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February 7

MacBook volume control doesn't beep

I have a MacBook running OS X 10.4. When I adjust the volume, it doesn't make the beeping sound. The volume itself is fine, it's just that the beeping has disappeared. Does anyone know of an explanation or remedy? --Lazar Taxon (talk) 00:26, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

I believe there's a setting somewhere ("System Preferences" > "Sound", perhaps?) that controls this. In any event, if you hold down shift while pressing the volume keys, it make a sound if it's set to be silent (and vice versa). Paul Stansifer 01:47, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

You learn something everyday. The option is System Preferences->Sound->Sound Effects->Play feedback when volume is changed. Rich^(Contribs)/_{(Talk to me!)} I can haz review plz? 14:03, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

How to record a streaming video from screen?

Can anyone recommend some software to record a streaming video directly from my computer screen to my HD please? (Technically, I suppose I mean record it from the graphics card I think.) Ideally it should be able to decide what the window of the video is. I am experienced in recording many other streaming videos to my hard disk, and have looked at or used several different programmes. This video will not record by the previous methods I have used because the stream is encrypted. So what appears on the screen is what I want to record. I have tried lots of different things, done lots of Google searches already. So can anyone recommend some software please (not just do a Google search)? Thanks. 78.146.77.179 (talk) 00:56, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

VLC media player can record what's happening on the desktop (Media -> Open Capture Device -> select "Desktop" as the "capture mode") but I don't know if it can restrict itself to one window. Xenon54 / talk / 01:04, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

I tried it but I just got a .ps file which windows didnt know what to do with, and which I could not get to play. 89.242.43.246 (talk) 20:37, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

CamStudio --kv7sW9bIr8 (talk) 12:11, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

I've had more success with FRAPS than anything else. Comet Tuttle (talk) 15:13, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

The freeware version only records for 2 minutes, the other version costs more than I'd want to pay. 89.242.43.246 (talk) 20:40, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

I have spent all day looking, without reaching a conclusion. I have found "Video Capture Software" on download.com http://download.cnet.com/windows/video-capture-software/?tag=mncol%3Bsort&filter=licenseName%3D%22Free%22%7C&filterName=licenseName%3DFree%7C&rpp=10&sort=downloadCount+asc and http://all-streaming-media.com/record-video-from-screen/screen-capture-software.htm I think there is another collection of similar software somewhere, but the URL seems to be missing from my History. (Edit: the missing URL is http://www.videohelp.com/capture which has a lot of software listed somewhere on the site as well). The drawback of some of them described as freeware is that they have been made to only record two or five minutes. 89.242.43.246 (talk) 20:19, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

http://www.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/releases/win32/MPlayer-mingw32-1.0rc2.zip + http://www.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/releases/codecs/windows-essential-20071007.zip (goes into 'codec/s' dir of former). mplayer -playlist -dumpstream URIhere -dumpfile foo (occasionally you will not want -playlist). VLC can probably do this almost as well, though. ¦ Reisio (talk) 06:11, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Have you seen our article, List of screencasting software? Comet Tuttle (talk) 19:10, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

C99 and // comments after #include

In syntax highlighting for C code, Kate doesn't format comments that start with a double slash as comments if the line they're on starts with a #include. Is this a bug in the syntax highlighting, or does C99 actually disallow double-slash comments on the same lines as #includes? (GCC says C90 doesn't allow double-slash comments at all, which is why I ask about C99 specifically.) If the latter, what other preprocessing directives are affected? NeonMerlin 01:45, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

It may have to do with that comments aren't recognized within < > so one can have odd names in there, I haven't the foggiest why one would want to do that. Perhaps the editor treats such preprocessor lines specially as they can break all sorts of rules, as in fact can the source code but if one starts defining a macro that substitutes to a curly bracket one deserves the pain one gets. Dmcq (talk) 10:03, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

FYI emacs, enscript, and gedit work as you expect, and Mediawiki's "source" extension works like Kate. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 16:17, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

There is something wrong with the highlighting rules. And yes, it's the same in GeSHi:

// A comment looks like this
#include <stdio.h> // Not this

decltype (talk) 18:23, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Word 2007 Table Alignment

Hello. I've been trying to figure this problem out for some time, and I can't even bring anything up on Google! I have Microsoft Word 2007, and I've been trying to make single-cell tables. The thing is, the alignment I keep choosing won't save: I want everything to align in the center and to the left, but when I save and exit the document, it doesn't stay the way I want it to. When I reopen the document, the alignment is always completely centered! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.16.91.90 (talk) 05:43, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

You can only align one way, either right,left, centered, or justified...Smallman12q (talk) 17:08, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

By "center" he probably is referring to vertical alignment: middle. This can indeed be combined with horizontal alignment left. (I am very annoyed about the Tab key that does no longer set focus to the next control.) --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 09:19, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Powering Computer during powercut - was Question

In a few weeks there's going to be a 10 hour power-cut. I want to use my desktop computer during this time, however obviously I can't because of the power-cut. I can't afford a uninterruptible power supply or a electrical generator, and I don't have a laptop. What solutions are available that might enable me to use my computer? I have access to car batteries and wires and stuff if that could help building a homemade UPS. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.89.14 (talk) 13:56, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

You probably want an inverter. You will almost certainly need a few batteries for 10 hours, however. Your average car battery is (I think) 40amp-hours{{fact}}. That provides 480Wh. A middle of the range HP desktop has a 220W power supply (that's ignoring the display), so each battery will last maybe two and a bit hours, although someone more current (pun not intended) on the maths involved should probably check this. --Rich^(Contribs)/_{(Talk to me!)} I can haz review plz? 14:33, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

(ec) The easiest solution would be to put you computer in your car and drive to where there isn't a power cut. Note that if you decide to buy a 12V to mains adaptor, you'll need to figure the load carefully, a PC and monitor can consume a surprising amount of power and your adaptor may not have the rating to cope and/or your battery may expire before the cut ends. Also if you are net connecting, you'll also need to power your modem. -- SGBailey - not signed in 82.45.16.156 (talk) 14:39, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

or plug an inverter into your car's cigarette lighter and leave the engine running!

