Animator

No, I do mean Microsoft. They officially announced a policy revision a year or two ago where they were moving from openly declaring newly discovered bugs & vulnerabilities to waiting until after the errors had been fixed. I've been unsuccessful in trying to google exact references, which seem to have been snowed under by every other policy change. The Linux community were somewhat unimpressed at the time, and I thought how sadly easy it would be for issues to get delayed indefinitely. This article: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ kind of shows what I'm talking about, but what I remember is an official policy change by Microsoft, that they would thereafter keep a lid on errors as normal practice.

This is normal. It's an entire OS, so there are loads of bugs and conflicts to find... some remain undiscovered for years. Even when a bug is reported, most users are blissfully unaware as future updates fix the problem before they notice. One this for sure... you will never ever ever ever ever see such things go wrong with Microsoft. I guarantee it. Why? Well it's simple. Linux is Open Source and publishes bugs as soon as they are found. Sure, it panics newbies to see declared errors, but sometimes the open community (e.g. the world) is able to fix the problem in record time once exposed. Microsoft, on the other hand, have taken the opposite approach. Where such bugs happen (and they do) official Microsoft policy is to keep the errors under wraps until after they are fixed.... when that eventually happens. ...you do the math. P.S. If you have specific problem, perhaps you could write up the symptoms on your own computer? If there are hardware conflicts others may be able to help out. Also, while it is possible to run Linux comfortably "out of the box", many of the Open Sourcers actually like the idea of tinkering with configuration files. Conversely it's illegal to reverse engineer Microsoft design (try reading the EULA).

These scripts are a basic level primer, and not entirely your own work. They are taken from http://www.htmliseasy.com/index.html, and there is also a "pay to see the rest" branch at http://www.pagetutor.com/index.html Slight changes to the occasional words may throw off google searches, but does not disguise where you ripped the tutorial from... Code 1: http://www.htmliseasy.com/javascript/lesson03.html Code 2: http://www.htmliseasy.com/javascript/lesson04.html Code 3: http://www.htmliseasy.com/javascript/lesson05.html Code 4: (logical math game) This is the only original code in your tutorial, although it is still a variation of the examples on Code 3: http://www.htmliseasy.com/javascript/lesson05.html Your modification is buggy though. For example, first you declare a variable and then prompt that same variable (you overwrite "firstnumber")

It often is, as can be seen with the first image. The main point of the rule is to avoid having subjects slap-bang in the middle, while also not hard out against the edge of the shot. It's used a lot on movies & television, although things are moving around there all the time. One of those rules that is made to be broken from time to time. The "foreground / middleground / background" concept mentioned earlier is valid, but not what the "rule of two thirds" refers to. These shots are perhaps a little over-centred and could be cropped to fit the rule of two thirds a bit better. What I really like about them is the lighting.

Slight correction here. The "rule of thirds" is not "foreground, background and middleground", which would be compositional depth. The "rule of thirds" is to do with balance of vertical / horizontal spacing. It's where you position the main focus of your work about a third of the way across the image, as opposed to dead centre. If you draw horizontal and vertical dividing lines one-third of the way across your image, similar to the grid of the game tic-tac-toe, then your primary focus should fall where the lines intersect.

Thanks for the speedy reply. I'd like to make a request if possible, that unapproved tutorials get the subject "(pending) Topic Name" when submitted until actual acceptance when the subject then reverts back to just "Topic Name". This way I would not be hoping for a string of new tutorials to read up on only to find I can't read them. ...I'm on a slow connection and my Xisto experience would be a lot smoother if I didn't have to sift through all the blank posts, repeatedly, until one day when they are accepted. As is, when posts really are accepted, I sometimes miss them because I've blacklisted that topic in my mind as having been a previous dead end. Surely it would be an easy change to auto-generate as topics are inserted into certain areas, also if topics we are never going to be able to read (like "Spam Attack" which must be a popular topic because it gets bumped quite a bit)... it would be cool if those ones simply didn't show on our lists. Pretty please?

