NeoTeemo

Will, could you please give us a couple of examples on what you mean by disrespect? I have a lot to say about this subject, actually, but I need to understand exactly what motivated you to write this post, so that my reply can be a little personalized. I wouldn't want to rant for hours then find out I was talking about something completely different :XD: Also, do you believe your entire age-group faces the same irritation as yours? Is it a general complaint, I mean?

Actually, 6 MegaPixels is A LOT! Many people use 3 and 4 MegaPixel digital cameras with really clear results. In fact, unless you need to print out large photographs - e.g. posters, for example - a 3 MegaPixel cam would serve you just fine. I have a 5 MegaPixel digital camera and it hasn't failed me so far. Well, except that it doesn't have optical zoom, which limits my ability to capture clear shots at a distance. But other than that, I'm yet to have a problem with it.

I personally started learning programming with C, then worked my way up... and down, too, actually. But I repeatedly hear that it's best to start with a language such as Visual BASIC, where you can learn most of the essential programming concepts while not having to deal with the more complicated tasks. And although Visual BASIC is rather limiting in many aspects, it's widely in use and doesn't take too long to learn. But whatever you do, you'll probably grow into using C++ or Java pretty soon, once you learn the basics and feel the need for a freer approach to programming. Good luck.

When it comes to P2P software, I always search torrent sites first. If I don't find what I want there, I resort to using the other P2P method. My torrent software of choice is uTorrent. It's very efficient, has basically every feature I could want in a torrent handler, and it's really low on system resources. My favorite torrent search Website is Demonoid.com. It's one of the best private torrent websites out there. It's open for subscriptions only one day a week, usually Fridays, but you could get invited by current members any day of the week. If you want, PM me and I'll send you an invitation code. Another site is ISOHUNT.com. It's a torrent META search engine, actually, something like a torrent aggregate, but it has a very large collection. Unlike Demonoid, you can't post or read reviews, so you kinda need to do your homework before downloading something. Now, if you can't find what you want there, or if you need to download the occasional MP3 file, you can resort directly to the other method and use direct P2P software... I used to use Shareaza, since it used to connect to 3 different networks: Gnutella, Gnutella 2, and eDonkey. Of course, this made it easy to find basically ANYTHING you wanted. Unfortunately, the quality of the searches has dramatically decreased a couple of months ago. Since then, I started using LimeWire for the occasional download and eMule for dedicated, rare searches. Using all those methods, I can't remember not finding anything I looked for. Good luck

I have the same problem. I even used to have it during the period I tried Xisto's paid option, Xisto - Web Hosting.com.

Well said, Jeigh. Saved me a lot of writing I had actually discussed most of those arguments already in my previous posts on this topic, but I think lonelym missed them since there are many posts already. Now, back to lonelym... No! I'm talking about what's best for the "yet-to-be-born" child. My mention of the parents has been almost purely collateral. If the child is born to parents who have no money and no responsibility, THE CHILD will suffer a terrible life. In this case, it seems to me that abortion is the right thing to do FOR the CHILD. Kindly read Jeigh's post above then take a look at my first post on this topic. To kill something/someone, they have to be alive in the first place, right? Now, if you can tell me what life is, either biologically or philosophically, and can apply that definition to one of the stages of embryological, fetal, or other prenatal development, then perhaps we can start talking about the moral aspect of "killing a living being." But not before that Notice that this argument, unlike most of my others, is dependent from spiritual influence altogether. I mean, most of my other argument are influenced by the fact that I'm an agnostic, which is why they can be largely debatable when confronted by a religious belief. But this particular argument is actually almost purely practical. It poses a direct question and waits for its answer to dictate what should and should not be done.

lonelym, I think you're looking at this the wrong way . Let me explain... Take a look at the following two questions of yours, directed at baby bear in regard to her latest comment: Do you see what these two questions have in common? They're not discussing abortion; they're discussing irresponsible cases of pregnancy. Deeming abortion illegal, which I suppose is what you're arguing for won't solve any problem in the abovementioned cases. The parents won't get richer or become more responsible. And, more importantly, the child will still have to suffer the consequences of the irresponsible actions of his/her parents! Actually, in cases like these, abortion seems to be the better solution for both the child and the parents. Now, why not go straight to the source of the problem, i.e. irresponsible conceptions, instead of its consequence, i.e. abortion? Perhaps it might make more sense if we proposed some form of legal action against parents who are found guilty of irresponsible conception. What do you think?

I'm not sure whether it was something I did wrong during installations, or something wrong with the pack itself, but the K-Lite Codec Pack never allowed me to play either QuickTime or Real movies on my Windows Media Player. I even tried the QuickTime Alternative and the Real Alternative applications but still... no use! If anyone has run into this same problem, it'd be greatly appreciated if they shared how they managed to solve it.

