Arbitrary

I thought almost everyone knew of this particular Google "hack", so to speak. I've been using it for quite some time, mainly to function as a searching tool for sites that lack good searching functions. Google does seem to function quite well in that respect, better than most sites that have programmed their own native search engine. Though, I suppose that's to be expected since their entire business is about search.I'm not sure why you'd check your competitor's websites like that though--it's far more important to focus on the content than just on the keyword level within the content. I'm pretty sure those large news (especially ones with a print version) sites don't spend their times analyzing how many words of a certain kind to put into their content. That's for people who are obsessed with SEO and frankly, have crappy websites that aren't promotable without SEO. If your content is appealing, it'll get the needed backlinks and move up the ranks. Moreover, I think if you really wanted to do SEO effectively, just using Google's site:something.com keyword isn't going to cut it. There are better tools out there that do more detailed analyzing for the sole purpose of this, and it's better to use those instead.

FirefoxRocks: The themes seem to come from this site http://www.altafsayani.com/2008/09/03/down-chrome-themes/, but within the site I've also noticed someone who posted saying that they come from yet another source. It seems trustworthy considering the sheer number of people who have made use of the themes, but I'm not that interested in skinning Chrome either way. Also, I do feel a bit safer if I wait for Google to release its themes. I've enjoyed the ones for Gmail (well, some of them were a bit iffy, like that terminal one, but the simplistic ones were quite nice). I also find that Google Chrome's lack of extensibility is annoying, since an Adblock-clone is not bound to work as well. Of course, there's always Privoxy, but that's not a good enough substitute in some respects. Now if Firefox had a speed that rivaled Chrome's, I'd have no reason to even look at Chrome (luckily, it seems Opera comes close).

It's pretty easy to do so if you have phpMyAdmin, and if you're hosted at Xisto, its cPanel comes with phpMyAdmin. Just click the 'export' tab and you'll be given a bunch of options of how to export it. If your database is large, you should probably compress it, but otherwise, just simple SQL text should be good. Then you can save the SQL in a file like queries.sql. There are also a bunch of options, including ones that will allow you to only import the structure of the table, or drop the table if it already exists etc. Create a new database, click on it, and click 'import' in phpMyAdmin, upload the SQL file as directed, and you should be able to import all the queries into the new database.

Rpgsearcherz: from what I've heard about phpBB, there have been a lot of issues with security for quite a while. I'm not sure if the newest version has upped the security level (well, webapps can never really be all that secure, but still), so that can be debated. I have heard of smf, and I do believe it's better than phpBB (at least on the security level, but also in terms of code organization). However, I'm not sure the newest smf really merits a review (yet?) since it doesn't seem to be all that different than the old one. And rpgsearcherz, to get that working, all you have to do is write your own skin for phpBB or whatever forum software you decide to use. Then just modify the code for phpBB slightly so that it inserts the menu on the left. Go look at the phpBB source code--it'll become a lot more obvious what to do then. Good luck!

Actually, I think this fact proves the failure of captchas. If a captcha is beyond most humans but breakable by a computer, then it hasn't really done anything to filter in the humans and out the bots. Instead, ironically, it's filtering in the bots and out the humans. That really defeats the purpose of having a captcha. You won't prevent spam; you'll attract it and prevent legitimate users from accessing the site. Now, I can't really think of any better solution to this, but certainly the captcha solution isn't working nearly as well as advertised. Yahoo's captcha has indeed been broken for a while.

Thanks TavoxPeru, there definitely were a lot of repeats in the original, and the new list is a lot better organized.I will, however, say that in general php tutorials on the web really only guide you through the most basic aspects of php. In order to really understand php, it's best to either (1) start working on a project that you've envisioned for some time or (2) contribute to open source php projects. The latter will give you a chance to view well-written php code (well, actually, you'd need to do some browsing and judging for that), which will help you improve your own code. The former will give you real problems that are outside the subset usually shown in tutorials.I'd actually say that for anyone who has had programming experience before, php's official website php.net is a great resource. It pretty much has everything you'll need to understand how to program php (mainly because php is an extremely easy language to learn; it's hard to organize, but easy to learn).Other than that, if you're a true beginner, try the w3c tutorials and tiztag. Keep in mind that none of these will help you put together a php app, and I'd suggest reading up some articles on database design if you intend to go heavily into the php/mysql sector. Database design is really the fundamentals behind the app, and then comes the php. I've seen many people mess up on the database and then in turn screw up their entire site.Either way, good luck!

