Wednesday, September 3. 2008
The Forlorn and Forgotten Email Posted by Ancient of Days
in Gathering Darkness at
05:44
Comments (2) Trackbacks (0) The Forlorn and Forgotten Email
I just wanted to remind you all that - in addition to the blog - we have a Google Hosting package setup for thehomestarmy.com - you can do your own websites, completely disconnected from the blog - you also have an email address @thehomestarmy.com with its own GMail account attached - all of this can be yours just by visiting mail.thehomestarmy.com!
If you don't know your username or password, ask MG or myself. Saturday, July 26. 2008
"The Last Lecture" author dead Posted by Ancient of Days
in Gathering Darkness at
15:56
Comments (0) Trackbacks (0) "The Last Lecture" author dead
Randy Pausch, best known as the author of The Last Lecture lost his battle with cancer this morning.
Friday, July 25. 2008Tuesday, July 15. 2008
A Bit of Internet History Posted by Ancient of Days
in Gathering Darkness at
10:02
Comments (0) Trackbacks (0) A Bit of Internet History
Marc Andreessen, who would later go on to found Netscape, proposes the addition of the "img" tag to HTML.
Monday, July 14. 2008
Thoughts on Copyright Posted by Ancient of Days
in Gathering Darkness at
19:31
Comments (6) Trackbacks (0) Thoughts on Copyright
I've been thinking a little bit about copyright again lately, and I had some ideas that I thought I'd solicit input on - I tend to get locked into my own way of thinking and then I start having trouble seeing flaws. The concept is as follows:
1) Copyright can only be held by an individual, or a group of individuals, who are actually responsible for the CREATION of a work. Companies and other "non-person entities" cannot hold copyright; 2) Once copyright is assigned, the holder can license their work to whomever they choose, under whatever terms they choose; 3) Once copyright expires, any licenses on it expires - this just stands to reason: you cannot legally provide a license to something that isn't yours. 4) You cannot retroactively change the term of copyright on already published works - you can extend the term for FUTURE works, but once any work has been "published", it is tied to the term as of that date; 5) You cannot revive copyrights that have already expired. I think this would allow for fair compensation to CREATORS (which is the purpose for copyright expressed by the Constitution), without defrauding the Commons. Thoughts/opinions? Tuesday, July 8. 2008
Hans Reiser: Murderer Posted by Ancient of Days
in Gathering Darkness at
04:42
Comments (0) Trackbacks (0) Hans Reiser: Murderer
Evidence seems to indicate that he's guilty.
Thursday, July 3. 2008Games on Linux
The live.linux-gamers.net is a LiveCD distribution of Linux which runs a bunch of games "directly...from DVD without the user in need to know about Linux or care about his system".
For those unfamiliar, a LiveCD is a way of running an entire operating system from a single CD without affecting your normal OS - no installation, you simply insert the disk, reboot your computer using the disk as the boot device, do the tasks you're interested in, and then reboot from your normal hard-drive when you're done. So the idea here is that your computer becomes a game console when it boots from the CD, and goes back to being a computer when you reboot. Sunday, June 29. 2008
Visual Studio for Enterprise ... Posted by Ancient of Days
in Gathering Darkness at
04:32
Comments (0) Trackbacks (0) Visual Studio for Enterprise Architects - or "Where did my 'Generate Database' menu option go?"
Trying to work with Johnny, MG, and Sideshow (?) on a side project, I recently came across the fact that Visio 2007 no longer includes the "Generate Database" option. You have to install "Visio for Enterprise Architects" - a product no longer available via MSDN subscriptions. Luckily, I still had a copy of the ISO laying around, so after mounting it as a device, I attempted to install it, only to be greeted by an error telling me that I have to install a supported version of Visual Studio.
