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Yeah, I have used Circus and Ponies Notebook for that kind of research. It is shareware, inexpensive to register. It stores text, outlines, multimedia, including voice annotations, and has a "clipping service" where you can store the selection in various marked places in different notebooks directly from the menu. It also imports images direct from your camera. It is integrated with Apple's Spotlight search engine and, in fact locates images better than Spotlight. I will often store images in Notebook just to get the better metadata search capability, especially for botanical images where the plants often have several valid names. One thing Google will have trouble beating is that programs like Circus and Ponies Notebook or OmniOutliner can produce formatted PDFs, HTML, or a standard XML interchange format from your notebooks for publishing. Other services, like BackClip (site currently down) already offer web stored and organized bookmarks. The other major advantage of offline notebook applications, however, is that they can be accessed offline, emailed, or easily backed up. The fact that BackClip is currently down (at least from where I am), underscores this need. I have close to a dozen different notebooks for various purposes and it is the only thing that lets me find anything when I need it. I do not see where Google's (Beta) product could come close to replacing a mature and inexpensive desktop application. On the other hand, having just searched, there seem to be few to no good (and cheap) outliner programs available for Windows. I wonder why that is. I remeber there being a whole host of good PIM programs that had this capability. Where did they all go?

Not the ones I was looking for, but this one goes into a bit of it. It talks more about lack of expression and tone more than style.

I don't put much stock in standard english classes. The easiest way to improve grammar and spelling is to read a lot. If you read the woks of good authors, you slowly absorb their language, idioms, and style. If you combine that with writing (like posting here), you should start getting better. Another good thing can be to actively have people critique your writing; I remember a college writing course where my papers fairly bled with red ink, but I got better. My spelling was always sub par, though, until I started playing competive Scrabble. It does not take losing many games to give you a real incentive to learn. Good writing is not a matter of intellectual snobbery--- it just makes it easier to communicate what you mean. As an exercise, look at one of your sentences and try to make it mean something else; try to twist its meaning. Then try that with other people's sentences. Good writing can only be read one way (unless it intentionally puns). Most people's writing is hard to interpret and easy to misinterpret. I have seen several studies lately where anywhere from %50 to %60 of email is misinterpreted by its readers. This is why you get a lot of serious flame wars online: people are just not understanding each other. Part of this is because you do not have tone of voice or facial expressions to interpret when reading an email. Part of it is because the writer of the email does not use punctuation and other cues to tell the reader what they really mean. One of the better ways to check your own writing is to read it aloud; mistakes and bad punctuation tend to jump out as you read. Anyway, I'll get off of my soap box now.

SpiderWeb Software's Geneforge series allows you to play the role of a Shaper, a wizard who can create and alter creatures to aid them. Geneforge III is the latest in that series of games. You start out as an apprentice Shaper in a school when it is suddenly attacked and all of your teachers are killed. Escape from the school and solve the mystery of the rogue creatures taking over the island. Geneforge III is shareware with a large free demo. The game is complex, with a large world and interwoven plot. There are many possible quests, you can choose which of several sides to join, and several possible outcomes. Like many of Spiderweb's games, you decide whether you have 'won' or not. Gameplay is fun, mirroring many RPGs with turn-based combat. You can interact with NPCs, convince some to join you, cast spells, and create creatures. Unlike many computer RPGs, 'soft' ability scores, like Intelligence and Leadership, actually matter in the game and can launch you onto different side quests. Your character can focus on creating creatures, using spells, combat, or some combination. I usually like to play creature-heavy characters, myself. When you reach certain areas in te game, it politely tells you that you need a registration code to continue. At $25 ($32 with a hint book), the game is a bargain, especially in a try-before-you-buy format. Registration is fast, painless, and easy. Copy protection is minimal and non-intrusive. And, best of all, the game does not nag you.

