patronus4000

I do agree with everyone else here that there is Internet freedom. Anyone can say what they want, including game cheats and hacks. So you can't go and sue these people for posting these. The only thing the admins can do is to ban IPs and users.In my opinion, cheats and hacks are okay to use if it's not unfair to other players (i.e.: single-player games), but as soon as it affects other players and makes it unfair to others, then it's just bad to cheat. If you're not good at the game, too bad; practice more, or just give up.Serena

Well, right now, your site is not accessible, but I think black and red would be a nice scheme, if designed nicely. Black and orange really is too reminiscent of Halloween, and do not use hot pink. Please. I like pink, but I know plenty of people who don't, so if you don't want to lose visitors that despise pink, just don't use it.For a forum, you should know (X)HTML, CSS, and some PHP/MySQL. The easiest way to start a forum would be to use a program like Simple Machines Forum (SMF). It's free, and I think it comes with cPanel. Even if it's not, cPanel does offer several options for creating a forum.Good luck, and have fun!Serena

Global warming, for me, is definitely real. When I was in kindergarden, the winters in Southern Ontario (Canada) were freezing. The snow on the sidewalk regularly measured up to a metre (which was fun to play in, but not so fun when you're trying to dig your car out in -10'C weather). Now, it's 2007. It's not that cold. It rarely snows in the winter. When it does snow, it's only a centimetre thick and it usually melts by the end of the day.I'm sure there are natural phenomenons that cause this, but at the same time, we do affect the earth and play a part in global warming. Carbon dioxide, noted as the number one cause of global warming, is emitted by our activities and it must go somewhere, so it goes into the atmosphere, creating a blanket that keeps the heat in.I do agree with Jimmy89 that, perhaps, this is a natural cycle of the Earth, that it's naturally heating up in a way we don't understand. But still, we haven't been very kind to the Earth, littering, polluting, and overusing its resources. The least we can do is help out, and maybe we'll be able to preserve it for future generations to enjoy.Serena

I am horrible at those hacking games. XD I've tried them before, and am only able to get through the first few levels. After that, I usually resort to hints and eventually cheats. >.< So I've given up on them, and forgotten the websites to them by now. Sorry. ^^" If you like solving mysteries though, check out the Stickman Murder Mystery Games. The graphics look like they're done in MS Paint (and they probably are) and it's nothing fancy, but it's the content that counts. Same with Access Excellence's Mystery Spot which has mysteries that have nice illustrations and bases the game on scientific facts. Serena

Actually, avast! does get a daily update too. I have both AVG Free and avast! Free on my computer, and I'd have to say AVG's better. It is able to find problems that avast! can't find, and AVG doesn't have any useless frills (like skins) that uses more hard disk space. But if you have the space, just get both. Having more anti-virus programs doesn't hurt. XD Serena

I agree; choosing a webhost is indeed hard, especially when you go for more features. But even if you go for a basic host, you have to check out how reliable their servers are, whether customer support is good, and whether they're going to put ads on your website. Since I'm still in high school and spend my time volunteering instead of finding and getting a job, I'm still using free web hosting. One of the sites I've always used to find and compare hosts is http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/. It allows you to compare different features of hosts too, like whether a host allows PHP, has MySQL databases, supports .htaccess, etc. Serena

I must say that this doesn't relate exactly to the notion of "free." Yes, I know that time is very valuable, and so is one's effort and sanity, but don't you have to put in time and effort for everything? If you buy a program, you still have to learn how to use it, read the help files, etc. And if you download completely free software, you still go through the same learning process. But I do agree with you that a lot of things called "free" aren't free at all, especially with the advertisements. Some things, however, really are free though. Like Firefox and their extensions. Opera, the GIMP, Inkscape, Terragen. They cost nothing to you, and yet they're just as good as the same software you have to purchase. Good article; I think you really accomplished what you wanted to with it. =) Serena

