Recent Posts

7651

Living Room / Re: Five Reasons Why People Hate Apple

« Last post by Renegade on May 04, 2011, 11:46 AM »

Doing the rounds on Digg today... (see attachment in previous post)

-nosh (May 04, 2011, 11:33 AM)

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA~!

That was sexcellent~!

7652

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Zoner 13

« Last post by Renegade on May 04, 2011, 11:22 AM »

Does this offer any benefit (e.g. speed) over Photoshop?

7653

Living Room / Re: Five Reasons Why People Hate Apple

« Last post by Renegade on May 04, 2011, 11:18 AM »

Ummm... You know that there's a reason why retail pays minimum wage?

-Renegade (May 04, 2011, 09:22 AM)

Maybe it's more like the low pay means only idiots do the job.

-Eóin (May 04, 2011, 11:14 AM)

Yep! Same thing!

I've encountered some seriously racist sales people here in Melbourne. I suppose that they thought because I had a North American accent and that because I'm white makes it ok. Ummm... Guess again...

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Developer's Corner / WTF is Wrong with Web Developers? (Rant)

« Last post by Renegade on May 04, 2011, 09:52 AM »

I've been trying to be positive, but I just can't take this anymore...

It's virtually impossible to find a web site that actually works properly.

What is wrong with web developers?

Looking at web APIs with some of the worst documentation... Consistently seeing pages that don't display properly...

But what's worse, is it seems like nobody has heard of error checking. I estimate that probably 20% or more of non-major sites, but still regular commerce sites, don't know how to handle a post properly.

I'm just really tired of seeing, "Oh, sorry, we don't do any error checking, and don't know what regular expressions are, so we're just going to puke in your face instead. Thank you for your understanding."

Sigh...

Is it just me? Or do other people find that the web is still crap?

(My main gripe is the inability to properly process a form.)

7655

Living Room / Re: Five Reasons Why People Hate Apple

« Last post by Renegade on May 04, 2011, 09:22 AM »

She didn't belive that you can still just use USB (which is required for setting up the WiFi) with the "WiFi" printer? Load the printer with sandpaper and then print a phonebook ... The issue should then solve itself...

-Stoic Joker (May 03, 2011, 12:02 PM)

  Good one, I might just have to try that!

I could have gone back and killed the salesperson (and rue the fact that I didn't go with my mum's friend into the shop) - I find salespeople these days really ANNOYING. All the old bird wanted was an $80 HP Laserjet and she walked out empty-handed because the salesperson couldn't stop talking up all of the features, including the built-in wireless networking. My mum's friend is technophobic to the point of anxiety, and she concluded that you have to have wi-fi to connect the printer (and not that you have to have USB connectivity to connnect to a wi-fi network). Grr... I ran into an officious little turd of a salesperson like that myself at The Source (a pale version of Radio Shack in Canada) who tried to impress me with his networking chops. All I wanted was a Network Switch. He asked what I wanted to do with it, and after I told him (run 50 feet of cable from my wi-fi router's LAN port under my house to the switch to connect my TV, blu-ray player and xBox to my network), proceeded to tell me that what I wanted to do wouldn't work. He wanted to sell me either a secondary router or some other EXTREMELY expensive contraption. I know that the LAN router would have worked, but that's not the point. I can't stand being fed techo-mumble that serves only to (try to) assert the salesperson's credbility with the customer. Can't remember the details of his argument, but needless to say Futureshop got my business and I've been happily networked for a couple of months now.

-Darwin (May 04, 2011, 08:55 AM)

Ummm... You know that there's a reason why retail pays minimum wage?

7656

General Software Discussion / Re: Brilliantly Simple Programs, that's what I'm looking for

« Last post by Renegade on May 04, 2011, 05:31 AM »

+1 for PureText - It's an excellent program. Forgot about that as I don't use it all that much anymore. (Only when I need it a lot -- I should put it in startup though...)

7657

Living Room / Re: Congratz to the US Military Forces!

« Last post by Renegade on May 04, 2011, 05:28 AM »

Like the collateral damage on both sides and friendly fire, that is a sure sign of incompetence.

