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301

Developer's Corner / Re: Ethics in Technology

« Last post by 40hz on October 02, 2015, 02:29 PM »

So, given the insanity that VW is facing, I certainly can't blame them for skirting idiotic laws.

-Renegade (October 02, 2015, 01:18 PM)

If you truly believe that, that's pretty sad Ren. Even coming from someone who likes to occasionally throw the proverbial "alligator over the transom" just to get people thinking and talking. (Which is something I can appreciate. )

But ok. Even granting the benefit of the doubt to some of what you're saying, why did VW choose to do it the way they did?

If VW were so convinced of the insanity of existing EPA regs, why didn't they publicly challenge them, ideally in conjunction with the other major auto manufacturers, if the existing and planned future regulations were so obviously going in the wrong direction? It wouldn't take much to get public support behind them and force Congress's hand if it could be clearly demonstrated that the existing regs cause more harm - or significantly less benefit - than the government is claiming. Especially when it means it adds a significant increase to the price the average driver has to pay for a car.

If the so-called bad regulations could be shown for what they are, they'd get changed in fairly short order. Figure a year or two at most. Because the one place you can always hit an American, and be guaranteed to get their full attention, is their checkbook.

Sorry. Bad laws need to be confronted. Not sidestepped because someone claims that "better information" or a "higher reality" is guiding them. That's the same argument that's used to justify "teaching the controversy" in public schools. Or denying access to information abput legal medical alternatives to women who, out of necessity, attend publicly funded health clinics. Or deciding there's a "higher truth" that grants you an exemption from your sworn duty as a public official to uniformly issue marriage licenses.

If everyone gets to have their own private laws and interpretations, you're heading toward an eventual breakdown of any legal system that allows it to become commonplace. And that can only result in a far greater set of problems for our society than the problem of a bad regulation itself. Because that's claiming privilege - from the Latin privilegium meaning "law applying to one person, bill of law in favor of or against an individual." And that's hardly a way to run a society based on shared freedoms, rights, and legal protections - no matter how flawed the attempts taken to achieve those goals.

VW chose to take the easy and gutless way out. Whether or not they felt they were justified in doing so, that's still not the way to do things. And whatever entirely predictable problems they're now suffering through were brought on purely by their decision to evade rather than fix an allegedly broken law.

I have zero sympathy for VW at this point. What I do feel bad about is the possible adverse impact this may have on the overall German economy. Because VW is a major player. And a lot of innocent employees, along with the larger German public, will ultimately have pay the price for VW's transgressions once the government is forced to step in. And I'm sure the German government will eventually be forced to do so. (Just like our own government was forced to bail out crooked bankers here in order to avoid a major financial crisis that would have affected everyone.)

302

Developer's Corner / Re: Ethics in Technology

« Last post by 40hz on September 29, 2015, 02:58 PM »

I think this pretty accurately reflects the general mindset in most of the larger corporate world:



Which, to be fair, is really no different than most of the mindset in the non-corporate world.

As my grandfather used to say: Most people are all for doing what's right - as long as it doesn't cost or inconvenience them too much. 

303

General Software Discussion / Re: Any tips for setting up a new Win7 laptop and installing lots of software fast?

« Last post by 40hz on September 26, 2015, 06:39 AM »

I don't think it's so much it's inconsistent behavior as it was a design decision. Because there was a time not very long ago when the majority of PCs out there didn't support the ability to boot from a USB device, whereas almost every macine did have a CD/DVD burner. So it didn't make sense to allow a customer to create a rescue disk on a USB key or drive only to later discover their machine couldn't use it.

And although virtually every new machine can boot off USB today, there are still some few that can't. And there's also still a lot of machines in service in businesses that can't either. I run into the latter fairly frequently. Even some of the ones that have a BIOS setting to allow booting from USB won't recognize and use a USB key as a boot device if its storage capacity exceeds a certain size.

