Recent Posts

2551

Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by Deozaan on November 05, 2015, 07:17 PM »

I really want to get into BC... but I don't even know where to start with it doing this mess.

-wraith808 (November 04, 2015, 02:49 PM)

I read somewhere recently-ish that it was practically impossible (for the average person) to earn more money through mining than the cost of the power expended to run the mining hardware. But that may have been before the even-more-recent-ish rally that BTC has had.

I, too, am interested in getting into BTC, but I have no idea how to create a wallet. And I lack basic knowledge about BTC, such as if it's even possible to have a wallet without mining.

2552

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

« Last post by Deozaan on November 05, 2015, 05:23 PM »

[ Invalid Attachment ]
Beautiful artwork shows up only when street is wet

-Arizona Hot (November 04, 2015, 01:29 PM)

Three words: Photoshop.

2553

DC Gamer Club / Re: [Free] TRIBES Universe games

« Last post by Deozaan on November 02, 2015, 07:59 PM »

Nice!

2554

Non-Windows Software / Re: *NIX: Relatively Minimal Host OS for VirtualBox Use

« Last post by Deozaan on October 31, 2015, 06:53 PM »

Just a few days after we were talking about Xen, I saw this guide to installing Xen on an Odroid XU4:

http://odroid.com/do...ku.php?id=en:xu4_xen

I don't have a XU4, but it's still pretty cool nonetheless.

2555

Skwire Empire / Re: Steam URL Converter

« Last post by Deozaan on October 27, 2015, 07:00 PM »

Looking through a few of them, they have the Program Files path. So I guess it's no fault of your program at all. Thanks.

-Deozaan (October 27, 2015, 03:16 PM)

Try right-clicking a game, creating a new desktop shortcut, and then checking the path in the new .URL.  If it's correct, then try using SteamURLConverter to create a .LNK out of it.

-skwire (October 27, 2015, 05:43 PM)

That would have worked, but I just opened them all up in Notepad++ and did a mass find/replace to change the path in all of them.

That said, some of them still don't have icons because there are no icon files in that directory for those games. And even doing as you suggested (at least for the one I tried) doesn't create an icon file, and just had a blank path for the icon in the .URL file. Weird.

I'm not too worried about "fixing" this. Just reporting here for the sake of completeness.

2556

Skwire Empire / Re: Steam URL Converter

« Last post by Deozaan on October 27, 2015, 03:16 PM »

This works for me as far as converting the link to an actual shortcut. But it doesn't work for making the icons appear. It seems the shortcuts look in the standard Program Files directory for Steam and the icons, even though I have Steam installed elsewhere.

-Deozaan (October 27, 2015, 01:47 AM)

Strange...I don't appear to have that issue.  I'm using W7/64 with an account that has administrator rights.  If you open up the .URL file in a text editor, what does it have for the IconFile value?

-skwire (October 27, 2015, 12:13 PM)

Looking through a few of them, they have the Program Files path. So I guess it's no fault of your program at all. Thanks.

2557

Skwire Empire / Re: Steam URL Converter

« Last post by Deozaan on October 27, 2015, 01:47 AM »

This works for me as far as converting the link to an actual shortcut. But it doesn't work for making the icons appear. It seems the shortcuts look in the standard Program Files directory for Steam and the icons, even though I have Steam installed elsewhere.

2558

DC Gamer Club / Vertiginous Golf free on Steam for 24 hours

« Last post by Deozaan on October 26, 2015, 07:07 PM »

Vertiginous Gold, a mini golf-type game, is available on Steam for free (for keeps) if you claim it within the next 24 hours.

http://store.steampo...ered.com/app/272890/

2559

Official Announcements / Re: DonationCoder Major Upgrades - Progress Report Thread

« Last post by Deozaan on October 26, 2015, 10:33 AM »

Fixed now?

-mouser (October 26, 2015, 10:27 AM)

I, too, couldn't see that image when I wasn't logged in. But now I can. So it seems fixed to me.

