Recent Posts

951

Living Room / Re: I hate Valentine's Day!

« Last post by zridling on February 13, 2010, 02:36 PM »

We normally don't observe the 14th; we count the 15th as our day. Why? Because that's the day, all those years ago, we fell in love forever.

-OldElmerFudd (February 13, 2010, 01:45 AM)

Same here. Me and my wife don't celebrate our wedding anniversary, but the day we met. You can get married anytime, but you met for the first time only once.

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Living Room / Re: Elegant Full Screen Weather Map Web Page

« Last post by zridling on February 13, 2010, 02:32 PM »

Odd, it's just a blank white screen on my monitor. Flash is on, but so is adblock.

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

« Last post by zridling on February 10, 2010, 10:07 PM »

It's so simple it's brilliant. And one could easily determine the monthly amount depending on their personal budget without fear of overspending.

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General Software Discussion / Re: on OS updates and breakage

« Last post by zridling on February 07, 2010, 11:10 AM »

When using windows, I never think twice about accepting updates. Worst case, I have to reboot.
But on linux, I don't know anyone that doesn't pause before accepting suggested updates.
Linuxes break things with updates. Mind you not only kernel updates... minor, unrelated things.
Thoughts?

-urlwolf (February 06, 2010, 06:42 PM)

Dude, you need a better distro, or you're doing something wrong. Packagers will warn you ahead of time if an update might break a dependency (for EACH specific app!). Besides, 99.5% of all updates are simple security updates. This is never a problem on openSUSE. Now, if by "Linux" you mean that you're updating your kernel without updating all the underlying software, then sure, you're asking for trouble. Perhaps you're updating individual apps?

A distro's software versions are tied to a specific kernel release, usually labeled the community release or factory stable release. Everything else is on your own. This is why it's a good idea to update your entire desktop environment (KDE, Gnome, Xfce) at one time rather than single packages.

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Living Room / Re: Essay - Blogging: a great pastime for the elderly

« Last post by zridling on February 07, 2010, 10:55 AM »

Twitter is a means for spreading links to blog posts, whether they are your own or someone else's. Without blogs, most people would have nothing to tweet about that is worth reading. Who cares what you had for lunch? Unless you are going to write an interesting blog post about it and tweet the link, or supply a link to a recipe, don't bother.

-app103 (February 06, 2010, 05:33 PM)

Exactly. You are in control on twitter, and it's only as useful as the people you're following. I mostly follow tech bloggers, so when they make a blog post, it plinks the headline/link to the full blog post. Other people I follow are those whose interests are broader than mine -- on science, hardware, kernel, security issues -- and link to far more interesting posts than I have time to find on my own. As April says, I immediately unfollow trivial twitterers. Thus I treat twitter as a signpost -- pointing me to content.
__________________________

• Mind you, I only use twitter in the early mornings. The rest of the day I'm busy. Sometimes I'll check it at night, but most of the people I follow are posting before 8a. So you don't have to be on twitter all the time.
• Twitter can replace -- or complement -- your RSS feeds if you want.
• I use the  Brizzly twitter web client for a better experience.  http://brizzly.com/
• I "Favorite" interesting items rather than trying to check out everything semi-intriguing in the live stream. Then I can go back later and check them out.
• Quality over quantity. The best twitter newspaper, for example, is the UK Guardian. Every other newspaper tends to tweet EVERYTHING they post online, which turns into a useless flood.

956

Living Room / Re: A simple "Start Page"

« Last post by zridling on February 07, 2010, 10:30 AM »

I use Google Chrome's new tab page as my "start" page....
2. I have it set up so that the bookmark bar only shows up on the new tab page.

-Deozaan (February 06, 2010, 06:49 PM)

That's a great idea. Never thought to do that. Thanks.

957

General Software Discussion / Re: chrome getting extensions makes even more evident why Opera doesn't get it

« Last post by zridling on February 05, 2010, 09:43 PM »

For some reason it's not rendering my chess games at chess.com.

-cmpm (February 05, 2010, 11:36 AM)

If you use AdBlock or Flashblock for Chrome, I've found it to be very aggressive. I have to either whitelist the site or turn it off to pay bills, or play games.

958

Living Room / Re: Browser Wars: Why did you choose yours?

« Last post by zridling on February 05, 2010, 09:31 PM »

- Used Opera for years and loved it for its broad customizability and cross-platform consistency.
- Then I switched to Firefox because of its wondrous extensibility.
- But then came Chrome and it's all that and fast.

