Recent Posts

8851

Unfinished Requests / Re: One word, three dictionaries

« Last post by wraith808 on November 18, 2010, 10:49 AM »

How about the same word defined from the different sources appearing in one interface instead?

-wraith808 (November 03, 2010, 03:43 PM)

would that be possible wraith, were you thinking of have a go? or making a suggestion
or is there software out there that already does this well?

-tomos (November 18, 2010, 06:54 AM)

I have something, but I haven't had a chance to put the finishing touches on it.  My original was to use multiple browsers, but the only thing I could use for that was IE; the firefox embeddable was not quite ready for primetime.  My second approach was to automate the browser, but I just didn't like that.  So what I settled on was using regex to specify where the search term appeared in the page, and looking for that in the returned html.  It's not exact yet; I need to refine the Regex, but I'm also putting that into a config file so that you can tweak them (and create new ones).  I'll try to get to that this weekend; I wish you had posted this last week, b/c I had forgotten about it and had a lot of time on my hands with the family out of town.  But I'll at least try to get the preliminary posted this weekend if nothing else.

8852

Living Room / Re: Is "Quick Format" safe?

« Last post by wraith808 on November 15, 2010, 04:05 PM »

I use quick format anytime that I'm formatting a drive for myself that I have been using previously and having no problems with.  And I've never had a problem with it, personally.  /me shrugs

8853

Living Room / Re: coolest ipad app

« Last post by wraith808 on November 14, 2010, 10:38 AM »

Man... Fruity Loops... ROCKS~! LOVE that stuff!

Just wish I had time for it... Sigh...

-Renegade (November 14, 2010, 08:13 AM)

Oh yeah... Fruity Loops *does* rock... I *love* that app!

8854

Living Room / Re: coolest ipad app

« Last post by wraith808 on November 14, 2010, 10:36 AM »

found it -
I'm not a musician but if I were I think I'd be wanting this one

(see attachment in previous post)
http://www.rebirthapp.com/

-tomos (November 12, 2010, 11:48 AM)

I don't have an iPad yet, but man... Gotta give this a +10!

Propellerhead is simply amazing. Reason is mind-blowingly amazing.

I used to use a Reason demo tune as my wakeup music in MusicMatch Jukebox. It was just wicked cool.

I think anyone will have a hard time finding some cooler software than ReBirth for the iPad.

-Renegade (November 13, 2010, 08:48 AM)

Yeah... I'd never heard of Rebirth.  I looked at it after I posted my links, and I must say, they pale in comparison.     And for $14.99... purchased!

8855

Living Room / Re: coolest ipad app

« Last post by wraith808 on November 12, 2010, 12:54 PM »

If you like that one...




http://ipadmixr.com/

8856

Living Room / Re: Holiday Chains and Debt Chains... not what you might think?

« Last post by wraith808 on November 12, 2010, 11:47 AM »

That's pretty cool!  Thanks for the idea!

8857

Living Room / Re: coolest ipad app

« Last post by wraith808 on November 12, 2010, 11:42 AM »

All of the apps I have and use regularly

Accessories
- Awaken
- 1Password
- Desktop
- Dictionary
- Wikipanion

Productivity
- QuickOffice
- GoodReader
- Notarize
- Penultimate
- Evernote
- Index Card
- My Writing Nook
- Dropbox
- Jungle Disk
- Wordpress
- YNAB (It's an iPhone app, but it's great so I put up with it...)
- iMockups

Internet/News
- XMarks
- Read It Later
- TweetDeck
- Reeder
- iCabMobile
- NPR News
- BBC News

Media
- Netflix
- OnSong
- Adobe Ideas
- Pandora
- VLC

Shopping
- AppShopper
- eBay
- Amazon Windowshop

eBooks
- Comics
- Stanza
- eReader
- BibleReader
- nook

Games
- NS Hex
- Samurai
- Carcassone
- Kingdoms
- Money
- High Society
- BoardBox
- Build-A-Lot 2

Gaming Tools
- Armory (iPhone App)
- WOWTalent
- DMToolkit

Of these, I use DMToolKit, DropBox, GoodReader, nook, Comics, iCabMobile, Reeder, Read It Later, Evernote, Windowshop, eBay, Index Card, OnSong, Netflix, eReader, Stanza, and NPR the most.  I rarely play games on it- playing mostly on my iPhone it seems, though the board games play really well on the iPad when you're playing against someone.  By using DMToolKit, DropBox, GoodReader, Evernote, Index Card, iCabMobile, and Desktop, I rarely use my books at my D&D games.  I use the iPad and my tablet in conjunction to take the place of a back breaking number of books and binders and notebooks.  And it all fits behind the screen.

