Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing

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April 18

AppleScript and styled text

I'm trying to write an AppleScript to create a message in Apple Mail which styles the text. I can change the size, color, and font (including bold and italic) of the contents of the message, but cannot figure out how to set underline. The code I have right now looks like this:

   tell application "Mail"
       set outmsg to (make new outgoing message at end of outgoing messages)
       
       tell outmsg
           set sender to "sender@example.com"
           make new to recipient at end of to recipients with properties {address:"recipient@example.com"}
           set subject to "A subject"
           
           set content to "Paragraph 1" & return & "Paragraph 2" & return & "Paragraph 3"
           tell content
               tell the first paragraph
                   set the font to the font & " Bold" -- Works
                   set the size to the size + 4 -- Works
                   -- set underline to true -- Doesn't work!
               end tell -- the first paragraph
           end tell -- content
       end tell -- outmsg
       
       send -- or 'set visible to true'
       
   end tell -- application "Mail"

I've tried several things, but none of them have been successful. I'm under the impression that Mail simply uses the standard text editing components, so what works in other applications would work in Mail, but I haven't been able to do it there either. Thanks. 141.149.211.196 04:26, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

It looks to me like Applescript's library for mail doesn't have underline. Even the way you had to do bold seems weird to me (it has seperate fonts for the regular and the Bold versions?). I looked through the library for mail and it didn't have anything you could mess with for text except for size and font. The library for Excel on the other hand has underline, strikethrough, italics, color, etc. Recury 20:01, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

Reliability of YouTube view counts

How reliable are YouTube view counts? Do the times the uploader (let's say, me) visits the page get counted? Do multiple visits from single users get multiple counts and if so, when? YouTube view counts sometimes seem quite high. If one removes the multiple views of any user, uploader included, and a view count is of 100,000, what would be this video's average viewER count? Thanks for the help, expert YouTubers! --Liberlogos 06:09, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

I do believe it's based on per load count, because the company that works on YouTube makes our corporate site as well. What i mean is if you visit the page sometimes the video loads really fast, you ever notice that? it's just pulling up your past views based on IP, if you have a dynamic IP and reset your router and visit the same video, you will probably have to reload it per se. So what it does it counts based on full load, not reloads from different IP's i believe. This is in order to avoid an area that has multiple computers on 1 single IP. You could always email YouTube and ask too, this is all just based on info i have of the company that makes the website which is Centric i believe, i do not have the info in front of me... 200.35.168.129 16:47, 18 April 2007 (UTC) Ag for MemTech

That a video you have watched before loads faster (almost instant) has absolutely nothing to do with how the website handles counts and requests. The video will just be cached into your browsers cache, just as all the websites you view will be. Aetherfukz 10:58, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

If they cared about counting multiple viewings of one video by one person as one view, the easiest way (by far) would be to use cookies. I can't imagine that they would do it any other way (except if you're logged in, obviously). Certainly not using IPs, that is way to unreliable. --Oskar 18:56, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure it's page load count because one time I was reloading a video I just created a few times for some reason, it seemed to increment every time. And I was logged in Nil Einne 00:57, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

Excel question

I developed a pricing model in an excel worksheet. You enter in a whole lot of inputs and it spits out the answer. I want to create a log in a 2nd worksheet of everything that was input and output from the model. If I just use formulae in the 2nd worksheet then whenever a new deal is priced it will wipe out the previous deal (in the second worksheet).

Any ideas? Zain Ebrahim 09:41, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

You could have a macro copy and paste (paste special, values) the input and output cells from the model sheet to the log sheet.-Czmtzc 12:01, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

But would that prevent new deals from over-writing old ones? Zain Ebrahim 12:47, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

Not if you edited the macro to look for the first empty column (assuming that the data is all in one column). After you have copied the data column and moved to the log sheet do this:

range("a1").select 'start with the first column

do until isblank(activecell.value) 'look for blank cell

activecell.offset(0,1).select 'move 0 rows down 1 columns to right

loop

'this will move your focus to the top cell of the first empty column now you can paste your log data Czmtzc 16:11, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

It worked. Thanks. Zain Ebrahim 06:43, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

CD Image work virtually but not when burned...

I have a CD image which when loaded as a virtual disc worked just fine, but when burned to a CD using two different software programs, CD types and CD writer drives, always produces a CD which cannot be read. How could this be possible? Is there a program available to diagnose the CDs? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 83.84.74.28 (talk) 11:14, 18 April 2007 (UTC).

Programs like Alcohol or Daemon Tools sometimes simulate physical holes on the CD that your real (copied) CD do not have. In this case you would no choice but to use the image, unless you can get hold of the original CD. The copy protection on the CD would have been looking for physical holes. Sandman30s 13:57, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

HOLES??? jaja xD could just be bad image file, This may not always be the case, if you haven't tried Alcohol, try that...also to work around this load the disc on your virtual drive and then make an exact copy like if you were burning from 1 disc to another, do not burn from the image file. If this does not work, then your prob will be that the programs you are using to mount the disc is emulating protection, which does not necesarily have to be "physical holes?" anyways...it could be something like starforce, or secureROM...let me know what happened after you tried this. also if you could let me know what disc you are trying to "back up" i can find out a list of protection on it 200.35.168.129 16:52, 18 April 2007 (UTC) Ag for MemTech

What's so funny? Legit CDs/DVDs can have copy protection that has physical properties that cannot be simulated through burning a CD-R/DVD-R. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 01:52, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

I didn't mean physical holes like if you took a drill and made one yourself! CD's are composed of billions of little pits. During the stamping process (not burning) of making original silver cd's, they adjust the properties of some of these pits to "holes" - which nasty copy protection like starforce looks for. Don't get me started on starforce, it makes kernel-level changes that can irreparably damage your OS to the point of reinstall. I would not install a starforce program even with so-called cracks. SecureROM and the rest are supported by Alcohol etc. so you can use these for legitimate backups IMO. Please note I am NOT starting a discussion on copyright violation, I am just trying to explain my understanding of copy protection. If you want to know more, go and read the Daemon Tools website and see how they battle with starforce etc. Sandman30s 15:14, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

My company is involed in manufacturing CD/DVD's so therefore this idea of holes as stated here is somewhat funny (we try to avoid Layman's terms), they're basically like you said...a covered or modified pit. nothing more nothing less. But this can still be backed up. so therefore all copy protections to date are really useless. at least from the tests i've run personally that's my 2 cents 200.12.231.42 16:20, 19 April 2007 (UTC) Ag for MemTech

Have you tested starforce? Sandman30s 12:31, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

What I say here is for educational purposes, and should not be in as much detail as to help anyone "break" Copy Protection had to say that so i won't get banned or anything. xD anyways...starfoce you just take everything that is the game...and make a copy, then analyze the DLL's and EXE's mostly in a DeCompiler if you have one xD and then just look for the difference in that and the EXE's or DLL's of a Trial version of the game or some OEM version that some computer may be shipped with or just take out the segments of code that starforce depends on to run (sometimes works or sometimes doesnt) if all of this is unsuccessful...you need to make another EXE yourself that is somewhat like a "loader"...what this will do is either emulate StarForce enough for the actual StarForce in the EXE to find the part that it needs to confirm that it is working. Some EXE's are simple enough that you can substitute a loader for it. For example, the main file that launches the application is an EXE...but it is very small and simple, therefore we can tell that this is not the main EXE, it just redirects possibly for the checking of StarForce. So you just look at the code in that file, and then try to make your own EXE that will do the same or about the same, the redirection of course not the StarForce. this is all a summary in somewhat Laymans terms of how it works...i would really like to try out the x64 StarForce...but have not seen that yet. This is probably not all correct or as in depth, but that is because i'm not involved in that process as much, i do it for kicks kinda thing. 200.12.231.42 16:53, 20 April 2007 (UTC) Ag for MemTech

word - page numbering

Ok i may be missing something obvious here but how do i get word to do page numbering that starts from lets say what is actually the sixth page i.e. pages 1-5 = no numbers needed, page 6 = 1, page 7 = 2 etc etc. I for the life of me cant get it to work Rickystrapp 13:50, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

It might be different between versions of Word, but . . . I'm using Word 2002, and the steps are - Insert /Page Numbers /Format

The bottom of the resulting popup window is titled "Page Numbering" and it has radio buttons for "Continue from previous section" or "Start at" --LarryMac 14:07, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

This let you set the start number, so page 1 could be numbered with 6 but I don't see how it would let you leave the first 5 pages blank and have page 6 be numbered with 1. I guess you could have 2 documents. The first document would be pages 1-5 with no numbering. The second document would be the pages 6-XXX with numbering.-Czmtzc 14:24, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

Ah, sorry, I didn't read closely enough. If you create a new section, starting with page 6, you can restart the page number from 1 (or any arbitrary number). I can't quite figure out how to remove the footers from pages 1 through 5 though. --LarryMac 14:37, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

OK, I think I got it. On the first page of the section that is to contain numbers, choose View / Headers and Footers. In the footer area, deselect the button that indicates "same as previous", then insert the page number and format it to start at 1. Check the footers on the subsequent pages to make sure they are "same as previous." --LarryMac 14:44, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

Right. You can insert a new header or footer at any time (and you can also run a different header or footer on the odd and even pages). This lets you play tricks like not having any header on the first page (a right-side, odd-numbered page), and then having the subsequent left-side pages use a header like:

"2 -- Wikipedia, the last word in Truthiness -- "

while all subsequent right-side (odd) pages have a header like:

" -- by Steven Colbert -- 3"

Word doesn't make any of this easy, but with enough hacking around, it does eventually work. I find it essential to work in "Page view" while trying to make these things work.

Atlant 16:04, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

I still cant work the damn thing. I cant even get the numbers to progres 1,,2,3 etc let alone get them in the right place. i might try the two documents trick Rickystrapp 15:02, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

Ok Ok, so i can get the numbers starting at 1 on page 6, 2 on 7 and so on. however pages 1-5 (the first section) are also numbered which i dont want..any ideas people Rickystrapp 15:10, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

SUCCESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! cheers for the help, only took a few hours to figure out lol! Rickystrapp 15:45, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

Just to summarize (sorry I wasn't here earlier!) this involves what Word calls "sections" -- as in, "Insert > Break > Section". Sections let you defined things like different headers and footers, and even different page numbering schemes, within a single document. They can be annoying and tricky; for all of the millions spent developing Word it is still one of the worst programs you can use for anything other than very basic word processing. --24.147.86.187 21:06, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

Buying a new laptop

My mother is currently in the process of buying a new laptop, and she has left it up to me to pick which one. She wants only fairly basic functionality, surfing, email, writing, etc. She also wants the computer to last a couple of years, she's not the kind of person who buys a new computer every year. I think I've found a great one that's fairly cheap, but since I've neither bought a computer nor used windows in a while I have some questions (I'll try to keep them specific). I've settled on a Dell Inspiron 1501 with these specs:

• AMD® Turion 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL50
• Vista Home Basic/Premium (see question below)
• 15,4 screen, with resolution 1280 x 800
• 1 GiB of of memory
• 120 GiB harddrive
• 256 MB ATI ® Radeon® Xpress 1150

Now, for the questions:

1. Would this computer be able to run Aero Glass smoothly? I think it would, since it has 1 gig of memory and a fairly decent video card. If it can't, it's no big deal, I'll just go with Home Basic
2. I know there are some hardware issues with 64-bit processors, but are there any huge software issues? You can run a basic vista system without any hassle, right?
3. What security software would my mom need? I don't use any security software because I rarely use windows and when I do, I'm savvy enough to never get infected. I mean, what else would she need to be protected besides the built-in stuff (the windows firewall, hardware DEP, ...) if she uses Firefox to surf and if she isn't using the computer as an admin (I'll teach her all about the UAC stuff)? I don't want those huge and intrusive internet suites (yeah, Norton, I'm looking at you) because I don't like how they can cripple a system. Also, keep in mind the surfing habits of an upper-middle aged woman; probably the shadiest site she'll visit is YouTube.
4. 64-bit Vista can run VNC, right? I use it to help my parents out with computer issues.
5. And finally, this computer will run pretty smoothly for a couple of years, right? I mean, assuming she has no desire to play Half-Life 3, will this computer will be solid for a fairly long time? Lets say, 3-4 years? --Oskar 18:43, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

Image:Spyware infestation.png Don't let this be your sweet mother.

