• Announcements

    • Robin

      Welcome!   03/05/2016

      Welcome, everyone, to the new 910CMX Community Forums. I'm still working on getting them running, so things may change.  If you're a 910 Comic creator and need your forum recreated, let me know and I'll get on it right away.  I'll do my best to make this new place as fun as the last one!

Recommended Posts

20 minutes ago, Arcanimus said:

People who don't use their eyes when searching for something. Particularly the ones who ask for help while standing directly next to the thing they're looking for.

My usual comment to them is, "If it was a snake it'd've bit ya!"

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
7 hours ago, Arcanimus said:

People who don't use their eyes when searching for something. Particularly the ones who ask for help while standing directly next to the thing they're looking for.

My eyes don't seem to connect to the proper neural pathways at times when I'm looking for something. Case in point: yesterday, I couldn't locate my glasses case. Started to panic, but I then realized that the "third mouse" at my novel writing station was actually said case.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I've changed, via strong drugs, my normal go to sleep and thus my normal wake up times.  I now have to adjust my alarms on 4 machines to reflect this.

 

#1stworldproblem

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I seem to be very annoyed  today.
 

Bing, a service I never use has decided that I need multiple emails a day about how great their service is. This is the 4th day in a row I have marked them as spam AND gone to their web site and told them "don't send me squat". Let's see how long it takes for either Gmail to get the idea that any thing from bing is spam or bing to stop sending me crap.

 

This is not may happy face.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
2 hours ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

Waking up between 3:00 a.m. and 3:45 a.m. EVERY SINGLE NIGHT FOR AN ENTIRE SMEGGING WEEK

Yep.  Done that.  One reason I changed sleep aids.  Which work wonders if and only if I avoid caffeine after about 15:00

 

On to "This is not my happy face"

It is more than slightly possible I'm having sleep deprivation issues about now. Not sure what to do about that. Not taking another sleep aid, I know what happens if I take 2 of them in 12 hours. Yeah, I sleep, for like 18 hours. And that would be bad. My normal dead tree sleep aid "Soviet and Russian Armor Design Practices 1945-1995" isn't working either. Meh

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
3 minutes ago, mlooney said:

It is more than slightly possible I'm having sleep deprivation issues about now. Not sure what to do about that. Not taking another sleep aid, I know what happens if I take 2 of them in 12 hours. Yeah, I sleep, for like 18 hours. And that would be bad. My normal dead tree sleep aid "Soviet and Russian Armor Design Practices 1945-1995" isn't working either. Meh

I found a trick that helped me relax and sleep. I put one of my favourite movie or comic reviews from Channel Awesome on my iPad or my smartphone and then play it at a lowish volume. Usually that puts me under in 20 to 30 minutes -- they deal with topics I find relaxing, I know them by heart and I enjoy listening to the voices of the best reviewers.

Obviously you don't have to use exactly my method, but if you have a favourite kind of podcast dealing with a topic that makes you relax, you could try that.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
8 minutes ago, The Old Hack said:

I found a trick that helped me relax and sleep. I put one of my favourite movie or comic reviews from Channel Awesome on my iPad or my smartphone and then play it at a lowish volume. Usually that puts me under in 20 to 30 minutes -- they deal with topics I find relaxing, I know them by heart and I enjoy listening to the voices of the best reviewers.

Obviously you don't have to use exactly my method, but if you have a favourite kind of podcast dealing with a topic that makes you relax, you could try that.

That's more or less what the book about Russian tanks is.  I can rattle off the details of damn near all the cold war era Soviet tanks and know way more about T72 series tanks than an American not working for the Defense Intelligence Agency should know.   And yes, I spelled it out so it was obviously not a typo for CIA.

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
7 minutes ago, mlooney said:

That's more or less what the book about Russian tanks is.  I can rattle off the details of damn near all the cold war era Soviet tanks and know way more about T72 series tanks than an American not working for the Defense Intelligence Agency should know.   And yes, I spelled it out so it was obviously not a typo for CIA.

 

Yeah, I figured. I like to read, too, but my problem is that I get caught up in it and then suddenly it is morning. Podcasts work better for me -- they require no physical activity and I can just lie back, close my eyes and relax.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I know this one goes here.

As I was typing the network missive, Ashley (cat, not character) hacked up a hair ball in the dead center of the MacMini, covering the Apple logo.  I've half a mind to leave it there, but I suspect, knowing Apple, that something bad would happen if I didn't clean it off.  At least it's not over the ridiculously small air vents.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm getting sleep, and plenty of it. However, it feels like all I'm doing is getting more and more tired. I might just be dehydrated, as its upwards of 90 degrees in my room at any given time, and I seem to have sprung a sweat leak like a burst water main. 

