Blabberbox:Random blog-like posts from pftq.Share on Twitter

Founder of Bitcoin

March 6th, 2014 | Posted by pftq in Blabberbox | #
Most interesting piece to read in a while.  They pretty much ruined Satoshi's life now though, if the article is accurate about how much he values his privacy (and assuming it's actually him).  Absolutely no shame in the media these days.
http://mag.newsweek.com/2014/03/14/bitcoin-satoshi-nakamoto.html
1359 unique view(s)

The Train

February 15th, 2014 | Posted by pftq in Thought of the Day | #
The problem with many people is they're waiting for a train but when some old bus comes along, and they see the train so far away in the distance, they go ahead and take that bus, even when it's going the wrong way.
505 unique view(s)

Skills Resume

February 2nd, 2014 | Posted by pftq in Random Stuff | #
A short summary of the skills I've accumulated throughout my life, almost all of which are self-taught (school only confused me and made up names for things I was already doing <_< ).  Much thanks for the support from online gaming communities I was active with in 2003-2007 back when the internet was much smaller.  I have been programming and making games since I was 12, creating short films and composing music since I was 14, and trading stocks since I was 18.  My latest projects and activities can be found at my creations page.

Technology and Multimedia
• Programming: HTML/CSS, PHP, (My)SQL, Java(Script), AS3, C++/#, Hadoop, Ruby, Python
• Video/Photo: After Effects, Premiere, Encore, Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator.
   - Post,...[More]
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To the Moon

January 24th, 2014 | Posted by pftq in Stuck in My Head | #
To the Moon by Kan Gao
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Happy New Year's Day 2014

January 1st, 2014 | Posted by pftq in Blabberbox | #
Found the best view for New Year's Eve fireworks on top of my apartment in SF, which overlooks the Bay Bridge and Ferry Building.  Now I got to get my camera skills back up to par.



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String of Surprises

November 30th, 2013 | Posted by pftq in Thought of the Day | #
Before I even speak, they walk away... A string of unthrown surprises, never to see the light of day.
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Lack of Real Ambition

November 28th, 2013 | Posted by pftq in Society | #
I totally agree with a recent article here about many "ambitious" ventures nowadays being rather small in vision (or not really world changing as the author describes it):
http://www.mercurynews.com/michelle-quinn/ci_24582668/quinn-startups-lack-ambition-but-may-save-world

The article nails what has been bugging me ever since I moved to the bay area. The hard part about describing this is that technically these projects are ambitious since they're already going outside the set career path and all, but it's like doing the bare minimal community service hours to claim you volunteer actively.

It's hard to tell if it's a Bay Area thing or something trending amongst society as a whole. My hope is that it's just a regional thing, or else my moving away to start over will be in vain. Yet where do you move to find people who actually want to take over the world (as opposed to just making some app to help you find a taxi -_-)?
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Start Menu for Windows 8

November 26th, 2013 | Posted by pftq in 42 | #
Windows 8 is pretty fast and streamlined compared to Windows 7, despite all the negative hype on its Metro screen and whatnot.  You can disable the Metro screen and restore the Start button by downloading Classic Shell.  With Windows 8.1, you can use the 8.1 start button to bring up the classic start menu as well.
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Battle for Immortality

November 21st, 2013 | Posted by pftq in Stuck in My Head | #
Battle for Immortality (for Houdini SFX Reel 2012) by VideoHelper
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Watson Cloud

November 14th, 2013 | Posted by pftq in Blabberbox | #
Can't wait to use this.  Sounds just like "Multivac" from The Last Question if you've read it.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2063500/ibm-to-offer-watson-supercomputer-as-cloud-development-platform.html

Anyone want to partner up and code for it when it becomes available? Grin
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Polymath

October 20th, 2013 | Posted by pftq in Thought of the Day | #
Jack of all trades? Maybe if I were a master of none and each of my trades alone were not better than your mastery of one.
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Childhood's End

October 12th, 2013 | Posted by pftq in Recently Read | #
Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
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Origins

September 24th, 2013 | Posted by pftq in Stories | #
We started on a planet once located in the Asteroid Belt, but that exploded.  We came to Mars, but the atmosphere blew away.  Finally, we came here but hit our heads and called ourselves Earthlings.
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Last of Us Cover

September 21st, 2013 | Posted by pftq in Stuck in My Head | #
Last of Us Cover by Elspeth Eastman
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Windows Upgrade with Clean Install

August 6th, 2013 | Posted by pftq in 42 | #
In case you accidentally format your drive before installing the upgrade disc... No registry edits or anything...

     Just had the trouble of accidentally going the Custom > Format route for upgrading my Windows computer.  It ended up formatting and erasing my old existing Windows before installing the upgrade.  Unfortunately, that meant the upgrade key was not supposed to work anymore.

     An easy way to resolve it is to just leave the key blank so that you can use Windows for 30 days.

     Once logged in, create a folder "Windows.old" in the C:\ drive.

     Then go to Control Panel to activate your Windows copy.  The upgrade serial key will work fine.
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Random Freezes with Nvidia Chipset

August 4th, 2013 | Posted by pftq in 42 | #
Something to look into if you were one of the early adopters of the Nvidia chipset back in 2007-ish and now notice it starting to pause or freeze your computer every so often, especially during high I/O.

I noticed on my end that I tend to get a spam of the following warning in my event viewer during these times:
Warning: nvstor64 “Reset to device, DeviceRaidPort1, was issued.”
Warning: nvstor64 “A request to this device has been cancelled. Device: DeviceRaidPort1″

As usual it's a software/driver issue.

See one way to go about resetting the chipset drivers here:
http://zuki.org.uk/blog/2009/11/random-freezing-stuttering-sound-loops-in-windows-vista-or-7/

For me, it worked to just go to Device Manager > IDE > Nvidia nForce Serial ATA Controller > Properties and disable Command Queuing on the drives being problematic.
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Stopping Link Spam in Coppermine Galleries

August 3rd, 2013 | Posted by pftq in Blabberbox | #
Something I noticed lately is that most spam comments in Coppermine Galleries contain links.  An easy way to block this type of spam (when they get past CAPTCHA which you should also have) is to add the following code in your db_input.php file:

After:
[code]
    check_comment($msg_body);
   ...[More]
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Real Jetpack

July 30th, 2013 | Posted by pftq in Blabberbox | #
Forget the Lockheed Martin jetpack; this one is way better. Grin
Jetman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zgZw3Fgi7I

Going to wait for this to become commercial instead of the LM jetpack which is more like a propeller-powered hovercraft.

If only I was born a few decades later when these are already mainstream.
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Bulverism These Days...

July 29th, 2013 | Posted by pftq in Blabberbox | #
Such a sad interview...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qSTvD0Roog

So much logical fallacy employed here, mostly Bulverism.  Unfortunately, it's hard not to run into these types of fallacious arguments nowadays in any subject or discussion.

Studying logical fallacies and inductive reasoning should be mandatory for all disciplines, if only to avoid stuff like this.
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Wandering Out Lostly

July 27th, 2013 | Posted by pftq in Thought of the Day | #
No matter how far I travel, I can never seem to reach the stars.
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