In dealing with my own parents' computer issues, and those of my daughter, I have found that you could put up a dialog that says "Click OK to see a dancing bear and also install a virus and steal your credit card number and delete your important files", and they will click OK 9 times out of 10. I would suggest getting a Mac (or at least some Norton-type stuff) to protect her from malware, and getting a desktop for the enhanced reliability unless she specifically needs a laptop.--TotoBaggins 19:30, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

It will cope reasonably well with Aero Glass. 64bit processors are indistinguishable from 32bit ones unless you have a 64bit Operating system to use them, I'd recommend just sticking with the 32bit version of Vista for now tho (it's easier to find virus scanners and drivers for the 32bit editions). I'd recommend going with Avira Anti Virus (www.free-av.com) now that they have Vista support, Norton is far too bloaty for my liking and I've seen it kill 3 PC's now when trying to uninstall... not much fun. Finally assuming you buy a laptop with good build quality then yes it should be fine. Elaverick 19:32, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

EXCELLENT CHOICE on the chip, it works great on laptops the only thing i see kinda low on your computer is concerning the video card, make sure its discrete memory, it'd be nicer, try to keep ATI and not nVidia (do not flame me for this nVidia users, the reason for this is logical because AMD is a little more ATI friendly now, that and i like it jajaj bash me for that instead xD). If not it's ok anyways, if you're looking for a computer to last around 4 years maybe a SATA disc is right for you, Dell has customizable options for their computers to swap one thing out for another so look into the HDD and VideoCard if it's not discrete...the reason for the video card is regarding your question with aero. If the card does not have discrete memory it will steal 256mb from the normal RAM so you will only have 768mb left for "normal use" per se.

now for your questions

1) yes you can run it but look into the suggestion i made about discrete memory

2) there really are no hardware issues if you stick to a 32 bit Operating System, i myself am running a dual boot 64bit xp and 64bit Vista and the vista from what i know is still beta, and xp sometimes has problems, but the use i give the computer is different from the person you are addressing, my desktop with a 64 bit processor is on a 32 bit XP so it works great

3) for security aimed for the person you describe, i would recommend AVG internet security suite, and disable all the windows crap. This thing runs fast, and efficiently. If you can configure it at the beginning then you will run into no problems, just set up the firewall and i would recommend changing the settings on how often it scans and whatnot

4) with the VNC i would again recommend you use a 32 bit Operating System to make sure you can use this

5) if you get a SATA disc and a video card with discrete memory this computer can last you approx. 5 or so years, this is of course talking bad of Moore's Law jaja xD Hope this helps you out 200.12.231.42 20:10, 18 April 2007 (UTC) Ag for MemTech

I wouldn't go for such an expensive laptop. Your mother isn't going to need a powerful laptop graphic chipset like the 1150, nor a Turion unless she enjoys pwning n00bs at CS:S. I suggest buying a Pentium M with 1G memory. Aero should run OK with a gig of memory, though the above poster is correct, 768mb is more than enough for surfing the web and writing letters to the boat club. The computer you described would be overkill, and would likely have much less battery life than a equivalent one. I have a DV1000 Pavilion I got for $350, and I'm happy with it, even being a gamer, I can run Q3-engine games at 40fps. As for security - just run a router firewall and tell your mother not to click on any banner ads or "free offers". -Wooty Woot? contribs 20:37, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

i would recommend that laptop, the reason is because he said he wants one that will last...that one should be kicking with no problem in 5 years, the one you mention wooty...well its lower class and the pentium M computer my friend has that has lower CPU speeds lasts less time on battery than i do, and i play games and he doesnt. it's not that i dont like Intel,well i really don't like them but i'm taking into account that the Pentium M is on it's way out not in...i mean duo core is replacing it..why buy a product that is leaving the market if you want it to last 5 years or so...besides one of his requirements was not a Cheap or Good Buy computer...if he has the money and wants to spend it correctly then that is the way to go. Mine wasn't so expensive either it was around $900 USD after the rebates...it's this one (http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00771987&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=3253956&lang=en) just gotta find good deals

if that link doesnt work then look up the HP Pavilion dv9074cl 200.35.168.129 20:52, 19 April 2007 (UTC) Ag for MemTech

Nevertheless, the PM has lower power requirements, and with a less power-consuming gfx controller, it should have much more battery life than the competition - anecdotal-isms aside. I can see your point about the C2D/whatever the AMD equivalent is, but you don't really need to be a generation ahead if you're just writing email. All you'll care about is being able to open your programs quickly (a bunch of RAM should do the trick there), have a nice touchpad and keyboard, battery life, and display. A higher clock speed PM is fine, a C2D is fine, I guess (but like I said perhaps a bit overkill), but I still vouch for the PM. -Wooty Woot? contribs 23:50, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

As my Economics teacher once said..."I'm just trying to save you money exponentially over a period of time. You might not complain about the price of the 1st lower priced item, but I bet your Lockheed Martin shares you will complain about the replacement price." 200.12.231.42 00:38, 20 April 2007 (UTC) Ag for MemTech

April 19

Folding@Home

Can I limit the times of day during which Folding@Home can access the Internet, while allowing it to run an already downloaded work unit anytime? NeonMerlin 00:22, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

Is that a BOINC-driven application? If so, look at the Projects tab of the BOINC Manager window, highlight Folding@Home and see if a Your preferences button appears at the left. —EncMstr 00:33, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

It is not BOINC-driven. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 00:58, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

It can be configured to ask you every time it needs to access the internet, otherwise if your internet is physically unavailable I don't see the damage of leaving it as i is. --antilived^{T | C | G} 08:46, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

To add to the orignal question, is there any way to get a portable BOINC, like, say, for a usb stick? Think outside the box 11:38, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

IP adresses

Why do IP adresses change almost every single day and then stay for about a month, then change again? (Yes, I know I am very inquisitive) Teak the Kiwi 03:05, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

Basically, it depends of your ISP, the type of connection, and the DHCP leasing. In most cable connections the IP address is stored in the modem, so as long as you keep the modem on, you will keep the same address. Sometimes, your internet service provider can assign you an ip address for a determined amount of time (minutes, hours, days or weeks). Personally, my ISP assigns me a different ip every 22 hours, so every 22 hours I get a micro disconnect (lasts around 15 seconds). In certain configurations, like AOL, you change your ip basically every time you load a new page, that is because the computer does not have an external ip, but instead use a different AOL proxy to access page requests. -- ReyBrujo 03:30, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

Ok, I know there was a time that I didn't have the modem turned off. Lately, however I have been turning it off every night. Teak the Kiwi 02:36, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

Try leaving the modem on for some days to see if that changes. You could also contact your ISP provider, asking them if they reset your ip every time you turn the modem on, or if there is a leasing time (which may be a day) after which your ip is changed. -- ReyBrujo 02:13, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Proxy settings

Could someone please direct me to a program (hopefully free) that displays the proxy settings on a computer. Thank you 195.194.74.154 08:37, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

What operating system?

Proxys are usually set per program, not system-wide. Usually. It really depends.

Magnetic Stripe Writer

Hey, I was wondering about making magnetic stripe cards for my business, and I found what looked to be a good deal. I found what looks to be one for really really cheap, but I'm finding it referred to as a reader only and a reader/writer in different places. The part number is ST1044UB. I've found it referred to as "Cherry ST-1044U, Smart Card Reader/Writer with USB interface." and "Cherry ST-1044U Magnetic Stripe Credit Card Reader" on the same page! Can anyone tell me if this writes cards or not? Also, if not, can anyone suggest a writer in the $100-ish range? Thanks! Koriar 08:39, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

MD5Summer For Context Menu

What program do I use so that I can right click on a file and select the MD5SUM option and get the MD5SUM? It has to be in the context menu - no drawn out "wizard" nonsense or commandline whatnot. Thanks :) --Seans Potato Business 14:34, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

If you're using GNOME, then adding the file below to your Desktop will give you an icon you can drop files onto to see their md5sums. Otherwise, you'll have to tell us what system you use. --TotoBaggins 15:11, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Md5summer
Type=Application
Exec=bash -c 'md5sum $@; read' $@
Terminal=true
Name[en]=Md5summer

Sorry, should have said, Windows XP. Thanks though. --Seans Potato Business 19:24, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

Here you go — Matt Eason ^{(Talk • Contribs)} 21:30, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

That's the EXACT one I had mind! Thanks Matt! How did you find it? --Seans Potato Business 07:54, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

No problem. I Googled for Windows XP MD5 "right-click" and got this page, which links to digestIT 2004. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk • Contribs)} 08:50, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

Random numbers in bash

What's the deal with the $RANDOM function (is it a function? Not sure what it is) in bash? Does it have a memory? I mean if I do "echo $RANDOM" twice in a row, will the result of the first affect the result of the second? Just curious. Thanks. --130.88.52.54 19:24, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

Interpreted languages will often have magic variables that are computed specially, rather than just storing a value. $RANDOM is one of these. Echoing $RANDOM will show two (hopefully) unrelated random values. Other magic values in bash are $DIRSTACK, $FUNCNAME, $GROUPS, $HISTCMD, $LINENO, and $SECONDS. Perl lets you make an arbitrary variable magic with its "tie" mechanism, as below. --TotoBaggins 19:57, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

sub TIESCALAR { bless [] }
sub FETCH     { rand }

tie $my_random, "main";
print $my_random;  # really calls FETCH()
print $my_random;
print $my_random;

As for whether calling it twice in a row affects it, it depends what you mean. Most pseudorandom number generators that are built in to a language are quite poor in terms of true randomness, and in many cases the answer before does affect the answer after it — it is often the basis of, or simply is, the seed which is then run through the algorithm again the next time you call it. Hence many languages have ways of manually resetting the randomizer seed in order to make the order unpredictable, though it doesn't necessarily make it any more "random". I don't know bash but I'd be surprised if it were different in this respect — many built-in generators are just based on the rand function in c, which has been demonstrated many times (notably by Donald Knuth) to be a poor pseudorandom number generator (poor in this sense meaning "bad for really serious simulations, probably OK for many less serious tasks"). --24.147.86.187 00:52, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

Own Valid Windows Key - Don't Own Windows Disc

A long time ago, Microsoft decided to stop supplying OEM discs in a bid to combat piracy (don't really see how that should work). I had to pay an extra £70 to Time Computers Ltd (rip off, I know) for a "Restore Disc". On the second use, it failed to work and I was left with an inoperable computer. A friend got me a copied disc but when I tried my key, it wouldn't work. This is perhaps because it was a Pro CD whereas it ought to have been Home? Can I use any old pirated XP Home CD with my key or will it need to have come from Time Computers? I don't feel that what I'm doing is very illegal since the key has been paid for. I gave up with contacting Microsoft when they cut me off about 20 minutes or so into my call. --Seans Potato Business 19:32, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

You should be able to use your key on the first release (build 2600 i think) of WinXP home and yes the key does affect which version you are installing. Make sure you key is in proper format though, sometimes the OEM key's that companies give are for modified install discs that require a much shorter key. Another suggestion is you install WinXP Home as a 30 day trial, and then follow the proper steps to Validate your copy of Windows with your valid key. Hope this helps. 200.35.168.129 19:52, 19 April 2007 (UTC) Ag for MemTech

Belkin Wireless Router uninstall

We have a Belkin router for our PC and we think its crap, how do we uninstall it? --Hadz^Talk 19:48, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

You should not have to uninstall anything, routers usually are not installed on a computer, unless they provide some sort of software to access or modify the router and it's settings. What you are referring to i think is getting rid of the connections it made on your computer, to do this just use the Network Wizard if working in Windows to replace or modify the connections you made to get hooked up to your Router. Also to get connected to the internet if your router provided IP Addresses without DHCP, then you need to change the TCP/IP settings from manual to automatic in order for your ISP to assign you your IP address, so you can have acccess to the Internet. if you have any further questions let me know, please be more specific to your computer hardware and setup though (OS,Netork Adapters,etc) Hope this helped 200.35.168.129 19:57, 19 April 2007 (UTC) Ag for MemTech

April 20

PID

Hi. So for whoever can help me answer this question would be great. I noticed this process of PID on my virus protection summary, after the scan. I was just wondering if the PID can leave me vulnerable for third-party hackers. I looked up the meaning of a PID here, but I do not understand if it is just a process that my software runs or if it is from a hacker. I am just very nervous that someone will crack into my computer and I have much information on my computer. Any help would be sooo greatly appreciated. Thanks Bunches, Confused in MD. 6798.

