Recent Posts

351

Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"

« Last post by Edvard on February 19, 2015, 09:21 PM »

Guess who helped design the new Star Wars' movie lightsaber?
Hint:


Next-generation http/2 protocol is done, promises faster, safer browsing.

352

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

« Last post by Edvard on February 13, 2015, 01:18 AM »

RE: the Keeley compressor - Nice find!  I've always known compression to be a 'secret weapon' for keeping the bass 'in the pocket' sonically (musically depends on the wielder of said four-string weapon).  Never found a really good one though, I'll check it out.

The only compressor for guitar that I've ever been truly impressed with was the Ibanez CP10 Compressor/Sustainor.  With guitar, sometimes the best thing is for it to be a little on the non-subtle side; transparent, YES, but for the brief time I was allowed to play with this thing, the more I became aware that there finally existed a tool that would smooth over the jangling mis-pick or the 'oops, I muted that bend again' that so plagued me in my formative years. 
Now, I'm painfully aware that nothing will EVER replace experience, practice, and some good 'ol fashioned talent, but sometimes, technique be damned, I just wanted to jam and boy did this little pedal let me do it, politely sweeping up the garbage as I went.

Solo demo:

and vs. the Keely C-4:

The CP10 has some serious hang-time and 'smoove' without raising the noise level like so many other compressors-in-a-pedal that I've heard and played. 
Now I just gotta clone that thing...

353

Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"

« Last post by Edvard on February 12, 2015, 12:46 AM »

i know society expects its girls to show diffidence when criticizing boys. but come on!

-Gwen7 (February 11, 2015, 11:53 PM)

Please don't make this a gender issue.  I was over that in high school.

I took issue with Ms. Maltese's critique because she's obviously personally offended about some guy getting attention for his unconventional archery skills, so much so that she had to make a "snarky" video rebuttal.  When I say "snarky" I mean pretty much what 40Hz said.  There's really no reason to say much of what she said without thinking that she was taking the whole thing a little too personally.  Air quotes?  Seriously?  Friend pulling faces to illustrate her frustration?  Really?

I will admit I don't know a whole bunch about archery.  What I DO know is the guy was doing some amazing things that I've NEVER seen any "trick shooter" do, that obviously took a lot of time and practice to hone into a skill, and was obviously inspired by his personal assessment of historical archery techniques.  I DO agree that his said assessment may be quite spotty, and he should probably rein that in a bit, and say a lot less about how "wrong" others may be.  But to go from there to criticize his methods or technique, I think is unfair at best, and downright malicious at worst.  

I admit my post may have appeared emotionally motivated as well (it was quite longer than I thought it would be), and I apologize for that; but in my opinion, she waxed a bit overmuch on trivial things that really didn't need it, and that tends to get my goat.

354

Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"

« Last post by Edvard on February 11, 2015, 11:32 PM »

This Ethernet cable costs $10,000...

You probably didn’t know it, but you’ve been buying garbage Ethernet cables your entire life. Fortunately, there’s finally a better option and it only costs as much as a used car.

http://www.geek.com/...costs-10000-1615326/

355

Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"

« Last post by Edvard on February 11, 2015, 10:27 PM »

Being a casual sport archer, I found the following video by Anna Maltese (archery instructor, bow-maker, tournament competitor, fire archery practitioner) rebutting some of Lars ("fastest archer on the planet") Andersen's recent postulations rather interesting:

-40hz (February 09, 2015, 08:50 AM)

Though I can't vouch for the historicity of any of Mr. Andersen's claims, basically he's shown that he's gotten really good at doing archery stuff that looks like it'd be actually useful in medieval melee.  While Ms. Maltese's snarky 'rebuttal' may be based on stuff she knows a thing or two about, her attitude kinda grated on me.

1- "Forgotten" knowledge.
If there's a big book at the library about how to catch egg noodles in the wild with a gunny sack and some pretzels, but everybody still goes down to the grocer and picks them up for a dollar a pound, it's effectively "forgotten", even though the information is readily available.

