Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing

August 11

Playing 3D games in PC

hello friends and technicians....I need your overall suggestion for buying a proper graphics card for my PC. I will explain you my doubts...I once had a celeron processor 2 GHz hosting on a mercury 845 model VIA chipset based motherboard(low end) and with memory upto 384MB and with NVIDIA 128MB Geforce MX 4000 AGP card. With this configuration I was able to play almost many 3 D games like NFS underground 2 with almost 80%(800x600) graphics under windows 2000 and about 50% under windows xp. Simiarly I was able to play other few games of that sort too..Recently I sold that for a lower price since it was not upgraable. Now in the past week I bought a new configuration.It has Pentium D 3.0GHz residing on Intel 965RY Motherboard with 1 GB RAM. I thought the system wouyld be excelleent for gaming since it has INtel GMAX3000 which can have shared memory range upto 256 MB.Since it has 4 MB cache in CPU and its a dual core I thought it would outperform in playing most of the games..But what the unfortunate thing was that this new system could not do any better when compared to my older pc mentined in the 1st line. I don't understand why is this..I played many games and checked its performance...I finally concluded that both pcs are just doing the same thing.No improvements..I now feel like that my pc is not perfect for playing good high end games with good graphics...What would be your suggestion?..Is there any way that I can upgrade by buying high end graphics card like 8600GT or so. OR do I gotta change my pc again?....Can anybody tell me what kind of graphics card will my pc can drive with maximum load?...For eg, my older pc was not able to drive MX 4000 card 100%.I don't want the same condition happening again for this model too.I want to know the proper card for this..Plz give me a proper guide.Expecting your suggestions...Thanks for your time with me in advance...

I thought the system wouyld be excelleent for gaming since it has INtel GMAX3000 which can have shared memory range upto 256 MB. there's your problem. Get a real graphics card. Integrated cards suck. If you're serious about gaming, an 8600GTS from Newegg for around 200-300$ is going to be the most effective use of money with that computer --Lucid 01:06, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

Oh really?....I can't believe that a 3D card can really change the way game plays completly.I looked at the onboard card's features(on intel site)and then only purchased..I even thought I should have purchased extreme edition Motherboard(975)series and core 2 duo CPU for gaming.Never thought of graphics card :-) ..So buying a PCI express card is my solution!...I hope both PCI 1x and PCI 16X are the same, aren't thay?..Mine has two provisions too...I will check out soon...Thanks really

Uh, no, PCIe 1x and 16x are completely different. 16x is what any decent graphics card will be nowadays, 1x is going to be crappy budget cards. --Lucid 01:31, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

And you don't have to get a 8600GT. A 7600GT or 7900 should be good enough and cheaper. But yes, intergrated cards are generally not as good as separate cards, and shared memory cards are especially bad for performance (due to bus speed/timing issues and using up the RAM for its own memory). --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 17:43, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

Ghost File Win98

Hi! How can I make a Ghost File WIN98?Plz Help —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Star33 2009 (talk • contribs).

[1] might help. Googling would have saved you the trouble. Splintercellguy 22:26, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

JavaScript archiving function

I'm interested in creating an auto-archiving function for my talk page, that includes not only the "[edit]" link, but another link ("[archive]"), and using autosave functions (&autoclick=wpSave, etc) to add the section to one of my archives. I've started a little something in my userspace, autoarchive.js, but I'm not too sure where to go from there, and what I have done is correct, or could be done a better way. All help is appreciated. Kind regards, –sebi 02:54, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

Nokia 6680 help

Hi....! i am asking a question about mobile phone. i have Nokia 6680 which cant display the main menu.i am using Telenor SIM but when the sim is removed it works well.plz help —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Star33 2009 (talk • contribs).

Wireless Router loosing signal

I have a Netgear router and it is about half way across the house from my room where I have my laptop. Before the signal strenth to my laptop was always either Very Good, or Excellent. And also the speed was always at 54.0Mbps. However it started about three months ago where I started having signal strenth problems with my router. Now the signal strenth of the router has a mind of it's own. One minute it goes from Very Good to very low and the Mbps goes to like 54.0Mbps to like 11.0Mbps. My router has a problem of some sort. Why is this happening? And I know for a fact that it is not the wall problem because remember I said before it never had the signal strenth problem. So what is the deal here? It would be very appreciated if someone could give me the correct information. Thank you Bond Extreme 03:05, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

Someone nearby could have a device that may be interfering with your router, for example, another conflicting router in a neighbours house, a newly built moblie phone base station nearby, etc. Wireless devices use normal radio frequencies, so the same tricks you'd use to get a better signal on an analogue radio will work for them too (lifting it higher, trying different positions, tin foil, etc) Think outside the box 10:53, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

I do know that one of our neighbours does have a router running close to our house. Would that be the problem? How do I resolve this?17:24, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

Maybe your neighbour is having similar problems. Have a chat over the garden fence and see if you can both experiment a bit - moving the equipment around to improve the signal in both houses. Astronaut 01:57, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

You could also try running a "sniffer" like Network Stumbler http://www.netstumbler.com/ and look to see if any other wireless networks are on the same channel as yours. If there are, try changing channels up or down by 3. --Blowdart 17:24, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Non-animated animations

My computer has never really displayed an animation. That is, stuff like GIF animations. I can't for the life of me think of the problem...browser? Firefox. RAM? Approximately 2GB. OS? XP. Anybody have any suggestions?--The Ninth Bright Shiner 03:12, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

In Firefox, the way image animation is handled is configurable. See [2] for the details. (Sounds like you have the parameter set to "none" in your browser.) --71.175.69.118 04:06, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

Ah, still nothing. It is set to "Normal," but nothing has changed. In fact, it was set to "Normal" to begin with!--The Ninth Bright Shiner 05:03, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

Some firewalls and adblockers have options to block animated GIFs, by removing their animation. Got anything like that running? Check their options. — Kieff | Talk 05:41, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

All I've got is the infinitely ambiguous EZ Firewall. Didn't see anything about GIFs.--The Ninth Bright Shiner 02:58, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Try viewing a page with animated GIF using an alternative browser on the same machine to see if the problem is specific to Firefox. --71.175.69.118 11:45, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

IE didn't reveal anything...--The Ninth Bright Shiner 19:41, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Is your ISP messing with your connection? F 09:54, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

I wouldn't suspect Road Runner of anything...--The Ninth Bright Shiner 18:35, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Clock difference in Pentiumdual core Vs Core 2 duo

Hi friends, I have a query that if a Pentium D running at 3 GHz can outperform a pentium core 2 duo at 2 GHz?...The key point is that this pentium D has 4 MB cache where as the core2duo has only 2 MB L2 cache...Both are 800 MHz bus speed....what makes these two processors unique and which among these two beat the crowd?..anyone knows?....

Core 2 duo will outperform the pentium D (as long as you can take advantage of both cores I think) - the Pentium D's are cheaper though (if you can still get them)..87.102.5.144 10:36, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

Though as you've probably guessed the situation could be reversed, for instance if the program is very large ie more than 2MB.

Someone else could probably give you more info on what advantages a Pentium D has over the Core 2 Duo in terms of instruction pipeline length etc.

Unless you can produce empirical evidence to show that at the same price, a Pentium D will overall outperform a Core 2 Duo, please don't make uncited assertions that contradicts most benchmarks out in the wild. --antilived^{T | C | G} 00:14, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

?I didn't - I said the opposite??87.102.1.234 10:15, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

I think he meant op. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 17:36, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

That was to the person directly above me and below User:87.102.1.234. --antilived^{T | C | G} 06:01, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

That was me too (User:87.102.1.234. forgot to sign) - I meant that Pentium D's are now cheaper (in general) for instance here excluding one example the "D's" are all cheaper than the "Duos" sorry I wasn't clearer..?87.102.66.187 12:27, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Oh and re-reading I should have added 'and vice-versa' at the end. and underlined "could be"87.102.66.187 12:30, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

And made it clear that having the kernel>2MB was most unlikely..Sorry.87.102.66.187 12:33, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Dual-ported RAM re-ask

1. Are there more articles about multiply ported memory here (I couldn't find them)?

2. Does anyone know of RAM with more than 4 'ports' currently in use - if so what/where/when?

3. Have we got an article on quad ported ram under another name? Thanks.87.102.35.197 11:53, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Please don't re-ask so quickly. Anyway, it looks like our coverage of that subject is very limited, so probably "no" to the 1st and 3rd questions although you can try Googlewhacking to see for sure. 68.39.174.238 13:25, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

HTML <object> backgrounds

Is there any way to set what color/image/transparent is the background to an HTML <object>?

