Recent Posts

9976

Living Room / Re: Ring the bells!!! The HD Format war is OVER!!! Toshiba forfeits

« Last post by wraith808 on February 20, 2008, 07:54 AM »

A lot of people are saying that this mentality is the reason that Microsoft didn't get more involved in the war... it didn't really care if HD DVD failed.  It was looking to HD streaming downloads, and the rumour is that they are going to announce a partnership with Netflix to do something like that in the next few days.  My take on the whole thing is if we're streaming it anyway, I'd rather just do something like on demand.  Pay an amount a month to have access to a whole catalog of movies over cable.  It seems that most of the time that the internet connection is down, the cable connection stays up, and the act of streaming is more seamless...

9977

Living Room / Re: Ring the bells!!! The HD Format war is OVER!!! Toshiba forfeits

« Last post by wraith808 on February 19, 2008, 06:26 PM »

Profile 1.0 and 1.1 will still be compatible with 2.0 discs, you just wont get the network content

-Josh (February 19, 2008, 05:49 PM)

Well, I hope so.. .from all I've seen, they still haven't said.  But I'm neither holding my breath nor jumping in... I'll wait until it's out then re-evaluate.

9978

Living Room / Re: Ring the bells!!! The HD Format war is OVER!!! Toshiba forfeits

« Last post by wraith808 on February 19, 2008, 05:30 PM »

We've seen it recently in the console wars.  We've seen it recently in the profile 1.0->1.1 update.  Who can attest to how they think?  Especially with such a small install base?  Most of the BR players out there are PS3s.  They can be updated.  If there are problems with the features in 1.1 players, it would make sense to drop it ... especially with no competition.

9979

Living Room / Re: Ring the bells!!! The HD Format war is OVER!!! Toshiba forfeits

« Last post by wraith808 on February 19, 2008, 05:22 PM »

I'm not talking about adoption:

The point I was making is that there is no alternative to BR, and no market penetration, so they have no incentive to make it backwards compatible if there are any problems with doing so.

Note the emphasis... that's what I was talking about market penetration in regards to.

And I don't think that dual-format players were the way to go (though that worked in regards to the +R/-R battles), but removing the exclusivity.  BRA paid $500 million for Warner to stick it to HD-DVD.  That's not a fight based on merits, but on restricting content.  Since it's an association people don't jump on the anti-competitive bandwagon as they do if a company does the same thing- but in the end, they used the same sort of practices that M$ is accused of to win.  That just sits badly with me.  Win on the merits of your solutions, not the depth of your pockets...

9980

General Software Discussion / Re: Best program to manage information collections?

« Last post by wraith808 on February 19, 2008, 02:36 PM »

I'm using Ultra Recall, and I love it.  Not complicated at all from my usage, though it has more features than I'm using.  I'm also contemplating the purchase of Surfulator when it is on BDJ later this week.  One I can definitely recommend *against* is SnippetCenter.  The only thing it was useful for was making me stop impulse purchases on BDJ...

9981

Living Room / Re: Ring the bells!!! The HD Format war is OVER!!! Toshiba forfeits

« Last post by wraith808 on February 19, 2008, 02:34 PM »

Ummm... did you look at the article comparing the exact same movies on Blu-Ray and HD DVD?  HD DVD was doing that from the beginning... Look at the article; they compare HDDVD and BR versions of 300 and Harry Potter side by side.  Hard to argue with that...

And DVD had what exact same startup?  The point I was making is that there is no alternative to BR, and no market penetration, so they have no incentive to make it backwards compatible if there are any problems with doing so.

But this whole thing was a circus from beginning to end.  As you can see from that article, several releases were on both formats, and there was no reason to stop it and deny consumers choice.  You like BR, I like HDDVD... why not let us choose?  Exclusivity sucks... companies buying the win instead of catering to the consumers to win... don't like it on consoles, and I don't like it in media.

9982

Living Room / Re: Ring the bells!!! The HD Format war is OVER!!! Toshiba forfeits

« Last post by wraith808 on February 19, 2008, 01:17 PM »

More consumer friendly by way of features and updates also; I just plugged my player into my router and it updated all on its own.  And as far as interactivity, no... HD DVD as it stands has *much* more in the way of interactivity... that's never been disputed.  And shooting themselves in the foot?  Ummm... you do know there's no other alternative for HD media now, right?  And that HD has almost zero market penetration?  Even now, most people that I know that are looking into buying into Blu-ray are waiting for profile 2.0...

