Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing

Welcome to the computing section
of the Wikipedia reference desk.

skip to bottom

Select a section:

• Computing
• Entertainment
• Humanities
• Language
• Mathematics
• Science
• Miscellaneous
• Archives

Want a faster answer?

Main page: Help searching Wikipedia

   

How can I get my question answered?

• Select the section of the desk that best fits the general topic of your question (see the navigation column to the right).
• Post your question to only one section, providing a short header that gives the topic of your question.
• Type '~~~~' (that is, four tilde characters) at the end – this signs and dates your contribution so we know who wrote what and when.
• Don't post personal contact information – it will be removed. Any answers will be provided here.
• Please be as specific as possible, and include all relevant context – the usefulness of answers may depend on the context.
• Note:
  • We don't answer (and may remove) questions that require medical diagnosis or legal advice.
  • We don't answer requests for opinions, predictions or debate.
  • We don't do your homework for you, though we'll help you past the stuck point.
  • We don't conduct original research or provide a free source of ideas, but we'll help you find information you need.

Ready? Ask a new question!

How do I answer a question?

Main page: Wikipedia:Reference desk/Guidelines

• The best answers address the question directly, and back up facts with wikilinks and links to sources. Do not edit others' comments and do not give any medical or legal advice.

See also:

• Teahouse
• Help desk
• Village pump
• Help manual

September 6

OS Kernels

How can I repair the damaged or lost kernels of Win XP SP2? --Omidinist (talk) 03:51, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

Hi Omi, can you give us the exact error message you are getting? --mboverload@ 03:52, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

CD doesn't play and this message appears: 'The application failed to initialize properly (c0000006). Click on OK to termiante the application.' --Omidinist (talk) 12:01, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

What makes you believe that is a kernel problem? If you had a damaged or lost Windows Kernel, the chances of you seeing anything past boot is very slim. - Jimmi Hugh (talk) 15:06, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

I downloaded SP3. Then I was forced to delete it because it caused some unwanted effects, like damaging my ADSL connection. I think it may have removed or damaged some kernel. I am not an expert though. Thanks for any help.--Omidinist (talk) 16:15, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

This forum post says it might be a hardware issue. Xenon54 17:00, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

Omni, there is no need to "talk technical" with us. =) Talking about kernels without knowing exactly what it is will confuse people about your question. Also, I can assure you that your ADSL connection is not physically damaged. =) --mboverload@ 19:25, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

iTunes problem

hi, ok:

i have itunes on an external HD along with all my songs, however, from what i can tell, all the 'info' about itunes (eg libraries, play count etc info) was stored on my computer (windows XP) so when i 're-set' my computer after a virus problem this was killed. Thus when i open up itunes now, from my external HD, its as if ive just got it. This is of-course a big problem for me. However, because i kinda foresaw an event like this i regularly saved a 'backup' version of the 'previous iTunes library' file on my ext HD. Is there any way that i could load that 'previous iTunes library' up, bareing in mind all the song file paths are the same...? thanks, --81.76.41.196 (talk) 13:52, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

Well, not sure, but I think you could just look for the iTunes library file on your internal HDD, then delete it, then copy-paste the "previous itunes library" file into where the old one was. flaminglawyer^c 18:52, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

I am not sure with Windows but that is what I would do on a Mac. Kushal (talk) 16:52, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

If you look through the options there is an "Import Library" option in iTunes. Use this and point it at the backed up library. This will probably solve your issue TheGreatZorko (talk) 08:18, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

If any of these solutions worked for you, please let us know, as I am heading down the same path very soon and would like to know the best solution. cheers. 10draftsdeep (talk) 18:12, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Firmware engineering.

I have a friend who is a firmware engineer - he's looking for work right now. Is there an umbrella organisation for firmware engineering? He's looking for a list of companies that engage in firmware engineering in Texas (and maybe elsewhere) to get an idea of where to send his resume to.

SteveBaker (talk) 15:01, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

Steve, send me a Wiki email. I know of a company that is deep into firmware programming, not sure if they need anyone at the moment though. --mboverload@ 01:48, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

Typing in Devnagari Alphabet

I have to type many pages of text in Devnagari font.But I am familiar with typing in QWERTY keyboard only i.e. Latin Alphabet.Is there any software(freeware) that transliterates the text typed in roman to devnagari? Thank you 202.70.74.161 (talk) 16:50, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

Here's an online one: http://207.172.130.5:8080/cgi-bin/webitrans.pl . If you're really going to be doing a lot, it might be worth just changing your keyboard layout and learning how to type Devanagari directly. --Sean 17:41, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

RAZR's water-resistance

I am confused. Someone I know's razr (the phone) got dropped in a swimming pool. It was only in there for like a second, then it was retrieved and dried with a large fan. For about a week, its buttons didn't work, then they all started working again, except for the 1 button. I, just recently, "accidentally" sent my RAZR through a washing machine in my pocket. I forgot to move my clothes from the washer to the dryer, but when I did, about 5 hours later, I realized that my phone was in there, so I took it out and dried it with the same large fan. My phone worked, and still does work, perfectly (all the buttons), after only an hour of fanning. Can someone explain that to me? 75.66.48.112 (talk) 18:46, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

Assuming that the device doesn't short-circuit and fry itself when it gets wet, the next biggest issue is impurities in the water mucking up the works when the water evaporates. Depending on what exactly is in the water, you might be dealing with a conductive residue or an insulating one. Each causes its own set of troubles for the electronics. Buttons are often a first casualty because of the fact that they often require exposed conductors to work properly.

Probably what happened is that the second dunking dissolved some thin film (of pool chemicals?) that was left by the pool water. Of course, when the tap water from the washing machine dried it probably left behind it's own residue of salt, fluoride, and assorted other minerals, which may cause long-term problems for your device. (Corrosion is a big issue here.)

If you feel comfortable taking the device apart, it would probably last longer if you took it apart and gently wiped down each of the pieces with the purest alcohol you can get. (Sometimes it's sold in really expensive tiny bottles as "electronics cleaner" but I just use the drugstore varieties without any problem.)

As an aside, the battery may have been shorted temporarily while the device was dunked. This could reduce the battery's lifespan.

If you don't feel comfortable taking the device apart, perhaps it's not worth worrying about. Most people get new phones every year or two anyway. APL (talk) 19:10, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

FYI: A good, cheap source of nearly water-free alcohol is gas line dryer ("Drygas", etc.). You can usually get it in isopropal or methanol variations, but for working on electronics, I'd say you want the isopropyl variant.

Atlant (talk) 16:36, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Rollover images

I can't figure out how to easily make a rollover image thing. By that, I mean showing image1, but when you put your mouse over image1, image2 replaces image1. Can someone show me an easy bit of code to do this? No Flash, I don't have a flash maker. flaminglawyer^c 18:49, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

Here's a super-basic cascading style sheets and HTML rollover:

<html>
  <head>
    <style type="text/css">
      a#foo       {display:block; width:100px; height:50px; background:url("a.jpg"); }
      a#foo:hover {background:url("b.jpg");}
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <a id="foo"></a>
  </body>
</html>

where a.jpg and b.jpg are both 100x50 pixels. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 19:10, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

Without CSS... <img src='a.jpg' onmouseover="this.src='b.jpg'" onmouseout="this.src='a.jpg'" /< -- kainaw™ 21:25, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

If you are going to do a Javascript solution (like Kainaw suggests) you should probably pre-load the roll-over images so that they don't have a significant delay in loading. Google "javascript image preload" for about a million examples.

And it's worth noting that the CSS option is relatively limited in how IE supports it (only supports the :hover pseudoclass with A tags, nothing else). --98.217.8.46 (talk) 21:55, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

Thank you all. Your advice has inspired a masterpiece (in training) (the home sign has a rollover). flaminglawyer^c 23:34, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

Interview coding tests

Reading the thread above about coding samples at job interviews leads me to ask a question about "Interview coding tests". I'm an Electronics engineer and have interviewed more folk than I have been interviewed. When interviewing, I am usually seeking another electronics engineer, often with a firmware/software skill as part of the job. Generally I ask the candidate to write some code to the following spec: I often have a handful of resistors and need to know their value when connected in parallel. Please write a program to do that. It never ceases to amaze me how many "Senior engineers" with "years of experience" in electronics and C have no idea how to approach this, don't know the equation for parallel resistors, have no idea of how to input values, do conditional tests, loop code, initialise variables or anything. The good ones do it just like that. One chap was good and honest, saying he wasn't into software but would do it with excel and proceded to explain that idea well. Some folk get very hung up on what language to write in (my answer - any at your choice, you just have to explain what it does even if it is a made up language). Some folk insist on doing it with a fixed number of resistors. Most make it far more complex than it needs to be. Anyway, what interview coding questions have you come across? (And if anyone wants to, how would you answer my question...)? -- SGBailey (talk) 20:01, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

Remember, SGBailey, we aren't forums - in my honest opinion, here isn't the right place to ask "what interview coding questions have you come across" - because it is so open ended. It's like asking "what is your favourite colour," it has a different answer for everyone who comes along. Your second question (about total value of parallel resistors) would be OK, but it seems like you already know what it is (if you ask it at interviews.89.240.241.186 (talk) 20:37, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

I rarely ask people to write code; I find you get a lot more info (and a lot more done in the interview time) if you ask them to read code. If you really look at what most engineers spend their time really doing, it's as much reading, understanding, debugging, fixing, and extending others' code than writing their own on a tabula rasa. So one test I set a few years ago had a small C program and asked them to say why the function didn't seem to return what its comment said it should (it was something like returning a pointer to an automatic or something like that) and determine if a given Java program was threadsafe or not (various versions either deadlocked or concurrently accessed memory without protection); I figure that's a much better test of C or Java skill than "write a C program that reverses a string" or whatever. For algorithms and datastructures I'd just talk to the person - having them actually code it isn't a good use of precious interview time. For anything other than short-term-single-task contractors I think tests that drill down to their specific knowledge of some arcane bit of the class library is pointless (anyone who understands how the memory interface to a memory-mapped modem works can pick up how ftell works by themselves, anyone who understands how a dynamic VM rewrites code to maximise cache locality can read the manual for the collections package themselves). The one thing I've utterly been unable to do (even after a 3 day "interviewing and hiring" class) is Find-The-Jerk; otherwise competent people fail big (and can take whole projects down with them) because of their deep personality defects, defects that they all seem to be able to conceal through the interview and initial hiring phase. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 20:48, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

And I'm going to confess that I nicked several of the C examples from old ads in Dr Dobbs Journal that advertised a fancy lint by showing some bits of C code that had problems that weren't obvious but that their lint could find. The threadsafe examples were paraphrased from Bil Lewis' pthreads book. And a bunch of the rest were things that had come up over the last couple of years, reduced to the simplest sensible case. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 21:00, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

It's interesting to hear you say that about the "find the jerk" issue, since I've experienced it myself (to say the least). I'm trying to change jobs now, and near the top of my resume I say "I'm funny, friendly, have broad interests, and am easy to get along with", which is mostly true. --Sean 22:30, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

The interviewing class I mentioned (too long ago for me to remember enough about it) centred around positing scenarios and asking how people would react. It was partially to get out of the rut of the interviewee just describing what they'd done, and the interviewer describing what the project is. It was also supposed to find people would would be a poor fit for the team. But I (and other technical interviewers on the course) found it didn't work terribly well for engineers. Partly because unfunny narrowminds with flat effect can still be valuable engineers. But a major problem (and potentially a significant legal hazard to any interviewer) is that many of the interviewees were non-native speakers and often from cultural backgrounds where job interviews were very formal things - so some candidates were clearly very technically strong but it was difficult to establish a good rapport. It would be foolish, unfair, and quite probably illegal to reject a candidate on that basis. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 22:51, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

Also, there are memory mapped modems??? --Sean 22:31, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

(me not expressing self well; instant interview FAIL) In embedded systems it's quite common to have IO devices like modem chips, sound chips, network control chips wired to their own chip select and thus their control and data registers appear in the cpu's address space like magic bits of volatile memory. It's mostly like Intel's IN and OUT stuff, and entirely unlike a memory mapped file (and so "memory mapped" is perhaps a poor choice of words). -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 22:41, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

I've been through a lot of interviews recently. I'm a Senior games programmer with a speciality in graphics. The procedure may vary in other disciplines. But in 99% of cases, it goes like this:

• You contact them via email, attach a resume.
• Response (within a few days) is a request to do a "phone interview".
• The phone interview is sometimes a programming test - sometimes a general chat about what you did - what they do - why you want to work there, etc.
• If the phone interview didn't involve a programming test, then mostly they'll email you a written programming test.
• Then (if you didn't screw up) you get into a face-to-face interview - and in almost every case they want you to talk to the people you'll be working with - briefly go over incentives, vacation, health care - then goodbye - we'll be in touch. Often they'll want you to write a simple function on the white-board. A binary search or the 'atoi()' function for a "known-good" string or detect whether a given string is a palindrome...something of about that complexity. But doing it "live" in front of a whole room of critics can be painful if you get stressed out easily - you're generally being nudged into making 'off-by-one' errors or failing to detect the special cases (What happens if you ask whether an empty string is a palindrome?). There may be a discussion of the efficiency and legibility of your solution.

The programming tests are all pretty similar - whether done on the phone or in writing. Generally they start with some really simple logic puzzles ("You've got a 5 gallon bucket and a 3 gallon bucket and and unlimited water supply - measure out 4 gallons of water"), then there is a trivial C programming bug to track down (99% of the time the answer is "you returned a pointer to deallocated memory" or "you ran off the end of the array" - but there are variations on the theme). Next comes something ikky to do with C++ derived classes with virtual/non-virtual functions that somehow get messed up in a non-obvious way. After these "bug finding" things we get some short essay questions - usually stuff about linear algebra or how 'casts' work or what an abstract data class is. Then they generally wind up with a programming problem with some 'meat' to it - that takes some subtlety to complete and maybe needs 40 lines of code if you "get it". But it's pretty variable. SteveBaker (talk) 23:56, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

Dropdown menu coding

Can someone tell me an easy bit of code to get a dropdown menu effect? Not like a filling in forms dropdown; but like on ebay, the homepage, when you hold your mouse over the "Categories" tab, a thing comes down with a bunch of different links. Something like that.

