HiddenKenshin

I was pretty psyched out when I heard this on the news. For the first time ever, a planet has been uncovered that is ideal for life like here on our Earth. People always want to do something "before they die". I just want the confirmation that there is sentient life in the universe, hehe.Question is, how long will it take before we can actually probe the planet for signs of life? What kind of life could it contain? How far advanced are they? Will they be benevolent or malevolent? Will it just be fishlike creatures? Ah... I can't wait >_<

Googling for modchip brings me to sites where I can order chips to play pirated games ona ps2 or ps3, actually. I don't udnerstand how it's connected to the "New World Order" theory you're talking about?I assume you're talking about chips being implanted on all humans? It sounds a lot like a New Age movement that believes that in december 2012, all humans will become aware of a higher plane of existence. A new kind of enlightenment will be established and an new kind of sphere will be covered around the planet... Humans will from there on out be able to be telepathic and such, and will no longer have a need for materialism and most negative energy on Earth will be diminished. Some, on a drastic other side of this theory, believe that 2012 will bring the apocalypse. (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012 see last parts of the page)

I'm perfectly aware of the laws that are established in my own country through highschool and college, and I'm also perfectly aware that laws are laws. But you completely disregard my entire post and pick out the first line that reflected on another post (on that was about companies and lawsuits, nota bene).

Thanks again for the replies, I really appreciate it. For now, all I really need to do is indeed grab a database, and run queries on it. That's about it. I think it's kind of a introductory class in preperation for next year's PHP course. This is just a few weeks of class, anyway. I wasn't aware that the whole deal with oracle based databases are so platform sensitive. I can understand now why they instructed us to run it on a specific virtual machine client.

I'd rather see an official source confirming that. Either way, there's not stopping it. Before youtube, copyrighted material was spreaded through Peer2Peer, and whatnot. Youtube just made it a lot easier. Apparently, they also seem to rely on the community effect, if something is offensive, or not appropriate, it'll be flagged and moderated. But for me, non-American, watching shows such as Prison Break, Lost, Heroes, or any kind of anime, I'd either have to order online until some set of DVDs comes out. Or P2P. Or torrents. I'm not bothered by the fact that it's on youtube. Moreover, youtube isn't much of a source for that kind of material anyway, these days. You can find more of that on dailymotion, veoh, stage6, etc... And honestly, I don't see a destructive thing about, not at all. In fact, before I decide to spend the little money a college student like me has, on a DVD, I'd rather go see it on whichever site to see if I like it. Shows like Heroes even caught up with the trend, and instead of fighting it, it went along with it and made its shows, after airing, available in a similar format. Initiatives like this make me want to support the creators of the show even more to continue with their efforts into supporting their fan base, rather than "selling out" and going "Microsoft" on sites like youtube and unleashing an army of lawyers and threats.

*eep* Thank you both for your kind replies, I appreciate it very much! My textbook comes with a "demo version" of 10g, I believe. I didn't bother checking it, since I though it required the user to set it up as a server or whatnot. I turned to Virtual PC, however, and I got my hands on an image from college with windows server 2k3 and an install for Oracle already on it. It runs like a dream. Much faster, stable and less resource-demanding than VMware. The entire setup needed about 5 gigs of space. I was surprised that there weren't any Oracle-based programs that could let someone test sql on databses, though. Thanks again for the swift responses!

I sometimes use Terragan to render backgrounds for graphics work, and last I run winXP, so unless they changed it recently, Terragen isn't exclusively Mac? Terragen is a pretty nifty program though, easy to work with and great results.

for college, we run oracle on a win2k3 server that's run on a virtual system like VMware and/or Virtual PC. VMware has it bells and whistles, and makes a nifty gadget, but eats my laptop's resources like there's no tomorrow. So I got rid of the VMware image and VMware itself, and wanted to switch to VPC. Another problem I have, is that I barely have any diskspace left to work with, and those images are at least 4 GB. So I wondered if anyone knew a program that would act as Oracle, but solely for the purpose of testing databases. I have two .db files that I need to use and so far, the only programs I've come across that would "test" a database required a server of some sorts and only worked with .sql query files. A trial's ok, but if possible, freeware would be awesome ^^Thanks in advance!

Hehe, no need for that. I was able to bruteforce my way onto his network (WEP-32bit, I THINK) but for some dubious and obscure reason, he left his admin login on the standard values. Just for fun, I blocked google.com from being accessed, as I noticed his mac and computer name on my network (it was completely open at that time, though). He was even smart enough to name his computer after him. Way to go. Last I checked, google.com was still blocked. You know what, I hate to admit it, but I barely have any clue of what you're talking about. It hurts my semi-geek pride. =(I know that a VPN is a virtual private network, but the only times I've seen or heard about it, was to facilitate networking functions in a company that had a branch office outside of the main office's network range. So through connection over the internet, the VPN would be used to "simulate" the main network. Amirite? I don't udnerstand how you would apply this to your own, personal network?

