Recent Posts

6976

Developer's Corner / Re: Game Engines and Apps

« Last post by Renegade on August 14, 2011, 08:58 AM »

Hey kyrathaba, have you seen anything that looks good for C#? (I'm sure you've looked into it more than me.)

6977

General Software Discussion / Re: Speech to Text Software?

« Last post by Renegade on August 14, 2011, 08:42 AM »

Tellme:

Cloud Platform

For enterprises, ISVs and service providers who want to build phone-based customer care using standards-based VoiceXML, use Tellme Studio with the Microsoft Tellme IVR Service.

Yep. Not for me.

6978

General Software Discussion / Re: Speech to Text Software?

« Last post by Renegade on August 14, 2011, 08:39 AM »

So far I've turned up nothing useful. Sure there are engines, but I don't want to do development for this. And if I had to, I'd want to work in C# and not C.

And I most certainly do not want to pay for every single word that goes through it. (A lot of SDKs are server-based and not much more than an uploader.)

I really just want something that "kind of" works. It doesn't need to be perfect, but good enough to go back and read or edit.

Well, I think I give up.

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Living Room / Doc Report Ep. 1 - Interview with Nico Westerdale of Bits du Jour

« Last post by Renegade on August 13, 2011, 09:44 PM »

I'm happy to say that Doc and I have finally got the first episode of The Doc Report published with a great interview with Nico Westerdale! (Post at Cynic.me - has links to several of Nico's sites.)

In case you don't know, Nico Westerdale is the guy behind Bits du Jour, which I'm pretty sure most people here know about. (They have fantastic discounts on lots of software, but only for 1 day.)

In the interview we Doc and I talk with Nico primarily about software marketing. There are some really bizarre surprises in there, but I'm not going to post any spoilers. Suffice it to say, I'm confident that you'll be both entertained and surprised.

Some other fun stuff in the podcasts includes:

• "The Techie Treasure Chest" - Some recommendations
  
• "Dysfunctional Fractoids" - A trivia question where you can win a free software license
  
• "Helpful How-tos" - Self explanatory

The show is safe for work.

Feed: http://thedocreport.com/feed/podcast/
Interview MP3: http://thedocreport....nico_westerdale_.mp3

Enjoy~!

Disclaimer and comment

Dr. Apps (Doc) is the Software Community Guru at Sweet Labs (formerly OpenCandy). (They recently released Pokki, so they have more than 1 product/site now.)

I was approached by after writing a blog post (Opening Up OpenCandy) in which I use WireShark to walk through the network traffic and demonstrate what information is and isn't transmitted. I joked at the end of the post, "Man… I think those guys at OpenCandy should hire ME as an evangelist~! =D"

More information is available at http://thedocreport.com/.

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Living Room / Re: UK Riots: Have you been affected?

« Last post by Renegade on August 12, 2011, 05:51 AM »

Criminality for sure,but not mindless, criminality has causes, it is not causeless.

-joiwind (August 12, 2011, 05:46 AM)

+10!

6981

Living Room / Re: UK Riots: Have you been affected?

« Last post by Renegade on August 11, 2011, 10:22 PM »

More on that topic:

http://edition.cnn.c...a/index.html?npt=NP1

Open-Web and free-speech advocates immediately objected to Cameron's language.

"It may be tempting to smother that kind of speech when a government feels it is under siege, as Britain seems to feel that it is," wrote Matthew Ingram of tech blog GigaOm. "But doing this represents nothing less than an attack on the entire concept of freedom of speech, and that has some frightening consequences for any democracy."

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Living Room / Re: UK Riots: Have you been affected?

« Last post by Renegade on August 11, 2011, 10:16 PM »

Hmmm...

Maybe censorship has an adversary:

http://www.vancouver...tory.html?id=5242521

Researchers from the University of Waterloo and University of Michigan say they have developed technology that could make it "virtually impossible" for oppressive governments to censor specific websites in their countries.

I take it that they mean countries like the UK when they say "oppressive governments".

