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April 12

Linux packets

Hi. If I install dpkg on Arch Linux, will the system be able to use Debian's packages? 212.68.15.66 (talk) 09:09, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

Yes, with certain compatibility caveats. All dpkg does is unpack a .deb, and then manage the contents' meta-data: what files are installed, which versions, in which directories, and so forth. (It's really little more than a standardized nomenclature for an archived program: see deb (file format)). In some cases, deb package metadata may indicate a required dependency; and dpkg does not handle the retrieval and installation of dependencies. The actual program may require certain system utilities or packages that are not installed by default on your *nix system. If you don't want to worry about those compatibility issues, or if you're unfamiliar with manually managing program and library dependencies, consider switching to a Debian or Ubuntu installation, where the system package managers are a little more user-friendly. And of course, this says nothing about whether your .deb package contains a valid program for your machine architecture; make sure you get the correct version. If all else fails, you can rebuild free-software programs from source, when your version of *nix is not binary-compatible with the intended target. Nimur (talk) 14:32, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

Capturing webpages

Please suggest some good free software by which I can capture the image of any webpage? And is there any firefox add-on avalible for this? I use Firefox 4. --Reference Desker (talk) 10:09, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

I assume you mean a screenshot utility for capturing the whole page - yes, there is! See Fireshot. 212.68.15.66 (talk) 11:17, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

Thanks! --Reference Desker (talk) 12:08, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

No problem! 212.68.15.66 (talk) 12:15, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

There is one that comes prebuilt in Win7 (I'm not sure about Vista) which is called Snipping Tool. Just search it in the start menu. General Rommel (talk) 03:13, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

AFAIK The Snipping tool is a bit clumsy. It also doesn't, if I recall correctly, taking a screenshot of the whole web page, only the visible portion which is also capturable simply by using print screen. 212.68.15.66 (talk) 12:03, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

I use a Firefox extension called "Screengrab", which works quite well.217.158.236.14 (talk) 12:45, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

Go to File, and select Save As. Then navigate (in the resulting dialog box) to your desired directory, type in the desired filename, then under Save as type:, select Web archive, single file (*.mht) and click the Save button. Rocketshiporion♫ 14:18, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

broadband in Altona, Vic, Australia?

Sorry for such a very local question, and no worries if there are no answers, but I'm enquiring on behalf of a friend who lives in the above suburb - she's using Virgin ADSL, but it's incredibly slow - something to do with poor coverage, she thinks. Can anyone recommend a better provider? She's currently paying about 60 dollars a month, but is willing to pay more, I think.

Thanks Adambrowne666 (talk) 10:28, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

I don't know the specifics of the Australian ADSL market, but if it's anything like that in the US or the UK, the ISP may not be the source of the problem. In those markets the local loop (the wire from your house to the phone company's premises) is owned by, and installed by, a single phone company (which used to be the actual monopoly, and generally retains a de-facto monopoly because it has the men and the trucks and the premises and so forth). That company (I guess in Australia it's Telstra) frequently operates the DSLAM too, and sometimes several hops on the IP network beyond that. So regardless of who your ADSL provider is, the cable to your house, the DSLAM, and maybe some of the IP network too, are all the same (Telstra's). If the slowdown is there, changing ISP won't help, as the ISP only handles your traffic somewhere downstream of the DSLAM. Before I worried about the ISP I'd first look at:

• is the PC okay (no malware)
• is the ADSL modem/router okay (what data rate does the modem report?)
• is the microfilter okay (those are easy to swap out)
• is the ADSL equipment being interfered with by a radio source or a noisy power main?
• is the phone wiring inside the house okay - old wiring can be sufficient for voice calls, but with lots of patches and branches and junk it can degrade a data connection
• beyond that, if you're far from the exchange, or the line from your home to the exchange is old and noisy (and in some cases, for long lines, impaired by a loading coil), that can degrade performance. The phone company can test this remotely (although persuading them to can be a challenge), and they can sometimes even be persuaded to replace the old line with a fresh clean new one.

87.112.90.1 (talk) 16:02, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for the detailed answer - I'll pass the info onto her. Adambrowne666 (talk) 02:09, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

Would it be worth asking the Prime Minister? She's a local! HiLo48 (talk) 02:36, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

She is indeed - I bet she has good broadband - good idea - I'll ask her next time I'm around Adambrowne666 (talk) 12:14, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

Australia has had local loop unbundling for a while so there are a few other companies who have Dslams connected to the lines other then Telstra. Whether this is the case for the location the OP mentions I can't say. In any case this may not help if the line itself is the problem, e.g. the distance from the line to the exchange or even just your own internal wiring. Checking the sync rate of the ADSL modem as 87 suggests would be a good first step in giving you an idea of where the problem may lie. Nil Einne (talk) 07:39, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

Platform for new system

I'm planning to get a small system developed for my business that will need to run on about 10 computers (individually, not networked). If I get it developed in Java with a MySQL database, I know I will have to install the Java runtime environment for the program to work. But will I also need to install MySQL and manually create a database on every computer? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.255.9.36 (talk) 11:37, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

If they're not networked (and that means the different instances of the app won't communicate or share state) then you'd need to install the database server on each. If you can network them, then you'd be able to run just a single MySQL database server and all the java clients could talk to it. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 11:43, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

If you're not networking them, you might want to use something other than MySQL, e.g. in an SQLite database. MySQL is a lot of overhead to bring if you aren't having multiple users access it at the same time. --Mr.98 (talk) 11:45, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

I understand there might be constraints that are forcing you to use non-networked machines, but you could consider a web-based system, in which case your 10 computers would require nothing other than a web browser. You would have to maintain a server to run the database and web server (it could be Java, PHP, Rails, Python, etc) but I think the benefits of performance, comparability and longevity would abound. There is no need to connect this cluster of clients/server to the internet, you could run an isolated LAN. --rocketrye12 ^{talk/contribs} 17:55, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

Are the 10 installations supposed to share state (that is, should one be able to see changes performed by the other)? If so, you need to have only one database server, and have them all connect to it over the network (though there are other possible setups, like Rocketrye12's suggestion). If not, you'll need to install database software and create a database on each server. Paul (Stansifer) 04:40, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

Re: SSD as C:\

I'm not sure if this is a temporary issue with Ref desk but I can't seem to be able to edit my previous section entry? Anyway I just wanted to thank those who have provided responses, they have been very helpful. However by and large they have been quite theoretical (which is useful) but I was also wondering if anyone here actually has been running a SSD for any significant period of time as their C:\?

