scout

But what will you do when they pull support for XP Prof? I know it won't be until 2014 or whatever but it's good to start thinking. Microsoft isn't giving up, they are just dropping an outdated product name. In my oppinion, they shouldn't have branded Vista with the Windows name, it's a new, redesigned OS (sorta...). They have taken the internet access issue into consideration. In fact, all the major players in the computing world have been talking about this concept for a while now. The projections say that in less than 10 years, a majority of the world will have access to high speed internet. That's kindof exciting don't you think? Not even a majority of the world operates a computer yet at this stage. This change is going to be dramatic as well. Almost the entire concept of computing will eventually change with the visions that some have shared with me. Don't get me wrong, this won't happen for a few years. The cloud computing theory will only work if it does change. Imagine you have this built in protocol (NetBios) that allows you to boot from a remote machine/server? Great, you tell me OS is too big even for dsl... Well then, lets get rid of OS. Let's just load things as we need them. So what do we need; machine language interpreter, drivers, etc etc... Ok, I feel I'm losing everyone, at least I bore myself. I think you get the idea though. It is extra bandwidth, but I'd expect that most people use far less of their current OS than they suspect. It will be an end to the 'windows' framework I hope. I'm sure that once it happens, there will be interfaces for it that resemble Windows for a time, but I hope they can break out of this conceptual madness that we are in. Windows was a great step up from DOS, but I think alot of us have been waiting and wondering when the next step will be taken. The major companies have finally heard our cries and complaints about debilitating, feature rich software and are moving us in the direction we wanted; to allow us to choose what we want to use (or clog) our systems with. Don't be fooled that Mac and Linux won't jump on this concept in one way or another. In fact, I would say that Linux is ahead of the curve so far. In Linux, if you want a new piece of software, all we have to do is type in one line of command, or some of us get a nice GUI to scroll through. It wouldn't be a stretch of the imagination to allow the same priveledge for d/loading and installing the actual OS. Another thing to keep in mind is people haven't started to say we don't need a hard drive yet, which makes me think that we might only download it every once in a while, at least in the begining. The pricing and so forth of course I'm dreading with everyone else. I use a free OS but that doesn't mean I don't use commercial software (at least so far). In one discussion I had with some Web2.0 guys, they pointed out that, if I was charged based on what I used, instead of a flat fee that included everything, it should make my next operating system purchase cheaper... I suppose this would be true if the companies broke their price down based on what they currently charge. As for security, I don't think I'll trust Microsoft for a long time, but mabye with better management, they can pick up thier game.

That's another great choice for us. I was planning on doing several unrelated things with this account (once it's fully up and running) and sub-domains are definitely nice to have but it's much cleaner and looks much more legitimate to have a domain for each.

I don't suppose you guys read books every once in a while. This reminds me a little of Snow Crash. In that book, there was a virtual land that developed into a real global economic power. The early investors were rewarded well. Of course it's just a book, and that doesn't really have anything to do with the plot, good book.

Magick is definitely our realm. We must give back to Mother Nature. Love all and contribute to the greater aura. Plants in the home and stretching thy self. Produce a good world of Magick.

Although it is getting harder to do with all the scams and such, I was able to make a few bucks using ebay a few years ago. I had trouble with them recently when trying to buy a computer though. Over half of the auctions I bid on were scams and when I tried to sell my old computer, no one but scammers bid on it, wasting my time and money...

It looks great for a first design. I am always a fan of simple, fast websites like this one. The colors used seem to blend well with the art shown. I think if the menu was centered with everything it would have a risk of getting lost, indenting it is a nice way of accenting it.

I stopped trying those accelerators along time ago as well. There are only a few ways that a piece of software can speed up the internet and they all have to do with your ISP. Beyond that, they are just a waste of system resources, saving every page you look at for recaching or using different network paths. I've always tried to keep an internet connection that doesn't put me in that kind of bind.

The funny thing that has started to happen with v3 is after playing flash in a web page, my sound driver crashes when I close Firefox and I haven't figured out a way to fix it without logging out and back in, which is irritating. I think I'm going to try Chrome today...

The laser keyboard is definitely the way to go. I would imagine that it should be easy to program any sort of keyboard combination with one of those babies. All in all, I appreciate some of those multimedia buttons, like volume, email checker, etc... http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics-gadgets/computer-accessories/?icpg=gy_8193

XP was definitely better than Vista, although I always thought that 2000 was a bit more stable and had less frills so it ran smoother. I do have to say though, the computing industry was coming along just fine with operating systems without Bill Gates. All I can remember is him 'borrowing' ideas and running good programmers out of business. I suppose there was a time for a while that Microsoft's OS may have been the best out there, but there have been companies producing very decent and even superior products, which would be even better if the populous would ever come to realize that we don't have to put up with this monoculture and support something better. Why should your support be rewarded by being charged for superfulous upgrades year after year?

