Avalon

Another line of thought I had on this subject will probably be laughed off but I'll post it any way. Could it be possible that we are just a test subject for an alien race? Now before you fall off your chair laughing, think about this. Why is it that a lot religious faiths show 'angels' and other significant religious figures as having glowing halos? Could it be that these religious figures were in fact aliens and we were put on this planet as an experiment, much like we would breed bacteria in a petrie dish? The aliens could be throwing in a few 'natural disasters' to see how we react and keep the population under control. Who knows?Just because we can't travel very far in space, (in relative terms) why does that mean that an intelligent life form other than our own cannot travel what we perceive to be immense distances? We are currently bound by our own knowledge of spaceflight, who is to say that there is not some other form of propulsion out there that could be used that we have no knowledge of as yet? It took a long time to discover electricity when you put it in perspective.As far as our universe goes, we are mere infants. Surely given the age and size of the universe, the probability of another life form being out there is pretty good. But as it was aptly said in Star Trek, "It's life, but not as we know it." We just have trouble accepting it because we have been isolated for what we think is a very long time. Our perception of time is based on our lifespan, what if an alien life-form could live for centuries? Our perception of time would very different to theirs, a year to us could be like a millisecond to them.Yes, my thoughts seem very far fetched, but I am open to almost any possibility. There is a lot we don't know about our universe, let alone the multitude of other universes that may be out there.

I think you have just revealed Australia's secret plans. I would be very surprised if we don't see some new faces in the 2 remaining Test matches. Keep in mind however, Australia wants to win the Test series 5-0 just to prove that they are the best in the world. Perhaps this is being arrogant, but the loss to England at the last series really hurt the Australian team so they want to make amends. Yes there will be a few players retiring, but there are many new players that could easily take their place in the team without sacrificing the quality of the team. Sure, you can't expect them to be a Shane Warne or Gilchrist, but over the years there have been many great players that people thought were irreplaceable. For example, who ever thought there would be a wicketkeeper as good as Marsh ever again? Gilchrist filled those shoes easily, and as a bonus, he can bat too. Players come and go, if they are good enough, each will make their own mark on the game.

This is the comment that I can really identify with. I have been in a similar situation many times, not so much with 'black' people, but certainly other races. Just because I don't like particular person, if they happen to be of ethnic background then usually they will accuse me of being racist. I try to explain it is them that I have problem with, not their race, but of course by that stage they are beyond listening. I do get a little annoyed when immigrants refuse to adopt the laws and cultures of a country they choose to live in. Remember, it was their choice to come to this country, (Australia) why can't they accept the culture of the country? I'm not saying they should disregard their own culture, but do not accuse me of being racist just because I am following my own culture. By this I mean, the banning of nativity scenes and plays at kindergartens and the like because it may offend people with other than Christian beliefs. This country is primarily of Christian belief, therefore we should be able to celebrate our culture in ways we have done so for many years. After all, the Chinese here have accepted our culture and celebrated their own, (Chinese New Year for example) for many decades, why can't others choosing to live in this country do the same?

I don't think she needs to do anything. These books have been so successful for her she could easily retire if she wanted to. In fact, it might not be a bad choice for her, retire at the top of her game. I know all the HP fans out there wouldn't be happy about that, but she can't keep writing forever.

Australia does have a lot of new talent coming in, but as the seasoned players are doing so well, why would you change? Players earn their spot on the team and when a new player earns a spot, he will be played. I heard today that Shane Warne is thinking of retiring, (not before he gets his 700 wickets I hope) so that will give a new person a spot. As the saying goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."Don't forget, it wasn't that many years ago when Australian cricket was not doing so well. "Make hay while the sun shines" I say.

I really like the sig SM, the only thing that I think spoils it is the text. What happened there? You normally do a really good job with text... do it in a hurry or something?

Unfortunately my daughter was caught by one of these scams and it cost her a cell phone she was selling on Ebay. She did not send the phone until she had confirmation of money being transferred to her account, or so she thought. As it turned out the confirmation email was fake, (she didn't look at it close enough) and sent the phone overseas, not exactly sure where. The fake email was fairly easy to spot, poor grammar, excessive use of punctuation marks and other things, had I seen the email before she sent the phone I would have told her not to send it. An important lesson to be learned is that reputation on Ebay is very important. This buyer did not have any reputation because he was new. As soon we spotted the scam we posted negative responses, but it didn't matter as he was not to be seen again. No doubt he will just create a new username and scam some other poor person. Ebay is a great tool for buying and selling, but you must be very careful, there are many people out there just waiting to rip you off.

Here's my entry, good luck everyone!