Yeah, I think it definitely depends on how you define the word 'love'. If you define love as meaning something shallow like just liking the other person's looks and wanting to go to bed with them, then it's very possible to have 'love' at first sight. But then again, that kind of love is a shallow fling that most likely won't last very long/last beyond the longetivity of the person's looks. On the other hand, you could define love as something deep and that requires a lot of understanding of each other from both parties, which takes a lot more time. It wouldn't be something either party would get from a one-time fling or a casual glance. This would obviously last a lot longer. Also, to the OP, love shouldn't be jealous or boastful, but a lot of times people misconstrue it and use their 'love' of their significant other as an excuse to being jealous and boastful. I'm sure many people wouldn't want to get together with people like that, but evidently there are already a lot of them together. And arguing, and filing for divorces, and so on.

You really shouldn't be getting that error. Most good email providers should be checking for multiple access attempts from the same ip address, and if the person trying to hack your email doesn't have the same ip as you, the email service provider shouldn't block you. That's a problem of the service provider's, so you might want to try contacting them either through a different email or through phone (if they're a large enough company). If course, it's possible that you are on a shared network and someone else on your network is trying to access your account. In that case, if you have a home network at home or can otherwise get internet access (say through a public library or internet cafe), log on from there and see if things work out. HOWEVER, I would be careful about logging into your email through a public access point, since it's easy for people to install keyloggers there. Logging on through your home network is definitely optimal.Finally, take your email off the site and don't ever post your email address out in the open like that again. I'd suggest that you switch emails, because since this email has already been compromised, there's always going to be someone making attempts at hacking it and very little you can do about it. Before you change emails, just let everyone you know who still emails you there to email you at a different email. Pretty simple. Afterwards, don't give out your email to anything but trusted sources.I'm also pretty sure you can't disable the setting, because most email service providers insist on protecting you. Of course, this does depend on the provider, so you should check with them rather than with me. But this is all a good reason just to change to a new email to avoid the hassle.Good luck.

These are all very interesting, and I can definitely see some people who would prefer Chrome's "tabs on top" approach with respect to Firefox's. However, personally I've never found much attraction in the other aspects of Chrome's GUI. I like its "tabs on top", but other than that, I don't like how it eschews the native application colors and decides its own ones instead. Probably just a personal quirk.I will also say that the best part of Chrome isn't really its GUI, but rather its mind-blowing speed. If Firefox could become a Chrome-clone in terms of speed, that would far more beneficial than just cloning its GUI. Chrome's speed puts it into the leagues of a usable browser, and Firefox with Chrome's GUI will only make Firefox slower (more extensions always does that, no?), and slowness defeats the purpose of having a Chrome clone.I don't know, but this seems like a bunch of fixes that aren't really worth the effort unless someone is truly, truly obssesed with Chrome's GUI. But most people, after Chrome's release, were excited more about its speed than GUI. In fact, if Mozilla goes to great lengths to make Firefox faster (say they start using the same Javascript engine Chrome uses), then it will become a lot more competitive in the speed department, not just with Chrome, but also with Opera and Safari. Sometimes it's sad how Firefox is such a slow browser, but I can't switch away from it due to allt he customizations that I've already added into it.

No, I don't believe Xisto supports LaTeX. However, I'm sure that there are certain forums that you can install (once you get web hosting on Xisto) that have support for LaTeX. If forums + LaTeX is what you need, then your problem is solved. If, on the other hand, you want something a bit more generic, you'd probably have to port the forum code into a more generic one that you can use elsewhere.I also don't really see why Xisto should support LaTeX. LaTeX is mostly for typesetting for print, so unless your or someone else is using your website to generate LaTeX documents, you wouldn't need it. Now, even assuming that you are, most people wouldn't be doing that, so Xisto offering support for it is a moot point. Plus, I haven't heard of any other hosts offering...LaTeX. LaTeX seems to be mostly used locally and on forums, from what I remember.Either way, good luck configuring LaTeX to work.

