Recent Posts

4701

General Software Discussion / Re: Synergy Virtual KVM

« Last post by 40hz on November 02, 2012, 03:53 PM »

Life is too short for some things. I finally gave up and sprung for TeamViewer a while ago. I could never get Synergy KVM to work reliably or acceptably. There were always bad surprises on the rare occasions I could get it to work at all.

4702

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

« Last post by 40hz on November 02, 2012, 03:34 PM »

More copyright fun:

http://torrentfreak....ng-10-movies-121101/
BitTorrent Pirate Ordered to Pay $1.5 Million Damages For Sharing 10  (porn!) Movies

-TaoPhoenix (November 02, 2012, 09:45 AM)

Well, they better have been lesbian porn, because to my knowledge, the highest paid yet is $780,000.

http://www.news.com....ejlrpu-1226503001489

And that's for the real thing!

-Renegade (November 02, 2012, 10:05 AM)

I find something (ok...better make it many things) about that story extremely disturbing. Is it just me?

4703

Living Room / Re: When Kickstarters Fail

« Last post by 40hz on November 02, 2012, 03:17 PM »

That's a bit disingenuous on Kickstarter's part. And considering they may be considered in the business of publicizing and facilitating investment opportunities, they're skating on thin ice with state and federal laws and regulators.

-40hz (November 02, 2012, 01:25 PM)

Is that true though?  It's a failure of the project in terms of a failure to get funding.  That's not a consideration for investors- but rather a consideration for those listing their KS there, right?

-wraith808 (November 02, 2012, 01:36 PM)

Um. No. Previous track record is important. Both for the individual and the venue soliciting investments or contributions - or whatever you want to call a Kickstarter "pledge." Angel investors and VCs are very interested in industry trends, failure rates, key ratios, and the personal track record of the individual soliciting startup funding. As are most non-amateur investors.

A business is a failure if you can't secure funding for it. If regular business startups can't secure sufficient seed capital or later round financing it's counted as a business failure. Many new businesses never even get off the ground. A bunch of cash goes into the startup and it never opens its doors before it runs out of money. It's a net loss to the investors who are usually friends and family. How is something like that (which has always been considered a "failure" in any business circle I've ever been in) different if Kickstarter was involved. Same thing to me unless I'm missing something. (Always a good possibility with me.)
 

4704

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

« Last post by 40hz on November 02, 2012, 01:26 PM »

^Guess it's not free in Paris huh?

4705

Living Room / Re: When Kickstarters Fail

« Last post by 40hz on November 02, 2012, 01:25 PM »

Excellent article and a must read for anybody thinking of seeking or contributing cash through a Kickstarter project.

I was a little surprised and disappointed when I read this in the article:

Kickstarter intentionally makes failure a hard thought to stumble on. Its website does not show failed projects unless they’re specifically asked for and the company directs search engine crawlers away from them. Estimating the number of failed projects is difficult because of these tactics, but most independent attempts to pinpoint the figure have landed at 50% or more.

That's a bit disingenuous on Kickstarter's part. And considering they may be considered in the business of publicizing and facilitating investment opportunities, they're skating on thin ice with state and federal laws and regulators.

So it goes.

4706

Living Room / Re: Ethiopian kids hack OLPCs in 5 months with zero instruction

« Last post by 40hz on November 02, 2012, 11:36 AM »

If true, it says one thing to me: the magic is still there.

4707

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

« Last post by 40hz on November 02, 2012, 08:32 AM »

1979. The Shadows and Light Tour. Here's Joni Mitchell in a performance of her song Free Man in Paris accompanied by Pat Metheny, Lyle Mays, Michael Brecker, Don Alias, and (the much missed) Jaco Pastorius on bass.

With a band lineup like that nothing further needs be said.

4708

Living Room / Re: Ubuntu Linux Amazon Integration & EFF

« Last post by 40hz on November 01, 2012, 09:31 PM »

It took a while, but Shuttleworth's true colors are finally starting to show themselves for what they are.

It's not that big a surprise in that it was something most savvy Nix observers suspected was the game plan all along for Ubuntu. But it was disappointing to see just how accurate even the most cynical of their suspicions turned out to be.

Only a matter of time before Shuttleworth signs off on a FUD patent license with Microsoft.

