Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing

Welcome to the computing section
of the Wikipedia reference desk.

skip to bottom

Select a section:

• Computing
• Entertainment
• Humanities
• Language
• Mathematics
• Science
• Miscellaneous
• Archives

Want a faster answer?

Main page: Help searching Wikipedia

   

How can I get my question answered?

• Select the section of the desk that best fits the general topic of your question (see the navigation column to the right).
• Post your question to only one section, providing a short header that gives the topic of your question.
• Type '~~~~' (that is, four tilde characters) at the end – this signs and dates your contribution so we know who wrote what and when.
• Don't post personal contact information – it will be removed. Any answers will be provided here.
• Please be as specific as possible, and include all relevant context – the usefulness of answers may depend on the context.
• Note:
  • We don't answer (and may remove) questions that require medical diagnosis or legal advice.
  • We don't answer requests for opinions, predictions or debate.
  • We don't do your homework for you, though we'll help you past the stuck point.
  • We don't conduct original research or provide a free source of ideas, but we'll help you find information you need.

Ready? Ask a new question!

How do I answer a question?

Main page: Wikipedia:Reference desk/Guidelines

• The best answers address the question directly, and back up facts with wikilinks and links to sources. Do not edit others' comments and do not give any medical or legal advice.

See also:

• Teahouse
• Help desk
• Village pump
• Help manual

April 4

Operating systems that run on feature phones

I have identified Brew/Brew MP (really more of a runtime), Nucleus RTOS, MontaVista Linux, and Samsung Handset Platform (SHP is actually what powers bada devices). Does anyone know of any others? Internal names of the operating systems that companies like LG use on their feature phones would be great. --Melab±1 ☎ 00:17, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

You've also got Symbian, iOS, Android, and Windows Phone 7. This article's old but suggests that LG will use Windows Phone 7 and android on its new phones and not develop its own. But again, that's over 2 years old.

LG's definitely still turning out Windows Phone 7 models currently like the C900. Some earlier LG phones like LG Viewty used a proprietary OS according to our article... I can't find much more on that. Shadowjams (talk) 06:03, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

Nokia's feature phone OS has been Series 40 for more than a decade. --Colapeninsula (talk) 09:42, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

Nokia also has variants of Maemo and Meego, which have linux as kernel and X server for graphics. --145.94.77.43 (talk) 11:57, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

Sadly our article Mobile operating system is largely restricted to smartphone OSes. --Colapeninsula (talk) 09:45, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

JavaScript variables

If I define a variable in Javascript eg

this.price = function()
{
this.baseprice * this.taxrate;
}

does the function get re-run EVERYIME I read this.price?

Thanks Duomillia (talk) 13:33, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

this.price is a function; if you just were to read it, you'd get the text of the function (which isn't much use for you). To call the function, you need to say this.price()

But your function isn't very useful anyway, as it doesn't return anything. Instead you probably want something like:

this.calcprice = function() {
  return this.baseprice * this.taxrate;
}

-- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 13:40, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

I was wrong when I wrote "if you just were to read it, you'd get the text of the function". You actually get a function reference; in some javacript engines (like Rhino) if you print that it helpfully prints the text of the function; in others, like JägerMonkey, it just prints "function()". -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 14:45, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

images from Word doc

I want to extract some images from a Word doc and use them on a web page. In Word I right clicked on the image to Save as Picture and stored it in a folder on my computer. Clicking on the name successfully displayed the image in my browser (Firefox). No trouble importing it into my web editor (KomPoser). I FTP'ed the image file and the web file containing it to the web site, but the image does not appear. No broken link, just nothing. This is the case for the other images as well. The code for the relative paths to the images is the same on my computer and the web site. The image files do exist on the web site, in the right place. Also, if I place an image not from a Word doc in the web file, it does successfully display.

What is happening? What can I do about it? --Halcatalyst (talk) 18:51, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

What type of image is this? Jpeg? Looie496 (talk) 19:16, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

One .png and the rest .jpg. --Halcatalyst (talk) 22:19, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

Have you tried opening your saved image in an image/photo editor, resaving it, and using that version instead? Word is probably doing something funny to the file, but I don't know what. --Colapeninsula (talk) 09:21, 5 April 2012 (UTC)

Let me try that in a moment. --Halcatalyst (talk) 01:09, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

When I went back to do this, I recalled that I had had to do that to re-size most of the images. I tried it again with this one and it made no difference. --Halcatalyst (talk) 01:18, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

Could you let us know where this is, so we can look at the web page and the images?--Phil Holmes (talk) 15:56, 5 April 2012 (UTC)

The page I'm testing with is at http://k9cola.org/events-test.shtml. An image called 4RK9s.jpg should be displayed above "Word image." You can see the link in the source: src="test/4RK9s.jpg". When I try to see the image with http://k9cola.org/test/4RK9s.jpg, I get a message from Microsoft saying, "The page cannot be displayed. There is a problem with the page you are looking for and it cannot be displayed. This error can occur if you are trying to display an HTML page that resides in a directory that is configured to allow Execute or Script permissions only." ... "HTTP Error 403.2 - Forbidden: Read access is denied." --Halcatalyst (talk) 01:09, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

Well, there you go. You've put that image in a directory that doesn't allow the web server to read it. Stick it in images and you should be OK. --Phil Holmes (talk) 08:47, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

I did that and the result is the same. Moreover, I have quite a few subdirectories under images and they all work fine. It must be something in the image file. --Halcatalyst (talk) 13:46, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

• I found out how to do this on the Microsoft site. Thank you. --Halcatalyst (talk) 00:20, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

April 5

Java EE Issue

I got the same error as listed in this link:

http://www.mkyong.com/hibernate/java-lang-classformaterror-absent-code-attribute-in-method-that-is-not-native-or-abstract-in-class-file/

... while writing a java program using Java EE. The problem is that all the links to fix this issue by getting the required jar file are dead links. Can anyone help me fix my "Stubbed" version of EE or help solve this problem in some other way?

Thanks! 137.81.118.126 (talk) 00:51, 5 April 2012 (UTC)

Read our reference desk FAQ on asking software questions. You haven't provided enough information to diagnose your problem.

Your link listed an error message that could result from many different types of problems. The problem in the link was due to a corrupt or missing installation of Java EE. To remedy that problem, you should get and install the Java EE SDK from Oracle. It is impossible to know whether the linked forum-post is identical to your issue, from the information you provided. Nimur (talk) 03:05, 5 April 2012 (UTC)

Valid point. Here is the code in question. I use a full file path as the "f" (file) param.

