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Topics - Demosthenes

Pages: [1] 2 3 4 5 6 ... 12
1
Entertainment / New Star Wars Movies
« on: January 12, 2017, 09:56:07 PM »
Okay, we're geeks, most of us have opinions on science fiction, some of us like Star Wars (some of us don't, because, stupid), but I'd like to open a discussion on the new films.

The Force Awakens


Rogue One


What did you like?  What didn't you like?  Why?

I'm genuinely curious, because I have some strong opinion (surprise) about both films and I'd like some sounding boards.

Discuss.

2
Sticky Stuff (no pun intended) / What game are you playing lately?
« on: November 10, 2016, 08:29:30 PM »
I'm not much of a video gamer, but I love Diablo 2 Expansion (it's probably my favourite game), so I still play that a lot.  Lately I've discovered that I'm good at speed running it, so I've been doing that with some experimental Assassin character builds.

Attached is a quick screenie of one such experiment (normal mode, since I was testing a build approach to get me through normal mode Acts 1 & 2 as fast as possible).  With this particular character, I beat Andariel at 11th level and Duriel at 15th, total time on par with current world record pace.

What I'm working on is optimizing each stretch of the game so that if I'm playing a full speed run all the way through, I have the character build for each section down pat and don't need to fiddle with it (which costs precious minutes).

What have you been playing lately?

3
Hardware, Software, and Other Imperialist Crap / Misc. Tech Discussion
« on: February 04, 2015, 10:20:53 PM »
This is a thread for just general tech crap.  Ramble to your heart's content on any tech subject you feel might not really deserve its own thread.

I'll start it off by discussing what I did tonight. 

I upgraded my Subsonic server at home and discovered that Chromecast support is built into it now!

Really high-def content seems to have buffering problems, but that doesn't bother me much.  The main reason I wanted this was so that I could stream any of the 206 episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 that I have on that server via my Chromecast to my TV.  The MST3K episodes are all low-def, and when I tested it out, it worked perfectly!

It's the little things.   :-D

4
Anarchy / MOVED: The Dream Journal
« on: January 25, 2015, 11:17:08 AM »

5
Entertainment / Nonsense I've been watching lately
« on: January 25, 2015, 11:09:36 AM »
  • The Harry Potter movies.  I have all 8 on blu-ray and they're visually gorgeous.  I've been thinking about re-reading the books, since it's been almost 10 years since I last touched them.  I still enjoy the films though.
  • Haven, via Netflix.  I'm on season 4 of this series and it's actually still interesting.  SyFy is so hit and miss for me, but when they're good they really tend to be worth watching.
  • Friends, also via Netflix.  Yes, somewhat of a guilty pleasure, but I find that it still holds up after all these years, at least to an extent.  There are some episodes that are still laugh-out-loud funny to me.
  • That 70s Show, via Netflix.  Haven't watched any of it since it first aired (I never got into this show in syndication).  Two observations: I find that I treasure every episode featuring Tommy Chong -- comedy gold!  And Red Forsman starts out being pretty funny, but his lines get kind of tired by the end of the 2nd season, and after that it's just more of the same.
  • Black Mirror, via Netflix.  Check this one out if you haven't seen it.  It's very thinky, kind of Phillip K. Dick-ian in that there aren't always clear "right" and "wrong" threads in the stories, but it's an interesting if dark look at humanity and is very science fiction in its approach.

6
Sticky Stuff (no pun intended) / 2015 Book Thread
« on: January 19, 2015, 09:58:14 PM »
All righty, I'll start this one off.  I ended up finishing this one today:

1. The Turing Option by Harry Harrison and Marvin Minsky


And I started Ur by Stephen King.

