Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing

Reference Desk

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January 15

Dual Screen Wallpaper

I have a bunch of dual screen wallpapers but I dont know how to have those wallpapers stretch across both my monitors. Any ideas?? thanks!! --Zach 00:17, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

One method is to ensure that wallpaper is sized exactly to your combined resolution (crop/resize it with an image editor), then set it to Tile mode in the display properties. A much simpler way is to use a program like Ultramon, though it is commercial. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 00:26, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

Or "center". Not sure how the algorithm works but it might be faster to "center" --froth^T 18:44, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

When on "center" the wallpaper is centered on each monitor, which is why it's not so useful with a multiple monitor setup. Tile lets wallpapers/patterns tile across monitors; when one uses a single, wide wallpaper in this mode, it goes across both. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk)

Chip sets

I just tried installing a game on a new machine, and it crashed during loading. When i sent for help the hepdesk responded

The Intel 845/865 chipsets do not meet the minimum requirements to run the program. The program requires a card that supports hardware T&L (Transform and Lighting), and the Intel 845/865 chipsets do not have the required DirectX functionality necessary to run the game.

Is this Purely Hardware, or is there some way i can fix it without going out and buying a new graphics card. --Omnipotence407 05:05, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

It's purely hardware. The Intel onboard video chipsets are not made for 3D gaming, or really any 3D applications; they're primarily 2D, and fairly minimal. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 05:15, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

Dang, oh well, thanks anyways. Omnipotence407 15:11, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

Cable TV on computer

Is it possible to watch cable TV on a computer? If so, what sort of adapter would be needed?

Thank you.

ChunkySoup 05:13, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

You need a TV tuner card. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 05:15, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

A tuner card is neccessary, but may not be sufficient. It will work with analog cable, but digital cable is encrypted and there are no tuner cards that can decrypt it. --Carnildo 22:47, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Nvidia and ATI are apparently going to release CableCard devices for Vista (and only Vista, due to its happy DRM), but I have no idea when. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 05:58, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Why does publicfile hide files with spaces in them (in FTP)?

Why does publicfile, as described in [1], "skip names that contain tildes, spaces, or control characters"? There are plenty of useful filenames that contain spaces, and most FTP programs seem to handle them just fine. What is publicfile's reason for not serving them? grendel|khan 06:29, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

It's probably to prevent code injection vulnerabilities. Tilde is often used to represent the home directory, so it may expand that by default. I prefer Apache web server myself. --h2g2bob 19:14, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

I suppose that's understandable... but spaces?! grendel|khan 05:22, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

portable hard disk

somebody please help me. I bought a 40 GB portable hard disk. i am not very knowledgeable about computer science so please please bear with me if my question seems silly. I connected the drive to the computer usb port. and the light provided in the disk glowed. and also an icon appeared in the taskbar. this is the icon that appears when a pendrive is inserted. when i right clicked it there was an option available as "safely remove hardware". i left it as it is. and i opened "my computer". before this i installed all the softwares present in the cd that came with the portable. also i installed "USB 2.0 DRIVE" from another cd. but inside the my computer i do not see the hard disk. when i insert pendrive an icon appears named as "removable drive" right? but when i insert this portable hard disk no separate drive appears. what shall i do? how do i open the portable hard disk and use it? please somebody help me. thank you very much. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 59.89.21.92 (talk) 07:51, 15 January 2007 (UTC).

You will have to partition and format the disc before use. --antilived^{T | C | G} 09:51, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

Here's a link from the article on disk formatting that will tell you how to format the drive [2] --Transfinite 18:48, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

ITANIUM PROCESSOR

1. WHAT ARE THE 7 ADVANTAGES OF ITANIUM PROCESSOR OVER PENTIUM
2. EXPLAIN IN ABOUT 10 LINES HOW SOFTWARE PIPELINING IS IMPLEMENTED IN ITANIUM PROCESSOR.
3. EXPLAIN IN ABOUT 5 LINES HOW PREDICATION AND SPECULATIVE LOADING IS CARRIED OUT IN THE I.A -64 PROCESSOR.
4. SCHEMATICS ON ITANIUM PROCESSOR —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 196.29.126.26 (talk) 10:31, 15 January 2007 (UTC).

lol--PiTHON 11:14, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

PLEASE DON'T WRITE ALL IN CAPS --h2g2bob 16:20, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

At least try to make it not sound like homework --froth^T 18:46, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

What class is this? =D This question just made my day. Yea, yea, I'm a wikidweeb. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 01:23, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Read the "how to ask a question" section before typing a question. The "Do your own homework" might come handy.... --Kevin Z 02:25, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm not sure that it's necessarily factually correct, but I just came across this. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by ButterChicken69 (talk • contribs) 22:07, 22 January 2007 (UTC).

Portable hard disk

somebody please help me. i bought a 40GB portable hard disk. a cd came along with it. i installed all the softwares which were included in the cd and then i also installed "USB 2.0 DRIVE" software from another cd. i do not know much about computers so please bear with me if the question is silly. i inserted the cable of the portable hard disk into the usb slot given in the cpu. an icon appeared in the taskbar. it was the same icon that we get when a pendrive is inserted into the slot. when i right clicked it there was an option saying "safely remove hardware". i left it as it is. now i opened "my computer" but there was no separate icon there indicating the portable hard disk. it appears even in device manager list but it does not appear in my computer just like the pendrive which appears as "removable disk". please somebody say a solution. how do i open the disk and use it. thank you for your help. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 59.89.20.32 (talk) 12:29, 15 January 2007 (UTC).

This occassionally happens when you've got many drives/partitions/network drives "using up" a lot of drive letters and Windows can't "find" an appropriate drive letter to assign to your removable disk. I assume you've got Windows XP (I've only used Pro so I hope Windows XP Home Edition has the same options I'm about to take you through). First, plug in your drive and wait till its detected (i.e. that "safely remove" icon appears in the task bar). Now right-click on My Computer then click on "Manage". In the left pane there should be an item called "Disk Management", click it. Now in the right pane you should see all your physical drives/partitions, one of which is your portable hard drive. Right-click on it and choose the option that says "Change/Assign drive letter" or something like that. Choose a new drive letter for your disk (make SURE it's not one that is already used by any other drives in "My Computer"!!!). It might pop up a warning about changing drive letters blah blah blah. I assume you're using the drive for data storage and aren't actually installing programs on it? In this case ignore the warning and click OK. Your new drive should now pop up in My Computer (hit F5 in the My Computer screen if it doesn't). If it still doesn't appear (which sometimes happens) you can manually browse to it in the address bar by e.g entering X:\ (if your new drive letter is X). The bad news is you may have to do this procedure every single time you plug your drive in. Cheers! Please post back to let us know if this solves the problem. Zunaid©® 12:49, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

You can also use Tweakui (official Microsoft software), go to My Computer within Tweakui, and see if the letters are checked, since unchecked ones won't be used by Windows. This can help elimited the above problem, I believe. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 01:19, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Dvipdfmx (latex) error: Object reference with key "page.i" is in use.

When trying to run dvipdfmx on my dvi-file I get the following error:

** WARNING ** Object reference with key "page.i" is in use.
** WARNING ** Could not add Dests name tree entry...

However I don't get the error when running dvipdfm. Anyone know what's wrong? --Alf 15:00, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

Malicious form of Microsoft copy protection...?

I have 6 copies of Windows XP for each of the 6 computers on my Ethernet network. Whenever I install a copy by accident on a different computer after a crash or some other problem the computer that the copy was on originally crashes with a “Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM – You can attempt to repair this file by starting Windows Setup using the original Setup CD-ROM. Select “r” at the first screen to start repair.” The repair process always fails and instead of starting the system goes into an endless reboot cycle following display of the welcome screen. This happens only if both computers are connected via the Ethernet no matter what else is tried such as booting under “last known good configuration” or reinstalling Windows using a different name for the system root subdirectory. I am beginning to suspect that this is a malicious form of Microsoft copy protection since no warning is given so that you can reinstall the correct copy before access to the files on the computer of the original installation is permanently prevented – can’t even access them by putting the hardrive in another machine; in most cases the connected added hard drive can not be detected under Windows at the hardware level. Anyone have a solution or more information? -- 71.100.10.48 17:09, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

Definitely nothing to do with M$ protection, though I'm not a fan of M$. The SYSTEM file is corrupt, and you need to make it uncorrupt. Can you not replace the SYSTEM file at the Recovery Console? Splintercellguy 19:09, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

The system file is part of the registry hives, you can't just replace it. Have you tried booting off the cd and doing a repair? Not the recovery console repair, the repair that comes up *after* the license agreement? Or try this. You should be able to see the hard drive from another computer, if you go to disk management do you see the hard drive? Are you sure its detecting in the bios? If it detects in the bios and it shows up in disk management as unknown partition then you most likely have some sort of drive overlay installed like norton ghost. If it wont detect in the bios by just moving it, then its most likely a jumper setting; on WD drives setting the jumper to master will make the drive not detect at all if its the only drive on the ide chain, it has to be set to "single" and vice-versa. On most dell bioses any unused sata/ide ports are disabled in the bios so the only way to get new hardware to detect is to turn the ports back on etc... Lots of issues can arise that I'd need more information the specific problems to tell you what to do. You said "install a copy after a crash or some other problem", most likely the computer itself has a problem such as bad ram, failing hard drive, etc.. that is causing the original bluescreens and the subsequent crashing. I would test the hard drive and ram, either by going to the hard drive manufacturers website and getting the utility, or just get the ultimate boot cd which has multiple HD/Ram testers. These are pretty accurate and if they show a problem then you know you need to replace the HD/Ram. As for the other hardware it can be a bit more tricky to find whats failing. Also if your repair cd's have service pack 2 on them, you can stop the "endless reboot cycle" by hitting F8 before windows loads to get the options screen to pop up (don't let it auto pop up the options screen after a reboot, it wont show the same options) in this list with service pack 2 theres an option that says "disable automatic restart on system failure", so whatever bluescreen is causing the reboot will stay on the screen and you could then research that.--PiTHON 21:01, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

The hardrive is found by the bios but there is no access to the harddrive under XP. All you get is the instruction to boot from the CD. Sometime but not often booting from the CD gives you access to the \Windows systemroot subdirectory but more often as in this case the designated systemroot is not \windows but c:\. In either case the copy command will not copy the system bak file. Sometimes reinstalling Windows from the CD into another subdirectory allows you to access and copy some files and documents from the previous installation to another hardrive but in most cases if reinstall finds a partition it shows it as unknown and will then require you to delete it or reformat it prior to reinstallation and even though it shows creating a new partition in the unpartitioned space selecting this option give no response. Sometime if the hardrive is removed it can be accessed using another computer and a program called Active@filerecovery but sometimes even this program fails to find the drive. Ask me questions and I'll try to answer everyone. 71.100.10.48 06:20, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

You could replace if you had a registry backup lying around. Splintercellguy 04:27, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

When you reinstall Windows (As it sounds like you're talking about), are you installing over top of the old one? If so, I suspect the programs, modifications, Windows updates, etc. are doing a very good jib confusing the registry. 68.39.174.238 15:12, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

trial programs

How can i reinstall a time expired trial program so that i can run it again?

or

Easily reprogram it to lengthen the trial? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Omnipotence407 (talk • contribs) 20:14, 15 January 2007 (UTC).

With some programs you may be able to use it by changing the clock back to a time when you were allowed to use it, in some other cases you may be able to change the registry too, with some programs you just have to install it again and the timer starts again. I think these are all pretty rare though, especially in modern software. In a lot of cases now there's not much you can do, once the trial period is up it's up, unless you get a cracked version. --Kiltman67 20:34, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

With most modern programs, as Kiltman said, there is no "easy" answer. Most programs will not allow you to do it at all. A few require significant registry editing, or changing the BIOS clock, which is not a good idea. If you are familiar with a resource editor, you can sometimes edit the trial period checking within the exe -- although you'll have to be very familiar with HEX. Some people also decompile the exe's into assembly and edit the trial period within the exe (this is a practice often used for cracking software keys). Keep in mind you could easily get in legal trouble for this, and that this advice is for educational use only. P3net 21:30, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

Here's where it's handy to have multiple computers, just download it on the next one. StuRat 22:17, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

How about running it inside Sandboxie, deleting the sandbox after it expires, and installing it again, and deleting the sandbox, and so on... --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 01:41, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

IIRC, that doesn't work... I think that Sandboxie still keeps track of that... I'll try it out later. P3net 02:12, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Install the application with Total Uninstall so that you can uninstall it when the time trial is up "totally," allowing you to re-install it again with the clock being reset. You could try Total Installing the application again, then uninstall it and re-install it to start over the clock. I haven't tried it though. X [Mac Davis] (DESK|How's my driving?) 21:38, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Total Uninstall sounds cool, but I believe some sites also keep track off all downloads and record your info, so they know if you attempt a second download and refuse to allow it. StuRat 21:42, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

There's a "Licenses" key in the registry where this info is usually kept, just delete that. --froth^T 02:53, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

You could run it inside a virtual machine. Many virtual machine programs allow you to save "snapshots" and "revert" to them later, etc. You can keep a clean copy of a virtual machine with no trial programs installed, and revert to it each time. --Spoon! 08:31, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Just pay the registration fee, or use a different program. That would be the best thing to do, rather than trying to circumvent the developer's programmed limit. -- Kesh

that's the idea and also called trial for the same reason. If you did not have the time to test it in the given time period for whatever reason. Wait that you do have the time, contact the company directly, explain the situation and I am sure they will provide you with a new trial key. I assume that the product is not cheap and at least $100 as full-version. If it is less, buy it or don't buy it and check reviews and ask at related online communities like forums what they think about the product. --roy<sac> ^Talk! .oOo. 12:05, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

To expand a little on the suggestion by Kesh to use a different program, in many cases you can find an open source program that does what a commercial program does. Wikipedia's "List of..." and "Comparison of..." articles can be good places to find several programs that fill a specific need. For example: List of text editors, Comparison of text editors, Comparison of WAMPs, List of web browsers; see: Category:Lists of software and Category:Software comparisons. You can also look up Wikipedia's article on the program you have now, and see if the article lists competing programs. Or you could re-phrase your question here as: "Is there a free alternative to program"? --Teratornis 22:47, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

It's possible to "trick" some older trial programs by changing the Windows clock to a time before the evaluation period has expired. However, almost every trial program nowadays instead checks the BIOS clock (not to be confused with the system clock, which has a very different role). The BIOS clock cannot be changed through Windows, but it can be changed through the BIOS settings before the OS loads.