I'm trying to write a webpage with some embedded audio and video on it. The video shows up fine because both Quicktime and Windows Media Player are about the same size, but when I try the audio, Quicktime is 15 pixels tall and WMP is 45 pixels. If I make the object 15 pixels tall, the WMP looks really wierd and there's no way to control the audio flow except for stop/start. If I make the object 45 pixels tall, WMP looks great, but QT has white rectangles above and below it. (My page's background is kind of a green fading into blue from top-left to bottom-right. A white splotch looks just great on that.....)

Anyway, if there's no way to set the background of an HTML <object> tag, does anyone know how to make an "in-house" player like on youtube or myspace? Thanks. 69.205.180.123 14:30, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

YouTube and MySpace players are just done using Flash. They are easy to make, generally speaking because the Professional versions of Flash (which you can demo for 30 days without paying for) come with pre-fab media players that you just need to customize. --24.147.86.187 16:23, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

As for the question about the <object> -- have you tried giving it a CSS class and then setting the class background to transparent? That is what I would try... --24.147.86.187 16:24, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

Not sure but try the <span> tag which has a background colour thing - it technically highlights whatever is between the span tags, so its great for a 'highlight' effect on text - yet its entirely different to a 'background' which normally refers to table cells (and your actual webpage). Google it for the syntax, maybe say "HTML" + "Span" + "highlight" Rfwoolf 20:36, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

No, <span> tags are only for inline elements, not block elements. You can try setting <object style="background: transparent" ...> but it is likely that the white blotch is from Quicktime itself, not knowing what to do with the extra space. Also, it is much better practise to embed sound using Flash to ensure consistent controls and not needing to load yet another plugin. --antilived^{T | C | G} 00:10, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Page Loading Speed

I recently upped my watchlist count by a considerable amount to over 370 pages. Since then, whenever I try to load a page it takes much longer than it did before I watched all those extra pages. Is there anything I can do to sort it out? (I doubt this will make a difference but I use the latest version of Safari). I originally brought this to the Help desk but was directed to the reference desk and this seemed most appropriate. Thanks asyndeton 19:01, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

370 is not a large watchlist, and there's no reason that should impinge on performance. Those with very large watchlists might experience some slowdown when actually viewing their watchlist page, but not otherwise. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 23:37, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

I heard a developer say that in general you will get a faster page load if you are logged out. It's not a huge difference, but when you are logged in it has to load all of your preferences and stuff (like date preferences, for instance) instead of just showing you the same page that everyone else is seeing. You may want to try that, although I don't really think it will make much of a difference. --Oskar 16:50, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Sometimes. Non-signed in users see a cached version of pages (served straight from the squid cache), so if the page is in the squid then you get it straight away (I honestly don't know how that scheme handles "you have messages" for anons). This isn't possible for signed in users, as their pages are affected by their settings and their .js file. But if you're looking at an article that is sufficiently obscure for it not to be in the cache then a server will have to render that page whole regardess, so you'd not see much speedup from being anon. I don't know what the caching situation is for special: pages - I rather suspect they'll be set not to cache. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 17:00, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

It's really really hard for a logged out user to see his watchlist, though. --LarryMac | Talk 17:04, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

CPU designation according to windows

Apparently only the business and ultimate versions of Windows Vista are compatible with more than one "physical CPU". I intend to install windows vista on a Mac Pro dual processor dual core xeon machine. Within the framework of windows vista, does this constitute one, two, or four physical CPUs? Basically, if I install one of the more basic systems only capable of utilizing one physical CPU, will it be capable of using the full processing power of the computer, or only a fraction thereof? Tuckerekcut 22:45, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

The key is the phrase "physical CPUs". A dual core processor is a single physical CPU and so any version of Vista will make full use of a single dual core processor. Your mac pro is a dual processor, two physical CPUs, and thus the lower SKUs of Vista (Home Premium and lower) will only make use of one of those (although it will make use of both cores on it). Even before dual core processors were release Microsoft stated [3] that all cores would be utilised and they would be treated as a single CPU. --Blowdart 15:55, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

August 12

Quintuply Hypnotized

Trying to get some live iTunes support is so hard...anyway, I was tinkering with titles and stuff, when I noticed my numerous System of a Down titles. Most were labeled "System of a Down," but some were labeled "System Of A Down." I tried editing all of the songs at once to have a lowercase "of" and "a," but something really strange happened. In the Cover Flow display, there are five Hypnotizes. I can't figure out why it multiplied, or what's keeping them from rejoining. Any suggestions?--The Ninth Bright Shiner 02:57, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

I suggest EasyTag for tagging your music. --antilived^{T | C | G} 10:08, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps trailing spaces? What happens if you delete the album title from all those songs, then replace it? What if you replace it with something other than "Hypnotize"? Tesseran 19:00, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Woo-hoo! I deleted the Album name and Artist name for all the songs, then put them back in. All sorted out! Thanks a bundle!--The Ninth Bright Shiner 19:46, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Types of processors

WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF PROCESSORS???WHAT IS A DUAL CORE AND A QUAD CORE PROCESSOR

At the top left of this page there is a "search" box. Type CPU into it and press "Go". Also try searching for dual core and processor. Lots of information there! The blue words are links that you can click to find out more about related concepts. Weregerbil 08:06, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Pseudocodes, DFDs and Flowchart

Guys, its ADIDS.

Well i have another problem.

My Computer Studies teacher can't give detailed diagrams for how DFDs work and more and more diagrams for it. I dont also have flowchart examples. I am just doing my O levels so all I want is a non technical examples. Can any one post a link here for me?

PSEUDOCODES

Well. I had a problem writing a pseudocode/algorithm (formal) for i)finding out the avg,highest,lowest no.s from a set. ii) using various loop constructs (like for-next, loop-until,while-do,etc)

Can any one find me a review about such pseudocodes.

Wikipedia gives a much more difficult technical overview on such topics. SO HELP ME!!!!!!!!!!

ADIDS

There are plenty of examples on the net for a lot of these, and the ones on Wikipedia I think are actually pretty good. Take the [[while loop]] for example:

x = 0;        // a variable 'x' is reset to 0;
while (x < 3) // "while x is less than 3..."
{             // "...do the following BEGINing of loop"
   x++;       // "increment x"
}             // "ENDing of loop"
// Note that the loop statement is run from left to right, top to bottom, until the loop conditions fail to be met.

See do while loop, while loop, for loop, foreach.

And of course google any of those. Rfwoolf 14:11, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Data flow diagrams simply show the "flow" of data through a computer system. So for a program to find the square of a number, you get the original number from a user, shove whatever value that is through a process which squares it, and send the result to the screen for output:

[ keyboard ] ------------------> { square value } -------------------> [ VDU ]
               input number                         squared number

I've used [...] and {...} in place of "external" and "process" icons. The icons used are not always the same - use whatever your teacher says. I'd say take a look at your text book or ask your teacher for help on this one.

The iteration page has some information on looping and even has some pseudocode. Pseudocode is a human-readable form of the steps you need to go through to complete your algorithm. There's no standard for pseudocode, so I'm guessing your teachers are more worried about the algorithm. Imagine you're doing the process yourself, then write down the steps you went through:

for each item
   check if it's the maximum so far and remember the number if it is

You should probably then write it more like a computer language if you like. The first line makes sure max_number has a value which can then be compared to item.

max_number = first item in list_of_items
foreach list_of_items as item
   if item > max_number set max_number = item

--h2g2bob (talk) 14:17, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Completely unrelated note, but use boldface type sparingly, thanx. 68.39.174.238 22:47, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

How can I protect my Laptop's Ac/Dc adapter?

