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March 27

Important question regarding Google Voice

I have just started using Google Voice with a friend. They are not local to my but my Google number has the same first digits as theirs, eg (xxx)xxx-???? with x's being the same.

If i text them or they text me, will they be charged? If i call them, or they call me, will they be charged?

I know its free to me but i worry about them. Also, might it depend on the area code and specific location? If so, how do i find this information?

Thanks! 137.81.118.126 (talk) 01:32, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

Google Voice to Google Voice texts and calls are free. Texts to Google Voice are free to the recipient. Texts from Google Voice (provided they go through) are free to the sender. Only calls to destinations outside the U.S. and Canada are charged on Google Voice[1]. It looks like your friend is also on Google Voice, so have fun! If they had a real mobile phone, they would typically pay for usage both sending and receiving, depending on the plan. To use Google Voice paid services, you have to deposit money in advance, so you won't incur a surprise bill. -- ke4roh (talk) 01:49, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

My friend does NOT have google voice. I chose my google number to be in their area code. This is what im worried about.

You seem to be saying a person not having google voice will pay money to receive and send texts? Same for calls i assume? 137.81.118.126 (talk) 02:54, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

Depends on their phone plan. If it's a land-line phone they can probably receive calls for no charge. If it's a cel-phone, it will count against their voice minutes. They might or might not have to pay for those. There's no way for us to know, you'd have to ask your friend what plan they signed up for.

(My own plan gives me unlimited voice and data, but I get charged for texts! Insane.) APL (talk) 03:59, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

strange behavior of facebook

For about the past week when I view facebook.com on either firefox or google chrome on my home computer, it behaves differently from the way it did earlier and from the way it behaves on other computers.

• I click on my own profile and nothing happens. I cannot view my own profile.
• I click on a picture someone posted, and instead of showing me the comments to the right of the picture it shows me a blank white space. But when I'm just viewing my wall, I can see that people have posted comments.
• At the bottom of my wall there's the perpetual moving icon normally seen while it's loading material that will appear within a matter of seconds, but it goes on for hours and nothing more appears below it.

Another strange behavior began at the same time. When I start typing a URL into the bar to point the browser at it, once I've typed "fac", or maybe less, the whole URL used to appear below that where I could click on it. Similarly with other URLs I've been to before. That stopped happening at the same time.

What's going on? Michael Hardy (talk) 03:57, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

And it's only with Facebook? For instance, if you start typing "en.wiki" then it will complete that to come here but trying to get to Facebook the same way, it will not? Dismas|^(talk) 04:19, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

Strangely, this has ceased as suddenly as it began. Michael Hardy (talk) 23:07, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

can SolidWorks 2011/2012 do video export?

My engineer has a detailed 3D model in SW 2011/2012 (we have licenses for both) and I would like a video clip of the model revolving 360 degrees around its vertical axis. The current approach is to export a series of PNG renders at fixed intervals and stitch them together using ffmpeg. I was wondering if such a simple "revolve once" video could instead be created entirely within SW. My engineer is not a SW expert and does not know. Wading through the massive online help for SW was inconclusive. Can this be done? Rendering time is irrelevant, we have good hardware... The Masked Booby (talk) 14:24, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

Can you rotate the object 360 now, at full resolution, but can't export this ? If so, perhaps some type of screencasting software could grab that. StuRat (talk) 21:26, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

Sort of. You can rotate freely of course but to produce (nearly) photorealistic exports there is a special plug-in that, in this instance, requires about an hour to render one PNG. So manually rotating and using screencapping software would get you a very low-res version of what I want, as it would be capturing the "working" model not the rendered model with shadows, reflections, and what not. The Masked Booby (talk) 23:33, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

If SolidWorks won't do this, another option might be to export the solid model to another system which will. StuRat (talk) 23:56, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

Problem with SOAP used from C#

Today I ran into a rather difficult problem at work. We are developing a C# application which communicates with an external web service, written in Java, developed and maintained by a third party. When the C# application sends a SOAP message, using a C# client class generated by the computer from a WSDL description, it throws an exception with the message "No deserializer registered", followed by the name of the root element in the body of the SOAP message, and the WSDL description's root namespace. I have verified both of these are mentioned in the WSDL description. However, when I sent the same SOAP message that the C# application generated through SoapUI, I got a proper response from the web service. I set up a mock web service in SoapUI to always return a direct copy-paste of this response, and changed the application to use that instead. Then everything went smoothly. What possible difference could there be between contacting the real web service directly and contacting a mock web service that returns the exact same response? JIP | Talk 19:05, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

Install wireshark on one of the machines, and add a capture filter for the other machine, then start capturing. Rerun the WSDL query, stop the capture, right click on a TCP packet, and select "Follow TCP conversation". You can then see what the client and server sent to each other. Wireshark makes protocol analysis a breeze. CS Miller (talk) 19:19, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

OK, I might give it a try. There is the problem that neither of the machines are exactly owned by our company. The client is our customer's on-site test machine, which we have access to. The server is the third party's test machine, which we don't have access to. This means that I will have to e-mail a contact person at the third party and instruct him what to do. JIP | Talk 19:31, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

You can also install wireshark on a third machine. You'll need a network tap, a hub (good luck getting one), a smart switch with a network-monitor port, or set the third machine to act as a bridge. However, some ADSL/wifi/four-port-ethernet home routers do use hubs; turn off DHCP/DNS on it. SOAP/WSDL are XML formatted request/replies, so as you surmised, white space shouldn't matter, but buggy implementations are a different matter. CS Miller (talk) 20:06, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

Alternative to Finder

Finder sucks. I can deal with it most of the time, but dragging files to move them is VERY annoying. Is there a free alternative to Finder that has a "move to" option up in the application menu like Windows File Explorer? --Melab±1 ☎ 20:11, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

mv is available on OS X. Nimur (talk) 20:47, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

You can use automator to create an action applicable to all files that matches this functionality, and add it to the right click on file[s]. Remember to test your programming. Fifelfoo (talk) 02:43, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Looking for free Java editor

Does anyone here know free Java editor that can debug Java script which is embedded in HTML? --Gilisa (talk) 21:03, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

You should clarify: are you seeking a JavaScript or a Java programming language utility? Despite their similar names, and some historical legacy, JavaScript is essentially unrelated to Java. It sounds like you want a JavaScript debugger: we list several in the Development Tools section of our article. Nimur (talk) 21:33, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

Answering machine which requires hitting a button to save a message

I recently asked what appears to have been an overly ambitious question: Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Computing/2012_March_13#Interactive_voice_response_recommendation_.3F. Let me lower my standards considerably to see if I can get a recommendation (and thanks to everyone who tried last time):

1) I'd like an answering machine that will not record a message unless the person on the other end hits a button on their phone.

2) If they don't have a touch-tone phone, I'm fine with them not being able to leave a message. The object is to avoid having to listen to anything from a robocalling politician or telemarketer.

3) Alternatively, the answering machine can record such messages, so long as they go into a separate mailbox and do not use up space from the other mailboxes. I will then just let the robocaller mailbox overflow and ignore it.

