Recent Posts

2751

Living Room / Re: Obama Can Shut Down Internet For 4 Months Under New Emergency Powers

« Last post by app103 on July 04, 2010, 11:47 AM »

I have to quote my dad here, because it's funny....

If he ever shut down the Internet, half of America would die from going cold turkey! (Imagine streets strewn with Twitter corpses who couldn't repress a twit!)

-http://www.google.com/buzz/117052107038197839303/ZQQcBBz58Hi/Re-Obama-Can-Shut-Down-Internet-For-4-Months-Under#1277922222051000

2752

General Software Discussion / Re: Request: How did DonationCoder take off? (Slightly NSFW)

« Last post by app103 on July 03, 2010, 10:19 PM »

I think the answer to your question was in the comment on my blog post, right below mouser's comment....the one from Nobby:

I have same issues on my forum, 50+ members and only really me, April and the occasional other post. The reason i keep posting, is 4 fold:

#1 As mouser said, posting for myself, i kinda like it.

#2 Sooner or later others will post, at least, thats the theory.

#3 There are plenty of thread views, meaning people are at least visiting and reading if not posting, getting them there is half the battle, posting is likely to break out at some point!

#4 The more you post the more gets indexed the more draw there is for people to find the site, and hopefully, post, this is the forum snowball effect, once you get it started.........

So follow Nobby's advice and just keep posting on your own forum. As long as you don't give up*, sooner or later you will have participation.


_{*Nobby gave up and sold his site some months ago. Kind of made me sad, because the new owner got rid of the forum and everything we had posted there, changing it from a site of resources & discussions for newbie webmaster to a blog about online gambling. That was a whole lot of good content lost that could have been of benefit to any newbie blogger/site owner.}

2753

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: automated mp3 rip from video clip

« Last post by app103 on July 02, 2010, 02:49 AM »

It's not flagging Trout (thankfully), so there must be something specific in the video2mp3 that it's picking up that isn't present in Trout.

2754

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: automated mp3 rip from video clip

« Last post by app103 on July 02, 2010, 02:22 AM »

This is being detected by Avira as containing a virus or unwanted program 'SPR/AutoIt.Gen' [riskware]

Doesn't look like the usual false positives associated with UPX. This one looks more focused on AutoIt/AHK.

When are they going to stop picking on a programming language? They would never get away with this kind of stuff if they did this to all applications written in C++.

Avira is the only one doing this: http://www.virustota...23f460637-1278055619

2755

DC Website Help and Extras / Re: Looks like the "best of" blog needs fixing...

« Last post by app103 on June 30, 2010, 10:58 AM »

i have that power

-mouser (June 30, 2010, 10:56 AM)

yes, he has the power to make you question your own sanity and to make you think things are broken when they are not. 

2756

Living Room / Re: Obama Can Shut Down Internet For 4 Months Under New Emergency Powers

« Last post by app103 on June 29, 2010, 04:36 PM »

I don't know enough about international law to know how the USA could be sued somewhere other than in the United States. But in this country, it's very difficult to sue the Feds. That's because our government has sovereign immunity under US law.

-40hz (June 29, 2010, 01:10 PM)

I discovered something similar when researching snow removal laws and liability in my state (NJ).

If you leave the snow alone in front of your home and don't try to remove it at all, you can't be held liable if someone slips and falls. If you attempt to remove it and don't do a good enough job, or fail to put down a sufficient quantity of salt, if someone slips and falls, you are liable.

There is an exception to this law, regarding state owned properties. No matter what, the state isn't liable and you can't bring an injury suit against the state, even if they are fully responsible for your injuries. So if you fall down the stairs of the state capital because they didn't put enough salt down (or no salt at all) and sustain serious injuries, you are pretty much screwed because you won't ever get a dime from the state. They won't even cover the cost of a band-aid.

2757

Developer's Corner / Re: Going Facebook

« Last post by app103 on June 29, 2010, 04:19 PM »

There are security issues to think about with regards to this. There are too many rogue apps and other nasties being spread on Facebook that are capable of stealing facebook login info, and this could be a bad thing for people that have their facebook login info stolen and then whoever has it could then also have access to a bunch of accounts here on DC to do with as they please.

By not connecting DC to facebook and allowing people to log into the forum with their facebook account, we skip all the potential problems that could cause, and not have to deal with any security issues but our own.

