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4776

General Software Discussion / Re: Real-time online collaborative editing tools + FREE

« Last post by IainB on August 21, 2012, 09:57 AM »

...I've tried several at various times and still very much want to like these tools, despite (to date) being unable to do so.

-40hz (August 21, 2012, 05:50 AM)

Yes, I my general experience is that it's very difficult to change one's own ways, or the ways of others, to make optimum use of the new tools - hence little or no take-up by the user community.
Google Wave was probably a recent example of this.

4777

Living Room / Re: Is having everything available in "real time" where we really want to go?

« Last post by IainB on August 21, 2012, 09:53 AM »

@superboyac: Sorry. I'm not sure I can make sense of all that.
And I thought pointing wasn't "accusatory", but a dominance signal.   

4778

Living Room / Re: Google Stabs You in the Back...

« Last post by IainB on August 21, 2012, 08:17 AM »

...ramaya.na movie is not accessible on any other browser than chrome.

-mahesh2k (June 03, 2012, 03:27 PM)

Well, yes and no.

• 1. Google Chrome and Chromium: I tried accessing that URL using these, and they both work the same: the site starts to load but then stops at roughly the halfway mark on the little red progress bar. No further progress seems to occur.
  The flag and IP address details for the loading page are:
  
  
  
• 2. Firefox: The site starts to load, as above, but before the progress bar appears, the screen is replaced by the stupid "Aw, snap!" page. Presumably that happens when the server detects the browser type in your browser's HTTP header, and blocks it (maybe like some folk have been considering detecting and blocking obsolete IE browser versions...?).    
  The flag and IP address for the "Aw, snap!" page are:
  
  
  
• 3. Internet Explorer 9: Same as for Firefox. Not sure about the flag and IP address for the "Aw, snap!" page.

4779

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Stick-A-Note + Universal Viewer - Mini-Review

« Last post by IainB on August 21, 2012, 07:33 AM »

Added a further note and a screenshot to the bottom of the Opening Post for:

4. (2012-08-22) Another use for Stick-A-Note. I use a Firefox add-on called InstantFox, which gives you a bunch of extra functionality/shortcuts in the Awesome bar. The only trouble is, you need to know/recall the hotkeys to invoke these shortcuts. So I created a Stick-A-Note note on the New Tabs page to remind me. The size of the note is constrained to what you see in the image below, so it means I can't see all of the hotkeys, though I can if I select Edit to expand that note. In any event, I find this very handy.

4780

General Software Discussion / Simple online ToDo/GTD lists

« Last post by IainB on August 21, 2012, 07:12 AM »

Just in case anyone might be interested...
I saw this referred to today on Hacker News: Why I released a crappy todo app that no-one will ever use
The link to the ToDo list is: http://www.moreofless.co.uk/todo/

This reminded me to go back and check another simple online ToDo list: http://www.tasktoy.com/

And then, of course, if you use Gmail, there is always the built-in Google Tasks utility.

4781

General Software Discussion / Re: VLC - Is it worth it still?

« Last post by IainB on August 21, 2012, 04:39 AM »

I used to be a die-hard winamp fan (video and audio), but moved to VLC after I was burned by codec issues back in the early 2000s.

-Josh (August 20, 2012, 09:44 PM)

I have been a long-time user of Winamp as my audio/music player - at which it seems excellent - but the video-handling aspects of Winamp were not so good. So I gave the video task over to VLC and have been a satisfied long-time user of VLC ever since.
I have tried various video players (including ALShow, which @Renegade refers to, above), but the one that seems to consistently come out with what are the most powerful/useful features and updates for my purposes, and is reliable, is VLC.

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Living Room / Re: Is having everything available in "real time" where we really want to go?

« Last post by IainB on August 20, 2012, 09:47 PM »

...look at the guy holding his knee...

-superboyac (August 20, 2012, 10:50 AM)

I'm not familiar with that. Is it a body language signal of superiority, like steepling the fingers is supposed to be?

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General Software Discussion / Re: Real-time online collaborative editing tools + FREE

« Last post by IainB on August 20, 2012, 09:40 PM »

...what exactly does all that bring to the table?...

