Recent Posts

2526

Living Room / Re: Help with Proofing?

« Last post by Renegade on September 12, 2013, 11:59 AM »

Heh Renny password protected zip file is a bit overkill!

Why bother? The NSA read it already! They think you need better temporal exposition to set the scene. Joe told me so!

-TaoPhoenix (September 12, 2013, 11:56 AM)

I'm not worried about them. It's only to prevent bots from indexing the file. Kind of like a different version of the robots.txt file.

But yeah... That's still depressing.

So just read it and plaster me then!

2527

Living Room / Re: Anti Noise Forums and mobile technologies

« Last post by Renegade on September 12, 2013, 11:57 AM »

It's impractical and will never happen.

If you want to measure noise levels from a mobile device - zero chance.

The first obstacle is the manufacturer.

Then the model.

Then the mic used in that model and if they used different mics.

Then you can get to business. But those barriers are not going to be breached easily.

THEN...

You need to deal with the specific mic used and deal with SPL vs. different weightings. Not going to happen.

Just get yourself a decent sound measuring device.

I might be off base there as I'm assuming a few things from what you've written. If so, ignore me.

2528

Living Room / Re: Anti Noise Forums and mobile technologies

« Last post by Renegade on September 12, 2013, 11:32 AM »

Noise applications? Do you mean sound recording? Or something else.

2529

Living Room / Re: Help with Proofing?

« Last post by Renegade on September 12, 2013, 11:30 AM »

I came here to ask for help and see your post.
I will try

Learn English ? Wonderful . Downloading !!!!!!!!

-Contro (September 12, 2013, 11:18 AM)

If English isn't your first language, don't worry. Just focus on the story/plot/whatever. (But don't focus on grammar. )

2530

Living Room / Help with Proofing?

« Last post by Renegade on September 12, 2013, 11:05 AM »

Wraith808 posted a request for help proofing and editing a story here:

https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=35897.0

kyrathaba has a thread on a novel he wrote here:

https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=35166.0

Gotta admit... A lot of respect and admiration there. And MOTIVATION/INSPIRATION!


So... I have a request for anyone that is interested.

Please proof/edit/critique the first draft of a very short story I've written here:

http://cynic.me/An-E...e-for-the-Unseen.zip

The ZIP file is password protected. The password is:

Renegade

(That's only to protect it from being indexed/read by bots.)

It's a total of 3,337 words in a single chapter.

If possible, please use the track changes feature in Word for any edits, and the "New Comment" feature for comments/critiques/etc.

I'll put some info in spoilers in case anyone wants to read blind. The spoilers have no major information to reveal anything in the story so as to not ruin things for anyone.

Genre

Sci-fi/supernatural/horror

If you read "Genre", this is what it is NOT

No gore.
No sex.
No violence.

Language - profanity/obscenity

I use profanity in the story, though not excessively. There is no explicit language other than a few uses of the F word and anagrams of "this". You'll likely hear worse on the TV or at work.

What I wanted to portray - abstract - no spoilers

I wanted to blend science fiction and horror together with a spiritual aspect, and hence, the supernatural.

I tried to blend science with the supernatural in a "scientific" way.

I also wanted to portray a bit of tension between friends. Nothing extreme. Just some disagreement.

There are some other things in there that I wanted to do, but I'd rather leave them for you to read and discover.

Voice - technical point

I flopped around for a long time before starting it, but settled on the third person limited omniscience voice weighted towards the main character.

Originally I wanted to do this in the first person, but flopped over.

Thank you in advance for any feedback.


EDIT:

Ooops... forgot. Please email any files to ryan at renegademinds dot com. Thanks.

2531

Living Room / Re: A Proposal for Improving Quality of News-Related Threads

« Last post by Renegade on September 12, 2013, 09:46 AM »

I think Renegade's addition of the links to the Encryption thread can only (?) be seen as an improvement

-tomos (September 12, 2013, 05:21 AM)

I tried to not editorialize the links much. That will be an issue though, but I don't think it will be very important.

2532

N.A.N.Y. 2014 / Re: N.A.N.Y. 2014 - New Apps for the New Year - Welcome Thread

« Last post by Renegade on September 12, 2013, 09:33 AM »

Do we want to have a "theme" this year?

