Recent Posts

6476

Living Room / Re: What the heck has happened to Google search?

« Last post by Deozaan on June 12, 2010, 08:10 PM »

What I hate is how website somehow dynamically create pages that are indexed by Google search results.

For example (entirely hypothetical), if I type in "Brother MFC-7840W Driver Suite" I get a website something like:

somewebsite.com/brother-mfc-7840W-driver-suite/

That just lists a bunch of keywords (usually not even the ones in my search!) in a tag cloud and a bunch of advertisements. How do these pages even get indexed by Google when (it seems to me) they are just created dynamically on the fly?

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Developer's Corner / Re: "Rites of Passage" applications

« Last post by Deozaan on June 12, 2010, 04:04 PM »

I thought a Rite of Passage in programming always included a "Hello World!" program.

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Developer's Corner / Re: "Rites of Passage" applications

« Last post by Deozaan on June 12, 2010, 03:27 PM »

no coding rite of passage would be complete without a game or two.

-mouser (May 30, 2010, 10:07 PM)

Every. Programmer. Must. Write. A. Tetris. Clone!

-scancode (May 30, 2010, 10:14 PM)

Where's yours? I wanna play it.

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Python / Re: Book: Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python

« Last post by Deozaan on June 12, 2010, 01:11 PM »

I just downloaded this about a month ago. I thought it was really old so I didn't bother mentioning it here.

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Living Room / Re: Linux based E-book reader with two touchscreens about to be released.

« Last post by Deozaan on June 12, 2010, 01:07 PM »

I'm still not sure about folding the thing over the back and using it like a spiral notebook. How do you keep the screen that would then be on the backside from getting scratched up?

-Deozaan (June 11, 2010, 02:53 PM)

Same rules as a dead tree edition I guess ... Be careful where you set it down so you don't get goo on the pages.

-Stoic Joker (June 11, 2010, 10:15 PM)

Do you mean to say that the back-screen doesn't blank & auto-revert like some car-audio stuff does when it is turned off???

-Ath (June 12, 2010, 09:40 AM)

The screen might go blank when it's folded over, but that won't protect it from getting scratched or anything. Then again, it might not blank out after all, since people may want to use that screen (especially Lefties) instead of the other one.

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Living Room / Re: Linux based E-book reader with two touchscreens about to be released.

« Last post by Deozaan on June 11, 2010, 02:53 PM »

I'm still not sure about folding the thing over the back and using it like a spiral notebook. How do you keep the screen that would then be on the backside from getting scratched up?

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Living Room / Re: Second Wind - beautiful student animation

« Last post by Deozaan on June 10, 2010, 07:00 PM »

Thanks for sharing that, p3l. I really liked it.

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Living Room / Re: I'm not George Jetson anymore!

« Last post by Deozaan on June 10, 2010, 03:22 PM »

You are hereby dubbed: The guy formerly known as George Jetson!

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Found Deals and Discounts / Re: HDMI Cables: $0.60

« Last post by Deozaan on June 09, 2010, 01:32 PM »

I just received my $0.60 HDMI cables. They are indeed gold plated.

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Living Room / Re: Reasons to be Afraid of Driving in China

« Last post by Deozaan on June 08, 2010, 10:08 PM »

What I don't understand is why they have traffic cameras up but no traffic lights.

"Hey I know! Instead of preventing people from crashing into each other, let's just record it and laugh ourselves silly!"

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General Software Discussion / Re: Pop Up Chrome Extensions: A Potential Security Concern?

« Last post by Deozaan on June 08, 2010, 09:51 PM »

I suppose the key here is in someone installing a PayPal extension that's not legit, seems to me that's user error rather than a security exploit.

-Eóin (June 08, 2010, 08:21 PM)

A key difference, I think is that the user would easily mistake the malware as the official extension offered from that site.

Besides if hackers can compromise otherwise legit sites then your details are well and truly up for stealing as is, extension or no.

-Eóin (June 08, 2010, 08:21 PM)

As I said, I don't know the details, but in my opinion it would be easier to inject some code into index.html that makes Chrome pop up an invitation to install an extension than to crack an encrypted database with account information.

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General Software Discussion / Pop Up Chrome Extensions: A Potential Security Concern?

« Last post by Deozaan on June 08, 2010, 07:25 PM »

So I just clicked a link to view an article and when I loaded the webpage, Chrome popped up a little window asking me if I wanted to install that site's extension.



I'm no security expert and I don't claim to know the inner workings of how this happens, but it seems to me it that it's not a stretch to imagine injecting this "advertisement" for an extension on any website and when the user installs it, it's actually some sort of malware.

