Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing

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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)

I've done a few tests (dd if=/dev/zero of=virtual_drive.img bs=1024 count=n && mke2fs -F virtual_drive.img), and I get a "Not enough space to build proposed filesystem while setting up superblock" error for $n<60$, while it does work for $n=60$. Further testing reveals that it works for 61440 bytes, but fails for 61439 bytes. This is without any additional options provided to mke2fs, so it may be possible to get that number lower by using other options. I can't imagine what use a sub-60k ramdisk would be, but that doesn't mean you don't have your reasons for wanting one. grendel|khan 23:06, 25 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 [1] gave this result [2]. 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 [3]. 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 [[4]]. 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)

I'll show you: (built on Mac OSX 10.4.8)

ryan:~/desktop/packETH-1.3 (myusername)$ make gcc -g -O2 -Wall -Wunused -Wmissing-prototypes -Wmissing-declarations -I/usr/include/gtk-1.2 -I/usr/include/glib-1.2 -I/usr/lib/glib/include -c main.c main.c:30:21: error: gtk/gtk.h: No such file or directory In file included from main.c:32: interface.h:5: error: parse error before '*' token interface.h:5: warning: type defaults to 'int' in declaration of 'create_window1' interface.h:5: warning: data definition has no type or storage class interface.h:6: error: parse error before '*' token interface.h:6: warning: type defaults to 'int' in declaration of 'create_fileselection1' interface.h:6: warning: data definition has no type or storage class interface.h:7: error: parse error before '*' token interface.h:7: warning: type defaults to 'int' in declaration of 'create_fileselection2' interface.h:7: warning: data definition has no type or storage class interface.h:8: error: parse error before '*' token interface.h:8: warning: type defaults to 'int' in declaration of 'create_sel1_dialog' interface.h:8: warning: data definition has no type or storage class interface.h:9: error: parse error before '*' token interface.h:9: warning: type defaults to 'int' in declaration of 'create_interface_dialog' interface.h:9: warning: data definition has no type or storage class interface.h:10: error: parse error before '*' token interface.h:10: warning: type defaults to 'int' in declaration of 'create_error_dialog' interface.h:10: warning: data definition has no type or storage class interface.h:11: error: parse error before '*' token interface.h:11: warning: type defaults to 'int' in declaration of 'create_udp_payload_dialog' interface.h:11: warning: data definition has no type or storage class interface.h:12: error: parse error before '*' token interface.h:12: warning: type defaults to 'int' in declaration of 'create_fileselection3' interface.h:12: warning: data definition has no type or storage class interface.h:13: error: parse error before '*' token interface.h:13: warning: type defaults to 'int' in declaration of 'create_about_dialog' interface.h:13: warning: data definition has no type or storage class interface.h:14: error: parse error before '*' token interface.h:14: warning: type defaults to 'int' in declaration of 'create_tos_dialod' interface.h:14: warning: data definition has no type or storage class interface.h:15: error: parse error before '*' token interface.h:15: warning: type defaults to 'int' in declaration of 'create_fragmentation_dialog' interface.h:15: warning: data definition has no type or storage class In file included from main.c:33: support.h:21: error: parse error before '*' token support.h:21: error: parse error before '*' token support.h:22: warning: type defaults to 'int' in declaration of 'lookup_widget' support.h:22: warning: data definition has no type or storage class support.h:28: warning: type defaults to 'int' in declaration of 'gchar' support.h:28: error: parse error before '*' token support.h:36: error: parse error before '*' token support.h:36: error: parse error before '*' token support.h:37: warning: type defaults to 'int' in declaration of 'create_pixmap' support.h:37: warning: data definition has no type or storage class main.c: In function 'main': main.c:38: error: 'GtkWidget' undeclared (first use in this function) main.c:38: error: (Each undeclared identifier is reported only once main.c:38: error: for each function it appears in.) main.c:38: error: 'window1' undeclared (first use in this function) main.c:41: warning: implicit declaration of function 'g_thread_init' main.c:41: error: 'NULL' undeclared (first use in this function) main.c:43: warning: implicit declaration of function 'gtk_set_locale' main.c:44: warning: implicit declaration of function 'gtk_init' main.c:55: warning: implicit declaration of function 'gtk_widget_show' main.c:57: warning: implicit declaration of function 'gdk_threads_enter' main.c:58: warning: implicit declaration of function 'gtk_main' main.c:59: warning: implicit declaration of function 'gdk_threads_leave' make: *** [main.o] Error 1 —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Rgrasell (talk • contribs) 17:35, 22 January 2007 (UTC).

Install the GTK headers. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 22:37, 23 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)

Are you counting the filesystem structures like the MFT and the journal? Are you counting the ADS (which AFAIK are not counted by explorer)? --cesarb 01:37, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Ok, now it's past the point I understand. I don't know. Properties of C-Drive, then "View all System Files", go inside C-drive, Ctrl-A, properties, and comparing the size of the files in it and the space taken up on the C-Drive. Do these ADS, MFT, and Journal things commonly take up a lot of space? User:Logical2u_Talk 20:26, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

I don't know how much space they usually take up (and I do not have a Windows system nearby to take a look). I know that structures like the MFT and the journal aren't counted when you look at the size of all files, but they take space; I don't know whether the way you did count the ADS sizes (but I think it doesn't). You could try running some utilities from Sysinternals to check; try NTFSInfo to check for the filesystem structures, and Streams to check the ADS sizes (be careful with the second one; it has an option to erase alternate streams). --cesarb 20:24, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Likely solved.

Turns out System Restore files are saved in a folder that forbids you from viewing the size for it. (_{Restore points are saved in under x:\system volume information\_restore{558C94FD-3C7F-4954-A02D-26679E6D849E}. Each restore point's files are saved in a folder named RPXX where XX is a two digit number corresponding to the restore point.}) Systme Volume Information is completely hidden from XP Home users sight, even the size is hidden (Right click its properties and Size = 0 bytes)! I have a system restore point practically every three days, so the 5 gigabytes is likely lurking in that folder I am not able to access. User:Logical2u_Talk 22:25, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Try Disk Usage from Sysinternals then; it might show you the true size of that directory (or might not, but it's worth a try). --cesarb 01:29, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

No need for all that jazz. System Volume Information by default does not have permissions set for regular users. All you need to do to get full access to that directory is disable simple file sharing (in Folder Options), go to the Security tab, and add permissions for your user name to that directory. Then set it so all its sub-directories and files inherit those permissions. It takes like 30 seconds if you know where to look for it. ~ lav-chan @ 05:27, 30 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)

Are you sure? I'm fairly sure that apple doesn't look kindly on any hardware that they don't directly support (anything that you couldn't get from the factory anyway) and there's practically no driver support --froth^T 19:57, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

They don't "look kindly" on it for certain features, but otherwise it's possible. On the latest Macs the CPU, RAM, hard drive, optical drive and (on towers) expansion slots are all upgradable. It might void your warranty for some parts (CPU, naturally), but it can be done. -- Kesh 22:55, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

The highest end workstations in commercial production are probably the IBM pSeries (formerly RS/6000) running AIX or Linux on a POWER4/5 platform. These things generally fill highly graphically/computationally intensive niches that used to be dominated by SGI boxen running IRIX; geographical mapping and discovery, oil exploration, high-end CAD, etc. These workstations aren't even near the consumer price range, though... A fully loaded POWER5 based workstation will set you back about US$15k. Offerings based on Intel Core2, while great for graphics professionals and low-to-mid-end stuff, are fairly indadequate for the tasks that high-end workstations fill. Take a look: base workstation, graphics acclerator, overview -- mattb @ 2007-01-31T18:20Z

*drool* Those are incredibly nice systems. Droud 02:49, 2 February 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)

The point is that without compromising the encryption in some way (like those guys did with the powerdvd/divx player keys), you'd literally have to break open the monitor and salvage the embedded components and recapture the image- and like resampling audio it would result in a loss of image data. And don't forget the tilt bit, which would certainly activate if you're messing around with contacts in the monitor controllers. But come on, someone answer my actual question already -_- --froth^T 17:09, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

I thought I just did!! Just uninstall the Hi-Def content software, and that way you could never watch any AACS-encoded shit! Oskar 18:30, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Uninstall the graphics drivers? o_O --froth^T 19:36, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

No, not the graphics driver (you need that for games and aero and stuff) or the HD-DVD driver (although that probably wont be used for anything except movies for a few years), the player software. PowerDVD or WinDVD, or whatever you have. That software has the keys necessary to play AACS content. If you uninstall them, you can't play AACS content, you haven't got the keys. Simple as that. Oskar 20:36, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Again, doesn't vista provide stream decryption transparently through the drivers, so the player doesn't even necessarily have to know it's protected content? --froth^T 13:13, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

OK then, here goes... 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. That's right, except it will play at a downscaled rate (about the same as a DVD). That is, it won't just black-screen. This only affects the window with HD-DVD content and not anything else playing at the same time, according to Microsoft (see the pro-ms link i posted above). I'm pretty darn mad at this stupid situation and don't want my computer's functionality restricted in any way.. Damn right, that's why I use Linux :D is there any way to disable these content protection drivers from the get-go and just live without watching protected content? The content protection only kicks in for protected content, but there's no way I know of to disable it. But if you're looking for a media player which simply doesn't play DRM'd media then there's always VLC. --h2g2bob 18:16, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

I know about the downscaling, and I know that it only affects the secure content window. The content protection only kicks in for protected content, but there's no way I know of to disable it. I guess I'll have to wait, maybe someone will find the flip bit and write a program to change it manually. If that's even possible- I don't like windows moving towards this extreme memory protection; admins should be able to flip any bit they darn well please. But if you're looking for a media player which simply doesn't play DRM'd media then there's always VLC. VLC isn't modular enough for my tastes. Programs should do one thing and do them well- i.e. query a directshow decoder and display the stream of decoded video. I don't like how it's compiled with libavcodec and all of those other codecs, although I can't deny that it's a very utilitarian system --froth^T 19:36, 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)

Advanced file sharing isn't that bad (Although the root shares can be annoying), however if it's working now with simple, there's no cause to break it again. 68.39.174.238 02:52, 24 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)

HP has a very useful "install network printer wizard" tool, which, if you have the printer's IP address, will do all the rest of the work of acquiring drivers and setting up the printer. I haven't used it in some time, but you can get a current version here. grendel|khan 23:13, 25 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)

Yea, just realised that, and also the path to the image doesn't need to to be quoted, and will actually break if used as inline style like that. --antilived^{T | C | G} 21:47, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Hmm.. When I tested it earlier with Firefox 2.x, quoted URLs worked in both cases. --Kjoonlee 19:59, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Try <body style="background: white url("logoe-bg.png") fixed no-repeat center; color:black;"> and it will break because the extra quotes can end the quote in the html tag prematurely and thus breaking it. Plus, quoting adress are useless as it is already done with the parentheses. --antilived^{T | C | G} 03:40, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

I think you're meant to mix single quotes and double quotes if you're using the style attribute directly in the HTML code. --Kjoonlee 13:40, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Yes but it is qutie a common mistake, and why include something that does absolutely nothing? It is already escaped by the parentheses and quotes mean absolutely nothing in CSS. --antilived^{T | C | G} 05:07, 25 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)

January 22

bug busters?

I've tried to make a Move-to-front transform implementation [5] [6] but weird things happen, such as producing a segfault when encoding large files such as /vmlinuz, and producing random printable (!!!) characters when decoding. The weird casts to uints and other strange things are my failed attempts to remove bugs. Can anyone spot any bugs? Thanks. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 01:45, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

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

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

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

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

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

Downloading from websites.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

USB hubs

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

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

To elaborate - you would use a USB hub to connect many printers to a single computer. USB Switches exist that allow you to connect multiple computers to a single USB device (see [7] 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 ([8] [9] [10] [11]). Much of what I picked up was purely from examples, and there is also no shortage of those (i.e. [12] [13]). -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 07:06, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Probably like this?

HTML

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

<div class="content">

<h1>[TITLE]</h1>

<p>[TEXT]</p>

</div>

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

CSS

body { width: ??px; }

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

.nav { float:left; width: ??px; }

.nav li { width: 100%; height: ??px }

.content { */content specific styles/* }

.content h1 { */title styles/* }

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

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

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

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

.nav li

{

margin: 0;

padding: 0;

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

display: block;

}

.nav a

{

margin: 0;

padding: 0;

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

display: block;

}

.nav a:hover

{

visibility:hidden;

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

}

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

       height: 324px;

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

    }   

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

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

About Wi FI

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

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

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

operating system

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

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

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

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

You're

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

You want MS Windows

You're

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

You want Mac OS

You're

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

You want some flavor of Linux

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

My opinions:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bad Ram

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

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

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

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

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

Apparently, MacBooks canNOT read 80mm CDs.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Windows XP Sound Device

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

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

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

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

Torent

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

football games on linux

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

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

Javascript/ css integration

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

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

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

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

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

tyra

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

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

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

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

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

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

Removing a page from Google's index

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

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

Line Rider

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

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

AOL

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

what kind?

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

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

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

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

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

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

help running a command line program in OS X

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

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

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

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

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

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

Creating duplicate hard links, then making them independent

Under Windows XP, I have a large library of PDFs that I need to edit down by deletion, and I want to keep both the edited and unedited versions on my hard drive. There will be room for both, but there isn't room to store the unedited version a second time. So what I want to do is make a copy of the folder with an identical tree, but where each file is a second hardlink to the same file in the original folder. I know this can be done with

fsutil hardlink create C:\oldfolder\subfolder\file.pdf C:\newfolder\subfolder\file.pdf

The problem is that fsutil only handles one file at a time, and the destination folder must already exist. How can I write a batch file that will find all the subfolders and files of the original folder, create corresponding subfolders in the duplicate folder and then fsutil hardlink all the files? NeonMerlin 00:35, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Why would you store the unedited versions a second time? And why would you want to use multiple hardlinks, they're almost never useful. --froth^T 01:01, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Well, can you think of a better way to make two copies of a folder, with the ability to delete files from one and keep them in the other, but without taking up twice as much space as a single copy? I don't intend to edit the files themselves, only to delete some and keep others (and maybe rename and move a few). NeonMerlin 01:10, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Nope. How many directories are we talking about? I'm not sure if you'd be able to preserve directory structure, but maybe you could change the file handler from acrobat reader or whatever to fsutil, and mass-open all of the pdfs. It would be a lot of Ctrl-A and Enter, but it might work. --froth^T 01:15, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

From a command prompt, do "dir /s /b >file.txt" then use a text editor to convert each line in file.txt into two lines of the form "md C:\newfolder\subfolder\file.pdf\.." and then your " fsutil hardlink create C:\oldfolder\subfolder\file.pdf C:\newfolder\subfolder\file.pdf" (yes it appears possible to make a new folder structure by simply adding \.. to a file which doesn't yet exist). Tested on Win2000. -- SGBailey 11:18, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Memory upgrades

I've never done any memory upgrades except for on $50 beige boxes with 64MB sticks so I'm naturally very nervous about ordering expensive memory on a student budget. I'm looking at this stick. Lenovo told me that it's compatible with my laptop model. But I'm concerned- I already have 1GB of DDR2 memory. Does that mean that I have two 512MB sticks, making an additional 1GB stick incompatible? Or do I just have one 1GB stick, making an upgrade possible? I ran cpu-z and it told me that I had 1GB in one slot and nothing in the other, but I just wanted to double check before I add $155 onto my Windows Vista purchase. --froth^T 00:55, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Why don't you just open up the laptop -- as you'll have to do anyway if/when you install the new stick -- and see? NeonMerlin 01:06, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Last time I opened her up to install a mini-PCI wireless card it took me more than 45 minutes to get the palm rest to fit together with the rest of the computer. It's like folding the top of a box so that half of every piece is below another- except you can't bend the cardboard. In other words, I don't want to open it up unless I have to --froth^T 01:10, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Chances are CPU-Z is right, but it really shouldn't be hard to check yourself, if your laptop is recent (and judging by you having DDR2, it is), getting to/adding the memory should be easy. Its usually just a single panel that you need to unscrew and there it is, should just need to put the memory in to the slot at an angle, and then push it towards the board, there should be a metal clip on each side that snaps it in place. Cyraan 06:14, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Oh I know exactly how to do it; I just don't want to open it up and check because it's a lot of trouble. Anyway, I bought it a couple of hours ago so too late now for any advice --froth^T 06:45, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

acx 100

In a desperate bind here! Linux Fedora Core 6 (2.6.19-1.2895.fc6) on a laptop.

Suppose I have successfully compiled and installed the module for the ACX 100 chip on my D-Link 650. The module loads fine, but in my dmesg it complains that it can't find the firm ware that I have placed in /lib/firmware.

acx: need to load firmware for acx100 chipset with radio ID 11, please provide via firmware hotplug:
acx: either one file only (<c>ombined firmware image file, radio-specific) or two files (radio-less base image file  *plus* separate <r>adio-specific extension file)
requesting firmware image 'tiacx100c11'
acx: firmware image 'tiacx100c11' was not provided. Check your hotplug scripts
requesting firmware image 'tiacx100'
acx: firmware image 'tiacx100' was not provided. Check your hotplug scripts
acx: reset_dev() FAILED

I assume this is because I am not using the new UDEV properly. Can anyone please suggest to me where I should put the firmware files (http://acx100.erley.org/acx_fw/acx1xx.htm) or what to do with UDEV?

("Check your hotplug scripts" --> Where are these?)

Duomillia 02:42, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Cancel this, I figured it out myself... —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Duomillia (talk • contribs) 01:22, 31 January 2007 (UTC).

Best Portfolio Simulator on the Web

My University's investment club is looking for a good online stock market simulator. Specifically, we would like the ability to create groups on this simulator (so we can see how we rank in the club), and if possible, have the ability to trade various instruments, at least options. Most importantly, this simulator should be free.

So far, I have used the marketwatch simulator and investopedia one (similar to marketwatch). I have also found the wall street journal online one and the Zacks.com one, but both require payment to use. Any ideas on which simulator my club should use? Thanks! ChowderInopa 06:37, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

I have no idea, but our Stock market simulator article links to an external site which lists a bunch of them here Oskar 16:33, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

how to learn data base

$Insertformulahere$ —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 196.200.116.146 (talk) 13:05, 23 January 2007 (UTC).

1. Download and install Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express.
2. Watch this training video series.
3. Take over the world with your new database skillz.

Droud 13:42, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

First, learn to ask the question properly. Databases cover a broad range of topics and skills. Which database do you want to understand? What operating system? What are your current skills with computers? Assuming you need introductory knowledge, your best bet would be to start with something like Microsoft Access and then understand the concepts of tables, indexes and keys (to store data) and SQL (to query/change data). Sandman30s 14:50, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

If you don't have database software OpenOffice.org Base is the free one --h2g2bob 16:27, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

But it would be pretty hellish to try and learn on. OOo Base is still pretty buggy and slow as dirt. --24.147.86.187 03:17, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Bit Stream or Videos of S/W Disasters

I am looking for Videos or bit Streams associated with S/W Failures (Recorded of animated). There is a preponderance of articles and still shots of S/W disasters, but I have been searching for a collection of videos. (e.g., Aircraft, Weapons, Mars Climate Orbiter, Ariane 5 Flight 501, etc.)

Thanks guys.Jakerlx 15:50, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

What exactly is "S/W" in this context? 68.39.174.238 03:01, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

I was wondering that, too. Perhaps "System Wide" failure ? One video that comes to mind is the crash of the V-22 Osprey: [14]. StuRat 08:00, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Software[15] --82.46.154.93 01:23, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Logging my activity

Hi there. Just wondering; is there any way of loggin my computer activity? That is, when logon, logoff, shutdown, and what files i use/delete? BTW, for windows. Thanks in advance. Cybesystem 16:28, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Well for starters there's the event viewer in windows. Right-click My Computer and select Manage. Open the event viewer from the items on the left --froth^T 20:02, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

You may need to turn on logging for some of the events first - open Local Security Policy in MMC (Start -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Local Policy) Then go into Local Policies -> Audit Policies, from there turn on what you need (you can set it to log all logons & privelege uses, or only failed ones (which are more likely to be someone up to no good)

Something to bear in mind is that if you set it up to log lots of different events, you should clear the logs fruently (you can save them first). Davidprior 21:14, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Also note that by default, Windows will only store 512K (½MB) of log infos, so if you have it logging so that several events are created within a short span of time, you could end up losing massive amount of information due to the size of your "viewing window". Also, be sure to customize your logging so you don't get infos that are useless to you. It can be next to impossible to get a good idea of what's going on when you're flooded with useless information (EG. TMI and TMI). 68.39.174.238 03:04, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Saving opened tabs

Are there any extensions I can use to save what tabs I have opened in Firefox 2.0? There used to be a software I use in 1.5 but it is not working anymore. Many Thanks. --Computor 18:04, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

This might not be helpful, but you can drag tabs to a bookmarks folder, then open them all up at once/open them at startup automatically. --Wooty Woot? contribs 18:20, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

I use the Session Saver extension for this purpose. howcheng {chat} 19:29, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Or switch to Opera (Internet suite)! Tab-saving seassions and mouse gestures are included off the bat. But I guess that's not what you're asking for. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 19:35, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Tab Mix Plus [16]--inks^T 22:11, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Firefox 2.0 does save your tabs... look in your Preferences/Options. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 22:32, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

You can also log off or shut off your computer without exiting FireFox first. That way, it thinks you went off by accident and will restore the tabs when you restart it. But having the tab savers would probably be easier. --Captain Wikify ^Argh! 23:33, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

You can also right-click one of the tabs and select "bookmark all tabs" --froth^T 01:14, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Or just click and hold on the tab and drag it to the space directly above it. It will leave a button that stays there until you right-click it and select delete. It might not work with your theme but it certainly does with the default and Pimpzilla themes. 161.222.160.8 02:51, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Gah, FF is opening blank tabs

when I try to go to [serebiiforums.com]. I get a download screen with "index.php" and it just keeps going and going. Removing the "index.php" file has no effect. Help? 67.169.56.188 22:28, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

What happens when you go there with another browser? And what do you mean by a "download screen"? Do you mean that it's just stuck on loading the page? It sounds like the site itself may be dead; I can't load it personally. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 23:24, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

The downloads window in Firefox. From tools>downloads. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 67.169.56.188 (talk) 23:44, 23 January 2007 (UTC).

Yeah, it's the site that's broken, not Fx. For some reason Fx sometimes shows the download prompt when it can't load PHP/ASP pages. Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 23:49, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

It could be a MIME type thing, which is decidedly server-side. It's working on Firefox 2.0.0.1 though. If you're using the latest version of Firefox, it could be either that the site is screwy or you have a screwy proxy or something in the way. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 23:56, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

It would be PHP not being correctly installed, which means that the php file is being treated as text and not php. Instead of the php file being run and made into a webpage, you are downloading the source code to the webpage. --h2g2bob 14:57, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

January 24

USB Antivirus protection

There's been a virus going around on the computers at my university which infects USB drives (amongst others I'm sure, but I'm only really concerned about my and my friends' USB drives). The file is called KOfcpfwSvcs.exe, and hides within autorun, which is in general, enabled on my campus. AVG can detect it, so I can clean my drive if it gets infected again, but how do I prevent it? Is there a USB drive resident antivirus that I can use or some sort of immunization for it so that I won't catch it from the computers, without having to go through the trouble of cleaning all the computers? Or making a legit autorun.exe and autorun.inf and make them read only? --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 02:45, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Well, one thing to do, of course, is to turn off autorun on your computer and every other computer you can manage to. Needless to say, autorun is a virus's best friend and an accident waiting to happen. —Steve Summit (talk) 02:58, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Autorun isn't on on my computer, but I don't have admin rights to the uni computers, and projects cause us to almost have to use USB drives to transfer. But is there a way to prevent the file from infecting my drive instead of just cleaning it each time I bring it home? The trojan in question is seen here, and I have been unable to locate it on McAfee's site to determine if their Stinger stand-alone virus scanner can clean it. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 03:03, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Does your dive have a write protection option? If not, I suggest as above, creating the autorun and KOfsfcspSvcs.exe[sic] file (As blanks), and SHRing them. It may help. Also, I don't know your institutions organization, but if there's virus going around on their computers they should definitely be doing something (Or having someone do something). Blindly letting known malicious code run on semipublic machines under your AEGIS is not only extremely poor but could lead to worse (Note, I'm referring to the people who should be dealing with this infection, not you who is trying to keep yourself safe and asked that question here). 68.39.174.238 03:09, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Google Earth topo maps

I'd like to be able to overlay topographic maps onto the google earth program. I've found a file of some kind but it's in a .kmz format. I'm not sure if this would work, but I really don't know much about overlaying data into google earth at all. Can anyone help? Xcfrommars 02:49, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

If you have a kmz file, it's likely someone has already done the overlaying work for you. kmz and kml files are the two main file types Google Earth supports. Try opening the kmz file in Google Earth (using the File/Open menu), and see what happens! —Steve Summit (talk) 03:01, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Ok, tried to open it with google earth and got errors, "Server returned error trying to load image", "Invalid LonLat coordinates", "Did not find a layer to process". I think I need to find a different file. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Xcfrommars (talk • contribs) 03:06, 24 January 2007 (UTC).

Nevermind, found something that seems to work: USGS map finder Xcfrommars 03:10, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

(ec) If you have an image file (gif or jpg), it's not too hard to overlay it onto Google Earth yourself. Zoom and pan around until you've got the Google Earth viewer centered on about the area your image covers. Then go to the "Add" menu and choose "Image overlay". You can either enter the URL of an image on the web, or choose a file on your computer's hard disk. Google Earth will display the image "on top" of the normal display. There's a transparency slider you can use to adjust the transparency of the overlayed image so that you can see the Google Earth imagery behind. Pick a few landmarks that you can see in both your overlay image and the Google Earth imagery. It works best if these landmarks are near the edges and corners of your image. The overlayed image has a number of "handles" which let you stretch, slide, and rotate the overlayed image with your mouse. With a little practice, you can learn to manipulate until it lines up perfectly with the Google Earth imagery (as long as the image you're overlaying is geographically accurate, that is). Have fun! —Steve Summit (talk) 03:18, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Outlook Macro to Send "Returned as Undeliverable" Message

Hey All,

I have this theory that some spammers (to save computer/network time) will remove an e-mail address from their spam list if it no longer exists.

On that front, I was hoping there was a vba macro out there that would do something like sending an EXACT SMTP "Returned as Undeliverable" message that a Microsoft Exchange server would send if the e-mail address no longer existed @ that domain. (preferably only when triggered by the user, and in response to the selected e-mail message.)

I've done some searching, but no dice.

Also - could this actually work? Any spammers out there? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by NByz (talk • contribs) 02:57, 24 January 2007 (UTC).

It's probably not worth it.

1. The spammers -- the most prolific ones, anyway -- manifestly do not care about computer or network time. Their whole modus operandi is to steal it, and they generally use botnets of hijacked computers to do it. If they have a few bad addresses in their lists -- even if they have 50% bad addresses in their lists -- it is not worth their while weeding them out.
2. There are so many different formats of "address not found" messages bouncing around out there that it would actually be rather tricky to parse them all reliably even if you wanted to. I doubt the spammers would have any interest in trying to solve this hard problem.

—Steve Summit (talk) 03:09, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

mailman is able to parse several different "address not found" formats (and, judging by the backscatter I receive, the most common formats are the standard RFC 3464 DSN and the NIH qmail bounce message). I believe most legitimate mailing list software should be able to parse most bounces and use them to prune the subscriber list. --cesarb 04:38, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Interesting idea, but I have no idea if VBScript would work with MSEx or what. 68.39.174.238 03:11, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

The problem with doing this is that it would require the spammers to use a valid e-mail address in their from: lines, which they do not. Even if you sent back a properly formatted "undeliverable" message, you would get an "undeliverable undeliverable" message back. Welcome to SPAM heaven, known as the Internet. Droud 03:37, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Keep in mind that many spammers use the same lists to create their to: and from: fields, basically cross-sending the SPAM. That means your plan could SPAM another person, not a decent thing to do. Droud 03:54, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Hear hear. Spammers send out mails that look like they come from my domain (howcheng.com) and since I have a catch-all email account I get all the "Undeliverable mail" bounces. It's really annoying. howcheng {chat} 18:54, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Those are a lot of good points. Ok... Idea number two: Replace the "undeliverable" message with one telling the spammers that they've won a "free boat"... NByz 20:24, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

The main point I was trying to make above is that you cannot send a message to the spammers, they do not provide a valid return path for responses, anything you send will usually end up going to another victim. In other words, sending any type of response back to the from: address in SPAM is not a good idea! Droud 23:57, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Droud's point is a good one, and worth repeating. Never set up automated bounce messages for spam: if you do, you are contributing to the spam problem. On some days, more than half of the spam I see is not original spam, but rather bounce messages to spam that was forged by spammers as if to have come from me. (What's worse, these bounce messages are trickier to filter, since I don't want to train my spam filters to reject bounce messages in general, because of course I still want to see bounce messages from messages I did send.) —Steve Summit (talk) 13:14, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Free voice-changing software

Hi, does anyone know any software to change your voice? I'm planning to record some old novels for my girlfriend, and I'd like to change my voice for the dialogues.

My requirements are:

• Should be free and light-weight
• Should work with pre-recorded files, and on selections (not necc. the whole file)
• Should be able to make lots of different voices
• Should have male-to-female voice conversion
• Should be easy to use (Easy to learn would be nice too, but isn't a requirement)
• Should support either Windows or x86 Linux —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Kjoonlee (talk • contribs) 03:42, 24 January 2007 (UTC).

Thank you. :) --Kjoonlee 03:38, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

I don't think what you seek exists due to the male-to-female conversion (which is a highly complex problem). Bolster those programming skills and start an OSS project to write it! On a more serious note, have you considered text to speech software instead of stalking reading stories yourself? If you're set on the creepy changed voices, try out funny voice. Droud 04:07, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

It could be done, using a voice recognition system, then feeding that output into a text to voice converter with the proper voice selected. However, you would get errors in both steps, making the output likely full of errors. StuRat 07:50, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

I just saw a commercial on Cartoon Network for some some new toy. Bionics, I think - wasn't paying attention. But, one of the toys in the commercial is a voice-changer that changes your voice into the voices of one of the many characters from the cartoon associated with the toys. Just thought I'd mention it because it is related to this question. Of note - the kid in the commercial selected different voices with the writband selector and they all sounded exactly the same to me. I haven't seen the cartoon. Perhaps all the characters in the cartoon sound exactly the same. --Kainaw ^(talk) 09:59, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

It probably just does some standard manipulation to your voice, like the pitch shift used to create "chipmunk voices". If the same effect was used on the actor's voice to create the cartoon character's voice, and if your voice is somewhat close to the actor's, you may end up with a result somewhat close to the cartoon character's. StuRat 22:05, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Well, the important thing is that my accent has to be still there in the final recording. (This will be a labour of love on my part, and I hope it helps my girlfriend get better at English.) If I were recording Alice in Wonderland, for example, I'd be using my own voice for everything Lewis Carroll says. I only want the Mad Hatter and the March Hare to sound different, and I don't want Alice to sound masculine. --Kjoonlee 13:50, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Can't you just shift the pitch of your voice yourself ? StuRat 22:07, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Or use Audacity to change it for you... and record it.... and add some other fancy effects and stuff... --antilived^{T | C | G} 05:03, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

A commercial product called AV Voice Changer looks excellent, but it is priced accordingly! (cleaned off-thread post) Droud 00:01, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Cd help

I was trying to burn a free game for one of my friends who has dial up. THe copy would not burn so: I tried to take out the cd. It doesn't open. any suggestions on how to get it out? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Shindo9Hikaru (talk • contribs) 04:23, 24 January 2007 (UTC).

Most CD drives have a small pinhole under the drive door. Get a paperclip, straigten it out and gently push it into that hole. That'll trigger the drive to open the door. Alternately, reboot your computer. When it's starting up, but before the main OS loads, press the Eject button and the drive should open. If that doesn't work, tell us more about what OS you're running and what kind of CD drive you've got. -- Kesh 04:50, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

If it's a Macintosh system, shut down and as soon as you turn it back on hold down the mouse button. Almost all Macintoshes will understand that as a command to eject all disks. 68.39.174.238 21:37, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

CD-ROM issues.

I had to insert a straightened paperclip into that small hole on my CD-ROM drive, because the disc would not eject. I replaced the disc and rebooted, but the machine doesn't recognise that there's a CD in the drive. It doesn't look like the drive is getting powered, because I can't eject the disc: I need to use a paperclip every time. There's a dull whirring noise coming from the drive that wasn't there before, though. This is an especially significant problem for me because I don't have a hard-drive: I use only Linux LiveCDs. I can't open the case to check because it's covered with a bizarre sort of triangular proprietary screw (the indentation is triangular, not the entire screw). I'd appreciate anyone's advice on either of these problems. Thanks.

(Note: I'm not the same guy from the question above, it's just coincidental.)202.10.86.63 07:59, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

What type of computer do u have, as different computers use different ways to fix this problem? --|K.Z|Z.K| Do not vandalize... 08:27, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

You'll probably need to replace your CD-Drive. It's fairly easy, and CD drives are fairly cheap (DVD-RWs are down to about £20 now), but obviously you need to get into the case. The case screws are a problem. Try reading this post on a forum. --h2g2bob 14:49, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Well, your drive is getting power if it will open and close the tray. Sounds like it's gone bad, or the disc has. Try another disc and if that doesn't work either, it's a bum drive. As to the screw, it sounds like you need a Torx or Hex key wrench. -- Kesh 01:16, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Image editing software

I have a picture that I'd like to try to upload, but I'd like to crop it first. However, the only image-editing software I have is Paint, which will make the picture into a Paint file. Can anyone recommend some image-editing software that is:

1. Free
2. Downloadable
3. Relatively small (I don't want to download more than I have to)
4. Fairly simple (All I want to do is crop, and I don't want to have to read a huge readme to find out how)
5. Will leave the picture in a file format that can be uploaded to commons.