2- "Trick shooter"
Damn straight, he's damn tricky, but the things he does look actually useful, and it obviously took a lot of practice and built-up skill to pull off what he does.  Nobody is going to pull an arrow out of their heart and say "Haha, nice trick".  Trick shot or not, if you're hit, he wins.

3- "Plate armor"
She goes on about how he's only pulling 10-13 pounds on the bow, and mocks his demonstration of shooting through chain mail by showing a picture of full dress plate armor.  Lady, how many people do you really think were on the battlefield in full plate?  Though I don't buy the myths that they were very heavy or cumbersome, I don't think they were standard issue to any and all foot soldiers.  I don't recall any medieval woodcuts or tapestries showing fields of armor-clad heroes, but plenty of woolen-knickers-and-chainmail-waistcoats.

4- "Left vs. Right"
She takes issue with him saying he has learned to "shoot arrows from the right side of the bow", then sets up a straw man by saying archers shoot on whatever side their strong eye is.  C'mon Ms. Maltese, you know what he meant.

5- "Bamboo arrows"
She takes issue with him being able to split an arrow by saying he had to use bamboo arrows to perform his amazing "split the arrow as it flies" trick.
o_O
HE SPLIT AN ARROW THAT WAS FLYING MID-AIR IN HIS GENERAL DIRECTION.  It doesn't matter if it was made of bamboo or drinking straws, HE SPLIT AN ARROW IN MID-AIR.
DONE.

EDIT: This guy summed up my thoughts and more in a more precise fashion:

356

Living Room / Re: Programming/Coder humor

« Last post by Edvard on February 08, 2015, 09:39 PM »

My new favorite webcomic:

CommitStrip, the blog relating the daily life of web agencies developers

http://www.commitstrip.com


 

357

Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"

« Last post by Edvard on February 05, 2015, 08:41 PM »

Other long term pranks:
-Saw 1/4 inch off the bottom of someone's cane every couple days or so.  <-- Yep, evil.
-Every day, when no-one is looking or before anybody else shows up, place an oily screw underneath a piece of office equipment, ceiling fan, what have you.
-Replace someone's goldfish with one larger.  Do this every couple days until you eventually replace the goldfish with a carp.

Best mouse prank ever:

358

Living Room / Re: Programming/Coder humor

« Last post by Edvard on February 05, 2015, 08:34 PM »

Best StackOverflow answer.  Ever.

http://stackoverflow...-self-contained-tags

 

359

N.A.N.Y. 2015 / Re: NANY 2015 Release: PasteQuick - yet another pastebin app

« Last post by Edvard on February 03, 2015, 11:39 PM »

!!  New version - 0.3.9  !!
0.3.9 is up and working but I have a few niggling issues with the user interface, especially the difference between Windows and GTK2.  Please download and test as soon as I get some builds up, or load up the source in Lazarus and share your tweaks.

Changelog:

2015 Jan 19: Ver. 0.3.9
-Added drag & drop; drop a text file in the text window and the contents
 are copied in.
-Added "Recall previous paste".
-Added About/Help box.
-LOTS of tweaks to the appearance for GTK2 and Win32.
-Bugfix: When clicking on the 'Username' field in the login box, it always cleared the entry.  Now it only clears the entry when "Username" is in the box.
-Bugfix: When a second instance is started, it would exit with an unhandled exception.
-Bugfix: When the About or Login box was showing, it was possible to open new boxes with the menu.  This would cause the application to crash when the extra windows were closed.  Added code to disable the menu items when the boxes shown, then re-enable when closed.

https://sourceforge....ts/pastequick/files/

360

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

« Last post by Edvard on February 03, 2015, 11:23 PM »

...
Unfortunately, my band had this one particular (very fast) song that one of our guitarists staked out as his showcase piece. He gradually stretched his speed solo beyond our 1-minute limit until it ran as long as he thought he could get away with. He'd just close his eyes and go into the Ego Zone until the rest of us (and sometimes the audience) were on the verge of mutiny.
...