Occasionally, a trial program will contact a remote server on the internet to get the current date, thus bypassing the user's clock. In such a case, you would need to trick the software into requesting the time from your own computer rather than the remote server by any of several methods, depending on exactly how the software requested the information.

Advanced users (crackers) use special programs called debuggers to change the code of trial software (usually in assembly). The process involves finding then removing or modifying the instuctions which check to see if the trial period has expired. Professional (or otherwise "serious") crackers sometimes create and distribute special utilities which automatically "patch" a specific trial program, removing the limiting features. These utilities are commonly called "trial cracks", and, though widely available on the internet, are illegal and in many cases contain viruses. --Nwhitehair 01:36, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Two computer problems; IE and Outlook

I am having two problems, which cropped up at the same time (doubt they are related). First, with Internet Explorer: For an unrelated reason, on two recent occasions I allowed YahooIM to install an update, and both times it rendered my YahooIM unusable, which necessitated uninstalling and reinstalling from my source files. Here's the problem: since the second re-installation, when I use the address bar in IE to go to a particular URL (user typed or copied and pasted) and the URL doesn't work, it takes me to Yahoo Search. How do I turn that off? BTW I don't have a yahoo toolbar, my homepage isn't yahoo, etc. I have a google toolbar.

And second. I send out a lot of emails from the drafts folder of Outlook - not Outlook Express (because I send a bunch of copies (solicited, business-to-business, not spam)) at the same time. I've been doing this for months with no problem. For some weird reason, all of a sudden, copies of emails sent from the 'drafts' folder are not being saved into my 'Sent Items' folder. All other emails are. If it matters, my .pst file is currently almost half a gig, but I've never heard of Outlook operating differently because of .pst size.

Anyone have any ideas as to how to fix this? BTW v/v the Outlook problem; I did change some of the advanced settings in my Tools, Options menu, but I looked carefully through them and I don't see how any of them could have resulted in this. Also BTW, I'm running MSOffice2000 on top of NT4.0 and IE 7.x 6.x I think, and I'm not interested in upgrading my OS or changing browsers, TYVM. Thanks in advance. Anchoress 22:26, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

The first problem should be easy, I think IE has Yahoo set to the default search engine. In IE7, this is changed by going to Tools>Internet Option then finding the listing for the default search engine and changing it. I'm not so sure on the Outlook problem. Mitaphane _talk 04:06, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Regrettably, I was wrong about my IE version. I know I have the most recent v. NT supports, but the option under the menu you suggested doesn't seem to exist. Any other ideas? Anchoress 22:58, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Unfortunately, I only have IE7 now so I can't poke around in IE6 to see where it was buried (I'm a FireFox convert so I rarely use IE these days). I pulled this off of Google searching for "default search engine IE6" I hope it may be of some use [3] Mitaphane _talk 05:22, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Thank you, I will check it. And I think the second (Outlook) question is closed, now. When I restarted my computer (which I only do once a month or so), it was fixed, and I think my problem was just an Outlook preference change that was in limbo until the restart. Anchoress 00:52, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Program to click a link

I'm looking for a program to repetidly click a link. I would need it to run either within Firefox or under the Macintosh OS. Thanks in advance. IsaactheNPOVfanatic 00:05, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Not sure what you're trying to accomplish, but what about code that reloads periodically to what the link links to? --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 01:13, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Try javascript:

function doAgain() {
 settimeout("window.location = 'http://test.com';", 2000);
 doAgain();
}
doAgain();

--froth^T 22:46, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

If you just want a program to repeatedly click a spot on the screen, I suggest XUmouse. The site where you would normally go to download seems to be down today: [torrez.org/projects/xumouse.shtml], does anybody know of another good site to download this ? StuRat 21:29, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

However, please first read the article on Click fraud. -Arch dude 23:38, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

January 16

IRC Poker

I'm looking for an IRC dealer bot. I've tried looking for one, but all I can come up with is graphical front-ends and such, or cheating/observing bots. Does anyone have an idea? aznshorty67 00:08, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Something like this Texas Hold'em bot? --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 01:11, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

converting nanograms to kilograms

I have completed the conversion of 175 nanograms to kilograms. My answer is 1.75*10 to the 11th power kilograms. Would this be a correct answer? If not could you explain?

71.29.135.78 01:54, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Well, according to Google's conversion feature, 175 nanograms to kilograms is 1.75 × 10^ -10 kilograms. Can be found here conversion. Deltacom1515 02:02, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

But for the sake of learning, nano is 10^-9, kilo is 10^3, and you want kilograms, so it's (175 nanograms) * (1 kg / 10^12 nanograms) = 175^-12 kilograms, or the 1.75 kilograms. The 12 comes from the difference between the -9 and the 3, or 12. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 02:18, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Now that I look at this, Google would be wrong then. Interesting. Deltacom1515 03:04, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

You should really learn scientific notation. 175 * 10^-12 kg is the same thing as 1.75 * 10^-10 kg. Notice the decimal has moved. --24.147.86.187 03:59, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

And for the record, I forgot to put 10^-10. So yes, 175^-12 = 1.75^-10. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 09:44, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

I thank you all for your help! I am learning [scientific notations] for the one that has concerns, and thanks for you help too.12.13.183.220 17:57, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Line Rider

If this isn't in the right desk, then someone feel free to move it. Anyways, how does one go about taking their line rider tracks and turning them into movies to display on YouTube? Deltacom1515 01:55, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

• No idea, I guess it involves video screen capture technology. Why not ask someone who already did it on YouTube? No doubt, they know how to do it. - Mgm|^(talk) 12:27, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Have a look here

I use HyperCam, and I think you can use FRAPS, but I have never used it before. x42bn6 Talk 21:09, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

No, fraps doesn't work since it's not a fullscreen app or directx/opengl --froth^T 22:41, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Searching with exact grammar

How do I make a search engine include punctuation in my searches? For example, I'm trying to search for "Push!!", and I don't want all of the search results to just give me "push".--SeizureDog 03:24, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

I thought "Push!!" would do it (with the quote marks). But looking at advanced search in google it doesn't appear that punctuation counts at all! Vespine 03:54, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, you'd think wouldn't you? It's been somewhat frustrating in some searching. Gave me trouble in doing research for Shuffle! as well. Darn these simple Japanese titles >:( --SeizureDog 04:13, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Put more key words in ur search. Thats probably the only way to find wat ur looking for. See here --|K.Z|Z.K| Do not vandalize... 04:04, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, that's what I've been having to resort to. I was hoping there was a better way though.--SeizureDog 04:37, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

I dream of an exact-string search engine. I wish there was a way to force these exact searches with Google or Yahoo search, but I guess there isn't. :( ~~ —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Kieff (talk • contribs) 09:54, 16 January 2007 (UTC). damn you, bot! — Kieff 10:12, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Google used to have the exact word search, but they changed it to suit user convenience. Seems it hurt more than it helps. I checked most of the other major search engines and the closest i got is in ask.com, which gives u a result if u do at least three exclamation marks. [4] --|K.Z|Z.K| Do not vandalize... 04:04, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Telecom

What is ASTIC in tele-communication?

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 202.138.120.38 (talk) 11:51, 16 January 2007 (UTC).

• My Spanish language skills are pretty bad, but I suspect it may refer to http://www.astic.es - Mgm|^(talk) 12:25, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

80.7.69.103 17:24, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Podcast

My Mum wants to download one, or if possible all, of these Paul McKenna podcasts onto her MP3 player that is not an iPod. Her MP3 player uses Sonicstage software. Is this possible? The blurb at the bottom says "The audio can be played on your computer, or moved to any MP3 compatible device, such as an iPod, other MP3 player..." However, when you click on "Download Podcast", we find that it only lets you listen, it doesn't let you get the files to put anywhere. Having installed iTunes, we can download the podcast from the iTunes music store. However: a) It seems to only let you download one episode. When we tried to add others, they overwrote the original one (that she really wanted). How can we avoid this? b) How can you get it from iTunes to a non-iPod MP3 player? Our article iTunes suggests this is different in the UK and the US (we're in the UK).

Any help appreciated. Otherwise we're going to try putting them one-at-a-time into iTunes, writing them to a CD, copying into SonicStage and downloading to her player. Don't even know if that will work. :-S Skittle 16:53, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Instead of left clicking on "Download Podcast", right click on it and find the equivalent of "Save Target As", and they're already in mp3 form ready to use in mp3 players. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 18:49, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Also, if you are managing them in iTunes already (which I recommend) all you have to do is go ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Podcasts/ to find the directory of the mp3 files that you already have. On a Windows computer I'm sure it isn't much different. X [Mac Davis] (DESK|How's my driving?) 21:35, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Probably My Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Podcasts on windows. I wouldn't know- using mac software counts heavily against you on the day of judgement :) --froth^T 22:40, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Oh c'mon, everybody knows iTunes has the superior file managing system. X [Mac Davis] (DESK|How's my driving?) 05:14, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Wiktionary question

I have uploaded wiktionary xml file into my webspace and also uploaded mediwiki. But I don't know how to extract the information from wiktionary if someone search a word e.g. "absonded" or some other words.

I have uploaded the xml file of wiktionary in my doc folder.

How do I extract and display the content from xml file if someone searches the words?

thank you —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 80.7.69.103 (talk) 17:29, 16 January 2007 (UTC).

You may wish to check http://www.mediawiki.org/ for infos about setting up/importing MediaWikis. 68.39.174.238 15:15, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

spam-injection protection

To protect against spam injection, I've added code to search for the following:

• Newline characters %0A, %0D, \n, and \r in the "to address" and the "subject"
• Email headers "content-type:", "to:", "cc:", and "bcc:" (case insensitive) in the address, subject, and body
• Invalide email address characters in the to

Is there anything I'm missing? --Kainaw ^(talk) 20:38, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

What do you mean by "spam-injection"? This isn't a computing term as far as I know. Can you describe what you think it is? --froth^T 22:38, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

More commonly known as email injection, I think. It's [ab]using online email forms to send spam by injecting extra headers to add extra recipients. Kainaw, I can't think of anything you've missed, but it's probably worth Googling around and/or reading the article I just linked to. Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 22:59, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Just noticed we also have an article on it at E-mail injection. Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 23:01, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

you are probably referring to the method used in the recent Stanford trackback spam case. In this case was escaped or html-encoded HTML code passed to the search query and the site un-escaped or html-decoded it when it showed the search phrase on the site. The easiest way to prevent that from happening is by using a HTMLEncode function, if it is supported by the programming language you are using. If that is not the case, simply replace manually the "<" with "&lt;" and the ">" with "&gt;" in the string that was entered by the user or passed as querystring parameter to the script before you return it to the user on the site. --roy<sac> ^Talk! .oOo. 11:56, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Optimum Online

Is there any way to make you default email program, Optimum Online?68.193.147.179 20:41, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

It seems that Optimum Online allows POP3 access. Please look at their instructions for further details. --Brad Beattie (talk) 00:12, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Determining authoritative name servers

This seems like it should be easy, but I can't figure it out. How can I find out what the actual authoritative name servers are for a given domain (as opposed to what a whois or NS query give)? —Chowbok ☠ 20:53, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

I think that root nameservers serve IP addresses of the TLD nameservers, which push IP addresses of normal website domain nameservers, which push the IP address(es) of the website's server. You know the root nameservers' IP addresses because a file containing a list of root nameserver IPs is distributed with operating systems (I forget what that file is called right now, sorry), and the list updates itself once a connection has been established with at least one root nameserver. Frankly I have no idea how private networks handle domains without broadcasting (like I guess the windows home networking host does); I imagine the address to the "root nameserver" must be set up maunally when the computer is hooked up to the network. By the way, I don't know if there's an easy way to view the nameserver being given to you in each step of DNS resolution, but that information does pass through your computer at some point; it's not all behind-the-scenes --froth^T 22:35, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

I found the answer, thanks. Just do an SOA query on the domain to one of the root servers and it will respond with the TLD's authoritative name servers. Then do an SOA query there, etc. —Chowbok ☠ 17:17, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Audio / Video

I have downloaded an old film, but the audio and video are not playing in sync. I watched the movie by opening it in two sessions, one for audio and other for video with a time gap.

is it possible to run them in windows media player using any other method. I have windows xp. 22:26, 16 January 2007 (UTC) slmking

I'm not sure about Windows Media Player, but VLC can shift the audio track down to the millisecond. It's free to download and I'd certainly recommend it. --Brad Beattie (talk) 00:10, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

In-browser chatting

I'm working on a project for an internal website at my company, and I want to have some lightweight in-browser chatting. I've considered using a Shoutbox or setting up an IRC server and either using a Java client (meh) or some sort of AJAX, buzzword compliant alternative to access IRC (so we can scroll back and whatnot). Does anyone here have any suggestions as to specific apps to check out? I can try a bunch on my own, but I figure someone out there must have solved a similar problem for themselves, so it's worth asking. - CHAIRBOY (☎) 23:38, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

YShout, an AJAX/PHP in-browser chat app, was just featured on digg.com today. Hopefully that satisfies your requirements. --Brad Beattie (talk) 00:15, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

I installed YShout on one of my pages a couple months ago, it's a good and simple shoutbox, but like I mentioned, it'd be nice to be able to scroll up. But thanks anyhow! - CHAIRBOY (☎) 01:58, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

January 17

MediaWiki: 1.8.2 / FCKEditor 0.7.2 and local links parser issues

I installed in our company intranet the MediaWiki: 1.8.2. I added various articles with link to files on file servers in out intranet using the standard wikitext tag for external links

"[file://\\server\share\dir\filename.ext Anchor Text]". Most users are not familar with the Wikitext synthax, so I installed FCKEditor V0.7.2 (2006) based on the instructions found at the MediaWiki Site [5].

