Recent Posts

2826

General Software Discussion / Re: Strategies for international travellers regarding new US Customs seizure policy

« Last post by Shades on August 03, 2008, 09:36 PM »

Well, we've got some interesting commentary going on.

I myself have been thinking through the implications of laptop seizure this afternoon.  And I'm beginning to come to some conclusions -- they have immense potential impact on software developers.

Let's say the US govt seizes my computer.  I do not live in the US, so getting it back would probably take forever -- and considerable expense.  Anyway, let's assume the government has my computer.

So then I buy a new laptop and try to reinstall my software.  OPPS!!!  Microsoft won't be happy.  I'll have to buy yet another copy of Windows.  And Microsoft Office?  Yet another copy.  [Have you ever tried to close down one computer and transfer Microsoft software to a second machine?]  And what all the other commercial and shareware software that allows only ONE installation on ONE machine to be used by ONE person only.  Sadly, that affects a number of my critical software programs.

So getting up a second machine can be sheer madness.

CONCLUSION:  I'm thinking seriously about abandoning Windows altogether.  I've bought too many copies of it over the years anyway.  I'm thinking seriously of buying software ONLY IF it allows installation on more than one computer.  Ideally, I'll use ONLY freeware and open-source software.  Or online applications.

I'll end up with a very slim laptop indeed.  And many deserving software developers will not longer recieve any business from me.

THOSE ARE THE IMPLICATIONS.

-TomColvin (August 03, 2008, 09:17 PM)

Then Microsoft should hurry up with their SaaS (Software as a Service) project for people that have ties to Windows...and they should include dispensation for users that have their laptop seized of course.

2827

General Software Discussion / Re: Strategies for international travellers regarding new US Customs seizure policy

« Last post by Shades on August 03, 2008, 09:27 PM »

@ Carol:
You're right about Canada as a replacement...or should I say: stand-in  

On a side note, when looking at the subtitles you will also notice that at least a part of the production company is based in Germany (that's where 'prodcompname GMBH' stands for). That country has some nice tax loopholes....eh laws for the international movie industry.

Which is also why Uwe Boll (notorious movie director from titles such as 'BloodRayne' and 'Alone in the dark') will not be without a job soon    

2828

General Software Discussion / Re: Strategies for international travellers regarding new US Customs seizure policy

« Last post by Shades on August 03, 2008, 08:56 PM »

Would it not be the case that if a lot of (read: too many) people start using online solutions like Ulteo that the U.S. government starts to issue court orders for those companies to hand over your data?

Better check the fine print then...or would it be better to use these kind of services that are not based in the U.S. or any country with too much (political) ties to the US?

Privacy matters to me. The thing is that when asked politely, I will disclose (almost) anythiing about my persona, state of mind etc.etc. without a problem. However, when you resort to laws to push me into disclosing whatever whenever you please...expect me to be uncooperative at best.

There is a (medieval) Dutch saying:"Zoals de waard is, vertrouwt hij zijn gasten."
A literally translation: "A owner of a motel/bar thinks that each of his customers thinks exactly like he does." It means that the owner isn't trustworthy, he expects that every guest is not trustworthy either...or vice versa of course.

2829

General Software Discussion / Re: Strategies for international travellers regarding new US Customs seizure policy

« Last post by Shades on August 03, 2008, 07:59 PM »

It starts to look like the only positive contribution from the U.S. to the world are the products from their film industry and/or music industry (depending on your taste and ability to live with DRM).

Somehow I get the feeling that most governments from the northern (and western) hemisphere are very afraid to lose control and will stop at nothing to gain more by playing their fear trump card over and over again.

Maybe I should start reading that '1984' book from Orwell...oh wait, someone is knocking on my door. Hold on one moment, I'll go and answ......

2830

DC Gamer Club / Re: Race Driver: GRID [LARGE IMAGES]

« Last post by Shades on August 03, 2008, 06:07 PM »

I would love to download the demo...however I am trying now for two weeks already to download the installer from Project Torque and can tell you that it is becomes rather hopeless to see that after three days(!) of downloading it just stops for no apparent reason (yes, internet is that slow for 50 us dollars monthly over here).

Having tried multiple download managers (NetTransport 1.87, DownThemAll! and GetRight) and different file hosters did not help one bit either.

The same happened with TrackMania Forever as well.

So you see there is a serious "cold turkey" effect going on here regarding racing games.

2831

General Software Discussion / Re: Strategies for international travellers regarding new US Customs seizure policy

« Last post by Shades on August 03, 2008, 11:49 AM »

I'm sorry to say but from here it looks like all the ingredients for the U.S. to become a police state are theoretically in place...and it starts to be practice as well  

For most Europeans the U.S. already lost it's charm as a traveling destiny (vacation).

2832

DC Gamer Club / Re: Race Driver: GRID [LARGE IMAGES]

« Last post by Shades on August 02, 2008, 02:31 PM »

I truly loved NFS: Most Wanted, a very good racer with good level of difficulty and being a graphical treat on my Radeon 9800 XT.   