Very good indeed. Though it's obvious that the lamp post didn't belong there and that you used a soft brush to get rid of the initial grass in the original picture. The edited picture is awesome. I'm an avid user of the duplicate-layer-set-gaussian-blut-to-3-and-change-blending-mode thingum. I love it's dreamy effect. What could, perhaps, add to it, is if you add a layer, use the lasso tool, feather 2 or 3, make triangular strokes from the moon, stretching downwards, fill it with white, drop the transparacy a bit, perhaps fiddle with some blending modes, and perhaps adding a slight outer glow in the same white color. Just a suggestion though. I love your tutorial.

This sparks my curiosity a lot, though I have absolutely no clue what you're talking about. Care to clarify/share some links, please? As for getting into networks, I'm also a bit interested, not just to edumacaaate, myself, but to know how I can keep my pesky neighbor's kid out of my network. It's got MAC-recognition and WPA2 keys on it, and the logs are often checked.

Aside from getting a decent anti-virus system running, I believe there's one, golden rule for keeping your computer running without trouble and nasty virusses: A healthy dose of common "computer" sense. This means surfing with sense and using your computer with sense.I'm gonna stop saying "sense" now. However, I'm an a somewhat experienced surfer. SOMEWHAT, so I know what can be trusted and what cannot. Same for emails and filesharing. Next to that, a good browser, like a tweaked FF with adblock plus and a self-updating filterset can do miracles.I instructed my dad (61, not too computer savvy, but still decent with 'puters) to do the same routine every few days: run adaware and ccleaner. I gave him firefox and finetuned it for him, and I haven't had a single problem with his desktop for more than a year, as opposed to before.

Same here, but I fully trust the people her on Xisto.

HOLY BATMAN ON A STICK! I can't believe you guys. You're like Santa but for... you know... us, geeks. That is AMAZING. I have to admit I thought it was an April fools joke and if it would've been confirmed as such, I'd be here complaining about how outrageously mean that would be. But it's true and coming to Xisto?I'm sure 250 credits isn't impossible to do, but yet very long. I can't help but wonder how Xisto can afford to do this? Like, whoa.Free, advanced, amazing and nearly unlimited and unrivaled hosting AND a free domain? Damn.

Still curious as to how it LOOKS. It surely changes a lot of aspect on the angle of weapons and ballistics, but I wonder what shape it is, what size, wieght, etc... If it is only to be mounted on a vehicule like a Humvee, helicopter or truck, I can only assume that it's bulky and hard to transport. More like a stationary weapon...? So, I embarked on an epic google quest: http://www.military.com/pics/SoldierTech_DREAD2.jpg The ammunition (looks like a golf ball... like...a lot) The system itself: http://www.military.com/pics/SoldierTech_DREAD1.gif Hehehehehehe. I'm sure trekkies will love this. USS Enterprise, anyone? Still, a lot less bulky than I expected it to be. AND! To top it off, a video! (quicktime format: .mov) http://defensereview.com/dad/dread.mov A promotional vid with some background and info, 4 mins long, pretty damn awesome if you ask.

My thoughts exactly. Like I said before, you might save yourself a lot of work and grief, by just getting the lastest build and installing it for yourself. Those installer scripts nowadays don't need much more other than a database connection and perhaps some chmodding/deleting the install files. Easy breezy. But I repeat myself, I tried the Noah's classifieds package, and it didn't work well for me at all. Could be my case only, but I don't think a lot of other people use it...? I'd be happy to be corrected and hear someone else's input...

The above procedure can be a little tedious, so Fasterfox is a neat little extension for Firefox that not only does the above settings, but also several other speed-improving tasks. Get it here. On the subject of Opera, even though Opera is a pretty damn good browser (it's more compatible with the W3C standards than FF, in fact, not much, but still), I find the greatest strength of FireFox in it's extensions. I love extensions. My firefox is tweaked and tuned like there's no tomorrow. Last I heard, Opera's variant called "widgets" were lacking seriously in comparison to FF.

The above are great examples of free software that can be used on a Windows OS. (however paint is prolly not such a great alternative after all...hehe). Though they all have their plusses and downsides, while photoshop offers a good, all around and extensive functionality. Other programs you might wanna look into that ADD to designing is Apohpysis (Apohpysis link). It creates franctal for you, that can be imported into photoshop for you. It requires getting used to, but is a neat little program t create "fractal frames". Other than that, I'm pretty sure there are a few web-based "signature generators" floating around on the web, but bieng a siggymaker myself, I've never really liked th outcomes on those.

I too had some problems using and installing Noah's classfieds. It was a while ago, and I eventually abandoned my dea at the time completely.I'm not sure about what the error was when installing it, but it didn't seem much like the one the OP reported. Eventually, I was able to bypass and install it, but when I finally had it set-up, it would give PHP errors all the time, concerning user logins/user management. Though I'd like to add that, even though fantastico is a really great piece of software, it eliminates the fact that a user gets experienced in installing/upgrading serversided packages. I was wild about fantastico too, but after a bazillion incompatibility issues because of obsolete version, I decided to install things like a CMS or a forum manually.

