Recent Posts

9951

Living Room / Re: Drinking Vinegar?

« Last post by Renegade on June 02, 2008, 01:02 PM »

grass jelly drink

-Renegade (June 02, 2008, 09:31 AM)

Learn something every day; I must admit I'd never heard of that.  I'll have to find some and try it.

-cranioscopical (June 02, 2008, 10:46 AM)

In HK, you get it for desert with creamy milk.
 (see attachment in previous post)

-PhilB66 (June 02, 2008, 11:00 AM)

The stuff in that pic is the black stuff... Not too fond of it. The regular green grass jelly stuff is better. Well, I like it better. It's watery though. Not milky.

Oh, and for those that like to DRINK ( ), try pomegranate drinking vinegar with tequila and Cointreau -- a Vinegarita! Marvelous! Just sucking back some right now!


<rant>
As for that "Crazy Asian Drinks" site... What a complete waste! They're a bunch of ing lame ed heads with no ing clue about anything other than their own -ed - tiny world of trailer parks and budwiser. them. While there certainly are some interesting things out there, they have nothing useful to say.
</rant>

9952

Developer's Corner / Re: The internet hijacked

« Last post by Renegade on June 02, 2008, 10:31 AM »

I only want to comment on a couple things here that f0dder brought up. (Other comments have been done.)

There's a couple of WTFs here... one is that so many of the internet protocols we use have gaping security holes - something as critical for the whole internet infrastructure as the root DNS servers ought to have some form of cryptographic verification applied. I do realize it's basically impossible to change something as established as the DNS protocol, though, and that crypto verification would be very costly on something as high-volume as root DNS servers.

-f0dder (May 20, 2008, 08:20 AM)

Correct in every way. The cost would be impossible to cover.

Another WTF is that the IP address was changed in the first place. Now, the server might have needed to be moved to a different facility or what do I know, but when you're dealing with servers that have (and need) their IPs hardcoded in various places, you simply don't change that IP, period. And if it has to be done, for some extremely critical reason, you especially do not give up the old IP for grabs.

-f0dder (May 20, 2008, 08:20 AM)

This is what I don't get. How the Hell could that happen?

Changing like that is simply insane!

As for SSL, it protects you against casual snooping and tampering, but afaik as soon as there's a man-in-middle (exploited router, carnivore box at your ISP, ...) you're game over anyway.

-f0dder (May 20, 2008, 08:20 AM)

There is no MITHM attack with SSL. That's what SSL stops. If it's a MITHM attack for DNS, you're screwed. But for regular HTTPS traffic to a web site, then you're safe. SSL is client to server security. Which doesn't cover DNS...

Are you talking about something else there? I'm curious. I don't know of any "real" SSL attacks. There are some that involve ISPs and trusted intermediaries but those are special cases and not for regular Internet connections.

9953

Living Room / Re: Inside Story of A Notorious Satelite Dish Card Counter-Hack

« Last post by Renegade on June 02, 2008, 10:05 AM »

That was pretty cool! Thanks for posting it!

9954

Living Room / Re: Where else do you go except DonationCoder

« Last post by Renegade on June 02, 2008, 09:51 AM »

The top 4 that I visit most regularly:

JoS
ASP Newsgroups
CodeProject
MSDN

If you don't know the URLs, finding them will be good for you!

9955

Living Room / Re: Hosting options for new website

« Last post by Renegade on June 02, 2008, 09:47 AM »

Maybe not totally helpful, but I'll throw in a bit of what I know...

WebHost4Life --- AVOID THEM!!!! They suck! Badly. Horror upon horror! EVIL!

LayeredTech --- AVOID!!! Incompetent beyond human comprehension. They managed to lose all data from RAID 1 mirrored drives on me! You cannot possibly screw up worse than that. That's on top of 2 weeks of downtime that was entirely their fault. Serious moron working there. (It only gets worse.)

The Planet --- Excellent. I have zero downtime and have had no problems with them. Very good and recommended.

