Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing

May 28

CPU fan doesn't work

Ok my fan doesn't work. Please tell me how to get it to work before my cpu explodes. i opened up the box and put a real fan there to see if it'll help. And can someone please tell me how to find my cpu tempreature? When I start up my computer it tells me the cpu temp for about a few secs but then i dont know anymore. Usually this tempreature is about 20 degress celcius but today it was at 68 when i restarted my computer.Taida 01:45, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

There is a plethora of tools to read the sensor, for example http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php. You can also read the value in the bios menu, but the cpu is unsually cool in that case, because it is idle.

If a CPU gets too hot it will start to compute wrong results, which usually causes the computer to freeze or reboot. If it heats up further, it can be destroyed.

Can you tell me how to get it to work? --Taida 12:52, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Buy a new fan? It should be a simple replacement job. Splintercellguy 13:51, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Those fans can be lubricated, and they'll run again for a little while (days, weeks, maybe a few months), but the fix never holds for long; it's a lot easier to just buy a new fan and get another five years or so out of the fan. Unplug and unmount the old fan and take it to your nearest computer shop (preferably, a little one that knows what they're doing rather than a CompUSA, Circuit City, or a Best Buy). They should have a fan of an identical size and connector, but if the connector varies a bit, you/they should be able to connect the old leadset and connector to the new fan. At all times when the computer case is open, please exercise caution against zapping your computer with electrostatic discharge.

Atlant 17:53, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

If you do decide to lubricate it, note the little hole the oil goes in is often hidden underneath the label. Most fans have been designed to be serviced in this fashion on a regular basis and can be kept running a very long time so long as you're willing to oil them regularly. My grandpa has a furnace fan from the 40s that he kept working through the 90s by oiling it yearly. Since discovering that hole, I've never thrown a fan away.

The hassle, of course, is that often the failed fan is buried deep in a power supply and substantial disassembly is required simply to reach the fan. In that case, a new five-year fan is a much better tradeoff than a (lets be generous) one year relubrication of the old fan. Computer fans are just too cheap to waste your labo[u]r upon. Plus, if they fail again and are not rapidly repaired (again and again), they may cause some very expensive components to overheat.

I've certainly oiled a few fans, but have decided that it's just not worth it in the long run.

Of course large motors with non-permanently-lubricated bearings are well worth keeping oiled. But the presence of oil cups and oil felts usually identify the ones worth oiling.

Atlant 12:57, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Printing

Hello. Can I print on scrap lined, writing paper with an HP Deskjet 3420? Will it harm the printer? Thanks. --Mayfare 01:54, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

If it's the correct size and isn't too thin, it should be fine.

How do I know that the paper is too thin? --Mayfare 19:29, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

I wouldn't worry about it too much. Any kind of "normal" paper works in a printer just fine. The sort of thing you have to worry about putting into a printer is plastic stuff, like overhead transparencies. --Tugbug 20:13, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

If you can write on it with ink and see what you've written on the other side, best use something thicker. I mean, you *could* use it, but it mightn't look as nice.

Oh, the blueness

My monitor's picture recently went blue. That is, that which is supposed to be white, is a greenish blue. Solutions? Comments? All are welcome! Someoneinmyheadbutit'snotme 02:25, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Let me guess. CRT monitor? Probably one of the colour guns has gone. Either that or your colour temperature has spontaneously reset itself, but it seems like it's the former.

Unplug your video cable from the back of the monitor, plug it back in and fasten the screws. Unplug the video cable from the back of the computer, plug it back in, and fasten the screws -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 03:38, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, it's the cable. It went back to normal for a while after I messed with it but now it's permanently blue. Someoneinmyheadbutit'snotme 04:48, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Then go buy a new one. -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 04:55, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

It are attached to the monitor. Someoneinmyheadbutit'snotme 18:43, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Does anyone maybe know of software than can correct the color balance? Someoneinmyheadbutit'snotme 03:02, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

If it's cyan (greenish blue) you've lost your red signal. No software will bring the red back if it's not getting through from the computer. You could wiggle and twist the cord around and hope it comes back. In the process hopefully you'll determine which end of the cord has problems. If the computer end has problems, you could canibalize a cord from a broken monitor, though that's a lot of wire splicing. If the monitor end's the problem, you'll need to find an identical or extremely similar monitor, take both apart, find where the cord plugs in (there's usually a plug of some kind inside where the cord connects to the innards) and switch cords. Of course before that, it couldn't hurt to try the nearly identical monitor first, if it works, why bother? There are other possibilities to check though. It's possible the DAC for that color has died on your graphics card. Borrow someone else's monitor to test this.

No, it's the cable. When I twisted it it used to work again a while but now it won't respond. I tried to adjust the color balance with the NVIDIA control panel but even when I increased the red nothing change, so I guess I have lost the red signal. Someoneinmyheadbutit'snotme 19:16, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

A good way to check if a channel's gone or just weakened is to set the desktop to the primary colour that's missing (red if you see cyan, green if magenta, blue if yellow). If the channel's completely gone, the desktop will be black. NeonMerlin 23:53, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

Regular expressions

I'm looking to get the Platypus Firefox extension to match a large block of text starting with one thing and ending with another. The text is across multiple lines. Without changing the flags (since they're not accessible), what pattern will match it?

Example:

Text
Text
START
Text
Text
Text
END
Text
Text

where the pattern matches everything between START and END, regardless of whether it is letters, punctuation, whitespace, etc. The usual trick of including .* or * does not seem to work. 81.104.175.145 03:55, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

You may not be able to do this with a regular expression unless it treats characters you can specify as newlines (which isn't always the case).

Good places to get started in programming?

I'd really like to get into programming, but i'm not sure what I'd want to do. Part of me wants to make simple games in Py, that are story, artwork, and music driven, part of me wants to make complicated 3D network games, and another part wants to go into working on linux distros! Obviously simple things are easier to learn, but where's a good place to start learning to be able to do a wide variety of tasks? Sometimes I have ideas for web flash games, and sometimes I get images of a text editor that would better suit my needs. Obviously, these aren't things you can just learn and do over night, but knowing where to start would be nice. Keep in mind, we're only talking about linux here, I don't care about .NET or DX or anything proprietary like that. I'm guessing "learn C and start doing crap with it", but I'd like a more in depth opinion. I already know a tiny tiny bit of Python, and I'd prefer to keep learning that, since it's easier for me to read, but I'll go with whatever is best -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 04:38, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

If you know a little bit of python, stick to it for a start. It is not very important which language you use to learn programming, but you should limit the number to one until you are a little better.

Now you need to find a project that is both interesting and doable for you. Your expectations on your abilities for the first few projects are probably far to high. If you try to write a multiplayer 3D shooter as a beginner, you will get absolutely nowhere. Hah, if you try to write a decent multiplayer 3D shooter as anything less than an expert on geometric algorithms you will get nowhere either.

For a start it is best to take some form of course. You can do a course in real life, you can buy a book and work through it or you can search for a good tutorial on the web. The most important thing are the excercises. You need to write little programs, lots of little programs and get more practice doing it.

When you aquired some basic skills, try to find things that you might like to program. For example you might want to divide a poem into blocks that rhyme. Or you could create a game of tic tac toe. Mabe you need a program that reformats a set of web page to use another style. Or you want to converts pictures from one format to another by a rule based on the file name. If you like network programming, write a little chat program. There is really an endless amount of ideas. If you only do the projects, that seem possible, but require you to learn one or two new aspects of programming, these are the right projects.

My personal favorite toy project is writing a game of tetris. That might be too difficult for you as a beginner, but I recommend it to anyone who is an experienced programmer and wants to get up to speed with a new language. I did that four times already, and I still believe my objective-c verison is the best tetris implementation ever made. ^^

We seem to have the perfect book for you right here: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Non-Programmer's_Tutorial_for_Python/Contents.

I like that answer! Before making tetris, you may want to consider making a simple notepad whereby you allow (from console) someone to add/delete/edit/sort notes. This is easy enough in Python and would get you going :). JoshHolloway 10:00, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

I just linked the book in the first place because it was on wikipedia, but I just skimmed through it, and it is PHANTASTIC! Four years ago I actually created a new beginners course on java from scratch, because all the existing material was starting with objects and classes and fancy things, but the wikibook just nails the sequence of topics right down perfectly.

How do you feel about Java? I think it's a good starting language myself, and it makes stuff like graphics etc for games easier to implement. Then after you create Phoeba Wright: Grace Attorney or something, you will probably have enough knowledge to jump to other languages much simpler. But that's just my 2 cents. I didn't actually learn Java first, but when I was taking a uni course on Java, I thought people should learn Java first. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 14:03, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

When teaching programming, what you really want to do is telling how to predict what exactly a computer will output if it executes the program. The only important thing for a first language is that you can understand the logical model behind it so that you can make these predictions accurately. That makes for example Prolog completely off limits for a learning language. The logical model of prolog is far too difficult to understand.

While the java language itself is fine in that respect, the swing toolkit is actually pretty horrible. It hides the event loop from the programmer, and incorrect understanding of how the event loop works leads to a lot of confusion about gui programming. The mechanism is not even documented and I have spent a whole day looking with a debugger at the internals of swing to understand the finer points of its painting, layout and modal event handling. A large majority of students who learned java at my university had not understood how to use the swing toolkit properly after more than 3 years.

Oh don't get me wrong, I doubt I'll be able to make even a basic shooter in many moons, if ever. Thanks for that wikibook, I'd only seen http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Python_Programming - and it doesn't seem to be quite as helpful. -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 16:16, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Learning programming and learning a new programming language are totally different.

javascript

would you please show me a way of using javascript in my html documents which I edit in notepad! If possible type me a simple html document with javascript in it.

Well, what do you want to do with JavaScript? Splintercellguy 13:49, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

You can find hundreds of Javascript tutorial and examples on the web. If you want a simple example, add the following to any HTML document:

<script language="javascript">

alert('Hello world!');

</script>

And you'll get a little note saying hello. --140.247.240.18 15:04, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

The Extension Developer's Extension for Firefox is good for this. Root⁴(one) 15:14, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Does the Xbox360 elite include an HD DVD player?

I am thinking about getting a Xbox360 elite. But I do not know if it comes with and HD DVD player, or do you have to buy it separately.

Check our article on the X-box elite. --Cody.Pope 13:01, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Whats that?

For a year or so everything was fin but now firefox takes a eternity to start up and i hear the hard disc all the time. Is this some kind of governmental spyware? How can I find out what's going on. I'm using linux and with the "top" command I see firefox-bin running with a low cpu percentage. On the whole the processor is fairly idle but there's high (~97%) wa.

