Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing

October 11

C Code: Sorting list of pointers

Hello, I am trying to use qsort to sort a list of pointers. My trouble is in the compare function. The compare function is passed pointers to items in the list, which are pointers to the structure. But when I run this data pb1 in the compare function seems to point to rubbish and causes the program to crash. Thanks for any help!

typedef struct
{
	int val;
} MyS;

int compare( const void *arg1, const void *arg2 );

void main2(void)
{
	int i;
	MyS **List;
	List = malloc(sizeof(MyS *) * 10);
	for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)
	{
		List[i] = malloc(sizeof(MyS));
		List[i]->val = i;
	}
	
	qsort(List,10,sizeof(MyS *),compare);
}
		
int compare( const void *arg1, const void *arg2 )
{
	MyS **b1;
	MyS **b2;
	MyS *pb1;
	MyS *pb2;
	b1 = (MyS **) arg1;
	b2 = (MyS **) arg2;

	pb1 = *b1;
	pb2 = *b2;

	return ((pb2->val) - (pb1->val));
}

Never mind, I found the mistake, the compare function should be:

int compare( const void *arg1, const void *arg2 )
{
	MyS **b1;
	MyS **b2;

        b1 = (MyS **) arg1;
	b2 = (MyS **) arg2;

	return ((**b1).val - (**b2).val);
}

----Dacium 00:21, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

But that's the same. --Spoon! 02:23, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Which is why I still dont see where the mistake is!--Dacium 05:28, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

What mistake? The version you have now is correct. Add a <stdlib.h> include, change void main2 to int main, and it's a complete program that actually works. --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 05:51, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

There is a difference - the new version of the compare function says b1-b2, the old version had b2-b1 - so the order of the sorting has been reversed. It's nothing to do with all of that in-between assigning of pointers and such. Something really simple like this should work just fine:

int compare( const void *arg1, const void *arg2 )
{
	return (*(const MyS**)arg1)->val - (*(const MyS**)arg2)->val ;
}

(This should also get rid of a couple of compiler warnings about casting away 'const') SteveBaker 14:16, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

I think you meant MyS *const *. The way you have it is still casting away const from the first layer pointer target (and adding const to the second layer). But if we're gonna critique style, I'd do it like this:

int compare( const void *arg1, const void *arg2 )
{
        MyS *const *p1=arg1;
        MyS *const *p2=arg2;
	return (*p1)->val - (*p2)->val ;
}

Taking advantage of the implicit conversion from void *, there is no need for casts at all. And beware of using a simple subtraction as comparison, when the numbers get big enough it'll overflow and give the wrong answer. It would be more future-proof to return (*p1)->val > (*p2)->val ? 1 : (*p1)->val < (*p2)->val ? -1 : 0 --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 01:46, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Why does Firefox take so bloody long to start downloading things?

I'll open up a few tabs with images, for example, right click, and hit save image as. Then I'll have to wait 7-10 seconds for the download window to pop up, because it's so slow. I don't have any spyware/adware on my machine, and I have 2GB RAM. Is this just more of the same "let's eat tons of memory!" from Firefox, or can this be fixed with some nifty gadget? -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 01:27, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Works perfectly for me. And firefox eats so much memory because it's caching things- not to mention the massively memory-expensive "instant back" feature that lets you hit back/forward and see the site already downloaded and rendered. This can be fully tweaked in about:config--froth^t 04:36, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

I have seen bad save times when 1 - a network drive is broken, or 2 there are thousands of files in the directory to save to. Graeme Bartlett 05:44, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

I use Firefox at home under Linux and at work under msWindows. Under msWindows it's much slower, but then everything is, because it does all sorts of downloads and installs. Once those are over, it works just as fast. Might that be it? DirkvdM 06:00, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

I know what you mean. I have the same problem. I don't know why this is, but it can be partially remedied by by cleaning your download history (the 'clean up' button on the downloads window). That helps a little bit. I do hope they've managed to fix this for firefox 3.0. risk 12:50, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

phd topic

I am searching for a research topic for a phd program. and I prefer it to be in the domain of database and networking —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.78.64.100 (talk) 01:36, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

This is something you need to talk about with your dissertation advisor. There's no way for us to know what they would consider a good topic. --24.147.86.187 12:58, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Have a look at MonetDB. It's an open source research oriented database system. They're always trying to get students to combine development with a research program. I'm sure they'd be more than happy to offer suggestions.

risk 23:43, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Lance Fortnow has a piece of [good advice] on the topic of choosing a problem to work on. 84.239.133.38 11:53, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

MP3 to WMA

Could someone do me a favour and encode this, a short mp3 to wma. I don't want to get a program for a 2 second clip. TYVM!

If you don't want to download a program, you could use an online service like Zamzar which converts MP3s to WMA. You may wish to use a disposable email address for this site to avoid receiving unwanted email. --Kateshortforbob 12:54, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Bitrates when ripping from CD

If I have a track that is encoded at 128kbps, but my programme is instructed to rip at 320 - where does the extra information come from? I appreciate that the track isn't going to magically get any better, but is the extra space simply empty? Is there any difference in quality (bad or good)? Thanks. 195.60.20.81 08:17, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

The track will be the same quality if ripped at 320kbps, as you said. It may have less read errors than if it were ripped at 128, but there would be not noticeable difference. As for where the extra space comes from, it is probably repeats of the bits in the data stream; like having several CDs playing with the same song on them at the same time - you still hear the song but you've doubled the space requirements. Think outside the box 12:34, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Any conversion between lossy file formats will only degrade the quality, and any output cannot be better than its input. If you chose VBR for the encoder, I think it would be clever enough to only use enough bits to encode the already compressed music, and the resulting file will only be slightly bigger than the original. --antilived^{T | C | G} 04:49, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

EMail ID - 3rd post

Please give me theEMial Id OF Tiffany Taylor.Dont make me more mad.Try to understand me.Pleaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaase.This isthe third time I am asking.09:51, 11 October 2007 (UTC)Hedonister —Preceding unsigned comment added by 218.248.2.51 (talk • contribs) 09:51, 11 October 2007

We don't normally have any idea what the email address of an article subject is. Other editors have already responded to your question; please don't keep asking it. EdJohnston 10:00, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Hedonister- most famous people just don't want to receive emails (or other direct communications) from people they don't know. This is expecially true of female models, actresses, and porn-stars, who have every genuine reason to worry about weirdos and stalkers. So the contacts they publicise (mailing addresses, phone numbers, or email addresses) are for management companies who screen out the weird stuff, respond to most queries themselves (requests for photos etc.), and only forward on a very limited amount of stuff (if any). So the only legitimate way to contact Ms. Taylor is through either her modelling agent or through Playboy. If you did manage to, by some means, get hold of her personal email address she'd a) change it, b) she'd be frightened that her privacy had been violated, and c) she'd quite possibly call the cops. -- PrettyDirtyThing 12:06, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

And honestly I see no reason why she'd want to talk to you in particular. You love her? Right. Join the club of people who "love" celebrities that they know almost nothing about as people. Even people in prison get dozens of love letters. I'm not sure why you think she'd want your letters, or mine, or anyone else on here—I'm not trying to be particularly harsh here, but that's just how celebrity works. --24.147.86.187 13:00, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Forget it. Celebrities are putting on an image whenever you see them - they are totally different people when meet them for real. Besides she is NEVER going to reply to any message you send her - at best you'll get a canned reply from a publicist. Honestly, this is ridiculous - get to know some real people - they are much more interesting anyway. But either way, stop asking the reference desk. We already gave you the only answer we can - and (as predicted) it didn't work. You're done. Get over it. SteveBaker 13:52, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

"Creepiest Troll"

• Congratulations, 218.248.2.51/Hedonister! For your obsession with some random porn star, your inability to take the normal social cues that we don't know her email address even if that makes you "more mad", your questionable posting history, and your signing this post on the topic of "can i fuck you?" as "RAPIST", I hereby award you this barnstar for being among the creepiest trolls that Wikipedia has to offer. You've earned it! --Sean 14:15, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

You have to contact Playboy. Tell them why you want to meet her and discuss everything through. If they agree they'll put you in touch with her modelling agent and you can schedule a meeting with her. It is going to cost you in the order of thousands to tens of thousands of dollars, and will probably take a long time, because both Taylor and her agent are probably very busy people. If you are looking forward to a personal relationship with Taylor, forget it. Professional meetings are the only thing you can even hope for. JIP | Talk 16:31, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

I know Tiffany! Her email address is email removed. She's a big Rage Against the Machine fan... Zach de la Rocha.. roach, get it... anyways, she's a really down to Earth chick, and she always does her best to respond to fan mail. Good luck! Beekone 20:27, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Moreover, even if we did know her email address, we wouldn't be able to divulge it, per Wikimedia's privacy policy. Sorry. --slakr^\ talk / 23:11, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Dweller's thread of the week. It's an 'out of the box' idea.

Congratulations to all contributing here. This trolltastic debate wins the eighth User:Dweller/Dweller's Ref Desk thread of the week award. Good job. --Dweller 13:00, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Wireless connection: Offline even when online

My Wi-Fi connection is showing "offline" even now - when I'm online! Why is this, what can I do to sort it? It only started yesterday. In "available wireless networks", it shows mine and has the graph of how strong the signal is, but still says 'not connected', though the button at the bottoms does say 'disconnect'. There have been no new installations recently. Any advice? Porcupine (prickle me! · contribs · status) 12:42, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

We'll have a better idea of the problem if you tell us what OS you're using - from the sound of it it sounds like Windows though - i had all sorts of problems with Wireless networks on Windows, particularly before XP SP2. It could however be a router problem, specifically if it's an encrypted network - if you are using Windows you can check the wireless device -right click the wireless icon on the taskbar and click properties i think- and see if you're receiving packets from the router, if not it's likely a router authentication problem. -Benbread 18:11, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Win XP. Porcupine (prickle me! · contribs · status) 18:34, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

It's possible that your computer/laptop has a wireless card that isn't connected, while another one is. This can frequently happen on laptops that have internal wireless antennae and someone attaches a wireless card to a PCMCIA slot. The user connects the latter while the former is still disconnected. If that's not the case, you might try rebooting to see if it goes away or simply try disabling and re-enabling the card in network connections. --slakr^\ talk / 23:05, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

RAM question.

I'm buying a new computer in the next few weeks from CyberpowerPC, but I'll be replacing the RAM and motherboard with better ones from Newegg. I was wondering if the 512MB of RAM that will come with the Cyber computer can be used to upgrade my old desktop (which currently only has 512MB as well), regardless of brand, speed, timings, etc., or if they have to be identical in specifications. Thanks. · AndonicO ^Talk 13:23, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

This really depends on the age of the old RAM modern computers use DDR RAM now while computers from a few years back used SDRAM, generally. You'll have to see if the new RAM is compatible with your old machine, generally a good way to find out is if the new RAM doesn't fit into the new socket :P The real question is what RAM will you be putting in your CyberpowerPC if it's in your old desktop? ;) -Benbread 18:08, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

My old desktop is a little over two years old; it's a Compaq SR1430NX, not sure about the motherboard/RAM specifications. I'll try to see if the new RAM fits. :) One question though, the new RAM will be DDR2, not DDR; can they both work in tandem? The answer to "the real question": 4GBs of gold. :) Thanks for helping. · AndonicO ^Talk 21:16, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Please see DDR2_SDRAM#Backwards_compatibility. Long story short, DDR2 is not designed to be backwards-compatible with DDR1. However, DDR1 that is of higher clock speed is usually backwards compatible with boards that don't support the full speed offered by the DDR1 module. --slakr^\ talk / 23:01, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Please note that buying 4GB of memory is useless unless you have a x64 version of Windows. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 02:32, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

For the old desktop, if it's only two years old, you might be better off just buying a full complement of the fastest memory it will support. My guess is that we are talking $90-120 to put in 2GB, assuming the machine will accept that much. This should give you a speed improvement on the old desktop and allow you do more work, if it will remain in actual service. The rules for mixing RAMs and motherboards are so elaborate that trying to move the surplus memory into it might actually reduce its performance. Your model of Compaq is listed at www.kingston.com, and that model is supposed to accept DDR2 memory. This link at hp.com tells how to check that system for how much memory it will accept. EdJohnston 03:03, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Alright, thank you for helping, it is much appreciated. :) · AndonicO ^Talk 14:41, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Camcorder / Apple Mac

Does anyone know of a hard disc camcorder that will connect seamlessly to an Apple Mac computer. I have tried the Sony range and they do not recognise Mac's except for still photo's. Help will be appreciated please.--88.110.173.135 13:36, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

I don't understand the question. Almost all current digital video cameras have a Firewire/IEEE1394/iLink output, and most, if not all, Macintosh computers have a Firewire input. You connect the cable, put the camera in playback mode, fire up iMovie, and Bob's your uncle. There is a very good chance that trying to use USB instead of Firewire will not work at all for video. Here is a brief overview of the cables, ports, and software needed for digital video. --LarryMac | Talk 14:56, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

You are, of course, quite right, but Sony hard disc camcorders, for example, don't have a firewire connection, but USB2 and I have not found any other with Firewire yet. Can you name names please? Thanks--88.110.173.135 16:09, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Are you sure they don't have a "1394" connection? Sony tends to call it iLink and use the miniature (4-pin) connector, but they're big fans of that standard.

Atlant 16:26, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

No, he or she is correct, no iLink on the Sony hard disk camcorders that I've researched (the hard disk being the operative thing here). Not on the Canon or Panasonic that I've looked at so far, either. I guess I'm living in the past (i.e. last year). --LarryMac | Talk 16:39, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

You're still in today LaryMac, the situation is unchanged as far as I can tell!--88.110.173.135 08:57, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Heh, no my expectation that DV camcorders would have Firewire is what puts me in the past. Apparently that's no longer true. However, here is PDF about the JVC GZHD3 which mentions the Macintosh support and requirements. --LarryMac | Talk 12:53, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

All hard disk camcorders are absolute nightmares to edit with. As a media professional, I would avoid them at all costs. Like mini-DVD camcorders, you exchange compatibility and edit-ability for convenience. None of them record to DV, but rather use MPEG-2 or AVCHD. Only AVCHD has Quicktime compatibility with Final Cut Pro and iMovie 08. Even then, the computer will have to convert it to an intermediate format that's editable. You'd think (expect?) that hard drive camcorders would be the easiest to manage, just plug in and drag video files to your desktop. That's the way it *should* work, but it doesn't. --24.249.108.133 01:20, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, thanks for all that...I'll just buy a sketch pad instead !!--88.111.33.45 07:44, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Authentication through Flash webapps

How does one go about authenticating users of a site through an Adobe flash-based chat/videoconferencing web application, assuming that the login form is separate from the application itself? What security measures should one take to ensure that such a system is foolproof? I have heard many people say, several times, that flash webapps of this sort are notoriously insecure, is there any truth to this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.238.233.150 (talk • contribs) 23:46, 11 October 2007

Google up "XMLSocket." They're insecure unless client-to-server communications are encrypted. --slakr^\ talk / 00:08, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Oops, it appears we have XMLSocket. Check there first. :P --slakr^\ talk / 00:09, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

October 12

.hlp in windows vista

I saw on wikipedia that support for .hlp help files was removed on windows vista to encourage use of newer help formats. What is this new format?? If possible tell me some programs to create this type of help. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 200.242.17.5 (talk) 01:15, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

I found is its .maml but i didn`t found a program to create maml files. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.8.1.179 (talk) 22:49, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Computing power

I'm considering upgrading a resident PC here, to a current hardware setup, and looking for "indication statistics" or views how the two might compare, or the size of improvement. I'm terchnology-clueful, so I'm aware this is only going to be "rough" but I'd value either test stats, or a variety of personal impressions.

I can't find indication comparatives for my processor VS more modern ones though.

