Recent Posts

4326

Living Room / Re: What's your experience with 3rd party color inkjet ink replacement?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 22, 2011, 02:59 PM »

Independent inks and a user replaceable print head on that ain't such a bad deal. Many of the ink printers require a service center to (reset the code...) replace the print head - So they get junked most often.

If you really print that infrequently, have you ever considered a small laser printer? Cost per page is much cheaper, and toner doesn't dry out Ya know...

I bought an HP C4680 (Print/Copy/Scan) for (about $85) the wife - 'cause she had to have one - And have only had to buy ink for it once in a year and a half. It's a tri-color cartridge ($30), but the print head is built in. So If I went generic and it clogged the print head it don't matter.

Either way, if you go generic the only thing on the printer that can get "damaged" is the print head (Yours is $30 - $50) ... So it's not really going to scrap/brick/destroy the device to experiment a bit.

4327

Living Room / Re: Hoppy Easter~!

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 22, 2011, 11:31 AM »

Having somewhat of a penchant for sacrilege, I had to PM the alternate ending (because it is offensive) for that joke to Renegade.

Zoiks! Just realized this was post 1,800

4328

Living Room / Re: Anyone here using a standing desk?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 21, 2011, 03:57 PM »

I told him if I stuck two fingers up my ass I could probably whistle, but I wasn't about to try that either...

-Stoic Joker (April 21, 2011, 11:42 AM)

Don't diss prostate massaging 'til you've tried it!

-f0dder (April 21, 2011, 12:12 PM)

LOL Now that's the funniest damn thing I've heard in long time!

4329

Living Room / Re: Apple - not quite grasping the concept of privacy.

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 21, 2011, 03:46 PM »

Oh I think Apple has grasped the issue of privacy just fine.

And now that they've grasped it, they're trying to drag it into the bushes and murder it.

-40hz (April 21, 2011, 01:34 PM)

heheheh, good point.

-nudone (April 21, 2011, 01:54 PM)

Yepper, I'll sign that!

4330

Living Room / Re: Apple - not quite grasping the concept of privacy.

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 21, 2011, 11:59 AM »

Just thought it would be appropriate to mention this here since so many of you are obviously using iPhones.

-nosh (April 21, 2011, 07:09 AM)

Alright now, don't be starting any rumors ... iLife was banned from my universe long ago.

4331

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA : Voice Changing Application {VCA}

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 21, 2011, 11:54 AM »

Are you holding someone for ransom?

-superboyac (April 20, 2011, 09:45 PM)

hehehe    Good one!

OTOH Vocalster does sound like it might be fun to play with.

4332

Living Room / Re: Anyone here using a standing desk?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 21, 2011, 11:42 AM »

Also bought one of those "kneeling chairs" that used to be in vogue.

-40hz (April 21, 2011, 07:13 AM)

I had a friend that wanted me to try one of those...Because I'd "Probably like it". I told him if I stuck two fingers up my ass I could probably whistle, but I wasn't about to try that either...So go get me a proper friggin chair.

Side Note: I haven't been in vogue since 1973.

4333

Living Room / Re: Anyone here using a standing desk?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 21, 2011, 11:33 AM »

I'm on a similar schedule, as I have to step out for a cigarette every few hours. I tend to use the time to collect and refocus my thoughts to avoid forest-for-the-trees type project hiccups. I'd even go so far as to say that close to 85% of the nagging issue break throughs occurred out by the dumpster while I was having a smoke.

-Stoic Joker (April 21, 2011, 07:01 AM)

Yeah, I'm pretty sure since I quit smoking I've become a lousier programmer. Maybe it'll buy me some extra time, to make up for the decreased efficiency 

-allen (April 21, 2011, 09:55 AM)

Yeah, I've thought about it...But mom told me quitters never win...  ...So I decided  (in the interest of balance) to just cut it down to a bit. I was at a pack a day, which turned into 2+ packs for long night high pressure projects. Now, after self imposing a no smoking in the house rule, I've been able to stretch a pack out to 3 days consistently for over a year now.

I do feel better now, and I haven't had the urge to disembowel a coworker with a letter opener just for saying hello...Which tended to be a frequent problem when I was down to 2 cigarettes a day (Stress has to be dealt with "properly"...).

4334

Living Room / Re: Apple is Still Apple - Sue After Stealing...

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 21, 2011, 07:10 AM »

Maybe Samsung should start making phones shaped as trapezoids and circles.

