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7351

Developer's Corner / MSDN subscription update: Increased cloud computing benefits from Windows Azure

« Last post by wraith808 on April 24, 2012, 10:52 AM »

Any MSDN Subscribers- I meant to post this before, but forgot about it.  But it looks like a pretty cool value added to the MSDN subscription.

MSDN Subscription Updates    January 31, 2012   


We are pleased to inform you of some highly requested changes to the Windows Azure cloud computing Benefits for MSDN Subscribers. Effective immediately:
•    Spending limits have been established to ensure that MSDN subscribers do not accidentally exceed their free monthly benefits
•    Windows Azure cloud computing benefits have been expanded for users with Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate with MSDN and Visual Studio 2010 Premium with MSDN, and Visual Studio 2010 Professional with MSDN subscribers


Subscribers with an active Visual Studio with MSDN subscription are entitled to the monthly Windows Azure benefits listed below based on their subscription level:

Subscription Level	Visual Studio Professional with MSDN	Visual Studio Premium with MSDN	Visual Studio Ultimate with MSDN
Compute	375 hrs of the Small Instance	750 hrs of the Small Instance	1,5000 hrs of the Small Instance
Storage	20 GB	25 GB	30 GB
Storage Transactions	250,000	1,000,000	2,000,000
SQL Azure	1 GB	1 GB	5 GB
Access Control Transactions*	100K	200K	500K
Service Bus	Free through March 31, 2012	Free through March 31, 2012	Free through March 31, 2012
Caching	128 MB cache	128 MB cache	128 MB cache
Data transfers (WW)	25GB Out Free In	30GB Out Free In	35GB Out Free In
Projected Annual Value**	USD $1,300.00	USD $2,100.00	USD $3,700.00

GET STARTED TODAY!
Activate your MSDN cloud computing benefits from Windows Azure by going to the MSDN Benefits Page


Resources:
•     Review your MSDN cloud computing benefits
•     Understand how the spending limits work
•     Use the MSDN forums to get benefits questions answered
•     Let the “how to” guides connect between your needs and the cloud, such as How to Create a .NET App With SQL Azure
•     Learn about Windows Azure via online training assets from the Azure DevCamp series


Although we require a credit card or debit card for sign-up, for all new subscriptions, there is a $0 (USD) Spending Limit on your subscription so you do not accidentally exceed the monthly benefit shown above. If you use more in a month than the above amounts, you will exceed your $0 (USD) Spending Limit and your service will be disabled for that month.

Thank you for your continued interest in MSDN.

Amber Kinney
MSDN Subscriptions Manager   

*    The Windows Azure Access Control service is provided at no charge for billing periods prior to January 1, 2012.
**    Projected annual savings at Pay-As-You-Go rates in US dollars.

Go here to sign up.

7352

General Software Discussion / Re: Microsoft takes on Dropbox with major SkyDrive update

« Last post by wraith808 on April 24, 2012, 09:45 AM »

Interesting bit on upgrading storage... I had a few live ids hooked to my same account.  I switched over to each, and each has a separate storage allottment.  Now I have 25GB on each...!

7353

Living Room / FBI: Hundreds Of Thousands May Lose Internet In July

« Last post by wraith808 on April 23, 2012, 10:13 PM »

For computer users, a few mouse clicks could mean the difference between staying online and losing Internet connections this summer.

Unknown to most of them, their problem began when international hackers ran an online advertising scam to take control of infected computers around the world. In a highly unusual response, the FBI set up a safety net months ago using government computers to prevent Internet disruptions for those infected users. But that system is to be shut down.

The FBI is encouraging users to visit a website run by its security partner, http://www.dcwg.org , that will inform them whether they're infected and explain how to fix the problem. After July 9, infected users won't be able to connect to the Internet.

continued at http://www.huffingto...-july_n_1441260.html

more info at http://www.fbi.gov/n...ember/malware_110911

I'd not heard of this... anyone else hear anything about it?  I did have the (admittedly) paranoid thought that this might be something else totally, especially in light of the recent activities by the FBI, i.e. MegaUpload...

7354

General Software Discussion / Re: CintaNotes 1.6, 10 April 2012, goes "Freemium" (pay for extra features)

« Last post by wraith808 on April 23, 2012, 07:18 AM »

^ Ah.  I don't use that functionality, so I didn't even think of that use.  I don't believe it does that, though I'm not sure.