Sample code

package myircbot;

import java.util.Date;
import java.util.Properties;
import javax.activation.DataHandler;
import javax.activation.FileDataSource;
import javax.mail.Message;
import javax.mail.MessagingException;
import javax.mail.Multipart;
import javax.mail.Session;
import javax.mail.Transport;
import javax.mail.internet.InternetAddress;
import javax.mail.internet.MimeBodyPart;
import javax.mail.internet.MimeMessage;
import javax.mail.internet.MimeMultipart;

public class mailSender
{
    public static String to, subject, body, file;

    mailSender(String t, String s, String b, String f)
    {
        to = t;
        subject = s;
        body = b;
        file = f;
    }

    public void sendEmail()
    {
        String from = "xxxxxxx@gmail.com";
        
        Properties properties = new Properties();
        properties.put("mail.smtp.host", "smtp.gmail.com");
        properties.put("mail.smtp.port", "587");
        Session session = Session.getDefaultInstance(properties, null);
        
        try
        {
            MimeMessage message = new MimeMessage(session);
            message.setFrom(new InternetAddress(from));
            message.setRecipient(Message.RecipientType.TO, new InternetAddress(to));
            message.setSubject(subject);
            message.setSentDate(new Date());
            
            // Set the email message text.
            MimeBodyPart messagePart = new MimeBodyPart();
            messagePart.setText(body);
            
            // Set the email attachment file
            MimeBodyPart attachmentPart = new MimeBodyPart();
            FileDataSource fileDataSource = new FileDataSource(file)
            {
                
                @Override
                public String getContentType() { return "application/octet-stream"; }
            };
            
            attachmentPart.setDataHandler(new DataHandler(fileDataSource));
            attachmentPart.setFileName(file);
            
            Multipart multipart = new MimeMultipart();
            multipart.addBodyPart(messagePart);
            multipart.addBodyPart(attachmentPart);
            
            message.setContent(multipart);
            
            Transport.send(message);
        }
        
        catch (MessagingException e)
        {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
    
}

I hope this is much more useful. Additionally i would like to note that the libraries i am using are JDK 1.7 (Default), and "Java EE 6 API Library - javaee-api-6.0.jar".

Also here is the error:

Exception in thread "Thread-2" java.lang.ClassFormatError: Absent Code attribute in method that is not native or abstract in class file javax/mail/MessagingException
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:791)
	at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:142)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:449)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$100(URLClassLoader.java:71)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:361)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:355)
	at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:354)
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:423)
	at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:308)
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:356)
	at myircbot.myChaos.main(myChaos.java:85)
	at myircbot.myChaos.run(myChaos.java:18)
	at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:722)

Line 85 of myChaos is where i instantiate an object of type mailSender.

137.81.118.126 (talk) 04:29, 5 April 2012 (UTC)

Now we have something to go on, at least. As before, I suspect your Java EE installation is malformed, or you have both SE and EE installed, but you are inadvertantly running Java SE. Your mailSender class imports several JavaEE worker-classes (e.g. javax.mail.transport and its siblings). I assert that you can reproduce this issue with far less code than you provided (and you could provide a standalone, compile-able listing).

How are you running your code? Is it embedded into a Java application server? Have you started the correct EE JVM, or are you using an SE JVM, or are you "not really sure how the JVM is initialized"? If it is the latter, then we need to attack that problem first, before we spend any time diagnosing a classloader problem. Nimur (talk) 15:22, 5 April 2012 (UTC)

I am using Netbeans to compile this. I guess I'm "not sure which JVM is initialized" but i dont know how this could be J2SE, as i uninstalled that in favor of J2EE with JDK7.

The Java EE6 API library comes from C:\Program Files\NetBeans 7.0.1\enterprise\modules\ext.

137.81.118.126 (talk) 15:54, 5 April 2012 (UTC)

Red alert! i somehow found a "Java Platform Manager" in netbeans and it seems that JDK 1.7 default is J2SE. The classes all come from C:\glassfish3\jdk7\jre\lib\ . So even though i installed J2EE, and glassfishi s the folder that it goes to, im running J2SE??? How do i fix this within netbeans? Surely J2EE came with J2EE components? o.0

137.81.118.126 (talk) 16:11, 5 April 2012 (UTC)

Solved! I didnt even have the java mail thing.... LOL 137.81.118.126 (talk) 19:27, 5 April 2012 (UTC)

Excellent. The first thing you really learn, when you migrate from SE to EE, is that you always have more than one version of Java on your machine. The second thing you usually learn is, you've probably been using the wrong version of Java to run your program. Glad to see it got fixed. Nimur (talk) 01:43, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

What does this text mean please??

link - Kittybrewster ☎ 14:47, 5 April 2012 (UTC)

That page is a 404 "Sorry. Something has gone wrong" error for me -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 15:03, 5 April 2012 (UTC)

(ec) It is a custom error-page sent in response to an HTTP 404 error. Strictly, all we know is that the server reported that it couldn't find "sse.dll" - are you sure this file is present on the server? From context of the URL, I can infer a little bit more, but with less certainty. This appears to be your website; and it looks like you attempted to install a program in your common gateway interface directory to perform a US Census lookup. The program may actually be missing on the server, so the 404 may be correct. However, if the server permissions are incorrect, i.e. you cannot launch a DLL-based CGI tool, or if something else went wrong, the server may also report 404 when it should actually send HTTP 500 ("internal server error," or a similar more specific code). I have also formatted your link text; this will not affect any subsequent efforts to diagnose the issue, but makes the Reference Desk render it better. Nimur (talk) 15:11, 5 April 2012 (UTC)

I means the page isn't there anymore,sorry .-- 76MansliaT~ 74.163.16.52 (talk) 15:25, 5 April 2012 (UTC)

Thanks to the IP above for ID'ing himself as a sock of a banned user. See User:Salvidrim/Tailsman67. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:58, 5 April 2012 (UTC)

Pruning the link a bit to http://www.kittybrewster.com/cgi-bin/ I get a HTTP 403 error, which is not unusual. However, it also says: «Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.» So the 404 Error on the original full link might perhaps be related in that you redirect 403 Errors and 500 Errors (internal server error) to the 404 error page? -Laniala (talk) 15:45, 5 April 2012 (UTC)

It is my website but the query did not come from me. Kittybrewster ☎ 17:55, 5 April 2012 (UTC)

Hmm, so you're not wondering what the response from your server means or why you got that 404 error? But you are wondering what the text in the URL means or why you got that strange looking query? If that is the case it is trying to run ./cgi-bin/sse.dll (if there is no such file on your server then that is of course the reason for the 404 error).

