patronus4000

You know how it is. When people set laws, other people feel the need to break them. (It's why we have the police and military!) Same issue here. People don't listen to laws and rules; they do what they want, especially when they see everyone else posting copyright material without being penalized. If everyone who posted copyright material were penalized, there'd probably be a lot less copyright infringement taking place on YouTube, but how can anyone moderate all the videos posted? A lot of them are long, there are many, MANY members, and there are only so many people working on YouTube at the same time. However, this copyright infringement cannot always be viewed as bad. As kgd2006 said, YouTube can be a place for people to view some TV shows they missed. They can always browse over to YouTube and find whatever episode of Friends they missed while they were working overtime on a board presentation. Furthermore, there are music videos on YouTube; I don't think this hurts the artist at all, because it serves as a form of advertisement. Users browse through the videos, choose something, watch it, and think, "Hey, this artist's pretty good." Now that they like this artist, they'll go buy their CDs, T-shirts, concert tickets, whatever. Because you can't download anything from YouTube directly except with some application, widget, or external site of some sort, the copyright material are not being exploited as much as on places such as LimeWire, where everyone uploads tons of copyright material every single day. People can get copies of this material from LimeWire and distribute it; if you're not Internet- or computer-savvy, you'll probably be unable to do the same thing with YouTube. Serena

I never used Yahoo! Messenger much. There was a time when I discovered that a few of my friends had it, so I logged on to both MSN Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger daily, but I guess all of us figured out that no one was going to switch from the beloved MSN Messenger to Yahoo! anytime soon, so we all eventually stopped. I still have Yahoo! Messenger on my computer though. I don't use it for messaging, but for radio. Yahoo! Messenger is a pretty awesome messenger except that it just doesn't have a large enough user base. (It's fast, it's pretty, it's animated, and it's full of useful features! =D) As for web messengers, I've never used any of them before. I generally prefer not to log into messenger on computers other than my own. I have the fear that someone might be logging my keystrokes and, ultimately, my passwords! That's not too bad. It happened to me quite often a while back with a older version of Windows Live Messenger. It often said that the message could not be sent. >.< I had to restart messenger at least twice a day to get it to work properly. Now, it still happens, but only when at least one of the recipients or myself are set to "appear offline". So, the moral of the story is just not to be so unhappy about those few lost messages with Yahoo! Web Messenger; Windows Live Messenger is an official application while Yahoo! Web Messenger is only a web application; if Windows Live Messenger does the same thing Yahoo! Web Messenger does, I'd say that Windows Live Messenger is way behind in reliability. Serena

I agree with HellFire. It's dangerous to play around with the registries, especially when you really don't know what you're doing. A spelling mistake in those instructions or even some other typo could seriously destroy someone's computer. I'm already scared enough when I'm cleaning my registry out. XD (I install and uninstall a lot of random applications, okay?)Besides that point, some of them are quite threatening to all admins. I wouldn't want users I set to limited to be hacking into my administrator account! D= They're a danger to my computer and privacy!Serena

You can also download videos from sites like YouTube with the DownloadHelper extension for Firefox, which does not require you to even go to a second site to download. You just click on the little icon on the toolbar or in the menu, select the file to download, and there you go! Also, for Opera, there's the KeepVid extension where you can copy and paste the URL of the page that the video's on to download. The filetype they are save in is .FLV or Flash Video File, which can be played on the free-to-download FLVPlayer which you can get at download.com Serena

I agree with Killer008r on how these tragedies happen all over the world; I believe that, should we know about them, we would mourn for them too, but not just as much perhaps because they are so far away and in such different conditions that we can't relate to them. We can easily relate to school shootings though because a lot of us, like me, are students in North America where this form of violence seems to be increasing. Then, dost thou fear me? XD This brings me to another point. Cho, in addition to obliterating the lives and ambitions of 32 people, also disgraces Asians (specifically Koreans) by doing such a deed. There's always a small group of people in every race that participates in such horrid violence. But then there's also the majority who are Good Samaritans or at least non-violent citizens. These people shouldn't have to bear the weight of stereotypes caused by irresponsible citizens. A background check was done in ONE minute?! What kind of a background check is that? It's the same as having no background check at all! This shows how lax the USA is on gun control. Do citizens really need firearms to defend themselves? If all firearms were off the streets and banned from citizens, I'm pretty sure violence would drastically decrease. There will always be those who sell illegal firearms, but I believe that if firearms are illegal, there will be some fear in that business. In Canada, we have strict gun control; school shootings still occur, but it's a much lower percentage than those that occur south of our border. As much as I hope that this kind of a thing will never happen again, I know it will. There are warped minds out there, and combined with guns and enough pressure, another tragedy will shock the world again. Serena

