Recent Posts

9451

Living Room / Re: Stephen's Weekly Tech News - Edition 5

« Last post by 40hz on March 14, 2010, 11:43 PM »

(where he basically said "while we're aware of what we've advocated, please understand we're not willing to go to jail for standing by it")

-40hz (March 14, 2010, 09:16 PM)

Did you really expect him to go to jail for this?

-wraith808 (March 14, 2010, 10:31 PM)

Expect him to? In Sweden? Not for a 'New York Minute' ...

But after listening to all his rhetoric leading up to the "showdown" I would have had a lot more respect for him if he at least expressed a willingness to go.

I still stand by what I've said here, and earlier, here:

https://www.donation....msg170239#msg170239

https://www.donation....msg170294#msg170294

 

----

Personal Note: For the record, I'm not too big on jailing people in general. Many times, that's a "cure" that creates bigger problems than the one it tried to correct. Just my 2¢...

9452

Living Room / Re: Stephen's Weekly Tech News - Edition 5

« Last post by 40hz on March 14, 2010, 09:16 PM »

Re: Peter Sunde's 15 "memorable" quotes.

Am I the only person in the world that is still waiting to hear any comment from Mr. Sunde that would sound relevant to anyone other than a clueless child?

And after Pirate Bay's absolute sellout once the authorities got serious about cracking down (where he basically said "while we're aware of what we've advocated, please understand we're not willing to go to jail for standing by it") I can't understand why he's still being taken seriously in some quarters.

Amazing.  

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

@Stephen - thanks again for your hard work to keep a quality Tech News column coming to us regularly!

  

9453

General Software Discussion / Re: StreamTransport: Free Stream (youtube,hulu,etc) Downloading Tool

« Last post by 40hz on March 14, 2010, 08:34 AM »

It seems to grab cable "rewind episodes" with minimal hassles so I'm happy with it so far. Only ran into one minor stability issue, but I think it's more an issue with the machine I loaded it on rather than the app itself.

9454

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Windows 7

« Last post by 40hz on March 14, 2010, 08:27 AM »

At the risk of stating the obvious, why not just ask Microsoft if you're concerned?

A quick search on their website will point you to their licensing compliance and info contact page. A phone call or email with the details of the offer in question will bring a very quick response from them.

 
 

9455

Living Room / Re: Jetpacks are real!

« Last post by 40hz on March 13, 2010, 12:09 PM »

The Wing thing looks like a major adrenaline trip - pretty darn dangerous . Wonder if it has military uses

-f0dder (March 12, 2010, 04:42 AM)

What doesn't?

But seriously, remote droids are the wave of the future on the battlefield.

Just launch your Raptor aircraft, hook up by satellite link, and curl up with a nice cuppa tea in a bunker someplace in Virginia and wreck havoc on people who have absolutely zero opportunity to hit you back.

It's also a lot easier to sell military action to your citizens when you can assure them that there will be NO casualties on your side.

Welcome to the 21st Century Battlefield. Now available for PSP, XBox, Windows, OSX, or real military organizations with budgets over $10 billion annually.

Remember: "War ain't hell anymore. Now it's just a computer game."

Heaven help us all.

9456

Living Room / Re: When you make your 100'th Post

« Last post by 40hz on March 12, 2010, 11:23 AM »

It's confirmed, he's devilishly clever!

-cranioscopical (March 12, 2010, 10:45 AM)

6666 posts? What ever possessed him, I wonder...

9457

Living Room / Re: Is this True????

« Last post by 40hz on March 11, 2010, 06:40 PM »

A lot of towns and smaller cities are now redirecting their mail to regional centers for processing. It's my understanding that if a letter goes there you'll only get the generic date/time postmark.

In many cases however, you can still get a local postmark  if: (a) you can persuade an employee at the local post office to hand cancel your letter - and (b) said employee can actually find the office's postmark stamp.

All the offices have hand stamps. But if it hasn't been used in years and is buried in the back of some drawer, you may be out of luck.

 

9458

Living Room / Re: Motherboard issues? What's my problem?

« Last post by 40hz on March 11, 2010, 06:09 PM »

If you have an Intel NIC, try disabling the Smart Power Down (or Deep Smart Power Down) property on the NIC's advanced properties page in Device Manager. I've had several cases where that setting caused the NIC to get disabled once the PC went into any of the low power, suspend, or "on battery"(if it's a laptop) modes.  



I'm not sure what websense is doing, but your network may be interpreting your lockdown  as a disconnect after which it tombstones your DHCP-assigned address and drops your network credentials because it thinks you're gone. That could explain why you need to re-log to get back on.

