Recent Posts

9576

Living Room / Re: What annoys you to no end?

« Last post by 40hz on December 09, 2009, 11:10 AM »

AT&T's ongoing refusal to support Thunderbird as a mail client.

About once or twice a month, T-Bird's outbound mail starts throwing all kinds of connection or authentication errors when attempting to use AT&T's SMTP servers. This has been going on ever since AT&T teamed up with Yahoo and forced its customers to switch over to the servers at att.yahoo.com. Their old servers (smtp.snet.net, smtp.sbcglobal.net, etc.) used to work just fine. How's that for progress?

Calls to tech support result in nothing other than a suggestion to use Outlook or Outlook Express since "we're sorry, but AT&T does not support Mozilla Thunderbird at this time..." yadda-yadda-yadda.

Oddly enough, AT&T's SMTP usually starts working again without without the need to change anything in Thunderbird after a day or two of refusals to connect.

Drives me absolutely nuts.

9577

Living Room / Re: Good TV series. What do you watch? I used to watch Lost to unwind need successor

« Last post by 40hz on December 08, 2009, 09:24 PM »

... now SyFy ...

-Innuendo (December 08, 2009, 10:32 AM)

Oh grief no ... it sounds like some sort of STD !

-Carol Haynes (December 08, 2009, 07:15 PM)

To me it sounds more like somebody's trying to register a trade name and 'sci-fi' is already in the public domain.

9578

Living Room / Re: What annoys you to no end?

« Last post by 40hz on December 08, 2009, 07:10 PM »

What doesn't annoy me?

-superboyac (December 08, 2009, 04:32 PM)

How about the picture of that 'girl with the basket' I posted in response to your leather messenger bag question?

9579

Living Room / Re: A Chance to Brag/Explain - What is DonationCoder and What Are You Doing Here?

« Last post by 40hz on December 08, 2009, 06:57 PM »

What I find unique is the overwhelming sense of community you get here.

And while I could say I come here for the technical discussions; or to bounce ideas off some very bright and interesting people; or to ask a question; or possibly even answer one - the single biggest thing that draws me back is that sense of community.

So...

What am I doing here?

I'm enjoying the company of people I both like and respect.

I think that's called "hanging out with friends."  

9580

Living Room / Re: The End of the CrunchPad

« Last post by 40hz on December 07, 2009, 03:23 PM »

Guess it's all over except for the shouting. In court.

9581

Found Deals and Discounts / WinX HD Video Converter free until 12:00am GMT 16-December-2009

« Last post by 40hz on December 07, 2009, 12:38 PM »

Just heard about this giveaway from one of my clients. Looks like a nice tool to have handy when converting HD formats. Haven't had a chance to do any HD to HD testing yet, but I did convert a few HD MOV format movie trailers to MP4 with excellent results.

(I'm a big fan of another product by the same developer. WinX Video Converter Platinum is very similar in appearance and use except that it doesn't support HD formats.)

So go and grab a free copy while you can!

Download WinX HD Video Converter Worth $39.95 for Free

HD Video Converter is a professional video converter specially designed for HD video conversion. The friendly interface can help you to effortlessly convert HD videos mutually with no loss of image & sound quality, like MTS, M2TS, TS, HD MP4, MKV, HD WMV, and HD MOV, etc. Besides, it also lets you convert between HD videos and regular AVI, MP4, MOV, WMV, etc.

With intuitive interface, WinX HD Video Converter brings you the most comfortable video converting experience. In only a few clicks, you can enjoy the fun of converting HD videos mutually, converting HD videos to SD videos, and converting SD videos to HD videos according to your own needs. Apart from this, this program provides you some more features, such as, defining the video/audio limits to optimize output video/audio quality as you wish. Our goal is to make HD video conversion an easy, fast and stable experience beyond your expectations.
Features

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    * Support conversion in both single & batch modes.
    * Batch rename video clips with “Renaming Template” before converting.
    * Facility to extract audio from HD Video.
    * Capture images from videos and save them as JPEG & BMP files.
    * Allows you to automatically shut down your computer after conversion completed.
    * Friendly interface helps both beginners and veterans complete the conversion as simple as 1-2-3.
    * Best video/audio quality
    * 100% clean, No Spyware, No Malware, No Adware and No Virus

The original price of WinX HD Video Converter is $39.95. Now it is given away to all users.

