Recent Posts

3751

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

« Last post by Deozaan on February 02, 2014, 06:07 PM »

I feel used.     There's another David Thorne scenario on page 1 of this very thread.  Reply #1.  

Apparently this jerk likes seeing his own crap published.  Sounds familiar... some how.  

-crabby3 (January 31, 2014, 02:49 PM)

Nah, don't feel used. *We're* the ones publishing it here!

And the Spider one *is* the viral one. It's this new one that's more rare.

-TaoPhoenix (January 31, 2014, 10:08 PM)

Yes, this is the silly humor thread but, I dislike being duped.

Thanks for bringing me back to the reality of DC.  Where some replies are genuine and others are not.  Readers choice.

With this in mind... how can anyone presume they're getting semi-accurate info about anything ... .

Including any *free software* that's offered.  No wonder it's free... you could end up more screwed than you were before.
But hey... it's free... UAYOR... sucker.

Jokers in this thread are going to be jerkers elsewhere.  Guess there's no such thing as Donation Refunds.  

-crabby3 (February 01, 2014, 07:40 AM)

What are you going on about? David Thorne writes humorous articles. They're almost certainly not true, but that doesn't make them any less funny. Mr. Thorne didn't publish his own stuff in this thread or say that those things really happened. Two minutes of research (that was already done for you, if you'd just read the replies in this thread) would tell you so:

It might not really be true at all.
David Thorne and 27b/6 is a known site which produced several of these kinds of "memes".

Notice the date, this one is 1.5 years old.

-TaoPhoenix (January 25, 2014, 06:23 AM)

and

I sort of hope it IS, but even if it isn't, it's still pretty funny. 

-oblivion (January 25, 2014, 08:17 AM)

Here is his main page, but it doesn't look like he has added anything for a year.
http://www.27bslash6.com/

-TaoPhoenix (January 25, 2014, 10:12 PM)

Someone else thought it was funny and posted it here. How does that in any way reflect poorly on Mr. Thorne? How does that reflect poorly on DonationCoder or the software being offered/discussed here? And how does that make you feel used for having been given the opportunity to enjoy the humor posted in a "silly humor" thread?

3752

General Software Discussion / Re: CrossLoop – Simple Secure Screen Sharing

« Last post by Deozaan on February 02, 2014, 05:55 PM »

I just tried to use CrossLoop to help out my sister. I instructed her to go to the website to download and install the software to her PC. But CrossLoop is dead.

To support our rapidly growing AVG CloudCare offering, AVG Technologies in 2012 acquired some of CrossLoop’s assets, including the service provided at the www.crossloop.com website. AVG has made the business decision to no longer provide the remote support and management tools available through the CrossLoop website.

Effective today, January 31, 2014, the CrossLoop website at www.crossloop.com and related products and services are no longer available (pursuant to the terms of use available at http://www.crossloop.../termsofservice.html). This announcement applies to any and all versions of the product, including paid and free releases. It will no longer be possible to register for a user account, or purchase or access the CrossLoop website, services or products.

AVG is providing a full refund on valid, active subscriptions. If you feel you are entitled to a refund but have not received one by February 28, 2014, please notify us at [email protected].

If you wish to contact us directly with regards to your account, or for any other questions, please contact us at [email protected].

We thank you for being a customer.

-http://www.crossloop.com/

I guess I can uninstall it now. . .

3753

Developer's Corner / Re: Koding.com and the great 100TB giveaway

« Last post by Deozaan on January 31, 2014, 01:47 AM »

Feel free to remove my referral link from this thread. I doubt I'll make use of the extra space. If you'll use it, feel free to get the referral bonus. (c:

3754

Living Room / Re: Happy New Year! 马年大吉！

« Last post by Deozaan on January 31, 2014, 01:44 AM »

Happy new year to all!

3755

Developer's Corner / Re: Koding.com - Free PHP web hosting with your own domain name and much more!

« Last post by Deozaan on January 30, 2014, 12:27 PM »

NECRO THREAD ARISE!

Kodingen has rebranded to just Koding.com and are having a storage space giveaway.

If you join using my referral link, we both get an extra 1GB of storage space:

EDIT: Wraith created a new thread here:

https://www.donation...ndex.php?topic=37112

3756

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

« Last post by Deozaan on January 29, 2014, 04:24 PM »

You got your info right, but the names backwards.

