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976

Screenshot Captor / Re: LATEST VERSION INFO THREAD - ScreenshotCaptor - v4.9.1 - Oct 10, 2014

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 07, 2014, 10:51 AM »

Hallo Mouser.

I'm a couple of versions back. (4.85)

Remember that cute little trick you put in for me a big while back, where "1 click" on the tray icon initiated the capture rectangle?

For a long time (but I never really worried about it) I have noticed a lag, maybe as much as 3 seconds, before the rectangle capture would kick in. But quasi recently I've been doing more capturing off videos, where the video (be it TV/movie or Youtube) shows something for under a second but I want to gaze at it idly for a week on a Sticky (Tom Revell / Zhorn).

But in videos, that 3 second delay means when I click the icon, 3 seconds later, that quick flash image is no longer there!

So I have to back up like 3-7 times, remember the trigger points, and guess when to click, and hope that when the rectangle locks in, is the image I want.

Was that lag a function of the ugly hack you needed back in the day for the feature, or do you think it's easy to clean up?

977

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 07, 2014, 10:06 AM »

^Um... o_O I really can't decide if that is hysterically funny, or frightening. However I am thinking of backing it.

-Stoic Joker (November 07, 2014, 06:42 AM)

Hysterically funny, of course. Emphasis on hysteria. Because the best satire humor is frightening!

978

Living Room / Re: Need a hand with a laptop issue.

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 06, 2014, 08:20 PM »

When a laptop is connected to the mains, it will start to run (background) tasks that aren't allowed to run when on battery power. Defragging your partition(s), re-indexing Windows Search and similar stuff.

Perhaps that is the reason for the lag you experience.

At least, verifying which tasks are executed when on main power would be the first thing I would do...then deciding if those tasks are worth it or to let these run overnight to get them out of the way + adjusting intervals.

-Shades (November 06, 2014, 08:01 PM)

Wouldn't background tasks show up somewhere, either in generic Task Manager or something more hi-tech?
So what if you took screenshots of both conditions and compare them?

Edit:
I was joking with Stephen in the chat with some pseudo-Scorpion technobabble, but this really does sound like what my minor deity of the week used to blog about.

SysInternal's list of process utilities
http://technet.micro...ysinternals/bb795533

Example blog: The case of the slooooow system
http://blogs.technet...8/09/24/3126858.aspx

Epic quote:
" I suspected that something was hogging the CPU and likely could have resolved the problem simply by logging off or rebooting, but knew that if I didn’t determine the root cause and address it, she’d likely be calling on my technical support services again in the near future. In any case, stooping to that kind of troubleshooting hack is beneath my dignity. I therefore set out to investigate. "
(Corollary: When your husband is Mark R, you don't get cheap 4th world type tech answers!!)

More of his blogs about slow stuff:
http://blogs.technet...2/07/02/3506849.aspx
http://blogs.technet...9/05/26/3244913.aspx
http://blogs.technet...0/12/07/3373406.aspx

Stephen, of course, being the genius head of Scorpion with a 197 IQ, will find a clue in one of these tools and blogs, and fix his system. As Administrative Assistant, I'll just send these off to Scorpion, head of writing!

979

N.A.N.Y. 2015 / Re: NANY 2015 Pledge: OEMer

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 06, 2014, 03:48 PM »

I have a question about this whole NANY process. I dont really have anywhere to host my entry, so how would I allow people to download it?

-lugosi84 (November 06, 2014, 03:42 PM)

DC has (I think a couple) of ways to host people's NANY programs. Sometimes you can create your own page if you want to go all "brand-ey", or sometimes they can stick them in more general "Here are the NANY entries this year" type of page.

980

N.A.N.Y. 2015 / Re: NANY 2015 Pledge: OEMer

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 06, 2014, 03:47 PM »

Sorry, I am not a Broney......that pink hurts my eyes  

-lugosi84 (November 06, 2014, 03:30 PM)

Neither am I, or most of them. And that's why it was the epic April Fools joke ever! (Later ones just made characters backwards, or whatever.)

981

Living Room / Re: The Rant Thread!

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 06, 2014, 03:27 PM »

"Show Teaser"
I'm about to do a rant on my cable connection to Time Warner. But I'm going to try to do a little homework first. Basically, I've been getting network speeds that would make Renny froth at the mouth and be mistaken for having rabies!


Update: The old adage of "when in doubt, reboot" apparently applies to modems as well as Windows Computers! So, I just have to randomly remember to unplug it whenever I feel like I have re-entered 1994's dialup land!