7
We're all technology junkies around here.  These are the devices I use daily (not counting my work-related ones):

  • Samsung Galaxy S3 Phone: Running Cyanogenmod on it.  I'm pretty much tied to this, it's my main gadget I can't live without.  Email, text, music, phone calls, web.  It's normally in my pants pocket. It connects automatically via Bluetooth in my car for music.  The one complaint I have about this phone is that they designed it with a battery that I consider to be undercapacity.  It was barely adequate when new, and now that I've had it for a year and a half or so, with normal battery degredation, it's becoming a problem, so I'll likely need to buy a new battery for it soon.
  • Nexus 7 Tablet: A really wonderful device, I mostly use it at home, and I always bring it with me to tabletop gaming sessions.  I stream music with it, use it for showing players pieces of maps, illustrations, etc.  It's also what I normally surf the web with in the morning before I leave for work.  Generally speaking, if you see me make a post before 7:30 AM here, it was from my Nexus 7 tablet. I have one of these that is really handy to use with this tablet.  With that little keyboard, my Nexus 7 is what I would consider to be about a 50%-60% laptop replacement.  Very light and convenient, but a bit awkward if I try to push the limits.
  • Toshiba Chromebook: I have been reluctant to replace my stable of aging laptops at home due to the expense of doing so. I bought this Chromebook a couple of months ago, intending it as an 80% replacement for the functionality of my standard laptops.  As it turns out, I'm using it more like a 90%+ replacement. Extremely fast, 10 hour battery life, very well made/constructed, the only time I boot up one of my regular laptops at home now is when I need to do something very specific with them, like rip a CD or something.
  • Amazon Kindle 3: I use this e-reader every day.  I'm a pretty voracious reader (as anyone perusing the Book Thread might know), and this device is never far away from me.  I love the e-ink display -- I can't read entire books on an LCD -- and up until recently, this gadget could go about 3 weeks between chargings (now it's more like a week).  I'm not overly impressed with the newer versions of this device, so I'm not 100% sure what I'm going to do once I finally need to replace it.

So what are your essential devices and why?


EDIT: W.T.F., sweet lovin'?

8
Anarchy / Coolio Points
« on: July 15, 2014, 10:27:45 PM »
In digging through the Internet Wayback Machine last night, I resurrected my lost Coolio points from my forum sig on HN back in 2004.

Bask in their glory.  The new (old) total is now gracing my sig here on Teh Geekery (OMFGLOL!!1).

10
Anarchy / The Rocky Fellowship Palantir Show
« on: May 26, 2014, 08:39:47 PM »
I'll just... leave this here.

11
Sticky Stuff (no pun intended) / Band Names
« on: May 07, 2014, 08:30:47 PM »
The Opportunistic Fucks

12
Anarchy / WHERE ARE YOUR GODS NOW?
« on: April 22, 2014, 06:55:26 PM »
I like some of these.  I may even believe a few of them exist.

The 12 Gods Of The Internet

13
BA Baracus was sunbathing, nude, on the top of his hot, black van.

He thought he was all alone... Murdock and Hannibal went into town for supplies, and Face had---


Okay, I can't do this.  Somebody else is going to have to.

14
Anarchy / Homoerotic A-Team Fanfiction
« on: September 09, 2011, 01:53:29 PM »
Holy crap, you guys.  We used to be #1 for this.   :x

Can you believe that we've actually slipped to the FIFTH result on a Google search for "homoerotic A-Team fanfiction"!

We can do better than that.

15
Anarchy / What's in a name?
« on: April 28, 2011, 07:13:28 PM »
Most of you guys have known me here, on Fark.com and on Hackernetwork as "Demosthenes".  Some of you know already that I started using "Demosthenes" as just a temporary change of pace, but when I look at the calendar these days, that temporary change of pace has lasted -- *gulp* -- eleven years.

So I think it's time I ditched the D-word once and for all.

It's hard to type, there are too many others on the web using "Demosthenes", and Teh Geekery (OMFGLOL) is the only site left that I really still use it on.

However, in the interest of community, I thought I'd put it to a vote before I just went and switched it.

As a little background, I am a long time reader of science fiction.  Back in the mid-1980s, I read a novella by Vernor Vinge called True Names, in which the protagonist was a hacker (mostly in the classical sense, not in the criminal sense) whose 'net name was Mr. Slippery.

Anyway, a hacker cohort of mine back then (who had also enjoyed that novella) used to give me crap about how much I resembled the slippery character in Vinge's story, but I was "shifty rather than slippery".

The name stuck, so starting back in '86-ish when I first started playing around on BBSes and whatnot, the moniker I always set for myself was Mr_Shifty in honor of Vernor Vinge's cyberpunk genius.

I used Mr_Shifty as my online identity for far longer and in far more places than I have ever used "Demosthenes".  It probably sounds strange to some of you who have known me as Demosthenes for all this time, but it has never felt quite right as far as online nicks go.

So, explanations done.  What do you guys think?  