I recently had to replace my ac/dc adapter. At first when I jiggled it, there would be a power connection but eventually it went completely black no matter how much I jiggled it. MY question is what are some ways I can protect the AC/Dc adapter and prevent this from happening again? --Gary123 14:04, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

This wouldn't be an IBM ThinkPad by any chance ? They seem to have a problem that the plug receptor isn't mounted properly to the laptop case, but instead is only mounted to the circuit board. Thus, whenever you plug and unplug the adapter you put stress on the weak solder connections on the board, which were never meant to take those kind of forces. To compensate for this bad design and/or defective manufacturing, I'd permanently leave it plugged in at that end, and just wrap the adapter's wires around the laptop to travel. Unfortunately, if this is the problem, replacing the adapter won't help. If you meant the problem is where the adapter plugs into the wall, then I see two possibilities here:

1) The plugs don't fit properly in the outlet. This could be the (electrical) fault of the outlet (the slots are too big and/or the springs which push the metal contacts against the plug prongs are worn out). Or, the prongs on the plug might be too small or improperly spaced or bent.

2) There is an internal electrical fault in the "wall wart", caused by a loose connection between the prongs and the wires.

If the fault is with the outlet, replace it. If the fault is with the plug, replace it. In this case it might be covered under the laptop's warrantee, if any. StuRat 14:35, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

If it's a thinkpad they'll fix it, period --froth^t 17:01, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

BLAST IT I had this happen with a Apple laptop, I suspect what's described above is what happened... 68.39.174.238 22:48, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

I recently got a laptop fixed with this problem. It was not the plug but the adapter - however, both go out rather easily in laptops and it's somewhat of a hidden cost if you manhandle your power cord. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 23:28, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

Laptop AC adapter cords and plug receptors seem to be a common weak spot in many laptops; my last notebook was a Gateway Solo 1450 (I think, it was a while ago) and that particular plug broke regularly about once a month by the end, and I had to mail the computer back to them. Eventually I gave up and bought a thinkpad - joke's on me I guess. Kuronue 19:20, 18 August 2007 (UTC)

August 13

Fireworks Cs3 Transparency

Does anyone know how to change the color of the transparent background pattern in Fireworks? The white and light gray checkerboard pattern is difficult for me to use.

Oh, this was me - AMP'd 18:06, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Physics on Graphics cards

I'm pretty sure that nvidia's newest graphics cards (8800 series) have built in physics capabilities. Will Blender automatically use this extra power for fluid and soft body animations? Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.195.124.101 (talk • contribs)

Yes, it probably does utilize the physics, as well as everything else the card has (it'll run just about anything). · AndonicO ^Talk 00:56, 18 August 2007 (UTC)

HTML <object> with a transparent background

I am trying to embed some audio files in my webpage, but I can't get the object's background to be transparent. I used the following code, and the object rendered with a transparent background for a split-second before the plug-in (In this case QuickTime player.) loaded and apparently overrode the transparency and put a (dreaded) white background instead.

<object width="500" height="45" allowtransparency="true> <embed src="audio/somefile.mp3" autostart="true" type="audio/mpeg" allowtransparency="true" width="500" height="45"></embed></object>

does anyone know how to override the QT override? Note: I have asked questions relating to this problem before, and some of you have mentioned using Adobe Flash to embed media in a webpage. It's a great idea, but at 17 years old, I can't really afford to buy it. Thanks for the idea though.69.205.180.123 14:20, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

You could always use the embed tag instead, which works on Firefox and I'm pretty sure on IE (example from my website):

<embed src="filenameofmusic.mp3" width="0" height="0" loop="true" autoplay="true" controller="false" pluginspage="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/"> </embed> -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 23:27, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

That is extremely bad practice as you have no way of stopping it if the controls doesn't exist (0 height and width). There ARE pre-made MP3 players in Flash out there, like this (CC-by-nc-sa license) which you just need to tinker with the xml file to play your own MP3 on your own site. --antilived^{T | C | G} 05:58, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Unicode usernames

I'm developing a simple user login system for my website. At the moment the database stores usernames in UTF-8 encoding, and using the various multi-byte functions in PHP this seems to be working well so far.

Is there any reason why allowing unicode in usernames would be a bad idea, or otherwise are there any precautions I should take? I'm using PHP 5.2 and MySQL 4.1. ~Inkington 15:26, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

The only real problem I've seen is that users can pretend to be someone else by using unicode for letters that look practically identical to standard ascii letters. It can be difficult for users to type in unicode - but if they used unicode when creating their username, they should be able to type it again. -- Kainaw^(what?) 16:42, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

Better to use unicode as this supports all types of foreign languages and characters, rather than a single-byte character set (or even worse, 7-bit ASCII), where your data would be impossible to convert/correct later on. UTF-8 (UTF8-AL32) is recommended in Oracle's latest RDBMS. Sandman30s 17:41, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

Nuh uh. I'd say stick with strict ascii for identity-information like login name. As was brought up before, it's easy to impersonate other users or even screw up your administration backend by using control characters. International support really isn't that necessary, and you're certainly not alone if you say "I don't think so" to the supporters of unicode-ization. Support it in the rest of your application so your users aren't frustrated by characters that don't work, but force ascii text for the login name. People won't mind such a reasonable precaution- international users are used to it anyway --froth^t 20:17, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

If so do so, offer "display names" that are customizeable, similar to WpA's difference between usernames and signatures. 68.39.174.238 22:58, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

The simple solution is to offer a subset of UTF8 and exclude characters that can be potentially confusing/less useful/insecure.

I have heard of, but never actually seen implemented, systems that color letters from different character sets different colors (and possibly highlight them with different background colors.) This makes similar characters more obviously different 69.95.50.15 20:10, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the advice. I was thinking of limiting it to a subset of UTF8, as mentioned above, but so far I haven't found an easy way to do this in PHP, apart from using some very ugly (and limited) regular expressions... ~Inkington 17:37, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Pictures

Where can I find pics like the ones shown on these menus. I was planning on making my own menu and wanted pictures that have that "digital" look. I already asked at the Help desk but they misundersstood and told me to copy and paste. I'm guessing they'll be on the commons. Please answer on my talk page - Pheonix 23:25, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

I think it's called the "crystal" icon look. Try here? --froth^t 00:31, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

also --froth^t 00:31, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

August 14

Trackballs

Why did the trackball die out? I always found it far easier and more accurate than the touchpad. Sure it was a little bulky, and you had to plug it into the side of your laptop, but I still found it a pleasure to use. Our article seems to account for its decline by "the replacement of mouseballs by direct optical tracking", but from an ergonomic point of view this doesn't seem to tell the whole story. Has any research been done comparing the speed and accuracy of trackball use vs. touchpad use? --Richardrj ^{talk email} 07:10, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

You can still buy them, they haven't "died out", they just didn't really catch on in the first place. Like dvorak --Lucid 07:34, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for that, I didn't know you could still get them. Will they work with today's available laptops? --Richardrj ^{talk email} 08:07, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

They use a standard USB connector and mouse drivers, so yeah, afaik. I don't know if they still make the type that 'clip on to the side' like our article talks about, but they definitely still have trackball mice, even WalMart has a few --Lucid 09:04, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Also, the moving parts mean it is more subject to failure. I prefer the SpaceBall, which used strain gauges to detect how you were attempting to move the ball, even though you didn't actually move it. StuRat 07:39, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

I don't know about that. The trackballs I see nowadays are optical, so the only real extra moving part is whatever keeps the ball from rolling freely. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 16:17, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

They typically use a roller for that. Just like an old-style ball mouse, they can get hair and other debris stuck around the roller and start to move in a jerky motion. StuRat 17:02, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Vista Sound card problem

Hello I recently installed windows vista on my Sony desktop(came with XP) and cannot play audio. I checked the hardware and it appears the system doesn't recognize the sound card, or see it at all. I don't know where to get the drivers and have lost a lot of the papers that originally came with the pc. All I can remember is that Yamaha made it. How do I get sound to start working again

Thanks, Robert

You might need to go to the manufacturer's website, and download drivers for Windows Vista.

