Recent Posts

601

General Software Discussion / Re: VOIP - alternatives, PROs and CONs.

« Last post by Renegade on March 09, 2015, 08:08 AM »

I've got a Korean SK Internet phone. It looks just like a regular phone and works wonderfully.

I've tried Jitsi, but can never seem to get anyone to use it, so... pretty useless.

-Renegade (March 08, 2015, 09:34 PM)

I would have thought you'd have RedPhone or something similar on your Android phone also

-4wd (March 09, 2015, 01:49 AM)

Thanks for the suggestion.

One of the problems I have is dealing with corporate firewalls. My phone gets around them nicely as it goes over the regular telephony network.

Now, for mobiles, well... I'm not a fan of them. They still have crappy speakers and mics that are near useless. I've been spoiled by Skype with far better audio quality, and I have grown to loathe telephony quality audio. I prefer to use my own high quality equipment, and most often, people have equipment that is much higher quality than the crap in regular landline phones or mobile phones. That's quite nice to deal with.

Also, the majority of my phone calls (other than to my wife) are all overseas/international, and usually over Skype.

Does anyone remember Dialpad? That was a while back.

602

General Software Discussion / Re: VOIP - alternatives, PROs and CONs.

« Last post by Renegade on March 08, 2015, 09:34 PM »

I've got a Korean SK Internet phone. It looks just like a regular phone and works wonderfully.

I've tried Jitsi, but can never seem to get anyone to use it, so... pretty useless.

I would be interested in hearing if anyone has found something that is easy enough for anyone to use.

603

General Software Discussion / Re: Vivaldi, the new Web browser for power users

« Last post by Renegade on March 08, 2015, 07:48 PM »

Just about every major feature in today's browsers started out in Opera: tabbed browsing, mouse gestures, pioneering support for Web standards, and even the clustered page thumbnails when you open a new window or tab (a feature known as "speed dial"). These all started in Opera and were then copied by Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and (sometimes) IE.

Given that Opera really has been the main innovator in browser UX, they very well may pull off a new trend.

I'll give it a try sometime. I use Opera as my primary browser, and it has been lacking since they swapped engines.

604

Living Room / Re: Apple gold watch to take up 30% of world gold production

« Last post by Renegade on March 08, 2015, 07:42 PM »

The original article fails to take into the laws of supply and demand. If Apple were to impact the world's gold supply so sharply then gold prices would skyrocket, Apple's price for their watch would go through the roof, and demand for this luxury timepiece would quickly turn into a trickle.

There's no way in this reality, or any other, that Apple could consume that much gold...for a decade...and prices would remain stagnant.

Silly web authors must have failed their Econ classes.

-Innuendo (March 07, 2015, 11:03 AM)

Yup.

Now, they may sell some, but they're not going to sell a million a month.

But you did get me thinking about the price... if they engaged in market manipulation like Goldman Sachs & their buddies, they could short paper gold to suppress the price, but that carries risk as well. I would have expected gold to rise if their million a month sales target had any credibility, unless they were shorting, but I just can't see Apple getting into the paper gold shorting business. That would require getting in bed with GS & JPM, etc., and it isn't remotely a part of their business.

605

Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"

« Last post by Renegade on March 08, 2015, 09:09 AM »

@Renegade: Very interesting and factual history video. Thanks. Some more interesting and factual history videos there too.

-IainB (March 07, 2015, 10:14 AM)

The thing that ticks me off is that I was taught a lot of the wrong stuff in school... sigh... I'd come across this stuff since, but that video was nice & short and had some of those points that should've been taught in grade 9 (or whatever).

606

Living Room / Re: Nice essay on the Prisoner's Dilemma Tournaments

« Last post by Renegade on March 08, 2015, 09:07 AM »

^ I think the point of the tournament is with iterations, and not single-shot strategies.

Instead of thinking of "years in prison", the point is to think in terms of X negative consequences and "defection" (the term used for the problem).

607

General Software Discussion / Re: is it possible to easily build a GUI mockup?

« Last post by Renegade on March 08, 2015, 09:01 AM »

If only a mockup is needed, then Eclipse is a good choice:

https://eclipse.org

-Renegade (March 07, 2015, 08:00 AM)

Hm, I beg to disagree on that statement. Building a GUI using Eclipse has always been real close to a nightmare to me.