I formatted your inquiry first, second off can you tell us what Antivirus you are using. This can help us know if its part of the process or if it's something that shouldn't be there. 200.12.231.42 01:03, 20 April 2007 (UTC) Ag for MemTech

I'm guessing that you're seeing the Process IDentifier. It's just a unique ID assigned to processes; each process has its own PID. Nothing to worry about. -Nwhitehair 01:31, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

Don't guess...assess He might have to worry about something because certain Virus scanners point to this as possible processes that are questionable. For example a dormat virus that loads as a Process everyday until it's triggered. The virus program is letting you know it's not a normal part of windows, it could be anything from its own process to a google toolbar to an actual virus. So again i ask if you could please state which antivirus program you are using and what the process is called or if you can put up a log of the PID's that the antivirus shows as questionable. 200.35.168.129 18:52, 20 April 2007 (UTC) Ag for MemTech

If there is a virus, there shouldn't be any question; the AV program would give a clear notification. I'm almost certain that he was indeed seeing the process ID (most likely a list of processes and their respective IDs). I only said "guess" as a figure of speech. -Nwhitehair 01:45, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Grand Theft Auto Vice City

what would be the keys to show the bar or text box that allows you to enter cheats for the PC version of the game.--logger 05:40, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

You just type them in game, no text box or bar required. --antilived^{T | C | G} 06:18, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

Oh thats how its done. to tell the truth i have not played that game in months and i totally forget how to get the cheats.--logger 06:22, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

Transfering all blog entries & best blog hosting for design

Is it possible to easily take all your blog entries and transfer them to a different blog hosting service (from Live Spaces to Wordpress.com for example)?

Also, what is the best blog hosting service, especially in terms of aestethics, of well designed and customizable blog looks?

Thanks a lot! --Liberlogos 06:30, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

parttime_job

I have completed M.Sc(I.T). I want to earn from home itself.can u enlist such jobs? Are jobs on net trustworthy? doguideme.

online jobs are great for the most part, just make sure the person that hires you either is backed up by a solid company or you do a 50 now and 50 later kind of thing. This way you will not come out loosing as bad. I have not had a bad customer yet, and i'm in web design. but most of the people i've worked with are just people working for other companies trying to get cheap labor or something along those lines. 200.12.231.42 16:39, 20 April 2007 (UTC) Ag for MemTech

Resize Jpeg

I am trying to write a web app that allows the user to upload a pic directly from her camera and then resizes it to a thumbnail. The app works fine with test images, but not with the huge 5+ megapixel images that cameras produce. The server simply runs out of memory trying to open the original image so it can be turned into a thumbnail. I've tried PHP and Perl (using GD). Both run out of memory. I tried to install ImageMagick, but it simply won't install on my FreeBSD server. What other options are there besides GD and ImageMagick? --Kainaw ^(talk) 17:00, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

For php, check the maximum upload size (in php.ini) as that could be the problem. --h2g2bob 18:23, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

How are you reading in the upload? You must be sure that you configure CGI.pm or whatever to spool it to disk, and not read it into memory. --TotoBaggins 19:13, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

I finally got ImageMagick to install and I'm using convert. I knew it would meet my needs (if it would install). The problem with GD is that I didn't want to allow a web process to allocate over 5 megs of memory. The server normally has around 100 concurrent hits, so that is around 500 megs of memory just for handling server side scripts. Add sessions to that and the web server really eats up memory. I experimented with GD's createImageFromJpeg function. It was a basic image from a 5.1 megapixel camera. 5 megs wasn't enough to open it. 10 megs wasn't enough to open it. 20 megs wasn't enough to open it. 50 megs would open some of the pictures but not others. I don't know what GD is doing, but it sure is a memory hog. However, as I mentioned, ImageMagick is installed and it resizes the pictures without trouble. I even got it to crop 100x100 thumbnails out of the middle of the pictures nicely. --Kainaw ^(talk) 00:36, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

Computer Programming

--70.53.127.93 20:21, 20 April 2007 (UTC)Hello <This is not my homework> is it hard to program a new computer system.

New to you, or new to the world? If you mean new to you, then no, just grab an easy-to-use language environment and go. If you mean a whole new kind of CPU, then yes, you'll have to do a lot of hairy assembler programming to bring it up, which is not for beginners. --TotoBaggins 20:31, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

What exactly are you tring to program? There are so many things you could make, from the classical Hello World in C++ to Games, to web based apps, etc. The list is very big, and also please specify which Programming language you are going to be working in. Before i start i usually make a list of certain things. 1) What is the Target Operating System 2) What language would it run best in 3) Is this for personal use or do I have to make it user friendly for other users. 4) Is there already an existing program that is similar? If so is there an Open Source available to take a look at for reference, or should I just modify and rebuild the existing program...all of these questions will help out when starting a new program. If you let us know which language you are going to work in I can suggest some books for you to read or online sites with tutorials,walkthroughs,etc. Or if you do not know much about programming languages, you can let us know what kind of program you want to make in order for us to suggest a programming language. 200.35.168.129 20:37, 20 April 2007 (UTC) Ag for MemTech

Programs are made by feeding source code into a compiler to produce an executable. There are many, many tutorials on programming. I suggest messing about with JavaScript for a bit (which does not even need a compiler), then trying some C, which is faster and allows you to use libraries.

On modern computer systems, a lot of the work has been done already, and you just ask different libraries to do it all for you! For example, if you want to display an alert box, you could ask the Windows API to display an alert box for you (or the GTK or wxWidgets libraries for Linux and friends). To access a compressed file you could ask the Zlib library to uncompress it for you.

As always, I will recommend the Allegro library which has loads of examples to mess with, and allows you to make fun little games. --h2g2bob 15:01, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

Source code to byte code isn't the only path... There are all kinds of interpretation and dynamic (re-)compilation methods as well. I realize you probably know this, but I'm just mentioning this for posterity as it's not clear exactly what the OP is after and this could turn into such a broad discussion that nobody's response is going to cover everything. -- mattb 04:10, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Windows Genuine Advantage

So I discover the Windows XP article is wrong.... (see screenshots added)

Anyone know how to get Windows Update to work without downloading "Windows Genuine Advantage"? SakotGrimshine 21:56, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

I'm not trying to get fubar'd here but there is a WGA Killer, also you can download the updates from their website. Just copy the update # you need...for example Q123456 and then in the search box type in KB123456 or vice versa, switch those around and you should get something. There is a way to remove the WGA notification and leave the actual WGA working if that's what you don't like about it. Just google for that though. Hope this helps. 200.12.231.42 22:27, 20 April 2007 (UTC) Ag for MemTech

Use with Firefox Cyraan 22:58, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

My Windows Update works fine without Windows Genuine Advantage, and it's a legal version and I didn't do anything special. I just tell my machine to not download it every time I update. After a threat of a class action suit, I believe they made it where it's no longer required to be installed for future updates, which was the way it was done when it came out. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 23:20, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

There's no way to use Windows Update without it. Update says I need the Genuine Disadvantage to run and gives me nothing else I can ever download.

See:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Windows_Genuine_Advantage_is_a_forced_download.png

and

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:No_Option_to_Disable_it.png

SakotGrimshine 07:42, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

switched power supply

What is the reason for the +5 volt circuit of a PC switched power supply requiring a 50 watt load before it will operate? (If you really don't know please don't speculate.) 71.100.8.252 22:23, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

There are several possibilities. The principal likelihood is that the pulse width modulator that switches the 300V DC down to 5V has a minimum pulse width at which it can stably operate, and that minimum pulse period works out to transfer 50 watts (10 amps@+5V) to the load. Another likelihood is that only the main output (+5 in your case, but more and more often, +3.3 or an even lower voltage) is directly regulated and the other voltages "track" (or are just step-down regulators from the various "tracking" voltages). In this case, when the main output is running at a very light load, the other outputs may not receive enough power to achieve regulation.

I know you don't want speculation, but without knowing the specific design of your PSU, no one can tell you with absolute certainty. Got an electronic load and an oscilloscope handy? You could find out for yourself.

Atlant 00:06, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

OpenSSH VPN in Windows?

OpenSSH 4.3 and later support the making of a real VPN through SSH in Linux using the tun(4) interface, without any additional software. Is there any way to do this using free tools on Windows? Does tun(4) work under Cygwin? And if so, would the VPN work for other Windows apps? --131.215.159.11 23:51, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

April 21

Tracking Cookies

Hello. Every week, according to my antivirus software's Full System Scan, I receive a few low-risk tracking cookies. I have installed the latest antivirus software. It has been two weeks this has been happening. I examined my Full System Scan results, finding that the last cookie's source was not disclosed. I searched my Interent History, discovering that I have not been on those websites or email addresses that the tracking cookies originated. As you might know, I am a registered member of Wikipedia. When I first registered, I knew that I must enable cookies to register. Is being a member of Wikipedia allowing tracking cookies in any way to be installed onto my computer? Is there any way to block these low-risk tracking cookies from installation? Thanks very much for your response. --Mayfare 01:40, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia's cookie system isn't so much a tracking system - it just helps save login information. The ones that get flagged by your spyware/virus-scanning programs are third-party cookies that are known to track user activity across multiple domains (via advertisements, for example). Wikipedia only tracks your user ID, some token thing, a sessionhash (I assume this is to track the last login date and time or something, or to keep sessions) and your username. x42bn6 Talk 02:14, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

See HTTP cookie. Cookies are used to identify you. For web sites like Wikipedia it identifies you as your username. If you click on an advert, you may be given a cookie to identify you, so if you buy something they can give money to the advertiser. If you use Firefox, you can use the CookieSafe Add-On to easily block or allow cookies for certain sites only. --h2g2bob 14:34, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

Internet Explorer (and browsers which use IE internally, like AOL) also allow you to set cookie permissions by web site. If you are concerned, you can disable cookies for all web sites except Wikipedia (and any other sites you want to allow). Let me know if you need to know how. StuRat 17:33, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

Can I solve this problem with my MP4 player?

