Recent Posts

4851

Living Room / Re: Dell 4Gb to 16Gb DDR 3 upgrade --- £500

« Last post by Deozaan on November 28, 2011, 05:29 PM »

But if you're a gamer then you've got to have it!

4852

General Software Discussion / Re: Wave? Good-bye!

« Last post by Deozaan on November 27, 2011, 05:03 PM »

I can see shadows of Wave in Google+ but I think Wave was more than that.

The best way I think I could describe my interpretation of Wave is to say it was like Microsoft OneNote in the cloud but with privacy settings (who can see/edit what) for just about all content you added to it, and extendable with apps and bots to add even more features.

@IainB I wasn't meaning to single you out before. I was just offering a different viewpoint than the one you shared and it was convenient for me to quote the words which got my brain going on the train of thought that followed.

4853

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows' Google Talk clients cause me to lose messages

« Last post by Deozaan on November 27, 2011, 12:27 PM »

I find Desktop Notifications to be annoying. They pop up but they don't ever go away unless you close them. It's useful for when you've got Gmail in an inactive tab and you were away from your computer, but when you come back it should close after a few seconds.

I often have GTalk running because I prefer individual chat windows rather than switching to Gmail all the time, but I also have Gmail running all the time. So when I get a chat message, GTalk will pop up the notification (which goes away after a few seconds), and Gmail/Google+ Chat will pop up the notification which doesn't go away unless I close it or highlight the chat window inside Gmail.

Even if I'm actively chatting in GTalk the GMail Chat notification will still pop up. Urgh! I wish Google would just update their GTalk client to have all the features of the current Gmail Chat so I could disable Chat in Gmail.

4854

General Software Discussion / Re: Wave? Good-bye!

« Last post by Deozaan on November 27, 2011, 12:19 PM »

Its use would have been apparent - if it had been of any use to anyone[...]

-IainB (November 27, 2011, 02:40 AM)

I disagree. I see this quite often with new innovations. For example, Nintendo lately has been introducing new ideas/technologies to the field of video games. With the Nintendo DS, they introduced a portable device with two screens, one of which had touch screen controls. With the Nintendo Wii, they introduced motion-based gameplay and pointer capabilities.

Game developers didn't really know what to do with these technologies. So what we got (and are still getting, to some degree) was a load of unimaginative crapware with shallow, gimmicky uses of these new technologies. It took time for people and developers to have that paradigm shift in which they realized legitimately fun and neat uses for these technologies.

You see this same period of bewilderment with the introduction of many innovative technologies. You summed it up pretty well right here:

It seemed as though it was an interesting solution to an undefined/nonexistant problem.

-IainB (November 27, 2011, 02:40 AM)

I am reminded of the invention of the laser. When the laser was invented, it was really cool but nobody really knew what to use it for. It was the solution to an undefined, unknown, and seemingly non-existant problem. Yet today the laser has all sorts of applications and new uses are still being discovered/invented regularly. I probably have about 10 lasers in my house alone including all my devices that are capable of reading CDs/DVDs/Blu-Rays.

In my opinion, Wave was a great idea that was poorly executed. It was perhaps a bit before its time, though. Imagine if it was made with HTML5 and these new, fast JavaScript engines!

4855

General Software Discussion / Re: Mike Halsey article on firmware upgrades/updates ...

« Last post by Deozaan on November 27, 2011, 11:57 AM »

I never really thought about it before, but I guess I'm also in the "If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It" group. I usually never even know about a firmware update unless I'm experiencing a problem and during my search for a solution find out that I should update the firmware to the latest version.

Unless you're talking about things with forced firmware updates, such as the Sony PS3, Nintendo Wii, etc. In those cases you don't really have a choice if you want to play the latest games online, or without a significant amount of hacking.

4856

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows' Google Talk clients cause me to lose messages

« Last post by Deozaan on November 24, 2011, 01:15 PM »

Well the good news is you can keep your chatlogs saved to your Gmail account so you can review any messages you might have missed.

As far as I know, Google Talk client (for PC or Android) will update the conversation only to whichever client you used last. So if you're chatting on Android and then sit down on your PC, you have to type a message into the GTalk client for it to start sending messages to it. If you leave your PC and want to continue the conversation on your Android, you need to send a message from your Android and all future received messages will go there by default.

If you are idle from all Chat clients for a certain time, then they will all receive incoming messages.

It seems to me that Gmail and Google+ Chat both always get the entire conversation whether you want them to or not.