-40hz (August 20, 2012, 10:04 AM)

To answer that, I would recommend the "suck-it-and-see" approach. It was only by using the thing that I started to discover what its potential was for my group's peculiar needs, but, as you say, "YMMV".
We often may have no idea what our needs are in the first place, of course, so this is "discovery" in a quite real sense.

4784

General Software Discussion / Re: Audio Destortion during Video Playback

« Last post by IainB on August 20, 2012, 09:29 PM »

Not sure if this is relevant/useful, but it could be:
A few months back, I had something similar to this problem, always when playing videos directly from a file on my PC, in VLC. It took me a while to discover the cause - the settings in VLC had somehow been changed. I cleared or reset them to default. I think it was the "Time-Stretching" module that had been set "ON" and was causing the echeoy sound.

If there are similar settings in the module that plays vids in the browser, then maybe all that is required is to adjust/reset them for a normal listening experience.(?)

4785

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

« Last post by IainB on August 20, 2012, 06:00 PM »

@p3lb0x: Thanks! That PSY Gangnam Style (K-pop parody) is rather good.

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Living Room / Re: Is having everything available in "real time" where we really want to go?

« Last post by IainB on August 20, 2012, 07:18 AM »

IainB, thanks for the links in your article.

-kyrathaba (August 20, 2012, 06:45 AM)

You are welcome. Thanks.
I think that sort of thing (the activity of collaborative editing) is an example of where technology offers a potential for social evolution, but I am unsure as to how many people are able to actually accept the offer, get on with it and start to evolve.
It would probably not be correct to call this sort of thing "mindless" activity by any means. You could differentiate it to a lot of the activity referred to in the linked article in the opening post - which could most decidedly arguably/accurately be described as "mindless".

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Living Room / Re: Is having everything available in "real time" where we really want to go?

« Last post by IainB on August 19, 2012, 11:28 PM »

Is having everything available in "real time" where we really want to go?

To my mind there is a definitive "Yes" to this, where our direction is to transcend what we can currently do. There is some mindful, creative and developmental work that can be done in real time via FREE Real-time online collaborative editing tools. Some of them are superb.
I have just posted about them here: Real-time online collaborative editing tools + FREE

You arguably couldn't have done this sort of thing easily - collaborated and communicated so interactively amongst disparate groups of people, and in real time - prior to the advent of the Internet.

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General Software Discussion / Real-time online collaborative editing tools + FREE

« Last post by IainB on August 19, 2012, 11:25 PM »

Real-time online collaborative editing tools + FREE
(I have posted this following on from discussion here: Is having everything available in "real time" where we really want to go?

Some of the FREE Real-time online collaboration tools mentioned below have been mentioned on DC Forum before, but I thought it might be useful to just give a quick summary to start to bring the subject up to date. I am not sure if this post is comprehensive, but it's a start. Maybe other DCers could contribute their knowledge and help update it.
You arguably couldn't have done this sort of thing easily - collaborated and communicated so interactively amongst disparate groups of people, and in real time - prior to the advent of the Internet.

A foundation system for such collaboration tools was EtherPad. In 2010, EtherPad was bought by Google and eventually shut down. The Etherpad "Saved Revision" and "Time Slider" features are amazing.
I gather that the EtherPad functionality was incorporated into Google Wave and/or Google Docs collaboration.

If you go to EtherPad.com, you get this message:

Google has acquired AppJet Inc. and its EtherPad collaboration product and technology.
The EtherPad.com servers have now been shut down, according to the timetable announced previously.
Google recognizes the value of the EtherPad code base and has released the code as open source. For more information, see:

• EtherPad project on Google Code
• EtherPad discussion group

This open source release has already led to many efforts to foster further development and provide EtherPad-like services. If you are looking for a service based on the EtherPad software, or want to run your own EtherPad server, see the following links (not affiliated with Google, use at your own risk):

