Recent Posts

4426

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

« Last post by 40hz on December 06, 2012, 09:32 AM »

I do kind of like the humour, but... man... they just seem a bit dangerous to me.

-Renegade (December 06, 2012, 08:57 AM)

Renny's right about the danger...

-TaoPhoenix (December 06, 2012, 09:18 AM)

Please note my introductory comment where I said: When it comes to practical jokes, this one is just bloody evil!

That was not intended to be a taken as a compliment.  

(It's also too long. It stopped being even moderately interesting to me, even from a shock perspective, after the second or third iteration. But when I was shown it, everybody around me was laughing hysterically and going nuts over it. So I figured I'd share it just in case I was missing something. I often do "not get" much of what passes for "humor" these days.)

4427

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

« Last post by 40hz on December 06, 2012, 08:23 AM »

..."House approves resolution to keep Internet control out of UN hands" ... by ... wait for it ... 397-0...

-TaoPhoenix (December 05, 2012, 06:23 PM)

Hard to believe, but true, by all reports.

-IainB (December 06, 2012, 01:01 AM)

"We need to send a strong message, blah blah blah. Now if you'll excuse us, we'll go back holding our country hostage before you rudely interrupted us."    

-TaoPhoenix (December 06, 2012, 03:43 AM)

Considering how feckless and ineffective (by design) the UN has been for most of it's existence, it's probably just as well.

You can't have an effective world governing body when a tiny group of players (all armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons) individually hold absolute and unchallengeable veto power over anything and everything the UN "resolves."

But then again, the UN was never set up with the intent to be a governing body. It's never been more than a public forum and debating society at the best of times. Much like the Student Councils and Student Senates in most high schools and universities. It has all the trappings of a government body - but none of the real authority.
 

4428

Living Room / Re: Recommend some music videos to me!

« Last post by 40hz on December 06, 2012, 07:52 AM »

Since we're "living in the past" for the moment, here's two of Rock's soon to be "Greats of Yesteryear" in performance at the Canterbury Cathedral in 2011. May I present Messrs. Justin Hayward (Moody Blues) and Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull) performing two Moody Blues classics: Forever Autumn and Nights in White Satin.

Of course the future of Moody Blues performance is secure since their appointment of Norda Mullen as their new flutist/guitarist/backing vocalist. Interesting interview about the role of the flute and flute players in the Moody Blues:

 

4429

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

« Last post by 40hz on December 05, 2012, 11:45 PM »

In-fucking-sane... 

While it's absolutely hilarious... god... these people seriously... I'm just waiting for them to turn up for their Darwin Award!

-Renegade (December 05, 2012, 08:57 PM)

Hear ya! My home state has the same flair for the dramatic. See here.

 

4430

Living Room / Re: I gotta try this...

« Last post by 40hz on December 05, 2012, 11:36 PM »

Trying it in an airport waiting area would be way cool.  

...if you weren't planning on doing anything or going anywhere for the next 48  hours.

4431

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

« Last post by 40hz on December 05, 2012, 07:48 PM »

 

It is now safe to delete cookies.

4432

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

« Last post by 40hz on December 05, 2012, 04:12 PM »

Extremely Scary Ghost Prank. (When it comes to practical jokes, this one is just bloody evil! )

4433

Living Room / Re: Recommend some music videos to me!

« Last post by 40hz on December 05, 2012, 04:03 PM »

^Wow! Brubeck's Take Five. Sounds so simple and easy the way Dave and Paul play it. Or does until you try to perform it yourself the first few times. We're so trained in symmetric 3/4 and 4/4 timing (and their variants) that it can be a challenge to not accidentally loose that smooth 5/4 beat (evenly count: 1-2-3-1-2, 1-2-3-1-2...)  - or subconsciously "correct it" and start playing in 4/4 time instead. It's a subtle thing.

But subtlety is the mark of true genius. And Dave Brubeck had it in spades.

4434

Living Room / Re: Where Is Windows 8.1?

« Last post by 40hz on December 05, 2012, 03:16 PM »

I disagree with one point John made. Which is a record since I usually take issue with about half of what he says most times:

 "And why would anyone want to run any application full screen ever? The only time you do it is perhaps to watch a movie on the computer. This incorrect notion obviously came from people who do not actually use computers."

