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5226

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

« Last post by 40hz on September 11, 2012, 06:06 PM »

@tomos - Thanks for the above. Never heard of a tin fiddle before. Interesting video about fiddle playing in general too.

A few of the CBN people have done cigarbox violins. Some of the results have been surprising. This particular one by Elmar Zeilhofer sounds quite amazing in the hands of an obviously talented and classically trained player by the name of Phoebe:

Although you'd never mistake the sound of a box violin for that of a fine concert instrument, that doesn't take away from just how good it does sound. Something that flies in the face of the myth that decent sounding violin-type instruments are beyond the scope of the average instrument builder to create.

Elmar is also involved in several other interesting projects such as this experimental "harp" guitar. This design combines several old ideas (i.e. 'harp' strings) with some modern innovations such as his own "flat pickup" design and using the obscure 'sliding rail' mount for a magnetic guitar pickup.

The results are wonderful:

 

5227

General Software Discussion / Re: School Regrets Swapping Laptops For iPads

« Last post by 40hz on September 11, 2012, 05:18 PM »

Surprised?

Did any of them try typing anything longer than a paragraph on a touchscreen and then tell the school staff you can just as easily write a report on a tablet as you can a laptop?

Our source says staff were initially thrilled at the prospect. “Most staff are IT illiterate and jumped at the chance of exchanging their laptop for an iPad,” he writes.

Nice phrase: "IT illiterate." That's the problem in a nutshell. Talk about buying the proverbial "pig on in a poke."
 

5228

Developer's Corner / Re: Opinions about the Apache License?

« Last post by 40hz on September 11, 2012, 02:19 PM »

It's been said there's no such thing as a perfect software license. Just some better suited than others depending on the goals.

If your goal is to encourage widespread adoption of something without concern about commercial interests getting involved (and possibly taking the ball and running with it like Google had happen with Android) Apache is a modern and excellent choice IMO.

As far as compatibility with GPLv2 is concerned, it's largely a matter of how you feel about it. The simple fact you're looking at alternatives to GPL tells me you're not 100% behind the philosophy and goals GPLv2 was meant to advance. (Many people aren't BTW.) So in your case I would consider Apache not being 100% compatible with GPLv2 a plus.

Like was said earlier - no perfect license, just better licenses, depending on the goals.

5229

Living Room / Re: Kids E-Book Ideas?

« Last post by 40hz on September 11, 2012, 01:09 PM »

^Well...if you're gonna confuse the issue with sanity and common sense we might as well end this discussion right here.

But seriously, it shouldn't matter. Then again, there was the Zune...

5230

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

« Last post by 40hz on September 11, 2012, 12:09 PM »

^Funny only in retrospect. I really needed that job...

5231

Living Room / Re: Kids E-Book Ideas?

« Last post by 40hz on September 11, 2012, 12:02 PM »

FWIW, my GF (who is my in-house consumer electronics expert) decided on a Nook rather than a Kindle after one of her extremely thorough and nit-picky studies. She thought the B&N title selection and pricing was better. And feature-wise, the Nook had far less "nonsense" than Amazon's reader. She's been extremely happy with hers. Don't know if that would work out the same for a user who's not an adult. However, I have friends who bought Kindles for their kids who haven't been all that happy with them - mainly because of the kid book pricing and selection.

Of course now that Microsoft has essentially bought out (or more probably bought off) B&N (in an effort to get out of that ridiculous patent lawsuit they themselves started) there's every indication the new Nooks will soon start being based on Windows 8 rather than Android as the current models are. Could be good or bad. Only time will tell on that score.

5232

Living Room / Re: Describe the coolest conference chairs and tables you've ever seen

« Last post by 40hz on September 11, 2012, 11:44 AM »

Here's what I've got so far:

-superboyac (September 11, 2012, 11:38 AM)

Check out that two station console in the alcove! Getting set up to launch missiles or fly drones are you?

Here. You'll need some of these for the final mockup drawing:



Or if you're Renegade, a few of these:



 

5233

Developer's Corner / Re: Amazon Allows Eliminating Ads on Kindle - Is this idiotic?

« Last post by 40hz on September 11, 2012, 11:26 AM »

From a business perspective, it sounds to me like Kindle ads are a failure.

-Renegade (September 11, 2012, 10:49 AM)

Bingo! I think that's it exactly. If the Kindle ads were selling like hotcakes they wouldn't be looking to get some bogus 'protection' money from Kindle owners. And the fact they seem not to be worried about prejudicing themselves with advertisers by providing such a blocking option further suggests they haven't been selling very many of these ads. Sure sounds like an effort to save face, and maybe make a little money on the way out.

