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9876

Living Room / Re: Thinking about setting up a dedicated "secure PC" in my house.. Thoughts?

« Last post by 40hz on September 27, 2009, 07:41 AM »

Do it. I do.

If you have your system set up with swappable hard drives drives, you could also give your financial and other hyper-personal stuff its own drive and not need a separate box. If you're like most people, you're probably not accessing your financial info so often that doing a drive swap would be all that inconvenient.

While you're at it, why not also set up second a machine (real or virtual) and use that exclusively for all your other web browsing and email. That way you confine all your major online risks to that one machine.

And for absolute overkill, you could also use one of the secure 'live' NIX distros. Just boot from that for general purpose web use. Just like a virtual machine - only geekier!

Ahhh...options! Gotta love it.


<EDIT: whoops! houstier beat me to it! >

9877

Adventures of Baby Cody / Re: Where's little baby cody?

« Last post by 40hz on September 27, 2009, 07:20 AM »

Maybe he met someone...

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Living Room / Re: Real code vs. Code in the movies

« Last post by 40hz on September 27, 2009, 01:11 AM »

There have been some terrible, terrible tech movies. Remember Sandra Bullock in "The Net" running around on the beach all Baywatch-style with her laptop?

-zridling (December 17, 2006, 04:59 PM)

Well...maybe it's just "a guy thing," but I'd rather look at Sandra Bullock than Kevin Mitnick - and technical accuracy be damned.

Sandy or Kev? You be the judge:



 

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Living Room / Re: Life Imitates Art - DateCheck - run a background check on your date

« Last post by 40hz on September 27, 2009, 12:53 AM »

@ SKesselman & Cranioscopical - I'd love to see you two get into it in real time on an IRC channel.
It would be better than Letterman and Leno combined. (A lot less crude too, probably.)

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General Software Discussion / Re: Outsourcing web design

« Last post by 40hz on September 27, 2009, 12:45 AM »

I am perfectly capable of coding a website myself, but that is probably not where my real skill lies.

-Ampa (April 30, 2007, 03:58 AM)

If that's the case, then maybe it's better to partner with (or hire) somebody whose real skill is in coding rather than trying to be a one-person shop. I don't know how it works in the UK, but where I live, most corporations are extremely skittish about trusting something as important as a web design project to a one-person operation. And that's because most will not risk the exposure of being "single sourced." Nor are such fears groundless. What would happen to their project if you happened to be run over by the proverbial lorry?

The only solo designers (ok, one actually) I know who managed to successfully market herself as a one-person business did so because she had a brilliant portfolio combined with a stellar reputation in the web design industry several years before she went off on her own.

But even with all that going for her, she still 'hedged' her bet. First, she made it a point to part with her employer on extremely friendly terms. That alone netted her a deal of assignments from her former employer, thereby reducing her exposure once she hung out her own sign. Secondly, she banked a significant amount of money prior to leaving her corporate crib. But these are probably discussion points best left for another day.

The real problem with outsourcing is that there is an inevitable loss of control during critical stages in the production cycle. If you're comfortable taking that risk - or you're fortunate enough to have someone you can completely trust to deliver to spec, on schedule, and on budget 100% of the time - then outsource away. Otherwise, weigh the risks. It's your reputation that will take the hit for any failures, cost overruns or delays on the part of your suppliers. My sister (who is a graphic designer) often reminds her staff that a design agency's reputation is based on everything that goes out its doors, regardless of who did the actual work.

Is outsourcing the HTML and CSS coding of one of my designs, a cost effective way for a web designer to prototype a website?

Yes, but again I'd suggest you do it by partnering with someone with the requisite coding skills rather than project shopping the work on the open market.

Please note there's also a lot more to webpage coding than simple XHTML and CSS. A good web coder will also be handling things like SEO and related e-commerce related technologies that go beyond what's needed for the the visual display of a webpage. Today, if you're seriously thinking of getting into web design for businesses, you'll need a lot more than graphic design skills to be competitive. In many respects, the e-commerce part of the equation is even more important than the website's design or 'internal' technology. What's the point of producing a beautiful and functional website if the world has trouble finding it?

Hope this was of some help.

Best luck in your new endeavor!