When I look at examples of it on sites that use this, the only thing I can find is a class="dropdown", or something like that. And little old me with close to 0 html experience doesn't know what that means. flaminglawyer^c 23:40, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

This is a nice article on drop downs using CSS/HTML only (OK you need a bit of javascript for it to work in IE). It might be a bit too complex/technical for you right now but it's far more elegant than the pure javascript way. --antilived^{T | C | G} 00:23, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

MaxDesign has a number of tutorials for CSS-based lists. Under "Listmatic," you'll find examples like this dynamic vertical list and this dynamic horizontal list. Examples and code provided. --- OtherDave (talk) 01:21, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

The horizontal one doesn't have an onmouseout event and so the drop down menu stays drop down even if I move the mouse somewhere else. Hardly a good example (and even less so for something to be learnt from). --antilived^{T | C | G} 07:47, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

Sorry to have taken your valuable time. Good thing you weren't the OP, huh? --- OtherDave (talk) 19:32, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

September 7

Ubuntu problems

I installed Ubuntu 8.04 on one of my old computers i had lying around. Unfortunately, it cant do a very basic thing. Open applications. Given, this is a old Celeron computer from 2002, so it's really stretching Ubuntu's requirements, but i still don't see why things won't open! Any solution? I don't care if i have to reinstall Ubuntu, it's not like i have anything on that thing. --69.127.64.22 (talk) 00:20, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

'It can't open applications' is a very imprecise bug report. What, exactly, do you do in attempting to open apps, and what, exactly, happens when you do it? Algebraist 00:23, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

Are you running Ubuntu off LiveCD? How much ram do you have? When you have very little ram (256MB and below) it will take a while for the system to load the application from the CD into the memory. In that case you should use the alternate CD (or maybe a Xubuntu alternate CD, for a smaller ram requirement) to install and your Ubuntu desktop should be quite a bit faster when it's installed. I have a 2002-era Pentium 1Ghz with 512MB ram running the latest Ubuntu without any problem, so there shouldn't be too much problem with hardware requirements. --antilived^{T | C | G} 00:27, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

forgotten phone unlocking code

how can i unlock or flash my cell phone , sony ericsson w890i —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.9.154.189 (talk) 01:01, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

I've found the guys over at http://forums.se-nse.net/ helpful when it comes to Sony Ericsson phones. I must say though, some of them can at times be a little unfriendly to the n00bs. Astronaut (talk) 08:41, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

cell phone calls

so when I make a call, the tower that I'm connected to is transmitting the voice on the other end in a huge radius, right? It can't just pinpoint my location and beam the call there, b/c radio waves broadcast, no? just curious, thanks, 12.214.21.197 (talk) 01:41, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

Well a directional antenna will need focusing and repositioning whenever you move. For a mobile phone it's far too complex (imagine having a couple of servos controlling an antenna mounted on a gimbal), and mobile standards such as GSM are designed with the low power in mind anyway, so a directional antenna won't bring too much benefit unless you're normally out of coverage. --antilived^{T | C | G} 07:41, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

If you're asking about how you can pinpoint someone's location when you only have their cellphone, the answer is that you use several cell towers to narrow down your location until you get it as accurate as you want. 83.250.202.36 (talk) 07:59, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

Mozilla 3.0: Switch off search for keywords?

I've upgraded to Mozilla 3.0 and don't like their "improvements" (distracting, slowing down URL completion etc.). Is there a way to switch them off? Thanks so much!!!!... --71.232.76.89 (talk) 01:49, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

There is no Mozilla 3.0. You mean Firefox 3.0? --Spoon! (talk) 01:55, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

No. just use firefox 2, or use this extension although it only makes cosmetic changes https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6227 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.106.15.180 (talk) 02:09, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

PocketPC Unzip Program

I have a Sprint PPC 6700 phone. It runs Windows Mobile 5. I am trying to find an application that will unzip .zip files and every program I try keeps saying this is not a valid PocketPC application. I don't have the USB cable, so I will need to download the program from the web and install it right on the phone.

Also, my phone is not SprintTV capable, are there any other (preferably free) TV programs that will work with my phone? Thanks! 96.228.97.149 (talk) 02:34, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

Google Earth and Ubuntu

How's everybody doing? It's me again, :P. Well, anyways I got Google Earth for Ubuntu ans installed it and all etc. Problem is, it flickers like mad'! It's annoying as hell and doesn't help at all when you're trying to see 3D buildings or see snapshots! I'm not really sure how to fix the problem. My screen resolution is 1680 X 1050 and my refresh rate is 60 Hz. Any ideas?--Xp54321 ^{(Hello! • Contribs)} 02:48, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

Same thing with Celestia, about 20 min ago I tried to fix it by disabling a ATI accelerated graphics driver. Usually it just takes away some cool animations when windows appear and close etc and it deos improve speed a bit but messes up slide shows stuff like that... Problem is...this time it caused low-screen resolution mode on Ubuntu. I couldn't go above 800 X 600. It was annoying but I used the Ubuntu documentation and restored the normal resolution through a series of BASH commands. <Sigh>--Xp54321 ^{(Hello! • Contribs)} 03:10, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

No the trick is not to disable restrictive drivers, but to disable visual effects in appearances. (although Google Earth works fine with visual effects on for me) --antilived^{T | C | G} 07:37, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

And how do I do that?--Xp54321 ^{(Hello! • Contribs)} 15:35, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

Never mind. I fixed it. Thanks.--Xp54321 ^{(Hello! • Contribs)} 17:25, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

Microsoft Word 2003 formatting problem

I imported a document from another program (a cheap thing called GSP Write Your Own Novel) into MS Word, and it's generally okay, but there's some kind of invisible border on the pages that limits the amount of text on the page - the available area seems to change so that on some of the later pages I can barely get a paragraph onto the page before I'm onto the next page.

NB - I'm a perennial noob - please keep your answers simple: assume I'm stupid.

Thanks all Adambrowne666 (talk) 03:33, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

I'm working from memory here (I switched to Office 2007 last year) so apologies in advance for any minor errors. Here are some simple steps you can try:

1. Take a look at the page margins. Choose "Page setup..." from the File menu. There you can set the page margins and apply them to the whole document.
2. Make sure the document is correctly split into paragraphs. Ctrl+* will show paragraph breaks and other formatting marks. Ideally, you will want each word separated with a single space ("·" in this display mode) and each paragraph separated with one or two paragraph marks ("¶" in this display mode). If instead every line ends in something else like paragraphs marks, or little backwards pointing arrows, they will have to be removed.
3. Take a look at the paragraph settings; Highlight a paragraph (or many paragraphs), right-click and choose "Paragraph...". Make sure there are small or zero spacings before and after.

If none of those actions are effective and the document is not too big, it might be best to re-style the whole document. The easiest way to do that, is:

1. Print the document so you can see where section headers, bold, italic, indents, etc are in the document.
2. Cut & past the whole text into a text editor like Notepad, then exit Word.
3. Restart Word with an empty document, then cut & paste the whole document from Notepad into your new empty Word document. This destroys all the formatting, page margins, section breaks, etc.
4. Using your printed original as a guide, go through the new document imposing bold, italic, headers, indents, etc. in a consistant and pleasing way.

Astronaut (talk) 09:26, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks so much for taking the time to set all that out, Astronaut; as it happened, step 1 worked a treat - thanks! Adambrowne666 (talk) 02:10, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Head delay and Firefox bookmarks.

Due to a recent quasi HDD crash, I decided to re-install XP onto a new drive in my Presario SR1520NX. So far, it's kinda working, with two minor problems. I'm combining them into one posting. Hope that OK.

1) When turning on the computer, I usually get a "DISK BOOT FAILURE" message. Hitting ctrl-alt-reset fixes the problem immediately.

My assumption is that the new HDD needs a bit more time to come up to speed than the old one did. Several people have told me that I can adjust the spin-up time in the BIOS, but on trying it, I can't find anything in the BIOS choices that even come close to mentioning "HDD delay" or anything like that. Any ideas?

2) I re-installed Firefox, and would love to port over my old bookmarks. However, I never got a chance to export my old bookmarks, and assumed that they would be somewhere on the old disk drive. I happen to have it available, and can read all the files, but have no idea which file(s) to copy over. The one called Program Files/Mozilla Firefox/defaults/profile/bookmarks.html doesn't seem to be the file, much to my surprise. Now what?

Thanks for any help. Bunthorne (talk) 04:17, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

1: Usually there's an option in BIOS that goes along the line of "Wait for HDD at boot up", but not all BIOS have it. But either way this is not a good sign: back in the days you can get that if you're experiencing some cold weather and the lubricating grease solidified and take some time for the drive to spin up to its correct speed, but nowadays they use ball bearings so it probably isn't caused by that. You should start backing up your data to another hard drive just in case your current hard drive fails. Didn't see you say you've installed a new hard drive, and I have no idea why it takes longer to spin up.

2: In Firefox 3 you can use the bookmark manager to import the bookmarks.html file from your previous profile. Otherwise you can try copying over the whole profile directory, start Firefox with profile manager (by adding the switch "-ProfileManager" at the end of the link) and choose your old profile to be default. --antilived^{T | C | G} 07:35, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

In future use the Foxmarks extension which syncs all your bookmarks to a web server. You can then always sync it back to your local copy of Firefox. It's useful for restoring your bookmarks in the case of re-installing, as well as keeping bookmarks synced across multiple copies of Firefox on different PCs. Or use Firefox portable which keeps your entire installation self-contained (useful for running off a USB stick). Zunaid 08:39, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

Programming for beginers

I have never programmed before, other than a bit of QBasic when I was about 14, but I would like to now learn. I am looking to program an application that employs screen scraping technology to read data from another application, and on that basis compute various formulae. As I have no idea where to begin with this I thought I would ask for some pointers, particularly what language would be most appropriate for this task, and moreover where the best place to start would be. Thanks Flaming Ferrari (talk) 09:31, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

I'm not 100% sure about what you are trying to do, but if you have some experience with BASIC, then you might find AutoHotkey or AutoIt useful. --Russoc4 (talk) 13:44, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

It depends a bit on what you want to do - if you are looking for something fairly simple (as in no OCR), I'd go with something that plays well with a webcam, which is what I presume you'll use for your input. In which case I've had success with both Java and C#, although learning OO might be a challenge. I'd probably lean towards C# for a beginner, all else being equal, simply because Visual Studio is rather nice as an editor, but Java is better if you need cross-platform. Other languages will work, too - especially if OO causes issues. Just check what libraries they have to support video recognition and you should be ok. - Bilby (talk) 13:58, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

If you're talking about screen scraping an application that you have textual access to, such as a command-line application, something you can telnet to, or a web application, this would be straightforward with a Perl module like WWW::Mechanize. If you're talking about screen-scraping a GUI application that you'll have to do OCR on, then that might be too tall an order for a first programming project. I personally would approach it by inspecting the memory of the other app, but again, that's a lot for a beginner. --Sean 16:22, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

Or, putting all of the above another way: describe what you want to do in a little more detail. It'll help us figure out what's right for you. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 19:16, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

Yes, I completely agree. Making a program that makes sense out of images is a seriously difficult thing for any programmer, no matter how experienced. If you just need some data from another program, it's very possible that there is another way to do that 83.250.202.36 (talk) 19:34, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

Please help

Using Babel Fish and Windows Live Translator, there is often a problem when translating into French. This is the problem: Words with "'s" do not translate properly. The word remains the same and the "'s" also stays. Why is it like this? Is there a way to fix it? February 15, 2009 (talk) 13:38, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

Well, you get what you pay for with a free translation, maybe. I tried this text:

Here's an example of English text. It's got lots of apostrophes. Dave's put some in, and the paragraph's going to end up with half a dozen. It's a way to check translation. There's no telling what's going to happen.

And got this in "French":

Here' ; s un exemple de texte anglais. It' ; s a obtenu un bon nombre d'apostrophes. Dave' ; s en a mis dedans, et le paragraph' ; s allant finir vers le haut avec une demi-douzaine. It' ; manière de SA de vérifier la traduction. There' ; s aucun what' indiquant ; s allant se produire.

Looks to me like it just plain can't handle contractions well. Compare with these versions:

Here is an example of English text. It has lots of apostrophes. Dave has put some in, and the paragraph is going to end up with half a dozen. This is a way to check translation. There is no telling what will happen.

Voici un exemple de texte anglais. Il a un bon nombre d'apostrophes. Dave en a mis dedans, et le paragraphe va finir vers le haut avec une demi-douzaine. C'est une manière de vérifier la traduction. Nul ne peut dire ce qui se produira.

Not much help if you have some text from elsewhere with apostrophes, but that seems to explain the poor translation. --- OtherDave (talk) 19:40, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

For what it's worth, Google Translate doesn't seem to have this problem. I can't vouch for its accuracy, but this is what I got when I put in OtherDave's first example:

Voici un exemple de texte anglais. Il ya beaucoup d'apostrophes. Dave a mis certains, et le paragraphe qui va se retrouver avec une demi-douzaine. C'est une façon de vérifier la traduction. Il ne sait pas ce qui va se passer.

— Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 22:29, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

Matt, that's piqued my curiosity. Any thoughts about the difference? I use Windows XP, and the browser was Firefox 3.0. --- OtherDave (talk) 10:41, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

I got the same result as you when I put it through Babel Fish - the one I posted was from Google Translate, which is smart enough to handle apostrophes properly. It seems like Babel Fish can't even handle possessive apostrophes - I put in "Matt's car is black" and got "Matt' ; la voiture de s est noire" — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 16:27, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Babel Fish works if you use curly apostrophes (’) instead of straight apostrophes ('). Don't ask me why. -- BenRG (talk) 23:05, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Kerberos on Windows XP

Is it possible to use Kerberos authentication when connecting from Windows XP?

• Server: Debian, with Heimdal Kerberos.
• Client: Windows XP Pro, with SSPI, my home computer, not in a domain.
• Client app: WinSCP.

I have installed the ksetup.exe tool from WinXP CD, and added the KDC. What next?

--grawity 14:45, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

IP addresses in DNS servers

In DNS servers, in what form are IP addresses stored (for A records)? Are they in plain text (1.2.3.4), or binary (0x01020304)? (I'm asking because I managed to set up a record for 23.75.345.200) --grawity 18:17, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

It depends on the DNS server. DNS servers are defined by the input/output, not by how they store information. -- kainaw™ 19:56, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

However, the format on the wire is fixed. It has to be for the clients and servers to understand each other. And the wire format for A records is a raw 32-bit integer, not text (definition is in RFC1035 section 3.4.1). It's not possible for a server to send an A record with "23.75.345.200" as the address because there's just no combination of bits that means "23.75.345.200" in an A record. Your server may allow that as an address in a zone file, but when sent to a client it'll either be a malformed packet or it'll be interpreted as meaning something else. --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 21:07, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

Uninstalling Windows XP

Okay, im switching to Ubuntu, but having both OS on the computer has made it too slow to run the full installer (i used the one that you can install from windows, making it a seperate OS without partitioning the hardrive). So uninstalling XP should make it work a little faster, in theory. But i dont know how. Its not in Add/Remove Programs because it wasnt an upgrade from 95/98/nt/me, and using %systemroot%\system32\osuninst.exe doesnt work, it says its missing registry information. any other methods? the juggresurection ^{(>-.-(Vಠ_ಠ)} 18:36, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

Maybe try formatting you drive and starting over. Just make sure you get any data you need off before you format. Paragon¹²³²¹ 18:42, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

Well i already have all the data i need off of it. Ive been planning this for a while. now, how would i format the harddrive?the juggresurection ^{(>-.-(Vಠ_ಠ)} 18:47, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

When you say "having both OS on the computer has made it too slow to run the full installer", what exactly do you mean? Having multiple OS:s on a computer shouldn't slow down the LiveCD that you download from ubuntu.com. Try putting in the installation CD, and see if you can boot from that. Then just run the installer that's on the desktop.

