rvalkass

Down in Exeter I've had no snow, but it has been bright sunshine pretty much every day - definitely in the high teens, maybe even hitting twenty degrees! Very odd for the end of autumn Still, I'm not gonna complain - it makes my walk up to the University easier I know there have been a few people popping down to the beach at the weekends or on days off, which is nice, even if it makes no sense to go to the beach in November

By now most games work on Vista. Some even require it. When Vista was first launched, this was a very valid criticism, but now the number of games that don't work is limited to those that are old enough to be in bargain bins, if they're being sold at all. Most publishers have released patches for their more recent older games (if that makes sense ) so that they work with Vista. RAM now is fairly cheap, and gamers, developers and programmers often have fairly decent systems. Plus, the main audience for Vista is business users, and home users that only do 'basic' tasks (Internet, typing the odd document, storing digital photos, etc.). Gamers and programmers make up a comparatively small section of the market. Especially in the current economic crisis, people will not be willing to pay a few hundred quid for Vista, then a further few hundred to get their office suite, and then pay for anti-virus and firewall software, and pretty much anything else they want to use. Almost all programs now have a brilliant open source alternative, and they will only become more popular as people start to tighten their belts. Same at my University. More and more PCs, when the time comes to replace them, are being replaced with Macs. I've also seen a lot of people in lectures with laptops running *buntu - even more than the number of Macs. PHP, Apache and MySQL will all run on Windows. Where Windows loses to Linux in the server world is speed, security and stability. ASP is server side, and therefore only works on Windows servers, but it's output can be displayed in any browser.

System Builder's or OEM editions are no different to the 'normal' version except for one thing: the licence is not transferrable. If you buy a new PC, you cannot transfer the licence to it, and so you will need to buy a new copy of XP for that machine. However, you can still update the hardware inside your current machine within Microsoft's usual restrictions. System Builder's disks are also often sent as a disk in a paper sleeve, with the licence key and sticker on a piece of paper. There is no fancy box and no included printed manual. But, really, who needs them? Edit: Some retailers will not let you buy a System Builder's version unless you also purchase a piece of hardware at the same time. Usually you can pick something really cheap (like a PCI USB card or something) as they know that you can get hardware from other places. I think they just have to confirm you are actually building a system.

Agreed. Linux and Apple have to be better than Windows to attract people to them. Therefore they work harder to fix bugs and problems, and listen more to their users. Microsoft already has people stuck with them from the moment they buy a PC, and just has to do enough to be bearable, to keep them using Windows. However, now it is reaching the point where Windows is dropping below the bearable level.

The only way to really simplify the forums would be to remove certain sections, which doesn't seem like a good idea. However, if you have another idea to simplify the forums then please let us know. Suggestions and advice are always helpful. I think you'll find that's how pretty much any recurring service works. You're now in the situation where it is "pay us or your site goes offline and your data is deleted". At least at Xisto you only need to spend a few minutes to post and keep your site online, rather than fork over actual cash. I presume you were trying to post in the Xisto - Web Hosting Presales Questions section of the forum then? If you were, and it wouldn't let you post, then please alert OpaQue or BuffaloHELP. That forum should be open to all registered members to post in. If you were trying to post somewhere else, where were you posting? Who did you ask for help before posting this? If you have problems with customer service then again, please let us know. It is impossible to improve without feedback.

Easier Product Versions I really don't see the need for four versions. How long has Vista been out? I still couldn't tell you the differences between the versions. And, personally, I don't think many users care. When my sister was choosing which laptop to buy, with my help, she assumed all the versions of Vista were the same - and that is the way it gets marketed. I've had people who have bought new PCs asking why they haven't got the nice shiny new Aero look. Reason: they have Vista Basic. But, in the shop, they are just told they get Vista. All the marketing hype focuses on the best features, and consumers are let down when they don't get what was advertised. Why has there been a sudden need for lots of versions anyway? XP had Home and Professional, which was enough. ME, 98, 95, etc. never needed more than one version (aimed at consumers). New Visual Hooks The problem is not a lack of fancy graphics. The problem is that Apple and even Linux do them well, while Microsoft fails. I have fancy visual effects running on KDE on a laptop that would never run Vista. Microsoft need to work out how to make the system look good and also be quick enough to run on the majority of hardware made in last 3-5 years. Using more 'granular' effects (like KDE does) would be better; effects are enabled and disabled on a per-effect basis, so that you can remove anything unnecessary and make sure your system still runs fast, while having some cool effects. Less Alerts First, fix the grammar: fewer alerts. The alerts on Vista are incredibly annoying. Anything to cut down on them is a massive improvement. The balance on Kubuntu is just right - not so many you ever get annoyed with them, but the odd one or two when you try to do something dangerous, just to keep you on your toes Microsoft just goes one step too far, effectively wrapping you in cotton wool and making sure nothing ever happens to your PC. Invisible Security and Backup I see no reason why Microsoft can't do automated backups. Give the option during installation to create a backup partition, and get the PC to make automated incremental backups once a night, or maybe once a week. Provide a simple way to recover a backup - a graphical interface, not a text one. Pick a date, click, computer rolls back. Job done. Clear Naming Neither Apple nor Microsoft get this right. Spaces, Time Machine, etc. don't instantly scream out what they do any more than Windows Genuine Advantage does. Call everything by what it actually is! It might be boring, but people will know what they are actually getting. Pain-Free Registration To be fair, Apple doesn't have the problem with piracy that Microsoft does. Apple lock their OS down to their hardware - the ultimate DRM effectively. At least Microsoft let you use whatever hardware you want. The registration process is laborious, and doesn't always go smoothly, so some improvement would definitely be appreciated. Proper Search Spotlight is one feature that I like, and would really like added to all computers Searching on the Internet has made people used to being able to find any content they want with only a couple of key words. That sort of search on a desktop PC would be fantastic, and Spotlight is currently the closest.