Now are all external links to files on pages in the old Wikitext format rendered as plain text and not as link as if it is done when you use the "<nowiki>" tag. I am looking for solutions from config settings (wiki/editor) or code changes. I can't link to the files via "http://" or "ftp://". Conversion to full HTML (for FCKEditor) is also not an option.

Thanks you. --roy<sac> ^Talk! .oOo. 02:10, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

You might want to take a look here for getting help with your mediawiki installation. You'll probably have more luck :) Oskar 18:41, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks Oskar. I probably should, but I also wanted to test the Reference Desk a bit. The issue is not time critical and I got everything to work already, except this last little thing with the file links. Cheers! --roy<sac> ^Talk! .oOo. 05:14, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

UV Cathode Light?

Does anyone know where to find UV cathode lights that plug that would plug into wall sockets. I can find many that plug into 4 pin molex connectors, but I was interested in setting one of these up outside of a PC. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.231.205.94 (talk) 05:45, 17 January 2007 (UTC).

They may not exist. I purchased a reasonably strong 12v power supply from an electronics store and hacked apart the cable to use a cold cathode light in my entertainment center. --Mdwyer 00:29, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Turning on a power supply

Is there a way to turn on a power supply that is not connected to a computer at all? Perhaps one that is connected to only one component. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.231.205.94 (talk • contribs)

For AT-style computers, power supplies were attached directly to a switch, so you could turn those on and off without any other components. For ATX-style computers, power supplies are not attached to a switch, and have to be powered on or off by the motherboard (which usually has a jumper for a switch to connect to). So if you have an ATX power supply, you might need to hook up a (dummy) motherboard up to it. --Spoon! 06:56, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

For ATX PSU just connect the green wire with any of black wires. As long as these wires will be connected, PSU should be on. -213.175.91.220 08:38, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

As colors on cables sometimes differ: green normally is 5V_STANDBY, black is GND. The color of the standby voltage cable in particular has been known to have colors that differ from the standard on some manufacturers' power supplies. TERdON 12:36, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

If you have an ATX PSU, and you don't want to poke around with patch wires, you can get a tester for about ten bucks. grendel|khan 21:52, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

CorelDRAW fill problem

I am trying to get a train tunnel image done for a Wikipedia article, I am using CorelDRAW 12. I have managed to draw the tunnel cross section, but am having trouble filling it in with a colour. I can fill in an ordinary shape (eg a circle) just fine, but I can't fill in the tunnel. I have tried "combining" and "welding" the tunnel cross section, but still it is impossible to fill with colour. I made the cross section from a circle and a few lines and the shape looks closed to me (seemingly the nodes meet up ok), it looks a bit like this - but I can't manage to fill in the outline, as they have done with green in the example. I tried searching for help with this problem but found nothing - maybe it is something simple that I am missing. Thanks for any ideas.--Commander Keane 07:42, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Just whipped out my Coreldraw. If you create a freehand curve, you have to use the node tool (right under the funny arrow), click on the first node, shift-click on the second, right click, and press 'join'. This converts the open curve (which you can't fill) to a closed curve, which you can. --Zeizmic 17:59, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Yes that did the trick, thanks Zeizmic!--Commander Keane 05:44, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Considering Purchasing Wireless Print Server

I'm considering purchasing a wireless print server however I'm confused by the lack of product selection on the market. Are there any substantial problems with this technology that I should know about before I make the purchase? Is there a reason why most of the prices I'm seeing are in the $100 range, meanwhile routers cost as little as $35. Should I instead just be buying a brand new printer with built-in wireless capability (even though I have a pretty decent all-in-one printer)? Maybe I'm just missing something, but I was just surprised that I couldn't find many of these for more reasonable prices at places like Newegg, TigerDirect, and Amazon. Anyhow, any comments and/or recommendations are greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Jon —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 65.31.137.54 (talk) 09:08, 17 January 2007 (UTC).

I have the most minimal USB-wired Ethernet print server, and they are expensive for tiny little things, and hard to get. That's what happens with low-volume electronics. Some wireless routers have a 'free' USB print server. Nobody buys stand-alone wireless print servers (present company excluded :). --Zeizmic 18:12, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Insertion in linked list

I am learning C, and I am having trouble with the singly linked list. Elements are created and inserted in a loop, but when the loop returns to define another element, the old address is reused, which is highly undesirable, because changing a value at this address changes 2 values.

The program below inserts 0, 1 and 2 in a linked list, and the second insertion is overwritten by the third. I would appreciate if someone could point out my error. I suspect it has less to do with the linked list and more to do with variable scope. 130.225.96.2 12:01, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

struct listelem{
  int data;
  struct listelem* nextElem;
};

int main(){
  struct listelem a;
  struct listelem* plast =&a; //Pointer to last element in list. 
  a.data=0;
  int i;
  for(i=1;i<=2;i++) {  //Executed twice, with i=1,i=2
    struct listelem b; //Both get the same address for b,
    printf("&b=%p\n",&b); //as shown in this line
    plast->nextElem=&b; //This saves the address of b outside the scope
    plast=&b;
    b.data=i; //The first time b.data is written is lost.
  }
  printf("Should be 0,1,2, but is %d,%d,%d\n",a.data, (a.nextElem)->data, (a.nextElem->nextElem)->data);
}

Output:

&b=0xbf8c5320
&b=0xbf8c5320
Should be 0,1,2, but is 0,2,2

(I reformatted your code and output.) Ignore all the pointers for a moment — both the ones in listelem and the ones in main(). Then we see that you have effectively declared int a.data and (in the loop) int b.data. You should not expect these two storage locations to store three numbers! You are almost right that the problem is one of scoping; it's actually one of variable lifetime. The statement struct listelem b; in the loop should not be thought of as creating an object but rather defining a period of time (here, the extent of one iteration of the loop) during which an object exists. b is in fact created, but it is fated to be destroyed when its iteration of the loop finishes. (a is fated too: it dies when main() returns. If you have more than one function in your program, this matters a lot.) Even if the "two" bs got different addresses, the first one would not exist after its iteration completed. (To demonstrate this with your program, call some complicated function (like, say, fopen()) after your loop but before printing. Then all your data except that in a — which is actually just garbage on the stack then — will be most likely replaced by data used during the function call.) The solution here — the creation of objects with indefinite lifetimes and (closely related) in arbitrary numbers known only at run time — is called dynamic memory allocation; in C one uses malloc(). --Tardis 17:12, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks a lot, that solved the problem. I replaced the declaration with pb=malloc(sizeof(struct listelem)); (and made corresponding changes) and it appears to work. 130.225.96.2 09:12, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Or simply, your structs are declared as automatic variables, and are deallocated at the end of the block: sub esp, 8, add esp, 8 --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 01:30, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Downloading file without visiting the page

Is there a way to download a realvideo file, for which I only have the URL (i.e., no hyperlink that links to the page; needs to be typed into the address bar), but without having the browser trying to visit the file as though it were a page and automatically downloading it into a temp directory? An example URL would be: http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/8/8.01/f99/videolectures/wl99lec1-80k.rm

It is not a streaming video. Of course, I could put it here and click "save target as", but that would be a bit convoluted, considering that I will want to do this repeatedly. BenC7 12:20, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

You can create a HTML file on your hard drive, load that into the browser (file:///hello.html) and right click from there. There are also many command line programs that fetch a given url; wget comes to mind. Weregerbil 15:24, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Or you can put this as your URL in a new tab (or window):

 javascript:document.write('<a href="http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/8/8.01/f99/videolectures/wl99lec1-80k.rm">Test</a>');

You can then right-click the link and save it as you desire, or open it automatically. The URL can be modified, of course. Just do not include single quotes between (' and ') - escape them using \'. x42bn6 Talk 17:49, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Thought of another way: at least in some browsers it is possible to configure what the browser does with each file type - open in the browser, open with an external application, or save to a file. E.g. in Firefox "Tools -> Options -> Content -> Manage."

When I want to save a long list of URLs I write a shell script (.bat file in Windows) that fetches them using a wget-like program. Weregerbil 17:56, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks guys. BenC7 02:22, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Pausing output in Linux

Greetings. I'm a fairly new Linux user, and I'm wondering if there is any easy way to "pause" long output from a command so that it doesn't get "scrolled away"? I've been piping the commands to "head" (so like "ls --all | head", with variants), but that's not really a good long-term solution. Any tips? Oskar 18:37, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Shift+PgUp and Shift+PgDn normally do the trick. Otherwise, pipe to less or more. --h2g2bob 18:56, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Pipe the output into either more or less. more is a simple pager, and less does things like let you move backwards and forwards. --Transfinite 19:00, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Thank you, works perfectly! I knew there was a command for it :) Oskar 19:07, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Another option is to just let it fly by, then scroll back and read the relevant bits. To do this, you must have a window with a scroll bar and enough lines in it to capture your output. If I recall correctly, the command is something like "xterm -sb -sl 3000 &", to create an X terminal with a scroll bar and 3000 lines in the buffer as a spawned subprocess. I use 3000 because that's about the limit where one pixel on the scroll bar equals one page of scrolling. In other words, if you go much beyond that, it will tend to scroll backwards more than a page at a time, and you will miss things. StuRat 19:50, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

That's what I do if I'm in GNOME, but sometimes I'm accessing the terminal outside of the graphical environment. That's when I need the paging thing :P Oskar 17:09, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

TI 89 Titanium help request

How would I download the TI Reader to my TI89 Titanium? I've already got the TI connect software in working order, and the computer does recognize and communicate with the calculator, but I haven't been able to transfer any apps to the calculator. (If it's any help to repliers, the computer OS is Windows XP, and the calculator OS is Version 3.10, 07/18/2005, Advanced Mathematics Software, Hardware Version 4.00). Alphabetagamma 05:26, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Are there any other programs like Skype?

So today I fired up the ol' Skype and it turns out you need Skype Credit to make calls (I thought this wasn't starting until tomorrow). Basically, are there any other computer applications that will allow you to make free calls across the USA? Thanks! NIRVANA2764 22:07, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Wow! I knew they had to start turning the screws sooner or later. The only other alternative for a 'free' service is to insert spam (like Google!). --Zeizmic 23:56, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Yahoo Instant Messenger and Google Talk have "call" features, they require a microphone, but (last I checked) were free. Root2 01:36, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Only to other users on that service. YIM charges for calling phones too, and I don't think GT supports calling phones at all. -- Kesh 02:31, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Try other VoIP services --froth^T 01:47, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Skype has always charged for calling to phones I thought, while Skype to Skype is free. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 07:59, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

I recommend using Adcalls Which currently allows you to make completely free calls to numbers in the United States of America, Canada, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands and China. - Aug Leopold 00:04, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

January 18

pixel software

Is there any software (*free*) that can calculate the number of pixels in an image of a certain color? I don't want trials or demos or cracks (warez). --hello, i'm a member | talk to me! 00:40, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

First thought I have is maybe a script for the Gimp? There might be one out there that can do what you're looking for. --Brad Beattie (talk) 01:06, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

I may have misunderstood your question, but the number of pixels in any image file is just its dimensions multiplied together. So, for instance, a 1024x786 picture will have 804864 pixels in it, which is about 0.8 Megapixels. You can get the dimensions of any image in Windows by right-clicking on it, selecting "Properties" and then looking through the tabs until you find the info (on Windows 2000 it's in the "Summary" tab, but it will be somewhere else on Windows XP, which I currently don't have access to). — QuantumEleven 09:06, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

I think you have. From what I understand, "Member" wants a program or other solution that will count how many pixels in a certain image have, say, a specific shade of blue. Harryboyles 10:21, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Open in The Gimp (which is Free Software). Click Dialogs, Histogram. Highlight a range of colour shades - there are "count" pixels inside the selection and "pixels" pixels total. --h2g2bob 18:36, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Most common words

What is the easiest way to find the most common words in a large text file (Windows), I can move the text around to excel or word or anything, but I don't see a tool for doing this. Thanks, Xcfrommars 01:10, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

There are many different ways to do it. Without knowing your specific level of experience with those apps, the best start is probably for you to search for:

"word frequency" (excel or word)

in your favorite search engine or on Usenet. This will turn up many links. NoClutter 01:26, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

I started dabbling in python programming language and after about 2 days of learning and playing around wrote my 1st program which did exactly this, it wasn't hard. I actually ran it on the entire text of Frankenstein. Worked like a charm, a list of every single word and how many times it was used, then you can put it back in excel and sort it alpha or frequency. :) Jump on my user page if you are really interested in doing this. Vespine 06:05, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Acer problems

Hiya all! I recently acquired an Acer Aspire without a cd-drive. I put in an old one and started to suffer problems. My fan kept turning on and off, the screen wouldn't turn on and the computer kept beeping-none of this happened before. So I took the cd-drive out but the problems persist. Any idea what is wrong? Cheers! Lenadi 01:18, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Did you knock out any of the wires or anything when you put in the cd-drive/took it out? The problem could lie with the fact that you may have messed up some electrical configuration/power cable. (It happens). Root2 01:34, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Sounds like the cd-drive may be sucking up more power than can be supplied. The weirdest problems are always with the power supply. --Zeizmic 12:51, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Microsoft Excel

Is there any way to restore a deleted column in an Excel document after it has been deleted? 24.128.226.22 01:44, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Only by clicking undo - but if it has been saved and closed, the undo will not work, unfortunately. :( --BenC7 02:24, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Facebook: Can I see who is viewing my account?

