Recent Posts

3376

Living Room / Re: "Half of our users block ads. Now what?"

« Last post by Renegade on March 10, 2013, 06:49 PM »

It costs something in time and money to do most things worth doing. And people will either be willing to support it - or they won't. If they won't, the two remaining choices are to abandon the endeavor; or, scale it back and become a "patron of the art" by funding it yourself.

Trying to straddle the middle and somehow get somebody else to pay for it through indirect means doesn't work very well. It mostly just pisses off the people you're trying to serve. So do one or the other. Either get it to pay for itself - or pay for it yourself.

-40hz (March 10, 2013, 11:33 AM)

Sounds like you're trying to point out the sense of entitlement from publishers. "Since I made this, I must be paid for it whether you like it or not." It works both ways there.

3377

Living Room / Re: Amazon creepy ...

« Last post by Renegade on March 10, 2013, 06:45 PM »

Big Data also operates outside of your browser.

e.g. If you use a grocery store loyalty card, they are selling data to insurance companies, so if you buy too much junk food, your health insurance premiums could go up.

Your phone is also a good source of data. Information is collected about what you do, where you go, what games you place, what ads you click, etc.

It is incredibly pervasive and will only become more pervasive.

Is your TV reporting what TV shows you watch? Are you ready for smart refrigerators that know what cooking shows you watch and what you buy at the grocery store and which stores you go to, as well as adjacent stores that might have a special on your favourite foods? It's almost here.

Don't think that simply protecting your browser will solve the problem. That's just the front flank, and you are being surrounded on all flanks.

3378

Living Room / Re: "Half of our users block ads. Now what?"

« Last post by Renegade on March 10, 2013, 09:27 AM »

Sounds like I am not the only one with no sympathy. :-)

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Living Room / Re: "Half of our users block ads. Now what?"

« Last post by Renegade on March 10, 2013, 08:05 AM »

I'm not against ads on sites, and I don't block them.

However, I have no sympathy whatsoever.

The way I see it is that it's not about the ads --- it's about Big Data and privacy issues. Things have simply become TOO intrusive.

Intrusiveness kills sympathy.


It is EXTREMELY rare for me to click an ad or allow a video ad to play through. I even go out of my way to find the site for the ad without clicking it if possible. If they weren't creating profiles and all that, well, it would probably be a different story, and I'd probably be willing to click ads that interest me. At the moment, I'm not willing to participate.

3380

Living Room / Re: Google Glasses BANNED!

« Last post by Renegade on March 10, 2013, 07:49 AM »

On a more positive note, with a little additional tech, it could make things considerably more difficult for police who are behaving badly.

What if a web-enabled version of "The Wire" (that most beloved gadget of police action movies - right up there with the HK MP5K) found it's way into the hands of the average Jill or Joe out on the street?

Hard to arrest people for videoing some questionable "enforcement actions" when everybody in the crowd is wearing a set of goggles that can do so. How would you know which of the hundreds is videoing? And how would you stop them if they were? It's pointless to confiscate if the video feed is being sent up to the net in realtime. I suppose you could subpoena their ISP and get access to the person's online storage accounts. But if they've been set up to auto-push to the torrents, well...it's gonna be a bear to censor people or enforce gag orders.

With police perjury on the rise (especially in countries where they still bother to hold trials) it could become a valuable asset in the struggle to preserve constitutional freedoms.

 

-40hz (March 10, 2013, 07:22 AM)

That could work very well. Well, that is if it weren't for some animals being more equal than others.

3381

Living Room / Re: Google Glasses BANNED!

« Last post by Renegade on March 10, 2013, 06:56 AM »

There are now some concert halls/theatres that block mobile phone signals. I wish they all did!

-Carol Haynes (March 10, 2013, 06:35 AM)

Ah! Gives me an idea! Sell massive Faraday cages~! I'm expecting that private sales will be flat zero, but government sales would be lucrative~!

3382

Living Room / Re: Google Glasses BANNED!

« Last post by Renegade on March 10, 2013, 06:00 AM »

Or maybe some smart company will introduce a product or service that can block the video/recording capabilites.

-mitzevo (March 10, 2013, 05:57 AM)

Well, you can buy glasses & hats that have IR lights that block recording and only show white spots...

However, I think I'd rather just have a large EMP. Imagine the fun you could have at the airport with one of those!

3383

Living Room / Google Glasses BANNED!

« Last post by Renegade on March 10, 2013, 05:42 AM »

This is semi-comical and semi-serious:

http://news.cnet.com...to-ban-google-glass/

Google Glass won't be available to consumers for months, but there's at least one Seattle bar where the eyewear will not be welcome.

The 5 Point, a self-described dive bar in Seattle's Belltown neighborhood, posted a notice to its Facebook page this week telling Glass Explorers looking to grab a pint that they will need to remove their $1,500 spectacles. The story was noted today on GeekWire.

