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2776

Living Room / Re: Apple: if we get you subscribers, we deserve a cut

« Last post by superboyac on February 17, 2011, 02:54 PM »

I'm telling you guys...a jailbroken ipad is a totally different animal than a normal ipad.

-superboyac (February 17, 2011, 12:37 PM)

Maybe you missed my link earlier: Apple breaks iBooks for jailbreakers.

Which pretty much leads us right back to what 40hz just said:

FWIW, I don't have a problem with Apple's technologies. . .

I have a big problem with Apple's business, legal, and marketing practices. And I have an even bigger problem with their resident demigod, Mr. Jobs, who is the most significant single factor that's keeping Apple from becoming something truly great.

-40hz (February 17, 2011, 12:53 PM)

-Deozaan (February 17, 2011, 02:43 PM)

Man, if you are good with computers, why even bother with ebook formats?  The only formats I use are actual, physical books, or pdf's.  And for comics, cbr and cbz files, sometimes converted from a pdf.  The benefit is several-fold: first, no proprietary formats and no proprietary readers.  Compatibility across all platforms and devices.  Multiple choices for reader software: you can pick whichever pdf app best fits your particular needs, they are all very different.  Manipulation of content, so you can extract pages, crop pages, copy/paste into other documents...so you can use the content in the future for whatever projects you may be doing.  i don't pay for ebooks.  I only pay for real books. well, actually that's not entirely true.  I'll pay for a pdf ebook if it's open.

2777

Living Room / Re: 3Tb Drives are Here! That's 500,000 songs. Enough yet?

« Last post by superboyac on February 17, 2011, 02:46 PM »

If you sit down and watch each and every still frame of your movie, spending several seconds analyzing each one, you'll sure see a lot of difference - the compression algorithm isn't magically ~7x better (oh, and the size is going to be larger for 1080p, I'm used to 720p ).

Thing is, when you watch a movie, you aren't spending several seconds per frame - iirc BluRay runs at ~24fps. So yes, while you do lose some information, you're unlikely to notice it while the movie is running. I'm the kind of guy that rips my music collection to FLAC instead of lossy formats, but for the most part I'm perfectly happy watching movies in 720p x264 rips. For my viewing distance and TV (a 1080p 32" Sony), the result is very nice

-f0dder (February 17, 2011, 01:32 PM)

Flac, eh?  If you do that, I'm surprised you don't go lossless on the video also.  But you justify it well.  Heck, i don't even do flac yet.  My collection is still mostly mp3.  But I do intend to one day explore the whole audiophile experiment with the expensive headphones and headphone amps, etc. just to see if there's something to it.  I'll be pissed if I need to redo everything in FLAC.

My plans for my HTPC is to have a HUGE projector, like 10' wide.  So that's why I figured I'd just go lossless on the video.  And makemkv makes it so easy to convert.  I'm going to stick with that for now.  Hard drives are so cheap anyway.

2778

General Software Discussion / Re: anything better than Object Dock 2 Plus?

« Last post by superboyac on February 17, 2011, 02:41 PM »

For software price psychology, my theory is this:
If it's between $0-10, nobody should complain.  I'd consider it extremely ungrateful if someone said $10 is to expensive for something they use with any regularity.  Of course, nobody can say anything about freeware, I just don't think the model is sustainable.

$10-20
Some people think this is expensive.  I used to before my career matured.  But now I don't blink at anything under $20.  I'll get it sometimes just because I like the way it's been programmed, even if I don't use it.

$20-50
People start calling these "expensive".  I don't think they are expensive, but the price is high enough for me to actually need justification before purchasing. Like, i really should need it for something now.

$50-100
This is what most people largely consider expensive for software.  Most people will never buy anything in this range.  This range really makes people think twice.  I still don't think it's expensive, but if I need it, I'll get it and it won't really hurt me much.

>$100
This is just too much for most people.  They won't even entertain the thought.  Most people would consider this kind of software as business type, like it's not even meant for home use.

2779

General Software Discussion / Re: anything better than Object Dock 2 Plus?

« Last post by superboyac on February 17, 2011, 01:14 PM »

I have never liked autohide in my years with computing.  I'm too picky about the settings, and most programmers put autohide in without any ability to configure it.  For me to use autohide, not only does it need to be stable and responsive, but I need to have settings for popout delay, popin delay.  And i would set it to zero so it's instant.  And when I set it to instant, it should really be instant...not buggy, where there's still a delay.

2780

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

« Last post by superboyac on February 17, 2011, 01:01 PM »

Can you add the DDE support to your player?

