Recent Posts

3826

Living Room / Can you inagine a world without any personal privacy? Because it's here.

« Last post by 40hz on March 18, 2013, 07:58 AM »

Bruce Schneier posted a sobering op-ed piece on CNN titled: The Internet is a surveillance state. In it he paints a bleak picture of how an unsooken alliance between business and government (each in it for their own agendas) brought about a monitoring system that surpassed anything George Orwell had nightmares about.

His conclusion?

Welcome to an Internet without privacy, and we've ended up here with hardly a fight.

Some highlights:

.
This is ubiquitous surveillance: All of us being watched, all the time, and that data being stored forever. This is what a surveillance state looks like, and it's efficient beyond the wildest dreams of George Orwell.
.
.
.
Maintaining privacy on the Internet is nearly impossible. If you forget even once to enable your protections, or click on the wrong link, or type the wrong thing, and you've permanently attached your name to whatever anonymous service you're using. Monsegur slipped up once, and the FBI got him. If the director of the CIA can't maintain his privacy on the Internet, we've got no hope.

In today's world, governments and corporations are working together to keep things that way. Governments are happy to use the data corporations collect -- occasionally demanding that they collect more and save it longer -- to spy on us. And corporations are happy to buy data from governments. Together the powerful spy on the powerless, and they're not going to give up their positions of power, despite what the people want...

I'm generally not too big a fan of CNN or their writers for reasons too numerous to go into. But every so often, they do remember what they're here for. And this article is 'spot on' IMO.

Read the full article here.

Then go someplace you imagine is still private so you can sit quietly and feel sick.

3827

Living Room / Re: Judge skeptical of "torrent chaser" law firm's antics. Jail time threatened.

« Last post by 40hz on March 18, 2013, 07:38 AM »

Some updates (in chronological order) 1  2  3.

11 days to the next hearing @10:30 on March 29. Grab some popcorn and a large drink of whatever, and plan on spending the morning and early afternoon. As f0dder previously posted: "Dis gun be gud!"

3828

Living Room / Re: When you make your 100'th Post

« Last post by 40hz on March 17, 2013, 02:02 PM »

^ It's a sad day when my posts outnumber Carol's. Hers are far more interesting - and much better written. 

3829

General Software Discussion / Re: screenshot and video capture software

« Last post by 40hz on March 17, 2013, 01:57 PM »

Cough Cough: https://www.donation...hotcaptor/index.html

-mouser (March 17, 2013, 06:42 AM)

yes, I am aware of that, but... after trying I found it too complicated to use it!
although, I wouldnt classify myself as novice in using software and I have used thousands of programs UIs.
I realize it's powerful, but, it seems an overkill... :/

-kalos (March 17, 2013, 08:42 AM)

@k - FWIW I have yet to find anything better. And I've tried pretty much all of them. True, the ones that are good tend to get a little complicated. But such is the price that comes with power.

That said, there's nothing that requires you to use the full feature set in SC. I certainly don't. Usually I do little more than pick the 'select area to grab' option, save as gif, png, or jpg (depending) to my desktop, and then (optionally) import the capture into whatever graphics package I decide I need for tweaking or scaling. It's so easy as to be almost a reflex movement for me by now.

YMMV - but I really haven't seen it get much easier than ScreenshotCaptor. And it's pretty hard to beat the asking price too!

3830

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Google Reader - Mini-Review

« Last post by 40hz on March 17, 2013, 12:46 PM »

@IainB - what are feed snippits? Is that different than a preview? Because if you hover over the feed article in the sidebar, you get the first few lines of the article - as long as the site provides either a sample or the full article in its feed. Many - but not all - do. And most that do provide the full article.

I also haven't noticed it being any slower than any other desktop based reader I've tried.  But I guess YMMV with this sort of thing.   

3831

Living Room / Re: Ad-Blockers Kicked From Google Store

« Last post by 40hz on March 15, 2013, 03:01 PM »

I don't have a problem with a company refusing to be involved with, or in support of something. If Google does not want ad blockers in their store, that is their prerogative.

What I do have a problem with is that this same store is the duly authorized and official channel for which to obtain and install software for this platform. And while Android may be "Google's" - it was based on Linux. So the notion of attempting (however loosely) to restrict what gets loaded under it strikes me as playing a little fast and loose with the GPL. And although Android is officially been released by Google under the Apache License, that doesn't change the fact that GPL3 also applies.