7355

General Software Discussion / Re: dynamically updatable bookmark database from any browser

« Last post by wraith808 on April 23, 2012, 07:13 AM »

I believe you can do that with xmarks and profiles for sync with certain machines.  I'm not sure though, as I've never explored it.

7356

DC Gamer Club / Re: Humble Botanicula Debut

« Last post by wraith808 on April 22, 2012, 04:05 PM »

^ This. +1

And Gog's response was, as usual, very good.

7357

General Software Discussion / Re: CintaNotes 1.6, 10 April 2012, goes "Freemium" (pay for extra features)

« Last post by wraith808 on April 22, 2012, 03:59 PM »

I use notesholder and am pretty happy with it after testing quite a few.

7358

Living Room / Re: Web link snippet manager

« Last post by wraith808 on April 20, 2012, 04:16 PM »

readitlater/pocket combined with postponer adder and postponer manager.  This is just for URLs... if you need everything, I'd use evernote or instapaper (leaning towards evernote).

7359

Living Room / Re: Thoughts in remembrance of the 6 million (est.) murdered in the Holocaust

« Last post by wraith808 on April 20, 2012, 12:47 PM »

I don't browse by section... but by unread topics since last visit.  I'm not sure how many people do the same, but this wouldn't help in that case.

7360

Living Room / Re: Thoughts in remembrance of the 6 million (est.) murdered in the Holocaust

« Last post by wraith808 on April 20, 2012, 12:34 AM »

Not censorship per-say, but focus.

-wraith808 (April 19, 2012, 06:27 PM)

Yeah, right.
Bet I can I can think of more euphemisms for it than you!   

-IainB (April 19, 2012, 08:28 PM)

Well, I guess we'll have to agree to disagree, for I surely don't look at that as a euphemism- they're two totally different things.  I run a rpg board, and if you came in discussing programming that would be off topic.  Is that censorship?  No.  It's just off topic.  And if this is declared off-topic, then that's ok too.  I know that several people that used to post have fallen by the wayside because they came to DC for talk about coding and software, and kept getting hit in the face with the religion and politics because they came here for a break from that.  I know at times its been overwhelming for me, because there are such a wide range of opinions and stances on the boards, and to discuss such hotbed topics can make it hard to deal with at times.

7361

Living Room / Re: Cute jokes' thread

« Last post by wraith808 on April 19, 2012, 06:31 PM »

7362

Living Room / Re: Thoughts in remembrance of the 6 million (est.) murdered in the Holocaust

« Last post by wraith808 on April 19, 2012, 06:27 PM »

...borderline appropriate for DC...

-mouser (April 19, 2012, 11:43 AM)

I would be interested in any non-arbitrary definition you might consider for this.  It could form a basis for "Living-Room" censorship rules, where we could all know where we stand and thus what we need to conform to - i.e., the rules thus set. You would presumably (?) be the decision-taker on this.

-IainB (April 19, 2012, 05:43 PM)

Not censorship per-say, but focus.  If this isn't a place to discuss religion and politics, then that's just not the focus, and calling that censorship is IMO cheapening the effect of the word when used if not an outright misuse of the word.  There's a big difference between having a set of rules so that people that come to the site know what to expect and censoring posts.

7363

General Software Discussion / Re: dynamically updatable bookmark database from any browser

« Last post by wraith808 on April 19, 2012, 06:24 PM »

I have 2655 bookmarks, and haven't had any problems.

7364

General Software Discussion / Re: dynamically updatable bookmark database from any browser

« Last post by wraith808 on April 19, 2012, 04:02 PM »

^ +1 for xmarks.  They've gone freemium to an extent, i.e. you have to pay to get the added service of the mobile syncing.  But it works, and I've had no complaints about it.

7365

Living Room / Re: Apple Sued Again - By Parents...

« Last post by wraith808 on April 19, 2012, 11:15 AM »

That's the reason I made my son open his own itunes account.  They make it very hard to sign up for one without a CC, but you can.  And he funds it with his own itunes cards.  It does suck that the tunes that have DRM can't be shared, and apps can't be shared... but I figured better that than a surprise billed to my CC.

7366

General Software Discussion / Re: Help me choose an online backup service

« Last post by wraith808 on April 19, 2012, 11:13 AM »

CrashPlan was the best I found but I simply could not get over the insane memory use issues, so i dropped it after my 30 day trial.  However I may try it again at some point.