-Armoured (February 17, 2011, 12:19 PM)

I'm not sure I understand your request.  Can you provide me with more detail, please?

-skwire (February 17, 2011, 12:26 PM)

2781

General Software Discussion / Re: anything better than Object Dock 2 Plus?

« Last post by superboyac on February 17, 2011, 01:00 PM »

yeah, i don't think the toolbars can be dynamic in DOpus.

2782

Living Room / Re: 3Tb Drives are Here! That's 500,000 songs. Enough yet?

« Last post by superboyac on February 17, 2011, 12:59 PM »

But if you think about it, backing up a bluray disc will be about 50GB.  So a 3TB drive will <only> hold 60 bluray movies.

-superboyac (February 17, 2011, 11:40 AM)

Convert to mkv/x264 and you're down to ~8gig apop with very little visible quality loss - if your main reason is backups and ease of use, that's good enough, and you can store the original discs in a safe and humidity-controlled environment

-f0dder (February 17, 2011, 12:50 PM)

See, I don't understand that at all.  How can you go from 50GB to 8GB and see no visible loss?  i don't understand.  Is the other 40GB just waste?  If I convert it using makemkv, how big will the file be?  I've always assumed that it would be the full 50GB since makemkv doesn't compress.  But I really don't want to compress if I can help it.  however, if what you say is true, why should I waste that much space for no reason?

2783

General Software Discussion / Re: anything better than Object Dock 2 Plus?

« Last post by superboyac on February 17, 2011, 12:41 PM »

i agree with that also.  There's a lot you can do with Dopus once you start messing around with collections.  Then you have your folder formats, file type customizations, flat-file settings, folder coloring.  DOpus is extremely powerful.  Worth the price, even though I know a lot of people complain about how expensive it is.  I once tried to setup a saved layout specifically for start menu organizing, but I didn't spend enough time on it.

2784

Living Room / Re: Apple: if we get you subscribers, we deserve a cut

« Last post by superboyac on February 17, 2011, 12:37 PM »

I'm telling you guys...a jailbroken ipad is a totally different animal than a normal ipad.  Compare the jailbroken ipad to the android devices, and the ipad <may> be preferable.  But for people like us, I think this year will give us some options that might suit us better than the ipad or ipad2.  I'm hoping someone will make some business-grade tablets that runs Windows.

2785

General Software Discussion / Re: anything better than Object Dock 2 Plus?

« Last post by superboyac on February 17, 2011, 12:22 PM »

I used OD2 Plus for a while, but a better one IMO if you're willing to pay is WinStep.  It includes 3 different ways of setting up your apps.

1. NextStart - It can either be a bar to replace the start menu and task bar, or a right click menu (or both)
http://www.winstep.n..._thumb_nextstart.jpg
2. Workshelf - This is a dock that has shelves (which are the folders that you ask for)
http://www.winstep.n..._thumb_workshelf.jpg
3. Nexus - A separate dock that's more like the NeXT type of dock that can have fly out folders.
http://www.winstep.n..._thumb_nextstart.jpg

All of them allow you to display either the content of folders, manually generated content, or even special folders.

I'd say give it a look.  It's not cheap ($29.95), but it does everything that you asked for, and I like it.  I'll post a screenshot of my desktop when I get home.

-wraith808 (February 17, 2011, 12:06 PM)

That is one nifty program.  Nice suggestion.  It has a Start Menu Organizer!

I have NEVER found a good start menu organizer.  A few years ago, mouser was considering it when he mentioned merging FARR and LBC.

2786

General Software Discussion / Re: anything better than Object Dock 2 Plus?

« Last post by superboyac on February 17, 2011, 12:07 PM »

re: the icon thing
If mouser decides to implement it for LBC, I would hope it would also be compatible to add to CHS, as I mentioned in this thread:
https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=23426.0

2787

Living Room / Re: Does anyone understand the differences in the Western Digital drives?

« Last post by superboyac on February 17, 2011, 11:45 AM »

I'd have to say my favorite (from your chart there) is the: High-capacity and reliability.

Okay so I can either get a High-capacity 2TB drive (well yeah its 2TB), or a Low-capacity 2TB drive? ...Just how the Fluffy Rabbit does that work?!?

-Stoic Joker (February 17, 2011, 11:42 AM)

What...you don't get it?  what's wrong with you.  Of course you want the high capacity 2TB drive.  duh.  I wouldn't be caught dead with a low capacity 2TB drive.

2788

Living Room / Re: 3Tb Drives are Here! That's 500,000 songs. Enough yet?