• PiratePad
• TypeWith.me
• Sync.in
• EtherPad Foundation
• iEtherPad.com

If you are looking for a Google alternative, the new document editor for Google Docs provides fully-real-time editing, chat, advanced formatting options, and commenting features.
For media inquiries, please contact [email protected].
©2011 Google

The feature called "collaborative editing" is present in almost every other tool you are likely to come across - including Google Docs, Zoho and Microsoft Office 2010.
After EtherPad was closed down, I used Typewith.me, and it is a very powerful and useful tool. I think the Time Slider may still be unique to that service – you can use the tool to visualize how a contributor's contribution and writing style developed over time - it can display the entire writing session.
Some useful links:

• PiratePad - http://piratepad.net/front-page/
• TypeWith.Me - http://typewith.me/
• Sync.In - http://sync.in/
• EtherPad Foundation - http://etherpad.org/
• iEtherPad.com - http://ietherpad.com/ (not sure what's happened to iEtherPad)
• Handy Chrome add-on EtherPads (but seems to give mixed results)
• Google docs (now "drive") - http://drive.google.com/

4789

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

« Last post by IainB on August 19, 2012, 10:06 PM »

A superb guide to life-skills from The Onion:

There's No Problem I Can Handle
By T. Eric Mayhew
September 28, 2005 | ISSUE 41•39


My life has been a series of problems, and I've handled each one the same way.

As an only child in a privileged home, I had what you would call an idyllic childhood. Everything was always handed to me. When I was 9, my father pulled some strings and got me a paper route. Well, I quickly discovered that tossing the papers while riding a bike was next to impossible, and the weight of the papers exhausted my arms. My first big opportunity in life had presented me with one of my first big problems. How did I handle it? I hid the papers in a gutter and spent the morning crying behind a bush.

Some people look at adversity as a challenge. I'm not one of them. I see adversity like this: menacing, cold-hearted adversity. When life gives me lemons, I wish desperately for lemonade. But as I lack the sugar and ice necessary to make it, the lemons instead rot away in the drawer of the refrigerator until several months later, when I eventually throw them away.

When you're in a bind, I'm precisely the guy you shouldn't count on. When people seek guidance, they look to anyone else but me. Need a shoulder to cry on? I'm nowhere to be found. And when the chips are down, well sir, so am I.

Everybody faces difficulties in life that seem overwhelming, but it is only the rare few—like me, for example—who simply can't do anything about them, no matter how hard they try, until the hopelessness and despair becomes so overwhelming they can't stop themselves from contemplating suicide. Everybody has problems, and there's nothing to be done but to buck up, pull yourself together, curl up into a ball, and give up. For the surrendering you do today only lessens the pain and humiliation of the defeat you will face tomorrow!

Five years ago, my mother gave me the "nudge out of the nest," hoping that, at 35, with a sizeable savings, an apartment in my name, a weekly allowance, a strong back, a set of fine clothes, and my father's connections in the world of business, I might find my way in the world. No sirree. Not me. Like a helpless, flightless baby bird, I sat beak-open on the sidewalk outside of our home crying desperately for my mommy night and day until such time as the authorities were called and I was taken into a group home, where I received the care I need.

As I struggle through my day-to-day existence, which mostly involves lying in bed, I am constantly reminded that no matter what life dishes out, I know deep in my soul that I can't face it. And if you're anything like me, you need to just keep telling yourself that you can't either! Sometimes, when everything seems to be going wrong, I repeat to myself of the old saying, "God doesn't make any bad days, just bad people who are good for nothing, like myself."

Nobody said it was going to be easy, and for me, it's not only not easy, it's impossible. I look in my heart and I ask myself this question: "Why try?" Sure, I know I've been through worse than this before, but everything that doesn't kill me makes me gradually more and more injured over time, until I'm eventually completely debilitated and can do nothing but ineffectually quiver in pain.

When life gets me down, I stay down, hoping to avoid another gut-wrenching blow to the solar plexus. And, when the going gets tough, I bring my knees to my chin and wrap my arms around my head to avoid being trampled to death by all the go-getters who have gotten going!

