Recent Posts

5626

DC Gamer Club / Re: Mafia 1 and Mafia 2 - Atmosphere done right - Travel back in time to the 1940s

« Last post by wraith808 on August 12, 2013, 09:50 AM »

L.A. Noire is good also as far as game play.  I can't compare it to Mafia as I haven't played it.  But it's on a level like Red Dead Redemption, but for a noire detective story.  It's definitely akin to a story in a lot of places, and less open world than others because of that (not sure if Mafia is open world sandbox type), but it makes a sort of sense.  The mini-games are a fun distraction also that add to the environment and diversify what you need for success (especially the interrogations).

5627

Living Room / Re: Licensing Developers?

« Last post by wraith808 on August 12, 2013, 09:47 AM »

Just musing here, but I'm kind of curious as to when developers will need to have a license to write code.

-Renegade (August 11, 2013, 11:12 PM)

You already do to an extent under certain circumstances.  When working for a company, you don't- it's the company that assumes the risk.  But once you you're not 1040, you have to have a whole lot of things that while not really a license, they are, in effect, the same sort of thing- an assurance that you are responsible for your code.

Think about it:
Liability Insurance
Escrowed Code
W-9

And having been on both sides of the equation, I can tell you that those three things are a big part of the business.

5628

Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by wraith808 on August 11, 2013, 09:14 AM »

It is already known that there was no concrete agenda, and nothing that they were close on.  This isn't the G20- it was to discuss the tangential affairs.  And what else were the Russians going to say?  I mean, they weren't going to say they were sorry.  They did say they were disappointed, which I think comes pretty close to saying, "We expected it, but what were the other moves to be made?"

Russia responded by saying it is “disappointed” by the move, with Putin’s aide Yury Ushakov adding that the situation showed the US “is still not ready to build relations with Russia on an equal footing.” It is “clear” that the decision is related to Snowden, he said, reminding that the US for its part has repeatedly refused Russia’s past extradition requests.

And this shows that the decision was basically tit-for-tat- not any progressive agenda on the part of Russia.  They knew that this was going to happen, and had prepared for it and evaluated the outcome.  I don't think that there was any other way that this was going to go down, and doesn't really show diplomatic weakness... just expected outcomes.

5629

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

« Last post by wraith808 on August 10, 2013, 10:29 PM »

5630

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

« Last post by wraith808 on August 10, 2013, 10:28 PM »

5631

General Software Discussion / Re: PirateBrowser released by The Pirate Bay

« Last post by wraith808 on August 10, 2013, 10:25 PM »

Woohoo for TPB!

I am kind of wondering what makes it different than TOR Browser though...

-Renegade (August 10, 2013, 09:03 PM)

I think this statement:

Does it make me surf the net anonymously?
While it uses Tor network, which is designed for anonymous surfing, this browser is intended just to circumvent censorship — to remove limits on accessing websites your government doesn't want you to know about.

What that means from a technology standpoint I think is nothing.  But using TPB as a branding can't do anything but raise the profile of TOR.

5632

Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by wraith808 on August 10, 2013, 06:24 PM »

It seems to me it's another +1 to Snowden. Obama seems to be making the moves that Snowden wanted him to make, which is strategically not a situation you want to be in as a US President...

-dr_andus (August 10, 2013, 06:08 PM)

How is he making the moves that Snowden wanted him to make?  I think that's reading a bit much into Snowden and what he wanted, other than a discussion on the matter.    The move with Russia had little to do with Snowden's stated goals, nor with the information released- other than tangential.  It was to avoid a conversation that he didn't want to have, and now has a very good excuse to back out of, and snub the Russians in the process, before the G20 summit.

5633

General Software Discussion / PirateBrowser released by The Pirate Bay

« Last post by wraith808 on August 10, 2013, 06:20 PM »

The Pirate Bay releases it's own browser (via Business Insider)

Plenty of notable or controversial sites like Wikipedia and Pirate Bay are censored in various capacities in some countries around the world, but Pirate Bay is striking back by releasing PirateBrowser.
It's a customized Firefox browser with some specialized proxy settings to get around the "censorship that certain countries such as Iran, North Korea, United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Denmark, Italy and Ireland impose onto their citizens."

This browser does not make you anonymous. It's simply a mechanism to maintain access to the entire, uncensored Internet.

However, PirateBrowser comes bundled with the Tor browser, a separate tool that's very effective at anonymizing you.

More at link.

5634

Living Room / Lavabit founder has stopped using email

« Last post by wraith808 on August 10, 2013, 06:13 PM »

(boingboing via Forbes)

Earlier this week, Xeni reported on the shutdown of Lavabit, the email provider used by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Ladar Levison, Lavabit's founder, has given an interview to Forbes about his reasoning for the shutdown, which comes -- apparently -- as a result of a secret NSA search-warrant complete with a gag order.

