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2651

Living Room / Re: Mike-O-Matic on GooTube and The Power of Branding

« Last post by Edvard on October 17, 2006, 03:53 PM »

And Band-Aid even changed their jingle in an attempt to head off this kind of "Genericizing".

From : "I am stuck on Band-Aid cause Band-Aid's stuck on me"
To:    "I am stuck on Band-Aid brand cause Band-Aid's stuck on me"

What's interesting is it seems like ultimately trademark owners don't have much ability to defend a trademark that has come so fully into popular and generic usage.

True, http://www.devicelin...ve/03/03/mchugh.html (read especially the section on "Generic Use")

And on the flip side, does anybody remember the time when Linus Torvalds was forced to trademark the "Linux" name because somebody trademarked it and was demanding money from everybody (aw Bullwinkle, that trick NEVER works!). After trademarking it, he was informed by the proper authorities that he was now *obligated* to enforce conditions of its use and had to demand compensation or acknowledgement from those operating under some version of the name "Linux". Read Linus' kernel-dev post mirrored at Slashdot

*whew* glad I don't own any trademarks...

Deozaan, FWIW-
Yo-Yo (I knew this, but Wikipedia explains it better...)
I've seen SPAM-like stuff selling as "Potted Meat Product" and "deviled ham" would be an even more generic term, although Underwood might have a problem with that.
The proper name for a Phillips screwdriver is exactly that, and the needs of mass manufacturing put his design in the limelight over the Robertson. See http://inventors.abo...ns/a/screwdriver.htm

EDIT: oops I was wrong... From the same site:

Cross-head, or Phillips screw has an X-shaped slot and is driven by a cross-head screwdriver, designed originally in the 1930s for use with mechanical screwing machines, intentionally made so the driver will ride out, or cam out, under strain to prevent over-tightening.

So, cross-head it is!!

2652

Living Room / Re: Windows Vista Pronunciation

« Last post by Edvard on October 17, 2006, 01:11 PM »

I suppose this was inspired by the controversy on how to pronounce "Linux"

I like how a friend explained how Italians say the "a" sound as almost silent but more like a pause for emphasis of the preceding letter sound. Like the word "mozzarella", for instance. Pronounce it "mawtsuh-relluh" and you won't get anything from signore cheesemonger. But say "moatS' relL' " and you'll get some sloppy white goo that goes excellent melted over red sauce and linguine.
So i say it should be pronounced VeesT'

BTW-localization of dialect is a far-reaching and global subject. Ask why the Brits say "lorry" instead of "truck" or why the english-speaking Pinoys say "bonnet" instead of "hat". We could go on...

P.S.- You should also hold your hand palm up with your fingers together as if holding a marble at your fingertips when you pronounce it "Il Senso Italiano"

2653

Living Room / Re: Mike-O-Matic on GooTube and The Power of Branding

« Last post by Edvard on October 16, 2006, 02:12 PM »

Some thoughts on branding as posted at the RandomRareBits Blog :

How is communication important in branding? Perhaps...the following analogies will help us define the word...

You're at a party and see a handsome guy. You get up and straighten your dress. You walk up to him and pour him a drink. You say, "May I," and reach up to straighten his tie brushing your breast lightly against his arm, and then say, "By the way, I'm fantastic in bed." That's Public Relations.

You're at a party with a bunch of friends and see a handsome guy. One of your friends goes up to him and pointing at you says,"She's fantastic in bed." That's Advertising.

You see a handsome guy at a party. You go up to him and say, "I'm fantastic in bed." That's Direct Marketing.

You see a handsome guy at a party. You go up to him and get his telephone number. The next day you call and say, "Hi, I'm fantastic in bed." That's Telemarketing.

You're on your way to a party when you realize that there could be handsome men in all these houses you're passing. So you climb out the sunroof of the car and shout at the top of your lungs, "I'm fantastic in bed!" That's Spam.

You're at a party and see a handsome guy. He walks up to you and says, "I hear you're fantastic in bed." That's Brand Recognition.

2654

Living Room / Prison Break Flash game

« Last post by Edvard on October 16, 2006, 11:25 AM »

Your mission: Escape the cell without being noticed by security guards.
http://www.vx4.com/a...es/prison-break.html

2655

Living Room / Re: Frozen Bubble - Now available in Flash!

« Last post by Edvard on October 11, 2006, 06:07 PM »

Another good find app!
But I think my favorite (and most addictive) is still the original Frozen Bubble 
besides, none of them have Ayo's wonderful Penguin Art to add to the experience
 

2656

Living Room / Re: Frozen Bubble - Now available in Flash!

