seec77

Ok, for someone who doesn't know anything about webdesign this site looks really cool! I've got a few things to say about it though. Make the white surrounding your images, like the border of the menu, transparent so that the gray with polka dots background can apply to them too. The sudden changes between the background and the white is very unaesthetic in my eyes. That counter on the bottom? Remove it! If you really want it (and I don't think it's that useful), put it somewhere else. I think the site might look cooler if the blue bar at the bottom was the lower end of the page, without that gray polka dotted margin beneath it. You know the gray with horizontal stripes on the right? Add a bar like that on the left, but only a small one. OK, the top bar. What's up with the really bad resolution? It reminds me of Supaplex graphics. That means DOS games!! The small part where it says "Home" and "Site Map" is great, but its surroundings are so blocky, what's up with that?! I'm really not good at designing or whatever, so I can't tell you how to do it, but I do have one tip: Try remaking that whole pulse thing (the moving electron, ) in Flash, and make the two pulses at different speeds, so it'll always be more dynamic. The logo's rotation sucks. Either keep it still or make it more transitional and less stucky (it looks as if it's trying to rotate, but gives up when it's almost there and goes back to it's former state only to try again)... The other pages of your websites should have the same top bar, or at least the same top bar size as the front page. Make the main font (the font that talks "About Your Company") smaller. Like the size of the menu font. Put the copyright notice at the bottom in the same line! I do think that's it. Lots of potential here though! I really like it! And I know I may seem a little critical... so just try to not get pissed off at me for coming here and pointing out your site's defects without being able to back myself, and try to fix your site according to my recommendations, as long as you agree with them yourself. BTW, I really did not understand what the purpose of your "company" (probably not incorporated yet, right?) is. Try a bulleted list. Good luck!

I used to make maps for CS, I think it was around 1.3 (way before Steam). Anyways, beware, it's an insanely difficult task, not to mention that after at least a few months of lots of trying I only came up with a map that has some weird disco lights. Well, maybe that was because I was more into special stuff rather than actual mapping (), but whatever. This is the best site, AFAIK: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ Here's a great tutorial from that site: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/Tutororial.php?id=50 (even though Worldcraft is up to 3.4 now, I think) Oh, and you're going to need ZHLT! Good luck! P.S. This might help you too: Valve Hammer Editor.

What exactly do you mean? Creating Flash files, or editting existing ones? I know that Ming can be used to generate Flash files, even as a PHP module. Do a Google search for "Flash decompiling" to find programs like these: Action Script Viewer Flash Decompiler I'm guessing there more programs than what I've found in one minute. What is lacking, as far as I know, is an interface that resembled Macromedia Flash. Maybe you can one day build a similar GUI for Ming. Good luck!

I would just like to make a small analogy here. What you're saying is like saying, "You don't have to write correct XHTML code, 'cause browsers will overtime accomodate to your silly hacks!". This saying is what led to an estimated huge profit loss for web developers and internet sites all over the world. Just think about that. Back then, people were like, "Oh don't worry! It'll work on Netscape!" or whatever, and that's exactly what happened, it ended up working only on Netscape or whatever other browser because of the program's quips of uncomformance, that used to be called bugs but stuck on for backward-compatability. And if you think that this won't matter for languages, just think of future advancements in the fields of AI and language recognition, when in the future we'll have several dialects of English, based on which IRC channel we hang around on, and speech recognition could be delayed because people like you don't want to write/speak/use valid English!!! Wow, that was really just an exaggeration.

