Recent Posts

8926

Living Room / Re: The eBook reader wars

« Last post by 40hz on July 07, 2010, 09:28 AM »

...and no one is saying anything about this?  Am I just looking at this wrong?

-wraith808 (July 06, 2010, 03:46 PM)

Um...maybe.  

I'd suspect there's a little bit of a 'sense of entitlement' from the way you're asking the question.

The basic 'rule' of optimal pricing (in a free market) is to "charge what the market will bear."

By this theory, if a device is selling at $199, it would make no economic sense to reduce the price unless there were a compelling business reason (e.g. responding to or undercutting a competitor, locking in your customer base, buying market share, etc) to do so.

Lowering a price just because you can - or because some people don't think it's "fair" - isn't a compelling business reason.

Considering how well these gadgets have been selling (despite all the issues surrounding them) I'd guess most people Looking to get one don't have a serious problem with the price of a Nook or Kindle.  

FWIW, the biggest complaints about these ebook readers revolve around the outrageously restrictive EULAs, ridiculous DRM implementation, and the high (and steadily increasing) prices for downloads. From what I've seen and heard, most people don't seem to be taking issue with the price of the reader hardware.

But there's also a few million people who think nothing of dropping $400-600 on a smartphone plus a $100/month 2-year service contract just for the priviledge of owning one...so what can we expect?
   

8927

Living Room / Re: TV Controls (rant)

« Last post by 40hz on July 06, 2010, 09:37 PM »

I think these modern reality shows (Pawn Stars, DIY network, Food porn, Cake Boss, et al.) only throw up about 18-19 minutes tops.

-zridling (July 06, 2010, 05:07 PM)

Just one more thing to be grateful for IMHO. I'd like it even more if they could whittle it down to 10 minutes per episode.


 

8928

Living Room / Re: TV Controls (rant)

« Last post by 40hz on July 06, 2010, 09:32 PM »

And you HAD TO get up out of the chair and walk across the room to do it!

-parkint (July 06, 2010, 04:47 PM)

Uphill...both ways...in the snow.

And we considered ourselves lucky to do it!

In Lincoln's day they had to watch TV by candlelight. 

8929

Living Room / Re: Obama Can Shut Down Internet For 4 Months Under New Emergency Powers

« Last post by 40hz on July 06, 2010, 05:01 PM »

Remember however that it's not just the DNS servers. It's the backbone routers as well.

If you have no packet routes, it doesn't much matter what you're pointing to.

8930

Living Room / Re: TV Controls (rant)

« Last post by 40hz on July 06, 2010, 08:48 AM »

Mine is even easier. 

I only watch something if I see 'red'

Mostly I open the red NetFlix mailer and plop on what I want to watch.

For anything else, I have my GF do the screening and selecting. Her tastes match mine pretty closely (or vice-versa) after all these years. She's big on the science and Public Television channels so I'm covered for anything that's broadcast. 

Redhead + red envelopes.

Works for me.  

8931

Living Room / Re: TV Controls (rant)

« Last post by 40hz on July 06, 2010, 07:28 AM »

Most set-top boxes, for example, have a switching power outlet in the back so that when you turn on the box the TV comes on as well automatically.

-Innuendo (July 05, 2010, 07:43 PM)

Actually, many TVs have relay-type power switches. If you have a set like that, cycling AC power to the line cord will turn your set off, but it won't turn it back on since the relay switch will default (by design) to the off position when power is restored.

(EDIT: Ooops! sorry 4wd. I just noticed you already commented on that!  )

Many service supplied remotes get around this by sending simultaneous ON commands to both the cable/sat box and the TV set when you hit the main power button. One of the reasons why most cable and satellite boxes ask you to set up your TV for their remote controller when you install their box is for precisely this reason. You know the drill: enter a mfg code and then try turning the set off with the remote until you find the correct code.

Using a relay-type AC switch is actually a very good design decision in may instances even though it can be annoying.

In the event of a power failure it can prevent your home wiring - and the power company's lines - from experiencing a huge surge when power gets restored.

Having a few thousand houses come back online with all of them simultaneously trying to power up their TVs, ACs, and other big appliances could easily create enough of a surge on the utility's grid to cause a second blackout. Should this happen, there's a very real risk that a Catch-22 situation could develop.