2560

Official Announcements / Re: DonationCoder Major Upgrades - Progress Report Thread

« Last post by Deozaan on October 26, 2015, 01:08 AM »

I'm not seeing it either. I'd check your OS "accessibility" (Ease of Access) settings. Make sure you don't have your settings set to increase the size of everything by default.

2561

Living Room / Re: Internet of Things thread (IoT)

« Last post by Deozaan on October 24, 2015, 06:50 PM »

Start using an old PC as a router (make sure it has 2 good NIC's) for your home. Router software such as Untangle and pfSense are perfectly able to block whatever communication takes place between IoT devices and the outside world. You know, in case you don't care about IoT, but aren't able to buy whatever device you need without IoT.

-Shades (October 24, 2015, 08:20 AM)

Could Untangle run on something like a Raspberry Pi (or the more powerful Odroids)? That would be very low cost in both terms of the hardware and the electricity to run them.

But I'd never connect my power, refrigerator, laundry, or any appliance to the internet.  Because it's more of a risk than I want to take.  The air gap between them is not a security measure I want to do without.

-wraith808 (October 24, 2015, 02:14 PM)

Would you connect those devices to, say, your phone? If so, wouldn't having your refrigerator/coffee Pot/whatever connected to your phone (e.g., via Bluetooth) and having your phone connected to the internet, essentially the same thing as having your refrigerator connected to the internet?

2562

Living Room / Re: Are RFID Skimmers FUD? Or a real, present threat?

« Last post by Deozaan on October 23, 2015, 06:22 PM »

That new (to the USA) chip and PIN system for credit cards has had a known vulnerability for 5 years, which has been successfully taken advantage of in the wild:

http://www.wired.com...p-and-pin-card-hack/

-Deozaan (October 22, 2015, 12:17 AM)

That's not RFID it doesn't seem.  Or am I missing something?

-wraith808 (October 22, 2015, 08:38 AM)

No, it's not RFID. But your quote said this:

The good news is the U.S. is finally adopting the Euro-style chip and pin pairing called EMV cards. They've been using this across the pond for nearly a decade, and it seems to be an effective redesign for minimizing fraud.

My point wasn't to comment on whether or not RFID skimming was a real and present threat, but that the "new" Chip & PIN system isn't entirely secure either.

2563

Living Room / Re: Youtube Subscription Channels

« Last post by Deozaan on October 22, 2015, 09:59 PM »

Welcome to the internet: A place where you pay a bunch of money for a device, that requires you to pay more money for a connection, just so you can pay even more money for access to places that want you to pay money to see a bunch of stuff that you can/must/need to buy!

-Stoic Joker (October 22, 2015, 11:13 AM)

Sounds like a natural consequence of ISPs double dipping. Charging us for access to the internet, then charging content providers for us to access their content on the internet. If ISPs (such as Comcast) are charging content providers (such as Netflix) ransom money so that consumers can access the content at a decent speed, it's only natural and necessary that the content providers will need to figure out a way to get more money to pay the ransom. And it's not too much of a leap to get the idea that they'd pass that cost onto the consumer.

2564

Living Room / Re: Are RFID Skimmers FUD? Or a real, present threat?

« Last post by Deozaan on October 22, 2015, 12:17 AM »

That new (to the USA) chip and PIN system for credit cards has had a known vulnerability for 5 years, which has been successfully taken advantage of in the wild:

http://www.wired.com...p-and-pin-card-hack/

2565

Non-Windows Software / Re: *NIX: Relatively Minimal Host OS for VirtualBox Use

« Last post by Deozaan on October 21, 2015, 08:30 PM »

My understanding is that it would be like running Windows in a VirtualBox VM (or any VM), where the guest OS doesn't get direct access to the GPU so many video-intensive things would be slow or non-functional. Especially programs which try to grab fullscreen access.

I suppose I could try it out on real hardware, perhaps starting with my netbook. Though that device doesn't run much of anything smoothly, so I'm not sure it would give me any clear indication on how performance would suffer running under Qubes. I suppose it would give me experience and proof that I can actually get it set up and running, and might even answer the question if games would even run at all in such a setup.

