Recent Posts

76

General Software Discussion / Re: 'create Restore Point' question

« Last post by bit on August 17, 2015, 04:46 PM »

My pc has been crashier than ever today. >.<

77

Living Room / Re: Robert A. Heinlein - atmospheric processor question

« Last post by bit on August 17, 2015, 12:59 AM »

Touching back on the Mars question, actually, an Arthur C. Clarke type Rama ship, "...a perfect cylinder, 20 kilometres (12 mi) in diameter and 54 kilometres (34 mi) long..." would almost make more sense.
To name a few advantages:
1) Induced full 1-Gee gravity.
2) Virtually nonexistent gravity well to dive into or climb up out of.
3) Near-perfect weather control.
4) Optimized mobility or locatability; could be positioned almost anywhere, in its own orbit around the Sun, or orbiting any planet; maybe even moved around to here or there from time to time as needed (or as a means to visit other star systems).

I wonder, besides dubbing it a 'Rama ship', what would be the generic term for such a ship?

78

Living Room / Re: Robert A. Heinlein - atmospheric processor question

« Last post by bit on August 16, 2015, 10:43 PM »

^About all I can do is point you to one of the more prominent EU theory websites, such as thunderbolts, with the caveat that I don't necessarily agree with everything they espouse.*
They say they have the higher math to support it, but I'm a 2 + 2 = 4 person myself.  
Having said all that, I do tend to follow general EU theory, such as the three inferences I cited in my last post.
Tnx again for the 'Mars Trilogy' reference.

*For instance, 'thunderbolts' does not believe in the existence of black holes, whereas I've seen a YT vid of the center of the Milky Way, with various massive stars in tight short-term orbits that make them look like Phobos & Deimos clones around an invisible central object that is calculated to have a mass equivalent to a galactic black hole.

79

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by bit on August 16, 2015, 12:52 PM »

(see attachment in previous post)

-app103 (August 16, 2015, 10:28 AM)

I ran TinEye, found another post of this, and found the following sub-comment:
"What a nice friend to give you a parting gif."

80

Living Room / Re: Robert A. Heinlein - atmospheric processor question

« Last post by bit on August 15, 2015, 08:22 PM »

Read Kim Stanley Robinson's "Mars Trilogy". All your questions will be answered, and in the context of entertaining sci-fi no less!

- Oshyan

-JavaJones (August 14, 2015, 06:37 PM)

This looks interesting! Tnx!

SeraphimLabs, I did find that Earth's Interior documentary, and added the link at the bottom of this post.
It said Earth's core is super-hot ultra-compressed metal and it generates a magnetic field by spinning.
Either by that alone or possibly also by interacting with the Sun's field.

If you don't mind, I'll branch out here and mention the EU (Electric Universe) theory, which is that the Sun is powered not by fusion, but by vast external galactic electrical fields.
The idea is that, from Earth, the field is too dilute and spread out to detect, and the Earth and planets too small to attract enough electrical flow to 'light them up'.
But the Sun is large enough to attract sufficient electrical flow to cause it to light up.

To me, three phenomena support this idea:
1) The Sun's corona is at a million degrees, far hotter than its surface.
The corona is outside of the Sun's surface.
Logically, the closer to the Sun you go, the hotter it should be, not cooler.
2) Sunspots, 'holes' in the Sun's surface, and 'windows' to its interior, are cooler and show black in images.
If the Sun was internally powered, I should expect sunspots to show hotter.
3) Barred spiral galaxies.
On Earth, nature abhors a barred spiral; whirlpools in water, in tornadoes, in hurricanes, do not have barred spirals.
Yet there are vast spiral galaxies which support barred spirals; I think this may be connected to EU theory too.
Anyways, that's the EU theory for you.  

Edit - Update:  Inside Planet Earth (2009)

81

Living Room / Re: Robert A. Heinlein - atmospheric processor question

« Last post by bit on August 14, 2015, 05:54 PM »

^Found it: The Ringworld Engineers;

Original question: "I have a new question; what altitude on Earth would correspond to air pressure on Mars at ground level?
IOW, how high above the Earth would you have to go, to match the same low atmospheric air pressure on Mars at ground level?
10 miles above the Earth? 20?
50,000 feet up? 100,000 feet up?"

