rvalkass

To transfer credits, visit the Xisto Process Page and hit the Transfer Credits link. Enter your forum login information and the account you want to transfer the credits to. Simple as that!

I apologise for the poorly drawn circuit diagram, but this is how to connect it so that when you flip the switch the motor changes direction.Basically you want one lead from the motor connected to the middle two connections on the switch, and the other lead connected to the other two 'output' pins on the switch. Then connect the +ve rail to one 'input' on the switch and 0v to the other.I hope that makes sense :XD: If not, I'll try and explain it better (with a better circuit diagram).

I have been using phpBB2 since it was first released, and I have started looking at phpBB3. I like the interface on the phpBB boards - its very clean, clear and easy for people to use, even if it is their first time visiting the forum. Recently, however, I downloaded a copy of SMF and started mucking around with it locally. I still haven't completely got to grips with it, but it seems just as good as phpBB. The one thing I don't like, however, is the default design. That really needs to be cleaned up and improved, because it just leads to most people either downloading or creating their own themes which don't always work too well.

I have just logged into my cPanel and checked, and Xisto does supply 99 PostgreSQL databases. PhpPGAdmin is also available to administer and manage your databases. PostgreSQL is enabled by default when you get your hosting account, so once you apply and if you are approved, you will have access to PostgreSQL.

At the moment there are around 100 viruses that can affect Linux, compared to over 100,000 viruses that attack Windows PCs. Yes, as Linux becomes more popular it is likely that more viruses will be written for it. However, there is a large difference between Windows and Linux. On Windows, whatever sort of account you are using you have access to Windows files and settings. On Linux, your standard account has access to your own documents and user settings, and thats about it. If a virus did get onto a Linux system, it could not destroy the heart of the operating system. Regular backups make sure that your files are always safe. Ubuntu is often seen as more secure because you can't log in as root. You can only run one command at a time as root, and that requires you to retype your user password. You can even remove that ability from your everyday account, and just keep another account for performing system changes. As far as I'm aware, both the Linux source code and most of the distributions based on it regularly release security patches and updates. Having the source code available makes the operating system more secure, as thousands of people are looking at it and checking for bugs and security vulnerabilities. Security issues have been known to be fixed within minutes of them appearing. Compare this to Windows, where only a select few developers in Redmond have access to the source code. Yes, you can report an issue, but you can't actively do anything to fix it.

If I remember correctly, a table takes longer to appear as the browser waits until all of the content within the table has loaded, before displaying the table on the screen. With DIVs, the content appears as it is fetched by the browser - as soon as some of the content within a DIV reaches your computer it will appear on screen.As for specifics, there is no hard-and-fast rule as to how much faster DIVs are compared to tables. However, some developers are now using DIVs rather than tables to display the results of queries that produce thousands of rows. As a table waits until it has all the rows to display, it could take two or three minutes before anything appeared on screen. Switch to DIVs and the rows appear instantly.

Sorry, but using tables to create a layout is probably one of the worst ideas. Tables are there to hold tabular data. Tables hold numbers and things you would traditionally put in a table if you were writing one out with a pencil and paper. Not only is it wrong, but it actually makes page loading slower and the site is less accessible to those with visual impairments. Theres a good presentation from Seybold that explains some more reasons. So, whats the alternative? DIVs were designed to be filled with images, shifted around and positioned just where you want them. Just run a search for layouts using DIVs and you will get thousands of tutorials flood out at you, along with reasons why tables are just plain wrong. Yes, there are browser compatibility issues with DIVs, but you get the same with tables.

For those of us in the UK, you can sign up to the Telephone Preference Service. It blocks any marketing calls, surveys, political canvasing and loads of other calls you don't want. The only businesses allowed to call are those who have a good reason to - those you already do business with. Any calls you do receive, you can report to Ofcom and the company could get fined. As for more fun tactics, I like to play repeat offenders any of my sister's music after informing them that I am busy and placing them on hold until a representative for me is available. Its worrying that most of them will patiently sit on the line for hours waiting. Sometimes they end up getting left there until I need to use the phone again :XD: For a more 'interactive' way to annoy repeat callers, you can try this script from EGBG. Its great to turn the conversation around and start asking random questions to them.

