Recent Posts

8076

Living Room / Re: Steam: Savior or Slayer of PC Gaming?

« Last post by wraith808 on August 07, 2011, 04:52 PM »

Sad thing is if you're a gamer, you're likely going to end up with the requirement to be online to game (or at least *have* an Internet connection for activation) whether you're on Steam or not. See recent Ubisoft games for example...

-JavaJones (August 07, 2011, 03:59 PM)

There was enough of an outcry against this practice that they backed away from it.  That's the key thing- if it hurts the bottom line, they won't do it.  That's the only thing that they learn from.  And a large enough bloc has to have the willingness to do so.

8077

Living Room / Re: Steam: Savior or Slayer of PC Gaming?

« Last post by wraith808 on August 06, 2011, 03:03 PM »

So is it just me, or do other people have as big a hangup about gaming over the web (and generally consider the whole thing a mistake) as I do?

-40hz (August 05, 2011, 12:31 PM)

I enjoy gaming over the web because I don't have visitors very often and I don't have multiple computers to play the games I want to play.

I do not (usually) enjoy gaming over the web with strangers, especially competitively. I prefer cooperation or at least I prefer to know some/most of the people I'm playing with, even if I don't know them "IRL" but just as online friends/acquaintances.

-Deozaan (August 06, 2011, 02:33 PM)

This.  Though even though I don't game with strangers, I don't begrudge anyone that does, nor think that its a mistake.

8078

Living Room / Re: Steam: Savior or Slayer of PC Gaming?

« Last post by wraith808 on August 06, 2011, 12:59 PM »

^ Ummm... have you tried this recently?  All you have to do is restart, and it will ask you to go to offline mode.  They fixed that a long time ago.

-wraith808 (August 06, 2011, 09:52 AM)

Tried it yesterday lol, It refused point blank to go into offline mode, which means I cant even play Supreme Commander 2 in offline mode

-Stephen66515 (August 06, 2011, 10:45 AM)

Did you quit steam then restart?  That's when it asks you if you want to go into offline mode?  You can't just start the game, you have to restart steam in my experience.

8079

Living Room / Re: Steam: Savior or Slayer of PC Gaming?

« Last post by wraith808 on August 06, 2011, 09:52 AM »

^ Ummm... have you tried this recently?  All you have to do is restart, and it will ask you to go to offline mode.  They fixed that a long time ago.

8080

Living Room / Re: Why ebooks are bad for you

« Last post by wraith808 on August 05, 2011, 01:19 PM »

First you never tried, and now you can't.

-Stoic Joker (August 05, 2011, 01:14 PM)

I could, and it would probably be more effective... once.  And I'm sure if you had an iPad, it would be your flyswatter.

8081

Living Room / Re: Steam: Savior or Slayer of PC Gaming?

« Last post by wraith808 on August 05, 2011, 01:10 PM »

One thing I can't understand with Steam is that after buying locally, on a physical medium, Steam still jumps in and prevents play… for days. I must be missing something — probably a brain.

Anyone care to enlighten me?

-cranioscopical (August 05, 2011, 10:35 AM)

I have no idea of what you refer to.  I've never been prevented from playing anything for any amount of time, let alone days.  Well, I was in the beginning of Steam.  But now with offline mode, unless it's a game that requires online connectivity, no.

8082

Living Room / Re: Why ebooks are bad for you

« Last post by wraith808 on August 05, 2011, 01:05 PM »

I guess I'm a heretic, because I've always been a reader, and I don't miss anything about physical books.

-wraith808 (August 05, 2011, 07:24 AM)

Yeah? ...Try swatting a fly with your iPad and get back to me on that.

 

-Stoic Joker (August 05, 2011, 12:04 PM)

I never swatted flies with my physical books - I think you're the heretic! 

8083

Living Room / Re: Steam: Savior or Slayer of PC Gaming?

« Last post by wraith808 on August 05, 2011, 08:53 AM »

Want to download a purchase from iTunes? Ooops... Sorry. Please buy that again. (Wasn't happy when I went back to download a purchase and found that out.)

-Renegade (August 05, 2011, 07:43 AM)

Apparently they finally figured out that this was a bad idea; you can download old purchase now, and retroactively.

8084

Living Room / Re: Steam: Savior or Slayer of PC Gaming?

« Last post by wraith808 on August 05, 2011, 07:29 AM »

To paraphrase a quote from the article for my own purposes:

{I} want a simpler, more unified experience. The verdict is in: {I} like using Steam. Why? Cause it's easy, it's lightweight, and it can work on multiple platforms. PC is an incredibly broad term, with just about everyone owning and operating a personal computing device of some sort.

Also, I like not having physical media, and being able to get the game again whenever I want.

8085

Living Room / Re: Why ebooks are bad for you

« Last post by wraith808 on August 05, 2011, 07:24 AM »

There truly is nothing comparable to holding a real book in your hands. It feels like the essence of the book is lost when it is read on a kindle. I appreciate the benefits, but I think there is some sort of enjoyment factor which isn't quite there when it isn't the real thing...