Funny exhibits:

982

N.A.N.Y. 2015 / Re: NANY 2015 Pledge: OEMer

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 06, 2014, 03:16 PM »

Yeah, I like that 'open the EXE idea'......get rid of that nasty nasty wallpaper  

-lugosi84 (November 06, 2014, 03:10 PM)

But ... But ... what if it's released on April Fools' Day and the default replacement is My Little Pony?

(Trivia - The day Slashdot jumped the shark - it was their best April Fools joke ever!)

983

N.A.N.Y. 2015 / Re: NANY 2015 Pledge: OEMer

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 06, 2014, 03:14 PM »

Actually, we put our own wallpaper on our builds, and I am creating a program to facilitate that process as well. That one will come later on, and will probably be another program that I would add to DonationCoder.

DC is one of the BEST sites out there in internet-land

-lugosi84 (November 06, 2014, 02:36 PM)

(B-Movie Outrage)
This means war! Don't make me commission a coding snack that changes wallpaper to a blank-color screen in three clicks just to get rid of your advertising! (/B-Movie Outrage)


(Pick OS, Pick color, though I only ever use black or deep blue.)

-TaoPhoenix (November 06, 2014, 02:51 PM)

3 Clicks seems a bit excessive for such a simple task....why not just open the EXE and it would do it all for you?

-Stephen66515 (November 06, 2014, 03:00 PM)

Snark answer #1:
How do you open an EXE? Then you click a color which has a built in "go" effect. 1-2 and then 3!


But I was also playing on how we all are proud of our snacks (or other programs!) and like to add awesome and/or obscure features.

984

N.A.N.Y. 2015 / Re: NANY 2015 Pledge: OEMer

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 06, 2014, 02:51 PM »

Actually, we put our own wallpaper on our builds, and I am creating a program to facilitate that process as well. That one will come later on, and will probably be another program that I would add to DonationCoder.

DC is one of the BEST sites out there in internet-land

-lugosi84 (November 06, 2014, 02:36 PM)

(B-Movie Outrage)
This means war! Don't make me commission a coding snack that changes wallpaper to a blank-color screen in three clicks just to get rid of your advertising! (/B-Movie Outrage)


(Pick OS, Pick color, though I only ever use black or deep blue.)

985

Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 06, 2014, 02:43 PM »

Wired "caught up" with Mark Russinovich. While I'm sure some of you geniuses are just as good, of the "popularly known" analysts, he kept catching my eye for the ferocious detail of some of his blog entries. (Which read like Scorpion should! "So I ran my tool X, tracked the process ID's, searched for a four character string in hex, and then ran a comparison with the raw data dump of my low level disk indexing system that bypasses Windows..." End fake Gobbledygook).

And of course, he basically punched Sony PR in the nose by finding the rootkit.

Eventually he was too good to be left loose, so Microsoft kept adding zeroes to their offer until he accepted and went to work for them!

http://www.wired.com...05/mark-russinovich/

I've used a few of his tools a couple of times myself. Here's the complete list of the old SysInternal tools (and at the top if you like all that stuff, there's a link for a "bundle" that has all of them rolled up.)

http://technet.micro...ysinternals/bb545027

986

N.A.N.Y. 2015 / Re: NANY 2015 Pledge: OEMer

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 06, 2014, 02:31 PM »

Tomos, that is the exact page that the OEM info appears on (right-click My Computer, go to Properties).

No, it does not appear on the desktop, where it definitely might be annoying as all hell 

-lugosi84 (November 06, 2014, 02:08 PM)

I don't think anybody in the world would care if an OEM installer put their own wallpaper on the computers in question...seeing as that can be changed really easily...

-Stephen66515 (November 06, 2014, 02:23 PM)

Heh ... okay ... one person in the world?


It's just that it feels just a bit blatant to me ... you know where your comp came from, do you really need the subliminal messaging of the wallpaper?! (And you'd be surprised how many people "sorta don't like it but don't want to ask for help changing it"! (As evidenced by the years the oem wallpaper stayed on some of my colleagues comps!
Either that or some awesome Dell KoolAid!

987

N.A.N.Y. 2015 / Re: NANY 2015 Pledge: OEMer

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 06, 2014, 02:27 PM »

Tomos, that is the exact page that the OEM info appears on (right-click My Computer, go to Properties).

-lugosi84 (November 06, 2014, 02:08 PM)

But just to get your creative juices flowing, take a look at Mark Russinovich's BgInfo.
http://technet.micro...ysinternals/bb897557

It's probably too rare of a tool to waste time on, but theoretically your program could auto-populate this.

