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5351

Living Room / 13 Things that do not make sense

« Last post by app103 on September 03, 2006, 05:07 AM »

Older but interesting:

http://www.newscient...ns?id=mg18524911.600

1. The placebo effect
2. The horizon problem
3. Ultra-energetic cosmic rays
4. Belfast homeopathy results
5. Dark matter
6. Viking's methane
7. Tetraneutrons
8. The Pioneer anomaly
9. Dark energy
10. The Kuiper cliff
11. The Wow signal
12. Not-so-constant constants
13. Cold fusion

5352

Living Room / 10,000 Reasons Civilization is Doomed

« Last post by app103 on September 03, 2006, 04:30 AM »

Welcome to the 10,000 Reasons Civilization is Doomed website. This site was started by six friends who, sitting around the dinner table one Saturday night, came to the conclusion that civilization was doomed. We felt this way not because of the inevitable dimming of our sun, or an errant asteroid, but rather because of the idiocy of our times. Frankly, we are tired of the fake optimism, superficiality, non-talented celebrities, doped-up athletes, dishonest and illiterate politicians, corporate thieves, wife-beaters and evangelical terrorists rampant in the world today and we decided that one way of making ourselves feel better would be to list them for all the world to see and to add upon. 

This is a list that is started by the people, aggregated by the people and an offering to all people everywhere that want to take solace in a list that proves that we are not being fooled. Rather, we are on to all the bullshit out there and want to make it clear to anyone that adds to this list that you, too, can take comfort in like-minded individuals that have come together to express the 10,000 Reasons Civilization is Doomed. Perhaps if we are heard, some of the doom can be deterred.

Thank you for contributing to this list.

5353

Living Room / Re: how tall is Cody?

« Last post by app103 on September 02, 2006, 05:19 PM »

BTW, app103.  what's that team thing at the bottom of your signature?  Have you explained it before and I missed it?

-momonan (September 02, 2006, 04:12 PM)

I thought I explained it before...made a post about it...but nobody noticed it. (It must have been one of those phantom posts that only the creator can see it.  )

https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=4882.0

I started a Whatpulse team for DC. I was a member of one for awhile and it wasn't much fun with 2 other people on my team that either never ran the software for it or never sent in their pulses.

What this is, is a game of sorts.

Ever wonder how many keys you type in a day? mouse clicks?

Ever wonder how that adds up over time?

Whatpulse is a small program that counts keystrokes and mouseclicks and sends the count to the Whatpulse server to be registered into your account as those keys & mouseclicks being yours.

The software doesn't know what you typed. It is NOT a keylogger...it is a counter. All it knows is 'that's a key: add +1...that's a mouse click: add +1' and nothing more about what you have typed.

They keep a record for you so you can see what you have done over time. You can join teams and combine your stats with others and see how you rank as a team.

It was just something I thought was a bit of fun to do.

If you are interested in joining my DC team (currently only me as a member  ) just click my siggy banner and sign up on the site and get the client program...then go back to the team page and join the team.

If mouser joins (hint hint) I will transfer founder status of our team to him.

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Living Room / Re: how tall is Cody?

« Last post by app103 on September 02, 2006, 03:49 PM »

Are those human people on that banner?

They look like toy people to me...like the wooden peg people I played with when I was very young...about the current size of my thumb.

If that were to be the case, then Cody could still be the size of a dove.

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The Getting Organized Experiment of 2006 / Re: GOE - GETTING ORGANIZED EXPERIMENT - DAY 1 ASSIGNMENT

« Last post by app103 on September 02, 2006, 08:15 AM »

Rather than index cards, I like envelopes...you can store things in them.

Also appeals to the tightwad and packrat in me, because junk mail supplies plenty for free. ;-)

5356

Living Room / Re: Money tips for Students — much needed advice!

« Last post by app103 on September 02, 2006, 07:36 AM »

A must have for any tightwad:

This book became my consumer bible when it was first published. It changed my attitude about a lot of things. I actually LIKE being called a tightwad...it's a badge of honor I wear with pride. 