-dhuser (April 21, 2011, 01:54 AM)

...Or a squishy shapeless phone that double as a stress ball ... That'll help with those pesky dropped calls.

4335

Living Room / Re: Anyone here using a standing desk?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 21, 2011, 07:06 AM »

I remember now, I would slide forwards - but my trousers would stay in the same place - not comfortable**

-tomos (April 21, 2011, 06:42 AM)

First time I ran into one of those Swedish exercise balls was on a client site that used them at their desks. So I can indeed confirm said rather unpleasant phenomenon.

4336

Living Room / Re: Anyone here using a standing desk?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 21, 2011, 07:01 AM »

Like mentioned moving about is good, your eyes too, every 20 minutes or so make sure your eyes are concentrated on something farther away for 30 seconds.
As far as standing all day it would probably kill my ankle.

-rgdot (April 20, 2011, 08:59 AM)

I try to take a 5 minute break every hour.  It does lessen my productivity (startup/wind down is definitely an issue), so I miss it sometimes, but continued health is more of a concern.

-wraith808 (April 20, 2011, 12:58 PM)

I'm on a simular schedule, as I have to step out for a cigarette every few hours. I tend to use the time to collect and refocus my thoughts to avoid forest-for-the-trees type project hiccups. I'd even go so far as to say that close to 85% of the nagging issue break throughs occured out by the dumpster while I was having a smoke.

4337

Living Room / Re: Apple - not quite grasping the concept of privacy.

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 21, 2011, 06:53 AM »

It says that "Apple and our partners and licensees may collect, use, and share precise location data, including the real-time geographic location of your Apple computer or device.

-The Article

Are you F'ing Kidding Me??!? This rather implies an involuntary upload mechanism.

This location data is collected anonymously in a form that does not personally identify you and is used by Apple and our partners and licensees to provide and improve location-based products and services.

-The Article

Oh The Hell It Don't. What is the consistent night time location. Now look up the address to see who's house that is ... Yours! Not exactly a freaking mystery now is it?

4338

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: [Python][Windows] Debug/Gather printer information

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 21, 2011, 06:39 AM »

Interesting, I'll have to scare up a copy of python to play with this. I'm guessing from just looking at the code that it's for gathering printer info from local machine only, yes? Are you heading towards something that does usage tracking by user?

Not sure if you've seen this (Page Countster), but I'm also working on a printer management project. Although not actively at the moment as the project is back burnered.

4339

Living Room / Re: Wasting Ink in Your Printer?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 20, 2011, 08:29 AM »

Just keep in mind that the printer's squares page generally also does a calibration for the nozzels. So if print quality degrades ... you gotta do the printer's test page to dial it back in.

4340

Living Room / Re: Anyone here using a standing desk?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 20, 2011, 07:44 AM »

Honestly, I can't stand computers ... So I have to sit down.

4341

Coding Snacks / Re: Quick Simple MP3 Player

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 20, 2011, 07:42 AM »

M3 sounds cool, I'll add it to my things to try list.

@Curt - I still haven't had time to checkout Unlocker x64... 

4342

Living Room / Re: Wasting Ink in Your Printer?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 20, 2011, 07:37 AM »

While the article is quite accurate, this caught my eye:

Many Laser printers do something similar. I found this out the hard way when the "waste toner bag" exploded in one i was using and sprayed a toxic cloud of black dust around both the inside of the printer and the area surrounding it. The printer probably put about 1/4 of all its toner into the waste on each refill.

-From Article's Comments

While laser printer toner cartridges do have a waste hopper, it is only there to catch the remnants of toner left on the drum after the image transfer process. It is not there to catch cyclically purged (wasted) toner from a cleaning process. The cleaning cycle on a laser printer is strictly a manual (and frequently service mode only) procedure.

As an example... Most Drill-N-Fill operations never empty the cartridges waste hopper because that would require disassembly. Which is the very think they are trying to avoid by drilling a hole in the cartridge to refill it with toner. They do this based on the assumption (gamble) that they can get a few extra life cycles out of the cartridge before the seals (which have a 1 year shelf life...) fail. The get away with it simply because the waste hopper doesn't fill up that quickly because the bulk of the toner is actually getting used. Unfortunately the (frequently expired) shelf life of the seals causes many of the DNF cartridges to fail. While DNF cartridge waste hopper overflows are also a problem, there not nearly as common an occurrence.

I work for an IT company that among other things re-manufactures toner cartridges (about 1,000 a month). We do a complete tear-down and reassembly of each cartridge, with new seals, and we have an extremely low failure rate. ...I do believe these two points are associated.

