Recent Posts

9051

General Software Discussion / Re: How to [partially] blur screenshots?

« Last post by wraith808 on July 27, 2010, 12:07 PM »

Hmmm... what happens if you blur more than once?  And does all software use the same blurring algorithm?  It would seem that the person after the information would need not only the image, but to know the blurring software also.  Is that correct?

9052

Living Room / Re: New Government Rules make Jailbreaking Legal

« Last post by wraith808 on July 27, 2010, 08:13 AM »

Another article with some nice bullet points about things overlooked in the previous article.

http://www.tgdaily.c...ng-your-iphone-legal

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Living Room / Re: Get out your crayons to help Apple... ;)

« Last post by wraith808 on July 26, 2010, 07:50 PM »

Apple announced this morning it would be delaying production of the white iPhone until later this year.

The official reason for the delay: White iPhones are "more challenging to manufacture than we originally expected."

-Renegade (July 26, 2010, 06:55 PM)

Indeed it is more challenging.  They used all the parts on those nice shiny black ones.  Now that no one is buying the "Jobs Handjob"(TM), they're bleaching the black ones to make the white ones, hoping they'll sell! 

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Living Room / New Government Rules make Jailbreaking Legal

« Last post by wraith808 on July 26, 2010, 01:58 PM »

http://www.gottabemo...-jailbreaking-legal/

It's now legal to jailbreak your iPhone.  (Maybe a new term that doesn't imply criminality is needed?)

DVD security protections also took a hit, as the ruling covers breaking them to copy and embed short clips for non-commercial educational or critical purposes, if you are a student or reviewer. (How stringent this last bit will be will be interesting to see- as will the youtube effects of this)

Apparently the Library of Congress stepped in on this one... I didn't know about the three year exemption bit.

I wonder what Apple's response to this will be- and if it will apply to the iPad.

[via The Man Who Never Missed (had to credit for the picture )]

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Living Room / Re: U.S. Intelligence Analyst Arrested in Wikileaks Video Probe

« Last post by wraith808 on July 26, 2010, 09:52 AM »

And the slippery slope continues...

http://www.cnn.com/2.../index.html?iref=NS1

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General Software Discussion / Re: Whoa, this gal hates MS Office 2010 -- 5 Reasons Why You Don't Need It

« Last post by wraith808 on July 23, 2010, 02:47 PM »

And there's always http://office.live.com.  I know there are some differences, but I don't think most users will need the full version.

Comparison to Google Docs

9057

Living Room / Apple Leads in Security Vulnerabilities...

« Last post by wraith808 on July 23, 2010, 09:48 AM »

Irony still lives.

http://www.ghacks.ne...ies-microsoft-third/

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Living Room / Re: Should Apple recall the iPhone4? Or should the user "Hold the phone the right"?

« Last post by wraith808 on July 23, 2010, 09:36 AM »

If you liked that one:

http://www.engadget....on-to-your-receptio/

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Living Room / Re: Should Apple recall the iPhone4? Or should the user "Hold the phone the right"?

« Last post by wraith808 on July 22, 2010, 10:09 PM »

Classic!

http://www.engadget....-issue-hopes-for-ro/

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Screenshot Captor / Re: Issue with ScreenCaptor images on WordPress.com

« Last post by wraith808 on July 21, 2010, 10:45 AM »

Where is the reference to this post?  I use wordpress also for a couple of blogs, and don't have this problem, so that's the reason that I ask.  The developer will surely respond soon, so you'll get a response directly on the issue, I'm sure.

Thanks!

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Living Room / Re: Should Apple recall the iPhone4? Or should the user "Hold the phone the right"?

« Last post by wraith808 on July 20, 2010, 07:35 AM »

“OK, great, let’s give everybody a case,” he said.