What can I do? 84.160.231.38 18:41, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

You might try trashing your Firefox cache and preferences file (I'd backup the bookmarks first). I have had that fix similar problems before. --140.247.240.137 19:25, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Start off with the advice above (deleting your cache and prefs). If that doesn't work, try a defrag or see if a large chunk of the program is sitting on bad sectors in your hard drive.--GTPoompt 14:02, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

I think your chances of having spyware on Linux are pretty slim. According to the Ubuntu Wiki, as are your chances of your hard drive becoming fragmented, so I'd disregard GTPoompt's comment (although it probably would have been relevant for Windows). If reseting your cache and preferences doesn't work, you might want to try reinstalling Firefox (if you got it from your distro's repositories, it should be pretty easy). --saxsux 22:19, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Website Compatibility

Hello. What other Internet browsers other than Internet Explorer can load cheese.com [1]? Thanks. --Mayfare 19:28, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

I don't see anything like AvticeX preventing other browsers from loading it. If you're developing a website, you really should have a bunch of browsers on your own computer to test it, otherwise I don't see why you need our help -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 19:39, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

It loads in Firefox and is, for the most part, readable. However, it is a skinny little blob with tons of white space on both sides. The web designer needs to learn about fluid design. --Kainaw ^(talk) 20:25, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

And I'm counting 4 Google ads, and two animated flash banner ads. Google ads are click-based, and I seriously doubt that people are more likely to click if there are four of them, all visible on one screen. This is exactly what Adblock was created for. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 20:34, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Looks ok in Firefox (Iceweasel) and Konqueror; but fails w3c validation. As Kainaw said, fixed sizes are a bad idea. Plus I use Adblock on firefox and don't use javascript on konqueror, so the ads went bye. --h2g2bob (talk) 21:08, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Is fine in Opera :) JoshHolloway 23:15, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

All appears to work just fine, even with some broad-targeted Greasemonkey, but whoever thought that the fixed width was a good idea should be taken out and shot re-educated. 81.104.175.145 03:21, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

AIM Phoneline

For some reason, I cannot set up AIM Phoneline with my screen name - every time I attempt to do so, I get an error message that says - "We're sorry. We are unable to complete your registration at this time." What can I do? Is the server having issues, or is it a problem with my account? Ali ^(t)_(c) 21:16, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

I think AOL would be a lot better at answering that than Wikipedia... --saxsux 22:27, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

I have the same errors. Your not alone-soundnut

May 29

Blender Fluid Simulation Problem

I have a scene set up in Blender (Intel; Mac OS X) where water pours into a dish. If i turn the "end" value of the simulation to anything bigger that the default 30 and click bake, it starts baking from frame "-1" and then freezes. Can anyone explain why, and give a solution?--67.181.167.227 00:16, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

bandwidth in gaming

I think I must be pretty close to (or slightly over) 100GB of downloads alone this month. I just read Comcast#High_Speed_Internet_Service which scares me- my dad depends on our internet service for a lot of the work that he does. I'm trying to minimize my bandwidth consumption until the end of the month, and it occured to me that I have no idea how much bandwidth online gaming uses? If I play Counter-Strike: Source for 1-2 hours on a fairly full (40 man) server, how much actual data is downloaded? I play 1-2 hours basically every day, so am I in any danger of going over the "limit"? --froth^t 00:46, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

It will depend on the game. Obviously older games won't try to go over 56k, newer games might go higher, I think some can easily scrape 1MB+/500k at a time. I'm sure you'll be fine, that policy is more there for comcast to get rid of people who are using them as a server than it is their regular customers. -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 01:11, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

My internet is currently cappped to 64kb until the end of the month and I can still play CS Source with voice and everything with NO lag and about 5ms ping on my ISPs server. 100GB is A LOT of data for one month no matter how you put it, that would be regarded as extreme use on any ISPs plan. I'm on an enthusiast plan and I'm allowed to use 12GB in a month before I get slowed, my house mate and I played about 5 hours of WoW every day for a month with team speak and all and we used up about 1GB, you would use a fraction of a GB in a month playing 1 - 2 hours of CS a day, it would be NOTHING compared to 100GB. Vespine 02:41, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

OK so I guess I'll just lay off the bittorrent for awhile and won't worry about it thanks. --froth^t 03:33, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

And I don't consider 100GB a lot at all; how is downloading at 50KB/s for a week (30 gigs- the star trek TNG series in low def) any worse for network health than downloading at 50KB/s for a month (120 gigs- a dozen movies in high def and half a dozen modern games)? --froth^t 03:37, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Come on, don't kid your self, of course it is a lot of data, how many people download more then 100GB in a month? (and not jsut the very 1st month they get their unlimited net account) I guarantee it is less then 1% of all internet users. I have almost a terabyte of storage at home, i know of course it is easy to fill 100GB with movies and games, but I also know it is a lot to download in one month. Vespine

It is a lot, but it's not as much as you're making it out to be, especially considering all of the peer-to-peer downloads flying around, and the instantaneous bandwidth available on modern ISPs. The limit for my ISP's standard plan is 60GB/month, and I know at least one or two people who have hit that cap. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 05:58, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

I don't think you will actually hit 100gb unless you are downloading massive amounts of stuff. I play WOW and with a whole bunch of addons gathering data from the server, I rarely was pushing 6kb/sec.--GTPoompt 17:38, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

A few of examples of bandwidth consumption:

1. 100 hours of VOIP calling: 2.8 GB.
2. Pandora radio playing eight hours a day for a month: 13 GB.
3. Second Life on a fast connection with a great deal of movement from region to region: 1 GB for every four hours of play.
4. 20 pirated DVDs, re-encoded for single-layer recording: 100 GB.
5. 12 hours of streaming ATSC digital television: 100 GB.

--Carnildo 00:01, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

SL is a gig per four hours?! Holy crap! I can't even download that fast direct connection http! --froth^t 02:52, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Really? That's 250MB/Hr, which comes out to be around 100kbps, which isn't too bad. -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 17:32, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

The numbers for SL are assuming a fast connection and a lot of movement. If you're just sitting in one place, you can almost play over dialup. --Carnildo 23:17, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

I'm surprised that Pandora doesn't consume more bandwidth, especially if you play it every day for a month. Incidentally, where did you get those numbers? Is that your own investigation, or is there an article or something? Ohh, and by the way, you guys are suckers, I'm sitting on a 24 mbit connection with unlimited downloads for ~$30/month. I just checked my Azureus statistics, and I'm pushing a terabyte in downloads over the last 3 months. --Oskar 11:16, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

For the most part, I calculated the numbers based on data in the relevant articles. The SL numbers are based on measurements I did. Pandora is 128kbps mp3, which is only 16 kilobytes per second of music. --Carnildo 23:17, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

You can also use NetLimiter or similar program for a month and see for yourself how much each program/game uses per month. For this use, a freeware Monitor version would be enough. Thats what I use to track my own internet consumption (76GB last month, on an unmetered 768kb connection, utorrent working 24/7). Shinhan 10:26, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

Bare linux kernel

What would the linux kernel, with no modifications, do by itself? Would it just start a DOS/Basic like environment? Or would it refuse to boot? Or would it be incapable of booting? I don't really need to know this, i'm just curious -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 01:08, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

If you set up the bootloader correctly, it'd start, detect hardware &/c, then complain that it can't find init, then halt. Go learn yourself up on the 'nix bootup sequence.

If there's no filesystem for it to use as the root FS, it says:

Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on

...followed by some internal name for the device it tried to use, for example a hard disk partition. Kernel panic means it didn't know what to do, so it gave up, and not syncing means it's not writing any data to any storage devices for fear of overwriting important data. If it does have a filesystem to use, but there's no executable file to run as the first user-space program (traditionally /sbin/init), it says:

Kernel panic - not syncing: No init found. Try passing init= option to kernel. —Keenan Pepper 15:19, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

The "dos"-like environment is called a shell (computing) and is not usually considered a part of the kernel. In fact it is considered a "shell" around the kernel. So, if you did not have a shell executable installed, you could never get even as far as a command prompt. Nimur 19:27, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

Free text file compare software.

I'll try to be brief, I have 4 text files 31kb in size which are extracts from the registry of a print server, pertaining to the driver settings on 4 different print queues. 2 printers are doing what they are supposed to and 2 are not behaving correctly under a very specific condition.

I need a piece of windows software that can easily (and freely) compare 2 txt files, to first find everything that is the same on the 2 that work and then the 2 that don't, and then try to find a difference between those two. I've tried a couple of "shareware" programs but they have had save and size limitations and I have not been able to do what I need. I'm sure there must be a free tool that does exactly what I need easily.

If anyone has any more ideas I'm open to suggestions, but please don't ask me to describe the problem, trust me, all other avenues have been exhausted including vendor support… Thanks:) Vespine 02:35, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

One thing you might try, since it is free and easy: create a page in your userspace with the contents of one text file (i.e. at User:Vespine/Test). Save. Then edit the page again and paste the second text file over it. Save. Then go into the "History" tab and compare the two. Might not work well, or it might work perfectly — worth a shot, given how easy it is. --24.147.86.187 04:36, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Yes! Definitely worth a try, but unfortunately even when I try to paste all 4 files the same they haven't formatted exactly the same , because of all the spaces and strange characters> I really like the idea of using wiki to solve this, since I love wiki so much, but unfortunately I think I still need a piece of software to do this. Vespine 05:08, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

In a Windows Command Prompt, you can use the fc command to show the differences between two files, which might solve part of your problem. Basic usage is fc file1 file2. Type fc /? for help. --Bavi H 06:48, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

UltraEdit has a powerful text file compare utility. We use it routinely to compare lists such as database users. Sandman30s 11:07, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

There's probably a windows port of diff on the net somewhere --h2g2bob (talk) 12:14, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Live Boot Cd image file

Dear Ubuntu Fan's, I made the mistake of copying the Ubuntu CD files under WinXP to a cd instead of extracting and burning the iso-image of the cd.So now my boot cd does not boot as it does not posses the ubuntu7.0 livecd boot image file, as burning the files under Nero uses its own default Dos image.Would be grateful if someone extracts that livecd boot image file in iso-buster and mail it to me.My version is ubuntu 7.04 and its for the intel p4 32 bit system.59.92.245.106

It would probably make more sense to download the ISO image and burn it again, than to ask someone to email it to you. The download is free. --Tony Sidaway 11:59, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Depending on where you live, you may be able to get a copy sent by post. See http://shipit.ubuntu.com. --h2g2bob (talk) 12:18, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

I wanted only the boot image file of the live cd(<1mb), not the entire iso file(700MB)..~~

IIRC, the boot image file is one of the visible files in the CD, so you probably copied it as well. There is no need for special tools to get to the boot image. Looking at my old (6.10) CD, I'd guess it's /isolinux/isolinux.bin, and it's probably a no-emulation image. --cesarb 23:45, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Images onto Powerpoint

How can you put a different image that you want as a slide design onto slide master? Slide master only lets you put one image as a slide design for the whole Powerpoint. --203.122.77.125 07:06, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Do you mean you want to use different slide masters for different sections of your presentation? If you're using PowerPoint XP or later you can create multiple masters — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 18:04, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

The way I did it with mine was to create a powerpoint with slides using different design. Then I copy-pasted the slide to get a duplicate and put content on the duplicates. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 02:11, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

One Time Pad "theoretically unbreakable"

I've long understood that One Time Pad ciphers are theoretically unbreakable - this makes sense to me. How does this change when the process used to generate the pad isn't truly random?

For example, say my alphabet is {0,1} and my message is one letter long, so my pad is just an element of {0,1}. If a have a truly random pad, then my message is equally likely to be 0 or 1, and both possibilities are, well, entirely possible. But if say my random pads aren't so random and a cryptanalyst knows that my pad is slightly more likely to be 0 than 1, then so what? Then one of the possibilities is slightly more likely, but both are still entirely possible, right?