Note: This offer starts from Dec. 1st and will expire at 12:00am GMT Dec. 16th.

You can get the full version during this period for free from the link below:

Info and download link: http://www.winxdvd.com/giveaway/

9582

Living Room / Re: Can there be a free Web if no one makes money?

« Last post by 40hz on December 06, 2009, 02:26 PM »

+1 with Paul. In some respects, the question is misleading.

None of the web is actually free.

Somebody, somewhere, is somehow paying for every bit of it.

Possibly what's happening is that the people who have been paying for it all along are now saying they want (or demand ) other parties start paying for some of it too?

In some respects it's another example of the maturation cycle for technical change. In the early stages of introduction, adoption can be accelerated either by subsidizing or offering the technology to the public for free. It used to be understood that once general adoption was achieved, the subsidies would be dropped, and it would the go back to business as usual.

Unfortunately, one of the side effects of having the web so heavily subsidized is that the vast majority of its users have come to believe it doesn't cost anybody anything. And from this comes the feeling that "all things web-related" should continue to be provided without restriction, and at zero cost to the consumer.

I'm not sure who these people think is paying for all that infrastructure (copper, fiber, routers, web farms, electrical power, etc.) or web content - but there you have it.

So I guess it's not so much a question of can it remain free.

I think the more real question is who will it continue to remain free for.  

9583

Living Room / Re: Recommend some music videos to me!

« Last post by 40hz on December 05, 2009, 12:24 PM »

One of my favorites is this video by the comedy troupe Smack the Pony.

It's a spoof on all those "girl bands" back in the 80's that we've learned to loathe.

Here's STP as Karizzma performing Round 'n Around 'n Around.



http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=c99UFrKkLSk

9584

Living Room / Re: Can there be a free Web if no one makes money?

« Last post by 40hz on December 04, 2009, 08:03 PM »

During the first Hackers' Conference in 1984, Stewart Brand uttered the infamous maxim, Information wants to be free. But he meant freedom, not necessarily price.

-zridling (December 04, 2009, 05:04 PM)

He later added a second comment to his original:

"Information wants to be free. Information also wants to be expensive."

And there, in a nutshell, is the paradox lurking behind the problem.

And as Stu Brand also noted: "That tension will not go away."

--------

In a digital economy, some people will have to go back to work and not live off of copyright lawsuits.

-zridling (December 04, 2009, 05:04 PM)

Have to be careful about going to far with that argument.

While what you're saying might be true in some cases, in many more cases the following will be even more true:

In a digital economy, no one will receive any compensation for digitized copies (i.e. audio, video, image) of their original creative works since copyright law has been rendered unenforceable by new technologies for the digital duplication and transmission of such works.

The other thing we need to be careful about is allowing people to hide behind the anti-DRM flag in order to mask what they're actually doing.

DRM gets bandied about as the big reason for bucking the recording industry. But I think what's going on for most people has very little to do with DRM or the recording industry.

What I think is really going on is fundamental shift in public perception. Basically, the general public is reaching a point where it no longer views recorded anything as property.

Simple truth of the matter is a huge number of people are basically saying they're no longer willing to pay for musical recordings. Period. That's not to say that they no longer want those recordings. It's just that they don't see the need to pay for them - and furthermore - they won't pay for them. Period.

And that is going to hurt everyone in the long run.

9585

Living Room / Re: Can there be a free Web if no one makes money?