Hah. That's me. XDD I'm hoping my parents will switch to something faster soon though, because unlike all of us here, some care squat about us dial-up users. So yes. foolakadugie is quite right about the colours, but in my opinion, it's pointless to slice such a small image up anyways. It will load fast enough on even the slowest connection (I have not even heard of any company or organization offering 28.8kbps dial-up services, but if you have, surprise me). It's only for those huge images that will take over a whole minute to load that needs a nice slicing. It's good to see that a page is actually loading something, albeit slow. At least we know that the page isn't broken or that it will take ten minutes to load. The best way to happily accomodate all Internet connection speeds is to just limit the number of images you have on your site; don't use them if you don't have to. If you can reproduce a button or a header in text using HTML and CSS without images, then do that instead. Serena

Whee! I'm using Opera to read about Opera! XD Long ago, I started using IE, but quickly switched over to Firefox when I learnt about it. I quickly became a die-hard fan of Firefox due to the wide variety of default features and add-ons I could download. For once, I could make my browser how I wanted it to look like! But then Firefox 2 came out. I downloaded it two months after it was officially released. After using it for a while, I realized that my computer lagged a lot. There were memory leaks before too, but in Firefox 2, it just seemed more apparent on my computer. It used 80,000 K on average each time, and with all the other programs I have running, it didn't take much more to slow down my computer to a crawl. That was when I switched to Opera. It's become pretty much my default browser now, but I can't say I don't miss Firefox. Opera seems a bit more "un-user-friendly" - it's harder to learn and utilize all the features it has and some sites just don't support Opera, forcing me to fall back on the memory-hogging Firefox. But then there are a few features that have become vital to my browsing, including mouse gestures (I even downloaded an extension to have the same feature in Firefox) and the sidebar. It's much easier to access than the one in Firefox and has a set of icons to allow you to quickly jump from your notes (another great built-in feature) to your transfers. I'm happy that Opera has gotten rid of their ads, but now it is up to them to make sure that their browser can support sites that currently can't be viewed in Opera. I know - it's the web designer's fault in not making cross-browser sites, but it's not likely they will go the extra mile to make their sites work in a browser that is not known to many people. Serena

Wow, pretty cool. I've come across several sites like this recently. But still, I think they'd be a bit slow, since they have to rely on a internet connection to transmit everything, including whatever application you happen to be using on your WebOS. I'd prefer using a USB Flash Drive to run my own apps and store files. It's still slow if you're running an application, depending on the size, but it's not too bad. And you don't need an internet connection at all (no worries, therefore, if you're using dial-up).Serena

Yahoo Funny, eh? I don't think it's a good idea to trust the site. They've got spelling/grammar errors all over the place. That's a pretty good indicator of a lack of professionalism. Who knows? This tool might end up to be a virus. McAffee SiteAdvisor doesn't know about it either...And the Album thing is as good as dead, though there is a folder tree you can browse around if you really don't have anything to do.Serena

I'd hate to say it, but some things are true. Especially the obsessive-compulsive one. (Anyone who sees me at school knows I'm a perfectionist.) But not too much about the histrionic one. I'm actually the opposite of that. Either way, not to be taken seriously, but hey, it just might give you an insight to who you are. Sort of. Serena

If I had time, I'd suspect that anyone who checked in on my online habits would call me a MMORPG-obsessed person. (Or maybe I have changed since then.) But never would I actually pay to play these games. It would be kind of pointless. Why pay money to get something on a game? Why not just buy something you can use or play with in the real world? After all, you spend all this money to only get more hooked on to the game, which induces you to buy more of their stuff with your real money, and then you are even more hooked on to the game... (And, if they suddenly close down, they might won't refund you the rest of your money.) Quite a good marketing scheme they've come up with. All of these games, in fact. I heard some time back about Second Life and Microsoft or something with their own island there now. Now, companies are even advertising themselves on games. On the issue of these reality simulation games, the only one I've played is the Sims, and that's the PC program. I find the online ones a bit freaky with their trials, fees, and the pay-with-real-money-to-buy- random-virtual-objects schemes. I've had a few friends who play Habbo Hotel, and from what I've seen, the graphics aren't that good and there's just too, too many limitations. And that's my rant about real-money-stealing reality simulation games. Serena

Heh, pretty cool. Though the screenshot given on its website kind of scares me with all the buttons and icons that are on the GUI. o_O Too much clutter for my mind to deal with. But I'll make sure I try it later anyways. Thanks for letting us know!Serena

I use AVG Antivirus, and frankly, I like it. I'm okay with the slower updates (even though, to me, it's not that slow), as it is free and I also use other programs to keep my computer safe.I also like avast! Antivirus. It has an On-Access scanner, has quite a lot of updates, and can be skinned. ^^Serena