-mouser (September 12, 2013, 09:14 AM)

ZOMBIES! DEFINITELY ZOMBIES!!!

Ok... I got nothing serious... Zombies just sounded cool.

But I don't know if a theme could work. It would be very limiting, unless you wanted to do a "limbo" theme where people "limbo" under a certain license level. e.g. Proprietary license is top, then you rank BSD, GPL, Moz, Apache, WTF, etc. I think WTF would be the lowest limbo level.   (Public domain just sounds boring.)

2533

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

« Last post by Renegade on September 12, 2013, 03:42 AM »

^^ Heheehe! Say wut? Would be interesting to see that done as a kind of flow chart.

2534

Living Room / Re: A Proposal for Improving Quality of News-Related Threads

« Last post by Renegade on September 11, 2013, 11:06 PM »

Well if the original poster doesn't want to do the work, then that's the death of that.

-mouser (September 11, 2013, 07:18 PM)

Which could kind of suck at times, but it's still no loss over what's happening now. You're really just suggesting a way to improve what happens. If say 10% of threads that could benefit from it actually do it, then that's still an improvement.

But if you have someone who is willing to do what renegade just did on that thread, then it opens up all sorts of possibilities for people working together.  Like now i'm going to go send Renegade a few articles that i came across lately that i find fascinating. 

-mouser (September 11, 2013, 07:18 PM)

It might be better to post those in the thread along with some commentary. They could then be linked as a part of the discussion rather than just sort of popping out of nowhere. (Hint hint nudge nudge wink wink )

Renegade and I don't agree on too much

-mouser (September 11, 2013, 07:18 PM)

Hahaha! Not sure how much I agree with you there...

(No, I can never resist! )

-- but if he's willing to entertain adding some links that others find -- he's now opened up the range of discussion we can have on that thread and opened up the potential to get assistance in assembling a collection of "definitive" links -- while at the same time made it more likely that the thread can be a jumping off point to learn more and discucss more deeply.

-mouser (September 11, 2013, 07:18 PM)

It would be particularly useful for threads as they get long, e.g. the Thermageddon thread.

But then, the chronological order will start to deteriorate. A larger number of resources needs to be categorized to be easier to use.

Regarding what are "reputable" sites -- I'm not hung up on that -- as long as the first poster is open to adding new links i think it's all good.

-mouser (September 11, 2013, 07:18 PM)

We're going to get some chaff either way, from any perspective. Let the reader sort it out. No amount of reason will convince those that don't want to be convinced, in any direction. 

Want "the" top source for extra-dimensional higher-frequency out-of-phase shapeshifting reptilian aliens that possess people? http://www.davidicke.com/ (I find him very entertaining - he even has a lot of useful things to say!)

My guess is that some people won't want to add some links, and people will likely also miss links (particularly inline links like this), but whatever - at the end of the day the first post in a thread will be more useful to new readers. It will also let them catch up pretty quickly in some ways. Everything skews one way or another, so it's not something that we should worry about.

2535

Living Room / Re: A Proposal for Improving Quality of News-Related Threads

« Last post by Renegade on September 11, 2013, 06:45 PM »

I've updated this post:

https://www.donation....msg336376#msg336376

With a very, very simple format for links. It follows this format:

<SITE TITLE>
- <brief description 1 line or less>
<link1>
<link2>
...
<original DC post link>

Any stylistic issues aside, it's succinct, and lets you jump to the DC post, which is important for context, etc. I used chronological order with most recent at the bottom.

For "credible sources", I'll continue that discussion in the Orwellian thread in the basement. Suffice it to say that what constitutes a "credible source" is a topic for debate, and trying to have some sort of standard there will be nothing but counter productive. As you'll see in the summary I gave, there are already disputes about what sources are credible (or their motivations), and a Dilbert cartoon. (Is satire/humour credible?) Simply putting it all in there and leaving the readers to decide for themselves is likely the best and easiest course of action. i.e. This is the issue. These are some resources. Have at 'er.

2536

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

« Last post by Renegade on September 11, 2013, 06:08 PM »

To the optimist, the glass is half-full. To the pessimist, the glass is half-empty. To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

-kyrathaba (September 11, 2013, 09:23 AM)

Oh dear ... The punch line is actually quite close to the answer I typically give - like during job interviews - for that exact question (Which is: the glass is to big for the task at hand, and leave me out of your silly  :)ing exorcise).

