Recent Posts

9276

Site/Forum Features / Re: Discussion: How can we Improve DonationCoder?

« Last post by 40hz on April 28, 2010, 02:19 PM »

It probably takes a new framework, but then we could have tags, clouds, likes and dislikes, Facebook integration and whatnot.

-skrommel (April 28, 2010, 08:41 AM)

I was never much a fan of clouds.

But to skrommel's point about the "depth of things" in the forums, for once I can see where something like a topic cloud might be a useful addition to a site like this one. The only problem I could see is if it somehow made people feel they needed to introduce topics and frame their comments to coincide with existing tags rather than let them range as far and wide as they currently do.

Structured discussions are great when you're looking for something specific. But they can easily become a box if you're not careful. And if there's one thing you can say about DCers - they definitely "get outside the box" when discussing things.

There's also a lot to be said for serendipity. So let's be very careful not to do anything that could scare that gentle little creature away.

As far as integration with something like Facebook (or Twitter *choke*), I'm not super keen on bringing in the whole "social web" thing. Especially since that technology (and crowd) brings with them a whole slew of 'issues' we haven't had to deal with. At least not yet - and thank goodness for it!

So +1 with cyberdiva on that one even if I'm mainly concerned for different reasons.

Just my 2¢



.

9277

General Software Discussion / Re: Powerpoint sucks - what to use instead?

« Last post by 40hz on April 28, 2010, 01:37 PM »

While I don't need yet another project to take on, the fact that there are a number of existing, open source HTML and CSS editors out there that might serve as a basis for the kind of tool I have in mind is rather encouraging.

-JavaJones (April 26, 2010, 12:57 PM)

I think you're on the right path with that approach. The one really big advantage web markup has going for it is how versatile it is. I've done quite a few "presentations" using nothing other than web technologies and apps, and I've been very happy with the results.

The biggest advantage to "going web" is that files based on such technologies re-purpose themselves relatively easily. So if you do a slide presentation as a series of HTML/CSS pages, it's a small task to convert them into hardcopy or PDF. And it's only marginally more work to use them to create a standalone e-book or autoplay/interactive media application. You could even dub the presentation's audio onto the individual slides for an instant 'video' of the presentation which could be then be archived, distributed, or streamed.

It also makes the presentation playable on any machine that has a web browser - which basically means all of them. Have USB - Will Travel! Hook a laptop up to a projector and it can be used in a conference room. There are even inexpensive remote control devices that can emulate the old "pickle" controllers from back in the days of carousel slide projectors, so the presenter can have heads-up control of pacing in real time.

Can't get a conference area? Then simply share the presentation over your LAN - or WAN if you need to include remote locations.

There's a good article over at A List Apart (another great site BTW!   ) about doing something similar when creating e-books. Although it's not specifically about presentation graphics, much of what's discussed will apply. (Note: Feel free to ignore the inevitable nod towards the iPad. The article was written back in early March when people didn't know any better! )

Flip a page...change a slide...the basic mechanics are much the same even if the  content density and presentation goals differ.

Link: http://www.alistapar...cles/ebookstandards/

Web Standards for E-books
by Joe Clark

 

Web Standards for E-books

The internet did not replace television, which did not replace cinema, which did not replace books. E-books aren’t going to replace books either. E-books are books, merely with a different form.

The electronic book is the latest example of how HTML continues to win out over competing, often nonstandardized, formats. E-books aren’t websites, but E-books are distributed electronically. Now the dominant E-book format is XHTML. Web standards take on a new flavor when rendering literature on the screen, and classic assumptions about typography (or “formatting”) have to be adjusted.

HTML isn’t just for the web

It’s for any text distributed online.

Technology predictions can come back to haunt you, but this one I’m sure about: The fate of non-HTML formats has been sealed by HTML5 and the iPad. People are finally noticing what was staring them in the face all along—HTML is great for expressing words. The web is mostly about expressing words, and HTML works well for it. The same holds true for electronic books.

<more>

Something to think about...

