Recent Posts

2976

Living Room / Re: IBM develops a computer chip with one million 'neurons' that 'functions like a h

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 13, 2014, 12:51 PM »

It would've been funnier if it said "Richard Doherty, the former research director of tech research firm Envisioneering Group(he has since been replaced by the prototype) said..."

2977

Living Room / Re: R.I.P. Robin Williams

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 13, 2014, 12:45 PM »

I don't think I saw either of those flicks.  I'll watch if I get a chance.

2978

Living Room / Re: R.I.P. Robin Williams

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 13, 2014, 11:23 AM »

I haven't been able to find the video.  But I remember on a Dick Cavett show Cavett and Robin Williams were standing directly in front of the audience improvising.  I think Cavett's first comment was his last.  Williams came out with so many oblique references so quickly that by the time Cavett started to move his lips to get a quip in it was moot since the subject had already been changed twice.  Finally Cavett just closed his mouth and turned purple.  It was like Dick Cavett was the lawn and Williams mowed him and bagged the clippings before Cavett could get a line out.  It was uncomfortable to watch.
But I guess competition among comics is tough.  When you get the floor you filibuster.

He surprised me in Good Will Hunting.  He made that part of the plot work.  It's always a bit weird when I watch that flick since it has a couple of exterior shots right outside the room where I lived in South Boston.  But I moved out 5 years before they made the film.

2979

Living Room / Re: EFF's "Stupid Patent of the Month" raises awareness, shames patent trolls

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 11, 2014, 07:52 AM »

Here's one classic patent:

https://encrypted.go...om/patents/US6360693

A stick. For a dog.

-Renegade (August 11, 2014, 02:49 AM)

Found this is the patent:

. The animal toy of claim 1 wherein said main section includes a wood.

How is "making" a wooden stick out of a piece of wood considered a creation?

-Stoic Joker (August 11, 2014, 06:42 AM)

My friend, who tried to patent handbrakes on wheelchairs, also had an idea he wanted to patent for a basketball auto return for practicing free throws.  It amounted to a hinged wooden rectangle with 2 folding legs.  The idea was it would be attached to the stem of the backboard about 3 feet above the ground.  When you pulled up on the bottom edge the two legs would slip into place creating a 45 degree angle.  When you made a hoop the basketball would bounce off the wood and return to you.  You could keep shooting and practice by yourself without losing your position at the free throw line as long as you made baskets.

Way simple.  But at least it did something that may have sold if he just made them rather than worrying about patenting the device.

2980

Living Room / Re: Godmode

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 09, 2014, 07:52 PM »

@JohnJ could you post the FARR alias?  I'd like to try it out as there are quite a few shortcuts.

2981

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: DotTech Newsletter

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 09, 2014, 06:02 PM »

I saw your posts on the subject.  I'm glad you found a pleasant resolution.  It makes me want to use it and I don't even save web pages. 

2982

General Software Discussion / Re: Dual Boot questions

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 09, 2014, 11:07 AM »

VistaBootPro used to be freeware.  Very easy to use.

But multiple OS on a single drive is going to be hairy(if even possible) with GPT etc..  If you dumb everything down to legacy MBR you lose huge HD support.  I'd need to read up on it but my impression is with GPT multiboot means multiple physical drives now.

Easier to just use the drive drawer pattern.

Edit:  Even though I saved some money by having the 486 built for me by a coworker who did builds as a sideline, by the time I added a Toshiba 2x CDROM the cost was around 5 grand.  (The CDROM as standard equipment  was not yet in effect.  I was a 2x early adopter.) So it was worth it to buy books and spend some time to put multiple OS on rather than just buying machines.  I didn't have space for a workbench.  That limited my options as well.

2983

Living Room / Re: New "censorship" technique on Youtube

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 09, 2014, 08:10 AM »

oh yeah,
Miles! you've been hanging around with too many skinny models !!

-tomos (August 08, 2014, 08:01 AM)

Heh heh.  I must be gettin' old cuz Britney ain't lookin' too bad to me.  

-MilesAhead (August 08, 2014, 08:40 AM)

I'll still stick to Juliette Binoche   or Julia Ormond. If I want thin there's always Mila Jovovich. She's a passable "sorta pop" musician too. (I've heard worse music - some of which garnered major awards.)