-40hz (February 01, 2015, 09:13 PM)

As a guitarist, I pledged long ago never to do that kind of thing.  It rankled me personally, so why put others through the pain.  Though sometimes I understand restraint to be a very difficult thing under the right circumstances.  
Or, as Steve Albini put it (commenting on the extended intro the the song "Cables" on their live album, 'Pig Pile'):

The silly guitar noises at the beginning go on entirely too long, yeah, yeah. You try restraining yourself when you've got 30,000 watts of PA blowing your genius into a half-million cubic feet of ballroom. Be thankful we didn't break into "House of the Rising Sun" or "Supernaut".

361

Non-Windows Software / Re: Post your Linux/FOSS humor here.

« Last post by Edvard on January 31, 2015, 02:48 PM »

One for the VI/EMACS holy war:

362

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

« Last post by Edvard on January 31, 2015, 12:18 AM »

RE: Slap bass - I remember reading an interview with a famous bass player (I always though it was James Jamerson, but he never played slap) in Guitar Player (?) magazine around 1989, where he said the technique came from a session where the drummer had either broken the head on his snare, or it was stolen, so he just started accentuating the note where the snare would hit, and kept doing it after the drummer got a new snare, because it sounded cool.  

RE: Whipping Post - The best version I ever heard (because it was so twisted) was Daddy Longhead and their take called "The Post".  DL were a bunch of idiots gathered together by ex-Butthole Surfers bassist Jeff Pinkus.  This is what happens when brain-damaged punk rockers attempt to "Jam Band".

RE: Guitar wankers - I never was into "shredding", even being a dedicated metal guy.  I was more impressed by a tight performance that didn't have to devolve into stupid guitarist tricks to stay interesting.  Then again, if you're going to wank, might as well wank like the devil gets your soul if you stop.  Caspar Brotzmann, Helios Creed, Buckethead, Thurston Moore, Gibson Haynes, take a bow.

363

Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"

« Last post by Edvard on January 30, 2015, 09:27 PM »

Artist develops 31 rolls of lost film shot by a soldier in WWII

http://twistedsifter...hot-by-wwii-soldier/

364

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

« Last post by Edvard on January 30, 2015, 06:57 PM »

If you want to clear out a room full of musicians in a minute or less, Mustang Sally will generally do the trick. If there's anybody left at the end of the song, you can follow it up with Johnny B Goode. If they're not gone when that's done, it's time to call an ambulance.

-Vurbal (January 30, 2015, 12:47 PM)

 

@Vubal - thanks so much for that. I've been ROFLMAO all afternoon over that one! Each time I think about it, I crack up all over again.

-40hz (January 30, 2015, 02:27 PM)

That's nothin', I do a mean solo cover of Whipping Post that'll floor you... Ready?  Hello?  Hey guys wh.... ?? 

365

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Syncfusion Essential Studio Suite *FREE*

« Last post by Edvard on January 26, 2015, 11:58 PM »

Sorry, my grammar/sentence structure module was turned off... 
I meant to reference the EULA and the possibility of less-than-convenient licensing terms such as those you listed contained therein.  I couldn't find one just cruising the site.  Has anybody taken a closer look?

366

Non-Windows Software / Re: Post your Linux/FOSS humor here.

« Last post by Edvard on January 26, 2015, 11:50 PM »

^ Hehe, good one.  User Friendly is classic.

Stumbled across Tira Ecol quite a while ago, before there were very many english translations.  There's been no new comics since 2010, and they stepped away from the OS humor towards the end, and really it's more chaff than wheat, but there's still some gold in them hills....

367

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

« Last post by Edvard on January 26, 2015, 09:18 PM »

Speaking of which, have you seen the prices of Tokai and Samick instruments lately?  Some folks got wind of the fact that some big name manufacturers have at some points in time secretly been using those guys to build their "limited-edition" and even some fill-in production runs, so now there's bidding wars on what used to be seen as cheap asian knockoffs.  
So it goes...  

368

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Syncfusion Essential Studio Suite *FREE*

« Last post by Edvard on January 26, 2015, 09:09 PM »

Late to the game, I know, but looks like the website FAQ says the license is valid forever, as long as you don't make over $1 million USD per year.  Can't find anywhere on the site that spells out details in the EULA, so maybe that's the sticky point?

