Recent Posts

9626

Living Room / Re: DRM hits a new low as Amazon hits the delete key

« Last post by wraith808 on July 18, 2009, 03:45 PM »

Using the argument that the DRM was put in place to prevent piracy of books, whats' to stop someone from lending out their physical books to dozens even hundreds of people?  Libraries anyone?   

-herneith (July 18, 2009, 12:53 PM)

Well, you have to buy each book you loan someone, i.e. you can't buy 1984 once and loan it to more than one person- and while he has it you don't.  Digital media doesn't follow the same rules.  DRM as it is currently isn't the answer, but digital rights should be protected in some form or fashion.

9627

Living Room / Re: DRM hits a new low as Amazon hits the delete key

« Last post by wraith808 on July 18, 2009, 07:52 AM »

I buy books with DRM; I just don't use a closed model so this doesn't happen (I'm not saying couldn't- mostly because I'm not sure).  I use Fictionwise and Stanza.  When there was a problem, they gave the readers 3 months to download the books in question before they were deleted from their online bookshelf (not their devices).  In most cases, they gave the users new versions in another format (Microsoft Reader and Adobe Reader were the ones to blame, not the service- so they relicensed the books in question in their own format).  Of course, now that Fictionwise has been bought by B&N, I'm not sure how it would be handled in the future.  But since Fictionwise books are readable in a variety of applications on a variety of hardware, I'm less concerned about their access to the books once I download them.

9628

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox --3.5-- Extensions: Your favorite or most useful

« Last post by wraith808 on July 16, 2009, 09:29 AM »

Xmarks - Though the amount of memory and processor usage is pretty criminal.
All-in-One Sidebar - Control your sidebar and have everything there instead of popping up in windows.
Compact Menu 2 - Cause Firefox needs less menus.
Evernote Web Clipper - Cause no matter what, Evernote is still cool to me. 
Fast Dial - I know there are other alternative, but it gets the job done
IE Tab - For those times you just have to use IE, but don't want to.
Linkification - Cause everything that looks like a link should be clickable.
OpenBook - Cause I hate the limits of the new bookmark dialog
ReadItLater - Another extension that links to another service- but it makes keeping track of things without cluttering bookmarks a breeze.
Smark Bookmarks Bar - My bookmarks bar has too many entries- this keeps me from having to scroll
Smart Stop/Reload - Why do you need to see both at any time anyway?
Update Notifier - Keeps all of the above in sync

I have others at home I don't have here at work, which is why I should use that one that lets you sync extensions between browsers...

9629

General Software Discussion / Re: Large Text File Viewer

« Last post by wraith808 on July 15, 2009, 12:39 PM »

I use V

http://www.fileviewer.com/

-CPlusPlus (January 12, 2009, 12:42 AM)

Another +1 for V.  

And mainframe imports are teh suck.  I just had to open one that was 1.7GB(?!?) in size.  Thankfully, V opens in chunks of 8MB at a time

9630

Living Room / Re: Advice on Netbooks

« Last post by wraith808 on July 14, 2009, 09:15 PM »

Oh! You have 3 Cell and no HDD... didn't know that!  I have two of those... though if this was out right now, I'd be tempted to suck up the extra inch in exchange for the goodies since I'm within my exchange period...

9631

Living Room / Re: Companies Caught Spamming our Forum with Fake Posts

« Last post by wraith808 on July 14, 2009, 02:53 PM »

I don't feel that leaving the offending spam on the forum just so we can link to it serves a good purpose. You'd be better off just making a list, supporting claims with screenshots if you feel the need, and getting rid of the spam.

-app103 (July 14, 2009, 11:14 AM)

Agreed +1

9632

Living Room / Re: Advice on Netbooks

« Last post by wraith808 on July 14, 2009, 07:12 AM »

I thought you liked the size of your 8.9?  This is two inches+ larger...

9633

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

« Last post by wraith808 on July 09, 2009, 12:43 PM »

My latest peeve - EXE-type installers that are hard coded to require a specific version of .NET Framework.

I have V2.0-SP2; V3.0-SP2; and V3.5-SP1 currently installed.

Now, something I need to install is insisting that V1.1-SP1 also be present.

-40hz (July 09, 2009, 11:29 AM)

Doesn't really have anything to do with the installer- it depends on the framework the exe was compiled under.  A .NET 1.1 app cannot run under .net 2.0 and vice versa- it really depends on what the application needs.

9634

Living Room / Re: Advice on Netbooks

« Last post by wraith808 on July 08, 2009, 09:05 AM »

I can say this so far- I'm glad I upgraded to the 10" model.  I can't imagine the netbook being *smaller* than that!  I was surprised at how small it actually was at 10"!