9278

General Software Discussion / Re: The DonationCoder "Superior Antivirus" Award/Certification

« Last post by 40hz on April 28, 2010, 10:38 AM »

Is it even worth attempting to bring some light to the topic of antivirus software when the companies that are creating the AV products are taking such pains to cloud the issue?

Maybe it would be a better idea to just recommend one (or two) 'best of breed' products ala Gizmo (with the rationale for their selection) and let it go at that?

There's so many bogus and misappropriated award badges out there that I seriously wonder if an "award" means all that much any more - no matter who is conferring one.

9279

Living Room / Re: Stephen's Weekly Tech News - Edition 10

« Last post by 40hz on April 28, 2010, 10:24 AM »

Glad to see McAfee is at least making some attempt to make things right for its customers.  

and Ms. McCreight of Indiana certainly seems to be, um...healthy.  

Thanks for another issue of the news Mr. S.  

9280

Living Room / Re: Book Mini-Review: The Design of Design - Essays from a Computer Scientist

« Last post by 40hz on April 28, 2010, 09:39 AM »

Thanks for the review.

I saw the book and wondered if it could measure up to the expectations set by The Mythical Man-Month. I suppose it's no great surprise that it doesn't quite.

MMM is a pretty tough act to follow - even if it's your own book.

I'll probably read it eventually. I've read almost everything else Brooks has written, and I've always found it time well spent.

(I just wish he'd publish through O'Reilly rather than Addison-Wesley. But that's just me trying to squeeze every last penny out of my Safari subscription before it expires at the end of next month. )

9281

Living Room / Re: Apple instigates Police Raid over lost/stolen iPhone 4G

« Last post by 40hz on April 28, 2010, 08:15 AM »

It will only be a matter of time before the world gets completely fed up with Steve Jobs, Apple Computer, and all their "Big Ugly" antics.

And when it finally happens, it will seem like it happened overnight.

Society only tolerates one or two bad boys (or girls) at a time. And once societal 'permission' is withdrawn, they're quickly kicked to the curb and reviled, thereby paving the way for a new crop of DeBas (i.e. Designated Bastards) to replace them.

I'm guessing it will start in Europe since they don't even have the paltry excuse of 'showing support for a successful domestic company' to motivate them to defend Apple.

Can hardly wait.


-----

Note: I also don't buy about 75% of the story. I find it hard to believe someone working for Apple would be that careless considering how fanatical the company is about security. And I'm even more skeptical after hearing that same employee was able to keep his job when Apple has fired people for far far less.

Sorry, but the whole thing is starting to sound like one big setup; or a publicity stunt that didn't quite go according to script.

Maybe next time, Apple could just ask the police to go over to Mr. Chen's place and threaten to kick the living tar out of him? That's what their plant security guys did to that news photographer over in China.

Global Village, right?

9282

Living Room / Re: Apple instigates Police Raid over lost/stolen iPhone 4G

« Last post by 40hz on April 27, 2010, 12:28 PM »

Anybody want some of this sushi Apple sent over?

It's red herring. 

9283

Site/Forum Features / Re: Discussion: How can we Improve DonationCoder?

« Last post by 40hz on April 26, 2010, 09:57 PM »

a 30 minute sit-down and powerpoint slide show

-mouser (April 26, 2010, 09:21 PM)

I'm ok with the 30 minute sit-down...but I beg you - not the dreaded Powerpoint presentation!


Please, please, pretty please?

I promise I'll be good from now on... 

9284

Living Room / Re: For when your PC next plays up...

« Last post by 40hz on April 26, 2010, 09:23 PM »

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

Glad you could join us! I think you're really going to like it here.  

9285

Site/Forum Features / Re: Discussion: How can we Improve DonationCoder?

« Last post by 40hz on April 26, 2010, 08:57 PM »

The name of the site doesn't perfectly match what the site is anymore.. But i'm not sure it's practical to change it.. Names have a way of gaining emotional traction and momentum, and changing the name would cause all kinds of havok and confusion.

-mouser (April 26, 2010, 03:26 PM)

+1 with Mouser on that point. The name doesn't have to perfectly fit the site so long as it's recognized.