URL

http://www.kittybrewster.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&rank=1&gsfn=&afsrc=%3Cscript%3Ealert%2812345678%29%3C/script%3E&gsln=Arbuthnot&sx=&f5=&f4=&f7=&f14=&f21=&Server=search&DatabaseID=6061&db=1920usfedcen&ti=0&type=p&title=1920+U.S.+Federal+Census&submit.x=68&submit.y=12&o_xid=0013174552&o_lid=0013174552&o_xt=26656834&gss=angs&fh=12&fsk=BEFk3S4IgAAB0wAgB6M=&bsk=&recid=2175256&recoff=2

indiv=1
rank=1
gsfn=
afsrc=%3Cscript%3Ealert%2812345678%29%3C/script%3E  =  <script>alert(12345678)</script> 
gsln=Arbuthnot
sx=
f5=
f4=
f7=
f14=
f21=
Server=search
DatabaseID=6061
db=1920usfedcen
ti=0
type=p
title=1920+U.S.+Federal+Census
submit.x=68
submit.y=12
o_xid=0013174552
o_lid=0013174552
o_xt=26656834
gss=angs
fh=12
fsk=BEFk3S4IgAAB0wAgB6M=
bsk=
recid=2175256
recoff=2

If this dll has any security vulnerabilities I have no idea. But without knowing more of what your site is actually accepting of queries, then it could perhaps (wild guess) have been a random attempt at exploiting such a thing. I'm sure somebody else has more ideas (if this is actually what you're wondering). -Laniala (talk) 11:42, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

How do you know the page number for a book in the Kindle app for the iPad or Windows?

I want to be able to cite a book I bought on Kindle, but I can't seem to figure out what page number I'm on. It says I'm at location 1970 out of 6998. I need to know the page number. Anyone know? A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 15:36, 5 April 2012 (UTC)

Page numbers depend on edition. There is no reason why a dynamically reflowed e-book edition would even have a page number. I suggest you cite the edition and the given location. If our citation templates are insufficient, we should adapt them to reality, not the other way round. Reality is quite hard to bend, even if Steve Jobs or James Randi may give a different impression. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 15:43, 5 April 2012 (UTC)

At minimum, you should give a chapter/section name or number, if available. Some style guides (I think the MHRA) recommend you give a paragraph number (by counting paragraphs), but this may not be practical. One solution, which is non-standard but could be helpful, is to give the first few words of the paragraph ("Paragraph starting 'Foo bar baz'"). If it's a direct quote, someone can search the book, so you don't need to be so precise. I've no idea if location numbers are portable/consistent across devices, or between EPUB/Kindle/PDF versions, so it would be better not to rely on them. --Colapeninsula (talk) 09:08, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

eBooks don't really have accurate page numbers due to zoom and all sorts of issues. However, I did find the citation methods for both APA and MLA. APA eBook citation MLA eBook Citation 206.131.39.6 (talk) 16:04, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Apparently, someone's already thought of this: WP:EBOOK. A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 21:25, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Secret Online Ballot

Hello. From an IT point of view, is it possible to cast a secret ballot online? If voters login to confirm their eligibility, it is possible to match the ballot to the identity of the voter? Or do online voters just have to take a leap of faith in the website's privacy policy? Thanks in advance. --Mayfare (talk) 17:28, 5 April 2012 (UTC)

Take a look at End-to-end auditable voting systems and Prêt à Voter. Some others of interest might be ThreeBallot and this blog post by Bruce Schneier. There are a number of secure voting protocols. I don't think that's what most governments are using, however. Shadowjams (talk) 21:23, 5 April 2012 (UTC)

More basically, any "private key" encryption method can safely identify the sender of a value as paired with a public key you can store in your voting system's records. However, if you don't have a "trusted" entity that can tally your votes, then there is, of course, no practical way of securing the identities while aggregating the votes. It sounds like your situation is down to one of trust, and not of technical limitations. 162.111.235.36 (talk) 17:25, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Intel processor in a consumer electronics device

If anyone of Intel's Atom processors were ever to be used in a portable media player similar to an iPod Classic, iPod Nano, or iPod touch which on be used? I am thinking an E6xx (Tunnel Creek), maybe an E620. --Melab±1 ☎ 22:55, 5 April 2012 (UTC)

Is an E620 too powerful and inefficient? --Melab±1 ☎ 01:05, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

Does anyone care to respond? --Melab±1 ☎ 00:20, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

What's the actual question? Are you asking people to speculate? or are you asking for specific industry "insider knowledge"? It seems Atoms are more media box rather then portable media player which seem to be sewn up at the moment by [[ARM architecture] processors. Intel seems poised to enter the mobile market and their main hurdle does indeed seem to be power consumption, but price and performance are also factors. Here is a recent article about atom v arm. Vespine (talk) 01:37, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

I was asking for educated guesses—that's usually the kind of answer I think I receive. Sometimes a person who works with computers can synthesize an answer. --Melab±1 ☎ 20:42, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Facebook link dead? Name change form

https://www.facebook.com/help/contact_us.php?id=262629790471076

Does this link work? It did as of March 24, when I discovered it. It was a new form for changing the name of your Facebook Brand Page. Today, once my boss at the museum gives me the go ahead? Not working. Is it just me? -- Zanimum (talk) 23:31, 5 April 2012 (UTC)

That link doesn't give me anything but a blank page. This page says that it's not possible to change the name of your business page if you have more than 100 likes. (Seems like an arbitrary number to me but it's their number) If you have more than 100 likes then you'll have to delete and recreate the page. Dismas|^(talk) 23:44, 5 April 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for clicking, and reporting. The 100 page rule existed for a year or more, but was replaced when Timelines were first made available to Pages. As soon as they've rolled all Pages over to Timeline, they've blanked the page. I don't get it. The link above [https://www.google.ca/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fhelp%2Fcontact_us.php%3Fid%3D262629790471076&btnG=Google+Search was published on 565 pages, URL exposed, and likely hundreds more just as a link. Sigh, I guess we may have to force our fans to move over to a new page. -- Zanimum (talk) 14:58, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

April 6

Atto FastFrame NS14 Quad-Port 10GbE NIC Card - Transceiver Removability

Hello Fellow RefDeskers!

  I trying to determine whether the four 10Gb transceivers on the Atto FastFrame NS14 Quad-Port 10GbE NIC Card are removable or soldered in. If the transceivers are removable, I'd like to buy this card this card to use with Direct-Attach Cables. But I don't want to buy the card before determining whether the transceivers are detachable, and the Atto website has not been of any help.

