Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing

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April 29

Flash Drive 1

What is the largest flash drive? 68.193.147.179 00:42, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/26/a-data-exposes-128gb-ssd-to-the-camera/ -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 00:54, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Flash Drive 2

How do I use a flash drive to run my computer? 68.193.147.179 00:43, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

If you mean SSD, same as a hard drive. If you mean USB Drive, see Live USB - Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 00:54, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Fonts

Where can I download some free fonts for Windows XP? --Russoc4 05:29, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

try (http://www.1001freefonts.com/), or trying this google search (http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=free+fonts&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8) for a whole host of sites. ny156uk 09:05, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

A friend who does a lot of work in photoshop recommended www.dafont.com for me when I was looking for a font to make a logo for a family business out of. Really amazing site, well worth a look -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 13:21, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Two sources with ancient roots (in Web years):

• Font Fairy
• Luc Devroye

Some free fonts are great, others can have serious problems. Also, some "free" fonts are stolen, shareware, or licensed only for personal use. --KSmrq^T 19:51, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Cell phones that read .PDFs and .DOCs

I've heard that some cell phones can do that. Anyone knows a particular model with that abilities? Thanks. --Taraborn 08:39, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Any phones built on the Series60 platform or the UIQ platform are able to do this. UIQ3 I belive comes with builtin support for DOC and PDF where as Series60 is widely supported by QuickOffice and Acrobat free copies of which come preinstalled on pretty much all new phones. The free version of QuickOffice is restricted to reading only but the registered version allows editing also. Have a look at Nokia ([1]) and Sony Ericsson ([2]) as the chief providers of Series60 and UIQ devices respectivley or check out AllAboutSymbian ([www.allaboutsymbian.com]) for more information on the capabilities of either OS. Elaverick 13:00, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Try having a look at Windows Mobile and HTC :) --saxsux 18:27, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Or move to Japan where cell phones are at least three generations ahead of what's available in the States today. Or wait for an iPhone. :) --24.249.108.133 03:51, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

GB DS3P Raid setup problem.

I know this isn't an encyclopedic question but I hope someone might be able to help anyway. I have a Gigabyte DS3P, enabled SATA as RAID in bios and setting a volume up under the [ctrl-i] menu seems to go fine.

Starting xp pro setup I hit F6 and select the ICH8R drivers to which windows replies that windows has the drivers already, the drivers on the floppy are newer but unless you have a specific need for them to use the windows ones anyway. Ok fine.

If I chose the ones on the disk it gets to "starting windows" and then Blue Screens, if I choose the windows drivers it says "the file gl1240.sys is corrupt, setup failed".

googling gl1240.sys comes up with nothing.

Does anyone have any ideas? I've got the most recent bios too. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Vespine (talk • contribs) 08:58, 29 April 2007 (UTC).

Error message in Microsoft Access 2003

I hope somebody can help me with this. When I try to create forms, reports, and tables in a database using Microsoft Access 2003, get an error mssage saying Error loading DLL. This is all I get and I have no idea what to do. If anybody here can help me I would greatly appreciate it. --Willy No1lakersfan (Talk - Contribs) 17:35, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

If you have the installation disk or files, open Access, go to 'Help', repair and ... oh can't remember exactly what it's called. Oh, I think it's Diagnose and Repair. Then when you're asked, insert the installation disk or browse to the installation files directory, and that should fix the problem. .dlls are dynamic link libraries, they're program files necessary for the operation of programs. If that doesn't help or if you don't have the installation files, write down the name of the .dll and you should be able to download it from one of the many sites that make .dlls available for people such as yourself. Anchoress 17:48, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

I have tried repairing and re-installing Microsoft Office to no avail. The error message does not give a filename, so I am in the dark as to how to fix this problem. --Willy No1lakersfan (Talk - Contribs) 19:16, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Transparent background

I need to make the blank backgrounds of some pictures in PowerPoint transparent, and all I have at my disposal is Paint and Microsoft Office Picture Manager. How should I go about doing this?--the ninth bright shiner ^talk 17:55, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

I had the same problem (Paint certainly cannot do this) and I am no graphics expert. I am assuming you can download freeware. If so, you can try painter25, which I use primarily to make transparent background images. Sandman30s 18:09, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Great, thanks! Could you give me a quick run-through on how to make the background transparent with Painter? I'm on a bit of a tight schedule.--the ninth bright shiner ^talk 18:48, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Open your file, and go to Options|Gif Image and tick transparent. Then save your file as a GIF. Easy! Sandman30s 19:12, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Yikes...I did that, and ended up with a low-quality image...and when I put it into PowerPoint, it still wasn't transparent!--the ninth bright shiner ^talk 19:41, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Can you upload the file? I will try and help. Like I said, I am no graphics expert. Painter always works for my simple web images or icons though. Sandman30s 19:58, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Uh...I dunno how...:-|--the ninth bright shiner ^talk 20:04, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Oh, wait, silly me! It's this picture of a motherboard!--the ninth bright shiner ^talk 20:06, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

I've uploaded a version with a transparent background here (1.3MB). It's under a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 license, original photo by de:Darkone. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk • Contribs)} 21:02, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. I've just tried the image and it makes the background transparent but does reduce the quality to 256 colours I think. Maybe someone else can advise on techniques to make transparent photographic images. Would depend a lot on the background having all the same colour pixels I guess. Sandman30s 21:17, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, I guess...I've got a bunch of other photos like that, though! =:-o--the ninth bright shiner ^talk 21:37, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

You can save transparent backgrounds in a format called PNG. PNG supports true-colour pictures without the need to reduce to a palette or 256 colours. IE6 and below don't support true-colour PNG transparency, however. bCube(talk,contribs); 22:19, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

I've done it for you, and it's uploaded here. I did it in Photoshop, and the only way you can get it transparent is a 256 color GIF. JoshHolloway 22:16, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

And I just realised SandMan did it. *shrug* JoshHolloway 22:17, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

So, what? The editing of an image to make its background transparent relies wholly on the willingness to convert to 256-bit GIF? Sheesh...this is a whole lot easier in Publisher, but I'm using PowerPoint...--the ninth bright shiner ^talk 22:44, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

No - as bCube said above, the PNG format supports alpha transparency on true-colour images. I uploaded a PNG version of the image with a transparent background above. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk • Contribs)} 23:11, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Oh, alright then! So, is there any tool I can use to do this? That won't cost me something? I really appreciate all the help.--the ninth bright shiner ^talk 00:05, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

I expect it's possible in Paint.NET — Matt Eason ^{(Talk • Contribs)} 00:14, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Also try the GIMP, very powerful tool -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 09:16, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Internet economics

anyone knows about internet economics?

Try looking at the article on Electronic commerce. —Mitaphane _?|! 22:51, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

You could look at second life and world of warcraft these very popular online communities have thriving economies. Infact Second Life has caught the attention of The Economist which is one of the most respected international economics publications. Here's an article they wrote (http://www.economist.com/surveys/displaystory.cfm?story_id=6794220) the best article is subscriber-only (and I only have it in paper-format so can't link to it!). ny156uk 17:12, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

P-RAM in Apple Computers?

I read the article, but what does it actually do, and what can happen if I reset it. An Apple worker reset it once to fix a problem I had with the screen, and I'm curios.--Ryan 21:34, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

It's the rough Macintosh equivalent of Nonvolatile BIOS memory; I'm surprised we only have a "redirect" and not an article for Parameter RAM. With regard to resetting it, in the old days, I think you used to hold down (command)(option)(P)(R) at power-on time and that may still work, but I think you can now twiddle most of the Open Firmware settings via either the "System preferences..." control panels or the nvram command-line application.