9983

General Software Discussion / Re: Should I get my new laptop with hard drive partitioned?

« Last post by wraith808 on February 19, 2008, 01:14 PM »

Actually, I do notice a difference even if the swap file is on a different partition, rather than a different drive.  I think it has something to do with fragmentation, since the partitions fragment separately.

And as far as the other point, I mean install the OS and applications to one partition, and store the data on the other partition.  The only apps I store on my separate partition are ones that are portable...

9984

General Software Discussion / Re: Should I get my new laptop with hard drive partitioned?

« Last post by wraith808 on February 19, 2008, 10:35 AM »

What *is* better about having two partitions from my experience:

1. You can have the windows swap drive on a different drive than windows.  This does increase performance.
2. If you use one drive for the OS and software, and one for data, it's easier to wipe and reimage the drive.
3. One drive for data and one drive for programs makes the program drive fragment less quickly.

9985

Living Room / Re: Ring the bells!!! The HD Format war is OVER!!! Toshiba forfeits

« Last post by wraith808 on February 19, 2008, 10:30 AM »

I'm not sure how less competition will make prices drop but we'll see how it goes.

-justice (February 19, 2008, 09:42 AM)

My thoughts exactly.  This whole format war was a media and blog circus... nothing more.  As far as the better format winning, that's a matter of discussion- larger capacity does not necessarily make a better format.  HD DVD was actually more consumer friendly.  The only reason there was any impetus for a single format was the exclusivity deals... I prefer no exclusivity- let each consumer decide as he will. 

And as far as having a useless player, in my case the only reason I bought was because it made good sense- I needed a DVD player, and getting a good upscaling player for $100 with 11 free hd dvds isn't exactly a loss.  Let's just hope with no reason to keep backwards compatibility, BR Profile 2.0 and on are backwards compatible, or many more people will be stuck with tech that they cant use.  And if you think that's not going to happen, look at Sony's track record...

http://gizmodo.com/3...format-that-loved-me

9986

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

« Last post by wraith808 on February 15, 2008, 01:35 AM »

Deus Ex 

There were some very good EA games on the C64/Dos/Apple ][ that I wish they would remake like Racing Destruction Set, Mail Order Monsters, Earth Orbit Stations, M.U.L.E., Elite, and Space Hulk

Then there are the franchises that were killed by evil EA: the Bullfrog Games (Dungeon Keeper, Syndicate, Populous, Power Monger)

Those were the days... *sigh*

9987

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

« Last post by wraith808 on February 15, 2008, 01:11 AM »

I'm on xfire under a couple of names:

• wraith808
• hachibushu

I'm a member of three guilds on there...

• impetus
• riders on the storm
• 808Klan

I play a few games:

• world of warcraft - khadgar server
• everquest 2 - unrest and everfrost
• lord of the rings - elendril
• counterstrike: source
• team fortress 2
• call of duty 4
• sins of a solar empire
• enemy territory: quake wars
• battlefield 2

I'm also on xbox live- gamertag hachibushu



Games for that include:

• shadowrun
• gears of war
• carcassone
• catan
• speedball 2
• guitar hero 3
• virtua fighter 5
• rock band

I'm usually on one platform or the other at night from about 10P - 1A EST (sometimes earlier, sometimes later, sometimes not at all)

9988

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

« Last post by wraith808 on February 15, 2008, 01:01 AM »

It's a good idea... not one I'd do daily; I usually break up my tasks by week, and usually integrate my tasks with at least week long projects.  This week I'm toying around with native rendering for PDFs in Delphi without requiring Reader to be installed on the machine.

9989

General Software Discussion / Re: Do You Purchase Software on Impulse?

« Last post by wraith808 on February 13, 2008, 06:30 PM »

[Curt]: I have never heard of this before. Quite frankly: You are scaring me! Will you (any of "you") please tell what this is about?
________________________________________________
After five reinstalls, Vista kills itself and you have to purchase another license and activation key. Worse, if you flash your bios, change something like a videocard or processor, you either have to call Redmond and obtain another activation key, or, you have to buy another copy of Vista when you change too much on your system that Vista is licensed to — it's all in that crazy EULA that drove me to GNU/Linux last year. I torch my system at least once every few weeks, not to mention I build and upgrade my own computers. Vista really put a damper on the enthusiast market. At least they're getting rid of the remote kill switch in SP1!

