E-mail:
shirty@gmail.comGender:
FemaleLocation:
AustraliaOccupation:
university studentMember Since:
April 26, 2004Answers:
47Last Update:
February 19, 2007Visitors:
7293Main Categories:
Computers
Families
Colleges & Universities
View All
about
I like:- the social sciences, especially history (with interests in all types of areas) & sociology.
- computers -- doing an information systems major.
- reading; right now I'm into the classics and historical non-fiction.
- animals, especially dogs.
- helping people.
- travelling.
- being a repository of useless & trivial info.
- keeping up to date with world events & current affairs.
I hate:
- ignorance.
- fundamentalism.
I'm sure there's more.
advice
I got a new laptop for Christmas that has a wireless internet connection.
The signal is pretty strong and up until now it's worked fine at a good speed. However, over the past couple of days the internet has suddenly got much slower and it's getting really irritating.
I tried running a disk cleanup, clearing the cache, deleting any unecessary programs and defragmenting to see if it made any difference - which it did for a short while - but it's still overly slow.
Does anyone know what the problem is or how I can speed the internet back up?
I use Internet Explorer 7 if that helps.
IE7 doesn't have adware, unless one's accusing Microsoft of using nefarious methods. It's much better than IE6 in terms of security, at least.
When it comes to computer problems, you can try and narrow down the possibilities -- it's very hard to pinpoint a problem over the net. Rule out the possibility that something has hijacked your internet connection by running various spyware detection programs, such as Spybot and Adaware. Run a virus scan. Uninstalling programs should make no difference _unless_ one of those programs was interfering with your connection. If you can, have a bandwidth monitor running so you can see if there's any unusual upload/download patterns.
Just some ideas to try out.
Edit: This is a bit of a long shot, but have your IE7 security settings changed recently? I don't think it would cause problems, but one never knows.
I am an American student who would like to go to an Australian university. I'm just wondering if anyone could recommend some. I would like to know how they would convert my GPA and grades into their grade standards and such .I would also like to know how the resident arrangement would work out because I am currently an American citizen. I have heard that some Australians dislike Americans and I was wondering if it will be a major issue if I do go and get accepted to a university there. Thank you for your time.
Aussie uni student here, in Sydney. I'm a bit late, but maybe I can be of some help anyway.
I could recommend plenty depending on your criteria. Cost? Prestige? Location? Size? Some unis are better than others in certain areas and majors as well. That said, to generalise: the older unis in Sydney and Melbourne are widely considered the most prestigious. Not necessarily the *best*, but prestigious, definitely. In particular, the University of Sydney (which I attend) and the University of Melbourne. Other Aussies may disagree.
Some other well-respected ones:
- Australian National University (Canberra)
- Monash University
- Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
- University of NSW
- University of Queensland
- University of Technology, Sydney
- University of Western Australia
Of course, unis also have their strong points. Macquarie University, in Sydney, has the best ancient history dept in the country. Charles Sturt Uni, in rural NSW, is apparently great for journalism. Etc.
Check out Wikipedia's article for GPA in Australia. It's fairly accurate, though keep in mind the system varies slightly from uni to uni. A GPA of 4.0 over there is at least 7.0 here... A High Distinction average.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPA_in_Australia
You can find more details on uni websites regarding international admissions. Just Google the names. Also check out the Department of Immigration and Citizenship if you haven't already. However, you'll most likely be studying on a student visa.
http://www.immi.gov.au/
Of course some Australians dislike Americans. I'm sure it works the other way around as well. =P You might get some *friendly* ribbing because of your nationality, but as long as you don't live up to the Ugly American Tourist stereotype, you'll be fine. It shouldn't be a major issue. Aussies in general will ultimately treat you depending more on your personality. They're also big on nicknames, so don't be surprised if out of affection you're called a 'septic tank' for instance (rhyming slang for 'yank').
13 Female
okay, I go to a private school and i absolutely DESPISE it. I've asked my mom to change my schools and she says not until i bring my grades up and stop missing so much school. but the problem is...i fake sick as much as i can so i dont have to go. ( like i said before, i DESPISE the place) and i know it seems a bit childish, but if my little act doesnt work at first I start crying, like REALLY crying. i realy dont want to go. its a super small school and whenever i'm there I have absolutely no privacy. as a matter of fact, i feel like everyone there knows more about me than i do. And I've known the principal ever since kindergarten so she expects so much of me and i just cant live up to her standards anymore. My mom sent me to a counselor the other day bcuz she was worried about me and I told the counselor about school and how i wanted to switch and she actually agreed with me and said that she thought that would probably be the best thing for me. i told my mom and she just got mad and wouldnt talk to me for a little while. can anyone think of some way i could convince my mom to let me switch??? please, anything would help. thank you.