Atlant 23:01, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

A page on Apple's website, here, describes how PRAM can be reset and what is stored in PRAM. For OS X this includes Display settings (such as screen resolution), Startup volume choice, and DVD region setting among other things. Mike1024 (t/c) 23:11, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

April 30

Hard drive to oblivion

I've just gotten rid of an old PC (an AT!). What's the proper procedure for making the hard drive unreadable? Where do I apply the hammer? Clarityfiend 00:33, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

The best way would be to run an eraser program on the HDD. Physical means may not be guaranteed. Splintercellguy 00:38, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

I disagree, I think the opposite, bang the platters with a hammer to be sure, eraser programs may not be guaranteed;).. if you take the drive apart, which shouldn't be hard if you have the right screw driver head, often a torx, getting to the platters is easy, give them a few good bangs and there is no way anyone is going to read anything off it. There was a data recovery company that would actually SHOOT the platters with a gun claiming that anything that leaves the platters intact risks the possibility of some data being recovered, no matter what else has been done to it. Vespine 01:31, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

If Clarityfiend's hard drive is of interest to any three-letter agencies, I would not rely on shooting it, as some tracks could still be read. There's only one way to be sure, so better safe than sorry. :) --TotoBaggins 01:50, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Only one way to be sure? Surely you meant to post a link on how to nuke it from orbit. In all seriousness, take a random huge file (video, huge text, etc), drag it around various folders on a drive for awhile, delete everything on the drive, drag it around some more, run a disk wiping utility, remove the hard drive, disassemble it, run a powerful magnet over the platters, grind/smash them up, dispose of the various pieces in random locations away from your house. -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 09:15, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Dragging files into different folders won't do anything -- it usually just changes a symbolic link, not the physical location of bytes on the disk. A disk wiping utility is much more efficient, i.e. can do all sorts of unpleasant things up to DOD standards (first writing different patterns of 1s and 0s and random noise and etc.) --140.247.248.175 21:06, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Not that interesting yet, but I've still got time bwahahahaha. So I have to disassemble the thing. Rats, I was hoping that bashing it a few times would be enough. Clarityfiend 02:36, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Did somebody call my name ? Seriously, you would have to have some extremely valuable info on the computer for somebody to try to read off a damaged hard drive. If you think the CIA is that interested in you, perhaps you should invest in a nice aluminum foil hat. :-) StuRat 02:50, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Using something like DBAN would erase the drive, and it is almost certain that the FBI/CIA/NSA/DEA/FCC/whatever won't be able to recover it if you do it enough. But if you feel the need too let out some steam, go and bang ahead! --Oskar 03:29, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Degaussing takes definitive final care of any magnetic storage medium. A hammer may be cheaper, but it lacks the style. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 84.187.41.149 (talk) 03:32, 30 April 2007 (UTC).

Bruce Schneier's wonderful book Applied Cryptography begins with a quotation along the lines of, "there are two types of cryptography in the world: the kind that can keep your secrets safe from your kid sister, and the kind that can keep them safe from major world governments; this book is about the latter". If you're like me, your life concerns are closer to the former, and so a whack with a hammer will do the trick. As for aluminum foil hats, that's just what they want you to think. --TotoBaggins 03:34, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

I don't think beating it with a hammer will work. You can still get the platter out, flatten them, and read data from it. I think it would be best to melt it, or otherwise do sudo dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/[your harddrive] a few times would also be fine. --antilived^{T | C | G} 04:52, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

I used to use dd like that but then I discovered that shred(1) is part of the GNU Core Utilities, it is much quicker. -- Diletante 14:57, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Shred doesn't work on most modern filesystems. Unless you're using ext2, don't count on it to do anything useful. -- mattb 15:38, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

I meant to use it on the drive device, not a file in a filesystem. You shouldn't expect any overwrite utility to be able to wipe files from any modern filesystem, even dd if=/dev/random of=file. Shred is functionally equivelent to using dd in such a way, just faster. -- Diletante 15:48, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Degausser. 08:49, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Apparently the CIA/FBI protocol for destroying sensitive data is to wipe the hard drive hundreds of times, crush the drive until it is in grain size pieces and then turn it into cement. If I were you I'd wipe the drive a few times then open it up and look around inside for the main disk contraption

it looks like this

and then hit that with a hamer and destroy it. --Lwarf 10:10, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Throw it in the fireplace. See curie point and Incineration. --Russoc4 12:13, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

I think this question has begged the question: How do you not destroy your hard drive? x42bn6 Talk 14:51, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

You could always retain the hard-drive as a second hard-drive in your (presumably) new computer. Whilst perhaps slower and a bit smaller than others it could always serve as a useful place to back-up important files. This way you don't have to worry about 'erasing' it. I think you just need to switch it to 'slave' and then connect it into a spare place within your PC (I forget, it's been so long!). Of course if you are intent on destroying it why not get your car-crushed with it inside? Sure it means you lose your car but it's gotta work... ny156uk 17:10, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Everyone always thinks this is a joke, but I'm serious (and I believe it would work). I work in a hospital with two MRIs that are used almost constantly. I've repeatedly asked if it would be possible to mount a solid box next to the MRI that we can put harddrives in. After a couple days getting wiped by the MRI, I believe that the drives will completely erased. Other than a safety issue, I simply don't see what the problem with this plan is. It is a lot cheaper than purchasing a $10,000 industrial drive eraser. --Kainaw ^(talk) 17:15, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

WOH! wait a minuit! why are you lot all talking about eraser programs and stuff like that? exactly how is a hard drive readable after youve attacked it with a hammer?

Computer forensics? In any case, the irony here is that when you approach it from this point of view you have a hard time coming up with ways to totally delete data, but when it's the "shit, I didn't save my Word document" situation it's impossible to get it back. So, in short, the answer is clearly: 1. suddenly require to have all data on the drive be preserved before a big deadline, 2. just wait as natural bad luck will somehow make it totally impossible to get data off of the drive. Actually, pushing this further, the very fact that the FBI guy would want the data would probably doom the drive from the beginning. ;-) --140.247.248.175 21:09, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Erase the drive 99 times, then put in next to the mri for a week. Then open the drive, grind the platters into dust. Next, take the dust and make a concrete block out of it. Then take the block and go at it with a sledge hammer. Final, take the peaces and ship them to Greenland. (don't forget to where your foil hat while you are doing it :) --68.154.107.171 15:52, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

If its a windows formatted drive (FAT/NTFS) create an ext3 journalled filesystem on it and then fill it with data and empty it again. ext3 is a b*stard for recovering data from when you haven't done anything drastic. Once done, cover it in petrol (or gasoline as some of you may call it) and set it on fire, keep it going for a while though. Phillip.upson 16:35, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

How can I convert a avi divx file to wmv?

How can I convert a avi divx file to wmv? I have tied several "zune" software programs which are specifically designed to convert these files and none have worked. I have also hacked the zune registry keys to allow the importing and conversion of these files by Zune and they don't convert. I have also tried the media encoder microsoft makes as well as windows movie maker. None of them are working. Can someone please help me out. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 67.169.106.72 (talk) 06:38, 30 April 2007 (UTC).

With out any more specific information, all I can suggest is VirtualDub to try to transcode your divx files to wmv files. Since you mentioned the Zune and hacking of registry keys, the only thing other I can think of is there's some sort of DRM locking you out. —Mitaphane _?|! 23:33, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Why modify the zune to support other formats !support more formats on zune

--Nerdd 21:50, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Geforce 8800GTS, DirectX 10.

Will the Geforce 8800 see a price drop anytime soon? Also: will DirectX 10 ever be supported on Windows XP? Down M. 08:03, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Maybe (ATI's competing GPUs may be coming out in May, which could force a drop), and probably no (Microsoft needs some way to get people to switch, and they have some technical excuses as well). However, a newer revision of OpenGL codenamed Mt Evans will be implementing many of the new features that DX10 has. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 08:16, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Reinstalling OSX

Well, I put an old Panther OSX disc in in the hope of being able to reinstall over the previous owner's crap, the CD is, naturally, slot loading, which means that if I shut it off, and turn it back on, it boots right to the CD, which means it's kinda not doing anything for me. I try to proceed, and I get nothing but a blue folder flashing the two mac face logo and a ?, is it actually doing anything? Because that seems like more of an error message to me =/ And if it is, what the heck can I do about it? It seems to only give me options between trying to boot it and shutting it off. The terminal doesn't recognize unmount, and says that "help on is off.", so i'm kinda stuck here.-- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 09:43, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58465 worked, with a bit of effort. I dunno know if I want to reinstall OSX, or linux... linux would probably be more actually useful, plus it would clean the computer, but OSX was the entire reason I bought this... —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Feba (talk • contribs) 10:31, 30 April 2007 (UTC).

