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

December 14

Persistent shift/ctrl/alt/win keypress popups in Vista

Hey all,

Here's a problem that is driving me nuts. I recently started using Windows Vista -- a move I'm not entirely pleased with, but that DirectX 10 support kind of decided the issue for me -- and for whatever reason, whenever I hit shift, ctrl, alt or the Windows key, a small yellow tooltip-like thing pops up on the screen with the name of the key in question written on it.

Presumably, it's some kind of an accessibility setting, but I swear I've gone through every single thing in those settings a dozen times. Everything should be turned off, but I still can't make it stop. Ditto for the keyboard settings. Not only do these popups distract me and, by this point, drive me into a state where a red mist seems to descend over my vision, but more importantly, they're also extremely inconvenient: when I work in Photoshop and try to do some detailed work with the selection tools, this goddamn thing pops up and covers the thing I'm trying to work on for as long as I keep the shift or alt key held down. The thing here is, of course, that those are vital keyboard shortcut keys for Photoshop, without which you can't really even do the work. Now, admittedly, I can just move the canvas a little and work around the spot that's claimed by the popup thing, but, seriously, it's driving me nuts. Google has revealed that others have complained about this, but no one seems to have found a solution.

Good people of Wikipedia, save what little there is left of my already questionable sanity. Help me out before I lose all control and just start biting my keyboard and crying in impotent rage -- it's a small thing, I know, but it's so very, very annoying. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 01:22, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

You haven't got a graphics tablet plugged in, by any chance? Windows enables its Tablet PC features when you install a graphics tablet, and these tooltips are apparently a feature of the tablet PC input panel. You can disable all tablet PC features by going to the control panel and searching for 'windows features'. Select 'Turn Windows features on or off' and uncheck 'Tablet PC Optional Components'. You might require a reboot after you click OK to get rid of everything. This only affects Vista's tablet stuff (handwriting recognition etc) - your PC will still recognise the graphics tablet and all your buttons and pressure sensitivity will still work fine. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk • Contribs)} 02:03, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

I do have a graphics tablet plugged in, as a matter of fact, and this was exactly what I needed to fix the problem. No wonder I couldn't find it from the accessibility settings! (I now realize that the problem also only occurred when I was using the graphics tablet -- or when I had placed the pen on top of the tablet, even if I was using the mouse at the time -- which explains why pinning the problem down was so difficult.) It's ridiculous how incredibly annoying that was. I was about half an hour away from turning into some kind of a terrible rage-fueled man-beast and running buck naked into the cold Nordic night, howling at the skies in my anguish and disemboweling with my bare teeth any poor fools who happened to cross my path. It would've been a pretty reasonable reaction on my part, so you probably saved some lives here tonight, Matt.

Seriously, you're awesome. Thanks! -- Captain Disdain (talk) 04:27, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

Lol HP Lovecraft would have been proud of some of these passages! Sandman30s (talk) 20:08, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

Oh, hell, no, Lovecraft's in a league of his own. I mean, I'm a writer by trade, but I know my place. =) -- Captain Disdain (talk) 01:49, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Is this idea taken (meta-music account)?

I'm thinking of making a website but want to know if it's been done before. Is there any site out there that keeps track of your authorized (as in $$$ used) purchases from various music/video stores like itunes/amazon/zune using various APIs? Other features are unimportant. Does anyone know of a site that does this? Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.84.49.100 (talk) 03:21, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

itunes does this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 18:02, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

SoundEdit 16 files

Are there any current audio apps that can read layered Sound Edit 16 files? --71.158.216.23 (talk) 06:44, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

Booting into Mac System 7.5 & 8...

What are the newest Macs that can boot into System 7.6? System 8? 8.5? (I'm talking real boot, not Classic) --71.158.216.23 (talk) 06:45, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

Generally, the newest Macs that support a given version of the OS are going go be the ones that shipped with it (or the last ones that shipped with an earlier version). After a bit of trolling through Mactracker's database, here's what I came up with:

Mac OS 7.6: the January 1997 PowerMacs (5500, 6500, 7220, 7300, 8600, and 9600) (note that these can also boot 7.5.5; the 7220 can even boot 7.5.3)

Mac OS 7.6.1: PowerBook 2400c and 3400c

Mac OS 8.0: the beige PowerMac G3's (desktop, mini-tower, all-in-one, and server versions), and the first- and second-generation PowerBook G3 ("Kanga" and "Wallstreet")

Mac OS 8.1: second-and-a-halfth-gen PowerBook G3 ("PDQ", aka speedbumped Lombards)

Mac OS 8.5: first-gen (bondi blue) iMac

Mac OS 8.5.1: Blue&White PowerMac G3 (& its server version), 5-flavor iMacs ("Life Savers")

-- Speaker to Lampposts (talk) 02:11, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

creating a string in PHP

My PHP book is not as clear as it might be, or maybe I'm simply tired. I want to display an image randomly chosen from a series with names of the form hilbert##.png, where ## is an octal number. In Python I'd write

"hilbert%02o.png" % randrange(48)

How do I say this in PHP? How do I ensure that a leading zero is not omitted? —Tamfang (talk) 08:28, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

Use the C-style specification that Python is attempting to mimic: $image = sprintf("hilbert%02o.png", rand(0,48)); -- kainaw™ 14:53, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

Been awhile since i've done PHP, but can't you just do

$image = "hilbert" . decoct(rand(0,48)) . ".png";

To me, that's easier, but then again I never liked that C-style so much. 83.250.202.208 (talk) 15:01, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure that will guarantee the leading zero. Better to use sprintf, which can do that quite easily. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 19:39, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, Kainaw! —Tamfang (talk) 23:24, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

Keyboard Layout

What keyboard layout do I have? I found this keyboard in a cupboard downstairs. I´m living in the Netherlands, but they layout is not Dutch. The keyboard is very heavy and branded ´Tulip´. Here is a photograph [1]

That looks like a standard US English keyboard for Windows PC, to me. It's a bit blurry, but the only thing different from mine I can make out appears to be the Euro symbol on the 4 key. Is that just written on with marker ? StuRat (talk) 17:09, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

Indeed, I wrote that on with marker shortly after appropriating the keyboard. :D My previous keyboard was mulfunctioning. I've just switched to the US layout and everything appears to be operating normally. Thank you very much for your help. ----Seans Potato Business 17:42, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

You're welcome. StuRat (talk) 18:52, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

Resolved

Puppy Linux manual install

I got the .iso of Puppy linux and since my optical drive went out I made a bootable USB drive. I partitioned my hard drive and copied all of the files on the USB drive to /mnt/hda3 (from Damn Small Linux. This computer is too old to boot from USB). Then I edited menu.lst and with the following:

title Puppy-Linux
root (hd0,1)
kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda3

I found that it is on (hd0,1) because I have 2 ext3 partitions and 2 NTFS partitions on that computer and DSL is on one of the ext3's so (hd0,1) is the only other ext3 partition on the disk. When I select Puppy-Linux from GRUB, it gives me error 15 (file not found), after that, I boot into DSL and check, and lo and behold /mnt/hda3/vmlinuz is there. So, why am I not able to get this to boot? TIA, Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 18:25, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

Update: I changed root to (hd0,2) and now it is getting farther in the boot process. However, it is telling me "no setup signature found". What does this mean and how can I fix it? Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 19:40, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

Googling the error message gives 26,000+ hits, maybe some of those will be helpful? Grub version differences was mentioned in one of the first hits. And of course, you did a grub-install, right? --NorwegianBlue ^talk 22:55, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

Yes, I did a GRUB install. I did look it up and tried to update GRUB. First, I tried apt-get, which said everything was up to date, which it wasn't (I had GRUB 0.91), so then I tried to use .deb packages. It wouldn't let me install the dependencies because it said that something already on the system would conflict with the new libc6 (I didn't have the latest one installed, which was a dependency). Now, just a while ago, I tried using MyDSL browser. It seemed that this succeeded, but when I rebooted it gave me an error 15 on DSL. Obviously the only thing MyDSL did was overwrite my menu.lst (which it in fact did). So now, I am trying to fix by broken menu.lst from liveCD and am having to guess at which root (hd0,*) to use. Any advice? TIA, Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 03:22, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Hmm, I thought you said your optical drive (which I interpreted as CD drive) was broken. First some general advice (which may be a little late now, but anyway): before getting too creative with things that might affect how your computer boots, it's a good idea to backup the master boot record, like so:

To save the MBR to a file (this contains the partition table too):

dd if=/dev/hda of=mbr.bin bs=512 count=1 

Check that the file is valid by doing a hex dump: the two last bytes should be 55 AA

To restore the MBR, without restoring the partition table:

dd if=mbr.bin of=/dev/hda bs=446 count=1 

To restore the MBR, including the partition table:

dd if=mbr.bin of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1

If I've understood correctly, you want your DSL partition to be the one that grub is installed from. If you've got a working CD drive, I would suggest downloading the super grub boot disk. It will boot just about anything, and once you're back into linux, you can fix the grub problem. Be aware of one potential problem: The partition table has four entries. Sometimes, when you delete and recreate partitions, the order of the pointers in the partition table may not match the physical layout of the disk. For example, the first entry points to first partition, second entry points to fourth partition, third entry points to second partition, fourth entry points to third partition. This isn't really a problem, but it can be confusing when trying to go from (hd0,1) to hda1 notation. My impression from experimenting with this, is that the (hd0,1) notation reflects the physical layout of the disk, whereas the hda notation reflects the order of the pointers in the partition table. You can see if there is a mismatch by running cfdisk. If there is a mismatch, the partition hames (hda1, hda2, ...) will be shown in a different order than what you would expect. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 08:09, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Multiple interfaces and ambiguous method calls

In C# or Java, if class A has two distinct methods DoSomething(iFoo x) and DoSomething(iBar x) where iFoo and iBar are interfaces, what happens if I call A.DoSomething(Thingamajig) and Thingamajig is of a class that implements both iFoo and iBar? NeonMerlin 19:27, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

Why don't you try and see? ;-) Method overloading is resolved at compile time, so if there is an ambiguity based on the types at compile time, the compiler should give an error, IMHO. --71.106.183.17 (talk) 20:46, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

At least for Java, that's what it does. To resolve the ambiguity the programmer has to explicitly cast Thingamajig to either iFoo or iBar. 87.114.128.88 (talk) 20:51, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

.swf

Hi, I have Adobe Flash Player installed and yet my computer doesn't recognise swf files. When I click "open with" I can't find Flash Player in my Program Files folder, but the Flash Player download section of the Adobe website says I already have Flash Player. What should I do to open these files. Thanks.92.1.80.167 (talk) 20:05, 14 December 2008 (UTC)</

Usually Flash Player is a plugin for your browser. So you don't just run it by itself. You have to run it through your browser. (i.e. "open with" your browser, or put in the local address of the .swf in the address bar of the browser). --71.106.183.17 (talk) 20:44, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks 92.6.220.85 (talk) 21:40, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

You can generally download a stand-alone Flash Player as well. They can be really helpful (and tend to start up a lot faster than a new web browser). Washii (talk) 05:15, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Adjusting the size of the pages i download

Hi - when browsing, the pages are always too big - don't fit the screen - I have to scroll left and right to see it all; I'm continually having to zoom out to make the page the right size. Is there a way I can set my Firefox browser so I don't have this problem?

Thanks Adambrowne666 (talk) 20:59, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

Change the resolution of the monitior. Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 21:48, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

Holding the CTRL key and pressing the + or - keys or rolling the scroll wheel on the mouse will scale the page up and down. -- Tcncv (talk) 03:36, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, Tcnv, but it doesn't last - I have to do it again every time I log in. Forgive my ignorance, Zrs, but how do I change resolution? Adambrowne666 (talk) 12:47, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Try using Opera for reading. Scaling up or down is very easy Phil_burnstein (talk) 20:08, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

I second the Opera suggestion. You can turn on their "Fit to Page" option, or adjust the scaling... and the options will stick. --Mdwyer (talk) 01:32, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

To change screen resolution:

1. Right-click on desktop
2. Select "Properties"--."Settings". You'll see a nice little drop down menu with the available settings. There's other options but the screen may end up looking real weird if you mess with them. :P--Xp54321 ^{(Hello! • Contribs)} 04:14, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Graph union in Excel

In Excel, if I have labeled adjacency matrices for several graphs that aren't disjoint, what's the easiest way to generate the adjacency matrix for their union? NeonMerlin 23:06, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

You can just add the matrices together, then the number will indicate how many link there are between the nodes. The hard part will be to make the node indexes match. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 00:12, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

December 15

Problem

Sometimes, when I view a Web page, I get a message saying something like "Internet Explorer cannot open the page (page name). Operation aborted." and then I get a "page cannot be displayed" page. Why? 58.165.14.208 (talk) 01:03, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Probably more information than you want. To fix, upgrade to IE 8, if it's available yet.  :) Indeterminate (talk) 01:33, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Latest version is IE 8 beta 2. It is only available for 2003 server, 2008 server, XP, and Vista Phil_burnstein (talk) 10:42, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

"Bookmarks" menu item in Firefox 3 upgrade

I upgraded my Firefox browser to 3 after some pop-up kept pestering me to do so. I don't usually like upgrades because I rarely get some that actually prove to be an improvement. More often than not some thing gets messed up or doesn't work as it used to. This time it's the "Bookmarks" menu item. It now automatically bookmarks the page I have open even when I actually only clicked the menu item to "open" an existing bookmark, not to create a new one. S.o. have the same problem and/or know how to fix it?? Thks.76.97.245.5 (talk) 01:22, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

If you're referring to the star, that's not supposed to open a bookmark menu. It's supposed to do just what it's doing - bookmark the current page. If you're referring to the little book icon, then that's got a problem. Try reinstalling it. And if it keeps happening, consider pressing Ctrl-B instead of the book icon. flaminglawyer^cneverforget 21:00, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

I don't have a book icon. (Windows). There is a pull down menu selection item between "History" and "Tools" that says "Bookmark". Before the upgrade I could click on this word and it would open the pull-down menu. Now it opens a selection window "bookmark this page" which I have to close. On the subsequent second try the pull-down menu then works again as it used to. I guess something gets misdirected the first time around. ("Bookmark this page" is the first item of the pull down menu, but I'm sure that I don't click twice and this is the only pull down menu which shows this kind of error behavior. This would rule out a hardware error IMHO. Plus the behavior is reproducible with the first action always causing the misdirect and the second time thereafter working fine. I guess I'm going to have to live with Ctrl B till the next upgrade and hope it will be fixed then. Ctrl B opens the Bookmarks in the sidebar, with I don't like that much, but at least it works. Thks. for y'r help. 76.97.245.5 (talk) 23:43, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Internet problem

Hello! On my laptop, whenever I close the screen and put it in standby mode, occasionally after exiting standby, my Internet connection will stop working until I reboot. In addition, when this happens, when I try to reboot or shut down, the computer won't shut off unless I hold down the power button to "incorrectly" shut it down (screen comes up when I restart and tells me improper shutdown, can run in safe mode, etc.). The problems are strangely related. I've gone into the device manager (Vista 64-bit, latest updates) and switched the setting for my network adapters to not turn off the device to save power, but I still get the problem. When I try to get to the "Network and Sharing" window after this happens, it just won't load. Any advice? Thanks!--el Aprel (^facta-_facienda) 01:26, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

It's probably an issue related to the chipset drivers supplied by your laptop manufacturer. Try updating all your drivers from the manufacturer's website, and look around there to see if it's a known issue. If you want to post some info about your laptop, maybe we could be more helpful. Indeterminate (talk) 01:37, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

You might also check your control panel and see if you see something there for your adaptor. The Dells around the office had problems with the power-saving code. They would turn off the power to the card when the machine was on batteries, then forget to turn it back on when the machine was powered again. There may be driver changes to fix this, but the other option is to make sure it is set to 'always on' so that it never turns off. --Mdwyer (talk) 01:30, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