Google created Chrome (and Gears) to provide rich client-side support for web-based apps. Virtually every Firefox extension can be ported to Chrome and you can run Greasemonkey scripts in it without an extension. I also like how (in Linux) it allows you to hide/show the title bar. The status bar floats temporarily. And it can be skinned to one's tastes. Doesn't handle large number of tabs like Opera does, but that's in large part because each tab is sandboxed. When a site freezes, only the tab need be closed, as the rest of the browser is fine.

Some extensions are invaluable, such as AutoPatchwork that allows you to scroll through multiple page articles, forums, jumps; Personalized Web that allows you to specify rules for fonts, HTML, JavaScript, and CSS to customize a website on the fly.

They're not unique, but they sure make browsing a lot easier. For now, my choice is Chrome until something better comes along. I've no allegiance to browsers like I do text editors.

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Living Room / Re: Just how many Hitler videos does the world need?

« Last post by zridling on February 05, 2010, 09:14 PM »

Also, you have to consider that Germany has been a model of democracy for the past 60 years. Most Germans are two generations removed from Hitler and don't really talk about the guy, much less want to identify with him. Imagine if the world identified Americans as a people who like George Bush. That would be horrific! But by Jove, it's our right to make fun of the basterd!

960

Living Room / Re: Itching to put together your own pc from parts, but need help choosing parts?

« Last post by zridling on February 02, 2010, 11:47 PM »

Wow, thanks mouser. This will be a great help since I'm wanting to replace my mom's 10-year old Windows computer on the side without spending enough money to be painful.

961

Living Room / Re: Just how many Hitler videos does the world need?

« Last post by zridling on February 02, 2010, 11:43 PM »

@wr975: Brilliant. Thanks for the link.

These are funnier than anything Saturday Night Live has done in more than a decade!

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Living Room / Just how many Hitler videos does the world need?

« Last post by zridling on February 02, 2010, 05:49 AM »

[via The Guardian]:
Every time there is a reason for ranting, you can be sure that Hitler will be talking about it on YouTube. Recently, he has responded to the iPad; before that, he got mad because Chicago didn't get the Olympics, because of Facebook, because of the US bailout, and simply because he wanted to go to Burger King. These parodies use a scene from Downfall, the 2004 movie by Oliver Hirschbiegel – in the original, it's the moment that Hitler is told the war is truly lost – and are frequently taken down for copyright infringement on behalf of the movie's owner, Constantin Film. As of now, there are about 68 still up.

Hitler, of course, has been at this for quite a while now. But as the iPad video showed, millions of millions of users still think he is worth a click. So why does this Hitler meme seem to be so enduringly popular?

___________________________________
Der Untergang (2004) is a great movie with an incredible performance of Hitler by Bruno Ganz. And I still hit the floor laughing when a good parody is inserted.

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Living Room / Re: Yea, I won't be getting an iPad anytime soon

« Last post by zridling on February 02, 2010, 05:29 AM »

And Google's response to iPad using the Chrome OS. Looks interesting.

964

Living Room / Re: Ten Words You Need to Stop Misspelling

« Last post by zridling on February 01, 2010, 02:54 PM »

This author has a new one out on http://theoatmeal.com/ on semicolons.

965

General Software Discussion / Re: What would life be like without Windows?

« Last post by zridling on January 31, 2010, 07:18 PM »

What it comes down to is that there is tremendous advantage in standardization mixed with accountability (even if that standard is only "de facto" and proprietary, and the accountability costs money). It's hard for the open source community, or even any myriad of smaller companies to offer that. Still, I'm quite curious to see how we'll move beyond MS. - Oshyan

-JavaJones (January 31, 2010, 02:06 AM)

But that's been the very problem: standardization is fine as long as it is Microsoft's version of it. Web standards have been wildly successful despite Microsoft, who has fought them every step of the way (the reluctance to move off of IE6 is just one example). Because Microsoft wouldn't work with the Open Document Format, it created its own XML-based format and then spent two years politicizing it into a "standard" that's hardly found anywhere online or outside its suite. Microsoft has two choices in the next decade:  (1) move to a *nix-based OS,  or (2) become even more closed, and start developing proprietary hardware to run its software as Apple has done. It's no secret they have to drop the legacy baggage at some point.

Unless you're running MS Office, there are no compelling reasons to use the Windows OS. You can make the same arguments for running proprietary OSX. Even under Linux, I can run any version of Office if I had to. Everything else can be had via virtualization or is not needed, e.g., myriad security products. Assuming I'm not running MS Office, why pay for OS? One reason: because you want to.

As long as you're aware of the strings attached, that's perfectly fine.

966

Living Room / Re: Ten Words You Need to Stop Misspelling

« Last post by zridling on January 31, 2010, 11:35 AM »

Besides common misspellings, perhaps the two biggest abuses online are the lack of apostrophes or their misuse. If you pay attention to such details, it will drive you mad.

