Recent Posts

3301

Living Room / Re: Internet Privacy Law Intact

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 29, 2012, 06:58 AM »

This is reminding me of a personal joke I've entertained for a little while, about changing my name to ".". Yes, a Dot. Then when companies try to collate that data it would presumably do irritating things to their parsing mechanisms. Shades of xkcd "Little Johnny Tables" and friends.

But really, there's room for an upstart few politicians to go be "rebels" and go the Pro-Privacy route as the ticket to re-election. Not sure how they can roll back 10 years worth of influential money, but hey, that this story got out there at all is something.

So far this is all seething under the radar. I think it would take a national information apocalypse to shock the world into going the other way.

3302

General Software Discussion / Re: Nuance PDF Reader - Acresso-FLEXnet agent is Annoyware/Adware WARNING.

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 29, 2012, 06:37 AM »

Ah, pdf , one of those understated topics. Sorry to hear that Nuance is so nasty. : (

The point of those small 3rd party readers was supposed to be that they were tightly coded and efficient without Adobe Reader's bloat. There were a couple threads here a while ago discussing a few of them.

Most of the PDFs I look at are science papers, so I haven't seen any/many malicious ones. So I really haven't put much effort in trying to replace Reader.

3303

Living Room / Re: Internet Privacy Law Intact

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 28, 2012, 09:23 PM »

Hmm. Based on the other stories you posted,

the congress finally has a couple of voices concerned with privacy, but the Forces That Be did a lot of damage first.

3304

Living Room / Re: Kid's homemade cardboard carnival arcade (video)

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 28, 2012, 06:54 AM »

Actually not to snark, but I think he's gonna have 400,000+ for his college, because of the matching grant by that foundation, will college really cost 400,000 per year by then?  

-TaoPhoenix (September 27, 2012, 05:54 PM)

the money thing is very confusing there - they say that it will be matched by xyz trust up to 250,000. At first I presumed that this was for their foundation but it looks like all that money is for him. I dont know will the extra 250 grand go to him as well o_0

He can party a lot  

-tomos (September 28, 2012, 03:08 AM)

Very roughly it looks like it's all locked away in a trust or something, no $100 parties every week for 10 years as I see it.

Edit though $100 / week parties are how the 1% works, so why not?

3305

General Software Discussion / Re: Antivirus-less setup

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 28, 2012, 02:50 AM »

Last I knew on Windows the big problem was ambient Drive-By attacks that involved no user interaction at at all. There was a meme at one point that a Windows Box "busy patching" with no AV would get hacked in a matter of hours.

3306

General Software Discussion / Re: xkill

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 27, 2012, 07:46 PM »

Cheap post to say this is neat so I can make a pretty pattern in the Recent Posts list.

3307

Living Room / Re: Internet freedoms restrained - SOPA/PIPA/OPEN/ACTA/CETA/PrECISE-related updates

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 27, 2012, 07:39 PM »

Okay, snarks aside, are there any new bills on the horizon?

3308

General Software Discussion / Re: The Demise of the Desktop (Free ALTools licenses too!)

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 27, 2012, 07:35 PM »

I'll just say it here, all SAAS services strike me as that scene in Total Recall where some guy charged for air and turned it off when he didn't get what he wanted.

3309

General Software Discussion / Re: Google says goobye to Internet Explorer 8

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 27, 2012, 07:05 PM »

Tangentially about Google dropping stuff, they're also dropping the classic doc formats. So this is a big move in the strategy game.

3310

Living Room / Re: Kid's homemade cardboard carnival arcade (video)

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 27, 2012, 05:54 PM »

Actually not to snark, but I think he's gonna have 400,000+ for his college, because of the matching grant by that foundation, will college really cost 400,000 per year by then? 

3311

Living Room / Re: In search of ... "Why is it" Websites/services

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 27, 2012, 05:42 PM »

But I figured an erudite - and quirky! - bunch like this would probably have a number of such URLs already bookmarked.  Gimme 'em .

-barney (September 27, 2012, 12:59 PM)

Or, if not bookmarked, a sufficient vocabulary to get there by the side alley of the search engines!   

3312

Living Room / Re: In search of ... "Why is it" Websites/services

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 27, 2012, 01:31 PM »

Stuff like this ?

http://www.westegg.com/etymology/

3313

Living Room / Re: Barebone server: what else do I need to complete it?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 27, 2012, 01:28 PM »

Looks like another issue is whether these SAS expander cards can handle 3TB and 4TB drives, which I have several of.  

-superboyac (September 27, 2012, 01:20 PM)

That's a lot of storage!  
And I was happy with my humble 1.75 TB from six years ago.

3314

Living Room / Re: Kid's homemade cardboard carnival arcade (video)

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 27, 2012, 12:21 PM »

And not so exciting, but some very interesting moments: 'Caine Monroy, Visiting Lecturer of Entrepreneurship at USC' (University of Southern California).

-tomos (September 27, 2012, 04:26 AM)

That's just an awesome title he's gonna love in a couple of years when it sinks in.
Also, this kiddo will be fun to watch in about three years whether either he gets some "Venture Capital" (maybe for better materials than cardboard), or else he decides the whole thing was something he'd rather forget.

