smyke89

well... i personally think World Of Warcraft is a good game, but it's not that goodto have all those clients just because it is a good game. I mean, sure, the warcraft world is great, it has a well constructed story and a nice feeling added to it, the gameplay is nice since you can choose from all those races and classes, but the thing is that it has almost no competition out there.Gulid wars has a better graphics and agreat gameplay, but it does not have that many clients, not by a long shot, despite the fact that it costs less. The publicity blizzard makes cannot be matched... and that is how almost half of players end up playing World of Warcraft instead of other Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG).But i think this will change soon, because 2 major competitors are ready to take a share of the loot : Gulid Wars 2 is comming out with an even better gameplay and a demential graphics, so i guess it will be too good not to be played (you just pay an original fee, and then you can play as much as you wish, without a monthly subscription....)Also, a MMORPG based on... The Lord Of The Rings is comming out soon, and word has it that is will be a killer, not because of the graphics, but because of the gameplay... i have talked with people that played the beta, and they saidit will be a kick-*bottom* game...so i guess that's why blizzard rushed to come out with the burning crusade (and they did rush... not all instances are even ready... and the game is not 100% finished and optimised)... the did it jhust to get a "corporate" step ahead...

Well... youtube is just an example for how a good marketing team can compensate for quality. I am not saying youtube is bad, but it is not the best, not by far. Google video (available at video.google.com) is better than youtube because the videos have a nicer quality (not by much), it has a desktop application that allows you to upload files of unlimited size and length, while using the web interface you are limited to 100 MB per file. YouAreTV (available at http://www.youaretv.com/ ) is the best service of this kind available without excelling in either domain. But you have unlimited upload option, you can organize your files into episodes, it has a simple but nice interface, and a good quality for the video files.

i have heard this game is really nice from my friends. I can see it has a nice graphical system, but the cars don't get damaged so i guess it's more arcade than simulation, but if fun is part of the game, I'm ok without a thousand force vectors on my car I think it is a very nice concept, and now i am waiting for a Need For Speed Massive Multiplayer Online Racing.

i personally find meboo.com as a good alternative for when i am at school, or whenever i don't have the time to download yahoo messenger on a computer... it is not that slow, and sometimes it works faster that the original yahoo program, but you lack a lot of facilities...

i just don't like google talk... very few options and weak customization methods...google are trying to expand in a lot of areas... and that is a good thing, because google is a nice company, and they do stuff well, but just like the web browser the develop, it still has a long way to go.... at the moment i whould say Google Talk is not in the top 3 message service on the net... but the are upgrading the software quite often, but i will wait for a non-beta version to use it as a favorite...i personally stick to my yahoo messenger (even tough it is using a lot of memory)smyke

well... bit torrent is not one of the fastest torrent clients on the net, even tough it is one of the most popular onesi whould suggest that you use utorrent.... it is the fastest torrent client available and possibly the best overall...it is simple to use, a well designed but simple interface, and detailed info about the torrent you are downloading...you can find it at http://www.utorrent.com/intl/en/ and i whould suggest you use it...i am currently testing all (not all, but the most popular ones) torrent clients and i am putting together an article about these...smyyke