Why did your mum originally want you to go to private school in the first place? It helps to know why, as any convincing arguments you put to her will have to take your mum's reasoning into account.
IMHO, if you mum had practical reasons for sending you to private school in the first place, it will be easier to convince her than if she has emotional or sentimental reasons. In other words, perhaps this school is in a good location with affordable school fees? Well then, research alternative schools to *show* her how serious you are. On the other hand, if she wants you to go there because SHE went there too, or she's friends with the teachers... that'll be harder to change her mind on.
That said, I'm not sure what else you can do, but if this matter is as serious as it sounds, try and make her understand that trying harder at a school which you're growing to despise more and more is a *cycle* which could end poorly. It seems obvious written out, but maybe it's not to your mum. Also, you mentioned you're 13. She could think you're beginning a 'typical' moody teenager stage, and perhaps doesn't understand how serious you are about this.
All of these are just ideas though, and meant as food-for-thought. Hope something works out.
I want a new blogging site. I have already tried Livejournal and Xanga.
is there anything else? that is not myspace or tagworld like..
?thanks..
http://www.vox.com/ . Nothing like Myspace, but some people might see that as being positive. The combined set of features is not something I've seen elsewhere.
I heard that Steve Irwin the crocadile hunter guy was killed.
I don't know if that is true or not true?
Can someone tell me if it is true?
If the crocodile hunter is really dead then how did he get killed? I am so sad if it is true.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/steve-irwin-killed-by-stingray/2006/09/04/1157222051512.html
In short, the barbs on a stingray's tail got him through the heart. Very unusual injury to occur, even in Australia.
Hey guys!
So this year I get to learn a langauge && I picked French. does anybody know any tips? or know any awesome sites that can help me?
Merci.
A great grammar reference is Tex's French Grammar, http://laits.utexas.edu/tex/ , it's simply fantastic, especially if you're a grammatically-inclined person. (The same site also has more conversationally-inclined lessons, but I haven't tried those.) The BBC also has a pretty good set of resources: http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/french/ .
As for tips, well here's some observations specific to French, in no particular order:
- beware of false friends, which are words in French that seem look similar to certain English words but actually aren't, e.g. avertissement, 'warning', as opposed to advertisement.
- French really can sound beautiful when spoken. Unfortunately, gaining a proper accent might be difficult at first, unless you've already had some exposure to the Romance languages, have a talent for mimicry, or you're just very careful in enunciation.
- practice the alphabet. Most of it's the same as English, but there's a few tricksy ones such as G and J, which are reversed, and R is uvular, i.e. a sound made in the back of the throat.
- French grammar might seem difficult at first, with many exceptions, e.g. don't pronounce the -ent conjugation in verb forms like chantent. However, it does seem French is more _regular_ about its exceptions, whereas English is just... well, much more irregular and random. =)
- take people's claims of Spanish/Italian/other Romance language being easier than French with a grain of salt. Of course, ease depends very much on the individual, but there's nothing inherently more difficult in French.
- practice the tu/vous distinction. During mediaeval times, English thou was the rough equivalent of tu. I think nowadays conversational French courses are taught with tu emphasised, but knowing the distinction's still important.
Those might help.
i really didn't know what cagtagory to put this in but...
whats wrong with using all capital letters. why could you be banned if you do it. i just wanna know whats so bad about it
thanks
It's nothing more than manners, but capital letters on the internet is considered the equivalent of shouting. Capitalising an entire word or two is usually okay (though I don't know for this site), because it'll be understood as emphasising something.
However, typing entire sentences or even posts in capitals is bad form. It just comes across as shouting or excessive rudeness; either that, or it's a "LOOK AT ME!!!" type of attention-seeking.
I really just got into editing my photos.
The first program I had was Microsoft Picture It, but I want to move on to better and bigger things.
Is there a way I can get any photoshop program for free? My mom doesn't really support me in my photography-decisions and she wont pay.
It doesn't have to be a really good version, just one that works for a fast-working beginner.
You're probably interested in Adobe Photoshop Elements, which is a trimmed down version of Photoshop and cheaper. In any case, go to http://www.adobe.com/ to try trial versions of both. (To get it free is an illegal yet widespread practice.)