Something else to keep in mind: When I told my wife about this, she said "Well, we don't have to worry about that on the Linux ox, right." That is mostly true. Obviously spyware or malware targetted at Windows will not work on Linux, however, sites that steal your credit information or compile lists of email addresses or whatever still work. On Linux you have to actively *do* something to get yourself in trouble, but you can get in to trouble if you try. I am reminded of an email I got once which claimed to be a Linux virus. It came with installation instructions: 1) Please save this archive to your home directory and run: tar -xzf virus.tgz 2) Then cd into the created directory and run ./configure && make 3) Finally, become root and: make install Congratulations, you have now been infected. If you have any problems with this virus, please send email to bugs@badlinuxstuff.org.

Even if every nation in the world put half of their GNP toward launching space craft, we could not get enough people off-planet to keep up with the birth rate--- and that isn't even considering the cost to get them to Mars. Colonization is a great way to make sure we do not have all of our eggs in one basket. An initially small colony can grow to a reasonable size quickly, but it will not appreciably lower our population here or even slow its growth. Whatever we do to counter our population growth has to happen here.

I use JEdit mostly, just because I can use it on Mac, Windows, and Linux. It is written in Java, has some platform specific extensions to fit into the native environment a little better, is a good editor out of the box, and has a great extension system with many plugins available. I even use it for general word processing (but then, I am an XML/LaTeX junkie). There really is no shortage of editors for Linux in general and there even quite a few which run on a good handful of platforms so you do not need more than one program when you switch machines.

For me, the lens is definitely more important, particularly a decent range of optical zoom. I take pictures of everything from landscapes to close ups of plants or documents. I generally end up trimming down pictures anyway, so anything over 4 megapixels is not especially useful 99.9% of the time. My camera (a Kodak EasyShare Z700) has a decent optical zoom and a number of preset modes for the different types of photos I want to take, such as a document mode for emailing forms or importing pencil sketches. It basically does what I want and I think the newer cameras are overkill for most people.

Apparently, the NSA's data mining operations include domestic calls. All the major telecoms have been participating by giving NSA access to Call-Data-Records (CDRs) except for Qwest, which refused to participate without a warrant or letter from the Attorney General or FISA board. NSA refused to provide the letters because they did not believe the FISA board or Attorney General would approve of what they were doing. No one is talking about how much data we are talking about or what it is being used for since that data is 'classified'. Article link below and my own comments after. http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-10-nsa_x.htm At least at Sprint PCS, this type of data delivery is fairly easy (technologically) to provide. Instead of specialized pen register or trap and trace setups, now all is needed is a SQL query and a data tape. Since ~2000, Sprint PCS collects all CDRs at a central location where they are inserted into a database running on an SP2 cluster. Even for just Sprint PCS, this is a huge setup (multi-terrabyte) just to process 15 days worth of data. When I worked on the system, the plan had been to store anything over that out to 60 days in a tape library and then overwrite it. If the NSA is processing CDRs from multiple telecoms, they have an enormous cluster dedicated to the task--- all paid for by the taxpayers. The type of information is essentially what number called what number when and for how long. Personal information is not part of the CDR but can be looked up from other sources. With this kind of information, NSA can compile data on social circles, political and religious affiliations, etc. They can also use it to dig up dirt on people or government officials and blackmail them (affairs, afiliations they do not want public, etc.). How this collosally expensiv undertaking helps them fight terrorism is questionable. The telecoms who participated said that they were working with the NSA to 'protect American citizens'. Who, I wonder, protects us from the NSA? Obviously not the department of justice: when the two DOJ attorneys tried to investigate another NSA domestic surveilance program, they were told the information was classified and that the DOJ did not need to know.

It looks good to me. Can you stretch it out to banner size for those of us who want to run an Xisto banner on our sites? At worst, if you can just extend the gradient smoothly out to the right it would look a lot better than white space there.

At the same time, if someone were to do a banner-ad-sized logo, I would appreciate it. The current image looks kindof clunky in a banner.

It happens anywhere in the browser, but nine times out of ten it is in the search bar. It seems to be always a single line text entry box that starts the trouble.

