Recent Posts

8826

General Software Discussion / Re: ghacks post: "Why I decided to uninstall my Antivirus software"

« Last post by Deozaan on November 19, 2007, 01:59 PM »

If I knew no one else would ever use my computer or have any direct access to it, I'd feel really confident about not having anti-virus software running in the background.

But if you have a shared computer or a computer on a network, and some of the people you share your computer/network with are somewhere on the verge of computer literacy, I'd keep it running.

Most people know enough to download screensavers, games, and other crap, and how to install that crap. What they don't know is how to recognize dubious sites, dubious programs, dubious attachments, etc.

One example is when I found my computer infected by a virus, I knew I hadn't infected my own computer, so I asked my mom to scan hers.  Turns out my mother had opened an attachment on her computer, it didn't do anything (or so she thought) so she ignored it, and it infected the rest of our computers because we had mapped network drives for easy file sharing across computers.

You're only as secure as your weakest defense.

8827

General Software Discussion / Re: Animal Crossing Tragedy: File Under "The Emotional Power of Video Games"

« Last post by Deozaan on November 19, 2007, 01:14 PM »

The music from Final Fantasy X (a game) also helps the emotional impact.

It is quite interesting in a game like that, where time passes in the game much like in the real world. Seasons change, people (animals) move in and out of the village. And they remember your interactions with them.

If you don't play for a while, weeds sprout all over town, the animals wonder where you went or if you forgot about them, cockroaches infest your house, etc.

The interesting thing about this story is that it isn't really the game that affected the emotion. The game was just the vessel by which the mother showed love to her children, and the means by which the child realized that love in such a profound way.

8828

General Software Discussion / Re: Mahjongg Titans

« Last post by Deozaan on November 18, 2007, 07:38 PM »

Excellent! Thanks Darwin . By the way, is there any workaround to re-install these giveaway's if I ever have to re-install Windows or even install it to other systems?

-devangx5 (November 17, 2007, 08:54 PM)

I think the idea behind it is that if you like it so much to install it again, you'd just buy the software. I know that's not what anyone wants to hear, but it's really the best way to not have to worry about reinstalls.

8829

General Software Discussion / Re: Blog steals Zaine's Great Software List

« Last post by Deozaan on November 18, 2007, 07:32 PM »

I just checked it again and it looks like he's changed the name to the Great Software List, but the source is still obscurely placed at the bottom. Interesting that it now has 0 Diggs.

8830

General Software Discussion / Re: Keeping a window permanently focused in XP

« Last post by Deozaan on November 18, 2007, 07:26 PM »

There are some programs that dim your screen on everything except the window with focus. These might disallow clicking elsewhere.

8831

Living Room / Re: Science magazine had a photo competion ...

« Last post by Deozaan on November 18, 2007, 04:56 PM »

to me, 1st one looks like nudone's face (avatar).

-Armando (November 18, 2007, 12:48 PM)

Well, it is a nose after all. . .

8832

Living Room / Re: Help Name Our Cat!

« Last post by Deozaan on November 18, 2007, 04:55 PM »

Cody likes "LOL" but is saying that the cat should be allowed to choose its own name.
http://wtfcody.com/?...age_id=5#comment-246

-p3lb0x (November 18, 2007, 01:17 PM)

I'd stuff the ballots with lots of LOLs!

Let the cat choose from a hat. Or a rat. Stuff the rats with names, when the cat eats a rat, take out the paper and announce the name!

8833

Developer's Corner / Re: 300 Ideas for Game Play Mechanics

« Last post by Deozaan on November 18, 2007, 04:34 PM »

Awesome! Some of these are really great ideas, especially (I think) putting data into images and the topics of procedurally generated content. Too bad for me I don't know how to do either of those things.

I understand the theory, but the actual process? No clue.

8834

Living Room / Re: Help Name Our Cat!

