Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing

WP:RD/C C #eee #f5f5f5 #eee #aaa #aaa #aaa #00f #00f #000 #00f computing Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing Computing WP:RD/C

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November 30

Where is the Icon stored in an exe file

I'm wondering, where in a .exe file is the "icon" that will be visualised by windows is stored ? And also which tools can be used to put an icon on an exe file (I never touched any compiler so far, is it an option in Visual C++ ?). - Esurnir (talk) 04:26, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

The icons, bitmaps etc. are called resources. There are lots of freeware resource editors out there.

I use ResHacker [[1]]
http://www.angusj.com/resourcehacker/ 59.93.35.12 13:27, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

Quoting the result of a preprocessor directive in C

I'm relatively new to C, and I'm just starting to get into some of the really odd areas of the language. As part of an experiment with C and gcc, I need to use asm("...") to modify the internal name of a function. My code looks something like this:

/* ASM_USES_UNDERSCORES is defined elsewhere. */
#if ASM_USES_UNDERSCORES
#define EXT_C(sym)  _ ## sym
#else
#define EXT_C(sym)  sym
#endif

/* Example usage: asm_prototype(void, f, (int a)); */
#define _asm_prototype(type, name, params, extcName)  type name params asm(#extcName)
#define asm_prototype(type, name, params)  _asm_prototype(type, name, params, EXT_C(name))

Unfortunately, this doesn't work: the preprocessor quotes the EXT_C literally, giving me prototypes that look like this:

void f(int a) asm("EXT_C(f)");

... which is obviously not what I intended! Since I can't use ## with double quotes, how should I convince the preprocessor to quote this properly? (Sorry if it's a dumb question, most of my C experience has come from fiddling.) --Aaron Rotenberg (talk) 05:47, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

Your goal can be achieved by using an extra layer of macro-ization, like this:

#define Str(x) #x
#define _asm_prototype(type, name, params, extcName)  type name params asm(Str(extcName))

The more work you do with the preprocessor, the uglier it gets. --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 11:05, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

Ah, I was thinking that might work. Thank you! --Aaron Rotenberg 21:00, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

A problem with my MP4/WMA/REC/AMV player..

I have a ploblem with my mp4 player... actually it has a capacity of 4GB.. but after i format (FAT) more than 3 times that device, now it shows capacity of 0.99 MB.. when it was formated first(FAT- 64 cluster) i could get only 12 songs..but it shows more than that...when accessing the 13 th song it shows a message "Format Error". can anyone suggest a software for formatting that device and to get actual capacity.?

..version... XID_91N51_V5 2007-09-17 9.0.50 2005-01-09 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.177.162.187 (talk) 12:48, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

I would suggest you to consult your owner's manual for the device, find out what format to use, and reformat the device. Formatting the device a certain number of times typically should not render it useless. Could we have more detals on what type of storage (flash?) your device uses? Thanks. --Kushal^t 04:49, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

Disabling Keystroke Loggers

Hello. Is pressing Shift+Ctrl+Alt+W on Windows 2000 or XP to disable keystroke loggers a hoax? Thanks in advance. --Mayfare 17:31, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

If a keystroke logger is installed as an administrator-level (or kernel-level) entity then nothing will disable it short of removing it entirely. If it's a hardware logger then only removing it will do. So if you've any reason whatever to believe a machine might be compromised in this matter, then it's obviously unwise to type anything confidential into it. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 17:36, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

Not sure where you heard about that (Google pops up nothing), but there is nothing de facto about that said of keystrokes (or any set of keystrokes) that should disable keystroke loggers. (Yes, I know that some keystrokes are reserved by some Windows OS's for the Winlogon process, but even that wouldn't "disable keystroke loggers", it'll just make it so that specifically logging in or out of windows is out of reach of any software, i.g. only a small subset of activities)--24.147.86.187 23:25, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

Power supply question

I'm trying to get a new power supply for my machine and wanted to ask some advice here on the subject. The machine is an A64 machine with 2 hard drives and a floppy, so it needs the ATX style connector, one of those 4 pin connectors, and the relevant number of "Molex" connectors. Beyond that I don't really know what factors to discriminate with. 68.39.174.238 19:37, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

Take a look at ATX#Power supply. I guess (never having seen an Athlon 64 motherboard) that it'll be the 24 pin WTX (or ATX-24) connector. If not then it'll be a regular ATX (ATX-20) connector. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 01:54, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

I mean, advice like company (if any), wattage, etc. 68.39.174.238 03:48, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

This is going to be nearly useless advice, I fear, but all I can say is "Go big!". A weak power supply is difficult to debug, and it is suprising what can push you over the line. I was fine with my A64X2 and a big video card, but as soon as I put an extra GB of memory in, the machine wouldn't start! I upgraded to an Antec TruePower Trio 650 Power Supply, which has been more than sufficent for me. The Antec name seems to be pretty well trusted, and the power supply was nice and quiet, too. --Mdwyer 22:15, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia Programming Info

I was wondering a couple things about the programming of Wikipedia.
I guess initially, from my research I'm pretty sure that Wikipedia is programmed in PHP. As I'm learning about PHP and MySQL programming (and Apache thrown in (which is surprisingly amazingly difficult to learn)), Wikipedia is an amazing site to learn from.

I was wondering, for the "Show changes" button on the "editing page" for Wikipedia articles, what do they do, or how could it be implemented in PHP to compare changes in this fashion? Even if it's not in PHP, how could it be accomplished in PHP?

Obviously, with a "submit" button and a form, or three submit buttons and a form, I'm assuming that each button is given its own value in "POST", and that value is initially used to trigger the compare function. ^{Though on a side note here, I'm not sure how GET values are passed in a POST form submission, unless they're written directly into the form "action" attribute?}. Then it's to the page comparisons. I'm assuming that the current data is retrieved from "a database" (even if it's not, for my method I'll have to assume it's a MySQL database for example), then this is where I'm really wondering what happens. Perhaps use of the strstr() function, checking for literal errors, which would even check for case-changes. Or a slower and more complex Regular Expression, which I'm not sure would be applicable to this function. However even with strstr(), I'm not quite sure how this would be implemented, looking for changes (to be highlighted in red), then continuing past them and counting the additional (somehow deemed "already existing") parts after the "changes" - "un-changed". This is where I'm really wondering how it's done, perhaps in some sort of loop or something?

Thanks so much for your help!-TAz69x 23:32, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

The Mediawiki software stores the current wikitext of each article (in a MySQL table called "cur"). For older entries it stores the "backwards deltas" that you need to go back one version. These are computed using a diff algorithm (I don't know if the software does the diff in PHP, a C library, or if it outsources the job to one of several Unix diff programs). The diff algorithm is also used if you're comparing two non-adjacent versions (in which case the software has to perform the diff when you make the request). -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 23:37, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

^{Just a note, yes, you're right that you can write GET values into a POST submission by modifying the action attribute. That's usually how it is done if you are using both of them.}--24.147.86.187 00:58, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

From what I can tell (I just downloaded MediaWiki to see), all of MediaWiki's different calculation is done within PHP (the code is in the file DifferenceEngine.php). As code goes it is not too hard to follow though you'd have to know a lot about how MediaWiki handled content before being able to actually use it for anything, and it seems to use some pretty computer-sciency code to calculate it. What it seems to do, and maybe I'm wrong about this, is to first find everything that is the SAME between the two files and then work backwards from there. The code comments mentioned this link as a helpful one; it's pretty readable and gives a good idea of how these sorts of problems are optimally solved programmatically: http://www.ics.uci.edu/~eppstein/161/960229.html. --24.147.86.187 22:12, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

Thanks so much for your help so far guys!, this is amazingly helpful! That link is kind of along the lines of the way I thought it would work as I sketched out a "diff-like" function in my head. And I just downloaded mediaWiki (it just occurred to me that you can, as I read your post! I'm looking through the files now, and it's so awesome (and amazing) to figure out that Wikipedia is programmed in PHP, especially as I've been programming in PHP and MySQL for the past year after I had the great difficulty in choosing a programming language that I could use to program a real website, perhaps with high traffic. Choosing "the right" programming language was so very hard to do [especially with no know-how]! (eg. ASP, C#, Visual Basic, PHP, Perl, Java, etc. etc.!) So it's great that all of my work and effort and everything has all been for something! (I always knew that Yahoo! is written in PHP, but soooo many other websites seem to be written in ASP that I had wondered if I had chosen correctly) Anyways, so far so good! Any more help, comments, suggestions, side-thoughts, etc. etc. are all greatly appreciated! It's so interesting to learn how everything works here.--TAz69x 23:36, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

PS- How do the controls (is it called a WYSIWIG.. something or other?) on the editing form work? Are they Javascript? Anyways, thanks so much for your help again!

December 1

Table width

Hi, a simple HTML question. Is there a parameter that modifies "cell padding/spacing" on width only? On List of compositions by Sergei Rachmaninoff I wish to have about 4px horizontal space between cells, but I don't want this huge space vertically. ALTON .ıl 00:59, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

Mmm, I don't think so. What you'd probably do is do it via CSS and modify the padding-left and padding-right of each cell itself, but without the ability to modify the CSS for the whole page you'd probably have to modify the style attribute of each cell, which would be a real pain. Maybe someone can think of a better way. --24.147.86.187 01:11, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

Well you can apply styles to the table as a whole, if that's what you mean. But anyhow I don't think I'll need it. Thanks for your help. ALTON .ıl 01:48, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

No, that's not what I meant. You can't apply styles to specifically all the cells in the table (not the table as a whole—they are different things, the difference between applying a style to the TABLE element and to the TD elements) individually without being able to edit the page's base CSS or create your own classes, which you won't be able to do for Wikipedia articles. --24.147.86.187 17:08, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

synchronize firefox bookmarks

I would like to be able to synchronize bookmarks across multiple computers. I tried to do this a while ago using a Google product, but found that I really didn't care for everything else that was installed along side the bookmark synchronizing. I have seen a plug-in called Foxmarks that looks good but I don't care for the vagueness of its privacy policy. Is there an easy way to do this on my own? I'm thinking that the browser could download the xml file when it starts, then upload and overwrite when it closes. Thanks Man It's So Loud In Here 01:55, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

Booksmarks is a simple HTML file (bookmarks.html). Assuming you have some web hosting somewhere you could write a wrapper script around Firefox that does a put/get as you describe. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 02:06, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

How do I accomplish this? I don't want you to write the script for me, I just know nothing about this. Do I need to use a scripting language (I hear a lot of people talk about perl) or is it just the language used by the command prompt. Thanks. Man It's So Loud In Here 16:37, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

Oregon Trail

why cant I run the computer game The Oregon Trail on my windows vista computer? Any ideas on how to make it so I can run it?