If your computer is to slow to run the LiveCD (which sometimes happens), you can download the Alternate CD (go to the download page, check the checkbox that says "Check here if you need the alternate desktop CD. This CD does not include the Live CD, instead it uses a text-based installer"). As the nice little checkbox-text says, this is not a LiveCD, so it will not boot up ubuntu from the CD itself, rather it will boot up an installer. This is slightly tricker, but it's not terribly hard. When it comes to the partitioning stage, tell it to erase the entire harddrive and install ubuntu on it, and there you go :) 83.250.202.36 (talk) 19:07, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

What i mean is when i try to run the installer from the Live CD, it gets to a screen with some kind of backround on it, and then...nothing. it just sits there. So Im assuming its because there are 2 OS on it, but im not the most knowledgeable when it comes to this kind of stuff. im gonna go try the alternate cd.the juggresurection ^{(>-.-(Vಠ_ಠ)} 19:14, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

Actually, since its gonna take 8 hours to download, ill just come back if i have any more problems. the juggresurection ^{(>-.-(Vಠ_ಠ)} 19:54, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

You do that :) Way back, I had some sort of similar error with the Ubuntu LiveCD, that the install-program didn't work. I installed from the alternate CD and everything was fine and dandy. Good Luck, and cheers on you for choosing Linux :) We're here in case you need more help 83.250.202.36 (talk) 01:48, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Are you using Wubi to install Ubuntu? If you are you're not going to be able to uninstall Windows XP as Wubi uses the windows boot loader, and you're going to have to burn a LiveCD and boot from that when you start the PC. Then while you're in the live CD when you run the installer just let it format the entire drive and you should have replaced XP with Ubuntu. TheGreatZorko (talk) 08:12, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

• Out of curiosity, why don't you just create a separate partition for Ubuntu? That way you can use both and you won't have to learn an entirely-new operating system at once.--Birdsusing nnn (talk) 08:25, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

September 8

In firefox (or windows, really), how do I set the option to only have 1 window of a program open at once?

Most people want to get rid of this feature; I want it because my younger sibling doesn't realize that only one window needs to be open at a time (since there's tabbed browsing), and when 57 windows are open at once, the computer sloughs down.

Actually, I'd prefer that I could set a limit, like say three windows, so necessary popups wouldn't be affected. I'm not sure if this is a firefox option, or a windows xp taskbar option, or a third-party program or what. Much help greatly appeciated ! -=- Xhin -=- (talk) 00:30, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

First, why is your younger sibling opening 57 windows? If it's because certain links automatically open new windows, in Firefox, in Preferences -> Tabs, there is an option that says "New pages should be opened in:" with choices of "a new window" and "a new tab"; but I think the latter is default anyway. If it's because he/she doesn't know a good way of opening new tabs, then teach him/her something like that, with the above option set to tabs, one can simply middle-click or Ctrl-click a link to open it in a new tab (add Shift to open tab and switch to it), or press Ctrl-T (or double-click on an empty part of the tab bar) to open a blank new tab. If the problem is that he/she knows how to open new tabs, but likes to open 57 new windows anyway, then that's really his/her own problem. I don't know if Firefox has an option to simply disallow opening more than a certain number of windows; but I doubt it. --Spoon! (talk) 01:31, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

I have to say that the best solution would be to simply teach your younger sibling how the program works. If he (I'm making a bold gender assumption here and certainly not using "he" as a generic pronoun) is old enough to figure out how to browse the internet, is the concept of tabs really too complicated for him? I'm saying this because, first of all, I don't think there's a technical solution to this short of something you program yourself, and also because in my experience, teaching someone the proper use of an application (especially when it's a pretty simple thing like this) will save you time and effort in the long run. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 07:39, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

With Tab Mix Plus (a Firefox plugin) you can make your browser into "single window mode" that forces every new window to a new tab. Unfortunately that plugin is not (yet) available for Firefox 3. --antilived^{T | C | G} 07:43, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

I'm fairly sure unless you specifically ask Firefox 3 to open in a new window by default it opens in a tab anyway. TheGreatZorko (talk) 08:10, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Reactivate Windows?

If i install a new video card on my computer, will i have to reactivate windows? Everyone i've asked says yes, but i've added hardware to my computer before and never had to activate windows again. I need some help plz... 31306D696E6E69636B6D (talk) 13:15, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Which version of Windows do you use? I have seen cases in Windows XP where activation was not required, however in Vista it is very likely. Activation links your product key with a collection of components Microsoft consider "core" to your system. As part of the Windows license stipulates using it with only a single computer, changing any part that causes Windows to see itself as a new computer will cause need for activation. The most obvious component is the CPU, however i've switched Vista Harddrives to other computers without it complaining about reactivation so there is no obvious answer. Best thing you can do is change it and see. - Jimmi Hugh (talk) 14:33, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Its Windows XP Home SP3. And i don't actually have the card yet. Would windows even let me reactivate? 31306D696E6E69636B6D (talk) 16:00, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

I don't want to give legal advise on whether it's allowed by the license, but the license (Windows XP EULA) definetly states you may need to reactivate after changing Hardware. - Jimmi Hugh (talk) 16:48, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

I've had to re-activate XP SP2 after changing my CPU, hard drive, and memory (one at a time, on three separate occasions). But there was no hassle—entering my license key worked fine, and I didn't have to call Microsoft or anything like that. -- Coneslayer (talk) 16:53, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

And I didn't need to re-activate after changing the mainboard, cpu, RAM, sound card, video card, and hard drive. You never know. --Carnildo (talk) 22:57, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Cool. Thanks. 31306D696E6E69636B6D (talk) 16:32, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Just an FYI for anyone reading this Vista uses the same reactivation rules as XP (unless you're using a pirated copy in which case putting a new component in will cause windows to twig you're running a cracked copy when it notices the new hardware and then break the crack) TheGreatZorko (talk) 09:02, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Wow. I didn't understand any of that. Could you explain? 31306D696E6E69636B6D (talk) 13:14, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

File Compression....or Expansion?

Resolved

Thanks everybody. -Abhishek (talk) 05:32, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

I am trying to compress a file, but the size is just increasing instead of decreasing :S

• Original file -- 1000.0 MB

• .7z -- 1013.6 MB

• .gz -- 1000.2 MB

Screenshot. The original file's name is "win32", but really nothing related to windows. Its a Truecrypt container. I am using Linux Mint, GNOME. Is there something I'm missing? All I did was Right click-->Create archieve.

Thanks -Abhishek (talk) 13:29, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

File compression relies on redundancy (repeated blocks and patters) inside the thing you're compressing. Truecrypt, like all worthwhile encryption products, uses encryption algorithms which have ciphertexts that have no discernible patterns inside them. So no compression program is going to find anything to compress. Even an entirely empty 1Gb Truecrypt partion file will "upcompress" in this way. The standard solution is compress-then-encrypt - in your case compress inside the truecrypt volume, resize it (can you do that?) to barely contain what you need. Alternatively (better, perhaps) you zip (or tar.gz) the files up and then encrypt that archive with GPG or whatever. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 13:35, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Nope, can't resize Truecrypt containers. Finlay is on the money, if you can compress an encrypted file then you need better encryption! --12.155.20.214 (talk) 19:46, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Think of it like this. If your file compressor could compress ANY file and make it smaller - then you could take the file that came out of the compressor and compress it again - and again - and again. Eventually, the file would be one byte long. But a one byte file can only have 256 values - how would the uncompressor "know" which of the almost infinite number of possible files to generate?

In most cases, what happens is that if the compressor can't make the file smaller - it just sticks a little note on the front of the file that says "this file wasn't really compressed" - but that note takes up space. In fact, it's mathematically impossible to write a compressor that doesn't either lose some information - or make some files at least one bit bigger. And as 12.155.20.214 says - if you actually can make a compressed file smaller by recompressing it - then you have a poor compression tool. However, there are poor compression tools out there.

SteveBaker (talk) 02:19, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Actually, the reason you can't compress encrypted files isn't that they're already compressed. It's that you cannot compress a stream of truly random numbers, and one of the defining characteristics of good encryption is that it is indistinguishable from a stream of random numbers. --Carnildo (talk) 20:58, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Ha, 12.* reminds me of Outlook PST mailstores. They store their passwords in CRC (cracks any pst in 1 milisecond) and they have "compressible encryption". Even Outlook 2007 has this (sorry) bullshit. --mboverload@ 07:14, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Firefox version 3.0.1

I'm having a problem with this version. If I use a link to a section that is not at the beginning of an article, (eg, Marilyn Munroe#Songs), the tab opens showing the proper section of the article but then Firefox immediately increases the font size which leads to a redisplay of an earlier part of the article. This is a great nuisance as it means using "find" to get the section I want.

I believe it is going to a larger font size because I used Ctrl + to request a larger font (several days ago). Is there a way to have the larger font taken into account in the initial display when the tab opens so there is no need for a redisplay?

Thanks. Wanderer57 (talk) 17:10, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Following that link works for me with an enlarged font size in Firefox 3.0.1 on XP. I have a similar problem when loading articles with large amounts of LaTeX in them, but that is due to the number of images in the articles and doesn't sound the same as your problem. What OS are you using? Any Firefox plugins? « Aaron Rotenberg « Talk « 23:48, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. I have Windows 2000 "professional". No Firefox plugins. Wanderer57 (talk) 13:18, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

It happens to me on my Firefox 2, I guess it's just a browser feature. Avnas Ishtaroth _{drop me a line} 01:54, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Malwarebytes.org?

Is this site legit? I can't find much about it on the old internets from reputable sources. A family member wants to know if they should use it. My instinct is to say "no" if I haven't heard of it myself and instead direct them to AVG Free and Spybot (esp. since they seem to do pretty much all you'd need for free, whereas the other one has a lot of features that can only be unlocked for $25 or so). But I thought I'd ask on here, since I'm not necessarily up to speed with the anti-virus world as I am a Mac user. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 17:52, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

I myself use AVG and it is an excellent program. In general, only use programs that have reviews that don't say OMG THIS THING GAVE ME VIRUSES. Download.com half of the time is pretty reliable, as it scans everything. Pie is good ^{(Apple is the best)} 20:59, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

And in general, if you pay for something, you should be sure what you'll get out of it. If you pay for anti-virus software and then get a virus, what will the software company do? For 25 dollars, they'll have forgotten about you the second they got your money. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.86.164.115 (talk) 22:50, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

As I said, I know these things. My question is whether anyone knows anything about this particular site. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 23:20, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/malwarebytes.org says it's legit. ~EdGl (talk) 15:26, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

I work in a computer repair shop, and we use Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware (mouthful!) and SuperAntiSpyware almost exclusively (though I lean towards SuperAntiSpyware, seems slightly faster). The basic functions are all free. What you're paying for is basically on-access protection (like virus scanners that are scanning all opened files) versus user-initiated scans ('scan now' functionality). Frankly, when it comes to spyware/adware, I wouldn't worry about paying. I'd really only pay for virus protection, though AVG has always worked extremely well for me at home. Washii (talk) —Preceding undated comment was added at 20:23, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Google Maps and GPS

I have a mobile broadband card from AT&T that has built-in GPS. I was wondering if there was a way to somehow integrate this GPS with Google Maps? I would like to have it guide me to a destination (just directions, don't need turns or anything) and reposition the "location" on the map and have the map follow it as I travel.

Now, I know that you can integrate it with Streets and Trips and Google Earth but those both cost money. I am looking for something free or extremely cheap. The company I work for has a small budget for this kind of thing and I am already spending my money on an expensive wireless card to help out getting my service calls.

Thank you Wikipedia gurus. I'm looking for anything, I don't care how ghetto it is. I have searched for about an hour now comming up empty.--12.155.20.214 (talk) 19:47, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

TIME ZONES ON THE COMPUTER

Hi, is it possible to work on the computer in Eastern Europe, but the time zone to be like Canada? (if I am talking on messenger for ex.) Thank you very much. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Adina40 (talk • contribs) 21:55, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Sure. You can set the time zone for whatever you want, regardless of where you are. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 22:11, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

If you are unsure how to change the timezone:

• Windows: Right-click the clock, hit Adjust Date/Time... then click the Time Zone tab. Use the drop-down to select your zone.
• Mac OS: Go to the Apple Menu, click System Preferences then Date & Time. Untick the "Set date & time automatically" box. Click "Time Zone" and choose your time zone.

Xenon54 22:31, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Does Gears of War for PC have copy protection?

Does it have anything obtrusive like SecuROM or any of that foolishness that could muck up my system? --156.34.76.174 (talk) 23:14, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Are you suggesting SecuROM could "muck up your system", or did you simply word that badly? I've never heard any case of SecuROM messing up a system, and no Gears of War does not have any noticeable Copyright infringement prevention in place, however who knows if there are any that are not "obtrusive". - Jimmi Hugh (talk) 14:31, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

It has and does; it's easy to accounts of this happening find with a bit of googling. Personally, I experienced the bug where the SecuROM bundled with the Command & Conquer 3 expansion pack caused explorer to crash when right clicking on executables (it includes a shell extension to block you from properly interacting with 16-bit executables in explorer, for some reason). -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 19:12, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

September 9

Linus without login

Which Linux variants allow you to define a single user environment, where no logon is required ? Is the single user environment the default in any of them ? 68.74.2.210 (talk) 00:51, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

It's pretty easy to change the default runstate from multiuser to single-user in any Linux distro that I'm aware of. In SuSE Linux (for example) you can use the "Yast" setup tool - go to "System Services - hit the "Expert Mode" and select which runstate the system starts up in - and which services run in each state.

If you want to do it "old school" - you can change the default runlevel by editing the file "/etc/inittab" in any system based on Linux (or even UNIX for that matter).

init:5:initdefault

The '5' is the default runlevel - changing that to a '1' would start the system in single-user mode.

The following lines specify which program is run to start the system in each 'runlevel'.

Be really careful though - any error in this file will probably prevent Linux from booting! Make sure you make a safe copy of the original file and have a "Live CD" that you can boot from, mount your hard drive and then restore the default if you screw up!

SteveBaker (talk) 06:13, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. As per the following post, does this start in a Windows-like mode or as a command line interface ? 68.74.2.210 (talk) 16:09, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

what you want to do is probably NOT "single user mode" in the sense that many linux experts use it (i.e. you're dropped to a root command line with no GUI) - it sounds like what you're looking for is more like auto-login, which I think you can set up through the control center in either gnome or kde. --Random832 (contribs) 15:38, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

I do want a Windows-type user interface, but want to have full access without having to switch to "root" or "admin" or whatever. I also don't want to have to enter a username and password. 68.74.2.210 (talk) 16:07, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Installation went wrong, it stopped halfway, now I have only 50 % of the files installed and it is impossible both to uninstall AND re-install !

Hey, I was gonna install a game on my computer - but something went wrong during installation, when I was gonna swap from cd 1 to cd 2 to continue the last half of the installation.

WHen i put in cd 2 it did not start up again and the whole installation thingy crashed and stopped as a message came up; "Program does not answer". And then when the game was only halfway installed, with only half of the files, it seems the install/uninstall program following with the game was among the files not installed(or i don't really know) and now it is impossible to uninstall the game again or to continue installation. And ofcourse, I can't start from scratch either when half of the gamefiles are still lying in the computers filelist in "controlpanel" and on the harddisk. when trying to uninstall, it says the uninstall-file are corrupted or not valid, so...

What must I do??

I really want to get to install the game properly and get to playing but now it seems this computer vs. the game is "locked", and only way for me to play the game would be on another computer. But of course, I have only one computer ...

AND I DO KNOW FOR 100% SURE THAT THE GAME IS COMPLETELY COMPATIBLE WITH THE COMPUTER'S SYSTEM, and vice versa so that really isn't any problem at all. It was simply really bad luck that the program stopped working during installation. Baddest possible timing :S

Must I turn on "safemodus" or whatever it is called on my computer and delete the whole thing from there?? I don't even know how to start "safemodus"... I've only seen it the few times my computer has crashed and when it restarts it asks if I wanna start windows in "safemodus" or in normal modus. I've never been on safemodus before though, don't know if its a complicated thing. ANd I have no idea how to MANUALLY do this or if this is even the right thing that i need to do to fix this. I'm sure you know of what i speak even though i might not use the correct words...