304

General Software Discussion / Re: Klingon Support

« Last post by 40hz on September 25, 2015, 06:56 PM »

@Deo - it's not a joke. The Klingon language from the StarTrek universe has been developed into a completely usable language - including a fully realized grammar and vocabulary - by its admirers. It's even possible to take formal classes to learn it.

There are some people who actually prefer to use (or in some cases insist on using) Klingon instead of other "natural" or "non-artificial" languages. It's true that many of them are under some form of psychiatric care, but they're out there nonetheless.

305

General Software Discussion / Re: Any tips for setting up a new Win7 laptop and installing lots of software fast?

« Last post by 40hz on September 25, 2015, 11:59 AM »

I'd personally leave those alone.  In general (my dells are like this now) instead of including boot media and such, they include recovery partitions.  So unless you're changing drives, or your drive fails, everything is there.  My two newest ones, I just press f10 and get into the recovery tools.  So unless they include a way to create recovery media separate from these, and you've already done it, I'd leave it alone, personally.

-wraith808 (September 25, 2015, 11:34 AM)

+1/w Wraith on the above. If I had a nickle for the number of times a client of mine deeply regretted screwing with (or reclaiming the space used by) that recovery tools "drive," I'd have an extra hundred bucks in my pocket.

Unless you do this stuff for a living, or you're exceptionally well organized and have plenty of spare time on your hands, it's better to just leave it alone. Odds are you'll never need it. But if you do, it's a huge time and grief saver should you ever have to do some serious system repair work, or a bare metal reinstall of your entire system.

FWIW, long before Dell and HP and the rest of them (IIRC Sony was the first) started doing this, my company used to create something similar on all the client laptops we were responsible for providing field service for. Nuff said?


 

306

General Software Discussion / Re: Any tips for setting up a new Win7 laptop and installing lots of software fast?

« Last post by 40hz on September 24, 2015, 10:59 AM »

The more common free apps can be installed with a single installer available at ninite.com.

Pick the apps you want, let it assemble it all together for you, and you're all set. Download the small executable and sit back while it installs everything for you. Ninite also removes any add-ons the devs may have piggybacked with their software - and also opts you out of all those other things that tag along for the ride with freeware these days.

307

Developer's Corner / Re: Ethics in Technology

« Last post by 40hz on September 23, 2015, 12:27 PM »

The OP seems to be making the judgement/assertion that AVG, Microsoft, and Volkswagon have somehow been unethical/immoral and worked against the public good.
Is that necessarily true?

-IainB (September 23, 2015, 09:06 AM)

In the case of VW, there was a deliberate effort made to evade environmental protection laws by placing a bit of code within their software to do so. And then doing little to correct it once it came to light about a year ago. I don't think there can be any reasonable argument made that it was unintentional or an unknown issue. Especially considering it was caught still being actively employed almost a year later. The letter from the EPA to Volkswagon can be read here. It makes the government's position very clear that there can be no chance of misunderstanding exactly what Volkswagon was attempting to accomplish when it introduced the "switch" and certain "road calibration" features into its software.

(Note: the CEO of VW announced his resignation this morning. More here.)

I'm not sure how much that had to do with his ethics - or with the practical economic realities of VW's stock price taking a beating in the face of potentially billions in fines and penalties, an estimated 11 million vehicle recall, and some economist's concerns that this is a large enough corporate faux pas to result in a measurable negative effect on Germany's entire national economy.

But whatever. Cat's out of the bag. All that remains is to do the usual spin control and deal with the aftermath.

Expect the German government to become directly involved at some point due to the possible economic ramifications.

308

Developer's Corner / Re: Ethics in Technology

« Last post by 40hz on September 23, 2015, 11:26 AM »

It could be you on the line at some point.  And the protections that cover the companies with their teams of lawyers will most likely not apply to you- the scapegoat.

-wraith808 (September 22, 2015, 08:20 AM)

Yes, I have done it.

We make mostly accounting and inventory software. At times I have questioned about the purpose of a particular feature, which I felt was not correct. I got the standard reply, "How does it matter to you or us ? The client want software for this feature. You code it, I sell it. We get our pays. Done."

