Recent Posts

2926

Living Room / Re: What annoys you to no end?

« Last post by app103 on March 03, 2010, 05:19 AM »

People that forward crap to everyone in their addressbook and have no clue what BCC is or why they should use it. 

2927

General Software Discussion / Re: have you tried mind maps?

« Last post by app103 on March 01, 2010, 10:53 PM »

I suppose some of my use of digital sticky notes (Notezilla) could be considered a more freeform style of mind mapping. I consider it the external hard drive and backup system for my brain.

I can sort them in columns, rows, stack them, overlap them, sort them into folders, color code them, insert links, images, etc.

What I really like about doing it with sticky notes is that they are very easy to rearrange and I am not locked into one way of doing it.

Best part is when working on tasks, I can pull one out, isolate it, slap it right on my desktop till I finish, then either archive it or trash it, as needed. I can change the color of the note to gray & transparent to indicate it's done.

To remind me to stay on schedule, I can set an alarm on a note and even set it to open a file or application I am going to need at that moment to do that task. Those alarms really help me get things done.

2928

Developer's Corner / Re: What do YOU do to keep your head cold when coding?

« Last post by app103 on February 26, 2010, 07:00 AM »

Weather permitting, I take a walk. Otherwise a shower, wash dishes, do laundry, or any other physical task that doesn't take a lot of thought.

Seems that stepping away from the computer and putting myself in motion, physically, releases enough of the stress so that when I return, I feel much better and more relaxed.

And since I am doing things that don't involve much thought, the brain can still actively work on the problem while I am away from the computer.



I think they are lying. The truth is they have a nasty bug and they are burning off the frustration.

2929

General Software Discussion / Re: Simple Machines Forum Organization in Chaos

« Last post by app103 on February 26, 2010, 04:25 AM »

Migrating to another forum software poses another problem: broken external links from other sites to DC threads. Unless all the threads have the same URL or there is some database of where all the old URL's should be redirected to, there would be some big problems for DC, offsite.

And that isn't to be taken lightly.

2930

General Software Discussion / Re: Free Pascal - Lazarus?

« Last post by app103 on February 22, 2010, 11:54 PM »

It's funny.  After reading this thread I started looking around.  You would think you'd be able to pick up like a used Delphi Pro or something cheap. I didn't notice anything like that though.

-MilesAhead (February 22, 2010, 04:55 PM)

There is an additional problem with older versions: After the sale to Embarcadero, they pulled all the updates to the older version off the site, and now even registered users can no longer get copies of the updates and bug fixes for them. This took effect August 2009 and affects BDS 2006 and all versions of Delphi v7 and older.

And you can no longer register those versions, too. So there would be no way you could use it unless you had already previously registered it.

I think Embarcadero is trying to force developers to upgrade to a non-Borland release in order to make some money on the whole deal.

2931

General Software Discussion / Re: Free Pascal - Lazarus?

« Last post by app103 on February 21, 2010, 06:13 PM »

I am not recommending Delphi to anyone any more until they bring back the free turbos. And I am not recommending Lazarus to anyone unless they are already a Delphi developer and they want to develop for Linux and Mac.

I have only tried Lazarus under Ubuntu and not Windows.

It felt like a crude imitation of Delphi, not even up to the level Delphi 6 was, almost 10 years ago.

I am not sure if it has the same issues in Windows, but my word of advice is if you decide to use it (at least in Ubuntu) don't go more than a few minutes without saving your work. It likes to spontaneously combust. One second it's on your screen, then next, poof it's gone, and so is whatever you were working on.

The only reason why I even tried it was because object pascal is the language I feel most comfortable with, and I wanted to develop some cross platform software.

If it were not for that, I probably wouldn't use it again for another 10 years, and hope by then it at least is as good as Delphi 6.

Seriously, go with Visual Studio and C# unless you really need portability

-f0dder (February 21, 2010, 05:59 PM)

I agree. And if C# isn't your thing for some reason, there is always vb.net.

2932

Living Room / Re: Right, time to work on...o_0 a shiny penny, I WANT IT!

« Last post by app103 on February 21, 2010, 03:31 PM »

If I were to tell you to clear your mind of everything else and focus on one thing for 10 minutes, then you can have a 2 minute break to do all that other stuff, then back to work for another 10...etc.

And you don't even have to watch the clock because I'll do that for you and tell you when to take a break and when to get back to work, do you think you could be more focused?