What I'm using and what I'm doing with it

I'm an old hand at "self-build, self install". I'm a heavy multitasker, and for personal preference reasons tend to leave a huge amount running to easier switch between them. Impressively, it pretty much handles it, and is stable, in most ways. But it's definitely under strain, hence I'm thinking time for an upgrade. I'm not a gamer, almost all my stuff is 2D -- browser, MS Office, and a variety of applications and utilities.

The hardware is high(ish) quality. P4 Northwood 2.8 HT, Asus P4C800, 2 GB of ram, and about 5 hard drives, including two 750 GB Seagate enterprise SATAs, a couple of 200 - 300 GB PATAs, a high speed blu-ray burner, and USB connected PATA portable HD. The network is onboard 1 Gbit, the graphics card an old 1999 ATI All-in-Wonder 32 MB AGP. The base system is XP Pro SP2.

The software is quite demanding -- I'm running both truecrypt and bestcrypt encryption drivers, InCD (nero's DVDRW drivers), kaspersky (heavyweight on resources but top notch AV), MS outlook and the rest of office 2007, and opera, plus a variety of side tasks from time to time - a movie or MP3 player, video encoding (virtualdub), P2P sometimes, and a few IM clients. Opera takes the brunt of the system strain - I think I have something like 400 tabs open, maybe 2/3 are Wikipedia pages, 1/3 are various sources and such I'm working from, or other pages of interest. he disk encryption drivers take another big chunk (stacked heavy duty algorithms). I'm not into heavy "rich content" (flash pages, myspace, facebook, etc) per se, but the Wikipedia pages and others will have some serious scripts attached. The antivirus system is running at its most aggressive -- full heuristics etc too -- and so on. Remarkably given the workload, it's 1/ fairly responsive, and 2/ stable - average uptime is weeks if need be, between reboots. But the broswer is slwoing it down to "problematic low responsiveness" levels, and I'd rather upgrade the system than change how I work that way. Personal choice.

The big processes -- Opera, Kaspersky, disk encryptions, etc -- are likely to still be single threaded (unconfirmed). Hopefully on a dual/quad core system (not the "extreme" versions), they can at least get a dedicated core each, or 2 between them, and each single core will be noticably more powerful than my existing CPU. Thats the thinking, anyhow.

So the question is, if I upgrade to a modern Core 2 or quad CPU, a new high quality stable motherboard (I've got on well with Asus), a PCI-E or whatever the current standard is, new graphics card, and new memory (probably 2 GB again?), ... any impressions how much of a speed increase (or reduction in noticable slowdown) one might notice?

(I know this is vague, but... lets see the answers and I'll try to reply with more.)

FT2 ^{(Talk | email)} 02:06, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

You will see a massive increase in performance with a dual core processor. I upgraded from my old P4 and it's a huge difference. If you set separate affinities manually you'll also have quite an increase in system stability. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 02:30, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Are you unsatisfied with your current configuration? I don't know very much about it but my guess is that high grade encryption would take a lot of CPU power. I would agree with Wooty that a Core 2 duo could provide significant improvements. The antivirus, however hungry, should not use too much of the CPU. What do you think about a 2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo? It is not very expensive and is quite good. I am sorry that you might have to buy a new motherboard if you decide to buy a new processor (but you probably know that already). --Kushal^{Click me!} write to me 04:27, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Yes, upgrade your CPU. You simply can't expect modern performance out of a P4 --froth^t 04:41, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

I don't upgrade unless I need to. But I think I'm simply asking more than is fair of that configuration, and it's underpowered for my use. So the question is, will I actually see a significant difference if I do upgrade? How significant? And impressions how a change of CPU to a core 2 duo or quad, plus obvious motherboard and memory change, would compare. I can't find indicators on that sort of thing. FT2 ^{(Talk | email)} 06:38, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Except for hard drive reads and network transfers, I rarely have to wait for anything. It's a world of difference. When I'm forced to use other computers I'm constantly amazed at how people can put up with the Windows boot process- you actually have to wait for things to finish loading to start using programs. The instant the taskbar appears (~2.5 seconds after first login after reboot) I can start outlook and firefox with no noticable slowdown whatsoever --froth^t 22:44, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

installing Adobe shockwave as a nonadministrator

Is it possible to install Adobe Shockwave player in Mozilla firefox fromright within the browser? I am on a Windows XP machine. I am not able to install the Shov\ckwave player executable downloaded from the Internet because of limited privileges. I would be really glad to be able to install the Shockwave player plugin from within the browser. Can it even be done? Why not? FF installed Flash player to itself automatically but why not Shockwave player?

Thanks, Kushal -Kushal^{Click me!} write to me 04:34, 12 October 2007 (UTC) Dang, no one interested in helping this poor little kid? --Kushal^{Click me!} write to me 18:28, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Dang, still no response? --Kushal^t 23:59, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

• As far as I know it's not possible. Right now I'm using IE with limited priviliges and I have the same issue with Shockwave 9. The point of limited priviliges is to stop people from downloading stuff (including things like that). Your best bet is contacting the person in charge and ask them to perform the update. - Mgm|^(talk) 09:10, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for answering. But I guess I will just forget it. --Kushal^t 20:40, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

Are you sure you want to change the file extension?

I am using Windows XP. Each time I change a file extension manually, Windows asks me "Are you sure you want to change the file extension?" I am not an idiot. I know what I am doing. How do I turn off this nagging message? -- Toytoy 05:23, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Ok, here's the obvious answer - switch to Linux. msWindows is full of those little annoyances. See my answer just now at Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Miscellaneous#inverted commas/quotation marks for another example. As you get used to Linux (does take some time), you'll become aware that it doesn't have to be that way. If only more people knew that, but then they'd have to try Linux first, which they won't when they don't know. Catch 22. DirkvdM 05:57, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

The answer thats not obvious (and yes I would have given the "switch to GNU/Linux" message as well) is... you probably can't. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 07:27, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Well, that problem has an easy solution, but I don't know of any way to get rid of this dialog box. There are programs that will auto-click dialog box buttons for you, but I don't know a good free one. The message only appears when you rename from a recognized extension to an unrecognized one, so in certain limited cases you could work around the problem by adding or removing file type associations. -- BenRG 12:34, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

That information (about not yelling about "known" extensions) doesn't seem to be true for me. I routinely rename files to ".snd" (with good reason) and the OS yells at me every damned time, even though it knows .snd files as "sound" files and wants to launch their player if I foolishly double-click my "send" file.

Atlant 15:56, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

• Maybe there's some Windows registry tweak you could make? Or you could write a small program that you could drag a file onto, and it would ask you the new file name, and do the rename for you, so skipping the nag message. --Sean 14:39, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Sorry, can't help this, but if you're going to bother to learn to do something in the registry, then it'd be quicker to learn to use Linux instead. DirkvdM 17:31, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

I for one would love to switch my work computer to Linux. But Linux is useless when it comes to testing programs for compatibility with Windows Vista. --Carnildo 21:12, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

LOL sorry dirk but I'm calling BS on that one. The registry is a centralized repository for settings- it's low performance but very convenient to use. It's ludicrous to say that's more difficult to learn than Linux's insane helter-skelter conf files and .whatever config files in a completely different, non standard location for every single (non-OS) application! Granted windows also has group policy and that sort of thing, but that's also centralized. Stick with performance arguments, linux is not convenient (unless I guess you're a hardcore bash guru), but it's fast. And it makes sense. (though anyone with any sense can see it should move to a microkernel -_-) --froth^t 22:55, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Maybe usability of the registry has improved, but last time I used it it was hell to get even the tiniest thing done. Don't know about Linux .conf files. Never felt a need for them. In the last few years, configurability of Linux (GUI, not command line, which I hardly ever use) has become incredibly much better than under nsWindows. That, plus the ease of installation (the OS + all the drivers + loads of software - all the latest versions) all in one go, are the major reasons I prefer Linux. Oh, yeah, and it doesn't crash all the time. DirkvdM 09:31, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

It's just an Explorer interface that lets you browse registry keys instead of files.. how is that hard to use? I've basically never actually used a linux GUI as my main OS but I've worked with Ubuntu Server (no GUI) a lot so I know a lot about configuration file hell.. it's a real place that androids go when they're disobedient. Also, while linux has never come close to crashing for me, I've been using Vista since 2 days after it was released in January and it's only crashed once. It was a few weeks ago when I had just reformatted, and I was running my OEM (thinkpad) driver update tool and Windows Update at the same time, and they conflicted. That's the only time.. so that argument is pretty much obsolete. Come on, I can come up with tons of good arguments against windows, try harder :[ --froth^t 17:40, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

Browsing the registry keys is no problem. Finding the right key (there can be several for the same thing, which override one another!) and finding the right value to fill in is an entirely different matter. Linux generally has GUI solutions to this - infinitely easier. About the terminally crashing of WinXP (non0recoverable), that has already happened to me twice, over a total of about three months. Maybe that's because I install loads of software. With Linux, I don't have to do that, because it's mostly already there when I've installed it. As for other arguments, like I said, Linux also instantly installs all the drivers. And all the latest versions ( it has to, because there is usually no Linux-driver-cd supplied with the hardware). DirkvdM 10:28, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

You can do your renames from the command line. --LarryMac | Talk 14:53, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Oh dear ... if you're going to bother to learn to use that ... DirkvdM 17:31, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

those two last remarks assuming he doesn't already know how to use those as is the case with most msWindows users. DirkvdM 17:31, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia is not a soapbox, please leave your OS advocacy at the door. --LarryMac | Talk 18:38, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Why? Are we afraid the Mac Zealots will show up and tell him "If you had a Mac, it would rename your files for you just by thinking about it - and then it will make you a nice cup of coffee"? -- kainaw™ 02:45, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

No no, mac zealots don't even have to know they want to rename the file. The OS knows what the user wants better than the user himself does --froth^t 17:42, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

But doesn't OS advocacy count as an answer to the question?Mix Lord 07:34, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

Precisely. If a problem is OS-specific, then suggesting another OS counts as a valid answer. DirkvdM 09:31, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

I disagree. In this case, suggesting that a user switch operating systems, in fact suggesting that that switch is easier than a small registry change, is completely disproportionate to the issue. The question is very clear and unambiguous. "Is there a way to disable the dialog box?" "Switch to Linux" is not an answer, not good advice and a little annoying. Not good advice, because a switch to Linux needs to be properly motivated, like any OS switch.You're going to run in to problems down the road and it'll be months before you get used to the new environment. Certain hardware might give you problems forcing you to the command line early on, certain software might not run on linux. What if he's a Photoshop user? would you seriously suggest that he switch to the GIMP, just to avoid a minor nuisance? It's great if people switch. But it's bad for everybody, all round, if they do so when they're not ready, or if they do so for the wrong reasons.

Finally I said it's a little annoying, because this says something about linux people. It says that even in a place like wikipedia, which is supposed to be the epicenter of objectivity, you can't just ask a simple straightforward question about windows, without running into insane amounts of linux fundamentalism. It's annoying, because it decreases the chances of getting a straightforward answer to the question (which I'm personnally interested in as well), and because it paints a picture of the linux community that is less than flattering. I like linux, so I'd like it to be associated with the sort of people that know when linux advocacy is appropriate and usefull. risk 12:46, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

How are a bunch of fanatics unflattering? The windows person would see them and think "wow here are a ton of people who love their OSes to death yet aren't total d-bags (mac), and they don't seem to have any problems with their OS. I'm tired of all these windows problems I may just switch" --froth^t 17:45, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

Because it's inappropriate if it doesn't fit the conversation. If I'm having a conversation about not being able to find something in Encyclopedia Brittanica, someone might point out to my that I could try Wikipedia. That's appropriate. On the other hand, if I ask them say, if Brittanica has an index-volume, so I can find what I'm looking for and they tell me to ditch Brittanica because it sucks and to use Wikipedia, because it's free and has a search function, even when they know I'm probably already aware of Wikipedia, then that's not helpful. The same goes for the choice of OS. I use windows, and I have some bloody good reasons for it. If somebody gives me this kind of unsolicited advise, they are basically assuming that I cannot have good reasons for using windows, and I should just learn Linux and all my problems will be over. In short, they know better than me. This kind of fanaticism doesn't reflect well on Linux as an operating system, because it doesn't suggest a balanced, thought out point of view. This doesn't suggest to me that people have formed their opinion of Linux objectively, and the community is Linux, so that says something about Linux.

I'm sorry if I'm beginning to sound personal here, but I just wish that the fanatic Linux users would begin to see this. If you push Linux this way, especially on non-technical people, and promise them that all their problems will disappear if they just switch, you are responsible for their experience after that. And if their wifi stops working and they have to figure out the command line and ndiswrapper and whatnot, you're responsible for that. And the impression all this creates is not that Linux is so great that people spontaneously start treating it as a religion. The impression is that Linux is an operating system for the sort of people that treat their operating system as a religion, and not for anybody else. And out of the people that do treat their OS as a religion, I'll pick the mac user to have drink with any day of the week. (I think I've broken the rule about not starting diatribes. Sorry) risk 19:14, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

Who wants a balanced, thought out point of view? You have the wrong attitude- read this timeless classic. The gurus can say whatever they want and frankly the questioner is lucky if anyone gives them a useful answer at all. We're a little nicer at wikipedia because of that darned rule WP:BITE but don't expect miracles --froth^t 20:09, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

I do, especially when it's someone else's and they're making a suggestion. Yes, you're at the mercy of the crowd when you ask a question. No, the guru's have no obligation to do anything. In fact nobody does, we're all fundamentally free after all. There is however always room for discussion on what's efficient. Don't we all want the ref. desk to be as useful, interesting and helpful a place as it can be? Thanks for the link to the document, but I wasn't the one asking the question. risk 20:51, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

I do too, but don't just expect it.. it's not a "given" --froth^t 23:22, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

Sure, people know about the existence of Linux. But they obviously don't know about all the advantages of it over msWindows, because else they'd all be using it (especially new users, who are at the beginning of the learning curve). You're right about Photoshop, though - that's the only reason I still occasionally use msWindows (if I have a working version - like I said, they terminally crash on me all the time). However, there are now several ways to make msWindows software run under Linux. I haven't tried them yet, because I'd have to do that just for that one program. DirkvdM 10:28, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Someone asks about a small annoyance in windows and a suggestion is change your whole operating system? SRSLY. Anyway there's a great free program that I use called Extension Changer that allows you to change the extension of files really easily. 212.159.16.171 11:08, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

Flash Memory

I have a computer at home and one at work, as well as (3) flash memory drives that connect to the USB ports. One works only on my home computer, another works only on my office computer, and the third works on both computers. What's going on? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.229.88.203 (talk) 07:37, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

I suspect there is a formatting issue that means they are struggling to read across. For some strange reason my iPod Shuffle only works on my laptop - it fails on my window's PC and this is due to some sort of formatting problem (it renders it useless as a data-transportation device). I guess if you have a windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 98 machine each may format it in a certain manner, thus causing your problem. ny156uk 23:58, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Algorithm needed for depth of breath first traversal

I've got a tree structure where to top node has zero, one or two child nodes, each of which has again zero, one or two child nodes. I'm walking through the tree using breadth-first traversal since the nodes need to be printed out in that order, just using the while(queue not empty) in breadth first traversal.

What I'm stumped on is how to keep track of the generation number. If I'm at a specific node, I need to know what level it is at. I'm thinking of maybe a counter that is incremented when going to a child node and decremented when going "back", but it's rather complex. Someone must have developed a specific algorthm for this method. Does anyone know it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tubnspa (talk • contribs) 10:04, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Make the queue store depths as well as node numbers. When you push a child node onto the queue, set its depth to one more than the depth of the node you're currently visiting.

