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Recent Posts

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4701
Living Room / Re: Could someone convert a .png into an .ico for me?
« Last post by Deozaan on February 10, 2012, 07:33 AM »
FWIW, and for future reference, I don't make icons often, but when I do, I use IcoFX Portable.

I'm pretty sure it can do icons just like the ones Krishean made for you.
4702
DC Gamer Club / Re: Humble Android Bundle
« Last post by Deozaan on February 09, 2012, 03:14 PM »
They've just added Toki Tori to the bundle. Available for Linux/Windows/Mac/Android.

They're also working on a Humble Bundle Android app that will make it easier for you to manage/download your HIB games on Android. :Thmbsup:
4703
DC Gamer Club / Game Music Bundle - Pay What You Want for 5+ Indie Game Soundtracks
« Last post by Deozaan on February 09, 2012, 02:34 PM »
Pay what you want for 5 game soundtracks. If you pay at least $10 then you will get 14 or more albums. More albums unlock as more bundles are sold.

Game Music Bundle 2.jpg

http://www.gamemusicbundle.com/
4704
N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 Mugs, etc. -- All participants please read in
« Last post by Deozaan on February 08, 2012, 01:27 AM »
Here are all my DC Mugs, including an extra NANY 2012 mug since the first one arrived damaged.

DSC01863.JPG

Thanks again to mouser and the anonymous donor who made it possible for the mugs to be shipped out. :Thmbsup:
4705
Don't boycott those games. Buy them used if you want them.
4706
DC Gamer Club / Re: Hawken beta sign-up
« Last post by Deozaan on February 07, 2012, 12:38 PM »
I think this game looks awesome, but sadly I probably won't play it now that I know it's a multiplayer only deathmatch game like Team Fortress 2. :(
4707
General Software Discussion / Re: Dropbox 1.3.12 with 4.5 GB free extra space...
« Last post by Deozaan on February 04, 2012, 06:54 PM »
Thanks. :Thmbsup:
4708
General Software Discussion / Re: Ubuntu's Latest Interface "Brainstorm" - HUD
« Last post by Deozaan on February 01, 2012, 12:59 PM »
It actually looks pretty cool to me. It's not just an app launcher. It allows you to search and "launch" all the things from the menus in multiple applications. Sweet!

It certainly is - IF - you're primarily interested in coming up with an interface for tablet PCs.

I disagree. Typing your search terms would be more of a hassle on a tablet PC's virtual keyboard than navigating the menus with touch. On the other hand, pressing a hotkey to bring up the HUD and speedily typing away to get access to the things you want would be so much better on your desktop/laptop PC with a physical keyboard.
4709
Living Room / Re: NaGa DeMon
« Last post by Deozaan on February 01, 2012, 12:47 PM »
Yeah, I considered it. But I figured it was related to NaGa DeMon. Also, NaGa ProMo is not even a developed enough concept to have its own web page explaining what it's all about. :-\ And posting here will renew this thread and give more exposure to NaGa DeMon as well. :Thmbsup:
4710
Living Room / Re: NaGa DeMon
« Last post by Deozaan on February 01, 2012, 11:24 AM »
I have a friend who wanted some motivation and an excuse to spend a month focused on programming a game, so he came up with NaGa ProMo: National Game Programming Month.

Today is the first day. Get coding!
4711
Living Room / Re: When you make your 100'th Post
« Last post by Deozaan on February 01, 2012, 12:34 AM »
Thanks! I would have missed it if you folks didn't notify me about it.

we'll have to get on to mouser - there was a tradition to get a mug @ 5,000 posts.
Really?

At least that's the rumor. I've yet to see any proof of such a thing. Then again, the 5k+ club is still pretty exclusive. 8)
4712
General Software Discussion / Re: Ubuntu's Latest Interface "Brainstorm" - HUD
« Last post by Deozaan on February 01, 2012, 12:32 AM »
It actually looks pretty cool to me. It's not just an app launcher. It allows you to search and "launch" all the things from the menus in multiple applications. Sweet!

That said, I agree with you in that I'm not too keen on the idea of it totally replacing the menus rather than being an additional feature. Sometimes you can't remember the name of something but you have an idea where to find it and once you see it you know what it is.

I hardly use the Windows Start menu anymore because of the nifty built-in launcher in Windows 7 (and I think Vista). But when I do it is exactly for that reason: I can't remember the name of the program I want to launch but I'll know it when I see it.
4713
DC Gamer Club / Humble Android Bundle
« Last post by Deozaan on January 31, 2012, 12:52 PM »
There's a new Humble Bundle, this time the games are available on Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android! The games available are:

Anomaly: Warzone Earth
EDGE
Osmos
World of Goo (if you beat the average)



http://www.humblebundle.com/
4714
There's a book by Michael Crichton called Next that deals with sequences of the human genome being patented. It's not my favorite Crichton novel, but it was pretty good.
4715
Living Room / Re: Google Ends Privacy
« Last post by Deozaan on January 29, 2012, 02:15 PM »
Plus we had to add a data plan just so she could use it.  But that's a different story.

