Recent Posts

2551

Non-Windows Software / LINUX: Linux Mint 16 "Petra" just released

« Last post by 40hz on December 01, 2013, 07:32 AM »

I've been waiting for this because I wanted to see what they did with the newest version of Cinnamon. This release has version 2.0.



 Detailed release announcement from the dev team can be found here.

Downloaded and ran the live 64-bit version for about an hour last night and it looks to be very solid.

You can read more about Linux Mint and find download links here.

2552

Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by 40hz on December 01, 2013, 06:58 AM »

Wonder how much longer until...



Hopefully it won't burst before Renegade cashes out and retires as a millionaire!

2553

Living Room / Re: Network/website problem 1+1+1=0. Seeking a solution.

« Last post by 40hz on December 01, 2013, 06:48 AM »

I agree with Deozaan. It sounds like a DNS issue to me too.

You may have corrupted data in your cache. Clear that out first by doing as follows:

• From your <start menu><Accessories>
• Right click on <Command Prompt>
• Select <Run as Administrator>
• In the command box enter: ipconfig /flushdns

You'll get a confirmation that says:

Windows IP Configuration Successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache.

Try webbing  out to your site again and see if it now works properly.

If it does you can leave things as are, or optionally switch your DNS settiongs to use OpenDNS. (Recommended btw.)

If you already know how to configure DNS, the OpenDNS servers are :

       208.67.222.222
       208.67.220.220

If flushing the DNS cache didn't fix things:

Change your DNS server settings to use OpenDNS, save the changes, and then reflush your DNS cache per above and (hopefully) all should be well.

If you need detailed instructions for setting up OpenDNS on your device - look here.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note: If you decide you prefer to use OpenDNS across your home network, you can configure it on your router quite easily and just have all member PC and other devices use it automatically via DHCP. Much easier than manually configuring it for each device when you have several.

Luck!

2554

Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"

« Last post by 40hz on November 30, 2013, 10:46 AM »

using Sandboxie on a Win 7 machine

-Arizona Hot (November 29, 2013, 09:39 PM)

You'd be far better off running a VM rather than a sandbox if at all possible. Especially if system security is your main concern. Just my

2555

DC Gamer Club / Re: Dishonored Review

« Last post by 40hz on November 30, 2013, 09:28 AM »

@IainB - I think it's Mamori Oshii's 2001 movie Avalon you're referring to.

Easily my all time favorite 'cyber sci-fi' movie. Highly recommended.  

2556

Living Room / Re: Caveat emptor ("let the buyer beware") in Internet online purchasing

« Last post by 40hz on November 30, 2013, 08:48 AM »

Shedding light may take a little more time since Kleargear is apparently a big believer in the "untouched by human hands" notion of product delivery. At least if the inability of anybody to actually reach a human sentient at Kleargear is anything to go by.  

The company also went to somewhat unusual (albeit completely legal) lengths to shield the ownership's name(s) from public view. Not unheard since 'silent partners' and 'hidden shareholders' have existed as long as corporations have. But it certainly becomes questionable for Klearger's ownership in light of this debacle.

No matter. It goes to the courts now. And those wheels "grind slow but exceeding fine" as even Prenda Law is discovering.
 

2557

DC Gamer Club / Re: Dishonored Review

« Last post by 40hz on November 30, 2013, 06:51 AM »

Bloody hell Wraith!

You hadda go and do that didn't you? Here I am trying to avoid gaming as much as possible and you have to find and do a writeup on that one? Steampunk? Mythos elements? A whaling city? Story and gameplay that looks like it was somewhat inspired by the movie Franklyn

And a setting that sounds something like Jeff VanderMeer's city of Ambergris.

All the weird dystopian fictional stuff I live for.

And all in one miserable game...

(Thx for sharing - I'm getting it. )

2558

Living Room / Re: Caveat emptor ("let the buyer beware") in Internet online purchasing

« Last post by 40hz on November 30, 2013, 06:28 AM »

Buyer beware for sure.

But the Kleargear story is a bit more nuanced. You can put anything you like in your 'terms and conditions of sale'. But that doesn't mean that such terms are either enforceable - or legal - depending on the jurisdiction your customer lives in.

Kleargear's move looks very much like it was motivated primarily by petty spitefulness if the reports I've read (Popehat and Techdirt have both covered this story) are anything to go by.

Public Citizen has since elected to provide legal representation for the Palmers. A copy of the demand letter their attorneys have since sent to Kleargear can be found here.

