Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing

March 30

BSoD

My computer is display the blue screen of death whenever I try to start it up.

Is it possible to recover any of the data?

yes, probably the easiest way would be if you had a second computer or knew someone that did, you take your disk and plug it into the other computer, then hopefully the other computer will be able to read your disk just like another drive, you should be able to copy files back onto the other computer. This is unless there is a physical problem with your disk which is causing the problems, but it is more likely your problems are other hardware or operating system related. Vespine 01:37, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

The specific BSoD error code would help too. Yes, move the disk. Splintercellguy 03:09, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

You can try booting with a Linux LiveCD and access all your files. --Spoon! 05:07, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

Well the most secure thing to do is take out the drive and add it to another machine (as a secondary drive) and then you can easily see what is readible and copy off whatever you need.
But failing that, if the hard drive is experiencing hard drive failure - then perhaps you shouldn't play with it too much until you can get it to another machine to extract the data - I mean don't boot it up a zillion times trying to get it to work - but that said, in some cases you can try booting it up a few times and maybe once or twice you'll get lucky and make it into Windows, at which point you can try burn a CD or copy files from one drive to another. If the cause is NOT hard drive failure, and it's just that your Windows System files have been corrupted, then you can look at try to repair your verion of Windows, which depends on what version you'r running.
I thought I'd add that you don't need a second COMPUTER to extract the data - (if it's the hard drive's fault) - all you'd need is another hard drive on the computer and run an operating system on that (tecnically even MS DOS!) - this might involve setting one drive as the primary and the other as a secondary (this is possible through setting the various jumper pins or via the BIOS - caution is advised!) or via the BIOS you can try tell our PC to boot from the one drive.
Anyways, I hope that gives you some options. Good luck Rfwoolf 12:38, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

this is a long shot, but if you're getting "unmountable boot volume" before windows loads, i recommend you put in your Windows CD (if it's 2000 or XP) and go to the recovery mode, once there, you want to choose to go into the console. you should end up at a prompt like "C:\" or similar where you can type a command. once there, just type "chkdsk" and press enter, wait forever for it to finish, then send "exit". i've done this a few times, including about a month ago. if this IS the problem, and you fix it with these steps, what you have to wonder now is what is causing the problem.. it may be a virus, or may just have resulted from your computer being improperly shut down while the hard drive was active. good luck --64.0.112.75 22:14, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

Whoa, dude can you hack into somebody's myspace account?

So. I'm a software pirater but I'm not a hacker. I know more about computers then most people, and the question I get most asked at high schools are "whoa, dude, can you hack into somebody's myspace account?" I say no, and they're disappointed. So, I was wondering, how is it done? Not like I could ruin my reputation by getting too close to the website, but, it must be easy? [Mαc Δαvιs] (How's my driving?) ❖ 04:45, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

I would think a bit of cross-site scripting, social engineering, actual server compromise, or a little bit of all of the above. Splintercellguy 04:54, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

Simple. Guess their password. Most people use lame passwords, like the name of their pet or spouse—or their birthday. I don't know whether Myspace requires use of a secure password, but I wouldn't guess they would. More security-conscious sites require passwords being chosen (by the owner) to contain a minimum number of characters and include nonalphabetic characters, perhaps several. More aggressive techniques include password interception, spying, breaking and entering, etc. —EncMstr 04:59, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

Actually, thanks to a phishing attack last year,[1] many real myspace passwords were collected and circulated over the internet. While these accounts have now had their passwords changed, it provides an interesting analysis on what passwords are used.[2] The most common is "password1" with 0.22%. In general, the most common password used is "password", but MySpace has for some time required new users to select a password with both numbers and letters.

The phishing method used to gain the passwords involved creating a MySpace profile page which looked exactly like the MySpace login page, but instead of the username and password being sent to myspace, the page sent them to the attacker's website.

A hacker could also attempt to use XSS on a myspace profile, possibly for cookie stealing. Alternatively, if your computer has been compromised, the password could be obtained through a keylogger. --h2g2bob 17:07, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

Hmm, lets see. These are the ways I can think of off the top of my head, with links to some related articles:

1. Guessing the password. See dictionary attack
2. Trying to fool the "Forgot your password?" feature on myspace (I have no idea how it works, so it might not be possible).
3. Sniffing the target users traffic (wouldn't work if myspace uses SSL). See packet sniffing.
4. Phishing
5. A man in the middle attack. Set yourself up as a proxy between the target user and myspace and analyze the traffic going between them. Depending on how careful a user is about clicking "This certificate doesn't match this site!" dialog boxes, this could beat SSL.
6. Installing a Keylogger
7. Insidious use of Cross site scripting, for stealing the myspace cookie.
8. Physically accessing someones computer. You could then steal the myspace cookie from their harddrive (assuming myspace set to log in automatically) or logging in using the victims stored password and then changing it. Or something.
9. ...what else...what else... can't think of anything right now, but I'm probably missing tons of ways a clever hacker could do it.

BTW, I'm assuming this is a purely an exercise in intellectual curiosity, and you don't have an nefarious motives :). Probably the easiest way would be to send your friend an email saying "Check out this really neat game!", which included Tetris (or something) plus a keylogger and packet-sniffer that installed itself quietly on your friends computer (I just checked, myspace does not use SSL, so a packet sniffer would be easiest). --Oskar 14:06, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

Ohh, and oh yeah, you could try to get access to the Myspace databases too, but that would be insanely hard. --Oskar 14:07, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

To expand on some of Oskar's points. MySpace does use SSL, so packet sniffing won't work. Phishing has worked before and it'll work again. There are periodically studies on how users will give away passwords for chocolate and other freebies. The SSL MitM attack method is described in more detail here. --h2g2bob 21:15, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

Image layout software with easy soft shadows etc.?

I've been using Photoshop to layout and make some pages where I have lots of photos and put them together as a stacked effect. However, the laziness of me prompted me to ask here, what else are there that can easily add softshadows etc., that are easily done with layer styles in Photoshop and runs under Linux? I know Xara Xtreme can do it but it's not really cross-platform and GIMP is seriously too slow, taking ages to do anything in an A3 300dpi file. --antilived^{T | C | G} 05:06, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

You've asked for only things that run under Linux - so the leaves out CorelDraw s'far's I know - but Adobe (the folks that make Photoshop) have CS2 - which might be your solution if it runs on Linux. Basically, CS2is like Corel Draw, which (at a stretch) is a kind of hybrid between raster/bitmap editing and vector editing. In other words if Photoshop is good for all your images/rasters/bitmaps things, and Freehand is good at your vectors/shapes/mathematically-calculated, then CS2and CorelDraw offer a bit of a hybrid. What would be great about CS2 though is that it would be fully compatible with your Photoshop (and CorelDraw is kinda, too). Rfwoolf 12:44, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

Yes that's exactly what I've been using, in Windows. Wine support for Photoshop 7 is sketchy the last time I tried it and now I'm using VMWare to virtualise Windows just to run Photoshop. But it's slow for big files and I want to find a Linux-native alternative. --antilived^{T | C | G} 02:56, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

about SIM

Hi, this is a student working on a project related to mobile technology. I want to know the process in a mobile from user dialing a number; start conversation till he ends the call.From where to where and how the data flows in this process. What is the job of SIM in a mobile phone and what it stores.......

And can we access server that stores the call charges of the particular SIM(for STD,LOCAL etc.;) My project is to impose restrictions on the usage of the cell to a particular amount fixed by the owner of the cell(in cases where it is used by some other person). So; for this can we access the server...

Can any one help me..... —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Boddeti (talk • contribs) 07:13, 30 March 2007 (UTC).

For SIM cards, did you see Subscriber Identity Module? --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 07:46, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

And don't forget about gender neutrality!!Mix Lord 23:07, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

Downloading mail from Yahoo to Outlook Express

Could anyone tell me the method required to down load mail from my account at yahoo to my inbox in Outlook Express.

Many thanks.

John F.D'Souza

(email redacted) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 203.130.9.1 (talk) 10:49, 30 March 2007 (UTC).

Hello, Mr. D'Souza; I have removed your email from this entry so that it doesn't get harvested by spammers. There are two ways that I know of to access your Yahoo! mail via Outlook Express. The first is to pay extra to Yahoo! for a "Yahoo! Plus" account. The other is to use a third-party program, such as YPOPs!. There is a walkthrough on setting that up at about.com. --LarryMac 13:43, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

More here at Yahoo! help. --h2g2bob 02:50, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

Installing PyXML-0.8.4 on Intel Mac

Hello,

I am trying to install PyXML-0.8.4 on my Intel Mac so I can use some of the more powerful features in Inkscape.

I've downloaded the package, but when I run "Python setup.py install" I get this error message: "error: could not delete '/sw/lib/python2.5/site-packages/_xmlplus/parsers/pyexpat.so': Permission denied"

Any suggestion on what I can do to fix this?