How is this considered an opt-in?

On older Android phones it was required to sign into a Google account before you could even use the phone.

The only Android device I've owned is one that has such a requirement, so I can't personally verify the following, but based on what Eóin has said newer Android devices (or perhaps only custom ROMs) don't require you to sign in to a Google account use the device.
4716
Living Room / Re: Google Ends Privacy
« Last post by Deozaan on January 29, 2012, 01:23 PM »
Though somewhat tangential, I highly recommend this reply from Tim O'Reilly (yep, *that* Tim O'Reilly).

[...]

But the real payload of O'Reilly's response comes in the paragraphs that follow.

I'll say!

If you want an example of a company that is doing "evil", consider Apple. I was horrified, when I heard Mike Daisey, author of the one-man show "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs," talking on This American Life about working conditions in the factories that make the iPhone and iPad, and Apple's tepid monitoring of those conditions. When a company has $98 billion in cash, and profits of tens of billions of dollars each quarter, does it really need to squeeze every last cent out of manufacturing costs.

The account of how Apple's factories substituted n-hexane, a neurotoxin with well-documented long term adverse health effects, for alcohol to wipe those shining screens clean, gaining a miniscule advantage in drying time but exposing workers to a lifetime of disablement nearly brought me to tears.

That's evil. Of course, Apple never promised to do no evil, so they get a free pass.

Journalists should listen to this episode, and then write about that, please:

http://www.thisameri...nd-the-apple-factory

 :(
4717
Living Room / Why History Needs Software Piracy
« Last post by Deozaan on January 29, 2012, 11:48 AM »
Here is a well thought out argument on why, from a historical perspective, software piracy is not only desirable, but necessary due to current copyright laws.

Thanks to widespread adoption of aggressive digital rights management (DRM) and a single-source model of distribution, most digitally distributed software will vanish from the historical record when those stores shut down. And believe me, they will shut down some day. If this doesn’t scare you, then you need an allegorical history lesson. Here it is:

Imagine if a publisher of 500,000 different printed book titles suddenly ceased operation and magically rendered all sold copies of its books unreadable. Poof. The information contained in them simply vanished. It would represent a cultural catastrophe on the order of the burning of the Great Library of Alexandriaw in 48 B.C. In that fire, a majority of the Western world’s cultural history up to that point turned to ash.

Now take a look at the iTunes App Store, a 500,000 app repository of digital culture. It’s controlled by a single company, and when it closes some day (or it stops supporting older apps, like Apple already did with the classic iPod), legal access to those apps will vanish. Purchased apps locked on iDevices will meet their doom when those gadgets stop working, as they are prone to do. Even before then, older apps will fade away as developers decline to pay the $100 a year required to keep their wares listed in the store.

And here's another analogy he makes not much later:

When Corporations Own History, They Change It

The DRM found in digital app stores today poses a significant threat to our future understanding of history. Sure, the companies that create this software own the rights to these products now, but once a work becomes consumed and embedded into mass culture, it belongs to the ages. It assumes a role larger than that of a mere commercial product, and copies of the work should be protected and preserved as cultural treasures.

It’s hard to protect and preserve that which is liable to change or disappear at any time. If VHS tapes worked like app stores, George Lucas could force all of us to upgrade our purchased Star Wars films to the Special Edition versions (to maintain compatibility with LucasOS, of course), overwriting the old ones in the process. Heck, one day he could decide he doesn’t like the movies at all and replace them with copies of Willow. It would be within his legal rights, but it would also be cultural robbery.

star_willow_small.jpg

Of course, accepting this argument requires accepting the assumption that software is culturally significant. And while personally I can accept that some software is indeed culturally significant, I don't think it will be for the worse if future generations never get to experience a Charlie Sheen Soundboard app.

The article makes a compelling argument for software piracy as a method of historical archival and cultural preservation. I suggest you read the entire thing here:

Why History Needs Software Piracy
4718
Living Room / Re: Is our perception of worth/value affected by venue?
« Last post by Deozaan on January 26, 2012, 02:50 PM »
Well maybe this is just hindsight bias speaking, but it seems to me like a foregone conclusion in today's society that busy people usually won't stop to smell the roses, so to speak.

