Recent Posts

751

Living Room / Re: When you make your 100'th Post

« Last post by 40hz on December 25, 2014, 07:51 AM »

Counter object not initialized, or initialized to zero and failed to increment properly?

752

Living Room / Re: Slur you're going to hate it.

« Last post by 40hz on December 25, 2014, 01:13 AM »

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Period.

If true, this is going to do far more harm than good. Because 90% of the above is flat out irresponsible, harmful and ripe for abuse. And because it allows the opportunity to do it for no reason other than the money, there's no moral high-road it can possibly claim. It seems little more to me than the cyber equivalent of a crackhouse.

If even slightly successful, it will set the stage for the end of the Internet and personal computing as we know it. Because it plays right into government and industry hands. It will provide proof for their talking points about all the criminals and terrorists lurking on every corner of the web. And it will also clearly demonstrate why cryptocurrencies can no longer be tolerated. Because now there's finally a clear and undeniable link between Bitcoin and criminal activities on a large scale. (So long Bitcoin! We barely knew you.)

All it would take is one incident that so little as seriously inconvenienced everybody, and the general public would demand the government DO SOMETHING! And all the government would need to do is let it happen.

And never fear, "the powers that be" will most definitely do something. They've been quietly creating and installing the tools and mechanisms to "take decisive action" for the last twenty years. And they've been impatiently waiting for an excuse to really use them for at least the last ten.

Grab some popcorn? Dream on! I very much doubt it will be very entertaining for very long if things start to roll down that road.

753

Living Room / Re: For better security, maybe it's time to abandon e-mail?

« Last post by 40hz on December 24, 2014, 07:55 PM »

People want what they want straight away and want to put forth the least amount of effort to achieve that goal.

-Innuendo (December 24, 2014, 07:39 PM)

I'm not sure that’s universally true. For a lot of people, the journey itself is the reward rather than the destination. And many people would rather "do it right" than merely "do it right now."

My experience is that most non-technical people simply use what's available. Not something they actually like - or think is good.

754

Living Room / Re: Happy Holidays!

« Last post by 40hz on December 24, 2014, 07:45 PM »

Nothing profound or clever to say. Just a Merry and a Happy to the entire DoCo community - and especially to Mouser and those secret masters lurking in the background that make this soirée possible. It's a good place. I'm glad I stumbled upon it way back when. It's become a second home to me.


Looks like Santa & Co. have been hanging' with Renegade...
     Ya know? As in deck them halls with bowls of jolly!

755

Living Room / Re: Do we have any musical people on DC?

« Last post by 40hz on December 24, 2014, 07:34 PM »

@40hz: (re vanilla) - So, I gave out little 1oz bottles of vanilla to my co-workers (wife did the same).  So I think I'm on to something.  Here's my recipe:

-theGleep (December 23, 2014, 09:16 AM)

Sounds really good! I'll have to give it a try after the holidays. Thank you so much for sharing your recipe.

I just started working on a liqueur based on Earl Gray tea and orange blossom honey as the primary flavoring ingredients. If it ever amounts to anything I'll be sure to let you know.

756

Non-Windows Software / Re: Mint 17.1 KDE rc delete trash icon desktop?

« Last post by 40hz on December 24, 2014, 07:05 PM »

I guess that's one big reason people try Linux and give up.  

-MilesAhead (December 24, 2014, 12:58 PM)

Or at least give up on KDE for their primary desktop?

757

General Software Discussion / Re: 4 (Maybe more) Absolute top go-to programs

« Last post by 40hz on December 24, 2014, 12:17 PM »

On the NIX platform:

• FocusWriter - NIX alternative to WriteMonkey
• Remmina - multi-platform remote desktop client.
• Sublime Text Editor - multi-platform text editor.  The best IMO.
• KeyPassX - NIX alternative to KeePass
• Scrivener - robust "alpha" version for Linux
• VirtualBox - multi-platform VM manager. When I absolutely must use a Windows-only app, I'll mostly do it using this.
• Shutter - until Mouser breaks down and does a version of Screenshot Captor for Linux, I'm stuck with this.