« Last post by Edvard on October 11, 2006, 12:50 PM »

If a flash game is faster than a native windows port, those developers must suck >_<

Actually, after playing the real game in Linux, it seems the flash port is artificially accelerated. I suppose one could change the animation speed settings in the source and recompile if desired. It is written in Perl and SDL so it's not a normal porting to windows issue...

Thanks app, I knew it was a derivative, so I'll have to try them all as well, but...

This one features a stripping girl and I have no idea how far she will strip

uh... maybe not *all*
 

2657

Living Room / Frozen Bubble - Now available in Flash!

« Last post by Edvard on October 10, 2006, 06:31 PM »

  Oh, Happy Day!

My favorite Linux game is now in a flash version (and it's much faster than the either the Java Version or the Windows port)

http://www.ventoline.com/frozenbubble/


 

2658

Living Room / Re: Cool Parent Gadget - Hipseat Baby Carrier

« Last post by Edvard on October 09, 2006, 06:52 PM »

Doh!! I *cannot* tell you how many times I thought of doing something like this after my first kid was born. I would tie my jacket around my waist and notice how much easier it was to hold the little nipper on my hip. Then I would think "what if someone (like me...) made something that was like a little foam pad thingummy that straps around you and makes a seat for the kid? Hmmm... what an idea..."

*kick self*
*kick self*
*kick self*
*ad infinitum...*

2659

General Software Discussion / Re: Cygwin

« Last post by Edvard on October 09, 2006, 01:20 PM »

LOVE Unxutils 
that plus the Windows port of Midnight Commander (the one true file manager for Unix) and Windows command line Tab completion (just like Bash!  )and I can finally live a little more comfortably when the need arises for the little black window...

2660

General Software Discussion / Re: SPAMPAL replacement

« Last post by Edvard on October 09, 2006, 11:10 AM »

I understand your viewpoint, JJ but the simple fact is I have 200+ clients (many of whom are just now discovering the miracle of email) sending me houseplans to print in email attachments anywhere from a few kilobytes for a single pdf or plot file to 10-15 megs for a zipped plan set and they aren't about to change. They are too familiar with it. Our main office deals with large format full-color plots which can easily get up to hundreds of megs and we use FTP storage for that.
HFS sounds really cool, but our ISP provides the ftp space and the interface tools for it and we don't have an in-house IT person to twiddle about with all that (and the bosses aren't about to hire one...)

Josh, thanks for the suggestion, Spamato looks really nice but it needs Java 1.5 and that won't install on this ancient NT4.0 Workstation.

2661

Living Room / Re: YAST AND SUSE LINUX

« Last post by Edvard on October 05, 2006, 03:57 PM »

Generally, have you tried the Suse forums at LinuxQuestions?
Specifically, have you seen this page?

I am unfamiliar with Suse, but generally if it comes in a tarball, it's likely to be source code. If it is an RPM, it's likely to be a binary package. Did you download Sylpheed Claws from the Suse repository or from the SC website? It's usually *safer* to download from your distributions package repository if you want a package that has been tested to work, though there are sometimes exceptions.

Look up your printer model's website and see if they offer Linux support. If it is a Hewlett-Packard, your chances are better...

What brand of graphics card do you have? Nvidia and ATI both offer decent (although not open-source) drivers with fair documentation. Other cards are maybe, maybe not.

P.S. the command line is probably labelled "aterm" in your system menu.

2662

Living Room / Re: What's Your Favorite Gadget? Here's mine with a Discount - A Seltzer Maker

« Last post by Edvard on October 04, 2006, 07:32 PM »

No, wait...
http://www.iwantoneo...ic-button/index.html

2663

Living Room / Re: What's Your Favorite Gadget? Here's mine with a Discount - A Seltzer Maker

« Last post by Edvard on October 04, 2006, 07:29 PM »

Josh already found an online service for this- good for those of us who have only a few DVD's and don't buy ziplocks already... https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=4917.0

Seriously, my favorite gadget does not exist yet, but I keep hoping!!
https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=1763.0

and I bet you can find more cool gadgets at I Want One Of Those.

Ooohh... Hey....
http://www.iwantoneo...-drum-kit/index.html

There's nothing worse than being around someone who incessantly taps on their desk as if somehow this makes them the next Keith Moon, and really how much of a tune can be bashed out on a plastic or wooden desk? The Mini Drum Kit is here to save us (and quite possibly infuriate others).

2664

Developer's Corner / Re: A little laugh for coders

« Last post by Edvard on October 04, 2006, 03:34 PM »

Apparently lots of folks have their own variations. Just hit http://www.google.co...g+shoot+self+in+foot . Here's my favorites from http://www.m5p.com/~pravn/foot.html

  Windows95:
       d:\setup

And the best one of all...