PART 3 : AERO The most interesting change brought by Windows Vista is, without any doubt, the graphical interface. Even tough users with low computer resources or conservative users can’t say they did not (or wont) admire the new look at least for a few hours. The AERO name is in fact an acronym, meaning (as Microsoft declared) Authentic, Energetic, Reflective and Open. It does not make a lot of sense, and that leaves the impression that this was spontaneously transformed in an acronym. The new interface is offered in two flavors. The first one, Vista Basic, is the default theme for Windows Vista Home, but it is used also in the case of using a too poor graphical card to run fluently the complete version, Vista Aero, also known as Aero Glass to separate it from its little and unattractive sister. The latter is the interface Windows uses to try and impress and attract clients. And to be honest, they succeeded The minimize and maximize animations are fluent and quick, the transparency effect of the former title bar and of the window borders is discrete and elegant, combining a high-resolution animation with the actual content of the desktop under the active window, and it varies depending of this to maintain an easy to read title. But above these visual tricks, I was impressed by all the facilities of a completely 3D desktop. Both Flip, (the replacement for the Task switch (ALT+TAB)) and FLIP 3D (the 3d version, accessed by WIN+Tab) are capable to give you real time previews of the open windows, a facility you will also find within the small preview windows obtained by placing the mouse over the task bar button of a minimized application. But if you want critics, you can talk about the colors Microsoft chooses. Even tough you may choose other colors for the windows (either by choosing a theme or by changing individual colors from the color mixer) there are visual elements that you cannot change the color of, and those buttons have colors you may not like. The buttons used for controlling the windows (minimize, maximize, close) have the same color for all the themes, abusing of bright colors and glowing effects that are not amongst the most inspired ones. Even the famous START button has disappeared, being replaced by a blue glob, with the Vista logo on it, as bright and as colored as the buttons mentioned before. Aero is just an interface, just like Luna (with it’s modes : blue, gray and khaki ) was for Windows XP. All these graphical tricks would not of been capable possible without the true wizard : DWM. On it’s complete name : Desktop Window Manager, it is a new graphical engine (Desktop Composer), meant to control the display mode, to manage graphical information generated by the applications and to generate 3D surfaces needed for an effective display. Like the Quartz Compositor graphical engine for MacOS X, DWM uses the same display techniques , the difference appears at the level of hardware acceleration interfaces. If Quartz uses OpenGL, DWM uses DirectX. Technically, the graphical information generated by the applications are not shown directly on screen, but drawn and kept in an off-screen buffer zone, and then they are modified and shown as textures applied on 3D surfaces.

well... i can say it's a very good soundcard... for both gaming and music... the sound is really nice, and really clear, but you must double this with some good quality speakers... because the card may be good, but if the speakers are unable to play all the sounds your souncard can make ... you investment is uselessthe feature you where talking about... is worth the money if you wish to do some kind of recording, because the filters make the sound to have less noise when you record it...creative is generally the best brand for PC soundcards... that means if you just want to play games and listen to music, you will have a good fidelity soundcard... if you want to turn your PC into a recording studio, you will have to go pro and buy some expensive sound cards...

i like your sigs... but i think you need to work on your text...i'm not a big fan of the animated series you use, but i like fourth sig is nice, and the animation is a killer...it whould be nice if you try to extend your area of ideas.. i don't know... something that does not involve that cartoons...overall... i like your sigs even tough you still need work...

i have seen this problem.. but you should have told us more details about the motherboard and ram you are using...if you have a older motherboard, you may have slots for both SDRAM memories and DDRAM memories... and the problem here is that if your 192 ram were installed on your SDRAM slots, when you installed the DDRAM cards, it stopped recognizing your SDRAM... it's not that it's something wrong with either your RAM or motherboard, but this is how motherboards that have slots for both memory types work.....if you will tell us exactly what motherboard and RAM memories you have... it will be easier for us to give an answer....Smyke

well... finding what is the best audio player... is really not a problem...at least from my point of view...winamp is the king and the queen and the prince of audio players... very fast, nice design, easy to use... and free, what could you ask more from a player ?i admit it does have it's problems like a lot of memory usage in some situations, but the advantages are making up for these problems...i just hate media player... and itunes is a good alternative when winamp is not working and you are not in the mood for a reinstall...

well... the time i spend on the internet varies from day to day and from period to period..if i am during school, i spend from 3 to 5 hours per day surfing (checking my mail, updating my blog, trying to get a job as a freelance writer, reading the news, checking out latest results from NBA and NHL...), but it can be more, because even if i am watching a movie or doing something else, i am still logged in to my instant messaging serviceif i am on a holiday, i spend from 10 to 12 hours per day, and it would be more, but i have tennis practice and such...