Any recommendations ? StuRat (talk) 22:42, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

I'm not sure where you live, but trueCall had a brief time of high profile in the UK after featuring on Dragons' Den (UK). It doesn't seem to be internationally available or compatible, though. 77.97.198.48 (talk) 23:10, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

I live in the US. I wasn't aware that the UK and US had different formats for phone lines or caller ID (which is apparently required for that product). StuRat (talk) 23:18, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

We have an old GE machine here at work lke this. It has three different boxes. I can't find the instructions but I think if you don't press a button to one of the other boxes it defaults to #1. So with something like that and your message sending the robocaller or telemarketer to the default (they don't press a button) and your friends and family to box 2 or 3 might work for you. CambridgeBayWeather (talk) 01:34, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

I've seen those, but thought that all mailboxes share the same allocation, so that box 1 overfills not only itself but also boxes 2 and 3. StuRat (talk) 03:29, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

I think I suggested this before - why not register with a do-not-call list? I am very pleased with the results on my phone. Alternatively, my sister has a useful method. Her machine is permanently full and she never picksup the messages. Unknown callers listen to the message and try to leave a message (I'm not sure it tells the caller that it is full - maybe messages just get dumped). Anyone who actually knows her, knows not to leave a message and instead to call back later or call her mobile. Astronaut (talk) 12:34, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

Politicians exempted themselves from Do Not Call regulations in the US. --LarryMac | Talk 15:24, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

Exactly, which is why I need to get this settled well before the general US election in November, when my phone will once again become unusable, due to robocalling politicians, as it did during our primary. (Actually, they will probably resume robocalling as soon as a the Republican candidates are decided upon.) StuRat (talk) 18:09, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

Why not relocate to Europe until all the Chads have been scrutinized and counted? You will also get the chance to meet all sorts of interesting people, non-people and life-forms that we don't yet have a term for. It'll be fun! --Aspro (talk) 18:37, 28 March 2012 (UTC)--Aspro (talk) 18:37, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

Perhaps I should move to Chad ? I wonder if Chad Everett lives there. StuRat (talk) 18:40, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

How about the GE 29869? The user manual is found here, which states "You can direct callers to leave messages in a specific mailbox by having them press the desired mailbox (1-4) after the greeting plays. If no mailbox is selected, the incoming messages automatically go into mailbox 1." This seems to meet the requirement of directing robots into a 'junk' mailbox. The only thing I can't ascertain is if the capacity is independent of the other 3 mailboxes. There is a 40 minute capacity, but I can't find anything that says if it's shared or not. However, it is possible to empty mailbox 1 without having to listen to the messages and without deleting messages in the other mailboxes, so maybe you could just incorporate dumping the junk messages once a week or so into your routine. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 15:06, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

Yes, if I can't find any answering machine which does exactly what I want, that's what I will end up doing. StuRat (talk) 18:07, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

There's stuff like this (and, since that is apparently discontinued, the page links to alternatives). A better solution would probably be to connect your phone line to an ATA and then use Asterisk or the like to implement a challenge & response system, or perhaps something meaner. :D ¦ Reisio (talk) 23:24, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

March 28

ps3 superwihte option

I have my ps3 hooked up to my 23 hp monitor over hdmi-dvi and been wondering as to what this option is better set to (that is Y Pb / Cb Pr / Cr Super-White (HDMI)) I got that RGB should be set to full if it's to be connected to a pc monitor, deep color hdmi- also should be auto, but this(Super-White ), is it better off being left off or on???

thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.35.25.237 (talk) 06:19, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

The only thing I can recomend is trying it and seeing what you like the best. Mrlittleirish 08:05, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

i just wanna know whether deep color output and that superwhite shit affect games if theyre only there for bluerayss and other media video than i could care less what they do

If I understand it correctly, it shouldn't affect games either way. If I'm wrong, and superwhite does require extra graphics processing, and you see a lag while playing games with it on, then turn it back off. StuRat (talk) 18:04, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

TMP???.EXE issue

Since I did a full OS reinstall, my temp directory is crawling with EXE files, named tmp100.exe, tmp163.exe, and so on. Only some 3-digit numbers appear, but it goes on and on. Is that a virus?

The TMP EXEs degrade performance and occupy more RAM than the OS itself (XP). They keep popping up after deletion if at all possible; they are quite malicious in that they seem to trick Explorer most of the time into displaying nonsensical message boxes. For example, that TMP100 (rather than TMP100.EXE!) "cannot be deleted... check if the drive is neither full" (it's only half full btw, nothing more) "nor read-only" (it's an ordinary HDD, even Bill Gates knows that they aren't read-only media) "and if it is in use by another process" (so even the OS can't say which one is the process which keeps hugging the file -- WTF???) I can reboot and delete the files then, but what I really want is to kill the process which keeps downloading EXEs without my say-so, even if it's not a virus. 217.251.154.175 (talk) 11:24, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

Did you reinstall from official Microsoft media, or from something you got off the internet? 87.114.248.222 (talk) 12:00, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

That error message is uninformative, but common, and consistent with the files being legitimate. When you say that they're taking up RAM, do you mean that they're actually running, according to Task Manager? Anyway, don't randomly delete files in system directories; you should run a reputable anti-malware program instead. I believe that some people here have good suggestions. Paul (Stansifer) 18:58, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

This says it is malware. Run a good anti-malware program. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 00:27, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Uh... that site is an obvious scam. If you download the proffered "Fix-tmp100.exe" and run it, then you'll probably have malware. -- BenRG (talk) 02:41, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

[2] finds a very old malware with such a file name. However I agree with 87 here, you need to work out how you got this rather then just trying to kill a few of the symptoms, particularly if you don't know enough to work out how to delete the files or find the process spawing the files yourself. If for example you install Windows XP from some random media you got off the internet and didn't in any way try to verify the authenticity of what you downloaded, then it's easily possible the installation was screwed from the beginning and it's unlikely to be a good idea to try to save it. Nil Einne (talk) 04:10, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

87.114.248.222: XP from genuine Microsoft CD, and most programs (VLC, Winamp, Firefox and OpenOffice) from magazine DVD.

Paul: They are not in the system directory, but in the temp directory. Timestamps indicate they are downloaded while I'm dialed-up. Some appear in the process list, and I can kill the processes with no noticeable effect (except RAM and CPU usage, which is quite noticeable).

Oh, and if the OS cannot even pinpoint if it's running out of HDD space, experiencing a write error, or the file is already open (which would be detected before there is an actual access on the media), I doubt that the EXE files are anywhere good at all. They don't give the correct file name either.

Bubba73: What to say about that, besides Wikipedia:WHACK! ;)

Nil Einne: the media were genuine. The only EXEs I downloaded were Povray, Fractint, and some drivers. I'll have a look at the link you provided.

217.251.166.4 (talk) 05:25, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

For the record, I have the following files from yesterday: tmp166.exe tmp168.exe tmp163.exe tmp167.exe tmp161.exe tmp165.exe, in that order. I could delete all of them without any issues, probably because they are from yesterday's Windows session. None were running today. 217.251.160.76 (talk) 05:31, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

"When I was dialed up". You're on dialup then I take it? Is your XP fully up to date? Do you have a decent firewall? An out of date copy of XP will be compromised within minutes of going onto the internet, without you having to do anything, and the updates you will have to download are probably quite huge for a dialup user. If I were you I'd try and get a copy of Windows XP with SP3 preinstalled from somewhere reliable. 192.84.79.2 (talk) 10:33, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

You should run an anti-malware program. The error message is perfectly normal, but the fact that executables with those names are running is a bad sign. There's no point in attempting to fix the problem manually unless you're an expert. Paul (Stansifer) 20:23, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Isn't there anything in-between? Like something to keep programs creating EXE files unless the user tells them to do so (which will amount to blocking all non-setup programs -- I don't code on my machine, or even ALL programs once the installation is complete). I'll try to get SP3 rather than SP2, but from what I've noticed, Bill Gates doesn't seem to close security holes anyway, just replace them with newer holes which the hackers don't know. One week later, they find out, and the process repeats itself...

"The error message is perfectly normal"? I'd say we used to have better error messages in the DOS years. At least we were asked if we wanted to "Retry/Abort/Ignore", rather than to press a nonsensical "OK" button for something that's not at all OK. If that's "normal" behavior, I have to wonder if Micro$oft ever uses its own products... but i digress...

I'll reinstall from a SP3 CD and see if that helps. By then, the topic will probably have fallen off the top of the reference desk. Will I have to start another topic or add to this one?

217.251.152.159 (talk) 05:30, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Having malware on your machine is a serious problem, often in non-visible ways. Don't treat just the obvious symptoms. Also, service packs primarily consist of security refinements, so it is prudent to keep up-to-date, even though it is annoying. Paul (Stansifer) 14:26, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Reinstalled. The issue seems resolved for now, but I still have to reinstall the applications and some drivers. BTW, I used a "XP+SP3" CD (as the IP user called it, "Windows XP with SP3 preinstalled"), only that it was not "from somewhere reliable", but from Micro$oft. LOL.