Odd, the issue I am getting now (OS X 10.4.6, Firefox 1.5.0.3) is that every so often Firefox will stop accepting keyboard input. It has happened three times so far and every time I have to quit and restart. It only started with the .3 update. So far no one else has reported it. Oh well. I am using Firefox as my main browser now. It is annoying having to copy passwords over one by one from my keychain, but I think it is worth it. I rather like the Colorful Tabs and Download StatusBar extensions.

qsort or quicksort is already implemented in many languages or their add-on libraries (e.g. C++ STL, Java, Python, Ruby) there is seldom a need to write your own sort method these days unless it is just as a learning exercise.Note that many of these libraries come with source code if you want to look at how they are done.

OK, here is what I was mentioning with Frames and such. Here, you create a separate window from your applet. This is often considered poor form (people hate popups). It is often better to display your GUI within the Applet. JApplet has a getContentPane() method which returns a Container, You can modify Tracking_GUI to provide a new constructor which takes a Container as an argument. Everything in the Tracking_GUI gets packed into that Container. Your Tracking_GUI() constructor just creates a new Window and then passes *that* Container to the method which creates the widgets. Make sense? public Tracking_GUI(Container c){ Create_GUI(c);}public Tracking_GUI(){ my_frame = new JFrame("Tracking GUI"); Create_GUI(my_frame.getContentPane());}public void Create_GUI(Container c){ my_container = c; // Create widgets and add them to my_container JLable l = new JLabel ("foo"); my_container.add (l); // etc.} Anyway, this is the kind of thing I have doen in the past. It makes it possible to run the same code as a standalone app, an applet, or even embedded in another application without a lot of fuss and bother. Your Applet calls Tracker_GUI(getContentPane()) and your main calls TrackerGUI(). If this does not make any sense at all, I am probably over-tired and will try again later.

That's the best case to work with. It is really easy then to leave the Main file intact and add an Applet class to the jar. The jar will work as either an applet or standalone depneding on how it is called. The Applet class file, like your main file, will contain very little. Hopefully, your current Main file creates a toplevel frame and passes it to the class which does all of the work. In that case, you can create your applet and pass the Applet's Frame in instead. If not (if the inernal class creates a top-level frame), then it will take some more work to fix. At that point, post some snippets and I am sure people will help you out.

Nit: Hosting credits are not the amount of days you remain "inactive", but rather the number of days you can keep your service. Days "inactive" suggests that my credits will not be debited on days I visit or post on the forums. However, it looks like the credits are always debited (on an hourly basis). You may want to find a better way to phrase this.I do not understand the "95% of forum posts" bit. Do you mean that if there are 100 posts in a forum I get 95 points for a post? Seems unlikely. Or, do you mean I get full credit for 95% of my posts and no credit for 5%?

Mostly true. Buy a crossover cable if you need to, but if you have a normal cable lying around, try it. As I said, some cards are auto-sensing now. I have two computers (a Mac laptop and a Sony Vaio) and a router (Airport) right here all of which are auto-sensing: they will work with either type of cable. A crossover cable is safer. A normal cable *might* work. Basically, if you have the wrong kind of cable, you will get an error ("Network Cable Disconnected") and, if you have light on your network port, it will not light with the wrong cable type. You will not blow up your computer or anything, so there is no harm in trying.

You can probably just use Ip-over-firewire or USB. Last I knew, Windows, Mac, and Linux supported both. Mac, Sony, and many HP laptops (and some desktops) support firewire, although they may call it "IEEE 1394). I use firewire to transfer data all of the time. Note that mac laptops and desktops have a "target mode" where they can be used as an external hard drive. Wireless (802.11x) is another good way, but it is slow for large transfers (e.g.: I will run a cable for transferring movies, large amounts of music, or big projects). Yet another way to move files is to use an iPod or similar, or a keychain drive as an external harddrive. You can use MS' Briefcase to sync files to a keychain drive.

