rayzoredge

My first knee-jerk reaction would be to pop in a LiveCD, copy your documents off of the remaining partition onto an external hard drive or a USB flash disk, then just wipe out the whole thing and use GParted or Windows to partition your drive as necessary before reinstallation.

I'm actually one of those weird people that actually don't mind the command line, but when it starts getting ridiculous with having to specify a hundred switches which can be taken care of with a few clicks, checks, and balances with a GUI, I start to lean towards using a GUI. There are Linux cheat sheets available all over the place, but I don't think that most people would actually use the majority of them. Most are rather redundant, depending on how you do things and what you have installed. For example, there's a million ways to edit a document by utilizing the Terminal: gedit, vi, nano, kwrite, etc. You could probably get away with only knowing the basics, in the case you have to do some fancy finger work on the keyboard to do something as simple as copying or editing files to/in folders that require permissions (with sudo) without having to actually log in as root.

Now to present a GUI version of burning CDs with ease... I think the CLI is the most intimidating part of Linux that drives most potential users away, even though we as computer users should at least be exposed to what happens in the background, hidden away behind our window managers. Can you recommend a good GUI CD/DVD burner?

The allegations that Microsoft throws out here is laughable, but look at the potential customer base that's going to look at that and go, "Hey... that seems right, I guess." No casual or computer-literate person is going to disagree, considering the fact that they don't really know better.I think that until there is more things available for Linux as far as the gaming department goes, I'm going to be stuck with dual-booting Windows XP/7 just to be able to play DirectX games and run programs that I've been stuck with using, since having to deal with workarounds that apparently only work for certain individuals with certain machines doesn't appeal to me. Yes, you can try to WINE everything, or try an alternative, or try a program that the community develops in its free time, which is good for the whole community to be able to expand on Linux's capabilities, but since I can't complain about free software that doesn't fit my needs or even works for me, I'm going to have to stick with propriety crap-ware that fits what I need it to do (like Windows Media Player media sharing with proprietary Xbox 360 software/hardware). Linux has milestones with the field of gaming, WINEing popular games like World of Warcraft and developing games like Nexuis, but I have yet to see an OpenGL gaming implementation of something like Crysis. (I've seen the capabilities of OpenGL 2.0, but have yet to find a game that looks that damn good.)From a consumer point of view, we wouldn't want to restrict ourselves to the limitations of what the status quo is for provisions to Linux. Yes, they've been great, so I think that Linux should be a better if not equivalent operating system for most casual users on decent desktops and laptops available at Best Buy and other vendors, because the most you can do would be the usual productivity software, surfing the Web, social networking and IMs, entertainment with digital media, and whatnot without any hiccups. And if it was released in an OEM version, no one would have to face the nightmare of looking for workarounds to making hardware work AND release their potential. However, it still has a decent way to go as far as developers offering games utilizing the OpenGL API, and in that aspect, I can't solely go with Linux, even with possibilities with WINE and Cedega.It's not the fault of Linux that it doesn't have what Windows has available to it, because developers are only aiming for the money, and the money is in Microsoft thanks to its ubiquitous nature of being on most PCs. But I believe that in the future, Linux will find a larger market as it emerges from being "that geek OS" to being a user-friendly, wallet-friendly, and robust community and operating system.

I like my eye candy too much to give it up for an increase in performance. Even though WindowBlinds is a resource hog, I have it on every Windows XP install. I guess I don't have to explain much when I spend a few hours trying to activate video acceleration with Ubuntu to get Extra Visual Effects to work with the infamous 'nix cube and showcased windows... There is such thing as too much, though. I like a clean but "pretty" look for my operating systems.

I don't know... looks like you typed up G, H, and W without too much difficulty... (Yeah, I'm a smartass.) If the keys don't work after pressing them, try applying a bit more pressure. If it's still a no-go, you could pry up the key and try pressing the actual nub to see if that works. (That seems pretty redundant anyway, but couldn't hurt to try. Although it could, since laptop key suspensions are very easy to break.) The keys may have just died... and I don't think it's worth wasting time to try to restore the contacts, but you could definitely try. Worst thing you could do is kill the partially-dead keyboard. Your best best is to ask Dell for a replacement keyboard and do the work yourself, and if it's under warranty, even better. Laptop keyboards aren't too bad of an expense for a replacement ($20+), and for your make and model, I'm seeing $9+. Breaking down Dell laptops seems to be an easy affair for me, and I don't think you'd have a problem prying up the plastic to gain access to the screws for the keyboard, lifting it up slowly to detach the ribbon cable, removing the original keyboard, setting the new keyboard and attaching the same ribbon cable, screw it back down, then pressing down on the plastic enclosure piece to finish your handy-work.