PART 2 : A user friendly installation The efforts made to provide the user with a simpler installation will be noticed since you first start the Vista’s installation routine. The user will be pleased that the hated text mode has disappeared, the only second in which the monitor will be on VGA mode being those when you initialize the boot routines and you mount the image from the unique Windows Vista DVD (one DVD contains all available versions, and you just type the serial number, and the corresponding version is installed). This pick will allow the user to use much easier the partition management, but the most important and most expected facility being the driver search button, that installs the drivers needed for the installation of unrecognized disk controllers. To search the drivers you can access any partition or any external drive that is recognized by the setup routine, and that means the floppy will no longer be used. With this occasion, the user can notice that Windows Vista can be installed only on a NTFS partition. The old Fat32 no longer supported as a file system for the system drive. The setup will give the user less options, he is able to pick the language and make regional settings. After introducing the serial number given by the producer and signing the Terms of Use, Vista is ready for the setup. The time it takes to perform this operation is really short.30 minutes have passed from the start of the boot operation until the first login. This is a result of the packaging mode of the whole installation kit. Unlike other versions, the slow stage of copying files to the disk is not present here. The DVD contains a complete image of the operating system and the setup just copies the 8 GB of data from the DVD to the hard disk and then makes the boot setup. The advantage of using this packaging mode, based on WIM images (Windows Image) will allow the installation on multiple computers with the use of centralized solutions or manually, without the need of recreating a DVD image when you make changes with the tool Microsoft developed : Image X. More than that, Windows Vista is no longer dependent of software modules, thus a image created on a computer can be placed and installed on any other computer. After this steps and the system reboot, you make the first user account, you run the performance measuring tests (which gives results useful only to Ultimate users, the only ones that have access to the WinSAT tool), and then you are faced with the desktop.

It was about time to test Windows Vista... Part 1 : Introduction and History After 5 years of waiting, the most promoted version of the Windows operating system has finally seen the light. In 1995, Microsoft has launched a product that was to become famous and contribute fully to IT developing by introducing a series of new facilities, meant to simplify and enrich the multimedia experience of the final user, a critical point of OS of that period: Windows 95. Its launch has been made with an unprecedented marketing campaign, meant to promote the new platform’s advantages 12 years later, another big marketing campaign worth 500 million $ was launched to clear the way for the most promoted, commented on and awaited operating system in IT history : Windows Vista Launched at the end of November for business clients that already held multivolume licensing contracts and 2 months after for the final clients, this launch is the result of 5 years and a half of hard work. Its developing process that was not always on the right path and that has sometimes moments when it was going in the wrong direction (moments followed by radical changes) has reach it’s objective, offering us the newest and brightest Microsoft product. From Concept To Reality Developing the Longhorn project has started in May 2001, a few months before the launch of Microsoft XP. Initially, this project was supposed to give birth (sometime at the end of 2003) to an operating system was supposed to bring a lot of minor improvements on the pathway to a radical change, by its name, Blackcomb. In the following 2 years, the effort of the main developing teams was oriented to actualizing XP Service Pack 2 and Windows 2003. We can say that these efforts have left Longhorn on pause, because it was developing slowly and not being able to generate a lot of noise from the few that had the chance to test the early versions. After the launch of three undistinguished test versions in 2001-2003, that have presented only minor improvements from Windows XP, but also an early version of the 3d engine that allowed an early, full of errors and simple version of the Aero engine to run, the fourth test versions was done. Launched in February 2003, the test version 4008 has included a new installation routine, a new theme as opposed to the previous versions, as well as the functionality of Windows Explorer, as well as an integration of the WinFS file system. Here was also for the first time present the famous Sidebar, which was rapidly copied and implemented by particular developers, willing to give an early Longhorn view to the millions of XP users. Until the middle of 2004 (considered now a turning point in Vista evolution, Microsoft has launched another 3 versions, these introducing varied facilities, very few managing to make it to the end. The last trimester of 2003 had Microsoft facing a cruel reality: Longhorn wasn’t heading anywhere. More than that, in an interview for the Wall Street Journal, the vice-president James Allchin has declared that Longhorn is on the edge of collapse. This problem has been a result of no clear objective and of the integration of a large number of incompatible facilities. This was the turning point in which the chaotic developing of Longhorn was stopped, in which the XP source code was abandoned for the Windows 2003 Service Pack 1 source code. What followed is well known and is a part of modern history. After 2 test versions, in July 2005, the first test version Beta 1 of what was going to be Windows Vista was launched, an occasion to abandon the Longhorn name for “Vista”. Then 7 Community Preview intermediary versions came out, followed by the Beta 2, the version which brought a breeze of fresh air. Since its launch in May 2006 until the final launch in November the same year only a step remained. Maybe some of you may wonder what happened to Windows Blackcomb. Pushed up the axe of time by the delays and indecisions that characterized Windows Vista, crippled of facilities and stretched by the Image Department, it was renamed Windows Vienna and was put on the end of the line. All that is currently known about it is that it will be for both client and server, it will be for both 32 and 64 bits and it will have a new interface, known as Vibe. The date of launch? Somewhere between 2009 and 2012

