Recent Posts

901

Living Room / Re: Of Superheroes, Remakes, Flashbacks/Forwards/Sideways and more

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 20, 2014, 09:06 PM »

Besides the tech, I think it's important to figure out the roles of the police when a superhero is around.

I'd think with billion dollar Homeland tech, a vigilante would have a far harder time now than 20+ years ago.

I think that changes things.

I'm not quite sure how.

-TaoPhoenix (November 20, 2014, 02:34 PM)

The Homeland tech is largely irrelevant in this case, as it will - and is -  only used for targeting crime/criminals with high political (e.g. vote generating) value. This way they don't have to run the risk of exposing how thoroughly they spying on everyone by accidentally eliminating - or largely denting - crime in general - As that would be bad for "business"..

...

-Stoic Joker (November 20, 2014, 03:08 PM)

Complex notion there, and I slightly disagree with it. I think too many modern shows have become near-ads for Homeland Tech. Besides the CSI type shows, looks what happened in the Mentalist. CBI - a few desktops, a few DMV lookups, a few other things, then hit the streets. Then that season change recently, and suddenly it's the FBI that wants Jayne, and they play with the Big Toys. So while corrupting the actual practices, they made sure to keep in the "be scared of us" mentality.

902

Living Room / Re: Of Superheroes, Remakes, Flashbacks/Forwards/Sideways and more

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 20, 2014, 02:34 PM »

Besides the tech, I think it's important to figure out the roles of the police when a superhero is around.

I'd think with billion dollar Homeland tech, a vigilante would have a far harder time now than 20+ years ago.

I think that changes things.

I'm not quite sure how.

903

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 20, 2014, 10:19 AM »

Just a random comment:

What if there was a super-proofed show, your choice of genre, with virtually no horrible bloopers? It's okay if episodes took longer than a week. (Think movies - TV shows produce 13-25 hours, movies are only two?!)

Instead of wasting the $40 million on CGI, use it to pull/poll a ton of pundits, experts, and flaw-finders to make sure everything is darn near perfect. (Prob can't use Homeland Security because they purposefully corrupt the TV shows to make sure their real tech isn't precisely shown!!)

I'd even go for the British model of "6 episodes per season", but with American budgets, just to have a show smash the bounds of getting the little details right!


You could prob do five of these, each in its own genre.

904

Living Room / Of Superheroes, Remakes, Flashbacks/Forwards/Sideways and more

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 20, 2014, 09:58 AM »

In the realm of literature, superheroes occupy a funny place.

Except for your choice of X older precursors, the modern superhero genre is a 20th century phenomenon.

(Tangent: It's one reason I thought Warehouse 13 was brilliant in concept, because the people mostly stayed people, and it's the objects that wandered around and did strange (and usually dangerous) stuff. )

So a lot of superhero concepts are based on really simple concepts.

For the next day or two, I am comparing the original 1990 Flash TV series with the brand new remake. (We'll see if the new one lasts ... the old one got canceled after one season! I haven't yet looked up the reason why. Was it semi ahead of its time? Are we more attuned to superhero shows now?)

The people concepts tend to be pretty simple. Flash. Fast Man.  The fastest man alive. (Almost? "Oh look, it's someone faster than you are!")  End of power.

It's the surroundings that move. The 1990's series was based on the days when police were losing the battles vs gangs. The new one clearly has the police in control of gangs, and went straight for the super-villain angle. Gangs are a thing of the past, sorta. Now there's hints that the police are too strong, and dipping a bit into Orwell's Big Brother. How times have changed!!

And the Flash show is supposed to feature a crime-solving-partner with cutting edge tech ... trouble is, that's just really hard to portray even for good writers with decent scripts. You just have the context of the times. So the 1990's show had all these DOS boxes around, (with a few Hollywood blips and beeps!). The new one has more hi-res display stuff.

905

Developer's Corner / Re: New EU VAT rules change the game for digital businesses

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 20, 2014, 09:48 AM »

Citation? 

