Recent Posts

3801

General Software Discussion / Re: Help me to understand .mp3 naming issue on a DVD player reading from a USB stick

« Last post by superboyac on June 14, 2010, 08:47 AM »

Man, I really hate how most of those dvd/cd/boombox players implement any kind of mp3 support.  I've gone to great lengths to not rely on any of that standalone stuff.  Everything that deals with media in my house is a computer.  The TV is connected to the computer.  Any music that I listen to will be playing on a computer.  Sure, it means I need to buy wireless air-mice, it takes some setting up.  Is it overkill?  Maybe.

The only place I use media that is not computerized yet is in my car.  In my car I use my mp3 player.  I thought about building a custom pc for the car as well, but that was too hard for me.

Just like I talk about in the apple threads, the furstrating part of those standalone devices is always the interface.  Sure, they add mp3 support on a boombox, but it's a pain to use.  How do you skip tracks easily?  how do you make a playlist?  How do I have to put the files on my cd/dvd/usb stick?  With a computer, it's just drag and drop.  You can play it with whatever software you want.  Any problem can be fixed.  But it is more work initially.

3802

Living Room / Re: 20 years later, the movie "Total Recall" still kicks butt

« Last post by superboyac on June 14, 2010, 08:39 AM »

When I was a kid, i wasn't allowed to watch rater R movies.  But at the time, my aunt was married to this American guy, and he had this movie.  So when I was sleeping over one day, I watched it.  Needless to say, I used to think Sharon Stone was HELLA HOT in that movie...working out in her leotard.  Man, i thought that was the hottest thing I had seen at the time.

3803

Living Room / Re: 20 years later, the movie "Total Recall" still kicks butt

« Last post by superboyac on June 13, 2010, 06:22 PM »

You make me wish like I had three hands...

3804

Living Room / Re: Has SEO ruined the web?

« Last post by superboyac on June 11, 2010, 08:47 PM »

I am not able to follow what is happening here.  i don't even remember what my original question was.

3805

Find And Run Robot / Re: Links to Review and Comments - Add yours!

« Last post by superboyac on June 11, 2010, 06:47 PM »

um...

i think the ilovefreesoftware.com site has been around for quite a while and has been a friend to dc for a while.
here's one on our nany event: http://www.ilovefree...t-donationcoder.html

so consider me confused.

-mouser (June 11, 2010, 05:05 PM)

I'm not saying I'm even close to 100% sure.  I'm just suspicious, that's all.  I'm sure if I find out the whole story, it will make sense.  Any friend of DC is a friend of mine!

3806

Find And Run Robot / Re: Links to Review and Comments - Add yours!

« Last post by superboyac on June 11, 2010, 05:00 PM »

Nice review here today, and a cool site as well 

http://www.ilovefree...ent-for-launchy.html

(see attachment in previous post)

-mouser (December 03, 2009, 03:05 PM)

AHHH!!  Ok, this site also seems suspicious.  it is almost the same website as the other one above.  It ALSO uses the same theme that I use!!  The article is different.  They use one of the same pictures that I use on mine.  I'm telling you, these reviews are NOT written out of the goodness of their hearts...at least, I don't think so.  i swear there is some kind of ulterior motive taking place here.

3807

Find And Run Robot / Re: Links to Review and Comments - Add yours!

« Last post by superboyac on June 11, 2010, 04:45 PM »

One more comment, sorry!
This reminds me of a very strange situation that happened to me in 9th grade.  There was this guy that sat next to me in my biology class.  Back then, i would draw a lot.  I would mostly draw comics.  Well, one day, I created my own superhero called "Smasher".  Well, I was showing it to this guy.  Then I forgot about it, and some time later, i found out that I had lost the drawing.  A few days, this guy comes back and gives me back my drawing that he had sort of stolen.  But then, he showed me a drawing that he had made.  It was an almost exact copy of my drawing!  it was the weirdest thing.  We were not close friends or anything.  we didn't even really talk about drawing or anything.  He just took my drawing one day, and came back with his own.  it was all very silent and strange.  I know, you guys are thinking that I should have been flattered.  but I wasn't.  it was just weird.  I had no idea this guy was into comics, or drawing, or anything like that.  his name was Kevin, I think.