If you're going to go for $500, would it be a stretch to $1,000 or so? If you can, I'd honestly strongly recommend going with a dedicated server. There's just NO comparison with any kind of hosted account to virtual server. They just aren't in the same universe much less the same ballpark.

I can tell you from personal experience with different hosting accounts that I'd rather shoot myself in the face than ever use a hosted account ever again.

The difference between $500 and $1,000 isn't that big once you figure in the massive costs of the downtime and truckloads of Tylenol that you'll need to deal with the BS of a shared server.

9956

Living Room / Re: Drinking Vinegar?

« Last post by Renegade on June 02, 2008, 09:31 AM »

For all of you who were participating in the contest to choose which day Renegade would truly lose his mind, please check your entry cards.  The one closest to June 1st has won.  To claim your prize*, if you believe you are the winner, please send your winning card to:
 Renegade Mental Breakdown Contest
 P.O. Box 32423523
 Rural Route GTD
 Korea

*prize money will be awarded in the form of vinegar and clam juice.

-mouser (June 02, 2008, 06:36 AM)

The correct address is:

 Renegade Mental Breakdown Contest
 P.O. Box 5150
 Rural Route GDT
 Korea

Mouser, don't you know your Van Halen? (5150 is the California code for the criminally insane. ) And it's "Guitar & Drum Trainer." Not "Guitar Trainer & Drums!" You're confusing me with a self-help guru, that no self-respecting criminally insane musical wacko would ever be caught dead impersonating! (Unless it were to do something both criminal and insane!)

@cranioscopical

I don't remember exactly. It was a few years ago. It was new in the store and I'm a complete drinking fanatic. If I could drink all my meals I would. I LOVE to drink. I'll try damn near anything that's liquid. (That's "near" for those with smarty pants comments! )

Anyways, like I mentioned before, I just recently read the English (I can read Korean) and noticed just how bizarre it looks. As I don't spend much time outside of Korea and Asia, I was curious as to if others around the world had heard of it or tried it.

But really, it is THAT good. It sounds completely wacked and totally insane, but it really does taste amazingly good! My friend's uncle is nuts for it and I can't blame him.

And yes, when I get to places in South East Asia, one of my favorite things is to get into the corner stores and grocery stores and buy drinks! And fresh fruit! Love it!

I've had some drinks that I don't care for like "black jelly drink" and some others, but it's always worth a try. (I like grass jelly drink, just not the "black" version.)

For those that have never been to SE Asia... It just rocks! It's a MUST do for everyone at least once in their lives.

9957

Living Room / Re: The 10 most annoying programs on the Internet

« Last post by Renegade on June 02, 2008, 04:09 AM »

Certainly funny and a good read, but like most "reviews," the author just doesn't get it and shows their lack of understanding of some of the things listed. I'll run with Adobe Reader (AR hereon in) for the moment...

Which is a shame, because other lightweight PDF readers seem to manage perfectly well.

Ummm... What part of "light weight" did they NOT understand?

AR is NOT just a simple reader. It's a platform for document control.

Let me quickly repeat that... PLATFORM!!!

Did you expect 274kb assembler program load times from a platform? Of course it's slower! But it also has a huge amount of functionality in it too that you don't get in the other "readers."

I'm done.

But all the update stuff and other junk really is annoying.

9958

Living Room / Re: Drinking Vinegar?

« Last post by Renegade on June 02, 2008, 03:23 AM »

It's supposed to be very good for you.

For a fun read on the topic (kind of), check out Aesop and his little escapades with his master. (He feeds people all pickled things and gets people sick.)

It SOUNDS bizarre, but honestly, it's some of the best stuff you'll ever try. Think "Uber-Awesome Kool-Aid!"

I've been drinking it for a long time, but never actually read any of the English on the bottles. A couple weeks ago I read the English, "Drinking Vinegar", and while I knew what it was, it just all of a sudden seemed very strange to actually read it in English. (Korean is kind of like that... What sounds normal in Korean makes no sense at all in English.)