-cmpm (May 04, 2011, 04:37 AM)

I believe the technical excuse is "fog of war".

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Living Room / Re: Congratz to the US Military Forces!

« Last post by Renegade on May 04, 2011, 03:53 AM »

My suggestion was in full earnest! I really think you deserve it 

-phitsc (May 04, 2011, 03:04 AM)

I find the topic lends itself well to humor. Like what else can you do?

Personal Note

I've been trying to be more positive and not rant as much. Ranting isn't really very productive. I still can't help myself sometimes though...

7659

Living Room / Re: Congratz to the US Military Forces!

« Last post by Renegade on May 04, 2011, 03:47 AM »

Had they said that they tried to seize him, but had to shoot him in self defence (even if it wasn't true), it would have been a different situation.

-phitsc (May 04, 2011, 03:02 AM)

Highly reliable sources (again, the voices in my head), delivered this transcript:

These are voices in my head... Do you really want to click?

S1: "Oh my god! He's got a blanket. Repeat... He's got a BLANKET! And he's reaching for a PILLOW NOW!"

BANG BANG~!

S1: "Target pacified. Shit man... That was one bitchin' pillow... I think I need to change my shorts. Hey... He's got a diaper on his head! Of all the luck!"

S2: "Navy Seals 1. Old man, 0."

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General Software Discussion / Re: Brilliantly Simple Programs, that's what I'm looking for

« Last post by Renegade on May 04, 2011, 03:39 AM »

Now, trying to think of simple programs that I use that I really like for that reason...

ALSong, ALPlayer and ALZip. (Disclaimer - I used to work for the company.) They're simply excellent.

Skype. Very simple & easy to use.

But I don't really have many programs that are simple... Most are pretty complex.

Once I sort of start looking at other programs that I really like and use a lot, probably Screenshot Captor is next. It's fairly simple, but not all that simple. It's got a lot in it though, so I don't know if it really counts as simple. But for other software, I've tended in the past towards things not complex.

There are some developer tools that I'd consider simple, but really, nah. They're not simple in the normal sense of the word.

7661

General Software Discussion / Re: Brilliantly Simple Programs, that's what I'm looking for

« Last post by Renegade on May 04, 2011, 03:10 AM »

Hahaha~!

That's my current project~!

Super Simple!

I'm currently working on making uploading photos to Twitter and Facebook 1-click easy. Ok, well, 2-clicks. But faster and easier than a web browser anyways.

I've finished adding cropping to Photo Resizer, and it's a single click.

Some testing with cute pics:

http://twitpic.com/photos/RenegadeMinds

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Living Room / Re: Congratz to the US Military Forces!

« Last post by Renegade on May 04, 2011, 12:01 AM »

You're really going for that clown badge, aren't you?   

Funny tho! 

-nosh (May 03, 2011, 11:48 PM)

Hell yeah~!

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Living Room / Re: Congratz to the US Military Forces!

« Last post by Renegade on May 03, 2011, 11:42 PM »

A possibility just crossed my mind - what if they have him alive in a dungeon somewhere? Would make perfect sense from a counter-terrorism POV. No accusations of torture, easy to produce and verify DNA evidence and show the world it was indeed him, even easy to fake death images or video if you have the guy alive.

-nosh (May 03, 2011, 11:18 PM)

I'd expect Al Quaida to storm in with their +5 Vorpal daggers, boots of speed, potions of healing, fireballs and magic missiles~!

7664

Living Room / Re: Apple Patent Reveals Extensive Stalking Plans

« Last post by Renegade on May 03, 2011, 11:05 PM »

Here's something I found funny:

http://www.xbitlabs....ent_of_the_Year.html

A user comment:

Intel is making significant technology news all the time. They are so cutting-edge all the time. But in a good way, not like Apple, that causes anxiety and overwhelming feelings.

Hahahahahahahahaahahahahaha~!   

7665

Living Room / Re: Apple Patent Reveals Extensive Stalking Plans

« Last post by Renegade on May 03, 2011, 11:04 PM »

Too funny! The above gawker link locked up my iPhone twice when I tried to read it! My client just tried it on her's. Same result.

