Mordent

Urgh, I remember this sort of nasty problem. It's for that reason I'm oh-so-very glad of the fact that I have Revo Uninstaller, a nifty little programme which can help tidy up quite a lot of things. I assume by "shift + del" you mean you selected all of the contents of the directory and then hit delete? That, or you're not using Windows XP (I haven't got a clue about any other OSs, really ).

Yup america does have a weird system, here in the UK for example the new PM is put into office very quickly, i dont know the exact figures but probably a couple of days, give the old one a chance to move out (cant wait to get rid of brown, mark my words, the next general election brown is OUT! Yay!)
Plus the opposition doesnt get a say, we have the house of commons and such where laws are passed which has people from all sides but if the PM says taxes are going up then taxes are going up! etc... The opposition are just there to make things harder for the PM!

Plus i think the American election has been a media stunt as well, here in the UK the candidates would go around trying to earn votes but not on the scale of the Americans, theres no need! In the UK most people know who they are voting for from day one and id say we're hard to convince otherwise!

Methinks that if we get a new government in Iran, Uk, America, Iraq and the EU is destroyed (the union, not the countries) then the world will be a much better place. At the moment the US and UK are causing a lot of problems in the world, and that is due to our leaders, once that changes Iraq will be safer, in turn making the rest of the world safer as extremism slowly declines, the end result being a calmer world with happier people, all the money that is being spent on war could go to aid efforts at home and abroad (i mean Ł9b+ ($18bn+) for the freaking olympics?! We dont even want the olympics! They are going to build a huge stadium and village, then destroy it all, and build hoses on the site... imagine how many houses/flats could be built for 9bn!!!!! Jeez.... not to mention the economic situation... 9bn would be VERY helpful.... Oh and let us not forget they stole money from the national lottery that would usually go to helping charities and kids schools etc....)

So a new world order is what we need! and as David Cameron suggested (leader of the UK opposition) when will the UK see a change like America is having? Obama is a step forward, Cameron is a step forward, 2 steps forward into a new world is what we all need. From there democracy can take over the world and everyone will have their say!

Obama did well to overcome the hurdles and he deserves a long term in office (provided hes good) and it should spark interest in the young for politics (i myself am only 19 but the elections kept me awake for a while until i saw Obama having almost twice as many electoral votes )

Good to see a fellow UK student feeling the same way.

Interestingly, a mini-survey I just did of those in my kitchen shows that:

1) they all knew there was a US election, despite none of them having access to a TV or newspapers (or at least not reading newspapers);
2) they all knew who the new president is;
3) they all think that the US political system is over-hyped;

Not bad, really...especially considering that none of them study anything to do with politics (and one of them just woke up...at 4pm! ) and none of them are overly enthusiastic about political systems.

Not to stereotype any particular nationalities here, but has anyone else noticed how the US elections are easily the most publicised and in the general media? Basically everyone knows who the current US president is at any given time, and there is a huge swathe of media attention devoted to keeping an eye on US elections in countries that don't have the reverse attention of the US.For example, I'd certainly expect almost every UK citizen to realise that there has been elections going on in the US, and to recognise which of the two candidates won. I highly doubt that the converse is true, though...for those US dwellers who'd like to prove me wrong:Without consulting any other sources other than your own personal knowledge, when was the last election in the UK? Who is our current prime minister? Which political party are they a part of?Sure, I've no doubt that some of you certainly do pay attention to politics outside of the US, but after watching a few videos of the sort of scale to which the US turn out and how enthusiastic they get, I suppose it is no wonder many of you find our political system as dull and confusing as a brown paper bag with no opening...I know I do, and I live here!

My simple answer would be "bring on university". Seriously, each step up the education ladder's been better and better for me, so university's got to be the best one, right?

So I've built my first PHP&Mysql based website, enjoying it very much Although it's a simple website (still developing!) it includes a decent looking css powered interface, navigation buttons, user login system, session control and so on.

