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6951

Living Room / Re: Linux game devs pirate their own game

« Last post by 40hz on September 21, 2011, 05:49 PM »

Suggestion: in the movie Hogfather a nanny asks her frightened little children what she said to do about things that scared them. The little children say "Don't be frightened. Get angry."

-40hz (September 21, 2011, 03:33 PM)

I Loved That Movie ... Brilliant Twist on Christmas it was indeed.

-Stoic Joker (September 21, 2011, 03:41 PM)

+1 x 10!

Particularly brilliant were the performances of: Marc Warren as Mr. Teatime, the lovely Michelle Dockery as Susan the nanny (and adopted granddaughter of DEATH), and David Warner as Lord Downey, head of the Assassins Guild.

Watch it with someone you love this Christmas.

6952

General Software Discussion / Re: Why 2012 may finally be The Year of the Linux Desktop (courtesy of Microsoft)

« Last post by 40hz on September 21, 2011, 05:29 PM »

@SB:

For raw beginners, start them off with the standard Gnome version of LinuxMint. I'd recommend the latest release (Release-11 "Katya"). Katya is one slick and very polished release that comes with a very familiar looking desktop. And a start menu that provides all the power of Gnome with only half the culture shock.

Good friendly community support too. Maybe not quite on par with the folks at DoCo - but that's what makes DoCo what it is so whaddya want?

Hint: The best way to introduce Linux it is to put a Windows user in front of it and simply say "Hey! Check this out. It works just like Windows!"

Then let them have at it...

Most people pick up on it fairly quickly. Especially if you don't say it's Linux or make a big deal out of it. I've even been guilty of telling less knowledgeable users it's an advance copy of Microsoft's newest top-secret version of Windows that will be coming out sometime next year. (Whenever I presented it to them that way almost every one of them LOVED it.)

For apps, Mint has a pretty version of apt called the Software Manager.



You can browse, search, read comments and recommendations, and add or remove applications with it. It's easy enough that a novice can use it. And everything in it has been tweaked and tuned for Mint in particular - so anything found there is as stable as it gets.

For readable and solid info on the various distributions, check out Distrowatch.com

Distrowatch is the granddaddy of sites tracking the current state of Linux distros. Also stays on top of the major packages so there's some info on apps - although it's more journeyman than novice level in that regard.

For the Linux version of Snapfiles.com I'd go to the Gnomefiles.org website. If it's Gnome, it's probably there.

Some people might get a little put off by some of the obviously college-level engineering and mathematical apps you'll see there. If they bug you, just ignore them. That's what I do when I see something I don't understand that doesn't really interest me anyway.

Other good sites are:

LXer
Ubuntu Sharing (Mint is based on Ubuntu - so most of what you'll find there applies to Mint)
Ars Technica's OpenEnded

For the more advanced Windows user that's looking for serious tutorials and hands-on guidance in Linux, it doesn't get much better than HowtoForge. Probably more suited to pro and semi-pro Nixers, but there's also enough semi-beginner stuff that there's something for everyone.



There's tons more. But that should be enough to get somebody started.

6953

Living Room / Re: Linux game devs pirate their own game

« Last post by 40hz on September 21, 2011, 03:33 PM »

@40Hz: This is the most depressing thing I've read in weeks. And it's been a rough couple of weeks...

Fortunately, as the little green guy said, always in motion is the future...

-Jimdoria (September 21, 2011, 03:22 PM)

@Jimdora - sorry for that. It has been a rough few weeks for me too so I'm sorry to have added to your grief.

If it's any consolation, I'm as bummed as you probably are about the direction Internet access and legislation is going.

Suggestion: in the movie Hogfather a nanny asks her frightened little children what she said to do about things that scared them. The little children say "Don't be frightened. Get angry."

That's pretty good advice whenever dealing with people who are attempting a power grab. 

6954

General Software Discussion / Re: Why 2012 may finally be The Year of the Linux Desktop (courtesy of Microsoft)

« Last post by 40hz on September 21, 2011, 03:26 PM »

^AFAIK the app store requirement ONLY applies to Metro apps. At least last I heard.

The "desktop" mode should continue to function as before. Or until such time as Microsoft decides not enough users care any more. in that respect I don't think the threat is immediate. But five years down the road...who can tell? T'was a time when nobody believed people would be willing to use web apps to store and access their passwords and personal financial data. Then along came LastPass and Mint.