@75.57.242.120 yeah they are a bit expensive but Windows 7 takes up 16 gig and a desire for extra space on C:\ is actually one of my main reasons for upgrading from my 74GB WD raptor which is becoming too cramped...

Thanks again --58.175.32.140 (talk) 12:09, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

It's an ongoing problem, the cause of which is still unknown. Try purging the cache and then see if the section edit links come back. If they don't, I could copy your message to the other section for you if you like 82.43.89.77 (talk) 14:25, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

Yes, over here an SSD has been the machine's C: drive for months. Do you have a question? Comet Tuttle (talk) 16:50, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

My 150GiB boot partition resides on a RAID 1 array of two Kingston SSDNow V+ 512GB 2.5” SATA II SSDs, and my OS is Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Edition. My computer has been running continously since 6-March-2010, except for 20-second reboots. My pagefile also resides on RAID 0 partition on the same pair of SSDs. Rocketshiporion♫ 10:44, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

Oh great (sorry for slow reply to comments) - @ Comet Tuttle, nothing in specific I just wanted to make sure the theory works when it hits the ground :) I have had memory keys die on me in the past so you can understand I was a bit dubious about having a SSD as my C: but if its working for you guys thats reassuring. Thanks! --58.175.32.140 (talk) 12:29, 16 April 2011 (UTC)

Downloading google books

Is there any script/software available by which I can download an entire book in a single click? Right now I use Google Book Downloader, but the problem with this script is that I have to download each of the page separately which is a pain in the ass. So I want something by which I can download a free/preview book with a single click. Thanks! --Reference Desker (talk) 12:14, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

For some books Google Books presents you a PDF link, so you can download them directly.

For some other books Google Books would be allowed to give you a PDF link, but for some reason doesn't. E.g. this used to be the case in Europe with most books, even those that were printed in the 18th century. In such cases you can get around it by using a proxy server in a country where Google offers a download link (if you know how to get one), or by looking for the book in the Internet Archive. [1]

For some books it's illegal and therefore Google correctly won't let you do it. You should not try to find a workaround. Whether a book is out of copyright or not may depend on your country. Hans Adler 12:20, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

Desktop wallpaper is always stretched

Hi there, I have Windows 7 and when I put a picture on my desktop it always (almost) goes to STRETCH even when I select CENTER or some other display. What is even more frustrating is that once in a while it does center. WTF? Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.151.171.194 (talk) 17:27, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

Not sure about the cause, but a workaround might be to create a wallpaper that's the full size of the screen. You could put a black frame around it, for example, if that's what you want. If that's part of the pic, then Windows won't remove it. StuRat (talk) 22:21, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

C# expression parsing

Today at work, I noticed this kind of C# code:

string s;
/* ... */
string text = "the value of s is " + s == string.Empty ? "empty" : s;

I thought it should handle null strings too, so I changed it to:

string s;
/* ... */
string text = "the value of s is " + string.IsNullOrEmpty(s) ? "empty" : "not empty";

Surprise surprise, this code no longer compiled, causing an error message saying "Cannot convert string to bool". I changed it to:

string s;
/* ... */
string text = "the value of s is " + (string.IsNullOrEmpty(s) ? "empty" : "not empty");

and the code compiled again. So I wrote the following code at home on my Fedora 12 Linux system:

using System;
public class Test
{
  public static void Main(string[] args)
    {
      string s = string.Empty;
      string test = "the value of s is: " + s == string.Empty ? "empty" : "not empty";
      Console.WriteLine(test);
    }
  }

and compiled it with mcs and ran it with mono, and printed out:

not empty

Does this mean that the statement:

string text = "the value of s is " + s == string.Empty ? "empty" : "not empty";

in fact means the following?

string text;
if (("the value of s is " + s) == string.Empty)
{
  text = "empty";
}
else
{
  text = "not empty";
}

Because that is the only way I can see that the first version compiles and the second one does not, and also why I got the output that I did. JIP | Talk 19:00, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

The operator is a ternary operation. It is in the form: boolean ? code : code; So, what you have is a string and you are adding some more string based on the ternary operation. The error was a complain that the String.IsNullOrEmpty(s) function was a string, not a boolean. What I think is that you meant to use s.InNullOrEmpty(). That runs the is null or empty function on s. The way you did it was you ran a class-static (however you want to refer to it) function called IsNullOrEmpty and you passed it a string. It probably only accepts booleans if anything at all. -- kainaw™ 19:20, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

Also, your translation is not accurate. It translates to:

string text;

if(s.isEmptyOrNull())

text = "the value of s is "+"empty";

else

text = "the value of s is "+"not empty";

Ternary operations are very similar to if-else controls, but not exactly the same. A ternary operation allows "code" in the if-else part. It doesn't have to be a complete expression. Depending on the language, you can also apply this to the left-side of an expression. I did this before in a very special case. It looks like:

country.type == 1 ? state : province; = form.sp;

That checks to see the country type and, depending on that, decides if it will set the state or province variable. -- kainaw™ 19:24, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

Kainaw, I can't make any sense of your answer. It appears to be completely wrong.

The answer to the question is yes. If you look at a C# operator precedence table you'll see that ? : has very low precedence; almost any operator will "bind tighter" than it, including + and ==. (To be more precise, if you think of "? expr :" as a fat binary operator, it is right-associative with the precedence given in that table. Between the ? and the : there can never be a precedence conflict, so you can put anything there unparenthesized, even an assignment expression.) -- BenRG (talk) 20:02, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

As a general stylistic rule, safe and portable code shouldn't rely on operator precedence, but should make liberal use of parentheses. Though relying on operator precedence is valid syntax, it is at the very least confusing syntax for human programmers (and for compilers, which are not always bit-exact to the language specification). The GNU C Style Guidelines recommend excessive parentheses for absolute clarity, as do many code style and intro-to-programming textbooks. Nimur (talk) 20:45, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

As an aside, have you tested whether this actually works if the string is null? I'm not too familiar with C#, but the way that dynamic dispatch works in most languages like this, you can't dynamically dispatch off null. Some people suggest that stuff like this makes null a terrible language feature. Paul (Stansifer) 03:58, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

It's a class method (string.IsNullOrEmpty(s)). -- BenRG (talk) 07:25, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

Oh, of course. Never mind! Paul (Stansifer) 13:12, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

April 13

How do I find my WEP key without any acces to the router?