I tend to play some of the good shareware games out there. They are free to start but you need a key to unlock them after a certain point. They are usually pretty inexpensive after that. Spiderweb Software with the Avernum and Geneforge series, Apogee Software (DUke Nukem, etc.), and Ambrosia Software (EV Nova). Most of these groups release their older games for free. They are all virus and spyware free. Another good source is Open Source projects on sites like Sourceforge, such as FreeCiv. I recently introduced my wife, who is a Civilization adict to FreeCiv so she can play it on her Linux box. She loves it.

I recently worked with a guy who was offering inexpensive domains and sites for small businesses and non-profits, so I know exactly what the numbers look like. He folded. It's hard enough when charging money (within the budgets of your small customers). I cannot imagine trying to do it for free. I had thought the ad revenue was higher than 2-10% though, especially since the ads appear to be targetted on post content. This kind of site lowers the bar for Internet participation and provides a type of content which would simply not be possible otherwise. That being said, I operated or helped operate free bulletin board systems when I was younger; I can understand the urge to provide it and try to make it work. Nothing insensed me more than seeing one of our boards taken down or defaced by punks who thought they were cool or people complaining about the quality of their free service (when it was operating roughly within specs). Other times, "Those %#^$%$% racoons," became a common phrase in the area. In the winter, racoons had a habit of trying to nest inside substations where they were warm. It would usually end with the substation blowing up and taking a chunk of the grid, fuses and breakers with it. At that time, I usually traded programming and admin services to the boards in exchange for privileges, so the idea behind Xisto struck me as perfectly normal.

Technically, you need a crossover cable, but many new PCs and network cards auto-detect. Other things that can cause that problem: 1) Bad cable, cable too long, or bad interference (too many packet retries slows down link) 2) Too many collisions (probably not a problem on your home network) 3) Too many hubs or switches (If you have hubs/switches stacked too deep, you can have problems) I would guess #1 for a home network: Do you have a really long cable snaking across the house, a bad splice, or a Cat-5 coupler or two in there? If you crimp your own, you may have a bad crimp.

Having worked with a few of the ISO/IEC/IEEE technical groups, there is not a chance that Microsoft's XML format is standardizable. It is poorly documented (in that there are features which are not documented at all), poorly understood, and impossible to independently implement. That is not even starting on the patent/licensing issues. It also makes extremely poor use of XML compared to OpenDoc and the features are very Office-Centric. Yet another serious issue is that MS' document format is not built on other standards, such as XHTML, XPointers, etc., making MS' format much more complex than it needs to be.

Something else which people have not said but is fairly important is the organization of the systems. Mac OS is very visually oriented, not just in the sense of glitzy graphics, but that it is organized in a way which makes sense to people who think visually and spacially. The Mac system was designed with artists in mind. Linux is much more textually oriented--- it is a work horse. It is very easy on a linux system to do rather complex things with a bit of typing, without touching the mouse or digging through lots of menus, especially if you want to act on a bunch of things at once (e.g. print every document with "SMSU" in the title). Windows is in between, and, in my oppinion, does not do a terribly good job at either, frustrating both classes of users. That being said, Mac OS X does a good job of providing UNIX/Linux-like features underneath its nice spacially-oriented GUI. There is a UNIX command-line where you can type commands and run scripts. Scripting (Apple-Script) is also built into the GUI in many places, so if you are tired of doing the same thing over and over, you can write a script (e.g.: automatically save all Mail messages from so-and-so as a PDF in a certain folder). Also, Linux with the GNOME GUI is starting to become more spacially oriented like Mac (or even better than in places). Myself, I think both ways, depending on the task. I find that Mac OS X does a very good job of combining the too, though I am beginning to like Linux with GNOME better with each version as well. a command-line and typing does not bother me. Digging through layer upon layer of menus and dialogs does.

Do you mean when logging in to your *Host* account? If so, I get the same thing when logging in to CPanel. It is because Xisto's certificate is not in the default certificate chain ("Chain of Trust") for all web browsers. You did exactly the right thing: decide whether you trust it, and, if so, add the certificate to your browser's trusted list.