-Stoic Joker (September 11, 2013, 11:10 AM)

While I have been insisting since childhood, in all seriousness, that the glass is completely full.

-app103 (September 11, 2013, 03:11 PM)

Which asserts that the serving size is correct, and that the seemingly extra rim space is simply a requirement of/for safe yet rapid transport.

Hm... I like it!

-Stoic Joker (September 11, 2013, 03:59 PM)

It's just my recognition of the half a glass of air that everyone else ignores. 

-app103 (September 11, 2013, 05:06 PM)

Which can only mean that there's room for another bottle of wine!

2537

Living Room / Re: Movies or films you've seen lately

« Last post by Renegade on September 11, 2013, 09:46 AM »

I'm currently watching a 3 DVD set documentary on 9/11. (I'm watching the online version.)

http://www.globalres...pearl-harbor/5348868

Some very interesting information in there. The way the science is addressed is new as I'd not heard a lot of it. e.g. Airplane speed at different altitudes, etc.

It's available for free online.

2538

Living Room / Re: Movies or films you've seen lately

« Last post by Renegade on September 11, 2013, 09:40 AM »

@Ren - you'll love the ending. The ending was made for people like us.

-40hz (September 11, 2013, 09:02 AM)

SHHH! No more! I felt bad enough seeing the trailer! I hope that doesn't spoil the movie. And don't tell me if it does! I like going into movies blind and not knowing anything more than the absolute bare minimum. That's what makes movies like Ironman tolerable enough to finish watching, and films like Fallen simply spectacular!

("Batman" was about the worst movie I've ever seen. It was hyped to death and when I saw it, it was a horrible let down. And it had the stupidest line that just made me cringe in uncomfortable embarrassment for the movie, writers, and Michael Keaton -- "Who are you?" "I'm Batman." I just about lost my cookies. What freaked me out though was that a lot of people actually liked that line and thought it was cool.  After that... no more trailers or anything for me.)

2539

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

« Last post by Renegade on September 11, 2013, 09:34 AM »

^ Those were excellent! 

2540

Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by Renegade on September 11, 2013, 08:57 AM »

^ I actually do spend and use BTC. But I make sure to keep the vast majority of it.

Havelock is fun. Check one of my posts above.

2541

Living Room / Re: Movies or films you've seen lately

« Last post by Renegade on September 11, 2013, 08:54 AM »

Edit: If you want to see a good found footage documentary, Search for "Troll Hunter". You'll love this movie.

-mahesh2k (September 11, 2013, 01:52 AM)

+1! Troll Hunter is absolutely awesome. Excellent premise, great characters, well done minimalist script, spot on internal integrity with no plot holes, excellent pacing, and a totally logical but very surprising ending. Full points for this one! Easily one of the best films of this type ever made. 

-40hz (September 11, 2013, 08:21 AM)

Hmmm... I usually read while watching, so I tend to shy away from subtitled non-English films, but looks pretty darn good!

2542

Living Room / Re: Kiss Encryption Goodbye... :*

« Last post by Renegade on September 11, 2013, 08:44 AM »

^^ Just got through the comments. Found this:

http://www.blacklist...724/0/38/38/Y/M.html

You guessed it. More bad news.

Originals and more here:

http://www.boilingfr...mega-donors-funding/
http://www.boilingfr...oses-itself-further/
http://www.boilingfr...all-street-salaries/
http://www.boilingfr...ream-media-advisors/

EDIT: I read through those. It's so much worse. Just so much worse... I don't even want to try to explain or even think about it. Mind-bogglingly worse...

2543

Living Room / Re: Kiss Encryption Goodbye... :*

« Last post by Renegade on September 11, 2013, 08:27 AM »

Matthew Green is a cryptography researcher at Johns Hopkins University. His blog post On the NSA was taken down by the university, then restored, with only an image of the official NSA logo deleted, after the initial removal caused an uproar in some circles.

Green provides a useful perspective on the NSA's activities in subverting encryption, from someone who really does understand the topic, about what MAY (remember - that information is classified) have happened and what it would mean if it in fact HAS happened.

-xtabber (September 11, 2013, 07:51 AM)

That was a good article. And not too long either!