Video cards/S-Video

Graphics cards commonly have an S-Video connector sitting meekly beside DVI etc. Is this an input or output, and what would be its application? Thanks in advance. –Outriggr § 06:55, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Usually it's an output and allows you to send your computer desktop to a regular TV (back when TVs were all about S-Video!) if you wanted to do a picture slideshow or movie etc. I find that the picture is usually pretty "soft" and fuzzy via most graphic's card's S-Video outs. NByz (talk) 09:06, 15 December 2008 (UTC) And you often can't get them to be the same resolution as your TV. NByz (talk) 09:07, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

To understand more, you need to look into the DiY Tivo culture. I don't know what the current status is now that everything is going HD and the limitation has always been the ability to keep up with the amount of incoming video data. -- kainaw™ 13:10, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

I made a couple of DIY PVRs using old 800 mhz dell computers a couple of years ago. I tried $100-$130 video cards (they had to have onboard mpeg decoding) with S-video outs and it just didn't cut it. The component Video out was what I stuck with NByz (talk) 21:46, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Convert .cab to .exe

My operating system has becme too corrupt to use. My daughter's computer has a more recent operating system, but I don't have disks for it. I did notice that she has a bunch of .cab files that are each the size of a filled floppy disk. Can I convert the .cab files into install disks? How? Phil_burnstein (talk) 07:13, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Are the files all scattered in one folder on her computer? The .cab files will be archives. If they are the OS files, they will probably have an install or setup ".exe" around somewhere that will proceed to decompress the files. Sometimes you can run that installer right from where it is, and just tell it where the .cabs are. If not you can mount the .cabs using a "daemon tools" type program (advanced, but quick) and point the installer to the drive that you mapped. If you're not sure what a daemon tools type program is, then don't worry about it. Yes, you can make them into disks. Usually old programs like that will expect the setup or install ".exe" file to be on one disk (usually with a bunch of other stuff, you can tell what by trying to run it and seeing what files it says are missing) and each .cab to be on the next several. If you have only one floppy disk you can just copy the installer program and files onto one disk, run the program, then overwrite the disk with each of the next several .cabs one at a time. Since this is an OS install, you'd have to do that using another computer. If you have a whole bunch of disks, just put each .cab on a separate one. It sounds like the tricky part might be finding the right contents of the first disk. NByz (talk) 09:04, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

The above method is highly unlikely to work. You could use this, which I recommend personally. — neuro^(talk) 19:14, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Using a TV for Computer, Xbox and movies

I'm going to be moving in about a month, and won't have a TV when I go. Also, the dual monitors on my PC are both VERY old CRTs that are getting crappier by the minute.

I'm thinking of just getting a 24' - 32' LCD TV to be my primary monitor (and only keep one of the crap-tastic CRTs). I would be using it as a regular PC monitor (audio mixing, occasional gaming, regular internet use), XBox 360 monitor (has to be HD!), occasionally use it for watching DVDs and - more often - downloaded TV shows and movies. I may buy a new laptop in the next year or so as well, so I may end up wanting another input for that (so I can sit the laptop down and just plug right into the TV via a cradle or something).

I was thinking that the best way to do this would be to buy a rotate-able, swing-able, "human arm"-type stand that I could screw into a flat desk. This would allow me to have the TV face either towards the desk's chair, or swing it out toward the main living area.

Can anyone anyone give any advice on a set-up like this? Is there a good arm-like stand that I could use (that is sturdy enough to support a high-20-inch LCD)? Anything I should consider about the monitor itself? A good (cheap but quiet!) A/V switch that I could use to easily switch between inputs? Any other advice?

Thanks! NByz (talk) 08:56, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

You shouldn't need an A/V switch. Most decent LCD TV's should come with a plethora of connectors at the back, DVI, HDMI, VGA and RCA should all be present. You'd just need to change inputs using the remote. Note however that LCD TVs (as opposed to LCD monitors) have a much lower resolution (and thus a much larger pixel size - especially in the bigger TVs). A typical 20" widescreen monitor might be 1600x1050, compared to a 26" 720p TV which might be only 1366x768 (I think 1280x720 in the States?). 1080p should be better at 1920x1080 resolution. The upshot of all this is that a 720p TV (or even 1080p in the larger sizes) does not make a good PC monitor unless you're willing to up your font and icon sizes. The text is a bit "fuzzy" and hard to read for normal PC use. Zunaid 09:49, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

I'd say a 1080p TV can be good as a computer monitor, provided it's one with a nice crisp image. A fuzzy TV, where the pixels blend together, would make a poor monitor, but a sharp one, where you can see every pixel, would make a good monitor. You probably won't be able to find a 1080p TV any smaller than around 32 inches. StuRat (talk) 13:41, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

You do need to check the inputs on any TV you buy to make sure they work with the outputs from your computer or laptop. Also, using some inputs you may not be able to get the max resolution of the TV. Read the user manual or look at user reviews of the model you want to ensure that the inputs you intend to use actually support the max resolution. StuRat (talk) 13:49, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

As for the swing arm, that would work, yes. Another option is to reposition the desk so your back is toward the main living area when you use the computer, which would put it in the proper position for viewing TV (although you might have to move the chair, if it has a rather high back). StuRat (talk) 13:49, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks guys! NByz (talk) 22:10, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

Widescreen (large) CRT's?

The question above got me thinking. I have yet to find an LCD or plasma TV that gives a better picture than good ol' CRT. With LCD's it's jaggy edges and low contrast ratio, and plasmas just look un-sharp and lacking crispness. Is there no manufacturer producing large widescreen CRTs for high-def use? I know they would be enormous and bulky but after you've installed it in your living room you're hardly likely to move it.

While CRTs do still have some advantages, primarily on colour fidelity and to some extent ghosting and viewing angle these aren't particularly relevant to TVs but high quality computer monitors (well except for the viewing angle bit perhaps). While I've never owned or used a plasma or LCD TV (or even monitor much) I'm pretty sure that for a TV the best quality ones are loads better in terms of picture quality then probably any CRT you are likely to encounter. I don't know what LCD of plasma TVs you've been looking at but it sounds to me like you're looking a crappy ones. Alternatibely, particularly your comment on jaggy edges and un-sharpness, this may be related to the fact the TVs your looking at are a lot larger then the CRTs your used to, so the SDTV picture is going to look a bit shit. A HDTV picture may be better. Alternatively try comparing a comparing a CRT to a LCD of comparable size side by side. One issue that may be relevant is that if the picture going to the LCD or plasma isn't the same resolution as the native resolution of the LCD or plasma, it needs to be appropriately upscaled either by the TV or the device sending the picture. If you do poor upscaling then you get poor results (quite a big problem for games run at non-native resolutions). In terms of CRT, it not just that they're enormous and bulky but that they cost a lot to make. Nil Einne (talk) 12:56, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Compared to a typical Television CRT, a LCD or plasma blows it away hands down. There are higher end PC Monitor CRTs that perform well but you are comparing apples to oranges there. If you are using an LCD/Plasma with your PC and are troubled by jagged edges, you are sitting too close! I use a Sharp 46" 1080p LCD TV as an entertainment monitor and it's every bit as effective as any other CRT or LCD at word processing or web browsing. The only difference is the pixel pitch is plain HUGE if you are used to a PC LCD or CRT, and up close the difference is obvious. This is why you simply don't sit as close as you would with a 20" monitor.--66.195.232.121 (talk) 12:46, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Viewing-distance is the most important factor. A large screen is not designed to be viewed up-close, just like (most) large photographs aren't designed to be viewed up close. It's important to consider your viewing-position when assessing the quality of any screen/image, because the design of the product will be based on an assumed viewing-distance range. So you can get giant billboard posters that look like photos from your 50-yard viewing distance, but up-close they look terrible quality. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 13:15, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Large CRTs just get to heavy, too quickly. Let's compare a 20" CRT to a 40" CRT. The 40" is twice as wide, twice as high, and twice as deep. In addition, the glass on the edge of the tube needs to be around twice as thick. So, we end up with a monitor that weighs maybe 2×2×2×2 or 16 times as much as the 20" model. If the original weighed 50 lbs, then we are up to maybe 800 lbs. This is more than even two people can move. You'd need to use a forklift to bring it in, which won't fit through the door, so you'd need to build the house around it. The 16 times heavier CRT is also likely to cost at least 16 times more. A 40" LCD TV only needs to be twice as high and wide and just a little bit thicker, so is maybe 5 times as heavy as a 20" LCD. Also, the weight of the 20" was lower, maybe 20 lbs, so we get more like 100 lbs in the 40" LCD, which can be easily moved by a pair of delivery men.

Another technology you might want to look at is DLP, which is a digital rear projection TV. They are bright and huge with good resolution and are inexpensive to buy. The downsides are that the bulb burns out every few years, it uses a lot of energy and gets hot, as a result. StuRat (talk) 13:27, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Better bulb for DLP TV ?

These TVs seem to use incandescent light bulbs, which waste energy, are hot, and burn out in a few years. Why can't they use CFLs, LEDs or some better technology ? StuRat (talk) 13:27, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Did you read the article you linked to? "replaceable mercury vapor arc lamp unit (containing a quartz arc tube, reflector, electrical connections, and sometimes a quartz/glass shield), while in some newer DLP projectors high-power LEDs are used as a source of illumination." and "Ordinary LED technology does not produce the intensity and high lumen output characteristics required to replace arc lamp" which is sort of what I expected (okay I expected halogen). Basically it hasn't been possible to produce sufficiently bright LEDs or fluorescent lamps until now (at least not at the needed size). Nil Einne (talk) 13:35, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

I was going off what I've seen in stores. While I couldn't see the bulbs directly, judging from the heat they put out and energy requirements, it was not a very efficient form of light they were using. It looks like there are some LED models out now. But why won't CFLs work ? What I'd really like is a bank of commonly available CFL bulbs, as opposed to a single, expensive light only made by one manufacturer, with a patent on it (and thus a monopoly). I don't want to have to pay a hundred dollars for a replacement and also don't want a total failure of the TV when one bulb burns out. StuRat (talk) 15:42, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

The other problem with CFLs is that they do not generate a point light source, which makes it difficult to focus them. Also, to get sufficient brightness in CFLs requires more space that a projector is usually going to have. Note that for non-projected screens, like LCD, CFL can make sense. However, they normally use cold-cathode fluorescent lights instead of CFL or conventional fluorescent lighting. --Mdwyer (talk) 01:26, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

LED 1080p TV projectors ?

Are any of these on the market yet ? I wasn't able to find any with both the 1080p resolution and an LED source. I'm talking about the separate projector system, not a TV with attached projectors in the front at the bottom (do they still make those ?). StuRat (talk) 16:22, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Can we update offline in Kasersky 2009 as in Kaspersky 7?

Hi guys,I would like to buy Kaspersky 2009, but I can't connect to internet often. So I prefer ofline updates. Also I've heard that offline update is not possible with Kaspersky 2009 prior to Kaspersky 7. Is this true?.can any users suggest me this and help me out?. Thanks for your time!!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.164.67.7 (talk) 11:19, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

From the horse's mouth [2]. So unless the computer you plan to use to download updates also has Kaspersky the answer appears to be no. If you are planning to use the same computer to download updates, I don't see why it matters that you can't connect often. You should be able to schedule updates so they only occur whenever you connect or alternatively on demand. Nil Einne (talk) 12:44, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

My problem with a C program PART 2

ON DECEMBER 13TH I ASKED THIS QUESTION BUT I FORGOT TO MENTION TO MENTION WHETHER I WAS WORKING ON WINDOWS OR UNIX PLATFORM: As a part of a college project, I have been asked to write a C program which accepts an employee's username and password. The difficult part is that the output screen is not supposed to show the password while the user types it in the console. I have a limited knowledge about C (since my major in college is electrical engineering) and do not know how to proceed with this problem. Please explain what to do. I will be very thankful for your help. I AM SORRY THAT I FORGOT TO GIVE THAT INFORMATION. I AM WORKING IN WINDOWS PLATFORM. CAN YOU TELL WHAT IS THE PROCEDURE IN WINDOWS PLATFORM. THANKS FOR ANSWERING MY PREVIOUS QUESTION. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.227.68.5 (talk) 13:39, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

As far as I know, the functionality you are looking for is is not part of ANSI C. Did you check out if your compiler implements a getpass() function? If it doesn't, there will probably be a nonstandard function that receives characters from the console without echoing them. In Microsoft C++ 6.0 (which I'm still using...), the function is called _getch(). Note the leading underscore. The function waits for you to type a character, and then returns immediately with the ascii/character code of the character you typed, without echoing it. Its prototype is in the header file conio.h. You can try it out with the following program:

#include <conio.h>
#include <stdio.h>

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
    int ch;
    do 
    {
        ch = _getch();
        printf("%d\n", ch);
    }
    while (ch != 'Q' && ch != 'q');
    return 0;
}

This program outputs the ascii/character codes for the characters you type, and exits if you type a Q. In your program, you'll have to test for an end of line, instead of the Q's in my program. The end of line character could be ascii 10 or 13 (you'll catch both if you test for '\r' and '\n'). You'll need a character array to store the password in, and an index that is incremented whenever you receive a character. You'll need to make sure that the length of the password is shorter than the length of your buffer, and you'll need to null-terminate it. And remember to prompt the user for a password twice, to make sure that no mistake was made. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 15:08, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

PS: Follow-up questions are best asked as a continuation of the original thread. You could have done so by clicking the "edit" link of your question a bit further up the page. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 15:08, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Have fun...

... DOS/Win console code to get username/password. Includes example as main() ...