Well...I "actually use" computers. And I do most of my writing/scripting using a "distraction free" (as in full screen) text editor. And I'm far from being alone in doing that.

But I also use a command terminal at least twice as much as I use a GUI - so maybe I am a mutant?

4435

Living Room / Re: Security, Law, Ego, and Patheticness

« Last post by 40hz on December 05, 2012, 03:09 PM »

Law: Oh god...
...
Patheticness: Hacker? God... It's called looking at EXIF data...


So wait, how many layers of recast blame are we looking at here?

Law: "Now remember, class, when we like you, we call you a Security Researcher. When we don't like that you showed us up but you helped us, we call you a Hacker. When we want to tap into the meme to scare the sheep into letting us pass new laws, we call you a Terrorist. So be nice, okay? You wouldn't want to be called a Terrorist. P.S. We need another $50 Billion for a new surveillance program."

-TaoPhoenix (December 05, 2012, 02:59 PM)

Spot on! The Phoenix sums it up in just 51 words.

Take a bow T-Man!!!

4436

Living Room / Re: Security, Law, Ego, and Patheticness

« Last post by 40hz on December 05, 2012, 12:31 PM »

Just goes to show it's seldom wise to taunt people regardless of your motivation.

All it usually accomplishes is to put yourself on the receiving end of a "challenge accepted" response from the Universe.
 

And +1 with SJ. There aren't too many commercial software products that outright suck. But McAfee's products definitely suck.

4437

Living Room / Re: Exchange E-Mail hosting recommendation needed

« Last post by 40hz on December 04, 2012, 07:08 PM »

^Yup. Very compelling. And for $8/per you get all that plus compliance archiving, unlimited archive storage space (with 25Gb in primary inbox), and hosted voicemail. No contract either. Pay as you go. And with a company big enough they'll be around for the foreseeable. Yup. Very compelling.
 

Still have to find out how easy it is to set up - plus sync the huge PSTs they currently have up to the cloud.

I understand how to do it. But I've never done it personally - and hands on is everything when it comes to this sort of thing.

4438

General Software Discussion / Re: How 4 Microsoft engineers proved that the “darknet” would defeat DRM

« Last post by 40hz on December 04, 2012, 06:15 PM »

@Wraith- thx for those links in your previous post.  Good info and very helpful. 

4439

Living Room / Re: Exchange E-Mail hosting recommendation needed

« Last post by 40hz on December 04, 2012, 03:42 PM »

@techiD - Hey! Sorry! I didn't even see your response earlier and had given the question up for lost.

Looking at MSoft's Exchange in the cloud service, I think this is exactly what they're looking for.

Don't know why it hadn't occurred to me since Redmond has been pushing this is the partner channel for the last year - and we're supposed to be at least suggesting it to our clients.  Unfortunately my "cloud guy" decided to hang out his own shingle a while back and that initiative was being neglected on our part.

Time to get reacquainted and caught up with that.

Thanks for the wake-up call.

4440

General Software Discussion / Re: How 4 Microsoft engineers proved that the “darknet” would defeat DRM

« Last post by 40hz on December 04, 2012, 02:49 PM »

f0dder's observation about "better terms" and wraith's point about conflicting and flat out wrong information is exactly what made me wash my hands of all this video voodoo ages ago.

Does anybody know where you can find a reliable and accurate introduction to PC video and video formats. I don't mind buying a book or two - or paying for an online course if that's what it takes. Ideally something that explains things such as containers, how video and audio data gets encoded, the different types of encoding along with their respective pros and cons...you get the idea: something for an intelligent but total (video tech) newbie who is not afraid of hearing some serious tech talk?

Anybody? 

4441

General Software Discussion / Re: How 4 Microsoft engineers proved that the “darknet” would defeat DRM

« Last post by 40hz on December 03, 2012, 03:55 PM »

@Wraith - ever consider doing a how-to or thread on how to do all this?

There's plenty up on the web - but most of it seems directed at the media/home theater aficionado and not the ordinary viewer who is just looking for a simple approach like yours.
 

