Recent Posts

4801

Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by wraith808 on May 29, 2014, 02:15 PM »

"Being a patriot doesn't mean prioritizing service to government above all else." - Edward Snowden.

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Living Room / Appeals court nukes the copyright troll business-model

« Last post by wraith808 on May 28, 2014, 04:03 PM »

Appeals court nukes the copyright troll business-model (via boingboing)

Hmmm... how well will this fare in the Supreme Court?  (You know it's coming...)

Actual ruling analysis at EFF.

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DC Gamer Club / The Fight for the PC Ecosystem - AMD vs nVidia - via Watch Dogs

« Last post by wraith808 on May 28, 2014, 09:37 AM »

Why 'Watch Dogs' Is Bad News For AMD Users -- And Potentially The Entire PC Gaming Ecosystem

Caveat Before the quote:

Update 1: I’ve posted benchmarks for Watch Dogs across a wide range of AMD and Nvidia hardware.

Update 2: I’ve just finished an illuminating call with Nvidia’s Cem Cebenoyan, Director of Engineering, Developer Technology. Suffice to say, Nvidia disputes just about every claim made by AMD in this article. In the interest of fairness, I’ll be posting a follow-up piece as soon as possible.

Basically, each company tries to get a competitive edge.  But- how much of that can be at the consumer's detriment?  nVidia holds 60% of the market, AMD the other 40% (not exact numbers, and there are smaller players- but for all intents and purposes, that's how the pie is sliced).

AMD is calling out nVidia on the point that their optimization licenses are restrictive to the game industry working with both card manufacturers to deliver the best game possible, no matter the video card.  nVidia's framework in this regard is closed source, while AMD's is open.

There was another investigative piece on ExtremeTech on this very issue.

There are tests in that article which are ... concerning to say the least.  I suppose I'll have to wait for the updates to see what nVidia had to say on the issues.  But more monopolies are definitely not better for the consumer, as much as they benefit the developers (one target) and of course the company with the market dominance.

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Living Room / Re: The DonationCoder.com 30-Day Healthy Eating and Exercise Challenge!

« Last post by wraith808 on May 27, 2014, 07:58 AM »

It's the bluetooth that allows it to be "a whole lot more" but not really. The "whole lot more" comes from an app on your phone or your PC. The Bit Fit is still essentially just a pedometer with an alarm.

-Deozaan (May 27, 2014, 04:16 AM)

How does an alarm track the quality of your sleep?

And while your watch thing certainly looks like it does a lot more than the Bit Fit, I heard there was an update to iOS that made the iPhone waterproof () so your purchase may have been in vain.

-Deozaan (May 27, 2014, 04:16 AM)

I'm not quite *that* gullible

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Living Room / Re: Blog Essay: The Indie (Game) Bubble Is Popping

« Last post by wraith808 on May 26, 2014, 07:39 PM »

I was used to getting an obscene amount of money per hour contracting.

-wraith808 (May 26, 2014, 03:24 PM)

Awesome! I made a comfortable living. But nothing like a killing or obscene amount of money. So in my case I don't think a sense of entitlement ever got a chance to take root.

Also glad to see you negotiated the pitfalls and ended up still standing. Good work!

-40hz (May 26, 2014, 05:59 PM)

Yeah... I definitely don't think that there's one size fits all for any of this.  But I do think that mindset, i.e. this is how much I'm making, so I should always make this much or more for doing this, does play a part.  And it's an understandable part... just not realistic in many cases.  It's played out over and over and over again.  Manufacturing jobs used to allow people to make a fairly decent wage- it was the backbone of middle america.  Now... not so much.  And some people negotiated that change well.  Others... not so much.

What's the difference between those that negotiate the change well and those that don't?

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Living Room / Re: Programmers: What size monitors do you guys prefer?

« Last post by wraith808 on May 26, 2014, 03:31 PM »

My previous monitor is 25"-26" (I think it was advertised as 25" when I bought it but the model number (which often indicates the size) includes the numbers 266 in it) at 1920x1200, and I wish I had a little more space, so I'm not sure I'd be satisfied with a larger monitor (27") with a smaller resolution (1920x1080). That's why I'm thinking the 27" 2560x1440 monitors will hit just the right spot.

