Sarah81

Right. So everybody's a puppet because the video games, violent song lyrics, and gruesome TV shows/movies take over our brains and force us to do horrible things to other people. I can't accept that. I might not be the most mature or responsible person, but I know the difference between having choices and not having them. Just because I play GTA, watch Quentin Tarantino movies and read Stephen King novels doesn't mean that I'm any less responsible for my actions than people who play Mario Bros./Tetris, watch G-rated movies and read Rebecca of Sunnybook freakin' Farm.Bottom line: if you aren't going to take responsibility for your actions, then you probably don't need to be part of a free society anyway. Fortunately, prisons aren't part of free society. I hope these kids in question stay locked up for a long time - at least until they learn how to admit that they made a really bad decision. It's just too bad that they don't get to keep their Benzes in prison. Oh, my heart is breaking for the spoiled brats; I'm weeping for them even as I type this. </sarcasm>

Version 8 of this programming travesty was horrible - even worse than 7. It seems like the last few builds have just been getting worse and worse. I used to be one of the world's biggest Netscape fans, but it would take nearly Herculean efforts to pry me away from Firefox at this point.As for reports that Netscape's latest release features improved speed: I doubt that they've managed to make it much faster than 8. And 8, even on a brand-new computer (first thing I downloaded, actually), was super-slow.

I don't know about the mileage on the car, but the paint job looks pretty good. Obviously this isn't the original paint job, but hey - even if the owner has to have his car repainted, at least he has something to work on and invest in now. Then again, I have to wonder what the guy's insurance company had to say about this one.

I just bought my first portable MP3 player a few days ago. I only had $100 to spend, so there was no way that I would get some brand-new, eight-thousand-gigabyte player. But, the advantage for me is that I only need a few CDs' worth of music on the thing at any given time. I just use it when I'm going to or from classes, and maybe sometimes when I'm at home with my family - but in the latter instance, I have my laptop right there so I can of course transfer new files in whenever I feel like changing things up. Anyway ... I ended up with an iriver, which I really like so far. It holds 256MB of music, runs on a plain old AA battery (very easy to change out - and cheap to replace), and came with all the accessores I wanted (and some that I didn't, like the armband). And, if I get bored with the music that I've loaded, I can switch to the radio option. Apple's only comparably-priced product is the Shuffle, which I don't like. For 100 dollars you get 512MB of space, yes, and you have the convenience of being able to use iTunes. But you don't get a display screen. My iRiver, on the other hand, has that display - which is pretty much vital to me. So, I'll take half the space to get the digital screen any day. I think that a lot of Apple's sales are just for the trendiness factor anyway. A lot of people call portable MP3 players "iPods" even when the device in question isn't made by Apple. It's sort of like how we call all tissues "Kleenex" even though we're blowing our noses into some generic brand. *shrugs* We'll see if Apple can stay on top.

Have you guys heard about the text-messaged ads and coupons that some companies are working on developing for cell phone users? The idea is that, as you get close to a certain store (say a burger joint), your phone will receive a coupon for that store. The technology's there, obviously - just a matter of time before that actually starts happening. As if we aren't already bombarded by enough ads everywhere else.

Everybody who uses DA keeps saying all sorts of great things about it. I'm not an artist, but I browse around there sometimes to check out other peoples' work. The things that some of you guys (and girls!) do (especially with photography!) are very impressive.

Welcome to the forums. I hope you enjoy hanging around here - and good luck with your sites (and "server of sorts" as you put it).

The first four titles on your list are in my personal favorite top 10. Now that I'm thinking about this ... I need to get a DVD player so I can watch Boon Dock Saints again. It's been a while.

I hate phishing e-mails. I received one claiming to be from PayPal a few weeks ago. The subject line was something about a PayPal payment for over a thousand dollars to an online watch store or some nonsense like that. One dead giveaway that the "PayPal" e-mail is fake is if you aren't greeted by your personal or company name. If mine doesn't start with "Hello Sarah _____," then it's definitely fake and I report it. The best thing that anybody can do is to report the fake e-mails. Make sure that you include full message headers so that the real Web site's employees, if not law-enforcement agencies, can track down the origin.

