zyzzyvette

No; I think it should maybe be strongly encouraged instead. A lot of people won't ever need a second language, and while some might need it, they should have the sense to foresee that and take the course. Learning a language can teach you a lot about the structures of languages themselves, and a lot of other useful things, but for some it would just be one more course to pile onto whatever else they have to do. If we force people to learn certain things, I think we're just pushing education away from what it originally was- groups of people learning about things that interest them- and into drudgery. From preschool to the time I was 13, I was forced to learn French because it was part of the curriculum and required; I totally hated it. The moment I hit high school, I switched languages, and although it was in a way required (you need gr11 language level to get into most unis here), it wasn't forced on me because I could still decide to stop anytime I wanted. Japanese was much more fun for me than French, and I don't think that had anything at all to do with the language itself or the teachers teaching me.

It's pretty irritating how companies can write these long things that you're to agree to, knowing full well nobody will read it, and then hide behind the contract. It's crummy and evil, but totally legal since you agreed to the ToS (even if you didn't read it). https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/ Anyway, I'd monitor your phone bill very closely and run lots of anti-spyware software for the next little while. If you absolutely can't get rid of it, you could format your hard drive I suppose. I guess you're lucky that you caught it soon, before you lost out on a lot more money.

I don't like the idea of death, I'm sure most people don't, but I think its unfair to force people to suffer just because it makes us uncomfortable. As Sentress said, we euthanize animals in pain, but we don't extend the same level of kindness to our own species... it seems to me to be a very selfless thing, to do something so difficult for someone, especially if you barely know them (as it is with most doctors and their patients). Unlike other killings, euthanasia/mercy-killing is about killing for the sake of the person dying, which is unlike any other sort of killing. Murder is about satisfying the murderer, hunters kill for food and trophies, executioners kill to avenge the victim and/or protect the public, and so on. The only problem that I see with euthanasia is the possibility that, instead of euthanizing a person in pain, the person who did it actually murdered them. The difference to me is simple; if the person gives consent, either directly, or through a living will, then it would be okay. (For those of you who don't know, a living will is just a set of directions on how you'd want your medical care to proceed if you were in certain situations and unable to communicate, for example if you went into a coma or became brain-dead.) If we made euthanasia legal, the court systems would not only have to prove that a suspect killed someone, but also that they did not have permission to do so. This could be a serious problem, but I think that this could be reduced by having a bit of paperwork. By requiring the "euthanizer" to prove that they have permission (living will, signed permission from the patient, with witnesses, etc) before going through with it.

They tried this already, in Canada and the US at least; people who wanted to drink just got it illegally and the law itself only lasted about ten years. If there was a referendum on whether or not to ban drinking, I have no doubts that it would be a landslide for "No". Casual drinking is a huge part of western societies, whether that's a good thing or not, and most adults won't be giving it up. The only reason the prohibition law passed in the first place was because of gross misinformation spread by groups like the WCTU. Besides, if we ban drinking because it is bad for you, do we ban anything else that's unhealthy? That'd be an awful long list. IMO, your personal health is your own responsibility, not the government's, and I don't feel the need to give up things I can enjoy responsibly in moderation just because other people can't. I like chocolate, soda pop, hair dye and cosmetics, cell phone, TV, internet and everything else that is supposedly going to kill me one day.

The only two things I can see there that might make it more useful than Notepad are syntax highlighting and a function list; the first is included in my current (free) editor and the second I call Google.

A bit repetitive, but I'd say get her flowers also- if she likes them. If you know her favorite type or color, get her those, otherwise roses might be a good idea. Don't get her chocolates or candy if you think she might be dieting, because if she is she might feel like you're not supporting her, etc etc. Its not really so important what you get or what it costs, just that you put some thought into it- that its something she likes, bonus points if its something that you wouldn't have known she'd like if you were strangers (pretty much every girl likes flowers, but getting tiger lilies because you know they're her favorite shows her that you're paying attention to what she likes/dislikes and care enough to remember).If you're really concerned that there might be something going on, bring it up honestly but gently. A lot of girls won't get upset over a little bit of jealousy, as long as not obsessive/controlling/aggressive jealousy. Don't bring it up around other people, either, I had one boyfriend who did that once and I was quite annoyed.

Love it for tabs, the bookmark bar, plugins, etc. It is a little slow, but on the rare occasion where it becomes a real problem, I just close all the windows and then cold-start it.

I use Firefox 1. IE6 renders CSS terribly; IE7 is better but still ignores common CSS rules (plus it has those annoying features I don't want, like phishing filter). Opera sounds good but I've read that certain websites purposely/"accidentially" mess up the Javascript or CSS it sends it- as in, Opera could render it fine if it got the same CSS and Javascript as IE or any other browser, but its sent some garbled stuff instead. I probably should get Firefox 2, if just to fix the memory leak problem in Fx1, but we have Fx2 at school and it has these teeny annoying changes that I don't like...I'm not picky in the least, I swear.