For some people, knowing they only have to work for a short time and that they have a set scheduled break to check email, reorganize their paperclips, twitter, facebook, or whatever else normally clutters their head while working, and knowing they don't have to watch the clock for fear they might miss the opportunity to do all that stuff, helps them concentrate better on what they are supposed to be doing.

It's probably why so many people love my Instant Boss application.

2933

Developer's Corner / The programmer as (starving) artist

« Last post by app103 on February 21, 2010, 08:05 AM »

Discussions about code as poetry and how code and art differ from each other are not new, but the growing popularity of free software among both developers and users may make software developers more like artists than they have been in the past in one very important respect: A majority of programmers may end up writing code without getting paid directly for their work. Perhaps, before long, "starving programmer" will be as familiar a phrase as "starving artist" is today.

http://www.linux.com/archive/feed/33035

2934

Living Room / Re: People are really (really, really) stupid

« Last post by app103 on February 20, 2010, 09:18 AM »

My father made me watch this movie, and I can't help but keep thinking about it.

2935

Living Room / Re: People are really (really, really) stupid

« Last post by app103 on February 20, 2010, 02:17 AM »

According to Mercury News, about 70% of AOL users also use Facebook

-The Article

That pretty much explains the stupidity phenomenon to me... (Because) ...Nothing screams retard louder than an @AOL.com address.

-Stoic Joker (February 19, 2010, 09:30 PM)

I have 3 of those, and I know quite a few intelligent people that have at least one, too.

But I will agree that there is a certain majority from there that has little to no sense and it amazes me that they can figure out how to turn the computer on (or did they?).

I used to have a group of women on AOL that used to beta test my software, not for finding bugs, but for "dummy proofing" purposes. (it's why my DClock2 can't be moved off the screen  )

The Facebook login issue is due to the fact that some people just don't know how to use a browser. They type "facebook login" in the addressbar and their browser is configured to go to the most likely page, since it's not a URL. That would be the same as going to google and typing it in and hitting "i'm feeling lucky".

In the past, it worked fine for them and took them right to the facebook login page, but if that isn't the top result, as what happened with the recent google shuffle, then it just takes them somewhere else they didn't expect....like that blog post. Then they get confused, and everyone starts making fun of them.

Now, as an experiment, you could simulate their world by not using any of your bookmarks or typing in any urls. Just use Google's "I'm Feeling Lucky" and the name of the site you want to visit, for one full day. For most sites, it works great.

2936

Living Room / Re: Facebook Users Beware.

« Last post by app103 on February 18, 2010, 03:08 AM »

When scannie ran into a similar situation with a facebook group and couldn't figure out the proper way to report it, I logged into Quora, a website where an abundant number of facebook employees hang out answering all kinds of questions (for fun) and asked how to report it.

The reply was to email [email protected]

Unless and until someone else that works for facebook tells me otherwise, I will assume that is the correct answer to what you should do when you come across a rogue group engaging in illegal or questionable activities that doesn't fit the choices given when you click the "report group" link at the bottom left of the group's page.

2937

Living Room / Re: What’s Better: Saving the World or Building Another Facebook app?

« Last post by app103 on February 18, 2010, 12:35 AM »

What’s Better: Saving the World or Writing an Article?[/sarcasm]

Directed at the author, not app!

-Eóin (February 18, 2010, 12:20 AM)

If it was any other TechCrunch writer and the average TC article, I might agree with you, sarcastically.

But...

The author (Vivek Wadhwa) is the only one at TechCrunch that I read. Only guy with his head screwed on straight and not lusting after the popular crap and fanboi admiration.

In fact, he tends to really piss off the average fanboi type TechCrunch reader with a lot of the stuff he has to say. Like this article he wrote, really stirred up a ton of negativity in the comments, but it was spot on. (a large portion of the article was about the experiences of our very own alex3f)

2938

Living Room / What’s Better: Saving the World or Building Another Facebook app?

« Last post by app103 on February 17, 2010, 10:40 PM »

Running on just sugar and caffeine, 32 teams of students worked non-stop for 18 hours to develop applications that they hoped would blow the judges’ socks off. This was at the UC-Berkeley Hackathon, last weekend. Indeed, many teams succeeded in their mission. They built some amazing software: to provide server-side rendering of games, convert website mockups to HTML/CSS, create sophisticated playlists for Youtube videos, and to analyze Twitter streams. One team even built a gaming interface for a neural headset.