  Thanks in advance to all RefDeskers! Rocketshiporion♫ 12:24, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

AFAIK, you need transceivers at both ends to connect an NIC to an iSCSI SAN disk-array, even if you're connecting the server directly to the disk-array without using a switch. I don't see where on the website it says that the card comes with transceivers - the photo seems to show the card without any transceivers installed. The transceiver should be removable from the NIC card, but there's not really any point in detaching the transceiver unless you're swapping out a faulty transceiver. 124.197.110.96 (talk) 13:43, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

Hacking

For some reasons my computer got some kind of virus i have no idea of. It seems to me that the virus only works on Wikipedia site. I tried to go to many other websites and none of them get affected by the virus. Only Wikipedia site got affected. Every time i go to Wikipedia, there is some kind of ads pop up (there is a little words down at the bottom says that ads are not from this site). I know for the fact that Wikipedia doesn't allow any ads. I think the virus must have somehow invaded Wikipedia on my computer. Does anyone know how to get rid of the ads on Wikipedia?65.128.167.101 (talk) 03:57, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

Get rid of the virus with an anti-virus program. 46.208.224.194 (talk) 09:09, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

I don't have one. Plus i thought Wikipedia has the most secure anti-ads system. It turned out that it is the weakest since it is the only affected. Doesn't Wikipedia has some kind of anti-ads program that i can run on my computer?65.128.167.101 (talk) 13:23, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

Several people have had this problem recently. You need to disable a browser plugin called Codec-c 1.0 then get yourself some antivirus software to stop it happening again. There are plenty of good free ones these days, see list of antivirus software.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 14:45, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

There's no such thing as an anti-ads system for a website. Once malware (what you have is not necessarily technically a virus), is on your system, it can do whatever it wants. For whatever reason, they chose to put ads on Wikipedia. (They might also be replacing the real ads on Google, etc. with their own ads; this would be more effective than merely adding their own, and is also potentially unnoticable.). You might want to try anti-malware software. Paul (Stansifer) 21:33, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

WP:RFAQ#ADS, and please don't post the same question to multiple reference desks. RudolfRed (talk) 15:48, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

How can i disable Codec-c 1.0? Where can i find it? If possible, tell me in steps. Thanks!65.128.167.101 (talk) 22:19, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

What is your browser? Try to find "Plugins" or "Extensions" in its menu. Since it's malware, it may try to prevent removal. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:17, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

It is google chrome. Where can i find "Plugins" or "Extensions"? Can you tell me in steps how to get there? Thanks.65.128.167.101 (talk) 21:16, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

Type chrome://plugins/ into the address bar. Vespine (talk) 01:27, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

How to determine if an email was forwarded?

As above, is it possible to determine by some means (like the analysis of code data) whether an email I've received is a forwarded copy of other email and not made up just to look like a forwarded one? Regards Trybald (talk) 09:39, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

Basically no. You could check with the senders of the original email. Nil Einne (talk) 16:21, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

Spammers use a variety of techniques to track emails as they flow through the network. Some of their techniques are quite clever, and can usually distinguish between human- and non-human consumer of email. For example, some methods only flag when the email's embedded HTML is rendered, which may cause the user to make an invisible server-query. However, such techniques are susceptible to false-positives, false-negatives, and are generally ill-regarded as "spammy" or privacy-invasive techniques. All of these techniques require that you are the original crafter of the email.

If you have access to server logs (which very few people do), you can also verify the email's embedded history (i.e., the route it claims to have taken) against the servers' own logs. Because most people use third-party email servers (like Hotmail and Google), and these providers don't publish their server-logs to the public, there's no way to validate. But if the mail is routed through your server, you can check your logs; this is a major reason why large companies use internal email servers, rather than third-party providers; operating the SMTP and IMAP servers guarantees access to an extra level of accountability tracing. Nimur (talk) 19:20, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

About call back advantage

can anyone tell me about call back advantage? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rocalabs9 (talk • contribs) 12:12, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

I found here something globaltel[dot] com — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rocalabs9 (talk • contribs) 12:13, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

I assume you mean the system where, when a call can't be completed immediately, it waits until the line is clear, then calls the party again on your behalf ? It could be useful for an extremely high priority call, where getting through as soon as possible is paramount. However, for normal calls I find it quite annoying. I want to initiate the call, not a machine, so I can time it when I want, and am prepared for it (have the info I need handy, etc.). StuRat (talk) 18:28, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

Javascript regex question

Hi all, I have a Javascript regex to grab the content between square brackets:

/\[[^\]]+\]/g
"this is [a test] expression"
=> "[a test]"

This works great, except I want to to ignore any inner brackets:

"a b c [d e [f g] h] i [j k]"
= "[d e [f g] h]", "[j k]"

Any thoughts on how to do this? Thanks! — Sam 71.192.35.33 (talk) 22:37, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

Ordinary regular expressions can't deal with nested brackets. I don't think Javascript regexes have extended features that would let you do that, but I don't know for sure. You might have to just write a loop that goes through the string character-by-character. 130.76.64.115 (talk) 00:04, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

What you need is recursive regular expression. A google search for "recursive regex" ([1]), yields many useful discussions, including some very similar to your case. Unfortunately, I do not believe recursive regular expressions are available in JavaScript. They are available in Perl and environments that support the entire Perl regex syntax. If you could use Perl, you could write something like $regex = qr/\[([^\[\]]|(??{$regex}))+\]/;. Parsed out, the expression looks like:

   \[              /* Opening bracket */
   (
     [^\[\]]       /* Some character other than left/right bracket */
     |             /* or */
     (??{$regex})  /* A nested bracketed string */
   )+              /* one or more (non-empty) */
   \]              /* Closing bracket */

Note that the first part now excludes both left and right brackets. The second part contains a nested reference to the entire expression that recursively defines a properly nested bracket sequence. To get a similar behavior without recursion, you will need to manually replace the "(??{$regex})" part with a copy of the whole expression and repeat that substitution for however many levels of nested brackets you need to support. (I'll leave that as an exercise. It gets longs and messy fast.) The innermost nesting would simply disallow any bracket characters with "\[[^\[\]]+\]". Note that your initial example required that the bracketed lists be nonempty. To support empty lists, replace "+" with "*". -- Tom N (tcncv) talk/contrib 00:09, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

This may actually be a case where a non-regexp parser is simpler and easier to use. You aren't performing general expression matching; you're just scanning for a specific magic character ']' and you want to ignore it if it's nested. So, implement a counter; scan the string character-by-character; start a match-string on the opening '[' and for each subsequent '[', increment the counter; for each ']' decrement the counter; and when your counter is back to 0, close the match on the first ']'. This can be implemented with a while() loop and charAt() in JavaScript. Be sure to gracefully handle the corner cases, like when an unmatched '[' opens, but is never closed, and you reach the end of the string. Nimur (talk) 00:35, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

April 7

Changing the wallpaper on Windows 7

My old computer (running XP) crashed so I purchased a new one. It is running Windows 7. I want to use the same wallpaper on my desktop as I had on the old computer. I can't figure out how to do this (I have saved the pic on my desktop).

