Recent Posts

3776

Living Room / Re: Operation Facebook (will you rejoice?)

« Last post by Stoic Joker on August 14, 2011, 10:59 AM »

Seems like an unjustifiable amount of collateral damage is about to be inflicted on a huge number of undeserving people.  And all in the name of "teaching a lesson" to a large corporation . One which is not going to change anything it does in the wake of it - except possibly push for even greater government regulation of the Web. And likely cooperate even more with government law enforcement than it (allegedly) already does.

So tell me...what do they rationally expect to accomplish by trying to do this? 

-40hz (August 12, 2011, 08:03 AM)

Anon has affectively made a declaration of war against FB. And given their opponent a (roughly) 3 month lead time to backup and fortify as (they see fit) necessary. if apathy prevails...Well...

I've been "warned", and have taken appropriate steps to ensure that all pictures of my granddaughter the wife has in her FB account are also stored in an alternate location. My work is done (se above)...

The corporations have been and will continue to milk people for every ounce of marketable information regardless of any silly concerns about the privacy and well being of the individual. Unless someone gets their attention by making it a less tantalizing an option.

I fail to see any reason to fear a "reprisal" that is the inevitable out come of the current trends. Knowledge is power. It always has been. ...And properly subjugated drones do not have it. Hence the access to information as we have it today, must be stopped. To allow our corporate overlords to gain an appropriate level of control over the thronging (not them and therefore unwashed) masses.

3777

T-Clock / Re: T-Clock 2010 (download)

« Last post by Stoic Joker on August 14, 2011, 10:40 AM »

Hi, I have to admit taht T-Clock is one of my favourite programs (:
Thank you! (:

...however i have strange behavior on w7 x64...
When I run TC it just run (time is shown), but do not respond to any clicks ......... ?
I have to run propeties page manually and kill the process.
After that Explorer died... and restarted.
I had to repeat this to configure anything but there is something that prevent TC's comunication.
Before that i have tried to run 1.01 version of TC but there was similar action. No comunication.
I do not remember how i manage to run 1.01 but it dies after few clicks. :/
What could i do to run TC properly?
(i have tried different compatibility mode but nothing changed
some of them need UAC confirmation some not)

-ersers (August 13, 2011, 04:43 PM)

For reasons that are as of yet unclear, T-Clock does not like to be run as administrator. I'm guessing due to the agressive session isolation in newer versions of Windows. If it is run as Admin, you can (should be able to ) run a Command Prompt as administrator an from the T-Clock directory run Clock.exe /exit to unload it without crashing the shell. T-Clock is developed and tested on Windows 7 Professional x64 ... So it should not require any compatability mode configuration.

Only thing that i start to suspects is Kaspersky Anti Virus software...

-ersers (August 13, 2011, 04:43 PM)

Now that is an intresting (albeit rather odd) prospect. Pleas do let me know if this can be confirmed.

In addition to this i have some ideas that could be useful.
TC is very good tool at displaying handy information in minimalistic way.
To minimize number of simultanously runnig applications this one could show:
- CPU usage as bars (with core division),
- RAM usage/free,
- HDD's temps from smart,
- batery and/or charge time.
configured in settings tab for taskbar and/or desktop surface (look for next idea).

I have read that there is a way to watch timer's counters but more handy could be a bunch of text lines,
displayed directly on desktop with countdown couters showing how much time left (to timers alarm - especially the long one).
Position of this could be configured in settings tab.
The same could be for be for  with cores, ram, hdd temp near clock)

-ersers (August 13, 2011, 04:43 PM)

I'm still on he fence on these, but (they have come up before)I may try it when I can get time to reopen the project.

3778

T-Clock / Re: T-Clock 2010 (download)

« Last post by Stoic Joker on August 14, 2011, 10:35 AM »

Problems with Custom Format.

On my Win7 system, the hours in my custom format seem to depend on the greyed-out checkboxes.

Example: I checked Custom Format, and added this formatting text: h:nn tt \nddd, mm/dd

Problem: it displayed like this:
    15:05 PM
  Sat, 08/13

Workaround: uncheck custom format, check the 12H and AM/PM boxes, re-check custom format. The 12H setting is now greyed-out, but the same formatting text as above now displays like this:
    3:08 PM
  Sat, 08/13

I expected the tt code that shows AM or PM to also change the hours from 24 to 12.