758

General Software Discussion / Re: And IT Man of the Year 2014 Is...

« Last post by 40hz on December 24, 2014, 11:33 AM »

I'm not sure I quite follow what you're getting at here. But I'll keep trying.

And, um...I thought Diego Garcia was a secretive U.S. military base that's been much in the alternative and conspiracy news channels of late.

Now I have a question for you: What does any of the rest of your post have to do with: And IT Man of the Year 2014 Is...

I hope that wasn't an attempt at click-baiting on your part. Because if so, that's a definite breech of etiquette around here.

759

Living Room / Re: For better security, maybe it's time to abandon e-mail?

« Last post by 40hz on December 24, 2014, 11:19 AM »

I admire the intent of this thread & have often wished for the same, but the idiocracy has spoken.

-Innuendo (December 24, 2014, 09:03 AM)

That remains to be seen I think. My great grandfather felt the same way about telephones. Why would anybody in their right mind want to talk into a piece of unsanitary plastic when they could just send someone a nicely written letter through a perfectly good postal system for one one-hundredth the cost?

He was firmly convinced phones were just a passing fad. And he never willingly used one, even though he did on rare occasion. My family just smiled at "Grandpa Roy" and called him on the phone if we were in a hurry - or sent him a nice note through the mail if we weren't.

My feeling is it doesn't make sense to let ourselves get bogged down with those who are happy with what they've got for whatever reason.

It's important to remember we're designing this sort of thing primarily for us and for our needs. If there's enough who truly want it - and it actually does what it's intended to do - there will be more than enough critical mass to make it happen.

Just look at e-mail and the Internet. They were once the exclusive playground of the "cool kids." These proto-geeks felt it was all much too complex for the average person to ever use. Then along came AOL and Tim Berners-Lee.

As I said earlier, one key requirement is that we let our machines handle the grunt routine tasks and do the heavy lifting. That frees us up to do the things we non-machines are better suited for.

Or so it seems to me.

760

Circle Dock / Re: Version 1.55 - a Significant Release: Please Read Carefully

« Last post by 40hz on December 24, 2014, 07:13 AM »

I'm not really interested in revisiting the history, and the legal complexities and implications of the different open source licences are massive anyway.

I was just wanting to point out that the programs available on cnet, Softpedia etc are likely to be there legitimately because they fall under the open source licence.

-Dormouse (December 24, 2014, 06:05 AM)

Which you did. And we thank you for that.

761

Living Room / Re: Recommend some music videos to me!

« Last post by 40hz on December 24, 2014, 07:07 AM »

^Sad day. 

762

Living Room / Re: For better security, maybe it's time to abandon e-mail?

« Last post by 40hz on December 24, 2014, 06:57 AM »

Google Wave was a (half-hearted) attempt. And it got got flamed down, before it even got a chance to come to fruition.

-Shades (December 24, 2014, 06:35 AM)

In fairness, Waves (like Chandler) struck me as fairly half-baked concept that was rather vague about exactly what it was supposed to be. And both Products included "features" and requirements that the users had made clear they didn't care for. Those objections from the users were mostly ignored since the devs too obviously had their own agenda.

So much for opt-in and tit-for-tat, right? That's a sure formula for failure with something that requires hordes of enthusiastic supporters to be successful.

763

Circle Dock / Re: Version 1.55 - a Significant Release: Please Read Carefully

« Last post by 40hz on December 23, 2014, 10:33 PM »

Sorry to dredge this all up again. But I think it's important to not have people get the wrong impression of what went down. And although I'm possibly the biggest F/OSS advocate and cheerleader here at DoCo, I get no pleasure seeing somebody walk away who feels (correctly or incorrectly) that they've just been screwed over royally by the GPL. Because, with something like the F/OSS movement - which is entirely dependent on trust and goodwill to accomplish its goals -  hard feelings can't benefit anybody.

-40hz (December 23, 2014, 09:52 PM)

No... glad that you put this here, because I couldn't speak to it.  But I do remember it was one of the things that made me realize I'd never work on, nor release software under the GPL.