-Ath (March 07, 2015, 10:01 AM)

Yeah... Eclipse is, well, Eclipse... But if you don't actually need to wire-up anything, and only need to create a visual, it's not that entirely miserable. Like, GTK gravity (and all that) is pretty bizarre when you first deal with it, but... it's just another way of dealing with a problem.

I'm sure that there are some people out there that would find Eclipse intuitive!

608

Living Room / Re: Use a unique password for this site

« Last post by Renegade on March 08, 2015, 08:56 AM »

But security isn't about 'criminals', it's about online safety and privacy, especially for those who live in countries where their political affiliation this year could cost them their life the next.

-db90h (March 07, 2015, 05:00 PM)

...And that's my point. If you can't keep the alphabet soup crowd out - and you can't - then the entire exorcise becomes pointless.

-Stoic Joker (March 07, 2015, 10:06 PM)

Not entirely pointless. Just pointless if they're interested in you or they make a mistake.


BTW - Does anyone have any worries about 2FA?

609

Living Room / Re: Use a unique password for this site

« Last post by Renegade on March 08, 2015, 08:53 AM »

Please allow me to emphasise this a bit more because @db90h has brought up some really, very important security issues:

Yea, rainbow tables are the term you are looking for .

-db90h (March 07, 2015, 11:37 AM)

For those not familiar, a rainbow table is a list of hash values for strings (passwords). So, if your password is hashed, the attacker just looks it up in a rainbow table in, oh, like, it's done now, so, next. It's a very powerful attack.

They are, again, hopefully, neutralized by appropriately salting the hashed password.

-db90h (March 07, 2015, 11:37 AM)

For those not familiar with a salt, salts are just strings that are added to passwords before they are hashed. The resulting hash value is different than the simple password hash. As such, rainbow tables are useless.

Now, if a single salt is used, a rainbow table can be created for that specific site/salt. And, if individual salts are used, the site itself needs to be compromised (with a database dump or something similar in effect).

tl;dr - If you don't already understand what a rainbow table is, do look into it because it's a critical point in password security.

@db90h - Good call in pointing those out. (And the other bits as well.)

610

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

« Last post by Renegade on March 08, 2015, 08:38 AM »

I've got a book for you...

https://www.youtube....youtu.be&t=6m18s

611

Developer's Corner / Re: Best programming language to pick up for applications?

« Last post by Renegade on March 08, 2015, 08:01 AM »

I have considered learning things like C,C++ and C# but i do not know which one to start with, many have recommended to start with C or C++.

-iMark (March 07, 2015, 07:23 PM)

If you want ease and speed, you want C#.

If you want freedom and power, you want C++.

If you want to wish that you'd instead stabbed yourself in the eye with a plastic funnel and poured a gallon of hydrofluoric acid into your skull, you want C. (C isn't easily replaced in some cases, but if you need to ask about C, then you need to stay away from C.)

Autohotkey is incredibly fast to write in many ways. You can do things in AHK that would take you 5x as long in C# or 10x as long in C++. I've seen guys here post AHK code for problems and it's short, as in very short. I think about how long that would take me in C# or C++, and there's just no comparison.

I don't use AHK, so you should ask around for more info there. I don't know its real limits, or if it has any.

I mainly code in C# because I'm lazy and am only interested in getting the job done, and C# is good enough.

Different languages have different strengths and weaknesses. People will argue forever about this and that, but at the end of the day, the absolute 100% guaranteed #1 best language to use is the one that you are comfortable with and that you can get the job done with. Even if it's Eiffel or Scala or F# or Lisp.

Since you already know PHP, VB.NET, and Java, you might want to stick with one of those.

But, since you know VB.NET and Java, I'd say run with C# as you'll feel very much at home and you'll have world class tools at your fingertips for zero effort. Your learning curve there will be near zero as well.

So I want to be able to make applications and auto bots (I want to make software that do some tasks for me without me having to do much, e.g copy and paste this here, take out these sections, then replace this etc... or click here then click here, that sort of thing) while I am also interested in applications which have a GUI and have multiple features.