OK, now I remembered another story.  This time I was flattered.  Later in high school, I would draw Calvin and Hobbes drawings.  i would take my favorite scenes and blow them up.  I would take forever and be very meticulous, no tracing, all by hand.  back then, my little sister (6 years younger) was always like my shadow.  She liked following me and doing all the things I did.  And like the typical idiot brother, I was always annoyed by it and treated her rather badly, in my opinion.  I feel horrible about this whenever I think about it.  Anyway, one day I can home from school and saw that my sister had attempted her own Calvin and Hobbes drawings based on my copies!  So for a moment, my heart was a little softened.  Actually, it almost makes me tear up thinking about it now.  The drawing was very crude and practically unrecognizable as Calvin and Hobbes, other than the colors and Calvin's striped shirt.  But the idea of here sitting at her desk trying to copy her older brother, I don't know, it's just touching.  we would fight all the time.

3808

Find And Run Robot / Re: Links to Review and Comments - Add yours!

« Last post by superboyac on June 11, 2010, 04:26 PM »

Hey!  What the hell!  That guy totally ripped off my review!  Same pictures and everything!  What the hell is going on!  This is the same thing as I was talking about in my thread about SEO ruining the web.  I call BS on this review. 

-superboyac (June 08, 2010, 08:55 AM)

oops, sorry about that. shall i edit my post and remove the links? please advise.. otoh, no wonder it looked familiar..

-lanux128 (June 08, 2010, 09:02 AM)

Ok, this is weird and interesting.  This guy's site is obviously way more popular than mine.  Now, his article about FARR is not the same as mine, but he's using my pictures.  OK, fine.  I copy pictures around the web also.  But even though his words are different, the review has an eerily similar feel.  I think my review is way better, and you can tell it is done more genuinely or with more love, whatever you want to call it.   you know your moms always say they cook with love?  Like that...

More coincidences?  Or is something fishy?
This guy's website uses the EXACT same theme that I use (or was using until a couple of weeks ago).  It's by this author Justin Tadlock, and the the theme is called Hybrid (for Wordpress) and the specific child theme is called Hybrid News.  Coincidence?  i don't know.  But I'm always suspicious of these things because of the massive amounts of scraping/copying that goes on in the web world today.  And the fact that this guy's site is way more popular than mine makes me even more suspicious.  Anyway, it seems strange to me, that's all.

3809

Living Room / Re: Has SEO ruined the web?

« Last post by superboyac on June 11, 2010, 04:02 PM »

Man, Paul, you always have like twenty different thoughts going on at the same time.  it's hard to follow what you're trying to say.

Anyway, let's put aside all the technicalities.  i think it's pretty clear what I'm trying to say, whether or not I'm using the exact correct words or not.

So here is what I'm talking about:  Fine, I will accept that a computer algorithm like Google has a hard time distinguishing my software reviews from the hundreds of meaningless software scraping sites (I don't care if I'm using the term incorrectly).  But when you go to my site (and if you are a somewhat experienced internet user), you can tell almost immediately that my articles are my own and unique to my site.  Now, if you go to download.com or one of the more worthless sites like freedownloadscenter.com, you can tell immediately that this is a piece of crap software site that is not going to be of much help or use.

But here is what I say to that.  Baloney.  Google has shown that it could do some mind-blowing stuff, to the point of virtually mind reading the user.  So if they really wanted to, they can easily fix the problem of being able to distinguish sites like mine from the stupid scraper sites.  So I don't buy the excuse that Google can't distinguish the sites.  i don't buy it at all.

I mean, think about it.  In Photoshop CS5, they've added the unbelievably amazing "Content-Aware Fill" feature, where the computer will actually seamlessly fill in parts of a photo by analyzing the rest of the photo.  It can automatically remove trees, remove background clouds, etc.  it's quite shocking...it floored me.  If we can do that with computer technology, I'm certain Google can fix all these SEO things I'm talking about.

But they won't because they don't want to.  Why don't they want to?  I don't know for sure, but it definitely has to do with money.  SEO is about search results.  There is cutthroat competition to be at the top of these search results.  How do you get there?  Ads, clicking, all that stuff that we hate.  But all that stuff is what makes Google 99% of their billions of dollars.  So there is absolutely no motivation for Google to do something to that system which will drastically reduce their profits.  Now, it's not Google's fault per se.  it's the fault of all the scraper site authors who are taking advantage of the rules Google has set in place.  But if Google really wanted to, they could fix it.  Just like antivirus companies can constantly and instantly update their databases as new threats emerge.

So it's not that Google can't fix it...it's that they won't fix it.

