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I've got the same complaint with Opera that m^e does. People claim that Opera is the fastest browser. Well, I haven't noticed anything of the kind with my Opera install. Opera may be loading slightly faster than Firefox does (I can't really tell, though, as I don't clock it), but the difference is negligible. As for speed in rendering web pages... I don't see the difference either. Opera is touted as "The Fastest Browser on Earth". But what does it matter if the speed difference is only a few seconds? Speed isn't everything, and it's certainly not enough to be a selling point for me. When it comes to browsers, I used to abide by Firefox. I still do even though, as my sig states, I use the Flock web browser. Flock is based around the Mozilla source code, anyway, so in a sense it's just as if I'm still using Firefox. Why I use Flock instead of Firefox itself is because Flock's whole approach to web browsing fits my needs perfectly. If you're not into the whole social browsing scene as I am, then you're better off sticking with Firefox. After all, there's a reason why it's ranked number two in browser market shares statistics. =^^=

I gotta admit, Pictiger looks neat. It's got the best of ImageShack and Photobucket combined: 1MB filesize limit, photo management through albums, transloading, and unlimited hosting. They even allow upload of swf files and offer basic image editing to registered users! Nice. It's still fairly new, though, and not as established as the other two image hosting services. Right now they're offering unlimited bandwidth... how will they do when they gain popularity and their bandwidth usage spikes? Also, they also say that while the uploaded images stay hosted for life, if the image is not active (does not have any page views) for 3 months, it will be deleted. Still, even with all that, the service looks attractive. Though I'm a dedicated ImageShack user, I'll definitely be trying Pictiger out. =^^= Now if only I could get the ImageBot Firefox extension to work with Pictiger...

While I do have a Photobucket account, I use the service only rarely. The reason is because I don't like the file size limit they have for free account. 512 KB is too small, especially as the images I upload are mostly screenshots. Photobucket does have a nice file managing system through their use of albums, though, so I use it for everything else. My number one choice of image host is ImageShack. They have a much better file size limit (1024KB), have unlimited hosting space even for free accounts, and a bandwidth of 100MB of transfer per hour for each image. Photobucket, by contrast, has 50MB hosting space and 2,500MB/month bandwidth (for the entire account). The one thing that Photobucket free accounts have that ImageShack doesn't is album management.

The best thing for designing either a web site or graphics is that little gray matter that sits between your ears. Yep, the brain. =^^= The creation process starts with inspiration—once you have that, you've got it made, regardless of what software you use. When it comes to design, technicality rarely matters. It's a common complaint of my brother that teachers nowadays focus more on the technicalities of website development (e.g. HTML tags, web scripts, etc.) and neglect helping their students develop aesthetics, and I agree. So if you plan to design a website, then first plan out what you want to do, especially if you're making everything scratch instead of using a template. Do what I do, make a storyboard. Write or draw out what you want to do with your website then, when you have a general idea of how the finished product will be like, start coding. None of this answers your question, of course, but I'll get to that. Those things just had to be said, and now that that's out of the way, here's what you were looking for: HTML Editors There are two kinds of HTML editors available: text-based and WYSIWYG. Text-based editors are those that require handcoding—meaning that all HTML tags and scripts must be typed by the user. Those who want to use a text-based editor must have a good knowledge of HTML tags and syntax. Notepad, the default text editor which comes with most version of the Windows OS, is an example of a text-based editor (BTW, I don't recommend using it as it has no rendering styles, meaning that things can get confusing if your HTML code gets too long). WYSIWYG stands for What You See Is What You Get. It is a word used to describe a system in which content during editing appears very similar to the final product. MS Word is an example of a WYSIWYG editor—when you type in bold, the final result is also bold (BTW, though MS Word can also be used as an HTML editor, I very strongly recommend that you NOT use it, as it adds a lot of useless code to the HTML file). Below is a list of HTML editors, both text-based and WYSIWYG. Text-based editors Notepad++ (freeware) features: syntax highlighting, syntax folding CSE HTML Validator Lite (freeware) features: syntax highlighting, syntax checking, HTML validation HTML-Kit (freeware) (recommended) features: syntax highlighting, syntax checking, HTML validation, active preview, built-in FTP workspace WYSIWYG editors Microsoft Frontpage (commercial) Macromedia Dreamweaver (commercial) Nvu (freeware) (recommended) Graphics Editors There are three types of graphics: raster graphics, vector graphics, and animations. Usually, different software are used to create raster and vector images, with some exceptions. Animations can be either rasters or vectors and are handled with a special program that puts together multiple layers or images to create the illusion of movement. Raster graphics software Adobe Photoshop (commercial) (recommended) Paint Shop Pro (commercial) Paint.Net (freeware) PhotoPlus (freeware) GIMP (freeware) (recommended) Vector graphics software Adobe Illustrator (commercial) (recommended) CorelDRAW (commercial) Inkscape (freeware) DrawPlus (freeware) Animation graphis software Adobe ImageReady (commercial) (recommended) notes: bundled with Adobe Photoshop Animation Shop (commercial) GIMP Animation Package (freeware) (recommended) notes: a plugin for GIMP That's all for now; I'm rather tired after that post. Hope this helps! =^^=