Rechargeable CR2032 button batteries

Does anyone know where I can get the batteries and charger ? StuRat 08:55, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

I buy them at Walmart or KMart next to the watches. They are very cheap, so I've never considered recharging them. -- Kainaw^(what?) 14:42, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

I want to use them in key finders, where they go dead in a month or two. If I have 10 units and replace each battery once a month, that's 120 batteries a year. If they cost $5 each, that's $600 a year. Now perhaps you see why I want rechargeable batteries. StuRat 16:59, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

I buy similar batteries in bulk over the internet from dedicated battery supply companies (the same guys who supply small watchmakers). For CR2032 Google finds me someone who'll sell me 20 for £10, so that's about 1 US dollar each. I really don't think they make rechargable batteries that small. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 22:08, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

FrontPage html

Is there a free downloadable program to clean up a frontpage html file in order greatly to reduce its size? - Kittybrewster (talk) 11:05, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

See HTML Tidy for cleaning up bad HTML and HTML Tidier for removing redundant HTML. -- Kainaw^(what?) 14:40, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Youtube search

I'm probably revealing my wanton ignorance of Youtube, but does it allow uploaders to specify a copyright license? If so, does Youtube have a search-by-copyright-license feature - that is, results returned are tagged with a certain copyright license, ala flickr? Raul654 14:08, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

I've uploaded a few videos to YouTube and they have never presented me with such an option. I'm almost certain that it's not possible. Also, when you do upload your content, you basically agree to give YouTube a full license for them to do whatever they want with it (there was some bruhaha about this on a bunch of blogs when someone realised this a few months ago). The actual text is this (from the TOS):

For clarity, you retain all of your ownership rights in your User Submissions. However, by submitting User Submissions to YouTube, you hereby grant YouTube a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the User Submissions in connection with the YouTube Website...

Makes the GFDL look pretty good, doesn't it :) --Oskar 16:46, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Knowing the age of a computer

Is it possible to know when a computer was first switched on? Maybe somewhere in the BIOS? Or does it sound rather unlikely? Thanks. --Taraborn 14:51, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

There may be circumstantial evidence by checking the dates on the files on the harddrive. You can get a guess, but keep in mind that dates on files can be altered. Also, the drive could have been filled with files from a master system and then put in the PC at a much alter time. Also, the harddrive could be reformatted, losing the files with the original date. -- Kainaw^(what?) 15:13, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Most modern operating systems keep a boot log. Assuming it never gets cleared (and this is probably an unlikely assumption), it should have a record for the first time the machine was booted with that OS installed. Of course, other than OEM machines (where the HD is pre-imaged) you have to boot the machine to install the OS Raul654 15:17, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

I'm guessing that you meant not the first time 'ever' but literally when it was first switched on in a day/period (if it has been on a few days). I expect that there will be something to let you know this but a relatively short search on google found nothing. Perhaps looking for an audit trail of the windows account (presuming windows) would help...This (http://www.windowsecurity.com/articles/Auditing-user-accounts.html) seems to suggest such a thing is possible. ny156uk 16:36, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

There's no definite standard, but a lot of PC manufacturers will run a "burn-in" test in the factory, which is when it was first turned on. It might even be logged in the service log, or stamped on the case. -- JSBillings 18:08, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Interesting points. Thanks to all. --Taraborn 23:37, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

If you look at the BIOS, the BIOS version will sometimes include the date when it was made. Assuming the BIOS has not been upgraded, it gives a good indication of when the computer was made. --Spoon! 13:08, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

SharePoint vs. wikimedia

My employer recently decided to create an internal wiki for us to share our knowledge base. It was decided to do it with SharePoint, and nobody seems to know who decided it, or why. The documentation available for SharePoint, official and general Web-stuff, isn't too helpful. Can somebody play the devil's advocate and explain the great advantages of SharePoint as a wiki site so I won't feel so screwed? TIA. 206.213.209.31 18:12, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

I'm going to hazard a guess that your office is using a whole bunch of Microsoft products. That's almost certainly why your managers choose it, they like Microsoft a lot and they are pretty much bound to it. Many businesses look at open source products (like MediaWiki) with suspicion. As for the advantages, you should probably look at the article, but I assume that it integrates very well with Office and other Microsoft products. --Oskar 18:31, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

A question about DDR RAM

I have two RAMs working together in my computer (one 512 MB RAM and one 128 MB RAM). They have been fitted into adjacent slots. I used a software called CPU-Z which gives all the information about the computer when installed. It has a section called as TIMINGS TABLE. This table is in the following fashion for the 512 MB RAM.

Timings Table

Frequency               166 Mhz      200Mhz
CAS# Latency             2.5           3.0

And various other values have been given which I cannot understand but I am sure would not be relevant to my question. Now the problem is that in the above table there are two frequency values. I have given the exact reproduction of the table and hence there is no heading for the last two columns of the table. For the 128 MB RAM the timings table has 100 and 133 Mhz instead of 166Mhz and 200 Mhz respectively. Is there a frequency mismatch here? If so, is it still good to have the two RAMs working together? What will happen if they have a frequency mismatch and they are made to work together? In the computer properties I still get a total memory of 512+128=640 MB RAM. Please explain. Should I keep them together or not? Thanks for whoever answers this question. I will be very grateful to you.

Email and Applescript

Can anyone please show me the code to send an email with Applescript?

A beginning relational database application?

I'm interested in creating a relational database of spells from the System Reference Document.

Each spell would have to consist of the following fields:

• Name — single-line text
• School and subschool — pointer to a school-and-maybe-subschool object
• (optional, any number of) Descriptor — pointer to a descriptor object
• (any number of) Level — pointer to a class object or cleric domain object, plus an unsigned integer
• (1 to 5) Components — any subset of "V", "S", "M", "F", "DF" and "M/DF"
• Casting time — possible values are "See text", "1 free action", "1 standard action", "# rounds", "# minutes" or "# hours", where # is a positive integer.
• Base duration — possible values are "See text", "Instantaneous", "Permanent", "# rounds", "# minutes", "# hours" or "# days" where # is a positive integer.
• Extra duration per level — possible values are zero, "# rounds", "# minutes", "# hours" or "# days".
• Range — possible values are "See text", "Personal", "Touch", "Close", "Medium", "Long" or "# feet".
• Targets — single-line text
• Saving throw — possible values are "None", "See text", "Fortitude/Reflex/Will negates/half/partial".
• Spell resistance — yes or no
• Harmless — yes or no
• Object — yes or no
• Material component cost — unsigned integer or "See text"
• Focus component cost — unsigned integer or "See text"
• Description — multi-line text that should ideally be able to include hyperlinks to other spells.

Ideally, the database should know when sorting by duration or casting time that 1 day = 24 hours = 1440 minutes = 14400 rounds, and that "Instantaneous" and "1 free action" should be treated as zero, "1 standard action" as 1/2 round, and "Permanent" as positive infinity.

Would this be possible in OpenOffice.org Base, and how much skill would it require? I have very little experience with relational databases. NeonMerlin 18:35, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

There is nothing unusual about the type of DB that you are describing, I don't see why any DB application would have a problem describing the model as you outlined it. In fact, most likely any tutorial that you find about programming a basic DB will end up with something close to what you require. Vespine 01:23, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Where's the "relational" part of this? It looks like a single table. A relational database requires multiple tables so there can be some field shared between them. For example, you could have a School table with all the schools and save the school's ID in the School field of the Spell table. -- Kainaw^(what?) 02:13, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

You could do this in OOo Base though in my opinion it is a bad program to start to learn DB programming on — aside from being relatively unused, I have found it to be extraordinarily slow, incomplete, and sometimes buggy. As someone with a LOT of relational database programming skill (MySQL, MS Access, etc.) I find it almost impossible to use productively at this stage (I hope that someday this will not be the case, because it would be great to have an open-source alternative to Access that worked well!!).