3810

Living Room / Re: Has SEO ruined the web?

« Last post by superboyac on June 11, 2010, 03:43 PM »

I think the definitions are getting kind of muddied up here. Scraping sites (as opposed to "web scraping" in a generic sense, which is just a technique that *scraping sites* use) are pretty much universally bad because they get their content in whole or in large part from other sites, almost exclusively without permission, thus being not only a duplication of other content, but also a copyright issue:
http://en.wikipedia....rg/wiki/Scraper_site
This is different than a content aggregator like Google News which links back to its sources, or a directory system like Open Directory, or a search engine like Bing. Scrapers are pretty much virtueless.

- Oshyan

-JavaJones (June 11, 2010, 03:35 PM)

Thanks JJ, that's a great description.

3811

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Pledge: DCDisplay

« Last post by superboyac on June 11, 2010, 12:08 PM »

Very nice!  I used to use Cdisplay.  Then I found another, more polished program called Comicrack.  Comicrack is great.  Full featured, organizes your comics also.  You can say it's more bloated than CDisplay, also.  But CDisplay is very very minimalist, which I like also.

Anyway, I just wanted to offer some encouragement.

3812

Living Room / Re: two-monitors ergonomics

« Last post by superboyac on June 11, 2010, 11:45 AM »

I just set up my dual monitor arms at work.  This is great stuff.  I very highly recommend monitor arms.  it frees up tons of desk space, it's super easy to move the monitors around based on what you are doing.  You can get heights, angles, tilts that are impossible with the default stands.  You can easily bring it closer or further from you.  Man, I love it!

3813

Living Room / Re: Has SEO ruined the web?

« Last post by superboyac on June 10, 2010, 06:16 PM »

I don't know what you are saying, PK.  Maybe I'm not using the word scraping well.  My site is definitely not scraping anything.  Everything there is my own content that I have put a lot of thought into.

Scraping is when I search for something on google, like the top ten movies of 2010, and I get 5 pages of different websites with pretty much the same content.  The same movies in the same order with the same paragraphs, just in different website addresses.  That's what I'm talking about.

or the hundreds of software review sites that list tons and tons of software, with generic descriptions that are generated automatically somehow.  And they don't help the user at all in finding what he is looking for.  The categories for the are not consistent.  Often times, you are looking for a particluar kind of video software, for example, but it just lists all the software that has anything to do with video, and no matter what VLC will be at the top.  Stuff like that is what I'm talking about.  It's ruining the web because it's impossible to find anything good.

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Living Room / Re: two-monitors ergonomics

« Last post by superboyac on June 10, 2010, 09:11 AM »

PS.  I just got my new dual monitor arm from Humanscale.  I'll install it tomorrow.  (this is at work).  I'm thinking about getting it at home also.

3815

Living Room / Re: Has SEO ruined the web?

« Last post by superboyac on June 10, 2010, 09:10 AM »

I guess I learned a term here; scraping.  It's not SEO that ruined the web, it's the scraping sites.  The ones that copy other content into a new website.  That's the worst.  That's the problem I'm referring to.  I'm fine with SEO, in theory.

3816

Living Room / Re: Is a college education worth the money?

« Last post by superboyac on June 09, 2010, 06:08 PM »

The name means a lot, I hate to admit.

-superboyac (June 09, 2010, 08:56 AM)

School name means about 20-25% more in your starting salary offer last I heard.

When I graduated, having one got me hired (in a tight job market) by a Fortune 500 company after a twenty minute token interview. The interviewer even said "Oh, you went to ____? Well, we can skip the academic questions then. ______ graduates know their stuff. We hire a lot of them."

So much for "It doesn't matter where you go to college." right?

-40hz (June 09, 2010, 09:17 AM)

OK, yes that's true in general.  However, in some cases, the difference is enormous.  When we start talking about very high paying jobs (>200k) there are several places that will only recruit from Harvard MBA.  They won't even go to #2.  For more "normal" jobs, it is less so.  I'm trying to point out that if you are in the planning stages, keep that in mind, and shoot for the stars.

3817

Living Room / Re: Is a college education worth the money?

« Last post by superboyac on June 09, 2010, 08:56 AM »

My wife works at the college our sons go to, which was and is our plan.
An Ivy League college that is ranked high.
There is no way we could afford this without the tuition free benefit.
Although there are still costs involved even with the help provided because of our low income. I think it's called 'FAFSA' to help with books and expenses.

