thesand

Ah- my first machine, a Texas Intruments TI-99/4A. Though my friend had had a Commodore 64 for the longest time, computers remained a total mystery until I got one of my own. Well- OK- even when I finally *did* get my own, they were still a mystery. They were a mystery to me while I took apart my Colecovision ADAM, a mystery while I did research papers on my Tandy 1000, and only starting making sense on my friend's old 286...Remember any of these? Spark any memories? Care to share your first PC story? What was it? What were the specs? What software (if any) came with it and what was your favorite program? Take a stroll down memory lane...

Though I personally do not condone or promote the distribution of pirated software, I have some friends that do. A question that I am asked several times, and yet have no answer for, is in regards to the updating of pirated software.For example, after installing, the program wishes to chech for updates to the main program, to the data files, or to the help files.Does anyone know for a fact of any programs which are "update safe" and of any programs that are "update if you want your IP logged?"Though I always tell my friends the best thing to do is just save up the money and buy the proggy themselves, I'd also hate to see any of them getting into any trouble.In accordance with the TOS of Xisto, please do not post any links to cracks or pirated software.

Back in the early 90's, the internet wasn't the commercial giant we know it for today. As much as I would love to say even back then I was "on the scene," taking over IRC channels, war-dialling into government computers, whatever- bleh- I was total n00b then (not much of a change from now). (note to self: consider 4evern00b as new screen name).I was however into BBSing. So back in the day when 300 baud was still around and 2400 baud was BLaZiNG SPeeD, I was hooked on BBSs. Back in my corner of the woods, I was always doing my BBSing in the later hours (um, who doesn't?), so I decided to go with the name Sandman.As the internet started becoming more and more available, I found it increasingly difficult to land "Sandman" as my name, as there were apparently quite a few Sandmen much faster than me. So- from that point on, I said to hell with it, I am "THE" Sand... Hence, voila, voici, thusly-therefore... thesand

Aloha everyone :lol:Just getting started with Xisto today, and saw the opportunity to say a little bit about me.Well- I'm in Hawaii, and I'm really trying to brush up on my Flash and Dreamweaver chops. Anyone with any cool suggestions or some really helpful tutorials, PLEASE, by all means, drop me a line. Also- I'm trying to find a marketable skill that will land me a job. I'm coming to find that web design just isn't really in high demand around here, and so if anyone has any suggestions on what areas of computing/networking that I should get focused on for a career change, I'd love your input.So- let's hear it? What's hot these days?

Sorry- skipping the "my favorite game question..."OK- here is a game that I would love to see developed. It would combine both RTS and FPS. The overall gist would be a commander-type role using an RTS-style interface to control FPS-gamers.This opens up a whole can of worms, but I think with some careful thought it could be do-able. A player-ranking system would be necessary to keep sadistic-ha-ha-I-just-sent-you-to-your-doom commanders, I-have-absolutely-no-idea-of-what's-going-on commanders/soldiers, and I-don't-give-a-hoot-what-the-commander-wants-me-to-do soldiers all in check.If I'm not making sense, ask me a question and I'll try to clarify if this idea sounds cool to you.

If you game online, there's always going to be some point or another where you're going to run into cheats and hacks. Whether you're the one using them, the one having them used on, or some guy laughing or cursing on the sidelines, it's become something that we all have to deal with in some form or another.I personally don't care for them; if people want to use them, I think more servers where cheats are not only accepted but are encouraged should be set up. However, sometimes while I'm playing, I'll just be TOTALLY aced, and I'm wondering, did that guy cheat? Can cheats be used on this game?So- here we are- if you know of a game that definitely allows cheating, list them here. And by saying "you know" the game has hacks is to mean that you've actually seen the hack loaded and used.I'll start with the most obvious:Counter-Strike

I also use Shareaza. Cool, skinnable interface, and (as was mentioned earlier) connects to three networks simultaneously.The best thing about Shareaza (aside from being free) is that it DOES not contain any spyware.However- lately- I have been running into more and more virii infected files. I would urge new users to be cautious. I use Norton AV 2005/ Norton Internet Security 2005, and a number of the infected files are not detectable by scan.For the uninitiated, I stress the necessity of common sense. If you're downloading a file that should at least be a couple of megs big, SKIP the results that only show at like, 20 KB :lol:You can almost be guaranteed that a file is infected if it is of one of the following (but not limited to these) sizes: 22, KB, 242 KB, 424 KB, 851 KB, 365 KB, 368 KB, etc.Sadly enough, sometimes my queries have returned nothing BUT infected files.If you're unsure about whether a file is safe- try this:See if the person offering the file allows browsing. If it is a virii, then you will see dozens of other files of various names but of the exact same size. Hope this helps.