Recent Posts

5601

General Software Discussion / Re: General brainstorming for Note-taking software

« Last post by 40hz on July 27, 2012, 10:20 AM »

^+1!

It's an addiction many of us share. 

5602

DC Gamer Club / Re: Microsoft Flight Simulator - Free!

« Last post by 40hz on July 27, 2012, 10:12 AM »

^Microsoft does not release code. The best anybody can hope for is for them to either sell it off or "sundown" it like they did Microsoft Money. And I have faint hope for that. Like the Spartans, Microsoft abandons its weak or unwanted children on the hillside. It doesn't put them up for adoption. That looks too much like an admission of failure or a lack of vision. And Ballmer can't afford any more of those on his watch. He's already got the Win8 Waterloo fast approaching.  

Of course I wouldn't rule out Microsoft doing a "Requires Metro" edition some time in the future to help them sell more of that loser.
 

5603

DC Gamer Club / Re: Microsoft Flight Simulator - Free!

« Last post by 40hz on July 27, 2012, 08:57 AM »

Funny how Microsoft keeps talking about how they will "continue to produce the best entertainment and gaming experiences possible."

If that's the case, why discontinue what is easily the best all around PC-based flight simulator out there?

Do they even listen to what they're saying?

Oh well...the single thing that - up till now - guaranteed I'd always need to keep at least one Windows machine in my house just disappeared.

5604

Living Room / Re: Is Linux just a hobby?

« Last post by 40hz on July 25, 2012, 02:16 AM »

^I do actually.

Actually, to be even more precise, I forgot that FreeNAS's planned move over to Debian a few years back was abandoned. (Was that late 2008 or sometime in 2009?)

And neither is pfSense now that I think about it.  

Momentary slips. I was on a roll.  

5605

Living Room / Re: Big brother Microsoft listens in to your Skype IMs

« Last post by 40hz on July 24, 2012, 02:56 PM »

^

5606

Living Room / Re: Big brother Microsoft listens in to your Skype IMs

« Last post by 40hz on July 24, 2012, 02:44 PM »

Good luck with that. "It's only as good as the network it's on - and who's on the network," as the saying goes.
Consider Facebook. Despite the large number of people who hate it, look how many are still forced to use it for no reason other than the fact that their friends/family/fans/clients are all on it - and won't switch to G+ or something similar.

I've been trying to get my friends to switch over to a Farnsworth:



Good luck with that too!

Never underestimate the power of inertia.

5607

Living Room / Re: MP3 players for podcasts

« Last post by 40hz on July 24, 2012, 02:38 PM »

This is so blasted complicated that I am beginning to think that it IS me that's weird, here.

-oblivion (July 24, 2012, 12:00 PM)

Maybe a little?  (kidding, just kidding)

Well, good luck with whatever you work out. I can't see the point of building and maintaining a whole playlist for something I'm not going to keep - I just prefix my podcast filenames with a token character ("!") and then dump them on my player for listening. Lookup by name puts them at the top of the directory list. I'll later delete whatever I have listened to the next time I 'reload' it.

But that's me - so I may also be equally weird in a different way.



 

5608

Living Room / Re: Is Linux just a hobby?

« Last post by 40hz on July 24, 2012, 02:20 PM »

For those new to Linux who may have  been following along...

If you're serious about getting into Linux, check out any of the books put out by Mark G. Sobell. Amazon page here. If you need information, search no further. Here is bedrock.

Start with either Fedora or Ubuntu - and work your way through either his Fedora or Ubuntu specific titles.

You can also supplement either book with one of the O'Reilly "Hacks" titles. There are versions specifically for Ubuntu and Fedora. These give you short well written chapters for dealing with common niggling issues plus instructions for fun/useful stuff to do - all in a handy cookbook format.

If you want to go beyond that, you can then pick up  a copy of his A Practical Guide to Linux Commands, Editors, and Shell Programming. Lots more good stuff here starting at the intermediate user level and moving well into the expert range.

Another superb title (and pretty much the current bible of all things Linux) is UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook. If you want to do something with Linux as a career, this tome is a must have. And forget the MAN pages. They are written by experts for experts. This book spells things out in plain-speak. Or at least as much as is possible. (Note: Some things are never going to be completely easy to get your head around until you start actively using them. And even then, some parts of Linux are just plain hard to grasp or deal with. Remember: even experts have to RTFM every so often. And when they do, this is the "FM" they usually reach for.)