Thanks very much for any help :-) Skittle 10:40, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

I'll assume you mean Windows Paint (because Mac/Linux/etc users usually start their questions "I have a Mac and..." :-) In Paint, select "File -> Save As...", there is a dropdown menu of file types. Weregerbil 11:09, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, I'll have a go. I assumed Paint, being MSPaint, only came on Windows :-) Shows my ignorance. Skittle 11:27, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Argh! I hate Paint. Is there a way to crop a big picture from the left effectively? Cropping from the right I can do, but I assume I have to select the image I want to keep if I want to crop from the left. However, the image I want doesn't fit on the screen and there's no 'zoom out' option. Skittle 11:33, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Crop the right and bottom sides, rotate by 180 degrees, crop the left and top sides (that are shown to the right and bottom respectively), rotate by 180 degrees... TERdON 18:06, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

I can crop it appropriately in Word, but then I can't save it as an image file. And when I try to copy-paste back to paint it all goes horribly wrong. Does anyone know either how to crop this properly in Paint, or where I can get some software as described above? Skittle 12:05, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

For a Paint quickie: click the rectangle tool, select the area you want, drag the area with the mouse to top left, then resize the image area by dragging the bottom right corner. The trick is to guess that you can drag a selected area. Or after selecting the area copy&paste it to a new document. For other programs there is List of raster graphics editors and Comparison of raster graphics editors, can't say which ones are good though. Weregerbil 12:28, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

The problem with that is that I can't select all of the image I want, because it doesn't fit on the screen. Oh wait, sudden thought, I can move it in pieces if I'm very careful... I may be back sobbing in a moment... Skittle 12:32, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Okay, moving it in pieces seems to have worked. I've lost a few slices of image a few pixels tall, but it's not noticable. Thanks for the ideas people! Skittle 12:46, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

There used to be a great program for this from Microsoft called PhotoEd. I believe it was a hidden program on an old version of Office. Does the program still exist? Can you get it? I don't know because I haven't had a Windows machine since 1998 and I use Gimp for all my graphics needs. --Kainaw ^(talk) 13:07, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

If you still want a decent free image editor, give Paint.NET a shot. Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 13:42, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO..... Don't use an image editing program to crop files, unless you're cropping lossless bitmap images. Use jpegcrop instead. --Kjoonlee 13:54, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

How to use jpegcrop:

1. Run jpegcrop
2. Open JPG file
3. Select portion of image by dragging
   • Drag edges of selection to fine-tune results
     • Clicking on the "Block Grid" toolbar button helps
4. Right-click selection, Save Frame As

--Kjoonlee 14:01, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

For image cropping and other rudimentary operations, you don't need (and sometimes don't even want) a full-blown image-manipulation program. In particular, many image-viewing programs will not only let you crop, shrink, and rotate the image being viewed, they'll also let you save the modified version. Two such viewers I'm familiar with that can do this are xv for Linux, and the built-in Preview application under Mac OS X. (Sorry, can't help you with Windows, but I'm sure there are plenty of image viewers there that can do this sort of thing as well.) —Steve Summit (talk) 13:56, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Low tech solution: You can use the grey square at the far bottom right to crop the picture from bottom and right. Then use tools, flip or (tools, rotate) to flip (or rotate) the image so the top-left corner of the image is in the bottom-right corner of the screen. Then crop the bottom-right again. Finally, use the same tools, whatever as before to flip (or rotate) the image the right way up again. Harder to explain than do, honest! --h2g2bob 14:24, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

You should check out GIMP for Windows, GIMP is an open source PhotoShop like image editor for linux, and windows now too :D Aetherfukz 16:13, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Use the program Irfanview . It is very simple, and user friendly. --Codell ^{[ Talk]} 03:11, 2 February 2007 (UTC) Thanks everyone! In the end I used jpegcrop, but I shall remember the other tips (particularly flipping the overall image in Paint) for other occasions. Thanks again! Skittle 16:25, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

GNU sort is slow.

It takes GNU sort (from coreutils) about 0.8 seconds to sort 50,000 (relatively short, under 20 characters) lines. Is this inefficient? Fifty thousand doesn't seem like that many. (If I duplicate the contents and have it sort five million items, it takes 2 minutes 15 seconds.) grendel|khan 14:38, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Not sure what fancy shmancy algorithm they use but sorts are computationally expensive. IIRC a bubble sort takes at least n squared loops where n is the number of items --froth^T 17:22, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

I believe that GNU sort uses some optimizations that, when presented with a certain type of data set. You might want to consult the full documentation for it to be certain (eg, the INFO docs.) --Mdwyer 22:50, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Try setting the environment variable LANG to C, with the line

export LANG=C

These days, a number of the GNU core utilities use, by default, your native internationalized locale, which valiantly tries to do all sorts of culturally appropriate, but vastly more computationally expensive, Unicodey conversions and comparisons. Setting LANG to C forces it to use the old, unsophisticated, fast, native charset operations. I've had the slowness problem most acutely with the grep family of utilities, but it's perfectly imaginable that sort is similarly afflicted. —Steve Summit (talk) 05:13, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

That said, 0.8 seconds is pretty fast for 50000 entries. Sorting is computationally expensive (unless you're sorting numbers, in which case it's quite fast at O(n)), even optimized quicksort (which is what I assume they are using) takes O(n log n). Oskar 09:26, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Well, once upon a time, 0.8 seconds might have been "pretty fast", but today it's dog-slow. Me, I'd expect something more like grendelkhan's second result, and in fact, on my computer I can confirm it exactly:

head -50000 /usr/dict/words | shuffle | time sort > /dev/null

0.26 real 0.08 user 0.01 sys

—Steve Summit (talk) 01:56, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Aha! It was the LANG settings. After setting LANG=C (it was en_US.UTF-8), it sorts those 50000 strings in 0.08 seconds. Spiffy! grendel|khan 15:20, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Of course, this solution is only helpful if you actually are sorting content that's using the traditional one byte per character. If there might really be UTF-8 in there, which is an increasingly likely possibility these days, and you want it to sort correctly, you're stuck with the slow sort. --Anonymous, January 26, 2007, 01:00 (UTC).

Good point, although of course this depends on your definition of "sort correctly". If you want è, é, é, and ë to sort anywhere near e, and not between ç and ì, then yes, you've little choice but to use the slower, localeized sort. But if you want to sort by Unicode code point, it turns out that a naïve byte-oriented sort on UTF-8 gets you that. (I suppose I should cite a source for this. The Unicode Standard 5.0, §2.5, p. 35: "A binary sort of UTF-8 strings gives the same ordering as a binary sort of Unicode code points.") —Steve Summit (talk) 02:06, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Printing files with php

Hi, i'm using a php class that sends to a printer, a given file or string. I'd like to print what would be the output of another php script (ie a script connecting to a MySQL db that displays tables using html for formatting and printer friendliness).
When you enter the php script file name, the script code is printed rather than the html output it should create.

Can anyone suggest any methods i can follow? Cheers, Anth

You would either need another Program that reads a file your PHP script generated (probably a plaintext file) and prints it out. Or you could control your printer itself with PHP Printer functions. Aetherfukz 16:17, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

System 360 Operator

I want to know what is System 360 Operator. Please explain it with examples and pictures. Thanks Tariq Mehmood possible phone # removed —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 203.81.192.67 (talk) 16:50, 24 January 2007 (UTC). email removed

Probably a person who operated an IBM System/360. Perhaps you meant "System/360 operator panel"? You can use Google image search to find plenty of pictures of that. -- mattb @ 2007-01-24T18:15Z

Large article transwiki

I'm attempting to transwiki Weapons in Dead Rising and Weapons and items from The Legend of Zelda series to Strategywiki before they are deleted. But when I attempt to import them at strategywiki, it says they are too large. I'm a sysop there obviously, and I use export here (with history, to satisfy GNUFDL), save the file, then import there and get that error. Is it a setting I'll have to get the owner of SW to change? Are all edits necessary for GNUFDL? Is there another way around this? I'd appreciate any help possible.

Weapons in Dead Rising —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Mason11987 (talk • contribs) 17:15, 24 January 2007 (UTC).

Yes you're required to provide access to the history. A lot of mirrors just link to the wp article and say "look here for the original history" --froth^T 19:20, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

If you have access to the server, it may be a problem in php.ini which restricts uploading of large files. Edit php.ini and change the maximum upload size value (can't remember official name but the file should be well commented) and it will probably work. If you don't have access to the server, contact the server admins (that may well be one of the bureaucrats). --h2g2bob 22:48, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

I STRONGLY suggest that you save a copy of these articles yourself right away because these damn deletionests delete these aritlces very fast and without warning. Thats how i got my fav articles deleted; I've been working on them for so long. I was gonna transwiki it or make a wiki myself but I was too late and the next time i checked it was too late and they alradly deleted them. 12 pieces of valueable work we have been working on suddenly lost :( --Taida 02:58, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

That suddenly? Unless they were speedied (and in that case there is at least partial responsibility for the creator to read the CSD), they would have sat on AFD for at least 3-4 days.--inks^T 05:53, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

In any case if you want the text of a deleted article, if it isn't anything objectionable you can just ask an admin. They can view deleted articles. --24.147.86.187 15:12, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Not only that, we can also temporarily undelete them and move to a subpage of your user page for you to save a copy (this would be the ideal way if you want to use Special:Export on them). The place to request that is at WP:DRV. --cesarb 18:03, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

I have a copy of both articles, it must be an upload size limit, I know the server admin, I'll let him know, thanks. Chris M. 15:19, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Floating point versus PCM data in Uncompressed Audio

What are the differences in these two methods of storing uncompressed audio? Are there advantages to either method (or any other), particularly in quality? Thanks. Someoneinmyheadbutit'snotme 23:30, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm guessing this is homework (see the top of the page), so I'll just link to floating point and PCM, and ask you to think about the pixelation-type effects at low amplitudes. If this isn't homework, feel free to leave a shocked post at my slander :D --h2g2bob 22:42, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

I am shocked. No, seriously, this is for personal interest. I've been recording recently and am a bit of an audiophile. Someoneinmyheadbutit'snotme 20:15, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Computer audio typically uses a 16 bit sample (65,000 possible values) and max 24 bit samples (16.7 million possible values), whereas floating point values are stored in 32 bits (4 billion possible values). The human ear can just barely discern the difference between 16 and 24 bit, so floating point is not particularly beneficial, and takes more storage space for the same audio. If you're looking for high quality recordings, sampling frequency is vastly more important than the format of each sample (once you get to 16 bit samples, that is!). Droud 00:15, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Well, I'm aware of all that, but Audacity gives the option of both 32-bit floating point and 32-bit PCM, which begs my question. Someoneinmyheadbutit'snotme 02:20, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

If you're going to store raw audio, 16 bit fixed-point PCM should be more than enough if the audio has been downsampled and/or dithered properly.

If you're going to do post-processing later on, do use 24bit fixed-point PCM, 24bit floating-point PCM, or something better. --Kjoonlee 13:43, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Oh, and also, please consider using lossless audio compression to save space. I personally recommend FLAC and WavPack. --Kjoonlee 13:43, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

People can't hear the difference between 24 bit and 32 bit, so it's just a matter of how much space you want to waste. FLAC is an excellent way to save about half the space a raw PCM file consumes, but is slower to use due to the compression and decompression steps. Most sampling hardware (sound cards) can't actually record better than 24 bits, while CDs (16 bit) and DVDs (24 bit) don't store better, so storing that sound as 32 bit PCM would be useless. Droud 13:59, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

I disagree with Droud about sampling rate. 44.1 kHz should be more than enough fidelity for end-results. Also, 24bit floating-point PCM would be the same size as 24bit fixed-point PCM. --Kjoonlee 13:48, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

24 bit is 16.7M possible values whichever way you look at it, encoding to floating point just slows down processing since floating point values are scaled (the value is stored as a number and an exponent, not a straight number). As far as 44.1kHz being an ample sampling frequency - people hear frequencies, not samples. A higher sampling rate more accurately describes frequencies than does a higher sample accuracy. In any case, anything over 16 bit, 44.1kHz is overkill, unless you're an audiophile like the questioner. Droud 13:59, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Regarding sampling rate, see Hearing (sense)#Hearing in humans and Nyquist rate and you'll see why 44.1 kHz is considered sufficient for the human range of audio perception (the reason 44.1 kHz was chosen exactly is a little more complicated, but not worth getting into here). There are some folks who believe that interference and harmonics of higher frequencies that we cannot directly perceive can produce audible results once rendered back into sound, but I've never seen a particularly credible study or quantification of this. -- mattb @ 2007-01-26T14:09Z

Please accept my apologies Someoneinmyheadbutit'snotme, there are quite a few homework questions get submitted and I was in a bad mood :( I doubt there's much I can add to the above - there's not much advantage to using floating point to be honest --h2g2bob 15:58, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

All right, I already know all of these things. All I'm asking is: Is there a difference between 32-bit floating point audio and 32-bit PCM audio at the same sampling rate? Someoneinmyheadbutit'snotme 20:12, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Floating point audio is slower to mix, transform, and play than its integer (PCM) counterpart due to differences in how floating point and integer calculations are performed on a microprocessor. If you're using hardware instead of software, it really doesn't matter at all, except that PCM enjoys much wider support than floating point. Droud 03:19, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. Someoneinmyheadbutit'snotme 18:15, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

e-mail downloads using outlook express

I transferred from my i.s.p.(claranet) to broadband with talktalk. I contacted claranet regarding the transfer and they inquired if i would like to keep my old e-mail address whilst i still had a few months to run with claranet, i seemed quite happy with the setup but just recently i struggle to receive many e-mails from talktalk awindow appears that an error has occurred whilst downloading e-mails from claranet, this appears to block my e-mails from talktalk. is there a way i can romove the claranet download or will i have to contact claranet to finally disconnect me from theresite —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Grampus4 (talk • contribs) 20:16, 24 January 2007 (UTC).

Are you using a webmail interface? Outlook? Outlook Express? Eudora? Checked your POP settings, access, and passwords? It would be much easier and faster (IMHO) for you to call your ISPs tech support line.--inks^T 21:35, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Grampus4 says he/she's using Outlook express in the title. I have no idea about Outlook, as I've never used it. To edit the accounts you have listed, look for an item called "Accounts", probably in the tools menu. I'd suggest checking the help files (really, they do contain some help). Also, can you post the actual error message you get, as this will help people see what's wrong? --h2g2bob 22:24, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Ah yes, so s/he does, my bad. :) Having re-read that a few times, it sounds like there may be 2 OE accounts, one of which is failing to authenticate/connect/'work' for some reason. But I'm sure that if the settings for a particular account are correct, it should work regardless of what happens with other accounts.--inks^T 23:23, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Excel

In using Excel for spreadsheets I have forgotten how to total a column or row--JmHoran 21:41, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

In the cell you want the total to appear in type "=SUM(A1:A7)" without quotes, and substitute A1:A7 for the range of cells that you want to add.--inks^T 22:05, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Or go to the empty cell below or to the right of the line you want to total and click the sigma symbol to the top right of the standard toolbar. Anchoress 22:47, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

January 25

seeking a service to provide low-/no-cost occasional dial-up access from Germany

Hello, I am looking for a recommendation by an experienced user, for a site that might offer free dialup service for German users, the way "Free UK" does, in England. Access to dial-up through local numbers is a service which can be extremely useful for people traveling. It doesn't have to be strictly free, but just a low- or no-cost occasional-use service for access to the web, via a phone line. Can anyone assist me? Thank you.

205.155.65.226 21:56, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

browsing history

Is there a way to delete the browsing history on wikipedia from my computer? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.15.67.23 (talk) 00:58, 25 January 2007 (UTC).

If you're using Internet Explorer 6, go to Tools->Internet Options. Click the General tab, and click the Delete Files button and Delete Cookies button. If no one tackles Firefox by the time I get off work, I'll explain that one too. -- Kesh 01:24, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

In Firefox, Tools > Clear Private Data > tick all that apply (probably just Browsing History, Cache and Cookies) > Clear Private Data Now. -- Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 01:28, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

In Safari, pull down the History menu and choose "Clear History". Dismas|^(talk) 06:40, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

If u just want to delete some of the history, for firefox, Hold ctrl+h and delete the ones u don't want. do same for IE --|K.Z|Z.K| Do not vandalize... 07:01, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

If you connect through a proxy server - for example if your internet connection is throught your school or university - then they may keep a record of your activity. Also, the website you connect to will log who connected to it by storing your IP address. There's no way to delete either of them. --h2g2bob 15:52, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Linux installation.

Is it possible to install a Linux distribution on my computer then download the wine emulation program and still run all of my old windows programs without backing them up.

Also if I install Linux will it format my harddrive and how do I save Windows Xp to a disk so I can reinstall it just incase.

Oh and I have never used Linux before, what are the system requirments and would I need to download drivers. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 67.67.217.21 (talk) 01:05, 25 January 2007 (UTC).

1) Not necessarily all of them. See WINE.

2) If you don't have a Windows installation disc, you don't. Don't tell me you pirated a copy! ;) That said, most modern Linux installers will create a seperate partition, so you can keep Windows and Linux both on the drive.

3) It varies from distribution to distribution. See List of Linux distributions to see how many you have to choose from. Some can run on old 386 boxes, others need a modern machine to run well. It depends on your needs. -- Kesh 01:26, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

1) In most cases you will find better alternatives that run natively. But yeah, wine doesn't run every single programme for Windows.

2) Dual booting is simple and most dists will do it on installation.

3) Generally, no. If everything doesn't work out of the box it is considerably harder to try and fix it. The only driver I need to install on my Ubuntu is the NVIDIA graphics card driver to enable 3D acceleration, and I think they are going to include that and the Radeon driver in the next release, Feisty, so basically no seperate driver needed in the near future, as most things come built in. --antilived^{T | C | G} 04:55, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

1. WINE doesn't work very well at all, but there are free alternatives to most things. Use a LiveCD (which doesn't touch your hard drive) and mess around with the programs on it. Most of those programs can also be used on Windows.

2. If you repartition your hard drive, it will wipe everything from it, so I'd suggest buying a cheap new hard drive and install Linux on that without touching your Windows drive.

3. Minimum requirements depends on what you're doing. There are some distributions which allow for really low specs, but for the main distros it'll work fine on a computer a few years old.

--h2g2bob 15:48, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

1. Actually, WINE has worked fine for me for nearly every program I've used with it, (GrabIt, QuickPar, and a few others), check here at the AppDB to see if what you'd need has an entry.

2. You can repartition and still keep your data with the free GPartEd, as well as other tools, although it is still easier to give Linux its own HDD, that may not be an option. Be aware, though I and many others have used GPartEd many times with no issue, I would still backup anything really important to you, as theres always the small chance of something going wrong, or a brownout, etc.

Cyraan 17:52, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Actually, gparted is not the safest way to repartition. I suggest using ntfsresize from ntfsprogs.--68.250.41.99 00:08, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

gparted uses ntfsresize. And I'd say that it would be extremely dangerous to sit a newbie down with ntfsresize and let him mess with the partition tables. --froth^T 04:37, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

gparted is a script which may or may not work. From experience, I've had it adjust the superblock on /dev/sda<partnumber> and then try to write the partition table to /dev/hda - which broke things rather nicely.--Frenchman113 on wheels! 16:15, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

I have a blogging question.

After I post my blog, it takes me to a screen that shows all previous posts and how many comments I have received, etc. It also has a column called "AggView." I was wondering if anyone knew what that ment. Thanks! --Zach 04:01, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Aggregate view! It probably aggregates your entries up, possibly with comments. X [Mac Davis] (How's my driving?) 04:31, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

I am not too sure about that, One day it can say 20, the next it says 0. Thanks for your help! Any other ideas? --Zach 03:15, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

What blog are you using? -- Kesh 03:46, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Its actually a website SteepleMedia.com (Community Server 2.0) --Zach 11:23, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

MAC Question

I have MAC OS X v10.4 (Tiger) and was wondering how to get v10.4.3

Is it available on a free download, as all the shops round here say they don't sell it.

Sorry, disregard the question, I just found out I have v10.4.6

CCLemon-ここは寒いぜ！ 09:43, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Genearlly, all the sub-sub version numbers (The "Y" in 10.X.Z) denote the Apple version of Windows Service Packs and can be downloaded from Apple's website or obtained via the "Software Update" program. 68.39.174.238 21:43, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Speaking of Software Update, I suggest you run it. The latest version is 10.4.8 (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304200), and 10.4.9 may be out soon (http://www.macrumors.com/2007/01/17/apple-seeds-another-mac-os-x-10-4-9-8p2120/). 68.39.174.238 21:46, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Origins of Mobile Banking

I am currently doing some research and am struggling to find out which bank and in which year launched the first mobile banking solution. I am specifically looking to find out who launched the first sms banking solution but would also be interested in the first wap solution. Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Y. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 195.137.116.229 (talk) 10:11, 25 January 2007 (UTC).

Which country? Worldwide? And you might have to define "sms banking solution" a bit better. Is checking balances via SMS sufficient to qualify? Or transferring funds between your own accounts? Or transferring funds to someone else's accounts?--inks^T 10:31, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Worldwide - checking balances and by using SMS should be fine. Thanks Y.

GPG passphrase cracker.

I found one of my old GPG keys, and I'd like to use it. Alas, I seem to have forgotten my passphrase. I have a quick-and-dirty Perl script executing gpg a bazillion times with each possible passphrase, but it's pretty inefficient, and won't finish in a reasonable amount of time. Is there a key-cracking utility somewhere out there which has a faster inner loop than that? grendel|khan 15:11, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

The entire point of encryption is to keep people from cracking the codes. Especially if you used a fairly strong encryption scheme. I'm afraid you're stuck either brute-forcing for a long time, or seeing if perhaps you stored your passphrase somewhere else. -- Kesh 23:50, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

You can speed up the search by optimizing it for your typical length, characters, etc. Most brute force scripts start at 1 character long passwords and work their way up, using all the special characters and numbers as well as capitalization variation to try every possible combination. This is inefficient since most people are not that wary of weak passwords, so you might try some simple optimizations to reduce the crack time. By the way, the technology behind even old versions of GPG is still considered to be very secure, so you're stuck with brute forcing it. Droud 00:23, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Try john, it's probably more optimized than your "quick 'n' dirty" script --froth^T 18:27, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Also, do you remember ANY part of your phrase? Even how long it was or one character that was included in it? Anything could be used to optimize the search. 68.39.174.238 21:47, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, everyone. I remembered the basic layout of the password, and iterated over a large set of variations on that, which eventually extracted it. Close call, though. Phew! grendel|khan 00:41, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Preloading an image for a div background in javascript

Hello. I'm making a page where a mouseover changes the background of a DIV using a simple Javascript function. Simple stuff, except I can't figure out how to get it to preload the image before it tries to replace it. As it currently stands it will change the image, but first the DIV background goes blank for a second while the browser downloads the new one. I'd rather it just keep with the old one until it has fully loaded the new one, and then switch. Here is my current code, which I thought would accomplish this, but apparently not. Suggestions?

function changeimage(id,imagepath) {
	newimage = new Image();
	newimage.src = imagepath;
	document.getElementById(id).style.backgroundImage='url('+imagepath+')';
}

I thought that by loading it in the Image first it would pre-load it, but it doesn't seem to work. Perhaps I need to assign it to the element differently? I'm not sure. Any tips would be appreciated. (Actually, now that I check, the elements in question are not DIVs, strictly speaking, but LI, but that shouldn't make a difference?) --24.147.86.187 15:57, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

NOTE: I tried putting the preloading in at the top of the script (outside of the function) and it works OK when it is there. But I would like to be able to selectively pre-load, ideally, so I wouldn't have to preload all rollover images before use. If that makes sense. --24.147.86.187 16:05, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

The image will be loaded when you make the new Image with the src attribute. Some browsers will cache an image while others will discard it as soon as you leave the function it was created in, because it is a local variable. As with all javascript stuff, make sure there's a noscript tag about for people who don't have javascript enabled (like me!). Also think of implementing rollover effects using css rather than javascript. --h2g2bob 18:20, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

I think what I'll end up doing is preloading in Javascript (which works ok) but changing the image itself with a :hover attribute. --24.147.86.187 00:38, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Actually, what I ended up doing is loading the preloading script after the page has displayed (by using a setTimeOut with half a second or so as the interval), which works quite nice. The page loads up very quickly, but immediately after doing so it begins to precache some of the rollover images. By the time the prospective visitor starts to roll over something it should have already loaded. --24.147.86.187 00:51, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

I think what is happening is that the browser is preloading the image at the same time you are changing the background image. I believe the browser does not wait when you set newimage.src (if it waited, it would cause an obvious pause when loading the page when you preloaded at the top of the script); thus, when it gets to the next line (setting the background image), the image hasn't been downloaded yet. --cesarb 20:42, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

I think this is partially correct. When you preload the image at the top of the page it definitely waits until it is preloaded (it takes a second longer for the page to even start to render). However when I call it in the function itself it seems to try and start loading before it assigns it -- not quite quick enough. I'm not sure there's an easy way around it. I could probably simulate the effect I want by actually having two DIVs, one under the other, and just never getting rid of the original (bottom) one, but I don't know if that will look right... --24.147.86.187 00:38, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

If it's not an actual tiled image (or is only so in one dimension) you might consider using a single image with both pictures in it and setting the "background-position" attr to shift the different parts into view.

Isolating a segment of a LAN

Is it possible to use a second router to isolate a part of a LAN (TCP/IP)? I'm attempting to set up a combination wired/wireless network such that wireless connections to not have access to the wired connections, but the whole network has access to the internet. Right now the entire network is through a broadband router. I have a second router available. Can I do what I'm attempting to do? If so, how? Thanks in advance for any help. –RHolton≡– 17:03, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Dunno about using a 2nd hardware router, but if you've a PC with 3 network interfaces, you could use Linux with Iptables to route between eth0 and eth2 & between eth1 and eth2, but not between eth0 and eth1 (where eth2 is the WAN/broadband router and eth0/eth1 are the wired & wireless networks). You could probably do the same on other OSes too. Davidprior 19:52, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

If you're using a WRT54G, you can turn on "AP Isolation" under Wireless--Advanced Wireless Settings, which prevents wireless clients from talking to each other, and may or may not prevent them from talking to wired clients. Also, if you use the second router for the wired clients, and manually configure it to use the wireless router as its primary gateway, you'll be able to connect to the internet or whatever from the wired clients, but you can leave out routing information for the wireless router, so that you've effectively hidden the wired network behind a NAT layer. grendel|khan 21:34, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

If you have two routers (one wired one wired/wireless) and one gateway (your cable modem) and no other fancy way of achieving it, then simply plug the wireless router into the cable modem, the wired router into one of the wired ports on the wireless, and turn them all on. The wired router will protect its clients from any incoming traffic, but they will both still share your internet access. --66.195.232.121 22:32, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

My homenetwork is isolated in 3 parts. I'm a cheap bastard :) so i did this by buying a old pentium and 3 ethernetcards for almost free. If you install openBSD or a security-targeted linux distribution on it you can make a very secure firewall/router from it (or you can just use your 2nd router if you already have it (don't expect much security from routers made for home-users)). When you want multiple parts in your LAN, you will want to use subnet's. Just see that they don't overlap. I'm guessing you don't need more then 254 ip's in 1 subnet so it's easiest if you number your subnets like this: 192.168.0.0/24, 192.168.1.0/24, 192.168.2.0/24, ... /24 is the netmask, this is the same as 255.255.255.0. I don't visit this page often, so post something on my userpage if you need more info Garo 10:12, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, all, for the feedback. I ended up plugging the wireless router into the cable modem, set up as a DHCP server for addresses 192.168.1.*. I then plugged the other (non-wireless) router into the first router, with a fixed address of 192.167.1.10 and as a DHCP server for 10.0.0.*. I created a static route on the first router for the second router. Everything seems to work, though I didn't realize that NAT would cascade that way. From just basic tests, it appears that I cannot access nodes on the wired router from a node on the wireless--which is exactly what I was hoping for. Anyone know what sort of security holes might be present? -–RHolton≡– 20:26, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

wikipedia or social networking research subjects

I'm trying to think of some worthy topics to research under those areas. This will be quite the project. Can anyone suggest ideas? Thanks.

132.239.90.231 19:54, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

An Econ prof. of mine is doing his PHD on online markets (how efficient they are, and ways of predicting pricing trends etc.), but I can't find anything he's published online. You may also want to check out wwww.wikinomics.com. The site doesn't have much content, but the book looks interesting. It also looks like it could be just some guy trying to milk a social trend w/o any real insight.

I tend to be a "Markets" guy so I find it interesting to see WHEN different ones were acquired, and for how much (and $ per member, $ per member-hour spent online per month etc.). You can predict the peak of their popularity when that last figure stops increasing.

NByz 20:33, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

This for sociology? Any subject? Inherent differences between wiki and meatspace communication and how they underlie all/only parts that meet [Find out and describe a certain rule] rule would be useful. Suggest asking this on Humanities. 68.39.174.238 21:54, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Dell Inspiron 5100 "Tap to Click" on the Touchpad

I've been struggling with this on and off for a while. My Dell Inspiron 5100 Laptop(Running windows XP Home) keeps enabling the "tap to click" function for the mouse touchpad on its' own. Sometimes within 10-20 minutes of disabling it in the mouse section of the control panel.

The problem tends to happen in bunches (today, for example, it has happened 3 times, and a couple yesterday, but not at all in the prior week or two. It has happened in bunches every couple of months since I've had this laptop (maybe 2-3 years)

Anyone had similar problems on similar Dell laptops?

NByz 21:09, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Have you gone to Dell's website and downloaded the latest Synaptics touchpad software? [17]. If that doesn't work, Synaptics's site has a newer, generic version, though it's not guaranteed to work as well as the Dell-supplied one. [18]. Also, might there be some odd key combination that you're pressing to activate it? -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 21:30, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

January 26

Erase harddrive...?

--inks^T 23:57, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

I have a harddrive from which I recovered all readable data aftr a crash in raw format and saved to another harddrive. Now I want to completely erase everything on the hardrive and/or write zeros to every location so as to be sure no security breach will occur. How can this be done? -- 71.100.10.48 21:23, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

If you can still access the drive from a computer, you might want to use Darik's Boot and Nuke. Otherwise, open it, run a strong magnet over the platter a few times, and smash it with a hammer? -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 21:27, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Do I have to disconnect all other drives before running the program and will this overwrite deleted partition and volume info as well? -- 71.100.10.48 22:29, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Doesn't say specifically on the site, but it does say "DBAN will automatically and completely delete the contents of any hard disk that it can detect...", so probably best to disconnect the drives you don't want touched. Cyraan 22:43, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

I think the README.txt says that it has both an "autonuke" feature, which does do that, and an editable config file. It's easier and safer to just disconnect the other drives. Always read the readme on anything you run :P -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 22:52, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

The partition information is stored on the hard disk... So, yes it will overwrite partition info. You could use dd... --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 23:10, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

One word: Thermite.--inks^T 22:04, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Physical destruction is the absolute best way. Thermite it, microwave it, sledge hammer it, throw it off a speedboat, something like that. X [Mac Davis] (How's my driving?) 23:37, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Yep, physical destruction is probably the only way to guarantee data erasure. Grinding it into dust and blowing that dust through highly ionized superheated plasma is probably the best way to wipe those magnetic fields --froth^T 18:29, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

That may not be practical. DBAN and wipe are good if you're only up against minor/medium players. If you're afraid of say, the NSA, you'll have to really whack it. Remember, the platters and their coating is what really needs to be gotten. 68.39.174.238 21:57, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

If you overwrite a hard disk with zeroes once, the data is beyond the practical reach of the NSA. Anything beyond that is simply additional paranoia. -- mattb @ 2007-01-26T23:07Z

That's what they want you to think. :D --inks^T 23:57, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm not totally convinced, however if you have the time (EG. you can get it running and then just let it for go for a few days), just set it up to screw the drive and then take it apart and give it to a local gradeschool for their intro to computers class. 68.39.174.238 23:04, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Not with sector remapping. Some data might be left over in older partially defective sectors. --cesarb 01:38, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

True, but I'd call this a nearly trivial case as it wouldn't preserve significant contiguous blocks of data. However, you're right, physical destruction is the end-all to getting rid of the data. -- mattb @ 2007-01-28T22:15Z

Computer keyboard as an instrument

Are any programs devoted to taking input from every key on the keyboard and converting it to a musical note? X [Mac Davis] (How's my driving?) 23:38, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Well, do you mean converting it randomly, or what? There are definitely programs that will treat computer keyboards as analogs to piano keyboards, if that is what you are asking. Most rudimentary synthesizer programs have things of that nature (i.e. Cakewalk Pro does, I know). --24.147.86.187 00:28, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

An old DOS program that came with Creative Soundblaster card drivers did this with MIDI. Virtual MIDI Keyboard does this. You are typically limited by the keyboard electronics only sending 2 or 3 keys at once, so it's not for a maestro. Droud 00:31, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Garageband for Macs can do this for free (if you have a mac). After you record it you can edit it, add more instruments and export it.— Preceding unsigned comment added by Rgrasell (talk • contribs) 02:13, January 26, 2007 (UTC)

I was hoping some application could use more than two or three keys. Garageband only uses 2-3 as well. I want a masestro program!! :) X [Mαc Δαvιs] (How's my driving?) ❖ 11:45, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

The problem isn't the program, it's the keyboard. Most keyboards can't register more than two-three key presses at once on account of their wiring. It's a strict hardware limitation. Now if you got a really high-end keyboard then it wouldn't matter much, I don't think. But if you are willing to do that you might as well just get a cheap piano MIDI controller, as they are probably cheaper than that (circa $50 or so). --24.147.86.187 13:47, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Yep, key jamming is the problem. --Kjoonlee 13:51, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

I don't think it's a hardware limitation so much as it's a limitation of old keyboard protocols. Last semester in my digital design class we had a lab where we had to process raw keyboard input and there was something about only certain scancodes being resolvable when multiple scancodes were sent --froth^T 04:34, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

It is a hardware limitation, and it doesn't occur with some ancient keyboards. Keyboard Matrix Help has some info on masking and ghosting which can also be a problem. --Kjoonlee 06:42, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Tracker software has done exactly this for ages. As long as only inputting normal chords (at most 3-4 keys at once) it usually works just fine. TERdON 14:13, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

IT Communication

Would like a document on the above subject

Wikipedia Reference Desk is not there for us to do your homework. Also if you really would like an answer you could at least try to form a legitimate question. Aetherfukz 14:05, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Memory card hub

Hi there. I've got over 2.5 gigabytes in memory cards, but wherever I go, it seems I can't use them. They only go on my laptop. I'm aware that there are plenty of USB-to-memory card adapters, but I'm finding it difficult to find just the right one. Could you point me to a hub that will take SD cards, Memory Sticks (doesn't matter if Duo is included, I have an adapter), and some other common memory card, in case I ever buy it? Thanks so much.--the ninth bright shiner ^talk 16:40, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Take your pick, these all at least support SD/MemStick, I can probably narrow it down more if you let me know whether you'd prefer internal or external, price range, etc. Cyraan 16:57, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Internal? Howzat?! Ah, never mind. I'm looking for something portable and external so I can for once take advantage of all these useless-feeling chips sitting around being overshadowed by a puny 256MB USB flash drive. Under $30 is okay, but the cheaper the better. I also saw something on Sony's website about a 17-in-1 adapter, that listed compatibility with "Memory Stick, Memory Stick with MagicGate, MagicGate Memory Stick," etc., going on to list nine different Memory Stick formats. Memory Stick/SD is all I need for now, but would you recommend compatibility with some other common memory card? xD, perhaps?--the ninth bright shiner ^talk 17:11, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Internal mounts into a floppy or CD-ROM bay, and connects straight into one of your motherboard's USB connectors. Well this seems to meet your needs, and has good reviews. However, it seems the company that makes it is doing a promotion for Superman Returns, and it has a corny Superman "S" logo on the top, other than that, seems like a good unit for the most part. May want to shop around a little more first, but if you do buy this one, you can probably rest assured knowing you're using the same reader that the Man of Steel uses for all his flash-reading needs. :) Cyraan 17:27, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Wow, that's great! Having Superman's approval of my computer hardware is good to know :-), but I'm going to check around and see if I can't find a similar model without the logo. Thanks a bundle! You should be paid for this. Or put it on your resume.--the ninth bright shiner ^talk 17:41, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Personally I wouldn't get anything external that's going to take up desk space, and you might want a more portable solution than an internal mount. Try a PCMCIA card like this one (but don't buy it from that store, it doesn't seem reputable). You might not have that slot on a desktop computer, but basically all laptops have them --froth^T 18:37, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

It's a good suggestion, but I'm seeking compatibility with all computers.--the ninth bright shiner ^talk 19:35, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Would you recommend this? It seems to have all the capabilities of the Superman Returns one...--the ninth bright shiner ^talk 03:35, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

I don't see anything wrong with it --froth^T 01:08, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Suggestion for a backup software

Hello everyone. Im looking for a backup solution for my network, and I would appreciate some suggestions.