After discussing the general absurdity and creepiness of not being allowed to freely criticize the government for the order they brought to his company, he concludes by saying that he's stopped using email altogether, and "If you knew what I know about email, you might not use it either."

(more at link)

Make sure you read the Forbes link... it has most of the article.

One of the great comments on that article:

The man is a hero. Even if shutting down the service pisses off large numbers of his users.

“There is a very small window here, for something to occur to shut down this thing.

That window is closing rapidly; you can bet that any meetings being held, are being held for “EVERY” reason other than to “engage in a national debate”, such as this charade with Apple, Google, and AT &T, all subterfuge, designed to get the people believing something will occur…

They will seek to buy time with numerous meaningless meetings, and toothless investigations, while behind the scenes they will be busy little sociopaths, burying the entire program ever deeper within society, honing their abilities, and furiously developing ways to make it all more and more invisible to everyone…

If we want to see real change occur, we need to demand that a verification process be set up, throughout the country, with offices set up in every state, staffed by individuals who are vetted and proven to have no ties of any kind with any governmental agency or subcontractor of any governmental agency…

These individuals will be equipped with state of the art audio and video recording equipment, and just like the NSA did after Snowden blew the whistle, teams of two or more individuals will record the removal and total destruction of surveillance equipment that is being used against law abiding Americans and others throughout the world…

Recordings will be made of the destruction of all private records of whomever has been subjected to such collection, and individual letters will be sent to all, attesting that all illegally held surveillance records have been destroyed, and apologizing for the invasion of privacy.

With respect to damages, which are yet to be determined, a special multi-billion dollar fund will be set up to make people whole, again, under the control of totally independent individuals or entities, subject to public verification as well…

Out of time, but essentially, what I’m proposing here is that process that, someone suggested, during the Nuclear Reduction Treaty with Russia, be employed to establish compliance, referred to as “Trust But Verify”.

At this stage in this game, No one in their right mind could possibly trust anything anyone in our government or any of its agencies does, or indicates they will do…

One last thing, the perpetrators need to be publicly charged with crimes against the American people and other Nations, arrested, tried and jailed, no exceptions…

Treat these b8stards as was done during the Nuremburg Trials… That will teach all those out there who might consider attacking our Constitution and our Bill of Rights, in the future, that there will be consequences…

I’m so bl**dy upset I can hardly think coherently…”

5635

Living Room / Re: Edward Snowden's Email Provider Shut Down Rather Than Comply With Feds

« Last post by wraith808 on August 09, 2013, 02:59 PM »

Naw, I really want to get the terminology straight - the Govt hasn't been overthrown.

The Govt has succumbed to systemic abuses of power.

-TaoPhoenix (August 09, 2013, 02:52 PM)

I'd disagree with that assessment.  Succumb means to Fail to resist (pressure, temptation, or some other negative force).  That puts the onus back on the members, even in a backhanded fashion.  On the other hand, overthrow is an active verb, meaning A removal from power; a defeat or downfall.  That puts the onus where it should be... on those who actively have gamed the system to turn it into something that it wasn't meant to be.  There is not a systemic failure of society or the government that is in power, but rather abuses (in some cases criminal) that people need to be punished for.  Again, there needs to be a Reckoning (or a Wreckening as Ren corrected me when I went on this rant before).  It needs to be realize that someone did this to us, rather than it was an inevitability given the level of corruption and such.  One empowers, the other leads to a feeling of futility.  And the patient isn't dead.. so there is a place for hope.

Sorry... I rant against that whenever I see it.

5636

Living Room / Re: Edward Snowden's Email Provider Shut Down Rather Than Comply With Feds

« Last post by wraith808 on August 09, 2013, 01:24 PM »

However, this:

The United States, as the world knows, will never start a war.

He couldn't have been more wrong. The question then is who and why?

-Renegade (August 09, 2013, 11:30 AM)

I don't think he was wrong. If anything, he was prescient.

Because the version of the United States we're living in right now is a country nobody knows.

Us included.

-40hz (August 09, 2013, 11:34 AM)

This

I look back to the days when coding didn't mean that you had to pay attention to political winds, people respected politicians, and people respected police... and I look at things now.  If we knew then what we know now, would coders and technophiles have been willing to let things come to this?  Technological complacency led to the exploitation of that same tech to the point that now we have to look at it with a scrutinizing eye- not just to how it could be used for good, but also for evil. 

Very much akin to the introduction of nuclear energy- but with a less obvious downside.  Hackers were the bad people, and we didn't really have to worry about them, because they were lawbreakers.  But if this kind of thing had been discussed then- the possibilities of an electronic surveillance state because we have voluntarily tied our lives to technology to a frightening and exciting extent... what kind of conversations would have happened?  And would it have made a difference?