Many of my software are used to adjust accounting records as per need. If I say we do not make it. Whole lot of programmers and companies are ready to do it. Looking back, when there was no computers and I worked as an accountant, I have done this manually under my then boss. It is just that now I code it, for others to do the same more easily.

Sad, but we are bound to earn for our family and ourselves.

Regards,

Anand

-anandcoral (September 22, 2015, 12:36 PM)

I'm curious as to what you were asked to do that you didn't agree with. Could you elaborate a little? Because my background and degree are in accounting, and I can't really see where anything in a software program would enable someone to legally or even practically circumvent generally accepted accounting principles. Because as you well know, it doesn't matter how you come up with your reported numbers. Manual or computerized, you're still held 100% liable for any errors regardless of what caused them if you're an accountant reporting them.

So I can't see where a customer request for a feature would make your company cross an ethical line. So I could be wrong or missing something. But I'm still curious. 

309

Living Room / Re: 14 year-old boy arrested for creating a digital clock

« Last post by 40hz on September 19, 2015, 08:30 AM »

^Only because in this instance I was curious as to why this tread got moved here so quickly to begin with. And after reading through it all again, I can't really see why for any reason other than a preemptive stirke to avoid potential hurt feelings.. Which is a bit of an evolution from how this worked in the past. Previously it seemed that there needed to be an actual escalating situation that was blatantly obvious to everyone before a thread got thrown down the basement stairs. Usually that happened when tempers ran high and civility went out the window. This time it seems more like a case of "we don't talk about things like this around here." So to me it's an obvious case of intervention rather than remediation.

But it's not my website, and "So it goes." You play by the rules of the house or you go play elsewhere.

(And if I did break my own rule just now, that's cool too. Sometimes a situation requires some flex in the interests of clarity. Even 40hz has learned a thing or two over the last year. So there!!    )

310

Living Room / Re: 14 year-old boy arrested for creating a digital clock

« Last post by 40hz on September 18, 2015, 04:15 PM »

If that's what Ronnie truly believed, why wasn't he prosecuted or impeached for Iran-Contra when he knowingly and blatantly broke the law? Or for that other time when...oh wait! That's right. Silly me. That's altogether different. He's was President when he did that. 

And now that I suddenly realized this is in the basement, I'll bow out of the conversation. Because I still don't do basement. Later!

311

Living Room / Re: New Computer

« Last post by 40hz on September 17, 2015, 08:47 AM »

I like RAID5, it has server me well in the past. And I need the extra speed of the stripped NLSAS for the Hyper-V VMs, but wanted the safety net of parity also. Not to mention that I've seen these controllers do mirroring...performance is not impressive (read horrid). My workstation here at the office is (identical except for disk configuration) a single disk, which goes straight to its knees when I get a few VMs going, especially if one of them decides to pull something cute like indexing or updates. On the RAID5 array I had 3 VMs (Vista, 7, and 8.1) all doing updates at the same time, and the drive was still responsive.

-Stoic Joker (September 17, 2015, 07:00 AM)

Wow! When I first read that I said to myself: "Can that be right?"

Then I thought about everything I was routinely running multiple VMs on, and realized they were all server grade boxes with RAID5. And those few times when I invoked multiple VM instances on a single drive machine I too ran into exactly those issues you mentioned.

Never though of it in that context since you always hear how much of a performance drag (in theory) RAID5 can be. Even if that's mostly from the gaming SSD crowd.

But I never once thought of using RAID5 more as a response enhancer for VMs. Good thing I already was without knowing it. "Sometimes better lucky than smart," as my grandfather used to say.

312

Living Room / Video-Game Algorithm to Solve Online Abuse?

« Last post by 40hz on September 17, 2015, 08:33 AM »

Interesting article from the MIT Technology Review

A Video-Game Algorithm to Solve Online Abuse

How a team of psychologists and scientists at Riot Games is unlocking the secret to eliminating abuse within an online video game.