9635

Borland C++ Builder Contest / Re: Error 2061: Friend must be functions or classess...Why??????

« Last post by wraith808 on July 07, 2009, 07:16 AM »

Codegear is (was) Borland- now Embarcadero, so it would be the same problem.  I'd suggest asking on the CodeGear site if you can't get any help here.

9636

Living Room / Re: Torrent Giant, The Pirate Bay sold, will go legal

« Last post by wraith808 on July 02, 2009, 11:29 AM »

Piracy (at sea) is a crime.
Depending on where you are, I think downloading copyrighted stuff is not. It's a felony at most, unless something changed recently... (ianal)

-Gothi[c] (July 02, 2009, 11:09 AM)

Ummm... isn't a felony a crime?

And while I do agree with civil disobedience, the conscience that drives that should be so that obviously criminal actions aren't enabled or condoned.  I just hope that this step wrt TPB allows them to get some semblance of their lives back, and perhaps sparks them to try a more legal direction towards changing DRM.  You don't really change legal statutes by going outside of the law in the arrogant way that they did, but I also recognize that obsequious acquiescence isn't going to get us anywhere either...

It's definitely a pickle...

9637

Living Room / Re: Advice on Netbooks

« Last post by wraith808 on July 02, 2009, 11:28 AM »

Link to full article: http://www.maximumpc...r_netbook?page=0%2C0

-40hz (July 02, 2009, 10:51 AM)

Seems like in the end, they still picked XP by default. 

Oh, and I waffled again- I canceled the order from Tiger Direct, and am looking for a 6 cell version of the 10" Acer.  Tiger Direct does have a program that looks good on paper though- you pay a premium and for up to 2 years, you can sell it back to them for a guaranteed 65% of the purchase price.

9638

Living Room / Re: Torrent Giant, The Pirate Bay sold, will go legal

« Last post by wraith808 on July 01, 2009, 08:45 PM »

So Wraith are you saying every single music file on your computer that is being sold, you paid for? 

-Loki15 (July 01, 2009, 07:33 PM)

Yes.  Is that so hard to believe?  No matter what you believe, two wrongs don't make a right, IMO.

9639

Living Room / Re: Advice on Netbooks

« Last post by wraith808 on July 01, 2009, 08:10 PM »

Ok, so I'm wishy washy.  I'm still getting the Acer, but I'm getting the 10 inch. 

9640

Living Room / Re: Advice on Netbooks

« Last post by wraith808 on July 01, 2009, 07:07 PM »

For better or worse, I went with the Acer Aspire AOA150-1635.  I started to think about why I wanted it, and the smaller size made the difference.  I'll post about my netbook experience when I get it in case anyone else is in the same situation of looking for one.  Like every other device that makes it to the consumer level, there's so much obfuscation and confusing terminology when dealing with the netbooks, that it's hard to make a good decision without a lot of work.

Thanks for all of the comments; the really helped to gel my choice. 

9641

Living Room / Re: Torrent Giant, The Pirate Bay sold, will go legal

« Last post by wraith808 on July 01, 2009, 06:47 PM »

Educational Versions?  Photoshop for 189.00.

Still not an excuse from my view on things.  There are several things I want to better my skills, but that doesn't excuse pirating them.

9642

Living Room / Re: Advice on Netbooks

« Last post by wraith808 on July 01, 2009, 03:16 PM »

I'm down to Acer Aspire One AOD250-1151 vs Asus EPC1000H vs Acer Aspire AOA150-1635.  I'm thinking about ordering today, but I'm not sure... 

9643

Living Room / Re: Torrent Giant, The Pirate Bay sold, will go legal

« Last post by wraith808 on July 01, 2009, 10:44 AM »

Standing up for what you believe in is a wonderful thing, but it needs to stop when it starts to ruin your life. Good on them for quitting while they were ahead.

-Ehtyar (July 01, 2009, 01:48 AM)

Thereby invalidating the whole point of their original arguments and making fools of the people that supported them and spoke out on their behalf? I don't think so.

-40hz (July 01, 2009, 06:02 AM)

So if you were making a point, and it started to impact your personal life, to the tune of millions of dollars, you'd keep on in the same direction?  People supported and spoke out, but weren't on the front lines putting their lives on the line.  It's easy to support, a lot harder to spearhead...

9644

Living Room / Re: Advice on Netbooks

« Last post by wraith808 on July 01, 2009, 09:57 AM »

One more question... does 10" make a big difference over 8.9"?  What's the consensus amongst you that have them- is the extra inch a boon or not, and how much difference does it make in overall size?