« Last post by superboyac on February 17, 2011, 11:40 AM »

holy shit, 3 tb is a lot.  But if you think about it, backing up a bluray disc will be about 50GB.  So a 3TB drive will <only> hold 60 bluray movies.  That's not a lot.  I plan on transferring my entire collection within the next year or two, i should probably plan ahead on how much space I'll need.  i don't know about you guys, but I'm damn excited for the day when I can watch all my stuff without flipping dvd's in and out.  Oo baby.  I'm also closely monitoring Java's HTPC front end journey.

2789

General Software Discussion / Re: anything better than Object Dock 2 Plus?

« Last post by superboyac on February 17, 2011, 11:37 AM »

This is a cool idea, nudone.  I was just about to suggest LBC.  I love LBC, so I'll welcome any of the mentioned additional features.

2790

Living Room / Re: Apple: if we get you subscribers, we deserve a cut

« Last post by superboyac on February 17, 2011, 09:15 AM »

@40Hz - If only it were that simple...

-Renegade (February 17, 2011, 07:35 AM)

It's as simple as you let it be. 

Or is until your pacemaker becomes dependent on your owning an iPad. 

-40hz (February 17, 2011, 09:08 AM)

I would totally jailbreak my pacemaker and have it do some cool shit.

2791

Living Room / Does anyone understand the differences in the Western Digital drives?

« Last post by superboyac on February 17, 2011, 09:13 AM »

I'm having a hard time understanding the fundamental differences between the Western Digital hard drives.  It seems they have gone the way of Intel, making a lot of models and being super unclear what the differences are.  It's the same business model...confuse people enough, and they'll just buy whatever.  Anyway, can someone explain them if you know?
Here's what I know:
Caviar Green; these are the cheaper consumer drives.  They use less power, have slower performance (by how much, I don't know), and have 3-year warranties?

Caviar Black: these are the more enterprise grade drives?  This is what I usually buy, simply because I like the 5 year warranty.  They are supposed to perform better, and the use more power.  boo.  I like them, though.

Caviar Blue?
Velociraptor?  I have one, it's supposed to be fast.  My friend told me they're on the outs because of SSD, and he also said he did some tests and the Velociraptors were no faster than his regular 2 TB drives.

RE4?
RE3?

WD has a comparison chart:
http://www.wdc.com/e...internal/enterprise/

The problem with the chart is that it tells you the distinguishing features, but it doesn't help you figure out which drive you want.  If there are two drives described as:
"Fast, reliable and enterprise-ready."
"Best-in-class performance, unparalleled reliability."
How the hell am I supposed to make a choice?  Just because you put some words in a chart doesn't mean it helps people at all.  It's such corporate bullshit.  Oh, so one is reliable...and the other one has unparalleled reliability.  Super clear, thanks.

2792

Living Room / Re: Apple: if we get you subscribers, we deserve a cut

« Last post by superboyac on February 17, 2011, 08:58 AM »

Such are the realities of dealing with a closed software ecosystem.

And such is the high tariff some feel we should all be made to pay for what amounts to little more than convenience when shopping.

Fortunately, the solution is very simple.

If you don't want to live with: arbitrary policy and decision-making,  predatory business tactics, 'rules' based on (and changed at) whim, high nonnegotiable pricing, blatantly unfair and constantly rewritten licenses -  then stop doing business with companies that make no bones about the fact that's exactly what they're going to subject you to.
 
Your single, most effective response to a bad deal is to walk away.

-40hz (February 17, 2011, 07:30 AM)

I truly think Apple is close to crossing some kind of line with their closed business model.  Apple has grown so much over the last two years, it's crazy.  Between the laptops, tablets, phones, they have grown their userbase by tons.  They just can't keep it this closed for too much longer.  i don't know, maybe they can.  But we're seeing...companies are not going to give 30% to Apple for subscriptions.  that sounds so insane.  I mean, if they end up all doing it, I'd be shocked.  That's too big of a cut.  So I'm predicting a lot of important companies will just resist it and their product won't be available on apple devices.  So then the userbase will complain, and because it's growing so much, those complaints will be hard to ignore, I imagine.  So Apple will have to lower their cut.  but what if they don't?  That's going to make more people either A) not want to use Apple devices or B) jailbreak their devices to do what they want.  Either way, it starts fragmenting Apples closed system.

2793

Living Room / Re: 3Tb Drives are Here! That's 500,000 songs. Enough yet?

« Last post by superboyac on February 17, 2011, 08:35 AM »

Jeez...

