Sarah81

Welcome to Xisto. You'll have a great time here - there's always something to talk about, and the overwhelming majority of the people around here are nice.

That's harsh, but you aren't the first person who's been caught in the middle. A friend of mine worked for a neighbor who lived across a field. My friend wanted to run home to grab something, so the neighbor told him to hop on the 4-wheeler that was parked out front and take it home, then come back. So the rightful owner of the 4-wheeler, who wasn't the neighbor of course, caught my pal on the 4-wheeler. They were on my friend's property (trespassing) riding other 4-wheelers, actually, but they called the cops anyway. My friend gave them the 4-wheeler, said he had no clue that it had been stolen from them, and walked back over to the neighbor's to figure out what was going on. Ah, some excuse of course, so my friend decided not to work for that moron anymore.What nobody told my friend was that the cops were called even though the rightful owners (a.k.a. the trespassers) had gotten their 4-wheeler back without any problems from my friend. The cops actually issued a warrant, which nobody knew about until my friend was pulled over almost a year later and promptly taken to jail, where he had to stay overnight because he was pulled out of his car at something like 10 or 11 at night.That was over *two years ago* and my friend's court date still hasn't come up yet. He has to call his bail bondsman once a week to say, "Yeah, it's X, I'm still in town, bye." Freaking retarded.Moral of the story: don't ever even *touch* anything that isn't yours. Just *using* the stuff is enough to get you into trouble.

Are you really surprised that Hotmail works best with IE, another Microsoft product? *Grins* I don't use Hotmail - the service was bad several years ago, so I switched to Yahoo! and just sort of stayed there. Maybe Hotmail will get the beta release debugged and ready to launch without major issues.

Uhh ... the first paragraph or two of the Yahoo! News link that you gave clarifies the issue.They aren't trying to charge EVERYONE to send e-mails. They're just offering a service that charges people who *choose* to send e-mails that bypass spam filters. So unless you're having problems with your messages being dumped into spam folders by mistake, you probably won't care about this service. This service is geared to larger businesses and corporations, not individual/personal users. I don't think that we'll be made to pay for our e-mails anytime soon.

So it's barbaric to draw political cartoons, but it's perfectly okay for Muslims to torch a Danish embassy in Beirut (i.e. a building filled with people who had nothing to do with the Danish newspaper's decision to run these cartoons)? And just for the record: these political cartoons were actually drawn to bring light to the problems between Muslims and non-Muslims in that region. (Social conflicts, the religious differences, etc.) The cartoonist didn't just wake up one day and say, "Wow, time to poke fun at Islam. Boy, that's going to be funny." It's like any other political cartoon: drawn and published so that people will start talking about the theme and hopefully find some sort of middle ground, or at least a better understanding of what's going on. That's why U.S. papers publish stuff that makes fun of Bush's most recent speech or policy decision, right? Right. The cartoonist had a point, yet the Muslim population responded by threatening to kill him. How mature and tolerant. *snort* The Muslims are mad about the cartoons NOT because they depict Islam as a terrorism-friendly religion, but because Muslims believe that creating ANY image of Mohammed is forbidden. That's fine. I'm not complaining about another person's beliefs. But they're a Muslim's personal beliefs, not mine. I don't run around telling everybody to stop making fun of Jesus just because I'm a Christian. My Jewish friends don't set pork plants on fire. The point? Grow up already and learn how to deal with reality. The world is not a religion-friendly place. No matter where we go, even when we're surrounded by people who believe basically the same things we do, we're always going to have disagreements and other problems. It's very childish to run around beating the snot out of security forces around the embassy just because one is upset over a cartoon in a newspaper that nobody forced said person to buy or look at.

I do! "Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?" was one of my favorite shows when I was a kid. I remember that one time, my mother - who absolutely detested the program - referred to it as, "Where in the HELL is Carmen San Diego?" which made me laugh so hard I missed the first fourth of the program.

I bought a Cruzer Mini (256 MB) for twenty-five bucks through my college's computer store. Buy yourself a larger one if you can, because you'll find that you need the space. This thing's inexpensive, small, comes with a lanyard (makes it easier to carry around), and doesn't require any special software if you're running a newer Windows OS (i.e. something newer than 98SE, hehe)

If a person can't figure out that his iPod's volume is too loud, then he deserves what he gets. Seriously. When your ears ring after you pull out the earbuds, you should know to reduce the volume next time. Oh, and if he's exposed himself to well over 100 db? He's probably had nausea and other nasty symptoms, which should be an added incentive to either turn the stupid thing down or stop using it altogether. Once again, a moron is trying to make someone else responsible for his own stupidity. I mean, really. I have an MP3 player (not an iPod, but that's sort of beside the point) and don't recall seeing any warnings or other instructions about playing the thing too loudly. A blindfolded toddler could figure out the volume controls on most MP3 players, Discmans, stereo systems, etc. I think that Apple should think carefully about limiting decibel output in the future. I don't see the point of being able to make yourself vomit after less than half a minute because, wow, this MP3 player can go *that* loud. But even with that thought, this guy who's suing is still an idiot - and is still responsible for his own stinkin' ears.