 "For the record, The 5 Point is the first Seattle business to ban in advance Google Glasses," the post reads. "And ass kickings will be encouraged for violators."

"I'm a thought leader," deadpanned Dave Meinert, the bar's owner, in an interview on Seattle's KIRO-FM. "First you have to understand the culture of the 5 Point, which is a sometimes seedy, maybe notorious place. People want to go there and be not known...and definitely don't want to be secretly filmed or videotaped and immediately put on the Internet."

Meinert admitted he was having a bit of fun: "Part of this is a joke, to be funny on Facebook, and get reaction."

More at the link.

But, he does have a point.

It will be interesting to see if there's any kind of fallout or if "recording-free" zones start popping up.

3384

Living Room / Re: Gadget WEEKENDS

« Last post by Renegade on March 10, 2013, 04:30 AM »

A fun gadget for guitar players:



It's a kind of guitar pick for special effects.

http://www.jellifish.com/

They don't have a huge number of dealers, so you might be better off ordering one online.

But I'm not even sure that they're still in business. Some of their dealers' web sites are gone. You might need to check ebay or amazon if you want one.

3385

Living Room / Re: Judge skeptical of "torrent chaser" law firm's antics. Jail time threatened.

« Last post by Renegade on March 09, 2013, 05:40 PM »

What do you call 10,000 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?

Spoiler

A good start.

3386

General Software Discussion / Re: From Canonical's drink the kool-aid dept: Unity - sign on, or sign out

« Last post by Renegade on March 09, 2013, 08:30 AM »

^^ Nope. They lost me at Unity. I'd been using some Unbuntu distros before, but when Unity came out... Gone.

3387

Living Room / Re: DOTCOM saga - updates

« Last post by Renegade on March 09, 2013, 08:28 AM »

Sigh...

http://www.huffingto...5.html?utm_hp_ref=tw

3388

General Software Discussion / Re: From Canonical's drink the kool-aid dept: Unity - sign on, or sign out

« Last post by Renegade on March 09, 2013, 07:25 AM »

I simply have zero interest in the crowd who wants to be different. Leet. ‘Linux is supposed to be hard so it’s exclusive’ is just the dumbest thing that a smart person could say.

+1

He's bang on there. That has held Linux back.

3389

Living Room / Re: Judge skeptical of "torrent chaser" law firm's antics. Jail time threatened.

« Last post by Renegade on March 09, 2013, 07:11 AM »

I really, really, really, really hope these snakes end up in jail.

-f0dder (March 09, 2013, 06:40 AM)

Hey hey hey! Let's keep this civil! No need to go insulting snakes like that!

3390

Living Room / Re: Amazon creepy ...

« Last post by Renegade on March 09, 2013, 07:00 AM »

^^ That's not surprising. They build profiles on you, so unless you fit into some kind of profile, it could take a while to see it if at all.

3391

Living Room / Re: Amazon creepy ...

« Last post by Renegade on March 09, 2013, 06:49 AM »

It wasn't an ad - it was Amazon promoting a product (which they don't even sell) based on something they knew I was looking for. The scary thing is Amazon knew about this immediately after I did a google search.

-Carol Haynes (March 09, 2013, 06:38 AM)

Exactly. Big Data. What they can do is simply spooky. It's not a coincidence. They don't need to serve ads when you're already in the store.

3392

Living Room / Re: Amazon creepy ...

« Last post by Renegade on March 09, 2013, 06:38 AM »

Welcome to BIG DATA~!

All these companies sell data to everyone, and they do it really fast. I've noticed similar situations numerous times.

To stop it or slow it down, make sure that you are not logged into anything and turn off cookies.

Did you see that Rand video that I'd posted a while back? Spooky stuff.

3393

Living Room / Re: Judge skeptical of "torrent chaser" law firm's antics. Jail time threatened.

« Last post by Renegade on March 08, 2013, 11:12 PM »

They are challenging a federal judge's jurisdiction?

-40hz (March 08, 2013, 10:15 PM)

Just call them "terrorists". Boom. There ya go. Instant jurisdiction. And, you can even just kill 'em outright if you like~!

3394

Living Room / Re: Recommendations for a Host OS?

« Last post by Renegade on March 08, 2013, 06:12 PM »

VMware is for testing. I just want to "feel things out" first before running down the bare metal road, which is much more involved.

And no - this isn't on a laptop.

3395

Living Room / Re: $12,000 in Bitcoin Stolen

« Last post by Renegade on March 08, 2013, 06:07 PM »

at the risk of the basement, exactly who do you call - and more importantly WHO will be willing to open an investigation.

AFAIK something like this would generally be handled under civil rather than criminal law unless you could interest a prosecutor in basing a case around some sort of cybercrime.