 

Now, I haven't used a single line of Javascript so far, other than looking it up a little I have no real knowledge of it. What I know is that it is a browser side script and as such its instructions are not concealed in a web page source file. Javascript commands are interpreted by the browser and, unless the user deliberately blocks them, he or she has no clue about what's going on.

 

In my browsing experience I find heavy usage of Javascript quite annoying, it clogs up the browser and sometimes the browser itself refuses to correctly interpret the commands (i.e. problems with different browsers). I have noticed (by looking at the Status Bar when hovering over a link) that many seemingly ordinary links have a Javascript instruction attached to them.

 

My question is: is such use of Javascript really necessary? or at least a definite advantage? I figure that if someday I were to put some JS in my design it would be to show/hide things (like the Fast Reply box in Trap...) or open popups if necessary. It seems to me most other jobs can be easily done by a server side script, like PHP.

 

As I said I'm all but experienced so I'd be glad to anyone giving some advice on this matter, like pointing out a few pros and cons of using JS and where it really comes into hand.

 

Thanks

I've recently finished my first PHP / MySQL-based site myself (well, a site is never truly "finished", but you know what I mean...), so I'm a similar boat to you in that respect. JavaScript is, in my opinion and from what I've read , never necessary as such, but good use of it can certainly make for a better site overall if used well.

 

The obvious advantage is that by using JavaScript you can reduce the strain on your web server by not having to load a page over and over, and perform, as xpress mentioned, simple validation of input and the like. Naturally this isn't a replacement for server-side validation, merely a means of requiring just one loading of a page for a majority of users.

 

Perhaps one of the most promising and tempting feature of JavaScript I've seen so far is in the implentation of AJAX (or Asynchronous JavaScript And XML), which is certainly on my list of things to look at once I've delved in to JavaScript's basic. It's certainly something to work towards, anyway.

 

Hope this helped!

Just a little note, you can also see your earnings and mycents from your profile. Better if you are in a hurry =)

Ah, good point. Thanks, I hadn't noticed that.

I realise they're "counting" as in the number of credits you have increases as you post (just as it used to), but I can't see there being any use for them any more. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I just don't see any purpose to them in the new myCENT system.

That said, given a little more time and I'm sure people will be perfectly used to them again, even if we once more have to explain to newcomers what earns them credits and what doesn't (i.e. spam posts and so on).

I just think it's a bit odd that the only way I can see how many myCENTs I have (as in the ones that I'm earning, not the ones that I've already "cashed in") is to the left of posts I make. Surely it can't be too difficult to switch the number of credits you have with the number of myCENTs you have at the top of the main page? I assume you folks know what I'm talking about when I say that? I mean the bit which says:

HOSTING CREDITS : ##.## DAYS.The Hosting Credits determine the amount of days you can remain inactive. We recommend that you maintain a sufficient amount of hosting credits (more than 10). This will give you enough time, incase you cannot stay active due to any consequences.

Ah, Notepad++, truly one of the greatest text editors around...oh, and the site for it is here to save you folks any hassle in finding it. It's one of the best all round programs out there (unless you're not a Windows user) for general programming, although after taking the plunge and going all Linux-y the other day I'm having to use good old gedit. Either one works like a charm, of course.

As for drag-and-drop PHP, good luck with that.

As far as I know, Halloween isn't anywhere near as big a deal in the UK as it is in the US (although there are a lot of companies snapping up on the massive potential profit), but being a first year university student, who has the students' union nightclub with the highest capacity in all of the UK literally a 5-10 minute walk away (or a lot more if you have to slow down to keep pace with the drunken friends around you - or if you are, indeed, one of those drunken friends), I think it's safe to say that I'll be taking part in a bit of Halloween-based festivity.Thanks to an early bit of celebration, though (namely Wednesday night) I won't be drinking any alcohol, and hence my planned costume of some form of monk...should be entertaining, to say the least.

