bizchina

NONE of what I have posted here after being warned by Zenchi is copied. Its all typed by myself and none of it is directly copied from any site. Of course maybe I have read some article and digested it - then written about it and put my own slant on it - but we all receive information from other source and digest it - thats life ( Unless we are Einstein or someone similar who thinks up something original)I tried to write intelligent replies to others questions - or to start a new discussion on something that I was interested in - and just got arbitrarily banned for that ?Mike Bruce

I joined Trap 17 a couple of months ago, I was then warned for 'spamming' - which I had done inadvertently - since I am not an experienced 'spammer' I had no idea what it meant. Immediately upon being told not to do it - I stopped. I had posted just a few messages anyhow and freely admitted what I had done. Then a few days ago - I went to log on - and was told I couldn't log on because I had 'spammed' again. Which I had NOT! I was given no explanation - and was told I was banned for 5 ( or 7 ) days - but they left my website up ?? So - i couldn't post. I couldn't contact anyone to ask why someone though my posts were spam ( which they most definitely were not ) and had no way to explain myself. I then contacted Opaque a few days after the ban finished - ( I had lost interest to be honest at the unfair way I was treated) and he told me they have so many messages that they don't have time to inform me of which message they thought I had spammed! But they had time to decide one was spam ( which NONE of them were ) but could't let me know which one they had banned me for ?I feel that some people on here are on a power trip - and just arbitrarily decide that something is spam when they have no idea at all. Does anyone else feel that they were 'banned' for no reason at all ? I would be interested to know. I won't bother using my web space any further - its too unreliable you can get banned for absolutely nothing - and I won't be using any of the advertised links either as they are probably run by the same people.Mike Bruce

To those who are interested - the Delphi 9 update is available now. It has been out since just after Xmas and its really nice to use and (relatively ) bug free. You can download a free version to try it from borland.co.uk - if you use VB I definitely recommend you take a look. It has some cool new features like re-factoring along with a host of components that allow you to do most things without having to purchase any add ons( like sending email - creating XML pages etc etc)

It happens in software all the time. I do some programming - and confess that many times I have seen 'features' in other programs and then copied the idea and used them in mine. Not directly - and often I will try to enhance some of those features and my progs have even got features in that I thought up myself of course. And maybe some have copied my 'features'.There are only so many original ideas - and to be honest Microsoft are good at copying others no doubt. But they have had a few original ideas of their own! Dunno if the office Assistant was one of theirs - but if it was they should have binned it straightaway!

The problem with that idea is that WE are in control of the Camera - NOT the publishers ( as is the case with Music files ) and if we are too lazy to type in the name of the Place or who took it or whatever when we save the file ( which you can do in the file name ) then we certainly aren't going to do it when we take a photo on a limited text entry menu system on the Camera!! Of course the date and time is saved when you take the pic - so you can search on that anyway ( date and time of the file saved ) Or maybe you just mean extra file info in the saved jpeg or whatever - in that case you just need a program that creates albums for you and that way you can organise them. Definitley you could have a default user for the camera stored in the camera , but if someone else uses it - then what . Would you remember - or even be bothered to switch users? and How do you see place info being recorded ?? And subject info ??

How about the new Apple Ipod ( Flash memory - no hard disk) Its not new techology - but it looks really cool - acan take around 700 songs on the 1 meg version - and to my amazement is quite good value - about 90 quid for the 1meg verison - and has the cool apple Itunes interface. I have seen them on Dabs press - but still not in stock yet - they have plenty on order though...Of course you can use it for transporting your web files about too...

I would say a resounding YES! The 747 is the largest ( to my knowledge - and has been for a long time) and has been a great success. The bigger planes get - ( within techological limits and costing) the better for the traveller - since it brings down the cost of our travel. And certainly if they put stuff like Casino's - shops etc it will help break the monotony. I used to fly to Malaysia quite a lot ( 13 hours - pain!) and when they brought in new entertainment like individual seat back TV's it made SUCH a difference - it really was a great leap forward and turned the journey into something that was bearable. More space ( as reported on the Airbus) will allow a lot more comfort and leisure activities according to Virgins plans so its a good thing. Airports will soon expand to accomodate bigger planes - just as they did for the 747.Downside is of course if one crashes - more people are at risk...