-iMark (March 07, 2015, 07:23 PM)

Check this out:

http://www.codeproject.com/

Absolutely one of the best sites like it out there, if not the best. (I don't know of anything better.)

Just search for what you want to do and it's likely that you'll find something similar or something that does a part of what you want to do. Search specifically though with specific tasks, e.g. "how to pan an image through a view port" or "how to make a browser".

612

General Software Discussion / Re: is it possible to easily build a GUI mockup?

« Last post by Renegade on March 07, 2015, 08:00 AM »

Download Visual Studio Express or a free version of Borland's RAD Studio and create your mockup with it. You can easily add functionality if needed, in your language of choice, VB, C# or Delphi.

-Ath (March 07, 2015, 02:57 AM)

Do you have a link for Free Rad Studio?  I'm not having any luck finding the freebie. 

-MilesAhead (March 07, 2015, 07:41 AM)

I can only see a free trial.

If only a mockup is needed, then Eclipse is a good choice:

https://eclipse.org

Also, Monodevelop:

http://www.monodevelop.com

Use GTK# with that.

Xamarin Studio has a free version:

https://store.xamarin.com

613

General Software Discussion / Re: is it possible to easily build a GUI mockup?

« Last post by Renegade on March 07, 2015, 07:32 AM »

Download Visual Studio Express or a free version of Borland's RAD Studio and create your mockup with it. You can easily add functionality if needed, in your language of choice, VB, C# or Delphi.

-Ath (March 07, 2015, 02:57 AM)

^ That's some good advice.

Something along the lines of this? (I did not implement everything because I'm running out of time now)

-firace (March 07, 2015, 07:07 AM)

yes, something like this! how you created it?

-kalos (March 07, 2015, 07:10 AM)

It looks like it was done in an IDE.

Try out Ath's recommendation.

In Visual Studio, just create a Windows Forms project then start dragging & dropping. It's really easy. (I've not used Delphi in almost 10 years now, but IIRC, it's about the same as VS.)

614

General Software Discussion / Re: Microsoft reveals Windows vulnerable to FREAK SSL flaw

« Last post by Renegade on March 07, 2015, 07:28 AM »

In other news, it appears that if one was staying up-to-date on any of the other myriad of SSL flaws over the past several years, then you're safe from this on too...when using IE.

-Stoic Joker (March 07, 2015, 06:26 AM)

Well, that's some good news.

615

Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"

« Last post by Renegade on March 07, 2015, 06:13 AM »

How Dark Were the Dark Ages?

Some really good stuff in there.

616

Living Room / Re: Apple gold watch to take up 30% of world gold production

« Last post by Renegade on March 07, 2015, 05:02 AM »

It's still in the news.

http://www.ft.com/in...4feab7de.html#slide0

$10,000 watch tests Apple’s luxury appeal

When Tim Cook unveiled the Apple Watch in September, the iPhone maker’s chief said it was the “most personal device we’ve ever created”.

Some models will also be Apple’s most expensive products in more than 30 years. The company is widely expected to put a price tag of at least $10,000 for the gold Apple Watch Edition when it shows off the devices at a press event in San Francisco on Monday.

According to the details released so far, the premium device will offer no additional features or functions above those in the aluminium Apple Watch Sport, which starts at just $350.

Yet the volume of gold alone in the new device’s 18-carat casing and buckle will make it Apple’s priciest gadget since the Lisa, a $10,000 computer released in 1983. The high-spec Lisa, which took five years to develop and was overseen by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, sold just 100,000 units and is seen as one of the company’s rare flops.

Apple Watch is the first new product category to emerge from the company since Jobs’ death in 2011. Its ambitious pricing and luxury styling shows how Mr Cook and his design chief, Sir Jonathan Ive, hope Apple can transcend Silicon Valley to enter the more prestigious and lucrative worlds of fashion and jewellery.

“I do see that the Watch is a move away from what is traditionally understood as consumer electronics,” Sir Jonathan said at a conference last year.

“Apple has always been about ‘affordable luxury’: at the higher end of the price range and with a premium feel, but it’s always been within reach of the ordinary consumer,” says Jan Dawson, technology analyst at Jackdaw Research. “This is the first time that Apple has moved into straightforward luxury.”