And the upcoming generation will have cut their teeth on smartphones and tablets so maybe the whole notion of desktop computing may become increasingly irrelevant to an ever growing body of users...

Hope not!

6955

General Software Discussion / Re: Tuesday's online debate: Windows Right vs. Windows Wrong

« Last post by 40hz on September 21, 2011, 11:45 AM »

I'm surprised by the whole topic. Are there any Windows left?

-cranioscopical (September 20, 2011, 08:15 PM)

There are. But lately all you ever see is cloud whenever you look out of them.

-40hz (September 21, 2011, 06:45 AM)

That would be funny if it wasn't true; It's actually a bit unnerving.

-Stoic Joker (September 21, 2011, 07:08 AM)

Yes it is. And a bit more than unnerving in the wake of Microsoft's announced plans for a walled-garden distribution model (ala Apple's AppStore) for all Metro apps. I started a separate thread on that here.
 

6956

Living Room / Re: When good tech ideas go bad

« Last post by 40hz on September 21, 2011, 11:21 AM »

Truly great landmarks in personal desktop computing:

• 1983 - IBM PC + Lotus 1-2-3
• 1986 - Apple Macintosh & LaserWriter + Aldus Pagemaker
• 1990 - Commodore Amiga + Video Toaster/Lightwave 3D

                         Atari ST + Cubase 2.0  (1990 was a very good year!)


 

6957

General Software Discussion / Why 2012 may finally be The Year of the Linux Desktop (courtesy of Microsoft)

« Last post by 40hz on September 21, 2011, 10:37 AM »

No...it's not because Microsoft has decided to become best of friends with the Linux community.

It's because of what they plan on borrowing from Apple: a walled-garden app store.

This in from OSNews.com (link to full article here):

Metro Applications Restricted to Windows Store
posted by Thom Holwerda on Tue 20th Sep 2011 22:30 UTC


Why, would you look at this. All this time we were expecting Apple to be the first one to flip the switch and limit desktop users to Mac App Store applications and turn Mac OS X into a walled garden, but in fact, Microsoft will be the first to flip this switch. As it turns out, Metro applications can only be installed through the Windows Store - with sideloading only for enterprises and developers (this doesn't apply to legacy applications).

I hadn't yet thought about all this yet, what, with the massive shift from the desktop to Metro in Windows 8. However, as MSDN explains, Metro applications in Windows 8 can only be installed through the Windows Store. Sideloading will only be enabled for enterprises and developers. I'm also fairly sure the relevant registry key will be easily toggled for us geeks.

"All roads, as the saying goes, lead to the Windows Store," Microsoft writes, "For Metro style apps, that is, the Windows Store is the only means of general distribution (enterprise customers and developers can bypass the store to side-load apps)."

Microsoft mentions the usual benefits, and I'm sure those are all pretty valid. The company does take a 30% cut here, similar to what Apple takes for iOS and Mac OS X. Still, the idea that a vanilla installation of a desktop operating system - without any, probably warranty-voiding registry editing - will be restricted to Microsoft-approved applications doesn't sit well with me.

Some of you may recall Bill Gates mentioning some years back that he felt everyone who developed for the Microsoft platform should be subject to some sort of licensing and royalty fee. Because everything that runs on Windows, of necessity, makes use of systems services which are made up of millions of lines of proprietary code developed by Microsoft. And with the advent of the  .Net framework it now goes beyond just system services.

In some respects this is very similar to the "bad old days" of locked-in operating systems and overpriced programs. Those who go back to the days of mainframe and minicomputers will remember what that used to be like. You want software? You have to get it from the guy who built your machine. And prices? How about: $5000 for an OS license up front plus $500 per month to keep it there.  Basic productivity applications starting at $2500 each. Clunky language compilers that cost thousands. It was something the the era of personal computing was supposed to have freed us from once and for all.

But it looks like the bad days are coming back. Especially now that Apple and Microsoft have both effectively declared war on the entire notion of "personal" computing with their restricted platform plans.

I can only hope there's a massive revolt on the part of PC users worldwide.

Because if there isn't, that pretty much leaves GNU/Linux (and BSD) as the last unencumbered personal computing platforms available. And probably the only two with sufficient momentum and support to be a viable alternative.

***

It's been considered 'hip' of late to blast Richard Stallman for his "reactionary" and "unyielding" stance opposing proprietary computing platforms. He's been labelled everything from "anarchist" to "hippy" - with stops along the way to toss "un-American," "anti-business," and "communist" into the mix .