Out of pure curiosity, I am interested in who looks at my facebook profile. Is there any hack/mod/way to see who clicks on my profile? I know that facebook has fixed all recent glitchables, like adding html code in certain areas to create myspace-like backgrounds...but is there any way to have a profile view tracker? Thanks! 140.180.21.169 04:01, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

I don't believe that's possible, sorry. Chris M.

C'mon, there has to be SOME way...okay and if not, I'm also curious...say you were to devise some way to track this...what would be the most feasible way to do so? Tracking IP addresses and linking to computer information? Using facebook's own information covertly? I guess I'm asking, how do most tracking programs do their job? 140.180.21.169 04:20, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

The only way would be to have access to Facebook's servers. It would involve reading which IP is accessing a particular user's pages, and reporting that to another page/system. However, that only tells you when the page was last accessed. There is no way to tell how long someone has it up on their screen.

Plus, that only tells you the IP. You'd have to do some personal digging to find out who that belonged to, which likely involves a subpoena to the ISP in question.

In short, the only way is if the folks who run Facebook offer that service themselves. Which is not likely to happen, as the sheer overhead involved would likely bog down their servers for little gain. -- Kesh 04:49, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

I highly doubt that all of the XSS holes have been fixed. But I do have an idea for "most feasible" method. The cookie header information for your session (inexplicably including your email address) is sent externally to advertisers like advertising.com and atdmt.com with each page request so you could work out a deal with those shameless ad companies to give you their log data for your profile page :) Or raid their data centers or something.. --froth^T 07:08, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

I've never used facebook, but is there any way to display an image (or any other sort of file) which is stored off-site? If you could do that, it would be pretty simple to harvest that sort of information. --140.247.240.75 21:45, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

All the images easily displayed on facebook are uploaded, and thus impossible to use for tracking purposes. Were it possible to, through some careless coding on Facebook's part, embed an HTML reference to an offsite picture on a server whose IP logs you were able to access, the call to the image might give you the user's IP, or it might just give you Facebook's own. The point is probably moot, since user-editable fields are unlikely to let HTML through.

Database software ease-of-use

Why is database software always so much harder to use than word processors, spreadsheets or any of the other staples of an office suite? Is there any full-featured database software specifically designed to be intuitive for novices to use? NeonMerlin 04:46, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Databases are built around manipulating the information they're given, rather than just making it look pretty like a word processor does. It takes planning to create a database that will do what you want it to. The easiest database programs are going to be things like Filemaker Pro or Microsoft Access, which give you a nice front-end to arrange items in, and drag-and-drop scripting. If you need something more powerful, you're going to be sacrificing ease-of-use. Either way, it's going to take some learning. The best thing might be to download one of the demos for those programs, and follow their tutorials to get the feel for it. -- Kesh 04:53, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

You could argue that using a word processor is an electronic offshoot of writing on a piece of paper, so the concept is much easier to grasp. When you are creating a database you are creating something entirely virtual, which takes a different way of thinking and advanced planning. You could argue that an Excel sheet could be a simple database (after all, what's a database other than a large collection of data?), but dedicated database programs are designed to give you the power to manipulate very large and complex datasets, so for very simple datasets they may seem overly complex. — QuantumEleven 09:01, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

The best physical analogy for a database that I have found is in cardfiles, such as the sort you might store addresses on. The problem is that what you are really doing in a relational database of any complexity is creating a number of cardfiles which are all related and reference one another, can be manipulated at the same time and with great speed. But as a starting metaphor it works pretty well, which is why Filemaker Pro probably arranges their interface around it. --140.247.240.75 21:43, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Databases are usually a pain in the neck because data usually requires the creation of both a data structure from scratch (the tables) as well as an interface (the forms, the front-end, etc.). Both of these are time consuming tasks which require considerable advanced computer knowledge to correctly, especially if your forms are more complicated than simple data-entry fields (i.e. if you have to do any scripting). There are some programs which try to make this "easier", but that usually means that they use very simplistic (non-relational) database formats and are not very flexible. Additionally, I don't think most people think in terms of databases, which require a very specific sensibility about how to best divide information into discrete categories. Someone who is an old hand at database programming can tell you immediately how to set up some tables to do a certain function, what types of fields you need, etc., but this is in my experience never intuitive to people new to databases. (I say this as someone who has been a SQL and Access programmer for some 10 years now, and who has spent a lot of time trying to teach people the basics of database organization.) --140.247.240.75 21:41, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

You might be looking for knowledge mapping software, which is a "natural" form of database. TheBrain is a good example of such. Droud 23:33, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

How many?

How many e-mails on the Internet are being sent each day (average)?--69.236.29.100 05:22, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Our Email article doesn't have an answer. I suspect this would be very hard to guess, since there are so many factors involved, like emails from and over corporate networks, automated emails, spam emails with thousands of recipients, all that kind of stuff. Whatever it is the number must be huge, I wouldn't be surprised if on average every man woman and child on the planet was getting 10 emails a day. But that is in no way authoritative.

I agree - the average number of emails per person must be at least 10. I personally get well over 3,000 emails a day (and if I'm lucky, one of them is not spam). So, with a 10/day average, my email account covers 299 other people who don't get any email. I'm sure there are many others who have it worse, like president@whitehouse.gov or bill@microsoft.com. --Kainaw ^(talk) 06:35, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

database management

1. what are the 4 main references between a file processing system and a DBMS?

2. Pls. explain the differences between PHYSICAL and LOGICAL DATA INDEPENDENCE.

3.

Do your own homework - or at least rephrase it so that it doesn't look like a homework question. --Kainaw ^(talk) 06:33, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

And that's not out of anal requirements, it's as a service to wikipedian volunteers and to show that you aren't just totally disregarding our guidelines --froth^T 07:02, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

And even if you did get an answer here, it might be different from what your specific instructor is expecting, based on whatever course materials you should be studying. NoClutter 22:24, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

The answer could also be incorrect, on purpose. You have to wonder... Droud 23:37, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Defective hard disk/drive?

I've been using an internal hard disk for some time, but recently I tried to force a manual defragmentation (I'm on Windows). After a few seconds, this returned an error (Failed to start, etc ...). Checking the Event Log, I discovered that the "disk" driver had been throwing bad block errors like crazy. They'd usually come in twos or threes about 3 or four minutes apart. This has been going on (If the Event Log tells the truth and nothing else) since November 16th. Now, I know this means that I need to look at getting a replacement for it before it croaks, but does anyone know about how long I have, so to speak? 68.39.174.238 15:27, 18 January 2007 (UTC) (Note: This is not the operating system drive, just a data holding drive)

Maybe try a little scandisk to see if it helps? yandman 16:37, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Scandisk (The c—p new Windows NT version) does nothing. 68.39.174.238 17:09, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

FYI, most of the useful (pre-NT) scandisk functions have been taken up by chkdsk. I suspect you may already know this (since you sound fairly well-informed), but if not the relevant command here would probably be chkdsk c: /r /x. Replace c with the appropriate drive letter, /r attempts to repair the disk, and /x will unmount the drive to prevent access conflicts. ~ 69.41.32.12

I heartily recommend SpinRite which will fix almost anything, short of the disk being physically damaged. Oskar 17:11, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

That's not the (problem?), the disk still works and everything can be accessed, what I'm interested in is the likelyhood of proximate failure. I can get a new drive fairly soon, but is it "teetering on the brink"? If that's the case, I'd like to know so I can take (near) immediate action. 68.39.174.238 23:29, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

What you want is a utility that will read the "SMART" information off the disk. SMART monitors the drive and can predict when problems are becoming severe. There's a number of programs available to do so. -- Kesh 23:40, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Any kind of disk failure is a recipe for eventual disaster, get a new hard drive ASAP --froth^T 03:43, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

I agree with the above. Any type of funny business with disk drives is a plea for help! --Zeizmic 13:25, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

With respect to all of you: I'm going to get a new disk drive today if I can, a SMART monitor I'm checking out doesn't report anything really wrong, and I'm going to run SR6 on the old one when I'm through here in a minute. Thanx. Now, I have one last question: Is the disk drive in question good for anything now that it's throwing all these errors? 68.39.174.238 15:17, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

It's good for anything where it doesn't matter if the data vanishes tomorrow. Things like a local copy of Wikipedia, or rips of your CD collection, or temporary storage of things you're about to burn to a DVD. --Carnildo 21:47, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

"A local copy of Wikipedia" ? I don't think that's useful for much of anything, and I don't have a CD collection or a DVD writer. Would a swapfile work? Also, I ran SR6 as suggested, it turned up a 3 errors and fixed them, and now I'm running a "random stress-test" on it and have gotten two more event log errors. 68.39.174.238 02:19, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Question regarding PHP

Hi im new to using php. I have a script that takes a table from a mysql database and displays it in html in a web browser. A scheduled printout of what the browser displays needs to be performed every day.

I'd like to know if theres a php function that automatically sends the output to be printed as it would appear in a browser without any human interaction?

Preferably id like to be able to do this without writing to external text files.

Any help is appretiated!

Sends the output... where? To a printer? To an e-mail address? Whose printer? On the computer that hosts the PHP script, or elsewhere? That needs to be clarified, as the answer hinges on that. Generally speaking you will require something other than PHP to do the printing, i.e. it could output the data to HTML (or to a PDF, or whatever) and then some other program would have to open the HTML or PDF and send it to the printer.

The easiest way to do this that I can think of is to have a computer set up to check a given directory for files, print whatever is there as soon as something goes in there and then delete the file. PHP would then have to find a way to put the file into that directory, which could be accomplished a number of ways (it could connect via FTP, it could send it via e-mail, etc.). But all of this would require some scripting other than PHP as well to work.

As to how to make the PHP run automatically once a day or so, I believe you have to set it up a with a cron command of some sort, though I really know little about that other than I think that is the place to look. If you google "PHP cron" you'll see a number of tutorials as to how to get a script to run periodically without human interaction. --140.247.240.75 21:36, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Yes, the computer that hosts the php script is to send the output to a network printer. Sounds like the cron command could come in handy. Thanks for your help.

AJAX wiki?

Does anybody know of a wiki software that employs AJAX, possibly even making it possible to do limited editing directly in the article WYSIWYG-style? TERdON 18:19, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Isn't that what wiki.com uses/d? 68.39.174.238 15:18, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Remove Duplicate MP3 Files

What is the best way to delete duplicate mp3 files before I put them on my Zune. I don't have any money for fancy programs. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Duplicate mp3 files? Just copy and paste... Sorry if i don't understand ur question... --|K.Z|Z.K| Do not vandalize... 03:53, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

I do believe your question is how to keep from putting the same song on twice. The easiest (and free) way I know of doing this is to import your library into iTunes. Once the songs are imported, go to View-->>Show Duplicates. Then, delete one of each of the file pairs shown. Go to your iTunes library, and move the remaining songs onto your portable music device. I am sorry this is slightly complicated, but it is designed to work with the iPod. Still, it works. Freedomlinux 06:59, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

decoder and encoder circuits in mediaplayer

Hello sir/mam, I want to know how encoder and decoder circuits are used in mediaplayers.I also want to know about their other applications. Hoping for an immediate answer from your side. Thank you, Niraj Brahmkhatri

Please be more specific. What exactly do you want to know? Encoder and Decoder circuits in mediaplayer do the exact same thing that they do in modems, in network cards, in graphic cards, in just about any thing that sends and retrieves data. The encode and decode data, that is make them transmittable via the ether. There are no other applications for encoders and decoders than to, well, encode and decode. Aetherfukz 15:54, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Problems with video player.

I am having problems viewing certain media videos on the net. The only time it happens is when I try to watch documentries from Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone through Yahoo. I get a green screen but I can hear the audio. I have problems no where else. I have tried downloading codeks and even downloading an updated version of Windows Media Player. Is there something I am missing> I assume other people can watch it. Thanks!

You need a different codec then. Try just using VLC. --froth^T 18:51, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Cyber Squatting

I recently purchased the domain names .net, .org, .biz and a couple others that were similar to a company that competes with my business. They obviosly have the .com. I begin to recieve emails that were supposed to be sent to them, but were instead sent to the .net. Being a good person I forwarded these on to them. My question is what is the best way to go about selling them these additional domain names. I would assume they have an interest. I asked with one of the forwarded emails if they had an interest and they did not respond. Am I being stupid?