-40hz (August 08, 2014, 05:03 PM)

I don't know any of the Japanese pop vocalists(or hip hop or whatnot) but the actresses blow Hollywood Hot Chicks out of the water.  Unfortunately I don't remember most of the their names either.  But I use d-addicts, AsianMediaWiki and jdorama.com to refresh my memory.

The Chinese actress Shu Qi looks great for 38.
(Rhyme unintentional.) 

2984

General Software Discussion / Re: Dual Boot questions

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 08, 2014, 04:25 PM »

I don't recall ever running a dual boot system that didn't turn sour

-Cuffy (August 08, 2014, 04:03 PM)

That lame scheme of copying over files and hiding partitions, marking the other active etc. never works for long.  Setting a customer up with that mechanism was pulling the pin on the grenade aand telling him to hold it tightly!  

On my old 486 using Boot Magic as primary boot manager and first Lilo, then grub as secondary, I had Dos 6, Windows 3.1/later Win9x, OS/2 3.0 and Slackware with a couple of starup configs in grub, all going for several years.  I think in 2000 or so I got a Pentium III and just went with Win9x and Mandrake 9.1.

But yeah, you have to watch your Ps and Qs all the time.  Plus back then there was no free backup imaging software.  But these days I don't have that kind of patience.  My hair is falling out.  I don;t have to rip it out.  

2985

Living Room / Re: New "censorship" technique on Youtube

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 08, 2014, 08:40 AM »

oh yeah,
Miles! you've been hanging around with too many skinny models !!

-tomos (August 08, 2014, 08:01 AM)

Heh heh.  I must be gettin' old cuz Britney ain't lookin' too bad to me.  

2986

General Software Discussion / Re: Dual Boot questions

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 08, 2014, 08:37 AM »

Just an FYI:

Dual booting is always a bit hairy because it requires modification to the boot procedure.

What  I much prefer is to use an internal drive rack as your primary hard drive, and just slot in and out different boot drives.

-mouser (August 08, 2014, 08:08 AM)

Wish I got onto that.  I guy on another forum uses the drive rack.  Every couple of days he makes a Macrium image of the boot drive and restores it to an identical drive in a docking station.  If he has a HD failure he pulls the backup drive out of a drawer, slides it in the rack and boots.

2987

General Software Discussion / Re: Dual Boot questions

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 08, 2014, 07:58 AM »

Dual boot was fun to play with back in the day, but it eventually ends up being a real hassle when you need to get something from the old OS...when you're already in the middle of something on the new OS.

-Stoic Joker (August 08, 2014, 07:10 AM)

They messed it up starting with Vista.  The booted OS just has to be C:.  XP didn't care.  It booted as H: on my dual core and I could just drag and drop any files I needed from the W7 partition. (I'm talking single physical drive setup pre GPT.)

It would be fun to do it over again on a large SSD.  The reboot wouldn't take so long.

2988

Living Room / Re: New "censorship" technique on Youtube

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 08, 2014, 07:52 AM »

I heard a similar thing was done for an unauthorized Britney Spears video.  Rather than take it down they morphed it to make Britney fat and ugly.  Oh. Wait a second.  I stand corrected.  The video is unmodified after all.  

https://www.youtube..../watch?v=pt8VYOfr8To

2989

General Software Discussion / Re: Cyberfox Anyone?

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 08, 2014, 06:08 AM »

It seems that way.  I ran Quick Scan and got nada.  Then ran MBAM threat scan and got 53 PUPS.  That's about the same number as the tracking cookies SAS always reported.  I guess I'll try a full scan on SAS next time.

Edit:  I'm doing a full scan and it's finding stuff now.  I liked the old way.  I could kill the scan after it found the tracking cookies and delete them.  Only took about a minute.  Oh well.  At least it seems to be working.

2990

Living Room / Re: Godmode

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 08, 2014, 05:40 AM »

The same way you can create quick access to the other items:

Tangentially, I only saw one mention of Windows Run-Command on DC.  I ran across the update on Snapfiles and decided to try it.  Not bad.  Sits in tray and opens on Winkey r.  It has the expected links to command prompt, elevated command prompt etc..  But it also has a Favorites with folders such as Tools and recently run stuff.

I like it because it doesn't try to do too much.  All the graphical shells like you see on Linux that I've tried for Windows seemed pretty flaky(albeit I haven't canvased the category.)

2991

General Software Discussion / Re: Cyberfox Anyone?