Runescape isn't too bad. It's fun, once you get hooked on levelling up and everything. Also, the graphics, though not that detailed or stunning, are pretty good for the rest of us who are still using dial-up. But I haven't played for a while; I have been too busy, and I sort of got bored playing it by the time I got to Level 50 or something. I should check in sometime, see what's changed since I've been gone. XDI'd rate Runescape 4/5.Serena

I haven't even climbed a tree before. XD And I'm afraid to try, especially when I see those huge ants crawling all over them. XD Or the fact that I just might fall. Although I think that's less likely to happen than several ants attacking me. But tree houses are cool; I've seen some really nice ones on TV. And I suppose those castles use electricity now, because I agree with you. Or maybe those same castles are deserted. Either way. XD But on the topic on homes, treehouses, and castles, I think I'd just prefer to live in a nice, normally sized condomininum in downtown Toronto or something. I don't like huge spaces, since property taxes are too high and I don't need all that space.SerenaP.S.: My photography teacher always says that he lives under the GO station, which is a train that travels in the Greater Toronto Area.

You seem to have a broken link. I got a 404 error when I clicked your link. ("Do not pass go, do not collect $200!" XD) But back to the topic of Internet Explorer, I actually do hate it. Quite a bit too, because my website layouts usually work with most other browsers except Internet Explorer. But it has improved greatly in terms of supporting standard code and utilizing tabbed browsing with the release of Internet Explorer 7, so it's not as bad as before. I do, however, find it annoying that some people are so uninformed about the number of browsers out there, or even what browser they're using. Half the time, when I ask my friends what browser they're using, they reply with "I don't know. It just comes up." Grr. That makes me so angry. It's like they don't even know how to read. A lot of organizations have formed to try to influence people to convert from Internet Explorer. The more famous ones (at least, to me) are Stop IE and Browse Happy. I used to have their links on my blog, but after the update, I haven't had time to link their buttons yet. XD Serena

Don't Click It is awesome. It's so cool. I love the idea of not clicking to navigate a site, simply because it's so different. It also shows us that we've gotten used to a habit (of clicking) without knowing it. Scary. XDI came across this site last year, and didn't even click once to navigate (except a few times eventually, just to test what would happen if I did click). I'm more used to using the keyboard to do a lot of my navigation, so it wasn't quite hard to get used to rollovers instead of clickable links.Serena

LOL. I never tried this, but I certainly watched a video on it. I think it can be found at YouTube or something. I have tried, however, Alka-Seltzer and water though. It was an experiment for science class. We put a whole tablet in a film canister filled with water halfway, put the lid on, and literally run away before it exploded three seconds later. While film canisters are not particularly dangerous, even when combined with this little explosion, it's still not fun being hit in the face by the film canister lid, which happened to one of my friends in that class.Serena

Okay, this is just weird. I know games can be addicting - I must admit that I had spent a lot of time on Runescape and other RPGs, too much, in fact - but how can they be so addicting that one can die from it? It's a bit hard to believe, but I'm pretty sure it can still happen. Somehow. Even during the summer, when I have all day to play games, I still get over *cough* ten to twelve hours of sleep (hey, I like my sleep), plenty of nourishment, and enough washroom breaks. How can one ignore the fact that they're sleepy, thirsty, hungry, and require a visit to the washroom?What has the world come to? People used to die from real sword fights in the medieval times, and now, people die from video games. >.>Serena

I would rate Google a 8/10. I like that it loads quickly, has a streamlined, simple design, and brings relevant results most of the time. It's also nice that they have such a wide variety of services too, and the special logo designs on (inter)national holidays are pretty cool (I actually try to save them, if I go to Google on that day XD). But GMail, to me, is kind of scary; I don't really like the layout; the rounded corners really look weird with the whole design, but maybe that's only because it's viewed in Opera? Hmm. But another reason why Google lost marks in my opinion is because of a recent article I read about Google's privacy practices. The article is from 24 Hours Vol. 4 No. 148, June 11, 2007 in the Technology section (p. 16). Maybe Privacy International is biased, but this article makes me more wary of exactly what Google - and other companies - do with all the information they collect. Despite all the small things that prevent Google from being the best search engine ever with perfect...well, everything, I still end up using Google because firstly, it's Opera's default search engine. Secondly, I've gotten used to using Google. It's become a habit. Though the new way they've positioned the other search links (like Image Search, Froogle) is a bit disorienting; I still blindly click on where they used to be once upon a time. XD Serena