I have quite a few bands I really like at the moment: Alkaline Trio - One of my favorite bands at the moment. Their music just really moves me, and can really put me into a right state of mind. Listen to Sadie by them. Fall Out Boy - I can't get their songs out of my head! I listen mainly to From Under the Cork Tree. Camel - Really great progressive band. I've downloaded their whole discography, but I like The Snow Goose best. And Mirage is also a great album! Genesis - Wow! Can't say enough about how good these guys are! Especially Foxtrot and Selling England by the Pound! They manage to play progressive music, without trying to show off or stand out... just beautiful IMHO. Dream Theater - One of my all time faves. Even though my music teachers hate their guts, I still like the diversity of their music. They've got some really metal-esque riffs, yet some really beautiful melodies. They are show-offs though... I own Awake, but I have the rest of their discography on my computer. Jimmy Eat World - Beautiful emo band! I own Bleed American, and you should too! The Smashing Pumpkins - I actually only have (that is, I inherited from my brother) Siamese Twins, but I can't stop listening to it. lostprophets - I own both The Fake Sound of Progress and Start Something, but the latter was scratched and I had to download a legal backup version. Porcupine Tree - Wow! There's just something so wonderful about this band! I downloaded In Absentia and Deadwing. Coldplay - They have some songs that you can easily classify in one word: beautiful. Just plain beautiful! Really catchy, passionate, yet simple and minimalistic music! I borrowed and ripped their whole discography from various friends. Alter Bridge - PASSION like I've never heard before! Alien Ant Farm - An OK band, not that much of a favorite, but I own truANT and have ANThology borrowed from a friend. Crash Test Dummies - I inherited from my brother their album God Shuffled His Feet, which contains their most well-known single, Mmm, Mmm, Mmm, Mmm (which I'm actually listening to right now). The song and the rest of the album remind me a bit of the simplicity of Coldplay, and it's a really great and soothing listening experience! 3 Doors Down - Rock-and-roll at its best. I downloaded their whole discography, and I keep on listening to it. Radiohead - I've never really gotten past The Bends and O.K. Computer, but I adore what I have heard. Their song Fake Plastic Trees is one of the best 100 songs (according the Rolling Stones). Green Day - I own their whole discography, used to really like them, but now I like them less. Feeder - I own Echo Park, and it's a really great album. Death Cab for Cutie - I can't stop listening to Transatlanticism, especially the title song! It's probably my favorite song ATM! Foo Fighters - Only recently started listening to them after borrowing a CD from my friend (The Color and the Shape), but I've been hooked on them ever since! Gentle Giant - I downloaded a few CDs (notably, for me, Octopus), and I really love a few songs, but hate a few others. Hoobastank - Great band! I listen to them a lot. Millencolin - Cool punk band with a few really outrageously good songs, and the rest are mediocre and up. Muse - In the league of Radiohead and Coldplay, only a bit more heavy. Nickelback - I own Silver Side Up, and I love it a lot, but The Long Road is a bit too old-school for my taste. Haven't heard their newest album yet, except for Photograph. Nightwish - Kinda running sick of them as of lately, but I used to listen to Once quite a lot! Red Hot Chili Peppers - My band mates really got me hooked on them! I own a few albums from them, but I have no idea where they are (except By The Way which is right here next to me). I have only heard a few songs from Stadium Arcadium at a friend's, but I'm greatly anticipating it to finish downloading here! The Alan Parsons Project - I'm hooked on The Turn of a Friendly Card, and I also own it on vinyl. The Who - I love everything to do with Tommy!! I have the DVD of the movie and the CD with the music. I love the movie as a movie, but the changes they made to the music there, and most of the new singers (except maybe Elton John, Tina Turner and Paul Nicholas) are inferior to the album in my opinion. Unwritten Law - Great band! I got to know them through the Need for Speed Undergound 2 soundtrack. Wheatus - I own their self-titled album, which includes the hit single Teenage Dirtbag, but the rest of it is also really cool! Yellow Card - Really great punk band! Especially on the album Ocean Avenue (catch a glimpse of the song, View from Heaven)... That's it. Not exactly favorites, but more like bands I've been listening to lately. I have much more music on my computer, and many more CDs on my shelves, but I get bored of bands really easily, so I have to keep them at a fast rotation.

I just found out about Drupal a few days ago, and as god is my witness, it rocks!! The sheer simplicity of using it! The brilliant design from the programmers! Just so feature-packed, but so elegant and easy at the same time!I actually tried using Mambo, but because of the lack of Hebrew support let it go, so I can't really say anything about it. What are your thoughts about it?