Also check out the Distrowatch website and prepare to sample the bounty of distros and packages available to a Linux user. And all at no charge.

If you want to experience a very elegant desktop environment, give Linux Mint a try. If you want something a little more 'ninja' try CrunchBang Linux. For full blown bells & whistles check out Pinguy OS or Sabayon.

...or put a second NIC card in an old PC you have gathering dust, and turn it into a full-bore commercial grade firewall network appliance that can easily hold its own against products that would otherwise cost hundreds if not thousands by downloading and installing pfSense or Smoothwall Express on it.

...or build a very capable home server with FreeNAS...

...or network gateway server appliance with Zenytal or ClearOS

...or build a home theater media server using XBMC or a DVR box with MythTV.

Or even better...if you really want to understand how Linux works, try a modern bare metal distro like Arch Linux where you need to set everything up by hand - but end up with a completely customized desktop or server that does exactly what you want it to do the way you want to do it. (And also become an expert user in the process.)

I could (maybe do? ) go on and on...

One of these days I'm going to have to write this all up once and for all and put it in a PDF for download.

5609

Living Room / Re: 'Dark Knight Rises' shooting: Three heroes died in Aurora

« Last post by 40hz on July 24, 2012, 11:21 AM »

Not to take away anything from what happened, or the trauma this guy encountered, but a survivor is suing the shooter's doctor, the movie theater, and warner brothers. Warner is being sued for "dramatizing violence".

http://www.businessi...ises-shooting-2012-7

-Josh (July 24, 2012, 10:56 AM)

Check the atty's homepage. Are we surprised?

Funny how it wasn't a victim's family - but rather a victim's theater companion - who was the first to sue somebody.

Like Henley and the Eagles said in their song Get Over It:

You say you haven't been the same since you had your little crash
But you might feel better if they gave you some cash
The more I think about it, Old Billy was right
Let's kill all the lawyers, kill 'em tonight

America. Gotta love it.

5610

Living Room / Re: 'Dark Knight Rises' shooting: Three heroes died in Aurora

« Last post by 40hz on July 24, 2012, 11:11 AM »

I think the sentiment is related to the strength of character it takes to be ready to do something like that.  What greater love is it for fellow man than to be willing to lay down one's life in defense of another?

-wraith808 (July 24, 2012, 10:37 AM)

Understood and agree 100%. That's exactly how I took it. My point was more along the lines of why does somebody decent always end up dying or getting hurt because of people like gunman J. Holmes.

Not to take away from the personal and noble sacrifices made by Jon Blunk, Matt McQuinn and Alex Teves...but I'd prefer to think we could use less people like James Holmes

-40hz (July 24, 2012, 10:29 AM)

This confused me for a minute. James Holmes being the crazy shooter, of course we need fewer of those. So no contradiction at all, the world needs more people like the three heroes, and fewer crazy shooting people. So I guess that is the same as what you are saying. I think the use of the word "preference" confused me, as if it were either/or.

-daddydave (July 24, 2012, 10:42 AM)

Just a minute? I usually confuse people for several long minutes when I say something. Must be losing my touch.

5611

Living Room / Re: Is Linux just a hobby?

« Last post by 40hz on July 24, 2012, 10:41 AM »

Aram! The Man!!!


I'm too sexy for my distro...too sexy for my...      ;-))

I've often wished somebody would do a honest to goodness "live" installation and make an unscripted real-time video of it like this one.

Downloading it now. Can't wait to watch it when I get a free half hour. Woo-hoo!

5612

Living Room / Re: 'Dark Knight Rises' shooting: Three heroes died in Aurora

« Last post by 40hz on July 24, 2012, 10:29 AM »

+1

We could use more men like these guys.  

-Rover (July 24, 2012, 07:37 AM)

Not to take away from the personal and noble sacrifices made by Jon Blunk, Matt McQuinn and Alex Teves...but I'd prefer to think we could use less people like James Holmes.

There are far too many dead heroes in this world because of guys like Holmes. The last thing I'd ever want to hope for is more.

5613

General Software Discussion / Re: Launchy portables alternatives

« Last post by 40hz on July 24, 2012, 07:12 AM »

List of possible alternatives can be found here.

