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2826

Living Room / Re: What books are you reading?

« Last post by wraith808 on August 15, 2016, 03:55 PM »

[...] I think he fell victim to two things.
1) New author
2) the Genre, as I said, was Gunpowder Fantasy.  That first part was pure fantasy.

-wraith808 (August 14, 2016, 04:27 PM)

That sounds like he needed a good editor to suggest improvements.  Perhaps publishers and agents don't bother any more.

You said you read a lot.  How do you pick what books to read next, given the vast number available and limited time to read?  Do you frequent favourite review sites, and if so, which?

-rjbull (August 15, 2016, 03:38 PM)

Nothing that measured.  When I need a new book, my nook suggests books in the genre that I read.  I browse for a bit, buy the one that catches my fancy, and put the other interesting things on my wish list.  When there's nothing on the Nook suggestions that I like, I revisit my wish list.  I visit Goodreads also, but I can't say that it's a part of my regimen anymore, but I also pick up suggestions from Amazon, and just find them on the Nook, or if I like them well enough, just buy it in the kindle app.

To round that up, I also use the bundle sites, i.e.

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/
http://storybundle.com/

and visit the Baen and Tor sites on occasion.

http://www.tor.com/
http://www.baen.com/baenebooks

2827

DC Website Help and Extras / Re: Links in Signature

« Last post by wraith808 on August 15, 2016, 03:12 PM »

I have updated the forum code so signature (and similar linkable fields) will not be displayed until a member has been registered for 3 or more days.
The only downside is that it may make it harder to spot spammers.

-mouser (August 15, 2016, 02:26 PM)

Oh, it wasn't a problem either way.  I was just wondering when I saw the spam if that was the reason.

2828

DC Website Help and Extras / Re: Links in Signature

« Last post by wraith808 on August 15, 2016, 01:03 PM »

I've reported it as spam using the report as spam link. It sure looks odd enough to me to do so.

-Ath (August 15, 2016, 12:58 PM)

I did also, I just figured it was strange enough for me to bring up as it might be something that we wanted to generally cover.

2829

DC Website Help and Extras / Links in Signature

« Last post by wraith808 on August 15, 2016, 11:05 AM »

Do we have a limit in place on the number of posts people have to have before posting links in their signature?  I've seen a user with links in their signature, that have posted not spam but not useful comments on older threads that have links in their signature.  I was wondering if the reason for the non-useful posts was to get past the threshold to post links in their sig?

2830

Living Room / Re: What books are you reading?

« Last post by wraith808 on August 14, 2016, 04:27 PM »

It starts with A Darkness Forged in Fire, that almost lost me in the beginning.  But I'm glad that I stuck it out through that bit of exposition, as the rest of the read firmly grabbed me.

-wraith808 (August 12, 2016, 09:16 AM)

A dangerous strategy for an author.  I started Gardens of the Moon, first of Steven Erikson's Malazan Empire series, which opens on a protracted scene where two people, neither introduced, pick their way through a scene of World War 1 level carnage - with no explanation whatsoever.  I put the book down.  I picked it up again a few weeks later and finished it, but it was a close-run thing whether I'd bother.

-rjbull (August 14, 2016, 03:58 PM)

Totally agreed.  But I think he fell victim to two things.

1) New author
2) the Genre, as I said, was Gunpowder Fantasy.  That first part was pure fantasy.

2831

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Vopt 9 defragger free

« Last post by wraith808 on August 13, 2016, 10:17 AM »

Too bad he didn't go all the way and made it open-source, not just gratis

Of course, with SSD hard disks most of the above has become a moot point, accessing fragmented or defragmented files on a SSD hard disk hardly makes any difference in time and are much faster than on a standard spinning hard disk anyway.  Still, the added bonuses from strictly separating files are still valid.

-Shades (August 12, 2016, 10:23 AM)

Would be interesting to see some benchmarks on this. I guess that if the fragments aren't smaller than the SSDs page size, you won't be able to measure a speed difference.

-f0dder (August 13, 2016, 02:45 AM)

I wonder if that is because it would have taken work to get it to the point where it could be released as such.

2832

Find And Run Robot / Re: Can FARR search Chrome bookmarks?

« Last post by wraith808 on August 12, 2016, 04:12 PM »

Well, we know where they're saved.  So someone could write an extension to copy it elsewhere.  Or can you add that directory to the farr search directory?

2833

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Nice font for free today

« Last post by wraith808 on August 12, 2016, 04:00 PM »

Very nice.  Don't forget to check the desktop and webfont versions if you want to use it for both.  By default, only the desktop font is added.

2834

Living Room / Re: What books are you reading?

« Last post by wraith808 on August 12, 2016, 09:16 AM »

I read a lot, so I generally don't post the books to this thread, but two series are very good that I've just read.  I think the genre is called gunpowder fantasy, but it encompasses some historical constructs that I really like- akin to Sharpe's rifles.