David Thorne is from Australia, and the author of the piece. Justin is the neighbor with the bright light shining at David's window.

3757

Non-Windows Software / Re: Steam: now has working beta of in-home streaming capability for games and apps

« Last post by Deozaan on January 29, 2014, 02:02 AM »

Sounds awesome!

I get the impression from the video that they've never used Steam before. They're pointing out some features as if they were new to Steam, or specifically for the streaming, but that's how things have worked on Steam for years.

But very cool!

3758

N.A.N.Y. 2014 / Re: NANY 2014 Release: Blasteroids

« Last post by Deozaan on January 29, 2014, 01:12 AM »

Is there a way of having the speed accelerate at the game progresses? (Sounds complex).

-tomos (January 27, 2014, 06:52 PM)

Yes, I suppose that is possible. But I can't say I'm particularly fond of that idea. (Sounds complex to me, too.   )

Otherwise I'd say a solution could be more bullets - and lots of 'em
Currently
1) you get a pulse of bullets, then a pause before the next pulse - this pause is the biggest killer in the current version...
2) if you rotate quickly, no bullets fire - not 100% sure here, but *think* it would be good if firing continued

A faster rate of bullets would be good too imo.

-tomos (January 27, 2014, 06:52 PM)

1. IMO it would be too easy if you had a lot more bullets. But maybe 2-3 extra would be useful.
2. I *think* it's a good thing for it to stop firing if you're turning fast/far. Otherwise you'll shoot your bullets and when you finally get to pointing the direction you wanted to shoot at, you'll be out of bullets and that asteroid you were aiming for will crush you. But maybe if the turret could rotate at a faster rate, it would solve this problem.

What do you think about that?

3759

Non-Windows Software / Re: ArsTechnica article on next-gen filesystems: Bitrot and Atomic COWs

« Last post by Deozaan on January 27, 2014, 06:13 PM »

This sounds really cool. As someone who doesn't know a whole lot about it, it sounds a lot like how DVCS (e.g., git or Mercurial) work, but for the entire filesystem. I want it now! (c:

3760

N.A.N.Y. 2014 / Re: NANY 2014 Release: Blasteroids

« Last post by Deozaan on January 24, 2014, 01:54 PM »

It's a lot faster - is that because I gave the impression it was getting easy ;-)

-tomos (January 24, 2014, 03:36 AM)

Essentially, both the points and the speed of asteroids were based on the same value. So when I fixed the smaller asteroids not giving you as many points as was originally intended, I also fixed them not being as hard as originally intended. Though I may need to tweak the speeds a bit if they're too fast. Or maybe increase the rotation speed of your turret so you can react more quickly to a small asteroid coming up behind you. We'll see what happens based on feedback from players.

3761

N.A.N.Y. 2014 / Re: NANY 2014 Release: Blasteroids

« Last post by Deozaan on January 24, 2014, 02:59 AM »

I just released a new version of the game. I'll post an announcement on my blog after I've gotten some sleep. (c:

More info, link to downloads, or webplayer version: http://blasteroids.deozaan.com/

v1.140123.1

• Now available on Android with achievements, leaderboards, and cloud saves when signed into Google Play.
• Fixed points not being awarded as intended. Higher scores should be easier to obtain.
• Fixed a problem where statistics were not being loaded properly. Unfortunately, changes mean all stats are reset.
• Menu touched up for bigger buttons.
• Added link to NANY 2014 in Credits. (How did I forget this?)
• Changed "Game Over" music.
• Volumes now default to quieter setting.
• Other minor bugfixes and improvements.

The original post in this thread has been updated with this information.

3762

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

« Last post by Deozaan on January 23, 2014, 04:23 AM »

The question is, do they taste real?

3763

Living Room / Re: No More Candy

« Last post by Deozaan on January 23, 2014, 02:15 AM »

An actual lawyer who (as I understand) works primarily for Indie game devs for a living, Mona Ibrahim, comments on the whole situation:

This seems to happen a lot in my industry, the game space. And while I love you all these knee-jerk witch hunts are a bit tiresome. So to get to the meat of the problem: Candy Crush Saga is still a fully operational, commercially successful game, and King, as its lawful publisher/developer, has a vested interest in protecting its IP portfolio to the extent required to prohibit infringement.