By Simon Parkin on September 14, 2015

Like many online spaces, League of Legends, the most widely played online video game in the world today, is a breeding ground for abusive language and behavior. Fostered by anonymity and amplified within the heated crucible of a competitive team sport, this conduct has been such a problem for its maker, Riot Games, that the company now employs a dedicated team of scientists and designers to find ways to improve interactions between the game’s players.

During the past few years the team has experimented with a raft of systems and techniques, backed by machine learning, that are designed to monitor communication between players, punish negative behavior, and reward positive behavior. The results have been startling, says Jeffrey Lin, lead designer of social systems at Riot Games. The software has monitored several million cases of suspected abusive behavior. Ninety-two percent of players who have been caught using abusive language against others have not reoffended. Lin, who is a cognitive neuroscientist, believes that the team’s techniques can be applied outside the video-game context. He thinks Riot may have created something of an antidote for online toxicity, regardless of where it occurs...<more>

I'm sure this technology could be turned to more nefarious uses as well. But it's a small step in the right direction for some web communities that are experiencing major civility issues. In the case of "all inclusive" communities like League of Legends or Facebook, bigger is better - and anything driving away even a small number of potential users is bad for business. So the incentive is certainly there to do something to reform or expel the bad apples.

But there's an easier solution too. If more communities on the web could just be more like here... it would already be "problem solved."   

313

Living Room / Re: 14 year-old boy arrested for creating a digital clock

« Last post by 40hz on September 16, 2015, 09:02 PM »

One word: Grandstanding.

This wasn't an overreaction. This was a place called Irving TX  suddenly deciding they would 'send a message.' Even if it still isn't all that clear what the message was trying to say.

And now that the expected nationwide support won't be forthcoming, expect to see some self-righteous justifications, convoluted rationalizations, a hefty dose of doublespeak, and the tiniest bit of resentful back pedaling coming out of Irving over the next few days.

 

314

Community Giveaways / Re: Scrivener at 50% off

« Last post by 40hz on September 14, 2015, 04:12 PM »

Probably nobody does that anymore. But old habits die hard.

-40hz (September 14, 2015, 02:40 PM)

* wraith808 raises hand

Some people still do.

-wraith808 (September 14, 2015, 02:53 PM)

Well there ya go, Iain! I'm not the only one it appears who dates back to when v.42bis 56Kbit fax/modems ruled the earth. (Fidonet + QModem Rule!)

@Wraith - just noticed the Mod 5-block under your handle. Was that always - or is it something more recent? If recent, congrats!

315

Community Giveaways / Re: Scrivener at 50% off

« Last post by 40hz on September 14, 2015, 02:40 PM »

@40hz: Thanks for the $ "boost"!   

By the way, what the heck is your avatar image ("Post-It" note) saying? I can't read it.

-IainB (September 14, 2015, 01:10 PM)

Nothing even slightly clever I'm afraid. Just 40hz repeated over and over. Can't find my old turtle petroglyph avatar so I just did up that piece of non-art quickly for what I'm currently using. Force of habit from the 'old days' when a forum avatar (where I used to hang) indicated you were active - as opposed to "registered but not regularly participating." That was to give others on my old BBS (now long gone) an indication that any unanswered PM, or lack of response to a "discussion thread" (now known as a forum post) wasn't a snub.

Probably nobody does that anymore. But old habits die hard.

316

Living Room / Re: Do we have any musical people on DC?

« Last post by 40hz on September 13, 2015, 02:56 PM »

Something from the past. The PPG Wave Synthesizer. One of the most interesting and musical of all those godlike keyboards ever created. A big favorite of prominent musicians like Kate Bush and the electronic prog crowd - when they could afford one! It was very much ahead of it's time. It was also the first wavetable synth. A radical new technology (for the time) that really broke the mold and set electronic music on a whole new path for several years following it's introduction. It had a very organic feel. And the sounds it created were to die for. You just couldn't sound bad on this thing.