Our The Oregon Trail (computer game) indicates that it was written for DOS in 1992. For stuff that old DOSBox may be the best option. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 02:08, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

If it's the original Oregon Trail game you want to play (rather than one of the sequels), you might want to try getting the Apple II version, and running it on an emulator. I've got a copy that runs just find under Windows XP on AppleWin. Obviously, I can't tell you where to download a copy of the game itself, but it isn't difficult to find. --Noodhoog 03:24, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

Port 666

If I use Whats Running 2.2 to display running IP Processes, I note an ongoing attempt to connect local IP 127.0.0.1 to Remote IP 127.0.0.1 using local port 666. The attempt tries to connect to remote port 1, and when this fails attempts to connect to remote port 2, then 3, then 4, and so on - it continues ad infinitum into the 1000's. I know that 127.0.0.1 refers to my own machine, so can somebody please advise what is going on here ? I am fairly sure that it isn't malware due to the fact that I use a good updated Internet Security package, not to mention that malware would be attempting to connect to a remote computer ??? Google indicates that port 666 is used by games such as Doom, however I do not have such game installed on my system. If this is an innocuous thing that I can ignore what about resource utilisation - is this process slowing down my system in anyway and how do I stop it ? Thank you ! --Dr snoobab 04:40, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

Doom uses 666 as port for incoming connections. The port used for an outgoing connection is usually assigned automatically by the operating system at random from the pool of available ports and bears no significance. You have a process on your system that perfoms a full portscan. Perhaps it *is* your security package, that regularly performs this scan to check for installed backdoors? You can see which process initiates the scan using for example http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/Networking/TcpView.mspx.

Thunderbid attachment problems

We are using Thunderbird at work. It was running through a Linksys Broadband 4 port hub and is now running through a Netgear PVS318v3 Broadband ProSafe VPN Firewall 8 port hub/switch. Something is causing a problem with attachments larger than 500-600 kB. It appears to be working but then says that it's unable to send. If we disconnect the router and run directly then any size attachment will be sent. The problem is that there are only two of us who can disconnect/reconnect the router properly and as of Monday the entire airport (not just our two computers) will be running through the router. I tried using Opera on my USB key and that had no problems, so we may have to change clients but if anyone can suggest a solution we could continue using Thunderbird. Thanks. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 08:37, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps lower the MTU on the router. --131.215.166.209 23:10, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, that helped a bit. We can now send 700 kB files but still nothing larger. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 07:27, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

Ah problem solved. A combination of reducing the MTU and upping the timeout settings on Thunderbird solved it. Thanks. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 08:25, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

It is nice to hear that ... --Kushal^t 17:09, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

How can I import bookmarks to Firefox from Navigator 9.0.0.1 ?

Yet another Firefox question -- and I'm not just wanting to import bookmarks but my proxy server info, passwords, auto-form fill stuff, all that stuff that I have spent forever accumulating.

On Firefox the dropdown menu only offers to import things from Safari. (I am on Mac OSX 10.4.11)

I went here: Import Bookmarks but it doesn't have Navigator unless Navigator is now called AOL (since according to the Wiki AOL bought Netscape out).

Just hating on the new Facebook fascism and I have always passionately hated AOL. I used to have Mozilla Chimera which I loved, and Opera for awhile but for some reason Firefox never retained my information in boxes like comments or email (or this box that I am typing in *right now* when I would go forwards or backwards in the browser history and that got frustrating. So, if you know how to solve that problem that would help too.

Nota bene: I am STOOPID when it comes to computers -- as stupid as this girl is about Hungary.

Merci d'avance. Saudade7 15:36, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

Did you try going to (Whatever menu "File" is on System 10) > Import... and see what they listed there? It should autodetect and work with Navigator since that's (for it) fairly easy. 68.39.174.238 04:02, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

Alas the only thing that shows up there is Safari. I downloaded some kind of file that was supposed to help ferry the information across but it didn't seem to so anything. Thanks for helping (again). By the way,68.39.174.238, on your page as far as registering an IP, I voted for you to do anything you like in the "It's none of my business" column. Your reluctance makes me imagine that you are actually a famous academic or spy or something. Saudade7 05:11, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

Something like Wikipedia that you can download onto your computer...

While I'm at it...

I am writing my dissertation and I think it would be really helpful if I had something exactly like Wikipedia that was just mine on my personal computer, that I could create pages on and hyperlink from one thing to another and store images and bibliographic info on etc. Of course I cannot just use the real Wiki because nothing I would store there would be perfectly formatted or written or seem "notable" enough to the public.

I tried Filemaker Pro 8.5 which was a piece of crap. I like the Wiki because it is so minimalistic and uncluttered visually...and it WORKS! I'm on Mac OS X 10.4.11. I'm sure if I was a programmy type of person this would be easy to make, but I am an art historian, alas. Also, would it take up a lot of space on my hard drive? I would be willing to pay for something like this (but I am not wealthy). Maybe someone could write it and package it like those people used to package Linux - even though it was open source some people needed someone else to do it for them. I am sure the Wiki code is open source, no? Or is this already available somewhere? Thanks in advance. Saudade7 16:38, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

MediaWiki, the software behind Wikipedia, needs to be installed on a server with some other applications. TWiki for Windows Personal can be run from your PC quite readily or it can be installed to a memory stick.[2] --— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 16:50, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

There is also Wiki on a stik using MediaWiki, but I have never tried it. --— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 16:53, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

Hey now, being an art historian doesn't mean you can't be a programmer!! There's nothing more silly than technophobia in the humanities. In any case, yes—FileMaker Pro is pretty much a piece of crap. (I've never met a FileMaker Pro database that I didn't hate and think could have been better done in some other software for probably half the effort and twice the payoff.)

My recommendation, since you have OS X, is to install PHP and then install MySQL and then you can install MediaWiki into your "Sites" folder and run it off of your local server (which you can enable by going to System Preferences > Sharing > enable Personal Web Sharing). You'd access it in a browser just like you do Wikipedia on the web, except the address will be something like "http://127.0.0.1/~yourosxusername/MediaWiki/" or whatever. Installing these things on OS X is pretty easy to do, in part because you already will have Apache running in the background (though you don't know it) and OS X makes integrating these sorts of things pretty straightforward. It won't take up much space on your harddrive other than all of the stuff you put into it. --24.147.86.187 17:14, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

And just to add to this, for the sake of clarifying the techie jargon—MediaWiki is a program written in the language PHP that runs wikis (the same program used by Wikipedia). PHP is a language which requires an interpreter (another type of program) which needs to run off of your Apache server, which is most likely already installed by default on OS X. Apache is a web server that takes in requests from browsers and spits out web pages in response. MySQL is a database program that MediaWiki uses (via PHP) to store its information. The links I've put up above should take you to the installations that will both work best for your system as well as be easy to install (they all have little installing scripts if I recall). So it looks like a lot to work with but give it a shot; you can't go too wrong and if you hit a snag let us know. --24.147.86.187 17:23, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

I've had good luck with Oddmuse and MoinMoin wiki software. Oddmuse has very similar syntax to Wikipedia, but MoinMoin isn't very different, and has a "desktop" version or package that is meant for a single user. Neither one provides quite as much eye candy as MediaWiki. The Photon 18:10, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

Try WikidPad (http://www.jhorman.org/wikidPad/).. I haven't personally used it, but it looks pretty nice, and is open source. It's basically a notepad-meets-wiki type of thing. There's also ZuluPad Free Edition (http://www.gersic.com/zulupad/), which is Windows only.--Monorail Cat 21:02, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

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Wow! Thanks — Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - , 24.147.86.187, The Photon, and Monorail Cat, (I hope I got everybody...hard to see all those embeddy things),

I didn't even know I had Apache (?!?) so I will try that suggestion first. To 24.147.86.187 , thanks for the vote of confidence, but it took my boyfriend (ex) like 7 years to finally teach me the difference between RAM and ROM! Granted he used lots of perplexing metaphors like something about secretaries and the Endoplasmic reticulum... I *am* actually really good at math and symbolic logic, but I just don't think I could ever learn to write code!

It would be great if I could get one of these suggestions to work. I am afraid that first I am going to have to burn some things onto DVDs and save them into my external hard drive because I only have 3 gigs left on my laptop and must free-up some space -- once that's done I will try out these suggestions and let you know how they worked. I have entirely too much music!

Thanks again. (I was going to check back in 4 days as per the banner caveat) but you guys are so faaasssttt! Saudade7 00:35, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

Ignoring the fact that you've already got a million answers, you could use a program like wget and spider the whole site, downloading it to a server/your computer. YДмΔќʃʀï^→Г_C← 12-3-2007 • 02:14:17

If you couldn't understand the difference between RAM and ROM - it CERTAINLY wasn't your fault - it was your teacher. "RAM is computer memory that you can both read from and write to. ROM is memory that you can read from but cannot write to." ...that's it - how could that possibly be difficult? It certainly doesn't require analogies! If you can do math - you can certainly learn to program...and you SHOULD learn because computers are a part of our lives and people who can program them are able to get VASTLY more out them than people who can't. Buy a copy of "Java for Dummies" or "Java in 24 hours" (it means 24 one hour lessons - not one day!) or one of those books that are less than an inch thick. Download and install Eclipse and you'll be writing programs within a few days. It's like poetry though - anyone can learn to write it - but it'll take you 20 years to get good at it...but that's par for the course.

