Recent Posts

7551

Living Room / Re: Just like the MPAA didn't learn from the RIAA, the games industry is next

« Last post by wraith808 on February 08, 2012, 09:58 AM »

If we take the basic empirical approach, then there is no debate whatsoever -- ideas cannot be property. Period. You can only have exclusive access to an idea if you never share/reveal it. But even then, someone else might think of the same idea... History is full of these kinds of things, e.g. Calculus with Liebniz and Descartes, even though it was known elsewhere centuries before.

-Renegade (February 08, 2012, 12:06 AM)

While it is true that anything that you say or do that is not obfuscated in some manner cannot be owned, where does this leave the creative side of things?  If you take the money grubbing out, and leave out the non-personal aspect of the corporations, and get back to the very basics as my example above... where is it right or fair that someone who creates this idea and does all of the work on it loses it just because they want to share what they did with the world?

If I create something with my writing that inspires others, then that's a great thing.  But if someone takes my characters to make a profit off of those characters that I create, then in what place is that fair?  And is the only choice give it away or keep it to yourself?

7552

Living Room / Re: Just like the MPAA didn't learn from the RIAA, the games industry is next

« Last post by wraith808 on February 07, 2012, 09:58 PM »

The fallacy of ideas as property is the core problem. As long as people cling to that, there will be conflict.

-Renegade (February 07, 2012, 07:14 PM)

I think that this is a case of no one going to the middle.  You have one side that thinks that ideas cannot and should not have ownership, and others that think that they have to hold onto it with both hands.  IMO, neither is correct.  When we say that you cannot own an idea, then the characters that we have grown up with become meaningless.  That's when despite the wishes of Bill Watterson, when he decides not to make any more Calvin and Hobbes cartoons, someone else makes cheap rip-offs for the money... or even worse, they do it while he's publishing his.

I understand the concept of what you're saying (probably) isn't advocating this, but isn't this the same thing that a lot of our protests against PIPA and SOPA are about?  The abilities that these laws give rather than in many case the truths of what would come about even if passed?

7553

General Software Discussion / Re: Is WinZip still worth updating?

« Last post by wraith808 on February 07, 2012, 04:26 PM »

It's not that I mind paying for good software, but this is an area that has been "developed out" in my book, there is nothing that adds value over the free alternatives anymore, so paying yearly feels a bit like throwing away money.

-Jibz (February 07, 2012, 06:46 AM)

^ this.  I still have my old sub to winzip that my wife uses, but I use 7-zip and directory opus' built in zip.

7554

Living Room / Re: Just like the MPAA didn't learn from the RIAA, the games industry is next

« Last post by wraith808 on February 07, 2012, 02:59 PM »

Don't boycott those games. Buy them used if you want them.

-Deozaan (February 07, 2012, 01:12 PM)

I wouldn't even buy them *used*.  Buying them used creates a market... I want it to get to the point where this @$$hat's work isn't even worth reselling... you walk into Gamestop and they tell you "We can't buy your new version of Saint's Row 4 because no one will buy it."  That makes people even less likely to buy them new.

7555

Living Room / Just like the MPAA didn't learn from the RIAA, the games industry is next

« Last post by wraith808 on February 07, 2012, 10:18 AM »

Maybe not, but it could be if idiots like this get their say.

Blog post by Jameson Durall against used games.

From the comments - if you want to boycott this idiot's games, just have good taste!

Saints Row 4 (To Be Announced)
inSANE (2013)
Saints Row: The Third (2011)
Red Faction: Armageddon (2011)
Red Faction: Guerrilla (2009)
Saints Row 2 (2008)
Saints Row (2006)
The Punisher (2005)
Red Faction II (2002)
Summoner 2 (2002)
Red Faction (2001)
Summoner (2000)
FreeSpace 2 (1999)
Descent: FreeSpace – The Great War (1998)

7556

Living Room / Re: Main hard drive in my PC died today suddenly

« Last post by wraith808 on February 07, 2012, 06:05 AM »

I might actually purchase some separately to see if that helps, but I just wondered if anyone had any experience with this.

-wraith808 (February 06, 2012, 08:21 PM)

If the SATA cable/connections are dodgy I usually get 'Delayed Write Fail' errors or an EventID of 51, 'An error was detected on device xxxxx during a paging operation.' in the Windows System Eventlog.

-4wd (February 06, 2012, 08:36 PM)

Thanks for that!  I did a search of the event log, and sure enough, on the day that I was having a great many of the problems and decided to back up the HD, I was getting a bunch of errors like that.

I still don't see how I can have the same problem twice!  Guess I'm ordering more SATA cables!

7557

Living Room / Re: Main hard drive in my PC died today suddenly

« Last post by wraith808 on February 06, 2012, 08:21 PM »

Did you throw away the old SATA cables, and inserted new ones? That might be the only way to actually get rid of this problem.
Then use HDS Pro to reset the SMART counter.