4857

DC Gamer Club / Re: Dungeon Defenders - A Tower Defense CO-OP RPG

« Last post by Deozaan on November 24, 2011, 12:17 PM »

Thanksgiving themed DLC is free (for now):

http://store.steampo...ered.com/app/203700/

4858

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Free Game: Zuma from PopCap (thru Nov. 29)

« Last post by Deozaan on November 24, 2011, 11:29 AM »

Not my kinda game but thanks for letting us know.

4859

Living Room / Happy Thanksgiving 2011 (USA)

« Last post by Deozaan on November 24, 2011, 11:27 AM »

Hi all,

I just wanted to express my gratitude for mouser and the wonderful DC community he has established and kept going all these years. DC has been a great source of knowledge, help, entertainment, and community for me for many years now.

Thanks to everyone for your contributions to this site/community, and again, a special thanks to mouser for starting it all.

4860

Living Room / Re: FUNNY~! Drinking Water DOES NOT Hydrate!

« Last post by Deozaan on November 24, 2011, 11:23 AM »

Something the whole family can enjoy force down~!

-Renegade (November 23, 2011, 08:42 PM)

Fixed that for you.

4861

General Software Discussion / Re: Wave? Good-bye!

« Last post by Deozaan on November 23, 2011, 07:21 PM »

Just out of curiosity - did anybody here who had an account ever figure out an effective or useful way to use the thing? Because I never could. For me it was Chandler all over again - something that sounded really cool and useful until you actually went to do something with it. At which point it all fell down like a house of cards. However, that might just be me not "getting it."

-40hz (November 23, 2011, 06:57 PM)

I liked the idea of it, but I felt like it was never developed quite enough to reach its potential for usefulness.

4862

Living Room / Re: FUNNY~! Drinking Water DOES NOT Hydrate!

« Last post by Deozaan on November 23, 2011, 07:16 PM »

Here's a cheaper alternative: Half a toast sandwich! Make one and cut it in half. Now you can eat for two meals instead of just one. Or if you're really hungry you can have two (halves) for lunch!

Or yet another: A bread sandwich. Save the cost of electricity and a toaster by not toasting the middle slice of bread. Also, leave off the butter and salt and pepper.

Now gimme that £200!

4863

Living Room / Re: National Novel Writing Month Has Started!

« Last post by Deozaan on November 23, 2011, 05:11 PM »

Here's another tool to help struggling writers:

http://writtenkitten.net/

For every 100 words you write, you are rewarded with an image of a cute kitten. Aww!

4864

Living Room / Re: FUNNY~! Drinking Water DOES NOT Hydrate!

« Last post by Deozaan on November 23, 2011, 03:07 PM »

Here's another one I don't understand:

Britain's 'cheapest' lunchtime meal was unveiled by scientists on Wednesday - the toast sandwich.

The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is reviving the mid-Victorian dish, which, unsurprisingly, consists of two slices of bread around a slice of toast.

[...]

The RSC's Dr John Emsley said: "You simply put a piece of dry toast between two slices of bread and butter, with salt and pepper to taste. I've tried it and it's surprisingly nice to eat and quite filling.

"I would emphasise that toast sandwiches are also good at saving you calories as well as money, provided you only have one toast sandwich for lunch and nothing else."

-http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15752918

What. The. Smurf.

This is wrong on so many levels. Why does it take scientists to announce/discover that you can eat toasted bread in between non-toasted bread to save some money? Who is funding this "scientific research"? Maybe if they didn't fund this kind of useless science they could afford to eat more than a toast sandwich for lunch. . .

4865

DC Gamer Club / Re: RIFT - MMORPG Beta Invite

« Last post by Deozaan on November 23, 2011, 02:49 PM »

RIFT is on sale for $0 (that's not a typo!). Does not include any game time:

https://www.riftgame...ackfridaysale_112311

4866

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: New Humble Bundle: Introversion

« Last post by Deozaan on November 23, 2011, 01:28 PM »

Bought it as soon as I got the email!  My kids love these. 

Wait...there is an end of the year Steam sale? 

-y0himba (November 23, 2011, 04:51 AM)

Yup... usually the week between Christmas and New Year's.

-wraith808 (November 23, 2011, 10:14 AM)

Don't forget the one that started today!

4867

Living Room / Re: FUNNY~! Drinking Water DOES NOT Hydrate!