People who want to drink, smoke, etc., are going to, regardless of what the legal age is. "Booting" (bootlegging) is a pretty common thing where I live, and its not hard to find someone willing to do it for you. I'm more concerned about ageism related to minimum voting ages. I feel that public education gets shafted in terms of government funding because students can't vote. What bugs me about our society in general is the misconception that maturity and ability to handle responsibility is directly related to age. I know kids in middle school who are very mature, and some adults who need to "grow up", so to speak. Yet, people assume that if you are young, you are more foolish than someone five years older. It most definitely is discrimination, but unfortunately it's so ingrained into our society that I doubt it will be going away anytime soon. @biscuitrat: I know you mean well, but I'm not so sure that raising the drinking age would create a generation of more responsible drinkers; it seems to me that it would do the opposite. People tend to want what they can't have, so the more you dangle it out of their reach (theoretically, since drinking laws are very poorly enforced) the more they'll want it when they get it. That's why the most successful dieters go by the 80/20 rule rather than a diet that forbids certain foods entirely- once they quit or finish the diet, the second group go binge on the "bad" foods, and eat far more than the people in the first group. I think the only way to reduce the problem of teen alcohol abuse is to have a lot of resources available to educate them before they start drinking, and help them stop if/when their drinking starts causing problems.EDIT: edited for clarity

Trap17 is the best; it offers all the features you'd need, plus you know exactly where you stand in terms of meeting your end of the deal thanks to the credits system... most of the other free hosting sties force you to put icky ads up and/or meet some sort of quota in terms of visitors or posts, except that often they won't tell you if you're meeting it or not! The only negative thing was when some of my posts (and credits) got deleted with the update, but it was nothing compared to problems with other hosts (like finding out they don't offer an essential feature, etc) and I'm told it doesn't have to update often so I can live with it.

http://www.tizag.com/ has some beginner tutorials that are easy enough to follow. The code itself you just put in the HTML file, except that you'd rename your file from something.html to something.php, so something like this: <html><head></head><body>this is my webpage.</body></html> could become ?> </body> </html> linenums:0'><html><head></head><body><?phpecho 'this is my webpage';?></body></html> Hope that helps.

You don't need to install PHP or MySQL on Xisto hosting; they're preinstalled so you can just start using them. You can get to PHPMyAdmin from the cpanel (its a lil purple icon about halfway down the page I think), which is where you can set up your MySQL tables.

I think media is definitely starting to adapt to the possibilities of the internet... on the radio the other day, I heard about a new advertising strategy that's starting up. First a company will spend $50,000 or less (fairly cheap, considering) to make several videos that appear to be homemade and then distribute them via Youtube and other services. Most of them don't catch on, but once one does, they can then incorporate the video into a traditional advertising campaign on TV. The original video doesn't involve any product at all, so nobody realizes that its part of an advertisement, but once they see the commercial on TV, the audience theoretically going to associate that awesome "viral video" they found with something to go out and buy. If you saw the "bride cuts off all her hair" thing a few weeks ago, that was apparently a viral video for Unilever... this iTV thing is just another way companies are using the differences between the web and traditional media to their advantage, I guess.

I don't think it's men's fault for the way some women view their bodies; although there are some men out there who won't date you unless you're 80 lbs with a beach ball chest, these guys seem fairly easy to avoid (and not at all worth dating in the first place!). Most men's magazine models are curvier than women's models... still pretty skinny, but most aren't anorexic-gross- the model I find the most disgusting is the Olay Ribbons girl. They show her pretty much naked, and you can not only see her ribs but her spinal cord shows through her skin as well- and this is some women's idea of beauty! I think that the anorexia problem is more the fault of society in general, rather than 'the media' (who's just trying to sell magazines) or a gender group. People like the idea of being in an exclusive group, so we create artificial rules about who is beautiful to make it more exclusive. Its obvious to me that these rules are artificial just because of the way they change over time. Marilyn Monroe was a size 16, which is actually even bigger than a size 16 woman today, because of clothing companies' policy of "vanity sizing". And of course there's the Renaissance girls. Really, anyone that takes care of their appearance to a reasonable degree (dressing in flattering clothing, good grooming) can look beautiful, regardless of their weight, coloring, etc. A good example of this is the Dove commercials. Every woman in them is gorgeous- beautiful hair, soft skin, etc. They all have their own "flaws" that would prevent them from being "conventionally beautiful" by today's standards- some are overweight, small-breasted, mohawked, retirement-aged, etc.

