Recent Posts

5251

Living Room / Re: What's your experience with 3rd party color inkjet ink replacement?

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 22, 2011, 08:40 PM »

@mouser, on the bank thing, when I was a kid home mortgages were typically 6% and the local bank paid 5 1/4% on passbook savings accounts.  When I tell people under 40 that they tell me I'm nuts since you can't even get 5% on a CD now.  But that's how it was.  Sure it's great you can manipulate your checking account online "for free" but then even without fees they are using our money for nothing.  I think the bank where I have my checking had the nerve to try to sell me a 1 1/4% CD the last time I was in there.  But when they lockstep there's not much you can do about it, unless you have your own bank in the family like maybe Chase or something.

5252

Living Room / Re: What's your experience with 3rd party color inkjet ink replacement?

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 22, 2011, 08:35 PM »

The Printer is a "loss leader."  The cartridges are in effect, "keys" to the ink. IOW, if there was a snap open bin for each color of ink so you could pour the ink in, there'd be no way to "lock" you out.  So all the electric mumbo-jumbo with the cartridges.  If it wasn't for cheap clone cartridges I'd have chucked it a long time ago.

5253

Living Room / Re: What's your experience with 3rd party color inkjet ink replacement?

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 22, 2011, 08:28 PM »

It's interesting to me actually that people take the view that with printers so cheap, the ink should also be cheap.

Nope, we're just hip to the Gillette Razor Trick(tm).  Put everything in the blades and snap them into a plastic handle instead of that metal chunk of machinery they used to sell.  Anyone too young to remember search Blue Blades and the razor they were used in.

Speaking of which, I remember when Schick came out with a double bladed bonded blade to compete with Gillette, that had a white plastic insert between the blades.  I could make one of those blades last about 2 months(and I don't mean by not shaving or using an electric razor.)  Every 5 shaves or so, push the plastic tab and all the stubble is forced out.  The thing is practically new. As long as you shook it dry to reduce corrosion it would last so long you forget when you put it in the razor.

Later they changed it so after 2 or 3 pushes on the plastic insert, it deformed to make you throw the blade away.

I bet there are people on the Riviera with cases of those blades in storeage.

5254

Living Room / Re: What's your experience with 3rd party color inkjet ink replacement?

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 22, 2011, 05:49 PM »

Don't know about Cannon. A guy I knew who wrote Windows printer drivers told me if I wanted photo quality on the cheap, to get Epson Stylus. I've had a couple. I don't use the photo paper, just plain paper.  But as nudone mentioned, the compatible cartridges have worked well for me.

I can't see paying $30 for a printer cartridge to stick in an $80 printer. It didn't take me long to try some online stores.  Tried 123inkjets and can't complain. I think out of almost 100 cartridges purchased over time I may have had 2 dry ones. I just chuck 'em as for around $5 it's not worth the hassle to try to get a refund.  Seems as good as OEM stuff to me. The dry cartridge was the only problem I can recall. Never had one that leaked in the printer or did anything else weird. If it had ink in it, it worked as expected.

5255

Living Room / Re: Switching to Linux; how do you not flop back to the world of Windows??

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 22, 2011, 12:03 AM »

[just in case noone noticed, this thread was 2 years old and was revived by necro spamming by a bot ]

-jgpaiva (April 20, 2011, 04:11 PM)

Yeah, but Linux doesn't really change all that much in 2 years.



Anyway, to stick in my $.02, if you have room, avoid rebooting into the other OS by having several machines networked.  Give a kick and roll your swivel chair to the machine with the OS and apps you need at that moment.

I vote for Mandriva One rather than Ubuntu. In any case, as long as the Linux flavor is set up to use APT then it's much simpler to install and configure apps than in the old days.

Plus Linux will still scream on a machine that's a few years old.  The new PC you bought with Windows7 on it, well you might as well just leave W7 on it and network it.  The four year old PC, stick Mandriva on.

5256

Site/Forum Features / Re: I think we should close the Company Complaints and Compliments Section

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 21, 2011, 11:01 PM »

I'm on another board that has a "rants" section.  There's a thread there started in 2008. Maybe a couple of years ago I read the initial post. I don't remember for sure.  But every few weeks or so somebody posts a follow-up.  Might as well be a sticky. It's like the thread that wouldn't die. When Sol super novas they'll be this one last follow-up saying the original poster was a jerk!!

5257

General Software Discussion / Re: Unlocker punishes you for not installing toolbar.

