Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2007 January 22

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January 22

bug busters?

I've tried to make a Move-to-front transform implementation [1] [2] but weird things happen, such as producing a segfault when encoding large files such as /vmlinuz, and producing random printable (!!!) characters when decoding. The weird casts to uints and other strange things are my failed attempts to remove bugs. Can anyone spot any bugs? Thanks. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 01:45, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

The first major problem is that you haven't taken care of the fact that char can be, and frequently is, a signed type, representing values from -128 to 127. When you cast one of those to unsigned int, you don't get an unsigned int ranging from 0 to 255 but one ranging from 0 to 127 or UINT_MAX-127 to UINT_MAX. You should declare in_char and out_char as unsigned. The casts to unsigned int are not doing you any good at all, and if you hadn't used them you might have got some warnings from your compiler about using a possibly-signed char as an array subscript. (Or maybe you already saw that warning and decided to cover it up by casting... which is usually not the right thing to do).

The second problem is that the "list[0] = out_char;" update is not reflected in the reverse list. Follow it with "list_reverse_lookup_table[out_char]=0;" and then it works OK. (In my working test version out_char is an unsigned char.) --Tcsetattr 06:09, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Cool, it works now! :):):) Thanks a lot. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 07:04, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

BTW, do you use GNU/Linux, Mac, or Windows? (or, which OS do you use?) --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 07:11, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Debian stable --Tcsetattr 08:15, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Downloading from websites.

What "kind" of website is www.nsaneproductions.com/ ? I don't mean "illegal download site", as even if it is that, most of those sites are covered in porn and desperately peddle spyware. Plus they try to sell sign ups. So, is this website unique?

If it isn't illegal then why not? I thought that the whole idea of modern day piracy was that being a "peer-to-peer" prog/site meant that the creators of said program/website, can't be blamed because it's the users who take responsibility? The only other sites I know are ones like download.com, which offer trial versions or freeware etc.

I'm not making any statement as to whether such a website is a good thing, nor am I anything to do with it. CrazyFoolMrT 02:28, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

From just a quick glance over, it looks like a site dedicated to information about P2P programs or other programs and information related to piracy. That in it self, is not illegal. In many places, piracy is illegal, however, providing information about tools used for piracy is not illegal. Read more information about copyright to understand what is and isn't legal under copyright laws. This, of course, will vary based on where you live. —Mitaphane _talk 06:31, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

It looks like a portal for news and information about various software projects. This does include p2p software projects, amonget many other types. Talking about p2p software is not illegal - just look at Wikipedia! In fact, even p2p software isn't illegal in itself - p2p is just a way of sharing files. Those files may be copyrighted, in which case the uploader and downloader are committing copyright infringement. But some files are fine to copy, for example Elephant's Dream, LiveCDs and low quality tracks from Magnatune can be (and are!) distributed legally through bittorrent software. --h2g2bob 17:57, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Also IIRC World of Warcraft patches are only officially distributed through bittorrent (though the Blizzard Updater client, though it's easy enough to just extract the torrent and download it with a traditional client) --froth^T 19:26, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm aware that P2P info is legal, as are P2P programs (that they avoid issues by placing liability upon the end-user). But, this is a site which offers the installer (exe files) for a number of programs which would otherwise cost money to purchase. For other programs they offer a crack or a keygen to upgrade to a non free version. This includes P2P progs, but it also offers many other programs along with there cracks and keygens, i.e. Nero, Sygate, Winzip, AVG Antispyware. These are programs which, through sites like download.com, offer only a period of free time. Also on the forums there are download links offering the installers for all the programs discussed. Whats more all of this is free and spyware free. I'm confused as to how they get away with it. If it is infact easy to do, why are most "Crack Sites" covered in illegal porn and/or sign ups and/or spyware? So is it legal to bypass the neccessity to pay for these programs? CrazyFoolMrT 11:32, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Well I'm not going to actually visit the link from behind my school proxy, but it's possible that it's like ProjectW or WarezBB and they only link to the files being hosted on other servers, possibly anonymous or overseas --froth^T 13:10, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