This is against the terms of your contract with ICANN, and I believe they have a board that your competitor can report you to and get all of those domains transfered to your competitor at your expense. Bad idea. --froth^T 18:50, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Trademark law. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 19:29, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, have you seen Cyber squatting? It's basically extorsion and something was done about it. If I were you I'd cut my losses and maybe donate those names, because it is quite possible you didn't hear a reply on account of your messages being passed to the company lawyers. Vespine 00:46, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Just maybe.... we are being hasty and s/he had a valid reason for getting the other domains beforehand? If so it wouldn't be so wrong to offer them for sale, but then again I suspect what the others said is right from the way you posed the question. Mathmo ^Talk 00:08, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Problems with HashMap keys

I'm having problems with HashMap keys in Java. The Map interface says two objects will be considered the same key if their equals() method returns true for each other. However, this seems not to be enough. It seems that the objects must return identical values from their hashCode() method, and return true from their equals() method.

I tested this with a custom class as the HashMap key. It overrides both hashCode() and equals(), with System.out.println() calls in both. It looks like HashMap first calls hashCode(), and if it returns a different value from an existing key, it won't even bother calling equals(). Otherwise, it calls equals(), and if it also returns true, it concludes that it has found the right key.

To me, this doesn't look consistent with the description of the Map interface. And I'm even using Sun's own Java implementation, version 1.5 or 5.0 or whatever it's called nowadays. Not GNU's or Microsoft's, but the one from Sun themselves. JIP | Talk 19:45, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Part of the contract of Object.hashCode() requires that if .equals() returns true for two things, then their .hashCode() must be the same. (The converse is not required.) So whenever you override .equals(), you must also make sure to override .hashCode() in a way that satisfies the contract. --Spoon! 20:54, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

If it helps illuminate the situation at all, consider a HashMap with a few thousand keys in it. Is the map supposed to ignore the distinct hash code from your object (which is supposed to help it narrow down which keys might match) and go and test against the thousands of extant keys with equals()? If so, why do you even provide hash codes? (See hashtable if you don't know the answer to that.) --Tardis 21:44, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the answers. That makes sense. But it still looks like it's contradictory to what is said in the Map interface, where it says that it is enough for the keys to compare true with equals(). JIP | Talk 07:18, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

To quote the docs on the Map interface:

Many methods in Collections Framework interfaces are defined in terms of the equals method. For example, the specification for the containsKey(Object key) method says: "returns true if and only if this map contains a mapping for a key k such that (key==null ? k==null : key.equals(k))." This specification should not be construed to imply that invoking Map.containsKey with a non-null argument key will cause key.equals(k) to be invoked for any key k. Implementations are free to implement optimizations whereby the equals invocation is avoided, for example, by first comparing the hash codes of the two keys. (The Object.hashCode() specification guarantees that two objects with unequal hash codes cannot be equal.)

In particular, notice the bold part. I'd imagine the only reason they refer to equals() is that this would be what must be used ultimately, as two identical hash codes don't have to refer to two identical objects. --Pidgeot (t) (c) (e) 17:16, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks again. I just concentrated too much on the part above "(key==null ? k==null : key.equals(k))" and though it was the only test the implementation was required, and allowed, to make. I guess there's not much point of a hash map which doesn't use the hash codes. The hash code comparison is done first to determine where the key is even supposed to be, but even if it is found there, there must be a separate equals() check, because identical hash codes do not guarantee equality. There can be Map implementations that aren't hash maps, or use hash codes. One example which comes immediately to mind is an implementation that stores the keys in a simple, ordered list. This means that searching for a key is an O(n) operation, whereas in a hash map it is O(log n), if I'm not mistaken. JIP | Talk 18:00, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Hashtables (and thus HashMaps) have (on average) $O(1)$ lookup(!). Binary search trees have the $O(\lg n)$ lookup you're thinking of; sometimes they're better anyway because they don't require hashcodes (just a total order operator) and you can automatically iterate over elements in sorted order. --Tardis 16:33, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Timer Sever Suggestion

I work at a public library and the software used to manage the computers available to patrons (CyberStar Timer Server) is horribly buggy, crashes, and freezes up all the time. Have any suggestions for a cafe timer sever type program that could used to manage the time used for around 12 PCs? I've found some but they all seem so expensive and loaded with features we don't need - any simple, cheap, software you can recommend?

I have a different suggestion, why not use those electrical plug timers normally used to control lights ? I'd just use them to control the power to the monitors, so they don't actually lose anything when the monitor goes blank. That way, if they forgot to save their term paper, or whatever, they can beg the librarian on duty for another minute so they can save it. You could have all the monitors plugged into extension cords that go to the librarian's desk, where the outlet timers are used. Of course, the patrons could unplug the monitors from the extension cords and plug them in elsewhere, if there are extra plugs available and easily accessible. I don't think most people would do that though, as that's "crossing a line". StuRat 02:46, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Excel to Inkscape

10 brownie points to whomever can come up with the easiest way to get an Excel chart into Inkscape as a vector graphic (bitmap options don't count, since I'd have to redraw the chart). Options I have considered:

• Cutting-and-pasting said chart into Illustrator, exporting as SVG, opening in Inkscape (downside: requires using Illustrator, which I don't want to do even though I have it, as it is not on the computer I will be doing this on most of the time)
• Opening Excel data into Openoffice.org Calc, creating a graph there, exporting to SVG, opening in Inkscape (downside: Calc doesn't support round data points that are vectors. That's a real down-side to me, because that means if I want to have round data points, which I usually do, I have to replot them all manually in Inkscape. Which makes one wonder why I'd want to be using Calc in the first place. Calc's graphing tools generally suck, as well, and give less flexibility than Excel, which itself also does suck.)

OK — with those out of the way, any other ideas? Inkscape currently doesn't import PDFs, so I can't export to PDF and re-import it (unless I do the Illustrator approach again). I really like to touch up my graphs in Inkscape (as Excel's formatting leaves a lot to be desired), but getting things into Inkscape is a royal pain in the ass at the moment, and if anybody can come up with a clever solution I'd be very happy. --140.247.240.75 21:10, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

This guy thinks you should just use Inkscape. Is that an option? Anchoress 13:17, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Sometimes, but with complicated data sets I would rather a program do it rather than trying to calculate it all myself. For some plots it is reasonable, for some it is not. I might as well just import it as a bitmap and trace over it if that's what I was going to do, which doesn't speed things up for me at all. --24.147.86.187 15:58, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

OK, that site finally worked for me, and I don't think it is helpful. It basically says that to use an Excel graph in LaTeX you need to convert it to EPS or PDF format first. But Inkscape can't read EPS or PDF, last I checked. If it could read PDF well then it wouldn't be such an issue, since I could just print the graph to a PDF. But alas, I cannot. --24.147.86.187 23:22, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

Syntax Highlighting Editor - how can I colour words??

I'm developing a java 'Syntax Highlighting Editor' - it spots some language keywords as soon as they are typed in and colours them. The data on how they should be coloured comes from a config file I openend and saved in a dedicated data structure. I need to know: 1) how to format words 2) how to colour a word in a text editor 3) which method I should use to manage the event 'press a key in an editor'--Raggiante 23:08, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

First, just so you know, there are many editors that support what you want already. (Obviously, if you want to make a better mousetrap, go right ahead. Just don't think it's not available.) As for your questions:

1. I have no idea what you mean here, except perhaps that you don't know how to format the config file. Since you don't have an unreasonably large amount of data to store, you should just use a human-readable plain text file, perhaps something as simple as a keyword on each line. However, you might want to make it a bit more complicated (perhaps have a "Keywords" header, then the keywords, then "End keywords") because you can then extend the file format more easily. You might also want to look into such things as regular expressions to define your highlighted constructs more powerfully.
2. How to apply a color to a word depends entirely on how you're displaying it; some media (e.g., black and white printers) don't support it at all, while others (e.g., the "intelligent" computer terminals) recognize escape sequences in the text you send them and apply them. Other times you have a programmatic interface that supports operations like "render text here" and "set current color" and you have to combine those in the obvious way. As a guess, you're writing this editor in Java (since even if you meant the editor is for Java you must be interested in the language) and want it to be graphical; then I'd suggest looking at the online API documentation, particularly the relevant Swing classes.
3. You're asking about the fundamentals of event-driven programming, which you should read about. Then, again, look at the relevant documentation. --Tardis 03:18, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

Digital clock strangeness

I have a 1985 Cosmo time E-508A LCD alarm clock. It's been acting in the most strange and unusuall manner that I was wondering if anyone knew what the symptoms meant. Basically, when it gets power after an outage, it blinks 12:00 (Normal), but when it's been set to the correct time, either stays constant (Normal) and later starts blinking again (The correct time, not 12:00), or wont stop blinking when it's set (Again, it'll show the correct time, but it'll flash at the same time). Finally, it just stopped counting at all, rather just displaying a certain time. Anyone have any idea what the root cause of this is (Bad component, loose connection)? 68.39.174.238 23:37, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

I'd go with a loose connection. They typically have either a battery or a capacitor so they don't lose the time during short outages, but they aren't nearly as accurate on backup power, so blink to tell you to check the time. If it starts blinking for no apparent reason, I'd say that means there was a short power outage, probably caused by a loose connection. If the loose connection gets worse, it may keep time worse and worse, then stop, then go blank. To be honest, if you've gotten 22 years out of a digital clock, you should probably just consider yourself lucky it lasted that long and go get a replacement. If you're really attached to the clock, I suppose you can have a qualified electrician unplug it, take the cover off, and look for any loose connections. They may be able to solder it together so you can get another 22 years out of it. StuRat 02:28, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

I've done so myself and discovered the reason: the capacitor plague has claimed another victim! The bottom plug was cracked and has spewed stickly dried electrolyte all over the place! 68.39.174.238 15:20, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

I see. You could clean it up with a cotton swab and some alcohol, then replace the capacitor, if you really want to salvage the clock. StuRat 00:34, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

iTunes DRM

I love the iTunes music store because they have the largest collection of high-quality songs and it works great with my iPod. However, I absolutely hate --and can't stand-- DRM of any kind. I want to be able to use my music the way I wan't on any device or computer I own. Pretty much like the freedome I get from store-bought CDs. Is there any SIMPLE software that will convert iTunes songs I buy to regular MP3s on the original "authorized" computer at a decent quality? If it can be done in batches that's a plus.

hymn (software) might work... 68.39.174.238 01:25, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

This is what you want. I feel exactly the way you do. By the way, that software rips the AAC data stream, you still need to convert it with audacity --froth^T 01:38, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

There's a free software called SUPER that might work. You can convert it into any format you want, although the quality is very bad if u pick a low bitrate. The website is here. [6] Note: It says u need a fast computer but u can ignore that. I have a computer from the 90's and it still works. Download is at the bottom, after u go through all the info. Hope it helps! --|K.Z|Z.K| Do not vandalize... 03:48, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

You could always just burn your files to CD (RW would be best, 'cos you can wipe it and use it again), and then rip the CD. You might lose a bit of quality though. --saxsux 13:37, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

A "bit"? Seeing as iTunes songs are themselves not terribly high bitrate, this sounds like an insanely bad idea.--Frenchman113 on wheels! 15:59, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

January 19

Extracting images from a video file

Hi. I'm looking for a way to batch extract images from a .mov or .avi or .mpeg file with the idea of getting nine images out of every second of footage. Even a program which would create an image file for every frame would be useful because then I would just delete the extra images. I have Adobe Premier and Windows Movie Maker, so do any of these have this kind of batch capability? Thanks! Robinoke 01:08, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

VLC can do it, but I don't remember how. Check its forums or ask the VLC mailing list. --h2g2bob 03:10, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Use Irfanview's "extract all frames" feature --froth^T 03:40, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks guys, I'll give those a try... Robinoke 14:37, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

AIM 6.0 Format Screen Name

I have used AIM's "format screen name" option to add a space in my screen name, but for some reason the space is often lost when i sign off and sign back in later, and I have to continually re-add the space. Is there a way to resolve this? In a less important side note, I would ask on the AIM message boards but no matter which computer I try to access them, I get an error message that says "An error occured. Please try again later." Any help? I'm currently using AIM 6.0.28.1... Thanks! --Nevhood 02:19, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

I get a very similar message whenever I pick on a non-AOL "From" or "To" address within an AOL e-mail header: "System Error: We're sorry, the AOL Member Directory page you requested is not available right now. Please try again later". They don't seem to check for non-AOL addresses. Perhaps you are on CompuServe or some other software which shares AIM but isn't fully supported by AOL ? StuRat 00:23, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

I use IE7, maybe they just don't have support for it yet. --Nevhood 18:38, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

which is better, GeForce2 GTS or MX

I have two Nvidia video cards: GeForce2 GTS and GeForce2 MX200. Which one should I use? From this page, it seems like the GTS has better specs. But the current version of the drivers do not support the GTS and does support the MX. Thanks. -131.215.159.11 04:23, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Thats because MX200 is more recent. Depends on what u want to do really, overall i would say GTS is better, it has better memory, among other things and lets u do more things. --|K.Z|Z.K| Do not vandalize... 04:37, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Where to store files?

Moved from /Science

I have more than 30,000 text records (several GBs). Is there a Windows software tool that can create a compressed virtual disc to store these files? There was a program "ShrinkWrap" for Mac OS that does exactly this job. Is there any comparable software for Windows? -- Toytoy 01:20, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

You should probably ask this at the computing desk. --24.147.86.187 01:56, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Well depending on which version of windows you use, XP has a very easy native compression option under the general tab of your disk properties, you just 'tick the box'. Of course, it is a bad idea to compress your boot disk, so if you only have one hard disk in your PC you may need to repartition it. 202.2.57.126 03:04, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Try running "Disk cleanup" and checking the "Compress old files" option. This will work best of the "disk" in question contains them and nothing else. 68.39.174.238 15:23, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

I need a better solution. I have more than 40,000 small files. They use up space. They make my other files fragmented. They are difficult to move. The best thing I can do is to make a compressed virtual volume. With ShrinkWrap under MacOS, I could:

1. Make an empty volume slightly larger than the files.
2. Move the files into the volume.
3. Make a compressed volume from the uncompressed volume.