Yes, Smiley Central is definitely not safe to download. It basically is a virus disguised as a useful program, and everyone knows those are everywhere. Anti-viral software should detect it (or else your anti-virus really stinks), but I think users should also be able to recognize that most of these "free" offers on the internet deserve a bit more caution. If users all thought a bit more before downloading things, then anti-virus software would pretty much be only needed for things like torrents. Smileys that are actually safe usually come from companies who have already established their trust, like the bigwigs that FirefoxRocks names. Everyone else is probably out there to trick you.

Uh, .edu domains are pretty much reserved for schools. There's a reason why the domains have .edu--it's to distinguish between that and the other domains like .com or .net. It's not just there for kicks and giggles and not everyone can register for one. That's pretty pointless, though. There are plenty of other places to host useless junk (try gmail, for one) that aren't going to penalize you very much. Even if you get caught using gdrive with gmail, the most they'll do is kick you off gmail; they're not going to try to press for legal action (as that's far too much of a hassle). If all you want is a storage device, there are far safer ways to do it than hacking a school website. Ah, now I see. Then it's pretty easy, just get the guy to start the paperwork. You pretty much have to; there are no shortcuts to this. But it's not like it'll be that much work...everything will work out in the end. And plus, don't most principals have at least some other people assisting them? It's not like he's the only one handling the paperwork, so if he really, really didn't want to do it, couldn't he push it off onto someone else instead? (Like say, a secretary?) Of course, keep in mind that you don't need an .edu domain to make the high school's website look nice. That depends on your own web design skills and has next to nothing to do with the domain name. Sure, it may sound more 'professional', but 'professional' is more about the look than about the domain. Good luck!

You should probably have added more than just the quote from the site. Couldn't you give some thoughts about the quote--like maybe highlight which parts are the most important or which parts are the most useful? Now, I agree that in general MMOs are very difficult to make. But it's quite possible to make a MMO that's simpler than most of the graphics-intense ones we've seen. MMOs can still be text-based after all. And even though its popularity may suffer, creating a text-based MMO is a chance for you to learn some things without focusing too much on graphics (which are, frankly, extremely difficult).There are quite a few books on game programming, but MMOs, like most games, are probably better off done with C++ than Java (for purposes of speed). Now if you intend for the game to be deployed in a web browser (say an MMO like Runescape), then Java is the way to go, but if you want more in terms of speed and your users don't mind downloading the game, C++ is industry standard. As far as languages go, Java is easier to handle than C++.I'd definitely second the start small idea. Come up with a simple game plan and then start coding and see if you get anywhere. If you did pretty well the first time, move on to more complicated ideas. Of course, those with a lot of dedication could probably start with a complicated idea and then research all the different needs as they go along, but that really takes a lot of concentration. It's easy to give up when the solution for your problem is more complicated than you'd have ever guessed.In general, read some books and start coding. Good luck to anyone who's going this route!

