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5826

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

« Last post by wraith808 on July 19, 2013, 02:11 PM »

Had a bit too much to drink to do any serious math there, but when I saw "NPR", my BULLSHIT alert went off. Dunno. But citing the NPR immediately puts a sour piece of cat turd in my mouth.

-Renegade (July 19, 2013, 11:57 AM)

The NPR part was in the question, not the answer (other than a very tangential article about what the NSA has disclosed, which is nothing)

If you read the answer itself, it has some very interesting plausibles and implausibles, with very realistic caveats about not knowing the exact capabilities but extrapolating from consumer available technologies.  But the other article gives quite spurious information (not that I necessarily say its false, just unsubstantiated) about the amount of data and definitely non-substantiated claims of their ability to process that amount of data.

5827

DC Gamer Club / Anyone in for a 4-pack of Monaco?

« Last post by wraith808 on July 19, 2013, 02:03 PM »

Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine is a single player or co-op heist game. Assemble a crack team of thieves, case the joint, and pull off the perfect heist.


The Locksmith: Blue-collar infiltration expert
The Lookout: She can see and hear everything... a natural leader
The Pickpocket: A hobo with a monkey and a penchant for crime
The Cleaner: A silent psychopath... Jack The Ripper in pink
The Mole: Big and dumb... likes to tunnel
The Gentleman: He doesn't always wear a disguise, but when he does, he looks fantastic
The Hacker: Armies of viruses shut down security... a modern day warlock
The Redhead: Manipulative and murderous... a lady always gets what she wants
Play with up to four people online or on the same screen. Compete with others via daily leaderboards. Find out why it won the 2010 IGF and has been described by Rev3Games's Anthony Carboni as "quite possibly the best co-op ever."

Runs about $6.00 each (taking into account paypal fees)

http://store.steampo...ered.com/app/113020/


Any takers?  (needs to be a regular at DC... no new members, please)

5828

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

« Last post by wraith808 on July 19, 2013, 11:24 AM »

For a bit of perspective on the Stasi vs. the NSA:

http://falkvinge.net...rse-and-by-how-much/

So where the hated Stasi surveillance was a building in area, the NSA surveillance today is an entire continent.

As a final note, the word Stasi was a contraction of the East German surveillance agency’s full name, Ministerium für Staatssicherheit. It translates to National Security Agency.

In the immortal words of Darth Vader, "Impressive."

-Renegade (July 19, 2013, 10:43 AM)

Oh... and it's bad, don't get me wrong.  I just have a thing for numbers and accuracy.

http://skeptics.stac...ve-zettabytes-of-dat

And the quality of the data is no where near the same as the Stasi, along with the endemic system of informants and fear used to get the data on a personal level.  And the sample size.  It's bad... but I hate making the same mistake in the other direction...

5829

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

« Last post by wraith808 on July 19, 2013, 11:16 AM »

And that's why I don't use machine translation unless absolutely necessary.

I do like that he's come out against the surveillance, but, I can't say more about him. (Dept. of Ed. is... ↓)

-Renegade (July 18, 2013, 10:25 AM)

Eh... that's another discussion (I think it was one of those something was needed, and what we got wasn't what we needed things), but my major point from that was the fact that he said that 'America doesn't have a functioning democracy'.  Pretty strong words... but I guess only to me.  

5830

FARR Plugins and Aliases / Re: FARR conflict with Dirt3(maybe its Game For Windows Live)

« Last post by wraith808 on July 18, 2013, 09:49 PM »

I have Dirt 2 (must have been from a steam sale LOL), so I'll try it.

5831

General Software Discussion / Re: Swapping Out Software?

« Last post by wraith808 on July 18, 2013, 09:48 PM »

Wow... he makes a lot of sense.  Welcome to the board Vurbal!     May your stay be long!

5832

General Software Discussion / Re: Swapping Out Software?

« Last post by wraith808 on July 18, 2013, 01:13 PM »

Interestingly, most graphics pros I talked to didn't seem overly concerned about that. Probably because a good number of them are already subscribing to other services like Typekit. The biggest concern was the worry about regular automatic software updates might impact their preferred workflow. Many said they sometimes preferred older versions of some programs, or elected to stay behind the curve when new updates came out.

-40hz (July 18, 2013, 01:06 PM)

She was concerned about this too.  Sometimes the actions and other stuff (don't know the technical term) have to be updated between versions/don't work.  She didn't know the online storage was optional- and indeed when I looked at the announcements when they first said it, it didn't seem that way to me, either. 

In terms of the tokens, she's also had (and by extension myself) a big problem with registration.  We've upgraded her laptop, I've completely rebuilt her computer, and we've had to reinstall the OS.  The ones that we've been able to predict haven't been so bad.  But the unpredictable ones have really sucked as far as getting her software that she can use again.  I just don't trust their activation system.

5833

Best Text Editor / Re: EmEditor Professional v13 New Features - EmEditor Free is back!

« Last post by wraith808 on July 18, 2013, 12:49 PM »

looks like wraight808 contacted them, and they didn't respond.
Strange, Yukata seems to be very attentive in their forum.

