twitch

Ok, please refrain from mentioning God. It may stir up trouble.Anyway. Recently, scientists now believe that there must have been several big bangs. Due to a new theory of inverted expansion. It sounds sort of strange something expanding inwards, but it makes sense if you think about it on a 3D level. This is the way I see it, take a an orange for example. At the top is your big bang. Then, it expands outwards, but whilst expanding from the top, it is contracting at the bottom. This shows that this universe is contantly moving, towards itself. (If you are confused now, then don't worry, most people are).Now, there is proof of the big bang, or something as major as it. The big bang did not create everything. In fact, it only created this universe. There are infinite more universes and we are by far probably the youngest (relatively speaking). Where is the proof? Background nutrinoes. Something that is exibeted as a constant flowing substance through matter. Scientists believe that these background nutrinoes that flow through everything are the reminisence of the big bang.

The âgood websiteâ Creating a website is easy, just fire up your favourite WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor and throw the content in, add a little violent array of colour and publish to the web. Well done, you just took up useful space with a useless piece. What makes the âgood websiteâ? To answer it in as few words as possible would undermine the whole idea of the good website. Every little aspect needs to be intruded and revealed, in order to show just exactly what it is that makes the good website. In order to keep confusion to a minimum, I have separated this part into 4 simple categories, that I have found are essential in the birth of the good website. The percentages of the categories is explained afterwards. 50% Design: The design of a website involves everything that is graphical, in any sense, and white space. This also encapsulates anything that can be positioned within the page, including text. However, try not to get confused. The actual text block within a page is considered as design, but the content of the text and its purpose is classed as content (next point). Design is an essential part of a website, and seeing as though it takes so much in, rightly so. It is also the part that takes a lot of work, perhaps most of the time in the new media industry is designing, because we are always questioning our ability to create something that other people like, and will be able to use. Also, we want our designs to often reflect our personalities, emotions or similar personal effects, and joining the two can often reflect badly. But sometimes, we decide that a totally different route is needed. Something that is very common between web designers of today; simplicity. Often, this method of design is overlooked, not surprising really, because in a sense some clients want messy, busy or damn-right roller-coaster ride sites. And this can mess with our minds. But we have to step back once-in-a-while and say no. I want freedom. This is where the real design and emotion comes from. Simplicity may seem, pretty simple, but it can be a very daunting task. 5 pixel borders and 75 pixel image holders may seem pretty simple, but what about things like the content holders, the header or even the menu for that matter? Well, I have decided that some top tips are in order. ⢠Horizontal menus are not advised. Why? Because they are harder to update and there is only so much that can be added to it. Vertical menus on the other hand are limitless and take less effort to make. This accentuates the feeling of simplicity. ⢠Headers are a nightmare. Literally. I donât know about you, but when it comes to headers, I prefer to make them at the end. It saves a lot of pain. When you have your layout, colour scheme and all the other dibs and dabs pulled together, you will find it a lot easier to come up with a header. Many people, me included prefer to have a simple header that has a simple gradient of either âSatinâ or âLinearâ with one colour, just at different tones. ⢠Colour schemes. Try to keep the number of colours at either 3 or 5. This helps to make it easier on the eyes (eye-candy), and most people that use the Internet are Visual Learners, which means colour is good (for the most part). Donât colour text. Keep it white or black (depending on element background-colour). Finally, donât overpower links with colour. Keep the visited, link colours the same and the active, hover the same. ⢠Keep clutter to a minimum. There is nothing worse than coming across