Well yes, but that's obviously because you realize it was just a game, and so you don't really gravitate towards playing with the same amount of time a regular person might spend on work. Some people though, literally become engrossed and stop thinking of it as a game. To them, it's a way of life, and they're probably going to need some outsiders (friends, family, a psychologist) to interfere and get them help. I did have a small bout of mmorpg addiction, and I have to say I did quite a bit of merchanting in Runescape. It was quite fun while I did it, and I remember banking a lot of cash off those newly released rune berserkers (and other awards in the new cave). I guess the "buy low, sell high" principle was working pretty well for me. However, after a certain time, I realized that I was spending far too much time merchanting, and began contemplating quitting. I also noticed that the profit gained from merchanting was lowering day by day (expected, since the price of a new commodity starts high but will always drop over time). Eventually, I told myself it was a huge timesink and just stopped playing mmorpgs altogether. I used to also play a text mmorpg, and I must say that one wasn't nearly as addictive (not because it was a text mmorpg, but because death was a really serious matter in the game). Once you died, none of your stuff could be retrieved, meaning that not only would you have to begin making money again, you'd have to regain all your levels. This led to tedium, as every new area of the game I discovered would lead to a death, meaning that I had to repeat the process multiple times before I got anywhere. In the end, my concentration gave in and I just quit. Obviously this is not going to happen. WoW profits off the fact that people become addicted to their game and come back month after month to lengthen their subscription. If they do what you say, they wouldn't make nearly as much money. That defeats the point of commercializing their product. Also, I've never seen that on the Wii (I've played multiple times at several friends' houses); perhaps this is a newer version of the Wii or something else special you had to install first? Now, if this exists for the Wii, it still matters less because they're not exactly forcing you to go outside, they're merely suggesting it. Such a suggestion on WoW might be nice, but everyone knows their developers won't do something to harm their business. The fact that the man got himself killed can't really be attributed to the company; there are plenty of others who are doing fine. It's the way he managed his time that resulted in his death. Hmmm, I think I might be of the personal responsibility camp. For instance, by now most people know and understand that WoW is addictive. Therefore, anyone who chooses to play WoW now knows that they are taking a risk, especially if they've had problems with addiction in the past. They know they might become hooked and yet choose to mess with it anyway. I believe this means that they should be responsible for their own actions. Moreover, whether or not WoW is really addictive the same way heroin or morphine is addictive is debatable. I highly doubt the endorphin high for WoW is anywhere near as high as that of the aforementioned drugs. WoW isn't a drug; it obviously gives addicted gamers a certain amount of endorphin release, but it doesn't do so by forcing the release. There are incentives in WoW, and accomplishing those incentives gives you a award, which causes the endorphin release. That incentive could easily be replaced by something else. Cue the workaholics, or the shopaholics, or whatever. Now, I'm not a psychologist, and I'm not trying to say that gamers should be left on their own. People around them (friends and family) should definitely try to help them get help. I think, however, that gamers, like those who eat McDonalds and then get fat should stop blaming the companies and instead think about why they made the decisions they made. Blizzard isn't holding a gun at their throat telling them to play, just like McDonalds isn't doing it to its customers. (Although, the last point can be debated due to the poor's tendency to eat unhealthy fast food).

So this free domain thing is still going, right? Sounds interesting, certainly, but I doubt I'd have the time to amass 280 posts. There are other sites I've found where I can obtain a domain without spending such time, so I think I'll just stick to those. I also think it might be cheaper just to get a job in real life (hahaha), as that could easily help me fund myself a domain and some relatively cheap paid hosting. This offer does look interesting (and attractive since I know that Xisto along with its owner Xisto is a trustworthy site), but I think I'll pass until I can find myself the time to be extremely active here.Good luck to all of you who are attempting, however!

Yes, language is deeper than just syntax or grammar, but professionalism is still related to syntax and grammar. If you were writing a free verse poem, I'm sure you could get away with poor grammar and still have a brilliant poem, but in other fields, this isn't how things work. We're not really poets here, we're sharing information about technology. If I had a company and I hired someone who couldn't type without grammar errors, we wouldn't be making a good impression on our clients. I'm sure Xisto has reasons as to why they need people who can express themselves coherently. I think the point is that we're not trying to correct small, often-made mistakes like split infinitives, because they don't really interfere with conveying the overall meaning. However, I have seen posts whose grammar is so horrendous that the meaning behind those posts is difficult to discern. Those are the posts I'd be concerned about, because they're the ones who really reflect a sense of unprofessionalism. Obviously, while you could argue that chatspeak is, to an extent, comprehensible, it is still very annoying and should be avoided. It's better to make posts easier to read than harder to read, right? That's what this "professionalism" is for, not for nitpicking grammar nazis. Perhaps, but a lot of times the location of the commas can determine your style and voice. I've seen essays written that don't use commas correctly, and it's obvious that there's something awkward about their style. Sometimes poor grammar goes far enough to interfere with the actual gist or tone of the text, and that is really the most important point.

Zoho is certainly nice. In fact, I'd venture to say that it works better than Google Docs. It's got the sharing functionality and it's also got a lot of the features from desktop-based office systems like Microsoft Office and OpenOffice, unlike Google Docs, which actually lacks quite a few features. (Though, I recently checked out GoogleDocs again, and it seems to have improved compared to what I'd seen a while ago...gotta keep up with the new updates, I guess)Anyways, I must agree with Atomic0, though, as desktop-based office systems tend to run a lot faster than web-based ones. Also, sometimes my internet is sporadic, so I'd much prefer to still be able to work on my documents when that occurs. Finally, by using a web-based office system, I'm also depending on someone else's servers to be up. While Google's is usually quite reliable (and, in my experience, so has Zoho's), it would still frustrate me if I had a deadline to meet and my service of choice wasn't up.There's also another online office system called ThinkFree. However, the difference between ThinkFree and Zoho and Google Docs is that ThinkFree is Java-based rather than AJAX-based. So, although ThinkFree has quite a bit more functionality than either GoogleDocs or Zoho (it's actually quite similar to a fully-fledged desktop Office system), it lacks speed and tends to slow my computer down a lot with its applets. So, all in all, I'd still prefer to stick to OpenOffice and Microsoft Office instead of online office apps. If, on the other hand, Javascript could run a lot faster than its current speed, I might consider making the jump.