-Ath (February 06, 2012, 04:56 PM)

I did that.  I had SATA cables from a completely different MB that I'd not had to use, and I replaced them with those.  I might actually purchase some separately to see if that helps, but I just wondered if anyone had any experience with this.

7558

Living Room / Re: Main hard drive in my PC died today suddenly

« Last post by wraith808 on February 06, 2012, 04:49 PM »

So... my hard drive has been acting 'funny'.  By funny, I mean it will become unrecognized from Windows (running Windows 7 32-bit) until I shut down the PC and start it up again.  I've had this problem before; I thought the drive was bad so I purchased another, but changed out the SATA cable and it started working again.

Since I put the other drive that I purchased in the PC so have way too much room in it, it was trivial to copy everything from the misbehaving drive to the behaving one.  Then I remembered I have HD Sentinel Pro, so started running it (duh).  It tells me that everything is OK with my drive, other than one tidbit - "Hard drive failed communicating with host 4655 times".  Everything is in the green... that one message is the only bad thing.

I found on hd sentinel's forums: http://www.hdsentine....php?f=18&t=1219

Thanks for the question.

Usually this problem is not related to the hard disk and I can make sure it does not cause data loss.
(if no other problem is reported, the Health should be 100%).

Such data communication problems are caused by incorrect, loose SATA cable connections.
Hard disks log all of these problems in its lifetime and this is what Hard Disk Sentinel reads and displays.

But in a new system (if proper cables and connections used), these problems can
be completely ignored as they were caused by the old system.

Now (in your system), you may even use Hard Disk Sentinel to reset the error counter:
on SMART page of the drive,
please locate the Ultra ATA CRC error count attribute.
Please locate the "Offset" column for this attribute, click on the 0 between - and +
and enter the number of problems reported but with negative sign ( -4738 ).

This will reset the error-counter to zero. So the error text will be removed from the text description
and it will be displayed again only if there will be new such problems found.

Personally I'd also recommend to use the tests in Hard Disk Sentinel to verify if the drive is
really working correctly, error-free and the stored data is safe.
Please check http://www.hdsentinel.com/faq.php#tests for more information about the
recommended steps.

I hope I could help.

Please let me know if you have any questions.
You may also use Report menu -> Send test report to developer option so I can check the
hard disk status and may advise.

But I couldn't be that unlucky with SATA cables, could I?  I've checked the connections (even to the point of taking them off and putting them back on), but nothing seemed to be wrong.

*sigh* I hate hard drives.

7559

Living Room / Re: According To FBI, Internet Privacy Now Considered Suspicious

« Last post by wraith808 on February 06, 2012, 03:26 PM »

See, 40hz... I'd resisted.  Now let the floodgates open! 

"change into a fish"

"cthulu2012"

"despair you can believe in"

"no more years"

7560

Living Room / Re: According To FBI, Internet Privacy Now Considered Suspicious

« Last post by wraith808 on February 06, 2012, 12:14 PM »

http://xkcd.com/1013/

The Alt Text: "You will be led to judgement like lambs to the slaughter--a simile whose existence, I might add, will not do your species any favors."

7561

Living Room / Re: According To FBI, Internet Privacy Now Considered Suspicious

« Last post by wraith808 on February 04, 2012, 10:54 AM »

America's return to McArtyism!

-LaKraven (February 04, 2012, 08:08 AM)

... McCarthyism^w?

7562

Living Room / Re: Legitimate Ubisoft Games unplayable next week because of ludicrous DRM

« Last post by wraith808 on February 02, 2012, 10:08 PM »

i've given up on Ubisoft long ago.

-lanux128 (February 02, 2012, 08:08 PM)

It's just hard when they make such entertaining games.  So I've started to have the policy of only playing ubisoft games on my xbox 360.

7563

Living Room / Re: Legitimate Ubisoft Games unplayable next week because of ludicrous DRM

« Last post by wraith808 on February 02, 2012, 02:10 PM »

Yeah... I get games there.  But that doesn't solve the problem... which was why I wanted to bring it to light.

7564

Living Room / Legitimate Ubisoft Games unplayable next week because of ludicrous DRM

« Last post by wraith808 on February 02, 2012, 01:03 PM »

Assassin's Creed, Might and Magic, Settlers unplayable during Ubisoft server switch (via Destructoid)

Normally, a day that the game is unplayable isn't a big deal... except that this is a situation completely of UbiSoft's creation because of their inane DRM.

Thanks to Ubisoft's insidious "always-on" DRM, legitimate copies of several Ubisoft titles will be unplayable next week. The publisher is shifting its servers, which would usually only affect multiplayer games, but will instead cut off access to a number of single-player titles that require Orwellian checkups via an Internet connection.