I'm glad they have this opportunity that I didn't have.

-cmpm (June 08, 2010, 03:15 AM)

There you go.  Good job.  The name means a lot, I hate to admit.

3818

Find And Run Robot / Re: Links to Review and Comments - Add yours!

« Last post by superboyac on June 08, 2010, 09:16 AM »

Hey!  What the hell!  That guy totally ripped off my review!  Same pictures and everything!  What the hell is going on!  This is the same thing as I was talking about in my thread about SEO ruining the web.  I call BS on this review. 

-superboyac (June 08, 2010, 08:55 AM)

oops, sorry about that. shall i edit my post and remove the links? please advise.. otoh, no wonder it looked familiar..

-lanux128 (June 08, 2010, 09:02 AM)

You can leave it, no problem.

3819

Find And Run Robot / Re: Links to Review and Comments - Add yours!

« Last post by superboyac on June 08, 2010, 08:55 AM »

just noticed this write-up of Farr here, where the blogger focuses on freeware for netbooks. btw, he also mentions LaunchBar Commander here.
 (see attachment in previous post)
• http://www.netbookfr...on-launcher-netbooks

-lanux128 (June 08, 2010, 08:50 AM)

Hey!  What the hell!  That guy totally ripped off my review!  Same pictures and everything!  What the hell is going on!  This is the same thing as I was talking about in my thread about SEO ruining the web.  I call BS on this review. 

3820

Living Room / Re: Is a college education worth the money?

« Last post by superboyac on June 07, 2010, 11:25 PM »

Renegade, it's something I don't like to talk about except with my closest friends.  It is a legitimately depressing subject for me.  My friend always has to keep pointing out to me that there's nothing you can do about the past.  The only reason why i mention it here is because maybe some kid is reading it and it hits home, even though I doubt it.  This kind of stuff doesn't hit you hard until it's too late.  Either that, or your CEO dad is driving the point in over many years.

I'll just add this one little bit, and I know this will offend many of the people here, but I feel compelled:  no, on second thought, I've said enough.

If you want to be successful, find someone who is successful and figure out what he/she did.  And I don't mean the bullshit feel good story that gets printed in the paper or in wikipedia.  I mean, all the behind the scenes information.  That stuff is gold.  And it's really hard to get out of people.  If you think wealth is kept in the family, this kind of information is even more exclusive.  Many times, the parents are not able to give it to their kids because of the situation--if you already have everything, you won't care enough to listen and understand sometimes.  Now I have a pretty good eye and sense for this kind of thing now.  But I'm 15 years too late.  it will still help me in the long run probably.  Get the real story.  I can't tell you how valuable that is.

3821

Living Room / Re: Is a college education worth the money?

« Last post by superboyac on June 07, 2010, 08:24 PM »

No, it's not worth it.  But, yes, you have to have it.  So in a roundabout way, I suppose it is worth it.  I've recently been very sensitive to how overeducated we are getting.  It's far too much money being spent for too little practical good coming out of it.  All the good reasons for getting advanced degrees have nothing to do with the actual education content.  And that is a problem.  You still have to do it if you want to be comfortable, but it's a problem.

Some people here have said to have a plan.  Yes, please!  hAVE A FREAKING PLAN!  The earlier you figure out a plan, the better. My most successful friends had a leg up because they were able to come up with very solid plans way back in high school.  And you know why?  Because they had parents who were CEO's and they fed them the cold hard truth.  I don't mean they forced them to do anything.  But they were able to help them understand things that most of us don't figure out until 20 years into a job.  That kind of wisdom.  That kind of generational knowledge is by far, by far, by far the most powerful factor in success.  That's why the rich get richer.

Now, if you know that stuff early on, you will be able to know exactly HOW to get the education.  It's a matter of How, not if. 

3822

Living Room / Re: Why do we always wait for apple's stuff before making a i[blank]-killer??

« Last post by superboyac on June 07, 2010, 06:13 PM »

My bad attitude towards Apple comes not from their products, and not from their "experience", but from their abusive business practices and malicious licensing agreements.

-Renegade (June 07, 2010, 12:43 AM)

Well, yeah, of course.  In no way am I defending all things Apple.  I'm quietly asking other companies to start taking UI seriously so that I can have my cake and eat it to!

3823

Living Room / Re: Why do we always wait for apple's stuff before making a i[blank]-killer??