16
Anarchy / Is anyone into backyard sodomy?
« on: March 02, 2011, 01:42:57 PM »
Since it was brought up...

17
Since I keep having to search through the forums to find links to these, I figured I'd just make a permanent post linking to all of the Mad Bitches, Disgruntled Hoes related content so that we can all easily find and enjoy them.


The original "Mad Bitches, Disguntled Hoes" MP3

The Flash video to the original song, made by TheJudge

The Remixed version by Briz9

The Briz9 video showing the process of making their remix

18
Sticky Stuff (no pun intended) / The Infamous "Me/Them" thread
« on: January 13, 2011, 12:58:25 PM »
Post your funny Me/Them stories here.

19
Writer's Block / "Extinction" discussion thread
« on: January 06, 2011, 10:06:13 AM »
Okay, I'll bite, because I'm sure everyone else wants to know too.

Did you write this? Or are you just pasting it in from somewhere else?

20
Writer's Block / "The Hoyer Misdirect" discussion thread
« on: January 04, 2011, 01:45:59 PM »
In order to preserve the continuity of the actual story thread, please restrict any discussion regarding it to this one instead.

Wunderkind inspired me to do some writing myself, and I figured if I was going to pound out this idea I've had for a while, I might as well do it here too.

21
Writer's Block / The Hoyer Misdirect
« on: January 04, 2011, 01:44:08 PM »
The Hoyer Misdirect

Copyright (C) 2011 T.L. Isaacson


Chapter One

"So do you think you can behave yourself today?"

Kelly looked to his left in response to Wattana's question.  Wattana was a decent guy, but he was still a prison guard.  As such he deserved as sarcastic an answer as Kelly could muster.

"Why Officer Wattana, whatever do you mean?" Kelly responded.

Eric Wattana rolled his eyes.  He couldn't believe he'd pulled transport duty again this week, and this time it was Kelly Hoyer of all inmates.  "I mean," Wattana went on, "are you going to give me any shit?  I really don't have the patience for it today, and I KNOW the kind of shit you pull at every opportunity."

"Me?" Kelly asked in feigned innocence.  "Come on, Eric--"

"Officer Wattana, inmate."

"Sorry.  Officer Wattana.  Come on.  When have I ever given you any shit?"

"Only every time I've ever had anything to do with you."

Kelly Hoyer grinned.  "Someone's gotta keep you COs on your toes.  Besides.  It's not like I've ever done anything serious, like killed anyone, or tried to escape.  Hell, I've never even started a fight since I've been on the inside."

"Yeah," Wattana mumbled, looking out the window of the van.  "Not yet, anyway."  He looked back at Kelly.  "Just do me a favour and play nice today, okay?  I'm not in the mood for games."

Kelly resisted the urge to continue egging Wattana on, and instead sat quietly, staring down at his hands.  His left hand was cold, because of a gel icepack that was wrapped around it, secured with a roll of gauze.  Because of this, only his right wrist bore the handcuff bracelet that was secured to the wide, leather restraint belt around his waist.

The prison van went over a bump in the road and Kelly winced in pain.

Wattana looked down at Kelly's wrapped left hand.  "What'd you do to that, anyway?"

"My foot got hung up in my blanket on my bunk as I was getting up this morning.  I fell all the way to the floor from up there and my left hand took most of my weight."

"Ow.  No wonder you were bitching about it."

Kelly nodded.  "Gee, Wattana, you're so sympathetic.  I'm glad you care."

"Pipe down, we're almost there."  Wattana addressed the driver of the van.  "Hey, Paul.  Go ahead and pull in at the emergency entrance.  They know we're coming."

The guard who was driving the van nodded in agreement and drove up the slope that led into the Granite City Hospital front parking lot, and into the portico that sheltered the emergency entrance.

Wattana and the other guard sitting to Kelly's right on the van's rear bench seat took hold of each of Kelly's arms as the driver parked and got out.  Paul walked around to the van's right side, unlocked the door from the outside and opened it up.

"I meant what I said, Hoyer," Wattana said as they got up to exit the van.  "Behave yourself.  Let's get this over with and get you back and all will be well."

Wattana and the other guard each guided Kelly out of the van and into the hospital's emergency room entrance, all the while keeping a firm grip on each of his arms.  The driver of the prison van slammed the side door of the van and got back into the driver's seat and pulled ahead and into the front parking lot.