8858

Living Room / Re: Violence in Video Games & the Law

« Last post by wraith808 on November 10, 2010, 11:45 AM »

Instead, foment cooperation instead of competition. All games and school are about competition instead of cooperation. Heck the whole system is about competition.

-rxantos (November 09, 2010, 10:36 AM)

I, for one, am very intrigued by how you would suggest you/we/they "foment cooperation?" 

-CodeTRUCKER (November 09, 2010, 05:08 PM)

You can reward success without the intense competition that it creates if you stop punishing those who perform, but just aren't in first.

An example.  I work for a company that pays a base salary, and a bonus depending on performance every six months.  You work on a team, and the final goal is to get the tasks through the system, and make quality software... but the scale that they judge you on is a bell curve.  It's a scale from 1-4, and among all of your peers (meaning everyone with the same title as you), there has to be a certain number of 1s, 2s, 3s, and 4s.  It's based on your performance but relative to the others.  And you can't always make a relative choice.  So in a collaborative environment, you compete against others, while trying to help each other reach the goal.  That's pretty counter-intuitive.  If the scale was based purely on your performance, that would be something different, but the fact that for me to succeed, someone else has to fail makes it more competitive than cooperative.

8859

Living Room / Bad News for Heroscape Fans

« Last post by wraith808 on November 08, 2010, 10:11 AM »

http://boardgamenews...le-cry-wizards-coast

Wizards of the Coast, which took responsibility for the Heroscape game line from Hasbro subsidiary Milton Bradley a couple of years ago, has now announced that it's shutting down the line. Here's the text of the official WotC announcement:

After a thorough evaluation, we have made the decision to discontinue our Heroscape line in order to focus our efforts on our core brands. While this decision means that we will no longer be developing new content for the game, existing Heroscape products will still remain available from Wizards of the Coast and sold in the hobby game channel while supplies last.

The next and final Heroscape expansion, Moltenclaw’s Invasion, will be released on November 16, 2010. This final assortment, which is playable with the Heroscape D&D Master Set, will include the best and most iconic creatures from the worlds of Dungeons & Dragons. Orcs, bugbears, dragons and frost giants will all come together to join the greatest battle of all time.

The WotC website has a FAQ related to the announcement, but you won't learn much more by visiting the page.

On the positive side, WotC subsidiary Avalon Hill now has a game page for Richard Borg's Battle Cry, with a release date of November 23, 2010.

On another note, I didn't know that Avalon Hill was a subsidiary of WotC... I knew Hasbro had bought them, but I didn't know that they had put them under Wizards management...

8860

Living Room / Re: I'm thinking about learning how to program.

« Last post by wraith808 on November 04, 2010, 07:25 PM »

^ We can agree on that! 

8861

Living Room / Re: I'm thinking about learning how to program.

« Last post by wraith808 on November 04, 2010, 01:19 PM »

I guess my point is that you *can* do it that way.  Then when you're ready to move up, you stay in the same language/environment.  My first C# program:

Code: C# [Select]

1. [assembly: System.Reflection.AssemblyVersion("1.0")]
2. namespace HelloWorldNamespace
3. {
4.   public class HelloWorldForm: System.Windows.Forms.Form
5.   {
6.     public HelloWorldForm()
7.     {
8.       this.Text = "Hello World!";
9.     }
10.     [System.STAThread]
11.     public static void Main()
12.     {
13.       System.Windows.Forms.Application.EnableVisualStyles();
14.       System.Windows.Forms.Application.Run(new HelloWorldForm());
15.     }
16.   }
17. }

Compiled from the VS2005 command line with
csc HelloWorld.cs /reference:System.dll /reference:System.Windows.Forms.dll

A little more work than other options, but the long term payoff is worth it, at least IMO.  And you could do the same using console options, and not have to worry about any of the things that you talk about.

But in the end, it really depends on what you want to do with the skills that you learn, IMO.  That should dictate where you start.