5614

Living Room / Re: MP3 players for podcasts

« Last post by 40hz on July 24, 2012, 07:07 AM »

I think maybe I need to become a bit of a "power user."

I have a Sansa Clip + already, with vast amounts of music on it, spread between internal memory and a 32Gb micro SD card. I'm currently trying to work out if I should buy another one just for podcasts, buy an SD card just for podcasts that I swap with the music card when required, or something else entirely.

-oblivion (July 24, 2012, 05:33 AM)

Easiest would be to just swap SD cards.

The difficult bit, I think, is keeping the playlist in synch with the files. I could edit the playlist with a text editor but that won't do the file management. I can move files around anyway I like but filenames aren't as helpful as the ID tags that the media software shows me.

-oblivion (July 24, 2012, 05:33 AM)

I don't know about you, but I never felt the need to keep a full podcast list on my portable device. I'll listen to most podcasts once (or twice) and possibly archive them somewhere if I find a good one. Otherwise I treat of them as I would a  newspaper.

For podcasts that are a "series presentation" (where I do want to keep a complete archive) I'll keep (maybe) the last two or three episodes on my iPhone. The rest just go onto my home server in case I want to hear them again.

Since I've only got something like seven podcasts with a few episodes each for mobile use at any time, they could easily fit on a small capacity SD card despite giving me 20+ hours of listening.

And since that's such a small number of items to keep track of, it's easy for me to just 'drag and drop' without getting too fancy about it.

YMMV.

5615

General Software Discussion / Re: Why Windows 8 Made Me Sell Microsoft (MSFT)

« Last post by 40hz on July 23, 2012, 05:03 PM »

It feels like MS is trying to draw the pieces into a poker Straight,

-TaoPhoenix (July 23, 2012, 02:21 PM)

To me it feels more like they're trying to bluff by raising on a busted flush...  

5616

Living Room / Re: 'Dark Knight Rises' shooting: Three heroes died in Aurora

« Last post by 40hz on July 23, 2012, 03:49 PM »

It think -- means "Stunned" (alternatively ++ ) or possibly "I can't look" or "I had to shut my eyes."
 

5617

General Software Discussion / Re: Why Windows 8 Made Me Sell Microsoft (MSFT)

« Last post by 40hz on July 23, 2012, 12:38 PM »

I predict it's going to have a brief splurge of popularity, followed by its tanking severely, only to be rescued once Microsoft relents on Metro and allows non-touch devices to default to a more familiar desktop again.

All this nonsense is being driven by Microsoft's desire to establish its own closed ecosystem and run a company store just like Apple does.

The reason why this isn't going to fly is because Microsoft is not Apple. PC users tend to be a more cynical and less starry-eyed crowd than Apple users.

And virtually all of the business/corporate IT crowd doesn't need, like, or want Metro on their desktops. Same goes for the people they have to report to.

And...IT managers still remember how Microsoft just about threatened them at CeBIT to get onboard with Microsoft's new "experience" - or get dragged along by their end-users if they didn't. (That did not sit too well with either them - or their bosses.)

Besides, both IT and PC users have far more thrifty spending habits when it comes to tech - as the increasingly difficult task of justifying MS Office upgrades has shown.

Now maybe this is all just a trial balloon to see how much Microsoft can get away with. It may also be a smokescreen to shift attention away from how Microsoft wants Secure Boot to work - to say nothing of the threat that represents to competing products down the road.

So yeah...Ballmer & Co. are going to play this new puppy up for all it's worth. Initial sales will probably be ok if they can keep the price of Surface just north of the iPad. Figure around $700-$800.

Then, about three or four months down the road, sales will drop off and some heavy spin-doctoring will go on for about another two or three months with Win8 sales figures being propped up by heavily discounted corporate/government purchases of customized managerial "tote along" appliances for use in airports, warehouses and similar environments.

Finally, about six months out from product launch, a service pack will be released that allows Win8 to have a persistent boot into either the 'standard' desktop or Metro environment. Possibly, even some species of start button will reappear.

And then it will get very interesting indeed. Especially since some of the Linux majors have broken ranks with the larger community by moving away from totally open software; and have since attempted to come to some sort of accommodation with UEFI and Microsoft. With some quick dev work, they could possibly give Microsoft a run for it's money in business circles. Especially considering how Linux will soon be more "Windows like" than Windows 8 once Metro is formally out and being pushed as the new standard.

