Animator

What you're looking for is known as a "kiosk" setup. You don't generally want to change the defaults of your standard OS to have all those useful features disabled... instead what you do is set the user to a kiosk, or low-privilege user. It's kind of the opposite to users who are / are not sudo enabled. Now, you can probably achieve this kind of thing by playing with profiles and permissions (actually, another way is to chmod or chgrp the individual commands themselves in /usr/bin) but your job is made easier by apt-getting "kiosktool" or similar management program. Just google "Ubuntu" and "kiosk" and you'll soon be heading in the right direction. I believe KDE (as opposed to Gnome) has one built in. I haven't really read up in depth, though for Ubuntu 7.10, I thought this was a nice colourfully illustrated example: https://www.hugedomains.com/domain_profile.cfm?d=caffeinefueled&e=com P.S. I think you should drop 7.10. Use the latest version when seeking support, and keep it up to date; the Ubuntu community just kind of works that way.

Okay Einsteins... I have a small problem I'm getting sick and tired of. Whenever I buy a Castrol 4L plastic bottle of car oil, the lid is really hard to take off (you have to break the ring, and y fingers have nerve damage making this quite a feat because I can't grip well) and has foil underneath... but once this is broken, the lid comes off all too easily. If I have the car in my boot, the bottle often tips over and I find the oil has leaked everywhere. It's not cheap and I ruin anything it comes into contact with.Short of paying someone a stupid amount of dollar to put bolts in my car or lugging around a weight of bricks, what can I do to stop the bottle tipping over and spilling?Your ideas please.

Yes, but the Gimp does not actually care what you name each layer. It plays them in order showing the bottom layer first, then working up through the stack. I just number them out of habit because it's "tidy" and makes it clear to the anyone editing the file which order they are in, and also anyone offering advice about improving an animation can specify exactly which frames are affected. Transparency was something which I didn't want to get into because it could make the tutorial too long and confuse people. The tutorial is written assuming that no transparency is wanted for every frame, like a flipbook with solid pages, so your animation will have each frame in a white box. Of course, GIFs can handle transparency, so that your dancing banana could be floating in front of your website background. Using (replace) for any frame means that fame is drawn completely afresh whereas (combine) shows the lower layers through any transparent holes. If you make a transparent GIF, it looks confusing in the Gimp because you would see all the layers in the workspace window at the same time. The eraser tool punches a transparent hole in your layer showing what is in the next layer down (or previous frame) so I recommended to avoid it at this stage and just have no transparency.If you would like to use transparency, I recommend you mark it in an unused colour (e.g bright red) while working on your base animation. When your animation is done, you can use the magic wand tool on these areas (or "select by colour") to select these area and delete then with "cut" (CTRL+X). You would have to do this for each layer as well as having to set each layer to (replace) and... well there's plenty of stumbling blocks. Experimentation will show you the way. Yeah thanks. I cut my left index finger with a craft knife in class some time ago and the nerves are damaged; my keyboard spelling dropped bigtime and occasionally things like that seem to get by my spellchecking. I didn't have much time to include screenshot images which is what I would consider if presenting the tutorial to school children. Onto it now, thanks.

I think I may have answered that in the post just prior to yours. Many of use use a Tablet. Very common with Photoshop users. A lot of pros actually start from a pencil & paper sketch scanned in as this flows better then trying to draw directly to screen.

