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5226

General Software Discussion / Upgrade to Windows 64-bit

« Last post by wraith808 on December 20, 2013, 08:42 PM »

So, I made the mistake when I set up my box of setting up Windows 7 32-bit.  I've been putting off correcting that error just because I really haven't wanted to deal with it.

Is it possible and/or does anyone see any pitfalls in doing an install on the same partition that I have my 32-bit OS of the 64-bit OS?  I know I can't upgrade... but it would help if I could have both running at the same time.

Anyone have any insights on this?

5227

Living Room / Re: PROJECT: Children's home store server

« Last post by wraith808 on December 20, 2013, 08:37 PM »

I actually like this a lot... I'll have some time next week (when I'll be working on my NANY entries) so I had a question in terms of implementation- did you set up your items on a LAMP stack and as a web application because that was easiest?  Or were you looking at that's how you wanted to implement it?  Or were you open to other implementations?

5228

Living Room / Re: Best Storage Option for Ripped DVD Movies?

« Last post by wraith808 on December 20, 2013, 10:08 AM »

The Synology DS212J is a NAS.  When I said BYOD- I mean bring your own drives.  I didn't like BYOD solutions at first... I thought you were getting ripped off.  After all, if you can get a NAS with drives for the same cost, then which one makes more sense?  After dealing with a couple of all in one Western Digital and Seagate solutions, I realized that WD and Seagate don't really know how to make NAS software.  And if a drive is included, it is assumed the drive will be used, so usually they're locked down.

Synology's OS is top notch.  And is basically just a stripped down version of Linux embedded- and with their plugin system, people are writing plugins for all sorts of things, and you don't have to have anything loaded you don't want to.

And then I get a drive, pop it open, drop it in... and it's recognized.  And if something goes wrong with the drive, I pop it out, and put another in.  And if I don't like that drive company... that's fine too.

Right now I'm ripping to H264 in a MKV container.  Everything I have has recognized them fine, and they take up about 3-5 GB each, though some longer movies are up to 7-8GB.  On the internal, I have 257 ripped (88% full with 225GB free... but that one is a file server also).  On the external I have 79 ripped so far (I slowed down a bit - 10% full with 3.29TB free).  My two set top devices also have 1TB in them and probably 20-30 each.  I put the movies I most like to watch on one of those to reduce network traffic (my noise movies that I put on when I'm doing something else), and the other that's in the living room holds the movies and DVDs the kids and the wife most like to watch.

And it's just a one step process- throw in the DVD and use MakeMKV.

I did try transcoding from different formats before... but this is simpler.  And the difference in fidelity isn't enough that we really care.  And without a lot of network throughput and a lot of processing power, you will get skips transcoding.

5229

Living Room / Re: Best Storage Option for Ripped DVD Movies?

« Last post by wraith808 on December 19, 2013, 11:11 PM »

I've just started doing the same; what I ended up getting was a BYOD solution to separate the disk from the platform.

What I got was a Synology DS212J.  It also has a USB expansion for great flexibility.  Right now I have a 2TB Seagate drive internal to the device, and a 4TB external.  I've ripped a good 300 DVDs without making a dent in the space, nor having to fill up the other bay.  I still have a good 700 to go, but at least I seem to have the space issue down.  I also use it for a file server and an inhouse backup warehouse, mirrored on my s3 account- I didn't think of doing that until later, but since I'd bought a platform rather than just storage, it was an option.

I guess that's going to be what I'd suggest for you... if you're sure that you're only going to want to back up your media and never really play from the device nor use it for some other purpose, then just getting storage space is good enough and less expensive.  But if you want to leave your options open, I'd say go with a NAS.

5230

Found Deals and Discounts / StrongSync

« Last post by wraith808 on December 19, 2013, 11:34 AM »

I've used ExpanDrive for a while- it lets you add alternate sources as drives in your save and open dialogs (ftp/sftp/s3/webdav), and I've been very satisfied.