-40hz (November 20, 2014, 09:39 AM)

Advanced Search, We luv ya! *

http://wordsthatchan...m/2014/eudigitalvat/




* When my standby Startpage Advanced missed this, I was forced to go to the Evil G. So per some of my other posts, I don't know what database they are pulling from, but this is yet another hole.

906

Living Room / Re: Still weird: The mouse is more accurate than a finger

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 19, 2014, 10:11 AM »

good points.
The more I think about it, the more impressed I am by the mouse.  Tough to say, but it's one of very few inventions that was basically perfect right from the start, what, over 50 years ago?  Pretty amazing feat.

i really have no idea what the next input device breakthrough will be, especially in relation to touchscreens.

-superboyac (November 19, 2014, 09:41 AM)

I'm guessing a data glove of various kinds.

For example, if I turn my optical mouse upside down, because it doesn't need the old trackball-in-a-cage, the only "useful" part of the mouse is a 0.5 by 1 inch little visual window, and maybe the buttons. The rest is this big battery-and-mysterious-mouserey stuff that prob doesn't need to be there if they use smartphone miniturization (spelling?) level of tech.

So imagine a (pair?) of gloves where the sensor is under a finger. Then you just slide your finger around on the table/pad/armchair.

As for the mouse-typing switch, just figure out a way to toggle between data-finger and typing-finger for the keyboard.

Think for a moment how much movement is wasted to move the cursor to type a post, then back up top to close the tab, then somewhere else.

Question: Is it possible with current Win XP tech to create TWO mice pointers, color coded? Then you leave one up near the top for that stuff, the other does regular stuff? I'm guessing not, but then I wouldn't have guessed virtual desktops either! (Or any of a million other things!)

907

Non-Windows Software / Re: NEMO UX - the shape of the desktop to come?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 18, 2014, 04:41 PM »

I did have my phase when I really did want comps to look like that!!

Now it's just a bit tricky to imagine how you don't just have A "Windows-y/Apple/'Nix paradigm" (or command line).
Part of it is the strange new skills called for!

908

General Software Discussion / Re: Latest Avast deleting Firefox add-ons

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 18, 2014, 04:33 PM »

I might be wrong because this is so long since then, but I wonder if the old Norton GoBack could have fixed this. I vaguely remember it could be set "hard" to recover darn near everything, certainly files. I had that on a Win2000 comp back in the day.

Then I think I recall that when I tried to put it on WinXP, MS's own "restore" function fought Norton, leaving the "grass of the comp" basically hosed when the elephants were done fighting. I think it almost failed to boot at all except I think I weaseled around it in safe mode.

I thought Anti-Virus programs were supposed to "quarantine" programs and you could restore them later. I don't recall ever using one that randomly deleted important stuff I had without issuing a report of "The following X files were tagged to take action. Do A, B, or C."

909

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 18, 2014, 02:40 AM »

^   ...

That belongs in the code humour thread!

-Renegade (November 18, 2014, 01:15 AM)

Done!
 

910

Living Room / Re: Programming/Coder humor

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 18, 2014, 02:38 AM »

^ 

That belongs in the code humour thread!

-Renegade (November 18, 2014, 01:15 AM)

911

Living Room / Re: Mandatory Work Activity (UK) - Stupidity Beyond Belief. [DEBATE]

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 17, 2014, 01:00 PM »

Hmm. Here in NYC I know informally that some of those mandatory work programs are going on here, but I don't know any answers to smart questions like this. It's the kind of thing a really sharp news source could dig into if they wanted, but one systemic flaw about news is once it's published, it's "out there", but an article someone did in 2012 doesn't do us any good if you don't know where to find it. (Curse of SEO'ing search engines!)

912

General Software Discussion / Re: MBAM: how is it starting automatically with windows??

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 17, 2014, 11:44 AM »

Why not make contact with the source?