If I need to use the files, I can mount the compressed volume. If I don't need them, they are in ONE compressed virtual disc file.

Windows does a bad job handling thousands files. -- Toytoy 01:45, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

Sounds like what you really need to do is import them all into a database or note management program. Something like Notelens for basic organization would keep them all in one place, and you can simply zip the database file. -- Kesh 02:14, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

See, if this were Linux, you could just dd if=/dev/zero of=virtual_drive.img bs=4096 count=1000000 (which gives you about 4GB); then you could just format the partition with mke2fs virtual_drive.img (or some other filesystem that does better with a hojillion little files; maybe ReiserFS?), and mount it via a loop device, like mount -o loop example.img /mnt/drive_image. You could copy/move all the little files onto it, and then (when unmounted) it would look just like a big file that could be moved, copied, backed up or whatever. You can even use compression on the device (see cloop and SquashFS, though these are read-only solutions). This is pretty much what was happening under your Mac. I'm not aware of anything similar under Windows, though if you can create a VMWare image (you can do it with the free VMWare player and a copy of QEMU under Linux), you could use something like Virtual Disk Driver to mount the filesystem in the VMWare image on your Windows system, too. (VMWare doesn't support compressed images, however.) Now that I think about it, your best bet might be burning a DVD image to a file (make it double-layer or whatever gives it enough space to store all your stuff) and then using something like Nero ImageDrive to mount the DVD image as a virtual drive. It doesn't support compression, but it's probably the easiest method to use. Windows doesn't let you do this sort of thing very easily. grendel|khan 22:57, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

dd if=/dev/zero of=virtual_drive.img bs=4096 count=1000000

losetup /dev/loop0 virtual_drive.img

mkfs.xfs /dev/loop0

losetup -d /dev/loop0

mount -o loop virtual_drive.img /mnt/virtual_drive

--wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 01:36, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

trOubleshoOting

hello!!! I am an I.T student, and i had a project.. I search it in many sites but there is no specific anwer, and i try to ask here can you help me?

my question is... what are the basic computer troubleshooting tools and equipment?? thats it.

thank you... for all those who read and answer this... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.217.67.44 (talk • contribs)

Does your course have a textbook or any assigned reading? Because the formatting of the question makes it sound like something where they're looking for a specific answer that was either addressed during a lecture, or written in the book or notes, rather than found randomly on the internet. --Maelwys 13:31, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Exactly what I was thinking. There's no "basic computer troubleshooting tool" unless you're in a very specific context. --froth^T 19:18, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

How about your brain as the "basic computer troubleshooting tool" ? (Don't use it as a hammer, though.) StuRat 00:15, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

I troubleshoot computer problems on a daily basis as part of my work and the above is correct, I can't think of any other specific tools I couldn't do my job without apart from my head and hands. Vespine 01:33, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

Debian on PS3

Anybody else trying this? I've got it working perfectly now, but now I want to cut my teeth on programs that use the SPU's (special processing units), which are vector processors. Sony doesn't allow direct connection to the graphics card hardware vector pipes, but with 6 of these things, who cares? --Zeizmic 13:29, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Hebrew History

Contrast the difference between the way the Hebrews viewed history and the view held by most other ancient cultures. How do the words linier and cyclical apply?

We can't answer homework questions, and you'll probably get better help if you post on the right Reference Desk, Wikipedia:Reference desk/Humanities. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 16:53, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Consumed Crustacean is right on both counts. However, since you're here, the following two article sections may help you get started: Time#Linear time, Time#Cyclical time. -- SCZenz 18:14, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Cyclical: We keep getting repeated requests to do students' homework for them every day. StuRat 00:10, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

Linear: Doing such homework problems for the students is a line we won't cross. StuRat 00:10, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

Website Blocks

I was wondering how to block sites under categories, not individual sites like www.myspace.com I want to know how to block like gambling sites. Do you get it? 216.253.128.27 17:03, 19 January 2007 (UTC)nicholassayshi

You'll need some sort of "Content-control software". I don't have much knowledge of the specific products, but we do have a list of them, though not all have articles or external links. Try Googling them if you're curious. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 17:12, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

That approach is not going to work well, because somebody would have to go through the millions of web sites, growing by thousands every day, and classify them, then reclassify them constantly, which is never going to happen. Alternatively, you could look for words like "gambling" on the page, but that would block many good sites ("Those with a high cholesterol diet are gambling on their health") and miss many sites you wish to block, which will just avoid using the keywords they know the program is looking for. There have been attempts to do this sort of thing, but you end up getting a very small subset of the web which has been reviewed and approved, with the majority of sites blocked, not because they've been found to be bad sites, but just because nobody has the time to review them. StuRat 00:03, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

If u are willing to buy products, Trend Micro has a classification blocker that might help. Its included in the Internet Security '07 pack. The company hire hundreds of workers just for classification so it should block most websites u don't want. --|K.Z|Z.K| Do not vandalize... 10:24, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

Just tell your kids to stay away from gambling sites. If they have any technical ability at all they'll be able to bypass content control software. --froth^T 00:03, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Would you care to bet on the chances the kids will do as they're told ? The odds are against you. StuRat 08:13, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Clicks, crackles and blips on new headphones

I received a pair of Sennheiser HD 415 headphones yesterday, and have noticed clicks, crackles and blips that I didn't hear before. They happen on both my PC and my iPod. They didn't happen with any of my previous headphones, suggesting it's a problem with the headphones, but they happen identically at consistent points in songs, suggesting it's a problem with the audio files. It's possible it's a headphone anomaly that only affects specific sound patterns, but it's also possible the artifacts were just outside the frequency range of my old headphones. Any ideas as to where the problem is and what to do about it? (This doesn't include the stuttering and stuck-record-like behaviour that happens on the PC if enough other programs are running.) NeonMerlin 18:10, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

I got a pair of fancy noise-cancelling headphones, and noticed a lot of new things. Try the usual things of getting the best feed you can. Even to the point of buying a cd! --Zeizmic 21:04, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Find a friend with a good quality stereo reciever and CD player. Pop in a CD. Listen to it on the speakers. Listen to it on your old headphones. Listen to it on your new headphones. Try this with a couple other CDs. If you hear the popping consistantly across discs on those headphones and no others, it might be a bad pair. If they only happen on certain discs, then it's probably just noise in the original recording that you can't normally hear on speakers or cheap headphones. -- Kesh 21:36, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

How loud are these artifacts you're hearing? Sounds like a bad cable, shorting out. Droud 23:46, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

I don't know about blips, but crackles could be due to clipping. Replay Gain could be the answer. --Kjoonlee 12:43, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

Combining split files in Windows

I had to split up a big file to transfer it, so I used the linux command split. Now I'm on a windows computer (alas, I miss my shell), and I wish to reassemble it. Is there any smart way to do it. It would be trivial to do with some coding, but since I'm not on my own computer, I'd prefer that I'd not install anything. Anyone got any tips? Oskar 18:13, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

That is, it would be trivial to do a little programming, but I'd prefer not to install a big compiler or IDE or anything. If there is a program for just this purpose, I wouldn't mind installing that :) Oskar 18:22, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Use cygwin to get a bash console on your windows box. --h2g2bob 18:44, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Well, you see, when I said that I didn't want to install anything to major, I include cygwin in that :) Come on, there has to be a way... Oskar 19:02, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

From a cmd prompt, do:

copy chunk1+chunk2[+.....] destination

Cheers, Davidprior 20:49, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Thank you. Oskar 22:15, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

If you're dealing with binary files, copy /b first + second + third bigfile might be a better idea. --Kjoonlee 12:41, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

General Linux Questions...

Alrighty, so here's the thing: I'm a native Windows user, and I've gotten to know just about everything there is to know about Microsoft's OS, except programming, mind you.

I've always found Linux intriguing, though, and had a few questions about it. Please excuse my lack of knowledge on the subject, but I've never really gone deeper than seeing what it looks like. And I did read the article, but it just went over my head as a bunch of computer gibberish that I really don't understand.

• Will Linux run Windows and Apple software, i.e., FireFox, iTunes, games, and word documents, or will I have to download them separately to make them Linux-compatible?
• Is there a form of it that basically mirrors Windows, so I won't have to learn how to use a computer all over again?
• Which version is the most popular?
• If I use a live CD, will it wipe my Windows-based hardrive and install Linux-type stuff on it, or will it override Windows and just show me how Linux works?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.--Wikify me, captain! 21:19, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

• • Windows, yes, sort of. You have to install a program like WINE to fool the program into thinking it's running on windows.
  • Nope. There are graphical interfaces that are similar, but you're going to have to learn some new things to get around and take care of your system.
  • ... yikes, what a loaded question. Right now, Ubuntu is gaining popularity, but Debian and RedHat are well-known. I'm sure someone else will pipe up with their favorite distro shortly. Check out List of Linux distributions for a pretty large list.
  • Live CDs don't touch your hard drive at all. The entire OS will run from the CD/DVD and let you play around with the interface. If you finally decide to install it, the installer will generally create a seperate partition on your drive for Linux, letting you Dual boot into either Windows or Linux when you want. -- Kesh 21:44, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

• A few points on the above reply:
  • If you're running Linux on an Intel-based computer, you can run many Windows programs using WINE, almost all old DOS games using Dosbox, and all Macintoh apps for the ancient 68k CPU using Basilisk II.
  • The GUI that is most similar to Windows is KDE.
  • For a beginner who wants a Windows-like interface, I'd recommend a Kubuntu live CD.
  • Not only do live CDs not touch your hard drive, they often make it hard to find your hard drive at all.

--Carnildo 22:17, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

• A few comments on the above points
  • x86 or x64 CPUs, namely Intel and AMD ones, work with WINE. "Intel-based" is a little confusing.
  • KDE is fairly close to Winders. However, to be honest the largest commonality is that the bar starts on the bottom of the screen, as well as the default style being somewhat bubbly. As a Windows user, I found it wasn't really any more comfortable than GNOME or Xfce, though I gravitated towards it at first because of said small superficial things
  • ..., though you may want to try out a plain Ubuntu live CD (Kubuntu = Ubuntu + KDE), or the countless other LiveCDs to see how the different desktop environments compare; rewritable CDs/DVDs wouldn't be a bad idea ;). Coming from Windows I prefer Ubuntu and GNOME, but it could just be me.
  • I don't know that they make it hard to find, but they definitely don't touch it unless you ask. Just be sure you don't choose the option to install the CD

-- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 23:26, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Ah, some very, very informative stuff here! Thanks, all, it's greatly appreciated. --Wikify me, captain! 23:31, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Another note: YOu mentioned Firefox and Word documents. There is a version of Firefox that is compiled specifically for Linux - so you don't have to run the Windows version of Firefox on Linux. Also, AbiWord and Open Office both open, edit, and save most Word documents fine. When you get those weird ones where the author tries to use every trick in the Word menu, you'll run into trouble. --Kainaw ^(talk) 23:39, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Cool. I'm downloading the live CD of Kubuntu now to try on my computer. --Wikify me, captain! 23:54, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

A brief comment on WINE - it runs a lot of windows stuff, but not all. However, there are free versions of pretty much everything you could want (ie MS Office → OpenOffice.org; MSN → GAIM; iTunes → Songbird (sort of); PaintShop → GIMP; and so on). These are also available for Windows, so you could get to know them on either OS. Personally, I recommend knoppix over ubuntu, but there's not much difference. --h2g2bob 02:06, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

A much better substitute for iTunes is amaroK. It's a fantastic music player, as good or even better than iTunes Oskar 10:46, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

By the way, Linux will be a much better experience if you learn to program in perl or bash or something --froth^T 23:54, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

Just a comment, but I seem to recall reading about Linux distros intended to mimic (at least in appearance and feel) Windows. Couldn't find on List of Linux distributions, though. Someoneinmyheadbutit'snotme 07:13, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

It used to be called Lindows. After getting sued to death by Micro$oft, they changed the name to Linspire. --Kainaw ^(talk) 11:22, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Re-answering your questions (being very strict about naming):

• Yes, for Windows software, using WINE.
• No, because Windows is an operating system, and Linux is a kernel.
• Umm, go to kernel.org for the latest version.
• To see how Linux works, please buy a book on Linux.

Also, Linspire is extremely non-free. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 01:18, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Also it sucks --froth^T 20:01, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Organizing music

I have a messy collection of mp3's many of them have incomplete or incorect id3 tags full of links and other useless info. i heard u can use iTunes to automatically rename and re id3-tag your mp3 collection (retrieving info from a database). How do you do this!!!??

• Hit control+A
• Right click
• And go to the id3 tags option (sorry, I forgot exactly what it says)

And there you go! --Wikify me, captain! 23:57, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

January 20

smallest ext2 partition

I have to test my ramdisk driver on Linux. The ramdisk has to be formatted to ext2. However, I cannot find the SMALLEST size of an ext2 partition, so I cannot set the lower limit of my ramdisk's size.