4343

Living Room / Re: Is Amazon the new Apple?

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 20, 2011, 06:50 AM »

But they're delivering infinite growth and managing stakeholder benefits with increased value propositions for stock holders and buzz market 3.0 showing social network integration success that raises brand recognition and promotes sustained market penetration and higher market share in value-added markets in socially driven...

I'm not surprised at all.

-Renegade (April 19, 2011, 08:42 PM)

Ugh, I almost vomited when I read that.

-f0dder (April 20, 2011, 05:21 AM)

Me too, but fortunately I was skimming so it didn't fully register all at once.

4344

Official Announcements / Re: Server - Apache problem running out of memory

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 19, 2011, 01:40 PM »

First of all, while mouser states "we don't know" he really means "he doesn't know" I tried to explain, but oh well...

-Gothi[c] (April 19, 2011, 08:24 AM)

Thanks for the clarification, it makes the story much less frightening...

I've never worked with Apache (I'm an MS/IIS guy), but I googled the Apache exhausts memory under load thing and it seems a rather common problem. There were some really bad hiccups early this afternoon 12-1 (EDT). And I was wondering if that was SoftLayer, or a lunch activity peek close to 20? (I guess both is possible)

Anyhow, how do the Keep-Alives factor into this, or (are they disabled) don't they?

4345

Living Room / Re: HELP! Failed System Restore

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 19, 2011, 08:59 AM »

For the really odd network issues like everythings live but somehow still not connected, keep these two in mind:

netsh int ip reset c:\resetlog.txt

When you run the reset command, it rewrites two registry keys that are used by TCP/IP. This has the same result as removing and reinstalling the protocol. The reset command rewrites the following two registry keys:
   SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\
   SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\DHCP\Parameters\


netsh winsock reset

This command resets the Winsock catalog to the default configuration. This can be useful if a malformed LSP is installed that results in loss of network connectivity. While use of this command can restore network connectivity, it should be used with care because any previously-installed LSPs will need to be re-installed.

Note that resetting the Winsock using netsh winsock reset catalog command in SP2 removes all the third-party LSPs and restores Winsock to factory default setting. Existing programs that uses their own LSPs, need to be reinstalled again. Example.. Google Desktop Search.


Much time and aganoy has been saved with these.

4346

General Software Discussion / Re: Please help me with a video card issue (April 2011) Now resolved

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 18, 2011, 11:20 AM »

now, if you all will keep the relevant parts of your anatomies crossed…

-cranioscopical (April 18, 2011, 10:27 AM)

But I can't type with my eyes crossed...

4347

Living Room / Re: Growing Green != Going Green

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 17, 2011, 09:39 AM »

Too bad, remember what happened once the alcohol prohibition ended?

-f0dder (April 15, 2011, 06:41 PM)

eh, no?

-tomos (April 16, 2011, 11:55 AM)

The "War-on-Whiskey" ended with it, along with most of the more common reasons for people to be shooting each other in the streets.

4348

Living Room / Re: Growing Green != Going Green

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 15, 2011, 06:45 PM »

me reason all kinds of drugs isn't legalized is not public health issues, it's the cash flow. The corrupt politicians want their bribes, and the police/military/etc wouldn't want their funding cut or lose the ability to play with a lot of fancy toys. The general population would be better off, though, we'd see crime rates drop quite a lot, and organized crime would lose a helluva lot of their cash flow. But it just ain't gonna happen. Too bad, remember what happened once the alcohol prohibition ended?

-f0dder (April 15, 2011, 06:41 PM)

+1 

4349

General Software Discussion / Re: Deduplication, encryption, security and... Dropbox

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 15, 2011, 12:31 PM »

Just add periodic blocks of completely random machine code to you sensative documents. That way even if somebody does manage to successfully decrypt it, they'll still be left scratching their heads trying to figure out what they missed.


(jk - don't shoot me...)

4350

Living Room / Allow Domain Users to install local Printers

« Last post by Stoic Joker on April 15, 2011, 09:34 AM »

Okay, ran across this article and decided to share it with the rest of the class.

Note: The closer you follow the instructions, the sooner it will actually word (e.g. I'm not admitting how long it took me to realize what I missed (the first 14 times)).

Allow Domain Users to install local Printers (and Network Printers) without Admin rights via Group Policy [Yes it is sometimes necessary...]

http://www.magalan.c...ut_admin_rights.html