Firefox 2.0 | Internet Explorer 7 Starting Speed (cold) : 12.5s | 2.75s Starting Speed (hot) : 2.5s | 2.1s Loading Speed : 7.2s | 7.6s Cache Loading Speed : 2.1s | 4.3s JavaScript Speed : 10s | 18.2s CSS Speed 101ms | 33ms Table Speed : 2s | 3.1s Memory Allocated at Start: 19.9 MB | 22.75 MB Memory Allocated during test : 52.5 MB | 101.5 MB ACID2 test : 9 | 0 out of 15 image support : 4 | 3 out of 8 protocol support : 6 | 4 out of 6 JavaScript Support : 8 | 7 out of 9 Web standards Support : 11 | 7 out of 14

Security The discussion about browser security will always be a battle, the fans of a browser always trying to amplify the problems of a rival company’s browser and minimize those of their own. Although both browsers have had their fair share of problems, they have been minor ones in the case of the Mozilla browser, the repair of the breaches being done pretty fast, and that cannot be said about the Microsoft browser. Microsoft has declared that Internet Explorer 7 will be different of precedent versions, bringing the long awaited security to the user. Even tough the official launch has been affected by the signaling of two security problems, one of them a reminiscence of the inherited code, and the other a ordinary breach that allowed one to hide some portions of the URL address by entering some special characters, we must appreciate Microsoft’s effort to bring out on the market a much safer browser. The mode in which the alien code was ran has been rewritten, the application not allowing the opening of unsigned ActiveX controls, thus offering a protection against Cross-domain scripting and the possibility to block the same ActiveX controls depending of the security zone and the site’s address. But the most interesting option that was introduced by both companies in the new products is represented by the anti-phising protection. This protection allows the signaling, in the moment you visit a site specifically made to collect confidential information, of the danger the user is exposed to. It seems that this time Microsoft has made a work as good as Mozilla… Firefox 2.0 uses a local static database. This contains the addresses of the most popular sites used for phising. The user can also choose to use the consulting of the online Google Safe Browse service. The advantage is that Google Safe Browsing is updated more often. The Microsoft product offers similar facilities, utilizing an online black list. Depending on the way the first tests of this facilities where made, the results have placed both products in the same area, both detecting somewhere between 60 and 75 percent, the single exception being that of Internet Explorer’s blacklist, which is pretty weak. Unfortunately for Microsoft, Mozilla has succeeded, in the context of very close matched products, to bring out a new and useful facility (especially for English users) : a lexical corrector. Available in the text fields, this allows a real time correction of the typed words, being a real help for the users that often mistype. This option has been a little neglected tough by Mozilla, the dictionaries available in other languages, not being compatible with the 2.0 version, and the user has to manually install the .XPI archives. But Microsoft’s Internet explorer 7 has a zoom button that gives users the possibility to enlarge the whole page, not only the text, an option only Opera users had until now. Conclusions It is difficult to give a simple conclusion that can make one of the products a favorite. On one hand, Mozilla has chosen the simple way, not introducing some of the facilities and preferring to improve those existent, promising to revolutionize browsing when they launch Firefox 3, sometime at the middle of the next year. On the other hand, Microsoft has learned from its mistakes and has managed to offer a good product, that, despite of some functionality and design problems, is meant to give all its users a new and nice experience for all the users, but being forced to counter the migration towards Opera or Firefox… This was it… it is what I could pull out of the 2 browsers…. This is the table of results…

