Recent Posts

626

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Surfulater at BdJ today ($39.50)

« Last post by mwb1100 on November 23, 2012, 01:51 PM »

I don't think there's anything to worry about.  Neville has heard the feedback that people don't want to be forced to store data on the cloud. From some comments he's made, it seems as though he's planning to provide the best of both worlds - keep your data local if that's what you want, but also provide the *option* of storing your data in the cloud so it's accessible from anywhere you are.

I have faith that he'll do the right thing.  Synchronization is the one thing I *really* miss in Surfulater, and I'm hoping that the cloud-based storage will solve that problem for me.  As long as the cloud storage is secure and I can move the data off the cloud if I decide that's necessary then I'll be happy.

If Neville can make it so the cloud storage is under my control (on my own web server or Amazon S3 or something), I'll be thrilled.

627

Living Room / Re: A secret society uncovered 250 years later

« Last post by mwb1100 on November 20, 2012, 01:21 AM »

Stuff like StoneHenge.

-MilesAhead (November 20, 2012, 12:12 AM)

Check out what one guy does up in Michigan: http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=pCvx5gSnfW4

Of course a lot more was necessary for Stonehenge (the stone was quarried and transported a long distance from the site, and the placement was apparently quite precise and particular).  But still, after seeing what one guy can do with 'sticks and stones', it makes Stonehenge seem a lot less 'impossible'.

628

Living Room / Re: A secret society uncovered 250 years later

« Last post by mwb1100 on November 19, 2012, 08:57 PM »

D'oh! I need to warn my fellow Stonecutters that our documents might get decoded.  The Chosen One will not be happy.

--
Be sure to drink your Ovaltine

629

Living Room / Re: "a-guide-to-legal-marijuana-use-in-seattle"

« Last post by mwb1100 on November 19, 2012, 12:11 PM »

Nice to have such a straightforward set of statements. I liked:

SPD seized a bunch of my marijuana before I-502 passed. Can I have it back?

No.

Also, I had no idea that magic shows were a particularly popular place to take a toke.

630

Living Room / Re: Gadget Fridays

« Last post by mwb1100 on November 16, 2012, 07:51 PM »

I'm partial to Gerber but I also had a Leatherman Micra....

-4wd (November 16, 2012, 06:12 PM)

I use my Micra all the time!  It lives on my keychain, along with the flashlights, tape measure, usb stick, and my emergency supply of Xanax...

-x16wda (November 16, 2012, 06:56 PM)

I used to have a Squirt P4, but lost it somewhere - I loved that thing.  Leatherman no longer sells the P4; they 'combined' it with the S4 (which had scissors instead of the P4's pliers) and took away a couple other tools to make the PS4.  I don't like the compromises made to add the scissors on the PS4. I'll have to get a used P4 replacement on eBay one of these days.

631

Living Room / Re: First Time With Win 8

« Last post by mwb1100 on November 15, 2012, 06:26 PM »

makeuseof won't let me use a mailinator address... drats!

-allen (November 15, 2012, 04:58 PM)

@alien - Sent you a PM.

-40hz (November 15, 2012, 05:04 PM)

Allen's an alien?  I should have guessed he got 'taken over' once he got rid of (most of the) beard.

632

General Software Discussion / Re: Two classes of membership here?

« Last post by mwb1100 on November 15, 2012, 05:12 PM »

It's not clear why he thinks DC is censoring him too.

-TaoPhoenix (November 15, 2012, 11:16 AM)

It was because he was asked to 'drop it' when posting another response to Bartels.  I don't have a clue who clean is (apparently some other DCer's do) but maybe he isn't familiar with how tired the rest of us are with the little Bartels flame wars that flare up at slightest provocation.

633

General Software Discussion / Re: Best USB Encryption Software.

« Last post by mwb1100 on November 15, 2012, 02:08 AM »

Regarding multiple encryption - if you're just worried about someone stealing your stuff (like if your computer actually gets stolen, or you lose your USB key or phone), using respectable encryption software that uses properly implemented standard encryption algorithms such as AES should be plenty.  And TrueCrypt should probably be at the top of the list of software to consider.  If the software you're using isn't good enough to foil a thief with one round of encryption, I doubt that multiple rounds is good enough either.