I'm searching for my WEP key so I can connect my Nintendo DS lite to WiFi. I'm on a college campus and I'm connected to the University internet, on which I've registered my DS. It seems that, in order to connect, I need to give the WEP address to the DS and I know how to do that: but the WEP address is out of my grasp as I have absolutely no access to the router. When I put in my IP address to the browser, I get a "Unable to Connect" or "Page is taking too long to respond" error, so I can't even find the type of router. I've gone on to the University tech site to find it, but they don't mention any brands. How do I get access to my WEP key without any knowledge of or access to the router? --Ye Olde Luke (talk) 05:56, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

WEP is Wired Equivalent Privacy, it is the an older method of securing the a Wi-Fi access point. The DS does not support Wireless Protected Access (WPA2) which is a more secure method. There is no way of recovering the WEP key without monitoring all the network traffic or brute-forcing it. CS Miller (talk) 07:05, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

WirelessKeyView will show stored WEP/WPA keys on an XP or Vista (or Win7, probably) system. I haven't tried it, but I have used other NirSoft programs. But note that the campus network may not support WEP, and they may not want you connecting additional devices to the network without notifying them. It would be better to tell them that you want to connect the DS; they will give you the appropriate key, if there is one. -- BenRG (talk) 07:23, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

Your campus IT department should be able to tell you for sure, but if you were never informed of a passkey, you may not need one. Try to connect with security set to "none". If that fails, ask your IT department for the key. Note, however, that the classic DS and DS Lite won't work with networks that require the use of WPA or a proxy (the DSi and DS XL do support WPA and proxies, but only for the built-in web browser and some newer games). A lot of campus networks require a proxy to connect, so you may be out of luck unless you upgrade to a newer DS. Horselover Frost (talk · edits) 05:56, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

Dalvik open source? Then where is the source?

The Article and sources on the net say that the Dalvik JVM is open source on the Apache 2.0 license. An editor asked where the source is, and neither he or I have been able to find it. Is Dalvik open source? If so where do you get the source to the JVM from? -- Q Chris (talk) 08:14, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

I provided a possible answer over there at that Talk page thread. 67.162.90.113 (talk) 10:47, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

When I brows the location I can't see this directory. Could you give the path please -- Q Chris (talk) 11:06, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

It's a Distributed revision control system, Git. It tells you exactly how to get it (step 1. install git, step2. access the repository). If you really must browse the directory without viewing the repository, click "tree" in the row that contains "summary", "shortlog", and some other stuff. Clicking "raw" next to a file will get you the file. Invrnc (talk) 12:46, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

For completeness, here is the same link from the talk page, where the instructions above apply. [2]. Invrnc (talk) 12:47, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

Resolved

Thanks I have updated the article talk page. -- Q Chris (talk) 14:20, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

iPhone

If I take a video with my iPhone4 it syncs OK with iPhoto on my MacBookPro. However, when syncing the Macbook back to the iPhone, my videos are not available. Is this a limit to the system, a failure in my syncing, a fault of mine,or am I just expecting TOO much!--85.211.228.8 (talk) 13:54, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

Have you shown this problem to an AppleCare station at an Apple retail store? Part of the service provided by Apple is that they will help diagnose and repair common errors, and if it turns that your software or device is actually malfunctioning, they'll send your iPhone back to the fine folks in Cupertino, where a team of expert video software engineers will stare down the problem until it goes away. Nimur (talk) 14:39, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for this, but do you know if it IS a problem, or is it not reasonable of me to expect the iPhone to accept videos from the computer?--85.211.228.8 (talk) 16:11, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

You can definitely sync video from iTunes to an iPod or iPhone: be sure you have enabled video sync by following the official How-To, and if there's any problems, follow these steps for verifying iTunes video conversion and video syncing. Some videos require a format or resolution conversion, which iTunes can do; but this process may take a while depending on your video. Nimur (talk) 16:51, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

Many thanks Nimur, problem sorted via your link to the Apple support page. Much obliged.--85.211.209.234 (talk) 06:34, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

April 14

Latex Problem

I'm having a lot of problems with latex. I post this a day ago on math desk and received an answer, but it didnt solve my problem. I'm using windows xp so I downloaded the following version on http://www.tug.org/protext/ from the link "download the self-extracting protext.exe file". I installed every package (it's 1.66gb and somehow took more than an hour to install). Now I had a latex file that I created on a Linux OS using a different version of latex, but for the windows version (exe called TeXworks) I could only create a pdf using the pdfLaTeX+MakeIndex+BibTeX option at the top of the screen; options such as pdfTeX and pdfLaTeX and XeTeX and XeLaTeX give errors. Furthermore, the "pdf" I created using pdfLaTeX+MakeIndex+BibTeX isn't really a pdf file; it's not opened in adobe pdf and there's no save option. It's opened in TeXworks, but looks like pdf files on the inside. I tried reading the "help" but I have no idea what they're on about. Can someone tell me in layman words how to use the windows version? Does the windows version read the linux version properly? Thanks in advance. There's a lot less options in the windows version than the linux version. Money is tight (talk) 03:41, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

It's hard to know what's going on based on the information you've provided. TeXworks is not a version of LaTeX. It's a third-party GUI frontend for LaTeX that happens to be included in the proTeXt distribution. The LaTeX command-line utilities are the same on all platforms, and you can use them if you prefer. If you used a different GUI frontend on Linux and you prefer that one, you could check whether it's available for Windows.

I can't make any sense of "it's not opened in adobe pdf and there's no save option. It's opened in TeXworks, but looks like pdf files on the inside." What does "it's not opened" mean? "There's no save option" in what program? TeXworks? Adobe Reader? What "looks like pdf files on the inside"? -- BenRG (talk) 05:12, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

Sorry for not being clear. Where do I get latex (and not TeXworks) for windows? I remember the one I used on Linux was something called Kyle. When I said it's not opened in adobe pdf, I meant when I click the circular green button on top left of the page it gives what looks like a pdf file (so the text font is very different from word or wikipedia or normal web site fonts, it's the same as pdf fonts), but the program that opened it is called TeXworks as well, not Adobe Reader (which is the real pdf program). I can't save my file either, because there's no save option under the "File" tab of the TeXworks that creates the pdf-looking file, so it's kind of useless since I'm trying to create pdf documents using latex. I used linux at my school and my home PC only has windows xp. Money is tight (talk) 08:11, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

Okay, I see what you mean. I haven't used TeXworks, but probably it saved the PDF file in the same directory as the source tex file, then opened it to show you how it came out. You don't have to save it. (If you want the PDF to go somewhere else, there is probably a way to configure TeXworks to do that.)

