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76

General / Re: ubuntu virgin needs help

« on: September 07, 2010, 02:08:47 AM »

I've been running Ubuntu on my desktop and laptop for at least 3 or 4 years.  Over that time there are several things that I've learned that you may or may not find in the ubuntu forums.

• Add the Medibuntu repository for some multimedia stuff that isn't officially included
• Check the Community Documentation and Beginners FAQ
• Get used to using PPA's for software that is either outdated in the official ubuntu repos or isn't available (Graphics card drivers, WINE, etc)

That being said, the biggest thing that helps most people is ask questions and experiment.  Make sure your /home directory is on a separate partition if it's not already, that will decrease stress about 20x if something should happen and Ubuntu becomes unbootable.  It's saved me quite a bit.

If all else fails and you think Ubuntu is just too much (which to some people it is), then give Linux Mint a try.  It's Ubuntu, but with almost every configured out of the box for you.  I've installed it on family computers and they all love it.

77

General / Re: Libertarian music, movies etc.

« on: August 30, 2010, 09:42:19 PM »

Wow, I am surprised that no one's mentioned M.I.A.'s born free video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeMvUlxXyz8

Plus, quite a prevalent strain of horror movies deals with the whole theme of "I'm in a nutcase society and I'm the only sane one."  Most of these tend to show the protagonist espousing liberty (most usual, "It's not cool to publically execute people. Not in the wood either.")  Not always, but many of them.  Just saw one today about a couple joining a gated community and then attempting to leave and being barred from doing so.  Also things like District 9, visually demonstrate the awful reality of regulation, control, and government force (yes it's a "private" company...monopolizing the use of violence in a geographic area).   They don't say the cause (probably because the writers are just emulating the pattern) but damn are the effects breathtaking.

Good video, shitty music

78

General / Re: Private Air Taxi Service

« on: August 26, 2010, 03:47:09 AM »

I would use this.  I don't have much reason to travel, but when/if I moved to NH I'd rather fly than drive 6 hours back to NY for family events.  I also go to Florida every March for an NHRA event and I'd love to fly down there without taking commercial airlines and dealing with the TSA.

Assuming he wants to make a profit, a 3000 mile round trip plus the days on the ground, I think you're gonna be paying substantially more than $209 through Expedia. 

I'd pay extra just for not having to deal with the TSA and a direct flight.  I can get one now for march around $350-400 one way, so about $700-800 round trip with taxes and crap.  That might be direct, or it might not.  Usually there's 2 direct flights and a ton of 1 or 2 stop flights. I'd easily pay $1500 for a round trip direct flight without having to deal with the TSA.  Especially after this past March's trip where I was stranded in O'Hare for 15 hours because United fucked shit up and we ended up having to make 2 extra connecting flights.  22 hours to get from Western NY to Orlando,FL -- my uncle drove in 26 hours down there.

Depends on the market.  i haven't exactly looked at private flights, so I have no clue, but twice as much as the commercial airlines seems worth it to me, maybe a little more.

79

General / Re: Private Air Taxi Service

« on: August 25, 2010, 11:27:28 PM »

I would use this.  I don't have much reason to travel, but when/if I moved to NH I'd rather fly than drive 6 hours back to NY for family events.  I also go to Florida every March for an NHRA event and I'd love to fly down there without taking commercial airlines and dealing with the TSA.

80

General / Re: Is Google turning into big brother?

« on: August 25, 2010, 11:24:05 PM »

When ixquick (parent company of startpage) make a kickass linux-based mobile OS, awesome web-based email, full-featured calendar, and adequate RSS reader I'll switch to them.  Until then, I'll stay with Google.  They are kinda sucking at the "Don't be evil" thing lately though.

81

General / Re: Oh fuck, UVB-76 is active again.

« on: August 25, 2010, 11:21:09 PM »

I think there's some serious shit comin down, but UVB-76 has about as much clout with me as WebBot and Astrology -- none.

You're just saying that because you were born under the sign of Ophiuchus.

heh the "forgotten" astrological sign

82

General / Re: Oh fuck, UVB-76 is active again.

« on: August 25, 2010, 10:43:27 AM »

I think there's some serious shit comin down, but UVB-76 has about as much clout with me as WebBot and Astrology -- none.

83

General / Re: Public skoo issews

« on: August 24, 2010, 04:34:11 AM »

http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1978#comic

SMBC rocks

84

General / Re: Red Dead Redemption Multiplayer, Anybody Playing?

« on: August 24, 2010, 04:33:21 AM »

If I can get myself back into RDR I might join up.  I still haven't completed the game.  I bought the PS3 to take over for the lost time when I gave up World of Warcraft and now it just collects dust because I've been unimpressed by almost everything I've played since World of Warcraft.

