Recent Posts

4451

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

« Last post by 40hz on November 30, 2012, 06:28 PM »

4452

Living Room / Re: Samsung & Dell Printers backdoor

« Last post by 40hz on November 29, 2012, 06:20 PM »

My cell phone memory card is smaller than my thumb-nail and holds 16Gb.  That's a whole lot of information that can be stored, especially if stored in a text format.

-Tinman57 (November 28, 2012, 08:05 PM)

True enough, but I'm thinking about the cost. Would they spend the extra? It's not the size so much as the $$$.

-Renegade (November 28, 2012, 08:14 PM)

Samsung makes their own chips.  They can make chips for pennies for their own use, but cost a butt-load for us to buy.

-Tinman57 (November 29, 2012, 06:11 PM)

Very true. Once the mask is designed and made, the reproduction costs are relatively negligible.

When I worked for Perkin-Elmer, they made a popular "stepper" microlitograph. One of the engineers for that division gave me a chip embedded in a block of Lucite. It was the first manufactured chip of a new design they had come up with. He told me It was worth about $5 million dollars. Then he laughed and said that's because all the development expenses get written to the P&L statement once the first copy comes off the line. After that they cost the company about 85 cents apiece.
 

4453

Living Room / Exchange E-Mail hosting recommendation needed

« Last post by 40hz on November 29, 2012, 06:12 PM »

Hi all.

I have a few small clients (legal firms with less than 5 people each) that need a hosted e-mail solution that uses MS Exchange as its backend. They're heavily vested in MS Outlook for a variety of reasons not worth going into. Suffice to say, they want to start using some of the group features (calendar sharing etc.) - but can't justify the expenditure of supporting their own email/Exchange servers.

Is anybody using or recommending a service that provides this. The people I normally refer my clients to for this sort of service don't support customers this small.

Anybody know a provider who is really good for this?

(P.S. Direct experience recommendations only please? I can read the web reviews too. I'm looking for personal recommendations. I trust my fellow DoCo members more than I do most web sources. Thx! )

4454

General Software Discussion / Re: What went wrong with Linux on the Desktop

« Last post by 40hz on November 29, 2012, 06:00 PM »

Incidentally, I turned 78 today.

-tosim (November 29, 2012, 04:09 PM)

Happy Birthday!

(sorry - I dont know anything about linux, so I dont have any other comment)

-tomos (November 29, 2012, 04:17 PM)

Happy Birthday!

I know a bit about Linux and I'm glad Mint is working out so well for you. That's pretty much the outcome I've seen with virtually everybody I recommended it to who gave it a genuine try.

Seriously, I still can't see why so many people think Linux is such a big deal. It's very Windows-like. And most of the hassles that used to go with using it are now ancient history.
 

4455

Living Room / Re: My fiancés version of: "The Female Dr. Who" - Thought I would share :)

« Last post by 40hz on November 29, 2012, 09:44 AM »

I was just thinking: It's about time.

The females were always the most interesting characters with the best backstories when it came to Dr Who. Let's cut to the chase and gender-bend the lead role!

Great illustration!

4456

General Software Discussion / Re: What would YOU like to change in Win.8

« Last post by 40hz on November 29, 2012, 07:01 AM »

If they would simply allow you to choose your windows manager (like you can with Linux) I'd be willing to overlook almost everything else they're doing that annoys me. 

4457

Living Room / Re: Samsung & Dell Printers backdoor

« Last post by 40hz on November 28, 2012, 09:23 PM »

But but but but... it's for you safety!

 

I wonder in what universe is that a good idea?

-Renegade (November 28, 2012, 06:59 PM)

China.

-40hz (November 28, 2012, 07:01 PM)

China is a universe?! 

-TaoPhoenix (November 28, 2012, 07:08 PM)

According to China it is.

4458

Living Room / Re: Samsung & Dell Printers backdoor

« Last post by 40hz on November 28, 2012, 09:22 PM »

Really, I would have expected more from you 40!

-Renegade (November 28, 2012, 07:35 PM)

Don't. It's been a very long week...