I have a sony DSC F717 which I got on Ebay for just over 300 quid and can thoroughly recommend it. It takes brilliant photo's and the top resolution is 2560x1920. The lcd is very bright and it can easily cope with all the situations I throw at it ( low light - bright light etc) I looked at several camera's - but wanted an SLR and would have bought the new canon had I not bought this - but its too new for 2nd hand one's and the Sony will do just about as much EXCEPT - no interchangeable lenses. The zoom is 5 X though - so its enough for most situations.I bought a 512 memory stick pro - and never have run out of room for more pics yet!

Yeah - I just saw it on "Working Lunch" on BBC2 and it looks very cool. I partictulary like the look of the operating system on the last mac I saw in PC World, and the word is that more reliable ( and more secure - more importantly) than Windows - so if it makes the mac more popular and they release Delphi for it - I will be in heaven!The price seems quite good - but I suspect it will end up being a dollar to pound conversion when it goes on sale here - unfortunately.

its not actually as worthless as you may think. In the future - we shall be using LED's in places where we normally use bulbs perhaps - much brighter- now that they are able to produce white leds' successfully. We are already seeing leds used in car rear lights - and in other areas too - just some more useless information to help you attract the opposite sex!

"doubt that Bill Gates stole a pirated copy"Why not ? He has stolen many other things ( allegedly ) for example he created Windows after talking Steve Jobs into supplying him with two Mac's to create a spreadsheet for the Mac operating system, ( but Steve Jobs stole GUI from Xerox (allegedly )and the number of companies he has "formed a partnership" with and then subsequently pulled out of the parntership ( after acquiring the knowledge they needed no doubt ) and created their own version of that software ( eg: OS2 became Win NT I believe)I can't remember the names of all the companies now - but I do know that Microsoft teamed up with more than a couple of companies then split - only to later offer a simliar thing ( usually free ( well - included in purchase price of Windows) ) so that the other company virtually died. Bill Gates is _probably_ the biggest software pirate that ever lived ( if news reports are to be believed - or the movie ) - thats why they are so paranoid about anyone using their stuff for free no doubt

I had the free software provided by Yahoo (BTYahoo) which wasn't bad - but then I downloaded Namo Webeditor ( version 6.00) and found it very , very good. Its by a Korean company apparently and comes with some quite nice templates for various kinds of sites. It supports ftp so you can upload directly to your site if you want - and I like the editor - its fairly straightforward to understand. It has 30 days free trial - and if you are lucky enough to live in US you can get it for about 40 dollars on Amazon at the moment which must be a bargain ( version 5.5 I believe though) or the full new version costs about 70 dollars but includes other stuff which I havn't checked out yet.http://www.namo.com/ - its well worth a look.Mike

Thanks for trying. I wasn't sure if it was China blocking sites ( by default - till checked ) or whether it was something else. Someone from the states told us its because different countries use different channels ( or something like that ) and that was why ?? But we have created it in a China website and had it tested in China and its fine - so one again thanks for your help. http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ ( if the sites up ) Mike

Its working fine now thanks. Thank you for your help. http://mkebruce.tripod.com/ I reduced size of sound file - since the first one was full quality I reduced it to an acceptable level. Mike

Thanks - but I have the site working now - and just typing http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ works fine. I had fixed it a few days ago and forgot to post it - but thanks all for trying. I reduced the mp3 file to a more managable 700k and it downloads ok. But the problem was not either of these things - the site still does not work in China - we ended up creating a web server in China to get round the problem - if you are interested you can see it at http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ Once again thanks to all who tried this for us - I appreciate it. Mike

Its too dark!

I guess that games are more realistic than books, or more 'involving' than movies maybe. I always remember my nephew telling me ( he never had the inclination to do this before ) after playing Grand Theft Auto on his playstation almost non-stop for a coupla days he came out of his apartment and a guy got out of his car to post a letter, and left the keys in and the first thought that flashed through his mind was to jump in to the car and drive off! He didn't of course - but the thought was there - and I don't think he got that kind of re-action from a movie.

Unfortunately - the retailer doesn't know they don't work - till they get a lot of complaints or returns But it boils down to the quality of the components used - I remember seeing a program a long time ago where it said UK electronic companies expect to reject 1 in about one thousand components - in Japan electroncs manufacturers expect to only reject 1 in 100,000+ - and thats the difference. A board constructed of poor components may work fine - but has far more chance of failing. Until they are sold and used - we don't really know how good or reliable they will be - only thing to do is go by other's experiencesand hope we get a good one - or at least the supplier will change it for a good one if its faulty.