I guess we'll never know.

5637

Developer's Corner / Wordpress using G+ Commenting System

« Last post by wraith808 on August 09, 2013, 01:01 PM »

Blogger using the G+ commenting system has apparently been a thing for a while now, but I guess I haven't really visited any blogger sites with it enabled.  But I noticed on a post that I read today that the comment system is now G+. 

A couple of articles on this change:

http://googleblog.bl...ents-to-blogger.html

I love Wordpress... (it helps that it pays my hobby money also), but I love G+, and would love to have comments on Wordpress to use G+

http://wordpress.org...gins/gplus-comments/

So now I see that you can use it with gplus... has anyone actually utilized this plugin?

5638

Living Room / Re: Edward Snowden's Email Provider Shut Down Rather Than Comply With Feds

« Last post by wraith808 on August 09, 2013, 10:38 AM »

Revolution does not have to mean war. But it always means standing up to the government and saying no.

In the words of Thomas Jefferson, "I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical."

-Vurbal (August 08, 2013, 11:39 PM)

And I add a warning from the past:

5639

Community Giveaways / Re: WriteMonkey key

« Last post by wraith808 on August 09, 2013, 07:43 AM »

I just donated for it right before you posted this   It's a great app... I was using ZenWriter before (which is also a great app), but lack of responsiveness from that developer compounded with the great features in this version made me purchase it. 

5640

Living Room / Edward Snowden's Email Provider Shut Down Rather Than Comply With Feds

« Last post by wraith808 on August 08, 2013, 06:27 PM »

From Lavabit.com

My Fellow Users,

I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly ten years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit. After significant soul searching, I have decided to suspend operations. I wish that I could legally share with you the events that led to my decision. I cannot. I feel you deserve to know what’s going on--the first amendment is supposed to guarantee me the freedom to speak out in situations like this. Unfortunately, Congress has passed laws that say otherwise. As things currently stand, I cannot share my experiences over the last six weeks, even though I have twice made the appropriate requests.

What’s going to happen now? We’ve already started preparing the paperwork needed to continue to fight for the Constitution in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. A favorable decision would allow me resurrect Lavabit as an American company.

This experience has taught me one very important lesson: without congressional action or a strong judicial precedent, I would _strongly_ recommend against anyone trusting their private data to a company with physical ties to the United States.

Sincerely,
Ladar Levison
Owner and Operator, Lavabit LLC

(via Gizmodo)

5641

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Autographed Paperback copies of Kyrathaba Rising novel available

« Last post by wraith808 on August 08, 2013, 01:48 PM »

How is createspace?  I had a free order from them for 5 books for completing NaNoWriMo, but I let the deadline go by because I didn't have time to edit before then, so I was wondering...

Another service that You might want to look into is publification.com.  I signed up for it, but I haven't used it, so I can't really tell you much positive or negative other than that they let you publish from your sources directly to Amazon, iBookstore, and Nook, in addition to selling directly from the site through their interface.

One last one is NookPress.

pricing and payment terms

Pricing and Payment Terms

We may update or alter the Pricing and Payment Terms at any time and changes will be effective and binding on you on the date thirty days from posting, as described in the NOOK Press Terms & Conditions.

Publisher will select a List Price for each NOOK Book between $0.99 and $199.99. An equivalent price in GBP (£) will be auto-calculated according to that day's exchange rate for NOOK.co.uk sales. Publisher has the option to manually input the price in GBP.

Publisher will be paid a royalty off the List Price in USD according to the following terms:
For NOOK Books with a List Price at or between $2.99/£1.50 and $9.99/£7.99
65% of the List Price

For NOOK Books with a List Price at or below $2.98 /£1.49, or at or greater than $10.00/£8.00 (but not more than $199.99/£120.00 and not less than $0.99/£0.75)
40% of the List Price

Publisher will, at all times, ensure that the NOOK Book List Price:
1.    Is no greater than the eBook's List Price at any other retailer, website, or sales channel.
2.    Is no greater than the eBook's print edition (if applicable).
3.    Complies with the minimum and maximum pricing policy as stated above.
Sample royalty calculation:
1.    List Price: $9.99 - Publisher Royalty: $6.49
2.    List Price: $20.00 - Publisher Royalty: $8.00
3.    List Price: £6.99 - Publisher Royalty: £4.54
4.    List Price: £10.00 - Publisher Royalty: £4.00

5642

Shareware Discounts for Members / Re: Cleaning up this section

« Last post by wraith808 on August 08, 2013, 01:43 PM »

Not really.  You have to manually go and check to make sure that it is still operational.  Sometimes the vendors are very generous, and let it go farther than it would seem.