-zridling (July 19, 2010, 11:44 PM)

It seems that the wounded paranoia is being inferred more from the writer... that quote is a lot different than the previous one in tone and such, at least from the writing.  And he didn't sound condescending when he was on the press conference at all IMO- the idea to include the other manufacturers in his 'study' was just ill-advised.

Other than that, they've done everything they could at this point IMO.

1. Offered refunds
2. Offered a case if you don't want refunds
3. Said they'd revisit in September

I just don't see what else people could want, personally.  They want mea culpas with their fix- for Apple (by way of Steve Jobs) to be humbled.  You're entitled to a fix- not a mea culpa based on what you think happened (i.e. that they knew about it before it was released).

9062

General Software Discussion / Re: weather.com

« Last post by wraith808 on July 19, 2010, 09:01 PM »

Maybe they'll call you when they try to go to site X and it's blocked.  "Our network isn't working!  Can you come fix it for lots of money?"

9063

DC Gamer Club / Re: [Steam] Alien Swarm Free forever

« Last post by wraith808 on July 19, 2010, 09:00 PM »

Let a mod worry about it if they want to

9064

Living Room / Re: Testing the internet "kill" switch

« Last post by wraith808 on July 19, 2010, 08:21 PM »

Oops. 

Thanks

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Living Room / Re: The eBook reader wars

« Last post by wraith808 on July 19, 2010, 08:16 PM »

I'm not   And that was my point above

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DC Gamer Club / Re: [Steam] Alien Swarm Free forever

« Last post by wraith808 on July 19, 2010, 08:14 PM »

Thanks for the link, though already posted

https://www.donation...ic=23454.0;topicseen

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Living Room / Testing the internet "kill" switch

« Last post by wraith808 on July 19, 2010, 02:44 PM »

Interesting article that would have passed me by if not for a friend linking to it.

http://www.backwoods...nternet-kill-switch/

If you read tech blogs — and only if you read tech blogs (or a handful of online techzines) — you already know that, on July 9, some unnamed government agency, for unnamed reasons, ordered BurstNet to take 73,000 blogs permanently offline. All were part of the same WordPress platform called Blogetery.

A week later, a forum-creating service was shut down just as mysteriously.

If you rely on mainstream sources for your news — or even online mainstream alternatives — you haven’t heard a peep about any of this.

Why did some unnamed government agency order the death of 73,000 blogs?

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General Software Discussion / Re: weather.com

« Last post by wraith808 on July 19, 2010, 10:37 AM »

This is my favorite weather website:

http://www.thefuckin...r.com/?zipcode=11215

-fm84 (July 19, 2010, 12:05 AM)

I got this response from Safari (or maybe AT&T) trying that link on an iPhone.

This is interesting because I just checked and have verified I don't have any active restriction settings enabled on this device.

 

Your page is blocked due to a security policy that prohibits access to category
Violence.

Pretty weird huh?

-40hz (July 19, 2010, 10:24 AM)

Did it automatically connect to some nearby wi-fi?  That's the only explanation I can think of.  I have an iPhone also, and it goes to the URL fine.

9069

Living Room / Re: Should Apple recall the iPhone4? Or should the user "Hold the phone the right"?

« Last post by wraith808 on July 18, 2010, 09:34 PM »

The other part of the issue which urks me is the fact that this free offer expires. What about new phones purchased after 30 September? Will users of the affected phones be able to swap for a working model once, if, the issue is fixed in a future design? If not, then this issue will just reappear as news in September when the free offer expires.

-Josh (July 18, 2010, 05:44 PM)

It doesn't expire in September.  What he said was that they would take a look at it in September to see if this was still the way to go, i.e. is there another way to correct the problem at that time.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Recommendations for home mail server

« Last post by wraith808 on July 18, 2010, 10:13 AM »

When I was contracting, and never sure if the client that I would have next would block mail sites, I used CMailServer from YoungZSoft.  It worked well for me, and I'd recommend it unreservedly.  It was free for up to 5 accounts; I couldn't see anything on that, so I'm not sure if they changed the model or not.

http://www.youngzsoft.net/cmailserver/

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Living Room / Re: Should Apple recall the iPhone4? Or should the user "Hold the phone the right"?

