TECHvise

Review of ChatRoulette

Seth Hall — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 22:11:54 +0000

Ah, the smell of randomness, porn, and dumb people; ChatRoulette offers that sweet smell and then some. I wandered across ChatRoulette.com about two days ago and since then I have become *sigh* addicted to it. I finally had a reason to setup that webcam I had kept stored for months and put it to good use. ChatRoulette allows you to connect with random people all over the world via webcam and/or chat. I’ve literally been able to travel the world from my chair. From a coffee shop in Berlin, to a sidewalk cafe in France. Hell, I was even in the bedroom of dominatrix and for once I wasnt tied up.

ChatRoulette has gained a strong user base and upwards of 20000 users if not more use it every night. It’s filled with mystery, suspense and porn. Since it’s random connections you never know who you’re going to get and with ChatRoulette not requiring registration or age verification the true sense of Anonymity shows through. In the daytime you find quite a few people, but at night as said by an individual I talked with from Texas, the ” creepers come out”. In a sense the creepers are always there, I seen probably 100 penises in the short time I’ve been there and it’s disturbing. ChatRoulette I think will shortly come under scrutinization due to the amount of children who use the service and the fact that many are using the site as a porn platform.

Of course not everyone is like that, there are actually people on there that are just looking to have a conversation with random people. But for every 1 of those there are 6 others who are doing naughty things. I think that the technology of this site could come in handy and be used for other ways and I think more site will start to see that and follow suit. But for now ChatRoulette is really one of a kind.

Earlier I mentioned Anonymity and that is going to play a big role in the future of the site. A recent article a Mod at Dream.In.Code posted was about the anonymity of the Internet and how he feels its a move in the wrong direction. In a way I totally agree, we should have no reason to hide who we really are, if you dont like who you really then do something to change it. I used to lie online to make myself look cooler; when I was 15. As I grew older I realized I liked who I was, and liked the direction I was heading that I have no reason to lie about it and have sense never made up a story to make myelf look good. Below are a few points he thinks would help.
—Don’t post anonymously unless you really might be in danger.
—If you put effort into Wikipedia articles, put even more effort into using your personal voice and expression outside of the wiki to help attract people who don’t yet realize they are interested in the topics you contributed to.
—Create a Web site that expresses something about who you are that won’t fit into the template available to you on a social networking site.
—Post a video once in a while that took you 100 times more time to create than it takes to view.
—Write a blog post that took weeks of reflection before you heard the inner voice that needed to come out.

Here is the link, its a fantastic article and really get you thinking. Virtual Reality Pioneer Says the Internet is Making People Trolls, Needs More Human Input

The typical “American Dream”. Is it for me?

Seth Hall — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 21:22:49 +0000

What is every Americans dream? That’s a hard question to answer because we’re all different, we all have different interests, different tastes so all that comes into play when asking that question. Most would think be successful in business, have an awesome job, have a family and be comfortable money-wise. But is that really the case? Is that all there is to strive for for us to be happy with our lives?

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my life, where I’m headed in the future and my idea of the American dream. To be honest while all the items I listed above sound enticing; I think I will be pursuing another route. Now when I say that some might think I’m going to be a bum, a nomad traveling place to place, not able to hold down a job or use the skills I have to my advantage. That’s definitely not the case. Over the next few weeks and months I will be exploring other opportunities both personally, emotionally and career-wise.

There are so many things I want to do with my live, with other peoples lives and with the world as a whole. Now don’t get me wrong, I want all those things above and I will strive everyday to get them. But there has to be something else. One thing that tops everything else and makes anything else seem minute.

I’m determined, I know I can make this work and will be doing something everyday to reach my goal. I’m young, I’m eager, and I know I can get whatever I want despite any obstacle. Leave me a comment or write me describing what your “American Dream” is.

Weight Loss and Weight Training

Seth Hall — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 23:39:02 +0000

Ok, I know not many people read these posts now but Im hoping in the future that changes. My new years resolution was to get serious about weight loss. Im 20 years old weigh about 450 lbs and I realize I’m a big fan of being alive. So I’ve decided to get serious about this. I’m hoping that writing a journal or blog about this it will give me more motivation. I know this blog was supposed to be about Technology but I’ve decided to kind of make it about everything.