As far as Firefox goes, I've experienced similar problems on laptops. If I didn't have a wireless NIC connected when I launched Firefox (or if I removed and then reinserted it once Firefox was running) Firefox couldn't see the network connection after it was restored.

The only way to fix it was to close and then relaunch the browser.  

The latest 3.6 version doesn't seem to have that problem as much.

Hope this helps. Luck!

9459

Living Room / Re: Ars Technica on the problem with adblocking

« Last post by 40hz on March 11, 2010, 05:54 PM »

This shows no sign of being bothered that their ads consume our bandwidth...

-Dormouse (March 11, 2010, 05:15 PM)

Of course this is all made possible by the existence of unlimited Internet plans.

If Comcast and AT&T have their way and start metering bandwidth once again, these ad supported sites will have to drastically rethink their business plans. Much like the fax and email quasi-spammers were forced to do a while back.

You had the CAN-SPAM Act. I can easily see similar legislation that would require websites to put up a splash page notifying the viewer that the site they're attempting to access has 'advertising mechanisms' which may consume metered bandwidth and: "Do you want to continue?"

And then there's the issue of whether or not you would need to be an adult to legally agree to that...

What a mess.

9460

Living Room / Excellent creative career self-promotion guide free for limited time

« Last post by 40hz on March 11, 2010, 04:04 PM »

Regardless of what career path you follow, the ability to promote yourself and build a following is fast becoming an critical skill. One of the better books on the topic is Scott Kirsner's Fans, Friends And Followers: Building An Audience And A Creative Career In The Digital Age[

If you are a glass-half-full type, you’ve already realized that the era of digital creativity presents incredible opportunities. You can do what you love, reach an audience, and earn some money. What starts off as a small fan base can quite suddenly go global, enabling you to quit your day job and earn a solid living.
 
The flip side is that there has never been a noisier, more competitive time to try to make art, entertain people, and tell stories. Everyone is doing it, and so there is an incredible surplus of content in every art form.
 
In 2000, 973 full-length films were submitted to the Sundance Film Festival, generally considered the best platform for launching a new indie movie. By 2008, that number had risen to 3,624. (Just 121 were accepted.)  
 
Think about a band trying to build a reputation in Los Angeles, a city with about 50 FM radio stations – and perhaps just three or four that matter in any particular genre (like Latino music, hip hop, or rock.) Now think about trying to build a reputation online. A link to the band’s MySpace page from any one of several hundred well-regarded music blogs might result in a sold-out show. A song included in any of the thousands of podcasts that are distributed through iTunes might catch fire.  
 
Breaking out, somehow, is both more of a possibility than it has ever been  – and harder than it has ever been.  
 
The attention of an individual audience member anywhere in the world is simultaneously easier to snare (a multi-million-dollar marketing campaign is no longer required) – and harder than ever to snare.  
 
I wanted to write this book to share some of the ways that artists are grappling with those paradoxes.  
 
In conversations over the past three years, I’ve been asking questions about how artists are attracting audiences and building careers in the online world.

There's a write up and sample text available at Amazon if you'd like to take a look:

http://www.amazon.co...ativeASIN=1442100745

A paperback copy will set you back about $16 from Amazon. But Scott is celebrating the 2010 SXSW Week ( www.sxsw.com ) by offering a copy in PDF format for free at the following link:

Info and download link: http://www.scottkirs...er.com/fff/sxsw.html

Hey, South-by-Southwesters: for the duration of the 2010 festival I’m making the complete 132-page e-book of Fans, Friends & Followers available for free, as a PDF download. (Published just last year, the book has sold thousands of e-book copies at $12.00)

This isn’t just some schlocky promotion (I hope), but a way of saying “thanks”: the SXSW community was incredibly helpful to me in researching and writing this book.

This is a great book, loaded with ideas you can either "borrow," or use to spark some of your own. Although primarily geared towards creative types, the core concepts apply to virtually every career. In this economy, the ability to "sell yourself" isn't just a plus - it's a necessity.

The clock is ticking. Grab your free copy now.  

9461

Living Room / Re: Ars Technica on the problem with adblocking

« Last post by 40hz on March 11, 2010, 06:45 AM »

As Linus Torvalds say about Windows they should have been shot in the head 15 years ago

-Bamse (March 11, 2010, 04:50 AM)

I'd rather have Linus shot in the head 15 years ago - perhaps then we could have a Windows alternative that didn't suck

-f0dder (March 11, 2010, 05:43 AM)

So...with all due respect, what's stopping you - or anyone else who feels that way - from writing one?  

All it would take is a few thousand hours out of one's lifetime in return for nothing other than the satisfaction of doing it.