Sky, I actually believe that technically, it IS hacking. Hacking is something that you do to utilize something in an abnormal/atypical way to achieve a different effect or result. For example, I can use a 1L soda bottle to hold my soda as intended, but I could also cut off half of the bottle (once it's empty) to use the bottom portion as a plant pot of sorts. This would be hacking in its true definition. It is also the case when you use SHUTDOWN.EXE to masquerade it as something else other than what it truly is. In this case, we use it with the available switches as a prank and not really as what it should be. Does it do the same thing? Yes, so it's not a hack. Are we doing something else with it? Yes, so it is a hack. Depending on how you look at it, it is and it isn't. When most people think about hacking, they think about the whole computer-whiz image, mostly the blackhat variant that hacks into government systems to disrupt operations or to feed millions of dollars into a Swiss bank account. What they may not think about are the legitimate "whitehat" hackers masquerading as "software security specialists" or anything like or pertaining to that title, the people that hack to produce undesired effects and to find exploits and vulnerabilities in software to help developers fill in the holes. They also don't think about the normal, day-to-day things that they might be doing that IS considered hacking, like recycling the 1L soda bottle I presented with before. LifeHacker is a great website devoted to hacking anything and everything (including computer applications), and you can definitely use some of those tips to make life easier.

I can't honestly be a straight Ubuntu user because of the fact that I have to use Windows XP for things that are tied to Microsoft, like my video streaming to the Xbox 360. Some people have gotten that to work, some people haven't... and it's very much like Rob86's OGG playback problem: I followed my video acceleration tutorial to get 1600x1200 and NVIDIA graphics to the T, and I kept having to start from scratch because Ubuntu kept returning the low-graphics mode. However, I'm glad that TS brought up the very simple, yet mostly unrecognized solution of being able to boot with a LiveCD to fix things with a GUI instead of typing away at a command prompt that most people would not be familiar with. Also, I'm very grateful with having learned the beauty of Ctrl+Alt+F1 to log in using a CLI and killing Gnome Display Manager in the background with "sudo killall gdm" to solve graphics problems with nano and xorg.conf. Linux would be downright perfect for people that had the drive to learn something new or are very comfortable with the command line interface AND if the community could figure out a workaround for everything proprietary. They've already broken barriers with restricted drivers and proven that OpenGL does have a stand in competing with DirectX, so it's really only a matter of time. As of right now, I think that Ubuntu has an awesome role as a great operating system capable of doing mostly anything. If you're happy with a computer to use productivity software (OpenOffice), surfing the web (Firefox), working with personal photos (GIMP), listening to music and watching movies (Rhythm Music Player, Movie Player), and playing simple games from time to time, Ubuntu hits the nail on the head and drives it through. Even if you have Windows programs that you would want to run under Linux, you could try to use WINE to get them to work, or run them under a virtualization program (VMWare). I'm just not special enough to be able to get media streaming working without Windows Media Player, which was the PITA that killed hours of my time, and it's that much of a necessity because I need entertainment for three kids. Rob86 makes a damn good point with taking for granted what Windows does for you in the background. Really, we take for granted a lot of stuff that the computer does for us... you should see how much code goes into something as simple as showing you those pretty, user-friendly icons on your X Server.

