Posts by quintoncoert

Now you can be blamed for declaring to everybody that you can't be blamed. When is this game's deadline? Narue might forfeit if she doesn't show up. I'll go check the bracket thread.

no dont. i do not want to be champion as the result of forfeit. especcialy since i know narue is better than me.

@ cscgal

since i am the one who brought God into this i suppose i shall have to answer.

if you are atheist like myself, josh and i believe salem and rustybear too then this does not really matter. but if you are christian or moslem then it is everything. here i address salem as well.

The bible is very explicit when it comes to men having sex with men. so is the Koran. i have never seen anything about women having sex with women in the bible but about men it is very clear. one can debate something like "is the earth flat or is the earth round" but you cant debate something like "the sun shines everyday". the same here. God says in an inambiguous manner what he thinks of homosexuality.

also i am not against gays for any reason what so ever. i am merely curious. if it was none of my business then someone could just have said so.

also i believe that i am not at all prejudiced. what of what i have said indicates my prejudice? perhaps when i said "design flaw". but i was talking from a purely biological point. from that point we are all design flaws since our DNA is not as such that it can always renew or heal our bodies which leads to our eventual death.

@ josch

i know how an x and a y chromosome works duh! i just started …

@ rustybear but anyone qualified can answer.

let me say to you that i have nothing against homosexuals or lesbians. i firmly believe that each and every human has not only the right but also the duty to live his live his own way.

but here is something which has always puzzled me. you are a catholic. unless you want to say what so many christians told me, that the old testament is null and void because of Jesus Christ, i must ask you how you are going to explain yourself to your God oneday.

now dont get me wrong. i am not against homosexuals. as you can see above i have explained it in scientific terms which absolves the homosexuals. i even went so far as to say that God is wrong to judge people for a design flaw which he apparently caused.

but just out of curiosity. i used to be a christian myself and we both know that he is a very strict patriach. how are you going to explain yourself to him?

@ hollystyles

according to wikipedia you are correct to the greater extend. especially the part of testosterone levels before birth.

what we have to keep in mind is that the only reason why all human bodies born does not result in female bodies is because testosterone prevents the secretion of estrogen which would then turn the baby into female. and many environmental factors can influence this testosterone level in the womb.

DNA does not read like a roadmap. if a significant chemical is either present or absent then a given protein will not be synthesized even though it is coded in the genotype(the dna for a given trait as opposed to the characteistic in the organism's body).

also remember that the mother's imune system attacks a male baby far more severly than it attacks a female baby. and one of the most prominent things which is not only attacked but causes these violent attacks is greatly responsible for preventing the baby turning into female. if her immune system continuously destroys this chemical(i cant remember what it is called) then what is there to prevent the development of female characteristics?

consider this. the absence of testosterone in the baby in the womb causes female like brains to develop. this is true for both females and males(i.e. a male body with a brain that has a lot in common with the brain of a female.). after or during puberty these sexual traits are merely reactivated and the …

i sign my name right handed. but that is only because i write right handed. in Sub std A (like US 1st grade) i used both hands to write. then my teacher found out, tell me to use only one hand, and suggested the right hand.

a friend i used to have does every single thing right handed. he also plays cricket(similar to baseball) and tennis right handed. but he writes left handed. he draws in a way that would leave most artists green with envy. he draws right handed.

about the origin of hiv

we cannot be entirely sure about the origin of hiv. i am apt to agree with josch. all i know for sure is that nichito is wrong and enderx too if he says that guys gave rise to this disease.

the two best theories i have heard are that it evolved from the big apes in central africa and that it was created by the humans in laboratories. they are best because one is probably close to true and the other is hilarious. what do you guys think.

created in a lab. acording to this theory the american government created it in order to ease the strain on their economy. when you are older than 65 you contribute nothing but take much. so they patiently wait for you to go to the doctor with decalcification of your bones or something, the doctor gives you an injection (vitamins he say) and two moths later you are no longer a part of the problem. unfortuanately the scientists got the calculations wrong and the virus got out of had. in fact one reason why the american government is contributing so heavily for the fight against HIV in africa is because of a guilty conscience.

theory two. eveolved from the big apes. although a long shot researchers have found a virus in some african primate (i cant remember which one) which does the exact same thing to this primate as what HIV does to us. …

I never get spam on my main gmail account. I have another account that I sign up for things with.

i have the same strategy. my real e-mail address i only give to my friends and people i trust.

this is only a quick post. i shall post more tomorrow.

i just read some stuff about causes of homosexuality. it seems to indicate that there is a link between physiology and gayness.

it is not based on DNA specifically. i am not as yet believing it but i am saying that i might have been a bit quick to say what i said.

am going to read the whole article tomorrow and post more.

