Recent Posts

3476

General Software Discussion / Re: What went wrong with Linux on the Desktop

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on August 31, 2012, 02:40 AM »

I'd like to (daydream?) that Linux-On-Desktop has "exactly two chances left". Of course, the problem with EXACTLY two chances is that if you ruin both of them, you're hosed forever, even if there is Wailing and Gnashing Of Teeth for years to come. Well, let's call it Two-And-A-Half Chances. (Movie Puns, go to the Humor Thread!)

The Half Chance is of course Windows 8. With a UI so divisive, rather than learn "Unusable crap" that happens to be from Microsoft, why not learn "Unusable crap" (notice the quotes! In my style it means context!) from Linux.

The first Big Chance is if China ever gets a grip and quits trying to lock down the internet, they could China-ize Linux into some distro and powerbomb the world with $200 machines with X Chinese distro that becomes the new lowest common denominator. Sweatshops, and the works. Suddenly even Canonical might have to get a grip if some Chinese consortium floods the market with 17 times their production. Then it will be the new DOS, and because the source is deliberately "not agressively copyright protected" (Go China! It's your distro, and if you Officially Don't Care, off it goes!) then it will be "that fourth platform businesses need to support".

The other Big Chance is if Microsoft somehow makes 8 too many mistakes and implodes and doesn't get a bailout. In a Post Microsoft World, sure Apple will be having fun with their cute mobile market, but that gaping PHB "no one ever got fired for recommending Microsoft" hole will have to be filled, and I don't quite think Apple has that locked, not yet. So then there is room for about a 4 year shakedown on the best Successor to Microsoft, and some distro of Linux might be able to pull that off.

3477

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on August 31, 2012, 12:14 AM »

Yeah, when it rains, that's really bad for data in the cloud...

-Renegade (August 30, 2012, 08:33 AM)

Renegade I just saw somewhere that 51% of Americans think rain affects data in the "Cloud" (?!)

-TaoPhoenix (August 30, 2012, 03:16 PM)

 

-Renegade (August 30, 2012, 08:18 PM)

Cloud-tastic Citation
http://techpp.com/20...g-us-survey-reveals/

3478

General Software Discussion / Re: Fake Reviews: Amazon's Rotten Core

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on August 31, 2012, 12:06 AM »

Heck, even Wikipedia has being found doing information manipulation, eliminating information that is against the believes of whoever is an op there while putting propaganda as the truth.

-rxantos (August 30, 2012, 11:49 PM)

Do you know if they have manipulated the history of edits for any page?

-ewemoa (August 30, 2012, 11:57 PM)

I believe they have, but it is beyond my mere mortal powers to provide the Citation Needed.

3479

General Software Discussion / Re: What went wrong with Linux on the Desktop

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on August 30, 2012, 03:53 PM »

I don't pay attention to such moan lisa rants. I personally found no bitter experience on linux for 6 months of full switching. I can't imagine my time with OSX and Windows for 6 months without suckin at all. OSx and Win are crap for me, that's all. :p

-mahesh2k (August 30, 2012, 03:42 PM)

Then you rule.
I 50% gave up on Linux because I can only retain tech details for like 3-6 months, maybe a year if I am lucky, and my last company never used them so it became one too many projects to keep in my feeble head. :/

3480

Living Room / Re: What books are you reading?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on August 30, 2012, 03:51 PM »

Thanks to 40hz, got hands on 101 Zen stories book. Worth a read.

Two books in queue -

48 Laws of Power - Robert Greene
What every BODY is saying.

-mahesh2k (August 30, 2012, 03:45 PM)

Which 101 Zen Stories? There's a couple (ish). Blue Cliff Record is the most famous one, but then there's a second one that ... is hiding in my library.

3481

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox 15 less of a memory hog

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on August 30, 2012, 03:38 PM »

At least for this week!

3482

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox 15 less of a memory hog

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on August 30, 2012, 03:24 PM »

Shameless bump because it makes a pretty pattern in the Recent Posts thread. 

3483

Living Room / Re: What books are you reading?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on August 30, 2012, 03:23 PM »

I tend to only read parts of books lately. (A few years now.)

It's because when I do projects I work laterally, so any one book basically only has 1-6 chapters that really fit.

3484

General Software Discussion / Re: What went wrong with Linux on the Desktop

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on August 30, 2012, 03:21 PM »

Hmm...I guess all those servers and clusters and supercomputers don't count as enterprise...
And what "enterprise" product has Apple ever had besides a "me too" server I don't even know if they distribute any more?

