Sarah81

Hi, Administrator!I found Xisto through someone's "freebie" Web site. It did a breakdown of the best free Web hosting companies out there. I checked this one out because it's ad-free and I don't have to pay money for a really great amount of space (along with all the other benefits and perks that you guys offer here).I prefer not to put ads on my site. The reason that I chose Xisto instead of one of the countless other free hosting sites is because I can actually do something constructive (posting in the forums) in exchange for Web space. If it came down to ads, I'd just move my site somewhere else or use my school's free Web space. If it came down to paying cash instead of posting, I would keep posting. I really don't have any extra money to pay for Web space. I know, I know, it can be really cheap - just a few bucks a year, but I'm in college and really don't have much spare cash sitting around (hehe).I'm compelled to post because I want hosting credits. HOWEVER: I ALSO like the fact that this forum is patrolled regularly by administrators and moderators who remove spam, plagiarized posts and other annoying things along those lines. I find that sort of junk in most of the other forums online, so I don't stick around in them very long. (If I want to wade through spam, I'll look in my e-mail account's junk mail folder.) I'm fairly certain that I would keep posting even if I didn't get hosting credits, but those credits definitely encourage me to keep coming back (I usually check in about once a day).As for other methods of supporting Xisto: what if you came up with Xisto merchandise? You could do simple, inexpensive things like tee shirts and sell them (or maybe let us trade some hosting credits for them). I think plenty of us would want to get one, and wear it around a few times a month at the least. I live on a college campus with over 29,000 other students, so I have a really huge target audience that could be reached just by wearing a tee shirt or whatever.You wouldn't make a killing off the tee shirts or whatever, but it would help offset the cost of hosting our sites AND get more inexpensive advertising all over the place (wherever we go, really) without much investment.For what little that my site does, the resources are fine. I'm not going to speak for other people, as many other Xisto users definitely do a lot more with their sites than I do with mine.As for cPanel: I really like it. I can manage without it, but I don't really feel like investing a whole lot of time or effort in my web site. If you visit it, you'll notice that it's just a bunch of my tangents/rants/whatever. I'm not trying to make money. I'm not trying to attract a whole bunch of worshipful sycophants. I'm not really trying to accomplish much of anything other than a little stress relief. If you take away the simplicity of managing my site, it's going to become more trouble than it's worth.Overall ... keep the aforementioned things basically as they are. You can probably find some creative ways to help offset the costs without taking away the most compelling features of Xisto.

Oh man ... Nintendo's actually doing something different that's *not* stupid? (Sorry, but I always thought that the tiny GameCube discs were utterly ridulous for numerous reasons that most of you have probably thought of already - hence, no need to go back over it.)This controller design sounds like it would be worth checking out. which means that I'll probably stop at Wal-Mart's electronics department and give it a try when it comes out and they put in the demo console. *nods*

Mmm ... it's about time Yahoo! Mail did a serious makeover. My primary e-mail account is with them so I'm looking forward to seeing what this beta test will lead to.But unless they start coughing up *massive* storage space, they'll still fall behind Google/GMail, methinks.

The author makes a very strong case against the "clueless Windows users" out there. For the most part, I agree. If we PC users actually had to *know* basic computer skills before we could access the Internet, there wouldn't be nearly as many problems.Then again, technology is the present and will definitely be the future, so it needs to be available to as many people as possible - otherwise the socioeconomic problems will just worsen.But that doesn't mean that computer classes in grade schools can't teach kids more than how to shut down Win98 without messing it up.

I feel bad for you UK people now. I had my copy of the new HP novel a few months ago. Not that I'm going to tell you anything about it that would spoil anything for you, of course, because that would just be mean.But I *will* say this: it's really, really good. You might not necessarily be completely absorbed by the first part of it (it's a little dull if you ask me) ... but it gets way better. And if you actually like the beginning, prepare to be blown away.The weird thing is that I didn't even read Harry Potter until summer started. I was home from college and didn't have anything to read, so I swiped my lil' sister's copies. And read books 1-5 in one week. She still hates me for being able to do that.So then I bought the new one, which I of course dangled in front of her. And I wouldn't let her read it until I'd finished with it. Then Mom took it because she wanted to read it even more than I did. So my little sister had to wait for three or four days after I bought it to even be allowed to touch it. Which nearly killed her even though she acted like she didn't care (smarmy little teenaged brat! How dare she fall victim to my psychological torture?)Anyway ... I still haven't seen the films and don't plan to because the movies are usually insults to the books. I'd rather just imagine for myself, y'know?P.S. If you don't want a spoiler, avoid t-shirthell.com - they have Harry Potter tee shirts that are really, really funny if you've already read the book ... but they'll really tick you off if you stumble onto them while you're still waiting for your copy.

