Recent Posts

6726

Living Room / Re: NAS Recommendations?

« Last post by Renegade on October 06, 2011, 11:32 AM »

Anybody got any thoughts on the non byod more commercial NAS products? 

Specifically:
http://www.tigerdire...ls.asp?EdpNo=7152581 or
http://www.tigerdire...ls.asp?EdpNo=5664929 or
http://www.tigerdire...ls.asp?EdpNo=5394505 or
http://www.tigerdire...ls.asp?EdpNo=5077998

Don't really care as long as it supports NFS... just tired of the DYI route right now and want a solution that comes with drives as long as it's not *too* much of a premium.

-wraith808 (October 06, 2011, 11:26 AM)

Not sure. They're all below the storage that I need. (8 TB+) That puts them out of what I'd consider. I'm sure they have value for others though.

6727

Living Room / Re: NAS Recommendations?

« Last post by Renegade on October 06, 2011, 10:55 AM »

4 x 2TB 3.5" seems to the most cost-efficient configuration IMHO. RND4000 will not support 3TB drives atm.

NAS = $299
HDDs = 4 * $82 = $328

There you go a complete NAS for AUD $627.

-lotusrootstarch (October 06, 2011, 10:54 AM)

That was my initial thought before I posted. Thanks for the confirmation.

6728

Living Room / Re: NAS Recommendations?

« Last post by Renegade on October 06, 2011, 10:54 AM »

^Guess it depends on where you are.  I just bought a 1TB (not on sale) for $99 USD. Maybe not as cheap as the big drives. But not really all that much more expensive in total dollars either. I'd also rather have two or three smaller drives right now than one of those 3TB monsters for no other reason than not wanting too much kept in one basket. Even with RAID or good backups. at least not until some real-world long-term reliability stats become available.
 

-40hz (October 06, 2011, 10:45 AM)

I want to stack the NAS with 4 drives and RAID, so if I can get better value for TB with 3.5, I'd lean that way. From the prices I've seen so far, 3.5 is way better. And 3 TB drives here are stupidly expensive. e.g. $50 for 1 TB, $100 for 2 TB, and $230 for 3 TB. Like WTF? I don't get that. I'm sure there's a reason, but I just don't know what it is...

6729

Living Room / Re: NAS Recommendations?

« Last post by Renegade on October 06, 2011, 10:51 AM »

^2.5" drives are currently too costly per GB and most NAS appliances are not designed to load these drives, but hey they are much "greener" for sure.

-lotusrootstarch (October 06, 2011, 10:34 AM)

That's what I was thinking. 3.5" drives are still far better value. For the power issue... not too sure... It needs to be measured on a TB basis.

6730

Living Room / Re: NAS Recommendations?

« Last post by Renegade on October 06, 2011, 10:26 AM »

No... a NAS like RND4000 is solidly built, compact and designed to run 24/7 reliably and (power) efficiently, whereas for your old boxes, no matter how much efforts you spend on them, will be neither.

-lotusrootstarch (October 06, 2011, 10:23 AM)

Yeah... I didn't think so. I think I'm pretty much sold on the RND4000 there.

Hey... Aren't you up kind of late?

6731

Living Room / Re: Social Media's Hidden Truth

« Last post by Renegade on October 06, 2011, 10:23 AM »

Interesting post here

"After the Iranian post-election events that led to massive riots and break-outs through the world, the Iranian government started blocking all social websites, including Facebook, Youtube, Orkut, MySpace and Twitter. The Iranians, however, started using VPN (virtual private network) connections to bypass censorship. Since Thursday, September 30, 2011, all VPN ports have however been blocked, in the first attempt to start what the Iranian government calls the 'National Internet.'"

-IainB (October 06, 2011, 09:32 AM)

I just posted on that same topic > Getting Around Internet Censorship: Internet Freedom.

Looks like I may need to look into posting another solution...

6732

Living Room / Re: NAS Recommendations?

« Last post by Renegade on October 06, 2011, 10:19 AM »

Hmmm... Tonido...

I have a few old boxes stashed away that I *could* stick drives into, but I just don't want to draw 350 W or 400 W or 450 W or whatever when I can draw 30 or 50 W. It's a power issue there... I'm already drawing a sick amount of power...

Would it be worth it to set up an old box? I have a 3.2 GHz single core box stuffed away that might not be too bad...

I'm not really much of a hardware guy there. 

6733

Living Room / Re: NAS Recommendations?