As Christmas nears, it is appropriate we use the festive season for this SOTW theme. Sig size: Between 300 and 400 wide, between 100 and 150 high (This will be strictly enforced) Brush Style: Freestyle. Render: Christmas (what ever Christmas is to you. e.g. Hanukkah) Colour: Match render Text: Related to render but must include your forum name somewhere on the sig. Animation: Optional. Given a lot of people will be busy preparing for their festivities, entries for this SOTW will close on 31 December 2006. (depending on the number of entries, this may be extended) Good luck everyone!

SOTW seems to come and go in waves. I remember not so long ago I was trying to revive SOTW, and with the help of others we did for a while. But like any project, it needs to have a team (or at least 1 person) driving it along. This is where I personally have failed and I apologize for this, I made some grand statements about getting SOTW back on track but failed to follow through with a consistent effort to ensure it keeps on track. Over the last few months my level of contribution has been very poor. Buff's words have now stirred me into action, and I will try to put some life into the SOTW.I don't think the prizes are necessarily the answer, we tried that and I don't think it made a lot of difference, even though I was a supporter of the idea. I think communication will help, frequent posts in the SOTW section to keep it in people's minds and encourage them to participate just for the fun of it.I like Mich's idea of using the alphabet for choosing SOTW themes, but there are many other things we can use for themes. Stay tuned!

A big YES from me too! As Kubi said, all you need is a little work on your text, (not my strong point either) but I think you will be a valuable member of the team.

Haven't we had something like this before? Something called a microdot? I think this must be a joke. How would you preserve the paper? Any organic product that is biodegradable, would do exactly that, degrade and become unusable. One way to protect the paper would be to encase it in plastic. But wouldn't that go against one of his objectives, to make the paper easy to dispose of and reduce 'e-waste'?While the idea sounds neat, I can't see it being implemented in the near future.

Is this something like what you were looking for? I also added a white border at 85% opacity.

One that I have used before and found quite good is SPAW. You can find more information about it at the developers web site, http://www.solmetra.com/spaw/ Here is an image of SPAW's tool bar, as you can see, it provides quite a few features. I hope that helps.

I agree wholeheartedly with BuffaloHelp here, going with the newest of anything is not always a good thing, mostly a bad thing from my experience. For a simple example of this, just think about how many times you have seen recall notices for new model cars. These recalls are usually for something quite serious, that if not addressed can lead to a dangerous situation. The same goes for new software, time and time again you see patches put out for recently released software. Installing these patches, as BuffaloHelp pointed out, means more down time for the servers, not installing them could lead to far worse consequences. When trying to provide a stable service, something Xisto can rightly be proud of, it pays to be very cautious about what changes you make to the servers.What would you prefer? A reliable service that might be running a software version one or even two versions below the latest, or a service that is frequently taken off-line so it can be upgraded and/or have patches installed? I know which one I prefer.

Yes, Steve Irwin did a lot to help raise awareness of wildlife conservation. But don't forget something else, he also made a lot of money from doing so. I know he put a lot of it back in to wildlife conservation, but in the end he was a successful business man as well as a wildlife conservationist. There are many that have also done a lot to raise awareness of wildlife conservation and many other great things, they have not been recognised with a monument. Personally I think the council has made the correct decision, if we were to erect a monument for Steve Irwin, where would it end? Next we would be raising a monument for Ronald McDonald because of 'his' houses for families of sick children. Do you think that deserves a monument too? And besides, Steve Irwin already has a monument, it's called Australia Zoo.Let's face it, if not for the power of television, would you know or even care who Steve Irwin was, or what he did?

Oh my poor eyes! I think my retinas are burned beyond repair! Waaaaay too much contrast on that site, makes me want to close it before I go blind. I'm sorry but this page really turns me off. Where do I start with what is wrong with this site? No graphics to speak of Links that change font and size when you hover over them causing the page content to jump around Layout that appears differently in IE and Firefox, (didn't check with other browsers) Poor colour choices, blue text on maroon background is very hard to read Inconsistencies in fonts, styles and backgrounds on different pages, makes it look like a different site on each page Goingfrom black background on main page, to maroon on Hades and white on the winsock page really hurts the eyes A web site should have a style that flows across each page so it looks like a package, not a few pages just thrown together. The style should use colours that compliment each other, not work against each other like the maroon and blue. I didn't really take much notice of the content, I was too distracted by all the colours! I'm sorry, but the only memorable thing about this site is how bad it is. I don't like to make these sorts of comments usually, but you really need to start over with this site. Have a look at a few templates to get some ideas of what colours work what colours don't.

I used to use Zone Alarm and for a free program I think it's not too bad. I don't understand why you couldn't get it to work, I used it both on dialup and broadband without any problems. However I was concerned a little about it's limitations so I went with Mcafee's firewall. I have not had any problems or viruses at all with it. If you really are stretched for money you could always go with the Windows Firewall, but I don't know how effective it is. It would be better than nothing I guess.

