optykal

Yeah I like hackthissite. The realistic challenges were fun. If you need help with any of the challenges, then you can find a great deal of help in the forums. I suggest not reading the spoilers, you dont learn anything by doing that and people will just call you a script kiddie. There are also some neat tutorials on SQL/php injections. Another cool site that I have just found is mod-x.co.uk. It took me less than an hour to make it to level 4 but now im stumped. Oh well, guess I just need to learn more. The thing I really like about this site is that each challenge is designed for a reason and it makes you learn about things that you may not know before. Its nice that they don't really give anything away too easily, even just signing up is a challenge in itself. This virtual hacking challenge stuff is really interesting, and it has really opened my mind to a lot of new things that I was unaware of.

I haven't tried EditPlus2 yet... I might have to give it a go. I use Dreamweaver and Flash Pro mx2004 for all my sites. I used to use text editors to do all my coding, but with products like Dreamweaver, it takes a lot of the time and effort out of doing simple tasks (ie: setting up a table with 40+ cells in dw takes about 10seconds). I also like using Dreamweaver because it makes it easy to link sites to SQL databases. I find this really helpful and saves a heck of a lot of time in screwing around. I use TextPad for doing minor changes to html/php/css docs on the fly. Text pad is my default text editor (it has some nice syntax highlighting for c/java programming). I really dont have the time (or patience) to wait for Dreamweaver to load up just so I can edit a few lines. A lot of people have this idea that if you use Dreamweaver then you aren't a true web programmet. Well I have to say that over the past few years, I have done a great deal of web programming and I believe that if used correctly, a WYSIWYG program such as Dreamweaver can be one of the best tools for cutting down the time it takes to create a page. If you were serious about it and wanted to churn out sites quickly, then you would be almost silly not to use it (apart from the cost issues).

Yeah, like people have said before, you need to add more details. If you are going for a laptop, I would definitely go with a dell (just make sure you get a three year warranty, I have found that laptops have a nasty habit of going bad after the first year). As far as a desktop is concerned, I would go with building your own (if possible). There are lots of step-by-step build your own pc guides online that can help you (and obviously there are many forums you can go to for help on installing hardware). One of the benefits of building it yourself is that you will be able to choose exactly what parts you want, and another advantage is that you can save quite a bit of money by doing it yourself. I have built and upgrade every single one of my machines and I have found that you can learn so much more by doing it yourself. Don't be afraid to give it a go.

Yeah well, I have to say that at first I liked using Konfabulator. It has a lot of freely downloadable widgets, but now I'm not really all that keen on it. The only reason that I was using Konfabulator was for the rss feeds and i had a few other things going just for the hell of it. I have since switched over to using the FireFox add-in 'Sage' to handle all my rss feeds, and it does a fairly decent job at it. Because I no longer use the rss feeds, I really found that I didn't need Konfabulator on my system at all. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of cool little widgets designed for it, and quite of few of them look really nice. Its just not the kind of thing that I need to be using!

The other day, I was browsing through a magazine and an advert happened to catch my eye. It was for a product called 'Xtivity". So I decided to have a look at the xtivity homepage, to find out a little more about what this product was. Anyway, judging by what they say on the site, it looks like a flash creation tool, designed more for graphic designers who want to use flash but who aren't worried about all the behind the scenes stuff. One feature, which grabbed my attention, is being able to import your .PSD (photoshop) files into the program and keep each layer seperate (as you would in photoshop). This looks like a really cool feature. I am interested to see just how well this works. I think, that as a whole, the program looks a little bit too basic for doing any serious actionscripting (I could be wrong though). It seems to be aimed at speeding up the process of creating simple flash animations/movies with buttons and text boxes. For this reason alone, it could be a handy program to have, just for all the simple stuff. I think I will download the trial version within the next few days and I will give it a go. Im not sure how long this program has been out, has anyone here used it before? Well here's the link: Xtivity

Thanks for the link viznet, its a nice looking site, but I can't really read any of it. I still had a bit of a browse through it just to see what they had on offer. I have to say the language barrier will always cause problems, but it was very easy to find the phpnuke themes. I have to say they look very pretty indeed! I haven't used phpnuke before, but I am inclined to give it a closer look. Does anyone else suggest any other places to get good quality phpnuke themes from?