And that's probably why word of YubNub hasn't spread far. YubNub, not being a commercial site, relies almost entirely on word-of-mouth advertising. The fact that this web tool appeals only to a limited audience prevents it from gaining instant celebrity status (although to web programmers, especially those from the Ruby on Rails community, YubNub is a celebrity). What's interesting is that of the top three winners of the Rails Day 2005 24-hour programming contest, only YubNub (the 2nd placer) prospered as a web tool. Sheets, which won first place, has a demo that's inaccessible, and 3rd place winner Fichebowl's website returns a 500-error page. BTW, thanks m^e for those commands, they made searching Xisto and Xisto much easier for me, especially since I can now search both Asta and Trap at the same time using the 'mash' command, or run several searches at once. Much better than using Asta or Trap's search box (although this site's search flood control does limit the number of multiple searches you can do at a time). =^^= For those wondering what I'm talking about, here's an example. To search for threads about operating systems in both Xisto and Xisto, type: ????mash operating-systems astah trap Or to run multiple searches in Xisto for operating systems and browsers, type: ????multi astah operating-systems browser Remember to join multiple-word searches with a dash (-), otherwise YubNub will read the second word as a command. Also, both Xisto and Xisto implements a search frood control, which means you will only be able to run up to two simultaneos searches at a time. The more I get into YubNub, the more I like about it. The concept behind it is so mind-bogglingly simple, yet the execution was pure genius. By itself, YubNub is practically nothing, but there are an entire host of web services out there, and when YubNub is integrated with them, it becomes a powerhouse. There's quite a lot that can be done with it, and even after several weeks, I'm only scratching the surface. =^^= Making commands looks like fun, though I only created oneâand recently at that. The command I created is the flockd, which is for those who use the Flock browser. What it does is use the Flock'd Online Converter to convert a Firefox extension and make it compatible with Flock. A simple command, really. =^^=

I'm sorry to sound so short, but did you even read the article? Because YubNub does not use Google to makes is searches. Google, Yahoo, Answers.com, Wikipedia, blah blah blah. Even your e-mail, in fact. YubNub accesses practically every kind of web service on the Web as long as the service it's trying to access has a submit form and has a YubNub command for it. If no command for a certain web service exists, then anybody can create a new command for it. YubNub is versatile. It's a command line, not a search engine, and it comes with several powerful tools that are unique to YubNub. You can string together different or related commands using such commands as the recently created 'mash' and 'multi' commands, to powerful effect. You can use YubNub to retrieve stock quotes, convert currency, strip the RSS feed from a site, generate the source HTML or PHP code of any webpage, pull up programming reference pages... there's practically nothing that YubNub cannot be made to do. No, it's not a simple search engine. If you think it is, I advise you to take a look at it again. =^^= to m^e: It loads a blank site for you? Seems to work fine for me. Are you under any browser or firewall restriction, perhaps? Okay, I just found out that the server that YubNub was on had to be rebooted due to an error, which accounts for why m^e got only a blank page. Well, everything's up now and working fine, so anyone who's interested can go check it out. =^^= About the coding behind YubNub, Jon hasn't made it open source yet but he did indicate that that would definitely come along in the future. Why he didn't make it open source in the first place may be because of security concerns, but at least there are definite plans of releasing the source to the public in the future. One thing that intrigues about YubNub is the programming system used. According to its creator, it was designed using Ruby on Rails, an open-source web framework for database-backed web applications. The Rails framework certainly looks elegant, and I can't help but wonder just what else can be done with. Definitely something worth looking into. Going off on a tangent here, but is there anyone iinterested in writing a YubNub command for Xisto and Xisto? If there is, then you might want to check out YubNub's advanced syntax for creating commands. =^^=

