Arbitrary

I wonder if these are all Google copycats? I mean, I've seen a lot search engines similar to this. They all have Google-like designs--a simple logo and then a search box with a search button. In fact, taking into account com search results, even those are similar to Google's--they have the "Sponsered Links" on top and to the side, and then they have the search results under and to the right of that. I guess people either don't get that there won't be another Google unless they can come up with a major improvement on their algorithm or all just want to catch on the new hype of search engines. And copying Google's design isn't really going to get them anywhere. Though Google's design played at least some role in its success, its search algorithms played a more important role. Although, I suppose its also possible these people just programmed a robot for fun and unleashed it to the web. Who knows?

I'd rate it a four out of five. I mean, yes, I did get bored of it in the end, but it wasn't quite that bad while I was playing it. The graphics weren't great, but at least they had enough thought to consider their dial-up members. (Though, when I had dial-up and played Runescape, the game frequently froze and asked me to wait while it was loading the next section) @demolaynyc, I definitely agree. Some people who play the game are just plain mean. I guess they thrive on threatening and getting pissed at other people. I mean, I can understand if a newbie to the game gets on their nerves, but they at least should be patient and just tell them loosely what to do. Or they could just ignore them. Insulting is taking it kind of far. And on the point of insulting, I guess Runescape's swear word filters aren't working too well. People are still saying bad stuff to each other, albeit just not in the same form. And the free part does get pointless after a while. Most of the people who continue to stay in the game level after level are probably paid members. I don't really feel like spending my money on Runescape, so I'll never get to see the "less boring" side of it either.

That's an interesting version, Dhanesh. Usually pink and blue don't go together, but you seemed to make them mesh together really well. And of course, the blade and gun are nicely emphasized--sticks outta the blue. I also like your new font, especially the one you used to write "Blaster Blade". That particular font seems to suit the situation better. The partially opaque white layer that covers the blue background is nice--now it seems in the making for an enter page splash image.

@Barako, we complement each other. I've never played Maple Story, but I have played Runescape. Anyway, the point of Runescape is to develop your combat skills, get assortments of armor, level up, get more cash, and get more possessions. Of course there's a number of ways that you can go about doing this--killing, selling expensive things etc. There's also a number of roles you could play in the society--sell feathers, blacksmith, something of the sort. The game does get boring after a while though--once you've had enough levels and explored a number of its features. Then you'd have to pay to get more features...or you could, (like me) just quit the game.

I agree with seec77, the first one is quite nice. It feels balanced (well, obviously with the two people on either end it ought to feel balanced) and the color tones complement each other well. My one complaint might be the font--I find it slightly too big. Perhaps if you made it just a bit smaller, it'd let the rest of the image show up more. As for the second one, I don't really like the font. This might have something to do with me disliking sans-serif fonts, but Times New Roman just looks boring--like that of some normal print rather than a flashy graphic. Also, the black background gets to me. It would be nicer if you added some more decorations to it, as currently it feels rather plain. The third one isn't bad. I just don't really like the colors--they don't mix well together. Usually green and gray work okay together, but in this particular one, I really don't think a green font and gray (black and white) photography go together very well. Personally, I've never liked 3-D font rendering. It just seems too MS Wordish (On MSWord there was that Word Art option with all the 3D fonts. I liked it at first, but came to dislike it as I saw better designs) The 3D fonts are too garish and out-of-place...Also, I don't get what's on the right side of the third image. They look like birds, but I can't really make it out. Perhaps it might be nicer if you made it a bit clearer. Overall, you could probably make the banner less gray. Somethings are going to have to stick out to make a difference to the user.

Well, I like the Windows XP GUI, but beyond that, there's not really anything in it that I really prefer. Windows 2000 isn't bad; I'm using it right now and like it. I used Windows 98 a lot before, and now I'm really starting to suspect if it's true that 98 has better security. After all, during the period of time I was on 98, there were never any security problems. On 2000, I got a couple of viruses that I eventually got rid of through PC-cilln. kAs for my favorite...I guess I'll have to say Windows 3.1. Not because its practical or anything, but just because it's amusing to see an older version of Windows. And I guess it plays a role in nostalgia too.On the practical side, I guess I prefer 2000. Its GUI is really annoying, but it hasn't crashed ever since I started using it.