Although not a particular fan of pointing fingers, whether rightly or wrongly, it's understandable that a corporation as well-reputed as Mozilla is trying not to take the fall for such a bug. Personally, I do believe it's their fault. After all, they are the coders of FireFox, aren't they? But then again, when it comes to computer programming, I know firsthand how impossibly Herculean it is to code a bulletproof piece of software. I suppose what I'm trying to say is this: there's nothing wrong with Mozilla screwing up every once in a while. And it's understandable that they don't want to take the blame for it. The important thing is that, while trying to dodge the bullet, they work on breaking the gun itself, i.e. fixing the bug. Mistakes are perfectly acceptable as long as they're rectified on the spot. Thanks for sharing the interesting find, saint-michael

If this Website is as credible and achievable as you say it is, then it really is a pretty good deal. Unfortunately, there is one prominent disadvantage: This is rather limiting to people like me, who are not in the USA. But then again, the site owners have to look out for their best interest and remain within the limits of their sponsors. Still, thank you for sharing the find, Victim

Dear mitchellmckain, First of all, I would like to thank you for sharing your views and opinions. In all honesty, I always learn something new from your insights, whether you're talking about religion, philosophy, or science. Now, in regard to your thoughts about the five solas, I'm very interested in knowing exactly what Biblical verses upon which you formed your thoughts. I mean, the rationale behind your opinions is very clear, I think. But since my knowledge of the Bible is certainly not comparable to yours, I'd like to understand more. Let me clarify... "Turn The Other Cheek" is a phrase that's commonly debated. Some say that it's very literal, while others opt for considering metaphorical meanings. The rationale behind either views is understandable, and the phrase they base their views upon is known. Now, I think I understand the rationale behind your views, but I'm interested in knowing the "phrases" upon which you built those views. I apologize for the ambiguity, which is due to English not being my mother tongue. But I hope I managed to convey the meaning to you. If not, please let me know and I'll try my best to try again. Thank you in advance

Yes! As long as your Website has enough decent content and is in accordance with their Terms Of Service, it doesn't matter whether you use a regular domain or a sub-domain :-) Actually, they WILL send it to Lebanon, but it will be in the form of a check. Google sends US-currency check to basically any country -- I live in Egypt at the moment and Google has no problems sending my checks over here. But keep two things in mind: Google uses CitiBank as the issuing bank, so make sure that you either deal with CitiBank or with a bank that accepts CitiBank checks. And... You cannot directly withdraw cash after the checks clear. The cash has to first go into your bank account as a deposit before you can actually withdraw them. This merely means that you MUST have a bank account, nothing more, nothing less. It's not as scary as it sounds, but it IS a point to keep in mind. Oh, and... Happy Earnings ;-)

For logos and buttons, I find CoolText a very useful tool. CoolText is a free online graphic generator, which you can use to easily custom-make logos and different with a myriad of nice effects, .e.g. embossing, glowing, 3D outlining, blending, beveling, carving, etc.

Originally, Atheism had been exclusively the belief that there are no gods. But with time, atheism has come to encompass other philosophical concepts. Now, there are two major types of atheism: Active Atheism: which is the proof-supported belief in the non-existence of a god. And... Passive Atheism: which is the mere disbelief in the existence of a god, but without enough supporting proof to his/her/its non-existence. Of course, the two go by other labels, but the concept is the same. I personally am an agnostic, since I find the available proofs to both the existence and the non-existence of a god rather insufficient. Agnosticism, I believe, is strictly a philosophical standpoint and has no direct relation to religion. For example, when I was a Muslim, I still was agnostic! I could philosophically neither prove or disprove the existence of the Islamic god (Allah), but I found the Islamic Holy Book, i.e. the Koran, too perfect to be a human invention and so had to attribute it to the divine. Of course, I was young :-)

I do the same on my laptop. It's a Pentium III 500 with only 128 MB of RAM.When I only switched to the Windows Classic Theme, I didn't notice much of an improvement to the overall computer performance. I had to disable most of the graphical enhancements, e.g. sliding bars and fading effects, to really notice a difference. I kept ClearType and Common tasks, too, because I really couldn't function well without them.I've been wondering, though... Does disabling the graphical enhancements help performance because it takes load off the processor or the memory? I have a desktop computer with basically the same configuration as my laptop, except that it has 256 MB of RAM, and it seems to run much smoother. I do realize that additional 128 MB of RAM can make a difference, but the desktop computer runs much smoother even when I'm not running anything on the laptop!I understand that those graphical enhancement must be using some processing resources, but their load on RAM must be significantly higher. Can anyone confirm this?