#include <stdio.h> /* fileno, fflush, stdout */
#include <string.h> /* memmove */
#include <ctype.h> /* iscntrl */
#include <conio.h> /* getch, putch */
#include <io.h> /* isatty */
#include <errno.h> /* errno, E_ defines */
         
int getpass(char *buffer, size_t buflen, int hidden)
{
  size_t pos = 0, len = 0;
  int nextch = EOF;

  if (!isatty(fileno(stdin))) {
     errno = EIO; /* actually ENOTTY */
     return -1;
  }
  if (!isatty(fileno(stdout))) 
     hidden = 2; /* hidden=0=show input, 1=show stars, 2=show nothing */

  for (;;) {
     size_t t;
     int ch;

     if (hidden < 2)
        fflush(stdout);
     if (nextch == EOF)
        ch = getch();
     else {
        ch = nextch;
        nextch = EOF;
     }

     if (!iscntrl(ch)) {
        if (len < (buflen-1)) {
           if (pos < len) 
              memmove(&buffer[pos+1], &buffer[pos], len-pos);
           buffer[pos] = (char)ch;
           len++; pos++;
           if (hidden < 2) {
              for (t = (pos-1); t < len; t++)
                putch( (hidden ? ('*') : (buffer[t])) );
              for (t = pos; t < len; t++)
                putch('\b');
           }
        }
     } else {
        if (ch == EOF) { 
           ch = 0x04; /* ^C, end of transmission */
        } else if (ch == 0 || ch == 0xe0) { 
           ch += (getch() << 8);
        } else if (ch == '\b') { /* backspace */
           if (pos > 0) { /* like 'del' key but on previous char */
              pos--; 
              if (hidden < 2)
                 putch('\b');
              ch = 0x5300; /* code for 'del' key */
           }
        }

        if (ch == '\r' || ch == '\n') { /* end-of-line */
           break;
        } else if (ch == 0x03 || ch == 0x04) { /* ^C, end of transmission */
           errno = EIO;
           return -1; 
        } else if (ch == 0x4b00) { /* arrow left */
           if (pos > 0) {
              pos--;
              if (hidden < 2) {
                 putch('\b');
              }
           } 
        } else if (ch == 0x4d00) { /* arrow right */
           if (pos < len) {
              pos++;
              if (hidden < 2) {
                 for (t = (pos-1); t < len; t++)
                   putch( (hidden ? ('*') : (buffer[t])) );
                 for (t = pos; t < len; t++)
                   putch('\b');
              }
           }
        } else if (ch == 0x5300 || ch == 0x7f) { /* delete */
           if (pos < len) {
              len--;
              memmove(&buffer[pos], &buffer[pos+1], len-pos);
              if (hidden < 2) {
                 for (t = pos; t < len; t++)
                   putch( (hidden ? ('*') : (buffer[t])) );
                 putch(' ');
                 for (t = pos; t < (len+1); t++)
                   putch('\b');
              }
           }  
        } else if (ch == 0x4700) { /* home */
           if (hidden < 2) {
              for (t = 0; t < pos; t++)
                 putch('\b');
           }
           pos = 0;
        } else if (ch == 0x4f00) { /* end */
           if (hidden < 2) {
              for (t = pos; t < len; t++)
                 putch( (hidden ? ('*') : (buffer[t])) );
           }
           pos = len;
        } else if (ch == 0x3500) { /* numpad divide */
           nextch = '/';
        } else if (ch == 0x4500) { /* numlock */
           ; /* nothing */
        } else { /* not handled */
           if (hidden < 2) {
              if (ch <= 0xff && ch != '\a')
                 putch('\a');

           #if 0 /* 1=show_unhandled_keystrokes, 0=don't */
              for (t = pos; t < len; t++)
                 putch( (hidden ? ('*') : (buffer[t])) );
              printf("   (key=0x%04x)", ch ); fflush(stdout);
              for (t = pos; t < (len+15); t++)
                 putch('\b');
              nextch = getch();
              if (nextch == EOF)
                 nextch = 0x04;
              for (t = pos; t < len; t++)
                 putch( (hidden ? ('*') : (buffer[t])) );
              for (t = 0; t < 15; t++)
                 putch(' ');
              for (t = pos; t < (len+15); t++)
                 putch('\b');
           #endif /* for debugging */
           }
        }
     } /* if (ch == ...) */

  } /* for (;;) */
  buffer[len] = '\0';
  return len;
}

int main(void)
{
  char user[64], pass[64];
  int rc;

  printf("Username: ");
  rc = getpass(user, sizeof(user), 0);
  if (rc >= 0) {
     printf("\nPassword: ");
     rc = getpass(pass, sizeof(pass), 1);
  }

  if (rc >= 0)
    printf("\nResult: username='%s' password='%s'\n", user, pass);

  return 0;
}

I slapped that together in about 40 minutes. Please post questions about the code on my talk page. -- Fullstop (talk) 21:20, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Game has resources in a .cat file

All the resources in this game are stored in a .cat file. I can't find a program to open a .cat file because it's supposedly a "Security Catalog." Can someone help?  Buffered Input Output 14:27, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

If they are genuinely stored in there, it is nonstandard and likely a one developed by the game's creators. You might find a tool on their website, or a third party tool elsewhere - what is the game? — neuro^(talk) 19:12, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

You may be lucky to find that the data is stored uncompressed/unecrypted within the .cat file, and be able to extract their names from said file. However, this needs to be done manually at first in order to figure out how the .cat file works. In some cases, you could ask the author how the .cat file works, some of them may give you tools. --Sigma 7 (talk) 19:42, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

The name of the game is Zulu Assault (sorry i should have told you). It's on one of eGames many game packs. Happy Hunting (i got this CD in 1999 and still cant find anything):)  Buffered Input Output 14:04, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

Sometimes games programmers don't WANT you to be able to get at game resources - so they may encrypt them - or simply compress or store them in a non-standard way ("security through obscurity"). If they wanted you to do it - it would be obvious - if they didn't want you to then you probably won't succeed without an outrageous amount of effort. SteveBaker (talk) 04:37, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

I found a demo of it, and took a look at the file in question main.cat. It's definitely proprietary, and has almost no plain-text, (but has some, so it's not simply encrypted.) Since I couldn't get the demo off of an official site, you'll be hard pressed to get any sort of tools from the developer. Your best bet is to hope that there's an obscure forum group out there that has taken it apart on their own. But judging from the fact that you got it in a bulk-pack, and the screenshots I saw were completely unimpressive, I'd say this game has passed so far off the radar that it's surprising that I found a demo at all. --EvilEdDead (talk) 12:53, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Plugin required?

Hi! There is a web-page with a password-protected PDF embedded in it, here, which has suddenly started refusing to display in either Firefox (3.0.4) or IE (last version before tabs - not sure what number!). Anyone got any clues?

It definitely works for some people. ╟─TreasuryTag►contribs─╢ 17:36, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Says "This operation is not allowed" for me. Perhaps the people who can access it are using a different version than you and I? — neuro^(talk) 19:11, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

It's not working for me. I go there, and it says "download plugin" inside of a blank box. Then I click to download it. Firefox searches for the appropriate addon, but to no avail. It seems that there is no plugin/addon for that file type. flaminglawyer^cneverforget 19:15, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

On that page, the PDF is embed using the HTML "embed" tag:

<embed src="http://patentedpages.googlepages.com/tifquotesL6.pdf" width="900" height="520" href="example1.pdf"></embed>

and none of my plugins seems to be able to deal with that. I am not sure whether it is standard to embed PDFs this way. I have seen one other site that does this. You can easily go around the problem by going to Page Info or viewing the page source, copying the URL of the PDF, and paste that into the address bar and access it directly. --71.141.147.69 (talk) 19:41, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for this, but it always did work for me before (as in, from a year ago up until last week) - what can have changed? ╟─TreasuryTag►contribs─╢ 20:10, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

The plugin/program? — neuro^(talk) 02:07, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

It seems to be working fine for me. (Firefox 3.0.4, Adobe PDF Plugin for Firefox and Netscape installed as well. Only relevant plugin I have.) No idea why it wouldn't work for an average user, since I haven't done anything special when it comes to PDFs on Firefox. --EvilEdDead (talk) 13:05, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Transferring an article in WORD into a new Wikipedia entry.

I am a computer pioneer. I have prepared a 4-page article in Word that I wish to contribute. It meets your submission criteria. I am not a registered contributor. Can I just send you the article in an E-mail and have you enter it? If so I need an E-mail address. R. L. Patrick —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.205.246.185 (talk) 19:03, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Why not just create an account and then add the article yourself? --Sean 19:13, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Creating an account is both free and no-strings-attached. Better yet an account is more anonymous than editing without an account. (When you edit without an account your IP Address is published for all the world to see.

If you don't want an account, you can still request that someone else create the article by asking at WP:Articles for creation.

(If your first sentence wasn't a joke, please keep in mind that Wikipedia's policy on conflicts of interest forbids you from creating an article about yourself, or an organization you've founded.) APL (talk) 19:28, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Creating a straight text article here is quite easy. Articles with illustrations or mathematical formulae are quite a bit more complicated, however. Is this a straight text article ? StuRat (talk) 20:02, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

If you download the free software OpenOffice.org you can use the MediaWiki extension to convert from Word to Mediawiki formatting automatically. Odt2Wiki

thunderbird w/ msn

Why can't you access MSN (or Hotmail or Live) with Thunderbird (or Outlook Express, or Mail, or any other client)? I know that there's that addon for Thunderbird that lets you do it, but why can't you just do it normally? flaminglawyer^cneverforget 19:25, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Because normally you can only use one of the standard mail access protocols (IMAP, POP3). So if they offered IMAP/POP3 access, then you would be able to; but they don't, at least not for free. --71.141.147.69 (talk) 19:33, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

In a word: money. — neuro^(talk) 02:08, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

At one point, I used to use Outlook Express to get my hotmail, however, as was already stated it's no longer free. Quote from Hotmail's help system:

Add your e-mail account to Microsoft Outlook Express
If you have a Windows Live Hotmail Plus subscription, you can use a POP3 (POP3, or Post Office Protocol 3,
is a protocol that's used to retrieve e-mail from a mail server.) server to add your Windows Live Hotmail
account to Microsoft Outlook Express and access messages there. If you download and install Windows Live Mail beta,
you can add your Windows Live Hotmail account to Windows Live Mail beta and access your messages and contacts there.

That's the simple truth. --EvilEdDead (talk) 13:01, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Web Photo Portfolio

Hello.

I`m looking to make a web photo portfolio, but without getting into Flash or PHP. I can stick uniquely to CSS and HTML. Something along the lines of this page: http://www.beatricepeltre.com/

However, when I delved into the code of that page, I realized that each picture has its own particular html link and folder and address. Is there a program that automatically creates these for you? or do I have to do it by hand?

Thanks!

-jacko- 82.123.66.225 (talk) 22:20, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

There's nothing that'll create something exactly like this website for you. There are other ways get the same effect, though, with, say, just Javascript. (Or, dare I suggest it, a tiny bit of PHP. But I know you don't want that, so I'll hush my mouth.) If you want more info I'd be happy to provide it. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 22:44, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

It doesn't take much PHP. I did this with very little PHP. Most of it is JavaScript. All PHP does is see which directory (month) you selected and sticks the photos from that directory into the JavaScript. -- kainaw™ 23:24, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

That's a tough call. All that fancy scrolling stuff really demands JavaScript. My web photo portfolios are made with PHP and JavaScript - with some C++ code that creates the HTML automatically from a list of files in a bunch of directories. But it's a hackish solution that only works on my setup. This is my son's portfolio - which was created with the same tool. Notice that it works with movies too! But this isn't much of a solution for you I guess. The page you reference [3] uses JavaScript - and probably it was generated with PHP. SteveBaker (talk) 04:31, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

December 16

Windows XP driver for caching index of removable drives

Does a driver exist for Windows XP that would save the last seen directory structure of removable drives, so that the folders and file names could be browsed even when the drive isn't connected? This would be very useful with various USB memory sticks and external hard drives. Search frameworks like Google Desktop might be able to give a sort of a snapshot, but I'm looking for an ordinary view in Windows Explorer. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.97.228.7 (talk) 13:13, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

Conway's Game of Life

< moved from Village pump Julia Rossi (talk) 10:03, 16 December 2008 (UTC) > < moved again from Entertainment desk TenOfAllTrades(talk) 13:57, 16 December 2008 (UTC)>

A question for those who know Conway's Game: are there any P60 backrakes under the rule B3/S23? If so, please draw it out below or on my userpage. As an example, here is how a glider would be drawn:

**0**
***0*
*000*
*****

Lucas Brown (talk) 04:18, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

That's a question for the Wikipedia:Reference Desk -- Derek Ross | Talk 04:35, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

For reference, he's talking about Conway's Game of Life. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 13:57, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

Suggestions for a good printer...

Does any one of you know of a good, reliable and inexpensive printer to replace that crappy Epson Stylus C90 my family uses at home? I get pissed off at this piece of crap every time it jams a piece of paper or warns me of low ink. Whenever one of the colour tanks runs dry, it locks up and forces me to buy another tank in order for me to continue printing. And that one ran low again after a few sheets. Sorry for venting out my disappointment over the company here, but what do you think? Blake Gripling (talk) 14:33, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

I love my HP PhotoSmart C6280 All-In-One printer. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 16:13, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

The HP printers I've used have the ability to continue printing when one of the ink cartridges runs dry, although with lower quality, as would be expected. However, I've never seen any printer that wasn't subject to constant paper jams. I've resorted to feeding in one sheet of paper at a time, which seems to stop this. StuRat (talk) 17:02, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

I would recommend any printer that has built-in duplexing. You can print on both sides of the sheet and therefore save paper. (Personally, I like the HP D5360 -- it's the only one at that price that has built-in duplexing). --70.167.58.6 (talk) 18:20, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

Though duplexing is a sure-fire thing for paper jams after awhile. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 04:17, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Unless you need to print colour, go for a mono laser printer - a single toner cartridge will print thousands of pages. Exxolon (talk) 23:20, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

I have a laser printer and a free color printer that came with some computer I bought. 90% of the time the laser is all I need. Eeeevery once in awhile I need something in color, and pull out the color one. If you don't need the color, just grab a cheap laser, and keep the color printer as occasional backup. Easy solution. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 04:18, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

My Epson C86 printer never jams paper. The problem may be the paper not the printer. Also mind the Laser Printer Health Hazards. If you like it loud, slow, ugly and cheap: There are still some Dot matrix printers around ;) --94.79.143.154 (talk) 23:59, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Game programming

Hello/HALO,

I was starting game programming and studing basics but came across a problem in which environment I should programme.Is XNA or DirectX or OpenGl or any another.I just want to know which is best(may not easy) and other which is easy(may not best). -- 122.163.15.188 (talk) 15:27, 16 December 2008 (UTC)Harshagg

I think OpenGL is easier to work with than DirectX, but perhaps it is only a matter of taste (and I am not an experienced game developer). --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 16:10, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

If you want to develop 3D games for the Microsoft Windows platform, then probably DirectX is the better choice, though. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 16:12, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

Performance depends on driver, Microsoft provided slow OpenGL driver to support its own DirectX 3D. Id Software successfully uses OpenGL. MTM (talk) 17:35, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

DirectX does a lot of the work for you and is easier to develop for. OpenGL is far more flexible, but requires more brains. Compare Unreal Engine 3 (DirectX) vs. ID Tech 5 (OpenGL) --70.167.58.6 (talk) 18:24, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

Hi! I'm an actual game programmer! Graphics is my speciality.

Most Windows/XBOX games are written in DirectX - this is not an easy ride for many reasons - but that's how it is. XNA is pretty much ignored (and a good thing too!). OpenGL is the only portable graphics API and it's also the only game in town for Linux, MacOSX, iPhone, Google Android phone - and it's the graphics API for things like Nintendo DS and Playstation are more closely modelled on OpenGL than on DirectX. DirectX has some severe problems because it's a Microsoft-controlled standard and they can make life arbitarily difficult for you...hence, for example, if you want to use such nice features as Geometry shaders or Texture arrays, you have to have DirectX 10. DirectX 9 won't do. Unfortunately, in a typically Microsoftian move - they refuse to publish DirectX 10 for Windows XP - you need Vista. But far more games players are running Windows XP than Vista - so most games writers are 'stuck' on DirectX 9. In the OpenGL world, there are nice extension mechanisms that allow individual hardware vendors to add features to the API without help from the OS vendor. Hence, OpenGL under Windows XP has both geometry shaders and texture arrays if your graphics card is "DirectX 10 capable". That's a bloody ridiculous situation. So with all of that information at hand - you'd think it'd be a slam-dunk and we'd all be using OpenGL. But not so. Sadly, DirectX has enough momentum behind it on two of the most dominant games platforms that people tend to stick to DirectX - despite all of it's many faults.

IMHO - it doesn't much matter which you learn initially - you're going to need to know both of them if you want to be a low-level graphics engine programmer. However, if you're going to work with (say) the Unreal Engine - you'll probably quite rarely go near that low level. Unreal provides it's own 'portability layer' over the top of DirectX, raw Xbox, bare-to-the-metal Playstation, etc. You program mostly using the portability layer and you don't give a damn whether it's DirectX or OpenGL or raw register access commands. On the very rare occasion you delve that deep - consult the DirectX/OpenGL manual!

The huge complexity of all of these API's is also way overstated and I strongly disagree that there is any complexity difference between them. These days you load textures, load shaders and DMA triangle meshes at the hardware as fast as possible. This is probably 10% of the respective API's - most of the other 90% is stuff that's obsoleted by shader technology and may safely be ignored and looked up in the manual in the unlikely case you'll ever actually need it. Shader technology has superceded a lot of old junk like "how do I draw a dotted line?" - well, you certainly don't rummage deep into the DirectX/OpenGL manual...you draw a regular line and write a shader to make it dotted.

In addition to the graphics API's - you need to get REALLY familiar with the shader languages - HLSL, Cg and GLSL. They are very similar to one-another but the small differences can kill you - so pay attention to those tiny differences!

