Posts by MacGyver

Re: Nah

I agree, most of these movies are fine, aside from "Manos: The Hands of Fate", it really does belong on that list. BFE wasn't great, but I have seen worse.

It seems like most of these voters might be 16-year old boys, or 34-year old hipsters.

I bet most of those voters have collections half filled with foreign language films. Not every film needs to be "Daughters of the Dust", sometimes you just need to watch Nazis invading Earth in flying saucers from the dark side of the Moon.

Re: "side-load internal, Windows 8 Metro style apps"

I used to own iPods, not anymore, not since they encrypted the database and I was forced to use iTunes. I don't own an iPad or an iPhone, I own Galaxy Tabs and other Android devices, because I can load any damn .apk I want. If Microsoft thinks for one second that I will own an operating system that only allows me to install programs that they have made available in their App store, they have GROSSLY misjudged their customer base.

Someone at Microsoft has clearly lost their god-damned mind.

Re: You don't need new laws

Whoever thumbed down henrydddd, show me three examples of the Republicans collectively going AGAINST money and management interests on behalf of the employees. They bust unions, setup laws for easier outsourcing, and would withhold unemployment benefits for everyone just to insure the continuation of their wealthy folks tax breaks. You down voted him as if what he was saying wasn't true, but it was. You must be thinking of the Republicans from before the 1980's, they were different, but they have been gone for a while.

Re: US citizens are descendents of

Most, but not all, some of us are descendants of German emigrants that came there to escape fascism. If Santorum becomes president, where can we go to escape his flavor of fascism, back to Germany? When will the vicious cycle stop?

On the subject, doesn't Twitter time-stamp tweets? Also what lesson are they teaching him, by permanently expelling him from school? It seems my country is full of morons as of late.

Re: If you receive a letter, what next?

I would ask them for the "chain of evidence" in collecting your IP address. Most likey it was some guy "collecting" IP with their computer (in a "business" ran from his house). I would say that's great, what keeps him from making it up, is he bonded, licensed, a government agency? No. How about where is the "other" 3rd party non connected "auditor"'s records that collaborate the first's.

Are you using WEP for wireless security, because that can be broken in 5 minutes. If so, where is the law that "mandates" that you have better than WEP for home wireless routers.

In the end, all "BD productions has is an "IP - xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" and a time/date, recorded by "some guy" that says you did it. They can't "prove" anything from that.

I would love to see someone fight one of these guys and set a president for dismissal.

Re: mylar?

I'll have you know that I have owned this cable for 3 months, and have yet to catch any "noise viruses". It totally works! 9/10 stars

/lying

Re: Texas 'Justice' - Not the Best Place to be Caught

Why hold SXSW in Texas in the first place?

If they don't "recognize" his medical MJ card from California, then the rest of the country shouldn't "recognize" his Texas felony. It's the United States, not "The United States and Texas", he shouldn't have the rest of his life ruined because one state doesn't recognize the laws of an other. I agree he should get a fine for having it in Texas, but a felony will follow him FOREVER.

They may have just pushed him into a downward spiral of crime. Don't be surprised if he goes from hacking PS3's and iPhones to hacking ATMs and credit card machines rather than only being able to work at McDonalds due to his felony.

Re: Public IPs only?

For those playing at home, don't forward 3389 to any machine behind the firewall and NAT, problem solved. Change the listen port from 3389 to 25 and confuse the kiddys while your at it.

I'm going to have trouble sleeping tonight just imagining people with a public facing RDP port.

Re: Data protection offences...

I was thinking the same thing.

He most likely is regretting saying he is with Anon. It's more likely he annoyed someone in Anon, and they gave him a brute-force program to "help" him. I have never seen Anon attack a few women and threaten the release of their health records before. He either was alone, or was helped as to get himself arrested.

Re: So many words...

Windows 8 is a paradigm shift alright, for users to switch to Linux. They should change the name to "Windows GC (Grandparent and Child Edition)".

I completely agree with this author, and have been saying similar stuff since they went from XP to Vista. There was no gain in changing the interface the way they did, none. The core stability changes are fine, I could even live with the security changes. Changing the interface the way they did is stupid for no reason. I'm not adverse to change, DOS->3.1 amazing, 3.1->95, amazing, 95->98 better, 98->ME WTF?, ME->XP amazing, XP->Vista why?, Vista->W7 so, W7->W8 see ya.

They are betting the farm on this stupid crap, I mean really, is the lead designer Bill Gate's son? Why would they go against what their users (previous) want, time and time again?