-mouser (April 16, 2012, 01:15 AM)

What about those "Memory Reclaimers" that used to be all the rage a few years ago? I know, I saw the articles that many/most of them didn't actually work but just fiddled with interconnected stats, but just suppose it's "just a memory leak bug", why not just use a utility that reclaims the memory as if it were stopped and started? Just set the mem-util settings so that it doesn't actually interfere with CrashPlan, etc.

-TaoPhoenix (April 19, 2012, 07:36 AM)

I wouldn't trust *any* of those reclaimers, and I think that anyone that has an idea of Windows memory management would tell you the same thing, especially with GC'd languages.

RANT

ALL software that claims to free memory, optimize memory, etc. is a bunch of lies.

Here's how they work:

You have 8GB of RAM and 4GB paging file. You are currently running a bunch of programs that require, say, 256 megs of RAM, but most of that RAM isn't actively being used. These programs run and allocate 384 megs of ram which causes the operating system to page ALL of your existing applications to disk. Then they free that RAM. The operating system begins paging those applications back into memory as they touch their resources. The appearance is that you have "reclaimed RAM". You haven't.

Here's how the operating system works. When someone asks for memory the operating system goes and finds some. If it can't find some it goes through the applications that haven't touched ram for a while and pages those "stale" parts out to disk. This means that until there is a *NEED* for more RAM, the operating system will allow applications to hold on to as much RAM as they want. When there is a need, the operating system will make the right decisions about where to find it. These memory "reclaimers" just create an artificial need and all that creates is an "impression" that the memory was freed.

If you are experiencing out of memory conditions due to an application leaking, these tools will not help because they will not be able to allocate any memory. You can either increase the size of your page file, add more ram to your system, stop using the broken software, or close it from time to time (the operating system will get all the lost memory back when the application closes).

Don't be fooled. And please don't PAY ANYTHING for this kind of software. You are paying for a pretty picture and optimization code that amounts to:

void main( void )
{
free( malloc( 402653184 ) ); // Allocate 384 megs of ram and then
// free it.
}

7367

Living Room / Re: Thoughts in remembrance of the 6 million (est.) murdered in the Holocaust

« Last post by wraith808 on April 19, 2012, 11:03 AM »

By the way, though you say:

...the Jews were very far from unique...

- several things about the Holocaust do make it, historically, kinda unique, including for example:

-IainB (April 19, 2012, 05:35 AM)

Quite right there. I'm simply very inarticulate at times. I mean unique in the sense that people were murdered. I didn't consider any surrounding circumstances.

-Renegade (April 19, 2012, 08:34 AM)

I don't think that makes it in and of itself unique.  That just makes the remembrance unique and effect unique, and is such because of the retained cultural identity.  And the extent to which this tragic occurrence created a power structure is also unique, and helps in that remembrance, and continues to sustain that power with a resonance based on this remembrance.

To take another example and contrast it to this, we can use the North American African slave trade.  Because of the fact that slaves were considered chattel, records were kept, though perhaps not to the same extent. (http://www.stanford....lity_ST_WMQ-2001.pdf)

However, though over 10 million were killed during this exercise, the same level of remembrance is not paid, nor power conferred.  Perhaps it is because of a lack of shared cultural identity since the same exercise destroyed that cultural identity in a systematic manner. 

Worse can be said of the Native American genocide. 

from http://hnn.us/articles/7302.html

...according to Ward Churchill, a professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado, the reduction of the North American Indian population from an estimated 12 million in 1500 to barely 237,000 in 1900 represents a"vast genocide . . . , the most sustained on record."

Thus, I think if you were to draw any uniqueness from the Holocaust, it would be summarized in this one line:

So the 6 million deaths might not have been entirely in vain.

-IainB (April 19, 2012, 05:35 AM)

7368

General Software Discussion / Re: CintaNotes 1.6, 10 April 2012, goes "Freemium" (pay for extra features)

« Last post by wraith808 on April 18, 2012, 04:39 PM »

Link: http://cintanotes.com/

Forum Discussion: http://cintanotes.co...0761de85fc254a68e80e

7369

Living Room / Kickstarter Highlight: Pulp Reading at its best

« Last post by wraith808 on April 17, 2012, 02:32 PM »

I love alternate forms of publication- for books, software, music, anything!  But I especially have a passion for books and ebooks.  And one genre that remains a real thrill when written well is pulp.  Sure there are the knockoffs that were produced strictly for money.  But there are also those gems that raise your adrenaline level as you read, and are real page turners- literature that you can't put down.

There are a couple of series of novels on Kickstarter right now.  Both are already funded and working on stretch goals.