You could dual boot and see which you like better. --TotoBaggins 13:56, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Do you have an Intel-based Mac or a PowerPC? It makes a big difference in your ability to run either/both. And I don't think Linux will "clean the computer" any more than clearing the harddrive and reinstalling over it. --24.147.86.187 13:02, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

AutoHotkey for linux

Is there something like that program for Linux systems? If possible, using the same scripting language. --Taraborn 12:29, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Digital TV signal encoding

This BBC article features a diagram of a digital signal, with a label stating "High peaks represent 1 in binary, while low peaks represents [sic] 0". This sounds like Non-return-to-zero, but do digital television signals actually use this method, or do they use Non-return-to-zero, inverted or something else? — Matt Eason ^{(Talk • Contribs)} 14:22, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

What the BBC describes in that article seems to be direct binary encoding. It's such a high level description that I don't think they'd bother confusing the issue by introducing NRZ/NRZI to the lay man. I have no idea what signalling methods various DTV standards use. The bottom of the HDTV article talks a little about encoding and modulation. -- mattb 13:19, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

The digital television signal is converted to analog using modulation. QPSK or 16-QAM or 64-QAM is used to vary the phase and possibly amplitude of a carrier wave to convey information. DVB-T is the standard used for this. If you look at the articles you can see there is much more to it than the BBC article. GB 01:56, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

Need help with Linux

I need help setting up a Broadcom Bcmxx wireless card in openSUSE 10.2 —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.158.149.51 (talk) 14:37, 30 April 2007 (UTC).

Here are a couple of pages on how to post requests for technical assistance in a way that's likely to get you a good answer: [3], [4] --TotoBaggins 15:47, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

GIF Animation

I'd like to know what image editing program is best for making simple GIF animations, particularily one which allows one to import or create images (and convert the image format if necassary), change the frame rate of the animation (this is the most important aspect for me), change the frame rotation direction, and make it loop indefinitely. Adobe Photoshop sounds good to me, though I don't know if it has all of these features. If somone could enlighten me as to that it would nice. What I currently use to make animations is Game Maker 6, which I create the animations on and then import them to Microsoft GIF Animator to make them loop indefinitely (something Game Maker is not capable of apparantly). Though this process provides me with most of the options I listed, I can find no way to change the frame rate of the animations (which seems stuck at about 14 fps when exported to the web or any other application). Is it even possible to change the frame rate, or is it a set standard for all GIF images? BeefJeaunt 18:10, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

You don't set a frame rate for GIF animations per se; rather, you set the time each individual image in the animation is displayed for (so frame 1 could be 1/10 of a second, frame 2 could be 5 seconds etc), although some applications probably allow you to change the display time of every frame in the animation, which will effectively set the frame rate. I use ImageReady (part of Photoshop) for assembling GIF animations. I used to use GIF Construction Set back in the day. There are myriad more applications for assembling animations - a hunt round download.com should throw up some stuff, but I'm sure other people here will have suggestions. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk • Contribs)} 20:48, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Google Earth

Hello,

How do you add 'Google Earth Community' things (the blue Is) onto G.E. for everyone to see? (I have a G.E. community account)

thanks, 81.77.8.49 19:28, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

ClarisWorks and Microsoft Works

If Microsoft Works was developed after ClarisWorks and both programs have similar functions, did Microsoft Corporation take the "Works" suffix from ClarisWorks and apply it to their brand name? Thanks very much for your response. --Mayfare 19:55, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

"Works" is a common appellation for the low-end version of a software product. Appleworks was one, released two years before MS Works. In startup.com, venture capitalists nix the "GovWorks" name for the protagonist's product because "-works" means "low-end". --TotoBaggins 01:55, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Sidenote: From what I've read about software copyright law especially in the USA is that you can make a program with the same functions as a nother program and even a very similar layout - and it is not considered copyright infringement. If it was, Microsoft would probably have been shut down a long time ago. Rfwoolf 15:32, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Movie maker and google video

hello,

is there any way to convert videos downloaded from google video into a format accepted by microsoft movie maker? can you download the videos in a different format?

thanks, --81.77.8.49 20:28, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

If you use VideoDownloader for Firefox you can usually download Google Video videos as AVI, which ought to work? --140.247.248.175 21:03, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

You can check out zamzarthere is nothing to pay for or download--Nerdd 23:24, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Largest USB Flash Drive

What is the largest USB Flash Drive? -68.193.147.179 20:36, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Looks like the biggest one you can get on the market is 64GB. That is if you can afford its insane price of $4800. —Mitaphane _?|! 22:41, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

You asked this question two days ago. Please look at the existing results instead of posting again. -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 05:44, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

To the original poster's defense, the answered reply gave a non-USB Flash drive drive, not a USB flash drive as the answer. While based on same method storage, they are 2 different things. —Mitaphane _?|! 23:45, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

flash drive usb

If I use a Live USB, will it make my computer run faster? 68.193.147.179 20:38, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Hi If your using Windows Vista then yes you can thanks to ReadyBoost which you can activate in the following manner how to speed up vista with a flash drive

hope this helps --Nerdd 23:19, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

If you mean live cd distro on a USB flash drive, then I don't think so. Flash drives are slower then internal hard disks so you won't see an improvement in performance, I think portability and redundency are the main advantages of a live distro, not speed. Vespine 02:01, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

It's worth noting that flash drives are only slower because they are not hard wired to the system, but instead rely on USB to transfer data. They are in theory much faster than magnetic hard drives because they contain no moving parts. --Russoc4 16:26, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Is that really true? And if it is true, are you talking about latency, bandwidth, or both? --Tardis 21:26, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Meh, I am not a hundred percent sure on this issue, but I believe that modern hard disks can edge out most flash MSCs in linear read/write operations (as opposed to random operations). You might be surprised how fast some parts can move and how slow hot electron injection can be. -- mattb 21:47, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

May 1

What is the benefit of more RAM on the video card?

Right now I'm debating whether to buy the Geforce 8800GTS in the 320MB model, or the 640MB model. What benefits would I see with the latter? Many reviews say that the extra RAM is needed for high resolution setups -- does 1680x1050 count? Down M. 07:58, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

If you have like an Apple 30 inch cinema display then yes, you will need all the memory you need. Otherwise I don't see how 320MiB is insufficient for 1680×1050.--antilived^{T | C | G} 08:22, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Inches doesn't matter, it's how many pixels you're representing. I think the formula used to be # of pixels * color depth = the number of bits of video memory you need but video acceleration among other things has complicated it. --froth^t 15:50, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

I really doubt anyone would choose to use 640×480 on their 2 grand US$ displays... --antilived^{T | C | G} 06:41, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

Big thing is the amount and resolution of textures that can be stored in the memory. High resolution textures results in better looking games / 3d apps. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 22:42, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Inches don't really matter except that 1200x1024 looks great on a 19" screen but it starts looking rubbish on a 30" screen. either card will play games at 1600x1050, you may not be able to quite get maximum settings out of the 320, that's what I have, but personally, I'd rather play on almost maximum (which still looks awesome) and save the money to upgrade sooner, like every year. The price diff between the 320 and 640 is pretty high, I don't think it's worth the extra notch, it's hardly noticeable and I play a LOT of games. On the other hand, if you can afford to upgrade every year anyway, then go for it. Vespine 22:55, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

I'm not sure that any games can really take advantage of that extra memory yet. Wait until Crysis and other new ones come out. Again, it's texture quality that will be most affected, and double the memory can make a pretty considerable difference in that regard. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 23:09, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

You need 6.7MB per screen at this resolution with 32bit colors. 4xFSAA increases that amount 16-fold to 107MB. Double buffering gets you to 215MB, excluding textures. If you want to use the 4x setting at that resoltuion, you will need the larger memory size, for 2x or 3x settings, the smaller one should be sufficient.

heys (pre-ATM)

am looking for the name of a machine which was used before atms.it has everything to do with money.its operated using the thumb.