a website that looks as though it has been rampaged by a squad of rhinos. Modular designs are often the best to apply to this, but are sometimes misused. In order to reduce clutter, put every element in logical order. Donât have the header, then the content, then the menu, then the copyright and finally the footer. The ordering of everything goes right down to the text. ⢠Could you use it? If you can use your design perfectly without flaw, then others can. This may sound wrong and many people may argue, but the standards of what people can and canât use is pretty simple. Either you can or canât use something to its full ability. ⢠Rule of thumb. People often overdo the text or overdo the graphics. The total design of the site should equate to 30% content and 70% design. This is a healthy balance that ensures those with visual-spatial learning styles get what they need and those with visual-linear get what they need. There are different forms of design. The most common in the good website search I found was modular. It proves effective for most instances and also fulfils all or most of the criteria in design. There is a difference between the style design and the working design. The style at the moment is probably grunge, reflecting the dark clothing styles of many designers. The working design is, you guessed it, modular. If you donât understand what modular means, then here is my take on it: Modular design is clearly seen as different blocks, that work together in either harmony or contrast to create a total area that comprises of a working website. These blocks may be joined, or in the most common way, separate. 25% Content: Perhaps not as important, but still holds its own is the content. This is what the actual text within a page says and what its purpose is. On the homepage, you are best applying these rules. Your content needs to: ⢠Be in short sentences. Extended subordinate clauses will not help you win visitors, nor will it entertain the ones that are already there. However, saying this, the introductory paragraph of your site needs to be as descriptive in as few words as possible. It may contain as many clauses as you wish. Another element that is exempt from this rule is blog entries. They often need to be long and extended as they are practically a journal/diary. ⢠Contain plenty of internal and external links. Internal links are to other parts of your website, external are to other sites. Outbound links generate inbound links and gets you popularity and increases your Google Page Rank. The rest of your site needs to contain proper English and perfect grammatical sentences. If you are slightly bad at English then type up the content in the likes of Microsoft Word, where it assists you. DO NOT TYPE SHORT HAND. Something that annoys every visitor is seeing this: âSo hows it goin liek. I ehh, wonderd if u was liek gonna chek out ma siteâ. 12.5% Structure: This is characterised by the actual structure of your site. This extends from your menu. Although structure does not directly influence visitor ratings, it is still apart of the process of making the good website and is essentially important in updating (next point). Your structure needs to follow a logical set. And so does your menu. Home About Menu Item 3 Menu Item4 Menu Item5 Contact The above is just an example of the way a vertical menu should be set out, it can be more complex, but that is the general method. The name of the pages should be directly linked to what the actual page is about. Having a games.html page when it is a chat page is useless and can cause great confusion when updating. Just use logic. 12.5% Update: The key to any success of the good website is to update. This doesnât mean add ten pages of solid information every year, it means to add a little bit every day or every week. Regular updates can make a site prosper and become something known as Sticky. It may not be design-candy nor structured properly and may defy every rule there is, but the fact it is constantly updated magnetises the visitors to its metallic core. Just keep it in mind when trying to achieve the good website. The percentages above equate to the total of importance of making the good website. The last three that I comment on may be short, but I feel they incorporate a lot of common sense and logic. Design is the part for me that a lot of people struggle with. Examples of the good website: GoogleGoogle AdobeAdobe BBC iCANBBC iCAN Well, I hope this helps. Please feel free to add anything (in further posts) that you feel I have left out. -mik (alias: guy, twitch, landoboy, haggis_basher)