Hey. I'll answer the questions that I know something about and leave the rest for a more adept person to field. I hope my answers help a little. 1. When I used mIRC (back when I could still access IRC - stupid college blocks), I just double-clicked in my channel window to see modes, change modes, check out banned users, and even change the channel's topic. 2. Read your IRC client's Help file. It should explain the word filtering system and how to use it. Just a helpful tip: a lot of the stuff you want to know can be picked up, then fine-tuned, by trial and error. Try different things with the word filter options to see what happens. You can always undo the settings and erase unwanted entries if they don't work out. Or, as I used to do with mIRC, you can check out the client's Web site, which often has a FAQ. Or even a forum so that you can get all sorts of great help from other users. 5. You have to be in the channel to change things. 6. You're probably thinking about an auto-greeter. Read up on your IRC client's options. mIRC, for example, lets you program this sort of thing - automatic greetings as well as responses to certain actions (provided that you know some very rudimentary programming, which can be picked up by reading the help files very closely). For greets, in which you can point out channel policies and explain any other things that new visitors might need to know, you'd have to program mIRC's "remote." 8. Auto-op isn't a bad idea. The worst that can happen is that your channel is taken over by bored teenagers, who will eventually have to get offline to take out the trash for their Moms. And if that actually happened (not extremely likely - it usually occurs because ops give +o to people who just walked into the channel ten seconds ago), you can usually get some sort of help from an administrator. The easiest way to figure out all this stuff is to read Help files. Most IRC clients that I've tried (five or six, including mIRC and pIRCh) include very specific and detailed files to help you get the idea of what's going on.

Are you sure these aren't motorcycle engines? *grins* Seriously, I wonder how many MP3s I could get on one of those ... and my next question after that would be, "How badly would I hurt myself when I had to move that thing out of my apartment at the end of the semester?" Heh.

We went over this idea, and the proofs of course, in an honors-level math class that I took last semester. Once I wrapped my brain around the basic concepts, the whole thing made perfect sense. Fortunately, I'm taking a very basic math class for my other math requirement so that I can spend more study time doing something that I enjoy - literature *grins*

This salesman's Corvette was stolen from a New York parking garage 36 years ago. He'd moved all the way across the U.S. to California shortly after that. And, earlier this month, 36 years after he lost the sports car, New York detectives called to tell him that they'd found it. I guess you really shouldn't give up your last shred of hope in some cases, huh? *grins*

If I'm interpreting that screen shot correctly, Vista is set up so that users can view contents of folders that are behind active windows? If that's the case, then great - I can see myself making *lots* of use of that feature. If not, well, it's still a pretty sweet-looking screen shot.Except for the taskbar. I'd haveto customize the snot out of that thing before I could look at it without becoming annoyed.

Interesting. I wonder how much Microsoft's plans for the OS of the fairly-distant future will change as technology improves and grows. Maybe by then they'll have come up with the neural-input devices that we just plug right into our central nervous systems. Then again - knowing my luck, I would get the BSoD the second the transmitters were plugged into my body. Heh. That would suck.

I listen to a little (or a lot) of just about everything, rap and rock included. I even like some of the rap/rock type stuff when I'm in the mood for that type of music.Right now I'm actually into Green Day's "American Idiot" CD, as well as Ani DiFranco (as always - my favorite) and some Christian rock (various stuff).But when I'm in the mood for rap, I'll play Eminem, Ludacris, 50 Cent (his first commercial album - "The Massacre" sort of sucks), and that sort of stuff. Nothing that takes itself too seriously.

Like the U.S. government doesn't have enough resources, and infringe on honest citizens' rights enough already (i.e. the stupid PATRIOT Act crap). If they can't figure out how to track down terrorists without trying to strong-arm a search engine company, then the government as a whole is even worse than I thought it was.

That's just a messed-up photo. I can't say that I've ever seen anything quite like it. Wow.

Yesterday's technology rules. 1. It's less expensive than the brand-new stuff. 2. I don't *need* brand-new technology in anything that I want or need. Not even portable MP3 players. And not even computers. It needs to be fairly new, sure - nobody wants a two-megabyte iPod, if they ever made 'em that small - but I don't need four gigs' worth of music. 3. It's been tested more than the brand-new stuff. I would *still* be kicking myself in the rear end had I actually had the money to invest in a minidisk player several years ago. Industry reports and idolizing fans of the technology swore that the minidisk would eventually replace CDs, but ... yeah, right.