I bought on 4GB mp4 player a china prodct...it has some mp3 files, one jpeg file and one video file as default(i dont rememberthe video format) and after i connect that to my PC i deleted all to upload new items...but now i can hear songs i uploaded..but video is not working....

This is its firmware version..

ACT2097_S72_12006/04/25 9.0.50 2006/10/30

how can i add videos and jpeg? i formatted that player with my pc as FAT32 file allocation... —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 121.247.35.48 (talk) 06:12, 21 April 2007 (UTC).

You sure the videos are in the right place and in the right format? Those MP4 players are very, very, very picky about those things, and generally the software is rubbish. Stay away for any future buyers (I know because I own one... unfortunately) --antilived^{T | C | G} 09:39, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

You will have to produce an mpeg4 video. Software to do this pis fairly thin on the ground, but there must be some around that will convert an mpeg2, or video to mpeg4. GB 10:37, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

Actually no, most Chinese MP4 players require some peculiar encoding. Mine accepts DIVX video with ADPCM audio encapsulated in ASF format. Don't ask me why, it just won't accept anything else. If you can read Chinese or be bothered to comprehend Chinglish, read the manual and probably use the CD it came with, otherwise please go ask for a refund. --antilived^{T | C | G} 10:50, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

AIRPORT EXTREME

Help to set up my G4 Powerbook for wi fi much appreciated. Think it is ready for me to add an airport extreme card - but what software do I then need to connect to the web ? Currently use Orange France as my ISP.90.27.174.30 10:58, 21 April 2007 (UTC)petitmichel

To use wi-fi you'll need a wireless card and a wireless router or modem. Your Aiport Card should be easy enough to install...In the System-preferences area under 'Network' you should have an 'airport' option as a network port. If it isn't already turn it 'on' and show the status in the menu-bar. The system will automatically scan for any available networks. If you have setup your router/modem correctly it should appear in the list. If you struggle try the Apple website's troubleshooting area. ny156uk 14:57, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

If you need help installing it, ifixit.com has lots of product-specific installation guides. Just select your Powerbook model on the left and then the airport card option. Airport cards are easy to install, generally speaking. --24.147.86.187 16:34, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks90.14.144.25 12:42, 22 April 2007 (UTC)pm

Creating a new web site

We want to create a website for our association. Want to know the procedures (Just how to proceed , amount, etc.,not the programing side) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Sasthaanand (talk • contribs) 11:23, 21 April 2007 (UTC).

Uhhh and? You want to hire someone to make one for you or you want to build it yourself? Do you require anything fancy like dynamic webpages (PHP, AJAX etc.) or do you just want a nice simple static HTML site? --antilived^{T | C | G} 11:48, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

You need a web host, and there are many to choose from! Before I start, I should admit that I've not had the pleasure of setting up one myself.

Which web host you want depends on what you want to do - eg do you need Windows, various *nix tools, PHP, etc? Think of what level of traffic you expect. You generally share a server with other websites; you do not often need to pay out for your own server. I hear good things about DreamHost for hosting big websites, but there are literally millions of others.

There are also free website sites like Geocities and Google Pages. Generally these are with the URL somesite.googlepages.com (or whatever) but you can spoof a nicer URL with freedomain.co.nr. You may also get free hosting from your ISP, or if you're developing free software (SourceForge, MozDev, Savannah, etc).

Check licensing and conditions carefully before using any service to make sure you continue to own the content once uploaded. Geocities is quite bad in this regard --h2g2bob 14:23, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

Well, just to summarise I think on the previous answers, you need to decide on what your requirements are because there are various options.
Anyways, first you will need a host (where your website will physically be stored and other computers around the world will connect to) - and so you visit a host's website and it will list their various packages and options. Now the other key element is a domain name. On its own a host would have your website set up at an I.P. address like http://192.???.???.?? - which is not ideal. But the good news is that most hosts help you with the domain name registration process - and then once a domain name gets registered to your organisation the host will also help forward the DNS servers to their webservers i.e. Joe Public will type in www.yourdomain.com --> which will connect to a DNS server --> who has been set to forward the web broswer to http://192.???.???.?? (your webhost).
So typically you will want a host to do all this for you - so you have to do some shopping around, and you'll start to know what to look for - you'll find some hosts can only register domain names with certain extentions like .info and .com - and you might want a .org.
The other option as someone else mentioned is a free webserver, where typically they'll allocate you an address at http://example.yahoo.com and they might have to put (sometimes discrete) banners on your site - (I can think of a few already: tripod.com geocities etc).
So to recap, you find a host that offers the package you want, you then go through the process of asking it for a certain domain name - all the good ones are taken, especially on the '.com' extension. So if the exact domain name is important you need to be prepared for that - you might have to go back to your collegues and say "sorry, we couldn't get georgebush.com" or "freetshirts.com" - and then you'll probably try "georgebush.tv" or "georgebush.info" or "georgebush.net" or "georgebush.biz" and so forth - until you've come up with something.
Then your host will probably take a day or so to let you know if they managed to reserve the domain name, and set it all up - then they'll send you your account details - and these are typically your account details for the server you're hosted on.
A few of the good hosts (e.g. startlogic.com among others) have a system where you can upload your own creations, or use their tools and templates to easily create your own if you have no experience and knowledge of html.
Typically you'll be paying an annual fee for the domain name (through your host).
And your host will charge you a monthly fee for the hosting services.< br/> If you fail to pay your annual domain fee you will lose the domain.
I hope this has been of some help. One more thing: it may help to find a host from your country if it involves a foreign country domain name like co.uk or .net.us or .co.za and so forth - you'll find the major american hosts don't usually deal with those - but largely the American ones come in the cheapest and offer some nice packages.
Good luck. Rfwoolf 16:30, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, I should have mentioned that you need to pay for both hosting (where you get given only an IP address); and also a domain name (the http://example.com, which then points to the IP address). It's easiest to buy hosting and address together, but it may be a little bit cheaper to get them separately. Use whois (like this one) to check if a domain name is already taken, or when it may become available again. --h2g2bob 23:17, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

Big question at the begining is do you want to pay for hosting or not?

If you want it for free getting MySQL and PHP enabled hosting is nigh-on impossible, but free, html-only websites are easy to find and plentifull. FreeWebSpace has large list of free webspace providers with comments by users.

If you want to be sure your website will be always accessible, with fast access, PHP, MySQL, almost everything else you need, there are many cheap hosting solutions (starting at 5$ a month; I wouldn't recommend anything lower). This sometimes (but not always) includes a domain registration. To search for paid hosting I recommend FindMyHosting. After finding several offers that look promising be sure to visit WebHostingTalk and search for reviews about those hosters. Finding a good, reliable hosting solution might prove time consuming but is well worth it. Shinhan 11:30, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

monitoring problems

I am inexpeirienced when it comes to computers and the internet, but i will try to explain best i can. We bought our computer windows xp home edition last year around july, we were not connected to the internet at the time but everything was going fine we played games listened to music etc, until early this year, one morning we went to turn the computer on and the screen remaind blac with a message suggesting we press "r" but nothing happened, eventually we had to reiniciate the computer, we lost all our data (photos,filmes,music etc.)but the computer was back to working again except we kept getting a message saying we had to connect to the internet.Unfortuanetly the time ran out and we were locked out again and in order to connect to the internet we had to reiniciate again which we did then we connected to the internet, our problem now is that games i played before with no problem now switch off at the monitor, ican hear the game running but the monitor goes into power save, this has also happened whilst my daughter has played games on line or is on her hotmail. what is causing this and is it fixable. (we are on a tight budget)could it have been caused by the reinisiating and do i maybe need to do it again. HELP PLEASE!!! im at a loss. 89.214.29.179 14:30, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

Try trend-micro to check your computer for viruses. Also check the cable connecting your monitor to your PC. You may also want to check the drives of your monitor...Go into Start menu > Control Panel > System > Display Devices (something like that) and check for driver updates of your monitor. Some games when ran at an unsupportable resolution/dimensions may not work on your monitor. To fix this you should go into the game and change the display-setup. The menu system changes for each game but it should be under 'preferences' or something similar. The first problem sounds like it could be virus related, or malware related. I would recommend scanning your computer and also installing something like AdAware which is a free-download online and will scan you computer for malware/self-installing programs. Good luck ny156uk 14:52, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

There are various components in your computer that work together to show you the final effect. So, for one thing your computer is set to boot up with a certain loading screen where it will do a memory test and detect which harddrives are connected to it - it sets the display and so on. Technically at this point, you could have no hard drive in your machine and no Windows XP installed - and your computer would still show something when it started up. In other words if you you ever get NOTHING when you turn your computer on then you can forget about hard drive problems because then either your monitor isn't working (or plugged in), or the computer itself isn't running properly.
But you said the worst it ever got was when it just said "press r" - so this indicates that the first few things are fine.
The next problem is the monitor itself. The cord that connects from the monitor to your PC could not be in properly, or it could be faulty and damaged inside the cord - but if it's a good, solid cord that is screwed in nicely and your computer works good for a few minutes before you have any problems - then it doesn't sound like a monitor problem at all - it sounds like the hard drive.
Before we move on to the hard drive, there's still a nother possibility: The graphics card. This technically counts as the "PC" not working properly - there's a card that's plugged into your mother board that your monitor plugs into. If the card isn't plugged in properly then you'd immediately get display propblems.
My point so far has been that it doesn't sound like you've got a monitor problem - up to a point. It seems your monitor is fine for your computer to turn on, boot up, and get into Windows.
So the next problem is the hard drive - which is where all the files and games and operating system are read from. If your hard drive fails completely your computer will boot up to a point where it will try look and detect which hard drives are connected and it simply won't find it. But hard drives usually don't fail completely. They normally work okay up but just have trouble reading some of the data on its disk.

Anyways,in your case you need to try figure out which is failing: the monitor or the hard drive? If you are playing a game and it stalls and the screen goes black - but you listen on your headphones and you can hear that the game is still continuing normally - and you look at your keyboard and you can put the CAPS LOCK button light on and off (or the NumLock light on and off) then it seems like the computer hasn't stalled - then the problem is with the monitor (or the monitor settings).
However, if the game stalls and the screen goes black but you hear no sound (or the sound is 'stuck') and the Caps Lock and Num Lock lights don't respond when you push them - then it seems like the computer has stalled. - this is usually because you have hard drive failure (the hard drive didn't read properly), or the Operating System crashed (it could be because there is an error in some of the files in the operating system or the operating system just can't handle whatever it was trying to do), or the game you were playing made the operating system crash and your computer stall.
So you can try different settings on the game (settings that make your computer work less hard), or you can read up the help files for that game to see if other people are having the same problem, or you stop playing the game, - or if it's not a game then you look at re-installing the operating system, and if you still have a problem then it's probably the hard drive, or the operating system is just not properly compatible with your PC.

To help you any further you're definitely going to have to provide more information please, such as what operating system you are running, when exactly does it show a message about having to connect to the internet, what games were crashing, and detailed explanations of all the errors.
Good luck Rfwoolf 16:55, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

JavaScript/AJAX Problem

I am implementing a bit of AJAX into a page on a website where users can edit their own comments without reloading the page. The comments are arranged in a table, and each table row has a <div> with an edit link in it. The edit link has a parameter, 'onclick', which points to the JavaScript function 'editcomment(x)' where x is the comment ID. Clicking this link works fine, and the editcomment() function does some AJAX stuff and opens up a form for editing. When the 'Save' button in the form is clicked, it activates the 'savecomment(x)' function which gives the server the updated comment text and then replaces the original comment with the new one. However, this whole process can only be carried out once: once I've loaded the page, clicked on the edit button and saved a new comment, clicking on the edit button again does not work. Using Firebug I have found that JavaScript is apparently not finding the 'editcomment' function, dispite it being in the page header, and dispite it finding the 'editcomment' function the first time you click the edit button. Also, the edit button HTML is never changed by the AJAX process - the comment is within a <div> with a specific ID, and the save function edits only the content within it - the edit button is not within that div.