-40hz (May 03, 2011, 02:04 PM)

I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing because there's a PDF file embedded in the site.

-Deozaan (May 03, 2011, 10:50 PM)

And we all know Steve Jobs LOOOOOOVES Adobe~! 

7666

Living Room / Re: The internet in 1990 -- holy smokes!

« Last post by Renegade on May 03, 2011, 10:19 PM »

Beyond that, I guess I'm just burned out by non-stop economic "plans" coming from talking heads on the Internet and TV.  Put a hundred economists in a room, get a hundred different opinions, many of them motivated more by politics than by reason.

-mrainey (May 03, 2011, 09:27 PM)

And that is the sad part...

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Living Room / Re: Apple Patent Reveals Extensive Stalking Plans

« Last post by Renegade on May 03, 2011, 10:14 PM »

Under the circumstances I'd of been happy with just the first paragraph ... But I guess it is hard to just tap the ball...

-Stoic Joker (May 03, 2011, 09:34 PM)

Hahahah~!

They could have been honest about it, but they weren't. Like what is wrong with those people?

Location based services are a great idea.

As a simple example, just imagine what LBS could do when tied into car sensors -- you know where you went, how fast, and what your fuel levels were at each point. WOW~! Now you've got a MASSIVE data set that can tell you which routes cost more to drive and which routes are going to save you fuel, which in turn reduces emissions and results in a more environmentally friendly car.

LBS is a great thing. Tracking can be very good.

But nobody wants the Electric Eye^w...

"Electric Eye" is an allusion to the book Nineteen Eighty-Four^w by George Orwell, in the use of the name of the pseudo-omnniscient satellite that watches over the community at all times. In this dystopia, the form of government, Ingsoc (Newspeak for English Socialism), is utterly totalitarian, and if citizens are caught rebelling in any manner, they "disappear". The song has been called "prescient" for its depiction of a modern surveillance state.

Electric Eye

Up here in space
 I'm looking down on you.
 My lasers trace
 Everything you do.
You think you've private lives
 Think nothing of the kind.
 There is no true escape

 I'm watching all the time.
 I'm made of metal
 My circuits gleam.
 I am perpetual
 I keep the country clean.

 I'm elected electric spy
 I protected electric eye.
 Always in focus
 You can't feel my stare.
 I zoom into you
 You don't know I'm there.
 I take a pride in probing all your secret moves
 My tearless retina takes pictures that can prove.

 Electric eye, in the sky
 Feel my stare, always there
 's nothing you can do about it.
 Develop and expose
 I feed upon your every thought
 And so my power grows.
 Protected. Detective. Electric eye.

Yes. I just compared Apple to 1984. If the shoe fits...

7668

Living Room / Re: The internet in 1990 -- holy smokes!

« Last post by Renegade on May 03, 2011, 07:57 PM »

It seems to me that every discipline has issues that it cannot address from inside, and that someone outside needs to address the issue. This is the same sort of thing Godel addresses when he talks about true propositions that are not provable within the system and another system being needed.

Computing has this problem a lot of the time when you see how developers get excited about adding features, but what users need is something else. Developers see one thing that others don't, and vice versa.

In the same way I think the field of economics/finance suffers from the same sorts of problem. (My take on it is that they're blinded by the term "efficient" [as in "efficient markets"] and seriously need to rethink their entire approach because it's not working - if it were, we'd not have a major crisis every X years.)

My qualifications are that my formal training is in logic.

7669

Living Room / Re: Apple Patent Reveals Extensive Stalking Plans

« Last post by Renegade on May 03, 2011, 07:01 PM »

Everyone here already has a vast vocabulary of profanities, obscenities, curse and swear words, so you already know my opinion on the topic.

-Renegade (May 03, 2011, 04:09 PM)

  But you do it so well... 

-Stoic Joker (May 03, 2011, 04:51 PM)

I'm really trying to be more positive and avoid ranting. I'd rather rave about great products and services than scream about bad ones and evil companies. There's just nothing very good to say about Apple.