I must be honest though... the full-blown version of Photoshop IMHO at least is too much for a beginner. There is a steep learning curve with many features unnecessary to beginners. Arguably the best way to learn is to dive straight in, but the cost is prohibitive. Photoshop Elements is your best bet, but I also second the recommendation of the GIMP. It's also a very powerful program, though it might take some getting used to for Windows users, and it's lacking a few of the features that Photoshop CS has, as well as having some of its own.
I've had my iPod mini for about eleven months and it's always worked fine. However, recently I've noticed a problem with playing music on it. There are certain songs that just won't play. If the iPod randomly selects one of these songs then it will just skip past it until it finds a song that will play. I've tried going to the albums that the songs are on and selecting them and trying to play them that way, but that doesn't work either.
Has anyone had this problem with their iPod mini or know how to solve it?
I've had songs like that before (not a mini, but on a 20gb original, so same generation as yours). Is your problem with songs that you've just transferred onto the iPod, or are these long-time songs which have just started with this strange behaviour? Possibly the former problem is easier to fix then the latter.
There might be many possible reasons as to why your songs won't play, but my problem was that some of my music files were set in read-only mode -- the iPod seems to skip those files. Try finding the files on the hard drive and seeing if they're set in that mode -- if they are, get rid of it (in Windows, right-click > Properties, look for box that says Read-only). Then transfer it to the iPod _fresh_ (make sure to get rid of its corresponding files before transfer, don't just transfer and overwrite).
That's just one suggestion. Even if it doesn't work, at least that's one less problem to consider. =)
I'm open to new ideas and Wiccan seemed interesting to me. My mother's not open minded at all and so I can't talk to her about it. I'm afraid to talk about it with my family because they are all close minded along with my friends. I don't mind that I want to persue wiccan. I wanted to know if anyone here was into Wiccan and I would like to talk to you guys...
Wicca is a very diverse, eclectic religion. You're bound to find all types of Wiccans, including some who may seem slightly off-the-wall. That said, don't let one-sided perceptions such as those by a previous columnist be your only reference, as it could be said that any religion + 'proof and logic' is an oxymoron. ;-)
As I hinted at earlier, Wiccans have many different practices and beliefs, but most have in common Goddess and/or God-worship, reverence for nature, and adherence to an interpretation of the Wiccan Rede (1).
If people startle at the mention of Wicca, they've likely confused it with something else. DO make a clear distinction between Wicca and witchcraft, for example, as not all Wiccans actually practise magic as we think it. Elements of witchcraft are incorporated into Wicca, but one shouldn't be equated with the other. (That Wicca shouldn't be equated with Satanism should go without saying.) Wicca itself isn't dangerous -- it's all what the practitioner makes of it. =P
(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiccan_Rede
Other sites which you might find useful:
http://wicca.timerift.net/fluffy.shtml (strongly recommended read in clearing up perceptions of 'fluffy bunny' Wiccans)
http://www.religioustolerance.org/witchcra.htm (good, objective reference)
Not Wiccan BTW, but I have looked into it extensively -- was seriously considering it for a while -- but remain a content deist instead. You can email me if you like (shirty@gmail.com), and good luck with it all. =)
Has livejournal.com ever had problems with its "private" entries? Like... has it ever had technical difficulties which resulted into them being shown public?
I have some really, really personal entries that I wish to put on private but I'm a little hesitant on doing so because I don't want to take a chance in them being revealed. I don't want to have to create another journal, I wish to just simply have one journal that contains public posts as well as a few private posts.
Speaking as an LJ user... I don't believe so. There have been problems with _friends-locked_ posts (have you heard of the Frienditto drama?), but private-locked, no.
That said, just be careful. Potentially anything you put on the internet can be accessed or hacked into. Usually the leaking of private information is due to poor security practices by the user rather than technical glitches (not to deny that they don't happen though!) -- such as using easy-to-guess or 'dictionary word' passwords. LJ can also be set to make it more 'private' -- make sure your LJ can't be indexed by Google, for example. Pay careful attention to the security level set to each post also -- friends-locked is very different from private-locked.
I'm not trying to offend anyone,
there are a lot of stories about fairies, and there are a lot of stories about God.
We don't have proof that fairies or God exists...yet so many people are convinced God does, while fairies or something of the sort are classified as just things in story books.
I'm not trying to get attention or anything, but I kind of don't get it.
So, just wondering...do you have an answer?
Are you one of those types of people who can't be content without a definitive answer? Because you probably won't get one, at least not to your satisfaction.
