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User: fracai

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  1. Free Vinyl? on Today Is Record Store Day 2011 · · Score: 1

    It'd be nice for record stories[sic] to give away tons of 7" vinyl promos.

    Yep, there's no better way to attract new customers than by giving away a product that no mainstream customer actually cares about. There's a significant portion that wouldn't even stop by for free CDs.

  2. 30 PPT files, 3 versions, 3 OSs, and an emulator on What's the Oldest File You Can Restore? · · Score: 1

    I recently "recovered" around 30 PowerPoint files that I put together about 17 years ago. None were critically important; just some crude stop motion movies, homework, and other horrible "paintings", but they're a neat part of my childhood.

    At they time, I had put them together using PowerPoint 2.0 (maybe 1.0, but I doubt it) and modern versions have long dropped support for those files. As I researched, I found that a straightforward conversion was impossible. There were specific conversion components for some versions (I think there was a v2 plugin for v3) and support for older formats seemed to be quickly dropped. By investigating installed files and old software reviews, I learned that v3 or v4 would do fine with the v2 files that I had and '98 or 2001 would upgrade the converted files to the "modern" binary format, it didn't look like 98 could read v1 or v2 files. Any of the more recent versions could upgrade those to the new XML format.

    So I assembled my tools; I actually already had access to archived installation images for 2001, had installed 2008, and amazingly still had floppies for v4 and even found a *nix box with a floppy drive. I've previously played around with SheepShaver, but running the old Microsoft products proved to be difficult. I don't remember the exact issues, but installation or execution failed consistently when trying to run version 2001. A thread on the SheepShaver forums indicated that running under Ubuntu might be successful, but I didn't have any luck. I did find success running SheepShaver under Windows, and of course running 2008 under Mac OS X 10.6 was just fine.

    In the end, my conversion chain looked like this:
    10.6 > SheepShaver > MacOS 9.0.4 > PowerPoint v4 - v2 files to v4
    Windows 7 > SheepShaver > MacOS 9.0.4 > PowerPoint 2001 - v4 files to modern binary data
    10.6 > PowerPoint 2008 - binary files to XML

    The only degredation I've noticed is that one file seems to either be using a font I don't have or perhaps the spacing or size was lost as the text doesn't quite line up correctly.

    I suppose I should also take a pass through my other files and upgrade any Microsoft data to more modern formats, though nothing goes back as far as these did. Or just print them out to PDF. It's not like I need to actually edit any of these.

    What strikes me most is how transient version support was even for Microsoft's own formats. I'd think at the least that Microsoft could keep a basic conversion product going for modern OSs and all the old formats. Not that I actually expect this from them.

  3. Re:They can't afford them all on Bank of America Buying Abusive Domain Names · · Score: 1

    Not .org? I suppose they would leave that out as they aren't a non-profit and are strict about these sorts of things.

  4. Re:Question: What is the last digit of pi? on 'Jeopardy!' To Pit Humans Against IBM Machine · · Score: 1

    Missed opportunity:

    I'm about 90% sure it's not 6.
    and about 50% sure it's not an even number.

    I'm going to have to go with 6.

  5. Re:By Accident on Google Wants To Take Away Your Capslock Key · · Score: 1

    Phhht, Spazeroid.

  6. Re:Just stop it on WePad Tablet Will Use Linux To Rival the iPad · · Score: 2, Funny

    Maybe the WePad will include a USB port so you can attach that 18 button OpenOffice mouse.

  7. Re:AGPLv3? on Ubuntu One Gets iPhone App For Contact Sync · · Score: 1

    Then why do you have to accept the GPL before downloading the iPhone app?

  8. Re:AGPLv3? on Ubuntu One Gets iPhone App For Contact Sync · · Score: 1

    Is that it then? The license applies to the protocol and not the app? Seems very odd.

  9. AGPLv3? on Ubuntu One Gets iPhone App For Contact Sync · · Score: 1

    I thought the GPLv3 was incompatible with App Store distribution.
    I haven't seen anything in the Affero addition that would clear the Tivoization, DRM, etc. clauses.

    http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewEula?id=365281620

  10. Re:Quick on Japan To Standardize Electric Vehicle Chargers · · Score: 1

    I see your Takeshi's Castle and raise you Wipeout and Minute to Win It.