Now that is really nice! It was so mesmerizing...I ended up staring at it for such a long time. I don't entirely get the "trace" and "swarm" buttons, I just know that they make the set of balls move in a different manner, both of which are really interesting. And I definitely agree that Flash isn't all about boring enter pages that we skip. {Well, sometimes I look at the enter pages, but...often times it gets annoying) It can be used to create really interesting animations...reminds me of that TokyoPlastic site.

Oh yeah, I remember playing that game. I liked it when I played it--I was sort of hooked. I especially liked the picking out the correct jewel based on the word with the monkey part. But recently when I saw my brother playing it (I have no idea where he dug up the CD), it didn't seem half as interesting as before. But ah well, interests do change as you get older. I also remember playing Oregon Trail...That was back in third or fourth grade, I believe. I liked it a lot back then...but same as lonebyrd, I didn't find it so interesting when I played it again recently.

Yeah, true, but is this book distributed with the author's permission? I mean, it doesn't look to be the author's site..so, I dunno. But perhaps the author did give the person permission to distribute the book. Hum. And for eBooks, I thought you had to pay to get to read them? So it's technically the same thing as buying a book at the bookstore. (Though it'd be easier just to borrow it from the library. )

Yeah, that's true, but if they stick to oil, the only governments that will benefit are those that have a ton of oil supplies. The rest will be hurt, and will probably switch as soon as oil prices get overboard. Now obviously that's the logical choice, but not what's really happening. With the U.S. government there's a lot of problems--like how the gas prices aren't taxed like in many European countries, and how the gas giants are still earning money despite the inflation of gas. None of that makes any sense. If they taxed, people would stop trying to use up this already limited resource and move on to something else. And they wouldn't be paying so much tribute to the countries that have oil, who are the only ones benefiting after all. And of course, the people are at fault too for simply going with the flow of the government and not advocating change.

@twitch, our schools are crap too. >< They offered Java and C++, but then the C++ teacher cuts class every single day. He never bothers teaching, and simply gives everyone an A for no good reason. At least the Java teacher is better...Anyways, my first language was Java, then I learned C++, though I didn't really learn much of it. Afterwards I moved on to Javascript because I thought that would be a good addition to my current collection of HTML and CSS. Eventually I decided I needed to learn PHP, so I learned that, and it turned out to be really easy. I'm probably going to try to learn C and review my very crappy C++ next.

I've seen something of the sort before on Dynamic Drive. Its just that the particular script I saw didn't allow you to attach it in an external JavaScript -- instead, you had to repaste the Javascript snippet in every single HTML document you wanted to use, which turned out to be quite a hassle. So this is a nice improvement on that. Highlighting forms can definitely be very useful, especially on a form with many boxes to fill out. It makes it easier to figure out which boxes you have yet to fill out and which ones you have already filled out. Speaking of checking empty boxes, it might be nicer if there was a script that highlighted missing fields as the user moved on to the next field. For instance, suppose I filled out first name and then date but neglected to fill out last name, right when I click in the date field, the script should highlight the last name field and tell me I missed it. That makes it a lot better than last minute reminders after I have already filled out the form.

Ahh...now this would be really useful for when collecting phone numbers and wishing to remove all the non numeric characters from it. I just read at AListApart that it would be friendlier to users if forms simply allowed users to fill in their phone number in whatever format they pleased. Thus, this script might prove useful. On a second note, it is Javascript, and I was thinking of sticking more to PHP, as Javascript could still be a usability problem for some of the security-freaked visitors. At least I know the server can always run my PHP scripts.

Agreed with warallthem about the blade glowing bit. You could probably make the gun glow as well, as currently the picture is slightly on the dull side. Something standing out from the grayness would be good. I like the blade and gun though, they're nicely done. The symbol at the bottom could probably also be made to stand out--its also rather unnoticeable at the moment.