Any kind of help and guidance about how I can clear up the mess, clear up the files and get to start a new installation from scratch again would be GREAT. I really hope to manage to fix this.

Thank you, hoping for help :) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.49.179.208 (talk) 01:19, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

If you can find the files on your hard drive, you could delete them manually, then try to reinstall the game. What sort of computer do you have? If it's a Windows, I could try to help you find the files... I'm hopeless with Macs, though. --Alinnisawest,^{Dalek Empress} (extermination requests here) 01:45, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Ok i'll do as you say, simply deleting the folder with all the files in and then return to see what you have in mind. although, the file/program-list in contropanle for sure still have the name of the game in the list there. that's not good i think.. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.49.179.208 (talk) 01:54, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

In terms of knowing in advance whether the game will work with your computer...No, it's essentially impossible to know for sure. There are hundreds of graphics cards, hundreds of sound cards, hundreds of network cards, dozens of CPU's many amounts of RAM you might have...joysticks, mice, operating systems and revision levels, plugins, disk capacities and configurations, virus checkers...the number of possible combinations is astronomical. The possible interactions between those things is enormous and it's quite beyond the ability of any game manufacturer to actually GUARANTEE that the game will work on any particular combination. We check the most common things - but there can't EVER be a rock solid guarantee. That's why games manufacturers like game consoles. They are certainly slower and harder to program than PC's but because all Xbox360's are one of about four possibilities and all PS-3's are of just a few kinds - and there is really only one Wii, NDS, PSP, etc - it's fairly easy to test exhaustively on all of them and know for absolute certain that your game will work. But with the PC (and increasingly, the Mac) it's just a nightmare. SteveBaker (talk) 02:05, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

To answer you Steve Baker, I know for sure because I have had this exact game installed on this exact computer before, and then uninstalled it again. But I appreciate that you take time to answer me nontheless :) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.49.179.208 (talk) 02:12, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

1. Go to Start, then Run..., then type installer.
2. Go to View and click Details.
3. Go to View and click Choose Details.
4. Check Subject.
5. Click on the Subject column.
6. Find the name of the game and double-click on the file. That will run the installer.
7. Go to Start, then Run..., then type regedit.
8. Press CTRL + F and type the name of the game.
9. Delete anything with the game's name in it and keep pressing F3 until regedit can't find any more.
10. Go to My Computer, then Tools, then Folder Options...
11. Click the View tab, then check the option to show hidden files.
12. Go to My Computer, then Documents and Settings, then your user folder, then Local Settings, then Application Data.
13. Delete any folder belonging to the game if there is one.
14. Restart your computer.--Birdsusing nnn (talk) 02:18, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Anon proxy with POST & HTTPS

Can you recommend a free anonymous proxy on the web that supports POST form submissions and cookies, and supports connecting to HTTPS websites? --71.141.145.85 (talk) 01:51, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Isn't that impossible? Cookies (for example) are there precisely to identify your computer to the server. If you put them on some proxy - then it's not going to remember you as you travel around their site. I presume that similar issues arise with HTTPS. SteveBaker (talk) 01:55, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Why couldn't the proxy keep track of which cookie belongs to which session? It's easy to find anon proxies that claim to support POST and cookies if you have a paid account. (Example : [1] ) APL (talk) 02:22, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

However I strongly suspect that you will have a very hard time finding proxies that offer free POST support. That would attract spammers like moths to a porch light. APL (talk) 02:30, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Oh. Possibly I'm an idiot. These two both seem to support POST. : [2] [3] APL (talk) 02:33, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Proxying HTTPS is not possible: there's no difference between an HTTPS proxy and a man-in-the-middle attack. --Carnildo (talk) 21:03, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Proxying HTTPS is possible: there's no difference between an HTTPS proxy and a port forwarder --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 22:06, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Encyclopedia Dramatica hosts file entry

I was just in Windows command prompt where I used the "ipconfig /displaydns" command. It looks clean, except that I noticed an entry for encyclopediadramatica that somehow referred to 127.0.0.1 (localhosts) - see image. I then found it listed in my "hosts" file. Only once or twice a long while ago, did I ever visit that site to see what it was about. I regret ever going there. Anyway, how did this ever get added? Aside from the hosts file, are there other such issues with encyclopediadramatica, in terms of malicious spyware or changes to computer settings? --Aude (talk) 02:34, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Setting the IP address to 127.0.0.1 is a technique to keep you from connecting to the site. I know Spybot Search and Destroy's Immunize feature does this. That's not your complete hosts file, just the part loaded into the Resolver Cache. Take a look at C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts for the whole story. Sometimes malware will set the IP address of a site to another malicious site inside your hosts file. In that case you'd have a site like Google being resolved to a computer in Russia, for example. But it wouldn't be set to your own computer (127.0.0.1).--Birdsusing nnn (talk) 02:40, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Thank you for the answer. It makes sense that Spybot is doing its job and probably added it. --Aude (talk) 12:53, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

You're welcome.--Birdsusing nnn (talk) 16:39, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Isn't 127.0.0.1 a loopback address? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Schwarzes Nacht (talk • contribs) 01:52, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

That's the trick. Bad sites that you want to block will be directed to your machine...which doesn't go anywhere =) --mboverload@ 07:10, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Plain text in Eudora

I am using Eudora v7.1. I subscribe to a mailing list which supports only plain-text messages (they try to convert HTML, but the moderator tells me it's broken and I really need to send plain text to this recipient). I am unable to find anything about how to do this either under Options or in the program's online help. Ma^t_chups 04:22, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Tools -> Options -> Styled Text -> "Send plain text" and/or "Ask me each time". Saintrain (talk) 12:05, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Computer Lock (physical)

I don't know if this belongs here or in Misc: My computer case (PC tower, specifically a Thermaltake) locks closed. Unfortunately, my case lock seems to have jammed, and I cannot now open it using the key. I can put the key in, but it won't budge. Any ideas on what to do?

• There are no accessible screws in the case door where the lock is nested.
• The case panels cannot be removed without being damaged; they are locked to the case (requiring this lock to open first).

What are my options (apart from sawing through the case)? The Jade Knight (talk) 05:40, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Well, if the lock is useless anyway - you could drill out the lock mechanism. That's not going to damage the case panels. However, I'd be very nervous about getting metal shavings inside the case. I guess I'd try to prop the case between a couple of chairs or something - with the lock facing downwards so I could drill upwards and make sure the shavings fall downwards - away from the circuitry, drives, fans and other bits and pieces. You'd want to put a collar onto the drill bit to limit how deep you could drill - you don't want the bit going through the case and embedding itself in the CPU or something! SteveBaker (talk) 05:58, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

What kind of a drill would I need for this? The Jade Knight (talk) 09:05, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

I would suggest an electric drill with a bit suitable for drilling steel and that is a few millimetres smaller than the lock barrel. However, before drilling the lock out you might want to try lubricating the lock first - something like WD-40 might do the trick. Astronaut (talk) 13:01, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Not sure where I'd find such a drill; I don't own anything of that size, myself. Anyway, how does one go about lubricating a lock (and what does it do)? In case it's relevant: I can access one side of the lock (there's a small hole in the case next to it). It appears as solid metal on the outside, however, and I'm not sure what good it does me. The Jade Knight (talk) 13:59, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Given the cost of a mistake and your lack of experience with the required tools, I would suggest finding a locksmith. Gandalf61 (talk) 14:13, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Can you take the key back out? If so, try a very small squirt of WD-40 into the actual key hole. Matt Deres (talk) 16:56, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Oh - yes indeed - if you haven't already tried lubricating the lock (sorry - I assumed you would have) - then do so. However, don't use oil (even WD-40). It attracts and retains dust and you end up with a gummy mess that'll make it even worse the next time around! To properly lubricate a lock, you need a dry graphite lubricant. Check your local DIY store - they'll have the right stuff. SteveBaker (talk) 17:39, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Next time ? If I ever had a lock that froze up on me, I'd never lock it again, as it might very well freeze up again, no matter what lubricant is used. 68.74.2.210 (talk) 16:18, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

I'll try that; thanks. The Jade Knight (talk) 23:53, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

When using the lubricant, hopefully it comes with a little red tube, which inserts into the spray nozzle. Push the other end inside the lock in all available holes, and spray for a couple seconds. I'd also position the computer so the lock is down for this, so oil won't drip into the "works". Put some newspapers underneath to catch drips, and wear goggles, or at least glasses, so you don't get any spray in your eyes. Open some windows to get rid of the fumes. Once the lock is sprayed with oil, put the key back in and work it back and forth. Also try pulling the key slightly out before turning, as some locks "catch" if you push the key all the way in. 68.74.2.210 (talk) 16:29, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Need advice buying on a laptop

Hey guys its the same guy who posted a question on 3rd Sep. I've spent a few days searching around for the best deal and I believe I've found it. Just wondering what you in the know think of this laptop's graphics card - most importantly is it good enough to play CSS on? Here's the link

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.204-4693.aspx

Many thanks in advance —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.10.188.98 (talk) 10:54, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Most computers nowadays will run Counter-strike: Source fine, and that one will run it great. 193.194.132.78 (talk) 12:54, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

thanks a lot :) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.18.176.84 (talk) 20:10, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Image search

Resolved

Does something like this exists -- A search engine that will take an image as input, instead of keywords, and search the web for exactly same or similar pictures. No, I'm not talking about this. I must be able to upload a picture from my computer and it will look for similar or same picture on the web. Does this exist, or is someone planning to make this? (Google?) -59.95.115.73 (talk) 14:23, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

See Visual Search Engine; I think TinEye (in the links) is supposed to do something like what you want (for the purpose of finding copyright violations). -- Coneslayer (talk) 14:31, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks! And that was damn quick Coneslayer. -59.95.115.73 (talk) 14:44, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Technicolor Effect

Is it possible to replicate the technicolor "effect" using say, video recorded via iphone? If so, what programs would I look into? What processes? Etc... Preferably something that can work within the iphone,without me having to transfer video into my computer, but I'm easy. This was previously asked at the humanities desk, and I was informed I'd probably have better luck here. Thanks!

Kenjibeast (talk) 23:37, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

No. Not very well anyway. The iPhone's camera, along with pretty much every single other camera phone, is crappy. It has low dynamic range and a very small sensor size, which means you will not get anywhere near the shallow DOF effect and will have half your video turned into white whenever the sky is involved, neither of which is (easily) fixable in software. If you have something shot in for example the Nikon D90, which has a sensor size very similar to 35mm film and a dynamic range that's lightyears better than camera phones, it might work with some careful twiddling with levels etc., but what you're trying to do is basically trying to make a bicycle sound like a supercar. --antilived^{T | C | G} 23:53, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Also see filmizing, "Footage that has been shot with the knowledge that it will be subsequently electronically filmized is usually shot in a very different way, with film-style lighting and framing. Regardless, there have been several attempts to process ordinary videotape to look like film, usually with little success.". To look like film is not an "effect", it's superiority. --antilived^{T | C | G} 00:00, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Squeezing the last from a dying HD

I have a 110 GB HD that is edging towards failure. It's already lost some files due to corruption. Everything has been transferred to a new drive, but since the old one is still more or less functional, I thought I could keep it in service and save my other HD from some wear and tear by copying (not moving) all my music to it and playing it from that drive. That's what I've been doing for the past couple of weeks (after reformatting). What are the likely outcomes when this drive finally croaks? Will it matter? ----Seans Potato Business 15:21, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

You're probably not saving the other HD from wear and tear - google released a survey they'd done a while ago (of their enormous population of disks) and they saw little to no correlation between use and failure. Failure is generally either a snowballing degradation of the drive's surfaces or weird electrical failures (due to weird chemical things happening on chips, wiring, glues, and solders). The drive will either take longer and longer to read (and may eventually time out a given read) or (if it has a smarter drive controller) just give up and power itself off ("spindown"). Nice OSes (and drive adapters) take this in their stride (hello Solaris), but some are jerks about it (Windows Explorer has a tiresome habit of saying "that unimportant disk isn't responding; I'm going to jam up in synchronous-io-hell for ages"). I'd bin the drive now. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 16:30, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Before you bin it, I highly recommend a product called SpinRite. I've had a bunch of drives that I thought was dying, and when I used SpinRite on them, almost all of them continued functioning for a significant amount of time (I'm talking 6 months to a year longer than they would have otherwise). I realise I sound like a commercial, but it is almost supernatural how good it is. It's not entirely cheap, but it's worth it in the long run from the money you save on new harddrives. 195.58.125.46 (talk) 18:09, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Old hard drives, unless being used for unimportant backups, should be wiped with something like Darik's Boot and Nuke or physically destroyed. They are a waste of power, add heat to your computer, and are unreliable. Once a hard drive starts going bad you need to get off it ASAP. I say this from experience dealing with supporting computers at the end of their life that have bad sectors, unreadable parts of the disk, etc. Even if I/we repair the bad sectors the hard drives usually come back a few weeks later from the field...dead.

However painful it may seem, one day you will realize that 1 $100 hard drive will replace four (4) 120 gig drives or eight (8) 80 gigabyte drives and be MUCH more reliable and MUCH faster. I have been though this, as I currently have an assortment of 80 gig and 120 gig drives that I've removed from my computer...replaced by 1 drive that is faster and more robust than anything before it.

However, I am not going to discount 195.*'s recommendations, if you are tight for cash and already have the data backed up. Just realize your hard drive is going to die and it's taking your data with it.--mboverload@ 02:18, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Strong agree - at the first sign of weakness, cull it from the herd. Put it out of its misery - tell your kids it's living on a farm in Iowa. Buy a new one that's ten times cuter and a third the price. (or whatever it is this week). SteveBaker (talk) 20:52, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Showing owner's name on photo shooting info

There is a field in the shooting info that shows up with my photos for "owner's name". Right now this appears blank on all my photos. I would like to know how to make my name show up in this field, but have been unable to find any setting in either my photo software or the camera itself, to do this. I am wondering if anyone can tell me how it's done. I use a Canon Rebel XT (digital), in case this is relevant. Thanks for any help you can offer. 66.183.142.226 (talk) 16:50, 9 September 2008 (UTC)LMacB

Are you looking at JPG files or RAW files? What software are you using? --LarryMac | Talk 18:03, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Following up myself - ExifTool looks like it can write just about any metadata tags you want. It doesn't have a pretty GUI though. --LarryMac | Talk 18:14, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

September 10

graphic design, etc.

Is there an umbrella term that includes subfields like graphic design, branding, non-linear video and audio editing, compositing and visual FX?--Sonjaaa (talk) 01:02, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Artistic design? --mboverload@ 02:04, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Desktop publishing? Sandman30s (talk) 12:45, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Computer graphics? SteveBaker (talk) 20:49, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

New computer?

Hey, it's me from Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Computing/2008_September_4#D:.2F_doesn.27t_read_discs. I had my brother install Spore on his computer and transferred the files over to my external HD, however the game is constantly freezing which is very annoying. Someone put an answer I didn't see:

That won't work. You could copy the entirety of the DVD to the external drive instead of installing it, and run the setup.exe from the external drive on your own PC however the game MIGHT have copy protection to stop that, but Spore runs without the CD so I think the only bit in place is the internet registration. TheGreatZorko (talk) 22:50, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

How would I go about doing this?