I wonder why nobody has posted about this yet, but anyway... Take a look at this funky logo: That funny little logo you're looking at belongs to YubNub (obviously enough), the strangely-named brainchild of Canadian programmer Jon Aquino. Weird as the name might sound, YubNub may very well prove to be one of the most important web apps to be developed in 2005âand to think it was a submission for a 24-hour programming contest! It's not often that you see an idea that's unique, simple, and innovative all at the same time. It's only been a couple of weeks since I've bumped into it (completely by accident, too!), but since then I've been YubNub-ing like mad. It's fun and it's addictive... and it's also immensely useful. But first, let's answer the question of just what YubNub is. To quote Jon: One interesting thing about searching through YubNub is that you can do split-screen searches. For example, typing "gimyim porsche 911" searches both Google Images and Yahoo! Images for pictures of Porsche 911 sports cars, which comes to your browser in a split-screen like in the screenshot below (click on the thumbnail to see the full-sized image). Split-screens can be fun, and it's not just limited to the 'gimyim' command. The 'split', 'splitv', and 'splith' commands split the screen in different ways. Here are some examples that uses the various split-screen commands to show Xisto, Xisto, and Xisto - Web Hosting websites all at the same time: split, splitv, splith. Sounds pretty straightforward enough. But YubNub is more that just a super-powered searching tool. Since YubNub can interact with any existing web service as long as it has a submit form, it's highly extensible. You can do some really interesting things with YubNub. Just take a look at the most used commands. For a list of the choicest YubNub commands, check out Jeremy's Picks or the YubNub Golden Eggs. While you can of course use YubNub like any other website, doing it that may not be what you want. So I suggest that you visit their guide on how to install YubNub. I recommend the search plugin because of its simplicity. If you want to go the toolbar route, you can try out the RubNub for YubNub toolbar. Sorry, it's for Firefox users only, but folks who use the Flock browser can convert the RubNub toolbar to make it compatible for Flock by using the Flock'd Online Converter. So where is YubNub heading in the future? Perhaps only Jon knows. But if you're curious, then go have a look at the official YubNub blog for a glimpse of things to come. And now you know all about YubNub. So what are you waiting for? Throw out those old search plugins and start YubNub-ing! =^^=

While I admit that NS8 had some pretty nifty features, I'm afraid I found it to be rather bloated. There were a lot of stuff there that I didn't need, and I don't think the average user does either. Also, I didn't like the layout. Maybe AOL is trying to diverge from the whole IE-inspired look that most browsers use, but what they did with NS8 just looks awkward. Why the heck did they put the search box to the left of the address bar anyway? It confused the heck out of me during the first time I used it, and even after I got used to it a while later, it still bugged the heck out me. The added security is good, of course, but it just isn't enough to redeem the whole package. Being able to toggle between Firefox and IE views would have been great, except that I kept having problems with it. I don't know if it's just me, but sometimes when I open a new tab, it views pages like IE even if I've got NS8 set to render in Firefox view by default. I had to hit the toggle switch again and wait for the page to reload just so it would render the page with the layout engine that I wanted. There's a comment on the linked download page in the first post that describes what could be a major issue. Apparently NS8 forces a restart of your PC upon installation without any warning. I can't verify that as I didn't install the NS8 I used, but if that's true, then it's going to piss a lot of people off. Can anyone here verify that accusation?

Semi-update: Well, I still haven't had the time to test out the RM converters I've got. In any case, I've found another media converter that might be interesting. eRightSoft has a freeware app called SUPER (short for Simplified Universal Player Encoder & Renderer) which apparently is capable of converting a wide variety of media formats. I haven't had the chance to try it myself yet, but the screenshot does look slick. Here's the link to their website.

The thing about backups is that no backup is ever 100% safe and secure. I've known people who used just one backup method only to regret it at a later time. You never know what's going to happen to your CDs or HDDs after a few years (or even months).What I'd suggest is that when you backup, go for a mixed media. Like the others have mentioned, you'll need to decide whether to go for portability or just plain data storage. I tend to make backups of my backups, and I store my stuff depending on what's needed. The files and apps that normally just sit there for months or years gathering dust I keep in DVDs (because of the greater storage). Those that I use occasionally (but not often) I keep in CD-Roms (more portable than DVDs). And those that I most often use, I keep on a 128K flash drive. It's also a good idea to have at least two backups, stored in different locations. That way, if you ever lose one backup then you'll still have another copy.