So here’s the plan, I’ve been consuming about 400 calories a day, I know some may say thats unhealthy. But hear me out, I’ve been eating chicken, vegetables and drinking lots of water. I actually feel full after eating just a little bit of something. The water makes me feel more full faster and also helps my metabolism. Since I work at a desk 10 a days, 4 days a week I bought a portable cycling machine that allows me to sit anywhere and act like Im on a bike. I’ve been doing this for about a week and I can feel my legs getting stronger and feel better overall.

I’m also going to get back into weights. In 7th grade I was maxing out at 185 on benchpress, over the years I stopped lifting weights and just tried and was able to put out 10 reps with 100lbs. Thats sad, really sad. I’ve got to get serious about this. I’m tired of being fat, and unattractive to most people. I do alright with the ladies now but Im hoping losing 100-150 lbs does better. So here goes, I’m doing this for me, my family and my friends. I just hope someday I’m able to look back and it might help someone else too.

WMDC on Windows 7 Ultimate N

Seth Hall — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 19:46:57 +0000

So last week I decided to go from Vista Ultimate to 7 Ultimate N. Now, I have a Windows Mobile 6.1 Smartphone. My WMDC worked flawlessly in Vista, all my files synced I was able to use ther Internet Sharing app from my phone and I loved it. However, I finally went away from home on business a couple days ago and I needed to use the Internet. So I went to plug my phone into the laptop and it didnt recognize it. Luckily I had my WMDC CD that came with the phone so I popped it in to install it. Apparently, WMDC requires some media features which 7 Ultimate N and KN don’t have. So after going without the internet I got back home and started searching. I found this article explaining you needed the Windows Media Services Update for 7. So I downloaded here at work onto my Thumb drive and am about to go home and install it on my laptop to see if it works or not. Its a .msu file so Im hoping my version of 7 has the Wusa.exe client so I can install it. Otherwise, Ill have to find something else.

Anyways, this is kind of ridiculous. There a lot of business users who want to sync their phones with their computer to get files, contacts and other information yet we have to go download the Media Services update to install WMDC. Ill update when I get back to work after I’ve tried installing it to let you know if it works.

UPDATE: Luckily it worked. I installed the Media Services update from the article above. I was then able to install my WMDC and connect my phone up for Internet Sharing. The big thing is I got it all done today before this Ice Storm hit and I might be without Cox Internet tomorrow.

Moving a Bordless Form in VisualBasic.NET

Seth Hall — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 03:34:32 +0000

Ive seen this topic quite a bit in the VB.NET Forum I frequent; people wanting to move Borderless Forms and such. So here’s a tutorial to simply show you how easy it is.

First, we need to declare our variables:

CODE

Dim drag As Boolean Dim mousex As Integer Dim mousey As Integer

Next we need to tell the application its time to drag by setting drag to true and then letting the form know which way or location to head by getting the position of our Cursor:

CODE

Private Sub Form1_MouseDown(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.MouseEventArgs) Handles Me.MouseDown

drag = True

mousex = Windows.Forms.Cursor.Position.X  - Me.Left

mousey = Windows.Forms.Cursor.Position.Y - Me.Top

End Sub

The code below actually does the moving of the Form for us. Since we clicked on the Form, drag was set to true so now as we move our mouse the Form will follow:

CODE

Private Sub Form1_MouseMove(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.MouseEventArgs) Handles Me.MouseMove

If drag Then

Me.Top = Windows.Forms.Cursor.Position.Y -  mousey

Me.Left = Windows.Forms.Cursor.Position.X - mousex

End If

End Sub

Finally, its time to stop dragging the form so as we release our mouse from the Form, drag needs to be set to false so it wont move anywhere until its clicked again:

CODE

Private Sub Form1_MouseUp(ByVal  sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.MouseEventArgs) Handles Me.MouseUp

drag = False

End Sub