Solus

I like this game. Unlike other MMO's, I don't feel compelled to spend copius amounts of time playing the game just to get my money's worth. I can even hop on for 10 minutes and finish a quest or two easily, instead of being stuck in a long quest where you can't quit halfway through without causing more troubles.Not only that, the game seems well designed and with the competitive nature it provides, should hook other people who want to be better than the next person.

When I last played CS: Source, there were issues with rego. From a friend, I have heard that many of these issues have been resolved. If that is the case, I would definetely prefer CS: Source simply because of the atmosphere when playing the game. Firefights seem much more lively when compared to CS 1.6 as the sound support is far superior. The graphics and physics engine also greatly affect how the game feels and while the gameplay is slightly different, is still VERY enjoyable.Also, valve are slowly adding all the popular war maps to CS: Source. Already train has been converted and a few new ones added.

Natural-Selection is a VERY addictive game. I started to lose interest in this game about a month ago, after having played the game for around 2 years. I moved onto a game called Planetside. But, recently I have had my interest rekindled by the final's match I am in for Natural-Selection.While I was in the finals, I wasn't interested as I was no longer finding it fun. But with the extremely competitive level that the opposing team (FeX) is putting up, I am starting to get back into this game.For those perhaps interested in playing this game, the second half of the finals I am in (Found at http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/) will be played 15th May.I would also recommend that website for anyone within Australia who may be interested in playing. It is currently the largest Australian community for Natural-Selection.My final point. When I first played this game, I became quickly addicted. I had just finished a game of CS which I was sorely disappointed in. Deciding to figure out what this game called "NS" was, which appeared on Server Query (An old Server-Browser), I quickly downloaded it and joined a server. The teamwork was amazing. Everyone was communicating and using microphones in a non-spamming way. The commander was directing his marines around and being totally unaware of my surroundings in NS, I started wandering off only to quickly die. This repeated a few times before I decided to follow another marine. Sure enough, we lasted longer and actually made ground. This teamwork was a first for me, where you could not single handedly make or break a game as you could in counter-strike.So as a tip, don't be put off by a few bad games if you stumble across them. I definetely recommend playing marines first (Avoid commanding and aliens to start off with as these are unfortunetely have a steep learning curve) and after a few games move onto aliens or try something else. Just remember to listen to the commander and stick with a team

To scan for spyware, I use two programs.1) AdawareA very sheek and user-friendly interface. It takes about 10 minutes to scan and gets good results.2) Spybot Search and DestroyThis program will pick up what Adaware doesn't. These programs are both free and together they effectively remove spyware from your system.Of course, the best way to have no spyware on your computer is to prevent it in the first place. I use a program called Firefox to browse the internet and it is, by far, secure and severely reduces the amount of spyware you get on your computer. I think over a period of 3 months, I had 2 spyware entries... and they were only tracking cookies (nothing serious).

Are you copying your files to '/public_html'? Only files within there are visible online, the rest are accessed by the server only (I think).

I have always known Intel to be a more stable CPU, which in turn creates a quieter computer.I have an AMD and my computer is noisy as hell. Sounds like I have one of those industrial generators you hear whining at the back of some shopping centres. But AMD CPU's are usually faster and have a somewhat better overclocking threshold.

Personally, I believe everyone has a purpose at life and something they can excel at exceedingly well. Finding what it is may be one thing, but then using it to help the world is another.I always wonder on another level why I am able to control who I am. By this I mean, why can I move my hands, legs and arms. Why was it that one day I exist and can think for myself? Why can't I think for someone else? I mean, one day we exist and then far down the line we don't. I have always thought there is a greater purpose, but then, that is just me

In Australia, the majority of servers max out their DSL speeds to 1.5Mbit/s for residential areas. Some large district areas have more though. Cable is by far faster than DSL where I live. It gets up to 750kb/sec download speeds but recently has been slowing down. Now I get around 400kb/sec.The problem with cable is that the more people in the area using it, the slower the speeds you will get. This is because everyone shares the same pipe.

Yeah actually, I have wondered that. Many crackers have been hired by big companies for their sometimes genious skills.But it could also be the reverse. The cracker might have worked for MS at the time and then left once the sound files had been created or he had finished programming some part of windows.

I have 2 HDD connected by a Fasttrak 100 Raid card. It seems to make the writing and reading faster :)Both harddrives are 40GB each.

I doubt he didn't pay for licenses. After all, they wouldn't have been that expensive and I am sure they didn't need too many. It would have probably just been a few thousand dollars and bill gates probably earns that much in an hour.

I have a Razer Diamondback and have been finding it very good, but I am wondering what others think of them. For those that don't know, Razer Diamondback is pretty much the Logitech MX510's rival. It sports a few features over the MX510 too, one being the 1600dpi.

If you want a great guide for tweaking, do not go past the excellent guide found at TweakGuides.com This is a massive 170 page guide which I recently used to tweak my computer. I can now confidently say that my computer runs faster than ever. The best thing I found about this guide is that it explains what it is doing, rather than just telling you what settings or tweaks to do. That way you can decide by yourself what tweaks you should apply. I strongly recommend this guide for anyone formatting anytime soon, or even anyone wishing to tweak their current Windows XP.

The universities around Australia start with Java and then switch over to C++. Because of their similarities you do not have to relearn everything.I just finished learning Java and now I am trying to start C++ before Uni starts again.

Unfortunetely, I think you do need to be connected on the net the first time you try to play Half-life 2. After that though, you should be able to play offline.The reason you need to be online is so Steam can unlock your HL2 files. It is their attempt at stopping piracy and must be frustrating for dialup users such as yourself :)This would probably take a while on dialup and you are best starting it before work, considering you decide to buy it.

Kevlar, to save you from having this problem in the future, you should take some precautions. The best way to stop spyware/trojans is to not let them on your computer in the first place But if they do, there are several programs that can help. Adaware - Effective spyware remover. RegCleaner - By using this, you can safely check what programs are in your startup list. Most trojans/spyware place themselves in your startup list making it sometimes difficult to remove them. It creates a backup of any registry changes you make incase something goes wrong. The best way to check if something on the startup list is a legit program or a nasty trojan is to type the name into google and see what the sites say about it. Oh, I should also add that using Internet Explorer is a good way to get infected. A great browser you can use (If you already aren't) is Firefox. It has some great features but is also a very secure browser. Also, sometimes Adaware doesn't pick up all spyware/adware but used in conjunction with Spybot Search and Destroy will help keep your computer safe. This might seem tedious, but what I do is run maintenance on my computer every week. Although this does take up time, it does not take up my time. Simply defragment, scan your computer for virus's and check for spyware/adware every week or two. There is plenty of time to if you think about it. When you are on the couch watching TV, eating dinner or out doing some sport, just start up some of these things and go out and do what you normally do Hope this helps

I use FlashGet. It seems great to me and has a lot of options and features. Also, it integrates easily into Internet Explorer. To use with Firefox, use an extension found here. The extension "Flashgot" integrates several download managers into Firefox and it has a feature called "Download selection" where you can just select the text you want and click the "Download Selection" button. It is great for lists.