None. Can you tell me what difference it would make if half the people who voted thought that way? Lots. If loads of people think there isn't a point to voting then it will drastically affect the result of the election. This is the problem we have in the UK at the moment. Very few of the young voters are bothering to vote, as they don't see a point. The same applies to many other demographic groups, resulting in a very skewed voting population that doesn't actually reflect the population in the country as a whole.

What?!?! Windows 3.11 for Workgroups was the most stable and fastest Windows OS I ever used! 14" monochrome CRT screen, IBM Model II Personal Computer, huge clunky power switch, ah, happy days... I think that computer is still up and running I'm thinking I should try phoning for support...

Erm... Not that religion should even enter the matter when choosing a president, but Obama is a Protestant Christian. I'm also stunned that you can state he "has suicide bomber friends". That is a very serious thing to say, especially with a total lack of evidence...

As this topic has no real use any more, I am closing it, to stop it reappearing at the top of the list of posts.If you would like this topic reopened, please PM any staff member.

I don't think so. The only accounts that get banned are those of spammers, and those who personally attack other members. I have never seen an account get banned simply because they were inactive. Under the old credit system, if you didn't post enough then your hosting account was suspended until you posted again, but your forum account never got banned. Anyway, on to your forum. I personally can't see any direction to the forum - what is the actual purpose of it? For example, the reason (most) people come to Xisto is for the free web hosting. I just can't see a specific purpose for your forum. That will make it very difficult for you to attract members to your site, and therefore no-one will really get it off the ground. You need to focus your forum on something specific, and then write some good posts yourself that people can reply to. That will get the discussion started, and gradually it will snowball as more and more people reply, start their own topics and find you through search engines.

According to the height-weight chart released by the Food Standards Agency, you are currently at your ideal weight. 145lbs just put you on the border between ideal and overweight, so it is understandable that you would have felt slightly sluggish at that weight. However, anything under 105lbs and you would be underweight.Having said all that, I agree with you. As long as you are generally healthy and happy with yourself, then that's good.

This shouldn't be a problem now. As your hosting is effectively paid for in advance (you pay for one month, even a year in advance), you are certain your hosting will be there for that time. If you do have a problem, which prevents you posting, you now have longer to recover. Under the old system, as credits were reduced day-by-day, your website could suddenly go offline if you had a problem. Now, you at least have a date when your next payment is due, and therefore more time to earn the myCENTs required. If things get really bad, you can always use PayPal or a credit card to top your account up (although this option is not available to everyone, me included...).

The Answers.com popup appears when you double click any word. It then searches Answers.com for a definition or any other information. As far as I know, Xisto does not benefit from it being there. Rather, I think it is to help people, especially those who use English as a second language, get definitions for any words they are unsure on. I don't think it can be turned on or off on a per-user basis, so you will need to put up with it at the moment. At least now you know what causes it - double clicking!

Topic is resolved.Please PM any moderator to continue this discussion. Until then, this topic is closed.

