Recent Posts

9451

Living Room / Re: Firefox Stability Issues

« Last post by Renegade on October 02, 2010, 11:30 PM »

FF keeps just puking and dying on me.

I'll not be doing anything and *POOF*~! It suddenly dies.

I'll be working on another machine and see it die.

I'll be working on the same machine in another program and see it disappear from the taskbar.

Flash? Dunno. It's just extraordinarily bizarre.

Usually programs crash when you DO something. Not when you don't do anything.

9452

Living Room / Re: Am I the only one who finds the new Apps-based world boring?

« Last post by Renegade on October 02, 2010, 06:47 PM »

As of publicity, if there where more stores you got a bigger chance of your application getting noticed than with a single stores that buries you. Specially if your application is in a niche market, you will get better coverage on a specialized on line store than on a single monopolized one.

-rxantos (October 02, 2010, 06:41 PM)

Amen! The promotional value that Apple brings is negative. Page 42 of 500 is meaningless.

9453

Living Room / Re: Am I the only one who finds the new Apps-based world boring?

« Last post by Renegade on October 02, 2010, 06:45 PM »

And 30% commission to the "app store"? F**k-off. They bring no value at all to the table. They bring negative value. Let's see, I give you 30% of my sales so that I can... (spewing vitriol deleted)

You're entitled to your opinon. I think that payment processing, order fulfillment and promotional services actually have a fair amount of value, and the market would seem to agree with me as people are generally charged for these services. Handango and Brighthand have been in this business for years. They must be making money from somewhere, and my guess it is from the developers who sell goods in their store.

-Jimdoria (October 02, 2010, 10:11 AM)

All the other affiliate programs and processors are optional. Handango, CNet, CJ, Softpedia, PayPal, Tucows, Digital River, etc. etc. etc. They all BRING value to the table. Apple doesn't. They TAKE money from the table.

Now, if the ecosystem wasn't completely locked down and everyone else wasn't locked out, then it would be a different story. It's the difference between being robbed and giving to charity. One is voluntary.

I don't like the monopolistic system. It's not good for anyone except Apple.

9454

Living Room / Re: Am I the only one who finds the new Apps-based world boring?

« Last post by Renegade on October 01, 2010, 11:54 PM »

Quoting Steve Jobs:

...to help our [3rd party] developers survive...

Survive. That's what he thinks. He has nothing but contempt for everyone.

9455

Living Room / Re: Am I the only one who finds the new Apps-based world boring?

« Last post by Renegade on October 01, 2010, 11:53 PM »

+ 1 Eóin.

The lock-down and monopolization are the problems.

This is the exact same problem as DVDs and buying DRM'd music/videos. They're broken to start. Very broken.

The new "app store" concept is also broken.

And 30% commission to the "app store"? F**k-off. They bring no value at all to the table. They bring negative value. Let's see, I give you 30% of my sales so that I can be your bitch that you screw whenever you want, dump whenever you want, and bury under a mountain of your other bitches so that nobody finds me... Yeah. Right. 30% for the privilege of getting screwed. Nice.

Grrr...

It's pure greed. Nothing more. There are no other factors involved. And if there were other factors, they would only be excuses trying to hide GREED.

Did I already say Grrr?

9456

Living Room / Re: Firefox Stability Issues

« Last post by Renegade on October 01, 2010, 11:43 PM »

Hmmm... Maybe it's because I have 50~150 tabs open usually?

9457

Living Room / Re: Tipping - Why does this appear to be a "requirement"?

« Last post by Renegade on October 01, 2010, 12:28 PM »

This all goes to distribution of wealth.

9458

Living Room / Firefox Stability Issues

« Last post by Renegade on October 01, 2010, 06:09 AM »

Has anyone had problems with Firefox stability in the last while?

9459

Living Room / Re: Am I the only one who finds the new Apps-based world boring?

« Last post by Renegade on September 29, 2010, 10:30 PM »

That Open Pandora gadget looks pretty cool.

When it comes to being an "open platform", I think the most important thing is that it is possible to participate in the platform with no obstacles, i.e. access to the platform being open. I think it's less important that the platform itself be open. Desktop operating systems are like this. Mobile platforms are not. Console platforms are not.

I'm trying to draw the distinction between doing something "with" the platform and doing something "to" the platform.

Still, having the "to" option is nice for those that want to really go all the way.

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Living Room / Re: Am I the only one who finds the new Apps-based world boring?

« Last post by Renegade on September 29, 2010, 08:23 AM »

+1 Zane.

It's like a flock of vampires descending down to carve out their feeding grounds.

9461

Living Room / Re: Why do we go out of our way to be unhelpful in forums?

« Last post by Renegade on September 28, 2010, 10:38 PM »

One thing I like is ANY answer is better than NO answer. Usually I just want a starting point, and not a complete answer. If I get that start, then I'm usually good to go.

