Recent Posts

9926

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Let's Bundle Our Orders For Software995 Toolset

« Last post by wraith808 on March 28, 2008, 11:17 AM »

Hey... if you can get one more, I'll be the fifth.  Just no reason to purchase as a fourth 

9927

Developer's Corner / Re: Visual Basic .NET - Can I make a dynamic GUI?

« Last post by wraith808 on March 26, 2008, 04:12 PM »

Actually, I found the one by Erik Brown better:

http://www.amazon.co...206565872&sr=1-4

Of course that's just personal opinion...

9928

General Software Discussion / Re: USBDeview - Guaranteed eject of your USB drive

« Last post by wraith808 on March 21, 2008, 03:07 PM »

Is such an utility really necessary ? Aren't FAT32 storage devices optimized for quick removal by default ? I just unplug mine as soon as any writing operation is complete. Any of you NTFS formatting drives?

-direnc (March 21, 2008, 01:03 PM)

Why yes, all of my usb drives that are over 4GB are NTFS formatted...and I get this problem in *many* cases when I want to remove my portable drives from systems.  So this is a godsend.

9929

General Software Discussion / Re: What’s this "Linux" thing and why should i try it?

« Last post by wraith808 on March 20, 2008, 03:31 PM »

I wasn't complaining about people trying GNU/Linux. I was complaining about people who don't have the time to spend to learn a new way of doing things, and instead of just saying they are just used to the OS they have been using and don't have the time to learn something new, they immediately dismiss the alternative as 'crap' because they aren't used to it.

-Gothi[c] (March 19, 2008, 11:48 PM)

Well, I don't dismiss Linux as crap, I just put it in the category of things I want to have time to do but don't.  The very real situation (at least for me) is that I run my own business, which includes going to work at client locations, drumming up new business, and working on what I didn't get to finish at the client site at home.  Then, I still have to refresh my skills/learn new things as they come out, write articles, and then maybe get a little while to get off the computer and do something social.  I just don't have the extra hours in the day to learn it.  I suppose I should look for some kind of dummies book- don't laugh.  They are a great way to learn new things as you don't have to dig to find out the basics; you can then learn the rest as you use it.  But I just haven't been able to justify spending the time on it when I can be doing things that are more closely related to my earnings potential.

9930

Developer's Corner / Re: c# assignment: Problem with random

« Last post by wraith808 on March 20, 2008, 03:13 PM »

Actually, this is what I'd do (Testing it is up to the user... )

[Select]

    class Assignment1
    {
        private Random RandomNumber = new Random();
        private int[] CardList = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 10, 10, 10 };

        public int GetRandomCard()
        {
            return CardList[RandomNumber.Next(0, 12)];
        }
    }

9931

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Stand alone bookmarks toolbar

« Last post by wraith808 on March 20, 2008, 02:32 PM »

What does this point

* allow the addition of multiple rows with more folders.

mean?

9932

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Greenprint today on Bits Du Jour

« Last post by wraith808 on March 18, 2008, 01:20 PM »

I use FinePrint and PDF Factory (purchased with a discount from DC) and have never wanted for any other features, so I didn't even take a second look when greenprint was up for sale.

9933

Living Room / Re: questions for programmers

« Last post by wraith808 on March 14, 2008, 02:21 PM »

Title of job or position held: Contract Programming Consultant

How long have you done this job: 20 years

How did you become interested in this field: A programming course in high school was the start, on an Apple IIe in Apple Pascal.  From there, I started programming games in assembler on my Franklin Ace 1000.

What is your favorite and least favorite part of this job: My favorite parts are the continued learning and challenge, and the money of course.  My least favorite is that a lot of people don't have a lot of understanding what programming takes and make things harder by trying to manage the programming instead of the project, which usually results in less than optimal project timelines and more hours worked.

What kind of training or education have you had for this field:  Formally, I have a Bachelor's of Science in Computer Science and a few personalized training courses.  Informally, I find that I have to constantly refresh my skills by the use of several resources on the internet.

What is the future outlook for this field?:  I think the future is bright for computer programming as a whole.  One must be very aware of the state of one's skills and the demand for one's skillset to take advantage of this however.  Also, personal skills that are not easily quantifiable such as time management, people skills, and a good work ethic go a long way in distinguishing programmers of similar skill levels.