BTW, how would XP be "compromised within minutes of going onto the internet"? IMO that's an overstatement.

It's not like it would broadcast that a fresh copy of XP just went on-line, how would malware find it then? Or did you mean it would be infected that fast on certain obscure warez sitez? If it were like that, I'd re-reinstall XP without any SPs, as they only seem to double the boot time, and occupy twice as much RAM and HDD space (SP3 vs. SP0). The only web sites I use are WP, Commons, Yahoo, povray.org, Flicker, and the official sites of other software (mainly drivers), and I don't accept ANY mail with attachments. 217.251.158.24 (talk)

I don't know whether that's true or not, but it's not too implausible, given that the attackers have access to botnets which can just try every single IP address. For example, yesterday there were about a hundred malicious attempts to SSH into the machine I'm writing on. Attacks on vulnerable Windows services might be even more common, seeing as there are probably more newly-installed XP machines than Unix machines with root remote login enabled and guessable passwords. Paul (Stansifer) 18:33, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

name of deciding input for a logic gate

What is the name for the logic input which decides the o/p of a logic gate? for example, a logic zero effectively decides the o/p of an and gate irrespective of other inputs. 117.230.35.251 (talk) 15:56, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

Image processing- Applying a gradient of defocus through an image

Hi,

I'm looking to apply a blurring of an image so that the top appears sharp and in focus and the bottom blurry with a nice linearity in-between.

I understand that blurring can be performed by applying a Gaussian blur kernel, however I'm not sure how to weight this like I mentioned.

Would anyone know how or know of any resources which discuss how this may be done? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kingstonjr (talk • contribs) 17:27, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

Are you looking to write your own program to do this, write a macro for an existing app, or use an existing tool ? And is this a one-time thing, or do you need to do this regularly ? StuRat (talk) 17:58, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

Sounds very much like your requiring the techniques used in sudo-tilt -shift. [3]. The best free software for doing this is GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) [4] Does Gaussian blur, and everything, other than make you a really good cup tea (or coffee).--Aspro (talk) 18:18, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

Hi, well at the moment I'm using a combination of Python and ImageJ, ideally I'd like to code my own program for this in python as part of an existing program, but I won't be turning out high volumes of images so this doesn't need to be done at high frequency. KingstonJr (talk) 18:28, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

OK, for a high volume I was going to suggest an editable graph where you can adjust the exact rate of blurring as a function of vertical distance (similar to how many systems allow you to adjust brightness, colors, etc.), but for a low volume I'd just hard-code the rate of blurring and rewrite it when you need to change it. StuRat (talk) 18:35, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

OK thanks, so how exactly do I do that, I have a depth map varying vertically from 0 to 255 do I apply a Gaussian convolution kernel on that and then multiply onto my sample image? KingstonJr (talk) 18:44, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

I'm not familiar with the "Gaussian convolution kernel", but I'd assume it has variables for both the amount of blur between adjacent pixels and/or the distance at which pixels are blurred together. So, each of those variables would then change linearly. Not sure how they handle edges and corners, though, as there you lack some of the neighboring pixels to blur with. Cropping the pic a bit on all sides might be needed there, with more blurring requiring more cropping. StuRat (talk) 18:50, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

More theory than you ever wanted! On non-stationary convolution and inverse convolution. Because the gaussian kernel is so trivial, you probably won't have stability issues, but as always, check the math to ensure whatever algorithmically-generated coefficients you create are sensible. Nimur (talk) 18:57, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

And, an efficient implementation in FORTRAN. Source code is available. If you don't care about efficiency, you can avoid the helix, and use a simple 2D FIR filter with a gaussian kernel with a 2-dimensional python array. In truth, it's debatable which will run faster, on modern hardware, due to memory locality and caches. Nimur (talk) 19:07, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

And, for the less-technical user, here's a cheat, from a GIMP user's forum post: duplicate your layer; use a strong blur; and alpha-blend it on top of the original un-blurred layer, using a gradient alpha mask. This is not identical to a position-weighted blur; but it's visually similar, and easier to make happen without writing a GIMP plugin. Nimur (talk) 19:48, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

Is there a phone app that detects being inside polite areas, and auto-silence the phone?

How such an app would work: The app works with your phone's GPS to detect that you're inside a symphony hall, school building, church, or other structures where higher manners are expected. Once you are, it automatically switches your ringer to vibrate (or silent, depending on preferences set.)

Is there such an app in existence out there? (Preferably for Android phones?)

If not, what would it take to program said app? What new advances would it require to make this possible? --129.130.18.69 (talk) 21:09, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

Sort of. Apps exist, such as Tasker, Llama and Locale that allow you to manage aspects of your Android phone based on predefined locations. So, if you want your phone to turn the ringer off when you get to work, you set 'Work' as a location, and tell it to be silent when you are at the location 'Work'. With this function, you could set all the places you might be likely to visit and need to be quiet, and set the phone to be silent when you are there. But if you wanted to go to the next step, and pro-actively determine the type of location you are in, and manage the phone based on that, these apps won't help. However, Tasker is slightly more powerful than the other two listed, and allows a large amount of customisation. If you have some coding knowledge, it might be possible to design some system that polls the location, checks the coordinates to see if your location includes any 'quiet places', and then mutes the phone. You can get information on developing with Tasker at http://tasker.dinglisch.net/. I suspect, though, that this might be a rather ambitious project! - Cucumber Mike (talk) 21:41, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

(ec with Mike) As to the last part of your question - I made the same complaint back in 2006. Potentially, things are better now, because so many people carry smart phones for which apps like the one you describe could reasonably be written. A modern smartphone usually has Bluetooth and WiFi capability, so one could implement a scheme where a given Wifi SSID (or something comparable on Bluetooth) could be taken as a signal to mute. There's always the risk some prankster uses that to disable ringing in other, non-quiet locations, or some business like a mini-mall with daft ideas misuses it or mis-installs it (so you miss a call because some crank who owns a laundromat is bleeding the "go silent" SSID out over the shared parking lot). A better regulated system (say with a cryptographic exchange) where the senders were available only to institutions with some reasonable need for one (after all, if you don't trust the system, you'll uninstall the app) might be sensible. Say you rent out the "go silent" emitters, and the proceeds go to some worthy charity. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 21:47, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

And someone in that Slashdot discussion (ah, back when Slashdot was worthwhile) linked to this 2000 article about the Q-Zone technology, which is pretty much what you're after. I can't find any mention of (that) Q-Zone (at least under that name), suggesting it didn't fly. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 22:01, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

I had an idea. How about using Tasker in conjunction with Foursquare to give you nearby venues in specific categories. Then, if you are <100m from a venue whose category = 'school', 'church', etc, it will mute the phone. Here's a script to allow auto-checkin - you might be able to modify that to check for a venue's category. Documentation on Foursquare's api is here - I'm afraid you'll have to get someone else to help with the coding if needed - that's a bit out of my league! - Cucumber Mike (talk) 22:53, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

One issue I see is that this is likely to depend on time, location within the building (if you're even within the building) and person. For example, a priest or minister in their office or whatever may not want their phone to be on silent unless they're meeting someone or if there is a mass or similar in progress even if that is part of the church. And while a student or parent may want their phone to be silent most of the time, and a teacher may want it on silent while in a classroom, depending on the the etiquette they may not want it while in the teachers lounge or their office, let alone a principal. Even a student may want it on at some times. Nil Einne (talk) 23:52, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

GNU/Linux: ln -s dereference "."