Thank you,

-Grey —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Grey1618 (talk • contribs) 11:01, 30 March 2007 (UTC).

sudo? --antilived^{T | C | G} 12:33, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

Wow. Can't believe I forgot Sudo. Mac has spoiled me since my linux days. Well that worked fine, but Inkscape still keeps giving me the error message: "The inkex.py module requires PyXML. Please download the latest version from <http://pyxml.sourceforge.net/>."> Any ideas? --Grey1618 14:05, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

Maybe this will help you? --antilived^{T | C | G} 02:53, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

Sadly, I've followed those instructions to no avail. --Grey1618 06:40, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

Laptop Vs desktop

I use the PC only to read news using bloglines and google reader. At present, I am using a HP PC with a 15 inch LCD screen. A friend said that laptop would be more convienient for reading than a desktop. He said desktops are good only for watching movies and playing games. He suggets a Dell 14 inch wide screen laptop. Should I buy a laptop? Will it be easier for me to read through a 14" widescreen laptop instead of a 15" LCD desktop? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 59.92.121.159 (talk) 12:52, 30 March 2007 (UTC).

There's almost no reason for normal people to buy a desktop computer any more. Even if you work at a desk, you can always "dock" your laptop and use a full-sized keyboard, mouse, and display with the laptop. The only good arguments I can still see for desktops are massive/multiple massive displays and lower entry cost. (I don't consider gamers "need for speed"/"frame rate envy" a good argument.)

Meanwhile, laptops have the distinct advantage that wherever you go, there you are: you have your usual system, your usual settings, your usual apps, and (most if not all) of your usual files.

Atlant 16:19, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

Easier or more convienient? If by easier you mean less strain on your eyes when reading for long periods of time, I don't know. But if your friend did say, and mean, more convienient then they are probably right. A laptop would take up less space and be more portable than a desktop model. Plus if you have a wireless internet connection then there would be the convienience of being able to use the laptop wherever you wanted to within your home (assuming this is for home use). If you're okay with your desktop PC, then by all means continue using it. It's mostly personal preference. Also, you already have the desktop. If you got a laptop to replace something that already works and you're happy with, then that's just a large expense without much of a benefit for you. Dismas|^(talk) 16:23, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

I think the "beauty" of a laptop LCD screen is dependent on the generation of technology and the quality of the OEM display that is purchased. We're a solidly-Mac household, but we recently were commissioned by the relatives to buy a PC-architecture laptop for them, and the Sony Vaio that we ended up with has a gorgeous screen. I'd imagine it's the same OEM unit that Apple is currently fitting to the MacBooks.

Atlant 11:28, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Whether it is easy to read depends entirely on the screens/monitors being used — some laptop screens are atrocious, some are wonderful, ditto with computer monitors. The best laptop screens I've seen so far as the new MacBook ones — very crisp and clean and bright. But these are personal preferences.

As for laptop vs. desktop, for me the main differences are (other than portability, obvious) that a laptop is much more likely to have hardware failures than a desktop if you are carting it around everywhere (it is hard to be gentle with something you are schlepping around constantly), and it is harder to upgrade a laptop (RAM is easy, but you're stuck with the same monitor you buy with it, and getting inside a laptop is a lot harder than getting inside a desktop, so even routine things like replacing a hard drive are tough). --140.247.249.200 19:23, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

A laptop is many times more likely to be lost or stolen than a desktop. For comparable performance and features, a laptop will cost quite a bit more than its desktop counterpart, approaching a factor of two. —EncMstr 19:45, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

I totally agree with this last comment, I would only add, that most upgrades to a laptop are custom, whereas, desktop components are gneric/standardized. Artoftransformation 03:48, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

I agree laptops have their place but I wouldn't completely rule out desktops, further I'd add that laptops are more prone to failure and are more difficult to repair, short of just replacing the whole thing. Vespine 22:59, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

If you don't smash the LCD, or drop the laptop on the floor, or spill your lunch or beverage into it, I see no evidence that laptops are notably less reliable than desktops or mini-towers. But it is, of course, up to each person to determine if they are a klutz.

Atlant 11:32, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Java question related with keyword

java programming language keyword total 52 .. what is the use of goto and const keyword in java. now it's not use but why not drop these keyword... —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 61.17.76.81 (talk) 13:52, 30 March 2007 (UTC).

They are reserved keywords though, as you say, they are unused. I can only speculate as to their inclusion; perhaps they exist in case someone at Sun becomes completely evil and decides that Java should support the goto construct. Someone else might have a better explanation. -- mattb @ 2007-03-30T13:57Z

I think that even though they are unused, they are constantly supported so that older programs can still be compiled? Not sure if goto is depreciated (const is via static final), but as far as I know, Java will always support depreciated stuff. x42bn6 Talk 15:11, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

Java has never supported the goto construct as far as I'm aware. -- mattb @ 2007-03-30T15:47Z

According to the Java Language Specification, "The keywords const and goto are reserved, even though they are not currently used. This may allow a Java compiler to produce better error messages if these C++ keywords incorrectly appear." That's pretty much directly from the guy who created the language, so I think it is the best explanation to be found. --LarryMac 16:07, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia sound files

When I click on an .ogg sound file from an article, it brings up Windows Media Player. There I can listen to it multiple times and save it to the WMP libray to listen to it in the future. Is there any way to open the files to iTunes instead and possibly add it to my iPod? Thanks!! Reywas92^Talk 17:18, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

iTunes doesn't support Ogg by default, but there are a number of plugins available. [3] ~ Amalas rawr ^{=^_^=} 17:30, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

Grim Fandango installation

Hi, is anyone familiar with the game Grim Fandango and the installation of it? Whenever I click "Install", it gets the hourglass mouse, but then the menu completely disappears and nothing happens. I tried opening My Computer, right-clicking on the icon and clicking Explore. Then I looked through the INSTALL folder, but clicking on various promising-looking things in here didn't do anything. So then I looked through the GRIMDATA folder. There's a file called GRIMFANDANGO. I clicked on that and a screen with a picture came up, with a loading sign in the bottom right. Then the screen went black and I opened Task Manager. I could see that this message had appeared:

res.c (2075): (int)fh > 0&& (int)fh <= MAX_OPEN_FILES

I don't know what this means and Google searches turn up nothing. I had to click OK. When I do this it says that the program encountered an error and needed to close. Does anyone know of any solution to this problem or what the error message means? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Bioarchie1234 20:16, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

Reading the little line, it appears that either the app could not open the file it was looking for, or it ran out of file handles (unlikely). Splintercellguy 20:50, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

i have to assume you're using windows XP? the game wasn't designed to be run on XP, and so you have to do some manipulation and trickery to get XP to run it properly. i did a bit of searching, and found some people who had gotten it to work. there's no clear cut instructions, but if you're fairly computer literate, there's some good forums that look like they'll help you figure it out in a quick and easy google search. http://www.google.com/search?q=%22grim+fandango%22+xp --64.0.112.75 22:21, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

Yeah there's also a patch that they released for faster computers which you might want to download. I do believe I saw an installer / loader out there that might be just what you're looking for - perhaps googl those terms "Grim Fandango" + "Loader"
or "Grim Fadango" + "Instaler"
or "Grim Fandang" + "patch"
Rfwoolf 11:18, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

March 31

Sharing /home between two linux installations

Someone on the Ubuntu forum said that it is inadvisable to share the /home partition between two different Linux installs because this directory is used for program settings and can cause conflicts if programs on both installs are editing the same files. Is this the case? Will I really need to split my /home partition in two peices to have two installs on the same machine? --Seans Potato Business 01:58, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

Some applications do nasty things, and install libraries in the user directories. If your /home only has documents and no binaries or settings, you should be fine, but everyonce and a while, you might run into a hidden file or other weirdness. I think that Mozilla is an example of one of these applications, but I dont see any specific problems, since the plugins are mostly non-speficic, but I ran into a problem, with a flash install and a ubuntu/fedora mix. Flash installed and ran perfectly under fedora, but would not work under ubuntu. Deleting the application, and installing it under ubuntu, and then getting flash to work under that, then switching back to fedora fixed it, but it was a real head scratcher. It was all a hack to get real audio to work, from a radio station that had their real media front end driven by flash. Worse thing is an application has a user component that might crash upon booting, but you should keep your linux installs handy. ( Hint: I use gentoo/old redhat/ and didnt get the same problem ). Artoftransformation 03:40, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

For just file storage, it won't be a problem, but sharing config files for the same user might be tricky. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 58.163.152.116 (talk) 05:47, 1 April 2007 (UTC).

You can always have different home directories(per distro) within the same /home partition. You could even have your rc scripts rename dotfiles/whatever as needed. I personally would share the home partition and only put out fires when/if problems happen. Most of the time you will be running similar programs in different distros, so they should usually handle user config files written under a different distro without problem. Obviously YMMV so look in your home directories and find out what's important. -- Diletante 16:34, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

object oeriented programming

what is object oriented programming in C++ ?203.145.188.131 02:01, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

Confusing. :-) StuRat 20:49, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

The articles on Object-oriented programming and C++ explain it. -- Diletante 02:19, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

Torpark

Just to clarify, if I use Torpark, I know outside people can't see what I'm accessing, but can my systems administrator who controls my router? 82.34.242.138 02:17, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

Your admin would be able see the encypted traffic to the tor onion routers address, but he could not be able to tell what specific addresses you were accessing through those routers. So, no. —Mitaphane _?|! 02:45, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

If you need encryption, use SSH. Splintercellguy 23:07, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

Or just use Torpark, which he is doing. Why would you use both? --Oskar 13:42, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

Which is faster? Internal PATA or External Firewire 800?