If Microsoft goes through with its plans - and there's no reason to think they won't - these critics can add one more label to Richard Stallman's name.

The label is: prescient.

 

6958

General Software Discussion / Re: Tuesday's online debate: Windows Right vs. Windows Wrong

« Last post by 40hz on September 21, 2011, 06:45 AM »

I'm surprised by the whole topic. Are there any Windows left?

-cranioscopical (September 20, 2011, 08:15 PM)

There are. But lately all you ever see is cloud whenever you look out of them.

6959

General Software Discussion / Re: Mother****ing placeholder text mother****er (Warning: Image contains bad words)

« Last post by 40hz on September 21, 2011, 06:09 AM »

Second, half a bottle in the freezer... Should last long enough to drive to the store and pick up another few.

-Renegade (September 21, 2011, 05:50 AM)

@Ren -Cool! Now I can stop worrying about you running out.  

And apologies. This was 'over the top' enough that it didn't register with me that it was Paul Keith, and not you, that posted it.  

(Better tell that guy to stop stealing your thunder!  )

6960

Living Room / Re: BBC - inspiration?

« Last post by 40hz on September 21, 2011, 05:51 AM »

Windows 8, etc. etc. ...
or was it just a rhetorical question

-tomos (September 21, 2011, 05:48 AM)

Bingo! Must be the "Metro Edition" of the news.

6961

Living Room / Re: Linux game devs pirate their own game

« Last post by 40hz on September 21, 2011, 05:48 AM »

It was a nice move. Unfortunately, there's a large gimmick aspect to it. So I don't know if it's something that would net a similar benefit long term or with repeated use.

Not that it matters...

I think it will only be a short time before most nations adopt legislation similar to Korea's "real name verification" anti-anonymity laws. So far, the UK, France, Australia, and the US have legislation pending that would basically require a license to access and use the Internet.

And with the huge amount of media and entertainment industry lobby money behind the push, (and several government security agencies jockeying for ever bigger roles and budgets) it will only be a matter of time.
 

6962

General Software Discussion / Re: Mother****ing placeholder text mother****er (Warning: Image contains bad words)

« Last post by 40hz on September 21, 2011, 05:31 AM »

@Ren - How's the vodka supply holding up? 

6963

Living Room / Re: BBC - inspiration?

« Last post by 40hz on September 21, 2011, 05:29 AM »

Did you check the latest Wordpress themes page to see if it's there? 

6964

Living Room / Re: Stallman on Android

« Last post by 40hz on September 21, 2011, 05:01 AM »

The phrase "Open Source" has been hijacked almost as completely as has the term "Green" when referring to eco-friendly or "Natural" when referring to food products.

For most people in the software industry that are considering implementing an "open" initiative, "open" means little more than "getting free debugging and coding from the public." As Stallman so aptly noted:

The non-release of two versions' source code raises concern that Google might intend to turn Android proprietary permanently; that the release of some Android versions as free software may have been a temporary ploy to get community assistance in improving a proprietary software product. Let us hope does not happen.

Let us hope it does not happen?

Good grief! Can we all stop kidding ourselves about Google?

I'm generally not a fan of Forbes or its columnists. But Bob Evans did an editorial piece that sums up why it doesn't make sense to continue seeing Google as anything other than what it is: a mega-corporation

Google Needs To Drop Its "Do No Evil" Thing

Google’s a marvelous company whose astonishing success sometimes makes it hard to fathom that it is only 13 years old. But like all precocious teenagers, Google is finding that the process of growing up isn’t just about getting bigger—it’s about getting smarter.

And one smart thing Google should do right now is formally and permanently drop its “Do No Evil” mantra.

Because behavior that’s cute in a little kid can, in a grown-up, be cloying at best and disingenuous or even dishonest at worst.

I’m not about to trot out a laundry list of all the trouble or near-trouble that Google has gotten itself into in the past five or so years, but we’ve all seen more than a little evidence over that time that Google’s interpretation of what is meant by privacy often clashes severely with that of mere mortals.

To Google’s credit, it has retrenched quickly from its invasive forays, done the mea culpa thing, and promised to sin no more. But I have to ask:

Before the fact, where was the “Do No Evil” thing? Why didn’t their slogan protect them from their baser instincts? How could a company that says it lives by the creed of “Do No Evil” have, in fact, committed a range of acts that, if not overtly evil, were surely not deemed to be good?