Of interest are the relevant paragraphs that call attention to the fact that Kleargear's terms are illegal or unenforceable and their subsequent actions have likely violated several laws including the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

That's why it's so important to remember that there are genuine and very real protections for the consumer under US law. And it's equally important not to let yourself get into the habit of thinking you're absolutely powerless in the face of an abusive contract or company. Don't assume there's nothing that can be done. Ceding the battle without a fight is the first step towards serfdom.

So yes, Caveat and all that. But also: In Ius Voco Spurius

 

2559

General Software Discussion / Re: What's up with Flash crashing all the time lately?

« Last post by 40hz on November 27, 2013, 01:13 PM »

I'm rapidly reaching the point where I'm gonna add YouTube to my list of other "don't go" places (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Woot!, Slashdot, et al)..

2560

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Sitepoint Christmas Freebie Bundle

« Last post by 40hz on November 27, 2013, 12:37 PM »

neat  

-mouser (November 27, 2013, 11:18 AM)

Very.

That intro book on Git (parts of which I've had the occasional hard time getting my head around) looks particularly interesting.

Thx for sharing!

2561

Living Room / Re: Recommend some music videos to me!

« Last post by 40hz on November 26, 2013, 06:42 PM »

@wraith - ah Lindsey! Always fun to watch.

@tomos - glad you liked it. I thought it was a really creditable performance too.

2562

Living Room / Re: How long do hard drives actually live for?

« Last post by 40hz on November 26, 2013, 05:32 PM »

@SeraphimLabs: Have you ever tried restoring/recovering hard drives or SSDs using Spinrite?

-IainB (November 26, 2013, 05:08 PM)

Did somebody say Spinrite?

Uh-oh...here comes f0dder! 

2563

Living Room / Re: Recommend some music videos to me!

« Last post by 40hz on November 26, 2013, 02:11 PM »

Somebody I'm starting to listen to. She seems very promising. Great voice and vocal styling too. Displays a vocal maturity and sophistication you might not expect in one so young. And she's from Scotland???

Her name is KT Tunstall.

It's always pretty ballsy for anyone to try covering a Dylan classic. But she does it here with aplomb IMHO.

She also shows talent in that subspecies of music performance called "looping":

Gonna have to keep an eye on this one.

 

2564

Living Room / Re: Great sites for guitar learning

« Last post by 40hz on November 26, 2013, 01:25 PM »

For not so much standard as bass guitar, check out Scott Devine's online bass tuition site: http://www.scottsbasslessons.com. Plenty of solid info and suggestions offered in two packages. There's the free (registration required) SBL Insider which has:

30+ hours of free video bass lessons
Access to 'The Backstage Area'
Access to the backing track library
Special benefits and new lesson alerts

Scott additionally offers an annual subscription package called SBL Insider Pro, which incorporates the above plus additional learning materials and resources. Go to the website for details.

I really like Scott's attitude and approach to the electric bass - which happens to be my main instrument.

You can also find 114 (last count) videos by Scott on his YouTube channel. Link here.

Here's a sample beginner-level lesson in case anybody's interested:

Some really good stuff to be found. (Best played through external speakers or headphones to really hear what's going on. Bass frequencies don't come over very well on most laptop's internal speakers.)

FWIW, bass is a fairly easy instrument to acquire basic musical proficiency on. Considerably easier than a standard guitar IMHO - even if attaining genuine mastery is another matter. So if you're frustrated trying to learn guitar, and you like the sound (and role) of the bass, give it a try. You might not ever look back.

However, that is not necessarily a good thing:



---------------------
Standard disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with SBL in any way. I'm just an impressed viewer.

2565

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: looking for MS Word freebie

« Last post by 40hz on November 25, 2013, 07:59 PM »

You might try TextMaker which is part of the free edition of Softmaker Office. It works very well with Microsoft Office files and it has the more traditional menu-style interface.



It's pretty much what I use for word processing since it's available for both Windows and Linux.

Download link and info here.

2566

Living Room / Re: Your tax dollars at work: Now FDA proposes to ban a brand of cookie?

« Last post by 40hz on November 25, 2013, 07:48 PM »

^That's not what I'm saying. 

2567

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: looking for MS Word freebie

« Last post by 40hz on November 25, 2013, 06:20 PM »

So...I wonder what the earlier version was, that the customer liked so much.

-bit (November 25, 2013, 05:49 PM)

Most likely a version prior to Office 2007 which introduced the "ribbon interface" many people don't like. If I had to guess, it was probably Word 2003 he had.

2568

Living Room / Re: Your tax dollars at work: Now FDA proposes to ban a brand of cookie?