Seriously? I thought they only said that in their submission policy because they needed to make thumbnails of your art and thus had to say that in case some artist decided to sue them for making thumbnails of their work. I thought they had the submission policy cleared up with better words, but I guess not. Though, I guess if they mention "third-party companies" they must seriously mean it. Otherwise they would just mention deviantArt. Truth is, I think its rather hard to get any good comments nowadays. I remember back when I first started on deviantArt, I would be able to get a number of constructive criticism comments, but nowadays people simply say something short like "cool" or "nice, cute, I like it". I sit there and wonder how I'm supposed to improve when no one says anything beyond "cool". I recently read a number of deviantArt forum rants on the issue, so I guess it must not attain to me only. I wonder if the reason people stopped giving out concrit (at least this is my reason) is that they got scared the artist and his/her friends would become defensive and angry and decide to report. In any case, I haven't totally given up on deviantArt, so I still submit my stuff there. Just not as often as before. My account there is: kleptom.deviantart.com

True that it takes water to get hydrogen, but I think the real problem isn't the lack of water, as once hydrogen is used as a fuel, it will produce pure water as an exhaust, which means that no water is gained or lost. The problem is that breaking water molecules down into hydrogen and oxygen takes a lot of electricity. So the efficiency of hydrogen powered cars depends a lot on how we break down water molecules. If we use electricity, then it's probably not much different than our current usage of fossil fuels. On the other hand, if we can find some alternative sources of energy -- like wind or solar -- then we might be far better off with hydrogen fuel. Another problem might be the monetary issue--hydrogen isn't the cheapest form of energy, so most businesses would be interested in sticking to oil until they realize that oil prices are so high that its no longer profitable. But usually by then it's rather late to start switching--expenses may just go up. And hydrogen fuel's just the hype. Aren't there other types of fuel like biodiesel and ethanol that could be considered too?EDIT: We probably will be sticking to oil for a long time though. Most people are averse to change, so they're going to wait for as long as they can wait (until oil prices are unforgivably high) before deciding to change. It's just the nature of humans--don't move until it's too late.

That is a really nice logo. I like the contrast--it fits the text decorations really well. However, I guess it would make more sense for you to show this design within your website. I.e., where exactly are you going to use it? It might not look so good as the top banner -- it's rather big right now. I suppose if you had an enter page or something, it might be a good picture to include there. Nonetheless, I really like the movement you gave the wave in the middle and the worn text (although that seems to be the "in" in terms of design these days).I guess it would be kind of hard to use a circular logo on a site. Never seen it done before, but I guess you could pull it off it you tried. Or, perhaps you could use it as a button? Seen lots of circular buttons.

Currently I use mySQL. It's the most common, so obviously a lot of people use it. I've read a couple of books about Oracle and SQLite, but those apparently only taught me how to use the databases and not whether or not they were actually good. They don't seem to be very common, so I don't use them, but are they better than mySQL?