I'm considering upgrading my Mac's hard drives. I was curious which hard drives are faster (all things being equal): Internal P-ATA or external Firewire 800? FW800 seems like it would have the overhead of the FW800 bridge, while P-ATA is well, parallel. --72.202.150.92 02:54, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

It doesn't really matter as ordinary harddrives cannot saturate either of them. If you need to move it around, get a firewire one, otherwise get a PATA one. --antilived^{T | C | G} 03:52, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

Free Vector Graphics Editors

Does anybody know of any good quality free Vector Graphics editors (ones which have good tutorials would be a bonus). Ideally something of the quality of GIMP or Blender, but for vector graphics. --Kiltman67 04:33, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

Inkscape. Easy to use, produces SVGs (the standard open vector format; Wikipedia and other Wikimedia sites support them natively, as do Firefox and other browsers to an extent), and so forth. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 04:42, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

Xara Xtreme is another one, though I haven't used it. I'm an Inkscape fan myself. We also have an article on comparison of vector graphics editors. --24.147.86.187 00:04, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

Trialware

How can you have the trialware forever without registering or ordering it?Dudforreal 08:17, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

Well you can't really. That's how developers make their money. In some cases the developers are kind enough to provide more than just a DEMO verion of their applications, or a limited/restricted version of their programs- instead they give you the full program in trial mode, that just stops working after a few days. Then if you decide you still need it, you buy it.

That said, there are illegal ways of overcoming the trial limitations - by reverse engineering the software, or findin an illegal registration key/serial number, or a 'cracked' copy off the net. But I must strongly advise you, if you can afford to buy the actual software legally, please do so. And even if you can't afford to, then look for a free alterntive. Rfwoolf 11:15, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

Clock on computer

How can you change the time on the computer to anything you want?––Dudforreal 08:29, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

Let's assume you're using Windows... right-click on the clock display and select adjust date/time. --Multivitamin 09:51, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

You can also edit the time in your system BIOS - with some discretion, you have to be careful about everything you do when editing the System BIOS - when your computer is booting up, there will usually be something saying "Press F2 to edit the Sytem BIOS" - on some sytems it may be pressing the DEL key. Then carefully and gingerly edit your time and date settings, before selecting "SAVE AND EXIT" - but be careful about fiddling with other settings, it could cause your computer to stop operating - if you've fiddled with something and you're unsure, simply power your computer off - or hit the reset button - or Ctrl + Alt + Delete - or select "Exit WITHOUT Saving". Rfwoolf 11:11, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

Of course, if your trialware is smart enough to keep track of "runtime hours", even this trick won't allow you to keep illegally running the trial forever.

Atlant 11:37, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Assuming your'e using Windows though, you've got to make sure that "Sychronize with Time Server" or something akin to that message isn't check-marked. Otherwise, your clock will auto reset itself to the correct time for your time zone.Kevinwong913 01:36, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Downloading automatically nested files

Hi. I can see the files in the folder of an Apache server. Those files are pdf files, and they are quite a lot, I would get pretty tired if I downloaded all one by one, right clicking and so in each one. Do you know any way to do this automatically? Something like, OK, download everything in this folder and its sub folders. Thanks in advance. --Taraborn 09:19, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

Just trying to help here, have you heard of an FTP application like FileZilla (freeware), where you can select all the files you want and right-click and say "Download" and it wll one by one download them for you. Rfwoolf 11:30, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

You can use a program called HTTrack web site copier. You give it your URL of the directory, and ask it to gather onelevel of files. It will then download the complete list. On Linix or unix systems or possibly windows there is wget also. GB 11:34, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

Or indeed Down Them All, which is free software (GPL'd). If all these files are on seperate pages, you'd need a web crawler. --h2g2bob 02:39, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

I always used wget as I see another mentioned (there are windows versions). You just set it to recurse, not to recurse up the directory (or off website) the retry count, and the recursion level and you're pretty well set. Wget has lots of useful parameters (taking files as input lists, etc). Root⁴(one) 15:31, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

Yeah I usually use wget too, if you need more control, like deleting local files that are not on the server lftp comes in handy. -- Diletante 16:18, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

XP Home and XP Pro

If I had a computer with legal XP home installed and working and tried to install a bootlegg version of XP Pro over it, what would happen? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 88.110.49.118 (talk) 17:16, 31 March 2007 (UTC).

It would work fine, but probably fail Windows Genuine Advantage. Splintercellguy 18:49, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

So that means I wouldnt get the free updates etc? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 88.110.49.118 (talk • contribs).

I remember reading that Microsoft allows critical security updates (bug fixes) to install in illegal installations, but you won't be able to upgrade software like Media Player. -- ReyBrujo 19:23, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

OK Many thanks to all respondents for that info. Now the final (killer) question: Is it worth doing???

If you have to ask, probably not. Not trying to be condescending, but Pro really doesn't add much for the average user. "The most common editions of the operating system are Windows XP Home Edition, which is targeted at home users, and Windows XP Professional, which has additional features such as support for Windows Server domains and dual processors, and is targeted at power users and business clients." In other words, if you currently have no reason yourself to want XP Pro, then no, it's not worth it. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 19:43, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

My two cents are that it's a lot of hastle to do and basically voids your XP Home, which you've presumably paid for (or which came with the PC). There's no real need to, and most things which Pro can do can also be done through third party software [other than the component stuff]. For instance, remote desktop - so so so many different programs for that. JoshHolloway 19:50, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

Well thank you all so much for that advice. I got the answer I was (sort of) hoping for. Arent the reference desks volunteers helpful and knowledgable!!

How to get a UK ip address in the States

I would like to be able to be able to stream tv shows from UK websites, Channel 4, for example. However, I need to have a UK ip address to be able to do so. Being that I am in the US, this is a problem.

Is there anyway I can obtain a UK ip address, through tunelling, proxies, vpn, or something else? If you can help, it would be much appreciated.

what about finding a proxy located somewhere like london and use that? It might be slow though...Coolotter88 21:24, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

Just search for an open proxy in the UK. --h2g2bob 02:32, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

Similarly you can use tor, specify UK exit nodes in the config and if you don't care about strong anonmity you can set the number of hops down to 1 and it should work like any other proxy. (note: i have never done this) -- Diletante 16:22, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

html/css: wordwrapping so lines are equal length

So, I have have a table cell (or any other rectangular container of text). I write a long stream of text-- one that's too wide to fit on one line. The browser will word-wrap and create two lines: the top one will be as wide as possible, the bottom line will contain the remainder of the text. For most purposes, this is fine, but in some cases, it's ugly having one huge line above one tiny one.

Suppose I instead wanted the text to wrap in such a way that the top and bottom lines were roughtly of equal width. Just inserting line breaks on my own isn't possible, of course, because I don't know how wide the browser will be. Is there anyway to do this? --Wouldbewebmaster 21:31, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

I suppose you could set the property text-align:justify for each TD. However this only works for every line, except the last one. So if your table cells were only two lines of text, it would still be off. —Mitaphane _?|! 23:47, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

Trying To Run Program - should be simple

I compiled my "hello world" program, and tried to run it:

sean@linux-vqrj:~/Desktop> gcc hello.c
sean@linux-vqrj:~/Desktop> a.out
bash: a.out: command not found

Why wont it run? I'm using openSUSE 10.2 --Seans Potato Business 23:08, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

Without specifying an output executable, won't GCC default to hello.out? I think that's the problem. —Mitaphane _?|! 23:36, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

No, it defaults to a.out. However, you haven't set your path, therefore everytime you want to run a program that is in the current directory, you will have to type ./ before it. Thus, to run your program, try ./a.out -- ReyBrujo 23:41, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, it'll either be ./a.out, or it will need chmod a+x a.out to set it to execute permissions (which it should be from gcc, so it's probably the first one). --h2g2bob 02:29, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

Correct, it should be ./a.out in bash. You're probably used to CSH or something where you just type a.out. I was confused when I first switched to bash too. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 04:10, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

It's not a shell thing. It's a path thing. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 58.163.152.116 (talk) 05:45, 1 April 2007 (UTC).