Next question for you lot, then:Do the old credits actually still count for anything? If not, would it be possible for our myCENTS to be shown in the box at the top of the forum index page, or at least update the actual box so it doesn't mention the current credits any longer?Failing that (i.e. if we do still need the credits) could the myCENTS value still be shown alongside it, with an updated explanation of what each one means along with it? I realise that any members who have been through the transition will understand that there's a difference between v2-0 and myCENTS, but for any newcomers I'm sure it's a bit of a nightmare trying to work out what's needed for hosting.Any thoughts/suggestions/comments on this?

Mordent,
At the time of this reply, you are showing only 4 posts. I think that you need 5 posts minimum to have the myCents on your account.
Make another post or 2 and maybe the following script cycle will award the MyCents to your account.

Ah, thankees.

As for my overall opinion on the myCENT system, along with Xisto in general: they were already good; they're now awesome. I take my hat off to you folks, you never fail to provide a fantastic service.

...*snip*...

Q I have Xisto and Xisto forum accounts. How does myCENT work and can I transfer from one to another to pool my credits?

A If you use the SAME email address for both forums, Billing and Support will automatically merge your credit balance. There's no need for worry.

...*snip*...

My only question about this is does the order in which you register for the various sites matter? I've had an Xisto account for an age, then signed up to Billing and Support (meaning that my Xisto account is linked), but then signed up here at Xisto, and even a few days later it hasn't seemed to have linked yet. Is this the sort of thing that support tickets are for? Before anyone asks, yes, I signed up with the same email address to all of the above sites.

My only mini-complaint so far is the fact that my Xisto account hasn't (or doesn't seem to have) been linked to the billing page. Admittedly, I signed up to Xisto after I had signed up to the billing page (mainly because of the fact that I'm an active poster over on Xisto, but figured that I'd might as well expand my horizons), which could be causing the problem. Any suggestions from the crowd about this?

 

It's not big deal, I'm not having any problems posting away at Xisto so it's not as if I need the myCENTs from here, it'd just be nice if I could have both sites contribute to my hosting.

To be fair, Savage is an awesome game. Haven't played it in ages, but as it's free to download and play you can't really go wrong. Shame the initial post doesn't really do the game justice, to be honest.

What do you mean by "old" game? I have this fun fun fun debate with people all the time, about games having a life cycle of:Conceived - WIP (anticipated)Born - Just released (make or break)Childhood - Initial few weeks/months, if a game's still selling well after this point then it's doing well!Adulthood - Seen the best of its days, at least for a good while. Probably sitting on quite a few shelves, but unlikely to be played much more. Outclassed by "younger" games.Old age - The stuff of memories, where games go from "dated" to "retro".Varies from game to game and genre to genre (not to mention that some games miss out a stage or two, and the pace varies with the development rate of new games), but I like to think if it can be called "retro" and not too many would argue it qualifies as old.

So far I'll have to admit that I'm very impressed. For those who've yet to take the plunge and move over to the new system, you should barely notice the difference (other than how you are billed), and I'd definitely recommend it. My site is still hosted on gamma (and I assume that this will continue to be the case for both mine and all other Xisto members?) so even the cPanel address is the same.

 

My only query is the following: let's say that, a month down the line (i.e. when my "pay monthly" plan needs more credits to keep it going) I decide that I'd like to customise my logic plan a little: what do I have to do? Clearly I could cancel the whole thing and start from scratch again, but would that mean I lose my site and should therefore back everything up beforehand? What if I wanted a clean start, but with the same domain (I'm not saying that I do, merely that I might)?

 

These are just some questions I can see being very useful if they were answered, as some of us who have become used to the Xisto credit scheme (one credit = one day, you get 30 days of negative credits before your account is terminated) may not be entirely sure what would happen. I realise that there is a "due" date for payment, which gives you a few days to pay after your current month's plan has ended, but what about after that?

Mordent,
Your account has been activated and the details have not been reset and resent to you because you are already hosted. But if you login to your Client Area, your Cpanel password has been set as your google apps email password

Aaah, cool! Haven't got time to tinker with it now, but it looks like it should work like a charm. Cheers!