« Last post by 40hz on December 04, 2009, 03:36 PM »

why is advertising suddenly not a viable model for sustainable web businesses

-JavaJones (December 04, 2009, 03:04 PM)

Primarily because it's too easy to evade advertisements either by blocking the ad content - or going to an alternative site that doesn't have ads.

Advertisers want guarantees that their copy will be seen. That's why network ratings and circulation figures are so critical to the people who want to sell add space or time slots. Ad rates are based on the number of eyeballs the ads will likely be seen by. And since you can no longer provide audited viewer statistics or circulation numbers, the advertisers have all become less willing to accept quoted ad rates without question as they once did.

Back when there were three networks to choose from, an no effective blocking technology, TV viewers basically had to choose between watching entertainment (with ads) or not watching at all.

With the advent of cable, and later the web, all that changed.

9586

Living Room / Re: Should Illegal Downloaders Be Cut Off From the Internet?

« Last post by 40hz on December 04, 2009, 02:44 PM »

I find it incredibly frustrating that so many condemn capitalism as the problem, when in fact we do not now have a capitalist system

-CWuestefeld (December 04, 2009, 10:00 AM)

Exactly right!

We don't. And we never really did, despite those many people who have though and said otherwise.

 

9587

Living Room / Re: What annoys you to no end?

« Last post by 40hz on December 04, 2009, 08:08 AM »

Overly obvious Customer Greeters at major retail and 'big box' electronic stores.

Pleased to meet you Ms. Fang! I'm not here to shoplift today. And I already know what I'm looking for. So could you possibly step aside and let me get on with it? Pretty-please? (BTW. That's some collection of tats you got there Miss. What? Ohreally? You have more?)

 

9588

General Software Discussion / Re: FireFox problem.. Downloads with unusual names close instantly dont download

« Last post by 40hz on December 04, 2009, 06:48 AM »

Moons ago I ran into a similar problem with some FTP clients that would crash if the filename being downloaded contained the % character. The fix was to edit out the character when selecting the SAVE AS filename.

Possibly these characters are being interpreted by Firefox as a token, wildcard, internal command, or delimiter of some sort? Almost sounds like it's being interpreted as an EOF marker.

Then there's also the issue of cross-platform compatibility. Firefox runs on multiple operating systems. Is the % symbol an illegal character in some other OS filesystem that Firefox is coded to intercept?

FWIW I seem to remember it being told it's a good idea not to use the characters !:@#<>$%^&* in your filenames even if your OS permits them.

9589

Living Room / Re: Should Illegal Downloaders Be Cut Off From the Internet?

« Last post by 40hz on December 04, 2009, 05:59 AM »

If only it were that simple. The only thing you need to make money, is lots of money. Not customers.

-Gothi[c] (December 03, 2009, 11:05 PM)

Lots of money and no customers?

If only it were that simple.  

9590

General Software Discussion / Re: Drupal is f*cked

« Last post by 40hz on December 03, 2009, 12:37 PM »

today i'm back to loathing drupal.. there is a lot good about it but there is so much bad, sometimes its unbearable.

-mouser (December 03, 2009, 11:28 AM)

+1 with that.

I'm starting to loathe content management systems in general.

9591

Living Room / Re: Should Illegal Downloaders Be Cut Off From the Internet?

« Last post by 40hz on December 03, 2009, 06:27 AM »

The more people don't buy the more they cry piracy, whether or not the losses are actually due to piracy. If you stop buying, things just get worse. It does not send them any sort of message.

-app103 (December 02, 2009, 09:44 PM)

It does if it puts them out of business.

Why tilt at dragons? Much more efficient to starve them to death.

No revenue = no money for bribes 'campaign' contributions

No revenue = no money to hire attorneys

No revenue = out of business

_____

PS - That's why I said all file acquisition and sharing (legit and illegal) needs to stop simultaneously in order for such a boycott to work.

Scream as they might, they'll still get the message.

9592

Living Room / Re: Should Illegal Downloaders Be Cut Off From the Internet?