Let me explain your sales figures:

Vista (yay, new windows, wait what happened here? is XP still available),

Windows 7 (maybe it will fix what they broke in Vista, no? but it is more stable, right? is XP still available)

Windows 8 (what is this, is this a Zune virus/commercial, no, it's made like this? XP is gone? can I get this with Linux installed instead)

Just make each release more stable, make a pretty theme, make some new icons, and throw in the snazzy new app or two. Don't make all of your users attempt to use a dumbed down interface.

The only thing that kept me from switching to a flavor of Linux years ago, was the functionality and solidness of "File Explorer" in Windows 9x, 200x, and XP, and most of the changes they have made since Vista have been chipping away at that reason. The new interface is going too far.

Bye Microsoft, hello Linux.

Re: Car life

Thanks John, I have always wondered what real world numbers were for start/stop cars.

I'm old school, the first thing my high-school auto-shop teacher told us was "the engine has it's hardest time during start-up, due to the lack of oil circulating." So I always wondered if it was worth it.

Re: I always wondered.

Tell that to the porn sites that are following this exact business model.

How would someone know that it was "me" that posted it originally (aside from me just telling you), I will be the one hiring the IP trackers, unless the person I'm suing files with every ISP on the list (I gave them) for a "name on the contract for that IP at that time" they would have no idea that it was me.

And another thing, even locksmiths have to be "bonded", what kind of certification do these "IP trackers" have to be able to collect data? Where is the chain of evidence? Why are we allowing some "company" to collect data from random people, and then allow that "data" to be used to extort wild sums of money from people? Where are the checks and balances? Where is the 2nd "IP tracker", and their data that collaborates the first? Who is to say that they just don't make up any or all of their IP data, it's not like they are a government agency? They don't have your name, or anything, all they have is their document that says that this 4 qubit number was attached to this tracker at this time, they has to ask the IP for your name even. Some judge needs to start throwing out these cases.

Re: @MacGyver, @Ragworth

I know. To be in IT you need to have either certifications, or a lot of experience, or both, I believe lawmakers should not be able to propose, alter, or squash any law without themselves having proof that they at least know what they are talking about. Why would you let/want someone that has no experience with something complicated dictate policy about it.

The world is broken.

Re: Uhm?

If they are being charged with theft anyway, I say next time live up to that definition and delete the originals after "coping" them. Now that would be some "theft".

"Oh look, there is a difference."

Re: How easy is it actually to write your own SQL database?

I completely agree.

I often wondered how much money our governments would save if they went with open source, and hired programmers to maintain the packages they use. Yes the learning curve would be huge, but afterwards, they would save money hand over fist, and because they controlled the software, they wouldn't have to replace completely working hardware with new hardware just to run the latest version of the OS, they would control their release dates.

Re: Poor corporate governance.

Spend it on R&D, the end. They run around all day suing people and other companies for "slide-to-unlock" and other stupid patents, and have enough money to build their own fracking Moon base. Pathetic.

Here are some ideas off the top of my head you could work on.

1) A better material for a rubber sphincter to close the headphone jack when not being used, to keep lint and water out. Hell how about just using it on every opening on the iWhatever.

2) Make iTunes work better, or at least decrypt the database on your iWhatever so I can use something other than iTunes to upload music to an iWhatever.

3) With 98 billion in R&D, iPhones should have THE BEST ANTENNAE ever created by man.

4) Hire a guy to suss out white (and other colored) materials during the design phase, so that it doesn't take 2 years to release a white model.

5) Design better anti-reflective screens, don't just wait for another company to do it, then buy theirs.

6) Ditto above but in regards to scratch-proofing screens.

7) Develop colored e-ink screens that are fast look like LCDs, and make them so good, that no one ever uses LCDs ever again.

8) Develop better production line robots to replace all those slave-wage worker jobs you currently need to make your iWhatever.

9) Develop a wireless mesh network that uses the anonymous nodes you sell to people for access, to carry the signal from place to place, so we can have truly anonymous free wireless networking everywhere.

10) Move manufacturing jobs back to the US and not make so much profit on your iWhatever that they don't even know what to spend it on.

Re: Amazing!!!

Um, I think it's mostly the opposite of all the things you said there.

It's full DRM, but various studios will allow you to watch each others stuff in their special Windows and IOS apps. No linux, no Roku, no Boxee, no XBMC , so basically nothing open-source, maybe Android, maybe multiple hardware streamers or maybe just one gets to be "Authorized". Nothing but Windows and Apple computers can be used right now. I would bet that only the Windows versions that are HDPC-compliant and have HDPC-compliant hardware will work (no XP).

"The titles added to the account do not expire and will remain in the digital library unless the account is terminated." So they are yours, until they decide they are not, then poof, they're gone.