4709

Developer's Corner / Re: FTC to give $50,000 for robocall solution

« Last post by 40hz on November 01, 2012, 09:22 PM »

Hmm...how many "hits" can you put out "on contract" with $50K in the bank?

Oh yeah...I'm asking this purely as an intellectual exercise.

4710

Living Room / Re: You thought those cheap no-name USB/Phone charger were safe?

« Last post by 40hz on November 01, 2012, 09:18 PM »

I've found it a good rule of thumb to err on the side of caution and not be too frugal when it comes to AC current or anything that has enough electrical potential to kill or maim.

If it plugs into a wall, I generally stick with what the manufacturer recommends using.

4711

Living Room / Re: Win 8 Patent Lawsuit

« Last post by 40hz on November 01, 2012, 09:14 PM »

What comes around goes around.

Couldn't have happened to a nicer company AFAIC. Especially after I saw this article back in July.

4712

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

« Last post by 40hz on November 01, 2012, 09:05 PM »

Here's an interesting one from both a musical and a historical perspective.

Back in the early 70s, the ABC network hosted a marvelous concert as part of their "Wide World (fill in the blank)" network brand. In this particular instance it was the Wide World in Concert series, and the performance was Cat Stevens and his 1973 Moon and Star concert.

I find it interesting to compare and contrast the young Cat Stevens (as self-confessed seeker of truth) with his current incarnation as Yusuf Islam, a devout convert to Islam who now knows The Truth with absolute certitude.

Interesting...and saddening. But so it goes.

So here's Cat (not Yusuf) performing the full Foreigner Suite, which was the finale of the Moon and Star concert. Listen to the words and see the sheer joy that permeates the song. Then think of the altogether too serious and humorless older man this same musician/songwriter has become since he's...well...just listen.

------------

Note: the audio quality leaves a lot to be desired since it's dubbed off analog video and suffers from the limitations of 70s era recording technology. Not that it really matters. Cat Stevens packs more musical inventiveness and creativity into the seventeen and a half minutes of "Foreigner" than most songwriters generate in their entire career.

This is a performance that hits one of those elusive moments every musician dreams of. The moment where it all just comes together - and a song gets absolutely nailed. Pay special attention to his backup singers. They are stellar - and for some odd reason come through the otherwise muddy sound with remarkable purity. Probably one of the finest live performances ever recorded.

For the best experience (and that authentic 70s "concert sound" ) crank it up! That's how most music was performed back then. Loudly!
 

4713

Living Room / Re: Facebook's New Orwellian Censorship

« Last post by 40hz on November 01, 2012, 02:36 PM »

Facebook is under increasing pressure due to it's shoddy and mercurial policies on privacy (or lack thereof) and some questionable financial reporting during its public offering. What better time than now for some in a position to let the hounds off the leash to "suggest" FB "voluntarily" start cutting down on some freedom of expression. Especially since, as a private business, FB is under no constitutional obligations or constraints whatsoever.

That's the beauty of privatization. Government has checks and balances placed upon it. Corporations have none other than whatever "customer agreement" it cares to offer - and which is subject to change without notice.



Some people like to see "less government" as the panacea to all our social woes. I see expanded corporatism as an increasingly root cause of most of them.

Nope...I don't want less government in my life. I want less 'corporation.'
 

4714

Living Room / Re: Hurricane Sandy Discussion Thread

« Last post by 40hz on November 01, 2012, 02:21 PM »

They DID give preferential treatment when restoring power to various neighborhoods around here, and continue to, but for VERY GOOD reasons. They restored parts of towns that were considered more important than others.

-app103 (November 01, 2012, 01:56 PM)

As did our local utility here despite the allegations of one toady mayor.

There is a fundamental difference between setting priorities and what is irresponsibly referred to as "discriminatory" behavior.

Unfortunately, in our current "gimmee" culture, some people will routinely have trouble understanding the difference.

4715

Living Room / Re: Hurricane Sandy Discussion Thread

« Last post by 40hz on November 01, 2012, 09:31 AM »

@Ren - re: above prediction - you nailed it I think.  

Ok...now off to see if any new supplies are available after I check up on the elderly couple living next door. Last time this happened we got power back after 5 days, only to lose it 12 hours later when some transformers blew, and then be out for two more days...

Onward!

