that appear to be rehashes of only a few ideas with a new paintjob.  I've been playing the PocketPC versions of this game for months and I've been loving every minute of it.  In the short time that I've been playing the PC version, I can tell that it is as good or better than the handheld versions, and the enhanced graphics and easier control makes it a lot more visually appealing and accessible.  Finally, if you have a PocketPC and you like this game, definitely give the PPC versions a shot as well.

Links to other reviews of this application

I couldn't find any other reviews of the PC version, but here are some reviews of the PocketPC versions.
http://spmwinkel.wor...is-the-second-epoch/
http://justanothermo...is-the-second-epoch/

Screencasts

Screencasts created with a combination of Taksi and Camtasia.  Actual gameplay is much sharper and smoother.

261

General Software Discussion / Re: Is anyone having random slowdowns on Vista SP1?

« Last post by cthorpe on June 18, 2008, 09:23 AM »

I was having similar problems before going to SP1.  Since the switch, I haven't had any problems.  I think Vista has a mind of its own and decides to work or not depending on phases of the moon, ambient temperature, and other random factors.

Had you made any system tweaks before installing SP1 that might have been undone by the upgrade?  Any indexing or background services that are chewing up resources that you banished a year ago and forgot about?  I seem to remember reading somewhere that SP1 undoes a lot of the performance tweaks that we had done in the past, but I can't recall where I saw that or which tweaks were undone.

262

Living Room / Re: Looking for help identifying hidden domain owner...

« Last post by cthorpe on June 18, 2008, 09:14 AM »

If they are promoting websales for themselves, where does the money go?  Is it one of the well know ecommerce providers?  Paypal?  Some homegrown ecommerce scripts?

263

Find And Run Robot / FARR on CybernetNews

« Last post by cthorpe on June 16, 2008, 06:05 PM »

A mention of your new version:

http://cybernetnews....ansmission-and-more/

264

General Software Discussion / Re: Do we need a Linux and/or Mac child board?

« Last post by cthorpe on June 12, 2008, 09:39 AM »

Just a thought.. should we add child subforums for people to discuss such software?

-mouser (June 12, 2008, 09:26 AM)

I just assumed that https://www.donation...ndex.php?board=215.0 was for posting about Macs and all other things Apple...

But seriously, are there enough users to warrant a child board, and would those few posters on those boards miss out on community input and discussion due to smaller numbers of people seeing their threads?  For example, if someone wanted to discuss web design and they are a mac user, they may feel that they are required to post in the mac child board. They would miss out on input from users who might have a lot of ideas for mac programs in that areas, but don't visit the mac board because they are primarily pc users.

265

Living Room / Re: Hosting options for new website

« Last post by cthorpe on May 31, 2008, 02:20 PM »

I would avoid 1and1 and godaddy for hosting.

I used 1and1 because of a free offer they had a few years back.  They were pretty good on the free account, but when that expired and I went to a paid account, it was too slow for any decent cms options.   Their support is also problematic, and it is very hard to cancel your account and prevent them from auto-renewing and billing you.

GoDaddy also had a lot of problems when trying to use a cms that required a sql backend.  After a week of dealing with support techs who insisted that everything worked on their end, and that it was a problem with  my computer or isp, I finally got a manager on the phone who admitted that they were having difficulty accessing my site as well.  He was  unable to explain why the lower level techs lied about being able to access my site, and didn't give me any reason to stick with them for anything (even for domain registrations),.


I currently use hostgator.com and I am very pleased with the service.  My sites are always accessible, they load quickly, and the tech support is average to above average.  Their prices are reasonable as well.

266

Living Room / Re: Why do children love CAPS LOCK?

« Last post by cthorpe on May 24, 2008, 02:45 AM »

I teach 6th graders at a school where all the students are issued laptops.  For many of them, caps lock is the only way to know to get capital letters.  They will hit it, type the first letter of the work, then hit caps lock again.  Many times, they would forget to turn it off.  It took a lot of work to teach them that all they need to do to produce a capital is hold down shift while typing the letter.