This is an abbreviated bit of the header code. The AJAX_Handler class is just a wrapper for different browsers' ways of handling AJAX.

var currentobject;
var currentcontent;

function editentry(object, edittype)
{
	if (currentobject > 0 && currentobject != object)
	{
		// Another entry is being edited right now - restore its original value before doing anything else
		document.getElementById('entry' + currentobject).innerHTML = currentcontent;
	}

	if (currentobject == object)
	{
		// Current active entry has been clicked again - restore original value then cancel the AJAX edit process
		document.getElementById('entry' + object).innerHTML = currentcontent;

		currentobject = 0;
	}
	else
	{
		// No active AJAX edits detected - start a new AJAX edit
		currentobject = object;
		currentcontent = document.getElementById('entry' + object).innerHTML;
		xml = new AJAX_Handler(true);
		xml.onreadystatechange(editprocess);
		xml.send('comments.php', 'do=editentry&id=' + object + '&edittype=' + edittype);
	}
}

function saveentry(object)
{
	artist = document.editentry.entryartist.value;
	song = document.editentry.entrysong.value;
	edittype = document.editentry.edittype.value;

	currentobject = object;
	xml = new AJAX_Handler(true);
	xml.onreadystatechange(editprocess);
	xml.send('comments.php', 'do=saveentry&comment=' + artist + '&listenid=' + object + '&edittype=' + edittype);
}

function editprocess()
{
	if(xml.handler.readyState == 4 && xml.handler.status == 200 && xml.handler.responseText)
	{
		document.getElementById('entry' + currentobject).innerHTML = xml.handler.responseText;
	}
}

Any ideas as to what this could be? Thanks. RevenDS 15:05, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

As a debug strategy, do you want to make two savecomment(x) functions like savecommenta(x) function and savecommentb(x) function and savecommentc(x) function and see if they all work once as well? -- other than that sorry I can't help Rfwoolf 17:00, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

Is it that "currentobject" is not reset to null in editprocess()? Also "editcomment" is different name to the function "editentry" (I guess this is from trimming it for here). Short of that, add alerts everywhere saying whats going on, or see what happens if you disable the .innerHTML line. --h2g2bob 23:27, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

monitoring problems

thanks for your advice before i tried adaware and it found numouros kinds of viruses but though it says they are removable i need to buy a different version of adaware to do so. Would reinciating the computer get rid of them? I also tried altering the resolution on my game but the monitor still went black after i started playing, and as for the monitor devices i am wary about messing as i dont really know what im looking for, if the drivers need updating is this something i can do over the net if so is it free, or are they something i need to buy from a computer shop, i hope i dont sound to stupid but i find it hard to understand what is what. thankyou for your help.89.214.5.80 17:18, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

Clarify, clarify! A reformat would put your computer into a clean state, make sure to back up data before doing so. Please clarify about your monitor question. Splintercellguy 20:28, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

Some of the data that might be useful for us to know how to help you would be monitor name, graphics card name, game name, processor, RAM memory size... Updating drivers for your graphics card would be a good idea, check DriversGuide. You need to join that website to download drivers, but its free! AdAware free version *will* remove spyware! Only thing free version doesn't have is resident protection, so you will just have to rerun the program regularly (once day or once a week). Shinhan 11:56, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

PROJECT 64!

Hi, thank you in advance for the help. I would like to know how to get project 64 on my computer, which roms to get and where to get them. after i do install it, how do i use it? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 74.170.44.145 (talk) 17:45, 21 April 2007 (UTC).

Have you read their FAQs here? Splintercellguy 20:27, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

i know how to get it on the computer, but they say that they won't help with the roms, which is what i really need.

Well, most ROMs are illegal to download, so we can't really help you here ... Tetzcatlipoca 18:55, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

Dual monitors (kinda)

Say I have a desktop HP Pavillion with an integrated NVidia 6150 LE video card. There are no graphical outputs other than a DB9 connector. Say I have an older NVidia 440MX with a TV out and a free AGP slot. Can I put the 440MX card in the HP Pavillion to output to TV and the integrated video card to output to the monitor (Both being active, they can show the exact same things or be actually dual monitor setup. The TV out is only for video.)? Thanks, as I have 0 knowledge about dual monitors. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 17:47, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

Sounds like a perfectly fine setup. Just remember to set your bios to have the newer card as the primary, and have the monitor connected to it while you set up drivers and whatnot for the second card. Also, if you're going to be using the TV out functionality on a normal tv, resolution on the second card should be at 640x480 as that is closest to a standard TV resolution, anything higher will result in large chunks of screen being cut off. -M^ask? 21:38, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

Airport Express and AirTunes

I'm looking for a way to get access to my iTunes (or other digital music) library on my physical stereo. Apple's Airport Express base station and AirTunes is one solution.

However, if Apple can sell a combination WiFi base station/audio extender for ~£60, surely someone sells something that just provides the audio extension functionality for less than this?

It doesn't have to work with iTunes; WMP / WMCE or even a standalone program are options.

I've looked, but haven't had any luck. Any ideas?

Rawling4851 18:33, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

character based mood icons

Where can I find a list of character based mood icons such as "=))" and ";)", etc.? 71.100.8.252 21:02, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

Our article on emoticons — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 21:22, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

Multiple IP addresses & open proxy

Hi, I tried to sign onto a forum today but it won't let me as I apparently have multiple IP addresses, news to me. It says "Our server has detected the presence of multiple IP connections from your machine, with one of the connections being an "Open Proxy" or blacklisted IP. Connections of this nature are often used in order to abuse, spam or defraud. Our server has denied you any further access until both IP addresses can be resolved or the presence of the Open Proxy connection closed. If you feel you are being blocked in error, then please visit http://www.spamhaus.org/xbl/index.lasso for information on why your IP is on a blacklist. If you are a Fastweb user, then you will need to use a different ISP to register with AVForums. This is because Fastweb have an irresponsible attitude towards dealing with spammers (i.e. they don't) and they therefore have got themselves on the IP blacklists." I checked the site they list but it doesn't tell me anything. Can someone advise me of how to fix this, as I don't have a clue. I'm using windows XP and have virgin as a broadband provider. Thanks. AllanHainey 21:15, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

The message isn't telling you you have multiple IP addresses, it's telling you that the forum server is seeing multiple connections from the same IP address. The most likely explanation is that your web access is going through a proxy, and that that proxy is, as the message says, on a blacklist. I don't know anything about virgin's network, but with any normal ISP you can just set your web browser not to use the proxy. --HughCharlesParker (talk - contribs) 10:58, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Ok thanks, I've just checked my internet oprions and it's got a checkbox asking "Use a proxy server for this connection", but it's unchecked. I take this as meaning that it isn't using a proxy already. Am I looking at the wrong bit, if so what should I be setting to get the browser to not use the proxy? AllanHainey 12:17, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

It could be a transparent proxy. Go to a site like http://hostip.info/ to get the IP address web servers are seeing as yours, and do a lookup at the blacklists (I normally use http://www.completewhois.com/rbl_lookup.htm to lookup several blacklists at once) to see why it's being blocked. --cesarb 16:50, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

I've now tried this & it comes up with 2 sites my IP is listed on: SORBS, which says "Dynamic/Generic IP/rDNS address, use your ISPs mail server or get rDNS set to indicate static assignment.

Currently active and flagged to be published in DNS

If you wish to request a delisting please do so through the Support System."

and tqmcube which says "Dynamic IP or generic rDNS. Please create a unique pointer or use your ISP's mail service. "

It looks like I've got a dynamic IP addess or generic rDNS, I'm afraid I'm none the wiser though. AllanHainey 18:38, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Anyone offer anymore assistance? AllanHainey 16:28, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

PDF file

How do I type onto a PDF file? 68.193.147.179 22:44, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

You need a PDF editor. The viewer is free, but the editor (from Adobe) isn't. However, you can also make pdfs with Impress. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 23:11, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

Not just Impress, but all OpenOffice.org applications can output as pdf, Writer is probably the most relevant. OOo Writer does it well, as cross references and footnotes are made as links for easy navigation. I think Microsoft Office might also be able to output as pdf, but not used it for ages so can't say for sure. --h2g2bob 23:48, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

MS Office can only output PDFs if you have Acrobat, as far as I know. - Akamad 01:05, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

There exist programs for Windows (e.g. CutePDF Writer, which is free) which when installed "pretends" to be one of your printers so that when you go to print a document you have the option of writing the print to a PDF file, whatever program you're printing from. --87.194.21.177 07:21, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Also pdftk for messing about with PDFs in other ways. --87.194.21.177 07:24, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

In OS X just about everything can output as PDF. Hoorah. But in any case, if the poster is asking how they can, say, fill out a PDF form that does not have fields already in it for filling them in, the short answer is that you can't, without Acrobat. And even then it is a pain in the neck to set up correctly. --24.147.86.187 13:06, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Seems like the other people aren't answering your question. As far as I know it is possible to make PDF files where it will automatically allow you to type something in - but I haven't encountered these in ages - if they exist. To be able to type over a PDF document that would involve editing the document - which is something you're not supposed to do with a PDF format - it's one of its features. However, if you load the PDF file into the program that generated it (eg Corel Draw, Photoshop, Freehand etc) it is usually able to import an editable version of it. So you could try an image-editing program such as those ones - but there's always a 50% chance they won't be able to import the file.
One Solution: One thing you can try is opening the PDF, and

• printing it and scanning it in as an editable format, or
• printing it in Microsoft Document Writer will generate a TIFF format file and save it to your desktop - that's an image file that you may be able to edit with a common image editor, or
• in the PDF viewer, see if it allows you to select a portion and copy it to the clipboard as an image - and you'll then paste this in your image viewer.

Right, all these methods involve getting an IMAGE from the PDF document, which you have a higher chance of being able to edit. Then import it into your image editor (even PaintBrush is worth a try) and you can then try typing over the image.
Good luck, and I hope this helps. Rfwoolf 11:54, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

The user didn't say anything about images. Some limited editing of PDFs is possible with an tools like Adobe Acrobat (not the reader). Unless of course there are restrictions on the PDF which prevent editing in which case you will need to remove these restrictions Nil Einne 00:49, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

iPod Video

How do I take a YouTube video and put it onto my iPod Video? 68.193.147.179 22:45, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

Just search for a converter for the file formats. iPods use er... mp4s, I think? So just google it and see which one you like. I don't use iPods, so I don't have a recommendation, sorry. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 23:13, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

The most convenient option, I've found, is online tools. Vixy.net will convert YouTube videos to iPod (MPEG-4) format, adding a second of their logo at the end. There's also Media-Convert.com, that will convert much more than YouTube. They both work well, with the latter providing much more freedom for the input file (be it online or on your own computer), the resolution and such, and the output file. -- Pohatu771 (talk) 21:42, 22 April 2007 (EST)

Look on this website http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html this has a converter for almost anything i've ever tried to use and it's free so just look into it. i use it for the .3g2 format on my cellphone i'm sure iPod is on here 200.12.231.42 21:58, 16 April 2007 (UTC) Ag for MemTech

Disc Drive

Is there any particular reason that anyone can think of as to why a disc drive would play cds fine and play some dvd's fine whilst not playing others. Some dvds when put in, just lead to a kind of clicking sound for a minute or so then just stop and seemingly arent recognised at whilst other dvds start straigt away (all dvds are same region by the way). I cant think of a reason why some would play and others not. Any thoughts would be appeciated. Rickystrapp 23:01, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

First thing that comes to mind is the DVD +R/-R compatibility issue. The two different formats are only compatible with about 90-98% of the drives, according to their self-published data. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 23:09, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

I read 'clicking sound' and instantly shivered. With no idea why for a minute, then I remembered Zip drives and the Click of death. -M^ask? 00:20, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

I've seen a clicking sound on a CD player before; in that CD player, it happens when it fails to focus and lets the lens fall back in suddenly (the lens go up slowly, fall back with a click, go up slowly again, and so on). If that's the case, your drive failed to recognize the disc (the region wouldn't matter, since it doesn't even get to the point where it can read the region information). --cesarb 16:44, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

internet service at a school or business building

At the school I go to there are hundreds of computers with really fast Internet connections in this one building. What type of internet service is this? Im assuming its very different from a cable or dsl connection like I would have in my apartment. How is it split up among all the computers so that they all have fast connections? Can one computer take up the entire bandwidth possible or is it partitioned in some way? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Iownatv (talk • contribs) 23:42, 21 April 2007 (UTC).