When I type

ln -s ./Interface ~/.wine/drive_c/Interface

I get a symlink that points to itself. How do I specify to ln that by "." I mean the current working directory (meaning that it should resolve "." before building the symlink, rather than leaving it to be resolved when the link is followed)? NeonMerlin 23:26, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

You can't do that with a "." because the symlink target is always interpreted relative to the directory that holds the link. The symlink as stored on disk won't remember where you were sitting when you created the link, so you have to include that path to "get back here from there" as part of the symlink target. The easiest way is to use the absolute path of your current directory, which you can get from the shell variable $PWD.

ln -s $PWD/Interface ~/.wine/drive_c/Interface

If you don't like that, you have to imagine that you're already in the ~/.wine/drive_c directory, and write the path you'd use to get back to where you are now. If you're currently in ~/foo you could do

ln -s ../../foo/Interface ~/.wine/drive_c/Interface

That can be easier to understand if you cd to the ~/.wine/drive_c directory and run

ln -s ../../foo/Interface Interface

which you can abbreviate as

ln -s ../../foo/Interface .

68.60.252.82 (talk) 01:15, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

March 29

Digital TV question

I finally have propelled myself out of the Stone Age and bought a DTV-compatible television. Right now, I'm using regular rabbit ears (ones I used back in the '90s) to catch a signal. It looks good, but I can't tell whether or not it's HD. So, must an antenna be "HDTV-compatible" to catch an HD signal? Or will any antenna do? 75.162.160.104 (talk) 01:30, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Pretty much any antenna will work, to some extent. However, normal TV antennae have both a loop for UHF and rabbit ears for VHF. Most digital stations are on UHF, so that loop is the more important, but your really should have both. If you tell me where you live, I can tell you if you have UHF or VHF stations there (you can't just go off the channel numbers anymore).

The biggest clue that you are watching digital TV is that the channels are now like 7.1 or 7-1, instead of just 7. Also, when you get a weak signal, the behavior is quite different. Instead of getting "snow" on the screen, it freezes up, forms big blocks, goes black, and says "No signal". Another way to tell the difference is when reading text, like the credits at the end of a movie. If they are fuzzy, it's probably analog. If they are sharp, it's digital. StuRat (talk) 01:33, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

I live in Salt Lake City. I know I'm receiving digital channels—I just don't know if they're showing up in HD (because of the age of my antenna). The aspect ratio is what one would expect with HD, but I can't tell if picture quality is to that level (I believe it is, but you know how we can all start second guessing sometimes). 75.162.160.104 (talk) 01:40, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

In Salt Lake City, it looks like all the stations are on UHF now, so you can toss out the rabbit ears and just use the loop (unless it's an integrated unit with both). You seem to be lucky, living in a flat city surrounded by mountains, which is about ideal for broadcasting. You should get the following stations there:

 2-1 CBS
 4-1 ABC
 5-1 NBC
 7-1 PBS
 9-1 PBS
11-1 PBS
13-1 FOX
14-1 MyTV
16-1 ION
20-1 Independent
24-1 Independent
30-1 CW
32-1 Univision

This lists the first sub-channel for each station, but there might be others, like 2-2, 2-3, 2-4, 2-5. With digital TV, you can have up to 5 sub-channels for each station. Some stations may elect to show programming from other networks, such as RTN, on some of their subchannels. Others may offer duplicate programming at either different times, or in different formats (1080i vs. 720p).

As for the picture quality, I still suggest trying to read the tiny credits at the end of a movie.

I'm also curious, since analog TV has been shut off for quite some time now, does this mean you've gone without a TV since then ? StuRat (talk) 01:50, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Also, if you do have reception problems, you might consider a directional antenna, since all stations seem to originate from the same area, SWS of the city (with the exception of Univision, which is almost due south). StuRat (talk) 02:13, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for the response. For whatever reason, I'm not receiving KSL-TV (NBC) at all. All other channels work except that one. Hmm. Perhaps I might consider getting a directional antenna.

To answer your question, I was using a digital-to-analog converter box to view television (on a non-HD-compatible television).

And I switched between an HD and non-HD newscast, and I'm almost positive I'm viewing true HD. Thanks for your help! 67.2.250.140 (talk) 04:20, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Regarding the missing station: This should be a strong signal, as it's from the same location as the rest, the highest power level of any of them, and at the frequency of old UHF channel 38, which is right in the middle of the group. (Here's where I got that info, just enter your city in the upper, left corner, then click on the call letters for more info: [5].) So, a directional antenna probably won't help. Did you get this station with your digital-to-analog converter box ? If your TV works by initially building a list of available channels during a scan, then just flips between those on the list, this system has a major flaw: any station not broadcasting during the scan is then permanently blocked. So, if they were doing maintenance or otherwise down when the scan occurred, your TV will never find it. Better TVs have an "EZ add" option which will rescan, and just add any new channels found, or allow you to type in the broadcast channel (38, in this case), and add it that way. You might also be able to type in 38 on the remote and see it jump to the virtual channel 5-1 without changing the list. Some TVs, unfortunately, make you rescan the entire list, meaning you might add the missing channels, but lose any others which are down for maintenance now. If none of this helps, you can report the problem to the station, here: [6]. StuRat (talk) 05:37, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Age of antenna or quality of signal has nothing to do with resolution in DTV. A bad signal makes pictures freeze and go blocky, not fuzzy. Many 21st Century TV sets have a "Menu" button whose menu shows technical information about the signal you're watching including such numbers as "1080i" for resolution. Jim.henderson (talk) 04:55, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Are there still any over-the-air that aren't HD? I assumed that the DTV switchover would have coincided with an HD shift as well. (I know they aren't the same thing). Mingmingla (talk) 23:58, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

In the US, major network channels are HD, and sometimes have one or two SD subchannels. Other channels sometimes choose to fit 4, 5, or 6 SD subchannels (and no HD channels) into their channel stream. --Bavi H (talk) 05:24, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

No, there are still over-the-air networks that aren't HD. Two that I can think of off the top of my head are my local ION and TBN stations. Heck, I even still get two analog channels (SkyTrak weather and an analog version of ION). - Purplewowies (talk) 14:55, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

> I can't tell whether or not it's HD.

As Jim.henderson said, most digital TVs will have an Info button on the remote that will show information about the current program. This information might include the format currently being broadcast (like 480i, 720p, or 1080i), or maybe just an HD icon (if the resolution is 720p or 1080i).

You can also find resolution information for over-the-air digital channels at SiliconDust channel list or RabbitEars.Info lists. For RabbitEars, click on the city name (NOT the rank number), then click on the channel call letters. Or type a channel call sign in the search box at the top. --Bavi H (talk) 05:37, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

> Must an antenna be "HDTV-compatible" to catch an HD signal? Or will any antenna do?

As Jim.henderson said, the antenna has no effect on if you get an SD or HD resolution. As a rough analogy, imagine viewing an image on a website over your home wireless network. The image resolution might be small or large, but the quality of the wireless signal doesn't affect the resolution of the image. In a similar way, your TV antenna and the quality of the TV signal doesn't affect the channel resolution format. The resolution is just a format flag encoded in the channel's digital data.

The same kinds of antennas are used for analog and digital TV signals because they're transmitted on the same channel frequencies. However, when digital TV signals get weaker, the picture will get blocky or go out completely, whereas analog TV signals remain visible with much weaker signals. If you can't get a certain digital channel, try repositioning your antenna then rescanning. For example, you might move the antenna higher, rotate it 90 degrees, or move it further away from any appliances. Instead of rescanning every time, you can try a process like StuRat mentioned. For KSL, try entering 38.1 on the remote and see if you get a black screen with a "no signal" message. If you do, you can also try turning on the signal meter, if your TV has one. Change the antenna position, then wait a few seconds to see if the signal meter or picture improves.