Does anyone know the the smallest possible size of an ext2 partition? Many thanks. --Computor 00:21, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

61440 bytes (60 KiB). Don't take my word for it, though. –EdC 10:12, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

Adding an SWF into a FLA

I am making a Flash game using Flash 8 and I have the code and everything of my game in a .FLA file. I have the music and sound of my game in a seperate .SWF file. Is there anyway that I can combine the .SWF into the .FLA, and publish them as a single .SWF file, making it easier to upload and host onto website? Thanks. Jamesino 02:57, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

Export your FLA to an SWF using Flash. You can also import the resources movie into your FLA before exporting it to SWF. Droud 13:38, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Podcasts going into my music library in iTunes

I just recently subscribed to a couple of podcasts, and things were going swimmingly. Then, a few days ago, for no discernible reason, all the songs in my iTunes library disappeared. That wasn't a problem as I had all the songs backed up elsewhere on my hard drive. Anyway, afterwards, my podcasts were still listed in the podcast section of iTunes, but whenever I sync up my iPod, the podcast ends up with all the songs in my library in my iPod. I've tried unsubscribing and resubscribing, but, nothing doing. Any suggestions? --Jeffrey O. Gustafson - Shazaam! - <*> 11:44, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

Are you saying that all of your podcasts are ending up in the main library, in addition to the special podcast section of iTunes? Try this: select "podcast" from the genre picks, and remove all of the podcasts from the library (not from the hard-drive though!). Do they all comeback next time you sync? Oskar 17:03, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

No, the podcast ends up only in the library. There is absolutely nothing in the podcast section of my iPod. --Jeffrey O. Gustafson - Shazaam! - <*> 18:50, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

WIN Xp RegisterEdit

pl guide me how to disable registerEdit of window Xp???? thankyou!! 219.64.188.92 17:36, 20 January 2007 (UTC)chandan

A Quick google search [7] gave this result [8]. Cheers, Davidprior 18:45, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

Had a bit more of a look - the link above probably isn't what you're after...however searching for "policy prevent access to registry" gave something more useful [9]. One thing I'm unsure of though is whether the group policy editor is available in all versions of XP, or only Pro (I can't test as I trashed my XP MCE install and due to HP not giving me master discs for it, I'm now running the evaluation version of Vista instead). Cheers, Davidprior 19:47, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

Custom Packet

I need to create a custom packet to test out my home network. How can I do this? My computers are running Mac OSX and Ubuntu Linux (6.10). Thanks in advance!--Ryan 20:15, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

Sounds like you could use packETH [[10]]. 75.138.84.159 22:02, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, but are there any that run under Mac OSX? Linux is my "last resort" OS, I use it when all else fails. And it would be nice if I didn't have to compile it, although I know how. Thanks! --Ryan 00:45, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Most anything that will run under Linux will run under BSD, as OSX was derived from BSD. You shouldn't have any trouble running packeth. Droud 13:41, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Well it won't build for me...--Ryan 15:56, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

And why not... --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 01:24, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Hard Disc Discrepancies

Hey Wikipedia-ites.

I've been doing computer upgrades and such, and I'm finally getting things back in order. My 250 GB (Or, 250 billion byte) hard drive, is read by Windows as 232 Gigabytes, because of the inconsistencies between Byte = 1024 and Byte = 1000. However, when I rightclick on the properties of my hard drive, it reads 36.5 Gigabytes, (39 billion bytes) used. When I go into the stuff saved on the C-Drive, apply "View all system files", and Ctrl-A and check the properties of the C drive, it SHOULD technically be 36.5 Gigabytes, am I right? However, the C-Drive components read to windows as 31.7 Gigabytes in size (Or, 34 billion bytes). Where in the heck are my other 5 billion bytes going? Formatting issues or some sort of rootkit, I just don't know. Any help? User:Logical2u_Talk 23:07, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

When you pressed CTRL+A, did you also select the hidden files? If not, you can view the hidden files by going into Control Panel>Folder Options and checking it off. Jamesino 23:25, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

I believe I did so: I had the page file "file" selected, so I'm pretty sure. Also, with the hidden files Ctrl-A'd, the size went up 4 gigabytes to the data I gave above. User:Logical2u_Talk 23:34, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

Also there's an option (at least in WinXP) to "Hide protected operating system files", did you uncheck that? —Mitaphane _talk 23:58, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

Yes, that hides the Page File (Which I saw and added to the original total I posted). User:Logical2u_Talk 00:14, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Are you reading "Size" or "Size on disk"? FS overhead can take a lot of space if you have a large number of files --froth^T 23:51, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

Size and Size on Disk for my C drive are within 100 megabytes of each other. User:Logical2u_Talk 00:14, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

You don't have a recovery partition, do you?

Unless it's completely invisible or not a partition. My C-Drive appears to be completely unpartitioned (250 billion/giga bytes =232 Gigabytes in Windows byte notation). The data thats being used has to be somewhere on the C-Drive itself, but completely invisible. If the partition can be inside the disc itself without actually being a partition, maybe. User:Logical2u_Talk 11:00, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Upon reading the Recovery Partition article, that may be the case, but 1. My system is custom made (ish, had XP installed along with the parts by a company), and 2. there are no bytes missing for the C-Drive, they are within the C-Drive, if that's possible for the recovery partition to do. User:Logical2u_Talk 11:05, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

January 21

Intel Xeon vs Core 2

Which of the two processor families is faster, Intel Xeon or Intel Core 2. EDIT: for PC'sJamesino 00:00, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

That's an impossible question to answer without knowing what metric/scale you're using the measure them. Do you mean raw frequency? Time to execute a standard process? General usage? 68.39.174.238 02:28, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

With the intel stuff price is generally a decent guide, whatever us newer and faster will be more expensive. Vespine 05:56, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't Xeons for servers and Core 2s for PCs? If so, if you're getting a PC processor, Core 2 is the way to go. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 20:03, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Even knowing the metric, it's impossible to measure. Typically, a Xeon is a version of a desktop processor with a larger cache and circuitry for multi-processing, so you need to know the model the Xeon was based on. --Carnildo 22:58, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

PC vs Workstation

Whats the major difference between a personal computer and a workstation?

Are workstations just more powerful versions of PC's?

Can a workstation do everything a PC can do?

Generally are workstations lots louder and hotter (temperature) than PC's?

Also, what is the fastest computer (non-mac) that everyday consumers can buy from major computer corporations?

Thanks. Jamesino 00:16, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

I believe the definition of Workstation comes from the UNIX world, where one would normally have a dumb text terminal connected to a UNIX server in the basement. If you're lucky, you had an X-terminal connected to the server. But if you were really lucky, you had a complete unix machine on your desktop, with a monitor, input devices, and sufficient graphics; it would be called a workstation (in comparison to a terminal or a server).

By that definition, a workstation is probably quieter and runs cooler than a server.

As for a comparison to PCs, I don't think those comparisons make sense anymore. In today usage, nearly any PC could be considered a workstation. However, the word is usually reserved for machines with specialized hardware, like larger monitors, graphics tablets, etc.

For your second question, I wouldn't even try to answer. There are too many dimensions. I could point you to the fastest clock-speed processor, but clock-speed doesn't necessarily equal speed in a generic sense.

Sorry to give you two non-answers, there... --Mdwyer 00:25, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

They're difficult to compare nowadays. Workstations are intended for complex technical tasks (in a factory, or laboratory for example) and will usually be part of a network, whereas PCs are general purpose standalone machines. The power of both depends upon the intended task. They aren't really that much different, some workstations will have features useless to a home user (Mass spectrometer any use to you?) or might lack features useless to a technical user (what use would a chemist have for a high-end sound system?). What exactly do you intend to do? For general home computing (typing, emailing, web browsing, etc) which is fairly undemanding, Dell et al are alright; for gaming, which is extremely demanding, try Alienware. I'd expect a workstation to run hotter and louder than a mid-range PC, but a gaming PC to be hotter and noisier than a workstation. The fastest PC is a hard call to make, it doesn't stay as any one model for long as competitors move to outdo eachother. Again, Alienware springs to mind, they are the first high-end manufacturer I can think of. CaptainVindaloo ^{t c e} 01:02, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

If you wanted to trick out your box with strictly consumer components, go for:

• • The highest-clock-speed core 2 duo you can find or a couple of Itanium 2s.
  • As much DDR SDRAM as your mobo will support
  • Two GeForce 7900 GTXs in an SLI configuration
  • A redundant RAID 1 array of 15k RPM SCSI hard drives

--froth^T 02:44, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Specifying "Non-Mac" is now rather moot if your asking about the fastest PC. Macs now use the upper end Intel CPUs, (Macs will soon have the Quad-4 Intel CPUs), and can run Windows natively. So if one wanted the fastest "PC" it currently could very well be the fastest Mac Pro machine running Windows. With a Mac Pro one gets everything, a very, very fast PC, a very, very fast Mac, and with the upcoming version of OSX 10.4.9 Leopard, a certified UNIX machine also. (Presuming OS 10.4.9 Leopard passes the upcoming UNIX certification test of the Open Group.) Zeno333 02:49, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

It's also moot since you can't build a custom mac, and so you don't have access to performance components --froth^T 03:09, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

The original poster was asking about computers made by companies, not building their own. Buying a Mac Pro Tower and specifying among different video card and hard drive components etc available from Apple would be no different than doing the same thing at Dell for example, or any of the many PC companies out there. Again, its moot to rule out the Mac Pro among PCs when searching for the fastest PC. One can rule it out after one finds a PC that may be faster, but to rule it out from the start has no merit. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Zeno333 (talk • contribs) 07:55, 21 January 2007 (UTC).

Certain components like (I believe) the Core 2 Duo Extreme Edition are only available if you build your computer yourself or order it from a specialty retailer; apple doesn't carry it. Also the latest graphics card technology like the geforce 7950 and radeon x1950 is unavailable from apple. Since apple doesn't allow you to customize your machine (and no, selecting a build from their ordering website isn't what I'm talking about), the best tech isn't available to these closed systems. That's why I discounted macs --froth^T 08:36, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

I do not know what you mean by Apple not allowing one to customize beyond the order options since one can add a variety of video cards easily after a purchase of a Mac Pro. Maybe the x1950 is a little bit faster than the x1900 which is available from Apple, but many high end video cards can easily be added to a Mac Pro after the person buys one from Apple. And as new cards come out they are also available if one chooses. Zeno333 10:30, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Apples aren't impossible to customize. However keep in mind that most people don't want to ever have to open up their computer and are terribly scared of doing so X [Mac Davis] (DESK|How's my driving?) 10:41, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Vista high-def DRM

I hear that Vista's graphics drivers will refuse to play high-definition protected content (from HD-DVDs and Blu-Ray disks) if your monitor doesn't support HDMI handshaking or if you use unsigned drivers. I'm pretty darn mad at this stupid situation and don't want my computer's functionality restricted in any way.. is there any way to disable these content protection drivers from the get-go and just live without watching protected content? --froth^T 02:37, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

I don't have the answer, but this type of intrusion is why some people are going to Linux and dropping Bill Gates' junk. StuRat 04:51, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

I don't knw either, but Mac OSX 10.5's DVD player app is supposed to play HD DVD and Blu-ray, so maybe you should become a switcher? I was, and I'm happy! :)--Ryan 04:58, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

If it can decrypt the streams then it's either participating in the HDCP transaction or alternatively accepting a much lower-quality stream, exactly as all drivers will behave. Same applies to linux, unless we find some way to get around it (like VLC bruteforcing CSS keys to play DVDs). It's not windows's fault for supporting the technology as much as it is the studios' fault for demanding support. Then again if windows refused to support DRM then studios wouldn't have much of a market... --froth^T 06:00, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

HD Digital Restrictions Management (which is AACS encryption I think) needs to be on every bit of hardware you want to use it on. That means it is needed on the HD-DVD drive (which should have it), the operating system (ie vista only), the graphics card (both HDCP and HDMI are needed) and the monitor (HDCP+HDMI again). If any of these are missing, you should get "fuzzy" pictures, about DVD quality.

The problem is that all those monitors saying "HD ready" actually only refer to HDMI only and not necessarily HDCP, so a "HD ready" monitor might not work at full quality with HD-DVD. However they will work at full quality with the HD-DVD downloads on bittorrent. Ironic really.

I think that's right (correct me if I'm wrong!) More here: anti-microsoft and pro-microsoft. --h2g2bob 06:06, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

That's because the torrents are just rips of the HD-DVDs (and I have no idea how they manage to rip it) that are encoded with xvid or h.264 or whatever. There's nothing to decrypt on your end. But my original question still stands: is there any way for me to force vista to recognize my drivers as compromised so it'll unconditionally refuse to validate for HDCP? --froth^T 08:43, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

First off, you make some mistakes in you initial assumption. They will play, even if your monitor doesn't support HDCP, they will just downscale it so the graphics isn't as great. Second, they might not even do that. All such policies (downscaling, key-revokation, etc.) are completely voluntary things, and so far the content industry hasn't done any of it (I think they're afraid of getting sued if they did).