The answer to this question itself is simple: W3C develops technologies and guidelines, but it does *not* enforce them. When the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) publishes something new, it calls it a W3C Recommendation, refraining from using the word standard. The Web is mostly an uncontrolled medium. And since the W3C has no real authority, no one really has to implement their recommendations. For example, Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator are both notorious for their non-compliance to those recommendations, while other browsers, such as Mozilla FireFox and Opera, flaunt their W3C-compliance as one of their main features. The W3C Website boasts the following mission statement: As such, their mission stops at *development.* It's up to the conscious users to announce their inclination toward standard-compliant software, and to virtually coerce the software industry's into sticking to it. Let's face it... we - the users - are the ones who suffer from the chaos resulting from software's non-compliance to standards; hence, it's up to us to do something about it. At the end of the day, any company can't go against the wishes of its clients for too long. If enough of us make our opinion known, repeatedly, there's no doubt in my mind that we can impact dramatic difference on the Web.

If you're interested in finding a computer application to help you organize your time, manage tasks, build concise schedules, handle projects, and set reminders in a simple, no-nonsense manner, then zPlanner is probably exactly what you're looking for! zPlanner is a small application that employs different, interrelated methods to help you manage your time. Although its Graphical User Interface (GUI) is very plain and its functions are not very intuitive, it doesn't take long to master them and put them to good use. Once you've read its Help Section and played around with it for some time, you'll totally get the hang of it. Since zPlanner supports multiple users, you start by entering a User Name. Once you do that, you're taken to your User Home, where you can access all the time planning and management features available. zPlanner works by categorizing everything you do during a day into either Projects or Activities. Projects are things you do which have a start and end dates - e.g. a self-study course, redecorating the house, a trip, etc. - while activities are things you do regularly, whether daily, weekly, monthly, or otherwise - e.g. sleeping, going to the gym, reading, etc. When you plan a project, you get the option of dividing it into Tasks. This is a universal method of project management, recommended by virtually every time management speaker or guidebook, and it has many benefits - but this is not the place for a detailed discussion. You can take a look at McGraw Hill's book entitled Time Management for more details. Whether you're planning tasks or activities, you get to set Time Frames for them. This is basically setting when you're going to start and finish. After setting time frames, you're presented with a Schedule which uses all the information you've entered so far to give you a visual representation of what your day, week, or month will be like. This is very useful since it gives you a chance to have a Big Picture or a Bird's Eye view, so you can make changes when something doesn't seem convenient or doable. You can also print the schedule so that you have with you whenever you need it. You can also set Reminders. These reminders can be single or recurrent, and you can set them daily, weekly, monthly, or annually for any task or activity you have entered. Actually, I have only tested the reminder feature once during my initial tour of the application, but I haven't used it in real life time management yet. But during the test, it seemed very easy and useful. All in all, I find zPlanner an indispensable tool in my everyday life. It helps me manage my time very efficiently, and I find that everything I read in time management books and manuals can be easily applied and integrated into the program. Sometimes it takes me a minute or two to figure out a way to do that, but it's usually pretty straight-forward. zPlanner is freeware graciously given away by http://www.2-0.biz/, and can be downloaded from Download.com at the following link: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

I'm an agnostic. I used to be a Muslim -- having been born and raised in a predominantly Muslim country. I didn't actually choose to be an agnostic; it came as a natural consequence of: Being convinced, through reading and critical analysis, that existing religions are NOT divine revelations, but rather human inventions, and NOT being convinced by the arguments put forth by atheists to prove the non-existence of a god. This needs a bit of elaboration... I, naturally, haven't studied all existing religions. The one religion I studied the most is Islam, since it was my mother religion, if I may call it that. After being thoroughly convinced of its being a non-divine revelation, I turned to the world's most popular religion, i.e. Christianity. I spent a lot of time studying Christianity as well before I decided that it belonged to the same category as Islam. Then I went to Judaism, and I must admit that it didn't take me long to see that this cannot, by any means, be a religion given down to humanity by an almighty creator, especially not the one described in Judaism itself! Many of the other famous religions don't even claim that they are divine revelations, but admit right away that they are merely ways of life. I didn't need to include those religions into this particular study, but I certainly learned a lot from them, and there is a good chance I might become a Buddhist in the near future... But that's another discussion. As for atheism, I couldn't be convinced of its arguments to the non-existence of a god. Sure, those arguments seemed, to me, very valid when they concerned the god described in religions, but they didn't seem very convincing when they came to the concept of a creator, a being or an entity or a power that caused the existence of the universe. There's a lot to say about all this. The philosophical debates, arguments and discussions are almost never-ending, and they represent a particular interest to me. But I think that they belong to other, more detailed threads, and it would do great injustice to try to get into them here. But I'd also like to say that I'm not predetermined to stay agnostic! If I find enough proof that atheism is the way to go, I will become an atheist. And if I find enough proof that a certain religion - even if it's one of the religions I had already studied - is indeed a divine revelation, then I will be a religious person. It's all about finding enough proof to convince me