A semi automatic coin dispenser ? like this one handed machine

It is very hard to understand your question. Maybe you are thinking of the abacus? -- Diletante 17:07, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

How do I test Oracle Forms

I am a QC/QC Analyst and will be working on the implementation of Oracle forms, but I have no idea where or how to start testing once development is complete. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Codebuster (talk • contribs) 17:22, 1 May 2007 (UTC).

Um, wouldn't you test it like any other product? Think of use cases, corner cases, typical usage scenarios, testing under load, etc.? --TotoBaggins 22:17, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Send email to instant messenger

Is this possible? (i.e., someone sends a message to email@address.com and it ends up as an instant message.) I currently use Jabber.—Wasabe3543 17:35, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

No, IM and email are separate. --h2g2bob (talk) 17:41, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Yes its possible. I do not know the specifics, but [[5]] may help. YOu may be able to find a jabber server to connect to that already has such a gateway set-up. -- Diletante 18:03, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Sadly, the bulk of a computer programmer's work is teaching two such systems to talk to each other. It's certainly possible, and probably quite straightforward. --TotoBaggins 22:22, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Please read this article. The Jabber Mail Component will have to be enabled on whatever server your client connects to for this to work. Lurker 10:47, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

HTML

Hi, What is the html equivalent of the "nowiki" insert... i.e. if I was on a page that used html and wrote <a href="http://www.sausage.com>sausage</a> it would display it as sausage... How do I get it to show the coding? Thanks!

AFAIK there is no such tag in html. If you view the source of this very page you can see that mediawiki just replaces < with &lt and > with &gt to prevent the browser from trying to parse the html. Of course, web applications may implement their own special markup to do this kind of thing.-- Diletante 19:48, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

<after EC, now with added info!>The xmp tag used to allow this, however it has been deprecated since at least the HTML 3.2 standard and new browsers might not support it. Currently, the only way that I know how to do it is to use HTML entities in place of the angle brackets, e.g. &lt; in place of < and &gt; in place of >. (In fact, if you edit this section, you will see I had to use an entity to make the ampersand). --LarryMac 19:53, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Quick way- Bookmark this handy tool Lurker 10:55, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

Implications of MPAA takedown notices of HD-DVD key.

Ok, so the MPAA are being... well... themselves... and running around the net and removing occurences of the key via takedown notices. My question is this if I had a few years to count, would I have to skip the decimal equilivent of the key? Will the MPAA be forcing Seagate to not allow HDDs to write it?

Intel was not able to trademark 586 because it was only a number, does the MPAA have the right to control this number? Fosnez 22:31, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

ISPs and whatnot usually remove things when they're presented take down notices. If they don't, they lose the whole safe harbour thing, and can be potentially liable for it. It's just less of a pain in the ass if they comply, even if the take down is frivolous. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 22:40, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Well the difference is, 586 IS just a number, but the other is an encryption key, right? I understand the gist of what you are saying but I think you are failing to see the gist of what they are saying. That key to them is worth a lot in revenue, the idea of that key is to stop people making illegal copies of copyrighted work, nothing else, it's not a logo or a trademark. I'm all for open source and all that, but free software means free as in freedom not free as in for no cost. The implication of that is no, if you have a legitimate reason to have that number on your website then you shouldn't be persecuted, and no a hard disk won't be stopped from writing that number. I think you are underestimating the chance of a number which is times ten to the thirty seven actually occurring. Vespine 22:55, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Indeed. Also note that many of the sites getting the takedown notices don't just have that number; they tell the users exactly what that number is and how it can be used to achieve such a goal. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 23:05, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

So much for Wikipedia is not censored - My entry containing only the above enteries of binary and decimal numbers have been removed from Talk:HD_DVD Fosnez 23:14, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Probably because it's obvious what you mean by the context? This doesn't have to do with 'objectionable or offensive' things... -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 23:18, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Actually no, I asked the same question as above... Fosnez 23:27, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Which includes the key, and gives context on it (i.e. explaining that it's an HD-DVD key). Again, not sure what's wrong with it being removed. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 23:31, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Placing the key here is only asking for trouble. It serves no illustrative purpose for it to stay, and I agree with its removal. -- mattb 00:40, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

How is it so different to the extreme example of someone putting up kiddie pr0n on their user page? Do they also have the right to cry foul when it is removed? Surely it too is just a stream of binary on a hard disk.. So much for wikipedia is not censored indeed. Vespine 00:50, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

A famous Windows XP serial key was deleted from Wikipedia articles, because it was unnecessary. Usually, if the passcode is notable, it will have reliable independant sources to verify it. So far, we have forums, Slashdot and blogs spreading the key. Wikipedia can't enter into that game. If CNN, BBC, New York Times and Washington Post all run a story about the number, then it could have its own section in the HD-DVD, Blu Ray or the algorithm article, but without them, we are basically spreading something that is not notable. We are not Wikinews. We don't care if the MPAA issues takedown notices to sites for showing the HD-DVD key. We are an encyclopedia. So much for Wikipedia is not wikinews indeed. -- ReyBrujo 02:42, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

Notable enough? What about the other articles on Google News? Of course this is not in the "mainstreme news" yet... mainstream news is a slow old beast... but I bet it is tomorrow... - Fosnez 04:32, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

What possible purpose does leaving the number itself here serve? Documenting the significance surrounding it, perhaps, but there's no reason to drag Wikipedia into this week's internet subculture drama. -- mattb 07:26, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

See What Colour are your bits? for an interesting take on that. --cesarb 00:49, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

In answer to the original question, the Number is 13256278887989457651018865901401704639 ± 1. So if you can count (on average) one number per second, it'll be something like 420 octillion years before you have to worry about skipping it. —Steve Summit (talk) 22:37, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

May 2

question on.What is the different of driver disabled displayed AND any other device?

What is the different of driver disabled displayed and any other devices?

What do disabled display and what dose any other device have in common? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 206.57.3.154 (talk) 00:12, 2 May 2007 (UTC).

Do clarify what you are asking about. A disabled device cannot be used, unlike other devices? Splintercellguy 00:39, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

On some OS if you have some particular name for a particular device, whether it is enabled or disabled, you cannot assign a different device of the same type with the identical name, but you can delete the first, then assign the same name to something else. You can use the same identical device name to several different device types. User:AlMac|^(talk) 21:50, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

By example, our security system, where I work, has a certain # of password guesses allowed before it assumes we have an intruder instead of a klutz, at which point the plug is pulled on the ability of whoever to connect the way they were trying, until a security officer reviews the situation, with the option of re-enabling the disabled device connection. User:AlMac|^(talk) 21:52, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Another example. We have a particular communication port that can be used by any one of a dozen different business associates, each of which uses a different set of communication protocos. So when one calls up by voice phone & asks to be "switched on", we check to see if the port is being used by anyone else, then we run a program cluster which enables all the drivers & special needs for their connection. When they done, we run another program cluster to disable all that they needed. We have a pair of program clusters for each such scenario.

We also have interchangeable printers that need different drivers for different places they get connected, so again we have program clusters to turn on & off whatever is relevant to a situation, where we have previously researched what is needed for something to work, in a world which should be plug and play, but has many exceptions. User:AlMac|^(talk) 21:56, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Bookmark datestamps

I was looking through the HTML of my exported Firefox bookmarks, and noticed these datestamps on one of them:

ADD_DATE="1149368722" LAST_VISIT="1173067319" LAST_MODIFIED="1150862454"

How are these deciphered? --zenohockey 03:06, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

I'm tempted to say those numbers are expressed in Unix time. Splintercellguy 03:28, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

It is Unix time. Enter the following into your address bar to see when you last visited that page. --TotoBaggins 04:45, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

 javascript:new Date(1000 * 1173067319)

Wow...neat. Thanks both. --zenohockey 08:17, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

xmms with recover

This topic has gone round and round on every xmms discussion page I can find without resolution. Does anyone know how to make xmms automatically recover if it stops. The problem with xmms is that if you have a processor spike, xmms just stops playing. You have to manually click play again. It would be nice if it realized that it stopped and started back up again by itself. --Kainaw ^(talk) 12:27, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

This is a known problem with XMMS and some other stream based applications. The sarcastic answer would be to learn enough C to fix it yourself ;-).