369

Non-Windows Software / Re: *NIX: Commands / software to verify partition backups / clones?

« Last post by Edvard on January 18, 2015, 08:35 PM »

Ah, hadn't realized you were using an all-hardware solution.  In that case, checksums should do just fine.

370

Non-Windows Software / Re: *NIX: Commands / software to verify partition backups / clones?

« Last post by Edvard on January 17, 2015, 02:52 PM »

What tool are you using to do the backup?  Good ol' Rsync? Cp?  

In the case of Rsync, use the --log-file option to keep a log of all transfers and then grep the log for incompletes.

[Select]

rsync --log-file=$HOME/rsync.log [file syncing bits here]

 
In the case of cp, you could use crccp (part of the crcsum tools) from  here:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/crcsum/
which will do CRC hash checks on all copy operations.

... or use ZFS 
https://clusterhq.co.../state-zfs-on-linux/

371

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

« Last post by Edvard on January 10, 2015, 09:12 PM »

372

Living Room / Re: Donating to EFF

« Last post by Edvard on January 10, 2015, 01:04 PM »

How do you know they didn't get those stamps donated to them so they could do this for people?

-Stephen66515 (January 10, 2015, 03:03 AM)

The stamp is not an actual stamp, but an imprint stating the price as well.

-eleman (January 10, 2015, 04:21 AM)

Yes, but how do you know those costs are not being covered by a Third Party?

-Stephen66515 (January 10, 2015, 04:26 AM)

Common things occur commonly, uncommon things do not. When you hear hoofbeats, don't think of zebras.

-eleman (January 10, 2015, 05:22 AM)

Now that has got to be one of my absolute favorite posts.

I have absolutely no idea what it means. But I love it!

P.S. Sould I hear hoofbeats...I'm most likely hallucinating. (I live in the suburbs y'see.)  

-40hz (January 10, 2015, 08:17 AM)

I got it right away.  Roughly analogous to "If it quacks like a duck...".
Nice one eleman, I'm going to have to steal it one day.  

373

N.A.N.Y. 2015 / Re: NANY 2015 Release: PasteQuick - yet another pastebin app

« Last post by Edvard on January 09, 2015, 12:05 AM »

How do you build from source?

Do you use lazbuild?

-ewemoa (January 08, 2015, 06:32 AM)

Yes, the one thing about Lazarus source is that you need to have a working copy of Lazarus to build with.  I think the devs were working on making it so you only have to download FreePascal, the LCL and Lazbuild, but I don't know how far that got.
As far as building with Lazarus, just open pastequick.lpi with Lazarus, it will ask if you want to load the project (say yes) and hit the compile button.
Or lazbuild pastequick.lpi works too.

There are no 64-bit binaries (Win64) for download that I could find.

-Deozaan (January 08, 2015, 04:57 PM)

Nope.  But I can put some up as soon as I can.  I figured 32-bit binaries for both Windows and Linux would be more universal, and people could build their own with Lazarus if they wanted/needed other options.

374

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

« Last post by Edvard on January 07, 2015, 08:18 PM »

Naughty Number Nine - one of the best pieces (and there were many good ones) by Bob Dorough for the Schoolhouse Rock educational cartoon series. IMHO this is one of the best old-style blues numbers ever.

-40hz (January 06, 2015, 08:52 PM)

Heartily agree! 
Such memories...

375

Living Room / Re: Movies or films you've seen lately

« Last post by Edvard on January 05, 2015, 10:48 PM »

Yeah, that one.  And I didn't know that.  And Monsieur Reeves still dropped those lines like a dead fish, regardless.

Y'know, I liked him in "Prince of Pennsylvania", "River's Edge" and yes, I liked him in "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure", forgot he was even in "Dangerous Liaisons" and "Dracula", never saw another  movie he was in besides "My Own Private Idaho"  (NO, I haven't seen "The Matrix"... because reasons).  He seemed to have so much charisma playing lower-key characters but when he is cast for lead roles, I dunno, something just goes... missing.  It's like if the movie is good, it's in spite of him.

Sorry.  Keanu rant over.  Haven't seen any other movies lately.