Most likely a T1, T3 or Fiber optic connection. The principle behind a T1 and T3 are extremely similer to a normal dial up connection, only you have dozens or hundreds of circuits that all connect instead of one, while fiber optic uses light traveling down thin, flexible glass wires. The split has nothing to do with any of these technologies, its simply a good, enterprise router from Cisco or similiar. These usually cost several thousand dollars. The internet connections them selves range from hundreds up to around a thousand a month, and the max bandwith your computer can use is determined by your network card and the speed of the webserver sending you the page. Be aware though, that while the traffic is split between many computers, because of how we browse the internet (short bursts of traffic to load the page, then several minutes to read it, repeat with new page) that you frequently ARE using the entire connection when you visit a web site from your school. -M^ask? 00:13, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

In the UK, universities connect directly to each other, so get internet connections cheaply as they act similar to a Tier 1 ISP. This network of universities is called JANET [1] (technically JANET connects a series of smaller networks). This is mainly funded by the UK government. These networks have fast connections with speeds of 40 Gbps in places.

As for local hardware, I did a bit of snooping at my university and found I get to the internet via a BigIron 8000 switch (about US$12,000); some other kind of switch (probably gigabit); then to one of the two Linux Squid proxies to finally gets to the internet (SWERN and JANET). A few years ago this was at 100 Mbps, but they've just upgraded it (not sure what to). --h2g2bob 01:23, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Winamp and Emusic

I just downloaded Winamp and installed it on my PC, and as part of the download, I am entitled to 50 free music downloads from eMusic. But in order to get those downloads, I have to sign up for eMusic, which will bill me after my 50 downloads for any further downloads, unless I explicitly unsubscribe. My question is, has anybody had any dealings with eMusic? If I unsubscribe, will the songs I download no longer work? Corvus cornix 00:05, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Emusic is DRM free right? So your music will still work after you unsubscribe. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.195.124.101 (talk) 00:39, 22 April 2007 (UTC).

71.195.124.101 is right, it is DRM-free, so will play fine after unsubscribing. --h2g2bob 00:43, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. Corvus cornix 20:00, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

April 22

Smiley Face

When people post that they hang out at the smiley face, where is that? Thanks 72.84.30.159 02:30, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

":-)", ":)", ":D", "", etc. just means someone is happy; or that the remark is not intended to offend. These faces are called emoticons. I've not heard of someone hanging out at :), but someone may be happy to be hanging out. --h2g2bob 03:04, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Do you mean they said "I'm hanging out @:)" ? If so, perhaps the at sign represents hair on the smiley face. StuRat 07:27, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

CSS instead of tables: left align, center, and right-align, all on one line

I want to have one line of text with some text at the far left, some text at the center, some text at the far right. In the old days, I'd do this by making a table row with three columns and being done with it. But tables for layout are evil, I'm told, so I thought I'd try to do it with CSS-- thus far, I haven't stumbled upon the answer. What am I missing? --Wouldbewebmaster 03:43, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Something like this? --h2g2bob 03:53, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

<div id="main" style="text-align: center">
  <div style="float: left"> LEFT </div>
  <div style="float: right"> RIGHT </div>
  CENTER
  <!-- make sure it all stays inside the main div -->
  <div style="clear: both"></div>
 </div>

You could use display: table, display: table-row, display: table-cell, etc. While using tables for layout is evil, I believe using CSS table layout isn't (the main problem with HTML tables is mixing content with formatting; tables are formatting, so they should be done in CSS). --cesarb 16:38, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

display: table isn't IE6 friendly (and I wasn't sure it was IE7 friendly either)

You should use css classes to set up the columns, not inline stuff (unless you're on wikipedia... bleh)

I hacked this up real quick with a Real-time HTML editor. I didn't try it in IE but I can't think of anything here that wouldn't take care of it in IE. you may want to pad the middle column, but there may be problems of IE doubling the margin. I can't remember the fix. (positioniseverything.net is a good reference)

<style>
.container{
   _height: 1%;  /*IE hack */
   width:400px;
}
.container:after{  /* float container hack */
  clear:both;
  content: "."; 
  display: block; 
  height: 0; 
  clear: both; 
  visibility: hidden;
}

.leftcolumn{
float:left;
width:20%;
text-align:right;
}
.middlecolumn{
float:left;
width:40%;
text-align:center;
}
.rightcolumn{
float:left;
width:20%;
text-align:left;
}
</style>
<div class="container">
<div class="leftcolumn">This is a right aligned left colun</div>
<div class="middlecolumn">This is a center aligned center column</div>
<div class="rightcolumn">This is a left aligned right column</div>
</div>

Root⁴(one) 22:46, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Image question

How do you scan an image from TV show or movie? I'd like to scan a few fair use screenshots for some film/TB articles. Incidentally, I looked into the rationales needed and policies. Aaron Bowen 07:12, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Most of those are taken from the computer via print screen. For Windows, you can take a screenshot from Windows Media Player, but first you need to change some settings, see: [2]. - Akamad 08:48, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks! Aaron Bowen 13:18, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Or you could just use VLC Media Player and use its built-in screencapture tool. Aetherfukz 11:19, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Request for details on Error message "Skein 0.0.3 error code 2"

I have Broad band internet connection & using WinXP...while browsing continously for about 15 minutes, the connection is cut off showing the message "Skein 0.0.3 error code 2..contact the administrator etc". I need to log out and then log in again to resume browsing. I have contacted the administrator but they say it is a problem with the system. The hardware engineers who have checked the system have also not been able to identify the problem. What does this error pertain to? I have checked the internet for Skein 0.0.3...all I am getting is details of baseball scores(?). Please help. rimenon—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 202.164.146.103 (talk) 07:45, 22 April 2007 (UTC).

i think its a os.i also get this messege. it runs on my isp's computer the logout i think happens because whatever software you are using for logging in(my isp has given me 24 online client") logs you out after a set time of inactivity . maybe you can set it using the "logging in" software or you could ask your admin to increase your inactivity timeout... or if you log in using a web pageit is because your web browser does not have the ability to "keep-alive" a connection ... you can probably set it to keep alive ..

Joost invitation

Does anyone here have a Joost account? Could I, please, receive an invitation? Thanks. --Taraborn 12:27, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

I have a Joost account, and so might have some invitations. I'm away from home atm, so I can't find out, or send you one 'till the weekend. Remind me on my talk page :) --saxsux 16:23, 26 April 2007 (UTC)

Optimal encoding of (not with) a Huffman tree

I have a scheme which uses (2 + m)n + 1 bits to store a Huffman tree (where n is the number of symbols, and m is the number of bits per unencoded symbol). Is there a more compact scheme? (I have the beginnings of a (1 + m)n + constant scheme, but I'm not sure if it's workable). --User:Taejo|대조 13:07, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

If I am not mistaken, every binary tree with unencoded words at the nodes is a possible and distinct Huffman code. This means that you will need to store at least a binary tree (plus your codes). According to the binary tree article, this takes 2 bits per node. Every binary tree with n leaves has 2n - 1 nodes total, creating a total size of 4n - 2 bits for the tree. After this, you can simply store your codes in post-order traversal (size m*n bits, the very minimum, since you have to store the unencoded codes anyway). Assuming the unencoded words are stored in a fixed length representation, you'd need some constant amount of bits c to delimit the list of words and the tree representation. The total works out to mn + 4n - 2 + c , or n(m+4) - 2 + c. I may have made a mistake somewhere (I'm no expert on this stuff), but I don't think you can get any smaller than this. Every possible bitstring in this format is a distinct huffman tree and vice versa, any smaller and, you would't have enough room to assign a representation to every possible tree. Could you tell us your (first) scheme ? risk 17:27, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

With pleasure. The trick is that not all binary trees are Huffman trees. Huffman tree nodes are either leaves or have two children. Which means you only need one bit per node: 0=leaf, 1=nonleaf. And you can eliminate the constant for the separator by simply storing the m-bit words immediately after the 1 bits for nonleaves. The (1 + m)n scheme (which I know realise is workable, and the constant is -1) relies on the two-queue construction algorithm. You store a bit for Q1 or Q2, and since leaves only come out of Q1, you can store the m-bit words immediately afterwards. Since (as far as I can see) the algorithm takes (n-1) iterations, you store (1 + m)n-1 --User:Taejo|대조 07:53, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Oops, that scheme needs 2 bits per iteration, since two items are taken each iteration. Since the codes are equally optimal if a tree is left-right mirrored, only one of (Q1,Q2) and (Q2,Q1) is needed. As a terminator we can just take an extra node from Q2, since as soon as it has less than 1 element, the algorithm is complete. So we can use n trits or n log₂3 bits to encode the tree shape plus mn to encode the values. Still not sure if this is optimal. --User:Taejo|대조 16:04, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Computer Spec, difference between processors/etc

I'm in the middle of trying to find a suitable upgrade for my parent's PC. They have a Dell 8250 (http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim8250/specs.htm#1084976) and we want to upgrade (ideally) RAM to 1gb, add a reasonably decent Nvidia graphics card, upgrade the processor and maybe add a second hard-drive. From looking at the spec i'm not sure what things I can add that are 'compatible' (the ram Is DRAM? Can't figure the max processor it can accept and it has AGP 4x/PCI so not sure which graphics card is best to upgrade to). Any help/points in the right direction welcomed. Sorry I know this isn't 'exactly' what reference desk is for. ny156uk 16:14, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Nyan? Not what the reference desk is for? I don't see the problem with this question. It's not homework and it's general help. Anyways, looking at the page you linked, you want to upgrade RAM to 1GB, but what does it have right now? It seems to take "PC800 or PC1066 RDRAM (non-ECC)". The PC800 looks to be about USD$200 for 512 megs. You can get up to a 3.06GHz Pentium 4 running with a 533MHz bus. The chances are, you can upgrade the harddrive with any ATA type because it mentions 2 3.5" bays. I say that because it might not have more molex power connectors for another device (or only has one IDE channel, which isn't too likely, but does happen on mass produced computers), but then you can split it, although be careful about the power supply being only 250 watts. As for video cards, even most new cards have AGP8X/4X versions. But like before, remember that you only have a 250 watt power supply, so a lot of the high end ones can't be used in your parents' computer without upgrading the power supply too. My advice? Buy a cheap refurbished computer or an older new one on ebay or something, because that will end up cheaper. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 16:36, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the response Wirbelwind. I found the RAM to be extremely costly for some reason, compared to DDR/DDR2 variants. I would like to end up with a computer something like...3ghz, 1gb RAM, 128mb Nvidia Graphics Card (or better!) at minimal price. Already have 120gb HD, DVD-ROM, CDR+W, Monitor, Keyboard/Mouse/Printer/Wireless Card/Network Card/Licensed Copy of Windows. I'm trying to get it for around £200 ($400). I have found the components required (processor/ram/card for about £100 but need to get a motherboard/box to host it all - that's where I am struggling). Thanks for the details, hadn't even considered 'power' as an issue. ny156uk 17:32, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Out of curiousity, why do your parents want to upgrade? Unless they're trying to run Vista, or they run intensive things like games, you shouldn't need to upgrade RAM or the graphics card- HDD I can understand though. If they run XP, and it's running slow, you might have better luck backing up their media and reinstalling windows. Windows has a bad habit of getting bogged down with a lot of unneeded stuff. -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 02:16, 26 April 2007 (UTC)