First off, faith in a supreme being, sole creator of the universe, etc., is a somewhat Abrahamic point of view -- there's nothing wrong in that, except there's more than one way of thinking about god(s) out there. A satisfactory answer might lie in the dozens of conceptions out there, some of which suppose the universe IS god (pantheism), the universe is a PART of god (panendeism), or that god(s) made the universe but then left it to its own devices (classical deism). Try researching other viewpoints or religions. Even Christianity, though it would seem like there's only Catholicism, Protestantism, and Orthodoxy, has had hundreds of schools of thought in its long history, all with different ideas of God, Jesus, and the universe.
As for proof of God, Christians can tout their Bibles all they like, Muslims their Koran, Jews their Torahs, even Hindus their Bhagavad Gita -- they might state that proof of god(s) lies in their respective scriptures. However, when it comes down to it, it's all a matter of faith. A person can trust in an existance of a certain god, no matter what reason and rationality might say. Relative truths, sure, but if you're looking for the ultimate truth, you probably won't get it.
Faith isn't a bad thing though, neither are you free from faith as you might think -- for example, love for your siblings is often a matter of faith, in that you trust them, but not always because they've shown any decency, altruism, or superiority in behaviour, which would be very rational of you, but simply because you would care and love them, for they are kin to you, and it would be hard to do otherwise.*
* (Of course, there may be exceptions. ;-))
So, no, I don't have an answer, not a satisfactory one for you anyway (I'm Buddhist and deist, so am happy to keep on learning). Others have their answers, but it's up to you whether they're satisfactory or not. Just keep in mind there's so much more viewpoints and conceptions of god and the universe than what you've been brought up with or exposed to.
If you major in sociology at a college, what are some careers you can go into? Like what are some careers that require a degree in sociology? Someone please help.
Sociology's one of my majors, so I'm also interested in this question. =P
As I understand it, there's no career that requires sociology, but there are many fields where it's definitely an advantage. It's all what you make of it. As sociology is basically the study of society -- what makes it work, how does it work, what is it, etc. -- you'll find sociology's applied to careers which focus on people, communities, and/or politics. Some sociology graduates go into governmental work, others NGOs or community groups. A couple go into HR or sales and marketing. There really is a lot that sociology can be applied to.
Keep in mind that sociology as studied at university/college is very broad... you will most likely want to specialise or do a second major -- some unis have social policy as a separate, second major, and many like to combine their sociological studies with law or economics, for example. However, if you specialise in the sociology of ageing, for example, than your degree focus will obviously focus on old people and ageing in society, and your career choices will likely gravitate to that. On the other hand, studying the sociology of work or politics will mean a more political bent to your degree.
Have a look at what your country's Sociology Association says. The ASA has a good set of pages on careers for sociology graduates:
http://www.asanet.org/page.ww?section=Careers+and+Jobs&name=Careers+and+Jobs+Home
EDIT: Didn't see the previous columnist's answer, oops!
It helps if you have something specific in mind, e.g. a desire to help people, or to understand how social interactions work.
is there a firefox extension that takes out google adds, etc for firefox version 15.05? I tried chromedit, but I got a message saying i can't use it.
Have you tried the extension Kill Google Ads? https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1996/ (I'll presume you mean 1.5.0.5 -- Firefox stable is currently around 1.5.)
I got the Sims 2 when it first came out. It worked fine on my computer, but then we deleted XP, and I couldn't install it again. It said:
A problem has occured when trying to transfer the file 'TSData\Res\Sims3D\Textures.package' from the media. Do you want to retry to copy the file, or cancel the installation?
If I click retry, it goes up 1%, then it comes up again. It'll go to 100% and just stop. When my aunt came over, I asked her if she knew what it was or how to fix it, and she said that when we deleted XP, we deleted something and we need that to install it. She didn't have time to fix it. So, I was wondering if anyone knew what this was and how to fix it. Is it the graphics card? I asked someone on another website, and they said it was, but I wanted to double check. Thanks
Edited in response to feedback: It sounds like the disc might be damaged or faulty in some way then. I might have hypothesised also that your CD/DVD drive is failing in some way, except you haven't mentioned problems with installing anything else.
It's hard to recommend what to do over the net without seeing the actual situation at hand. Clean the CD/DVD and look for any scratches. If that doesn't work, you'll just have to try these solutions, straight from the horse's mouth:
http://tinyurl.com/palfu - Why is there a disk or transfer error during installation?
http://tinyurl.com/q6rbv - How can I manually install a game if a normal installation doesn't work?