Now they've introduced StrongSync, which is a sync program using one of those same sources.

A couple of talking points from the site:

Control your data
Strongsync lets you connect to your own SFTP server or Amazon S3 account so you stay in complete control of your data.

Built on open standards

• SSH (SFTP), Amazon S3 and Dreamhost DreamObjects support.
• Rackspace Cloud Files, Openstack Swift and other backends coming soon
• SSH keys support
• Encrypted connections via SSH and SSL
• Deduplicated content-addressble data storage

It's available for Mac and Windows, with Linux support coming soon.

I'm downloading it to give it a try... it's $29.95 until years' end, and they have a fully functional trial version that is limited to repositories less than 1GB or 10,000 files.

5231

Living Room / Re: You're a sly one. Mr.........Disney?

« Last post by wraith808 on December 18, 2013, 05:28 PM »

Techdirt, it seems.

And that's why I never got into the Amazon thing.  They burned me once, when they bought mobipocket, and what they did with the format.  Not again.  At least epub is open, even if some sellers put DRM in it.

http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/MOBI

5232

Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by wraith808 on December 17, 2013, 04:16 PM »

^ I do see a lot more of what Renegade was on about before- how MSM and the powers that be seem to be in collusion with all of the FUD towards BC.  That's just one of the more... obvious examples.

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Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by wraith808 on December 17, 2013, 11:17 AM »

Here's a history of Bitcoin infographic. It is very large.

http://www.visualcap...coin-infographic.jpg

Not hot linking it for obvious reasons.

-Renegade (December 16, 2013, 07:29 AM)

That infographic is one of the best explanations I've seen.  Thinking about getting into BC just so I can donate at some point

5234

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

« Last post by wraith808 on December 16, 2013, 12:25 PM »

NSA officials consider Edward Snowden amnesty in return for documents

...

5235

DC Gamer Club / Re: SteamOS Beta is Available for download

« Last post by wraith808 on December 15, 2013, 07:54 PM »

Steam OS Bootable ISO

http://wikisend.com/...SteamOS_Boot.torrent

Regular ISO

https://mega.co.nz/#...MXA1R6XTyQCjOZ9kK4Os

Installation instructions on VirtualBox

http://steamcommunit...etails/?id=204085700

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Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by wraith808 on December 15, 2013, 09:43 AM »

Thanks Mark0... between you and Renegade, I'm coming over to that side of the fence...

5237

DC Gamer Club / SteamOS Beta is Available for download

« Last post by wraith808 on December 14, 2013, 06:51 PM »

Article on Lifehacker: http://lifehacker.co...-download-1482911466

Link to download: http://repo.steampowered.com/download/

Install instructions from Steam FAQ

Q: How do I install SteamOS?
There are two different install methods for SteamOS. '''WARNING: BOTH METHODS WILL ERASE EVERYTHING ON THE MACHINE'''

The easiest method is an image-based install using CloneZilla. You will need to create a SteamOS System Restore USB stick to perform this install. The image provided here requires at least a 1TB disk.

• Format a 4GB or larger USB stick with the FAT32 filesystem.
• Use "SYSRESTORE" as the partition name
• Unzip the contents of SYSRESTORE.zip to this USB stick to create the System Restore USB stick
• Put the System Restore USB stick in your target machine.
• Boot your machine and tell the BIOS to boot off the stick. (usually something like F8, F11 or F12 will bring up the BIOS boot menu).
• Make sure you select the UEFI entry, it may look something like "UEFI: Patriot Memory PMAP"
• Select "Restore Entire Disk" from the GRUB menu.
• System Restore will proceed automatically. When it is complete it will reboot into your freshly re-imaged SteamOS

The second method is based on the Debian Installer. It requires multiple configuration steps:

