Klaas
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Posts posted by Klaas
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Through sitepoint I discovered a new interesting browser called Flock. It's only a developer release but it's already quite usable as a browser.
Flock is based on the Mozilla code base so it's very similar to Firefox. The difference however is that it supports "Web 2.0" features by default, no need to install extensions for these things. An interesting things is that with the push of a button you open a window that lets you post an entry to your own blog. Bookmarks are also enhanced with del.icio.us integration and the ability to star or tag your bookmarks.
Another cool thing is the Shelf. It's a window in which you can drop anything: an url, an images, a file, etc. Pretty handy if you need to save something quickly.
So, have a look at flock here: http://www.flock.com/, it's not that impressive yet but really worth checking out
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I think you can find most details on their website, I don't know these things by heart
They're hosting A List Apart; the best website on the net for web design, so I guess that's quite an assurance that they're reliable. I also think they offer a community and some of their employees have a blog, so things like this really add to the quality factor imho.
But WHT is the best source for reliable information, so it's best to do some research there.
But they're very expensive, so you should decide what's most important. If I had the money I'ld go with them, but personally I'ld rather save a few $ and chose a cheaper host that's also reliable (like surpasshosting or dreamhost).
Also, if you need power resources but don't want to go for colocation or a dedicated server be sure to check out VPS hosting solutions next to the standard shared solutions. You get your own memory, CPU-time, software, etc., so it's basiculy a virtual dedicated server at a cheap price with the benifits of shared hosting.
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Well it's Beta 1, Beta 2 was released recently and has many improvements, too bad it's not available for download yet at my college.
@Mythos It's really Vista, not just a theme
As far as performance go I'm quite impressed; it runs very smoothly, even with a whole bunch of those transparent windows open (on a P4 3Ghz, 512MB, Radeon 9800XT). Also got my wifi card working now
I'll look into it more tomorrow to answer some of the questions.
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WFG in Vista :-]
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A long time ago I promised to give some Windows Vista screenies but I wasn't able to fullfil my promise because the install files I got didn't work.
Yesterday however my college finally updated the files and I managed to install it. So if you want a screenie of something you can ask here.
Overall I'm not too impressed with Vista (note: it's only the first beta). It's nearly the same as XP but with some additional features like eye-candy, other start menu, better file browser, virtual folders, etc.
The GUI eye-candy isn't that impressive really. Windows can be transparent and when a window is opened or closed you get a nice fade effect, nothing too special imo. The start menu is a but more intuitive; when clicking "programs" it doesn't fold out a huge menu anymore but some kind of shortcut/file browser inside the start menu.
Anyway, I have to play with it a little more to give more info. Haven't been able to establish an internet connection yet with it because it doesn't recognise my wifi card and the driver doesn't work in Vista.
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Yeah I've also heard good things about dreamhost.
The others:
http://www.servint.net/vps/ (vps hosting, in case you need something more powerfull)
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This sounds too good to be true. I mean, they can't make any profit offering business grade servers and resources for the price of a low budget account.
I think that they simply put tons of accounts on one server and oversell their bandwith and disk space.
DGDN and I (and WFG IIRC) used to have an account at Whizhost which offered similar specs for a similar price. The result was a service giving virtually no support, much downtime and the worst part was that they closed down DGDN without a serious warning because they used too many resources (which they didn't).
If you want to do a serious background check or want to find a good hosting company for a reasonable price there's only one place to go to:
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/
There are also national WHT sites (.nl, .co.uk, .au, etc.)
The http://www.sitepoint.com/ forums are also useful sometimes.
The best webhost I personally know of is http://www.textdrive.com/ but they're very expensive, but quality comes at a price.
Other good (affordale) ones:
http://www.surpasshosting.com/
... (need my bookmarks on my laptop for the others, will post them soon today)
Oh and check this plan out, it's popular at Sitepoint since it's very cheap but still quality. They offer it so cheap because you pay yearly:
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Personally I have no problem with (public) nudity at all, being an ex-nudist myself. I do have a problem with the mass commercialisation of nudity as on the Super Bowl or those MTV clips, though I do not agree that any government should "invent" moral rules and impose them upon the people.