P.s. He'd better give a Fun Pass to an Accountant!

3315

Living Room / Re: Kid's homemade cardboard carnival arcade (video)

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 27, 2012, 12:01 PM »

Fun video of a kid with a passion for making his own carnival games, who is surprised by a flashmob of supportive fans.

-mouser (April 10, 2012, 12:59 PM)

Videmo videos always seem to have poor bandwidth to me, so here is a YouTube copy.
http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=faIFNkdq96U

3316

Living Room / Re: When you make your 100'th Post

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 27, 2012, 11:18 AM »

Techidave hit 800 with this one:

3317

Living Room / Re: When you make your 100'th Post

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 27, 2012, 11:13 AM »

Someone more alert than me watch for Renegade's upcoming 6500th post!

3318

Living Room / Re: Changes at Kickstarter...

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 26, 2012, 09:21 PM »

Tip about Sellaband: They look okay, but I have them parked in that "corporate email catcher" address because they do send out a lot of promo mails.

3319

Living Room / Re: Udacity - free online education for real

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 26, 2012, 04:55 AM »

... a full degree in itself is not a hobby - education is education. It's no fault of the student who did his part.

-TaoPhoenix (June 20, 2012, 06:32 AM)

Well, in point of fact, education is not always education.  And ofttimes, a [higher] degree does become a hobby for those with the wherewithal.  Several unwarranted assumptions there.  And are you talking about the student who learned, but did not pass [questionable] tests?  Did not pass university muster?  Or are you talking about the student who knew how to pass tests even though that student couldn't put a round peg in a round (and bigger) hole?  Which did not do their part?  And which did?  There are dichotomies in that concept.

Bottom line - if there is one - is who can best perform in the real world.  Experience tells me that most university graduates are not nearly so successful as trade school alumni, on average.  Knowledge, despite the old adage, is not always power.

-barney (September 26, 2012, 12:33 AM)

Okay, some fair points there. I tried to make a distinction between the "full degree" passing all the tests (including all the related "un-realistic" silliness, etc.) as a formal step in the educational process with the intent to begin a career. I completely agree that we have dismal prospects out there, but then I think the applicable word becomes "tragedy", not "hobby". To me "hobby" is something done with at least subconscious intent that there results aren't ever planned on being part of a significant professional result. The learning required in a a hobby still to me counts as education, just perhaps not formalized enough to put down on a piece of paper for job contexts.

3320

General Software Discussion / Re: Want to send a Batch file - but gmail & prob AV dont...

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 26, 2012, 04:46 AM »

I found that sending things like that in a .rar file always seems to slip through. ;-)

-app103 (September 24, 2012, 09:45 AM)

good idea, but they're on XP so cannot open

-tomos (September 24, 2012, 09:53 AM)

I think Chris G's Unzip Snack from here might open rar files! (Too lazy to check, and I'm too senile to remember!)

3321

Living Room / Re: $10 for a Facebook Post? Huh?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 25, 2012, 08:16 PM »

Friends don't let friends use Facebook.

-40hz (September 25, 2012, 08:07 PM)

Can we get Facebook declared a Cruel and Unusual punishment? 

3322

Living Room / Re: Interview with Richard Stallman

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 24, 2012, 07:20 PM »

I for one, do not see a significant difference between software and SaaS. The freedom issue is still the same as far as I can see, and SaaS in inherently antithetical to freedom. Am I missing something?

-Renegade (September 24, 2012, 03:18 PM)

Last I understood, Software was this ... "stuff" ... that you acquired, and installed it on your computer, and it Did Stuff. Software As A Service might be like Google Apps, where your data is theirs to DEIGN to LET YOU use out of the goodness of their bottom line. Some of the music stores were pretty bad on this front too, when the DRM activation servers etc closed, leaving users stuck with unplayable music.

I agree it's fun to play with your data anywhere, but almost all the Cloud offerings (with the odd exception of email in my mind for some reason), strike me as that movie Total Recall on Mars where they began to charge you for air.

Microsoft is going to try this with Office, and that just scares me, everyone is praising "better cash flow" but renting an office program just feels like a nice comfy fish hook which would like to rip your throat open.

3323

Living Room / Re: MegaUpload Comeback?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 24, 2012, 07:07 PM »

Yeah, I wanna see what ace he has up his sleeve to uncork to prevent what happened last time since the US Feds are already itching.

3324

Living Room / Re: In search of ... a hardware donee

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 24, 2012, 12:18 AM »

Heh "Given all the previous, anyone interested?  First come, first served ... reply here if you're brave  smiley, or PM me."

So did Wraith's PM beat my Post or does "First Come First Serve" mean something new now? : )

He can still have it, it's just a finesse question : )

3325

Living Room / Re: Ubuntu will now have Amazon ads pre-installed

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on September 24, 2012, 12:16 AM »

Conceptually, if it takes expert-level skill to disable dangerous features, then we are already on the wrong path...