-zridling (February 12, 2008, 08:30 PM)

Incorrect.  Actually, what it does is limit your ability to transfer the OS to another machine.  The OS can only be transferred once.   If you change things, then yes, since it seems to be another machine, you have to call for reactivation.  Annoying, but not so much so as 5 reinstalls would make it.

a. Software Other than Windows Anytime Upgrade. The first user of the software may reassign the license to another device one time. If you reassign the license, that other device becomes the "licensed device."

b. Windows Anytime Upgrade Software. The first user of the software may reassign the license to another device one time, but only if the license terms of the software you upgraded from allows reassignment.

Ref:
http://www.techweb.c...e/software/193300234
http://it.slashdot.o...2240214&from=rss

To read for yourself, go to: http://www.microsoft...seterms/default.aspx

See sections 15 and 16.

-----

And on this topic, I used to be bad about impulse purchases, but now I'm terrible!.  Bits Du Jour and Software Deal of the Day are mostly to blame, though DC shoulders some of the responsibility.

9990

General Software Discussion / Re: Quizo QTTabbar

« Last post by wraith808 on January 16, 2008, 03:15 PM »

This is the reason that I was cured of my thirst for file managers... if I can just use explorer, then why do I need another... now if someone would just come up with an explorer extension that let you have dual pane view...

9991

Living Room / Re: What kind of tagging system would be appropriate for DC?

« Last post by wraith808 on January 15, 2008, 07:26 AM »

The only problem with the firefox plugin is that it wouldn't stop the spiders that add DC to filter lists blindliy, nor would it stop so-called 'intelligent' filters, since the text gets through before the browser filters it, making it only useful if such things do offend, which isn't what I was suggesting at all.  But truthfully, whatever is decided is fine... I just read and participate when I can, and don't when I can't. /me shrugs

Others may feel differently, but it seems that noone else is speaking up, and I'm not prone to push my case over any others... just wanted you to be aware that there are other reasons to do so...

9992

Living Room / Re: What kind of tagging system would be appropriate for DC?

« Last post by wraith808 on January 14, 2008, 08:37 PM »

You notice that I put it in quotes... It filtered the forums here, but not at another forum that I visited that was worse... I think it might be because of the fact that the other forum had filters on people browsing anonymously.  Not sure...

9993

Living Room / Re: Laptop hard drive... 5400 or 7200 ?

« Last post by wraith808 on January 14, 2008, 06:17 PM »

I would also add that it depends on price... the jump between 5400 and 7200 can be daunting.  But if price is no issue, the 7200 will always be better.  I made the jump on mine because of gaming, and it made almost as much of a difference as my memory upgrade!

9994

General Software Discussion / Re: Do you use a light or a dark background in your editor for programming?

« Last post by wraith808 on January 14, 2008, 06:09 PM »

Thanks!  I actually already had a link to that editor, but had never gotten around to it.  I guess now I will!  Though truthfully, I don't need more editors (or software!) to try... I might need to borrow your avatar! LOL!

9995

General Software Discussion / Re: Do you use a light or a dark background in your editor for programming?

« Last post by wraith808 on January 14, 2008, 01:33 PM »

The theme I'm showing in my screenshot is the one I've been using for the last year or so, and it has served me very well so far

-Dirhael (January 12, 2008, 09:37 AM)

What editor is that; I don't recognize it...

9996

Living Room / Re: What kind of tagging system would be appropriate for DC?

« Last post by wraith808 on January 14, 2008, 01:25 PM »

Honestly I would say it's not worth the effort in this particular case. Hopefully those of us who followed or participated in these threads can walk away having learned one lesson; that while may there are sensitive folks out there whom to us seem to have taken it to an unreasonable extreme it still doesn't require much on our parts to be a bit more accommodating.

I believe things got heated here because codeTRUCKER wanted more than that and took an offensive approach in seeking his aims. Perhaps in a day or so after people have made their closing comments the threads could even be locked to prevent them being resurrected in a months times.

