Recent Posts

4751

Living Room / Re: Selling Something? Go to Jail! That's copyright infringement... :-/

« Last post by 40hz on October 26, 2012, 09:19 PM »

The obvious workaround is to simply divide up the big companies into smaller ones, because then they wouldn't be as likely to be Fortune 500. But as a side effect, their amount of pooled wealth and political sway would be greatly reduced on top of the encouraged competition.

-SeraphimLabs (October 26, 2012, 03:59 PM)

And also put the US at an disadvantage to the way it's done in most other major industrial economies on this planet.

Translation: don't hold your breath.

4752

Living Room / Re: The Best New Features in Windows 8

« Last post by 40hz on October 26, 2012, 04:33 PM »

System Restore has saved me more times than I can count; I have nothing but positive things to say about it (and have heard nothing but positive things).

-wraith808 (October 26, 2012, 11:59 AM)

+1  

-cyberdiva (October 26, 2012, 04:07 PM)

+2 The recovery tools found in Windows 7 are stellar. All of them have been material in saving my (or a client's) bacon on different occasions.

Also props to Micorosoft's Easy Transfer tool. IMO it's the only way to safely and reliably migrate an Outlook message store to a different machine. Righteous utility that one is!

4753

Developer's Corner / Re: Bid for Fix

« Last post by 40hz on October 26, 2012, 04:17 PM »

To really make it fair, you'd need some way to collect the bid(s) in advance and put them in escrow before the developer started work.

Once completed, you'd also need some mechanism (possibly a vote or impartial reviewer?) to determine if the fix, as submitted, met the criteria specified. And then you'd need a mechanism for releasing the collected bids to the programmer. Sort of like how EBay operates.

Without some neutral and trusted party in the middle holding the money - and ultimately signing off on the actual delivery - it's much too easy for either side to default on their side of the deal.

But acting as an escrow agent also incurs certain legal responsibilities. And expenses. It's not the sort of thing that could be handled with nothing more than a handshake since there are state and federal statutes governing that sort of thing. And it certainly couldn't be done for free since expenses will be incurred, both for administrating it, and to comply with the law...

This is the problem I see with many of these really good ideas. They try to handle an essentially formal business arrangement on an informal basis. Most times it doesn't work long-term. It's only a matter of time before somebody breaks the covenant and the whole thing falls apart. Or they get into some sort of legal or regulatory trouble. (Look how the FTC and SEC are now paying serious attention to crowdsourcing in the wake of Amanda Palmer's spectacular $1.2 million Kickstarter success story.)

But hope springs eternal.

I wish them the best of luck!

4754

General Software Discussion / Re: Neowin reviews Windows 8 - Leave your pre-conceived notions at the door

« Last post by 40hz on October 26, 2012, 03:55 PM »

I wouldn't want "build my own OS" because then it would be even less compatible with anything!

-TaoPhoenix (October 26, 2012, 12:27 AM)

But then again, if you're doing your own thing - and producing your own content (movies, music, books) - what difference would being incompatible be as long as the finished output gets written to an "industry" standard file format like DXF, RTF, PDF, JPG, PNG, MPEG-2, Ogg, or MP3?

You only need to be compatible if you're mostly a content consumer. Content creators (e.g. Hollywood SFX shops and studios) have traditionally used in-house developed and totally proprietary systems for their own projects. Why not us?
 

4755

Living Room / Re: The Free Videos Thread

« Last post by 40hz on October 26, 2012, 03:41 PM »

must try it out with my niece

-tomos (October 26, 2012, 03:29 PM)

Definitely!   One of the few pleasures of getting older is teaching a bit of "kid" culture to the next generation, and realizing - from the look on their faces - that some innocent wonder can still be found in this sad world.
 

4756

Living Room / Re: The Free Videos Thread

« Last post by 40hz on October 26, 2012, 03:26 PM »

Anyone know an actual name for that game? I mean how do you search for that...

-tomos (October 26, 2012, 03:12 PM)

We used to call it the Mystery Pyramid or Cootie Catcher in my neighborhood. (I still remember how to fold it too!)



But I don't know what the "official" name for it is - if there actually is one. Google seems to think the consensus name for it is "folded paper fortune teller." It shows 299,000 hits on that search string. Shows some pretty cool templates for it too!

FWIW Wikipedia also calls it the Paper Fortune Teller.

 

4757

General Software Discussion / Re: EverDesk stores emails in your normal folders with other docs

« Last post by 40hz on October 26, 2012, 03:17 PM »

I just (made the mistake and) asked for your experiences.  Will keep this in mind in the future.  Thanks!  :Thmbsup

-wraith808 (October 26, 2012, 01:41 PM)

@Wraith - "Will keep this in mind in the future"?