But DC does have a fan page, if you would like to subscribe to it and share it with your facebook friends. The content posted to it is from our blog.

2758

Site/Forum Features / Re: Should we add tags to forum?

« Last post by app103 on June 28, 2010, 05:32 AM »

poster and those with special permission to edit all tags.

-mouser (June 27, 2010, 10:08 PM)

If that means I would be expected to tag a post when I start a new thread, I'd rather not. I hate tagging stuff.

2759

Living Room / Re: Obama Can Shut Down Internet For 4 Months Under New Emergency Powers

« Last post by app103 on June 28, 2010, 01:33 AM »

(I didn't write the following - it was at the end of the "kill switch" story.)

CANCER CONSPIRACY? Are "they" suppressing the cure? Will YOU be the next victim? Learn the Secret Truth! - READ FULL STORY

-mrainey (June 27, 2010, 03:35 PM)

That is actually an ad for an atrociously designed website selling pdf files on alternative medicine (quackery), written by a former bodybuilder accountant who does "medical research" as a hobby, and has probably read one too many "get rich quick on the internet" ebooks. 

2760

Living Room / Re: Obama Can Shut Down Internet For 4 Months Under New Emergency Powers

« Last post by app103 on June 28, 2010, 12:47 AM »

Wikipedia has some interesting stuff with regards to the US and "state of emergency"

http://en.wikipedia....rgency#United_States

On December 16, 1950, during the Korean War, President Truman issued Presidential Proclamation No. 2914,[22] declaring a state of national emergency[23]. The Supreme Court ruling in Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer established in 1952 during this emergency that presidents may not act contrary to Acts of Congress during an emergency.

During the Watergate scandal which erupted in the 1970s after president Richard Nixon allowed illegal actions, Congress investigated the extent of the President's powers and belatedly realized that the U.S. had been in a continuous state of emergency since 1950. As a result, in 1976 the National Emergencies Act set a limit of two years on emergency declarations unless the president explicitly extends them, and requiring the president to specify in advance which legal provisions will be invoked. The Act terminated the emergency of 1950 on September 14, 1978[24]; however, even in the 21st century, the federal courts have upheld harsh penalties (including deportation) for crimes that occurred during the state of national emergency from 1950 to 1978, where the penalties were escalated because of the existence of that emergency.[22]

The 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act allows freezing of assets, limiting of trade, and confiscation of property during a declared emergency.

That's a pretty big "oops, I forgot".

And when was the last declared state of emergency in the US?

The United States is formally in an ongoing limited state of emergency declared by several Presidents for several reasons. A state of emergency began on January 24, 1995 with the signing of Executive Order 12947 by President Bill Clinton. In accordance with the National Emergencies Act, the executive order's actual effect was not a declaration of a general emergency, but a limited embargo on trade with "Terrorists Who Threaten To Disrupt the Middle East Peace Process".[25] This "national emergency" was expanded in 1998 to include additional targets such as Osama bin Laden,[26] and has been continued to at least 2008 by order of President George W. Bush.[27] There are a number of other ongoing national emergencies of this type, referenced at [1]
 
and [2]
 
, regarding for instance diamond trade with Sierra Leone. Especially noteworthy are the ongoing states of emergency declared on November 14, 1979 regarding the Iran Hostage Crisis.[28], that declared on March 15, 1995 with respect to Iran,[29] and that declared on September 14, 2001 through Bush's Proclamation 7463, regarding the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.[30]

President Barack Obama extended George Bush's Declaration of Emergency regarding terrorism on September 10, 2009 [31] and later declared a National Emergency on October 24, 2009 for the 2009 Swine Flu pandemic, aiming to increase abilities for hospitals and medical centers to handle "swine flu" cases, responding to CDC reports stating that swine flu has become widespread in 46 of 50 U.S. states.

Now, if you are so worried that declaring a state of emergency will mean the automatic shutdown of the internet, don't be. Just because a number of provisions exist within the law for a president to take certain actions doesn't mean he will. If the provision to shut down the internet had existed back when Obama declared the state of emergency related to swine flu, it wouldn't have made any sense to shut down the internet and cut off access of citizens to vital information related to protecting themselves from swine flu. And the provision allowing the freezing of assets and confiscation of property during a declared emergency already existed at that time, yet I don't recall any stories about anyone losing their property or having their assets frozen as a result of the swine flu emergency.