I am using T-Clock 32 v1.0.1

-ThomasMcA (August 13, 2011, 02:32 PM)

Yes that was a rather annoying behavioral quirk (bugg...) in v1.0.1. It has been fixed in the latest build available in the first post of this thread.

3779

T-Clock / Re: T-Clock 2010 (download)

« Last post by Stoic Joker on August 14, 2011, 10:33 AM »

Please support additional clocks. Thanks!

-vaga8ondxwr (August 10, 2011, 04:04 PM)

That is something that I plan to try, but in the interim have you tried using the W +/-X option for alternate timezones?

w +/- x   = Alternate Time Zone – Show current time +/- x hours for display of alternate time zone.

3780

T-Clock / Re: T-Clock 2010 (download)

« Last post by Stoic Joker on August 14, 2011, 10:30 AM »

(Long Shot) If you check properties on the clock.exe and tclock.dll files, do either of them show an UnBlock button?

-Stoic Joker (August 05, 2011, 10:33 AM)

thanks SJ, i'll try this when i get to the Win7 box. i'm guessing this anomaly has more to do with my Win 7 setup than your app. anyway, i'm glad that there is a TClock version for those of us who use 64-bit Windows. thanks for TClock 2010 again..

-lanux128 (August 05, 2011, 05:03 PM)

Any new info (better/worse/no change) on what could be happening with this?

3781

Living Room / Re: Top 10 Survival Tricks for When the Zombie Apocalypse Hits :: Lifehacker

« Last post by Stoic Joker on August 08, 2011, 01:13 PM »

Also, never underestimate the effect of a well made molotov.

-4wd (August 08, 2011, 12:05 PM)

This is a booking photo (I swiped off a news site) of a woman that attacked a guy in Datona Beach with a molotov cocktail.



I can't look at it without laughing (for an hour). Talk about the ultimate poster-child for flat out nutz.

3782

Living Room / Re: Top 10 Survival Tricks for When the Zombie Apocalypse Hits :: Lifehacker

« Last post by Stoic Joker on August 08, 2011, 01:07 PM »

I think a Atchisson Assault Shotgun with 32 round rotary mags would be a better choice.

-4wd (August 08, 2011, 12:05 PM)

That get's my vote!

3783

Living Room / Re: I Find This HILARIOUS~! =D

« Last post by Stoic Joker on August 07, 2011, 01:38 PM »

@Stoic Joker Coming soon live google maps, catch you in the act

-rgdot (August 07, 2011, 01:30 PM)

Oh goody, then I'll finally be rid of the embarrassing the water was cold Satt photo.


Not.

 

3784

Living Room / Re: I Find This HILARIOUS~! =D

« Last post by Stoic Joker on August 07, 2011, 01:26 PM »

Makes me wonder about what passes for entertainment these days: Take the Money & Run

It's a "game show" based around the ability of law enforcement personnel to "break" people and convince them to admit to a completely nonexistent "crime". Which based on watching the pilot... They. Are. Quite. Good. At.

I think we're all being groomed by the system to spy on our neighbors so we're sure to report any "suspicious behavior" to the "proper authorities" so they can "sort out" what the "appropriate action" (if any...) should be.

Frankly I rather miss the Screw the Man attitude of the 70s. When the fuzz was on its own looking for clues... I felt much safer then.

These days I'm forced to wonder (fear) if I'll be arrested for indecent exposure if I show up on Google maps tanning in the buff it my own privacy fenced back yard. That's no way to live.

3785

Living Room / Re: I Find This HILARIOUS~! =D

« Last post by Stoic Joker on August 07, 2011, 09:14 AM »

@SJ - just for the record, nobody's saying anything about "passive acceptance." I faced enough police riot units at otherwise peaceful protests over the years that I'm far from what you'd consider passive or accepting.

-40hz (August 07, 2011, 08:48 AM)

Of that I'm quite certain, I had no intention of implying otherwise. Apologies.


I'd love to see a middle-ground course of action that was making some progress. In the interim I find myself hard pressed to find fault with the antics of this particular fringe's shenanigans.