Here is what I have:

• Six computers connected to each other through a router
• There is no DHCP in place, so all the machines have a fixed IP
• They all run WindowsXP Pro
• I have complete access to all the machines' and router's settings
• I would be capable of assigning a machine to be the backup server (for storage and schedulling of backup jobs)

Here is what I need:

• Preferably a free software
• Preferably capable of creating fixed size volumes (to make burning the backups into DVDs easier)
• Preferably it would have a client/server structure (maybe the client could run as a service and backup during idle time)
• It must have incremental backups (the ability to backup only the files that changed since the last backup)

Here is what I can't do:

• Install any Linux,BSD or similar, it has to be a Windows based app.

I have tried Bacula, but it only runs the client module on Windows, the other modules must run on a NIX flavor, so that is no help (unless you could recommend a way of working around this)

Thank you very much for your suggestions! Quase 19:29, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

You'll probably not like my answer, but I'll give it anyway, just in case... :) You said it's impossible to install a *nix flavour, but what about knoppix ? This is a linuxdistribution than runs from a cd or dvd so you don't install anything on your harddrive (for more info follow the link). If you use knoppix you can use "tar" or "dd" for you backups, "gzip" or "bzip2" to compress them and a version of "cron" for scheduling the backups. Most likely knoppix also contains software with a nice GUI that you can use for backups, but I try to use the commandline for things like backups so I don't have any extra information about that. I don't visit this page often, so feel free to contact me on my userpage for more info Garo 09:54, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Can you just have Windows backup run, backup incrementally at stated times, then dump the backups to a shared folder on the backup server? 68.39.174.238 23:06, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks guys. I actually pushed for some budget on this (just scare the big wigs with predictions of catastrophical HD failures, and they'll shower you with monies), and I opted for an online backup service (Mozy). Quase 14:31, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Online services shouldn't be your only backup for your data as they have a higher chance of going bad than harddrive backups (at least in my experience). I would suggest something like rdiff-backup on cygwin on windows and crontab (or the Windows scheduler? Haven't poked around with it). The thing it doesn't do is the fixed size volumes but you can of course tar/rar/wotever and do that at archive level. --antilived^{T | C | G} 10:38, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Dual core CPU speed description???

In the new dual core CPUs there are two processors working on one chip? So when a description says 3.2ghz dual core does, that mean two 3.2 ghz equaling 6.4 ghz of combined computing speed, or two 1.5ghz processors equaling 3.2? Thank you.

The speed description refers to the speed of a single core. However, that doesn't mean that a 3.2GHz Dual-core chip will run twice as fast as a 3.2GHz single-core chip. That's only true for software that's actually capable of recognizing and using the dual-core chipset. For example, most games these days don't recognize that possibility and so will only use half the power. --Maelwys 20:06, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Not to mention how effective the software is at splitting up computation into multiple threads. One common method of multithreading is to create an I/O thread and a "compute" thread, but this is usually imbalanced and will still leave one microprocessor doing the brunt of the work. The effectiveness of multi-core and multi-chip multiprocessing is extremely reliant on the software component, even more so than other parallelism schemes like superscalar execution (which is mostly accomplished by hardware, usually needing little software assistance). -- mattb @ 2007-01-26T20:14Z

Thank you for the prompt responses :) 20:22, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

RSS aggregator

I am looking for a rss aggregator so that I could aggregate many rss feeds from different sources into one for my news website. Example of this is google news which showed aggregated news feeds.

thank you

These links might help. Droud 03:24, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

WinXP - Making the "Guest" account unable to access my folders

I'm going to a LAN party tonight and I'm bringing this computer. However, I have some very important folders on my Administrator account relating to .wavs that my band has recorded and I don't want any partiers getting into them. I'm using WinXP Pro with SP2. I plan on logging it in on the Guest account so they can access programs like Firefox and Soulseek, but I don't want them getting into the My Documents folder. How do I do this? NIRVANA2764 20:27, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

By default, no account can access files in the 'My Documents' folder of another account without the password, so you should be OK. Just to check, when logged in on your main account:

RClick My Documents -> Properties -> Sharing tab

Make sure that 'Make this folder private' is checked, and 'Share this folder on the network'/'Allow network users to change my files' are unchecked. (I'm using XP Home SP2, so this may not be completely accurate.) Have fun. CaptainVindaloo ^{t c e} 20:49, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Deny Read/Execute/List/Read Attributes/Read * rights. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 01:40, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

auto deletions while editing Wikipedia

I'm trying to help User:Skookum1 discover the reason why his edits sometimes automatically delete the accessdate and ISBN numbers from the references. I'm guessing he's typing fast and accidentally hitting some combination of keys. Here's an example, where all he did was correct a typo. Any ideas? thanks, Bobanny 21:48, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Probably some specialized software on his end. Think adblockers or censorware. 68.39.174.238 21:58, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Both the accessdate and ISBN numbers have a thing in common: they are strings of numbers separated by hyphens, or in PCRE notation, \d+(-\d)+ — something I might expect someone could write when trying to match a common notation for phone numbers. It's highly probable something is changing what he is submitting after he hits "Save page", instead of him hitting some combination of keys. It might be something on his computer or in a proxy he uses (which could be a transparent proxy). It should easy enough to have him reproduce the problem (just write a few access-date-looking and ISBN-looking strings on a sandbox page and ask him to edit the page); if he manages to reproduce it at will, he could first try the (much slower) secure server to bypass any proxy which could be mangling his edits (if the secure server doesn't show the problem, it's probably something on his computer). He could also try temporarily disabling the web scanning part of his antivirus (if he has one), any ad blocker/script blocker/censorware (as suggested above), any browser extensions (or, in MSIE, any browser helper objects), and checking for spyware and other forms of malware (some malware add things to the text you post in web forms). --cesarb 01:17, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, I'll pass this along and hopefully get it resolved. Bobanny 02:33, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Chalkboard drawing animation

It would be really cool if a program is available that could generate animations of chalkboard drawings being drawn based on user-inputs. In the event that one does not exist or cannot be found, how can this be done in Flash? I would really like to do this some way. Just unicode characters are okay too. Any way this could be done (especially if on Mac OS X :) ) would be much appreciated! X [Mαc Δαvιs] (How's my driving?) ❖ 23:35, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Meaning encode the chalk position and movements? I know such things exist for erasable marker boards. 68.39.174.238 18:57, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm not certain what you are after, but there's something called Art Pad that might you might find interesting. Although, it doesn't seem to animate in the traditional sense, it can replay a user's inputs see http://artpad.art.com/artpad/painter/ 84.12.143.75 15:02, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

January 27

Radeons

I have two questions about my "Radeon 9550 SE":

• I'm pretty sure I have the Radeon 9550 SE, but in Device Manager (Ubuntu), it says "Radeon 9550". No "SE". Second, in xorg.conf it says Device "ATI Technologies, Inc. RV350 AS [Radeon 9600]". So, do I have the Radeon 9550, SE, or 9600?
• Secondly, how does my graphics card compare to others? (I'm expecting "crap")

Thanks. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 00:18, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

For the first one.. The 9550 and 9600 are exactly the same but the 9550 has firmware restrictions placed on it, so it's trivial to "unlock" the 9600. For the second one, crap. --froth^T 02:22, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Well it's one of the slowest cards that supports Pixel Shader 2.0 which a lot of games require today, so you still can play most current games, just not very fast. Also, the strength of a system is only as good as its weakest link, so the bottleneck may not even be your graphics card. --antilived^{T | C | G} 10:44, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Email question

(this question was previously untitled. titled by wj32.)

Every time i turn on my E-mail program..MS Outlook, i get this messige in my.....(Draft folder) ....... that gets .........Deleted Auotmaticly ...and on vewing it with ..(E-mail Details).... i get this messige,......(Bayesian Filter)

i use a... (Spamming Program) called ...(Agnitum Spam Terrier).

is this the normal thing from the Spam program..?

there is nothing written on the E-mail exsept the time of opening it.

it allway goes from the Draft fold into the Deleted folder ..every time i start MS Outlook.

Please use proper grammar and spelling. From what I can see, you're a "spammer" and you use a "spamming program". There is a technical problem with your "spamming program". --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 01:31, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Agnitum SPAM Terrier is SPAM filtering software. "Beta" means they released the software for the public to test for them, and you found a bug it seems. You should notify the company of the issue. Please try to ask coherent questions! Droud 03:33, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Java Applet

Today I was trying to program a game in Java in my Computer Science class becasue i was done with everything and I know how AND I wanted to ry and impress my fellow classmates with my knowledge. It turned out that it all backfired and I didnt know squat about making applets. The problem aose early when I was just trying to get the guy to move around, where I had upwards of 11 errors. I asked my teacher and she is kind of annoyed with mine wanting to learn more and not just stay along with the class and when she came over she said that my code was "totally flawed" and that she couldnt help because she was "swamped." She said something about the keyboard input being totally different in applets rather than the "System keyboard = new Scanner(System.in);" line. The following is my code I put in and maybe someone here a=can give me some pointers but not all the things wrong.

    import java.awt.*;
    import java.applet.*;
    import java.util.*;
    
    public class gameTest extends Applet {                //is it supposed to be in between these brackets?
    
         public void paint (Graphics p)  {                      //or this one?
         }
    
    int x = 150, y = 75;                                             // or is this right?
    String control;
    Scanner keyboard = new Scanner(System.in);
    control = keyboard.next();
    
    p.drawString ("O", x, y);
    
    if (control.equalsIgnoreCase("d"))                        //"d" is the control to move right
         {
         p.drawString (" ", x, y);
         p.drawString ("O", x+1, y);
         x +=1;
         y = y;        //I know it's rodundent
         }
    
       }
     }

Thank you guys so much for any pointers. I am almost certain my teacher won't be able to help me a whole lot. Thanks, schyler 04:10, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

P.S. Good to be back at the RD!

Haven't used java in years, but I think you need to do something with addKeyListener(). Also you have no control loop- it checks for keyboard input once and quits. --froth^T 04:30, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

You need to put initialization code into init() where you would specify a handler for key events. You also have function code in your class declaration, which is not right. That code should be in the key event handler. You also need to use private variables in your class declaration to store the values of x and y so you can later use these values in the paint() function to draw the O at the proper location. You should consider painting a small area white rather than clearing the last position by drawing a white character, since strings take a lot more time to draw. It is spelled "redundant". Here is a tutorial. Droud 05:08, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

• Isn't System.in the program's stdin? For example, the code to listen for a key on a GTK window is different to the code to accept input from stdin.
• Clean up your code. Line up braces. Use consistent styles:
• Why are you ending your function straight away?
• Use private variables.
• Why the y = y?
• Unless your font is a monospace font, your positioning won't work. "W", for example, takes up more space than an "i".

Example:

/* I don't know Java, so I'm guessing. Well, at least its how I do it in C#. */

import java.awt.*;
import java.applet.*;
import java.util.*;

public class gameTest extends Applet
{
    private int _x, _y;
    
    public gameTest()
    {
        _x = 150;
        _y = 75;
        
        /* add event listener here. */
    }
    
    public void paint(Graphics p)
    {
        // place drawing code here.
    }
}

Apologies for my long post. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 00:43, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

I believe that will be extremely helpful. I need to try it once I get to School. Thank yall very much! schyler 04:06, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

You can also download the sun JDK and eclipse, voila you have a free development environment with applet support. Droud 04:29, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Oh, and also, try not to fall into the trap of copying and pasting code without knowing how the code snippets work. I used to do that. Some time ago. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 22:45, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Windows update

I haven't gotten a new "critical" update in months. Windows Update is set to notify and I haven't been notified- also the Windows Update website says that there are no critical updates (in fact no updates at all other than like the australian timezone fix and language packs). Is it the same with everyone else or have I somehow been left behind? --froth^T 06:58, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Are you still using SP1? It's been over 2 years since SP2 was released, so SP1 support is no longer offered. (Assuming you're using XP). --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 07:02, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

No I'm using SP2 --froth^T 07:06, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Then I have no idea, as I just checked right now and updated with the newest critical update posted. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 07:08, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Do you have windows update set to automatically install? If that's the case, it is most likely installing and rebooting overnight. You can check in Add/Remove Programs, select the checkbox that says "Show Updates". Droud 17:52, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

After the WGA push? Heck no! It's set to notify like I said above --froth^T 22:19, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

This is EXACTLY why I bought a Mac. schyler 14:33, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm sure that for you the 25 unpatched flaws on Month Of Apple Bugs don't matter, who cares if someone can send you a picture that will take over your system if you view it? Droud 17:52, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

If it takes a special month-long drive to produce 25 bugs, I'll be happy. And it's not like Windows hasn't had its own incidents with pictures taking over the OS: I know Windows Metafiles and PNG images both had that problem, and I think there were also bugs with JPEG images and AVI movies. --Carnildo 23:05, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

On the update webpage there should be a button to refresh ignored updates. Try that. And no, this doesn't happen on macs.--Ryan 16:44, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

I don't have any ignored updates. And he's right, Apple has patched basically none of the many critical bugs exposed by MOAB --froth^T 22:24, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Of note, only about 1/2 of the bugs listed are Apple software. The rest are third-party apps that happen to run on MacOS X. Very few are actually security exploitable. And the first Apple security bug has been patched, within their normal timeframe for patching reported bugs. -- Kesh 01:32, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

It seems to be ages between WU updates. My last two recent updates were "Security Update for Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP (KB929969)" and "Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool - January 2007 (KB890830)". Prior to that the last ones were on December 14th. 68.39.174.238 23:10, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Ok that makes me feel better. Can't wait for vista for the security patches to start rollin in again, eh? ;) --froth^T 19:54, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

www.helium.com

www.helium.com. Is this website a scam? It stinks of it, but I can't find the catch. Battle Ape 10:57, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

It looks like a wiki where they really want knowledgeable people to contribute. Never trust anything on the web - however it offers payment through PayPal, so they won't run off with your bank details. --h2g2bob 19:07, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

www.helium.com publishes contact information including a street address on their website. The street address matches the street address used in their DNS registration. Their DNS registration can be looked up at Network Solutions. The name "Helium Exchange" in Andover, MA can be found in AT&T's online business phone directory. The phone number published by AT&T matches one of the phone numbers listed on their website. There is a listing for "Helium Inc." at the same address in the Eastern Massachusetts Better Business Bureau with no recorded complaints. Helium Exchange reportedly will be presenting at the DEMO 2007 conference no doubt seeking venture capital. This appears to be a startup business. Articles about the company have been written in various (some well-known) news publications; a list of articles may be found on the company's website. They appear legitimate to me (caveat emptor). They certainly don't appear to be trying to hide anything. --TRosenbaum 01:23, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

It does have pretty stupid information like "80% of home PCs are infected with viruses or spyware". It's actually "99% of Windows PCs are infected with viruses or spyware". --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 02:26, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

So maybe Macs have 19% market share now? :-)

(OK, that's a pretty dubious definition of Personal Computer, I know, and probably even more dubious maths...) PeteVerdon 02:13, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Don't forget Linux, BSDs, etc. :p --antilived^{T | C | G} 10:49, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Excel

While find and replacing a specified value in any number of cells, how to avoid getting the Update Values dialog box.

I mean that find and replace should work directly in Excel 2003 which doesnt in my case. 17:20, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

I think you're out of luck on this, the dialog is not dockable. Droud 17:56, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Can't preview Bittorrents

Why is it that when you're downloading a bittorrent video clip (wmv, avi, mpeg), you cannot preview it even when you stop the download or make a copy? When you try previewing it, it says "Windows Media Player cannot recognize the file type/format." Only after the download is complete, can windows media player open it. Jamesino 18:08, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Bittorrent distributes chunks of files in (sort of) random order. You usually won't get the first chunks of the file first. Some clients let you control which chunks it requsts first, but that doesn't guarantee you'll be offered them (nor is it really good practice as it will slow down overall transfer speeds). -- mattb @ 2007-01-27T18:17Z

Normal file downloading architectures download the file from the beginning to end, and that's why you can preview them, such as in limewire. BitTorrent downloads them at random order, so in theory you could preview each segment in chronological order, but I don't think any applications are available to do that. They're probably working on that. X [Mαc Δαvιs] (How's my driving?) ❖ 20:16, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

If it's video or audio then you can preview it with VLC, but generally it only seems to work when you've gotten about 60-70% of the file. --Kiltman67 19:04, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Most A/V muxing (container) formats contain stream header information within the first few blocks of the file. If you don't have these, most decoders will either be unable to or refuse to attempt to continue. -- mattb @ 2007-01-31T18:26Z

MPlayer plays pretty much any half downloaded stuff I throw at it. Maybe worth a try? --antilived^{T | C | G} 10:55, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Hard disk format - 'serial number' - what's this for?

G'day. I was formatting a hard drive the other day, and noticed as usual that the system assigned a 'serial number' (in the form of 1808-0A6B) to the formatted physical disk. This was nothing strange to me, as I have been using PC's for most of my life and consider myself more than well-versed in the ins and outs of things, and know this is commonplace with each format. However, I don't know if this number is used for anything, and I couldn't find anything on this on Wikipedia, so I'm going here. If this important, I still proudly use Windows 98 SE (planning to switch to Fedora later this year, however). This is as usual morbid curiosity on my part. Thanks in advance and have a nice Saturday evening y'all. --Ouro 18:47, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

I doubt it has any use other than tracing back to the history of its manufacturing, such as when and where. I doubt it's used to keep tabs on where it goes, since the uproar of the Pentium IIIs or whatever sending unique codes that identifies itself. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 18:52, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

I am not sure if we understood ourselves fully. I was not referring to the serial number of the physical object, I was referring to the serial number assigned during format, which actually changes every time you format the disk or floppy. --Ouro 18:56, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

The serial number is required just to make sure you know what you're doing, I think. It's an extra safety feature. --h2g2bob 19:01, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

The serial number is randomly assigned when you create the volume, and I believe is a holdover from disk packs, which required you to track a large number of packs (via serials, which you could also check on-line, on-line being at a terminal) since each pack held relatively little data. They used to shuffle those things around like paper files. Droud 22:01, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

It is only used, to my knowledge, by licensing software and copy protection systems. Droud 22:02, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm reasonable sure it's an attribute of the FAT file system. I'm pretty sure advanced disk software and hex editors can change it at will. It's use, I don't know if it has one to the end user, to the OS, or what. 68.39.174.238 23:12, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

From Microsoft's own explanation, it's to aid in distinguishing one disk from another. I believe it's used by DOS to know when you swapped the floppy disk in the drive (more recent versions of DOS needed a switch to enable reading the disk change line from the drive; older versions probably simply ignored it). --cesarb 00:43, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Back in the MS-DOS days, it was indeed used to distinguish between discs, as they couldn't be named or anything. Every disk stuck in the main floppy drive was the A: drive, so serial numbers allowed you to differentiate between discs. At this point, its vestigial. -- Kesh 01:36, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Thank you all for the input. I have more or less come to the same conclusion thinking about it last night. If the number changes from one format to another, then it would be valid to record those serials somewhere to check whether the disk had been further formatted or not. Logical. Thanks once again, cheers! --Ouro 09:27, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

How reliable...?

After a hardrive crash and subsequent recovery of data to another harddrive by a file recovery program I erased the hardrive using DBAN. When I tried and failed to create a new volume under Windows XP which reported the drive as having errors and "at risk" I tried Western Digital's low level reformat program which first reported it had repaired the drive but after a second extensive run reported the drive was unrepairable. An older WD LLF version even reported the drive was not Western Digital (which it is). Finally a newer version of CHKDSK on the new boot drive from a Windows XP update finally began finding and eliminating errors. After about 36 hours it reported the drive as repaired.

Windows XP Disk Manager and CHKDSK no longer finds any errors after taking a day to scan for recoverable sectors marked as bad and reports the drive as okay. I assume the erros were from surface defects at the location used for track zero, etc. and there were reassigned by CHKDSK which must have a built-in LLF routine. If so can I now write the data back to the drive without worry about problems from surface defects and whatever casued track zero to crash? -- Barringa 19:29, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

My impression/opinion is that when a disk has had a serious crash -- and especially if the head has contacted the platter at speed -- it's terminally ill, it's toast. There may be little furrows plowed in the disk by the crashing head which, even if the drive has later mapped those sectors as "bad", will further damage the head every time it passes over them. There may be fragments of plowed-up disk material floating around inside the housing just waiting to fall between the head and the disk at some other spot, plowing more furrows there and crashing the disk a second time. After spending hours trying to retrieve data from a badly crashed disk -- and I've done this many times -- I usually like to copy all the data to a brand-new disk, and throw the old one away. Disk drives aren't terribly expensive, and the risk of losing more time or data later just isn't worth it. —Steve Summit (talk) 21:45, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Take this advice, that drive is not long for this world. Droud 22:04, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

While I enjoy such exercises for the challenge and skill, getting a drive and software that are both deliberately giving out clear warning signs to look and work OK should NOT be used in order to return it to "production use". When so many things implicitly and explicitly give clear warning signs, there is a definite problem with the disk somewhere. Check cabling to make sure it's not that, but you're rather lucky to have been able to save all the data on it. 68.39.174.238 23:17, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Mac OS X Preference Pane

My Software Update preference pane icon is acting up. It shows a switch and part if the original icon. I have no third party preference panes installed. Thanks in advance for the help!--Ryan 19:49, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

If It comes down to it, I could email you my prefpane or application of Software Update, which would put in Macintosh HD/System/PreferencePanes or Macintosh HD/System/Core Services respectively. X [Mαc Δαvιs] (How's my driving?) ❖ 20:19, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

A switch and part of the original icon... in the tray? When you open it? 68.39.174.238 23:18, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Try this: Close System Preferences. From your home directory, navigate to Library > Caches and find a file called com.apple.preferencepanes.cache. Delete it and empty the Trash. Alternately, open a Terminal window and enter:

rm ~/Library/Cache/com.apple.preferencepanes.cache

Then reopen System Preferences and see if that solved the problem. Larry V (talk | e-mail) 10:21, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

printer margins?

My friend has "Konica Minolta magicolor 2400w". How can I find out the exact margins it can print within?--Sonjaaa 20:48, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

The Amazon product listing says that it's 4mm (0.16") from each edge (see "Maximum printable area"). — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 21:10, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Blocking some websites

Hi,I ve recently discoverd that my brother is visiting some XXX sites using my PC, so my question is how can I prevent access to those sites, do I have to purchase some software for this purpose or is there any function in my computer (OS:Windows XP) that can block those sites/or give access to only some selected sites. Thank you in advance for any help.

K9 Web Protection looks pretty good, and it is free for home use. Droud 22:07, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

It's trivial to bypass any client-side filtering (just pop in a linux livecd and away you go). The only way to guarantee it is to hope your router has support for filtering and subscribe to a service that gives you a set of filters. Linksys does this IIRC. --froth^T 22:17, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

It is trivial to bypass a linksys router with Tor (anonymity network), as well. Droud 22:29, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

If you can, give him a "Normal User" (IE. Not administrator) user account and do something with the HOSTS file or do something else that can only easily be countermanded by an administrator. All that said, keep in mind that this can easily lead to an escalating arms race between the two of you. As was said the last time a question like this came up, if you can talk with him and get him to see your side of it, or even just realize you don't appreciate that, you might get further. I don't know either of you so you'll have to make the decision. 68.39.174.238 23:22, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

ZoneAlarm has some sort of Parental Control feature, which purports to block access to a list of potentially troubling Web site categories. I have ZoneAlarm Security Suite version:6.5.737.000, but I have not had occasion to mess with the Parental Control, as my cat does not use the computer, beyond stepping on the keyboard occasionally. A cat might not be smart enough to bypass it, but a brother might. See also Parental controls. A non-technical solution might be to install a webcam pointing at the computer, which your mother and grandmother (if living) can monitor. That might work until the brother unplugs it, paints over the lens, or smashes it. Another option would be to simply use the computer at all times, not allowing the brother any opportunity to pursue those vile urges (the ones responsible for the continued existence of our species). --Teratornis 05:53, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks alot guyz, especially you Draud, I have installed K9 Web Protection software in my PC and it seems that its doing the job very well.

By the way, before you go off all happy-like, it's trivial to walk around any kind of protection either by using a proxy server or a live cd. Best to make sure he can't get on your computer and keep that pr0n to yourself, eh?--Frenchman113 on wheels! 16:21, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Sega Saturn Operating System

What proprietary operating system is on the Sega Saturn?--67.10.200.101 21:17, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Most likely something small and custom designed specifically for the Saturn. I doubt it even had a name outside Sega's internal development. —Mitaphane _?|! 23:19, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

game design programs

Can someone tell me of some good game development programs for someone who wants make games for a hobby? Preferably for a mac. Also, it should be 2-dimensional or have an option between 2-d and 3-d. thanks

Everything for mac shall be found on the apple website (small ecosystem), like this article. Droud 22:18, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

GCC for the coding. GIMP for your graphic design. OpenGL for 3D, SDL for 2D. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 00:24, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Allegro works on OSX (also Windows, Linux-and-friends and MS-DOS). It is mainly used for 2d, but has some very basic 3d support. There are lots of examples and good documentation, but a basic knowledge of C programming is advisable. It is free and fully open source (in C), and even fine for commercial use too. See the homepage; or allegro.cc for examples of programs made with it. This is truly a great bit of kit, and what I started learning on. --h2g2bob 00:59, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

converting recorded DVDs to avi, wmv etc

I have some video material recorded using a DVD recorder. Can anyone suggest software (preferably free) that would convert it to single-file formats like avi or wmv, and tell me how long this process is supposed to take? I'm trying to use Auto Gordian Knot to convert an 11 minute segment to avi, but it's been running for over two and a half hours, is showing no signs of doing anything, and doesn't have any kind of progress indication so I don't know whether it's working or how much longer it's likely to be. --Nicknack009 21:40, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Depending on how fast your computer is and the settings you chose in Auto Gordian Knot, a few hours is not unreasonable for efficiently encoding video. Video encoding uses an amazing amount of computation. What model and speed of processor are you running (this is the most critical component to video encoding)? Droud 22:15, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Every multimedia question here can be answered with VLC media player, and this is no exception. Takes one to two times as long as the DVD takes to play (depends on your computer's speed and what options you ask it to encode with). Use file, wizard, transcode to file and go through the options. Put 120 in the stop time box to rip the first 2 minutes only, then you can check quality and so forth. --h2g2bob 02:27, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Good advice if you don't want dual-pass encoding (which doubles the encoding time and I believe is default in AGK) or to use commercial codecs like DivX (VLC uses ffmpeg if I recall, which is a good implementation but not the best). Droud 04:35, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

AutoCAD drawings to SVG PNG or GIF

Hi. I've made some drawings in AutoCAD 2002 that I would like to upload to the Wikimedia Commons, but I'm struggling with file formats. Ideally I would save a rendered image as an SVG (But PNG or GIF would do). I can do a screen dump - which gives me a BMP, or use AutoCADs render window - also BMP, but these don't seem to be very useful. Anyone?--Joesydney 22:52, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

I think PNG is preferred format in this case since I don't think you can easily convert AutoCAD drawings to SVG. If you export or screen dump to BMP, I think you can open(or paste from the clipboard)it into MS Paint. From there just tell Paint to save the image as a PNG file. —Mitaphane _?|! 23:03, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

SVG would indeed be preferable, since DWG's are obviously vector-based. But Autodesk tries to keep the DWG format proprietary, and although there is non-Autodesk software that can read it (see e.g. http://www.opendesign.com/), it's a royal pain and a running battle and hence readers and converters are not nearly as widespread as for the other, more open formats.

For BMP, there are lots of programs that can convert it into other formats. Two I know of are NetPBM and ImageMagick. —Steve Summit (talk) 01:50, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

You could do a printscreen of your current window (assuming you're using Windows) and then use the GIMP to save the image as a .png or .gif or whatever else you need (I don't think the GIMP will save to SVG, though. It might be able to open DWG files, but I'm unsure of that....)Mango Sango 18:36, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

This program claims to be able to convert AutoCAD DXF files to SVGs. Probably the best option? --24.147.86.187 21:07, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks to all for suggestions. I'm doing OK now rendering my images directly to file (You don't get a preview, but hey). I'm choosing a TIFF in AutoCAD, which gives me options up to 4000x3000 resolution, then using Paint to convert to a PNG. The result comes out to less than one meg. I tried the program suggested by 24.147.86.187, but it won't unzip on my machine. It's version 0.01, which does not inspire great confidence; but it's just as likely that I don't have the correct unzip software.--Joesydney 09:33, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

E-mail Client

What is the best e-mail client? 68.193.147.179 23:27, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

That's a really subjective question. It depends on what you need, and how you use your email. For large corporate accounts, Microsoft Outlook coupled with Microsoft Exchange Server tends to be preferred. For home users, Outlook Express, Mozilla Thunderbird or even Web-based email suffice. In between, it really varies.

Maybe explain what you're looking for in a mail client, what you use email for, and features you want to have. Then we can narrow it down a bit. -- Kesh 23:45, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

It also depends what operating system you use - for example, I use KMail which is KDE-only. To answer your question, Comparison of e-mail clients may be of some considerable use. --h2g2bob 00:38, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Evolution! --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 02:54, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

January 28

Return HDrive to a "virgin state"

I remember being in a computer lab once that employed quite a clever tactic for the public terminals. The user would log in with an assigned username, and then when the user logged off, the *entire* hard drive would be wiped away and over-written with a fresh copy of the operating system (windows) as if it had just been installed the first time (default configuration). Every user who logged in was shielded from anything put on the comp by any previous users. This was a way to get rid of all unwanted stuff installed by the user or otherwise.

How can I do this on my home computer? I'd like to install a 'default config' and then do a rollback everytime I log off. I've seen some pre-packaged stuff, but it is all half-assed and bloatware. Is there a 'freeware' way to do this? Not against programming it myself if necessary, cause it seems like a great idea. Also, does this strategy have a name? NoClutter 01:03, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Restoring a hardrive's virginity requires something like a virginity pill. I have a card I got on eBay that simply writes all changes to a scratch pad so that they can be deleted at the end of a session either manually or programmatically. Its most likely what is going on since nuking 250 gig hardrive takes a little time. 71.100.10.48 01:42, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

How about making a kernel driver that sandboxes everything that runs under your account? Like Sandboxie? --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 02:29, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

The name for what you want is disk cloning, often referred to as Ghosting. Ghost is not free, but there are links to numerous programs in the former article and one of them may be what you want.-gadfium 03:41, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

In an environment where you're worried about the contents of the hard drive after a user has been on the system, software solutions are not the best solution. The hardware device mentioned above would be much more successful in this scenario. Droud 04:47, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

A program that does something similar to what you want is called "DeepFreeze". Here is the site. They have a trial version, apparently. It essentially forbids most changes from affecting the C-Drive, but it may (or may not) require a lan type thingy. User:Logical2u_Talk 20:09, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Roaming profile and restriced priviledges to the system drive? That seems the easiest and natively supported option to me... --antilived^{T | C | G} 11:02, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Permanent Drive letter in Windows XP

Is there a way to set up a USB hard drive so it is always guaranteed to get the same drive letter no matter what computer you attach it to? It's annoying when links and shortcuts dont work and get 'resolved' into an incorrect location just because a particular computer I'm using is already using the Drive letter I had been using before. This would be a huge annoyance-buster if it is possible. NoClutter 01:15, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

These two pages seem to show how it's done. http://www.experts-exchange.com/Storage/Q_21628818.html and http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1676&page=9 . Hope it works. - Akamad 02:01, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

CSS rollover buttons

I have a series of buttons on top of each other in a side navigation bar. I would like to simulate a javascript rollover, but with CSS. The buttons are images and I would like the button to change from the first image to the second image when my mouse if on top of it. What would the CSS and HTML codes neccessary to achieve this? Thank you. Jamesino 03:31, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Computing#Webpage_Help. What was wrong there? Can you post at least of a skeleton of the CSS/HTML you have tried, if you've tried any? -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 03:41, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

I got it now. Thank you very much =) Jamesino 19:12, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Java equivalent of Perl's HTTP::Request?