-Renegade (May 03, 2011, 05:06 PM)

Understood, but you had mentioned in another thread that you were curious about how much of the iTracking story was actually true/hype. So I was hoping to get your take on how well the patent story/angle held water (e.g. I know shit about patents).

The highlight of your rants has always been (for me anyway) your extremely in-depth understanding of the architecture & detail provided, the whit is always good, and screaming fuck of course is optional.

-Stoic Joker (May 03, 2011, 06:05 PM)

True - this pretty much nails Apple for a flat out black lie. It looks very much like they are more than guilty of everything they've been accused of, and more.

Looking at the patent briefly, it looks like nothing more than the normal, par for the course, average, every day common attempt to rape people/the patent system with obvious nonsense.

http://www.google.co...ion+aware+devices%22

For example:

8. The method of claim 1, where the database is included in the location aware device and is configured to be searchable by a user of the location aware device.

9. The method of claim 8, where the database is configured to be queried for at least a portion of the location history data.

Ahem, with respect to #8, in the "tech world", we call that functionality "SELECT".

With respect to #9, we call that functionality "WHERE".

Like

profanity

Jesus fucking Christ

... How pathetic can you possibly get? This is not innovation. This is not "non-obvious". This is blatant crap.

Here's the patent (zipped PDF):

12_553_534_Location_Histories_for_Locati.zip (114.94 kB - downloaded 209 times.)

There's nothing novel in the patent application. It's all been done before in one form or another. C3 and C4i systems do a lot of that already, and they've been around for a long time. (Combat systems.)

But that's just the patent aspect of it. Like I said, another pathetic attempt to rape people through the patent system.

Then there are sites like "PatentlyApple.com":



Crap like that drives me batty.

NSFW

It makes me want to bash in their heads and skull-fuck them to inject some sense into them.

And we haven't even gotten to to the ethical issues behind lying, cheating, and stealing...

(Reminds me of "Intolerance" by Tool.)

Intolerance

Tool Intolerance

I don't want to be hostile
 And I don't want to be dismal
 But I don't want to rot in
 An apathetic existance

 See, I want to believe you
 And I wanted to trust you
 And I want to have faith to
 Put away the dagger

 But you lie, cheat and steal
 You lie, cheat and steal
 You lie, cheat and steal
 And yet I tolerate you

 You lie, cheat and steal
 You lie, cheat and steal
 You lie, cheat and steal
 And yet I tolerate you

 Veil of virtue hung to hide your method
 While I smileing and laughing and dance
 And sing and praise your glory
 Shroud of virtue hung to mask your stigma
 As I smile and laugh and dance
 And sing your glory
 While you

 Lie, cheat and steal
 You lie, cheat and steal
 You lie, cheat and steal
 How can I tolerate you?

 You lie, cheat and steal
 You lie, cheat and steal
 You lie, cheat and steal
 How can I tolerate?

 Our guilt, our blame
 I've been far too sympathetic
 Our blood, our fault
 I've been far too sympathetic

 I am not innocent
 You are not innocent
 No one is innocent

 You lie, cheat and steal
 You lie, cheat and steal
 You lie, cheat and steal
 You lie, cheat and steal

 You lie, cheat and steal
 You lie, cheat and steal
 You lie, cheat and steal
 You lie, cheat and steal

 You lie, cheat and steal
 You lie, cheat and steal
 You lie, cheat and steal
 You lie, cheat and steal
 (crescendo)
 You lie, cheat and steal
 You lie, cheat and steal
 You lie, cheat and steal
 You lie, cheat and steal

 I will no longer tolerate you
 Even if I must go down beside you
 I must go down beside you
 No one is innocent

There are legitimate uses for location tracking. Location tracking is a good thing. It's the lying and deception that's the problem.

I've pointed out this exact issue before and how Samsung deals with it in their bada mobile operating system. They're up front about it. They put the user in complete control. The bada SDK has all of this stuff in it and you can do it all -- but ONLY after you've been vetted by Samsung, come up with a user-friendly privacy agreement, and had you application tested. Samsung is doing this exact same thing the right way. That's fine. Apple is NOT doing this the right way. They're being sneaky, deceptive

profanity

cunts

.