I put a Blu-ray burner in my desktop for optical backups. Now, to back up that drive, it would only take, oh, 60 dual-layer discs or 120 singles... Yikes...

Now if only we could get 3TB SSDs for $240~!

-Renegade (February 17, 2011, 06:33 AM)

Renegade, what do you use for discs and how much do they cost?

2794

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: Clipboard Help+Spell - Top Priority Requests for 2011

« Last post by superboyac on February 16, 2011, 08:40 PM »

Re:

"Less SQL"

I'm not so sure I'd agree with this one.
I'd perhaps rather see MORE SQL, and MORE comprehensive instructions in the Help file to make full use of the SQL features in CHS.

For example, when defining the rules for a Virtual Folder, I'd like to be able to do something like:
IsFavorite=true AND ExcerptText=Databank
or IsFavorite=true AND ExcerptText="Databank"
or IsFavorite=true AND ClipText=Databank
or IsFavorite=true AND ClipText="Databank"

- but none of these seem to work, and I can't figure out from the Help what it is that I am doing wrong (e.g., is it syntax, or logic, or command structure?).

I think the ability to use SQL and Virtual Folders in CHS could make CHS a much more powerful and useful information management tool (memories of Lotus Agenda...sigh).

-IainB (February 16, 2011, 08:31 PM)

nobody is saying removing anything.  Just for the common things, an easier interface would be nice.

2795

General Software Discussion / Re: What's the best SQL software for writing queries?

« Last post by superboyac on February 16, 2011, 08:11 PM »

I'm guessing that Regex Magic is more appropriate for a newbie like myself.

2796

General Software Discussion / Re: What's the best SQL software for writing queries?

« Last post by superboyac on February 16, 2011, 07:25 PM »

  I tried doing a regex thing yesterday...I don't get it at all.

-superboyac (February 16, 2011, 07:16 PM)

RegEx is one of those things that this phrase desribes perfectly:

"It's nice to live there, but you wouldn't want to visit"

-timns (February 16, 2011, 07:22 PM)

ha ha.  I totally get that.  Yeah, people swear by it who use it all the time.  But to just dabble in it makes no sense.  I was saying what the fuck a lot...

2797

General Software Discussion / Re: What's the best SQL software for writing queries?

« Last post by superboyac on February 16, 2011, 07:16 PM »

I'm still sticking with PL/SQL Developer as the best option so far.  What's my favorite thing about it?  It's more responsive than the others.  it just feels faster, like a good text editor.  Actually, I'm ending up writing the queries in a text editor and pasting it into Developer because I prefer the highlighting and code folding features of most editors better than these integrated things.

-superboyac (February 16, 2011, 03:29 PM)

Syntax highlighting is the absolute most important thing for me in a text editor. (Regular expressions are #2 by a tiny margin.) I find Editplus has the best for what I like.

-Renegade (February 16, 2011, 07:12 PM)

I agree!  I like EditPlus also!  I just tried it for the first time a couple of weeks ago and i was impressed.  I can't put my finger on it yet, but it was nice.  I tried doing a regex thing yesterday...I don't get it at all.

2798

General Software Discussion / Re: What's the best SQL software for writing queries?

« Last post by superboyac on February 16, 2011, 04:48 PM »

Actually, I'm ending up writing the queries in a text editor and pasting it into Developer because I prefer the highlighting and code folding features of most editors better than these integrated things.

-superboyac (February 16, 2011, 03:29 PM)

I think that's why f0dder suggested Notepad++ earlier. I use Emedit for much the same thing/reason. I write the query in the syntax high-lighted editor and then paste it into a command prompt (CLI client connection) - Usually with all activity dumpted to a text file for later review. (But that's for MySQL stuff)

-Stoic Joker (February 16, 2011, 04:03 PM)

Nice.  Turns out I think like a programmer after all!  I knew I had it in me.

2799

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: Clipboard Help+Spell - Top Priority Requests for 2011

« Last post by superboyac on February 16, 2011, 04:00 PM »

Less SQL :-)

-oblivion (February 15, 2011, 02:21 PM)

I second this.  Please offer the common SQL things as checkbox options, buttons, etc.

2800

General Software Discussion / Re: What's the best SQL software for writing queries?

« Last post by superboyac on February 16, 2011, 03:29 PM »

I'm still sticking with PL/SQL Developer as the best option so far.  What's my favorite thing about it?  It's more responsive than the others.  it just feels faster, like a good text editor.  Actually, I'm ending up writing the queries in a text editor and pasting it into Developer because I prefer the highlighting and code folding features of most editors better than these integrated things.