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2551

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Zentimo upgrade offer $9,- until 2011-05-29

« Last post by superboyac on May 26, 2011, 03:21 PM »

I have sympathy for Crystal Rich.  I like their software very much, and they are really marketing Zentimo aggressively because of their previous lifetime licenses they offered for USB Safely Remove.  A lot of the lifetime users like me criticized them for launching Zentimo, which is sort of the same thing with a few more powerful features.  I understand the criticism, and it's valid, but at the same time, what are they supposed to do?  Lifetime licenses make it impossible for a business to run.  And with the proliferation of tablets and smartphones, the market for small shareware applications is being dwindled down.  Shareware companies that were once able to make a living providing really awesome utilities for Windows users can't make it anymore.  Most Windows users demand freeware, and won't consider paying for anything anymore.  Apps have taken the place of these shareware programs.

I'm frustrated because I LOVED shareware, and I'm glad I was able to experience to golden era of it.  unfortunately, our financial system really doesn't encourage these types of small-market businesses.  To be successful now, you have to play the game of mediocrity.  Big bloated software suites, cloud applications, anything that artificially binds you to some kind of money-sucking system for no reason.  Software companies today will kill themselves to get people to pay monthly for anything.  No more buying things when only you need it.  Recurring payments is the name of the game today.  Why is it so hard to buy a tablet without having to get some kind of "plan" with it?  Be wary, this is the way everything is going.  next thing you know, you can't buy a computer without having to purchase a monthly data plan with it.  You can't buy a TV without having to buy a cable subscription.

It reminds me of the whole "extended warranty" scam that used to be (or still is?) the main gimmick of the 80's and 90's.  That's where the real money was made.  Now, it's whatever BS monthly charges everyone wants.

And who suffers?  Consumers.  Small companies like Crystal Rich.  it saddens me because they are the guys that are making the truly useful software.  The stuff that we actually want, that fills a specific need.

2552

Living Room / Re: Building a home server. Please help, DC!

« Last post by superboyac on May 26, 2011, 11:23 AM »

^Talk about initiative! I'd hire her in a heartbeat.  

When I was younger I always pushed for letting a trusty girl or two into whatever we were getting up to. They often provided a "reality check" when thing started getting really stupid. And they were extremely valuable allies for getting adults to agree to something. (Never underestimate the power of a young female asking for a favor or permission.)

Most of them could also tell a lie (and be believed) much better than we could.

I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Emma, Judy, Kim, Tawney, and all the other so-called tomboys I grew up with.

Kim would have been one of the first to 'sign up' for building something like a personal petabyte cloud. She was handy with a soldering iron, "good with tools", and liked to build stuff. She's the first person I ever knew who had a ham radio license (and shortwave rig) when I was a kid. Self-taught too. Her father owned a dry cleaner shop and her Mom was a homemaker.

So imagine all the contributions your little sister might have made to your club if she'd been allowed in. Given enough time and encouragement, her skills and talents might have really taken off. Which would have been great. Because you just never know when you might need the services of a good forger.  

-40hz (May 26, 2011, 10:43 AM)

I hear ya.  I was not always very nice to my little sister, it makes me sad to think about it.  She always wanted to do the things I was doing, and I would occasionally be a little mean and stuff about it, but most of the time we were good.  I'm just a loner, though.  I need space and time to myself more so than most people.

I agree with the girl power stuff.  My problem is that if I hang around a cool girl like that for too long, I'm going to get "interested" in her (not my sister, by the way, in case it wasn't obvious...you guys are sick!).  Seriously, every girl that I've been friends with, I eventually started having feelings for, and then things just change.  So i don't care anymore, I don't get worked up about it.  Those cute girls can seriously get anything they want...I "use" them that way also.  Like in that Seinfeld episode where the drop dead blonde gets the sold-out movie tickets, and gets out of the speeding ticket.  The area here in downtown where I have lunch, there are these three regulars that I call the "trinity", because if they ever asked me for ANYTHING, I'd do it.  no question.  The sight of them alone utterly defeats me.

