Recent Posts

5876

Living Room / Re: I'm ready to join the HTPC (home theater pc) revolution - what to get?

« Last post by wraith808 on July 11, 2013, 10:10 AM »

I haven't tried it with 1080, but I haven't heard of others complaining.  Not saying it's not an issue...just that I've never heard that as a complaint before.  And as for mouser's requirements, it looks like THE dominant use of the device will be as a simple music player.  1080p is not an issue.

Without that, the only thing that I see as a possible issue is the YouTube piece.  I would expect there's an add on though.  (And for me, at least, while I occasionally found myself streaming YouTube under my old media center setup, I'd say YouTube streaming was about 1% of my use.)

-AJay (July 11, 2013, 08:34 AM)

Raspberry Pi will play 1080p only if its encoded h.264.  Otherwise it stutters.  This is usually b/c of the sound.  However, if you have already encoded your collection, this is a big deal, and transcoding isn't really an option because of problems with streaming.

Though this is not the primary use, he did state it as an important requirement, which is the reason that I brought it up.  Not to disparage the Pi or any solution, but to solve his use case.

5877

Living Room / Apple Loses: Judge Finds Price-Fixing in E-Book Case

« Last post by wraith808 on July 10, 2013, 06:19 PM »

Apple Loses: Judge Finds Price-Fixing in E-Book Case

And on anti-trust grounds!  Grab the popcorn, this is going to get interesting!

5878

Living Room / Re: I'm ready to join the HTPC (home theater pc) revolution - what to get?

« Last post by wraith808 on July 10, 2013, 03:59 PM »

If you're not dealing with a TV tuner, why not just use XBMC or OpenELEC on a Raspberry Pi?

-AJay (July 10, 2013, 03:43 PM)

I would like to be able to watch youtube/live streaming.

-mouser (July 09, 2013, 06:33 AM)

Those two don't go well together.  The processor just doesn't handle it well.  It also doesn't handle 1080P well.  The UI will also be less responsive.

The Pi is good for what it does.  But his requirements sort of kick it out the door.

5879

Living Room / Re: Worth Reading: Trevor Pott's editorial on NSA PRISM and its real ramifications

« Last post by wraith808 on July 10, 2013, 03:52 PM »

How Cops Became Soldiers: An Interview with Police Militarization Expert Radley Balko

7 Ways The Obama Administration Has Accelerated Police Militarization

5880

Living Room / Re: This Just in: From the You Gotta be Shitting Me Dept.

« Last post by wraith808 on July 10, 2013, 01:15 PM »

I was thinking FlamingDuck! 

5881

Living Room / Re: Adblock Plus Letting Ads By

« Last post by wraith808 on July 10, 2013, 11:21 AM »

Truthfully, I don't mind ads- done a certain way.  I think that's what 40 means by trust.  If they vet, if they don't let abusive or obnoxious ads through, I'll be fine with it.

5882

Living Room / Re: I'm ready to join the HTPC (home theater pc) revolution - what to get?

« Last post by wraith808 on July 09, 2013, 11:00 PM »

Wow... that's really cool. (No pun intended  )  I'll have to keep that in mind on my next build, even though this one was really cheap and works really well, so I doubt I'll be doing a new build soon.

Right now I have a Foxconn book sized one, and not only is it a pretty solid build, it has saved my bacon more than once- when my wife's computer went down, she was able to get by with it, and now my daughter's computer is down and she's using it.

5883

Living Room / Re: I'm ready to join the HTPC (home theater pc) revolution - what to get?

« Last post by wraith808 on July 09, 2013, 09:35 PM »

Even under load the heat doesn't spike?

5884

Living Room / Re: I'm ready to join the HTPC (home theater pc) revolution - what to get?

« Last post by wraith808 on July 09, 2013, 08:08 PM »

what kind of cpu fan are you running on your i3?  Even the lowest profile ones I've seen for LGA 1156 sockets are pretty space hungry, so I was wondering.

5885

Living Room / Re: Adblock Plus Letting Ads By

« Last post by wraith808 on July 09, 2013, 08:04 PM »

Can we just leave that part behind, and continue onward.  It was an unfortunate choice of words- more than one person took it as a negative, and the definition is *definitely* negative.   It was an unfortunate response.  Let's just forget about it, leave offense by the wayside, and go from there.  No need to continue it in any fashion.

5886

Living Room / Re: This Just in: From the You Gotta be Shitting Me Dept.