9462

Living Room / Re: Funny, Strange, and Confusing Error Messages

« Last post by Renegade on September 28, 2010, 10:35 PM »

cough cough.. Dr. Windows:
(see attachment in previous post)

https://www.donation...DrWindows/index.html

-mouser (September 28, 2010, 06:39 PM)

Hahahaha~! That's awesome! I never saw it before!

9463

Living Room / Re: Funny, Strange, and Confusing Error Messages

« Last post by Renegade on September 28, 2010, 06:33 PM »

I don't think that. I am simply sceptical since I know that writing:

[Select]

MsgBox "Can't joke properly!", 16, "Windows XP"

in notepad is not so hard

-fenixproductions (December 09, 2008, 06:09 PM)

That might be true, but plain text is a lot easier to fake than a screen shot.

In any case, maybe we should open the thread up to some funny error messages that may or may not be genuine. But I guess there are already entire websites devoted to that.

-Deozaan (December 16, 2008, 03:01 AM)

I think he means something like the attachment I'm uploading. It's a simple application to create fake error messages. You could change the message by changing this line:

MessageBox.Show(textBox2.Text, textBox1.Text, btns, icon, MessageBoxDefaultButton.Button1);

Then recompiling. The way I have it though you can just choose from a drop down then get a fake error message.

FunnyErrorMessages.zip (67.59 kB - downloaded 316 times.)

9464

Living Room / Re: Why do we go out of our way to be unhelpful in forums?

« Last post by Renegade on September 28, 2010, 05:55 PM »

Most of the time, people who write reviews just write based on first glance impressions.  It's not like they have used the stuff for a while and are posting their reactions.  No.  They usually just open a box, play around for a few minutes, and write a "review".  It's useless.  Same goes for a lot of software reviews.  They install, click around for a minute, then write a review regurgitating the same info listed on the website.  Nothing substantial at all.  Again, useless.

-superboyac (September 28, 2010, 12:22 PM)

That's a pet peeve of mine. It's rampant in consumer electronics.

There are some good sites that are trustworthy though. DPReview. Tom's Hardware. Ken Rockwell. etc. etc. They really put stuff through the paces. However, you need to read more than 1 review to understand where they are coming from. e.g. Ken Rockwell can be hyper-critical at times, so you need to know that.

If you're not turning up decent results, often times you're just looking in the wrong places. There are times though that the information just is NOT out there. At all. Sometimes you need to be indirect in your searching.

Here's an example... I'm currently doing iPhone development with MonoTouch. It is pretty new and the developer community isn't very large, so there isn't a huge amount of resources like there is for general C# development. As such, I can't find answers to problems at all. e.g. I spent more than a day farting around with bugs that are literally trivial to solve if you have 1 tiny piece of information... BUT... I can search for information in Objective-C and Xcode. There are some significant differences, but if I'm able to fill in enough blanks there, then my searches for information in Objective-C are good enough, albeit time-consuming.

For a concrete example, I was having problems getting information from an MPMediaItem because there wasn't sufficient information on it available, and the Objective-C examples weren't helping much until I filled in some blanks and experimented. Details here on MPMediaItem in MonoTouch. It's simple enough once I filled in a blank.

For a different software example, if you need information on ACME Archiver and can't find it, then maybe information on WinZip or WinRar might fill in enough of the blanks.

Anyways, just one search strategy that I've had some degree of success with.

9465

Living Room / Re: Looking for Refrigerator Magnets that work

« Last post by Renegade on September 27, 2010, 04:45 PM »

app103 - a microwave oven can do the same.

I am surprised at all the trepidation over some tiny little refrigerator magnets! Come on folks! Refrigerator magnets!! I would hazard a guess - out on a limb here - that many more people are killed in auto accidents than by their refrigerator magnets, but I'll wager that no one gives driving their cars that much cautious forethought!! 

Thanks!

Jim

-J-Mac (September 27, 2010, 12:39 PM)

Yeah, it sounds kind of nuts. But it's like anything else. Pure alcohol can kill you from system shock, but 5% in beer is fine.

The kind of magnets that are dangerous are very far from being refrigerator magnets.

9466

Living Room / Facebook is Down but Facebook is Google

« Last post by Renegade on September 27, 2010, 10:19 AM »

Check the image here. Very odd.

9467

Living Room / Re: Looking for Refrigerator Magnets that work

« Last post by Renegade on September 27, 2010, 12:02 AM »

From that page you posted:

CAUTION:

The magnet featured in this advertisement is not a toy and must be handled with extreme caution. The improper handling and/or use of this magnet can result in irrevocable damage to property as well as serious physical damage. While the magnetic field generated by a rare earth magnet is rather shallow, it should not be placed directly on top of computer equipment or equipment subject to detriment by magnetic interference.Because this magnet is attracted to metal at a force equivalent to 350 lbs, it is absolutely imperative that the user never position his/her fingers and/or other appendages in between the magnet and a metal surface. This magnet's attraction to metal is so intense that fingers would be literally severed if inadvertently caught beneath the magnet.