I guess what I'm asking is that does "unbreakable" in the sense of a perfect OTP mean not only "no one can be sure what the message was" but also "no one has any reason to guess one message over another"? --87.194.21.177 09:18, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Randomness is an extremely complex topic. A slight bias towards one value or another isn't such a problem (but consider the possibility that p(0) = 0.999), but more problematic for cryptographic purposes is the case where the pad is multiple elements long, and there's a statistical correlation between one value in the next in the pad. In practical terms, it seems that some level of imperfection in the non-randomness can be tolerated. See our article on one time pad for details. --Robert Merkel 09:34, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Oh, careful, a slight bias is a huge problem. Suppose that the sender wants to help the attacker a little bit. He creates a message using an Error-correcting code and puts it through your biased one time pad. The attacker gets the cyphered message and applies the ECC to recover the original message. ECCs can easily go through a 49%/51% biased cypher, no problem at all. Now if a specially crafted message can be recovered by the attacker exploiting redundancy, why should an attacker not be able to recover a normal message by exploiting the natural redundancy of these messages?

Real one time pads have historically been drawn by hand using lottery machines. There is some case in history where the amount of shuffling the machine does was reduced to save time, and the cypher was broken as a result, but I cannot remember when or where that was, so maybe it's an urban legend.

I believe that it was in Singh's "The Code Book" that I read about the Allies taking advantage of handmade Axis one-time-pad ciphers. Since they were handmade on a typewriter, they tended to use alternating right-hand and left-hand keys. They also favored the middle row of keys. So, instead of having to guess at any possibility, the code crackers could try the combinations that were most likely. --Kainaw ^(talk) 13:02, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

There's also an amusing scene in Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon where a secretary whose job was to make one-time-pads by shaking a basket of chips with letters on them and selecting one would discard some of the choices if she got some combination, three-Zs in a row, say, that she felt was not "random enough", since what are the chances of three Zs? :) --TotoBaggins 14:21, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

I'd like to point out that you're touching on the topic of stream ciphers with your question. Stream ciphers are essentially one-time pads, but instead of using a random number generator, it uses a pseudo-random number generator. It has its advantages (like a key is just one number, not a whole string), but it is also much weaker than the one-time pad (well, technically all non-perfect ciphers are infinitely weaker than the great Cipher of Vernam, but you know what I mean). It's an interesting topic, this --Oskar 11:09, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

How to Program?? Do you use any kind of software?? I just a noob (currently on software).

Just like the title.

-how to program. actually I know the java and the C language.

THE PROBLEM IS that I need to know how you put the language "in" and program something.

Is there any type of software you use??

Please. I need help.

125.228.199.22 11:13, 29 May 2007 (UTC) Thomas Gagliardi

At a bare minimum you need a text editor and a compiler or interpreter. You can (arguably) make life easier for yourself by using a source code editor, within or without an integrated development environment. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 11:25, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

For java, you can download and run a cross-platform integrated development environment (IDE) such as Eclipse. This gives you a single solution to build, compile and debug programs.

For C or C++ on Microsoft Windows, download Visual C++ Express, which provides a Windows-specific freeware IDE for C++, which can also be used to compile C programs.

For C or C++ on UNIX-like systems, try an IDE such as Anjuta, which provides facilities similar to those provided by Visual C++ Express. --Tony Sidaway 11:52, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Or just use GCC... However, how do you know how to program if you have never programmed? Just very curios on my part. Did we develope the "Whoa, I know Kung-fu" style of learning already? --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 02:07, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Try Dev-c++ or WxDev-c++ there both free and just as good as vs. --Lwarf ^{Talk to Me!} 08:32, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Query question in MSAccess2000

Resolved

Hi: I'm trying to figure out how to combine a parameter query and an update. They don't have to be in the same query. What I want to do is this:

Search for a string in a memo field, and update a different field for all the returned records with the same string.

So:

Search on MEMO field = 'Chesterfield', action = update FURNITURE field with 'Chesterfield' in records returned in chesterfield search result. The search on the MEMO field needs to be a parameter query because I'm searching for a bunch (potentially huge number, over time) of different strings. Anchoress 11:49, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Got an answer on THIS board. Anchoress 13:13, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Domain Squatting

Hello,

A while ago I had purchased a few domain names. It was before I really knew what I was doing. I had bought one domain name with a .org that was from another company with a .com. I recently recieved this email. Should I just give it to them or are they bluffing? Any thoughts would help.

Dear Mr. Malowsky,

Your use of the URL “www._____.org” violates our registered trademark of the term “______”. Please cease and desist any further use of our trademark including the URL “www._______.org” within 7 days or we will take the appropriate legal action including recovery of incurred attorneys’ fees. Thank you in advance for your prompt attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

They must pay for the domain. There are multiple cases in the past that back this up. For example, Madonna had to pay the owner of madonna.com for the domain. Brad Pitt had to pay the owner of bradpitt.com for the domain. Also, a registered trademark is only for the area of business. For example, I can sell McDonald's car tires without worrying about a lawsuit from the McDonald's restaurant chain - because car tires do not fall under the fast food area of business. So, unless you have a website that is in the same area of business as their trademark, they have no case. Again, there are past examples of a company (Discover credit card company) trying to steal a domain name (discover.com) by claiming a trademark and failing because the content of the site had nothing to do with their area of business. --Kainaw ^(talk) 14:21, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Uh, careful there, read this: Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy. The board granted madonna her domain name, she didn't have to pay a cent. OP, if you're domain squatting in bad faith I advise you to give them the domain name. Otherwise tell them no or offer to sell it. --froth^t 14:58, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

My memory was that Madonna had to pay the remaining amount the owner paid for the domain - something less than $35. That is easily seen as "not paying for it". However, it is an issue that the owner paid $35/year for the domain and legally deserved a refund. Of course, I could be completely wrong about the whole thing. It was a long time ago. --Kainaw ^(talk) 16:41, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

I remember a case where some gamer kid who called himself "Sting" had sting.com, and the singer Sting tried to take it from him, on the grounds that that wasn't even the kid's real name, and IIRC the ICANN people were like, "um, it's not yours either". :) --TotoBaggins 17:04, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

We cannot give legal advice. Consult a laywer. We do have an article on cybersquatting. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 15:01, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Sure we can. The page you are linking to does not forbid us to, as far as I can see. We might not be prepared to take responsibility for the consequences of following our advice, though. That page, along with the medical disclaimer, appear to me as stemming from the silly habit of some americans of suing eachother whenever they did something foolish because of what someone else said or didn't say. (Along the lines of "It said nowhere on it that I couldn't swallow the whole, unopened bottle of Coke I bought from you!".) I'd be happy to take legal advice from you people, and I would of course take responsibility for my own actions and not just run off and blindly do whatever you told me to do, without considering that you might be wrong or that I might have misunderstood you. I for one don't want the great guide to knowledge that is Wikipedia to have blind spots over the areas of law and medicine. —Bromskloss 18:12, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

The header of that page is pretty explicit - "WIKIPEDIA DOES NOT GIVE LEGAL OPINIONS". The header of this page also makes it clear that people should not request legal advice (although to be fair, the questioner did ask for 'thoughts' and not 'advice'). In some (many?) jurisdictions it's illegal to provide legal advice if you're not a legal professional. We can absolutely give legal information - that's why we can have articles like DMCA and Roe v. Wade. The problem is when we start giving legal advice on specific cases. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 18:47, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

This is exactly right. In the state of Florida, it is illegal to practice law or give legal advice without a license- which is where Wikipedia's (and the rest of Wikimedia, I believe) servers are. Wikipedia cannot give legal advice because it would be a violation of Florida state law. That simple. -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 19:51, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Personality module

We don't have an article on it, and googling doesn't tell me what I want to know. Can anyone here tell me (in terms a liberal arts major will understand) what a "personality module" is? —Angr 15:04, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

In what context have you seen this phrase? I can't help but think of the products of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation. --LarryMac | Talk 15:15, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Haha, exactly what I thought. Googling it seems to suggest something to do with networking or signal processing (there are references to Cisco Analog Personality Modules), but I can't find a definition for it anywhere. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 15:22, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

I've seen it in a document I'm translating out of German into English, which means I can't go into much detail for fear of revealing the customer's trade secrets. But it's definitely part of the software (or the software's hardware, like a PCB would be) of some piece of machinery, probably ultimately related to working sheet metal. —Angr 16:25, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

It could really mean anything. A module is just a removable part (software or hardware). A "personality" in computing usually means that it's emulating (pretending to be) some other system for compatibility reasons. For example, Linux can pretend to be other systems (such as SCO Unix or HP/UX). That said, it's easy to imagine a game like The Sims having an aftermarket for "personality modules", so it's really going to be dependent on your application. --TotoBaggins 17:00, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Well, it's clearly not gaming. The product is for sheet metal producers, not the general public. Knowing that a "personality" in computing relates to emulation helps; thanks! —Angr 17:07, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

That's my point: it could be anything from emulation to gaming, and is totally context-dependent. I don't think you're going to find an answer not specific to your actual machine/system. --TotoBaggins 20:14, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

It might also mean a skin (computing). StuRat 17:14, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Well there's no guarantee that by 'personality module' they were referring to emulation. Sure, it fits, but it's not a guarantee. A module could be a place where data or information is contained in a piece of hardware. Rfwoolf 17:23, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

I think it's that thing that Bush had on his back under the coat during the debate[2]. Gzuckier 19:23, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Ha ha. But the upshot is, there isn't one familiar device everyone calls the "personality module". Rather, the makers of this specific machine called something-or-other the "personality module", and in practice it could be almost any kind of module, possibly but not necessarily relating to emulation. —Angr 04:18, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Bulk SMS messages

Does anyone know of a web-based or downloadable program that is able to send bulk SMS messages (i.e., to many different people at once) on a specific schedule? Preferably the program would run on OS X or the web, but Windows would also do. Thanks. --MZMcBride 19:15, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Check out [3] for information on sending bulk SMS messages. You can send to UK only, up to 500 messages a month, I beleive, for free - the full information on pricing can be found here [4]. Jhfireboy I'm listening 23:48, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the response. Cheers. --MZMcBride 01:22, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Wiki farm questions

I recently created a wiki on the wiki farm elwiki.com. I have been looking at MediaWiki's user's guide and some of there their other Administrator pages but it isn't very helpful.

First, I don't think that I have access to the LocalSettings.php file becuase elwiki holds it, so I'm not sure how much I can change on the programming side of the wiki. So if I do have access to this file, how do I access it? Secondly, how do I change the text on the tabs? For instance, how would you change 'edit' to 'edit this page'. Thirdly, how do I protect pages and give other users sysop status? Finally, is there a way to create namespaces without having access to the LocalSettings.php?

