Recent Posts

5076

Living Room / BitCloud: BitCoin concepts applied to... everything else.

« Last post by wraith808 on January 22, 2014, 10:46 AM »

Announced on Reddit with a project on GitHub, and reported on now by the Guardian, BitCloud is the attempt to replace a whole lot of what people use the internet for other than buying things with a shadow-internet equivalent.  Where BitCoin is based on proof of processing power spent, BitCloud will apparently be based on proof of bandwidth given to the network.  This is in the very early stages- so much so that no one is even sure what proof of bandwidth means.  But it's very interesting to follow...

[Draft document on GitHub]

5077

General Software Discussion / Re: What's thrashing my hard disk?

« Last post by wraith808 on January 21, 2014, 03:23 PM »

I'm still surprised to find it inside a Samsung, though.  I'd have expected them to use their own HDs.

-rjbull (January 21, 2014, 03:03 PM)

Even if they had their own assets, it would be a toss up as to what they use.  It's always been that way.

5078

Living Room / Re: AMC movie theater calls “federal agents” to arrest a Google Glass user

« Last post by wraith808 on January 21, 2014, 03:22 PM »

Actually, it's more than actionable.  They held him without advising him of his rights and questioned him.  Confiscated his equipment.  The manner of questioning for hours is also more than a little debatable.

It comes down to... do we have the rights that our forefathers set forth or not?

Against him is the fact that he didn't challenge them.  It takes balls to do, but when you're uncomfortable, you can request your equipment, refuse to let them search and take your equipment, and ask to walk away.  At the point when you force it back in their court and they're forced to actually do something, they make an actionable stand.  Otherwise they say the double-speak.

It's fear more than anything else- he theoretically had a recording device.  But it has very limited recording capacity, and the fidelity is such that it wouldn't even be useable.  In fact, most incidences of piracy are in house jobs, not the old sit in a movie theatre with a camera on your shoulder.  That wen't out long ago.

Once again, law enforcement is behind.  And being pushed by the MPAA.

5079

Living Room / AMC movie theater calls “federal agents” to arrest a Google Glass user

« Last post by wraith808 on January 21, 2014, 02:10 PM »

AMC movie theater calls “federal agents” to arrest a Google Glass user

FBI snatches Google Glass off the face of innocent AMC movie-goer

I do hope he takes legal action... though I know it will amount to nothing.

5080

Living Room / Re: Why George Orwell wrote 1984

« Last post by wraith808 on January 20, 2014, 11:58 PM »

Let America Be America Again

  by Langston Hughes   
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean—
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today—O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home—
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?

Who said the free?  Not me?
Surely not me?  The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay—
Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let America be America again—
The land that never has been yet—
And yet must be—the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine—the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME—
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose—
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath—
America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain—
All, all the stretch of these great green states—
And make America again!

Some people have always known... Orwell falls into that perceptive group, but is not alone.

5081

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

« Last post by wraith808 on January 20, 2014, 06:44 PM »

A "joint meeting"

5082

Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by wraith808 on January 20, 2014, 11:43 AM »

It's bobsleigh time: Jamaican team raises $25,000 in Dogecoin

5083

General Software Discussion / Re: What's thrashing my hard disk?

« Last post by wraith808 on January 19, 2014, 05:53 PM »

Doesn't "Power On: 147 Days" tell that you haven't allowed Windows to update for about 5 months? Maybe you simply need to close Windows, (and start it again), for the updates to install, so your Windows Update can rest?

-Curt (January 19, 2014, 04:23 PM)

That does not mean that.

5084

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

« Last post by wraith808 on January 19, 2014, 05:52 PM »

Well, it could get a bit more embarrassing than usual if she cuts the cheese, I'd say.

5085

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: MS Office 2013 US$9.95 Corporate/Enterprise Home Use Program - Mini-Review

« Last post by wraith808 on January 19, 2014, 12:19 PM »

Like I said, I think it depends on the licensing agreement your organization has with Microsoft, but yes I was offered Visio Professional for $9.95 as well.

-Innuendo (January 19, 2014, 09:38 AM)

The home-use program is valid as long as your organization buys into it for employees. MS has offered this for a while and the US Military participates, hence why I have received each of office since 2007 for only 9.95

-Josh (January 18, 2014, 08:51 PM)

I can verify that even if your company buys in, it depends on licensing level.  My company changed their license with Microsoft, and now we are no longer eligible, even though we are still locked in with office (A little less so since we've split between MS and Google... oh my what a complicated pie to split).

5086

Living Room / Re: NSA restraints? Yes we can! (not)

« Last post by wraith808 on January 19, 2014, 11:25 AM »

Why not?  Electoral College.

On point, however, that was a very good concise summary.  Thanks for posting it.