That's not fair; just because I buy a product from them earlier than others, means I don't get a nifty new feature on a virtually-identical platform? :/ I don't know how to get DS roms onto a cartridge, but if I find out I will let you know. Stupid nintendo.

I replied to this before but i guess it got deleted with the upgrade.... but no, I wasn't thinking of anyone specific Those little m&m bags get me too, are they trying to save money by using less plastic for the tabs or something?

Homophones and homonyms are similar, but not always the same. Homonyms are often spelled the same as each other (eg. a cash BANK and a river BANK), not so much with homophones... that's why homophones are more of a problem. I hate men who are chivalrous at all, as well as women who expect it. We're supposed to be equals now, the whole "be nicer to women because they're weaker" thing is bull, and the women who take advantage of it are terrible.

The whole "Nature vs. Nurture" thing is just a big ol' "black and white" fallacy; many psychologists say its both. What the split is between the two, well, who cares really, the Royals are just figureheads these days and its nunya bidness if and why someone else is gay.

Polyphasic sleep is a sleep 'routine' where people sleep around 2-3 hours a day, instead of the regular 6-9ish hours. This is done by sleeping in short increments (basically, a bunch of 15-20minute naps per day). According to people who follow this program, their sleep patterns adjust so that they can get the maximum amount of REM sleep (the sleep you need) within the smallest time period. Basically, the name of the game is efficiency; the less time you spend sleeping, the more time you spend doing other things. There are also some interesting side effects reported by polyphasic sleepers, like lucid dreaming (being able to control your dreams). A couple negatives are that you can't put off one of your naps too long, or you'll "crash" and it also takes a lot of effort and willpower to get used to the routine. I've read a couple blogs of polyphasic sleepers, and to me, the lucid dreams and extra time sound great, but I don't think its for me- way too much effort and I love my sleep. I think its an interesting idea anyway, so I thought I'd share.

Using existing atoms to make single-element objects has already been done- its not a new technology. Its creating complex objects (multiple molecules and/or biotic, etc) that would be difficult and inefficient. I agree that there's way too many of us, but it seems more humane to me to just feed the starving, rather than killing them (and letting the population drop back down to a reasonable level). I wouldn't mind a baby-limit, but that's a whole 'nother issue.

It might seem like a stupid bot, but it really is one of, if not the, best one out there. It's hard to simulate a natural human conversation, I guess. I don't think anyone is saying its perfect; chatbots are definitely a WIP. Fun to mess with for a bit though; Jabberwacky is pretty good as well. I think this one uses its past conversations to 'learn' appropriate responses and such, but it cant be integrated into anything afaik. Just good fun.

Ehh, this totally confused me at first; I read something about "reading from the object's volume and not just its surface area" and thought this was the 3D scanner I heard about a few months back with a disc somewhere to store the data. So this is basically a giant 3D external drive? My pockets probably aren't deep enough, but I'm sort of curious as to how much it might cost at launch.... and when its coming out.

In middle school, I remember our computer classes were terrible... I really didn't like the teacher, and the program itself didn't teach you much. Anyway, it got better once I got in HS; the compsci teacher is an engineer, and he teaches for FUN on the side (he is also our school's network admin). The computers aren't top notch, but they're still pretty decent. Part of the reason is that the students help to upgrade and maintain everything as a part of the course. I'm sure this saves the district enough money that it makes it more affordable to buy new PCs and parts (since they aren't paying for the installation, which can often cost more than the parts themselves). Anyway, if your school is unwilling to improve their program, you can always resort to learning at home. Online tutorials and the local library can be your teachers. And if your classmates are too foolish to do the same, their loss is your gain because you now have an advantage over them. Harsh, but that's life and we may as well get used to it...

I'd never heard of geek.com before so content-wise I guess I'm not one to judge... but looking at the two side-by-side, your layout is certainly easier on the eyes. If the forums were a bit more filled out, and I (as someone who had never visited either) was asked to pick which one was better established, I'd go with yours just because it looks so much more put together. If you're as persistent as you seem, I'm sure you'll catch up to them eventually.

I'll take that as a compliment. Anyway, poor little microbes! Typical that we'd mess things up like that... hope they weren't endangered or anything. I'd love if we had real, live aliens, even if they were microscopic; I don't think anyone can honestly say it wouldn't be the teeniest bit exciting. If there are tiny aliens on Mars, there might also be larger ones that we've missed (after all, new species are discovered on Earth all the time... there could be LOADS of life on Mars we haven't found yet). Plus, there could be aliens on many of the other planets out there! I can't think of any practical reasons why having aliens in itself would be a good thing, but I'm sure we'd figure it out once we knew exactly what they were. Besides, I've always been one of those that wants to believe, yknow?