I cannot remember getting any spam for months either.

now this is really interesting.

first let me say that apart from what the bible says i have nothing against gays. now that that i have absolved myself from prejudice i can contribute too.

i sincerely doubt that it can be genetic and by extension of argument even physiological.

you see there is a measure of consistency in what we find beautiful in members of the opposite gender and this cuts accross race, culture and pretty much everything. this is because what we find beautiful is directly related to perpetuation of a species. for example. the tiny chin that most men would find beautiful in a female is a direct marking of the levels of estrogen her body produces. from this one can only deduce that what we find beautiful is DNA based. no culture can so influence any significant section of its males so that they cannot find a significant proportion of women which is considered beautiful in another culture beautiful too.

so if being gay is genetic how in the first place did evolution put into this one man the instinct to understand that another man is beautiful?

i mean if men had found each other attractive for over 10 000 generations(the most conservative estimate based on the age of the human race) then just how did the DNA survived for so long without being removed from the gene pool? let me put it this way. even if dna has let to instinct …

hey nichito. are you busy or something? how about a game chess? i need a victim .... errrr ... i mean volunteer.... to practice on!

@ nichito

point taken and i know exactly what you mean. in my own country the joblessness is almost 40%(though the government tries to make us believe that it is 27%). sometimes i find it hard to believe that gerhard schroeder lost his job over a measly 7%!

hey!! guys!! the phrase "the govenrment creates jobs" was meant to be a lie... it is called sarcasm... maybe you should get to know each other...

but that is exactly the point. government is capable of creating jobs. therefore the sarcasm is false by virtue of the statement being true. look at germany before the second world war. while the rest of europe was in depression the national socialists created jobs.(i am no fan of hitler in case someone is going to say so.)

btw. i am now practicing chess. got to be ready for narue if she comes back!

@ ancient dragon and enderx

if i may be allowed to answer why government creates jobs.

enderx what you are questioning ancient dragon about is only true if everybody in an economy who wants to work already has a job.

if a significant proportion of the working capable population is unemployed then the government can draw them into jobs.

of course you are mostly right for america since america almost never has large unemployment problems.

but look at it this way. each bridge and dam and park your country builds benefit it in the future.

Don't take it so seriously.
Look at the news.

ok. i shall not take it so seriously. but i was merely answering the question as to why i am defending them.

she is a girl... perhaps you should take a look to her profile picture to have an idea of her body (and an awesome tattoo)... quite intelligent too...

i dont know why i was stupid enough to first ask the question and then looked at her profile. i saw that she was female.

>>but it would seem to me that you just made a rough grab for the 2 to 3 billion year thingy.

Yes of course I did. I'm not quite that old and there are no historical records to indicate otherwise. It just seems obvious that there have been many many periods like this over the life of our planet.

>>wrong again. go to the following page
I never claimed to be perfect. It certainly isn't the first time I may have been wrong, and certainly won't be the last. Not see -- you ain't going to get a big raise out of me because I don't play that game. :)

when you say raise you obviously mean a violent response. if you feel the need for a violent response then i apologise. like i said i have a lot of respect for you.

i am not saying this because you have often helped me in C++. i no longer am using C++ in my job although i am learning it for myself. so you see this is not ass kissing since there is no need.

i have respect for you because i have seen that you are good at what you do and you always help others. to me that indicate intelligence and decency which are amongst the things that i admire in humans.

in fact now that i think about it i have said some things to you which i should not have said. but …

>"islam is the religion of peace"

i really hate fighting so dont think that i am out to attack you at each and every corner. but you cannot possibly blame the whole religion because of a subset of the whole. i know many moslems and i would be really surprised if some of them would strap on a bomb and run into a bunch of people. perhaps you should ask why you get islamist extremists in the first place.

now dont get me wrong. i do not support either islam (since i am an atheist) or terrorists. in fact the nation i admire the most on earth is israel. but i seem to see a pattern in your behaviour. you are rather quick to hit on many things without first having a clue just what you are hitting. if you read in The Holy Koran you would see that they have laws against killing which is even more strict than those of the christians.

perhaps you should also try to understand the cultural mindset that leads to people being willing to die for what they believe (rightly or wrongly) in.

remember the guy says he is from south africa. i am from south africa too and i have yet to meet the guy that program for 80 hours a week. of course if he wants to migrate to sturm's country....

i believe that the guy who told him that he did not have time was lying. and even if you work 80 hours a week you still have time for a prayer. i am betting my mind (i would have said soul but since i dont believe...) that tygerberg would have time to practice his religion.