SteveBaker 22:05, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

Does PS3 memory slot support SDHC?

I was curious if anyone knew if the PS3's memory slots supported high capacity formats like SDHC? --72.202.150.92 19:30, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

The answer seems to be a "no". Please see Playstation_3#Differences. I don't have a PS3 so a more authoritative answer is welcome, though. Remember, WP:NOR does not apply to the reference desks, so feel free to add your own experiences ... --Kushal^t 17:12, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

A cursory search of the PS3 help on Sony with the keyword "SDHC" delivered no results. However, you can always use the previous format SC cards which are getting cheaper all the time. --Kushal^t 22:15, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

But they can't hold a DVD's worth of data :) --24.249.108.133 (talk) 00:47, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

3D Modeling Software Using Human or Humanlike Scanned Images

What is the easiest to use and most cost effective 3D Modeling Software that I can use scanned 2D images of existing human or humanlike figures with ? I would like to scan already existing figures to edit to my specifications. The software must also allow for very detailed work with facial features,clothing and weapons. Klstm 22:06, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

Maybe I'm wrong, but I'd be really, really surprised if there was software that let you take a simple 2D image and make it into a 3D image as complicated as an articulated human form. Usually with this sort of thing you have to make the model itself (either from scratch or from a template) and then create the various textures for the model (face, clothing, whatever) and put them on surfaces of the model. Things like "weapons" would require making entirely new models and textures. Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you want, or drastically underestimating how far 3D modeling technology has come, but it sounds really unlikely to me that you're going to be able to do this in a simple way. --24.147.86.187 22:19, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

A very common 3D modeling process is to take 2D images of an object (usually a top view, side view, and front view) into a 3D modeling program, then build a 3D object by using those images for reference. As almost any but the most basic 3D programs will let you do this, there are plenty of options for which software to use - what works best for you will depend on exactly how you want to go about modeling, the features you require in the software, and which operating system you are running. Since you mentioned 'cost effective' though, it doesn't get much more cost effective than free. Several commercial 3D programs are available for free with reduced functionality (for example Gmax or Maya Personal Learning Edition). There are also open source options such as Blender. Tutorials for laying out and modeling from 2D images in these, and many other programs, can be easily found via Google. --Monorail Cat 22:28, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

Hmm, having read 24.147.86.187's reply, I may have misunderstood what the OP was asking. If you're looking for software to automatically convert a set of 2D photos to a 3D model, then your options are limited. There are various programs that can do this (to find some, try googling for 'photo to 3D model'), but it is by nature a rather inaccurate process, which generally results in relatively low quality models, or at least needs a lot of work to get looking good. I would still recommend the '3D modeling from blueprints' approach I outlined above - although it can take quite a bit of work, it is capable of producing extremely good, even photorealistic results. --Monorail Cat 22:32, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

There are tools to take some photos of an object and reconstruct the shape - but they don't work for shapes with complicated undercuts and such - like a human being for example. They also don't work for casually posed photos - if there is any chance whatever that the object moved between front and side (and top/bottom) shots then they'll produce bizarrely distorted shapes...and for a human, that effectively means you need to take the photos simultaneously. Furthermore, they depend on the lighting being done right - again, this requires a fairly professional setup.

The means you do this automatically is to use some kind of 3D scanner or to take thousands of photoe (eg with a video camera) and use some of the cutting edge software that can recover camera positions automatically. This is pretty exotic stuff - and you certainly don't get it with basic off-the-shelf software. There are packages such as (for example) "Make Human" (for Blender) that will generate a naked human form (sans 'naughty bits') using a bunch of sliders and check-boxes that you can play with interactively to make the generated character look basically like your photos. You still need to hand-model clothing, weapons or anything else. This is NOT by any means an automatic process - it takes actual human skill.

I actually built a 3D scanner from a video camera, a laser pointer and some Lego...but scaling it up to human-size is non-trivial. I documented it rather carefully on my website here: http://www.sjbaker.org/projects/scanner/ - but it still has problems with complicated shapes that a professional scanner doesn't have.

My job is in video games graphics - if there was a 'press a button' way to make this happen more cheaply and easily than modelling humans by hand - we'd be using it.

SteveBaker 00:47, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

Someone apparently has built a tool that can automatically build a 3D model of a face from a still photograph. See [3]. --64.236.170.228 18:34, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

Yes - faces aren't too bad (especially if you cheat and ignore the hair as they are doing) - it's legs and arms that cause the problems. SteveBaker 21:52, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

December 2

LaTeX figure captions

Howdy, does anyone know if there is a method of setting up a figure caption to appear in the list of figures, but not in the text itself? I'm working on a bit of a hack to get the placement of a figure to be consistent with my school's thesis guidelines (ugh). Thanks, --TeaDrinker 00:38, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

• If you don't get any satisfaction here, you might try the Math desk, which has lots of LaTeX pros. --Sean 03:50, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

Thanks! I did get another workaround for it, but (as with most of the LaTeX I put together, it was a bit of a hack). --TeaDrinker (talk) 18:11, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

Japanese IME input

I'm trying to use the Japanese IME for XP but it's a little confusing. I'm used to the two-letter input system, for example typing "k" then "a" to produce か - however, the Japanese IME by default uses some sort of mapping system that maps each English letter to a kana, and I have no idea how to change this. Any help would be appreciated. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 07:57, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

I've only seen the one where you type romaji and it gives you kana, and I got that by default. Are you sure you're using Japanese IME standard 2002? --antilived^{T | C | G} 10:17, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

Yepo, v8.1. Tried messing around in the settings (including input settings) to no luck. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 10:54, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

Did you try this: Control Panel -> Regional and Language Options -> Languages -> Details -> Select "Microsoft IME Standard 2002 ver. 8.1" and then click on Properties. In the General tab there is Input method combobox where you should select "Romaji input". I always use Romaji input, but when you mentioned your problem, I switched this to Kana Input and got same symptoms as you. So, try switching this to Romaji input. — Shinhan < talk > 13:36, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

Was a combination of things including the above, but it's fixed now. Thanks for the help! -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 22:31, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

Fedora 8 problem: Picture spontaneously disappears

Since I switched to Fedora 8 from Fedora 7, I've had problems with my screen. Sometimes, the entire picture just spontaneously disappears from the monitor. The monitor switches to standby mode, as if it didn't have a video input at all. The computer keeps responding to keyboard and mouse input (as far as I can tell without seeing anything - but the keyboard lock lights still work), but no picture is displayed. Unplugging and replugging the monitor doesn't help. Restarting the X server does help, but I lose everything I had open in my session. What is at fault here, Fedora 8, my video card, or my monitor? JIP | Talk 09:59, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

I would initially turn off power management services. It is possible that it is errantly putting your computer into sleep mode. -- kainaw™ 18:05, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

I can't find power management services anywhere in the services list. What is the service or daemon called? JIP | Talk 18:22, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

Screen saver gone bad? Try xset s off --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 21:09, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

A network prompt problem

Please help anyone I have a network problem. I have been running a network comprising 25 nodes using a Novell 4.1 version. When establishing the network some 20 years back the nodes were loaded/booted with MSDOS. Later this has changed to windows95 and windows98. But now when Windows xp is loaded and comes to the DOS prompt for running the original Clipper program the DOS prompt is not showing the path in full. When we use Windows xp the mapped drives in the novell login script are not showing the path at the dos prompt. More clearely, at the dos prompt it shows only the mapped drive letter only. But this is not the case with Windows 95 and Windows 98, they show the prompt with detailed path. The same login script is used for Windows xp. for example

 If we map 
       G:= Vol1:\MAINCOMP\WORK1
 when using Windows 98 at the dos prompt we get
       G:\MAINCOMP\WORK1>
 but with Windows xp at the dos prompt we get only
       G:\>
 In both the case above the command $P$G is already there.

Further if there is a subdirectory below the mapped drive ie if there is a subdirectory NEWWORK below WORK1 and if we changed to that subdirectory using CD then the prompt will be

     G:\MAINCOMP\WORK1\NEWWORK>   with WINDOWS 98

AND G:\NEWWORK> with WINDOWS XP

This problem casused much difficulty to the users as well as to me in understanding where we are actually!. Please help me. 61.1.227.94 11:12, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

Maybe just map G: to be Vol:\ ? That should result in the same former behavior. I think its because only the NT Windowses (Or maybe just XP and up) will map a drive letter to a directory, 9x could only map to another base drive itself? 68.39.174.238 03:51, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

While I haven't run a 4.1 LAN in awhile, I do remember some tricks. Novell's scripting language allows IF/THEN constructs, and the script has access to info in the client, like the version of DOS being run. You can do something like IF (DOSVER) = 5 THEN Map etc and IF (DOSVER) = 7 THEN Map etc, where the Map statement differs according to the OS reported. You'll have to look up the exact syntax; all I have here is an NT domain and I refuse to get my hands and mind dirty... -SandyJax 21:08, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

Java plugin for Mozilla Firefox installs, but doesn't work (once again)

After I upgraded from Fedora 7 to Fedora 8, my Java plugin stopped working. I have registered the plugin by creating a symlink from /usr/java/jreversion/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so to ~/.mozilla/plugins/libjavaplugin_oji.so (where version is the version of the JRE), and checked that libjavaplugin_so isn't found anywhere else in either the Mozilla Firefox install directory or my personal settings directory. When I start Firefox, about:plugins finds the plugin, but Java Console does not appear in the Tools menu, and no web pages recognise the Java plugin. This worked all well and great under Fedora 7, but not any more. What the heck is wrong? JIP | Talk 18:25, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

Help finding a game

I'm looking for the name of a fairly old game for the Xbox (I think), but definately a console from that generation. The game focuses on running a pre-historic nomadic Tribe, and using yourself and those from your tribe to tackle monsters and whatnot. From what I remember, you can also customise your Tribes design, by altering the Headdress and colours etc. I only know of the game from reading an old Games magazine a while ago, and as such do not know its name or even if it was released. I know this isnt much information - but its all I have, and as such its fruitless to try and find it through Google or Wikipedia. Therefore the only person that will be able to give me the name of the game is someone who owns it (I imagine).