You have LaTeX for Windows; proTeXt is a LaTeX distribution that includes the Windows version of LaTeX along with TeXworks and a bunch of other utilities.

If you can't get the hang of TeXworks, Kile is available for Windows. -- BenRG (talk) 08:53, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

Thanks, it's working. Is it ok if I delete TeXworks now? Is Kile dependent on TeXworks in any way? Money is tight (talk) 05:19, 16 April 2011 (UTC)

Basically, you need three pieces of software to make and view latex documents. You need some kind of text editor to create the .tex files (TeXworks and Kile are examples of this). You need a latex distribution to turn these into ps/pdf/whatever files (MiKTeX is, I think, the standard one for Windows) - TeXworks/Kile can't build the pdfs themselves; they call latex behind-the-scenes. Finally, you need some kind of software to view the ps/pdf/whatever files (Adobe Reader, Ghostscript, etc.). Protext appears to include all three of these (TeXworks, MiKTeX, and Ghostscript, among other things). I have no idea whether it is possible to uninstall individual parts of protext. If you get rid of the whole thing, I imagine you will still have some kind of pdf viewer on your machine, and Kile should still work, though it won't be able to compile latex documents without MiKTeX or an equivalent. If you do end up reinstalling MiKTeX, I think there is an option to only install the main packages - you can set it up to download new ones as and when you need them - you will probably never use most of the ones you have installed. 81.98.38.48 (talk) 15:03, 17 April 2011 (UTC)

Embedded System

I want to know that what is Modeling and Characterization of Embedded Computation System? Please give me a solution of this.

See our article Embedded system, and if you have any further questions, come on back and ask a new question. Comet Tuttle (talk) 16:58, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

User missing on windows 7

I had some malware on my windows 7 machine, so I rebooted and booted up from with windows xp (I multiboot), removed it with windows security essentials and then booted back with windows 7 but now I have a big problem... When I go to my hard drive, then users, it does not show my username, it just shows "public." Also, none of my icons and folders are on my desktop except for firefox. Any idea on how to fix this? I used my usual password to log into windows 7 and there is only one account setup. When I go into user accounts, it shows I am logged in as the administrator so I am not sure why all my documents and everything else are missing. Any ideas on how to fix it or access the files? Thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by Zipzster00 (talk • contribs) 07:16, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

I suppose the first possibility I'd consider is whether the malware had actually deleted the account and its folders. I would restore from a recent backup, and if there were none, I would do a sanity-check on how much disk space is reported to be free — if your hard disk is now 80% free space and you're pretty sure it used to be 20% free, then mass deletion may have been the problem. I'd run SpaceMonger or some other "disk visualization" utility to help here. I would then probably find some undelete software and see whether it can find any of the files you're missing. Comet Tuttle (talk) 16:57, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

Is there anything that can be done using I movie that simply cannot be done using Movie Maker ?

Is there anything that can be done using I movie'11 (and a MacBook) that simply cannot be done using Windows Live Movie Maker 2011(windows 7 and a pc)? I mean anything at all?--Gammalflamma (talk) 14:32, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

I'd be surprised if they both don't have one or two features the other hasn't, but also if they didn't both have the bulk of features most casual video editors would want. ¦ Reisio (talk) 20:06, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

Since one is a Microsoft product and the other Apple, it wouldn't surprise me if it's difficult or impossible to export to .mov container file format in Windows Movie Maker. In fact from my search I'm not even sure how well it can import .mov files. I don't know if it supports any import/export plugins so it may be possible to add support. Of course it may also support MPEG-4 Part 14 which is fairly similar being based on the Quicktime container format. Nil Einne (talk) 16:15, 18 April 2011 (UTC)

Deformation of WP pages in Google Chrome

Why does it happen in my GC browser? Other pages are as they should be. Thanks for help. --Omidinist (talk) 15:29, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

I would start off with making sure Chrome is up-to-date (Spanner menu -> About Google Chrome), and then disabling all the extensions and seeing whether that helps (Spanner menu -> Tools -> Extensions). If it does, re-enable extensions one by one and find the culprit. If it doesn't work, try clearing your browsing data (Ctrl+Shift+Del). If that still doesn't work, try navigating to "about:flags" (without the quotes) and enabling GPU Accelerated compositing (it goes without saying to be careful in here). 110.175.208.144 (talk) 08:23, 18 April 2011 (UTC)

BT Broadband

I am thinking of leaving dreadful TalkTalk and moving to BT Broadband. Has anyone had a good or bad experience with BT they might care to share please?85.211.160.104 (talk) 15:59, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

Bad. I won't go into all the gory details, but they seem remarkably incompetent when it comes to simple things like communication - with themselves. What should have been a simple transfer from a 'Home Hub' to a 'Business Hub' setup resulted in both systems being cut off, and multiple billing. Their excuse? That these were dealt with by different departments that were 'like different companies' and didn't exchange information. Basically they have managed to combine the pig-headed bureaucratic stubbornness of the old pre-privatised BT with a new-found contempt for customers if they get in the way of short-term profits. AndyTheGrump (talk) 16:58, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

I'm with BT too. Honestly, I'm not happy with it. The bandwidth is unimpressive for the price outside of major population centres. The 'Unlimited' package actually has 100GB/month limit (you get throttled to 2Mb/s for a month once you exceed it, rather than being cut off altogether). Nowadays, 100GB is actually quite strict, as modern services like iplayer/4od, Steam and XBL/PSN will burn through that pretty quickly. The complimentary BT Home Hub is incredibly unreliable; dropping all network connections for no apparent reason pretty much every day is par for the course. Similarly to AndyTheGrump's story, a relative of mine uses a BT business subscription. Once, it failed because of a fault in the telephone exchange. It took about a month to get BT to just come out and replace the failed part in the exchange (business subscribers are supposed to be back up and running within 3 days, if memory serves), because the different sections of BT just don't seem able to communicate with each other. CaptainVindaloo ^{t c e} 17:29, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

EDIT: Memory doesn't serve. The outage was actually 6 weeks, when business customers are supposed to be back up within 24 hours. CaptainVindaloo ^{t c e} 19:19, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

The trouble is that a failure of the local loop, the distribution frame, the DSLAM, the trunk connection, and sometimes the BRAS is that the equipment is owned and operated (in the great majority of ADSL installs in the UK) by Openreach and BT Wholesale, regardless of who your ISP is. So that failure in the exchange (which was probably a DTE linecard in the DSLAM, or the whole DSLAM) would knock out everyone who shared that equipment, regardless of which ISP they thought they had. So unless you get Virgin Cable (or an expensive business leased-line install, usually on a business park or large office building) then much of your internet connection is in BT's hands, like it or not. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 23:44, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

