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  1. Mercutio

    Xmarks/ Foxmarks is shutting down

    Xmarks is by far the best of the syncing services. FF Sync seemed to work well enough for me but I got annoyed when I had to close Firefox to sync bookmarks back up in Chrome.
  2. Mercutio

    Intel store

    Since I had to order replacement boards for some of my classroom PCs today, I used OEM XS. They charged me $22 to ship (ground!) four motherboards and the only available payment method was Paypal. I'm glad I could find a good approximation for the boards I have but there was a whole lot of...
  3. Mercutio

    Companies that have burnt...

    Say what you will about rape. At least you got to participate in some sex.
  4. Mercutio

    Companies that have burnt...

    Then I have to take into account that there is only so much available surface area on any given laptop.
  5. Mercutio

    Harmony Remote

    In some cases, the Logitech software has the discrete on/off codes that aren't even available on the device. In some cases I've been able to obtain them from visiting "Remote Control Enthusiast" web sites. In some cases, there simply is no discrete code on the device for the thing you're trying...
  6. Mercutio

    Companies that have burnt...

    Having just spent the best part of an hour trying to tell someone that they must have accidentally turned their 802.11 off on their laptop and then spent most of that time looking for the correct procedure for turning it back on, I now believe that every laptop should have a STANDARD key or set...
  7. Mercutio

    Harmony Remote

    The biggest problem I see with them is that people don't want to take the time to program or troubleshoot them, any more than they do any other remote. I've had to set them up for a dozen or so people. When I later find out "It doesn't work", it's invariably because one key code someplace is...
  8. Mercutio

    Looking for an App thread

    Most of the time, the way to get rid of ads is to pay for something or root your device and use a hosts file. I use the crap out of hosts files. :D
  9. Mercutio

    This is the thread for the discussion of interesting apps.

    Logitech has a Harmony remote app as well. I have no idea if works or under what circumstances, but it's out there. It might just be for their Google TV stuff.
  10. Mercutio

    PC Gaming = World of Suck

    More properly speaking, both of them derive from a classic demonstration program that was often written in BASIC (and maybe other things before that), which allowed two guns or gorillas or tanks or slingshots with birds to choose an angle and velocity in an effort to hit the other gun, gorilla...
  11. Mercutio

    Areca

    An SAS expander would fix that problem as well.
  12. Mercutio

    Harmony Remote

    Most of my viewing is done via XBMC. My environment is controlled enough that I can set the volume level on my receiver at a high-ish point and otherwise control volume and playback on my HTPCs. I can VNC into those machines if I need to do something that isn't terribly convenient to do with...
  13. Mercutio

    Companies that have burnt...

    Most but not all of my classroom computers use Seagate drives because at the time I bought the systems I could get a limited but functional copy of Acronis TrueImage to use with the machines. By-and-large, those drives have been fine. Over the years since I've run in to jaw-dropping RMA rates...
  14. Mercutio

    Something Random

    OK actually this is the master list of awesome time lapse HD movies. I found it on io9. I actually had many of them bookmarked already because I like to just let these run sometimes.
  15. Mercutio

    Companies that have burnt...

    As I said in another thread here, "My crusade will only be ended when everyone who has ever owned stock in or worked for Western Digital issues a collective apology in the form of seppuku." Yes, I really do believe that after a certain point I'm allowed to take a product's ongoing ability to...
  16. Mercutio

    Harmony Remote

    I've not had a problem with Harmony remotes, though many home automation types absolutely despise them for some reason. I normally look for authorized refurbs on Amazon, which can be found for as little as $25 or $30 for the introductory models. The present incarnation of my entertainment...
  17. Mercutio

    Something Random

    Totally sweet time-lapse photos of the sky with original music by Battlestar Galactica composer Bear McCreary.
  18. Mercutio

    Video Re-encoding Software

    I'm sure that's the case. But I found it amusing.
  19. Mercutio

    The limits of SSDs

    You would load the OS image into local RAM. It's very possible to set up a modern *nix-based OS that way.
  20. Mercutio

    Something Random

    In the ongoing quest to be as annoying as possible to our inconsiderate landlords, my students were at one time offering me ideas for vile music to play at sufficient volume. Ever heard of "Lords of Acid?"
  21. Mercutio

    Video Re-encoding Software

    These are discs from a company that is very well known for messing with DVD file structures. Either that or that company has bent the laws of space and time and somehow managed to actually put 78GB on something that isn't even read with a blue laser. The other somewhat amusing disc I found...
  22. Mercutio

    Something Random

    The obvious answer is a soulful white-person and acoustic instrument rendition of a traditional African American melody such as "Me So Horny" or "Straight Outta Compton."
  23. Mercutio

    The limits of SSDs

    Fast pipe plus something that will forward RARP to a listening server someplace on the public internet... it's not impossible to do now.
  24. Mercutio

    The limits of SSDs

    I'm more worried about bandwidth caps. For the most part the infrastructure to get decent speeds are available everyplace that cable is, and even DSL is technically a lot more capable than what's advertised. Of course we're going to lag more densely populated countries for data service...
  25. Mercutio

    Video Re-encoding Software

    I just received some really weird discs today. They have DVD logos on them rather than Blu-Ray. The file structure on the discs uses Video_TS and .vob files. It's just that there are 60+ 1GB .vobs on each disc. I can only assume that it's some kind of fairly unique mastering weirdness; one of...
  26. Mercutio