	Spirit of the Century Presents: The Dinocalypse Trilogy
Goal	$5,000 ($34,161 as of this posting)
End Date	2012-04-22
Project Creator(s)	Evil Hat Productions
Excerpt	When the Century Club is called in to prevent the assassination of FDR, it's just another day on the job — but what they discover puts not just the President, but the entire world in jeopardy. With psychic dinosaurs taking over Manhattan and beyond, it's up to Sally Slick, Jet Black, Mack Silver, and the other Centurions to save humanity — from extinction! This is our first fiction project at Evil Hat. We’ve published pen & paper roleplaying games before, and now we’ve set our sights on expanding into other media. For our starting point, we’re diving into the wild and wooly world of our in-house 1930s-era pulp adventure setting called Spirit of the Century. In that world, you’ll find flying jet-men, talking apes, and ancient Atlantean technology, along with two swinging fists, mad science, and some snappy patter (not to mention Sally Slick, a Rosie the Riveter type gal who’s aces at inventing new gadgetry). We’re excited to begin!

	The Astonishing Adventures of Doc Wilde!!!
Goal	$3,000 ($4,130 as of this posting)
End Date	2012-04-29
Project Creator(s)	Tim Byrd
Excerpt	"In a young adult book market crowded with the depressing and the dour, Tim Byrd’s Doc Wilde swings in on a jungle vine to raise the flag high for adventure. Infused with pace, fun, and all the two-fisted action a reader could ask for, Wilde lovingly riffs on situations straight out of the old pulps, even while making them fresh for a new generation."                                 — Zack Stentz, screenwriter, Thor, X-Men: First Class Looking For Adventure? GO WILDE! The Astonishing Adventures of Doc Wilde recapture the magic of classic pulp adventure stories, with lost worlds, ancient ruins, weird science, evil villains, and daring heroes, bringing them into the 21st century with contemporary themes, modern scientific notions, the wonders of a close family, and a deep appreciation of literature and of the thinking life itself. "It's a true delight...Tim Byrd has taken Doc Savage, added in a pinch of Robert E. Howard, a liberal dose of H.P. Lovecraft, and mixed it all together in a well done, enchanting pastiche of the pulps that will appeal to the adult audience as well as the young adult readers. It is an over the top at times, rip roaring adventure that returns us to the days of yesteryear and leaves us wanting more."                                                                           —The Baryon Review

7370

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: LeaderTask FREE Today on BitsDuJour

« Last post by wraith808 on April 17, 2012, 01:43 PM »

I bought it a while back.  Pretty good software; I used it a while with success.  They didn't have synchronization at the time; that was the largest factor in the reason that I moved on.

7371

Post New Requests Here / Re: Flexible Fictional Timeline organisation tool

« Last post by wraith808 on April 17, 2012, 11:38 AM »

I'm not sure about Writer's Cafe, but LSB just works on putting in column headers, so you cn have any system you want.

-Dormouse (April 17, 2012, 11:36 AM)

Yeah... but when you're adding days/months/years to events to get other days in the calendaring system, it can get pretty hairy doing that type of manipulation.

7372

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: WinPatrol Plus @ $0.99 on January 29th

« Last post by wraith808 on April 17, 2012, 11:11 AM »

As a WinPatrol Plus user, sent author support questions over a month ago, twice, and still haven't heard back.  In contrast, I ask Mouser a question about ScreenshotCaptor and it's answered five minutes later.   

-Midnight Rambler (April 17, 2012, 10:18 AM)

I'd try again.  I've sent him questions on two occasions and heard back pretty quickly.

7373

Post New Requests Here / Re: Flexible Fictional Timeline organisation tool

« Last post by wraith808 on April 17, 2012, 11:10 AM »

Both of those are really cool- but I think the part that is hard (and that none I've seen really solve) is fictional date periods, i.e. a month is 25 days and there are 10 months in a year named whatever.  Is that the problem that we're trying to solve here?  And what other features are we looking at?

7374

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: WinPatrol Plus @ $0.99 on January 29th

« Last post by wraith808 on April 17, 2012, 07:52 AM »

No, I didn't.

-wraith808 (April 16, 2012, 08:16 PM)

Try sending him an e-mail; he got back to me after a short while with the correct code for my purchase.

-Jibz (April 17, 2012, 12:47 AM)

Thanks!  That worked!

7375

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: WinPatrol Plus @ $0.99 on January 29th

« Last post by wraith808 on April 16, 2012, 08:16 PM »

No, I didn't.