I think the Ubuntu family are among the easiest distros to use, especially for those just starting out in the Linux world. The installation is fairly easy and installing software using the relevant package manager is far easier than most distros, and miles ahead of installing software on Windows. I agree that installing software from source is not exactly the nicest experience, and is probably one of the hardest things to get to grips with when you first encounter Linux. However, after a few goes, ./configure, make, make install becomes imprinted on your brain. I never understood why, if all software meets the same set of standards for a command-line install, a GUI couldn't be applied to those steps. Users like buttons, and a large button labelled INSTALL would help most users. I have found this to be the main reason people are swayed to use Linux, and the *buntus especially. The effects available with Compiz and Beryl are stunning, especially when you consider that they cost nothing at all. Then when you reveal the relatively low spec you need to get it to work, most people are blown away. Being able to "revive" a PC that Windows deems is too low-spec with Ubuntu is also great. I think the single thing which took the most time for me with Kubuntu (aside from the actual install) was getting the look right. Choosing a widget style, window style, colours, backgrounds and everything else took me around an hour. I have never had to spend longer than that on any task to get the operating system, or any software, working. Even massive OpenOffice download-and-installs and the like didn't take as long. This is one of the unfortunate truths with most Linux distros, and not a myth people hold that can easily be swept away. However, hardware manufacturers are gradually realising it might be worth their time appealing to the Linux market. Also, certain distros have done a far better job than Ubuntu. Linux Mint for example has a much better install procedure, hardware support and automatic hardware detection. I'm using Linux every day perfectly well, and if anything its far better than my Windows PCs. I run Kubuntu on a Pentium M 2GHz processor, with 1GB of RAM. That runs much faster than Windows on my desktop, which has a much higher spec. There are perfect free replacements for all the software I commonly use on Windows, and often software to complete tasks that you simply can't find a good equivalent for. OK, games is another area where Linux falls down. Why? If enough people contact games studios and ask why they don't develop for Linux I'm sure they'd at least consider it. Yes there is the issue of free software - a game you buy would probably be closed source. However, I am sure a lot of people would put up with that to have decent games on a Linux system. Wine is making headway by allowing Windows programs to run on Linux without an emulator. I installed it, and have only needed to run one app through it - everything else I have found a replacement for. At least you can get a large amount of free support. Microsoft make you call premium rate lines and pay for support. With Ubuntu you can pay one price and get unlimited support. They also release LTS (Long Term Support) distributions, that are supported for at least 18 months.

As far as I know, it has to be unrared as it is uploaded - you can't upload it and then unrar it separately. However, Net2FTP has a load of features and may well be able to unrar or unzip anything you've uploaded. Check it out and see if it helps.

I can't believe I haven't replied to this topic in all this time. What I use to edit my website depends on which computer I am using. If I am using my Windows PC then I'll usually use Notepad++ for anything quick, or Eclipse for a major project. The various plugins available for Eclipse make it a great environment for coding anything. When I'm at school I use Dreamweaver, simply because they have nothing else that will do syntax highlighting, or Notepad.On my laptop I run Kubuntu, so I can still use Eclipse for any major work, but I use something like Kate for any quick and simple work I need to get done.

How are you connecting to the Internet: via a router or a modem directly attached to the PC? Also, is it a wireless connection or a wired connection? The methods vary depending on how you want to connect. However, the general advice would be to enter System -> Administration -> Networking. Look for the connection you want to use and click Properties. You should then be able to fill out the required information. If you have access to the Internet on another PC, you could try having a look at the Ubuntu documentation.

I agree with that last bit. Computers and the Internet hold a vast amount of information, and they are great for research, or just for expanding your own knowledge on a particular topic. I have even been able to persuade my parents to use the computer when they need to look things up (although my dad just uses it to complete crosswords now :XD:). Most jobs now require both problem solving skills and a good working knowledge of computers. Working on computers regularly means you will be able to use computers faster than those who just take a short training course for a job. As for the problem solving and other skills, I have actually put them on my university applications for next year. They are all useful skills that employers (and admissions tutors ) like to see. Out where I live I am miles from anywhere and anyone, except for the few people in my village. I spend a lot of my time on the computer talking to other people. Some of these people are only a few miles away from me, while others are on the other side of the world. My parents say that they used to phone their friends, or use CB radios. Well, phoning them costs money, so surely typing or using VOIP, which are both free, is just as good? And being able to talk to people all over the world (such as here at Xisto) is surely better on a computer than sending expensive airmail letters?