If there is anything else I need to know please tell me, I am familiar with the markup and general wiki editing knowledge becuase of my work here to Wikipedia. Thanks for your help. Scottydude _talk 21:31, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

I can't answer all of your questions, but I do know the answers to some of them. A lot of the interface is changeable through a page called Special:Allmessages. On that page you'll see all of the system messages listed, including one called MediaWiki:Edit, which is the one you want to change for your particular question. Whoever originally set-up the MediaWiki software had to create a root account, usually called WikiSysop, who has the ability to protect pages and create admins. Admins are created in the Special:Userrights page, and a page protection tab is available to admins and the root account. I'm pretty sure that new namespaces require access to LocalSettings.php. As for how to access the file, I'm not sure on your configuration (the link you provided doesn't seem to be working right now). Some other pages you may be interested in are MediaWiki:Common.css, MediaWiki:Monobook.css, and MediaWiki:Common.js. Those stylesheets and javascript pages contain a lot of useful code that does things like hide the H1 header on the Main Page. Hope that helps. Cheers. --MZMcBride 23:47, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Thanks so much! Scottydude _talk 23:51, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Note: The link isn't working becuase the elwiki server seems to be down, I can't access the wiki either. Scottydude _talk 23:56, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Server-side program

I want to create a website that communicates with a chatbot that I created, something along the lines of [5] and [6], the chatbot is written in C# and I know how to create the a simple form that has "get", therefore trying to open "www.(myWebsite).com/something?input=(what I wrote here)", although, from what I read, I think I should really be using "post" because the chatbot learns and would get messed up with multiple inputs, I just need to know how to get the client data as it's set to me and run it through my main method, I think it has to do with the stuff after the question mark. Please help, and also I don't really want to learn another computer language so try to give me advice related to C# (and Microsoft Visual C# 2005 Express Edition), thanks, 23:13, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

You'll want to look into ASP.NET. You can access the query string through Request.QueryString and postdata through Request.Form — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 23:23, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

May 30

iTunes Downloads

Can I quit iTunes and turn my PC off when I've paused an iTunes download, and still resume it later when I turn the computer back on? Thanks. RedStateV 00:12, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Yes, as long as you are using iTunes 7.0 or newer. --24.249.108.133 21:45, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Downloader Virus

I have a Trojan Horse virus referenced as a "Downloader Virus," which downloads other viruses. Since Norton was having difficulty deleting the actual file, I did so manually, and my computer seems to still be infected with viruses which Norton can not pick out. Aside from formatting my computer, what are my options? Cameron 00:48, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Install linux. Leave XP partition to rot. -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 01:45, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Might want to try a different virus scanner. For example, AVG is free. Or use McAfee. If AVG (or whichever other) finds it, scan your computer in safe mode so it can delete it. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 02:00, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Try downloading a copy of Antivir from here. Once you have it installed, disconnect yourself from the Internet and then run it. Have a friend or relative download installers for you of Firefox, Spybot S&D, and AdAware and burn them to a CD. Install those from CD. Promise you will never run Microsoft Internet Explorer ever again. --LarryMac | Talk 02:03, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

telephone dialer in c

 can any one help me with a idea that how to interface c/c++ with the phone dialer.

Sameerdubey.sbp{9:18}

I'm not sure anyone will be able to guess what you are trying to do here. c/c++ is a programming language, I'm guessing that by "phone dialler" you mean a piece of software that interfaces a modem and can dial a number. So are you trying to write a phone dialler program in c? or a modem control program? I don't think either of those are things that someone could teach you easily in a 'help desk' kind of format. Vespine 04:05, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

okay if it is not possible with c... then ...help me out with visual basic... that could interact with phone dialer Reveal.mystery

Check out this article at MSDN on TAPI connections. What you're trying to do is use the Win32 TAPI (Telephony Application Programming Interface). Be careful when doing further searches on this, as most hits will land you information on Windows Mobile and Windows CE Smartphone software. -wizzard2k ^(C•T•D) 07:36, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

It's kinda funny, in linux I remember all I would have to do is cat some characters into the modem device file (of course, those characters would be very specific into the modem. I don't remember doing anything from there, though. Root⁴(one) 14:58, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

PS3 Update Trouble

Hi,

Every time I try and update my PS3 via System Update/Internet it comes up with an error message: 8002f994.

Can someone point out what is wrong with it or point me to a website where I can download the update on to a memory stick. I am an English PS3 user.

Searching around suggests that this forum thread seem to work. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 08:28, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Japanese letters in e-mail

I am on AOL. I am prepared to type a letter to Shueisha in Japanese, but when I put Japanese letters in the letter fields in the window. they appear as all question marks. Would the letter appear to Shueisha as Japanese letters when sent to them?

Maybe, it would be worth a shot. It is possible that the email window on your end can not translate the code for the font you are using, similar to seeing little boxes on a windows system, but that doesn't mean the code is not still there behind the question marks, depending on the client they are using, they may just see the letters, or they may have to paste it into a different program. But I suppose there is a chance that the unrecognise code will be wiped in transmission, I think there is a better chance it will work, but unless someone has actually tried it may be hard to guess. Vespine 03:56, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Second video card, just for desktop apps (XP)

Let say i want to add a new video card so that I can have an additional display. Assuming I don't want to do play 3D games on this display or anything fancy like that, what sort of a card do I need to do the job? Will a $15 standard PCI do it? or is there a reason to buy something a little more fancy? --Alecmconroy 12:46, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Standard $15 PCI should do it, sure. There's no reason I can think of that would give you a noticeable drop in performance adding a second card for a second display used only for 2D. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 23:49, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Umm, except, I'm not sure you can run an AGP and a PCI card at the same time. I'm pretty sure this has been asked before and I think the answer was that the pipes are parallel or something, you can't use both at the same time, display properties will only let you select between AGP and PCI, not both. Vespine 03:57, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

I don't know if it'll work with all motherboards and for all combinations of cards, but there is no fundamental problem using AGP and PCI video cards together. I personally used a Nvidia Geforce 4 with an old S3 ViRGE (there's an article on everything...) PCI card for a time before I got a new AGP card supporting two displays. --Dapeteばか 11:10, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Windows Development

I am about to initiate a major Windows application development project, and am not quite sure on which language to choose. Undoubtedly, I am most used to program in Borland Delphi, but does the language have any future? Generally, I am not sure about the future of native Win32 applications: perhaps the Microsoft.NET framework will make these applications as obsolete as Windows 3.1 applications were made by Windows 95? Perhaps C# is a better choice? Also, how significantly would the application performance increase if I would choose C++ or C# instead of Delphi? --81.231.187.228 13:23, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Your questions come down to the abilities of the compiler. The compiler turns the code you write (regardless of the language) into the code the computer will run. The "obsolete" issue you mention had to do with dumping the old windows framework for a new one. So, the old programs had to be rewritten to use the new framework. The .NET framework is supposed to be stable. So, you can write for it and your program is supposed to compile and run for all future versions of Windows. Keep in mind, the paperclip guy was supposed to be a stable addition to the framework that would always be there to give hints to the user. So, I suggest C++ or C#. --Kainaw ^(talk) 18:58, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Remember C++ is unmanaged code (much like Delphi) while the dot.net languages are managed code, requiring garbage collection overhead, etc, like Java. Managed and unmanaged languages and systems each have their own advantages. I doubt unmanaged code is going away anytime soon. BTW, a good question to ask is how much is Vista written in Microsoft.Net? I'm not certain much of it is. Root⁴(one) 14:49, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Forcing older software to run in higher resolutions.

A lot of older games (Deus Ex, Worms Armageddon, Unreal Tournament, Fallout 2 etc) don't run in my LCDs' native resolutions (1280x1024 or 1680x1050). Is there any way to force old software to run in an unusually high resolution? Froglars the frog 13:24, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

The general procedure ist this: The program queries the display driver for a list of available screen modes. It shows the user a subset of these modes that it supports. The user chooses one of them. Unless you start hacking the display driver of the program, you will not get any other screen mode. It might not be that hard as it sounds right now, because "hacking" the program might be as simple as modifying some list of modes or so. Hacking the display driver means, that the display switches to another mode than the selected one. I am not aware of any driver that would allow this, but it would not be hard to do in principle.

Some programs allow you to force resolutions on the command line (see the manual). Also, you can run them in windowed mode so the screen resolution doesn't matter. Maximize the window and it is almost like running in full-screen mode. --Kainaw ^(talk) 16:49, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Don't games have a upper limit ton the resolution based on their code rather then any driver or screen issue? If the textures and models are only coded to run at 1024x768 or whatever it is then you can't squeeze more resolution out of it. Vespine 03:49, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

That type of limit doesn't typically affect 3D games (polygons are polygons), and some 2D games can be forced to anyways (namely RTSs, which results in more stuff being shown onscreen at once). -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 06:02, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

I don't know about the others, but Worms Armageddon allows you to choose the screen resolution in its Options menu. --saxsux 22:10, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Programming for Mac OS X.

Could anyone tell me any source code editors or ,ide's that are made for Mac?

The programmign language can be any.

C C++ java wtv....

I need the answer! Thanks!

Xcode? — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 15:02, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

If you have any experience with Visual Basic, RealBasic is a pretty nice Mac counterpart. --140.247.240.56 17:25, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Eclipse is an OK one that is free. Recury 19:52, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Xcode, and Quartz Composer are nice. [Mac Δαvιs] ❖ 22:37, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Skype voice calls

Hi - I have wireless router with me. I am going to by skype integrated phone of linksys. I am also going to buy skype out and skype in. I am going to connect all togather soon. Will it be possible to shut down my computer and make use of skype phone as normal phone (although connected to the high speed internet via router) to make and receive calls. I think it is possible. Can someone acknowledge pls ?

Vishal 65.161.188.11 16:15, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

If you're buying a wireless phone like this [7], then you do not need a computer to connect to Skype, only wireless internet access. (In short, yes.) -wizzard2k ^(C•T•D) 07:09, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Keyboard switching

How can i make the keyboard at school (Mac), act as a windows keyboard, and be able to switch languages?

Note: I don't have administrative access

24.39.182.101 16:29, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

In Mac OS X, you should be able to go to the Apple menu, select "System Preferences", click the "International" icon, and then the "Input Menu" tab. From there you should be able to select the languages you want to input. It is of course possible for the administration to prevent you from doing this, but if they have, you should complain. — The Storm Surfer 00:27, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Computer configuration

Which motherboard should i choose with Intel Core 2 Duo T7100 1.8 GHZ?