So, anyone that's tried it, how did you like it? (I'm going to go have another glass now! )

9959

Living Room / Drinking Vinegar?

« Last post by Renegade on June 01, 2008, 12:57 AM »

This is VERY off-topic for software, but I'm curious...

How many people here have heard of or tried "drinking vinegar?"

It's exactly that -- vinegar that's meant for drinking. Comes in different flavors, and it's absolutely FANTASTIC!

Think of "drinking yoghurt," but for vinegar. (Drinking yoghurt is available in North America and Europe, right?)

9960

Living Room / Re: This might take some of you back - IBM laptop, can anyone give me some info?

« Last post by Renegade on May 28, 2008, 11:53 PM »

wasn't exactly happy about the pr0n

Wait a second! Some people get upset at free pr0n???

9961

General Software Discussion / Re: MS Office Ultimate for only $59

« Last post by Renegade on May 23, 2008, 12:23 PM »

Dont know about anywhere else but in Australia it has been extended indefinitely.

-Grorgy (May 22, 2008, 09:30 PM)

Wow! That is very cool!

(Can we say, "Let's kick the $4!+ out of OO before it becomes too popular?")

(I'm not anti-MS or anything, but what does it look like?)

9962

Living Room / Re: What video player plays audio clearly when video is sped up?

« Last post by Renegade on May 23, 2008, 12:19 PM »

nudone's right. KMPlayer does allow this. I had 'time stretching' disabled, works well once you enable it.
 (see attachment in previous post)

-nosh (May 21, 2008, 11:53 AM)

Hey!

Was that screenshot done with Screenshot Captor?

9963

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

« Last post by Renegade on May 23, 2008, 12:17 PM »

People who post reviews which are nothing more than summaries of what they read on another site rather than independent thoughts of their own. You see this running rampant on betanews.com and any anti-microsoft site where people take the word of someone else rather than checking into the issue at hand for themselves.

-Josh (May 23, 2008, 09:39 AM)

Amen to that one!

What really p!$$3s me off is the security crap I hear... Grrr...

Another few topics:

-- Internet Explorer
-- Windows Media Player
-- QuickTime
-- RealPlayer

They are NOT what they are touted to be. They are all PLATFORMS! Very very very few people get that.

IE is NOT a browser.

WMP is NOT a media player.

QuickTime is NOT a media player.

RealPlayer is NOT a media player.

They function as those, but are so much more than just that.

FF? Opera? iTunes? WinAmp? etc. etc. etc.

They don't compare at all. The comparisons between them are just silly.

Ok -- Rant is at it's end now.

Anyone else want to tweak me off and get me started?

9964

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

« Last post by Renegade on May 23, 2008, 08:46 AM »

On my way home from Hong Kong a little while ago, I picked up a National Geographic special edition on climate change. It had lots of numbers and hard facts, which I found refreshing. I HATE namby-pamby feel-good drivel that isn't backed up with anything. This was not that. Lots of good meaty stuff in there presenting a serious case.

That being said, it looks bleak for planet Earth. The rate of change is astonishing, and will seriously affect all of us in our lifetimes.

But I'm still not going to care in the least about recycling plastic or paper when the energy consumption from that is greater than producing it from raw materials and is hastening climate change. I'll still conscientiously recycle tin and metal as the energy consumption there is well worth it. But I won't stop complaining about the plastic & paper...

Sigh... Hell in a handbasket...

9965

Living Room / Re: Omega Tower Defense 2

« Last post by Renegade on May 22, 2008, 11:38 AM »

Damn you mouser! I know that I'm going to lose another several hours of my life now...

9966

Living Room / Re: What video player plays audio clearly when video is sped up?

« Last post by Renegade on May 21, 2008, 10:58 AM »

Thanks Renegade. That does the trick.

The movies are in FLV format, so I need to convert them first, but once they are AVIs they work great.

-tinjaw (May 21, 2008, 10:23 AM)

They have an FLV codec available in the ALShow codec center, but it may be a bit dated... Worth a try though. http://codec.alshow.co.kr/page/en I think... Could be wrong there. Check the forums at www.altools.com for it.