Being able to do a side install -while fine as a workaround - is still a workaround. And it's a dangerous thing to tolerate since it opens up the possibility for a huge can of legal worms some time down the road.

I'm all for Google's decision. It makes sense since ad blocking runs counter to Google's business model.

What I object to is being single-sourced on an "authorized" way to purchase and install software. Maybe Android doesn't put you through the hoops Apple does making you jailbreak their devices - but it's still hardly acceptable IMO to put any impediment (other than an DIAYOYO warning or two) in the way of what a device owner wants to do with their own device.

The problem is not Google blocking the blockers. The real problem is that Google gets to block anything at all.

-------------------

And yes, I "know" we don't actually "own" our smartphones and tablets, we merely "license" them...

Something to which I (and anybody else with enough of a functioning brain to still support respiratory functions) says: Codswallop!
 

3832

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Google Reader - Mini-Review

« Last post by 40hz on March 15, 2013, 08:43 AM »

Some cases they just killed them off

-wraith808 (March 15, 2013, 07:53 AM)

Unfortunately, that's a real problem in a world where independent and small software developers are attempting to coexist with large monopolistic businesses such as Google, Apple, and Microsoft.

As long as so much software remains closed-source and proprietary, there is nothing to prevent the behemoths from buying up and killing off innovation and useful products. Or, where that fails, bullying and/or litigating them out of existence with ridiculous IP infringement claims.

Say what you like about the F/OSS model. The one thing it does better than anything else is protect the enduser from having a product capriciously pulled out from under them. Hardly surprising in that this was Stallman's stated raison d'être for FOSS - to protect the user.

AFAIK there is no other software development/licensing model that can claim the same.

Something to think about.

3833

Living Room / Re: /r/DonationCoder (Reddit)

« Last post by 40hz on March 14, 2013, 09:29 AM »

I have mixed feelings about this.

Reddit has a very different vibe and community. Sort of like a call-in radio talk show (with all that implies) whereas DoCo's forum feels more like a "letters to the editor" column. One seems to inspire snappy quick comebacks. The other a somewhat more, shall we say, "considered" style of commentary and response?

But this is all probably just my take on Reddit, so please feel free to ignore it.

3834

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Google Reader - Mini-Review

« Last post by 40hz on March 14, 2013, 09:12 AM »

@Iain - regarding Google

I think what Google is doing is a scaled back version of the philosophy Jack Welch pushed when he was made CEO of General Electric. Under that philosophy, GE's was to be the number one player in any business or market they were engaged in - or have a realistic opportunity to become number one - else they were going to get out of that business entirely.

It brought about a renaissance for that corporate behemoth. Focus improved, the number of business engaged in shrank, profitability soared and thousands of former customers were abandoned. And as a result, a staggering number of employees lost their jobs when GE discarded the dozens of businesses it had formerly been in.

It also saved the company, which was obviously albeit slowly crumbling under its own bulk and complexity.

It also earned Mr. Welch the title "Neutron Jack" alluding to a neutron bomb's ability to kill people without excessively damaging the property they're standing on. The saying used to be: When Jack shows up it's like a neutron bomb went off. The buildings and plant may still be there - but the people are all gone.

Since there's really no money to be made in RSS synchronization, I think Google decided to call it quits. Having pissed so much money and resource away on things like Buzz and Wave, and faced with the still uncertain future of G+ and GDocs, they're calling in their outriders and putting their focus on things that do pay  (or can be made to pay) such as Google Docs.

If there's enough public backlash, you might see some flavor of GR come back. But not as a standalone product. I could see them putting it back in as a "feature" of G+ or Google Docs in order to get more subscribers. But that's about as good as it will likely get.
 

3835

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Google Reader - Mini-Review

« Last post by 40hz on March 14, 2013, 08:48 AM »

Good essay by Elliot Stocks on the demise of GR and  "invisible free services" in general. Excerpt below. Read the rest here:

Beware the free, invisible service
Posted on 14 March 2013 • 3 comments

Checking Twitter over breakfast this morning, my feed was alive with furore over Google’s decision to retire Google Reader, and I’m not ashamed to say that I joined in, too. Of course, we all know that RSS isn’t particularly well-adopted outside the web / tech industry, so it’s perhaps not entirely surprising to see Google kill (what they consider to be) a niche product. What is worrying, though, is that this is yet another example of a product meeting its demise because it’s free.
.
.
.

Amen.

