GrumbleBall

I hate the smell of cigarette smoke. It makes me feel sick :(Fortunately now here in the UK smoking is banned in all public buildings but the problem is now everybody just stands right by the doors of these places so you have to breathe double the amount of smoke in when you exit as there are more people smoking gathered around the same area.Passive smoking is just as bad as smoking first hand, if not worse. I don't feel we should be made to put up with this in our country.I personally feel that smoking should be banned completely apart from in your own home or in your own car.Another reason for wanting this to be banned other than the fact it makes me feel sick and that I don't agree that non-smokers should have to put up with being passive smokers is that smoking isn't at all good for you and is commonly associated with lung cancer. Smoking is also a really expensive habit to be into so I feel this should be banned due to health reasons. For the smoker and also for the non-smokers that have to put up with the smoke and a potentially greater risk of lung cancer.

The only other way that they could possibly be able to offer free text messages for both the sender and the receiver would be for txtdrop to display adverts on their website. Maybe they receive enough money through advertisements to pay the cost of the modem that sends the messages.I'm not sure but this is probably the case. I would imagine that a website like txtdrop would be an extremely popular website which would mean that they amount of users they receive, users that would click on the adverts would most definitely generate a fair bit of money for the company.I have just had another look at the website and they do indeed have adverts so this must be the case

Thanks guys.Looks like I was ordering the domain with an invalid subdomain, used one of the domains in the above post and this worked fine

I have just had a thorough look through the billing site but couldn't see anywhere at all to request for a subdomain so could it be that this is no longer available? :)I've been through order and also through the section where you set up domain, couldn't see anything to do with subdomains at all.If it's possible to register on subdomain.astahost.com, does anyone know how to do it?Thanks again.

Just wondering whether it is possible to host on subdomain.astahost.com?I have read a few topics from people on here saying it's possible but I couldn't work out how to request for a subdomain :)Is this possible? If so, how would I do this.Many thanks.

I have heard of this website before. I first played this game when it was in beta mode.In my opinion this is an extremely good game, especially for a free game that just works by installing an Activex component inside an internet browser.I feel this online version of the game is just as good as the commercial versions that Quake have released in the past. If not, the online version may even be better as it can be updated easier, the updates can be more frequent but also it's free so more players are online. A shooting game is always better when there are more players

Unfortunately I don't live in the United States. I am from United Kingdom so sadly this service is not available to this country at present. However, I have had a look at the website and must say that it looks a pretty good service.The only question/thing that you need to consider is do you trust a website like this? Once you have given a website like this your phone number and email address or a phone number of a friend, can you trust this website not to send you an everlasting load of spam?Here in the United Kingdom there is a similar website, called Cardboard Fish SMS however this doesn't allow you to receive replies via email, only send text messages.Hopefully there will be a similar service to txtdrop here in the near future.

I absolutely love this game. I still play it from time to time and even though it's an ancient game now, I still thoroughly enjoy playing it.Just one thing I still don't understand to do is how to build underground. Does anybody know how to do this?It's a shame that there's not going to be a new version of Rollercoaster tycoon out. I wasn't particularly keen on Rollercoaster Tycoon 3. It seems to be quite a slow game on my computer, which I guess could just be down to the specifications of my computer.I would really have liked an online version of Rollercoaster Tycoon where you could make your own theme park and then other people could visit your park over the internet.They could also have made an RPG-type game out of it. You get rewards on how well you've made a theme park or completed tasks that have been set for completion and then using these credits or other in-game currency you could then buy yourself an entry ticket to visit someone else's theme park, ride their rides, play on their side stalls etc. I feel this would have made a really good game.

I don't play on FarmVille, never have and probably never will.Even though I've never played the game I absolutely hate it! With all the notifications it sends on to your facebook latest news feed every time your friend plays, it's irritating and I feel it's nearly going as far as being spam.On some friends profiles I've had to mark the FarmVille status feeds as being spam and clicking on the hide button. To be honest I don't care whether any of my friends have found any treasures on their farm!

Like others, the program that I would recommend for all photo editing or image editing would be the GIMP software. This has the functionality of Photoshop but is freeware so won't cost a penny.The only problem with the GIMP is, or what I think it is, it is complicated to use so you will need to follow tutorials, user guides or videos to be able to make the most of this program.I struggle with using GIMP and image editing but to be honest I haven't really spent a lot of time learning how to use the GIMP. As I said above, if you learn how to use it, the GIMP is just as good as Photoshop and if not better as it is a lot cheaper.