Love the BMX pics. I wish you'd specified that these are photos of BMXers - mainly because, since I'm the big sister of two completely psychotic bike riders, I have a basic interest in it. (But I'll stick with my mountain biking, thanks.)

I'm not surprised that this Google feature went invitation-only. Google's new features are so heavily advertised and discussed all over the Internet that they can't help but receive millions of new users faster than they can launch yet another brand-new feature.You'd think that they'd be better equipped to deal with the masses of new users by now.

I use Windows Notepad, myself. If you know basic HTML tags, you can use this nifty little program to code your entire site. You can also search at download.com for Web site software. Most programs just let you click on the elements that you want to add (i.e. a table, plain text, or photos, etc.) and drop them in. But if you'd rather just do it yourself (which I've found gives me more control over where things show up on my pages, and of course how they look), you can learn some pretty good things at htmlgoodies.com - free and easy to understand.

I was annoyed when, after buying my laptop last August, I had to sit through this "validation" check b.s. when I started this thing up for the first time.The point of the thing isn't to make customers happier; it's to help Microsoft catch people who rip them off by counterfeiting/illegally copying their software. That's fair enough, sure. I would probably do the same thing if I owned a software company, as nobody really wants to be ripped off.But at least don't try to pass this thing off as being "good for customers." The only way this thing can help we buyers is if Microsoft can keep prices low (hahaha - well, low for Microsoft anyway) by not losing as much business to pirated copies.

Once again, I'll state my opinion regarding the U.S. prison system. Right now, our prisons are more like luxury suites than prisons. Inmates have access to free things that law-abiding citizens - you and me - have to pay for. We don't receive free air conditoning, cable TV, food, Internet access, education, medical care, etc. We have to work in exchange for these things - and part of our paychecks go to taxes, which support the people who commit crimes. Stupid? Yes. Of course this is stupid. This really great book that I read a couple of years ago was written by a man who took a job in a prison and eventually worked his way up to warden. When he started, prisoners had to work to earn their stays - i.e. farming, the laundry room, that sort of thing. Eventually the stinkin' liberals' bleedy hearts leaked all over the prison system, so prisoners were required to do less and less ... leadng to the sorry state that prisons are in today. Like prisoners shouldn't tend their own vegetable gardens, among other things, to off-set the costs of keeping them away from people who obey the law.

Lately I've been playing the original The Legend of Zelda (for the NES). My sibs and I used to complain about that game because it only came with three profiles for saving - and there are five of us. So, because I'm the oldest, I got the first saving spot. And the rest of the sibs? Well, they had to fight for their spots *snickers*We bought our copy from what was then called Funcoland. This was a few years after the title was released, so we picked up a used copy for something like eight dollars. What impressed me, that I didn't think of until much much later, was that the battery never died on us. Even though the copy had gone through at *least* one previous owner, and went through several years of my sibs and I playing almost every day, the internal battery still saved game progress.But the second Zelda title for NES *STANK* Oh, that was a pile of junk. I only played the stupid thing for five minutes before I turned it off and never looked back. Oh, well. The creators have come up with so many titles that they're bound to have a bad outing here and there.

I used one of those free search engine submission sites to put my site out there. Big mistake. The e-mail address associated with my Web site gets TONS of those stupid Nigerian e-mails (yeah, you know, the guys who are allegedly trying to offer me tons of cash to help them move money out of their countries).I finally got sick of reporting all the stupid e-mails to Hotmail or Yahoo (just about all of the e-mails come from people using one account or the other). So ... if you go with search-engine submission sites, be sure to use a disposable e-mail address. Make sure that you keep the thing just long enough to receive any activation links that you might have to use. As for the rest of the types of spam (the usual viagra/free gift cards/etc. deals), I let Yahoo's spam filters take care of the problem. Mine filters out more than 90 percent of the spam that I receive, so I'd say that it's doing a pretty good job.

Oh, fun. Open attached Kama Sutra photos and get a computer virus that wipes out your vital documents. What with those delightfully wicked computer geniuses think of next?Seriously though ... from talking to other people (i.e. helping them fix their 'puter probs) I've learned that a big part of the issue is when people set their e-mail clients to automatically open/view attachments. Don't do that! Change the settings! That'll prevent a big portion of the e-mail virus problem.