How many hours (or days) do you spend working each week:  It varies according to contract and deadlines.  In general I work 40-50 hours a week, though I have worked as many as 80 hours in times when work needed to be done.

If you have any more questions, feel free to PM me.

9934

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Let's Bundle Our Orders For Software995 Toolset

« Last post by wraith808 on March 10, 2008, 07:26 PM »

Actually, one more doesn't make a difference from what I see (1-4 = 29.95@)... and I don't have enough time to really take a look it seems, so my addition wouldn't matter in any case.

9935

DC Gamer Club / Re: Lets get organized so we can get gaming!

« Last post by wraith808 on March 10, 2008, 07:21 PM »

Shadowrun is definitely cool to play ... and shows that kb+mouse pwns gamepad any day of the week.

9936

Living Room / Re: Microsoft Bid for Yahoo - Interesting Development...

« Last post by wraith808 on March 10, 2008, 12:10 AM »

Sorry where are the rabid competitors for Windows? Mac has about 8% share of desktops in the US (rather less in the EU) and Linux has a very small following on desktops (though it does compete well in the server market).

-Carol Haynes (February 29, 2008, 06:26 PM)

Just because they don't have market share, doesn't make them any less of a rabid competitor.  The cutesy PC vs Mac ads are directly aimed at their competitor's weaknesses in a way that you usually don't see in official ads.

9937

Official Announcements / Re: The site is now back online (March 6th, 2008) - Come Say Hello!

« Last post by wraith808 on March 07, 2008, 01:57 PM »

Yay!  I've been going through serious withdrawal here!

Thanks for your hard work!

9938

Living Room / Re: Microsoft Bid for Yahoo - Interesting Development...

« Last post by wraith808 on February 29, 2008, 04:30 PM »

Something well over 90% in the US and even higher everywhere else - looks like a monopoly to me.

Anyone noticed how lots of US TV shows (24 is an obvious one) only use Macs - pure product placement. I refuse to believe that the Mac is the US government standard issue - especially in security circles 

-Carol Haynes (February 29, 2008, 03:45 PM)

Well, they definitely don't have one from an economic standpoint- they have competitors.  Very rabid competitors at that.  From a non-economic view, I would still argue that 90%+ does not a monopoly make.  They may have leveraged their marketshare in unfair ways to promote other products, but their large market share does not make it impossible to compete on the basis of OS itself.

9939

Living Room / Re: Microsoft Bid for Yahoo - Interesting Development...

« Last post by wraith808 on February 29, 2008, 03:33 PM »

Yes... EU = European Union... why would you think EULA?  And the reason that creating a gorilla to fight a gorilla is a reasonable aim is because corporations are driven by money, and they won't switch without a compelling reason. 

And I would argue that MS doesn't have an OS monopoly... Linux, *nix, and OSX compete quite well.. they just have a large market share.

9940

Living Room / Re: The Best Games You've Never Played

« Last post by wraith808 on February 29, 2008, 03:24 PM »

All this talk about Descent makes me want to play it again. Especially if it's been upgraded for Windows XP.

-Deozaan (February 29, 2008, 11:19 AM)

Just picked it up on GoGamer for $5!  And I don't really consider it a shooter b/c of the freedom of motion and the fact that you *can* play it very effectively with a joystick or joypad- something you can't do with a shooter IMO.  There are new and different things you can do without gravity, but some of my favorite maneuvers in flight sims are still possible and do work!  Especially in those big chambered rooms...

Ref: http://www.gogamer.c...444710VVviewprod.htm

9941

Living Room / Re: The Best Games You've Never Played

« Last post by wraith808 on February 28, 2008, 04:18 PM »

I finished HL1 but never HL2 - I gave up in one of the driving episodes. HL2 is one of the games I had to give up because they made me seasick, the other one was Descent 3 

-iphigenie (February 28, 2008, 07:22 AM)

OMG!  I want more Descent!  I loved that game!  I don't really like flight sims... but that's pretty much what descent is when you think about it...  Now I have to go find a copy of D3 again...