@ sturm

by the way i like your signiture. it is so true.

i defend them because it is an act of cowardice to attack someone who cannot himself or herself. i suppose i could say that this is none of my business but then again this is an open forum.

second of all if you attack them just to feel better about yourself then there is something pretty pathetic about your life or wrong about you person. and if you do it just because you are nasty then you are no better than them but only in different way.

i have never said that these people are perfect. i did not even say something remotely like that in my protracted defence of paris hilton in another thread. but tell me. who amongst us is perfect? are you? if i meet anyone who comes accross as perfect i remain wary of that person because i believe that such a person is hiding something.

the difference between their imperfection and ours is that the whole world cannot stop bitching about them if they do anything wrong.

as for being role models. children emulate their parents first. i dont have any children but i remember that most of the behaviour that i learned i copied from my father. later i altered and addepted it and learned new behaviour too. but mostly it was based on what i learned from my father. as a child i had many friends who took alcohol and drugs but they could never get me to join …

@josch

mental strength. force of will, perseverance etc. but i am going to guess that you would be uncomfortable with that too if hers exceed yours. most of my friends dont like females stronger than themselves. i sort of understand their point. i think i said this before but i stayed with a family in Cape Town where the husband jumps when the wife issues a command.

but here is the really scary part. i prefer athletic looking females over any other type. not those who look like dolph lundgren of course but those who look like serena williams or marion jones (well perhaps a few millimeters short). but at least i have set your mind at ease since now you know that i wont fall for paris hilton.
end @ josch

by the way. is hbk male or female. from what i have read i can only deduce that she is female. also that she believes she is reasonably intelligent as well as a bit muscular. but if she is female then why does she have a male wrestler for an avatar.

here is something silly. i once knew this really great girl. she was everything that i have ever wanted in a woman. strong, sober, intelligent (she is one of those who matched me in IQ!). and she had this great athletic body. i could stare at her upper back and deltoid muscles for ages. they were not bulky. it was beautifully crafted …

come on guys. is this really nescessary. why are you doing these kinds of things? they are human too. are you doing it because it makes you feel good about yourselves are you just plain nasty.

>And that last is patently false.

english is not my native tongue so please be kind enough and explain to me how something can be patently false. I have always been under the impression that my english is as good as that of most english speaking people but this really is a new nibble for me.

>There is NO such consensus, never has been either.

you have obviously not followed the link i pasted for ancient dragon. if you did follow it that you and i define consensus differently.

>In fact there's not even a consensus on your first claim that those "greenhouse gasses" CAUSE the rise >in temperature.

you have obviously not followed the link which i have pasted for ancient dragon. if you did then please be so kind as to explain to me exactly what you consider consensus.

>one of those goreites

i have cared about the earth ever since i could remember. gore is a recent addition to a long list of people caring about the earth. we are not goreites. if you utterly have to stereotype us then at least have the decency to call us environmentalist.

>It is equally possible (and far more plausible) that at least to an extent those gasses are released into >the atmosphere as a sideeffect of the changing temperatures, reversing the flow of cause and effect.

normally i insult people by telling that they have a baseline grasp of a …

@ enderx

yes i am an atheist. i dont know what you meant when you asked whether i consider myself a part too. if you mean a victim of tribal past then no not anymore. when i was a child yes. but during my mid teens i started recognising the truth for what it is.

i also dont understand the cause and randomness thing you went at. all of reality is a set of factors interacting. those factors continuously cut reality and what happens is a result of how that reality was cut.

let me give a very limited but complex example.

a human being dying.

the human body is composed of systems which in turn is composed of organs which in turn is synthesized from tissue made up of cells. over time, and under the guidance of DNA, many things happen to a body which causes damage for whatever reason and for whatever reason the replacement of tissue and organs is not as effective so as to be perfect. sooner or later the damage accumulates and the body can no longer say for example breath and the brain cells dies because there is no oxygen for them.