Thanks for all of the feedback!

9645

Living Room / Re: Advice on Netbooks

« Last post by wraith808 on June 29, 2009, 08:14 PM »

That's pretty cool stuff for BASIC. 

9646

Living Room / Re: Advice on Netbooks

« Last post by wraith808 on June 29, 2009, 07:40 PM »

What kind of development work is that?

I do this kind of stuff.

http://closetoleranc...tware.com/index.html

-mrainey (June 29, 2009, 06:00 PM)

So standard Win32 development?  What IDE do you use?

9647

Living Room / Re: Advice on Netbooks

« Last post by wraith808 on June 29, 2009, 05:41 PM »

Development work?  I didn't expect that!  What kind of development work is that?

Thanks for the replies!  Especially that site hamradio!

9648

Living Room / Advice on Netbooks

« Last post by wraith808 on June 29, 2009, 05:00 PM »

I've used a USB drive for a while now to carry around my programs everywhere, and it's great!  However, I think I'm ready to take the plunge again into a readily portable device instead of depending on there being a device where I go.  This isn't my first time down this path- I've had the Fujitsu P1510, the Sony UX280P, the OQO Model 02 and one of the first Motion Tablet PCs.  But I ended up getting rid of all of them because they weren't as useful as I first thought; the Sony and OQO were too small for my purposes, I couldn't do without a keyboard to use a Tablet PC, and the P1510 was just inconvenient.

So I decided to wait, and now netbooks seem like what I was waiting for, but I'm not sure about committing to one.

Basically what I want is a device that I can carry just about everywhere, that I can actually use productively to write anywhere I want.  I need something that has a keyboard that if not comfortable, at least lets me type at a half way decent rate that's not so inconvenient that I keep using that as an excuse not to write.  I also want something inexpensive enough that I can justify keeping it around in an environment where I already have an iPhone, a giant Laptop, and a Desktop.  I also need it to be Windows based, since the software I use to do research and write in is Windows based, and I don't want to change.

The devices I know of include the Sony Netbook (too expensive- though it appears perfect), the HP Mini (again, too expensive), the Dell Mini (too expensive for the space), the Lenovo Thinkpad (too expensive), the Asus eee pc, the MSI Wind, and the Acer Aspire One.  I was trying to keep near $200, though a little on either side is fine.  I was leaning towards the Acer Aspire One, but wondered if anyone had any experience with that model, or any netbooks.

Thanks!

9649

General Software Discussion / Re: Source Code / Code Snippet Manager

« Last post by wraith808 on June 29, 2009, 02:04 PM »

I did a bit more investigation, and was able to get it to work with custom proxy servers.  I did need to enter the domain; I just used my Active Directory Domain root, and it started working.  The default proxy servers still does not work.  I'm doing a bit of looking around- it's a pretty slick app so far!   

9650

General Software Discussion / Re: Source Code / Code Snippet Manager

« Last post by wraith808 on June 29, 2009, 01:37 PM »

Try this snippet and see if it works for you... It does for me in my code.

Code: C# [Select]

1. var result = new StringBuilder();
2.             try
3.             {
4.                 var transferProxy = new WebProxy("http://<proxyaddress>:<proxyport>/", true);
5.                 transferProxy.Credentials = new NetworkCredential("<username>", "<password>", "<domain>");
6.                 var transferRequest = WebRequest.Create("http://www.snipplr.com");
7.                 transferRequest.Proxy = transferProxy;
8.                 HttpWebResponse transferResponse = (HttpWebResponse)transferRequest.GetResponse();
9.                 System.IO.Stream outputStream = transferResponse.GetResponseStream();
10.                 System.Text.Encoding outputEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.GetEncoding("utf-8");
11.                 System.IO.StreamReader outputReader = new System.IO.StreamReader(outputStream, outputEncoding);
12.                 char[] chars = new Char[256];
13.                 int readCount = outputReader.Read(chars, 0, 256);
14.                 int totalRead = readCount;
15.                 while(readCount > 0)
16.                 {
17.                     string str = new String(chars, 0, 256);
18.                     result.Append(str);
19.                     readCount = outputReader.Read(chars, 0, 256);
20.                 }
21.                 transferResponse.Close();
22.                 outputStream.Close();
23.                 outputReader.Close();
24.             }
25.             catch(Exception ex)
26.             {
27.                 string str = ex.Message;
28.             }
29.             StreamWriter fileOut = new StreamWriter("testProxy.txt");
30.             fileOut.WriteLine(result.ToString());
31.             fileOut.Close();