-CodeBoy (August 05, 2011, 03:04 AM)

I guess I'm a heretic, because I've always been a reader, and I don't miss anything about physical books.  Other than reference books, which I've tried to use in digital form, but it's hard, everything else is a better experience.  Of course, I felt the same way about hardbacks vs softbacks, so...

8086

General Software Discussion / Re: Software Hall of Fame

« Last post by wraith808 on August 04, 2011, 02:53 PM »

Delphi - Borland had a real contender until they started trying to compete with Microsoft instead of tending their own business.

NSFW Commentary

Spoiler

They got into a pissing contest with someone with a much larger bladder- didn't end well as they were left embarrasingly holding their d*ck.  Who me bitter?

Castle Wolfenstein - first step in a new generation of shooters.

Everquest - it's called evercrack for a reason.  Showed that MMOs were not just a viable revenue stream, but had the potential of being a money machine (or a money pit, as people later learned).

Steam - pretty recent, but Valve had a dream of digital games.  And though it's not fully realized yet, when it is, Valve will be known as one of the pioneers in this field.

8087

General Software Discussion / Re: Realtime backups

« Last post by wraith808 on August 04, 2011, 01:55 PM »

AJC Active Backup.  I set it up for my wife, and it's saved her several times with her schoolwork!  I purchased the standard edition on Bits du Jour for less, but it's only $29 normally.  Apparently Super Flexible File Synchronizer does something similar, and I've seen folks on DC rave over it, but I've never used it.

8088

Living Room / Re: Cute jokes' thread

« Last post by wraith808 on August 04, 2011, 01:51 PM »

Geek Humor!

A virus walks into a bar, and the bartender says we don't serve viruses in this bar.  The virus replaces the bartender, and says now we do.

An infectious disease walks into a bar, and the bartender says we don't serve infectious diseases in this bar.  The infectious disease replies, well, you're not a very good host.

Two bacteria walk into a bar, and the bartender says we don't serve bacteria in this bar.  The bacteria replies but we work here!  We're staph!

... getting geekier...

A room temperature superconductor walks into a bar.  The bartender replies we don't serve any superconductors in this bar.  The room temperature super conductor leaves without putting up any resistance.

... and geekier...

An infrared photon walks into a bar and asks, is it hot in here, or is it just me?

... deeper down the geek hole...

A neutrino walks into a bar, and the bartender says we don't serve neutrinos in this bar, and the neutrino replies, hey, I was just passing through...

... one last level of geek factor...

Schroedinger's cat walks into a bar... and doesn't!

And a bonus geek joke!

√-1 2^3 ∑ π

Spoiler

(I ate sum pie)

8089

Living Room / Re: Why ebooks are bad for you

« Last post by wraith808 on August 04, 2011, 10:19 AM »

I just finished my 20th eBook of 2011, and started on #21: Marion Zimmer Bradley's "The Door Through Space" (got it free from Project Gutenberg).

-kyrathaba (August 03, 2011, 02:54 PM)

I don't even want to *count* how many I've read this year.  It seems to be accelerating.  I went to a book fair about a month ago, and purchased several hard copies, but haven't even started them yet.  But in the same time frame, I finished 13 digital books.  It's just more convenient, no matter the philosophical or future possible disadvantages of DRM.

8090

General Software Discussion / Re: Dot Net - a wrong step by MS?

« Last post by wraith808 on August 04, 2011, 07:11 AM »

I guess I have to be the first to disagree.  First, though .NET is language agnostic to a large degree, the large development with .NET was C#, and though they try not to say it, it is the defacto language for .NET.  I think that, more than anything else, is why the support for C++ in the managed world has languished.  And I don't look at it as a bad thing.  A lot of our legacy applications are built in C++/COM, and everyone dreads having to get them set up to debug, let alone actually work in them.  Don't get me wrong; I think C++ will always have its place.  I just don't see it becoming a major player in the standard Windows business application market again.  All you have to do is look at the jobs available ads to see what a fallacy that thought is.

HTML5 is a browser based technology.  No matter how robust they become, desktop applications won't disappear, which is why the second part is fallacy.  Even Silverlight has its place in Microsoft's strategies.  HTML5 is the language of choice in Microsoft for internet applications; Silverlight is still Microsoft's language of choice for intranet applications.  There is a big difference.

A lot of the article seems to be based on concepts that are not competing, and arguments that don't hold water IMO.

8091

General Software Discussion / Re: Google+

« Last post by wraith808 on August 03, 2011, 10:16 AM »

1. Anyone can follow any other profile in Google+ and you've no control over who can follow you. (This will kill twitter for sure if G+ takes off). In facebook you can choose folks to peak inside your profile,same with orkut.

-mahesh2k (August 02, 2011, 09:20 PM)

No, that's not true.  You can block others from following you.  It even says that in the e-mail notification you receive.