4442

General Software Discussion / Re: How 4 Microsoft engineers proved that the “darknet” would defeat DRM

« Last post by 40hz on December 03, 2012, 12:49 PM »

Best solution for a media server would be simple JBOD - just turns any old bunch of disks into one apparently enormous disk.

-Carol Haynes (December 03, 2012, 10:25 AM)

JBOD is one approach in that media serves really need to have a "scale-out" (ala GlusterFS) as opposed to "scale-up" capability since you never know how much space and resources you'll need until you need it. And being able to add it piecemeal and as needed is the most cost effective way to do it. Especially since there won't be anything on most media servers that can't be replaced/reloaded relatively easily.
 

4443

Living Room / Re: Newzbin2 closes its doors

« Last post by 40hz on December 03, 2012, 09:47 AM »

FWIW the Open Rights Group doesn't seem to have a problem with how Newzbin was being pursued in the courts. Their only objection was the use of censorship and blocks to shut it down.

And yeah, they did have a lot of pointers to um..."interesting" stuff?

Also note what the operators were saying in their announcement. It seems the amount of money needed to run NB2 was never really there to begin with - even before the blockade. Which is understandable when you consider that people are generally reluctant to send money (which can always be traced back) to sites engaged (or even merely accused of being engaged) in questionable activities. Because if you do contribute, you could find yourself personally in trouble for abetting if the eggnog ever hit the fan.

So...nope. I think it's more they decided to cut their losses and walk away while they still could. And this action against them only accelerated their inevitable shutdown.
 

4444

Living Room / Re: putting politics before lives ...

« Last post by 40hz on December 03, 2012, 08:23 AM »

Yeah, I know, it's a far-fetched, hard to prove claim. And yes, you're free to call it a conspiracy theory.

-eleman (December 03, 2012, 07:46 AM)

I don't see it as either far fetched nor a conspiracy. I just see it as typical human behavior.

Those with an advantage wish to preserve their advantage.

Those in possession of something of value generally try to hold on to it - and ideally get more of it.

Humans generally prefer to associate with people that think and look much like themselves.

Humans generally prefer to do nice things for the people they like. And ignore, or do bad things, to those they don't.

The instinctive human responses to any threat are: Fight/Flight/Freeze.

Cooperation is not instinctive. Nor is morality. They are both learned behaviors subject to the interpretations of the community and the environment one grows up in.

So no need for fancy conspiracy theories. The West has it pretty good right now. Arguably better on the whole than any other society in human history all things being equal. And the West simply wants to keep it that way.

The problem lies in what may be considered an acceptable way to keep it so.

People have preferred approaches to problems based on previous experiences and successes. And they tend to repeat behaviors that have worked in the past - even when current realities indicate the old approaches are no longer workable.

People that are used to thinking in terms of police power and military responses tend to see people wearing uniforms and carrying guns as the optimal solution to otherwise insurmountable problems.

It's not always.

But try convincing somebody who believes in guns, and prisons, and all the other trappings of government coercion otherwise. Like Louis XIV so famously engraved on the barrels of his canons: Ultima Ratio Regum

Believe it.

4445

General Software Discussion / Re: How 4 Microsoft engineers proved that the “darknet” would defeat DRM

« Last post by 40hz on December 03, 2012, 06:04 AM »

^Wow! That is one awesome collection!  

Like I said earlier: YMMV - and you definitely have a lot more 'mileage' to cover than I ever will.  

4446

General Software Discussion / Re: How 4 Microsoft engineers proved that the “darknet” would defeat DRM

« Last post by 40hz on December 02, 2012, 10:05 PM »

IMHO it's hardly ever worth ripping movies to a server drive to begin with.

-40hz (December 02, 2012, 12:13 PM)

Really?  I have mine on my server and access it all over the house.

-wraith808 (December 02, 2012, 09:35 PM)

I think this is one of those YMMV situations. 

In my case, I do all my watching in one place in my house. And I have a fairly large collection of movies on hard media that I really don't feel a pressing need to rip and possibly convert to run off a media server. Because (to me) it's hardly worth having everything available at the click of a mouse button to play in any room of the house - because that's not something I actually ever do. It's much easier and more enjoyable for me to go and sit in the den and watch something after putting a disk in the DVD player.

