zakaluka

ZettaAir,I would recommend starting with HTML. Use that to create a couple of sites first. The tutorial links provided by miladinoski are quite good (W3Schools, especially). Once you get the hang of HTML, then start looking into what CSS is and how to use it. This will give you the foundation for a nice looking site.As you work with these technologies, you will slowly come to understand the limitations. Once you know you need more, start looking into what PHP is and how to use it. By that time, you will have a solid foundation and won't be thoroughly confused by how all the different languages / components interact.Finally, you will need to, if not fully learn, at least understand what SQL is and when it is appropriate to use. It is a database programming language and there are many frameworks available that hide the complexity of SQL behind a nice interface. However, keep this for later on until you have a good grounding in the 3 previous languages.Regards,z.

I like the simple, clean layout of the site. Seems well organized, though obviously low on content. Would be interesting to see what the website would look like with more news, pages, and so on.The site looks OK with Firefox 3.0.8 on Linux. I couldn't find any visual errors with it.I don't hear any music when I go to the site. This is good, because I hate sites that start up music without warning the user. But, if you want music, you may want to look into why it's not playing correctly.I didn't try joining the site, so I don't know what the member pages are like. Do you have a sample account people can use for that (just for checking it)? Hope this helps,z.

While I do play and enjoy both kinds of games, I prefer turn-based strategy games. I like to have time to think about potential choices and paths, then decide on what I think will be the best choice. Too many RTSes (at least recently) remind of the fast-paced action normally reserved for FPSes.Regards,z.

Eve Online is an MMORPG (Massively Multi-player Online Role Playing Game) made by CCP out of Iceland. Their main (only?) game to date is Eve Online. There are a couple of things that distinguish Eve from other MMORPGs: (1) You pay a monthly fee to play the game. However, all updates to the game are free. So far, 11 major expansions to the game have been released to subscribers at no cost. (2) Training skills takes time, not use. Players' attributed (Perception, Intelligence, Willpower, Memory, Charisma) decrease training time for skills, but do not contribute to combat in any way. (3) Combat is based on your learned level of relevant skills. Because there are hundreds of skills available that would take decades to train up completely, each character is different based on the interests of the actual person behind them. (4) Combat is not based on twitch action, but on overall tactical analysis. That is to say, the physics engine in the game makes it so that changes in direction, targets, weapons take a not-insignificant time to execute, so the details have to be thought of beforehand. (5) The economy is almost completely player driven. If you are scammed in-game by another player and they did it without exploiting the game code, you are out of luck. It is a much harsher world, but a lot of more mature in some ways. (6) No area (except the inside of a station) is completely safe from attack. The penalties are more severe in high security areas, but any player can attack any other player at any time for any reason. (7) Eve runs on a single-shard server, i.e. all players in the game are playing in the same universe. This means that there is much more scope for players affecting each others' actions and goals. (8) Eve's client is free to download. A boxed version is available and comes with additional game time and some other items, but is definitely not required. (9) Even if you hate PvP (a core aspect of Eve), you can go into fields like mining, manufacturing, scientific research, exploration, mission running, trading, ratting, ninja salvaging, and many others. Each of these jobs can earn you money to sustain yourself. In addition, each of these jobs is important to the corporations and alliances that exist throughout Eve. Also, focusing on more than one field is completely possible and probably a good idea. -- thanks to onscreen Storyline Basically, humans found a wormhole when expanding out from Earth. Thousands of people left to find a better life and expand into new colonies. This continued for quite a while, until, one day, the wormhole suddenly collapsed. Now, the people on the other side of the wormhole have to survive with no contact to Earth. The time period is set 21,000 years in the future. The various factions (Caldari, Gallente, Amarr, Minmatar) are fighting to hold their own territory. However, thanks to the fact that most of the universe is player-driver, player corporations / alliances can and do hold vast tracts of space to rival that held by the 4 major empires. Graphics Eve Online's graphics are extremely creative, yet the game has low system requirements. The game's latest release made it so that a minimum of Shader Model 2 is required to play. However, the textures and models are very detailed and beautifully crafted. The backgrounds truly lend a sense of awe to how large the universe really is compared to an individual pilot. Sound Eve's sound is quite well done. The music, when coordinated correctly, adds much to the excitement of entering battle or escaping from an engagement. Gameplay The game's story line is very deep. There is constant conflict going on in the universe, both driven by CCP and players. CCP also regularly releases short stories that describe various aspects of life in the Eve universe. Players are able to craft their characters to be good at everything from combat to mining to manufacturing and research. There is a place for all these professions in Eve. Controls The game is mostly controlled by the mouse with a certain number of keyboard shortcuts that make life simpler when performing repetitive tasks. Summary Eve Online is a fantastic game that allows people to participate in a non-standard RPG without the grind. Additionally, players can buy game time with the in-game currency (ISK). This means that a successful pilot can play the game for free indefinitely, as long as they keep making money. There is a 15-day demo available from the Eve website for anyone who wants to try the game. Since character creation and introduction to the Eve universe has been recently revamped, it is a great time to new players to try it out or old players to return to the game. Regards, z.