Thanks. 99.250.103.117 (talk) 01:46, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

The easiest way is to right click the image where you should see a "Set as desktop background" option. Alternately, you can right click the desktop, select "personalize", click on "Desktop Background", and then navigate to the image you would like to use. -- Tom N (tcncv) talk/contrib 02:02, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

Unfortunately, neither strategy worked! When I right click the pic (which is sitting on my desktop), I don't get the message. Same for the second strategy - the message noted in the post does not show up! Could it be a problem with my version of Win 7?99.250.103.117 (talk) 16:34, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

What if you right click on the image after opening it? Basically as you're viewing and enjoying the image, right click anywhere in the image itself. Dismas|^(talk) 18:20, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

This Microsoft help page runs you through a further way to change your wallpaper if the above ideas do not work. If you still have trouble, there is an article here which may help. One of the things noted at that link is that if "[you] are using Windows 7 Starter; this version of Windows 7 does not support changing the desktop background picture" - could this be the issue? - Cucumber Mike (talk) 18:47, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

Ahhh! In all liklihood, I am using the Windows Starter version - I know the Word, Excel, etc. programs that came with the computer are starter versions, so probably the Win 7 is as well. I will try the above suggestions just in case. Thanks everyone. 99.250.103.117 (talk) 21:50, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

It does sound like you might be on the Starter edition, yes. If you want to check, you can click Start then Computer then Properties. The version will be written at the top of the window. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 21:57, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

Searching in Chrome

How do I search a page while browsing with Chrome? I know how to do it in IE and Firefox, but I can't find a search option in my Chrome browser. 69.62.243.48 (talk) 05:17, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

In Windows, Ctrl-F works for me just like in all other browsers. Dismas|^(talk) 05:29, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

Thanks. 69.62.243.48 (talk) 05:31, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

Title Tools in Premiere Pro CS5.

Can anyone help me with this? I've been trying to get the Titler applet in Premiere Pro CS5 to work, but no matter what I do it just gives me the beachball of death upon trying to spawn a new title. Clearing the font cache and removing duplicate fonts didn't help, and neither was reinstalling the application. I'm using Snow Leopard 10.5.8, btw. Blake Gripling (talk) 07:54, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

Today's featured picture

How could I get a list (in JPGs) of "Today's featured pictures" for all the pictures submitted to Wikipedia in the last few years? I want to use them as my screen saver pictures for Windows 7.--Doug Coldwell ^talk 13:54, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

They're available all the way back to May 2004. -- Zanimum (talk) 14:54, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

Now how do I get them as a series of JPG pictures so I can use for my screen saver as a slide show that changes the picture (of dozens) every 10 seconds? How do I download a series of dozens of pictures without having to download each one individually?--Doug Coldwell ^talk 15:55, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

One way would be to use a bulk downloader. There is a Firefox add-on, a Chrome extension and a standalone program (for Windows). There are more options out there - I found these through a Google search for 'download all images on a page'. One limitation is that these will only download the images from a single page at a time - you would have to click on each month's archive separately. There may be a solution out there that could use a regex or similar to match all the subpages in the archive, but I haven't found it yet. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 16:12, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

Thanks, I'll go to work on it.--Doug Coldwell ^talk 16:22, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

Cabling options

what cabling options can i use to connect 2 offices that are 2km apart.media,connectors,cost of cabling and data transfer rates — Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.143.30.91 (talk) 14:24, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

If you're running the cabling yourself, you're building what amounts to a campus area network or perhaps a metropolitan area network - those articles link to the various technologies used. This works okay if your organisation owns all the land between the two offices, or has rights to run cabling through ducts between them - but in many places the right of way (e.g. the right to run cabling under or over the public highway) is owned by a public authority like a city government, or by a licensed telecoms company (like the phone company) - in that case you might have to buy the long-distance interconnect with them, and use whatever communications technology they supply, Or you can avoid running cabling, but instead build a virtual private network using the existing connections your two offices have to the public internet, and tunnelling the interconnect between them virtually (that is, through an encrypted Internet connection, rather than an actual physical cable). Which is best depends for you depends on the communication needs of the offices and whether/how cabling can be run. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 15:36, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

if you have line-of-sight between the two buildings, you could use Microwave transmission between them instead of cables. RudolfRed (talk) 18:08, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

We've had questions like this before, though I can't find the last one at the moment. Our article on Category 6 cable says the maximum length is about 100 meters. Since you're trying to go 20 times that distance, that obviously won't work. Fiber is an option, as is dls, as are certain microwave technologies. This assumes too you can address the physical issues of having access to run cable/line of sight.

But really these are theoretical answers because if you're undertaking a project like this you couldn't possibly base your answer on what people on a forum told you. This is a rather major undertaking, and if you have 2 km worth of office space to span, you probably have a group in your organization that handles that sort of thing. What's more likely is that you have two locations you want to connect. It's probably better to use existing technologies, like a vpn to link separate locations like that. Shadowjams (talk) 00:08, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Something else to consider is the reliability you require. That is, is it OK if you lose connectivity during bad storms, and such ? Underground cable would be more resistant to this, but some idiot in a backhoe can always cut the cable. StuRat (talk) 01:34, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

OK some more concrete suggestion, put in single mode optic fibre, at least 12 cores. Terminate the ends with lc or SC terminations. Transceivers to run 100 megabits will cost about $300 each, rising to $5000 for 10 gigabit per second. Digging the trenches and supplying fibre may cost around $100000 as a one off cost. Using a carrier you will have to pay around $5000 installation for each end and a similar amount in rent each year, and your speed will not be 10 gig. In a city this is likely to be an option, but out in the suburbs or country side it will be cheaper to install your own. For the single mode fibre you can use 1310nm LED equipment. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 10:25, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

svn blame rate limit

In a typical repository, what's the typical server-side rate limit on anonymous svn blame requests? I've had "No response from server" errors when running 2,720 parallel blames (on a Core i7 2600k that takes more than 3,500 of them to fork-bomb). NeonMerlin 15:51, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

Remember that Subversion Server doesn't communicate to network clients. It requires a network layer server - typically httpd, or a webDAV Apache module, or sshd, to handle the client communication. As the official SVN webpage indicates, "Rather than writing a bunch of proprietary security mechanisms for Subversion, we prefer instead to teach Subversion to interoperate with security libraries and protocols provided by those with knowledge of that space. For example, Subversion defers wire encryption to the likes of OpenSSL. It defers authentication and basic authorization to those mechanisms provided by Cyrus SASL or by the Apache HTTP Server and its rich collection of modules.". So, your answer is going to depend on what protections you have set up for, e.g., simultaneous HTTP requests in Apache, or whichever other mechanism you are sending the SVN transactions over.

