Recent Posts

6326

Living Room / Re: Keep a roll of toilet paper in your car's trunk

« Last post by wraith808 on February 26, 2013, 03:17 PM »

^ That's pretty cool

6327

Living Room / Re: Keep a roll of toilet paper in your car's trunk

« Last post by wraith808 on February 26, 2013, 02:12 PM »

Strangely enough, tissue doesn't work as well. 

6328

Found Deals and Discounts / The StoryBundle Indie Fantasy Bundle

« Last post by wraith808 on February 26, 2013, 11:40 AM »

StoryBundle's Indie Fantasy Bundle of reading goodness is available at http://www.storybundle.com.

The titles in StoryBundle's Indie Fantasy Bundle include:

The Book of Deacon - Books 1 & 2 by Joseph Lallo
The Second Coming by David H. Burton
The Duchess of the Shallows by Neil McGarry and Daniel Ravipinto
Sword and Chant by Blair MacGregor
The Tormay Trilogy - Books 1 & 2 by Christopher Bunn
Strange Places by Jefferson Smith

If you pay more than the bonus price of just $10, you get two bonus books, which are the third and final books in The Book of Deacon and The Tormay Trilogies:

The Book of Deacon - Book 3: The Battle of Verril by Joseph Lallo
The Tormay Trilogy - Book 3 by Christopher Bunn

As a special treat for our readers, Joseph Lallo and Christopher Bunn have both created special editions of their trilogies just for StoryBundle. Each author has combined the first two volumes of their three-volume series into one special edition. We've also included part three of the series as bonus titles, because we're sure you'll enjoy these fantastic stories and want to see them through to their thrilling conclusions.

For more info on the Indie Fantasy Bundle, visit our news page. Whether you're a fantasy fanatic or new to the genre, we know you'll love this one.

6329

Living Room / Re: PayPal users are frauds :-(

« Last post by wraith808 on February 26, 2013, 08:08 AM »

Yes, I know wraith, I had to be prepared for extended periods of time with no income or work. Sometimes I was and sometimes I was not. Or to spend the time and money preparing and getting to a job, only to be turned down due to a customer's whim or weather or some other reason. Or doing a large job that takes a couple of weeks and to wait, minimum, 30 days for payment. Here in the usa, the best advertisement is by way of the yellow pages, (for my type of work) and they know it, very expensive. Word of mouth happened a lot, but the phone rang more via the yellow pages.

edit- and yeah I got burned on a few jobs for a substantial amount of money, not many times but enough to demand cash in advance from certain types of corporations, or avoid them completely

-cmpm (February 26, 2013, 04:06 AM)

It's different when it's something to do with getting payment, vs retrieving your payments from the service.  And it's different when it's unreasonable.  I had a situation where I was contracting with a large firm, and they said it was to take 30 days to get paid from the time I submitted my first invoice.  I normally had 60 days set aside, but set aside 4 months.  I didn't get paid for 6 months.  The difference between not being prepared and unreasonable.  That's not a normal cost of business when you are working and accruing, but not getting the money that was accrued, especially when you have overhead.

In the end, each business has to see what the acceptable risks are.  And for more and more people, Paypal is becoming not an acceptable risk.  And you can't blame them for saying that, if its their choice- just pay as they will accept, or take your business elsewhere.  Would I go back to that company?  If I were still in their system... yes.  If not... no.  If a company can't pay me in 6 months, yeah, I avoid them completely.

6330

Developer's Corner / Re: A way to look at software design

« Last post by wraith808 on February 25, 2013, 09:11 PM »

Hmmm... in a lot of cases if you respond, you'll end up responding forever, and never address the underlying need.  I see what he's saying, but it seems a bit simplistic in any case when you're dealing with a changing environment.

6331

Living Room / Re: PayPal users are frauds :-(

« Last post by wraith808 on February 25, 2013, 09:09 PM »

As a seller or buyer one should not let paypal have direct access to your bank account.

-cmpm (February 25, 2013, 08:35 PM)

You don't have to.  It takes a while before the funds to become available for you to transfer.  At any given time if you're selling anything but one-off's through there, you'll have a the minimum a few days worth of funds tied up with them, even if you're conscientious about transferring as soon as able.  The more likely scenario is having a week's worth.  

So take a week's worth of sales tied up for months.  That's enough to kill a lot of small businesses.