./a.out You shouldn't have to set permissions, gcc does that for you right? Well, it does for me.--71.195.124.101 04:14, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

And if it didn't set executable permissions, you wouldn't be able to run it anyway. So that is obviously not the issue. --Spoon! 09:50, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

IIRC the reason that the current directory is generally not placed in the path just because if you change directories to a directory with a trojan ls or dir command, and then attempt to execute ls, you'd possibly be executing that ls instead of ls proper. A smart guy would write his trojanized ls so that ls wouldn't even be visible to itself (at least for most uses of ls). It might even do its thing and delete itself. Therefore, its possible you'd never even know your computer was briefly hijacked! You possibly can get away with adding the current directory to the path if you reorder the path (maybe prepending "." to the path instead of of appending it, I don't recall which), but still, it is just easer, probably more secure, and more conventional to just remember to type ./foo Root⁴(one) 22:44, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

April 1

Clear browser cache from JavaScript

For the Wikipedia in-browser editor wikEd I am looking for a an automatic updating mechanism. Since MediaWiki user scrips are updated by flushing the browser cache, my question is: Is it possible to clear the browser's cache from within a JavaScript (this is different from clearing the Wikipedia server page cache). Cacycle 03:18, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

I highly doubt it, since it would be a potential security risk. Even if it wasn't, people would probably not appreciate if any web page could clear their browser cache at will. One solution could be writing a browser extension to do it. --Nitku 12:25, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

(Re-)loading a script while bypassing the browser's cache would do the same - this does not look like a security risk. Cacycle 13:30, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

I have figured it out: window.location.reload(true); does the job, it is fully equivalent to Shift-Reload. Cacycle 02:02, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Looking for a GIF animator

A lot of times I try to make stop motion videos with my digital camera. I was wondering if anyone knows of an GIF animator I could use that will automatically process each JPEG, instead of most programs I find where I have to select them one by one. Thanks in advance.

QWERTY | Dvorak 05:33, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

mplayer/MEncoder accepts lists of images as input. -- Diletante 16:51, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

Commercial programs like Adobe Fireworks or Adobe Imageready do this too. --24.249.108.133 17:10, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

Multicolor Fill Effects Gone in Powerpoint 2007

I'm using Powerpoint 2007 for the first time, and unless it's just me, I can't seem to find how to use more than one color for a slide background. The fill box only seems to accept one color. --TeckWiz ^ParlateContribs_@ 17:36, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

I'm using PowerPoint 2000. I would right-click on the slide. Click Background. A window should appear. Click on the arrow below the "background-fill box". Click "Fill Effects." In the "Colors" section, check the circle that says "Two Colors". Then, select the shading style you wish. Once you've selected the shading style you want, click OK. You should be back to your original Background window. Click the "Apply" or "Apply to All" button. Now, you should have a multicolor fill effect slide. I hope this helps. Mayfare 19:16, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

Office 2007 though is highly different (apparently) from earlier versions (at least according to the press). I'm not sure that will apply. (The 2007 "improvements" sound awful to me.) --24.147.86.187 23:23, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

Yes. I know how to do it in previous versions. I think in 2007 it was replaced by "gradients". I thought the previous way was easier but the rest of Powerpoint is actually good compared to older versions (no new custom animations though). --TeckWiz ^ParlateContribs_@ 00:05, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

HP Deskjet 3420 Printer

Whenever I print an image, the printer is unusually slow. Eventually, it stops printing. My printer connections are correctly and securely connected. This hasn't been the first time it happened. It's been a week. Thanks very much for responding. Mayfare 19:09, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

Is your computer fairly old? If you are running on a older computer, or are using a older connection (serial, USB 1.0, etc.) you may not have proper data flow. Scepia 23:33, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for your advice. However, a couple of years ago, I had the same printer and the same "old" computer; it printed images fine. Mayfare 02:00, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

You might need to check the drivers. Splintercellguy 04:11, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Task manager

Is there a way to configure the Windows XP task manager not to run certain programs? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.100.167.232 (talk) 19:34, 1 April 2007 (UTC).

Can you clarify? Are you talking about disabling programs from automatically starting on when Windows is booted, or are you talking about preventing a program from ever running (even if a user gives the command to run it)? If it is the later, you can use msconfig to disable autostart programs and window services. —Mitaphane _?|! 19:49, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

I'm talking about application programs whether the attempt to run them is manual or automatic at startup or later on - similar to the way you can block access to any web site by placing its URL in the restricted site list. Nebraska bob 20:10, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

You can change the programs which run when windows starts up with MSConfig. Go to Start -> run -> msconfig -> Click the "Startup" tab at the top -> Untick everything you don't want to run. You can also change services that run in the Services tab. Do not change anything in SYSTEM.INI, BOOT.INI or WIN.INI unless you know what you're doing. JoshHolloway 12:02, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

ATA-48 / Solaris 10 / Sun Blade 100

Do I need hardware support for (P)ATA-48 (> 137 GB) hard drives. And more specifically can I install such drives in my Sun Blade 100 running Solaris 10? —Ruud 22:45, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

You need software support, both in the firmware and on the operating system. --cesarb 00:57, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

life's little frustrations

Who thought it was a good idea for commands like more, emacs, and less to clear the screen when they exit, so that you can't make any use of anything you might just have been looking at (such as a man page)? What do other people do about this insane annoyance? (I do know how to fix it -- create a custom termcap entry without the "reset terminal" sequence in the "exit visual mode" string -- but it's a nuisance and somewhat problematic.) —Steve Summit (talk) 23:10, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

The first part of your question (who thought it was a good idea) is too hard for me. If you're using xterm, there is another way to get rid of the effect without editing termcap and terminfo by hand. Add "XTerm*titeInhibit: true" to your .Xresources or .Xdefaults to make it do the termcap/terminfo mangling automatically. If you use a different terminal emulator and it doesn't have an equivalent option, you can at least get less to behave properly by putting LESS=-X in your environment. --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 06:58, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Curious. On Solaris, more/less doesn't clear the screen upon either a "q" exit or upon its exit after displaying the entire file. (And no, I have no alias covering either command.) Nor does vi (and I don't recall what emacs does).

Atlant 11:46, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Yes that behavior is very annoying. Since these days I am always in X I usually just open a new terminal window. Would there be other, unwanted side-effects with the termcap solution? -- Diletante 14:34, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

I open a new terminal window if I'm in X, or just switch sessions if I'm in the terminal (alt and they f-keys I believe)

Koriar 17:30, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

And a different behaviour again from an old version of Linux - more does not clear the screen at the end, and less does.

There is an option -d, to make less dumb, so it does not clear the screen. Do less -d filename. Or you can do

LESS="-d";export LESS

to set the default option to dumb for use in less or man outputs. Then you do not have to add in -d on each use of less. GB 00:48, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

• Thanks for the tips. I didn't know about that titeInhibit attribute. (I was going to launch into a long rant on the folly of redefining the effect of an annoying escape sequence, as opposed to just not using the annoying escape sequence in the first place, but the time has passed...) —Steve Summit (talk) 22:23, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

Proxies

Is there any program or setup that will prevent proxy servers from being used on forum sites? I know there's hundreds of thousands of them, but I would imagine that there's a way to block a lot of them. --69.144.234.146 00:19, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

You could find a list of open proxies (there is one on Wikipedia - which does not allow open proxy editing - see Category:Open proxies blocked on Wikipedia - but a little bit of Googling shouldn't be too hard) but open proxies are being created all the time, and you do have to remember that for large forums, you risk a lot of collateral damage. When I run my forum, I just block the problematic ones when they appear. As for blocking them, vBulletin I know for sure offers IP blocking. If you own a server, you can block the IPs at the server-level via iptables or a firewall. x42bn6 Talk 02:47, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

April 2

RAM

I know a guy with a laptop who claims he can use hard drive space as RAM, so he can get like 10GB of RAM. Does anyone know if this is possible? I don't believe him Mix Lord 00:40, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

See virtual memory. --cesarb 00:54, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Any machine can do that, though physical memory is always better. Splintercellguy 03:19, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Once upon a time, a quintessentially moronic newbie remark was, "Virtual memory? Coool! Now I can make me a really big RAM disk!" —Steve Summit (talk) 04:51, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

What steve is trying to say in a satirical way is that while you can make a large virtual memory for your computer, hard disks are limited in their speed compared to RAM. RAM has no moving parts, but hard drives require motion, and are therefore limited to the speed at which these parts can move. See the virtual memory article, and hard drive.--Russoc4 15:21, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Uh, no it's not. Using VM (which uses hard disk space) to create a RAM disk is no different from using a regular hard disk, which is why it's stupid. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 129.78.208.4 (talk) 03:26, 4 April 2007 (UTC).

A DVD, CD, or even diskette can also be used as a "RAM disk", to provide extended memory. Of course, as with hard disks, this makes things run much slower. StuRat 20:37, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Okay thanksMix Lord 00:12, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

You can't use VM on read-only media, of course, because it wouldn't work.

Yes, quite true. StuRat 15:29, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Au contraire! You could do demand paging perfectly well out of a file on a read-only disk, and as far as I know this would be exactly what would happen if you were to exec an a.out file (i.e. a Unix executable) in a directory on a mounted CD-ROM filesystem. It's true you couldn't use the "virtual memory" so exposed to create a RAM disk, but hypothetically, you could make a ROM disk (i.e. a read-only filesystem) out of it... —Steve Summit (talk) 02:22, 6 April 2007 (UTC) [P.S. But yes, of course, building a "ROM disk" on top of read-only memory on top of a demand-paged file on a read-only disk would be precisely as pointless as building a RAM disk on top of virtual memory backed by a read/write disk.]

Allowing DVD player, Video game system, and cable box to run on same TV.