1 hour ago, mlooney said:

I know this one goes here.

As I was typing the network missive, Ashley (cat, not character) hacked up a hair ball in the dead center of the MacMini, covering the Apple logo.  I've half a mind to leave it there, but I suspect, knowing Apple, that something bad would happen if I didn't clean it off.  At least it's not over the ridiculously small air vents.

You'd get a cease and desist order in the mail for attempting to re-brand Apple products.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
3 hours ago, Arcanimus said:

You'd get a cease and desist order in the mail for attempting to re-brand Apple products.

Hrm. *scratches head* However likely it is that Apple would respond in this way, I don't quite see 'Hairball Electronics' displacing them as the biggest name in smartphones and tablets on the market.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
57 minutes ago, The Old Hack said:

Hrm. *scratches head* However likely it is that Apple would respond in this way, I don't quite see 'Hairball Electronics' displacing them as the biggest name in smartphones and tablets on the market.

It's not a smartphone or a tablet.  It's a MacMini, running a rather old version of OS X (10.7)  I'm sure they think it's hairball worthy now.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

We're running out of time for the Windows 10 Update, but my writing laptop was rendered useless after my initial update, and I can't rule out Windows 10 as the cause.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Warning the is a long table top RPG geek rant.  You may or may not care

tl;dr version:

  1. Learn how to use the Open Game License or the Community Content Agreement correctly.  It's not that hard, they are single page licenses that try very hard to avoid confusing "legal" wordings.
  2. Don't steal other people's Intellectual property, and if you do, don't try to copyright the resulting derivative work.  That's plain not cool
  3. And for the love of all things lawful good, learn how to format a document or make a PDF that doesn't look like crap,

And now, the rant, in it's full ADHD micro focused and/or hypomanic state glory


As I have said, several times, I'm a more or less free lance table top game designer.  I work on stuff that is mainly released under either the "Open Game License" or the "Creative Commons License" (with out the 'No Commercial  use' flag set on the CCL, for obvious reasons.).  Both of my primary games (D&D and Traveller) have at least one version with parts released under the OGL. (3.x and 5 for D&D, Mongoose Traveller 1st ed).   All of this is well and good.

Now, both Wizards of the Coast and Mongoose have come out with Yet Another License that lets you use large parts of the game canon and all the current rules, not just the OGL parts.   These license are generally know as "Community Content Agreements".   Down side of using the CCA is that you can only sell your product on their (WotC/Mongoose) part of the "One Book Shelf" group of web sites (DM's Guild in the case of D&D, Traveller's Aid Society for Traveller).  These web sites automatically take a 50% cut of your selling price.  The normal for the One Book Shelf websites, is 25% to 35%, depending on several factors as a comparison.

This is all back ground and not why I have a "This is not my happy face" grumble today.

There are now two,  count them 2, 100% legal ways to produce products for these games.  The OGL and the "Community Content Agreement".  There are good reasons to use either, and while right now I'm more OGL, I can see using CCA at some point.

There of course is the 3rd, illegal way, of just stealing using what ever intellectual property you feel like and tossing it up on the internet.   This is also know as "fan work". This may or may not get you a "cease and desist letter" and or sued, depending on how Hasbro's legal department or Matthew Sprange Mongoose is feeling.  Hasbro has a history of legal action to protect IP, Mongoose, being a much newer and smaller company does not, yet.  This 3rd type still isn't what makes me not have a happy face today.

What makes me have my unhappy face is people that fail to do any one of the 3 "correctly"

There are rules you MUST follow if you use either the OGL or the CCA.  I'm not super happy about some of the rules for the CCA, but I understand why they are there and can live with them.  I was part of the group that created the OGL, so I have a very good idea about it and it's what I'm comfortable with.  Even if "potation" doesn't mean what Ryan Dancey claims it does.

For the OGL, one of the things you have to do is put a clear statement as to what is or isn't open game content.  I used to gently remind people of this, pointing out section 8 of the OGL.  I have given up on this and am now making the assumption (supported by the license, this isn't something I pulled out my butt) that if they say it's published under the OGL all of it is open game content.  The make me unhappy thing about the OGL stuff, is people that just say this is published under the OGL, but don't bother putting in the license, which is required, or say it's under the OGL but put the standard copyright statement about "no use with out the written permission of Foo Inc."  Both of these drive me up the wall.

For the CCA there is a bit of magic text you have to include.  About 90% of the people using the CCA are doing that, mainly, I suspect, because they are using the company provided templates, which put it in automatically.   The makes me unhappy about the CCA 10% is they use the graphics and IP that are allowed under the CCA, but don't put the magic words in the document.  I just assume that's Hasbro's problem and avoid using that item as a source.