Hrmmm... well im not sure what you are talking about here. Correct me if I am wrong, but I'm almost certain that intel processors run a lot hotter than AMD. The problem with intel is that the processors do not perform as many calculations per clock cycle and so to compensate, they ramp up the speed of the processor to get in more cycles. AMD take a slightly different approach, their chips perform more calculations per cycle and as a result do not produce as much heat as the intel chips. I have a AMD 4800+ (Dual core) processor in my computer. This chip is so fast for using with 3ds Max, its not funny. One person mentioned before that the intel chips are better for multitasking, but now with the AMD dual-core chips, the tables have turned and the AMD chips are now better for multitasking and gaming. Not only are the amd dual core processors faster than the intel ones, they dont run as hot as them. If you are going to be using programs such as 3ds Max, then I would suggest getting yourself a nice 3d card to go with it. You will need it for rendering, unless of course you are a very patient person!

Haha... Its kinda funny how there are guys at Redmond who still have to make sure that the glitches with the old versions of Windows are still included in the new versions. In my opinion, they should just take a leaf out of Apple's book and warn people for a few years not to include it in their software and then, as was the case with OSX, remove that functionality. Sure it may piss of all those software companies and the users of that software, but surely it make the operating system so much better. Wouldn't it?

Ok, for a start, I never intended for this to be a "lets complain about Internet Explorer 7 beta" thread. I thought that since this is a technically based forum and the fact that quite a few people were interested in how the new internet explorer was shaping up, I might be able to give some people a brief insight. I obviously sent out some wrong messages. You could say that maybe I am a little biased towards other alternatives (im not going to deny that I prefer firefox to any other browser) I am also well aware of the fact that it is a beta version and that it is still only intended for testing purposes. Maybe I should have made this clear in my post? I'm sure that Microsoft will take whatever testers have to say on board, and the final release may differ a lot from this one. Anyway, the main point I was trying to make was, that even at this barebones stage, it doesn't look much different from other browsers such as say opera or firefox. In my opinion it didnt really seem to offer any major advantages over each of these browsers. On the other hand, I do feel that the phishing protection that has been incorporated into IE7 is a good idea. When you think about how many people are using their computers and the internet to do banking, make online purchases, etc... its scary to think that most of these people wouldn't even know what the word phishing means. So its good to see them doing something about this and the included pop-up blocker is also good. When you think about it, even though it looks like it may be in some ways emulating firefox or opera, it is clearly a vast improvement over the current Internet Explorer 6. For the average user, the benefits of this upgrade are well worth it. I clearly overlooked this aspect when I first posted this thread so I thought I might as well point it out now. Thank you.

Hackthissite is a good place to visit, there are a lot of good tutorials to be found on all kinds of things there. One of the things I was having trouble with was tutorials on tools such as OllyDbg and other debuggers/dissassemblers. Just the other day I managed to luck myself into finding this site: https://tuts4you.com/index.php The site is only new and still a work in progress, but it has quite a few tutorials and tools that can be helpful. If you have done a few challenges on other sites that involve cracking, its more than likely that you would have realised that using OllyDebug is almost essential. Anyway, check the site if you are interested in this kinda stuff. I found it helpful.

Ok, there is only one problem with this. I'm not sure if you guys have ever used any of the Steinberg software (Mainly designed for music recording/mastering). Anyway, their latest range of software, uses some really extreme protection. It was assumed that it was so thorough, that it couldn't be cracked. To crack it, the crackers had to make an emulator for a dongle that comes with the product. If this dongle isn't inserted in your computer when you use the program, it terminates. Now the thing is, the crackers still cracked this (took a lot of time and effort mind you!) but the crazy thing is that this copy protection took up almost half the actual program. And where am I headed with this? Well, if the protection is taking up a majority of the software, wouldn't one assume that the program is going to take a hit from this and wouldn't that mean that it won't run as well as it could? I mean lets face it, even if Bill Gates did hire some extreme crackers, and then they make Windows Whatever almost bomb proof, crackers will still (eventually) find a way around it and eitherway who in their right mind would buy a product bogged down with such excessive protection? I know I wouldn't.

Thats exactly it. I've already jumped back to FireFox. Its a lot faster than this beta 1 version of IE 7. Also I like the add-ins that FireFox has, including the 'sage' for rss feeds. I have had more of a play with this new internet explorer, and the more I look at it, the more it dissappoints me. It hasn't really offered me anything new or improved over what I was getting from FireFox. The phishing protection is of no use to me and the pop up filter doesn't mean anything to me either. So unfortunately, I'm not going to be making the switch to IE as default browser. I guess that given this is a testing beta, they may make the final look nicer, or at least make it possible to skin it. At least I can hope! I'll still have to use the damn thing for windows updates... !

