Recent Posts

551

Living Room / Re: Have you encountered webcam spying?

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 29, 2013, 06:51 PM »

I might be a bit paranoid, but when they're not in use I cover any of my webcams with a post-it note (for the cameras embedded in an LCD bezel) or with some sort of 'hood' (for cameras that clip to a monitor or otherwise sit in a stand).  Not that I have a stand-alone webcam anymore.

This is not an inconvenience for me because I rarely use webcams anyway.

552

Living Room / Re: Newly coined term, "internet fury"? A sad article...

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 22, 2013, 02:38 PM »

Wow.  On so many levels.

553

Living Room / Re: Selling Something? Go to Jail! That's copyright infringement... :-/

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 19, 2013, 04:47 PM »

Good news: the Supreme court upheld the first sale doctrine (overturning the Second Circuit's ruling):

In its ruling, the Court held that neither the word “under” nor any other word in “lawfully made under this title" is meant to impose “a geographical limitation” on the copyright law. “The fact that the Act does not instantly pro­tect an American copyright holder from unauthorized piracy taking place abroad does not mean the Act is inapplicable to copies made abroad,” reads the decision. The ruling also specifically called out the submissions from “Library associations, used-book dealers, technology compa­nies, consumer-goods retailers, and museums,” who pointed out “various ways in which a geographical interpretation would fail to further basic constitutional copyright objectives, in particular “promot[ing] the Progress of Science and useful Arts.”

-http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/copyright/article/56435-supreme-court-upholds-first-sale-in-landmark-kirtsaeng-ruling.html

554

Living Room / Re: Google Reader gone

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 18, 2013, 02:15 AM »

Huh? How did Google control the news flow? I'm the one who put the feeds I wanted to follow into Google Reader.

-Deozaan (March 18, 2013, 12:53 AM)

Winer's talking about what he believes Google wants to do (and why Google Reader and RSS may not fit into Google's plans), not that they were doing it with Reader.

555

General Software Discussion / Re: MagicRAR Drive Press - worth anything?

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 17, 2013, 03:15 PM »

Interesting that the 'reviewer' in the notebookreview.com posted left by Curt has the user name, mimarsinan, which is a name also associated with CompreXX that Zatronium and Mouser pointed out is largely the same code as MagicRAR.  Yet mimarsinan's post doesn't mention any affiliation with MagicRAR.

MagicRAR may well be useful software, but I'm not left with the best feeling about it.

556

Living Room / Re: What are your favorite movies?

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 13, 2013, 01:42 AM »

does anybody find movies that take place in subways or on trains (or in train stations) particularly enjoyable like I do?

-40hz (March 13, 2013, 01:04 AM)

Well, I loved the original "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three" - the depiction of New Yorkers was classic.

I also like "The Warriors" quite a bit - it's kind of a subway movie.  I remember watching it on "Joe Bob's Last Call", and he had an MTA map that he used when coming back from the commercial breaks to show exactly what the progress of the Warriors was:

I miss Joe Bob.

557

Living Room / Re: What are your favorite movies?

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 12, 2013, 04:09 PM »

At least you got to admire the comely and wholesomely sexy Ms. Jenny Agutter in that one.

-40hz (March 12, 2013, 01:07 PM)

True, but Sean Connery in diapers is pretty enticing to some people as well.

And it's got that whole pro-gun message that's quite relevant today. 

Plus, giant stone heads are awesome. And a flying one?!?  Awesomest!

Really, what's not to like about Zardoz?

558

Living Room / Re: Gadget WEEKENDS

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 09, 2013, 06:51 PM »

But will it clean your floors?

559

Living Room / Re: Emperor's New Clothes Kickstarter

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 09, 2013, 05:44 PM »

If you look at the distribution of backers, all except two have pledged less than $85 - I think they're mostly looking for a conversation piece (or backing a buck because they think it's a good joke).  About $3000-$4000 in backing came from these people (still impressive).

The two $500+ backers appear to be responsible for the vast majority of the backing - I don't know what their motivation is. Maybe they're 'insiders' of some sort? I'm not that familiar with kickstarter - it appears that, while discouraged, pledges can be cancelled before the project is funded. Maybe some of the large pledges won't stick?

560

Living Room / Re: SimCity - EA shows us all how to ruin a landmark game with DRM.

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 09, 2013, 04:46 PM »

@simcity tweeted this response:

@derekdonovan Hey, this is on Maxis. EA does not force design upon us. We own it, we are working 24/7 to fix it, and we are making progress

561

Living Room / Re: SimCity - EA shows us all how to ruin a landmark game with DRM.

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 09, 2013, 01:47 PM »

I love the letter that this Forbes article is about:  http://www.forbes.co...ty-in-public-letter/

An EA employee (unconfirmed) takes the company to task for not following the "core values" of EA - you know those BS lists of values that every big company (and many small ones) posts in hallways and lunchrooms at every workplace. EA's values:

• Be Bold
• Think Consumers First
• Create Quality and Innovation
• Act with Integrity
• Be Accountable
• Learn and Grow

I guess "Be Bold" might apply to the SimCity launch.  So 1 for 6.  We'll see if their reaction to the debacle will let them claim any other values.

562

Living Room / Re: Amazon creepy ...

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 09, 2013, 01:31 PM »

Did you visit any of the search results from your googling?  I'm by no means particularly knowledgeable in this stuff, but I wouldn't be surprised if one of the sites that you visited (assuming you did) has some sort of affiliation with Amazon and passed your interest in Office 2003 SBE on to them in some fashion.

563

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Debenu PDF Maximus Free

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 08, 2013, 07:30 PM »

FWIW, the questionnaire worked fine for me.