-tomos (November 17, 2014, 11:21 AM)

Heh it was just a silly joke. An Anti-Malware program that lists itself as Malware ...  So if it is  ... why should it exist?



Douglas H. is the guy into self referential stuff : )

913

General Software Discussion / Re: MBAM: how is it starting automatically with windows??

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 17, 2014, 10:45 AM »

Did you forget to uncheck the option to try the pro version when you installed it. That runs on windows start and is the last window you see when installing

-ilikefree09 (November 17, 2014, 02:24 AM)

I have no idea.  I guess I have to uninstall/reinstall.  Not cool MBAM!! 

-superboyac (November 17, 2014, 09:53 AM)

Heh

(Douglas Hofstadter) Does it list itself as Malware? (/Douglas Hofstadter)

914

Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 17, 2014, 10:43 AM »

Prob a good article on the web dying, but it seems paywalled out.

-TaoPhoenix (November 16, 2014, 11:51 PM)

So now you know what's killing it..

-Stoic Joker (November 17, 2014, 06:50 AM)

... And "aggregators" only linking to paywalled stuff. Slashdot has been notorious for this for ages. But the joke for Slashdot is no one reads the articles anyway!

915

Living Room / Re: Programming/Coder humor

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 17, 2014, 10:41 AM »

This is my favorite bit of prank code.  On non-microchannel machines running OS/2 you could hang the machine using debug in a Dos window to create this program.

cli
jmp $

I think they finally virtualized the Dos interrupt flags in OS/2 2.1 which eliminated the hang.  On microchannel a non maskable interrupt would fire after so many milliseconds if the interrupt flag was not reset.

-MilesAhead (November 17, 2014, 05:45 AM)

I know it's old and retro, but I think I remember from one summer camp (maybe?? heh!   ) That you wreck the hardware of a BBC Micro with some bunch of commands that could even start a fire!

916

Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 16, 2014, 11:51 PM »

Prob a good article on the web dying, but it seems paywalled out.

917

Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 16, 2014, 11:37 PM »

(see attachment in previous post)
5-year-old passes Microsoft certification exam - UPI.com

Are you sure you would want this kid here?

-Arizona Hot (November 15, 2014, 12:40 AM)

Prodigies happen!

918

General Software Discussion / Re: MBAM: how is it starting automatically with windows??

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 16, 2014, 08:51 PM »

Heh ironically, unexplained behavior is not something you want a malware fighting program doing!

919

Living Room / Re: Stephen Fry's eloquent response to Grammar Nazis

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 16, 2014, 08:50 PM »

I quite agree with Mr. Fry on many points, even as I consider myself, not a grammar 'nazi'... perhaps a grammar 'conservative'.  I have no problems with language being used unconventionally for the sake of entertainment or even 'wrong' use of grammar when it actually contributes to clarity.  The recent plague (yes, plague I say...) of using the word 'of' to replace the contraction of 'have' as seen here is an example of something I just can't let go as any sort of 'correct'.  I have others, but in the spirit of the topic, I'll stop there.

-Edvard (November 16, 2014, 04:47 PM)

I think I might have a good guess for this one:

Verbally, it sounds like it is "of", but it takes some wee bit of erudite learning to know it. Lit types are probably more passingly familiar with poetry, and could me more ready to look for a construction like "could've".

The newish one that I used to rankle on was "ur". I used to be more vocal "Ur is a Mesopotamian City name, not a word!"

But I am learning that while texting, people are getting more forceful abbreviating things.

920

Living Room / Re: Please recommend a Canadian domain name registrar to me

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 15, 2014, 04:00 PM »

Holy moly ...

I know Renny can get a little fiery, but all that security theater always seemed to be "over there" - someone else I've never really heard of.

But all this is starting to close the loop!

Fire up some of that creepy movie music! 