I'm not a huge fan of PDFs because whenever I open them online, they always make my computer lag unbelievably. Also, I don't need PDFs for anything. The only PDFs I have created are when I scan pages and stuff so that it saves as a PDF file. XDQuick PDF, an Opera widget, can create PDFs though. Not very fancy ones, mind you, as it /is/ only a widget still under development, but if you only need text and links, it will work well enough. You just type inside the widget, click on the PDF tab, click Export as PDF, and it saves a PDF file for you! Also, it can export your text into a XML file.Serena

Ohh. Alright. =) Thanks for the quick reply!Serena

A lot of programs I like have already been listed, such as Terragen, Mozilla Firefox, and the GIMP, but here's a few more (as, sadly, I'm one of those people who go crazy when they see new, free programs they can download and play with before uninstalling them two weeks later!): Inkscape (https://inkscape.org/en/) A vector graphics program. Not as good as Macromedia Freehand or Adobe Illustrator, but it's free and it's open-source - what more do you want? Stepmania (https://www.stepmania.com/) An open-source game similar to Dance Dance Revolution (DDR). The platform is free to download and so are many of the songs and stepfiles, which are separate downloads. You have to play with the arrow keys though, unless you go buy those dance pads. 7-zip (http://www.7-zip.org/) Open-source software allowing you to compress and archive files. It can pack and unpack ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2, TAR, and 7z (its native format) files, and it can unpack RAR, CAB, ISO, ARJ, LZH, CHM, Z, CPIO, RPM, DEB and NSIS files. Opera Browser (http://www.opera.com/) Definitely an alternative to Mozilla Firefox, it has tabs, widgets (similar to Firefox extensions), themes, and a very streamlined interface to maximize screen estate. Also, it doesn't have ads anymore, which gives all the more reason to download it and try it out! Rainlendar (http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/) I don't know whether I can live without this one! It's basically a calendar that allows you to add an infinite amount of events and to-do items so that you can stay on top of your busy schedule. You can download skins to customize how you want it to look, but at the moment, many skins do not work as Rainlendar has just been updated to a new version that requires a new method of skinning. Mozilla Thunderbird (https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/) A great alternative to Outlook, Thunderbird allows you to receive your email via POP3 and IMAP and send email using SMTP. You can also add themes and extensions, just like Firefox! I could keep going on and on about freeware, because I download so many, but I think I should stop here. =D Ahahaha, agreed. But I always go through my computer once in a while to uninstall some applications I don't use so often just to keep my computer from filling up (though I'm far, /far/ from reaching that point), so I'm not very worried about that at the moment. Serena

I had ZoneAlarm for only about one week on my computer. ^^" It's not that it doesn't work well or anything - it does, and I have to say it's a pretty good firewall, but after a while, I kept getting these errors. It wasn't the evil Blue Screen of Death, but a black screen would just pop up saying there is some kind of a paging file error with srescan.sys (which is one of the ZoneAlarm program files). It told me to restart my computer. After this error occurred twice, I figured it wasn't worth my time or my computer's resources to be running ZoneAlarm if this was going to keep happening. You install it and run it. I suggest you go and access all the programs that has to access the Internet on a regular basis (ISP, anti-virus/spyware program updates, messengers, browsers, etc.) so that you can select the option to allow these programs access to the Internet when the message, "This program is trying to access the Internet. Allow or Deny?" pops up. Since you have all these guests coming, I suggest that you also create a Guest account for them to log into. It doesn't allow them so many rights, which means they won't be able to mess with your computer so much! (But still, download anti-virus and anti-spyware programs along with a firewall - you'll need regular scans to keep all the evils out.) Serena

I hide all my desktop icons. It's not because I have too many of them; in fact, when I unhide them, I only have about three or four icons. I always have all my files organized in an endless array of folders elsewhere, because I like to have a clean desktop. I like seeing my desktop clean and devoid of all items, except for Rainlender (which I seem to be depending more and more on to keep tabs on everything I have to do). Then again, I like organization and minimalistic stuff, so maybe that explains it. ^^As for the CTRL+Z thing, it won't work if you accidentally emptied your Recycle Bin! All your icons will be lost!Serena

Okay, so I'm not too ticked off about this - after all, I'm still contributing to the community - but I'd like to know whether this is a bug and, if it is, whether it's going to last. I made a post in the Signature Design forum, and there was no increase in points. The topic wasn't deleted, I didn't spam, plagiarize, etc. So, is this just some random bug I encountered? I've heard the point system sometimes is slow in catching up and needs time to return things to "normal." Serena