« Last post by 40hz on December 02, 2009, 08:39 PM »

People with lots of money are warping laws so they can get more, just plain old capitalism really.

-Eóin (December 02, 2009, 05:35 PM)

But only if you let them get away with it.

Maybe I'm just getting old, but I still believe in the notion that anyone accused of wrongdoing must be considered innocent until proven guilty, and shall have the right to a fair and speedy trial before a jury of their peers.

So if "they" decided it was necessary to kick somebody off the net for illegal activities, at the very least they should be made to prove the person had engaged in illegal activities - in court - and with the full rules of evidence and judicial oversight in effect.

I can't accept 'kangaroo' justice or summary administrative judgment ever being allowed to replace the rules of due process. Especially if such judgments are to be made by (or at the behest of) self-appointed industry entities,

Law enforcement and criminal prosecution are functions of a government's executive authority. Criminal trial and sentencing, along with the interpretation of applicable laws, lies within the domain of a government's judicial authority.

I don't recall there being any provisions to allow for private industries to carve out their own enforcement or judicial niches within our government. To allow that would be to return to the days of the old railroad and mining robber barons - complete with 'company police' (i.e. "goon squads"); and a non-existent record for honoring constitutional law.

I'm sorry if the music and movie industry is getting tired about what is happening to them.

I can only hope government doesn't get lazy and grant them everything they want just to shut them up.

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

BTW: I can't but help thinking that there's a much better way to send a message to the RIAA and Hollywood than by making illegal copies of music and movies. Why not "put the boot in" the only place a business can feel pain? Why not give them a kick in their bottom line?

All it would take are two separate but related actions to make things very clear:

• Virtually everyone stops buying music and movies
• Virtually everyone stops "sharing" music and movies

If everybody is as opposed to the antics of the music and movie industry as some claim, it should be a relatively simple matter to organize a near total boycott of all major-label movies and music. Three to six months with ZERO purchases of CDs, DVDs, and tickets to live shows - combined with ZERO "file sharing" - should be more than enough to let them know they need their public more than their public needs them.

It won't be until people are willing demonstrate (to the entertainment industry and the government) that they're prepared to completely walk away from the industry's "product" that their protest will be taken seriously.

But the only way it will work is if the illegal copying and legal purchasing both stop simultaneously.

9593

Living Room / Re: Death in Family

« Last post by 40hz on December 02, 2009, 06:59 PM »

Alexis and I both send you our deepest condolences.

Our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.

9594

Living Room / Re: 74% of the world, Google's Chrome OS is not for you

« Last post by 40hz on December 02, 2009, 02:14 PM »

A Parable

Once upon a time, there were terminals that connected to mainframes.

In order to do anything, you had to log on to the mainframe.
And in order to change or add any new capabilities, you had to convince your IT department come and install it.

Next came terminals and minicomputers.

You still had to log on to get anything done.
But you could now handle your own changes and additions without needing to go through a centralized IT department.

Next came personal computers.

After that, you didn't need to log onto anything unless you wanted to set it up that way.
You could handle your own updates and additions without needing to involve anybody else.

But these were isolated machines. So your PC couldn't communicate with any other PCs, or share data without first writing it to some form of media. Thus sneaker-net was born.

Then along came Hayes and USRobotics, and FidoNet and RBBS-PC who gave those early PCs the ability to communicate through noisy modems.

Next came 3Comm and Shiva, who brought the benefits of inexpensive data networking to the PC so that the digital resources of all PCs could be freely and efficiently shared.

And last came the semi-divine ARPANET and it's half-sister The Internet.

And now all the personal computers of the world were finally able to have complete and total access to every computational and information resource of the planet Earth. And thus were the people of Earth united into one global community, even if this global community did not come in a form those who wished for one expected.

And the people of earth looked upon it and saw that - even if it was not perfect - it was still rather good.

And thus, a new era in human consciousness and evolution was born.

***

Then along came Google and it's bastard stepchild ChromeOS.