Using Linux a lot, I am obviously a big fan of the open source philosophy. In many areas, open source directly competes with closed source software, and is often just as good, if not better. For example, commercial office suites and OpenOffice, commercial recording applications and Audacity. There are, however, a few areas where open source falls dramatically short: Adobe's Photoshop is streets ahead of The GIMP, and the only useful alternative to Adobe Flash I have found, OpenLaszlo, does not have as many features and is quite tricky to use. Many open source programmers are very experienced, and have often previously worked on commercial projects. The programs may often be small applications, but they are all created for a purpose, and are all useful. Plus, as many cost nothing, you lose nothing if you find it doesn't do what you want it to. One major downside I have seen in large open source projects (such as KDE) is that they tend to get too tied up in democracy and making sure everyone is happy. Often releases stay in beta longer than Google's projects, but they are still useable and infrequently unstable.

Simcity was, and still is, a great game. Despite it splitting off to create The Sims, and most development being focussed on that, it is still a great game and (supposedly) there was a new version in development? The problem with the latest one is that there is simply too much micro-managing. Adjusting the budget of each building to make sure it grows with the population gets just a little annoying after a while. Still, its a great game and I still regularly play it. I remember that somewhere on the Simcity website you could actually download a CD release of the soundtrack. It is great music, and I think the developers even went to the trouble of getting an orchestra to record it, to get really high quality, well-played music for the game.

I've tried out a whole load of Linux distributions (I've got a stack of 30-odd CDs and DVDs of Live versions of them above my desk ) and I have always found Kubuntu to be pretty good compared to the rest. I would say Linux Mint came a very close second simply due to the excellent hardware support. OpenSUSE is also a good choice, although I'm not too fond of being RPM based. Its good to see someone else who also hates Gnome! Everyone I speak to says they prefer it to anything else, but to me it just looks a little bit too childish and cartoony. Especially when you compare it to KDEs new icon set and look. My laptop dual-boots XP Home and Kubuntu 7.04, and I have gradually, without really noticing, used Kubuntu more and more often for everyday tasks. For example, I check my emails, listen to music, do homework, do web design and a whole host of other stuff on Linux. I boot into XP maybe once a month now, and when I do, everything just seems so unintuitive, hidden and just laborious to get done. As for the media part, things like MythTV are becoming more developed, more stable and more feature-rich now and are viable alternatives to other media systems.

To get files written in PHP to run, you need to have access to a web server which runs PHP. For example, here at Xisto the hosting supports PHP. If you get 10 credits here at Xisto and apply for hosting you will then have a hosting account you can use PHP on. Once you have your account, you need to upload your PHP files into your account. To do this you will need some FTP software, or you could use the online service Net2FTP. Log in using the details you get when you get your hosting account, and upload the PHP files you have into the folder called public_html. Finally, visit your web hosting account using the address given to you in your hosting account details and you should see your files. Clicking any one will run it. If you need any of those steps going through in more detail then post back with what you don't understand and we'll do our best to help you out.

This is why most routers now put at least some sort of protection on the connection, and keep reminding you to change the password to get into the admin panel. The few people I know who run free WiFi connections route everything through proxy servers and are often quite limiting on what sites you can actually access. For some sites this is good (banks, for example, are blocked to protect your security), but there are many occasions where it gets annoying.You could always tell them you have spotted their network is unsecured, and help them secure it to prevent others using it. It would certainly get you in your neighbour's good books, and they'd be quite likely to let you use the connection after helping them out.