Good luck. you can't even get the cops interested in looking into major data security breeches. So when it comes to something like bitcoins, I don't think that will gain much traction with the police.

Not saying it's right. Just saying how it usually works. At least where I live. 

-40hz (March 08, 2013, 12:51 PM)

True enough. Though I'm not sure that I'd say it's civil as it is still theft. But, that doesn't affect how law enforcement treats/mistreats the issue, which is the real question.

3396

Living Room / Re: SimCity - EA shows us all how to ruin a landmark game with DRM.

« Last post by Renegade on March 08, 2013, 09:19 AM »

now EA will blame piracy among PC users for the declining sales.

-lanux128 (March 08, 2013, 08:56 AM)

Yep.

But truth be told, it will be the pirates that actually add value to the game by making it playable~!

3397

Living Room / Re: Recommendations for a Host OS?

« Last post by Renegade on March 08, 2013, 09:17 AM »

Dunno... Just doesn't work. That's what I was trying before, but if it can't see anything, there's not much I can do.





Nothing shows up.

Mind you, I'm running it inside of VMware... Need to check it out first...

So, yeah, it is looking that difficult from where I'm standing.

3398

Living Room / Re: Recommendations for a Host OS?

« Last post by Renegade on March 08, 2013, 08:56 AM »

Does anyone know how to create a Windows VM (or anything) in Proxmox VE? The docs are basically non-existant, and the ones that show you how to mount an ISO are way out of date and not applicable to v2.

-Renegade (March 07, 2013, 05:51 PM)

Their channel is here.

Eloquence aside, it's not very difficult IMHO. 

-40hz (March 08, 2013, 08:54 AM)

Fantastic! Thanks for the link! I'll get on that ASAP.


Some software just has a very different approach, so I sometimes miss things. e.g. I started up an ecommerce site with osCommerce and had a heck of a time figuring out the module system as it was "counter-intuitive" compared to other CMSes that I've used. But, once you "see" how it works, it's simple.

3399

Living Room / Re: $12,000 in Bitcoin Stolen

« Last post by Renegade on March 08, 2013, 08:47 AM »

It also shows that, despite many people's romantic fascination with "alternate currencies," unless you have an established government standing behind your monetary system, it's little more than an interesting social experiment so far.

Your currency is only as good as the reputation and strength of whatever is backing it. As many 'revolutionary' governments discovered the hard way when they first came into power. And it's only as 'safe' as your ability to protect it.

-40hz (March 08, 2013, 08:22 AM)

The hack had ZERO to do with Bitcoin. The exact same tactics could be used to steal from your Paypal account or anything. It only illustrates that social engineering is still the bread & butter of cyber crime.

e.g. I use the same kinds of tactics used by Rand to mine public data on 40hz. I hijack 40hz.com DNS, then well, game over. Same exact deal.

Lesson learned? Never let anyone know your mother's maiden name, and always tell everyone that you're a simple orphan bastard.

As for Bitcoin, you might want to look at it again. What you think you know may be out of date.

It also shows that, despite many people's romantic fascination with "alternate currencies," unless you have an established government standing behind your monetary system, it's little more than an interesting social experiment so far.

-40hz (March 08, 2013, 08:22 AM)

This is quite wrong. However, the Basement is the proper place for that discussion. (Sorry. )

Your currency is only as good as the reputation and strength of whatever is backing it.

-40hz (March 08, 2013, 08:22 AM)

Reputations can be ruined in a day.

The strength is the only thing that matters. But I have a feeling that we're not going to agree on what constitutes "strength" for a currency. The other thing is that any discussion there will quickly get us sent to the Basement. I've got a feeling that monetary policy and all that won't sit well with a lot of people. That whole cognitive dissonance thing and all. So - I'll drop it and keep to the social engineering stuff as that's plenty fun anyways~!

3400

Living Room / Re: Recommendations for a Host OS?

« Last post by Renegade on March 08, 2013, 08:21 AM »

Does anyone know how to create a Windows VM (or anything) in Proxmox VE? The docs are basically non-existant, and the ones that show you how to mount an ISO are way out of date and not applicable to v2.

-Renegade (March 07, 2013, 05:51 PM)

You are making my point more eloquently than I did.

-xtabber (March 08, 2013, 08:11 AM)

Yeah, I suppose so.

I had glitches with Synergy, but overall, it's running very well once I got over that 1 little hurdle.

For Proxmox VE, I'm guessing that there will be a few things like this.

But with a lot of good software, you do end up with a learning curve or a few hurdles in the beginning. I'm ok with a little bit in this instance as I'm basically trying to run a server style of system for my desktops.

Right now this is just the investigation phase. So, I'm ok with glitches for now. I don't plan on migrating for a little while, and am in no real rush. If I were in a rush, I'd ditch Proxmox VE right now. (Just kind of hoping that 40 chimes in with an answer. hint hint )