A thread for crowdfunding projects, so we can just sit and shill, maybe get some traffic if we don't have many friends or relatives to fund our projects.

I discovered at one point that our hot chocolate machine at school was crawling with insect larvae. Almost drank a cup full of baby bugs. They shut down the machine and never returned it.

>>10462
Yeah, pretty much.

It's still a ways off, but I find it interesting to note that according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine_patent the United States signed http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agreement_on_Trade-Related_Aspects_of_Intellectual_Property_Rights in 1995, and it takes 20 years for patents to expire, so in 2015 we should start seeing the results of redefining patent terms.

>>10463
It's weird. I'm not afraid of food, or allergic to anything, nor am I self-conscious about my weight (I actually wish I weighed more), but my stomach clenches when I eat, and I catch my breath like I've just ran a mile at full speed.

My dad and my siblings snark at me about it. They snark about how much more they can eat, how I look like I'm anorexic, how I'm a baby and I can't eat spicy food like them. And then I feel like I'm either gonna throw up or pass out. I really wanted to punch my brother after the event I mentioned in >>10462, but I just couldn't.

How do you know sound quality just by listening to it? Obviously noticeable faults can be easily heard, but I mean, something that's listenable versus something that supposedly sounds amazing?

>>10460
If I understand it right, pure quality is something of a moving target. There are people trained to listen to the utmost quality; the "audio fidelity" to the original source, or how close it sounds to being in the room with instruments. What affects this is that, throughout the industry, as time goes on, sounds get re-used, rerecorded, and and sometimes in inferior ways. The very act of creating a record is supposedly done by taking a master copy that corrodes over time with each copy made for distribution. A lot of quality is apparently somewhat lost in trans-coding live instrumentation into algorithmically generated mp3 sound files.

That said, most mp3s come in the 132 to 320 kbps range. The higher the kbps, the smoother the algorithmic curve of the sound is, the "crisper" the audio is, aka individual tracks and elements of the song become clearer. Most music cds are in the 320 range? In any case, most people don't notice sound differences outside that range, or at least not if they aren't trained to do so.

What I tend to look for in headphones and audio equipment is clarity and durability. You can always crank the volume, but that shit can damage your hearing over time. But if you can get a clear sound at low volume then it's only gonna sound better the louder it gets.

>>10456
>HD598
I got my pair back when it was $170. After the HD700, Sennheiser price-fixed all their headphones at MSRP and now it's hard to find it for less than $250. I wouldn't recommend it at that price.

>>10460
It's hard to explain, but I'll try.

Cheaper (as in build quality) speakers/headphones usually either sound flat, distorted, or have really overextended bass. Better ones usually address one or more of those problems. I use Sennheiser HD598s driven by a Fiio E10. The sound is reasonable on most songs. The mids are forward, and fucking AMAZING for songs with a ton of vocals, the highs are turned down a bit to prevent fatigue, and the bass is really light (probably the biggest flaw of the headphones.) The (comparatively) balanced sound and soundstage make the whole headphone shine. Media with good dynamic range make you feel like you're right there. They don't sound as good as my goal headphones, the Hifiman HE-500s, but they're more comfortable and have a better soundstage (which is great for games and movies.)

Reduced distortion is a given on better headphones, but the most common flaws of higher tier headphones are reduced bass (because cheap bassy headphones have given bass itself a bad name for a lot of people) and increased, harsh highs (I CAN HEAR SO MANY DETAILS NOW LOLOLOLOL). Do your research before buying speakers/headphones, and ALWAYS DEMO EQUIPMENT IN PERSON BEFORE BUYING IT. Conventions and audio shops are good for this. Some companies have loan programs too that let you try stuff for a month before buying them.

I'm borderline dyslexic when it comes to math, so I don't enjoy doing it, but I respect it and its place in the world.

One thing that confuses me is that the Kickstarter for a comic book called "The Call" has been on here for a while. I think I might have seen it after I linked Spider Stories, so maybe the person behind it was thinking people would like other stories about Africa. That reasoning itself makes sense, but that particular Kickstarter has run out of time over a year ago, and the comic apparently exists as a webcomic with its own site, so I don't know why whoever is paying for the ad wouldn't be linking directly to that.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/otherfab/the-othermill-custom-circuits-at-your-fingertips?ref=category

here's a thing

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/435742530/udoo-android-linux-arduino-in-a-tiny-single-board?ref=category

NOD32 is pretty much the best you can get as far as a general antivirus goes, but you'll uh, have to go through some other means if you want "free."

>>10430
>>10431
A little late but these are basically good. you want 1 frontline always on AV, and stuff like Combofix, Roguekiller and Malwarebytes when you actually get infected.

Frontline AV use changes by the month but I generally recommend MSE (Microsoft Security Essentials) as it's free and integrates quite nicely with windows. For paid options, NOD32 is incredibly good, if a little invasive (may cause some issues when installing certain games). Norton is still listed as one of the top performers but I haven't been that enamored of its' UI design and options in dealing with infected files as of late.

Also, Adblock and Noscript are very good ideas on whatever browser you're running, and try not to open too many attachments from weird people you don't know.