9942

Developer's Corner / Re: The DC Coders' Breakfast Club

« Last post by wraith808 on February 26, 2008, 02:26 PM »

Well, I finished the experiment with Adobe- it wasn't worth it for native rendering, so I ended up using the reader engine to render the PDFs from within my application.

This week, I'm learning about the Vista Games Explorer, and trying to make a utility to allow you to manage the games there.

9943

Living Room / Re: The Best Games You've Never Played

« Last post by wraith808 on February 26, 2008, 02:24 PM »

I now have the 8600GT in my new lappie... it seems to perform better than my 7800GT in my desktop, but I don't have enough data yet.  Everything I saw pointed to the fact that it should be about the same performance, but in 19x12 the 8600 seems to perform better.

9944

DC Gamer Club / Windows Live Downloads

« Last post by wraith808 on February 26, 2008, 02:18 PM »

I just installed Universe at War and Shadowrun, and Windows Live needed to update itself and the applications.  I gave permissions to my firewall for the games themselves, but apparently there is some other piece I'm missing, because until  I turned off the firewall, it didn't work.  Unfortunately it didn't pop up the authorization dialog either.  I'm using AVG firewall... anyone have any ideas?

TIA

9945

Developer's Corner / oDesk

« Last post by wraith808 on February 25, 2008, 01:27 PM »

I don't know how many of you are freelancers, but there are many ups and downs about it- employers not trusting your hours spent, the possibility of working and not getting paid, employers that don't understand the value of the work they're asking for... etc, etc.

I just stumbled across a site that seems to eliminate a lot of the downsides in expense of your privacy...

http://webworkerdail...eal-for-freelancers/

I don't know.  On the surface it sounds like a good idea, but having something screenshot my desktop?  And who is to guarantee that they don't capture info when you're "off the clock"?

Thoughts?

9946

Living Room / Re: Windows Live Skydrive: Tried Anyone?

« Last post by wraith808 on February 25, 2008, 10:50 AM »

oked up why I had those files and

-cmpm (February 24, 2008, 03:55 AM)

if you choose to participate in the customer improvment program then you get those files which are hidden in the root, then sent to ms and removed. if you answer not to participate then no files are ever created. if you don't answer then the files are created but nothing done with them.

-justice (February 24, 2008, 06:40 PM)

That totally explains it, because I never participate in those programs.  I'll take a survey, but I won't agree to have someone looking in on my computing.  A bit paranoid... but hey...

9947

General Software Discussion / Re: Are Windows Dynamic Disks Reliable?

« Last post by wraith808 on February 25, 2008, 10:48 AM »

Windows 2000.  I'm not sure of the exact details of what happened, but during a routine scandisk, one of the drives had a bad sector, and I tried to mark it as such.  The next few days, my drive was acting wonky, so I got a Jaz drive and started to offload the most critical data.  During the second disk the copy functions started failing, so I tried to back the data up to another drive on my network, but couldn't copy anything.  I rebooted, and windows would recognize the drives, but the partition was gone.  At first I thought the drive had gone bad, but after I did a low level format and ran Norton on the disks, they were fine- In fact, I still use them (just not for critical data).

9948

General Software Discussion / Re: Are Windows Dynamic Disks Reliable?

« Last post by wraith808 on February 24, 2008, 02:36 PM »

The only experience I had was bad... but that was when it first came on the market.  I lost a *lot* of data because of them, and became scarred against using RAID.  I don't know about currently- I haven't touched them since.

9949

Living Room / Re: Windows Live Skydrive: Tried Anyone?

« Last post by wraith808 on February 24, 2008, 09:00 AM »

2. Too many Ads

-mahesh2k (February 24, 2008, 03:11 AM)

Are we looking at different products?  On my skydrive page, I don't have *any* ads...

IS sharing or direct URL allowed?

-mahesh2k (February 24, 2008, 03:11 AM)

Both are allowed.

9950

General Software Discussion / Re: teracopy: copy your files faster

« Last post by wraith808 on February 24, 2008, 08:43 AM »

Well, the reason I didn't compare PC to TC is because on PC's page it makes no claim to making the copy faster- it just adds some niceties to the copying process like not failing out if one file fails, etc.

As far as the second part- it makes more sense when you explain it than when they do.