Hmmm...alright, so anyone care to help me out with a little problem I'm having trouble with in getting my head round the new credit system?

I have a domain. Let's call it mydomain.com, which is what my Xisto domain is. Currently, it still works absolutely fine (no change from what it used to be, I can still access cPanel etc. exactly as if the new credit system hadn't been implemented).

I signed up to the new billing/shopping area as the thread mentioned, using the same email as my Xisto one. Within a short period of time the myCENTS number appeared, and I had a fair few credits already (easily enough to get a couple months decent hosting out of it without any further posting). So far so good.

I then made what could potentially be viewed as the mistake that lead to my downfall: a day or two later (i.e. today) I signed up to the Logic Plan (customising it a little, to add the features of the hosting Xisto had to offer which weren't included by default, like a few more addon domains and so on) using the same domain I have here ("mydomain.com"). A few rapid emails to me later and the expected amount had been taken from my account. I now have a hosting plan there with the status of "pending". So...now what? Clearly what happens will eventually happen, I'm just curious as to when everything will kick off. Will I have to start from scratch again, namely re-addon all of my previous domains? What about emails? I rely on a few images I have hosted quite a bit, and them coming down for any real period of time would just end up being a bit of a pain.

Any comments on this? Anyone got their hosting working and up and running yet?

*applauds* One fairly critical point I'd like to raise? Any chance of sending out an email to people who have an account here about this new system? I only became aware of it because I happened to notice the threads in the latest activity section. Perhaps a PM to all members or something?Anyway, aside from that I'm still a smidgen confused about how it's going to work. The new credit system (3.0) is going to replace our current one? If so, will/do we have to do anything to keep our current sites (namely those already done) hosted? Is this in addition to the hosting system offered by Xisto? Basically, if I keep posting here will I keep my hosting, even if I don't sign up for anything at the Xisto billing page?Just a few things I'd like clarified, as I'm a little low of hosting credits at the moment so would quite like to know what the future of my hosting plan is. ;)More importantly, I suppose: I take it that our initial myEarnings are from our post history?

Thanks. Your tuto is really interesting because it shows on a simple case how php and mysql interact in order to give you the info you want.

Of course, you can also use the Xisto counter which is in your cpanel, in the "CGI center" part.

 

And if you want a more sophisticated counter, you can get a nice but very complete one for free at http://statcounter.com/

My personal opinion on using other people's counters is, quite simply, not to. They're easily one of the simplest things to make, and a great way to start learning PHP (as well as a little of MySQL). Great tutorial khalilov, it should definitely give beginners a prod in the right direction. One little quibble I have with it is the lack of "in-code" commenting. Sure, you've explained what you're doing outside of the code blocks, which I think you should certainly keep as this is a tutorial, but I tend to have a comment or two within the code itself just to aid both myself and others. For something this simple it's not really necessary, admittedly, but it's a good habit to get in to.

*waves his wand of thread necromancy*Anyway, I recently installed Fedora 9 on my desktop (on a separate hard drive partition), but yeesh...it took a lot of patience to actually do it. My main OS is (and still is) Windows XP Home SP3 (which ironically runs like a dream , except for the random errors), but as all of the computers around my uni have Fedora as the "preferred" OS (not to mention my entire programming course uses Fedora as the basis for their tutorials) I thought I could have another shot at it.What was the trouble? My damned USB stick! Being the sort of person that I am (namely a university student, and therefore pretty skint) I didn't fancy buying a CD/DVD to burn the .iso to, so I played around with ways of getting it to boot from my USB flash drive. The process seemed simple enough, but it turns out that my particular memory stick didn't want to play along. If it had said that earlier then I would have saved myself a lot of hassle, but instead I got the joys of CRC (or CRR, basically funny copying where the bit checking didn't match up) errors. Pass as to what it stands for, but I remember spending a lot of time trying to download the .iso and mount it on my USB stick again and again.Anyway, in the end I borrowed someone else's memory stick. Worked first time. Figures, huh? I guess the moral of the story is to not always read too much in to what the error is saying. It's an indication of where the system mucked up, but it may not be the cause of the muck up (if that makes sense).