« Last post by Renegade on October 06, 2011, 08:29 AM »

FYI: I got my READNAS'es from MSY: http://www.msy.com.au/

-lotusrootstarch (October 06, 2011, 06:52 AM)

That's the thing -- I pretty much do all of my tech shopping there. If it's not at MSY, it doesn't exist for me. I've just been shocked beyond belief at the utterly insane prices of things at other stores that I've seen. Take MSY's price, and double it or more sometimes. I needed some RAM last week... sheesh... I just about s**t my droors when I compared Dick Smith's prices to MSY.

I really don't know many stores around either. Everyone I've talked to says MSY is the best by far. (Just reporting -- I really don't know.)

Is anything else worth looking at?

As for StaticIce -- first I've heard of it. I'll have a look... but I don't know any of the stores, and I'm hesitant to buy anything online here.

e.g. If I buy a book in Australia, I might get it in a few weeks (2 to 8 from what I've seen), or I can buy from the US, and get the book in a few days!?! (This has significantly scared me off from attempting to buy anything online domestically.)  

I've had horrible experiences with the postal system here as well (well, postal systems in general -- good with couriers like FedEx and DHL though), again making me somewhat gun shy to risk a $300+ piece of electronic equipment that I'd like to use immediately... Going into a retail store is just far more comforting. e.g. Malvern MSY, or maybe Clayton MSY if Malvern is out of stock.

Is Umart only online? Are the locations they list retail stores as well, or just warehouses? Seems like they have a pickup policy, but... -- Normally I would skip over a site like that -- It looks like I did the design work for it. That was an insult. I only ever took MSY seriously because I had several personal recommendations for it from people that I trust. (Their site design is even worse than I could possibly do.) Really bad sites just scare me off...  

Anyways -- Personal recommendations from people here for good places to shop at either in retail or online domestically?

Edit:

I'd just stepped out and was reading some news on my phone... Speak of the devil:

http://m.smh.com.au/...-20111005-1l9lg.html

The issue of companies jacking up prices in Australia has been raised in Federal Parliament in recent months, and in August the Productivity Commission inquiry into the retail industry identified significant price discrepancies between Australia and overseas as a key driver for consumers shopping on overseas websites.

6734

Living Room / Re: NAS Recommendations?

« Last post by Renegade on October 06, 2011, 05:37 AM »

@steeladept - Thanks. I was looking at them, and they seemed pretty good from what I saw.

@lotusrootstarch - Thanks. That was the one that I was looking to buy. I didn't see any Synology NAS available locally, and that one seemed decently priced compared to many others. Have you used it or can I ask why you recommend it?

6735

Living Room / Re: Social Media's Hidden Truth

« Last post by Renegade on October 06, 2011, 05:20 AM »

Sadly it would be much more important if indeed the issue is freedom...but it's not. What drives the issues of privacy is paranoia (to the casual person who doesn't know how all these tracking is being used and how they function) and fear (to the techie who fear that eventually they can no longer say anything in the internet that is public at all especially if it's important information)

In order for the issue to be freedom, it has to be beyond Facebook and Google but if somehow someday both companies revealed that you are even more anonymous than the rest of the internet (hypothetically for the sake of analogy) then almost everyone would celebrate and praise them and this controversy would be all over. No continuing towards the battle for freedom. No grand realization across all fronts that this should never happen again. The protesters will dissipate and the rest of the world would continue living their own lives including not caring how they are being tracked elsewhere.

-Paul Keith (October 05, 2011, 10:06 PM)

I suppose that I'm paranoid then.

I worry that information will be turned against people by governments and corporations.

Governments turn it around when the police subpoena information.

Corporations use it in propaganda marketing machines.

It's like being thrown in a cage with 800 lb gorillas, then seeing someone throw in clubs and tire irons for the gorillas. As if it weren't bad enough already...

6736

Living Room / Re: Steve Jobs is dead.

« Last post by Renegade on October 06, 2011, 05:12 AM »

(And before you say the camera, go buy a $100 FinePix or whatever they're calling them now. A phone NEVER compares.)

-Fred Nerd (October 06, 2011, 03:35 AM)

+1

I've found cameras on phone pretty useless. The abominations posted to Facebook are further testatment...

6737

Living Room / NAS Recommendations?

« Last post by Renegade on October 06, 2011, 03:43 AM »

Can anyone recommend any cheap NAS?

I don't care about features. I only want lots of space. Storage. Nothing more. RAID is good.

It only needs to be able to be accessible via Windows Explorer and OS X Finder. Just normal, plain Jane, vanilla storage.

Min. 8 TB or 4 TB with expansion options. Doesn't matter much. I don't need more than 12 TB though. 8 TB is lots for now.

6738

Living Room / Re: Steve Jobs is dead.