I've been wondering about this:

Which means there's a circumstantial case that the NSA and GCHQ are either directly accessing Certificate Authority keys** or else actively stealing keys from US providers, possibly (or probably) without executives' knowledge.

A very worthwhile read.

2544

Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by Renegade on September 11, 2013, 08:05 AM »

Another article for the bitcoin fans.
 (see attachment in previous post)
Let's Cut Through the Bitcoin Hype A Hacker-Entrepreneur's Take

-Arizona Hot (September 10, 2013, 03:39 PM)

That was SPECTACULARLY middle of the road! A very nice read!

I did like this little bit:

Nothing made by humans is ever free of politics or even error.

Not even math...

And this:

Fighting over what’s “fiat” and what’s “real” is silly. It’s all fiat. Gold isn’t conscious; all value is belief. What’s fiat is who can change the supply and how. Nobody can just declare the existence of one million new bitcoin and start trading on it. It doesn’t matter how much we do or don’t trust the U.S. Federal Reserve, the system knows how many bitcoin exist at what time, and knows where they all are, globally.

Different currencies have different strengths and weaknesses. e.g. Bitcoin can NEVER replace a roll of quarters.

2545

Living Room / Re: A School System goes NSA-Lite

« Last post by Renegade on September 11, 2013, 06:46 AM »

^^ I guess that's what you get when it's a prerequisite that someone be found to blame.

2546

Living Room / Re: Movies or films you've seen lately

« Last post by Renegade on September 11, 2013, 02:27 AM »

I watched "Dytlov pass incident", didn't liked it much. There wasn't anything creepy in it. However here are some of the found footage movies that I enjoyed watching

-mahesh2k (September 11, 2013, 01:52 AM)

SPOILER ALERT - DO NOT READ IF YOU PLAN TO WATCH

I found the end really good. The way the creatures DON'T kill them, then herd them into the "time/teleport tunnel", then when/where/when they pop out really worked out nicely. The tattoo behind the ear was a good touch. They set up everything for that just perfectly. You have all the clues there in front of you, then the pop out and connect all the dots. That kind of stuff is what makes a movie really good. I tend to read a lot while I watch some movies, and missed a few of those key things, which worked out well enough as the ending then came as a surprise.

With a lot of horror films, the entire movie is simply a long setup for that killer ending. The best horror films blow you away at the end with something that you didn't expect, but that they'd already told you about earlier.

Oh, and thanks for the recommendations! 

2547

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

« Last post by Renegade on September 11, 2013, 01:48 AM »

First, there was Cock Puncher...



Then, there was Cock Muncher!

http://www.theguardi...anthony-watts-banned

Penis bite lands Anthony Watts eight-match ban, say reports
• Incident occurred during local rugby league final
• Latest in series of incidents for former NRL star

Ex-NRL player Anthony Watts has reportedly been handed an eight-match ban for biting an opponent's penis during a local rugby league final on the Gold Coast.

...

Video footage of the incident shows the Jets player reeling away in pain after clashing with Watts near the goal line.

He then quickly pulled down his shorts to show the damage to a referee who immediately placed Watts on report.

  Seriously?

BWAHAHAHAHAHA~!

2548

Living Room / $4k Used Server Selling for over $25k - A slice of history!

« Last post by Renegade on September 11, 2013, 01:41 AM »

If you have a LOT of extra change hanging around, you may want to drop a bit on THE Dell Poweredge R410 server that powered Wikileaks:

http://www.ebay.com/...;hash=item417684e377



Gotta say, that would truly be something to have in terms of geek/internet history.

2549

Living Room / Re: My Gadget Idea: "Timestamper Disc"

« Last post by Renegade on September 11, 2013, 12:03 AM »

Well i've been looking for an ios iphone 5 / android app idea, so maybe this is a good small one.

-mouser (September 10, 2013, 08:32 PM)

If you're thinking of an Android app, look into doing it as a widget as I think the general form factor there is pretty well suited to the concept. (Who wants to open up an app? It's just an extra step.)

2550

Living Room / Re: Is 'the cloud' becoming the 'SkyNet'?

« Last post by Renegade on September 11, 2013, 12:00 AM »

I don't know enough about the market size there to comment. But, it being total BS would be pretty much in line with everything else I read in the MSM.