There were so many cool tools that the seven judges, who included representatives from Zynga, Facebook, Y-Combinator (and me), had a hard time picking a winner in each category. The exception was the “social good” category. There was only one team worthy of receiving this prize. The team built a system to enable villagers in developing countries to send SMSs to volunteers across the globe who provide emergency medical advice. But the Silicon Valley judges couldn’t see the value of this technology. One commented, “If the villager has a cell-phone, why doesn’t he just call 911? This is really dumb”. (Most of the judges didn’t understand that 911 services don’t exist in most places in the world, and that SMSs have become the internet of the developing world). Instead, the panel awarded the prize to a team that developed a polling technology for university classrooms and for conferences. The rationale for this decision? “Helping universities is a social good.”

This brings me to the point of this post. What if we challenged these students and Silicon Valley to build businesses that do good for the planet and make a healthy profit doing so? Today, the world faces more problems than perhaps at any point in recent history. The economy is on the brink. Greenhouse gases threaten to turn Earth into a giant steam room. Scarce resources such as food, water, and oil have already become international flashpoints as the developing and developed worlds jockey for position to sustain or improve their standards of living. Drug-resistant bacteria threaten us with doomsday plagues. Yet we have the greatest minds and the deepest pool of investment capital in the world focused on building Facebook and Twitter apps.

http://techcrunch.co...nother-facebook-app/

2939

Living Room / Re: Nearly caught by spam.. [or 'Saved by Thunderbird']

« Last post by app103 on February 14, 2010, 03:22 AM »

Your BANK will NEVER ask for you to confirm ANYTHING via e-mail, this is a scam that has been going around for a long time, if they require you to confirm anything they will call you and ask for you to come into the bank.

-Stephen66515 (February 09, 2010, 11:49 AM)

Uhh, wrong. Banks like to profess that they are the ultimate in security but most of the time they are anything but.

I received an email from Wachovia about 18 months ago asking me to click a link and login to my Online Banking page to change my login credentials - claimed they were converting to a more secure authentication system. I forwarded the email to their fraud division and got a call from them. I asked for a number and called back after verifying the number. Lady there told me that it wasn’t a phish email; that the login upgrade was indeed real. I blasted here for such a security lapse, which she didn't understand, and followed up with snail mail letters to their corporate office and their Fraud division.

My wife - who was an assistant manager for them at the time - told me later what a stink I made! Special training, etc. and a revamping of their "online presence".

Sorry, but banks are basically stupid, simple animals who will violate any security parameter for the sake of cutting spending and making money!

Jim

-J-Mac (February 14, 2010, 12:51 AM)

My bank will NEVER email me about ANYTHING. Nor will they request info over the phone.

I can't even set up any sort of automatic bill payment through them unless I go there in person and fill out a bunch of forms authorizing a reoccurring payment, stating the name & address of company, specific amount to be paid and how often, and if the company tries to submit an amount that differs from what I put on that form, it gets rejected.

I once lost internet access because of this, right after a price increase, because I failed to go to the bank in person and file an update to the original authorization, with the new amount. They refused to pay the ISP one penny, and the ISP shut me off for nonpayment.

The bank doesn't even offer ATM cards, because they are worried about security...things like unauthorized use, lost or stolen cards, people being robbed at ATM machines, and something about 4 char PIN codes using only numbers 0-9 being too easy to crack. So, we can't have them.

But I love this bank. Yeah, they can be a little backwards where technology is concerned, but that can have some benefits. It's small, but run much different than your typical bank. It's not a big corporation owned by a bunch of tycoons and speculating stockholders. It's a very conservative community bank that is owned by its depositors, and we all have voting rights. (Yup, because I have money in there, I own a piece of that bank) It was set up after the stock market crash of 1929, by a bunch of people that wanted a more secure place to keep their money, after they nearly lost it all to the bigger banks that collapsed. Ever since then, every time there has been some sort of banking crisis, our bank hasn't really been affected by it. In fact, they always seem to come out even stronger. They never lost sight of their original mission of safety & security for your money and service to the local community. And that's why I have kept my money there for almost 30 years.

2940

Living Room / Re: Antivirus companies support virus writers?

« Last post by app103 on February 12, 2010, 05:54 PM »

I don't believe this is happening, and for one reason:

A shortage of viruses written for the OS that is run by the people with the least amount of sense and the most money to burn: Mac OSX

If an antivirus company was doing this kind of shady thing, don't you think they would have a Mac version of their product and they would be paying people to write stuff targeted at that platform, where they could get away with charging twice the price for their antivirus, and skip providing a basic free version?

