Recent Posts

Pages: prev • 1 ... 124 125 126 127 128 [129] 130 131 132 133 134 ... 438 • next

3201

Living Room / Re: PRISM Break ;)

« Last post by Renegade on July 13, 2013, 02:34 AM »

Ah... oops. Not been paying all that much attention lately.

3202

Living Room / Startpage.com Search Engine - Katherine Albrecht on The Corbett Report

« Last post by Renegade on July 12, 2013, 11:34 PM »

Dr. Katherine Albrecht on the Startpage private search engine (podcast)

http://www.corbettre...ivate-search-engine/

I've seen a few interviews with her. Startpage.com sounds pretty good. If you don't like DuckDuckgo, then you might like it. I've not done any real comparison between the two.

James Corbett is an excellent interviewer, though likely not what most people are quite used to.

Hopefully some people will enjoy the show.

3203

Living Room / Re: DonationCoder Recipe Sharing Thread

« Last post by Renegade on July 12, 2013, 11:11 PM »

^ Just dried bakers yeast. Nothing special. You can get it at any grocer. I suppose someone who knows more about the topic could recommend a better yeast, but it's often easier to use non-specialized ingredients. e.g. cream of tartar might not be in your kitchen, but you might have a lemon or lemon juice.

3204

Living Room / PRISM Break ;)

« Last post by Renegade on July 12, 2013, 11:06 PM »

Want to remove yourself from the surveillance grid prison? Make a PRISM Break!

https://prism-break.org/

via The Corbett Report - Boycott and Buycott (Highly recommended site, but not primarily focused on software.)

There is a host of good software there. Some I use, some I plan on moving to when I can.

The site lists the spyware that you're most likely using now, and non-spyware alternatives. It also gives comments and notes.

3205

Living Room / Re: DonationCoder Recipe Sharing Thread

« Last post by Renegade on July 12, 2013, 10:14 PM »

The bottles should be sterile. You can get bottle sterilizer at any home brew shop. If not, just wash well & rinse well.
-Renegade (July 12, 2013, 07:59 AM)

Or keep your eyes open for yard sales (or ebay), where someone might be selling an electric steam baby bottle sterilizer.
-app103 (July 12, 2013, 09:47 PM)

Those would work for 500 ml bottles, but I think the 750's are a bit large... hold on... Yep. Just checked - way too large.

You can add more sugar at the bottling stage, but depending on how much you've added blah blah blah, you could risk exploding bottles.

This has never happened to me, but during secondary fermentation (the 2 week period), you should store the bottles somewhere safe as they *could* explode in a "less-terrorist" but more messy kind of way.
-Renegade (July 12, 2013, 07:59 AM)

I wonder - with say, 200gr sugar, would the initial fermentation period not need to be longer (in order to avoid the exploding bottles part)?
Or does the yeast die after a certain period without air? (i.e. after having being bottled)
To be on the safe side use heavier bottles (e.g. as you recommend, beer bottles intended for resuse).
-tomos (July 12, 2013, 08:32 AM)

I'm not too sure about the exact times and amounts for fermentation and explosion. Resources on brewing beer would be good to find out though as there are fewer resources on making soda.

3206

Living Room / Re: I'm sooo exhausted with the overhyping of everything.

« Last post by Renegade on July 12, 2013, 10:09 PM »

If you've read "1984" and "Brave New World", you don't need to read the news.

But I know what you mean about hype. All the most unimportant things are hyped beyond galactic proportions, meanwhile the news that actually matters either never gets mentioned or gets an off-hand mention. e.g. Atrocities by US-backed foreign rebel fighters in Syria and near universal support for Assad by the Syrian people, etc. Gee... the kindling for WWIII just isn't important enough for the news...

Try reading some alternative news as what you hear is radically different. And there's no non-stop celebrity gossip or non-issue news.

But, what do you expect from the MSM when it's owned by 6 PR companies.

And no - it hasn't always been this way. It's much worse now. I've been the editor for an industry journal for about 14 years and I've noticed the downhill slide. News is nothing more than press releases from industry and government - journalism is almost dead.