At the above link at 'The Ringworld Engineers', quote:
"In order to create the rarefied atmosphere on Mars, the Map of Mars was built to an altitude 20 miles (32 km) above the main Ringworld surface creating a 1,120,000,000-cubic-mile (4.7×109 km3) cavity."

20 miles = 105,600 feet

And, touching back on the original question of colonizing and terraforming Mars, I saw in a recent video documentary about Earth's interior (which I can't find now), that Mars has virtually no magnetic field to protect its atmosphere and surface from the intense solar radiation which results in Aurorae in the Earth's atmosphere/skies at the extreme northern & southern latitudes.

Mars is rust-colored for the obvious reason that its rocks are loaded with iron.
I wonder if the technology could be devised, to realign the magnetic orientation of the rocks north-south and use that to help simulate a magnetic field.
But the only known way, with Earth as an example, is for molten lava to cool in a preexisting magnetic field.
IOW, to magnetically 'polarize' solid rock by temporarily transforming it into a molten state in the presence of a magnetic field, which is neither practical nor feasible for Mars.
So as fast as you could generate atmosphere on Mars, the Sun would be working to break it down and dissipate it into outer space.

BTW, the Earth's Interior documentary said the Earth's magnetic field is weakening at an accelerating rate, especially near the Equator and the Atlantic between Brazil and northwest Africa.

82

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by bit on August 13, 2015, 04:53 PM »

re: Firecracker Battlefield prank.

-Deozaan (August 13, 2015, 03:06 PM)

Ah, building happy memories.
Love the layout, especially his lounge chair.
She has a beautiful laugh.

For some reason, this made me think of a prank my mother played on my father once when I was a boy; he fell asleep at the beach in a swimsuit, and she laid a key on his chest so that his sunburn included a perfect silhouette of the key.
I remember my mom laughing about it, and my father was 'not amused' but took it good-naturedly anyway.

83

Living Room / Re: The Breakfast...

« Last post by bit on August 13, 2015, 12:04 AM »

quote: "General Mills noted in a press release that while the alcoholic beverage will not actually contain Wheaties cereal, it is still representative of the Wheaties brand."

IOW, the presence of actual Wheaties cereal in the product is a sham.
But the alcohol, slogan, and drink are genuine, a winner, the 'real thing'.
So... ...breakfast of sham-peons?

84

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by bit on August 11, 2015, 11:12 PM »

^Some people are so poor, that all they have is money.

85

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by bit on August 11, 2015, 11:10 PM »

^Never use money to measure wealth.

86

General Software Discussion / Re: 'create Restore Point' question

« Last post by bit on August 11, 2015, 10:23 PM »

BTW, I wonder how long these daily pop-up 'buy AVG ads' will continue to appear.
It's no biggie, but they seem a little persistent. (see attachment in previous post)

-bit (August 09, 2015, 09:30 AM)

Just consider them your daily notification that AVG is running. It's when you don't get a pop-up in the free version that you should worry. 

-app103 (August 11, 2015, 07:20 PM)

tnx.^^

87

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by bit on August 11, 2015, 05:36 PM »

^I searched around for (religious) 'donation jokes' and found this:
A little nine year old girl was in church with her mother when she started feeling ill.
"Mommy," she said. "Can we leave now?"
"No," her mother replied.
"Well, I think I have to throw up!"
"Then go out the front door and to the back of the church and throw up behind a bush."
In about two minutes the little girl returned to her seat.
"Did you throw up?" her mother asked.
"Yes," the little girl replied.
"Well, how could you have gone all the way to the back of the church and return so quickly?"
"I didn't have to go out of the church, Mommy," the little girl replied. "They have a box next to the front door that says, 'For the sick'."

88

General Software Discussion / Re: 'create Restore Point' question

« Last post by bit on August 11, 2015, 10:09 AM »

Sorry to bother you guys again.
AVG free is great, seems to be an outstanding program.
Before, I could at least close the 'buy me' pop-ups.
Now, I can't get this pop-up to close or stop appearing.
I can minimize it, but it reappears if I open or maximize anything else.
It won't close using ctrl-alt-del (does not appear in that menu).
It appears in the CloseAll menu, but refuses to close using that either.
Clicking on the 'x' in the upper-right corner doesn't close it, but makes another 'buy me' pop-up appear.