I'm writing a small Java bit which needs to POST some information to a web script and catch the result. Here's the Perl I want to port to Java.

my $req = HTTP::Request->new(
 POST => $self->{base_uri}."/relay.php/${method}"
);
$req->content_type('application/x-www-form-urlencoded');
foreach my $param (@params) {
 push @p, "param${count}=${param}";
 $count++;
}
$req->content(join('&', @p));
my $result = $self->{ua}->request( $req );

Is there some small piece of Java I could use? Something in the standard toolkit? Something I don't need to import 500k of JARs or write a whole library of my own for? grendel|khan 04:54, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Probably something in URLConnection or something like that. --Spoon! 08:23, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

I see that HttpURLConnection.setRequestMethod(java.lang.String) might come in handy here. Thanks! grendel|khan 08:33, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Chalkboard drawing animation

It would be really cool if a program is available that could generate animations of chalkboard drawings being drawn based on user-inputs. In the event that one does not exist or cannot be found, how can this be done in Flash? I would really like to do this some way. Just unicode characters are okay too. Any way this could be done (especially if on Mac OS X :) ) would be much appreciated! (I posted this today, however I found it halfway up the page and assumed somebody accidently moved it) X [Mαc Δαvιs] (How's my driving?) ❖ 05:50, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

See my answer, half way up... 68.39.174.238 19:03, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

I don't think I can find anything based on that! [Mαc Δαvιs] X (How's my driving?) ❖ 04:17, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Converting audio tapes

How hard is it to convert audio cassettes to DVDs (I have XP Media Center Edition 2002)? Does it require any special software/hardware? The quality doesn't have to be great - adequate is fine. Clarityfiend 07:53, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

I would suggest Audacity for all your recording needs. If you're looking to burn DVD Audio discs, you'll need a piece of software like Nero Burning ROM to burn it properly. Droud 14:23, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

It's probably better to burn to a CD - then you can play it on your CD players too!

1. Use a headphones cable with a jack at both ends (I forget the technical name). Plug one end into your computer's sound card's microphone (mic) port (pink); and the other end into your cassette player's headphone jack.
2. Use Audacity to record the audio. Audacity will probably begin to struggle after half an hour to an hour of audio depending on your PC - it will run slow, but just be patient and it'll be fine. Save this file as a .wav file of good quality. 60 minutes of audio at CD quality will be 500 MiB of hard drive space.
3. Use your favourite CD burning tool, like Nero Burning ROM or K3B and select audio CD. Drag-n-drop the .wav file.
4. Burn CD and you're done.

--h2g2bob 13:43, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Oops, I meant CDs. Thanks for the info. Clarityfiend 20:48, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

What is a mouse pad

I read in an old computer palmphet about something called a "mouse pad". What is a mouse pad and why would a mouse need a pad to work? 58.157.241.42 08:07, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Mousepad --Spoon! 08:14, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

software

software characteristics

This is not a question. Droud 14:25, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

ROFL! (sorry, it was just too funny). --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 22:49, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Read software or suitly emphazi your question. TERdON 14:26, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

zOmG deunt bite teh no0biez!!1eleventyone --froth^T 17:39, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

ip addresses

My computer is networked with 2 other computers wich share the same ip address and the same internet service internet explorer if i was to use my free 6 month trial aol 9.0 disk and use aol would my ip address change?if so how often? will it happen more than once? and will my computer still be networked with the others?--Crocadog 13:48, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

AOL uses dial-up networking, and you'd most likely have quite a bit of trouble sharing it in the first place. If you did manage to share it, the external IP of your network would change every time you reconnected. Droud 14:26, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

And dial up shared with 3 computers would not be fast...--Ryan 15:01, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

And IE is not an ISP. --Tardis 20:47, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Desktops icons help

On one account on my computer, I deleted unused icons because that account was mostly used for playing games, so I moved most of the icons that were unneeded like MS word, etc into a folder on the desktop. But now on the other accounts, those icons just dissappeared. How can I get them back? 67.169.56.188 18:29, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Those icons were likely stored in the "All Users" folder. Basically when you put an icon on the desktop, it can be for that user only (Common), or for every user (Less common). I suggest going to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop and moving the icons you want to back on all accounts there. After a log off and back on, they should reappear. 68.39.174.238 19:06, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

CSS rollover vs Javascript rollover

What are the pros and cons of CSS rollover buttons vs Javascript rollover buttons? For example, which one loads faster, which one is more supported by browser, etc... Thanks. Jamesino 19:13, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

In my experience IE sometimes has difficulties with CSS rollovers though it can generally support them. In my current project I have javascript rollovers which only implement if the browser is explorer for this reason, but I only did that after it became clear that IE was giving me flack. But other than that, CSS rollovers are pretty good and all modern browsers that I have tested on seem to accept them. Javascript rollovers should be a bit more supported in general, simply because javascript support is better in general, but all of the current versions of major browsers can do both, to my knowledge. I've never noticed any speed difference. --24.147.86.187 21:02, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

IE doesn't pay attention to a lot of CSS hover events. There is a very common script called csshover.htc that fixes this. Google and you'll find a lot of sites that have a copy of it and instructions for including it in your CSS. Once you do that, you'll be able to use CSS rollovers for most browsers. If you use javascript rollovers, you run into a problem with javascript compatability and the new trend of disabling javascript. --Kainaw ^(talk) 03:07, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Odd Flash incompatibility?

I have created a little Flash movie which works fine when I view it with Safari, Firefox on OS X, and Internet Explorer on Win XP. But in Firefox on Win XP (same computer I tested it with IE) none of the text objects load correctly. The font isn't obscure, it's Arial. What could be causing this? Note again that it loads fine in IE on the Win XP machine, but not Firefox. (Firefox v.2) Thoughts? Work-arounds? --24.147.86.187 21:02, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

What do you mean by "isn't obsure, it's Arial"? --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 22:52, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

They mean the font that the text is in is Arial (a standard font on Windows machines), not some bizarre obscure font which the user may not have installed. Have you tried embedding it anyway? — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 00:11, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Doesn't Flash embed it automatically? In any case, I can give it a try... --24.147.86.187 22:47, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Cheats, hints, anything for the game "Drift: When Worlds Collide"?

Cheats, hints, anything for the game "Drift: When Worlds Collide"?

Any level skipping cheat or anything else would be helpful. Especially how to get past level 10. Thanks! Trying to get past the level today! 71.85.0.61 18:05, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

I can't look it up from here but have you tried www.gamefaqs.com?? I generally find if there is a cheat for a game it's likely to be there. Vespine 03:22, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

I don't think it's out yet --froth^T 06:06, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

JSON Encapsulation.

I have a Java object, which may be a String, an int, a Map or an array, and I want to turn it into a JSON string. I've looked at some JSON libraries, but they all seem to center around parsing JSON strings into internal Java representations, which isn't what I want. I want it to construct a JSON string out of an arbitrary Java object. How can I do this? The Perl objToJson() method in the JSON package does exactly what I need. But this toJSON() method, for instance, chokes if I pass it a String which isn't already JSON-formatted. I end up in a chicken-and-egg situation. Do I have to write my own JSON library at this point? grendel|khan 00:40, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Ah, SOJO's JsonSerializer does the trick. Excellent. grendel|khan 05:25, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

January 29

python analogue to 'getattr' (getobj?)

How do I use a string literal to specify an object instance in the same way you can invoke getattr to use a string literal to specify an object attribute. For example, I want the code that makes all of the following lines mean the same thing:

  value = MyObject.attribute
  value = getattr(MyObject, "attribute")
  value = getattr(getobj("MyObject"),"attribute") ### what's the correct way to code this?

thanks for any help, links to docs, keywords to search etc. NoClutter 01:43, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

MyObject, like any other name that does not require qualification with an instance or class, is just an object in some module (possibly the module __main__ that holds the overall script), which is itself an object. So just call getattr() on that. --Tardis 18:16, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Gaps between CD audio tracks

I have a music CD containing "interludes" between audio tracks: that is, after one track completes, there is a period of music when the track time is displayed as negative, before 0:00 of the next audio track. Is there a term for this (which I suppose is comparable to a pregap, only after index 01)? How would this be created?

Furthermore, this behaviour is only exhibited by my stereo, whereas all computer CD drives seem to treat these gaps as part of their preceding tracks, and there is no negative track time. What causes this? –Unint 02:40, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

I think they're still called pregaps. Notice carefully how pregap says pregaps come before INDEX 01, not TRACK 01. Here's a short example of an EAC cue sheet:

TITLE "test"
FILE "test.wav" WAVE
  TRACK 01 AUDIO
    TITLE "Test 1"
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
  TRACK 02 AUDIO
    TITLE "Test 2"
    INDEX 00 00:08:00
    INDEX 01 00:10:00

--Kjoonlee 12:13, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Okay, so I assume in that article subsequent mentions of "the pregap" is just shorthand for "the first pregap"?

Also, so I could write a cue sheet to exclude these gaps when playing/ripping? –Unint 17:50, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

ipod disk defragment?

Is it possible (and beneficial) to defragment the HDD on a fifth-generation ipod? Also, can the defragmentation corrupt data on the disk? (like basic operating software etc) Mango Sango 03:10, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

I don't think defragmenting an external HD is recommended, but if it is, then, yes it could be good, because the ipod uses FAT, a filesystem that is often fragmented quickly. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 05:42, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

I would only recommend defragmenting it after you put on a lot of albums because the partition, as Wj32 said, gets easily fragmented. Xaro 11:06, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Software over hardware...?

Is there anything that software (a short subroutine) could do in the way of causing physical damage to a harddrive such as physically destroying track zero? 71.100.10.48 03:22, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Not exactly physical damage, but it could use some (undocumented and proprietary) commands to do things like overwrite the disk's firmware or even some essential control data in the disk itself. Recovering from that could probably be done only by the manufacturer. It's also possible (though very unlikely) for it to change the firmware in such a way it drives the pins in a invalid way, causing a short circuit and thus burning some of the disk's controller chips.

Having said that, since such things would work only on specific disk models, most disk-damaging malware just erase the data on the disk via the usual means, so the disk is not bricked and can easily be reused. --cesarb 03:42, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Back when they used different voltages for the different flavors of IDE, I remember seeing something about it being possible to overvolt some hard drives from the IDE bus, possibly burning out their logic. Droud 18:08, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

JPEG format output...?

Is there any way such as an add-on that will allow Visual Basic 6 savepicture function to output pictures in a jpeg(jpg) format instead of a BMP format? 71.100.10.48 03:33, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

VB6... try using an InfectiveX control, and if that doesn't work, try executing a BMP to JPEG program from your program. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 05:37, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

802.11g

What is the wireless card range of the Macbook Pro (core duo), when in ad hoc mode with other macbooks and macbook pros (all core duo)? Thanks in advance!--Ryan 04:21, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

The range of any wifi system is highly dependent on what is going on in the required frequency space. There have been some articles lately on how you can pick up a lot of neighbours (crowded airspace), and that the local wifi is randomly dropping out. If you set up a whole cluster of wifi adhoc stations, this is probably worse than having neighbours! --Zeizmic 17:11, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

But what would the range be?

Booting

Any idea how to change which operating system boots first and which is the default operating system? Is it possible to have two versions of 98 installed on the comp??

It would be appropriate to know the operating system you use but from the last bit of your question it appears to be win98. Im comfortable with win xp where you right click on my computer icon, then click properties, then click advanced, then click startup and recovery, from here you can edit(click on edit but be carefull not to mess it up you can save somewhere it before you start edditing.

With Win 98 there is a hidden file called boot.ini which you can edit using notepad. Im not sure about this!

Use something like Acronis OS selector. Splintercellguy 23:00, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Ram diagnosis

I just added new Ram to my comp..WINXP works fine without reinstallation. But WIN98 hangs up sometimes and often I get a message that I have run out of memory.Also reinstallation of WIN98 did not work.Any idea on how to make WIN98 accept the new memory without reinstallation?

Maybe the RAM block is defect. Happened to me once with a brandnew 512MB block of RAMs, after inserting it into the computer, Windows XP crashed all the time to bluescreens and worse, after I ejected the block it (and installed a new one) it was fine again without any software modifications or new installations. Also I recon if you use Windows 98 still, your PC could be an older one too? If so, some old Pentiums had to have 2 exact same blocks of RAM in it to function correctly (i.e. if you want 1024 MB you would have to use 2x512MB and could not use 512MB+2x256MB). Also please sign your posts with 4 tildes (~~~~). -- Aetherfukz 16:36, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Try Memtest, that is a sure way to tell if the chips are okay or not. Knowing the configuration of your PC would be helpful (Processor class/type, mainboard will suffice). I stretch my PC to the limits (a board that originally ran a PII/450 now runs a PIII/850 with 512 MB RAM) so maybe I could help. Cheers. --Ouro 19:02, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

How much memory does your computer have? Windows 98 doesn't work right if you have more than 768 MB of RAM in your computer. There are a couple of workarounds: either hide the extra memory from Windows, or tweak Windows so it works properly. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/253912 for details. --Carnildo 22:03, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

hp wireless mouse info needed.

I have a hp wireless mouse with no usp adapter. Modle No:MUR0208 Assy P/N: 343364-001 Spares P/N: 343808-001. What do I need to get it working, or do I just get another one. Thanks, <email removed> —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 63.20.28.21 (talk • contribs).

If you don't have the USB adapter, you might as well get another one. Wireless mice aren't that expensive nowadays. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 07:27, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Windows XP automatically restarts

I have got a laptop that runs Windows XP. Every time I run "cmd", it automatically reboots itself without any warning. I unchecked "automatically restart" option of "startup and recovery - system failure" dialog box but it didn't help. I would be obliged if anybody could help me sort out this problem.--203.78.175.219 09:15, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

You might want to check HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\AutoRun and HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\AutoRun to see if there's anything there to cause the behavior. –RHolton≡– 12:39, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Check your computer for viruses or spyware. They could do that to stop you from removing them. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 23:48, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Search the drive for CMD.EXE, typically it should be in the windows\system32 folder. If there are more than 1 copy do the sizes/time stamps match? I agree with Wj32, sounds like a viral issue but don't jump the gun, could be a memory issue too Anfearard 15:41, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

about web site finance

what is/are the financial source(s) for maitaining a web site?

What do you mean financial source? The source I recon would be your money. If you want to know what you need to finance a website, you need to either buy a server PC and pay the connection for it, or rent webspace at a provider. Either way you also have to pay for the domain you want to have.

PLEASE SIGN YOUR COMMENTS

Did you know that you can sign your comments to Talk pages by clicking the signature button () or by typing four tildes, like so: ~~~~? That way we know who made comments on the Talk page, and when. Thanks!

Also see WP:SIG for more information.

Aetherfukz 16:40, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Submitting a form with javascript

I don't know how they do it but the firefox password wallet feature doesn't work on my school's proxy login page. So I'm making a bookmarklet to log me in. So far it fills in my username and password but I can't get it to sumbit. Using

document.authenticator.submit()

since the form's name is "authenticator" doesn't work. The form submits fine (to the directory /auth-cups/) but the connection with the server weirds out and firefox tells me "The connection was reset. The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading."

There's no funky javascript going on on the login page. The only unusual thing is that the login page itself is being served through SSL (securely). Does anyone know what the problem is? Or why the password wallet doesn't work on the novell proxy login? --froth^T 17:36, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Have you tried filling in the details, then clicking submit by hand - does this work? The only thing I can think of is that the page tries to navigate to, or is still "running" the javascript link. Try putting the submit bit in a settimeout, ie

• document.setTimeout("document.getElementById('authenticator').submit()", 500);

which should let the link finish running, then in 0.5 sec click the submit button. Also check if the submit button is <input type="submit" ...> or if it is <button value="..." ...> - if it is the second one, it sends extra information saying which button has been pressed. No idea why the wallet doesn't work though. --h2g2bob 13:00, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Yes, filling in the details with the bookmarklet and clicking submit by hand works. Also, I've been using settimeout from the beginning to no avail :( But you're spot-on with the submit value.. its name is loginButton and its value is Login. Do you think this could be the problem? How would I simulate loginButton=Login through POST with javascript? --froth^T 15:40, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

While you could script a XMLHttpRequest, you'd get all sorts of complications, as the "login complete" page will only exist inside the request, and would not be displayed in the browser. I'd just say go right around the problem if possible, by making yourself a html file with a copy of the form, with a few alterations. Ie:

<HTML><BODY>
* use the full url in the form. copy the   enctype and anything else too
<FORM method="POST" action="http://full-url-here/login.php" id="my_form">
* copy stuff from form but add values:
   <INPUT type="text" name="whatever" value="something">
   <INPUT type="text" name="whatever" value="something">
* add this to "spoof" the button:
   <INPUT type="text" name="loginButton" value="Login">
</FORM>
<SCRIPT type="text/javascript">
   window.onload = function {
      document.getElementById("my_form").submit();
   } ;
</SCRIPT>
</BODY></HTML>

Of course, that won't work if you've got some crazy cookie stuff going on, but otherwise it should be fine. --h2g2bob 23:37, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Something really crazy -was- going on. I still can't figure out how clicking the submit button and invoking submit() should appear any different to the server. I was playing with some real wacky DOM code:

void(document.getElementsByTagName('td')[11].innerHTML='<input type="hidden" value="Login" name="loginButton">');document.authenticator.submit();

since Login=loginButton is in fact submitted to the server and that was the only thing I could think of. But after a simple google search I come up with the ridiculously simple solution:

document.getElementsByTagName('input')[4].click();

Haha! Thanks anyway for your help --froth^T 05:48, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

when will Win XP become obsolete?

At what point in time (year, etc.) do you think Win XP will become obsolete, unsupported by Microsoft or unusable because of everybody using newer OS like Vista?--Sonjaaa 20:17, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Microsoft support cycles have typically been only a few years long. But a lot of people are probably going to stick with XP until microsoft gets its act together with a couple of service packs. And most businesses probably won't upgrade at all- it's not cost-effective for the few new features. Also there's been a lot of kicking and screaming from the tech community over vista being slow, flashy, and DRM heavy, but eventually an upgrade is inevitable. But microsoft's really competing with itself here.. they poured millions into patching XP to the hilt for 5 years straight and ended up with a solid OS; people are hesitant to switch. Like I said, though, even if Vista turns out to be a flop like ME, in 5-7 years the vast majority of windows users will have upgraded to vista or beyond --froth^T 20:33, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

BBC said today that Microsoft says it will continue support for XP until 2011, my guess is they will do it longer, like they did with 98 (due to a lot of people (like myself) still using it, they supported it until last year). Cheers. --Ouro 21:09, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

I know that for myself, if XP becomes unsupported (not likely to be too soon, since they're releasing SP3 for XP in 2008), I'll probably move to FreeBSD or something. I dislike Vista myself just because it's multimedia-heavy. I can't stand WMP10 and 11 for example, and if Vista is similar in terms of Microsoft's aim, then I can't ever see myself using Vista. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 22:52, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Have to agree with you, Wirbelwind, on this one. I dislike even XP, although have used it, but never had the time to learn to tweak it enough. Vista is not the way to go. I am waiting for my data gloves to get delivered. --Ouro 07:40, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

synchronize mp3 player?

What's the easiest way to syncronize mp3 and ogg vorbis files to my Samsung mp3 player? Some sort of software I need?--Sonjaaa 20:28, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

If your mp3 player doesn't have software that does it, software like Windows Media Player 9 and above have it, and I believe Winamp has it (Portable Device Sync - Supports iPod®, PlaysForSure®, and Creative® Devices is all Winamp lists, unfortunately). Specifically, which mp3 player do you have? Might want to check the Samsung site. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 22:57, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

January 30

web page creation

hello, I want to make some html files with interlinking thumbnail pictures, is there a simple open-source program I can use?

Notepad++, Bluefish, SCREEM, GNU Emacs, or even Vi. These are for coding, with Bluefish and Screem supports minor WYSIWIG (haven't used it so can't say much about it). If you want WYSIWIG then I would tell you don't bother, and then point you to stuff like NVU. --antilived^{T | C | G} 07:04, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

As for thumbnailing, you either have to do it manually (ImageMagick or GIMP would work; the former can probably be scripted to do it automatically), or you have to use server-side scripting (like PHP). Or you can google "open source thumbnail creator" and there are lots of options which I have never used. --24.147.86.187 13:23, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

GRUB on USB

The last time I installed linux it was a nightmare trying to fix my heavily-OEM-customized MBR after grub overwrote it (and suse's "restore original MBR" made it far worse).

I'm interested in booting into my linux partition from a usb memory stick. My BIOS is set up to boot from the various types of USB devices before the hard drive, so.. would it be possible to make my usb memory stick bootable with syslinux or something and put GRUB stage 1 onto my usb key, and then configure it to look for stage 2 in my hard drive's linux partition? It sounds possible, so can someone give me a link to a version of GRUB designed for this? Or if it's a really configuration-heavy process, the name of a distro that does it automatically. --froth^T 04:43, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

I don't really know what GRUB is or any of that but if you are trying to boot into linux off a USB you can create a live distro on a USB key, maybe that will help? Vespine 22:11, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

GRUB. --cesarb 23:04, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Why would you want to do that? What is wrong with grub on your MBR? If you have 2 harddrives you can install windows on one and grub on another, and you have 2 seperate MBR and you just need to choose in BIOS which hardrive you want to boot from if you ever need your original MBR. --antilived^{T | C | G} 06:59, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

GRUB destroyed all 512 bytes of your PC-BIOS MBR, eh? What a loss... What you want to do should be possible. Most BIOSes that support booting from USB MSCs just look for a typical PC-BIOS MBR program. I believe you can place stage 2 on the USB stick as well. I'm not totally sure if this is because GRUB stage 2 actually supports USB MSCs (seems unlikely) or whether the USB boot BIOS programs just remap the USB MSC as a PC-BIOS drive (seems pretty likely). Anyway, there is plenty of information available via Google that describes how to do what you want. Also, it may please you to know that it's trivial to backup a drive's MBR; just copy the first 512 addressable bytes on the drive to a file and you're good to go. (using GNU tools: $ dd if=/dev/hdx of=mbr_backup bs=512 count=1 ) -- mattb @ 2007-01-31T17:56Z

What a loss indeed, when your only computer won't do anything except the POST memory test and you don't have an XP disk. I had to download hard drive drivers from a friend's computer onto my usb memory stick, then borrow his XP Home install disk, boot from that, and use fixboot and fixmbr.... OK so I tried setting up all of the GRUB stages on the USB stick (I used wingrub to make it bootable).. and I got the nice little menu that gives me one option (Windows XP) since that's all I set up. However it refuses to boot into it. In menu.1st if I use root(hd0,0) then it won't work at all, if I use rootnoverify then it gives me the menu but when I select windows it says something along the lines of:

rootnoverify(hd0,0)
HD0,0 DETECTED FAT PARTITION
chainloader +1

HARD DRIVE ERROR PRESS ANY KEY TO RESTART

My usb stick is formatted FAT32, but I know the BIOS assigns it (hd1,0) so I don't know why it would say 0,0 is FAT. --froth^T 18:46, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Are you absolutely sure that the USB stick is being mapped as the second BIOS drive and not the first? Compatibility would suggest to me that the BIOS authors would opt for mapping the USB MSC as the first drive... I really don't know for sure; it would be very useful if you could see the device map that GRUB uses (probably the one provided by the BIOS). I don't know if GRUB provides any way to display the device map it uses at boot time and a quick look at its documentation doesn't seem to provide any method for doing so... Perhaps adding some debug lines to your copy of GRUB and recompiling would be of help. First I'd try booting Windows from (hd1,0). Also make absolutely sure that the WinXP partition is actually the first MBR partition on the drive. Try other drives and partitions if you're not sure; the worst damage you can do is fail to boot the OS. If that doesn't work, I'd try asking on the GRUB mailing list for details about how x86 PC-BIOS programs usually map USB MSC boot devices. -- mattb @ 2007-01-31T19:32Z

P.S. - If trying to chain load WinXP from the second (or third, or fourth) BIOS drive doesn't work, I'd seriously consider setting GRUB up on the actual hard drive... That will be significantly less trouble than digging around in source code. -- mattb @ 2007-01-31T19:42Z

Yep, absolutely sure. WinGRUB provides a utility for identifying which BIOS-identified drives are mounted as which Windows drive letters. --froth^T 22:21, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

That's not necessarily useful. The BIOS program can and probably does remap drives a couple of times during the boot process. Try booting from the other drives as per my above suggestion; it will take two minutes of your time and is at least worth doing to eliminate the possibility of a simple mapping mix up. -- mattb @ 2007-02-01T00:04Z

Er, no it doesn't. And what exactly do you want me to do? Try to put boot windows with root being hd1,0? --froth^T 23:32, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Also, Paragon Partition Manager reports drive C as "Partition 0, hard disk 0" --froth^T 23:32, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

I just installed GRUB on a USB stick and used it to successfully chainload the WinXP installation on my hard drive. Just as I suspected, the BIOS (mine at least) remaps the USB MSC as the first BIOS drive, and the primary ATA hard drive as the second. You'll need to have GRUB remap things to avoid confusing NTLDR (it will just hang with no message if you confuse NTLDR), but that's easy enough... Assuming GRUB works properly from your USB stick, these commands should work:

root (hd1,0)
chainloader (hd1,0)+1
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
boot

Note that after you run the root command, you should see a warning that the filesystem is unknown and is type 0x07 (HPFS/NTFS). If you don't, you aren't pointing at the correct partition. I suggest you try the same steps I used unless you think you know better. If you still have trouble you're welcome to contact me on freenode #wikipedia; my nick is uberpenguin. -- mattb @ 2007-02-01T00:03Z

Ooh, so perfect. Now what should I use under a linux title? Do I have to do the same tomfoolery with the remappings? --froth^T 00:22, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

IE6.x Favourites and Links disappearing

I'm running IE6.0x on NT4.0 on a 7 year old Pentium II (yeah, old I know, but it works great for me). I just have MSOffice 2000 Premium and a few other things. I have Zonealarm and AVG free.

Tonight (about 2 hours ago), my favourites and links just disappeared from my IE screen. I rebooted several times and they're still gone. The actual links are still in my Windows folder, IE just isn't showing them. At the same time, IE started running really slowly. I just ran a virus scan a few hours ago, but I'm running a spyware/malware scan as we speak. I'm also defragging. I have lots of space on all my drives.

The only new thing recently is I installed screamer radio (www.screamer-radio.com), an internet radio freeware program (which has a good rep as being free of spyware etc).

Any help/suggestions would be great (the main thing is I'd like my favourites etc back). Thanks in advance! Oops... forgot to sign... Anchoress.

Update: I now know what happened, but I don't know why. Windows just started using a 'favourites' folder in the main NT directory, instead of the folder in my profile. It's now kinda fixed, but I'd still like to know what happened. Anchoress 11:25, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Tips on improving a Java program I wrote

Here's the program:

import java.util.Random;


/* Palex3's String augmentation program which proves that randomization
algorithms can produce coherent results
Original Programming language was Python
Kirbytime transcripted it into Java
*/

public class methinks2
{
	public static void main(String[] args)
	{
		Random g = new Random();

		String target = new String();
		String target_List = new String();
		String deck = new String();
		String placeholder = new String();

		char letter;
		char[] alpha = #{'a','b','c','d','e','f','g','h','i','j','k','l','m','n','o','p','q','r','s','t','u','v','w','x','y','z',' ','.',',',':'};

		int generations = 0; //number of times the while loop executes (number of decks used)
		int j = 0;
		int decksize = 5; //default deck size is 5, change it to whatever the heck you wish

		System.out.println("Welcome to Kirby's Java transcription of Palex3's generator of phrases: Go from random to your target in 100 000 generations or less!");
		System.out.println("Please enter your target, containing only:\n lowercase letters, spaces, commas, colons, and periods: ");
		target = "wikipedia: we make the internets not suck"; //default target. Replace this line with whatever method of input you wish.
		target = target.toLowerCase();
		placeholder = "@"; //the hidden character that changes into the correct character
		target_List = placeholder;
		deck = placeholder;




		while (j < target.length()) //runs until every @ is replaced with the correct char
		{
			for (int i = 0; i < decksize; i++) //loads deck with random characters
			{
				deck = deck.replace('@', alpha[g.nextInt(alpha.length)]);
				deck += placeholder;
			}
			System.out.println("deck = " + deck);

			letter = target.charAt(j);
			System.out.println("Letter = " + letter);
			for (int i = 0; i < deck.length(); i++)
			{
				if (letter == deck.charAt(i))
				{
					target_List = target_List.replace('@', letter);
					target_List += placeholder;
					break;
				}
			}
			System.out.println("-------------------");
			System.out.println("target: " + target);
			System.out.println("current: " + target_List);
			System.out.println("generations: " + generations);
			deck = placeholder;
			if (letter != target_List.charAt(j))
			{
				generations++;
			}
			else
			{
				generations++;
				j++;
			}
		}

		System.out.println("\n\nDone!!");
		System.out.println("It took " + generations + " generations to generate \"" + target + "\"");
		System.out.println("from random lists of " + decksize + " characters each using cummulative selection.");
		System.out.println("It would have taken " + (alpha.length*target.length()) + " tries to do so randomly!");
	}
}

It works, but I'm wondering if it is doing what I intended to show, as explained in the first comment. If not, how can I change it to make it so that it does do what I intend to show?

Thanks. --Ķĩřβȳ♥ŤįɱéØ 10:58, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Could you give us some pseudo-code? The above looks like it would run, but doesn't do much. Is it really only supposed to go character by character through an input string, randomly choosing a value until it matches the original, then proceed to the next character? If so, this doesn't demonstrate that you can randomly generate coherent phrases, it demonstrates that it will take an average of 16 random guesses per character given a 31 character alphabet. Droud 14:00, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Well, here's the code in Python that I'm trying to copy:

import random

print "Welcome to Palex3's generator of phrases: Go from random to your target in 100 000 generations or less!"
target=raw_input('Please enter your target, containing only lowercase letters, spaces, commas and periods >')
target=target.lower()
target_list=[]

for letter in target:
   target_list.append(letter)

target_list

deck=[]

x=0
while x<len(target):
    deck.append()
    x+=1

alpha=['a','b','c','d','e','f','g','h','i','j','k','l','m','n','o','p','q','r','s','t','u','v','w','x','y','z',' ','.',',']
generations=0
random.seed()
while deck != target_list and generations<100000 :
    o=0
    for letter in deck:
        
        if letter!=target[o]:
            deck[o]=random.choice(alpha)
            print deck[o]
        o+=1
           
    generations+=1
    print '-------------------'
    print 'target: '+str(target_list)
    print 'current: '+str(deck)
    print 'generations:' +str(generations)
    
print '-------------------'
print "It took "+str(generations)+"generations to generate \""+target+"\" from a random list of characters using cummulative selection. It would have taken"+str(29**len(target_list))+ "tries to do so randomly!"
raw_input('Press any key to exit...')

So, my code will be working correctly if it does the same thing as this Python program. --Ķĩřβȳ♥ŤįɱéØ 03:44, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Then yes, it looks like it does the same thing. There may be some slight differences in the random functions, but that's it. Droud 01:41, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

How to program something to send text messages to a textbox

Under Visual C++ 6.0... maybe using API functions such as SendKeys() ? --Taraborn 12:06, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

There are lots of different ways. Presumably you will have the window handle of the text box, in which case you can use SendMessage multiple WM_CHAR messages, or you could send a single WM_SETTEXT message. If the text box is within your own application you can just use the SetWindowText API function. CiaranG 13:47, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Thank you very much. --Taraborn 07:52, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Download

How to download the video that are in the you tube website.We seen online but what are the tricks or method for download or save on the system?--82.148.97.69 12:54, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

• There are several Mozilla Firefox extensions that do this and if I remember correctly our article on YouTube lists some relevant links too. - Mgm|^(talk) 13:56, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Use my firefox extension, unplug! There are quite a few others, plus also websites (eg keepvid) which do it if you prefer them to firefox extensions. Unplug works for lots of other video sites, ook video ook works for quite a few too. Some only work for youtube. Search google for more stuff. --h2g2bob 14:46, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

I use javimoya for youtube and google video, and the Download Embedded firefox extension for directly embedded flash media (swfs) and plug-in video (mov, wm) --froth^T 19:00, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Windows Media Player 11 - Sorting by Title

Hi there, in Windows Media Player 11, when you are in the song view (Music > Library > Songs), is there a way to sort the songs by the title instead of artist? I know that you can click on "Title" at the top of the list to do this, but as soon as you change views it reverts back to sorting by artist. Thanks! --203.208.88.170 13:36, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Object Request Broker

What's the difference between a reflective ORB and a "usual" one? TERdON 14:13, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Computer Printing

I hooked my printer up and when i want to print it asks me to create an image file, andthen won't let me print. I have Windows Xp and a Lexmark Printer. Is there something i can do, or is there a way to get around creating an image file?

If you click on Start -> Printers and faxes, your printer will be shown, but I'd guess there's also an entry for a "virtual" printer, for creating PDFs, XPSs or similar. Right-click on you (real) printer and choose "set as default" Davidprior 19:49, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Java Canvas

I'm doing something in Java which requires a Canvas that I paint on in a window. Problem is, the canvas always stays square, even thought the window, or its position relative to the other components, isn't. I've tried using the setSize() method, but it doesn't seem to work. Does anybody have an idea about what I should do? --83.250.205.7 19:46, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Sounds, at a guess, like the Canvas's parent has a LayoutManager installed which is undoing your size changes. You can remove the manager, or (more flexibly in the long run) inform the Canvas about what size it should request from the manager (although this may involve writing a trivial subclass of it). --Tardis 21:15, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

I was kinda guessing at that, so I added a border-layout to the parent frame, and added the canvas to CENTER, but that didn't work (I even tried adding stuff to the edges, but the canvas was still square-shaped). 83.250.205.7 21:46, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Try removing the layout manager altogether? (You can pass null for it.) --Tardis 23:49, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Questions from a Linux (kind of) newbie

As my Windows Vista (evaluation version) install died on its backside the other day (PC powered on and working fine when I went to bed one night, frozen next morning, after cold boot won't start even in safe mode) and the reason I installed vista is that the WinXP MCE recovery partition on my PC didn't recover anything (oh, for the days when PCs came with master discs...) I have just installed Ubuntu.