5087

N.A.N.Y. 2014 / Re: NANY 2014 Release: Reference Overlay Tool

« Last post by wraith808 on January 19, 2014, 11:23 AM »

Thanks for the feedback!  Your suggestions do make a lot of sense... I'm going to try to see what I can do as far as incorporation your ideas.  Thanks again!

5088

General Software Discussion / Re: What's thrashing my hard disk?

« Last post by wraith808 on January 18, 2014, 11:11 PM »

^That's not on every version of windows, which was the reason for my query about OS version and such before I posted  But it is a good resource.  It didn't help me with my recent problem of the same sort however.

I was getting disk thrashing, and only with process monitor was I able to find out what it was by looking at the delta of disk writes and such.  I had Google Drive, Dropbox, Skydrive, Copy, Cubby, Syncovery, and Strongsync all running at once.  I guess they don't play well together  Turning off Google Drive and Skydrive was enough to stop the thrashing, though I added Copy to the ones that I turned off.

5089

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

« Last post by wraith808 on January 18, 2014, 04:35 PM »

Bad Form.  Especially considering how bad things are right now on those fronts, and how much people tend to ignore that fact.

Bad form.

5090

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

« Last post by wraith808 on January 18, 2014, 04:34 PM »

It will never become popular, it isn't washable!

-Arizona Hot (January 17, 2014, 07:58 PM)

What about edible underwear?

5091

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

« Last post by wraith808 on January 18, 2014, 04:33 PM »

Yep. Got nerve damage on my thumb, and my writing is a total disaster now. Not that it wasn't a disaster before...

-Renegade (January 18, 2014, 12:31 PM)

How are you recovering from that, anyway?

5092

General Software Discussion / Re: What's thrashing my hard disk?

« Last post by wraith808 on January 18, 2014, 04:32 PM »

What OS and version?

5093

Living Room / Warning for chrome extension users

« Last post by wraith808 on January 18, 2014, 04:28 PM »

Extensions are being bought out by adware and malware companies.

http://arstechnica.c...ware-filled-updates/

Here is a running list so far

http://www.reddit.co...ught_out_by_malware/

5094

N.A.N.Y. 2014 / Re: N.A.N.Y. 2014 Release: Text Inspection & Manipulation Utility

« Last post by wraith808 on January 17, 2014, 08:26 AM »

I tend to host it b/c of the bandwidth concerns, so don't feel too bad...  Everyone that downloads it here is adding to the burden of bandwidth.  But with yours only being 17k, some of the images on DC are larger than the archive

5095

Living Room / Re: Net neutrality is dead. Bow to Comcast and Verizon, your overlords (AKA DOOOOOM)

« Last post by wraith808 on January 16, 2014, 04:08 PM »

I think that what comcast is doing with netflix/xbox currently is fine, in regards to making it so that if you access netflix from your xbox then it doesn't count against your cap.  It's good for the end user, and the end user isn't paying for the privilege.  But when you get into a la carte services to do the same and it be the consumer that has to pay for it?  Or giving them the ability to throttle individual services? 

That is just ripe for abuse.  And when you get down to it, the providers want to make money.  That's their business.

5096

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

« Last post by wraith808 on January 15, 2014, 10:58 PM »

36 White People That Need To Be Stopped

Some highlights...



Woman modeling a dress made out of cheese.  Yes, you read that right.  But that's not the worst thing.



... I don't have the words.

And there's more!  Too much more...   

But I leave you with an image too disturbing to ignore... the family portrait.

5097

Living Room / Re: Sci-fi novel now available from DC member kyrathaba!

« Last post by wraith808 on January 15, 2014, 10:51 PM »

Pardon me: "pamphlet".

-kyrathaba (January 15, 2014, 09:38 PM)

Now *that's* classic! 

5098

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

« Last post by wraith808 on January 15, 2014, 10:50 PM »

When you're good at basketball, you go to the NBA. When you're good in the NBA, you win championships. When you win championships, you waste all of your money. When you waste all of your money, you end up singing 'Happy Birthday' in North Korea. Don't end up singing 'Happy Birthday' in North Korea. Switch to Direct T.V.

5099

Living Room / Re: Net neutrality is dead. Bow to Comcast and Verizon, your overlords (AKA DOOOOOM)

« Last post by wraith808 on January 15, 2014, 08:07 PM »

I ... shouldn't have read that.  Really, there are shills... and there are fscking shills.  And he is... 

...I'm going to calm down.

5100

Living Room / Re: Net neutrality is dead. Bow to Comcast and Verizon, your overlords (AKA DOOOOOM)

« Last post by wraith808 on January 15, 2014, 03:37 PM »

Which is why I found that picture I added quite telling as to the problems with this whole thing.