967

Living Room / Re: Yea, I won't be getting an iPad anytime soon

« Last post by zridling on January 30, 2010, 12:50 PM »

Well, as the Alex Payne piece illustrates, with each new device, Apple becomes more and more closed. You're only welcome as long as your handing over cash to almighty Steve (including monthly fees).

968

Living Room / Re: Yea, I won't be getting an iPad anytime soon

« Last post by zridling on January 29, 2010, 11:39 AM »

Adrian Hughes wrote: (http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=7058)

To save you the time of having to work out what Apple’s iPad doesn’t have, here’s a quick list:

• No camera/webcam
• No tethering
• No voice support
• No TV subscriptions (widely rumored)
• No textbooks (again, widely rumored, especially after McGraw’s slip the other day)
• No background apps
• No new notifications system
• No complex multitouch
• No Adobe Flash support
• No brand new platform (basically it’s the iPhone OS under the hood)
• No new take on the tablet UI, no significant on-screen keyboard advances
• No USB port for device connection, such as flash drives (a problem for road warriors hoping that this will replace a notebook/netbook)
• While the device is unlocked, the choice of micro SIM limits carriers
• No pre-orders (yet)
• And no, it’s not going to be the savior of the newspaper.magazine industry

969

Living Room / Re: A simple "Start Page"

« Last post by zridling on January 29, 2010, 11:37 AM »

Yea, Opera is great. This one is merely text-based, and like arranging a room, I know exactly where every link is.

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General Software Discussion / Make XP look like Win7

« Last post by zridling on January 29, 2010, 04:27 AM »

"If you see no reason in switching to Windows 7 and would still like to impress your divorced neighbor, then you now have the tools to make your aging Windows XP look posh and nobby." Dedoimedo has a nice guide on how to make XP look as cool as Win7.

971

Living Room / A simple "Start Page"

« Last post by zridling on January 29, 2010, 04:01 AM »

Not sure how others surf the web, but the idea of "start pages" like mine below have been around since the beginning. I've been using a similar setup of this one since early 1995. Unseen, farther down the page, I keep a list of all my personal desktop settings, colors, and tweaks, just for reference. Sometimes I change the background color based on the browser I'm using, I don't know why.

A version is kept online in case I'm at another computer. In all, this page alone has over a 1,000 links. I usually run through about 200 each day. This was created using the KompoZer editor.

972

General Software Discussion / Re: Red Hat launches OpenSource.com

« Last post by zridling on January 28, 2010, 06:15 PM »

Seems to be the trend. Let the community build and bring your app to maturity, then buy them out for a billion.

973

Living Room / Re: Yea, I won't be getting an iPad anytime soon

« Last post by zridling on January 28, 2010, 05:51 PM »

@mouser: ohmygod, that's the funniest mash I've seen of that clip to date.



Alex Balk said:
This is a very rough analogy, but the iPad is a lot like Barack Obama: everyone was able to project their own fantasies and aspirations on a product with which they were mostly unfamiliar, only to sour on it once they realised that it did not live up to their impossible expectations. Only, with the iPad, it took about seven minutes for the disappointment to set in. I think this says something about our accelerated culture or how we confuse hype and excitement for the tangible realities of life. Our ability to trick ourselves into imagining that we'll get exactly what we want is being outpaced by the swiftness of our disgruntled reactions when things don't turn out how we planned.

Not even a good e-reader (you can't transfer your books!); a terrible "computer" if you're expecting that. (And no USB ports, no multitasking, only runs Apple apps and music bought from Apple, etc.) In Jobs' mind, the whole world pays him to even turn a computer on.

Gizmodo's '8 reasons to hate it' reaction:
http://i.gizmodo.com...-suck-about-the-ipad

974

General Software Discussion / What would life be like without Windows?

« Last post by zridling on January 28, 2010, 07:14 AM »

Randall Kennedy asks, What Would Life Be Like Without Windows?



What would life be like without Microsoft Windows? To listen to the free open source software crowd, the demise of Windows -- and by extension, Microsoft's hegemony over the PC universe -- would signal a kind of rebirth for information technology. Software would finally be free of the corporate shackles that have stifled innovation and dragged down the best and brightest among us.... Such thinking is naïve, at best. Rather than freeing IT, the demise of Microsoft would plunge the industry into an apocalyptic tailspin of biblical proportions.

975

General Software Discussion / Re: Red Hat launches OpenSource.com

« Last post by zridling on January 28, 2010, 06:56 AM »

Sun's gone now, isn't it, since the EU approved Oracle's acquisition of it?