If your transactions are to a local svn server, simultaneous transactions are probably limited by transaction locking; by Unix system resource limitations (maximum user processes, maximum open file handles, and so on); and ultimately by actual hardware performance limits

I've decided not to ask why you are simultaneously transacting thousands of log queries. I don't... want to know. Nimur (talk) 16:08, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

@User:NeonMerlin Umm, why are you simultaneously transacting 2,720 queries? I'm curious... Vickreman.Chettiar 05:02, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

April 8

History of X.25 packet switched networks

I can't figure out from [2] whether there were any companies offering X.25-style data communications prior to 1976. Can anyone find a history that says when such commercial datacom services were available? Did the "Joint Working Party on New Data Networks, which was created by the IVth Plenary Assembly of the CCITT in 1968" result in anything commercial? 71.215.74.243 (talk) 06:10, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Some like Compuserve were around then but also used propriatory network protocols. Back in those early days asynchronous communication, ie characters with start and stop bits were used, rather than packet switching. The main connections were direct from terminal to computer, and only later multiplexors came into being so that you did not have to make a phone call across the country to the computer. Standard speeds were 45 50 75 bits per second, later stretching out 300 bits per second. The telecom companies mostly offered point to point data services, if you did not want to use a modem on a phone line. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 10:12, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Thank you. I see now that the CCITT JWP on NDN was mostly circuit switched technology prior to 1976. 71.215.74.243 (talk) 23:12, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Pictures spreading through Facebook showing people in need

Everytime I look at Facebook, I frequently see these sad and touching images that people ask to share. For example, one says "This baby has cancer. Like of you wished cancer didn't exist ! :(" while another says "this is so sad giving drugs to babys :'( 1 Like = 1 prayer for each baby that died from drug abuse. :'/" which is a picture of a picture of a baby in pink clothes in a coffin, which is found on a celebrity's Facebook page (I am not subscribed to him, but some of my friends are). But, are these pictures real, are the people really sharing them, or is this just some chain post stuff? If they are real, I'm sure their sharing intentions are good, but are their good intentions being abused? Narutolovehinata5 ^tccsdnew 06:43, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

They're obviously hoaxes or just some sort of schadenfreude at the expense of the person in question. Even if they claim that Facebook will be giving a portion for the benefit of the supposed beneficiaries, the way these shared posts are circulated reeks of a typical chain hoax. Blake Gripling (talk) 09:00, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

They're chain posts. Check Snopes.com for any one of them. The one I've been seeing lately is the burned baby and the text usually says something about someone giving money to help the baby for each share. But it's bogus. See this article for more on it. Dismas|^(talk) 09:32, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

However, the ones I see don't say anything about donations. Instead, they say something like "share if you love your mother", or "share if you are touched". Narutolovehinata5 ^tccsdnew 09:52, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Probably false. Slacktivism in any case. --Mr.98 (talk) 12:48, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Just another way to waste your time on the Internet. HiLo48 (talk) 12:56, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Flashback trojan

Is there any way that I can check, and clean if necessary, my Macs for the Flashback trojan without having to install any anti-virus software? Will updating Java and the OS with the latest patches sanitize an infected system? Dismas|^(talk) 09:35, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

An article in Ars Technica suggests typing the following commands in Terminal if you'd like to check for any infections:

    defaults read ~/.MacOSX/environment DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES

    defaults read /Applications/Safari.app/Contents/Info LSEnvironment

    defaults read /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/Info LSEnvironment

If Terminal tells you that the stuff you queried doesn't exist, then you're good to go. As for updates, well, yeah, you should do that especially if you determined that your Mac's clean. And you should install an antivirus, as, well, you'll never know. Blake Gripling (talk) 13:46, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

newly created torrent won't seed

I've been using bittorent software and torrents for several years, but have never tried creating my own. I need to create a torrent in order to share a single large private file with a friend. I've followed a number of tutorials and each time I have the same problem. I select the file, add a public tracker, create and save, and then the torrent is added to my queue. It says "downloading" and does nothing. I stop it, change the download location to the same location as the file, and then restart it. According to the advice I've read, it should then recognise the file and build it, say download is complete, and start seeding. Why won't it get to this seeding stage? It doesn't get past "downloading", where it stays stuck at 0. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong? I'm on a Mac, Lion OS, and am using BitTorrent. Katherine.J.W. (talk) 13:39, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Have you tried using uTorrent instead? Blake Gripling (talk) 13:47, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Yes. It appears to be exactly the same program, with different branding. Katherine.J.W. (talk) 13:52, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Nevermind, I got it to work with uTorrent, though I'd like to understand why it doesn't work with BitTorrent. Katherine.J.W. (talk) 14:50, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

That's a very inefficient way to send a file to one person, though. Ftp would make a lot more sense. Looie496 (talk) 16:02, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

I know, but the recipient doesn't want to reveal their IP address. Katherine.J.W. (talk) 16:31, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Torrenting doesn't hide your IP address. Take a look at the list of peers on your torrent list and there it is. Kind of silly to go to all that trouble for, well, zero security benefit. --Mr.98 (talk) 16:47, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Ah, neither of us realised that was visible. Good thing I didn't look! We abandoned the idea though because I was seeding such a minuscule amount to him. We went back to Opera Unite, which gives fairly good speeds but unfortunately doesn't rebuild the file whenever there is an interruption. And Opera crashes a lot. Meaning he's had the first half of the file about half a dozen times! Katherine.J.W. (talk) 10:09, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

An alternative way to send a large file to one other person, or a small number of people, is to upload it to a file hosting service, and then notifying them of the file name and service.-gadfium 22:48, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

USB light

I have a simple USB light which draws power from a USB port. There is no software for it, simply plug it and it lights up. I would like to be able to turn it on and off via the Windows 7 command line (for use in a batch script). I figure the only way to do this would be to selectively disable the USB port it is connected to, but I do not know how to do this. The other USB ports must remain on and unaffected. Is this possible? How would it be done? Operating system is Windows 7. Thank you 82.45.62.107 (talk) 16:35, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Someone else out there in internet-land had the same question as you. The answer given then was that it's not really possible as you describe it - without some extra software or hardware, you can really only have all the USB ports on, or all of them off. A couple of other suggestions were made - Drive Disabler, which is some software to allow selective disabling of USB drives, and Devcon, which is a command line tool to do about the same thing. Alternatively, Texas Instruments do something called a USB power switch which might be a hardware solution to what you want. I say might because the documentation is in electronic-engineer-speak, and I'm not fluent. Maybe someone else could have a look and translate. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 17:11, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

April 9

Android Tablet

an Android Tablet is a new kind of tech, like an ipad but smaller ?