For example: Is it possible for hackers to inject this code into (or make a fake extension for) PayPal.com and then when people visit the site they'll be invited to "install the new PayPal extension!" but it's really just some malware that steals their login details or something similar?

Am I the only one bothered by this?

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General Software Discussion / Re: Specs for new pc?

« Last post by Deozaan on June 08, 2010, 12:58 PM »

I had a bit of a hard time locating it because I wasn't sure what to look for. Hint: Look for the New Egg logo.

-Deozaan (June 06, 2010, 10:50 PM)

Or you could have saved some time and just followed the link in my reply above, Deozaan.  

-Innuendo (June 07, 2010, 08:19 PM)

Wow, I completely missed it!

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DC Gamer Club / Re: Lord of the Rings Online going free..

« Last post by Deozaan on June 06, 2010, 11:29 PM »

I used to really like the idea of an MMO, but then I realized what I really want is the ability to play multiplayer (co-op, generally) with friends locally and online.

I don't want random strangers running around acting like idiots. I could go get some sunshine if I wanted that.

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Living Room / Re: Saturn's moon Titan could host Aliens

« Last post by Deozaan on June 06, 2010, 11:11 PM »

This is another thing I don't get:

Professor John Zarnecki, of the Open University, said: 'We believe the chemistry is there for life to form. It just needs heat and warmth to kick-start the process.

Since when do heat and warmth (aren't those the same things?) magically create life out of dust?

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General Software Discussion / Re: Specs for new pc?

« Last post by Deozaan on June 06, 2010, 10:50 PM »

By the way, for anyone looking, here's Tech Report's Spring 2010 System Guide.

I had a bit of a hard time locating it because I wasn't sure what to look for. Hint: Look for the New Egg logo.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Specs for new pc?

« Last post by Deozaan on June 06, 2010, 10:46 PM »

The Tech Report has:

At the low end, our Econobox has now drifted closer to our $500 target price

Closer??

-Perry Mowbray (June 06, 2010, 10:23 PM)

Yep. $1,000 just seems too expensive for me for a new computer. Somewhere in the $600-$900 range seems pretty close to right.

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Living Room / Re: Saturn's moon Titan could host Aliens

« Last post by Deozaan on June 06, 2010, 10:42 PM »

Don't you just love how the media makes a headline of "There is life on Titan!" while the entire article really just says "There are things happening on Titan that could mean life on Titan, but we don't really have any evidence."

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Living Room / Re: Is a college education worth the money?

« Last post by Deozaan on June 06, 2010, 09:59 PM »

In my opinion, education is extremely important. But college isn't necessarily a good way to get an education.

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Living Room / Re: New cheap cell phone: Subsidized Googlephone whispers targeted ads

« Last post by Deozaan on June 06, 2010, 09:38 PM »

I love the Y! Phone.

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Living Room / Re: Honestly, who here actually owns an iPad? be honest!

« Last post by Deozaan on June 06, 2010, 08:34 PM »

Okay, you got me. I was just trying to be in the cool crowd with the Apple bashing going on here. I own three iPads.

They're just so smurfing awesome and useful! I can't stand the idea of not having one in the bathroom, so I'm looking at getting a fourth.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Specs for new pc?

« Last post by Deozaan on June 06, 2010, 07:44 PM »

www.Maximumpc.com regularly publishes updated builds you might want to take a look at.

-40hz (June 06, 2010, 05:22 PM)

What the heck? They've got an article on how to build a PC on your budget, and the two budgets listed are $1,500 and $2,000. That's not what I have in mind when I think of "budget."

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General Software Discussion / Re: Google's Chrome browser gets a stable tag in version 5

« Last post by Deozaan on June 06, 2010, 05:49 PM »

Adblock: I tried Adblock for Chrome and it had problems, so I switched to AdThwart which uses the Adblock Plus blocklist but it doesn't seem to work as well as ABP for Firefox. I also have a hard time adding my own rules to the filter. I'd say it's worked only once or twice out of all the times I tried it.

Mouse Gestures: This is probably kind of picky, but my favorite and probably most often-used feature of All-in-One Gestures for Firefox is that when I do an upward gesture it will open a new tab, but if I do an upward gesture on a link, it will open that link in a new tab. I haven't been able to find another gesture extension that does that.

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DC Gamer Club / Re: Xenon2000 :: Xenon redux

« Last post by Deozaan on June 05, 2010, 03:33 AM »

We never owned an Amiga. We had an Intellivision, TI-98 (?), and an NES in the 80s and early 90s.

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DC Gamer Club / Re: Xenon2000 :: Xenon redux

« Last post by Deozaan on June 05, 2010, 03:11 AM »

I'd never heard of that game before, but thanks for sharing!