this should be enough but let me enter a few random factors into it. just to make things clearer. inject HI viruses into the human and then these viruses destroy the immune system which can no longer protect the body so that every bacteria can attack …

since i have so much respect for you i shall answer in a civil manner.
i was actually hoping some other fool would answer and i had a whole set prepared for just such a fool. now i have to rephrase! :-)

>Simple -- its been going on for about 2-3 billion years now.

no it has not. it is a phenomena of the past few centuries. the temperature started to rise during the mid to late 1800. of course earth's temperature fluctuates all the time. i am not denying that. but what we have now is not mere fluctuation. it is a quick and steady rise due to the greenhouse effect. also you are unfair to refer to 3 billion years. three billion years ago there was no ozone layer to protect earth from the sun's UV rays. the geology of the planet was different too. even if you insist on that fluctuation then remember this. the natural changes to earth's temperatures is very very very slow. far slower than what is happening now.

like i said i have a lot of respect for you but it would seem to me that you just made a rough grab for the 2 to 3 billion year thingy.

>scientists found evidence of it happening on other planets too

you cannot possibly compare what is happening on other planets with what is happening on earth. except for the sun the other planets has nothing in common …

can one of you perhaps explain to me exactly why you believe global warming to be a natural event? especially since consensus amongst scientists is that it is a manmade event?

normally i would shout BS but i am going to be open minded and at least give you guys a chance to explain your point of view.

i mean do you guys honestly believe that you know better than these scientists? these scientists who have researched the matter and disagrees very little with one another?

in fact do you guys even understand what global warming entails? what it is all about and how scientists believe it works? because if you understand even the smallest bit of the greenhouse effect and its relationship with CO2 levels you would not talk such foolish talk.

i am apt to agree with george bush that the kyoto protocol is not the answer. but to say that the whole global warming thing is natural. and that mankind neither caused it nor can he reversed it is very much like an ostrich sticking its head into the sand and hoping that by not seeing or knowing it can pretend that it is not happening.

Looks like it's a repeat of of another earlier match for you quintoncoert, against the unbeaten Naure, please tell us all when you are going to play, so we can all watch :)

i shall play her whenever she wants. unfortuanately she has gone missing. this time i shall try and not make it look so much like an execution. i have figured out why narue beats me so easily. perhaps i can give her a little scare.

@enderx

i would only be in favour of quick execution if there is a valid reason. like he would die of natural causes before we could give him the rope.

i dont know if infarction was trying to make a point but buying a rope and doing it quickly in order to save some money would work too.

and yes consensus is to hang the fool. at least that is my consensus!

i agree with salem. my opinion is that we are still in the aftermath of the time that witch doctors and priests ruled tribes via the orders of ther gods and the human race has not yet let a generation go free so as to break the cycle.

but for you tygerberg i can only say that if a programmer does not want to practice his religion then work is a really bad excuse. programmers has as much time as the average worker for religion. often more. trust me. you will have time for it.

i think i shall be honest. previously i lied.

what i want most in a woman is strength. as long as she has reasonably average looks and a reasonably good enough body( but to my requirements) it would be fine provided that she is strong.

so what christina says is true at least for me. i rate intelligence very high but strength and sobriety even higher. if a woman goes for plastic surgery just to feel better about herself then i would most likely not be interested. even if i meet her years afterwards i would be able to detect the weak spirit that lead to the plastic surgery in the first place and i would scorn her on the basis of the weakness alone.

there's something odd in here... i haven't read any posts about the idea of a smart girl with plastic surgery...

that way, you choose brains, but you eventually get booty too...

now that is a good idea! why did i not think of that? and since she can afford plastic surgery she is rich too. it is a three in one package!

here is the game played by me and jocamps. i won but only because he overlooked a move.