SteveBaker (talk) 04:19, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

That comment was really insightful. Thank you steve. -- penubag  (talk) 09:08, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Google Chrome as Default Browser

Is there a way to make Google Chrome the system's default web browser? The button "Make Google Chrome my default browser" under "Settings" does not work. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 16:08, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

The button did work when I executed Chrome as administrator. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 19:15, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

...because to modify "system" settings you need to have administrator rights. --grawity 20:19, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, but it is really bad designing (of Google), not to make the "Administrator Rights" dialog box appear when clicking the button. It appears just as if the button didn't do anyting. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 22:24, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

That's MS' fault, not Google's. Awful web browser mind. :L — neuro^(talk) 23:28, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

Actually, that would be Google's fault. I'll give an analogy. MS is a fruit basket, and your default browser settings are an apple inside of the basket. Google is your mother. Your mother can tell you about the apple, or not. If she doesn't tell you about it, you don't know about the apple. But this doesn't involve MS at all - they just supplied the apple. flaminglawyer^c 01:24, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Or..... to put it in another way, when you try changing the default browser and fail because you don't have the right to do it, there should be a dialog box that pops up and (helpfully) says "You have to be logged in as an administrator to do that". At least then you know why it's not working. Belisarius (talk) 01:29, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Except with an apple, and my mother. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 01:51, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

back to the question at hand: If Chrome won't change the settings I am guessing that you are running Vista and the UAC (User Account Control) won't allow you/Chrome to change it. Right Click on the "Default Programs" (should be on your start menu, but you can also find it in the Control Panel) and pick the run as administrator option. Hope this helps. Ched Davis (talk) 10:21, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Thumbs

My main Music folder is subdivided into folders by artists, for music I got off CDs, plus a folder for downloaded music, which is further subdivided by artist. In each of these artist folders, in the downloaded music folder only, there is a little gear icon labeled Thumbs. I don't know how these Thumbs got there or what they do or if they mean anything at all. My music has been transferred through two other computers, an mp3 player, and an iPod, before finally ending up on this computer, and these Thumbs seem to have popped up somewhere along the journey. Are they actually anything, do they serve a purpose, or can I just delete them? Cherry Red Toenails (talk) 16:56, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

Assuming you are using Windows (any version), then this file is the thumbnail cache. To delete the file, go to Tools>Folder Options, then the View tab, then check the "Do not cache thumbnails" box. The file should disappear. If it does not, you can delete it manually, as it's from your other computer.  Buffered Input Output 17:08, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

Or you can do the same as above but instead select "hide protected operating system files" or uncheck "show hidden files and folders". Both of these won't delete the files but will just hide them. All the thumbs.db files do is store thumbnails of images in a folder so they can be viewed quickly when the folder is opened. SN0WKITT3N 17:56, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. So if I delete them, nothing bad will happen? Cherry Red Toenails (talk) 00:46, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

No, but if you don't do as mentioned above, they will be recreated the next time you reopen the folder. — neuro^(talk) 00:48, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Difference between a "method" and "function" (in context of C#)?

I am new to C#. I read somewhere a method is void whereas a function is a special kind of method which returns a value. I always thought they were synonymous!! On googling I got all kind of answers without proper explanation. Please provide an answer with valid references if possible!! :P --Sanguine learner (talk) 17:02, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

It doesn't matter which term you use. Anyone who gets confused isn't worth worrying about. They probably spend all their time worrying about other important things like arguing that if you put a RAID card in a JBOD, your JBOD is no longer a JBOD. -- kainaw™ 17:31, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

Come on! There has to be something more to it. --Sanguine learner (talk) 17:50, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

In the object paradigm for programming, objects have methods. In languages that have their roots in a procedural language like C++ and C# (which are based on C), methods are implemented exactly as one would implement a function. As Kainaw says, those who concern themselves about magical rules to differentiate between certain terms are way too pedantic. --LarryMac | Talk 18:21, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

Lets clear up some of the terminology (this is very brief and very general):

• A subroutine is some portion of code that is generally separate from the main program, that performs some specific, often repetitive, task. Procedures, methods or functions are slightly different kinds of of subroutines.
• A function is a subroutine that takes some amount of input and produces some output. This is very much like the concept of a function in mathematics. A good and simple example is the square root function, sqrt(). It takes a number as input and produces output that is the square root of the number (so if you use the call "sqrt(25)", it returns "5").
• A procedure, a term used in procedural programming, is simply some code that have been stuffed in another place so you don't have to repeat it all the time. And if you need to alter it, you only need to do so in one place. Say you have a computer program that's controlling an elevator, then you might have a procedure called "goToFloor()", which makes the elevator go to a specific floor (call "goToFloor(5)", and it goes to the fifth floor). There are several different reasons an elevator might go to a specific floor (someone might have pushed a button in the elevator, someone might have pushed the call-button on the fifth floor, someone might be controlling it remotely, or maybe the elevator is set to go the first floor whenever it's not in use, as that is where people are most likely to enter). The code for this procedure may be very long and complicated (as it has to control many different motors and electronics and lights and things), so it's very handy not to have to type it out four different times, for five different parts of the code. It cuts down on the error-rate (since you only have to get it right in one place), and if it ever needs to be updated (like if new hardware has been installed) you only have to do it in one place.
• A method is closely related to the procedure (the terms are sometimes used synonymously), but the word tends to be used in object-oriented programming. In OOP, you use objects, and a method acts directly on a specific object. Say you are making a racing game with several different in-game cars. Each car is represented as an object (the definition, or blueprint, for an object is called a "class"). So say you have an object called "car1", and you want it to accelerate. Then you'd type (different languages use different notation, not sure what C# uses) "car1.accelerate(25)". That would accelerate "car1" to 25 km/h. Now, if you typed "car2.accelerate(25)" it would accelerate "car2" to 25 km/h, but it wouldn't do anything to "car1". The method specifically belongs to an object, not necessarily to the the whole program.

As I said, this is a very brief and general overview of what the different kinds of subroutines do, and many times the line is very blurry. Say for instance that the elevator function, goToFloor, returns a value, maybe how many seconds it will take to arrive on the floor or whether or not the move to the floor is successful. Is it a procedure or a function? Well, it's kinda both. It's a function, because it returns a value. But it's also a procedure, because it actually does something, not just fidgets with the input and returns a value. Or what if you have a procedure that acts on a specific object, like a method, but only by using the object as an input (like "accelerate(car1, 25)"). And what if it returns some value? Is it then a method, a procedure or a function?

While it is good to have the lingo down, it is much more important that you understand what is actually going on. Whether you call something a "subroutine", "function", "procedure" or a "method" (and we haven't even broached the elusive co-routine!) doesn't necessarily matter. Just understand what a subroutine does, what its purpose is, and how to write them. If you do that well, the specific name of what type of subroutine isn't all that important. Belisarius (talk) 23:29, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

I think this may be a confusion between C# and Visual Basic. The documentation (I only have 2003, but I don't suppose it's changed that much) in the Visual Basic Language Concepts section Procedures Overview defines amongst others the following:

Sub procedures perform actions but do not return a value to the calling code.

Function procedures return a value to the calling code.

Property procedures return and assign values of properties on objects or modules

The C# documentation says:

C# makes no distinction between functions and procedures, as Visual Basic does. A method either returns a value or returns void. The syntax for declaring a C# public method is:

// C#

public int ConvertMatterToEnergy(int matter)

{

// Conversion code goes here.

}

(Visual Basic and Visual C# Concepts: Method Implementation in Custom Controls).

Therefore in Visual Basic, there is a distinction between functions which return a value but sub procedures which do not; but in C# there is no such distinction. C# methods (which are equivalent to functions and procedures in Visual Basic) can return a value or not return a value. Read the above Wikipedia links for more details on what a function, method, etc actually is. --Maltelauridsbrigge (talk) 16:07, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Knowing the difference between function and method is knowing the difference between procedural and object-oriented programming, and I think it's great that Sanguine learner wants to understand the difference. Anyway, if you're doing OO, you can safely use them interchangably since method is a subset of function. That is, a method is a type (oops! don't want to use that word) kind of function that is a member of an object. I'll also (incorrectly) use class and object interchangably even though they are not the same thing. In formal and semi-formal writing, I try to be more precise in my terminalogy. 216.239.234.196 (talk) 20:43, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

The simple answer: A method is a kind of function that, unlike a normal function, has an implicit context upon which it operates.

Examples:

• C library functions, such as fread(), have no implicit context.

int f = open("foo",O_RDONLY);

read(f, buf, 10);

Here, everything needs to be explicitly passed to the functions.

• Compare the fstream:read() method

fstream f("foo", fstream::in );

f.read(buf, 10);

Here 'read()' is a method of class 'fstream' in which the implicit context (upon which methods of the class operate) is the class instance (i.e. the object 'f').

Here 'read()' doesn't have to be passed 'f' because 'f' is the context within which 'read()' operates. Inside the code for the 'read' method, the 'this' operator automagically refers to 'f'.

Explicit versus implicit:

If you disassemble the code calling the C function, you will see 'read' being called with 'f' as the first argument because that's how you explicitly used it.

If you disassemble the code calling the C++/C# code, you will see 'read' being called with 'f' as the first argument, even though you didn't explicitly do that.

Get it? -- Fullstop (talk) 21:38, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

BTW, I do not believe that Fullstop's answer from above is technically correct. A static method is still a method and it doesn't have a this parameter in C#. 216.239.234.196 (talk) 20:07, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Wow thanks everyone. Well I guess I am getting it but its still quite blurry. I got the book again and here is the definition it gives (not very clear).

• Method is a set of one or more program statements which can be executed by referring to the method name.
• Function is a set of statements that perform a specific task in response to a message.

So I guess I conclude they are similar but the meaning depends on the context? Frankly speaking still confused... :( --Sanguine learner ^talk 17:20, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

No offense to Fullstop, but I would ignore his answer. While it's technically correct, it's only going to confuse a beginner. The simplest definition I can give you is that a function is what you call a subroutine in procedural programming and a method is what you call a subroutine in object oriented programming. That's it. Function = procedural programming. Method = object oriented programming. 216.239.234.196 (talk) 23:18, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

x86 assembly programming

I have a few questions about this:

• Are functions such as MOV AH, 09h INT 21h part of DOS or part of the BIOS?
• Is it true that 0B800h:0 is the memory mapped location of the colour video?
  • How would I access 0B800h:0?

Thanks, *Max* (talk) 17:12, 16 December 2008 (UTC).

int 21h handler is provided by DOS. Ralf Brown's Interrupt List is useful for such things. 0B800h:0 is the location of character mode memory of CGA-compatible graphics cards (for graphical mode A000h:0 is used), it can be accessed with B800h in segment register, assuming real mode addressing. MTM (talk) 17:41, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for your help. A few more questions:

• How much/which parts of the real mode address space is memory mapped?
• Which mode do most programs use to access memory beyond the first meg?
• How does the BIOS find interrupt handlers?

*Max* (talk) 02:07, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

The real mode address space does not have one standard layout, IBM reserved some memory mapped areas in Upper Memory Area. A part of memory beyond the first megabyte can be accessed in real mode -- High Memory Area. A much more popular way is using protected (or long with AMD64) mode. Interrupt handlers are described in detail in the INT (x86 instruction) article. MTM (talk) 14:31, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Here is a memory map. Icek (talk) 05:39, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

data storage

Where are all the emails and account information literally stored for yahoomail,hotmail,friendsters or similar websites.? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Crackhead1331 (talk • contribs) 18:02, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

On enterprise data storage devices (big rack-mounted arrays of RAID disks) in their respective data centers. Some of these are located in big metropolitan areas like Silicon Valley and London's Docklands (Telehouse), but increasingly they're being built in places where land (and labour) is cheaper and power is plentiful - see this article for example. A large internet outfit like those you list will have several, geographically distinct, data centres, often in different countries. 87.114.128.88 (talk) 19:03, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

How do I clear a Yahoo toolbar?

I have just updated Java and the update seems to have installed a tacky and definitely unwanted tool-bar. I did not ask for this pesky, damned thing to be installed but for the life of me I can't find a way to uninstall it. I use Firefox. Can anyone advise me how I can get rid of this thing? Please. Richard Avery (talk) 19:51, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

Assuming you're on Windows or Linux: Right-click the bar at the top that has File - Edit - View - History, etc. A thingy will come up that has a list of toolbars in it with checks/unchecks beside them. Just click the Yahoo! toolbar and it should disappear. And to uninstall it, go to Tools → Add-ons and it should be under the Extensions tab. flaminglawyer^cneverforget 21:26, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

It just happened to me in Firefox 3, and I got rid of it by clicking View > Toolbars > Yahoo! Toolbar (unchecking it). Dendodge Talk^Contribs 21:29, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

Damn, that's it!! So simple, how embarrassing is that. Like some doctor or other once said, "Diagnosing a patient is easy - it's thinking of the diagnosis in the first place that is difficult". Thanks Flaming lawyer and Dendodge. Richard Avery (talk) 22:59, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

Windows games

Are there any downloads for the original (pre-Vista) versions of Hearts, Solitaire, Minesweeper, Freecell, and Spider Solitaire? 58.165.14.208 (talk) 19:58, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

Not legally, at least, since they are copyrighted by Microsoft. — neuro^(talk) 23:27, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

But if you wait until the copyright(s) expire, you can get them free of charge. (Note that the copyrights will not expire for another 50 years or longer, depending on where you live.) flaminglawyer^cneverforget 23:44, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

Way to be a pedant... --98.217.8.46 (talk) 01:42, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

There are many clones. I have the same games, just with a different name, on my computer - all downloaded from the Fedora repository. -- kainaw™ 23:43, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure this would work... If you have the disks for the older version of Windows, try to unpack the hearts.exe, solitaire.exe etc. from the relevant .cab file on the CD. In Vista, you can run programs in "compatibility mode" (one of the tabs on the program properties). However, I suspect you might have to pull some .dll's over as well. Astronaut (talk) 18:05, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Wrong Disc Inserted error after patching SWBattlefront 2

once i install the update, the game comes up with this error:

Wrong disc inserted. Please insert the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 CD/DVD.

I know its a SecuRom error message, and i've already disabled my Virtual CloneDrive. I got the game at a Scholastic book fair. I want to update the game, because the mod tools dont work with v1.0 can someone help me?  Buffered Input Output 22:51, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

December 17

Remote Linux options

I do a lot of work remotely. I start on a Fedora box, SSH to a BSD box, SSH to a Debian box, and then SSH to another Fedora box. I primarily do everything from the command prompt, but sometimes tunnel X. What other options do I have to make this rather easy. I know I can run KDE through a tunneled X to see the remote desktop on my local screen. I've seen a Java applet that fakes a KVM to show the screen and give keyboard/mouse controls remotely. I will be increasing my remote work to become most of my work during the next few weeks, so I want to know what I can do before I choose what I will do. -- kainaw™ 02:06, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

I'm by no means an expert, but have you tried using VNC? It works quite well for me in getting remote access to the desktop. You should probably tunnel it through SSH though, it's not all that secure otherwise. Belisarius (talk) 15:08, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

I didn't consider VNC before because I couldn't connect directly to the host machine. I just found out that there are VNC reflectors that I can put on the in-between machines to make it work. I wonder how slow it will be. -- kainaw™ 17:22, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

computer

I have a pop up on my screen, that says this screen saver may not be compatable? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.35.250.63 (talk) 03:15, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

1. You haven't given us very much information. What kind of computer? What operating system? Exact text of the message? When did it come up?

2. Most questions related to errors or messages can be solved by Googling the exact phrase of the message and looking at some of the results. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 04:04, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

And there's quite a few viruses that infect by getting people to put on a nice screen saver. It's called social engineering. So do you really need a new screen saver in the first place? Dmcq (talk) 06:38, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

But, if you don't install the screensaver, your computer won't be turned into a bot to send out spam and some guy in Pittsburgh won't be able to order his fake Viagra pills from South Korea. Can you live with that? -- kainaw™ 17:13, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Next Upgrade for my Computer?

What would the best upgrade for my computer considering the performance boost relative to the cost?