Again, sorry for the lack of information on the game, but I think its unique enough for anyone who has it to know what game it is. 90.207.56.119 23:29, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

Seemed you were talking about Black and White at first, but I doubt it, as I am not sure there was ever an Xbox version, and I do not remember the headdresses. If that's it, cheers. I'll see if I can remember any others. BTW Black and White was Games Magazines Game of the year for 2002(same year the Xbox came out, maybe thats why you associate it with the Xbox) - Dureo 06:43, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

Just realised this was in the wrong section, sorry for that. As for Black and White, it seems to be a simaler game to that, but thats not it. Thanks for the help anyway. 90.207.56.119 09:46, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

Okay, this might be a stupid guess, but I've been looking at this question for a while, and wondering "Is that person talking about Ooga Booga on the Dreamcast"? I suspect you're probably not, but hey, it's worth a shot --Monorail Cat 11:26, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

Afraid not, it seemed to have more of a mature tone 90.207.56.119 18:05, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

Populous: The Beginning? That fits much of your description, although it wasn't an Xbox title. --DeKay01 (talk) 22:29, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Nada, I'm afraid. To clarify more (I should really add all this at once, but it takes things like this to refresh my memory of what type of game it actually is, so sorry for that), it seemed to have "Realistic" Graphics, and use a Third Person view of one character , I think. 90.207.117.231 (talk) 17:58, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

December 3

tight and square autoshapes in word

In microsoft Word when I set autoshapes to to be tight or square in text why do they regularly do such odd this as to move to random pages, stick to the top of pages and refuse to move, refuse to change pages, and cause text to jump to the next page. Other people I know also experience this and it is ridiculous, whoever wrote the script that causes this must be totally incomprehensibly incapable. Why is this not addressed, it has been an annoying feature in office word for many years know, and yet has remained completely unaddressed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.203.50.108 (talk) 00:13, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

MS Word is not a paint program or a slide show program. It is a word processor. Squares, circles, arrows, and the like are not words. That is why it is not an important feature of MS Word. As for why it acts the way it does... When you create a shape (or embed a picture), it is anchored to an invisible location in the text. When that location moves, so does the embedded shape or picture. Also, there are many ways in which it affects the text around it - based on the set text wrapping. It may also be aligned left or right - causing more effects. Because the anchor is invisible and difficult to manage, it is often necessary to cut the image/picture from the page and then paste it back in again where it is needed as opposed to simply dragging it around. -- kainaw™ 02:12, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

try to be helpful. if all i wanted to do was write words why don't I just use notepad, in fact for those purposes why does word even exist. But the matter of the fact is I am doing a report and as a result I need many figs of graphs, diagrams and data etc. embedded in the page. What program should I use then, is there Microsoft Word and Pictures and Graphs and Diagrams out there, and I'm just to stupid to realise. Don't be obtuse. Your explanations don't really serve the problem at hand.

You asked "Why is this not addressed" and I answered that question. How is that not helpful? I even explained why the problem occurs and then explained a common trick for handling the problem. I completely fail to see how that is not helpful. Perhaps you want help for a problem other than the one you asked about. -- kainaw™ 02:12, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

Solution: Right click on the Picture, Format Picture -> Layout -> Advanced -> Picture Position and then uncheck "Move object with text". In this window you can also order the picture to top left corner for example (rather than moving it manually). I'm not quite sure about the "Lock anchor" setting though. Moving objects with text is turned on by default so you can insert image smilies for example and have them stay at the same point in the text. — Shinhan < talk > 13:24, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

I'm trying to get the shape to sit tight in text, and not move. Even when th text moves, but it refuses to do this, when I type over the end of the page, it moves all (not just new text all of it, leaving the page blank, if you click the cursor on this blank page it simply waits at the bottom of the previous page as if you cannot edit the page) the text off the bottom the page and jams all the images to the top of the page, and if you drag them away they jump straight back, its clearly a glitch i'm not just being moronic. Also now when images are set to tight text refusing to go in line with them, as if the images are set to be inline with text, this is a new glitch to me.

This has annoyed me for as long as Word has allowed you to do AutoShapes. Even the 'Move Object With Text' and 'Lock Anchor' options don't work all the time. My advice is to 'Group' Autoshapes together if they're part of the same diagram, otherwise different parts move independently and mess the diagram up. As somebody else said, Word isn't the best application for this kind of thing, something like MS Publisher or Serif PagePlus which has frames deidcated to text that will not 'go' anywhere they're not supposed to are better. GaryReggae 22:22, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

Proxy

So, if I'm using a proxy such as www.hidemy.info, what does that actually hide me from? Can my network administrator not see what I've been accessing, or people hacking my computer, or what? I've always been rather unclear on what a proxy actually does... Dev920 (Have a nice day!) 00:52, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

It masks your IP and other complicated things from the website receiving your request, so it essentialy makes a request for your computer, then gives it to you. A network admin can always see what you're doing, so if you go to www.someporno.com, then they see you've been to that site. I don't know what you mean by hacking, as in what, so I can't help you there, but in general I'd say they can still hack you.YДмΔќʃʀï^→Г_C← 12-3-2007 • 02:10:50

I was thinking about something I read about Tor where it said that people randomly scanning for unsecure computers would be unable to see what you were doing. But thanks. Dev920 (Have a nice day!) 02:24, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

I use tor with privoxy alot, in the form of the browser OperaTor. Privoxy helps secure Tor. In that sence, it depends. YДмΔќʃʀï^→Г_C← 12-3-2007 • 02:26:40

hidemy.info appears to use an unencrypted connection, so it's not protecting you from very much. About the only useful thing it does is prevent the target site from seeing your IP address. Anyone who could spy on your web browsing before can still do so; this includes your ISP, anyone using the same wireless access point as you, and so on. It probably also anonymizes your HTTP request and strips cookies, but you can install software on your own machine to do that (Privoxy, for example). Tor is much more secure (though probably slower). The usual suspects (ISP, etc.) can tell that you're using Tor and how much data you're transmitting, but that's all. But even with Tor the exit node can still spy on the connection, as can the exit node's ISP and so forth. They don't know who you are, and don't know whether different HTTP requests come from the same source, but they might be able to make a decent guess by looking at the content of the traffic. -- BenRG 04:28, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

Cell phone info - Razr

Can anyone tell me how I can transfer songs from my computer to my mom's Razr? I know that they use a non-standard screw size, and they set these systems up intentionaly. Since we're not rich, please don't suggest we buy one from Alltel, and switch out from Verizon. We tried to get the memory card out, but the (for lack of a better word) 6-sided screw is a 1 in metric. Thanks! YДмΔќʃʀï^→Г_C← 12-3-2007 • 02:06:51

If your computer has bluetooth, you can send it that way. USB bluetooth adapters are pretty cheap now, you could probably buy one for $20 if your computer doesn't have it built in. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.195.124.101 (talk) 02:22, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

I tried that, but couldn't figure it out. It kills my internet each time I try it so I've got to use system restore. Thanks though! YДмΔќʃʀï^→Г_C← 12-3-2007 • 02:28:09

I don't get it. What kills your Internet connection? And Why do you need to use System Restore just because your Internet Connection got terminated? Will not a reboot (after removing the bluetooth adapter) reestablish the connection? --Kushal^t 22:12, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

using .gzip, .gz, and .tar

How can I use any of these on windows? That thing in DOS won't work, and I don't see any software that I can figure out (Picozip). Plz help!Wanda Church 02:30, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

I think WinZip can handle unix archive formats. Also see Comparison_of_file_archivers#Archive_format_support--APL 02:59, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

If a file is compressed using gzip, gz, tar, bz, or bz2, then it is most likely a unix/linux file. There isn't much chance that it will be any use in a Windows environment. Of course, it is is possible to use tar to compress a picture or movie or similar, but when something is meant to be used on multiple platforms even the unix/linux guys will usually be nice and use zip to compress it. -- kainaw™ 03:22, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

(No, we Linux guys use all of those formats for cross-platform AND windows-only stuff - it's more convenient than ZIP). You'll also see '.tgz' which is a file that's a '.tar' file that has been gzipped. SteveBaker 21:47, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

Cygwin can handle all these kinds of file. Open source Source code is often stored in this way. And yes Winzip can handle those three formats: .gz and .tar. gzip is the program to zip into .gz format. And tar handles .tar format. Graeme Bartlett 03:29, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

winrar supports all those formats and I find it more useful then winzip. Vespine 05:25, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

It's the winnar --ffroth 18:15, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

7-Zip will also handle these formats and is available under GNU Lesser General Public License(i.e. free). See also Comparison of file archivers. --— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 18:26, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

Outlook express error 0x800ccc79

How do I get around this please? I am using windows98. - CarbonLifeForm 12:36, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

That error appears to mean that the SMTP server requires authentication. Try the steps listed here (scroll down a bit). If that doesn't work, just google the phrase "Outlook express error 0x800ccc79" and check out the other results. --LarryMac | Talk 12:41, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

"My server requires authentication" box is checked. Emails arrive; nothing goes. - CarbonLifeForm 12:53, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