Once inside, Wattana stepped up to the front desk and addressed the duty nurse.  "Hiya, I'm Officer Wattana from the Granite City Correctional Facility.  We called ahead."

The nurse nodded.  "This is Mister Hoyer, is that correct?"

"It is."

She looked down at some paperwork.  "Broken hand or wrist?  Was that it, Mister Hoyer?"

Kelly held up his bulkily wrapped left hand.  "Yes, ma'am.  Prison guard slammed it in my cell door again."

Wattana rolled his eyes.  "Shut up, Hoyer, nobody buys that shit anymore."

Kelly chuckled.  He looked at the nurse and he could tell immediately that she found him amusing.  And why not?  He was a pretty funny guy, after all.

"Okay, Officer..."

"Wattana."

"Officer Wattana.  They're ready for you upstairs.  If Mister Hoyer will have a seat--" she indicated a nearby wheelchair, "-- you gentlemen can wheel him to the elevator and go up to the third floor.  Radiology is right down the hall, and hospital security is already waiting up there to assist."

"Thanks, ma'am," said Wattana.  "Get in the chair, Hoyer."

Kelly did as he was told and the guards took him to the elevator.

"Wait!  Kelly!"

Wattana stopped and turned just as he was about to push the elevator's "up" button.  A young woman, carrying an infant, was swiftly approaching from the waiting area.  What the hell was this?

"Ma'am," Wattana began, holding out his hand to keep her back, "you have to stay back.  This is a prisoner--"

"I KNOW," the woman interrupted.  "Kelly, are you okay?"

Wattana looked down at Kelly, who was still in the wheelchair.  "You know this woman, Hoyer?"

Kelly nodded.  "Yeah.  She's my girl."

"Okay.  Ma'am, we can't let him have contact with anyone that's not hospital staff, we're--"

"But he hasn't seen Janie since she was born!  Can't I just ride up with you guys in the elevator?"

Wattana looked at the baby the woman was holding and sighed.  "Let me see some ID."

She dug her drivers license out of her purse and handed it to Wattana.  "Danielle Vaughn?"

"Dani."

"Dani.  Ms. Vaughn, we're not supposed to allow prisoners any contact with anyone that is not hospital staff.  He's here for medical reasons, and that's it."

Dani pointed to the ID card clipped to her shirt.  "I AM hospital staff.  I work here, see?"

Wattana looked down at Dani's hospital ID card.  She even worked in radiology.  He looked back at Kelly, who had a hopeful look on his face, probably the first sincere emotion Wattana had ever seen Kelly Hoyer exhibit.

He sighed again.  "For Christ's sake, Hoyer, you're going to get me canned one of these days.  All right, Ms. Vaughn, you can ride up with us.  No physical contact though, okay?  This isn't a conjugal visit, he's just here for x-rays."

"Thank you!  Thank you so much, officer!  I'll be good, I promise!"

Wattana pushed the button for the elevator and the doors opened for all of them to get in.

Dani was looking at Kelly's free hand, the one wrapped in gauze.  "Oh honey, what happened to your hand?  And why aren't they treating you at the prison?"

Kelly was about to speak when Wattana cut him off.  "Ordinarily we would, but the x-ray in the infirmary isn't working lately, and the doc there is pretty sure that Kelly's hand or wrist or both are broken, so here we are."

"What'd you do to it, honey?"

"Nothing much, babe.  Just fell on it and landed funny, that's all.  Nothing major."

Dani pouted and made sympathetic cooing sounds as if Kelly were the baby girl she was holding.  "Awwww.  Well, we've got good people upstairs, we'll take care of you."

The elevator doors opened and Wattana and the other guard wheeled Kelly out onto the hospital's third floor and into the Radiology Department's waiting area.

Two hospital security guards joined their group and stood by while Wattana talked to the desk attendant about why they were there.  Meanwhile, Kelly was smiling at the baby Dani held in her arms.

"She's so beautiful!  What a doll," he said, on the verge of tears.  Dani held the baby down near Kelly so he could see her face.

"She has your hair, babe.  Lookit that, it's gorgeous, isn't it?"

Kelly nodded, not wanting to say anything for fear of letting his emotions get out of control.  The baby did indeed have a thick, black shock of hair on her sleeping head, much like Kelly himself.