The last time I used Linux was on a Intel 80486 in 1998, and things look a little different now but I'm finding that it seems to have the good bits of modern MS Windows, and the good bits of Linux that I remember, plus extra good bits for luck.

Anyway all seems well, but i have a few questions

I used to use Media Player / Media Centre, and have quite a lot of music (72GB) in WMA lossless format:

• I seem to be able to play ordinary .WMA files in VLC, but not lossless ones - can I play these in Linux, if not can I convert it to FLAC without using a Windows PC? (If I do need to use a Windows PC, my partner does have a laptop, but it isn't as fast as my PC, and me monopolising it for days on end converting music might not be appreciated :-)
• What can I find that does the job of Media Centre (and preferably lets me use the MCE remote)?

I used to use MS Outlook for Mail, Calendar & Address-book, and sync it with my Palm:

• What's the best package for these 3 functions? I like having them integrated, but I noticed that the mail apps (Thunderbird / Evolution) that I have don't seem to have a calendar - would I be better using separate apps?
• How do I get my data out of outlook .pst files, without actually having outlook installed? ((I've searched he internet, and it says to install Thunderbird (etc) alongside outlook and use MAPI to copy the data across - as with the .WMA files, I could take this route, but would rather not (also it would mean installing my copy of MS Office on my parnter's machine, as I'm no longer using it, is this legal?)
• Will I be able to sync with my Palm Z22?

Sorry for the 20 questions. Thanks in anticipation, Davidprior 19:47, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

I find that when people want 'everything' they had with Windows, it is better to pay the money and use Xandros. They make a point of being totally windows-friendly. --Zeizmic 22:11, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Answer to some of the questions:

• If you are having trouble playing media, you might want to take a look at RestrictedFormats and install the packages listed there; it might solve your problems (which are probably only that the needed codec isn't installed).
• I use KPilot to sync with my Palm (I use Kubuntu, which installs KDE by default); I do not know which is the GNOME equivalent. It seems to be able to synchronize with KMail, but I didn't try it (BTW, KDE's Kontact integrates several different programs, including an address book, calendar and email (which is in fact KMail running with a different window, so KPilot would be able to sync)).

--cesarb 22:58, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

• Evolution definitely have calendar function, look on your bottom left, it's one of the button. Thunderbird also supports calendar with the "Lightning" extension developed by Mozilla.
• Media Centre replacement option: maybe have a look at MythTV?
• WMA lossless -> FLAC: I would personally use foobar in wine and convert to FLAC directly in there. Not sure about the support of WMA Lossless in Ubuntu but foobar definitely supports it and I also find it to be a bit faster. --antilived^{T | C | G} 06:55, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Java coding for cellphones

Hi there. Just wondering; I'd like to create software for my cellphone, and since it got java support (like so many other phones...) it sounds good to use that language. Now, I'm a total newb to java, no idea where to start. Do anyone of you know where I should start? What software I could use and what files to download. Also, if you could post some simple tuturials I'd be glad :). Thanks in advance. BTW, it is possieble, right? 213.64.150.116 19:53, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

The answer, as might be expected, is almost just the one word "Sun". However, to be more specific, you want their Java site; this is the beginning of their general language tutorial, and there are many others available (including one on how to use the Java SDK). You can get the SDK there (compiler, virtual machine, debugger, etc.); you'll also need (probably from elsewhere) a source code editor or IDE of some description. For that I personally recommend GNU Emacs, but it's quite the religious choice; some people swear by such simple things as Notepad. Finally, you should check with your phone's documentation and/or manufacturer to figure out exactly how to put your code on the phone, and exactly what services the phone offers; the standard Java library is not going to have a "add entry to a CellPhoneBrand phone contact list" function, although (depending on your phone) the standard graphical toolkits like the AWT might work. Most likely, though, you will need to grab some classes (and/or source) from the phone's maker to successfully compile useful code for the device. --Tardis 21:32, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

If you have NEVER programmed anything in your life, I dare say your first program will NOT be Java software for your phone. If you are really interested in programming, try starting with something like python programming language. Vespine 21:49, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

I started with the Allegro library for C. I'd recommend notepad2 (or Kate) not notepad. As for phones, I doubt you'll get anything to work correctly on that - after all the phone companies make a tidy profit on the games they sell, so they won't make it easy. --h2g2bob 22:50, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

You can load just any old plain java game off the internet onto a java enabled phone, as long as it uses the basic u/d/l/r/ fire control scheme it will probably work. Vespine 00:34, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Java Micro Edition (for phones and the like) is a yucky set of libraries on a not-so-newbie-friendly language (though better than C). If you want to learn to program, I encourage you to do that, but it'll be at least 6 months [possibly more] before you get anything interesting on your cellphone. --대조 | Talk 12:22, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Partition help! (Formerly Duplicating a drive)

Hey all. I'm back again. Sort of.

Anyways, I'm planning on picking up a full version of Windows Vista (Probably Ultimate) sometime soon, but I have a bunch of games and such on my C:Drive. I was planning on partitioning it (But I don't feel like tracking down Partition Magic again), but I have a 250 gigabyte drive mounted externally. (Well, 251, apparently). I have Dubaron's DiskImage installed, as well. So I was planning on mirroring/imaging my primary drive onto the external drive, running XP from the external drive, and installing Vista on a clean old drive.

So a few questions: If you know DiskImage, what's the best way on that to make a complete copy of a working partition, and then have it duplicated elsewhere?

Can you duplicate Windows XP without it yelling at you, even if you only use one instance of it?

Are there any other good programs for duplicating a disc?

Thanks in advance. User:Logical2u_Talk 20:03, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

I don't know anything about DiskImage but... I do know that WGA checks for the serial number of the hard drive it's running from, so you might have to reactivate if you move it cross-drive. Also if you want to partition, ZOMG DONT USE PARTITION MAGIC. As anyone involved with IT will tell you (esp anyone who's ever done computer repair), using symantec products is one of the worst things you can do to your computer. Partition Magic is in particular a horrible, horrible product that "fixes" LBA discrepancies without asking, reassigns partition types that it doesn't recognize, and (for me at least) almost always fails a nondestructive resize. Burn the gparted livecd (use this to burn the iso to a CD-R), put it in, and restart your computer. Much safer, and you might be able to get through all this without (god forbid) running XP from an external hard drive. --froth^T 20:27, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

I lol'd at your comments, actually. You recommend GParted? It's a bootable disc, I'm assuming. So partitioning "around" a Windows XP installation is much less likely to cause any errors, in your opinion? (I used Partition Magic before from a torrent, and two days later my AV program picked it up everything I torrented as a virus, so it wasn't looking likely that I was going to use that). If I remember correctly, Nero (Which could be better...) does .ISOs. So basically boot from CD, partition from the CD before XP loads, and away I go, then? User:Logical2u_Talk 20:44, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

I second the GPartEd recommendation, however, Vista comes included with utilities that can carve out a partition for itself before you install it. Dunno for sure if the retail versions include it, as I tested this on the Betas/Release Candidates (It actually repartitioned a live RAID-0 array with no issues, was rather impressed.) if for some reason M$ removed the feature, GPartEd all the way. Cyraan 21:14, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Yes, partitioning with a livecd is much safer than "hot resizing" which is resizing the active partition. But basically (with the exception of Paragon Partition Manager, which is very good) there's no good XP utility for hot resizing. I know that Vista includes nondestructive partition resizing but I hadn't heard that it could repartition during installation. OK so if you want to use gparted, yes you can burn with Nero if you have it, I was just trying to suggest a free utility (plus nero is bloatware and I don't like it). Boot from the CD, set stuff up (and only use NTFS, don't try to partition anything as ext3 or xfs if you plan to continue using windows), and when it tells you, eject the CD. Then reboot and windows will load as usual (as long as you don't move your old windows partition) --froth^T 23:03, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

GParted won't load. I get it to boot from CD and to the main screen (Hit enter for most systems, choose kernals to load), but when I hit enter, it says "GParted Live CD not loaded, Kernal panic: Attempted to kill Init!". User:Logical2u_Talk 15:49, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Are you trying to boot from an external CD/DVD drive? How about a non-standards-compliant DVD burner? If so, try the live usb version --froth^T 18:50, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Not from an external one, but I am trying to boot from a (LG) DVD burner. Maybe I should try my other DVD player. Interesting. User:Logical2u_Talk 20:00, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Neither of em work. Moving to USB. User:Logical2u_Talk 20:22, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Er, I don't have a USB thumb drive, nor anything that effectively emulates one. If I run a Linux distro from DVD, would that basically give me the same options as GParted?User:Logical2u_Talk 20:24, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Erm well you could try knoppix or something... I think it comes with qtparted --froth^T 22:11, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Arbitrary Section Break

Ok, let's recap. .

1. GParted Didn't work due to LiveCD not being detected in either of my DVD drives, and it said there was a kernal error that attempted to kill the "init".
2. I tried Partition Logic LiveCD later, and I got a USB Bus Kernal Error, a Timeout on Kernals on my Floppy Drive, a kernal error on "Filesystemmount", as it said the file system of the disc is unknown, mounting the root file system failed, and initializing the main kernal failed, which then froze the program.
3. Cute Partition Manager loaded, but it doesn't permit resizing.
4. I have a Western Digital 250 GB Sata Hard Drive in NTFS file format with 4kb sectors, IE: One partition.
5. I have a 250 GB external USB hard drive, if that will work for the USB versions of these programs, that would be good too.
6. I have an LG DVD Burner and a regular DVD player, both internal.
   • So then why aren't any of the CDs working for me? Logical2u_Talk 14:58, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

No idea. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 08:05, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

I'm DLing the latest GParted ISO (I had the 3.3.1 version, I'm DL'ing 8.5.1) so this might actually work. (YAY) Logical2u_Talk 17:19, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Yep, it worked... I should've just double checked for the latest version... Logical2u_Talk 17:59, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Interconnection diagram

what is the importance or recording hardware and software installed and Interconnection diagram

So that when your system fails and you didn't make a backup you can find all of the stuff you need? Or if a particular component fails you can trace out what the problem is --froth^T 23:12, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Internet Dial-Up to Modem Ratio

What is the industry average for number of internet dial-up customers per modem? Smcginnis 21:42, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Dial-up companies don't use modems anymore, they use aggregators which connect directly with phone company equipment. This is for the 56K support, which doesn't work without a digital connection to the phone company. That said, most companies oversubscribe the number of concurrent connections they can handle by a factor of 20 to 1 or higher. Droud 22:36, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

By the same token, most ISPs oversubscribe their bandwidth as well, such that hundreds of modem connections may be sharing only a few megabits to the Internet. Droud 22:39, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Many ISPs now use shared "modem" banks, so the queueing statistics are better. In the shared bank, many ISPs are supported from one bank. You can verify this by doing a google search for the telephone number of provided by you ISP: If the search shows that the number is also used by other ISPs, then it's shared. Bacically, modern "modems" and internet edge routers are so cheap that there is no economic incentive to conserve this resource: if you get a busy signal, then somebody made a mistake. If your google search for the telephone number shows that it is exclusinve to your ISP, then we are back to the situation of 20 years ago and if you get a busy signal, you should complain to your ISP. caveat: I only use dial-up when I am travelling, and even then only when I am away from a wired or wireless hotel or hotspot. your experience may differ from mine. -Arch dude 02:16, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

January 31

Need an outliner recommendation

I've been googling for hours trying to find a decent Windows outliner. I have to make an outline for a senior thesis, and I need some freeware that'll let me do it. I don't have MSWord, only OpenOffice, and it's god-awful outlining system won't do. Anyone got a suggestion or recommendation? --Wooty Woot? contribs 03:45, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Numbering in Office 2007 is awesome, it's extremely smart. Pony up, you're redmond's. --froth^T 03:49, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Outliner? --antilived^{T | C | G} 06:42, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

@froth: I have to do this by tomorrow. @anti: Looked there..but I see a lot of programs. Could someone recommend a GOOD one out of the list? Or do I guess and click? --Wooty Woot? contribs 07:33, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

this one looks good. Not sure if it supports printing or exporting or anything though. Use openoffice2, it's not that bad. --froth^T 04:28, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Did it before you commented on that outliner (will use it in the future!) while wrestling with auto-format and general openoffice2 "hey, I'm going to indent this all the way to the right side of the page, hope you don't mind.". :D Thanks. --Wooty Woot? contribs 03:04, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Is your computer 32- or 64- bit?

How do I find out if my computer is 32- or 64- bit? What does that even mean?--Sonjaaa 04:49, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

At this stage of the game I think it's still pretty safe to assume your computer is 32-bit, unless you know it's 64-bit. It doesn't really mean too much, it's just the length of bits the computer can manipulate at once, on the surface 64 is better then 32, but there is a LOT more to it then that, a 64-bit computer is not anywhere close to twice as fast as a 32-bit one. Vespine 05:37, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Basically if you need to ask, you either have a 32-bit computer or a 64-bit system running a 32-bit Operating System, unless you're running Mac. --antilived^{T | C | G} 06:41, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Download and run CPU-Z, and tell us what it says under "Name" and "Specification". Cyraan 07:15, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

The easiest is if you tell us what processor you have. --Spoon! 07:17, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Might also be on the first tab of the system properties, which you can get at via the control panel. --h2g2bob 13:26, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

I suspect I have a rootkit

I recently ran Rootkit Hunter with the updated hash database on my Linux server, and it reported that every single one of my main executables (it lists like 50 of them, including stuff like cat, ls, ps, du, etc.) have the wrong MD5 checksum. I have another computer that has pretty much the same configuration (same distro, same updates, same package versions), and its executables are reported as okay. I then copied some of the suspect executables from my server to this other computer, and computed the hashes manually. They are indeed different; diff also reports that they are different; but the sizes and modification dates look identical.

Is this bad? What do you guys think I should do? --131.215.159.11 07:25, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Huh? Programs actually have different versions. Versions are released over time. The contents are different. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 08:27, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm not very knowledgable about linux development, but it doesn't seem like those simple binaries should ever change --froth^T 19:28, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

If you install a new version of the GNU core utilities, you can be nearly sure that all the checksums will change. -- mattb @ 2007-01-31T22:50Z

The source for the binary may not change, but thats NOT what you are summing. If they are compiled against different libs, or using different parameters, they will have different sums. I would be suspicious that a rootkit would bother to try to change ALL of your files out, and suspect a much simpler answer instead. --66.195.232.121 15:11, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Desktop

Which exe program is responsible for loading the desktop at startup?

From my limited knowledge, I think it's Explorer.exe. At least, it's responsible for displaying the desktop icons and wallpaper - I don't know if it's the one that actually loads them from disk. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 11:24, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

explorer.exe deals with the taskbar, desktop and the file browser. You can safely kill explorer.exe (end process) and restart it again if something funky has happened to your desktop. On a technical note, explorer.exe does not do everything - window manager services (creating and displaying actual windows) are handled by something else. --h2g2bob 13:22, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

(sigh) the kernel. Personally, I don't think the windowing and graphics should be dealt with in the kernel. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 06:20, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Linux Winmodem Compatability.

Any idea why USR 3COM WinModems are not compatible with Damn small linux?Also when I tried to change the initialization string from the cd bootup version of Damn Small Linux from "ATZ" to that of Us robotics winmodem string,It did not accept the change and only took the default ATZ value.And ATZ is the command to reset the 3Com winmodem.

You can look at Softmodem. I've gone through this with other winmodems and other versions of Linux. No success for me, although others have done it. --Zeizmic 17:51, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

I had a Dell with a onboard winmodem and even tried compiling my own drivers, still couldn't get it to work, ended up getting a PCMCIA card and it took about 3 minutes to get it going, if I knew how much time I would have lost with the winmodem I wouldn't have even bothered. Don't let me discourage you tho, i'm probably just inept:) Vespine 03:11, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Yea if you consider the time lost in solving the problems it may actually be cheaper to just get a Linux compatitable hardware instead of trying to solve it. --antilived^{T | C | G} 10:35, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

myspace

how do i save fit boys on myspace 2 my favourites without them knowing in case i pluck up the curage to say hello. Lilyfan87 11:01, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

The safest way is to just save them as bookmarks in your web browser - "bookmarks", "bookmark this page" (in IE that may be "favorites", "add favorite" or something). --h2g2bob 13:09, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Unix/Fat FS

My flash stick came preformatted as FAT (obviously), and I keep it that way so I can transfer files to Windows computers. But sometimes I get sick of having all my files labelled executable (and all the other permissions set to defaults) when doing Unix-to-Unix transfers. Is there any filesystem overlay or somesuch (I'm thinking FAT with extra metadata) that would allow that information to be maintained but still be readable by Windows? Or do I have to write one? (I've been wondering when I'd get the chance to write my own filesystem) --대조 | Talk 12:33, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

The permissions for drives come from the config file /etc/fstab. See the manual page for mount and fstab for details. --h2g2bob 13:02, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Versions of Linux before 2.6.11 support the UMSDOS filesystem: a FAT filesystem that preserves Unix metadata. --Carnildo 21:37, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Thank you, that's exactly what I meant. I might have to start maintaining it, though :->. --대조 | Talk 14:26, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

Just put your stuff in a tarball, which preserves everything. --Spoon! 02:08, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

umask. eg, umask=7000. umask=7777. whatever. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 06:19, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

It's a hackish solution, but... You could, when doing Unix-to-Unix transfers, create a large empty file, format it as ext3, and loopback mount it. --cesarb 19:43, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

I have done that, but it doesn't exactly meet my requirements ("would allow that information to be maintained but still be readable by Windows") although I could put ext2fs in the FAT, and then use it to open the ext3 file. --대조 | Talk 14:26, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

nvidia nv44 driver update

i want to update the driver of the video card of my computer that is nvidia nv44, (i know that I need to go here http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp ), but if I go to graphiocs driver section there is many types: quadro, geforce 8800 series, geforce e tnt series, geforce go series, what i need to download??? 201.79.42.226 18:27, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

NV44 is the code name for the Geforce 6200 series GPU, the drivers under "GeForce and TNT2" will work for you. Cyraan 18:32, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

jboss deployment

I've deployed a model-view-controller application on my jboss application server but have seen that I don't have the servlets and other stuff in the right places.

I'm thinking if I could find a sample web app that uses servlets and jsp pages in a model-view-controller application I could compare that with my losing effort and make the necessary corrections.

Would you happen to know where I could download such a sample app?

The MVC paradigm has nothing to do with where your app server expects to find things. See WAR (file format) for more info. Friday (talk) 21:31, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

New Hard Drives

Is it possible to have SATA and IDE running side by side, with SATA as the master? Also, can you copy XP and programs onto a new HDD from an old one, i nedd to get a bigger drive! Thanks Jackacon 19:56, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Yes, and yes. For your second question, consider using Disk cloning tools. Splintercellguy 21:26, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

If you are thinking of buying new hard disks for your computer you do need to make sure your motherboard supports both IDE and SATA interfaces, SATA is only a few years old and some older computers may not support it. And just to add to the above, for the second question, there is no consideration involved, you MUST use something like disk cloning, you can't just copy and paste or 'drag' all the files over to the new drives, windows will not boot if you do that. Vespine 03:08, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

SATA is a type of IDE (ATA) device. Maybe you mean PATA? --froth^T 04:25, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Windows-Linux webcam

Hi. I use Linux (Ubuntu 6.06) and have a friend who uses Windows XP. She has a webcam - is there any software we can use to enable video-conferencing? Thanks very much, No Retreat No Surrender 20:04, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Windows live messenger? Jackacon 20:07, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Not on Linux, surely? No Retreat No Surrender 21:11, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

aMSN in theory can do that, never tried though. Ekiga and any SIP compliant software on Windows would also work. --antilived^{T | C | G} 23:31, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, aMSN works. No Retreat No Surrender 17:37, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

AMSN 0.95+ has webcam support, but only if your webcam is supported in Linux, google easycam2, that will setup webcams in Linux well! - Jonathandavis

How To Turn RAM (Random Access Memory) To ROM (read only memory)

Well i need more room to run my programs on my computer, so i was wondering if there was anyway to turn RAM To ROM? any thing would be of help thank you.

you could increase the size of your Virtual RAM, that uses a part of the HDD for RAM Jackacon 20:07, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

I don't see how turning RAM to ROM would help, and anyway this sort of thing isn't very doable. I can't tell what you're asking- there is a difference in computers between memory and storage. See Computer storage for an explanation. Friday (talk) 21:25, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Also RAM and ROM (and their interface with the CPU) are physically very different, there is absolutely no way to "turn" one into the other --froth^T 22:09, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Not necessarily. The electrical and signalling interface to some kinds of RAM and ROM are more or less identical inasmuch as a CPU is concerned. Broad sweeping statements are usually unsafe. -- mattb @ 2007-01-31T22:48Z

ROM isn't just memory with "read only" restrictions on it- after an imaging it's electrically unchangable. Of course you've got really cool stuff like EEPROM, but that's another story. And of course the OP's question makes no sense whatsoever so we might just be arguing past each other --froth^T 23:29, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

An interface doesn't necessarily say anything about inner workings. You can, for example, wire certain types of SRAM and PROM to the same address and data bus pins of a microprocessor in certain cases and have things work as expected either way (except that PROM will not be rewritable). However, as you said, this is irrelevant to the original question. The OP seems to need a bigger hard disk. -- mattb @ 2007-02-01T00:13Z

About the "virtual memory", most modern kernels/MMs do paging automatically anyway. I don't see how they would operate with no free pages left. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 06:24, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Atari 2600, ?-Bit

Greetings,

I have been categorizing my consoles and am wondering what the bit power of the Atari 2600's GPU (or CPU) was.

AlexanderTG 20:43, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

This is the wiki article on the CPU in the 2600, might help MOS Technology 6507 Jackacon 21:03, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

The Atari 2600 had an NTSC (or PAL/SECAM) non-interlaced output. That created the limit for the number of pixels on the screen. As for the number of colors, it was 8-bit. However, it was possible to change the color of a bit as it was being drawn to get an in-between shade. So, it theoretically had the ability to display just about any color. --Kainaw ^(talk) 04:41, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Looking back at this question, I think it is important to note that the Atari 2600 did not have a frame buffer - a section of memory where the screen is drawn before sending it off to the monitor/tv. It created the video signal as it was being drawn. The frame buffer is what most computers measure their graphics capability by: How many pixels does it have? What's the bit depth? How many frame buffers are there? Without a single frame buffer, the Atari 2600 cannot be measured in that way. --Kainaw ^(talk) 12:49, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Email

What kind of email software does Microsoft offer?

Your question isn't very specific, but maybe Microsoft Outlook or Microsoft Exchange Server is what you're looking for. Friday (talk) 21:23, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Microsoft Outlook is part of the Microsoft Office Suite, the default crappy windows email client is Outlook Express. Vespine 22:59, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

The default one is Windows Mail in Windows Vista. --Spoon! 02:10, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Don't forget Hotmail and Windows Live Mail! Droud 12:49, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Thanks! 68.193.147.179 20:48, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Vista and Office 2007

I've heard from several sources that it would be unwise to purchase Windows Vista right after release, and that I should wait a few months for most of the bugs to be worked out. Would the same apply to something like Office 2007? Also, if I were to purchase either one, would I be able to install them on more than one computer?--the ninth bright shiner ^talk 21:33, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Office tends to be much more polished on release. If you're planning on buying office 2007, might as well buy it now; it's unlikely to change much. Windows, on the other hand, is significantly different because of huge service packs that get released for free to licensees. And if you were to purchase Vista the license is only good for one computer. You could use the same DVD for all of the installations (every version is the exact same DVD) but the license key wouldn't be valid anymore. I wouldn't know about office 2007, I have the -uhm- Enterprise version. --froth^T 22:07, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

And now, questions that stem from answers. The service packs are free, eh? Neat. But what do you mean "every version is the same DVD"? That sounds like you could buy the Home Basic version and install Ultimate...O_o--the ninth bright shiner ^talk 22:42, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Neat? Heh. Ideally windows shouldn't have serious problems when it ships RTM anyway. :) But yes, every DVD is the same. It installs content based on your license key- if you have an Ultimate key then it installs all of the content, and if you have a Home Basic key it puts a ton of restrictions on the content it installs (and doesn't install a lot of content included in Ultimate). You're not actually paying for a more expensive product, you're paying into MS's marketing strategy, which is really how it's worked all along (all CDs cost the same amount to press, including the "premium" versions of programs) but it's kind of come to a head with vista since they're exactly the same DVDs in different packaging (and maybe different etching on the front of the DVD, I'll know tomorrow when I get my copy!). --froth^T 23:25, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Interesting, how it all installs like that...great! Thanks a lot! I stand by the argument that the Reference Deskies should be paid.--the ninth bright shiner ^talk 23:38, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Maybe I'd be able to actually pay for Office 2007 :) --froth^T 00:27, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Depending on how much software is worth to you, there's always MSDN. $1100 a year, just under $100 a month, for basically everything Microsoft. Droud 01:59, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Totally not worth it. Unless Microsoft was pioneering HVDs and über-dense portable media and giving that away. And I can just wait and save up for all that stuff. My dad and I are both providing funds to get Professional, because it has Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and Publisher, the last of which he needs and is paying for. Not a bad deal on my end.--the ninth bright shiner ^talk 02:27, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Psst. Bittorrent. --froth^T 04:11, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

How about manually installing the content? Like those crackers who create custom installers? --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 06:26, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Cause you still don't get updates, and you probably won't be able to install WGA-validated apps like WMP11 was for XP. You might as well just use an invalid volume license key and crack the activation- which is much easier if you want a vanilla setup. Custom installers are used for different reasons. --froth^T 06:44, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Psst. Linux and OpenOffice, although I prefer the gnome native office suite more... --antilived^{T | C | G} 10:33, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

AVI files that can't fast foward

I've noticed that certain video files me and my friends have encountered cannot be fast forwarded, you can't skip to any other point in the clip. The only thing you can do is just play it forward, and to get to a certain point you have to sit and watch everything preceding it. Is there any way that this can be avoided? I try taking it into Windows Movie Maker and it's unable to import. What's going on here? NIRVANA2764 21:36, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

These files are lacking indexes, which tell a program which position in the file corresponds to what time in the movie. virtualdub may be able to help. Droud 01:44, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Try it in VLC. I haven't heard of problems playing avi files, but if there are still problems seeking, then use ffmpeg to re-encode the file's container. This guide explains fixing flv files using ffmpeg - it is the same procedure for fixing (broken) avi to (fixed) avi. --h2g2bob 02:06, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Indexes? That would be a huge waste of storage space and computation. Think about it: a 32-bit pointer for each frame. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 06:30, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Even with the 64b timestamps and 64b pointers, it still comes out to less than 4MB to index every frame in a 2 hour movie. In any case, most AVIs can only be played from keyframes, so the index would only contain those. Droud 12:48, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

I've had good results with the freeware program AVIPreview. It's a lightweight AVI preview program that reconstructs the index of an AVI file before playback and can cache generated indexes (so re-indexing of, for example, partially downloaded AVI files do not need to be re-performed every time). It does not (yet) have a keyframe search function, though. The software is in alpha and has not been updated for quite some time, but is pretty stable. Also try iO Media Player—it has AVIPreview integrated into its core and is more fully featured. Hope this helps. —Xhantar^Talk

IE 6.0.2100.2180 SP2 Frame Rendering

HellO HelpDesk,

Under IE 6.0.2100.2180 SP2, when I go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Help_desk/Archive_33 , I wind up with a screen that looks like this;

[19]

My IE seems to be having a problem with Frames that Firefox (running on the same computer) does not have. This occurred on a previous version of IE 6.0 and my upgrade to SP2 didn't help at all.

Thx,

Kaosmax 23:10, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

That's not a problem with frames (frames are not used on wikipedia). Maybe your text size is turned way up. Try going to View -> Text Size -> Normal or holding Ctrl and scrolling your scroll wheel. --froth^T 23:20, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

By the way, I recommend http://photobucket.com or http://imageshack.us in the future for image uploads --froth^T 23:21, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

I thought I had my text large ;-) Try either reducing your text size (as described above), or changing Wikipedia's skin in your preferences - this can move the edit, history, etc links to a different place. If you need text that big to read the small print placed on some sites, try changing from Internet Explorer to Firefox. With Firefox you can set a minimum font size, so you can make small print the same size as regular text. This would mean you don't need your font settings quite so large. That option can be got at by going to the tools menu, options; in the content tab, under fonts & colours, and clicking the advanced button. --h2g2bob 01:57, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

February 1

IP addresses listed on several anti-spam\open proxy DBs

Well, this has been bugging me for a while, so let's see what you guys think of it. Most of the IP addresses that are dynamically assigned to me by my ISP (*cough CTBC cough*) are blacklisted on several of the spam\open proxy databases. On a survey I've performed on 50 different IPs throughout the week, I found that most (43 out of 50) IPs are listed on average at eight different databases (I've checked through http://www.dnsstuff.com/)

This is very annoying since I am forced to get a new IP address whenever:

1. I need to connect to some IRC servers that perform open-proxy checking
2. I need to comment on certain websites that have security systems against spambots
3. I need to visit certain websites that restrict access to IPs on such databases.

It's always the same crap, and sometimes I have to try DOZENS of different IPs before I get one that works! The worst thing is that the database entries are usually 6 months older, or more! And no, it probably isn't my computer that's infected by some malware, since it's always some old entry on some database that's being pointed out as the issue. I also keep my firewall and anti-virus updated and running, just in case.

So, I believe that my ISP and\or most of its users must be worthless, careless, insecure and abusive, since they have been abused so much to reach this point. Too bad my ISP has a solid monopoly in this city, I guess. I've called tech support and was able, after several minutes (or was that an hour?), to talk to someone about this and they don't seem to have the slightest idea of what I am talking about. It's like they didn't know what an IP address meant!

Given the monstrosity this company is, and the complete control and lack of effort it has towards the city and its customers, I was wondering if there's ANYTHING on my side I could do to avoid these issues in the future. I mean, I always try to ask these databases for a recheck so the number of blacklisted IPs drop, but I'm probably the only subscriber wasting time with this, and it's a tedious, slow and tiresome thing to do.

I was thinking that maybe using Tor or some other low-level onion routing system would work, but giving mankind's taste for misuse of good tools, I'm guessing these have been abused and banned everywhere as well. I could be wrong, and I'll check that eventually... but, any ideas about what I can do about all this? — Kieff | Talk 00:04, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

You actually live in uberland?! :o :o You could try using tor but tor exit nodes are banned by pretty much everything. I don't know of any way to resolve your situation other than moving (and who would move FROM uberland?) or maybe seeing if your ISP has a different tier of service that just happens to have a separate IP range. And what do you mean by [[pt:CTBC|CTBC]]? Do you mean DHCP? --froth^T 00:31, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Eh, I thought Tor would be banned by now... The name of the city is completely misleading, by the way. The 600k habitant city is really pathetic, and the only place for "entertainment" is either the single, small shopping center around called "Center Shopping", the several nasty bars (at least 1 every 2 blocks) or a few nightclubs. The city is moved by silly, shallow hedonistic lifestyles, really. I'm trying to leave it as soon as I can! The place depresses me. Oh, and CTBC is the local phone company. They control every single phone line and are the sole provider of broadband. Needless to say, it charges about 7 times as much as the others everywhere else in the country (yeah, I checked). I'm paying 30 USD/month for 224 kbit/s ADSL and that's all the choice I have! Ah... Uber-land indeed. — Kieff | Talk 00:48, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

You might consider purchasing a dedicated server from a reputable vendor (rackspace comes to mind but $$$) and proxy through that. Droud 01:48, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

I have exactly the same problem on the other side of the planet in Australia. I tried to join a forum which kept replying my IP was banned, what I ended up doing was going through a anonymous web proxy, which worked for me, but i don't know if it will be suitable for your purpose. Vespine 02:56, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Windows Vista

Hi, I'm thinking of upgrading to Windows Vista (even though it is a bit self-heavy) but I'm not sure if my computer can handle it, I was looking at my system details on SETI@home in my account, and it said my computer had a 2.6 GHz Processor , 760 MB’s of RAM, and a DirectX 10 (?) and a 3D graphics card. And it says in the article Windows Vista that I need a 1 GB of memory, a 1 GHz Processor so I'm split between recommended requirements and minimum requirements, so is my computer up to it? And if it is, do I have to save all my documents, movies, music etc. to a USB drive or a CD, or is this just a recommended safety precaution?

Thanks! - 210.55.147.228 02:05, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

I think Windows Vista could probably run on that machine, although it may not be the smoothest. Yes, save your documents and other files in case something goes wrong. Splintercellguy 03:07, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Yes, that's a decent computer and it will definitely run Vista, but you might turn off some of the spiffy graphics stuff if it turns out to be slow. And for the second question, you don't have to save your stuff; the upgrade keeps it for you. --Spoon! 04:04, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Unless something borks out during the install. Doesn't even have to be caused by the software - what if you have a power outage? It's always a good idea to backup your files before doing such large scale updates, just in case. You never quite know what could go wrong. TERdON 10:00, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

It will run fairly well on 760MB of ram but not with the "glass" themes. You don't have a DX10 graphics card, they don't exist. You should save what you want to another media (another hard drive, a usb memory stick, a cd), then do a clean install over your old Windows which will erase everything. Then copy your stuff back into vista. It will probably ask you if you want to do an "in-place" upgrade which will allow you to keep all of your own files, but it will cost you performance and that's not what you need with those specs. Also, what kind of processor do you have? A pentium 4? If it's dual core (probably Core Duo or Core 2 Duo) then you'll have very good performance and you have absolutely nothing to worry abuot. --froth^T 04:06, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

I have a celeron proccessor, will i need to get a Pentium 4 to have the glass "aero" effects, if so how much will it cost in USD? Thanks -- 210.55.148.13 07:46, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

You will need to buy another computer, most likely over $1000, to have those effects and run them decently. I suggest sticking with the computer you have and not upgrading, Vista won't give you anything substantial worth the hassle. --Wooty Woot? contribs 08:26, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Isn't there a link on Microsoft where you can go to and it will examine your machine to determine if it's Vista compatible? Corvus cornix 19:32, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

There is indeed. MS provides a neat little software called The Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor which will examine your system and see if it is compatible. Oskar 19:34, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

google cache

I'm trying to see if google cached powerpoint notes on the site http://www.geocities.com/hawaugh2002/notes/(dir of notes) Does anyone know if google caches this or how to access it if it does? Thanks. --75.84.49.209 03:18, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

No. You can see if google caches a particular file by searching for cache:http://url.com/blah/file.ppt but google doesn't even index any part of your site so nothing to worry about. Archive.org doesn't have it either --froth^T 04:10, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

UNIX shell programming

explain what the following do in UNIX shell prpogramming

1. ctrl-w
2. ls-s/home/camp>>filex
3. mkdir

Depends on the shell, but: 1) Nix the last word, 2) man ls, 3) man mkdir -- mattb @ 2007-02-01T15:05Z

In other words, 1) Erases the last word (I think), 2) Look a the man page on ls, 3) look at the man page on mkdir --froth^T 19:16, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Also, the ">> filex" redirects the output of the command "ls ..." to be appended to the file "filex" --Spoon! 00:01, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

1. ctrl-w deletes the word before the cursor.
2. ls -s /home/camp >> filex (note the spaces :-) lists all the files in /home/camp. -s probably displays the sizes next to the list, but check the man page. The >> filex sends the output which would go to stdout (the screen) to a file called filex. As it's >> and not > it will append the data to an existing file if a file called filex already exists.
3. mkdir creates a directory.