And suddenly, you once again had to log on to do anything.

And if you wanted anything added or changed, you could still (technically) do it yourself provided Google had what you were looking for.

Otherwise you'd need to petition Google's IT department to set it up for you.

And though the PC had evolved and become much smarter than it's ancestor the terminal, it was now regulated to the position of again being a device that relied on communicating with a mainframe in order to function.

Admirers of Google were quick to point out there was no such thing as a mainframe any more.

And to those who said all this was 'a giant step backwards,' Chrome's defenders replied: "We think of it more as coming full circle!."

But whether or not there was one big central machine, or many smaller ones floating in a virtual cloud, it still amounted to the same thing: You needed to go through something else in order to do anything.

The so-called "personal computer" was once again little more than a terminal client on somebody else's network.

But at least the graphics were pretty...

And for many people, that was enough.

*The End*
 

9595

Living Room / Re: Open Source Proves Elusive as a Business Model

« Last post by 40hz on December 01, 2009, 04:13 PM »

Just because the NY Times and Wall Street got it wrong doesn't mean we have to.

The "FOSS Business Model" remains elusive because FOSS is not - and never was - meant to be a business model. The whole concept behind FOSS is as far from business as you can possibly get. If a viable business can arise out of a FOSS project, that's all well and fine. But it's purely a side-effect. It plays no integral role in FOSS philosophy.

FOSS is not a business model. It's a social movement. Or maybe a philosophy, if you prefer. For people like Richard Stallman, it could even be considered a religion.

But whatever FOSS is, in and of itself - it is not a 'business.'

So there's no vicious circle. Nobody's getting ripped off. You can't really steal something that's being given away. You can't burn the developers by charging for installation or technical support services because the governing licenses not only permit doing that - they encourage it. And the people who are involved in FOSS projects understand and agree with that.

You also have to be careful not to lump things together too much when you're talking about FOSS. Not all FOSS projects are created equal. And a large number of FOSS coders are also professional coders so it's not completely accurate to characterize all FOSS development as being a hobbyist effort.

And I also don't think the "business plan" is to deliberately release excessively complex and poorly documented code in order to force people into paying for tech support. I think it's more a natural outcome of the FOSS development process.

Most coders get into FOSS in order to do what they love on something they care about. And many are professionals who want to avoid the whole code review and approval process they live with at work. Unfortunately, one big side effect of going that route is that the code tends to get a little sloppy and exhibit some sprawl.

The same goes for the relative absence of quality documentation. Most coders HATE to write documentation - and FOSS projects are dominated by coders. So if serious documentation does get written, it's often because somebody (usually a satisfied user with a technical writing background) nominated themselves to do it and put the time in.

What I think many professional (as in compensated) coders don't get is that the bulk of the people involved in FOSS development really don't care if somebody decides to make money off tech support (or anything else) as long as the terms of the license governing their codebase is honored. Money is not what motivates them to get involved. They're doing it because they have the time and talent; want to do it; and believe in it.

Those that don't quit the FOSS world and go on to other things.

So to the point about there being a "vicious circle," I really don't think the FOSS developers would see it that way.

I know it comes as a jolt to a many that there are talented folks who are willing to generously provide their personal time and effort to produce something that will be given away. But that's the way it is with FOSS. Considering the amount of rage FOSS seems to induce in some people, I'm sure there are more than a few professional coders who can't (or simply won't) believe that's what's going on.

And maybe that's why these coders aren't involved in FOSS projects.

9596

Living Room / Re: The End of the CrunchPad

« Last post by 40hz on December 01, 2009, 11:19 AM »

I find it extremely interesting that Fusion Garage has been (AFAIK) completely silent. Not even a simple denial out of them so far.

Has anybody found anything FG has to say about this?

 

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

UPDATE: No more 404 errors!
The blog link has since been removed from the Fusion Garage webpage (www.fusiongarage.com)

9597

Living Room / Re: Open Source Proves Elusive as a Business Model

« Last post by 40hz on December 01, 2009, 10:32 AM »

There might be better alternative business models if there were something even remotely resembling a level playing field. Unfortunately, that's not the case.