By all means, never stand beneath the magnet when it is carrying a load as a sudden shift in weight could result in the load disengaging from the magnet and falling to the ground. The magnet should never be used to suspend any metal object above a person or object of value.

9468

Living Room / Re: Looking for Refrigerator Magnets that work

« Last post by Renegade on September 26, 2010, 11:58 PM »

Care for something stronger? Do a search for "350 lb Rare Earth Neodymium Magnet w Hook". This is some powerful stuff so be sure to read the warnings if you get one.
I found a listing here:
http://www.imperialproductsonline.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=46&products_id=210

-cchian (September 26, 2010, 11:19 PM)

Hahahaha~!

That's a very BAD idea! You don't want them to be too strong.

You can get them with 1,000's of lbs/kgs of force.

Remember, neodymium magnets can be VERY dangerous. Small ones are fun, but larger ones are NOT toys. You can seriously injure yourself with them.

9469

Living Room / Re: Looking for Refrigerator Magnets that work

« Last post by Renegade on September 26, 2010, 09:16 PM »

+1 for neodymium magnets.

That's what I use on my fridge. I love them.

9470

Living Room / Re: When you knock at my door...

« Last post by Renegade on September 26, 2010, 10:31 AM »

Amen! I hate ring-backs.

• Enjoyment?  Not for the caller because the sound quality is so poor it is unpleasant and sheer torture for any kind of an audiophile.

-CodeTRUCKER (September 25, 2010, 03:35 PM)

THAT is a major pet peeve of mine.

Telephone audio has not improved in 100 years.

What retard thought that MUSIC over crappy voice quality bandwidth was a good idea? I hope he/she doesn't pollute the gene pool with children.

Torture? HA! You understate the case in the most obscene manner possible!

Sigh...

I really hope that at some point the quality of telephony improves. Right now the best thing is Skype.

9471

Living Room / Re: National Punctuation Day haiku contest

« Last post by Renegade on September 25, 2010, 12:21 AM »

It's "em-dash" not "m-dash":

The term em dash derives from its defined width of one em, which is the length, expressed in points, by which font sizes are typically specified. Thus in 9-point type, an em is 9 points wide, while the em of 24-point type is 24 points wide, and so on. (By comparison, the en dash, with its 1-en width, is ½ em wide in most fonts.[11])

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dash

-mouser (September 24, 2010, 05:06 PM)

  Good catch!

9472

Living Room / Re: National Punctuation Day haiku contest

« Last post by Renegade on September 24, 2010, 04:41 PM »

Punctuation is a very weak point for a lot of people, and it is certainly nice to see some attention being paid to it.

Any punctuation pet peeves? Hehe. I'll start...

Braces. They are not brackets. They are called braces. { and }. They are also not called curly brackets. They have a name. How would you like it if someone called you the wrong name all the time?

Next: Ellipses... Three dots... Curt. (Sorry - couldn't resist. But nice play on "he's" there!)

Which brings me to the m-dash... It has recently gained a lot of popularity but is almost always misused. Sigh... It is not a comma. It used similarly to parentheses.

I do really like the drunken punctuation from the chicken cartoon. I wish that was on my keyboard!

9473

Living Room / Re: Lawn of the Dead

« Last post by Renegade on September 24, 2010, 01:42 AM »

I like games where you get interest, and where your results from the previous level carry forward in a non-punitive way. So the game was ok, but not great. Pretty much if you're super-bored, then it's a good way to waste time. But I find Magic the Gathering Online is a better waste of time.

9474

General Software Discussion / Re: Drupal is f*cked

« Last post by Renegade on September 24, 2010, 12:26 AM »

DotNetNuke is still far easier to use and manage than either Drupal or Joomla. However, there are more modules for Joomla, which is a big plus.

The LAMP stack CMS market is much better than the MS stack. Much more choice and broader functionality. The MS stack systems tend to be easier though. It seems like open source guys are more interested in doing coding gymnastics than in creating usable software. Meh... Whatever. I'm getting back to doing more iPhone programming now.

9475

Living Room / Re: Hilarious video, for those old enough to appreciate it.

« Last post by Renegade on September 23, 2010, 07:10 PM »

There's something to be said for old tech: if done right, it can last centuries. Title/deed documents, contracts, constitutions, etc. are best put to something more permanent than the latest document file format! And a good typewriter might last you decades rather than the latest upgrade cycle for say, Apple's gadgets.

-zridling (September 22, 2010, 09:33 PM)

Hooray for clay tablets and the stylus~! =p

(Sorry -- couldn't resist that!)