I had that (or something similar). In the end it turned out that the outgoing port was wrong. The secure connection for the outgoing mail should give a different port number, you'll just need to find out what port your email provider needs Jackacon 20:34, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

It was working fine 3 days ago on ports 25 110. And I can access emails through easyspace.com webmail. But not outlook. - CarbonLifeForm 21:03, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

In my experience, Outlook Express can't tell the difference between "server is not responding" and "incorrect username or password". It could be that the server you're trying to connect to is down. --Carnildo 01:24, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

It is possible that your email address has expired. Check with the provider. - Kittybrewster ☎ 15:37, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

stopping websites

how do you stop websites from being accessed via the notepad? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.138.222.238 (talk) 17:25, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

Do you mean you want to disable the "View / Source" menu option? Any attempt you make to do so can be circumvented in lots of different ways. A browser needs the source to be able to render the page, that's pretty much how it works. Information wants to be free. HTML wants to be naked and promiscuous. --LarryMac | Talk 19:29, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

Interestingly, from notepad you can enter a URL into the File->Open requestor, and it will go out and retrieve the source! Neat! --Mdwyer 21:50, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

Wow! Thanks Mdwyer, that is cool! Think outside the box 14:57, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

The answer is that you make them into flash animations or generate them on the fly from JavaScript or something. SteveBaker 22:07, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

If you generate them from JavaScript, you can always just download the JavaScript directly and find some way to execute it so that it produces the HTML to you on disk. Flash is a bit more difficult because it's a proprietary language, but the Flash application can be downloaded to disk with HTTP just as easily as HTML can. The only difference is that making sense of it is more difficult, but Flash decompilers do exist. I use a free software Flash decompiler called Flare myself. The bottom line is, anything you can view in your browser, you can store on disk. There is really no way around it. If you want to restrict access, implement a server-side policy that refuses to send anything to non-authorised clients. JIP | Talk 22:29, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

In firefox you can highlight "generated" html and select view selection source to see it. Select all ftw. --ffroth 19:01, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

Trying to disable this functionality makes about as much sense as disabling right click on images. All it does it make is slightly harder to retrieve the information. Anyone who has any idea what they're doing can get it very quickly. Exxolon 23:22, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

And will probably avoid your website in the future if they possibly can. risk 00:17, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

I believe Internet Explorer 5 had this ability to encrypt a website's source, so that the source code was simply rubbish - via an ActiveX control. That being said, I haven't heard it being ported to any other browser nor upgraded - it sounds a little sheepish to me. That said, you can disable it if you are an Administrator on a Windows platform: [4] - but as people have said, it doesn't stop people from viewing a website's source. And the website developers themselves cannot do such a thing (without, of course, writing something akin to a virus). x42bn6 Talk Mess 13:15, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

What's stopping users from using a different browser than MSIE, or a direct telnet connection? This Internet Explorer hack only works if you have control over your users' computers (family, corporation, or university campus). If it's meant to be a globally visible web page, you have no guarantee your users will be using (a) Internet Explorer 5 with ActiveX, (b) Internet Explorer 5, (c) Internet Explorer, or (d) Windows in the first place. JIP | Talk 20:46, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

It largely depends on what you need done, you can't prevent the source from beeing visible but you might keep the information you want hidden out of the source. Taemyr 15:06, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

Free animation software

Does anyone have any experience with any freeware animating software? I need to combine a set of images to be the frames of a movie file. The individual frames are exported out of mathematica, so they can be any format I wish: .jpg, .bmp , .svg etc etc. I want the result to be as portable as possible and retain the quality of the original images so a quicktime movie would be best, but an avi would work also. I have googled "Free animation software" already and found a large number of results, but figured I could see if anyone else has any advice before starting the trial and error process.

Thanks in advance. Man It's So Loud In Here 19:20, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

For short 'GIF' movies containing just a handful of images, I use GIMP (just put each image into a separate layer). For more serious stuff (MPEG, etc) I use an open-sourced program called 'mencoder' - which is a part of the 'mplayer' package. SteveBaker 21:42, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

C++ library for an http server

I want to code a c++ project that creates a web server over http that can handle login authentication, cookies, and basic get and post interaction all in c++. I can probably figure out how to do this from scratch (maybe not) with sockets. Is there a good library out there that does this? something i can tell it to just sit and wait for a http connection then send off an on the fly generated webpage. I dont want to use apache/php or some otgher standard way of doing it i want to do it all embedded in one program. Thanks --Iownatv 22:33, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

• For reasons completely obscure to me, C++, which is one of the most widely-used languages in many domains, doesn't have a reasonable standard library like other comparable languages. The STL and other standardized parts are extremely puny as compared to even Java's base libraries, much less something like CPAN. You can search for "Template:Websearch", but as with so much else in the C++ world, you may be better off rolling your own. I hope that boost.org will blossom into something to be proud of, but for now they're focused on just making up for C++'s inherent inadequacies. --Sean 01:59, 4 December 2007 (UTC)
• yeah a CPAN for C++ would be great. It doesnt make sense that something like that doesnt exist yet --Iownatv 03:03, 4 December 2007 (UTC)
• also thanks for that google query, my searches for C++ web server library and http server werent showing good results like the one you gave me. I found one that seems good called Minimal httpd library MIHL written in C. --Iownatv 03:07, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

Google search help

How can I search for the dollar sign ? I want to add this to a search for a GPS unit so I can only find sites that list actual prices. (As a bonus, I won't have to deal with sites that list prices in pounds or kwedizels.) StuRat 23:05, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

This Google help page doesn't tell how to do that, but does give you something that might be more useful: you can search for GPS plus an amount in dollars that must be in a set range. Algebraist 00:49, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

Yea, "GPS $100..$200" works pretty well, thanks. StuRat (talk) 21:36, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

If you're using Google to search for products/prices/online shops, you might also want to try froogle, Google's online shopping search engine. --Monorail Cat 02:28, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

You put a backslash in front of it. eg \$200 SteveBaker 02:46, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

That method doesn't seem to work for a dollar sign without a value, like "\$", to list all prices found in dollars, unfortunately. StuRat (talk) 21:36, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

Doesn't work for other characters though. I was trying to figure out why this page thinks that .jpg.html files are potentially malicious but the backslash doesn't affect the dots and google searches it as 2 separate terms. --ffroth 03:27, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

Was that a serious question? I can put a link to www.myserver.com\puppy.jpg on a website, and everyone enjoys the cute picture of a puppy. Or, I can put a link to www.myserver.com\puppy.jpg.html and some inattentive people will think it's the same thing. It's not; its an HTML page that displays that puppy picture, installs two trojans, and formats your backup drive. -SandyJax 20:00, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

"Malicious" is a funny word to use to describe HTML. Marnanel (talk) 19:09, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

itunes is irritating

hello, this might sound like a simple question but it is perhaps not so simple. how do i turn off the itunes plus feature? I want to purchase an album but i cannot due to it costing more because of being listed as an itunes plus product.

help appreciated thanks. 142.161.226.96 23:19, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

iTunes is not irritating. They recently changed the prices to be equal for Plus and regular. —Nricardo 12:08, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

I can back that up. iTunes Plus is the same price as iTunes -- 99¢ US. --24.249.108.133 (talk) 00:48, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

December 4

Auto Power On

I used to have my computer automatically power on at a certain time. I remember setting it up in the BIOS menu. After I fried the mother board, I installed a new one, and I cannot find this option. How can I set my computer to auto power on? Thanks --Omnipotence407 02:44, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

I've never seen such an option- sounds stupid. You'll likely never see it again, it was probably particular to that one BIOS. --ffroth 03:22, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

Some of those TV cards have that feature built in. But you may have to fork out another $200 for the card. Graeme Bartlett 05:29, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

You could do it with wake on LAN, but you'd need another networked computer to do that --Monorail Cat 11:23, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

My older Toshiba laptop had this feature, but my newer Dell does not. I recall fiddling with it, but never really using it. --— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 12:03, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

Some motherboards have this Resume On Alarm feature where you can enter the time and even the day of the month which you want your computer to switch on. Try using it if your BIOS has this feature. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bruin rrss23 (talk • contribs) 14:32, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

Power supply for VGA card

I have 400W PSU. My config is 1 HDD(160GB),Pentium D (833MHz,3.00Ghz),1GB RAM,one XFX 8600GT 256MB,one DVD drive,Intel G965 mainboard. The card draws 41W as max(from site).But I didn't get the performance of the games as seen with the standard benchmarks except for the processor change(benchmark used core2duo).In games like company of heroes, at the specified settings I only got 20 to 30FPS whereas the benchmark displays over 50 to 60FPS.Also it is not smooth even when I get 40 FPS.Also I didn't use freshly installed XP and I didn't fragment my drive till date.Is there any prob with PSU or need more RAM?.Please advice.Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.164.62.202 (talk) 11:10, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

Have you already installed the drivers for your graphics card? If the drivers aren't installed Windows XP should be quite sluggish even for the mouse movements. Did you connect the 6 pin power cable from the PSU to the graphics card? Most graphics cards need more power than the PCI-e slot can offer and performance is automatically reduced as a fail-safe when the power connector's not plugged in. Also, try defragmenting your hard drive. File system fragmentation affects your computer's performance because more seek operations are needed to read the whole file off the disk. --Bruin_rrss23 (talk) 12:26, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

Is your display resolution and bit-depth set the same as the benchmarks? What about antialiasing setup? Those kinds of thing can be overridden in the "nVidia Properties" tool that you get by right-clicking on the desktop. If you've overridden them to something other than the benchmark folks did - then that would make a difference. Also, the processor difference may not be negligable. "Smoothness" in graphics comes about when the frame rate of the game equals the frame rate of the monitor. Using a flat-panel monitor may also cause 'smooth' graphics to look like they are jerky (I have a particular passionate hatred of most, if not all, flat panel monitors!) SteveBaker 14:51, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

download wikipedia

hey lets say i want to download like 10 topics on wikipedia.a pal of mine told me i need a software called web dumper which allows yo to download hundreds of articles from a website.is it possible or is he full of crap.how will i be able to download several topics without downloading page by page.