921

Developer's Corner / Re: Ludum Dare 30: August 22-25, 2014

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 14, 2014, 10:37 PM »

Your World
Some kind of relative of Tower Defense kinds of games, which I occasionally really find relaxing!

http://ludumdare.com...review&uid=16119

http://julgodis.github.io/LD30/

Okay, this one gets "Med-Easy". I've beaten it several times, but lost several times too! I can't quite lock down the iron win strategy. Stuff that helps - go *very* stingy in the early waves, to build up gold. Because there's this strange "lightning bolt" near the enemy castle that sorta nukes your guys, so if you over build, you just lose guys to electrocution.

Also, that big Golem isn't quite as wonderful as he seems - hold off just a little, because it seems more efficient to have gold ready to slam down a stream of blue-cops and archers. It can be better to wait for them to come to you and earn 300 gold than push too hard too soon and get fried by that electro shock thing.

Final rating: Phoeni Med-Easy.

922

Developer's Corner / Re: Ludum Dare 30: August 22-25, 2014

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 14, 2014, 02:41 PM »

Another of the "draw lines between stuff" games:

Salvation

http://43iscoding.github.io/Salvation/
http://ludumdare.com...review&uid=35110

You are building some kind of escape routes between planets to let citizens escape some kind of disaster.

It's Phoenix Easy because I only had to really think on the last level 7 which is here:

I included some partial strategy in my pic! So in general, I tend to put a tip or two in my reviews because the difficulty should be "what it is", not heavily banking on one cute trick.

Level 7 (last one)

923

Developer's Corner / Re: Ludum Dare 30: August 22-25, 2014

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 14, 2014, 01:40 PM »

(There's a couple of these "press x to toggle worlds" games in this set. It's prob semi-forced by the compo theme.)

924

Developer's Corner / Re: Ludum Dare 30: August 22-25, 2014

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 14, 2014, 12:20 PM »

Okay, a few more reviews!

Sometimes when a programmer is forced to stay both simple and clean (aka some bug control), you can get a few neat concepts because players know it is either a 1x48 or x-78 entry. So some ideas that could never really sell for big bucks have a chance to live here.

My first one is my "test case" I was talking with Deozaan testing page rotators.

"Close your eyes"
http://ludumdare.com...review&uid=36254

https://b935a866a41f...s/CloseYourEyes.html

The basic idea is you work with a moving dot trying to reach a target. But holding down space toggles which sets of reflectors are in play. It's a funky mechanic, but that's why I'm here.

But it's cute and I got through at least a few levels while writing this.

(It's okay if the last x levels start to get hard ... Medium and Hard ratings are more when you can't even get out of level 1-3 before getting mauled.)

Generosity of restarting levels vs going back to level 1 is also key. This one seems pretty forgiving restarting on current levels. I'm about 4 levels in, and it's starting to get tricky, but that rating is still Med-Easy because it doesn't squash you 12 seconds in like many of these games do.

The first tricky level about 5 levels in:


The "alt universe" when you hit space:


Edit: Okay, when it gets tricky, it gets tricky fast.
I have been using SC Caprtor and Stickies to get a feeble leg up, but this just may not be my strong suit game.

Edit2: Okay, this level is doing weird things to my rating system. I screamed past the training and first couple levels, and suddenly this one is really giving me a run for the money. So maybe you have to discount the early levels and then it becomes full Phoenix Medium in the middle.

Edit3: I finally beat that level - the winning move involves both of the "big circles" and then getting the ball to slide to the right on the low side of the screen. But it was certainly far trickier than the warmup levels, and it's gonna get worse soon! The one I posted was among the last of the "slow speed levels". Then it picks up into "unfair mode" where the ball goes really fast!

Overall, an innovative concept!

925

Developer's Corner / Re: Ludum Dare 30: August 22-25, 2014

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 14, 2014, 12:02 PM »

That's what I see, too.
 (see attachment in previous post)

-Deozaan (November 11, 2014, 04:17 PM)

Yeah the same games are there, so this looks like a useful tip.
Starting to set up a browser/splitter/x instance to play a few on this new ordering.