Android tablets come in many sizes, but the most common are 7-inch and 10-inch screens. iPads have a 9.7-inch screen. While iPad started the current tablet computer popularity, and Android responded to the demand, both are evolving. I have both a 7-inch Android tablet (which I upgraded to version 4.0.3 yesterday), and a 3rd generation iPad. They're both nice, but I use them for different purposes - the Android mostly as an ebook reader with the capability to browse the web, and the iPad mostly as a web browsing device plus a few more specialised applications.-gadfium 01:51, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

It's not particularly new, no. It's relatively new for a Linux distro (of sorts) like Android to be backed so greatly by such a powerful organization as Google. Apple focuses on a few specific form factors and tightly controls their OS, not allowing it to be used on any devices but their own. Since Android is free and largely unregulated manufacturers and distributors are naturally using it on a number of different form factors. ¦ Reisio (talk) 13:04, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Windows Explorer remembering CD/DVD info even after rejecting

I have a problem with Windows Explorer. After ejecting the DVD or CD in the DVD/CD drive, Windows Explorer still shows the volume info of the disc that has been ejected. It doesn't matter how long you wait, Windows Explorer never seems to show updated information. When I try to do an "eject" on the drive, it will take an unusually long time before the disc tray ejects. I seems that Windows is checking the drive for the disc that was there before (and will actually eject the disc tray only after it has failed to find the disc).

I don't know what might have caused it, but I remember having made some registry changes a few months ago while fixing/troubleshooting some issues. Is there a registry setting that, when set a certain way, would explain the symptoms that I'm seeing? If so, how do I reset it back to the normal setting?

If it doesn't look like a registry problem, what should I check to troubleshoot? --108.52.38.199 (talk) 01:15, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

This sounds like a very old behavior when you ejected a floppy disk. At least you don't get the infamous Retry/Ignore/Abort prompt (all of which repeat the same prompt). StuRat (talk) 02:01, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Running a windows program on my mac

I have access to a free (legal) version of Turbotax--my father's purchase covers everyone in the family, up to five downloads, but I have a mac and the purchase is Turbotax for Windows and the download, no surprise, is an .exe file. How can I use this on my mac? I know there are programs that allow you to spoof/run the Windows interface but I have no idea what they're called (and I want this to be free). Any help?--108.54.27.24 (talk) 03:04, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Look at Parallels Desktop for Mac. You might be able to get a demo version or free trial that will let you run Turbo Tax. Or you can ask Intuit if your father's licence includes the Mac version. (The version sold in stores has both). RudolfRed (talk) 03:12, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure the demo version will be pretty much useless on its own since AFAIK and as per the article, Parallels is simply a virtualisation program. You need a copy of the OS you want which is obviously Windows here and it sounds unlikely the OP has a spare licence for Windows to be used on a VM. You can sometimes get Windows trials but I'm not sure if the trial licence extends to running it on a VM. And in any case, it seems fairly pointless if the OP needs a long term solution (and it sounds like they do) and wants something free as they mentioned. If the OP does want to run Windows in a virtual machine, particularly since there only seems to be a single non demanding program they want to run (so any possible issues like limited GPU virtualisation shouldn't matter), it would seemingly make more sense for them to choose something that's free like VirtualBox or QEMU (possibly in the form of Q (emulator) although from what I can tell that hasn't been updated since 2008) both of which, from what I can tell, support Mac OS X in some fashion. Then at least they only have to worry about finding a Windows licence. Nil Einne (talk) 03:37, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Wine and Mono are the first ones I can think of. →Στc. 03:13, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Hmm I'm lost. I downloaded Wine and Wine bottler and then tried to Open the Turbotax and after about 100 errors it closed down. According to the wine database and some things I googled it's not going to work. Maybe I just have to try to get the Mac version.--108.54.27.24 (talk) 04:08, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Any chance that you're a student? If so, you can get free versions of Windows 2003 and Windows 2008 (which are the server equivalents of XP and Vista) from dreamspark.com. Then use VirtualBox (also free) to boot into your legally licensed new copy of Windows. I use this setup on my Mac and it works very well. There is near-seamless integration so I can continue to work on my Mac as normal while running Windows as just another app/window. Julia\^talk 10:22, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Typically licensing is separate from downloads — you might at least attempt to apply whatever licensing information you have to a Mac OS trial download (try to match the version as best you can). You could also call them up and see what your options are. ¦ Reisio (talk) 13:10, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Solid state holographic data storage

I saw this, Holographic data storage and this, Holographic Versatile Disc, and it intrigued me. But I'm wondering if there's a holographic data storage medium that is solid state with no moving parts. ScienceApe (talk) 05:57, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

That'd severly limit the space (or require an incredible amount of redundant parts). Holographic storage systems already have many fewer moving parts than a traditional hard disk, and the medium itself does not have to come into as close contact with anything that could easily physically damage it. ¦ Reisio (talk) 12:57, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Mains Adapter for iPod Touch

Is there such a thing as an adapter that I can plug into the wall socket and recharge (or keep charged) my iPod Touch? The battery doesn't seem to last very long - 5 hours or so of continual use - and I tend to use it a lot when I am outside. It would be nice to be able to plug it in when at a restaurant, for example. Googling has only got me hits for 'USB mains adapter', which makes no sense. KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 09:01, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Hmm, my iPod Touch came with such a thing - which is indeed a USB mains adapter. It's just a wall-wart with a usb socket, which plugs into the usb-ipod cable you surely already have, which plugs into the iPod to charge it. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 09:28, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Mine came with the same thing. You can get them here if you've lost yours. Dismas|^(talk) 09:56, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

OP here. Sorry, I wasn't clear. I do indeed have a USB charger. I am looking to recharge from the mains - the household electricity supply, for example, not via USB. 145.236.189.201 (talk) 10:19, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Yes, we know what you mean. This thing plugs into the mains outlet on the wall. It has a transformer, which produces the normal USB power level. It then emits this on a usb connection (which carries no data) into which you can plug an iPod. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 10:20, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Sorry, I hadn't clicked on the link Dismas provided. I did not get one with mine, and that is indeed what I need. Now I just need a European and UK version. Thanks, I will look around. 145.236.189.143 (talk) 10:28, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Here you go. Straight from Apple. Dismas|^(talk) 10:34, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

The standard adapter comes with interchangeable power pins for different standards. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 10:38, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

How do I live-download to YouTube?