Anyone know how to? Currently the guys that put the cable box in, I didn't have a cable box before, made it so the DVD player would run on Video1, same as before. They set the cable box to component 1, so therefore right now, I can't record TV. Now, I believe that if I plugged out the video game system out of the DVD player (yellow white red jacks), I could allow my DVD/VHS recorder to record the TV, currently I can only play DVD's/VHS's. But then of course I couldn't run the video game system. Can anyone think of a solution? (This is the most accurate topic area I could find, thought it would be better than Miscellaneous.) 71.175.79.130 02:21, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Does your TV have a TV-out or something like that? If you connect that to your VHS then it can record whatever that's on your TV. --antilived^{T | C | G} 08:01, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

OK I figured it out, but do you know if plugging in your cable box composite cables into your DVD player, then plugging av cables into your television distorts the HD picture? Also, before doing this my HD was coming in full screen, but now comes in wide screen. I mean I compared the HD and standard and the HD seems better, but do you know if it distorts it at all? 71.175.79.130 17:08, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

That is bad as you basically wasted your component connection, which means you now cannot get HD signals into your TV. I haven't tinker with the VHS/DVD combo players too much but I doubt any of them can relay component video without lost (assuming that you use component both from yoru cable box to your VHS/DVD and from there to your TV). --antilived^{T | C | G} 06:24, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

Cable Question

i am trying to get high speed cable internet in my home however i have two cables to the outside of my house. on the outside layer of one cable it says CATV on the other it says digital satellite which was iniatialy connected to a DISH network dish but was disconnected which one of the cables would work?--logger 03:37, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Unless things are drastically different where you are as compared to every place that I've lived, you would not have to hook up your own cable internet. Your cable company or your ISP would normally do the outside work for you and then you would hook up the modem, router, etc. yourself from a cable jack inside your house. Or am I misunderstanding what you're doing? Dismas|^(talk) 03:41, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

i am trying to use comcast to do the intenet they appear to have service in my area because i see CATV cables in my house. what i want to know is if the CATV cable would work without the need of a professional.--logger 03:46, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Assuming you've already signed up for their services and it's all setup, all you have to do is hook the cable modem to the jack. Splintercellguy 04:11, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

should be getting the stuff this week has not yet shipped but should ship soon.--logger 04:34, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Cable modems require a high-quality (broadband) coaxial cable line; when we had one installed, the Cable Guy pulled in a new line that extended from the pole to their splitter in our basement and thence on to the cable modem itself (that we provided). They also put in a trap, downstream of which we connected the rest of the house's older CATV wiring. They advised us that putting any clunky old (e.g., RG-59) cable in the way of the modem would probably cause it to not work so well.

Atlant 14:54, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

When ours was run, they also had to turn up the signal at the main line. It was too weak and we weren't getting synced on the cable modem. I helped it out further by removing the splitters in the crawlspace that were being used as end-to-end connectors and replacing it all with one long cable. --Kainaw ^(talk) 20:49, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

what is

that little image in the left hand side of the web address bar called? (on wikipedia it's a 'W')--Honeymane_{Heghlu meH QaQ jajvam} 04:34, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

I call it a favicon. —Steve Summit (talk) 04:49, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

That's because it is a favicon. --Russoc4 15:19, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Aha! Good to know. :-) —Steve Summit (talk) 16:00, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

XP and available RAM

What is the miniumum actual ram (not recommended values etc) I would need to run XP home on my old computer? O yes, and why?--SlipperyHippo 15:24, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Microsoft says 64 Mb. But even at 128 Mb, Windows XP is painfully slow, taking several minutes to start up and shut down with a few programs installed. x42bn6 Talk 15:44, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

OK Ive got 192M and I cant even get XP to install so it shouldnt be a memory problem? I should say that I have MagnaRAM running. Is this likely to cause a problem?--SlipperyHippo 20:46, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

XP should certainly install with 192M. Are you trying to upgrade? Why not just format and install from the cd? A clean install is always better IMO. If you want to keep your data, I would still suggest backing up your important files, then doing a clean install. Sandman30s 21:32, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

256M to get it running smoothly and 512M (minimum) if you want to play games that load large levels at a time such as first person shooters, or work with large pictures or videos. Of course it always depends what you want to do with your old computer. The moment you notice a lot of page swapping going on, it's a sign you need more RAM. RAM is cheap so why not just get 512M, you won't regret it. Modern PC's come standard with 1G; and 2G is not uncommon. Sandman30s 21:24, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Hardware for reading PDF files

Hi. I read LOTS of electronic books and it's an annoyance having to sit in front of the computer to just read them. Printing them isn't a possibility, due to logistic problems. I was thinking in something like a PDA, but it apparently has much more features than I would need. What do you think? Do you know any hardware that would fit my needs? Thanks in advance. --Taraborn 16:34, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Wouldn't an electronic book suffice? --Kainaw ^(talk) 16:54, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Sounds fine... but is that hardware commonly available and allows information to be uploaded to it from the main computer? Thank you very much for your response. --Taraborn 09:00, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

Yes. The electronic book article even includes a list of available products, such as the Sony Reader which comes with software to move files from your computer to the book. --Kainaw ^(talk) 12:47, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

I've also heard that the iPhone will be able to read PDF files (it's running Quartz Extreme). -HuBmaN!!!! 15:53, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

SQL query

Using mySQL, I am trying to find a way to select both a random number and that random number multiplied by a column in my table. I have got as far as

SELECT RAND(),RAND();

which outputs

+------------------+--------------------+
| RAND()           | RAND()             |
+------------------+--------------------+
| 0.74826139095077 | 0.0067676957759705 | 
+------------------+--------------------+

which obviously isn't what I want. A different query,

SELECT RAND() as number,number;

would, I hope, select the same random number twice. However, it only gives

ERROR 1054 (42S22): Unknown column 'number' in 'field list'

Does anyone know how to do what I'm trying to do here?

Many thanks, Sam Korn ^(smoddy) 21:46, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Did you try

   SELECT RAND() as mynumber, mytable.foo_number as tableval, (mynumber * tableval) as myresult

by chance? dr.ef.tymac 21:50, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Same error, I'm afraid... Sam Korn ^(smoddy) 21:59, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

You can use a subquery.

select rand1.number,rand1.number from (select rand() as number ) as rand1;

look at the docs on the mysql website because i might be doing something silly for all i know. -- Diletante 22:09, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Super, that's exactly what I was looking for. Many thanks! Sam Korn ^(smoddy) 10:11, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

Hmmm ... mySQL requires a subquery for that?! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Dreftymac (talk • contribs) 16:16, 3 April 2007 (UTC).

Ask.com Service

Does Ask.com offer a paid service? 68.193.147.179 22:25, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Do you mean like Google sell their search engine in a hardware box format?

http://www.google.com/enterprise/mini/#

Or like how Google sells advertising via Adwords?

Anyway I'm not sure if ask.com can come in a box, but this may help:

http://sponsoredlistings.ask.com/

Ronnystalker 05:31, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

Research Services

What are some paid research services? 68.193.147.179 22:26, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Your question is too broad or general, please clarify by explaining what sort of information you are looking for
For example, certain companies may do market research, where they may interview their customers. There are telephone research companies that will telephone people and ask to do a survey. There's medical research. There's research for film where you need to come up with examples of ideas for things. There's research as in fact-finding, like Google Answers, where you might have to research certain facts of information from a series of data. Your question is far too non-specific. Rfwoolf 12:05, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

To research information about companies. 68.193.147.179 16:55, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

Paid financial research:

• http://www.hoovers.com
• http://www.onesource.com

Free corporate profiles, SEC filings, annual statements, etc.:

• http://www.bigcharts.com
• http://finance.yahoo.com
• Fortune 500 companies

Is this what you are looking for? —EncMstr 18:03, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

I am looking for something that is like Google Answers. -68.193.147.179 21:45, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

TiVo on iO cable

Can you run TiVo on iO cable? 68.193.147.179 22:28, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

They have their own DVR recievers. It's just like TiVo. --TeckWiz ^ParlateContribs_@(Lets go Yankees!) 03:49, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

Text messaging

I know that it is possible to:

• Send a text message from a phone number to another phone number.
• Send a text message from a phone number to an e-mail address.

But how do I send a text message from an e-mail address to a phone number? Is it even possible? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 155.43.52.21 (talk) 22:47, 2 April 2007 (UTC).

It is possible if the telephone service attaches an email address to the telephone's text messaging service. Most do not do this because nobody wants to pay for spam-text constantly clogging up their phones. --Kainaw ^(talk) 23:08, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Well, first of all any phone that is web-enabled can send and receive email - but it does this quite literally through the internet, just as you would ordinarily send and receive an email on a PC - it simply connets to the internet to their email service, provides their account details (such as email address, username and password) and uses the relevant email protocol to connect and download the email.
But I think you are asking if it's possible to send an email to a phone and have it arrive as an SMS. It is certainly possible - but depends on your service provider. Some service providers will allow you to create an account like 0825557779@vodacom.co.za - and when an email gets sent to that address it would send an SMS to that number with the text of the email. But certainly not all service providers provide this service - in fact these days it would be pretty uncommon for them to do that because they want to encourage people to buy web-enabled phones and to subscribe to WAP and other cell-phone internet services.
Oh and one more possibility... SOME service providers will allow you to send a free SMS to one of their subscribers - and you'd do that through their website - but like I say, only if they offer this feature. Generally if they do offer that feature it's just a service that they offer to their existing subscribers, to be able to send a free SMS to another one of their subscribers.
Hope that all helps. Just by the way 'SMS' stands for Short Message Service - which is the standard TEXT message that people use to message eachother on phones - but certain western countries have corrupted this term by using the word "TEXT" instead, as in "Just text your mate" - which is fine, but the actual service was originally called SMS. Rfwoolf 12:01, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

The same way people improperly say "send an email to", which complete disregards the SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) required to do so; or "receive email" which disguises what're they're really doing, which is using a client program to connect to an IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) or POP3 (Post Office Protocol 3) server. --64.0.112.54 19:32, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Pandemonium 1 does not work

I just got the game Pandemonium. I tried to run it but it does not work. I searched online and I read something about using a Glide wrapper. So I downloaded dgVoodoo and I placed the DLL files in the Pandemonium directory. However, the game still does not work. Whenever I run it, it gets to the title screen but it quits a second later. Please help. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Metroman (talk • contribs) 23:44, 2 April 2007 (UTC).