Specs:
Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit
Intel Core2 Duo CPU E6750 Shipped: 2.66 GHz OC'd: 3.40 GHz
2 sticks of 1 GB Buffalo Ram (Off brand that came with computer)
650i P5N-E Asus Motherboard
8800GT Nvidia Graphics Card

I'm thinking possibly I'll upgrade RAM or operating system, but I'm not sure. Do I really need 4 GB of RAM? (Yes, I am aware of 32-bit limitations.)
Upgrading the processor or getting a second graphics card are other options.
Nkot (talk) 04:29, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Upgrading the memory is probably your lowest cost upgrade. Next step, upgrade to Linux the no cost upgrade. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 04:49, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Except that this is almost certainly a computer used for gaming. Noticed you didn't post anything about your HDD. A good price vs performance upgrade for when you've already got a good setup is going for a RAID5 or RAID0 setup (5 is better, as it can be recovered when one of the disks starts to fail, RAID0, not so much. If recovering information isn't a problem (it rarely gets used for anything other than gaming) then you can cut the cost by only having two drives, instead of three. --EvilEdDead (talk) 11:45, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

I'm curious about this advice on upgrading to Linux. If the OP wants to use this as a gaming machine, do all the current games run on Linux? Does DirectX work on the Windows Emulator? I tried Linux many years ago and was disappointed by the lack of support for popular software. Has this changed recently and is Linux now a viable alternative for playing modern PC games? Sandman30s (talk) 12:06, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

It's only slightly more viable for gaming than a Mac is. Wine is pretty much the way to run games on Linux. It gets pretty regular updates, so if your target games are about a year (give or take) older than your computer, then you could probably work with Linux for gaming. Emulation will never be as efficient as running native, no matter what they might try and convince you of. Moreso than simply switching to Linux, you need to be confident in your problem-solving, since even after getting a stable baseline, almost every game will need various tweaks to get it working as well as it could/should be. --EvilEdDead (talk) 12:26, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

The reason it's called wine is because it's not an emulator, despite the persistent misconception. :) The whole reason it's interesting is because it isn't emulating or pretending to be windows, it actually tries to teach linux how to run windows programs natively. If the wine developers write more efficient API implementations than Microsoft did, then a program could certainly run faster under wine than under windows. But config problems and an incomplete set of API implementations, not to mention the extra libraries, make it hard for the end user to get to the point where that would matter. Anyway, I just wanted to quibble. You're basically right. Indeterminate (talk) 00:06, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

To be more specific to your questions however: Do all the current games run on Linux? Not by a long shot. This is especially true for games that don't use OpenGL (almost all of them.) Does DirectX work..? Yes, but it's limited and/or old versions (DX8 was the latest mentioned in the official info.) ... is Linux now viable for modern gaming? I suppose your definition of modern and gaming are the most significant factors here. Don't expect the majority of games released in the last 3 years to work. Many casual games will work fine, as will most anything else that doesn't use 3D. If it uses 3D graphics, and you don't know that it uses OpenGL, be prepared for disappointment. --EvilEdDead (talk) 12:39, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks EvilEdDead, I suspected that little has changed over the years. Sandman30s (talk) 15:02, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

I agree with changing the operating system, but suggest Windows XP instead of Linux. XP will be more familiar to a Windows user and will support more of the programs you currently use. Like Linux, it will be more efficient than Vista, which is a resource hog. Thus, your computer should run better with XP. Microsoft, of course, claims that Vista, being their latest operating system, is best, but those are all just lies to improve sales.StuRat (talk) 14:33, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Exactly, this is what I would have said. I would be interested to hear Graeme's comments. Sandman30s (talk) 14:43, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Getting back to the original question. It really IS an upgrade to XP if you're a serious gamer. And use 64 bit at your peril - there are many problems with XP 64-bit and even more problems with Vista. Just use good old plain XP 32-bit and you will have the most compatible games machine for PC games. I just hope that MS fixes all their Vista issues with the next release. Sandman30s (talk) 15:02, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Get more ram. Xp will not be used by many after a year or two. Do they even sell xp anymore? --93.106.37.211 (talk) 21:24, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

That depends on who you mean by "them". Microsoft very much wants to push Vista, so doesn't sell XP any more. However, big retailers, like Dell, continue to offer XP because their customers demand it. StuRat (talk) 05:58, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Procedure to connect wirless gsm modem into allean brady plc controllers??

Please help me if you know about connecting a wireless modem i.e.. gsm sim operated modem to the Allean Bradly plc controllers through DF1 protocol. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Naag slet (talk • contribs) 05:05, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Apple Mac 2.4

I want to copy iTunes from iMac to Ipod shuffle. How do I start off with everything unticked rather than everything ticked? Kittybrewster ☎ 10:43, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Sounds like you have it on Auto Sync. Just go to the iPod menu and set it to Manual Sync, which essentially does what you want it to do. flaminglawyer^c 11:55, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

JSP Code

JSP code for transfer file from one machine to other machine in LAN and JSP code for getting IP address of all machine in a LANMail2irfu (talk) 11:49, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

It appears you are trying to use a search engine. The reference desk is staffed by real people. If you want to search, Google is a good choice. If you want to ask a question, there are some guidelines on how to do so at the top of this page. --LarryMac | Talk 15:34, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

FTP Mirror

What are FTP mirrors and how do they work? Any information or link will be much appreciated. The article on FTP doesn't say anything about mirrors. Thanks! ReluctantPhilosopher (talk) 13:34, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

An FTP mirror is a server (other than the main FTP server) that has all the files that the main FTP server has. There is a little program on the mirror that checks the main server for changes and, if there are any changes, downloads the new files from the main FTP server so the mirror will continue having the same files as the main FTP server. In other words - it is a mirror of the main FTP server, or an FTP mirror. -- kainaw™ 13:56, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Alrighty, thanks! =)ReluctantPhilosopher (talk) 14:16, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

GIMP: Need a palette file to change boot screen

i want to change the boot screen (among other things) for my XP computer. I am not able to view or edit the file i extracted from ntoskrnl.exe (bitmap/5/1033). I obviously need a palette file, but all the .pal files i download aren't accepted by GIMP. Does anyone have a standard 16-color palette file compatible with GIMP? I know i asked a question about this previously, but it got archived and forgotten.  Buffered Input Output 14:26, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

How about you instead do this:

1. Create a 640x480, 16-color picture at %SystemRoot%\boot.bmp
2. Add option /bootlogo to %SystemDrive%\boot.ini, so it will look like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=7
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptOut /bootlogo

This way you won't need to modify ntoskrnl (modifications of it can cause various things to fail after updating Windows). --grawity 19:39, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

I have XP Home edition. Is that a problem?  Buffered Input Output 14:09, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Shouldn't be - they use the same kernel.

The "Professional" part you see above is from my own boot.ini (and I'm using Pro), but the trick should work with all Windows XP versions. The part in "quotes" is only shown when you have more than one OS in boot.ini.

--grawity 19:41, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

WMM question

How can you get .rm files into Windows Movie Maker, because-Oh, jeez i'm gonna sound like a crazed fan here-Applemask managed to get TV Ark files into WMM. The evidence I have is the effects he used. Oh, and this Waaaa.--Editor510 ^{drop us a line, mate} 16:22, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

I'd assume it would be a matter of conversion. — neuro^(talk) 16:50, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

You can use MediaCoder to convert from rm to wmv or avi which will be compatible with Movie Maker. SN0WKITT3N 10:37, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

youtube video download

recently i downgraded my pc(p3,256ram),from p4,512 . previously i was able to download any videos from youtube or metacafe etc. with mouseover-ing and selecting 'download 'with the aid of real player beta or 11. but now though i have latest version of real player 11 (downloaded from net, like the previous one), the option from real - "download this video" does not appear, as a result i am unable to download any video. I have account in both the mentioned sites.why am i unable to download videos using real as before ,& what should i do to get it as i used to? thanking you in anticipation ---Pupunwiki (talk) 16:29, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

This is a good addon. — neuro^(talk) 16:48, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Video DownloadHelper is another good addon, or you can use a site like this SN0WKITT3N 10:30, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

thanks much. i'd check them out.--Pupunwiki (talk) 17:05, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Monitor Display Problem

Everytime I log in to Vista on my secondary account (my other half's log in) it causes errors on my main/administrator account. On the secondary account the font is massive which makes using the internet a headache as everything so large. If I reset the font/display properties it is still too large and will reset when the account is next used again no matter what I do (i.e. I adjust screen resolution and sizes etc but it is unable to retain this info). This then causes problems on my account where all my desktop icons are rearranged (back to alphaorder and autoarranged/aligned - not how I have set them), for a minute or so my icons are large then the screen blanks and the size is back to normal. I have completely deleted this account and set up new/multiple ones using different names etc to resolve this and also logged in as a guest with the same result everytime. Also if I never use this account then I have no problems. Unfortunately I need to be able to access both as the pc is for more than one user and I don't like allowing anyone else to use my log in. I have checked the display settings - screen res is 1280x1024, magnifier is off, it say the monitor is working correctly. I would just reinstall vista (home basic on a 32 bit) but never got the disc with the machine (am chasing with supplier). Any ideas? Thanks. --Gingerzilla (talk) 20:12, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Ask your other half if s/he has screwed anything up in the settings. Perhaps the source of the problem is the operator... flaminglawyer^c 21:25, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks - it's not the issue (did think that myself at first). I've created new accounts which only I have used and the same thing happens, also my other half doesn't touch settings they just use internet explorer and that's it (nothing has come up on virus etc scans either). --Gingerzilla (talk) 23:39, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

(reformatted) I have no advice (except to put responses in places that are not inside of sigs... :] ). flaminglawyer^c 23:59, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

I'd say it's pretty important to get that Vista disk, or at least the Vista registration numbers, because you'll need to reinstall Vista sooner or later. If you have the registration numbers, and actually have a legal copy of Vista, you should be able to download Vista from Microsoft and reinstall. StuRat (talk) 05:49, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

December 18

Video Card

What it the best gaming video card on the market? This would be for a desktop computer running windows XP Service pack3. I am going to build a computer and the type of video card will help with selection the motherboard. Money is no issue. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.172.159.131 (talk) 00:12, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Why just one card? You get a bunch of high-end nVidias with SLI and plug them into each other. Sure, it is expensive and overkill, but you said "best" and "money is no issue". -- kainaw™ 01:08, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Actually, the best video card on the market at the moment, pretty much unanimously is the Radeon HD4870X2. If you can afford 2 of them you can go for intel chipset board with crossfire support. Vespine (talk) 02:49, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

If it were just about the hardware and benchmarks then maybe the Radeon would take the prize - but if you consider device driver issues - then get the latest thing nVidia are selling because ATI's drivers are really crap. The badge of "fastest" is a tricky thing to assess because there are so many aspects to performance and some cards do better at some things and worse at others. In any case, whoever is in the lead this week is unlikely to be in the lead when the next card comes out. If you're using XP and it's a DirectX game - then you aren't using half the stuff on the card because you're stuck on DX9 which doesn't provide support for a bunch of stuff that's in the very latest hardware. So get a motherboard with dual PCI-Express interfaces - both with a decent number of lanes. A pair of SLI'ed 9000-series nVidia cards will do just fine if you have quad-core CPU's driving them. SteveBaker (talk) 05:10, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Why the 9000 series when you can SLI the GTX 280? This is what I would buy if money were no issue. You might as well investigate a modern PCI 2.0 motherboard for this if you're spending that much on a card. Oh, and lots of gaming RAM. And a monstrous LCD won't hurt. Ohhh it hurts, stop now! Sandman30s (talk) 09:43, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

If money is no object for buying video cards I'd buy a nVidia Tesla. I don't think there's many games written for it yet though so it may not be so good for your purposes ;-) Dmcq (talk) 13:21, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

domain register-ing

When I "register" a domain name through a domain name registrar (like GoDaddy), what am I actually doing? Am I "buying" it? Or am I just renting it for a while? Or am I "borrowing" it? Or shibbledy-goobauschenheimer with coffee and popsicles in a meadow on a warm summer day? I'm confused. When I do one of Godaddy's search thingies, it says "For sale! $14.99 per year/month! Buy now!" But that contradicts itself - how can I buy something and then pay for it monthly/yearly (excluding credit cards)? flaminglawyer^c 06:14, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

You would be renting it. The 'Buy now" thing is a marketing ploy, its much more attractive than 'Rent now!" —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.229.127.26 (talk) 06:23, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Agreed; the "x dollars/year" thing suggests that you are actually renting a domain, instead of buying one outright. This rental thing makes sense especially if you only made a site for, let's say a political campaign that's only going to last for a year or two. You rent a domain like "leonidasforpresident.com", and after you won the elections (or otherwise), you may have your domain cancelled and call it quits. Blake Gripling (talk) 10:11, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Companies that are a bit more honest (like Network Solutions) clearly state that it is a lease, not an outright purchase. At worst, Network Solutions will say "annual purchase". -- kainaw™ 18:01, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

So... that discourages me. Is there any way to actually own (pay once, keep forever) a domain name, apart from making a country and making its own TLD? flaminglawyer^c 22:43, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

It's not quite "renting" - you do own the name - to the point where you can sell it to someone else if you want to. But you have to pay to have the name stored on the name server...and that's kinda like paying rent. When you let the payment lapse, the name is no longer registered to you on the world's server - so you lose it and someone else can register it. It's actually just like a phone number is in the USA. You have the right to take your phone number with you when you change providers or move to a new home - but if you stop service on your phone, they'll give the number to someone else. SteveBaker (talk) 00:14, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Followup

OK, so I've decided to register a domain name. But I ran into another thingy - the price for a 1-year registration is $.99, so a 2-year should be $1.98 or less, right? It's not. It's $5.49 (link). Why such a price jump? I'm guessing it's something about re-registering when your domain expires, but I can't find anything to prove/disprove my theory on the Godaddy website (or anywhere else). flaminglawyer^c 02:06, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

First, no - you cannot permanently purchase a domain name for one price. But, you can get extremely long leases, such as a 10-year lease. Even if you start your own country and form your own TLD, you can still lose your TLD in the future. As for the price jump, my experience with GoDaddy for any remotely professional work has been terrible. They want your domain name. That's all. They will do whatever it takes to get you to sign up. I could fill the next three screens of text with nightmare stories that I've experienced with them, but others will come in and say GoDaddy is the greatest thing since pirated mp3 downloads. -- kainaw™ 13:36, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

They're not the greatest, but I don't think they're the worst at all. They're fine if you are just buying a domain name or two for private use. As with all things related to IT there are good experiences and bad ones, but I've used them for years and years with nary a complaint.

As for the price jump—GoDaddy charges more to renew a domain name (like $9) than it does to register them. It wants to lure you with short-term leases so that over time you'll pay more per domain name over time. It's a business model decision, not a technical one. Keep in mind that it is trivial to transfer control your domain name to a different registrar later, if you decide you don't like GoDaddy. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 23:05, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Aw shizzle! Is it cheaper to transfer to a different registrar than to renew with Godaddy? flaminglawyer^c 01:45, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Windows Explorer needs to close

Hi

About once a day my PC displays the message "windows explorer has encountered a problem and will now close" {approx} and then I get the pop-up about sending the data to MS blah blah. It's more of an irritation than anything else as explorer always starts again straight away. I was wondering what might be the likeliest cause. OS = XP Home Pentium D 4GB RAM Thanks for your time —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.211.45.43 (talk) 10:12, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Just out of curiosity - are you using Roxio media/burning software? I was having much the same trouble and that trouble went away when I removed my install of Roxio Media Creator Suite 9 (or whatever the heck it was called). Just a SWAG, there. Matt Deres (talk) 14:03, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

I get this sometimes too on my desktop. Yeah, it's annoyance. But my point of view is: "It's Windows, what do you expect?!" ("Windows" can also be replaced with "English", "Vista", etc) :P.--Xp54321 ^{(Hello! • Contribs)} 03:56, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

do new hard drives fit old cases (a Dell Dimension 4100 = Pentiun III 900 mhz)

Hi guys,

So I don't have much money right now and I'm using a Pentium III computer, but I bought a graphics card for it for 50 euros a couple of years back, it's a Radeon 9250 with 128 MB Ram, so actually the computer is really very good for everything I do, which is mostly on the web, nicely accelerated (solid scrolling etc). It has 512 MB or RAM and I don't have complaints. But the hard-drive is dying.