Note: The true tightwad way to acquire this book is to get a group of like-minded people together and chip in to buy a used copy and share it. 

5357

Living Room / Re: Article: How Much System Memory Is Really Enough?

« Last post by app103 on September 02, 2006, 07:15 AM »

By making the plugin changes I described, I was able to get Paintshop Pro 7 to load faster on a system with 64mb of ram than I could on a system with 256mb of ram, believe it or not.

5358

Living Room / Re: how tall is Cody?

« Last post by app103 on September 02, 2006, 07:13 AM »

Cody is huge in my eye; he could kick Big Bird's butt anyday.

-zridling (September 02, 2006, 02:41 AM)

I agree...but thinking of him that size makes me think of him as having a lower IQ. I don't know why.

I prefer thinking of him as smaller and with the fierceness of a shrike, when necessary. (he'd throw Big Bird on a barbed wire fence and have him for lunch)

5359

General Software Discussion / Re: Software Frustrations

« Last post by app103 on September 02, 2006, 07:06 AM »

am i the only person on the planet that loves realplayer?

-mouser (September 02, 2006, 04:37 AM)

For whatever reason, I have never been able to get real player to work properly on any system I have ever owned. Maybe it just hates dialup....or maybe it hates me (not as in winME  )

5360

General Software Discussion / Re: Michael Rainey's really cool ME (Machining) Software

« Last post by app103 on September 02, 2006, 07:02 AM »

What amazes me about his software is the fact he codes in Ibasic. I didn't realize just how powerful Ibasic was till I looked at his site.

Ibasic was one of many languages I tried and abandoned in the early days of seeking a language that was right for me. For some reason it just didn't click with me.

Maybe that could be a language you might consider adding to the programming school if mrainey would be so kind as to be the DC ambassador of Ibasic.

5361

Living Room / Re: Article: How Much System Memory Is Really Enough?

« Last post by app103 on September 01, 2006, 08:37 PM »

Don't forget the HUGE amount of RAM that is needed to have over 2000 .8bf plugins installed in either Photoshop or Paintshop Pro. And either program to actually start sometime before the end of this century.

That was my reason for getting Filters Unlimited and converting as many as I could to .ffx and loading most of them in that instead.

.8bf plugins load in memory at program start. The less you have the faster it will run.

Most of the free plugins and filters can be converted. The ones that can't, you leave alone. No matter how you look at it you are taking many .8bf's and replacing them with 1.

The main .8bf will still load when you start the program, but the 1000's of .ffx converted plugins it can hold are not loaded unless/until it will be used.

5362

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2006 / Re: GOE - GETTING ORGANIZED EXPERIMENT - DAY 1 ASSIGNMENT

« Last post by app103 on September 01, 2006, 02:37 PM »

Oh, that was easy...

Assignment done b4 you gave it...maybe I am more organized than I think.

5363

Living Room / Re: how tall is Cody?

« Last post by app103 on September 01, 2006, 12:09 PM »

I agree with f0dder...the smaller beach one.

The other one makes me think he's related to Big Bird. 

5364

Developer's Corner / Re: Two different GUIs, Please Vote / Express your opinion

« Last post by app103 on September 01, 2006, 11:37 AM »

Definitely the new one...and maybe also give users an option to hide tabs they will never have a use for.

5365

Living Room / Re: how tall is Cody?

« Last post by app103 on September 01, 2006, 11:28 AM »

I always thought Cody was a dove...and the size of a dove.

5366

General Software Discussion / Re: Software Frustrations

« Last post by app103 on September 01, 2006, 11:23 AM »

A friend asked me to request that a hardware rant section be added....so he can complain about his router which has a rather odd flaw...by design....and what happened when he called the manufacturer's tech support about it.

5367

Living Room / Re: The Great Firewall Hunt ... frustrating ...