Likewise, The Banner Saga is a beautifully rendered and well-designed product that likewise has an interest in protecting its IP. In other words, I do not think there is a “bad guy” here. We simply have two players in the IP landscape. Being on “Team Candy” or “Team Banner” does not make you any more or any less “legit” from a legal perspective.

With that being said, we have an instinctive desire to protect “legitimate”, “independent”, and “serious” games over the “casual” game publishers in the market. This is all well and good if that’s what you want to champion, but the law doesn’t play favorites for the sake of your preferences. Nor should it.

-http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/MonaIbrahim/20140122/209098/Candy_CrushBanner_Saga_My_Brief_Two_Cents.php

Read the rest on Candy Crush/Banner Saga: My Brief Two Cents.

She even started a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything):

The Great "TM" Saga: AMA

Hi everyone!

A few folks on twitter pinged me regarding the Candy Crush Saga/Banner Saga TM issue, and as I can't actually answer most questions people have there due to response length constraints, I thought I'd open up a discussion here where people can ask what they want and I'll answer what I can. As a point of reference I'm a video game attorney based in Seattle. I represent both established and not-so-established game developers and publishers. I also represent a number of composers, artists, and individuals who bring their own unique skill sets to the game space. Incidentally, I also managed the TM practice at my old firm, so this is a bit of an old hat for me.

Ask whatever you'd like and I'll do my best to give you as much information as possible without flying too far into hypothetical land!

-http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/1vvvkh/the_great_tm_saga_ama_with_monaibrahim_game/

3764

Living Room / Re: No More Candy

« Last post by Deozaan on January 22, 2014, 06:22 PM »

They've also trademarked (or are trying to trademark) the word "Saga" so they're shutting down anyone who uses "saga" in their title:

If you’ve been following King’s trademark sideshow this week (and we know you have), there have been two interesting developments in the last 24 hours that you already know about. Last night, word broke that King was trying to use its IP law muscle to prevent Stoic Studio from using the word SAGA in The Banner Saga. And then this morning, King issued a statement responding to these allegations.

This is where things get a little weird, because their response was basically “we’re not trying to stop them from using the name, we’ve just filed a formal opposition with the US Trademark Office that says otherwise.” More to the point, they said that if they don’t exercise their claim in every instance than the mark on words like SAGA will lose its potency, and they’ll have a hard time when it comes to fighting the real targets of their IP theft.
 
It’s an argument that’s in complete contradiction with a statement they released earlier in the day. “We don’t enforce against all uses… some are legitimate of course, we would not ask App developers who use the term legitimately to stop doing so.”

-http://www.gamezebo.com/news/2014/01/22/banner-saga%E2%80%99s-saga-saga-stoic-studio-has-responded-king%E2%80%99s-statement

Definition of Saga: A long story of heroic achievement, esp. a medieval prose narrative in Old Norse or Old Icelandic.

The Banner Saga is a game about Vikings. It uses the word correctly.

Candy Crush Saga, or Pet Rescue Saga, or any other game made by King.com does not use the word correctly.

3765

Living Room / Re: Cute jokes' thread

« Last post by Deozaan on January 21, 2014, 07:21 PM »

the lifeguard was in advance already fulfilling every one of the doctor's recommendations, but that made him sick ~ the cure already made him the patient.

-Curt (January 21, 2014, 02:48 AM)

I'm not sure where you got that from. What about being a lifeguard would cause bronchitis? Without the context of what caused the ailment, or without hearing the rest of the doctor's recommendation for the cure, how were we supposed to know that? Maybe he was supposed to spend his summer in a "marine place" but not actually get in the water.

The main point of that joke is the arrogance of the doctor and his useless therapy.

-Giampy (January 21, 2014, 07:24 AM)

To me it sounds the patient was indeed very rude and arrogant. The doctor asked nicely if he could finish, but the patient kept interrupting him before he could finish his instructions.

3766

Living Room / No More Candy

« Last post by Deozaan on January 21, 2014, 02:25 PM »

I'm probably breaking the law in making this post, since candy^tm is now trademarked.

While the joys of Candy Crush Saga have only reached the PC in the form of a Facebook app, the implications of one of the worst decisions by the US trademark office affect developers on all platforms. They have, as of last week, decided it’s perfectly reasonable for owners King to trademark the word "candy". And they’re trying to get “saga” too.