9881

Living Room / Re: The Pricelessware Scam (Alt.Comp.Freeware)

« Last post by 40hz on September 26, 2009, 03:12 PM »

I am sorry that you and others feel as if you are being dumped on when the intent is to expose what I would have thought, an international freeware licensing, copyright and intellectual property scam, be of great interest to DC.

-Bloss (September 26, 2009, 06:57 AM)

I'm sorry, but that's a little disingenuous on your part.

If your intent was simply to bring this matter to our attention, you've already done so. A single post would have been sufficient for that. But apparently you seem to feel the need to try to provoke the membership into a debate which they obviously have no interest in getting into. Why you seem to feel that the DoCo community is somehow obligated to get involved with this issue is a puzzle. But to my way of looking at it, any comment about it from you, other than the first (which was allegedly made with no intent other than to bring it to our attention) is being driven by an agenda. The proper venue for that is the ACF forum. Not here.

On a related note, we're privileged to have an FBI agent in our family circle. He's been with the FBI since the early 70s, and currently holds the title of SAIC. If you know half as much about federal investigations as you imply you do, you should know what that means.

I ran your statements regarding "an ongoing Federal investigation" past him. He offered some comments which I'll summarize:

• Neither the FBI or any other federal authority will  discuss or comment on any investigation they are conducting. It is their policy to not even publicly acknowledge such an investigation exists until such time as they begin seeking indictments in court, at which time it becomes a matter of public record.
   
  
• The only way someone could genuinely claim a federal investigation was being conducted would be if he were contacted by the federal authorities - either as a witness (in which case he would also be requested not to discuss the interview since it could jeopardize the investigation if word got out) - or if he were contacted and put on notice that he was a "subject of interest" (i.e. potential suspect) in the investigation - in which case his attorney would likely caution him to say nothing.

Draw what conclusions you will from that.

Which brings us to...

Now run along and scam again another day.

-Bloss (September 26, 2009, 07:02 AM)

This kind of remark (and others of yours) represent a discourtesy that is unwelcome here. If you cannot make a rational point without invective then it reflects poorly on you. I suspect that I might not be alone in this feeling, and ask you to think twice before making your responses in future. Alas, 'think before you type' never has been my own strong point, but it is a guiding principle that is worth bearing in mind.

-cranioscopical (September 26, 2009, 07:25 AM)

Thank you once again Mr. C. My sentiments exactly - except you stated them much more concisely and elegantly than I would have.

I think everyone has had their say now, and clearly this is something that people feel strongly about on both sides -- but i do think it's been hashed out as much as can be done from over here in the land of DonationCoder and we can should back to our regularly scheduled stuff now..

-mouser (September 26, 2009, 07:21 AM)

Agree.

And since that's the case, maybe now might be a good time to think about locking this thread?

Just a thought.

9882

Living Room / Re: I've said it before - they're out to get you!

« Last post by 40hz on September 25, 2009, 01:17 PM »

Blah!

The banal and paranoid blathering of your obvious dog owners, is...well...banal and paranoid.

-Daleus (September 25, 2009, 11:29 AM)

Nonsense! I own three cats and I still stand by what I said.

The little girl character (Sadako) who appears in the "cursed video" sequences in Ringu was moderately disturbing. Had she been a cat however, she would have been utterly terrifying.



(With full apologies to Hideo Nakata, director of the movie Ringu.)

9883

Living Room / Life Imitates Art - DateCheck - run a background check on your date

« Last post by 40hz on September 25, 2009, 12:46 PM »

Some of you might have seen a throwaway comedy from the 80s called Amazon Women on the Moon.

As a comedy, it wasn't all that great. But one of the vignettes, a segment usually referred to as the "Two Forms of ID" skit became quite famous. The sketch revolves around a guy showing up to pick of his blind date for the evening.



Everything seems to be going quite well for him until she asks him (sweetly) if she could see two forms of ID...



Here's the clip in case you missed the movie:

http://www.youtube.c...from=PL&index=48

After you've had your chuckle (or not), you might be interested to know such a service actually exists. It's called Date Check and it's offered by a company called Intelius. Now, thanks to advances in technology, you don't need two forms of ID - or really much of anything beyond a name, or an e-mail address, to run a background check on somebody. And you're also no longer tethered to a terminal in your home because this service can be accessed anywhere via your iPhone. Android and Blackberry support is also in the works.