Once tutorials are posted, it takes some time before they get approval by a moderator so that regular members can see them. Until then, members see an error as posted in this thread (click). This is fine, and we can expect delays because moderators are doing what they can, there is lots of spam attack at the moment etc. I've noticed an odd thing though... There are some tutorials which seem to be "active" in that I am frequently observing them in the "recent posts" lists with new names under them, as though people are making comments. But when I click on them for a read, I get the same "Sorry, an error occurred." error which is expected with non-approved tutorials. I'm confused because with the new names appearing to bump the topics up the list, I'm sure others are able to read the tutorial which I cannot. Can a moderator please let me know what's going on with these? A couple of example topics would be "Testing Something" http://forums.xisto.com/topic/19869-topic/ or there's also "Spam Attack" at http://forums.xisto.com/topic/96413-topic/?findpost=1064396509 (just as random current examples). Thanks in advance.

I see no difference in my making a program, or my authoring a tutorial. Either of them are a "product" I have created and am presenting. Technically, literature (tutorials etc) is released under a GNU license correctly referred to as the "GNU Free Documentation License" where respect to author rights etc are applied same as the GNU software license. Refer to http://www.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.html. These licenses are not something Xisto needs to subscribe to... they are the choice of individual authors in terms of how they choose to copyright their own work. In one sense, some would say I'm crying over nothing here, and should just let things glide. That's because "author rights" mean nothing to them, just like "copyright" itself seemingly means nothing to a lot of people. In my case, I am a financial supporter of the FSF (Free Software Foundation) which means I pay money to finance the legal fees (etc) involved in keeping the vision alive... so yes, I do take a definite stance on the matters. What I'm scared of happening, and think I can see starting to here, is where Xisto starts assuming a rule where once an article has been volunteered for use on these forums, that there are conditions placed on the author; for example, where he/she must link back to Xisto any other time they present their idea. Legally this would imply that the original author is no longer the owner of their work. Sure, it is good for an author to give kudos to Xisto by linking back "I originally released this on..." statements, but that should be a voluntary deed at his/her discretion; not a compulsory condition. Generally, a GNU release would contradict a compulsory bind. This is not the same as if I post to a forum where that forum has conditions of "must not have been prereleased"... one is a condition of acceptance (entry) whereas the other is a condition of ongoing ownership (copyright). Absolutely. In the case I had been referring to, I was actually quite happy with how the recommendations were raised and we even made a "half way" resolution of adding a simple "not for newbies" disclaimer. You mods do a great job of weeding out the tutorials from the amount of spam nonsense we've been seeing lately. I too want to see a big increase in the quality of tutorials. Few are genuinely groundbreaking material, and many answers people are giving to questions show complete ignorance either to what has already been said by others, or for that matter, to what is the bleeding obvious. As a GPL author of technical works, I'd like to know whether I lose certain rights when posting on Xisto. That fear would make me want to consider my audience with discretion.

This is a very thorny question. Graphics cards are directly wired to the motherboard and are typically not properly accessed through emulation beyond software (non accelerated) mode.

There isn't really an obvious answer to your question about which distro will run virtuabox / vmware the lightest (fastest?) because at the end of the day, if you install a heave app, you no longer have the a light distro. The weight of a distro is defined as much as anything else as what it's running.That said, there are some distros which will be more lightweight "out of the box" in that they take care to minimise the number of default background processes. My choice would be xubuntu because it aims to hit the "lightweight desktop" while still allowing access to a full range of repositories for whatever softwares you want to include.Friends of mine would recommend Fedora, just because that's what they like using. It would be good - provided you installed a light weight Desktop Environment such as Fluxbox.I'm not sure whether 64bit machines would run 32 bit emulation faster... not an area I've probed much. I would imagine no, because it means they are restricted to making 32 bit calls.

Owwwwchhh! As a technical person (my reason for choosing Xisto over Xisto) my interests are Open Source and GPL. When I publish something, whether as software or as a tutorial I like the spirit of my "product" to remain as "freedom" defined as RMS (Stallman) originally intended. That is; I made the work, it is mine, and I give Xisto permission to publish and/or redistribute it. Any "quoting" of my work is quoting... me. What you're proposing is that I no longer own my own product, and have to include copyright references to this forum any time I cite my own words. This rule directly violates the "freedom" as defined by GPL style licenses. GNU licensing was specifically designed to free people away from such bondage. No GPL supporter wants to add bumper sticker baggage to their work. The GNU cause is to get away from all that. As an aside, I made a tutorial here (on Xisto first) in one of my particular expert areas. The feedback which the tutorial got from Xisto was largely non existent, except for a Moderator who decided to poke holes in the work, saying I should make certain changes for sake of simplification which, as an expert in that field, I did not think were really required (he wanted me to go into increased beginner level basics for what was actually meant to be an advanced level tutorial). When I said that I did not think this was necessary, the response of the Moderator was basically that "everyone" in "the community" would agree with his stance. I later posted the tutorial in another forum (without the recommended changes). The result was much better received than on Xisto. I got thousands of reads and lots of people thanking me for the tutorial because it really clarified a certain technical area for them, was "very simple and easy to follow" etc. ...without the ability to be remain free to myself, there are good reasons why I would be reluctant to post my truely best work on Xisto. Perhaps these are reasons why Xisto feels it has suffered from a drop in quality overall? P.S. I don't want to appear like a troll, disrespectful to Moderators etc; I could shut up about it and keep everyone happy, though the above is actually how I strongly feel about posting my own work.