And lest we forget our roots...

    >shoot self in foot
    I don't see any self here.
    >shoot me in foot
    There is no you in the foot.
    >shoot foot
    I don't know which foot you're talking about.
    >shoot left foot
    You don't have the gun.
    >get gun
    You take the gun.
    You're lantern just went out.
    You are attacked by grues.

    * * * YOU HAVE DIED * * *

 

2665

DonationCoder Projects / Re: RPG on the forum

« Last post by Edvard on October 04, 2006, 10:25 AM »

 

2666

General Software Discussion / Re: SPAMPAL replacement

« Last post by Edvard on October 04, 2006, 10:23 AM »

I use Avira Personal and it only scans when I open an attachment, not as it is downloading. Any AV that bogged my system like that every time I received an email would get the same scrutiny and smackdown as K9 did. I would open the task manager when the slowdowns occurred and the culprit was ALWAYS K9, slurping down 50-80% of cpu and eating up 80 megs or so when it was processing . I discovered some tweaks on the K9 website, maybe I'll try again. Right now POPfile is working a little TOO well...

2667

General Software Discussion / Re: Chatbots... the nuts and bolts.

« Last post by Edvard on October 03, 2006, 02:54 PM »

So... anyone up for doing a CodyBot to chat with visitors? He could tell people about the site, direct them to the forums, coding snacks, etc. or even reveal tidbits about DC members by reading profiles. Whaddya think?

2668

DonationCoder Projects / Re: RPG on the forum

« Last post by Edvard on October 03, 2006, 02:43 PM »

Seriously, like a full-on 3D dungeon slasher? Old-school text adventure like Zork or the old Infocom games? 2D maze/adventure like NetHack (w/tiles or else we'll have to upgrade our video cards) ? or a fun puzzle-based adventure with minimal graphics ala Kindom of Loathing? Hey, it could even include a Cody Bot to drop clues and sundries... The possibilities are endless. (and interacting with other members should be a feature)

BTW- an open-source PHP based engine can be found here: http://www.3eproductions.com/games.php

2669

General Software Discussion / Re: SPAMPAL replacement

« Last post by Edvard on October 02, 2006, 05:03 PM »

OK I've changed horses...

After months of using K9 I have found it to be VERY reliable. Less than 50 mis-classifications from over 5000 emails. That's good. But for some diablolical reason, it would make my CPU eat dirt every time an email came through. Every time my mouse slowed to a crawl, or text didn't show up in my typing, I knew I was receiving an email. 
I think it has something to do with the fact that most of my "good" email contains large image attachments (I work at a large-format reprographics place), and I think it is trying to scan the attachment as well as the message. I am going to contact the author at keir.net and see if there is any way to turn off scanning attachments and until then, POPfile is working very nicely. Thanks for the tip Carol!

2670

DonationCoder Projects / Re: RPG on the forum

« Last post by Edvard on October 02, 2006, 03:27 PM »

other forums have done it in the paste.

So it would be a 'sticky' topic?

 

2671

Living Room / Re: Not Quite Social Bookmarking...

« Last post by Edvard on October 02, 2006, 03:22 PM »

Well, yeah... but these two in particular have a certain... how the french folks say... je ne sais quoi. Something that sets them apart from simply "blogging". or maybe I'm reading more into it.

2672

Developer's Corner / Re: Commentary: Linkware licenses can go awry

« Last post by Edvard on October 02, 2006, 02:45 PM »

is that the right term? What's the correct proverb?

"in this day and age"

2673

Living Room / Not Quite Social Bookmarking...

« Last post by Edvard on September 28, 2006, 01:42 PM »

I've run across a few pages recently that I really like and I can't figure out what "category" they might fit into. To me they seem something like "stream-of-consciousness" link forums or something... Like Digg without the hype, Wikipedia without the eggheads... I dunno. Especially everything2; just pick up a thread and follow it from room to room to room to....

I see Mouser has a rss feed from memepool...
App and Mouser have already found everything2.com.

What would you call them? Got any more?

2674

General Software Discussion / Re: Read which Linux distro users think is best and why ...

« Last post by Edvard on September 26, 2006, 01:43 PM »

Eóin! Thank you! I have been looking for slack packages of xfce 4.3.99 that actually work...

w00t!

2675

Living Room / Re: Blattophobes, click not...

« Last post by Edvard on September 22, 2006, 08:01 PM »

*snicker*

Apparently this kind of thing touches a nerve or two. Maybe there is room for games that exploit phobias. I'm sure there could be (and are...) games whose subjects deal with fear of heights, spiders, etc. Although I could not imagine what a game called "Arachibutyrophobia" would be like.