And it's not that OSX is so secure that people can't write malware for it, which seems to be the common myth spread by OSX users. And with recent increase in popularity, it's an untapped market for any unscrupulous antivirus vendor that might be doing as this article suggests.

Plus if any of the whole idea of increasing a demand for security products by creating the attacks made any sense, then I guess you could say the same is going on with offline security firms that provide armed guards for banks. Are they staging bank robberies in order to increase the demand for security guards?

Or home security...do they pay people to rob houses in order to sell more alarm systems?

Highly unlikely.

2941

Adventures of Baby Cody / Re: Baby Cody In Belleville, NJ

« Last post by app103 on February 07, 2010, 10:22 AM »

He should be leaving tomorrow, with a gift for Josh.

2942

Developer's Corner / Re: Is a website login script something people on DC need?

« Last post by app103 on February 07, 2010, 05:34 AM »

housetier, I don't think he meant for use on the DC site. More for members to use on their own sites, outside of DC.

I believe he is asking if members are interested in having a web scripting section, or something.

2943

Living Room / Re: Essay - Blogging: a great pastime for the elderly

« Last post by app103 on February 06, 2010, 05:33 PM »

There are more people than ever blogging. Twitter is a means for spreading links to blog posts, whether they are your own or someone else's. Without blogs, most people would have nothing to tweet about that is worth reading. Who cares what you had for lunch? Unless you are going to write an interesting blog post about it and tweet the link, or supply a link to a recipe, don't bother.

Of course the link to photos posted elsewhere, of the unidentifiable mutant chicken part, is ok, too.  

I kind of look at twitter as being similar to an RSS reader, that gives you only the shortest summary (or title) & link to posts, sprinkled in with some comments. At least this is primarily the type of people I follow.

And if you take a look at DC's twitter page and compare it to the blog's feed, they are identical. 

Twitter and Facebook updates are also much harder to keep up with than the occasional (even frequent) blog post.  I still don't get how people keep up with Twitter when they follow a few hundred people, or with the Facebook activity stream.  If I subscribe to a blog, I like to glance at every post.  There's no way to do that with Twitter (nor would I want to).

-jaden (February 06, 2010, 05:13 PM)

I have everyone on lists. It makes it much easier to handle a lot of people. Not everyone posts the same kind of content, so sorting them makes it easier to stick your mind in one topic mode, scan over the latest posts for that list, then switch to another topic of interest and scan that list, repeat.

I also import the tweets of everyone I follow into a private group on friendfeed, to make it much more searchable when I am looking for something.

Most of the people I follow on Twitter, I also follow on either friendfeed, facebook, or both. Sometimes I miss something one place and it pops out at me somewhere else, even though it's the same exact post, just autofed to other services.

2944

General Software Discussion / Re: fully free software utilities for biz use - discussion

« Last post by app103 on February 05, 2010, 07:23 AM »

I know there are companies looking for CRM (customer relationship management) software, and that stuff can be mighty expensive.

While helping someone find something to do the job, for free, I came across this one today:

Cream:

A free, open-source CRM for media organizations
Cream is a multilingual customer relationship management (CRM) system for media organizations that features powerful modules for sales automation, customer service, subscription management, incoming and outgoing email, template-based HTML newsletters, and a WYSIWYG editor.

They also have some other free products:

Dream:

A distribution management system for print publications
Dream is a powerful and user-friendly system for tracking print distribution and circulation. It uses many principles from customer relationship management (CRM) systems, but in a way specific to print publishers.

Campsite:

Open Source Newspaper/Magazine Software for Web Publishing
Campsite is a multilingual web publishing system that can bring your newspaper or magazine content to the online world. It is often used by media organizations who also have a printed version of their publication, and enables them to increase their revenues with online subscriptions and ads.  There are many systems that might seem similar to Campsite, but it is the only open source system designed to work in the same style of newspapers and magazines - for example, with multiple journalists, editor review, issue publishing, and subscription management.

Campcaster:

A free and open source automation system for radio stations
Campcaster is an open source radio management application for use by both small and large radio stations (yes, real radio stations, not internet radio) to schedule radio shows. It provides both live studio broadcast capabilities via a desktop application called Campcaster Studio as well as remote automation via the Campcaster Web interface. Campcaster has networking components that make it easy for affiliated stations to share their content with each other, either over the Internet, or by exporting content to removable media for ground transport. This latter method is necessary in many places where there may be little or no Internet connectivity. You can create mashups with other applications using Campcaster's XMLRPC interface, which is supported for the audio storage module and the scheduler. Campcaster runs only on Linux.