I have VirginMedia fiber optic broadband and I'd say it has been acceptable but not brilliant. Over 2 years I've had it there's been a total of ~30 hours down time spread over various incidents. There's no monthly limits or anything like that at all, but they do reduce the speed during busy times —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.89.77 (talk) 00:58, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for all these terrifying stories, they almost, but only almost, make me want to stay with TalkTalk, (shudder). But has any one anything good to say about any UK based ISP please?85.211.216.144 (talk) 07:12, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

It seems that people just don't like their broadband service. In Australia, it's near impossible to get any decent broadband unless you go for business offerings. I would say that most ISP's have dodgy broadband services.General Rommel (talk) 07:59, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

Original Research again, but the two people I know with BT have had nothing but trouble. (And some of their helpline call centres are in India.) I'm with Virgin, and they have been pretty good, although it took them six months to figure out that a long term problem was down to a faulty BT connection just down the road, but they did refund the cost of all my helpline calls.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 09:31, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

Be Unlimited has been pretty good for me. Have been with them for a couple of years; they're not perfect, but much better than the (indescribably awful) AOL. Be is owned by Telefonica (O2), but I understand they have a certain amount of autonomy from the parent company. Their call centre was pretty good on the only occasion I've had to contact them, I haven't seen any throttling or significant speed problems, and the router they supplied has uptime of about 11 months. The only note of caution is that their customer base has expanded significantly over the past few years, and with other companies large increases in customer numbers has sometimes led to decreases in quality/customer service, although I haven't seen any evidence of this. It is a bit pricey, however. I would highly recommend the guides and forums at http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ when choosing an ISP - lots of information about various ISPs, and staff from various companies visit the forums. --Kateshortforbob _talk 09:59, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

I'm an ex-BT employee, so you may find me biased, but I'm quite happy with BT broadband. There are currently 2 ISPs whose customer service is well rated in independent surveys - Be and O2. But I think you'll find the rest are much of a much-ness, albeit TalkTalk may be worse - they had specific problems with billing/customer service over their merger. A comment for Finlay. If it's a local-loop-unbundled service, then the only BT bit will be the copper line. This will terminate on an ISPs own DSLAM and thence to its own network/BRAS, etc - so there will be no dependence on BT to fix faults with these services. They are rare in rural UK, but common in cities - it's typically why you can't get cheap broadband out in the sticks.--Phil Holmes (talk) 10:15, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

I've been with Plusnet for quite some years and have little to complain about. They boast of being based on solid Yorkshire values and of having a Yorkshire based call centre; though I'm now a little worried to see the article says they were bought by BT in 2007. Astronaut (talk) 13:48, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

Worm: folders become .exe

I've got an Archos MP3 tablet and two USB sticks, all of which have become infected with some nasty worm or virus which has completely hidden the folders on the devices, replacing them with identically-named 'exe' files (eg. Songs.exe Albums.exe Essays.exe) If I run antivirus software, and I've tried several, the exe-s are wiped as being harmful, but the original files refuse to show up, and their contents can only be revealed by typing the exact path, from memory, in the address bar (ie. F:\Photos\Birthday)
Any advice? ╟─TreasuryTag►Speaker─╢ 18:12, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

[3] — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.89.77 (talk • contribs)

Perhaps you could quote the part of that page which answers my specific problem re. absent folders? ╟─TreasuryTag►Counsellor of State─╢ 20:02, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

The fact the contents can be revealed is great. It presumably means the files have merely been marked as invisible. First, I would back up that infected hard disk. Then, assuming a previous backup before the infection isn't recent enough and you have to salvage data from this hard disk, I would run anti-malware software to try to eradicate the malware. Then I would tell Windows that you want to be able to see invisible files in Windows Explorer. You don't mention what version of Windows you have, but on Windows 7 it's Control Panel -> Folder Options -> View (the tab) and then turn on the option "Show hidden files, folders, and drives". See if your folders are present but invisible. If so, just right-click each such folder and choose "Properties", then uncheck the "Hidden" checkbox. Comet Tuttle (talk) 20:34, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

It's absolutely backed up, I can assure you! The hidden-folders thing doesn't work, sadly. I have Windows 7 and Windows XP on separate laptops, and since these are all USB devices I can choose which system to use. I also have a Linux boot-disc if that could be of any use. ╟─TreasuryTag►inspectorate─╢ 08:15, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

Darn. I'd boot off the Linux disc and take a look and see what the directories look like. I am surprised you are able to use pathnames to get at the directories in Windows Explorer without the directories being visible in Windows Explorer. Comet Tuttle (talk) 18:04, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

They looked more or less like what could be expected; a list of folders, followed by a list of 'exe' files with precisely the same names as the folders, Linux presumably not being fooled into displaying the 'exe's rather than the real thing.
I think I've solved the problem by backing up all my data via Ubuntu, basically writing off the USB sticks and formatting the MP3 player :( Bizarre and sad, but there we go... Just hope to God my main computer's not been infected. ╟─TreasuryTag►Not-content─╢ 19:31, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

Formating Harddrive

I installed a Windows 7 on laptop. Now I want to completely remove it. But when I try to format it thru Windows Explorer or Command Prompt I find I am unable to do it. What shall I do ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.253.131.98 (talk) 18:37, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

You can't format the hard drive which Windows is running from while running Windows. Do you have an install disk for another OS you are trying to install, or even just the Windows 7 install disk itself? Most install disks will give you the option to reformat or repartition the hard drive during the install process. If you want to completely destroy all data on the hard drive so that it is not recoverable, try DBAN 82.43.89.77 (talk) 19:58, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

DBAN is overkill.

• If you want to remove Windows 7 and install another OS, then just install the other OS — during installation the Windows 7 install will almost certainly be destroyed (or you'll at least be given the option).
• If you want to remove Windows 7 and leave an empty disk, you can boot virtually any OS install disk and reformat the drive
• If you want to be paranoid, you can grab any Linux live OS and use dd to overwrite it with zeros (current thinking is that doing this more than once, or with random data, is a complete waste of time).