Mine would have to be the Final Fantasy series. Specifically, I absolutely love Final Fantasy III (US - V in Japan) that was released on the SNES. On the computer, the best RPG I've ever played is Baldur's Gate. The story, attention to detail, character differences, all come together to make it one of the most fantastic RPGs ever made.Regards,z.

I really love playing racquetball myself. However, I find it very boring to watch.For viewing pleasure, I prefer football (both types). As long as the teams are good, it is really fun to watch.Regards,z.

It is quite safe and has been practiced for hundreds, if not thousands of years.Also, it is not just a placebo effect. I have used it myself, but the real difference was when my dad used it. He has really bad back problems, and going to an acupuncture session removed the pain for a few days. I don't know if it was by numbing the nerve or stimulating other muscle groups, but it definitely worked.See if your health insurance company will cover them. Also, find a clinic that will give you a free session so you can see if it will make a difference before committing for the long term.Regards,z.

Very nice summary of exercises. I have been following Rippetoe's workout for a while now, and those exercises are key to building strength and mass.Regards,z.

For windows systems, I recommend uTorrent. For linux, I've been using Azureus / Vuze, and though it is more of a resource hog, it is very full featured.I also occasionally use eMule (connects to the eDonkey network) for certain files I can't get on bittorrent.Regards,z.

I use Opera's built in e-mail client. It contains full support for encryption (I am connecting to 2 sites securely over IMAP without any problems).I think Thunderbird is okay, but it can't connect to one of the sites I am trying to get to. There seems to be something wrong with their crypto implementation, though I didn't look too closely to see what it is. Regards,z.

I'm sorry but that statement is utterly incorrect. Java does have a compiler. It is part of the JDK. The binary is called javac (stands for 'java compiler'). The difference is that it compiles Java source code to bytecode that is interpreted by a runtime. Also, each platform requires its own version of the JDK to compile programs and the JRE to run them. There are many (dozens) of platforms that have no JDK / JRE support. In contrast, C / C++ (certain subsets) work on all those platforms. Obviously, this applies to many smaller platforms that most people are not aware of. Still, please don't spread misinformation if you are not sure of how certain programming languages work. Regards, z.

I'd have to say, for that budget, you should go with either a:(1) Dell - if you want the most bang for your buck. Just get an extended warranty and you will be fine (I've never had problems with any dell computers, and I've owned a lot).(2) Lenovo - slightly fewer features, but VERY reliable. They do have quite a few lines that start within your budget.(3) Asus - Extremely reliable laptops. Contrary to common belief, they do not only make gaming laptops. They have full lines from netbooks (everyone's heard of the EEE) to full 20" laptops. Their prices are very good, and I believe new models come with a standard 2 year international warranty.Regards,z.

If you only want to stop Google's bots from caching your site, you can replace the above line with:<meta name="googlebot" content="noarchive">Regards,z.

Any database can be used to store the information you want. The most important thing is to organize the data so that it is easy to see the relationships between the various items (teams, players, leagues, game statistics, and so on). A relational database is ideal for this situation. To learn more about how to design databases, check out something like http://geekgirls.com/category/office/databases/ . It is very helpful and goes through the basics step by step. Regards, z.

When you log into the Vista Panel, there is a link about halfway down on the right, under Databases, called "PHPMyAdmin". Click on that and log into your server. From there, you should be able to do anything you want with MySQL.Regards,z.

I'd say the 2 best paid programs are NOD32 and Kaspersky. Both of them consistently score at the top of the charts in benchmarks.For free, I have been using Avira Antivir (personal edition). It uses less resources than AVG, and the updater works in situations where AVG was failing (never understood the reason).Regards,z.