4790

Living Room / Re: Go dark for IE - October 26, 2012

« Last post by IainB on August 18, 2012, 10:11 PM »

^ Pretty much wot @app103 said.    

[Rant]
I was going to say something similar, because I thought the whole idea smacked of bigotry and Fascism - punishment and excommunication for non-conformance.
The reason I didn't say it was that when faced by bigots, I try to put contrary ideas across in as positive a framework as possible, to allow the idea to have at least a decent half-life in their minds before being rejected by the bigots. Sometimes, against all odds, such ideas can germinate in what might otherwise appear to be hopelessly barren ground.

The original LCD (Lowest Common Denominator) browser tool was (I think) Mosaic(?). Then Netscape picked up the ball and ran with it, against Microsoft - who got all proprietary over the idea of "open systems" and started to force IE down our throats as a vital component of the bundle with the OS, until they got smacked down for anti-trust activity. MS were trying to create "lock-in" for IE.

The MS IE silliness continues though, as they still bundle stuff into IE (QED: the superb MS Office and Sharepoint integration), but are now smart enough to stay just on the right side of the law. (Come to think of it, does anyone else notice how smooooth IE9 is with Outlook.com, or is it just me?)

Mozilla came to fill the gap left by Netscape's inexplicable(?) decline, and the latest incarnation (Firefox) seems to perform a sterling job - an open browser with an easy plugin/add-on development path - things which we should probably all be grateful for.
Not only that, but also, for a while there, it rather looked as though Google were giving us even more freedom of choice and open systems with Chrome, but no, they have apparently withdrawn their support of Mozilla development and seem to have embarked on a path of building in proprietary functionality (lock-in) to chrome for some of the Google services. Deja vu. Probably in imitation of MS' aforementioned antics with IE - "Learn from the masters", etc.
[/Rant]

4791

Living Room / Re: Go dark for IE - October 26, 2012

« Last post by IainB on August 18, 2012, 05:38 PM »

Sooo negative. Consider the law of unintended consequences, and try to stack the odds in favour of the consequences you actually want.
What's wrong with a polite, helpful and constructive approach along the following lines?
A pop-up note: (logic options in square brackets)

Hi,
We notice that you are using an old/obsolete browser to access this website - [Internet Explorer 6].
We [won't be able to] [or] [aren't able to] support old/obsolete browsers like this, so what you see on your screen may not look very good or may not even be able to show you things like relevant videos or animations. Sorry about that.

If you want to upgrade your browser to its current version for free, please go to this link: http:/etc. When you have installed the current version, come back here and take a look with "new eyes". We think you'll like what you see, and we'd love to have you look around our website - it's been put here for people just like you to enjoy.
Would you like more information or help on this topic? If so, then please take a look at our FAQ ("Frequently Asked Questions") - here [link]

4792

Living Room / Re: Grab Free Desktop Syncing Plus 25GB Storage Space on Box (Lifehacker 2012-08-15)

« Last post by IainB on August 17, 2012, 08:01 PM »

This offer is still working with 25Gb free today 2012-08-18 1301hrs (NZT).

4793

Living Room / Re: Wikileaks - Julian Assange Granted Asylum by Ecuador

« Last post by IainB on August 17, 2012, 06:18 PM »

Interesting article from former CIA man on Assange debacle: 'Not even in Cold War’s darkest days'

-wraith808 (August 17, 2012, 07:48 AM)

^ Thanks. Very interesting find. Spot-on observations, and Truth.   

4794

Living Room / Re: Is having everything available in "real time" where we really want to go?

« Last post by IainB on August 17, 2012, 06:29 AM »

@40hz: Sorry, though I noticed it, I forgot to mention this before:
I think the correct link you referred to in the OP should be Everything in its Right Pace.

That's "pace", not "place". The speaker was on about the pace of using technology/things, not location.

I have always liked the Radiohead song "Everything in its Right Place" and was about to link to it in my first comment, until I realised I had misread the actual title on the linked web page.

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Living Room / Re: Is having everything available in "real time" where we really want to go?

