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4251

Living Room / Court Of Human Rights: Convictions For File-Sharing Violate Human Rights

« Last post by IainB on February 07, 2013, 06:25 AM »

Here's a turn up for the books:
Court Of Human Rights: Convictions For File-Sharing Violate Human Rights
(Part quote below. Read the rest at the link.)

The European Court of Human Rights has declared that the copyright monopoly stands in direct conflict with fundamental Human Rights, as defined in the European Union and elsewhere. This means that as of today, nobody sharing culture in the EU may be convicted just for breaking the copyright monopoly law; the bar for convicting was raised considerably. This can be expected to have far-reaching implications, not just judicially, but in confirming that the copyright monopoly stands at odds with human rights.

4252

Living Room / Re: Microsoft Research app. "BLINK" - free for Windows Phone 8.

« Last post by IainB on February 06, 2013, 11:49 PM »

My Android phone can take photos in succession very quickly. Then again, I suppose that "very quickly" and "really fast" are imprecise, relative terms.

-Deozaan (February 06, 2013, 01:05 PM)

Thanks. If it's burst technology similar to BLINK, then I want one please.
I didn't know this technology was already readily available in phones. I shall read up about that.

4253

Living Room / Re: Internet freedoms restrained - SOPA/PIPA/OPEN/ACTA/CETA/PrECISE-related updates

« Last post by IainB on February 06, 2013, 08:11 AM »

...Here's a good run-down (reformatted for clarity): ...

-Renegade (February 06, 2013, 04:52 AM)

Ah, that's the other list that I was looking for, thanks.
One of my clients (a female and a departmental manager at a bank) was in a relationship with a psychopath, but she didn't discover the issue right away - they mask their behaviours very well. He fitted that list of criteria perfectly.
I met her a couple of years later and she described how the experience had been a terror and a horror, and how she found it difficult to leave him because she was so afraid of him and also worried about abandoning his two children (from a previous marriage) - who were terrified of their father. I feel sure that he knew how these things held her paralysed, and he was able to use them to manipulate and control her. He was apparently surprised and furious that she had dared to leave him. I don't know what became of the children.

The experience had evidently been one of destructive dissonance for her, and it had left its scars. I could see that she was quite changed from being a confident, capable person, to someone lacking in confidence and doubting her own capability. It took her some time to rebuild her life, but I gather she's fine now. He was a manager at another bank where I gather that his boss, after belatedly realising from his behaviours what sort of a problem the guy was then had a great deal of difficulty in getting him to leave. I think he was fired in the end.

4254

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

« Last post by IainB on February 06, 2013, 07:12 AM »

Finally got his just deserts?

4255

Living Room / Re: Internet freedoms restrained - SOPA/PIPA/OPEN/ACTA/CETA/PrECISE-related updates

« Last post by IainB on February 06, 2013, 04:03 AM »

(Left blank intentionally.)

4256

Living Room / Re: Internet freedoms restrained - SOPA/PIPA/OPEN/ACTA/CETA/PrECISE-related updates

« Last post by IainB on February 06, 2013, 04:02 AM »

@Renegade: Yes, you may well be right, but the criteria are different:

In the film The Corporation, they reviewed the personality disorder "psychopathy". (A psychopath is a person with chronic psychopathy, esp. leading to abnormally irresponsible and antisocial behaviour.)
They gave this checklist of criteria to identify the disorder:
    1. Callous unconcern for the feelings of others.
    2. Incapacity to maintain enduring relationships.
    3. Reckless disregard for the safety of others.
    4. Deceitfulness: repeated lying and conning others for profit/financial gain.
    5. Incapacity to experience guilt.
    6. Failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviours.

In the film, these criteria were shown to be met by many/most of the legal entities (legal persons) known as "corporations", thus demonstrating that society has legalised these special kinds of psychopaths to operate in society, where they can and do cause tremendous harm - e.g., including such things as economic dependency and control of communities, or a deadly (toxic) environmental footprint - sometimes both, as in the case of the US corporation Exide in their factory in Mexico.