I did try the 'free trial' full-featured version, so maybe if I uninstall the whole thing, then reinstall and don't choose the 'free trial', I wonder if that would stop this pop-up from happening?

EDIT: Okay, I figured out all I had to do was click on the 'stop maintenance now' option and it finally closed. Tnx.

89

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by bit on August 10, 2015, 04:26 PM »

Then there was the Mensa genius who refused to drink evaporated milk because it was condensed.

Spoiler

Mensa is a high IQ club (no I'm not a member). Densa is its symbolic opposite, and is a real club of people having fun mocking Mensa. The word 'condensed' contains 'dense' in what looks like a hypothetical 'active verb form' of 'densed', as in the nonsensical statement, "He was densed (made stupid) by Alzheimer's." So the touchy Mensa genius was irrationally reacting to the 'condensed' label because it made him feel stupid.

90

General Software Discussion / Re: 'create Restore Point' question

« Last post by bit on August 09, 2015, 10:25 PM »

(deleted by bit)

91

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by bit on August 09, 2015, 04:33 PM »

^potato = 'tater'
irri-tated
ear-i-tated

92

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by bit on August 09, 2015, 01:38 PM »

Then there was the cook who came to the doctor with an aching ear.
He looked in her ear, and identified a small piece of potato lodged painfully there.
"My dear," he said to her, "your ear is irritated."

-bit (August 09, 2015, 09:45 AM)

When she found out the doctor was a beer drinker, she said "Doc, this spud's for you!"

-MilesAhead (August 09, 2015, 10:56 AM)

Waa haha!   

93

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by bit on August 09, 2015, 09:45 AM »

Then there was the cook who came to the doctor with an aching ear.
He looked in her ear, and identified a small piece of potato lodged painfully there.
"My dear," he said to her, "your ear is irritated."

94

General Software Discussion / Re: 'create Restore Point' question

« Last post by bit on August 09, 2015, 09:36 AM »

Ex-Cortana pic

Spoiler

With Paint Shop Pro 7 and 18 saves, I transformed her into... ...a live-action Ex-Cortana.
Do NOT let her out of the 'box', no matter how sweetly she begs!

95

General Software Discussion / Re: 'create Restore Point' question

« Last post by bit on August 09, 2015, 09:34 AM »

Ex-Machina pic

Spoiler

BTW, would anyone like a little Windows 10 humor?
Cortana is an interactive virtual AI 'helper' created by Microsoft for Windows Phone 8.1 (where it now supersedes Bing Mobile), Microsoft Band, Windows 10, and coming to iOS, Android, and the Xbox One.
Firstly, here's a poster for the flick 'Ex-Machina', an innocuous but sinister robotic AI who spends most of the movie begging to be let out of the prison her creator keeps her locked up in.

96

General Software Discussion / Re: 'create Restore Point' question

« Last post by bit on August 09, 2015, 09:30 AM »

BTW, I wonder how long these daily pop-up 'buy AVG ads' will continue to appear.
It's no biggie, but they seem a little persistent.

97

General Software Discussion / Re: 'create Restore Point' question

« Last post by bit on August 09, 2015, 08:53 AM »

I see from this thread that a lot of DCers are excited over a free upgrade offer to Windows 10. I have to ask, what's so great about Win 10, and will it bog down my OS when it is barely running smoothly on Win 7?

-bit (August 04, 2015, 10:42 PM)

Windows 7 was easy to run, compared to Vista. Windows 8 was easy to run, compared to Win 7. Windows 10 is easy to run, compared to Win 8. Replacing your current system will make life easier for your machine

-if your drive has the space! It's not just "+10GB" as some said. Win 10 will also keep your current files, so in real life (with updates, and stuff) it will need in the area of 50GB free.

I hope you later on will come back, bit, to tell how life with the Panda has been.