The rest in case you hit a paywall

Previous attempts by tech companies to sell mobile devices for thousands rather than hundreds of dollars include BlackBerry’s Porsche Design range and Vertu, the former Nokia mobile phone division sold to private equity firm EQT in 2012.
$10,000
Expected price tag for Apple’s 18-carat gold Watch
“This idea of trying to crash into the fashion space with technology is one that works for very few,” says Ethan Imboden, who works with tech start-ups at frog, a design company.
Vertu made its name peddling bling to the nouveau riche but its latest models eschew gold and diamonds for a more understated luxury look, using materials such as ostrich leather.
Yet even for many who could afford Vertu’s pricetags, the iPhone’s allure has been stronger — even though the gold colouring Apple introduced to its smartphone in 2013 was merely superficial.
“The Vertu experience teaches us that bling itself is not enough,” says Mr Dawson. “They weren’t fantastic phones in the first place.”
He suggests that Apple is better positioned because its brand is already an aspirational one, despite selling a decidedly mass-market 75m iPhones in its last quarter alone.
However, some see the Apple Watch Edition’s rich pricing as an over-reach that could backfire.
Christian Madsbjerg, co-founder of ReD Associates, a consultancy that counts Samsung and Adidas among its clients, argues that Apple risks making the same mistake Louis Vuitton did when it tried to hike prices of its luxury bags for upmarket customers in China and Russia.
“We call this the ‘rich people are dumb’ strategy,” says Mr Madsbjerg, who predicts it is “not going to be successful” for Apple. “They’ll sell a couple in some places but it’s not a sustainable strategy because rich people are not stupid: they start asking, ‘Why should we pay so much more?’”
One potential obstacle to success is the rapid obsolescence of any technology. While luxury watchmakers pitch their timepieces as future heirlooms, people familiar with Apple’s plans say the next version of its smartwatch is already in development, due for release next year.
A gold watch’s high margins might impress Wall Street, which has driven Apple’s market capitalisation above $750bn since it reported the highest net profit in US corporate history in January, but not other potential Watch buyers, Mr Madsbjerg argues.
“It alienates your core when you become too focused on quick money in Asia,” he says.
They’ll sell a couple in some places but it’s not a sustainable strategy because rich people are not stupid: they start asking, ‘Why should we pay so much more?’
- Christian Madsbjerg, ReD Associates
Others take quite the opposite view: that a luxury gold watch will light a halo around its more affordable siblings. “It changes my perception of the purchase I’m making,” says frog’s Mr Imboden, especially if it makes $1,000 for a steel model seem reasonable.
For some high-end customers, even $10,000 is a small price to pay for a watch; the fact it will be obsolete in two or three years merely adds to the ostentation of its purchase.
“They know if you buy a gold Apple Watch that it’s not going to be a long-term investment,” says Ariel Adams, editor of luxury timepiece site A Blog to Watch. “They just want to show off.”
Having a gold option among Apple Watch’s many interchangeable straps may also appeal to more fashion-conscious customers, says Mr Imboden, allowing them to personalise an intimate device that will probably sell in the many millions.
“Fashion for many is a means of individuality and self expression,” he says. “From a design standpoint it sends what I think is an appropriate message: we use gold for jewellery, there is a tradition in that, so [Apple] aren’t going to give you fake gold.”
In the past two years, the company has assembled a team of luxury industry professionals, including former Burberry chief Angela Ahrendts, Paul Deneve from YSL and designer Marc Newson, to help it understand the dynamics of Vogue and Paris Fashion Week, where the Watch has already made appearances.
“I’m much more concerned about how we can make them as good as possible than how many we’ll sell,” Sir Jonathan, Apple’s top tastemaker, told the Financial Times’ How To Spend It magazine in an interview.
But as Mr Cook looks to the future, the gold Apple Watch Edition may merely be testing the depth of his customers’ wallets as it researches an even higher priced product: a car.
“They’re already considered the luxury brand of consumer electronics,” says Mr Adams. “They feel [a premium-priced watch] is a natural step in the direction that they want to go in. Other brands would do it if they could.”