So it is that Gamezebo reports developers are now receiving threats that they must remove their apps or games if they have had the temerity to use this oh-so rare word in their product name. It’s the "edge" fiasco all over again, except this time with actual legal muscle behind it.

-http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/01/21/stealing-candy-from-babies-king-embrace-the-aristocracy/

What to do?

Candy Jam
Ooops sorry, 'Sweet Jam'
Fight trademark trolling - make a game.

Why?
Because trademarking common names is ridiculous and because it gives us an occasion to make another gamejam :d

Rules:
Make a game involving candies.
Consider using the word "candy" several times, also "scroll", "memory", "saga" and "apple" might give bonus points.

Deadline:
3rd of February

-http://thecandyjam.com/

3767

Living Room / Re: Cute jokes' thread

« Last post by Deozaan on January 21, 2014, 01:59 AM »

Patient: "Doctor, I was trying to say that I am a lifeguard..."

-Giampy (June 03, 2013, 11:02 AM)

I don't get it.

3768

Living Room / Re: email provider for multiple accounts

« Last post by Deozaan on January 21, 2014, 01:57 AM »

or an alternative email (which I don't want to give)

-kalos (January 12, 2014, 04:55 PM)

http://mailinator.com/

-Deozaan (January 14, 2014, 02:12 PM)

unfortunately these are blocked like hell

-kalos (January 18, 2014, 03:38 PM)

Even the alternate domains?

Did you know...
Hundreds of other domains point at mailinator too... Here's one now
@mailtothis.com
All email that goes to that domain ends up at Mailinator!   No sorry, we don't give out the full list - that would be dumb. But, you can point your OWN domain to mailinator too! Read more!

3769

Living Room / Re: Net neutrality is dead. Bow to Comcast and Verizon, your overlords (AKA DOOOOOM)

« Last post by Deozaan on January 19, 2014, 02:26 AM »

There was a post about this on The Verge, but the real beauty was in the comments:

There's a great discussion/argument between AntarcticOutpost and (eventually) Joao Sousa starting about here:

You can’t have everyone in the world simultaneously streaming Netflix, just as you can’t have everyone in the world simultaneoudly charging their electric car.

Actually, yes you can, and yes you can. Here’s why:

For this scenario, I’m going to use Pandora as the example of the content producer. Donno why, probably just because I feel like it.

So you and Pandora are on opposite sides of the street. You and Pandora are both already paying for your electricity, plumbing, etc. everything you need to make sure you can run at optimal efficiency. Now you want to connect to each other. Here is where your ISP comes in. You want to connect to Pandora, yes, and consume their content, but the flow is not one way. For every request there is an ack. Pandora also wants to connect to you.

So Pandora, obviously, being a big company and all that, wants to buy a corporate grade bandwidth pipe, with Gigabits of bandwidth. They pay the monthly fee for that, and with that money the ISP upgrades their infrastructure to connect them up to their network. But that’s just one half of the equation. You also pay for your own, somewhat lesser of course, connection to that network. Let’s imagine the comparison between these bandwidths:

Pandora You
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
|

So of course, whatever bottleneck occurs is because you haven’t paid enough for more bandwidth.

Now imagine suddenly that 5 more people want to connect up to Pandora. So the ISP uses their monthly fees to hook up the requisite routers and switches to make sure that they can all connect up to Pandora. But, whoops, now Pandora does not have enough bandwidth to provide them all with full-speed service for every customer (assuming every customer uses the maximum bandwidth). That’s actually Pandora’s problem. They need to pay more for more bandwidth.

Obviously things change as we move away from simple “across the street” analogies. However, the principle does not change. Every person pays to hook up to each other via their monthly ISP fee. This fee goes into expanding the infrastructure such that it can support at the very least that bandwidth connection to the rest of the network, if not more.

Want to see some proof that what I’m talking about is not actually happening? Try looking at the massive profit margins that these ISPs are generating. I’m not the first to point this out either. Further proof? The fact that when Google Fiber comes into town with Gigabit bandwidth, suddenly and almost instantaneously, competing ISPs are capable of transmitting at up to 3x the speed they were currently providing for no additional cost to the consumer.

The evidence is overwhelming. Data caps don’t make sense. ISPs are creating an artificial scarcity of bandwidth and then attempting to commoditize the flow of data to justify their lack of infrastructure investment.