6332

Living Room / Re: PayPal users are frauds :-(

« Last post by wraith808 on February 25, 2013, 08:17 PM »

Yeah but so what.. if a user is going to do that then they weren't going to purchase from you anyway, so what do you care if they got a free license key or not.

-mouser (February 25, 2013, 12:06 PM)

It's not that simple.  Paypal is pretty heavy handed from the seller side.  And you can easily lose not just the single sale, but anything that you have sitting in your Paypal account.

This report just made me find the first genuinely useful use for DRM: if a scammer tries to get free software, you could just revoke his key. (even without DRM, you can always make sure that the scammer's key won't work for the next versions)

-jgpaiva (February 25, 2013, 12:25 PM)

This reminds me of some software (that I can't recall at the moment) that worked their money back guarantee like so:

  - when you buy the software, you got a time-limited key (say a 60-day key).
  - if you asked for a refund withing the 30-day guarantee period, then they gave you your money back and that was that - all you had was a key that would expire in a few weeks.
  - after 30 days passed without a refund request, they sent you a permanent key so your software wouldn't time out.

It was a bit confusing, but not terribly so. But I imagine it had a heavier than usual support requirement on the vendor.

-mwb1100 (February 25, 2013, 12:47 PM)

I saw software like that too, and from that standpoint it makes sense.

I have had this happen to me a few times before and you do lose money.

-app103 (February 25, 2013, 05:31 PM)

Let's not forget shipping fees, which can be not an insignificant part of operating expenses if you're dealing with a physical item.

6333

Community Giveaways / Re: 1 Copy of Left 4 Dead 2 giveaway :P *Open for another 21 hours *

« Last post by wraith808 on February 25, 2013, 10:37 AM »

I have spoken with llc_silly, and he is going to pm sulc84 directly about the giveaway and the confusion.  In the end, the winner is of the SteamGifts giveaway was sulc84.   But there were several outside of the SG site rules that were not followed, and so he is exercising his right not to award the game.

His reasons in short:

1. You are one of the users joining for nothing other than the giveaway.  This is a community giveaway, and you didn't join to be part of the community.
2. You didn't follow my instructions, i.e. write down your steam username and post here after the entering.

In short, log in to SG, then mark my gift as not received, and that is it.

We will be using SteamGifts for futher giveaways, as I think it's a good platform for that, and thanks to LLC_silly for pioneering this.  But we will be locking it to the DonationCoder group on steam in the future.

Thanks, and if you have any further issues, take it up by PM or on SteamGifts off the board, in deference to the rest of the community, and Mouser's wishes.  My apologies for any confusion and such generated, but this is/will be a process with its own growing pains.

6334

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: PhraseExpander text expander for Windows, free today only and Pro at 40% off

« Last post by wraith808 on February 24, 2013, 11:20 PM »

BartelsMedia is a different developer.  The developer of this software is Andrea Nagar/Nagarsoft.  BartelsMedia develops PhraseExpress.  I think you've conflated the two software products.  Even in your excerpt you've posted, it's PhraseExpress.  Mentioning both in the same thread never leads to anything good.  Please, if you wish to continue discussion, do it in another thread so as to keep the two separate, or it will most likely get ugly.  (not that it won't now).

6335

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: PhraseExpander text expander for Windows, free today only and Pro at 40% off

« Last post by wraith808 on February 24, 2013, 08:02 AM »

I use Direct Access, and unless they changed when they became PhraseExpress, there's an option to export, as shown in the image below.



Was this taken out?

I've also never seen the promotion that you refer to from them (from others, but not Nagar), other than to the mailing list that I'm on.  I've not upgraded because DA does exactly what I wanted, and the upgrade to PhraseExpress seemed to be more geared to put themselves firmly in the Medical Transcription area, which wasn't what I bought it for. (And as such, also a significant increase in price, which was too much for what i needed)

6336

Community Giveaways / Re: 1 Copy of Left 4 Dead 2 giveaway :P *Open for another 21 hours *

« Last post by wraith808 on February 23, 2013, 05:02 PM »

I'm locking this thread until further notice.  If you wish to contact a moderator, llc_silly, or Steam Gifts directly to resolve, please do so.

Remember that, as Stephen said above, this community giveaway section is for the community, and to foster a sense of community and a way to distribute things that we have and may want to pay forward, not a general way to get free stuff by joining.  Please keep the spirit of the giveaways in mind when applying.

6337

Community Giveaways / Re: Giveaway Rule Suggestion.