Then again didn't the telcos make a small fortune selling "unpublished" and "unlisted" number services?

(Too bad they made an even bigger fortune later on when they started selling "Enhanced Caller-ID" and other "services" to get around it.)

5234

Living Room / Re: Describe the coolest conference chairs and tables you've ever seen

« Last post by 40hz on September 11, 2012, 11:08 AM »

Y'know... I've been in a few nice board rooms, but still, I think the icing on the cake would be hot strippers in each chair with bottles of liquor on the table, ice buckets, fruit trays, cheese platters, cold meats, and whip cream... lots and lots of whip cream...

I'm having a hard time imagining better conference chairs than those...

-Renegade (September 11, 2012, 10:10 AM)

Well... I was gonna say Aeron chairs...but I think I changed my mind.

---
@Renegade - You!

5235

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

« Last post by 40hz on September 11, 2012, 11:04 AM »

^I think it's great, and I don't even like the song all that much.

Hmm... supposedly they were fired for using public facilities "for their own benefit."

Wonder if some sharp attorney might want to take the city up on exactly what it considers constitutes "personal benefit." Because with all the official, quasi-official, and unofficial "perks" municipal employees enjoy (e.g. Are the police or public works employees allowed to take their  lunch breaks using city owned vehicles since lunch hour is personal unpaid time and definitely not official business? What about the nod & wink approach of most offices to occasional personal use of city stationary, phones, photocopiers, etc.? And does putting a paper towel from the ladies room in your purse constitute theft of municipal property since you didn't use it for the purpose it was officially provided for when you took it?) it might open up enough of a can of worms they wouldn't want to go there.

In truth, I think these lifeguards had the misfortune of being considered a "safe example" that could be made more for the benefit of the permanent city employees than the seasonal ones. Because going against a permanent city employee for anything (including serious criminal acts) would have involved labor unions, politicians, and endless hearings and meetings.

So yeah, it's a BS job action on the part of the city (note the timing - they're mostly going back to school) with the lifeguards being the fall guys.

Moral: Always watch out for hidden agendas. Government is loaded with them.

Addendum: Oddly enough, I bet the one thing they could burn them on is the part about the unauthorized "use of city issued uniforms." That's one that does have a long history of being enforceable. Freshman year of college, me and a buddy of mine got canned from Macdonalds for that. We always kept our uniforms on when we used to go across the street to Burger King for our lunch break since we only got a half hour. (The Whopper was much better than the BigMac as far as we were concerned, even if we did have to pay full price for it. )

5236

Living Room / Re: Describe the coolest conference chairs and tables you've ever seen

« Last post by 40hz on September 11, 2012, 09:58 AM »

The Paley Center is certainly an awesome display of the opulence and sophistication that is mostly only possible for a non-profit organization!  

Maybe not the coolest, but certainly the most unique conference "room" I ever sat in was with a 'New Age' type client I had.

There was a nice river running behind their building. Weather permitting, they used to go sit out on the grass by the river whenever they wanted to "conference." They'd bring an easel pad to write on. They even had us run CAT-5 cable out there so they could plug in a WAP and use their laptops. (The access point was hidden inside a little rock "shrine" sort of thing.)

Just for the record: I hated meeting out there.  

5237

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

« Last post by 40hz on September 11, 2012, 09:32 AM »

One of the greats, performing one of the greats.  Folks, they don't make 'em like this no more.  

-mouser (September 06, 2012, 04:40 PM)

There will never be another Janis Joplin AFAIC.

But at least we still have a few high-caliber female vocalists like Chrissie Hynde and Dana Fuchs around to help ease the pain.

(BTW: Dana does a very respectable Joplin "tribute" from time to time. She doesn't try to copy Janis Joplin's performance - she just pays homage to the essentials. IMO it works rather well.)

5238

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

« Last post by 40hz on September 11, 2012, 09:06 AM »

As some of you may know from a previous post in this thread, I'm into the whole cigarbox guitar and homemade musical instrument thing. Over on Cigar Box Nation, the big hangout for CBG enthusiasts, there's a video section where the members can share what they've been up to. It's a pretty mixed bag that spans the gamut from absolute amateur to serious professional. Which is fine because Cigar Box Nation is much like DoCo in that it welcomes people of all levels of interest and ability. The important thing is not so much how well you do it as it is that you do it. And most importantly, have fun while doing so.