I've used the lock method described by Prashant. The only problem is that the file has to be deleted manually if the application crashes without removing the lock.The benefit is that this technique works on every operating system and platform, with any java toolkit. I had a problem with capturing certain ports on unix, especially with certain firewalls running in the background.Regards,z.

Definitely Eclipse. It makes most developers I know at least twice as productive with the huge amount of features and context-sensitive support.Regards,z.

India has piracy laws similar to the US (in fact, they are more draconian). India does, at least in theory, prosecute people for copyright violations. So, P2P is NOT illegal by itself. For example, downloading the Ubuntu ISOs using bittorrent is completely legal. However, downloading a copy of the new Watchmen movie has the potential of getting you in trouble. I have never heard of anyone from India being prosecuted for downloading copyrighted material using p2p software, but I guess it is only a matter of time. If you want to be a 100% safe, don't download anything illegal over p2p networks. Regards, z.

Flat files are great for certain kinds of data. For example, I have some large XML (gzipped) files that my web application uses to get tagged, meaningful data from. However, the site also uses a database to store user information and other data. Since the XML files only change about once a year (if that), there is no real problem keeping them like that. However, with too many files, it is possible with a large site to hit the inode limit, disallowing you from making more files on the system. Also, databases do have a lot of useful features that can't be had from flat files (exploiting relationships between data for selection, for example).So, each have their own uses, but, overall, I'd have to go with a database over flat files.Regards,z.

Wow, reading this thread made me go check my account just now (it's at 4%). That is just an absolutely insane amount of large attachments and e-mails.I'm not sure if I should congratulate you or not, since you now have to delete old e-mails or pay for more storage. But, it was good to look on one of these situations for the first time.Regards,z.

As many others have said, I definitely prefer GMail for the simplicity and speed. In addition, all the new lab features they keep adding are extremely helpful (like advanced keyboard shortcuts). The tagging system is fantastic, and I greatly prefer it over just folders. Their '+' feature (i.e. with the account user@gmail.com, you can send yourself e-mails from user+digg@gmail.com, user+Xisto@gmail.com, user+<xyz>@gmail.com - you get the idea). This gives you an unlimited number of accounts that can be easily filtered based on the tag after the '+' sign.All this combines to make a really fantastic e-mail service. However, I still maintain a yahoo e-mail, for all those times when you need to give out an address that you know will be spammed .Regards,z.

I like one feature above all others for Chrome - when one plugin crashes, the whole browser doesn't crash and burn. Now, admittedly, I've been able to crash Chrome before. However, the tab restore feature has always worked, and I can usually shut down the offending tab before it finishes loading.Just as you, the minimal interface grew on me pretty quickly. Since I was only using it as a secondary browser, I was not bothered by the lack of extra functionality. However, every site I tried worked, and it was fast!Honestly, the only feature I missed from it is Opera's fast-forward feature (which will go to the next logical page after you reach the end of the current one). Other than that, everything was very satisfactory for a beta browser.Regards,z.

I think the only draw Firefox / Mozilla has is the plugins. Without them, Opera is definitely the better browser. Despite having more features built-in (bittorrent, mail / news client, mouse gestures, fast forward/rewind, and the best popup blocking selection I have ever seen), it uses much fewer resources. Plus, the tab system is extremely stable. I routinely have 60-80 tabs open at once, all the time. Any time I try that with Firefox, the browser crashes unceremoniously. In addition, it has excellent keyboard shortcuts (z, x, a, s, q, etc.).I'm not a fanboy (since I'm posting this message from Firefox). However, I can safely say that I use Opera as my main browser and just bring up FF when I needs to go to a quick site or something just refuses to work with Opera.Regards,z.

Ink jet printers, from experience and studies on the web, do waste a whole lot of ink. However, if you are only printing very infrequently, they are a good choice to go with.While inkjet printers use ink, laser printers use toner. You do have to switch out the toner cartridge every so often. So, before you purchase, check out how expensive the toner cartridges are for the laser printer you are looking at. I've never owned a personal laser printer, since I don't print that much at home and the upfront costs are somewhat prohibitive. I've used a large number of Canon bubble jet / inkjet printers, and these are quite good. The ink cartridges are reasonable (depending on where you buy them), you can refill them at third party locations pretty easily, and they last a long time before breaking down.Regards,z.