564

Living Room / Re: Microsoft and Windows 8 get two fingers from Stardock

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 07, 2013, 12:38 AM »

I hope they sell a gazillion of these (for $5 it seems a no brainer).

565

Living Room / Re: Why Russell Holly returned his Microsoft Surface Pro - A Cautionary Tale

« Last post by mwb1100 on March 06, 2013, 12:50 AM »

I have no idea how close the nearest one is to where I live.

-Deozaan (March 05, 2013, 11:36 AM)

It wouldn't matter anyway, it's closed.

-4wd (March 05, 2013, 09:17 PM)

For that matter, I have no idea how closed the the nearest one is to where I live.

566

General Software Discussion / Re: Recycling hardware

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 25, 2013, 07:07 PM »

Does it allow software to pass an OS version check by lying when you install something, reporting that you are attempting to install it on XP and not Win7?

-app103 (February 25, 2013, 05:56 PM)

If you're running the installer in Win XP mode, then as far as the installer is concerned it is a Win XP machine.

What I'm not sure about is if Win8 has anything similar.

-oblivion (February 25, 2013, 11:30 AM)

MS removed Win XP mode from Win 8.  Maybe if you upgrade your Win 7 machine with Win XP mode installed, it'll still run in Win 8 in some fashion, but I'm not sure about that.

Note that VirtualBox is supposed to be able to run the Win XP mode VM (which can be downloaded even without having Win7), but I think there's some hacking involved to get the VM's BIOS signature recognized so the Win XP VM doesn't need reactivation. VMware supports running a Win XP mode VM, but my understanding is that it'll only do it on Windows 7 machines to avoid breaking the Win XP mode license.

567

Living Room / Re: PayPal users are frauds :-(

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 25, 2013, 12:49 PM »

Yeah but so what.. if a user is going to do that then they weren't going to purchase from you anyway, so what do you care if they got a free license key or not.

-mouser (February 25, 2013, 12:06 PM)

It sounds like she's saying that they got few non-refunded paypal sales, so why should they bother with it?

568

Living Room / Re: PayPal users are frauds :-(

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 25, 2013, 12:47 PM »

This report just made me find the first genuinely useful use for DRM: if a scammer tries to get free software, you could just revoke his key. (even without DRM, you can always make sure that the scammer's key won't work for the next versions)

-jgpaiva (February 25, 2013, 12:25 PM)

This reminds me of some software (that I can't recall at the moment) that worked their money back guarantee like so:

  - when you buy the software, you got a time-limited key (say a 60-day key).
  - if you asked for a refund withing the 30-day guarantee period, then they gave you your money back and that was that - all you had was a key that would expire in a few weeks.
  - after 30 days passed without a refund request, they sent you a permanent key so your software wouldn't time out.

It was a bit confusing, but not terribly so. But I imagine it had a heavier than usual support requirement on the vendor.

569

Community Giveaways / Re: 1 Copy of Left 4 Dead 2 giveaway :P *Open for another 21 hours *

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 21, 2013, 01:48 AM »

Not entering, but just wanted to say thanks for doing this.

570

General Software Discussion / Re: Opera to move to webkit/chromium rendering engines

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 19, 2013, 11:17 PM »

Sorry, I'm growing weary of a "+1" which is a Google invention applied to everything.

Did they make it THAT easy?

-TaoPhoenix (February 19, 2013, 09:36 PM)

It's a lot older than that. Google simply used it. It has been popular in the developer community for forever +1 day.

-Renegade (February 19, 2013, 10:49 PM)

Yes - WebKit is more of an Apple thing than a Google thing.  But it's used pretty widely.

571

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: AnVir Task Manager Pro 60% off Today Only

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 16, 2013, 01:11 PM »

I used to use Anvir and have a license for some older version. It has some nice features, but the loss of trust that came with having side-installed crapware in a paid product (it's bad enough in free products) made me no longer a customer.

Maybe I'll consider upgrading at some point if the clean up they appear to have done for 7.5 seems to stick around for a few releases.

572

Living Room / Re: Gadget WEEKENDS

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 16, 2013, 04:19 AM »

small perfume sample

-fenixproductions (February 16, 2013, 12:02 AM)

I'm curious what emergency this is for?

573

Living Room / Re: Adobe Reader zero-day

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 15, 2013, 02:03 AM »

Also disable Javascript in the Adobe reader preferences, but keep in mind that for me it seemed to periodically turn back on (I'm guessing that some updates did this).

I've long since removed Adobe Reader and replaced it with Sumatra for browser integration and to SDTU Reader for a stand-alone, tabbed reader.

574

Living Room / Re: What are your favorite movies?

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 13, 2013, 12:08 AM »

I haven't seen in a long while.  It's on NetFlix, so I'll have to watch it this weekend:



Breaker Morant^w

575

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows Batchfile can't recognize long file name...!!!!

« Last post by mwb1100 on February 11, 2013, 12:59 PM »

If you need to use quote marks, it's possible you may also need to add a widow "title", else Windows can get confused.

-rjbull (February 11, 2013, 09:50 AM)

As far as I know, that's only if using the "start" command. "start" takes it's first argument as a window title if that argument is enclosed in double quotes.

So 'start notepad.exe' will start the program notepad.exe, but 'start "notepad.exe"' will open a command window with the title "notepad.exe".

If you want to use "start" to launch a program that has spaces in the filename (or pathname), then you need to quote the filename somehow - if you use double-quotes (there may be other ways to quote the space), then you have to provide a dummy title argument in double quotes.  

  - start "my long program name.exe"     <-- won't work (opens a console window with that as a title)
  - start "" "my long program name.exe"  <-- will work