One of the people on CBN I've been following is a busker from the UK. She's an instrument builder and songwriter as well. This one is definitely what I'd characterize as professional. She goes by the name Bemuzic and can be found over at the Bandcamp website. Here page is here.



She recently posted a short street performance of her song The Line which I really liked. She's playing a 3-string CBG-type instrument called a "Fiddlestick," which was built by another CBN member who goes by the name of Diglydog.

Here's the video:

It's refreshing (to me at any rate) that there are real indy musicians out there, performing their music, and polishing their craft. I'm also glad there are things like Cigar Box Nation, Bandcamp, and Youtube that allow them to get their music out there.

5239

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

« Last post by 40hz on September 10, 2012, 11:41 AM »

But seriously -- I want a tablet computer that has all the power of my desktop that I can plug into an ARRAY of monitors and other peripherals. I want my computer to be portable.

-Renegade (September 10, 2012, 11:21 AM)

I don't. I want to be like the Krell. I wish to be liberated from all instrumentalities. (I want to be a god!) Bwaa-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!

5240

Living Room / Re: Perhaps About the Coolest Book EVER~! =D

« Last post by 40hz on September 10, 2012, 11:12 AM »

I guess I don't see a lot of situations where this would be genuine useful, though.

-f0dder (September 10, 2012, 10:56 AM)

It could for technical instruction.

Some stuff is easier to teach with moving pictures or live examples. The ability to animate something (like showing how the OSI model actually encapsulates data and moves it, or how bytes get moved around in the registers and accumulators of a CPU in response to a piece of machine code, or touch a music score and hear it played, or tap a movie still and and actually see the scene get played, etc.) goes a long way towards showing how a dynamic system works. Although I suppose you could do the same thing by just providing a link to a website (like many instructional books now do) - except then it would no longer be data contained within the book itself.

But yeah, it still has a long way to go. And this project is just an early 'proof of concept' piece to whet our appetites and get people thinking about how something like this could be effectively used.

(Besides, doesn't the Necronomicon already work like that? You trace the diagrams with your index finger and read certain words in the text and...things...happen.)

5241

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

« Last post by 40hz on September 10, 2012, 11:00 AM »

4. Is already part of the Apple philosophy

-rgdot (September 10, 2012, 08:59 AM)

Not really, they are just incapable of making (buying?) decent CD burners and decided to say "it's the future" not tu use them
Just yesterday, my MacBook destroyed me 4 CDs (while attempting to burn linux, actually. maybe it's selective?)

-jgpaiva (September 10, 2012, 10:04 AM)

I'm thinking it's more that Apple is opposed to physical media in any way shape or form since "hardcopy" flies in the face of the app store and iTunes business model, which is only release via download. They've even extended that to OS X upgrades starting with Lion.

Why? Because you can't completely control CDs or DVDs. They can be passed around. Sold. Loaned out to friends. Duplicated!!! (And the raw media is cheap too.)

So physical media is not a good thing when you're as fanatic a control freak as Apple is. And one way to get rid of CDs or DVDs is to eliminate the devices that can read and write them.
 

5242

Living Room / Re: Windows system "aliases"?

« Last post by 40hz on September 10, 2012, 09:19 AM »

^AHK? Or pretty much any systems scripting language?

5243

General Software Discussion / Re: Steal Windows 8 and Microsoft probably won't mind?

« Last post by 40hz on September 10, 2012, 09:14 AM »

The average person wiil be content with a locked-down appliance as long as they can: surf the web, access their social sites, send and receive text messages and email, share photos, do a little shopping, play a game, watch a movie, listen to music, read a book, and generally be a consumer.

-40hz (September 09, 2012, 09:27 PM)

The ever-useful quote strikes again: "I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit - it's the only way to be sure".

-f0dder (September 10, 2012, 07:54 AM)

To which I will +1 with the very next line in that script:

NSFW

Fuckin' A!

(Great movie btw!   )
 

5244

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

« Last post by 40hz on September 10, 2012, 06:25 AM »

Unintentionally hilarious moments in the world of Linux.

This is what happens when an utterly clueless but unbelievably "hip" non-contributor decides to participate in the Linux kernal mailing list. (Angela's suggestions to the "peoples" reading the list: remove all support for Ethernet, multiple monitors, multiple users, and optical drives.

(Wow Angela! That is like so effing telling them what is!)