Well, I suppose that depends on which market we're talking about, really. For example, being somewhat involved with the digital animation industry, I know for a fact that this new processing technique will be a god-send. They currently employ what's called Render Farms, which are basically large collections of connected computers among which the processing workload is distributed. This market alone is growing very rapidly and is demanding enough to justify this new processing method. Of course, numerous other fields can benefit from such processing power. Research institutions, large Web server with turnkey services, government networks, scientific exploration projects, etc., etc. Shifting to the mass-consumer market, i.e. the common end-user like us, I agree that there is no foreseeable way for this kind of processors to be used. As has been mentioned already, quad core processors are not in use even though they already are in the market. This is largely due to the fact that it's technically close to impossible for current Operating Systems to parallelize among the four cores. I've seen many people using dual core processors, namely Intel's Core Duo processor, and complaining that they're not seeing much difference from older Pentium IV processors with Hyper-Threading. I admit I haven't been closely following the processor-manufacturing industry lately, so this bit is almost solely based on casual observation. Bottom line is: no matter what they come up with, a use will be found for it not so much later. Anyway, it's rather refreshing that, for once, hardware is running faster than software requirements

I think it's brilliant :PSeriously, the design is very elegant yet totally unobtrusive, the colors blend in perfectly with the Website itself, the font used is simple and stylish at the same time... All in all, very well done.One thing I feel might increase the seemingly perfect color blending is: making the background of the Top Horizontal banner transparent! You see, the top horizontal segment of your Website - the blue stripped segment - looks a little "lighter" than the background of the banner itself, although they have the exact same design. So I suppose turning the banner into a transparent GIF image would greatly help the color blending. It currently doesn't look so bad, but turning it transparent is not a hard job, anyway <_<Again, very well done. I'm not a professional graphic designer but I guess I know a good design when I see one... I hope

First, I'd like to comment on some of the points mentioned in the thread-starting post before I write my own view on the subject. And even though many of my opinions have already been expressed by other members, I might have a thing or two to add here... Jeigh addressed this point beautifully. What is a child? Is it the being that comes out of a woman's womb? Is it the 3rd trimester fetus which has a 50% chance of living outside its mother's womb? Is it the embryo implanted in a uterus, yet to form primitive heart, brain, spinal cord, and other body organs? Is it the fertilized zygote which forms when a sperm penetrates an ovum? Having studied basic embryology for more than a year, I still can't honestly and clearly answer these questions. We need to first determine what a child - a human being - is exactly before we can talk about killing it. What if the fertilized product of a sperm and an ovum doesn't become a child for the first 2 months of pregnancy? Wouldn't that, according to aforementioned quote, mean that abortion is fine during those first 2 months? We do know a lot about the phases and stages of embryonic and fetal development, but we're still debating human nature itself! What makes this mass of carbon and hydrogen atoms a living being? What distinguishes it from a rock or the computer screen you're reading this on? These questions are still undergoing major philosophical and even religious debate. And, until we can answer these questions, everything we say is an arbitrary opinion, at best. What about "accidental" and "non-consensual" pregnancies? What about unforeseen events and life crises? What about the time-proven fact that no plan is 100% iron-clad? If parents had to be completely, totally, and utterly certain that they can provide for and support their children before they were born, no child would ever be born! Don't get me wrong, I don't think of birth-giving as an absolute necessity to begin with; I'm merely trying to debate different points of view. This is a rather interesting point when you come to think about it: Choice! You see, the parents are the one who chose to give birth to the child. God, according to many religious folk, gave existence to man. The same religious folk argue that this "gift" gives God the right to demand whatever He/She/It wants of man, life included. This makes me wonder, how can the same religious folk say that it's not the parents' right to take the life of their children if/when they want? Again, this also is said merely for the sake for argument Of course, this point bears no significance whatsoever to someone who doesn't believe in God, or even to those who do believe in a different God other than the Abrahamic God (i.e. the almost-common God of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). A human law, almost by definition, requires the consensus of the majority within its relevant community. For example, in a largely religious society, it's fairly reasonable to expect that abortion will be outlawed, since the majority will choose it to be so. But what if this is not the case? We'll then need to answer the questions I started my post with before any reasonable, rational person can make an educated decision. Having said all this, I'd like to stress that I'm not pro-abortion. Actually, I'm rather anti-abortion. But to state my opinion clearly and thoroughly, I have to share many of my general beliefs, most of them bear no relevance to the subject at hand. So I have to leave it at that for now. Also, I'd like to congratulate you, lonelym on your enthusiasm and your concern. It's very rare to find someone as young as you are who cares about such matters. If only there were more people like you...