It looks like it's mainly Free Software, which is fine to give away, and Freeware and trial versions, which may be ok depending on the software license. However, the keys and hacks are not legal (you are redirected to download the trial version from the official site, then and use the key or hack provided on their website to unlock the full version). The keys are hosted onsite, so it may be possible for the copyright owners to sue the site, as the site's servers are US-based (63.251.92.195 whois), or people that use the keys. But it is by no means unique for this kind of thing to be published (google example). As for how they get away with it, the internet is a big place, so they may just have avoided being noticed. There are a large number of sites which host cracks, and this is by no means the worst, so it would probably be a waste of money shutting it down, as it still wouldn't increase sales (unless you shut them all down). If it's older software they may not care anyway, as it may encourage people to buy the updated version or trust their brand. Personally, I would stick to the official downloads to avoid the possibility of trojans (viruses). --h2g2bob 15:33, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

USB hubs

I'm looking to connect two (or more) computers to a single printer. Would a USB hub be able to solve my problem? --Daniel Olsen 02:38, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

No. If the computers are on the same network, you could share the printer on the network. Splintercellguy 06:06, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

To elaborate - you would use a USB hub to connect many printers to a single computer. USB Switches exist that allow you to connect multiple computers to a single USB device (see [3] for an example). I have no idea how standards-compliant they are, although I have seen them in action, and they seem to work ok. Surprisingly, Wikipedia doesn't seem to have an article on USB switches.--inks^T 08:25, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

That "USB switch" device seems to only allow one computer at a time to use the printer, and you need to press a physical button to switch which one is active. It's basically just the same as disconnecting and reconnecting USB plugs, except a little faster. Not a very elegant solution. Sharing the printer on the network would be far superior. Redquark 18:30, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

Some operating systems, like Mac OS X, allow "printer sharing". That is, if one computer is connected to a USB printer, any computer on that same network (ethernet, WiFi, or Bluetooth) may also print to that printer. --72.202.150.92 03:27, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

Webpage Help

Hi, I'm looking to make a website, but I am unsure as to use a table layout or CSS tableless layout. I tried using a table layout, but have encountered some problem. Attached is a jpeg file of a sketch of my layout and it underlines the problem and goes more in-depth with my questions. [Click Here]. Thanks. Jamesino 02:43, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

You should use CSS. There's no easy way for me to explain what to do (mostly because I suck at explaining things). Until someone posts here with something more helpful, there are several tutorials to take a look at ([4] [5] [6] [7]). Much of what I picked up was purely from examples, and there is also no shortage of those (i.e. [8] [9]). -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 07:06, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Probably like this?

HTML

<div class="banner">[BANNER]</div>::<ul class="nav"><li>[BUTTON]</li></ul>

<div class="content">

<h1>[TITLE]</h1>

<p>[TEXT]</p>

</div>

<div class="footer">[FOOTER]</div>

CSS

body { width: ??px; }

.banner { width: 100%; height:??px; }

.nav { float:left; width: ??px; }

.nav li { width: 100%; height: ??px }

.content { */content specific styles/* }

.content h1 { */title styles/* }

.content p { */main text styles/* }

.footer { width: 100%; clear: both; }

I have not tested these code and just writing off my head so there may be some silly mistakes that I overlooked. They are only the essentials to make the layout, then you can add custom graphics, borders, whatever in the CSS and HTML and do whatever you want. Just don't use WYSIWYG tools and try and learn to code. --antilived^{T | C | G} 10:09, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Definately. WYSIWYG tools are evil for learning. For the rollover, you might want to hide/unhide an element on hovering, which contains the second image (some browsers won't cache a second image if you just change it on hover, resulting in a second where there is no image). So something like:

.nav li

{

margin: 0;

padding: 0;

background: url(state1.jpg) no-repeat; /* second, covered image */

display: block;

}

.nav a

{

margin: 0;

padding: 0;

background: url(state2.jpg) no-repeat;

display: block;

}

.nav a:hover

{

visibility:hidden;

/* Hides the link element when it's rolled over, revealing the second image underneath*/

}

Or, maybe not. Again, haven't tested it. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 18:49, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

On browsers other than IE (duno about IE7), li:hover will work better than that as it hides the link itself so there's no way you can click it. Or, as you've done, just use the <a> element as a block element and apply the background to that instead, something like

.nav li a { width: 100%; background: url(normal.png) no-repeat; display: block; }

.nav li a:hover { background: url(hover.png) no-repeat; }

Or even just remove the <ul> structure and just use a bunch of <a>, the choice is yours. --antilived^{T | C | G} 21:34, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