Suggestions for the Future of Linux
From: Angela Bernard
Date: Fri Sep 07 2012 - 15:39:26 EST

    Next message: Arnd Bergmann: "Re: [PATCH v3 15/31] arm64: SMP support"
    Previous message: Timur Tabi: "Re: linux-next: Tree for Sept 4 (drivers/net/phy/mdio-mux-mmioreg.c)"
    Next in thread: richard -rw- weinberger: "Re: Suggestions for the Future of Linux"
    Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Peoples, we're entering a new era of tech - so let's get Linux going
the way people want it to.

1: Remove ethernet support. Ethernet is just bloat - devices only have
it for the stubborn old geezers. Other than that, no one really uses
it. Get over it.

http://www.pcgamer.c...he-end-for-ethernet/

Who expects that thick cabling running through our offices? I don't!

2: Remove multi-monitor support

The new way for technology is mobile. The desktop is dead, and Linux
on the desktop has been deader than dead since it was conceived. No
one, even on the desktop space, really even uses multi-monitors,
anyways.

3: Remove support for multiple users - no one really expects a single
device to be used by two people!

4: Ending optical drive support - when's the last time you ever bought
something on disk for use in your Linux box? The CD, DVD and Blu-Ray
are today what the Floppy was 15 years ago - obsolete and yet still in
use - where you need multiple disks for one thing - And even most
people's internet are faster than a CD drive.
--
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the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/

Note: This one has GOT to be a complete put-on. At least I hope it is.

5245

Living Room / Re: Perhaps About the Coolest Book EVER~! =D

« Last post by 40hz on September 09, 2012, 10:59 PM »

Eventually they'll incorporate all that tech into the pages themselves. But for the near and mid-term, it'll do.

Maybe to Chris's point this will end up being nothing more than an alternative version of an ebook in that there will be two flavors available:

• the "library" tablet-style 'universal reader' model (similar to today's Nook or Kindle) where one device stores many book titles; and 
   
  
• the true electronic book, which is basically a single title that looks and behaves exactly like a traditional book except it has electronic enhancements that allow it to do things not possible with simple ink on simple paper.

5246

Living Room / Re: What books are you reading?

« Last post by 40hz on September 09, 2012, 10:36 PM »

Hey 40...do I get a degree if I read and watch all this stuff?

-superboyac (September 09, 2012, 04:02 PM)

Nope!

Cuz if I don't, you're just wasting my time!!  I could be getting my EE PhD and get on the fast track to --> $$$
 

Yup!

(But if you do, be sure to take classes in either Mandarin of Hindi. Because you'll need it for where you'll be working with that level of education if the US continues going in the direction it's going.)
 

5247

General Software Discussion / Re: SoftMaker Office 2012 BETA testing

« Last post by 40hz on September 09, 2012, 10:29 PM »

+1! It's a great alternative to MS Office - and also Libre/Open Office if you use Linux. Always nice to have the exact same software available for both Linux and Windows. When I need a full wordprocessor, I prefer to use TextMaker. Especially since I never did like that miserable 'ribbon' interface in MS Word.

5248

Living Room / Re: Perhaps About the Coolest Book EVER~! =D

« Last post by 40hz on September 09, 2012, 10:21 PM »

^You have a book that doesn't require a power source or weblink to use. But if you do have one, it can provide additional content, moving diagrams, video/audio clips, interactivity, etc. It keeps the advantages of a standard book in that it can be read as is, but it also gains the benefits of an ebook when it's in places with the appropriate connections and resources.
 

5249

Living Room / Re: It's about ... oldish films

« Last post by 40hz on September 09, 2012, 10:15 PM »

@4wd - all of them good!

Let's also add in:

Things to Come, a 1938 adaptation of H.G.Wells story Shape of Things to Come.

This may be the original PA picture even if ut didn't have zombies!

YouTube has the full movie online (see below)

The Village of the Damned (1960) that rather creepy adaptation of John Wyndham's sci-fi novel The Midwich Cuckoos

Full movie also on Youtube:

5250

Living Room / Re: It's about ... oldish films

« Last post by 40hz on September 09, 2012, 09:52 PM »

OK, fully back on topic!

Speaking of Danny Kaye earlier, I can't believe I forgot to mention another one of my favorites: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty based on the James Thurber short story of the same name. It had some nice performances by Virgina Mayo as his wife, and (surprise surprise!) Boris Karloff as Doctor Hollingshead.

Great little film. Maybe not as profound as Jimmy Stewart's Harvey. But a fun film nonetheless.