As has been pointed out, this isn't really a relational database, because you have only one table. Some of your fields are somewhat complete datatypes, but they could be easily abstracted as numbers (i.e. "None", "See text", etc. could be 0, 1, etc.).

As it is basically a flat database, something like Filemaker Pro would probably be the easiest way to approach it, if you had access to it. Otherwise you could think about programming the data structure in MySQL and the code to handle it in PHP — it is an ambitious first project but not one that would be insurpassably difficult if you got a "learn PHP in 30 days" type book, which usually deal with how to use PHP with MySQL databases. --24.147.86.187 02:25, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

• With any database design you need to take a whole list of things into consideration, one of these many things is what do you intend to do with the database once you've created it? Why this is important is because presumably OpenOffice is going to have its own data format. That means if you ever wanted to try and connect OpenOffice's Database Management System (DMBS) into a program you might write, you may encounter problems. Also, don't forget that what you're putting in your table is just data, with very little or no intelligence. The only intelligence it has is data constraints - it knows when it's dealing with a date or a number or a character string, etc. But for example if you want it to say "infinite" it would depend on how your program/software is ultimately going to interpret "infinite" if your field is for an integer. You could for example enter in '0' as infinite, or '-1'. My point being, is that to add intelligence to your data you're going to have to write software that goes with it -- all depending on what it is that you're trying to do. Finally, just in case you don't know, a database is a very generalised term, but these days refers to a collection of tables (and can include other metadata info like schemas etc) - and what you've provided is only one table. In order to call your database relational you'll need more than one table, and frankly, if you're going to be doing what I think you're going to be doing then you'll definitely need more than one table. You'll need ones like "Players", "Schools", "Subschools", "Gamedata", "Cast spells" etc. One more thing, it's also a good idea to give your table a primary key - that is a field that will always have unique values - you could for example have your Spell's name as its primary key - unless there's any chance you might have to spells with the same name (in Magic: The Gathering for example, cards with spells were sometimes re-released in a new edition with different artwork, and sometimes different wording). That's why you might consider giving each spell a unique ID, such as "SpellID". Okay I'll shut up now. Rfwoolf 13:42, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Hard Drive System Conversion?

Hello,

I'm not sure if my Hard Drive is FAT, FAT32 or NTFS, but I want to convert it to NTFS if it's not. Is there any way to check, and if it's FAT, would changing it have any adverse effects? Would there be any file deletion or the like?

Thanks,

Perfect Proposal ^{Speak out loud!} 22:09, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Recent versions of Windows have a utility called "convert" for this - see this Microsoft article. But make a backup of your valuable data regardless. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 22:12, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

webcam capture/basic editing.

So I recently happened upon a webcam, I'm thinking of making a few "you tube" style clips, musical in nature. I suppose I need to do two things, one: Is there a good program to capture the webcam into a file, something that lets you chose the bit rate would be nice. Also, I'd then like a SIMPLE program to do very basic video clip editing, things like cutting and splicing, doing simple fades and audio mixing, the audio will probably be recorded not through the web cam. Thanks. Vespine 23:18, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

for the editing part, the easiest thing to do would be to use windows movie maker, its really easy to use + its free.

Reverse image search

Is there any such thing as a reverse image search? For example, with Google, a subject can be searched not only by websites but also by what images come up related to the query. Is there a search engine that allows you to enter an image, such as a picture of a person or bird, that then attempts to identify the subject by finding similar images? If there is not such a search engine, is this idea even feasible? --Joelmills 23:51, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

I don't think so, but I've also wanted this feature occasionally.

Feasible as in possible to set up, somewhat, facial recognition software is basically a 'people search engine'. As far as setting it up on a website, there is a 'family tree' gene site thing that will find faces in pictures, and then match them to celebrities, so it's somewhat possible. Having a large amount of people, and managing the server load from all that though would be a logistics nightmare. Something like this might make more sense in 10-20 years, when computing power is significantly cheaper, or as a client-side application, as already exists in places like casinos --Lucid 01:13, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Headway research into this type of application is being made in the field of Artificial neural networks. You also may be interested in Photosynth, not really what you are after, but related to the topic. Vespine 01:18, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

IBM's Journal of Research and Development [4] wrote about such a system a few years ago (4? 5?). I don't know what's become of their research, though.

Atlant 12:10, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

In theory a search engine has to first 'crawl' its pages so that it knows what's on them and then feeds this information into its database. When you then do a search, it doesn't go back to those pages, first it goes through its databases and sees what matches. For the type of search that you speak of, the search engine would have to either put a lot of images into its database (think of the huge amount of space - but that's becoming less of a problem) - or, it will have to come up with some kind of data off of the images, like "number of pixels" + "dimensions" + "size" + "contrast" + "number of colours" + "format" etc. etc. I believe that might be possible, but probably would be a significant challenge to create -- all for a very simple search utility that few people would use

I'd also like to comment about the face-matching people were talking about. To my knowledge, these computers take a source image, and then almost literally try match the image with images it already has in its database. So once again the database would have to hold the images (major space). Then, it would specifically trained at faces. For anything else it would probably not be very useful.

So in short, I do believe we have the technology to do something, but it's just not very feasible. Perhaps you should write to google on this one, they might look into developing it. If they do, please come back here and let us all know, so we can call up our lawyers ;) (jokeing). Rfwoolf 13:52, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the responses - it was all very interesting. --Joelmills 03:41, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

You might be interested in CBIR and the links contained therein. skip (t / c) 07:41, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

August 15

Vista "Run" and "Run as administrator"

I have UAC disabled (of course). But now any time I manually start a new process through the "Run" dialogue, or the New Task option in the task manager, it says "this task will be created with administrator privileges." Now hold on there cowboy, if I wanted cmd to be running with administrator privileges I'd use Ctrl+Shift+Enter. Is there any way to get "Run" to start programs with normal admin-level-but-not-really (the vista equivalent of a 'sudoer' I suppose) privileges? For that matter, am I automatically running everything I click on as an administrator since UAC is disabled? --froth^t 04:04, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Don't quote me on this because I'm not positive, but I assume that yes, everything you do is run as administrator privilages, unless your user has a different configueration. Hopefully someone that's certain can come along and confirm. Rfwoolf 13:27, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

10-Key SPM

Hello. I am trying to fill out an online application as a cashier and I have been asked what my speed in 10-Ket SPM is. The exact question writes, "Please note your speed in 10-Key in SPM:". Could somebody graciously clarify what 10-Key SPM is? Google finds nothing, and other search engines do not either. Thank you. -- Wilhelm Von Hortzweneger Über der Hügel [ 216.178.50.184 04:48, 15 August 2007 (UTC) ]

10-key is a ten key number pad, like is on calculators, your keyboard's numpad, or in this case the number controls on the register. SPM is "S" per minute, I'd assume Sales, or how fast you can ring it up. I'd just be honest and tell them that you don't have any prior 10-key experience. --Lucid 04:56, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Thank you muchly. --Von Hortzweneger Über der Hügel [ 216.178.50.184 04:58, 15 August 2007 (UTC) ]

Also SPM is an academic certification in malaysia :). But seriously if my last 2 summers of work experience as a cashier is of any value let me tell you that not many sales will be made in one minute unless you're working at CVS or something and they pay in plastic every time. Maybe sales per hour.. but I doubt it. I'd say 's' has to stand for something else and PM as a standard "per minute" is a good enough guess. But "10-key" seems an awkward way to refer to a keypad- do some cashiers work in hexadecimal for extra efficiency or what? I think we're way off track --froth^t 05:03, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Aha I think I might have an answer. 10-key is apparently a typing test and I'm betting SPM stands for Strokes Per Minute! Better change that resume because it's probably not a good idea to advertise the fact that you have no prior experience in typing. --froth^t 05:04, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Froth, 10-key is just a retail way of referring to a numpad. Saying you have prior experience in typing when someone is asking how proficient you are at 10-key is like saying you're a great driver when someone asks how you handle a Harley. The tests on google are just that- tests for 10-key typing, not QWERTY typing we're all used to. --Lucid 05:08, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Hm ok, well I'm still convinced it's strokes per minute --froth^t 06:12, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

You're probably right about that, but it's referring to strokes per minute on a numpad --Lucid 06:13, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

vista in-place upgrade

I hear that vista performs abysmally after an in-place upgrade from XP. File locations are unreliably virtualized to different locations, settings are lost or misplaced, it's a mess. But how about upgrading from one version of vista to another? I'm not talking about the streamlined Anytime Upgrade but rather a full Upgrade installation to ultimate. I know it's possible but messing with windows setup is a big deal and I want to know if vista will weird out on me if I try it --froth^t 06:15, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

where to buy .fr domain name?