Flemings, contrary to our good Dutch friends, are much less open about nudity and sex (which really annoys me). Here too we have "decency" laws, though fortunatly not as strict as in the USA. But things are getting more positive around here, next summer another nudist beach is opened because of popular demand
Anyway, as I've said a few times here already, there's a big difference between natural nudity and commercialised nudity, and there's also a big difference between erotica and tasteless porn. Unfortunatly most people don't realise this and judge them the same. Also, anyone is has the choice to watch it, so I don't understand why there are laws forbidding nudity, especially when it's only a niple or a breast. Most children have seen it, it's not going to shock them or anything, nor will it turn them into immoral sex hungry monsters.
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Is it this one?
http://wellstyled.com/tools/colorscheme2/index-en.html
Don't forget to check the webdesigner's reference, it's in there
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Yep, I agree Loonis.
What happens in Australia is really a step too far. Those involved in the fighting are no better than the supposed Muslims who were the cause of it. In fact they prove how stupid their reasoning is; being a scumbag isn't related to race but to social background, personality, education, etc.
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In fact that's not weird but very smart (well atleast if he's legally protected, though I doubt he would see any money if the company owning Entropia went bankrupt). That article really caught my interest for this game, sounds like an excellent playground to learn something more about running a little company, making investments, etc.
I do wonder how the whole system works. In the end someone has to loose money in this game, and it definately isn't the company behind it or they would have closed their doors already. I also wonder if all this is legally because taxes have to be paid on such sums and there are various other laws applicable (eg. consumer protection and such).
Anyway, by the looks of it it's still too early to have a go at this but if it's as good as it sounds it's a nice tool to earn some dough for business-minded people.
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Well there are lightweight print and file servers at pretty low prices. Maybe have a look at the website of Belkin or so, I recently saw them advertising a wireless print server for only €40, perhaps they have file servers or other wireless options for USB devices too.
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To clarify my opinion on both world wars (or any war for that matter):
Indeed, both wars changed the world, but we don't know how the world would be if they didn't happen. But we do know that if they didn't happen millions of innocent people wouldn't have died.
And the thing is, especially in WW1 all those people died for nothing. They died because the politicians of either side were seeking to rule the world, to show who has most power. As Yiuel points out, people were exposed to tons of propaganda to strenthen the ethnocentric believes (eg. the sorrow of Belgium, the German Atilla, etc.).
The second world war was partly the result of the first one, and the thing here is that it got popular support again from ethnocentric believes. The French, British and Americans punished Germany too hard and the German politicians used those punishment as propaganda to create an aggressive feeling among its citizens.
Agains millions of people died. Not to get rid of a fascist regime but again to show who's strongest. I honestly hate the propaganda they still use that the allies fought Germany because of the nazis or because of the Holocaust. Surely many people did, but not those in power.
And to come to the point, I think both wars were rediculous because of the reasons they were fought and because people still don't realise how rediculous wars are. After WW1 everyone was crying "no more war", see what happens 20 years later. Each year people from the Commonwealth, including politicians, commemorate the Great War, but why the hell are they fighting a war in Iraq then?
So I do believe an end can come to this, also in the Middle East. But it will only come of both sides are willing to accept eachother's differences, if both sides are willing to forgive, and especially if they both are willing to put life above power.
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Well it wasn't my intention to "bash the Germans", but my remark or comparison was rather aimed at the politicians in question.
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I was wondering if these are really as compatible as advertised. I have a USB2 stick and when I plug it into my dad's PC or my old laptop (both USB1 ports) the USB device either isn't found at all or the PC tells me "device not recognised". After plugging it in and out for several times it works though.
By gf recently both a wireless USB network adapter (USB2) and has the exact same problems with her PC (USB1). So I wonder if this problem is related to USB2 vs USB1 or maybe because the USB ports don't get enough power. Someone had any similar experiences?
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Well probably we'll never all share the same belief, and frankly I hope we won't because diversity is essential to accomplish something new.
But I think living together should be possible, despite the disputes many ideologies, countries, etc have. Just look at Europe. 60 years ago we were still going at eachother's throat, last century millions of people died in rediculous wars, but now it seems that we can live together peacefully.
There's still a long way to go but I'm sure that this is possible on a global scale, as long as some ideologies realize that they are not alone in this world and are not the collective of the highest living human beings on this planet.