In some cultures, particularly in the Middle East, being raped is dishonorable. No. Really. If a woman's raped, some male relative gets the distinct privilege of killing her because, oops, she's brought dishonor to the family's pure and holy reputation. What's even crappier is that there doesn't even have to be evidence. Specifically, Pakistani people only need allegations of rape before they whip out the axes or torches. I agree that honor is very important, and that Western culture has essentially forgotten about it, but there are some things that just aren't an indivudal's choice to make one way or another. At least here in the United States our death penalties are for people who commit murder (usually more than one). --- And as for the subject of millionaires in Iraq: does the name Pat Tillman spark a memory in anybody? Granted, the article is basically saying that there aren't very many pro athletes volunteering for the military, but at least one did.

This is a sort of long story, but I have to set things up for anyone reading this.A couple of months ago, Mom had to do a total hard drive reformat and reinstall. Her computer (Dell running XP Home) was just too full of spyware and other junky stuff that she couldn't get off. I was around to help, but I'm totally stuck on this one problem with MS Word.She owns a perfectly legit copy of MS Word, that came with the computer system (a Dell, incidentally). She bought the system (brand-new) through one of those stupid rent-to-own shops (you know - pay twenty bucks a week for half of an eternity and the computer will someday be yours, at only three times what Dell would have charged if you order directly through them). They gave her the actual software packet, with the registration key code and all.Unfortunately, one of my siblings somehow *LOST* the stupid CD-ROM sleeve with the code label on it at some point in the past, and has no idea of how long ago the disappearance even happened. Now Mom has *no* registration code. We didn't know this when we went to reinstall Word, so of course her copy is unregistered because there's no code to enter.She called Dell. They told her that she would have to call Microsoft. I called Microsoft. They wouldn't connect me to anybody unless I gave them my credit card number so that they could charge thirty-something bucks for software tech support. I went online to see if I could get free help that way. No; they want thirty-something bucks that way too.The only option that Mom really has left, unless she wants to pay Microsoft to help her with the code bit, is to contact the rental center and tell them that she needs another code. That route's not very likely to work though, as she's had the computer paid off for well over a year now. They probably don't even have any customer records for her anymore, as she's not an active buyer or anything like that.I tried using my registration code (I have a copy of Office '03), but unfortunately that didn't work because the two codes don't have the same number of digits. Then I installed my Office software on her computer system, thinking that this would just take care of the stupid problem.The system wouldn't let her activate the software. I went in later and entered the information again. The product was activated, and we thought that the stupid problem was over.Then, the next time the computer had to be re-started, Office (Word specifically) came up with the stupid error message about the product needing to be activated. Does anybody have any ideas on what to try next? I'm really tired of messing with Mom's stupid computer, and I could strange whichever of my siblings it was who moved the CD-ROM sleeves around and made Mom's registration code disappear into some black hole that has since closed up forever.

For basic photo editing (which is, uh, about all that I can do with any graphics program), I like PSP, preferably version 7. It's easy to use, fairly inexpensive (although I haven't bought a copy of my own - still use school computers when I want to do stuff with photos or whatnot), and can do pretty much anything I want.But if I'm just messing around, doing really simple stuff like creating desktop wallpaper (I like quotes from famous writers - solid background color and plain text), I use MS Paint. That's probably the only thing that program's good for, now that I think about it. Hehe.

Are they still releasing new Pokemon video games? My younger sibs were seriously into the cartoon, and the games (mostly on GameBoy Color), but I haven't really heard anything from them about Pokemon lately ... unless it's "Oh, I'm playing Crystal again" or something like that. Personally ... when it comes to cartoons and their respective tie-ins ... I prefer the original Ninja Turtles cartoon. And the video games (SNES and Genesis titles were the best IMO - forget the NES junk).But the short-lived cereal was horrible.

Astahost has been pretty good so far. I've only been a member for a few months or so, but I don't have any complaints that have anything to do with admin, or any other people involved (not their fault that the server occasionally goes down, or something else goes wrong, so when that happens I just go find something else to do until I can work on my site again or whatever).I like the fact that I can do something constructive - hang out in these forums - in exchange for ad-free space. I hate banner ads on my Web sites. And I'm not even going to get on a tangent about how much forced pop-ups, or even the occasional pop-under, suck. And yeah, the Google ads and stuff on the forum's pages are mildly annoying. But, hey, these guys have to pay the bills somehow - and Firefox has a great Remove It Permanently (RIP) extension that helps get rid of all sorts of crap that I don't want to see.

Now that's a cool story. Maybe the rat and snake are plotting to take over the zoo and this is just their first step? The friendly relationship could be a distraction: by confusing the zookeepers, the rat is free to sneak out and then release the snake.But if that happened, I bet the snake would turn and eat the rat. Can't leave witnesses who know so much, of course.