I suspect there will be no discount

-urlwolf (July 18, 2013, 10:46 AM)

That is correct.  They never responded... probably because they consider having free as a bulwark against giving discounts.  But that's just a guess.  I tried to send 2 correspondences, but just like others (JGSoft) that don't give responses at all, I left it at that.

5834

General Software Discussion / Re: Swapping Out Software?

« Last post by wraith808 on July 18, 2013, 12:36 PM »

Now, pricing your product out of reach of hobbyists/amateurs is one thing, but pricing it into the cloud for pros... yeah... not really "feeling" that here.

-Renegade (July 18, 2013, 12:11 PM)

This.  My wife is a photographer, and considering how much she spends on cameras, we didn't really blink at the price of CSS.  It's just the cost of doing business, and as you say, the best in many ways at what it does.

But when I told her about the cloud business, she said that she guesses that the last one was it for her.  This might change, but not having her photos in her control totally from beginning to end was what she was skeptical about.

With all of the theft of images and filters and other stuff that I don't really understand in the photography business, and how protective they are as a breed over their business and practices, I just don't see this ending well.

5835

Easy Screencast Recorder / Re: LATEST VERSION INFO THREAD - Easy Screencast Recorder - v1.12.01 - Apr 22, 2015

« Last post by wraith808 on July 18, 2013, 10:15 AM »

why x264 instead of other h.264 implementations?  Just wondering...

(I think I found the answer on my own)

5836

General Software Discussion / Re: Swapping Out Software?

« Last post by wraith808 on July 18, 2013, 10:13 AM »

Yup. I don't ever plan on buying any cloud office silliness, and fully plan on moving to Libre Office once I have time to finish testing some specific functionality that I need. Almost there...

-Renegade (July 18, 2013, 08:59 AM)

By any rights, that cloud office thing should have been the nail in Microsoft's coffin.  But there are too many people who still think that Microsoft is never the wrong choice...

5837

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

« Last post by wraith808 on July 18, 2013, 10:12 AM »

Unfortunately, I don't speak German, and was unable to read the article.

-Renegade (July 18, 2013, 09:00 AM)

Oh... I just take for granted translation. 

Translated Version

NSA affair: Ex-President Carter condemned U.S. snooping

By Gregor Peter Schmitz in Atlanta

Ex-President Carter: "The invasion of privacy has gone too far"

The Obama administration tried to placate Europe's anger over spying programs. Not as ex-President Jimmy Carter: The Democrat attacked the U.S. intelligence sharp. The disclosure by whistleblowers Snowden was "useful."

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter was in the wake of the NSA Spähskandals criticized the American political system. "America has no functioning democracy," Carter said Tuesday at a meeting of the "Atlantic Bridge" in Atlanta.

Previously, the Democrat had been very critical of the practices of U.S. intelligence. "I think the invasion of privacy has gone too far," Carter told CNN. "And I think that is why the secrecy was excessive." Overlooking the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden said Carter, whose revelations were long "likely to be useful because they inform the public."
Carter has repeatedly warned that the United States sharply declined due to excessive restriction of civil rights, their moral authority. Last year he wrote in an article in the "New York Times", new U.S. laws "never before seen breach our privacy by the government" allowed the.

Carter was the 39th President of the United States, who ruled from 1977 until 1981. During his tenure, he tried to align U.S. foreign policy that is more about human rights - after his retirement from active politics for his humanitarian work, he received the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize .

In Atlanta, he also expressed his overall pessimistic about the global situation. There is currently no reason for him to be optimistic, Carter said, referring to the situation in Egypt, which had fallen into a military dictatorship. He also lamented the growing political divide in the United States, the excessive influence of money in U.S. election campaigns and the confusing American election rules. The ex-president whose "Carter Center" operates worldwide including election monitoring, announced skeptical whether the United States, the standard that applies when reviewing the Center of elections might be fulfilled.
As a bright spot, however, Carter called the triumph of modern technology that would have caused some of the countries of the Arab Spring of democratic progress. Exactly these developments but are endangered by the NSA Spähskandal as major U.S. Internet platforms such as Google or Facebook lose credibility worldwide.

(On another point... the bit about ruler is funny.  Translations are FUN!)

5838

General Software Discussion / Re: Swapping Out Software?

« Last post by wraith808 on July 18, 2013, 08:48 AM »

That's a hard thing to do- especially with software that others use that you depend on, like skype.  It's just a slow process... I mean, look at the adoption of word and how long it took (is taking) to get people to see alternatives.

5839

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

« Last post by wraith808 on July 18, 2013, 08:46 AM »

No love for JC?  The most honest president we've had in the last half-century gets no respect.

(And 10 good things he did, even in spite of the propaganda about him as a president)

5840

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

« Last post by wraith808 on July 17, 2013, 08:11 PM »

In another Holy Crap moment over this...