« Last post by wraith808 on July 09, 2013, 08:00 PM »

According to all of Gecko's commercials (about 80 times a day), they have the best customer support of all the insurance companies.  Of course they don't tell you that only applies when they're opening a new account.....

-Tinman57 (July 09, 2013, 06:59 PM)

Actually I have geico.  My wife recently totalled the car, and the customer service was stellar.  And the one time that it wasn't, I called and asked to speak to a manager.  He rectified the situation immediately.

Not sure what's going on in SJ's case... but I'd ask to speak to a manager and see about getting an earlier appointment if it was me.

5887

Living Room / Re: This Just in: From the You Gotta be Shitting Me Dept.

« Last post by wraith808 on July 09, 2013, 05:43 PM »

^ Well, you didn't damage your sarcastic wit, it appears

5888

Living Room / Re: Adblock Plus Letting Ads By

« Last post by wraith808 on July 09, 2013, 05:18 PM »

I would also call for a bit of respect from the other side.  The post was written with pejoratives (hopeless churl) in it also, which could have prompted the response, even if two wrongs don't make a right

5889

Living Room / Re: I'm ready to join the HTPC (home theater pc) revolution - what to get?

« Last post by wraith808 on July 09, 2013, 02:35 PM »

I've found from my experience that silverstone makes good cases.  An example is this one.  The more you pay, the better the case will be, but that one is a pretty good low-end starter case.

Silverstone also makes good power supplies.  Though I don't use them for desktops, their PSUs tend to be quieter than others, even under full load.  However, because of that quiet, they also tend to heat up more.

Though I usually go with Intel for my builds, for my HTPC I've gone with AMD twice, and Intel once.  AMD processors seem to require less in terms of space, and function better in smaller builds in my experience.

I used a HDD in my first two builds- my last build was my first with SSD, and I can say that it has made it more responsive.

My last one was also the first time I went with onboard video instead of low profile.  I'm definitely going with Low profile again when I build another; I see the difference on web based video, though not on video files strangely enough.  Netflix and Youtube aren't working as well on the onboard video, though playing video files from my NAS works fine.

And I've just been using Windows Media Center for the software (on Windows 7).  I've tried a few different things... from media monkey to a couple of other things (I'd have to look them up).  I haven't tried a dedicated OS solution though, so I can't comment on those.

As far as controlling it, I have always used logitech solutions before... but I just used a low end rosewill remote this time, and it works fine.  I paired that up with an iogear keyboard with built in trackball, and I've been set as far as controlling it.

Hope that helps... let me know if you have any other questions.

5890

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

« Last post by wraith808 on July 09, 2013, 02:17 PM »

But this whole scandal is suggesting to me that perhaps the NSA is putting so much effort into online spying on everyone because it is a lot easier to do (from the comfort of your plush suburban office) than to get your sorry ass over to Yemen or Waziristan to find out what is really going on (and get all sweaty and dusty and in real danger 'n stuff)  So what we get then is a bunch of operatives who are really good at using Facebook 

-dr_andus (July 09, 2013, 12:49 PM)

That's a very real discussion and divide.  One side says that sigint is better because you remove the likelihood of some agent doing something stupid on the ground that you will have to later explain, and curtail corruption.  The other side says that there is no replacement for human intuition and analysis on the ground.  I think it's somewhere between... but that seems too much like common sense.

5891

Living Room / Re: I'm ready to join the HTPC (home theater pc) revolution - what to get?

« Last post by wraith808 on July 09, 2013, 12:16 PM »

What sort of budget are we building in here?

5892

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

« Last post by wraith808 on July 09, 2013, 12:15 PM »

It would make the US look bad in the short term.  In the long term, it would strengthen the clear and present danger that whistleblowers face/think about.  As long as there was no concrete evidence to link them, it wouldn't go past that, IMO.  There would be conspiracy theorists... but there already are, so the harm done would be minimal.

5893

Living Room / Re: I'm ready to join the HTPC (home theater pc) revolution - what to get?

« Last post by wraith808 on July 09, 2013, 09:59 AM »

Are you looking at building?  Or buying a pre-built solution?

5894

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

« Last post by wraith808 on July 09, 2013, 09:57 AM »

^ Oh, they can, and would if it would suit their purposes/the benefits outweighed the chance of getting caught.  But, to his benefit, he's just not that big of an asset for many of the reasons that 40 has outlined.  If he was an operational asset, you can believe that this would not be happening- it would be over one way or another already, and the pieces sorted later. 

But without operational knowledge that has an expiration date, his death doesn't really serve a purpose.