-http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/6/5280566/att-sponsored-data-bad-for-the-internet-the-economy-and-you#208181167

There's some back and forth and more explanation and debate. I thought it was a good discussion.

And that bit near the end where he mentioned suddenly transmitting 3x the speed for no additional cost? I recently experienced that myself. I was paying $50/mo to my Cable company for 5 Mbps down and 0.5 Mbps upload speeds. For years it's been those speeds and those prices, and that the only rate/plan they offered. Just last Fall a DSL provider in the area installed some fiber cables and offered me a deal of about 15Mbps down & 1Mbps upload speeds for about $40/mo for the first sixth months, at which time it would go up to somewhere in the $60s I think.

So I called my Cable company and asked them to suspend my account (vacation hold) for 3 months so I could test out the new ISP without cancelling my current one. And after a month I felt satisfied with the speeds and reliability of my new ISP, so I called the Cable company to cancel my account. They told me I could get 50Mbps download speeds for $50/mo or I could get 15 Mbps download speeds (which is what the competing ISP offered) for only $35/mo (which was a.

So how come they could suddenly provide me with 3x the speed for $15 less, or 10x the speed for the same price I'd been paying them for years just because a new ISP came into town?

3770

N.A.N.Y. 2014 / Re: NANY 2014 Release: Blasteroids

« Last post by Deozaan on January 19, 2014, 02:02 AM »

Nicely done! I don't know if I've gotten a score that high in that release. I may not even have gotten that high of a score in the development version which grants many more points per asteroid! I think you're probably a pro.

3771

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

« Last post by Deozaan on January 19, 2014, 01:58 AM »

It will never become popular, it isn't washable!

-Arizona Hot (January 17, 2014, 07:58 PM)

What about edible underwear?

-wraith808 (January 18, 2014, 04:34 PM)

Ah, but the fashion-wise (and cheese connoisseurs) know that when it gets old enough, it will turn bleu.

3772

General Software Discussion / Re: What's thrashing my hard disk?

« Last post by Deozaan on January 19, 2014, 01:56 AM »

Don't worry. It's just the NSA cataloging your hard disks.

3773

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

« Last post by Deozaan on January 18, 2014, 12:20 PM »

Looks like bunk to me. I pretty much never write a letter the same way twice. (e.g., sometimes my Os are open, sometimes they're closed.) I can't be bothered to get a certain style down.

And other than writing a check or jotting down a few things on a sticky note (usually numbers; for programming), I'm not sure when was the last time I really wrote anything in my own hand (not counting typing). . .

3774

N.A.N.Y. 2014 / Re: NANY 2014 Release: Blasteroids

« Last post by Deozaan on January 18, 2014, 03:24 AM »

Well got my highest score in a while -- but the new scoring wasnt implemented yet in the online version.

-tomos (January 17, 2014, 04:35 AM)

Yeah, the fixed high score stuff isn't available just yet. I've got a niggling issue with something I'm still working on (for the Android port) and then I'll update itch.io (and the web player version) with all the downloads. That will probably be sometime next week, but definitely before the end of the month.

Will have to download the version for windows (is a donation preferable via dc or through the itch.io site - or is it all the one?)

-tomos (January 17, 2014, 04:35 AM)

If you download/purchase through itch.io and create an account, you get the convenience of having the game linked to your account for easy future download. But as far as receiving the payment is concerned, it's pretty much all the same to me between DC and itch.io. They both take no cut of the donation/payment, so it's only the relatively small PayPal fees that are taken out of whatever you choose to donate.

3775

N.A.N.Y. 2014 / Re: NANY 2014 Release: Blasteroids

« Last post by Deozaan on January 16, 2014, 09:46 PM »

As I've been working on the Android port for this game, I realized that somewhere along the way I accidentally removed the part that made smaller asteroids harder, which affected the number of points you got for them.

So now that I've fixed that, you'll find it is a lot easier to get higher scores on earlier levels (the highest score you could have after clearing level 1 used to be 78, now it's 258), but the overall difficulty may have been increased a bit.

Scores

Without dying, at the beginning of each level I had the following score:

Level 1: 0
Level 2: 258
Level 3: 1290
Level 4: 3612
Level 5: 7740
Level 6: 15585