Now comes the part that leaves me gobsmacked.  People that put out stuff with "stolen" IP in it and then try to copyright the damn thing.  With big ass "scary" warnings.  Again, Hasbro or Mongoose's problem, but it tends to make me a bit suspicious of every thing that person or group has done.  The most annoying version of this is people that do this with either a "Patreon" account or buy via paypal button for their PDF products, plus the odd Kickstarter/GoFundMe project that falls under this.

Finally, to wrap all of this up, if you are going to do either of the 2 legal version, or even the illegal version, please, for the love of all things lawful good, learn how to make a PDF, not just depend on The Homebrewery on NaturalCrit to make your "product" more or less look like 5e players handbook.  And if you do use Homebrewery, learn how to code for it correctly.   The fact that Homebrewery more or less requires Chrome to work is just icing on the cake.  The early days of the web just called, they want their "this web site requires Foo browser to display properly" comment back.


 

    Share this post


    Link to post
    Share on other sites

    This is not my happy face.


     

    While I'm used to Apple marketing being a bunch of liars who lie, I've had a soft spot for their technical side, at least  on the big cat versions of OS X.

    Turns out this was a miss placed trust.  Using the System Preference tool, you can set your self up to use DHCP but set your own DNS, like to Google's rock stable 8.8.8.8.  This tool lies, at least on 10.7.5   For reasons having nothing to do with my network, I had the System Information application running.  After seeing what I needed to see, I happened to look at networking.  The damn thing showed 3 DNS servers, the $#%!@#% Cox ones that fail daily.  So, I go check SysPref, yeah, it's set to 8.8.8.8.

    The only way you can really get to select your own DNS, vs what ever the fork that DHCP hands you is to not use DHCP.  So I changed my internal IP to x.x.x.250 and "poof" network speed went way the hell up.  Which means fewer "ErrorReporter" spawns running, which means more memory and more cycles so every freaking thing runs better.  As I said up top, this is not my happy face.

     

     

    Share this post


    Link to post
    Share on other sites
    15 hours ago, mlooney said:

    This is not my happy face.


     

    While I'm used to Apple marketing being a bunch of liars who lie, I've had a soft spot for their technical side, at least  on the big cat versions of OS X.

    Turns out this was a miss placed trust.  Using the System Preference tool, you can set your self up to use DHCP but set your own DNS, like to Google's rock stable 8.8.8.8.  This tool lies, at least on 10.7.5   For reasons having nothing to do with my network, I had the System Information application running.  After seeing what I needed to see, I happened to look at networking.  The damn thing showed 3 DNS servers, the $#%!@#% Cox ones that fail daily.  So, I go check SysPref, yeah, it's set to 8.8.8.8.

    The only way you can really get to select your own DNS, vs what ever the fork that DHCP hands you is to not use DHCP.  So I changed my internal IP to x.x.x.250 and "poof" network speed went way the hell up.  Which means fewer "ErrorReporter" spawns running, which means more memory and more cycles so every freaking thing runs better.  As I said up top, this is not my happy face.

     

     

    Makes you wonder if some companies develop software that claims to be easy to use, when if fact it only does just enough to satisfy the computer illiterate, but the real meat of getting a system to run best is at the end of an obstacle course that only the tech savvy can figure out.

    Share this post


    Link to post
    Share on other sites
    54 minutes ago, Scotty said:

    Makes you wonder if some companies develop software that claims to be easy to use, when if fact it only does just enough to satisfy the computer illiterate, but the real meat of getting a system to run best is at the end of an obstacle course that only the tech savvy can figure out.

    What, like Microsoft?

    Share this post


    Link to post
    Share on other sites

    As a vet, I've had to come to terms with the fact that a great many people will adopt or buy pets which they really don't know nearly as much about caring for as they should.  They get a dog but don't teach them to do anything more than sit.  They get a budgie and then proceed to feed them seed, or get a rabbit and feed them nothing but rabbit pellets.  They get a cat and don't take them to the vet for ten years, because "they're not sick" and "they had all their shots when they were a kitten."  And then it's my job to try to fix the inevitable problems, and to teach people what I can in one half-hour appointment a year about everything they need to know for the entire rest of the year.  If I'm lucky, they bring in their puppy or kitten when they first get them, and I can spend an hour teaching them everything I can about how to get off on the right foot, simple things they can do from the beginning to avoid big problems later, little things they can do every day that can lead to healthy well-behaved pets.  I can tell them that the best investment in time and money for a new puppy is training classes.  But I can't make them follow my advice, and I certainly can't teach them everything they really need to know.  Some people take the initiative to learn more on their own, but large numbers don't.