One of the biggest myths of western capitalism is the myth of the 'free market.' Free markets no longer exist. And many economists would argue that they never really did. All of the world's economic systems and marketplaces are regulated. Some may be regulated less formally, or to a greater or lesser degree, but all of them are regulated.

In a regulated marketplace, the most established businesses with deepest pockets* have a significant advantage since much of the regulatory system is designed to protect their interests. In such an environment, innovation is often viewed as a threat rather than an opportunity, unless the innovation is minor - or is being brought to market by a big company.

So here's the problem in a nutshell: Any real advantage a small company might have can almost always be trumped by greater capital resources, litigation, or regulation.

Most successful small tech developers know (as do their investors) that no matter how breakthrough their product or service is, it will only be a matter of time before someone with deeper pockets:

• Buys out one or more of the developer's partners or investors.
   
• Files IP or patent infringement charges against the developer regardless of merit.
   
• Steals the developer's product/service outright and defies them to successfully sue to get it back -or-
   
• Attempts to get legislation passed to effectively outlaw the developer's product or service.
   

Small companies don't have the resources to fight against these tactics for any length of time. And the bigger kids on the block know it.

So from a purely business perspective, becoming a nuisance and then selling out to the highest bidder is probably the current most effective business model - if you look at it from the viewpoint of profitability, investor return, and capital preservation.

From a societal and technical perspective, we're all made poorer by this approach. But for the people putting in the time and money to develop a new product or service, this may be the only way they can reasonably expect to make something for their efforts.

And for an individual or small company, 10% of something is a better return than 100% of nothing.

 

-----

*Note: having 'deep pockets' applies to individuals as well as businesses.

That's why it's so important to get your net worth up (just above $1 million in the USA) to the economic tipping point. Once you get there, you'll discover "the system" starts working for you in the form of more favorable interest rates, better investment opportunities (courtesy of 'qualified investor' rules), and access to various legitimate tax strategies.

The old adage "The best way to make serious money is to have serious money to begin with!" was never truer than it is in the USA. The USA may occasionally forgive failure - but it always rewards economic success..

9598

Living Room / Re: The End of the CrunchPad

« Last post by 40hz on November 30, 2009, 07:47 PM »

Perhaps Steve Jobs' greatest success was that he was able to get to market without the annual recurrent lawsuits.

-zridling (November 30, 2009, 01:49 PM)

His greatest success perhaps was that after he got to market he filed lawsuits against everyone else. 

-Innuendo (November 30, 2009, 03:40 PM)

Agree. Jobs brought Apple to market before Apple's legal team invented the concept of "look & feel" litigation.

9599

Living Room / Re: The End of the CrunchPad

« Last post by 40hz on November 30, 2009, 06:27 PM »

Fusion Garage's blog is now throwing a 404 page.

9600

Living Room / Re: Building a home server. Please help, DC!

« Last post by 40hz on November 30, 2009, 06:13 PM »

I think your best bet might be Windows Home Server for what you're describing. To give credit where due, Microsoft did a very nice job with their latest iteration of this product. The way it handles data storage and harddrives is particularly well done. Add in the network backup capabilities, system health monitoring, and remote access features and you have a very good solution for a small home or SOHO server. WHS is also (IMHO) one of the easiest to administer servers available. Worth a look.

Info here: http://www.microsoft...server/features.mspx

You can download a 120-day evaluation copy which should give you plenty of time to see if it meets your needs.

Link: http://www.microsoft...67-b881-55ce0648c784

If you decide to go ahead with WHS, an OEM copy will set you back about $100 street.

If you're feeling more adventurous, take a look at the Amahi Home Server. It's a Fedora/FOSS-based alternative that provides similar functionality. Free to install, but registration is required.

Info here: www.amahi.org