¦ Reisio (talk) 20:12, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

Fake RPG

Please see Wikipedia:Reference desk/Miscellaneous#Fake RPG. I thought 'misc' was a better fit than the computing helpdesk, but I wanted to alert here, too, because I think it likely that users here might have answers. Cheers,  Chzz  ►  20:38, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

Display more sites in Internet Explorer

I recently moved to IE9 from IE8. With IE8, clicking on the down arrow beside the address bar would pop up a list of the most recent 10 or so sites I'd typed in. With IE9, it only shows the most recent 5. The history and favorites sections have little down arrows to expand how many of those you can see, but I don't see a way to expand that top list. Do I have to fiddle something in the registry, or is there an obvious solution I'm not seeing? 50.92.126.63 (talk) 21:10, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

April 15

Laptop specifications

Hi. I'm looking to by a laptop, which I will use for all intents and purposes in lieu of a desktop PC. Price is kinda not an object; I've tentatively set the maximum at $1000 though this is an extreme scenario and obviously cheaper is preferable if possible. I mainly want to get a laptop with the best specs available, in terms of processor speed, RAM and virtual memory, screen resolution, built-in wireless connectivity, etc, under my price ceiling. Since this is going to be replacing my current PC it should be better in all aspects, but the problem is I don't understand any of the technical computerspeak that searching gives me. It also needs to have the comfort that a desktop gives, i.e., a wide monitor and keyboard. I would prefer the Windows 7 OS. What do the essential numeric specifications mean in terms of how they will affect me (like RAM, hard disk, Processor, Core, etc.), and what range should I be looking for in these? What about audio/video drivers and stuff? Thanks. 72.128.95.0 (talk) 00:13, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

I just want to put out there, since others probably will — what's the goal of having a laptop with a huge monitor? It makes the laptop really quite heavy and ungainly to have a large monitor on it, which in my experience totally destroys the only reason to have a laptop (portability). Might I suggest getting one with a small monitor, and then just having a docking station wherever you plan to do your big-monitor tasks? Just a suggestion, based on personal experience. Ditto with the keyboard. --Mr.98 (talk) 00:16, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

Or get a desktop (which will be cheaper for equivalent or better hardware) and with the savings buy a cheap netbook ($75-150 in the USA). ¦ Reisio (talk) 05:30, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

Even big and heavy laptops are much easier to transport than a tower+monitor+keyboard combo. And there are other reasons to buy a laptop, such as lower power requirements, less noise, and a built in UPS at no extra charge. -- BenRG (talk) 01:39, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

No doubt, but in my experience, nobody who owns a big laptop takes it anywhere on a regular basis. I'm just wanting to point out that things like big keyboards and big monitors come with quite a usage cost, one which is easily avoidable if you have a dock. --Mr.98 (talk) 01:55, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

Aside from the price ceiling, you haven't asked for anything more specific than the best machine at the lowest price, so it's hard to know what to recommend. For "the average user" who isn't a gamer, any current-generation large-sized laptop will probably be more than fast enough. (Smaller laptops are slower.) Don't worry about Core 2 this versus i7 that, or Nvidia versus ATI versus Intel graphics. At least 2GB RAM is a good idea. If you have extra money, spend it on an SSD, not a faster CPU or graphics card. As Mr.98 said, if you really just want the fastest machine at a given price point, you should buy a desktop. -- BenRG (talk) 01:39, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

If you are comfortable spending $1000, then you can get a pretty decent desktop replacement laptop. My only advice on specs is to go with any multi-core processor. 4GB of RAM will give you plenty of overhead so swap shouldn't be touched nearly as much. If you plan on doing any gaming, look into a laptop with a dedicated graphics card that meets or exceeds the requirements of your most demanding game. Almost all laptops use nearly the same sound and network cards, so unless you have special requirements you don't need to pay too much attention to this. Most laptops also come with fairly large hard drives, so this shouldn't be too much of a concern either. If you want the extra speed of an SSD, plan on spending at least $1500. Caltsar (talk) 19:26, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

Font ID

I can't seem to trace this font; even 'WhatTheFont' doesn't seem encouraging, but I've seen it all over India so it can't be that rare. ╟─TreasuryTag►inspectorate─╢ 09:13, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

No luck with Identifont, either. I refused to answer any questions about serifs, though, since I couldn't tell whether the enlargements at the ends counted as serifs or not. Maybe going back through and trying both possibilities would help -- I think it gives a maximum of 30 suggestions, regardless of how many possible consistent fonts there are. Paul (Stansifer) 13:54, 16 April 2011 (UTC)

Serifs. ¦ Reisio (talk) 01:18, 17 April 2011 (UTC)

Pretoria (Identifont gave Davida as a possibility, and since the elements were close, I checked the "Similar fonts" bit and "Show more similar fonts..." link near the bottom, which led to Pretoria) ¦ Reisio (talk) 01:45, 17 April 2011 (UTC)

Screen Width Problem

The ratio of width-to-height in new laptops is considerably different than traditional desktops. Does that mean that everything will appear deformed i.e. stretched along horizontal axis ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.253.140.239 (talk) 12:01, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

No. On both 4:3 and 16:9 monitors the pixels are (approximately) square. For example, 1024x768 is a common (low) desktop resolution. On Wide-screen monitor, this is 1280x768. You can play with displaying a 16:9 desktop on your 4:3 monitor by (assuming you use Win XP),

1. right-clicking on the desktop
2. select "properties" on the pop-up menu,
3. select "Settings" in the dialog box.
4. press 'Ok', and accept the change if you monitor is displaying the squished image. (Windows will restore the current layout if you do nothing for 15 seconds).
5. drag the "Screen resolution" slider until the preview box just above the slider is showing a wide-screen rectangle.
6. Remember to undo the change before you leave the machine.

CS Miller (talk) 12:48, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

If your desktop monitor does happen to be a weird size, there is always a setting for its native pixel resolution, which is square. They are not stretched at all. --Mr.98 (talk) 13:47, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

Have tried that. That way everything becomes too small to be seen clearly. Tell something else please... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.253.131.136 (talk) 18:19, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

Try each resolution (using the above method) to see if any of them work for you. In some cases you may get more choices for resolution if you reduce the number of colors and refresh rate (I think refresh rate is for external CRT monitors only, though). If none are acceptable, then you need and new graphics card and/or an external monitor. The combo of those two determine which resolutions are supported. If everything is too small to read, you likely need a larger monitor. StuRat (talk) 18:32, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

It's, in fact, a Toshiba Satelite Laptop with

Screen Size 15.6 Inch

Resolution 1366 X 768

Screen Type HD LED CSV Screen —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.253.131.136 (talk) 18:51, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

When you have a choice of video modes, they tend to be the native resolution (1366×768) and a bunch of standard resolutions (1024×768, 800×600, ...). The standard resolutions are all 4:3, and they are usually stretched horizontally to fit the screen. Options:

• You can usually configure the graphics card to preserve the aspect ratio, instead of stretching horizontally. But then you will only be able to use part of the screen—there will be black bars on either side.
• There may be lower resolution modes with the correct aspect ratio. For example, my 1440×900 screen has 1280×800 and 960×600 modes. But the lower resolution modes will not be as sharp as the native resolution.
• There is probably a way to add custom video modes, though it may not be easy. Here's a page specific to Intel GPUs.
• You can configure Windows (or Linux or whatever) to use larger fonts and icons. This is probably your best option, if you're just having trouble seeing things.