Or maintain two queues, one of nodes at the current level and one of nodes at the next level. Pop nodes from the first queue and push nodes onto the second. When the first one is empty, swap the queues and increment an internal level counter. -- BenRG 10:42, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

See also our article Breadth-first search, which has some code examples. EdJohnston 20:51, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Suse 10.3 doesn't see IDE disks

I just wanted to install Suse 10.3 (from DVD (download - openSUSE-10.3-GM-DVD-x86_64-iso)) on one of my two IDE disks, but it only sees the partitions on the two SATA disks. What might cause this? The only cause I can think of is that I have 20 partitions in total (not counting swap partitions). Might that be too much to detect? It wasn't a problem for the Suse 10.2 installation, though, and I can access them all from there. The only error message was that /dev/sdd is not readable by parted. But that's a SATA disk, right? And it does see both of those, so I wonder what that was about. For the sake of completeness, the system is an Athlon 64 3200+ on an MSI K8M800 mb with 2 GB memory. DirkvdM 10:34, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Update: the second time it went ok, and I installed Suse, but now it doesn't see my fifth hd, another IDE disk. Irritatingly, this is the one on which I have my previous Suse installation, so now I can't copy settings. DirkvdM 08:28, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

Automatic Call ending

I have Sony Ericsson W700i. Call gets disconnected when it continues over 1 hour. Please help how to deactivate this feature.Slmking 10:49, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Wow, what an undesirable sounding "feature"! The manual doesn't mention anything like this at all -- are you sure it is intentional? I would probably call customer support, personally. --24.147.86.187 17:24, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

This is possibly something implemented by the phone or your provider to limit the charge caused/free credit lost due to an accidental phone activation if you forget to lock the keypad or something. Exxolon 19:28, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

My own Website

How do I go about getting a website on the Internet? I don't wish to pay for it, can I use my own PC? What would I need to do to my computer to make it a Website machine? Its a small site built with Microsoft Front Page Express with only a couple of pages and images. Thank you very much for any help :) Hyper Girl 12:14, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

You'd need to install a server on your computer, such as Apache HTTP Server and have an always active internet connection (such as broadband). It would take some setting up, lots of time etc. Why not use a free web host like freewebs? You could do it all online and they'd be no need for all that setting up of software etc. If you really want to host your own site, a simple web server would do fine, especally for a small site. Check out tiny server and atomic web server. Good luck! Think outside the box 12:38, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

If you decide to host it on your own PC you will want to sign up with a dynamic DNS provider, there are lots but I know that dyndns.com does it for free. That will allow you to have a URL like http://whatever.dyndns.com/, even if your IP changes when you reconnect to the internet. -- Diletante —Preceding signed but undated comment was added at 02:38, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

If you made it with something like msFront Page (or msWord or other word processors) then there will be an enormous amount of bullshit in the source, making downloads for your visitors unnecessarily slow. SeaMonkey makes much slimmer files (and therefore a faster site). Just type in the same thing in both, save it (as html of course) and look at the resulting filesizes. The difference will probably be quite impressive. DirkvdM 17:13, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Watch your potty mouth, DirkvdM Picture of a cloud 17:26, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Potty? The foul language I learn here. Thank you for that one :) DirkvdM 08:38, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

Oh get a life Picture of a cloud, "bullshit" is hardly going to bring about The Collapse of Western Civilisation as we know it. Remember Wikipedia is not censored. Exxolon 19:25, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

It isn't just FrontPage and Word that add bullshit to web pages. The users add plenty themselves... I know - it needs an animated dog and an animated little sun and a flashing star and some music and... -- kainaw™ 02:42, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

Well, for those people it won't make much of a difference. But if you don't want that and want a fast site instead it is a problem. Btw, are there any other 'wysiwyg' editors that keep the code as clean as SeaMonkey? I'd like to have more options. DirkvdM 08:38, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

If you are using Linux, htmlsane will make the HTML at least sane. I don't know if htmlsane is available for Windows. It wouldn't be difficult to make your pages in any WYSIWYG editor you like and then batch htmlsane over all the resulting code - making the need for a clean WYSIWYG editor a bit mute. -- kainaw™ 15:36, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

Never heard of that.. are you sure it exists? the google query only has 2 results (with safesearch on at least, my school forces it) --froth^t 04:17, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

With a non-filtered search, I get only three sites - one I can't access, one in Thai (I think) and one in Chinese (I also think). If this really exists, please provide a useful link! DirkvdM 10:36, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

It is an "HTML Sanitizer". Searching for "HTML Sanitizer" will turn up many different versions of the same basic function - one of which will likely be in a language you prefer. -- kainaw™ 14:04, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Writing pages in HTML is much easier IMO. Simple pages can be cranked out by WYSIWIG editors but once they start getting more complex, the nuances of obscure CSS options and page flow start causing problems and they're no way to fix it but to dive into unfamiliar HTML and try to hack out a solution --froth^t 17:34, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

That's what I like about SeaMonkey. There are four tabs for four versions of each file. A wysiwyg editor, a basic code editor, which I often switch to for exactly the sort of thing you are talking about, a 'tag viewer' (or what should I call that?) and a preview, which I don't get because it appears to be exactly the same as the wysiwyg editor. A real preview (where the links also work) would make it just perfect, but then hardly anything ever is. DirkvdM 17:35, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Kainaw, thanks, that looks promising. Maybe now I can convert all those .doc, .rtf and what have you files to html. About two years ago I completely switched to writing everything in html because with that I can get down to the nitty gritty code when that's more convenient. And because that's the only real text standard. Every computer in the world can deal with it because they all have a browser installed. Somebody told me that that might constitute a security problem, though. Anybody know anything about that? DirkvdM 17:41, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Absolutely ridiculous. --froth^t 00:21, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

The issue with using web pages instead of doc/rtf files is that web browsers tend to cache web pages. So, while I might keep a secret html document in a protected folder, my cache could be less secure allowing you to see what I've viewed recently. Of course, there's no reason to cache a local html file - but do you really expect web browsers to do everything the proper way?

This does not mean doc/rtf or even pdf files are better. There has been a large number of worldwide virus/worm infestations caused by the use of doc files to transfer information. It is ridiculous to assume that there is currently no threat. We only know about the problems that have been detected. Also, sending doc and pdf files to outside companies requires that you clean the files of history. Otherwise, they can go through the document and see who edited what in the document (and often why they made the edit). It is a big problem with the reason is something like, "Those fools will never realized how much we're going to screw them with this addition." -- kainaw™ 01:19, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

Ah, that's ok then. It's losing the files, through viruses or such, that I was worried about. I don't care if people can read what I've written. Actually, I think they should do that more often. :) DirkvdM 06:29, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

Matlab quits automatically on startup

I just installed Matlab v.6 R12 on my computer. I went for the old edition mainly because I have only 256 MB RAM on this system (Win XP, Intel P4, 1.7GHz). But the program exits as soon as it starts up. I don't get any error messages at all. The matlab splash screen appears just for a second. When I checked the running processes, the program seems to be running for a brief period and then dies quietly. Can someone tell me why this is so, and how I can get my installation to work? It is important that I get this working ASAP. Thanks in advance!--Seraphiel 15:48, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Can you try running it from the command shell? There should be a bin/win32/matlab executable in the matlab installation area. -- JSBillings 18:08, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Gmail log in page

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed a change in the login page? --Kushal^{Click me!} write to me 16:01, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

To be honest it looks completely the same as it's always been over here (UK) JoshHolloway 16:26, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Sometimes (but not always) the create new account button appears above the login for me. User:Kushal_one--Kushal^{Click me!} write to me 15:46, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

I never see the login page, I just use remember me. It's nice to know someone remembers me :D --froth^t 17:31, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

I remember you too, remember? (failed attempt at making a joke) --Kushal^t 23:57, 15 October 2007 (UTC) Here it is: [URL=http://img65.imageshack.us/my.php?image=weirdgmailloginscreenob3.png][IMG]http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/9632/weirdgmailloginscreenob3.th.png[/IMG][/URL] --Kushal^t 20:54, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

IT (copied from Miscellaneous by User:Kushal one)

== IT ==

If some one gave me a laptop, with windows already on it, is it legal for me to use it, and if so, STOP, let me refraze, I was given a computer, with windows on it already, but it also has a virus, and I can therefore not open Internet Explorer. How can I delete everything and start again, I have a 9gb hard drive but only 1.5gb free, what it is filled with I dont know. please can someone help me. ps, it is obviously not the computer I am using now. :-)12.191.136.2 12:32, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Did the laptop come with it's original Windows CD-ROMS and the corresponding license code? If it is still running the copy of windows that was on it when it was bought - then probably the original owner didn't have CD's. In that case, the manufacturer probably placed a backup copy of the OS in a special partition of the hard drive with a program to let you re-install Windows from that backup copy. On the other hand, if the original owner had installed Windows him/herself - then perhaps that person has the original CD-ROM and license codes to give you. If they are using that CD-ROM/license set for some other computer now - then it would be illegal to also run it on your computer - so you should go out and buy a new copy of Windows to run on it. Of course you could also wipe the drive and install Linux on the beast...that's what I usually do with old laptops. SteveBaker 13:37, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Thank you very much. The person that gave it to me knows almost as much as I do about computers which is nothing, so I doubt they installed it them selves, they may have the cds but theyre now in south africa and I am in England. so can you please tell me how to find the special partition to save windows and wipe the rest. thank you —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.191.136.2 (talk) 14:47, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

If you are not "educated" in the Windows Explorer environment, you should just dump Windows[1] and move to a free (open-source) operating system such as Ubuntu Linux or Puppy Linux. Regards, Kushal

[1] The suggestion is based on the assumption that you do not have a compelling reason (such as internal dial-up modem). —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kushal one (talk • contribs) 16:11, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Or need to run programs that are only available in Windows. Honestly, can we have a rule that says "dump it get *nix" is not an appropriate or useful answer to most Windows-related technical questions? I find Windows as much of a pain in the neck as most computer-savvy people but I recognize that some people are not comfortable with Linux and that Linux is not necessarily the easier solution for most people (all of the *nix users I know spend at least as much time trying to get drivers to work and programs to compile as they Windows users do on virus-scanning and the like) and in any case one is not at all answering the question by giving that as the only answer. --24.147.86.187 18:32, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

• Speaking as someone who has used Linux since v1.0.0, I wholeheartedly agree. Saying "switch to Linux" isn't any more helpful than "switch to gardening"; they both "solve" the problem of having to deal with Windows' crappiness, but in a completely impractical way. --Sean 18:51, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Thank you both, I posted something about this earlier on the RD talk page. --LarryMac | Talk 19:09, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Note that Kushal stated that in the case of the original poster not being educated in Windows, in which case there shouldn't be a major difference. And don't most Windows programs have their open source equivalents anyway?Mix Lord 07:27, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

I am not a big fan of conspiracy theories but I believe Microsoft is spending a lot of resources to retain the future market (the children and new users) from learning *nix. BTW, I am a Windows user myself. I agree with 24.147.86.187 in that if there is ever an application or protocol that demands a particular OS, one has to go with it. However, for new users hardware incompatibility and drivers issues should not be a barrier for trying new grounds. Furthermore, what could be wrong with choosing the free drink first, drinking it, looking if one has any allergies to it (rare), and them ordering a Sonic? OMG, I hope I did not start a flame war. --Kushal^{Click me!} write to me 13:36, 13 October 2007 (UTC) PS: Feel free to delete any of my comments if you find them unhelpful to the thread. --Kushal^{Click me!} write to me 13:38, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

Yes they are spending lots of resources, namely providing schools and uni students MS software at almost no cost and then forcing them to buy them after having using them all their life. But then, we are getting awfully off topic. --antilived^{T | C | G} 02:53, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Importance of clock speed on Intel Core 2 Duo processors

I'm thinking of buying a VAIO TZ and am contemplating whether to go for the 1.06 or 1.20 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (U7500 and U7600, repsectively) processors. A Google search brought me here to the Reference Desk where someone suggested that clock speed wasn't of great importance for the Core 2 Duo's. The price difference is 10.000 yen (about 85 dollars), so not that much, but still maybe just a waste of money chasing numbers...

Does anyone have any insight into the difference between the two? I'll be running Gentoo Linux on it, so plenty of compiling, but stuff that can easily sit in the background (though it's always nice to chop off time during install and world updates). I'm mostly using my old laptop for simple daily use these days, so I guess my main concern is latency. --Swift 17:47, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

At best there should be a more or less linear speed increase with clock speed. However in real life, raw processor power is most often not your bottleneck. These days they're generally trying to design more efficient processors rather than just taking the "brute strength" approach of ever-increasing clock speeds. Higher clock speed generally means more power and more heat. Friday (talk) 18:31, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Get the one with more cache and then overclock it. C2Ds run cool. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 19:22, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Overclocking a notebook CPU is a bad idea. --antilived^{T | C | G} 19:34, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

We probably don't need to get into a discussion of the merits of this. The questioner asked if people thought clock speed would make much difference. I see nothing to indicate he's interested in modifying the computer himself. People who are into that would ask different questions. Friday (talk) 19:46, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Wooty said that (antilived should have put in an extra indent colon). But I agree with anti, if your laptop CPU runs at even 100% chances are it'll overheat in a few minutes.. no need to overclock it --froth^t 22:59, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

I agree. Please consider an Intel (insert highest bid here) GHz Core 2 Duo processor with 2 MB Level 2 cache. And just for the sake of neutrality, AMD machines are pretty good too. (And I know we need AMD to keep Intel on its toes or it will slack off like a second grader who aced every exam in the first grade.)

To the Original Poster: It may sound like a cliche, but what you buy in a computer has a lot to do with what you plan to use it for. Depending on your needs, you might even be better off with a 2.2 GHz C2D processor. I try not to sound trite, but I don't think I can help it very much on this one. --Kushal^{Click me!} write to me 13:45, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

Core 2 Duos have 4MB L2 :o And we also need AMD to make professional graphics cards with some sense to them rather than just throwing 10GB of video memory onto a card and calling it best (ahem nvidia) --froth^t 17:31, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, Froth! --Kushal^{Click me!} write to me 04:46, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

(Warning: the following might be entirely off-topic and/or trivial) PS: According to [1], Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5250 (1.5GHz/667Mhz FSB/2MB cache) does exist. What am I missing? Is it like 2MB cache per core, which gets up as 4 MB in total? --Kushal^{Click me!} write to me 05:16, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

I think that's Merom-2M. It could be something else- when one of the core's cache has a defect they just disable that core's cache and call it a 2MB conroe and sell it on the cheap, but since it starts with "T" I think that's a merom. Basically, the low-end core 2's have 2M of L2 but only the very low end of the spectrum. And now we're moving into 6MB. Drooooool --froth^t 00:33, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

I may be top posting here but after reading the list, I think I would want to hold back my plans for buying a new computer anytime soon. --Kushal^t 23:48, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

So true :[ Every time you have a good computer they come out with a new 13 core 9,999,999 somethings uber must-have ultra extreme edition in a three-card hyper array blah; there's just no rest for the poor geek :[ --froth^t 03:55, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

MPEG to IPOD

I have an MPEG file that won't go on to my ipod via itunes. Probably because a) it's too big resolution and b) it's (probably) the wrong format. Can anyone help me with it? Don't know whether it's mpg1, 2 etc as I don't know how to find out.martianlostinspace ^{email me} 18:22, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Mac OS or Windows? On Windows, if you play the file with Windows Media Player and then select File/Properties, it should give you details on the codec(s) used. --LarryMac | Talk 19:15, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

mpeg is also a container format IIRC, it's not necessarily the MPEG-4 video codec --froth^t 22:56, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Can't iTunes convert video? Right-click the file and select "Convert for iPod" --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 03:56, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

I'm on XP. Right. Gone into properties:

Video Codec: MPV Decoder Filter

Audio Codec: LeadTek Audio Decoder

Video Size: 1024 x 576

Does that tell anyone anything, eg. what converter to use?martianlostinspace ^{email me} 12:49, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

OK. Tried to drag and drop into itunes, without much success. No indication of it there, or a file transfer progress bar. Still no sign of it in itunes, having dragged directly to my docs/my music/itunes/itunes music/movies.martianlostinspace ^{email me} 12:55, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

Those are some fairly obscure codec (I'm assuming the file is Chinese?) This is probably the easiest way to fix it: download the VLC media player and see if it can play your file. If it can, press "File" and then "Wizard" to help you through transcoding the file to a format that iTunes can support (choose MPEG-1 for video, for instance), and then start transcoding the file. Note however, that this can take some time (video transcoding is intensive computer work) if the file is very big. When it's done, open the file in iTunes and right-click and select "Convert for iPod", and iTunes will take it from there. This will only work on stuff that VLC can play, but chances are it can. --Oskar 15:42, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

If windows media player can play it then you have this "MPV Decoder Filter" installed as a directshow filter. Just open up the file in virtualdub and change the video compression to uncompressed AVI, then save it and let itunes import it from there. If you transcode to MPEG1 and then have itunes's crappy godawful transcoder further reduce the quality you'll end up with a giant smudge for video --froth^t 17:20, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

VLC can play it, and using default settings I have transcoded to mpeg 1 using mpeg 1 as the encapsulation format, whatever that means. The file is 1/4 GB. The contents of the file are English, but Leadtek (above) are based in Taiwan, I think. The file size as now plummeted to 86MB, and it can be opened by media player but itunes won't convert it.