Might get a better response on a tech website with dedicated motherboard forums such as AnandTech --GTPoompt 17:48, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Choose a motherboard that fits your needs. You know what chip you need. What is your memory requirement? Do you need onboard IDE or SCSI? Do you need onboard AGP? 2X? 4X? 8X? Do you need onboard network adapter? That's just the starting questions. --Kainaw ^(talk) 18:51, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Firefox's British English dictionary

Does anyone else use this extension, and does it work for you? It installed with no apparent problems (latest build, 1.19), but I still get underlines for British spellings in the edit window. Seems a bit pointless. Adrian M. H. 20:20, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Yep, it works fine for me. The 'color' attributes in your sig are being underlined, for example ;) I'm using 1.19 on Firefox 2.0.0.3, WinXP Pro. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 20:36, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Same combination here, but it refuses to work as expected, flagging up colour instead of color. Adrian M. H. 21:21, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

British Dictionary 1.19 is not compatible with Firefox 2.0.0.3, according to the documentation. Perhaps that is the reason it is not working.--TrogWoolley 09:34, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

I haven't seen any documentation for it, but I'll take you at your word. It's a pity that no one thought to make it clear in this list. Adrian M. H. 22:18, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps you have to switch the spell-checker's dictionary from the default to British? — The Storm Surfer 00:29, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Unpartitioning a Hard Disk in Windows

I need to "unpartition" a hard disk, and I am wondering how to do it. Here is my situation: I have a computer running Windows. It has two hard drives. #1 has two partitions, one of which is my boot partition. #2 has only one partition. I want to redo things so that #1 has only one partition, and it is my boot partition. There is no data on #1 that I need to keep, and I realize I probably need to re-install Windows. Now, what do I do? --Tugbug 21:42, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

To modify (merge or resize) a boot partition, either change its size during a re-installation or use partitioning software, such as Partition Magic (if it is still around). Adrian M. H. 22:05, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Just a word of advice with Partition Magic. Back up your data before using it! I had it crash on me in the middle of re-partitioning and there goes your data! Sandman30s 07:44, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Google "System Rescue Disk", and use QTParted/Gparted from that -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 22:08, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

If you don't mind re-installing, and you don't have data on the partition, then you don't have to resize. Just run fdisk (or whatever) and delete your partitions and create a new one, then re-install. -- Diletante 14:21, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

The Day They Updated Google and Broke It

Is Google broken? I think they were updating the search capabilities or something. Anyway, my recent searches now have felt funny - some kind of repetition bug and the search engine's not organizing the searches quite right. Time to dump GOOG stock?!!?!?!?! (Tell your grandkids that you heard it first from an anon poster on Wikipedia reference desk!!!) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.110.179.243 (talk • contribs)

That's an interesting thought. I'll have to keep an eye out for that - not noticed anything as of yet. JoshHolloway 23:35, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

I wonder when people are going to realize Google is always in beta -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 23:44, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

I don't notice anything either, and I use it alot. The only thing I noticed is the layout. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 23:45, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

I changed my home page to http://www.google.bs/ , because the Bahamas is the closest country other than the US with an English Google. —Keenan Pepper 23:50, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

I've noticed for some time now that occaisionally when visiting a non-US google home such as google.com.au, it gives you two radio buttons such as "Search: [ ]The Web [ ] Australia only" - and trying to select a different radio button - which used to be very easy - is now very difficult. I don't know what could have caused it. Maybe it's just my system being slow Rfwoolf 12:36, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

May 31

Matlab: Using function as matrix

I have a matrix A, whose elements A_ij are given by a function f(i,j), where i = 1:N and j = 1:N. N is extremely large. I want to use the matrix A without having to store it in memory. However, I want to be able to use all built-in matrix operators and functions like inverse, transpose, *, etc on the matrix. Is it possible to create an object that appears to be a matrix to functions like inv, but do not store any elements? Any requested element A(i,j) could be created on the fly by evaluating the function f(i,j). For example, if N = 2, and f(i,j) is i*j, the matrix A will be [1 2; 2 4]. However, instead of storing this matrix, the object actually does i*j every time A_ij is required. deeptrivia (talk) 00:19, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

I don't know Matlab, so I'm speaking theoretically here. You may be able to store a matrix defined by a function without storing all its values, but you won't be able to get away with having its inverse or it's transpose in this way. (Think about it. Matlab would have to do work on its values, and would hence store a matrix as an array of values, not by referring to a function. It's not that clever).

You would have to manually look at how you'd define the inverse/transpose/etc in terms of the function and use that.

I haven't worked with matlab in a few years, but I don't understand exatcly what you are trying to do. I don't believe the in-built functions will work on anything that isn't a matrix per se, but can't you just have a function with a return value of a matrix being i*j, and call that function when you need your data?--GTPoompt 12:19, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

I don't know Matlab either, but I'd like to point out that in general it's possible to actually perform operations in this indirect fashion, if you have some variety of function objects available. Then transpose(matrix_adapter(f,m,n)) (where matrix_adapter(f,m,n)[i,j] -> f(i,j); that is, when you attempt to index a matrix_adapter object, it calls its first argument as a function with the provided indices) would yield matrix_adapter(transpose_adapter(f),n,m) where transpose_adapter(f)(i,j) -> f(j,i). In other words, you write down a function and a size to represent a matrix, and then perform operations on that matrix by making a new "matrix" which uses a suitably-modified function.

Of course, this doesn't work for inverse, since it doesn't depend only on local values of f; there you'd have to say something like inverse_adapter(m)[i,j] -> linear_solve(m,basis(j,dim(m)))[i] where basis(i,n) yields a vector of length n with its i^th element 1 and all others 0. This tactic performs the minimum amount of work needed to determine the element requested, but should be enhanced with memoization if it is expected that many requests will be made to the same inverse_adapter. This can get very complicated very quickly, but in principle allows you to solve problems with little computation actually required but a lot implied at first glance. However, it's all but useless if you're going to take the inverse of the result and store that; you'll at most save yourself a factor of 2 in memory (since inv(A) takes as much memory as A itself). --Tardis 16:17, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Outlook support forum

Can anyone recommend a good one? Light development/advanced end user-focused? Anchoress 00:23, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Need help with ISO images

Hello I recently created an ISO of my CD Diablo. I used alcohol 120 to make the ISO. Then I used Daemon tools to mount the image, but when I try to run the game it says insert CD into disc drive. I've tried registry editing, changing HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Blizzard Entertainment\Archives\DiabloCD to E:\ (the virtual disk drive that the image is mounted on), but it doesn't help. Any tips anyone? Thanks.--0rrAvenger 04:49, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Try getting a no-cd patch? I know we're not allowed to advocate software piracy but I think it's one legitimate use of sites that host hacked exe files, such as game copy world dot com, that site is useless unless you own the media anyway. I buy and play so may games that swapping CDs every time i want to play became a pain years ago. Vespine 04:54, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

That site says "No-CD & Fixed Executables/Images for this game are not available @ GameCopyWorld." But there's plenty of porn ;0.--0rrAvenger 04:59, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

There should certainly be a no-cd patch on www.megagames.com. It is perfectly OK to get a no-cd patch if you own the game. In that way you save on wear-and-tear of your original, which most companies do not replace for free if damaged. Sandman30s 07:41, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Ok... but it won't let me download the one I need (v1.08). I can't believe I have to go through all this trouble just to play this game.. pfft.--0rrAvenger 08:51, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Erm, sorry about that, hope yr not too offended, most sites like that you have to ignore the banners, should have warned you… Umm, the fact that it doesn't have the game might be because it's old:( Sorry, that's about all I could think of. Vespine 05:32, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Did you install the game from the mounted ISO? If not, try that. →Ollie (talk • contribs) 09:01, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Yes.--0rrAvenger 09:02, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Make sure you have the latest version of Daemon Tools, unmount anything in the virtual drive, disable the virtual drive, re-enable it, turn on ll the emulation options (SecurROM especially), and then remount your .iso. If it doesn't autostart, explore the iso (using Windows Explorer), and click the .exe on the .iso. Neil (►) 10:34, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

It seems aparent that your Diablo CD has a software anti-piracy protection - although I didn't know they implemented such a technology around the time of Diablo - although you may have bought a re-release or something. If the virtual drive mounting doesn't work, then i'm afraid you'll have to look into a No CD Key. If you have trouble finding on the net, then try some torrent search engines like torrentspy.com Rfwoolf 12:33, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Try mounting with alcohol 120. I've had this game working from an ISO myself, so it can be done. →Ollie (talk • contribs) 14:20, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Update

I downloaded another copy of Diablo, and it worked! And to be honest, I just killed Diablo 20 mins ago with a Rogue with maxed out stats... haha. Thanks for all your help everyone.--0rrAvenger 08:36, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Unknown File Type

How can you convert or watch an unknown file type?

203.122.76.122 06:35, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

By identifying the type of file it is? Try file (Unix), or if you don't use Unix, try it online at http://www.iconv.com/file.htm —Keenan Pepper 06:59, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

If by "watch" you mean video file, Try AVIcodec (free). It can help you identify what codecs in Windows you need to play an unknown file. -wizzard2k ^(C•T•D) 07:40, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

When I tried the websites none of them worked.

203.122.76.152 07:19, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Explain. What did you expect them to do, and what did they do instead? —Keenan Pepper 06:39, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

I expected http://www.iconv.com/file.htm to identify the unknown file and a new window was popped up and it showed that it couldn't display the webpage. http://avicodec.duby.info/ AVIcodec had corrupted files.

203.88.245.194 06:52, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

HP-UX

please send me info on hp-ux. i want the details of operating system and its file system. it may be in any format.

Have you read HP-UX and VERITAS File System? —Keenan Pepper 06:56, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Mac OS X Screen Scrolling

For some reason, my iMac is acting strangely. It is as if the display area is too big for the screen. When I move the mouse to different parts of the screen, it scrolls, to show areas of the display it couldn't fit in. It's really annoying! The display size is the same, and I can't think what's changed; the entire screen is scrolling depending on the mouse location. Any help would be greatly appreciated! --Fadders 09:49, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Doesn't matter! Worked it out! --Fadders 09:51, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

For other people with this problem, hold control and "scroll out" using the scroll weel on you mouse.

Browser Safe Colors

Hello. Windows has 256 colours in its palette, leaving 40 of them for graphic interface elements. Macintosh has 256 colours, too. In the browser safe colour palette, there are 216 colours in common between the two operating systems. Therefore, Macintosh has 40 colours different from Windows. If that is the case, what are the 40 colours in Macintosh used for? Thanks. --Mayfare 15:35, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

There are various explanations for the missing colors, however the one I believe is most accurate is here. It states that when designing Netscape, Windows 3.x claimed the first and last 10 of the 256, Netscape took 13 for its logo, leaving 223 undithered colors available. 216 Is the nearest perfect cube (see the color cube on that page) below 223. In summary, 216 was chosen as "safest" not necessarily because all the other colors were in use. -wizzard2k ^(C•T•D) 16:53, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

See Web-safe_colors#Web-safe_colors. --antilived^{T | C | G} 05:14, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

LG shine predictive text problem

I have recently purchased an LG shine and when sending a text message i use the predictive text function. Today I added the word "yot" to my dictionary and now whenever i try to type "you" it automatically comes up as "yot" which has become an annoyance!! I tried adding "you" but as it was there and "yot" wasnt when i added it, "yot" still comes up first! Christopher

Showing Someone Their IP Address Inside A Webpage

I once saw someone go to a page in Wikipedia, and it brought up their IP address along with a message that told them not to consider vandalism (they may have attempted to edit a page that had been previously vandalised). Can someone tell me please what the lines of code and the language are to be able to bring up an IP address like this on a page?

Thanks very much, Chris.

82.3.145.0 17:38, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Usually that's done by a simple CGI script. The web server receives that information from the receiving host in the HTTP request. The server then stores that in one of the environment variables, REMOTE_ADDR. You can access this variable with any webpage scripting language (Perl is a common one for CGI, PHP has methods to access it as well, which is what Wikipedia uses). If the webserver supports Server Side Includes, you can simply encode it right into the webpage with some code like this: <!--#echo var="REMOTE_ADDR" -->. You can see more variables here. -wizzard2k ^(C•T•D) 18:01, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

In PHP, it'd be <?PHP echo $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']; ?>. JoshHolloway 18:33, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

It seems like what the anon is asking about is this page: MediaWiki:Anoneditwarning and this special page: Special:Mytalk--VectorPotential^Talk 18:33, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Or not--VectorPotential^Talk 18:44, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

That is genius! I just pasted <!--#echo var="REMOTE_ADDR" --> in and saved my page as shtml and it worked. Thanks very much Wizard person.