Sorry - I just noticed that you said it included processor - so I guess that the the motherboard was _very_ cheap. If you can - I would recommend that you change it for another make that is known for quality - the motherboard is the most important part of your computer - and if its built on the cheap - using substandard components - you could [will] have endless problems that will never go away no matter how many bios upgrades you do.

I used to buy a lot of motherboards and build computers - and the one thing I definitely learned was that it really does pay to buy quality. I havnt' heard of ECS - so don't know their reputation - but I found ASUS motherboards exceptionally good ( they were a little more expensive - but top quality ) but I also bought another make ( medium budget ) which were very reliable (QDI) and now have a 3 year warranty - and the cost is only around 120 usd ( equiv in UK) Maybe yours is a top notch board and you were just unlucky. In fact I bought probably over 100 QDI boards and can't remember ever having one problem with them. One of my customers insisted on supplying his own equipment and had his friend build the computers which used the cheapest motherboards and we had nothing but problems - he ended up scrapping them after six months - so it always pays to get quality on the motherboard.

I just wanted to know how Trap 17 let us know if we are offered free hosting? I did read something somewhere ( but can't find it now ) and I seem to remember it said that we will be emailed - or do we need to keep checking the Requested forum? Is it shown in there ? Anyone who can help I would appreciate - since I don't want to miss the chance and lose out if I havn't created my site within a week should I be granted a site

Definitely they are _way_ overpriced!! Like all cables for hi-tech devices. For example - I urgently needed a usb printer cable for my printer over Xmas - so went to PC world and bought the cheapest cable they had which cost me 11.99. Normally I buy these types of cables from a computer supplier ( wholesale ) and the cost is 49 pence! I don't have to buy hundreds - I can buy one if I need - so the markup from people like PC World is crazy. This is where these companies make their biggest profits - and I am sure if you search around on the internet you can find ( a compatible ) cable much cheaper - especially if you look at Far East sites. Snag is postal costs -and wait. My supplier has a minum delivery charge of 12 quid - so its not worth it unless I need a few things - but if I do the saving is huge. I used to supply these to my customers and charge a fiver - which is still a big markup for me - but less than half the price of the likes of PC-World.

Hi, my name is Mike Bruce - I am a computer programmer ( Delphi mostly - some internet stuff) and also a licenced bookmaker - so if you want a bet... :rolleyes:I have been programming for many years and was the first person to produce a complete PC based settling system for betting shops which I first showed at the bookmakers show in 1991. I successfully sold the system for several years - but have taken a back seat now - the problem is that so many factors are changing in the bookmaking industry that its almost impossible to keep up with all the latest features - but I am writing a new system for Windows using Delphi - my favourite programming language.I live in York - and have done so for the last 25 years - I am always on the lookout for a good Delphi programmer if anyone is interested - or somone who has a lot of experience in maybe C and a good understanding of website programming.If you live relatively close to me and may be interested - by all mean email me.

It all depends on what you want to do. If you want to program in Windows - and you are pretty new to programming and want to learn - then I definitely recommend Delphi as a fast way to producing programs for Win32 - and its quick to learn and has a very good IDE. I have used VB but don't find its as powerful as Delphi - not as well thought out - and quite slow. The same guy who "fathered" delphi is now working for Microsoft and I believ in charge of the C# development - which means C# should be quite good in the future. Its also part of Delph 9 - ( C Sharp) so you have the best of both languages to play about with and see which you prefer. BUT - C# in Delphi requires the Dot Net environment which means you need about 200meg of stuff installed on a Windows machine to run any programs you build with it - so its not ideal. Also - Delphi 9 is not stable yet - if you can get hold of Delphi 6 - or Delphi 7 personal ( they were given free by different mags at various times ) its a great way to learn - or they may still be available at http://www.borland.co.uk/ ( or dot.com ) and will cost you nothing to try.Mike

Hi , I would like some people to try my non-trap 17 hosted website for me - the address is http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ ( I have just created this frame and havn't yet transferred it to the index.htm - so bear with me ) - I have friends in China who tried to open it - but it failed for them. Not sure if they have slow connection but it just failed - unable to open. Of course it works fine here ( in UK ) and should work in China ( but maybe China vets websites first - and it hasn't been approved - not sure how it works - but I know they do vet ( and block ) some websites. There is no reason to block mine - but if they shoot first and ask questions later ( in other words block it first - then allow later ) maybe thats why. If you are from any other country other than UK - please try for me - and then let me know by posting if it worked for you. Thanks in advance. ( PS - there is a 2 meg sound file - so maybe thats why it timed out in China - not sure - or maybe it was just busy because new years day ??) Mike