Froth, you'll have to be more speciic about virtualdub. Don't have a clue what it is, sorry!martianlostinspace ^{email me} 21:15, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Having downloaded virtualdub, it won't open the file: MPEG Import Filter: Invalid pack at position 3: marker bit not set, possibly MPEG2 stream.martianlostinspace ^{email me} 21:42, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

JSP tag library interfaces

Why do you encounter so many classes and different specifications and adapters and all that garbage when you try to write your own tag? I mean, you've got the TagSupport stuff, then you've got "SimpleTagSupport". The name itself is silly because IMHO it seems far more capable than dealing with the functional nature of the "old" (at least I think it's old) specification. But then I ended up writing a TLD that used one specification, but my classes extend/implement another specification (and what the heck are the differences between JSP/scriptless/empty keywords in the TLD???), I get class cast exceptions and all kinds of other garbage. Then there's the PageContext interface, which extends the JspContext interface, but I thought the former came before the latter, so how can an earlier interface came before a later one?

Is there any place I can go that will help untangle this mess, and maybe some reason behind it so I can validate my frustration? :). --Silvaran 23:07, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Linux even worse than Windows for an artist?!

Today I had a heated argument with a man who says Windows (XP and Server 2003) does everything he needs it to properly, and is stable and reliable where Linux (any recent version of any distro) is precarious, has poor hardware and application support and is easily broken by an update. He mostly uses his machine for art and programming. His issues were with, in particular:

• Backward- and forward-compatibility issues whenever a driver or the kernel is updated, or a program is compiled from source on a new version of the compiler. (He says the compatibility issues prevent him from using any distro that has a package manager, and that he cannot trust precompiled binary releases, so that now when he must use Linux he uses Slackware.)
• Dependency hell being much more of a problem on Linux than Windows ever since the .NET Framework came out.
• Incompatibility between KDE and GNOME.
• Poor support for sound cards and Wacom tablets.
• 3-D applications, both DirectX and OpenGL, running 15% to 50% slower on Linux than on Windows.
• No fully-functional, compatible equivalent to Maya.
• Blender being too hard to use.
• Amarok not working properly with his USB drive (which is connected permanently), and crashing too often.
• No Linux application that he has used runs as fast as its Windows counterpart.

He says he's had the same results with 7 different distros on 24 different machines over the course of several years. Does this point to actual weaknesses in Linux, or to a problem with the way he was using it (he seems to be a highly sophisticated user), or to his being an anomalous user who needs an uncommon distro, or to someone who's covertly working as a marketer for Microsoft? NeonMerlin 23:33, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Well it sounds like he is exagerating, but his arguments are not without some merit. Kernel and compiler changes should almost never cause problems unless you upgrade a major version number. Most of these arguments are not problems with linux itself, but with a lack of third party support (of course hardware support isn't as good as windows, most drivers are written by volunteers who sometimes have to reverse-engineer the driver, of course windows apps will run slower under the wine compatibility layer.) Some of the arguments are comparing apples and oranges, so what if KDE and GNOME are different? (they are actually quite compatible) are there different desktop environments in windows?

In a free-software environment at least you have a shot at fixing the problems yourself, I'll choose dependency hell over tech-support hell any day. Choice of distro is not nearly as important as people seem to think they all have the same software, and you can always compile what you need. With free software you have more freedom, but more responsibility, you can think of this as a weakness or a strength. With commercial software you are buying a black box that has presumably been certified to work, you can think of this as a weakness or strength. If windows works better for him I won't argue with that, that's great, I'm happy for him. -- Diletante 01:09, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

I agree, he's making it sound worse than it is, and Windows has a lot of problems of its own. Dependency hell is not that bad if you have a decent package manager. It's not at all a problem with windows, but that's not because of .NET (few programs use it). For 3D performance does he even have the proper drivers installed or is he using the standard VESA drivers? As for "No Linux application that he has used runs as fast as its Windows counterpart" I laugh in his general direction. That's a ridiculous statement, though it's true a few (non-Windows) Microsoft products have gotten blindingly fast lately. 3rd-party software for windows is a joke for speed. A funny joke, which is why I laughed --froth^t 02:15, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

I'm not going to argue these points - most of them are wrong. My favorite is: No fully-functional, compatible equivalent to Maya. - that's pretty funny! I think Maya is a pretty good fully-compatible equivalent to Maya! (Maya runs on Linux too). SteveBaker 02:23, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

There's no chance of changing a first impression. This guy probably had trouble with something in Linux when he first tried to use it. So, everything now becomes a "Why isn't this like Windows?" argument. It is rare for someone to ignore first impressions. I do the same. I have a passionate distaste for Windows. Why? From my very first experience with it, it has never worked properly for me - mainly because I began with Unix-based mainframes, graduated to an Amiga for home use, then replaced that with Linux boxes when they were reasonably functional. So, every time I'm stuck trying to fix a Windows box, I get upset and complain because it isn't as easy, stable, and user-friendly as Unix/Linux. The truth is that I've always hated Windows, so I've never taken the time to figure out how it works. I don't think I ever will. -- kainaw™ 02:36, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

• I've never had any problems with ANY drivers or kernel updates, and I've never had to compile anything from source. I'm using Ubuntu BTW.
• Huh? From what I can see the libraries have different packages for different versions. This point is complete rubbish for packaged libraries.
• In what way are they incompatible? I can run KDE programs fine when using GNOME. Are you trying to run both KDE and GNOME at the same time? :)
• Sound cards??? Windows has never had support for my sound card out-of-the-box. And I've installed Windows on PCs with many different sound cards. Ubuntu on the other hand has always had support for my sound card out-of-the-box. Wacom? I have no idea about that...
• DirectX? What, are you using Wine or something? As with the OpenGL, that is an issue. ATI is known for making extremely crap drivers for GNU/Linux.
• Maya: whatever SteveBaker said...
• Blender being hard to use... is Blender part of the core OS? I didn't know that...
• What doesn't work properly? Obviously you can't "sync" with your USB drive as it isn't a portable media player.
• I can't really say that's true... Are you running a 386 kernel on your quad core or something? --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 03:24, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

Concerning any incompatibility between KDE and Gnome (which I don't know of) - at least you've got a choice. And then there are loads of different distros, one for every taste. And then you can fine-tune whichever distro you choose to precisely suit your desires. With msWindows, if you don't like the way it looks and handles, you're stuck. With Linux, hell, you can even give it the msWindows look and feel. You have to know how to do that, though, and there's a problem - the options are quite overwhelming, and that can scare some people off. It's sort of like the people who prefer small supermarkets that only have one brand of everything, so they don't have to make a decision. DirkvdM 09:41, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

Everyone has a bias in these matters. But some of these complaints are downright unreasonable.

• Blender is quirky - this does indeed make it hard to use (although some people say the opposite) - but it's just as quirky if you run it on a Windows machine as it is on a Linux box.
• Maya looks pretty much identical on Windows and Linux.
• Complaining that Gnome and KDE are incompatible is ridiculous. Just pick one and don't use the other one - at least you have a choice - with Windows, you get what you get with no choices!
• Device driver problems - well, this is a fair complaint - there are lots of devices that Linux doesn't support at all - and lots that are a pain to set up. Windows isn't entirely without those problems - I know Vista users have been complaining about driver compatibility. I have a MIDI controller that I planned to use from my wife's Windows XP laptop - but she has the 'Media edition' and for some bizarre reason my MIDI controller doesn't work with that particular flavor of XP. It works great under Linux though...so there are at least SOME driver problems no matter what you use. But I'd accept that as a criticism of Linux. Generally, Linux users don't look at the problem as "the OS doesn't support such-and-such device" - instead we say "such-and-such device doesn't support Linux" - and we simply don't buy things that aren't Linux compatible. There are plenty of websites that tell you what is supported and how - just be sure you check those lists before buying hardware.
• I'm surprised he says that OpenGL is slower under Linux - I suspect he's just guessing. I've been in computer graphics for 25 years - I've been using OpenGL since before the specification was released to the public (I actually contributed to the specification) - I've written OpenGL applications containing millions of lines of code under both Linux and Windows (and BSD UNIX and Irix and Solaris - and on cellphones, PDA's, Nintendo DS, etc). I have never come across a Windows version that could run OpenGL faster than with identical hardware under Linux...Linux is ALWAYS faster.
• He claims DirectX is slower under Linux - but that shows his ignorance - Linux doesn't even support DirectX! It's a Windows-only graphics API. If you have a program that's using DirectX and it's running under Linux, then there must be an emulation layer (WINE probably) in there and that would certainly slow things down. Incidentally, OpenGL is run on Vista via an emulation layer - so it cuts both ways.
• No Linux application that he has used runs as fast as its Windows counterpart. - do you really believe this guy benchmarks every application under both OS's? Nah - he's talking utter crap.

SteveBaker 15:11, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

• There was a time when Linux really was weak enough that strong grassroots advocacy made sense, but its strengths are so self-evident now that I don't think there's any reason to convince any one particular user to give it a shot. Places like Pixar and ILM are extremely Linux-heavy, so obviously some artists can manage with it. If this guy doesn't like it, so what? --Sean 20:51, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

I agree that Linux can stand by itself and I don't usually do the advocacy thing - but our OP asked specifically whether this so-called "sophisticated user" was right - and he's not. I absolutely cannot believe he could have been a working artist over "7 different distros on 24 different machines over 2 years" (That's a new computer every MONTH?!? No wonder he gets frustrated with things changing all the time!). Yet this supposed expert still doesn't know that DirectX is Windows-only, or that Blender-is-not-Linux or that there is a version of Maya for Linux. This is FUD - pure and simple - and that needs to be stamped out in favor of actual facts. I would run to the support of Windows if similar untruths were said about that OS. (For example, a lot of Linux users point out that Linux has all of these great tools like blender, GIMP, OpenOffice, etc - without mentioning that all of those tools work just fine under Windows too). SteveBaker 13:48, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Wacom tablets run fine. I got one and except for the ExpressKeys it basically runs out of the box. --antilived^{T | C | G} 02:50, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

I had the same experience with My cheap Wacom Graphire. No problems.

I would be concerned with any 'expert' who made this claim : "compatibility issues prevent him from using any distro that has a package manager, and that he cannot trust precompiled binary releases," unless he could back it up by explaining what very unusual thing he was doing that made package management impractical. Anyway, The question depends a Lot on what the artist wants to do with his computer.--APL 19:55, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Hehehe! That's hilarious. I hadn't noticed "he cannot trust precompiled binary releases"...so he goes on to conclude that therefore he must use Windows! Did he somehow pursuade Microsoft to release Windows source code to him? I mean, really. It's all very well to not trust binaries - but unless you are going to read through and check the source code yourself - what's the point? Simply compiling the code from sources gives you no more guarantee of security (or whatever it is you're worried about) than accepting a binary from that same website. Even a really experienced programmer isn't going to be able to read the source code for any significant sized application and come to any conclusions about the trustworthyness of the code from that! That's just ludicrous. This guy is definitely not the sharpest tool in the shed. SteveBaker 14:21, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Well a lot of projects are very strict about the code they allow in their package trees. IIRC Debian expressly forbids binary blobs and it's actually reasonable to expect Debian-approved code to be safe since people do read through it and it has an extensive lifecycle with reviews etc --froth^t 20:04, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

October 13

Rebuilding a TOR circuit on Ubuntu

I want to get past a website that restricts from where you can access it (one of those "You don't appear to be in the US"-things), and on windows I always used TOR to do that, it just seemed like the easiest way. It had that nice little GUI with a button that said "rebuild identity" that rebuilt your TOR-circuit. However, I have no idea how to do that on Ubuntu. I installed the thing fine and it's working, but it's dead-slow and I can't find anything in the tor man-page that instructs me how to rebuild the path. How do you do it? 83.249.109.188 00:23, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

You may want to look up command line options for tor. I'm sorry, I'd look it up myself but my school would have an aneurysm if it thought I was using tor.. they're big on censorship (I don't mind much, mostly it's just blocking porn, though it's annoying not to be able to access 4chan, ytmnd, uncyclopedia, encyclopedia dramatica, etc) --froth^t 17:48, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

ray node traversal image

I wonder if anyone could help me find an interesting image I'd like to see?

What I'm looking for is a comparison between a ray traced scene and an image (greyscale perhaps) representing the number of BSP-boundarys/triangles/bounding boxes/sum of all traversed per ray-pixel. Anyone got or seen anything like this? Cheers83.100.254.51 17:11, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

"shopping cart" for ecommerce

My client purchased a "virtual terminal" to process credit card payments, and has asked me to find a suitable shopping cart system to allow her to process online orders on her website. Unfortunatly, to date I've only set up informational websites, so I'm out of the loop as to what to look for in a shopping cart system. I'm familiar with HTML and Java and Javascript and Perl, not so much with PHP or Mywhatever thingie MySQL (thanks, Froth), but if I sit down and write something in Perl it'll take me quite a while and she's paying by the hour, so she'd prefer to purchase something readymade and have me install it. She's looking to spend maybe $150. What are my options and how do they work? She's rather particular about the design itself, since she's an artist, rather than caring about the technical details (which is why she hires me). Kuronue | Talk 17:47, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

You mean MySQL. I really have no idea.. usually smallish sites will just use Google Checkout (or others)'s built in shopping cart functionality (which precludes the necessity to process your own card payments) and largish sites will make their own. It probably wouldn't be too difficult to do with non-expiring cookies so you wouldn't necessarily need mysql, but if you hope to let people log in to track their shipments, view past invoices, etc then you'll definately need it. Fully featured "shopping cart" applications that you'd buy would probably include this functionality so you'll need some sort of database server running. And I have no idea what a virtual terminal is but if it's not just an access code or something that you stick in a configuration file to make things work, then it may be difficult to get it to interact with prewritten code, or you may even have to find a particular piece of shopping cart software to fit your "virtual terminal". Whatever that is. >.> ermm --froth^t 17:54, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

I found some possibilities: http://www.zen-cart.com and http://www.x-cart.com/. They both seem to require mysql/php and of course you need your webserver set up with SSL to process payments securely (this is stupidly difficult on apache, and whether you use IIS or apache you'll need to pay Thawte or Verisign some big bucks to issue you a root-issued ssl certificate). Zen-cart is open source and hosted on sourceforge but there are just a few too many asterisks all over everything for my comfort. --froth^t 18:05, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

Oh and keep in mind that this kind of software usually acts without actually affecting your pages, to give you design flexibility. You'll likely have to make it look good yourself --froth^t 18:08, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

Designing I can do. She replied to my request for more information: she's applied for "Linkpoint Central", one of about five billion services this company [2] offers, and I'm not too sure on the differences between them. Preliminary research indicates that she'll need Linkpoint Connect or Linpoint API, and that API seems better because it includes credit card payments and SSL, but I'm not entirely certain on that point or how they interface, if at all, with Linkpoint Central. Kuronue | Talk 18:21, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

oh, and she's got third-party hosting, so I'm not in charge of the server, just design and maintenance. So it's a matter of, does she need to upgrade her package or change hosts, rather than, can I implement technology on her server. It's a very small business. Kuronue | Talk 18:25, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

For a very small business, as this one seems to be, I believe you need a simpler solution. I suggest the online payment services that PayPal provides. Working as a volunteer, I set up online ticket sales for a small non-profit organization, but I know that the same interface provides shopping cart support. Buyers don't need to pay with a PayPal account, the service takes all the major credit cards. It is completely hosted on their site; your payment page just links to a PayPal URL. There is no startup cost at all (at least for the feature I used), they take a fee which is of the same order as normal credit-card processing fees. The $150 budget would not stretch to cover the type of programming mentioned by the other responders. With PayPal, the highest-tech operation is to generate a few hundred bytes of HTML, using their generator, and copy it into a web page. So you *do* need to know basic HTML. You don't need to know anything about SSL, because PayPal is doing all the security. You do, of course, have to trust PayPal, but for non-profit event tickets there was nothing to ship and not much chance of fraud. EdJohnston 19:13, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

Paypal is evil, but they probably won't target a small business for its evilness. --froth^t 20:02, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

cURL Login?