On the other hand, if you're worried about the FBI or some other 3 letter agency taking a serious interest in your files, I'm in no position to give advice (but I'd guess that TrueCrypt would still be one of the better things to have in your arsenal).

634

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Ultimate Flexense 'Black Friday' sale, 50 or 60 % off

« Last post by mwb1100 on November 13, 2012, 03:08 PM »

I don't know what Black Friday is

-Curt (November 13, 2012, 08:56 AM)

Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving in the US (which always falls on a Thursday).  It's the somewhat traditional start of the Christmas shopping season, and since nearly everyone has the day off (except the poor souls who have to work the stores) there are many 'door buster' sales.  Supposedly the 'Black' is a reference to the idea that it's the day that retail stores 'go in the black' (start making their profit) for the year.

Black Friday (shopping)^w

635

General Software Discussion / Re: Lifetime license from Audials+GAOTD: no good

« Last post by mwb1100 on November 12, 2012, 04:24 PM »

One the other hand, I've had good luck with my lifetime license purchases. The two that I have where there has been some controversy (AnyDVD and USB Safely Remove), I think were treated reasonably by the vendor. Though clearly some people disagree.

I do however try to make sure I'm clear about lifetime license offers made by vendors, since there's not universal agreement on what the term might mean.  If I think it's important to my purchase decision (and it's not always important - if the software does what I want and is worth what I'm paying for today, I might not care much about tomorrow's version), I'll look for wording that specifically says, "all upgrades are free", or I'll contact the vendor for clarification.

Like I said, I can't think of a time when I feel like I've been ripped off.

636

General Software Discussion / Re: Strategies to stay with Windows 7 as long as possible

« Last post by mwb1100 on November 09, 2012, 12:30 AM »

get a Win7 installation CD

-dr_andus (November 08, 2012, 06:37 PM)

Who made your Win7 PC?  Vendors often will provide media that will restore a system to factory install state for a nominal fee.

637

Living Room / Re: Win 8 Patent Lawsuit

« Last post by mwb1100 on November 03, 2012, 02:22 AM »

Also, I don't think there are allegations that code was 'stolen', but that the API was copied.  Much in the same way that DR-DOS copied MS-DOS and Linux copied Unix. Or how Compaq and Phoenix copied the IBM-PC's BIOS interface and unleashed the entire industry of PC clone machines.

86-DOS provided a level of source code compatibility with CP/M for applications.  For example, it was relatively easy for the CP/M program WordStar to be ported to 86-DOS/MS-DOS/PC-DOS.

The landscape of personal computing would be very much different if this kind of imitation were not considered legitimate.

Paterson has written a few blog articles that outline his version of events and general early personal computing history.  The articles are likely of interest to some people here:

  - http://dosmandrivel.blogspot.com/

638

Living Room / Re: Win 8 Patent Lawsuit

« Last post by mwb1100 on November 02, 2012, 03:18 AM »

The patents even use Microsoft's marketing term, "Tiles".  I just wonder how MS missed these patents and didn't get ahead of the issue long before releasing Win8.

639

DC Website Help and Extras / Re: A Strange Discovery...

« Last post by mwb1100 on October 30, 2012, 03:26 PM »

Just another site robotically stealing content in the hopes they get enough search hits that end up resulting in people clicking through ad links.

640

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Malwarebytes FREE and PRO - Mini-Review (as at 2012-10-30).

« Last post by mwb1100 on October 30, 2012, 03:19 PM »

Just to add this bit of info from an old thread (https://www.donation....msg176095#msg176095):

20% coupon code for Malwarebytes valid as of 30 October 2012: BM6-3S7-665

I don't know how long the code will be good, but it's been valid since at least March 2012.

641

Living Room / Re: Crossover Giveaway

« Last post by mwb1100 on October 29, 2012, 11:18 PM »

I hope CrossOver will help me run ..., TrueCrypt, ....

-erikts (October 29, 2012, 08:47 PM)

TrueCrypt already has Linux support, which I suspect will run better than a Windows version under Wine/CrossOver.  I'm not certain, but I'd be surprised if Wine/CrossOver supported running any kind of Windows kernel driver, and TrueCrypt uses one for its main functionality on Windows.