Umm..maybe that wasn't the most constructive way to express how you felt either?

I'm just thinking out loud here too...  

4758

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 8 prices seem to have been announced during period to 31st January

« Last post by 40hz on October 26, 2012, 03:00 PM »

^ LOL

4759

Living Room / Re: ArsTechnica hand-on review of Surface RT

« Last post by 40hz on October 26, 2012, 01:00 PM »

^I'm hoping something good comes of HP opening up WebOS, renaming it (Open WebOS), and putting it under an Apache 2.0 license. Based on where WebOS seems to be going, I think it's much closer to the tablet/mobile platform many of us were originally expecting before the 'big players' started acting like idiots about it.
 

4760

General Software Discussion / Re: EverDesk stores emails in your normal folders with other docs

« Last post by 40hz on October 26, 2012, 12:48 PM »

my English is far too limited to make it possible for me to express accurately what I think of your whining.

-Curt (October 26, 2012, 12:24 PM)

@Curt - "Your whining?" 

Umm..maybe that also wasn't the most constructive way to express how you felt about it either?

I'm just thinking out loud here...  

4761

DC Gamer Club / Re: A Large Database Of Free Games

« Last post by 40hz on October 26, 2012, 12:37 PM »

Awesome! Some very good stuff there. Nice site!

That said, I have to say I don't really care for the interface on the main pages. It's a clever and attractive concept. But I quickly got bored clicking what's basically a slideshow while looking to see what was available. I think the presentation on the Search by Genres link and actual search pages themselves are much more practical and pleasant to use.



Suggestion: move the 'search by genre' link. I almost didn't notice it on the bottom of the page. Especially since it was just a text link that fell below the fold. Maybe put it on a big honking button up top somewhere? I can't speak for everyone, but when it comes to games, I'm definitely a genre shopper. And so are most of my gaming friends.

Take a look at how Good Old Games does stuff on their website. They do several things to make it convenient for their visitors to find and drill down to the information they're looking for. Some of what they do might be worth using for inspiration.

4762

Living Room / Re: The Best New Features in Windows 8

« Last post by 40hz on October 26, 2012, 12:20 PM »

this will fall on deaf ears

-wraith808 (October 26, 2012, 10:03 AM)

Not so much deaf as skeptical.

4763

Living Room / Re: The Best New Features in Windows 8

« Last post by 40hz on October 26, 2012, 12:18 PM »

It would be really nice if Microsoft could just abandon their registry nonsense and require installed apps to put everything they need (possibly with the exception of .NET and related Microsoft items that are supplied by default with every Windows installation) into their own directory tree. The world would be a much better place if that were so. The registry makes some sense in a managed environment where the network admins need to monitor individual PCs and be able to push updates and changes out to hundreds of seats at a time. For a home or solo PC it's a ridiculous amount of complexity and overhead to have to deal with just to save some disk space.

Disk space is cheap. So is RAM. So having duplicate binaries and whatnot isn't that big a deal anymore.

Oh wait...the FUTURE is with TABLETS!!! I forgot...

I guess disk space will go back to being at a premium pretty soon huh? I mean look...all those movies, and ebooks, and music the media giants just know you're gonna go buy and download have to be saved somewhere, right? And they'll likely almost all be DRM-locked to a specific device - so it's not like you can just save them anywhere you've got space.
 

4764

Living Room / Re: The Free Videos Thread

« Last post by 40hz on October 26, 2012, 09:50 AM »

@Ren - Thx for the shout-out on V. Hart's videos. They're terrific.

I see she's with the Khan Academy too! Great site that is.

4765

General Software Discussion / Re: Search for all user's protected files in my disks

« Last post by 40hz on October 26, 2012, 09:47 AM »

Ah! Thx. I was just wondering. 

4766

Living Room / Re: ArsTechnica hand-on review of Surface RT

« Last post by 40hz on October 26, 2012, 09:38 AM »

so let's wait and see

-Ath (October 26, 2012, 09:29 AM)

Here's how I'm gonna approach it. FF 30 seconds and play through to the 45 second mark:

I'll be the guy on the left in case you're wondering.  

4767

Living Room / Re: ArsTechnica hand-on review of Surface RT

« Last post by 40hz on October 26, 2012, 09:29 AM »

I dont want to take this off-topic,
but I couldnt figure out if this meant you were happy or not with the ipad
(I think happy?) -

I hesitated over getting an iPad ... and not a day goes by that I've regretted it. In fact, with each passing day, I'm more and more happy I didn't now that I know even more about it than I did then.

-40hz (October 25, 2012, 05:51 PM)

... I think you've made an unintentional headwrecker there 40

-tomos (October 26, 2012, 03:36 AM)

Probably.