Major demand surges can also cause a temporary low voltage condition. This could cause problems since running below their rated input voltages causes many electrical devices to 'run hot.' Air conditioners, with their power hogging compressors, are the biggest worry. Low voltage conditions can cause AC compressors to prematurely fail due to overheating. This is why modern AC units no longer automatically restart after a power failure: it's potentially bad for the compressor and the local electric utility.

 

8932

Living Room / Re: Dell knowingly shipped millions of defective computers?

« Last post by 40hz on July 05, 2010, 11:11 AM »

^There are such laws.

Unfortunately (at least in the USA) private citizens cannot force the government to pusue criminal investigations.  They can only file charges and ask that they do. And even if there Is an investigation, it's up to the Prosecutor's office to decide when or even if a case will be brought to court.

If the governent declines to investigate or prosecute then your only recourse is a civil suit. 

8933

Living Room / Re: Please recommend beautiful websites with simple, elegant designs.

« Last post by 40hz on July 05, 2010, 08:05 AM »

If you're designing websites, a good color palette design tool is an essential bit of kit.

Adobe has a particularly nice one called Kuler.

Explore, create and share color themes

Discover Adobe® Kuler™ — the web-hosted application for generating color themes that can inspire any project. No matter what you're creating, with Kuler you can experiment quickly with color variations and browse thousands of themes from the Kuler community.

You can run it from the website (Flash required), on your desktop (AdobeAir required), or as part of their fabulous (as in powerful and expensive) design suite.

If you register, you can save the themes you create online and optionally share them with the rest of the community.

You can easily browse what others have created:

click to enlarge



And when you're ready, you can take a crack at designing your own:

click to enlarge



I tend to favor muted themes with complimentary colors and (at most) one bold element. Here's some samples of themes I liked that were created by Kuler community members.:

Alligator Eraser:
 

Barking Up the Maple


Blush:


Cielo:


Ghost City:


Nowhere:



Kuler - very cool tool. Highly recommended. Link HERE

 

------------

Addendum: despite the lack of Flash support, you can still get Kuler on an iPhone with a free app called ColorSlide. I'm sure there are similiar apps for other smartphones.

Whenever I get bored surfing or checking feeds while on the road I'll often check up on new submitted themes using this app. Great for keeping your creative juices flowing.
 

8934

Living Room / Re: Obama Can Shut Down Internet For 4 Months Under New Emergency Powers

« Last post by 40hz on July 04, 2010, 09:22 PM »

^ Its not so much a case of 'the powers' being reluctant to relinquish control of the root DNS servers as it is simply easier and more cost effective for everybody else to continue using them. And the reason they do is because, up until now, there hasn't really been much reason not to.  

This is potentially bad in that the US controls them and can shut them down.

But it's also good because it provides practical limitations on what the US can do with them. Alternatives don't exist because there hasn't been any critical need to build them. But let the US start arbitrarily throwing its weight around and you can be sure that the EU (and everybody else) will soon develop alternatives. The technology is relatively simple - so all that would really be needed is the money and political will to build it.

And once alternative networks do get built, the US will no longer have the de facto control it now has - so I doubt the US government will ever be anxious to push the issue - or hit the switch.  

In a way, this legislation was a dumb political move. The president would never have trouble hitting the killswitch if there were a genuine need. The telcos and ISPs have always been cooperative during real national emergencies.

But one thing this legislation could do is provide Europe and elsewhere with an incentive to start putting contingency plans and systems into place.

Nobody likes to have a sword hanging over their heads. Maybe by granting the president this 'new' power, the US will force the rest of the world to start taking their first steps towards a new Internet. One where the US no longer has the power and influence that it currently holds.

        

8935

Living Room / Re: Obama Can Shut Down Internet For 4 Months Under New Emergency Powers

« Last post by 40hz on July 04, 2010, 01:36 PM »

... isn't the Internet by it's very nature impossible to shutdown?

I am sure that there are many important hubs etc but wouldn't they just be replaced/mirrored pretty quickly & in the meantime everything would just be slower?

-higherstate (July 03, 2010, 01:32 AM)

It's designed to be very difficult to shut down, but that's a far cry from being  impossible to shut down.