3207

Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by Renegade on July 12, 2013, 07:28 PM »

Russia is holding a badger by the hind leg with Mr. Snowden. And now it's Washington's turn to enjoy watching Russia try to figure out how they're going to drop it and not get bit after all the previous tough talk to the world press about being an "independent nation" and not dancing to the Obama administration's tune.
-40hz (July 12, 2013, 05:03 PM)

It's very simple. Cop out by citing the UN and international law, etc. etc.

http://www.guardian....airport-live-coverag

http://wikileaks.org...ward-Snowden-to.html

The only ones here that are between a rock and a hard place are the US politicians.

Woohoo for typewriters~!

3208

Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by Renegade on July 12, 2013, 11:17 AM »

(Parody of Distraction Tactics used here, and on Julian Assange)
"In other news, Renny is happily married to his wife! Where did you meet her?"
-TaoPhoenix (July 12, 2013, 11:14 AM)

In an NSA chatroom called "the Internet".

3209

Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by Renegade on July 12, 2013, 10:55 AM »

the best chess players don't reveal checkmate in how ever many moves it will take
I'm guessing he has not made all his moves yet.
-cmpm (July 12, 2013, 10:30 AM)

It's certainly funny to hear obvious lies and hypocrisy from politicians, and then see them exposed for what they are. My wife and I have been laughing our butts off for a while now, and not infrequently hysterically so.

3210

Living Room / Hot New Technology! TYPEWRITERS! :D

« Last post by Renegade on July 12, 2013, 10:01 AM »

So, looks like the hot new tech out there is the typewriter.

http://www.ibtimes.c...ters-fight-leaks.htm

The Kremlin's communications watchdog has ordered typewriters to prevent potential leaks of sensitive information in the aftermath of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden's revelations about Washington's electronic snooping and eavesdropping.

Act NOW, for today only and you can get a free abacus!

3211

Living Room / Proof that DuckDuckGo is the coolest search engine...

« Last post by Renegade on July 12, 2013, 08:07 AM »

Screenshot - 7_12_2013 , 11_05_50 PM.png

Click me... I dare ya!

Click "Like" if you "get it" in under 10 seconds.

HAHAHAA! Made you vomit~!

3212

Living Room / Re: DonationCoder Recipe Sharing Thread

« Last post by Renegade on July 12, 2013, 07:59 AM »

GINGER ALE

Ingredients:

Chunk of fresh ginger (1 cm or to taste)
60 g raw sugar (see below)
1.5 L filtered water (see below)
1 tsp fresh yeast
Pinch of cream of tartar OR lemon juice
Sterilized bottles

Instructions:

Mill the sugar into icing sugar if you can. Otherwise, just continue.
Pulverize/mill the ginger as fine as possible.
Mix the sugar & ginger. You can mill them together if you have equipment to do that, i.e. a very powerful food processor.
Add the water, cream of tartar, and yeast and mix the b'jeez out of it. Really. Mix as hard as your blender/food processor will allow. If you have a regular food processor/blender, do it for a couple minutes.
Let it stand open to the air for 12 hours or so.
Bottle & wait 2 weeks.

RECIPE NOTES:

60 g of sugar won't give you much sweetness. On my first batch I used 85 g and it wasn't very sweet. I'd say use around 200 g of sugar at my first guess for some sweeter ginger ale.
You should use filtered water, and preferably water filtered for chlorine and fluoride. Both are toxins and will impede the fermentation process. You can use quality bottled water, but an RO filter will do a better job in most cases. Resin filters are still good for filtering out chlorine and fluoride. Particulate matter is less important, but filtered water with less particulate will give a better flavour. This is actually more important for lacto-fermented soda than for this particular recipe.
If you don't have cream of tartar, you can use lemon juice, but that will slightly flavour the ginger ale, which you may or may not like.
The bottles should be sterile. You can get bottle sterilizer at any home brew shop. If not, just wash well & rinse well.
Don't filter it when you bottle it.

General comments:

That's a very fast & easy fermented soda. Lacto-fermentation techniques are much more difficult, so this is a nice & easy method.

When you put it in the fridge, store it UPRIGHT and not on its side. The ginger pulp will precipitate out to the bottom. You can decide if you want to mix it into the drink easier if it's stored upright.