If that still doesn't help, you might look for a higher quality antenna. Some antennas marked as HD or digital are designed to pick up weaker signals or have amplifiers to help improve the signal. But in general, "HD" or "digital" marks on an antenna are misleading, because an antenna can't tell if it's getting analog or digital, HD or SD. An antenna just receives signals in the frequency range it was designed for, and it's up to the TV to tune/filter to a single channel frequency and decode if the signal is analog or digital, SD or HD. --Bavi H (talk) 05:37, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

It still doesn't sound like an antenna issue, for the reasons I mentioned previously. If that station was farther away, broadcasting at a reduced power, at a different frequency distant from the rest, or in another direction, then I might agree. Similarly if the symptoms were macro-blocking, freezing, and a periodic "No signal" message. But none of this applies in this case. StuRat (talk) 20:20, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Remembering logins in Firefox

Here is the landing page for a web-based financial application called MoneyGuide Pro. In their latest rework of the website, the login ID/PW are now behind/under the green oval dropdown box on the right side.

Can I make Firefox remember this login? I've been unsuccessful with my limited efforts...

--DaHorsesMouth (talk) 02:50, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

That form has the autocomplete=off attribute set. This Greasemonkey will fix it for you. --Sean 14:18, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Cannot access Google groups when logged in

When I try to view any google group I get a box saying "An error occurred while communicating with the server. Reload". Reloading just gives the same message again. If I log out or use an incognito window I can see public groups. This happens at work and at home, on Windows and Linux so it is not a problem with my local system. Any ideas what's wrong or where to report it? -- Q Chris (talk) 15:04, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Do you have a Google Apps account? This page (sorry, but it's a Google Groups page!) has a collection of people having problems with viewing Google Groups from a Google Apps account. It sounds unlike what you're experiencing, but I haven't been able to find anyone else with the problem you're having. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 19:34, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

No I have an ordinary google account. On the web I have found other people report the same thing, but no solution. here is one group I cannot access when logged in.

Packet

What are packets?? exatcly?? I mean on thewikipedia article of packet it says that packets are bits transfered from 1 computer to another, so an HTTP get request can be considered a packet??? Let's say I somehow got 1 raw packet, if I open it with notepad, would I see gibberish?(binary) or would I see something human readable, or both?? 190.60.93.218 (talk) 17:38, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

I'd expect a mixture, unless it's encoded for security, then it would all be gibberish. StuRat (talk) 17:40, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

My question is kinda.. How computers understand them? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 190.60.93.218 (talk) 18:07, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Because computers can understand binary? One of the reasons certain files look like gibberish is that they're encoding numbers as binary numbers, rather than the ASCII code for the symbolic representation. For example, say a computer wants to store a value of "nine". If it's storing it as just a binary number, it would be as 00001001. On the other hand, if it wants to store the character "9", that would be 00111001 in ASCII. But if it tried to interpret 00001001 as an ASCII character, it would be as the horizontal tab control character, and if it tried to interpret 00111001 as a binary number, it would be as the quantity fifty-seven. That's why binary files look like gibberish when you open them with a text editors. The file is storing numbers as binary numbers, but the text editor is trying to interpret them as ASCII codes, resulting in undecipherable noise. -- 140.142.20.101 (talk) 18:53, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Binary files are compiled in such a way that they tell the processor (or the os) what to do, they're made with compilers. etc...

They also have information about IP and stuff, Where is it stored? For example when you are downloading a file, they're divided in packets. I suppose they got a header, and a piece of the file you are currently downloaders, (like HTTP requests) Are HTTP requests packets too? for example

GET /enwiki/w/Packet_sniffer /HTTP/1.1
Host: http://en.wikipedia.org/
User-Agent: None lol
Accept-Language: en-US
Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate,sdch
Connection: keep-alive

Well, that's an http request. It would be like a packet??? 190.60.93.218 (talk) 19:09, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

A packet is like a postcard with an addressee, a return address, and a "payload" (the message written on it). On the Internet all data is sent in packets. However, almost all data, including HTTP requests and downloaded files, is sent using TCP, which treats the data as a continuous stream (breaking it into packets internally, but not in a way that's visible to the program that uses TCP). So that HTTP request might be sent as a single packet, or split into several packets, or bundled with other data (such as POST data) in a single packet. -- BenRG (talk) 19:28, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Exactly. What you define as a packet depends on which layer of abstraction you're talking about. TCP packets may not be the same as Ethernet packets. You should think of packets as a way of breaking up data into chunks, and then to apply certain things to those chunks... things like destination address, checksums, maybe other flags. Each protocol that deals with the underlying data will do this itself. You might investigate Wireshark as this will show you the actual packets themselves. Shadowjams (talk) 00:44, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

One issue is that there isn't a single thing as a packet - at least for network communication, there's typically several layers. See the figure in Internet Protocol for an example. In a typical web request, the network card on your computer will emit an Ethernet packet which wraps an Internet Protocol packet which wraps a Transmission Control Protocol packet which wraps Hypertext Transfer Protocol data. Your IP address is technically part of the Internet Protocol layer. For IPv4 (the dotted quad addresses), the form of the packet header is detailed at IPv4#Packet_structure. As you can see from that section, the information is positionally encoded in binary form in the header of the packet. For example, the IP address of where you're sending it to is bits 192 to 159 (effectively bytes 16 to 19, inclusive) of the header. As you can see from the size, it's not sent as a text representation, but as four binary encoded bytes (that's why each part of the quad always falls between 0 & 255). So, you may ask, how do you know which bit is the starting bit? Well, for IP, that's determined by the surrounding link layer. For example, on ethernet, there is an Ethernet frame specification which specifies where the inner packet starts. On DSL, there's a different encoding. These are all typically binary encoded, so if you looked at the raw captured bit stream with a text editor, it'd all be gibberish. If you have a program that's intended for inspecting packets, it may be able to do the decoding and can display the information in human-readable form - but the packets themselves as they exist on the wire aren't transmitted as text. -- 140.142.20.101 (talk) 19:41, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Odd compiler warnings.

GCC gives me the following warning, repeated a couple dozen times (with variations for other functions), every time I compile my latest project. I can't make heads or tails of what's causing it.

main.c:63:7: warning: passing argument 2 of 'addNode' from incompatible pointer type [enabled by default]

main.c:53:5: note: expected 'struct node *' but argument is of type 'struct node *'

The program seems to run fine despite the warnings. What's causing it, and am I safe if I ignore it? Horselover Frost (talk · edits) 19:53, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

If you can cook it down to the minimal example that generates this (surely a handful of lines) it'd be much easier for us to comment. GCC can be picky, but doesn't generate warnings out of spite, and if you don't understand what the warning means for your code, it means you don't really understand your code. Most C warnings can be ignored, but a tiny handful signify catastrophic errors that kill people; it's easier to fix the problems that the warning indicates than to find the evil ones amid the trivial crowd. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 20:17, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

All right, how's this?

#include <stdlib.h>

typedef struct {
  struct node * next;
} node;

void addNode (node * top, node * new);

int main()
{
  node * node1=(node *)calloc(1, sizeof(node));
  node1->next=NULL;
  node * node2=(node *)calloc(1, sizeof(node));
  node2->next=NULL;
  addNode(node1, node2);
}

void addNode (node * top, node * new)
{
  if (top->next==NULL)
    top->next=new;
  else
    addNode(top->next, new);
}

This code is similar to what I'm using, and causes the same warnings I'm getting. If it matters, I'm using gcc 4.6.3, and targeting x86-64. Horselover Frost (talk · edits) 21:25, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Try this:

typedef struct n {
  struct n * next;
} node;

Which is probably what you mean. Tangentially (and not the cause of your warnings) you don't need to cast the returns from calloc -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 21:40, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

I recommend getting clang, at least for when gcc messages fail to be sane. --145.94.77.43 (talk) 06:52, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

I think it's worthwhile to know why this gets warnings. Your

typedef struct {
  struct node * next;
} node;

uses struct node without any such struct type having been declared. (Even after the typedef, there's still no struct node, just node. That's why you use typedef this way, to save the word struct in later use.) This means that struct node implicitly declares an incomplete type that (is never completed and) is forever distinct from node. When you use top->next (which is a struct node*) as an argument to a function expecting node*, you get the warning. It's confusing because, I think, GCC is trying to be helpful: it's interpreting the typedef idiom so that it can describe the expected type more usefully and ends up producing the same name as you gave to the incomplete type. You can trivially write

typedef struct node {
  struct node * next;
} node;

and have struct node (declared before its use, even) and node as a synonym. This sort of thing is common for self-referential structures like linked lists. --Tardis (talk) 15:22, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

sketchup modelling

So, I'm trying to make a simple 3D model in sketchup, which it turns out is pretty much the worst modelling program ever, but it's what I've been told I have to use. I have a larger block and a smaller block, and I need to make a shallow indentation in the larger block the exact same shape as the smaller, so I coped the smaller block and moved it into position on the larger, and tried to drag the shape down, but it refuses to work. Anyone know any other way I can get it to do what I want?