5895

Living Room / Re: Your thoughts wanted: The right way to honor the passing of a DC forum member

« Last post by wraith808 on July 09, 2013, 09:54 AM »

I do find the idea of an indicator under the user's forum avatar indicating that the member has passed on, quite touching.. It conveys the fact that their spirit is still with us here virtually, just in a different form.

-mouser (July 09, 2013, 08:53 AM)

Very nice way to put it, and totally agreed.

5896

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

« Last post by wraith808 on July 09, 2013, 07:59 AM »

The US govt clearly can't just kill him now, otherwise they would have already done so, even at Moscow airport or in Hong Kong.

-dr_andus (July 09, 2013, 03:56 AM)

That's not so clear.  They've *chosen* not to kill him.  There's a difference.  They aren't *that* bloodthirsty that it's the first option on the table.  There are other less permanent options that leave other avenues open.  It really does take a bit for a kill order to go out on something like this.

5897

Living Room / Re: Sci-fi novel due on Amazon and B&N in August or September

« Last post by wraith808 on July 08, 2013, 05:56 PM »

So are you done at this point?  Or are you just summarizing?

5898

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

« Last post by wraith808 on July 08, 2013, 10:20 AM »

He's not just leaking US secrets anymore.  I posted this link in another thread, but on the topic of international relations:

Snowden confirms the NSA behind Stuxnet... and a lot more.

most telling quote...

Question: But now as details of this system are revealed, who will be brought before a court over this?

Snowden: Before U.S. courts? You're not serious, are you? When the last large wiretapping scandal was investigated - the interception without a court order, which concerned millions of communications - that should really have led to the longest prison sentences in world history. However, then our highest representatives simply stopped the investigation. The question, who is to be accused, is theoretical, if the laws themselves are not respected. Laws are meant for people like you or me - but not for them.

This is a good one too...

Question: What are the major monitoring programs active today, and how do international partners help the NSA?

Snowden: The partners in the "Five Eyes" (behind which are hidden the secret services of the Americans, the British, the Australians, New Zealanders and Canadians -- ed.) sometimes go even further than the NSA people themselves. Take the Tempora program of the British intelligence GCHQ for instance. Tempora is the first "I save everything" approach ("Full take") in the intelligence world. It sucks in all data, no matter what it is, and which rights are violated by it. This buffered storage allows for subsequent monitoring; not a single bit escapes. Right now, the system is capable of saving three days’ worth of traffic, but that will be optimized. Three days may perhaps not sound like a lot, but it's not just about connection metadata. "Full take" means that the system saves everything. If you send a data packet and if makes its way through the UK, we will get it. If you download anything, and the server is in the UK, then we get it. And if the data about your sick daughter is processed through a London call center, then ... Oh, I think you have understood.

-wraith808 (July 07, 2013, 10:52 PM)

5899

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

« Last post by wraith808 on July 08, 2013, 08:15 AM »

Daniel Ellsberg's take on Snowden leaving the US

5900

Living Room / Re: Blowback from Snowden's revelations... this isn't pretty...

« Last post by wraith808 on July 07, 2013, 10:52 PM »

Snowden confirms the NSA behind Stuxnet... and a lot more.

most telling quote...

Question: But now as details of this system are revealed, who will be brought before a court over this?

Snowden: Before U.S. courts? You're not serious, are you? When the last large wiretapping scandal was investigated - the interception without a court order, which concerned millions of communications - that should really have led to the longest prison sentences in world history. However, then our highest representatives simply stopped the investigation. The question, who is to be accused, is theoretical, if the laws themselves are not respected. Laws are meant for people like you or me - but not for them.

This is a good one too...

Question: What are the major monitoring programs active today, and how do international partners help the NSA?

Snowden: The partners in the "Five Eyes" (behind which are hidden the secret services of the Americans, the British, the Australians, New Zealanders and Canadians -- ed.) sometimes go even further than the NSA people themselves. Take the Tempora program of the British intelligence GCHQ for instance. Tempora is the first "I save everything" approach ("Full take") in the intelligence world. It sucks in all data, no matter what it is, and which rights are violated by it. This buffered storage allows for subsequent monitoring; not a single bit escapes. Right now, the system is capable of saving three days’ worth of traffic, but that will be optimized. Three days may perhaps not sound like a lot, but it's not just about connection metadata. "Full take" means that the system saves everything. If you send a data packet and if makes its way through the UK, we will get it. If you download anything, and the server is in the UK, then we get it. And if the data about your sick daughter is processed through a London call center, then ... Oh, I think you have understood.