brcmville

I have to admit that gaining "somekind" of immunity to the dangers of smoking if you expiremented with them a little bit when you are young sounds a little bit far fetched, but I guess that its reasonable to believe. The human body is wonderous thing and can adapt to many enviornments very well. When a substance enters the body that it does not like, it will learn to like it! (Consider alchohol for an example) But there is no such thing as an immunity to cigarettes or smoking rather, and the small immunities that may have been developed from expiremental use are in no way reasons to smoke (I know your not saying that, but I had to mention it) I have heard that smoking also increases the chance of a person getting sick by reducing the effectiveness of their bodies immune system, so it's never a good idea to light up. You need to quit drinking beer!

Simply Amazing! I was just about to post and ask "how soon" would it be until the update is made and to my surprise, it had been done already! I've been checking my cpanel to see if the update has been made for a couple days now and I have to admit, I was getting a little impatient. Finally it has come! Thanks for the update! I can see myself with Xisto for a very long time!

I can't believe this topic has gone for four pages and noone has mentioned Spyware Doctor! The security combo that I use is Zone Alarm Pro with Anti-Spyware, Spyware Doctor, and AVG Free Anti-Virus. In the last year of surfing the internet, my computer has been 100% up to speed and the only problems I ever have are unrelated to the internet. Believe me when I say this; my computer has visited some pretty bad sites and there has been no impact on my system at all! A neat feature that Spyware Doctor has, if you have the paid version of course , is the On Gaird protection. As listed on the program, this feature includes: Cookie Gaurd Startup Gaurd Exploit Gaurd Browser Gaurd IM Gaurd Immunizer Keylogger Gaurd Network Gaurd Popup-Blocker Process Gaurd Site Blocker With On Gaurd enabled, there is real-time protection and my system has been protected well I seriously recommend Spyware Doctor - it has worked for me! http://www.pctools.com/norton-offer/pctEOL/

I am still in highschool and it irks me that so many people do smoke. My school has taught the students very well about the consequences that smoking has and what happens to your body but very few take it seriously. I used to mess around with cigaretts when I was 13 and there was nothing like kiding behind the fence near our neighborhood basketball court and lighting up a smoke. There was some sort of thrill from doing it, and maybe that is why so many kids do it. I haven't touched a cigarette for over two years now and its amazing to think that I was like some of those kids who get on the bus and stink of smoke and don't know it. That is also another thing that may encourage smoking among everyone. When you do smoke, you do not notice the odor that you give off and usually think that it goes away with a simple stick of gun and shot of axe, but that doesn't help. My parent's smoke out in our garage and when I go out there while they are there, sometimes I come back in the house and my hair smells like smoke. That is how bad it is

This is amazing! 500 mb and 10gb of bandwidth is so much more then I had expected to ever get from a host as good as this for free! Thanks for the amazingly generous increase in space! I was getting worried when I had less then 100 mb of space left and now it will be much more then that ;)Thanks Xisto!

Well Quatrux, I agree that quitting smoking does not mean that the cash will get saved, and It usually doesn't. But if we were to look at this from a financial point of view, saving the extra money would be the best thing to do if you stopped smoking without spending any money on lets say nicotine patches or smokeless tabacco. I am still living at home with my parents and from my own personal expirience, that 140$ a month, ~210$ a month from my mom and dad both smoking sets us back just enough to where if the gas bill hikes up one cold month, we are digging into the credit cards and or bank accounts that are already growing cobwebs. The real purpose behind my post was to shed some light on what you could do with money saved from bad habits, and useless purchases. If you take a look at any MSN money article, almost 9/10 times you will see refrences to Wants and Needs, and the difference between them.When you sat 1-100$ a month is not that much money, I disagree because in 1 year, you would have $12-1,200 that you could invest in stocks or something which would bring in even more money. One lesson that I did not get to mention that I learned last semester was that one way to get rich, if you choose to do so, is have your money work for you. Enough money in a fund that draws intrest will generate even more money and at one point in time, you can live off of intrest alone. There are so many more things that I want to mention but I lack the solid information to do so ;)livingston, I hate smokers too, but I love my parents. Sadly, most smokers do not have the willpower to stop with no strings attached and end up wasting away their lives and their kids lives if they are irresponsible with their already deadly habit. (Smoking in the house is a BAD THING! :S) I am sorry for your friends father though, regardless to the fact that it was his fault that he got sick. As said by Quatrux in the last post, most smokers want to quit but they simply cannot do it.I am glad that this topic has gone further then just boring money talk! Please keep the discussion comin!