RSS FEEDS After Microsoft intended (and failed badly) to launch it’s own standard, known best when Internet Explorer 4 came with Active Channels, the company has apparently forgotten this mode of transmitting information. Mozilla on the other hand, did not. The possibility of using RSS feeds being available since the 1.0 version. But, both this version as well as the following one were not very ergonomic in implementing this facility. Even in the 2.0 version, Mozilla did not back down from the option to put RSS feeds in the favorites menu. It’s an ambiguous approach, many users not understanding what the RSS option really does. Furthermore, opening an address of this type returned an XML code, confusing even more the users. Fortunately, the 2.0 version has solved this problem. Curiously, after Microsoft has adopted the famous orange icon for the RSS feeds, the two rival companies have involuntary agreed in the way they show these news. Once you access the icon from the address bar (for Firefox 2.0) or from the instrument bar (for Internet Explorer 7), the pages offered by the two browsers are very similar. Fortunately, the likeness stops here. Internet Explorer 7 manipulates feeds as ordinary pages. Subscribing to a channel like this makes a shortcut in a special section from the dropdown menu and contains navigation history and the Favorites, the refreshing being automatically done. The page opened with Firefox is more complex, allowing the sending of the RSS channel to the internal management and display system Live Bookmarks or to external services like Bloglines, Yahoo! or Google Reader, as well as the FeedDemon application or other similar applications that cannot be automatically detected. If you do not use online services Firefox works with, the approach of the rival (Internet Explorer 7) is made with more style, lecturing a page with a good layout being preferable to consulting a list of shortcuts (Live Bookmarks).

Even if the tabs take up a little too much space, and the button destined to open a new tab is poorly conceived, both because of the placement as for the lack of an permanently visible etiquette, the tab management from Internet Explorer 7 is almost similar to that of Firefox 2.0. The only weak points of this system are the lack of an option that can help you start a tab that you have accidentally closed and the poor system that automatically reopens the active tabs that were active when you closed the application , because this is not applied to windows with only one tab open and it need an extra click. But, Internet Explorer has a bonus that Firefox does not posses : the QuickTabs. This gives you the possibility to show all the open tabs in only one window, switching, viewing or closing the pages being done quick and nice. This is doubled by “TabList”, an option that shows all the open tabs as a list from which you can select the desired page. Unfortunately, the Redmond giant has forgotten an important facility: the restoration of the working session in case an error occurs. Given these conditions, even if Firefox 2.0 has an superior management, that can be extended plugins (or as they are called…extensions) like TabMix Plus or TabBrowser Preferences, it’s advantage in this domain has been diminished. The new interface of Internet Explorer 7 bring us the long awaited quick search field, placed in the same spot and offering the same functionality as it’s “brother” from Firefox. The search engine it uses, is the “young” Live Search , that offers the possibility to add search engines or even conceiving a new one, done by following a set of simple steps indicated by the page that is opened from the option “Find more providers”. Firefox 2.0 offers only a better management of this, allowing at last sorting and deleting search engines as well as real time suggestions for the search you are performing (this last option is less useful than it may seem). Both companies have agreed in this matter, and both Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 2.0 supporting the Open Search format. [end of part 3]

On the other side, Microsoft has brought up a totally different product. The new Internet Explorer 7 users will be confronted with a completely new environment, where almost nothing is where it was before. The new interface is strictly oriented for tabbed browsing, even tough there still is the possibility to use the old way with simple windows. The button layout is different, only the Back and Forward functions being placed in the same zone of the main screen. The pathways to the favorite sites, refreshing the page and stopping the loading process are placed in new areas, the application’s main menu has disappeared (even tough it can still be showed by activating the contextual menu of the tab showing area), and the buttons bar brings new functions. If Mozilla has speculated routines of navigators, Microsoft seems committed to shake the past away, betting on innovation, even tough this move can bring more bad things than good things by chasing away users with low adapting skills, obtaining from the beginning the advantage of overall impression.Tabbing, searching and 2 new interfaces Mozilla Firefox 2.0 will let down it’s users on first sight. Besides the new theme that brings an icon pack with a translucid look, slightly nicer than those in the old “Stripe” theme, the overall aspect is unchanged. You will notice small changes only in the address bar, which now brings a button that’s similar to the “Go” in Internet Explorer 6, but cannot be eliminated, and a make-up of the quick search bar. A pretty weak offer from a company that wishes to promote the new version. In a total contrast with its rival, Internet Explorer it’s a real spill of design concepts. The interface is fluid, blending graphic elements from the well known Aero interface in the imminent Windows Vista. To avoid spoiling this graphical with reminiscences of it’s predecessor, Microsoft has chosen an elegant solution of placing the “favorites” list and “navigation history”: a drop-down menu. With 2 buttons you can create the shortcut in your favorites list for the site you have opened in the active window and you can access the menu in which these are placed. The navigation history, which is placed in the same menu, offers a quick way of consulting the history list, and you can sort by date or by number of hits.[END OF PART 2]....this would of been waaayyy easier to read if you would of let me finnish the review before commenting on it...