85

General / Re: A Linux question for Linux users.

« on: August 23, 2010, 02:57:21 AM »

86

General / Re: A Linux question for Linux users.

« on: August 20, 2010, 11:49:24 AM »

Um wait...Linux doesn't need Windows to be installed.  Matter of fact, if I get a computer, the first thing I do is wipe the hard drive to get rid of Windows.  I've been using Ubuntu or some other Linux distro for about 5-6 years now without having windows on any computer I use at home.

You might be confused with a software program like WINE.  This allows you to run windows programs in linux.  However, I don't think I ran into any problems with not having a windows installation on any system and running some programs under WINE.  I ran WoW on Linux for about 3 years without touching windows.  That't the only reason I had WINE installed.  Honestly, everyone should switch to Linux if all your doing is surfing the web and email.

As far as buying a computer just to have Linux on it, just about every vendor right now pre-installs Windows.  System76.com and zareason.com are ubuntu-based linux distro vendors that pre-install Linux on their computers.  Dell also can pre-install Ubuntu.

87

The Polling Pit / Re: How did you find out about Free Talk Live?

« on: August 18, 2010, 07:06:38 AM »

So here I am, hopefully to yak with people who "get it."

I'm an old male, and live in the Finger Lakes area south of Rochester, NY.

Sup from Rochester.  I'm in Irondequoit -- near the Seabreeze area.

Don't feed the trolls and you'll be fine here

88

General / Re: *HEADDESK* - RIAA demands MANDATORY FM radio recievers in new cell phones.

« on: August 17, 2010, 02:03:57 AM »

A Big Fat Thanks To Record Execs

Thank you for fighting the good fight against Internet MP3 file-swapping. Because of you, millions of kids will stop wasting time listening to new music and seeking out new bands. No more spreading the word to complete strangers about your artists. No more harmful exposure to thousands of bands via Internet radio either. With any luck they won't talk about music at all. You probably knew you'd make millions by embracing the technology. After all, the kids swapping were like ten times more likely to buy CD's, making your cause all the more admirable. It must have cost a bundle in future revenue, but don't worry -- computers are just af ad anyway, and the Internet is just plain stupid.

-- Rolling Stone

That being said, if I do listen to music, it's via Slacker or Pandora, very rarely my personal music collection on my phone.  I mainly listen to podcasts now.  This coming from someone who had 500-600 CD's 10 years ago.  I sold/trashed the ones I couldn't sell, downloaded some music and decided it wasn't worth getting sued over and gave up on music.  I love music, it was a huge part of my life. I'd just rather listen to someone jam in person on the street now or see a band in concert if it's cheap enough.  That's music and soul.  Not the shit that the RIAA has been spewing out at record pace the last 20 years or so.

89

General / Re: Smartphones

« on: August 17, 2010, 01:54:59 AM »

The Droid X looks nice, but you don't get a keyboard with it. Consider the Droid 2, which was stealth launched last weekend.

I played with a Droid 2 tonight at HHGregg, where I bought an Incredible, as I previously mentioned I was ready to take the plunge.  (They had them in stock, with an instant rebate, versus the mail rebate that comes from Verizon outlets) It runs on the 1Ghz OMAP 3630, same as the X, and is virtually identical to the original Droid (with the exception of a joypad removal on the keyboard) - but has upgraded stuff under the hood.  Its a good phone.  It has a 3.7 inch touch screen, a 5mp camera, versus a 4.3 inch screen and 8mp (w/ 720p vid capture) on the X, running on the same OMAP chipset.  

After using the on-screen keyboard with tactile response, on both the X and Incredible, the physical keyboard is a non-issue for me.  Because I don't text, and the screen of the X is large enough to be pecked at for typing in URL's and other data - when holding it sideways.  In fact, I'm all about the screen, rather than a physical keypad.  Larger the better, with the navigation feature and surfing.  

These phones are wicked fast, I was blown away by the Incredible when I got it out of the box.  No lagging - flawless, instantaneous response of every command.  Even the on-board speakers are good enough to watch YouTube and actually enjoy it.  And they even load with a mere few seconds of buffering - probably fat-piped in the Google-Droid-Verizon joint venture for world domination.  

I hear they get a little buggy when you're running a shitload of open apps.  The sales rep directed me to get an app called App Killer, which is basically like Task Manager in Windows.  You can see a list of everything thats running, and select whatever to be shut down - rather than wondering what the fuck is happening behind the scenes.  