9967

Living Room / Re: More Abuses of Technology - Government Surveillance - Computer Confiscation

« Last post by Renegade on May 21, 2008, 09:48 AM »

+100 for Carol

Don't treat regular people like criminals. It can only lead to very dark places. And bad things happen in the dark. (As every good horror movie proves! )

More on the topic...

I recently discovered that a friend of mine, who is a professor of computer science, and I share something rather significant in common. We are both anarchists. Not in the Sex Pistols idiot sense. Rather in the deeper philosophical sense of living peacefully without the need for laws in a state of greater freedom generated through trust and a mutual individual social contract between people and not an oppressive state/sovereign.

It's nice to find like-minded people.

@Cpilot -- I wonder if some of your posts here are grounded in a practical fear. "The inconvenience is worth the safety?"

There are a few positions on the topic, and all have merits. I'm not so narrow minded as to outrightly dismiss things. However, Carol has brought up some new perpectives not previously voiced that are very hard to ignore.

Technology is radically changing the way we live. On my 10th birthday, none of this kind of discussion as we are having now would have been possible. On my 20th birthday, it was either impossible, or would have been immensely difficult/expensive.

I thoroughly believe that we, as some of the more informed people on these kinds of issues, need to keep our eyes open for abuse.

While I'm not from the USA, I have a good deal of respect for the country and for how it was founded. (We Canadians just managed to do it a bit more peacefully, but probably with thanks to the history of and how the US was founded.)

However, the founding of the USA and much of political history is soaked in blood. The dark places that current legislation is going will only lead to more bloodshed.

Machiavelli was right. Politics is an amoral theater.

9968

Living Room / Re: What video player plays audio clearly when video is sped up?

« Last post by Renegade on May 21, 2008, 09:18 AM »

ALShow does it up to 2x. It's free too.

9969

Living Room / Re: More Abuses of Technology - Government Surveillance - Computer Confiscation

« Last post by Renegade on May 20, 2008, 09:55 AM »

The law mentioned in this thread, about seizing electronic data/equipment without needing cause, and with no limitations, is only taking us back over 300 years to that same old system. Will it be abused in every case? Absolutely not. Will it ever be abused? Absolutely yes! Surely in the time you spent in the military, you saw some power abuse?

-Deozaan (May 19, 2008, 08:20 PM)

BINGO!

And nicely put.

I for one am just not very comfortable walking around with some metaphorical gun to my head that was designed to be pointed at bad guys. Eventually that gun is going to go off "by accident."

9970

Living Room / Re: More Abuses of Technology - Government Surveillance - Computer Confiscation

« Last post by Renegade on May 18, 2008, 10:51 PM »

Just to sort of bring this back around to tech...

...
No offense Deozaan but I've read stuff like this all over the net and yet no one has ever been able to tell me exactly what laws are doing all this damage.
Lots of hysteria but not one person has been able to give me any specific instance where their rights have been violated, and what I mean by that is what rights have you had specifically, that have been violated?

-Cpilot (May 18, 2008, 10:12 PM)

There are a few examples posted here. I started with 2.

The point here is that there is a lot of very warped legislation that's using/abusing technology to limit freedom. It's not the specific cases that we need to worry about -- it's the threat of it because the threat may be realized. (An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. That sort of thing.)

Some of the basic fundamentals of technology that we all understand here are not understood by legislators. And that misunderstanding is leading to dangerous legislation that threatens normal, regular, everyday innocent people.

Anyone like Battlestar Galactica? The Cylons turned on mankind. Analagously, today technology is being turned on us as a sort of weapon. Violence only produces more of itself. This is not a good road to go down...

Basically were talking about how information is used or "regulated." The problem there is that regulating information as above is the equivalent of having "thought police." I don't think we need to debate whether or not "thought police" are a good thing or a bad thing.

Confiscating laptops for their contents is clearly a form of thought policing, and almost equivalent to book burning.