« Last post by Renegade on October 06, 2011, 02:44 AM »

Some nice sentiments:

http://www.businessw...bs-death-voices.html

Executives and politicians comment on the death of Steve Jobs, the co-founder and former chief executive officer of Apple Inc.:

Bill Gates, chairman and founder of Microsoft Corp.

“I’m truly saddened to learn of Steve Jobs’s death. Melinda and I extend our sincere condolences to his family and friends, and to everyone Steve has touched through his work.

“Steve and I first met nearly 30 years ago, and have been colleagues, competitors and friends over the course of more than half our lives.

“The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come.

“For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it’s been an insanely great honor. I will miss Steve immensely.”

Lots of the elite have quotes there.

6739

Living Room / Re: Steve Jobs is dead.

« Last post by Renegade on October 06, 2011, 12:47 AM »

I know the answer to that one:

-4wd (October 06, 2011, 12:23 AM)

I guess I shouldn't applaud that...

6740

Living Room / Re: Steve Jobs is dead.

« Last post by Renegade on October 05, 2011, 09:48 PM »

Just musing, but I wonder what Richard Stallman has to say...

6741

Living Room / Re: The Life-Changing $20 Rightward-Facing Cow

« Last post by Renegade on October 05, 2011, 09:37 PM »

I'm impressed. I love that guy's ideas about games. Brilliance. Sheer brilliance.

6742

Living Room / Re: Steve Jobs is dead.

« Last post by Renegade on October 05, 2011, 09:12 PM »

Steve Jobs showed little inclination to use his personal wealth for philanthropic purposes.

And, strangely for a self-professed Buddhist, he did not embrace environmental concerns

-http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12215485

Says it all really, what a horrible human being he was.

-Eóin (October 05, 2011, 07:56 PM)

WTF this is the most heartlesssssss comment I read today.

-lotusrootstarch (October 05, 2011, 08:46 PM)

Heartless? Maybe. Accurate? Certainly.

Continuing my campaign on "perspective"...

Disturbing image

Something like this happens 16,000 times a day when children under 5 starve to death.

Normally I don't talk give 'opinion' so close after someone's passing and I don't like to. However the part quoted above by Eóin is astounding.

RIP

-rgdot (October 05, 2011, 08:48 PM)

It's impossible to comment on death unless you say something nice. If you don't have something nice to say, no matter how true, you're a "bad person". Meh... I'm going to hate seeing all the sycophants coming out of the woodwork over the next couple days...

<self-censorship reason="horribly inappropriate and callous" />

I can't help but wonder what good for people Steve could have done if he set his mind to it. He worked magic. Had he have beaten cancer and lived on, I wonder what he would have done...

6743

Living Room / Re: Steve Jobs is dead.

« Last post by Renegade on October 05, 2011, 07:27 PM »

I had to search to make sure. I thought you were joking initially.

The Apple home page:

6744

Living Room / Re: Interview with Adam Smith - Founder of Xobni

« Last post by Renegade on October 05, 2011, 07:16 PM »

Hey found one service called speechpad.com for text to speech. Thought to let you about this.

-mahesh2k (October 05, 2011, 01:48 PM)

I was doing text to speech programming when I was a kid, thanks to my TI 99/4A speech synthesizer.

But they also have STT, and the prices aren't too bad:

http://www.speechpad.com/pricing

Still, I would like to find something that will do the heavy lifting of STT and let me do the fine tuning/editing, i.e. I want software, and not a service. So far, it looks like DNS is the only thing that will do it, although the details are sketchy -- their feature explanations are not clear.

6745

Living Room / Re: Hoping for a Patent Bloodbath XD

« Last post by Renegade on October 05, 2011, 09:39 AM »

I'd like to hope the fracas will get so ridiculous that the international legal system will rise up in revulsion and get the whole stupid IP/patent situation resolved once and for all.

Unfortunately, the dream of "a war to end all wars" only leads to bigger and worse conflicts down the road. At least if human history is anything to go by.

One thing for certain. This is going to get a whole lot worse before there's even the slimmest of chances it will get better.
 

-40hz (October 05, 2011, 08:21 AM)

That's what I am hoping for. The bloodier and more idiotic and higher profile, the better. Eventually people will get fed up.

6746

Living Room / Re: Hoping for a Patent Bloodbath XD

« Last post by Renegade on October 05, 2011, 07:29 AM »

http://www.businessw...in-france-italy.html

Samsung Seeks Sales Ban on Apple IPhone 4S in France, Italy

Samsung Electronics Co. will seek to ban Apple Inc.’s iPhone 4S in France and Italy on patent- infringement claims, escalating the dispute between the world’s two biggest makers of smartphones and tablets.