That makes sense. Though, hiding the element instead of changing the background seems to work better as the browser loads the second image even if it's covered; otherwise when you hover it takes a second to download the new image (at least I understand that IE does this, I may be wrong). It is simpler without doing that though, and it's just a minor visual thing. Avoiding using images at all would probably be even better. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 23:51, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

I usually use a tiny 1px wide image and repeat-x it so that's no problem for me most of the time... :p --antilived^{T | C | G} 05:55, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

But how do I position my Side navigation box correctly? I used: .nav { background-image: url(image)

       height: 324px;

position:relative; top:100px; left: 167px; float: left;

    }   

but the box stays in one spot and doesn't move with the background as the background is re-sized. Jamesino 02:42, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

First of all stop using WYSIWIG programmes like Dreamweaver or Frontpage (or at least stop using the WYSIWIG portion of them). OK. What are you trying to do? What are the position:relatvie; top: 100px; left 167px; supposed to be doing? If you want to move the box down 100px or 167px to the right, use margin. Plus, you should be defining the left border of <body> using width: instead of moving each element individually unless you want a banner that is wider than the content (which would look really weird). Also, what do you mean by move with the background? Background for .nav? --antilived^{T | C | G} 11:11, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

About Wi FI

I wanted to know about Wi Fi, its use and the present state of its extent in India and abroad if possible. Thanking You.Debpop 3 10:09, 22 January 2007 (UTC) Debojyoti Dutta.

Our article on Wi-Fi is very informative and is a good start. As to its use in India, you're on your own, after all we can't do all your work for you :) --inks^T 11:05, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Wi-Fi is used the same way in India as anywhere else (without wires!). The 2.4Ghz spectrum was delicensed in India in 2005, so anyone with the equipment can use it now. Droud 13:47, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

operating system

sir i want to know what is operating system & what are the available os &which one is the best one —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 220.227.28.18 (talk) 13:01, 22 January 2007 (UTC).

Operating System. As for the best that's subjective and depends on your needs. For most people Windows or Mac OS is fine, if you need a lot of control and flexibility then something along the lines of Linux is more appropriate. --Kiltman67 14:05, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Great neutral answer! But to be more specific, for most people Windows is fine and for a far smaller number of people OS X is fine :) Just wanted to throw that out there --froth^T 19:23, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Here's a short sweet guide to what OS will be good for you:

You're

• OS indifferent
• A gamer
• wanting to be sure a popular program you want works with your OS:

You want MS Windows

You're

• Into elegant simple interfaces
• Do a lot of multimedia (images, movies, etc) editing

You want Mac OS

You're

• Computer savvy
• someone who likes to know what's "running under the hood"
• someone who wants to customize their gizmos

You want some flavor of Linux

Hope that is of some help. —Mitaphane _talk 23:50, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

My opinions:

• Windows: poorly designed, many bugs, flaws and security holes. Virtually created an entire market for stopping viruses and spyware.
• Windows Vista: even worse than Windows XP, introduces UAC, a stupid attempt to cover up its security problems. Has a crappy GUI that requires a NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX with SLI just to get the basic interface going.
• Mac OS: crashes a lot. but better than Windows 3.1
• Mac OS X: good, based on UNIX.
• GNU/Linux: even better, UNIX-like, excellent security, but a has a steep learning curve. Several GUIs avaliable, all which are faster and look better than Windows Vista Aero. Free as in Freedom as well.
• GNU/Hurd: not ready.
• iPodLinux: draws too much power off the poor iPod.
• [put something else here]

--wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 23:56, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

• Different OSs have different roles.
• I use Windows on my laptop because (brace yourself) it "just works". USB hotplugging, switching between external displays, suspend/hibernate, and all of my drivers are painless to work with. On any Linux distro I've tried, suspend/suspend2 is slow and occasionally unstable, power consumption is increased, and external displays as well as some USB devices are a pain to deal with. I'd gladly use OS X for the same ease-of-use reasoning, though I opted for a Windows laptop due to the feature-set and price. I do have an alternate partition with Ubuntu installed just for kicks.
• I use Windows on my PC for other reasons. Namely, gaming. Linux would be fine on there if only the game selection wasn't limited.
• As far as I've seen, Vista is not worse than XP. It might not be worth the upgrade, but worse? UAC is essentially sudo for Windows; the main issues with it right now lie with developer's insistence on requiring admin access for everything. Once they figure it out, and more Vista-compatible software comes out, I don't see any great problem with it. sudo is forced by default in some modern Linux distros, but as with Vista it can be disabled. Vista also adds some other features.
• And, you forgot the BSDs :o -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 23:20, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Windows aero isn't crappy, it's gorgeous, but I agree, it is pretty draining on resources. --froth^T 21:44, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