• Unzip the SteamOSInstaller.zip file to a blank, FAT32-formatted USB stick.
• Put the USB stick in your target machine.
• Boot your machine and tell the BIOS to boot off the stick. (usually something like F8, F11, or F12 will bring up the BIOS boot menu).
• Make sure you select the UEFI entry, it may look something like "UEFI: Patriot Memory PMAP"
• Pick "Automated Install" from the next menu.
• The rest of the installation is unattended and will repartition the drive and install SteamOS.
• After installation is complete, log onto the resulting system (using the Gnome session) with the predefined "steam" account. The password is "steam".
• Run steam, accept the EULA, and let it bootstrap.
• Logoff the steam account
• Log on with the "desktop" account.
• The password is "desktop"
• From a terminal window, run ~/post_logon.sh. This will prompt for a password - enter "desktop".
• This script will perform the post-install customizations, delete itself, then reboot into the recovery partition capture utility.
• Confirm "y" to continue and the recovery partition will be created. When it is finished, reboot into your freshly installed SteamOS.

5238

Living Room / Re: Migrating from Google Gmail.com to Microsoft Outlook.com

« Last post by wraith808 on December 13, 2013, 07:54 PM »

Remember: "It's not only the cream that rises to the top."

-40hz (December 13, 2013, 05:49 PM)

Are you trying not to say shit floats?

-Stoic Joker (December 13, 2013, 06:57 PM)

(see attachment in previous post)
Uh...pork fat, Ren! Pork fat floats on beans!

-app103 (December 13, 2013, 07:05 PM)

5239

Living Room / Re: Migrating from Google Gmail.com to Microsoft Outlook.com

« Last post by wraith808 on December 13, 2013, 07:50 PM »

so for email services, which of the big three would you use?

-superboyac (December 13, 2013, 05:20 PM)

...not yahoo, I'll tell you that.

5240

Living Room / Re: Migrating from Google Gmail.com to Microsoft Outlook.com

« Last post by wraith808 on December 13, 2013, 08:11 AM »

While picking on the Email providers do keep in mind that SMTP is about as secure as a Snail Mail Post Card. Because that avenue of exposure has always existed...it's just being exploited by the best of the worst at this point.

-Stoic Joker (December 13, 2013, 06:19 AM)

That just gave me a new meaning for that acronym... Snail Mail To Post

5241

Living Room / Re: Migrating from Google Gmail.com to Microsoft Outlook.com

« Last post by wraith808 on December 12, 2013, 01:20 PM »

the "Import email accounts" doesnt exist here yet. So definitely not fully rolled out yet - will wait for this and try it out then.

-tomos (December 12, 2013, 07:21 AM)

I wonder if it is rolling out to users in waves.  My account does have it.

5242

Living Room / Re: Help Proofreading a submission

« Last post by wraith808 on December 12, 2013, 01:08 PM »

Well, I finally got my rejection letter for any that were following.  So I guess it's on to the full novel and self-publishing route!     I don't look at it as a rejection or a door closed, but rather possibilities shown...

5243

General Software Discussion / Re: Outlook.com

« Last post by wraith808 on December 12, 2013, 12:27 PM »

I'm thinking more and more about it...  becoming less and less enamored with google's offerings.

5244

Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by wraith808 on December 12, 2013, 10:38 AM »

I cant quite tie it in with the current definition of a reserve currency a la http://en.wikipedia....iki/Reserve_currency.

-tomos (December 12, 2013, 09:23 AM)

That's actually a great resource; you just have to realize that unlike fiat, the reserve is not held by one group.  Because BC is the anchor for the trading in all of the other CCs, that's why he refers to it in that manner.  At least, that was my understanding.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Outlook.com

« Last post by wraith808 on December 12, 2013, 08:13 AM »

Yes... it's been that way since hotmail.  If you don't login for a set period of time (I think it's 90 days) your account gets wiped.  You still retain the account, but all of the e-mail is gone.

5246

Living Room / Re: When did the world of the NSA and technology get so surreal?

« Last post by wraith808 on December 11, 2013, 11:53 PM »

^ Yup.  SeraphimLabs said it best...