I expect the X and the D2 to perform similarly in the real world.  So if my choice is to have a keyboard or a significantly larger screen on a relatively similarly sized handset, I'll pick the screen.  The phones themselves are almost the same size, the X being a half-inch longer.  

I do like the design of the D2, its pretty slick.  It feels solid and like quality, with a metallic snap of the slider action.  The Incredible almost sticks to your hand because of the textured plastic shell.  The X has a nice little humpback where the camera module is housed, which significantly alters the feel of a slate-design like the i4, and prevents it from slipping your grasp.  Very cool shit all around.  

Its hard to describe how impressed I am with these products.  Its a quantum leap from basic phones.  They're like magic.  

Motorola phones, from my experiences with what can only be described as almost every god damn phone manufacturer and carrier in my area, are the best phones to have.  They are sturdier and survive regular everyday use.  The speakers on the phones are usually loud too.

I have the original Droid, and I have to say it's one of the best Android phones I've had.  I had the origioal G1 Android phone and that was solid and was the best until I got the Droid.  I got the Samsung Moment when the G1 broke after front-face hitting a pebble on asphalt and I was extremely disappointed.  Samsung did a shitty job with the Moment and they along with Sprint refuse to acknowledge a serious issue with the phone entering airplane mode when wifi is enabled.  I bit the bullet, paid the ETF and switched to Verzion for the Droid which was my original plan but the Moment was cheaper.  I'd love to get the Droid 2, but the only thing it has going for it is the faster processor and minus joypad.  I'll wait until the beginning of the year when Motorola releases some really killer stuff that I'm hearing about around the interwebs.  I'm also waiting for Android to start hitting prepaid carriers like Cricket (which is has already for them) so I can get out of contract hell.

On the task killer thing:

the TL;DNR Version:

• Android is hard coded to automatically kill a task when more memory is needed.
• Android is hard coded to automatically kill a task when it’s done doing what it needs to do.
• Android is hard coded to automatically kill a task when you haven’t returned to it in a long time.
• Most services (while possibly running in the background) use very little memory when not actively doing something.
• A content provider is only doing something when there is a notification for it to give. Otherwise it uses very little memory.
• Killing a process when it isn’t ready only causes it to have to reload itself and start from scratch when it’s needed again.
• Because a task is likely running in the background for a reason, killing it will only cause it to re-spawn as soon as the activity that was using it looks for it again. And it will just have to start over again.
• Killing certain processes can have undesirable side effects. Not receiving text messages, alarms not going off, and force closes just to name a few.
• The only true way to prevent something from running at all on your phone would be to uninstall the .apk.
• Most applications will exit themselves if you get out of it by hitting “back” until it closes rather than hitting the “home” button. But even with hitting home, Android will eventually kill it once it’s been in the background for a while.

90

General / Re: CHARTARUM soundtrack available for sale! (Any minute/hour now)

« on: August 11, 2010, 11:13:42 PM »

Honestly, I think 60 sales is pretty good for this kind of product in the kind of venue it was. I don't think any bands playing at Porcfest would have sold that many CD's in comparison.

Hmmm. I dunno. I'll have to think about it.

Either way, there's no pleasing some people, I'm sure you'll agree with that, and I'm guessing that you'll agree that many Free Staters have a tendency to hide their cheap fucker behavior behind arguments about information being free.

There is a donation page on the Think Twice web site. When people inevitably torrent the goddamned soundtrack, I will be willing to bet that no one decides to pony the fuck up and paypal me, either.

Which reminds me, I have to settle up and pay Hannah and Marcus their $21.60 for sales, so far. I'll take care of it Monday.

I think you bring up a good point.  The problem is it seems like everything not associated to one of the big giant corporate interests is asking for donations.  I understand this shit ain't free.  I get that, but the problem is I think people are getting fed up with being nickel and dimed everywhere.  I'm not saying I fault anyone who asks for donations, because I think this stuff is important.  I just think the timing is a little off.

People are in debt beyond their ability to pay back said debt right now, including whole countries.  Donating to every liberty-themed website gets expensive when coupling with taxes, debt, etc.  I know I personally am working on getting myself debt free and being more minimalist.  Then, once I start getting money saved up, I'd donate more.  It's not that I don't donate to liberty stuff now though.  I'm an FTL AMPer.  I've given money to other liberty-themed sites before.  Right now I have no money to donate or purchase much stuff other than necessities because I'm working my ass off to pay this debt that I took on 10+ years ago.  No excuses.

I understand the frustration, and it frustrates the hell out of me too because I want to support all these amazing things that are being created.  I try to share as much as I can to get the word out in return. Sadly, that doesn't put food on the table for those who create these things.