Recent Posts

2701

Living Room / Re: ReligionFacts Big Religion Chart - cool

« Last post by zridling on July 10, 2006, 04:44 PM »

Well I'll be a monkey's uncle. Great find.

2702

Living Room / Re: Windows VISTA Basic GUI scrapped after negative user feedback

« Last post by zridling on July 10, 2006, 04:43 PM »

I can't believe they have two UI themes anyway. Why not stick with the Aero theme and sell more video cards? (But then, XP has two UI themes, too: classic and that other nasty thing.)

2703

Living Room / Tons of coupons/discount codes for online stores

« Last post by zridling on July 10, 2006, 04:40 PM »

Currentcodes.com has discount coupons of hundreds of well-known online stores like Barnes and Noble, Staples, and Amazon.com:

        http://www.currentcodes.com/

and also, via Scot's Newsletter:

        http://www.slickdeals.net/

2704

General Software Discussion / Re: Will you upgrade to Microsoft Office 2007?

« Last post by zridling on July 09, 2006, 02:29 AM »

If nothing else, you have to admit that the new MS Office interface is a bold move on Microsoft's part. I could be wrong, but user share is set for the future between MS Office and OpenOffice, and now that Office 2007 will write to OpenDocument format (.ODF), it makes sense that the two should play well together.

Why? Because just as Microsoft will never kill Linux, OpenOffice is here to stay.

2705

Living Room / Re: candy blog - my kind of blog

« Last post by zridling on July 08, 2006, 04:17 AM »

Oh man, that blog makes me hungry. Great find!

2706

Living Room / Re: Man shows crowds fallen piece of his skull

« Last post by zridling on July 06, 2006, 03:13 AM »

Oh man, someone get that dude a hat!

2707

Living Room / Planet-killer meteor video: holy snikes!

« Last post by zridling on July 06, 2006, 03:11 AM »

The Japanese have made an animation what would happen if Earth would be hit with a "planet-killer" meteor. Interesting, as long as it doesn't interrupt my internet connection.

        http://youtube.com/watch?v=3JHdYBet_4Q&search=Meteorite%20Collision
       

2708

General Software Discussion / Re: Will you upgrade to Microsoft Office 2007?

« Last post by zridling on July 06, 2006, 01:30 AM »

How does a keyboard emphasize the mouse?

It has no keypad, for instance.

Are they not teaching typing/keyboarding in schools anymore? WTF mate!

2709

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is so much software cracked?

« Last post by zridling on July 05, 2006, 01:10 AM »

It seems we've come full circle and you all have so far made this a must-read thread. It appears we have myriad answers to the question "Why is so much software cracked?"

• the challenge of cracking code
• the lack of money needed to register it
• the base thrill of theft, or of simple possession/collection
• the sake of necessity, out of poverty
• the purpose of evaluation
• to get back at "the man," which is today is the corporation (usually Microsoft or Adobe)

and so on. One thing is true is that this is not a black-and-white issue, but one that is gray throughout, and is justified individually. I'd love to hear your specific suggestions to developers. One I'd make is that trial software not be crippled. If you cripple your software, you're begging for it to be cracked with every update you compile.

2710

Living Room / Re: OpenOffice user - can you do me a favour please ...

« Last post by zridling on July 05, 2006, 12:28 AM »

Ouch — 86Mb is "portable"?

2711

General Software Discussion / Re: Will you upgrade to Microsoft Office 2007?

« Last post by zridling on July 05, 2006, 12:25 AM »

Like Microsoft's latest keyboards (including the silly one planned for Vista), the new 2007 UI emphasizes the mouse over the keyboard. Frankly I hate the ribbon, don't need the ribbon, don't want the ribbon. I understand the purpose of the ribbon, but I want to hide it permanently and reemphasize the keyboard and keyboard shortcuts.

In 2007, it seems that the keyboard shortcuts are intentionally hidden. It's counterproductive to take my hands off the keyboard and go hunting with the mouse for the "pretty picture" that signifies styles, for instance.

PS: Thanks BrotherS for adding the poll!

2712

General Software Discussion / Will you upgrade to Microsoft Office 2007?

« Last post by zridling on June 30, 2006, 03:59 AM »

If so, let us know. If not, tell us why and what you'll be using instead.

   

(I'm both curious and ambivalent.)

2713

Living Room / Watch World Cup Soccer live online!

« Last post by zridling on June 30, 2006, 03:38 AM »

Via NYTimes Technology QA:

QUESTION: I am mired in a corporate office during the World Cup this year. I occasionally leave the building and go watch the games, but sometimes I actually have to be at work. Is there any way that I can use the power of the almighty Internet to see the games live?

ANSWER: There are plenty of places around the Web to keep up with the latest World Cup news until the international soccer tournament ends on July 9. ESPN360 is streaming many matches live at http://espn.go.com/; while the service is ordinarily available only to subscribers to certain broadband providers, it is being offered without restriction through July 19. Corporate firewalls may be an issue.

The BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk) plans to stream all 64 World Cup matches over its Web site; it says the service is available only to those living in Britain (lucky Carol, et al.), though some blogging soccer fans have reported success with proxy servers that can evade this restriction. Here is the page for live BBC Audiocasts. If you can't find a compatible source for streaming, there are other ways to keep up with the games. For example, Yahoo is host of the official World Cup site at http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com, and Firefox users can download the Joga.com Companion extension (http://www.mozilla.com/add-ons/jogacompanion/), which pops up news of all the latest goals, yellow cards and match developments right in the browser window. Here is Der Spiegel's Live World Cup Result Ticker that's informative and easy to follow.
________________________________________________

        ———
I'm hoping for a Germany-England final! And if you know of other links, please share.

2714

Living Room / Re: Microsoft announces Robotics studio, but where's the Holodeck?

« Last post by zridling on June 28, 2006, 11:03 PM »

I'll take it! 

2715

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is so much software cracked?

« Last post by zridling on June 25, 2006, 05:26 AM »

That's odd since the Euro typically trades at 25-35% higher than the USDollar. The USDollar is so weak from our deficits that everything we buy now in the US (and abroad) is noticeably higher, including software.

2716

Living Room / Microsoft announces Robotics studio, but where's the Holodeck?

« Last post by zridling on June 25, 2006, 05:14 AM »

I know Robots are useful and sexy and all, but can't we skip straight to the holodeck? I'm getting tired of waiting and I don't want to have to freeze myself to come back to play* in one!

http://msdn.microsoft.com/robotics/

     

*Correction: I meant live in one.

http://www.lcarscom.net/holodeck.htm

     

2717

Living Room / Re: Men Beware...Out there...

« Last post by zridling on June 25, 2006, 05:04 AM »

Carol, she married Kevin whats-his-name, a true bum! So that's what she really looks like! Holy cow.

2718

Living Room / Re: new Futurama series! finally!

« Last post by zridling on June 25, 2006, 03:34 AM »

Oh man, Futurama was fantastic. Its comedy was a 1000 years ahead of our time, that's why you people didn't get it! When the world was being bombed, all I remember was: "Scruffy died as Scruffy lived...!

2719

General Software Discussion / Re: GenieSoft Release version 7 of their backup manager

« Last post by zridling on June 22, 2006, 05:15 PM »

I don't use it, but I love Genie Backup Manager. And from my little tests, I can't believe the minor changes warranted a full version upgrade. However, it's so easy, so fast, and let's you keep it simple or get as complex as you need.

2720

Developer's Corner / What is "cowboy coding?"

« Last post by zridling on June 22, 2006, 05:12 PM »

Curious if others do this, too. Nick Bradbury talks about cowboy coding a meme tracking feature for his FeedDemon app:

"So, given that I'm supposed to be a seasoned, old school programmer, you probably think that I first sketched out some ideas for how this feature should work, and then followed some sort of formal design process before coding it.... Nope. I went straight to coding. No design. No plan. No nothing....

Read on and let us know what you think!

2721

Living Room / Re: superboyac was not alone in his view of the mac vs. windows commercial

« Last post by zridling on June 20, 2006, 10:10 PM »

Hey, they don't call AC "SuperBoy" for nothing. If that's the definition of "cool" — merely owning a mac — then count me out forever. In 1984, macs were cool. In 2007, macs reinforce the old Barnum & Bailey dictum: There's a sucker born every minute! (sung by wonderful Michael Crawford)

I could make a list, but start with Office 2007. Mac ain't got that.
Gaming. Macs don't do that.
Price/Affordability. Macs never went there.

2722

Living Room / Re: Atomic Computer — gimme, gimme, gimme!

« Last post by zridling on June 20, 2006, 06:21 PM »

In the US, our Supreme Court just passed a ruling that allows the police to break down your doors unannounced. With this computer, I could always pick it up as they broke through and scream, "Stand back, or I'll blow up the who city block, you fools!"

2723

Living Room / Re: Gene Wilder with Steve Ballmer as Frankenstein (videomix)

« Last post by zridling on June 20, 2006, 06:19 PM »

In one splice it looks like he tweaks his ankle or achilles and hobbles for a bit, and then he's back to flailing away on stage. I've had bosses like this and I always wanted them to take a drug test. They get all fired up and start yelling and leading cheers, leaving me muttering, "Dude, it's only tech support; it's 9a, and we're already tired. Just let us get back to our chains and cells, uh, cubicles."

2724

Living Room / Re: Browser discussion

« Last post by zridling on June 20, 2006, 12:43 AM »

I've really enjoyed the changes in the 9.0 version and use it as my secondary browser, which is quite a lot during the day. The biggest thing I miss is hitting the ALT+D to jump to the address line (F2 is what Opera uses). And here's the funny thing: I use Opera to go to sites that don't render properly in IE! Go figure.

2725

Living Room / Gene Wilder with Steve Ballmer as Frankenstein (videomix)

« Last post by zridling on June 20, 2006, 12:22 AM »

Now it all makes sense! Here's a silly video of Young Frankenstein clips with Steve Ballmer of Microsoft spliced in:
http://www.videosift.com/siftoff/story.php?id=2577

How does one fat man have so much energy?