Date Check

Today's dating scene is tough to navigate, which is why Intelius developed DateCheck, a free mobile app that deciphers fact from fiction in the palm of your hand. Simply enter a name, phone number or email address and instantly get accurate and comprehensive results. With features like Sleaze Detector, Compatibility, Net Worth, Interests and Living Situation you can be in the know on the go. "Look up before you hook up."

Info and video link:
http://www.intelius....m/mobile?trackit=188

I'm sure many more products and services like this are on the way - complete with all the privacy issues and opportunities for abuse that inevitably tag along with products like these.

Whether you're intrigued, disgusted, amused, stunned, or possibly even thinking about signing up - it's a whole new world out there.

On second thought, scratch that. It's just more of the same - except for the web access part.  

9884

Living Room / Re: The Pricelessware Scam (Alt.Comp.Freeware)

« Last post by 40hz on September 24, 2009, 10:37 PM »

I don't think it's just this forum, I actually suspect that the protagonists are just trying to extend their field of operations. 

ACF used to be quite good, there was no spam, everyone was (generally) pretty courteous, and the focus was on sharing information (like here).  Sadly those days appear to be long gone...

-Target (September 24, 2009, 10:23 PM)

All the more reason not to let said refugees attempt to make ACF's problems DC's problems.

9885

Living Room / Re: The Pricelessware Scam (Alt.Comp.Freeware)

« Last post by 40hz on September 24, 2009, 10:25 PM »

Or is this all some big secret plot to push me into finally building that site I was joking about?

-app103 (September 24, 2009, 10:13 PM)

ROTFLMAO!!!

9886

Living Room / Re: The Pricelessware Scam (Alt.Comp.Freeware)

« Last post by 40hz on September 24, 2009, 09:48 PM »

What the link and the group have in common is it is overrun with frauds, thieves, felons (like Bear Bottoms) scammers and Ari Silversteinn types.

-Bloss (September 24, 2009, 05:42 PM)

Getting repetitious...

And the overall lack of civility doesn't fit in too well with how things get done here.

9887

General Software Discussion / Re: Idea: A content management system that lives up to the name

« Last post by 40hz on September 24, 2009, 05:32 PM »

I was wondering if something like razorCMS might be closer in basic functionality to what you're looking for? It's a flat-file CMS. http://razorcms.co.uk/

Or alternatively ezPublish, which is a lot more complex but also much more sophisticated. http://ez.no/ezpublish

9888

General Software Discussion / Re: dell laptop, vista won't activate

« Last post by 40hz on September 24, 2009, 04:56 PM »

Never hurts to ask. Worst they can do is say no ...

-Innuendo (September 24, 2009, 04:15 PM)

@Innuendo - Oh I'm not knocking it. You're absolutely right.  It's even happened for me*.

Just never with Dell.

---

* In the past, IBM, Microsoft, Gigabyte Technology, and Compaq (prior to the 'merge' with HP) were particularly good at dealing with customer satisfaction issues that way.

9889

General Software Discussion / Re: dell laptop, vista won't activate

« Last post by 40hz on September 24, 2009, 03:36 PM »

Wonder if you could talk Dell into upgrading you to a Dell OEM Win 7 disc for all the trouble you have had with Vista.

-Innuendo (September 24, 2009, 10:38 AM)

Hey Mr. Dell..we got a live one on the phone! You won't believe what he just asked us to do!!!

9890

General Software Discussion / Re: Idea: A content management system that lives up to the name

« Last post by 40hz on September 24, 2009, 03:20 PM »

OK, lets call it a bot or an intelligent agent then!

Question: wouldn't you still need to cache the pages it constructs for performance reasons? Or at least update a database somewhere along the line?

Otherwise, if the CMS were being driven by this beastie, wouldn't every page request result in the spider having to transverse the entire (or a significant portion) of the directory structure each time someone browsed to a different page? Wouldn't you still need to to have the agent update a database of some sort with what it finds in the directory tree? Possibly even cache the actual pages for performance reasons and only update them if it detects changes.

True it could be an old fashioned 'flat' or even 'hierarchical' as opposed to 'relational' database (which is overkill for about half the applications that incorporate one*) but I can't see how you can not use some sort of database query to dole out the actual page requests.

9891

Living Room / Re: How to host you Windows 7 house party... wtf?

« Last post by 40hz on September 24, 2009, 02:58 PM »

I think you underestimate Microsoft's capabilities. They don't need an Apple mole. They're perfectly capable of destroying themselves without any assistance from 3rd parties.