What's the cheapest registrar to buy a .fr domain name?--Sonjaaa 07:55, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Europeregistry is reasonable but probably not the cheapest. Djmckee1 - Talk-Sign 09:52, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

To avoid your question, why not buy a .com instead? - Kittybrewster (talk) 10:54, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Because A) almost all the legible .com names have been taken, and B) some people want their website to be identified as 'French'. But I admit I'm assuming here - the OP might have a different reason, but my point is that as great as a .com is, good luck finding a good one. Rfwoolf 16:37, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Thunderbird folder display

Back in golden times of yore Netscape Mail would display (for each mail folder) both the total number of messages in that folder and the number of unread (in the left-hand panel. The display would look something like:

• inbox (103/4)
• work (944/16)
  • project X (16/0)
  • project Y (330/1)
• private (1/0)

Now Mozilla Thunderbird just displays the total unread, and if none are unread there no number at all after the folder name. Is there an option (or failing that an extension) which restores this welcome behaviour? Thanks. Harmonation 11:29, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

TDEncypt Application

when ever i ask my laptop to hibernate there is a error reported, saying the TDEncypt Application is not functioning properly. why does this problem arise and i tried gaining information about this kind of Error, but i could get nothing. Can you please hepl me out solving this problem.

• What operating system are you using? Are you sure you got the name right, is it not "TDEncrypt" ? If you're running Windows XP, press Ctrl + Alt + Esc to bring up the task manager, click on Processes, then click on the "Names" tab, and it will show you all the currently running process - see if you can find anything called "TDEncypt" or "DEncypt" or "Encypt" etc. If you find it it will give you a little more information about the process, and you can try end the process, and then try your hibernation. I would also do a search for it. Click Start -> Search, and type "Encypt" (you can leave off the TD because Windows will still find it - in fact you can even do a search for "ypt" or "enc"). This might leave more clues that you can use to try to find out what the process is, what it does, and when it is run. Rfwoolf 16:34, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

i tried this i could not find anything like that nor did i find it in when i did 'alt' 'crlt' 'esc'. i dont no what to do!!! help!!1

ChartXL by Harvard Graphics

I am looking for charting software, specifically stock charting software. I am looking for something that is easy to use with pre-made templates. The built-in stock charting options in excel are good but of no comparison to the best charts available thru subscription or for free over the internet which are copyrighted (i.e. yahoo/finance beta & bigcharts.com). I know that ChartXL has a few options but I cannot get samples or examples of what their software offers. Any ideas? --Gungnir 19:47, 15 August 2007 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by John Bragdon (talk • contribs)

Can't enter BIOS

On reboot, I get in order: no signal, then a screen with it telling me the hardware configuration (Core 2 Duo, hard drives, optical drives, etc) then it boots to windows. I've tried tapping F1 and F2 but have not got into the BIOS, and it seems like there's no way to do so. Motherboard is a MSI P6N SLI Platinum. Should I just keep tapping random buttons, or have I missed something? -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 20:22, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

According to the manual I found ([5]), you press DEL to enter BIOS setup. --LarryMac | Talk 21:35, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Thanks! Looked for it but couldn't find it. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 22:42, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Maximum size for iPod?

Is there a theoretical maximum size for an iPod or other digital audio player? So far as I understand it an ipod is basically a hard disk with an amplifier. Does this mean the maximum size would be dictated by whatever size the largest portable hard disk would be? I realise this is an open ended question - portability depends on the person doing the carrying - but obviously in commercial terms the kind of weight carried by an infantryman (45 pounds theoretical maximum of 88 pounds according to this) would not count as portable. According to this boomboxes could weigh up to 30 pounds. Stroika 22:59, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

I think you misunderstand the general use of the expression "theoretical limit". You're sort of right, the theoretical limit to TODAY'S iPod would be how big you can make a hard disk. The theoretical limit to the size of a hard disk is how dense they can get the medium. But an iPod doesn't rely on a hard disk, theoretically it can use any memory, so the theoretical limit to a magnetic spinning platter hard disk isn't the theoretical limit to an iPod's size. When someone comes up with denser memory then a hard disk, no doubt they'll stick it in an iPod or whatever is around at the time. I would say, there is no theoretical limit to the size of an iPod. Vespine 23:45, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

I guess I don't understand your question because there is no limit to how big you could make anything. One could make an mp3 player the size of a freight train, but what would be the point? -- Diletante 01:50, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

If we want to keep things able to fit in a backpack or cargo pants pocket, you could easily take a standard 3.5" HDD and then just tack a processor, memory, screen and controls for the MP3 player bit. This could be done by hand if you're good with hardware and messing with linux to run it, and could be done now, and build a decent MP3 player with 500GB of storage for only a few hundred dollars. If we're going with boom box sized components, this gets much easier- 50$ speakers from Logitech, make a box for the PC, and have 8 of those 500GB drives in RAID0, for 4TB of storage, good sound, and basically a portable computer. --Lucid 02:01, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for that Lucid. Very informative. And the fact this HDD would be in motion, jogging up and down wouldn't be a problem? What is stopping Apple producing a 500 GB iPod? Simply a design imperative that it has to fit into a shirt pocket? What's the largest capacity using technology currently available that could be achieved to make a DAP that could fit in your shirt pocket (that's 4.5 inches for those who keep tank divisions - or freight trains - in custom made shirts ;-))? Stroika 05:22, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

I'm not so sure about jogging with it. Modern computers should be fine with the hard drive being jiggled a bit, since the music is probably in RAM anyway, but I wouldn't go out running with it spinning full speed. A 500GB hard drive is stuff made for desktop PCs, it probably takes a bit more effort to make one that can take the jogging and stuff, as hard drives are rather delicate machines (A book I once read described a hard drive's precision, to scale, as being somewhat like the Sears Tower laid down on it's side, a few inches off the surface, and circling the planet every three seconds.) but I'm not sure what that entails. There's really nothing keeping anyone from building something about the size of a GBA or original Game Boy that would store and play 500GB of music, but it probably wouldn't be the best for music on the go. Personally, I'd go with flash memory if I wanted to make an MP3 player, but there's definitely the technology out there to make something with that much storage. As to apple, they like all their products looking sleek, and something bulky like this (you have to consider it would be around the size of AppleTV or Mac Mini, which are fully fledged PCs) would probably not be up their aisle. --Lucid 06:26, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

OK so I won't go jogging with my iRucksack (note to Steve Jobs, I got that name first). I thought that flash drives were prohibitvely expensive at larger capacities? But that's all my questions answered now. Thank you. Stroika 09:01, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

Please remember that there are, basically, two different "streams" of iPods: the hard-drive based iPods and the Flash ROM-based iPods (currently, the "Nanos"). Right now, price is the constraint for the Flash ROM iPods. For the hard-drive iPods, it's physical size. People actually have taken their hard drive-based iPods apart and hooked them to much more capacious drives, but those drives aren't in the 1.8" form-factor that is required to re-assemble the iPod; these mega iPods are used as stationary music players. (Surely the software has some upper bound on capacity, but I've never read what it is; I'd imagine it's still "large" compared to modern disk drives.)