I don't find sitting around and waiting to "see how it turns out" a very responsible course of actions. We should be in the battlefield fighting the front lines! Anyways, I totally agree with you that if my bandwidth is increased for certain sites, it would be far better than decreasing my bandwidth for all other sides (i.e., if I get more bandwidth than before for paying sites, or if I get less bandwidth than before for non-paying sites). This is only a worst case resolution though! I don't want to even come close to that state! This move will monopolize the internet, and will make it very difficult for smaller sites to break the barrier of recognition in the internet world. Innovation would be crippled horribly, and new ideas could be lost in the wake of huge corporations whom cherish money far too greatly. I don't think we should sit around and wait for this to happen...

I had a problem with Windows' default FTP client. Besides the huge and sparkling disadvantage (for me) that is doesn't support passive FTPing (AFAIK), I also don't trust it with long downloads/uploads. It's like downloading an ISO of a DVD (4GB file, more or less... ) with Internet Explorer, you just can't be quiet, and you really are better off using a download manager that supports resuming.Anyways, not that FileZilla supports resuming, but it really makes me feel safer. And it's site manager is a nice feature that Windows doesn't have. The FileZilla Server is also constantly run on my computer for distributing files to my friends. The MSN messenger file transfer is dressed up in drag and standing at a busy intersection as far as I'm concerned.

That would be so great! Well, iTunes does't work in Israel, but if GTunes (someone copyright that, quickly!) were to work here in my own little country I would be very pleased! I'll probably even buy myself an MP3 player for the occasion. Google are great, and the idea of buying music over the internet (though "renting" music is out of the question) is tremendeous, and will eliminate my two problems with buying CDs: The huge price for a physical CD media that's going to be digitized anyways (even though I love having the original CD with all the booklets and artworks - if anyone wants an example, check out the booklet in Green Day's Kerplunk for a cool story)... and the inaccessability of it, owing to infrequent and small music stores, and the lack of a huge diversity of CDs here. Besides, Google just rocks my socks every day!

I use a Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer 3.0. Two normal buttons, a clickable scroll bar, and two buttons on the side for back/forward. Optical, of course. I actually could probably change the side-buttons do different things, but I've never bothered. I used to have a mouse with two scrollbars, one for horizontal scrolling, and one for vertical scrolling, and even though it took a long time to get used to, it proved really nice. Too bad it got screwed. Anyways, this mouse is really good for me. Can't say anything bad about it, except maybe that I have to scratch off the huge amounts of dust that the rubber (?) pads at the bottom of the mouse collect while I use the mouse, but that's not too bad either as it's kind of addicting. I hardly game (except for playing a bit of Maple Story here and then), so I really can't demand anything else from the basic features my mouse has ATM. I do remember owning a Logitech mouse at one point and setting one of its side buttons to do something (really can't remember what), to help me win at a Neopets flash game. God, that site is so nostalgic. I remember fist-fighting with my friend because he gave my pet for adoption because I pissed him off. Whatever!

Solved this a long time ago, in 7th grade I think. Actually, I think that in 7th grade it was already the second time I did this quiz. I do remember being the only person in my class to be able to solve the puzzle, and all the other kids were asking me the answers, and I told them that it's not graded so it doesn't matter, but I had to relent after the attention I got from the other sex that day. Well, I really think that IQ test results, as numbers, aren't really that good. I mean, there are lots of ways to quantitate a specific portion of a person's intelligence, but the sum isn't really meaningul. An IQ of 121 what? Just 121? What does that mean? I haven't taken an IQ test yet, so I'm not really giving an objective answer here, I might be wrong, but I think I can score high on these tests (I have a logical mind. ), so I wouldn't object to taking one in case it might help my application to some university or something. Here in Israel universities really depend on your high school graduation diploma, which I'm not sure I'll have, it's kind of in doubt right now, so a high IQ score, which I think is something I can achieve, can really boost my chances to get a real job and carreer. I know I'm being euphoric when I say this, but I don't know, I really think that high school graduation is a different thing from university education, because being a teenager makes lots of things seem difficult and unproportional, and if they seem that way, they end up being that way. To summarize this pretty much offtopic rant, I just am sad that my hormones got to me during my high school years, otherwise my life could've been that much easier right now.