Different operating systems, but no difference? If there are no reports on hardware failures/errors, then I'm pretty sure it's a driver problem. You could always look into a different sound-card. I know that's a crappy suggestion, especially considering all the hassle in configuration and compatibility with laptops.So try a different driver? It's a fact that the drivers provided by windows are by far the best drivers available.

Pretty cool read, thanks for linking us through.I'm no gun nut, nor do I have much knowledge on the subject, but the writer seems a little too optimistic to my linking. It's claimed that there is no wear or heat production, but the projectiles are spun out with more accuracy, speed and power than the "average" bullet, but my old physics teacher popped up at that point and reminded me that kinetic energy=warmth? All by all, I'd love to see a demonstration of it, I'm curious as how the thing actually looks. The idea behind is quite simple, makes me wonder why anyone hasn't thought of it before.

The Internet, with it's protocol and "www" as we know was initially thought up by Tim Berners Lee, not the US government. However, claiming a corporate identity should take control isn't perhaps the best of ideas. The difference with a government and corporation, is that a corporation has less problems being less transparent about it's workings. A government is a little more fragile, as in, it has to be a little more careful on how it effects the public reactions (please don't pull elaborate conspiracy theories on me, I'm sick of paranoid, mass-hysteria). If you would let a corporate identity handle the web, you might get the NEt Neutrality issue that's going on. A corporate identity would be given control on what you get to see, what now, and how much you have to pay for. After all, a company large enough to (COULD) take this kind of duty on them would be a juggernaut like Microsoft. Now, we wouldn't want that, would we?

The niche Opera explored has given Opera it's cutting edge: mobile browsers. PDA's, cellphones, smartphones, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, etc... sport the Opera browser. They've been able to increase it's market share that way. However, Internet Explorer still covers about 85% of the market share, and the biggest other competitor is Firefox with about 12%. Those numbers were from just after the FF 2 release, and prognoses said that FireFox' continuous grow would halt and stabilize.The thing with Opera is that used to have a nag feature, unless you paid for it, if I'm right? They removed it not so long ago and Opera may have had boasted the most advanced feature, it would never be able to overtake FireFox that way.Above that, it eliminates the "community" and fanboys effect that FireFox has. Mozilla actually grew out of an opensource project after Internet Explorer "beat" Netscape Navigator in the Browser Wars. Andreesen, founder of Netscape, therefore released his source code, codenamed Mozilla. Netscape got bought up, Mozilla become independent (therefore, Mozilla foundation) and soon enough a spin-off from the Mozilla 1.0 suite was released, called FireFox. By this time, it had gained a massive community of developers and coders which is what made FireFox to what it is now, as opposed to Opera which took the cheap way of paying up for a browser. I think it was Andreesen or Tim B. Lee that said that browser are by and for the surfers. Opera tried to get that crowd as well, and had it's widgets and the like, but little too late. On the other hand, technologies that Opera has developed for it's mobile browsers are being successfully ported to regular browsers, such as mouse gestures, which would prove useful to innovate browsers.A short note on the fact which is best able to represent strict W3C validated codes, Safari takes the cake here. W3C latest evaluation gave it's Safari highest grades. Opera and FF are about on the same frequency. Limping behind, as always, is Internet Explorer, which focus is to patch and fix it's lazy code.In fact, I have a presentation to give about browsers today, in college, the above is a really short conclusion, heh.

How do you mean, a lot of money? What exactly would need to be paid? I mean, I have the hosting, already, and I won't be paying anyone to work for me... As for Drupal, it has a kind of a forum, but seriously, it lacks a lot of functionality. Also, I won't be dragging in older generations that don't have a need for a computer, it's the people that are interested in the phenomena of Internet and computers (those that can operate a search function to the very least). But again, I am quite confident in attracting the right audience. That's not a problem. And there ARE indeed a lot of different fora, but in ENGLISH, that's a "speedbump" for most of the older people around me, few know English well enough, and the Dutch communities for older people are fairly limited. There is only one that I can think of, in fact. As for defining needs, I have a bunch of things in mind already that seem in demand. More functions can be added along the way. I need a basis to start from, anyway, don't you think?

Awesome! Thanks for having the time to look over my ambitions. I'm pretty confident on an influx of users. I've not yet fully explored Mambo, but will certainly try, thanks for suggesting! I'm also pretty comfortable with SMF, and find it richer on features than phpBB. As for hosting, I'm really sticking with Xisto, I might eventually get a domainname, but that's after I got some profit. I'm not driven by income from it, but it really, REALLY would prove helpful, yeah, as I'm just another poor college student, heh. Thank you!