This is a very simple technique which even young school children can manage... use the method in class if you like (but show them for real rather than making them read something; they will pick it up a lot faster). I am using Gimp 2.4 for this tutorial. When saving layered images in GIF format, the Gimp knows how to prepare them in a special way which will work automatically on websites. I recommend you are moderately familiar with the Gimp and at have at least a basic understanding of layers to follow this tutorial. Part 1: Get Ready 1. Start a new image in Gimp 2. Make sure the layer window is showing (if not, hit CTRL+L or go to Dialogs => Layers in your image window menus) 3. The default layer is called "Background". It is in bold and has some special properties like not being able to be switched around (up or down) with other layers. I usually delete this layer because not being able to move it becomes a pain. 4. Make another layer white (not transparent) layer and name it "frame0001" Part 2: Draw Your Frames 5. Draw the first frame of your animation on the main workspace window, this layer will be "frame0001", which is the very first fame of our animation. 6. To make the next frame, hit the "Duplicate Layer" button. Gimp will automatically name your new layer "Frame0001 copy". Double click the name to rename it as Frame002 Note: it is important to know that Gimp animates the layers upwards, that is... the first frame of your animation should be at the bottom bottom of your layer stack. 7. Redraw the next frame by making alterations as needed. Do NOT use the eraser tool, as this will poke transparent hole in the frame, showing what was on the last frame below it in your working window, bu not necessarily in the final animation (depending on layer name... see Part 5 step 12). For now, it is better to paint over in white. A useful tip here is that by utilising the Opacity slider of your layer, you can see through to the previous frame. Be sure to move the slider back when you are done and be aware that whichever layer is highlighted, is the one you are currently painting on. Part 3: Preview Your Animation, Touch Up Frames 8. In your image window, go to Filters > Animation > Playback 9. In the new window which appears, push the PLAY button. The timing will probably be wrong, and you may spot things on frames you need to fix. Note that there is also a single frame step button... very handy. 10. Go back to step 6 and make adjustments as needed You do not need to reopen the Playback afresh each time, it will update automatically. You may have to use the eye icon on layers to hide the top ones temporarily so you can see what you are repainting on lower frames. Thankfully, hiding frames does not affect them showing in Playback, so you can work on lower frames and preview the animation at the same time without having to unhide everything. Part 4: Fix the Timings At this point, you might want to SAVE your work as the next stage is going to rename your layers. Use XCF format. 11. Go into the image window menu through Filters > Animation > Unoptimize. This will create a brand new Gimp file, but the layers all have (100ms)(replace) added to their previous name. The ms means milliseconds (1/1000 of a second) and is how long that frame should last. So, if you want a particular frame to hold for a second, double click the layer name and change the value to read (1000ms)(replace). Part 5: Optimize the GIF and Save Finally, you are happy with the timings and the look of your animation. It's good, but it's not efficient in terms of filesize. It's a waste of resources to redraw the whole image every frame when some parts don't move. 12. This time, go through Filters > Animation > Optimize (for GIF) The resulting new file is specially made so that only what is needed to be replaced gets put on every layer. Notice that the layer names have changed from (replace) to (combine). This means that the new layer is combined over the top of the old one. In other words, a layer marked "combine" treats transparent areas as "see through" to the previous lower layer, whereas "replace" means to draw each frame afresh. This can be confusing to work with so I recommend you don't bother with transparency for your first animations. 13. Save your new work as GIF. Go through "Save as" so it asks for a name for the file. End the filename with .gif (e.g: myanimation.gif) A box will appear asking whether you want to "Merge Visible Layers" or "Save as Animation". Choose the Animation option. I usually keep my backup copies in Gimp's default .xcf format as other formats in case Gimp changes some of the colours or compress images to a poor quality, which can happen because of the filetype. You are basically done. Put the animated GIF on your website and it should just work. Please vote, and let me know of any errors you spot, or just anywhere I'm unclear so I can make appropriate alterations.

I think that should be https://www.gimpshop.com/. Yet another Linux user, Gimp is what I use. But then, I really really hate the lack of folders in Gimp layers. Photoshop can do so much more than Gimp mainly because of that one function.

Hehe, I looked at that William Hung... reckon he could make an awesome duet with my favourite Wing. It's funny how Hung's Wikipedia page states... ...because any time someone comments to me about Asian singers, my mind goes to some of the kick-*bottom* Karaoke performers I've heard, who are really good.