Woa! Slow down! Don't everybody come up at once!

It's all well and good to say Linus very often has his head up his butt about a lot of things. I'll be the first to agree. But annoying as Linus Torvalds, Rick Stallman, and the rest of the 'old guard' can be when they open their mouths, I still feel they deserve a great deal of respect even though I often don't agree with what they're saying.

And that's because while others talked, and discussed, and complained, and debated - these people actually went out and did something.


Just my two cents.

9462

Living Room / Re: Ars Technica on the problem with adblocking

« Last post by 40hz on March 10, 2010, 06:27 PM »

@Innuendo -

Spot on!  I actually liked ArsTechnica a lot more before it became 'successful'.

I supported it in its "green &orange" days. I hardly ever go there anymore.

9463

Living Room / Re: Ars Technica on the problem with adblocking

« Last post by 40hz on March 10, 2010, 06:16 PM »

Nobody ASKED you, nor FORCED you to provide us with information, so stfu moaning and get on with your life.  You wont be missed by me if I get blocked from using your website ^_^

-Stephen66515 (March 10, 2010, 03:52 PM)

Harsh words Stephen...kinda hard to have a rational dialog when someone says "stfu." Ken Fisher may (or may not) be wrong, but he's made a case that deserves to be heard and debated.

And also not completely fair. If people are visiting a site on a regular basis, they are by default "asking" to be provided with the information regardless of the value they assign to it.

However, I do agree with those who dislike people running with a 'guilt trip' line of argument.

There's an old Zen saying:

"When walking - just walk. When sitting - just sit. Endeavor not to wobble."

So my feeling is, if you want (or need) to be paid for doing whatever it is you do - then require payment for your efforts. And if it's not forthcoming - stop doing it.

And if you're primarily doing it for love, then (just like love) ask for - but don't expect reciprocation.

But whatever you do - don't wobble.

9464

Living Room / Re: Ars Technica on the problem with adblocking

« Last post by 40hz on March 10, 2010, 06:04 PM »

When oh when will a good micropayments system come around?

- Oshyan

-JavaJones (March 10, 2010, 05:05 PM)

I'm guessing it will be shortly after the widespread adoption of bulletproof paywalls makes the existence of a workable micropayment system a necessity.

Say about 2-3 years from now?

The only problem is that the payments probably won't be that "micro" once it happens since there will be service charges added to the actual payment portion.

9465

Living Room / Re: Will you miss newspapers when they're gone?

« Last post by 40hz on March 10, 2010, 12:56 PM »

@Tekzel - take a look at this thread too while you're at it:

https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=21995.0

Further ruminations and reminiscences by fellow DC'ers who are old enough to be your...erm...older brothers & sisters.

Luck with your essay. (They still do those?)  

9466

Living Room / Re: Watch a game instead of playing it - NextgenWalkthroughs.com and others?

« Last post by 40hz on March 10, 2010, 11:03 AM »

Amazing. Now all that's left to be done is to write a progam to watch these things, thereby taking the human entirely out of the loop - and the cycle will finally be completed! (Douglas Adams would have loved it.)

Actually...that's not quite fair. I happen to enjoy occasionally watching game "cut scenes" if that's the correct term for them. I usually find those more enjoyable than the actual games themselves.

But I'm not much of a gamer to begin with. 

9467

Living Room / Re: Will you miss newspapers when they're gone?

« Last post by 40hz on March 10, 2010, 10:44 AM »

Some kid in the future is going to end up with anarchy t-shirts, stuff decorated with Miley Cyrus, a bunch of bad punk CD's, and a heap of zombie & vampire related books.

What the heck is going to go through their mind when they see that stuff for the first time?

-app103 (March 10, 2010, 09:26 AM)

Possibly something along the lines of "WTF???"  

9468

Living Room / Re: Flattr: New Micropayment System - Gets the Model Right

« Last post by 40hz on March 10, 2010, 06:53 AM »

(the same way Amazon was able to take off by selling the books, getting the money, and selling more before the initial bills were due)

-steeladept (March 09, 2010, 09:39 PM)

That's a practice called "using float."

And it's a risky way to do business unless you're very big or very very good at what you're doing.

And it's even riskier if you're running an investment fund. If that's the case, instead of 'float' it's called a Ponzi Scheme.

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





Student: Master! I have a brilliant idea! What do you think of it?

Zen Master: What is the sound of one jail door slamming?

9469

Living Room / Re: Will you miss newspapers when they're gone?

« Last post by 40hz on March 10, 2010, 05:58 AM »

I was at a picnic last summer where a bunch of friends were discussing the late 60s and early 70s. After a while, one friend's 20 year old son somehat irritably remarked that the way everybody was talking made the era "sound like it was one big nonstop party."