Important note: The phrase Google originally used was "You can make money without doing evil." Google has since retooled the wordage to read: "Don't be evil."

Which is an important difference for Google's hive brain.  

Google's own Matt Cutts has a vaguely apologist post on G+ which attempts to address the very real (to his mind) difference between "Do no" and "Don't be."

I think "Do no evil" is an impossible standard: reasonable people can disagree on which choices are evil, and for different reasons. I prefer "Don't be evil" because it leaves room for honest disagreements, but still encourages Google to strive to make the world better.

"Leaves room...?"  "Encourages Google to strive...?"  Wow! That's great Matt. That's giving yourself enough wiggle room that you could have the entire world over for a lambada party.

Hmm...Maybe instead of "Don't Be Evil" they could just say...nothing?

Official silence may not be as catchy as a pithy phrase. But people are much more willing to tolerate aloofness (or greed) than they are to condone hypocrisy.

Hopefully Google will eventually realize that.  

6965

General Software Discussion / Re: Tuesday's online debate: Windows Right vs. Windows Wrong

« Last post by 40hz on September 20, 2011, 07:56 PM »

Must be a slow week.

Because once again ZDNet puts two of its shills up on a podium to start a faux debate in order to generate comments and blog links...

How utterly predictable.  

6966

Living Room / Re: The Boozernet...

« Last post by 40hz on September 20, 2011, 11:58 AM »

Yet another one of several reasons why I seldom go to chat rooms. Suboptimal signal to noise ratio.  

6967

Living Room / Re: When good tech ideas go bad

« Last post by 40hz on September 20, 2011, 09:11 AM »

Thanks Z! Good article. More please?

----

Read the business history of Commodore Computer for one textbook example after another of shooting yourself in the foot.

This is a company that "had it all" in their hands at least three separate times. And each time rampant egos and corporate hubris, combined with garden variety stupidity (and market change) sank them.

If Commodore played it's cards right, Apple would have been just another footnote in the history of personal computing. And an emaciated and crazed-looking Steve Jobs (affectionately known as The Madman of Cupertino) would likely still be seen wandering the streets of Silicon Valley looking for somebody else's "genius invention" to hitch a ride on and promulgate as his own...

So RIP Commodore. Vaya con Dios...

On second thought, considering how badly they handled nearly everything, it probably served 'em right.

6968

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2009 / Re: Cyborganize now has video

« Last post by 40hz on September 20, 2011, 08:50 AM »

^Glad it piqued your interest!

Neil Larson deserves to be much better known and acknowledged than he is. IMO he's right up there with Brickland, Herzfeld, and all the other lesser-sung greats who's concepts are found in much of what we use and take for granted today.

If anybody is curious about what info or knowledge "annealing" is (and some of the confusion it creates for people) check out this link.  

6969

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2009 / Re: Cyborganize now has video

« Last post by 40hz on September 20, 2011, 07:20 AM »

@josephbuchignani

Welcome to Donation Coder! It's always great when a program author joins in on a discussion of their own project.

My second best choice after BrainStormWFO would probably be MaxThink

-josephbuchignani (September 20, 2011, 03:32 AM)

I'm a big fan of Maxthink from as far back as its DOS days.

You might want to consider contacting it's creator:

Neil Larson
510-962-4506
[email protected]

He might be interested in doing something with you. He had some additional products that were used in conjunction with Maxhhink (i.e. Houdini, TransText, etc) to allow for what he called "information annealing" which was a process of hyperlinked document editing and refinement very similar to what you're doing. Many have called it the precursor to the Wiki. In some respects, it anticipated the core idea behind HTML documents and Web.

There used to be a Wikipedia page on Larson and information annealing, but it doesn't seem to exist any more. There's a minor reference to Larson in an article on browsers (see below), but that seems to be about it.