April 3

Geforce 8800, Soundcards.

Does anyone know if the Geforce 8800 needs two PCI-e cables (from the PSU), or just one? Secondly, do sound cards need a connector from the PSU, or is the power supplied by the motherboard enough? (The card in question, if it matters, is Chaintech AV710.) Froglars the frog 03:26, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

In general, no, the motherboard powers the soundcard. The only extra cabling is the one going from CD/DVD-ROM drives to the sound card, which is for... I forgot. Either direct analog or digital connection. And for the GeForce 8800, do you mean the SLI cable? If so, see the last question of the nVidia faq. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 04:05, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

I think the OP means the extra power cables from the PSU that goes into PCI-e graphics cards, which I think the 8800GT needs 1, and the GTX needs 2. --antilived^{T | C | G} 05:45, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

I have a 8800 and I can confirm it only needs one PCI-e cable. --Kiltman67 17:59, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

The 8800GTX requires two PCI-Express(6-pin) power cables from the power supply. The 8800GTS 640MB and 320MB versions require only one PCI-E power cable.

backing up files

does anybody know of a simple, free program that will synchronize my computer files with a backup file in an external hard drive? thanks. i've tried just copying and pasting, but this requires all the files to be rewritten. --Gujarat10 06:05, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

What is your operating system? I use rdiff-backup to backup my computer. --Kainaw ^(talk) 12:44, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

If you have Windows Vista, it comes with an automatic backup called "Backup and Restore Center". --TeckWiz ^ParlateContribs_@(Lets go Yankees!) 14:06, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

I have windows xp 04. --Gujarat10 03:06, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

For Mac OS X, there's SuperDuper! and CarbonCopyCloner. --24.249.108.133 17:05, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

Google summaries

When you search for, say, "douglas adams" on google, you will get Wikipedia entry listed quite above. What is interesting is the information below it:

Douglas Adams - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Provides information about the "Hitchhiker" author and his work.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Adams - 162k - Cached - Similar pages - Filter

But there is no such sentence in the whole web page! (I am talking about the HTML source). So from where does this sentence comes from? Is some one at google writing this up? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Scheibenzahl (talk • contribs) 09:54, 3 April 2007 (UTC).

Google Directory/dmoz I think. Search for Douglas Adams Wikipedia on either of them (they use the same index) and you'll get the same snippet. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 12:32, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

to send as a mail

how to send this page as an email —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 61.8.139.98 (talk) 10:24, 3 April 2007 (UTC).

There are two options (that I can think of). Email the the URL, or save the page on your hard disk and email the file (but images won't show up). - Akamad 11:49, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

If you wish to email THIS COPY of the page, click "Permanent link" in the "toolbox" on the left. An example of this can be found here. JoshHolloway 12:27, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

If you want the contents, including all the markup, you can pick "edit this page" at the top of the page, select in the edit window, use Control A to select all, then use Control X to cut all text, then hit the back button to undo the edit. The full contents of the page are now in the text buffer and can be pasted into most word processors using Control V. Note, however, that the markup won't be interpreted correctly by most programs. StuRat 21:06, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

Vista compatibility.

I'm building a new PC and I'm debating whether or not to use Windows Vista. Will game performance be lesser on Vista, due to the higher requirements, Aero, superfetch, etc? How much XP software is incompatible with Vista? Some of the essential apps I run are foobar2000, Nero, DVD Shrink, uTorrent, Knights of the Old Republic 1 + 2, Firefox, VLC Media Player, The Sims 2, Fallout 1 + 2, Call of Cthulhu, Desperate Housewives game, Last.fm, Half-life 2/Counter-strike Source, Battlefield 1942, and ePSXe -- do any of these have issues on Vista? I know I could have googled for some of this information, but a lot of what I found was untrustworthy (things like "works" and "fails" without giving any details, out of date, etc). I'd appreciate any response. Cheers. Pesapluvo 13:49, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

Most programs run in Vista, and there's also a capability mode like in Windows XP, so you can run the program as if it was running in XP. --TeckWiz ^ParlateContribs_@(Lets go Yankees!) 14:08, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

The Vista compatibility tool should find out whether these programs will run on Vista. x42bn6 Talk 16:56, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

VISTA SHOULD NOT BE SLOWER THAN XP. Aero barely impacts performance on systems that can run these games to any degree, and Vista's improved memory management means performance ought to be better. DirectX games run at ~100% of XP speed and OpenGL runs at ~78% of XP speed due to rubbish driver support, but that's expected to improve. 81.157.191.238 11:09, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

Processor

Which one is better?

1. Intel® Core™2 Extreme QX6700 (8MB,3.2GHz Factory overclocked)
2. Intel® Core™2 Extreme X6800 (4MB,3.46GHz Factory overclocked) —68.193.147.179 (talk) 16:54, 3 April 2007 (UTC).

(http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.html) May be able to help. You can compare the two against differing tasks. On Unreal Tournament it seems the X6800 is ahead. ny156uk 17:01, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

It depends. For multitasking and in terms of operations per second, the QX6700 is better. For running one single-thread but large application such as a game, the X6800 is slightly better.

OR, you could buy the QX6800 (coming soon) which has as much on one core as the X6800 but aslso the raw power of the QX6700, although it will cost about $1200 by itself. 81.157.191.238 11:06, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

troubleshoot remote desktop

I am unable to connect from home to work with remote desktop....home is XP home edition; work is XP professional. I have voip phones at work. Called them to open a port.....typed in internal computer ip address:portnumber in the computer spot......typed in user name and password for work computer. Domain.....not sure what to type......old IT company had computers at work networked with an S drive and each computer had a name...(domain???) such as \\computername\shareddocs. New IT people have installed real vnc.....also am running microsoft SQl Server 2000 sp4.....when I try to connect at home error message reads; unable to connect.....too many people accessing network, network connection not established......please help mf8.9.193.154 20:20, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

Clarify, clarify! Check ports? What's the exact error message? Splintercellguy 21:47, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

How do you check ports? the exact error message is The client cannot connect to the remote computer. remote connections might not be enabled or the computer might be too busy to accept new connectionsl It is also possible that network problems are preventing your connection. I'm a novice and not a programmer.Flippinep 22:04, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

Make sure your router has port forward entries for the Remote Desktop ports. What router? Splintercellguy 22:20, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

Wait, I misread the question. Can you check to see if the remote computer has its appropriate ports open? Can you do a port scan test on it? Splintercellguy 22:22, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

And check correct IP :). Splintercellguy 22:22, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

You could also try using RealVNC Viewer to connect. Sorry for billion responses, I'm forgetting to put stuff in. Splintercellguy 22:22, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

Page break in MS EXCEL

How to remove page breaks in MS Excel? 21:39, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

Page breaks are only a part of the print setup. If you don't want any page breaks, you need to set the print setup to print 1 page wide by 1 page tall. Worm 22:53, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

That doesnt work too.....Its an automatic page break..... I dont knw how to clear it after successive futile trials..... 20:28, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

"File, Print Area, Clear Print Area". Anchoress 21:00, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Apple Cinema HD Display (30" flat panel)

Would a "Apple Cinema HD Display (30" flat panel)" work with a Windows-based computer (ex: Dell)? -68.193.147.179 21:41, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

In short, yes. Vespine 22:39, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

But the computer has to have a "dual link" DVI port to work with a screen that large.

Atlant 23:35, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

Installation help

I need help installing The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (video game) onto my macintosh. My current issue is that when I open the program after installation, it says there was an error in opening OpenAL framework. What does that mean?

OpenAL has to do with audio. Perhaps: 1. you, or it, selected the wrong audio card or audio setting (OpenAL is for 3D audio), 2. your audio drivers need to be updated? --140.247.251.165

file.writelines() in python

How do I make file.writelines() work with a list of unicode strings? --Anakata 23:46, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

April 4

Screenshot

How do I get a screenshot of a window in Microsoft Windows XP Home without using Alt+Print Screen? 68.193.147.179 00:11, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Why don't you want to use it? --TeckWiz ^ParlateContribs_@(Lets go Yankees!) 02:12, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

From Windows Help...

To copy the window or screen contents

To make a copy of the active window, press ALT+PRINT SCREEN. To copy the entire screen as it appears on your monitor, press PRINT SCREEN. Note

To paste the image into a document, click the Edit menu in the document window, and then click Paste.