Outsourcing

Almost all of us are against Outsourcing. So why can't that outsourcing be completely banned?

I wouldn't say almost all of us, there's a fair amount of people that support outsourcing. It's beneficial to companies and thus the government, and it would be hard to control. To a point, it would make international companies almost impossible. -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 19:22, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Why be against it? I like buying low-cost products & services. So if a company wants to get their stuff done some place where it is cheaper, I say more power to them. --Tugbug 20:28, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Banning outsourcing makes no more sense than banning imports. Was the computer you used to type this question made in the country you're living in, or did you buy it from a company that outsourced its construction? --TotoBaggins 21:22, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Not to mention the components themselves. ASUS is from Taiwan, last I checked, and they're widely considered one of the best companies for computer parts. I'd be surprised if you could find a computer without any parts manufactured in southeast asia -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 22:38, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

To ban outsourcing would require a ban on movement of jobs from one nation to another, any nation that did this would soon notice that international firms will stop setting up jobs in that country as they won't be able to move work/remove roles as freely as they can in other countries. Additionally the movement of labour to that which is 'best value' (i.e. lowest cost without a significant reduction in quality) will always occur, and whilst laws trying to prevent this may happen the key is really in consumer choice. If enough consumers do not like this policy of moving labour to other nations (which is usually in order to remain competive/maintain profits and keep the business profitable) then firms will exist that do not do this and make it publically known. In the uk a firm called Nationwide have all Uk call-centres and etc. etc. and it features prominently in their advertising. Whether or not it leads to an increase in custom i'm not sure, but as a 'consumer choice' it means people banking in the Uk can take that option into consideration. Outsourcing is a perfectly sensible thing in many areas, it helps reduce costs while keeping service, it helps free resource of staff to continue in more complex processes that cannot be offshored, it allows the place with low staff retention to move to areas where staff are more likely to remain in the firm. It can be very valuable for business. Unfortunately the general employed public has not fully got used to the flexible marketplace when it comes to employment. ny156uk 23:06, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Multiple gateways on a network

I've tried to find this out for the last several hours, and I can't figure it out at all. Here's the problem:

I have two gateways (both Cisco 2801), one is a T1 point to point with another network, it's all setup, works fine. The other is a gateway to the internet, regular internet T1. The problem is I can only route packets for each foreign network if my gateway is set to each router. I can only ping the opposite router from my gateway, but nothing past it.

How can I fix this problem? What are my options, especially the least expensive one.

Also, the computers cannot have more than one gateway or any crazy router settings, only the basic settings that most computers support.

Thank you! -Anthonysenn 19:01, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Each machine should have a default route to the the internet T1, and an explicit route to the network on the other link. On unix-like systems you would do something like route add default gw "ip of gateway" for the default route and route add -net "network definition" gw "ip of ptp gateway" Edit: you could also give one of the gateways a route to to the other one. FOr instance add the route to the other network to the internet gateway(or vice versa). Then you wouldn't need the explicit network route on each host. --Diletante 19:10, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Uh, no, I'm pretty sure the route in Linux and Linux alone uses that syntax.

One option is to add the redistribute connected line in the config on your point to point routers. Basically, each router needs to know what network is connected directly to it for the routing protocol to function properly. The Internet gateway needs to know that 0.0.0.0 is connected to it, but it should have a higher metric value than the one you're using on your point to point network. Without seeing the configs I'd have a hard time troubleshooting it, but here's an example of some cisco config lines for a 3 router setup with one internet connection. (changethe 0.0.0.0 route on the first router to 172.16.17.0 255.255.255.0 if that network has its own internet, or doesn't want internet):

p2prouter1 (no local internet connection):
interface Serial0/0
ip address 172.16.16.5 255.255.255.252

interface FastEthernet0/0
ip address 172.16.15.254 255.255.255.0

ip default-gateway 172.16.16.6

ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 Serial0/0 10
ip route 172.16.15.0 255.255.255.0 FastEthernet0/0 5
p2prouter2 (has local internet connection on other router):
interface Serial0/0
ip address 172.16.16.6 255.255.255.252

interface FastEthernet0/0
ip address 172.16.17.253 255.255.255.0

ip default-gateway 172.16.17.254

ip route 172.16.15.0 255.255.255.0 Serial0/0 10
ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 FastEthernet0/0 15
ip route 172.16.17.0 255.255.255.0 FastEthernet0/0 5
gateway router:
interface Serial0/0:
ip address AAA.BBB.CCC.DDD FFF.FFF.FFF.GGG
ip nat outside

interface FastEthernet0/0:
ip address 172.16.17.254 255.255.255.0
ip nat inside

ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 Serial0/0 20
ip route 172.16.17.0 255.255.255.0 FastEthernet0/0 5

ip nat inside source list 1 interface Serial0/0 overload
access-list 1 permit 172.16.0.0 0.0.255.255
-wizzard2k ^(C•T•D) 20:34, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

My point in the above example was that if the routers know what's going on, the computer's don't have to. Obviously you'd probably need to adjust the ip addresses to fit, and you probably do not need to change the far side p2p router, it was just shown for completeness. -wizzard2k ^(C•T•D) 20:39, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

---

I figured out a solution; temporarily i set it up to re-route everything that needs to go to the Point-to-Point gateway from my internet gateway back to the other gateway. I'm going to settle with a Cisco 1811 to have my local network route between the two others, it's the cheapest one i could find with two wan ports. Thanks for the help you guys -Anthonysenn

Press a key vs. press any key

Why couldn't the confusion intermittently caused by keyboards' lack of an "any key" be solved by changing the prompt to "Press a key to continue," given that a keyboard does have an A key? NeonMerlin 23:04, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Because it could be seen to imply that there was a particular (unspecified) key that should be pressed, or that different keys would have different effects? Just a guess. --Tardis 23:31, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Well they did change it to a specific key - "Press the enter key to continue". And the enter/return key is much bigger than the "a" key, even on the old computers. JoshHolloway 00:04, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Also, there is no documentation that I've ever seen of anyone actually hunting for an "any key" on the keyboard. Sure, Homer Simpson had trouble. Other comic strip characters have had trouble. A few idiots in movies. But, what about a real computer user? All we have is an urban legend that it may have happened at some point. It is more likely that a couple geeks looked at the prompt and said it would be funny if some dumb person couldn't find the any key. Then, the joke grew into one of those "I know a guy he knew a guy who knew someone who couldn't find the any key." --Kainaw ^(talk) 00:12, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Alternatively we could just add an "any" key. --24.147.86.187 00:15, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

June 1

Itunes account?

Is there any way to create an itunes account without entering a credit card number? Or any way to purchas music on itunes without signing in?

SpeakoutLOUD 00:57, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

If you are a hacker, I think. AW 02:41, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

If you want to buy music from iTunes Store you dont need to give a credit card you can go get a gift card at Best Buy or Compusa or by using a Coinstar..then you creat an acount using the card ...--Nerdd 22:58, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

I also wanted to know this (mainly for the fact that iTunes will automatically download album covers for your music if you have an account), however I tried signing up to no avail. It doesn't look like it is possible, sorry. --RazorICE 23:12, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

Is this reliable?

Recently I have found a very amazing free web hosting http://www.4444mb.com/ These are what they provide for a FREE account:

   *  4444 MB (4 GB) of web hosting space
   * 14444 MB (14 GB) of data transfers
   * NO ADVERTISEMENTS (only a backlink)
   * 1 domain name support (www.yourdomain.com)
   * Free subdomain (username.4444mb.com)
   * 4 MySQL Databases
   * MySQL 4 supported with PHPMyAdmin
   * PHP 5 supported
   * FTP supported
   * Powerful web-based control panel
   * Free One-Click script installs
   * Free detailed web statistics (Awstats)
   * Instant activation
   * 99.98% Server Uptime
   * Powerful Dedicated Server
   * 24/7 live technical support
   * and much more...

It's a bit unbelievable. Have anyone of you heard about this address and can you give me advice to trust this site or not? AW 02:45, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Well, why not? You are not supposed to fill 4GB in a day, in fact, you are not likely put more than 100mb content. If you do, they will realize you are using their facilities for piracy or something else. The TOS indicates that you need to show ads, that they will be able to do with the images you upload anything they want to promote their service, and some other common stuff. I would be wary because, apparently, they are new (whois indicates the domain was created on January 15, 2007). -- ReyBrujo 03:14, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Actually, forget that. Check this, the error page states Free subdomain (username.8888mb.com). 4444mb.com resolves to s198.softwarelibre.nl, not what I would expect from a big server. And I get many timeouts trying to access the page. In fact, some reviews point that the service is below average (of course, it is good for free, but you would like something better for, say, setting something other than your personal page). -- ReyBrujo 03:19, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

And the site does not have a privacy policy. So, sign up with a spam-only email. -- ReyBrujo 03:25, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

If you care about someone caring if your site stays up, if you data isn't lost, if things actually work, then you're going to want to purchase a site. If you don't really care about that, and don't care if the site is inaccessible or vanishes tomorrow, then by all means, sign up with a free one. Note that the second your site does anything which could potentially jeapordize their plan (i.e. actually starts pulling 10 GB of data transfers a month) don't be surprised if it mysteriously violates some TOS and is shut down... (I don't know anything about this specific site, but this is basically what happens in other similar sites) --24.147.86.187 09:39, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

I'd recommend against. You get what you pay for, and the reviews are bad. Base *everything* on the reviews, in my opinion and experience (having leased many servers and hosting accounts). JoshHolloway 09:51, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Identify and play

How can you identify an unknown video file and what program can you use to play it? Dudforreal 07:27, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

You need to download codecs for them, or they might not be a video file at all. Personally, I use Totem, although i've heard a lot of people don't like it very much. -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 08:34, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

I use Media Player Classic which supports just about everything. The codecs, once installed, can then be "used" on other things, so I can now play originally non-supported files on Windows Media Player JoshHolloway 09:49, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

VLC Player plays just about everything. --69.144.232.61 06:48, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

OFFICE

WHAT ARE THE COMPONENTS OF AN oFFICE?

Paper. A guy who makes bad jokes that no one likes. Red staplers. Paperclips. A boss. Casual Friday.

Most "office" packages include some combination of the following:

• A word processor such as Microsoft Word or Apple's Pages
• A spreadsheet such as Excel or AppleWorks' "Spreadhseet"
• A presentation system such as Microsoft PowerPoint or Apple's Keynote
• A vector-graphics drawing system such as AppleWork's "Draw" (or PowerPoint as an ad-hoc stand-in)
• A raster-graphics (pixel graphics) editing system such as Microsoft or AppleWork's "Paint"
• A database such as Microsoft Access or AppleWork's "Database"

Atlant 12:34, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

See office suite --h2g2bob (talk) 17:03, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

SVG and javascript?