More usefully, you may want to consider trying other XMMS-like programs like Audacious, or avoiding the problem entirely by changing the priority of XMMS with a tool like renice. Changing the priority of XMMS would mean that it gets first crack at the CPU, before whatever is causing the spike gets processed. --Ptelder 06:44, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. I like that audacious appears identical to xmms. So far it hasn't died while playing mp3/ogg files. However, it won't connect to a streaming source. I'll have to see if I'm missing a library. --Kainaw ^(talk) 20:02, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

Well I can tell you that I occasionally use Audacious to list to SomaFM, and streaming tends to work for me. I'd try their forums for more specific help.--Ptelder 13:35, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

locating outlook.pst

I'm trying to recover from a system crash (XP computer). I have a backup, which I restored, and also reloaded Outlook 2003. It worked after someone helped me locate the outlook.pst file and move it to the proper place on the new (Vista Home Premium) computer. But then I had serious problems with the new computer and had to return it to the store. Now I have restored the files to the second new (Vista) computer, but I don't know how to relocate outlook.pst and what to do with it. Can anybody help? Thanks. --Halcatalyst 12:35, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

Desktop search? --TotoBaggins 12:57, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

As you probably know the outlook.pst file probably contains a backup of your emails and stuff, and thus you could do a search on the crashed system for "*.pst" (without the ""s) by clicking Start -> Run... Rfwoolf 13:58, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

• I did find outlook.pst in a subdirectory of Documents and Settings in my backup. However, when I try to place it in the same place on my new computer, I am denied access to the Documents and Settings directory. Is there a (safe) way I can gain access and place the outlook.pst file in the directory where Outlook will find it? --Halcatalyst 20:43, 2 May 2007 (UTC)
• Maybe there is another way to achieve my goal, which is simply to retrieve my e-mail, contact, and calendar information. If I could do so, would it be possible to convert it for use in other applications? For instance, the e-mail, contacts, and calendar applications which come with Vista? --Halcatalyst 21:45, 2 May 2007 (UTC)
• I actually figured this out by myself! and now have access to my data. Thanks to those who responded. --Halcatalyst 02:58, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

• FYI, here is the path for Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\Hal\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook
• The path on Vista is C:\Users\Hal\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook --Halcatalyst 15:46, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

rovclock

I have a few questions about rovclock (linux tool). It displays my radeon x1600 as having ".15 mhz" core. That's not possible! I thought it had around 450 mhz. Could someone explain this? And also, does overclocking save after reboot? Thanks, I want a little more performance from my card. (And I do have fglrx installed, if that helps.)--Ryan 13:19, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

Using a telephone pickup with my MacBook

I have a MacBook which has an Audio-In jack. The specifications are:

Analog line and optical digital audio input is accepted through a 3.5mm mini phone jack which does not provide power to a connected device, so you must use self-powered peripherals. The sound input jack accepts line-level stereo signals up to 24-bit stereo 44.1-192kHz sampling rate. It also accepts a stereo miniplug-to-RCA cable adapter for connecting stereo equipment to the computer.

Optical digital audio input is S/PDIF format and uses a standard Toslink cable with a Toslink mini-plug adapter, accepting up to 24-bit stereo and 44.1-96kHz sampling rate.

Which is pretty much in Chinese as far as I am concerned. I have a Removable Telephone Pickup which I bought at Radio Shack that I would love to use to record audio directly into my computer; it has a 1/8" plug. I've tried plugging it into the audio in port but I get no response — which I switch the microphone input in Audacity from the "Built-in Microphone" to the the "Built-in Input" I just end up getting absolutely no input. Where does my error lie? Was I wrong to think it would work with this port? Do I need a converter of some sort (it fits in the jack snugly)? Should I try some different hardware/software settings? Any ideas would be appreciated. --140.247.250.12 16:47, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

I think it has to do with a 1/8 pin in a 3.5 hole the plug might physicaly fit but the wires might not line up exactly

3.5mm and 1/8" are two names for the same jack size. They normally come in mono (the tip is neutral and the shaft carries the signal) or stereo (the tip is still neutral, but the shaft has two sections - one for each signal). So, it shouldn't be an issue of wrong plug size. --Kainaw ^(talk) 17:31, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

Hmm. OK. Well I tried it with Quicktime Pro to see if it was the software — it isn't. Setting it to record via the Line-in also gets total silence. I get a blip when I plug and unplug the microphone into the port so something must be wired right. Hmm... I'm perplexed. I guess I could try it on a different computer and see if it is just something wrong with mine... --140.247.250.12 20:45, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

Are you plugging the microphone/input into the wall, like the spec says you must? ST47Talk 23:50, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

Well, it is just a simple microphone, I wouldn't imagine it needs to be powered? I don't know. There is no way to power it that I know of (it doesn't have its own power supply). Maybe that's the issue? Is that normal for a line-in? --24.147.86.187 23:57, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

I think you'll find that a telephone pickup puts out a very small signal (on par with that from a low-impedence dynamic microphone); this is far less signal than the Macintosh audio input requires. You'll need a microphone preamplifier or a different connection method.

Atlant 00:02, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, I see the problem now. OK, no problem. I will get a cheap USB sound input and that should do the trick. Thanks! --24.147.86.187 00:13, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Editing Acrobat reader files

Is there a way to edit Acrobat reader files? IS there a solution to it by using Acrobat writer? Whats the alternatives?

You need to use Adobe Acrobat Professional to edit it. There may be other software available, but I have found this to work very well (and is the official software) JoshHolloway 19:17, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

And even then it depends on what kind of editing you want to do and what kind of file it is (is it a PDF that was converted directly from a word processing or desktop publishing program, or is it an OCRed bitmap?). PDFs are not meant for editing and it is not easy to do, even with Reader and under ideal circumstances. --140.247.250.12 20:48, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

Indeed. Readiris PRO (and I'm sure its many competitors too) does a nice job of turning scanned PDFs into pretty nice editable Word documents. I've never thought to try it on a PDF that actually has the text in as text entries (rather than a bitmap). -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 20:51, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

If the files are not protected, you can also edit them in Adobe Illustrator. — Michael J 21:17, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

May 3

Fastest USB Flash Drive

What is the FASTEST USB flash drive? -68.193.147.179 00:12, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

This is the 3rd question you've asked about flash drives in the past few days. Perhaps you should visit USB Flash Drive and its sources to learn more about the biggest, fastest, strongest, smallest, etc. flash drives. Or better yet, try google: fastest USB flash drive. —Mitaphane _?|! 01:31, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

What will help you is by looking at the read/write speeds which are often marked on the manufactures web site

User:Nerdd 13:06, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Memorex's M-Flyer is pretty fast

M-Fyer

    Read speed 25 MB per second and write speeds of up to 20 MB per second

200.35.168.129 16:48, 7 May 2007 (UTC) Ag for MemTech

Java

How can I create a Java application that runs when an icon is double-clicked; not from the command window? Also, why does my home computer not recognize the "javac" and "java" commands? Thanks, *Max* 01:20, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

As far as creating an application, you need to create a jar file. That article explains how to do it more or less.

As far as javac and java not working, you need to make sure that your classpath environmental variables are set correctly, as well as the running path environment variable. Generally speaking, in my experience, the frequent errors will be because you have not included the . directory in your classpath, as well as that the directories of javac and java are not in the running directory path (in Windows, that's the %PATH% environmental variable). –Pakman044 02:23, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Sorry for stating the obvious, but make sure you have a Java compiler (e.g. Sun Java Development Kit or others) to compile Java; and a Java virtual machine (e.g. Sun Java Runtime Environment or others) to run Java programs. --Spoon! 04:04, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Create a batch file. in that use javaw instead of java. you can avoid dos shell this way. also you can doble click on the icon to open the java application —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 61.246.232.126 (talk) 11:06, 3 May 2007 (UTC).