There are a number of influential God-people out there, those who venture out to hard situations in Faith, who testify that God gets them through situation after situation. Apparently being with them is pretty evident... but it would require something of Faith to put yourself in a situation to find out. It's almost like God is saying, "try me and see, but don't expect me to show you evidence if you're only interested in the safe seat. I don't go by your rules."I remember a number of years back when I took up a Flatmate (kind of a "good deed" when flats were hard to find after I'd landed this one in difficult times) who turned out to be an alcoholic... not a hardened one by any means. He never threw up anywhere but would occasionally comatize himself or have police knocking on my door at 3am to drop him off. Needless to say there were issues in trying to get board payments out of him etc. I was a bit young at heart then and couldn't bring myself to kick him out.When I tried to reason with him about payments etc, he got abusive. He attacked my church-going manner along with everything else. He said religion was fake, and too authoritarian which meant it contradicted any loving God. I didn't have an answer for him. Frankly it felt like God was hiding when I needed Him to step in. I went away "to do the washing" but was fuming. There were a few expletives (I really don't think God minds swearing btw) and up in the laundry I got this... kind of a vision. It was these words that just appeared in my mind. I couldn't shake them out. All they said was "ROMANS 13". Eventually I pulled my bible out of my back pocket and was surprised by what that chapter read.To cut it briefly, the chapter directly contradicted, piece by piece and very clearly what my flatmate had been saying against me. I was stunned by the relevance of it. I raced down the street and there he was smoking away... I asked if he minded me reading the passage... he did not. When I finished, he dropped something in front of me. "What's this?" I asked."There ya go..." he replied "my first down payment."Now, I won't say that was the end of all problems or anything, but the same as above. It sure reconfirmed a God-reality to me when I needed it. And if I hadn't put myself out in the first place, getting the flatmate in, and then trying to live out the faith... I guess I wouldn't be any the wiser.

Haha you guys have nothing on Wing. Wikipedia synopsis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wing_(singer) Her official homepage: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ This lady really has guts. She is totally hilarious to watch on stage. Her mutations of songs are actually very clever... it's no wonder Wing has such a cult following.

My danged little sister is meant to be Preparing a site on the 'net just for me But she spends all day chatting On forums and that thing Called Asta; it's some kind of community.

A desperate member of Xisto Wanted points, but had nothing much new to post If his score got too low His website would go And be there forever a cyberghost Getting low on points? Post your dedication to Xisto poetry here to bump up your wordcount and amuse the rest of us at the same time.

Hey there. Which step, 3 or 4? There may be some variations on actual keypresses and sometimes how an edge is added depending on whether you are using Maya, 3DSMax or similar. The process itself is basically universal though. On step 3, when you delete the two edges, a package like Blender would actually delete faces either side (shown in my diagrams in darker blue as they are holes.) Even if your 3D program does not delete the faces but just the line, just go to the next step 4 and remove the remainder of the edgeloop (e.g. downwards) This is pretty much the core part where you are actually getting rid of the unwanted lines. The parts before and after are to keep everything as quads (no triangle faces). Yes, professional non-newbie modelers should know this stuff (you'd think so), though it's amazing how many out there seem to more know "of" termination better than they can "do" termination. As modelers are often in a tight deadline, this is sort of a formula I made for a quick method. I've seen a few other methods though none that are as fast as this one.

I recently decided to put up a new tutorial. I understand that new tutorials need to be approved before they show. Don't mind that at all. However - I noticed in the bottom area of "new topics" my tutorial is already showing. Clicking it get the error... I'm thinking this is kind of odd. My tutorial simply hasn't been approved yet. This error makes it look like the tutorial was denied or that there is something wrong in the works. Can we make it so that preapproved topics simply don't show?

If you're a 3D Modeler using a program like Maya, 3DSMax, Blender, Truespace or similar, you are probably already aware of the need for quads (four sided faces) on industry standard models. (e.g. movie or TV animation; games models are an exception for other reasons) Often, where you want to join two meshes (e.g. a hand to a wrist) they don't match up because joining edges / faces are not the same number for each part. This is where edgeloop "termination" comes into play. It is a simple trick to knock out edges from one part so that they two do match up, without creating the widely feared triangles as you do so. Edgeloop Termination is one of those things that is pretty easy for those who have done it for a while, but devilishly hard when you are first learning. Here's a simple workflow to show you how to terminate two edges. 1. We want to get rid of the two lines shown here. 2. Start by making diagonal lines to draw our target edgeloops into the centre. 3. Delete the previous edge where the new merge is taking place. 4. Delete the remainder of the edgeloop. 5. Convert the middle triangles to a single quad. 6. Fill in any holes. You are done. Okay, that's my simple edgelooping "trick" for now. There are other variations on the method. If I get time I will make another tutorial on these shortly, including a way of matching even and odd edges (the above only works in twos)... that will be a somewhat bigger tutorial. For the meantime, I hope someone out there finds this useful. Please give feedback, vote etc if so.

