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Domain: latenightpc.com

Stories and comments across the archive that link to latenightpc.com.

Comments · 14

  1. Re:Here are two places: by Metaphorically · · Score: 2, Interesting · on "Hollywood" Howard Berman To Leave Internet Subcommittee

    Good advice. I made a couple search plugins for Firefox to help with that. There's one for OpenSecrets.org and one for the Library of Congress THOMAS system (bills and legislative information).

  2. Re:Here are two places: by Metaphorically · · Score: 2, Interesting · on "Hollywood" Howard Berman To Leave Internet Subcommittee

    Good advice. I made a couple search plugins for Firefox to help with that. There's one for OpenSecrets.org and one for the Library of Congress THOMAS system (bills and legislative information).

  3. Re:Here are two places: by Metaphorically · · Score: 2, Interesting · on "Hollywood" Howard Berman To Leave Internet Subcommittee

    Good advice. I made a couple search plugins for Firefox to help with that. There's one for OpenSecrets.org and one for the Library of Congress THOMAS system (bills and legislative information).

  4. Re:assumptions by Metaphorically · · Score: 1 · on Google's Android Cellphone SDK Released

    whatever small speed difference you might gain by writing some C code

    The difference might be quite large; Android does not have the same JIT as the desktop Java runtime (if it has a JIT at all). And even on the desktop, there are some things at which Java is really bad compared to native code.
    They do this trick in Java Micro Edition where you wrote all your code as Java but you have the option of including a compiled version of the code. You can compile some, all, or none of your code. So the whole thing about JIT compiling becomes a non-issue. Of course, so does the "write once, run anywhere" lie. I have nothing against Java as a language, I just think it's silly the way it's packaged and marketed.

    I also refuse to miss out on trying new stuff just because that right now it uses some bits I don't like. So I just installed and tried out Android with the emulator. Pretty neat stuff, hope they get some diversity in the languages.
  5. Re:I've wanted something like this for a long time by Metaphorically · · Score: 1 · on Smart Monitoring PC Hardware Launched By NVIDIA

    I currently have to use several programs and a manual fan controller to for half the capability this system offers. To read temps I have to use different programs for motherboard, case, and GPU, and several fans aren't even controllable, in hardware or software. I'd love a nicely integrated solution. I don't have a high-end GPU right now but I went through all kinds of pain just trying to figure out if SMART reports correct data for my drives (more about this). The short answer is that while I think it may have been wrong I still took the time to install some new quieter, high volume fans.

    It seems like it's time for cooling solutions to enter the PnP age. Ever since MS strong-armed the industry into adopting Plug n Play it's been much simpler for computers to correctly identify newly attached hardware. Temperature sensors are hardware too, why not get the same kind of info back from them? I'm not suggesting they need ROMs with unique names but something like a bus driver that can get an ID, position and reading off of them and give that to calling software would be great.
  6. Re:Society lost by Metaphorically · · Score: 2, Interesting · on Internet Archive Challenges Google

    I don't have to do this myself but I have heard about this problem (and wrote a little about it). Your school pays publishers for access to journals and you can't necessarily get to them from home. There is a plugin for Firefox called LibX that makes it easier to search what your school's library has available. It has to be customized somehow to make it work with the school's system. The University of Windsor has customized LibX as Foxy Leddy (Leddy is the school library). Maybe your school has something similar.

  7. Asterisk, Cheap Calls by jeff_schiller · · Score: 5, Informative · on SkyQube Squared Shakes Up International Calling

    You should also check out http://www.latenightpc.com/blog/archives/category/ asterisk/ for a couple of tips on how to set up an Asterisk box with VOIP gateway...

  8. Re:Dear Asus, by Metaphorically · · Score: 2, Interesting · on ASUS Integrates VOIP and PSTN Into Motherboards

    The reasons I have a computer dedicated to Asterisk are a lot about flexibility and control. I have more say in what happens when someone calls my house, I set up my own voice menuing (or at least I've started configuring it), I can route calls as I'd like to and generally use the resources the way I like. The fact that my phone service ends up being far cheaper than Vonage and that I can route calls from my cell phone through it is just a really big bonus. Honestly, Vonage is cheap, but until you start shopping for your own DID you don't realize just how much the big phone companies have been gouging us.

  9. Re:But does it run on Linux? by Metaphorically · · Score: 3, Informative · on ASUS Integrates VOIP and PSTN Into Motherboards

    Just set up Asterisk. Asterisk is actually not that tough to run once you get past the jargon. I just recently blogged how I set up Asterisk with PSTN termination at home. Since then I've also gotten an unlocked Linksys ATA and I'm beginning to use it as a replacement for my old phone line.

  10. Re:Thi is the promise of the internet by Metaphorically · · Score: 2, Informative · on GDC - The Importance of Self-Publishing

    The bitter truth may be that there's growing restrictions by huge companies learning that they can squeeze a few more bucks out of all the participants, but that's not a good excuse to sit back and do nothing. If you have a dream of making a game, have a dream of publishing yourself or have a dream of spreading your maniac manifesto, the best time was four years ago. The second best time is today. Last time I checked you can still set up a site with shared hosting for less than 10 bucks a month and put up a pretty wide range of whatever the hell you want with little or no hassle.

    If you want to publish games and the web is your medium then there's plenty of time before that door slams shut. Get off your ass and get to work. That's what I'm going to do when I'm done complaining here. You need some help getting started? My vehicle is SVG and DHTML, there are lots of things you can build with free open source tools. Some quick examples: Freecell, Connect 4, and a simple templated puzzle example.

  11. Experienced vs Novices by clear_thought_05 · · Score: 5, Interesting · on MozCorp Announces Firefox 1.5 Extension Competition

    I wonder how the little guys (ex: SVG Switcher for FF1.5) will compete with the big guys (ex: Web Dev Toolbar).

    I just hope that the small guys are judged fairly and those with years of experience don't just take over the whole competition. Or maybe that's okay, because in the end (perhaps) it will be the big serious guys against eachother and all the newcomers pretty much don't have a chance.

    Just my opinion, I wonder what others might think.

  12. Re:Great. by Metaphorically · · Score: 1 · on Firefox 1.1 Scrapped

    Fwiw, if you are using a nightly with SVG or an alpha build, I've written a dirt-simple extension for toggling that flag. I needed to turn SVG support on and off for some testing. You can install it from here (my blog).

  13. Re:Namco at E3 by Metaphorically · · Score: 1 · on Pac-Man Makes Guinness Book

    I have piles of pictures from E3 2005. Right now you can get to them from my blog. I haven't put up the Namco ones yet, but I will soon.

    I got some booth babes, not sure about Namco - I was too busy yelling for a t-shirt. Namco had some guys with pac-man heads on, looked hilarious, I got a picture of them.

    Most of the pictures I took are screenshots, tho.

    I think the Namco women were the same ones as last year, the leader of the pac looked familiar.

  14. Some Random Pictures/Blogging from E3 by mauriatm · · Score: 1 · on Phantom Console May Never Materialize

    I wasn't lucky enough to go, but this guy was. He shares his E3 blog and pics.