;Title: Yahoo! Chess Game
;White: coertquinton
;Black: cdtocampo
;Date: Thu Aug 09 08:46:55 GMT 2007

1. e2-e4 e7-e5
2. g1-f3 b8-c6
3. f1-b5 c6-d4
4. b5-c4 d4xf3+
5. d1xf3 g8-f6
6. d2-d3 f8-c5
7. b1-c3 c7-c6
8. h2-h3 h7-h6
9. c1-e3 c5-b4
10. a2-a3 b4xc3+
11. b2xc3 d8-a5
12. e3-d2 o-o
13. c4-b3 a5-c5
14. c3-c4 c5-e7
15. o-o d7-d6
16. c2-c3 c6-c5
17. b3-d1 e7-e6
18. f3-g3 f6-h7
19. a1-b1 e6-f6
20. g1-h1 f8-e8
21. f2-f4 f6-d8
22. f4-f5 d8-f6
23. d1-h5 g8-h8
24. h3-h4 e8-g8
25. g3-f2 g7-g5
26. f5-g6 f6xf2
27. f1xf2 f7xg6
28. h5-e2 g6-g5
29. f2-f7 b7-b6
30. b1-f1 c8-e6
31. f7-e7 g8-g6
32. h4-h5 g6-g7
33. e7xe6 g7-d7
34. e6xh6 h8-g7
35. h6-g6+ g7-h8
36. d2xg5 h7xg5
37. g6xg5 d7-h7
38. g2-g4 a7-a5
39. f1-f6 a8-d8
40. e2-d1 a5-a4
41. h1-h2 d6-d5
42. c4xd5 b6-b5
43. g5xe5 c5-c4
44. d3-d4 h8-g7
45. e5-f5 d8-g8
46. d5-d6 b5-b4
47. c3xb4 c4-c3
48. e4-e5 c3-c2
49. d1xc2 g8-c8
50. f5-f2 c8-g8
51. f6-f7+ g7-h8
52. f7xh7++

OK jocamps. i have just created a new table in turtle shell.

for now it is a protected table so you should not be able to sit down. this is so that no one can come and sit there before you come. but as soon as you are here tell me and then i shall change it back to public.

and good luck. may the best man win. by that i mean me of course. ( ha. just kidding. I am practicing my confidence attitude.)

My opinion is that the death penalty is not as bad as it seems. Once you die your body stops working so all suffering you are feeling is lifted. Life in prison without parole, at a federal prison, kept in your cell for 22 hours a day is a lot worse. However seeing as we have the death penelty it should be carried out as soon as possible.

i agree that death is less bad then life in prison. but for that exact reason death penalties should not be carried out as soon as possible.

if a person commits two crimes of which only one deserves the death penalty then he should finish the time for the other one first.

this is really sad. last night on the news i saw about that fresh water dolphin which had gone extinct too. i am going to say that humans are responsible for the damage to mother nature and the planet.

you mean as in born thirteen years ago? i must salute you. if you want to be a programmer someday then i hope you do well.

the basic idea is correct but your syntax is all wrong. also i gues that you have to have a means of receiving the user input.

try this after you declare the personchoice int:

cout << "Type 1 to convert fahrenheit to celsius";

and then the following statement

cin >> personchoice;

of course you must include the header file as well. do this before you create the function prototypes.

#include <iostream>
using std::cin;
using std::cout;

now for your method invocation. it is wrong.
this is how you call them:

FahrenheittoCelsius();

in addition your function prototype is wrong too.

void FahrenheittoCelsius();

there are empty brackets at the end of the function prototype to indicate that FahrenheittoCelsius receives no arguments.

and lastly a software design question.
I think your two functions should receive arguments. in the function they are to be converted to the output. which brings me to another point. are you sure that your functions return void? if they convert say to celsius should you not return the celsius?

and now the really last.

just in case you have forgotten. you cannot just write a prototype. you must write a function for each prototype. just putting a prototype which says void FahrenheittoCelsius() is not enough. you must write a function with the code which does the actual converting.

@jocamps.
i think that thursday from 7:00 GMT would be fine. of all the times that would be best for me. i am looking forward to our game.

@ jocamps.

we can play some day in this week at 03:00 GMT. is that OK for you? if yes then say which day. if not then how about sometime thursday.

then we have a holiday. i can then see about it. i cant promise that i would be able to play then but that is the most likely alternative time.

i can also see about some time this saturday but then it has to be btween 7:00 and 9:00 greenwhich. last time we took a long time so best would be either thursday or in one weekday. personnaly i would have prefered thursday.

so tell me what you think.

btw. i hope that i can continue playing you after the tournament is over. i have started a dedicated campaign to improve my chess and i would need reasonably skilled people to play against. i asked narue as well but she has gone missing.