Anyway, I plan to get a new computer. What would you guys recommend? I'm reluctant to get Vista, but I don't think they make 'em with XP anymore. I also have one more question: how would I salvage my save files from Spore? It's on my external HD, but I'm not sure if the files are glitched up or what, so I was thinking of installing the program again onto C:/ on a new computer, replacing it with the files from my external HD, uninstalling it to get rid of everything but the save files and installing it again, but this would be time-consuming and kinda stupid. Avnas Ishtaroth _{drop me a line} 01:59, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Quick note - just from a quick reading of your post you will not be able to install Spore without the physical CD in the drive. Spore has nasty copy protection. --mboverload@ 02:03, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

"How would I go about doing this" - Hi. I'm the person that suggested this. It's rather simple really. Create a folder on the external drive (right click, hover over new, select folder), call it spore or whatever. Navigate to the CD in explorer, and select every file on the disc (Ctrl A should work for this), right click and select copy. Navigate to the exteranl drives Spore folder, right click and select paste. Wait a while because the game is about 4GB.

However if the game is actually running I'm going to go ahead and say the freezing is part of your PC issue. With Spore you are limited to 3 installs (unless you contact EA Support who are usually sort of speedy about getting that number reset for you) so I'd recommend not reinstalling unless you have to.

All your saves should be in your My Documents/My Spore Creations folder.

If you do get a new PC don't fret about Vista. It has come a long way since release, and any laptop with 2GB of memory or more should run it more than fine (You may want to turn off UAC once you get it. Google how if you want). Do you want a laptop or a desktop? If it is a laptop you want Dell does a good XPS machine with a GeForce 8600M in it, for pretty good money. If you want a desktop well your choices are huge. Just make sure it has a Core2Duo or Quad (any sort should do really), AT LEAST 2GB of RAM, and a non Intel graphics card if you want it to perform well. I made a list of graphics cards for another game that is still valid for any other game. The list is Here and you probably want a card from the mid high tier or above. Sorry for the forum link but its better than posting a massive list of graphics cards. TheGreatZorko (talk) 08:57, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Thankyou very much. I now have an external CD drive, but will not reinstall Spore via the CD until I get a new computer. There's a good NEC with all the system reqs. selling for $1400AUD, but I hear NEC is unreliable?

@The Great Zorko: Are you saying I should run the installer from the copied files from the CD? This doesn't contribute to the 3-install limit does it? I haven't seen any save files in the My Spore Creations, but I must not have paid attention. The game is actually running, but freezes completely, requiring a hard reset of the laptop, if I play any game in it for ~10 minutes consequtively (sp?), so I have to keep quitting to the main menu: irritating, but not unplayable. Regarding Vista, my younger brother has it and complains it's very slow unless he defrags once a week. Avnas Ishtaroth _{drop me a line} 01:15, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

It's not Vista, it's the way that manufacturers of computers preconfigure Vista. I bought Vista Ultimate (More like you're an ultimate idiot for paying this much money for an OS...) Although I am growing on Vista (as I grew on XP) the problems with it are interface related, not performance. Vista actually outperforms XP in video games. Whodathunkit? Many problems with computers stem from the way they are initially (mis)configured and loaded. Which is why I think computer manufacturers should burn in the deepest depths of Puritan Hell. --mboverload@ 01:35, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Also, UAC is WAAAYYYYYYYYYY better now. Although I would turn it off when you are initially configuring the computer and installing programs once everything is even close to being set turn it back on. Vista should have been shipped like it is in SP1 (it's better). --mboverload@ 01:37, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

E-mail verification

I have a huge address book full of old contacts. I want to make sure that the emails are up-to-date. Instead of bothering everyone with a mass e-mail, is there a safe way to verify that their e-mail addresses still exist? Zepheus <ゼィフィアス> (talk) 02:09, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

No. If you could do that spammers would cream their pants. The only thing you can do is go to the hosting website (ie gmail.com) to make sure it works. I'm positive that a quick mass mail checking in on people and just saying you're making sure you still have their right address won't bother anyone. It's quite nice to have a reason to reconnect with someone you haven't spoken to in awhile. Just make sure you mass mail them in the Bcc field =P --mboverload@ 07:05, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

And, if you're sending this out once, ask for a read receipt. Sandman30s (talk) 12:43, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

That's a great way to discover which of your friends belong in a lunatic asylum in the "I want more spam please" wing. Nobody in their right minds leaves read receipts turned on because it enables email address seekers to know that not only does your email work - but you are also daft enough to actually read their postings! NO! *bad* user! SteveBaker (talk) 20:46, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

This is why I said "once", or in other words, use that in exceptional circumstances. I also HATE getting repeated read receipts from insecure people. Sandman30s (talk) 14:11, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Function return array in C?

How do you return an array with a function in C? Through pointers? I'm new to C and my grasp on pointers isn't very strong yet, so I don't quite understand examples on the net. I'm trying to return an array of time values (seconds, minutes, hours, etc.) from a function that reads the time from a real-time clock through I2C on an embedded system (Atmel AVR). --antilived^{T | C | G} 03:44, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

It is not possible to return an array directly. You must either use a pointer, or return a struct that contains an array (which will probably be translated by your compiler into an equivalent construct involving a pointer). Maybe you should return a struct tm as found in <time.h> --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 03:52, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

This is what time.h is used for - but you can learn by looking at time.h to see how tm is defined. Because of memory management, you'll most likely want to make a pointer to tm in your main program. Pass the pointer as a parameter to your function. Have your function set the values in the pointer and return something like 0 if it works or some other number (ie: 10 = "Couldn't connect to I2C"). Then, your main program will call the function and get the return int. If it is 0, it knows that the pointer to tm has a valid date/time in it. Otherwise, it knows there was an error. This is a very basic C way of doing things that you will see over and over. -- kainaw™ 12:36, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

You have to know pointers to do this...but this is C and you have to know pointers to do almost anything!

In most cases, what we do is to have the calling function pass in an array for the called function to fill in - so, for example:

 // The FIRST way...

 void setDate ( char *dateBuffer )   // This is a pointer to the first character in the array
 {
   strcpy ( dateBuffer, "10/9/2008" ) ;  // Or whatever...
 }

 int main ()
 {
   char date [ 200 ] ;
   setDate ( date ) ;
   printf ( "The date is %s\n", date ) ;
 }

But if you really do want to return a result, you can do it with pointers:

 // The Second Way....

 char dateBuffer [ 200 ] ;

 char *getDate ()
 {
   strcpy ( dateBuffer, "10/9/2008" ) ;
   return dateBuffer ;
 }

 int main ()
 {
   char *date ;
   date = getDate () ;
   printf ( "The date is %s\n", date ) ;
 }

HOWEVER, this second approach is awfully dangerous and makes experienced programmers twitch slightly in the outer corner of their right eyelid.

The reason is that it's awfully easy to write this:

 // The way you don't do it unless you want Steve to come to your house with an Uzi and ritually murde...

 char *getDate ()
 {
   char dateBuffer [ 200 ] ;
   strcpy ( dateBuffer, "10/9/2008" ) ;
   return dateBuffer ;   // <===== EEEEKKKKK!!!!! NEVER DO THIS -- EVER!!!!!
 }

 int main ()
 {
   char *date ;
   date = getDate () ;
   printf ( "The date is %s\n", date ) ;
 }

The problem being that now "dateBuffer" is a local variable of the 'getDate' function and as soon as the function exits, that data is *GONE*. However you returned a pointer to the data to the 'main' function which then passes it on to printf. But printf then follows the pointer and tries to print out data that's been deleted! This can produce an exciting and diverse range of impossible to find bugs!

Since this code only differs by the position of one line ("char dateBuffer[200]" was moved inside the function) this error is incredibly easy to make - and horribly difficult to find in a million lines of software. So we try to do this kind of thing the first way rather than the second way - because we don't want the third way!

Sadly, there is also a problem with the first way - which is that 'setDate' has no way to check that the array is big enough for the data that's going into it.

So the short answer is "use C++ classes" - but that's an entirely different story.

SteveBaker (talk) 20:42, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Although I do agree with Steve on the last bit of advice, it is a bit controversial. Not everyone loves the complexities of C++. So I'll stick with C, and modify Steve's last example:

 // This way, hopefully Steve won't come to your house with an Uzi and ritually murde...
 //
 char *getDate ()
 {
   static char dateBuffer [ 200 ] ;
   strcpy ( dateBuffer, "10/9/2008" ) ;
   return dateBuffer ;   // Safe (sort of)
 }

This is essentially doing the same as Steve's "second way" example, except that the buffer there was in the global namespace, while here it is hidden as a static variable within the function. The problem with both approaches, is that using global (or static) buffers for function return values is a practice that easily leads to errors. An example, assuming the function returns the date and time:

char *t1, *t2;
double d;
// creating a record, need to get the date the task begins
t1 = getDate();
// do the work..
d = do_that_time_consuming_calculation();
t2 = getDate(); // get the time the task finished
// ok, done. Fill in the record
strcpy(myrecord.start_time, t1);
myrecord.result = d;
strcpy(myrecord.end_time, t2);

The error, of course, is that both myrecord.start_time and myrecord.end_time will contain the time the task finished, since t1 and t2 store pointers to the same buffer. To avoid that, you can allocate the memory for the array in your function, using malloc. The problem is, you'll have to deallocate the memory when you're done, something you're likely to forget (especially if there is an error return before the program line where you deallocate the memory), thereby getting a memory leak. Of course, with C++, you have smart pointers,.... Sorry, I said I was going to stick with C, didn't I. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 22:22, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Did either of the C++ pushers bother to read the question? It wasn't about returning variable-length strings. It was about returning a fixed-sized group of integers.

When faced with a problem, some people say "let's use C++". Now they have 2 problems. --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 22:37, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Humble apologies. I wont't write it out, but Please replace char* with int* in my post, char dateBuffer[200] with int dateBuffer[6], and strcpy with whatever mechanism is used to fill the array. My point about returning pointers to global (or static) data remains valid. I would also like to point out that I consider kainaw's suggestion the best C solution to the problem. Sorry, I may have misread kainaw's suggestion. The best suggestion IMO, is

 // Steve's FIRST way, possibly also what kainaw intended
 // NOTE: *** Function name corrected after first being posted. --NorwegianBlue
 //
 int getDate ( int *dateBuffer )   // This is a pointer to the first integer in the array
 {
    // Fill dateBuffer with date and time
    return errorcode; // 0 is ok, other return values for the errors that might occur
 }

 int main ()
 {
   int date [ 6 ] ;
   int errorcode;
   errorcode = getDate ( date ) ; // *** Function name corrected after first being posted --NorwegianBlue
   if (errorcode = 0)
   {
       doSomething( date );
   }
   else
   {
     // Error handling
   }
 }

since this eliminates the possibility of using a pointer to a buffer that has been overwritten with new data. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 23:30, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Uhh I'm not sure why it has gone the other way but I'm trying to read time instead of set time... I've already done the set time part by just passing over the whole array. Should I really do it with pointers instead of just passing the array? I will look into that tm struct in time.h once I have the time. --antilived^{T | C | G} 01:04, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Sorry, late-night copy-and-paste error on my part, of what (to me) appears to be a typo in Steve's post. I have corrected the code directly in my post above. Hopefully, brain working better in the morning. Re your question "Should I really do it with pointers instead of just passing the array?", the answer is yes. When you use an array as a parameter in C, what actually is being put on the stack is a pointer to the array, and if the array is big, doing it this way is WAY more efficient. Probably, this is what is going on in the function you have already written as well, when you are "just passing the array". Hope this helps. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 05:08, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Linpus Linux, Aspire One, etc.

How does one go about modify/editing the desktop/main menu background of the Acer Version of the Linpus Lite installed on the Aspire One? nat.utoronto 03:53, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

WEBSENSE

How will be able to bypass websense to access usefull sites like wikipedia and read online news in my work place. It's solely for beneficial reasons and i'm having a hard time bypassing it .Please assist5. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 196.1.26.35 (talk) 04:44, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Ask your network administrator. If its against their policies to allow certain sites then you should try to convince them. Also, aren't you already able to access Wikipedia? -59.95.99.160 (talk) 06:40, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

If its a legit site they will let it through. We do it all the time (different but the same idea). Depending on the company bypassing filters is automatically assumed as industrial espionage. (not kidding, some will fire you by leaving your computer unlocked) Plus it's an easy excuse to fire someone they don't like. If it's legit just ask the local IT guy. Be nice about it and give a quick reason why you think it would be helpful to your. We're not robots - if we think we can help you out we will. --mboverload@ 07:02, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Sometimes they'll block the ".org" version of the site - but they may forget that www.wikipedia.net and www.wikipedia.com also take you to the same place...it's worth a try. Also, there are a HUGE number of completely legal mirrors and 'forks' of Wikipedia that give you the same content - but without the ability to put your changes back into the site - there is a list of them here: Wikipedia:Mirrors_and_forks - perhaps one of those will get you the content you need. But I agree - you should go to your management and explain that having the whole of human knowledge inside that little box on their desks just might, maybe, be kinda handy for their employees! SteveBaker (talk) 19:43, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

LAN

I am busy doing a project for school and I have to do various things about a LAN. The most info I already have but there is one part that I am battling with. How does a LAN use computer programs? I dont seem to get any info on that. I dont know if I am just looking in the wrong place.

Thanks for a great site. I have used it a couple of times already for projects and I am sure I will use it even more in future. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 196.207.33.197 (talk) 06:08, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

LANs don't use computer programs, computer programs use LANs. LAN. Could you be more specific in your question? --mboverload@ 07:03, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Hi, you can start with Communications protocol (especially Internet Protocol Suite). If you're using windows, check out Network Connections under Control Panel to see the protocols your LAN use. At a very basic level, programs designed to work on a LAN are network aware and the developers would use one of the protocols above. A typical problem in designing a simple network application is how file-sharing/locking would work. Sandman30s (talk) 12:40, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Essentially, the LAN (Local Area Network) is the teeny-tiny part of the Internet that lives within a single building - or perhaps within a company. It's composed of the wires, the switches and routers and such like - and it's job is to pass messages back and forth between computers. So when you are using a computer at work (say) and you want to read a page on Wikipedia, the sequence of events (softwarily) is (very roughly) as follows:

• You bring up Internet Explorer or Firefox or something. That's a computer program that runs on your computer.
• When you enter the Wikipedia web address into the address bar, FireFox asks the operating system (Windows, Linux or MacOS perhaps) to please make a connection to this "wikipedia" place. The operating system sends a message to the "device driver" that drives the "Ethernet interface" hardware on your computer to send a message to another computer that says "Could you please tell me what number is given to the computer called 'Wikipedia.org'."?
• The Ethernet interface hardware is connected either to a cable or to a radio link that sends out the message over the LAN.
• At this point, it's just a message - a string of bytes with a wrapper called a "packet" which (like a postal packet) contains the address that the packet is being sent to and the address it came from.
• The LAN electronics route that packet through the maze of cables, routers and other computers out to the cable that runs off to the "big wide world" Internet proper. The "switches" and "routers" (kinda the same thing) look at the address on the message and make sure it gets sent down the right wire.
• The Internet is sometimes called a "WAN" (Wide Area Network) because it covers longer distances - but the technology is no different in principle to the LAN...so the message continues off across the net until it gets to the place where it's being sent.
• In this case - because we're asking the question "What is the number of the computer called 'Wikipedia.org'" - the message was sent to a computer called a "DNS" (Dynamic Name Server) - which has a long list of computer names ("Google.com", "Wikipedia.org", "ebay.com"...etc)...and the numbers that go with them (eg Wikipedia is 208.80.152.2)...well, that computer looks up wikipedia, finds the number and then looks where the packet came from and sends the answer back in another packet.
• Now the process reverses - the packet goes back through switches and routers and cables in the Internet - and eventually arrives at the LAN - still addressed to your computer.
• The message arrives in the Ethernet interface - and the operating system picks it up and remembers that 208.80.152.2 is Wikipedia.
• Now Firefox sends a message to wikipedia that says "Please send me the page called 'wiki/Main_Page'" - using the 208.80.152.2 address.
• Same thing...the message goes across the LAN, out into the internet, into the LAN at Wikipedia headquarters - and into the computer there.
• The Wikipedia computer finds that page (it's a file on disk) - loads contents of the file into a packet (perhaps several packets if it's a long page) and ships it back to the computer in the "From" part of the address...which is you.
• ANOTHER trip across the wiki-LAN, into the Internet, into your LAN, into your Ethernet interface, into your operating system and then into FireFox...which displays the page on the screen.