If I buy a new hard-drive, do I have to worry about what kind, or will all new hard drives be able to replace my current one?

Thanks! -Jenny. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.27.214.30 (talk) 14:01, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

The most common types of Hard-drive 'types' are SATA and IDE. The PC you describe will almost definitely be IDE so go with that. Even if it can take the SATA ones (which are a faster connection as I understand it) it'll probably be able to handle an IDE drive. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 14:07, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

(edit conflict)All desktop hard drives are a standard size which is 3.5" width. In terms of physically fitting into the PC case it should not be an issue. Your motherboard and old hard drive are almost certain to have PATA connectors (also known simply as IDE connectors, it is the flat grey "ribbon" cable connecting your HD to your motherboard). Most modern hard drives and motherboards use SATA connectors (which uses a much narrower cable and smaller plug/socket). Look at the articles for pictures. If you're buying a new hard drive make sure to buy an IDE/PATA type. Or else buy a SATA hard drive and a SATA/PATA converter which shouldn't cost more than a few dollars. Zunaid 14:16, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Make sure too that your motherboard has IDE channels for the older hard drive and doesnt have only SATA channels. Even if the hard drive physically fits, it won't work if it can't connect to your motherboard. Livewireo (talk) 20:19, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

If I recall correctly, older motherboards won't allow for very large drives (ie more than 120 gb) limiting it so it only utilizes the first 120 gb of space on the drive... you might be able to upgrade your bios or something and get it to work... I don't know much about it, just that it might be a problem. DaRkAgE7_[Talk] 21:36, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Mez screensaver?

Hi. Many years back (6-8) I had a screensaver application called Mez, Mev, or something like that. Three letters anyway. It had a really great road construction screensaver where lines of yellow machines would travel across your desktop laying down sand, gravel, tarmac, etc until your screen was a road, and then another machine would come and tear it all up again. Does anyone know if I can still get this today, or what it was even called? Thanks. -mattbuck (Talk) 14:14, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

I had something similar, also called Mez (or certainly 3 letters ending in z), but I had it a lot longer than 6-8 years ago - more like 13 years ago on Windows 95. If I remember rightly, it was an application which had lots of different screen savers. I'm at work now, so I can't do it but am sure it still exists and that google will help out. -- WORMMЯOW  14:38, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps part of After Dark (software)? --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 15:39, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Changing directory on XP command line

I don't use windows much anymore, so forgive me if this is obvious, but how can I cd to a directory on another drive? I have tried "cd J:" and sticking different paths after that but nothing seems to help. --93.106.56.181 (talk) 15:06, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

You have to "go to" the drive first; at the command prompt just type "J:" (enter). Then you can use cd to move around on that drive. --LarryMac | Talk 15:12, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Ok, thanks! --93.106.56.181 (talk) 15:24, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

I recommend Powertoys for XP. Open Command Window Here lets you right click on a folder and open the command prompt pointing at the selected folder. I use a lot of DOS utilities at work and this is very handy. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 15:32, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

You can also use cd /d J:\somefolder, the /d part will make it change both directory and drive. --grawity 19:38, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

If you are only an occasional (or unwilling) Windows user - you DEFINITELY need to install CygWin. The Cygwin shell is bash or tcsh (your choice) - and there is a /cygdrive/ directory with subdirectories c, d, e, f, whatever - so in Cygwin, you go to the J: drive by typing 'cd /cygdrive/j' - MUCH better than Window's own shell. Also, you can make symlinks in Cygwin so you can link your folder on the J: drive to a place that's more convenient. So under Cygwin's /home/steve - I have /home/steve/c which is the top of the C: drive...which is a symlink to /cygdrive/c...much, MUCH nicer! This has all sorts of other benefits for the commandliner - you can say things like "ls /cygdrive/*/*.doc" and do a wildcard search across multiple drives. I have no clue how you'd do that in Windows' shell because you can't wildcard the drive letter (DIR *:*\*.doc). SteveBaker (talk) 00:05, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

If you have any windows version of grep installed, you can get the "ls somedrive/*/*.doc" effect, without cygwin, as follows:

    cd somedrive
    dir /b /s | grep \.doc$

--NorwegianBlue ^talk 23:27, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

New laptop

I'm thinking of buying a new laptop soon, it will probably come with windows vista preinstalled. I don't like vista that much, no real reason I just don't. Will a modern laptop be able to work if I install Windows NT 2000 on it? Or is Win2k too old for new laptops? 66.63.184.3 (talk) 20:45, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Old operating systems do quite well on modern computers. The only problem you're likely to have is that they may be too quick, so info will sometimes fly by too fast for you to see it. Also beware that many modern applications won't work on an old O/S, so you'd need to use older versions of those apps.StuRat (talk) 21:21, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

You may also run into issues of newer hardware not having drivers for the older OS's. I've found this to be true especially with 64-bit stuff. My suggestion would be to check with some of the major builders to see if you can get the model you want with the "downgrade" to XP. Companies like Dell and HP do have those options on a few select models. I have found this issue more with Vista than the previous versions of Microsoft. Meaning that if it will run XP then you most likely won't have problems with W2K. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ched Davis (talk • contribs) 22:41, 18 December 2008 (UTC) oops .. sig: Ched Davis (talk) 22:44, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Yeah - I strongly agree. By all means dump Vista - but going all the way back to Win2k is too far. If you can get a legit copy of XP, that's what I'd do. Of all of the OS varients Microsoft has produced, XP is by far the best. SteveBaker (talk) 23:53, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Torrent woes

At my university I'm trying to download slackware linux via bittorent, but utorrent does not work. It starts up and everything seems fine but it doesn't find or connect to any peers or lechers. What can I do to bypass whatever restrictions have been placed on bittorent protocall connections? I can access everything else from the computer like normal web pages and nothing is blocked not even porn, but torrent does not work. 66.63.184.3 (talk) 20:45, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Maybe try BitTorrent protocol encryption? Most clients support some kind of it. --71.141.138.102 (talk) 21:49, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

You said "At my university...." ... is it possible you are behind a firewall that is blocking the port for p2p data transfer? Ched Davis (talk) 22:44, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Indeed, some/most universities have firewalls/proxies/blocks in place that block the port for p2p transfers (that includes torrents, LimeWire, etc.). Or, if you're behind a wireless router, you could have that configured to block that port. Or you could have your OS blocking that port, or even something else (virus? =0 <gasp!>). flaminglawyer^c 23:01, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

There is no "torrent port". There are only non-reserved ports. Any P2P program out there allows you to configure which port it uses. There is a high possibility that there is a protocol filter however. For the highest chance of success, used Forced Encryption, ensuring there's no 'allow incoming legacy/unencrypted' enabled. Additionally, either select a range in the 50000+ for your port, and/or have it auto-randomize. These together should defeat just about anything an ISP can do to stop your P2P activities. However, they can still aggressively throttle your connection, making it crawl quite slowly. Slow's better than none though. (The forced encryption will cause slower speeds regardless of your ISP, simply because of the far fewer connections you'll make, and slightly because of the packet overhead.) --EvilEdDead (talk) 14:53, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Your Freedom always worked while I was at uni, though you do need to pay. -mattbuck (Talk) 00:00, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

December 19

How to download video from Adobe Flash Player 10

I've never been able to actually download the video playing in Flash, and it seems to be no different for the current version. I want to download videos from Flickr so that I can convert them to .ogg and upload. Can someone offer some advice for how one might do this? With the addition and expansion of videos on Flickr, there's much potential for expanding Wikimedia's video collection, but copying files to the Commons for video seems impossible relative to the ease of pictures, which can be done in a few seconds on the toolserver.

I can't install my own programs on the computers I'm currently using. I can perhaps get around this by using a friend's, but is there any option for those without the ability to download and install a program to do it? Would it ever be possible to make the process as simple as pictures, perhaps by having an automatic process do the conversion for us when we upload? Richard001 (talk) 00:56, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

There are both programs you can download, and places on the web that will convert these types of files to .avi, .mpg, etc. http://www.savevideodownload.com/ is one of the sites which will convert the flash files (swf) to a more user friendly movie type file. If you are in a situation where you can't 'install' software, your best bet may be to do a Google or Yahoo search for convert flash to movie file and look at some of those sites. Ched Davis (talk) 01:38, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

The site you have recommended only seems to be for YouTube. Can anyone provide me with a site that actually works? (I have tried a few). Richard001 (talk) 02:47, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

I don't know that wiki editors usually do searches for others, but maybe http://vixy.net/ would help you. Ched Davis (talk) 03:54, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

BIOS

I cannot find the BIOS on this MOBO [4]. Will someone please point it out? Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 03:29, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps you are looking for the CMOS (the battery that remembers your BIOS settings). It's the round circle (battery) in the upper right corner. If it's a jumper (such as what you would use to reset a password), I'm sorry the picture isn't large enough for my old out of focus eyes to detect. Ched Davis (talk) 03:50, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

I know where the CMOS is, but I am trying to upgrade the BIOS on one of my old computers, so I need to find out what BIOS chip it has, or where it would be located. Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 04:00, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

I've flashed a BIOS before to upgrade, but I guess you want to replace the chip eh? ... what's the model number of the mobo? Ched Davis (talk) 04:25, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Well, I am planning to flash it, but I have to know what BIOS I have to flash it correctly, right? The mobo is a CUW-AM rev 1.02. Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 05:08, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps this is what you are looking for: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&cc=us&docname=bph07170&product=81921&dlc=en&lang=en

As far as current version of BIOS, I would think by booting (even from floppy or CD) you could keystroke into the BIOS to tell you what the current version is. I am NO mobo expert, but looked around a bit for ya. I guess it is a: Asus CUW-AM/MEW-AM, but get the impression you won't find much at the Asus site. HP used them and called them: CUW-AM (Tortuga). Are you trying to get it to accept more RAM by any chance? Well, sorry I couldn't be more help ... hope what little I looked for has helped at least point you in the right direction. You'll probably have more luck with Google than Wikipedia on this type of issue. Ched Davis (talk) 06:39, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

The device in the brown socket is the Firmware Hub, which contains the flash memory where the BIOS resides. Rilak (talk) 09:58, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

The chip that says "TEST1" to be specific. *facepalms@Ched Davis's answer* --EvilEdDead (talk) 14:57, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

I am needing to flash it so it will boot from USB. All of the RAM ports are full on the mobo anyway. Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 15:12, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

sorryChed Davis (talk) 20:05, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Speech recognition software

I need would like to use one of the free speech recognition programs. Unfortunately, I have no experience with speech recognition software. Browsing the articles, I read about engines, language and accoustic models... and don't really have a clue what they're talking about. (Yeah, the articles are not very accessible for people like me.) I'd sooo much appreciate if someone could give me an easy explanation (or link to one) as to how I install and get one (or more) of those programs going. And yes, I'd prefer to try out more than one program (if possible) because the recordings are of rather poor quality, so it might help to find out which program does the best. (And the rest I'll have to do by hand, I know.) Thanks a million for your help!! --Ibn Battuta (talk) 05:00, 19 December 2008 (UTC) PS: In case you wonder--yes, I'm pretty stressed out at the moment, so please excuse that I'm not taking the time to "work through" our articles... 'cause yes, I've seen enough to realize that for me, it'd be a very long way.

Wikipedia is not intended as a how-to guide. But if you go to the websites of the speech recognition software products in question, you'll find documents on what they do and how to use them. However, none of these speach-to-text enginees seems to be aimed at the end consumer, and not to beginners. (For example, the Sphinx Tutorial will require some familiarity with Linux.)

Speech-To-Text technology is in a suprisingly primitive state, and these open source projects seem to be more research than anything else, so the documentation about them is aimed at researchers, not the layman.

In any case, I don't think you'll find any package, free or otherwise, that can effectively decode some pre-existing, poor quality, samples of natural language. Speach-to-text programs typically require a "training" period where the voice they will be working with reads a bunch of known text. (They usually force you to read a page from an old novel or something.) Even after the software has been trained to work with a particular voice, using speech-to-text software takes practice. They require you to speak in a very clear fashion with unnatural spaces between the words.

I'm sorry, but I don't think you'll find software that will do what you seem to want to do, even if you're willing to pay for it. You're going to have to transcribe your tapes the old fashioned way. APL (talk) 06:01, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

I have to agree with the previous poster, as I have in the past wrestled with various commercial and non-commercial speech recognition applications. Speech recognition is an incredibly complex field, and while companies have struggled to package easy-to-use commercial solutions, the free versions available are much more primitive. If you really can't afford commercial software, then either HTK or Sphinx is probably your best bet (HTK is free for private use I believe, and will work in Windows or unix, but despite numerous tutorials and advice online it is complex to set up), but don't have unrealistic expectations. If you get it to work at all, you will have to do a lot of checking, correction, and editing on even the best recogniser output. If you buy something like Nuance's Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional edition[5], it will be able to do transcriptions from file - how well it works will depend on many factors, and the output is likely to require substantial checking/correction even on noise-free speech. It may be cheaper to pay a professional typist, depending on the quantity of speech, and it will certainly be far quicker and more accurate; there is no simple, cash-free, and effort-free solution to your problem. --Maltelauridsbrigge (talk) 13:44, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

I agree with the above posters and would also add that speech recognition only works well when you have a severely restricted vocabulary. For example, if it only tries to recognize the words "one" through "ten". StuRat (talk) 15:46, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Just a big thanks!!! to all of you! That helped enormously! Yes, I had expected to have to do a lot of re-checking, but still save some time... but if I won't, I'm really grateful to know this before investing time to understand the software. BTW, I guess the information you provided would also be helpful in the articles... though the problem on Wikipedia is that someone would probably claim that's "NPOV"... Anyways, thanks so much, Ibn Battuta (talk) 22:24, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

The usual problem is that technical articles are written by people with a PhD in that field, and, as a result, are utterly incomprehensible to anyone who lacks a PhD in that field. Anyone attempting to add any content for a general audience will then be immediately reverted by the PhDs. StuRat (talk) 01:32, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Yes... though computer geeks seem to be rather good at being incomprehensible as well! :o) Anyways, yes, I see it as one of Wikipedia's biggest problems, especially in the sciences. ... --Ibn Battuta (talk) 17:57, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Resolved

How to password protect a folder in Windows

Hi, several file formats like word, excel etc. provide option of password protect, but is there a way to password protect a whole folder in Windows? 59.165.151.149 (talk) 05:22, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

This has some suggestions as does Google. CambridgeBayWeather Have a gorilla 05:32, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

dB to V or mV conversion

Hi, I have a spec that mentions a value of "700mV +/- 0.5dB". How to convert it to V or mV tolerance instead of dB tolerance? 59.165.151.149 (talk) 05:32, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

 <math>\beta _1-\beta_2=10\log\left(\dfrac{V_1}{V_2}\right)
  \textrm{Where }\:  \beta \:\textrm{ is measured in dB
  and }\: V\: \textrm{ measured in volts.}</math>  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.244.11.222 (talk) 12:36, 19 December 2008 (UTC) 

If that's an answer it's pretty hard to read. Try writing it without the attempted fancy graphics. StuRat (talk) 15:41, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

I was trying to write it into LaTeX, so if u have a LaTeX editor just copy paste the code. or visit this site[6] —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.244.11.222 (talk) 18:31, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

What is the spec for Inter component level inequality

What is the spec for Inter component level inequality while measuring a PAL-B/G component video signal. Thanks. 59.165.151.149 (talk) 05:34, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Question about XP popularity

If Windows XP is one of the more disliked versions of Windows, why is it the most used one anyway? 124.180.116.201 (talk) 07:03, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

It isn't one of the more disliked versions. Just that simple. Magog the Ogre (talk) 08:49, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

And liked-ness isn't a major factor in things like this. It is a sales decision. Once the new operating system comes out then the shops (and business to business sales) all start pushing the new-version, they slowly stop selling configurations with the old version (by and large) and so the consumer isn't really offered the choice in the big-stores - they buy their DELL with the newest operating system and that's that. The vast majority of consumers won't have any opinion on better/worse because they aren't that technically interested in the system - so after an initial 'getting used to it' period they'll probably find whichever operating system Microsoft serve up is fine. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 11:50, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Googling suggests XP is one of the more popular (not just on sales)[7][8][9]; in user ratings it is challenged mainly by 2000. --Maltelauridsbrigge (talk) 13:50, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

• Democracy is the most disliked form of government, but also the most used. Just that simple. 194.99.216.135 (talk) 12:42, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Linux problem, Ubuntu x86_64

~/Desktop/install_flash_player_10_linux$ nspluginwrapper -i libflashplayer.so

nspluginwrapper: no appropriate viewer found for libflashplayer.so

Please diagnose. The x86_64 version of Flashplayer is so buggy it's breathtaking (i.e., not worth using, willing to switch back to Windows over this issue). :) Magog the Ogre (talk) 08:46, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Nvm, I have Flash working: it's just a really lousy version of it (e.g., crashes upon trying to run blogtv, which really bums me out). Magog the Ogre (talk) 10:53, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Flash worked for me after I installed flashplugin-nonfree (or something like that). I am not an active user so can't tell if it's buggy, but it only works properly in Firefox (ie not in Opera). This suggest you don't have some 32-bit libs installed. --93.106.15.216 (talk) 13:21, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Navigation Columns in Dreamweaver CS3

Hello Wikipedia,

I'm cuurently building a website and I'd like it to have a navigation column on the left hand side, to make it easier to get around. I'm using one of the dreamweaver templates but, when i go to change the background colour for example, it only changes the area outside of where the text is -not WHERE the text is. Is there some way around this? Perhaps there is a better way orf creating what I have in mind..