-- BenRG (talk) 23:30, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

Forwarding lots of e-mails

I have hundreds of e-mails in my ATT account which I would like to forward to my new gmail account. Is there a simple way to do this globally, or do I have to send them one at a time? Hemoroid Agastordoff (talk) 18:54, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

Probably the easiest way is to set up a mail client like Thunderbird with POP3 (set to "leave copy on server") for both accounts. Then you can drag-and-drop emails from one server to the other. You can certainly configure Google Mail to use POP3; I don't know about ATT mail. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 19:22, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

If it supports POP3, then you could just use Gmail's interface (Mail Settings->Accounts and Import->Check mail using POP3) to get them directly from ATT to Gmail, skipping the intermediate step. Invrnc (talk) 22:02, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

April 16

"Blue screen of death"

I recently had a computer that blue screen of death-ed. It froze and then completely erased Windows from the system. It is currently on the way to the manufacturer to have the hard drive replaced. With that in mind; I was wondering if there is something, specifically, that I should do to prevent this from happening to any more computers? I intend to install some virus software, but that does not always work. Are there any clues as to whether or not a website is infected or not? Sumsum2010·T·C 04:53, 16 April 2011 (UTC)

Only go to websites you know and trust ? StuRat (talk) 05:05, 16 April 2011 (UTC)

For a safer browsing experience, I recommend starting by using firefox with the 'no script' plug-in [4]. SemanticMantis (talk) 05:58, 16 April 2011 (UTC)

Well, Linux is famous for being safe from many types of attacks and Ubuntu isn't hard to use even for a newcomer. The feasibility of switching to Linux depends a lot on what you're going to use the computer for - office work, Wikipedia/web browsing and software development are easy with Linux, but if you play games that have problems with Wine or really need to use MS Office or Visual Studio or anything, or just are reluctant to switch OS, it's better to not switch, in which case I recommend the advice given earlier. Zakhalesh (talk) 06:12, 16 April 2011 (UTC)

You could try use Norton Safe Web, which lets you enter a website and show whether there seems to be anything bad in it. However, common instinct is obviously very important in stopping maculious malware. General Rommel (talk) 07:01, 16 April 2011 (UTC)

Far from being a malware problem, the obvious explanation is a simple hard drive failure. To protect yourself from that kind of catastrophe, a good backup policy is recommended. Astronaut (talk) 10:42, 16 April 2011 (UTC)

1. As Astronaut wrote, back up your data frequently. If possible, back it up automatically to a 2nd hard disk or even a 2nd computer system, or via a service like Mozy that backs up your data offsite. This will give you a way to save your data from either a hard disk failure or from a malware attack. It is useful to adopt the mindset that when it comes to hard disks, it's not a question of "whether" the hard disk will fail, but "when". 2. To reduce the damage malware can do, set up a user account with no administrator rights on your computer, and use that account habitually. Do not use the administrator account unless you have to (to install software, for example). This makes it harder for the bad guys to get to your system files. 3. This should be obvious, but don't download software unless it is from websites you know and trust. Comet Tuttle (talk) 20:31, 16 April 2011 (UTC)

Picasa web video download problem solution failure help request

Hi everyone. If you upload a video to picasa web, It doesn't seem possible to download it again directly and I'm looking for a workaround. I am using firefox, macosx 10.5.8 and someone advised me to type "about:cache" in the address bar and find local cache files. Well, there's a file in there that has the right datestamp, and is about the right size. I've tried renaming it .flv and .mvi, but quicktime won't play the video. Any advice? Robinh (talk) 05:09, 16 April 2011 (UTC)

I'm a little rusty on OS X, but I think this may give us a clue. Open up the Terminal application (it's in Utilities by default, I think). Type "file" and hit the space bar, and then drag the file into Terminal. Its path should appear. Then hit enter. What does it say? Paul (Stansifer) 13:45, 16 April 2011 (UTC)

Hi Paul. Thanks for this:

slug:~/Desktop% file flowers.flv 
flowers.flv: XML 1.0 document text
slug:~/Desktop% 

But I'm n wiser. Any ideas? Robinh (talk) 20:20, 16 April 2011 (UTC)

Weird. I don't think there are any XML-based encodings of video (although you say it's the right size, which suggests that it's a terrible encoding of something large into XML). Well, maybe try the same thing, but use "head" instead of "file" (to view the first few lines of text). Paul (Stansifer) 22:51, 16 April 2011 (UTC)

OK here goes:

slug:~/Desktop% head -20 flowers.flv 
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN"
   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<title>Cache entry information</title>
<style type="text/css">
pre {
  margin: 0;
}
td:first-child {
  text-align: right;
  vertical-align: top;
  line-height: 0.8em;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<table><tr><td><tt><b>key:</b></tt></td><td><a href="http://v9.nonxt4.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id=2a4fbdbfdf362628&itag=35&begin=0&len=2147483647&app=picasa&et=INVALID&el=INVALID&ip=0.0.0.0&ipbits=0&expire=2879698237&sparams=id%2Citag%2Cip%2Cipbits%2Cexpire&signature=70140B912E84A0D591150CCC617870859341BF37.5EA1AF515C9CA9B25C5C81459693638705DDD039&key=ck1">http://v9.nonxt4.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id=2a4fbdbfdf362628&itag=35&begin=0&len=2147483647&app=picasa&et=INVALID&el=INVALID&ip=0.0.0.0& amp;ipbits=0&expire=2879698237&sparams=id%2Citag%2Cip%2Cipbits%2Cexpire&signature=70140B912E84A0D591150CCC617870859341BF37.5EA1AF515C9CA9B25C5C81459693638705DDD039& amp;key=ck1</a></td></tr>
<tr><td><tt><b>fetch count:</b></tt></td>

Robinh (talk) 01:31, 17 April 2011 (UTC)

Art of Computer Programming

Go Go Gadget Donald Knuth's assembly language simulation software (ability to simulate other assembly languages appreciated). Thank you! Zakhalesh (talk) 11:39, 16 April 2011 (UTC)

MIX and particularly MMIX list implementations, including simulators. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 12:02, 16 April 2011 (UTC)

Thank you. Zakhalesh (talk) 12:03, 16 April 2011 (UTC)

How does AT&T ban third party apps on the Android?