Hope that helps...72.28.56.83 02:47, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

There are many free programs you can use where you can set the screen capture key to your liking. Also most graphics editors (eg. Photoshop or GIMP) have built-in screen capture functionality. You can start with Google or Screenshot#External_links. --Nitku 09:51, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Webcam video

I'm looking for a program that can stream a video, say a home made video through a webcam feed when using my webcam in msn or something. A similair feature appears in manycam but i can't use my own videos, can anyone help me out?

89.242.151.217 09:51, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

VLC media player is able to stream videos. Aetherfukz 15:40, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

DVD capacity

I've had a look at the DVD page but capacity is only given in bytes or GB. I've tried to work it out but frankly its beyond me, so could someone please say how much capacity a 4.7GB DVD has in MB? Thanks! Think outside the box 13:42, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

it may be around 4796 MB expecting....just converted into mb on the basis of 1gb=1024mb 1MB=1024KB 1KB=1024BYTES 1BYTE = 8BITS

Thank you! Think outside the box 14:24, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

That answer above might not be right, according to DVD#DVD_disc_capacity "GB here means gigabyte, equal to 10^9 (or 1,000,000,000) bytes" so a 4.7G disc has 4,482 megabytes (if a megabyte is 1024KB) -- Diletante 15:07, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Yea, it's never quite clear if they are using decimal values or binary values:

Term   Decimal Value        Binary Value
====   =============        ==============
 KB    1,000                1,024
 MB    1,000,000            1,048,576
 GB    1,000,000,000        1,073,741,824

So, depending on the combo you are using, there could be 1,000 MB per GB or 1,024 or around 1,074 or around 954 (the last two requiring that one term is decimal and the other binary). StuRat 15:25, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

And we can all sit and wonder why we allowed marketing people to call 1,000 bytes a KB, leading to calling 1,000KB a MB and 1,000MB a GB. --Kainaw ^(talk) 16:39, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

This is the sort of thing the IEC binary prefixes were created for. The reason the "marketing people" call 10⁶ bytes a "megabyte" is because this utilizes the proper SI definition of the prefix "mega" (a megawatt isn't 2²⁰ watts!), and this works to their advantage if they sell digital storage media. -- mattb @ 2007-04-04T18:33Z

I just always remember that a DVD is approximately 4.38 GB in units that we're used to in the computer world. Anything under will always fit. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 03:33, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

rounding calculations to decimal places

Dear Helpers, I am unable to find out the correct html/java code for rounding calculations to a given number of decimal places. If I multiply , say, "2.33 by 6.2", I get "14.446". How do I round that to two decimal places to get the answer "14.45"? Kind regards,

Stuart Sanderson

HTML is not a programming language. It cannot round. Java is a programming language. You use rounded_number = Math.round(100*unrounded_number)/100;. Are you actually asking for JavaScript and not Java? --Kainaw ^(talk) 14:40, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Use printf. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 03:31, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

A Windows muffler

Microsoft Windows is stupid and noisy. I only have a collective volume control. I cannot turn down the system noises only.

Most system beeps and ta-da's are stored in Windows/Media folder as WAV files. Is there a free-software solution for batch level reduction? I want to make these noises much less noisier. -- Toytoy 15:01, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

You might want to experiment with the various sound schemes, you may find some quieter, or at least less annoying, than others. You select them from Settings + Control Panel + Sounds (at least in Windows 98). Also, be sure all applications with volume controls have them on max, so you can reduce the general volume setting as much as possible. StuRat 15:07, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

You could do some Windows equivalent of the below. sox is free and available for Windows. --~~

 for i in *.wav; do
     # reduce volume to 25% of original value
     sox -v .25 $i quiet-$i
 done

Can I add bluetooth remote function to my mobile

I have a java ready phone and of course bluetooth. So can I change my phone to a bluetooth remote control, for example to control my notebook? If it can, how? If it can't, why? roscoe_x 16:20, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

You may write a program on the mobile and a program on the notebook so they can talk to one another (sending commands from the mobile to the notebook). As for can you, it depends on your coding ability. Personally, if you aren't currently a programmer, it will take a while to get to the level where you can write a program on the notebook to listen for commands (securely) on bluetooth and then forward commands on to other programs. --Kainaw ^(talk) 16:37, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Do you have any web resources on these topics? Thank you. roscoe_x 09:19, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

download

how to download a particular page —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 122.164.146.70 (talk) 16:26, 4 April 2007 (UTC).

Which page in particular? One here on Wikipedia? --Kainaw ^(talk) 16:35, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Right click on any page and select save page as or equivalent thingy on the menu. Coolotter88 17:15, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

File, Save As --h2g2bob 20:18, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Help! Microsoft Pinyin IME version 3.0

Can a nice knowledgable Wikipedian help with this problem? I have Microsoft Pinyin IME 3.0 pre-installed on my PC. But it's ruining my MS Word experience. It automatically starts up when MS Word starts and there doesn't seem to be any way to switch it off (there's no exit option or off button I can see, and the program help doesn;t tell me anything about this). I can switch it to English characters mode, but this is not good, as it does not let me type in ordinary English fonts. It uses Chinese-style English fonts instead. I can try to switch to regular fonts but it just default switches back to the Chinese-style English font. This is annoying. Suggestions about what to do (up to and including removing Pinyin IME altogether - I can't see it listed on the Control Panel add/remove programs/components list though) would be most appreciated. Thanks! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 88.109.222.27 (talk) 17:46, 4 April 2007 (UTC).

Uh never mind, I just worked it out myself... —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 88.109.222.27 (talk) 17:52, 4 April 2007 (UTC).

Photoshop

In Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0, how do you capture a screenshot using that program? —68.193.147.179 (talk) 17:50, 4 April 2007 (UTC).

I am pretty sure that Photoshop Elements can not do a screen capture itself (cf. this page about version 3]), but you can, of course, use the standard Windows PrintScreen or Alt-PrintScreen keystrokes and then paste the contents of the clipboard into a new file. --LarryMac 18:00, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Video Capture

How do I use video capture using Windows Media Player? Can I do Video Capture in Photoshop? 68.193.147.179 21:43, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

What kind of video do you mean? Video you input from a digital camcorder? Videos from YouTube? In any event, Photoshop is meant for working with single images; Adobe makes other software for working with video. --LarryMac 22:19, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Do you mean something like this? - Akamad 23:26, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

I don't know if Windows Media Player able to capture videos. But in Vista you could use Windows Media Center. roscoe_x 09:24, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

Drivecleaner on my Mac?

I've read the wiki security page, but couldnt find any answers.

I use a Macbook Pro running OSX 10.4.8 and I received a pop up when visiting a website, which had the applemac Safari browser logo and warned me to download drivecleaner. I clicked cancel, but after some research, am worried that it could have still worked its way onto my laptop. I've searched for the file types using spotlight, and have run ClamXav through most of my computer, and it hasnt found any viruses.

Am I safe? Can Drivecleaner even affect macs?

And JUST HOW SAFE am I using a mac in relation to getting malware and viruses? Are we really immune, or is that an old myth?

Like any software, there is no such thing as 100% perfect immunity. I believe there are indeed exploits out there, though I can't think of what they are top of my head. Drivercleaner, whatever that is, probably doesn't even run on Mac OS X. Splintercellguy 00:15, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

You are much, much safer using a Mac. (Disclaimer: I'm a Mac user, so I suppose I'm biased.) But Splintercellguy's right: you're not automatically 100.000% safe. Maybe 99.99% safe.

If you're using a Mac, and you practice good computer security habits, you're probably as close to being 100% safe as makes no difference. (But if you practice good computer security habits, even Windows machines are almost reasonably safe these days.)

It's also worth looking at the kinds of things that make you safe or unsafe. For example, I was just reading this explanation of a recent Windows security problem:

Users are being infected after visiting a malicious Web page that has embedded malware designed to take advantage of the flaw. They also can be infected if they open a specially crafted e-mail message or if they open a malicious e-mail attachment sent by a hacker. [4]

Now, I would say that if all it takes to get infected is to visit a malicious web page, or to open a malicious e-mail, then your computer unambiguously has an egregious, nearly fatal bug. That is, I would say that "good computer security habits" should not even be necessary to protect against those two particular threats; protecting you against those two should be 100% your computer's responsibility. But of course not everyone agrees with me -- there are plenty of people who believe that a computer "can't be expected" to protect against all of those threats, and that "user education" is a vital and inescapable part of the computer security equation, that people are ultimately responsible for making decisions about which web pages are safe to visit, which emails are safe to open, and which attachments are safe to click on.

At any rate, the fact that no operating system is perfect, that even well-intentioned ones (such as Apple's) do occasionally have bugs, means that user vigilance is still at least an important part of the equation. If something looks fishy, don't open it. If an unexpected dialog box is asking a suspicious question, don't automatically click "OK".