Thanks,82.22.4.63 (talk) 11:11, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

It's been a while since I used Dreamweaver and I didn't use the templates, so take this as probationary advice until someone who actually knows what they're doing comes along. My first thought was that the text area is being kept in a table of some sort. If altering the page properties doesn't work, you may want to try changing the table properties, one of which should be to make the background transparent (or you can just give it the colour you want). Matt Deres (talk) 14:45, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

• Try using CSS - all of the style-properties (like background colors) of Dreamweaver templates are stored there. Have a brief look at the selectors and you'll understand what you should change. 194.99.216.135 (talk) 12:35, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

How Big is a BIT on a Hard Drive Platter?

Imagine a modern hard drive with a capacity of, say, 1 TB. (SI or binary, doesn't really matter.) The drive has 5 platters of 200 GB each. How much space does a single binary digit take up? 82.2.15.100 (talk) 11:12, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Discrete Track Recording disks have 516 megabits per square millimeter (333 gigabits per square inch). -- Fullstop (talk) 11:18, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

That's 1.85x10^-9 mm² or 1.84800 x 10^-15 m² or 1848 square nanometers per bit. If my math is right. --Maltelauridsbrigge (talk) 13:57, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

You can figure it out yourself by noting that the typical platter is about 3.5 inches in diameter, with about a 1-inch hole for the axle, and data on both sides, so we get:

 diameter_outer = 3.5
 radius_outer = 3.5 / 2
 area_outer = pi() * radius_outer ** 2
 
 diameter_inner = 1
 radius_inner = diameter_inner / 2
 area_inner = pi() * radius_inner ** 2
 
 total_area_per_side = area_outer - area_inner
 sides_per_platter = 2
 total_area_per_platter = total_area_per_side * sides_per_platter
 
 bytes_per_platter = 10 ** 12
 bits_per_byte = 8
 bits_per_platter = bytes_per_platter * bits_per_byte
 area_per_bit = total_area_per_platter / bits_per_platter

 print area_per_bit
       ~0.00000000000220893233

which is about 1425 square nanometers, which is quite close to Maltelauridsbrigge's numbers. At that rate, you could fit the following data on the dust mote pictured at right:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolo

--Sean 16:09, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

One can't use an algorithm like that to determine 'bit' size. First, platters include a quite a bit more than just storage area. Secondly, the algo above assumes a constant 1,000,000,000,000 bytes_per_platter, i.e. 1 TB per platter, which is of course not the case. Third, the algo above assumes that -- as tracks grew longer -- there would also be proportionally more sectors per track (i.e. the outermost track would have about 3 times as many sectors as the innermost track). The number does increase but not proportionally, because otherwise seek times would be proportionally greater too. -- Fullstop (talk) 21:40, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Well, you're right that I put in 1000 GB instead of 200 GB per platter, but after correcting for that I still get within an order of magnitude of M's number above, which is good enough for a Fermi calculation like this (I mean, I eyeballed the 1" hole in the platter, so let's not split bits here). Also, I don't see how tracks and sectors have anything to do with it when we've already arrived at 200 GB per platter, no matter what the layout. I stand by my envelope! --Sean 23:46, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Virgin ISP

Anyone know an email address for their customer services? They tell me that they cannot be contacted by email (but they manage to send them out all right). I suspect that they do have an email address, but are simply trying to prevent customers contacting them. DuncanHill (talk) 14:39, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

support at virgin dot net (from http://www.virgin.net/customers/contactus/ ), or support at virginmedia dot com (from newsgroup postings). They also regularly respond to queries in their newsgroups - for instance I get occasional billing/fault help via virginmedia.support.broadband.cable .Nanonic (talk) 14:55, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

OK, I'll try that, thanks. DuncanHill (talk) 15:00, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Nope. The "support AT" addresses don't take incoming email. DuncanHill (talk) 15:03, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

• Well, after further digging by me, it appears that it is indeed impossible to email Virgin.com, however, because in my latest complaint to them I asked them to reply by email rather than phone, they are now apparently sending me an email response by first class post. DuncanHill (talk) 19:00, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Inuktitut

Is it possible to correctly view syllabics in IE7? IE6 shows them fine as does FF but IE7 dropped support for them. Here's a page that has both the fonts and examples to let you know if you can see them correctly. CambridgeBayWeather Have a gorilla 15:37, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Since IE6 is threaded into ur windows installation, installing the fonts provided on the Government of Nunavut's website (I thought that i may never say Nunavut on the internet :P) using control panal. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.244.11.222 (talk) 18:53, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Seems to be a bit of a mix up here. On my home computer I have IE6 and I also have the Pigiarniq fonts installed and I can see the syllabics fine. At work I have IE7 and I also have the Pigiarniq fonts installed but I can't see them. CambridgeBayWeather Have a gorilla 20:09, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Hibernation Option Absent

When I click Start->Turn Off Computer and then hold down the Shift key to activate the hibernate option, nothing happens. The Standby option simply remains as it is. Please help. (Windows XP sp2) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.194.228.29 (talk) 17:29, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

The first thing to check is if hibernation is enabled: Go into Start > Settings > Control Panel > Power Options. Click on the Hibernate tab, then check the Enable Hibernation check box to enable it.

If it is, then a driver problem might prevent XP from hibernating; see Microsoft's knowledge base article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907477 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.11.230.33 (talk) 18:37, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Thank you! That worked perfectly! 117.194.226.34 (talk) 03:02, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Resolved

Learning

Does anyone know any quality, effective, free Java and or Web design learning courses online?--98.243.98.202 (talk) 17:37, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

W3Schools is pretty good for web stuff; no Java though. --LarryMac | Talk 17:52, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

The last few weeks of cs50.net deal with javascript, html, php, mysql, css, ajax, etc. --VectorField (talk) 19:55, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

VLC Christmas hat

Is it just me or does VLC have a Christmas hat on? When did this happen, will it go away after the new year? http://lh5.ggpht.com/_SLMraXaQ8jY/SUqrGFOC52I/AAAAAAAABMg/CNia0ngUmZ4/image%5B4%5D.png?imgmax=800 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.63.184.3 (talk) 18:22, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

It's an easter egg that activated at midnight Dec 19th [10] [11] It only appears on the 0.9+ versions, will probably go away after Christmas. SN0WKITT3N 18:53, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Nice to know I'm not alone :P i tried editting the icons,pngs and xpm in the installation folder to get rid of the christmas hats, but it doesn't work. Seems that Ubuntu is caching the icons somewhere where i can't find them. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.244.11.222 (talk) 18:56, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

jpeg

how can i get the extra data from the jpgs like wut you see on image pages the metadata, how can i gets this to show when i select a jpgs file on my computer. wat progroms do i need to install? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.80.240.66 (talk) 18:37, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

If you're on Windows XP or Vista, right-click the image and choose Properties' -> Summary and click Advanced >>.

For more information, read EXIF. --grawity 18:39, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

PhotoME will show you an incredible amount of information from the EXIF. -- Coneslayer (talk) 20:04, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

what's the name of this computer part?

http://www.parts-people.com/index.php?action=item&id=3257

What's the name of the part that attaches to this hinge? Specifically, the part of the hinge with three holes is screwed onto this part. Thanks. --VectorField (talk) 19:52, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Been a bit since I had a Dell laptop apart, but I think the hinge plate with the three holes attaches to the LCD display and the part with the square post goes into the back of the laptop. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 21:35, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Right, it attaches to the LCD display. But it's a specific part of the LCD display, a small 1.5cm x 1.5cm bracket that (in my case) has fallen off of the LCD display. Do you know what it's called? I'm trying to figure out where I can order it. Thanks. --VectorField (talk) 22:09, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Firefox broken downloads notify??

Hi. Is there any way to make Firefox notice a broken/incomplete download and notify it as such, instead of notifying a broken download as "complete"? Thanks in advance, Kreachure (talk) 20:45, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

What do you mean "broken?" If you mean a link to something that's not there - Firefox 3 recognizes this and gives a notice. flaminglawyer^c 21:52, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

No it doesn't, especially from sites like rapidshare it often reports the download complete even though it has only downloaded some of the file. Use an external download manager like Free Download Manager for troublesome links. And also compare the size of the downloaded file to what it really should be, especially for RARs as it will fuck you up to download 90 or so RARs only to find one of the damn files is broken and you don't know which one.

nameservers

Resolved

I already looked at the article nameserver. I signed up for a site at Godaddy, but want to host my files elsewhere. It tells me to enter 2 nameservers. I signed up for "free" hosting at a free hosting site, (example).com (please, no comments on that). They gave me 2 nameservers - ns1.(example).com and ns2.(example).com. What do I do now? And in case this plan fails miserably - how would I get the domain to point to my IP address? flaminglawyer^c 21:49, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Getting a domain name to point at your ip address will require you to 'buy' a domain and set it at to your ip. When you signed up for a free site they generally don't give you access to the rights that will enable you to point that domain to your ip address. But, you can upload a HTM file with a redirect code in it to send anyone trying to look at it to your ip address, but you will need to have a HTTP (and/or a ftp) server running under your ip address. here is a redirect code: <meta HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" content="0; url=http://www.yourdomain.com/index.html">

The above information is not correct. If the free hosting site has supplied you with nameservers, you just have to go set those up with the domain registrar. It's pretty easy, as these things go. Even if you didn't have the nameservers it is easy enough to have a GoDaddy domain name point wherever you want as a simple redirect (like (example).com/~yoursite/). --98.217.8.46 (talk) 22:55, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Nevermind, I figured it out. flaminglawyer^c 22:33, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Extra (multimedia) keys on Acer Aspire 6530G

I have an Acer Aspire 6530G laptop, and I'm trying to create a keyboard driver for it using keyTouch, but I can't identify some of the key symbols, so I was wondering if someone recognised those symbols or could give me some ideas as to what keycode to assign to them. The keys:

• stylised lowercase e at the top right that looks like the "e" in the Acer logo - triangular button
• something that could either be a satellite dish or a thumbtack - in the multimedia row, to the right of the "next song" button
• one that looks like a planet with rings (keytouch-editor recognised it as WWW-Home) - immediately to the right of the above
• a small humanoid with his arms raised, seemingly constructed out of the pound-symbol (#) or an H with 2 horizontal bars, and a small curl for a head - directly below the e-logo-button, at the far right of the multimedia button row, diagonally above the KP-minus key
• a sort of sector diagram - a circle with the top part lifted out (Fn-F2)
• a tapered line forming the outline of an almost-complete circle, with a small bar perpendicular to the broad top end, and a check mark in the centre of the circle (Fn-F3)
• the outline of a rectangle, a vertical separation bar, and then a rectangle outline with a pincushioned fill (Fn-F5)

Apart from the planetoid button which was identified by keytouch-editor and the Fn-F5 key, which I'm pretty sure has something to do with the screen, I have no idea what any of these symbols are.

Thanks in advance. --Link ^(t•c•m) 23:12, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

These keys and their functions are defined in the user guide or manual that came with the notebook. If you don't have the paper copy, Acer probably has one available online. I couldn't find the 6530G user guide, but here's an Acer manual for the 6920 series describing what seem to be the same keys. Look under "Easy-launch buttons" and "Hotkeys". --Martinship (talk) 06:51, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. I hadn't been able to find a suitable manual, but this one clarified a lot. The only symbol I still haven't identified is the human-like figure I mentioned. Your link definitely helped a lot, though! --Link ^(t•c•m) 11:07, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

If your Acer is like mine (they seem to be pretty consistent) then the little satellite-dish thing is a sliding toggle that turns on and off the 802.11 wireless function. This appears not be function like a key, but to be directly wired to the wireless lan chip. On my Ubuntu linux setup on a recent Acer laptop, toggling this off makes nm-applet notice that the wireless has been disconnected (in much the way it notices when the wired ethernet cable is pulled). The only deficiency I see is that when one toggles it back on nm-applet doesn't see the physical interface come up and restore the network connection on it - you have to tell nm-applet to disable networking and then reenable - this is unlike its counterpart on Windows, which does restore the network connection. 87.114.130.249 (talk) 14:18, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

December 20

Remote camera

Here is what I would like to set up:

• 1) A camcorder filming constantly in one room
• 2) The picture being displayed on my TV in another room (via an RF or SCART input)
• 3) The signal being somehow encrypted

Can anybody tell me what technology I could use to implement this, please? WiFiSouls (talk) 00:56, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

To encrypt the signal, it will have to be digital. One of methods would be using computers at both ends and transfer video through computer network. (there probably exists dedicated solutions as well). At camcorder end, there will be necesary some means of getting video in computer (and probably transcoding)(although 100Mbit ethernet should be able to handle DV format video (wifi will not, so it will require transcoding)). Computer network could be encrypted by using VPN. At other end, omputer will have rto run some sort of media player and display video on TV. I am not aware of any video cards having direct RF or SCART outputs, but there are composite to SCART adapters, and dedicated (not built in) video cards with composite and s-video outputs are common. -Yyy (talk) 06:00, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Oh no

I tried entering the "format" command on my computer just to see what would happen, and I got a message saying "Paremeter line missing" or something of the sort. Does this mean the "format" command didn't work? Or does it mean it will work later on? Please. I don't want to damage my computer. 124.180.116.201 (talk) 05:08, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

You probably did not specify what to format, so command did nothing (and will not later on). To format a drive, use "format drive:", where drive is a drive letter for drive to be formatted. It will probably ask if ypu really want to format, when trying to format hard drive. -Yyy (talk) 05:48, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

If you don't know how the more dangerous commands work, please, please, spare yourself a lot of time and grief, and don't play with them. You can easily delete your entire hard disk with the Format command. Just don't mess with it unless you have a good idea of what you are trying to do with it. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 15:51, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Texture file in games

