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9151

General Software Discussion / Re: What is your preferred font?

« Last post by 40hz on May 27, 2010, 07:06 AM »

Well, there is a piece of software promoted lately that enhances the rendering of fonts. Whatever font tickles you, it looks better when using this open source renderer, gdipp.

The link leads to a descriptive page with screenshots that show the differences between the results of the Windows rendering software and gdipp rendering software.

-Shades (May 26, 2010, 07:22 PM)

I remember seeing a write-up on gdipp recently.

Looks to be a promising bit of technology that I hope makes it all the way since I was never overly impressed by Microsoft's text rendering capabilities. I split my time equally with Linux and I can't help but notice how much better screen text looks in that environment - and on the exact same hardware.

ClearType used to just mildly annoy me. But now that I've gone over to non-CRT monitors, the overall poor quality of the text often drives me right up the wall.

Definitely going to have to give gdipp a try soon.  

Has anybody here tried it yet?

9152

Living Room / Re: It's Official: Apple Is Now Worth More Than Microsoft*

« Last post by 40hz on May 26, 2010, 03:45 PM »

They're happy, leave them happy.
If they ever become unhappy that'll be the time to unveil another wonder.

-cranioscopical (May 26, 2010, 02:12 PM)

Chris has just revealed the second secret teaching of the Kung-Fu Tech Support Masters!!!!  

(Thanks for giving the game away! )

 

9153

Living Room / Re: What happened to my DC forum avatar?

« Last post by 40hz on May 26, 2010, 03:32 PM »

I personally think Cody mistook it for a small denomination bill, and thinking it was a donation, flew off with it.

 

9154

Living Room / Re: It's Official: Apple Is Now Worth More Than Microsoft*

« Last post by 40hz on May 26, 2010, 03:24 PM »

One doesn't necessarily have to borrow money to have debt. Debt is a normal part of running a business, especially one that deals with physical goods.

-app103 (May 26, 2010, 11:29 AM)

I think they're referring to long-term and traditional short-term debts as opposed to the temporary liabilities incurred through net payment terms and other operational cash 'float' which results from normal business operations.

Payable accounts aren't generally classified as debt. Most accounting conventions place them under the general operating liabilities heading. Or at least they did back when I got my degree (please don't laugh ) in accounting. But I freely admit that was quite a while ago, and things have gotten much more...creative...since I last slogged through the GAAP.

Morningstar shows Apple's long and short term debt as $0.

Acid test ratio is 1.39; Turnover: FA=13.5, INV=48.5, and AR=12.6.

All in all, they have pretty solid numbers for a company their industry sector. Combine that with a hot selling pair of products and it's no wonder the stockbrokers love Apple.

9155

General Software Discussion / Re: HowTo repair/replace tcpip.sys ?

« Last post by 40hz on May 26, 2010, 07:45 AM »

But what about my lifetime license?

-Curt (May 26, 2010, 02:10 AM)

Unfortunately, most "lifetime" licenses are only for the lifetime of the offer. 

It's guaranteed for Life! Yours, ours, or this promotion - whichever comes first. 

9156

General Software Discussion / Re: Do you know a free HTML editor with real time preview in adjacent pane?

« Last post by 40hz on May 25, 2010, 09:18 PM »

...
So the best ones, with sync that is, are:

Microsoft Office Sharepoint Designer (FREE)...

-HankFriedman (May 25, 2010, 08:53 PM)

this is very interesting, Microsoft is giving away Sharepoint Designer. must get it now...

-lanux128 (May 25, 2010, 09:12 PM)

  Previously mentioned:

https://www.donation....msg158487#msg158487

9157

Living Room / Re: Categories of life?

« Last post by 40hz on May 25, 2010, 03:23 PM »

Hmmm...I like it because it rhymes also.  But I thought it would lose some of it's humor.  Ok, I'm changing it.  I'm a sucker for systematics.

-superboyac (May 25, 2010, 03:11 PM)

  It's an addiction, that's fer sure. (I suffer from it too!)

9158

Living Room / Re: Categories of life?

« Last post by 40hz on May 25, 2010, 03:06 PM »

That sounds like a good back story 40hz!

I very much like the look of the other combo though
Professional  Personal  Nonsense
&
I think "Madness and winks" would work better on it's own (it would overpower the other two IMO)

An variation on first would be
Professional  Personal  Nonsensical

-tomos (May 25, 2010, 02:53 PM)

+1 both on your point and your variation.  

I personally prefer nonsensical since it keeps the "L" sound from personal and professional - thereby yielding a nice 3-4-4 syllable cadence plus a subtle hint of rhyme.

per-son-al - pro-fes-sion-al - non-sense-i-cal

Like it!