In my eyes, Linux can just work... and if it doesn't, it's a complete nightmare for those that aren't computer literate... and even moreso when the fixes include changing code and introducing scripts. I never really knew how to do anything in Ubuntu... I only knew how to follow directions off of what people suggested on the forums. It's ridiculous how frustrating and time-consuming Linux can be, even with the simplest of things like trying to figure out how to change settings around. A lot of it involves jumping in and out of configuration files that, if you screw up, leave you hanging at the console prompt (xorg.conf, anyone?) or worse, leave you with an unbootable machine (but you would have to really screw up with grub.lst). I think that for the most part, Jaunty Jackalope has a pretty darn thing going for it as far as being able to install it on most machines without a hitch... but when you snag on a hitch, all bets are off on getting things to work without tearing your hair out. I think that Linux is user-friendly, but when it comes to doing something like playing with GRUB, fixing input devices, getting Ubuntu to recognize resolutions that it doesn't think your graphic card can support... things can get downright retarded and warrant multiple reinstallations of Ubuntu because you had no clue what you did or how to fix it.Like just now. I'm jumping back into using Ubuntu but on my work machine (since I sold my personal laptop to pay bills), and 9.04 works great on install... except for the fact that it treats the GeForce 440 graphics chip as a generic graphic solution. No acceleration, but I figured it was a simple fix...Boy was I stupid.With my history with getting my HP tc1100 tablet PC to work almost-completely with Ubuntu, giving up on my just-sold Dell Inspiron 1501 because I couldn't stream media to my Xbox 360 using fuppes or 360share or ANY 'nix program, and now this... hours of my life, gone and with nothing to show for it but some emotional scarring and the knowledge that I still don't know a damn thing more about Linux than I did a couple of years ago and still feeling limited with casual computer use since I can't WINE everything I want to play, and I don't feel like paying for Cedega. I spent the last 3 hours trying to get video acceleration to work, and I did... but reduced from my 1600x1200 resolution with a "generic" driver to a pidly 1024x768. The tutorial I was following showed that I could have my cake and eat it too, but this is me we're talking about. Of course following the steps to the letter wouldn't work for me. And I have no idea why, and that frustrates me most.Since I've given up on computer gaming since this work laptop has nothing as far as gaming power (1.8GHz P4, 1GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 440 Go), Ubuntu works perfectly with what I would want it to do: surf the Web and maybe do some productivity with it with OpenOffice. I hope that things are still on the road of getting better as far as being a true competitor to Windows on the consumer market, because as much as I love Ubuntu, Microsoft is dominating the market... and I hate the complexity of Linux, albeit the power is nice... only when you understand and know how to utilize it.

Speaking of unethical purposes... we were actually thinking about springing this one on our IT guy (who's not that smart to begin with) just to see his reaction. Only modifications we did to what TS wrote in his tutorial is that we used an Internet Explorer Icon, set the countdown to 10 seconds, and put up some official-looking malware message. Didn't include another shortcut to disable the countdown... it would literally be a race to hit Windows+R and type in "shutdown -a" to abort it, but then again, 10 seconds is a long time so not much of a race there. *ahem*So yeah... like TS said, ethical use only!

I've been planning on using Xisto's hosting services for the longest time, but there are a few problems: I'm lazy. I haven't thought of a good idea or purpose for my website yet. I've been rather busy with work and other things, like looking to buy a home at the moment. I'm lazy. If I decided to purchase a decent hosting plan, I could literally leave Xisto for a few years before having to come back to post and continue earning myCents to keep my hosting up... as long as myCents and Xisto are still kicking around by then. (A lot of people who were already hosted were using hosting credits before Opaque rolled in with the myCents concept... not sure if they all had to earn myCents to continue their hosting or if their existing credits were converted... which makes me wonder if that's what would happen if myCents went away... hypothetically-speaking.) It's just that I would hate to "buy" a website and just sit on it because I don't have the time or the motivation to actually work on it at the moment. Right now, the only things that I could think of doing with a website is to advertise my personal portfolio and promote my at-home business, but other than that, I haven't come up with any real ideas yet. Keep in mind too that I've tried to keep most of my posts "long" and informative and I've lurked for almost a year's time, and although I haven't exactly posted as much as some of the other regulars have, I try to make sure that I do quality posting to make up for it... and to actually "earn" my myCents. And that's why I've stressed in the past (along with others) that it's quality posting that counts... which is why I can actually host a site for over 3 years without having to come back here to continue earning myCents until I run out.

Lucky you! I've been in the market for a laptop for the longest time and settled with the idea of snagging a certain laptop, but financial concerns at the moment keep me from getting my grubby paws on it just yet. I'm not going to name it just because I'm hoping it's still available later for me to snag up a few months later when I get everything settled on my end and I can actually have money available to buy it.Looks like the ATI HD 3200 could be used for some moderate gaming... and believe me, since I play some games from time to time on my old HP zd8000 (which is mainly used by the fiancee now...) which has an aging ATI Mobility Radeon X600.With the 3GB upgrade, I'd say you have a damn good machine to do what you would want it to do, outside of heavy gaming or model rendering, of course. Have fun with it.