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 21, 2011, 10:53 PM »

I did LockHunter when I got a Vista64 PC. Just for grins I checked the home page again.  Same version as when I installed xx months ago.  Doesn't seem like it will be updated often.  If anything UnLocker has a tendency to be fixed a bit too often. I turn off check for updates and just manually check now and then.

I don't like people trying to put toolbars/searchbars on or change my home page.  I wonder if it would be less annoying to just launch to a Donate page in the default browser and leave it hang there?  If they don't want to push the button fine.  At least it's a hint without putting crapware on the machine though.

5258

Living Room / Re: Apple - not quite grasping the concept of privacy.

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 21, 2011, 09:29 PM »

The whole "anonymous upload" concept makes me laugh. Uh, we just got this data in from Mr or Ms X at IP 17.172.224.27.

On web forums one of my pet peeves are those sigs that load an image from a 3rd party server to get the IP of the viewer, which is dynamically inserted into the picture.  Might seem harmless but I don't see it as any more harmless than those 1 pixel images embedded in your email to get you to download, thus revealing the IP of your machine.  If the guy with the prank sig has his own server who knows what he's sending from it to me once he's gleaned my IP?

5259

Living Room / Don't Yank My Chain

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 21, 2011, 04:22 PM »

Here's a good link if you think a poster is just yanking your chain:

Don't Yank My Chain

5260

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA : Voice Changing Application {VCA}

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 21, 2011, 02:15 AM »

Are you holding someone for ransom?

-superboyac (April 20, 2011, 09:45 PM)

Or a serial killer who doesn't want the detective investigating to know the perp is his partner when he leaves taunting phone messages.   

5261

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA : Voice Changing Application {VCA}

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 20, 2011, 07:37 PM »

This free app sounds close to what you want:

http://www.softpedia...ools/Vocalster.shtml

5262

Living Room / Re: Wasting Ink in Your Printer?

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 20, 2011, 08:17 AM »

What I found used/wasted most ink on my Epson was printing those color squares after you do a head clean.  There's one square for each color of ink. If you print those a couple of times until all the colors appear solid you can visibly notice the ink level drop.

Instead I print this .rtf file:

5263

Living Room / Re: Proof That People Cannot Read (EULAs)

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 20, 2011, 08:06 AM »

miles, your animation made me laugh. 

-mouser (April 20, 2011, 05:05 AM)

Heh.  They totally revamped the smiley site I use.  I can't find the guy chomping on the cigar anymore.  But there's lots of new ones.

5264

Living Room / Re: Proof That People Cannot Read (EULAs)

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 19, 2011, 04:46 PM »

Use at your own risk!

Your bottom line is similar to what I use. I just put "free for you to use at your own risk." Should be good enough catch all similar to selling a car "as is."

5265

General Software Discussion / Re: HowTo remove ALL of Firefox EXCEPT login infos?

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 19, 2011, 04:41 PM »

Just thought I'd toss in that I was using Secure Login AddOn in FF.  But it turns out that LastPass is one of those that does work well across Chromium/FF.  Now when I register for another forum or whatnot and add it to LastPass, if I go there in the other browser I get autologin without having to do anything.  Really makes things easier esp. if you have added cookie cleaning to CCleaner.

5266

General Software Discussion / Re: FreeFileSync (Open-Source)

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 19, 2011, 04:35 PM »

That looks very similar to the sync tool in FreeCommander.  I like the FC sync very much.  Since the current FC is 32 bit, it may have some shortcomings on a 64 bit system.  But if you are not dealing with redirected folders, just ordinary data folders, it works fine.

The mechanism in FreeCommander is very similar.  Additionally it has check boxes to include or not subfolders.  Also once you do the comparison, it indicates with arrows which files would be copied in which direction and you can uncheck any you don't want to include in the copy.  Very intuitive.

5267

Living Room / Re: Hidden Netflix Marathon Gems to Watch Online

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 19, 2011, 04:24 PM »

What system are you playing it on and what is the graphics card used? What is your normal media player and do you have the same problem there? (presumably not) If you did at some point have a similar problem in other media players, how did you correct it? It's possible Silverlight is using "overlay" mode or some other specialized video streaming display system, which may be controllable by advanced settings in a graphics card driver.

- Oshyan

-JavaJones (November 16, 2010, 01:04 AM)

Sorry, I missed replying to your post in a timely fashion.
It's my understanding that all this stuff is not software adjustable in Sliver Light. On other boards people's solutions amount to "adjust the settings on your monitor." Not really acceptable afaic.