4716

Living Room / Re: Early Politicians

« Last post by 40hz on November 01, 2012, 09:01 AM »

As I'm constitutionally incapable of ever shutting up, I'd like to add one little bit of, well, fun for me anyways.

I do not consent to being forcibly confined or kidnapped.

-Renegade (November 01, 2012, 08:31 AM)

Well..."People who don't shut up end up being locked up!" as my buddy (who is an attorney) likes to say.

I thought my grandmother had a better insight. She used to say the one thing that gets us into the most trouble is our mouth. We pay for what we put into it. And we pay for what we let come out of it.

As time goes on, I've more and more begun to realize the profound truth hidden in that bit of grandmotherly wisdom.
 

4717

Living Room / Re: Early Politicians

« Last post by 40hz on November 01, 2012, 08:05 AM »

Why would you agree to allow anything you say or do to be used against you?

-Renegade (November 01, 2012, 12:49 AM)

Most attorneys will tell you, if you're ever in danger of, or actually placed under arrest, to sign nothing - and say nothing beyond: I do not consent to any searches. And I do not consent being interviewed. I wish to speak to an attorney. That's it. Those exact words. Don't add anything else or embellish. Say them calmly and clearly. Do not say them in a threatening tone - or do anything (make gestures or faces, assume a "confrontational posture," etc.) that could be creatively interpreted as "disorderly conduct" or "resisting." That will only make matters worse from a legal perspective. And depending on the circumstances, could also end up costing you your life. (US police are armed and authorized to use deadly force if they deem it necessary when making an arrest.)

Memorize these three short sentences in case you ever need them:

• I do not consent to any searches.
• I do not consent to being interviewed.
• I wish to speak to an attorney.

Say all three to the remanding officer(s) each time you're asked a question -  and whenever being handed over to a "supervisor" or other officer - and then once again very clearly when you're being formally "processed" at the police station.

After that, shut up - don't even keep repeating the above statement. Just clam up completely, let your brain go blank, and wait for the guy or lady wearing a gray suit and carrying a briefcase to show up. If you're being "uncooperative," the authorities will likely make you wait as long as they can, and possibly try playing other head games with you. Don't fall for it. An attorney will eventually show up to represent you. Just remain completely silent and wait for one to arrive.

Note: doing this this is even more important if you are innocent of what you're being charged with than if you're guilty.
 

4718

Living Room / Re: Disney acquires Lucasfilm for 4.05 billion dollars. Star Wars Ep VII due in 2015

« Last post by 40hz on November 01, 2012, 07:47 AM »

May the Force no longer be with you...

Because The Force is now with us.

Exclusively!

(Wanna buy a license?)

4719

Living Room / Re: Hurricane Sandy Discussion Thread

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

We have grid and net again. After three and a half days with everything off, the house now seems noisy and hot. How quickly we adapt!

Of course there always has to be some wrinkle to make it uniquely Connecticut.

This time it's Bill Finch, the mayor of Bridgeport ("The Park City"), our lovely neighboring post-industrial community, who made a public statement yesterday blaming the power utilities for favoring the surrounding "wealthier" communities when restoring power. This has neatly turned the ongoing outages into a class warfare issue. Hardly surprising since Bridgeport politicians have been spinning that line since the 80s. Point the finger outside - always outside - the city's borders. It plays well with certain constituencies they answer to.

Unfortunately, with schools closed, there are large numbers of kids out roaming the streets yesterday and today. And it's Halloween week. And now it looks like Mr. Finch may have kicked the proverbial hornet's nest...

Spoiler

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (WTNH) -- Mayor Bill Finch says UI is ignoring Bridgeport because people who live there aren't as wealthy as other cities and towns in Fairfield county.

"I don't feel we're getting our fair share from UI," said Mayor Finch. "I drive around my city and I see very few crews."

The frustrated Mayor says the city's children and low income residents cannot afford to go long without power.

"The critical needs of the region and the critical needs of the poorest people in the region are here and they need extra help," said Mayor Finch.

"We're all really struggling and this makes it worse because we have to throw food away, we're in the dark, some people don't have candles or flashlights because they can't afford it," said Tonya Shelton.

"Can you afford to get new food," asked News 8's Ali Reed.

"Of course not," Shelton replied, "they give me $32 a month for food stamps."