 

4447

General Software Discussion / Re: How 4 Microsoft engineers proved that the “darknet” would defeat DRM

« Last post by 40hz on December 02, 2012, 02:39 PM »

Are we busy arguing over how bad DRM is while they are pulling the hardware out from under our feet?

-Jibz (December 02, 2012, 01:55 PM)

Absolutely.

Since they can't control it via software anymore (far too many coders and open platforms) the other option is too restrict it via hardware - which is easier since not everybody can manufacture a chip.

That may not deter the heavy techno crowd - but they're a relatively tiny a minority, and they provide the benefit of free troubleshooting for DRM systems anyway. Joe Blow on  the street however is going to be stopped in his tracks. Or will be until the Sim Lim Square gray market starts offering limited quantities of unlocked hardware just like they did with "region free" DVD players.

UEFI/SecureBoot is the forerunner of what's planned. Since it would be too heavy handed to attack Linux directly, it's far easier to just make sure that in ten years time there's very little it will run on. Apple and Microsoft have perfectly capable operating systems and both companies are into doing DRM from way back.

I'm guessing about 85%-90% of the public won't care. Which is what I think they're really hoping to accomplish with DRM. Stop the "casual pirate" or copier.

The naughty boys and girls will always be around. But I think the industries have come to acknowledge that. All they're out to do now is keep that small element's philosophy and practices from becoming the norm. They can always prosecute the violators piecemeal once they're sufficiently marginalized and isolated.

It's the long game we're playing now.

And I'm afraid the completely open general purpose personal computer will go the way of the dodo before it's over.

Open computing is a disruptive technology. Business doesn't want it. Government definitely doesn't want it. And they're both in the position to do something about it.

And romantic techno-ninja notions aside, the big boys very likely will succeed in putting an end to open computing before it's over.

The PC is dead. Long live the PC!

4448

General Software Discussion / Re: How 4 Microsoft engineers proved that the “darknet” would defeat DRM

« Last post by 40hz on December 02, 2012, 12:13 PM »

IMHO, it is not worth the trouble and risk to use RAID for video collection. (particularly RAID 1)

-tslim (December 02, 2012, 08:37 AM)

IMHO it's hardly ever worth ripping movies to a server drive to begin with.

For music CDs it makes some sense since songs seldom run longer than 5 minutes each and it's nice to be able to create playlists or flip around. But the average movie runs about 90 minutes to two hours - so I could never see what the hassle was with just loading a DVD into a player before settling in for an hour or two to watch it. But maybe that's just me?

As far as RAID goes, I agree it's seldom justified for personal use. My comments about RAID in this context were about how software RAID implementations in Linux are quite reliable based on my experience. And that FreeNAS is an excellent storage solution purely as far as storage solutions go. What it's appropriate to use it for is a whole other discussion however.

And I agree - doing a mirror storage array for a static media collection (likely already on hard media unless the collection is mostly "acquired through alternate distribution channels"  ) does strike me as being a bit of overkill.

But that's probably just me too.

4449

Living Room / Re: Microsoft Trolls The Trolls In Latest IE10 Ad

« Last post by 40hz on December 01, 2012, 10:26 AM »

^suggest you watch the movie Schindler's List.

I'm not another Richard Stallman. I'll take doing some good or making things better where and from whoever provides it. I never saw the point of refusing something just because the offer wasn't "pure" enough to suit my own philosophical and political attitudes. 

4450

Living Room / Re: Microsoft Trolls The Trolls In Latest IE10 Ad

« Last post by 40hz on December 01, 2012, 08:46 AM »

Hmm...maybe Microsoft should thank Mozilla for so neatly and repeatedly dropping the ball in order to create this opportunity for IE.

Which is good. Because Mozilla has strayed from much which made them so good originally - and many have felt they were long overdue for a wake up call. And since they don't seem to be listening to their users all that much, maybe they'll take a 'shot across the prow' from Microsoft a bit more seriously.  

When products truly compete, they get better.

And we all benefit from that.