In my opinion, the initial premise wasn't that interesting to begin with because the result could easily be predicted. It would be like asking "What would happen if, hypothetically speaking, we put an iPad under water." The result is predictable. But then again, Leonard Slatkin didn't predict what the actual result was. In hindsight it is easy for me to think things like "Well he's the music director of the National Symphony Orchestra, so of course he'd overestimate the importance of music and the effect it would have in every day people." But as I said from the beginning that may just be hindsight bias working its magic.

Though to be honest, I think the writer of the article knew the result wasn't very surprising and thus not very interesting to begin with so he used Leonard Slatkin's prediction to anchor our expectations so that we were surprised by the result in the end. You can see him set it up right here:

So, what do you think happened?

HANG ON, WE'LL GET YOU SOME EXPERT HELP.

Leonard Slatkin, music director of the National Symphony Orchestra, was asked the same question. What did he think would occur, hypothetically, if one of the world's great violinists had performed incognito before a traveling rush-hour audience of 1,000-odd people?

Before you're given a chance to reflect and honestly predict what happened, you are interrupted and given someone else's prediction, which subconsciously anchors your expectations, causing you to be unable to make an unbiased prediction.
4719
Living Room / Re: Is our perception of worth/value affected by venue?
« Last post by Deozaan on January 26, 2012, 01:44 AM »
It was a set-up.

It's hard to get someone to stop to give you the time of day when they're busy on their way somewhere hoping they're not late. The focus of the crowd was largely to get to their destination or suffer the consequences.

Beethoven could be conducting (live!) in the main lobby of a hospital and the people heading into the emergency room with a loved one who is having a heart attack or other urgent, fatal, medical condition, probably will be too caught up in their own situation to notice.

Whereas if Joshua Bell had been playing somewhere and some time in which people had time to spare and no other urgent matters (such as a weekend street marketplace) I am quite confident more people would have paid attention and perhaps even recognized him.
4720
Living Room / Re: It's a great day :-D
« Last post by Deozaan on January 26, 2012, 01:36 AM »
Wanting to make more people smile is a goal in my life.  :)

Then how come you've got a dead cat as your avatar?
4721
Try Stencyl (free) or Game Maker ($40 for v8.1).
4722
Living Room / Re: Google Ends Privacy
« Last post by Deozaan on January 26, 2012, 01:26 AM »
Also one should realise too that you can view the profile Google has built up on you and request that they no longer use targeted ads.

Silly question, but how do you view it ?

https://www.google.com/dashboard/
4723
Living Room / Re: I came to a conclusion this morning...
« Last post by Deozaan on January 26, 2012, 01:00 AM »
I'm not that old (or so I keep insisting) and I've long since lost the love of turning another year older. I don't usually completely space my birthday but perhaps that's because, like your friend, someone will remind me. I'll tell you though, I've had a hard time keeping track of my age since I was 19.
That might be a symptom of thinking you're secretly immortal - or at least not truly believeing you aren't.

I'm not sure that's an accurate diagnosis of my situation. I was very aware of my mortality at 19. Just ask the doctors who treated me for suicidality/depression. It was not a good year for me and my memory hasn't been the same since.

I've had a hard time keeping track of my age since I was 19.
Don't worry, it'll all come back to you when you turn 20...
-cranioscopical (January 25, 2012, 09:17 PM)

;D I sure hope so. :Thmbsup:
4724
Coding Snacks / IDEA: Grammar Nazi Mass Rename
« Last post by Deozaan on January 25, 2012, 06:10 PM »
I have recently made quite a number of purchases of games at GOG.com and downloaded the games + all additional content including soundtracks and wallpapers etc. I am bothered by the file naming scheme that GOG uses and would like a way to automatically traverse all subdirectories of a specified directory to rename the files.

Unwanted filename examples (with a few good ones in there):

GOG Bad Names.png

Wanted filename examples:

GOG Good Names.png

Basically, I want to replace underscores (_) with spaces ( ) and capitalize the first letter of each word.

But! Some words are acronyms e.g. HoMM or BG and I don't want those to be replaced with e.g. Homm or Bg. However, since GOG usually uses lowercase letters for their filenames anyway, I'm okay with it leaving a lowercase acronym all lowercase (but still capitalizing the first letter).

Or in other words, Make the first letter capitalized and don't worry about the case of any other letters in a word.
4725
General Software Discussion / Re: Bitcasa
« Last post by Deozaan on January 25, 2012, 04:46 PM »
Sorry to double-post, but I just found this:

Is my Cloudified data secure?

Yes, only you have access to your data. Bitcasa encrypts your data on your computer before uploading to the Bitcasa system. Nobody at Bitcasa can see your data or filenames.

If that's true, then they can't de-duplicate data across customers. And they do what SpiderOak does. Or at least that's what I think it means.
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