Maybe they're serious... I'm still skeptical though...

617

General Software Discussion / Microsoft reveals Windows vulnerable to FREAK SSL flaw

« Last post by Renegade on March 07, 2015, 02:05 AM »

Another security issue.

http://www.zdnet.com...e-to-freak-ssl-flaw/

The FREAK security bug that allows attackers to conduct man-in-the-middle attacks on Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) connections encrypted using an outmoded cipher has claimed another victim. This time, it is Microsoft's Secure Channel stack.

"Microsoft is aware of a security feature bypass vulnerability in Secure Channel (Schannel) that affects all supported releases of Microsoft Windows," the company said in a security advisory. "The vulnerability facilitates exploitation of the publicly disclosed FREAK technique, which is an industry-wide issue that is not specific to Windows operating systems."

Although Microsoft Research was part of the team to uncover FREAK alongside European cryptographers, Redmond chose not to reveal Windows as vulnerable until today.

More at the link.

618

Living Room / Re: Use a unique password for this site

« Last post by Renegade on March 07, 2015, 01:29 AM »

SSL or not -- EVERY website you use, you need to use a unique password, so that if one site gets hacked, the bad guys don't learn your logins to other sites.

-mouser (March 06, 2015, 11:10 PM)

^ THIS!

I had one account compromised. It used a password that I used on 1 other site. Just 1 other site. 1.

Now, either the other site was malicious, or it was hacked as the site the compromised account was on knew that some accounts had been compromised, while others were not.

So, you can imagine how that all goes and how the hackers try brute forcing sites with known account IDs/passwords.

619

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

« Last post by Renegade on March 07, 2015, 12:30 AM »

Beyond "interesting", this is simply hilarious!

DO IT FOR DENMARK!

Seriously.

http://do-it-for-denmark.dk/

Can sex save Denmark's future??

Denmark faces a crisis. Our birthrate is at a 27 year low. At Spies we’re concerned. Fewer Danes mean fewer to support the ageing population - and tragically, fewer holidaying with us. Research shows that Danes have 46% more sex on city holidays and since more sex equals the chance of more kids, we are prescribing a romantic city holiday to save Denmark’s future. Let's save the future of Denmark with romance!.

 

Now, that's a f***ing competition!

620

Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"

« Last post by Renegade on March 07, 2015, 12:11 AM »

(see attachment in previous post)
People Explore Abandoned Buildings All The Time. But What This Guy Found... OMG.

Anyone here interested in abandoned buildings?

-Arizona Hot (March 06, 2015, 10:08 PM)

That was insane.

Here's the original imgur post: http://imgur.com/a/qi3kq

There are more pics in there and NSFW descriptions.

621

Living Room / Re: DuckDuckGo as viable Open Source builder

« Last post by Renegade on March 06, 2015, 08:17 PM »

I've tried it personally, and it's been brought up here before.  I stopped, because the results and such just weren't as good for me... as well as the fact that the extension had problems in Chrome at least on my computer.

-wraith808 (March 06, 2015, 11:16 AM)

Almost exactly the same for me. It's my default engine in Chrome, but I use Opera mostly, and can't set DDG as my default there, and the plugin UI sucks (needs an extra click).

622

General Software Discussion / Re: No more Filehippo for me

« Last post by Renegade on March 06, 2015, 04:25 PM »

I'm not surprised. The market has been overcrowded for a long time, and running a site takes serious effort. Ad revenues are crappy, and at some point these things creep in. The problem is similar for a lot of software authors.

623

General Software Discussion / Re: online tool or software to create a treeview

« Last post by Renegade on March 05, 2015, 05:41 AM »

Check out the Code Project. Coceproject.com

624

Living Room / Re: Homebrewing

« Last post by Renegade on March 05, 2015, 12:50 AM »

http://gizmodo.com/w...eck-reall-1689446524

What 170-Year-Old Beer Uncovered From a Shipwreck Really Tasted Like

In other news, my last batch of hard ginger ale was AWESOME!  

625

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

« Last post by Renegade on March 04, 2015, 07:53 PM »

Meanwhile at a McDonalds drive-thru in Canada...