988

N.A.N.Y. 2015 / Re: NANY 2015 Pledge: OEMer

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 06, 2014, 02:20 PM »

Tomos, that is the exact page that the OEM info appears on (right-click My Computer, go to Properties).

No, it does not appear on the desktop, where it definitely might be annoying as all hell  

-lugosi84 (November 06, 2014, 02:08 PM)

Sure, I'm just fine with right-click My Computer, go to Properties.
The computers from my old work came with a variant of a wallpaper like this:



I do in fact like those shades of blue ... I might have gone with something abstract in those colors, if it didn't have "DELL" all over it!

989

Living Room / Re: BIG NEWS: Scientists have now managed to link the minds of three pairs of people

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 06, 2014, 12:38 PM »

We are soooo pwned...

-40hz (November 06, 2014, 12:04 PM)

Yep ... from the people that brought you flashlight apps that steal your data... the first thing to go will be "non-invasive". Or paraphrasing Magneto, "they always claim it's meant to be non-invasive ... until it's not!"

And, no Star Trek references yet? "Your thoughts to my thoughts" ... I read once this was close to the original idea of the mild meld, except they thought needing a machine was too clunky, so that's how it became a spread finger face touch.

990

N.A.N.Y. 2015 / Re: NANY 2015 Pledge: OEMer

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 06, 2014, 12:30 PM »

I have been writing and improving upon a program that I wrote for the company I work for to enter OEM branding information on a computer. We build desktop computers to spec for customers and I wanted a way for us to put our company and model information/logo image on each computer that we sell.
Jim

-lugosi84 (November 06, 2014, 12:09 PM)

Where "on the computer" does it show up? On the initial desktop in the corner somewhere (until the user removes it)? In the default wallpaper-screen? I'd have to say that desktop branding like that annoys me. When I got my Dell machines at my old job, the first week when I had a few minutes, I'd go fishing and swap it to a straight color backdrop.

991

Living Room / Re: Any fans of the TV Sci-Fi show "A Town Called Eureka"?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 06, 2014, 12:24 PM »

Well, Warehouse 13 was campy fun, but it has ended! : (

And SyFy TV grade C movies don't count - they're one offs and always there.

But I did do a marathon of Eureka this summer. Fun little show!

-TaoPhoenix (November 06, 2014, 11:49 AM)

From what I understand, the reason Eureka got cancelled was due to a dispute from the main cast over what they should be paid.  Stupid reason to can a show that was so good though

-Stephen66515 (November 06, 2014, 11:57 AM)

Well, if it's anything like the last season of House MD, it's not so stupid to the actors! Very badly paraphrasing from what I read elsewhere, the show producers said, "we want to 'cut costs'. So let's pay you gang *less* than we paid you last season!"

As I understand it, that's the chief reason Lisa Edelstein / Cuddy left, along with a couple of others.

992

Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 06, 2014, 12:21 PM »

Infographic with timelines for what it took to create the iPhone. (Could be any modern smart phone, but, whatever.)

http://quartsoft.com...-history-infographic

Way too big to post here.

-Renegade (November 05, 2014, 11:23 PM)

That's even more info than an "infographic" - because it's not a graphic!
It's a list of live links and sources!

That must have taken a chunk of work!

993

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 06, 2014, 11:55 AM »

The Gilt Shoe Fix  - Stilettos by State

-Arizona Hot (November 06, 2014, 09:50 AM)

Hmm. Looks like it comes down to NV's showgirls, southern belles, and Hispanic states!

994

Living Room / Re: Any fans of the TV Sci-Fi show "A Town Called Eureka"?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 06, 2014, 11:49 AM »

Well, Warehouse 13 was campy fun, but it has ended! : (

And SyFy TV grade C movies don't count - they're one offs and always there.

But I did do a marathon of Eureka this summer. Fun little show!

995

Living Room / Re: Thoughts on the tech on the TV show Scorpion?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 05, 2014, 11:36 PM »

Hooray for Deozaan! I started the thread, because even lil' ol' me was suspecting this kind of hilarity / smh head-shaking, I just don't have the right vocabulary to not sound as dumb as the writers!

This is an evolving post (because Mouser put a REALLY long time-out into DC so you don't croak and lose your whole post just because you were typing for more than eight minutes!)

Numbering is based a bit on the point that Deo (Deeeeo!!) used multi-hides.