Awesome rig.

Check out the sounds! No wonder so many game music composers were totally hooked on it's vibe.

Here's a run through of the various wave tables contained within it:

317

Living Room / Re: More good web comics you've discovered

« Last post by 40hz on September 13, 2015, 02:37 PM »

Nick and Zuzu.

318

Community Giveaways / Re: Scrivener at 50% off

« Last post by 40hz on September 13, 2015, 01:06 PM »

@IainB - thx for sharing. I've been meaning to buy an additional copy for some time now. (I went through your referral link so hopefully they'll send you that credit.)

319

Living Room / Re: Recommend some music videos to me!

« Last post by 40hz on September 11, 2015, 07:56 AM »

Another blast from the past, Seatrain - short lived bluegrass/blues influenced rock group from the early 70's with a big name lineup.

What I admired most about this group was bassist Andy Kulberg. One of the more unique players out there. Andy had the uncanny ability to not only hold the groove but also add a jazzy almost scat-singing vibe to his basslines that was unheard of for the times.

Bass connoisseurs will also note he plays a Rickenbacker 4001 - the bass made famous by Chris Squire and Yes. Chris Squire opted for a clangy trebly tone that defined a lot of the established "prog rock bass style" of which volumes can and have been written. That one particular Chris Squire sound is what most people think of when they think "Rickenbacker." But what a lot of people don't know is that even though the "Ric" is best known for it's growl and snarl, it also has the ability to purr, as Andy demonstrates in 13 Questions with Seatrain.

Check it out!

320

Living Room / Re: Recommend some music videos to me!

« Last post by 40hz on September 10, 2015, 09:45 PM »

This for the prog fans out there. One of Tull's best performances - the 1984 Capitol Theatre concert...(I was there and totally blown away!)

Ian, Dave, Martin & Co. were all at the height of their powers for that show. Minimum stage antics and maximum music. The way rock concerts were meant to be.

321

DC Gamer Club / Re: GOG Scores Bethesda!

« Last post by 40hz on September 10, 2015, 12:36 PM »

Humble Bundle has a pretty nice "pay what you want" offer going on Tom Clancy titles for the next 5 or so days.

Might be worth a look if it's the sort of game you like. Link here.

322

Living Room / Re: TSA's master keys leaked, 3D printed

« Last post by 40hz on September 10, 2015, 12:23 PM »

The big difference here is that if the bad guys can get into my suitcase, they might steal my socks.

The potential damage to us if and when somebody backdoors our secret data is far more serious.

-CWuestefeld (September 10, 2015, 11:37 AM)

Unless instead of stealing your socks they put an additional item or two in your suitcase.

323

Living Room / Re: What books are you reading?

« Last post by 40hz on September 08, 2015, 01:55 PM »

Just finished The Islanders by Christopher Priest.



Odd meta-novel. Part gazette, part almanac, part semi-linked short story/essay collection that hangs together particularly well, although in a very peculiar way. Another one of those books I personally like that you'll either love or hate. Hard to classify as to subject or style. For lack of a better word, I'd call it "experimental."

On the surface it's a guidebook to the Dream Archipelago, a vast collection of islands located in the Midway Sea, on an unnamed earth-like world. This archipelago has some unusual features such as being generally impossible to map or catalog. It also displays temporal and spatial contractions and discontinuities in seemingly random fashion.

To the north is an unnamed super-continent which is home to approximately 60 nations, several of which are constantly in a state of war with each other. To the south is another mostly arctic super-continent named Sudmaieure. Sudmaieure is uninhabited. It's only use is to serve as a battleground for various warring northern nations who would prefer to conduct their hostilities with each other outside their geographic borders in order to avoid civilian casualties and damage to their infrastructure and cities. One feature of the Dream Archipelago is the constant coming and goings of warships and troop transports shuttling young military forces and frightening warmaking technologies to the hot wars being conducted in the southern continent. It is generally believed that the troops who are sent there seldom return - although even that, like everything else in this book, is not an established fact.