4257

Living Room / Microsoft Research app. "BLINK" - free for Windows Phone 8.

« Last post by IainB on February 06, 2013, 03:33 AM »

Smart burst capture technology.
Even my super-cheap refurbished Sony DSC-H55 Cyber-shot camera doesn't do this as a matter of course - you have to set it up in advance: (per p45 of the Handbook)

• Shoots up to 100 images in succession when you press and hold down the shutter button.
• The Burst mode is not available in Easy Shooting mode, Sweep, Panorama, Movie Mode, or smile shutter.

This feature could even persuade me to buy a Win8 Phone if I was in the market for a new tech phone (which I am not).
See Eyes wide open: New Microsoft Research photo app helps prevent missed shots.

4258

Living Room / Re: Internet freedoms restrained - SOPA/PIPA/OPEN/ACTA/CETA/PrECISE-related updates

« Last post by IainB on February 06, 2013, 02:45 AM »

It looks like The ACTA Blog is monitoring a developing EU-US situation:
ACTA rises?

4259

Living Room / Re: Internet freedoms restrained - SOPA/PIPA/OPEN/ACTA/CETA/PrECISE-related updates

« Last post by IainB on February 06, 2013, 02:41 AM »

... Others in the house/senate that have the opposite opinion...

-Tinman57 (February 03, 2013, 08:09 PM)

I sort of referred to this here:

...It might be such simple practicalities, or citizens' unfounded opinions, or their religio-political ideologies that make them potentially Enemies of the Constitution: (refer the post in the spoiler below, and read the interesting comments too)

...One of the things that confuzzles me is that I had thought (perhaps mistakenly?) that US lawmakers and federal and local government officials - including the President, Senators, the judicary, sherifs, etc. - held office on condition/promise that they would serve and protect the people, and uphold and defend the Constitution, or something. So, if they are not doing that - for whatever reason - then does it mean that they secured their position in the first place under false pretences? If that is the case, then does that mean that they are removed from office and that the  bad laws they pushed through will be repealed? I don't get any sense that either of these things happen in practice...

-IainB (February 05, 2013, 06:00 PM)

4260

Living Room / Re: Download Every Free MP3 given away by Diffuser.fm in 2012.

« Last post by IainB on February 06, 2013, 01:25 AM »

For a selection of the "best", the site has a link to where they list their "Top Ten": 10 Best Free MP3s Downloads of 2012

Sorry, I only realised later, after making the opening post,  that Firefox+DownloadHelper seem to be able to "see" and download only 50 of the available files listed.

The music is grouped according to type, so you could make a selection from those type groups, to suit your taste. I personally have an eclectic taste in music, and so have reconciled myself to listening to the first few bars, maybe some in the middle and some at the end of each track. A bit tedious, but I know from experience that I could miss some real gems if I didn't take that approach - "Green eggs and ham" tends to rule your choice otherwise.
The risk is that you might actually find something really good.   

Some of my favs in my collection are stuff that I have stumbled upon this way - examples include (in no particular order):

• Lisa Barbuscia - Adore you (Kiss of The Dragon soundtrack).
• Macy Gray - Coming Back to You. (Deja Vu soundtrack.)
• Eric Bibb - Don't Ever Let Nobody Drag Your Spirit Down.
• AnalogX - Over You. (and some other AnalogX tracks)
• Duffy - "Mercy".
• Alezander Grechaninov - As many of you (choral).
• Jacknife Lee - 1970's Dictator Chic.
• Brian Eno - Fractal Zoom.
• Motorhead - Killed by death.
• Compay Y Sus Muchachos Segundo - Amor de Loca Juventud (+ others from Buena Vista Social Club).
• David Lowe - BBC World-Asian Dream.
• Cliff Martinez - First Sleep (Solaris soundtrack)
• Enya - Marble Halls.
• lots of chip music

+ lots more...   

4261

Living Room / Download Every Free MP3 given away by Diffuser.fm in 2012.