6983

Living Room / Re: UK Riots: Have you been affected?

« Last post by Renegade on August 11, 2011, 09:29 PM »

There's a good amount of rhetoric coming out of the UK gov't now.

One of the things I've heard is about "taking action" over social media... Yeah. That's a good idea. Let's add censorship to the list of tools government has to work with.

If these things go through, they will spill onto the world stage as well. Other countries will follow suit.

Not. Good.

6984

Living Room / Re: Fresh install of Windows XP SP3 can't use Windows Update?

« Last post by Renegade on August 11, 2011, 06:53 PM »

Reinstall SP3? Yikes... That's ugly. 

6985

Living Room / Re: Operation Facebook (will you rejoice?)

« Last post by Renegade on August 11, 2011, 05:25 PM »

Nobody is FORCED to use facebook, people have chosen to...so what they are doing makes zero sence.

-Stephen66515 (August 10, 2011, 05:00 PM)

I'm not so sure.

I think it's more like setting a poisoned steak in front of a dog then blaming the dog for eating it.

People are more like animals that what we'd like to think people are. While we consider ourselves "sentient" and capable of "free thought", I think a lot of that is quite delusional.

People do not always behave rationally or in their own best interests. With the increasing complexity of determining what is in one's own best interest, it becomes less and less reasonable to say that people must be responsible for making decisions that are not in their own best interest as the sheer complexity of some issues is well beyond the ability of most people to understand.

Sure, the dog may understand that poison is bad, but connecting that faint smell with the overwhelming lure of a big, fat, juicy steak? Not gonna happen.

6986

General Software Discussion / Re: Speech to Text Software?

« Last post by Renegade on August 11, 2011, 05:13 PM »

No luck. The Cool C ReadWrite wouldn't run without a license, and the company is out of business it looks like. (Web site gone.)

@joiwind - The first link was a 404. Which did you mean there?

6987

Living Room / Re: Operation Facebook (will you rejoice?)

« Last post by Renegade on August 10, 2011, 01:33 PM »

In that respect, they behave much like most governments - except there isn't even the possibility they're acting with the consent of the governed.

-40hz (August 10, 2011, 12:25 PM)

Ummm... And governments act how?

In the best interests of the people?

Please don't say yes, as I'll laugh myself into a vomiting hysteria.

-Renegade (August 10, 2011, 12:31 PM)

No need to puke. All I'm saying is they're assuming authority to act as judge, jury, and executioner. Just like the government they claim to despise does.

How did that line at the end of Orwell's Animal Farm go? Let's look it up:

"No question now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

 

-40hz (August 10, 2011, 12:40 PM)

Maybe for this thread, and maybe for another... But very ranty...

There is a very big difference between the governors and the governed. To hold them to the same standards is nuts.

Why should the government be held blameless? The current governments in the west act as "judge, jury, and executioner" anyways. What's the difference? We KNOW that our current governments are f**king us up the tarhole. Could it be worse? No. It really couldn't. They CONTINUALLY limp from one crisis to the next. They're utterly incompetent. In any sane society we'd execute them and be done with it, then move on to some semblance of sanity.

The current systems have failed. Utterly. Completely.

We can't go from one crisis to the next and claim any remote semblance of competence. The world economy is a complete f**king shambles. DEBT IS NOT A STRATEGY!

There isn't a company on the planet that would put up with this level of incompetence and idiocy without firing everyone! Nobody is that stupid... Except for the masses... They'll take it up the tarhole again and again and again and again... Or will they?

And when they get fed up? What do we call them?

Cowards?

Terrorists?

Thugs?

Criminals?

What did people expect? Force people's hands, and then demand they be docile while they get raped? F**k that.

This is NOT about the MICRO-PICTURE. This is about the MACRO-PICTURE.

I trust Anonymous more than any politician. Have you ever known a politician to tell the truth? Fat chance.