I can sympathize with all of you, Windows is so unstable and sloppy it drives me crazy. The thing that I found to satiate my thirst was Linux. Linux makes everything soooo much easier. I'm not saying that it doesn't get sluggish after installing hundreds of programs (99% of which are free), but once I remove them they are gone and the system returns to normal. I'm not saying that Linux is foolproof, in fact there are probably many more ways to mess up your computer but almost anything is fixable (just don't chmod your root to 666...). In fact I ended up corrupting my current kde just last week. If I needed an install disk I would have been without my graphical programs probably for good. Fortunately, all I had to do is type 'apt-get install kde' in the command prompt I was able to get to and poof! Everything is magically downloaded and setup for me. All my programs are intact, my documents still there, every setting untouched from the moment before the problem occured. I still marvel at how many tools are so easily obtainable for linux without needing to keep install CDs around, or even needing to spend money at all. That's right, any software program that you would need is available in linux for free, mabye it's name is a little different but the functionality is the same. I hate to sound like an advertisement but everything spoken of here except the heat and sand of the desert has been solved with other operating systems.P.S. Saint Michael, if you have those hard drives still you should try running a program called Spinrite on it. They have a free trial version you can download just to see. I hear it has some amazing capabilities for restoring damage to hard drives, whether physical or emotional damage. I've used it a couple times myself and it certainly improves the condition, although I haven't had a chance to use it on a completely fritzed hard drive.

This is probably not the problem that you are encountering, but... In my earlier days of web page creation, The editor I was using gave me the idea that controlling what font is being used would be a nice way to make my creations a bit more flamboyant. I then started having people contact me telling me that they couldn't read my whole web page, with parts of the text looking like the # symbol or some bit. Anywho, I was then struck with the realization that the browser was pulling a font off my local machine in order to use and this somewhat unique font wasn't supplied with other computing systems so the browser would default to it's native font system which didn't have many of the characters I was using.

Notepad works pretty well for an html editor as others have said. It doesn't introduce any funny formatting and as soon as you save you can see the results. However, it gets somewhat irritating to me to have to close every tag, and it's hard to see your organization. I've tried many of the free html editors out there and there is always something that makes me mad, whether it is a lousy text editor or you get the false hopes and unsupported code in their "preview" utility. I've settled on Eclipse after all this. It is completely free, mainly a coding utility so you need to get the web design plug in to make it work for you. It's convenient, will color code tags, autocomplete, and supports most of the latest technology. Plus you now have a tool that you can use for any sort of coding. If your serious about development, you will eventually realize that most of the commercial ware is worthless and just the basics are all you need.

I've used tons of free hosting sites in the past. I try to keep a site of my own going so I can refer people to my capabilities and I have a place to demo new ideas I come up with. So far, this service seems the most promising for sure. This posting/points system is an interesting way to retain the community feeling.

daftpunk's words seem a little harsh, but he has a point. Often times, when growing up, the friends that we make are really just friends of convenience. Whether they live close enough to you so that you can run over to their house, or they are part of a different crowd that you enjoy spending time with. Of course as you all age, some of you will find certain activities, such as being a rebellious drunk or causing mischief in some way, more appealing than the older behaviors that made you two friends. This growing apart from each other is a normal thing everyone experiences. While you will probably remain friends with some of those people, it's best if you let go of those that have attitude problems and find healthier individuals in society to cohort with.

I can sympathize with your situation godfather89. I am 28 now and have been trying to build my body mass for 10 years. Diffuser is on the right track with recommending a high protein diet in combination with strength training types of exercises. Protein is the most important building block for muscle but don't neglect your other nutrients. I recommend in particular, reading about amino acids. I know staying on a consistent diet is hard to do, but finding a few simple, quality meals to prepare when the family decides to eat eggplant soup is the most important thing to do. There are a few sources of protein and you'll eventually discover that not all protein is created equal. Protein from animals is usually the easiest source, but the experts say that whey protein is the best for you. As for exercising, I agree with Diffuser's suggestion to stick to basic movement type exercises. In addition to keeping the exercise simple, mass building exercises tend to have fewer repetitions with heavier weights. When I hired a personal trainer to help me with this problem, he suggested using a weight that is heavy enough, that when I tried to do three sets of 10 repetitions with the weight, I would fail on the third set at about the eighth count. Be careful to warm up your muscles before starting these exercises and don't be macho and use too much weight. Exercise a little bit everyday and develop a rotation of exercises so you can hit all the major muscle groups at least three times a week and all the muscle groups get a day to recover in between.Good luck, let us know how it is coming along.