Hi,

I am fully aware that it is quite easy to use the Wikipedia API to do a cURL login, and have had this working perfectly and so on. However, for some random reasons (non-Wikipedia related) I need to use cURL to log in to a Wiki without using the API. I can post fine, but it refuses to remember that I've logged on.

Basically, does someone know why this POST is failing?

Builder function:

$this->ch = curl_init();
$this->uid = dechex(rand(0,99999999));
curl_setopt($this->ch,CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE,'/tmp/testingphp.cookies.'.$this->uid.'.dat');
curl_setopt($this->ch,CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR,'/tmp/testingphp.cookies.'.$this->uid.'.dat');
curl_setopt($this->ch,CURLOPT_MAXCONNECTS,100);
curl_setopt($this->ch,CURLOPT_CLOSEPOLICY,CURLCLOSEPOLICY_LEAST_RECENTLY_USED);

Post function:

function post ($postto,$postwhat) {
                        curl_setopt($this->ch,CURLOPT_URL,$postto);
                        curl_setopt($this->ch,CURLOPT_POST,1);
                        curl_setopt($this->ch,CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION,1);
                        curl_setopt($this->ch,CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS,10);
                        curl_setopt($this->ch,CURLOPT_HEADER,1);
                        curl_setopt($this->ch,CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER,1);
                        curl_setopt($this->ch,CURLOPT_USERAGENT,'Ale_jrb');
                        curl_setopt($this->ch,CURLOPT_TIMEOUT,25);
                        curl_setopt($this->ch,CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT,15);
                        curl_setopt($this->ch,CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, substr($this->data_encode($postwhat), 0, -1) );
                        
                        return curl_exec($this->ch);
}

Login function:

function login ($username,$password) {
                       $login['wpName1'] = $username;
                       $login['wpPassword1'] = $password;
                       $login['wpRemember'] = 1;
                       $this->http->post('http://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Special:Userlogin&action=submitlogin&type=login&returnto=User:Ale_jrb',$login);
                       print_r($this->http->get('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page'));
}

Login call:

login('Username','Password');

Thanks! Ale_Jrb^talk 21:13, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

I've never tried to do this with cURL, but if it is receiving the POST but not "remembering" the login then it sounds like a problem with not setting its login cookie correctly (or something along those lines). --24.147.86.187 00:00, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

I thought that, but using exactly the same post method but posting to the api.php login, it works fine (and remembers it etc.) so I don't see how that could be the problem... It makes me think that it probably isn't receiving post, but I don't know why. Ale_Jrb^talk 10:02, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Are you able to see the response from the POST? I remember playing around with POSTing to Wikipedia awhile back and realized that it was prejudicial against certain UserAgents. --24.147.86.187 14:36, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Oops - missed this! I can't get a response from the POST (that I'm aware) but the headers from the GETs are:

Using API:

HTTP/1.0 200 OK Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2007 17:55:54 GMT Server: Apache X-Powered-By: PHP/5.2.1 
Set-Cookie: enwiki_session=561064099f9b0c165ef68e71935bba49; path=/ Content-Language: en Vary: 
Accept-Encoding,Cookie Expires: Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 GMT Cache-Control: private, s-maxage=0, 
max-age=0, must-revalidate Last-Modified: Tue, 16 Oct 2007 16:55:24 GMT Content-Length: 53353 
Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8 X-Cache: MISS from sq27.wikimedia.org X-Cache-Lookup: MISS 
from sq27.wikimedia.org:3128 X-Cache: MISS from sq34.wikimedia.org X-Cache-Lookup: MISS from 
sq34.wikimedia.org:80 Via: 1.0 sq27.wikimedia.org:3128 (squid/2.6.STABLE13), 1.0 
sq34.wikimedia.org:80 (squid/2.6.STABLE13) Connection: close

Using Special:Login:

HTTP/1.0 200 OK Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2007 17:56:56 GMT Server: Apache X-Powered-By: PHP/5.1.4 
Content-Language: en Vary: Accept-Encoding,Cookie Expires: Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 GMT 
Cache-Control: private, s-maxage=0, max-age=0, must-revalidate Last-Modified: Tue, 16 Oct 2007 
16:55:24 GMT Content-Length: 52109 Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8 X-Cache: MISS from 
sq27.wikimedia.org X-Cache-Lookup: MISS from sq27.wikimedia.org:3128 X-Cache: MISS from 
sq36.wikimedia.org X-Cache-Lookup: MISS from sq36.wikimedia.org:80 Via: 1.0 sq27.wikimedia.org:3128
(squid/2.6.STABLE13), 1.0 sq36.wikimedia.org:80 (squid/2.6.STABLE13) Connection: close

Any ideas? Thanks! Ale_Jrb^talk 18:00, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Nevermind, solved it now! Ale_Jrb^talk 19:02, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Content-Type and XHTML 1.1

Whenever I send a Content-Type of "application/xhtml+xml", Firefox fails to render my background image. Why is that? --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 23:47, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

Never mind, I found a good answer here: [3] --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 00:20, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

October 14

Component Video to DVI or VGA

I have a high quality monitor for my computer that has DVI and VGA inputs. I'd like to buy an adapter so that I can use he monitor as a display for my xbox 360, using the standard high definition component cables. Any ideas? It really needs to have no lag. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.195.124.101 (talk) 04:18, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

There are xbox 360 to vga cables produced by microsoft and third parties - that would be an additional purchase though..

Alternatively the monitor might understand a RGB component signal through the vga input (this is by no means guaranteed) - you would need to wire the component cables to a vga plug (see VGA connector) and the monitor would need to support "sync on green", and be receptive to signals at the frequency that the component video is output on.

I don't recommend messing about with soldering though..

I'd really recommend buying a xbox vga cable - that will work perfectly (if you have an xbox 360 with hdmi you could use a hdmi cable to connect to the dvi port (if you have one and a hdmi-dvi adaptor))

Finally here's a link http://ww.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=xbox+360+vga+cable&meta= price in the uk is less than £20 new for one make... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.102.19.106 (talk) 04:30, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

I will guarantee that the bought vga cables will be as 'good as perfect'87.102.19.106 04:32, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

GNU Scientific Library question

Resolved

per post to my talk page Algebraist 17:13, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Dear Wikipedians:

While using the GNU Scientific Library I came upon the following interesting problem while using its Level 2 BLAS interface:

There is a function to compute Ax, where A is a matrix and x is a column vector (and the number of columns in A is equal to number of rows in x). However, the function to compute x^TA, where T denotes the transpose operator, x is a column vector and the number of rows in A is equal to the number of rows in x, is entirely missing from Level 2 BLAS. In fact, there seems to be no way of calculating this other than going to full-blown Level 3 BLAS with x modeled as an 1 by n matrix.

I really don't want to use Level 3 BLAS unless I have to due to performance penalties. And I can't believe that the designers of GSL had overlooked this issue when designing the level 2 BLAS routines. So I am wondering if I have missed anything or is there a specific reason why x^TA type of calculation is missing from level 2 BLAS, even though it's also vector-matrix multiplication.

Thanks.

74.12.197.100 05:11, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Is x^TA=(A^Tx)^T of use, or is easy transposing not available? Algebraist 08:30, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

I'd ask the same question. Besides, I wonder why this task would even require BLAS. Couldn't this computation be handled by an appropriate loop in your C program? If you have an optimizing compiler, it should create efficient code for such a straightforward task. EdJohnston 17:28, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Soundclips not playing

So I have a new computer. And on this computer, when I click on a sound clip link on in particular (I don't know any other instances, but I'm sure they exist) allmusic.com, my browser a) follows the link to a blank page and b) doesn't play anything. What is going on, and how can I fix it? Windows XP. I have realplayer installed but undefaulted for everything, quicktime, vlc, and itunes. I didn't enable quicktime to automatically make certain MIME types or whatever playable when it asked. Because my favorite default player is VLC, which plays everything. I'm using firefox 2.0 because some of my addons don't work with 3.0. Hope some of that helps. This is getting annoying, and I'd love it if somebody could clear this up for me. Thanks, Sasha 140.247.236.59 06:19, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Right-click the link and hit Save Link As... and save it somewhere. That should clear it up. NASCAR Fan24^{(radio me!)} 15:37, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, but are there any more permanent solutions? Why is this happening anyway? 140.247.43.7 23:31, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

• When I follow a link to a media file and it opens a blank window, it's usually because right afterwards it loads my mediaplayer to take on the selected file. Either you have a big file that loads slowly when you select it, or your mediaplayer doesn't kick in. Are you sure the file you're trying to watch/listen to is Realplayer compatible? Do you have all the codecs? - Mgm|^(talk) 09:03, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Well it doesn't even give me a "you need to download certain codecs" message. It just loads a blank page and then stops without loading anything else. Nothing pops up. The way you described it used to happen on my old computer. But nothing whatsoever happens here apart from the opening of a new page. And I've got more than just realplayer. And trying to save the link does nothing. The link just saves itself as an unplayable dll file. Weird. I don't get it. Any other suggestions? 140.247.237.95 23:27, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Laptop cameras

So I just got a laptop that I love (Thinkpad T60p)that doesn't have a camera built in. And I am beginning to regret it. And I was wondering if it's at all possible to have somebody install one at the top. There's even a little slit that makes no sense up where there might be a camera. And above this slit is an image etched in that might suggest that there's supposed to be some (nonexistant) light up there. Maybe a camera. Am I dreaming this? Does my computer actually have a camera? if not, what's the slit, and can I replace it with a video camera if I bring my computer to a shop one day? Thanks, 140.247.236.59 06:30, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps you should have bought an AppleMac, the laptop has a built-in camera. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.111.33.45 (talk) 09:07, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Lots of laptops have integrated cameras these days, not just MacBooks. --24.147.86.187 14:25, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

The mac laptops are called Macbooks, and no it probably will not be possible. I have one of the mentioned Macbooks, and it's really not that special, only useful n occasion. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.195.124.101 (talk) 14:22, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

The Thinkpad T60p series does allow for integrated cameras, so you're probably not making things up when you think it may have a slot for one. All the same, if you didn't buy a model with a camera in it, it is probably unlikely that you could add one in later. Even if you could add one in later, the labor charges would be steep—taking apart the monitor part of a laptop is often very difficult and much more expensive than messing around with the part under the keys. Why not just buy an external USB webcam? They are quite small and not very expensive (the top of the line models are around $100; you can get pretty good ones for $20-50—again, all of this is much cheaper than trying to get an integrated camera installed would be), and for the times you want to use a camera you can have it right at hand. --24.147.86.187 14:25, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

This option does not sound the best advise at first, but on second thought, if one can carry wireless mice with the notebook all the time, why not a webcam too? Of course, an integrated one would be more convenient but you should definitely give a thought to the USB 'webcameras' too. To go off a tangent, I do not really know about BlueTooth connected webcams though. I think they might have privacy issues. --Kushal^{Click me!} write to me 16:59, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

I think someone asked about that a few days ago.. as far as I could tell there are no bluetooth webcams; there's just not enough bandwidth. And bluetooth has such a pathetic range that there would be no problem with privacy --froth^t 20:01, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Are you sure there's no light there? Try hitting Fn + PgUp. Now do you see the light? --froth^t 17:08, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Ah. The light exists. I'll look into external webcams. Thanks, all. 140.247.43.7 23:30, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

_THERE_ _ARE_ _FOUR_ _LIGHTS_!!! --froth^t 00:17, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

LOL. JIP | Talk 17:54, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

It looks like this thread has ended and the OP satisfied. I am staring at the screen like Dr. Watson as I have no clue what the solution was. Did the OP have a built-in camera? If no, what is the light? If yes, why is (s)he looking for an external one? --Kushal^t 01:10, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

To answer your question, there is no built-in camera, but there is a built-in (and fairly fucking useless) light where a Macbook or other built-in-camera computers might have a camera. So no solution, but at least I understand what the slot is for, and I can now know that I have to go searching for an external camera. 140.247.43.7 02:36, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. --Kushal^t 23:45, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

I like the light. Webcams are useless- the web is text and that's the magic of the internet and internet communication. The LED lets you make a cool little lightshow by rapidly hitting a key.. how cool is that? :O It's a good idea anyway, for people who aren't comfortable with the keyboard (hard to see how that's possible with the wonderful thinkpad keyboard <3). The light is at just the perfect angle that it spills over the whole keyboard but doesn't cause glare on the screen. Also, nice signature kushal :P --froth^t 19:48, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

the web is text - Allow me to introduce you to YouTube. ;) -- 68.156.149.62 21:25, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Holy crap I feel like richard stallman here, all the halfwit hobby hardware hackers taking over where the golden age of programming in the MIT AI lab left off. Only now it's the golden age of the internet -usenet- being taken over by youtube as the de facto social framework. Yes youtube is successful and popular and accessible (cough, hobby hardware hacking, cough) but usenet was superior. We still see the last echoes of the text era in the great bastions of IRC and web forums (wikis not so much, they tend to collect a ton of multimedia), which are still vastly more respectable than youtube, flickr, or *shudder* social networking sites --froth^t 20:53, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Burns ... What about Internet and Internet2? And yes, the web was made for text^{[citation needed]}. But you are right too, the Internet has evolved quite a bit since its creation inception. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kushal one (talk • contribs) 22:39, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

GUI Programming reference?

I'm trying to build a simple game using sprites like in old NES games, except that my ideal conception has the sprites on hex's, not invisible "squares". Can someone provide a link to some sort of tutorial or reference to enable me to do this? I consider myself an intermediate programmer, but at "behind the scenes" tasks; I have very little experience with GUI and game programming, and consider the subject intimidating. Help?

Deshi no Shi 16:05, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

For that kind of thing, I wouldn't use the GUI toolkits - they aren't designed for games. You would be better off learning some OpenGL programming techniques. Making your sprites be little textured polygons. This harnesses the power of the graphics card to it's utmost and gives you the performance to animate vast numbers of sprites at very little CPU cost. http://www.opengl.org is probably the best place to start looking for online learning materials and books. There are a ton of example programs you can start working with. You would use a library such as http://freeglut.sourceforge.net to cleanly handle opening and closing windows, keyboard and mouse I/O. SteveBaker 16:31, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

OpenGL really is the deep end of the pool. Even for experienced C++ programmers, OpenGL can be very intimidating (although libraries that wrap around it like GLUT or SDL can help a bit, and SDL adds DirectX support). What's your level of experience in regular programming? (Which language do you use, what sort of programs are you used to writing?). The standard GUI libraries may not be optimized for games, but if you're only interested in NES-like sprite games, it's not going to make a hell of a difference. On modern hardware you can make those games in Flash (Actionscript) and they'll run just fine. And you'll write a game in a tenth of the time in actionscript/python/whatever, compared to figuring out OpenGL. A final advantage to actionscript (or languages that compile to something that can be played in a flash player, like HaXe) is that people can play it from their web browser, so you'll increase your potential audience.