6988

General Software Discussion / Re: Free ASP.NET CMS

« Last post by Renegade on August 10, 2011, 12:45 PM »

The limitations don't seem like much for a personal site, and for free, it's only a matter of support.  If its easier to deploy than DNN, than that's a win.  I'd not seen Umbraco before- thanks for the link!

-wraith808 (August 10, 2011, 12:36 PM)

On the worst of days, when everything goes wrong, and I'm sick, and drunk and been run over by a truck... DNN takes less than 20 minutes to install.

If you know what you're doing with DNN, it takes 5 minutes.

But you are right about a personal site. But... The hit limit... Not good. I'm out at that point. Do you want to be hit with a $3k bill out of the blue because your site was popular on 1 day due to some blog post? Ummm... Not me.

Umbraco is ASP.NET MVC, so it's pretty modern. However, it's very developer-centric. I like DNN because it's a very good balance.

6989

Living Room / Re: Film vs. Movie?

« Last post by Renegade on August 10, 2011, 12:40 PM »

@Ren - slow day? 

(just kidding... )

-40hz (August 10, 2011, 12:16 PM)

Pretty much... I'm half lit on my... Yeah... I forget what number I'm on now...

-Renegade (August 10, 2011, 12:24 PM)

You should try meditating. You'll save a ton of money on CH3CH2OH.

-40hz (August 10, 2011, 12:30 PM)

I'm sober enough to know that I've posted absolute idiocy here in the past entirely due to C2H5OH.

However, I've discovered that wine in Australia is dirt cheap.

Hell, I managed to pick up 10 L of booze for $22 today~! Yeeha~!

Luckily none of that was caught on film~!

-- There's a usage of "film" that is called "collocation". You cannot separate the words or replace them. i.e. "caught on movie" doesn't work. The term is "caught on film" and there's no changing it due to the rule of collocation. A similar, and more familiar, version is "bread and butter". You can't say "butter and bread".

Ah... nuances of language... This is one of the reasons that I NEVER curse in Korean except with VERY close friends, and VERY rarely at that. (Though I curse in English with every third word or so...)

6990

Living Room / Re: Operation Facebook (will you rejoice?)

« Last post by Renegade on August 10, 2011, 12:31 PM »

In that respect, they behave much like most governments - except there isn't even the possibility they're acting with the consent of the governed.

-40hz (August 10, 2011, 12:25 PM)

Ummm... And governments act how?

In the best interests of the people?

Please don't say yes, as I'll laugh myself into a vomiting hysteria.

6991

Living Room / Re: Operation Facebook (will you rejoice?)

« Last post by Renegade on August 10, 2011, 12:28 PM »

"Remember, remember...the fifth of November" - from the movie 'V for Vendetta'.

Likely they used it for inspiration. Good (enough) movie at least  

-Shades (August 10, 2011, 11:58 AM)

Good to bring that up!

http://en.wikipedia....iki/Guy_Fawkes_Night

Makes it all the more important... And all the more serious...

6992

Living Room / Re: Film vs. Movie?

« Last post by Renegade on August 10, 2011, 12:24 PM »

@Ren - slow day? 

(just kidding... )

-40hz (August 10, 2011, 12:16 PM)

Pretty much... I'm half lit on my... Yeah... I forget what number I'm on now...

6993

Living Room / Re: Film vs. Movie?

« Last post by Renegade on August 10, 2011, 12:12 PM »

What about 1910 ?

-joiwind (August 10, 2011, 12:08 PM)

Meh... Close enough.

6994

Living Room / Re: Film vs. Movie?

« Last post by Renegade on August 10, 2011, 12:04 PM »

My take on film vs. movie...

There is a difference. (I'm going to try to outline the logic for a native English speaker.)

"Film" denotes a physical media (film) while "movie" denotes the result.

"Film" is used for both motion pictures (from where we get the word "movie"), and for stills as well (which isn't the topic of conversation here). We'll forgo other uses of the word as they are irrelevant for this discussion.