Personally I'm not ashamed of my responses, but I am not proud of them either, it'd be nice to forget the incident but not the lesson.

-Eóin (January 14, 2008, 07:22 AM)

Ok... I read a lot of the replies (for some reason some of them seemed not to come through in RSS), and I will say this.  I'm not defending CodeTRUCKER or his final actions, but all blame was not on his side.  There were quite a few attacking statements made against him- not just tongue in cheek or misunderstandings, but some very purposefully hurtful and spiteful things said.  To be fair, he seemed to be having this issue for a while, and just now has tried to take it to Mouser and the forums.  I'm sure this was a big step for him, and I don't think we should be proud of any of the things that came from this, nor trying to place blame or judge the person that's gone, even if it is of his own accord.  If we can learn from this- great.  But don't go heaping the blame on he person who can't defend himself, which it seems like this has degenerated to the point of- this shows that nothing was learned, IMO.

EDIT: I just noticed that CodeTRUCKER took down his NANY app... that seems a pretty radical response; I suppose if the link to his app is invalid, then perhaps its for the best, but that made me sad.  I'm not sure if you've edited the NANY page to reflect this mouser, but just wanted to let you know if you didn't.

9997

Living Room / Re: What kind of tagging system would be appropriate for DC?

« Last post by wraith808 on January 14, 2008, 12:02 PM »

Wow... it seems I missed a lot over the weekend; I guess I'll just have to look at it all in RSS since that can't be deleted.    I'm not really sure what happened, but I also caution not to confuse the message with the messenger; I have been at clients when certain words were filtered, and certain times (Bellsouth I'm looking at you) I couldn't come to the forum at all, since after a few of those instances where people used certain words, the 'intelligent' filtering system filtered out the site.  While you may view those words as perfectly a part of the english language, you can't argue that they're innocent or won't set off some filters... which indeed, even without pictures and such, still make the site NSFW.  I'm one just to be quiet and just adjust my patterns- which is why for months at a time I won't post, then will start posting.  If I'm at a site where this wouldn't be considered safe for work, then it's not and I don't come. /me shrugs

While I would like that such language, whether offensive to the poster or not, was not posted (and there are other forums where such words are filtered), because I like to come here and don't like disappearing like that, it just seems a fact of life here at DC, just as it is at some other sites I like to visit.  Ce'st la vie.

But yeah... if you do intend that the site be SFW in general, some words are just not appropriate...  But as long as we solve the blind NSFW links problem, I'll just deal...

9998

Living Room / Re: What kind of tagging system would be appropriate for DC?

« Last post by wraith808 on January 11, 2008, 04:10 PM »

First of, I'm not going to touch the NSFW aspect as I am left-leaning enough to even be left-handed.

-Liquidmantis (January 11, 2008, 02:29 PM)

NSFW has nothing to do with which way you lean (or even which way the wind causes you to lean) IMO.  I'm not talking non-morally objectionable, but safe for work which some links/conversations/words are.  I personally don't choose to take offense at much of anything, but being a consultant and working with clients they think (and deserve from a service provider) different.

Which brings up an earlier question I had in response to all of the people that say none or nothing disturbs them- is this a Safe for Work environment?  I.e. I'm sitting at my desk, eating lunch, and browsing.  Am I supposed to be able to come to Donation Coder forums?  I think the answer is yes, but... ?

9999

Living Room / Re: Mommy, why is there a server in the house?

« Last post by wraith808 on January 11, 2008, 03:29 PM »

I've been thinking about getting one.  I have a server at home currently, but the WHS seems like a more packaged solution than my server, and with more features that I would actually use at home.  But I still haven't pulled the trigger yet.

As far as the site, the whole thing looks like a caricature truthfully.  I can't actually look at the videos from work, but I just don't see the use of them, and it just seems "Tim Burton"-level surreal.  Can anyone actually see a *use* for something like this?  When I was a kid I wouldn't have needed something like this to explain why a server was in the house, I don't think...

10000

General Software Discussion / Re: Do you use a light or a dark background in your editor for programming?

« Last post by wraith808 on January 11, 2008, 03:13 PM »

That's the font I always use also... Lucida Console.  I would love to use the Raize font, but I can't get my editor to use it for some reason.  The gray isn't as bad as the white, but still a bit too bright for my tastes.  I use it sometimes, but darker than you still.