« Last post by wraith808 on February 23, 2013, 04:47 PM »

I totally agree, and contacted llc_silly in that regard.  That was what he had meant, and had set that as a rule on his giveaway.

6338

General Software Discussion / Re: Synergy Virtual KVM

« Last post by wraith808 on February 22, 2013, 06:38 AM »

However, it seems that Synergy is excluded from interacting with any program running in admin mode.

-Renegade (February 22, 2013, 03:51 AM)

Where did you find this?  And is your normal account an admin?

6339

Community Giveaways / Re: 1 Copy of Left 4 Dead 2 giveaway :P *Open for another 21 hours *

« Last post by wraith808 on February 20, 2013, 08:06 AM »

Thanks for making this... and giving me an idea!

6340

General Software Discussion / Re: Opera to move to webkit/chromium rendering engines

« Last post by wraith808 on February 19, 2013, 07:41 PM »

Compatibility.  Market-share.  Profit.  Those are most likely the three things that drove this, rather than the superiority of the technology.

6341

General Software Discussion / Re: 64 bit Standalone Stack or alternative?

« Last post by wraith808 on February 19, 2013, 11:27 AM »

There's nothing intrinsic that says a 32 bit app can't open 64-bit apps.  It just depends on how you use it.

6342

General Software Discussion / Re: Opera to move to webkit/chromium rendering engines

« Last post by wraith808 on February 19, 2013, 10:15 AM »

PureText doesn't do exactly that.  Opera strips out the tags.  Puretext is pasting the literal text of the page, i.e. in the case of HTML, it is the HTML source.

6343

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for a minimalist Desktop Calendar Application..

« Last post by wraith808 on February 19, 2013, 07:13 AM »

I think the big requirement that's going to kill most of them is the fact of displaying the calendar then allowing you to click in the cell to directly edit the text.  Most don't allow you to do that.

6344

DC Gamer Club / Re: Pre-Purchase Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army 4-Pack

« Last post by wraith808 on February 18, 2013, 09:02 PM »

...Sniper... Nazi... Zombies?

Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?

-f0dder (February 18, 2013, 06:35 PM)

I think he's started on the same stuff Stephen drinks.

-4wd (February 18, 2013, 08:26 PM)

That's some powerful stuff. 

6345

DC Gamer Club / Re: BitsDuJour offering Dead Rising 2 2013-02-18

« Last post by wraith808 on February 18, 2013, 12:14 PM »

I played the original, and loved it.  2 is supposed to be better, but I haven't played it.

6346

DC Gamer Club / Re: Pre-Purchase Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army 4-Pack

« Last post by wraith808 on February 18, 2013, 12:13 PM »

in for one if any are left.

6347

Living Room / Re: Neil deGrasse Tyson Russian meteorite was 'once a decade' event

« Last post by wraith808 on February 18, 2013, 10:31 AM »

I still think we need a Niel deGrasse Tyson channel.  Or at least a real show, rather than appearances here and there.  I might disagree with some of his statements, but he is a smart and reasoned man. 

6348

Living Room / Re: 3000 Days Online: 30th May 2013

« Last post by wraith808 on February 18, 2013, 09:08 AM »

Shall we take cues from Pinky & The Brain? World Domination sound good to anyone?

-Renegade (February 17, 2013, 01:16 PM)

I'd like the sound of Intergalactic Conquest better! (Why think small?)
 (see attachment in previous post)

-40hz (February 18, 2013, 07:09 AM)

I stole your image.  It's too cool! 

6349

DC Gamer Club / BitsDuJour offering Dead Rising 2 2013-02-18

« Last post by wraith808 on February 18, 2013, 07:20 AM »

Not only is BitsDuJour offering Dead Rising 2 for 6.79 (GFWL required- I know that's a breaking point for some people), they're offering it through Paddle, a discount site- so basically as a referral.

Strange.  But a good deal.

Note: as a courtesy to BitsDuJour, I left the referral in that link to Paddle.

Also a note on Paddle- look carefully if you buy.  Things use many different platforms, and sometimes it's not obvious what platform something is unless you read the section at the bottom of the listing.

UPDATE: Oops... thanks.

6350

Developer's Corner / Re: Discourse - A discussion platform by StackExchange's Jeff Atwood

« Last post by wraith808 on February 17, 2013, 08:58 AM »

If you are trying to get his attention, it might be good for you to PM him.   Just a suggestion.