I have one very strong objection to this plan, based on personal experience with these types of games (and probably being watched in them).

The people who play them are typically people who aren't going to do anything outrageous in real life. With some rare exceptions, people spending vast amounts of time indulging in a MMORPG usually are the same people that might talk big but not actually act on it.

-SeraphimLabs (December 10, 2013, 03:05 PM)

That was exactly my thought (after where do I get this job).

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Living Room / Re: When did the world of the NSA and technology get so surreal?

« Last post by wraith808 on December 11, 2013, 09:54 PM »

I would bet that it's gamers who now work at the NSA who came up with this idea.  "Noooo... we are NOT just playing games at work; we're monitoring potential terrorist activity in the gaming and virtual environment areas..."

I mean, how do you manage to get a job like that? Convince your boss that you need to play games all day long in the name of national security? What a sacrifice for their country! Heroes, I say!

-J-Mac (December 11, 2013, 09:32 PM)

That's what the cynical part of me said when I first read it.  And my second thought was "how do I get this job?"

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Living Room / Re: When did the world of the NSA and technology get so surreal?

« Last post by wraith808 on December 11, 2013, 02:13 PM »

The only problem is when they're watching something that we believe should be entirely private, or held in confidence between myself and whomever I'm interacting with. Surely if I'm in a virtual public spot in, say, WoW, I can't object to someone observing what I do.

-CWuestefeld (December 11, 2013, 01:48 PM)

The problem with it in this case isn't privacy; it's use, waste, and idiocy.

5249

N.A.N.Y. 2014 / Re: NANY 2014 Pledge and Alpha: ImgFloat (a tool for Screenshot Captor)

« Last post by wraith808 on December 10, 2013, 12:56 PM »

Ok... I need input on an interface peculiarity for a feature.

I want to have the ability to disconnect ImgFloat from SSC for periods of time, i.e. freeze the image.  Imagine that you get something for reference, and you want to keep browsing based on that and taking screenshots while keeping your reference up.

It's not hard to implement.  But how do I communicate it?

I'm thinking that I will put a checked menu item in the menus, so it's easy to toggle on and off- but I don't know what to call it to adequately communicate what it's for.  Any ideas?

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Living Room / When did the world of the NSA and technology get so surreal?

« Last post by wraith808 on December 09, 2013, 06:08 PM »

I toyed with putting this into one of the existing threads, but decided not to.  This is really... surreal.  Reads like a novel.  When did our lives become cheap pulp espionage novels?

NSA and GCHQ collect gamers' chats and deploy real-life agents into World of Warcraft and Second Life

The NSA document, written in 2008 and titled Exploiting Terrorist Use of Games & Virtual Environments, stressed the risk of leaving games communities under-monitored, describing them as a "target-rich communications network" where intelligence targets could "hide in plain sight".

Games, the analyst wrote, "are an opportunity!". According to the briefing notes, so many different US intelligence agents were conducting operations inside games that a "deconfliction" group was required to ensure they weren't spying on, or interfering with, each other.

If properly exploited, games could produce vast amounts of intelligence, according to the NSA document. They could be used as a window for hacking attacks, to build pictures of people's social networks through "buddylists and interaction", to make approaches by undercover agents, and to obtain target identifiers (such as profile photos), geolocation, and collection of communications.

The ability to extract communications from talk channels in games would be necessary, the NSA paper argued, because of the potential for them to be used to communicate anonymously: Second Life was enabling anonymous texts and planning to introduce voice calls, while game noticeboards could, it states, be used to share information on the web addresses of terrorism forums.

Given that gaming consoles often include voice headsets, video cameras, and other identifiers, the potential for joining together biometric information with activities was also an exciting one.

But the documents contain no indication that the surveillance ever foiled any terrorist plots, nor is there any clear evidence that terror groups were using the virtual communities to communicate as the intelligence agencies predicted.

More at link.