I hope you find a s/n and that the cops can track down the truth about the camera. As for your friend: giving him a heads-up to what's going on might be something to consider. If I sold something to someone and that person had problems later, I would want fair warning so that I would have a little time to figure out what to do about the situation. If your friend didn't steal the camera, he'll want a chance to track down the person he bought it from (i.e. find the real thief) and help protect himself. Oh - and did you look *inside* the camera for a s/n? The numbers can be inside the battery compartment.

That works for people who want the look of a Mac interface without being able to afford an actual Mac computer. Not for me, though - I really like WinXP's interface and overall look. Especially once I got rid of the stupid default blue all over the place *grins* Green's infinitely better.

Shouldn't the FBI be more focused on tracking down terrorists and other *real* criminals, instead of making this file-trader guy's life miserable for two years?Really ... anybody else who gets caught with files just has to pay fines out the butt. Just because this guy's been in trouble before doesn't mean that he deserves a harsher penalty than a lot of super-bad people get for much worse things.I hate the government sometimes. I really do.

Here's an interesting bit that I just found. Apparently the Guiness Book of World Records has a category for fastest text message typing - with a standardized message that the would-be record holders have to type, without predictive text or other aids. Strange. Sad. True.

I gave up on trying to get anywhere with Yahoo!'s search engine *years* ago. I figure, hey, since Google actually works out well for me, for free, and a whole ton of people use that search engine, I might as well just stick with what works.Yahoo!'s just too frustrating for me.

Being able to stay in touch is great, but only on my terms. When I leave my apartment to go to classes, or someplace else on campus, I leave my cell phone in my apartment. Why? Because if I'm going to sit in a classroom for an hour, which I'm paying to do, then I don't want people bothering me with text messages, pointless phone calls or other stupid stuff like that. And if I do take the phone with me, I make friends with the "off" button. That's probably my favorite feature, hehe.I like being completely unavailable. That's the whole point of going out and doing things away from my apartment. That's why I go off by myself and ride my bike, hang out in the library, etc. I don't like being available 24 hours a day.But I think I'm the only one on this entire campus who feels that way. I watch fellow students send text messages back and forth the entire class meeting. Or, they grab their phones to call their friends the second class gets out. They've only been out of touch for 50 minutes, but they're going through some sort of withdrawal symptoms or something. How did these people manage to live before cell phones became affordable? I understand that some people need to be available. Some employees need to be on call. Or people have children, and like to be available in case one of them becomes sick and needs to be picked up from school. But these situations are different. The college kids are just addicted to the stupid phones.My biggest question, though, is about the cell phone technology. Why do we need miniature iPods in our wireless phones when we already have portable MP3 players that are a) cheaper than the phone and capable of holding a lot more songs? Why do we need to browse the Internet on screens roughly the widths of our thumbs? And why, I must ask, do we have to take low-quality photos of pointless junk with these phones and immediately send these images to every friend we have?So. Yes, I hate cell phones. I appreciate the very basic point of them (being able to make and receive calls as long as I have a decent signal). Beyond that, I don't care.

I wouldn't be surprised if Google thought about, or even attempted, an OS. They've already proven that they're willing to branch out all over the Internet (from the search engine to e-mail to the chat software, etc.), so it's not like an OS would be totally unexpected of this company.Even so, I doubt that the thing would do very well. They wouldn't be able to lure many Windows users away because, hey, we're lazy and like having convenient access to just about all the good programs. Oh, and did I mention that we're lazy? *grins*But if Google came up with an open-source project, I can only imagine the sheer number of programmers who wound start tweaking/fixing/improving the thing.

For what these notebooks cost? They'd better do my taxes, feed my cat, translate my Latin homework, scrub my toilet, *and* do everything that my Compaq notebook (a $700 compute) does (but about twenty times faster).

Why is it that people are so quick to blame Bush (an idiot, I'll grant you that - I never said that I like this guy), but forget about Ray Nagin? You remember him: the mayor of New Orleans who, as the head of the city, was in charge of keeping his citizens informed and safe? Right. Why wasn't he putting his city's evacuation plan into effect? I know the man was informed that a massive hurricane was coming - every radio, TV and newspaper source in the whole region was yammering about Katrina for *days* before the storm hit land. Rita came along a few weeks later; the overwhelming majority of the people in cities and towns in that hurricane's path were long gone before the storm came. They used their evacuation plans. Why didn't New Orleans bother with theirs? Why did I turn on my TV in Texas after the storm hit and see school buses, Greyhounds, city buses, etc. stuck under several feet of water? Would it have been *that* hard to put vehicle-less residents in those and at least gotten them to higher ground, preferably as far inland as possible? Be sure to spread the blame *everywhere* that it belongs. Bush should have done a few things differently, yes, but he's not 100 percent responsible for what happened in Louisiana.