My GF flashed him a wintery smile and said, "Yes, it was. Too bad you missed it. "
 

9470

Living Room / Re: Flattr: New Micropayment System - Gets the Model Right

« Last post by 40hz on March 09, 2010, 06:52 PM »

Too many open questions right now for me to get behind it in anything but spirit.

The fact that it was set up by Peter Sunde doesn't give me "warm fuzzies" either.

Still, it's an interesting concept...but I wonder how it's going to play out long-term considering it is providing what, in many jurisdictions, would be considered banking services. PayPal ran into a problem just like that with India's Central Bank when it was determined that PayPal needed authorization from its regulators to operate a cross-border monetary transfer service.  PayPal had to temporarily suspend serving India until it obtained proper clearances from the banking authorities. And PayPal is an established web service whose financials and bona fides were never in question.

So I hope Mssr. Sunde has crossed every "t"when he set up this service. Otherwise he risks seeing problems just like he did with his last 'venture.'

I'm gonna mark this one "wait & see."

9471

General Software Discussion / Re: Putting a Classic Menu on Windows 7 - Redux

« Last post by 40hz on March 09, 2010, 06:23 PM »

Seriously, to all those people who love the new Win7 method(s) of doing things, what do you have to say about this?

-JavaJones (March 09, 2010, 01:08 PM)

At the risk of some folks pick up torches and pitchforks, I'd have to say I sorta like the new start menu. But I  do a lot of tweaking to my menus anyway so maybe I'm not in a position to speak for most users.

Either way, there's enough other improvements offered by Classic Shell (Up Button!!! ) that I'm most likely going to load this on all my personal machines. Besides, I can always do a shift-click anytime I want to use the "official" start menu

Sweet!

9472

Living Room / Re: Which is better windows mobile or android os or iphone os?

« Last post by 40hz on March 09, 2010, 05:01 PM »

True. It's not in public release yet. But AFAIK it's only Apple that has flat out refused to support it now - or ever.

Deployment for everybody else is planned for later this year last I heard. 

9473

Living Room / Re: Will you miss newspapers when they're gone?

« Last post by 40hz on March 09, 2010, 04:21 PM »

Did someone say Wensleydale?  



Cracking!

9474

Living Room / Re: Which is better windows mobile or android os or iphone os?

« Last post by 40hz on March 09, 2010, 04:04 PM »

But if you don't really care about Google apps, then... I suppose I can't offer a useful suggestion.

-Deozaan (March 09, 2010, 03:13 PM)

I can.

If you have choices, make the iPhone your absolute last choice.

Android wasn't available when I needed to get a new phone. And I have never been impressed with a Blackberry when it's used as a voice phone even if it is great for e-mail.

So...I made the mistake of getting talked into an iPhone based on the glowing recommendations of several friends - and a very substantial discount - when I was renewing my cellphone contract.

And I have been annoyed with the so-called "iPhone Experience" ever since.

Apple has a unique take on user interfaces. It's what they're famous for. And you either like their interface concept - or you don't. I don't.

E-mail is ok. Ditto text messaging, although I don't do much of that. Web browsing is a study in frustration (Safari), and the lack of support for Flash renders about a third of all the tech websites out there totally useless. This should pretty much be the deal breaker for everybody.


Mini-Rant follows. Feel free to ignore:

Spoiler

Apple and it's smarmy little dweeb of a CEO can say what they want about Flash. Regardless of Adobe's technical merits or failings - Flash is what gets USED on the web. It is the current defacto standard for day to day web video. And any browser worthy of the name that doesn't support Flash is seriously BROKEN! No matter what Apple's spin doctors and their fanboys want to say.

So if Apple wants to persist in forcing iPhone users to live with their broken (or "suboptimal" in Apple parlance) browser, that's fine. But I'd very much appreciate it if they'd stop talking down to everybody that sees through their contrived and obvious ploy to not support allow Flash.

That being said, the voice call quality is very good, and it's put together well.

So in closing, I'd just like to say: Don't buy it.

9475

Living Room / Re: Networks and external drives

« Last post by 40hz on March 09, 2010, 12:39 PM »

This might sound dumb, but you could always get a 6' USB cord and tape a loop of it to the back of your laptop lid with some easily removable flavor of tape.

That way, every time you close the laptop lid, your USB cable will be staring you in the face so you'll remember to remove it.

Alternatively, you could drape the cable across the back of your laptop by the monitor hinge such that you can't close the bugger without removing the cable first. I do this when I'm at client sites and I've brought an external drive with me. (I've had the same problem )

Luck!