7565

Living Room / Re: As a counter-point to the SOPA/PIPA demonstration

« Last post by wraith808 on February 01, 2012, 10:49 PM »

Feds: We obtained MegaUpload conversations with search warrant

7566

Living Room / Who needs SOPA? Website accused of defamation is closed by judge

« Last post by wraith808 on February 01, 2012, 10:47 PM »

Website accused of defamation is closed by judge

7567

Living Room / Re: NaGa DeMon

« Last post by wraith808 on February 01, 2012, 12:33 PM »

I have a friend who wanted some motivation and an excuse to spend a month focused on programming a game, so he came up with NaGa ProMo: National Game Programming Month.

Today is the first day. Get coding!

-Deozaan (February 01, 2012, 11:24 AM)

You might want to make a separate thread for it to get increased exposure over burying it within an old thread...

7568

Living Room / Re: US Government questions

« Last post by wraith808 on January 31, 2012, 03:52 PM »

The cabinet in general refers to the heads of the 15 federal executive departments.  They must be confirmed by the Senate by a simple majority.  Cabinet-level officers refers to those members of the Cabinet that are not heads of one of the aforementioned departments.  Some are, however, governed by the same law of appointment as the Cabinet, but many are not, most notably the Chief of Staff and Press Secretary (which are not subject to the Senate at all), and the Vice President (which is a duly-elected official).

Three interesting links on this:

http://www.whitehous...ministration/cabinet

http://learning.blog...peek-in-the-cabinet/

http://www.propublic...ht-answers-to-myself

(The third one is especially interesting... if only tangentially)

7569

Living Room / Re: All-In-One Multi-Touch Computers - Thoughts?

« Last post by wraith808 on January 31, 2012, 01:48 PM »

Looks like they're taking a page from teracopy...

-wraith808 (January 31, 2012, 10:03 AM)

Huh? You mean Microsoft is going to focus on Android and iOS products and ignore their mainstream products?!  (       )

-J-Mac (January 31, 2012, 10:54 AM)

That went over my head...

7570

Living Room / Re: All-In-One Multi-Touch Computers - Thoughts?

« Last post by wraith808 on January 31, 2012, 10:03 AM »

Looks like they're taking a page from teracopy...

7571

Living Room / Re: All-In-One Multi-Touch Computers - Thoughts?

« Last post by wraith808 on January 30, 2012, 01:12 PM »

As someone who has dabbled in both paths, I like a good combination.  I like to have my uber-hot-rod pc for esoteric applications... but I also like to have my comfort devices that I know will just work when I pick them up.  And in an ideal situation, they'll be ruggedized so that when the hot rod pc gives me fits, they can survive being thrown against the wall. 

7572

Living Room / Re: As a counter-point to the SOPA/PIPA demonstration

« Last post by wraith808 on January 30, 2012, 10:04 AM »

^ You have to wonder, right?  Especially as deleting the evidence will put them in the way of several possible damage suits from people who have done legitimate business with the company.

I love this comment on that story also:

This Kim Dotcom guy looks like a very serious criminal.  Are they going to hang him, or just give him the usual two shots in the back of the head? 

7573

General Software Discussion / Re: Best Windows 7 desktop background changer?

« Last post by wraith808 on January 27, 2012, 07:34 AM »

Actually you're right. I guess I got it mixed up with one of the others that I tried. But whenever I try to add my image directory hierarchy, it crashes. Every single time, and I tried 5 times, with variations each time. This was using Cycler Lite.

-jshare (January 27, 2012, 02:26 AM)

I'd contact the developer.  I'm using a lot of wallpapers in a pretty deep folder structure, and I have no problems at all.

7574

Living Room / Re: Is our perception of worth/value affected by venue?

« Last post by wraith808 on January 26, 2012, 04:16 PM »

Anchoring, on the other hand, can do much more than just allow us to indulge in bad thinking.

NLP makes extensive use of anchoring for self improvement and performance enhancement. What you basically do is become consciously aware of the effect of anchoring on your thinking, get yourself into the mental state you want, and then set a physical trigger to invoke the anchor you've just created. Then, whenever you need to get into that state, invoke the trigger, and you're there.

-40hz (January 26, 2012, 03:30 PM)

Well, yes... I understand that.  But my point is that the anchor wasn't set by the article, as I found that in research after the fact, rather than before.

7575

General Software Discussion / Re: Best Windows 7 desktop background changer?

« Last post by wraith808 on January 26, 2012, 03:27 PM »

Mike- thanks for that. I tried Cycler but it doesn't let me change more frequently than 1 minute.

-jshare (January 26, 2012, 04:19 AM)

Eh?  Unless that's a limit of the free one, I don't understand.



And it works perfectly well.  And it doesn't seem to be on the list of limitations...

Freeware Limitations

Wallpaper Cycler Lite is a freeware version. The freeware version of Wallpaper Cycler has the following limitations but can be used as a fully functional basic wallpaper cycler. The freeware version is not time limited.

No layout system (because of this: no quotes, no calendars, no RSS feeds, no notes...).
No tags.
No search folders.
No effects system.
No gradient and URL wallpapers.