3836

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Google Reader - Mini-Review

« Last post by 40hz on March 14, 2013, 08:05 AM »

Well, if you ain't payin', you ain't a customer.

Software as a Service - gotta love it

Also, yay at Nick for simply killing FeedDemon instead of doing something crazy like, you know, perhaps open-sourcing it.

-f0dder (March 14, 2013, 07:33 AM)

And therein stands the house of cards that more and more of so many people's web experience now resides in.

3837

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Google Reader - Mini-Review

« Last post by 40hz on March 14, 2013, 08:03 AM »

This is the second time that Nick has "killed" FeedDemon after I paid for the latest version. If I didn't know better I'd think it was a racket.

Jim

-J-Mac (March 14, 2013, 07:57 AM)

That's when I stopped using it. After that first time it was killed and then mysteriously brought back. For some reason I strongly suspected it was done more as marketing move (i.e. Don't want to support it? Fine! Try doing without it then.) on Nick's part.

And I was a paying user, so I felt a little justified in being annoyed.

3838

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Google Reader - Mini-Review

« Last post by 40hz on March 14, 2013, 07:57 AM »

Also, yay at Nick for simply killing FeedDemon instead of doing something crazy like, you know, perhaps open-sourcing it.

-f0dder (March 14, 2013, 07:33 AM)

^ +1 from me.

-IainB (March 14, 2013, 07:46 AM)

Yeah. There's that.

3839

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Google Reader - Mini-Review

« Last post by 40hz on March 14, 2013, 07:56 AM »

Is there anything wrong with using Bloglines Reader (www.bloglines.com) instead?

About Bloglines

Bloglines, a MerchantCircle company, aims to deliver the best experience for our users by creating a service where users can subcribe, create, manage and share news feeds, blogs and rich web content from across the web. Bloglines is one of the largest news and feed aggregators using RSS/Atom in the world with over 2 million users.

With Bloglines, there is no software to download and install and its completely FREE. Users are able to bring their feeds to any web enabled device whether its on a desktop or mobile phone. Your feeds can be customized and arranged in a multitude of ways to best suit your needs.

3840

Living Room / Re: What *Should* We Be Worried About?

« Last post by 40hz on March 14, 2013, 07:41 AM »

Worried about?

IMHO Charles Dickens nailed it back in 1843 with a brief scene his story A Christmas Carol.

This.

“Forgive me if I am not justified in what I ask,” said Scrooge, looking intently at the Spirit’s robe, “but I see something strange, and not belonging to yourself, protruding from your skirts. Is it a foot or a claw?”

“It might be a claw, for the flesh there is upon it,” was the Spirit’s sorrowful reply. “Look here.”

From the foldings of its robe, it brought two children; wretched, abject, frightful, hideous, miserable. They knelt down at its feet, and clung upon the outside of its garment.

“Oh, Man! look here. Look, look, down here!” exclaimed the Ghost.

They were a boy and girl. Yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish; but prostrate, too, in their humility. Where graceful youth should have filled their features out, and touched them with its freshest tints, a stale and shrivelled hand, like that of age, had pinched, and twisted them, and pulled them into shreds. Where angels might have sat enthroned, devils lurked, and glared out menacing. No change, no degradation, no perversion of humanity, in any grade, through all the mysteries of wonderful creation, has monsters half so horrible and dread.



Scrooge started back, appalled. Having them shown to him in this way, he tried to say they were fine children, but the words choked themselves, rather than be parties to a lie of such enormous magnitude.

“Spirit! are they yours?” Scrooge could say no more.

“They are Man’s,” said the Spirit, looking down upon them. “And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased.

Deny it!” cried the Spirit, stretching out its hand towards the city. “Slander those who tell it ye! Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse. And bide the end!”

“Have they no refuge or resource?” cried Scrooge.

“Are there no prisons?” said the Spirit, turning on him for the last time with his own words. “Are there no workhouses?”

The bell struck twelve.

Scrooge looked about him for the Ghost, and saw it not. As the last stroke ceased to vibrate, he remembered the prediction of old Jacob Marley, and lifting up his eyes, beheld a solemn Phantom, draped and hooded, coming, like a mist along the ground, towards him.

Looking at all that has come to pass since he wrote those words, I see little to contradict him.

3841

Living Room / Re: I am so very very sick of copyright issues.

« Last post by 40hz on March 14, 2013, 07:02 AM »

the families and/or estates of long dead creators...