3786

Developer's Corner / Re: Want to be in Amazon's App Store? Think again!

« Last post by Stoic Joker on August 07, 2011, 08:58 AM »

IMHO, it's never too late to bail out in a business situation. Especially if it's a bad deal you find yourself in the middle of. Like the poker players say: If, at any time, you can't afford to fold your hand and leave the table, you can't afford to be sitting there to begin with.

-40hz (August 06, 2011, 11:49 AM)

Thanks, now I got Kenny Rogers stuck in my head for the day...

Seriously. If you can't walk away from a deal, you're in way over your head.

-40hz (August 06, 2011, 11:49 AM)

While I agree, the game plan as I see it (at the corporate entry level) seems to be leverage everything and bluff like ya got brass balls.

You can always say "no" in a business situation. Pity people don't do it more often. It would go a long way towards reducing the amount of BS that passes for "business as usual."
 

-40hz (August 06, 2011, 11:49 AM)

In a perfect world my friend, in a perfect world...

But the big corporations like to keep the game cut-throat so the player turnover is quick as it's much more fun that way (for them).

3787

Living Room / Re: I Find This HILARIOUS~! =D

« Last post by Stoic Joker on August 07, 2011, 08:39 AM »

Wow.
This looks very bad.

The Renton police/prosecutor's response to those satirical cartoons was bad enough, I thought.
I mean - it looked like they would try to trash the 1st Amendment rights of the cartoons' creator.

I had previously always thought that the US was the last bastion of democracy and freedom.

-IainB (August 07, 2011, 03:36 AM)

You're right, it was. 

All that ended with 9/11 the passage of the Patriot Act and subsequent legislation which has turned the United States into what, for all practical purposes, is now a police state with all real power centered in the Executive Branch. And Legislature and Judiciary be damned if they don't like it.

One more brief rest stop on the way to overt national socialism - except in the USA it will use the Bible for its justification and symbolism.
 

-40hz (August 07, 2011, 07:18 AM)

Agreed. But passive acceptance and line toeing will simple accelerate the demise of our rights as US citizens. So it's nice to see someone fighting back. The meek are welcome to wait for their inheritance of earth ... But the rest of us would like to go kicking and screaming (if nobody minds...) because the "right way" to effect change on this appears to be a dead end.

To me, hacktivism is far closer to pen than sword.

3788

Developer's Corner / Re: Want to be in Amazon's App Store? Think again!

« Last post by Stoic Joker on August 06, 2011, 08:59 AM »

Okay, reread it, doesn't change my opinion. Because it don't make a damn bit of difference if they were told after the fact or just on the cusp of shortly before (a typical just legal enough tactic) it was to late. The point is that the game was/is designed to get-the-ball-rolling fast enough that stopping isn't an option when the rest of the details are clarified. Oh it's not actually 20% in money, it's 20% in in-tangent marketing "value".

It's the same bullshit Carney game that plays out at the heart of the midway. Obfuscate the details and keep'em moving to fast to pullout without just enough embarrassment to make'em do it anyway.

3789

Developer's Corner / Re: Want to be in Amazon's App Store? Think again!

« Last post by Stoic Joker on August 05, 2011, 09:24 PM »

But if a large corporation gives away another authors work, it's a free promotional placement deal.

-Stoic Joker (August 05, 2011, 08:11 PM)

Well, yes. But it wasn't without the developer's consent (emphasis added):

-40hz (August 05, 2011, 09:10 PM)

The developers consented because they thought they were getting paid for it:

At this point, we had a few seconds of excitement as well, had we mis-read the email and really earned $54,800 in one day? We would have done if our public agreement was in place, but we can now confirm that thanks to Amazon’s secret back-door deals, we made $0 on that day.

That's where the lawyers and the alley come into play.

3790

Living Room / Re: Building a home server. Please help, DC!

« Last post by Stoic Joker on August 05, 2011, 09:17 PM »

Hm... (Let me scamper a bit further out on the limb...)

MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) as I understand it is the earliest statistically likely point for a given device to fail.

Now (operating completely without a net...), the odds of a coin landing heads up are 50/50. Which is to say that statistically there is a 50% chance of it coming up heads (I do believe it's safe to interchange them in that fashion ...Yes?).