To answer your question, why would you want to? If you don't want to play HD-content on your computer, why not just not play them, why in the world would want vista to think you're a hacker? Doesn't make any sense... However, if you really wanted to, for no apparent reason, then you should....well.... start soldering on your graphics card or something, that would activate the tilt bit I think. Oskar 10:11, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

As for how they ripped, that's not hard really. The spec for AACS is public (there is no reason for it not to be) so if you have the keys, you can just decrypt them. Keys are given proprietary DVD/HDDVD/BluRay programs, so they are able to play the discs. Since they have to be stored somewhere in main memory, if you look hard enough you might find 128 bits that seems to be accessed alot. And, bam!, you now have AACS-keys. This is, however, not an ideal system. DeCSS actually cracked DVDs (good on ya, Jon!) so you don't need any keys. Not so now. Presumably people will become better at hiding their keys in main memory, and then it will be harder. Oskar 10:19, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

AACS was already cracked. It's very likely that software like VLC Media Player and mplayer will be able to play HD-DVD and BRD content regardless of Vista's built-in content protection. What you should be worried about is the new licensing, designed to make you purchase a new copy of Vista when you upgrade your motherboard or processor! Droud 13:46, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Not true. DVDs uses a single key, and that was cracked. AACS uses different keys for different players. It is not cracked, but the key for DivX Player has been discovered. Future disks that are printed will not allow this key, and the DivX software will be updated, fixing this issue. See http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/ for a long discussion of how AACS works and what has and has not been cracked. Frankly, I don't see VLC supporting HD-DVDs any time soon - VLC currently does not support any DRM except CSS. --h2g2bob 16:08, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

The reason I want to do it is because I belive my new monitor may support HDCP (and it's hooked up through DVI). I don't want to accidently open protected content and have it work; I refuse to use any kind of DRMed media whatsoever. Also I'm not going to try to flip the tilt bit; I don't want to damage my computer.. I didn't know that nobody has actually implemented downscaling yet, but I don't mind a blank screen instead of downscaled media. --froth^T 20:18, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

That's a pretty hard-ass stance to take, but you have to respect a genuine boycott I guess :). In that case I have a suggestion: as we all know HD-DVD/BluRay content is seriously encrypted, and you need the keys to play them. The keys are provided in software players, like PowerDVD or WinDVD. You can't play content unless you have these products installed, so you could simply uninstall them (I presume that they came with your computer if you have a next-gen DVD drive). That would ensure your DRM-safety. I'm not sure if Windows Media Player can play AACS content out of the box, but since it can't play DVDs out of the box (you have to download plugins that contains the CSS keys), I'm assuming it can't. You could uninstall that too though, if you are unsure. That, or just run Linux all the time :D Oskar 00:51, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, just checked Comparison of media players and apparently WMP can't play HD-DVD or BluRay, so no worries there. Oskar 00:53, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

I thought Vista will provide this support in the graphics drivers. --froth^T 00:56, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Also, I don't think it's that radical of a position. Most content protection is easily cracked. --froth^T 00:59, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

I can't say that I'm 100% sure about how exactly this all works (I ain't reading that spec!), but if it only encrypted it in the graphics driver, it would be fairly easy to crack. I mean, software could pretend to be an authorized AACS player, or it could just snoop on the stream of bits coming from the driver. Also, the dude that was able to rip the HD-DVD movies got his keys from PowerDVD, so it has some sort of keys. What is happening, I think, is that the graphics driver peels of one layer of encryption and passes it on to the software, which peels of an other layer and reveals the data. That way, if either the driver or the software turned out to be "hackable" the content guys could revoke either one. Oskar 01:11, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

No matter how good the encryption is it had to be decrypted before finally representing on screen. Doesn't matter if it's screen capture software or capturing the raw signal to LCD panels after decrypting from HDCP in the monitor some people are going to get a legit copy, find a way to capture the stream, and will "share" it on the net. It is something unavoidable by nature. --antilived^{T | C | G} 10:25, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Vista upgrade?

Ah, again with the Windows Vista mish mash. I don't quite understand this upgrade business. Under Wikipedia's article for this operating system, it shows the price listings for all the different versions (Home, Home Premium, Ultimate, etc.), but there are two columns for prices. The first shows retail prices, and the second shows upgrade prices. What is the "upgrade"? There's an $80 difference between the two, and I want to see if I can't nab the cheaper upgrade. Is it upgrading from XP? From a lower version of Vista?--the ninth bright shiner ^talk 02:43, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

The upgrade version is for if you have Windows 2000 (32-bit), Windows XP (32-bit), Windows Media Center Edition, and maybe Windows Server 2003, not sure about that one. The upgrade edition is just like the normal edition except it can perform an in-place upgrade- that is, you can keep all of your data and programs installed. Don't do this though, it's highly inefficient and you won't get very good performance out of your computer- also there are several caveats and you can't always perform an in-place upgrade depending on what version of Windows you had and what edition of Vista you're upgrading to. Also if you get the upgrade edition, then install a full clean upgrade (not an in-place upgrade) you might need to put in your XP cd during installation to prove that you actually have XP (if you don't have an XP cd because you got it on your computer preinstalled then it shouldn't ask you). The "full" vista license doesn't have any of these restrictions but you can't perform an in-place upgrade. Also it costs a lot more. Personally I bought the upgrade edition. --froth^T 03:03, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Cool, thanks! How do I figure out if I have 32-bit XP? And about installation...I should save all of my documents and...exactly what else? I'm so clueless in such large parts of computer information...:|--the ninth bright shiner ^talk 23:49, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Before installing Vista, get all your personal files, any saved-games, important cookies, emails, photos, and other stuff (Installer files for patches, antivirus?), onto a separate partition/hard drive. Secondly, almost all Windows XP copies owned (So I've heard) are 32 bit. It's labelled as x86, I believe, in comparison to x64. If I'm not mistaken, msconfig might read it, under the system tab... maybe. User:Logical2u_Talk 00:02, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Great, thanks a bundle!--the ninth bright shiner ^talk 00:39, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Also, even if you have a 64-bit processor like the Core 2 Duos or an AMD 64, you should get the 32 bit version of windows. 64 bit operating systems have serious compatability problems with non-native-compiled code (most applications). --froth^T 00:41, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

And as for what you should back up... keep in mind that you will lose everything during a clean upgrade so the simple rule is "if you want it, back it up". Just FYI, this is a checklist of what I'm backing up:

1. All of my music
2. All of my video
3. Several isos that I wouldn't be able to redownload until I return home for spring break
4. All of my roms and classic games (like BOWEP)
5. All of my programming work that's not mirrored on my school's red hat servers (mostly php & database stuff)
6. Various useful and hard-to-find programs that I don't want to lose: ffmpeg CLI, mptrim, pwdump3, mdcrack/john, hymn
7. A list of programs I have installed now that I'll need to find post-install: firefox, thunderbird, inkscape, vandalproof, putty/winSCP, etc
8. Old homework

Now would also be a good time to start collecting various CDs that you'll need to reinstall a lot of your programs. I've had to track down Office and visual studio. --froth^T 00:55, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Ahhhh... It's been so long since I have to worry about backing up and reinstalling... God bless Linux and cron and rdiff-backup... :p --antilived^{T | C | G} 10:19, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

VLC + Quicktime Interactive Movie

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone knows if there is any way to get VLC to correctly play quicktime interactive movies, such as those produced by keynote? VLC will play them straight through and not play each section upon a mouse click as it should.

Thanks for any help in advance,

--195.137.67.86 14:04, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

It's probably just not supported. VLC sees everything as "just a video" with very few exceptions. --h2g2bob 16:12, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Sharing...?

After setting up a new hardrive and making it a shared drive by checking the "Share this folder on the network" checkbox and the "Allow network users to change my files" checkbox for the drive share name Windows XP will still not allow new subfolders to be created in existing folders on the drive even their share name has also been given permission for sharing through the same process as for the drive. Old subfolders, however, can be accessed if their share name is given specific permission through the process above. How do I get permission to apply to both old subfolders and for new folders for the wholde drive? -- Barringa 14:19, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

When you connect, what username/password do you give it? Is that account able to create new folders there normally? 68.39.174.238 16:04, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

He shouldnt need to give a user/pass if he did indeed use simple file sharing, and ticked the "Allow network users to change my files" box. Try going into the share properties, uncheck the "Allow" box, hit apply (itll change permissions, make take a bit), then when its done, re-check the "Allow" box again, and hit apply, (it'll again change permissions, which may again take some time), that should reset the permissions for every file on the drive, and hopefully allow what your trying to do, if it still doesn't work, you may need to use the advanced file sharing interface, which can be a pain. Cyraan 17:11, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Several cycles of sets and resets seems to have worked with some existing subfolders specifically allowed to be shared (hand included in the subfolder icon) and the rest not specifically allowed to be shared as subfolders (no hand included its icon) but shared none-the-less through only the drive share allowance finally working. Whew! Thanks. -- Barringa 05:43, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

How do I connect to a network printer

I am trying to connect to the printers in my school. The catch is that I have XP and the printers do not show up with the add printer wizard. The Printers are HP Laserjets that are wired directly into the network. Ive heard that u just need the IP address, but how would i find those?

thanks in advance Omnipotence407 16:18, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Go to Control Panel->Printers and Faxes, go up to file, and select "Add Printer", hit next and you get to a screen where you have to choose whether the printer is hooked up locally (to your computer) or if its on the network printer, in your case, it'll obviously be a network one. Next you'll be brought to a screen that allows you to browse for it, or punch in an IP or URL for it. You can try to browsing for it, but if that doesnt work, check the second selection with Name under it, in there punch in the location and name of the printer in \\IP\PRINTERNAME format. Check the manual or printer settings to find these out, many printers now have build in DHCP, so you may be able to find it in the router settings, but its easier to set the printer to a static IP in its settings, that way it wont ever change on you. Example, if you set the printer to an IP of 192.168.1.10 and the name given in the manual/settings is HPLaserJ (Which it may be by default anyways) you would put \\192.168.1.10\HPLaserJ in the Name box. It should connect, ask if you want to set it as default, and then you should be good to go. Cyraan 17:04, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

As far as finding the printer's current IP address goes, is there some way of printing a test page, menu settings page or network settings page using the buttons (and possibly LCD screen) on the printer itself? These should show the IP (and maybe the printername too), but if the printer has DHCP turned on, enter \\hostname\printername, not \\ip\printername . Hope this helps, Davidprior 17:45, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

The usual way to print to HP LaserJets from Windows is to create a new TCP/IP port to print directly to it:

• go to Add Printer, click next
• select "Local printer attached to this computer", don't select "Automatically detect ...", click next
• select "Create a new port:", choose type "Standard TCP/IP Port", click next
• add port wizard comes up, click next
• enter IP address in the "Printer Name or IP Address" field
• Port Name is automatically filled in, leave that alone, click next
• sometimes, due to printer security, detection of the device may fail; if it does, choose Device Type -> Standard -> "Hewlett Packard Jet Direct"
• click next, click finish
• now you are at the choose manufacturer and model screen
• click "Windows Update"
• go do something else for at least 5 minutes
• when it's finished (when the Windows Update button comes back), choose Manufacturer "Hp" not "Hewlett-Packard", and for the Printer scroll down to :the appropriate "HP LaserJet xxxx PS" or "HP Color LaserJet xxxx PS" for black&white and color printers, respectively, where xxxx is the model number
• click next
• answer the questions on the next few screens (what you want to call the printer, whether it should be default, whether you want to share it, whether you want a test page, etc.)
• wait a few minutes for it to finish

--Spoon! 20:58, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

HTML background image question

My mother is designing a web page for her friend. She wants to stop the background image from tiling, and preferably centre it on the user's browser window. I have searched the HTML standard and haven't found any way to do this. Is it possible with CSS stylesheets, for example? JIP | Talk 18:03, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

body {
 background-image: url("logoe-bg.png");
 background-attachment: fixed;
 background-repeat: no-repeat;
 background-position: center;
 background-color: white;
 color: black;
}

--Kjoonlee 18:18, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

You can also use url("http://www.example.com/img/logoe-bg.png");. --Kjoonlee 18:23, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Or just shorten the whole thing to

body { background: white url("logoe-bg.png") fixed no-repeat center center; color:black; } (replace colour keywords to shortened hex like #FFF is even shorter)--antilived^{T | C | G} 10:14, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Yep, but "center center" is equivalent to "center" AFAICT. --Kjoonlee 11:36, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Nokia Phone ID

Can anyone remember the name of this phone? I know that it's a Nokia, but I can't remember the name. Many thanks!

--Fadders 20:52, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Looks like a Nokia 6310. --Canley 01:04, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

'Push' Email

A lot of mobile phones are using push email accounts. Can you point me toward a webstie that give details on setting one up? I have my own domain/email hosting and currently have Pop3 accounts, and would like to know more of what I am talking about when I contact my host.

Thanks! TrekBarnes 22:48, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

bug busters?

I've tried to make a Move-to-front transform implementation [11] [12] but weird things happen, such as producing a segfault when encoding large files such as /vmlinuz, and producing random printable (!!!) characters when decoding. The weird casts to uints and other strange things are my failed attempts to remove bugs. Can anyone spot any bugs? Thanks. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 01:45, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

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

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

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

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

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

Downloading from websites.

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

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

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

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

USB hubs

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

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

To elaborate - you would use a USB hub to connect many printers to a single computer. USB Switches exist that allow you to connect multiple computers to a single USB device (see [13] for an example). I have no idea how standards-compliant they are, although I have seen them in action, and they seem to work ok. Surprisingly, Wikipedia doesn't seem to have an article on USB switches.--inks^T 08:25, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Webpage Help

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

You should use CSS. There's no easy way for me to explain what to do (mostly because I suck at explaining things). Until someone posts here with something more helpful, there are several tutorials to take a look at ([14] [15] [16] [17]). Much of what I picked up was purely from examples, and there is also no shortage of those (i.e. [18] [19]). -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 07:06, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Probably like this?

HTML

<div class="banner">[BANNER]</div>

<ul class="nav"><li>[BUTTON]</li></ul>

<div class="content">

<h1>[TITLE]</h1>

<p>[TEXT]</p>

</div>

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

CSS

body { width: ??px; }

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

.nav { float:left; width: ??px; }

.nav li { width: 100%; height: ??px }

.content { */content specific styles/* }

.content h1 { */title styles/* }

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

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

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

About Wi FI

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

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

operating system

sir i want to know what is operating system & what are the available os &which one is the best one