There's a good amount of brand recognition associated with the DC name and it would be counterproductive to change it. And  it's also getting fairly difficult to find a good succinct domain name with all the new registrations that have taken place.

9286

Site/Forum Features / Re: Discussion: How can we Improve DonationCoder?

« Last post by 40hz on April 25, 2010, 02:56 PM »

Does Donation Coder have anything like a current mission statement?

Maybe part of what's happening is that the DoCo is evolving in directions not intended (and possibly not wanted) by the administration and/or general membership?

The reason I ask is because (purely from my perspective as a non-coder participant) the name Donation Coder does not seem to accurately reflect what the site is about.

For some, that would be considered a positive development showing how the site has shifted emphasis in keeping with changes in membership interests and demographics.  For others, it could be seen as an sign that things having gotten out of control, or indicative of a lack of focus.

So I guess a big part of the question is whether it may be approaching the time when DC wants to "get back to its roots" so to speak.

The bulk of the concerns seem to revolve around issues like "signal to noise" and "search and retrieval." From my experience doing websites, those are issues that only come up when a site has either become overly generalized - or has gotten divorced from its original goal.

So...is this an issue that also needs to be considered?

Is DC trying to be too many things to too many people?

Or perhaps more correctly: do too many people want DC to be too many things?  

-----------------------
ADDENDUM: (Note: NSFW)

Spoiler

9287

Site/Forum Features / Re: Friendly 404

« Last post by 40hz on April 24, 2010, 01:25 PM »

This was one of the best 404's I've ever seen:

http://1976design.com/blog/404

And this one is almost as helpful - but cuter. Incorporates a mascot theme too!



 

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

w/thx to the folks at Smashing Magazine ( www.smashingmagazine.com ) for both.

9288

Site/Forum Features / Re: Discussion: How can we Improve DonationCoder?

« Last post by 40hz on April 24, 2010, 11:32 AM »

@IainB - was your comment above this in response to my question above that? Because if so, you lost me.  

I probably should have prefixed it with @mouser and/or Moderators since only they could really answer that question.  

Fixed now!

9289

Site/Forum Features / Re: Discussion: How can we Improve DonationCoder?

« Last post by 40hz on April 24, 2010, 08:16 AM »

@mouser and/or Moderators:

Just out of curiosity, is this periodic QC and/or refocusing? Or was this discussion prompted by something like a rash of complaints, defections from the ranks, or a critical review?

Trying to get a sense of the context.  
 

9290

Living Room / Re: stackoverflow-like site for DC. Would it work? Now free

« Last post by 40hz on April 22, 2010, 10:38 AM »

But everything from titles to badges to post counts are the same sort of carrot type leading mechanism- to keep people invested in a particular community.

-wraith808 (April 22, 2010, 10:22 AM)

Badges? Badges? We don't need no steenking badges! 

Excellent point. Hadn't considered it from that perspective.

I tend to overlook the power of socially conferred tokens since I'm not all that interested in them. (Quite often to my personal detriment, I might add! )   

9291

Living Room / Re: stackoverflow-like site for DC. Would it work? Now free

« Last post by 40hz on April 22, 2010, 10:09 AM »

In the MIT article, I found this point both interesting and somewhat telling:

Sustain Loyalty.
Since reputation is usually based on activity performed within a single community or web system, it constitutes a powerful form of lock-in and can be used strategically to increase user loyalty and decrease attrition. Once users have built a reputation on a site, they will be reluctant to defect to a competitor since they would then have to build their reputation from scratch. In an increasingly competitive environment this dimension of reputation mechanisms must not be overlooked.

Suddenly, it doesn't seem so about benefitting the end user anymore.

Just thinking...

9292

General Software Discussion / Re: Here we go again with false positive antivirus actions bricking computers

« Last post by 40hz on April 22, 2010, 08:29 AM »

I haven't looked at McAfee since a time in the mid-90's when an overnight update brought two floors worth of PCs to their knees performance-wise - and the client decided it was all my fault because I originally spec'ed the systems.

And here I thought I was maybe carrying a grudge because I've considered McAfee To be undependable ever since.

9293

General Software Discussion / Re: Meeting minutes/action item software recommendations?