The site is nicely done. Though I agree with mpinsky--the site's menu confused me quite a bit. I mean, there's a "hosted by" and then there's also a "black dog". So I could have assumed that they meant hosted by a site called black dog; yet, there's two separate images, one for "hosted by" and one for "black dog", leading me to think that Black dog is an affiliate while "hosted by" just leads to their hosting site.Also, the "enter" sign was hard to notice--I guess it would've been nicer if it had been a bit more obvious (like with an icon would've been better). My attention instead turned to the "shop" button at the bottom; I ended up entering the site through that button. The animation was very very cool! I really liked all the effects that they did with the Japanese flag--especially when the red circle in the middle ate up a mess of plants, and how that same red circle turned into a person's head. Very interesting ideas they had there. I dislike the fact that the animation had to come up in a popup though. I would've liked it more if it had just stayed in the same window--much easier to deal with. Navigation might be slightly confusing for some users, but I really like how you have to click on the venus fly traps to go somewhere. (And the movement of the venus fly traps...) The font that described each menu might be slightly on the small side though, and I find the descriptions a bit slow at loading. (I'm just kinda in a hurry to see things, I guess)I also enjoyed the number of transformations that take place between clicking on links--so very unique! Navigating between links can be slightly confusing though--a lot of users might wonder where exactly they're supposed to be clicking, so it might be better to have some kind of sign that says, "Click here" or something.The drummer production was very cool (though the navigation was sort of a hassle; it might've been better if it all performed in one go). The subtle and sudden transformations surprised and amused me. The drummers had some nice music to go along with them too. The one problem might be that some parts move too slowly. For instance, in the beginning when they wanted to show that it was a TokyoPlastic production, they did a lot of animation before they finally got down to the point. Very roundabout way of doing it.Overall, the flow of one animation to another was really great--the transformations were well executed and very smooth. This has got to be one of the best Flash sites I've seen--it sure stays away from the conventional ebb and flow. Great job to whoever made it!

That was interesting indeed. The people moving around....hahaha, all under his control. I just saw something similar to this on YouTube, although that was more like some little kid's fantasy show... For this one, I like the colors...they're really calming. As for God--he has waaaay too much control over us, making him almost scary.

Hmm...but this mostly applies to those of us who actually are listed in the ODP, right? The rest of the people just automatically get their site summary from a different source...I suppose its a good thing that Google is allowing webmasters to chose between using ODPs as their site description or otherwise; at least that means sites can have accurate descriptions.

Yeah, it's true that TabMixPlus isn't working. Neither is FasterFox, which kind of annoys me. But on the point of TabMixPlus, most of the features that were originally offered by it are now integrated into Firefox 2.0 Beta 1, so there's no real point in updating it. And for single window mode, couldn't you just edit the settings so that all new window open up in tabs? Unless you're talking about pop ups as well? EDIT: I've noticed something else quirky. Everytime I load a page, Firefox 2.0 Beta takes up 100% of my CPU. I don't get why. I tried restarting Firefox a couple of times, but I ended up with the same problems. It definitely isn't about the sites I go to, because without the new beta, I had no problems with those sites...yet with it, my computer's dying. ><

I like the second one best. Its got a nice feeling to it--the colors are bright and get their point across. The only thing is, I wouldn't know if that would be considered professional, although using that as a header would probably be fine. I don't like the first one that much, it reminds me of the days I used MS Word to create alterations on text. MS word had a set of patterns to alter text, and I originally thought it was great but eventually found the horrors of it. The third one is too stark. I don't think its that professional, and its also slightly...well, I can't seem to grasp the word--weird. It doesn't befit Xisto. The fourth one is okay (it is professional), but the text is too jumbled.

Well, there aren't any huge changes between this and Bon Echo Alpha 3, so...Of course, I don't think the phishing protection was there before, so that's a nice addition. I do appreciate attempts to protect users from phishing attacks though. It also seems rather similar to the Google Safe Browsing extension for Firefox too...but its a nice thing that it got integrated into Firefox instead of making users install something. I can't say I really like the combined add-on and theme extension. I don't see how much of a difference that makes, as that might also just confuse users. On the other hand, I do prefer the name "add-ons" to extensions. It just seems to fit better, so it would be easier to understand. I've also been using TabMixPlus for the close button on tabs and for undoing closed tabs, but once again, integration into the main Firefox is a lot better than making users hunt, download, and install extensions. Search suggestions are interesting indeed. Works like Google Suggestions.

Oh wait, now I've noticed, there's a Wikipedia article that offers some translation. Wouldn't say its entirely comprehensive, but it did do the best it could. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leet. Then there are some sites that automatically do the translating for you, like this one: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ and this one: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ And for Firefox users, there's even a 1337 translator extension, available here: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ Apparently this extension only translates from normal text to leet, but doesn't translate form leet back. Rather useless to me as I'd rather not translate what I write into leet. Back to English would be a lot better.