2.when i reboot machine the graphics are all mixed up.instead of the mouse pointer i get a square thing which moves as the mouse cursor.when i reboot everything is fine.only change i made is i changed the ram.

You can actually download the complete database you know, you don't have to download each static page.. --ffroth 19:00, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

ah... ok, and how does s/he/we do that? some more info would be great Boomshanka (talk) 00:30, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Database download, which even has a section Wikipedia:Database download#Please do not use a web crawler. That's a ridiculously large amount of stuff to download if you only want a few articles though. --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 08:05, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Google always telling me there's no results. Nothing but lies!

I've suspected it for years but could never prove anything. Until now! Google is lying about results!

Search string = "the big shot" "no sir, i dont"

Google says: Your search - "the big shot" "no sir, i dont - did not match any documents.

Sean says: [5] --Seans Potato Business 16:49, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

• Well, neither "don't" (nor dont) are on that page. On the other hand, the actual catch phrase -- "no sir, I didn't" -- shows up as often as it should. --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 17:46, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

Google sees through apostrophes. Whether you put them or not, it doesn't matter. Search for "dont" and you will get lots of "don't"s. Also it does say don't on that page. "His catchphrase was "No sir, I don't like it."" The fact that it also says "didn't" does not exclude the possibility that it could say "don't" and indeed it says both forms of the phrase on the same page. --Seans Potato Business 18:32, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

I get lots of results for "the big shot" "no sir, i don't" but only with the apostrophe in "don't". I think this has to do with "don't" being part of an exact phrase, so Google isn't ignoring apostrophes in it. Recury 20:20, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

According to The Google Guide, a single apostrophe is significant; their example compares "were" and "we're" (the first result on the "were" search is misleading). The Google Guide is not affiliated with Google, but it seems reliable enough, given the example results. --LarryMac | Talk 20:42, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

Okay, I just checked with the search string "the big shot" "no sir, i don't" and indeed found results that I don't get for "the big shot" "no sir, i dont" but what I don't understand is, why when I use search string "dont", then I get results inclusive of apostrophes. It appears to behave differently between searches for a single word and for a whole phrase. --Seans Potato Business 16:05, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

I think it's the double-quotes, not the single word vs phrase. Compare the results for dont to the results for "dont". --LarryMac | Talk 16:26, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

You beat me this time, Google, but I know what you're doing and I'll be back! [begin fade] You haven't seen the last of me! ---Seans Potato Business 00:12, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Win XP Installation/Startup Question

header added -

my friend brought me his pc which had xp home,i reformatted the harddrive and put xp pro after startup it asks for administrator password "what happen" please help cannot login dont know what password is —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.80.232.229 (talk) 19:35, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

Surely the documentation that came with your licensed copy of XP Pro addresses this? During the installation, there should have been a step to enter a password, although this step can be skipped. So you need to remember what you put in at that step, or wipe and re-install. --LarryMac | Talk 20:44, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

Blogging as a character in fanfic

Please note, first, that I'm not seeking legal advice, though I can understand if one thinks that; however, the answer should be pretty straightforward, and goes to the nature of blogging itself. I've never blogged, but had the idea that it would be fun to write fan fiction via blog, but with a catch - my blog would be that of a fictional character. (No, not Harry Potter, I'm not into that. :-) It would be G-rated, it's not one of those things some people do with fics. I just think it would be an interesting use of a blog. And yet, blogspot is unclear on whether that's allowed, fromw hat I read, and I don't know if people do that or not. www.fanfiction.net frowns on blog fics (or, at least they don't allow chat, maybe blogs they would, but you can't reach people there to ask.) And, just to show I do know the law behind it, the summary would contain a disclaimer saying, for instance, "x is a product of Warner Brothers/Charles Schultz/whatever, and this is purely a piece of fanfiction designed or entertainment, and not for profit." Or something to that effect. What about blogging as a fictional character you've created?209.244.30.221 20:12, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

I don't see how blogging as a fictional character would be any different legally from regular fanfic. It's not like the characters will get mad because you've misrepresented their views or anything. As for blogging as a fictional character you create, that is perfectly legal and many do that already. Recury 20:15, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

Calculator Password Program Code

Hey, well I have a TI-84+ calculator and one of the applications installed is one that allows you to start a program/app/pic automatically whenever you turn the calculator on. I was wondering if anyone knows a program code that allows me to set a password. It also needs to be a program that cannot be quit/exited by Clear or 2nd|Mode or by any other means except for entering a correct password. Does anyone know how to program this? Or at least know a site/forum that provides this code?

Thanks! Valens Impérial Császár 93 22:39, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

Initializing an array of non-PODS?

Consider this near-C++:

struct foo {foo(int i,int j) {}};
foo f[1]={{1,2}};

I have to initialize the one element of the array f, because foo has no default constructor. So I try putting the arguments to the constructor in braces in the brace-initializer for the array, but that's no good (gcc says "braces around scalar initializer for type ‘foo’"); parentheses of course just mean I'm using the comma operator. New (C++) says that new can't initialize arrays it creates, so perhaps it is simply impossible to put a datatype which may not be "default-constructed" (including PODs in that category) in an array (automatic or dynamic). Am I missing something, or is it truly impossible? --Tardis (talk) 22:56, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

You can do something like foo f[1]={foo(1,2)};, which constructs a foo, and then copies it into the array (it does involve an extra step of copying). --Spoon! (talk) 23:38, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

I'm aware of that approach, but I was hoping to create an array of non-copyable objects. I suppose that re-engineering the class in question is actually the right idea: make it copyable, or perhaps just give it a default constructor after all. --Tardis (talk) 15:49, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Alternately, you can try the Java approach, where all objects are accessed through references. So you have an array of references (pointers in C++) and you can set each one to a newly allocated and constructed object one at a time. --Spoon! (talk) 20:48, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Added question: is there any way to initialize even a POD array in a constructor's initializer list?

struct bar {int a[2]; bar() : a({1,2}) {}};

This obvious approach doesn't seem to work. --Tardis (talk) 23:16, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

Nope, you cannot. Arrays don't have non-default constructors. You can use a growable array data structure like vector, and insert elements one at a time, or insert multiple copies of an element. --Spoon! (talk) 23:38, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

The difference between construction and initialization never ceases to amaze. --Tardis (talk) 15:49, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

• I'm not super-clear on what the question is, but you might be interested in C++0x#Initializer_lists. --Sean 23:32, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

cangjie

Hi. I'm running Mandriva using Gnome. I wonder what is the easiest way to enable me to enter chinese text via Cangjie method. I have UIM and SCIM installed, but neither of them seem to have Cangjie in the list of available input methods. (In fact SCIM doesn't seem to list any besides direct unicode). What should I install to enable Cangjie input? --Duomillia (talk) 23:08, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

I think you mena kanji. --— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 02:48, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

No, see cangjie method. I have cangjie in my SCIM, under Traditional Chinese. --antilived^{T | C | G} 05:13, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Alright, so what do I have to do to get Cangjie onto the list of available IME's under SCIM? It currently just has European, English, and RAWCODE. --Duomillia (talk) 21:31, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

You definitely need to install Chinese support first. --antilived^{T | C | G} 09:11, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

December 5

Do web hosting accounts have bandwidth caps?

I am testing my website's bandwidth speed using Speed Test Pro http://speedtestpro.net[6] and it shows that my maximum bandwidth speed for my website is only 1.9 Mbps. My Internet connection using Speed Test Pro again shows my speed as 3 Mbps so I know it is not my ISP that is slowing it down. Does shared web hosting limit your maximum bandwidth speed? Or do I have something setup wrong on my web hosting account? It is a cheap web hosting account, but their website says they have a 100 Mbit connection to the Internet. I am confused and very frustrated, can someone help, please. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jakelittle11 (talk • contribs) 01:20, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Some providers have caps. It's also possible that the account have a set cap for how fast a single computer can download.

Does the website say they have a 100 Mbit connection, or does it say that they have dedicate a 100 Mbit connection for your site. If it's the former then you share those 100Mbits with other users of the provider, so you only get a fraction of the connection. In the latter you still share with other visits to your site. In addition there is loss,latencies and overhead involved when sending anything over the internet, so you will never get the a throughput equal to your bandwidth, see Throughput.

You might want to try at different times to see if this affects things, expect connections to be better when fewer people is on the net. Taemyr (talk) 08:37, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

radio auction

how do I get an application to enter the auction for the 700 mhz spectrum?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/01/technology/01google.html?em&ex=1196744400&en=6c9bd6fe4276d660&ei=5087%0A —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.217.195.89 (talk) 01:54, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Look here (http://www.ofcom.org.uk/enwiki/static/archive/spectrumauctions/3gindex.htm) it would appear that you submit a fax to the radio communications headquarters at Docklands. Of course this is a UK ofcom radio auction but similarly contact the area that are auctioning the spectrum and they will direct you how to do it. This (http://www.ntia.doc.gov/osmhome/osmhome.html) might be the owners of US ones. ny156uk (talk) 18:17, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

The FCC is responsible for the auction. You would need to register with the FCC. You would then have access to their Auctions Portal. Of course, you would also need several billion dollars in spare change. Information on the 700MHz auction can be found here. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 18:24, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Runescape

What is the first second and third most expencive thing in runescape acording to the grand exchange?thanks--76.235.183.66 (talk) 02:31, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Please do not crosspost. Lanfear's Bane | t 13:29, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Freeware video converter.