i am gonna talk about the tabs... about all the advantages of both browsers... i am getting there... this is only a small part of a large article i wrote... but it is in Romanian... and it takes time to translate it... i am covering a lot of details in this article... i will post part 2 tomorrow...

I have noticed that many things where said about these 2 programs that were not correct, so i plan to take the comparison from the very beginning.The very long period Of time Between 1998 and 2.004 has Represented without a doubt The most boring stage in the computer at evolution regarded Strictly From the web browsers point of view. stalking with march 1998 the date in which Netscape Has given up developing its own browser navigator launching it As an open source project, And ending with November, 2004 the date at which Mozilla Firefox Has been officially launched That period of time It has represented the peak of internet explorer developed by Microsoft. The Netscape Company has been forced to leave this scene because of the stagnation of the upgrading process of Netscape 4 a necessary stage four competing against internet explorer four. The lack of interests for the current product and launching into big developing stages for new products Which would Of required Years of hard work have left a free stage for Microsoft. the Number five version of internet explorer Has found an empty scene And thus the domination extends along the axe of time until the present day. During this whole periods of time the products of other companies where insignificant, the 6 and 7 versions of Netscape, now open-source having major performance issues, the excellent Opera browser being forced to stick to a low percent of the market because of the bad interface, bad marketing and pretty high price.. The situation has been changed in november2004, when the now famous Mozilla Firefox has been officially launched for the first time. Its climb to the top was rapid even tough it hardly passes 10% of the market, and it represented the start of a competition for Internet Explorer 6.Internet Explorer 7, a risk? Besides the man to man marketing campaign made by the Firefox fanatics, it’s success was determined by the fact that it was simple, had very few security problems (compared to IE) and the fact that it respects the standards of World Wide Web Consortium. If the last 2 meant something only for a small amount of regular users, the promise of a better navigation in a familiar environment was the criteria that caught most new Firefox users. Judging only from the point of view of basic functions, Mozilla Firefox was, and still is, a simple application. The base extra facility, tab navigation is still optional, Internet Explorer fans being able to preserve their navigation routine without using these tabs. Even the buttons have a similar positioning and use, the only new thing being the quick search button and RSS flow support. This simplicity has brought the long awaited market success for the small browser.[end of part 1]

if you mean "who was the first person in the world".. that whould be ADAM (if you are a Christian) if not... i don't know...and "the first person in space" was the Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin

well... maybe it's just not the mouse that's freezing... maybe your whole computer is just freezing up for a few seconds...if it is the mouse, try installing the newest drivers on the net (you will find them at the Genius web page) and if that does not work... try taking a benchmark test... if the whole computer freezes... then format your windows partition...and reinstall all the drivers on "clean"... if that does not work, it may be your RAM or your hard drive... or maybe even your mainboard... try checking them in this order...hope it will be of use....smyke

logitech is the best brand for mouses... of all kinds.. for gaming, for home use, for office use ! they are a class above all others, but this will reflect in the cost of the products... if you don't have the money or don't want to spend that much on a mouse... buy an a4tech... but they are not that resistant, and not that accurate, but they are cheap... smyke

it's not a directory.... not all sites are listed... just the best ones...anyway...thanks for the info