Redundancy and mirroring minimizes the risk. But in any system, there is only so much "systemic damage" that can be absorbed before a catastrophic failure occurs.

And exactly who would you be doing your 'failover' to?

All of the redundant and backup systems are under the direct control of the same people who would be shutting down the main routers and DNS servers.

Killing individual network elements could cause a ripple in the pond. Killing large numbers of them would impact network speed and reliability. But killing all of them simultaneously would effectively kill the entire network.

Not to say that whatever was left over couldn't patch around it and get something up. But that would take time, money, and a huge amount of international cooperation. Getting all the ducks back in a row would be further complicated by the fact that this type of international cooperation usually requires formal treaties, which would further delay the process.

So while I'd hesitate to say the US could shut down the entire internet for an indefinite period, it could still cause a major snafu for several months at the very least.

Scary thought! 

8936

Living Room / Re: Dell knowingly shipped millions of defective computers?

« Last post by 40hz on July 04, 2010, 01:08 PM »

Are we really that surprised? Anybody that's done PC support in the last 10 years has known there were major quality problems with certain Dell products. My company has strongly advised against buying any Dell PCs since Sept/Oct 2003 because of widespread reliability and service support problems we were seeing at our client's sites.

I think I have an idea of what might have happened...

1) Dell went public with an IPO in 1988.

2) Dell made the Fortune 500 in 1992 at which point Wall Street started paying closer attention.

3) Since so much of their market value is now determined by stock analysts, business decisions are being made with an eye towards placating the investment community rather than doing what's right for their customers.

From my experience watching "high growth" tech companies, seeing something like this happen at Dell was only a matter of time. Sooner or later, most public companies resort to playing ill-advised 'games' to keep their valuations up.

If there is a surprise anywhere on this mess, it's just how egregious a violation of customer trust Dell's actions were.

Oh well...I guess it's all over - except for the lawsuits and potential criminal charges.


Like Vonnegut said: So it goes.  

8937

Living Room / Re: desperation - any uk readers know this old theme tune.

« Last post by 40hz on July 03, 2010, 06:29 PM »

Nope. I've seen a few glass harmonicas. American history books claim it was invented by our very own Ben Franklin. AFAIK, that claim hasn't been seriously challenged. There was a little vogue for it a few years ago. Saw one live in NYC.   

Very ethereal sounding instrument. So much so that there was a concern at one point in it's history that prolonged listening to it's sound could cause insanity.

Listening to it does gives me a headache after a while.  

 

8938

Living Room / Re: desperation - any uk readers know this old theme tune.

« Last post by 40hz on July 03, 2010, 03:12 PM »

Sounds like a Calliope or some sort of Portative Organ.  (audio clip here)


But I also wouldn't be surprised if they used an Ondes Martenot.  One of the most intriguing and expressive synth-type instruments ever created.

Good Wikipedia article here

Very nice discussion on how it works and demo here.

And another (in French) here.

Tons more O-M videos on YouTube if you do a search.  

-----

Can't help you out with what the song being played is. It could be just about anything.

If it was done by a professional organist, it might not even be a specific song since these musicians are trained to be able to improvise. Unlike piano music, there are many formal organ pieces that have improvisational sections where the composer will leave some empty space and expect the performer to show off a little of his or her own virtuosity.

So what you're hearing might just be a segment of free form soloing (or noodling   ) that was selected as the theme because the show's producers took a shine to it.

8939

Living Room / Re: 20 years later, the movie "Total Recall" still kicks butt

« Last post by 40hz on July 03, 2010, 01:48 PM »

I also liked "From Beyond" - but that's definitely **not** even close to being a PG-13 flick.

-mwb1100 (July 03, 2010, 01:36 AM)

Um, no. Not by a long shot, although it's still considerably cleaner than many budget horror flicks.

----------

To get away for H.P. Lovecraft for a moment, there's an in-production indie sci-fi movie from Finland that looks promising. It's a riff on some of those crackpot stories you see on the web that maintain there are secret Nazi military bases which have been on the dark side of the moon since the 1940s.

It's almost like Steampunk meets alternate military history.  



Some people are already calling this subgenre Dieselpunk.