The initial 12 hours are the first fermentation. When you bottle it, that's when it undergoes its secondary fermentation and that's where you get the carbonation/bubbles. You can add more sugar at the bottling stage, but depending on how much you've added blah blah blah, you could risk exploding bottles.

This has never happened to me, but during secondary fermentation (the 2 week period), you should store the bottles somewhere safe as they *could* explode in a "less-terrorist" but more messy kind of way.

You don't want to filter the particulate out when bottling as you'll end up removing a lot of the good stuff that helps give it bubbles and wonderfulness.

Flip-top bottle like you get with Grolsch beer are excellent for this kind of thing. (HINT - I just gave you an excellent excuse to go out and buy some beer!

)

3213

Living Room / Re: DRM for HTML5 Standards

« Last post by Renegade on July 12, 2013, 07:13 AM »

Sigh... Always reinventing the wheel...

Just use ActiveX or Java. Y'know... Those 2 things that we all ignore?

(But yeah, really a very bad idea. [How's my skillz at understatement?

])

3214

Living Room / Re: Gadget WEEKENDS

« Last post by Renegade on July 12, 2013, 06:59 AM »

Thermomix. Totally insane. Just crazy what you can do with it. Off the hook. No words to describe it. I'd heard about it and thought, "Meh, whatever." No... It's simply mind-blowing.

A close friend of my wife gave us one.

You have to see it in action to believe that it can do. You'll read about it a bit, but it doesn't sink in until you SEE it done.

A few things you can do:

Make flour
Make butter
Make ginger ale

Speaking of... I think I'll crack a bottle of ginger ale that I made with it right now!

3215

Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by Renegade on July 12, 2013, 06:05 AM »

Aviation insiders say Snowden’s chances of reaching Venezuela are slim at best
-dr_andus (July 12, 2013, 03:10 AM)

Still crossing my fingers...

But, I've not really been poking fun at anyone lately, so, might as well have a few laughs.

The president outlined last week that these were important national security programs to help keep Americans safe and give us tools to fight the terrorist threat that we face.
-House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio)

Source

The general public are terrorists? Oh. Didn't know that. Should I turn myself in now or later?

He took an oath — that oath is important. He violated the oath, he violated the law. It’s an act of treason in my view.
-Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calf.)

Source

Oaths? Yeah. They're pretty serious business. For sure. I'm with ya so far...

I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
-Oath of office of the President of the United States

Source

Gee! The Prez gets his very own!

I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. [So help me God.]
-Oath of all US Congressmen, Senators, the Vice President, members of the Cabinet, federal judges, civil and military officers, and federal employees

Source

And all you "lesser beings" get a generic version. Oh well. Don't think that you're not still special. You have a special place waiting for you in Hell.

Associated Press phone records, etc. - Amendment 1
Ammunition tax - Amendment 2
Police use of private residence (1 example) - Amendment 3
PRISM - Amendment 4
Anwar al-Awlaki - Amendment 5

Yes, please Madam Feinstein. Please do send the traitors to prison... Would you care to go first?

There have been many times over the last while that I've laughed so hard I nearly pissed myself. Politicians make damn good comedians if you actually listen to what they say.

3216

Living Room / Re: Privacy Policy

« Last post by Renegade on July 12, 2013, 03:31 AM »

You don't have to lie.

Simply speak out loud, "My name is Dread Pirate Roberts." Poof! You've just given yourself a new name. Use that. Then decide that you live at an address, even if it has been commandeered by some hooligans that think it belongs to them.

Now you're no longer lying.

Sign up.

Once you're done, change your mind and choose a new name & address & whatever for yourself.

The term & conditions are not specific enough to specify against the case I outlined above. Or at least I've never read any that are that specific.

Hey, if they can be douchewads, why can't we?

Oh... And don't sign up for an account at Outlook.com because they give the NSA access prior to encryption as well as how to decrypt emails, etc.

3217

Developer's Corner / Re: The Danger of Naïveté

« Last post by Renegade on July 12, 2013, 03:25 AM »

Meh... Dunno. I suppose that I'm kind of lazy. And a heretic.

For the random number stuff... well, can't argue with that. But there are times when pseudo-random is good enough. You just need to figure out if it's important for the number to be truly random, which isn't particularly hard.