I do love the tomboys, too.  So cool and fun.

2553

General Software Discussion / Re: Directory Opus 10

« Last post by superboyac on May 26, 2011, 09:47 AM »

It was included in the price for me.

-cthorpe (May 26, 2011, 09:24 AM)

Great.  Thanks!

2554

Living Room / Re: Building a home server. Please help, DC!

« Last post by superboyac on May 26, 2011, 09:32 AM »

I can fill up 60 TB no problem.  Uncompressed movies and music.  Backup.  Done.

-superboyac (May 26, 2011, 08:43 AM)

Yoiks! I'd think you'd be a shoe-in for the coveted 2011 "Swat Fly with Sledgehammer" Tech Achievement Award (also known in geek circles as the Spank the Monkey Medal) if you did that.
 

-40hz (May 26, 2011, 08:55 AM)

That's me!  Quite literally.  When I was little, I had a traumatic incident with wasps and I got stung a lot.  Since then, I hated the creatures.  There was a while where if I saw a lone wasp on the ground or something, I'd take a running leap and jump just as high as I could, and land on it with all my strength.  And, of course, I still added a little foot-twist at the end to make sure.  That was before I was the founder and president of a club called the Extirpaters.  Three of us would go around the house and make sure there were no creepy crawlies around.  If they were, we'd catch them with a stick that had a sticky-gooey substance at the tip, then fry the bugs in the zapper lantern.  We had official laminated cards and everything.
My little sister was left out of the club in all of this.  One day, I found that my sister tried to make herself an "Extirpaters" card.  She copied the design as best as she could, but the funniest (or saddest!) part was that she didn't really know about lamination, so she took a couple of pieces of clear plastic and sort of taped the edges together with the card in the middle.  But the card would just sort of shake about inside the plastic pieces.  I was so mean!

2555

General Software Discussion / Re: Directory Opus 10

« Last post by superboyac on May 26, 2011, 09:23 AM »

If I upgrade and I already have usb and ftp, is that reflected in the upgrade price or am I going to have to pay for those again?

2556

Living Room / Re: Building a home server. Please help, DC!

« Last post by superboyac on May 26, 2011, 08:43 AM »

I can fill up 60 TB no problem.  Uncompressed movies and music.  Backup.  Done.

2557

Living Room / Re: Building a home server. Please help, DC!

« Last post by superboyac on May 25, 2011, 03:36 PM »

I love this stuff also.  It fits right in with my plans to live off the grid.  The only "service" I truly need is an internet connection.  I can manage to live without electricity (generator+ solar stuff), water (well), and sewage (fertilizer stuff).  but I still can't do without the ISP.

2558

Living Room / Re: Building a home server. Please help, DC!

« Last post by superboyac on May 25, 2011, 03:33 PM »

In my previous job, I was working on a big surveillance system installation.  There were loads of cameras, and so much video.  Obviously, there were tons of hard drives, I don't remember how many.  But there were 2 or 3 banks of something like 40 hard drives.  All I remember was that the fans were VERY loud, like jet engines.

I think 40 meant 1.5 TB (unless I'm mistaken).

2559

Living Room / Re: Building a home server. Please help, DC!

« Last post by superboyac on May 25, 2011, 01:04 PM »

AAhh!!  I love it!
40hz, I don't know...who are you??  Get out of my brain!

2560

General Software Discussion / Youtube and their frustrating changes.

« Last post by superboyac on May 24, 2011, 04:15 PM »

When youtube first came out, and for a couple of years after, it was truly amazing.  Any video you could think of was probably on there.  As time goes on, we're seeing the functionality of the site go down and the annoyances going up.  I'm not taking sides on the issue because I know there's a consumer perspective and a corporate perspective; and I am intellectually sympathetic to both (albeit, as a user, my bias is more towards the consumer.)  So I'm just venting...