I use Combofix, Malwarebytes, Dr. Web CureIt, TDSSkiller, and the like when I'm infected or want to check, but I need a new, good free antivirus program. I was using Kaspersky, which I really enjoyed, but, uh, I couldn't keep it. I used a trial version of ESET and it was okay, although it didn't really have an option to remove it afterward, and using an uninstaller I downloaded online fucked up my computer bad. After that disaster, I'm now using Avira, and not sure yet if it's any good or not. I was going to use Avast, but I kept getting a BSOD every time I tried to install the fucker.

Any advice/opinions?

Hello, I've recently been having problems with my computer.

For starters, none of my browsers will play certain video sites (Blip, Xhamster) however youtube works.
Secondly, I can't download any file that's bigger than say 50 mb. Whenever I click on a download for a file that size, the download won't start at all.

Has anyone else have problems like this? I'm on a Windows 7, by the way.

>>10453
Okay, generally, nothing on your machine is going to restrict your downloads unless you have a program making a lot of connections, like a Torrent client. If you're using an AntiVirus with extreme security features (Like NOD32 or Norton), it may restrict traffic a bit, but that shouldn't actually be the case.

Youtube functions because it loads its' videos very piecemeal, giving you a lot of small file parts before assembling them on your computer. Are you running over a wireless signal at extreme range? Spotty wireless connections can be dropped when you try to push too much data through on extremely weak signals.

I've been having a huge problem with the sound on my desktop for the last few months and it's driving me to violence. My computer is old and shitty. I call it Frankie because he's built from parts of other computers. He's old and slow but generally reliable except in this area.

Anyways, what happens is when listening to music on anything when the song/playlist is over and not on a loop, the sound for the whole computer just stops. When this happens even Winamp, which I mainly use and is very reliable on my comp, stops playing sound. It has the sound bar (pic is what I mean. idk what that part is called) staying flat and moving back and forth. (Again, see pic. It's not a moving gif but I hope it gets the point across). It will also just cut off mid song. It almost always does this when my computer locks up/has a spaz attack. The only ways I've found to fix it is to log off or restart. Having to do this every couple of hours is highly annoying.

I asked my brother who used to fix computers for a living for help but he's a lazy asshole who said "UHHHH idk It could be your soundcard I guess or something I'd have to look at it I guess but I won't. Ktnxbye" Help plz ):

>>10436
> there's a real question whether physical media is wholly necessary.
Maybe in the US, but a lot of places in the world don't have the same internet speeds or the same internet services, like Netflix.

>>10455
A lot of places in the USA have pretty shitty internet connections, actually. Especially in the south only major cities tend to have even a choice between internet providers unless you go with terrible data plan satellite options.

>>10455
>>10457
This is why I think it will become the de facto standard for physical media. Even in places with low bandwidth, if you just leave the download alone long enough then there's no worry. But that will mean shoving blu-ray players and burners out to everyone for the physical discs

Quick general tips:
-Anything you buy off the iTunes Store & App Store will always always remember the Apple ID used to purchase it. There is absolutely no way to transfer ownership or merge two Apple IDs, though if you know both account's passwords it's not much hassle.
-Lot of great free university course lectures on iTunes U.

For iPhones/iPads/iTouches:
-If you have wi-fi at home, turn on iCloud backups. It'll happen overnight and save increments so you can go back a bit further than the last backup. If the 5 GB isn't enough space, you need to import your Camera Roll or omit a few apps from the backup.
-Get a file sharing app, I use USB Disk Pro. They're the best way to load data from a computer without doing a sync. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4094 has info.

I am a little disheartened that when people say "Apple", they usually now mean "everything Apple makes except the actual Mac". Which is sort of sad for me. I like my MacBook Pro, my iPod, and my iPhone. I haven't found a reason to buy any kind of tablet yet, I'm waiting for it to do something my laptop can't in order to justify buying one.

The App Store is great on mobile, but utter shit on computers. At least add a darn wishlist button, jeez.

I helped an old man fix his favorite flashlight the day before a hurricane.
I did it with a paperclip.

It's not the most impressive thing I've done, but it made me feel all warm and fuzzy.

I helped an old man fix his favorite flashlight the day before a hurricane.
I did it with a paperclip.

It's not the most impressive thing I've done, but it made me feel all warm and fuzzy.

As apple tech support: Invented an efficient multi-stage process for pruning duplicate files out of an iTunes library which had duplicates created at multiple times for multiple reasons.

It was the worst mess of an iTunes music library I had ever seen, 75% of the 16k files were redundant and duplicate file remover software wasn't able to take out more than 10%. Any normal en-masse dupe removal would have have left them with less than half of their good content.

This process was guaranteed to never remove every copy of a given file. My sups had me write it up, it got added to a sort of master grognard reference package for the call center.

>>10401
>>10405
>>10408
If you dress up for a con, especially in Warhammer, you're gonna get looks from non-con goers, guns or no.

>>10409
I just don't understand why people get treated like freaks as a result. Sure, it's weird and unexpected to a non-geek, and even as a person who's cosplayed in the past, I sure as hell don't know a good 50% of what I see people cosplaying as, but I respect the time and energy that goes into making a costume regardless.

>>10409
I just don't understand why people get treated like freaks as a result. Sure, it's weird and unexpected to a non-geek, and even as a person who's cosplayed in the past, I sure as hell don't know a good 50% of what I see people cosplaying as, but I respect the time and energy that goes into making a costume regardless.

I did it for science.
If I don't make it back, tell my wife I love her very much.

>>10310
>smack-talking my Boo Berry

Aw hell naw.

>>10311
>>mfw they changed the box recently