« Last post by app103 on September 01, 2006, 05:04 AM »

I use an older version of Zone Alarm Pro (v4.5) because all I want is a great firewall. I don't need features that are covered by my antivirus. When they started adding all that crap to it, I stopped upgrading.

The pro version has an advantage over the free version in that I can import/export settings and add bad IP's to a block list.

Pro version also has some pretty good ad/popup blocking for IE that was important on my other pc when I was using a very light homemade browser as my main browser.

It blocks what it should and doesn't block what it shouldn't...it works. What more do I need?

My new pc came with Norton pre-installed. What a nightmare! Every time I tried to use IRC, it would end up blocking the servers after the standard scan they do....even after telling Norton not to do that. I think I got rid of it after a max of 2 weeks of frustration.

In order to make more money, they added more crap to Zone Alarm. They didn't improve the firewall itself. That remained the same. What you get when you upgrade is stuff they have convinced you that you need, even though you probably already have it covered in other software, and maybe the other software is doing a better job of it. It's a sort of manufactured paranoia in order to boost profits.

When you have an already perfect product and there really isn't a way to improve on it, the only way you are going to get your customers to upgrade is to add new features.

How do you 'improve' the best firewall? By making it a combo firewall/antivirus....

But is that really an improvement if it's not the best antivirus?

No. You end up having to disable all the new antivirus stuff and running a good antivirus any way. Not disabling all that new stuff will make it conflict with any antivirus you decide to run.

So it would be pretty stupid for me to pay for features I am going to disable.

If you plan on relying solely on Zone Alarm as both your firewall and antivirus, then the upgrade or purchase of the latest version is worth it. But I don't have enough confidence in their product to trust it as my antivirus. I will let AVG handle that part of my security.

As far as Zone Alarm's firewall goes though, I love it.

5368

Living Room / Re: The Great Firewall Hunt ... frustrating ...

« Last post by app103 on August 31, 2006, 08:44 AM »

There are things in Zone Alarm that conflict with a lot of antivirus programs. But that can be easily fixed by disabling the redundant features so they don't compete.

Disable the email protection and any antivirus features in Zone Alarm...they exist already in your antivirus. You don't need them and it will probably behave on your system now.

If you feel like doing a lot of reading, this might be interesting to you:  http://www.appsapps....assic/firewalls.html

5369

General Software Discussion / Re: Software Frustrations

« Last post by app103 on August 31, 2006, 08:16 AM »

have you tried AOL lately
 

-zridling (August 31, 2006, 01:39 AM)

hahaha...that was what my spontaneously combusted post was about...some really hilarious examples of what they call 'tech support' 

5370

Living Room / Re: Free Novel Downloads

« Last post by app103 on August 31, 2006, 08:07 AM »

If I understand this correctly, they plan on making available in .pdf form, content that is already available as .txt from here:  http://www.gutenberg.org

5371

Living Room / Re: Lots of info about lots of browsers

« Last post by app103 on August 31, 2006, 05:13 AM »

I have taken a closer look at the rest of the site...and it's a fantastic treasure trove of info of interest to web designers/webmasters.

And tons of just interesting stuff about various browsers in general.

Be sure to take a look at the rest of the site and not just the page I first posted.

http://www.upsdell.c...rowserNews/index.htm

5372

Living Room / Lots of info about lots of browsers

« Last post by app103 on August 31, 2006, 04:20 AM »

I found this interesting page while searching for browser detection info for mobile browsers.

This gives an overview of the browsers and their futures.

This page covers:  AOL,  AOL-Compuserve,  AOL Explorer,  AOL-Netscape,  AOL-TV,  Apple Safari,  DoCoMo iMode,  Escape,  HotJava,  IBM Home Page Reader,  IBM Web Browser,  iCab,  Konqueror,  Lynx,  Microsoft Internet Explorer,  Microsoft MSN Explorer,  Microsoft MSN-TV Viewer,  Mosaic,  Mozilla (and Camino, Firefox, and SeaMonkey),  Nokia,  OmniWeb,  Openwave,  Opera,  W3C Amaya.