Rob86 is dead-on with a lot of his points. As far as the name of Xisto goes, I believe it was the name of a Counterstrike server that Opaque used to play on for the longest time, which evolved into the name for this forum. (The history lesson is somewhere on this forum.) But yes, it's not exactly something that inspires community, not like MySpace ("your" space), FaceBook (online "yearbook" used to be restricted to students that just blossomed into what it is today), etc. And the community itself does seem very temporal with a few regulars. Off the top of my head, I can probably name a few regulars that have been here for the longest time, like BuffaloHELP, Saint Michael, WaterMonkey, anwii, sheepdog, and a handful of others. Then there are the relatively-recent regulars, like Tramposch and Ash-Bash. And then there are frequent posters that appear and then disappear, for one reason or another, to include what Rob86 said about being initially drawn to the free hosting, then either they give up, forget about logging in, or find another way for their web hosting. I've been on Xisto since 2004, I think, as my profile states... but I didn't really start posting until 2005/2006, because I lurked and found out that there wasn't much to really post about, plus I was busy with other things. Even now, I'm hesitant to post on a lot of topics because of what I was venting about before: not really contributing much to a thread, bringing up "necro-posts" (responding to threads that are a few years old, which mostly is the fault of our beloved "iGuest"), spamming, the jargon from non-English-speaking members, etc. It's just the nature of forums that you can't really avoid, especially with the added incentive of free hosting based on your participation on the forums. Kind of reminds me of a pay-to-post site I tried, where everyone was spamming garbage just to earn a few cents here and there. As far as the site downtime, I talked about that in the other thread...

I wouldn't know anything about websites hosted on Xisto as I don't have one of my own just yet, but it's a very good thing that sites don't suffer the down-time that the forum does. Down-time on the forums only affects the members that actually post on the forums and for those who like to visit and read what we have to say, but it's frustrating nonetheless. I think the reliability of the servers is because Xisto - Web Hosting is providing hosting out of a server farm that does have a reliable power source and consistent uptime and Xisto's server is run off of a separate server that Opaque could afford. I don't see why Opaque doesn't move hosting to a more reliable server or improve uptime conditions if he indeed is operating out of his own secret lab ( )... but then again, I would run my own server "for free" instead of paying someone else to host my site if it means saving money. I'm pretty sure that keeping the forums up and running for consistent access isn't the best return on investment when the real money comes in from advertisements and selling web hosting. Not sure how his operations work, but maybe he bought a server farm and just using a home server to run the forums... which would explain the volatility of storms over Mumbai, India, yes?

It sucks, but some of us are either busy, don't have much to share, or a lot of the newer posts in existing topics are being phased off of the Get New Posts page. I try to share more so that others can read my findings and contribute... I know how it is to try to hit up Xisto for some forum entertainment and then find only 2 pages of nothing worth noting.

It's not a question of would, but rather, what he would say to you in chat.

I think it's just the way they look and how each "engine" renders things. Mostly, it would be a personal preference. I also believe that there are more differences with things like the introduction of Dolphin (file manager for KDE) and whatever Gnome has, not to mention the software (like window managers) that power each desktop environment.I first played with KDE just because I'm so used to having the Windows interface with the start menu at the bottom, and by default, KDE has its panel at the bottom. I've settled with Gnome now because I think there's more customizable potential with it, but maybe I wasn't looking at the right places for KDE info. (Gnome has a Mac-like look to it by default with the panel up top.) Both have different tools and different schemes to customize your desktop, so maybe it might be a case of looking for what you want your operating system to look like before you actually make a choice. And it will be a hard one, because there's a ton of nice-looking themes for both desktop environments.

Nothing new, nothing else to see here.Seriously... it's been an issue that's been pissing me off for the longest times. Especially around the daytime (EST), Xisto is CONSTANTLY not available and returns time-out errors, IPS database errors, and a lot of nada. It's a frustrating part of the Internet, but Xisto is the worst offender in the history of my 'net-surfing experience by far. The only times that rival Xisto's unavailability would be the handful of times that MySpace and Facebook and even Twitter were down due to DDoS attacks... and those were isolated incidents. Xisto is a constant hassle to deal with every day, which is why I only access it early in the morning or later in the afternoon or evening (my time).I'm guessing that Opaque just doesn't have the incentive to update Xisto's servers, because this has been an ongoing issue. Then again, he could just be broke like the rest of us...

Thanks Anwii. And you're right: the $50 does go to an included discount dental plan as well as a Freedom Pass, which offers discounts on the ordinary things that we could save some money on, like buying clothes, automotive maintenance costs, going out to eat, and other things. I'm actually glad to see that people are skeptical first and believing later when there are facts displayed to back up what I have to say. It shows that a smarter audience is present here at Xisto. (Although I would be glad all the same if anyone was interested and if I could recruit anyone myself. )