NSA affair: Ex-President Carter condemns U.S. snooping

this particular quote is one of the main reasons that he is not well liked in Washington... he's too honest.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter in the wake of the NSA Scandals criticized the American political system. "America has no functioning democracy," Carter said Tuesday at a meeting of the "Atlantic Bridge" in Atlanta.

5841

Developer's Corner / Re: In the WTF department: F*** off as a service

« Last post by wraith808 on July 17, 2013, 01:00 PM »

I don't know... but it sure is fun (and funny)

5842

Living Room / The Government Uses License Plate Scanners to Track Your Every Move

« Last post by wraith808 on July 17, 2013, 12:56 PM »

Automatic license plate readers are the most widespread location tracking technology you’ve probably never heard of. Mounted on patrol cars or stationary objects like bridges, they snap photos of every passing car, recording their plate numbers, times, and locations. At first the captured plate data was used just to check against lists of cars law enforcement hoped to locate for various reasons (to act on arrest warrants, find stolen cars, etc.). But increasingly, all of this data is being fed into massive databases that contain the location information of many millions of innocent Americans stretching back for months or even years.

More at (link via Gizmodo).

5843

Living Room / Re: Microsoft responds to NSA allegations

« Last post by wraith808 on July 17, 2013, 11:29 AM »

Now we all know it's extremely doubtful to the point of certainty that anybody in Microsoft (or the US government) will ever face criminal charges for any of this.

-40hz (July 17, 2013, 10:35 AM)

Depends on how deep the well goes.  See... 'scapegoat' and 'disavowed'.  The government walks a line between business as usual and assuaging (majority) public opinion.  The wall street scandals are a good look at that...

Bread and Circuses is what it all comes down to in the end.  Whatever they have to do to get the spotlight somewhere else...

5844

Living Room / Re: Microsoft responds to NSA allegations

« Last post by wraith808 on July 17, 2013, 10:39 AM »

I'm simply unwilling to show the slightest bit of leniency for any of these people anymore. No more charitable reads. They must be absolutely explicit and unequivocal. If there's any wiggle room, I'm assuming the worst. That's the safest bet as far as I can see. But even then, just how many unequivocal lies have we been told? I think I'm being far, far more than reasonable.

-Renegade (July 17, 2013, 08:58 AM)

Yeah... you've got me there.  But the fact that MS was willing to call out the NSA and DOJ in a public forum is what was telling for me.  Other than if it's a smokescreen for changes to the relationship that aren't really changes.  *sigh*

5845

Living Room / Re: Domain Name Registrars

« Last post by wraith808 on July 17, 2013, 08:08 AM »

I'm not actually doing this until next month, so keep the suggestions and recommendations coming!  And thanks!

5846

Developer's Corner / In the WTF department: F*** off as a service

« Last post by wraith808 on July 17, 2013, 08:05 AM »

FOAAS

I now have everything I could ever need in a service.

5847

Living Room / Re: Microsoft responds to NSA allegations

« Last post by wraith808 on July 17, 2013, 07:56 AM »

Deny:
We do not provide any government with direct access to emails or instant messages.
Full stop.

Then completely recant what you just said:
Like all providers of communications services, we are sometimes obligated to comply with lawful demands from governments to turn over content for specific accounts, pursuant to a search warrant or court order.

-Renegade (July 16, 2013, 11:25 PM)

In that specific case, I think they were referring to the fact that they comply with the rule of law towards such things, i.e. you need a specific warrant, but they don't just let the government have direct access to all e-mails.  At least, that's what I took it as.

5848

DC Gamer Club / Re: Steam Summer Getaway Sale!

« Last post by wraith808 on July 16, 2013, 11:11 PM »

Figured I'd post this in this thread...

5849

Living Room / Re: Microsoft responds to NSA allegations

« Last post by wraith808 on July 16, 2013, 11:08 PM »

Skimmed through it. Seems like it's just misleading damage control.

-Renegade (July 16, 2013, 10:43 PM)

The big thing is the fact that Microsoft is doing it.  Yes, it's damage control.  Not so sure about the misleading, but it could be.  But Microsoft is unapologetic about most things, so for them to actually blog this is the part that was amazing to me.

5850

Living Room / Microsoft responds to NSA allegations

« Last post by wraith808 on July 16, 2013, 10:29 PM »

I've been trying to keep these together, but this is directly tech and such a holy crap moment, that I felt it deserved its own thread.

Microsoft responds to NSA allegations: "We believe the U.S. Constitution guarantees our freedom to share more information with the public, yet the Government is stopping us"

I just don't have the words.  And from Microsoft?

At least it's become a competitive liability to be associated with the NSA.  Maybe capitalism will win out where logic hasn't?  But then again, they'll probably choose a different name for the initiative, hide it off the books, and keep going like they are.

(from comments on reddit...)
"Introducing Altria. It's just like altruism only the opposite."

Altria Group, Inc. (previously named Philip Morris Companies Inc.) is a corporate business based in Henrico County, Virginia, United States of America and is the parent company of Philip Morris USA, John Middleton, Inc., U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company, Inc., Philip Morris Capital Corporation, and Chateau Ste. Michelle Wine Estates.