Many thanks, T100. I might try EO Video if Boilsoft doesn't pan out. I guess I'll try searching further to fix the sync problem. I did think of extracting the video and audio separately and mixing them, but that seemed like too much work. Well, I'll tinker around a bit and see what turns up.

Well, talk about paranoia. I have to admit, though, that I had fun reading the Google-Watch website. There's just something about conspiracy theorists that make me want to laugh. Maybe it's the way they scrape the bottom of the intellectual barrel trying to prove their theories. =^^=

Heya! I'm looking for software to convert RMVB files to either MPEG or VCD format. Preferably freeware, but any functional shareware would do. I've already found a couple (such as Boilsoft's RM converter), but they can't seem to get the job done. Using Boilsoft's converter, for example, there's audio but no video after conversion. I'd really appreciate any help or info you could give. Thanks! =^^=Oh, and Happy New Year! =^^=

"Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus." When I was very young, I believed in a Santa that rode around in a sleigh pulled by reindeer, who gives gifts to good little boys everywhere. I'm older now, but I still believe in Santa Claus. Not in the way I did as a child, but in a way that seems to me to be even more profound. Who says Santa Claus isn't real? To me, he is as real as I am. Just a few hours ago a wrote this post in another forum about my family's Christmas tradition and what Santa means to me. I would like to quote a section of that post. And that's that. The rest of the original post was about what presents I've received (and those that I bought for myself), which I don't think is in line with this thread's topic. Happy holidays, everyone!

Not exactly a new thing, but funny all the same. I had a good laugh. =^^= The letter you posted, while true, isn't exactly accurate. The actual letter differs slightly from the one in this version, but is still basically the same. If anyone wants to see just what exactly these two letters were about, here's the whole situation according to Snopes.com.

Funny how you all received this thing so late. I got mine last 2004. =^^= I admit that I got a bit worried about it, so I e-mailed Yahoo! customer care for clarifications. The reply I got had a lot of copy-pasted material from their knowledge base, but it basically runs down to this: "The emails are scams." Well, duh! The reply I got also had a little info about these kinds of suspicious emails. To see what it's about, check out this article in Yahoo's knowledge base. The information may be a little outdated considering that this all started back in '04, but it's still relevant. And in case you've received similar e-mails and are starting to panic, I'd like to quote a piece from the aforementioned article: Simple common sense. =^^=

I just love posts like these! They're really good pick-me-ups. =^^= All nice features, I'll grant you, but not unique. I've just recently tried Opera 8 just to see if they've made any improvements since the last time I used their browser and I'm glad to see that they've gotten rid of the ads that used to come with their free browser. I don't deny that Opera is a really nifty browser, but so is Netscape 8. I like both, but without the virtually unlimited expandability that extensions give Firefox, I'm afraid both Opera and NS8 won't be my browser of choice. For that same reason, the upcoming IE7 doesn't appeal to me (and that's not even taking into account the numerous restriction Microsoft's putting on its use). Still, like I said before, it all comes down to preference. There's no such thing as the perfect browser, which is why I still keep alternative browsers on my system. I've no objection to using Opera or Netscape (or even IE *shudder*) for simple browsing. =^^= On the topic of web browsers, Wikipedia has an article comparing the different web browsers available, from the popular to the relatively unknown. I've found it to be an intriguing and useful article as it compares the release history, operating system support, browser features, accessibility features, web technology support, protocol support, image format support, internationalization, and vulnerabilities of more than 20 web browsers. It is interesting to note that based on the article, Mozilla Firefox has the widest web technology support. =^^=

Firefox did revive the browser wars, didn't it? Personally, I'm a Firefox fan. Not a fanatic, though ? let's make that clear ? but a fan. And I have reason to be. Security issues aside, without tabbed browsing IE just doesn't work for me. But, to be honest, it's more than the tabbed browsing which wins it for Firefox. In fact, I've tried other browsers with tabs, such as Netscape 8 and Opera, and I've had a look at Maxthon's specs, as well as those of the coming IE7. None of them was as highly customizable as Firefox, though. It all comes down to preference. The choice of which browser to use depends on what you use it for. I use Firefox because of its extensions. With what I have, my Firefox is a combined web browser, web developing tool, chat client, and more. =^^=