Samsung will file motions with courts in Paris and Milan seeking the ban, each citing two patent infringements on wireless telecommunications technology, the Suwon, South Korea- based company said in an e-mailed statement today. Apple unveiled the iPhone 4S in Cupertino, California yesterday and aims to start sales later this month.

Woohoo~!

What would really rock, is a court order for a recall of all phones and Apple being forced to compensate customers. Muahahahaha~!

I would piss my pants laughing. Really. That would be uncontrollable laughter! Losing control of all bodily functions. Drop a dookie in my droors funny!

Design patent? Lame. Patent on core mobile phone tech? Well, not as lame.

Go Samsung~!

BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD~! I CAN SMELL IT IN THE WATERS~!

6747

Living Room / Hoping for a Patent Bloodbath XD

« Last post by Renegade on October 04, 2011, 12:01 PM »

I'm hoping for a patent bloodbath in the Apple v. Samsung dispute:

http://www.montrealg...a/5499660/story.html

Apple Inc rejected an offer from Samsung Electronics Co to settle their tablet computer dispute in Australia, possibly killing off the commercial viability of the South Korean firm’s new Galaxy tablet in that market.

Samsung is a major supplier for Apple, and I'd love to see them flex some muscle and decapitate Apple. Oh... how sweet that would be~! =P

6748

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox 7 is out

« Last post by Renegade on October 04, 2011, 11:48 AM »

...We have a working Linkman 8.30 Pro Beta. Final version will still take time.

-Outertech Support (October 04, 2011, 11:33 AM)

At which point Firefox 9 or 10 will be out~!

(Sorry -- couldn't resist that.)

But seriously -- good luck! FF is just at breakneck speed right now. And I think most of the broken necks are users and third party developers~!

6749

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: Pausable timer

« Last post by Renegade on October 04, 2011, 11:43 AM »

@Renegade, thank you very much .NET is no problem. Running it and pasting into Notepad, works great.

Just a couple of things that are not a problem for me but just to look, the timer thing happened when I clicked stop twice in a row by mistake. The other is pasting into Notepad++ (language either php or normal text).
 (see attachment in previous post)

-rgdot (October 04, 2011, 09:23 AM)

Yes - I was aware of the double-stop issue. It has to do with time calculations since Unix 0 time (I calculate time based on ticks). I didn't bother fixing it because I wanted to get it done quickly.

For Notepad++, offhand I don't know why that would be. However, I must admit that I did use the "cheap" method of sending text to the 3rd party application. Again, that was in the interests of time. Doing it "right" would take me a day or so. I only tested in Skype and Editplus, and they worked fine. I never tested in Notepad++ or any other applications.

(Having looked into the problem further, the solution seems to be to use the native method keybd_event in user32.dll to send data. A bit more to it than that, but... that goes from 1 line of code to 1,000 lines of code...)

To get around the Notepad++ problem, you can focus on anything that doesn't accept text input, press hotkey + V, then in Notepad++ do a normal paste. That relates to the lack of "polish" I posted above where the clipboard is used and the data remains on the clipboard.

If nobody objects, I'll post the source code under a "don't complain" license. i.e. Yes. There is room for improvement. And no, I'm not looking for criticism on something that I slapped together very quickly to get a job done.

That way anyone that is interested and has time can do some polish for it. (It wouldn't be hard -- the code is nice and clean with some comments -- it might be a good learning exercise for anyone interested in improving their C# skills.)

Sorry there -- I'm just under the gun with a few things that I have to get done.

6750

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: Pausable timer

« Last post by Renegade on October 04, 2011, 03:42 AM »

I am looking for a timer that is pausable. But also has a separate hotkey or button that pastes the current elapsed time (to the second) into an 'internal' or external text editor. After pasting it the focus moves to after the pasted time ready for me to type things. Would be great if it can also paste the current date but that is of course available in text editors so it's not very important.

If this makes sense (?) is it doable? or something like this exists already?

Thanks

-rgdot (October 03, 2011, 05:59 PM)

See the attached file.

PasteyTimer.exe (165.5 kB - downloaded 485 times.)

Screenshot:



It doesn't do the date though.

Also, it's not polished.

* Currently the hotkey accelerator settings are not saved between runs.
* The clipboard is used as well, so when you paste, your clipboard has that data on it.
* It only shows hours, minutes, seconds. No attempt to do days, etc.

I've set it to be easy to use with your left hand. i.e. Use Z and X to start/stop. That way you can do it 1-handed. Sucks for lefties though...

It's .NET 4 Client Profile, so you need .NET 4 installed. (Sorry - had it finished before I realized that my defaults are for .NET 4, and not .NET 2.) Shouldn't be a problem though.

But, it does what you've asked for.