I too use Google! Heck, when using Firefox, I can even type "google 3.33 USD in shekels" in my address bar to quickly convert American to Israeli currency. Haven't found a faster way of doing it yet! Besides, I really like the interface of the site, as opposed to the bloated, ad-filled front pages of other search engines. And I really like the advanced syntax that Google offers me. Just so many features!!!

I'm really surprised this subject hasn't come up here yet! Net neutrality is a really hot topic of debate lately, and concerns us all. Basically, net neutrality talks about indiscrimination of websites in the internet world. That means that when you browse the internet on your computer, your ISP should treat Google and Yahoo! in the same way - no one gets bandwidth preferrance over another! The American congress is about to vote on a bill that will decline net neutrality, which will lead to horrible consequences. Let's illustrate an example of what might happen. Say MSN is a big "supporter" of Verizon, while Google is not, and you're trying to point your browser to the Google website... without net neutrality. Verizon may make your access to Google incredibly slow, block access completely, or worse yet, make Google.com redirect you to MSN.com, who gets preference for their money! Do we want to live in a cyberworld where huge corporations control what sites we can go to and what sites we can't? I think everyone should want to be able to access a small blog with the same conditions that they can access a huge multi-billion corporation's website. We must act now, because after the bill is passed it might be too late! Even though I live in Israel, I am afraid that if something like this happens in America, it might very quickly propagate to the rest of the world. I don't understand the whole political issues in the USA, but I do understand this: this thing is very risky for all us small citizens of the World Wide Web! I've run across this website, and it made me sick. This is major corporations trying to create FUD, blaming Yahoo!, Google and Microsoft of being heartless and greedy corporations. That might be true for MS, and maybe Yahoo! (I'm not acquainted with this company), but I think everyone who has ever used Google's GMail service (and anyone who hasn't can ask me for one of my 1000+ invitations) can agree that Google does care about its customers. I was getting mildly persuaded by the website, until I saw what they said about Google, and I know how untrue that is. Even though Microsoft has said it is for net neutrality, its Internet Explorer browser says otherwise. That browser is the monopoly of the internet surfing applications, and it implies that I can't access my cellular carrier's website to send free SMSs because I'm not using IE, and worse yet, it means that I can't access my school's website to download articles for my classes without popping up IE and compromising my computer's security. I heartly recommend everyone to move over to Firefox, if you already haven't, and start installing Da' Fox on all your relations's and acquaintances's computers! IE is making life really hard for web developers all around, and if we get Firefox into heavy circulation, maybe MS will finally make its flagship browser standard complaint, as should be, and then maybe websites can finally make themselves standard complain, as should be. Sorry for the long rant, I'm just really touchy about these subjects. I might be wrong about a lot of things, so this is a great opportunity to fix me, to show your support, to persuade me otherwise, etc... Thank you!

Yeah, this also crossed my mind when I read this thread. Think about how bad you might feel if the button was just accidently pressed in your pocket one day and a whole police squad came "to your rescue". God, I can just imagine the hordes of text messages saying, "i am bing muged rescu me". Seriously though, this is a bad idea, I think. Well, actually, there's no real good solution to these things... so we should be working to eliminate crime, etc... Actually, now that I think about it, how do mute people alert 911?

Even though it's not an option on your poll, I would really recommend using ECMAScript (a superset of JavaScript, i.e. JavaScript is an implementation of it) . It's syntax is the easiest to learn, IMHO, especially because it is so similar to Java and C(++). As for an ECMAScript engine, SpiderMonkey is definately the way to go. It is really comformant, and always on the cutting edge of the new EMCAScript specs (I think it already supports a bit of E4X), probably because it was written by Brendan Eich, the inventor of JavaScript, and is overrun by the Mozilla Foundation. I've never tried Ruby, but I would never go with Java, primarily because I hate the language for some unknown reason, but it's also really bloated for what you're trying to do. Python is a really great language though, and also very lightweight (a 3D engine is bloated as it is). BTW, I think you shouldn't go around making a new 3D engine, but rather contribute your efforts to OGRE. I know that such a project could be really fun, but a 3D engine is a huge project, and from my experience with these types of projects, it won't go a long way. If you guys are talented 3D developers, I think you should help progress OGRE, which is already at a very stable stage, with lots of applicants. Sorry for not supporting you guys on this.