The first is the Powder Mage Series, by Brian McClellan.  It starts with A Promise of Blood

The Age of Kings is dead . . . and I have killed it.

It's a bloody business overthrowing a king...
Field Marshal Tamas' coup against his king sent corrupt aristocrats to the guillotine and brought bread to the starving. But it also provoked war with the Nine Nations, internal attacks by royalist fanatics, and the greedy to scramble for money and power by Tamas's supposed allies: the Church, workers unions, and mercenary forces.

It's brilliantly paced, with visceral battle scenes that other than the presence of the Powder Mages and other Magic are very well done, and might as well be right out of a Sharpe novel, and well written characters that are intelligently developed.

The second series is, if possible, more fantastical while being a lot closer in scope to the British colonialism and imperialism- especially towards the end of the same.  I speak of the Iron Elves series by Chris Evans.  Everything is familiar, while at the same time, nothing is, and the characterizations are intense and well written.

It starts with A Darkness Forged in Fire, that almost lost me in the beginning.  But I'm glad that I stuck it out through that bit of exposition, as the rest of the read firmly grabbed me.

We do not fear the flame, though it burns us,
We do not fear the fire, though it consumes us,
And we do not fear its light,
Though it reveals the darkness of our souls,
For therein lies our power.
-- Blood Oath of the Iron Elves

First in a stunning debut series, A Darkness Forged in Fire introduces an unforgiving world of musket and cannon...bow and arrow...magic, diplomacy, and oaths -- each wielding terrible power in an Empire teetering on the brink of war.

I highly recommend both series if you're into that era of history at all.

2835

Living Room / Re: Trying to remember quote about design and beauty

« Last post by wraith808 on August 12, 2016, 08:16 AM »

Is it this one? 

"Design is not making beauty, beauty emerges from selection, affinities, integration, love" - Louis Kahn.

2836

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Vopt 9 defragger free

« Last post by wraith808 on August 12, 2016, 08:10 AM »

I use defraggler when I'm inclined to defrag.  Which is almost never these days.

2837

Living Room / Re: External 5.25 floppy usb drive or another way?

« Last post by wraith808 on August 12, 2016, 08:08 AM »

http://www.retrotech.../s_drives_howto.html

This has a lot of good info on the subject.

2838

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Vopt 9 defragger free

« Last post by wraith808 on August 11, 2016, 02:54 PM »

The creator died and he made clear in his last will and testament that this software should become freeware after he died.

-Shades (August 11, 2016, 02:43 PM)

That's what it says on that page, from what I see.  Unless I'm not getting your reason for posting it when it is clearly stated?

2839

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for Workbench Design SW :: $10 bounty for 1st accepted answer

« Last post by wraith808 on August 09, 2016, 09:53 PM »

DraftSight is a pretty straightforward CAD program which I've used in the past for speaker cabinet plans. Basic version is free for the download.

Udemy has a nice little course which is on sale till August 15th for $20 called CAD for woodworkers that uses DraftSight for the course.

-40hz (August 09, 2016, 09:35 PM)

What's the difference between the free and paid versions?  I didn't see a comparison anywhere...

2840

DC Gamer Club / Re: Faeria is free (to keep) for 24 hours!

« Last post by wraith808 on August 09, 2016, 08:18 PM »

thanks for the heads up!

2841

General Software Discussion / Re: Take a list of PDF tabs and create a text file of the links?

« Last post by wraith808 on August 09, 2016, 11:37 AM »

He hasn't been active since May, so considering that this topic was posted in 2015 and the OP is no longer frequenting the board, I'd consider this a useless necro.

2842

Living Room / Re: Hidden Netflix Marathon Gems to Watch Online

« Last post by wraith808 on August 07, 2016, 10:00 PM »

Also catch Wentworth, if you have the time. (much better than Orange is the New Black.)

-app103 (August 06, 2016, 08:20 PM)

I was very confused for a sec.  At first, after you'd been talking Prison Break, I thought you were talking about Wentworth Miller. 

2843

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« Last post by wraith808 on August 06, 2016, 01:09 PM »

No, it was something simple that didn't require any sort of software.

I see you can do it by using bcdedit from the commandline, or even easier, you can do it from msconfig.  The way I did it involved editing a file, but I don't remember what it was.

http://www.sevenforu...perating-system.html

UPDATE: I remembered right after I posted this - manually edit the boot.ini file.  I don't think you can do that as easily now.  You have to use bcdedit, or msconfig.

http://best-windows....ie.com/boot-ini.html

2844

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« Last post by wraith808 on August 06, 2016, 09:52 AM »

I used to have that problem- it was solved by removing the other options.  If windows senses others installed, it shows you that bootloader menu.  Unfortunately, I forget how I got the others to not show up.

2845

Living Room / Re: Anyone attending GenCon (board game convention) Aug 4-7 in Indiana?

« Last post by wraith808 on August 06, 2016, 09:50 AM »

im at gencon! pretty cool and pretty huge.

-mouser (August 06, 2016, 07:51 AM)

   Wish I could be there!