The fun starts when you look at the odds of a coin coming up heads if it's flipped (oh lets say...) 3 times ... Because it is still 50/50 due to each flip being a separate event with 2 possible outcomes.

So I have a bit of trouble getting my head around the idea that the MTBF of 3 devices, is lower than the MTBF of 1 device. When they all individually have the same odds (statistically 0 until age X) of failure at any one given point in time.

3791

Developer's Corner / Re: Want to be in Amazon's App Store? Think again!

« Last post by Stoic Joker on August 05, 2011, 08:11 PM »

 

So if I give away another authors work, it's piracy.

But if a large corporation gives away another authors work, it's a free promotional placement deal.

Freaking amazing what you can do with a good lawyer ain't it?

They basically got raped in an alley and then received a bill for their attacker's services.

3792

Living Room / Re: Building a home server. Please help, DC!

« Last post by Stoic Joker on August 05, 2011, 06:10 PM »

Keep in mind that when you RAID, you're not addressing at sector or filesystem cluster sizes anymore - you're addressing RAID block sizes. So a 1-byte change change to a file on RAID-5 can end up pretttty expensive - multiple drives as well as large blocks per drive.

-f0dder (August 05, 2011, 05:29 PM)

...sssSo, a 1 bite (file change) write automatically requires/results in (assuming 3 drives) a complete rewrite of both of the corresponding blocks? That does sound a bit pricey. But it does explain why the block size selection is so critically dependent on intended usage during setup.

But I guess you'd have a smart administrator that tries to match FS cluster size, RAID block size and, in the case of SSDs, erase-block sizes to something reasonable.

-f0dder (August 05, 2011, 05:29 PM)

Hm... Any chance you could give an example on the first part before I commit to a yes or no on that?? 

The price, performance, reliability trinity will be keeping SSDs out of my range for a while yet. I just can't justify paying top dollar for cutting edge performance that might grenade if ya look at it funny. Pretty much the same reason I never got into overclocking heavily.

3793

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 Pledge & Early Beta: Found Money

« Last post by Stoic Joker on August 05, 2011, 05:27 PM »

It shouldn't be too hard to get the localized info from Local Machine. T-Clock does it for certain parts of the custom format string. I can send you that section of the code if it'll help.

3794

Developer's Corner / Re: Aviation Business Project using a Flight Simulator

« Last post by Stoic Joker on August 05, 2011, 04:38 PM »

[FYI - I am moving my PHP/MySQL self-teaching initiative to the "Programming School" board.]

-CodeTRUCKER (July 25, 2011, 05:00 PM)

I'm no expert, but I have slapped together a ton of PHP/MySQL stuff ... Let me know if you get stuck.

3795

T-Clock / Re: T-Clock 2010 (download)

« Last post by Stoic Joker on August 05, 2011, 03:53 PM »

yeah but how often are you going to ever want to change that value -- personally i dont know why everyone wouldnt stick to 1 yr view.

-mouser (August 05, 2011, 02:27 PM)

Wow.  Don't assume that however you use it is how other people want it.

-movrshakr (August 05, 2011, 02:38 PM)

It's a fair question that frequently needs to be addressed (probably more often) in software design; can you do something vs. should you do something.

The button idea I'm not real keen on as I spent an insane amount of time trying to get the window to wrap cleanly around the calendar control in all configurations and OSs. But. If I can hook the window's system menu, It might be cool to have flexibility options there.

I have run into occasions where view switching would have been handy as I do seem to have a rather tenuous grasp of time. 12 month view takes up a lot of screen-estate especially if one just wants a quick what day is next Tuesday answer. I also like the 1 month view as it alleviates the need to remember what month it is (like I said tenuous grasp...).


I'll add further investigation of this to the T-Clock to-do list, but all I can promis is it won't be soon. Currently most of my (scant) free time is going into my Got Space? NANY project. ...Which is also currently stalled due to the level of 9-5 Office projects keeping me on the ragged edge of burnout.

3796

Living Room / Re: Why ebooks are bad for you

« Last post by Stoic Joker on August 05, 2011, 01:32 PM »

First you never tried, and now you can't.