« Last post by superboyac on June 06, 2010, 11:51 PM »

I think mouser said it the best, and in the most rational way so far.  We powerusers scoff at the importance of UI.  I mean, we know it's important, but we're so good with computers that it's easy for us to latch on to just about any interface.  We almost take it for granted.  So when we see something like a ipad, we don't really care about the interface, we just want to know what it can DO.  But like many others pointed out (Zaine) most people don't think that way.  It really is about the presentation for them.  And it's not a bad thing for them.  Some of us are computer geeks, some of us are not.  One is not better than the other.

Now, let's say apple foucses a lot on marketing, user interface, etc. and it is working brilliantly for them.  My question still stands: if other companies see this, why don't they give it a good effort to do that also?!  So what if apple already did it?  So what if it's nothing new?  Apple doesn't care.  Why should they?

You KNOW most people care about the UI, so put some effort into it!  Geez, I mean seriously.  Even if I were SOny's CEO and I was a poweruser, it would stupid of me to keep seeing apple succeed because of UI, and Sony keep failing because of UI (or other similar issues).  if there's a problem, fix it!  If you can improve yourself, then do so!

it doesn't have to be either/or with UI vs. solid functionality.  You can have both, they are not exclusive.  The whole PC vs. Mac thing assumes that you can't have both, but you can very easily!  UI is a very easy thing to fix.  You have to get some people together who understand what normal people want, and give their input on the UI.  Look at all the amateur reviewers that intelligently and very quickly can analyze and criticize all the gadgets that come out!  It's not hard!  It's very obvious when you use an iphone, ipad, etc. that it is a nice, pleasant, fun experience.  Don't say it isn't.  You may not care for it in the long run, but don't deny that it's fun and nice.  Now, go to some other device (like the older tablets) and you don't get the same thing at all.  It basically feels like Windows Xp running on a monitor without a keyboard.

I mean, same thing with the new touchpad on Mac laptops now.  PC companies spent over a decade without even attempting to do anything innovative with the touchpad.  And it sucked to use.  That's why everyone attaches a regular mouse to a laptop.  But here comes Apple 10 years later and adds some really amazing and wonderful features to the basic touchpad.  Why?  Because they know what people want.  Did the PC companies ever sit in a room and ask, "Why does everyone feel like attaching a mouse to the laptop?"  No.  Maybe they did, and they didn't care.

I'm not saying apple doesn't do things that pisses me off.  I'm saying, why don't other companies try to ramp up their effort in providing a pleasant customer experience?  I still hate that Apple has dictator control on all their stuff, so that's why I'll never willingly get one, but I'm not going to deny that their UI is brilliant.

Even things that don't seem to matter.  Like Zaine pointed out, if you go into their store, it's REALLy nice.  It's a hell of a lot nicer than walking into a shitty Fry's store.  Now, I never go into Apple stores, and I go to Fry's a lot more.  but I'm not normal, and I know what I'm doing.  I walk into Fry's, I walk to my aisle, I pick up my product, and walk out...bam, 15 minutes.  I'm not there for the experience.  But, there are tons more people who walk into Fry's and are intimated and confused.  But if you go into an Apple store, you'll feel very comfy and excited.  Don't lie.  Even all you haters...I know you've walked into an Apple store and had fun trying out the gadgets.  Don't lie!!

3824

Living Room / Re: Honestly, who here actually owns an iPad? be honest!

« Last post by superboyac on June 06, 2010, 02:57 PM »

As I said in another thread, I plan to get one- just don't have the funds yet.

-wraith808 (June 06, 2010, 12:23 PM)

There you go!  What courage!

3825

General Software Discussion / Is Nero 10 returning to good form?

« Last post by superboyac on June 06, 2010, 03:40 AM »

I haven't used Nero for a while since it has been getting enormously bloated.  But I just noticed that version 10 offers separate download of just the Burning Rom once again.  I think with version 9, you couldn't get it.  You had to download a huge package and choose which parts you wanted to install.  And the activation and everything was really complicated.  The activation itself seemed to be a software component.  I just remember it being terribly complex.

So, what are people's thoughts on the latest version?  Frankly, I still think the Burning Rom is the best.  But I'll only use it again if I can just install that one component easily without having to deal with the rest of the crazy suite.  Ashampoo is really nice, I'm a big fan.  But Nero's Burning Rom is still a little better.  Not enough to really say much, but it is.