Note: because this site focuses on browsers needed to test websites, it rarely covers browsers that are little used or that use standard engines from more common browsers.

-http://www.upsdell.com/BrowserNews/overview.htm

http://www.upsdell.c...serNews/overview.htm

5373

General Software Discussion / Re: The Great Software List Site Gets a Big Update

« Last post by app103 on August 30, 2006, 04:18 PM »

I noticed you listed 602 PC Suite as being freeware/opensource/donationware (F). I assume that you meant it was possible to get it for free, if you wanted to.

This is no longer true. I recieved this in an email from them back in March:

602PC SUITE 4.2 was recently released on February 15, 2006

Effective immediately, freeware distribution of 602PC SUITE has ended. This software will continue to be available as a fully supported commercial product.

NOTE: On March 31, 2006, the registration portal for 602PC SUITE 4.x FREE will be shut down and you will not be allowed to reinstall your software unless you upgrade to the latest 4.2 version.

You can't use the older free versions any more if you have to reinstall it for any reason. They are forcing an upgrade & pay.

For someone that rarely has a need for word processing or spreadsheet tools, this was a great program. It's a shame that there is no longer a free version of it. It was light, fast, ran well on old computers, 9x compatible....everything I needed it to be for those rare occasions I would need something like this.  (rare = 2 or 3 times a year)

5374

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2006 / Re: New version of ToDoList released

« Last post by app103 on August 30, 2006, 09:06 AM »

sorry, app, i'm talking complete nonsense...

instead of you changing the program all that is required is that i place an indicator such as ** or // or whatever before the task to indicate it wasn't originally on the list.

sorry.

-nudone (August 29, 2006, 07:33 AM)

Wow...the easiest work I never had to do. 

5375

General Software Discussion / Re: Article: Is AOL 9.0 Malware?

« Last post by app103 on August 30, 2006, 08:52 AM »

What comes with AOL when you install it?

• Viewpoint Media Player (used for the AOL desktop background)
• Winamp, Quicktime, Real Player (used for the AOL media player)
• Java, Flash player plugin, Adobe Acrobat Reader (to enable your browser to use that content)
• A spyware detector & remover that performs a quick scan every time you open AOL. (lots of false positives and doesn't detect the real spyware)
• Port Magic (I can't remember the purpose of this)
• AOL Coach (I don't remember what this is)
• One Click Fix (a bunch of tools for correcting problems that they are tired of getting tech support calls for)
• Top Speed (supposed to make browsing on dialup faster but it really doesn't)
• AOL Toolbar for IE (one of the best popup blockers on the planet)
• AOL Uninstaller (this search for and remove aol software not listed in add/remove programs)
• AOL Disk Cleanup (removes old un-needed outdated aol files & programs)
• ACSD (the dialer that was my entire reason for installing all this crap)

Some of these may be mentioned briefly or hinted at during setup, but not in a way that gives you a choice to install these things...more of an ad-like presentation to watch while the install is in progress.

Some versions come with some or all of the following additional optional crap:

• AIM instant messenger (if installed from a CD)
• ICQ (if installed from a CD)
• Compuserve (Why you would need this if AOL is your ISP is beyond me)(if installed from a CD)
• AOL Communicator
• Spinner (if installed from a CD)
• A photo screensaver
• an rss feed reader screensaver
• Plaxo toolbar for Outlook & Outlook Express
• a desktop pet that reads your email to you
• If no firewall is detected on your system, you will be offered one for free. (McAfee)
• If no antivirus is detected, you will be offered one for free. (McAfee)
• AOL Explorer (their new stand alone browser)

And all of this doesn't count the additional 3rd party stuff the AOL power user adds on, like Ad Buster, Power Tools, Wavman, BuddyPlus, Terminator, Wallpaper, IMs Plus, Fade-It, JonPlug, AMpad, and tons more.