I feel bad for you UK people now. I had my copy of the new HP novel a few months ago. Not that I'm going to tell you anything about it that would spoil anything for you, of course, because that would just be mean.But I *will* say this: it's really, really good. You might not necessarily be completely absorbed by the first part of it (it's a little dull if you ask me) ... but it gets way better. And if you actually like the beginning, prepare to be blown away.The weird thing is that I didn't even read Harry Potter until summer started. I was home from college and didn't have anything to read, so I swiped my lil' sister's copies. And read books 1-5 in one week. She still hates me for being able to do that.So then I bought the new one, which I of course dangled in front of her. And I wouldn't let her read it until I'd finished with it. Then Mom took it because she wanted to read it even more than I did. So my little sister had to wait for three or four days after I bought it to even be allowed to touch it. Which nearly killed her even though she acted like she didn't care (smarmy little teenaged brat! How dare she fall victim to my psychological torture?)Anyway ... I still haven't seen the films and don't plan to because the movies are usually insults to the books. I'd rather just imagine for myself, y'know?P.S. If you don't want a spoiler, avoid t-shirthell.com - they have Harry Potter tee shirts that are really, really funny if you've already read the book ... but they'll really tick you off if you stumble onto them while you're still waiting for your copy.

I'm going to have to go with Google, just like most of the other people who replied to your post. It's easy ... convenient ... and if you know what you're doing (i.e. you don't type in something extremely vague and open to twenty billion different interpretations) you can usually find basically what you want. But when that fails (which actually happens sometimes), I use Yahoo. Mainly because I'm lazy and don't want to try and remember the names of other search engines when I'm trying to find information.

Let's see ... am I going to buy Longhorn/Vista when it's released?NO.I might be a dedicated, hardcore Windows fan, but I'm not an idiot. (Don't anyone dare reply to point out the potential oxymoron there - haha.)Windows is famous for having insane flaws in everything that it releases - at least until the year after they debut it. (And even then, we still get about eight hundred million patches and updates every, oh, ten minutes or so.) So, like I did with XP ... I'm waiting for a long, long time before I make any commitment to anything.Besides which, XP just recently became stable enough for me to not gripe about. Why mess up a halfway decent thing? *grins*And yeah - I still think IE stinks, despite the ooh and ahh appeal of the screen shots.

Wow. I had no idea that this was a possible problem. I use Firefox (way better than IE and Netscape, no contest), but even with their dedication to better security, I think I'll make sure that i pay attention to what I'm doing with copy/paste.Thanks for the heads-up!

Hiya, Doc. I'm weird and ignorant as well. But my doctors say that I'm not crazy anymore. Phew - gotta go - gnawing through the restraints to send this message was really tiring.

One of my friends just sent me a link about the neem tree, which is the source of many cures and treatments in India (where he's from). We started talking about dental problems, which is one of the things that neem trees can treat, when he started telling me about the other things that scientists are discovering. Would you believe, for example, that extracts from this tree can be up to 100 percent effective as birth control? Or that it repels athlete's foot, psoriases, herpes, etc.? Yeah - I wouldn't believe it either if it weren't for the fact that scientists are researching this (i.e. it's not a bunch of witch doctors trying to get people to buy the stuff from them). Anyway - check it out at about.com - the second page is where it really starts to get interesting.

One: Go to http://download.cnet.com/windows/ and search for ZoneAlarm basic (for firewall protection - it's free). Two: Go back to http://download.cnet.com/windows/ and search for a free antivirus. (I like AVG Free Edition, myself - no cost, ever, but you can still set it to automatically update). Three: Go to Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, and uninstall that memory-sucking behemoth that is commonly called Norton. Yes. I hate it. It came prepackaged with a 60-day trial on my notebook ... and that was only a few weeks ago ... but I went to uninstall it (Norton Internet Security - full range of utterly useless junk) and it was taking up almost 40 megs of hard drive space. Not to mention an obscene amount of memory. Needless to say, I'm not reinstalling that stupid program.

Arrgh - STILL no WMA support? I'm mildly disappointed. But the Nano looks insanely cool - can't wait for prices to come down so I can think about getting one. But then again, the fact that this thing is roughly the size of a pack of gum (maybe a little larger) and about as thick as two sticks of said chewing gum, makes it really, really likely that i'd either a) sit on it or lose it. Or both.Oh well.