Also - there are development tools you can purchase that will take the java program and compile it into a Windows executable so it no longer requires Java to be installed on the computer. They work rather well, but the end result is always more bloated than an identical-functioning compiled C/C++ program. --Kainaw ^(talk) 15:14, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

is it possible to run code on the stack?

is it possible to run code on the stack? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 165.228.95.126 (talk) 04:32, 3 May 2007 (UTC).

Yes and no. Without NX protection, then of course, that's how buffer overflows are exploited. With NX protection, this can't happen. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 129.78.64.102 (talk) 04:49, 3 May 2007 (UTC).

(ec) Sometimes, yes. See NX bit for a discussion. --TotoBaggins 04:59, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Depends on the processor architecture and how the memory protection is set. Most real computers (hardware+OS) never allowed execution from the stack as that's one of the main methods that malware uses to hijack the processor. Intel architecture PCs did allow this for a long time though, and it's still an option (for compatibility with poorly-designed programs that depend on that capability).

Atlant 12:49, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Trampolines are implemented using an executable stack. --TotoBaggins 15:40, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Multilayer Circuit Diagrams

Hello. What's the process used to create multilayer circuit diagrams that make up the microchips in computers? Thanks. --Mayfare 04:37, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

If you're asking how the wires are allocated to the various metalization layers and routed, it's done by software that processes for a very long time to achieve a near-optimal layout. Prior to that, floorplanning software placed the various functional units of the chip so that the wiring problems would be minimized. It's essentially the same problem faced by printed circuit board layout software, but in miniature.

Atlant 12:53, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Unicorns

Does anyone know any facts, percentages, know-how or other miscellanous knowledge on how to aquire the unicron in elder scrolls: oblivion. (i am assuming it is the same on all platforms but i have a ps3, just in case it affects anything)

Thank You --89.241.1.180 09:01, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Check out www.gamefaqs.com - one of the top free sites for that sort of thing. Do a search for the game, then look at FAQs or Codes (you'll find what you're after in one of the FAQs/Walkthoughs) Rfwoolf 12:12, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

The Internet

If the internet was converted into 1sq mile for every 500mb of data on it, how big would it be?

Thanks

--89.241.1.180 09:02, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

http://www2.sims.berkeley.edu/research/projects/how-much-info-2003/internet.htm according to this, 1,117,566,009 Miles squared. For reference, earth is about 316,940,070 square miles of surface area, including water surface area., or 1/3rd the size. I think a square mile could hold more than 500MB though. 500MB sounds about the same as a movie, although I haven't downloaded any in a looong time, but I have to imagine a film reel is nowhere near a square mile in width*length dimensions -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 10:02, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

500MB is quite small for a square mile, I think. If we encoded the (2003) internet by black and white squares on paper, and made each square one millimetre across (say), then each square mile would encode about 300GB, so the internet would take about 1.8 million square miles, or about the are of the european union plus norway. Algebraist 12:34, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Okay, how big would the internet be if you wrote it out in binary in size 10 arial? I'll work this out when I get home if nobody else has (I guess we can assume 50/50 distribution of 1/0s. - since arial isnt fixed width. --213.48.15.234 14:57, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

The proportion of 1s and 0s is irrelevant - assuming you're viewing this in Arial, these two lines should be the same width:

00000000

11111111

To answer your question, I calculate it to be around 865,155,330,000,000 (865 trillion) sheets of A4 paper. Using the default OpenOffice.org settings, I can fit 5418 bits on a page in 10pt Arial. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 15:39, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

The internet is not a data storage device, it is a data transfer network, so it doesn't really make sense to talk about the size of the internet in terms of storage. It would be more meaningful to talk about data transfered over time. I also don't think that converting this value arbitrarily into spatial dimensions like area renders any useful comparisons. -- Diletante 15:31, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

A good point. I remember reading at one point that the bandwidth of the entire internet was less than a hatchback full of 8 tracks travelling down the highway, however that was very much over a decade ago, so you can consider it fiction now. -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 17:55, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

I can fit 2,849 characters on a page in size 10 Arial, single-spaced, alternating 0 and 1. --TotoBaggins 15:35, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

I think that depends on your margins, I have a full a4 page of 1s and 0s with no margins, all the way to the edges and I have 6360 bits. Vespine 00:48, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Awesome, I completely forgot about this by the time i got home :D 213.48.15.234 06:50, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Opensource Java Barcode Image Reader

Is there an opensource barcode image reader in Java? I want to give an api a jpg or gif from another java app and get the barcode number from it. I have seen the Tasman.bars thing but it is too expensive, i need something free. --68.154.107.171 15:04, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Why not just decode the barcode in word with a free converter ..and then just copy and past the number ! It would be helpful to know the application for which you plan to use this for.--Nerdd 20:55, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

The answer appears to be "no". An alternative would be to use a non-Java open-source OCR package that handles barcodes, and write a Java interface to it with JNI or whatever. --TotoBaggins 15:04, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Username changing over the Internet

A group of friends and I don't understand why most companies don't allow you to change your username on their sites. It makes sense, but we don't understand why.

--Ian 17:36, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Two reasons:

1. Changing username will require the site to update your username everywhere it is recorded.
2. Changing a username will cause any place it isn't updated to show the wrong username.

So, it is a database issue (in the first case) and a responsibility issue (in the second case). The database issue is just a programming issue. The responsibility one is now. For example, what I wrote about how much Wikipedia sucks and then changed my username so I wouldn't have to accept responsibility for the statements made by me previous username? --Kainaw ^(talk) 17:41, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Well if your username changed everywhere, we would see the new username as the author of the troll comment, right? I think the answer is simply that even though it's not awfully difficult to include this feature, it's even easier not to include it. —Bromskloss 20:42, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

It's certainly not due to technical restrictions - any good database will have a separate unique field such as a user id number that's transparent on the frontend. But it's confusing for users if peoples names change often, especially in community-based apps like forums or wikipedias. --froth^t 02:04, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

It is true that a database will likely use a key other than the username, but, if I were to say that Ianweller asked this question and both Bromskloss and Froth answered it... how would a database key know to look through this comment and update those names? That is what I was referring to by having the old username present and difficult to change. --Kainaw ^(talk) 02:12, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

As most readers of TheDailyWTF will know, a lot of databases are not good databases... --cesarb 17:03, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Backwards in GarageBand

Is it possible to play things in reverse in GarageBand? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.34.38.123 (talk) 20:18, 3 May 2007 (UTC).

Have you tried Apple Garageband support? also this Apple Forum might be what your talking about.--Nerdd 21:04, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

No, i'm looking for how to make sections (primarily vocals) backwards so when i play it that section is reversed. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.34.38.123 (talk) 21:40, 3 May 2007 (UTC).

You could import the vocal (assuming its in WAV or the like) into Audacity, reverse it there, and reimport into GarageBand. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 00:31, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

May 4

Backing up my hard drive

I know the importance of backing up one's hard drive, but I find the process using Windows XP's file explorer to be tedious and buggy.

Does anyone know of a free program that makes it easy to choose what to back up, divide it into the proper number of CDs and burn the data? Thanks -- Mwalcoff 00:05, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

There's a big difference between backing up the disk and just backing up the data. The former copies everything (including the OS, applications, and lots of incidental and temporary junk) making a large archive that can restore your machine to its current state (but that's not so useful for just recovering the data on a new machine). The latter just copies the important data you want (mostly stuff you made yourself, and maybe email). The former process is called disk cloning, and that article links lots of software that can do it. Our backup software and list of backup software articles describe a variety of solutions for backup. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 00:22, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. I don't need to clone the disk -- just back up data files. Thanks for the link -- Cobian Backup looks like it might do the trick. -- Mwalcoff 01:06, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Excel

Hi - Is there any free source of learning MS excel in very simple manner ? I have tried number of books and online tutorials, but have been unable to explore the full potential of excel.