« Last post by 40hz on April 20, 2010, 06:16 PM »

It's not exactly what you described, but would something built along the lines of this piece of shareware be pointing in the general direction?



Link: http://minutes-of-me...rtcode.com/info.html

Minutes of Meeting Recorder 4.4

License:Shareware

Price:$39.00

Size:2.8 MB

Date Added:05 March, 2009

Author: XemiComputers Ltd.


This program allows you to take meeting minutes through recording discussion and adding text summaries. The audio recorder built in the program saves each new recording as a separate section and offers real-time OGG audio compression and voice operated recording mode. It also features transcription playback mode, audio editor for making cut-outs, Exact Time Positioner (ETP) bar for quick and precise positioning within a recorded section, mouse wheel support and a selection of keyboard shortcuts with the most important controls available in off-focus mode and accessible while working with other programs. All recordings are 8-bit, mono, with 44KHz as the default sampling rate, but you can also use 22KHz and 11KHz. On the other hand, Minutes of Meeting Recorder provides a number of rich-text fields, enabled with basic formatting options, for creating standard meeting summary consisting of information about subject, date and place, present people, agenda, actions and closure. Both text and audio are saved to the same meeting file that you can easily share using the option for attaching meeting file directly to a new e-mail. Additionally, the program can export meeting notes to RTF file and export/import audio sections to/from WAV, OGG and MP3 files. Meeting file size can go up to 2GB which gives you more than 12 hours of uncompressed recording. Note: if your microphone can not pick up meeting discussion try to find one designed for conferences.

Or this if you're looking for something more 'pro':

MeetingSense is easy-to-use software that lets project teams capture, publish, track, and then collaboratively manage meeting information and action items online. Tight integration with Microsoft Outlook adds instant structure and best practices to help optimize meeting preparation. At meeting time, use your Outlook toolbar to launch 'MeetingSense Publisher' to help efficiently record every meeting aspect, and then instantly distribute professional notes and action items via email... or publish it all online. Team meeting productivity is now a reality, making your meetings work for you!

http://www.meetingse...tingsense/index.aspx



Actually, that second one looks pretty cool! 

9294

Living Room / Re: stackoverflow-like site for DC. Would it work? Now free

« Last post by 40hz on April 19, 2010, 11:21 PM »

@Perry Mowbray -

It's just my personal take on the beast. There's nothing to say I'm right by any stretch. But again, the personal choice to use a piece of technology to screen something you don't want to see is what I consider a dangerous habit to get into. To my way of thinking, it encourages a certain mental laziness.

And once it starts screening things for you (sight unseen) based on votes cast by others you believe you can trust, it starts crossing into the realm of being a tool for groupthink. And it has the capability do just that. In fact, it's listed as a feature:

Posts voted below a given number are hidden. ("Bad posts")

- and -

Members choose to either hide Bad posts, or grey them out, or none and display them normally.


I mean seriously, what's to stop you from just blowing past the comments from people your experience has taught you don't rate more than a skim? The simple fact that GP/BP has a feature to mask them seems to indicate there is a desire on the part of some (many?) people to be spared even that much effort.

Maybe I'm making a mountain out of a molehill. But I don't really think so.  

Another problem I see revolves around the effect the "respect" scores can have on new or infrequent contributors. Such a system has a bias which favors established frequent posters. You can't build up your level of "respect" until somebody votes for you. But the people who have the screening feature enabled can't vote for you because they may never see your post to begin with. All it would take is a few trolls self nominated gatekeepers who make a habit of slagging new arrivals or have an axe to grind about a certain viewpoint.

So it has the potential to become a vicious circle that eventually places all the "opinion power" in the hands of a relatively small clique.  Sorta like Orwell's Animal Farm where "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." And that's a big problem.

As JavaJones pointed out, it's basically the Slashdot model.

 

9295

Living Room / Re: stackoverflow-like site for DC. Would it work? Now free

« Last post by 40hz on April 19, 2010, 10:24 PM »

Most of what I see are people just trying to conduct several different discussions at once. Threaded forums handle that better, but I have yet to see a threaded forum display model that I actually like.