The Archipelago is officially neutral by covenant, and remains out of the northern conflicts. Although that doesn't stop various northern nations from occupying, annexing, or establishing bases at will wherever they feel the need - something the island nations protest vehemently but basically have no power to prevent - any more than they can the mysterious drone flights (ostensibly for mapping purposes) that are seen everywhere in the archipelago - although nobody really knows what they're up there for.

Inside this framework, anything and everything goes. Some sections read like a tour guide for a particular island. Several are disjointed pieces of larger tales that straddle various islands or characters the reader meets along the way. All in all, a crazy jigsaw puzzle of impressions, narrative, and character development.

I don't know whether this book is an allegory, simply brilliant, or just Christopher Priest using up his collection of snippets and story pieces which he never expanded into full novels. But whatever it is, I found it a really enjoyable albeit different sort of book. And I was actually disappointed when I reached the end. First, because I really enjoyed the journey the book took me on. And second, because I still had so many intriguing questions left unanswered.

If you're the sort who demands closure and a general 'tidying up' by the end of a book you'll really be annoyed by this one.

Publisher's Weekly had this to say:

British novelist Priest (The Prestige) creates a mind-bending, head-scratching book (already much lauded in the U.K.) that pretends to be a gazetteer of the Dream Archipelago, uncountable islands spread around a world whose temporal and spatial anomalies make such a project futile. The dispassionate descriptions of separate islands include odd references out of which it's possible to begin assembling a cast of characters: maniac artists, social reformers, murderers, scientific researchers, and passionate lovers. Some of these categories overlap, and all the actors are maddeningly fragmented, apt to fade away or flash intensely to life. Interpolated bits of directly personal narratives sometimes clarify and sometimes muddy the story (or stories), while uncanny events struggle to escape the gazetteers' avowedly objective control and Priest's elegant, cool prose. The result is wonderfully fascinating, if occasionally frustrating, and entirely unforgettable.[

Not for everyone. But highly recommended. 

324

Living Room / Re: What books are you reading?

« Last post by 40hz on September 08, 2015, 01:17 PM »

I'm currently reading reamde. As other stuff by Neal Stephenson, it's pretty great, and even at page 380/1044 I'm not entirely sure exactly what the story is about, or how it's going to unfold - and that in a positive sense. It also features at least one shootout scene, which I'm not usually too big a fan of in books... but it's great in this one.

***

Richard Forthrast, a multi-millionaire marijuana smuggler, has parlayed his wealth into an empire by developing T'Rain, a billion-dollar online role-playing game with legions of fans around the world.

But T'Rain's success has also made it a target. Hackers have struck gold, unleashing REAMDE, a virus that encrypts all of a player's electronic files and holds them for ransom. They have also unwittingly triggered a deadly war beyond the boundaries of the game's virtual universe - and Richard is caught in the crossfire. Racing around the globe from the Pacific Northwest to China to the wilds of northern Idaho, Reamde traverses worlds virtual and real. Filled with unexpected twists and turns in which computer hackers and mobsters, entrepreneurs and religious fundamentalists face off in a battle for survival, Reamde is a brilliant refraction of the twenty-first century.

-f0dder (August 12, 2015, 03:51 PM)

Give his book Cryptonomicon a try after you finish readme. Excellent read. His The Diamond Age is also pretty good.

325

Living Room / Re: Take the xkcd weird correlation survey

« Last post by 40hz on September 08, 2015, 12:58 PM »

five
random
words
um
one

 

-wraith808 (September 06, 2015, 02:41 PM)

I typed "five random words" without even entering in two more.

I'm a rebel like that.

-Deozaan (September 07, 2015, 11:43 PM)

I wish I had done that... didn't think of it until after   I don't think you're a rebel... you did exactly what it told you! 

-wraith808 (September 08, 2015, 11:44 AM)

So many self-identified rebels are rebellious in everything but their predictable behaviors. That's why 'profiling' has become more and more effective at predicting it.