Why do people play games? Simply to entertain themselves! When *person* sapiens sapiens began to populate the planet, and the power of knowlege allowed for people to have free time that would otherwise be spent gathering food or finding shelter for the night, I assume that many of them played some sort of game to pass that time. The majority of people that play games now say they do it to blow off some extra time, and that is probably why they are playing in the first place, but in today's society with computer gaming, that is not why they continue playing. Those are two different things, and I will explain what I mean by that.As I said above, extra time is why most people play games, but the reason they continue to play is what we should really bge asking. There is no physical addiction to gaming but many people claim to be addicted to games. I also believe that I have been addicted to a game before. What happens, in my opinion, is that we get so engrossed in a game and enjoy it so much that we want to keep doing it over and over again. I guess you could say it is a mental addiction. Some nights after long hours of gamings, I would dream that I was actually playing the game. If that is not a mental addiction, then I do not know what is ;)In short, people play games to pass time and by doing so, they get caught up in a mental addiction that keeps them coming back for more and more. I cannot wait to see what the future has in store for us!

Last semester I was lucky enough to come across one of those teachers that knows what you want to learn and has the perfect approach to teaching it to you. Have you ever had that expirience? It is simply awesome. Anyways, lets get down to buisness. As an assignment in this class I took, we were supposed to calculate how much money a person who smokes 1 pack of cigaretts a day would save if they quit smoking and invested their money into a fund with a 9% intrest rate. First thing we had to do was calculate how much a pack of smokes would cost on average, and where I live it is about 5$ USD. So, 5 dollars a day for a week is 35$ USD (5x7=35). There are 4 weeks in a month so 35$ x 4 = 140$ a month. So, spending that 140 dollars a week on a pointless habit is costing you more then your life, but alot of money as well. If we invest 140$ a month for 10 years, with a 9% intrest, here is what you could expect to make: (Assuming that the money is not taxed) Total Saved after year 1: $1,748 Total deposits: $1,680 Total interest earned: $68 Total Saved: $1,748 Total Saved after year 2: $3,654 Total deposits: $3,360 Total interest earned: $294 USD Total Saved after year 5: $10,463 Total deposits: $8,400 Total interest earned: $2,063 USD Total Saved after year 10: $26,561 Total deposits: $16,800 Total interest earned: $9,761 USD As you can see, saving that small amount of money monthly will give you a very nice fund after 10 years that could go towards a childs college, a family vacation, a new car or anything else that you can think of. After 10 years, if you keep saving, the amount of money you are saving increases due to intrest, which means that in 40 years, this sum will be much larger ($590,693!). I am not a financial expert but this information is all correct. A tool that I used in the making of this was MSN Savings Calculator. If you found this interesting, thats great. If not, well, thanks for reading!

I am very new to these forums, as of last night I had just joined. The fact that the hosting provided did not require ads was a big part of why I decided to give Xisto a shot, and since the forums do not have any ads either, I am very satisfied. I have never been a fan of ads, even the funny or interesting ones. They just drive me crazy and prevent me from enjoying the website that I am on. As many people have said here already though, small google ads that blend in with the page are not all that bad and if they help support ad-free free hosting, I wouldn't mind them. The large banner ads are what cause all of the problems and distract me and other people from the real content of a website.Thanks for the removing of the ads though. I was not here to see them but now that I am, its a pleasure not having to deal with them.

My logitech laser mouse with two buttons and a wheel has lasted as long as my computer has, which is saying quite a bit. MY computer is used most of the time on games that require heavy mouse movement, and occasionaly after a devastating loss, it gets pounded or thrown around a bit. I don't know much about other mice but I have used a Microsoft mouse and they are nice but not as sleek and smooth. The best mouse brand has to be logitech. They are even pretty cheap as well, which for me is a big + considering it works just as well as an expensive mouse without the price tag.