-Curt (August 09, 2015, 02:36 AM)

Tnx for the heads-up on Windows 10!  
Due to a complicated series of past events, I can only run 20GB of free space anymore.
That is because...8 yrs ago, a friend set me up with a system that was 'fast' and got me a RAID mobo w/o telling me.
I ended up with a mobo that can only 'see' one SATA HD at a time, no matter how many are plugged into it.
That prevented me from doing HD clone backups.
So, b/c of that, to run HD clone backups, I have to have one EIDE HD connected, to do clone backups.
My mobo can 'see' up to two EIDE HDs and one SATA at the same time.
But the EIDE HDs are pathetically slow compared to any of the SATAs.
My largest EIDE HD is only 200GB (the other two EIDEs are 80GB each), so my three SATA HDs have to be limited to 200GB active partitions to remain backup-compatible with the 200GB EIDE.
It all works nicely for HD clone bkups; SATA to EIDE, EIDE to (other) SATA, and so on, but limits my OS to 200GB.
So I have no room to upgrade to Windows 10.
I've also seen reports (and posted them to DC), that Windows 10 is (with apology) glorified spyware, which is not too encouraging.

"The current winner, Panda, blocked 1,894 out of 1,895 attacks — none of them requiring user input — for a near-perfect score of 99.9 percent."

-bit (August 09, 2015, 01:32 AM)

the other side of the coin is false positives - I find "none of them requiring user input" in the quote above a little scary tbh. - is it going to e.g. decide anything made via AHK is dangerous and must/will be deleted - without asking you?
FWIW, Panda is not the worst at false positives according to your link - but AVG has very good (low) false positives.

-tomos (August 09, 2015, 04:36 AM)

Okay, I'll hold off on any switch from AVG-free until I can get a little better idea of Panda has a bad habit of false positives or not, and thank you for that perspective!  

Is there any danger of Windows 10 running an automatic update-install over my Windows 7, just for me running 'automatic updates'?
I'd rather that not happen just now.

98

General Software Discussion / Re: 'create Restore Point' question

« Last post by bit on August 09, 2015, 01:32 AM »

^app103, I am now running AVG free, and already seem to be proving out your xlnt advice with fewer and milder crashes. Many tnx! (:
 (see attachment in previous post)

-bit (July 31, 2015, 12:40 AM)

Just passing on some of the best AV advice I ever received for an older PC.  

Here is an additional piece of advice: Stick to the free version and do not buy the paid version.

The paid version will likely come with a bunch of extra features that will defeat the whole purpose of switching to a lighter anti-virus. If you don't have the extra features, you won't be tempted to turn them on.

-app103 (August 01, 2015, 04:43 AM)

I take it MSE is Microsoft Security Essentials?
Is that a freeware antivirus that is kept updated, or a Windows add-on that is not maintained?
You posted elsewhere MSE is all you use.
Makes me wonder if I should stick with AVG-free, or switch to MSE?

Okay, at AV testing: Is your antivirus app doing its job? (dated July 23, 2015) it says, quote: "The lowest score in the most recent tests is 89.6 percent, earned by Microsoft’s Security Essentials. Because it’s free and comes from Microsoft, AV-Comparatives considers MSE a baseline product — in practical terms, it’s better than nothing. (Microsoft has long been taken to task for its relatively poor showing in AV software.)"

Maybe I better stick with AVG-free for now.

I see it also says, quote: "Not all free programs get unspectacular scores. Panda Free Antivirus, for example, got the top scores in the most recent tests."
"The current winner, Panda, blocked 1,894 out of 1,895 attacks — none of them requiring user input — for a near-perfect score of 99.9 percent."
I found Panda Free Antivirus on filehippo.
The only question would be my original one, if it will make my OS crashy, and I suppose the best way to find out would be to give it a try.

99

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Privacy Concerns

« Last post by bit on August 07, 2015, 10:36 AM »

Have fun with all the ins and outs of Windows 10.
I wish you all well with it, and I'll be watching with great interest from the sidelines.

100

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Privacy Concerns

« Last post by bit on August 06, 2015, 09:56 PM »

Altho I can't find the article now, all that en masse data gathering of our private info is reported to have been hacked by China.
If there had been no invasive data mining of our lives, contrary to the spirit of the US Constitution and universal privacy expectations, China would not now be maliciously harvesting it to our detriment.