Firstly, thanks for the warm welcome. I think I pre-registered here in March or something stupid like that.Anyway, as for the web design stuff, I use Fireworks for my design. I find that my simplistic and often modular approach to design is best suited with a vector graphics program. I use Photoshop rarely (most of the time I use it to get pre-designed patterns and shapes). I am currently designing my site and hope to get it hosted here within a few days.As for the tutorials, I am currently making one on my computer and will post it here tomorrow sometime (as of this post). The implementation of my work is done with Wordpad/ Dreamweaver. I can't get to grips with Flash yet (I have Studio MX).

The name Geocities gets me, I mean it is relating to the position of the cities anywhere in the globe. What relevance has that got to do with free web hosting (without going on a tangent)?I think Xisto is a cool name, and OpaQue must be very cool to come up with such a name, unless it was Xisto, but then the whole company owning person thing just confuses me at the moment (as I know barely anything about it).I wonder what OpaQue has to say about this?

By web standards, you should only use the fonts that are universal. Any other fonts should be declared in the CSS, like so:.exampletext {font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif;}Then, those with Lucida Sans Unicode on their computers would see that text, if they didn't then they would see arial. If they didn't have that, then Helvetica and so on. Sans-serif is latin for without-follow (or something to that effect). Please note that if I have the sans-serif confused with serif, then shoot me. Becuase I deserve it.WEFT is highly unstable and should be revoked and redone.Supplying a font file for download, just to see the header correctly is the stupidest thing that anyone could do. It annoys the visitors having to download and install something that should appear properly in the first place.Graphics are always the best bet, but remember, depending on the font and the font size, you might need to add anti-aliasing. Pixel fonts should never have anti-aliase, or it undermines their puprose.The only final real alternative that would allow search engines to read it whilst still being an image would be GD. But as a PHP dunce and GD no-nothing, then I may be wrong.

Indeed. And the web has a lot more to offer. Over time, I believe that the Internet will hold more information (relatively speaking) than the mythical Altantis Library.Everyday, more and more information is added to the web, and is accessible by anybody around the world, an advantage against the libraries.However, libraries (especially here in the UK) are becoming 'jealous' and are beginning to publish online versions of their books.As for the PDF system, you can make your own. Just use a freeware program to convert any document* into a PDF. I can't remember the name of such, but when I do, I will make sure you get it.*within the program's ability.

MySQL, not My SQL. As said before, Xisto provides PHP, MySQL and Postregre SQL (I think it is spelt like that) it also supports ASP and a whole list of others. PHPBB2 takes about 20Mb or so (when fully installed and mods are added) of MySQL database size. Remember, that not only do you have a limit on the number of databases, but there is also a size limit. http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ is a good place to find alternative hosting, but I would recommend Xisto (here). Not only is it premium classed hosting (for free) but they also provide Fantastico, which allows you to install loads of different elements into your site, including PHPBB (as said before) and also things like Wiki and Bloging software. It is free and takes under a minute to set up anything.

Firstly, may I say icons are on the desktop for a purpose: they make tasks quicker. Secondly, the likes of My Computer and Recycle Bin icons can not be deleted so easily. In fact, the only way to do it is to somehow overwrite key components in Windows, which would be illegal and stupid. Finally, I have a very organised desktop. My Computer and shortcuts to drives are along the far left hand side, recycle bin is in the bottom right corner (because I rarely use it), and the rest of my icons are lined according to the program type. For example, my media program icons are in one column, Office in another, and folders in the far right. Keeping icons of programs that you use on the desktop is quicker than keeping them to the start menu.

Very good tutorial. And especially useful for beginners. Perhaps, in the future you could have had a short tutorial on WAN.

Thank you clagnol for making clear that we do use all of our brains, just not at the same time. That is the part that did sort of get me (I thought we might use it all at different times, but to use it all at once has not yet been achieved).I do understand the world of the AI and biological, and I tend to try and keep up-to-date with such things.Secondly, several reports I have read, been told and seen on the television say that we have only unlocked a small percentage of our brain. I may not have made my point clearly though, this is what I meant: We may know what drives our brains and how they work (as in the sense of electro-chemical pulses) however, we do not know how powerful our brain can be. Many scientists argue that the human brain never stops increasing in 'power'. Unlike computers, it has no clocked speed. And every brain is different. And as for the 'never' being able to, let me rephrase: Not in the near future. And following on from clagnol's last point, why would we? If the scare is that high about robots conquering humans, then they will never be designed to carry out such actions.

I don't see why 64bit has come out. So far, I know of no software that is suited to 64bit processors. They may be clocked faster, but I would rather prefer the dual-core 32bit type.

Thanks for that. But I still don't understand how the people that pay out the money are gaining anything in the first place?

I am intermediate at the Cello.I can make a noise with the drums.I can make a beautiful music with saucepans.

Scientists have often said that we only use 20% or so of our total brain power. If we were to use all of it, we would advance quicker. But I believe that we don't use all of it as we are using too much thought power for problem solving. My proof, we are constantly problem solving. From every step to decisions on whether to eat or not.Anyway, the human brain also brings up numerous of other results, as well as the one that the robot brings up. I am love technology, but something that I can't see happening is robots developing a sense that we as humans have. They may be programmed to learn and adapt, but they will never have a natural conscience.