148.197.81.179 (talk) 20:02, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

I don't know how to use Sketchup, but what you are trying to do is a shape "subtraction" operation (where you subtract the area of one shape from another). This page discusses how to do it. --Mr.98 (talk) 23:18, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Pretty sure I tried that, but I can give it another go. 148.197.81.179 (talk) 00:46, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

It appears that subtraction is a "pro only" feature. If you aren't using sketchup pro you can get a free trial just for this assignment (it gives you eight hours of use), or if you are a student you could buy an educational licence for US $50. Otherwise it might get expensive! The way to do this in the free version (or at least it was several years ago when I last used it) is to draw a 2D projection of the smaller block on the surface of the larger block (e.g. draw a rectangle if the smaller block is a cuboid) and then use the push-pull tool to do the indentation (you can click on the shape and then type in a displacement if you want to be precise). If you need a more complex shape you need to build it up in this way (e.g. by drawing lines and using the move tool to create angled surfaces etc.). If you need a curved e.g. spherical indentation I think you are pretty much out of luck in the free version. If you give some more indication about the geometry of both blocks and how you want it to look in the end I can try to give you some more specific ideas. I agree this is an awkward way to work for anything more than the simplest shapes but that's exactly the point - they want people who need it for more than messing about to get fed up with it and buy the pro version! Equisetum (talk | contributions) 10:06, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Oh, it just suddenly started working. That's computers for you. Had a bit of trouble with a shape in the middle that was supposed to be left at the original height, but randomly drawing just one line on the edge of that put it back. strange program, I hope I never have to use it again. 148.197.81.179 (talk) 18:35, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

SQL - Multiple joins

I've got some tables which have the following columns (and others which aren't important for what I'm asking):

• Employee (Id, Name)
• Tool (Id, ToolType_Id, Code)
• ToolType (Id, Key)
• ToolLoan (Id, Tool_Id, Employee_Id, LoanDate, ReturnDate)

As part of a sort of PHP/MySQL application I'm creating I want to be able to show all Tools currently on loan (so ReturnDate would be NULL) in the following format:

Tool Code | Tool Type | Employee Name | Loan Date

I believe this is done using an SQL JOIN but I don't know what the structure is for multiple JOINs --TuringMachine17 (talk) 21:46, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

While we wait for a sql-wallah to suggest some syntax, what is *ToolType (Id, Key) all about? I'd have imagined tooltype.id would itself be a key; and if it is not, then the foreign key tool.tooltype_id is in big trouble :(. --Tagishsimon (talk) 22:44, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

This sounds like a homework problem. Per our WP:HW guidelines, I will not give you a full answer, but I will help get you started. I assume that Employee, Tool, ToolType, and ToolLoad are the table names, and that the names in parentheses are the column names within each table.

You are correct that the SQL JOIN is the mechanism for combining information from multiple tables. Our JOIN article much detail, but for your problem, you can review the section on INNER JOIN. The "explicit join notation" is preferred over the older-style (but still valid) implicit notation, so I recommend that you follow that explicit join form. Using the explicit join notation, a query with a single join between two hypothetical tables AAA and BBB might take the form: "SELECT * FROM AAA INNER JOIN BBB ON BBB.id = AAA.bbb_id". Additional joins may be included by simply following one join with another. The ON condition for each join normally defined the required relationship between a column in the newly joined table and a column any of the preceding tables. For example "SELECT * FROM AAA INNER JOIN BBB ON BBB.id = AAA.bbb_id INNER JOIN CCC ON CCC.id = BBB.ccc_id". You can keep adding joins until you have all the data you need. You will also need a WHERE clause to limit the results to the tools still on loan and will need to replace the "SELECT *" with a result formatted specifically to your needs. SQL statements are more readable when split across multiple lines, like

SELECT CONCAT(B.partno, ' - ', C.descriptiuon) 
FROM AAA A 
JOIN BBB B ON B.id = A.bbb_id
JOIN CCC C ON C.id = B.ccc_id
WHERE A.category = 1

Note that the above example defines aliases (A, B, and C) after each table reference, so that the shorter table alias names may be used in place of the full table names in the ON conditions, WHERE clause, and SELECT expressions. I expect your solution can be patterned after the above.

If you have problems or some follow-up questions after giving the problem a try, please include your work-in-progress with your post. -- Tom N (tcncv) talk/contrib 01:06, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

older special effects graphics software

Hi, I remember someone using a graphics software for the Mac that offered a range of flames, shiny balls or bubbles (& their transparency/size could be adjusted), and other effects in or across an image. Don't know the name & it was expensive at the time - about 2002? In any case if it's not around now, is there an equivalent? Thanks in advance, Manytexts (talk) 22:35, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Photoshop or Adobe After Effects would be my guess. RudolfRed (talk) 00:30, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

GIMP Can do the trick. 190.84.182.165 (talk) 01:39, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Thanks so much for your help, you guys are so prompt! It would have been an add-on to Photoshop for sure so I think that's it. And if GIMP can do it, I'll go there too. Much appreciated, Manytexts (talk) 08:16, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

March 30

Registry?

I was sent a weird exe file, it was a kind of a creepy pasta, and it says you can play once and only once.. Well I knew that it has to do something with the register.. So.. I played the exe.. when it was over I replayed it, it didn't played liek the first time.. so I cleaned the registry with ccleaner, played it again.. and no luck.. Well.. I don't really like having unuseful keys on my registry.. so.. how can i remove it? 190.84.182.165 (talk) 00:59, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Try Regedit. You might need to google (or whater your favorite is) to search for info about the program and see if something will identify which key you need to modify/remove. Also, you really shouldn't run wierd exe files, that's how malware and viruses spread. RudolfRed (talk) 01:15, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

The executable file is not famous. I don't even know if I can give you like for download. though I was excpecting if there was any program that tells you what files the executable is reading, editing, deleting etc. Well there is process explorer but when you open the exe, it goes full screen and locks mouse.... so... 190.84.182.165 (talk) 01:28, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Can you copy the same exe to a different computer where you've never played the file? If it doesn't work there, it's possible the exe just breaks it self after playing once. Vespine (talk) 03:44, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Yes... actually I played from a zip file (It unzips it into the %temp% folder) so I can get as many copies as I want (Unless the exe file is extremely smart and actually changes the zip file where it originated, (i doubt that), And I can download the original copy from internet... (The conclusion is... that it doesn't self-edit) It changes something on my pc, maybe on a very creepy folder, or registry....)190.84.182.165 (talk) 04:32, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Now I see that the program never prompts UAC, editing registry always prompts UAC... So the registry is probably clean. Now I have to check all my hard drive... for any "strange" file.. 190.84.182.165 (talk) 10:43, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

If you were going about this in a systematic way, you'd run it in a virtual environment (e.g. VirtualBox) which you could just re-image after every run. Searching your harddrive for a random, purposefully hidden file is going to be pretty fruitless if you ask me. Your hard drive has a lot of files. --Mr.98 (talk) 13:33, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

You are right, then I guess I'm going to have to decompile and just search the bunch of opcodes. 190.84.182.165 (talk) 00:51, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

You imply you know enough to decompile and use opcodes to find out what is going on, yet you were daft enough to run a "weird exe file"? Unbelievable!!! If the exe file is more than a couple of kb, you are going to have a very hard time finding out anything. It has probably done some unknown thing to your PC and your best bet is to delete it immedately, sweep your PC for virsues and malware, and promise not to run random stuff you downloaded from the internet again. Such programs are very, very likely to be malware. Astronaut (talk) 12:57, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