« Last post by IainB on February 05, 2013, 09:15 AM »

TechSupport have a link to a broad cross-sample of free music.
Scores of Free MP3 Downloads

The source site is Diffuser.fm: Download Every Free MP3 We Gave Away in 2012 Right Here
I have already found some quite good tracks amongst them.   

You probably ideally need to use a bulk downloader, though the built-in one in Firefox does well if you have the DownloadHelper add-on.
I used the FlashGot add-on in Firefox together with my GetRight downloader. Worked a treat.   

4262

Post New Requests Here / Re: "Photo Wall" Screensaver for Windows

« Last post by IainB on February 05, 2013, 03:58 AM »

...a "clone" of the Apple "Photo Wall" Screensaver that comes out on the AppleTV but for Windows?

-Jetsom (February 04, 2013, 10:30 PM)

I don't know about that one, but I could recommend Picasa - it has quite a sophisticated screensaver function for various image display methods.

4263

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

« Last post by IainB on February 05, 2013, 03:45 AM »

Present for the Rabbi.

A Jewish congregation in suburban Boston honours its Rabbi for 25 years of service by sending him to Hawaii for a week, all expenses paid.
 
When he walks into his hotel room, he finds a beautiful nude woman lying on the bed.

She greets the Rabbi with: "Hi Rabbi, I'm a little something extra that the President of the Temple arranged for you."

The Rabbi is incensed.
He picks up the phone, calls the President of the Temple and shouts, "Greenblatt, what were you thinking? Where is your respect? I am the moral leader of our religious community! I am very angry with you and you have not heard the end of this."

Hearing this, the naked woman gets up and starts to get dressed.

The Rabbi turns to her and says, "Where are you going? I'm not angry with you."

4264

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

« Last post by IainB on February 04, 2013, 11:50 PM »

The BBC reports today:

DNA Confirms Parking Lot Remains Belong To King Richard III
British police are describing this as "Another worrying sign of the increase in violence in poorly-lit carparks", and question what Richard was doing there in the first place, as "He may have been up to no good.".

4265

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

« Last post by IainB on February 04, 2013, 11:43 PM »

* A dyslexic man walks into a bra.
_______________________
Q: Did you hear about the dyslexic Rabbi? A: He walks around saying, "Yo".
_______________________
In New York today, two dyslexic bank robbers ran into a bank shouting, "Air in the hands motherstickers, this is a f#ckup!"
_______________________
Dyslexics have more fnu.
_______________________
A slightly dyslexic signwriter was putting up a sign for a new shop called BRAT'S, but the sign read "PRAT'S".  The signwriter had just finished when the owner came out to check the sign.

"You can't put that there!" said the owner, appalled at the mistake.

"Why? What's wrong with it?" said the dyslexic signwriter.

"You got it wrong, you've put P...R...A...T...'S  - it should be B...R...A...T...'S !" he spelt out.

"Oh my god!" exclaimed the dyslexic signwriter in great agitation.

"What's so awful?  You only have to correct the first letter!" said the owner.

"That's not the problem, I've just come from doing a new sign for the LONDON BRICK company!"
_______________________
* Dyslexics.  Try deliberately spelling words wrongly.  This way at least you have a chance of spelling them correctly.
_______________________
Psychiatric hotline.
From the new answering service recently installed at the Royal College of Psychiatry:

"Hello, and welcome to the mental health hotline:

If you are obsessive-compulsive, press 1 repeatedly.

If you are co-dependent, please ask someone to press 2 for you.

If you have multiple personalities, press 3,4,5, and 6.

If you are paranoid, we know who you are and what you want.  Stay on the line so we can trace your call.

If you are delusional, press 7 and your call will be transferred to the mother ship.

If you are schizophrenic, listen carefully and a small voice will tell you which number to press.

If you are manic-depressive, it doesn't matter which number you press, no-one will answer.

If you are dyslexic, press 9696969696969.

If you have a nervous disorder, please fidget with the hash key until a representative comes on the line.

If you have amnesia press 8 and state your name, address, phone number, date of birth, social security number and your mother's maiden name.

If you have post-traumatic stress disorder, slowly and carefully press 0 0 0.