IPV6 ip addressing is the future and will soon take over IPV4 ip addressing. The problem with this is, I absolutely hate IPV6 but I guess that could be that it's not as straight forward as IPV4. IPV4 is simple, every internet connection has a certain ip address in the form of 123.456.7.89.IPV6 is a little more confusion. The calculations are in the posts above my one. An ipv6 address is in the form of: 2001:0DB8:AC10:FE01.I guess I should spend more time looking into IPV6 as this is going to be the future :(I don't really understand IPV6 at present

I think I would have to say that ITunes is one of my favourite media players. It is one of the best I feel. It is incredibly simple to use but it is the same program that links up to the ITunes shop - where you can download music etc and the same program is the program that detects IPod's, IPhones, IPads etc.

I have used both Skype and MSN in the past and I would say that they are both quite hard to compare against each other as they both of them are extremely good products and both are used by an extremely large user-base.At a push, to compare these products I would say that Skype probably wins in terms of communication. Many firewalls and routers limit the connectivity of MSN messenger due to the fact that in order for a connection to be established, a port needs to be open on the user's firewall and/or router. With Skype, although you may still need to open a port or two, I have noticed that they have programmed their product to try and detect an open port available and use that which means that more users will be able to connect to Skype.In terms of functionality, I would have to say MSN wins easily. MSN Messenger has the drawing/whiteboard functionality included as well as many games and activity to choose from, instant messenging and it also links in to Windows remote assistance which can be used for remote support. Skype does have some of this functionality but not to such an extent.Skype does have the SMS and telephone connectivity though. For an additional payment you can telephone to mobiles or landlines or send text messages direct from Skype. As far as I am aware I don't think this can be done by MSN, certainly the telephone can't.Finally, just to confirm the ease of use/user friendliness. Having used both of these products I would have to say that to me, Skype seems to be the easiest program to use. MSN used to be quite easy to use but in my opinion, I feel this is worse now since Microsoft have hidden the menu bar by default. You have to click on the 'Show menu bar' link first.In conclusion to this comparison I would have to say that these are two similar yet different products. Many people will disagree and agree with my comparison. Users that have used a certain product for years will continue to use the product that they have grown with. I would have to say, my recommendation would be to have accounts with both of these products. The two programs can run alongside each other easily so that way you get the best of both worlds

I am trying to learn socket programming in C# however, I am struggling to find a thorough, easy to follow tutorial on how to get started with these.Does anybody know of any such tutorials that I may be able to follow? Or alternatively maybe a video on youtube or somewhere explaining how sockets work?There is so much that can be done with sockets but I need to learn them first and I'm struggling a bit with that at the moment

I have tried installing PHPMotion before. It looked extremely good and not that much different to youtube, however, when I was installing it I found that there was some PHPShield program attached to it that needed to be installed as well. I had never heard of this before and wasn't 100% sure to trust it.Does anyone know whether this PHPShield can be trusted not to contain anything nasty such as virus, adware or spyware? if I know that it's clean I might install it on my home computer to see what it's like.

I've been watching this year's X Factor and would really have to say I don't know who's going to win. It's an extremely close year and there's so many competitors who sing just as well as each other.I do wish that Cher would stop rapping though. Also, some of the competitors seem to be too over-confident, think they're a lot better than they are and this actually makes them worse.Wagner is a very good entertainer

I agree that the internet is extremely disorganized at the moment. Whenever I am searching for something or trying to find something, it will always take me ages to find exactly what it is that I am trying to find. In between meaningful search results will be pages and pages of junk and advertisements which in some cases are not even related to what it is that i'm trying to find.I feel the major search engines; Ask Jeeves, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and governments from multiple countries should all join forces together and discuss ways to get around this or how to resolve this issue. My personal suggestion on this would be for governments to create a few jobs for people just to tidy the internet, ensure that only meaningful search results are appearing for the correct categories. There could be a direct means of contact for these people so that members of the public can hit a 'report' button and it log to that person the result that the user didn't want to see. The internet organizing employee could then hit an agree or disagree button. If they disagree the results could then be removed.Another suggestion would be for the search engines to take action themselves. As nice as it is for website owners, I do not feel everybody is important enough to deserve their website on Google, Yahoo etc. I think only reputable businesses, people with valid business / insurance details should be allowed to appear on search engines and at a cost. This would mean less results would be displayed, thus it would be easier for the user to find what it is they require.Obviously other factors will need to be considered though. If the above were to happen, the search engines would have to consider searches such as for technical support. Many users search a search engine with an error code or an error message if they wish to find out what the cause or resolution is of a problem. This is just one example of what would need to be considered in the re-organization of the internet.