Well, the link from here is fine and all. As you have said it's the destination site which appears to be at fault...Nameserver trace for http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/: * Looking for who is responsible for root zone and followed c.root-servers.net. * Looking for who is responsible for com and followed d.gtld-servers.net. * Looking for who is responsible for computing-web-hosting.com and followed ns2.computing-web-hosting.com.Nameservers for http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/: * ns1.computing-web-hosting.com returned (SERVFAIL) * ns2.computing-web-hosting.com returned (SERVFAIL)

I would suggest Blender, a 3D modeler / Animation package with built in game engine. Not easy to learn though. Download Blender from their site at https://www.blender.org/ Get support while you learn https://blenderartists.org/forum/

Thanks for all your help. Most was solved by making p,td style so table cells defaulted to the standard font settings of the main page. I got my page, small though it is, up and running enough that I'll be able to hand around business cards with my website on them searching for work....never seen a <BR /> tag. Was that made to sort out the discrepancy between those who use <BR> and those who use <BR></BR> ?

Most beginner pages on CSS give introductory examples of how to change font style for a page, by doctoring up the <P> tag, <p class="somestyle">blah blah blah blah blah</p> I'm finding that this is pretty annoying to use. It doesn't always work and it adds blank lines (being the <P> tag because that's what <P> does) around things when I want those lines to be close together. In Tables, it's really annoying to have <P>...</P> inside every <TD>.....</TD> just because I want to return to my standardised "somestyle" font settings. ...so yeah... there is a way in CSS for just setting the style for all text right? Complete CSS newbie wants to know.

Hi. Didn't think I'd bring this up because I was sure that you'd be onto it soon enough. However, it's still there after a few days. Clicking the FAQ link in either Xisto or Xisto results in a message "Hacked by DumansaL" followed by a database error. I did a forum search for the phrase just now... apparently nothing had yet been posted about it. Regards - Lancer

Your approach is wrong. You're basically zooming in so close to inspect the edge (trying to get the infinite 0.9999999....) that you're claiming to see a straight line. Stand back and the angle looks smaller.

Well, the reason I'm choosing Xisto / Xisto is because of all the free hosts that promised CGI / PHP, this is the only one I've found that actually looks like it supports the ability to set up something like FormMail, where my visitors can fill in a page, hit "send" and that gets emailed to whatever email address I want....and a business page as well. This is great for me because it helps to avoid spam by changing the FormMail send email address if the current one gets flooded. When I hand out my business cards to lots of people, they can get me through the FormMail or the email printed on the card (but displayed not on the website) and my email isn't so up front on the web that it gets harvested. ...to make this work, I have a separate "published" email for the card, but temporary ones (that can change) for the FormMail. I think bots could still get at my email on the cgiemail template, but that's when I change it to shake them off. That's the plan anyway... hoping it works in practice.

That's pretty cool. I've also used similar approaches for migrating Linux systems onto other hardware / multiple installs etc.One thing on the Windows front though... wouldn't it be smarter to make that zip from a LiveCD rather than from within Windows? I'm just thinking that if there's a system file there with no read access (can't imagine why for admin though)... by using a Live CD you'd be more likely to pick it up.Also, Linux (on Live CD) has more reliable backup commands in way of tar, dd etc.

It really slacks me off when they slip in their own extras like that. It's what made a mess of HTML before when IE was versus Netscape, resulting in a tonne of tags, all variations of the same effect. When CSS was introduced, one of the biggest pulls of it was to set common standards so all web browsers would experience the same page within reason of backwards compatibility. While scrollbar colour isn't going to upset browsers in the backwards-compatable sense, it still shows Microsoft trying to edge ahead in sneaky ways again.

Hey there.Yes - I did see that page, it was what I had for example3 (above). I just had to edit the clickable hyperlink because all three examples here were leading to my first page.For some reason - now it's working(!!!) But I never changed anything. Did you fix it behind the scenes?If so, thanks. Moving on to using the email instead of the echo.

Over on Xisto I recently made a similar post finding that I had waited a week and a half abouts to get my application looked at. As long as your entry is sitting in the admin inbox, it's sorted, although it may take some time... hopefully two weeks tops. You're only talking about setting up your first account? Or do you have that already and are trying to start another? If it's your first, then maybe the message is that the admin are still getting around to processing it.