8862

General Software Discussion / Re: EditPad Pro 7-BETA

« Last post by wraith808 on November 04, 2010, 12:44 PM »

There's always the trial.  What makes it a no-brainer for you or not is for you to decide.

8863

Living Room / Re: I'm thinking about learning how to program.

« Last post by wraith808 on November 04, 2010, 12:40 PM »

Anders Hejlsberg was senior architect on Delphi (language) and was the same on C#(language).  It wasn't really the RAD/drag and drop stuff... it was more the language constructs and the low level .NET architecture.  Drag and Drop isn't really anything to learn, IMO.  You just do it.  There might be intricacies in UI design, but other than that, there shouldn't be a significant learning curve.  The language idiosyncrasies are the issue (not even the language itself if you already know how to program at all, truthfully).

8864

General Software Discussion / Re: EditPad Pro 7-BETA

« Last post by wraith808 on November 04, 2010, 12:26 PM »

I saw it and actually thought about if I should buy it.
But e looks not mighty enough to be worth the price...

-Tuxman (November 04, 2010, 12:09 PM)

Out of the box, I'd agree.  Where it comes into its own is its extensibility, and the ability to use textmate bundles.  You can pretty much make it into whatever you want.  Add to that the command line capabilities of the new version, and it was pretty much a no-brainer for me (of course, I got upgrade pricing, so that helped).

8865

General Software Discussion / Re: EditPad Pro 7-BETA

« Last post by wraith808 on November 04, 2010, 11:37 AM »

One that was just announced on here for a DC special that I use a lot is e.  It's definitely not your standard text editor, but once you get into using it, you really see the power of it.

8866

Living Room / Re: I'm thinking about learning how to program.

« Last post by wraith808 on November 04, 2010, 11:18 AM »

+1 for C# Essentials.  I also agree with what mouser said; when I first started in C#, I was coming from several years of Delphi, so my essential book that brought me up to speed very fast was .NET for Delphi Developers.  I don't see why they don't write more books like that for other languages, but I was very happy for that book.

8867

Unfinished Requests / Re: One word, three dictionaries

« Last post by wraith808 on November 03, 2010, 03:43 PM »

How about the same word defined from the different sources appearing in one interface instead?

8868

Living Room / Re: Google sues the U.S. government

« Last post by wraith808 on November 03, 2010, 03:40 PM »

Actually this is a bidding procedure issue. The department bought Microsoft licenses without giving anyone else a chance to bid on the software. For me, government shouldn't be paying any corporation -- Google included -- for proprietary software. It's a waste of taxpayer money in this age.

-zridling (November 03, 2010, 03:16 PM)

No, it looks like they gave opportunities for bids- they just wanted it to fit with their current MS infrastructure, which I think is a valid point.

8869

Living Room / Re: I'm thinking about learning how to program.

« Last post by wraith808 on November 01, 2010, 09:33 AM »

Just a warning -- from what i've seen of people's experiences, it's seems really hard for people to slowly and gradually learn to program over a long period of occasional dabbling.. I suspect it's like learning a spoken language, in that if you don't immerse yourself, the concepts don't stick.

-mouser (October 31, 2010, 08:09 PM)

Very good advice here. +1

8870

Living Room / Re: I'm thinking about learning how to program.

« Last post by wraith808 on October 31, 2010, 08:50 AM »

I have fought with this since VS 2005.  Basically my problem with it is that the IDE is almost more complicated than the code.  I know it is just because I don't know how to use it, but I really need a "how to use Visual Studio" course.  Unfortunately everything is how to program C# or VB.  I don't care about how to program yet another video player.  I need to know how to accomplish certain tasks within the IDE.  I used TextPad for Java and that was just about right as far as complexity, but as Renegade pointed out, it is horrendous if you have to program a UI.  We used NetBeans for that, but even that was clunky at best.  I have had a project in mind for probably 5 years or more now, and even have the "engine" written in Java (It would be a simple task to change it to C# instead).  It is the UI and display that I really need to work with, but just can't find the starting point.

-steeladept (October 31, 2010, 04:14 AM)

Use the standard VS layout.  Get rid of most of the windows, other than the output window, error window, solution window, toolbox window, and properties window.  Dock them where ever you wish.  Profit. 