-40hz (August 30, 2012, 03:12 PM)

Well, I meant more of the software package side. We all know that Linux rules for "low level servers". I am talking more about the $XX,000 packages. My own specialty is the construction package Timberline. I've heard the same complaint about high end AutoCad. I plead lack of knowledge if Photoshop Pro has a Linux version yet. I bet SAP doesn't. Or PeopleSoft.

Those guys.

3485

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on August 30, 2012, 03:18 PM »

Cody Chronicles: I want to be Cody!

3486

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on August 30, 2012, 03:16 PM »

Yeah, when it rains, that's really bad for data in the cloud...

-Renegade (August 30, 2012, 08:33 AM)

Renegade I just saw somewhere that 51% of Americans think rain affects data in the "Cloud" (?!)

3487

General Software Discussion / Re: Shortkey to edit the selected file name in a certain way....

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on August 30, 2012, 03:14 PM »

Heh P.S. Contro you made me Ad-Block your kissing smileys, they were about to give me a headache/seizure. 

3488

General Software Discussion / Re: Shortkey to edit the selected file name in a certain way....

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on August 30, 2012, 03:13 PM »

Just for discussion, because Skwire is the resident minor deity, from the type of change you wanted to post, one "low tech" way to do it is to "hide extensions". Then when you go to change the file name, where it's all selected, hit Right Arrow and it drills over to the right side of the file name, at which point you type your new characters and hit enter.

One of my first "announce your software" I posted a while ago was a "widget-thingie" for XP that 1-click toggled extensions on and off because I did that all day long.

3489

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox 15 less of a memory hog

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on August 30, 2012, 03:10 PM »

Slight offtopic: v15 is slow as shit, I'm going back to 14.
/offtopic

-nosh (August 30, 2012, 10:03 AM)

Depends, I'm on day 2 and I'm not getting that dreaded "cpu spike" bug I posted about a while ago. So for me F15 is a nice upgrade.

3490

General Software Discussion / Re: What went wrong with Linux on the Desktop

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on August 30, 2012, 03:08 PM »

There's some big elephants in the room here.

Is no one going to mention how MS (and maybe Apple) worked hard to make sure that Windows was the only platform that ran the industrial *enterprise software*? Notice I'm not saying "apps" as in "app store cute little thingies". From what I hear the gaming envionment is similar.

A platform needs "anchors", it's the same way the best malls are built. Sure you can get those little strip malls that kinda sit there and be useful, but the really good ones are anchored by 1-4 big ticket stores that really pull momentum. I don't really hear a lot of high powered raving about "Macs". I hear "App Store" = Mobile small useful widgets. Oh, I'm sorry, that used to be called Shareware except now you don't get to try it for free!

If everyone is going to "unify", Canonical is raising controversy by trying to position themselves as the "Linux-but-don't-tell-anyone" OS.

3491

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox 15 less of a memory hog

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on August 30, 2012, 03:11 AM »

I was looking forward to the fruits of memshrink project, the one that aims to reduce memory hog. As of FF15, the efforts reached to their zenith. From now on, the law of diminishing returns apply. So I'll jump in the Extended Support Release bandwagon when they release FF17.

-eleman (August 29, 2012, 11:55 PM)

Less Explicitly, so was I. I've had this annoying bug for a while now where "every breath I take, every mouse move I make", my CPU would max out for reasons unknown.  It seems a little better for the first 30 minutes, but maybe those problems might creep back in tomorrow...

3492

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox 15 less of a memory hog

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on August 30, 2012, 03:08 AM »

Yeah. Soon they'll be switching to scientific notation.  Get ya' Firefox here! Get ya' Firefox 1.23 x 10 to the 12th new today!!

-MilesAhead (August 30, 2012, 12:36 AM)

Sorry Miles, they posted a new one while you were typing that! 

3493

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: "Load a new browser instance with X tabs from previously located sites"

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on August 29, 2012, 09:12 PM »

Hi Miles, glad you decided to work on this. I think for reloading tabs, I like the session manager better.

But sparked by this whole thing, I have found a much more valuable use of FFSS. I am building a spreadsheet of job postings in my unemployment, and it was painful to have to copy urls and paste them. Here, I can just blast down "RightClick Open in New Tab" and open a ton of tabs. Then one shot of the hot key smashes them all into a text file. From there I'm pretty good at text imports to spreadsheets. In monster I don't need to open them all back again, I can see for example I am no CEO. So they just sit there in the spreadsheet.

Go Miles!