Dieselpunk would cover the time period between 1918 and 1945 or thereabouts. The primary difference would be that the Dieselpunk era has electricity, more advanced industrial sciences, and mass production capabilities. First generation fission weapons are also a possibility in this timeframe.

Many moons ago I remember reading in one of those UFO conspiracy paperbacks about something called Operation Blindspot. According to the story, the Nazis once operated advanced secret bases in the Antarctic with the intent of developing technologies for space travel and moon colonization. It was called Operation Blindspot because it was meant to be utterly secret, and act as an emergency fallback in case the war didn't go the way the Third Reich planned. The idea was to conduct secret moon launches from the most remote part of the world in order to keep their activities completely hidden from hostile observers. The moon's dark side was chosen for the location of the moon base for the same reason. Once established, Blindspot would rebuild the Nazi war machine, repopulate its SS ranks - and when the time was right - this new spacefaring Fourth Reich would begin its conquest of the planet Earth.

Supposedly, Operation Blindspot was successful and it's only a matter of time before their nuclear weaponized armada shows up in our skies.

I guess somebody else read that same whacked-out book.  

Here's the plot synopsis from the Iron Sky website:

Towards the end of World War II the staff of SS officer Hans Kammler made a significant breakthrough in anti-gravity.

From a secret base built in the Antarctic, the first Nazi spaceships were launched in late ‘45 to found the military base Schwarze Sonne (Black Sun) on the dark side of the Moon. This base was to build a powerful invasion fleet and return to take over the Earth once the time was right.

Now it’s 2018, the Nazi invasion is on its way and the world is goose-stepping towards its doom.

If the two trailers are anything to go by, the visuals should be quite impressive. But I'm not 100% sure about what they're up to with the script. The official website bills it as a "comedy" which seems surprising considering how dark the subject matter is.

Either way, it should be out sometime in 2011 if things stay on course. They're pursuing fan financing (via a humorous Buy War Bonds! campaign) so it may take longer than expected to complete.





I'm guessing that when you're making a film revolving around subjects which still make a lot of people very uneasy (even if it is fiction) it's a lot more 'challenging' to secure mainstream financing.

Anyway, here's some stills:



Animated movie poster link is here.

Link to Teaser #1 here.

Link to Teaser #2 here.

The Iron Sky Official Website can be found here.

Be interesting to see how it plays out if they ever get it finished.

8940

Living Room / Re: Please recommend beautiful websites with simple, elegant designs.

« Last post by 40hz on July 03, 2010, 07:34 AM »

I'm big on minimalist web design. I prefer sites that make good use of legible typography, and that employ understated color, or creative monochrome palettes.

Three of my favorite examples:

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/

http://www.markwieman.com/

http://maketea.co.uk/

 

8941

Living Room / Re: 20 years later, the movie "Total Recall" still kicks butt

« Last post by 40hz on July 02, 2010, 11:58 PM »

+1 on Call of Cthullu.

I was incredibly impressed by the production quality and faithfulness of the script to the original story. I personally felt its being shot in an antiqued-look B&W added to the vintage vibe of the movie. But I don't expect everyone will agree with me on that point. Probably a good idea to watch the trailer here to see if the "look" works for you before you purchase.

The Whisperer in the Darkness is one of Lovecraft's better stories and the  H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society's newest adaptation also looks good.

...Even now I absolutely refused to believe what he implied about the constitution of ultimate infinity, the juxtaposition of dimensions, and the frightful position of our known cosmos of space and time in the unending chain of linked cosmos-atoms which makes up the immediate super-cosmos of curves, angles, and material and semi-material electronic organisation.

Never was a sane man more dangerously close to the arcana of basic entity--never was an organic brain nearer to utter annihilation in the chaos that transcends form and force and symmetry. I learned whence Cthulhu first came, and why half the great temporary stars of history had flared forth. I guessed--from hints which made even my informant pause timidly--the secret behind the Magellanic Clouds and globular nebulae, and the black truth veiled by the immemorial allegory of Tao. The nature of the Doels was plainly revealed, and I was told the essence (though not the source) of the Hounds of Tindalos. The legend of Yig, Father of Serpents, remained figurative no longer, and I started with loathing when told of the monstrous nuclear chaos beyond angled space which the Necronomicon had mercifully cloaked under the name of Azathoth. It was shocking to have the foulest nightmares of secret myth cleared up in concrete terms whose stark, morbid hatefulness exceeded the boldest hints of ancient and mediaeval mystics... -Whisperer in the Darkness

They're blogging it here and have a trailer for it here.