As with anything in the web now, and seemingly in life, all progress is leading towards mediocrity and chaos.  Any little convenience and source of pleasure seems to eventually get squashed (whether or not the reasons are valid).  I used to love the youtube channel views, where there was a grid of ALL the user's videos and you can watch them one by one, or browse them very easily.  Last year they changed the layout to be more restrictive; just a scrolling sidebar of videos, with very limited space.  Even the video titles don't fit most of the time.  It went from being a very easy to navigate and browse layout, to a frustrating layout that seems more like Myspace.  The "Recent Activity" area is now significantly larger than the area for the user's videos.  Make sense?  of course not.  When we go on youtube, we are PRIMARILY there to watch videos, not for social whatever you call that facebook stuff.

So I ask myself, why?  These changes are largely ignored by most users, or they get frustrated and deal with it.  But to me, it poses an interesting question.  Why would they do that?  it has to do with business, there's no other reason.  The layouts were not changed on a whim, or accidentally.  Whoever was in charge of that wasn't just "trying something" to see if people liked it.  There are money reasons behind it.

So here's my crazy conspiracy theory.  Youtube is so big that they suck up a lot of bandwidth.  youtube accounts for a very large percentage of traffic for any ISP.  Most of the videos are copyright-illegal, of course.  This is youtube's fundamental problem: in a free for all video site, most of the content is going to be infringing on copyrights.  This is a problem.  of course, in the beginning, youtube ignored copyright issues or cleverly avoided them through some means.  This time allowed the site to get huge, primarily off of the back of infringing videos.  Once they got huge, their new problem was addressing the Big Boy Corporation issues.  The ISP's are angry that youtube benefits from all this traffic, yet the ISP front most of the cost.  The media companies are angry that youtube is benefitting off of their copyrighted material.

As youtube has to deal with these issues, the consumer experience will suffer, and it has tremendously.  We all know that youtube is not so easy or pleasant to use anymore.  i avoid it almost completely, whereas before I would regularly get sucked into a 2-3 hour vortex of watching videos (you know what I'm talking about!).  But now it takes FOREVER to load a video now.  I don't know if it's my ISP or youtube, but it makes watching videos so annoying that it's not even worth it.  next, copyright issues have taken their toll on youtube.  A lot of the really great content is not there anymore, or it's near impossible to find.  I know for a fact of large private collections of videos that are really amazing, but you can't search for them, so it's just not like it was before.

The quality of the videos are pretty poor also.  yet another measure to limit bandwidth.  All these things are tied to money: copyrights and bandwidth.  Entertainment industry & Communication industry vs. the consumers.  Those are the two biggest titans in the world today teaming up against the consumer.  There is no way for the consumer to win that battle in any way.

In the end, youtube is just not that fun to use anymore.  Just like google used to be awesome, and now it's like finding a needle in the haystack.  It seems to be the prevailing pattern in all of history: when things get too big, the irony kicks in and events just start sort of backfiring on each other.  Youtube got big because they offered centrally accessible videos to everyone in the world...conveneint and free.  This popularity made them the biggest thing in the world.  But it got too big.  Everyone wanted their share.  Pass the buck, take your cut.  By the way, that's how our global financial system works as well.

But for us consumers, we are left with a youtube that is now mediocre and chaotic.  And that's what happens when you get too big.  To satisfy more and more people, you have to make everything mediocre...pop, in essense.  The truly great things in life are great because they are close to the polar ends, and not towards the neutral middle.  The edges of the bell curve hold the great things in life...as well as the worst things.  But it has to be that way.  Things in the middle, they're just...ok.  It does the job.  it's not impressive, or particularly interesting.  It's just...meh.

2561

Living Room / Re: Building a home server. Please help, DC!

« Last post by superboyac on May 24, 2011, 12:44 PM »

Servers need to be rock stable, and that requires well matched components. They don't need to be constantly tweaked to maintain lightning speed...They ain't for that.