3494

Living Room / Re: The Unraveling of OnLive

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on August 29, 2012, 08:35 PM »

The thing that always sticks in my craw is the common thread I see in internet businesses, the fakery involved in pretending to have enough customers to be profitable in order to make it past one more round of funding, and then just continuing this cycle indefinitely until the inevitable crash.

-mouser (August 29, 2012, 07:10 PM)

Nailed it Mouser. It's a tough problem to solve, "front loading the customers hoping for upsells later", but the cycle can only hold out for like 2-4 years for the smaller businesses, and eventually after about three of these cycles I for one have sorta quit bothering to try all these fancy services because it just becomes exhausting to have to "exit" them with out having wasted all your time creating your content/value.

3495

General Software Discussion / Re: Fake Reviews: Amazon's Rotten Core

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on August 29, 2012, 10:58 AM »

I think the whole issue needs to be resolved at ISP level. Just like we have certificates for websites ISPs should issue certificates for users and websites and email should only allow certified users to use the service. The ISP has to know who you are and where you are to bill you so when you sign up for an account your details could be fixed by the certificate issuing authority. It would also save having to fill in name and address details all the time.

Websites could then refuse access to someone who doesn't come with a verified certificate. Could potentially reduce the amount of spam if mail servers only accepted mail from genuine certificated users.

Would also stop fake accounts because the certified user would have to be registered at an address with credit card or bank details to get the certificate.

-Carol Haynes (August 29, 2012, 06:06 AM)

Sounds very, very dangerous. It basically eliminates privacy entirely. Besides, it wouldn't stop spammers. e.g. http://pwnieexpress....oducts/wireless-plug

-Renegade (August 29, 2012, 06:12 AM)

I'll add a new wrinkle and say that the whole certificate thing leads to all internet activities tied to permanent histories, which will eventually become so juicy to the feds in our age of "automated law enforcement", and then coupled with the rise of "hackers release X records to protest ____". I've remarked that one version of the "Mayan Doomsday" which is almost on schedule is the global leak of the internet history of everyone on the planet through some stunning security breach of some kind. That's like a Blackmail Engine running on nuclear power to send the world into chaos.

3496

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: "Load a new browser instance with X tabs from previously located sites"

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on August 28, 2012, 10:40 AM »

Hi Renegade. In a way it's like the second half. The trick is that a session would accumulate tabs kinda randomly, so your version needs a "tab url exporter" so I wouldn't have to copy and paste the urls into a text file.

But for different uses, it looks pretty good.

3497

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: "Load a new browser instance with X tabs from previously located sites"

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on August 28, 2012, 07:59 AM »

There we go. That's pretty close to what I need. I'll fiddle with it. Thanks!

3498

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: "Load a new browser instance with X tabs from previously located sites"

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on August 27, 2012, 07:24 PM »

With Session manager, you save [the current window] as [whatever you want]. You can designate in preferences where sessions get saved. The rest you get the pleasure of doing yourself ;-)
Can you set icons universally for a particular filetype (? -maybe depends on your file manager?).

-tomos (August 27, 2012, 03:21 PM)

Hi Tomos (and friends), I will try this approach. I installed Session Manager.  So with my existing session full of my nice little tabs, exactly how do I "save [the current window] as [whatever you want]" ?  The standard FileMenu/ SavePageAs options don't look different. How do I save it as a session and not just a static page of that tab?

3499

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: "Load a new browser instance with X tabs from previously located sites"

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on August 27, 2012, 10:54 AM »

Hmm, good start guys, when I am not quite so giddy I will try your ideas and see what I get.

I was hoping to go to the extra step and have (whatever is in my browser) and do some kind of Save-As, name it, and create a new icon I can name. Does that clarify anything?

3500

Post New Requests Here / IDEA: "Load a new browser instance with X tabs from previously located sites"

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on August 27, 2012, 10:20 AM »

This feels similar to some of the ideas I have already seen, so if it's been done someone can point me. (MilesAhead, your stuff is ringing a bell but this feels just a hair different.)

I Do "multi-batching" of my web pages with X topical tabs on an instance, and then Y more topical tabs on a new instance, producing two items on my task bar consisting of two copies of (currently Firefox but later someone can expand this) with batched tabs according to whatever project I am working on at the moment.

I would like to be able to save something like a Firefox Icon (named as needed) that would then produce one new instance with those tabs loaded. Important: *Not* to call up any existing instance and "smash the new tabs onto it". (That tends to happen on some sites I visit.) So for example when I click the raw Firefox Icon, I get a new instance, so just have the utility have previously analyzed what sites were loaded, then just reload them.