The problem with planning on paper is that most of us think far faster than we can write, and thinking isn't linear start-to-finish either. The whole process seems to come out in a confused jumble, which needs constant reworking, which is tedious and can take much longer than the initial planning stage ever did. I would thoroughly recommend you look into Mind Mapping. My school grades went from straight D's (in most subjects) to near straight A's when I did. I can honestly say getting those A's is achieved with a lot less effort than I was putting into those projects scoring the D's. Basically, Mind Mapping is a brain storming structure, which is what you really want when planning large projects. The idea with a good brainstorm is that you can float ideas around the page, and shuffle them freely into better groups (put similar ideas next to each other or even merge them when you spot a double up) and you can skip back and forth from one thought to another (like what happens when you think of a big topic) without fear of losing quick thoughts as they randomly appear. Using Linux, I find that kdissert is sufficient for my brainstorming needs. As a bonus, it has the ability to convert the mind map into a structured word processor document (writes everything in order with sub menus, bullet lists etc). What this means is that while I am comfortable working from the map itself, I can quickly print of a formal looking summary for any paperwork-obsessed administrator... without having to start all over just for their copy. I use kdissert for everything from lesson planning (I am a teacher) to helping someone write a CV (they give me all the details they can remember, and in any order - I just map them out and the word-converted version becomes their first draft... all in one session!) right through to planning a sequenced plot for a weekly newspaper comic strip! You don't have to use kdissert though, search for mind mapping software for your OS... there are plenty you can use... probably some of the free ones are all you need. (You may want to look at Freemind or VYM) Mind Mapping can be done at a higher level than mere brainstorming... when combined with Mnemonic and Visually centric learning techniques (lots of drawings) it becomes the powerful tool that got my D's to A's... I recommend the book "Use Your Head" by Tony Buzan if you want to explore this kind of detail.

Does anyone know what's happening to the Maya Licensing? Yes, the "proper" full blown Maya is expensive, but they have always had a PLE version for student (etc) use. This version was not compatible with the full version (different file type), it could not be used as a node for a render farm, and had really bad watermarks right across any work. ...but at least it allowed students to use the tools for learning purposes. In my case, I use Blender a lot, but I could keep "up with the know" on how Maya works... and legally. Now however, this PLE version seems to have been taken down. All that can be found is a 30 day trial version. Are Autodesk tightening up or lightening up here? I mean... I think the 30 day trial version does *not* include a Linux flavour - am I mistaken? As for the 30 days... does the program have ultra tight new security preventing users from reinstalling the application once time is expired? Can someone who knows the product please answer the above two questions? Thanks in advance.

Okay... I've now got credits going and all, but there are two things I don't "get" with the new system... I have a my website hosted on Xisto. Now that I've "upgraded" to the new credit system, do I need to change my hosting details somewhere? You know... FTP details etc. If I do, how? And what happens to the old site and when? (I don't want a duplicate site). Email... that is, the personal one I signed up for Xisto with has proven to be a real pain. Somehow it's been leaked to spammers and I'm getting a lot of spam everyday through that address (I have separate emails for all contacts thanks to http://www.spamgourmet.com/index.pl)... SO... I wanna update my email address to a new one. But where do I do this? In the Xisto account? Would this break my credits as I need to change my Xisto account as well? And what of Xisto srevice (new credits and all)... do I need to change it there? Changing three times seems a bit harsh and I don't want to break anything ...help?