In 1984, expanding on ideas from futurist Ted Nelson, Neil Larson's commercial DOS Maxthink outline program added angle bracket hypertext jumps (adopted by later web browsers) to and from ASCII, batch, and other Maxthink files up to 32 levels deep.[citation needed] In 1986 he released his DOS Houdini network browser program that supported 2500 topics cross-connected with 7500 links in each file along with hypertext links among unlimited numbers of external ASCII, batch, and other Houdini files.[citation needed]

In 1987, these capabilities were included in his then popular shareware DOS file browser programs HyperRez (memory resident) and PC Hypertext (which also added jumps to programs, editors, graphic files containing hot spots jumps, and cross-linked theraurus/glossary files). These programs introduced many to the browser concept and 20 years later, Google still lists 3,000,000 references to PC Hypertext. In 1989, he created both HyperBBS and HyperLan which both allow multiple users to create/edit both topics and jumps for information and knowledge annealing which, in concept, the columnist John C. Dvorak says pre-dated Wiki by many years.[citation needed]

From 1987 on, he also created TransText (hypertext word processor) and many utilities for rapidly building large scale knowledge systems ... and in 1989 helped produce for one of the big eight accounting firms[citation needed] a comprehensive knowledge system of integrating all accounting laws/regulations into a CDROM containing 50,000 files with 200,000 hypertext jumps. Additionally, the Lynx (a very early web-based browser) development history notes their project origin was based on the browser concepts from Neil Larson and Maxthink.[1] In 1989, he declined joining the MOSAIC browser team with his preference for knowledge/wisdom creation over distributing information ... a problem he says is still not solved by today's internet.

That last sentence sounds very close to what you're striving for.  

6970

Living Room / Re: UI Roast #1: cruel but harmless fun!

« Last post by 40hz on September 19, 2011, 04:00 PM »

Wow! Reminds me of this guy I went to high school with. He was the worst dancer of any of us. (And that's saying something since none of us could dance to save our lives.) What he did looked like a cross between a grand mal seizure and a man falling down three flights of stairs.

He was quite proud of the fact he made up all his own 'moves' on the dance floor.

***

So...I'm guessing this coder's first language was Perl and his second was php? 

6971

General Software Discussion / Re: Advice Needed: Fixing Pentium 4 PC with Conficker virus

« Last post by 40hz on September 16, 2011, 07:39 PM »

Say the word, it's yours. Always glad to help a fellow DCer.

6972

Living Room / Re: The Boozernet...

« Last post by 40hz on September 16, 2011, 07:37 PM »

Psht.  You've not experienced some of the nightmares I have in consulting.  Some of the code drives you to drink.

-wraith808 (September 16, 2011, 07:18 PM)

ROFLMAO!

That's probably why, when I reached a career crossroad many years ago, I went down the systems rather than the dev path. Especially after a previous three year foray into code development.
 

6973

General Software Discussion / Re: Advice Needed: Fixing Pentium 4 PC with Conficker virus

« Last post by 40hz on September 16, 2011, 07:17 PM »

Is it possible to install Windows on a drive that is located in an external drive case, then relocate the HDD back to the original computer?

-kyrathaba (September 16, 2011, 07:05 PM)

Depends. You could copy the Windows install CD over onto an external HD, then boot off a Windows setup floppy and point it to use the files on the external drive for an installation in the absence of a CD drive. But you couldn't do a setup (on a different machine) to the external HD, and then put that in your Dad's machine since the hardware configuration the setup saw would be different and probably wouldn't work. It could also cause activation problems since Genuine Advantage compiles a hash code based on the BIOS, mobo, and network card (MAC address) it finds. So even if the two machines had "identical" hardware configurations, there could still be problems getting it to activate..

But tell you what...if it's just a busted CD/DVD drive that's complicating your life, I have about a dozen surplus working optical drives sitting on the shelf. And I'd be more than happy to send you one. PM a shipping address and it will be on its way pronto with my compliments.
 

6974

Living Room / Re: The Boozernet...

« Last post by 40hz on September 16, 2011, 06:42 PM »

And I get drunk even less than that. And I have a firm belief that computers and booze don't mix*, so there will be no drunk coding, posting, gaming, online shopping or anything else from me...ever.

-app103 (September 16, 2011, 11:07 AM)

Gotta agree with App.

FWIW (and all kidding aside) I can honestly say I never met anybody I liked more with a drink in them than without. Especially if they happened to be female.

But maybe that's just me? 

6975

General Software Discussion / Re: Is Windows 7 boot management more broken than ever?

« Last post by 40hz on September 16, 2011, 06:25 PM »

@40hz
The connector is purple, green was for the mouse....damn, just now I gave away my "computer age" away   

-Shades (September 16, 2011, 04:14 PM)

You're correct. I neglected to look. It is puke purple. (Thx for catching it.  )