67.180.49.99 00:26, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

My sugestion is just jump in and start trying to do things. If you are doing something relevant to your life or job it is easier to learn something. For instance you could create a budget spreadsheet each row could be a seperate expense, and the columns could be category divisions (groceries, utilities, entertainment etc) that are summed up into a total column. When you have a specific problem you are trying to solve it is often very useful to do a google search. If you are trying to figure out how to use the SUM function you could search "excel sum". If you are interested in macro programming here are a couple of sites with some basic reference information to get you started. I found these site myself just through general problem solving, and have them bookmarked, because they have a good overview of common programming topics in excel. Excel Faq and Julian's macros -Czmtzc 12:30, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Mr excel (http://www.mrexcel.com/board2/index.php) is a great site for finding out answers to wanting to achieve a specific thing. You have to sign-up (free) to post questions but the people there are friendly and often have very good responses to requests for help. ny156uk 16:16, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Airport Express

I've been trying to figure out how to set up my Airport Express as a bridge but can only find mentions of using it as a wireless bridge and I want it to be both wireless and wired. There's an ethernet port on the side but I can't get it to handle a wired connection. Basically, I have an ancient laptop with Linux on it that I want to be able to use in my living room where the AE is. If I plug an ethernet cable into each, I can't get online. I've tried it with another laptop that is newer and has Windows XP on it and that doens't get online either but they do if I plug them direct into the router downstairs, i.e. not in the living room. So, I know it's not the computers. Any ideas? Dismas|^(talk) 00:29, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Adobe Premiere

How do you stretch the timeline out so that there's more than 40 seconds to work with? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.82.135.128 (talk) 01:27, 4 May 2007 (UTC).

At the bottom of the timeline window there should be a drop down box that displays the current length of the timeline. Select the arrow next to it and choose the timeline length. This page has a good visual reference. —Mitaphane _?|! 03:26, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Qos Mapping

Hello,

What is Qos mapping(in relation to WiFi networks) I saw a program that offered to do this, and was curious about what is was.

Thanks, Nathanww 01:55, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

When talking about computer networking, "QoS" means quality of service. I think "QoS mapping" is just allocating your QoS budget (e.g., how much guaranteed bandwidth you get) optimally, but I dunno. See Differentiated services. --TotoBaggins 02:47, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Hashcash and P=NP

The Clay Mathematics Institute article describes the P-versus-NP problem as to determine "whether there are any problems for which a computer can verify a given solution quickly, but cannot find the solution quickly." Isn't outgoing hashcash such a problem, in theory, or is the quoted description inaccurate or woefully incomplete? NeonMerlin 03:20, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

I'd never heard of hashcash before, but reading our article on it makes it clear that it is not. The P/NP/NP-complete complexity classes deal with what is called decision problems, yes or no answers to questions. An example is the travelling salesman problem: Can a travelling salesman visit every town in America and only use X amount of fuel? What the Clay-text is referring to is that if you are given the answer in advance (called a certificate), you can quickly check that it is the right one. For instance, the subset sum problem is this: "Given a set of numbers, does any subset of them sum to N?". If someone provides you with an answer (i.e. a subset that sums to N), you can quickly check it, you just sum the numbers and see if they do, in fact, sum to N. The point is, NP and NP-complete problems are really hard to solve, but if someone can find one algorithm to solve any of the NP-complete problems in a fast way, then every single NP problem (and there are thousands of them) would be solvable using a fast algorithm. If someone finds that algorithm, it would be the single greatest milestone in the history of computers since Alan Turing invented the Turing-machine. --Oskar 05:46, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

You know, when I look at it a second time, you might be correct after all. The decision problem "Find a string which has a SHA-1 hash starting with N zeroes" is exponentially difficult, O(2^n) which would put it, I think, in NP. It's almost certainly not an NP-c problem, but you are probably correct that that sort of problem is exactly what P vs. NP is talking about. My Bad :) --Oskar 05:56, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

The description of the problem is very poorly worded. I'll fix it up just now. Yes, hashcash is hard to compute, but quick to check; there are *many* such problems (public-key cryptography depends on one of them). The Millenium question is whether P = NP, which is to say, "does there being an quick way to check the answer imply that there's a quick way to compute it?". --TotoBaggins 17:46, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

The point of the wording used by Clay is that we don't know whether there are hard problems of the kind whose solution can be verified quickly (in polynomial time) --- this point has not been proven. Even without proof, it is widely believed that there are such problems, and much of cryptography, like hashcash, is based on this belief. But at the present stage of computer science and mathematics, the possibility cannot be ruled out that there is a fiendishly clever algorithm that would efficiently solve NP-hard problems. If there is such an algorithm, current hashcash schemes would turn out to be based on wishful thinking only. 84.239.133.38 19:33, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Dial-up internet connection with wireless router

I have recently had a separate BT telephone landline installed for two 2 oversea students who reside in my house. The students both have wireless lap-top computers that they wish to use. I am the subscriber and responsible for the line at BT.

For the students to use their laptops do I merely have to buy a wireless router? Would there be a charge by BT for every time the students use their laptop and the internet?

Technologically underinformed Landlord

86.129.150.56 07:27, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

^{I've split your question into its own section — Matt Eason (Talk &#149; Contribs) 09:25, 4 May 2007 (UTC)}

This would likely depend on the company's service plan, although if you're going to be using wireless internet, you really should have broadband. Wireless internet tends to be slower than a wired connection, and dial up is unbearably slow nowadays. You can probably get DSL for under 40$, which shouldn't be too much more than dialup. If you can't afford it, you could ask the students to chip in. Broadband internet, again you'll need to check your service plan on this, is usually "Always On", so you don't spend extra money just for them being connected like you do on some dial up, although you should see if the service plan has a Fair Access Policy, or FAP, and check it very carefully, to see if you'll be charged for downloading more than a certain amount of content (I've heard of some plans that penalize users for downloading more than 1GB in 4 hours, for reference, I've downloaded over 4 GB in one hour before, easily). But yes, for your basic wireless internet, you plug your landline/cable into a modem, the modem into a wireless router, and the router into any wired computers. Usually your ISP will help you with this. -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 09:41, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

You'll need a computer to do this, wireless routers don't take what a standalone modem will give you. The computer will need an ethernet port. You will need to share the outgoing dialup connection with the Ethernet connection using NAT (in Windows, it's called "ICS", Internet Connection Sharing) with the Ethernet connection. Plug the router into the ethernet port and set up the router to use DHCP. This should be the basic setup you need. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 149.135.28.77 (talk) 07:52, 5 May 2007 (UTC).

Animated gifs

How does one go about making an animated gif file like the ones shown here? I assume it's a matter of getting a number of sequential still images and stitching them together somehow, but if someone can tell me the basics I'd be very grateful. Many thanks. Oh, and just out of curiosity - why are these small animated files always gifs? Is there any such thing as an animated jpg? --Richardrj ^{talk email} 07:41, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Yes, you take a series of images and put them together in a program such as ImageReady or GIF Construction Set. I'd imagine there are also freeware alternatives available. The last paragraph of the 'Alternatives' section of the GIF article gives some alternatives to GIF for web animation. As far as I'm aware there's no such thing as an animated JPEG. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 09:21, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

As always GIMP is one of the free alternatives. Make each image a layer and select "save as animation" when you save your GIF. --Kainaw ^(talk) 13:12, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

There is such a thing as a motion JPEG, but it's not very common. Eventually, PNG's derivatives will support animation; it can be used to make more "natural-looking" pictures than GIF, although it's not as good (in terms of compression, particularly) as JPG for such things as photographs. --Tardis 16:01, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Lenovo Laptop

How do you switch the bluetooth on on a ThinkPad R60? Zain Ebrahim 13:05, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Fn+F5 [6], assuming your laptop has bluetooth in the first place. You need the system software thingie. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 22:23, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Google Web Accelerator & Wikipedia

Wikipedia does not allow edits when using Google Web Accelerator. Is this because the IP address changes (or does it, even?). Incidentally, I've stopped using it, as, even though my internet searches, etc., get faster, it slows my computer down considerably, defeating the whole purpose of the thing. Scouse Mouse - 日英翻訳 13:17, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

It's a vandalism prevention thing apparently. There's a page on it at WP:GWA. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 14:15, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Credit card data - where does it go?