-wraith808 (December 23, 2014, 10:16 PM)

Nothing wrong with that. The beginning of all wisdom is understanding precisely what you're getting yourself into.

GPL isn't for everyone - or every coding project. Since it stands everything most developers think of on its head, it's extremely important to understand exactly what is is and why it exists.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: GPL is the embodiment of a software development philosophy - it is NOT a business model.

 

764

Living Room / Re: For better security, maybe it's time to abandon e-mail?

« Last post by 40hz on December 23, 2014, 10:18 PM »

The general public at large does not care about privacy or security on any large scale at all.

-Innuendo (December 23, 2014, 09:11 PM)

Nor should they have to IMHO. That's what responsible professionals in our field exist for.

People don't care until something happens that personally affects them in an adverse way.

-Innuendo (December 23, 2014, 09:11 PM)

See above.

I could detail a laundry list of thing that people do every single day without giving a second thought to the security and privacy they are giving up.

-Innuendo (December 23, 2014, 09:11 PM)

To be honest, that's their prerogative. We attempt to educate as best we can. If we warn, and we're ignored, that's the limit of the responsibilities we can be expected to assume. After that, since we're professionals, it's just more billable time for us.

But we're not out to save the world here. Nor are we trying to come up with the "perfect" solution. We're just looking to make things significantly better than they are now. "Pretty good" will do for a start.

765

Living Room / Re: For better security, maybe it's time to abandon e-mail?

« Last post by 40hz on December 23, 2014, 10:06 PM »

Just to clarify a few of my earlier points:

• "Chat" or "text" is being used more as a metaphor; or an exhortation to do things differently. It's not an argument that adapting chat or text is the only - or even a desirable approach to take to fix the problem.
  
• We need to think outside the box here. We don't want something else. We need something new.

 

766

Circle Dock / Re: Version 1.55 - a Significant Release: Please Read Carefully

« Last post by 40hz on December 23, 2014, 09:52 PM »

From what I understand, Markham completely rewrote it (in which case it wouldn't be covered) and people accused him of just using the original source without viable proof, and that's what caused the whole meltdown.  Better without proof of wrongdoing to leave it in the past.

-wraith808 (December 23, 2014, 08:10 PM)

IIRC the problem came down to the fact Markham had rewritten (or written) about 90% of the current version(s) code and was annoyed that other developers (far less ethical) had appropriated the original codebase - plus his own rather significant contributions - and were selling it as their own closed-source commercial product.

Because he was quite understandably angered by this, he asked why he should be subject to the rules of the GPL - when others didn't seem to be.

When he went to assert a GPL violation however, he discovered that only the original programmer who licensed the project under the GPL could appeal to the OSF for intervention and assistance. And Markham was unsuccessful, despite exerting a great deal of personal effort, to contact the original programmer Eric Wong.

Being now caught in a no-win situation, Markham next announced he would just re-write that last 10% of original code so that it was now all his own work. And further, that the resulting app would be released - and sold - as your usual closed-source commercially licensed program.

That's when the tomatoes hit the fan.

There was the argument that since Markham had done work on a GPLed project, both the original code, and all his subsequent contributions, were bound by the rules of GPL. And that all his coding contributions - up to that point - would still need to remain open-sourced and under GPL regardless of what he decided to do subsequently. Because once something is released under GPL, that license specifically disallows any attempts to rescind or "un-GPL' something.

GPL is a "one-way" street. Once code is GPLed - it's GPLed forever. Otherwise there's nothing to stop an unscrupulous developer from benefiting from the open-source movement - then taking all the free contributions of others - and running off with them. Or even worse, to code something which becomes an established standard app (e.g. MySQL, Apache, GCC, etc.), and then pull the rug out from under all the users by suddenly declaring they now have to license it commercially, and pay whatever the developer decides to charge, if they want to continue using it.

The important thing to understand here is that the GPL is primarily designed to protect the user - not the developer - although it does do that to a lesser extent as well.