Sigh... You had to go and set me off, didn't you~!

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Living Room / Re: Apple Patent Reveals Extensive Stalking Plans

« Last post by Renegade on May 03, 2011, 05:06 PM »

Everyone here already has a vast vocabulary of profanities, obscenities, curse and swear words, so you already know my opinion on the topic.

-Renegade (May 03, 2011, 04:09 PM)

  But you do it so well... 

-Stoic Joker (May 03, 2011, 04:51 PM)

I'm really trying to be more positive and avoid ranting. I'd rather rave about great products and services than scream about bad ones and evil companies. There's just nothing very good to say about Apple.

7671

Developer's Corner / Re: Code Samples from Microsoft

« Last post by Renegade on May 03, 2011, 04:42 PM »

O_o ...So this is a prepackaged downloadable local searchable library of code samples? Or am I missing something? Either was it looks handy as hell.

-Stoic Joker (May 03, 2011, 07:28 AM)

It lists things so you can search, then download. I don't think it downloads them all to start, but you can do that if you want.

7672

General Software Discussion / Re: Pirated Software and Viruses? Ahem... No. I don't want to help you...

« Last post by Renegade on May 03, 2011, 04:23 PM »

I think this is ours (software authors') fault. We cannot sell the software properly.

-vlastimil (May 03, 2011, 03:07 PM)

This is a very real problem. And probably one of the most common things you read about in developer forums (except here -- for some reason there isn't a lot of discussion about that here).

A little about OC

I hate to dredge up dirty laundry, but this is one of the reasons that I decided to try out OpenCandy. It offers software authors a way to capitalize on their software with larger companies picking up the tab.

Selling software is tough. A lot of people don't see the value in software. I'd posted a link in another thread where the author in part blamed free software for destroying markets (specifically he blamed Google for some problems). I think that's true in some ways.

Arbitrage in advertising has hiked prices up far above fair values, which in turn further damages legitimate markets.

The current best ways to market software are exactly what software authors do not want to do. Like who wants to 'get social' when you can do something cool like learn a new social SDK?

Shameless plug: For software authors, have a look at some of my blog posts on RoboSoft. It's a start, and since a lot of it is technical, it's an easier transition to get into some better marketing techniques.

@superboyac +1

7673

Living Room / Re: Apple Patent Reveals Extensive Stalking Plans

« Last post by Renegade on May 03, 2011, 04:09 PM »

Everyone here already has a vast vocabulary of profanities, obscenities, curse and swear words, so you already know my opinion on the topic.

7674

Developer's Corner / Re: Code Samples from Microsoft

« Last post by Renegade on May 02, 2011, 11:52 PM »

They really are essential.

Sure, you *can* go through documentation and spend a week or more figuring things out, or you can fast track it with a simple example.

So much of the code that I need to write depends on some framework or SDK or API, and with a lot of the documentation being either non-existent or useless, samples are a godsend. Granted, Microsoft does a great job of documentation, so examples really only speed things up rather than make thing minimally accessible.

Well, back to an SDK that really could use some better docs and more samples... I wish I could use 1code for it... sigh...

7675

Developer's Corner / Code Samples from Microsoft

« Last post by Renegade on May 02, 2011, 10:46 PM »

I'd not seen this before:

http://1code.codeplex.com/

•    Are you frustrated by the lack of code samples for a certain programming task?
  
•    Have you ever struggled to quickly get started with a technique?
  
•    Have you expected someone to write code samples for you based on your requests for free?
  
•    Is a one-stop code sample library for all Microsoft development technologies attractive to you?

If your answer is YES to any of these questions, the Microsoft All-In-One Code Framework is for you!

The Microsoft All-In-One Code Framework is a free, centralized code sample library driven by developers' needs. Our goal is to provide typical code samples for all Microsoft development technologies, and reduce developers' efforts in solving typical programming tasks.

Very nice!

#3 in the list was funny. I hate people that say, "I want to do this. Please send me the complete code. No part. Must be full." Grrr...