4459

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows "Blue"

« Last post by 40hz on November 28, 2012, 07:10 PM »

Hmm..,

Fix Vista and remove most of the unnecessary annoyances = Windows 7

Fix Windows 8 and remove most of the unnecessary annoyances = Windows ???

 

4460

Living Room / Re: Samsung & Dell Printers backdoor

« Last post by 40hz on November 28, 2012, 07:01 PM »

But but but but... it's for you safety!

 

I wonder in what universe is that a good idea?

-Renegade (November 28, 2012, 06:59 PM)

China.

4461

Living Room / Re: Why did it never occur to me.. You can wash a keyboard in water.

« Last post by 40hz on November 28, 2012, 11:45 AM »

The sugar in Coke can also corrode contacts and components.

We used to replace a lot of damaged laptop mobos thanks to soft drink spills.

4462

Living Room / Re: DOTCOM saga - updates

« Last post by 40hz on November 27, 2012, 04:07 PM »

No surprises there. They did the same favor for the railroads before that. 

4463

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

« Last post by 40hz on November 26, 2012, 10:12 PM »

Not much in the way of a video. But a great live performance by Jaco Pastorious and his Word of Mouth Big Band performing Three Views of a Secret live at Avery Fisher Hall back in 1982.

 

4464

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

« Last post by 40hz on November 26, 2012, 09:49 PM »

Ooooo... Florence Welch! Excellent choice! Carrying on in the tradition of Maddie Prior, Annie Haslam, Kate Bush, Caroline Lavelle and all the other marvelous 'songbirds' the UK seems to produce so regularly. I wonder if it's something in the water?



 

4465

Living Room / Re: World's oldest still working digital computer gets rebooted

« Last post by 40hz on November 26, 2012, 09:17 PM »

And it illustrates how true one engineer's observation that "Not everything worth doing is worth doing well" is a reality they all need to eventually accept and live with.

-40hz (November 24, 2012, 11:56 AM)

This is my numero uno struggle in life.  I don't know how to convince myself of this, yet I know I have to eventually or else I'm going to lose my mind, literally.

-superboyac (November 26, 2012, 11:59 AM)

I think in the end it all comes down to a recognition of limits and learning some humility.

Not to say that you can't accomplish great things. You can of you want to. But barring a minor miracle or incredible luck. most people won't hit 100% every time. A life well lived is more like a marathon. Even world-class marathoners learn to pick the races they really want to win - and arrange their training schedule so they 'peak' for those races. And although many run several marathons each year, they're usually soundly beaten in all but the one or two they're really trying to win. The rest are just to keep in shape. Which is wise because nobody will ever win every marathon they enter. It's beyond the capability of the human body to do so.

So just like not every marathon you enter is run with the intent of coming in first, so too is doing versus doing well. Sometimes it's enough to just get it done and not get too hung up on finesse.

Like one of my early mentors told me when I was working at one of the Fortune top 5 companies - There's always plenty of opportunities around here to find something to wage war over - or throw yourself on the sword for. But if you're smart you'll pick your venues. The goal is to always try to do your best. But the real challenge is figuring out how to hang in there long enough to really make a difference - and be recognized and rewarded for it. And a good part of succeeding comes from not allowing yourself to get bogged down in pointless battles. Or waste effort on trivia or low yield tasks. Just get those things done correctly, but also as quickly as possible. Then move on and focus on more important things."

Worked for me.

4466

Living Room / Re: Why did it never occur to me.. You can wash a keyboard in water.

« Last post by 40hz on November 26, 2012, 08:51 PM »

Baking soda is good for loosening soap buildup and many forms of grease and oil. Warm water and baking soda works especially well for cleaning hair brushes and combs. Alkalies generally have it in for soaps. And are far better than most "safe to use" acids at removing it.

The only risk in using it in a drain is if there's a huge soap scum or crud buildup on the walls of a pipe or sink trap. Sometimes baking soda will loosen it enough that it all comes off the pipe in one big clump and clogs the up works. Enough hot water and additional baking soda will loosen it eventually. But that can take a few days. And if there's a big wad of hair (freed from the soap scum) making up part of the blockage, all the baking soda in the world won't budge it.