In truth, this is an AMAZINGLY simplified version of what's really going on...in reality there are messages sent back from every packet as it arrives at it's destination that say "Thanks! I got your message OK!"...if the sending computer doesn't get that acknowledgement back, it sends the packet again...and again...and again...until it either gets an acknowledgement back or some large amount of time passes and it gives up.

And the "DNS" computer may not have the address you want in it's list - so it goes to another nearby DNS and says "Do you happen to know this address?"...and the request that says "Where the heck is wikipedia?" ripples out across many, many DNS's until one of them really does know the answer and sends it back so that everyone will know next time around.

And Wikipedia isn't really just one computer - there are many and whichever one has time to spare will send you back your page.

And your LAN probably has a "Firewall" computer between it and the big-wide-world Internet who's job it is to make sure that only "approved" messages are passed back and forth - to keep out hackers, industrial spies and such like.

In some cases, for very commonly needed pages, there may be a computer on your LAN that stores copies of the most frequently needed pages - and intercepts requests for them so that you get the saved copy without having to travel halfway around the world to get it.

But that's enough for a simplified view.

SteveBaker (talk) 20:21, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Outlook Express

Bear with me, I'm not good with computers, so answers in words of one syllable please!

I've always used Outlook Express for sending and receiving emails. However, I've recently bought a new computer running Vista, and Outlook Express does not seem to be part of the package. I bought the machine from Dell and it came with all its software pre-loaded.

Is Outlook Express being phased out? Is it possible for me to access it somehow on the new computer, or is it just not included on new machines?

Any help gratefully appreciated. Maid Marion (talk) 14:32, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Yes, Outlook Express has been replaced by Windows Mail. --LarryMac | Talk 14:35, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

You could also consider downloading "Thunderbird" - which is the email client provided by the same guys who wrote FireFox. It's free and has pretty good features and an excellent spam filter that learns from you what you consider spam and what you want to read. The website is here: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/ SteveBaker (talk) 19:35, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

I can't seem to log in today (told you I was no good with computers), but this is Maid Marion, just to say thanks to you guys, very helpful. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.139.174.145 (talk) 09:07, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Loading images

Does firefox provide an option to not load images until requested by the user, like old versions of netscape used to? I couldn't find it in preferences but thought it might be a hidden option like about:config --Random832 (contribs) 15:34, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

tools/options/content/load images automatically (in 3.0.1) Algebraist 15:43, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

The "Image like Opera" extension does this (although it also has much more powerful features). It will show placeholder frames instead of images, you can right-click the placeholder and click "Load image" to load the image in place, unlike the "View image" FF option which loads the image alone in the same window. Basically it behaves like Internet Explorer's "Show image download placeholders" option. It works like a charm. Works well for blocking ads and Flash too as it handles regular expressions and can supplement Ad-block Plus. Zunaid 15:56, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

FF3 actually has a right-click "show image" item that I noticed when an image failed to load. It doesn't seem to work when image loading is turned off though. --Random832 (contribs) 17:39, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Virtual CD burner - free

I'm looking for a simple, free alternative almost identical to programs such as TuneClone - or one with an unrestricted ~10-day trial :-) Anyone know of one? Thanks! ╟─Treasury§Tag►contribs─╢ 16:56, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

To clarify your question, I guess you're looking for a Virtual drive#Virtual Burner, right? -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 17:16, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Pretty much, yeah, but free and simple if poss! ╟─Treasury§Tag►contribs─╢ 18:25, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Ladder logic diagram software

Does anyone here know where I can obtain free (gratis) software to draw ladder logic diagrams. I do not need to perform any type of simulation or PLC programming. I simply want to be able to draw the diagrams. I have searched Google to no avail. 137.148.141.183 (talk) 23:31, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

September 11

boot screen gone

I run a presario with a partition of xp and one of ubuntu. If I don't select xp then ubuntu automatically loads, but I primarily run windows so that my audigy won't give me problems. Sometimes I come home and my screen is on ubuntu because of usually some kind of automatic update that required a restart. No problem, I restart and select xp. Today I come home, same situation at first, but when I restart ubuntu loads without a boot screen. I restart again a couple times, same thing. I shut down and wait a couple minutes, turn it on and it goes directly to ubuntu with no boot screen. I'm not sure if I have a windows boot disk around anywhere, but I might, but I'm hoping the solution involves something else. I'm a sort of a novice on linux, so I can go to the terminal but if it's complicated I need one of those walk-throughs that holds my hand. Thanks. - Lambajan 01:52, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Post the output for 'gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst'. If menu.lst is unaltered you might have to reinstall grub. Link -Abhishek (talk) 02:28, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

menu.lst (click "show" at right to reveal)

# menu.lst - See: grub(8), info grub, update-grub(8)
#            grub-install(8), grub-floppy(8),
#            grub-md5-crypt, /usr/share/doc/grub
#            and /usr/share/doc/grub-doc/.

## default num
# Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and
# the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.
#
# You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default entry
# is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'.
# WARNING: If you are using dmraid do not change this entry to 'saved' or your
# array will desync and will not let you boot your system.
default		0 

## timeout sec
# Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default entry
# (normally the first entry defined).
timeout		10

## hiddenmenu
# Hides the menu by default (press ESC to see the menu)
#hiddenmenu 

# Pretty colours
#color cyan/blue white/blue 

## password ['--md5'] passwd
# If used in the first section of a menu file, disable all interactive editing
# control (menu entry editor and command-line)  and entries protected by the
# command 'lock'
# e.g. password topsecret
#      password --md5 $1$gLhU0/$aW78kHK1QfV3P2b2znUoe/
# password topsecret 

#
# examples
#
# title		Windows 95/98/NT/2000
# root		(hd0,0)
# makeactive
# chainloader	+1
#
# title		Linux
# root		(hd0,1)
# kernel	/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro
#

#
# Put static boot stanzas before and/or after AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST

### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified
## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below

## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs

## ## Start Default Options ##
## default kernel options
## default kernel options for automagic boot options
## If you want special options for specific kernels use kopt_x_y_z
## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted.
## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
##      kopt_2_6_8=root=/dev/hdc1 ro
##      kopt_2_6_8_2_686=root=/dev/hdc2 ro
# kopt=root=UUID=4a2dafdb-eeea-4f77-8900-a2188f66e3de ro

## Setup crashdump menu entries
## e.g. crashdump=1
# crashdump=0

## default grub root device
## e.g. groot=(hd0,0)
# groot=(hd0,2)

## should update-grub create alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. alternative=true
##      alternative=false
# alternative=true

## should update-grub lock alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. lockalternative=true
##      lockalternative=false
# lockalternative=false

## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the
## alternatives
## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5
# defoptions=quiet splash

## should update-grub lock old automagic boot options
## e.g. lockold=false
##      lockold=true
# lockold=false

## Xen hypervisor options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenhopt=

## Xen Linux kernel options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenkopt=console=tty0

## altoption boot targets option
## multiple altoptions lines are allowed
## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options
##      altoptions=(recovery) single
# altoptions=(recovery mode) single

## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst
## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the
## alternative kernel options
## e.g. howmany=all
##      howmany=7
# howmany=all

## should update-grub create memtest86 boot option
## e.g. memtest86=true
##      memtest86=false
# memtest86=true

## should update-grub adjust the value of the default booted system
## can be true or false
# updatedefaultentry=false

## should update-grub add savedefault to the default options
## can be true or false
# savedefault=false

## ## End Default Options ##

title		Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.24-18-generic
root		(hd0,2)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-18-generic root=UUID=4a2dafdb-eeea-4f77-8900-a2188f66e3de ro quiet splash
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-18-generic
quiet 

title		Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.24-18-generic (recovery mode)
root		(hd0,2)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-18-generic root=UUID=4a2dafdb-eeea-4f77-8900-a2188f66e3de ro single
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-18-generic

title		Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic
root		(hd0,2)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=UUID=4a2dafdb-eeea-4f77-8900-a2188f66e3de ro quiet splash
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic
quiet

title		Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic (recovery mode)
root		(hd0,2)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=UUID=4a2dafdb-eeea-4f77-8900-a2188f66e3de ro single
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic

title		Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.20-16-generic
root		(hd0,2)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-16-generic root=UUID=4a2dafdb-eeea-4f77-8900-a2188f66e3de ro quiet splash
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-16-generic
quiet

title		Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.20-16-generic (recovery mode)
root		(hd0,2)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-16-generic root=UUID=4a2dafdb-eeea-4f77-8900-a2188f66e3de ro single
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-16-generic

title		Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.17-12-generic
root		(hd0,2)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.17-12-generic root=UUID=4a2dafdb-eeea-4f77-8900-a2188f66e3de ro quiet splash
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.17-12-generic
quiet

title		Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.17-12-generic (recovery mode)
root		(hd0,2)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.17-12-generic root=UUID=4a2dafdb-eeea-4f77-8900-a2188f66e3de ro single
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.17-12-generic

title		Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.17-11-generic
root		(hd0,2)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.17-11-generic root=UUID=4a2dafdb-eeea-4f77-8900-a2188f66e3de ro quiet splash
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.17-11-generic
quiet

title		Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.17-11-generic (recovery mode)
root		(hd0,2)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.17-11-generic root=UUID=4a2dafdb-eeea-4f77-8900-a2188f66e3de ro single
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.17-11-generic

title		Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.17-10-generic
root		(hd0,2)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.17-10-generic root=UUID=4a2dafdb-eeea-4f77-8900-a2188f66e3de ro quiet splash
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.17-10-generic
quiet

title		Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.17-10-generic (recovery mode)
root		(hd0,2)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.17-10-generic root=UUID=4a2dafdb-eeea-4f77-8900-a2188f66e3de ro single
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.17-10-generic

title		Ubuntu 8.04, memtest86+
root		(hd0,2)
kernel		/boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title		Other operating systems:
root


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/hda1
title		Microsoft Windows XP Professional
root		(hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader	+1

That's everything that came up. I hope it's helpful, thanks. - Lambajan 13:20, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

P.S. feel free to delete anything that's not helpful to shorten this section. - Lambajan 13:21, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

I've hidden it, to reduce the visual impact. Please feel free to revert/undo if you object. -- Coneslayer (talk) 16:24, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

No objection. I wish I thought of it, thank you. - Lambajan 16:31, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

C library for hash tables and automatically resized arrays

What is the most widely used library in C (not C++) for doing hash tables and automatically resized arrays (that supports push, pop, shift, and unshift functions)? I think Gnome library has these, but what are my options? what is the most widely used? --24.188.247.12 (talk) 02:16, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

For hash tables, it's probably the POSIX facility described here. For resizeable arrays, the most common answer is surely "we rolled our own using realloc()". --Sean 13:57, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

The low-level library GLib is where you'll find these types of functions in gnome programs. Another possible answer for hash tables is Berkeley DB, especially if the hash table is very large and/or the contents need to be saved in a permanent disk file between runs of the program. And yes, all those array operations are just realloc+memmove, nothing to get excited about. --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 20:29, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Digital Mirror

It is possible to have an image on a computer screen that shows one’s reflection? A digital mirror so to speak. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.202.144.223 (talk) 03:28, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

I suppoose one could use a webcam and simply flip the image. - SigmaEpsilon → ΣΕ 04:16, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

But an ordinary mirror works from all angles, like a hologram, and you can't simulate that with an ordinary computer monitor. -- BenRG (talk) 10:49, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Videos in Firefox 3 without audio

All of a sudden, the audio isn't working when I try to play videos in Firefox 3.0.1. My iTunes works fine. I closed and reopened the browser, but that didn't fix it. I restarted my computer, but that didn't fix it. I checked all sounds setting in my volume control, but everything is OK. Any suggestions about what might be causing this would be appreciated! — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 03:36, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

What plugins addons do you have installed? - SigmaEpsilon → ΣΕ 03:55, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Plugins: 2007 Microsoft Office system, Adobe Acrobat, DivX Player Netscape Plugin, DivX Web Player, iTunes Application Detector, Java Platform SE 6 U2, Microsoft DRM (apparently two…), Mozilla Default Plug-in, QuickTime Plug-in 7.5 (861), RealJukebox NS Plugin, RealPlayer Version Plugin, RealPlayer G2 LiveConnect-Enabled Plug-In, Shockwave Flash, Shockwave for Director, VLC Media Plugin, Windows Media Player Plug-in Dynamic Link Library. — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 04:41, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

What format videos have you tried? Algebraist 08:55, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

I think they have all been FLV (based on my "DownloadHelper" app), for example this Quantum of Solace trailer. I also (just) just noticed that the videos play for about 2–5 seconds and then stop; I can click the slider ahead and it will play for another 2–5 seconds. — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 22:45, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

I used to have that problem; I think it was because my university connection was dodgy (and it cleared up after a network upgrade of some kind) but I was never sure. I had sound though (except for the one time I lost it and eventually realized that FF remembers you pressing the YouTube mute button). Algebraist 22:49, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

And suddenly it has cleared up! I went to YouTube to see if I had muted anything (although not all videos were from YouTube), but I hadn't. Then I tried the other videos again, and they have sound and play continuously. — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 23:06, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

I was having a similar problem yesterday... weird. But it is also cleared up today, so apparently it'll take care of itself. --Alinnisawest,^{Dalek Empress} (extermination requests here) 13:27, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Default Language of Microsoft-Word under Window-XP-Professional

I am using Microsoft Window XP Professional and Word-2003.

Most of my Microsoft-Word documents contain both English and Chinese fonts. I never type in Chinese fonts with Ping-Ying. They are always copied from other documents and pasted into my files. Whenever I type in, I want them to be English.

Problem#1: Whenever I open a word document, its input is always Chinese Ping-Ying by default.

Question#1: How do I set English as the default language although documents contain some Chinese characters? I tried

Menu/Tools/Language/Set Language/(abc)-English (Australia)

but it never works.

Problem#2: This is independent of the above situation. Files with extension .htm are open correctly by Firefox but the icon on every htm-document is NOT identified by Firefox.

Question#2: How do I attach the Firefox-icon to files with externsion-htm?

Problem#3: I view some video online via internet.

Question#3: Are these video files stored in some temporary folders of Window-XP-Professional? Can I take them out and save them for viewing later?