I can't really see C being replaced since most applications are written in C and is continually written in C. Most kernels, especially UNIX-like and Windows ones are all written in C.
xboxrulz

Agreed that at the moment C is a pretty prevalent language, but sooner or later it will become outdated. It's just the way things go, especially with the huge jumps in computing power these last few years. Already we're writing software for computers that make the Cray supercomputer (a pretty snazy piece of kit for its time) look like an abacus, and some bright spark will come up with a clever way of doing things which will completely change programming as we know it.

It's not as if C will be gone in an instant, and it's likely still on the up rather than on a downward slope, but everything has to peak sometime. My point was that it's not the actual language of C that's important to understand at university (although it wouldn't do any harm to do so), it's the techniques and programming methods that you learn that can be applied to programming in general.

...

A few of my friends are also doing Electronics Engineering. Most of them have moved towards a career in software development. Initially, those without prior knowledge of programming had some difficulties. But, they managed to sail through with a bit more effort in the first two semesters. I have seen intelligent lads dump programming because it seemed like rocket science to them. But, as you would know, its quite simple, actually. The main thing one needs to develop, is an understanding of the logic of programming - how to go about writing a program for a problem statement. Apart from that, you need to learn the keywords, statements & syntax of the language.

Oh, exactly. In 20 years time C will have likely been replaced by something completely new, but it's the principles of programming that I'm learning. C is just the language used to facilitate that learning by way of being pretty universal. As for your Electronic Engineer friends, my programming lecturer has a degree in Computer Science, and he's said about 20 times in the last 2 weeks that Electronic Engineers make better programmers because they know how to design something. As someone who's got a bit of a background in programming, I can see it easily being the most fun module of my course, so I'll likely take it up as an option when it becomes available.

 

Book-wise, I've got two older books courtesy of my dad: "The C Programming Language" (2nd edition) and "The Waite Group's New C Primer Plus" (note: it is a book on C, not C++, which is something I've been asked about 50 times already). The nice thing is that C hasn't changed much in the last few decades, so they're both still relevant (and more importantly: free for me ).

Reminds me partially of my old laptop, affectionately called the "craptop". Its fans were a bit...useless, so in summer it would heat up to a high enough temperature to turn itself off within, say...30 seconds of it turning on? In winter, however, it would run indefinitely (with the fans sucking air in and blasting it out at their highest speed possible, which was around the area of "making a lot of noise but not actually doing anything"), providing I didn't tell it to do too much. Despite that, it remained at a temperature not too far from what the surrounding temperature was on the outside. It was only inside that the bits were cooking themselves, and for some reason the heat didn't get through the thin plastic. Cool, huh?

 

What annoyed me was that I first got the craptop in winter, so it steadily got worse and worse as the months warmed up until I was left with access to a computer that was on a seasonal basis. Funtimes...

 

And I'm rambling again, aren't I?

I recently (a couple of weeks ago) started my university course here in sunny Surrey studying electronic engineering. Part of this course (or at least for the first semester or two) is looking at C programming in general, and I just wondered if anyone else actually studied a different language as a "first real language" at university. I've done programming before (and I'm getting back in to the swing of PHP when I've got time), but one of the points made about C was that it is (to put it bluntly) very popular worldwide.

 

Did anyone else study C in their first year of uni? What did you think of it? How well did you do with it? What other languages have people done in their first year at university?

 

I'm only curious, because from what I can tell C should be the main forerunner in this field (even if you went to university a decade ago), so I wanted to find out if it actually is as such.

 

Any tips for a newbie C programmer in their first few weeks? As you may have gathered I'm an electronic engineer, not a computer scientist, so programming is just one of the focuses I'll be looking at, but it's one I really do want to have an awesome stab at.