(Section zero: General stuff)
0a: Fridge logic: "I went to pull my chicken out of my fridge, but someone broke into my house, stole it, and shipped it to someone else!"
0b: http://xkcd.com/859/
So, we have a close tag without an open tag?!


1a: We're talking hardware - so do we also have lots of problems where Happy made cascading mistakes? (I haven't read all the spoilers yet, and I actually have seen all but tonight's episode - they pull the "ohmygawd I don't know how to backup software" *again* in another episode. But given the shenanigans they pull, wouldn't Happy have gone all Stern-Face and ripped out the speaker "just in case"? Example dialog: Cabe: "Hey! That's someone's property! You can't do that!" Stern-Happy: "You didn't read your script and see that we'll end up dropping an ethernet cable from a plane 8 feet above the ground and you're worried about a $300 speaker?!")

1b: "The acting was as good as can be expected.". I actually don't think it is - I think there are some casting problems, though hard to pin down - maybe reminds me a bit of ST TNG early 1st season. That aside, I bet at least one of the actors *does* know some tech, and they look at the script and beg and plead to try to patch it on the fly from dying-on-the-floor-from-a-knife-in-the-heart to at least in-critical-condition-in-the-ER.

2a: Compared to the "GovernTizements" of Homeland Security on other shows, (funny or not), Cabe and gang seem ridiculously incompetent. Straight-Laced Buddy, fine, if you make it work - when the "geniuses" are half way through some undercooked fish of a plan that could kill people, Cabe should be interjecting stuff like "good attempt to read the morse code through the victim's finger tapping, that narrowed it down, but we checked (insert equipment here) so we would go to the right building the first time and not arrive 10 minutes late because we closed our eyes and didn't use any dollar of our billion in tech we spent." (Yes, plot point from another episode!)

2b: "...genius man-child...". If they're going to those lengths, and I'm some 5 episodes in, *they haven't used the Genius-Child-Child once* to do *anything at all*! Shades of Wesley-Terror! Yes, he's so quiet he was mistaken for a Child Left Behind, but he hasn't ever asked an Insightful Question *once* yet in the entire season so far! (Or maybe just one - in five episodes it's easy to miss one, but I've been looking!)

3a: "One or two errors could be bad writing but for this number they really must have been trying hard." Problem is, it's spun wrong to be a super-parody of the-show-that-revolves-around-genius(es). The tone just really feels off. The Genius Detectives in other shows are at least playing 20-questions with multi options. If this is a parody, the types of mistakes would feel different - they'd do stuff like "I protected the drive! Honest!" met with "Yeah, well, none of us counted on it being hit by scary ass terrorist flame grenade radioactive bombs. Godammnit, now I'm going to lose my hair."

3b: (This point intentionally left blank. See, that's what parody looks like - call backs and inside jokes. We're looking at you, old IBM manuals!)

Extra credit: The Scorpion drinking game! Take a drink every time they say the word "I.P. Address" like it is a minor deity to be worshipped!
(But be careful to already be safe at home!)

996

DC Gamer Club / Re: The Internet Archive presents ....

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 05, 2014, 05:11 PM »

Super quick playability notes:

1. I have some strange problems between PaleMoon and Firefox. Basically, stuff seems to load in Firefox and not (my copy of) PaleMoon. It's unknown what version control and add-ons have to do with any of that.

2. In Firefox, the few programs I tried seem to mostly behave at regular speeds. I haven't tried changing screen sizes much yet.

3. My machine was decent for its time, but a lot of these programs do def begin to max out my cpu.

4. Sound barely works on any of these games for me for reasons unknown.

5. Ataxx doesn't seem to be available! : ((   
(But I do have the MAME version. I still play it once every five years.)

More rights musings:

I'm not sure how deep the connection was/is between Internet Archive and MAME. I used to believe MAME was "just a bunch of people doing that", and they always had medium stern warnings about the roms (which of course we took liberally!)

This time around, they have a thundering quote on their webpage that says "we're exercising our right to forget" and the mysterious phrase "The site's new arcade offerings are the work of curator Jason Scott, who has previously archived thousands of classic console and PC games as part of the Internet Archive's software collection." from the Ars Technica article.

That last phrase is one that leads me to my earlier musings, and that both might be right - that it did used to "just be people" say back in 2004, but that something changed behind the scenes that's now different.