Computers will never be powerfull enough to simulate the human brain. Even if they do have all the mechanics of the brain. Why? Because we haven't even scratched the surface of what our brain is and how it works. And I don't know where you got your imformation from, but I would like a link to see it.

Please be more specific on what type of MySQL you need. Do you want the software, a host or something completely different?

First of all may I point out that AI robots will never conquer us as films like I:Robot suggest. Robots lack something that humans have, a conciousness. This is what governs us as life forms to do certain things that appear unpredictable or things that make us individuals. A robot can never have a natural conciousness and therefore can't see humans as needing to be destroyed.As for the mistake correcting process, it is something that many scientists and us web developers have been working on since the thought sprung from the fountain of ideas. To make a system that self operates and learns is the ultimate. Systems like these have been made numerous times in various scripting languages and many games hold on the idea of adaptation. For example, if you play the same move over and over on a game like Tekken 3, the computer will eventually start to learn its mistakes and works out a logical path and beats you. It is the same with any problem.It is only a matter of time until the AI world evolves into something that co-exists with us as humans. But with so many narrow minds inhabiting this planet, I doubt it will be in the near future.

If the frequency of the EMP generator was set to the same ressenance as the elctro-chemical pulses in the brain, then yes it can kill. But, it would require a heck of a lot of time to create such an accurate system. EMP is used to disrupt anything that uses electrical charges. For example, new cars can be made useless by EMP generators, as the microchips within the cars are rendered inoperable. And you can't stop EMPs from affecting your computer, unless you want to buy 10 inches of pure lead to surround your microchips and processors.

ASP comes with IIS, so I don't understand why web hosts don't give it out. Unlike PHP, you don't need to download and configure it. With IIS, all you need to do is install it and there it goes. As for the argument between PHP and ASP, both have their rewards and problems. PHP: It has loads of differenlty functions, variables, conditions etc making it one of the best well rounded languages to code almost anything in. However, because of the sheer size of functions and such available, it takes quite a while to learn. I am still only figuring out the basics and it has been three weeks of trial and error. ASP: While not as large in functions and such as PHP, the core functions allow it to often computer quicker and more accurate feedbacks. It's predfining variables and various formats gives it the more rounded approach. There are currently three forms of ASP: VBscript ASP, Javascript ASP and the other one that I can never remember.

There is also a .net magazine that not only looks at programming, but web design as well. I get it whenever I have spare change, and I find it invaluable.

Replace Console.WriteIn with document.Write

Try using google. Alternatively, check out scripting magazine's websites, for example .net magazine website. They often keep archives of previous tutorials.

There are many free GIF animators out there. It just depends on the intensity and level of work you are willing to do to make it worthwhile. Adobe Photoshop/ Image Ready come with built in Animators, and so does Fireworks. I personally found Fireworks to be the most logical. It works like a true animation, working in frames, just like its counter-part Flash. I have not made any true GIF animations though, because one I don't like that sort of thing and two I am concentrating on stills.

I have two machines in my house. My brother's (who doesn't live here) and mine. I use one for the internet (my brother's) and my own for web design. Borther's: Processor: AMD Duron MMX, 3DNow - 1.8GHz Memory: 224Mb RAM Graphics: S3 ProSavage DDR - 32Mb Sounds: Onboard Hard Drive: 80GB Operating System: Windows XP Pro SP2 Mine: Processor: Intel Pentium 2 - MMX, 334MHz Memory: 198Mb RAM Graphics: Onboard - 8Mb Sounds: Onboard Hard Drive: 20GB Operating System: Windows 2000 Professional I am going to save up soon to upgrade my PC and get WiFi connectors for it. Does anybody know how I can overclock my processor? If you do, then please put it in detail in a PM to me. Thanks. My monitor is a 17" CRT monitor, my brother's is a 17" TFT flat screen. Printers = Lexmark Z500 or something and an Epson C320 or whatever it is. We have a very old flat bed scanner and a stupid old modem. But nobody will listen to the one that knows about these things. And as for my computer, I got the pieces together and built it. And yes, I did buy it.

This has happened to someone I know. There is nothing you can do. You just have to wait for Yahoo to fix it. *Yahoo are currently having problems with the new system.*