It's probably the #1 Silver Light complaint.  No brightness/contrast controls.

5268

General Software Discussion / Re: OneKey 1.6.0.0

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 18, 2011, 06:03 PM »

OneKey 1.6.0.0  Changed default hotkey to F10 function key.

5269

General Software Discussion / Re: OneKey 1.5.0.0

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 18, 2011, 05:44 PM »

A number of applications seem to use F11 for full-screen mode (e.g. IE, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, jEdit, SpeedCrunch, VLC)...it seems like it might be developing into a kind of convention.

-ewemoa (April 18, 2011, 05:18 PM)

You can easily set it to a different function key using Set Keyboard Hotkey command in Tray Menu. Also the hotkey deoesn't have to be one key.  That's just the way I want to use it.  You can change it to Atl-F11 or Control-Shift-r or whatever using the same tray command. The limitation is hotkeys that AHK understands as input.  For instance to set the hotkey on the command line to Control-F10 use "^F10" on the command line(without the quotes.)

Once you set it the .ini file remembers it. It's not like you have to set it every time. There's too many hotkeys out there to totally avoid conflicts esp. when only using one key.

edit: otoh you make a good point.  F10 seems to be open at least in browsers. I'll set that as default in next release.

5270

Living Room / Re: Proof That People Cannot Read (EULAs)

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 18, 2011, 05:03 PM »

Hmmmm, I wonder if there are any laws about minimum font size with these agreements.  Some of the print is so small it might as well be on a microdot.

Even if you can read it, unless you've been to law school, what good is it? Usually the terms are not what a reasonable person would infer but some jazz about "customary practice."  Meaning, business has been ripping people off this way for over 100 years, therefore it's "customary practice" in the industry.  So quit bitchin' about it and take the hit!!  

If they really wanted people to read it they should give away one of those divers where you put baking soda in his boot to make him go.

5271

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: $7 off w/ promo code 7OFFVERDVD, ends 4/17 Verbatim DVD+r 16x 100 spindle

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 18, 2011, 02:46 AM »

Thanks for the comment. I'm trying to cut down on spending but less than 20 cents a disc I can't pass it up.

5272

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Compare dictionary (text) files and remove duplicate entries

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 17, 2011, 09:17 PM »

Just for chuckles I started a thread on W7 forum.  See if anyone adds a useful suggestion there:

http://www.sevenforu...lem.html#post1353124

5273

Found Deals and Discounts / $7 off w/ promo code 7OFFVERDVD, ends 4/17 Verbatim DVD+r 16x 100 spindle

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 17, 2011, 09:02 PM »

Sorry posting so late but I just noticed this at newegg.  With the promo discount it brings the per disc price down to $0.18 for 16x DVD5.

http://www.newegg.co...17-507-003-_-Product

I've been using these purple cake box spindles whether on sale at OfficeMax or NewEgg for quite awhile without issues.  Whenever I see them for a quarter a disc or less I get a spindle.  Not the inket printable kind, but I use a Sharpie marker anyway.

5274

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Compare dictionary (text) files and remove duplicate entries

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 17, 2011, 08:05 PM »

It's an interesting problem because most db are made to have keys to look up some associated data. In this case the "keys" are the data.

Instead of sorting a giant file you might look for an approach to sort a smaller "seed" file, then find some routine that adds to sorted flat files via binary search.  The routine would do a binary search, if the word is not found, insert it in sorted position etc..

Still, large files on slow disks are a problem.  Growing a small file until it reaches some optimum size may be an approach.  At some point as you say the text file becomes unwieldy.

If anyone has already done it though, it's probably some db guru.

5275

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Compare dictionary (text) files and remove duplicate entries

« Last post by MilesAhead on April 17, 2011, 07:34 PM »

Sounds like you need to incorporate some type of database engine.  The efficient access to large sets of keys is done by it.  How to access from ad hoc outside apps is another matter.  But giant flat text files seem to have reached the practical limit for your purposes.

I would search around for a forum where people deal exclusively or mainly with db application issues.  Once you have an idea of workable db storage then you may be able to describe a small glue app that can bridge the gap between the db and the apps that want to use it.

Thing is with the way you describe it, it sounds like the key "indexing" or sorting would have to be done repeatedly.  Don't know if even a free db would do that much good.  Seems too scattered to lend itself to streamlining.