Thank you in advance for your help. twma 09:18, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

1. tools/language/set language/(select your language)/default
2. Open My Computer. Tools/Folder Options/File Type scroll to HTM and select it. Then click Advanced, then Change Icon. I can't say exactly where you'll find the icon as I don't have FF on this computer.
3. You can get Firefox add-ons which will allow you to save the video files from most sites. For example, Fast Video Download. Please note that many videos, such as those from YouTube, are in the Flash "FLV" format, which can then be played with VLC Media Player. --LarryMac | Talk 14:15, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Thank you for your help.

1) Menu/Tools/Language/Set Language/(abc)-English (Australia)/default

It did not work. Every time when I opened a new or old I had to change manually from Chinese into English at the selector located at the lower right hand corner of the bottom bar.

2) Following your instructions again, I managed to get a window of lots of icon-pictures but I could not find the icon of Firefox. I do not know how to copy one from other computer or download it from somewhere.

3) I managed to find a web-site of Firefox Add-ons. Will ask my local friends to work together. Thank you again. twma 09:49, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Need advice buying a laptop part 3

Hey guys I've narrowed my options down. Please take a look at this comparison. http://direct.tesco.com/compare/?c=204-4693+204-5811&f=%2Fq%2FN.1999033%24264%2FNr.99.aspx

Not sure which is best, as a Gamer, the laptops perfomance in games is important but not the only thing I will take into consideration. It troubles me that battery life is not included in the specification of the HP dv6907. Does anyone here own one of these laptops or be able to find out how long battery life is? Or perhaps maybe you know of a better deal than either of these two.

Thanks a lot —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.19.46.67 (talk) 10:24, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

The 8400M is an abysmal card for games. If you want to play ames at all you're going to want an 8600M minimum 88.211.96.3 (talk) 12:11, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

To the poster above, this poor person has been asking advice for days about his laptop and now you go and contradict everything we've said. Besides he only wants to play Counter Strike Source. Does Nvidia even make an 8600 for laptops? To the OP, I think you're over-analyzing; you should really think about using your laptop near a power source as batteries will only last for a few hours at full usage. I have a dell laptop and it lasts for four hours. Sandman30s (talk) 14:21, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

I'm sorry I wasn't aware he just wanted to play counterstrike source. The card will be fine for that but you'll be running at medium to low settings. And yes, there is an 8600M. It is one of the standard cards on the Dell XPS series of laptops. And to the poster of the question, gaming shouldn't be done unless you're plugged into the power as running 3d graphics presents a massive strain on the computer so it uses more power. Anything other than that and possibly video and you're going to get at least 4 hours probably more on a fully charged battery if you're careful. 88.211.96.3 (talk) 14:31, 11 September 2008 (UTC) Edit: Oh by the way since you're asking for a comparison get the first one. The A200 has a graphics card that isn't even going to be particularly good at running Vista on its own let alone Source. It's also a really old model and it has awful speakers according to a CNet review I found. So to reiterate if those are your 2 choices go for the HP. 88.211.96.3 (talk) 14:44, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks and agreed. My last post was in a great hurry so I neglected to mention that many (if not all) laptops decrease the CPU speed when you switch to battery, to conserve power - not a good idea for gaming. Without checking the specs of your last laptop choice (the Dell), I agree with the 8600M. Oh, and please make a choice now, and happy CSSing! Sandman30s (talk) 20:40, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

virtual machines and operating systems

I just want to try plan 9, inferno and other things, but I don't want to partition my hard drive any further. I don't know which virtual machine to choose, there are simply too many options. I am ready to clean up everything and install everything fresh, if required. I have AMD Athlon x2, x86-64 system. Any help regarding this would really be appreciated. --V4vijayakumar (talk) 18:28, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

I'm going to assume Windows: I'm partial to VMware. It's always seemed a bit faster to me, though I've not used VirtualPC in a version or so. Both products should have something free to use. Washii (talk) 21:25, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

I use VirtualBox which is free and easy to use. x42bn6 Talk Mess 00:26, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

QEMU is also worth a try. Also check out Qemu Manager. JessicaThunderbolt 15:05, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Text in Windows Vista

Uh, this is kinda weird, but suddenly today the text in webpages in firefox turned italicized and in some other program windows as well (Trend Micro for example). I restarted twice and now the text in firefox is bold while the text in the Trend Micro control box is still italic. Can anyone help and tell me what's going on? Much thanks for any help. --RedStateV (talk) 19:15, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Now the text in IE is italicized too. What the heck?! RedStateV (talk) 19:20, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Ok new update. It's not all web pages that do it. The Google home page, gmail, the ref desk page, any Wikipedia page is along with most other web pages. Facebook and TG Daily seem fine. It's still bold in FF and italics in IE. Plus, when I go into MS Word 2008 and select Arial, it comes out italicized and the selection box for italics isn't checked. Also, when I copy say, some bold text in FF off of the ref desk and into word or notepad, it shows up fine (i.e. clear formatted Times New Roman). RedStateV (talk) 21:24, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

A friend of mine had this problem on a forum. It should go away on its own, hopefully. Avnas Ishtaroth _{drop me a line} 01:33, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

I remember I had such problem in Windows 98 when I installed VirNET "Regional Settings Changer". Try to copy the font files from Vista install CD. --grawity 14:43, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Windows Live HotMail

Why the bloody fsck does Windows Live HotMail claim that "This version works better under your browser. For the full version, you need to upgrade to Internet Explorer 6. The full version also works with FireFox 2.0" when I am using it under FireFox 3.0? Is Windows Live HotMail simply too stupid to realise FireFox 3.0 is more advanced than FireFox 2.0, or is this a clever ploy to finally get me to install Windows? JIP | Talk 21:25, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Yes, to "simply too stupid." I've run across websites that barely support Firefox 1.5, let alone 3.0. Washii (talk) 21:37, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Well, IDK, I find 2.0 much prettier and more useful than 3.0, but that's just my two cents… Admiral Norton ^(talk) 21:38, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

For me (using Windows, mind you, and using FF3) it tells me it runs good under Firefox 3. ...I AM using Firefox 3! --Alinnisawest,^{Dalek Empress} (extermination requests here) 22:25, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

You can always get your browser to identify as something else. My guess is that it could work perfectly well under Ff3/Ie<6, they are just to stupid not only to have not released it yet, but perhaps not even confirmed if they need to.78.149.67.250 (talk) 23:49, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

September 12

64-bit OS compability

Are most 32 bit DVD ROM computer games able to operate on 64-bit systems like windows vista 64 bit edition.--logger (talk) 00:52, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Maybe. Some game use a copy-protection scheme that is basically a driver (SecuROM? Others?). Those kind likely would not work unless you could get a 64-bit version from the copy-protection maker's website. I'm not sure about the likes of SafeDisc (I know of very few DVD-based games that actually use SafeDisc, though). Washii (talk) 02:55, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Yes, most will be fine. As stated above, older versions of SecuROM may be an issue, and StarForce is an even bigger one (it will force its driver to install on x64 Vista even if it shouldn't be able to, which you have to watch out for; it obviously won't work, but Windows will complain about having an unsigned driver installed when you try to boot); however, you can download updated versions of these from the company's website so it's not a huge problem. Some games have other minor issues on 64-bit Vista vs. 32-bit Vista for some odd reasons, but I haven't run across any issues personally. 130.179.33.33 (talk) 15:18, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

mouse

why does the cursor move when mouse is moved —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.92.244.6 (talk) 07:19, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Because that is the purpose of the computer mouse? What use would the mouse be if it didn't? Or do you mean 'how' does the cursor move? 194.221.133.226 (talk) 09:03, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

The physical movement of the mouse (around your desk) is converted into the movement of your cursor on the screen, as the computer mouse article describes. The manual for the first Microsoft mouse included instructions for programming this yourself; the unit of distance for mouse movement was (I swear) the "mickey."

Some mice (or their drivers) also have programming so that the faster you move the mouse over a given distance, the further you move the cursor on the screen. --- OtherDave (talk) 10:31, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

They're still called mickeys: <google search>. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 10:54, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

IE 6 vs. 5

'sup, bud.

I have a legacy computer running Windows 2000. I updated it as much as possible, installing Internet Explorer 6 SP1 and making Firefox 3 the default browser. However, PC World´s "25 Worst Tech Products of All Time" says that any browser is better than IE 6 ... So, does that mean that I should uninstall IE 6 and replace it with the default IE 5? I ask because viruses -- even if they don't arrive through the browser -- usually attack IE. In terms of security, which is better?--Welcome Home Cover 56 (talk) 10:58, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

IE6 is better than IE5, but why are you using such an old IE? Does IE7 not run on Win2K? Even that has security vulnerabilities.

• IE5.5
• IE6.x
• IE7.x
• FF3

If you have FF3 you don't need IE at all. - Phydaux (talk) 12:33, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

And if you have IE7 you don't need FF at all. Hey, i can do it to, absolutely nothing todo with what the original poster was asking but I forced my misguided and childish opinion into the debate too! On topic, in terms of security, a fully patched IE6 is definetly more secure, and usefully, standards compliant than IE5. You don't have anything to worry about that you wouldn't with any other Browser. - Jimmi Hugh (talk) 12:49, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

It's not childish or useless to point out to the OP that, since they have already chosen FF3 as their default browser, they don't actually need to worry about IE updates, or about IE at all. Algebraist 12:55, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Many 3rd party programs were written depending on features installed with IE, so un-installing IE will break them. (I don't know your setup, so ???)

MS update only works with IE. Also some website only work with IE (the websites are broken, not the other browsers).

Keep IE6, it works fine and you might need it some time. Use FF3 'cause if you're a MS corporate drone you sound silly when you say "'sup, bud". Saintrain (talk) 14:02, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

'Sup, bud. I'd install IE 7, but MS says it doesn't work in Win 2k. I primarily use IE 7 on my XP box because developers design their sites to look good inside of IE. (The Win 2k setup is for a friend.) I hear IE 6 is less secure than IE 7. Site layouts also seem to get broken more often inside of IE 6 than IE 7. I just have bad memories of viruses displaying pop-ups even when I wasn't using IE. They would install ActiveX plugins into IE, even though the virus entered the computer as a malicious EXE, for example. But, as Jimmi mentioned, IE 6 is better than 5, so I'll just stick with that along with FF 3. Thanks, guys! (Especially Jimmi and Phydaux.)--Welcome Home Cover 56 (talk) 03:06, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

A little nitpick: good designers design their sites to look good inside standards compliant browsers, and spend sleepless nights trying to fix it to work with the quirks and incompatibilities of IE6. Microsoft is now experiencing the consequence of their failed EEE tactic, needing to include 3 different rendering modes for their Internet Explorer 8 just to keep those tag soup IE only websites working. --antilived^{T | C | G} 04:27, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Monetize open source software development

Besides consulting and web-ads, what other ways of monetizing OS software are there? Mr.K. (talk) 11:52, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

There's:

• Hosting - say you write an open-source timesheet-management program: your customers could download it and run it on their own servers, but you can offer them hosted service where you set it up and configure it for their requirements, host it on your (enterprise grade, redundant) servers in a secure data centre, and take care of stuff like security and backups for them.
• Hardware - you could be developing firmware for an embedded device like a storage array or a network device (like a firewall or entireprise spam filter). By using open-source software you can get a lot of the basic stuff done fast, but you retain your advantage because much of your business's value-add is the hardware, which you own.
• Ancillary products - e.g. you write an open-source database which grabs some of Oracle's market, then you sell add-ons like backup systems and management programs and additional storage providers. The degree to which you can do this is contingent on the open-source or free-software licence you choose, and the kind of linking you employ.

And remember that with most OS/FS licences you can make money from your and others' OS/FS software by offering them as a web-service you can make changes and not release those changes back to the originating products (as you're allowing access to the software but not disseminating the software itself. That's largely how Google does things, and is something that licences like the Affero General Public License are designed to prevent. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 12:19, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

• Money and Source status are completely separate issues, and there are many many situations in which open source software is sold. Whether or not you choose to release the source code for a product has no bearing on the commerical, monetary or "moral" aspects of the software. - Jimmi Hugh (talk) 12:45, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Well, let's not pretend it doesn't have some bearing from a practical standpoint. Obviously if I can download the code for free and compile it myself (or someone can download it, compile it, and have the binaries available to download), I don't necessarily need to pay you for it the same way I would proprietary software. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 14:52, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

True, but you won't get any enterprise-level support, unless you pay a separate fee. That is basically how RHEL works. They build you their core system, and for buckets'o'money they will keep those systems running, and even work on patches to make those systems perform better (to a certain extent). Washii (talk) 16:50, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Right but how many people actually use "enterprise-level support"? I mean, I don't even use that on the proprietary software I have. I'm just saying, your ordinary consumer is not going to pay for something they can get for free. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 22:12, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Actually... it depends first upon the license. If we accept that the terms Open Source and Proprietary Source are more than the definitions as controlled by the FSF and OSI respectively (the argument people here used to keep the Proprietary Software article when I wanted to move it,) then we can't stipulate about any single license. More Importantly, correct me if i'm wrong but doesn't the GPL say that the only people who are required to have the source distributed to them are people who correctly gained the binaries? So companies can very easily limit it, the consumers ability to then pass on their own modified source code aside. So actually, it doesn't have any bearing unless you just want to make up arguments why Open Source is better than Closed Source. I don't have an opinion either way because it's silly to think about outside to context of each individual product, and i've released as many open source tools as I have closed source. More importantly though, proprietary products can be open source. It may be a shock to find out the opinions you're copying, without having ever considered them, are wrong, but look up the word proprietary, and you'll see that there is no justification for the idea that a proprietary piece of software cannot also be open source. - Jimmi Hugh (talk) 17:07, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

"correct me if i'm wrong but doesn't the GPL say that the only people who are required to have the source distributed to them are people who correctly gained the binaries?" That really only helps if you're making a web application. Once you've actually given someone the code they can redistribute it to their heart's content. APL (talk) 18:32, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Exactly as i said immediately after that quote... however in terms of open source, as opposed to "free" software, that doesn't have to be entirely true either. - Jimmi Hugh (talk) 21:02, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Well, right, I was simplifying things a bit by using open source to refer to free software primarily, though I'm well aware there is proprietary open source. Assuming the OP was talking about free software, then it definitely puts bounds on the practical moneymaking opportunities. If you just mean it as a business model, it still can have some practical implications, though for most people compiling binaries is more difficult than just pirating the thing from a torrent. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 22:12, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Help with source code and compiling (bash)

I am trying to modify some source code for a .deb package of flash plugin. That .deb package is a metapackage that dowloads and install the flash player, and what I wanted to do was to modify it/compile it so I would already include the "full" flash installer (for offline use), so my questions are:

• Do I need to modify the source code? (It already contains references to "flashplugin-nonfree/local", so it seems to be looking for a local file...)
• If I need to modify it, what exactly to I need to do?
• Then, how do I then compile it, including the full flash installer? (can I just drop the .tar.gz file in the folder where the source is?)

I found references to "flashplugin-nonfree/local" in 2 files, postinst and config (in case that helps). By the way, I think the language is bash. I hope someone can help me out... Hacktolive (talk) 15:41, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

What are some words that I could easily type with one hand?