Guess my P4, 3GHz and 1GByte RAM will not be sufficient for this Race Driver: Grid...

2833

Developer's Corner / Re: Could anyone post a SignTool.exe for me please?

« Last post by Shades on August 02, 2008, 01:05 PM »

Very likely this tool is for one particular purpose only, namely code signing (so people will know for sure that you made your code).

Then again, I know that OpenVPN (used to) contain a bunch of DOS scripts with which you could make your own certificates (till 2048 bit RSA strength) for each and all intended purposes of those (including code signing). OpenSSL is also included in the OpenVPN installer.

EDIT
Oops, forgot to mention that an OpenSSL installation is a requirement for the DOS scripts.

2834

Living Room / Re: Skimp or splurge?

« Last post by Shades on August 02, 2008, 12:33 AM »

The tip about the credit card is a golden one...I don't even have one anymore. And where I live everything can be done on foot as well. Shoppings, super markets, hardware stores, cinemas, bars, banks, restaurants, DVD rental places, parks, coffee houses, cybercafe's...all this within a mile or two. Currently I don't even have a car.

You can not believe what a relief this is ...or maybe you can imagine if you are on "other side of the fence".

2835

General Software Discussion / Re: Dumb question re Website Watcher

« Last post by Shades on July 29, 2008, 08:45 PM »

There is some irony in your last post Curt

2836

General Software Discussion / Re: Nero - WHY?

« Last post by Shades on July 28, 2008, 09:45 PM »

Can't remember the name from the tool anymore, but I know there was one that could find out from which factory your burnable came, even which production line. Normally there is a number written on the burnable that gives away all this kind of information. 

2837

General Software Discussion / Re: Is Whole Disk Encryption Just Wishful Thinking?

« Last post by Shades on July 28, 2008, 09:45 PM »

I was thinking of the following:
{IF} (human)=(TRUE)
   (YOU)=((SCREWED)*(BIGTIME)*(TAXES))

But the best optimization:
{IF} (living_on_earth)=(42

2838

Developer's Corner / Re: Article: Performance Comparison: C++, Java, Python, Ruby, Jython, JRuby, Groovy

« Last post by Shades on July 28, 2008, 09:27 PM »

Once you have a working Java setup on your desktop and/or server, it is actually very fast. I know a company here that makes banking software for Cooperativas (a special type of bank here in South America). It can do everything internally and externally (internet), is completely java based and works equally well on Windows and Linux.

The sheer speed of creating yearly reports handling 40.000+ customers is astonishing

No, I am not affiliated with this company (a buddy of mine here works there and showed me once).

Ah well, guess it is always true. If you know what you are doing, anything coded in whatever language will go fast.

2839

General Software Discussion / Re: Best free firewall for Windows?

« Last post by Shades on July 28, 2008, 09:18 PM »

I do not totally agree with f0dder. Here I use a dedicated Linux (CentOs) gateway/DHCP/DNS machine which is firewalled/traffic shaped etc. etc. This machine is also behind a NAT...but last time a LAN party was held here, one of the guys brought his own system. Unfortunately the next monday a lot of my mail gets bounced because my IP was flagged as part of a spamming botnet.

When I asked around, the guilty one was running Vista with antivirus and a firewall. I don't think that guy was that dumb with computers, but still. My trust in Windows servers was already low...and this is not helping at all.

Not trying to be too friendly to the Linux crowd, I used to have a system with similar functionality but then FreeBSD based. That one was really rock solid and safe (but there is definitely a limit on how long the life from a 386 can be stretched ).

 

2840

Living Room / Re: Computer problem, maybe you can help

« Last post by Shades on July 27, 2008, 06:45 PM »

We have a saying in Dutch: "Meten is weten!" (roughly translates to: only after taking measurement you know for sure, everything else is just a guess).

Unfortunately I am inclined to agree with Mouser...if a PC (motherboard) breaks down after 3 years it is hardly worth the effort. When you replace the faulty part you still have a three year old motherboard...

2841

Living Room / Re: Computer problem, maybe you can help

« Last post by Shades on July 27, 2008, 06:19 PM »

First of all, make sure the machine is completely turned off (pull out the main power cable).

Without any experience with DELL computers (I am my own PCbuilder ), but a lot with normal self made setups, you normally "kick" the motherboard into gear again by removing everything but the bare necessities (RAM, keyboard and video) and use one of three methods:

1) Reset the bios by setting a jumper (see the manual, most if not all motherboards have this option). Now turn the machine on and off again. After that set the jumper back to its original position and turn on the machine again. This should do the trick.

2) Some people also turn off the PC, remove the battery, turning it on and off again, put the battery in place and start the PC.

3) You could even try to use an 'old skool' method I was told to use when working at OLIVETTI years ago...using a solid, even, grounded and cleaned metal plate the same size as the motherboard and let the bottom of the motherboard rest on this plate for a few moments. Make sure that the whole bottom from the motherboard touches the plate at the same time!