997

Living Room / Re: Thoughts on the tech on the TV show Scorpion?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 05, 2014, 01:40 PM »

I think I saw the NCIS clip before. It brings up the whole Fridge Logic / Plot Hole debate.
(Warning - TV Tropes link coming - you may not escape for an hour!)
http://tvtropes.org/...php/Main.FridgeLogic

In the interest of "Media Science", maybe we can establish "levels of fridge logic".
- Most viewers don't even know until either really long after, or being told by friends
- It's still garbage, but at least the props dept stuck them on two machines and two screens side by side so they can pretend they are at least working together to stop the hacking threat
- Issue a Coding Snack to DC so that each side can use their left and right control and alt keys so that commands on their half of the keyboard are somehow independent of the other one's, and that whoever is working on the left gets their own remapped enter key, possibly using the caps lock key!
   

998

Living Room / Re: Internet Arcade

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 04, 2014, 11:33 PM »

I just saw the news story that the Internet Archive and some other people just released a browser based "Internet Arcade" of old classic games.  Leaving aside the copyright licensing / abandonware stuff,
...

-TaoPhoenix (November 04, 2014, 09:18 PM)

But that's the big question here.  HOW did they get license to so many of these?  I mean, it doesn't just play in the browser, you can download the ROM!  Last I checked, it was *ahem* technically illegal to own a ROM except under certain conditions.  I mean, are they just throwing it up there in hopes that MOST of them stick?  Or is this a short-lived experiment in "let's take bets as to how long it'll take before the first DMCA takedown notice gets delivered"?

Either way: So... many... games...

-Edvard (November 04, 2014, 10:17 PM)

Well, trying not to cut myself shaving with Occam's razor, here's a collation a few of the theories floating from the Slashdot thread mixed with my own:

1. It's hosted by the Internet Archive, and not just any ol' Pop & Son outfit who can be scared with a couple of nasty letters. So let's say a big X % of these games are not under license, but through a few corporate layers, there's enough money behind archive.org that other revenue they generate more than outweighs "abuses" like this. For part of this theory, someone pointed out that computer games are much different than most other forms of copyrighted works - classic songs and TV and movies can retain their basic value for a very long time. But with the march of time, nostalgia aside, no one would play these games except for novelty value.

2. Another idea is some kind of "copyright insurance" - suppose they get a silent insurer to switch the burden of copyright chain onto the final record holders rather than themselves. Think of it as a kind of big poker bluff: "Okay, let's just grant the silly notion that a copyrighted work is $300,000 each. But think of the insane prices lawyers charge. Do you *really* want to try to figure out whatever became of Tago Electronics to win your settlement for the game Anteater? After you get done cheering at happy hour, what have you accomplished? Fine. Take one down, pass it around, 899 games left on the wall."

 3. Maybe they somehow used their big money to do some kind of massive bulk purchase saying, "Okay, with a clause that covers subsequent rights owners and flow through, most of these games came from the same twelve companies. So, here's a big chunk of money, because our petty cash numbers in six figures. So can we have these games now?"

The unifying theme is that unlike a Pop & Son team hoping to skate under the radar, archive.org shouldn't be able to just announce a colossal sonic cannon shot like this, looking like it risks copyright armageddon, without some kind of awesome hidden cards in their hand. I just don't know what those are.

999

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 04, 2014, 09:18 PM »

I just saw the news story that the Internet Archive and some other people just released a browser based "Internet Arcade" of old classic games. Leaving aside the copyright licensing / abandonware stuff, the intersection is reminding me of parts of that "thorn in my head", Ludum Dare. Aka brilliant hacks to ultra max what was often then-next-gen hardware because they could afford it for the console, vs that 2-3 day limit in the LD compos.

http://games.slashdo...games-in-the-browser
https://archive.org/...tails/internetarcade
http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/4419

Those are just raw link posts - I have barely looked at this yet.

I just wanted to chime in for the Silly thread that people over in Slashdot were talking about "Jump the Shark" moments... but wouldn't that be a funny little LD game? You have to control a Fonzie and jump sharks! With lasers! And stuff.



Then again, at 2500 entries per edition of LD, I bet someone already did!

1000

N.A.N.Y. 2015 / Re: Ideas Wanted!

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on November 02, 2014, 04:02 PM »

My probably not so easy idea:
Create some sort of program to filter out the foistware/PUPs from the CNET downloader (or the countless imitators like it) so one can get stuff from such sites without having to try to uninstall the host of malware that comes with it!

-Dorstil (November 02, 2014, 03:38 PM)

I'll add the suggestion that you try to skip the Cnet version, and sometimes in a little corner they put a link into "original site" which avoids all their junk.

But yes, overall, CNEt-ization and more has hurt downloads!