Crossover Office are having a special day for being able to download their products for free. You have to register today. Registrations after midnight tonight will no longer work. Update: This deal has been so popular, they have temporarily put a demo version up, promising that the full version will be accessible to members who sign up now. ...sure hope they're not bluffing on that one. Now you can run the Microsoft Office, or play World of Warcraft on Linux or a Mac! Anyway - get it while there's still time: https://www.codeweavers.com/

Thanks guys. Maybe the problem was that I originally signed up too early. This time I now have a "MyCENTs" value. I'm a bit low on this new system though... What is the difference between myCENTs and myEarnings? Also, I have both Xisto and Xisto accounts. I only have a website on the Xisto one (I originally started the Xisto one when I had some teething issues trying to get Xisto registered). Until now, I have had to keep Xisto active (keep posting) because the hosting points would go down one each day. The Xisto was more relaxed though because without a site, the points were unused and "safe". I'm assuming the new points get all mulched together now? And if so, why are MyCENTs different for each account? (They share the same email). Do I have to post twice as much for the two, or does it only go down the amount for having one site? Come to think of it, why is myCENTs different on what shows up next to any one post, what shows up on the front page, and then in what shows up for Xisto versus what shows up for Xisto?

Lolz... you guys think Maple Story is just a game hmmm? I dunno who suffers from more need of a "get a (real) life" reality check here... the woman who went psycho at getting virtual divorced in an online game. the husband who complained to the police when she murdered his online virtual character as revenge. the police who dragged her 620 miles to arrest her for it. Source: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ Story brought to my attention from Saint Michael on Xisto forums.

I'm having a few issues trying to get onto the new system. Some were to do with errors (my fault I think) trying to get my Xisto and Xisto accounts on same email... Also... no clue on how to enable "credits" like I am supposed to. I signed up on October 19 as directed by a post by BuffaloHelp on this thread: http://forums.xisto.com/topic/96201-topic/?findpost=1064394680 ... but so far it looks like I'm still on credit system 2.0. There is no "myCENTs" appearing on my name despite having signed up. Help, please?

You mean how can you get your credit rating higher?To be honest, the more you talk on the forum here, the more your credit rate goes up. Therefore; you need to get practicing that "regular english" some more.If you have skills to offer in a particular area, then write a good tutorial on it. Tutorials score reasonably high, and allow you to justifiably post a good amount of point-scoring text. Images (have up to ten in a post) that make the tutorial better might even go into making it score higher as well. Write a reasonably sized tutorial, and you can expect, say, ten points or so for it straight away.Watch out that you don't just post mumbo-jumbo about something no one is interested in though. That's not we're about here. Definitely do not go and find something out there (e.g. on google) and post it here pretending it's your own... you can expect your post to be disqualified and possibly get banned for that kind of conduct.Personally, I find writing tutorials is very hard to do. Especially trying to write them well... takes me days to put a good one together. It's also a good idea to read through other posts and help out with the conversation. Try not to say the same thing if someone has already said it... that makes the topic dull.Often there are questions you can answer. (Which is exactly what I'm doing to your post now).When I signed up, I decided that I had a lot of interests but didn't feel like writing a tutorial on any one in particular. Instead I carefully put together a "top ten" list of useful hints for my general area of expertise, and invited other members to add to this list or make up their own. I was inviting others a chance to respond, and I got a whole lot of other useful information from their ideas. Everyone wins. There you go. Hope this gets you started off. Happy AstaHosting

Well, I have to say I'm not having much fun with PotableApp ClamAV. For my own computer usage, my "virus fix" is that I don't use Windows... haven't since about ten years ago. Linux all the way for me and very happy. ...which is the reason I that while I do have one (test) windows computer, that machine is not connected to the internet. So then, I downloaded PortableClamAV onto a USB along with the latest database virus... both http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ and http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ I ran the USB installer on my Windows computer (telling it to install on the USB) and put the database files into E:\ClamWinPortable\Data\db\. The program (looking under HELP menu) now thinks it's updated but on running a scan, it says "MD5 Verification Error" and scans 0 files, despite me having highlighted a bunch to scan in the GUI. I can't see where any MD5sum files are. Not being on the 'net with this Windows test machine I can only update manually. Their forums were hopeless (loads of finds of errors nothing like mine). Any ideas on how I can successfully set PortableClamAV up? EDIT: No worries... installed ClamAV on my usual Linux box, stole the virusdb from there... those ones worked.

Whoah - that clamwin is definitely timely yordan! I already know about live CD's, USB installs of Linux etc, but this is different isn't it? I mean... native working apps to bring to people with, Windows, to run on Windows? This is very timely for me because someone asked me to analyse their computer yesterday (will be calling today) as they have had virus issues... and my big box isn't feeling up to being lugged around anymore. Now it looks like I won't have to pull their hard drive out and take it home, making a mission and a half to see what they might have caught. ....cheers for the headsup! Edit: Hang on... looks like this might be a USB distro. I see it has a "setup.exe"... does it run within Windows? Can I run it in my friends computer with no install?