2761

General Software Discussion / Re: Opera/Chrome no longer supported on chase banking sites after 18July

« Last post by app103 on June 27, 2010, 08:51 PM »

Well, thankfully, K-Meleon users can easily change their useragent to anything they want, mimicking what they support, with Firefox 2 being one of the default options, and anything else being possible through the custom option.



I can't help but wonder how old that page originally is, considering they mention WebTV^w which technically hasn't been called that since July 2001 (does Microsoft still offer service for it?). They may just have slapped a date on it recently and not bothered to change the list of browsers and their versions.

2762

Living Room / Diagnosis: Email Apnea?

« Last post by app103 on June 27, 2010, 03:52 AM »

I noticed this about myself a few months ago when I was trying to figure out why I get so sleepy when doing certain tasks on the computer. Now, rather than getting up and crawling into bed for a nap, I make a special effort to breathe more when doing them to avoid the problem.

I've just opened my email and there's nothing out of the ordinary there. It's the usual daily flood of schedule, project, travel, information, and junk mail. Then I notice. I'm holding my breath.

As the email spills onto my screen, as my mind races with thoughts of what I'll answer first, what can wait, who I should call, what should have been done two days ago; I've stopped the steady breathing I was doing only moments earlier in a morning meditation and now, I'm holding my breath.

And here's the deal: You're probably holding your breath, too.

I wanted to know -- how widespread is email apnea*? I observed others on computers and BlackBerries: in their offices, their homes, at cafes. The vast majority of people held their breath, or breathed very shallowly, especially when responding to email. I watched people on cell phones, talking and walking, and noticed that most were mouth-breathing and hyperventilating. Consider also, that for many, posture while seated at a computer can contribute to restricted breathing.

Does it matter? How was holding my breath affecting me?

_{*Email apnea - a temporary absence or suspension of breathing, or shallow breathing, while doing email}

http://radar.oreilly...sis-email-apnea.html

2763

Living Room / Re: Obama not a fan of Adam West Batman, prefers Twitter instead

« Last post by app103 on June 26, 2010, 06:55 AM »

I don't even want to think about a poorly timed fail whale situation. 

2764

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Quora - Facebook meets Yahoo Answers meets Wikipedia meets Twitter

« Last post by app103 on June 26, 2010, 04:00 AM »

Quora Owns All Your Content

-Paul Keith (June 25, 2010, 08:06 AM)

Actually, that article isn't true.

User Content

"Content" means any information, text, graphics, or other materials uploaded, downloaded or appearing on the Service. You retain ownership of all Content you submit, post, display, or otherwise make available on the Service.

-http://www.quora.com/about/tos

And yes, the original text is red like that too.

There is also an option that marks an answer as "not for reproduction" which forbids others from reusing your answers outside the site.

Unlike some other sites where anything you submit is automatically slapped with either a Creative Commons license or dedicated to the public domain, on Quora, the user retains full copyright of their submitted content and is only granting Quora a license to use it.

Also, because users submitted content to the site before there was a Terms of Service agreement and before the "not for reproduction" option was made available, nothing on the site that was submitted before April 22, 2010 can be reproduced outside the site, at all (except by the user that originally submitted it)

So, you have to be careful when quoting stuff from Quora and check for that "not for reproduction" label on an item as well as the date stamp on it.

2765

General Software Discussion / Re: Quora invite request

« Last post by app103 on June 22, 2010, 12:00 AM »

Quora is now open to the public. No invites needed. If you want to join, you can now sign up on your own:

Previously, there were two ways to register for Quora. You could either get an invitation from an existing user, or you could enter your email address in the box on our home page, and we'd invite you as soon as we scaled our capacity up.

We've gotten to the point where we are confident that we can integrate new users as they sign up and maintain the quality of the site, and so we are opening up registration today. However, we put quality ahead of growth as a priority, and so we will change plans and limit registration as necessary to achieve that goal.

http://www.quora.com...n-register-for-Quora

2766

N.A.N.Y. 2009 / Re: NANY 2009 Release: Trout (audio player)

« Last post by app103 on June 21, 2010, 01:25 AM »

All ten of you.

-skwire (June 21, 2010, 01:24 AM)

I am sure there are more than 10, they just keep silent and enjoy the software.