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I believe those camps exist. The thing is, everyone is so vague about the whole thing. Rice for example is constantly talking about the US not harming its own laws, but she hasn't clearly said that there are no secret CIA camps in Europe. All of a sudden those CIA planes that have been registered here many times aren't discussed anymore. If these planes aren't transporting prisoners, why being so vague about it?
I don't know why the EU ministers accept this so suddenly. I guess that's diplomacy going on here.
Frankly the whole thing doesn't surprise me and I don't really care. If there are such camps in Europe with the knowledge of those countries they are to blame in the first place imho, not only the US. Quite hypocrite really, all those silly EU bureaucrats voting rediculous laws about the holocaust while there probably are secret camps in their own backyard. Wir haben das nicht gewusst suddenly becomes very applicable to this situation
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Argalius, if you're on windows you don't have to uninstall the old one, 1.5 will just update the previous version if you install it.
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That's very good for a first attempt at web design, and thumbs up for using CSS+XHTML.
Nice layout, not much to comment on really. Here are some tips to improve it though:
- The lines in the background contrast a bit too much. Maybe use a lighter color so the background doesn't attract the eye too much.
- Not many people like websites with only little graphics. It doesn't mean you need to go heavy on them, but doing some subtle things with shadows and gradients adds a lot more depth to the whole thing.
- Regarding typography I would certainly add some line-height (it's a CSS property you can use) for the content text, to add more white-space between lines of text. Example: line-height: 1.2em
Maybe also use a different font for the large text like titles and your navigation. Sans-serif fonts don't look great when big, try some serif fonts maybe. - Maybe use twice as much white-space (padding) for the content at the left and right side, it's still a bit too close to the border imho.
- The hover orange is a bit too bright imho
- I would position the breadcrumb (the ://Main thing I suppose) between the navigation and the content, that's where people usually look for it.
Now on to the code
The can be replaced by some CSS.
First you need to get your html right for the search form, something like this:
<form id="searchForm" action="#" method="post">
<input type="text" name="query" id="search_query" title="Search" value="" class="textbox" />
<input type="submit" title="Search" value="Search" class="button" />
</form>CSS:
#searchForm { float:right; margin:0 12px 0 12px}
.textbox {display:inline; width: somewidth px}
.button {display:inline}So the trick is the float:right. You can also use position absolute, but that's not a good idea with a form imho.
Also watch out with CSS-properties. I see many margin-left, margin-right, etc. in one style declaration. You can combine this with a shorthand property:
margin: 1px 2px 3px 4px;
It's clock-wise so: top 1px, right 2px, bottom 3px and left 4px
Same goes for font properties, which can be combined in the font shorthand.
There are a few shorthands for border too:
border: 1px solid #fff
This sets the border (top, right, bottom, left) to 1px width, solid style and white color.
You can also do this:
border-top: 1px solid #fff (only for the top border)
or this:
border-width: 1px 2px 3px 4px (like margin)
For more info just look through the w3schools reference, most of those handy properties are listed there.
- The lines in the background contrast a bit too much. Maybe use a lighter color so the background doesn't attract the eye too much.
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Not too many impressive additions, but CSS3 and SVG is awesome. Sadly IE7 won't support these AFAIK :/
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We don't have a socialist economic system, it's more a combination of capitalism (free market) and socialism (unions, minimum wage, a few state companies, etc.). Don't get me wrong, I strongly favour most aspects of socialism and many of communism, but I don't support what socialism has turned into: at one side hypocrites supporting the big companies and rich families (politicians) and at the other side unions supporting asocial behaviour.
I'm merely using the term socialism because it happens most often in those circles, although it's common too with others, especially in the public sector.
I don't know how this could be fixed. I guess what's really important is reducing the power of political parties massively and giving people more democratic rights so they feel that they participate more in society.
It's often that these things happen in offices managed by politicians. For example, my gf's sister worked with the socialist union under the daughter of an important socialist. They simply never got any work done and it was more about opportunism instead of getting some work done. Same thing with my niece who works for a city counsil, headed by a socialist mair. Again people don't do anything and she even receives insults because she wants to work.
So less incompetent people on high positions, especially politicians because they only act with the intention to get votes, not to help people.
Another thing is introducing real socialism. Eg. not giving one a retirement wage of €1300 and the other person €300, but the same wage for everyone. Another nice idea, although it's more liberal, is introducing high taxes on purchase instead of work, that way people pay taxes by buying instead of working. And most importantly, introducing a bonus system for wages: those who work harder get a bonus.