Computer thinks its dual core

I've got a single processor Intel P4 650 3.4GHz machine. Lately, I've noticed that it seems to think it's dual core... whilst system properties correctly identifies the processor, device manager lists the computer as "ACPI Multiprocessor PC" and under processors, lists the P4 twice. Task manager shows the two different graphs for my "two different" CPUs. The net result of this seems to be that single threaded processor intensive tasks (such as mencoder) are only ever given 50% of the available processing power. Right-clicking and choosing to "uninstall" one of the processors doesn't seem to work, so I'm hoping for some alternative suggestions... Thanks in advance _└ ^UkPaolo/_talk^┐ 16:44, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

It shouldn't really affect it that much, but what you have is called hyperthreading, where it has a pseudo dual core. You disable it in BIOS to enable/disable hyperthreading. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 16:49, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Though there is very little reason to disable it. SMT doesn't limit each thread to "50% of the available processing power". -- mattb 16:56, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Drawing/sketching applications for UIQ 3

What are the drawing/sketching applications available for UIQ 3? --Masatran 19:18, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

I just found the pre-installed Notes application, but I need a drawing area with zoom, scroll, etc. And in-built rectangles, circles, etc. Like a mini-version of Inkscape, or Gimp. And preferably free software. --Masatran 00:14, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Ubuntu 7.04

I just downloaded Ubuntu 7.04 for my Macbook Pro(wanted to try it out). I burned it to a CD and put it in the computer. I got past the Ubuntu loading screen, then said that it couldn't start my windowing system. It then gave me a terminal to type into. Parallels Desktop didn't even get this far. I'm re-downloading, but why is this happening? Old versions of Ubuntu worked fine, thanks. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.195.124.101 (talk) 19:23, 22 April 2007 (UTC).

Can you post the exact error, please? -- ReyBrujo 02:10, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

You're doing it wrong. For Parallels, didn't you go

1. New virtual Machine
2. OS Installatoin
3. Typical OS
4. Linux/Other Linux
5. <name of virtual machine>
6. Put disc in
7. Finish?

Everything should work fine, I have Ubuntu Linux on mine. Looks awesome too! Except it doesn't have widescreen support as far as I know. [Mαc Δαvιs] ❖ 02:03, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

It should have widescreen support, just do a "sudo dpkg-reconfigue xserver-xorg" and select your resolution. --antilived^{T | C | G} 05:53, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

Ubuntu/Linux Software

I am buying a new laptop soon, and think that I'll get myself a non-Mac notebook and then set up some sort of Linux/Ubuntu/Kubuntu OS. I know most of these don't support quite the range of software as does a Mac and not nearly as much as a PC, but I've had trouble finding specifics. For instance, GIMP aside, can I buy and install Adobe Photoshop on a Ubuntu computer? Linux? What about Itunes? Can I get most non-game Windows-friendly programs to install on Ubuntu or Linux or whatnot? How about the regular Microsoft Office package? Do I have to buy a special type of MS Office? Will it not work at all? Are the alternatives really up to snuff, and will regular (ie mac or windows) using computers be able to open files I've made in, say Spreadsheet or OpenOffice? Will fairly obscure Windows-friendly programs such as Xilisoft, MacDrive, Daemontools, RosettaStone, and other work on any Linux/Unix-based OS's? And, final question, I sometimes go to download freeware and am given the option of whether to download it for Macs, Windows, or Linux. Could I not install this freeware on a Ubuntu computer? I know that's a lot of separate questions, but I think it all boils down to whether if I use Ubuntu or Linux I wont be able to use all the programs I've come to know and love. Thanks for any help, 70.108.191.59 19:53, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

• There are no versions of Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Office that are natively supported by Ubuntu. However, using CrossOver or WINE, those programs will work.
• Don't know if iTunes is supported by CrossOver or Wine, but Kubuntu comes with Amarok which you can use to upload music to your iPod.
• OpenOffice will open spreadsheets and word documents from MS Office, but some of the more complicated formatting and such might be lost. But in general, for most documents/spreadsheets, this isn't a problem.
• You can definitely open OpenOffice docs in MS Office.
• For the more obscure software you described, there is usually a (K)Ubuntu alternative.
• Don't really know what you mean by that last question. If the freeware has an option to install in Linux, then you can install it in (K)Ubuntu. But there are easier ways to install software on (K)Ubuntu that browsing for it on the web: Package management system.

Hope this all helps. - Akamad 20:36, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

I expect someone will beat me to it (and I was right), but here goes. First, I should explain what the difference between Linux and Ubuntu is. In the early nineties, a guy named Linus Torvalds started work on an operating system. This was just the kernel of the operating system, which means it handles all the basics of various components of your computer talking to each other, starting the computer up and so on, but on its own doesn't make a computer usable yet. It's basically the software that's needed to start writing specific programs (like a window manager that draws windows on the screen, or an office application that uses the window manager). What's more, Torvalds made his software open source, so that anybody could look at, and use the source code behind his kernel. He named his kernel Linux. The Linux kernel was quickly combined with other open source software (mostly from the GNU project) to form an entire operating system, the set of software that is needed for a user to be able operate a computer. This operating system is known as Linux too, or as GNU/Linux. Since this GNU/Linux is basically a bag of different software, which you can install in many different ways, and which you can distribute freely, people started installing GNU/Linux in their own way, and then distributing it with things like friendly installation procedures and a set of preconfigured software packages. These are the different distributions of GNU/Linux, and Ubuntu is one of them. In short, Ubuntu is Linux, but Linux is not necessarily Ubuntu.

As for the available software, the linux experience is slightly different than that of windows. The open source ideology has a very active community of programmers behind it, and most types computer programs have some open source variant. For instance, one open source office suite is OpenOffice (which can indeed open MS Office files without a problem in most cases). The great joy of distributions like Ubuntu is that they make use of the fact that open source software allows you to redistribute it. This means that you don't have to go to the OpenOffice site to download the program and install it yourself, because the ubuntu guys have done that for you already. They've taken the OpenOffice software, and adapted it slightly to make sure it runs smoothly on any Ubuntu system. All you need to do is tell a program within ubuntu (called synaptic, or simply "add/remove software") that you want openoffice, and it downloads and installs it for you. Pretty much all open source software written for linux can be installed this way.

Not all software (even open source) is written for linux, and you can't install software written for one platform, on some other platform (with the notable exception of cross platform software, like Firefox, but even that has different versions for different operating systems). Photoshop has versions for Windows and for the Mac, but not for Linux. The same goes for MS Office. There is the possibility to install Wine, which allows you to run windows software in linux, but this doesn't work perfectly. For instance, this allows you to run photoshop 5.5, but not CS2. The wine project has a big database on what will work, and what won't. So no, you won't be able to use all the programs you've come to know and love (some, perhaps), but you might grow to know and love a lot of new ones. risk 20:45, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Clock speed and FLOPS

I was about to delete a sentence of the FLOPS page , but, for fear of making an idiot (as I'm not too familar with hardware) of myself, I thought I'd ask here first.

According to that page, the CPU of a "common AMD A64 or Intel Pentium 4 general-purpose PC" (I'm guessing aroung 3Ghz), would have a FLOPS rating a ten. Which in turn leads to the conclusion that these processors perform over three calculations per clock cycle. This seems quite absurd to me, how is it possible for a CPU to perform three calculations in one cycle? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 217.42.242.45 (talk) 20:04, 22 April 2007 (UTC).

Ten GFLOPS, you mean. The answer lies with SIMD. The Cell microprocessor's vector units (SPUs in IBM-lingo) are designed to perform eight single-precision floating point operations per cycle. -- mattb 20:45, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Many of today's CPU cores execute single execution path instructions in parallel. Even 20+ years ago, instructions were executed in "parallel" so to speak as the execution time for each instruction was significantly overlapped for fetching the instruction, processing, storing results, etc. In another instance, (my memory may fail me here, so take this with a "huge" grain of salt, but) I've heard of instances where the first few instructions of all three "if","then","else" paths of an if/then/else block are executed and when the results if the "if" operation actually completes, the results of the correct "then","else" path are saved and used for further instruction processing. I can't remember what that's called. Or maybe that's just something I imagined. Root⁴(one) 01:43, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

Nintendo Wi-Fi

I am trying to get my WiFi started for the DS and I need to access my routers settings but everytime I put in my routers IP address, the router settings page never shows!!! Please can someone help me out thank you alot

You are putting the IP address in to the browser of the computer with which you are accessing the internet and it isn't coming up? Are you sure you have the right IP? Do a tracert to make sure you're putting in the right address. Vespine 23:03, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Use ipconfig to determine the router's IP address. Splintercellguy 00:09, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

The Wall Street Journal mug shots

• e.g., http://chinese.wsj.com/photo/HC-GJ803_Dyrdek_20070406170049.gif

How did they create these engravings? How did they do it before computer graphics? -- Toytoy 21:05, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

They arent engravings, they're the normal dot-printing style of newspapers, just the resolution has been drastically reduced. The same general concept was used to make illustrations in books in the 1800's. -M^ask? 21:43, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

There is an article on the WSJ's version of this at Hedcut. -M^ask? 23:22, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

And we note from that article that these pictures are not "the normal dot-printing style of newspapers"; they're hand-stippled illustrations which mimic old-fashioned engravings. —Steve Summit (talk) 01:00, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

I meant the style is fashioned on them. I'll be clearer. -M^ask? 02:22, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

April 23

Google blurbs

Anyone know where Google get their page descriptions from? Have a look at this discussion and then let us know there how to get the Google display for this search to change from "over two million" to the right figure. Thanks. Carcharoth 00:15, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

It's from Google Directory --h2g2bob 02:32, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Mp3 files that display very long running times

Hello, I'm sure many of you have seen mp3 files for songs that should be normal length but for some reason have very long running times, possibly due to somebody tampering with the files or something like that. Today I opened up an album (Black Mountain's self titled) in iTunes and the track lengths ranged from 20 minutes to almost an hour - in a playlist the running time for the 8 songs total was almost 5 hours. I assume that in most files with incorrect running times, the file plays and then there is silence for the duration of the song or something like that. However, with these files, they actually played for the entire running time. There was no silence - there actually was 5 hours worth of music. I then opened the files with Windows Media Player. The files were a few minutes longer than usual and still displayed the incorrect times, just not as excessively long as when opened with iTunes. Now upset, I opened the files with a sound editing program called Audacity, and it displayed the songs at their correct running time.