Formatting the HDD just to get rid of malware? Ouch! >_< Seems a little extreme, but there have been times in the past when I've had to do that. Even the most careful precautions won't totally save one from malware, I'm afraid. For myself, I try my best to keep my PC clean. I'm not as paranoid as some, but I come close. For one thing I absolutely forbid any sort of file-sharing program to be installed. Those things are like virus motels. ^^ For a browser, I use Mozilla's Firefox with the Adblock, Flashblock, and NoScript extensions. I use a firewall (Microsoft). I also have AVG-Free Antivirus, Spybot S&D, and Lavasoft's Ad-Aware, all which generally do a good job of keeping my system clean. And for the really tough stuff, I use HijackThis (which one shouldn't use unless one knows what their doing!). As a last resort, I always have System Restore. =^^= If there's anything else that all that doesn't catch, then there's always Google. =^^=

You might not need to do something as drastic as reinstalling your OS. First, I'd suggest downloading and running Lavasoft's Ad-Aware SE as moogie suggested. If that doesn't fix the problem (it probably won't, considering everything you've done already, but it's still a good idea), then download HijackThis. As the name implies, it's a program that detects and removes hijacks (among other things). A word of warning, though: HijackThis can be harmful for your system if you don't know what you're doing! The good news is, you don't need to know what you're doing as long as someone else who does is helping you. Now, once you have HijackThis installed, run the program and start a scan. When the scan finishes, save the log and post the results here. Warning: Do not ? I repeat, DO NOT! ? fix anything. You could damage your software or even your OS beyond repair if your remove the wrong thing. Just scan and save the log as instructed. Post the log here and I'll take a look at the results and see if there's anything amiss. Hope that helps! =^^=

I see the flag just fine. If you're still not seeing things, then the problem may be on your end. Hmm... there may be something in your board settings that preventing you from viewing images in these boards. Go to your My Controls area and then to your Board Settings. Make sure the setting that allows you to view images in posts is set to "yes". I'm not really certain that that's the solution, but it's worth a shot. Edit: Fixed typo.

To each their own, I guess. I have a Yahoo! Mail account myself, but I practically never use it (except to check if I've received mail from folks who didn't know I switched to Gmail). While I do admit that Yahoo's 1G inbox space it generally more than enough and that their email account integrates with Yahoo's other features, I can't help but be bugged by all the flash ads on their email screen â not to mention that rather crowded layout. Of course, using and ad-blocker like the AdBlock and Flashblock extensions for Firefox would solve most of those problems, but still... it's the principle of the thing. =^^= Besides, what really wins it for me about Gmail is their conversation thread view. A must-have feature if you do a lot of email convos. And then there's their email search function. Gamerchick, Gmail doesn't serve as an image host, per se. Rather, Gmail integrates with Google's Picasa image organizer/picture sharing/image-editing software. I'm not quite certain on the details as I don't use it myself, but I get the impression that your Gmail acount also doubles as a Picasa account.

First of all, here's the the link to the page where you can add your site's URL to Google. You may have already done this, I don't know, but it's well worth repeating in case you haven't. Still, like Google says on that page, there are no guarantees if or when your page will appear on their searches. Now, on to the real problem. Or at least the more serious one. I did some checking of your HTML code, and there were some very... glaring mistakes there. First of all, you don't have any opening and closing <html>...</html> tags at the beginning and end of your document, as well as some other important tags. When I saw the missing tags, I thought it might have been something on my browser's end (I use Firefox), but it's the same when I view the page in Internet Explorer. It's a wonder that the browser was able to render your page at all! Since your tags are misplaced, your meta tags which would have helped put your webpage in search engines have been rendered useless. I wish I could go more into it, but unfortunately I have very little time remaining to stay online at the time of this writing. So, I would suggest you brush up on your HTML â there are some excellent online tutorials such as can be found on w3schools. Hope this helps! I'll try to get back later if I can to help out more fully. Edit: Just fixed some minor typos â nothing major.

:grins:That's got to be one of the corniest come-on lines I've ever heard. It's also one of the most original. =^^=You know, I think that would have worked on me if I had heard it. I can appreciate a good joke, especially one that required guts. =^^=

For anyone else who may happen to read this thread and are interested in using a PHP editor rather than coding everything in Notepad (or something similar), the website PHP-editors could prove to be a very valuable resource. I'm just getting started with PHP myself, and the site has certainly been a big help. Going back to the original title of this thread, the website I linked to has several reviews on the most popular PHP editors around, freeware, shareware, and commercial. I rather like PHP Designer 2005 myself. It certainly has a lot of features, and it's got one of the most intuitive and user-friendly interfaces I've seen. It's also a quick download at 1.3 MB. Best of all, it's free! =^^=