In Markham's case, it was true that (strictly speaking) everything he had done up to that point needed to remain available as open-source and under GPL. However, here's where what angered him about what others were doing now worked to his advantage. Only the original coder who released the original app under the GPL could assert a claim against Mr. Markham.

Was Markham ethically bound?

Yes he was.

Would anything happen if he didn't abide by the rules of GPL?

Nope. Nada. Not unless Eric Wong reappeared from wherever he vanished to and filed a complaint with the OSF

But there was an escape hatch. And AFAIK that's the one Markham took. Because while he couldn't un-GPL what was done, neither was he was under any obligation to support CircleDock - or make its source code available at his own expense. He could simply dump and abandon it on GitHub or SourceForge and walk away. And he was also under no obligation to provide an executable. GPL says that only the source code needs to remain open and free to use. It does not say you must also provide a finished and ready to install program or binary. And my understanding is that dumping and walking away is exactly what Markham did.

Then he went off to do a commercial version of his own, which included rewriting that last bit of original code, so that all the code he was now using in his commercial app was completely his own work.

Right? Wrong?

I'm pretty much on Markham's side if he did in fact do the dump and abandon route. If he didn't, I don't feel it's my place (as someone who didn't contribute any code) to comment one way or the other. That's Eric Wong's prerogative. Not mine.

Sorry to dredge this all up again. But I think it's important to not have people get the wrong impression of what went down. And although I'm possibly the biggest F/OSS advocate and cheerleader here at DoCo, I get no pleasure seeing somebody walk away who feels (correctly or incorrectly) that they've just been screwed over royally by the GPL. Because, with something like the F/OSS movement - which is entirely dependent on trust and goodwill to accomplish its goals -  hard feelings can't benefit anybody.

Just my

767

Living Room / Re: Are you a DeadHead? Grateful Dead thoughts go here.

« Last post by 40hz on December 23, 2014, 06:33 PM »

I've been to, and have friends who are, but I never "drank the Kool-Aid" and "joined together in the band." It was always just a little too blissfully carefree and non-intellectual to appeal to me for more than a half-day at a time. However, on a positive note, many of ladies in attendance were certainly pretty and...um...friendly enough.

I think a lot of it was a phenomena of the times the Dead were decanted in. They were the distillation of several societal trends and experiments of the late 60s and early 70s. And hallucinogens may have been a significant part of it - being the communal sacramental metaphor so to speak. But that doesn't explain it all. Drugs were also a large part of the short-lived "rave" culture. And that didn't spawn what is effectively a quasi-nomadic church like the Dead did.

What I really think the Dead provided was a sense of community during a time when the entire notion of 'community' seemed to be in full retreat. Now there's a new generation, which is more comfortable living in an electronic cocoon than their elders ever were (or likely ever will be) and who don't seem to have that need. Or if they do, it's a for very different species of 'community' than any that existed (or was able to exist) before the advent of Internet.

The internet changed everything. On a very profound and personal level. So much so, that the basic notion of what it means to be a 'human' being living in 'human' society is very different - and more importantly, uniquely different - than it has ever been before.

Have the Dead outlived their time? Not so long as there are believers. But like the Egyptian deities, once the last believer has gone to their eternal reward, or punishment, or next stage of existence, or perhaps just simple oblivion, the Dead will likely fade into history, then become legend, and then become myth -as Galadriel observed all things must, in Lord of the Rings.

       We now return our souls to the creator,
        as we stand on the edge of eternal darkness.
        Let our chant fill the void
        in order that others may know.
        In the land of the night
        the ship of the sun
        is drawn by the grateful dead."          
  
                       -- Egyptian Book of the Dead

What a long strange trip it's been.

768

Living Room / Re: What are your favorite movies?

« Last post by 40hz on December 23, 2014, 05:55 PM »

i've watched Gosford park.

-superboyac (December 23, 2014, 03:15 PM)

I did too. Terrific movie!

I want to go back and rewatch Chinatown.

-superboyac (December 23, 2014, 03:15 PM)

An absolute classic - and without a happy ending. That took guts. And also made it the film it is.

769

Living Room / Re: What are your favorite movies?