Im about to buy a product off steam, but im paranoid about giving out my credit card information over the internet to an American company, i trust valve but im so far away if anything went wrong theres nothing i could do, but anyway my main question is how does it all work?, i mean, what happens with your credit card number? Does valve read it and take money out of it, but wouldn't that mean they charge you whenever they want even if your not buying anything, i know it probably doesnt work like that but im a student and cant afford to be getting hit by fraud like bills for $3000 or something.... thanks. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Bwa32123 (talk • contribs) 13:55, 4 May 2007 (UTC).

The general process is described in credit card, although the emphasis there is on person-to-person transactions.

To charge your account without authorization is fraud in most places. Were you in the United States (which you've noted you aren't), the Fair Credit Billing Act would allow you to dispute unauthorized credit card charges. Since you aren't, you government may or may not give you some consumer protections. You should check your credit card agreement to see what rights you have against unauthorized transactions, if any.

There is a risk, as always, of credit card fraud, especially of unscrupulous companies misusing your credit card number. You have to decide whether or not the company is trustworthy enough to risk giving your credit card number to. If you are concerned, you should monitor your monthly billing statement (you should anyway!) for any kinds of unauthorized transactions. –Pakman044 14:48, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

I would note that steam (content delivery) are a large respected online company and that it would be extremely unlikely that they (as a firm) would take money other than when you bought a product/subscribed to a service. Sending information over the internet does have a risk of fraud (internet fraud) but so does non-internet transacations for all types of credit card fraud. I have purchased products on steam from the UK and had no problems at all. ny156uk 16:13, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

The problem you note about an unscrupulous company reusing your information for a later purchase is a real one. Here's a story about giving credit cards a built-in one-time password to fix that issue. --TotoBaggins 18:22, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Internet Explorer 7

Here's the problem: the "File Download" window. I accidently unchecked the "Always ask before opening this type of file" option in that window and now i now have to view Word documents directly from IE (which on my monitor resolution show most of the words one on top of the other), rather than downloading them.

So anyway, how do I get IE to prompt me to open Word documents again?

And where on earth is that option? It doesn't really do anything besides annoying me, but I've realised I could have had a serious problem if I had unchecked the "Always ask before opening this type of file" for .exe files. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 82.36.162.32 (talk) 18:35, 4 May 2007 (UTC).

A quick browse of IE preferences and help doesn't reveal the answer, but according to the help entry on 'downloading files' (in IE 6, I assume this has stayed), there is no such option for .exes: IE always asks. 131.111.8.104 22:06, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

How can I retrieve data from my old hard drive?

My computer bit the dust recently, and I have no desire to repair it (I was planning to buy a new one in June anyway). However, I had a lot of stuff on the hard drive that wasn't backed up, and I'd like to retrieve it somehow. As far as I know, the hard drive itself isn't damaged. Is there anyway I can get the data off it somehow? Any help would be highly appreciated. GhostPirate 19:42, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

You'd just plug it into the new computer, or into a friend's computer (and copy the important stuff onto DVDs or whatever there). Or, if the dust-biting was due to its Windows install just going wonky then you can boot the machine from CD into something like Knoppix and burn/copy the data directly. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 19:44, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

So I can just put it in a different computer? I wondered about that. Now to convince someone to let me crack open their computer and preform a "brain transplant"...GhostPirate 19:49, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Yep. Assuming it's an IDE disk you may have to flip a jumper on its rear to 'slave' (from 'master' or 'single'), and you might have to temporarily evict an existing IDE device (like a DVD drive) if there aren't enough free connections. Another alternative is to buy a cheap USB-IDE disk enclosure. You put your old IDE disk in that and it becomes an exernal USB disk for any computer you plug it into (and this way you don't need to perform surgery on someone else's machine). -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 19:59, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

It doesn't have to be a whole "transplant". Instead of thinking of it as taking out one brain and replacing it with another, think of it as taking out one brain and then making it a slave to someone else's brain. Or something like that. In any case, you can hook up multiple hard drives to a computer at the same time, as long as you specify one to be "in charge" (the master), and then you can copy files off of the other one (the slave) with impunity. It's pretty easy and the worst that generally can happen is if you don't have the jumpers set right it won't start up until you change them. In fact, when you get your new computer you can hook up your old hard drive in it as well as the new one and just use both of them, if you wanted to. --24.147.86.187 21:45, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

See this article for more information. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 22:27, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

May 5

Information technology in society

what are the positive and negative impacts of information technology in society?60.228.150.165 05:42, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

One negative impact is that students look to the internet for other people to do their homework for them. Why don't you have a look at information technology and come up with some of your own ideas... Dismas|^(talk) 05:48, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

Going to be building a new computer soon..

..and it'll be my first. I've got roughly $1300 invested in this thing, huge 8800GTX, C2D, 2GB ram, you get the picture. I'm wondering if anyone has advice on doing this or links to tutorials that reference installing a 8800GTX- I'm pretty scared of doing something wrong (short or something) and ruining everything, the extent of hardware stuff I've done is replacing an laptop LCD and installing RAM. Second question: should I be using the case's stock 500W PS? it'd save me about $100 and it's more than required for the card (450W). I plan to be using this case (may change to something with more fans if needed, I don't want to roast my computer) and this card. Any advice would be appreciated :) EDIT: also, should I save my money and get a GTS instead? Is there a substantial difference worth the price (two times as much for the GTX)? I could invest that money in 4g of ram, a monitor, etc etc. -Wooty Woot? contribs 06:01, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

Do not skimp on the motherboard and powersupply (which seems to be how you're getting it for only 1300$, half of that cost would be the graphics card), they are very important parts of your system. Especially do not skimp on the case or motherboard as they will be the longest lasting parts of your computer. Keep in mind you'll also want a new hard drive (better transfer rates = faster gaming) and other media options. http://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/wishlist/PublicWishDetail.asp?WishListNumber=5225486 is what I bought recently, motherboard was DOA and is being sent in for RMA, but it will be a nice system when it's working. Big pieces of advice, when you get your case, make totally sure that the spacers are in before you install the motherboard, installing the motherboard directly on the case can short it out. Other than that it's fairly plug and play. Keep in mind that even though the stock supply SAYS 500W, it might not actually be 500W because of the way some companies rate theirs. -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 10:16, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

Also, NVIDIA recently announced a new 8800 card that's above the GTX, called the Ultra, which is a GTX with faster clock speeds, so if you wait a few weeks you might make a significant savings on the other 8800s going down in price. -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 10:17, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

Another networking question

I have a Windows machine that has a USB ADSL modem, and the Windows machine shares (via NAT, ostensibly) this network connection to an Ethernet port, where a wireless router (DI-524, if that's helpful) is connected. A machine connecting to the router can't connect to the Windows machine directly, no ping, nothing. Any reason why? I've tried adding firewall rules in the router and adding machines that connect to the router to the DMZ. I suspect it might be because of NAT. Can someone suggest a solution or a network configuration so that machines connecting to the router can connect to the Internet via the Windows machine, and can connect to services on the Windows machine from behind the router, without having to buy any new kit or do anything drastic like that?

Massive Ext. Hdd mess!

Over the pass 2 years i have been backing up my windows xp pc to a 300GB External hard drive. Every time my pc stopped working i would copy everything onto the Ext. Hdd and clean wipe the pc clean (format C:). This worked great for a time....until my hdd filled up. So i found alternative ways to fix my pc (i.e Bartpe and Norton Systemworks) but now unfortunately i am left with a really messy hdd. Many files duplicate multiple times (of course in different directories) and many are important work files and home photos that i can not afford. And In a attempt to clean the Hdd up i have made it much worse.

Question: Can anyone recommend any software (i.e. File Explorers) that would aid in the recovery process of my hdd? Or any advice? Thanks heaps! :) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by I.scheme.a.lot (talk • contribs) 09:47, 5 May 2007 (UTC).