5643

Living Room / Re: US Government War On Hackers Backfires

« Last post by wraith808 on August 08, 2013, 01:18 PM »

So, it's a matter of character, and how much you're willing to sell out for, and how much you're willing to pay to defend against those kinds of depredations.

Classic rock and hard place scenario.  You either get caressed by the velvet glove with insane amounts of money (that are appropriated from taxpayers to subvert the will of the people in a lot of cases), or get hit by the mailed fist... and then still have to do it, or lose everything.

And even if you do escape their depredations, then you're either paranoid at the lengths that they can go to in order to get you if they decide that they need your skills, or you trust your friends not to give you up.

*sigh*

5644

Living Room / Re: US Government War On Hackers Backfires

« Last post by wraith808 on August 08, 2013, 12:07 PM »

But that is good news! Hopefully the best and brightest will start up their own businesses or opt for a non-evil option at least.

-Renegade (August 08, 2013, 11:22 AM)

Yeah... you didn't see my last line, did you.  That wasn't being cynical or sarcastic... just remembering the bad old days.

5645

Living Room / US Government War On Hackers Backfires

« Last post by wraith808 on August 08, 2013, 07:20 AM »

US Government War On Hackers Backfires: Now Top Hackers Won't Work With US Government
from the what-did-they-expect? dept at techdirt in an act of sudo karma

But as this Reuters story reports, that crass attempt to intimidate an entire community in case anyone there might use computers to embarrass the US government or reveal its wrongdoings is now starting to backfire:
The U.S. government's efforts to recruit talented hackers could suffer from the recent revelations about its vast domestic surveillance programs, as many private researchers express disillusionment with the National Security Agency.

Though hackers tend to be anti-establishment by nature, the NSA and other intelligence agencies had made major inroads in recent years in hiring some of the best and brightest, and paying for information on software flaws that help them gain access to target computers and phones.

Much of that goodwill has been erased after the NSA's classified programs to monitor phone records and Internet activity were exposed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, according to prominent hackers and cyber experts.
The article goes on:
Closest to home for many hackers are the government's aggressive prosecutions under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which has been used against Internet activist Aaron Swartz, who committed suicide in January, and U.S. soldier Bradley Manning, who leaked classified files to anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.

A letter circulating at Def Con and signed by some of the most prominent academics in computer security said the law was chilling research in the public interest by allowing prosecutors and victim companies to argue that violations of electronic "terms of service" constitute unauthorized intrusions.

(more at link)

But if history is any indication, if they can't pay them well enough to recruit them, then they'll start forcing them to through aggressive legal tactics.

5646

Living Room / Re: Movies or films you've seen lately

« Last post by wraith808 on August 07, 2013, 09:26 PM »

Snitch.  Based on a true story... I hope not too closely, because though the movie was excellent (and they didn't make a typical The Rock film out of it), the subject matter was sickening.

5647

Living Room / Re: Please help superboyac build a server (2013 edition).

« Last post by wraith808 on August 07, 2013, 07:46 PM »

And now they have plastic cases without the sharp edges... so what are you going to do?  The reason that I liked metal cases is because it seemed that every time I cut myself, things would start working.  It just likes blood, you know?  Like voodoo.

Or... is that a sign of psychosis? 

5648

Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by wraith808 on August 07, 2013, 06:19 PM »

The Obama administration is choosing its words much more carefully. They obviously need to show their displeasure, but cutting planned talks would hurt the US administration more than the Russians. It would be a win for Republicans vs. Obama administration, not US v. Russia.

-dr_andus (August 02, 2013, 11:52 AM)

Hmmm...

Obama cancels Moscow meeting with Putin over Snowden

Russia says Obama hurting himself by canceling summit over Snowden

The Snowden crisis is a way for Obama to avoid another icy summit with Putin, political analyst Lilia Shevtsova said.

“Canceling a one-on-one meeting with Putin is an optimal way out of the situation,” Shevtsova, a senior researcher with Moscow Carnegie Center, said. “Russia’s granting Snowden temporary refuge offered Obama a welcome chance not to be involved in yet one more meeting with Putin, but without really any constructive agenda to discuss.”

5649

Living Room / Re: Please help superboyac build a server (2013 edition).

« Last post by wraith808 on August 07, 2013, 03:34 PM »

^ That's a good point.  Perhaps you should start with the capability to do more, but not start with your max storage?  It would be a lot easier to keep track of and maintain with less drives.  Might be something you want to think about.

5650

Living Room / Re: Sci-fi novel now available from DC member kyrathaba!

« Last post by wraith808 on August 07, 2013, 10:57 AM »

Like I said... been looking at this for a while, so glad that someone is able to benefit from my research LOL   He might also be a good source for another review.