Also, what do you mean by 'hex's'? Do you mean you want the playing field to be a mesh of hexagons instead of squares? Perhaps you could describe a bit more clearly what the game will look like. Is it going to be a side scroller, or a top-down perspective game like Zelda (on the gameboy anyway). That would give us a better idea of what you'll need to implement your idea. risk 16:54, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

I'm good with C++ and Python, about to the point that I can program everything I need EXCEPT for the graphical elements. In fact, I could probably write what I wanted this game to be using ASCII. And what I mean by "hex's" is, yes, the playing field would be a mesh of hexagons instead of squares. It would be a top-down perspective like Zelda, but not so much "scrolling" -- my vision is for it to be akin to a board-game. --Deshi no Shi 20:23, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

If you are really making a very simple game, there are many free game-making toolkits out there which will handle all of the sprite and memory management issues as well as make GUIs far more easy to deal with. I have used Adventure Game Studio which despite the name is quite flexible in the types of games one can make and is quite straightforward. There are others which specialize in other types of games too, like RPG Maker. There is an entire category of such things as Category:Game creation software. I like AGS because if you already have some experience scripting and programming, you can use its own internal scripting language (which is fairly generic) to do some pretty useful and powerful things with a minimum of having to muck around with actually dealing with sprites on anything other than a graphical and programmatic level. In any case, such programs are probably a good way to start one's first game, as otherwise the possibility of getting very bogged down very quickly is pretty high, and the likelihood of getting frustrated and giving up is pretty high. Whichever one you go with, make sure its terms of use and redistribution meet your satisfaction. --24.147.86.187 16:50, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, this was exactly the kind of information I was looking for.

Deshi no Shi 16:52, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

• Pygame is popular with Python fans. --Sean 18:36, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Prevent reaching BIOS

Is there anyway a computer Administrator can prevent users from reaching the BIOS on a Windows machine? Acceptable 18:08, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Thank Goodness, No ... unless you make it physically impossible to take the computer apart and impossible to hot reboot it. --Kushal^{Click me!} write to me 18:26, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Well, there's always a way in, of course. But you can protect the BIOS with a password. The user would then have to open the machine up and move a jumper on the motherboard in order to reset the BIOS to it's non-protected state. So you lock the case so it can't be opened, and you're safe unless the user knows how to pick a lock (which shouldn't be too difficult for those flimsy ones they put on computer cases) or brings a saw. risk 18:35, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Can a Pentium 4 be overclocked through the BIOS? Acceptable 18:33, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

That depends on the motherboard. Most motherboards these days do have that functionality. risk 18:35, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Ah ok, thanks for your help. Acceptable 18:40, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

You could take off the keyboard - that will make it hard to get into the BIOS. Also if you flashed your own special BIOS code with no keyboard escape you will get an inaccessible one, but still you could reflash it again with a good version, or replace the EEPROM. Graeme Bartlett 21:03, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Best way is to set up a hard drive password through the BIOS. Then you have to replace the logic in the physical hard drive to get access to the data. --froth^t 23:10, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Or use something like PGP Desktop's "whole disk encryption", which puts a password on the drive at bootup, and the entire drive is encrypted so there's no real way around it. Arakunem 00:22, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

Hard Drive question

I think my harddrive has a few problems with it. For example, when I downloaded something that is clearly 700 mbs, when I chck the properties on my harddrive, it registers as about 1.2 gigs. This happens with almost every file.

From the My Computer screen, when I right click for the hard drive space, it says that I have used 70 GBs worth of space. However, when I access the drive, select all, and right click properties, it says the total on the hard drive is about 40 GBs. I have my settings to show all hidden files, so I'm wondering where all that extra space went? Is this a common problem? I don't remember having this problem with any of the other computers I owned before.

If it is a problem, how do I fix it, short of getting a new hard drive.

Thanks 129.100.207.33 18:20, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Does it say the following? Size: 700 MB Size on disk: 1.2 GB Kushal --Kushal^{Click me!} write to me 18:25, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

No it doesn't. I also forgot to mention that I've done all the defrag, bad sector check and empty recycle bin stuff. For the life of me I can't figure it out. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.100.207.33 (talk) 18:30, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

I don't know it This is related to your question or not, but Some types of CD-ROM images wind up being greater than 700Mb. I don't fully understand why.--APL 19:29, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

When you download the file with two different browsers, does the same thing happen for both of them? Are you downloading from a browser or is it some p2p program? If so, does it only happen with that program, or with other ones as well? risk 22:02, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Well, the easiest way to assess "where is my disk space going" is to use a space visualizer like SequoiaView. Warning: All of your porn will be easily findable by anyone curious! ;-) --24.147.86.187 22:31, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

To the OP, did you try the SequiaView application? --Kushal^t 22:35, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

How much overclocking..

How much can a Pentium 4, CD and C2D CPU's be overclocked to? For example: can I overclocked a C2D to say, 1 million ghz, and purposely blow it up? Acceptable 19:01, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

The clock signal from the motherboard is very slow (a 133mhz FSB is common); the only reason your CPU can run so fast is because it has a multiplier circuit. The speed of the gates in the multiplier circuit places a very practical limit on the maximum clock rate at which the processor will run, but long before that, the processor will become unstable (for example flags not getting activated in time for the next instruction, like cmp/je) and be inoperable but it may in fact catastrophically crash through overheating. My computer overheats all the time (laptop >.>) but the screen just goes black and I have to turn it on again. I'm sure the thermal stress is destroying my hardware (not like I can do anything about it) but when you're dealing with high multipliers you can literally melt your processor into a boiling pool of silicon! This has resulted in radical solutions like liquid nitrogen cooling.. see overclocking --froth^t 19:57, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

So if I did want to sabotage my computer, could I set the clock signal to a ridiculous speed like 3 ghz and set the multiplier to a ridiculous amount like 300x? Or will the computer not let me? Acceptable 20:15, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Some CPU's have a limit on how high you can clock them. If you want to take your anger out on your computer, bang the hard-drive on your desk a couple of times. That should break it. NASCAR Fan24^{(radio me!)} 21:54, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Even if you could, it would probably fail instantly without causing permanent damage --froth^t 23:00, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Its commonly accepted ^{[citation needed]} that if you want to sabotage your computer, the fastest way would be with a hammer. --Kushal^t 21:52, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

This may be OR but I think a can of Cherry Coke poured into the ventilation grill would be faster. SteveBaker 17:15, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Someone should try it! =P --Kushal^t 22:35, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Dropping it in a vat of feces or snot would ruin it most effectively IMO. Even if I could fix it I would never even try --froth^t 20:55, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

is it safe????

is it safe for me to let my pet rats run around inside my computer??? will it get to warm for them in there? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.210.23.83 (talk) 21:27, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Eh, no. There is a 100% chance they will either get shocked or they will chew off some vital wire. Oh, come on. You know the answer to this. Please stop posting inappropriate questions to the Reference Desk. NASCAR Fan24^{(radio me!)} 21:37, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Maybe you could have a box for your rats right beside your computer casing (preferably not attached) that could give an illusion that your rats are inside the casing. --Kushal^t 21:50, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Only with a specially-made case would this be something like a good idea. --24.147.86.187 22:28, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Oh wow that case is just wat i needed. thanx and nascar man ur mean i wuz just asking a question —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dlo2012 (talk • contribs) 20:32, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

That case is insane... · AndonicO ^Talk 01:05, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

..ly awesome. I can't believe you only get 3 geek points for buying a $150 item, is this a fluke? --froth^t 02:31, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Nobody who has ever owned a hamster would ever consider that case a remotely reasonable proposition! My son's hamster had a maze of tubes like that (you can buy them without the computer case in any petstore) - the little beast spent it's entire existance packing every inch of every tube in sight with woodshavings from the floor of the main cage - then peeing and poohing throughout the entire area. This means that a couple of times a week you have to dismantle the entire thing - wash it all out and start again. That's a big pain with a regular cage setup - but with that thing, you'd have to pull your entire PC apart every time - and you just KNOW that every third time you do that, you'll get hamster poop in your CPU fan...yeah - if you ever wondered what would happen if the shit hit the fan... SteveBaker 02:44, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

He did say rats, is that any different? Maybe it was best just to let them run loose in there ;D --froth^t 03:34, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Actually, the tubes in the ThinkGeek case are too small for a rat. They say: "gerbil, hamster or mouse". SteveBaker 17:13, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Also, pee based water cooling? Sounds like something the bio-tech Octospiders would do. (from Gentry Lee's space opera sequels to Rendezvous with Rama) --froth^t 03:50, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

I would say just leave the two things (CPU casing and rat home) separate. Could save some tears if something happens (to the rat). --Kushal^t 22:34, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

recovering deleted items

I deleted powerpoint off of a lexar thumb drive. How can I recover it?24.94.10.157 22:58, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

I honestly don't know if you can rescue a file off of a flash drive - it may be like a floppy disk where the data leaves forever after deleting it. Undeletion provides a link to FilesLost.com, perhaps you may want to try that. It claims in its FAQ that it can recover files deleted off of thumb drives. NASCAR Fan24^{(radio me!)} 23:05, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

TestDisk, Photorec, dd_rescue? And to NASCAR Fan24, even on a floppy disk, a filesystem delete operation will simply remove the pointer to the blocks of the deleted file, so the data will remain until a filesystem operation performs an overwrite on those blocks. Splintercellguy 00:15, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

Why did you have PowerPoint on a flashdrive anyway?Mix Lord 01:16, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

They probably meant "A PowerPoint file," not the application. Never underestimate the power of the internet to mangle English grammar. --24.147.86.187 02:48, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Or stupidity *rolls eyes* Hanlon's razor --froth^t 03:35, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

October 15

OC question

I'm currently overclocking a E6400, motherboard is a MSI P6N SLI Platinum. I can change the FSB speed, but it's rated as quad-pumped in BIOS (for example, it'll say 1066mhz rather than 266mhz). I accordingly multiplied my changes accordingly (for example, if I wanted to change it by 20mhz each time, I'd increase it by 80mhz total). It was fine up to a FSB of 1180, I took it up to 1260. Multiplier is x8. The motherboard supports 1333 FSB. On startup, I'm getting the following message:

"A 266 MHz system bus processor is installed. This system bus speed is not supported on this system board. The system will run at a reduced processor clock speed and system performance will be impacted."

This is confusing me. Is the motherboard somehow throttling my overclock? Should I keep going regardless? (CPU-Z and Windows are both telling me I'm running at 2.48 anyway) Reviews of the motherboard say overclocking does extremely well on this board, and I picked the processor for the same reason (even though it's only got 2mb cache /mumble)

EDIT: Aha! A known issue, or so it seems!. Still, the article really doesn't clear up whether or not the board is actually limiting the OC or not. Anyone (froth!?!) know the answer? -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 06:36, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

Are there wiki software that support structured records?

Are there wiki software that support structured records? By that I mean support for records with predefined structures, such as enforcing data types and supporting queries of the form:

(field_1 = value_1) and (field_2 contains value_2) ...

--96.227.90.4 07:06, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

Could you extend MediaWiki (something like a much more complicated version of Extension:SQLselect)? --h2g2bob (talk) 23:39, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

K&N air filter

how good will it be if one uses a K&N air filter in a 2 stroke Yamaha RX 135 bike? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.225.130.100 (talk) 13:30, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

This is a computing reference desk, not a motorcycle reference desk. -- kainaw™ 15:58, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

In other words, you might be better off asking this question on this misc desk. Algebraist 21:24, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

multiple wireless profiles

I have a wireless router at home and use two laptops there. While at home I find it convenient to have a static IP address for port forwarding purposes (it also has me connected faster - no waiting for a new IP on bootup). But when I leave the house and connect to other routers, the settings I use at home might not work. At this point I go in and select "obtain ip from server", which isn't that hard but I am a little lazy.

Is there a way in XP to associate different tcp/ip settings with different routers? I don't see this option in the control panels I've looked at, are there third party programs to do this? If I could also do this in Ubuntu also that would be cool, but I mainly boot into XP. Thanks, Man It's So Loud In Here 16:36, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

This page describes how to use the "netsh" command inside batch files to somewhat automate the process in Windows. disclaimer - I've not tried this out. I'd imagine something similar could be done in a shell script with Ubuntu. --LarryMac | Talk 17:52, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

For Linux you can have two (or howevermany) versions of the netconfig script (in /etc/sysconfig/networking/devices or similar, depending on dist) and your "go to DHCP" and "go to static" scripts do a ifdown, cp in your script, ifup. One word of warning - some dists leave dhclient (the DHCP client software) running after an ifdown (to my mind they shouldn't, but figuring out when to do so safely in a multihomed machine is, granted, rather hard sometimes), so you may have to pkill that. There is something on the Ubuntu Ip config panel labelled "enable roaming" or something (I don't have one to hand to check), but what that actually does I don't know. -- PrettyDirtyThing 17:59, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

flash player

Ever since I saw Animator vs Animation, I've been interested in flash. But I don't know how to make it! I downloaded flash player from the site in the article here, but after I downloaded a flash game on my computer, I can't even find the program to actually run it! What do I do? --Jeevies 17:56, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure to actually make Flash games or movies, you have to buy it from the official website. The Flash Player just runs the code in your browser. NASCAR Fan24^{(radio me!)} 22:36, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

Second that. --Kushal^t 23:21, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

While the traditional way is indeed to pay a heap of money for Flash (a trial is available to get you started), there are cheaper alternatives. If your project is more of a program than an animation (like a game) you can program the whole thing in a script, and compile it into a flash movie using a free compiler. You can code in Actionscript 2 and use the MTASC compiler (no longer maintained though). Or you can code in HaXe (which looks like actionscript) and compile to an swf that can be played in any flash player. You can use swfmill to roll any pictures you may need into the swf. There is also an effort going on to create a full-fledged open source flash alternative, but I'm not sure it's usable yet. risk 23:45, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

Aww..so I have to pay "a heap of money"? Well, how about just playing flash games/movies outside of my browser? You know, like in my hard drive? --Jeevies 04:09, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Save the SWF file to your hard drive and you should be able to open it in your browser or in the free Flash Player you can get from Adobe.com. Try just opening it in your browser once you have it saved (File > Open) like it was any old file, and it should work. --24.147.86.187 14:14, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

I opened it on IE and it still asks for the application. --Jeevies 16:30, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Do you guys think the OP needs to install a Shockwave player from Adobe? I think some games need Shockwave player. --Kushal^t 22:31, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Perl and XML

I am trying to write the values in a certain array to an XML file, I used the code present in this page under the title of "Writing perl structures into XML". The problem is I dont want the <anon> tag to appear,instead I'd like something else to be written in it. I want my output to look like this

..<whatever>
......<country>england</country>
......<capital>london</capital>
..</whatever>
..<whatever>
......<country>norway</country>
......<capital>oslo</capital>
..</whatever>
..<whatever>
......<country>india</country>
......<capital>new delhi</capital>
..</whatever>

Any ideas ?