I know this has probably been asked before but I've been googling for an hour with no luck. is there a half decent windows video converter that can rip a dvd to mpeg4 with a few settings like compression and screen size would be nice, the aim is i want to synch a dvd to my iphone. the only tools I can find have lousy trial periods only allowing you to convert 5 minutes, or some other catch like big watermarks. Surely there must be a basic tool that can do this for free.. Vespine (talk) 02:50, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Typical, spend an hour searching, almost give up, post the question, and five minutes later happen across what may be the answer, a program called "handbreak".. Well if anyone has other suggestions.. Vespine (talk) 03:11, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

For the benefit of anyone else searching, that software is called HandBrake. --LarryMac | Talk 13:26, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

you could try Super (software) - most flavours of video - not sure about from DVD tho . Boomshanka (talk) 03:13, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

How to select particular columns of a particular row in VBA Excel

I have an excel sheet having data in rows 1 to 15 and columns 1 to 7. I a generating a code in which i need to select a particular row on basis of a condition. If the condition is true, the columns 1 to 7 of that particular row need to be selected and do some formatting on those columns. I want to know the code by which i can select columns 1 to 7 of a row in VBA excel.

Try this (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa221576(office.11).aspx) Range("1:7").select should work but Vba is really picky so it might take a few tries (can't try on my machine as no excel at home). ny156uk (talk) 18:14, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Computer memory related to hard disk

When we see the properties of our computer it display some less capacity of hard disk comparision of its original capacity (ex. if hard disk is 80 GB the computer show only around 74 or 75 GB) Why? —Preceding unsigned comment added by San sharma (talk • contribs) 09:08, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

80 to 74 or 75 is about the ratio of binary gigabytes (2^30 bytes) to decimal gigabytes (10^9). The Gigabyte article has some background information on this common confusion. --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 09:39, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

• There's also some loss of useful space where the operating system will reserve some disk space for its own purposes. --Sean 13:51, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Recovery of hard disk

I format my hard disk without taking backup. Can i recover my data? —Preceding unsigned comment added by San sharma (talk • contribs) 09:29, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

It depends. You can assume that any date that has been overwritten is lost. This means that if you used wipe options when formatting everything is lost, it also mean that if you have written stuff to the hard disk(this most likely includes booting the computer with this drive as primary) then some of the data is lost. Other than that you might want to take a look at the tools described in Data recovery#Tools. Taemyr (talk) 10:13, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Difficulty booting Linux in VirtualBox

I'm using VirtualBox to emulate Debian so I don't need to use another computer just for the sake of being able to experiment with Debian. However, there is one thing that seems to prevent the installer/Debian from loading. When I boot into the installer, I can't get into any of them except using installgui since they get stuck at tsc clocksource has been installed and only after resetting the virtual machine several times I managed to get past the clocksource freeze. Sometimes, I see a line saying that the "timer is running x% from normal - aborting" and that usually causes the freeze. I even got a kernel panic stating a sync problem. Even if I manage to get past that and install Debian, I have to perform the reset several times again as it wouldn't get past the few lines after the clocksource has been installed. Only through luck/many resets I could boot Debian and begin using it. What actually went wrong during the booting process causing it to get stuck at a line? --Bruin_rrss23 (talk) 09:47, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

EDIT: I've just upgraded to the latest version of VirtualBox so the whole thing managed to boot up (only panicked once), only the thing just lags and the clock seems like UTC+16 hrs. It's totally asynchronous except the audio since the clock runs slower while under load. Anyhow, I've already solved the problem, so no need to reply here. --Bruin_rrss23 (talk) 13:36, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Overnight

Sometimes I leave my pc computer on overnight. Always it is incredibly sludgy next morning and takes a while to limber up. Why? I have checked it as OK with Adaware SE and spyBot. I run Windows XP and AVG. - Kittybrewster ☎ 10:16, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Often, it has "paged out" everything you're interested in using in favor of whatever it was doing overnight. See virtual memory. It seems slowish until your programs and data get paged back in again.

Atlant (talk) 12:48, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Windows XP has a habit of moving any program or parts thereof that aren't actively being used to the swap file. By leaving your computer on overnight, almost everything will be considered "not in use", and will be swapped out. The "limber up" time is Windows finding out what you're actually using, and bringing them back off the hard drive. --Carnildo (talk) 23:06, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

That leaves the question: what is running overnight that uses all main memory? Windows does not page anything to the swap file unless it really needs the memory for something else. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.187.70.206 (talk) 02:24, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

File indexing daemons? Screensavers? Virus scanners? --Mdwyer (talk) 04:36, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Rarely my Apple Mac has the same problem, but it comes up to speed quite quickly. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.111.25.42 (talk) 09:17, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

The only things that work overnight (I think) are MailWasher (collecting new email junk) and AVG (updating and searching for viruses). Maybe some URLs update themselves. - Kittybrewster ☎ 10:00, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

downloading directory tree from Apache autoindex

Hi, I want to download a directory tree from an HTTP server. The directory and its subdirectories do not have index files, and all are displayed by Apache web server's mod_autoindex, so their format is predictable. I could use something like wget -r, but I want to avoid the "Parent Directory" (I don't want it to go up and download the entire web site.) and the "Name", "Last Modified", etc. sorting column heading (they are just duplicates of the same directory) links that are generated by autoindex. In fact, I don't really need to save the generated autoindex page itself. Is there a good program out there that can do this? Thanks, --131.215.166.100 (talk) 12:16, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

wget has -np to avoid going into the parent directory, and you could construct a list of patterns for -R to reject the alternate sortings. --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 21:20, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

WinZip

Where can I find an older version of WinZip? I updated my Winzip, and the new versions are only available for free for 45 days. This was not the case with the older versions. Funsides (talk) 17:58, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

This may be time to change to TUGZip or 7-Zip instead of Winzip. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 18:02, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

With version 10, Corel now requires you to purchase an upgrade on each major update. --— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 18:06, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

The Zip patents have expired, so pretty much anyone can make a zip program. I think InfoZip is now the standard, but their windows tools pretty much suck, in my opinion. I don't use 7-Zip, but I have heard good things about it. Finally, you could actually buy WinZip. I know, I'm talkin' crazy. --Mdwyer (talk) 04:35, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Software installer

Thinking about WinZip... we use an older version of WinZip Self Extractor as a simple software installer for deploying drivers. Can anyone recommend a simple installer package that might be better and available under GPL or the like? --— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 18:33, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

NSIS? It's not GPL but it's like GPL. --antilived^{T | C | G} 19:12, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Why is my PC running so SLOW?

I like to think I know quite a bit about computers but my PC has got to the stage where it is really beginning to annoy me as it seems so sluggish compared with other computers I use, for example my laptop, which has a lower spec and the same O/S seems like gresed lightning compared to this PC. I have upgraded virtually every part of it and it still seems slow. It's not particularly noticable for general tasks although opening Firefox takes about five seconds which seems like ages but when I try and do anything more demanding, it doesn't want to know. Movie editing and games can be painfull slow, we're not talking about the latest FPS games with richly rendered 3D graphics here but games a few years old. Even 16 bit SNES games (played on an emulator, yes I do have all the original games but it's a real pain having to keep dragging the old consoles out and going behind the TV to plug them in). These only use like 16Mb or RAM so not exactly resource intensive! Trainz 2006 and Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 also run like snails when I try and do anything beyond the most basic tasks, Trainz only needs 32Mb of graphics RAM which is much less than I have. It is making these games completely unplayable. What is supposed to last a second in the game lasts three seconds, it doesn't drop frames, just serves them a lot slower than it should do, the graphics freeze in between frames while the audio just stutters.

Here are the vital stats:

CPU: Pentium 4 - 3.00 GHz
Motherboard: ASUS P5PE-VM
RAM - 1GB DDR400 (in one module I think)
GFX: GeForce FX5500 AGP Card with 256Mb RAM
Audio: Creative Audigy Platinum
HDD: 80Gb; 25Gb free. This 80Gb 'drive' is a partition of a larger (250Gb total) drive.
O/S: XP Pro

Could it be any of the processes I have running? I'm not sure about some of them listed but here is what is running in Task Manager after a boot up where I have loaded nothing other than Firefox, Notepad and the processes that Windows starts up out of the kindness of its heart without being asked:

ALG.EXE (3,168K) What is this?
AVGAMSVR.EXE (308K) something to do with AVG antivirus?
avgcc.exe (240K)
AVGEMC.EXE (1,644K)
AVGUPSVC.EXE (596K)
CRSS.EXE (3,608K) what is this?
CTHELPER.EXE (5,508K) what is this?
CTSVCCDA.EXE (1,152K) what is this?
E_FATIACE.EXE (2,048K) what is this?
Explorer.EXE (18,660K) Win XP 'GUI'
firefox.exe (32,280K) Should Firefox really be using 32Mb RAM?
jusched.exe (2,060K) What is this?
KHost.exe (11,708K) What on earth is this?
KService.exe (12,078) ditto
LSASS.EXE (1,128K) What?
MsPMSPSv.exe (1,328K) What is this?
notepad.exe (2,996K) running in order to type in processes running
NVSVC32.EXE (2,674K) What?
SERVICES.EXE (3,844K)
SFAgent.exe (10,556K) SpamFighter (email filtering) agent I think?
SFUS.EXE (5,128K)
SMSS.EXE (372K)
SPOOLSV.EXE (4,268K)
SVCHOST.EXE appears five times, uses up about 35Mb total
System (220K)
System Idle Process (16K)
taskmgr.exe (4,208K)
WDFMGR.EXE (1,548K) Eh?
WINLOGIN.EXE (892K) Is this dodgy?
wscntfy.exe (1,744K) What is this?