(One nice thing abut Macs is that the dangerous operations -- but only the truly dangerous operations -- do almost invariably end up involving confirmatory prompts. That is, you won't get pwned just by visiting a website or opening an email. Even if some malicious content does figure out a way to try to install itself, you'll almost certainly get a prompt, which if you're smart you'll say "no" to. Furthermore, if you're using a Mac, you won't be getting those infamous "Confirm or Deny?" prompts for all sorts of other, unimportant reasons, so you won't be conditioned to reflexively say "yes" to all of them, without thinking.)

—Steve Summit (talk) 00:49, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

April 5

Starting a job stopped

Is it possible to start a job in 'nix and then immediately stopping it, without me having to enter ^Z once it starts? Please highlight shell-specific assumptions you may make. 00:08, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

Good question! The only way I know of is using a debugger. It would also be possible to write a tiny little "helper" program, that just started a program stopped, in the same way that a debugger does. (But I've never heard of such a program being standard anywhere.) And even this probably wouldn't be exactly what you're looking for, because the "stopped" state that programs-under-a-debugger have is, I think, pretty different from the suspended state that ^Z gives them. —Steve Summit (talk) 00:54, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

IIRC the command "kill" can be used to send arbitrary signals, one of those signals happens to be the same signal that is sent when ^Z is typed. Root⁴(one) 02:02, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

Sure. But starting a process and then killing it with -STOP is only quantitatively (not qualitatively) different than starting it and hitting control-Z. (But it's true, the former can be scripted, so the window during which the process runs could be made considerably smaller.) —Steve Summit (talk) 02:14, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

^Z just sends a SIGSTOP, so starting the process and then immediately sending it a SIGSTOP with kill will be pretty close to what you're looking for. In bash, $! is the PID of the process most recently started in the background. Doing:

yes & kill -stop $!

will start a yes (which normally prints an endless series of the letter "y" to the screen) in the background, and then stop it quickly enough that it doesn't even get the first one out (though that's not guaranteed). --TotoBaggins 02:23, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

I thought of this, but if you put this in a shell script, won't this have a problem? (controlling the jobs started in a child process?) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 129.78.208.4 (talk) 03:33, 5 April 2007 (UTC).

No. The beauty of interacting with a shell is that you effectively *are* in a shell script, so (almost) everything works the same. What you're trying to do is unusual; maybe you're doing something the hard way. Mind telling us what you're trying to accomplish? --TotoBaggins 11:53, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

For the record, ^Z sends SIGTSTP, which by default has the same effect as SIGSTOP but is a handlable signal. If you can arrange for the job to attempt to do terminal input (or, in some cases, output) as soon as it starts, you can arrange for it to get SIGTTIN (or SIGTTOU) which can suspend it. If you're writing your own code, you can use ptrace(), in particular the PTRACE_TRACEME option (on Linux; 0 on Solaris, ...) which literally allows you to start a process (really exec() a file) suspended. --Tardis 15:29, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

RTHDCPL.EXE illegal system DLL relocation

I got an error message with the above heading. The message said: "The system DLL user32.dll was relocated in memory. The application will not run properly. The relocation occurred because the DLL C:\WINDOWS\Ststem32\HHCTRL.OCX occupied an address range reserved for Windows system DLLs. The vendor supplying the DLL should be contacted for a new DLL."

What does this mean? What should I do? --Halcatalyst 01:08, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

Download the latest drivers from http://www.realtek.com.tw/ for your Realtek audio device. If is an onboard chip, check with your board manufacturer for drivers. --Kainaw ^(talk) 01:52, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

Thank you! I downloaded the drivers and ran setup.exe. The error message went away and the audio now works fine. --Halcatalyst 03:12, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

my perfect blog

I want to create a blog. My main issue, for what constitutes a perfect blog, is that it create interlinks, @ least as easy, as wikipedias double brackets. Are there blog hosts which interlink this easilly? I know of wikilogs, but as for thers editing my page...that is...eh...not so much. Do most or alll blogs fit that requirement, and I don't know about it, yet? Thaddeus Slamp 20:03, 3 April 2007 (UTC).

Try Tiddlywiki. Its a wiki-like page that you can edit, with interlinks, and its all on one html page! Think outside the box 06:17, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

'Virtual' graphics card for openSUSE linux?

Is there a project to emulate a graphics card under openSUSE? I need it to 'pretend' to be a graphics card and put the calculations on the processor. Thanks!--71.195.124.101 02:37, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

I doubt it. Graphics cards are useful because if processors done the calculations graphics cards did, everything would be horribly slow. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 129.78.208.4 (talk) 05:20, 5 April 2007 (UTC).

I know. I have a core duo 2ghz and no 3d ecaleration. A little help anyone? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 75.31.163.211 (talk) 05:34, 5 April 2007 (UTC).

Uhhh why on earth do you have a C2D but no 3D acceleration? Is it just that you don't have the correct drivers installed? What is your graphics card? --antilived^{T | C | G} 08:23, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

Comcast Technician labor

if i wnted to install comcast high speed internet and i already had a modem and an install kit would i still be charged for labor by the technician just because they come and install the stuff for me.--logger 05:41, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

Yes, that's exactly what "labor" means. What you already have is called "parts". StuRat 05:50, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

What would the average labor costs be if anyone knows?--logger 05:54, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

It depends on what you need to have done. If someone just has to come out and turn on a switch, it might be $50-$60, which they often bill as a "setup fee". If they have to do wiring and cable drops in your hours, it could be $200 or more. If you already have cable or cable outlets in your home, they most likely will not have to do any wiring. --Mus Musculus 13:33, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

As for the "if anyone knows", I bet the Comcast sales people at 1-800-comcast know the exact cost of installation. --Kainaw ^(talk) 14:00, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

Ebay Sales info

Hey All,

Does anyone know the easiest way to get information on what prices things have gone for on Ebay in a data format for free?

I know that you can perform a search using "Completed Listings Only", but I was hoping to get it in data format. I know Ebay offers "Marketplace Research", but I'd rather not pay for data (I'm a data miner!)

Is there any free 'market research'-type information on ebay sales?

I am considering just writing a VB macro to just run repeated advanced searches, locate the information within the search, and then organized it into some sort of categorical format. Has anyone done anything like this before? I did it for a local auction site for my city and it works pretty well. I don't know about Ebay though... it's pretty big. It will either take a looooong time or my IP may get banned!!

Thanks!!!

NByz 06:14, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

Before you do create a macro to do repeated searches, check the terms and conditions of your account as using it in this way may be a breach of the T&Cs. - X201 08:10, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

Well certainly achievable with some scripting, I would use maybe some php and grep and output it to a nice pretty table. What are you trying to do though? Find stats for prices of completed auctions? --antilived^{T | C | G} 08:21, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

Yeah pretty much. I'd like to be able to export a nice pretty data set of all sales in say... the last 30 days in the category X w/ the phrase Y in the title. Then apply some stats to the data once I have it. Overkill maybe... but I'm a stock market guy, and I say every market needs to be analyzed for arbitrage opportunities!

24.68.64.122 09:05, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

Windows update problem

After an automatic update of XP MCE edition, I get a message that user.exe has been moved to a different location in memory because of hhctrl.ocx. It says I should contact the vendor to get a more recent one. I thought I found one at Microsoft, but when I tried to install it, it said what I had was more recent. What should I do now? Clarityfiend 07:48, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

About 4 or 5 posts above this is a similar question (RTHDCPL.EXE illegal system DLL relocation) having trouble with the same OCX file. Have a look at that and see if it applies to your problem. - X201 14:55, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

Low ink consumption printer

Which is the printer/technology with the lowest ink consumption or, being more specific, cost per printed paper? Maybe some kind of inkjet printer? --Taraborn 12:39, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

Pretty much any inkjet (aka bubblejet) printer that allows you to refill your own cartridges is the cheapest. I use a BJC-210 for black and white printing. I paid $25 for a big bottle of black ink (that is actually darker than the original cartridge's ink). I refill it every other month and I've used about half the bottle in the last year. So, I'm getting about 2 years of printing for $25. It is a hell of a lot better than the laser printers here at work. Every day they want a new toner cartidge or a new drum or a new phaser... I hate them with a passion. --Kainaw ^(talk) 14:03, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

new technology

hi, i should give a seminar on technology that has just come so pls anybody suggest me where i can find the info and ppts. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Chakrirajini (talk • contribs) 14:26, 5 April 2007 (UTC).

Perhaps you should tell us what exactly you wish to know. Splintercellguy 14:39, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

it will be just ppt presentation that should be any technical like a OS or any Softwares....like that so ineed info where do i get latest

Wikipedia tends to have the latest information on technical topics. Just pick one and type it in the search box. If your plan is to give a talk on "technology", you need to reserve about 200 years for the presentation just to give a very brief overview of technology. You need to focus on a single technology. For example, wireless network technology. Or, get very specific and cover bluetooth technology. --Kainaw ^(talk) 15:10, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

Sharing photos on a LAN.

My PC is always on. I have a Picasa installation that has all my photos (~2,000) all tagged and organised. I'd like the others on my LAN to be able to access a read-only Picasa-WebUI via HTTP, or something along those lines -- even like a Picasa Web Albums that's only on my LAN. Failing this, an aesthetically appealing browser-based way of sharing photos would be great. Can anyone make any recommendations? (Note: I have almost zero knowledge of PHP, MySQL and databases.)