I'm trying to make a simple projectile animation (no air friction) for illustration for a simple physics site and got that working but now I want to have a form to control the angle and amount of force. However, the javascript is inside the SVG and I don't think I can easily pass an variable like that but the whole thing just doesn't work if I put the javascript in the HTML instead of SVG. Here is a successful example but even if I just copied the code and run it locally it still doesn't work. Can anyone help? Also, can anyone tell me what is the "evt" variable in the examples in [8] (the basis of my animation) and where does it come from? --antilived^{T | C | G} 12:49, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Have you tried something like document.getElementByID("MySVG").document.angle=10; (just a wild guess, I'm a bit rusty and not sure how a SVG object fit into the DOM). Another option is to encode the value in a querrystring and have the script in the SVG pick it up in it's onload event handler. I would guess the evt variable in the example is a event object, usualy obtained from onClick(), onLoad() and things like that. --Sherool (talk) 13:12, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

I played with it and got it to work: User:TotoBaggins/cannonball. I wish wikipedia allowed animations like this in articles. --TotoBaggins 17:26, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Hmmm is my Firefox weird or what, first it complains about the CDATA tags, then saying ball is not defined in other functions (seems like scope problem, even though it's declared it outside of the function), so I tried passing the ball variable to all the functions (start_animation(), advance()) and now it complains about evt not set, the very same problem I've encountered when I tried moving the javascript back into the HTML... Here is my modified code. --antilived^{T | C | G} 22:26, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Hmm. The code I posted works for me both on an ancient Firefox, and on version 2.0.0.3, both on Linux. I'm using Firefox's native SVG handling, not the Adobe plugin. --TotoBaggins 22:34, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

I'm using Firefox 2.0.0.3 on Ubuntu, and Firebug now just keep complaining evt not defined... --antilived^{T | C | G} 00:56, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

Ok I've found out where problem is: MIME type. I have to change the extension to .xhtml for inline SVG to work... --antilived^{T | C | G} 04:22, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

Hooking up internet

Hi I have verizon DSL and a PS3 and a Wii and two PCS that are about 4 years old each. I only have internet on one PC right now but want to have it on all 4 machines. I also dont have much money. Please help.

Get a cheap Linksys router. They normally have 4 ports (one for your PS3, one for your Wii, and one for each PC). A used one will cost less than a game for the PS3 or the Wii. --Kainaw ^(talk) 14:00, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Or, sell your PS3 and get an xbox 360. Then, you'll have an extra few hundred dollars to buy a good router! JoshHolloway 14:21, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Best. Advice. Ever. 213.48.15.234 15:03, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

I don't think he mentioned getting rid of his PS3 as part of the plan, and besides...he already said he has older 2 PC'S what would another PC in a smaller box do? xD (to answer...get a cheap linksys or even netgear router, one time i purchased a linksys for $USD 40 and got a rebate for $30 so it was basically $10....)200.12.231.42 16:27, 1 June 2007 (UTC) Ag for MemTech

Music Service?

Can anyone recommend an online music store where you can purchase music and create an account w/o a credit card (No P2P please)? It also needs to have readily avalilable gift cards available in Canada.

Thanks,

SpeakoutLOUD 15:38, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

iTunes Music Store sells gift cards in my local supermarket (in the UK) --h2g2bob (talk) 17:00, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

iTunes Music Store sells the gift cards in canada at Future Shop..they should be located by the mp3 players and/or by the prepaid cell card rack.--67.68.25.118 22:47, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, but iTunes still requires you to create an account with a credit/debit card number asociated with it before you can redeem the gift card. The gift card's value is then added to your account's store credit, and as long as you don't exceed the store credit, you won't be charged by your credit card. If you don't have a credit or debit card, talk to your bank about a debit card and/or a checking account. — Kjammer  ⌂ 05:54, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

Relative paths in HTML URIs

Hello. I am writing a set of tools and utilities which run on a web-based server. One of my tasks is to generate an HTML document with links to non-HTML documents. Typically, if an HTML link is written as <a href='somefile.html'>, the user's client will automatically prepend the protocol (http://), the server name (example.com), and the current path (some/directory/). The result is a full, complete URI, such as "http://example.com/some/directory/somefile.html" ... Because of my specific needs, I cannot use http protocol. Supposing I want to switch protocols (to ftp://, for example), is it possible to still have the user agent auto-complete the server name and current path? Nimur 15:46, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Clarification - I want to be able to put <a href='ftp://somefile.html'> (or some variation thereof that actually works), but still use the automatic prepending of server name and base path. I want to avoid hard-coding the server and base-path. Nimur 15:47, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

You can't in HTML. You can do it in javascript, or if you're scripting pages in PHP, etc. --h2g2bob (talk) 16:58, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

That seems to be my unfortunate conclusion as well. I will determine an alternative workaround in a scripting environment. Thanks, Nimur 17:05, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Help with PHP or AJAX, preloading pages?

one time when i was browsing a page powered by the CMS DataLife Engine...i saw that when i clicked on a link it had this mini webpage show up...i mean mini because the old one was there..but like faded like if they changed the alpha to 30% or so..and then this webpage about 250x200 px came up in the center (no frames or pop ups)...with a loading screen on it. it had this loading bar in it as well....and would fade out once the next page finished loading..i liked it because you did not see a blank screen for a milisecond...to reload a whole page..it just showed the loading screen while the background is like i said faded...is this a PHP function, AJAX feature, or just DateLife Engine only feature? (the webpage i saw it on is down now..so i cant show an example xD sorry) 200.12.231.42 16:53, 1 June 2007 (UTC) Ag for MemTech

There are many ways to do it. Here's what I would do...

1. Load a div positions over the whole page with width 100% and height 100% and with the background consisting of a 4 pixel gif that has 2 white (or gray) pixels and 2 transparent ones. That will make the page appear to be faded out.
2. Create an borderless iframe and put it in the middle of the page (above the previous div)
3. Set the source of the iframe to whatever page you like.

From there, you can do a lot of things. You can resize the iframe to the whole screen and make it appear that the old page is gone. If you are nice, you will delete the content of the old page. And no - it is not PHP. PHP is server side. This is client side. --Kainaw ^(talk) 16:36, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

4-pixel gif!? Modern browsers support alpha in CSS :) Firefox uses -moz-opacity, IE uses opacity (I think), and it should be coming through w3c to css3 at some point. --h2g2bob (talk) 16:45, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

thx for the quick reply...but the prob is...i think it was hard coded into their (PHP possibly...i keep saying this cuz im still learning it xD ) code when someone clicked on a link...cuz i mean..what you said..requires i manually do this to all my pages...i work with Wordpress at this moment..and would like to know how to hard code it...so that every link they click on..does this...thx again 200.12.231.42 16:53, 1 June 2007 (UTC) Ag for MemTech

Lightbox (JavaScript) does the transparency business using css and javascript. Just add the links to the appropriate files in whichever wordpress file produces the header. Only for images though. →Ollie (talk • contribs) 17:00, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Thanks i think we're on the right track...Modal windows is most likely what i saw...but i need something that is for overall links not just images...lightbox is nice tho...i think ill use it on my images..thx 200.12.231.42 17:22, 1 June 2007 (UTC) Ag for MemTech

Mercenaries on PS3

When I played my PS2 Mercenaries on my PS3 the audio would sometimes skip when people said stuff. I haven't had problems with any other games. Is this something with Mercenaries or is it probably the disk.

Where are you in the world? It might be emulation issues if you're in Europe or Australia - Sony removed native PS2 support for those regions so its all software emulation which is never perfect. If it is generally the same parts of speech which are skipped, then it may be a disk issue. But if it's seemingly random, it sounds more like emulation problems. - ^Рэд_хот^{(t • c • e)} 22:10, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Wii games w/ internet

What Wii games have or will have internet play?

List of Wii Wi-Fi Connection games -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 18:24, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Inkscape PostScript import

Can anyone advise me how to intall the necessary files listed here for Inkscape PS import support. I'm running Windows Vista and have Inkscape 0.45.1 installed, and was wondering if anyone knows how to install them correctly so that Inkscape will recognise them, or somewhere that explains it? Thanks. - ^Рэд_хот^{(t • c • e)} 22:01, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

It says you need pstoedit, which can be had here, and skconvert, which seems to not exist for Windows. It looks like it only runs on Unix-y systems like MacOS and Linux. If you only need to use this occasionally, you could use a Linux Live CD, which doesn't require a hard-drive installation. --TotoBaggins 22:42, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for that about skconvert. I actually have Fedora installed already (I just primarily use Windows) but does anyone know if Inkscape has to be configured in a special way after you install them, or will it detect them itself? - ^Рэд_хот^{(t • c • e)} 23:18, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Internet Explorer

I recently lost an IE session (comprising three windows of about ten tabs each) when my computer froze and I was forced to restart it (with the power button). Although IE does not (to my knowledge) have a session recovery function (I've just installed a session recovery add-on...a bit too late), which is why I almost always use Firefox, I've never had a problem simply using my history to rebuild a session by hand, but the history of any windows I'd opened during the twelve-plus hours of the ulimately frozen session appears altogether gone (as if the restarting made IE forget it had been open at all). I sometimes use the standalone IE History View program, which harvests information from the history index file, but it, of course, has nothing logged. Has anyone any idea as to what I might do? Thanks in advance, Emily 23:08, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

I don't think you can do much if the websites themselves are not recorded in histories. --antilived^{T | C | G} 01:05, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

You could try looking at the browser's cache, which has a better chance of having been saved correctly. You can either look at the files (IIRC, MSIE uses more descriptive names for the files on its cache) or find some program to extract the URLs from its index. --cesarb 01:50, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

I can advocate Opera again! Opera comes natively to auto-save your sessions, so even if your computer crashes, the next time you open Opera, it'll ask if you want the previous session. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 18:51, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

...so does Firefox! In fact it's so keen that it thinks you've crashed when you turn your computer off without closing it first and will offer to recover on your next boot. --antilived^{T | C | G} 23:02, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure that when your computer closes down programs when you shut down, it takes a longer time than you closing them. So, when I want to recover in firefox upon turning on my computer again, before I shut down, I open task manager, go to firefox, and hit end program. Then the normal firefox confirmation comes on asking if I want to close all tabs. I just hit end program again (I ignore the notice. just leave it there, it will go away). Then a windows notice comes up. Just hit the end button. It will save your computer some time if you can do this fast. --R ^ParlateContribs_@ (Let's Go Yankees!) 23:14, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

You're saving time there by not allowing Firefox to save your profile data and such; you're not even allowing it to finish writing a particular file if it's already started! You can easily botch things doing this, so I feel compelled to disrecommend it. See also SIGKILL, although this is the Unix equivalent. --Tardis 17:35, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

June 2

Anonymous Wikipedians

Hello. Just out of curiosity, how do some Wikipedia users who ask questions remain anonymous? There were a couple of questions asked on May 27, 2007 without names and there may be more on later dates. There was even a case where a Wikipedia user typed their name and UTC time. The name was not linked to their user page if he or she had one. Am I allowed to do so?--Mayfare 00:57, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

It is normally due to ignorance, not mischief of any kind. It is apparently very very difficult for most people to hit the ~ key four times. --Kainaw ^(talk) 01:05, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

(edit conflict) They didn't sign their name with four tidles (~~~~), as you did (and as I am about to). Usually, a bot will edit this to add it ("unsigned comment by <IPADDRESS>" or whatever), but if someone edits that section before the bot realises then it won't add their sig. Technically it's not "allowed", but you're not going to get banned for it either. It's just helpful when people remember to sign their comments! The person who typed their time and username obviously didn't know about the four tidles, and possibly should be alerted to them (leave a message on their talk page!) JoshHolloway 01:08, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

See WP:SIG. As a practice, you should always sign your talk page comments with four tildes. You can also sign just your name with three, or just the time with five, although uses for this are few and far between. Your sig should always contain at least a link to your user page or user_talk page. -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 03:14, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

There are many new users here, and while you always should sign your comments, if they forget it doesn't really matter. Also, I would like to add that it is perfectly fine not to identify yourself at all anywhere on wikipedia, it is perfectly allowed to remain anonymous for as long as you wish. --Oskar 06:54, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

To clarify: I don't mean that you don't have to sign your comments (outside of the "newbie"-zones you have to do that), I meant that you don't need to create a username or identity. --Oskar 06:56, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

Although in reality a username offers you far more privacy/anonimity than editing as an IP. -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 07:36, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

CLassic support

I have a OS9 disc, but I cant run a clean install, nothing comes up except the mac OSX screen (yes, I am pressing down C), I have 10.4.9 Any suggestions? I dont have any other discs, they were lost

You can't install OS 9 natively on an Intel Mac, so make sure you're not trying to do that.