RoR has really captured a great internet presence lately. Even though it might not be that wide-spread yet (especially with hosting solutions), it really seems promising. While trying to build a website for my band, I tried lots of PHP frameworks, eventually settling on greatly modifying/expanding phpBB, which worked, but wasn't that good. Even with the phpBB-based site faltering around (on my localhost), I was really starting to think about betraying PHP and trying out RoR...Then yesterday, all of a sudden, I discovered the gem that is Drupal. It is just great! I think it measures up to (what I've read about) RoR. It's design and is simply amazing! It might be more specific than RoR, but it is exactly what I need.Besides, I didn't really want to start messing around with learning Ruby, and then with installing mod_ruby (or using CGI, whatever) on my webserver. I like PHP.Directed at anyone with experience in using RoR:What advantages has RoR got in respect to Drupal (and I'm talking about the purpose of building a website)?

Ahh, webcomics. Pure heaven for me! I use Comic Alert! to keep up with my ever-growing list of net-funnies (). It's a really great site for people like me. It has an RSS feed, and a web-based comic digest, and lots of webcomics to choose from (and the list is always growing). Here is my list of comics from my Comic Alert! account (in no particular order): Bob and George by David Anez Calvin & Hobbes by Bill Watterson Ctrl+Alt+Del by Tim Buckley Dilbert by Scott Adams El Goonish Shive by Dan Shive Penny Arcade by Tycho & Gabe PvPonline by Scott R. Kurtz Sexy Losers (NSFW) by Hard Sore Thumbs by Owen Gieni & Chris Crosby Ugly Hill by Paul Southworth User Friendly by J.D. "Illiad" Frazer VG Cats by Scott Ramsoomair I think that Calvin & Hobbes can't really be counted as a webcomic, and neither can Dilbert (they are both newspaper syndicated comics, with archives on the net, as opposed to webcomics which are net-centric). I'll have to say that El Goonish Shive is my favorite right now, seeing as how I anticipate every new strip, but unfortunately it is on a regular basis, but not that frequently. For some reason I've also stopped reading Bob and George, but mainly because I forgot where I last left off (, I'm so lazy). P.S. Now that I think about it, the list is in a particular order, an alphabetical order!

I've never really kept a blog for a long period of time, mainly because I usually lose interest after a little while, but I do have my share of blogging experience. Blogger was always really nice to me (what Google application isn't nice?). It allows you to open and host your own blog for free. It also has an option to upload your blog to an FTP server so you can host it on your own. It generates HTML from a large amount of templates you can choose from, or a template you create on your own. This creates URLs that are friendly to users and search engines (which can also be done with dynamic blogs) and introduces a small speed increase because the pages have to be generated only once (even though that increase is really not noticable nowadays). On the other side, this means that anyone can view your blog (unless you host the blog on your own, and you enable HTTP authentication, though this is a bit complicated), and the smaller downside is that you can't display dynamic information on your blog (like a counter, guestbook, etc...). Wordpress, as was said above a few times, is a great PHP-based blogging software. If has many useful addons, themes, and a really nice administrative interface. It's really easy to run install, especially on a xAMP distribution like XAMPP (easy to run Apache + MySQL + PHP bundle). I've set up WP on my own computer, just for me, many times because it's far nicer looking, and far easier to handle, than any desktop application I've encountered. If you don't have a hosting solution you can always go to wordpress.com, which is basically the Blogger of WordPress. You can create a free account there and host a WP blog for free. It also has quite a few templates and addons installed.

Actually, I also didn't like the idea of users using HTML to post in my website's forum, so after a very simple search over here, I found a few really nice modules: Bbcode - A phpBB-compatible (as far as I can tell) BBCode filter to allow your users (and you) to post with BBCode. BBCode Formatting Bar - Never tested it, but it seems promising. FCKeditor for Drupal - Never test it either, but I know FCKeditor, and it's a great piece of JavaScript WYSIWYG editor that works on most common browsers, and can greatly faciliate posting in HTML for the users of your sites. I've only installed Drupal yesterday, and I love it a lot already!