Now, you need to understand that languages are evolving things, and that when we talk about "film" in 1920 and in 1950 and in 1990 and in 2011, those are all slightly different.

1920 vs. 1950 is where "movie" creeps in. (Correct me if I'm wrong, but let's just run with "close enough".)

In 1950, all "films" are "movies", and all "movies" are "films".

In 1990, all "films" are "movies", but not all "movies" are "films". We have "tape"...

In 2011, all "films" are "movies", but not all "movies" are "films". We have "digital storage"...

However, we still have the concept of "film" in the sense of "film" as a "motion picture" ("movie").

The common usage of "film" is for a "motion picture" or "movie", however, the common person will only use the term "movie".

"Film" is used in the "literary" sense. (Does that make sense?)

Have I clarified things any?

6995

Living Room / Re: Operation Facebook (will you rejoice?)

« Last post by Renegade on August 10, 2011, 10:45 AM »

Well, I use Facebook daily, and like it, but I can see their point.

I'll look forward to seeing what happens.

6996

Living Room / Re: UK Riots: Have you been affected?

« Last post by Renegade on August 10, 2011, 10:35 AM »

From the second video tomos posted:

"It's an insurrection."

History repeats itself (no surprise there, humans are pretty dumb after all), this article sums things up quite well: http://neweconomics....1780s-all-over-again

Talk about rebels without a cause.

-nudone (August 10, 2011, 10:23 AM)

From that article:

No, but the official explanation – “sheer criminality” – while it is certainly true, does not seem quite adequate.

Interesting... Has a ring of truth in there.

6997

Living Room / Re: UK Riots: Have you been affected?

« Last post by Renegade on August 10, 2011, 09:57 AM »

http://photoshoplooter.tumblr.com/

-justice (August 10, 2011, 09:41 AM)

That's hilarious~!

6998

Living Room / Re: UK Riots: Have you been affected?

« Last post by Renegade on August 10, 2011, 09:55 AM »

I think EVERYONE will be affected by this.

First, the UK government is pressuring RIM to give them access to encrypted messages. Hmmm... Don't you usually need a warrant for that? And does this mean that they're already spying on everyone else that doesn't have encrypted communications?

Second, nice little speech from the PM:

http://www.telegraph...atement-in-full.html

Picture by picture, these criminals are being identified, arrested and we will not let any phoney concerns about human rights get in the way of the publication of these pictures and arrest of these individuals.

Good. Intentions. Road. Hell. Connect the dots.

I wonder how necessary the words "phoney concerns about" were there...

When heads of state start talking about setting aside human rights, there's a very deeeeeeeeeeeeeep problem.

So... What is the UK going to call its 'Patriot Act'?


Destroying people's houses and local shops isn't a solution. Burning Parliament is close to the mark. But then again, burning Parliament would only be a replay of burning the Reichstag...

6999

General Software Discussion / Re: Free ASP.NET CMS

« Last post by Renegade on August 10, 2011, 09:34 AM »

Interesting. I don't think I like the limitations though. And the pricing seems pretty high when you think of Umbraco or DotNetNuke.

DNN came out of the original "I Buy Spy" portal waaaayyyy back. It's now a very mature platform. With a BSD license. It's very hard to get away from such a great deal.

7000

Living Room / Re: xkcd - password truth

« Last post by Renegade on August 10, 2011, 07:10 AM »

12 character limits on passwords is just idiotic. I will never understand how/why some admins come to the conclusion that they should have such small limits like that. If someone wants to have a 123 character password, all the more power to them. At the moment, I think 500 is a good limit. You need to store it, and you're pretty much going to use an nvarchar field anyways, so 500 seems good. I don't know if it could impact performance, but I somehow doubt it. People store ntext fields and blobs... 500 is nothing.

Steve Gibson has some strong password stuff, but really, it's insanely large and impossible to remember. I take it that anything over 8 random characters begins to approach insanity (the higher it goes) for casual use. 64 random characters (last I checked)... Yikes... You can only use that with something like Keypass or ALPass.