-Target (March 13, 2013, 10:19 PM)

Well...at least in their case, creativity is a finite resource since the dead certainly don't seem to be producing as much these days - unless you buy into the "channeling" thing.

3842

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Qiqqa - Reference Management System - Mini-Review

« Last post by 40hz on March 13, 2013, 09:14 PM »

PLUS: The Qiqqa User Manual is now available.

-IainB (March 11, 2013, 02:37 AM)

Yes thanks. Now that there's a manual I'll have to give it another try. I personally found it a little heavy on  its feet when I first gave it  a shot. Possibly because I didn't adequately understand how it worked.

Time to read a manual and to see if I missed something or was just using it incorrectly.

3843

Living Room / Re: I am so very very sick of copyright issues.

« Last post by 40hz on March 13, 2013, 09:00 PM »

I think a lot of this IP protectionism is indicative of a loss of confidence on the part of many. The only people that try (in my experience) to wring every last nickel out of everything they come up with are the people who fear their creativity is a finite resource. That they only have so much originality in them - and once it's gone, it's gone.

I've had more of my own original work (ideas, words, music) than I can shake a stick at "appropriated" by others over the years. Does it ever bother me? Maybe a little every so often. (Mostly when I'm feeling very tired or am unusually short on sleep.) But so what? I'm a clever chap who doesn't mind working. Nor do I ever plan on retiring. I'll just write new stuff. I'm never one to be at a loss for ideas - or come up short on creativity.

So pilfer away AFAIC. There's plenty more where that came from.

3844

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Google Reader - Mini-Review

« Last post by 40hz on March 13, 2013, 08:42 PM »

I'm trying out @40hz's suggestion re Sage. in the discussion: Re: Suggestions for a RSS reader

I've long since given up on something that's all-in-one.

These days I use the Sage extension in Firefox as my RSS reader and save what I want to keep to my Pocket (formerly ReadItLater) account or using Scrapbook depending on what it is.
None of the above have much in the way of bells & whistles.
Which is exactly the way I like it. YMMV.

-40hz (December 23, 2012, 08:50 PM)

-IainB (March 13, 2013, 08:35 PM)

FWIW I'm still using the FF+Sage+Pocket+Scrapbook combination. And I'm still perfectly happy with it.

(And I've tried every feed reader I could lay my grubby mitts on that ran on either Windows or Nix in the meantime. Have yet to find anything I like better or which offered some feature so compelling that I absolutely had to have it. YMMV  )

3845

Living Room / Re: Judge skeptical of "torrent chaser" law firm's antics. Jail time threatened.

« Last post by 40hz on March 13, 2013, 05:00 PM »

So, these guys at Prenda. That's why I smell platypus $hit. Of course they know what the rules of law are, that's like the first year of law school. So they have an endgame, and THAT's what we need this judge to really get to the bottom of.

-TaoPhoenix (March 13, 2013, 03:48 PM)

Don't know about you, but if I had to put a bet on who was going to come out on top with this one, I wouldn't bet against this particular judge.

Besides, the way they've boxed themselves in they can forget about an endgame. The best they can hope for is to try some delaying rear guard action with hopes they can cut a plea deal. And with this judge, I don't think there's much hope that's going to happen.

Prediction: I'll bet one or more of them try to do a bunk rather than face the music.

3846

Living Room / Re: Judge skeptical of "torrent chaser" law firm's antics. Jail time threatened.

« Last post by 40hz on March 13, 2013, 03:27 PM »

@f0dder - ROFLMAO! If we're ever in a bar together I'm buying your drinks all night for finding and posting that picture.

3847

Living Room / Re: Judge skeptical of "torrent chaser" law firm's antics. Jail time threatened.

« Last post by 40hz on March 13, 2013, 01:47 PM »

Well this weird thing called "sanity" would seem to say that, but this disturbing world of IP seems to involve strange phone calls on the "turquoise line" that suddenly makes impossible things happen.

-TaoPhoenix (March 13, 2013, 05:52 AM)

Maybe. But in this particular case, the judge isn't getting into IP or copyright issues at all. He's addressing issues of fraud in presenting evidence, making false representations of fact, violation of rules of discovery, contempt of court, and breach of ethics and violations of law on the part of licensed attorneys.

To add insult to injury, those in the crosshairs have not complied with a direct order to appear at their own show cause hearing (!!!); have previously argued for judge Wright's lack of jurisdiction in the matter; and previously moved to have the judge removed from the case because they basically didn't like him, nor trust him to see things their way.