Oddly enough, I can't install PPC linux on my iMac, even though other people with the same model have had the same OS work =/ keeps coming up with that red screen with a questionmark folder on it. I'm thinking it has something to do with the previous owner putting pirated panther on it, but it's annoying, since I'd rather not run illegal software =/ Especially since I still have a bit of respect for Apple. -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 04:00, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

I have a powerbook G4 I inherited from my sister, but she didnt leave me with any software. I have searched the internet, but my results are unsure. Any more suggestions? Thank you very much

Why do you want to install OS9 when you have OSX? --antilived^{T | C | G} 23:01, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

That doesn't really answer the question, does it?

Well but the question is like "I can go to work in my car but I want to build a tunnel. How do I do that?". Unless you have specific needs, there is no point in installing OS 9 when you have OS X; and what do you mean by "didn't leave me with any software"? No OS X? Or what? --antilived^{T | C | G} 05:54, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

I don't want to put words in the OP's mouth, but the OP may not like OS X or wish to use OS X. The question is like "I can achieve Y, but I want to achieve X. How do I achieve X?". To say "Why don't you just do Y" is rather irrelevant and unhelpful. Yes, OS X may be better than OS 9, but that's beside the point.

Note that not all G4 models can boot OS 9. They can only run it in Classic mode. There are instructions on Apple's site for installing classic on such machines. -- Kesh 06:03, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

Java applets and browser refresh

I have a fairly big Java applet (30mb+) embedded in a page (using <Applet> tag). Everything works well in the first invocation of the page. However, when the user refreshes the page, causing the applet to reload, some of the memory that "old" instance of the applet used isn't freed, including the my JApplet instance and ResourceBundle instances. After a few refreshes I get to a point where the JVM throws OutOfMemory errors (heap). Is there any way of making the JVM restart / not act in such an annoying manner?

Destroy the previous stuff? --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 18:46, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

Where can I go to make a formal complaint about a specific website?

By that, I mean one that's obviously a serious violation of federal law. FBI site isn't helpful.

And no, I don't mean a ROM/warez site so don't point me to that.

If it's based in the UK, you can look at the Internet Watch Foundation which links with national authorities. It has a link to an "international foundation" which is NCMEC but that is just for missing children - nothing to do with websites. Strange! In short: I can't find one for America, but if you report it to the IWF they may pass it on. JoshHolloway 13:44, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

Josh seems to have forgotten the Virtual Global Taskforce. Their members include Australian, British, American, and Canadian authorities, as well as Interpol, so they'd probably be your best bet. Unfortunately, they're geared more towards child porn than anything else. Linky --saxsux 15:30, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

I've never heard of that. "Learn something new every day" as they say. Yay! JoshHolloway 17:15, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

You might like to report it to the police in the same way you would report any crime. If the website isn't based in your country, it will very probably be outside your jurisdiction. --h2g2bob (talk) 22:32, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

RCT3

I have recently installed rollercoaster tycoon 3 on my computer with windows vista and i have all the necessary specs but when i try to play it says "Microsoft Visual c++ Runtime Library error, Abnormal program termination. I've tryed running it in administrator mode and compatability mode but it doesn't want to work. There have been loads of problems with the game as a whole, this is my problem. I have asked at the reference desk before but no one seems to be able to help me.Wiki.user 16:47, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

Any additional information that came with the abnormal program termination? Splintercellguy 16:56, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

Unfortunately, it seems to be a very generic error message. What is your operating system? I found [9] but one of the replies seems to only apply to Windows XP SP2. x42bn6 Talk Mess 17:04, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

There is not much else it says, the only other thing it has in the message is a directory to the .exe file. Please Help!!Wiki.user 17:04, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

I have got Windows VistaWiki.user 17:25, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

Can someone help me. I had problems on my old computer. Wiki.user 17:47, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

Er, do you have 64bit Vista? RCT3 can run in 32bit Vista but not 64bit. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 18:43, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

I have 32bit Vista Wiki.user 18:50, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

According to our own article, it says that, "There is no fix for this problem (including patches)." (RollerCoaster Tycoon 3#Criticism). Other than being oddly out of place, this sounds disconcerting. I would try patching the game anyway. The patch is available on this page: http://www.uk.atari.com/index.php?pg=product&id=81. x42bn6 Talk Mess 22:47, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

Java virtual machine

I'm totally new to this, so this question might seem ignorant. When trying to install my HP printer with a disk, I keep getting the following error message: Unable to start the application - the Java Virtual Machine cannot be loaded. Class not registered. What does this mean and what can I do about it? I'm really computer-stupid, so plain English, please!!!Proverbs31 wife 16:53, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

Try installing the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) from Sun Microsystems. Download is here. --h2g2bob (talk) 22:13, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

Do Communists like socialists?

Do Communists like socialists?

Mu Algebraist 21:10, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

More helpfully, check out communism and socialism. And be aware that both terms are used for a huge range of people with a huge range of different ideas, some of whom like each other and some of whom do not. Also, this isn't really one for computing: try the Humanities desk. (and if communist and socialist have obscure computer-related meanings of which I am not aware, please ignore) Algebraist 21:13, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

• Maybe its a question regarding Sid Meier's Civilization (computer game)? -wizzard2k ^(C•T•D) 21:57, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

I don't think there was a distinction between communists and socialists until the fourth version - and even that blurs the distinction with a revised socio-economic government mix and match feature. Nimur 01:40, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

No Office Vista

Why is Microsoft Office 2007 not called Office Vista? NeonMerlin 18:57, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

This is mainly because office 2007 can be used on multiple operating systems apart from vista. Also office 2007 is a completely different application to vista. Another reason is that previous office versions are not named with windows operating systems and are sometimes released at different times to a operating system release.Wiki.user 19:24, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

Well, there was "Office XP" ([10]). --LarryMac | Talk 22:06, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

Large corporations make careful decisions about how to apply brand identity to maximize sales and benefit their good reputation. For one reason or another, some high-ranking strategist at Microsoft decided that Office and Windows should be distinctly branded. A possible motive ^{(SPECULATION!)} is to capture mutually exclusive markets (people who want to upgrade to Office 2007 but not Vista, and vice-versa) without alienating them. This branding decision can be made independently of the technical details of the software (such as compatibility or development). Nimur 01:36, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

Office XP was a separate application that was a mixture of things. The question was remember why office 2007 was not vista not refering to other programs.Wiki.user 10:29, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

June 3

Reformat?

Hi, I need help fixing my older laptop. It currently has two partitions, each running a Windows OS and each is completely screwed up; wont load, freezes, all kinds of messed up basically. There's no data on it I need to save and I want to just start over: no partitions and reload Windows from disk. So, how can I do this? Thanks -- 24.19.234.96 00:43, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

You should make sure you have a copy of your operating system installation disk before you reformat. Once you have this, reboot the system with the OS installation disk in the drive. Most of the process is user-friendly and will be guided through on-screen instructions, but if you have never done this before, you may want to get technical assistance from somebody experienced. Nimur 01:38, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

Followup. The disc drive on the laptop is broken. I have an external usb drive. Is there a way to boot from this external drive? The current OS's are so screwed up I cant even get the computer to recognize the new drive with the disc I want to boot from in it. Someway to get the computer to recognize the new drive on boot so I can reload from it? I'm starting to feel a strong desire to smash the laptop so any help would be appreciated. Oh, I can load up task manager and use it to run commands like msconfig, if that helps, but the cpu is running at 100% and everything is slow as hell at best. 24.18.215.108 02:46, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

Check if the laptop's BIOS allows booting from your USB drive. You could also try a bootable USB flash drive. If both fail, you could also try removing the CD/DVD drive from your laptop and borrowing a working one from a friend (on all laptops I've seen, it's not only removable, but it also seems to follow some standard; see [11] for instance). --cesarb 15:26, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

Xbox 360 and Gaming Adapters

I've just got an Xbox 360 and I want to wireless but I'm not so keen on spending the £50-60 that I'm going to get charged for the official network adapter. I just want to verify though that most gaming adapters (that is, wireless adapters which don't require the installation of drivers) will work with the 360. --Kiltman67 02:58, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

This should be the case. Splintercellguy 06:47, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

should be true, but be aware that while the original Xbox was essentially an off the shelf PC, down to the pentium 3/celeron processor, tweaked geforce 2 and modified NT kernel, the 360 is an actual custom-built console, including a PowerPC chip (based upon the same chip marketed as the G5 earlier by Apple), so anything designed for the previous generation may have some issues to say the least with the 360. -M^ask? 07:53, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

Most Wireless Game Adapters are essentially a wireless access point. They have a wired Ethernet connection to any game console (or anything with an Ethernet connection), and a wireless connection to a home network. -wizzard2k ^(C•T•D) 15:40, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

Javascript and SVG object creation

This is a follow-up of previous question and the animation now works pretty well now. However in the original animation new circle objects are created as the cannon ball flies to better illustrate its path. I cannot get it, or any object-creation for that matter (compare this and my converted version) to work when I put the code inside the XHTML file instead of the SVG with inline SVG. Can anyone help? --antilived^{T | C | G} 10:52, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

Digital Camera

Hello. I am planning to buy a digital camera. What other materials and software are needed (e.g. memory card, printer specialized in printing photos, etc.)? Thanks. --Mayfare 17:06, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

Some cameras come with storage space included, but it's never much: you'll need some kind of memory card. Look up the camera you want to buy and see what kind of cards it takes (SD, XD, MemorystickDuo, CF, etc) and buy one - they're not too expensive. If you want to access the photos you took without using the camera, you can use a card reader to copy what's on the memory card to your PC. 202.10.86.63 17:14, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

You don't need a card reader. If you have one, thats great (I do and I like it). If you don't use the USB cable that usually comes with the camera to connect it to your PC. It works just as good, but requires you to carry around another thing. --R ^ParlateContribs_@ (Let's Go Yankees!) 17:20, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

I'd suggest downloading the free app Picasa, too. Especially for it's one-click retouching. Down M. 17:25, 3 June 2007 (UTC)