Those links are very nice ones, Darasen. I especially like the first three (the first one being most important), because they cover aspects that are extremely practical once you start working with databases. The second one is a nice reference if you happen to be teeter-tottering on the design of a database. You could consult the second one for some pointers, I guess. In fact, I think some of the "gentle introductions to SQL" tend to miss the important aspects of relational database design. This then causes the person to mess up and create a poorly designed database. I've found that a lot of people don't take advantage (or understand) the actual "relational" part of relational databases because they stick to reading the simplified tutorials that neglect to explain the most important part of a RDB. Hmm, I wouldn't say there's anything wrong with putting SQL in the product's name---the whole purpose of the product is to point out what it uses and does, and calling it blah-blah-blah-SQL is a descriptive way of summing things up. If someone gave it a random name, it may well be pointless. At the same time, I will agree that SQL as syntax is very easy to learn--it is very similar to spoken English, except that it has a slightly modified style. Well, installation isn't as bad as you think. The MySQL site is pretty clear at explaining how to install things, so if you follow the directions there, you should be fine. Moreover, if you wanted to simplify the process even more, you could just install WAMP (if you're on a windows machine), and that would take care of Apache, PHP, MySQL and PostgreSQL all for you. Quite nice, if you want it that way.

Hmmm, you probably shouldn't have the <p> </p> tags inside a table cell. Unless you're using a javascript wysiwyg editor that automatically puts <p></p>'s around data. In that case, you're probably better off stripping away the paragraph tags. A lot of times, you're better off using <br /> for paragraph breaks instead of the paragraph tag as <br /> gives you more control over where your breaks are. <div>'s have the same properties as <p> in terms of paragraph breaks--it also starts a new paragraph. <span>'s don't do anything to the data that's within it, so that could be a useful tag if you just want to alter a single attribute of the text. You might try, as vujsa suggest, altering the margin or padding of the <p> tag. You can also use negative margin to force the lines to be close together. Also, as a side note, have you tried the line-height property yet? That can change the density of your lines. Line-height is relative to your font size. So if you have a font-size of 16px and a line-height of 16px, the lines will be of normal density. If you have a font size of 26px and a line-height of 16px, then the lines will be closer together. All in all, I still think the line break <br /> is the way to go. Good luck, Lancer!

It takes some time to get credited (generally at most it takes a day. If it takes longer than that, contact Cashcrate's forums). It also depends on which surveys you do--try looking on their forums and doing the ones that others have confirmed gave points. (That's what I did, basically, and it works.) For instance, here are some of the offers that I earned from (try these first, as they updated very quickly, in a few hours or a day): Free PC Magazine American Consumer Opinion The Final Payoff PrizeOMatic Remedy Samples What Drink Are You Celebrity Quiz Win Your Cruise Superhero Quiz The Dumb Test Atlas Credit Group Lightspeed ProQuo Lotto Prize Network Opinion Outpost USA Prizes Survey4Profit Paid Surveys Unlimited JoinSurveys I'd try ProQuo and Lightspeed first, as both of those credited in under an hour. I'm pretty sure the quiz-style surveys (i.e., the dumb test and other ones from quiz rocket) also credited extremely quickly. In any case, I guess part of it is about patience, since it does take some time and it's easy to get impatient when you think it isn't working.

Yes, but that doesn't mean what you think it means. Many people write posts like I do--notice how my title asks if CashCrate is a scam? Obviously Google will pick up on that, but Google isn't sentient enough to tell that I debunk the idea of Cashcrate being a scam in my post rather than saying it is one. Perhaps the funny point is that I could use the same argument for your site?