After "kicking" put the components back on a one-by-one basis (to rule out any nasty other hardware errors).

You told that you checked the power supply? Did you actually measure the exact output of each spawned plug ? Also under load? The reason why I mention this is that I had to replace four PSU's which in principle are not broken, but I cannot use them in production machines either because after taking measurements I found out that they did not deliver the required/specified power.

2842

Find And Run Robot / Re: FARR alias: Quick Outlook Task

« Last post by Shades on July 27, 2008, 12:59 PM »

And yes, I would also like to be able to give some more info, as you suggest, including the date and if a reminder should be set, but this is all that the do.exe application allows, as far as I know. Maybe I'll try to write a small application myself that will allow this. That would be fun, but I will have to find the time - I have never interacted with Outlook from a program before.

-jpijper (July 26, 2008, 01:35 AM)

/rant
All is quite fine and dandy with outlook until you need interaction with MAPI and encryption/decryption. There are actually two versions of MAPI (Simple and Extended). Simple is supported by everything and their grandmother...Extended is only supported by Outlook. You will spend days if not weeks to find conflicting answers on MSDN, blogs from their members and other (obscure) support channels that are contradictory at best.

MAPI is the Microsoft translation for the word hell!
/rant

Looks like a very interesting Alias you have created here 

2843

General Software Discussion / Re: What screen recorder is this?

« Last post by Shades on July 26, 2008, 10:56 PM »

Sorry for the wild guess (didn't even see the video), but there is something called Wink, an open source screen casting tool with which you create great screen-casts, hide nice textual comments and do all kinds of other stuff as well. It outputs in avi and swf file formats by default if memory serves me right (or left...but at least correctly  ).

It even has an page in Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia...._(tutorial_software)
http://www.debugmode.com/wink/

2844

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Announcing my new website (superboyac).

« Last post by Shades on July 26, 2008, 01:16 AM »

Define a size of -1 for one of the sides that touch each other. That is the simplest thing I can think of right now (it is possible to define a different border for each side (left, right, top, bottom)).

Some CSS cheat sheets that will help you on your way:

• http://www.tek271.co...css_cheat_sheet.html
• http://lifehacker.co...eat-sheet-225323.php
• http://lesliefranke....e/csscheatsheet.html
• http://reference.sitepoint.com/

2845

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows "safely remove device" thingie

« Last post by Shades on July 25, 2008, 06:40 PM »

@jgpaiva:

If Unlocker doesn't do it for you and your 64-bit system...there is always: file-assassin. If memory serves me well, there is a 64-bit version.
http://www.malwareby...org/fileassassin.php

You can find quite some interesting other goodies as well.

2846

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Mini Review - DeVeDe

« Last post by Shades on July 22, 2008, 08:38 PM »

DVDStyler on SourceForge is a tool that does similar things like this one. A friend of mine could not find software to create DVD's and my search ended with DVDStyler. After two weeks the guy is still making happy comments about the software to me.

However, it is strange that I have never heard of this one...

2847

Developer's Corner / Re: redmine: website tool for collaborative project todolist/wiki, bugtracking, etc

« Last post by Shades on July 22, 2008, 02:07 PM »

@f0dder:
If you get tired from it (RedMine), today I just found out today that you can request a free license for JIRA [http://www.atlassian.com] when you create/have an open source product.

I didn't take a look at the requirements and don't know of other rules and regulations but maybe it can help you out. JIRA is definitely not a pre-1.0 product by any means. 

2848

Living Room / Re: OK - lets get to know each other... who are you, what do you do, where from?

« Last post by Shades on July 20, 2008, 12:54 PM »

Okay, here is my list:

• Paraguay has a very nice climate (a winter's day in PGY can be a summer's day in Holland).
• In general, the people are more relaxed about life.
• Life is a whole lot cheaper (even after the 'gringo' tax).
• The quality (and abundance) of water, even though the country is 'land-locked'.
• Regarding laws and regulations: Paraguay has the laws, but its enforcers do not use them to 'choke' citizens (like in Europe).
• A sense that this part of the America's really can thrive on it's own, more and more trade treaties are made between PGY, ARG, BRA, PER, VEN, etc.
• The dancing women at carnival (they would 'wake' even dead men  ).
• During the rest of the year the women here take really good care about how they look (in any age range)

2849

Living Room / Re: Latest Bit of Insanity in the World of Patent Law

« Last post by Shades on July 20, 2008, 01:24 AM »

To the 'Sultans of Swing'?

Maybe they will lend a forgiving ear and declare the sentence NULL and void...

2850

Living Room / Re: OK - lets get to know each other... who are you, what do you do, where from?

« Last post by Shades on July 20, 2008, 01:18 AM »

Hi all,

Shades is the nick...Gerold Manders is my non-electronic name.
My origins: born and lived in Holland for 32 years and gladly escaped to South America for 3 years now (already). No real programming skill, but I have my way around computers since I first touched one (Commodore64)