For the O stuff... It all depends. If you're coding for a desktop and it's not a long operation, then who cares? Whether it takes 5 ns or 50 ms doesn't really matter. If you're on a mobile device, well... now you have far more limited computing power (at the moment) and you also have batter power to contend with. When you have large data sets, then you really need to be careful. I remember hacking off some quick garbage code to do some work for me and it took hours. But, it was faster & easier to simply code fast & dirty rather than figure out some elegant code that I'd never use again. So it took me a few minutes to type up, and while it was running I did other stuff. It all just depends.

Still - coding horror is always fun to read!

3218

Living Room / Re: How Google is Killing Honest (Organic) Search

« Last post by Renegade on July 10, 2013, 10:39 PM »

Uh oh! We have a Return of Renny Challenge!
There are few forces (except maybe ex-girls!) as mad as DC members Scorned! So what was the article! First three to find it get Thank-You mentions from Renny!

Because if Snowden taught us anything, it is that when you're stumped, you just Give It To The Interwebs, and they will look for you as a favor!

-TaoPhoenix (July 10, 2013, 11:02 AM)

I can't mention what it is in the Living Room (see below). It's Basement material.

How recent was it? Because if you have trouble finding something, and it's the sort of thing people would talk about and share (even if it is considered subversive), perhaps you are searching in the wrong place. Perhaps searching Friendfeed for references to it would work better. (and I am subscribed to a number of people there that choose to keep their posts private, so they would be included in my search results.)
-app103 (July 10, 2013, 11:37 AM)

I don't know how old it is. Also, it's probably not popular enough for people to pass around much. (People are pretty lazy.) It was an in-depth analysis of dichotomous concepts and the logical consequences of them with data and examples to back it up. Not really the kind of thing that most people find exciting or fun. There are pics of cute kittens and puppies to be viewed out there, and only so much time...

The site was off the beaten path too, which only exacerbates the problem. i.e. Smaller search engines are less likely to have encountered it.

It was just odd to see it disappear from Google. Why would they drop it? It was an excellent essay/article, and probably the best I've read on the topic. Google can generally pick out quality relatively well, and that should have held in this case.

3219

Living Room / Re: Privacy Policy

« Last post by Renegade on July 10, 2013, 10:31 PM »

There are ways to get around all this invasive silliness. My guess is that most people here already know, but, just for the sake of it, I'll run down through a few ways to help.

Get a VPN subscription from a service that doesn't keep logs (see Torrent Freak for reviews)
Use TOR & the TOR browser
Get multiple email accounts
Get Keepass to store all your email accounts & passwords (or a similar program)

You can aggregate some email addresses into 1 with forwarding, but make certain to keep them mostly isolated or grouped by purpose. Do not tie any of them to your main email account and do not put in any real information. Use all fake info. It's easier to use fake info if you choose a historical figure and enter their birth dates, etc. That just makes it easier to keep track of. Also, you can keep that as a note in Keepass.

It can be a PITA, but depending upon what you want, it may be worth it.

3220

Living Room / Re: How Google is Killing Honest (Organic) Search

« Last post by Renegade on July 10, 2013, 10:12 AM »

I lost the link for an essay/article, and wanted to find it again. It *was* easy to find through Google before. Not so much now - it's gone from the results. No matter how I try, I cannot find it.

But the more interesting part is that it was subversive to the mainstay climate, and certainly not the kind of thing you'd want people reading if you want the status quo maintained.

It's just one little thing there that I noticed, but it stuck out for me. Deliberate? Who knows? But given that we know who Google is in bed with, it's certainly not unlikely.

3221

Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by Renegade on July 10, 2013, 10:04 AM »

...Snowden's ongoing leaks continue to destabilise international relations...
-dr_andus (July 08, 2013, 05:05 AM)

Relationships based on lies, deception, and treachery. Sounds like they NEED some destabilisation.

How many marriages/relationships could tolerate that level of abuse?

3222

Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by Renegade on April 07, 2013, 11:16 AM »

Understood. I would like to thank you for being a gracious host. I feel that I must bid you goodbye. Please know that all my best wishes are with you.

3223