I skip the vinegar and just use a half cup of baking soda and a quart or so of very hot water in my drains from time to time. Dump it in, let it sit for about ten minutes, and then flush it with clean water from the hot water tap for about a minute or two. It seems to help. But it's more a preventative maintenance thing than a real drain cleaner AFAIC.

YMMV.

4467

Living Room / Re: In search of ... opinions on RAID at home

« Last post by 40hz on November 26, 2012, 08:38 PM »

I can almost understand RAID-1 (mirror) for personal use. A mirrored drive combined with a disciplined backup/sync strategy is a terrific combination for people involved in creative work where it would be hard or impossible to get back something in all its original glory if you lost it. But I wouldn't bother with any other level of RAID for personal machines at this stage of the game.

4468

Living Room / Re: In search of ... opinions on RAID at home

« Last post by 40hz on November 26, 2012, 07:06 AM »

A hard disk crash remains one of the more likely unpleasant events that a computer owner will encounter.. RAID is the only true preventative solution to that very real program.

-mouser (November 25, 2012, 09:25 PM)

Unless the RAID controller itself is the culprit. I've been involved in several situations where inexpensive RAID controllers introduced their own data corruption problems. And these problems rendered every element in the array absolutely useless for recovery.

And because you have data spread across multiple drives, data recovery from elements in a RAID array (other than RAID-1) is extremely difficult and generally requires expert (i.e. $$$) outside assistance.

Sometimes the greater the level of protection afforded, the greater the problems created should it ever fail.

Or as a friend of mine once put it: Slay one monster and it's only a matter of time before a bigger monster take its place.

Then there's the issue of disk make and model. E/SATA drives are not created equal. And not every drive from every manufacturer will be compatible with every RAID controller. You need to check the compatibility lists they publish. Because even though most drives will format and can be initialized as part of an array, it's only a matter of time before weird problems start cropping up. I've seen that happen with MOBO and inexpensive controller cards trying to implement RAID-5 far more often than I'd like.

There's also chipset compatibility issues with some RAID controllers.

So:

First - check your host machines specs and verify what chipset you're using.

Second - select your RAID controller, making sure it's compatible with your chipset and other system specs. And if you're doing anything other than mirroring don't bother with any controller found on the motherboard. Get a separate RAID controller card with its own CPU and battery. These are sometimes called hardware or hardware-based RAID cards. And shop quality. Don't automatically buy the cheapest controller you can find - even if it is from a "name" you recognize.

Third - get the list of recommended drives from the RAID controller's website. Use only the makes and specific models recommended for your specific controller. Also read any user forum posts on the RAID controller's website. Disk manufacturers will sometimes change the specifications on a drive without notice - and not always update their SKU code to reflect it. When that happens, the only way to discover there's a compatibility problem is if you (or preferably somebody else ) experiences it first.

 

4469

Living Room / Re: In search of ... opinions on RAID at home

« Last post by 40hz on November 25, 2012, 07:45 PM »

Unless your primary criteria is zero-downtime, it's hard to justify RAID in any scenario AFAIC.

Only disciplined and intelligent backup plan will provide genuine data protection. All that RAID can ever really do for you is reduce downtime. It does nothing to improve reliability since more drives = a higher statistical likelihood of having a drive fail.

EDIT: Whoops! JJ just got in ahead of me. Read his post. It's better!

4470

General Software Discussion / Re: Are you going to wait for Windows 9?

« Last post by 40hz on November 25, 2012, 06:54 PM »

I maybe wrong but I haven't seen evidence yet that Apple are working towards a desktop free future on their laptops and desktop computers. If they have any sense they will see MS's implied intentions and woo the likes of Adobe to become exclusively Apple. It would have a huge effect on creative industries - already many use Apple exclusively but it could win over a whole area of business that MS currently shares.