Lol, It's not gonna be easy to reverse an exe file is it? No, I currently don't know how to read them, thought I'm starting to learn assembly, so I will just give it a try.., yup I got the disassembler here.. bunch of instructions. I just wanted to know if there was a program that just tells you what files are being read, edited, deleted, created. 190.84.182.165 (talk) 21:00, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

Process Monitor from Sysinternals will do this for you. Good luck with that. 31.185.44.119 (talk) 15:54, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

Can't write to DVD in Windows XP

I'm in Windows XP and trying to create a backup on a DVD. I get "Unable to create new folder" and "file system error 16389". Tried Microsoft fix it Center and Astroburn lite to no avail. I was able to do it just using Norton backup before but don't have that any more. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.77.185.58 (talk) 14:45, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

It's a problem with Windows XP not offering native support for writable DVDs. Here's the solution: [7].StuRat (talk) 15:18, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

I went to that site and didn't find anything even remotely related to my problem. Can you think of something else? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.77.196.167 (talk) 21:21, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

I don't understand. That says the problem is that Windows XP lacks native support for writing to a DVD, and suggest either writing to a CD, or using a product which includes it's own support for writing to a DVD. Did you try either of those suggestions ? (It might be necessary to first write the backup to a partition on the hard drive, and then use a product like Nero to copy it to DVD.) Norton backup apparently has the ability to write to DVDs in Windows XP. Another option is to put your backups on USB flash drives. (This isn't good if you want to keep dozens of backups though, as they are more expensive than blank DVDs.) StuRat (talk) 03:29, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

Prevent applications from changing cursor

Hiya,

My mate's been having trouble with his computer, and i'm trying to fix it but am very confused lol, and thought you lovely, lovely people may be able to help me. Basically every time he opens a full screen game the game's cursor is offset from where the click happens: everything else works perfectly fine and i think its probably just Dell weirdness combined with Vista weirdness, but i'm stumped. Best solution i can think of is preventing the cursor from being changed from the default, as I'm pretty sure its the cursor itself that is the problem, though i am very open to suggestions lol. so yeah, is there a way in Vista to prevent programs from changing the cursor?

Thanks much, Dan Hartas (talk) 18:02, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Does this happen with all full-screen games, or just specific ones? If it's only specific ones, you might be able to find a better answer by searching for other people with the same problem with those games. 151.163.2.8 (talk) 18:15, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

It's certainly more than a few, pretty sure it's all of them, and I've looked through all that sort of stuff lol, nothing that worked Dan Hartas (talk) 18:33, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

One workaround I can think of is to leave it in windows mode, and adjust the monitor settings so the window frame edges slide off the top, bottom, and sides of the screen. This will hopefully look like full screen mode, but without the cursor problem. StuRat (talk) 20:15, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

This search reveals there are other people with the same problem. If you add a specific game name to the search, it will find a more specific answer. Astronaut (talk) 12:43, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

so, how do I really turn the cookies back on?

I was told by one site I was on that I needed to enable cookies, and was given a set of instructions to do so, which changed nothing and the site still refused to work, however, on getting bored of all the little pop up messages asking about these cookie things, I reset to the default settings again, and since then it seems they have been permenantly disabled. Sites no longer record any information about what I have done on them, in particular links I have been to stay the same colour as they were before, and now I can't access my emails either. I have tried every set of settings I can in the cookie options page, and none of them make the slightest bit of difference. I was told by my email page that I have to turn them on, so I go, exactly as it instrusts, to the control panel, open up the internet options, go to advanced, and check the allow boxes on both sides. Nothing. I tested it with the session cookies option both on and off, neither made the slightest bit of difference.

So, what do I really do to get this fixed? is there a box I can check or a button to push that actually makes a difference?

Oh, and if it helps, I'm running windows 7 on IE9 here.

148.197.81.179 (talk) 18:42, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

I don't use IE9, but here are some things that come to mind: Have you tried clearing your internet cache? Do you have javascript enabled? (Some sites try to set cookies with javascript.) Are you at home or at work? (At work, you might be going through some kind of proxy that's messing things up.) 130.76.64.109 (talk) 19:57, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

OK, so where's this internet cache and javascript to be found? 148.197.81.179 (talk) 20:05, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

You should be able to clear your cache and enable/disable javascript through your browser's options. I'm not familiar with IE9, but on IE8, go to Internet Options under the Tools menu to clear your cache (it bundles it all together with "Browsing history", but it includes the cache/temporary files). You can also disable/enable javascript from there, on the Security tab. 151.163.2.8 (talk) 20:31, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Fixed now, downloaded google chrome (which doesn't recognise google as a word, silly spellchecker) and it's all gone back to how it should be, thanks to smraedis and yunas for the ideas. (yep, wikipedia was beaten by a bunch of furries, even with a substantial head start. guess I know where to go for computer help now) 148.197.81.179 (talk) 22:51, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

You may not understand that Internet Explorer uses the Trident Rendering engine, and from what has been seen, it does follow different standards so some pages will work with Gecko (Mozilla) and Webkit (Safari, Chromium), and some will work with Trident... 190.84.182.165 (talk) 01:27, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

I'm surprised the only answers you got so far were from people who don't use Internet Explorer. Downloading a different browser is a pretty extreme step just to turn cookies on. On IE9, click on the gear on the top right and choose "Internet options". On the General tab, there is a "Browsing history" section with a "Delete..." button. On the "Privacy" tab, there is a slider to contriol the blocking of cookies. There are many other setting that might also affect IE9's ability to record cookies. Take a look at the other tabs for other options and if all else fails click the "Reset..." button at the bottom of the "Advanced" tab. Astronaut (talk) 12:39, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

I did already try a whole bunch of other settings changes as I went, changing the browser is the only thing that has worked, and I'm assured it has a lot of other advantages as well, without losing any of the benefits of IE9, this is something I've been putting off for a while anyway, it took something like this to give me the incentive to ask, what alternative would be best for me. 148.197.81.179 (talk) 09:09, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

Download helper for Firefox that's customizable by filetype

I'm looking for a download helper or utility for Firefox that would let me customize it by filetype. For example, if I download an mp3 file, it would default to putting it in my Music folder; if it was a jpg, it would go to my Pictures folder; and so on. Does anyone know of anything out there with that functionality? 24.247.162.139 (talk) 22:20, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

I should mention that the ability to customize settings based on where the file is coming from would be nice too. 24.247.162.139 (talk) 22:26, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

http://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/downloads/latest/201/addon-201-latest.xpi 190.84.182.165 (talk) 00:50, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

I have no idea what that link is and no intention of clicking on it. Here is Download Sort and Automatic Save Folder. Those are links that explain what they are rather than a link to something that is going to try and install. CambridgeBayWeather (talk) 07:27, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

I just noticed that 190.84.182.165 is the same IP that ran an unknown exe file they found on the Internet. I've fixed the link so that it can't be clicked on. CambridgeBayWeather (talk) 07:31, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

March 31

downloading a podcast

Hi, I've been interviewed & want to keep/ record the podcast. The link opens into a kind of pdf that says download but turns out to be an archive to that url. Is there any way to do this for personal use only? I have a MacBook Pro. Thanks, Manytexts (talk) 04:55, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

Looks like it's not a free podcast for download so probably illegal. Sorry, Manytexts (talk) 05:08, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

I would contact the person/organisation that interviewed you and ask if you could have a copy - I would imagine most organisations would be happy to give you a recording and in any case it can't hurt to ask. Equisetum (talk | contributions) 09:42, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

Indeed. A local TV station gives out DVDs of interviews to members of the community that they interview on their news show. They may be happy to give you an MP3 of the interview as long as you promise to use it only for personal use. Dismas|^(talk) 14:42, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