-Deozaan (May 26, 2014, 01:43 PM)

Good points.  let me know how your international experience is.  That's been the only thing holding me back from buying from one of those (there are several on ebay)

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Living Room / Re: The DonationCoder.com 30-Day Healthy Eating and Exercise Challenge!

« Last post by wraith808 on May 26, 2014, 03:29 PM »

http://www.fitbit.com/one

$100 for a pedometer with an alarm?

I already have a device that can do all that and more. It's called a smartphone.

-Deozaan (May 26, 2014, 01:50 PM)

Of course people said the same sort of reductionist things about the iPhone, and the iPad, and the iPad mini, but in reality, they were a lot more.  Same with this one.  I don't have it (nor want it, as most of them are not waterproof), but what I do have, while it might resemble the same is a whole lot more... and these appear to be so also.

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Living Room / Re: Blog Essay: The Indie (Game) Bubble Is Popping

« Last post by wraith808 on May 26, 2014, 03:24 PM »

Maybe 'good enough' doesn't automatically drive out just plain good. But it definitely marginalizes it to the point of where it may as well have.

-40hz (May 26, 2014, 12:53 PM)

Having dealt with it several times myself (a game store, contracting, my wife's photog business from the other end, hosting) I can definitely say that while it is a provable phenomenon, it is also a mindset.

I was used to getting an obscene amount of money per hour contracting.  Then, about the same time the bubble burst, the jobs dried up too.  The choice, as a friend and I were told by our mentor, was between adapting to the reaping that was occurring in the market, or taking the riskier prospect of trying to ride the wave.

I chose to adapt.  And while I've recovered to a good living, it's nothing like the insanity of before, and I can admit that the amount of money that I was making for what I was doing on the speculation that was going on... it was insane.  My friend rode the wave.  And it was hard.  And he had to search out clients and a niche and take some serious risks.  But he's in arguably a better position than he was.  In both cases, serious changes in attitude and expectations were required.  But even with people lowballing contracts because of an influx of cheap labor from all over Asia, he was able to navigate that.  Now, there's less opportunity to navigate too- so if both of us had tried in the same area, it's likely one of us would have had to fail.  But no reward without risk, right?

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General Software Discussion / Re: Springpad shutting down

« Last post by wraith808 on May 26, 2014, 11:44 AM »

I find it difficult to understand how you can't come up with a sustainable business model when you have a service that works and 5 million potential customers.

Is it so obvious that starting to charge a reasonable fee for your service is going to turn so many users away that it is not even worth a try?

-phitsc (May 26, 2014, 09:20 AM)

Same thing that we were talking about in that other thread about the gaming bubble.  People aren't willing to pay for quality until quality is taken away.  Or put forth in a different light.  A good example is The Old Reader.  And XMarks.  Both were/are excellent service.  Both tried to charge.  Neither got biters.  So both said they had to shut down.  XMarks was bought, and now people pay.  The Old Reader- people started paying once they said they would shut down.

People don't want to pay for what they can get for free.  And in a lot of ways, it's the services' fault.  They start free to get critical mass, then find out they can't get people to pay.  Rather than building it slowly and based on a firm business plan.  Everyone wants to think they can be Google, but then find out the hard way that they can't be.

And thanks for the heads up... I've been using the service like you, but haven't come to rely on it.  Trying to break the chains from services that I don't *have* to use that are free.

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Living Room / Re: Blog Essay: The Indie (Game) Bubble Is Popping

« Last post by wraith808 on May 26, 2014, 08:41 AM »

Professionals cannot compete with low-ball amateurs on price or quality.

-40hz (May 25, 2014, 08:02 AM)

I'd argue that's the actual mindset that makes it frustrating to professionals.  They can't compete on price, but they *can* compete on quality.  And they *can* compete on service.  It's just an expectation of compensation that makes it harder, and they have to look at the long game.

As you said, its happened before and will happen again.  In many cases, it's just that the professionals have become used to an inflated value of the product.