After watching the trailer, all I can say is: I want it!  

----------

Outside of these two films, there's not much worth seeing that purports to be based on Lovecraft's works. Most are so-so horror flicks that use some Lovecraftian terminology or characters in an attempt to make things seem like more than they are. Most aren't worth the film they're printed on.

Of all of the Lovecraft influenced films out there, about the only one really worth watching is an oddball John Carpenter effort entitled In the Mouth of Madness

The efficient and skeptical freelance insurance investigator John Trent is hired by the publisher Jackson Harglow to find where the famous writer Sutter Cane might be. After writing a series of best-sellers in the horror genre, affecting the reason and causing disorientation, memory loss, and paranoia in readers, Sutter has simply vanished near the release of his new novel, "Horror in Hobb's End." There is mass hysteria of his anxious fans waiting for the new release, and John believes that his disappearance is a marketing strategy. John follows his instincts and travels with Cane's editor, Linda Styles, to New Hampshire, seeking for the apparently fictional town of Hobb's End...John discloses that Sutter Cane has unleashed a powerful evil force in the black church of the mysterious town, and his twisted imagination is changing the reality and perception of those who read his novels.

High production values, a fairly good plot, and a few "name" cast members ( Sam Neill, Charlton Heston, Julie Carmen) distinguish it from most of what's out there.



There's a few very effective scenes and concepts found in the picture that will earn smiles from Lovecraft fans. The exterior shooting for the "Black Church" is particularly well done. Other parts of the movie are a little hokey however. And some of the "special effects" (especially those in one important pre-climax scene) are more laughable than scary. Fortunately, they're not so bad that they'll seriously detract from most people's overall enjoyment of the picture. Amazon has it for $12 on DVD and it's also available from NetFlix.

----------
Note: This movie is not based on any specific Lovecraft story, but it still borrows extensively from his works. Serious HPL fans are divided on this picture. If you're big on story fidelity, stick to Call of Cthullu and The Whisperer in the Darkness. But if you're more the type of fan who simply enjoys seeing Lovecraftian elements show up on screen, it's well worth a watch.



 

8942

Living Room / Re: 20 years later, the movie "Total Recall" still kicks butt

« Last post by 40hz on July 01, 2010, 06:32 PM »

OK, I do know one Hollywood movie where human evil triumphs in no uncertain terms at the end of the picture:



In this case, human evil extends far beyond the individual to become manifest in the whole of society.

Human evil can't score a bigger win than that.  

↓ This will be me the day that scenario becomes true:

8943

Living Room / Re: Linux Learning - what to do after basic install?

« Last post by 40hz on July 01, 2010, 06:17 PM »

@Daleus - Oh yeah, I almost forgot...

One other thing you absolutely need to do after your first Linux install is to identify good local sources for late night pizza and/or Thai cuisine.

Preferably one that also offers reliable free delivery.

Don't fight it.

You'll learn faster.

And besides...it's part of the "nix" culture!

( So's microbrewery ale BTW, but that part's a little more optional.   )

8944

Living Room / Re: Internet can serve as a tool to track people's tendency toward violence

« Last post by 40hz on July 01, 2010, 06:09 PM »

There might be some truth to it.

I know if I found out that somebody were tracking me like that, I would tend to get violent.

 

8945

Living Room / Re: Linux Learning - what to do after basic install?

« Last post by 40hz on July 01, 2010, 04:30 PM »

@Edvard - Thx for the word Big Pink has been updated.  

Guess I know what I'm gonna have to do next time I have some free cash floating around.  

8946

Living Room / Re: FARK creator doesn't believe in the wisdom of crowds

« Last post by 40hz on July 01, 2010, 01:50 PM »

Apparently, neither does the FARR creator.

-mouser (July 01, 2010, 01:05 PM)

I knew that guy was very bright.   