My question is - how is it possible that when I open the songs in iTunes, they magically play for 40 minutes? The beginning and ending of the song is the same no matter what program I play it with, and as I scan through the song with iTunes I can hear the same melody throughout the song. I'm extremely confused because it seems like when I play the file with iTunes, I somehow unlock an extremely lengthy, jammed out version of the song. However, when I open the file with Audacity, it shows the sound wave file at the length that it's supposed to be. Also, with iTunes, it says the bitrate of the song is 32 kb/s. With Windows Media Player, it says it is a 350 kb/s+ VBR file. What is going on!!?!? NIRVANA2764 00:17, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

This only happens with variable bit rate files. The reason is because in a constant bit rate file, it takes the first bitrate it is encoded at and using the file size, it can figure out how long the song is with simple division. However, with variable bitrate, the first chunk might be encoded with a really small bitrate, such as 32kb/s, because it is mostly silence. Programs such as iTunes would see that 32kb/s, and the file size, and figure out the incorrect song length. However, programs which analyze the entire file will have the correct size. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 04:02, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Laptop Screen and Magnet

I have a Dell Inspiron, and I was playing around with a strong magnet near the screen, trying to see if it would distort it as it does CRT monitors. This didn't work, so I ran the magnet along the top edge of the keyboard, where it meets the plane of the screen. As I moved the magnet back and forth along this line, the screen dimmed as I passed over the middle. Finally, as the magnet passed over the middle again, the screen blacked out (though I could barely see it in a very dim form). I hibernated the computer and turned it back on, after which point the screen was completely restored. Does anybody know the mechanism for this effect? --Gujarat10 03:27, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Speculation here, but the ELP backlight used on many laptop screens involves an itsy bitsy high-frequency high-voltage power supply, which is often located about where you describe. It wouldn't surprise me too much if a strong external magnetic field could somehow collapse the magnetic field inside the HF HV PS's itsy bitsy exotic transformer. —Steve Summit (talk) 03:38, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Some laptops use magnets in order to determine when the screen is closed (as opposed to using a mechanical switch). If your laptop is set to only turn off the backlight when the screen is closed, rather than turning off the display as well, that could be it. Or not. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 05:34, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Nope - I have it set to activate standby when closed, which did not happen. --Gujarat10 06:54, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

Just a word of advice (forgive me if you already know this). Waving a strong magnet over your laptop may not be the best idea, especially if it ends up near your hard drive. -- mattb 14:22, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

And that's why you never bring your computer through the airport metal detector :) The TSA tell you to put it in a bin anyway though. --TeckWiz is now R ^ParlateContribs_@(Let's go Yankees!) 01:44, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

Your desktop uses an old little technology called LCD. You could have waved it over a cheap calculator and verified the same fact. Root⁴(one) 01:26, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

Huh? LCDs usually don't contain materials that exhibit strong magnetic properties. You can wave a stack of strong rare earth magnets over any TFT LCD you like and you're unlikely to observe any visual response. What's more, the OP described an effect that obviously affected the backlight (which most calculators do not have), not the LCD itself. -- mattb 01:38, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

What's wrong with putting a magnet on a laptop or, for that matter through the airport detectors? There are neodymium or samarium rare earth magnets in every hard drive. [Mαc Δαvιs] ❖ 02:00, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

Conveniently oriented sufficiently away from the platters so as to avoid problem. Try taking that same neodymium actuating magnet and place it on top of the disk, right over the platters. :) -- mattb 02:13, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

Video Problem

I downloaded some videos that are apparently in .avi format. I've tried playing them on what I feel to be everything -- Realplayer, Quicktime, DivX, WMP, VLC, InfraView, -- and they just wont play. They are certainly video files. They are about 350 mb each, and I have read online reports from others that they're viewing the videos just fine. What could be going wrong? What should I do? To give you better details, most media players say something to the effect of "Error: ____ media player cannot read this file. Make sure it is a valid media file type." VLC, on the other hand, opens it, but rather than playing the movie, for about five seconds the progression bar (the thing that moves slowly when listening to a song or watching a movie) moves as if something is being played, but nothing can be seen or heard and the clock of the VLC player shows no length to the file being played. Bizarre. Help? 70.108.191.59 04:21, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

If even VLC doesn't want to play it, the file is probably corrupt, or it's some weird format that is very rare. Try checking the CRC? --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 05:11, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, but what do you mean by "try checking the CRC"?

Assuming you downloaded the file, thus the other people can play it, then you can get a program to check its crc (such as quicksfv, see sfv), and see if it matches everyone else's copy. Or if you got it through a torrent, check with the torrent file. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 05:40, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Check what video codec the file uses and whether you have the codec. I use AVIcodec for that check. Then google to see if there is a newer version of the codec. Weregerbil 08:08, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Or open the video up in VLC and go to View > Messages - usually if you Google the error messages you will be able to deduce the problem. x42bn6 Talk 14:31, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Try Media Player Classic and all the assosiated codecs which come with it. That plays *everything* for me :) JoshHolloway 18:08, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Ugh. I downloaded a codec pack with Media Player Classic, and MPC says it can't "render" the file. What does that mean? Any ideas or should I just give up. I did download it by torrent, and saw no complaints on the torrent comment page. 70.108.191.59 19:30, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Get Gspot to identify the codec it needs...i use that and it gives me info...it did for the Matroska pack... Ag for MemTech —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 200.12.231.42 (talk) 21:24, 23 April 2007 (UTC).

Jesus. This is the file from hell. I used the G-spot thing and it said that it knew neither the file nor the MIME type. 70.108.191.59 21:54, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

It's possible that the file is actually corrupt. This has happened to me in the past! Try downloading another copy of the file, or from another torrent tracker. JoshHolloway 22:31, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

You could try removing the file extension and then using VLC or MPC if that does not work try using one of those mass video file converters...Look on this website http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html this has a converter for almost anything i've ever tried to use and it's free so just look into it.Have you tried opening it in Video Editing programs? Adobe Premiere, Sony Vegas, Windows Movie Maker? What about the option to look for the proper codec with the new Windows Media Player? 200.12.231.42 23:48, 23 April 2007 (UTC) Ag for MemTech

It's also possible the file is a fake. Are you sure people are talking about the file you have not some other file with the same name? Nil Einne 00:38, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

As crazy as this sounds, could it be compressed? I've downloaded files before only to learn that they were gzipped or zipped up but the original file extension remained. It was very weird, maybe a Firefox bug or but in the web application I downloaded it from. Root⁴(one)

Sync Byte

Why Sync Byte always posses 0x47 value? Why Sync Byte are inverted for every 8 packets?Barani pdy 18:27, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

I am assuming you are asking about digital television standards. The information in this document might be helpful, although it's a little outside my sphere of knowledge. --LarryMac 18:37, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

computer ideas

Hi, I'm about to build a computer.

Does anyone know of any lists of parts with the best bang for the buck? My limit is about 1200 dollars. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 128.61.127.37 (talk) 20:00, 23 April 2007 (UTC).

I don't know about the US, but in the UK Scan is good. It may also give you ideas if not pricing. JoshHolloway 22:27, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

It really depends on what you are doing with it, if you want to game then I just built a computer for about that much, but that's excluding a monitor and peripherals. If you build a system based on the intel CD2 e6600 processor, a gigabyte ds3p motherboard and a 8800GTS you'll have a great system and it should come in your budget. All you need extra is some ram, a hard disk, a power supply (550W will be good for that)and a case, doesn't matter what you get but I would recommend not to get the very cheapest, get the "next to the cheapest" and you'll be fine. Vespine 01:48, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

who made the first computer game

Who made the first computer game? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Mhalldorsson (talk • contribs) 20:44, 23 April 2007 (UTC).

What do you consider a computer game? -- mattb 20:54, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Many very early computers were programmed to play games such as Nim and Tic-tac-toe. One of the very first video games on a computer was Spacewar. There is some background for all this, including some names, in our article History of computer and video games. --LarryMac 20:56, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

See also our article on the first video game. --h2g2bob 03:20, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

April 24

Anyone know about Adobe Photoshop Elements?

I use Adobe Photoshop Elements a lot. Just recently, it started having a problem. Whenever I try to open certain types of vector files in Elements, the program shuts down. This happens with .pdf] files and .ai files. However, .eps files open fine. And it doesn't even list any of my.svg files in the drop-down, so I don't know what happens for those. (Also, if I happen to have a pdf or ai saved to the clipboard, even if it just happens to be the last thing I saved there, Elements won't open at all — so I go to any website, right-click on a .gif or .jpg, and then with that now in the clipboard Elements opens fine.) Elements only just started doing this. Until a few days ago, all of these formats opened just fine. What could have happened? — Michael J 00:18, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

windows vista and msn messenger

hi guys..basically my windows vista won't let me use my msn messenger...it won't let me sign in...it says there is a thing that potects the compute from progams running and i tried to deactivate it , but it says MSN can not function ith that sot of firewall deactivated...it HAS to have it... —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 75.69.194.105 (talk) 03:58, 24 April 2007 (UTC).

Smart Keystroke Recorder

I hope you can help me, I have no idea where else to ask about this.

I just became aware of a program called Smart Keystroke Recorder on my computer. Although I never noticed it before, it says it was created on my computer in January. After Googling it seems that this is a professional program used by people to record Internet activity and not a spyware program like I thought. Since I live alone, I know nobody went on my computer and installed it manually.

Can somebody remotely install a program like this on my computer? Is this someone trying to hack me or someone maliciously targetting me? Is there a way of finding out where the information is going to? (I already uninstalled it, but there seem to be files left over)

Please let me know, I'm very very concerned. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.118.254.142 (talk) 04:22, 24 April 2007 (UTC).

a) There are ways to install GUI programs remotely. b) It takes about 30 seconds of physical access to a computer to backdoor it.

You could attempt forensics (on a separate machine) and watch all inbound and outbound traffic with a packet analyzer (on a separate machine). After you are done analyzing, you need to fdisk and format that machine. Any executable on that machine is potentially backdoored, and needs to be reinstalled from clean media.172.131.17.62 04:45, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

DDR error simple explanation

Hi Wikipedia,

I was advised to send this question to you for a better result although i did get an answer from your miscellaneous desk. I just wanna know in a simple term what does DDR SDRAM at DIMM (s):1 error means. I sometimes got this error when I open my PC then I will restart again and click del tab and set up then when I go back to boot , everything went fine. Then again next day when I open the same error occurs-DDR SDRAM at DIMM (s):1Does this mean that I need to replace my memory? I cannot contact any manufacturer because my computer was set up by a Computer graduate and he cannot be found now. I spent over a thousand bucks for this computer. Please help. Thank you so much...!

Keilah Reyes 07:16, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

Probably a simple stick change for the #1 slot will do. Splintercellguy 07:36, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

more simple term please

Oh I'm so sorry, the more i do not understand your reply to my query about ddr sdram at dimm (s):1 error that says "Probably a simple stick change for the #1 slot will do" I do not know what stick ad slot are. Are you reffering about the set up? Please be patient with me as i really want to know what's that error means. Thank you so much and God bless. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Keilah Reyes (talk • contribs) 07:44, 24 April 2007 (UTC).

simple term please

Oh I'm so sorry, the more i do not understand your reply to my query about ddr sdram at dimm (s):1 error that says "Probably a simple stick change for the #1 slot will do" I do not know what stick ad slot are. Are you reffering about the set up? Please be patient with me as i really want to know what's that error means. Thank you so much and God bless.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Computing" Keilah Reyes 07:46, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

computer

heys am plannining to buy a new computer in a weeks time.what are some things to check on to get a great computer.i want a pretty fast comp and all the latest softwares.do you know any free sites i can download any impressive softwares.any cool things i can pimp my comp on wud be of help.