-Carol Haynes (November 25, 2012, 06:21 PM)

I don't think you're wrong although I am seeing a big drop off in Apple pushing their laptops at least. I think the iPad will ultimately be the MacBook killer in a few more years. And if you go to their website at www.apple.com, you don't even see the Mini or the MacPros pictured on the homepage any more. Which I think is an indication of where Apple's interests and emphasis currently lie.

But yes, if Apple played its cards right, they do have an opportunity to grab larger segments of the business wrold. The Mini is a natural for the corporate desktop. Small, low power, quiet, inexpensive, and it fits into almost any decor...you can get a somewhat expensive extended care contract for it - and it's fully networkable. As an office productivity platform it would work quite nicely for most businesses. You see a lot o them in hospitals around where I am so they're likely making an effort for the medical market.

Either way, this is going to be an interesting year coming up.

4471

Living Room / Re: Why did it never occur to me.. You can wash a keyboard in water.

« Last post by 40hz on November 25, 2012, 06:40 PM »

was accustomed to working the function keys on the left on my old XT keyboard with the left pinkie. But at that time $89 or thereabouts, was a serious chunk of change for me.

-MilesAhead (November 25, 2012, 04:43 PM)

Still is a serious chunk of change for me for just a keyboard.

But it was for business use so it was easier to justify the price back when I bought them.

The main reason I bought the Logitech Illuminated was because I desperately needed to get another good keyboard and found one on clearance at Staples for $29. I never would have paid the regular $69 they were asking for it.
 

4472

Living Room / Re: Why did it never occur to me.. You can wash a keyboard in water.

« Last post by 40hz on November 25, 2012, 10:55 AM »

I would say my keyboard is almost as solid as those IBM keyboards.

-Shades (November 25, 2012, 09:52 AM)

Luckily for me I still use Northgate OmniKey Ultra keyboards that I bought somewhere around the early 90's. 119 keys, as good as the day they were bought.

-cranioscopical (November 25, 2012, 10:33 AM)

I still have two Omnikeys too.

Best keyboards ever made in my opinion - although the Logitech Illuminated Keyboard isn't a bad alternative choice even if the key layout is a little strange in places and it feels nothing like an Omnikey. The decent touch response on the Logitech is supposedly due to something they call the PerfectStroke key system.

The PerfectStroke key system was developed from our desire to put the best parts of a laptop’s keyboard into a more comfortable, full sized keyboard to create an unforgettable typing experience that makes every key stroke smooth, comfortable, and quiet. This system uses the scissor-key mechanism found on laptop keyboards for an improved key feeling and faster response time. To create this affect, micro-scissors are added under the keys to help control the force and travel of the keystroke.

Key travel is the vertical distance required for each keystroke, or how far down the key moves when you press it. Whereas laptops typically have a key travel of 2 to 2.5mm, research shows that a longer key travel improves your typing comfort and requires less force. So, we gave PerfectStroke a key travel of 3.2mm. If, like me, you like the feeling of your laptop’s keyboard, but wish it were more comfortable, you will love our keyboards with PerfectStroke.

I really like the way it feels. And you can absolutely fly on the thing. YMMV
 

4473

Living Room / Re: 3D Printing Under Attack

« Last post by 40hz on November 25, 2012, 10:43 AM »

^OK. So maybe they do have their paralegals actually do it - but you get the idea.

4474

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Amiga & C64 Forever 2012 "R3" Plus Edition - 12.85 USD

« Last post by 40hz on November 25, 2012, 10:42 AM »

^Yes

http://www.amigaforever.com/

http://www.c64forever.com/

4475

Living Room / Re: 3D Printing Under Attack

« Last post by 40hz on November 25, 2012, 07:52 AM »

Seems like a big stretch there.

-Renegade (November 25, 2012, 06:54 AM)

Big stretches of logic and flights of imagination are the stock-in-trade of the legal profession.

Are we surprised? In a world of engineers, scientists, teachers, doctors, laborers, farmers, fishermen, homemakers, businesspeople, and cooks - people who actually add value and make things - attorneys create nothing. They merely rearrange the deck chairs and fold napkins.

No wonder they're constantly trying to create a role and find some relevance for themselves in a world of doers.