That's my point... there isn't much you *need* to use.  The basic layout has a couple more windows than I said (find and one more, I think), but they aren't necessary to program.  I came from Delphi 6/7 to VS 2005, and was up and running in no time... it's just a matter of focus, IMO.  You can get distracted by all the bells and whistles, but there's still stuff that I'm learning after being in it for 5 years or so.  I just pick it up as needed/wanted.

8871

Living Room / Re: Laptop choice: better CPU or more RAM ?

« Last post by wraith808 on October 31, 2010, 08:45 AM »

Perhaps OT,  but I really hate the latest generation of notebooks because of their abysmal vertical display resolution (something like 720 pixels).   
The designers apparently assume that watching videos is the main reason of existence for a notebook and not reading and working with texts or anything else a bit longer. Perhaps something to watch out for.

-Lutz_ (October 31, 2010, 12:02 AM)

I hadn't noticed that.  Mine has a vertical resolution of 1200 pixels.  Maybe it's a specific class of notebooks?

8872

Living Room / Re: "ICE" Your Cell phone

« Last post by wraith808 on October 29, 2010, 02:21 PM »

Don't most people have people in their contact list like "Mom" "Dad" "Wife", etc?

Kind of makes "ICE" redundant.

-Deozaan (October 29, 2010, 01:15 PM)

I don't have my wife in as 'wife', and she'd be my emergency contact.  I'd think that most married people would be the same.  And there's always the case where you don't *want* your mom or dad called (my mom is elderly and miles away... I'd not want her disturbed if something happened to me).

8873

DC Gamer Club / Nation Red

« Last post by wraith808 on October 29, 2010, 02:19 PM »

I purchased Nation Red during the Steam sale.  I purchased 4 copies, because it wasn't much more than one, and I was going to give one to a friend.  So I have two copies, if anyone is interested... the price would be $2.75 to account for the paypal fees (unless I'm wrong and there wouldn't be any charged...)  PM me if you're interested.

8874

Living Room / Re: "ICE" Your Cell phone

« Last post by wraith808 on October 29, 2010, 08:29 AM »

It's been around for a while... surprising that if Paramedics, etc., use it, it hasn't become more widespread in announcement.  It's always been some sort of little article, or something passed around by someone else.  Made me wonder for a while if it was an urban myth, but snopes put that to rest, though it did put it into perspective:

From http://www.snopes.co...prevent/icephone.asp

Contrary to several chain e-mail warnings, ICE is not something that Paramedics will rush to look for the instant they arrive at an emergency, and is certainly not required in order for LAFD Paramedics to provide quick, focused and compassionate emergency care.

We tell people: Add ICE to your cell phone only after you've affixed similar information to (or near) the official photo identification you routinely carry in your wallet.

Why?

With so many types and brands of wireless phones, it can take precious minutes to learn how to access a phone's directory. Many wireless devices are also found to be locked, damaged or have discharged batteries following an incident, rendering ICE unusable.

Please do encourage your interested friends and colleagues to make an ICE entry in their cell phone, especially if it will give them peace of mind- but not at the expense of written emergency contact and medical information.

(On a different note, it's pretty strange that snopes prevents c&p of text...

8875

Living Room / Re: I'm thinking about learning how to program.

« Last post by wraith808 on October 29, 2010, 08:22 AM »

Another thing to take notice of is the plethora of fantastic tools you get in your context menu in Visual Studio.

It's hard for me to imagine any new learner being anything but negatively impacted by all of the plethora of tools and commands in Visual Studio.  I've been programming for 30 years and i still find these super powerful IDEs a bit overwhelming and distracting.. If you're just starting out learning how to program you might be better off using a simple text editor for your code, and focusing on the language itself and not trying to master a complex development editor/tool at the same time.

-mouser (October 29, 2010, 07:49 AM)

It really depends on your focus, IMO.  Use what you need should be the mantra.  I've never used a lot of the tools in the VS IDE, but they don't negatively impact me; as I want to use a new tool, I add it to my repertoire.  The big thing for me is the fact that everything you need is included; you don't have to set up different moving parts to be productive.  Install one package, open the IDE, create a new project, and click run.  You'll get something.  No errors, or anything.  It won't be anything but an empty form, but the point is, you're now at the point of programming, with none of the configuration frustration.  I remember that being the biggest obstacle when I first started programming... all of the moving parts you had to get put together.  And if you're learning on your own, that can be pretty daunting.