Atlant 12:15, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

What is the data-link protocol used between the routers on the Internet

I think that the heading is sufficient, however if you would like more surrounding text. I am familiar with TCP/IP on Ethernet on a LAN, and I know that we use PPP whe we are attaching to the Internet (ISP), but I cannot find anything authoritative as to what is used under TCP/IP when going between routers on the Internet 64.214.121.138 23:32, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

I would imagine they use the cheapest practical technology of the time, right now I think that's that's gigabit ethernet. I guess its not very authoritative, but the third paragraph in Internet_exchange_point has some good info, it says that 95% of isp exchanges use ethernet.. -- Diletante 02:07, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

Diletante's answer is quite correct for peering (where two or more ISPs have equipment in the same exchange building) and for datacenters and colos. But for long distance communications we have to go into the wacky world of Telcos. Long distance internet connections used to be IP on frame relay (or ATM) on a copper (and later optical) T-carrier. Now they're switching (or switched) to IP on Packet over SONET/SDH on SONET on Optical Carrier (e.g XO Communications' backbone is OC-192 (ref)) on an optical fiber physical layer. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 13:13, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

August 16

What Are The Different Types/kinds Of Browsers, wap browser, mobile browser, mini browser etc

As far as I know, there are three types of mobile browsers. 1)Wap browser (ones found in low end colour phones) 2)mobile browser (ones found in smartphones) 3)mini browsers (like opera mini)

My question is 1)Is there any other type of browser? 2)I have used opera mini and mobile browser in my moto ming. But where do I get a wap browser for motoming? what wap browser?

Your phone comes with a WAP browser, it's simply the internet function (or whatever it´s called) on your phone. --antilived^{T | C | G} 04:49, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

Printer ink cartridge

I need to put a black ink cartridge and a color ink cartrige into my Compaq inkjet printer. Does it matter which one goes and the left and which one goes on the right?

When it does matter, they will normally only fit on one side or the other. When it doesn't matter, they fit on either side. That little circuit on the printer cartridge tells the printer which one is color and which is black. -- Kainaw^(what?) 13:11, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

It should say something about what cartridge should go in on the cartridge holder itself (my HP one has the cartridge number on the holder). --antilived^{T | C | G} 04:50, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

Top IT companies in Israel

This is driving me nuts....does anyone know where I can find a list of the top Israeli IT cos? The type of classification (ie, by size, by revenue, etc.) isn't that important - I'm just wondering if this info even exists...?—Wasabe3543 13:48, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

Tel Aviv Stock Exchange might list something like that --h2g2bob (talk) 02:01, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

Wireless-N backwards compatibility

I am looking into purchasing a laptop computer, and I was wondering...
At my home, we have a Linksys wireless-g router. If I get a laptop with a wireless-n card, will I still be able to access the wireless-g network at my home?
Thanks for the help...69.205.180.123 17:16, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

Probably yes. Splintercellguy 19:58, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

Refer to IEE 802.11 --PhoenixQc 13:42, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

VOB (DVD files) to any other format

I have a DVD (that I'm legally authorized by the creator and publisher to copy) that I need to extract a clip from. What (free) programs can do this? I need to convert it to Quicktime, MPG, or Flash. -- Zanimum 18:45, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

VLC can covert VOB to MPG and many other formats. --24.147.86.187 01:46, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

ffmpeg can do the job as well if you're at ease with command line programs. --PhoenixQc 13:35, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

Find / replace

Using regex or grep or something else, how would one do the following advanced find and replace:

If I have a document that contains this code:

* foo
* bar
* apple

how could I tell the computer to find everything between the bullet (space) and the line break and put it into a format like

* This sentence is new: foo.
* This sentence is new: bar.
* This sentence is new: apple.

Cheers. --MZMcBride 18:46, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

I would use sed, as in: sed 's/\(^\*\)/\1 This sentence is new;/' yourfile.txt -- Kainaw^(what?) 19:07, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

More simply: sed 's/^\* /&This sentence is new: /' yourfile.txt --Anon, August 17, 04:08 (UTC).

Note, too, that sed does not edit a file in-place; it operates on a stream (which is what the s in its name stands for). If you do want to edit a file in-place, you can use a two-step procedure:

sed 's/^\* /&This sentence is new: /' yourfile.txt > tmpfile.txt

mv tmpfile.txt yourfile.txt

Make sure you do not try the "more obvious" simplification:

sed 's/^\* /&This sentence is new: /' yourfile.txt > yourfile.txt

If you have a bunch of different files you want to do the same find/replace on, there are various ways you could automate the sed-to-tmpfile-and-mv-back idiom. —Steve Summit (talk) 11:54, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

Are there any online or downloadable tools that make a find/replace like this simpler? --MZMcBride 20:48, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

It depends what you mean by simpler. Sed is downloadable and the above is simple - it just looks weird. If you mean you want something that is more readily understandable then use some form of basic.

open "file" for input as #1
open "result" for output as #2
do until eof(1)
  line input a$
  if left$(a$,2)="* " then
    print#2, "* This sentence is new: ";mid$(a$,3)
  else
    print#2, a$
  endif
loop
close

But this is actually a lot less simple that the sed script. -- SGBailey 21:38, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps a program with a GUI that's able to perform this kind of find/replace function (with or without using sed). Something that would be simpler to use (for a regular user). --MZMcBride 21:42, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

You can find "* " and replace with "* This sentence is new: " in just about any word processor. The difference being it will also replace "* " that are not at the beginning of a line, unlike the other suggestions above. iames 21:46, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

Yeah I know, but that only works for this specific (simplified) example. --MZMcBride 21:49, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

What other sorts of (maybe not so simplified) examples were you thinking of?

Strictly speaking, there are two separate questions here:

Is there a nice user-friendly GUI for the find/replace function, or do you have to use a CLI?

Does the find/replace function support fixed strings only, or also regular expressions?

However, it often seems that these two questions are linked; it's often assumed that the user who wants the simplicity of a GUI has no need for (and would be put off by the apparent complexity of) a regexp option. So finding a non-gearhead tool that does support regexps is somewhat unusual. —Steve Summit (talk) 11:54, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

OpenOffice comes with a word processor that allows regular expressions. I'd have to look at it to remember if it provides a little more help for "regular" users. iames 21:58, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

If you want such functionality on Wikipedia, you may wish to install the Replace user script (or possibly wikEd). —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 22:09, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

I was hoping someone had created a nifty and handy online tool that wouldn't require actual code writing. A bit like using this tool instead of a UNIX command like sort. I may just be out of luck. --MZMcBride 22:22, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

Interesting site. What sorts of options might a similar find-and-replace web tool have? What would it do that the ordinary find/replace tool in any text editor or word processor couldn't do? —Steve Summit (talk) 11:54, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

Vim has versions available for most platforms. Just go to command mode and enter and enter Kainaw's regexp preceded by a % (percent sign means execute the following command on every line) -- Diletante 00:05, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

Firewall again

well i asked a question a while back about a FortiGate F60 firewall and i wanted to know how to do load balancing and fail safe type things with the 2 wan ports it has

i am working with windows 2000/server 2003 which are the 2 computers that are basically directly connected to it or can be i have been looking for 3rd party software to do this..but i have no domain server nor central server (the servers we have are used for other purposes) our schematic is 2 LANS-->SWITCHES-->FIREWALL-->INTERNET i want to use the 2 WAN ports not to make it faster, but to asign per say, 1 LAN to 1 WAN and 1 LAN to the other WAN...

any way to do this with the firewall itself and not using a server.?