Hrmmm... well I have two names that I go by. Firstly, there is the name 'hippy'. This is what pretty much everyone knows me as. All my friends, people who know my band and well almost everyone I know. In actual fact, there are barely any people that know my real name. I aquired this name while I was in high school. Every day I used to rock up to school with a guitar, and I was the only kid in school to have dreadlocks. I wasn't allowed to but the teachers hard words really had no effect on me. I suppose people put 2 and 2 together, and thus the name hippy was born. So yeah the dreads are gone, but the name stuck and I'm still called hippy. (btw... i prefer it with a lowercase 'h')Secondly, there is the name optykal. This is the name that I use for all my internet/computer art related stuff. Its a name that pretty much nobody else has. This makes it easier to be able to sign up for things and not have to worry about having another name. It took me a while to pick this name. I did google searches of all different names, mostly common words spelt differently and then I decided on this one. I also chose this name because I needed a name that would relate to design. And so that how optykal.design was born. I registered the domain optykal.com and eventually I intend to set up a web design company. I already have a few e-commerce sites on the go and some band sites, but with distractions such as uni (bachelor of Comp Science) its kinda more or less my side project for now. So yeah, thats how 'hippy' and 'optykal' came about.

Hey hey! I started here not too long ago... I didn't even see this section until just today! Well, as it just so happens, I've found this place to be very good! I really like the hacking challenges section. It has really opened up my mind to a whole new world! It's even made me go back and touch up on stuff I haven't looked at in ages! Anyway, I can say right now that I'm gonna be sticking around for quite some time. All the people are cool. Its a nice community and the free hosting is a super bonus! So hello and goodnight to you all!

Well, its only open for beta testing (Developers and IT Professionals) Same as the beta 1.3 of Windows Vista, which I should also have soon. Anyway, I have a screenshot here of IE 7.0 trying to render the acid test, if you check the link that I gave above, you can see what it is supposed to look like. Anyway, here is the link for the screenshots: http://ww2.optykal.com/rg-erdr.php?_rpo=t if you click on the link, it should bring up a few screenshots which shows the toolbars and what not. Have fun!

Ok, I just got my copy of Internet Explorer 7.0. I'm actually using it right now as I post this. Well... first things first. As soon as you install the program you have to reboot... this annoyed me, I hate having to reboot my laptop, its so much slower than my desktop (3.06 gHz Pentium Mobile) Anyway, after a reboot, it initialised my settings during startup. As far as I can tell, this included importing my favourites and other settings from the old IE 6 into this one. So obviously the first thing I did was open up the browser and start surfing. The first thing I noticed is the lack of a stop button and the refresh button is missing too... this seemed a little bit odd. I went to customise toolbars and they were not their either. So I set the icons to small (I hate the big ones, they ruin the layout). Anyway, the other main thing that you notice is the Address bar is up the very top of the page and there is a google search next to it. It looks very much like the firefox setup IMO! Then below this is the section for the tabs (tabbed browsing is enabled by default) and then below this is ur common "File", "Edit", etc buttons. Overall its a simple layout and well... its not very appealing on the eyes. (not like opera anyway). So i delved into the settings (or Internet Options as its called) and had a quick look to see what options there are. Let me say, if you have seen the IE Internet Options screen, then this is no different. Just having a quick look, I noticed that the search is set up so that the nearest match will be displayed (Like "feeling lucky" on google) but this can be changed to a list format (which I did straight away.) So time to browse! The first page I went to, a pop-up was displayed stating how the browser can check some database of micro$oft to counteract phishing of sites. If you use spoof stick, then you dont really need to worry too much about this, and I really didn't want micro$oft to know every step I make on the internet, so I clicked "No". Tabbed browsing works the same way as opera/firefox so if you have used either, then this will be no different. Um... not much to say at the moment, I have only just put it on. If anyone wants me to do anything specific, then let me know. I will put some screenshots up too, just so you can see how it looks (Although, I have already changed some things.. I might change them back, who knows.). On last thing I do have to say, this browser failed the Acid 2 test. For those of you who don't know, when acid 1 came out, all the browsers (even Micro$oft's IE 6) were reprogrammed to be able to pass the test. And now that Acid 2 is out, it was assumed that ie7 would pass the test. Well, I just checked it and it failed miserably. I'll get a screenshot of that too. I tested the acid 2 page with opera and firefox the other day and they weren't too bad... ie7 was the worst by far! Here is the link to that test: http://www.webstandards.org/files/acid2/test.html Any questions?