I use notepad++ for my php coding nowadays. I used to use a program called PHP Coder Pro (http://www.phpide.com/) but I found that could be slow at times. A friend referred me to Notepad++ and I personally think it's a lot better.

I have recently started using a freeware replacement version of Notepad, called Notepad++ and I'm finding it fabulous. It is incredibly easy to use and fast. It supports loads of different programming languages syntax colouring as well.This means that as well as using it as a replacement for notepad, I am able to use it for my PHP programming.It is good that it includes the line numbers of the file on there as well so that is great especially for scripting when you get script errors on a specific line.If you are just starting programming or absolutely hate Notepad I would highly recommend downloading notepad++

I used to love playing Runescape and used to play on it for hours on end, however, I don't play it much nowadays as I find the game rather boring.Also I'm not keen on the fact that Jagex, the company that made Runescape, have used Java as their programming language. Java Applets I find quite slow and the graphics are not that brilliant either.I still do play Runescape occasionally, however usually I only play for their special seasonal events (christmas, easter, halloween) and then I don't tend to play again for a while.

Is it just me or does anybody else think that invision power boards (IPBs) are now rather expensive? I remember back several years ago when IPB released version 1.3, it used to be available to download free of charge. In fact, this free version is what prompted many services, the most commonly used one is invision free, to start offering free setup of invision power boards.I personally think that the prices of IPBs and Vbulletin boards are really expensive. There is however a freeware equivalent that seems to be a lot better than it used to be and that's phpbb. I'm impressed now by the amount of mods that are available to download.I shall be using phpbb for the foreseeable future if I have a need for a forum system.

Does anybody remember Duke Nukem 3D, the number 1 PC shooting game back in 1996/1997? Over the past few years the creator of this game, 3D realms, have made the game code for this game open source and various programmers have ported this software onto modern windows xp and windows vista/7. I have started getting into this game again and really thoroughly enjoying it. It's nice to have a break from the modern games once in a while and go back to the old games! Another thing I like about Duke Nukem is the actions that you were able to perform. For example this is the only game that I know off by heart that you are able to operate elevators, open doors, activate buttons and booby traps by using a button on your keyboard, mouse or gamepad/joystick. If anyone has Duke Nukem 3D and would like to play online, there are now two big online launchers called yang (yet another netplay guider) and meltdown. Yang can be downloaded from its official website, http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ and meltdown can be downloaded from http://duke3donline.com/Players/index.php The three most popular ports that work on windows xp are XDuke, HDuke and Eduke3d. I personally feel that xduke is the best as it works better on my computer but I know a lot of other people that say eduke32 is the best. If anyone has the game I will look forward to playing against them online

I have used many antivirus programs in the past mainly due to the fact that they slowed down my computer to such a slow pace that I ended up getting annoyed and uninstalling them :)I am currently into freeware antivirus software and highly recommend avg and avast both of these seem to do the job just as well as the commercial pieces of software such as Symantec/Norton antivirus and McAfee. I have noticed that the avg and avast anti virus programs don't really seem to slow down your machine unless they are performing a full scan.I have used Norton/McAfee in the past and both pieces of software have, on numerous occasions, caused by computer to completely slow down and crash. I have used the internet security suites of both of these too and these were particularly bad, worse than just having the antivirus program on its own.

I like Open Office. I have used it quite a bit in the past.I don't feel that the quality of Open Office is bad at all, it has pretty much all the functionality that Microsoft Office has along with extras. Being open source various programmers around the world have added new features the way they feel they need to be implemented into the software.Another good point of Open Office is that it supports the new Microsoft Office 2007 / 2010 file formats, (Docx, pptx and xlsx etc). In my opinion, the slideshow software and spreadsheet software (The Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Powerpoint equivalent programs) are just as good as the Microsoft Office versions except a lot cheaper (Free!).In addition to the above, Open Office also supports many other operating systems including Linux which Microsoft Office on it's own doesn't. With Microsoft Office you have to use the wine emulator inside linux to emulate a windows session which isn't as good as running the software without any prerequisites.I can't see Open Office going down the paid route to be honest as I feel many people would switch over to Microsoft Office as it is more common in businesses, schools, colleges, universitiies etc so computer users would use the software that they are used to. Don't forget that a lot of people only use open office because it's free!We will have to see what the future has in store for open office.