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This time I'm developing a new layout for http://www.politics.be/, the largest website and forum about Belgian politics
Currently I'm busy with this (absolutely not finished yet):
I also made these unfinished prototypes, so if you like one more than the on above, please tell me
http://kvw.be/politics/politics5.jpg
http://kvw.be/politics/politics6.jpg
http://kvw.be/politics/politics1.jpg
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I have fundamental problems with various things:
Politics:
It's not what it should be, atleast not around here. Now politics revolve around political parties, not around ideologies or the common people. I have a big problem with our politicians telling us what is right, what is good and who is wrong and who is bad. This includes:
Belgium accepted the EU constitution without a referendum. They said that most Belgians wouldn't even read the constitution, while a documentary has showed that only few politicians were present during the discussion of the EUC in parliament and that most haven't even read it themselves.
I also have a big problem that the political spectrum has now degenerated to those who are pro-Vlaams Belang, aka the racists, fascists, xenophobes, homophobes, everything-o-phobes and those who're anti-Vlaams Belang, aka we-are-always-right-and-know-what's-good-for-you. There's no place for people like me who don't choose sides.
The worst thing is that being anti-Vlaams Belang has suddenly become an excuse to introduce discriminatory and anti-democratic laws and that those outside Vlaams Belang consider themselves as pro-democracy while many of their actions are against it.
So it's not about politics anymore, but simply about "what's the best way to counter Vlaams Belang" or "what's the best way to counter the rest".
I also have problems with people owning tons of money for little work and little responsibility and people abusing our social system or demanding rediculous things while disregarding the rest of the population (anti-social behaviour). For example the unions constantly protesting and threatening with national strikes because the government wants to raise the retirement age to 58-60.
Related to this I'm always appalled when hearing how many socialists act at work. It seems that many of them think that work simply exists for them to earn money, that it doesn't matter that they spend their working time doing something useful instead of constantly chattering and moaning.
Such a mentality is very dangerous, especially if many people have it. Fewer and fewer people work their "balls" off (common Flemish expression for working really hard
) while more and more sit there and do nothing.I'm not going to pay taxes for those lazy bums, I'm not going to work my whole life to pay their pension and only receive very little in return. If this mentality continues to grow and if the government and the unions continue to support it or regard it as perfectly normal it's bye bye Belgium for me.
Worst thing is that those who really need financial support from the state (students, poor people, disabled people, large families, etc.) get less and less while we have to pay more taxes.
Anyway, that's my little rant
Anyone see signs of a civil war yet?
in Hall of Intellectuals
Posted
@Vigal
Hmmm, isn't that a bit too pessimistic? I agree that Western society has degraded into a hedonistic and extremely commercial society but imho this is better than what we're coming from, atleast in certain areas. I don't think society was more intelligent before; weren't people working their butt off for a few scrapes of bread only 60 years ago, the common people couldn't even vote in the 19th century, only recently everyone received this right.
So in that respect we have progressed a lot and are imho much more intelligent than before, despite the degeneration in other fields.
I also don't agree with some of your examples. Hygenic standards didn't decline, they progressed fanatically to the point that small players in for example the food sector have to spend much of their capital to research and implementations of standards with the risk of going bankrupt (atleast in Belgium and the EU, don't know about the US).
Drug abuse has been around for ages too, and in the 19th century on a very large scale (marihuana, absinth, alcohol, ...). The difference now is that it gets more attention and people start using it much earlier.
I agree about nazification, people do it too easily, often when they're short of arguments. Bush isn't Hitler and will never be, and despite my negative opinion about him I don't think he wants to become a dictator. Imho his motivations are based on pleasing his voting base and pleasing large (oil) companies, I don't buy the NWO or whatever conspiracy theories.
OTOH I think Europeans direct too much criticism towards the USA and not enough on the EU. Sure, Bush is taking away some civil rights, but the EU itself and some of its members go a lot further.
We Belgians weren't even allowed a referendum on the EU constitution, that's far worse than 10 Pratriot Acts together imho. Or what about the recent sugar regulations, supposedly to help the Third World while it's really about promoting the large farming companies and destroying our own farmers.