Half/Fullwidth

What is the point of halfwidth and fullwidth letters, and why are they only available for Latin, CJK punctuation, Katakana, and Hangul Jamo? Interchangeable|talk to me 17:18, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

See halfwidth and fullwidth forms. Back when computers usually ran in text mode, there was one byte controlling each character cell on the screen. One byte wasn't enough to store all the CJK characters, and one character cell (about 8x16 pixels) wasn't enough to display them, so in CJK locales there were two-byte sequences that were interpreted as single characters in double-width cells of 16x16 pixels or so. I don't know much about Chinese and Korean, but in Japan the full-width ASCII characters were there because they were in the pre-existing JIS X 0201:1997 standard, and, I suppose, because they look better in combination with Japanese characters in some cases. The half-width katakana were useful because, for one thing, MS-DOS's 8.3 file name limit was 8.3 bytes, and four kana characters (and 1.5 in the extension) aren't really enough. It was just katakana and a few symbols because there wasn't room for anything more in a byte (along with ASCII and the double-byte lead values). Both widths are in Unicode so that a single terminal font can include them both, so that they can be distinguished in file names, etc. -- BenRG (talk) 02:13, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

Audio on computer

If I playback a music file using one piece of audio software, and try to simultaneously re-record it using another piece of audio software (or another instance of the same package), is the signal converted to analog then redigitised in the recording process? If so, what is the liklihood of loss of audio quality in the final recording?--[ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.28.76.99 (talk) 18:05, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure the signal doesn't go through analog. Your sound card converts digital to analog, and there is no piece of electronics looking at the sound card's audio-out cable that can sample and re-digitize the signal. You could use a cable to connect audio-out to audio-in, and record that, in which case the signal would go through analog, but you'd know if you were doing that.

If the source file and/or recording program use lossy compression (e.g. mp3), there may be some degradation. For uncompressed or losslessly compressed, and with matching sampling rates, I'd expect little or no change in quality. At least unless there is some DRM involved. 88.112.59.31 (talk) 09:29, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

Borked USB drive

I have a USB flash drive which I forgot to unmount before removing. Now, when I insert the drive, the little light comes on on the drive to indicate it's plugged in but nothing appears on the computer. The light would normally flash if anything is being read or written, but there's nothing.

Following the advice from http://www.dotkam.com/2009/01/06/find-usb-flash-drive-device-in-linux/, and checking tail -f /var/log/syslog, I get:

Mar 31 22:39:09 MyPC kernel: [  150.760222] usb 2-1: new high speed USB device number 3 using ehci_hcd
Mar 31 22:39:10 MyPC mtp-probe: checking bus 2, device 3: "/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb2/2-1"
Mar 31 22:39:10 MyPC mtp-probe: bus: 2, device: 3 was not an MTP device
Mar 31 22:39:10 MyPC kernel: [  151.306220] usbcore: registered new interface driver uas
Mar 31 22:39:10 MyPC kernel: [  151.324645] Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
Mar 31 22:39:10 MyPC kernel: [  151.325010] scsi5 : usb-storage 2-1:1.0
Mar 31 22:39:10 MyPC kernel: [  151.326312] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
Mar 31 22:39:10 MyPC kernel: [  151.326321] USB Mass Storage support registered.
Mar 31 22:39:11 MyPC kernel: [  152.327286] scsi: unknown device type 16
Mar 31 22:39:11 MyPC kernel: [  152.327303] scsi 5:0:0:0: Bridge controller 5        :                E    PQ: 1 ANSI: 1
Mar 31 22:39:11 MyPC kernel: [  152.327856] scsi: unknown device type 16
Mar 31 22:39:11 MyPC kernel: [  152.327870] scsi 5:0:0:1: Bridge controller 5        :                E    PQ: 1 ANSI: 1
Mar 31 22:39:11 MyPC kernel: [  152.328599] scsi: unknown device type 16
Mar 31 22:39:11 MyPC kernel: [  152.328610] scsi 5:0:0:2: Bridge controller 5        :                E    PQ: 1 ANSI: 1
Mar 31 22:39:11 MyPC kernel: [  152.376781] scsi 5:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 16
Mar 31 22:39:11 MyPC kernel: [  152.377196] scsi 5:0:0:1: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 16
Mar 31 22:39:11 MyPC kernel: [  152.377597] scsi 5:0:0:2: Attached scsi generic sg4 type 16

but I'm not sure what to do next - my output doesn't match that at the link above. Is there anything I can do to get this back? I don't need any of the data on it, so it's not a concern if it gets formatted and loses all my stuff, it'd just be good not to have to go and buy a new one. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 21:56, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

What filesystem has been on it, NTFS? If so connect it to a Windows computer and see if it automatically runs an fsck. If you don't have a Windows computer you should consider ceasing to use that FS for your USB sticks, and probably switch to FAT (if you want to still be able to use it with Windows computers) or ext4 (without a journal). If you really don't need the data on it, the quickest route to having it working again (if indeed it isn't physically broken), might be to just repartition/reformat it. http://webchat.freenode.net/?nick=usbtrouble&channels=#unix ¦ Reisio (talk) 02:07, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

Filesystem choice doesn't even become a thing until the device is at least identified as being storage. The usb-storage driver is loaded in the above log, but it didn't actually find a "disk" like it should have. Instead it found 3 "bridge" controllers (device type 16) and punted them to sg because the kernel doesn't know what the hell a scsi bridge is for. And neither do I. I can't find any evidence that device type 16 is supported by anything. To gather more information I recommend lsusb ; cat /proc/scsi/scsi but I'm not optimistic. It really looks like that poor USB stick has had its brains thoroughly scrambled.

Also, if the device was working with the same computer before, look in the older portion of the /var/log files to see what a successful mount looked like. If it never said "device type 16" until after the incident, that's bad news.

A remote possibility is that the device has gone back to a "factory newborn" state where it is trying to communicate with its Windows driver's setup program. In that case usb-modeswitch might be able to convince it to start behaving normally. But as far as I can tell that usually happens with communications devices that register themselves as storage devices, not with storage devices that register themselves as generic weirdness. 68.60.252.82 (talk) 06:45, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

April 1

Issue with Java (PJIRC) and fullscreen games

I use PJIRC to communicate to friends on my IRC server. The problem is if i play a full-screen game, i come back to see my IRC applet is all black and unusable. This is very annoying as i have to refresh the page, and i might have gotten unlogable private messages while i was playing. Is there any way to stop this black/unusable applet issue?

137.81.118.126 (talk) 03:04, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

I know this doesn't answer your question, but a good IRC client should be able to log private messages so if your IRC client does not allow that, you may want to consider another one. That IRC client may also not suffer from such a flaw when you use a program in full screen. Also unless you are using Direct Client-to-Client, all messages go thru the server, even ones between users. So if it's your IRC server, you could just get the server to log messages, although I strongly suggest you inform your users. Nil Einne (talk) 12:19, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

I prefer to fix the problem before switching clients, if possible. Also, it is not my server. 137.81.118.126 (talk) 14:34, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

Windows XP laptop battery

the machine is a Advent 4211 (ie MSI Wind U100 clone which has some reported issues with "flashing orange light" - some obviously idiot user, some not..

I have an orange flashing led on a computer, which the manual informs me indicates "failed battery" - however when I check controlpanel>power options it tells me I have a 95% full battery, which is "on line". I have no way of telling if the battery is dead or not. I would like to find out if the battery is the problem, or the laptop.. and why XP doesn't seem to know that the battery is dead when the computer itself thinks it does.. Can anyone explain the difference?213.249.187.63 (talk) 12:43, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

"I have no way of telling if the battery is dead or not."

Sure you have, just unplug the power cable and see how the battery performs. If it performs as expected, your only problem is an annoying LED. ¦ Reisio (talk) 15:52, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

It doesn't work - I still don't know if it is dead, or alive with a dodgy battery control chip.. Also wisecrack doesn't answer my question either - which was why does XP give a different reading?213.249.187.63 (talk) 16:23, 1 April 2012 (UTC)