2846

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 - The gloves come off!

« Last post by wraith808 on August 05, 2016, 10:36 AM »

Oh Yeah... After going through the usual turn-off-the-nosey-bits part of the install. Cortana seems just as off as it has always been in previous versions ... So I really don't quite get what all the hub-bub is about.

Cortana is removed (e.g. is removable) from the TaskBar - I hit the Windows key, type what want, get what I want, and go on with my day.

*Shrug*

-Stoic Joker (August 05, 2016, 09:55 AM)

That was my thought too.

2847

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: GS-Base Mini-Review

« Last post by wraith808 on August 03, 2016, 09:37 AM »

Hi,

For what it's worth, my two cents to this discussion:

1. The website and every other docs clearly state that you can log on to the download page to download the latest versions for 12 months for free. And it's clear that the page always displays the latest versions only.
(I do what I can to educate users that the license doesn't "expire".)

2. Almost all old versions are still on the website. For the full versions, it's sufficient to e-mail the support, which (un)surprisingly some users do.
Trial versions dating back I guess 10 years are free downloads all the time.

3. It's ca 2MB. Not 2TB...

4. Hope that the respective modifications to the download page will be implemented rather sooner than later. It was requested by other users and it's surely is going to be helpful.

5. IMHO captcha is easy(?). An easier registration method means verifying (addresses, IPs) 10-20 spambot submissions a day. (Unless this can be done automatically for the phpBB forum.)

Thanks,
Citadel5

-Citadel5 (August 02, 2016, 08:14 PM)

Thanks for the response.

1) Can you point me to that clear explanation that it will only be the latest?  If you have the others stored on your servers, it would seem that you could point the download link for those to the the registered version.  Perhaps that is your upgrade to your download screen you mention in point (4)?  I'm not sure, as what that includes isn't quite clear?  All others that I've seen that do that either (a) point to your last registered version or (b) point to a page with the older versions linked.  And that leads into...
2) Do you say anywhere that you can contact for the registered version?  I didn't see that.
5) Captcha is easy when the captcha used is readable.  As many have said, yours isn't, especially if you have any sort of color blindness.

To whit:


Looking back at your site, and your pages, you might want to make what you're saying a bit clearer.  It's not currently.  There's nothing wrong with your software- as you can see from my review, I think the upgrade policies are more than fair, and the software is very good for what you're getting and worth the money.

My problem is the fact that (a) what you're saying above isn't documented anywhere, and (b) that there would even be such an obscure method for receiving the version you paid for.  Many people (including myself) aren't going to try to find out how to get the version.  Especially if you, as I do, save your installer.  In my case, I did a clean install, and thought I could just download it.  I was able to get to my version as it's backed up.  But finding that out?  It left a bitter taste in my mouth- and one I didn't communicate before now.  Many people are going to do the same, so you might take this in the spirit it is intended- a place that you can make better changes so things are more clear to your customers.

Just food for thought.

2848

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: GS-Base Mini-Review

« Last post by wraith808 on August 02, 2016, 11:14 AM »

If it were open knowledge, i.e. clearly stated that he doesn't keep backups at the time of purchase, and/or an advisement to keep the installer, I might agree with your point.  But there is neither of those, and the first time I encountered it, I wanted to install it and was not in a position to get to my backup of the software.  That left a bad taste.

On top of that, many, many companies do keep the older versions for just that reason.  Directory Opus.  Zeus. RegexBuddy.  TopStyle. And many more.

IMO, you either:

1) Notify the user.
2) Keep the downloads available (a very low maintenance cost, actually)
 
or

3) Don't engage in such practices.

It has little to nothing to do with the value, nor the quality of the program.  I agree with you on these points.  But neither excuse the practice.

2849

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: GS-Base Mini-Review

« Last post by wraith808 on August 01, 2016, 12:58 PM »

finding out that this is basically a subscription by another name

-wraith808 (July 31, 2016, 12:27 PM)

Can you clarify that? The purchase page says that the version you buy is good forever.  You don't get free updates after a year, but you don't need to pay again to keep the version you bought working (as I understand it).

-mwb1100 (August 01, 2016, 12:42 PM)

If you kept the downloaded version (which I did), then you can use it.  However, if you need to download it after your year is up, when you click the download, you get this message:



And you're not informed of that need before hand.  I didn't like that practice.

2850

Living Room / Re: Google Drive webhosting functionality to be shut down. (AOBTD)

« Last post by wraith808 on August 01, 2016, 09:38 AM »

I know google techs want to show their English savvy .. but "deprecate" ?
http://www.merriam-w...dictionary/deprecate

If you need a fancy word for dumping a service, find something else.

-Steven Avery (August 01, 2016, 09:01 AM)

Deprecate is the accepted term for ridding a service of features, and is used in many different computer applications.  It's not just them.

https://en.wikipedia...org/wiki/Deprecation

Take a look at software deprecation.  Not sure why it hasn't made it's way to merriam webster.