This is a sort of follow up to my topic about my new backup hardware: My New Backup Solution We all know we should take regular backups of the contents of our PCs, but how many of us actually do? My previous method for taking backups was burning a pile of DVDs whenever I felt like it. A nightmare to do, even worse to store, and absolute hell if I ever decided to restore anything from one of them! So, I went in search of a new backup method, and here I present the software part of my solution. What are Incremental Backups? Most times when some software makes a backup, it backs up everything. Every file, every folder, gets copied and neatly stored away, ready for you to retrieve next time something goes wrong. Nice, but it takes an awfully long time, and takes up the same space as whatever is already on your hard drive. Perhaps it gets compressed, but it doesn't make a massive difference. The backups are still huge. Incremental backups, however, only backup changed files. Each backup is stored as a compressed archive file (of whatever format you choose). Each archive contains a copy of the files changed since the last backup was made. After so many of these a 'checkpoint' is made, holding the latest version of all those files. This system can be nested many levels deep. This means that backup sizes can be kept down, and yet they are also quick to restore. For example, the system I have set up has 3 levels, each of 5 backups. So, 5 level-3 backups are made, then a level-2 backup containing all those changes. After 5 level-2 backups (5x5 level-3 backups), a level-1 backup is made. After 5 level-1 backups are made (5x5x5 level-3 backups) then a level-0 backup is taken. A level-0 backup is a full backup, containing all files and folders in their current state. At this rate, I only need to take a full backup every 125 days. What Software is Available? I run Linux, so I opted for backup2l. It uses a simple text configuration file, is freely available, and performs all the backup and restore tasks completely maintenance free. How Do You Set it Up? Install the package for backup2l, either using Adept, Synaptic, or running apt-get install backup2l. Open the configuration file: /etc/backup2l.conf Edit the relevant sections. Everything is fairly well explained, but here's a summary of my changes: Line 52: Change the path to your backup device (e.g. external hard drive) Line 113: Uncomment (remove the # at the start) to confirm that you have configured it Set up a cron job to run backup2l however often you want it to run: Open a command line and type: sudo crontab -e Add a line to run backup2l each night at 23:15 : 15 23 * * * backup2l --backup Save the file You're done! Does it Work? Yes! At the moment, my full backups are 33.6GB in size. The level-3 backups are currently around 100MB in size. The advantage is that I now have nightly backups of my system, without the hassle of taking a 33.6GB backup every day! But I Don't Run Linux! Shame on you There are other pieces of software that do the same job for Windows and Mac. However, I haven't tried any of these, so try them out first to make sure they work. If you find one you like, pop a little review below so everyone can find it. Freebyte Backup for Windows SilverKeeper for Mac

I debated over where to put it, but I decided to put this one in Hardware, and I'll put the one about the software solution in the Software section - I just liked being able to split them like that When I get the time I'll take some more (and better ) photos and post a detailed review of the enclosure and the hard drive. The reviews of the software will be in the software one I will write over the weekend. The backup method I use doesn't use the full space each time. It's an incremental system, so that a full backup is taken, say, one time in 50. Every other backup only records changes to that major backup. It means that backups are generally much smaller and quicker than taking lots of full backups, and don't wear out the drive so much. Also, being smaller, you can keep more of them. So, when you find you need that file from 6 years ago... As it's only a backup, I'm not too worried if it dies. I won't lose any actual data, and I'll just start from a full backup next time. The drive has a three year warranty, so I can get a new one free if it does die. Yeah, the fact that I bought loads of cheap DVDs didn't help. They were useless quality, so not only did ~40% fail to burn but they didn't last much longer than around 3 months once burned. That, and I just wasn't happy with the lack of order in the system Backups taken whenever I felt like it, and I changed what I backed up each time. I just got fed up with it. I did look at the local electronics shops to see what was on offer, but everything was either more expensive than this, or had to be used with a proprietary software solution - not great for backups!