--h2g2bob 02:02, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

guys, this sounds like homework. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 07:45, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Windows Vista ready

Can anyone tell me if these computer specs would be good for installing windows vista home premium

Hard drive 40GB Pentium 4 2.4GHZ Directx9 XP home 512 DDR RAM

--Biggie 09:12, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Stick with XP. Vista will make this machine grind to a halt (or, at best, a very slow crawl). yandman 09:15, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Yep --froth^T 13:28, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Thank You--Biggie 18:43, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

The recommended spec that Windows quotes for 'home basic' version is...1ghz, 512mb RAM, 20gb hd (with 15gig available space left), Directx9 and 32mb graphics memory, DVD-rom, Audio Ouput and internet-access. There is absolutely no reason why the spec you mentioned cannot run Windows Vista smoothly enough. It is preferrable to have a faster PC and it may run 'slower' than in store, but when purchasing software you must always make a trade-off between speed/response times and the benefits the application bring. If you believe Vista is worth the upgrade then according to Microsoft's spec recommendationss your computer should be able to run the system fine. ny156uk 23:19, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Thats why I love this commercial! It's so true! schyler 23:37, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

No, it's not, schyler, and Ny's comment is blatantly incorrect, unless you run Vista at its lowest-level and don't run any powerful applications with it. Your computer most likely has no graphics card at all. Vista will probably not do so well with integrated graphics cards, nor your 512mb of ram or your pentium 4. If you had at least a basic gfx card, I'd be willing to go out on a limb and say "yes you can run it" but with those specs, not only do I not recommend it, I'm not sure if it'll run any faster than what Froth said. --Wooty Woot? contribs 23:43, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

So, let me get this right. You say that his computer doesnt need to be upgraded to run Vista, but for it run well at all, he should upgrade it. How the hell is it not right? schyler 23:48, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

No, his computer doesn't need to be upgraded if he sticks with XP, but he needs to upgrade at least his graphics card to run Vista at any rate. Your Mac comment is soapboxing. --Wooty Woot? contribs 23:53, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

You still didn't answer me. How am I not correct in posting that link ad how is the commercial not corect when he has to upgrade? schyler 00:05, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

The advertisement has nothing to do with upgrading Vista... And that computer might be able to run Vista - but it will be painful. I have seen XP run painfully slow and it is no fun at all. x42bn6 Talk 00:14, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

What?! The commercial is about PC having to go in and get all his innards upgraded to efficiantly run Vista. And that's exactly what I'm talking about: it will run painfully slow! I know exactly how that is. I was a life-lon Windows user and evrry time Windows came out with a new version, I bought it, of course after I made sure I had the minimum requirments. It always sucked. I always hadto eventually buy a new computer. This was the case with Windows 98, 2000 (professional), XP, and I'm sure it would have happened with Vista. On Mac, it just works. Now I posted my comment about the commercial, because its funny and true. I really didn't want to get in to any argument of sorts, but it seemed to have happened anyways. schyler 00:26, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

I'm sorry but this is entirely gibberish. The spec as recommended by Windows themselves is met (and surpassed) by this user's computer (save for the graphics card - details of which he has not given). Yes it will run faster on a faster computer...strangely enough...yes advanced features may not be available/useable on a near base-spec machine, but NO there is no reason to believe the computer spec above cannot run the latest operating system. Just like many games can run on base-specs and look half as good as on high-end spec, so will Vista run on low-spec and not look as good/work as well as on high-spec. The user may buy Vista safe in the knowledge that from the spec given nothing he mentions is not above (or equal to) the recommended spec by Windows themselves. It may be beneficial to upgrade parts on your computer to improve performance, but it is not, as suggested above, a necessity. ny156uk 01:22, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

OS X "just works" on old hardware because you only have one bit of color depth per pixel. Only need one; you only have 2 colors, grey and silver :) --froth^T 01:30, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Aside from the OSX vs Vista thing, I really do suggest that the user not buy Vista until at least Service Pack 2 comes out. And about the comment from Froth, I think it's funny some how, but I dont relly understand it. schyler 02:06, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Color depth and 1-bit color --froth^T 19:01, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Sorry, froth, your wrong. You haven't mentioned all of the colours in between gray and silver. :):) --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 08:00, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Whoa is that a new feature in Leopard? I might have to switch! :o --froth^T 19:01, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

You want to know my graphics card its a intel extreme graphics one. i am wondering if i should upgrade the card to an nvidia G force.--Biggie 00:59, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Information technology & Information systems

briefly explain an organization functional department,tasks & management levels of that organization and highlight the information technology & information systems ethical decisions they make

Please, always say please, always sign your posts, and make it not look like homework. We have done our fair share of homework in our lifespans and do not want to do it any more. Thank you. --Ouro (blah blah) 12:12, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Searching copyvio

(Question moved from talk page)

Hello. I'm from Russian Wikipedia. Last week we've had a problem: We've found out copyvio in some featured articles. It was very awful. So the question is: Is there any good searh engine that can determine if an article contains some paragraphs or some sentences from other sites? I don't mean Google or other engines - it is good enough, but you must take phrases from every paragraphs to find out copyvio. I also know about http://www.copyscape.com/ - it's a good stuff, but it isn't free (as I see) and it don't work correctly. Thanks for answering. Vinograd19 00:03, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

How to shorten a MPEG movie

I have a Sony P72 Cyber-shot digital camera that also takes MPEG movies besides the normal JPG pictures.
I would like to take an "MPEG movie" that is large in size (i.e. 50 MB) and take out just a small portion of it.
This "nitty-gritty" part (i.e. 1 MB) then I would like to put into a Wikipedia article as a clip showing a short event.
In this process (if possible) does it then end up as another MPEG movie or something else (i.e. movie GIF)?
Is it most proper to insert a GIF movie into a Wikipedia article or a MPEG movie?
Will dial-up people have trouble with short movies (i.e. 1 - 2 MB)?
--Doug ^talk 14:45, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

You can't really embed movies on Wikipedia. You can do GIFs, but you should keep them short to avoid forcing people to download a huge image. The preferred media type for uploaded video is probably Theora/Vorbis/OGG. -- mattb @ 2007-02-01T15:45Z

The easiest way to cut out parts of an MPEG movie is to plunk down the $25 or whatever for Quicktime Pro, which makes it very easy. There are some other, free solutions out there, but most of them involve either trying to make complicated editing software do what you want for a very simple job, or converting the file from MPEG into another format (i.e. into AVI) and then using a specialized piece of software for the job (i.e. VirtualDub). My recommendation, in terms of the smallest use of your time, is to get Quicktime Pro, which will take about 5 minutes total (and be useful in the future, perhaps), rather than spending the 5+ hours it will probably take you if you try to do it with semi-functional and semi-documented open source free stuff. (I say this from experience, if you can't tell.) --24.147.86.187 00:26, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

VLC again :D Use file, wizard and specify a start and stop time. Wikimedia Commons might accept your video, but check the rules before uploading. You could then add a link to the video on commons. --h2g2bob 01:55, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Also note that your P72 saves the video in MPEG-1 format. Transcoding it into, say, MPEG-4 or Theora may reduce the file size significantly, especially if you apply some good noise reduction filters while you're at it. (Of course, doing this badly is a good way of turning your video into unwatchable mush. Tweak the settings in your video editor until it looks good.) Transcoding to Theora is needed anyway if you want to upload your video to Commons. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 16:07, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

NTFS boot sectors...?

Is ther a virus or any software that can render all NTFS boot sectors unwritable? -- Barringa 15:28, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Yes, though such viruses are probably not limited to NTFS partitions. See boot virus. Splintercellguy 16:44, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

what? unwritable? how the hell are you meant to do that without damaging the hard drive itself? --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 07:46, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

What soundcard do I have?

Hi there. Hopefully this will be a easy question: What soundcard do I have? I have a found a couple of devices, though I got no idea of which it really is:

• ASUS TV7134 WDM Capture
• ASUS WDM TV/FM Tuner
• Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS (WDM)

The brand is HP if it is to any help :). Thanks, I really appriciate your help! Cybesystem 15:43, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS. Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS, to be precise. --Kjoonlee 15:52, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Ah, thanks! Now I can get the right drivers :)

computer c drive and d drive

What are the differences and why do other computers only have a c drive. Why does my c drive only have 5% used and the d drive 53% used?69.157.42.42 16:16, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

The drive letters refer to different devices (or, even possibly different parts of the same physical device). See drive letter. Friday (talk) 16:25, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

If your PC is pre-built, chances are D is a recovery partition, keeping an image of the windows install that is copied over to C when recovery mode is run. Cyraan 18:46, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Can PCI-E bus talk to the USB port of a computer

HI there. Could someone please help me. Will it be technically possible to have a PCI-E bus in a computer talk to something like a USB port on the outisde so that things like graphics cards can be connected at USB without opening the computer case . Just like any other USB device

greetings no I don't think you can do that, and to be honest it's not that hard to install a graphics card, they will only go in one way! ps dont forget to sign comments... Jackacon 16:59, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Not too sure if this is correct, but I believe PCIE has a much faster data rate than USB. There is, however, a mobile graphics card coming out next year that'll plug into a laptop's side port (forget the name of the technology now), that I suppose is similar. --Wooty Woot? contribs 18:27, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

USB (even 2.0) is too slow. What you want is a PCI Express cable, which allows you to extend the PCI Express bus several meters outside the box. --cesarb 19:24, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

And, if you are interested in an external graphics card, see NVIDIA Quadro Plex. --cesarb 19:29, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

CruzerSync

I've had this flash drive for months and I only now took a closer look. It came with three programs, one of them being CruzerSync. It automatically syncs certain files to the flash drive, so you don't have to worry about differences between content on the computer and content on the flash drive. However, it costs something awful for what little it does. Are there any free alternatives anybody knows of?--the ninth bright shiner ^talk 17:22, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

IIRC, Windows itself has a synchronize function. It may or not be as good as commercial alternatives, but at least it's free. --Wooty Woot? contribs 18:28, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

And I can find this...where?--the ninth bright shiner ^talk 18:35, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Go into windows help and do a search for "Briefcase". It should do most of what you're looking for. --Maelwys 19:32, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

I've found my way to it and installed a double briefcase that will either update the computer files or the flash drive files on command. Many thanks, my friends!--the ninth bright shiner ^talk 01:51, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

There's also SyncToy. kmccoy (talk) 02:28, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

C++ syntax problem

Hey, I've been trying to get some programming practice at www.topcoder.com , since you aren't allowed to use LISP there I have to use C++ (or C#, java or visual basic, I'm sticking with C++ for now). The problems must have specific method signatures and class names to be submitted, but I'm getting an error (line 13, string[] BinaryCode::decode(String message)) saying expected unqualified-id before '[' token, I have no idea what this means (perhaps I need to specify something about using an array?) but I'm basically in a Catch 22 situation, I must use a specific method signature but that signature is giving me an error. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Robin

Posting your code here (or at least the relevant snippet) would greatly improve our chances to help you. TERdON 22:11, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

No problem, just didn't want to take up too much space

class BinaryCode
{

  int main() {
      decode("23210")
      return 0;
      }
//string[] BinaryCode::decode(String message)
string[] decode(String message)
{
	String[] result;
	String answer;
	int previousNum, nextNum, currentNum = 0;
	answer[0] = codedString[0] - previousNum;
	for (i from 1; i < codedString.length; i++) {
		currentNum = convert(codedString[i - 1]);
		previousNum = nextNum;
		nextNum = convert(answer[i - 1]);
		if ( (currentNum - (previousNum + nextNum)) > 1) {
			result[0] = "NONE";
			break; 
			}
		else {
			answer[i] = currentNum -  (previousNum + nextNum);
		}
	}
		if (result[0] != "NONE") {
			result[0] = answer;
			}
			
	previousNum = 1;
	answer[0] = codedString[0] - previousNum;
	for (i from 1; i < codedString.length; i++) {
		currentNum = convert(codedString[i - 1]);
		previousNum = nextNum;
		nextNum = convert(answer[i - 1]);
		if ( (currentNum - (previousNum + nextNum)) > 1) {
			result[1] = "NONE";
			break; 
			}
		else {
			answer[i] = currentNum -  (previousNum + nextNum);
		}
	}
		if (result[1] != "NONE") {
			result[1] = answer;
			}
			
	}
	return result;
} 
int convert(char a){
	  int result = int(a) -48;
	return result;
	}   
} ;

I'm pretty sure that you can't implement your functions within the class declaration. --froth^T 23:23, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

You can. They are automatically inlined. --Spoon! 23:38, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

You cannot pass or return arrays in C++. You also cannot declare an unitialized array without dimensions like "string[] result;" It looks like your "result" is only going to only contain two strings. You might declare an array of two strings in your "main", and pass it (as the pointer to the first element) into "decode" to use; or you allocate an array of two strings dynamically (using "new" operator) in "decode", and then you can return it (as the pointer to the first element), and remember to free it (with "delete") afterwards. Or you can learn to use a data structure like "vector" instead of an array.

On unrelated notes, you have too many closing braces. Also, in C++ the "main" function of a program exists outside of any classes. Also, the way that you have declared "decode" and "convert", they are instance methods, and you need to have a BinaryCode instance to use them. You could also declare them static (as class methods) and then you would not need an instance. --Spoon! 23:38, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Also, your for loop syntax ("i from 1") is wrong. And the "string" class (at least the one in the standard library) should start with a lowercase "s". --Spoon! 01:16, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

decode("23210") and string[] decode(String message) don't need semicolons? --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 04:24, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

expected unqualified-id before '[' token: You have a type declaration with no variable name. You're trying to declare an array of String, but you haven't given it a name. In addition, you need to either specify the number of elements in the array, or provide explicit initialization. One of the other of these should work depending on what you want and what a String object is: String s_array[3]; or String s_array[] = {"s_one", "s_two", "s_three"}; Wake 04:33, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

The "for (i from ..." stuff makes me suspect that you have #defined some clever macros. If that is the case, it will be very difficult for us to spot errors in your code. Be warned that macros are evil. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 12:41, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Vista configuration questions

Help on any of these would be appreciated.

1. Is there any way to turn off the tasks toolbar in Explorer?
2. How do I use the full file path instead of the breadcrubs in the address bar?
3. Is there any way to make Segue UI look decent without using ClearType? It makes Courier New (wikipedia textareas) look painfully blurry.
4. What's wrong with the start menu? I've moved Administrative Tools into Accessories but windows keeps creating an empty Admin Tools folder directly under all programs. Same with Office 2007. And my custom positions for the accessories keep resorting themselves by name, even though I have Sort Programs By Name unchecked in the options. I want folders at the top, dangit!
5. Is it possible to manually register games with the Games interface?
6. What are the filenames of the .cpl control panel applets so I can disable most of them in HKCU/Control Panel?

Thanks --froth^T 23:21, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

1. and 2. seem to show up in ShellExView, but disabling them does nothing.
2. Above
3. Are you turning font smoothing off completely, or just clear type? i.e. go into the window appearance options, then the classic appearance menu, the effects dialog, and finally change font smoothing to Standard. If that doesn't look right, then I don't think there's any other way around it, other than perhaps changing your monospaced font from Courier New .
4. Beats me. Try just using the search feature; that is, hit the Windows key, type in the start of what you're looking for, and hit enter or click on it. It's much quicker.
5. Drag the game or a shortcut to it and drop it into the games explorer window. It won't do the advanced things (sys. requirements, last time played), but it does act as a shortcut
6. They're all in Windows\System32, with fairly self-explanatory file names. vgrd

-- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 02:09, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

With #6 you can open the .cpl files with control.exe to see what they are. As Consumed Crustacean said above, they are in %WINDIR%\System32. --h2g2bob 03:28, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

February 2

Need help buying a computer

I need help buying a computer. I would like it to have Microsoft Vista, and be under $550. I would prefer a good computer, like a Dell. Please can you help me find a computer. Thanks! 68.193.147.179 01:08, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Computers under $550 won't run vista well at all, and dells aren't good computers. Which is good for you since they actually sell a $360 dollar desktop computer with Home Basic preloaded. [20] --froth^T 01:24, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Dells are okay computers, at least at the low-end ( / "mainstream"), and some of their laptops are fairly nice. Modern cheap computers will run Windows Vista, but without at least 1 GB of memory, they won't do it well. The glass interface will also be iffy. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 02:22, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

If you don't care about gaming, (which I assume you don't), there are much better options than buying a (IMO overpriced) computer from Dell, with an OS that really isn't geared for anyone not wanting DX10 (if you don't know what it is, my point is proven) - such as buying a second-hand computer, for instance, for web-browsing and word processing. You can pick up such computers for easily under $100, upgrade their RAM for smoother multi-tasking for maybe $50, and you're set. Spend the other $400 on something nice. If you're a gamer, and you want DX10, you're not going to find anything under $550 that's upgradeable or that'll work from a computer manufacturer, period. Most low to medium end premade PCs have integrated graphics controllers, cheap parts, and motherboards with no PCI-E or AGP slots, as well as proprietary everything. Local shops may be able to put together a gaming computer at under $550, but it'll be low-end at best, and I doubt that's what you're after anyway. --Wooty Woot? contribs 08:32, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

If you're not a gamer, grab any relatively recent made computer with an integrated Intel graphics card, install Linux (eg. Ubuntu) and Compiz or Beryl, and you get a faster computer with way more eyecandies. --antilived^{T | C | G} 11:24, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

You're not going to find anything DX 10 for any price under $1000; IIRC the only DX 10 card right now is the GF8800. Linux with Compiz is incredibly slick, and runs on just about anything recent, but some newbies might be confused by the different software and lack of compatibility with Windows (at least, lack of compatibility without some effort). If I was setting up a cheap computer for someone else, I'd more than likely go the Linux route, but I wouldn't recommend they do it alone. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 17:20, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Assuming you guys mean dual-boot, that's an excellent setup I never thought of for a new user. Windows for anything that doesn't run Linux or in WINE, Linux for day-to-day stuff. --Wooty Woot? contribs 23:24, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

If it was just one of my aunts who only surf the web and check their email, I wouldn't even bother with Windows. WINE runs a lot of the important applications with a little tweaking, and there are OSS alternatives for most of the basics. If Windows is absolutely needed, and the CPU supported hardware virtualization (unlikely in a cheap cheap computer), then you've got Xen to run Windows alongside Linux. No inconvenient dual booting required. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 03:25, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Which computer is better?

Compaq Presario V6000Z series or Compaq Presario V6000T series 68.193.147.179 01:29, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

It seems to pretty much come down to whether you prefer AMD or Intel processors. The Z is AMD, and the T is Intel, also the Z has Nvidia integrated graphics, and the T has Intel integrated graphics, negligible difference. If you plan on springing for a faster CPU however, the T would be the best bet, as the Core 2 is currently the best chip on the market. Cyraan 02:12, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Computer

What computer maker is the best? (ex: Dell, HP, Gateway, etc...) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.193.147.179 (talk • contribs)

There is no answer for that because it is based on opinion, not fact. If you like, you can ask, "Which computer manufacturer has the cheapest computer right now?" or "Which computer manufacturer has the longest warranty right now?" It all depends on what you think "best" means. --Kainaw ^(talk) 01:47, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

It would also help id you you told what you you would b using the computer for. schyler 02:03, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

What they said, also, if you're just getting an entry level box for email and internet, pre-built would be your best bet cost-wise. For mid-range or high-end (gaming, etx), building yourself or having a geek friend do it for you can save you a bundle. Cyraan 02:06, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

And from the examples given (Dell, HP, GAteway), I can assume the user is looking for a Windows computer (sigh), and it wouldnt really matter. Each company you buy from will probably give you the same kind of options to customize your PC. schyler 02:09, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Yourself. Period. --antilived^{T | C | G} 11:17, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

What if he's asking about laptops? Laptops are best bought, not built --froth^T 18:54, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Exploding Coca-Cola can

An utterly misplaced closed cola can in a backpack with over $300 worth of electronics inside. IN A DESCENDING AIRPLANE. Sigh...no real damage was suffered to my poor, poor electronics, but some inconveniences showed up. The Game Boy Micro was hardest hit, with its skimpy faceplate offering no protection from the sticky liquid. Absolutely all buttons now stick, and I'm not entirely sure how to clean them. Sure, I got a toothbrush and scrubbed around with water, producing out-of-this-world recovery, but the stickiness returned in a few hours. How should I un-stick the buttons? There are also problems with the Nintendo DS Lite. It's reliable clamshell design spared it a lot of exposure, but the volume control switch can't get to an intermediate between "mute" and "full blast," and it's ridiculously difficult to push the power switch up. How should I go about all this unsticking business?--the ninth bright shiner ^talk 02:00, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Isopropyl alcohol maybe? I used it to unstick keys on my xbox controller and it worked pretty well, though I used the 91% stuff so theres not as much water. Cyraan 02:03, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Take all batteries out, possibly take the device apart, then soak in isopropyl alcohol 91% solution for awhile. Shake well, air dry at least overnight. Droud 02:39, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

That sounds a bit risky to me, completely soaking it. And the matter of taking it apart, which I don't think I could do, and probably wouldn't because of the risks involved.--the ninth bright shiner ^talk 02:55, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Soaking it is fine, unless there's a hard drive or greased/moving components. Granted that alcohol can blemish some plastics, so try it on an inconspicuous spot (blemishes will happen with a q-tip too) first. The main reason to disassemble is to clean the casing (and button rubber) with soap and water and the electronics with alcohol. Droud 13:06, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Try just taking a q-tip, dip it in the alcohol, and swab around the stuck buttons, them push them a few times, swab again, etc. That should work small amounts around the buttons, see if it makes any improvement. Cyraan 02:57, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

If the thing got well saturated, taking it apart is almost a necessity. Also, be careful about total immersion in isopropynol. It is an organic solvent, and while most plastics will be fine with it, some materials will not. -- mattb @ 2007-02-02T03:31Z

About the q-tip...it doesn't seem like it would really be able to get it those tight spaces, especially in the L and R buttons. And would the isopropyl permanently get rid of the stick? I was thinking of toothbrush, water, and then pressurized air canister...which probably wouldn't work, would it?--the ninth bright shiner ^talk 05:05, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Well then just kind of pour a little in around the buttons. Isypropyl alcohol has a very low vapor pressure so it evaporates extremely quickly; don't be too worried about getting it wet- but you probably shouldn't immerse it because chances are there's a clock battery inside that could short --froth^T 05:22, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Its not really to get down deep, the alcohol should be able to dissolve it pretty effectively on its own without being scrubbed, the q-tip is just to make sure it doesn't all evaporate before you get it to the buttons. Cyraan 05:32, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Sounds good. Would Bausch & Lomb Sight Savers be an alternative? I don't have any isopropyl on hand, and they contain it...--the ninth bright shiner ^talk 06:16, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Not sure, would think as long as thats the only ingredient, it should be ok. Maybe try on a single button, or on something else to see if it evaporates cleanly (though I guess it would being used to clean glasses). Cyraan 06:42, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Limit cycle graph using GNUPLOT

How do I plot a limit cycle graph using gnuplot. I have a list of X,Y data points in a data file. 202.168.50.40 02:05, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Computer Freeze Madness

I turn on the computer. Everything is fine for about one minute, and then it freezes. I then have to restart it, and it usually freezes again after a minute. By the third time, it works fine. What could the problem be? It happens every single time. It seems to be that the computer has to "warm up" before it can start being usuable. What I did to try to fix the problem (but didn't work):
1)Scan for viruses using different programs. No, no viral problems.
2)Went into MsConfig and made it so that almost nothing loads at system startup
What in the world could my problem be? I'm going to have to format my drive and reinstall windows (or get vista) if I can't fix the problem. BTW, I've winXP.--Codell ^{[ Talk]} 03:21, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Try this. Download the ISO, burn it to a CD, and boot it. Cyraan 03:23, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Or, try Ultimate boot cd which includes memtest. At what point is your computer hanging? During POST/BIOS routines or loading WinXP drivers? Sandman30s 10:28, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

• Whatever it is, it's not good. Make sure you get your stuff backed up while you can, just in case that computer dies on you. - 131.211.210.10 12:24, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

I agree that this is not good. Similar things for me were eventually traced to a bad Computer power supply. If you are 'lucky', the bad part will freeze out in an obvious manner, and you can replace it. --Zeizmic 13:12, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Your computer may literally need to "warm up" for it to work...you could have some faulty hardware element that changes with temperature in such a way as to cause this behavior. The above programs may reveal something about where the fault lies. If you're comfortable with the idea, you could open your computer and re-seat the various cards and socketed chips, which might fix the problem. But as 131.211.210.10 suggests, make sure you take steps to protect your data, because this problem could become essentially "fatal" at any time. –RHolton≡– 13:18, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

I'm comfortable taking my computer apart anytime, and I often do so. My computer expertise borders around intermediate-expert. What happens is it loads everything, and goes to the desktop and loads all the icons and programs, and then about one minute later, it freezes. I have to restart, and do it twice, and the third time it works. Okay, well I'll try moving around my cards and I'll try that boot program. I know about backing up, I've already formatted and de-partitioned an old 4GB hardrive which I use and keep around my computer incase I need it. --Codell^«T» 02:38, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Multiple SSH servers

Hi all. Let's say I have two computers at home, and both are running SSH servers. And they both connect to the internet via the same router. What happens when I try to ssh in from externally (from work for example), which of the two servers would it connect to? Is it possible to choose one or the other? - Akamad 06:18, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Port forwarding --froth^T 06:32, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Ah yes, thank you. Akamad 06:46, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

That is, if you use different ports on both ssh services and configure your router to forward actually, all the packets should hit home. Oskar 07:09, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

This raises another question. What if I were to forward the ssh port (assuming both servers use the same port) on the router to both the computers. Then which would it connect to? Or would the router simply not allow that? - Akamad 14:31, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

If the router just sent the packets to both computers then they would respond normally; the problem is going to be at the client's end when he's getting 2 different sessions on the same port. Frankly I don't really know how TCP works at a low level, but I'm thinking there are basically 2 different ways it could react:

1. One computer responds first and extablishes a secure link with the client, then the other computer responds too late and the client ignores its handshake attempts (or does whatever it wants, but it can easily distinguish between the two)
2. They both respond simultaneously (unlikely I think) and neither of them successfully connect (or they both ACK and both connect until the client realizes that it's getting some very un-spec responses)

I hope someone else responds though, because they're pretty much shots in the dark. You might want to look at TCP and SSH (particularly this), I don't have time right now --froth^T 18:37, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

If you were to set up the router to forward the port to both computers, the result would be completely unpredictable. It could depend on things like the lengths of the wires connecting the computers to the router, or the time of day, or any of a number of other factors. --Carnildo 21:55, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Intriguing stuff (well, for me, anyway)! Thanks for your help. - Akamad 00:03, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Global and local

what is the difference between a global variable and local variable?

A global variable can be accessed from anywhere in a program, and all subroutines and functions share the same value. A local variable can only be seen within the scope of the variable (the loop, the function, the class, or whatever). See Scope (programming) for details. Oskar 07:09, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

A global variable is usually stored in the .bss or .data sections, making them easily accessible from any function. Local variables are stored on the stack as functions are entering, making it hard (or even impossible) to access other local variables. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 07:52, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Operating systems

imagine a file system which uses inodes to manage files on disk.each inode consists of a file name(4 bytes),user id(2 bytes),three timestamps(4 bytes each),protection bits(2 bytes),a reference count(2 bytes),a file type(2 bytes),and the file size(4 bytes).additionally,the inode contains 13 direct indices,1 index to a single indirect block,1 index to a double indirect block and one index to a triple indirect block.each of these indices is 4 bytes.the file system also stores the first 356 bytes of the each file in the inode

1. assume a disk sector is 512 bytes and that each indirect block fills a single sector.what is the maximum file size for this file system?
2. is there any benefit to including the first 356 bytes of the file in the inode?if so what will it be?if not,why not? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.255.43.45 (talk • contribs) 2007-02-01T23:45:03 (UTC)

no, because you should do your own homework. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 07:50, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Imagine a real world where students learn in class. Each class consists of several students, each with a name (2 syllables), student id (numbers), lunch money (two bills), and a genuine desire to DO THEIR OWN HOMEWORK! Droud 13:37, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

If you research this problem and thoughtfully answer, you should understand a good deal of filesystem theory, perhaps enough to write such a driver. The imagined filesystem strongly resembles a BSD Unix native filesystem, and its descendants. —EncMstr 23:03, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Mirrored volume...?

Is there a way to add a mirroed volume under Windoes XP to protect data nstead of using backup? -- Barringa 08:16, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Volume mirroring should never replace backups. They will not protect against accidental deletions etc. --antilived^{T | C | G} 11:15, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

I mean in addition to backup. Unless done immediately preceeding a crash backup won't protect against sudden catestrophic failure. -- Barringa 18:00, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Windows XP doesn't support RAID1? --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 01:15, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

These folks are correct that the function of a mirrored volume is very different from frequent backups. THe mirroring only protects you from disk hardware failure, nothing else. However, if this is what you want (it is a good idea in addition) here's how to do it i any version of windows, 2003-XP: In the control panel (classic view) choose "Computer Managment", and then "Disk manager." You'll need to turn both of your disks into "dynamic disks" byt right-clicking on the grey disk identifier and selecting that. Then, right click within the large band for either of the disks, and select "New Volume." From there, follow the wizard, selecting the type of raid that you want. If you have more than two disks, I recomend considering the raid 5 option. Good luck, 48v 07:35, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Font from Excel to Word

Does anyone know why isn't there a simple Courier font in Word but there is in Excel? I have tried to search for the font file to install it in the Fonts directory, but couldn't find it. In Word there is only Courier New.

Looking at Excel 2000, the Courier font is a simple bit-map font...change the font size to something large, like 50, and you can see the individual "pixels" as squares. This leads me to guess that this font is built into the Excel software, meaning that there will be no font file for it. I can't really say why, or why Word does not contain a similar "built-in" font. You might be able to find a similar font file if you search online. –RHolton≡– 12:51, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Try "Courier New". The difference here is between TrueType and bitmap fonts, Courier being a bitmap font. Word doesn't show Courier because it looks like crap if you try to scale it. Courier comes with Windows, not with Excel, so any software that supports bitmap fonts (most) will support that. Check out C:\Windows\Fonts\ to see all your fonts, bitmap fonts are listed with a red "A" icon on my system, while TrueType fonts have an "O". Droud 13:33, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Fonts with the "O" icon are OpenType - TrueType fonts have a "TT" icon. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 16:12, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Thank you all for your replies. I just needed the exact font since I would only use it in sizes 10 pt and 12 pt. And I think it's a commercial font, I tried to look for it on the Net a while ago, but to no avail. It's not in my C:\Windows\Fonts.

ADSL Connection

Any idea why the first parallel device from the ADSL line should be the ADSL modem for clear telephone connection,else a noise if a phone is connected before the ADSL modem??

Did you look at our DSL article? It covers signaling and filtering. Droud 12:59, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Information about AVCHD

Hi,I am a student and i have to give seminar on the topic from computer science field.i have chosen topic named 'Advanced video codec high defination'.and i want more information about it. i searched for this topic on the encyclopedia.but i want more information or any supported links on this subject.

Was this it: H.264/MPEG-4 AVC?

CSS selector

Is there a CSS selector equivalent to

tr:first-child, tr:first-child + tr + tr, tr:first-child + tr + tr + tr + tr, ...

that will select alternate table rows? I know this can be done with IE's CSS expressions, but I'm looking for something standard and cross-platform. NeonMerlin 17:59, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

What I would do is assign classes.. like

tr class="odd"
tr class="evn"
tr class="odd"
tr class="evn"

and format them separately. This is of course trivial if the rows are machine generated:

 if(($everyOther ^= TRUE) == TRUE) print 'odd';
 else print 'even';

And if you're hand-writing it anyway it's not that big of a deal to put them in. Easy --froth^T 18:49, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Or just use 1 class and apply the other to the <tr> element itself. Alistapart got an article on it, zebra tables or something like that... --antilived^{T | C | G} 19:52, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

There isn't such selector in CSS 1 or 2, but it is already included on the CSS 3 drafts as the nth-child pseudo-class. Can't wait for CSS 3!— Kieff | Talk 21:07, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Ophcrack

How do I use Ophcrack? Thanks. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.39.182.101 (talk • contribs).