2767

Developer's Corner / Re: A list of free programming ebooks

« Last post by app103 on June 20, 2010, 04:51 PM »

Ah, the urge for symmetry -- app103, I didn't find the following in your nice compilation, does it qualify?

  Mercurial: The Definitive Guide

-ewemoa (June 20, 2010, 12:47 AM)

Yes it does, and thank you for formatting that so nicely for me....just added it.

2768

Developer's Corner / Re: A list of free programming ebooks

« Last post by app103 on June 19, 2010, 11:56 PM »

As the [self-proclaimed] #1 fan and major proponent of 'git', I would like to share Pro Git.

{We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming (or debugging)}

-parkint (June 19, 2010, 07:49 PM)

Thank you...just added it to my directory.

2769

Living Room / Re: Why do we always wait for apple's stuff before making a i[blank]-killer??

« Last post by app103 on June 19, 2010, 09:16 PM »

That's what I mean. Linux just has a miserable image that they can't seem to fix. Zane pointed it out that they need a massive marketing campaign to actually get people to see it for what it is and change that image.

-Renegade (June 19, 2010, 09:01 PM)

All the money in the world isn't going to help change that image when someone installs Linux and tries to get their wireless to work and there is no phone number for them to call and cry about it, with someone on the other end whose job it is to listen to them cry and then easily make it all better for them, even dispatching someone to go to their home and do it for them, if necessary...or a shop full of friendly understanding faces they can bring the computer to and they will fix it for them and make that wireless work.

And it isn't going to help when computer manufacturers void the warranty if you tell them you wiped out the OS it came with and installed Linux and can't get it to work right. They don't want to hear from you unless it is the OS they shipped it with that you are having an issue with.

That's right...it's support I am talking about.

Linux comes with "google it and hope you find an answer you can understand". That's what makes it not ready for the masses. That's the real image problem it has.

2770

Living Room / Re: Shiny Disco Balls

« Last post by app103 on June 19, 2010, 03:44 PM »

Do they make a pair of disco balls to hang from the rear view mirror?

-MilesAhead (June 19, 2010, 03:38 PM)

This one would make your car smell nice, too, I think. Not really sure about that "new dancing shoes" scent.



http://www.sesto-sen...ir-freshener6.html#2

2771

Living Room / Re: Shiny Disco Balls

« Last post by app103 on June 19, 2010, 12:09 PM »

The only things I found missing, were colors and LSD, and if there were LSD, the colors would have come out anyways.

I love trippy stuff.

-Renegade (June 19, 2010, 11:36 AM)

There were other videos done this way...tons of them (including a lot of jazz). I can remember watching at least 2-3 hours worth of them on some local PBS station between 1976-79 on my parent's black & white TV. I went to ask my dad something and was mesmerized by what he was watching. But I couldn't help thinking how much better it must look on a color TV. Glad to know I wasn't missing anything and they actually were in black & white.

2772

Developer's Corner / Re: "Rites of Passage" applications

« Last post by app103 on June 18, 2010, 10:47 PM »

How about this chap 

-mnemonic (June 13, 2010, 09:25 AM)

Hey, he even has Martin's easm:

http://helloworldsit...ic.de/hello.htm#easm

2773

Living Room / Re: Shiny Disco Balls

« Last post by app103 on June 18, 2010, 05:43 PM »

Hmmmm, when I first saw the subject line I thought men had found a way to retaliate for female ornate nail decoration.

-MilesAhead (June 18, 2010, 05:33 PM)

If she is doing the decorating herself, give her a computer that refuses to connect to the internet, loaded with all the geeky software you can get your hands on.

At least that's what my dad did to me and it worked. I don't even paint my nails any more, nevermind doing designs and pictures on them like I used to.

2774

General Software Discussion / Re: Quora invite request

« Last post by app103 on June 18, 2010, 05:06 PM »

It's a high quality site. I would compare it more to Wikipedia than Yahoo Answers.

Of course there are some dumb questions there, and ones asked just to be funny, but for the most part it's a serious site and quite good.

2775

Living Room / Re: Shiny Disco Balls

« Last post by app103 on June 18, 2010, 03:44 PM »

And the grand-daddy of all techno, from 1969:

http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=OSRCemf2JHc

Bonus treat is that is the original video for it, as far as I know.