« Last post by 40hz on November 25, 2013, 04:59 PM »

It's still impossible to legislate individual responsibility in any meaningful way.

You'd think we'd have figured that much out by now.

2569

Living Room / Re: Your tax dollars at work: Now FDA proposes to ban a brand of cookie?

« Last post by 40hz on November 25, 2013, 02:29 PM »

I'm not trying to make the argument that the FDA is stupid.

-CWuestefeld (November 25, 2013, 01:22 PM)

You don't need to. They make that argument pretty convincingly for themselves at times.

There are doubtless a pile of really smart scientists there.

-CWuestefeld (November 25, 2013, 01:22 PM)

There are. Unfortunately, the FDA is a creature of Congress and subject to all the political manipulations and misrepresentations most government agencies are guilty of subject to from time to time. Because in addition to it's dedicated scientific personnel, the FDA also has its "business" management and core bureaucracy. And any time science collides with the politically endorsed reality du jour or cause célèbre, the hard science usually loses out.

Politics and science make strange bedfellows.
 

2570

General Software Discussion / Is Microsoft heading towards a non-Windows future

« Last post by 40hz on November 25, 2013, 01:34 PM »

Interesting article over at The Register. Does Microsoft's future business plans no longer include Windows as we know it? Are they moving towards a hardware/software combination like Apple has done? And is Windows running on a general purpose PC going to become a thing of the past as the corporate focus shifts towards WindowsPhone OS and Windows-RT on the ARM platform? And possibly a version of Windows that is more "locked-down" to use Julie Larson-Green of Microsoft's words...hmm...

Microsoft's hardware chief has given the strongest indication yet that Microsoft has too many operating systems.

"We have the Windows Phone OS. We have Windows RT and we have full Windows. We're not going to have three," Julie Larson-Green told the audience at a UBS investor event. Larson-Green looks after the "Devices and Studios Engineering Group", the part of Redmond where the Surface hardware and the Xbox games console is built.

It's been suggested, rumored and bandied about in several places before. Might this be the first clear signal this is where Redmond is going?

And she kept on tellin' me, kept on tellin' me, kept on tellin' me...
I want you
I need you
But there ain't no way I'm ever gonna love you
Now don't be sad
'Cause two out of three ain't bad

The Register article is here.

2571

Non-Windows Software / Re: New Linux magazine startup campaign on Indiegogo

« Last post by 40hz on November 25, 2013, 11:21 AM »

Update: they're now at £50,011 of the £90,000 target (1006 contributing so far) with 29 days left to go.

If you're interested in seeing this magazine happen, please spread the word.

2572

Living Room / Re: How long do hard drives actually live for?

« Last post by 40hz on November 25, 2013, 08:40 AM »

^Hunch, vibe, or utility - whatever works best for you since it's your data.  

FWIW there are bad vibes and then there's bad vibes. If you do this stuff for a living the vibes you get (which are really more the product of semi-subconscious observation and analysis linked to a deal of real world working experience) are significantly different than what the average computer user likely feels when they get them. And athough we jokingly refer to it as getting a vibe or having a hunch, it's actually a lot more than that.  

Oh yes, we almost always try to confirm it with a test utility before we take action on what we're intuiting too.  


Yeah...it was that Adtran I had a
bad feeling about yesterday

2573

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: looking for MS Word freebie

« Last post by 40hz on November 25, 2013, 08:31 AM »

Short answer is no. Microsoft never gives any version of their office apps away unless it's part of some special deal they're offering somebody. Anybody who claims otherwise is mistaken.

There are plenty of good and free alternatives to Word available for download. A Google search will spot you several if the above suggestions don't work for you.

2574

Living Room / Re: Your tax dollars at work: Now FDA proposes to ban a brand of cookie?

« Last post by 40hz on November 25, 2013, 03:20 AM »

@app  - I don't think anybody is trying to fool anybody here. The two ingredients in question (fudge and margarine) contain cottenseed and partially hydrogenated soybean oils which are listed as the trans-fat sources Neither of these ingredients are anything new to a US diet. Both have been around for (at least) a century if you prefer it be said that way instead.

What usually happens in situations like this is the ingredient itself is what got changed rather than the product. And usually without the knowledge of the business making said product.

It's also the news report (not the cookie maker) that brought up how old the recipe was ("since 1830") - and me who calculated the 184 year figure. Can't speak for the reporter, but I wasn't trying to snow anybody by doing so.
 

2575

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

« Last post by 40hz on November 24, 2013, 09:05 PM »

^Sounds good. Added it to my watch list. Thx!