DIY desktop can be fun...DIY server = bad idea. The factory takes great care to make sure all components are matched and play well together. And they're also very well documented and easy to get parts for.

Googling an error message for a mainstream server will get you tons of spot-on info.

Googling an error message for a DIY server, will get you tons of cryptic guessing games.

-Stoic Joker (May 24, 2011, 12:41 PM)

Thanks.  I needed to hear that.  That's the impression i got the last couple of weeks while I was looking into it.

2562

Living Room / Re: Building a home server. Please help, DC!

« Last post by superboyac on May 24, 2011, 12:19 PM »

Yeah, I just threw that R710 model out there.  That was before talking to Geoff.  Now, I'm sort of relying on his analysis to recommend something for my needs.  So I don't have any idea at this point what models I'll be using.

40hz: regarding your comments, I have a couple of questions.  if not Dell, what other brands would you consider?  Also, how hard would it be to build a Dell-like server?  I always prefer building things myself because I get to choose each part specifically, and I end up knowing how to do the maintenance later on, when necessary.  Now, as an older and wiser person, I am moving away from all that DIY stuff, especially since I am extremely busy now and I can afford way better things than I used to.  So if something is reliable and made well, I'll just buy it if it's in a rather large price range.  People on this forum are always concerned about how much I pay for things, and I appreciate their concern (but I probably spend a little more "liberally" than most people are comfortable with).

About prices, it sounds like this project will cost me around $3-5000 or something.  Which is fine, and I hope it's a reliable setup.  I'm very excited about having my own server and trying to clean up my life.  I want as much of my "stuff" as possible on hard drives and backed up.  Then I can clean out unnecessary paperwork and cabinets and other useless things that I've held on to.  I'm in the middle of a whole clean up phase in my life.  I simply don't need or care to have a lot of the things I have.  DVD's, useless books, unused furniture, all that type of junk.  I just want to remove all the clutter.  This server will really help me do that.  All the stuff I have backed up on spare drives and cd's and dvd's, it's all going on the server.

The next step would be to create my own private network, or intranet, or VPN, or whatever you call it.  if I can accomplish that, I'm really set.  especially if I can do it using no other cloud services or anything.  The only service I'd like to employ is the ISP, and that's it.  If I can achieve that level of computing independence, I'll be very happy.

2563

General Software Discussion / Re: What is the Best Movie Collection Organizer Program

« Last post by superboyac on May 24, 2011, 11:59 AM »

Thanks for the update.  I just got a spare HD tv and I'm going to build me a box and experiment some of this stuff on it.  You're experiences will be very helpful in all of this.

2564

General Software Discussion / Re: What is the Best Movie Collection Organizer Program

« Last post by superboyac on May 23, 2011, 05:41 PM »

Oshyan, any updates on your preferred HTPC software yet?  For me, it still seems like XBMC is the choice, but I haven't done anywhere near the testing you've done.  I was wondering if you've learned anything new recently.

2565

Living Room / Re: Building a home server. Please help, DC!

« Last post by superboyac on May 23, 2011, 04:55 PM »

Stoic, I just spoke to Geoff from Stallard.  He's a great person to talk to, thanks for that recommendation.  Very knowledgeable and easy to understand.

2566

Living Room / Re: Building a home server. Please help, DC!

« Last post by superboyac on May 23, 2011, 03:21 PM »

What do you guys think of the Dell PowerEdge R710 units?  They seem to be popular and reliable from what I've read.

2567

Living Room / Re: Building a home server. Please help, DC!

« Last post by superboyac on May 23, 2011, 03:17 PM »

Thanks JJ and 40hz, very helpful as usual.

40, you've warned me several times about the consumer RAID controllers, so I'm going to avoid those.  I actually don't intend to use RAID at all, even with 10-15 drives installed.  I'd rather have a software or OS way of combining directories and drives (volume spanning is the term, I believe?).  I just don't think I have the stomach to deal with RAID, so I'll be really trying hard not to need it.