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 07, 2014, 04:30 PM »

Hmmm Super Anti Spyware portable has a new look.  It used to find about 50 tracking cookies on every Quick Scan.  Now it doesn't find any.  I'm wondering if it's because:

a) the new SAS doesn't detect them even though they are there
b) I switched from FF 30 to Cyberfox 31 x64 so there aren't any
c) SAS doesn't look where Cyberfox puts its cookies

Has anyone noticed this SAS change?

2992

Living Room / Re: Godmode

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 07, 2014, 12:50 PM »

Windows Secrets is catching up.........
[quote Command Central: Windows functions in one place
How did an essentially undocumented trick, designed for IT administrators and commonly called GodMode, go viral on the Internet? Certainly the all-powerful connotation of the name aroused interest. But it's this function's one-stop list of Windows tools that wins over most users.
To create this folder, take the following steps:

Right-click a free spot on the desktop and select New/Folder.

Give the new folder any name you wish, as long as it's followed by a period and the following string of characters: {ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

-Cuffy (August 07, 2014, 10:39 AM)

Works for me. Quite the bunch of buttons.  
(Edit: I'm on Windows 8.0 x64.)

2993

Living Room / Re: My cat needs your thoughts | RIP Saffron my dearest cat

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 07, 2014, 04:30 AM »

Saffron survived anesthesia and just got back home to begin some rest and recuperation  

Thank you all for your positive thoughts and good wishes -- they seem to have helped.

-mouser (August 06, 2014, 05:44 PM)

Glad to hear the good news.

2994

Living Room / Re: Russian hackers steal 1.2B passwords

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 06, 2014, 02:15 PM »

Right! Because nobody can steal you money if you've already wasted it all buying dumb shit ... Like an insurance policy that purports to ensure that you are indeed the real you...just because they say so. Even though they've never actually seen your ass IRL.

-Stoic Joker (August 06, 2014, 11:36 AM)

They send you an email .. "Is you is, or is you ain't my baby?"  If your payment clears then you is.

2995

General Software Discussion / Re: Cyberfox Anyone?

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 06, 2014, 10:21 AM »

Just a quick update.  So far nothing weird.  Even that search page on Windows forums Tutorials is showing up now.  It must have been a site glitch they fixed that only effected FF based browsers.

2996

Living Room / Re: My cat needs your thoughts | RIP Saffron my dearest cat

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 06, 2014, 09:52 AM »

C'mon through Saffron.

2997

Living Room / Re: Everyone is brokenhearted.

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 05, 2014, 02:01 PM »

Not sure whether to post or not, but...

-Renegade (August 05, 2014, 01:40 PM)

I'm glad you did.  It was interesting.  Before Kindergarten my father's mother lived with us.  She was the only one who made any attempt to teach me to read.  She would point to the ads in the newspaper as I sat on her lap, and read them to me.

I remember my parents being very surprised when I pointed to the cigarette ad on the page my mother was reading and said "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should!" Perhaps it was just how it seemed to me as a kid but soon after that incident grandma' wasn't living with us anymore.  No, she wasn't fitted for cement overshoes.  But she did end up back in my father's home town in Ohio.  

2998

Living Room / Re: Everyone is brokenhearted.

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 05, 2014, 05:37 AM »

Then one day as you skipped along you encountered a tall man in a gray suit with gray felt hat.  He gave you such a disgusted look.  You slow down in reaction.  Then the gray man says "You are tool old to be skipping" all mean and nasty.

-MilesAhead (August 04, 2014, 08:20 AM)

Yeah, well...I remember that tall man in a gray suit with a gray felt hat. I slowed my skipping enough to give him a hard kick in the shins and resumed my skipping.

All these year later I'm still skipping and he hasn't been foolhardy enough to show his face around me again. 

-Innuendo (August 04, 2014, 07:58 PM)

Thanks for doing your bit.  All is not yet lost. 

2999

Living Room / Re: New guy on the forums

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 05, 2014, 05:32 AM »

Welcome Mason, we left the door ajar for you.
 

-cranioscopical (August 04, 2014, 06:53 PM)

Hmm, sometimes I wonder if you're on the level. 

3000

Living Room / Re: New guy on the forums

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 04, 2014, 05:01 PM »

Thank you rgdot and MilesAhead (who looks strangely familiar )!

-Masonjar13 (August 04, 2014, 04:46 PM)

Heh heh.  The pink trumpet gives it away every time.