*gasp and faints* I didn't know there were still people using 28.8 kbps. Shocking. Scary. I don't know what to feel. o.O And $20 at that! You really, really need better Internet service. Hey, that's what I use! AOL, 56 kbps. *cough* It's not wonderful. My dad's paying approximately $22 (Canadian) for it. We're looking for something to switch to, but so far, we haven't had time to actually put some effort into looking for a better, faster ISP. I want to leave - soon - though. AOL is more annoying than it's worth. It boots me offline for no reason and forces me to keep an extra window open. It's wasting my taskbar estate. >_> And it uses IE to render its pages in its browser. (Ew.) Serena

Now, wouldn't StumbleUpon.com be the perfect answer to this question? XD Ah, the coolest site. Hmm. For me, there are three of them: 1) Lifehacker.com A blog containing plenty of little tricks and software recommendations to make sure that your computer is working for you and not the other way round. Their motto: "Don't live to geek; geek to live." Besides that, they have a smattering of other random stuff. For example, there's a post on office jargon: 2) Wikipedia.orgWhat's more to say? They've got everything there. Everything. I can spend a whole day on that site and not get bored. 3) deviantART.com Full of creative (and devious) souls running around, uploading fantastic works of art. It's another site that I could spend a whole day on, looking and commenting on artwork and playing with Flash animations. Besides, the community is awesome. ^__^ So those are my top three cool sites. There are obviously a million more cool sites out there that I have either [a] not been to yet or forgot about them >_< or [c] think they're just not as cool as these ones. Serena

Heh, well, even if it doesn't end up to be a permanent site, it certainly might make the person using the site namer chuckle (I know I did!). (ExtremeCandy? Hmm. I wonder what I could make of that.) However, sometimes, it's the random names that end up as the official, famous names of sites, groups, bands, etc. For example, a dance group called Eiffel 65 actually got the "Eiffel" part of the name from a name generator. Then the "65" was a typo; someone thought the "65" (which was part of a phone number) was part of the group's name, so it was included. XD They've probably disbanded by now (started in 1998?), but still. They were famous. So maybe name generators do work sometimes. (*cough* Rarely.)Serena

When I have time (a.k.a. the holidays), I spend pretty much my whole day in front of my computer. Email, messenger, websites, blogs, deviantART, random online communities... There's enough to keep me busy for...uh...forever online. Now, since I have school, I don't have a set amount of time that I spend online. Especially this year, because I've joined so many clubs, am volunteering for so many organizations, and have several teachers that love to give more homework than they can mark. I'm online only for research, email, and Xisto nowadays. So is it possible to live without a computer? I would rather not, but it's definitely possible. We used to do that in the past, didn't we? (Then again, we had the TV back then.) Sometimes, when I'm running around the city/school/home trying to finish everything on time, I don't even have time to even think of computers, much less turn them on. (The irony is that one of the organizations I'm in requires us to check our email daily, and it's hard for its members to do so because ALL the members are insanely stressed-out students who don't have time for email. At all.) So yes, it's possible; I've done that recently. But I'd rather have computers even if I don't use them all the time so that I can have a easy way to communicate with others or do research. Now, I must study for my science unit test! (Ugh. >_<) Serena

LOL. XDD Funny. It's weird how people give out passwords, knowing that they can be exploited. The same with locker combinations; most of my friends, for some reason, give out their combinations to pretty much the entire school population. Then they complain about how things mysteriously disappear from their locker, like their pens, sweaters, cameras... And the chat log thing. I save those too. Except no one tells me their passwords through there, so it's not like I have a list of accounts I can hack into whenever I want. But that brings up the point that everyone should watch what they're saying online; in a way, it's like writing a letter to someone - every word you say can potentially be recorded and used against you. Serena