« Last post by wraith808 on July 18, 2010, 10:08 AM »

I totally agree that Jobs' comparisons were a bad idea, as was his whole persona during the conference.  I think that the words said in regards to solving the issue were good:

He said they will waive re-stocking fees on the iPhone, it seems like they're giving an out. 
He also said that for those who choose to keep it (or still buy it), they're giving the bumpers which solve the problem.

I'd hazard a guess that we'll see a refresh before they manufacture more, but are also trying to get the ones that are in the chain sold as they do.  But the original question was should they do a recall.  They didn't...  does anyone think they still should given that this is not a safety concern and they did address consumers of the product?

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Living Room / Re: Should Apple recall the iPhone4? Or should the user "Hold the phone the right"?

« Last post by wraith808 on July 18, 2010, 09:19 AM »

More from consumer reports:
http://blogs.consume...reports-ratings.html

And a response from RIM:
http://www.boygenius...7/rim-co-ceos-apple/

9073

Living Room / Re: Some initial reflections on using an ebook reader

« Last post by wraith808 on July 17, 2010, 09:27 AM »

I wouldn't go so far as to call it a clear winner

-allen (July 16, 2010, 09:05 PM)

Yeah, as soon as I posted that I started rethinking my position.

there's a one hour per visit limit on reading a nook book in B&N.

-allen (July 16, 2010, 09:05 PM)

Only one hour? That's. . . dumb.

I knew you could loan books for only 14 days, but I didn't know it was just once per book. They really need a way to transfer ownership to someone else, just as you can do with the analog books.

-Deozaan (July 17, 2010, 03:41 AM)

I'm sure the limit is to limit abuse in someone's mind.

Interesting article on the fallacies of it, though...

http://ireaderreview...nding-before-launch/

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Living Room / Re: Should Apple recall the iPhone4? Or should the user "Hold the phone the right"?

« Last post by wraith808 on July 17, 2010, 09:26 AM »

So... do people think that the research that was shown was a lie?  Also, do people think that with the way the phone fiasco happened earlier, that something like this was never seen before?

He also said a free case- not necessarily a free bumper case.  You get to choose which case you want.

I was wrong. But I found it funny that Jobs begrudgingly offered bumpers: "If you need one, we'll issue it, are you happy now?"

Weird, angry quote.

-zridling (July 16, 2010, 11:16 PM)

Source?  I didn't see that in the video...

Also... http://www.apple.com/antenna/

Interesting approach.

9075

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Giving away Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate with MSDN (free)

« Last post by wraith808 on July 17, 2010, 09:13 AM »

All I know is if I hit the SuperGigaZillaBucks or whatever they call it, I wouldn't be on TV saying "even though I now have 20 $Billion I'm going to keep my job at the Post Office because I love pushing the mail around that comes in on the conveyor belt."

-MilesAhead (July 15, 2010, 04:41 PM)

I have actually thought about this, and I would keep my current job, if I won the lottery - I like what I do, and the people I do it with.

-Stoic Joker (July 16, 2010, 06:06 AM)

If $20Billion doesn't change your thinking, I guess you wouldn't play in the first place. I mean, what's the point?

-MilesAhead (July 16, 2010, 03:09 PM)

More money = more opportunity to do what you already like?  I'm the same way.  I like what I do, and the people I do it with.  However, $20 Billion would let me enjoy my downtime in a wider variety of ways.  Just because I like working doesn't mean there's not use in the money.  Take a vacation to everywhere in the world.  Live exactly where you want.  Don't worry about balancing the checkbook every week, or your paycheck, because you really don't need it.  A job isn't *just* about money ideally, and taking away the money aspect would definitely make a job even more enjoyable than it is.