Since the DS units from Norco are just for storage, perhaps the best thing I can do is buy the server box (I don't know what to call it, but it's the part that has the mobo, cards, and all that stuff) and buy a DS unit for just the storage.

For the server, this is going to be hard for me to shop for, so I'm asking for help on it.  What specs do I want or need?  I can spend a decent amount, but I don't want to spend way more than I have to.  Like, if a shitty server costs $500 and a decent one costs $2000, I'll get the expensive one.  But if a shitty one costs $1000, and the decent one costs $7000, I'll probably stick with the cheap one.  If I can build it myself and avoid some brand name prices and restrictions, I'd like that also.

2568

Living Room / Re: Building a home server. Please help, DC!

« Last post by superboyac on May 23, 2011, 12:34 PM »

I haven't called Stallard yet, i will later today maybe.  I have a feeling their prices just can't compete with the cheap stuff like Norco.

I'm trying to figure out all the different Norco models, and what their differences are.  hell if I can tell.
RPC-4220
This is a popular one on newegg and seems to be what most people get.

RPC-4224
I'm tempted to get this since it seems like an updated version of the one above.  But I have no idea.
^^Both of these, on Norco's website, fall under the "server rackmount" category.

The ones below fall under the "Storage Systems" category.  i don't really understand what the difference is:
DS-24DR
DS-24E
DS-24D
DS-24ER
All of these are just like those popular RPC-4220 models, but they are in different categories and have a few variations.  I don't know what the differences are and why they are considered different than the others.

2569

Living Room / Re: So Apple really is a religious thing...

« Last post by superboyac on May 22, 2011, 05:14 PM »

With continuous lobbying, groups like the RIAA, MPAA, et al. have waged war on the internet (not just file sharing) by spending billions to get governments to outlaw illegal playing of media, from DMCA to ACTA, and more assaults to follow soon.  Now many ebooks have thrown in the mix, with Amazon urging you to buy a restrictive kindle (apple, too), only to secretly retain control of what's on the device whether you like it or not.

This results in where we are -- a subscription-based media consumption model, where you buy everything you like over and over for each different device you ever buy.

No thanks, I'll sit that fraudulent trail of tears out until there are open devices using open formats.

-zridling (May 21, 2011, 11:04 PM)

]
This is an issue I continually struggle with.  From a personal/consumer's perspective, I desperately want open devices and open formats.  But from a business perspective, I understand the need to protect the content.  So I try to intellectually figure out a good balance, and there doesn't seem to be any.  In the end, and this may very well be a gross generalization, I think it's just another product of what has happened to our global financial system, which rules every other common issue in today's urban world.

2570

Living Room / Re: Audio Equipment -- (Spinoff thread)

« Last post by superboyac on May 22, 2011, 01:43 PM »

I've never tried Reaper also.  Years and years ago, I eventually settled on Cubase SX v3.  I don't know what version they are on now, but I actually got used to v3.  Still, it's too expensive for home use and even once I got used to it, it was still a pretty complicated animal.  I got a book and everything for it at one point too, but only read it in the bathroom occasionally.

A friend introduced me to Ableton Live a little later, and I liked it.  But when I tried it myself, I couldn't really get my head around it.  I still have the suspicion that it's a nice tool for something, I just don't know what.  If I were pressured today, I'd just go back to Cubase 3.

There's was an interesting freeware one that was posted here around last year.  Whatever happened to it?  It was like an expensive commercial grade application that was turned into freeware.  I never tried it, but there was talk about it being good or had the potential to be good.

2571

Living Room / Re: Audio Equipment -- (Spinoff thread)

« Last post by superboyac on May 21, 2011, 10:43 PM »

Some questions I think I often ask myself with these mixer things:
"What are all these knobs and jacks?  How many of them will I use?  If not more than 20% of them, should I look for something simpler or more to the point?

"There are a lot of knobs and jacks, which looks cool, but are there some knobs and jacks that I need that are not there?  Is it going to be too much of a headache trying to shoehorn my desired setup into this thing because it doesn't have enough of this jack or that knob?"