Yeah - when I booted up my notebook for the first time a few weeks ago, Windows XP had to validate itself. Not that Fry's would sell pirated software, but Microsoft just wanted to double-check.It seems like a pain in the butt, mainly because most of the people who have to go through this stuff aren't doing anything illegal. At the same time, I have no qualms about doing it - just as I don't have any problem verifying my copy of Office '03 over the Internet or by phone if necessary.Fortunately, it isn't a huge inconvenience. The process only takes a few minutes, and I don't have to do much of anything for it. I just run the update and let it do whatever it needs to do. It's not like Microsoft is asking me to call an overseas, toll-charging number during peak hours. (If they started doing something like that, I'd definitely have some rotten things to say about the company.)And if it came up as a pirated copy, I'd be on the phone with the CEO of Fry's demanding all sorts of compensation for my trouble - including, but not limited to, a really big refund. And of course an original copy of the program.Unfortunately, there will always be people who will do everything in their power to NOT pay for software/music/whatever. Whether it's a personal challenge or a flat-out refusal to pay for products, it's still costing the rest of us. As far as I can see, the best that Microsoft (and any other company) can hope for is to weed out the REALLY retarded thieves (read: junior-high kids who don't even know what hex editors are) ... which, from what little I've seen, makes up a pretty good number of software pirates.

Poor Meyers and Tucker - they're just standing there like, "HUH?"As for Kanye West: he's a freaking moron. "Bush doesn't like black people." *snorts* So THAT'S why Bush got Condoleeza Rice! Because he hates her! Yes. It all makes perfect freaking sense now.As much as I disagree with, oh, 60-80 percent of what Bush does/pushes for/supports, I can't say that he's racist.But I *can* say that the state and local government in Louisiana should have done more to get their people out. It wasn't like the Asian tsunami, where nobody knew what was coming until it was right on top of them.Just more bureaucracy and old-boy b.s. at *all* levels of government. *sighs*

Hey, cool site! (Admittedly, I know little to nothing about games, so I can't say that this is going to be overly helpful for you - but i'm sure that you still take compliments, hehe.)The layout's cool. You did a good job making the foreground/text/images NOT suck when put onto the black background, and it's pretty easy for me to find what I want. Oh, and nice touch putting relevant links on the left side of the main page - convenient *and* good looking.Overall, I like it. It doesn't take forever to load, which is cool. and even though I have no idea of what you're talking about on this site (not your fault - I'm not a gamer, really), I can still figure out how to get around in it and everything. Good job.Oh, and you typed "on" instead of "one" in your "please select..." line on the "contact" page. (Sorry - former editor in me!)

Wow, cool! I had no idea that you could do that - thanks. Hehe ... just when I think I've learned all of the "basic stuff..." I'm so glad I hang out around here *grins*

I've always just used the Windows default. I never really thought to question why there was always a giant, white gap in the middle of the data/info screen when the thing finished. Hmmm ... now you've made me start wondering if that might be a bad thing!

You've given EXCELLENT advice here! Great job!Even though I don't sell anything or whatever on my site (it's just where I go to post my rants and such), I still try to keep it as simple as possible. That's mainly for my benefit so I don't have to spend half an hour trying to figure out where I'm supposed to put new stuff and all that good stuff. But it also helps anyone who actually visits my site (yeah, right - like I have visitors, hehe).P.S. I particularly liked your advice about changing (un)visited link colors. Most browsers do it by default, but some users change settings and don't remember how to get them back. And besides which, I don't like purple that much anyway (default VLINK color) anyway. *grins*

I guess that someone did a thorough, scientific study to discover the dolphin thing ... but I have to wonder who was curious enough to propose looking into it?

That video is just. plain. crazy. Yeah - keep your cool. I can definitely agree with that morale *grins*

The next time you start thinking that you're not so great with computers, check out this site - it's filled with tech-support stories (nightmares, actually) for your reading pleasure. Some of these stories are so utterly stupid that I can't believe they really happened. But they probably did.

Uhh .. the ones that I actually understood were really, really funny. *grins*

Man, I saw that Web site a few days ago (Firefox's StumbleAround addon sure brings up some weird stuff). MY question is: where are the boxers for the guys? Now *that* I would buy. Well. if I had a boyfriend. Or whatever. *grins*Actually, i find that my subtle threats have always worked in the past, which are much cheaper than the prices of the underwear this company is hawking.And it's *so* much more fun to come up with new and creative ways of saying, "If you ever cheat on me, my reaction will make death by trash compactor look blissful."

I hate to break it to you, but ... you're not the only one. *grins*I live in an apartment. My desk, which is where I usually study, is in my bedroom. My laptop is on my desk. Therefore, even when I'm studying, I'm within two or three feet of the computer.Am I addicted, though? Of course. Why do you think I got a laptop? So I can take it home when I leave on weekends! *grins*