Dear Wikipedians:

I was just flabbergasted when I read that AT&T bans third party apps on the Android. I mean, how are they able to do it? I always thought of Android as an open platform where I can browse the web, find the app I like, and just download and install it. None of AT&T's business. So how does AT&T do it?

And also, to raise what maybe an unpopular question here: wouldn't the US be somewhat of a hypocrite applying double-standards, when it accuses China of censoring online stuff, when major companies like AT&T and Apple are doing just the same things to their customers right in the U.S.?

70.31.154.4 (talk) 17:42, 16 April 2011 (UTC)

From what I understand AT&T only allow you to install applications via the Android Market. On Android under Settings menu -> Applications there's a checkbox for "Allow unknown sources" and unless that is ticked you can only install from the market. As such I suspect that AT&T have simply customised the software for their handsets and removed that option. This doesn't really stop anyone from rooting their phone and installing apps that way or in turn installing a custom ROM which has normal functionality though.  ZX81  ^talk 17:51, 16 April 2011 (UTC)

The second question doesn't have anything to do with computing, but it's a very common category error. Freedom of speech means that the government doesn't make certain speech acts illegal. It doesn't say anything about the kinds of platforms-for-speech people may create. AT&T is legally free to make a phone network where it's against the terms of service to, say, criticize AT&T, or speak in non-limerick form, etc. In practice, a government may see fit to pass laws that prevent abuse of this kind of thing (which can be a danger with monopolies), such as network neutrality. But it's a matter of legislation to figure that stuff out (what counts as a common carrier-like arrangement, and what doesn't), because most people really, really don't want a principled rule that, if you relay something that someone says, you have to relay everything that anyone says. This would, for example, make things like removing vandalism on Wikipedia and comment moderation on blogs illegal, and perhaps the act of gathering together any community of like-minded people. Paul (Stansifer) 22:48, 16 April 2011 (UTC)

1 connection per second

I am looking for a way, on Windows 7, to limit internet traffic from all programs running on the computer collectively (firefox, wget, IE, etc) to just one connection per second. For example, say example.com only allowed 1 connection per second, and returned an error if it detected more than 1 connection per second. Five requests to example.com are made at the same time (2 from Firefox, 1 from Internet explorer, and 2 from wget) and thus they all get an error. Instead, I would like some way to take those 5 or more connections and make them wait and do each request one by one. Is there a setting in Windows which can achieve this, or does anyone know of a program (like a proxy server or something) that can do this? Setting each program individually to only use one connection per second is not sufficient as collectively they still use more than one connection per second. It is very important that each connection is dealt with and not closed or given an error from the remote server. 82.43.89.77 (talk) 18:01, 16 April 2011 (UTC)

You could do it with a proxy server but you probably want to throttle bandwidth rather than connections. Browsers will usually open several parallel connections to get the images on a page. 69.111.194.167 (talk) 07:01, 17 April 2011 (UTC)

Whizz with vector files?

There's a request for help at Wikipedia:Graphic Lab/Illustration workshop#Dindigul town crest which some readers of this desk may be able to assist with. Ta! ╟─TreasuryTag►high seas─╢ 18:51, 16 April 2011 (UTC)

I'm uncertain whether I'm looking at the right thing, because I can't read the text. Is this [5] the image you're talking about? (Faithfully copying the text will be difficult, too, for those who don't know what the characters should really look like. Is it Tamil?)  Card Zero  (talk) 23:11, 16 April 2011 (UTC)

Yes, that's the image. The Tamil actually comes out fairly clearly if vectorised in Inkscape, it's more the actual crest which I'm having trouble with... ╟─TreasuryTag►pikuach nefesh─╢ 07:57, 17 April 2011 (UTC)

C# compiling

Hello. I am very new to programming. I have been playing around in C# and would like to test out my programs. I wrote one in Notepad++ and saved it to my Desktop. In command prompt, I tried to use Microsoft Visual C# 2010 Compiler to compile my .cs file. I entered csc.exe Welcome.cs and it returned error CS2001: Source file 'Welcome.cs' could not be found fatal error CS2008: No inputs specified I tried again with the complete path of my file and got the same results. What I am doing wrong here? Any help would be greatly appreciated. BurtAlert (talk) 19:01, 16 April 2011 (UTC)

Maybe you haven't enabled file extensions yet, and the file is actually named Welcome.cs.txt? If that is the case, http://www.fileinfo.com/help/windows-show-extensions.html might help. Unilynx (talk) 20:09, 16 April 2011 (UTC)

Nope, just checked, it's definitely Welcome.cs BurtAlert (talk) 23:03, 16 April 2011 (UTC)

Make sure your command prompt is in the folder where this file is (if you type 'dir' in the command prompt, you should see your file). Or, type in the full (absolute) path to the file. I don't know what the default folder the command prompt opens to (in whatever version of Windows you're using), but it's probably not to the desktop. Invrnc (talk) 01:06, 17 April 2011 (UTC)

Try doing a "dir" followed by the full-path file name, exactly as you entered it before. This will tell you if you have the wrong slash or some such problem. StuRat (talk) 01:23, 17 April 2011 (UTC)

Ah, thank you very much guys. I put it in the same directory as the command prompt and it worked! BurtAlert (talk) 01:40, 17 April 2011 (UTC)

Firefox Sync

I cannot access my account in spite of having reset my password about three times, in one instance with the same password. And my Sync secret phrase is correct. What the hell is going on? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.189.87.160 (talk) 21:14, 16 April 2011 (UTC)

April 17

hi-speed internet srtvice that does NOT involve a fixed IP address (but not using a proxy)

Dial-up internet access involves a non-fixed IP address. Some high-speed internet access necessitates a fixed IP address. I've heard that at least one type of high-speed does NOT necessitate a fied IP address (I am not referrig to the use of proxies). What is it / are they? TIA63.17.51.171 (talk) 08:47, 17 April 2011 (UTC)