All the above processes are apparantly using 229Mb of RAM in total - why is over a quarter of the RAM being used before I even do anything? I would very much appreciate any suggestions. Upgrading to Vista is not something I wish to entertain as the benefits are dubious and the prices even more so. Going over to Linux is not practical either - while I would dearly love to bid farewell to Bill Gates and his empire, most of the software I have only works with WinDoze. GaryReggae (talk) 22:00, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

A windows machine using only 229Mb just sitting there sounds pretty good to me. Is the computer slower now than when it was new? It could easily be some form of malware slowing you down, or it could just be normal windows slowdown over time. If practical in your situation, you might consider wiping clean and reinstalling the OS and all your apps. Of course, it'd probably pay to try less invasive fixes first. Friday (talk) 22:07, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Try installing Linux as a dual boot and see if you can use your programs with WINE. --Duomillia (talk) 22:10, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

A slow windows machine is not unusual, but your machine still has a pretty good spec, so it should zip along nicely if you take care of what is running on it. The first step should be to do a complete scan for viruses and run a spyware scanner (I use the free version of Ad-Aware, but there are others available). As for the list of processes, I think the following are supposed to be there for windows to run: CRSS, Explorer, LSASS, SERVICES, SMSS, SPOOLSV, SVCHOST, System, System Idle Process, WINLOGIN. And these other programs are there because you said you are running them: Firefox, Notepad, taskmgr.

To try to find out what the other stuff is, search for each program on your disk, right-click on it and select properties to read the version info. Many programs have version info in them (for example, my notepad.exe says "Copyright Microsoft Corporation..."). See if you recognise these programs as belonging to Microsoft, your video card maker, your anti-virus or anti-spam, your printer maker, etc.

Take a hard look at your system tray. Are all those updaters, checkers, configuration tools, etc. really necessary. Many of these things in the system tray get started at boot time and if you don't need them they just make your computer slower. There's a tool in XP (maybe called msconfig) which lets you modify what starts up. Use it to cut out the unnecessary stuff; and remember ... Is it really that important that Java runtime checks every day that it is the latest and greatest? Or that you have the ability to call up Real Jukebox from the system tray as well as the start menu?

Maybe your disk is highly fragmented. Delete your temporary internet files, delete the temporary files, and empty the recycled folder before you start.

After a good clean up, maybe you won't have to reinstall windows :-)

Astronaut (talk) 00:48, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for your replies so far:

@Friday: Reinstalling Windows helps a bit but it's a lot of work to keep reinstalling all my apps and I only did it last in September this year.

@Duomillia: I might give Linux another try as I wasn't aware of WINE and not being able to run my Windows apps was the only thing that put me off it. I've got a few spare HDDs (although I'm not sure they're much good, 20Gb is probably the best of the bunch) so I'll have a play around with Ubuntu or something.

@ Astronaut: Thanks, I will do a virus and spyware scan (I must admit it often doesn't get a chance to do a full system scan) as well as a proper defrag. As for the system processes, it appears ALG is the MS Application Layer Gateway service (whatever that is), all the ones beginning with AVG are AVG antivirus files, CTHELPER.EXE must be related to my sound card as it is from Creative Labs, CTSVCCDA.EXE is again fro Creative and something to do with CD-ROM access, E_FATIACE.EXE is related to my Epson print/scan/copy machine, JUSCHED.EXE it appears is Java Update, I have disabled automatic updates to this in the Java Control Panel as I will update it manually, KHost and KService, each of which are using up 12Mb of RAM are soething to do with Kontiki Peer-to-peer software which is something to do with the BBC IPlayer; I have disabled them on startup as I only use them occasionally and don't need the to start up every time! MsPMSPSv.EXE seems to be something to do with Win Media Player which I rarely use as I prefer WinAmp. I can't see any way of disabling this as it is not in the list in MSConfig (I'll come onto that later). NVSVC32 is related to NVIDIA so I'd better leave that as it is, SFUS and SFAgent are related to SPAMFighter although I don't see why it has to run all the time, it only needs to run when I am in Outlook but there is no way of disabling it. WDFMGR is another MS driver thing, WSCNTFY is 'Windows Security Center Notification App' which is annoying but I guess unavoidable.

Onto my System Tray now, all I have is the icon for removing USB devices, TaskMgr, Security Centre, AVG and Epson Status Monitor 3. Interestingly, I've just noticed my audio settings systray icon has vanished but I can access that fro the Start Menu anyway.

Now onto the contents of MSConfig.exe. The Services list is worrying long but it all looks like mainly MS and AVG stuff. Now for the Startup tab, here is a list of the contents: NVCPL (NVIDIA), NWIZ (NVIDIA again), NVMCTray (NVIDIA again), UPDReg (Creative Registry Update), avgcc (AVG), CTHELPER and CTXFIHLP (both Creative), E_FATIACE (Epson), SFAgent (SpamFighter), MSOffice Common Startup.

As I say, I will run a virus scan, spyware scan and defrag now and let you know the results. Thanks again for all your help.GaryReggae (talk) 07:22, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Resolution in HDTV

I have a chance to get a good deal on a Panasonic HDTV that has resolution described as: 1366 x 768.

I see a reference in Wikepedia that if the resolution is not "1080" (presumably 1920 x 1080)the HDTV may not be compatible with computers (I would presume for showing things like photos on the HDTV display from a computer)

Can anyone shed some light on this. The articles I have looked at do not mention 1366 x 768 resolution.......Gary B. —Preceding unsigned comment added by GSBens (talk • contribs) 22:25, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Yes it will be compatible with computers, as long as it has a VGA or DVI input. It simply means that the TV is only capable of 720p and not 1080i/p, and will be scaled down if such content is displayed. --antilived^{T | C | G} 02:25, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Personal experience -- if you've got a laptop, try to hook it up in the store. I've got a Westinghouse that reports the same resolution as your panasonic, but for the life of me I can't get it to run from a computer at the native resolution. The best I can do is 1024x768... --Mdwyer (talk) 04:31, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Hard disk partitioning question

I'm about to upgrade my Linux system to an altogether new one, which has a bigger hard disk. Previously, I used to have my hard disk partitioned so that about two thirds were root (/) and about one third was home (/home). But then I found out that my digital photographs filled up my entire home partition. So I bought a new hard disk solely to store them. Now I have about 5.4 GB in use in root, 1.4 GB in use in home, and a staggering 28 GB in use on the new hard disk (almost all of it is digital photographs).

My new hard disk will be bigger than both of my old ones put together. Should I keep with the current partitioning (root, home, and digital photographs), or combine the latter two together, so that one sixth would be root and five sixths would be home?

All the above is ignoring the boot and swap partitions. Their size is negligible in comparison to the root and home partitions. JIP | Talk 23:59, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

I know most distributions suggest some elaborate partitioning scheme but - it's bogus. The filesystem is a lot better at assigning space to your data than the partition table. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.187.70.206 (talk) 02:17, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Distributions suggest elaborate schemes so that an overflowing log (in /var) or process writing to /tmp can't bring down the whole system. It prevents a user filling their /home directory from impacting other services on the box. It isn't totally bogus.

Now, that said, I personally don't do the partitions. I have a tiny /boot, a sizable swap, and the rest is /. --Mdwyer (talk) 04:30, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

December 6

Desktop icons in Mac OS X

I was wondering if it's possible to have desktop icons on the desktop? I know you can drag the icons from the Applications folder but is there another way to have them in both places? Knowing me, I'll delete the icon from the desktop and accidentally delete programs... --139.184.222.105 (talk) 00:12, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Oh would "Make alias" do it? --139.184.222.105 (talk) 00:26, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Yes, that's what it's for. Algebraist 00:26, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

top-level domain I can't find in directory

I got an email the other day from a ".cp". At first I thought it might be a country code, but I haven't been able to find it on any domain lists. Googling was mostly ineffective as it appears to be ignoring the ., or that is communicating some kind of command I'm unaware of. Is anyone familiar with .cp, and if so, what is it? Natalie (talk) 04:44, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

It doesn't exist. Furthermore, according to ISO 3166-3, the list of former country codes, it never existed. It's either a typo (for .co, Colombia, maybe) or just a lousy forgery. --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 05:48, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

md5 as password

How secure would it be to use the md5 checksum of a file as a password (assuming that the file is reasonably unique and only possessed by the password's owner, and also assuming that an attacker may know that the password is an md5 checksum (but nothing about what sort of file the checksum was generated from))? 69.123.113.89 (talk) 05:21, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

See MD5#Vulnerability. For most purposes it would be secure, if you're really paranoid use SHA-1 with salt or even SHA-512 with salt. --antilived^{T | C | G} 09:08, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Help me get rid of an "Open With" function

http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/8923/openkw9.png

Why does the Open With function pop out when I try opening C:/?

AlmostCrimes (talk) 07:48, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Forum administrators and privacy

To preserve my privacy, I am using two IDs in a web forum. Can the administrator of that forum find me or identify me someway that the two IDs belong to same person? 2) When I register in that forum, they send a email to verify that it is my email address. If I click on that link, will my name given to my email provider be visible to administrator? Or will my name be visible only if I reply to that mail sent by administrator? Eventhough I register through two email address for two different forum accounts, in both my email accounts, I have given same first and last name.

Can you understand what I mean to say? Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.92.115.105 (talk) 08:59, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Yes, admins can tell the two ID's belong to the same person, by matching up the IP's between the two, and no, they probably won't get your name just from sending you the confirmation email, nor clicking the link. However, unless the admin knows that you're in some way suspicious or something they won't be bothered to match IP's and things, especially in large forums. --antilived^{T | C | G} 09:05, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Unicode composition ...

I'm trying to figure out the algorithm to implement Unicode Normalization Form C, but I'm confused when it comes to how the omposition stage id supposed to works: on this the standard says:

"If C is not blocked from the last starter L and it can be primary combined with L, then replace L by the composite L-C and remove C"

.. but if I "replace L with L-C, then remove C", then (to my puny ind, at least :-) I;ve would be just addeing, then immeduatey rnoving "C", which

put me exactly back where I started.

Am I missing something?