Reason enough to sell off all your Microsoft holdings? I'd wait until shortly before the launch (if the price holds steady), dump it and take some sort term profit; wait for Win8 to tank; and then buy back about 50% of my former stock shares and wait for the desktop to be brought back as an easy and persistent boot option. Then I'd have to decide if I wanted to continue holding.

If Gates comes out of retirement (and removes/replaces Ballmer) I'll hold. (Hey! It worked for Apple, right? )

If not, I'd just do some market timing and take whatever profits I could.

 

--------------------------

"Legal" note: 40hz's comments above are purely for hypothetical discussion purposes and are not intended, nor should they be taken, as investment advice.  

5618

Living Room / Re: 5-Speed Homopolar Motor Video

« Last post by 40hz on July 22, 2012, 11:05 AM »

Finally found a magnet I could use.

What a terrific little toy. And it only takes a few minutes to...not build...maybe more like twist together?

Thanks for finding that. My GF Alex took one look and...well...I get the feeling our AA battery budget is about to get shot to hell.
 

5619

Living Room / Re: Show us a photo of your mutt or other creatures..

« Last post by 40hz on July 22, 2012, 10:59 AM »

Alex and I send our condolences Stephen. It's hard to lose a member of the family. Especially when it's someone who had a smile as sunny as his.

5620

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox 14.01

« Last post by 40hz on July 22, 2012, 10:55 AM »

FF is the internationally accepted abbreviation for Final Fantasy.

-Tuxman (July 22, 2012, 08:49 AM)

Over here it's also the generally accepted abbreviation for "fast forward." As well as for: "form feed"; "folios"; "fortissimo"; "fan fiction"; "fun facts" and "the following (lines/pages/etc.)"  On Twitter #FF is the hashtag for "followfriday."

Perhaps instead of "universally" it would be more correct to say "among gamers and some in the computer community"?
 

5621

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox 14.01

« Last post by 40hz on July 22, 2012, 08:40 AM »

The preferred abbreviation for Firefox is Fx, Mozilla uses it for extension file names. FF is wrong as there is no second capital F in Firefox.

-Tuxman (July 21, 2012, 01:21 AM)

Yes they do. And hardly anyone cares. Except maybe Mozilla.

FWIW, in the USA "Fx" has been used as the abbreviation for "special effects" in the movie industry for ages, and is what most people here immediately think of when they see it.

"Fx" also is the  recognized abbreviation for "foreign exchange" in Canada and the USA. Webster's Dictionary lists it as such too.

"fx" has also been a standard abbreviation for "fracture" on medical reports for many many years. Far longer than there has been a Firefox. Or even an Internet for that matter.

So good luck with that, Mozilla! (At least in North America.)  

5622

Living Room / Re: PowerPwn: Power strip by day, Hacking device by night!

« Last post by 40hz on July 22, 2012, 08:31 AM »

It runs debian 6, as is mentioned at the source ;-)

-Josh (July 22, 2012, 08:28 AM)

Bingo!   Good choice of distro btw.

5623

Living Room / Re: 5-Speed Homopolar Motor Video

« Last post by 40hz on July 22, 2012, 08:29 AM »

You had to show me that didn't you? Now I'm gonna have to build one.

5624

Living Room / Re: PowerPwn: Power strip by day, Hacking device by night!

« Last post by 40hz on July 22, 2012, 08:16 AM »

I don't know which part is more clever. The device itself - or the fact some enterprising contractor suckered the US government into shelling out $1,295 apiece for a device that should sell for something more like $400-$600 worst case.

I'll bet it runs some flavor of Linux and violates GPL too!

"a fully-integrated enterprise-class penetration testing platform."

-Josh (July 22, 2012, 07:53 AM)

Question: If it's a "testing platform" why did they feel the need go to such lengths to disguise its appearance?
 

There's no rest for the wicked...

5625

Site/Forum Features / Re: About the Basement (Soap Box) Section

« Last post by 40hz on July 21, 2012, 05:24 PM »

I had something similar to Basement on a BBS I used administer. It was called "Outside" -  as in "Hey people! You wanna take it outside."