Ahh. MSN viruses. I hate those. I clicked one once. It took me several weeks to fully root out all the problems. I ran so many system scans - avast!, AVG Free, Ad-Aware, and probably other ones I've forgotten already. I went through all the files in my system to take out what didn't look familiar (yeah, I go through the system files pretty often, so I know what's usually there). It was such a stressing time, especially since I can NOT reinstall everything; I'd lose a lot of files!But generally, to remove a virus, use several programs to scan your computer thoroughly and make sure your computer is offline while you're scanning. And make sure that the firewall is on at full blast to block the virus from going anywhere. If the virus installed itself, you may find CCleaner useful; you can see all the applications installed, even those that usually don't appear in the Add/Remove Programs list in the Control Panel. HijackThis is useful too, if you know your system well or have experts helping you. I don't know why it didn't work for you; I relied quite heavily on it when I was rooting out viruses.And as mvs.en said, if you talk to a person for a while, you regonize their typing styles. For example, I use perfect grammar/capitalization and have an obession with this smiley: XD. If the message doesn't match the usual typing style, don't fall for it!Just be careful from now on; no link clicking anymore. If you get a link, ask the person if they sent it or not.Serena

LOL. I'd expect spam messages to try to get someone to fall for a trap, like scams or viruses, but this... What's this supposed to do?? Could a person actually get so bored that they string together random words and send it to people? Or maybe... They had to do it for school. XD Our science class sort of had to recently; we were to send these WWF postcards to pretty much everyone in our address books to get points as our teacher was going to mark us based on the points we got. We sent so many random postcards out, we were probably marked off as spammers. But at least our messages were...ah...decipherable English. XD(Maybe that spam message was about a family. Something about getting a mortgage or a farm or something. *shrug*)Serena

I think that was just a bug with either Firefox, Google, or both. It doesn't happen now; I was directed to http.com. The results on the first page of Google does not contain even a single instance of the word "Microsoft". I have results on HTTP, Altavista, Apache, Ask.com, Wikipedia, and, strangely enough, Regulations.gov. I wonder how that got there. *shrugs*Regarding instant messaging, I'm pretty sure Windows Live Messenger (formerly MSN Messenger) has the largest user base. I rarely go on Yahoo! Instant Messenger now, and when I do, not one of my (maybe six contacts?) are online. They've all permanently switched to Windows Live.Serena

Patent on menus? D= Is Microsoft kidding? As bluefish said, there're menus everywhere as they're such basic concepts. Maybe Apple should sue Microsoft for making WMP11 look a bit like iTunes, if Microsoft starts suing for menu patent infringements.I think that Microsoft is just making themselves look bad by bringing this issue up. Almost everyone I know uses at least one open-source software; that one would most likely be Mozilla's Firefox browser. When people realize that the software they love and use are threatened, they will go against the threat. Microsoft could lose a lot of support (not to mention business) this way. Serena

Hah! Now look who's better with mail storage! XD Back then, GMail had the largest storage space - 2GB; it was the email service everyone wanted. And Yahoo! now has unlimited storage. Awesome. This should make people love Yahoo! even more; it has a great mail service (even without the unlimited storage) and all the other services that come with your account. One question: will this feature actually be "used"? I mean, right now, I've only used 1% of the alloted storage space in both my Yahoo! and Windows Live Mail accounts. I haven't as of yet seen anyone fill up their inbox with so, so many emails and attachments that they fill their inbox to the brim (unless their storage space is 50MB or something like that). Serena

Heh, pretty cool. I love the ducks; they're so adorable. (Except how they are on my screen at the moment, because I filled almost the whole screen with ducks. XD It looks...scary, to have all those ducks toppling over one another.) I killed a few, I think, with the magma and ice. >_< I like making mazes with the wall and controlling the flow of the water (and ducks). Awesome game; it really is a great game for unwinding!Serena