THx in advance

Roger @ IntraRed 19:11, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

Fluctuating router

I own a PS3, and sometimes, when I am bored, I just scan the wireless environment around me to see if any new networks have been put up. Each time, the PS3 detects our family's router, and each time the PS3 puts a different strength for our signal. It has, on occasion, been as low as 47%, or all the way up to 100%, even though it is normally around 74% (steel floors...). Before you make all your comments about doors and such, there is only one door between the PS3 and the router, and it is always open. Why would there be such a huge fluctuation even though neither the router nor the PS3 have been moved, and no new obstructions (or thunderstorms) have been put in the way?69.205.180.123 21:16, 16 August 2007 (UTC)
EDIT Maybe I should move this to the science desk? 69.205.180.123 21:17, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

I think Computing is right. This site gives a few more reasons for a varying quality of signal, including interference from another radio-frequency source. iames 21:25, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

Mozilla Thunderbird

When I print an email from Thunderbird, I get vast quantities of header dross. What do I have to do to make it only print Subject, From, To, Cc, Date and the message? I have asked this on Thunderbird's suppport forum and never gotten a useful reply. Several replies said "It prints what you see on the screen, collapse the data on the screen" - but this isn't the case. I get the dross no matter what I display. -- SGBailey 21:42, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

Free video streaming from input

Is there any free software for the mac that will take video input from a camera, and stream it live over a network? Preferably open source.

What you're looking for is VLC Player, http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

I can not help you about using it on a Mac but I know it should do the job.

--PhoenixQc 13:31, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

VLC for mac can't use live video from a camera though...

Vista and takeown

Infurated at vista for not letting me replace a mysteriously-changed ntoskrnl.exe with a backup, I just ran

takeown /F c:\ /R

It got caught in a loop around Application Data since c:\documents and settings\*\application data\application data\application data\application data ... ad infinitum all redirect to the real application data directory. I'm worried that since I let this run for quite awhile, I have a gigabyte sized permissions file somewhere filled with useless information. So how does NTFS work- is the metadata stored right in the file (which would be good for my case since it's just chowning the same folder over and over) or is there a list somewhere? And is it a bad idea to 'takeown' the entire filesystem? Only system level code has access to protected files, but the only difference is that now I can give myself access whereas before it was impossible to even change the permissions. --froth^t 23:52, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

August 17

Dual monitors and fullscreen games

When I play a full screen game on one monitor and have, say, an MSN conversation or a browser window on the other, I can read the conversation or text on the browser fine. However, upon switching to inputting (clicking the window on the other monitor), Windows switches to that window as active and minimizes the game on the other monitor (even though I have both monitors configured in Windows). Does anyone know of a utility or something that can overcome this stupid, stupid UI flaw? -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 02:59, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

I have exactly the same problem, never found a way around it. I think the problem is that the game is still tecnically "full screen" even though you can see what's on the other monitor, it's as if the other monitor is letting you peek behind the game, but as soon as you change focus from the game to any other application, the game says "well I don't have full screen anymore, so off to minimize I go." Vespine 04:47, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

Well, what's even odder is that when I use a command line switch for Rise of Nations to play it windowed, it STILL minimizes it. Windows' focus system is sort of messed up as far as dual monitors go, I guess. I just want to use my dual monitors for what I intended them to do - be able to talk in another window between Counter-Strike rounds or something without using stuff like Xfire. :/ -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 05:21, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

I find it very hard to believe that there isn't a fix for this. Hmmm Capuchin 08:24, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

Dual monitors + full screen apps = hell, I don't care what your OS is. This is why I intend to buy a Big Ass Monitor^TM for any gaming computer, or use something like synergy --Lucid 08:49, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, but I got both of these for about $150 each, and they're 19" with a 5 or so ms refresh rate. Can you get a 40" LCD with a under 5ms refresh rate for $300? ;) In addition, a big monitor wouldn't help you much anyway, because you'd still have to worry about running everything in windowed mode at weird resolutions. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 09:57, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

Question and issues concerning software/hardware firewalls

Dear Sir/Madam,

I have recently installed Zone Alarm Pro (version 7.0.362.000) along with PeerGuardian (version 2.0 Beta 6C) on my computer. Considering my network was already and currently still is protected by the hardware Firewall of my U.S Robotics router (model USR8054 802.11g wireless turbo with 1.67 firmware), have the previously mentioned applications actually strengthened the security of my computer or I should consider proceeding to uninstall them ?

Furthermore, I don't know which application is at fault, but I have experienced the following slowdowns since the installations (I am quite sure that my router is not at fault, it had already been previously configured and I had no issues with it for years): 1) MSN file transfer protocol is presently faster than the rise of democracy in North Korea. 2) The µTorrent no incoming connection triangle o' doom appears in the aforementioned program's tray - files are still downloaded but the speed seems at first sight limited (false positive?).

I made an half-arsed (I hope it's no too confusing) collage with the steps I undertook to unsuccessfuly remove the no incoming connection triangle o' doom warning.

Sincerely,
Thanks in advance considering I expect the Wikipedia help desks to be as useful than always,
Matt714 06:21, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

First question - nay. I think you'll see that if you open up ZA Pro, it will say something on the order of five or six intrusions stopped, and those intrusions are usually just programs trying to call home. I've ran my computer with no AV software and no firewall except for the router's for at least two years now (on a open network, no less! I like to surf dangerously) vwithout a single "hack attempt", virus, spyware, etc. Running no firewall is a quick recipe for disaster but being behind the router's should suffice. Uninstall your ZA.

I have had both of your other problems before as well. MSN file transfers are always slow. I have heard MSN throttles large file downloads over Messenger - I would not send anything important and large over it simply because if someone signs off you're screwed anyway. Instead of MSN, why not use a file host like MegaUpload or Yousendit? It's probably not your problem, it's Microsoft's.

Now uTorrent. First, shut off/uninstall your ZA to make sure it isn't that. Second, go to preferences -> network (or connection or whatever it is with the port) and make sure the port there is the one you opened in your router. Also, make sure the 'randomize port' checkbox isn't checked. Restart and try again, post results here. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 09:54, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

Web accelerators

At home I have a slow internet connection, and I was wondering: if i download multiple download accelerators onto my computer, will they all have a cumulative effect on each other? So will downloading 4 accelerators increase my download speeds by 2^4 times? I've tried this on my computer but it doesn't seem to be making much difference after the first one, can somebody please explain this to me? Thanks

"So will downloading 4 accelerators increase my download speeds by 2^4 times?" No. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 10:28, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

No, your best bet for better performance is a better Internet connection, and if that's not the issue, perhaps an AV/spyware checkup? Splintercellguy 12:19, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

With internet speed, you get what you pay for. It's all about bandwidth. No "accelerator" can squeeze more speed out of your line if you are downloading compressed files. Accelerators can help if you do a lot of web browsing for example, but only one will help. You cannot get an accumulative or, heavens forbid, an exponential benefit with accelerators! Sandman30s 13:31, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

CD Drive exploaded with cd spin

Recently I was using my friends PC to burn one CD using his samsung CD-RW drive.Using nero I burned some mp3 files, but unexpectedly it happened that the disk inside the drive was broken into several pieces with loud sound after some 10 to 15 seconds since it started burning disks...Didn't expect in my dreams..The drive never ejected...We replaced it though....I guess this isn't any software problem, but it couldbe some exceedings in physical limits while spin up\down..The drive was a new one purchased less than a month... What could've gone wrong?..Any idea?..Thanks

Look for reruns of Myth Busters. They covered this specific topic: CDs breaking at high spin speeds. The conclusion was that a wobbling CD could hit something inside the drive and break up. -- Kainaw^(what?) 12:00, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

This happens occasionally with weak/damaged CDs (the easiest way to weaken them is probably to leave them in sunlight or heat, such as inside of a car) at high speeds (40x+ usually), It's not exactly common, but it's not unheard of. They just don't have the structural ability to cope with the stresses from spinning that fast, the above mentioned wobbling. It's just something that happens, just take care of your disks and hope for the best --Lucid 12:12, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

Expanding on what L said, the centrifugal force imposed on CDs by high-speed CD-ROM drives is near the theoretical breaking strain of the discs. As a result, discs with minor pre-existing damage will often fail explosively when run at high speeds.

Atlant 12:20, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

MSN Messenger

Is it possible to pause the webcam when I lock messenger using MSN PLUS!? Thanks

Password protecting VLC http interface

How can I password protect the VLC http interface?