Have you downloaded an run the Win32 installer from [21]? If you can't get into Windows at all, download the LiveCD, burn it to a CD with the "Write from Image" option in burning program (don't just write the file to a CD as a file), boot the computer with the CD in, and voila. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 18:29, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Ok, one question, the CD burning program I have doesn't have a "Write from Image" Option. Is there another (free) one i could download? 24.39.182.101 19:52, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Sure, CDBurnerXP. Splintercellguy 22:58, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Definitely a nice program. If you haven't figure it out yet, to burn an ISO: choose the first of the three options when it starts up, then "Write Disc from ISO file" in the File menu. You'll probably want to finalize it as well. The other options can be left on their default values. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 03:11, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

The easy way to do it is with the powertoy --froth^T 04:16, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

I'm using Toast 8. Would "write from ISO" be "ISO 9660" under burning Data? I assume under "copy" "Image File" is the correct thing to choose, but what would be the other? [Mαc Δαvιs] X (How's my driving?) ❖ 05:30, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Is this Script Code for my monobook safe?

function addlilink(node, href, text, id, tooltip, accesskey) { //THIS function allows me to make new tabs, like the "edit this page" tab. I have no clue how it works, but everyone uses it.
        // the code below is mostly copied from addPortletLink()

        var link = document.createElement( "a" );
        link.appendChild( document.createTextNode( text ) );
        link.href = href;

        var item = document.createElement( "li" );
        item.appendChild( link );
        if ( id ) item.id = id;

        if ( accesskey ) {
                link.setAttribute( "accesskey", accesskey );
                tooltip += " ["+accesskey+"]";
        }
        if ( tooltip ) {
                link.setAttribute( "title", tooltip );
        }
        updateTooltipAccessKeys( new Array( link ) );

        node.appendChild( item );

        return item;
}

// 

if(location.href.indexOf('User:TomasBat') != -1 && location.href.indexOf('action=edit') != -1 && location.href.indexOf('blank=1') != -1) { //This one is the blanker. If you are on a page that has, in the url, all three of those things, the first meaning your userspace, the second meaning it must be an edit page, and the third being added by function 3, below
        addOnloadHook(function() {
                var box = document.getElementById('wpTextbox1'); //this in the current data
                var txt = box.value; //this makes the actual data (the .vanlue) into a variable
                var newtext = '' //this makes a blank variable
                box.value = newtext; //this saves that variable to the box
                document.getElementById('wpSummary').value = 'blanking my sandbox'; //this sets your edit summary
                document.getElementById('wpMinoredit').checked = true; //this sets a minor edit
                document.getElementById('wpWatchthis').checked = true; //this sets watchlisting, remove this line if you like, it is not necessary
                document.getElementById('wpSave').click(); //this clicks save
        });
}

if(location.href.indexOf('User:TomasBat') != -1 ) { //This is the tab itself. Now we are ANYWHERE in your userspace.
        addOnloadHook(function() {
                var tbs = document.getElementById('p-cactions').getElementsByTagName('ul')[0]; //no idea what this does, but the smart ones say it is good
                var editpage = "http://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=User:" + wgTitle + "&action=edit&blank=1" //this gets the proper link - the wiki page + the title of the page you are at + the edit + the flag that tells the second bit, above, to do its magic
                addlilink(tbs, editpage, "Blank", 'ca-blank', 'This will automatically blank this userpage'); //this calls the first script, top, and makes a cute tab for you
        });
}

--TomasBat (Talk)(Sign) 21:16, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Oh he's smart. I've added little explainations so you know what everything does and you can decide for yourself :D ST47Talk 23:42, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Looks good to me. Just adds a simple "clear" link for your user page and subpages. Can I suggest that

if (location.href.indexOf('User:TomasBat') != -1 ) {

changes User:TomasBat to User:TomasBat/ to stop it adding it to your main user page, only subpages off from that. --h2g2bob 04:13, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Be warned that, with the code you have there, someone could try to fool you into clicking a link like this and thus blanking your user page. Of course, if you happened to do that by accident, you could always just revert it, so it's not a major risk in this particular case. For scripts where it does matter, the solution is to include some private token — such as a hash of your enwiki_session cookie — in the URL and check that it matches before making the edit. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 15:25, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Also, the code could be simplified a bit. Here's how I'd write it:

// Are you on a page in your user space?
if (wgCanonicalNamespace == "User" && wgTitle.split("/")[0] == wgUserName) {
        // If so, add the "blank" tab:
        addOnloadHook(function() {
                var editURL = (wgServer + wgScriptPath + "/index.php?title=" +
                               encodeURIComponent(wgPageName) + "&action=edit&blank=1"); 
                addPortletLink("p-cactions", editURL, "Blank", "ca-blank",
                               "This will automatically blank this userpage");
        });

        // Did you just click on the tab?
        if (location.href.indexOf("action=edit&blank=1") != -1) {
                // If so, blank the edit box and save:
                addOnloadHook(function() {
                        document.getElementById("wpTextbox1").value = "";  // blank it!
                        document.getElementById("wpSummary").value = "blanking my sandbox";
                        document.getElementById("wpMinoredit").checked = true;
                        document.getElementById("wpWatchthis").checked = true;
                        document.getElementById("wpSave").click();
                });
        }
}

The addPortletLink() function is part of the standard wikibits.js file, and is available on all MediaWiki pages. It does more or less what your addlilink() function did. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 15:53, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

I sure do come here a lot.

The next question in the critically acclaimed Windows Vista series by Orannis! So, I'm going to install Microsoft Office 2007 very soon, and I'm going to install Vista as well, but that won't be for another month. Will I be able to reinstall Office after I've upgraded to Vista?--the ninth bright shiner ^talk 21:29, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Yes, you should be able to. If it doesn't let you activate over the internet, you'll just have to call them up and tell them that you upgraded your OS. I've had to do it once or twice with XP due to frequent reinstallations (viruses, Partition Magic screw ups, hard drive failures, etc.), and it was easy then. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 03:16, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

OS

What is your opinion of the best OS?

The best OS is the one that does the job you need it to. I wouldn't use Windows Vista on an embedded system, and I wouldn't use VxWorks on a desktop computer. --Carnildo 22:00, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Plan 9, of course. Alternatively, OS/400. -- mattb @ 2007-02-02T22:13Z

Some information is at this question above (or here when it is archived). See also operating system.

My answer for this went on a bit, so I put it at User:H2g2bob/OS. --h2g2bob 03:19, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Mac OS X :) [Mαc Δαvιs] X (How's my driving?) ❖ 05:28, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Java Applet, Again

I asked a questiion a week ago about an applet in Java where I can get a character to move around the screen. Now I got wonderful answers to the question I asked, but now I need more help. I was given a few links and I checked those over, but I'm not sure what needs to stay in my applet and what I need to get rid of. Like I said I would do, I asked my teacher about it, but from what I can gather, she is just a math teacher that went to some kind of week long class how to program in Java so she can "teach" computer science and she would really probably be more comfortable teaching a calculus class. All I need is what lines I need to write to get keyboard input in a Java applet. Not where it will type it, but where it recognizes what keys you're pressing. Thank you for any help. schyler 22:50, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

You mean System.in.read()? It returns an int so you have to cast it to a char if you want to display it. It's the simplest way. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 00:13, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Okay. So where do I write it? Do I have to import anything? How about having to write it each time? Sample code, maybe? schyler 02:00, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

No imports, but you should (don't remember if you have to) use throws.

class myClass {
   public static void main(String args[]) {
      throws java.io.IOException {
      char ch;
      ch = (char) System.in.read();
      System.out.println(ch);
      }
   }
}

--Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 02:30, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

No!!!! As I said before, System.in is for stdin, not for applet keyboard input. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 03:05, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Yah... I know how to do keyboard input in applications. My way is a little different though. I need to know how do do keyboard input in applets. There is this site that shows some smaple keyboard input, but I dont know which lines to keep and which not need for my applet. schyler 03:21, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Oh right, applets. I think this is what you need from the page you linked:

import java.applet.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;

public class Keyboard1 extends Applet
   implements KeyListener {

   public void init() {
      addKeyListener( this );
   }

   public void keyPressed( KeyEvent e ) { }
   public void keyReleased( KeyEvent e ) { }
   public void keyTyped( KeyEvent e ) {
      char c = e.getKeyChar();
      if ( c != KeyEvent.CHAR_UNDEFINED ) {
         s = s + c;
         repaint();
         e.consume();
      }
   }

I think... I didn't get to write many applets for class, and I haven't bothered to for myself. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 06:36, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Great! The program runs obsolete methods! Oh well, maybe it's just not meant to be... 15:37, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

February 3

Keeping all applications

If i were to upgrade to vista home basic is it possible to keep all your applications from XP like the internet, virus software, and games. or should you backup all the files. My computer seems to be secure from losing any data.--Biggie 00:24, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Upgrading, everything SHOULD be kept, and everything is MEANT to work. that does NOT mean it will, and if at all possible, you should back up everything important to you. 24.0.52.44 00:39, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

All right Thank You--Biggie 05:31, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Rule number 1 of protecting data is that hard disks fail. Sooner or later your hard disk WILL fail. So make sure anything you want to keep is backed up. --Gerry Ashton 05:49, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Your use of capital shoulds and nots makes me funnily think of "RFC 2119 - Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels". Go on! -- DLL ^{.. T} 15:44, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Hahaha! That's a gem for sure --froth^T 06:25, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

The eternal Linux distribution question

I'm planning to reinstall Linux on my laptop. I'd like a nice, painless distribution; one that doesn't require too much fiddling, one that doesn't choke on suspend/standby, one that supports Xen, and one that doesn't cause me to wish to tear my hair out. The desktop is for fiddling, I don't want any inordinate pain on my laptop.

I've recently used Ubuntu the most, and before that Gentoo and Debian (go go Debian distros). However, the latest version of Fedora Core has caught my eye, as it apparently comes with Compiz and a nice GUI for Xen by default. Would Fedora meet my needs, and if so, what should I keep in mind making the switch from using Ubuntu (and other Debianish distros before it)?

I also need EAP-TTLS support, though I assume I'll probably need to install something else for this. Right?

Thanks for any assistance. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 03:56, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

If you don't want any trouble installing and you don't want choking, don't use FC. Try Suse if you don't want any pain whatsoever, though it's not the best distro all-around --froth^T 04:18, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Hrmm. After more reading and considering, I'm probably going to give Ubuntu another shot. Xen installation [22] looks obnoxious though. I've got a weekend with nothing planned, so it's probably not going to be too bad. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 04:44, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Though the situation with Linux, ACPI (formerly APM!), and notebooks has improved significantly since I first fiddled with *nixes on laptops ten years ago, how well everything works together is going to depend largely on your hardware. ACPI S3 (suspend/resume) is a tricky thing, and quite often will mess something up. You really ought to google a bit on your laptop model and Linux compatibility so you know what to suspect. Intel chipsets usually work well, ATI display adapters often have little issues with DRI and S3 (that is, if you want 2D/3D acceleration, many ATI chips won't get along very well with suspend/resume). Check your 802.11 radio chipset to make sure it's supported. While some distros may make things a little "easier" for an unacquainted user, it all boils down to how well various drivers for your core hardware will play along together. You may have to engage a few tricks to get things to work reasonably, though these days, you can get many laptops working pretty well without having to even mess around with kernel patches. You may be fortunate enough to have a laptop that uses well-supported hardware, but I'm afraid that you usually shouldn't expect a seamless experience complete with all the bells and whistles with *nixes and notebooks. -- mattb @ 2007-02-03T04:53Z

I have a thinkpad (probably the best linux supported laptop) and everything worked out of the box (including standby and "hibernate") except madwifi for some reason wasn't installed or running or something so I had to install the rpm. Also the volume buttons on my computer didn't work until I installed some thinkpad tools module --froth^T 04:57, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

It (a Dell M1210) worked well, last time I checked. The issues were namely that Suspend2 took ages and occasionally failed, and that startup/shutdown time was unreasonable. Considering that I'm now less of a laptop idiot and know to just Suspend, it should be okay. The main concerns I have regard the pain in installing Xen and Compiz, as well as various other little packages, and the general ease of use; they're not directly related to laptops except in that I don't want to waste time fiddling with it. Battery life may be an issue though. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 05:02, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Suse comes with xen set up already --froth^T 19:47, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Be careful with ACPI S3. There's a well-known problem with Linux and some ACPI BIOSes in which the system will still use a lot of power when its suspended. I'd check on that. -- mattb @ 2007-02-03T21:54Z

Just my two cents. I used ubuntu 6.06 on my Thinkpad T42. Worked great, I had great battery life and all power management features worked as they should including intel's speedstep. Wireless (I used wpa2) and all the fn buttons worked as well. --Sish 22:54, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Right, I'm on Ubuntu 6.10 now. Power consumption might be slightly higher than Windows (including Windows Vista, surprisingly); using compiz takes quite a lot out of it, so I'm not using it. I'm also using Parallels Workstation rather than Xen, as both Xen and VMWare caused strange stability problems; Parallels has fast direct graphics performance, which is a fair tradeoff. Suspend seems to be having issues with my network chipset though, which is still something I'm trying to fix. I think disabling the hardware switch before suspending the computer works. It's definitely fully asleep when it does work. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 01:54, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

div-tag

Can anyone tell me how you make a div-block the same size of the surrounding table, and how you put a margin of x cm or inches around the text in it? - Mgm|^(talk) 09:08, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

I think in order to make the DIV block exactly the same size as the surrounding table you will have to set the padding/margin tags of the table to zero, or else set the div padding/margin tags to a negative number to offset the table's margins/padding. As for the margins, does the "margin" tag not do what you want? --24.147.86.187 13:40, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Generally, TABLE should be avoided for simply formatting a page, as the float and clear CSS styles often do a better job. DIV elements are set at 100% width by default, but if it is problematic, then using another TABLE instead of a DIV may fix it. Or just apply the formatting to the TD element with the padding, margin, border styles, etc. See the W3C's specifications for CSS and W3Schools' CSS tutorial for more. --h2g2bob 19:00, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Also, don't forget that the TD may have padding in addition to the DIV having a margin. --h2g2bob 19:01, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Looking for browser plugin!

I want a way to be able to download and locally play videos from YouTube. I tried downloading a few extensions but... they didn't work! Why not? [Mαc Δαvιs] X (How's my driving?) ❖ 12:06, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

There are a few Firefox extensions (e.g. [23]) which will download YouTube videos as FLV files. You will then need to find something that plays FLV files (I can use VLC but I have heard of people having trouble with it for this purpose) or converts them into something more manageable (i.e. MOV or AVI or whatever). --24.147.86.187 13:37, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

The KMPlayer plays FLV files well. Someoneinmyheadbutit'snotme 18:18, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Any ffmpeg-based audio media player should be able to play flv now, so add MPlayer to the list. Anyway, this is another good opportunity to plug my UnPlug firefox extension again. --h2g2bob 18:45, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

In that vein, download mplayer and use mencoder to convert the flv video into xvid h.264 or something and then you can play it in windows media player (if you have the appropriate codec and directshow filter set up) --froth^T 19:49, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Transcoding video results in an incredible loss of quality. I would recommend against it. If you install FFMPEG you can use _any_ player to play .flv videos so long as you go into the FFMPEG video settings and turn on FFMPEG decoding of .flv's. --Sish 22:51, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Not in this case, FLV is just a container for H.263 or VP6, so you just replace the FLV container for an AVI container with no loss of quality. I use ffmpeg to do this, but mencoder is the same just with a different front-end. See this guide for a howto. --h2g2bob 02:23, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

crystal ball?

1. Will x86 architecture ever cease to be the dominant (only) architecture used on desktops/PC's etc?

2. Are there any likely candidates to replace it?

3. Or will rolling improvements to the architecture eventually produce something that is totally unrecognisable from the instruction set architecture in commom use today?

4. Is using such an old instruction set architecture such a bad thing? (especially in terms of improvements such as multicore, SMP and whatever else may come along)

All comments appreciated, thanks.87.102.9.55 13:49, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

It is already being replaced by the AMD64 ISA, which fixes some of the worst annoyances of the older IA32 architecture. --cesarb 14:21, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Since the inception of protected mode with the introduction of the 80386, the very worst (most challenging to program) features of the 8086 architecture can be ignored: the segmentation model. It required loading a segment register with a new value to address each different 64 K window of the memory space. Protected mode made it possible to load the segment registers once and forget them and have direct access to a 4 GB address space (or more). Alas, there are still nuisances in the current instruction set, like only the ECX/CX/CL register is connected to the LOOP instruction, or that the internal register order is EAX ECX EBX EDX instead of alphabetical (which is only a concern to the most picky aspects of a code generator, and code which inspects the stack after a PUSHA instruction). However, these are easily dealt with and worked around. Converting to a "golden architecture" wouldn't gain enough advantage to be worth the pain of conversion.

What's happening is more like the history of the PDP-11 and VAX: The original VAXs (11/730 and 11/780) could directly execute the much older PDP 11 instructions, even though the architectures were rather far apart. Later models of VAXs dropped the emulation (at least in hardware) as the migration period ended fairly swiftly, probably because the VAX architecture had so much more to offer that developers and users embraced the new—and abandoned the old—as soon as replacement applications were stable and data were migrated. —EncMstr 18:57, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Now more than ever before, ISA is becoming less and less relevant. There are plenty of ISAs that one could call "better" than x86 in principle, but the more abstraction we pile on to hardware, the less that matters. x86 won't die any time in the near future simply because it's difficult to get away with breaking backwards compatibility in the PC world. -- mattb @ 2007-02-03T22:07Z

The next best thing is new IA-32 instructions as introduced by MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, etc --froth^T 09:34, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Those are all examples of SIMD extensions, which don't in themselves really "improve" the ISA from a programmer's point of view. They merely add extra functionality. Some of the qualms one could have against x86 aren't really related to its support of vector math... -- mattb @ 2007-02-04T20:38Z

Computer ethics

I have two questions in InformationTechnology,databases & artificial intelligence 1.please inform me about the ethical concernes about the use of database 2.the ethical dimensions of artificial intelligence

Please ask a specific question. If you simply desire information, use a web or Wikipedia search instead.--Redlock 17:29, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

They look pretty specific to me.. --froth^T 19:53, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

I'd tend to disagree. Entire books on similar subjects have been written. -- mattb @ 2007-02-03T22:07Z

For databases it's mainly privacy (spying, misuse of data, etc) and security (identity theft, etc). See the Data Protection Act for the UK's legal protections in this area. For evidence that people get annoyed at databases containing their personal information, just look at the Electronic Frontier Foundation and its efforts in many areas including the NSA call database. Also check the Schneier on Security blog, as it must have at least something on this issue.

As for AI, there's quite a bit on the artificial intelligence page. While Hollywood worries about the risks to civilisation from AI ("three laws safe"; "Skynet became self-aware"; etc), the economic impact of AI technology allowing for automation of service industry jobs which currently require a human are more concerning the the current time. --h2g2bob 02:20, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

I'm not sure what you mean by the "ethical dimensions" of AI. I have not researched the subject, but I can think of a few ethical questions without trying too hard:

• If important decisions are entrusted to an intelligent machine, and the machine makes a bad decision with disastrous consequences, who should be responsible for the decision?
• If an intelligent machine has an independent will, do we equate it with a person? Should such a machine have rights? If someone destroys such a machine, should the act be treated as murder?
• Does an intelligent machine have an identity, like a human being? If so, if someone records the state of the machine, shuts down the hardware, and then reloads the state of the machine onto two different machines to create two independent instances, what happens to the "identity" of the original instance? --71.175.23.226 06:59, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

—

Food for thought... Artificial intelligence is mostly used to discriminate between a series of "Yes-or-No" questions. Can naive software be accused of being racist, sexist ....or otherwise ...err... discriminatory?

That's just a limitation of the current state of technology. Intelligent systems that have commonsense, that can augment its knowledge by unsupervised learning, and that can generate as well as test interesting hypotheses are well within the goals of AI. As technology advances, it is possible that in the future, we can build machines that understand human values, that have values of their own, and that will choose what goals to pursue based on their own values. --71.175.23.226 20:56, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Professional ethics & I.T

please explain to me how an organization's functional department,tasks and management levels for that organization and inform me the information systems and information technology ethical decisions they make

Please ask a specific question. If you simply desire information, use a web or Wikipedia search instead.--Redlock 17:30, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

They look pretty specific to me.. --froth^T 19:54, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

If wikipedia is the organisation and we are the functional department: Then the information systems and tecnology ethical decisions we make is not to answer your homework questions because that's cheating and you won't learn anything. But if you are not clear about any of your own research, we'll be gald to help. :) Vespine 11:12, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

I.T and proffesions

tell me how information technology has been used & applied in the following areas 1.health and medicine 2.commerce and money 3.entertainment and arts

Please ask a specific question. If you simply desire information, use a web or Wikipedia search instead.--Redlock 17:31, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

They look pretty specific to me.. --froth^T 19:54, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

I don't mean to be rude but this seems like a homework question.

I am going to give you some hints to point you in a direction but I won't give you a cut and paste answer.

Any time you use a computer to partially or fully automate a task that was once manual, that is essentially IT.

1. electronic patient records

2. Stock exchanges are online, ie online trading

3. The kiosks that print out tickets at movie theaters and online ordering.

While you can cut and paste what i just said, you will definitely get a poor mark if you do. --Sish 22:44, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

1) The movement of medical records from paper to computers allowing for easy movement of them to other doctors/instant sending of them to hospitals. It also helps the insurance industry who can receive repots faster and at cheaper cost.

2) online banking, online share trading, online stores, online commerce is pretty much the biggest change the world has undergone in recent years. IT obviously plays a part with organising the web, faster networkings/servers for improved sites - more advanced, more 'appealing' to the consumer etc. eBay, Amazon are great examples of success stories boo.com is an example of a high profile failure.

3) The raging war of online piracy of entertainment/arts ranging from songs/films to books and copyrighted material. In the legit world IT has allowed for stores like iTunes Music Store to sell hundreds of thousands of tracks in one place, giving consumers a new way to purchase entertainment/music. Indeed Apple has recently launched a new device labelled Apple Tv which will stream your movies from your computer to your tv - perhaps the beginning of the end for DVDs?

I would be amazed beyond belief, however, if somebody who knows how to get onto Wikipedia and post a question does not already know the vast majority of the above. ny156uk 22:52, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

You could also mention that the £12 billion that the UK government is spending on the NHS IT programme (See Private Eye, Issue No.1170, pg 10) has definately increased some consultants' pot of "money", but, due to massive delays, has not yet had much success in benefiting "health and medicine"!

SanDisk Player Worst/Best Case Scenario

What's the worst that could happen if I were to reformat the flash drive of my mp3 player? Would it still work, etc..--71.249.19.4 16:47, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

The worst that could happen is that a freak overload triggers a chain reaction subnuclear explosion and destroys the universe.  :-) The worst that's probable is that the new format would be incompatible in some way with the original format and the mp3 player would refuse to access the drive, though that is fairly unlikely. Why do you ask? Specific models of player and flash drive would help. —EncMstr 18:32, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

THe SanDisk players that I've seen just have a simple FAT16 filesystem. So long as you format it back to the same FAT16, it should work fine. The players usually keep their 'operating system' somewhere else safe, so formatting the storage that is exposed by USB won't do anything bad. Mdwyer 22:40, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

I'd be more worried that the best case is deleting all the files on the disk :P --h2g2bob 08:09, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Water Level Indicator That uses a quad analogue switch (CMOS 4066)

Where can i find detailed information(circuit diagrams, layouts, component information etc)on a water level indicator?? The kind i am referring to uses IC 4066 which is basically a CMOS series quad analog switch.Daniel

Do you already have one that you want to service or modify? If so, maybe you should post the make and model # here. Otherwise, why is it a requirement that the design uses a 4066 quad switch IC? (If this is a homework exercise, you should not ask for a complete solution. Tell people where you get stuck and some people may help you.) --71.175.23.226 17:44, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

no u see i have already soldered the circuit and figured out how to make it work.But i need to present a printed project file also and so i require material in the the form of circuit diagrams and other stuff that i can print out.

Please help!!

If you have already built one, then you must have a circuit from which you worked. If you need to prepare a report for a design project, the diagram(s) should reflect the actual circuit built, not just any similar design that you find from another source. If your problem is in capturing your circuit in a printable file, what you need is some sort of diagramming tool. Dia [24] is a free diagramming tool that can also be used to draw simple electronic circuits. A Windows version is also available (see [25]). The tool may not be very advanced but should be good enough for simple diagrams like the kind you're dealing with. You can also use the drawing functions of popular office suites like Microsoft Office or OpenOffice.org. They are rather basic but again should be good enough for drawing simple diagrams. --71.175.23.226 19:02, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Thanks that solves all my circuit diagram and layout problems.But when it comes to actual written material about the quad analog switch, water level indicator etc. i'm having difficulty locating anything.Links maybe??

You can find datasheets for common ICs on the web quite easily. Try search for it using

4066 quad switch datasheet

as the query terms. In your case, the IC is/was manufactured by multiple manufacturers. You can find the datasheet published by a particular manufacturer by including the manufacturer's name in your query. Different manufacturers' datasheets may include different application examples. --71.175.23.226 06:32, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

c++ in asp

how do i embed a C++ executable(.exe) file in my asp page?

59.180.95.113 19:12, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Please clarify what you mean. Your question is quite vague. Splintercellguy 19:13, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

I wish to provide a link to an external c++ executable file on my asp page such that it runs as soon as the client requests it. What is the code that i have to include in my asp file? Will it work even if the client does not have turbo c++ (or similar) loaded on it?

C++ is a compiled language, which means that the exe will run directly by giving the processor instructions (opcodes) it can directly understand. In other words, you don't need a compiler to run exes, then there would be no point in compiling it in the first place. But to answer your first question, it's not possible to have a customer click a link and have an executable instantly run on their computer. This would be probably the most insecure feature that is even possible to think up. You'd need them to download the file and then run the executable from their computer. However, if you want their clicking the link to run the executable on the server machine, that's very possible. Link to a php file and do:

exec('/path/to/executable');

--froth^T 20:00, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, that was quite useful, something I couldn't find elsewhere on the net. If you could be so good as to clarify this:
Being a novice in web technology, I am not familiar with php. Will the code work in html or does it have an equivalent in html?

Sort of. You have to set your web server to run .php files through the PHP interpreter (you have to download it from php.net) before the final HTML is outputted to the client. But the PHP code itself is embedded in the HTML of the page- the client just never sees it because it's processed by the interpreter and removed before the page is served. Because the php interpreter (php.exe) is running on the server machine, it can issue commands to the system through exec(). --froth^T 21:40, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

The only way I can explain is by an example. A PHP file on a server may be:

 <H1>Hello World</H1>
 <?php
    $n = 1;
    print "The <I>number</I> in the script is ".($n+1);
 ?>
 More stuff here...

It's just HTML with <?php ... ?> tags added. Inside the php tags is script, and the output from this script is added to the HTML output. The client (end user) sees this HTML file:

 <H1>Hello World</H1>
 The <I>number</I> in the script is 2
 More stuff here...

The php code can include the output of exe files - the exe will be run on the server and the output can be used in the script by using the exec function. For example:

  <?php print exec(uptime) ?> 

will print the output of the uptime program, that is to say, the uptime of the webserver. You can include the output of any .exe file, eg one created yourself with C++.

If you wanted to run a program on the end user's machine - such as printing the uptime of the end user - you would probably need to write some sort of java applet, and pray the end user has java applets enabled. To use PHP on your webserver, you will need to make sure it is installed, and name the file something.php. See php.net and PHP for all the salacious details. --h2g2bob 01:35, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Thanks a lot. I'll check it out.

Checked it, downloading PHP not possible. Could you possibly give the code to be put on the asp page which allows the client to download the executable (and run it on their computer).

Windows Vista Ultimate download

Is it possible to properly download and install Windows Vista Ultimate by Bittorrent? Jamesino 19:38, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

It may be possible to download it, but unless you have a legit product key, you could potentially be breaking the law or at least Microsoft could sue you for breach of copyright. In fact, it's possible it may be illegal in some countries even if you did have a legit key. It's rather unlikely you have a legit product key, because if you did, you would either have a DVD or you could access MSDN. Having said that Vista does have a 30 day trial mode and I'm not particularly sure on whether it would be illegal or whether Microsoft could sue you for downloading it if you're only going to use the trial mode for 30 days and then either buy Vista or install a OS you can legally use. However I presume Microsoft has a way for you to get Vista for trying. Also, unless you have a DVD burner or perhaps a CD burner (I believe Vista has a CD version but not sure) your installation options will be limited. Oh and BTW, bittorent has nothing to do with installing products 203.109.240.93 19:47, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

It's not a trial; it's to give you 30 days to activate. Ideally you activate immediately after installation but some people don't yet have internet access so they need to call in --froth^T 20:07, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Yes it's possible (and extremely easy) to download a Vista dvd image from bittorrent and install it. You'll only be able to use it for 30 days but most scene groups package cracks that stop the 30-day-countdown. You'll need to keep finding more cracks, though, as MS patches vista, which is why I bought legit. I remember reading about some study that found that most stop-countdown cracks on public trackers were fake or included malware --froth^T 20:06, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Wonder if the old "Windows is gonna die dude" "Wait, let me turn back system clock...There! Another ten years." trick still works in vista. Haha, knowing MS they probably left it in for kicks. -- feb^talk 03:47, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Crontab - simple question

I could probably find this by searching but a quick search didn't find anything and it's so simple hope someone doesn't mind answering. When you specify a range for hours for crontab, how do you specify a range past midnight if at all possible. E.g. if I want to do something from 10 am to 1 am, do I do 10-25 or 10-01 or is it not possible? OS is FreeBSD 6.2 if that's necessary. Cheers 203.109.240.93 19:55, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Valid values for the "hours" field—the second of the five time and date fields in your crontab file—is 0 to 23, with 0 being 0:00 AM (midnight) and 23 being 11:00 PM. To execute a command every day at 11:00 PM, again at 0:00 AM (midnight), and again at 01:00 AM, specifying the range "23-1" should work just fine. For example:

* 23-1 * * * echo blah

Alternatively, you can specify a list of hours instead of a range of hours, by separating the hours at which time the command should be executed with commas. So the above can also be achieved by specifying "23,0,1", like so:

* 23,0,1 * * * echo blah

Ranges and lists can even be combined, like so:

* 23-0,1 * * * echo blah

All of the above should have the same effect. For more details and some examples, see crontab, or the crontab(5) manpage here. Hope this helps! —Xhantar^Talk 02:55, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Whoa there! The first column, minutes, is a * in your examples. That means the command will run every minute as long as the hour matches. You should definitely specify a 0 in the first column so it'll only run at 23:00, 0:00, and 1:00. Those "23-1" and "23-0" ranges, where the second number is smaller than the first, look suspicious to me too. They don't work with Debian's cron, which shares the same ultimate source as FreeBSD's cron. --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 04:47, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

I stand corrected. My apologies. —Xhantar^Talk 05:30, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Radeon Mobility X1600

My laptop has a Radeon Mobility X1600. How powerful is this card, and can it play the current games (macintosh)?Thanks!--Ryan 22:18, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Apple's website says that it's up to 256MB, there should be a program on your computer that will tell you everything that's in it. If not look at the box! Jackacon 23:22, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

For more information about your computer, click the blue apple in the upper left hand corner, click about this mac, the click more info. A program calle system profiler should come up that has any information about your computer you could ever possibly need to know. schyler 00:36, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

I have an x1400 (the previous px shader version I think) and combined with a 2.16ghz Core Duo and 2GB of memory, it plays every game that's out right now. Half-Life 2 and CSS I can play with maxed graphics settings (except it doesn't handle FSAA or ASF very well) and great framerates. F.E.A.R. and Prey and Oblivion are really choppy though unless I turn the settings way down to get good framerates. But it still plays fine. Of course there's a caveat- gaming on a mac sucks ;) --froth^T 06:01, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Removing automatic web padding

When I design my web layout with CSS and use a "container" with code example:

.container {
	background-image:url(Bodybackground.jpg);
	background-repeat:repeat-y;
 	background-position:center;
	padding:0px;
	margin-right:auto;
	margin-left:auto;
	width:689px;
	height:750px
}

there is always a 5-10 px padding/gap at the top of the browser. I tries using margin-top:0; but there is still that padding. Does anyone know how to get rid of it? Jamesino 01:42, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

(note: i had to clean up the formatting, it looked ugly) Try with body {margin: 0; padding: 0;} And check with different browsers (internet explorer, firefox.. opera? safari? konqueror? asdfdsa!!?!?) Hope it helps --216.244.232.1 03:26, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Yes, it worked =). Thank you also for cleaning up the code. Jamesino 04:25, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

AOL DISK

If i put my aol disk in my computer and install aol and than take it out will aol be uninstalled?will i be able to change the logo on my main page on my computer computer for aol. will the logo be hidden?will i have to put it back in to make it run?Crocadog 02:40, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

For your first question, no. The AOL installer copies files from the CD onto the hard drive, so after installing, whatever you do with the CD won't really matter very much. I do not comprehend your other questions. Splintercellguy 03:02, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Don't use AOL. --froth^T 06:02, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

WM9 VCM Codec for Mac

Does anyone know where I can download the WM9 VCM codec for OS X? Thanks. --Philosofinch 02:55, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Not sure what you mean by WM9 VCM, but VLC can play the Windows Media 9 (aka WMV3) codec. --h2g2bob 08:00, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Adding RSS feeds to HTML files

How can I add RSS feeds in XML format into my HTML file? I want my html file to display feeds from http://www.cricinfo.com/rss/livescores.xml. Thanks, 64.178.105.172 03:01, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Use a link tag into the HEAD section of the HTML. The tag should be like this

<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Insert title here" href="http://www.cricinfo.com/rss/livescores.xml">

That is detected by IE and Firefox, and lights up the RSS button. --h2g2bob 07:57, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

The "link rel" answer above, i think, will just promote the feed to your users. If you want to show these feeds on your pages, merging them with your content, then you might find RSSxpress Lite useful, see http://rssxpress.ukoln.ac.uk/lite/ . Its a simple way of placing an RSS feed onto your own websites with a single line of JavaScript. This is a basic version that i just made up on their website:

<script src="http://rssxpress.ukoln.ac.uk/lite/viewer/?rss=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cricinfo.com%2Frss%2Flivescores.xml"></script> <noscript> <a href="http://rssxpress.ukoln.ac.uk/lite/viewer/?rss=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cricinfo.com%2Frss%2Flivescores.xml">View </a> </noscript>

If you wish to hack away at the code of your web pages more, there are many other ways to present RSS or Atom feeds within your html content. These are explained clearly in a book called "Developing Feeds with RSS and Atom" by Ben Hammersley, published by O'Reilly.

Invert mouse Y-axis within Windows XP

I've recently purchased the PC version of the game Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones and would like to invert my mouse Y-axis for camera movement in third-person view so that moving the mouse forward is tilting down, and moving the mouse backward is tilting up. For some strange reason, the developers decided not to include an option for doing so—the first game I've come across that don't. There is a setting "Camera free look inverted", but this seems to only affect camera movement in first-person view and not third-person. I'm trying to find a way to "natively" invert my mouse Y-axis within Windows itself, and hoping this will affect the game as well. Is there any freeware utility or registry setting available that can be used to achieve this? I'm using Windows XP and have a Logitech MouseMan Dual Optical mouse. Thanks. —Xhantar^Talk

You're definately going to either go through an option in your mouse drivers (or use custom drivers). Key-remapping applications are unable to affect DirectInput and the windows messaging queue that microsoft is pushing nowadays. I see you have a Logitech mouse. Any chance you have Logitech MouseWare installed? If you do (get it here), here's a solution that logitech, google, and archive.org seem hell-bent on erasing for some reason o_O

Re: setting orientation on each axis independently? Posted Nov 26, 2004 by Ashley Ings I've managed to set the orientation for the up/down axis.