« Last post by 40hz on December 23, 2014, 01:29 PM »

For the Holidays I'll toss in two of my favs. Both with Kate Hepburn. One of my favorite ladies of the silver screen.



One film most definitely Christ-missy and (unusually) computer geeky is Desk Set. Hepburn as a company reference librarian (Anybody besides me remember those?) and Spencer Tracy, the computer whiz "methods engineer" who is overseeing the installation of several hulking room-sized IBM mainframes (then referred to as "electronic brains") in the NYC TV Network headquarters where Hepburn is working. Great back & forth dialogue, including a few rather risqué (for the times) moments.

One classic exchange here

(Both characters are sitting on floor between the book stacks, half in the bag, and killing a bottle of Christmas Party champagne.)

Hepburn: Tell me, skipper,
why have you never married?
Don't you like women?


Tracy: Oh, yeah. Sure, sure. I like women,
specifically as a sex and specifically.


Hepburn: But not "pacifically"
enough to get married.


Tracy: Oh, no, no. That's not it at all.
I just never found anyone willing to put
up with me. Except Caroline, of course.
- Would you like more champagne?


Hepburn: No. What about "Caroline, of course?"


Tracy: Caroline?... Caroline was a model.


Hepburn: Mm-hmm.


Tracy:  5'9" in her stockinged feet.


Hepburn: You had occasion to measure her?


Tracy: Among other things.

Especially good is the dinner scene in Hepburn's apartment. IMO it's one of the best comedic moments to come out of that era of movie making.

Next up is the 1938 film Bringing Up Baby featuring Hepburn and Cary Grant this time out.



The then 30-year old Hepburn plays a drop-dead gorgeous society heiress and full-time screwball. Grant plays a stuffy and overly serious palaeontologist chasing high-society money for his brontosaurus research project. The bulk of the picture takes place in a fictitious Connecticut "country home." Although a commercial miss when it was first released (as was The Wizard of Oz), it has since gone on to be considered a classic piece of comedy. Silly, stupid, and surprisingly enjoyable.

Recommended.

770

Circle Dock / Re: Version 1.55 - a Significant Release: Please Read Carefully

« Last post by 40hz on December 23, 2014, 08:48 AM »

^Hey it's sgtevmckay! Howdy stranger! Long time no see. Happy Holidays!

Suggestion: your main wiki is pointing people back to DoCo for tech support. You might also want to think about what you want to do with that too.

771

Living Room / Re: For better security, maybe it's time to abandon e-mail?

« Last post by 40hz on December 23, 2014, 07:53 AM »

Opt-in combined with a non-confrontational and measured tit-for-tat game strategy! It's a very powerful and attractive concept once you start thinking along those lines.

-40hz (December 22, 2014, 05:32 PM)

All very good points.  I'm assuming also that since media connects to an unknown resource, it would be media unfriendly?  And what about attachments and such?

-wraith808 (December 22, 2014, 09:33 PM)

Haven't a clue at this point. Anybody out there care to suggest something?

772

Living Room / Re: For better security, maybe it's time to abandon e-mail?

« Last post by 40hz on December 23, 2014, 07:32 AM »

There goes most support desk software and the best monitoring & training mechanism for support desk personnel. Without being able to import requester messages into a system, pass those messages between agents, keep a permanent, searchable log of all incoming messages and their responses, tying those individual conversations to customer accounts, etc. a lot of what support desk agents do via things like Zendesk, will not be possible.

-app103 (December 23, 2014, 05:01 AM)

Very good point! But I think this may be an example of a boundary situation that wouldn't affect most users.

However...

In this scenario, I don't think it would be unreasonable for a tech support agent to briefly explain why a message would need to be retained - and request that the sender turn off any blocks on message retention. That's no different than "your call may be monitored" when doing it by phone.

You could also employ tit-for-tat (after briefly explaining why message retention is so important) by saying that the ability to retain and use the message to provide better quality service, now, and  in the future is a condition of receiving tech support via e-mail. (Whether or not that's a genuinely valid argument I'll leave for another time. There's an awful lot of ingrained "we need to save everything" habits we're up against here. Just look at the NSA!) Doing it this way clearly defines and negotiates the "what" and "why" in an interaction. Something that is too often assumed - or decided unilaterally.