If you have bi-polar disorder, please leave a message after the beep or before the beep, or after the beep.  Please wait for the beep.

If you have short-term memory loss, press 9.  If you have short-term memory loss, press 9.  If you have short-term memory loss, press 9.

If you have low self-esteem, please hang up.  All our operators are too busy to talk to you."
_______________________

4266

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

« Last post by IainB on February 04, 2013, 11:36 PM »

Why did they have to spell the word "dyslexia" that way?

4267

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

« Last post by IainB on February 04, 2013, 11:28 PM »

@IainB: Do you think Alan Turing^w would have been a good LISP programmer?

-Arizona Hot (February 04, 2013, 04:11 PM)

I could not pothibly comment.

4268

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Calibre - e-Book (Personal Library/Document) Management - Mini-Review

« Last post by IainB on February 04, 2013, 09:44 PM »

@dspelley: As you get your eBooks onto your local PC disk, I suggest you one-way mirror them in real-time to a backup folder. I use RealTimeSync for this - it is a discrete part of FreeFileSync (see FreeFileSync - automated backup - Mini-Review).

I do this because I have Amazon's PC-Kindle software (as well as a Kindle), which holds the eBooks in a folder. The folder (library) is automatically updated simultaneously by any changes made to my Amazon cloud-based Kindle eBook library account and the same changes are automatically replicated/updated simultaneously to my Kindle device via "Whisper" updates. Thus, if Amazon should (say) decide to erase one of my Kindle DRM eBook titles, then it will disappear simultaneously from all 3 places:

• the Amazon cloud-based Kindle eBook library account.
• the Kindle device.
• the PC-Kindle library.

- and there's little I can do to stop it or control it.

Using RealTimeSync in the way described above means that I have a secure backup copy of every single file and update  made to the PC-Kindle library. This backup thus becomes my Primary library, and the 3 Kindle stores become Secondary (and expendable) libraries - expendable because they can always be restored from the Primary library.
Calibre can be set to de-DRM those eBooks (including Kindle titles) in the Primary library/backup, so I could read any of my Kindle titles (including any that have been auto-deleted by Amazon) with other eBook reading devices/software, if I wished. This would not necessitate any reliance on, or changes to the 3 "Secondary" libraries/places mentioned above.

The trick is to remember to always have RealTimeSync running when you operate the the PC-Kindle library reader.

I presume the same approach would work for any brand of eBook reader where there is proprietary DRM-enforcement.

4269

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Microsoft OneNote 2007

« Last post by IainB on February 04, 2013, 04:04 PM »

Hi guys, of all the powertoys for OneNote2007, the one I use the most is SortPage done by Daniel Escapa.

Unfortunately you'll notice the actual plug-in file (OneNote2007SortPages.zip) for some reason has disappeared completely off the net. It's quite a peculiar phenomenon seeing it is a freeware. When's the last time you try to find something you know existed, but find it completely disappeared off the net? How weird. Anyway I do have a backup copy from 5 years ago, which was sitting in one of my old hard drives by chance. Attached here for you.

Another copy can be found here:
http://windowssecret...?p=890395#post890395

Alternatively if you can't find it anywhere and still want a copy, you can try to contact me via this thread.

-johnwayne999 (February 04, 2013, 06:51 AM)

Thanks, that makes my list of OneNote 2007 add-ons:

• OneNote 2007 - CanvasForOneNoteSetup (labs - not all that good).msi   
• OneNote 2007 - DailyJournal.1.1 (excellent).msi                       
• OneNote 2007 - DROE tool v04 beta (not much good).zip                 
• OneNote 2007 - SearchReplace (works well).zip                         
• OneNote 2007 - Send To OneNote 64bit driver install (a good kludge).msi
• OneNote 2007 - SortPages (not tried).zip                               
• OneNote 2007 - SortSections.zip                                       
• OneNote 2007 - TemplateManager.zip                                     
• OneNote 2007 - WordCount.zip                                           

(List produced in a trice using the FileGrab utility + @f0dder's SendToFileGrab script - see Re: DONE: "Filegrab"-like functionality integrated into the file explorer..)