"How do I know how good of a quality this is?  Buzzing?  Sound quality?  How am I supposed to know?"

2572

Living Room / Re: Audio Equipment -- (Spinoff thread)

« Last post by superboyac on May 21, 2011, 10:40 PM »

See, after years of using this stuff, I've narrowed in on where most of the frustration is for me.  With these mixers, the main function I am looking for can be described this way:
I just want a box where I can bring in all the wires from my various equipment, and take the outputs out to various equipment.  Any extra functions, I'd like to keep to a minimum.  I don't necessarily want any actual processing on it.  But you need some of that.  For example, with two mono inputs, you'd like a couple of knobs for balance.  You'd want some basic volume control also.  Another important consideration is, are there going to be issues with audio because of this box?  Here's the problem.  Most musician types are not computer types.  They want equipment that does everything they need on the hardware.  That's why all these knobs are on there.  On the other hand, computer users like us would rather do all the fancy stuff on the computer since it's more convenient and way cheaper.  It's much cheaper to get some processing freeware or software than to get a box to do it.  Some will argue that the quality on the hard-wired equipment is better, but it's usually too expensive to even consider for me.  And I also question if the quality really is better....or significantly better.  I have my doubts, but how do you go about proving such things without quitting your day job?

But that's the way I think.  I just want to get everything into the computer and deal with it there.  That's why I got the Mackie Big Knob.  All it is is a bunch of inputs and outputs, with a pretty convenient master volume knob (hence the BIG knob; it really is quite a big knob; a rascally Brit must have named it!).  So that's what i ended up getting, and I think it's way better than those mixers for me.

The other thing that will commonly come up is buzzing issues.  Usually, these can be fixed with certain additional equipment that removes ground loops in the power system and such.  But sometimes it doesn't, and you're left wondering if something is wrong with your equipment.  Good luck figuring it out.  But I do have a couple of those buzz remover things, and they work well.

All in all, these products are extremely frustrating to shop for.  I usually get really frustrated, and in the end just settle on something that doesn't have too much of a headache.  I set it up, and forget about it and hope nothing comes up for a long time.

2573

Living Room / Re: So Apple really is a religious thing...

« Last post by superboyac on May 21, 2011, 06:27 PM »

The eurorack has good bang for the buck.  I used to have one before I got a Mackie Big Knob.  For audio equipment, it's difficult to find that good balance between price and quality.  The hardest thing is trying to figure out if the given price justifies the quality.  There's so much bullshit in the descriptions and the touted features, it's almost impossible to know.  Most of the so-called experts also spew a lot of bullshit.  It's hard to know if it's a monster cable type bullshit thing going on or if something truly is expensive because its very good.

A lot of the equipment is also unbalanced in their feature sets.  For example, for consumer grade mixers and such, I find that there are too many outputs and not enough inputs.  There are a lot of knobs and holes, and it looks like you can do a lot with it, but in the end, it makes me feel like I could have done the same with a few cheapo adapters and cable splicers.  There's seems to be a disconnect in the market between industry level studio equipment, and being able to achieve similar results on a consumer level.  I would like to see more products that are affordable that offer neat solutions to the typical consumer setup: speakers, computers, and a couple of instruments and mics.  But once you start trying to find stuff for your own setup, you'll run into a lot of really frustrating issues.  Anyway, I'm always here to poo poo on the party, right?

2574

Living Room / Man vs. Mississippi

« Last post by superboyac on May 20, 2011, 10:27 AM »

This picture inspires me.  Whoever built this levee is one bad ass dude.  I can just hear him thinking, "Ok, flood.  bring it.  Show me what's what."


Reminds me of the Lieutenant Dan scene in Forrest Gump where he climbs the mast of the boat during the hurricane and is yelling at God.

2575

Living Room / Re: So Apple really is a religious thing...

« Last post by superboyac on May 20, 2011, 09:11 AM »

Ha!!