« Last post by Deozaan on November 22, 2011, 03:47 AM »

Unless Coca Cola can make matching health claims on their product, they don't want anyone else to state the obvious. To claim that water can prevent or treat dehydration on the packaging of your product is to say that water is better for you than sugar-loaded soda pop...

And we can't have that, because people will start drinking water instead of soda pop, and Coca Cola will unfairly suffer an economic loss.

-app103 (November 22, 2011, 01:38 AM)

I'm not sure I believe that conspiracy theory, since Coca-Cola actually owns at least one bottled water company.

How's this for scary? List of Coca-Cola brands^w

4868

Adventures of Baby Cody / Re: Baby Cody: Los Angeles Extreme Edition

« Last post by Deozaan on November 21, 2011, 02:07 PM »

I think you're supposed to make a post here: https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=25325.0

4869

Living Room / Re: Tip - workaround for Windows 7 disappearing Systray Icons bug

« Last post by Deozaan on November 21, 2011, 02:13 AM »

Thanks for the useful tip.

Looks like you could use ScreenshotCaptor.

4870

Living Room / Re: FUNNY~! Drinking Water DOES NOT Hydrate!

« Last post by Deozaan on November 20, 2011, 05:30 PM »

So here's what I don't understand: Since drinking water so obviously helps to prevent dehydration, why do they feel the need to market bottled water as something that combats dehydration?

You don't need to specify in your marketing that a toaster toasts bread or that a coffee maker makes coffee or that a tea kettle boils water. Those features are obvious and it would be a waste of marketing space/time to point them out. It is more pertinent to point out features such as how many slices of bread the toaster can toast at once. Or perhaps that the slots are big enough to also toast bagels. Or perhaps the coffee maker plays your favorite song when the coffee is ready, or has a bigger pot than normal so it can brew much more coffee than the standard coffee maker. Or maybe the tea kettle changes colors to indicate the temperature of the water. Or maybe the speed at which it can get water boiling is noteworthy.

4871

General Software Discussion / Re: Gmail annoyances - can they be fixed using add-ons, Stylish and Userscripts?

« Last post by Deozaan on November 20, 2011, 05:10 PM »

The Archive/Spam/Delete icons at the top of the message list are terrible - the trash can for Delete is the only sensible one there. And they no longer have matching icons at the bottom of the list so you have to scroll up to the top all the time.

-J-Mac (November 18, 2011, 11:26 PM)

I actually like the new placement of archive/spam/delete. I wasn't fond of them replacing the words with icons, but after a few days I finally got used to the icons and the position at the top of the screen. It's much more convenient, IMO, because you don't have to scroll up to the top to press those buttons since they "follow you" no matter how far down you've scrolled. Kind of like how frames used to work in those horrible days of Geocities and Yahoo!.

In the past if you were in the middle of a really long e-mail (or "conversation"), you'd either have to scroll all the way to the top or all the way to the bottom of the page for the archive/delete links. Now they're always right at the top of the screen. No scrolling required.

4872

General Software Discussion / Re: Complaint: Freemake

« Last post by Deozaan on November 18, 2011, 09:56 PM »

I dunno. I don't think it's accurate to call it "freeware in the truest sense of the word" because it's not free. The cost is living with bundled crapware or having to pay enough attention to the installation process to say no to the bundled crapware. And while that cost may be minor, in my opinion it is not the truest sense of freeware.

4873

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: Pledge: Flipside

« Last post by Deozaan on November 18, 2011, 08:33 AM »

Oooohh, a game!  I think this is the only game pledge, so far. Eager to see it as it develops, Deozaan! 

-kyrathaba (November 18, 2011, 06:31 AM)

Except for Hangman? By you?

-capitalH (November 18, 2011, 08:00 AM)

 

4874

Living Room / Re: multiple monitors vs large monitor?

« Last post by Deozaan on November 16, 2011, 05:16 PM »

I say both.

Get multiple large monitors.

4875

Living Room / Re: "Save the internet"

« Last post by Deozaan on November 16, 2011, 05:13 PM »

If it happens it will have an interesting effect on the US economy as servers start moving offshore.

-Carol Haynes (November 16, 2011, 11:05 AM)

That's one of the issues that the Protect IP Act is designed to deal with. Servers that are outside of USA jurisdiction.

Here's another petition I saw recently that seems a bit better organized that the Avaaz one: http://fightforthefuture.org/pipa/

But I think it requires you to actually live in the USA so it can send a letter directly to your specific representative(s).