She's worried people will get desperate. Police and the National Guard are out monitoring the streets to prevent looting.

"We don't have anything," said Sylvia Campos.

"Do you have the money to go out and get new food," Reed asked.

"No. No, we are like homeless," said Campos.

A United Illuminating spokesman tells News 8 that "no one is given preferential treatment. Every city and town we service gets to put together a list of 10 priorities they feel should be the first places to have power restored."

The Mayor says his top priority is getting power back to the schools so students can get back into the classroom.

-Story in case you're interested

My GF works for the state's social services department. Word from her office is the mood is very ugly in the reception area today...

So it goes.

4720

Living Room / Re: Crossover Giveaway

« Last post by 40hz on October 29, 2012, 04:18 PM »

^Yes. In many respects, CrossOver is Wine. Wine works but it's often fiddly. CrossOver is to Wine as something like LinuxMint would be to vanilla Debian. Both the same codebase. But things like Ubu or Mint are more refined versions - and generally easier for the average person to use.

Here's how Codeweavers relationship with the Wine Project works:

CodeWeavers: Proud Supporters of The Wine Project
CrossOver

Support the Wine Project Everything we do at CodeWeavers revolves around the Wine Project. Thanks to our customers, we have been able to fund significant improvements in Wine Project.

We contribute all of our work on Wine back to the Wine Project. We support many key Wine developers, who are making Wine into the technology that it needs to be. We also host the Wine community web server, winehq.org.

Some of our notable accomplishments in Wine include:

    

• Making Wine work with Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, Steam, World of Warcraft and many more applications.
•    Making Wine work across a variety of platforms, notably Intel Mac OS X, and Linux.
•    Providing web hosting and technical support for the Wine Project website, www.winehq.org.
•    Organizing the annual Wine technical conference.
•    Providing nearly half of all contributions to the Wine project (which amounts to about a gazillion bug fixes, including a lot of the really hard stuff.)

By purchasing CrossOver, or by engaging us to provide Wine services, you are helping us make Wine better, too. We are constantly humbled by and appreciative of the support our customers continue giving us. Thank you.

I like to think of Wine as something like the community edition of CrossOver even though that's not really an accurate analogy. It's more of a symbiotic relationship. Either way there's good synergy between the two.

4721

Living Room / Re: Crossover Giveaway

« Last post by 40hz on October 29, 2012, 04:07 PM »

A very good deal. (You save $60.) If you regularly run Windows programs under Linux, and want to do so with the least amount of grief, get a copy of CrossOver. Period.

How can you go wrong with a company that's confident enough to tell you this about their product:

Try CrossOver First!

Give us ten minutes! That's all it takes to find out whether your Windows software will run under CrossOver. In ten minutes you can install our demo version, and then install the software you want. Or just see what our Compatibility Center has to say about it. If it runs, you're good to go with the easiest, least expensive, and friendliest Windows compatibility software out there. Even if it doesn't, you've only spent a few minutes to potentially save yourself several hundred bucks. Wasn't it worth it? Of course it was...

So, before you go plunking down your hard-earned money for a virtual machine AND a copy of Windows AND some antivirus software, give us a try!

4722

Living Room / Re: Windows 8 Primer

« Last post by 40hz on October 29, 2012, 02:30 PM »

Just as long as FARR works OK in that OS...

-IainB (October 29, 2012, 02:18 PM)

You know...that may just be what saves it for me.

4723

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows Server 12 shipping Nov 1, 2012

« Last post by 40hz on October 29, 2012, 02:18 PM »

^Still good to hear about it. One live deployment at a client site is worth 20 test setups back in the 'lab.'

But you already know that.

4724

Living Room / Re: Data Breach Lawsuits

« Last post by 40hz on October 29, 2012, 02:14 PM »

Hahahahha~! Seeing those 2 words in the same sentence is just hysterical!

-Renegade (October 29, 2012, 01:36 PM)

Hey!   I run a company. An actual C corporation. We care. And we act accordingly.

(Sorry. Couldn't resist! )

4725

Living Room / Re: Data Breach Lawsuits

« Last post by 40hz on October 29, 2012, 12:26 PM »

^It would be even better if regulatory agencies stopped allowing companies to get off with paying a fine but not admitting to wrongdoing. That's the loophole that makes half of the nonsense out there possible.