    The limits of SSDs

    Well there are a couple worrisome trends. One is the focus on multi-cell memory rather than single cell and the second is the simple fact that smaller transistors mean reduced reliability. I understand that's the only way to make stuff cheaper, but both those things seem to run counter to the...
  27. Mercutio

    The limits of SSDs

    Found on Slashdot, reposting here. I don't know if I care about long-term limitations of technology because engineers are great at improving stuff, but it seems that we're going to run into them headfirst.
  28. Mercutio

    Minimum power setup to go in Server case

    A lot of malware is distributed by completely mainstream Advertising Services like Doubleclick. All it takes it for one ad with a snippet of javascript that invokes an Acrobat exploit to run once every 10,000 impressions on a big site like cnn.com for a half hour or so and a malware author is in...
  29. Mercutio

    question How to boot to alternate disk on Linux

    You probably need to change your grub.cfg file. Here's a gentle introduction. As with a lot of Linux things, you're going to have to do a bit of reading.
  30. Mercutio

    Penis Poem

    That must be one of them old guy things.
  31. Mercutio

    question Which Tablets

    Would it make you feel any better if I said "1.7:1" ratio?
  32. Mercutio

    Minimum power setup to go in Server case

    The whole point of rootkits is that they penetrate everything. And most of the time they work regardless of other security measures. Neither MBAM nor Spybot do anything about real-time protection, though I've found that many people don't bother with the immunizations that actually make it so...
  33. Mercutio

    Companies that have burnt...

    That's beautiful man.
  34. Mercutio

    Minimum power setup to go in Server case

    If you hit the right rootkit, it doesn't matter how many layers of VM there are. Your mistake was probably browsing the web without some combination of ad blocking and javascript sandboxing. Chrome has its own system for updating its PDF reading and Flash components, so at least you were spared...
  35. Mercutio

    question Which Tablets

    You might want to have a doctor look at that.
  36. Mercutio

    eBook Readers

    Aldiko (the Android reader program I use) can also take a ridiculously long time to import titles, but I have a pre-selected set of books that I load, so it's something I've only needed to do once per device I have.
  37. Mercutio

    Thailand Flooding Threatens Hard Drive Supply

    I've managed to find a few cheapies. Even $5 seems excessive for a flat piece of aluminum with a few strategically placed holes in it. This is just one of those things like companies that want $3 for a molex to SATA converter. It's not a big deal for a one off but if you need to buy lots of...
  38. Mercutio

    Thailand Flooding Threatens Hard Drive Supply

    If I bought a bracket like that for every drive I use, that would entirely negate the savings from buying the 2.5" drives in the first place. My biggest needs right now are for low-cost builds (~$350 desktops) and to replace ailing 5-year-old drives in my classroom machines. In either case...
  39. Mercutio

    Thailand Flooding Threatens Hard Drive Supply

    Desktops. I'm not really all that keen on the idea, because I wind up having to half-ass the mounting. I actually think 2.5" drives are more reliable than 3.5" drives anyway; they're designed to be moved and I've certainly replaced fewer of them, but it bothers me quite a lot when my best...
  40. Mercutio

    Something Random

    My yellow cat alternates between staring at the shelf where I keep cat treats and catnip, and staring at my fridge. He likes the fridge so much that he's worn the paint off one edge of it from rubbing on it so much. He'll sit and watch me or my other cat eat, even if he's not particularly...
  41. Mercutio

    Something Random

    There is an Internet Traffic report that you can look at, though it's just as likely that one of your neighbors just discovered bittorrent or something.
  42. Mercutio

    eBook Readers

    A few things I can tell you: 1. .mobi and .epub have essentially the same format. One is used by Kindle and things that are compatible with Amazon's offerings. The other is used by almost everyone else. They both offer limited support for embedded graphics and use flow-able, resolution...
  43. Mercutio

    This is the thread for the discussion of interesting apps.

    I do, but I don't have a data limit. You can set it to notify and then download just while you have 802.11.
  44. Mercutio

    question Which Tablets

    Bluetooth = douchetacular.
  45. Mercutio

    Thailand Flooding Threatens Hard Drive Supply

    I'm finding that right now it's cheaper for me to buy 2.5" 7200rpm drives rather than 3.5" models. So that's what I've been doing. I don't really like doing that because not many desktops really fit a 2.5" drive well, but works and keeps costs lower.
  46. Mercutio

    Something Random

    I'm not a big fan of birds, but they spread seeds around and help the ecosystem and crap. Plus you will also be feeding squirrels and squirrels can actually be kind of cute when they aren't chewing on your telephone lines and stuff.
  47. Mercutio

    question Which Tablets

    5" sounds about right? It will still fit in a pocket. For as much as I use a smartphone as a phone, I'm sure it would do just fine.
  48. Mercutio

    Companies that have burnt...

    It's certainly silly to equate copying bits in any form with theft, if that's the direction you're taking. The penalties for many forms of felonious assault are less severe than what RIAA and the MPAA have forced through our legal system for dealing with unauthorized copying.
  49. Mercutio

    question Which Tablets

    Samsung has 7", 7.7", 8.9" and 10.1" 16x9 tablets. They have 1024x600 or 1280x800 resolutions.
  50. Mercutio

    question Which Tablets

    I have a Lexar 32GB class 10 card in my Evo. I noticed that my file transfer rates over SMB more than tripled when I switched from the class 4 SanDisk I started with. It helps but I think the best transfer rates I've seen to SD are on the order of maybe 3MB/sec.
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