    I strongly suspect this is how computer people feel about all those users out there who don't do things the way they know it should be done.  The truth is, there will always be a vast majority of people who don't know everything you all think everyone should know about their computers, be it through disinterest, lack of ability, or just not having the time to learn everything they should know about their car, their house, their kids, their finances, their pets, etc.  For this vast majority, a computer is something that should be easy to use for what they want to use it for, and if it isn't working right, like their car they expect to take it in to someone else to fix.  They will never get into the real meat of the system, and they don't need their computer to run like a Ferari, they just need a nice Corolla, fairly reliable without any tinkering under the hood and not too expensive.  And since they'll never actually know what they're doing under the hood, it's just as well they not start poking and prodding the innards.

    I'll take care of the basics, like changing the router password off of default.  And I'll hope that the guy who fixes my computer will call me when his dog is sick instead of trying a dozen home remedies he found on Google.

    Share this post


    Link to post
    Share on other sites
    14 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

    As a vet, I've had to come to terms with the fact that a great many people will adopt or buy pets which they really don't know nearly as much about caring for as they should.  They get a dog but don't teach them to do anything more than sit.  They get a budgie and then proceed to feed them seed, or get a rabbit and feed them nothing but rabbit pellets.  They get a cat and don't take them to the vet for ten years, because "they're not sick" and "they had all their shots when they were a kitten."  And then it's my job to try to fix the inevitable problems, and to teach people what I can in one half-hour appointment a year about everything they need to know for the entire rest of the year.  If I'm lucky, they bring in their puppy or kitten when they first get them, and I can spend an hour teaching them everything I can about how to get off on the right foot, simple things they can do from the beginning to avoid big problems later, little things they can do every day that can lead to healthy well-behaved pets.  I can tell them that the best investment in time and money for a new puppy is training classes.  But I can't make them follow my advice, and I certainly can't teach them everything they really need to know.  Some people take the initiative to learn more on their own, but large numbers don't.

    That must suck, and I know how it feels to have customers or clients who just do things you know are horribly wrong. I work as an accountant, and I know several clients who do not seem to realise that constantly buying and selling shares (IMO, that's almost outright gambling) are a surefire way to lose money.

    Makes me think my little sister's two cats are quite lucky compared to other pet cats. When one got sick, our mother took him to the vet immediately. Vet said it was an allergy reaction by the way, meaning he isn't allowed outside much because he's allergic to something even if we aren't sure what it is.

    Share this post


    Link to post
    Share on other sites

    I'm putting this here because we don't have a "things that cause you to wake up screaming in pain" thread.
     

    I clenched my left hand into a fist this morning in a dream. That the hand with the broken knuckle bone. My God that hurt. Hand is still throbbing, even typing, which normally isn't a thing hurts. Holding a tea cup is right out.   I've take just over the safe limit of OTC pain pills this morning. (that would a full gram of ibuprofen, which is 200 mg more than I used to take in the army.  They gave out 800 mg tablets so often it was call "grunt candy".  Imagine my surprise when I got out and found that level was prescription strength.   That's OK, if nothing else, the army teaches you how to count to 4.  Granted you have to marching or running at the time. :P

    Well, it's way past time to get up any way.

    Share this post


    Link to post
    Share on other sites
    11 hours ago, partner555 said:

    That must suck, and I know how it feels to have customers or clients who just do things you know are horribly wrong. I work as an accountant, and I know several clients who do not seem to realise that constantly buying and selling shares (IMO, that's almost outright gambling) are a surefire way to lose money.

    Makes me think my little sister's two cats are quite lucky compared to other pet cats.

    Eh, it's not so bad, I was just trying to convey that most people have a great many areas where they don't know as much as they "should" and to be realistic, no one can know everything they "should know."  We all have to try to balance varying demands.

    Share this post


    Link to post
    Share on other sites

    You know although I don't watch Game of Thrones nor have I read the novels, I place the show in high regard for a lot of things. Chief among which is how they broadcast the show at the same time almost everywhere in the world at roughly the same time (give or take a 12 hour to 2 day gap, which is reasonable).

    I bring this up because I wanna watch several shows on Disney Channel (one of which just recently released its season 2 premiere), and sadly they're not doing the Game of Thrones approach of broadcasting it everywhere. Instead, the season premiere for South East Asia is still going to be at November, which is a LONG time to wait...

    Not that it stops me though. I have ways to circumvent it.

    Share this post


    Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Create an account or sign in to comment

    You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

    Create an account

    Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

    Register a new account

    Sign in

    Already have an account? Sign in here.

    Sign In Now