But I don't think I'm ready or willing to try such an experience on my main, daily, productivity machine. Right now it seems very unlikely that it will pay off.

2566

Non-Windows Software / Re: *NIX: Relatively Minimal Host OS for VirtualBox Use

« Last post by Deozaan on October 21, 2015, 12:10 PM »

perhaps you might find Qubes to be of interest.

-ewemoa (October 20, 2015, 11:53 PM)

It looks like Qubes also uses Xen, and therefore Windows has the same problem on Qubes. Namely, it has to emulate the hardware and therefore GPU intensive things such as games won't work very well.

2567

Non-Windows Software / Re: *NIX: Relatively Minimal Host OS for VirtualBox Use

« Last post by Deozaan on October 21, 2015, 12:35 AM »

This Qubes?

2568

Non-Windows Software / Re: *NIX: Relatively Minimal Host OS for VirtualBox Use

« Last post by Deozaan on October 20, 2015, 09:20 PM »

I want to set up Xen (or similar hypervisor) and run Windows and Linux under it. How crazy am I?

Is it feasible for someone like me who needs relatively high performance for (Windows) games? Or is that not really feasible since (IIUC) Windows doesn't work with paravirtualization (PV) and needs to be installed as Full Virtualization, aka Hardware-assisted virtualization (HVM), which slows things down due to emulation?

2569

Living Room / Re: Our experiences with LED light bulb replacements

« Last post by Deozaan on October 20, 2015, 05:21 PM »

Just reporting in that I'm still quite happy with my switch-over to LED bulbs.

-mouser (October 20, 2015, 05:07 PM)

Have you noticed any savings in electricity costs?

2570

General Software Discussion / Re: The Hostile Email Landscape

« Last post by Deozaan on October 20, 2015, 05:06 PM »

Am I the only one who always sees all email from Microsoft go directly to the spam folder of my Gmail interface?

-Renegade (October 20, 2015, 02:22 PM)

Microsoft emails make it to my inbox in Gmail. And I have no special filters set up for them.

2571

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

« Last post by Deozaan on October 20, 2015, 05:02 PM »

I got these from Google Images so there are no links.

-Arizona Hot (October 20, 2015, 02:13 PM)

I'm pretty sure Google Images has links to the images.

Fun images though.

2572

General Software Discussion / Re: Chrome and Printing to PDF

« Last post by Deozaan on October 17, 2015, 05:24 PM »

I guess I misunderstood. I thought you were saying that printing to PDF in Chrome creates a large raster file and you were asking for a workaround.

The Issue seems to still be open. Perhaps you could ask around in a comment on the Issue if any progress is expected to ever be made.

2573

General Software Discussion / Re: Chrome and Printing to PDF

« Last post by Deozaan on October 17, 2015, 12:48 AM »

That Issue is from 4 years ago. (Chrome version 13! 13! Wow. Remember when version numbers meant something? ) Printing to PDF has been a feature in Chrome for years. Why even bother using a 3rd party plugin to print to PDFs anymore?

Just posting this in case anyone else runs afoul of it.  And hoping that someone else might have a workaround.

-wraith808 (October 16, 2015, 10:48 AM)

The Issue also tells you the workaround: Use Chrome's Print to PDF feature instead of the 3rd party plugin.

2574

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« Last post by Deozaan on October 14, 2015, 09:56 PM »

Big Microsoft Trade-In Deal Gets Users Windows 10 For Less

With the preceding uproar still in mind, is anyone interested in this offer?

-Arizona Hot (October 14, 2015, 09:31 PM)

I was seriously considering it when I thought I could trade in my aging netbook. But though it doesn't seem that there are too many limitations on what they'll accept, mine doesn't seem to qualify. My netbook has a 10" screen, but they accept only a minimum of 11.3" for laptops.

2575

General Software Discussion / Re: LogMeIn purchases LastPass

« Last post by Deozaan on October 09, 2015, 05:29 PM »

Well, I guess the name works... After all, one of the nice things about the LastPass extension is that it will simply "log me in" to websites I visit.