Speaking of which...

Am I the only person here that would dearly love to see somebody smack Justin Long across the back of the head with one of those 17 inch MacBook Pros?

9892

General Software Discussion / Re: Idea: A content management system that lives up to the name

« Last post by 40hz on September 24, 2009, 02:44 PM »

... I'd be interested in something a little more scriptable and that working by analyzing different files in a directory tree that might have all kind of extra information to guide how the site is constructed and what menus are shown.

-mouser (September 23, 2009, 01:32 PM)

@Mouser - Are you envisioning something similar to a web crawler? Something that spiders down through a directory tree and abstracts and formats what it finds into a series of webpages? That's what it almost sounds like.

9893

Living Room / Re: How to host you Windows 7 house party... wtf?

« Last post by 40hz on September 24, 2009, 02:20 PM »

Sounds like the geek equivalent of a home lingerie show.

9894

Living Room / Re: Show us a photo of your mutt or other creatures..

« Last post by 40hz on September 24, 2009, 02:17 PM »

Even one week after that bad day I have very hard feelings several times a day and dark thoughts. Every thing and place that recalls my dog is hurting. It helped a little bit that I collected all of Cliffs pictures and movies in a digital photoframe that´s always in sight and to visit his grave every day. I never could imagine that I can get so brutal sad after losing my dog.

-Crush (September 24, 2009, 11:45 AM)

The only thing to do for that is give it some time.

There's two dogs in particular I've lost that still cause a twinge of sadness every time I think of them. And I think of both of them at least once a day. And despite the fact they've been gone for several years now, losing them never really did stop hurting.

But oddly enough, over time, this same hurt acquired a paradoxically joyous overtone. Go figure. I guess it's something like the "good ache" you get when you exercise. It hurts, but it's also good for you.

Hang in there!

9895

Living Room / Re: The Pricelessware Scam (Alt.Comp.Freeware)

« Last post by 40hz on September 24, 2009, 01:58 PM »

* now 40hz sits back with his second beer and thinks: Here we go again...

how can you call it a language?

-CWuestefeld (September 24, 2009, 01:00 PM)

FWIW I sometimes feel that way about American English.

9896

Living Room / Re: The Pricelessware Scam (Alt.Comp.Freeware)

« Last post by 40hz on September 23, 2009, 10:44 PM »

Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

Now may we wrap it up?  

9897

Living Room / Re: I've said it before - they're out to get you!

« Last post by 40hz on September 23, 2009, 10:35 PM »

omg. that's quite alarming. like something out of a Japanese horror film.

-nudone (September 23, 2009, 03:27 PM)

I'm fine with that just so long as this cat doesn't appear right after I watched some abstract creepy footage off a videocassette.

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Living Room / Re: The Pricelessware Scam (Alt.Comp.Freeware)

« Last post by 40hz on September 23, 2009, 05:59 PM »

** 40hz sits down next to f0dder, passes him a beer, and says: "Is this a rerun?" **

9899

General Software Discussion / Re: Need help in installing RSSOwl

« Last post by 40hz on September 23, 2009, 01:28 PM »

Thanks 40hz.

JavaRa removed the old version, j2re1.4.2_13 & its related files and RSSOwl installer worked fine.

-sri (September 23, 2009, 01:21 PM)

Bingo! Glad it worked out for you.

9900

General Software Discussion / Re: Need help in installing RSSOwl

« Last post by 40hz on September 23, 2009, 01:05 PM »

I suspect RSSOwl's installer has a problem with the installed version of the JRE, and is ignoring the Java 6 update  Not every Java update replaces the JRE that got installed with the SDK.

Try downloading a copy of JavaRa from http://raproducts.org. First have it check for (and install) any updates. Once that's finished, have it remove any older versions of Java. That should clear up the problem.

JavaRa is a simple tool that does a simple job: it removes old and redundant versions of the Java Runtime Environment (JRE). Simply select "Check for Updates" or "Remove Older Version" to begin. JavaRa is free under the GNU GPL version two.

If that doesn't work, you could try uninstalling all your Java instals and updates manually using Revo. Then download and install a fresh copy of the JRE from here:

https://cds.sun.com/...PR@CDS-CDS_Developer

If you do actually need the full SDK, you can also get that from Sun's website.