The word needs to be at least 8 letters long, and all the letters should be very close together on the keyboard.--The Fat Man Who Never Came Back (talk) 15:49, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

The full chemical name of Titin at 189,819 letters, typing very slowly with one finger. Is that cheating? JessicaThunderbolt 16:12, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

not helpful.--The Fat Man Who Never Came Back (talk) 23:31, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

rewarded? 207.58.235.243 (talk) 16:26, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

helpful.--The Fat Man Who Never Came Back (talk) 23:31, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Stewardesses. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 16:32, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

helpful.--The Fat Man Who Never Came Back (talk) 23:31, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Right hand or left? qwerty keyboard? - Lambajan 16:33, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

at least attempted to be helpful.--The Fat Man Who Never Came Back (talk) 23:31, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Here's 280 words you can type with your left hand. (That are >= 8 letters long, with a qwerty keyboard.)APL (talk) 16:36, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

most helpful of all; You get the prize! (that was a real question, but if anyone would like to hire me to be the Reference Desk mystery shopper, let's talk turkey).--The Fat Man Who Never Came Back (talk) 23:31, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Rearward, rearward and REARWARD, Refreeze, refreeze and REFREEZE. I got six left-hand words without even trying, I should get a consolation prize.

And of course, why would one have a need to type 8-letter words with just one hand? You can see where that sort of question might draw unhelpful replies. (and it's OK, we get lots of mystery shoppers here!) :) Franamax (talk) 23:39, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Curiously, I'm stumped for right-handers. Plominik? Kopility? ETAOIN SHRDLU is well-distributed across the Qwerty keyboard (by design), but the right side has got me beat right now, and I notice that all the answers so far have been left-side. Franamax (talk) 23:48, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

The longest I find in Ubuntu's /usr/share/dict/words is "polyphony". It's nowhere near the longest left-handers like "stewardesses" and "aftereffects", which kind of makes sense: there are fewer letters on the right-hand half of the keyboard, and also the two most common vowels and the most common consonant are all on the left-hand side. The full lists, if anyone's interested, are here and here. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 05:02, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Hmmm, if you say there are fewer letters on the right-hand half of the keyboard, my first instinct would be to ask how you define "half". But that brings up a meta-question - why the paucity of useful stuff on the right side? All the punctuation is over there - do we need our (for most people) dominant hand for dots and braces? Qwerty typewriters were designed to slow down the key rate, since the mechanical key escapement only worked so fast and no faster - but am I now seeing an additional lowering of the right-hand typing frequency? Most cunning if so. Franamax (talk) 06:18, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Now we have all we need to log in as the Fat Man :) ... password-entering efficiency is it? Whiskeydog (talk) 01:50, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Here's my secret password strategy: you want both hands to be making small motions, almost simultaneously, and in directions where the hand obscures the finger motion. This makes the hardest possible task for anyone watching your keystrokes when you login. For instance, try this "poasl23l" - natural finger movements, very hard to pick up if you're watching for a scoop. Of course, you have to make sure you're typing that at the Password: prompt, if you do it at Login:, you're left pleading with someone to not reveal your ultimate perfect password. :) :( Franamax (talk) 06:18, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Serious looking free web-page

What free hosting provider would you recommend for a self-employed consultant? I thought about Google Pages, but the service was discontinued as Google Sites kicked in. The problem with the latter is that the adresse structure (http://sites.google.com/site/username instead of http://username.googlepages.com) gives the impression that the site is not independent of other similar sites. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mr.K. (talk • contribs) 17:00, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Serious looking and free is rather difficult. A consultant in any serious field (i.e. no motivational, success or intercultural consulting) should be able to pay the (historically) ridiculous low prices of web-hosting and domain register. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.12.16.56 (talk) 17:25, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

I'm a fan of 110MB.com. It has a lot of junk-sites floating around, but all the available upgrades are really quite awesome. Washii (talk) 17:56, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

I've not actually done this myself, but couldn't you register your own domain and sign up with a redirector? When I clicked on mr-K.com/awesomepage.html, it would get passed on to sites.google.com.site/mr-K as an HTTP GET for awesomepage.html.

I'll chime in with the questions here, does it actually work the way I just said? Franamax (talk) 06:34, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Splitting commands in Python

In Python, is there an easy way to split input like commandline shells do? For example:

• Input: command arg1 arg2 "a long arg3" arg4 "arg5 \"still arg5" arg6
• Output:
  • command
  • arg1
  • arg2
  • a long arg3
  • arg4
  • arg5 "still arg5
  • arg6

--grawity 17:55, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Here is probably the worst python program ever written -

import sys
s = sys.stdin.readline()

# HACK: change escaped quotes into a magic string that we hope will never arise
s2 =s.replace('\\"', 'COWABUNGA')

# split the command into blocks along " edges - this leaves quoted params
# as the odd elements (HACK: assuming the line doesn't begin with a quoted param)
s3 = s2.split('"')

# HACK: undo the horrible hack above
for i in range(0, len(s3)):
    s3[i] = s3[i].replace('COWABUNGA', '\\"')

# build the final output array
s4 = []
for i in range(0,len(s3)):
    if i%2==0:
        # a bunch of unquoted args, so split 'em out
        for x in s3[i].strip().split(' '):
            s4 += [x]
    else:
        # a quoted arg, so append without splitting
        s4 += [s3[i]]
    
for y in s4:
    print y

but it (kind of ) works. Boy I shoulda used a regexp :) 87.114.18.90 (talk) —Preceding undated comment was added at 19:18, 12 September 2008 (UTC).

Nah, it's wrong, it doesn't handle escaped escapes properly \\" 87.114.18.90 (talk) 19:22, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

try:

import sys, shlex
print shlex.split(sys.stdin.readline())

-- Finlay McWalter | Talk 19:55, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Website help

At my current location, I can only access dicionary/reference websites. Like Wikipedia, dictionary.com, books.google.com and even Urban Dictionary. I cannot access any other website outside of these types of websites. Even informative websites like CNN.com. Is there a website that can help me get around this problem? Is there a dummy site that fits the dictionary/reference criteria to help me get around our firewall?--Endlessdan and his problem 18:49, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

There are several methods. A web proxy would be best but these are probably blocked for you also. Try https://tor-proxy.net/, which uses the SOCKS protocol; but be warned it is very, very slow and unreliable. If you can get into your web browsers proxy settings you can route your traffic through a SOCKS connection, which might bypass the firewall. Personally I recommend Tor which will bypass most firewalls, however you would need to install it on the computer. Do you have administrator rights or is it a restricted workstation? If you're unable to install, can you use USB Flash dives? If so, on an unrestricted computer install Portable Tor onto a USB drive and you should be able to run it on the other computer. Also you'll need Portable Firefox as the computer's web browser will probably not allow you to change the settings. In Firefox change the proxy server in advanced settings to "localhost" and port "8118". JessicaThunderbolt 19:25, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Thank you for your response. I am on a restricted station. I tried using a web proxy, but that was a no go. The website you recommended, tor-proxy did not work. I got a 'page cannot be displayed' message. --Endlessdan and his problem 19:38, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Can you access Google Translator? If so, try this for CNN - http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com&hl=ar&ie=UTF-8&sl=ar&tl=en Here, I have Arabic to English, though of course CNN.com is not in Arabic. It's already in English, and that's what you get, but indirectly. --Aude (talk) 22:19, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Linux recognition of wireless card

At the suggestion of members of this board, I recently installed Ubuntu to make my system dual boot. However, when I pull up Ubuntu, it's unable to recognize my wireless card. I am currently using a Dell 1505 802.11n, and I cannot find any drivers for Unix. Additionally, I believe Ubuntu may be able to read the network to some degree, because when I installed it, it (incorrectly) reset the time to GMT, indicating it had network access to the time. Any suggestions? Magog the Ogre (talk) 19:49, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

If you cannot find any native drivers you can always install NDISwrapper and go here to find what windows driver you need. Then install the Win driver with NDISwrapper. Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 20:04, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Try this. --antilived^{T | C | G} 22:51, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

QBasic

In Qbasic, I have

PRINT "The answer is"; firstNumber; +  secondNumber; =

firstNumber and secondNumber are variables. How do you get QBasic to add the two variables? Wiki131wiki (talk) 20:36, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

PRINT "The answer is"; firstNumber +  secondNumber; =  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.86.164.115 (talk) 20:42, 12 September 2008 (UTC) 

The semicolon in there makes the compiler view the variables as separate, so it has to be removed. I'm not well-versed in QBASIC (I learned with JBASIC, myself), but you could also just have

thirdNumber = firstNumber + secondNumber
PRINT "The answer is "; thirdNumber

That way, you could leave the equation straight out of the text. I'm pretty sure that would work in QBASIC; it would in JBASIC, at any rate. The syntax may need to be played with a bit, but try something along those lines. --Alinnisawest,^{Dalek Empress} (extermination requests here) 20:52, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks! 68.193.147.179 (talk) 16:34, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

What should I learn when I outgrow MS Excel?

In my work, I have to manipulate a lot of data. The datasets are not unusually large and the math involved is rarely anything more complicated than arithmetic. But, I find Excel very limiting and oftentimes I have to piece together convoluted solutions to force Excel to do what I want it to. I end up with lots of formulas such as:

=AVERAGE((INDIRECT("'Normalized mass'!R[8]C["&(COLUMN()/2)&"]", FALSE)):(INDIRECT("'Normalized mass'!R[8]C["&(COLUMN()/2+2)&"]", FALSE)))

or

=SUMIF((INDIRECT(R[6]C[-10]&RC21)):(INDIRECT(R[6]C[-10]&R[1]C21)), ">0")

I can usually make things work, but if there is a mistake or if I want to make a change a month down the road, it can be difficult to go back and figure it out again, because it just looks like gobbledygook. So I think I need to learn a new method for manipulating datasets, but I don't know what that method is. Do I need to learn a programming language? Would something like MatLab be good for me? Any other ideas for tools I should learn about? ike9898 (talk) 22:02, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Python is pretty easy to learn and one generally produces programs that are much more legible than that scary formula. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 22:45, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Excel is extremely limiting. If you are dealing with large datasets and wanting to perform manipulations on them, you probably will want to look into database programming. For example, it is pretty trivial to get Excel data into Microsoft Access, and from there you can pretty easily (with VBScript) perform systematic manipulations of the data that are custom-tailored to your need. Personally I find dealing with data in Access pretty much the bee's knees as long as you don't struggle with trying to creating custom user interfaces (forms, etc.) for all of it (which is where Access at first appears convenient but quickly becomes burdensome).

Just as an example, here is some sample VB code that goes over a given table (the equivalent of an Excel worksheet), extracts the data from certain fields, does something with them, and then outputs everything into a new field:

dim rst as DAO.Recordset

dim runningTotalOfJohns as Integer;

set rst = CurrentDB.OpenRecordset("SELECT * FROM myTable")

while not rst.eof

if rst("name") = "John" then runningTotalOfJohns = runningTotalOfJohns + 1

if rst("name")="John" and rst("birthday")="09/12/2008" then

rst.edit

rst("message")="happy birthday, John!"

rst.update

end if

rst.movenext

wend

rst.close

As you can probably grasp, this gives you a lot more control over dealing with the data and allows you to express your intentions in a much more logical fashion, rather than making dense little lines like in Excel.

There are other database and code solutions other than Access and VBScript (MySQL is a common free database backend, and you can couple it with PHP and other scripting languages, and there is also OpenOffice.org Base, which is supposed to be a free analog to MS Access, but frankly I find it pretty unusable at the moment), I'm just using it as an example. The point is, this seems to me like the graduation you are talking about in regards to dealing with data—something of this sort. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 23:36, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

I love Matlab and it's well suited to all sorts of data-manipulation problems. Unfortunately, it's also quite expensive. Even companies that have a clear business case for it can be stingy with licenses (he says, with the cynicism of experience). If you're a student, the situation may be better. There are free programming languages like Octave and R that can do a lot of the same things, but I found the Matlab IDE a lot nicer to work in, especially for interactively playing around with arrays of data. -- Coneslayer (talk) 01:46, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Thank you all for your thoughtful comments! ike9898 (talk) 01:49, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Try Stata or SAS. Brusegadi (talk) 09:01, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Funny nobody mentioned it, but I would have thought a natural progession from Excel is SQL. This is data manipulation after all, and SQL was designed to work ideally with two-dimensional data. You can of course work with Access, but if you want to stick with Microsoft, go with SQL Server. I'm an Oracle person myself. SQL is just the tip of the iceberg, it should open you up to a whole new world of possibilities... Sandman30s (talk) 09:11, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Well, that's what I was getting at. The thing about SQL is (in my opinion) you do better to skip most of the "trying to painfully use SQL to do everything at once" and jump to the "I use SQL as a tool to enhance my programming" which is something a bit different. That reflects my own issues with SQL, though—if you can use basic SQL with a scripting language you can do a million things as once, in a much more comfortable syntax, with only a slight performance hit over doing it all at the same time with raw SQL. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 15:38, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

September 13

Wireless in Linux

Hello everyone at WP:RD/C. I am having trouble with my wireless internet connection in Kubuntu/Ubuntu (installed the Ubuntu desktop on Kubuntu KDE4). I am dual-booting Win XP pro SP3 and the afore mentioned. I have encryption on the network so I have a security key. In Win, it asks for the key, I type it in, and everything is good: I'm connected. In linux, however, when it says I need to enter a security key, I enter it and it acts like it's connecting and then pops up and asks again. This is the same key I gave Windows and it connected. Any ideas on what I should do to connect? TIA, Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 00:49, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Did you put in the correct encryption standard (WEP, WPA, WPA2, etc.)? Is it asking for your wireless key or password for your keyring? Does your wireless work with an unsecured network? --antilived^{T | C | G} 02:41, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

I tried all of the encyption standards so yes. It seems to be asking for my key. I don't know if it works with an unsecured network. I haven't had the chance to try that yet. Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 02:49, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Also, just on an off-chance - which encryption algorithm are you choosing? Some of the protocols (WPA in particular, I think) let you choose between (again, I think) DES, 3DES and AES. Most cards will auto-negotiate the encryption - so there again, where do you see "auto-negotiate" in your settings? And what other options are there in the click-box? Franamax (talk) 06:51, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Testing Question

Hai Every one, This is Ganesh, i faced one interview question on Testing.Tell me one bug u found which is high severity,low priority and low severity,high priority?please send me solution —Preceding unsigned comment added by Anjaneyaprasad (talk • contribs) 06:46, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Even if we would help you with what is essentially a homework question (and we wouldn't), we couldn't -- we haven't tested the software in question. (Or, if this is in fact a hypothetical homework question that you're just calling an interview, see "we wouldn't".) -- Captain Disdain (talk) 10:07, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

pluggin

Is there a pluggin like NoScript for IE7? If so where can I get it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.128.190.49 (talk) 06:53, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

I wouldn't be surprised if there is a script for IE7Pro that does this. Nanonic (talk) 15:04, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Firefox/Minefield browser version

When I go to some sites, I see a message saying something like, "upgrade your browser to ie7 or firefox," then it has a like to where I can download them. I use Minefield, the pre-beta version of Firefox, so I am actually ahead of them in technology. I am assuming that they are reading my browser version using some html script/code/thingy. I found where to change the version name in about:config, but what should I change it to (so I can get sites to thing I am using "firefox")? flaminglawyer^c 12:55, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Open about:config. Add a new string entry:

name = general.useragent.override

content = Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008070208 Firefox/3.0.1

This will make your browser identify itself as Firefox 3.0.1.

--grawity 15:25, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Foreign languages in office

I bought Microsoft office 2003 bundled with my computer, and as far as I can remember I did not receive any office disks with it, however I would like to use the foreign language spell checker, which is apparently not installed, and when I try to install the programme just requests the original disks to be inserted. Is there another way to get the foreign language data, or should I have been provided with the disks? 92.10.180.245 (talk) 14:39, 13 September 2008 (UTC)