8947

General Software Discussion / Re: A cool Screen saver

« Last post by 40hz on July 01, 2010, 12:47 PM »

I think you misunderstand me.

I'm saying that a screen saver has no way of knowing what the "power saving" settings are set to, and as such should always be designed as if the screen would be on indefinitely.

-Deozaan (June 30, 2010, 08:28 PM)

OK. Now I get where you're coming from.

I also agree.   

8948

Living Room / Re: FARK creator doesn't believe in the wisdom of crowds

« Last post by 40hz on July 01, 2010, 07:11 AM »

I'm curious, has anybody ever done a hard scientific study to determine if there's any truth to the claims being made for the "wisdom of crowds?" Most of what I've heard advanced as 'evidence' supporting this idea amounts to little more than parables, assertions, and anecdotes.

I can understand how it could work for something like an open software development project where "many eyes make for quick debugging." But in this case, the many eyes are programmers (most with formal training) who are focusing on something very specific and well within their area of expertise.

I wonder how well that same crowd would perform if you turned them loose on a problem that was outside their scope of knowledge and experience?

Increasing the number of something applied to something else doesn't automatically accomplish a goal. Very often, simply increasing the amount of input (money, ideas, time, voices, nuclear warheads) exacerbates the original problem and further clouds the issue.  Our government's tendency to go out and "throw big money at the problem" repeatedly demonstrates just how ineffective applying 'more' can be.

And not everything benefits from a group approach. Some issues are far better handled by small, tightly focused and highly trained individuals or small teams. Especially in critical areas where consistency, speed, and accountability are important.

From my perspective, I can't really see how a group one hundred idiots automatically becomes smarter than a group of ten idiots. I'd expect you'd more likely see an increase in erroneous thinking and logical error as the crowd got bigger.

When you consider that all distributions tend towards the mean, increasing the number in the group should have the effect of dragging the overall level of the group towards the middle rather than boosting it on the high end. We've seen this happen in committee meetings where the dumbest members tend to drag the overall performance of the group down to their level far more often than the brighter members succeed in pulling it up to theirs.

I'm not saying there's no truth to the 'wisdom of crowds.' All I'm saying is that there's a big difference between asserting something is true and proving it is.

So I think we need to be careful about too easily accepting something as valid before we find out if it actually is. Especially when dealing with something that "sounds so right" as this notion.

While group wisdom may have the capability of bringing about major social and information breakthroughs, it also has a dark side. Ideas such as ethnic cleansing, master race, apartheid, burn the witch, and thought crime all came out of crowd thinking.

And sometimes, there's very little real difference between a crowd - and a mob.

8949

General Software Discussion / Re: A cool Screen saver

« Last post by 40hz on June 30, 2010, 08:06 PM »

^Got me beat by 10 mins on powesaver for sure. But in my defense, my screen rarely sits idle when I'm in front of it. I'm either pounding away at the keys or I've put the whole system on standby if I'm not.  

Can't say I follow your logic on how using powersaver features mean a screensaver isn't doing it's job however. The screensaver's job is technically to prevent screen burn. (In reality it's more to provide entertainment - otherwise it would just bank it. ) Powesaver features are to there to reduce electrical consumption and possibly prevent screen burn as a side effect of shutting off the monitor.  

The two jobs are complementary, but they're not quite the same.      

8950

General Software Discussion / Re: A cool Screen saver

« Last post by 40hz on June 30, 2010, 07:12 PM »

@Deozaan-

1. You can turn the clock off in the CFG file. Instructions are included as a comment in the file.

2. And while screen burn in (or LCD "persistence") is still an occasional problem, under normal circumstances it shouldn't be an issue with something like this. You need to leave the monitor on for very extended periods of time with static screen elements in place for that to happen. I've only seen persistence occur (and that very rarely) on things like order entry kiosks, status boards, or other "ON-24/7" setups where the screen acts more as a control panel or entry keypad.

FWIW: I set my screensaver to come on in 15 minutes and my monitor to shut off after 30 in order avoid wasting electricity. So should most people. If you're getting screen burn from a screensaver on one of today's monitors, you're probably leaving it powered on way too long anyway. So save a few cents along with your monitor by taking advantage of available powersaver settings. It's good for your wallet - and good for our planet too!