Streams can be watched until they decide they can't. Some things can be downloaded, some can't. Some things can be put on DVDs, maybe, but just not now, but maybe, perhaps.

Basically it's a step in the right direction, except for the lack of allowing us to keep things we buy forever, the lack of letting us sell things, the inability to play it on any hardware we already own, the lack of Linux support, the viewing fees on the things we have "purchased" being changed at anytime, the fact that not all studios are available, the fact that UV viewing rights are different from each vendor and different per film, and there are still region idiosyncrasies (some things can be streamed, some can't, some can be d/l, some can't, some can be only rented, others only bought, all at different prices, and with extra viewing fees after a year, some things "purchased" one way can have the viewing restrictions changed at anytime).

Other than all that, it's great. /sarcasm

Looks like I will still have to buy the DVD and rip it to a file, just like last year and the years before.

Re: Re: And then.....

Not only that, but based on the blatant stupidity shown, that judge needs to be removed yesterday.

Well rocket-scientist judge here is a taste of all the future emails we all will be receiving millions of times a day now.

"Dear sir or ma'am, I am a Nigerian Prince, it has come to my attention that you owe me money. You will show up in court on Monday the 3rd at 9:00 am or pay me $1,000 dollars now, your choice. Have a nice day. This email is completely legally binding.

Prince Dave"

So am I not going to be held legally liable if the providers spam-filter shreds it prior to me ever getting it?

I am so sick of these technologically impaired law-makers deciding things and creating laws for things that they know they shouldn't be making decisions about. If I need certifications to get a job in IT, then any judge or law-maker should need the same to make law outlining IT. Period.

Re: Yes it is justice

Yeah, because kids never do anything dumb. /sarcasm

Their intent wasn't malicious, they were not making money from it (the normal people with Bittorrents not the owners of MegaUpload), a lot of the time, it was just some kid clicking with a mouse. If you want to "punish" them, charge them twice the retail, but seeing as how only the owner of one of these studios could afford the $50 million dollar fine, I don't think that it makes any sense to even try to charge them that.

What happens if Anonymous decided to spoof all kinds of law makers IP addresses to these bittorrent lawyer trolls and they started getting letters demanding them to pay millions for something they didn't do either. I bet all kinds of laws would go into effect real quick to "protect people".

Um.

The real problem is a lack of patriotism, and I would guess that is due to the elimination of the draft. You couldn't pay a draftee from WWII enough money to have Japan or Germany make anything for a company they owned. They literally had blood and tears invested in their own country, today's CEOs have felt none of that, they don't see a reason in why they can't save some dollars by sending jobs to other countries, to them, the profits all spend the same. They never had to fight for their opportunity to make money, so like all spoiled children, they don't appreciate what they have and who they should appreciate. Plus, it's not like the CEOs live in the same neighborhood as their employees anymore, so firing 5,000 people really doesn't mean much, it kind of like a game to them, they have separated themselves from seeing the consequences their actions, they don't see the boarded up windows of their ex-employees homes, or the town devastated. That is what happens when you give yourself a salary 4000 times that of the standard employee, instead of the 4 to 40 times that it used to be before to 80's.

To sum up, outsourcing=greed, plain and simple.

Note.

I bought this phone so I didn't have to carry my personal and my (crappy) work phone around at the same time, and it does that job ok, I wanted a Dual SIM (active) Android phone, and that's what I got. I can tell you that it beats the crap out of my old dual SIM phone, an Acer DX-900 that ran Mobile Windows 5. There were other smaller Chinese manufacturers that made Android Dual SIM phones, but this was the only larger company maker I found at the time.

My wish list (no phone has all of these, this phone has only one of them): Dual active SIMs, dual-core 1ghz CPU, Android ICS ,sliding QWERTY keyboard, AMOLED 4" LCD at 1280×720, unblocked standard micro-USB port on the bottom, camera flash, a radio that works without needing the headphones plugged in, 512mb free on the phone for app storage, metal case, speakerphone that works in a moving car with the window down, SU/rooted/unlocked from factory, dedicated real camera button, forward facing camera for video chat. That's all.

Tape?

I remember making graphene in middle school with scotch tape:

1) Scribble pencil on some paper.

2) Lay tape on scribble.

3) Put second piece of tape on scribble laden tape.

4) Pull apart.

5) Admire graphene on second piece of tape.

It was just that, an odd form of carbon that could be made without a lab,.

I thought graphene was defined as a mono-layer of graphite, if this is graphene stacked vertically, is it still graphene at that point or a carbon nanotube?