Everything they have is free and open source, but if you want support it will cost you. They do accept donations and the company is even a 501(c)(3) public charity, so if you live in the US and donate, it's tax deductible.

2945

Living Room / Re: HTML...In Britsh?

« Last post by app103 on February 04, 2010, 08:30 PM »

Well, Brazilians still speak Portuguese, even if it isn't the same version spoken in Portugal, and the name hasn't changed yet, so don't get your hopes up on the American version of English being renamed any time soon, or within your great-grandchildren's lifetime, especially when the US technically doesn't have an official language, and for very good reasons. Without an official language, there is nothing to rename to "American".

2946

Living Room / Re: HTML...In Britsh?

« Last post by app103 on February 04, 2010, 07:38 PM »

They may both be right, but that doesn't mean it makes sense to call both of them English.
At some stage, English will need to be defined as the language as spoken/written in England, leaving the language spoken in the US needing a different title. It's the same situation with Spanish as spoken in Spain and South America.

-Dormouse (February 04, 2010, 07:22 PM)

If you want to change the name of the spoken languages, be it English, Spanish, French (yeah there are different versions of that too) or anything else, you are going to have to go back in time and prevent the spread those languages around the world in the first place, and perhaps create a new language just for use when conquering lands and then name it what you want, for each place you invade, colonize, or whatever.

Yes, I am proposing that if you don't want your native language mutated in another land, don't bring it with you when you conquer it. The locals will adopt it, and along with those you leave behind, will change it and call it by the same name as the language you speak, because at one time it was.

Languages are named after their country of origin, not after the country they belong to, because a language can't really belong to any single country that doesn't seal off its borders and never lets anyone in or out.

2947

Living Room / Re: HTML...In Britsh?

« Last post by app103 on February 04, 2010, 04:55 PM »

My original argument was not that Americans spell things wrongly, but, rather to rant that I would like for both variations of the English language to be recognized by all coding facilities.

-Stephen66515 (February 04, 2010, 04:44 PM)

I know that but the discussion devolved into one of who is spells it right and who spells it wrong.

And it really irritates me to listen to this type of argument because it is both silly and insulting to both sides.

The truth is that either both versions of English are right or they both are wrong.

So I'd like to see an end to the insult flinging from both sides of the ocean and for us all to be a little more educated about it and realize evolution of languages does happen, and neither version is wrong.

2948

Living Room / Re: Optimus Maximus

« Last post by app103 on February 04, 2010, 04:45 PM »

App, you mean something like this?
https://www.donation...ndex.php?topic=420.0
Not quite a touch-screen, but customizable it is!

Oooh, or this -> http://www.ymouse.com/xkeys/xk12884.php

-Edvard (January 29, 2010, 12:06 PM)

Oh, ew, no! Why does everyone want to shove the one in your first link at me? There are no images on the keys. I like those images on the Maximus...very good for a visual person like me.

2949

Living Room / Re: HTML...In Britsh?

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

English is not a dead language. It is still evolving, both in the US and the UK, as well as anywhere else it is used. Local versions will exist that will vary from the original for much the same reason why there are different races of people on this planet...

They evolved that way.

Nobody on this planet currently uses the version of English that existed at the time of the American Revolution.

To prove my point, I refer to this excerpt of a British publication about the work of Benjamin Franklin, as it appeared when it was first printed, way back in 1751:

ben franklin.zip (1147.06 kB - downloaded 343 times.) (zipped pdf)

None of us spell like that any more, not in the US or the UK. We don't even seem to use the same alphabet as we did back then.

So, no more about who is spelling things right or wrong unless you have plans on ignoring over 250 years of language evolution and adopting the spellings that were in use in 1751 on BOTH sides of the ocean.

2950

Developer's Corner / Re: Free icons for developers

« Last post by app103 on February 04, 2010, 11:42 AM »

I promise I'm not trying to one-up app.     

-skwire (February 04, 2010, 11:27 AM)

I know. In fact I think you made your set long before I made mine. If you recall, we both shared them with the same person in the DC IRC channel, shortly before NANY. 

I also have another number set, but they are only png, psd, psp (no ico), and were designed for web use (same CC-BY license):


http://cranialsoup.b...buttons-top-ten.html



They are a better remake of the ones I originally made for page numbering and navagation on my old art site.