First of all, I'd just like to say that you've done a good job on these. Since I don't even know how to make sigs like the ones you've made, I shouldn't be the one to complain, but since you asked for a critique...I have to agree with saint-michael - the text really needs some work. They need to be blended into the background. For the first, second, third, and sixth ones, I find that the text does not contrast enough with the background. It makes it hard to read, especially with the fancy text. Make sure you have a good contrast between your text and background, or else it would be pointless to even /have/ text in your sig! For the fourth and seventh ones, just make sure you do more work on the text. At the moment, the text looks like they were added in MS Paint (that's how I worked back when I still didn't know how to use the GIMP! XD).The first sig needs some work on the animation. The blurs on the blood (it /is/ blood, right?) look really odd and the animation is quite choppy. If you want to add blood, look for some blood brushes on deviantART - they have quite a lot of them, last I checked.The third sig's bullet holes - more work on the gradients/colouring is needed! While I do know they are bullet holes, they also look like...well, spheres with little lighting from underneath.Generally, the graphics aren't too bad, but as saint-michael said, you have to blend them into the background more!I suggest you surf around, read tutorials, go to deviantART and get the brushes you need, and visit sites like dafont.com and wantedfonts.com to download fonts. Have fun making sigs!Serena

@Mark420: I don't have a screenshot of when the problem occurred, but here's a screenshot of a /normal/ connection, if that helps. Last time when the problem occurred, it was trying to connect to leafbunk.astahost.com. @yordan: Yep, I connect using ftp.yourname.astahost.com. @pyost: I didn't know that. When I encounter this problem next time, I'll try that. =) Thanks. Serena

Okay, I don't know whether this has happened to anyone else before, but this is the second time for me. When I try to connect to my FTP account, it usually connects correctly, except for those few times when my firewall tells me that my FTP program is trying to connect to an FTP account of a different Xisto-hosted site. (Naturally, I don't even want to let that through my firewall, as it's not my site in the first place.)This is just odd as I did not make any changes whatsoever to my FTP settings, so there is no reason for it to suddenly "feel" like connecting to another site for a while. (It switched back the next day to connecting to my site the first time, so I'm assuming it'll do the same this time.)While I can manage with cPanel's File Manager for a day, I just want to know why this is happening. It really can be an inconvenience at times.Serena

Then all the users would have to pay more, as they're literally buying all the versions. Some probably don't need Vista Ultimate though, so they would be wasting their money. Whoa. That's annoying. =O Didn't know they did that too. They're probably just waiting for everyone to get Vista Home, install programs, and realize that half the programs can't be installed. Then they're going to rake in all the money from the upgrades. Sneaky. XD Ah, so after hearing from everyone, I'm going to get Vista Ultimate if I ever get Vista. I don't want to be stuck with some second-rate OS and pay for upgrades. It's just not worth it. But I'm pretty happy with XP for the moment. =D I can make it look cool without Vista. XDD Serena

Oh gosh. XD The amount of time I spend working on the computer varies. Right now, I have classes that require me to do a lot of word processing, so I spend at least two hours. Then there's also the time when I do volunteer work, which usually takes a lot longer, as I become so engrossed in it I completely lose track of time. Most of the time when I'm at the computer, however, are spent for entertainment - blogs, deviantART, looking for new apps to play with, here. =) I spend a lot of time on web designs and graphics, because I have a perfectionist attitude that doesn't let me leave a project until it looks perfect. It's really horrible sometimes. (You should see me in art class! I'm always the last person to finish because of this.) Hey! That's true for me a lot of the time too! I just can't tear myself away, whether I'm working or playing. XD My parents almost threaten to cut off my Internet access because of all the time I spend online. Serena

I used to play Runescape (I still log in from time to time, to relive the good old days XD). It got too boring when I reached level 50-something to raise all my stats. XD I lost patience for it by then, but I used to play it fanatically; I'd come home from school, and then login to Runescape. I'm happy I've gotten out of that trance.Before that, I played Kings of Chaos (KoC) and AdventureQuest (AQ). I find that AQ is even worse than Runescape, as they just have a 2D interface and the characters don't walk anywhere or do anything other than hold weapons/cast spells. KoC takes work, but it's more fun. Basically, you have an army (you can join alliances too) and you can use it to fight other armies (controlled by other users). You can attack to take their gold, which you can use to buy more weapons, mercs, etc. However, you have to log in just about everyday to keep your amount of gold to a low level so that other users won't attack you (they can see the amount of gold you have if their spies are good enough).*cough* To summarize that, I now don't like many MMORPGs anymore. XDIf you want to play text adventures, you can always check out the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or something. XD Or, on Windows Live (once upon a time known as MSN) Messenger, add textadventurebot@hotmail.com. It's a bot that lets you play text adventures with it! They're quite hard, but they give you maps and stuff. =DSerena