9159

Living Room / Re: Categories of life?

« Last post by 40hz on May 25, 2010, 02:55 PM »

@40hz: nice! photoshop? 

-Gwen7 (May 25, 2010, 02:42 PM)

Paint.Net actually.  Just a quick & dirty character ref image for when I'm writing.

(JPG > Sharpen > Sepia > Ink Drawing > Glow.  Manually adjust color curves, resize, and save as JPG.)

I try to create images and write a curriculum vitae plus fair bit of backstory for each of my major and semi-major characters. Helps keep me focused.

It also helps prevent any characters from staging a 'mutiny' around page 125!

 

9160

Living Room / Re: Categories of life?

« Last post by 40hz on May 25, 2010, 01:32 PM »

^Wish there were a good backstory to it. But in this case, it just popped into my head late one evening while I was working on the draft of a piece of steampunk fiction. My character Victoria Deering dismissed a scientific rival's 'proofs' as being little more than "Madness and winks."



   "Here then are my proofs. What say you to them, Madam?"

   "Madness and winks, Sir!"

AFAIK it's mine.

(Edit: I stopped being lazy and corrected the above dialog after I looked it up in my draft. )

9161

Living Room / Re: Categories of life?

« Last post by 40hz on May 25, 2010, 01:17 PM »

Maybe i don't need a third.  Everything falls into place nicely with personal and professional.  Still, it's always nice to have three.  i can't think of anything good, though.

-superboyac (May 25, 2010, 11:17 AM)

I plan on using the designation Madness & Winks on a website I'm currently in the process of designing.

It's a catchall category for all the oddball art, literature, technology, philosophy, news, and other bits of zaniness that I'm intellectually flirting with. This section will be fairly fluid, with things appearing and disappearing in in response to my ever shifting interests and whims.

Feel free to use it if you like.

 

Addendum:

Couldn't help but notice...

Professional, Personal, Random...

Isn't that another way of saying: Life, Liberty, Pursuit of Happiness?

 

9162

General Software Discussion / Re: What's the best software uninstaller tool?

« Last post by 40hz on May 25, 2010, 06:23 AM »

With Total Uninstall, you can control what gets deleted during uninstall. 

-CleverCat (May 25, 2010, 02:41 AM)

I didn't know it could do that. That feature could be very useful. Thx!

9163

Living Room / Re: The ultimate personal affirmation video

« Last post by 40hz on May 24, 2010, 11:34 AM »

About 4 and 5 if the kids in the next booth over from us were anything to go by last time we went out for pizza. Both kids were swearing up a storm and not being all that quiet about it either.   

Both sets of well-dressed parents sat there talking to each other, totally oblivious to the words coming out of their kids' mouths - and the glares from most of the other tables.

Rather sad when you think about it...

   

9164

Living Room / The ultimate personal affirmation video

« Last post by 40hz on May 24, 2010, 09:38 AM »

Its not often I'm absolutely bowled over by a video. But this is one of those times.

Here's a toddler by the name of Jessica who raises the notion of "affirmation" to a whole new level.

Makes me want to go out and "seize the day." (As soon as I can stop laughing and get up off the floor.)

http://www.boingboin...ag+%28Boing+Boing%29

9165

General Software Discussion / Re: a copy of Motherboard Monitor?

« Last post by 40hz on May 24, 2010, 09:00 AM »

It shows up on majorgeeks.com but it looks pretty old. File date is something like 2004.

http://majorgeeks.co...download.php?det=311

I use SpeedFan to monitor system temperatures. It works very well for what I need and the authors update it regularly. It's usually a top pick on all the freesoft sites.

http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

if you're primarily interested in monitoring the graphic chips, MSI Afterburner is another good utility to check out.

My overclocking fanatic and hardcore gaming nephew swears by it. Says it's the best tool out there when you want to "push it till it smokes." Caveat emptor if you're using it to tweak as opposed to just monitor, I guess.  
 
 

9166

Living Room / Re: What happened to my DC forum avatar?

« Last post by 40hz on May 23, 2010, 01:16 PM »

9167

Living Room / Re: What happened to my DC forum avatar?

« Last post by 40hz on May 23, 2010, 10:16 AM »

The radio button to upload from a file is selectable. But the commit button is greyed out.

I'm on a smartphone right now so that may be the problem.

But I still don't know why the avatar disappeared to begin with.

Weird huh? 

   

9168

Living Room / What happened to my DC forum avatar?

« Last post by 40hz on May 23, 2010, 09:56 AM »

The avatar image file I uploaded mysteriously disappeared. And the button to upload a file is now disabled.