Update: The software side to my backup solution can now be viewed here: Incremental Backups After seeing one of my mate's laptops go up in smoke, along with his work so far this year, I decided it was time to upgrade from my previous backup method (burning a pile of DVDs whenever I felt I needed to) to a better solution. Here I present the hardware side of things, along with a sort of mini-review type thing of what I bought. Hard Disk I've moved up to a hard drive to back up my data on. I decided this was a bit more compact and reliable than a pile of DVDs. To make sure I had enough space to adequately back up my 100GB laptop hard drive, along with storing some media, I decided to go for a 1TB drive. After reading reviews and comparing prices, I settled on a 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F1 HD103UJ. It has a SATA connection and 32MB cache. Enclosure I'm not normally one to be bothered by the looks of something, but I decided I wanted this to look good There are literally hundreds to choose from, and by all accounts it doesn't really matter what you pick. After all, it's just a box to stop inquiring minds stabbing their fingers onto the drive. I went for a name I've trusted before, and that looks quite nice, and settled on an Akasa P2 Series enclosure. I picked a silver one suitable for 3.5" drives, with both PATA and SATA connections internally. The case has USB and e-SATA connections, along with a power input and power switch. Pictures are below. Buying Them I got both items from Scan.co.uk Akasa Integral P2 Enclosure Samsung Spinpoint 1TB SATA HDD Total bill, including VAT and delivery, was just over ?100 when I bought them. However, the prices seem to change by the hour, so check! Set Up The items arrived by courier, sealed tightly in a plastic bag and bubble wrap. Inside that was the following: The hard drive is wrapped in enough bubble wrap to keep my flatmates amused for hours. The box for the enclosure got slightly dented on the corners, but Akasa provide plenty of free space inside the box, so nothing could get damaged. The box shows off all the features of the enclosure, but I don't think the picture on the front really does it justice. Inside that box was another, much sturdier, box protecting the enclosure. Inside is the standard selection of paperwork and driver CDs. Also included was a nice selection of cables. Friends have told me that other enclosures don't always include them (especially the USB cable) so that was a nice surprise. There is also a stand for the enclosure, which I am using to keep it upright. The enclosure itself was sealed in plastic to protect it from possible scratches or marks on the surface. The included cables are: The manual features very simple instructions on how to fit the hard drive, and includes helpful pictures. It is simple enough that you don't have to have had any experience with computer hardware to do it. All you need is a screw driver. Two screws hold the case shut at the back, and four hold the drive in place in its cradle. The only poor comment is that the included SATA cable is slightly too long. So, when you come to close the enclosure, it gets a bit squished. Other than that, not a problem. The finished article on my (very messy) desk The side of the enclosure is matt silver, with metallic silver at either end, and for the writing. This means that fingerprints aren't really a problem, and it still has a very nice look to it. The ends of the enclosure are gloss black, one with a large blue LED logo on it: This glows when the power is on, and flashes on data transfer. The other side of the enclosure doesn't feature any writing, but does have four small rubber feet in the corners, in case you don't want to use the stand. These correspond with four small 'dents' in the side shown in the picture, so that the drives are stackable, and won't move around too much. Later I shall post a guide to the software side of things that I am using to perform my automated backups. Any questions?

If picking suitable colours is a problem then try using a colour scheme generator (linked below). Give them a base colour and they will come up with other colours which work well with it. This is often the best way to find a suitable set of colours to use. However, once you've got your palette of colours, stick to them! Only use other colours where really necessary (i.e. red for an error). This will help to give your site a complete and coherent look. WellStyled Colour Scheme Generator 2 ColorSchemer Adobe Kuler

As has been said, you need to complete two steps to get your myCENTs to appear. First, sign up at https://support.xisto.com/ using the same email address you did when you signed up to the forums. This will link your two accounts so that your myCENTs get transferred to your billing account. Then, get five good quality posts in the forums. After that you will start earning myCENTs. It may take a few hours to kick in, but they will appear after a while.

There are plenty of things you can define as the fourth dimension. The question is whether or not it is useful to do so. One of the most popular definitions for the fourth dimension is that it represents time. This is often the case in mechanical and engineering problems. You can define something in terms of an x-position, a y-position, a z-position and its position in time. The fourth dimension can also be one of space. Wikipedia has some mind-bending animations which try to explain it, but it is still very difficult to get your head around

The main problem is that the body text doesn't stand out from the background. In fact, it looks like you've specifically picked a colour that will make it hard to read! I would recommend removing the patterned background, and replacing it with a solid colour or gradient. Then, choose a text colour that contrasts well and is easy to read. Remember that dark text on a light background is generally easier on the eyes than bright text on a dark background. Scrolling down the page, I see that the text colour seems to change randomly. This gives the page a very discordant look. Use the same text colour for all the body text on the page, and follow the advice above about making it easier to read. Neither the grey or the light blue colour are particularly easy to read; only the dark blue colour really shows up against that patterned background. Also, your news from Feb 25, 2005 is unlikely to be relevant now. Limit your main page to maybe a maximum of 10 news items, depending on how often you update the news. Move the others to an archive, so that people can read them if necessary, but aren't confronted with them all at once on your index page. The colours picked for the forum work much better. The light grey background with dark text is much easier to read, and makes the text in different colours stand out much more. My only suggestion would be giving this text a background or border or something to make it stand out:

myCENT is a system where you earn cash for your posts. Each post earns you a few myCENT. When you have 100, they get converted into $1, which you can use to buy web hosting, domain names, and other things like that. To get it on your account you will need to sign up. Go to https://support.xisto.com/ and register an account. Make sure you use the same email address you used when you signed up to the forums. Then you will start earning myCENT after you have 5 posts.

It has been reported that Chandrayaan-1 has successfully gone into it's first orbit at a height of 100km. The next stage is for the Moon Impact Probe to be released and monitor the atmosphere on the way down, and crash into the surface.

There will come a point when the old Credit system will no longer be used. Any accounts which have not transferred to myCENT will get removed. I suggest you sign up at https://support.xisto.com/ using the same email address you use on the forums and start earning myCENTs as soon as you can.