8092

Living Room / Re: Why My Mom Bought an Android, Returned It, and Got an iPhone

« Last post by wraith808 on August 02, 2011, 03:09 PM »

I mainly use my phone to make phone calls ... because, it's a phone.

-Stoic Joker (August 02, 2011, 02:47 PM)

Yeah... I'm just not that popular.

-Renegade (August 02, 2011, 02:51 PM)

Me either.  The only reason that I have a cell phone is for emergencies.  Most people just aren't important enough to need 24/7 connectivity that a cell phone brings.  It's more for convenience than a need, truthfully.

8093

Living Room / Re: Why My Mom Bought an Android, Returned It, and Got an iPhone

« Last post by wraith808 on August 02, 2011, 02:05 PM »

I mostly use my phone for reading news though... Not much more.

-Renegade (August 02, 2011, 09:50 AM)

When it comes down to it, I mostly use my phone for reading books.  A few other things, but when you boil it down, all of that extra stuff to most people is just window dressing.  One, maybe two functions other than the basic.  But we get so caught up in all of that other stuff that we've done just find without before- and that's what they build their business model on. 

8094

Living Room / Re: Why My Mom Bought an Android, Returned It, and Got an iPhone

« Last post by wraith808 on August 02, 2011, 08:27 AM »

I saw this one comment, and had to re-post:

"When technology delivers basic needs, user experience dominates" - Don Norman, The Invisible Computer.

Does everyone understand this now?

That sums it up, IMO.

8095

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: The Humble Indie Bundle #3

« Last post by wraith808 on August 01, 2011, 10:48 PM »

Nice! I'm going to give that a shot - it reminds me Raptor which was an awesome game back in the day.

-worstje (August 01, 2011, 09:34 PM)

Raptor is available on Gog.com too... for only 5.99.  Just an FYI.

8096

Living Room / Re: A tad paranoid when it comes to installing software?

« Last post by wraith808 on August 01, 2011, 03:46 PM »

So they are Borlands specific .lib type libraries?

-Stoic Joker (August 01, 2011, 03:17 PM)

Sort of, though that's not a direct analogy.  They are statically linked, but can be dynamically loaded (and if .lib files can be dynamically loaded, then the answer is just yes).

8097

Living Room / Re: Android tablets to rival iPad

« Last post by wraith808 on August 01, 2011, 03:25 PM »

My options were to either finger the thing or try talking to it.

-Stoic Joker (August 01, 2011, 07:04 AM)

Ummm... did you buy it dinner first? 

-wraith808 (August 01, 2011, 11:55 AM)

Nope, went straight for a quicky and ended up frustrating both of us. But is ain't my fault the moody bitch wasn't ready on command.


( ...too far?)

-Stoic Joker (August 01, 2011, 02:55 PM)

I think that line was sprinted over. 

8098

Living Room / Re: A tad paranoid when it comes to installing software?

« Last post by wraith808 on August 01, 2011, 12:03 PM »

I don't recall C++ ever needing additional files, unless it's an MFC app (which I never use).

While I'm not sure about the Delphi part, I have seen several mainstream production applications (like Sage BusinessWorks) that were created using Borland's (CBuilder) IDE that insisted on dumping a ton of .bpl files in the system32 folder.

But it's my understanding that these .bpl (Break Point Library) files are only used for debugging and should never under any circumstances be used/required by release version production software. So this would be a developer boo boo as I understand it.

-Stoic Joker (August 01, 2011, 11:45 AM)

Ummm... no.  BPL doesn't stand for break point library.  It stands for Borland Package Library.  They can either be compiled into the executable, or separated out as supporting assemblies.  And the only reason to separate them out is if you're going to load your own packages at run time.  See http://edn.embarcadero.com/article/27178.

They are the same as the atl/vc libraries, and contain system level functionality.  But they can be for the most part compiled into the executable, and in the case that they can't, they can be put alongside the application.  This is a practice of some developers, just as you could do the same in .NET.  It's not a difference or a weakness in the language, but the developer and how they distribute.

8099

Living Room / Re: Android tablets to rival iPad

« Last post by wraith808 on August 01, 2011, 11:55 AM »

My options were to either finger the thing or try talking to it.

-Stoic Joker (August 01, 2011, 07:04 AM)

Ummm... did you buy it dinner first?  

Well here's something Android has that iWhatever doesn't...
Sentience!
(I know it's on a Motorola phone, not a tablet device, but it's entertaining nonetheless...)
3 days to go!!

-Edvard (August 01, 2011, 11:34 AM)

Hmmm... it seems that it's a sentient troll or something.  It's already been banned.  

8100

General Software Discussion / Re: Unlocker punishes you for not installing toolbar.

« Last post by wraith808 on August 01, 2011, 10:48 AM »

Like that your link doesn't work.

-Deozaan (July 31, 2011, 04:31 AM)

It will if you scrape off the extraneous prefix: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australasia

-Ath (July 31, 2011, 04:34 AM)

Yeah... DC automagically puts the decorations on links to wikipedia (also explains the 'w' at the end), but I don't think most people know that...