You could always see for yourself by downloading a Linux LiveCD (eg for Ubuntu or Knoppix, two types of Linux). Linux and linux software is almost always free. Mac OS / OSX only works for Mac hardware I think. The almighty Windows I assume you know already. To buy new, windows is about £150 - if it comes included with your PC it probably added about £50 to the price.

I use Linux, and I get frustrated by the windows desktop - in KDE windows will snap to the edge of the screen, you can keep windows above other windows easily, and many other things which Windows just doesn't do. It comes with lots of software which is different (but often better and nicer-looking) than the windows equivalent (Notepad → Kate, for example. Also Internet Explorer → Firefox ;-). Unfortunately, this does mean you need to learn how to use new programs. Linux comes with a Windows compatibility layer (WINE) for running windows programs, but this often doesn't work, especially for games software. --h2g2bob 16:14, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Bad Ram

I recently purchased 512mb sdram for my comp, which had 256mb before and norton utilities 2001 mem test showed that my prior ram is okay.But my norton utilities 2001 says that the new additional ram has an error and whenever i use win98 the sound control or dial up file gets corrupted and my system hangs up sometimes.

But newer CHECKIT software from Norton systemworks says that the memory works fine.Any idea whats going on? And how to accurately test this new piece of ram?i have not OVERCLOCKED my comp in any manner whatsoever. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 61.1.131.157 (talk) 13:25, 22 January 2007 (UTC).

Norton is notoriously unreliable. Use memtest86 and let it run overnight. Droud 13:43, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Indeed, didn't even know Norton had a memory test now, its kind of futile to test memory in Windows, as Windows has already allocated X megabytes for itself, that no other program can touch, definitely run Memtest. I work in a PC shop, and occasionally memory just comes from the factory bad. Nothing you would've done, its just an inevitable consequence of the manufacturing process. Cyraan 18:24, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

There's an 80mm CD stuck in my MacBook.

Apparently, MacBooks canNOT read 80mm CDs.

I'm not sure what I was thinking. The CD won't go in, nor will it be ejected. It's in there too far for me to pick it out with my hands, and I'm not stupid enough to electrocute myself with a pair of tweezers. What should I do now? I looked it up, and it said to contact Apple, but there's no obvious way to reach them about this specific problem. Any help whatsoever would be much appriciated, thanks in advance. --Ppk01 14:37, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Not sure about macs but most CD drives have a tiny hole that you can stick a paperclip in and force the CD out. Is there a small hole somewhere near your CD drive? --froth^T 17:15, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

By the way I highly doubt that you'd short something by using a pair of small pliers to pull it out (if you can see the disc from the outside) --froth^T 17:16, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

This is the MacBook in-built SuperDrive. The only hole here is the CD loading slot itself. Plus, it's too far in to be gripped with anything other than a really thin pair of tweezers (and even that seems quite tricky; I can barely see the disc as it is). --Ppk01 18:31, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

I know this sounds like a real stupid idea, but since its a laptop have you tried turning it on its side and shaking it a bit to let gravity take effect? If that doesn't free it I don't see anything that will short of disassembly. Maybe turn it off first... --66.195.232.121 19:30, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

I did actually try shaking it a bit, but I don't want to damage it. I think I'd better take it in... --Ppk01 19:47, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Are the "superdrives" removable? I have a thinkpad and there's a latch on the side that releases the entire DVD drive --froth^T 19:56, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

--Everything's built-in. Like I said, I'll take it into the local Premium Apple Reseller tomorrow and see what they make of it. Thanks for all your assistance. --Ppk01 21:09, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

I have taken 66.195's advice and given it a good shake. Lo and behold, the CD came out instantly! I obviously wasn't trying hard enough earlier. Thank you all once again for your help and assistance! --Ppk01 23:58, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