@ the gathering

i have met real life ones like that! i was forced to do some manual labour for a while and one job was near a prison. these guys are really slick of tongue but every once in a while you hear some things about them.

anyway in case hearing is not enough.

also in south africa prisons are dominated by the numbers gangs. two types of numbers are the red 28 (you get the white one as well but that is another story) and the 27. the only way to become one or advance in rank is by murder. like a rite of passage.

i have spoken to some very civilized red 28 and 27 people. the thing is. you have to murder while in prison so just do the mathematics. once this man is released he is civilisation itself!

>who do you take?

old woman who needs the hospital
woman of my dreams

for me this is kind of a no-brainer. however i am going to love seeing the replies of others!

>'that man was a 19 year old hothead, while this man is a 46 year old who's spent the last 27 years

i might be apt to agree except that now many 19 year olds would commit murder because after 30 years his older self would get a pardon

>, every cell of the body gets replaced, so this also means that the man who was executed wasn't really >the killer.

many people resorts to this ancient knowledge but it is mostly incorrect. in this specific case we have to consider brain cells. they are very rarely replaced and since the mind is seated in the brain it is still the same brain. the killer is still the same mind.

some may say that the soul is not in the brain but that only back up my point since the soul gets replaced never!

also the DNA has more to say in this matter since the replacing cells retain the function, position etc of their predecessors. and the DNA stays the same.

>The whole point of the letter was about how the executed criminal should have been offered mercy by >the state, rather than being executed.

justice is about more than vengeance. it is also about retaining order. if the human race has reached the point where law is no longer needed for the tasks which should be performed by conscience then offering mercy to the occasional transgressor might be fine. but until …

yeah i was only joking :) i hope she doesnt take my joke the wrong way and kill me ;)

i am not sure that you will have to worry.

if she is the type to kill for something like this then i am sure that i am going to be first on the list.

Quintoncoert :* narue ;) (LOL, only joking :D)

:$ sorry for excessive smiley use

funny. in fact very funny.

i admit that like narue. in fact i like her a lot. but i am not sure if i like her in that particular way.

reasons. firstly we are seperated by 10 000 miles of atlantic ocean and i think it might be just a bit difficult to kiss a girl over a telecommunications line.

second you must admit that it is more than just plain difficult to fall in love with a girl you have never ever seen in your entire life.

thirdly i can laugh about this but i am not sure how narue will react. i have seen that she is a tad aggresive so she might wish to rip someone's liver out. i was my hands in inocence since i did not put this particular thought in your head.

lastly. and most importantly. you are only quoting half of what i am saying. you are quoting the second part of a sentence and in modern english the initial part of a sentence is of emphatic value.

I'm ready when you are, quintoncoert. It's your call. Just tell me when do you wanna play this game and im surely give you a good one.

i shall tell you soon. i still have some stuff to take care of. next week we can play. i promise.

besides narue is missing and the winner will have to wait for her to return anyway.

thanks. i think i shall go with linux. my chief problem was C# and chess. thanks to rwaforums' link i have at least one problem solved and the other would be fine.

>Well still, I wouldn't marry a man who couldn't provide for himself.

excellent point. i was just teasing you anyway.

thanks. it works. i just tried it. to ancient dragon too.

hi. i am planning on assembling a computer by buying and putting together motherboard, processor, memory etc. The problem is an operating system. windows vista costs a fortune.

But worse is my intended use for this computer. i am planning on learing the C programming language on this computer mostly. but I have seen some information on sites and in posts // threads that C programmed incorrectly will mess up your computer system. So i assume that I am going to re-install the operating system more than once.

the problem is that one of my friends told me that windows XP can be installed only a limited number of times. i am worried that vista might be the same. then i would have to re-buy after a certain number of mistakes.

so can you guys recommend an alternative operating system? i am also going to use it to learn C++ and program in C sharp. in addition it must be able to use a reasonably good word processor and I would also like to install a chess program on it. the chess program must be reasonablystrong and i would like to be able to set up positions in it. chessmaster comes to mind but i am not sure if it works on linux. in any event the chess program is of secondary importance.

i was thinking of linux especially since it is free but i know nothing of linux. can linux do all of the above? …

If you want to use the exe itself, no. If you're ok with making a shortcut to the exe then you can set a shortcut key that lets you type ctrl+alt+<your key> to open the program.

yes that would be great. but how do I do that? are you talking about something like a desktop shortcut? and how do I create the key?

I did look at Ancient Dragon's link but it does not tell me how to create such a shortcut for my own programs.