642

Living Room / Re: Dungeons/Zork map - here's an image of it.

« Last post by mwb1100 on October 28, 2012, 11:29 PM »

I haven't tried to run this in Win7-64 Home Premium.

-IainB (October 28, 2012, 10:28 PM)

Give the time stamps, the files are certainly 16-bit executables, so you'll need to run them in a VM on a Win64 machine (Win7's WinXP mode should do the trick).

643

Found Deals and Discounts / non-BitsduJour Malware bytes Deal

« Last post by mwb1100 on October 09, 2012, 03:25 AM »

"Malwarebytes Pro Anti-Malware Lifetime" is being offered by an outfit called "Nothing but Software" at $13. 

I have no idea how long the deal will last, or exactly how reputable the nothingbutsoftware.com store is.  I must have bought something from them at one point since I get their email notices quite often, but those notices are usually relegated to the junk mail folder.  For some reason, this one caught my eye.

  - http://www.nothingbu...e/ProductCode/171045

644

Living Room / Re: Judge Lifts Ban on US Sales of Samsung Tablet...funny

« Last post by mwb1100 on October 02, 2012, 12:10 PM »

Renegade, how did you get superboyac's login?

645

General Software Discussion / Re: Nuance PDF Reader - Acresso-FLEXnet agent is Annoyware/Adware WARNING.

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 29, 2012, 06:14 PM »

I've settled on the following PDF reading solution after I got tired of Adobe Reader's increasing instability and getting caught out by some malware in a PDF that my "AV" software didn't catch:

  - STDU Reader (free for personal use) as a stand-alone, tabbed reader
  - Sumatra PDF for the browser plug-in

It seems neither of these bits of software engage in deceptive marketing practices, and neither of them support Javascript execution in the PDF (AFAIK), so I figure they should be pretty resistant to PDF-bourne malware.

I'm not sure if they're lacking in features that people might want, but they let me open and read PDF files, and that's pretty much all I need from a PDF reader.

646

General Software Discussion / Re: Want to send a Batch file - but gmail & prob AV dont...

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 26, 2012, 04:27 PM »

I thought I'd send it as a text file but then realised their AV will probably kickup a fuss.

-tomos (September 24, 2012, 09:28 AM)

Have you actually tried renaming the file to whatever.txt then asking the recipient to rename it back to whatever.bat or whatever.cmd?

In my experience, I've found that this makes gmail happy, and I'd be surprised if any AV had a problem, either.

647

General Software Discussion / Re: Wicked Cool Unusual Features in Software

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 25, 2012, 04:37 PM »

If the last thing copied to the clipboard was a URL, it was there waiting for you in the URL field. Very convenient.

-daddydave (September 25, 2012, 11:21 AM)

That's a nice touch. 

I've come across some software that did this for license keys entry (ie., if the thing in the clipboard looks like the license key for registering the software, just put that thing in the edit box). Even though it only saves a click/keypress or two, it's always a touch that I appreciate.

648

General Software Discussion / Re: sublime text: some innovative text editor!

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 21, 2012, 02:55 PM »

That's an interesting (if unfortunate) story...  

I was surprised to see the rewardli deal, since Sublime Text's developer seemed to historically have little interest in discounting the software. Turns out that that still seems to be the case.

649

Living Room / Re: Shit Apple Fanatics Say

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 17, 2012, 03:57 PM »

Wouldn't that be going back to the old school PDA? (I have and still use an 11 year old HP Jornada 540 through wifi)

-app103 (September 16, 2012, 07:39 PM)

You know, I miss my old Palm Tungsten.  I didn't have to worry about each and every app's different configuration to get it to sync with whatever variant of cloud storage they use.  I just put the thing in the cradle, pushed a button and everything on my desktop was synched with the device.  Simple.

At least that's the way I remember it, but maybe time has faded memories of problems I encountered?

Though I must say, I do like getting maps and internet on the phone.  The Tungsten didn't do that.

650

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Postbox 3 - $9.95

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 13, 2012, 08:23 PM »

Note that their blog post about this sounds as if it's not a 'special offer' - it sounds like it's their new price.

Of course, they're free to change prices whenever they want, but there's no indication that this is a 'time limited' special.