A bit of google work indicated that the "supported versions" were 2003 and 2005 - since I already had 2008 installed, I didn't really want to go backwards, so I fired up procmon from "\\live.sysinternals.com" (which I recommend mapping as a shared drive on any Developer machine) and watched for the key it was trying to find in the registry. Ta-da! In the key HKLM\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0\Setup\VS\VSTD, it's looking for a String value "ProductDir". It doesn't seem to care what value is in this key (currently, I have "Microsoft, you guys really need to pull your heads out of your arses" and it works fine!) Since I didn't ever install 2003 or 2005 on this machine, I had to create everything below the "VisualStudio" level using regedit. (BTW: I finally fixed those annoying orange xdebug error boxes when you save your article - xdebug rocks, other people's code doesn't.) Thursday, June 19. 2008
Test Your Vocabulary, Donate Some Rice Posted by Ancient of Days
in Gathering Darkness at
23:30
Comments (2) Trackbacks (0) Test Your Vocabulary, Donate Some Rice
I couldn't get past 49 - I actually hit 49 three different times, but each time I would then miss one and end back up around 47.
I have a bit of an issue with how they score, it though - I find it difficult to believe that they consider 'actuate' to be as unfamiliar as 'mingy'. Wednesday, June 18. 2008
Screw Gabe and Tycho Posted by Ancient of Days
in Gathering Darkness at
06:23
Comments (6) Trackbacks (0) Screw Gabe and Tycho
I know they're not fans, but they still blew it - they should have been the first to tell us that Spore's Creature Creator is now available for download.
This is GAMING NEWS. Tuesday, June 17. 2008
Download Firefox 3 Posted by Ancient of Days
in Gathering Darkness at
19:17
Comments (3) Trackbacks (0) Download Firefox 3
Seems that the Firefox guys have finally fixed their scalability issues enough that most of you could upgrade to Firefox 3. There are a lot of improvements, including in both speed and memory usage.
Monday, June 16. 2008
Backup Software at GAOTD Posted by Ancient of Days
in Gathering Darkness at
21:42
Comment (1) Trackbacks (0) Backup Software at GAOTD
I haven't had a chance to "vet" it yet, but probably will not so I'm posting it anyway. If you have been searching for a good backup solution, maybe Macrium Reflect, today's Give Away of the Day, will fit your needs. Mostly, it caught my eye because it claims to be
the only imaging solution to offer Linux, BartPE, *and* Windows PE 2.0 based system recovery options. Thursday, June 12. 2008
Difference Between Power and ... Posted by Ancient of Days
in Gathering Darkness at
17:51
Comments (18) Trackbacks (0) Difference Between Power and Responsibility?
I like the TV show "Lost".
One of my favorite characters on the show, one Dr. Jack Shepard, has been derided by certain members of this blog for the way he behaves, while I have always felt he did exactly what was called for in the untenable situation in which he found himself. As I was looking around the Intertubes today for more information on David Brin's new book "Through Stranger Eyes", I came across a review of the book "Alas, Babylon", by Pat Frank. One of the lines mentioned in the review caught my attention, and reminded me of this conflict regarding Jack's behaviour. So, in the spirit of conflict that this blog's constituency seeks, here's the line: "When you had the responsibility, you also had the right to command..." Spider-Man's Uncle Ben would put it: "With great power, comes great responsibility" - but is this transitive? Does great power come from great responsibility as well? Or, to put it in terms of "Lost": doesn't the fact that leadership was THRUST upon him give Jack the power and authority to do what he thinks is right? Discuss. Tuesday, June 10. 2008
It's Funny When People are Stupid Posted by Ancient of Days
in Gathering Darkness at
08:16
Comments (2) Trackbacks (0) It's Funny When People are Stupid
Trying to fix a bug in the PHP zip library support, I came across a great article by Jean-Loup Gailly about an incredibly stupid patent someone has filed.
Monday, June 9. 2008
Why must we "protect ... Posted by Ancient of Days
in Gathering Darkness at
23:47
Comments (21) Trackbacks (0) Why must we "protect uncontacted tribes"?
Reading this article talking about "one of Earth's last uncontacted tribes", I find myself unable to understand the assertion that:
we must respect their choice. Any contact they have with outsiders must happen in their own time and on their own terms. Have they actually CHOSEN to remain "uncontacted", or are they simply ignorant that there's anything beyond their own tribal boundaries? Is a choice made in ignorance really a choice? |
Handy LinksItems of InterestCategoriesBlog AdministrationSyndicate This BlogPowered byTheme dropdownBookmark |