"Okay, Hoyer, come on."  Wattana was standing next to Kelly and took his right arm to help him out of his wheelchair.  "They're ready for you in x-ray."

Kelly got up and was accompanied into x-ray by Wattana and the other prison guard while Dani and the baby sat down in the waiting area.  The attendant in x-ray looked at them as they entered.  "Oh.  You'll need to remove his restraints."

Wattana didn't like that, but then, where was Kelly going to go?  He shrugged and unlocked the handcuff from Kelly's right wrist and unlocked the belt and removed it.  He crouched down and removed the chains from Kelly's ankles as well.

"Thanks, Officer.  Mister, Hoyer, go ahead and have a seat on the table.  Take down the top part of your jumpsuit if you could."

Kelly complied and unbuttoned his light blue prison jumpsuit and took the top half down so that it was around his waist.

The attendant worked on unwrapping the gauze and gel pack from his left hand while the two prison guards stood by the door and looked bored.  She proceeded with preparations for doing the x-ray and had Kelly sit on a chair next to the table and positioned his left hand under the crosshairs that were projecting from above.  She made sure the lead apron she'd put on him was secure.

"Okay, looks good.  Now hold that position for a minute."  She looked at the two prison guards.  "Gentlemen, you'll need to either step outside and close the door, or accompany me into the side room so you don't get exposed when we take the x-rays."

Wattana was concerned for a moment, since the door to the room wasn't locked, but reminded himself of the hospital security guards out in the waiting area.  He and the other guard went with the radiology attendant and watched Kelly through the leaded glass window.

She shot a couple of x-rays of Kelly's left hand, came in and repositioned him, and shot a couple more, and then came out and re-wrapped Kelly's hand the way it had been when he came in.  Once she finished, she told them they would wait outside.

The guards took Kelly out into the waiting area and Wattana directed Kelly to have a seat back in his wheelchair.  "Goddammit... stay put, Hoyer, I left your restraints in the x-ray room.  Chuck, keep an eye on him."

The other guard nodded as Wattana went back into the x-ray room.  He frowned.  Where were the hospital security guards?  There had been two of them before they'd gone into the other room.

He stepped over to the radiology desk to ask the nurse who was sitting there.  "Hey.  Weren't there a couple of security guards here before?"

The nurse nodded.  "Yes... but they got a call and I think they went upstairs for a minute.  They should be back soon."

Just then, while the guard's back was turned, Kelly stood up, reached into Dani's lap and picked up the baby Janie, all in one smooth motion.

"Honey, what--" Dani started, but Kelly disregarded her.  He went down the hallway that led out of the waiting room to the west like a shot, Janie in his arms.

The guard heard him running, but by the time he turned around, Kelly had already rounded the corner.

"Oh, shit!" he swore as he pulled his sidearm.  "WATTANA!" This wasn't good.  He started running down the hallway Kelly had taken, and got around the corner.

Kelly Hoyer was gone.

22
Anarchy / MOVED: hardware compatibility
« on: December 28, 2010, 04:02:35 PM »
This topic has been moved to Hardware, Software, and Other Imperialist Crap, which is the correct location for such things.

http://www.geekforum.org/index.php?topic=8057.0

23
Anarchy / Science geeks only
« on: October 05, 2010, 08:49:39 PM »
Whoa!  Look what I found!

Click

That would have been really useful back when I was in school.

24
Click

From TFA:

Quote
Other patents involve technology that displays signal strength and battery power on phones.

Sooo..... you're claiming then that you have ownership of pretty much ANY mobile phone platform then?

Mkayyyy....



I think it's going to be hilarious when this gets thrown back in their faces in court and the bulk of their ridiculous software patent portfolio is declared invalid and valueless.

25
Anarchy / Ode To Our Spammer Detector Thingy
« on: September 27, 2010, 08:32:07 PM »
O in the wisdom of our dear friend Chris
We now largely give forum spam a miss
For whenever new users want to post
Piss and moan, and brag and boast

First they must be approved by us
So we know that they won't cause a fuss
The email, username, IP address
Is enough for us to then suppress

Accounts created by spammer twats
We point and click and get headshots.
They never whine, or cry or make a crack
We simply squash them, before the fact

So I as a mod do appreciate
The spammer detector thingy that is our gate
But I have to complain, just a touch
Because now I cannot ban as much.  :(

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