I had a similar problem once when I unknowingly slid my Halo CD in over a music CD that was already inside. It made a skin crawling sound as they were attempted to be spun. It wouldn't open no matter what, and I was scared. I restarted it and ejected both CDs. :) X [Mac Davis] (How's my driving?) 00:55, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

The problem seems to be solved, but I just wanted to throw in my 2 cents. I used to fish out metal slides from 3.5" floppies that had gotten caught in floppy drives with a bent paperclip all the time, and never electrocuted myself. --Transfinite 18:55, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

I know I'm a bit late, but restarting your mac and holding the mouse button down while it boots will make force it to eject. --saxsux 11:55, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

Windows XP Sound Device

Hey, I'm running Windows XP and have ran into some problems with sound: it's not making any! Apparently there are 'no audio devices;' there definitely are and it was working a few days ago. Does anyone know what would cause the computer to do this, and what I can do to fix it? I've tried a system restore and that didn't work... Many thanks, --Fadders 16:45, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Open up Device Manager (Control Panel->System, select the Hardware Tab, and click Device Manager), are there any yellow exclamation marks next to anything, or Unknown Devices? Cyraan 18:42, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Same thing happened to me recently, sound card dissapeared from Windows completely without warning. Solution was to physically chuck it out and replace it. You can return the new card back to the store and get your money back if it doesn't work. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 65.105.3.194 (talk) 21:56, 22 January 2007 (UTC).

Reinstall the sound card drivers. If you don't have it on a CD, check the vendor's website. --h2g2bob 16:19, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Torent

how to view torent files? --219.64.65.87 18:21, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

See our article on Bittorrent. Torrent files are used to download other files. For that you need a Bittorrent client. μTorrent is a pretty easy one to start with. For a comprehensive list, see List of bittorrent clients Oskar 18:35, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

I'd say the easiest bittorrent client would be the official "mainline" client. But yeah utorrent is the best --froth^T 19:21, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

No way, Azureus is the only way to go if you're a serious dude :D Oskar 21:14, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Ick, and invoke 50MB of JRE overhead? No thanks. Try utorrent, it has all of the features (plus DHT!) and it's muchhh smaller and faster. --froth^T 00:01, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

μTorrent has 1/100th of the features (yes, I have tried it), you can't even really compare them. The memory issue has largely been resolved, nowadays it doesn't consume all that much memory or CPU cycles. I have relatively little memory (512 mb) and I've never even noticed a problem. Hell, I've played graphics heavy games and not noticed anything! Also there is no μTorrent client for Linux, and for a dual-booter, that's very important.

And, as a final kick in the pants, μTorrent is closed source! That's a huge deal for some people in choosing an application. No, Azureus is easily the best bittorrent client out there, bar none. μTorrent is a worthy second though :D Oskar 00:53, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

I might consider using Azureus again after buying some more memory. But I might have to buy a pair of 2GB sticks, you never know with the creeping featurism that's infected some apps out there. :D --froth^T 01:20, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Ahh, there is nothing like a good ole' software flamefest! How about vi vs emacs? Ohh, I know, Micro- vs Macrokernels! :DOskar 16:27, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Vi, and micro. --froth^T 01:12, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Azureus, because it runs on Mac OS X and I have that pair of sticks. X [Mac Davis] (How's my driving?) 00:49, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

You have 4GB of main memory? A little overkill don't you think? --froth^T 01:13, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

football games on linux

What soccer games (preferably management) are available on linux /ubuntu? cheers andiman 56 —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Andiman56 (talk • contribs) 18:44, 22 January 2007 (UTC).

Bygfoot seems to match your needs nicely. --Ppk01 19:51, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Javascript/ css integration

I am using a javascript function to make a menu, then another to choose a style.

the menu maker javascript is intact, and the call for it's css file.

however, the css choser is working, but the file it calls isn't. it calls a css file baised upon a cookie that was recorded. the cookie remains, but the file isn't working. it just kinda sucks like that.

any help?Xiaden 19:38, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

So.... What is the problem? So it reads from cookie and replaces the css stylesheet? Does the CSS work by itself (ie. called directly from HTML, no javascript is involved) --antilived^{T | C | G} 21:24, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

tyra

my name is mark jones i want to know how you work

Who, Tyra Banks? See the article fo general information, but I'm fairly certain she works much in the same way as other humans- biochemical, bioelectrical, and biomechanical interactions --froth^T 20:26, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm guessing they meant how Wikipedia works. Everyone edits articles, and we hope that more people improve things than make them worse, in the long run. StuRat 20:35, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