« Last post by IainB on August 17, 2012, 06:20 AM »

(Sent from a motel two hours away from my home computer at 4:45 AM from my phone. )

-TaoPhoenix (August 17, 2012, 03:45 AM)

Hahaha. Very droll.   

And you could well be right about the "counterweight dialectic entry" - or at least in terms of the potential for that.
I recall in the early '90s, when I started to help admin to a locally-operated BBS, that the then perceptible explosion in email, IRC, and BBS chat forums looked like it was heralding completely new forms of easy and fast human communication/discourse.
(Of course, "fast" is relative. At the time, most connections were via dial-up modems, unless you - like me - were lucky enough to have a fast connection through your employer's international IT network. But where there had been nothing before, it seemed fast in the user's perception.)

But though it might well have been heralding completely new forms of easy and fast human communication, the general quality of the bulk of the communication - in terms of demonstrating the medium's enabling an evolutionary development of rational thinking, argument and discussion - seemed to be depressingly and abysmally poor. It still seems to be so, some 18 years later. You probably don't have to look far for some examples.

So, sadlement, I'm not really sure where all that potential for "counterweight dialectic entry" went.

4796

Living Room / Re: What's the best registry cleaner? Ask Leo says: none

« Last post by IainB on August 17, 2012, 05:57 AM »

...You're more likely to run into trouble if you use a registry cleaner than if you don't...

-f0dder (August 16, 2012, 05:31 PM)

Thanks @f0dder, I would be very interested to know whether (and how) this statement is something that you can substantiate.
Getting rid of even one tedious housekeeping exercise (i.e., registry "cleaning") would be beneficial, and I certainly would not want to continue doing it if it actually increased risks, as you seem to be suggesting.
Need to know more please!

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Living Room / Re: What's the best registry cleaner? Ask Leo says: none

« Last post by IainB on August 16, 2012, 05:21 PM »

Using CCleaner:
I use CCleaner:
(a) for the simple reason that it theoretically allows for good practice in system housekeeping, and my training is to take this practice approach (belts and braces).
(b) because experience has led me to trust that Koroush Ghazi is probably qualified regarding what he discusses in his technical handbooks.

It's really all about risk avoidance. For this reason, I would recommend using CCleaner or another reputable registry cleaner.
I don't have an opinion on whether CCleaner (or any other registry cleaner) is good or necessary though, as I am not qualified to judge, not having researched the field.

4798

Living Room / Re: Grab Free Desktop Syncing Plus 25GB Storage Space on Box (Lifehacker 2012-08-15)

« Last post by IainB on August 16, 2012, 05:07 PM »

Thank you for notification, grabbed it!
Haven't made any research about the security of Box, should I encrypt it with TrueCrypt?

-Attronarch (August 16, 2012, 03:45 PM)

You are welcome.
Good question. I too was thinking I would encrypt it with TrueCrypt.

4799

Living Room / Re: waiting list at library...for an e-book?

« Last post by IainB on August 16, 2012, 09:29 AM »

People like me will complain.

-superboyac (August 16, 2012, 09:08 AM)

Good luck with that. Fat lot of good it may do you.

4800

Living Room / Re: waiting list at library...for an e-book?

« Last post by IainB on August 16, 2012, 09:26 AM »

...“It’s not the same as with physical books,” she said.

-superboyac (August 16, 2012, 09:02 AM)

This probably makes sense, though of course they seem to have set things up in such a way as it is just the same as physical books.    
The difference is that you don't have to visit the library to pick the book up, and you are probably in an "electronic queue" for the e-book, so all you need do is patiently wait your turn.

The library has apparently only purchased one licence, so that's all they can lend out, at a time - i.e., one copy of the e-book. Yay! Brilliant.

It's not just silly-sounding, it's moronic IMO.

I think this point (lending library restrictions by copyright/licence) was already covered in at least one of several discussions in the DC forum covering e-books/Amazon/publishing/copyright constraints.
This is the sort of thing that could presumably make some people go and get a pirated copy...which is what copyright restrictions were supposed to avoid, I guess.
Hmm...something seems not quite right there.
Ah well, SNAFU. Greed and unintended consequences.