Most people (from my experience) are quite reasonable when given good reasons. The key factor here is "good reasons" rather than the more common and rather obnoxious: "I'm sorry you feel that way, but that's OUR policy!" sort of response we receive far too often. (note: while "Because I said so!" may be an appropriate response to a petulant child, it's a demeaning and insulting thing to say to the average adult. One way to reduce childish behavior is to stop treating adults like they're children. And to also stop acting like children ourselves.)

This sort of courtesy and rapid negotiation leaves both sides in control of how they want to handle their interaction. No different than how we do things F2F dozens of times a day. Why should e-mail or texting be any different?  (note: This may also help reduce some of those Jekyl/Hyde behaviors some people display when communicating electronically.)

Opt-in plus tit-for-tat. It's a wonderful thing. Add in courtesy and we're setting the stage for a new Golden Age of e-communication.  

773

Living Room / Re: For better security, maybe it's time to abandon e-mail?

« Last post by 40hz on December 22, 2014, 05:32 PM »

What else?

-40hz (December 22, 2014, 12:42 PM)

How about an option to totally disable the receiver from saving the message?

"This message will self-destruct in 5 minutes" (or upon closing).

-Deozaan (December 22, 2014, 04:39 PM)

Sounds good. But in order to make it more equitable for both sides I'd like it more if such a message announced itself as being a read-once message and then ask the receiver if they wish to accept or reject that condition. That keeps everything on an opt-in basis. If the receiver accepts, it works as the sender specifies. If the receiver rejects that restriction, it bounces back to the sender with a notification that "the intended receiver of your message did not agree to your read-once provision and has elected not to receive your message as sent."

Sort of like what sometimes happens when you block your phone's caller-ID. Some phone numbers (mine for one) will play a message that says my phone does not accept calls from parties that have blocked their caller-ID. It then suggests the caller temporarily unblock their caller-ID and try again.

Opt-in combined with a non-confrontational and measured tit-for-tat game strategy! It's a very powerful and attractive concept once you start thinking along those lines.

774

Circle Dock / Re: Version 1.55 - a Significant Release: Please Read Carefully

« Last post by 40hz on December 22, 2014, 03:05 PM »

So where is it?? I tried to access the original thread you mentioned here but I got an error message.

...The download is available, as always, from this topic.

Mark

-Markham (March 03, 2010, 03:25 AM)

-momashi (December 22, 2014, 02:14 PM)

Try looking here at SourceForge. Please note it was last updated in 2012 on SourceForge and it's still listed as an alpha. Version 0.92alpha8.2 to be precise. I'm guessing it's been orphaned.

Always best to check the dates on the post you're responding to. The one you're quoting is from March 2010. It's nearly 5 years since there's been anything posted in this thread.

Hope this was of help.

775

Living Room / Re: For better security, maybe it's time to abandon e-mail?

« Last post by 40hz on December 22, 2014, 01:58 PM »

Just the nature of the beast- if it is connected to the internet, it is with certainty hackable.

-SeraphimLabs (December 22, 2014, 01:03 PM)

True. In a purely mathematical model. But there are possibilities for success, and there are likelihoods of success. To reduce the liklihood of success to the point of where it statistically borders on the impossible is certainly attainable. Single-use cypher pads have already come very close to that ideal.

Even if it had been a message carried over the bitcoin blockchain, a hacker could have compromised the private key of an endpoint and still leaked that same message.

-SeraphimLabs (December 22, 2014, 01:03 PM)

Agree. The chain is only as strong as the weakest link. That's the real challenge here. How to make that weakest link incredibly strong.

I'm guessing some mechanism, whereby 'people' are removed from certain parts of the equation, is where it will need to go. With humans out of the picture in certain key areas, a major source of weakness is removed. It's no longer so much a "people problem" (i.e. insoluble) if there aren't people left in. QED.