« Last post by Deozaan on November 17, 2007, 09:53 PM »

Name the cat "LOL"

8835

Living Room / Re: What Intel Giveth, Microsoft Taketh Away

« Last post by Deozaan on November 17, 2007, 09:50 PM »

I wonder how well Vista and Office 2007 would run on a PC with a Gogol-core CPU with a Gogolbyte of RAM.

One can always dream... 

8836

Living Room / Re: Poem of English Pronunciation

« Last post by Deozaan on November 16, 2007, 11:13 PM »

I've heard that ghoti thing before, but the way I pronounce the "wo" in "women" sounds more like the vowel in "wet", not "wit."

So "ghoti" = fesh.

8837

Living Room / Re: Graphics Tablets - opinions (nudone, hamradio, tomos etc. care to chime in?)

« Last post by Deozaan on November 16, 2007, 10:55 PM »

To draw it's a bit awkward getting used to watching the monitor to see what your hand is doing, so to speak. If you can get into this mindset, the scaling isn't an issue. I'm not quite there, yet, but I think this will be fine.

-Darwin (November 16, 2007, 04:42 PM)

My math teacher has a tablet with a pen, so he actually writes on paper while it's showing up digitally on the computer. If he messes up, he can (obviously) erase but the paper is still inked with the mistakes. If your tablet has a similar function, or maybe you can get a tablet pen with a similar functionality, it would be the solution.

8838

General Software Discussion / Re: Blog steals Zaine's Great Software List

« Last post by Deozaan on November 16, 2007, 03:23 PM »

I think there's a "how many polish guys does it take to change a lightbulb" joke in there.

-Ralf Maximus (November 16, 2007, 03:18 PM)

Aha!

With our small family we didn't have enough to change it.

-tinjaw (November 16, 2007, 03:00 PM)

I took that to mean money, not family members. 

8839

General Software Discussion / Re: Blog steals Zaine's Great Software List

« Last post by Deozaan on November 16, 2007, 03:10 PM »

LOL. I'm Polish. I almost got a mail order bride. You see, one of the light bulbs in our living room when out, and with our small family we didn't have enough to change it. So I thought about a Russian bride, but I couldn't figure out how to get all that rubble in that small Air Mail pouch.

-tinjaw (November 16, 2007, 03:00 PM)

Okay, I get the joke about the rubble (), but I don't understand what the light bulb has anything to do with. 

8840

General Software Discussion / Re: Blog steals Zaine's Great Software List

« Last post by Deozaan on November 16, 2007, 02:44 PM »

Of course, I believe Occam's Razor applies: he does it because he can and because there are no consequences for being caught.

-Ralf Maximus (November 16, 2007, 10:15 AM)

I tend to believe you on that.

Considering the statistics.ro link and the language on the site, I'm guessing he's Romanian. I joked about it earlier, and of course I don't want to make a blanket statement that all Romanians are scumbag thieves (especially since my wife is Romanian!), but Romania isn't exactly known for it's integrity. It's one of those countries where a US bank can't guarantee a money transfer will get to the right person.

I know from personal experience. I was worried my mail-order-bride payment wouldn't make it.

8841

General Software Discussion / Re: Blog steals Zaine's Great Software List

« Last post by Deozaan on November 16, 2007, 03:02 AM »

How about someone Diggs the real list?

8842

General Software Discussion / Re: Blog steals Zaine's Great Software List

« Last post by Deozaan on November 16, 2007, 02:51 AM »

im n ur sitez steelin ur softwear list!

I just went to the Digg Submission and people are Thumbs Downing everyone who says it's stolen, and Thumbs Upping the people who say it's a great resource (without knowing it's stolen). What the heck is that about?

Dirty thieving Romanians!!!

Joking! My wife is Romanian!

Wait for it

But she did steal my heart.  Awww!! 

8843

Living Room / Re: Save the Earth! From evil parasitic power packs...

« Last post by Deozaan on November 14, 2007, 05:01 PM »

So elegant, so clever.  And so off the market.  I suspect the lightbulb PAC is behind this...