267

General Software Discussion / Re: MusicIP 1.9beta3 (new 1.9 version) released

« Last post by cthorpe on May 19, 2008, 12:28 PM »

3700 files in 6 hours? I have over 15000 (and yes, all legal - over 300 CDs and emusic membership since 2000) - I dont think I will even try

I suppose i could make it analyse a subset and add them in batches over time?

-iphigenie (May 19, 2008, 04:16 AM)

You can set the priority of the analysis engine in the program options.  I set mine to low, and didn't even notice it was running (even on my old 866mhz pc).  When I was going to be away from the computer, I would set the priority to normal.  It took a few days to get through all my music, but my computer was still usable during all that time.

268

General Software Discussion / Re: Monkey Dash: Play test my game!

« Last post by cthorpe on May 10, 2008, 05:18 PM »

Can I get a link?

269

Living Room / Re: Shutdown Day!

« Last post by cthorpe on May 01, 2008, 07:42 PM »

...but may 3 is Wednesday.
I have to work Wednesday.
I use a computer at work...

-Edvard (May 01, 2008, 06:50 PM)

Um... isn't May 3 Saturday?


I'm not even going through the motions of trying.  There is no way I can do it.

270

Living Room / Re: Phone Interview with Microsoft!

« Last post by cthorpe on April 30, 2008, 11:55 PM »

The first real job interview I ever had was with Dell.  I'm not quite sure how I even got the interview I did, but it was for a project coordinator/management position.  The interview, which turned out be 5 different interviews with different combinations of interviewers, was brutal.  At times, it even bordered on absurd.  I was asked general interview type questions.  I was asked to imagine bizarre scenarios where I had to save myself and everyone in the room from some impending disaster using a drinking straw, paperclip, and a rubber band.  I was asked about my pets.  I was asked how I even got past security.  About halfway through, I stopped panicing and started having fun with the interviewers.  I didn't get the job, but I have found that every interview since then has been a breeze.

271

UrlSnooper / URLSnooper in latest PC World Magazine

« Last post by cthorpe on April 27, 2008, 06:30 PM »

In PC World's May 2008 issue, they list the "Best Free Stuff on the Web," and URL Snooper is in there:






the link there goes to
http://www.pcworld.c...deo/description.html

272

Image Manager Shootout / Re: Xnview vs. IrfanView - integrity issue examined

« Last post by cthorpe on April 25, 2008, 09:37 AM »

I can't say I recall any dialogs in Irfan that were anything special.  How can you claim copying when your dialogs are standard windows dialogs?  Maybe I'm missing some hidden, super-cool, knock-your-socks-off dialogs buried deep within the bowels of irfan.  That being said, I rarely use either program since I bought Directory Opus and have been using its built in viewer.

273

General Software Discussion / Re: [shell-fu]$

« Last post by cthorpe on April 16, 2008, 04:57 PM »

Awesome!
I wish I had these in a fortune file...

-Edvard (April 16, 2008, 02:17 PM)

Try this instead of calling fortune:

[Select]

links -dump "http://www.shell-fu.org/lister.php?random" | grep -A 100 -- ----

274

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for a Pocket PC App to keep a running tally of times an event occurs

« Last post by cthorpe on April 15, 2008, 04:22 PM »

Ah, but I tend to have difficulty with organization at times, so I'm trying to streamline and eliminate the amount of paper I generate.  I teach writing, so I am inundated with paper from the students, and I don't want my documentation to get lost int he shuffle.  And when I did try spreadsheets in the past, I never failed to end up with at least one sheet that I had forgotten to date or indicate what I was tallying that day.

Also, I am rarely stationary in the classroom, so I would need to carry a clipboard or something like that for the spreadsheet anyway, so that eliminates the benefit of one handedness.

275

General Software Discussion / Looking for a Pocket PC App to keep a running tally of times an event occurs

« Last post by cthorpe on April 14, 2008, 09:48 PM »

I am a teacher, and I would love to find a pocket pc app that can do the following:

I want to have a list of my students on the screen with a number next to each one.  That number would start at zero, and I would like to have an up arrow and a down arrow that allows one click changing of the value for that student.

What I would use it for: Keep track of times a student responds during question and answer sessions; monitor times students talk during silent reading or writing; monitor times students shout out answers instead of waiting to be called on; monitor times student makes an error while reading from a text; etc.

Any ideas?