So let's see...they:

 Broke the law
 Defied a federal court
 Insulted a federal district judge
 Disobeyed an order to appear
 Actively hampered an investigation into their practices and conduct
 Continue to obstruct, obfuscate, and delay at every opportunity
 Filed motions that were so frivolous as to border on contempt

It just goes on and on...

No phone call in the world is going to get them off the hook on any of that. And IP issues don't even enter into consideration. This is all about judicial procedure and basic trial law. Which applies no matter what the case is about. And which is something that has a huge amount of precedence and written law behind it - so it's not like any of it is up for discussion. That's what attorneys supposedly go to law school to learn about in order to become attorneys. Thats also pretty much what the Bar Exam tests them on before admitting them to practice law. So they can't even feign ignorance. They know the rules - even if those same rules often get pushed to limit without penalty since most judges don't have the time to really get down on them like Otis Wright has.

Nah. They're toast. I'm guessing they'll be lucky to get off with a hefty fine and either suspension or disbarment.

But I think it's actually going to come down harder than that. I think a few people are gonna be seeing some "free room and board" before this one is finished. The abuses were too egregious. And there's been too much publicity. Everybody is watching this case. And Judge Wright is already on record as stating that an example may need to be made in order to discourage others from going down the same road Prenda Law thought it could go without consequence.

Nope. These guys are toast. Burnt toast.

3848

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Free Software from Microsoft.

« Last post by 40hz on March 13, 2013, 01:07 PM »

I'm guessing it's either because (a) people have actually been reading the licensing terms and other agreements and aren't exactly jumping to sign up, or (b) Microsoft intends to move the whole shebang to the cloud soon and suddenly realized it was still allowing downloads of apps that could be run locally.

While looking at some of the info on their WebMatrix substitute offering I saw this half-truth:

Open Source Web Applications
Made Easier
Open source web apps make it easy to get started developing websites, but they can sometimes be time-consuming to get configured on your computer. WebMatrix makes it simple and straightforward.

Streamlined Install

To get an open source application, you have to find and install all the required dependencies and configure them *just* right before you get started.

But WebMatrix takes care of all of that for you. Choose from dozens of popular open source applications and let WebMatrix do the rest.

Yup. Neatly leaving out just how easy that is to do using numerous FOSS products and utilities that will do exactly the same thing - and have been doing so for several years now. Which is all well before Microsoft was even willing to acknowledge the existence of 'open' software. I stopped reading what else Microsoft had to say at that point.

BTW, these days all you need to know is how to spell the name of what you want to install in most cases when using Linux.

Seriously...you can do it from the command line (sudo apt-get install wordpress), via the synaptic/yum installer tools, or even with one of those pretty new 'software managers' now found in many major Linux distros. All the dependencies are automatically identified and installed (with your permission) if needed. This is what you'll see in Linux Mint:

3849

Living Room / Re: What are your favorite movies?

« Last post by 40hz on March 13, 2013, 12:25 PM »

I also like "The Warriors" quite a bit - it's kind of a subway movie.  I remember watching it on "Joe Bob's Last Call", and he had an MTA map that he used when coming back from the commercial breaks to show exactly what the progress of the Warriors was:

-mwb1100 (March 13, 2013, 01:42 AM)

The Warriors was definitely one of the more surreal but believable quasi-dystopian flicks ever made. A cult classic. And deservedly so. I loved the "droogy" Clockwork Orange look:


Droogs!


... of the Baseball Furies.

I miss Joe Bob.

-mwb1100 (March 13, 2013, 01:42 AM)

Me too.   Joe Bob Briggs was a god!

Drive-In Saturday Night was probably my all-time favorite cable TV show.

3850

Living Room / Re: What are your favorite movies?

« Last post by 40hz on March 13, 2013, 11:12 AM »

For me it's not enough to have a train scene or have the train be just another locked room gimmick. It has to be an integral element to the story. Von Ryan's Express for example. Or  The Great Train Robbery. In those, the train introduced unique elements that much of the plot depended on. 

-40hz (March 13, 2013, 11:01 AM)

Not sure if the Hunted's scene will satisfy you in that regard, then.  True, it's not a locked room gimmick- it's a flowing scene in a Japanese Bullet Train.  You have to see it... it doesn't really lend itself to words.

-wraith808 (March 13, 2013, 11:05 AM)

Sounds good. just put it on my watch list. thx!