-Stoic Joker (August 05, 2011, 01:14 PM)

I could, and it would probably be more effective... once.  And I'm sure if you had an iPad, it would be your flyswatter.

-wraith808 (August 05, 2011, 01:19 PM)

I have no argument with either conclusion. 

3797

Living Room / Re: Why ebooks are bad for you

« Last post by Stoic Joker on August 05, 2011, 01:14 PM »

I guess I'm a heretic, because I've always been a reader, and I don't miss anything about physical books.

-wraith808 (August 05, 2011, 07:24 AM)

Yeah? ...Try swatting a fly with your iPad and get back to me on that.

 

-Stoic Joker (August 05, 2011, 12:04 PM)

I never swatted flies with my physical books

-wraith808 (August 05, 2011, 01:05 PM)

*Shrug* Just goes to show you what happens. First you never tried, and now you can't.

Kinda sad really ... Lost opportunities and all that.

*Sigh*

3798

Living Room / Re: Why ebooks are bad for you

« Last post by Stoic Joker on August 05, 2011, 12:04 PM »

I guess I'm a heretic, because I've always been a reader, and I don't miss anything about physical books.

-wraith808 (August 05, 2011, 07:24 AM)

Yeah? ...Try swatting a fly with your iPad and get back to me on that.

 

3799

Living Room / Re: Building a home server. Please help, DC!

« Last post by Stoic Joker on August 05, 2011, 11:50 AM »

It's not so much the actual read/write is it is the fact that every drive in the array spins up for every read/write - so there's more wear and tear on the drive mechanics rather than the disk platter's surface.

-40hz (August 05, 2011, 10:53 AM)

Okay, now we're getting somewhere (i think).

If you saved a file to a single drive, only it would spin up and be written to (along with the housekeeping of finding sufficient free clusters. On a three element RAID-5, three drives would be spun up to accomplish the same thing, plus need to write additional information (i.e. parity) above and beyond that contained in the actual file itself. That's three times the disk activity plus "parity tax" plus three times the heat generated over a single drive save operation.

-40hz (August 05, 2011, 10:53 AM)

Hm... three times the disk activity regarding spinning up three drives, ok. But three times the i/o I ain't buying (I'm thinking closer to 1.5). The scenario also assumes the drives weren't already spun up for some reason (do SCSI drives ever spin down?).

Energy consumption/heat issues I can see (kinda) but it makes me wonder how much extra is another HDD actually gonna cost in a year (filed under why I hate accountants ) $5?

So when you add in the MTBF for each of the three drives, you have a higher probability of a drive failing all other factors being equal.

-40hz (August 05, 2011, 10:53 AM)

Granted statistics isn't my thing ... But if the MTBF for a given drive is 3,000 hours, then for 3 drives it should still be 3,000 hrs. Or is this just the Murphy's Law More moving parts... argument? <-I'll buy that - as it appeals to my cynical side (hehe)).

And most arrays have more than three drives since that's the least cost effective RAID-5 configuration since you always sacrifice one drive to parity even if that drive doesn't exclusively hold the parity data.

-40hz (August 05, 2011, 10:53 AM)

Funny, I would consider 3 or a multiple thereof to be the best choice for RAID5. As regardless of how many drives you have you're going to sacrifice 33% of the total storage for parity info. Goes back to the less moving parts is better argument. Use a smaller number of larger drives. *Shrug* Having 3 drives just makes the 33% parity "overhead" more obvious, not higher.

Most times, the drives chosen for arrays are built to a higher quality standard than those normally deployed in PCs - so that may even up the failure occurrence rate up between server and non-server drives despite a higher utilization rate.

-40hz (August 05, 2011, 10:53 AM)

I understand where you're going here, but I can't help but think that the design of a Server/Enterprise class drive would sort of have to be predicated on the fact that it would not be getting very much sleep (e.g. spinning down) ... Know what I mean?

3800

T-Clock / Re: T-Clock 2010 (download)

« Last post by Stoic Joker on August 05, 2011, 11:05 AM »

if you are looking at things that could be added -- i'd love to see a full year calendar.

-mouser (August 05, 2011, 10:49 AM)

1, 3, & 12 month views are available for the calendar via the Miscellaneous tab.