It's interesting to note that MySpace has been playing catchup to Facebook's features. You might not notice it nowadays, but before MySpace had apps, status updates, on-the-fly dynamic changes to content, and whatnot, Facebook had them first. That's what drew me to Facebook: the fact that it was much better, design-wise, code-wise, and it was a better social networking site all around. I'm surprised you actually noted about "getting raped" and that there is no privacy on Facebook when in fact there are more privacy options on Facebook than there is on MySpace (not to mention more cases of pedophilia and other bad press on or about MySpace as a medium). You can become as private as you want on any social network by limiting what you say and put on your profile (which includes the exclusion of your contact information like your phone number if you even decide to add that), but Facebook even offers you the availability to physically become invisible to searches and make your profile completely inaccessible, as opposed to MySpace's private profiles. But I understand how you mean by no privacy as in everyone able to view just about everything that you do on Facebook... but then again, that's something you can turn off, too. But what's the point of social networking if you don't do anything social? Surely you must be smart enough not to indulge in super-secret-squirrel talk on an open wall conversation, no? Nothing is really private anymore unless it's discretely described as such in your terms and conditions of usage, and I'm sure that Facebook AND MySpace have rights to every single word, photo, and/or thing that you share with the whole wide world on their sites... but "within reason." The fact that anyone even whines about privacy yet blogs their hearts out onto their profiles for all to read is kind of hypocritical and oxymoronish. As far as Facebook's design and profiles go, I did completely agree with you on that portion... until I stopped caring how my profile looked and focused moreso on interacting with others. (I used to be huge in building Flash profiles for my MySpace, and I would update it every few months or so.) The way that Facebook works places me in a position where I can actually see how my friends are doing, what they're doing, and even what they want to share... and with that, I can interact with comments, Liking, or just taking mental note that this friend just got engaged, that person is on XBL right now, this person's going to work in a few... With MySpace, they're catching up, but the whole news feed concept still wins over the MySpace home page, in my opinion. MySpace only wins there with advertisement real estate... and it's almost disgusting how it works with as inundated with ads as it is. But maybe we've already looked passed that and no one really even responds to ads anymore on MySpace, much less with Facebook, which has ads to the left and right of the content column, but small enough that I actually have to look for them in order to notice them on my routine of checking for messages, looking at the news feed, and social networking. But to each his/her own, right?

You're pretty much screwed. You're not going to get your money back and you have no real hopes of pursuing legal matters with the company since the whole thing is a scam technique aimed at less-than-computer-literate folks.The best thing you can do right now is to inform others of this sort of thing to make sure that no one else falls for it. You should NEVER, EVER take matters into your own hands when confronted with suspicious behavior on the computer if you are not Internet or computer savvy... it can lead to identity theft, loss of money, and even allowing for your sensitive information in the wrong hands. In case anything ever happens again, take the matter to your local geek... and if you don't have a friend who's smart with computers, make some. They'll prove valuable to you over time, time and time again.You could possibly try to press charges, but most likely you're not going to get anywhere, since the company itself would be a front for an individual who employed the tactic. You're better off licking your wounds and having learned a lesson the hard way.

True, but what I'm saying is to open up the doors to other non-native-English-speaking members to be able to share what they have to contribute, and have the option of actually translating it through a translation service which would be integrated into the forum itself... and all this will have a toggle to either show them or not. It's probably a lot of work that might not contribute much if anything at all to the community, but it would bring that option into play, and it's a suggestion that Xisto's developers would have to weigh between actual utility and the effort into making this happen. You're right about keeping it to one uniform language to avoid confusion, and most likely it will remain the way it is. But it will also limit our members and the audience that Xisto will be available to. I would agree on keeping it the way it is, but then again, that's just me... trying to look at both sides of this possibility.

Also, I would like to bring to attention an FAQ from AmeriPlan's website, just in case this might answer any potential questions you may have that I didn't cover by describing the plans: Source, edited for readability and without images

Trying to figure out what you mean there, shova... I just came from reading your forum suggestion thread. The thing with working at home with this company is that it IS the main drive behind how the company works. There is a corporate building somewhere housing daily employees to help with administrative taskings, plus there are probably call centers for customer service and support for inquiries about the discount plans themselves, but this work-from-home opportunity is a nation-wide opportunity, open to anyone that wants to work for commissions and MLM-style earnings.

In the aspect that Xisto is only English-speaking, I think it's rather arrogant that no one else is really personally encouraged to share their thoughts when there's a language barrier.With that being said, I think that translation services would do a great favor to building Xisto's "availability" and scope to being beyond just one language. I know that translation services are poor at best, but maybe there can be an option to toggle English AND non-English posts and an integrated option to translate utilizing translation services (like BabelFish)? This would help with members that don't have as much of a language proficiency in English as others do, and that way, they can post good contributions as well as give all of us the opportunity to share what we know DESPITE the language barrier. It might be a messy proposition... but it could also branch us out. I hope Opaque and mods involved in Xisto's development are listening... Another possibility is what Shova probably meant to say: separate sites to host versions of Xisto in native languages... kind of like a Google-type deal where you can receive pages in your own language and post in your own language. This could tie into the idea I had above...