Once you've installed MouseWare and configure you mouse, go into the registry.

Now depending on what kind of mouse you have cordless or hard wired you should have and entry under: Under hkey_local_machinesystemCurrentControlSetServiceL8042pr2Parameters I have installed a cordless mouse so the next key is CordlessOptical20000

Under this key there is an entry that set what kind of mouse you have called: DeviceModel. If you set this to TrackMan4 and start up the mouse configuration ,from the control panel or the SystemTray (right on the taskbar) you will see a new tab called 'Orientation'. With this you can reverse the Y axis by dragging in the direction you desire. So to give you the complete reg entry for my installtion of a cordless optical mouse it was:

There will be a similar one explaining your DeviceModel if you use the MouseWare install:

hkey_local_machinesystemCurrentControlSetServiceL8042pr2ParametersCordlessOptical20000DeviceModel

Hope it helps - Ashley 26th Nov 2004

Also apparently this guy has written a mouse driver to invert the y axis, but you'll have to get it from him directly --froth^T 06:09, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Aaah, that's great. Yep, I do have MouseWare installed. I'll give it a shot. Hopefully I won't end up with a completely disoriented mouse going around in circles and stuff :) Must...play...this...game... preferably after getting some wikisleep. Thanks again! —Xhantar^Talk 07:55, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Hate to burst your bubble but you just installed StarForce :( Sucks to be your computer --froth^T 09:27, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

I haven't had any apparent problems caused by the StarForce drivers myself (touch wood), but know it's a mission getting rid of them. Thanks for the info. —Xhantar^Talk 17:16, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

IE 7.0 Pro

Is it true the there are different and better versions of IE 7.0 like IE 7.0 Pro? If so, what are they?

There certainly are different versions of IE7 available, such as for different computer architectures and different versions of the Windows operating system, although their feature sets do not differ much, if at all. Whether a particular version of IE7 is "better" than another is subjective, and mostly depends on how (or what for) it will be used. Software updates are regularly released by Microsoft that mostly improve the software it's updating in some fashion—mostly for security reasons (see here), but again, the feature set usually remains the same. For additional features, there are add-ons available for download. Internet Explorer 7+, released with Windows Vista, has/will have some significant additions. I'm not aware of anything called "Internet Explorer 7 Pro". Hope this helps. (Note: Please remember to sign your posts by typing four tildes, like so: ~~~~) —Xhantar^Talk 05:00, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

The Vista version of IE7 is no longer called IE7+, since it'd be pretty hard to differentiate between "IE7 for Vista" and "IE7 or later". --Pidgeot (t) (c) (e) 11:39, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Yep, internet explorer is free (gratis); there's no "pro" version --froth^T 09:29, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

IE 8

Is there a IE 8 or later, where can you download it; is there a FIREFOX 3.0 or later?

The most recent release of IE is 7.0 (downloadable here). Firefox 2.0 is the latest version of Firefox for public use (available here); while early builds of what will become 3.0 exist, they're really only intended for development and testing, not for consumer use. BryanG^(talk) 04:51, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Yep. That being said, you get get the alpha builds here --froth^T 06:16, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Trillian Astra

I assume that the new Trillian Astra will not be free, and will require a fee like Trillian Pro does now. I looked around, both on Wikipedia and on Cerulean Studio's websites, but I couldn't find confirmation either way. I really hope it will be free, and I was wondering if anyone has found a definitive answer to my question of whether Astra will be free or not. Thanks for any help. --71.117.43.121 04:36, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

A comment left by "Chris Brainard" here suggests upgrading from Trillian 3.1 Pro will cost $30. There is also some discussion regarding Astra's expected cost here. It might be possible that current, registered (paid) users of Trillian Pro or older versions will be able to upgrade to Astra for free. If that's the case, it might make more sense to buy an older version now, while still available and assuming that an older version will cost less than buying Astra. Sorry I couldn't give a definite answer, though. —Xhantar^Talk 05:24, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for finding that; it basically confirmed what I thought. I appreciate your help by digging through those forums. --71.117.43.121 05:34, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

On a side note, if I was to sign up for alpha testing and was selected as a tester, does anyone know what my responsibilities would be? Would I have to regularly write reports on performance and stuff like that? If it turns out Astra will require a fee to use, will I not be able to use the alpha or beta version if I don't pay for it? Sorry about the question overload, and thanks for any help. --71.117.43.121 05:09, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

You'd be expected to regularly report on bugs or requested features. If you stopped reporting, they could stop giving you updated versions to test. And no they couldn't keep you from still using early builds after the for-fee version is released unless they "time bomb" the code so it refuses to work after a certain date (or after a certain amount of time without an update). But if they offer any live content that could easily be restricted --froth^T 09:21, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Shrinking desktop icons

My desktop icons appear to have shrunk overnight, suddenly being quite small (text size, not icon size). THe address bar in IE is also tiny. Any help? Thanks,--Rambutan (talk) 07:26, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

If everything is small, you've probably increased the resolution the display is set as. Right click the desktop and pick properties for Display Properties, and there should be a resolution option there. --h2g2bob 07:53, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Ah, but in that case, text would have been shrunk as well. I'd say click your desktop, choose properties, and change your theme/layout settings. --Kjoonlee 17:22, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

recycle bin

can anybody say how to get back things which were deleted from the recycle bin? is there any way? my brother accidentally deleted an important file of mine. i need it. can somebody say how? thank u very much

Open the Recycle Bin by clicking the icon on the desktop. Find the file he deleted and double-click it to restore it to the location that it was when it was deleted. If there are tons of files in the recycle bin and you're having trouble finding what you're looking for, sort the list by Date Deleted and it should be somewhere near the end --froth^T 09:18, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Undeletion --Spoon! 10:42, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

recycle bin 2

thanks to whoever answered my previous question under the title "recycle bin" but i think he or she misunderstood my question. i had some files in my computer. my brother deleted those files and also EMPTIED the recycle bin. those files are now not even present in recycle bin. is there any way to get them back? thank u.

There is software on the market that can recover files that have been deleted from the recycle bin. One called 'win undelete' offers a free trial. I have never used any of this software before but I understand they can be quite good at recovering work like this. I understand Hard-drives don't just write/re-write over the same area of the drive and so deleted files can be recovered because they are in a portion of the hard-drive that is 'unseeable in the os' but has not had the files overwritten by other data, obviously eventually the hard-drive will need that space for something else and then it will be overwritten. ny156uk 11:28, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

I've tested http://www.snapfiles.com/get/restoration.html a while ago and it was good, try that. ST47Talk 12:31, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

this product is excellent. It might be really expensive though; I got it -er- free --froth^T 18:23, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

You could try PhotoRec (which, despite its name, can recover more than photos). Note, however, that the more you use your computer before trying to recover the files, the harder it becomes to recover them (the computer doesn't try to avoid writing over them, after all, they have been deleted...). And, the obligatory suggestion to prevent this happening next time: make backups. --cesarb 15:50, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Computer related - networking

I have 2 computers in my home.I have Windows XP oopreating system in both. I have a broadband connection in one system. I would like to share my internet connection to the second system ? how can i achieve it. Please give me a simple way. Please give idea regarding IP address ,, etc

A router would do the trick. Computerjoe's talk 13:45, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Router definitely would be the easiest way, connect the broadband and your computers to the router and off you go. The other way of course, if you can't afford a router or whatever is to simply use a cross over cable and use internet shearing wizard. It isn't that hard to get going but if you do that, you must have the PC with the internet connection turned on even if you only want to use the internet on the other computer, with a router, either computer can use the internet independently. Vespine 21:43, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Non-Microsoft Desktop Search software for XP users

The Microsoft XP search bug is driving me crazy. Is there any software available (to buy or free) that allows me to search for files on my computer containing a given string.

E.g Working exactly like one would expect the XP search to work.

I know there are some registry changes you can make to XP service pack 2 to make it work properly, but it is a pain to do this every time i install XP on my computer.

All i need is some software that, say, would find files that contain a string if it was in the source code of an html/text/php file on my computer.

I have tried searching for such software on the internet but, due to the nature of my search query it is tricky to get good results.

My ideal software would be able to find files that contain a string such as "$monk()" if it were in a file amongst the text such as "funky punk$monk()foobar doobar".

If such software doesn't exist, anyone who writes this simple application could strike it rich. I'd pay at least $40 for a download.

I'm pretty sure Google Desktop does the job. There's probably others too, in fact, here is a list. - Akamad 12:57, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, i have tried the Google desktop search but it didn't scan all file types i needed. But, the list looks very handy, so that's much appreciated.

Just to keep you all updated... After going through the list, i have finally found something that can search for and pick up a string of php code within the source of an html page: The victor is: Likasoft Archivarius 3000

However, it took quite a lot digging around the settings and checking-of-boxes to get the application to index the markup of my html pages - almost the same hassle as altering XP's registry.

I also downloaded Copernic Desktop Search which i hope will be able to do it, i'm still waiting for it to index my files.

On spending all this time trying to replicate the kinds of search that is standard in Dreamweaver tells me that there is still a market for a "Web Designer's Simple Desktop Search Tool" for XP - that simply does what the Windows 2000 Microsoft search used to do - nothing more, nothing less. I guess, though, if you tried to pitch the idea to an investor they'd laugh at you - "Why re-invent the wheel, chortle, titter". I say, please re-invent it, mine's gone wobbly! Ronnystalker 16:13, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Vista relentlessly indexes every plaintext file on your computer; vista's search probably could have found it --froth^T 18:25, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Windows Live messenger problem

I've just updated from MSN 7.5 to WLM, but the window crashes and whites out when I try and sign into my account, other accounts work on it and my account works on other peoples WLM, it seems that only my account has a problem with this WLM. I've reduced the number of groups I have on my contact list and it hasn't made any difference, I've also re-installed the program,none of this has an effect. Any advice will be greatly appreiciated,

Howso-Mchowsoson 13:59, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

You could try to uninstall WLM using Add/Remove Programs, and then also delete any files that might have been left over in the WLM installation folder (typically, for WLM 8.1, this should be C:\Program Files\MSN Messenger) before re-installing. To be safe, though, rather move the entire C:\Program Files\MSN Messenger\ folder elsewhere instead of deleting it, in case you need to put it back later.

I rather suspect, though, that something went wrong with the user-specific data stored on your PC by WLM for your specific user account, given the fact that you say it only happens when you try to login on your computer. Certain data, like the accounts you use on WLM, are linked to your Windows user account. Try creating a new Windows user account and see if you can login to WLM using your usual WLM username, but under the new Windows account. If using Windows XP, you can create new accounts by going to Control Panel, User Accounts.

If this does not help, you're really desperate, and willing to potentially screw up WLM entirely, try moving the C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Microsoft\MSN Messenger\ folder and its contents elsewhere (where "<username>" is the username with which you logon to Windows, without the "< and >"), and reinstalling again. WLM should re-create the folder, and hopefully also a working copy of whatever might be causing your problem.

Good luck! —Xhantar^Talk 20:26, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Searching for locking/ releasing mouse & keyboard codes

Hi all,I am having some difficulties in finding suitable codes (in Java) for locking/ releasing mouse and keyboard of student PC from teacher PC connected in a network, So I was wondering if anyone could provide me with the required codes, or suggest some websites where I could get some help regarding this topic,I am using WindowsXP as operating system. Many thanks.Sara

Don't try to do this, it will be trivial for the students to bypass, and it's not a very good idea in the first place. Get rid of Windows, run a server in the corner, and buy a bunch of $150 thin clients to run off the server. Use KDE and the students won't know the difference, and they won't be able to do anything to the server except write documents and stuff to their home directory. --froth^T 18:29, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Sorry, I forgot to mention that I am a Computer Engineering student doing my senior project on Instructor Control PC,where I am stuck in the lock/release part.Sara

I don't pagree with the advice above I've used Dameware Mini Remote in a support capacity and it certunally is not trivial to bypass, but with that you have to have the desktop remotely connected to your workstation, so you'd have all of your students' desktops on your system, which would probably not be practial. I've done a quick google on keyboard input lock software and came up with this list, maybe there is something there you could use? Vespine 21:25, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

If the student has physical access to the system he can do anything he darn well wants to it --froth

I'm really not sure why you are under that impression, where I work we have quite a secure user environment on a windows XP network, maybe you just haven't seen it implemented effectively. I work for a financial institution where insecure user environments would easily equal unimaginable amounts of money in theft and fraud, we don't use too many fancy tricks, most is native XP, trust me it is quite possible. Vespine 22:54, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

If you have physical access to the CD drive you can put in an XP install disk and boot into XP safe mode, and the "key lock" wouldn't even initialize. One step further, if the student puts in a linux livecd then he has absolute and completely unrestricted access to any component of the computer. If you try to lock out the BIOS configuration so it will boot from the hard disk before the CD rom drive, it's easy to just short out the CMOS chip holding the config data (maybe not practical in a lab setting but definitely practical in an office at a financial institution). Take out the CD-ROM drive altogether and the hard drive can still be removed and dumped, or slaved to a secondary drive that has linux installed. (I've personally seen this done in the back of a lab when the tech wasn't looking) Now control over the machine isn't nearly as grave as control over the network, but it's still unrestricted access to absolutely everything unencrypted on the computer, and it's trivial to use ophcrack or something to get the administrator's password from windows. I suspect at a bank or whatever what they would do is keep all information on the server and do what I suggested- have a bunch of dumb clients who auth to the server and image themselves on boot. The thing you have to realize is that while the computer may be secure while you're running Windows in your restricted account, there's nothing at all running to protect it while you're not running windows --froth^T 23:29, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

I think we're really looking at the problem from two different angles. I'm seeing the issue as simply stopping a user from starting a test five minutes before everyone else while people are getting ready and sitting down, you are trying to stop students hacking apart a box and shorting the BIOS chip and cracking the whole network. Granted at my financial institution all the really sensitive information is on servers but the clients here are not nearly dumb. If I connect to a client PC and lock out their inputs, user's will NOT be able to bypass them short of rebooting the PC and starting with Live CD or something like you suggested. I'm not too worried about THAT because if that happens, people will get sacked, it's not hard to work out WHO rebooted the PC, similarly I'd trust students not to completely hack apart lab boxes given even a small amount of physical security, assigned workstations, user IDs etc, PC boxes can be locked, most boxes have tamper switches, CD boot can be disabled etc.. Vespine 06:21, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

I just wanted to make it clear how dangerous physical access can be. --froth^T 17:43, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Thanks guys. Sara

Computer Science/Information Technology

≥Kuganathan 15:00, 4 February 2007 (UTC)kuganathan What is meant by "Intelligent Clothing" ? Where can i get detailed reference on this subject?

The article intelligent clothing gives a basic definition of the term.213.249.232.179 15:45, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Minimizing computer power consumption but leaving the computer on...?

I recently tested my Computers and Monitors power consumption and found that the computers drew around 130 to 150 watts while the monitors drew from 35 watts for the LCD to 50 watts to 72 watts for the CRTs. In total the power consumption for all computers and monitors is about 670 watts (1300 Powerup!). What is the best Powerdown setting under Windows XP to minimize consumption and yet leave the systems on so that Web cams, Email, security monitor and other computer dependent equipment will still function properly but at minimum Electricity cost? -- Barringa 16:54, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

There's really nothing you can do if you want to still use email and stuff. If you have a newer Intel processor you might be able to set it to dynamically adjust performance to reduce power consumption. And you could always lower the brightness of your monitors. And if you calculate that your PSUs are drawing way more power than they need you can replace them (although it'll be expensive) --froth^T 18:34, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

The amount of power being consumed by each monitor, especially the LCD, is around a 60 watt porch bulb while the computer power consumption is compariable to flood lamps so even though the PSUs are rated from 450 to 650 watts they are drawing far less than their rating. -- Barringa 02:53, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Actually that existed ages before the "new" technology of the "new" Intel stuff. Cool `n Quiet anyone? Speedstep anyone? On Linux it automatically lowers the processor speed when in low load, not sure and never seen it bappening in Windows though. --antilived^{T | C | G} 10:53, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

The hardware has to support it --froth^T 17:42, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Really irritating CD Problem

I bought a Rosetta Stone language program for a bit over a hundred bucks. I installed it without problems, used it two or three times, and then didn't use it for a month. I just put the cd (unscratched - I'm not risking wasting that money) back into the computer, and it calls up an autoplay screen that gives me a number of options (install, run, register, info.) If I click run, it loads loudly for a bit and then tells me to "Please insert the correct CD-ROM, select OK and restart application." The thing is, this IS the correct CD. It's the "application" cd, and I've used it before to run the program. It isn't as if the computer and cd aren't communicating, because the autoplay came up, and I was even, in the course of trying to fix this, able to uninstall and reinstall the program from the cd. I've tried restarting my computer and ejecting the cd several times. I've tried opening it from the program saved on my harddrive. I just don't understand what the problem could be. It's a little bit irritating. How could a functional, completely unscathed cd, fail to recognize itself? Any suggestions? Should I turn my computer in for repairs? Sashafklein 02:09, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

If all other CDs work fine, then it's a problem with this program. I'd suggest giving the software author a ring and seeing what they say. --h2g2bob 02:21, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Your computer is alright, it's probably some SafeDisc issue. I believe Rosetta Stone uses SafeDisc 2.9? Contact technical support for your product. Splintercellguy 02:31, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

If it changes anything, my cd drive isn't quite perfect. I can't, for instance, play an audio cd at regular speed. It goes really slowly and crackily. I can, however, save it to the computer and then play it just fine. I didn't mention that, because I didn't think it would've contributed to the cd basically ignoring itself. Sashafklein 02:43, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

While tech support will probably take time to ship out new CDs, (and possibly even ask you to return your existing product), it might be easier to download them through torrents or such, which should be completely legal, as long as you're using a bought and paid for liscense.

You mentioned that your CD drive had issues, it may the reason that SafeDisc is not working properly. SafeDisc I believe relies on reading bad sectors on the CD, and if your CD can't do this properly it may have a problem. Splintercellguy 03:46, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Actually, downloading it from a torrent still technically isn't legal, because you're probably uploading it to someone illegally at the same time. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 04:09, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

It's illegal regardless of whether you own the license, and not because you're also uploading. Being an ubernode only targets you for takedown by the company's lawyers --froth^T 04:13, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Use Alcohol 120% to override the safedisc. :) --Wooty Woot? contribs 06:57, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Or Daemon Tools for a much better (and free) alternative --froth^T 17:39, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Thanks guys. I've tried daemon tools, but when I select the cd drive to mount it, it instead explores the drive for ISO or whatever files. I can't get the program to actually select the DRIVE as opposed to something on the CD. I might just torrent this. That sounds right. Thanks for all the advice. Sashafklein 18:04, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

DAEMON Tools works on ISOs and other CD/DVD image formats. So, take an image of your CD (if you can) and mount. Splintercellguy 07:37, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

UPS service under Windows XP...?

How to reinstall the Windows XP UPS service? Whenever I try to start it the error message says it can't find the file. -- Barringa 02:58, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps run "sfc /scannow" (copy and paste without quotes to the Run dialog box)? Splintercellguy 03:50, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

CRO and Signal Generator connections for OPAMP as INVERTING AMPLIFIER(IC741)

I've soldered a circuit that uses an opamp(IC741) as an inverting amplifier.The feed back resistor is 10K ohms and the input is given at pin 2 through a resistor of 2.2Kohms.Now i want to give an input signal of 1 volt and 200Hz frequency to the circuit using one channel of the CRO and the Signal Generator.Also i want to observe the output waveform using channel 2 of the CRO(output is at pin 6).Howevr i am unsure of the connections to be made as far as the CRO probes and signal generator is concerned.Can anyone help??59.183.87.29 07:19, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Are you running this from two equal-but-opposite power supplies (so, for example, +/- 15 volts or +/- 9 volts)? The description below will assume this.

Connect all the grounds ("reference") points together: the circuit under test, the signal generator, and the oscilloscope.

Connect the output of the signal generator to the far end of the 2.2K resistor (the end away from the op-amp).

Connect one 'scope probe to that same point.

Connect the other 'scope probe to the output pin of the '741.

Et voila!

If you're running the '741 from a single power supply ("single-ended operation"), you'll need an isolating capacitor (of an appropriate electrical value) between the signal generator and the input to the op-amp. You may also want to switch the 'scope to "AC coupling", although the DC level coming out of the op-amp is also a point of interest.

Point of interest: Generally speaking, you can't directly probe the non-inverting input of the op-amp without dsrupting the operation of the circuit. In your particular example, the resistor values are low enough to allow you to do it, but the observed voltage will always seem to be 0 (ground)! In fact, there are microvolts of signal there, but you almost certainly won't be able to see the signal on your 'scope.

Atlant 17:20, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Sweet!! yes i was using a dual 15V supply and it worked perfectly.many thanks

sap

Hello friend How to u use f4 help and f1 help in report .

Hello can you tell us a bit more? At the moment I can only guess that you'd press the F1 or F4 function key. --h2g2bob 19:35, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Financial RSS - a source for the full story

I'm doing some (amateur) investigations in various fields (machine learning, financial modelling). (Yes, these are rather mighty challenges for an amateur). Anyway, does anyone know of a machine-readable (such as RSS) source of financial/company news (I want the full story, rather than teaser and link, without any "gunk" such as ads and navbars)? Also a source of machine-readable stock prices. Since this is only for research, it doesn't matter which market (even which country - although I'd prefer the news to be in English so I could understand it too). --대조 | Talk 18:04, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Free domain?

My website is currently hosted on 50megs.com, but they're very restricted on the scripting and other functions their hosting in their free package includes. I found another hosting service that has everything I want, but there's a catch. It will only work if I get a domain name to direct there.

Now, I can transfer my current domain to the new hosting service, but I'd like to have a backup of the entire site online and ready to use, just in case something goes wrong. Can anyone recommend a place where I can get a free domain main (with a relatively short URL) that doesn't require me to jump to all sorts of hoops to have it activated? - Mgm|^(talk) 18:19, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

The only free domain services I know of are [26] and one using the .co.nl extension (don't have a link though - some Googling might find it). I know that the .tk service only shows another website but with frames and also advertises, so you'll need to use a free host elsewhere and then use .tk to 'funnel' the site. RevenDS 19:26, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps I misunderstand, but it seems that DynDNS fits the description. --Tardis 19:28, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

There's also http://freedomain.co.nr/, which gives you *.co.nr for free, no adverts. --h2g2bob 19:32, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

They require a single small image button. A lot less invasive than frames, banners and all that. I'll look into this one.

• Thanks for the suggestions. - Mgm|^(talk) 21:41, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Excel

Do you know of any Excel (sofware or server) for a web site so that multiple users can edit the Excel sheet at the same time; I would like if it was secure and password-protected.

What about Google Documents (formerly known as Writely? Duomillia 21:02, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Is there anything else to put on a web site, something that is by Microsoft?

Not yet, I don't think. --24.147.86.187 02:06, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

Web Hosting

Does anybody know of a good web hosting with a lot of features? 68.193.147.179 20:55, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

http://bluehost.com is pretty good, cheap, lots of features, and popular. http://godaddy.com also does good webhosting for cheap. Have anything more specific in mind? --140.247.250.175 21:02, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

I vote for CrystalTech on the expensive side and DreamHost on the cheap side. Droud 21:17, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Ejam is a good webhost. All you have to do is register and make 10 posts. Best of all it's free. Good luck. --71.98.21.95 23:58, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

I've heard good things about DreamHost (which Droud suggested above), but never needed to buy webhosting yet. --h2g2bob 01:08, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

I'm sure they did this to piss me off but..(sandisk e240 - raphocity

I can't seem to efectivelly transfer music from one to the other. i've done everything in my power to get the damn thing to transfer(checked the mode, instaled updates, hell i even formated the drive) but i still cant transfer. it says it won't accept the filetype. GD.Xiaden 22:20, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

What is raphocity? Rhapsody? Droud 23:33, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

6 February

My compuer froke

how can i fix my broken computer.

Can you tell us more? What exactly is broken? What happens when you turn it on - for example, does nothing turn on, does text appear (if so, what), does Windows / OS X / Linux start up? --h2g2bob 01:12, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

MP4

Hi. Does anyone know of a free or open source app which I could use to convert the files from a DVD into MP4 or something that would be compatible with a PSP? Alternatively does anyone know how to do it with Nero or Media Player or something? thanks Mix Lord 01:20, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

This is a good looking guide to using DVD Decrypter and PSP Video 9 to do exactly that. For most other video types, using PSP Video 9 on its own is fairly easy. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 01:45, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

Okay thanks. I'll try thatMix Lord 06:44, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

Adding Harddrive space to a laptop

So I've been looking into buying myself a laptop, and I want the best 15" laptop out there in pretty much every aspect other than graphics. I don't play games or anything, but I have enough music (about 100+ gigs right now and growing quickly) that I'll want a LOT of harddrive space (2 or 300g maybe?). But I also want the computer to be really fast, because I've consistently worn down the speed of every computer I have had through constant use of music, video, and innumerable strange programs. I've noticed that nearly every computer offering that much harddrive space is a) usually larger than 15", and b) that if I do buy, say a 120 gig harddrive laptop, the only drives available cap off at 5400 rpm, which, I take it, isn't as fast as 7200 or higher rpms, available with smaller hardrives. I have seen online, however, internal harddrives for individual sale that can hold 300 gigs and run at ridiculous rpm speeds. The question is whether I could buy one of these drives and an otherwise nice laptop with a small harddrive and then hire a computer guy to put the two together. Would this work? Would overheating be a problem? Physical size of the disk? Are these extra internal drives PC-specific? Will it really work so fast? How would you suggest I solve my conundrum? Thanks a lot, Sashafklein 03:48, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

No, that won't work. I suggest getting a small external HD. --Wooty Woot? contribs 04:02, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

You don't get fast speeds at anything past 150gb. 5200rpm is fine. And you won't find that size in a small HDD for a laptop. --froth^T 05:42, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

RPM is only one factor of the speed of a harddisk. Seek time and latency need to be taken into account aswell, but having said that, maybe we are getting too technical. Assuming the laptop has a S-ATA (Serial ATA) bus check the speed of that bus (S-ATA starts at 150MBps and goes to 300, 600 & 1.2GBps) and the amount of disk cache the harddrive has. The more the better. The speed of the bus only gives you what is known as the burst speed and can only be maintained as long as there is data in the harddrive cache. The harddrive fills this up pre-emptively using complicated algorithms based on what previous data has been asked for.

What ever harddrive you are getting another tip is that if you are only going to be storing large files on it, like music and/or video, rather than "strange programs". you could increase the cluster size. This optimises the seek function of the harddrive, thus making it quicker.

So, the spin speed is not the only thing that matters, although you can get harddrives with a faster speed than 5400rpm for laptops at very large capacities, you should make sure that the drive you buy is physically compatible with the laptop you buy, but do not forget the disk cache size when buying or the cluster size when formatting the drive.

Good luck. Steve Edgington 10:06, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

NC command

I was browsing the internet and came upon a command in mac os x terminal called nc. I've figured out how to use it (man pages), but what is the practical use? As far as I know, it just sends raw data to computers. Thanks!--Ryan 04:43, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

netcat --Spoon! 04:55, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

Can't change images on my web page

I can't change the images on my web page. I'm using a purchased template and tranferring my own images for the ones shown, following the instructions, but when I refresh the page I get a blank image space, with an icon (round,square & triangle) in one corner. I've emailed the template provider and they've said use photoshop which I already am using. I am being careful to make the photos the correct file size and even flattened them but to no avail. As I am very new to this type of work I am probably doing something really stupid so I hope you can help. Thank you.Sue latham 07:58, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

You either have to change the HTML so it uses the new images, or alternatively make sure your new images have the exact same names (and format) as the ones you want to replace and then simply upload the new images to the same location and overwrite the old ones with the new. I would highly recoment the first option though, getting at least some basic HTML understanding is not that hard and helps a lot. Try reading one of the many, many HTML tutorial's out there. --Sherool (talk) 08:41, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

PCI express (PCIe)

Having read extensively on this bus and also having included a discussion of it in the hardware courses I have tutored over the last few years I have still not been able to find out the Frequency (Hz) this bus runs at. We are told the Bandwidth, but this is a function of the hertz rating and the amount of conductors involved in the transmission. The EIA/TIA-644 specification says that the total bandwidth is 655Mbps on a single LVDS pair with a 100Ohm load. As the bus is a serial bus one can assume that the hertz rating is therefore 655MHz, but I do not like assumptions and would like to know the actual specific Hertz rating of this bus so that I can demonstrate how the bandwidth is worked out for one or more lanes to my future classes. Thank you Steve Edgington 09:43, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

ADSL Data usage Meter

Would you'll be able to provide a link for an accurate data usage meter on the adsl broadband connection that takes only the internet data traffic volume? Some of the freeware I downloaded even takes readings on normal browser and program execution.

Hypertext as cultural phenomenon

what might be the ramifications of the hypertext on culture? The hypertext transforms a text, which no longer has a set meaning, but how can we look upon a text as a unit when it is led into different directions by "links". There are no authors any more(in the sense that nothing new or amazing can come from an online publication), only writers and users, most of whom do not write very well. What is the future for culture when it is being degraded as it is? Also, does anyone know of any idea of where we are headed with the hypertext? What's next? Thank you for any comments on this you might have, it would be greatly appreciated. Henry Adams

Actually, some of the best journalism and writing I see comes from online sources; and yet I also don't see traditional book sales decreasing. Some writers like Cory Doctorow are embracing this new distribution method of the internet, while out of copyright works can be obtained for free (archive.org, Wikisource, Project Gutenberg etc). What hypertext does do is change non-fiction from a linear story where concepts are explained in turn, into a web of interconnected ideas. What's next - tags, which is really just more of the same. --h2g2bob 13:30, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

Hold on there - I think you are getting a bit carried away.

"The hypertext transforms a text, which no longer has a set meaning" - not really true - a text still has a set meaning - all the hypertext does is make it easier to link to other texts.

compare the above with this

" "The hypertext transforms a text, which no longer has a set meaning" - not really true - a text still has a set meaning - all the hypertext does is make it easier to link to other texts" Here I've hyperlinked several words - so you can click on them to look at what the wikipedia page says about them - the meaning of the sentence hasn't changed.

Quote "..how can we look upon a text as a unit when it is led into different directions by "links" " - my answer would be to simply read it as a unit - the links are optional - you don't have to click. Personally I only click if I think a hyperlink will be useful or interesting.

You seem to be dissapointed with the standard of writing on the internet - this is unaviodable - many people can now publish electronically their thoughts and thesises - it is off course unlikely that all of these will be of the highest quality. But I don't see any reason to believe that nothing good will come from the entire body of electronically published work.

As for the future of hypertext - I think it will stay an integral part of the 'web experience' - I've never had any major qualms about it - I see it as being similar to having many books on my desk at once with the indexed references at the back all at easy reach..87.102.13.26 15:01, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the response... but I think you've proved my point. The note that I started with was mine (as its author, and as a "user") and it has now changed. Anyone can come along now and read the entire thing (including this), instead of just my piece that got this started. To the "new reader", this section is not just a question about hypertexts, but a discussion about them...you have changed my identity, yours, ours, and his/hers... a bad example, but hopefully you get my point. No identity is secure. When you read a page in a book, you are free to establish your own reading, but online, a text can be edited... meaning is not stable. Although I agree that links are optional they are also prompts by which to contaminate the readers reading. Any thoughts? Henry Adams

Surely it's clear to the reader and to you that this is a place for questions and answers - I fail to see how responding to you proves a point - you confused me there with your reasoning - I assumed it was an open question and that an answer would be expected..

As far as I can see your identity is secure - this page is like a transcript of a conversation - my comments are labelled separately from yours - I think it is plainly clear what you have written, and what has been written by me.

I find hyperlinks useful in finding information and as an educational aid. I agree that I wouldn't want to see hyperlinks in the middle of a novel or poetry etc, or indeed in the middle of a quotation. In this respect I think we agree. I also hope that common sense would prevent most english speaking people from doing so.

So to summarise: in a an educational text, or an encyclopaedia I wholeheartedly support 'hypertext', in a technical document they may be useful, in other contexts I would not approve of their use.87.102.13.26 15:36, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

Weigand Output/Interface

I am looking for information or history of the Weigand output/interface used in RFID or barcode security readers. I did not find any information on wikipedia, and several various web searches just gave me vendors. Any information would be appreciated. Jaegendar 13:48, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

Source code website

Hi, Does anyone here know any website that provide source codes of its softwares. Thanks. Sara

Wikipedia (which runs on the MediaWiki software) is a good start, since you're here. It's free software, and it's used at a lot of other sites besides Wikipedia. --대조 | Talk 14:15, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

I am looking for the code of a specific software for my project, and I downloaded many softwares(commercial ones) for this purpose, but unfortunetely they are not coming with their source codes files. So Taejo you are telling me that I can find what I want on wikipedia?. Sara

What exactly are you looking for? If you're trying to find the source code for commercial closed-source software, you're out of luck. SourceForge is home to a lot of Free software projects that you can glean code from (assuming you can accept the terms of their license; mostly the GNU GPL or a BSD license). -- mattb @ 2007-02-06T15:13Z

You can pretty much find open source libraries for anything (especially on source-forge). If you give us more specifics (what exactly you need, what OS and what language), we can probably give you more help. Oskar 15:35, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

sourceforge didnt help me much, for more details you can check my first post [27]. Sara

Mounted disk icon on Ubuntu desktop

I'm dual-booting my system with Ubuntu and Windows. I have my windows partition mounted (using ntfs-3g) on my Linux system in case I need a file or something from it. It's not something I do often, but it is a nice convenience. However, now my otherwise clean desktop has this ugly icon on it that says "windows" under a small picture of a disk. It goes away if I umount it obviously, but I'd rather have it mounted and not have to look at that damn thing all the time. Can anyone help me? Oskar 15:33, 6 February 2007 (UTC)