Hey this Konfabulator proggy is pretty cool. One thing I have to point out for people using WindowsXP/2k. The download is actually approx. 9.0meg (its only the mac version that is 5.2meg). Some of the widgets can be quite useful, and then some of them are just plain wierd: Im not too sure about that one? It still got a four star rating... so who knows? hehe. For anyone out there who hasn't used or even heard of this program, have a look at it. You may be suprised at just how nifty this thing can be. I use it mainly for RSS feeds and for random other things. You may find that, a lot of the preinstalled things you will have no use for. For instance, I have no need for a battery status monitor on my screen while my laptop is plugged into a power supply 24/7. But if you head over to the widgets section of the site, there are a lot of widgets (about 650) that you can pick and choose from. And as always, free stuff is (generally) good stuff, especially when its free of ads and spyware!

Ahhh! It all becomes clear. I went back to the start and it all became much clearer! So so many wrong variables, how could I have missed it! Thanks for the great challenge! Now on to number 3!

This last part is really annoying me! All I see (or dont see) is dutch! I cant figure out how to get passed the warning! I passed challenge 2 very easily, haven't started the third challenge yet, might have to go onto that!I might try wget on this... see how that goes... damn warnings!

Hey there! I'm kinda in the same boat here. I have worked with many linux disros and also with Solaris (which I still use at uni! hehe! -most people dont know its still on there!) I'm pretty sure for uni this semester I have to play around with BSD UNIX. I haven't installed it yet but I have had a look around at some places for some info on how to set it up correctly and know what to do if it craps out. Not that that really matters too much, destroying kernels and the like is part of the learning experience! (I'm still trying to decide wether it is worth the bother of downloading it now or waiting to snatch if off a friend.) Anyway, I found this DIRECTORY which contains a fair whack of docs and the like for freeBSD. If you check it out, there is an article in there somewhere for new BSD and linux users on how to set-up and run freeBSD. The exact link for this article is HERE if you want to check that out. A lot of the stuff is totally for noobs but there are some other little things which sounded interesting. Anyway, if you do find some stuff on freeBSD that you found helpful, it would be cool if you could post it, I'm sure not only myself would benefit from it! Hope that link provides any help. Either way, if you google stuff, there tends to be a lot of results that come up, wether or not any of it is helpful is another story!

Yeah its all a little bit exciting! I really dont think that it would be that hard for Nintendo to release a better system than the other two. It all really depends on which direction they decide to go. If they go with the tri-core, then they may have their work cut out for them, but if they were to say go dual-core, then they could easily put out a more powerful machine than the other two. But having said that, all things come at a price. So what restrictions will that have on what they are capable of? I guess we will all have to wait and see. It's really quite exciting, and its still gonna be a fairly long time before these machines will be available. My guess is as good as yours on what will happen. Oh yeah, and if I were to chose one of these machines based on what news I have heard on specs, etc... I would more likely tend toward the xbox360. For now, i'll stick to my dual core amd 4800+

Leon or no Leon, I know that I'll still be giving this one a go. The trailer looks pretty slick. When they run thru the streets looks cool. It kinda reminds me of the Half Life 2 teasers that came out. They looked so awesome and with that gravity gun and all... but on the final release, I was a little disappointed with that game. Anyway, I do hope the same doesn't happen with this game! Looking forward to some new games on these new machines, I'm more than curious (as most people probably are) as to how good these new machines are going to be. Haha... I just checked the IGN site again today at uni, I was going to show the trailer to a friend. Anyway, it appears as though the trailer was not meant to be shown at all! If you go to the IGN homepage, they have posted a news item explaining how the trailer wont be released officially until mid-september. If you want to read more, then you can check out the details here: http://de.ign.com/

Along with all those things suggested above about file compression, if you were still having problems with your available space and bandwidth, then you could consider having the movie files hosted elsewhere. That way, you could have your site with all its html,css ahd what have you hosted at Xisto. If you wanted people to be able to see your movies, you would only have to embed a link to them from your Xisto site. This would work in much the same way as using a site such as photobucket. Except instead of using it to host you images, you would be using it to host your movies. I have done things similar to this in the past with flash sites. I've had a flash object internally link to mp3 and mov files that were hosted elsewhere. The downside of this is that the time taken for the user to access the files may be increased (as hazeshow pointed out, you could use .wmv to counter this), but you wont have to worry so much about your bandwidth/space problems at Xisto.

Oh yeah, if you are talking about the yo-ho diablo's, I have a few of them. They are awesome fun to use, head down to the beach and launch em sky high! Im not really sure what these chinese yoyo's are, so I cant really comment on them. Once you learn how to do some basic tricks with the diablo, it can be a whole lotta fun!

Hey wow! Those google maps are awesome! Zoom out, pic a place anywhere in the world and then zoom in and in and in and then wow! I'm gonna have some fun playing around with this for a while! This is similar to the post about the moon maps, except this time when u zoom in, it doesn't turn to... well you can answer that by_going_here! Thanx for the links xcaverx