I would like to put up a live broadcast from a digital camera (or a cameraphone) to my YouTube channel. I don't like to wait until I go to a computer, or even wait until the recording is done. I want the footage to be placed on the site as it's being filmed. Then the live broadcast has a set length once I stop recording.

How do I get this to happen? Thanks. --Tergigress (talk) 09:54, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Youtube can't do this, you may want a live stream. 190.60.93.218 (talk) 13:01, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

A better tool for doing this would be Bambuser, which does pretty much exactly what you describe. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 16:59, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Processor iddle

I would like to know if there are side effects when the processor is not iddle? (I mean when it's always being used). Current;y I'm bruteforcing a tripcode but I don't know if this is bad to the processor, thanks. 190.60.93.218 (talk) 13:05, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Processing is what processors are designed to do. ¦ Reisio (talk) 13:13, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

So It doesn't matter if the processor is 100% being used than or if it is iddle most of the time? 190.60.93.218 (talk) 13:25, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

It depends on your system. In general, a processor that runs hotter will age quicker and may develop faults earlier. However, in a well-designed system, the temperature should remain well below the point where this effect is noticeable. So unless you have a very crappy thermal design, you should be fine. BTW, the processor state is called "idle" (one "d"), as in "idling away your live" ;-). --Stephan Schulz (talk) 13:44, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

It looks that I'm going to have to pause it.. cause I can feel warm.. of it.. Thanks.. 190.60.93.218 (talk) 14:47, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

You shouldn't have to worry about it, the processor will take care of itself, in the worst case it'll shut itself down before any damage is done. I'm really confused how someone could know enough to have a legitimate reason and the capability to bruteforce as you're suggesting but doesn't have the knowledge about how a processor works. Chris M. (talk) 14:54, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

I didn't wrote the brute forcing program. But I'm constantly learning about programming... And I don't really know much about hardware.... 190.60.93.218 (talk) 16:13, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

I'm not sure what you consider a side effect but busy processors usually use more electric power. Some people only crunch numbers when they would otherwise turn up the heat. Electric power is an expensive heat source. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:37, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

IE8 converting numbers into telephone numbers

When the death of my Windows Vista computer in November forced me to buy a computer equipped with Windows 7, I made sure to go back to the same IE8 that I'd been using on the old computer, as I have to use IE9 at work and I hate it. However, there's one "feature" that changed that I don't know how to undo: whenever it sees a string of numbers in certain formats, the browser renders them as a telephone number, complete with a link that will call the number if I click it. How can I turn this off? It's mildly annoying when the browser does this to things that really are telephone numbers, but it's downright confusing when it gets confused, such as when it converts the DOI in citation #7 of Micro black hole into a link allowing me to call a telephone number in Spain. Nyttend (talk) 15:44, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

It's an add-on, maybe Skype Click to Call. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:54, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Your Firefox profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible.

Hi, I've had this error for about a week, have tried everything, and am now at a loss for what to do. I uninstalled Firefox, and reinstalled it, but it didn't work. I uninstalled it, deleting all preferences, then deleting the Program Files folder for Firefox, then reinstalled, but it didn't work. Uninstalled Thunderbird too, as it's also made by Mozilla, but it's still not working. The file profiles.ini looks right. I made a new account on my laptop (which is running XP) and installed Firefox on that, and it works fine. I copied the new accounts Firefox folders (including the profile) into my normal account and it's still not working. I am using Firefox 11. I even tried to install Firefox 3.6, but that didn't do anything, so I just uninstalled it, and reinstalled Firefox 11. I broke my normal laptop, and so I'm using this, my old laptop, now, and so I've edited a lot of things to get it working as I want. I have edited the registry, so thought it might be that. I have tried to restore to previous positions in the registry, but every restore point cannot be restored to. I have run CCleaner to the registry, but it's still not working. It isn't a virus causing this because I've run Malware Bytes, and AVG to check there are no viruses. I've done everything I can think of, and now I'm stuck. I know that I cold just switch to using the new account, but the reason I've spent a week trying to fix this is because it's a lot of effort to install everything for the new account (a lot of things are installed for this account only), and to set up preferences, etc. I have googled the issue, and I'm unable to fix it from the help I have found via Google's results. I am also unable to run the Firefox Profile Manager as I am unable to run Firefox. Thank you for any help that you can provide. 134.83.207.178 (talk) 18:05, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Can you start the profile manager by running firefox from the command line (with no firefox windows hanging around) as described here? -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 18:53, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Thank you for your help. No, unfortunately the same error appears. 134.83.207.178 (talk) 20:01, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Assuming you don't want anything in the profile you've already created: Read this page to find your profiles folder (you might be looking in the wrong spot), and then rename the affected profile to something ridiculous, like "324tvgdsvcw". Then try restarting. If that doesn't work, move said affected profile folder out of the main profiles folder (onto your desktop, for example), then restart again. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 143.85.199.242 (talk) 20:11, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Thank you. I had already done that, to no avail. I have a copy of my profile, which I am using for my temporary account, and it works fine. I have changed the profile, deleted the profile, edited the profile name and correspondingly edited profiles.ini, and even deleted profiles.ini expecting Firefox to create a new one, but unfortunately none of that has worked. Now it is just installed with the standard profile that is created on installation. 134.83.207.178 (talk) 20:19, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Unix time

Hello, I was interested in making a Unix time calculator with Excel. However, it seems to be slightly off (it returns a timestamp for April 30 when I enter today's date). Could you take a look at these formulas and tell me where I'm going wrong? (I'm using a time of 20120409, 12:51:00.)

2012 in seconds = 31536000*2012
04 in seconds = (31536000/12)*4
09 in seconds = 9*(24*60*60)
12 in seconds = 12*60*60
51 in seconds = 51*60

Then subtract the seconds of 19700101 00:00:00 (62125920000) from the total seconds of the above equations. Am I supposed to be doing something else with 1970 other than getting the seconds of the year alone? Thanks for your help! -- MegaGuy — Preceding unsigned comment added by 143.85.199.242 (talk) 19:56, 9 April 2012 (UTC)