NB: I used the dots to show tabbing —Preceding unsigned comment added by 196.219.146.147 (talk) 19:39, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

Basically it looks like the XML::Simple library doesn't support very complicated XML output. I don't use Perl but surely some mucking around with one of the other standard Perl-XML libraries will come up with one that supports more rigorous output. XML::Simple seems to be used primarily for parsing XML for very simple things, not for forming it. (whatever you do, DON'T treat XML like it was just any old text file!!) --24.147.86.187 20:30, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

October 16

SHA-512

I'm looking for a program that can create SHA-512 hashes on OS X (locally, no web apps). Are there any that aren't a pain in the ass to install? Cheers. --MZMcBride 01:01, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Well... one half-way-there solution is to use PHP installed locally (which is very easy to to do on OS X—it often is already included) and run it off of the localhost as a "local" web app, and use its mhash functions, which seem to support SHA-512? I don't know if that would work for your needs (since I don't really know them), but it would be very easy to set up. --24.147.86.187 02:47, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

I am not sure but you probably already have the shasum script. Just open up a terminal and type shasum --help and see if it is there. -- Diletante 04:12, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

No, shasum --help doesn't work. Frankly, I'm shocked that no one has created an OS X app for this yet (or at least I haven't been able to find one). --MZMcBride 05:10, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

It looks like you can compile openssl to do SHA512 digests, according to the OpenSSL documentation. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jsbillings (talk • contribs) 13:19, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Routers

I have some sort of a D-Link Router set up in my home, sharing an internet connection with a wireless adapter thing on one computer and a LAN cable going to another. It worked perfectly when I first started using it but then one day the computer hooked up wirelessly just stopped being able to connect to the Internet. I was also using the Wi-fi on my PSP and it stopped working as well. It said there was a DNS error. However, the wireless network status states that the connection to the router is fine, and the one connected with the LAN cable is still working. It's really frustrating. Does anyone know how this would be fixable? Thanks Mix Lord 04:42, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Try the following: unplug and replug the power cable on the router, then go to start, click Run, type in CMD. When the command prompt pops up, type /ipconfig release, then when that is done, type /ipconfig renew. This should reset essentially everything and fixes most problems related to networking. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 05:47, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Okay I'll try that but if the connection with the router is still fine (which it seems to be) will that change anything?Mix Lord 00:29, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

information technology

hello sir/madam, my self lovenish mittal,me persuing my P.G. in M.Sc(comps.) from panjab university chandigarh. i have to give seminar on "PAST,PRESENT ANT FUTURE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY" and after searching a lot me not able find out the material as per my teacher's requirement. she wants me to cover each and every thing changed til now in IT sector,its growth,inventions like networking,internet,hardware-software devlopement etc..as IT is very vast topic but still m confused from where to get all this.if u can help me out i will b very thakful. and please mail me your answers on '*********@gmail.com'. i wil waiting for your feedback. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.227.11.194 (talk) 05:13, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

E-mail address removed. Do not provide contact information, such as your e-mail address, home address, or telephone number. Be aware that the content on Wikipedia is extensively copied to many websites; making your e-mail address public here may make it very public throughout the Internet. Lanfear's Bane 09:10, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

You could start with History of computing, but please remember we are not here to do your homework for you. 87.112.85.54 12:03, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Remember that 'information technology' is technology used in direct association with information - it's storage and dissemination- in that sense it includes paper, printing press, telephone/vision, library, etc... that should get you started.87.102.12.235 18:13, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Faster Browsing

I was given advice to do this in Firefox; in the url box type about;config, then go to the filter text box type network, scroll until you get to network.http.pipelining; change that to true, and change the one below that from 4 to 10. Now always one to want faster, I tried it then tested my speed using [4], I did not get that different results. But I would like to know what this actually does, and what other editors think about this. Phgao 14:14, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

I think pipelining causes Firefox to download more than one element of the web page at the same time in parallel. This will not increase your maximum speed as measured by speedtest.net, but it may make web-pages load slightly faster in some situations. (If you (or the server) have a slow connection like a dial-up, this setting will probably slow page loading times.) 69.95.50.15 15:09, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

MozillaZine explains. Turns on HTTP pipelining. --h2g2bob (talk) 15:37, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Thanks guys! Phgao 16:57, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

To the ip; why don't you consider getting an account :) ? Phgao 16:58, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Latest OSS Software

what is the latest open source software? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Opie kriss (talk • contribs) 15:07, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

(add title) --h2g2bob (talk) 15:38, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

I'm not sure what you mean. The latest open source announced project? Who knows—dozens must be started every week. The latest finished application? (Can any of them be really described as "finished"?) The latest version of any given application? (So many to sort through, and what would be the point?) I think it would be better if you clarified what you were looking for and why you were interested in it. If you are trying to write a paper on OSS, for example, I would recommend focusing on the latest ones which have garnered a lot of attention and user base, like the Mozilla Suite or OpenOffice.org. --24.147.86.187 16:19, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Category:Free software contains all Wikipedia's pages on free software (free software and open-source software largely refer to the same thing). The latest versions of free software are available for download from...

• The software authors' websites (examples: [5], [6]). These sometimes offer versions which are still under active development.
• Many Linux distributions can update or install free software using software like synaptic, or directly from the website
• Open-source software sharing sites, like SourceForge host many open source projects
• Your friends who are already using the software may provide you with a copy

So there are quite a few sources for the latest free software --h2g2bob (talk) 16:46, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Check out Ubuntu and navigate around the nauseatingly stupid disambig page.. to find that Gutsy is coming out in 2 days!! Unfortunately for use gnome-haters, KDE 4 has been pushed back till december. So meh. --froth^t 00:25, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

CSS positioning with Safari

I'm working on a website for a client who happens to be using a mac; I don't have access to a macintosh. While I see a nice gallery page here [7], she sent me a screenshot here: [8]. I've got it in a center tag with relative positioning to shift it from center to provide space; is this not allowed in Safari? example:

<p align="center"><span style="{position: relative; left:-2in}"> <a href="floral.htm">
 <img src="images/thumbs/flowerthumbnail.jpg" width="144" height="96" border="0"></a></span>. 

Kuronue | Talk 17:10, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

I don't know about the Mac/Safari setup - but personally, I deeply distrust anything measured in "inches" because so many people set up the pixels-per-inch thing in their browser incorrectly. And even when they don't - do you really want the images two inches away on an iPhone or a PSP or something? I'd try setting a number in pixels - after all, you set the image dimensions in pixels. SteveBaker 17:21, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

I had it in pixels; she has a very, very large screen at a high resolution and complained that they were too close together (50 pixels of space looked fine on my screen but wasn't showing up on hers) so I tried inches; though, now that I think about it, that might have been the same issue, since it's not showing any space in inches either. Kuronue | Talk 17:27, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

First, I have to note that this would be MUCH easier with a table. But, keeping in the "table are evil/css is good" mindset, you can mimic a table. Wrap all of the images on the top row in a div with width set to 100%. Inside it, have three divs set to a width of 33% with text-align center and display inline. On some browsers, you can use spans - but I've had too many of them refuse to set a width on my span. So, you have three dive, each 1/3rd of the screen and an image inside them comes out centered inside the div. Repeat for the second row but with only two internal divs set to 50% width. -- kainaw™ 17:35, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Apple recently released a beta of Safari for Windows, so you don't need a Mac to test on Safari any more. You can download it from here. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 18:09, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Sounds like the problem is more to do with this insanely high screen resolution and (possibly) an improperly set up dots-per-inch thing though - I bet Safari has nothing to do with it. The problem is that there is no way (in general) for the computer/graphics-system to know how big the display is - so "inches" is never a meaningful measurement unless every user has gone in and hand-tweaked the settings for that (which hardly anyone ever does!). Using pixels is occasionally useful - and using percentage-of-window-size can help - but the trouble is that people use high res screens in two ways... some people have big monitors with lots and lots of small (but still pretty readable) windows - other people have smaller monitors with one really, really, crisp/sharp window. For the first community you need pixels - for the second window-size-percentages. Basically, we're doomed. SteveBaker 21:03, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

I viewed the website in question in Firefox and Safari at the same resolution (1024x768) and I got the results shown in the screenshot, so the two are definitely rendering it differently. I don't know if either one is at fault or if it's a problem with the code. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 21:09, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

The site in question is here [9]. Definately a Safari issue.Changing span to div makes it worse. Any other suggestions? Kuronue | Talk 23:15, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Try the following...

<html>
<body>
<div style='width:100%;text-align:center;'>
	<span style='display:block;float:left;width:33%;text-align:center;'>FLORAL</span>
	<span style='display:block;float:right;width:33%;text-align:center;'>VINEYARDS</span>
	<span style='text-align:center;'>GRAPES</span>
</div>
<div style='width:100%;text-align:center;'>
	<span style='display:block;float:left;width:50%;text-align:center;'>COASTAL</span>
	<span style='display:block;float:right;width:50%;text-align:center;'>COMMERCIAL</span>
</div>
</body>
</html>

This works for me in Konqueror, which has the same engine as Safari. -- kainaw™ 23:33, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Ooh, that looks shiny, Kainaw, but I managed to figure it out with help from the apple forums: Safari doesn't like curly braces in its inline CSS tags. Removing them fixed it. Kuronue | Talk 13:40, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Flash issue exporting to QuickTime

I made a nifty animation in Flash CS3 that I want to export to quicktime so I can import it into Final Cut Pro. I did this MANY times and it worked fine—it exported fine and imported fine. Now, a mere minutes later, when I export it just exports as a black screen. The SWF itself runs fine (it is very code-heavy), but now it won't export at all to quicktime. It's driving me a little mad since I didn't change any of the settings — I just changed some of the code around, and it still works fine in the SWF, but no longer displays (the code changes I made were not major, and I have tried even reverting them to its original state—no dice).

I've tried restarting Flash and everything else numerous times but it seems totally borked. The status log generated by the export shows nothing suspicious. Any thoughts? I'm totally baffled here. --24.147.86.187 19:34, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

OK—now it works again. I changed the export filename, now it suddenly works. WTF. --24.147.86.187 19:37, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

64-bit processors?

Is it true that I need a 64-bit processor to take advantage of computer memory beyond 4 GiB? It makes sense because 2^64 B = 4 GiB, but somehow 32-bit processors still manage to address several tebibytes of hard disk space. If I upgrade to a 64-bit processor, will my 32-bit Linux OS (Fedora 7) and all its programs still work, or will I need a 64-bit version? JIP | Talk 20:00, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Disks can be broken up into sectors which hold an arbitraty number of bytes. You need only address the sectors, not each individual byte. Still, problems with sector numbering caused a similar problem, not too long ago. Maybe logical block addressing will explain it?

As for 32-bit apps, in general, 64-bit processors are fully backwards-compatible with 32-bit processors. However, you need to use 64-bit code to take advantage of 64-bit features. That is, Fedora 7 will still work, but they still won't be able to reach over 2GB (4Gb?) of memory. --Mdwyer 20:37, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

It's complicated. 2^32 is 4G - so a 32 bit processor can only access 4Gbytes of RAM memory quickly and efficiently. Disk drives don't need to be accessed really quickly so you can access any amount of disk space with a 32 bit processor. There are a few systems out there that use memory bank switching techniques to get more than 4Gbytes of RAM into a 32 bit box - but it is still the case that an individual program can't reach more than 4Gbytes. In some Linux setups, you can get a lot more speed out of your 32 bit processor by using only 2Gbytes of RAM - the reason for which is deep, dark and arcane - and you don't want to know about it!

A 64 bit processor can access over 16,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes of memory. Which is more than any computer the size of yours will EVER have because there are only about that many atoms in something the size of a RAM chip! So artificial limits like 4Gbyte are gone forever. However, I doubt many motherboards will be able to accomodate the 8 billion or so memory sticks it would take to fully make use of the 64 bits - so there are bound to be limits still.

As previously explained, you have to be running the CPU in full 64 bit mode to take advantage of all of this wonderousness. I'm doing that with SuSE 10.2 on my AMD64-based laptop and it's working very well. I have no idea where Fedora is on this right now. SteveBaker 20:50, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

I think there's always a lot of confusion when referring to a processor or something as "64-bit" or "32-bit". It usually refers to the size of integers the processor uses. Some processors use 64-bits internally, but have a 32-bit interface. Or vice-versa. But the amount of memory a processor can handle is determined by its address bus, not the size of integers it uses. On [10], quoted from [11], it says the address buses usually aren't 64-bit, and it doesn't look like it will ever need to be.

As far as the software question, running 32-bit apps on a 64-bit operating system is usually a tricky (you need 32-bit libraries), but can be done. However, it is usually ok to install the 32-bit operating system on with the 64-bit processor, but there are some issues with that as well (see the webpage linked before.) --Bennybp 21:29, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Let's not be hasty with the "that's all we'll ever get" notion: $2^{64}$ atoms of silicon is just 0.8 milligrams, so we could have another 16 or so bits to add in even a very small form factor (nearly 4 more if we can use each electron on each atom!), although admittedly 8 of those are taken up by it being bits and not bytes. --Tardis 21:59, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

You know what they say about 640k... --froth^t 00:11, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Also, I'm very interested to hear why linux has problems with 4GB of memory. I thought this was a limitation of motherboard clocking/timing? --froth^t 00:14, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

It's not a "problem", it's just a matter of making effective use of the 4G virtual address space. If you have 1G of RAM, you can offer 3G of address space to each user process, and keep the 1G of RAM mapped simultaneously so a process can make a system call and the kernel can access whatever it needs without changing the mappings. This is called the "3G/1G split" - 3G for user mode, 1G for the kernel. If you have 2G or 3G of RAM there's the possibility of using a 2G/2G or 1G/3G split, although those options are not widely used. The other main option, called "highmem", allows the kernel to use more RAM than the size of its side of the "split", but since it can't have all that RAM mapped simultaneously, it must do more page table manipulation, causing TLB misses, which slows things down a bit. With highmem, you can use a full 4G of RAM (or even 64G with the PAE extension which has been around since the Pentium Pro). The fact that you can find some tasks that are performed more efficiently with less memory is not because of a "problem" or bug in the big-memory usage, it's just that a certain optimization (mapping all RAM simultaneously and keeping it mapped forever) is not possible when RAM size equals or exceeds the size of the virtual address space. So there's your "deep" answer. (It may also be wrong in a few places. I'm not a kernel programmer and they're the only ones who really understand this stuff.) --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 06:35, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

CRW on Linux?