-Ralf Maximus (November 13, 2007, 07:22 AM)

I'm still waiting for light bulbs with LED arrays. Low power, long lasting, and they won't flicker like those halogen bulbs. What's not to like? There are so many ways that are possible today to save energy if people really wanted it. Instead they come up with all this crap about "going green" by drastic measures that don't really benefit anyone and don't have significant results.

If people really wanted to "save the planet" instead of cashing in on the latest fearmongering, it could easily be done. We have the technology. Nuclear power anyone?

8844

Living Room / Re: Tales of Mere Existence

« Last post by Deozaan on November 14, 2007, 04:55 PM »

And the movie was extremely boring... Probably picked a bad one there...

-Renegade (November 13, 2007, 05:20 PM)

Not really. They're kind of boring. Just amusing enough to get you to sit through it all hoping it will get better, but boring in the end. At least that's my opinion.

8845

Living Room / Re: Save the Earth! From evil parasitic power packs...

« Last post by Deozaan on November 13, 2007, 01:53 AM »

And all Boss discs increased the lifetime of their host lighbulb by x3 to x5.  They weren't expensive, and sold three-discs-to-a-package.

So why didn't they sell like crazy?  I'm guessing the economics were wrong (nobody cared about saving energy in 1996) and lack of marketing.  Such a simple idea, and quite effective, yet you can't get the durn things anymore.

-Ralf Maximus (November 12, 2007, 08:50 AM)

I could be wrong, but isn't turning on a light the hardest part of the light? I mean, doesn't the act of connecting the bulb to it's power source cause the most strain on a bulb, making the filament break or something? Seems to me my light bulbs only blow out when I turn on the light. Anyway, a Bulb Boss would increase the number of times power was connected/disconnected.

I think from a math perspective, it increases the lifespan because the light isn't on as long. But from a practical perspective, it would decrease the lifespan because of the increased wear on the hardware.

But like I said, that's me coming to my own conclusions from personal observation, without knowing the facts.

My family had some of those Bulb Bosses. I had one for a night light that would gradually dim the light over 30 minutes until it finally went out.

8846

Living Room / Re: Top 10 Signs You're Coding Too Much

« Last post by Deozaan on November 13, 2007, 01:13 AM »

Then i remembered that you don't have to program lighting and shading algorithms in real life. 

-mouser (November 12, 2007, 05:04 PM)

Reel-Ife? What is this you speak of?

converting degrees celsius to radians doesn't make much sense

It offers a whole new angle on weather forecasting,  though.

-cranioscopical (November 12, 2007, 10:47 AM)

@ Cranioscopical: 

@ f0dder: I'm in the USA, so it was fahrenheit, but yeah, converting temperature to radians doesn't make much sense.

8847

Living Room / Re: Buy a new harddrive, get a virus

« Last post by Deozaan on November 13, 2007, 12:13 AM »

Don't you have to format these drives before using them? How do they keep the virus?

8848

Living Room / Re: The Dvorak Zine - fun comic telling story of the Dvorak keyboard

« Last post by Deozaan on November 11, 2007, 10:52 PM »

Maybe this will help.

8849

Living Room / Re: Top 10 Signs You're Coding Too Much

« Last post by Deozaan on November 11, 2007, 07:20 PM »

Here's a recent experience to show I've been concentrating too much on my Trigonometry schoolwork:

The teacher has been stressing to us the importance of no longer thinking in degrees but thinking only in radians. Not many days ago I looked at the temperature and started trying to convert it to radians before I caught what I was doing.

8850

Living Room / Re: Technology Myths

« Last post by Deozaan on November 11, 2007, 07:16 PM »

I don't understand how a keyboard could be superior to any other for gaming, as long as they all work properly. I'm pretty sure my WASD keys work just as well as any other keyboard out there.

-Deozaan (November 10, 2007, 05:26 PM)

Okay I just thought of a superior keyboard idea for gaming. A Keyboard without the stupid Windows Icon button!!!!1 I don't know how many times I hit that thing in the middle of a game while trying to press Ctrl or Alt and it sends me back to my desktop.