220.225.242.194 (talk) 06:19, 20 December 2008 (UTC)harshagg hello,

 how to make a 3D texture file of extension .fbx,which software can be used for making it can adobe photoshop will be able to do this

or I have to use another method for 3D game modelling if present

You will probably need Adobe Photoshop Extended - that version has 3D support. Otherwise, you can use Autodesk's Maya. --wj32 ^t/c 09:52, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Internet

220.225.242.194 (talk) 06:22, 20 December 2008 (UTC)harshagg How can I increase my internet speed without changing my plan's speed which server usually offer

No. Unfortunately, if you ask this question at various places on the internet, you'll be told a bunch of fairy tales that say you can, and you'll be subject to some downright cons. For lots of people, their service is already as fast as the network to their home will support - the internet company isn't clamping it, and if they could offer you a faster service with the same equipment they already would be. For the rest, who are clamped, that's done on a router through which all their traffic flows. It isn't possible to somehow trick that router into allowing more traffic that it has been told to. Now people will tell you nonsense about changing your MTU size, but for an ordinary user that's pointless (and may make things slower). You'll hear the "Windows QoS myth", which claims XP (etc.) reserve a portion of bandwidth, and that you can reclaim that by turning of QoS (it doesn't, and you can't). Then come the cons - people will sell you (or let you download for "free") programs that claim to optimise your connection - some will just automatically apply the above nonsense "hacks"; some will do stupider things that break how the internet protocol works (like the silly "ack flood" things, that acknowledge packets you haven't received yet, in the vain belief this will chivvy up websites etc. into sending stuff faster); and some will just be trojans that take over your machine. To get the fastest internet you can, make sure your machine is free of viruses and trojans, make sure your wireless connection is secure (so you're not inadvertently sharing the connection with your freeloading neighbours), and only run p2p filesharing and telephony programs when you actually want to use them (they're particularly profligate with bandwidth, even when you think they're not). 87.114.130.249 (talk) 11:00, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Ooh. Well said. If you want to monitor your connection speed, use WireShark or something similar. Notice that I said monitor, not make faster. flaminglawyer^c 15:45, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Question

Is the Speed Run Wiki (www.speedrunwiki.com) humorous or serious? 124.180.116.201 (talk) 12:01, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

It's serious. It's a real site about speed runs. (speed runs = trying to beat the game in the fastest time possible, even if it means ignoring any secrets/powerups/etc.) flaminglawyer^c 15:39, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Using a Sony Ericsson phone on Mac OSX

I use Mac OS X Leopard, and have a Sony Ericsson W595 phone. The software that comes with the phone is PC-only. How can I put songs onto the phone from my Mac?

Many thanks --Cash4alex (talk) 13:12, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

I've got the same phone, and I'm a windows (and linux) user. I never installed any of the software that came with the phone (among other reasons, because of this). You just need the usb-to-phone cable. When I plug it it, I get a menu on the phone display that allows me to chose between four different modes of operation. My menus are in Norwegian, so what follows is a translation which may not be exact:

 (Telephone icon)               Telephone mode
 (Usb icon)                     Media transfer
 (Icon with two drops of ink?)  Print out
 (Folder icon)                  Mass storage

Select the last one, with the folder icon. You'll be notified that you can't use your phone as a phone in this mode, and asked whether you want to continue. After responding "yes", the phone will appear as two new usb devices. Select the one that represents the memory card ("PHONE CARD"), not the one that represents built-in stuff ("PHONE"). Navigate to the folder called "music", and drag and drop your songs there. You can create sub-folders if you like, the phone will still find your songs, but the phone menus won't reflect your directory structure, but the ID3 tags of the songs. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 15:35, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Does it have Bluetooth? If so, pair the phone with your computer and you can easily browse the contents using Bluetooth File Exchange in your Utilities folders. I had a 610 and s700 and I was able to easily drag and drop photos, voice memos, movies, ringtones and MP3 to and from the device over Bluetooth. I was also able to use iSync to sync Address Book contacts and Calendar events. --70.167.58.6 (talk) 03:25, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

Printing all possible k-subsets of a n-set

Hello. I want to write a program in C++ which given n and k, prints all possible combinations of k distinct numbers chosen out of 1,2...n. For example if n=4 and k=2 I want to print 12,13,14,23,24,34. (The order has to increasing as well, i.e. 32 is not permitted). I can't seem to get the looping done correctly to apply the brute force method for handling this program. Also, the brute force method would become infeasible to implement if n is big (something around 1000). What is the best approach to handle this problem? Thanks.--Shahab (talk) 14:16, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

It seems what you want to do is to generate permutations and then apply a trivial function to compose them (in your example, concatenation). If that's what you mean, then Permutation#Algorithms to generate permutations is for you. 87.114.130.249 (talk) 14:32, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

No I guess I don't want all permutations. I want a list of all possible k size subsets of a n size set. For example if n=10, k=2 then I want a list of ${\binom {10}{2}}=45$ numbers of the form 12,67,89 etc. That is all possible ways of selecting 2 numbers out of 1,2,...10. The should ideally be listed in increasing order, although that's not especially important. Thanks for the quick response though.--Shahab (talk) 14:41, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

You are going to want recursion. With for loops, you need a for loop for each iteration of k. If k=2, you need 2 for loops. If k=3, you need 3 for loops. It is rather difficult to write a program that magically increases or decreases the number of for loops it has. With recursion, you have 1 loop that calls itself as many times as needed. -- kainaw™ 14:57, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Recursion is one approach, but a recursive loop 1000 steps deep is likely to break something. So, here's a non-recursive solution I wrote and tested in FORTRAN:

• Set this declaration as high as you like or use dynamic memory allocation:

    integer*2     ARY(29,100000)     ! Array of (digits,solutions).                                       
    integer*2     I,N,K,RECORD,DIGIT,VAL

• Initialization:

    RECORD = 1                       ! Current solution number.
    DIGIT  = 0                       ! Current digit.
    VAL    = 0                       ! Current value of digit.

• Make these user inputs to improve program:

    K = 2                            ! Number of digits.
    N = 4                            ! Number of values allowed for each digit.

• Body of program:

    IF (K .GT. N) GOTO 500           ! Abort if no solutions are possible.

200 DIGIT  = DIGIT + 1               ! Go to the next digit.

300 VAL = VAL + 1                    ! Go to, then store, the next value for the 
    ARY(DIGIT,RECORD) = VAL          !  current digit of the current solution.
    IF (DIGIT .LT. K) GOTO 200       ! Any more digits ?
400 IF (VAL   .LT. N) THEN           ! Any more values allowed for this digit ?
      RECORD = RECORD + 1            ! Go to the next solution.
      DO I = 1,DIGIT-1               ! Copy the old solution up to the previous digit.
        ARY(I,RECORD)= ARY(I,RECORD-1)
      ENDDO
      GOTO 300
    ENDIF

500 DIGIT  = DIGIT - 1               ! Go to the previous digit.
    IF (DIGIT .LT. 1) GOTO 600       ! If there's no previous digit, we're done.
    VAL = ARY(DIGIT,RECORD)          ! Get value of previous digit.
    IF (VAL+K-DIGIT .GE. N) GOTO 500 ! Digit's value already too high 
                                     !  to allow increasing values 
                                     !  to end of solution. 
    GOTO 400

• Program termination:

600 DO I =1,RECORD+1                 ! Add proper prints later.
      print *,ARY(1 ,I),ARY(2 ,I),ARY(3 ,I),ARY(4 ,I),ARY(5 ,I)
   +         ,ARY(6 ,I),ARY(7 ,I),ARY(8 ,I),ARY(9 ,I),ARY(10,I)
   +         ,ARY(11,I),ARY(12,I),ARY(13,I),ARY(14,I),ARY(15,I)
   +         ,ARY(16,I),ARY(17,I),ARY(18,I),ARY(19,I),ARY(20,I)
   +         ,ARY(21,I),ARY(22,I),ARY(23,I),ARY(24,I),ARY(25,I)
   +         ,ARY(26,I),ARY(27,I),ARY(28,I),ARY(29,I)
    ENDDO

You will have to convert to C++ (good luck !). StuRat (talk) 16:48, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

I am not sure that I understand the concept of the program. I converted it into C++. The code is given below. But the output is as follows: 1200000000000000000000000000424848013000000000000000000000000022895924199168140000000000000000000000000021472993282300000000000000000000000002291
3480240000000000000000000000000229070003400000000000000000000000001999046107229362400000000000000000000000000022901204198987. This makes no sense to me. Perhaps you can explain what I am doing wrong here. Thanks

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main()
{
int ary[29][1000];
int i,n,k,record,digit,val;
record=1;
digit=0;
val=0;
k=2;
n=4;
if(k>n)exit(0);
NextDigit:
digit=digit+1;
NextValue:
val=val+1;
ary[digit][record]=val;
if(digit<k)goto NextDigit;
MoreValues:
if(val<n)
    {
        record=record+1;
        for(i=1;i<=digit-1;i++)
        ary[i][record]=ary[i][record-1];
        goto NextValue;
    }
PreviousDigit:
digit=digit-1;
if(digit<1)goto Print;
val=ary[digit][record];
if(val+k-digit>=n)goto PreviousDigit;
goto MoreValues;
Print:
for(i=1;i<=record+1;i++)
    {
        cout<<ary[1][i]<<ary[2][i]<<ary[3][i]<<ary[4][i]<<ary[5][i];
        cout<<ary[6][i]<<ary[7][i]<<ary[8][i]<<ary[9][i]<<ary[10][i];
        cout<<ary[11][i]<<ary[12][i]<<ary[13][i]<<ary[14][i]<<ary[15][i];
        cout<<ary[16][i]<<ary[17][i]<<ary[18][i]<<ary[19][i]<<ary[20][i];
        cout<<ary[21][i]<<ary[22][i]<<ary[23][i]<<ary[24][i]<<ary[25][i];
        cout<<ary[26][i]<<ary[27][i]<<ary[28][i]<<ary[29][i];
    }
}

Cheers--Shahab (talk) 10:23, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

Here's one in Haskell:

comb :: Int -> [a] -> a
comb 0 _      = [[]]
comb _ []     = []
comb m (x:xs) = map (x:) (comb (m-1) xs) ++ comb m xs

*Main> comb 2 [1..4]
[[1,2],[1,3],[1,4],[2,3],[2,4],[3,4]]

--71.141.111.57 (talk) 12:12, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

Apple Script Script Editor

I have Mac OSX and I make tons of simple applications with Script Editor. I really enjoy some of them, but they stop working after 3 days precisely! I assume it is the same "Sweeper" that removes aliases saved to the desktop, but I would be very grateful if someone could tell me how to stop them from "dying"! THANK YOU 72.73.68.23 (talk) (I have an account, just too lazy to login this morning!) 14:59, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

portable disk corrupted

I was watching a video file from my portable disk when I accidentally disconnected the USB port, the media file stood still and after a few seconds the system warned me that the disk was corrupted. The data present inside it is of utmost importance and I can NEVER afford to lose it. So please tell me a way to repair my disk or recover that data. I even tried check disk on it but it wouldn't start. When I open that disk from "My Computer" I get the message "J: drive not accessible. Disk is corrupted and unreadable". I am not much knowledgeable about computers, thats why I am seeking help here in wiki. Thanks for the help. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.88.20.120 (talk) 16:43, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Have you tried rebooting your computer and then trying again? It shouldn't have corrupted anything just to have it pulled out while it was watching a movie. (In the future, if you have something you CANNOT afford to lose, store it somewhere else as well as a USB drive. USB drives are very convenient but they are NOT necessarily reliable; when they fail, they often fail totally and without warning.) --98.217.8.46 (talk) 17:34, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Rebooting the system didnt wrk out, still its corrupted. i just got that data so didnt have the chance to make a backup. thats why i am asking help here. before i could make a backup the accident happened. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.88.20.104 (talk) 18:19, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Typing "usb flash drive corrupted" into Google reveals lots of pages that might be helpful, as well as this extremely technical description of what the problem could be. It features the line "...there is a bug with Windows 2000 (that MS never bothered to fix) and can corrupt the drive when it is removed without proper eject." ... Out of curiosity, what parameters did you run chkdsk with? It won't fix anything if you don't run it with /r. « Aaron Rotenberg « Talk « 19:06, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

PS3 controller for NXT mindstormers robot

Is it possible to use a PS3 Sixaxis controller for a NXT brick with FTC firmware on it. I am using Robot C to program the brick. If it is possible, how would i do it also. Thanks in advance. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.175.15.49 (talk) 16:44, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Spam solutions critique template author

There's a templated message that's been in use for a long time – since the age of Usenet – that is often used to critique new proposals to fight spam.

It starts off with

Your post advocates a
  ( ) technical
  ( ) legislative
  ( ) market-based
  ( ) vigilante
approach to fighting spam. Your idea will not work.
Here is why it won't work....

and then runs through several check-all-that-apply explanations and principles. A full copy is available here, and probably everywhere else on the 'Net.

Anyway, I was wondering — does anyone know the identity of the original author? As well, this document has been widely reproduced for many years; was it ever explicitly released into the public domain (or under any free license) by the copyright holder? TenOfAllTrades(talk) 17:31, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

I don't think it was ever copyrighted... it's the Internet. For the same reason I can say it's unlikely you'll ever find who wrote it. --grawity 09:25, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

Every creative work is copyrighted unless explicitly released. This applies on the internet as elsewhere. Algebraist 09:38, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

battery life: monitor or sound output?

What costs more battery power of an offline laptop: Writing in Word or listening to sound files via headphones (with the monitor switched off)? If it's the latter: How big is the difference--enough to be able to sometimes switch on the monitor and take notes in Word and still save battery life? (I'm trying to figure out how to maximize battery life while working out of reach of an outlet.) Thanks, Ibn Battuta (talk) 17:55, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

The two are probably much the same. For normal operations, power is consumed (more than usual) when the hard disk spins or the GPU fires up properly. Absent either of these, the difference between the two actions you describe is likely to be minimal. 87.114.130.249 (talk) 00:45, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

Utorrent check

I use utorrent to download files, but because I use public computers each time I start utorrent to resume downloading a file from the previous session, it goes through an extremely long checking sequence which can take upto half an hour for 20GB. I realize this checking is a vital function, but on my home pc it remembers what it has checked from session to session and just resumes straight away. So my question is, on public computers how can I make utorrent remember what it has check and just start downloading? Is there some registry files it needs to work from different pc to pc? Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.63.184.3 (talk) 21:15, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Minefield → Shiretoko

I use Minefield (the pre-pre-beta version Firefox) for my web browsing. It is updated nightly, so I get updates every day. One day, a couple weeks back, when it got updated, it changed names on me - it's now something calledShiretoko. It seems to be the same thing, but they have 2 seperate pages on the Mozilla website, so I assume there must be some subtle differences. Can someone tell me what the difference(s) is/are between these two programs? flaminglawyer^c 22:45, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Minefield versions are all trunk builds - the latest versions of Firefox, irregardless of version. Shiretoko is the codename for Firefox 3.1; Shiretoko Alpha 2 has been released recently. --wj32 ^t/c 00:40, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

Actually what was recently released is Firefox 3.1 Beta 2, not Alpha 2. --dapete 09:45, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

Resolved

flaminglawyer^c 02:49, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

Images in Safari, Firefox

I've noticed that in Safari and even in Firefox, often my computer decides to only try to load maybe 75% of the images on a page. Hitting reload usually gets the rest. This happens in particular with Google Images and Facebook, but often also happens with things like Google Maps (it'll load maybe half the tiles and then just give up, and just put a "loading" in place or sometimes a "can't load at this resolution" which is always incorrect here). What's the likely issue here? Any suggestions on fixing it? I have a MacBook, OS X 10.4.11, with the latest versions of both Safari and Firefox, with a usually pretty reliable internet connection. It's an irritating quirk. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 22:55, 20 December 2008 (UTC)