Erm... xboxrulz... now there's four topics including this thread on the topic; the original one cited (that this is cut from), another one where I raised the contradiction to another moderator, a fresh topic I made about the issue and now this one? Luvs the attention but me head spinning.

I'm by no means a moderator or anything, but personally, I think people should be able to freely quote themselves without "quotes" and thus gain the points for the content. Sure, if they can quote from just anywhere (not their own material) google-searching for new things to add in as if it's their own then Xisto forums would become a mess of "repeated content that came up first on google" and it's blatant plagiarism... but then if we are allowed to get points for quoting ourselves... that's very different. Firstly, it is our own work, and by quoting ourselves we are thereby giving Xisto our permission to host our intellectual content... which is what Xisto wants isn't it? To establish a talented community of members. Secondly, if I post my own content, it's because I think it's not likely to come up within those first few pages of a common google search. Anyone who's studies the science of "making your site popular" knows the dynamics of this. Posting what you find in google is bad, because if you can find it, so could anyone; google has given it a high priority for the search words. On the other hand, your own material is not as likely to be so high in google and therefore will not likely have been seen by any Xisto members (unless they happened to be googling for your name or an exact phrase you used... not likely at all). In short, by posting your material here, you are more than likely making it available to Xisto members who would not otherwise have found it. Thirdly, I think that by allowing people to repost their own... quality... content, it's likely to reduce the amount of spam (crap posts) going around the forum. The number of times I've seen nonsense replies that don't really add much to a thread... nothing useful anyway. It's obvious they are wanting their postcount to rise... so wouldn't it be better to let them post something more interesting they have done even if it was something they did a year back? As long as it's still exciting material for today. Fourthly, if it is my material... and my own material... I'm only going to have a dozen or so large essays to share tops... before I run out. Then I've got the limited points I would get for it and would be on a level field. Not the same as when people repost internet searches is it? The key difference is that the material really is my own. Plagiarism (of someone else's work) should be stopped. Crap content should be nailed. (Can be subjective I know, but there have been some good spam identifiers suggested). ...but quoting oneself? Hey, if it's your material I think that should be encouraged. Small idea: Might be a bit of extra trouble, but if moderators want to break the confusion (and perhaps give half points for a "self quote")... why not make a separate "self quote" button? That way we could actually get something for quoting ourselves to this forum? That's an interesting point though. Personally, I'd just like to see self quoting as not needed; given they are our own words.

Can the moderators please agree on what the rules are for using and not using quotes? On one hand we have yordan penalising members for not using quotes in topics where they copy-pasted their own work from other sites. Refer to thread here: http://forums.xisto.com/topic/96177-topic/?findpost=1064394470 On the other hand we have xboxrulz, another moderator, doing the same thing and replying... ...when questioned about it.Refer to thread here: http://forums.xisto.com/topic/96221-topic/?findpost=1064394870 Which way is it? A) Should xboxrulz be made to go through the numerous "quoting himself" contributions he has made and correctively put quotes around them all? Should yordan stand corrected and take back the quotes he put around other members threads? C) ...or should Xisto have one rule for moderators, but another for members in regards to what is appropriate postings? Please let's reach a consensus in this. It affects whether I'm going to feel up to writing tutorials for Xisto or just have them for other places.

Well, blender is such a big program that even after a few years using it as my main application (e.g. most used program), there are still some major areas I would consider myself a beginner at. I'm only just starting to look at the game engine part. I'm glad for your feedback because it lets me know that I could write certain tutorials on the intro level, which I would have otherwise considered annoying to other blender users in that those tutorials aren't quite as "cutting edge" and could be considered old by some. However, the basics are very important to learn first and if I can get Xisto points by writing a succinct tutorial or two I certainly don't mind. There are always things which people miss like, how to split the main screens, that while the R key rotates, tapping it twice trackballs, hitting X, Y or Z after grab (G key), size (S key) or rotate (R key) does the change in that XYorZ direction, whereas SHIFT-XYorZ has the opposite effect, how the layers work... etc etc etc. So, how about giving me a brief synopsis of what you have achieved so far and what you are stuck on at the moment? Then maybe I could customise a tutorial for that area and everyone happy.