Flash is not a programming language in the same way that Java is. Flash could be said to be split into 2 parts: Flash itself, and ActionScript. ActionScript allows you to add extra functionality to anything you make in Flash, and is very similar to Javascript in both syntax and the available functionality. Not really. If you get hold of a good book or good set of tutorials that teach you everything from the ground up then you should be able to pick it up fairly quickly. There are also plenty of examples on the Internet, and lots of help available for ActionScript. If you are serious about getting into Flash development you'll need a copy of Adobe Flash. Its not exactly cheap, but there is a free trial download available. You can get a feel for the application and the way it works. Most tutorials, and books especially, will focus around this application alone. There are various cheaper and even free alternatives out there, but they don't offer the same functionality. Online, all I can recommend is Pixel2Life as a source to find some good tutorials. However, for starting out, you can't beat a decent book. O'Reilly are probably the best people to be looking at for a book, especially for the ActionScript side of things. You can normally pick the books up pretty cheaply second hand. Flash became the industry standard among web developers and designers, and nothing has ever come close to it in functionality. The fact that most people already have the Flash plugin already installed in their web browser also helps (as people don't need to download something just to see a menu for example) although you may lock-out some of the Linux market by using Flash.

I would follow fffanatics' advice and download Eclipse, and then get the PHP plugin for it. Eclipse is a great piece of software, no matter what language you are developing in, and the various features to help you write your code are unparalleled, even in software you pay for. With PHP there is no way to switch into a design view. PHP code is parsed by the server when you request to view the page, therefore the only way to view the result of your PHP code is to run it through a web server that supports PHP. As Plenoptic said, you can upload your PHP files to your web hosting account here at the Trap, and then visit them via the Internet. If you are making a lot of edits to the code or debugging, you are probably better off downloading Apache, PHP and MySQL (if you want to do database work) and testing your scripts on your own computer. If all those downloads are a little bit too much for you, you could always write the code in Notepad, Kate, Notepad++ or any text editor. Still, to see the code in action you need to either upload it or run it with Apache and PHP.

There is a big difference between the two things you have mentioned in your post: hosting and a domain. Hosting is the actual disk space and features you get to put a website onto. A domain is a convenient way for people to get access to your website. When you apply for hosting here at Xisto, for 10 credits you receive 20MB of space and 500MB of bandwidth. For 30 credits you get 500MB of space and 10,000MB of bandwidth! This is much better than any other free hosting service. As for the many other features you get with either package, check out the feature list on the main Xisto site. Once you have hosting, you need to keep posting on the forums, as each day you will lose 1 credit. Xisto do not place adverts anywhere on your site, and you are free to put your own adverts on your site if you want. The help and support from the community is also great, and something you wouldn't get from any other free hosting provider. With you hosting account you get a subdomain, in the format http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/. For many people this is a bit too long and slightly unprofessional. For 250 credits you can get a domain (in the format http://www.hugedomains.com/domain_profile.cfm?d=sitenamehere&e=com) from Xisto. Alternatively you can pay a company a yearly fee and get a domain. Xisto - Web Hosting offer pretty cheap domains. If you have any other questions about either the hosting or domains, feel free to post them and we will do our best to answer them.

Considering my wifi connection seems to run out halfway down my back garden, and in the middle of the driveway, I think we'd notice someone sat outside with a laptop trying to use it Still, its protected with WPA, despite the problems that caused getting Linux on my laptop to connect to it. My school is going to open up its wireless connection to the students and public in September, so I'm predicting that a lot of this sort of thing is going to go on. Just to be on the safe side, I'll be checking my emails from home.

Another advantage to using Linux I suppose: all my music is in Ogg Vorbis format. It does seem like a bit of an odd virus to write - it isn't really serving any purpose to the person who wrote it (such as feeding them data) or causing massive data loss problems (most people have the CDs for their music anyway, or can redownload it). It also doesn't exactly spread that easily by the looks of it. Despite the fact pen drives are pretty widely used, I don't think its going to cause massive problems.

Obviously you can use HTML, CSS, XHTML, XML and all those similar sort of languages. As for server-side scripting, I know you can use PHP and Perl, and I think CGI stuff can be used. You also get MySQL databases, so SQL is supported, often along with PHP scripts. I haven't used anything other than those I have listed here, but I believe it covers pretty much everything. If you have something specific in mind you want to use then tell us and we'll see if we can find out if its supported.

Welcome to Xisto, Daniel! You should be able to get hosting and a free domain pretty quickly here, just earn yourself enough credits from making good quality posts. Make sure to check the readme and rules first, and then go out and enjoy yourself in the forums Everyone is very helpful and generally friendly, so feel free to post your ideas, thoughts or anything else that comes to mind.