  11. Re:Zune + HD + twitter? on Zune HD Twitter App Censors Tweets For You! · · Score: 1

    "HD" refers to "HD Radio".
    No kidding, remember that poorly promoted, FM interfering, not actually any higher quality, radio standard that requires new equipment to use while offering minimal extra benefit to the user? That's what the HD refers to regarding the Zune.
    Well, it may also refer to the ability to output 720p content to an external device when used with an appropriate adapter, but the Zune screen itself is 480 x 272.
    "272p" is not HD in my book.

  12. Re:Ugh... on Zune HD Twitter App Censors Tweets For You! · · Score: 2, Funny

    Quote from Samuel L. Jackson's new movie, "Profanities in a Post"?

  13. Re:Backwards.... on Judge Orders Permanent Injunction Against Psystar · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Because Apple didn't tell Psystar that they could sell OS X machines as long as they didn't sell Windows or Linux machines as well. They just said, "You can't sell OS X machines."

    This has nothing to do with monopolies or anti-trust.

  14. Re:Damages? on Swiss Geologist On Trial For Causing Earthquakes · · Score: 1

    Village? Basel city has a population of about 170,000 [...]

    There, fixed that for you. Damn commas, always jumping around and hanging upside-down.

  15. Re:Headup display on Are Sat-Nav Systems Becoming Information Overload? · · Score: 1

    I'd prefer not to have to read the map upside down (bottom of the phone facing is closest to me) or backwards (phone is rotated around so the top is closest to me).

  16. Re:Where does this leave GIMP? on GIMP Dropped From Ubuntu 10.04 · · Score: 1

    1> But, what does GIMP stand for?
    2> GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program
    1> And what does GNU stand for?
    2> GNU stands fo-
    3> I'm gonna stop this right here.

  17. Re:Bogey on Fear Detector To Sniff Out Terrorists · · Score: 1

    ...except for me and my primate. -- Lennon / McCartney (approx.)

  18. Re:Insightful on Iraq Swears By Dowsing Rod Bomb Detector · · Score: 4, Informative

    Presuming that those "tiny ferrite dots being pumped around" are iron in your blood, you're wrong. Blood iron isn't ferrous.

    Divining has long been shown to be explained by the ideomotor effect, environmental cues [1], and confirmation bias. It isn't any better than chance.

    If you think your abilities are genuine, allow me to introduce you to the 1 Million Dollars that must be waiting for you over at the JREF. http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/1m-challenge.html

    [1] Cues that anyone can pick up on, nothing that is unique to dowsing or dowsers.

  19. Re:All hail his Most Worshipful Obama! on Barack Obama Wins the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize · · Score: 1

    Sure, but would your post get +1 or -1 Ironic?

  20. Re:More or less irrelevant on How Dangerous Could a Hacked Robot Possibly Be? · · Score: 1

    Right, because no one would ever do something purely for the challenge and then release their work.

  21. Re:*sigh* on DHS Ponders "Improving" Terrorism Alert System · · Score: 1

    I find this bit incredibly appropriate.

    The story is thought to have originated with the work of German physiologist Friedrich Goltz, who demonstrated that a frog will indeed remain in slowly heated water, but only if its brain is removed.

  22. Re:This is nonsense on Universal "Death Stench" Repels Bugs of All Types · · Score: 1

    Evolution occurs on a species level, not an individual one. Also, evolution isn't "directed" towards anything. It's random mutations, and those which end up being more beneficial are the ones that stick around.

    In this case, it's entirely feasible to imagine multiple species developing a common scent that is avoided by all. It would after all improve the chances of survival for the _entire_ population. There are many species of insect and plant which have bitter tastes as well. Such features may not be beneficial at all to the individual plant, but to the population they discourage future meals.

    Then again, it may have simply evolved in a common ancestor to them all.

  23. Re:lets classify Vista on The Press Releases of the Damned · · Score: 1

    Do not taunt Windows Vista.

  24. Re:mmhmmm on NASA Developing Nuclear Reactor For Moon and Mars · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...unless you're ok with only breathing during the day...

    I don't know about you, but I SLEEP during the night. Sheesh, this isn't rocket surgery.

  25. Re:Better back your files up on Google Two Years Into Overhaul of the Google File System · · Score: 2, Informative

    Couple days?

    Install OfflineIMAP or Getmail, write the config file, schedule cron, launchd, etc., and be done with it. Shouldn't take more than an hour. The bulk of that should be working through the config and both products include healthy examples.