Photography - at one point, there was an inflated photography market out there- when you needed darkrooms and had to have a certain level of expertise that was not easy to come across to develop your images well.  You also had to get the *shot* right- after shoot processing was unknown.  And charging was made on the basis of it being an artisan skill with limited a knowledge pool.

Now, photographers bemoan the mom-tographer, i.e. the stay at home mom who received the DSLR and learned a bit of photoshop and has the inroads into their childrens' parents to take the images and lowball the pricing.  What's really the problem is that they were still charging premium prices for something that had been made easier.  Talent and skill will tell in the end.  But the difference in the A-grade and B-grade and C-grade cannot be so much that quality no longer matters.  Which means an adjustment.

And, on another point, in the so-called B-grade and C-grade market, there are those gems that are actually A-grade, but would have never come to the attention of an A-grade publisher.  The consumers just have to become more discerning and educated, and the critics have to become less commercial and full of hyperbole in their reviews and more honest.

Quality will always tell once the market knows to look.  Just like with crowdfunding, the average consumer has to become more discerning and more willing to put in the effort necessary to see the signs and pick the good over the dross.

4811

Living Room / Re: Everything Is Broken

« Last post by wraith808 on May 25, 2014, 11:53 AM »

Now at what point exactly during a routine traffic stop does a police officer have any rational need for somebody's ****ing Credit Report?? ...Or employment history for that matter.

-Stoic Joker (May 24, 2014, 12:01 AM)

And why do prospective employers need access to an applicant's credit report?

-app103 (May 25, 2014, 11:12 AM)

Certain jobs it is justified, but overall it isn't.

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Living Room / Re: Programmers: What size monitors do you guys prefer?

« Last post by wraith808 on May 23, 2014, 05:50 PM »

There's also this one: http://www.newegg.co...Item=N82E16824238028

I have one of the 24" and I love it... thinking about upgrading to this and making a panorama setup with the two 24" on the sides and this in the middle

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Living Room / Re: Website hacking - tools to help spot issues

« Last post by wraith808 on May 23, 2014, 03:17 PM »

Even with hand-coded HTML, if someone is intent on doing it, they can do it.

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Living Room / Re: Everything Is Broken

« Last post by wraith808 on May 23, 2014, 07:46 AM »

We really just need a don't be that guy poster child to rally a grass roots movement behind to push these vermin out of their holes and into the sunlight where they can bloody well fry to death for all I care.

-Stoic Joker (May 22, 2014, 11:21 PM)

We've had them, to one extent or another.  They've gotten fried.  And people have just gotten more careful.

Everything is Broken?  Well yes... including the people.

4815

Living Room / Re: Switzerland-based ProtonMail, yet another secure email service

« Last post by wraith808 on May 21, 2014, 09:13 PM »

https://beta.startmail.com/

Beta signups are over, though.

4816

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: GS-Base Mini-Review

« Last post by wraith808 on May 21, 2014, 06:24 PM »

I plan on doing a review of GS-Calc soon.  I started looking at that, and was just as impressed.  Just pressed for time currently.

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Living Room / Re: Website hacking - tools to help spot issues

« Last post by wraith808 on May 21, 2014, 10:08 AM »

Looks like an excellent link that might have some ideas for you:

http://www.askwebhos..._An_Abuse_Issue.html

Specifically, point 4

4. Login to WHM (Web Hosting Manager) and click on "Contact Manager" under "Server Contacts" menu. Make sure you placed "2 or 3" on Alert Priority Assignment right beside "Recently Uploaded Cgi Script Mail". This will email you on a daily basis (if there are uploaded pages or scripts) that are set to use your smtp or mail on your server which could be the source of spam abusers to send out spam using your ip addresses. Setup a filter for it and it always is prefixed on the Subject: "[newmailcgi] Recently Uploaded CGI scripts" take note that even php form mail that are insecuredly setup to send spam are also reported to your email address setup as contact manager on your server's WHM. Make sure to actively monitor this and when it happened to give ample warnings to the user who uploaded this.

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Living Room / Re: Website hacking - tools to help spot issues

« Last post by wraith808 on May 21, 2014, 10:06 AM »

Just looking at that MySQL stuff (thanks 40Hz) and I am coming to the conclusion I don't want to do this anymore - too much stuff to learn to be able to be effective and no inclination to learn it.