  
 
 

9971

Living Room / Re: More Abuses of Technology - Government Surveillance - Computer Confiscation

« Last post by Renegade on May 18, 2008, 12:11 PM »

My mini-rant.

9972

Living Room / More Abuses of Technology - Government Surveillance - Computer Confiscation

« Last post by Renegade on May 18, 2008, 06:38 AM »

Yet more depressing oppression...

City Council Spying on People:
http://news.bbc.co.u...d/dorset/7341179.stm

A council has admitted spying on a family using laws to track criminals and terrorists to find out if they were really living in a school catchment.

Council Defending Themselves:
http://news.bbc.co.u...ducation/7342281.stm

This whole Big Brother thing is getting far too close to reality now.

And it gets worse:

http://www.guardian....5/computing.security

Last month a US court ruled that border agents can search your laptop, or any other electronic device, when you're entering the country. They can take your computer and download its entire contents, or keep it for several days. Customs and Border Patrol has not published any rules regarding this practice, and I and others have written a letter to Congress urging it to investigate and regulate this practice.

But the US is not alone. British customs agents search laptops for pornography. And there are reports on the internet of this sort of thing happening at other borders, too. You might not like it, but it's a fact.

I just don't know what to say... Rant. Rant. Rant. It's the same stripping of freedoms and treating people like criminals that's been gaining momentum since the 80's when the "terrorism" buzzword first started to gain popularity.

9973

Living Room / Re: What to do when you receive bootleg videos?

« Last post by Renegade on May 15, 2008, 11:28 AM »

I've ordered things off of eBay before only to get pirated stuff. I couldn't use it. It was completely useless to me as I needed legitimate stuff. I don't bother even trying to buy stuff there anymore.

9974

Living Room / Re: Pirating abandoned content?

« Last post by Renegade on May 15, 2008, 11:22 AM »

Ooooooh~! This is an interesting one!

I suppose one question to ask is, "Is there a victim?"

For abandoned software (or eBooks or whatever) where there is no way to aquire it through legitimate means, I'd have to say that most of the time, no there isn't a victim.

For the chicken and egg thing mouser brought up, I'm inclined to believe that piracy of abandoned products is more likely to drive a second generation if there is enough demand. The problem there is that piracy is hard to gauge. e.g. I burn a CD of pirated stuff and give it to two people, who do the same, and so on... How many people does it reach? How do you judge market demand? Can I now write an uber-Pacman game? Will it fly? Do people want it?

For the, "I already bought it," argument, I feel that this is legit. Unless there is a specific marketing difference between the paper and electronic version, getting an electronic version of a book really is only augmenting your use of the paper version at zero cost to anyone. I would not say the same in reverse, i.e. That buying an eBook version entitles you to rip a paper one off of the shelves of the local bookstore.

However, this goes to the "fair use" issue. The RIAA is against this entirely. If you buy a CD, you do not have the right to transfer it to another device. (But they're complete idiots too.) So what is "fair use" there?

If a product's revenue model is structured so that the physical and electronic versions both play an important part of the product's profitability, then it may not be fair to get the e-version for free. e.g.:

Product on physical media: $20.00
Product via download (e-version): $15.00
Product on physical media + download (e-version): $25.00

In that case above, the product's marketing is targetting different market segments in an intelligent and fair way. But to buy the first option, then pirate the download is taking money out of the producer's pockets and isn't really a fair thing to do. Very few products are marketed this way though. ("Very few" is probably a massive understatement at that.)

I'm sure some would scream at me for advocating "theft," but that's not my intent. My intent is to find out if there is some harm being done, then go from there and choose the most reasonable option. (Which as we're talking about, is piracy in the strict sense.)

Interesting topic. I'd like to hear other's opinions here.

9975

Developer's Corner / Re: First real program - Probably need help throughout

« Last post by Renegade on May 12, 2008, 10:45 PM »

http://forums.micros...=499885&SiteID=1

http://www.c-sharpco...ListProcessesCS.aspx

Those will help for the first one of your questions. i.e.: System.Diagnostics.Process.GetProcesses()