Nope, it's not a scam. I was surprised too, as most of these sites turn out to be scams. CashCrate, however, actually pays, and at an extremely fast rate as well. Basically, at the site, you complete listed offers and then the site will credit you with dollars. If you're wondering about the speed of the crediting, the site does it as soon as the company listing the offer tells them you've completed an offer. You'll also get an email letting you know you've finished and that they've confirmed the offer. You can cash out once you've reached $10, an amount that I reached within an hour and a half. They pay once per month, on the fifteenth of every month, by check. Currently check is their only form of payment, though I believe they had PayPal at one point. (I'm not sure if they'll bring it back) As for offers, the ones they have range from registering (probably the easiest), to registering and confirming your email, to filling out surveys, and finally to purchasing trial offers. Most of the offers are 100%; you don't need to purchase any trial offers to earn money. They do ask that you fill in valid information, however. Also, there's two daily surveys to fill out, depending on whether or not you qualify. Personally, I'd advise you not to work on the surveys and instead just book up on offers. The quiz-style offers really generate money quickly, same with the register only ones. It's also a good idea to check their forum for recent offer confirmations so that you know which offers confirm quickly. So, join CashCrate and you can easily make some quick money every month. It's nice to get a check in the middle of the month with some extra spending cash. Here ya go.

Agreed. It's also a lot easier on Hostbidder since you can see the results of what you've done right away (i.e., the points show up next to your name so you know your progress). I did do an offer at domain lagoon a long time ago, but they never approved it--either their automatic approving system doesn't work or they're really just a trick. I refuse to spend time waiting for Domain Lagoon to actually update my offers when they've taken over a week to do so. Dark_Shadow, can you offer any sort of proof that Domain Lagoon will actually stick to their words this time? Or that perhaps they will label their offers correctly because I found it annoying that certain offers required me to give out my credit card number (which I don't have in the first place). However, even if I did have a credit card, there's no way I would just give out its number to any of these sites, since who knows if they're legitimate and if they'll continue charging my account? Probably the only way I could do this safely with a credit card is with a specially made virtual one (which I believe Citibank offers), but I don't have the opportunity to get anything like that. I think I'll just stick to Hostbidder. Though I will mention that I wish Hostbidder determined the number of points you receive by the length of your post rather than by a limited number of posts to a certain area. It's far easier to determine the quality of posts by length than by number. Even though they supposedly curtail spam by only allowing users to post four posts that count for points, most people will just write four posts and then leave. Xisto's point-awarding system is a lot more accurate and efficient.

Heh, so you haven't seen any actual graphic designers do this? You know they do it because they need to protect their work, right? Otherwise their client would just take the work, use it, and not pay. Granted, I don't think watermarks are the best way to protect artwork--showing a low resolution image of it is much better. It's unusable anyways, whereas a watermark is easily removed by anyone who has some semblance of Photoshop skills. Obviously there are crap artists who do it, but if there are people (idiots?) copying from crap artists, who are you to complain? It's not like crap artists all draw Naruto (or other copyrighted) pieces; some just draw original crap (unfortunate!). And they get copied. (Which is rather sad) For the record, he's not trying to sell his art. If he were, he wouldn't be idiotic enough to post his images in that high of a resolution (without an extremely glaring watermark), get it stolen, and then promptly complain. He's already got a job and isn't looking for another one. That's very different than freelance graphic designers who do need to make sure their work is paid for. This has gone rather off-topic, from right click disabling to watermarks. :-P Anyways, back to the topic. Yeah, disabling right click is entirely useless. You have no idea if Javascript is even turned on in their browser (I, for instance, always keep NoScript on). I can click on any right-click disabled site without any hassles. Moreover, sometimes right click disabling doesn't even work--I remember trying on Firefox on a right-click disabled site--the alert box telling me not to right click showed up, but the right click menu showed up as well, so I could click as I pleased. Finally, if you do want to protect images on your site, either don't post it to the internet or use low resolution images as a sample. You are merely making the web an annoyance for users who don't actually want to steal your content, while those who do want to nab your content can very easily do so anyway.

That sounds interesting. I'd like to see an implementation of Yahoo! Search BOSS as I can see that it has a lot of potential. Perhaps it's unfortunate that I don't quite have enough time right now to mess with it. I do wonder if Google will do something similar in the near future to keep up with Yahoo? Now that would be interesting.