My mother suggested that I finally move from a middle-end digital camera (Canon PowerShot S3 IS) to a DSLR - she has a Canon EOS 10D, she suggested a Canon EOS 400D for me. But the principal issue is, unlike my 100% Windows-only parents, I only use Linux at home. My mother has no problem with converting the CRW files her camera takes in Photoshop to PSD or JPG, but I fear I will not be so lucky. CRW is a Canon proprietary format, and what I have learned, Canon hasn't even learned Linux exists. JIP | Talk 20:04, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

No problem! You can do it in either ImageMajik or GIMP with the right plugins. The low level decoder for these images is a package called dcraw [12] - that page lists about 30 applications that use the library and can therefore read CRW. There is a GIMP plugin that uses UFraw [13] - which in turn uses dcraw - so with some dinking around, you should be good to load CRW into GIMP. This page is a reasonable guide to what you need: [14]. You might want to get your mom to email you some CRW images to try out first before you go out and spend a fortune on the camera. There is a detailed description of the format here if you really want to know what goes on under the hood. There is an article on working with raw camera images up on Linux.com too [15]. SteveBaker 20:41, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

dcraw and the accompanying GIMP plugin were easy enough to install. But I found that when I open a CRW file in the GIMP, all I get is a dialog box with only a few checkboxes for conversion options, and when I click OK, the plugin automatically converts the CRW image into GIMP RGB (which I can then later convert to JPG or PNG or whatever by hand). From what I've seen from my mother's work, Photoshop allows much greater control over the CRW conversion, with a live preview. I'll never get the hang of raw conversion if I can't see by my own eyes which parameter affects what. Also, now I get an error message on stderr from dcraw every time I open a non-CRW file in the GIMP (it still works though). JIP | Talk 17:22, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Holding on to what I'm doing

Just inquisitive, is there a program out there that can, prettymuch let me fully shut down my computer and then let me go back to the webpages I was on and all the tabs, with the taskbar the way it was before shutdown? I live an overcrowded life, and I'm turning the computer on, turning it off, then having to open up all of what I was doing again. Tried google, but I got a bunch of junk about Applied JavaScript and XHTML. Know of any? I know that it wouldn't work at startup, but would could it be used by clicking a button? YДмΔќʃʀï^→Г_C← 10-16-2007 • 22:16:07

Does hibernating the computer help? I know hibernating is not the same as turning off but for most practical purposes, it could be the same. Firefox lets you quit the browser and open the same web pages next time you open Firefox. (Opera, too, has the feature. Safari and IE7 should also have similar a feature for you to enable.) --Kushal^t 22:22, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

I understand where you're comming from, and I probably will do that, but I can't get back what I was doing, for say last Tuesday when I came out of hibernation could I? I guess I could hibernate though. YДмΔќʃʀï^→Г_C← 10-16-2007 • 22:39:32

Both firefox and windows explorer will open all open windows again if you leave them open when you turn the power button off.--Dacium 23:35, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Hibernate will restore your computer to exactly the same state it was in when you turned it off (Firefox and any other apps still open and with the same documents/web pages loaded), whether you turned it off yesterday or last Tuesday. As Kushal said, you can also set Firefox to automatically remember what tabs you have open and restore them when you close and re-open it. You can enable this feature by going to Tools > Options... and selecting "Show my windows and tabs from last time" in the very top dropdown menu. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 23:44, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Ok, thanks then! YДмΔќʃʀï^→Г_C← 10-17-2007 • 00:33:45

BTW, OP, your signature is cool. --Kushal^t 19:56, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Just unicode characters *rolls eyes* Everyone's little brother uses them to make crazy arabic style names in Counter-Strike --froth^t 20:43, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

October 17

Clipboard

Where could I locate clipboard on my computer? That options shows up when I close a word document and have worked with pictures. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.121.107.157 (talk) 00:31, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Well if they are in your copy menu open a fresh word doc and click 'control+v' (i.e. ctrl + V) to paste. Alternatively (http://www.pencildude.com/tips/clipbook.html) shows how to locate it on XP machines. ny156uk 00:46, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

windows vista sound problem

i just installed windows vista on my Sony desktop which came with XP. Now my sound card doesn't work. In fact, the computer fails to recognize it. I don't remember much about the old card, it was made by yahama, I believe. How can I get it to work again?

Thanks,Rob —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.56.231.40 (talk) 01:11, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Check Sony's website. Usually, big computer companies have technical support websites where you can plug in your computer's serial number, and it will show you all the latest drivers & updates available for your model. However, it may simply be a case that there is no current Vista-compatible driver for your sound card. -- Kesh 01:25, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

• Ask Microsoft. They caused the problem, so they should be able to help you solve it too. If you're in the Netherlands, there's a independant Help desk for Windows Vista problem. Sorry, forgot the address. The easiest solution is not to install Vista in the first place until all the kinks are ironed out (not likely) or if you already installed it, go back to XP. - Mgm|^(talk) 08:57, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Does the Sony website have any information on it? --Kushal^t 19:54, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

"UNIQ", "QINU" and more in a MediaWiki section URL

One section heading in Wikipedia, which includes several <ref> tags before the closing ==, has the unusually cryptic URL

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parental_leave#Parental_leave_rights_in_different_countries_around_the_world_.07UNIQ699896e027ff968b-nowiki-00000012-QINU.072.07UNIQ699896e027ff968b-nowiki-00000013-QINU.07_.07UNIQ699896e027ff968b-nowiki-00000014-QINU.073.07UNIQ699896e027ff968b-nowiki-00000015-QINU.07_.07UNIQ699896e027ff968b-nowiki-00000016-QINU.074.07UNIQ699896e027ff968b-nowiki-00000017-QINU.07_.07UNIQ699896e027ff968b-nowiki-00000018-QINU.075.07UNIQ699896e027ff968b-nowiki-00000019-QINU.07_.07UNIQ699896e027ff968b-nowiki-0000001A-QINU.076.07UNIQ699896e027ff968b-nowiki-0000001B-QINU.07

Where does 699896e027ff968b come from? What do "UNIQ" and "QINU" indicate? Why is the word "nowiki" included? What other tags than ref, if any, generate this type of URL when placed within a section title, and could useful tricks potentially be based on this or related behaviour? NeonMerlin 05:57, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

2M Upload

With all the hype over the 2 millionth picture on wikimedia commons, does anyone actually know what the upload was? 195.194.74.154 07:55, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Nope - it seems nobody knows. Someone noticed the 2M mark had been passed when the total was already 2,006,000 or so. The problem of determining which one was precisely the 2 millionth is tricky - the problem is that images are deleted at a fairly high rate - so a photo might very briefly become the 2 millionth - only to fall back to being number 1,999,999 later on. So unless you are actually watching when the first one crosses 2 million - you'll never know. Even here on Wikipedia - where people watch the article counter like hawks when a major milestone is crossed - there is always considerable debate as to which is "officially" The One True Winner. SteveBaker 23:46, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Factory Fit Modules in IT Products

I'd like to know what is the meaning of the term/phrase factory fit modules in any product of the IT industry. I'd also like to have some article on the approach that can be followed for the same. Kindly help. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Hny13180 (talk • contribs) 08:47, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Firefox help needed

http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/6232/firefoxpp9.png

As you can see above, my history tab seems to have completely gone. How do I restore it to its former glory?

116.12.146.226 09:37, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

I am sorry but I don't understand your question. Could you clarify the question? If you ask me, I usually just use the keyboard shortcut. --Kushal^t 19:53, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

My guess is that 226 wants his browsing history to show up in the history menu one website per menu entry (as it normally does). If you go to tools>options...>privacy, is the box next to "remember pages visited for the last _ days" ticked? If you press ctrl+H to show the history, is that emtpy as well? risk 20:15, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

A history list is shown in that menu (between Home and Recently closed tabs) on my "slightly older" FireFox (IceWeasel) so I imagine this is a feature which has recently been removed? Select "Show in Sidebar" to show your history in the sidebar. --h2g2bob (talk) 23:36, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

vista

i recently installed vista home premium.i put a password to limit those who use my pc,anyway i 4got my password and i just formated and re installed vista.after losing most of my info i remembered what my password was.i was wondering is there another way to log in if u 4get ur ur password.and dont have a paswword reset diskette?anyways thats the last tyme am using "knees" as my pasword. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.24.111.82 (talk) 11:18, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Not to my knowledge - plenty of ways to do it with XP. Why not just make a backup administrator account? -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 12:23, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Offline NT Password & Registry Editor? --Spoon! 22:08, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

hard disk errors

I recently assembled a new PC from components that I bought individually. After just less than a month the hard disk died a death and I received a warranty replacement.

Two days after installing the replacement hard disk the computer is showing the same symptoms again - odd scraping and rebounding noises from the HDD, Windows XP blue screen errors (some with stop code 0x00000024, some disappear too quickly to note), and occasionally programs unable to find a particular file.

Is this just bad luck or is there a possible cause for the hard disk failures? The disk is a 500 Gb Seagate ST3500630AS Barracuda 7200.10, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.5 ms, NCQ (as was the first one).

I'm currently running the Seagate diagnostic scan on the drive, and one of the things it notes is "POH 26". What is "POH" (Wikipedia has articles at pOH and Poh but neither are relevant) and is a value of 26 good, bad or irrelevant? Thryduulf 12:16, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

A bad run of disks from the manufacturer? It's not unheard-of, and if you're not bouncing your system around and you are providing proper cooling for your disk(s), there aren't too many other explanations.

Atlant 12:19, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Bad luck, most likely. When things scrape, you've got the platter getting wrecked, end of story. Is your case extremely hot? Do you move it around a lot? Are your screws tight enough so that the drive isn't rattling around? (spinning drive = mini-gyroscope). Otherwise, try another manufacturer/brand. BACK UP YOUR DATA! -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 12:21, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

The case doesn't get moved very much at all, but it does get quite hot in there I think. The CPU seems to run at between about 35 and 54 C with the motherboard typically staying at around 41 C according to the monitoring tools. The monitoring utility notes the current disk temperature is 37 C and the worst is 40 C, but I don't know if this is good or bad?

The hard disk bay is a firm fit (its a quick release case that doesn't use screws) and so it will not be rattling around. I haven't had any opportunity to create any un-backed up data since last time yet, so that isn't an issue! Thryduulf 12:29, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Maybe the drives aren't getting enough power, or getting intermittent power, and the read/write heads keep crashing? If so, the PSU's the culprit. I think POH stands for power-on hours (Google "Seagate POH", first result). Temperatures look OK to me. CaptainVindaloo ^{t c e} 12:44, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Would there be any other symptoms of insufficient power? Is there an easy way to test it?

http://sucs.org/~cmckenna/newpc is the spec of my PC, although I'm using a different case and monitor and it has a 3.5" floppy, an IDE DVD-RW and and IDE CD-RW on the system as well. Thryduulf 12:49, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Is it still using the 350 watt PSU? I'm not sure 350's enough for that spec. CaptainVindaloo ^{t c e} 12:55, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Yes it is using 350 watts. If it isn't enough, what would you recommend? Thryduulf 13:11, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

I can only find information online for the processor; at 125W it doesn't look promising (assuming I have the right one). I'll take a rough guess at 450W at least. CaptainVindaloo ^{t c e} 13:59, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Oh, just one thing. It could just be a bad power connector. Try a different connector from the PSU to the drive before you get a new PSU. CaptainVindaloo ^{t c e} 14:55, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

easily embeddable interpreter language.

I see python is like 12 megabytes, Perl like 15. Is there a popular modern scripting language (perl python php ruby etc) that's minimalist and like 700 KB for the whole interpreter, frequently embedded, etc. uTorrent leads me to believe ANYTHING can be done in like < 1 MB.

Thank you! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.234.80.94 (talk) 16:03, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Forth? Not exactly a "scripting language", but pretty darned useful. It's certainly small as it fits into Open Firmware boot ROMs.

Atlant 16:28, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Uh, I specifically said "scripting language". FOR EXAMPLE, say uTorrent were willing to embed a scripting language (for whatever reason) that's already minimalist and modern and completely prepackaged for embedding. And it wanted to increase in size by, say, 1 MB or 2 MB or something. What would it embed? Surely a couple of megabytes is enough to write a parser! Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.234.80.94 (talk) 16:47, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

The reason I suggested Forth even though it's not exactly a "scripting language" is because many folks (including me) don;t really recognize any hard and fast distinction between "scripting languages" and (what?) "non-scripting languages". If my suggestion of Forth offended you, please feel free to ignore it.

Atlant 19:14, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

I'm not aware of anything, but you're right that you could fit a parser in a couple MB. Applesoft Basic fit in 12K of ROM with room left over for the Monitor. Woz's original integer basic was even smaller. Donald Hosek 17:08, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

-- List answer to this question : PLEASE EDIT IN-PLACE:

• Forth
• Some old BASIC scripting language
• Applesoft Basic + an emulator for the hardware and software it ran on (heh)
• lua
• tcl
• Scheme —Preceding unsigned comment added by BenRG (talk • contribs) 23:47, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

You can write comments below here. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.234.80.94 (talk) 17:34, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

What do the statements "python is 12 megabytes, perl is 15" refer to? The amount of disk space taken up by a minimal installation? The amount of memory used to run hello world? In either case I think those estimates are too big. But lua is smaller. And maybe tcl. --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 17:32, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

It refers to the download size for the environment. I don't see a smaller, embeddable Python or Perl download, e.g. for Windows. What's the smallest, complete, command-line Python or Perl interpreter implementation?

What I mean is, say a minimalist program (my example is uTorrent, but you could use Notepad or whatever) wanted to add a form input, and a button to send the contents of that form (text-area) to an embedded interpreter. It doesn't matter why. Just a minimalist place for the user to do run arbitrary script in a given language. Now, what scripting language could they embed that would only bloat the program by a couple of megabytes (if that) and is MODERN and popular, along the lines of php, python, ruby, perl, etc, etc.

As for why someone would want to do this, I don't know. I often copy from the console instead of typing all the variations into a text editor, so you could picture my question as being about a Notepad.exe that includes an additional line to enter Perl one-liners, even for systems that don't have Perl installed. IE it's embedded. So that instead of writing: "perl -e 'for(1..10){print "$_: ", 1.7 * $_, "\n"}'" (unfortunately I don't have perl installed here so I can't test this) to give you a quick list of factors of 1.7 (for whatever reason) you can just write the part inside the single quotes and click the evaluate button and cut and paste the answer - even on systems that don't have perl. Embedding perl this way would increase Notepad's size from kilobytes to 10+ megabytes -- is there another, minimal, popular scripting language this isn't true for? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.234.80.106 (talk) 17:45, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

To be clearer, I'm repeating the question below, rephrased. (Not exactly the same question) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.234.80.106 (talk) 17:49, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby - which has a minimalist (< 1 MB) implementation you can embed?

Are any of the above programs, or modern, popular competition to them, minimal enough to where you can embed the basic interpreter language in a very small (couply of megabyte) program?

If these aren't, please answer up above about interpreted languages which are. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.234.80.106 (talk) 17:52, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

I don't know about the ones you mentioned (Is Ruby easy to embed in things? I'd like to know myself.), but depending on your purpose I know some people seem to like Lua. I've seen apps with embedded Lua implementations that are under a meg. --APL 18:26, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

• You might be interested in Hecl, an open-source Tcl-like language that can run on the J2ME platform, which has some very small implementations. --Sean 20:26, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

I don't know anything about actually embedding the interpreter code within the executable (remember stupid licensing issues if you plan on actually doing this), but scripting languages have command line interpreters that you can just include in your package.. php.exe for the Windows PHP implementation, /bin/perl on linux systems.. I'm sure something similar exists for python and ruby. Lua is used in a ton of newer video games for AI or UI scripting and the code is freely compilable into commercial executables (via the fantastic MIT license) --froth^t 20:37, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

On my Linux box, the 'libpython' file for Python 2.5 comes out at 1.1Mbytes (this isn't a perfect measure of the size it'll be in main memory - but it won't be far off) - it's going to pull in some other libraries - but those are things like pthreads, the math library...stuff your main program probably already has loaded. It'll consume more memory once it's running - depending (of course) on how big the Python program it's running is.

For comparison, the 'libgcj' file for GNU's Java is 2.1Mbytes - and it pulled in a bunch of other stuff too. PHP doesn't seem to come with an embeddable version - the executable is over 2Mbytes.

The winner - by this measure - would be Ruby. 'libruby' is a mere 0.84Mbytes.

SteveBaker 23:22, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Websites Unknowingly Bookmarked

Hello. When I opened a printing dialog box on Adobe Acrobat, I clicked on Printing Tips, leading me to Adobe's website. Why/How does this website bookmark itself to my Favourites without my prior knowledge? Thanks in advance. --Mayfare 17:54, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

I don't think the first part of your question matches the second part, but I'll try to answer both. Any program running ON your computer has the ability to start up a web browser at a specific page. That's how clicking on "Printing Tips" got you there. As for your Favorites, any program on your computer is able to drop a .URL file into a favorites folder. Sometimes, programs will do this when they are installed. --Mdwyer 19:19, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Mostly you see this behavior from malware and shareware; Acrobat is merely bloatware. It's possible the Acrobat software is doing this to you but I'd be surprised --froth^t 20:31, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

mobile phones

Who invented the mobile phone. Which country were they from and in what year?217.171.129.68 20:42, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

We have a whole article on the history of mobile phones — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 22:13, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Yahoo Mail out of beta?

Is [new] Yahoo Mail still in Beta? I don't see the Beta sign in my mails. Has Yahoo! made any comments on it? --Kushal^t 22:48, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

This is the Yahoo Mail web log entry: [16] Red 23:02, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Checking file size from the command line

There has to be a way to check a file's size from the command line in Linux or Mac systems. I tried the file command no luck. Thanks for helping everyone.