New feature? New rules? Or just a temporary glitch?
 

9169

General Software Discussion / Re: What's the best software uninstaller tool?

« Last post by 40hz on May 23, 2010, 09:45 AM »

^It's not so much an issue of the uninstaller being coded as a native 64-bit app as it is how well it recognizes and uninstalls 64-bit applications. 

9170

General Software Discussion / Re: What's the best software uninstaller tool?

« Last post by 40hz on May 23, 2010, 07:20 AM »

What about for 64 bit Windows?

-doctorfrog (May 22, 2010, 11:27 PM)

+1 with Darwin on Your Uninstaller.

A 64-bit free version of Revo has been promised.

Some people report using the current version on 64-bit systems without experiencing problems. Can't vouch for how true that is since I haven't tried it.

When it comes to utilities that do system-level changes, I don't believe in pushing my luck too far. I'll just wait for Revo to tell me it works on '64' before I run it in that environment.

 

9171

General Software Discussion / Re: What's the best software uninstaller tool?

« Last post by 40hz on May 22, 2010, 08:35 AM »

IMHO Revo is the best. Gets the job done with no bad surprises.

It packs the most functionality without your needing to fiddle with it.   

Used in conjunction with CCleaner, MyDefrag, and the Glary Utilities and you have a complete day-to-day PC maintenance toolkit.
 

  

9172

General Software Discussion / Re: Simple E-Mail Client

« Last post by 40hz on May 21, 2010, 07:36 PM »

My pleasure. Glad it worked out well for you. 

9173

General Software Discussion / Re: Simple E-Mail Client

« Last post by 40hz on May 21, 2010, 12:36 PM »

Thanks Carol, but we already have a YAHOO email account set up and in use for the association.  I need a simple e-mail client to use with YAHOO mail

-ljbirns (May 21, 2010, 12:26 PM)

You don't necessarily have to use Yahoo to send your messages.

You can send from any email account you're allowed to send from.

When you send, just set the association's Yahoo email account as the return or "reply to" address in your email client and you should be all set. That way, any replies get sent back to the regular association inbox.

 

9174

General Software Discussion / Re: Simple E-Mail Client

« Last post by 40hz on May 21, 2010, 12:31 PM »

Take a look at the free version of G-Lock EasyMail.

This lets you send out personalized individual email messages to names on a group list.

Info: http://www.glocksoft.com/em/

Versions info: http://www.glocksoft...em/emdifferences.htm

Personalized Email Delivery

With our newsletter mailing software you can send personalized messages to every recipient using the powerful Merge feature. It is an exquisite way to generate new orders from existing customers. This is also the most efficient means to make contact with your clients, one that will bring you much satisfaction.

And furthermore, you can preview how the Merge feature works right in G-Lock EasyMail to ensure that a personalized message for each recipient looks like you expect.

Be careful when using a lot of BCC addresses. First-time spammers love to do that. Many servers will assume it's junkmail and automatically dump it if there are too many BCCs.

There was some discussion about that issue in this thread:

https://www.donation....msg205212#msg205212


 

9175

Living Room / Re: Apple won't take cash for iPads

« Last post by 40hz on May 20, 2010, 03:39 PM »

I wonder would it be possible to jailbreak from the start, and never use itunes or an apple account at all...

-wraith808 (May 20, 2010, 03:29 PM)

Hardly worth it IMHO.

For what you pay for the device and the account, you shouldn't have to resort to "science fair projects" to get it to do what you want. Jailbreaking serves no long-term useful function.

Apple's limitations are by design and motivated purely by a lock-in business model. (And a healthy dose of paranoia on the part of 'he who shall remain nameless.' Typical behavior on the part of somebody who never mastered any coding or technical skill and therefor decided the only role left was to put himself in charge of the real talent.)

Jailbreaking just plays into their game. Far smarter to find better devices and service providers to play with.

Just my 2¢

---------------
Addendum:

When I was a kid, we actually did have one little twerp that always used to threaten to take his bat and ball and go home when things didn't go his way. (Doctor's kid. Richest family in the neighborhood too! His parents absolutely doted on him...)

We eventually gave up dealing with his tantrums. We all chipped in and went out and bought a couple of neighborhood-owned Wiffle Ball sets. Once we did, we banished the twerp from our games.



I think this was the moment I became a supporter of the FOSS model - even though it would be years before FOSS came into existence.
 

It also goes a good bit of the way towards explaining my endless disappointment with Apple as a company. At one point in their history, they really did have the potential and opportunity to become something truly great and change everything about computing.

That moment has long since passed them by.<*sigh*>