4270

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Calibre - e-Book (Personal Library/Document) Management - Mini-Review

« Last post by IainB on February 04, 2013, 02:23 PM »

Do other eBook readers "hide" files depending on how they were acquired? Any idea why these books would be hidden?

-dspelley (February 04, 2013, 07:46 AM)

Not sure I entirely understand this. The Windows system cannot "hide" files unless you have that set as an option/default in your file manager.
Got to Windows Explorer |Tools|Folder Options|View and scroll down to this bit (see image below) and check whether your settings are the same/similar. The idea is to make sure that the system is only "hiding" what you might not be interested in seeing on a day-to-day basis.



Can you see the files in Windows Explorer? (Whether downloaded by WiFi or USB?)

The only suggestion I can make, if you have full visibility of all the files, is that maybe Calibre is looking in the "wrong" directory/folder for where the files are. The files themselves may have obscure names unrelated to their content, but a recognisable file extension is what Calibre would be looking for.
Otherwise, maybe they are somehow being given a file extension that Calibre does not recognise.

4271

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

« Last post by IainB on February 03, 2013, 10:24 PM »

Such fond farewells...a rather droll comment from reason.com:
(Made me larf anyway.)
(Click image to expand/minimise.)

4272

Living Room / Re: Internet freedoms restrained - SOPA/PIPA/OPEN/ACTA/CETA/PrECISE-related updates

« Last post by IainB on February 03, 2013, 06:36 PM »

If it was, then presumably those of us who advocate the unfettering of restraints on, and an increase in Internet freedoms, might also fall into the same life-shortening, labelled bucket as MLK. Of course, killing lots of people is out, but if you can make life a living hell for them, then they just might oblige by killing themselves. But that surely couldn't happen, could it?

Oh, but wait...it just has: US justice system ‘overreach’ blamed in suicide of Internet-freedom activist

-IainB (January 19, 2013, 08:07 PM)

Just received a relevant email from Demandprogress.org.

Re: Investigation, etc.
Thanks so very much to all of you who've had a chance to donate.  We have some real momentum now: Our allies in the House and Senate are on the verge of introducing a new-and-improved version of Aaron's Law, and an investigation in the House is moving forward.

We're asking for your help one more time, so we have the resources we need to keep pressing forward.  Here's the email we sent a couple of days ago:
---
It's been a very tough few weeks, and there's a lot of work in front of us.  

Please click here if you're able to chip in 5, 10, or 20 dollars so we can keep on fighting.

Millions of people across America -- and the world -- are calling for justice.

We're leading the charge for an investigation into Aaron's prosecution and the firing of his prosecutors, for reform to the CFAA and other cybercrime laws, and for Internet freedom and more open access.

We can't do all of this on our own: We need your support now more than ever.

"Our allies in the House and Senate?" This sounds like they are at war - they have allies in the US Government.
If it is a war, then who is the enemy? The US Government?
But that can't be right, can it?    

4273

Living Room / Re: Google Defeat? French Victory?

« Last post by IainB on February 03, 2013, 02:04 AM »

France for a long time seems to have had an increasingly collectivist/socialist political culture, with its attendant problems of operating in a relatively free world market.
Under EU regulations, France would probably have had some economic umbrella/shield, but this may be unable to protect it from the economically disruptive/destabilising effect of the Internet - especially as the French economy is subsiding along with the European market generally.
If this settlement just exemplifies the economic status quo, then it would probably be unsurprising.
A free handout from anyone would be welcome at any time. US$82 million doesn't sound too bad, for starters.

4274

Living Room / 50 years of space exploration.

« Last post by IainB on February 03, 2013, 12:44 AM »

50 years of space exploration.
Huge image - really quite detailed.
You could also download it and then zoom into it to read the detail.
(Right-click image to expand/minimise.)

4275

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

« Last post by IainB on February 02, 2013, 06:30 PM »

Chip Bok on US in Libya - "Leading from behind":