Though I didn't have EA's instructions at the time, a manual install worked for me when my Sims 1 discs failed on me. If you know how to, clean the Registry of all relevant entries as well (just in case), in case some are left over from your failed installation attempts -- however, if you don't know how to, don't both, as fiddling with the Registry can be fairly tricksy.
---====---
A problem with the graphics card wouldn't affect the installation of the program. When installing, make sure you have no other programs running.
When you say you 'deleted' XP, what do you mean? Anything less than a fresh install of XP (that is, installing Windows XP on a reformatted/clean hard drive) can mean that bits of programs are often left over from previously.
The problem might also be with the media itself. Try what the previous columnist suggested.
I want to turn my digital photos into cartoons. How do i do that? i dont want to buy anything so is there something i can download for free?
What's this about a wild goose chase? Perhaps the previous answerer was thinking about a professional animation studio or something, but if the asker simply wants to add a cartoon-looking style to their photos (in a common JPG/web-image format), it can be done -- I've done it before. Mind you, there's no one program that can do everything that you ask perfectly and also be free, but there are techniques, through which you can achieve desired results with a good image editor. :) Even then, it takes a lot of adjusting to get the exact look you want, so it also requires a lot of patience and a willingness to learn.
The most common way is to use a filter (i.e. 'run your image through a filter') to achieve the basic effect then tweak it to get it the way you want. Filters are usually plugins which you can add to image editors, and filters will often be free. Sometimes you can also use the image editor's own features to achieve a cartoony effect.
The disadvantage of both techniques is that you require a decent image editor. The industry standard is Adobe Photoshop, but it's very expensive and complicated for novices. Jasc's Paint Shop Pro is less expensive but also a good alternative. For free programs, I've used the Gimp in the past; it's extremely powerful and it's free, but it has a steep learning curve. More free programs can be found here: http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/digitalphotography/l/blcartoonphotos.htm.
It'll take you a while to get a feel for your chosen program, but once you've done that, just do a Google search for tutorials or plugins. Even if you don't have Photoshop, it might be best to do a search with keywords like:
... and adapt the method for your own image editor. An example tutorial (although not the only one out there), is a tute at About.com.
is something corporate broken up or still together?because they never play concerts anymore.
thanks
http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/something_corporate/artist.jhtml#/music/artist/something_corporate/bio.jhtml
In short, no. It appears one of the band members was afflicted by an illness.
okay so i have a presentation to make for my Lord of the Rings class. i'm going to be making a powerpoint presentation and i want to add some video clips/scenes from the movie into my presentation. my only problem is, i can't find any scenes on the internet. where could i find some? i've already tried download agents such as Limewire.
http://www.lordoftherings.net/ , The official LOTR movies site, has some video clips.
hey how can you find out about careers in other countries? i'm trying to figure out what country i want to move to, but i don't have a college degree. so i want to move to a country where there are tons of jobs needing people regardless of whether they went to college or not and actually pay well, you know? i'm thinking that places in south america are like that but i'm not sure. how do i find out?
*i am fluent in spanish and i know a lot of portuguese
**google didnt help me**
Google does turn up some very helpful sites, but only if your search is specific about where you might be interested in working, e.g. _working in australia_ (for example) turns up a ton of relevant sites. A Google search for _working in Brazil_ also seems to turn up some relevant links. Try using keywords like that first.
As for actual info... I can't say too much about South America, but I know for other Anglophone countries, you would do best looking up info on their working visas from the relevant department of immigration government websites. If you're thinking about moving to another country permanantly (or at least for a very long time), many countries have a 'skilled migration' scheme, which doesn't necessarily require a college or university degree. Probably many South American countries have a similar scheme, but you should be able to find out easily.
Can someone recommend a good program that i could download from download.com that will strip the singers from songs so all you can hear is the music..i want to do this because alot of the songs i want on karaoke either cost money or they just arent available so if anyone knows of a free program that removes the singing but still has good quality please let me know! Thanks !
Limewire is simply a p2p program -- it can't do _everything_. That said, if you can get it, instrumental versions are better than versions with vocals edited out, but if there's no other choice:
Specialised vocal-removal programs simplify the process, but they still follow the same process which can be done manually with any decent audio editor program. A generic process is outlined here: http://www.sonicspot.com/guide/vocalremoval.html . If you know how to use DirectX plugins, AnalogX's Vocal Remover is freeware and purports to do the job (http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/audio/vremover.htm).
Doing a Google search will turn up many more links, though quite a few results link to shareware and commercial programs.