The first thing they taught me in driver's education was to be alert to all things in a vehicle (just like a bicycle). Listening to music on a bike is just as dangerous as in a car because in most cases, you are not relying on your ears, but rather your eyes. With the invention of the MP3 Players however, listening to music on a bike is just as nice as in a car. Between a car and a bike, the best form of overall transportation is the car, and there is no disputing that. My choice between the two would be the car for that very reason. If I could ride a bicycle to work everyday, I would. Unfoutunately, the bike has many limitations, such as roads with high speed limits and no sidewalks. You cannot ride a bike along many roads where I live. Another limitation is weather. Rain is a bicyclists worst nightmare. When it rains around here, it pours. Then you have snow. If there is a foot of snow on the ground, riding a bike is not going to do you any good. You do not have a heater and peddling through snow is almost impossible.I would choose a car over a bicycle any day but there are more health benefits from the bike. I don't think I need to go into those I choose the car.

I can't believe that noone has mentioned (or I didn't see them mention) Punch-Out! If you ever had a NES (Nintendo Entertainment System), you should know this game! You begin as a new boxer fighting a guy named Glass Joe, who is extremely easy to beat. After that guy you fight characters like Von Kaiser, Piston Honda, King Hippo, Don Flamenco, Great Tiger. Bald Bull, Mr. Sandman, Soda Popinski, Super Macho Man and finally Mike Tyson. The most memorable part of Punchout would probably be when you are fighting King Hippo and you need to hit him in the belly button and he makes that funny face. If anyone would like to look at a pretty decent fan site, you can Click Here. Anther NES game that I did not see mentioned was Allstars Baseball, or Baseball Allstars. I can't remember the name but that was an awesome game as well.

I hate to drag up old topics to post in but I don't think it would be necesarry to create an entirely new thread for KOC. I started playing Kings of Chaos in 2002 I believe and it was a very popular game at the time. The first race I chose was Orcs and I chose them because they sounded so cool and their shield was all mashed up for fights. In 2002 I was 13 years old, so maybe that explains why I chose them for those reasons Anyways, after playing the game for about 2 weeks, I had 20 soldiers and that was ALOT of soldiers for me. I had clicked my personal link everday and had some friends drop by and click it as well. At the time, I don't remember sabotage being implemented yet, but I still remember getting death threats from other members after I attacked them for all of their gold ;)After about a month, KOC got very, very, very old and boring. I quit the game and came back in the beginning of age 3. This age was much different. I had discovered a clickmaster, which at the time was one of the biggest ways of getting soldiers in Kings of Chaos. I got up to 200 soldiers within weeks. As luck would have it, I met a guy who was starting a clan and we ended up being co-leaders. We came up with the name Hordes of Terror (HOT) and the next age we were very strong, considering we both went from armies of 300 soldiers to 5000 in just one age. After that though, I quit the game again and went to something else for a year or two.When I came back for a third go at Kings of Chaos, I was prepared and I had some friends who were doing VERY well in the game. As soon as the age started , I got hooked up to the Phoenix Rising recruiter which allowed me to get over 1000 men a day (by clicking 1000 other peoples links and having them click mine back.) I did this for over a month and by the time I got bored with the game, I had over 85,000 troops (Nearly half came from officer accounts, which give you 1 soldier every 2 clicks on their recruit link.) That was the first time I ever went over 1 billion in a single stat, and by the end of the age, I had 8 billion strike action.Kings of Chaos is a very good game for younger players but lately it has become very inactive on the admins part. The updates are minimal and the game just is not keeping up with other Text based RPG games. I Do not think that the game will last too much longer. Maybe a year at most. If anyone is interested in the game, A big hint would be to get on some form of recruiter or clicklist as soon as you start so that the game is much easier for you.If you are interested in playing a game thats more up to date then Kings of Chaos, check out http://www.mediwar.com/ The ages are month long instead of 1 year and everything is open for change, as long as the players support it!

Invision Power Board has always been my favorite, but I have always held a special place in my heart for the way Vbulletin arranges the posts, with the names and avatar above the post. Whenever I looked for an IPB template, that was the feature I would look for. Vbulletin's default layout is far better then IPB's, but if we are discussing power and ease of use, then IPB wins without a doubt. Just recently I was able to use an IPB 2.1.6 and this was after a long break from forums in general and the last IPB board I had used was 2.0.0 or something. At first, I was overwhelmed but within minutes I had my bearings and I was setting up the forums like it was a piece of cake. The new addition of the Management, Look & Feel, Tools & Settings, Components and Admin buttons at the top of the ACP threw me off. Moding IPB boards is very simply too. The way the code is layed out allows for easy editing. I cannot say for sure if Vbulletin is the same way because I have never gotten further than the ACP on a Vbulletin board.I guess to be fair however, the most powerful, but yet the most flexible board would be vbulletin (to me). I have seen more boards that have been morphed into what look like websites but are forums using Vbulletin software then IPB.

Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 was a very big let-down for me. I was installing it thinking that I would be addicted to this game for the next 30 years and when I loaded up my first themepark in sandbox mode, I got lost. The game was nothing like I remembered it being. Roller Coaster tycoon 2 was awesome. I loved the little lawn mowing janitors that ran around cleaning puke up around my roller coasters, but with this new game, I just didn't get that thrill. Of course, I could still have janitors that cleaned up puke but it was not the same.One major positive with roller coaster tycoon 3 is the ability to take a ride on your own roller coaster, and what makes it even better is taking a ride on a sabotaged rollercoaster and riding it into the ground. Thats a trip ;)And the fireworks. I have no idea how it helps my theme park but they are very cool. I designed a firework show that lasted a little bit over 50 seconds and it took me 3 hours. If you have ever used Fruity Loops Studio, its basically the same system, but built for less intelligent people.Overall, I think the gameplay is no better then # 2. I would give rct3 a 6/10 just for keeping all of the features from #2 and just building off of them. Sandbox mode was a real let-down too. Unlimited cash for a park is no fun. Where is the challenge?

If you have not tried Age of Kings: The Conquerors Expansion (AOE 2), you have missed out on alot of what RTS gaming is about. June of 2006 however, the MSN gaming zone discontinued online matchmaking for AOE 2 so a secondary site picked it up. If you ever want to play it online, just visit http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/. There are about 1000 players on daily and there has been some good measures taken against online hacking/cheating. The point of the catipult in AOE 1 was to act as a siege unit that had the power to destroy the towers. In Age of Empires 2, things are much different and the catapults know not to attack near your own soldiers and there are now trebuchets that can take down the towers.

I have to disagree with the origional post in this thread. The Sims 2 is very different from the origional Sims. If you were to consider just the menu that you have at the bottom of the screen, you would realize that they are nothing alike. I am quite sure that there was some serious coding involved in creating the new and improved menu/control panel. Multiple stories also couldn't have been an easy addition to the game and adding it was probably inspired by feedback from Sims 1 gamers. I am all for sequels when the crowd really wants them. If we didn't have sequels, say goodbye to Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, unless of course your only considering computer games. I won't even begin on that one ;)So lets see. My review of the Sims 2 is considerably higher then most peoples because of my facisnation with the ability to go through many generations of sims. They are born, they grow up, and then they die, but not before having kids who will repeat the same cycle all over again. I have to admit that I don't really play the game much anymore but my sisters and my mother do and when I walk by, its always a laugh to see them fighting to control 8 different sims, while the 2 teenagers are putting food in the over and going to sleep, leading to an inevitable fire, Or maybe when the two younger children don't get on the bus because noone woke them up to go to school. Thats just too good for 7 or even 8 out of 10.I rate the Sims 2 a 9.5/10. It is a great game. I can only look forward to getting the countless expansion packs to go with it.

There seems to be many videos of this type floating around now days. Just yesterday I watched some kids microwave an Apple Ipod Nano. Now today I am seeing Windows Vista get shredded. Come on people! I would love to have that nano and that windows vista disk! There some serious wasting of cash going on and I am almost to tears because of it!. On a less personal note though, windows vista is not bad at all. I do not have it yet but I will soon and thats for sure. I tried it out at a local store and its very nice. My computer, unlike this man's can run it without compatability issues.Tsk tsk to those who will not upgrade because of the security Way to halt our progression to a perfect world.

Nothing will ever catch up to google. You do not need to worry about that now! I am interested in this new addition to Wikipedia, but I caution those who use it as a source for school work. I have been through many classes lately where the teachers make it a point to tell us not to use wikipedia because of the ability other people have to edit the information. Personally, I use it anyways though because if you are smart, you can just read through it a little bit and the scroll to the bottom of a page and click the resource links. I have found that most of the information is correct but there is always that chance that you are researching someones opinion rather then historical fact. Now if only Uncyclopedia would make a search engine. If that ever happened, well - that might be googles downfall!