That's what I get for composing a post on an iPhone while doing two other things. (Been reading to much in German lately too!)

Translated from 40hz to standard English: I'm glad I didn't get the iPad when it came out. And now that I know more about it, I'm even gladder I didn't.

Sorry for the confusion.

4768

General Software Discussion / Re: Search for all user's protected files in my disks

« Last post by 40hz on October 26, 2012, 08:59 AM »

In light of this and some of your other posts, would you mind me asking exactly what it is you do that you need something like this?

4769

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 8 prices seem to have been announced during period to 31st January

« Last post by 40hz on October 26, 2012, 08:35 AM »

You can still get a full OEM copy of Windows 7 Pro 64-bit for about $75 if you shop around.

I still think that's a smarter buy and a much better deal.  


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4770

General Software Discussion / Re: EverDesk stores emails in your normal folders with other docs

« Last post by 40hz on October 26, 2012, 08:01 AM »

I couldn't get it to activate within the time allowed (first time something like that ever happened with a GOTD btw) so it was moot for me either way.

To some points made by others I'll also agree. I've had GOTD apps recommend an update (or update themselves) and then stop working. I can understand that the deal only applied to the version downloaded. But it would be nice if you were warned since it's often some time before an upgrade becomes available. I can't speak for everyone, but I'm not about to keep track of exactly where, and from whom, I've gotten every piece of software installed on my system.

I think the best way to view a GOTD offering is as an extended trial copy rather than a true giveaway.

Most times I've decided to keep something I've gotten from GOTD, I'll go buy the full version from the publisher shortly afterwards. Which I'm sure was the plan when they hooked up with GOTD to begin with. I'm good with that. It's their product. They should be free to market their stuff however they think best. And I don't mind paying for things I use.

But by the same token, the more I think about how GOTD works, the less it seems worth it to me. Too much nonsense for not even second string products most times. True, you will find the occasional hidden gem (e.g. Liquid Story Binder) you might have otherwise missed. But IMO, finding that very rare bit of gold isn't enough to keep me interested anymore. Life is too short. And there's just too many other places where you can find really good software these days.

Onward!

4771

Living Room / Re: People Turning on Trolls?

« Last post by 40hz on October 25, 2012, 09:08 PM »

I guess the real point is that, when dealing with a troll, you take care not to become one.

-40hz (October 25, 2012, 05:25 PM)

This x1000

-wraith808 (October 25, 2012, 07:07 PM)

I'll leave the Lord of the Rings tie-in to my betters!

-TaoPhoenix (October 25, 2012, 08:59 PM)

Ok...but not till it tells us what it means by "Lots" and "None at all."  

4772

General Software Discussion / Re: EverDesk stores emails in your normal folders with other docs

« Last post by 40hz on October 25, 2012, 09:05 PM »

I've gotten to the point that I don't even look at GAOTD b/c of the crazy restrictions.  Decided to look into this until I saw this comment.

-wraith808 (October 25, 2012, 11:37 AM)

^ + 1 from me. GAOTDs as a general rule seem to be mostly scams. This EverDesk one is apparently no exception to that rule.

-IainB (October 25, 2012, 06:57 PM)

Being almost serious here, there's an ugly new difference emerging between "scam" and "monetized". A Scam is when you think you get something and it isn't there at all, etc.

"Monetized" is offering X, and it is indeed X, but carefully sculpted to bully you into the upgrade.  

-TaoPhoenix (October 25, 2012, 08:57 PM)

Yup. Monetization - that bastard love-child born out of the unholy union between Upsell and Bait&Switch.
 

4773

General Software Discussion / Re: EverDesk stores emails in your normal folders with other docs

« Last post by 40hz on October 25, 2012, 09:02 PM »

Yup. Bummer. Several hassles getting a reg code and the activation to work. Does not handle Gmail in this version. Removed from system. Onward!

One of the commenters on GOTD suggested something called dreamMail. Scanned their site. Looks promising. Anybody try it? (I'll admit I'm more than a little leery of using a program from China for something as sensitive as my email client.)

4774

Living Room / Re: ArsTechnica hand-on review of Surface RT

« Last post by 40hz on October 25, 2012, 08:44 PM »

IIUC, Surface with Windows RT => ARM chip => no legacy apps & no other operating systems...

-ewemoa (October 25, 2012, 07:54 PM)

Pretty much, assuming I do too.

4775

General Software Discussion / Re: Neowin reviews Windows 8 - Leave your pre-conceived notions at the door

« Last post by 40hz on October 25, 2012, 06:14 PM »

^Hopefully not Ubuntu. Mark Shuttleworth seems intent on taking his once "most popular of all distros" down  a path as similar as he can get to the one being taken by Microsoft and Apple.