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Don't expect to be making commercial games anytime soon. Game programming is not an endeavor for rookies. It is perhaps the most difficult and technically complex area of programming. I worked for a company that had a team of a dozen programmers working for a year to develop online poker software, and they failed and abandoned the project. I don't mean to discourage you, you can start simple, making practice games, until you develop enough skill for commercially viable products.Most online games are written eith in C++ or Java. C++ is the faster language and does not require any addons as does java. The advantage to Java is that game can run in the customer's browser without requiring a software download.Both C++ and Java are heavily Object Oriented or OOP languages. Your first step in learning game programming should be to learn how the OOP framework is used. A good place to start would be to browse the programming forums on this site.

For a life-long sport, I recommend running. As you know, it is very healthy and aerobic, and it is also downright fun! You don't need any special equipment, only a good pair of shoes (and not even that, if you run on the beach as I do). And you can do it anywhere, at any time of the year (if the snow is not too deep). You can run to new places and explore, and soak in all the sights, sounds, and smells, of the world around you as you pass by. You can get into a comfortable rhythm where your body feels like a well oiled machine. And you will get high without drugs. The runners high that you get when you hit that zone is better than any drug experience.Running can also be a social activity. Running events are held everywhere in the world. If you are the non-competitive type, you can run with the local Hash House Harriers group, whose motto is "A drinking club with a running problem". It helps to be a beer drinking degenerate to fit in with this bunch. There are over a hundred HHH groups worldwide.Running will also help you get in shape for skiing in the winter. It is a sport that will last you a lifetime.

A five minute introduction to PHPIf you are like me, you are intimidated by long, drawn-out tutorials that ask you to write a lot of code. I am a purpose driven learner. Any programming learning that I do is what is needed to accomplish a particular task, so I have neither the time, nor the interest in learning all the ins and outs of a programming language. In the case of PHP, trying to learn about all areas of PHP would probably require a lifetime, and it would be futile because the language is constantly changing and evolving. To me, the easiest way to learn a programming language is to just learn the very basics, then get right into using it for practical purposes, thereby learning by doing. This is easy because I have access to the internet, the greatest storehouse of knowledge, and greatest university that ever existed, right at my fingertips.So that said, take a look at your watch. You are going to learn all you need to get started with PHP in five minutes or less!First, lets open the sophisticated (not) software that we need to create our first PHP script, Windows Notepad. I use notepad because it is as simple as it gets, and is on every Windows computer, but any plain text editor will do. DO NOT use applications such as Microsoft Word to do any programming ever, because it adds hidden characters to files.In Notepad, type the line "This is my first PHP script" (with quotation marks), then, and this is critical, then save the file as myscript.php. This is critical. You must save it with the .php extension instead of a .txt extension. You do this by clicking the arrow beside the "save as" drop-down file type list in the Save dialog box, and saving it as "All files".At this point, you have a php file, but no way to view it, since a browser cannot open a php file directly. PHP is a server side scripting language (as opposed to javascript which is a client side scripting language). Therefore you need to have a server with PHP installed in order to view your php file. You can use a remote server with PHP installed to do this, but what I recommend is to test your files locally using a server installed on your own computer. You can install an Apache server on your Windows computer using a package called Wamp (http://www.wampserver.com/en/) which is free, and installs everything you need with one click, or use a similar package.Ok, now that you have a server installed, navigate to your file in the browser with your server running. You will see the text you typed. Now what you have is a PHP file, but it does not contain any php code, so it is not really a script. Let's add some php.First, type <?php on the line above your text in your myscript.php file.Then type ?> on the line below the text. All php code must go between these opening and closing tags. Try browsing to your file again. Now all you get is a blank page. In order to view text that is incorporated within a php script, we must use an echo statement. all we do is place word echo in front of the quoted line of text, and a semicolon afterwords. Every php statement MUST end with a semicolon (. Now the script looks like this:<?phpecho "This is my first PHP script";?>Now browse to it and you can see the text again. Note that any text strings used in php must be contained within quote marks. Alternatively, you could have placed the text as html code on the page, outside the php tags, like this:<?phpecho "This is my first PHP script";?><p>This is some html on the same page as the php</p>Were done!we have just learned enough to get started with php. This is because the entire php language is comprised of 100's (maybe 1000's) of built in functions that do all of the tasks that you need the language to do. All you have to do is choose the function you want, and enclose it within the php tags like so:<?phpphpinfo();?>This is a particularly useful function, because if you browse to it, it will display detailed information about your php installation.All other functions work the same way. Some require parameters between the parentheses, and others, like phpinfo(); don't.Where do you find all the nifty php functions? Download the php manual as a Windows help file from PHP.org, or leave the online version open in a window. There you will find all of the php functions, all you have to do is copy and paste the ones you need, along with everything there is to know about the php language.In this case the function used is phpinfo()but it could have been any of the functions.You can also write inline code in php such as:<?phpa = 2 + 2;echo "a";?>If you browse to a file with this code, the answer, 4 will be displayed.That's it! Everything you need to get started using PHP, the most powerful and easiest web scripting language.

Does your site have good original content such as maps, photos, tutorials, or widgets? Have you noticed that your number of hits, and bandwidth usage has gone up, but your sales haven't? Check your server logs. If many hits are coming from a single URL for no apparent reason, maybe you should pay a visit to that URL. There's an excellent chance that you will find your content being displayed somewhere on that page. By using iframes or regular frames, another site can actually put your page on their site. By using tricks such as z-index, and CSS positioning they can even display only one part of your page, the content they are stealing. When another site displays your page or content on their site, it costs you bandwidth. It is a visit to your site from which you get nothing. It may not be regarded legally as stealing where you are, but it is definitely unethical. Fortunately, it is extremely easy to prevent. All you have to do is put this code snippet in the head tags of each page you don't want to be framed: <script type="text/javascript"> if (top != self) { top.location = location; } </script> This will turn the tables on the would-be framer, because now the page being framed will open as the top level window, and their visitor will be on your site! You will have turned a drain on your bandwidth into a great source of visitors at the thieving site's expense!

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