All I want to do is run a few websites for local people I know and friends and not have to cope with bastards constantly attacking and disrupting everything.

So frustrating!!

Be far simpler in the long run to go back to hand coding pages in HTML without using any scripting languages!!!

-Carol Haynes (May 21, 2014, 08:20 AM)

Does Joomla have extensions/plugins for security?  I do the same thing- but Wordpress is my platform of choice.  I just use a few standard wordpress plugins and lock it down and it seems to work well.

How are the admin pages setup?  You can whitelist the IPs in a .htaccess that have access to the admin URL (if it's a separate URL) using regular expressions (I think).

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Living Room / Re: Website hacking - tools to help spot issues

« Last post by wraith808 on May 21, 2014, 08:08 AM »

There is also the .htaccess file that you could use to restrict write access.

-joiwind (May 21, 2014, 05:39 AM)

That was my first thought... but when I saw that she was talking about for her clients also (multiple directories) I realized how unfeasible that could become.

4820

Living Room / Re: Ivy Bridge vs Haswell

« Last post by wraith808 on May 20, 2014, 05:02 PM »

Why leave out the SSD? I'd go for a 250 GB or bigger if the budget allows it. Or is price the reason you left it out?

-Ath (May 20, 2014, 04:10 PM)

I still don't trust it enough.  I'm allowed to not be bleeding edge on *everything*.  The blacks are performance drives enough for me... and the extra space is worth it for the price point.  The other big thing- there's some software out there that uses ProgramData, AppData, and the user directory.  Yeah... you should have a choice.  But if I use the software, then I deal with it and StrongSync forces the issue now on keeping your sync in the user directory.

Simple truth is this technology advances so quickly, and changes course so rapidly, that no matter what you pick today - it won't be the ideal decision a year from now. My approach is: get a decent CPU, a quality mobo, name-brand power supply and video card, max out the RAM, add a quality hard drive - and call it a day. And no matter what else, try not to let it make you crazy.

-40hz (May 20, 2014, 04:25 PM)

Good advice... I've been agonizing over this for a few weeks now... LOL  

I thought my tick tock approach helped with these decisions- and it has in the past.  But not this time... *sigh*

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Living Room / Re: Programmers: What size monitors do you guys prefer?

« Last post by wraith808 on May 20, 2014, 04:59 PM »

How does it work for gaming?  (you knew that one was coming...)

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Living Room / Ivy Bridge vs Haswell

« Last post by wraith808 on May 20, 2014, 02:30 PM »

So, I'm looking at building a new computer.  Not looking forward to it, but it's definitely something I need to do.

I usually try to upgrade on the tock cycle to the last tick, i.e. upgrade to the new die size when they update the microarchitecture.  It's just been more efficient in terms of how long I can use it, and price.  But when looking at Ivy Bridge vs. Haswell, it doesn't seem as clear-cut.  The prices are pretty comparable, which is the confusing part.

Then I read this article which fuzzed it up even more: http://www.extremete...oure-a-pc-enthusiast

Does anyone have any insight on it?

My proposed build right now looks like this:

http://pcpartpicker....wraith808/saved/4Kqh

Also, I have this power supply in my old build that I am going to use - http://www.newegg.co...Item=N82E16817139002

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Living Room / Re: Programmers: What size monitors do you guys prefer?

« Last post by wraith808 on May 20, 2014, 01:19 PM »

If you are going to have multiple monitors in a horizontal row -- having them be the same vertical resolution is convenient.

-mouser (May 20, 2014, 01:12 PM)

I'll totally agree on this one.  At work I'm using my laptop with an external 24" on one computer, and two 21" on the other.  The two 21" just feels more comfortable, even though the 24" is better for coding.

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Living Room / Re: Programmers: What size monitors do you guys prefer?

« Last post by wraith808 on May 20, 2014, 01:08 PM »

I've been thinking about going that route- let us know how it goes!

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Living Room / Re: Website hacking - tools to help spot issues

« Last post by wraith808 on May 20, 2014, 11:22 AM »

It does have a list of files- I just didn't include that part