*He/she :P Splintercellguy 00:57, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

He. In english the unknown gender pronoun is He. >:| --froth^T 01:16, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Really ? I'll have to remember that for the next time I meet somebody of indeterminate gender. StuRat 08:10, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Funny thing is I usually call animals it. How stupid of me 203.109.240.93 15:07, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Removing a page from Google's index

Hi! How can I ask to remove from Google results alink to a page where my email address appears? tia! --Ulisse0 21:50, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

If you own/control the site where the page appears, see this page on Google's webmaster support site. If not, you need to contact the webmaster of the site where your email address appears and ask them to either remove the address or remove the page from Google's index by following the instructions in that link. Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 22:05, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Line Rider

Does anyone know the lastest version of Line Rider? 68.193.147.179 21:59, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

According to our article, Line_Rider, Beta 2 - Revision 6.1--inks^T 22:07, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

AOL

What is the latest version of AOL? 68.193.147.179 22:31, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

AOL is a company. The latest version of AOL Explorer is 1.5. The latest stable version of AIM is 6.0.28.1. Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 22:35, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

American Online? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.193.147.179 (talk) 22:37, 22 January 2007 (UTC).

What about it? Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 22:44, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

You can download AOL Windows software here (and for Mac here). It appears their Windows dialup client is "AOL 9.0VR". --Spoon! 22:47, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

AOL confusingly called their dialup/portal/access software "AOL". Last I knew it was "AOL 9.0 Optimized", don't know the exact version number though. 68.39.174.238 03:00, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

I believe AOL 9.0VR is later than both AOL 9.0 Optimized and AOL 9.0 Security Edition. StuRat 08:07, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

The latest version of AOL is you don't want it. Period.--68.250.41.99 00:00, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

what kind?

What kinds of languages that are used in e-mail and how many languages are used in e-mail?--PrestonH | talk | contribs | editor review | 22:49, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Any number of languages may be used in e-mail. I've got not idea what the exact number is, and I doubt anyone does, but it's probably pretty large. If you're talking about "computer languages", then emails are generally either in plain text, or HTML with or without CSS. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 23:15, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

You can see SMTP if you want a listing of how e-mail servers talk to each other. In any case you'll need to clarify what you mean by "languages" here. If you are referring to character sets I am sure they are all supported using different character encodings. --24.147.86.187 23:32, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Well, the "languages" I was talking about was real world language (English, Spanish etc.).--PrestonH | talk | contribs | editor review | 02:19, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

In that case, I would say your question would be pretty close to the same as "how many languages are there on the planet". By now, I reckon even the most poverty stricken third world countries would have at least some of their infrastructire on the internet. Vespine 03:20, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Ask at the language desk how many languages there are --froth^T 06:47, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

help running a command line program in OS X

I downloaded gnuplot (PPC build) which should be able to run in X11 assuming I installed aquaterm (which I did). But I can't get it to run. When I navigate to usr/local/bin, I can see "gnuplot" in there, but when I type "gnuplot" at the prompt I just get: "-bash: gnuplot: command not found". The file is definitely there. I've tried it in my default terminal as well as the X11 terminal program. What am I doing wrong? (I have been able to run some X11 programs without a hassle, like Inkscape, but this one has stumped me.) --24.147.86.187 23:32, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

/usr/local/bin/gnuplot? --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 23:35, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Well, that gets a somewhat different response, but is probably the way to do it. Do you always have to type out the full path? --24.147.86.187 00:22, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

You could put /usr/local/bin in your search path. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 01:24, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

In Unix it's not automatic to check the current directory for a program to run; typically programs are stored all together in one place (or a few places) where you almost never are working, so it's just confusing to have to worry about where you are affecting what your command means. If you like, you can add . to your search path, but it's often disrecommended. To add things to your search path (aka $PATH), use export PATH="$PATH:foo"; to do so "permanently", put that in your .bash_login or so. --Tardis 16:21, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

When you are in the directory of the program, type ./(program name) That should geet you goin' :) --Ryan 00:29, 24 January 2007 (UTC)