I have found most animation programs such as ImageReady will not import .wmv files, they will however usually import .avi files. If you convert your video to .avi format then you should be able work with it in ImageReady. I use a program called Video Cleaner Pro to convert video formats, I'm sure there are many others. Once imported into ImageReady you will have a very big animated gif. From there you will need to keep optimizing the files by reducing colors and removing frames until you have it down to an acceptable size. I also use a program called GIF Moviegear which is very good for optimizing gif files. No matter how you do it, you will have a trade-off between quality and file size to get what you want. If the gif is to be a sample of another video, you might try reducing the colors down to 16 color greyscale. If found this to be about the lowest color resolution I could use and still have a reasonable output when I tried to do something similar.

I am by no means an expert, but here are my thoughts. I hope they help you.First I off, think you are angry because you are still stressed but have tried to ignore it. You need to identify what EXACTLY it is you are stressed about. It would seem your anger started during school, suggesting perhaps that this the main reason for your stress. Did you find it difficult to complete your school work? Do you still find it difficult? This could also be a reason why you procrastinate. Do you find your workload overwhelming, making it difficult to know where to start? (Another reason for the procrastination?)If this is the case, perhaps you need to set small goals for yourself to break the workload down into manageable tasks. Setting and completing goals allows you to track your progress, it might surprise you how much you are actually achieving thus theoretically lowering your level of stress. Achieving these small goals could also give you an increased sense of self worth which may help you deal with your perceived thoughts of low worth in respect to your girlfriends achievements.I believe once you have your stress under control, your anger issues will sort themselves out. Good luck.

I think this is a very profound statement with which I agree wholeheartedly. But as someone else said earlier... There is a BIG difference between beating a child and disciplining a child. The problem is many parents fail to know the difference do their child. Because of this, (and rightly so I believe) authorities have found it necessary to protect the children with laws. Unfortunately this also means that the discipline that used to be delivered is no longer possible and the child is no longer taught correct social values. Many will say that discipline does not have to be physical, but it is the most effective. Depriving a child of something as a form of discipline also works, but after a time this is no longer effective. There a great many children that have good social values, but there are also a great many that seem to have no social values at all. I have 3 teenage children that I am sure have experimented with drugs and alcohol, given the current general social values I'd be very surprised if they hadn't. Given that however, it would appear my wife and I have taught them well enough that they know what is considered acceptable social behaviour. None of them have been in trouble with authorities or appear to have drug or alcohol problems. While I do not always agree with their point of view and sometimes what I consider to be selfish behaviour, they are generally polite to others and have respect for others. I don't think I could ask for more, none of us are perfect. They at least seem to have grasped the main point we have been trying to teach them, respect for others. I think this is where the main problem lies, lack of respect.

My vote goes with Kubi. While it may not look directly related to Halloween, I find it a spooky sig and isn't that what Halloween is all about? The first thing I thought of when I saw this sig was the game "Silent Hill", it reminds of the little girl in the game. That game scares the hell out of me, you can hear these things in the fog and you just know they're going to jump out and get you. Makes me jump nearly every time. I like the subtle colouring and the lighting on the render, it looks like she is scared out of her mind!

Unfortunately, this proves that terrorists are successful in what they are trying to do, instill fear in to the general population. Given the current state of mind of most authorities in basically any country, this was a REALLY stupid thing to do. Not only that, it obviously has waste the already strained resources of the police, diverting them actual crimes therefore putting other people at risk. Of course the police took the 'threat' seriously. Halloween is perfect cover for someone trying to get away planting a real bomb. For the sake of the community, the police must treat every threat as real.Clearly no thought at all went in to this little prank, those responsible should be sent a bill for the time wasted by the police, then they might think a little bit more before doing something like this again.

It would seem that perhaps you are one of these 'newbs' you say are easy to defeat in a fight. Anyone that has been playing Sherwood for any length of time knows that when fighting player versus player, the levels of the players is irrelevant. The ONLY time levels make any difference in that games is when fighting monsters.The things that matter when fighting another player is what level 'health restore' ring you have and the tactics you use.How do I know this? When I was a level 20 player, I was able to defeat players 200 levels higher than me. If levels made a difference, they should have been able to kill me with their first blow.If you REALLY want to gain levels, do quests in the dungeons, that is the quickest to gain levels. I know because I am now a level 374 player. You need to put the time and effort in, stop looking for a cheat's way out, there isn't one.

While your graphics work is very good, you have not been here very long, (less than 2 weeks). I think we should wait a little to see if you are a consistent contributor. (not that I have been of late ) My suggestion is to wait for about 100 quality posts and then see where we are. Once we reach that goal, I would vote a yes.