-JavaJones (April 19, 2010, 09:14 PM)

100% with JavaJones on that point.

I have yet to see a threaded forum model that is readable after a half dozen responses. They also become instantly unreadable once they 'nest' beyond one level deep.

Examples:

A) This works.

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

B) This works too.
    - One level deep and it's still readable.
    - So long as it doesn't go deeper.

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

C) But with something like this
    - Where you have a response
        - And then a response to a response
            - And possibly a response to a response to a response
    - Just gets confusing
    - Especially if this line is in response to the reponse to the response
       to the response in the nest above!

Threaded forums are also useless if you want to initiate long thoughtful dialogs since individual threads soon start sounding like conversations being held in separate rooms.

I cannot stand threading a discussion. Bad mojo! If you're gonna go the non-linear multi-channel dialog route, you're far better off with a wiki.

9296

Living Room / Re: stackoverflow-like site for DC. Would it work? Now free

« Last post by 40hz on April 19, 2010, 09:45 PM »

Good lord! Are they for real with that add-on?  

Maybe it's just me, but that looks like a cure that's worse than the "problem" it's attempting to address.

-40hz (April 19, 2010, 07:05 PM)

Really? I didn't see a problem... what can you see?

-Perry Mowbray (April 19, 2010, 07:31 PM)

I didn't see a problem either, so I'm curious...

-wraith808 (April 19, 2010, 08:19 PM)

I think the problem I have is that Good Post/Bad Post plays into something I believe is one of the most negative aspects of web technology - the ability to screen out comments, opinions, and news that you'd rather not hear or think about.

This is a problem with much of what passes for "being well informed" in the new order of things. More and more people are tuning out what they don't want to hear, and zeroing in on sources and commentary that already supports their present opinions.

It's basically a form of censorship masquerading as "personal choice," and IMHO, it's a very dangerous trend.

I'm sure much of my attitude is shaped by my upbringing, education, and the times I grew up in. But I've noticed a distinct difference in willingness on the part of people younger than myself to be pushed outside their philosophical comfort zone. And that goes along with a greater willingness to indulge in what I see as forms of groupthink.

So my personal warning bells go off when I see something that basically says: "Let's all privately vote on something's merit, and then use the results to screen out anything we don't deem worthy of attention."

In Plato's Apology, Socrates argued for the role of the 'gadfly' in human society.

I'm inclined to agree with him on that point.

Just my two δραχμαί...  

9297

Living Room / Re: stackoverflow-like site for DC. Would it work? Now free

« Last post by 40hz on April 19, 2010, 07:05 PM »

Good Post / Bad Post[/url] seems to be a SMF mod that tries to address that as the user has control over what they see, and anyone can rank the post. Not that I've seen it, but it seems that you can only leave the good posts on... making it easier to read and understand. And that's not just questions, it's general discussion.

-Perry Mowbray (April 19, 2010, 06:29 PM)

Good lord! Are they for real with that add-on?   

Maybe it's just me, but that looks like a cure that's worse than the "problem" it's attempting to address.

9298

Living Room / Re: Stephen's Weekly Tech News - Edition 9

« Last post by 40hz on April 19, 2010, 06:21 PM »

I would LOVE to get to that museum.

-mouser (April 19, 2010, 03:56 PM)

Ooooooo...they have a Cray-1 and an Enigma!!!

I wanna go to!

P.S. Is that elegant brunette gonna be there? If so, my nephew says he's coming along too. 

9299

Living Room / Re: Low energy use always on pc -- what's better, a laptop or a mini (htpc) pc?

« Last post by 40hz on April 19, 2010, 06:15 PM »

Here is a nice one for $188.

http://tinyurl.com/y4k2nja

-SchoolDaGeek (April 15, 2010, 09:41 PM)

Nice find!  I'm already thinking of uses...

9300

Living Room / Re: stackoverflow-like site for DC. Would it work? Now free

« Last post by 40hz on April 19, 2010, 06:03 PM »

Actually, I like the discussion format.  I

-wraith808 (April 19, 2010, 05:56 PM)

Understood.

But do you have a distinct preference for one over the other in general?