Car battery inverters typically supply between 150 and 300W - so be careful to not overload it.87.102.67.84 (talk) 15:04, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

This page covers inverters and generators http://home.howstuffworks.com/home-improvement/household-safety/security/emergency-power3.htm (if you decide to use multiple 12V batteries connect them in parallel !)

You can rent generators (but obviously they might be in short supply during a power cut)87.102.67.84 (talk) 15:02, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

You should also be aware that you probably won't have internet access during the powercut.Smallman12q (talk) 17:10, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Buy a cheap used UPS without a battery (this is much cheaper than an inverter). Make sure it's rated for the power draw of your computer + monitor + router and dsl/cable modem. Then hook it up to a car battery. Do the math to see how long it'll last though. Ariel. (talk) 05:54, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

You should not use car batteries for this since the deep discharge will damage them. Use marine batteries, the type intended for running outboard electric motors, or golf cart batteries, which amount to the same thing. They are formulated differently so they can withstand repeated discharge. 66.127.55.192 (talk) 10:59, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

Would a stripped-down Python equal Basic?

If you ignored the Python commands not present in your average BASIC, would programming with whats left be roughly equivalent to programming with BASIC? 89.242.43.246 (talk) 14:39, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Yes, ignoring syntax and required formatting, and differences in reserved words. A good page is Comparison of programming languages note BASIC is an imperative, procedural language so any language that uses an imperative style (this means that commands are executed as they are listed) which also can implement procedures (in python you would use functions I think) can be programmed in the same style as you would in basic.

Or to put it another way making a utility that converts basic to python code would be do-able easily.87.102.67.84 (talk) 15:11, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Except there's no GOTO in python - but you can live without that ? 87.102.67.84 (talk) 15:13, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

(By the way if you are looking for alternatives to basic - my suggestion for your first step would be to continue programming in basic - but practice writing proceedural code that never uses goto - repeat/until and do/while are usual replacements - it's sometimes a pain when a simple goto seems obvious - but worth learning for when you don't have a goto (as in many newer languages). If you were already programming without ever using goto then well done!)87.102.67.84 (talk) 15:17, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, I have long been aware that goto was not approved of, and have not used it for years and years. I don't suppose theres any sort of tutorial or list of BASIC-like commands that would make the transition from BASIC to Python easier? Or even some patch or variant that would hide al the non-BASIC stuff out of the way? I've long though that programs of all types should have a built-in choise of Beginner, Intermediate, or Advanced modes that would make beginning to use them less daunting. 89.242.43.246 (talk) 19:36, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

If you ever used BBC Basic you're in luck BBC basic / pythton differences via roscidus.com - if not you'll still recognise a lot of the basic. (http://docs.python.org/ is the place to start in general) There are some VisualBasic to Python converters out there which might help in learning about equivalent python code.

No idea about a reduced version. Haven't heard of one.87.102.67.84 (talk) 20:40, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, I've just read that. Pity Python wasnt called PYBasic - I bet it would be even more popular. 89.242.43.246 (talk) 22:12, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Not everyone thinks BASIC is a good thing. Edsger Dijkstra, for example, had a rather low opinion of it. Others may not be so radical (I can't be, for instance, because I learned BASIC first!), but I doubt that Python would benefit from association with it. --Tardis (talk) 18:24, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

(edit conflict) I suppose so, more or less, although Python's for statement is technically a foreach, which is more general than BASIC's for loop. This is not a specific property of Pyhton - you can reduce almost any imperative programming language to BASIC + other stuff. But why would you want to write Python as if it were BASIC ? Gandalf61 (talk) 15:22, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

how does the size of an HP pavilion dv 9700 17" compare with an Apple MacBook 17"?

I know the aspect ratio might be different, so I was wondering how the screen size of an HP Pavilion DV 9700 17" compares, in terms of actual square centimeters, with the screen size of a MacBook 17". Thanks 92.230.233.5 (talk) 16:56, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

The apple mac book pro is 1680 x 1050 ( WSXGA+ ) [1], the apple mac book is 1280x800 Wide XGA [2] , the HP is 1,680 x 1,050 [3]

All have aspect ration 1.6:1 - the same then.87.102.67.84 (talk) 17:07, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

The 17" MacBook Pro is actually 1920 x 1200. 209.94.102.85 (talk) 18:04, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

Wikitable

If, when I start making a table, I put class="wikitable", I get:

class="wikitable"

Which is nice.

If I put "border="1" instead, I get

Border = "1"

Which is nasty nasty.

However, class="wikitable" does not work when I try it on a table on this wiki. I assume I have to twiddle some settings somewhere to get the wikitable? I've seen it used on other wikis, after all. How do I get the wikitable? Be aware that my technical knowledge is very limited. Cheers in advance! Vimescarrot (talk) 17:31, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Oh, and if you think I should be asking this somewhere else, feel free to point me in the right direction. Vimescarrot (talk) 17:32, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Classes do not work by magic voodoo. Neither your browser nor the wiki software simply takes the word "wikitable" and intuits how you want the table to display. Wikitables look like that because of rules in a CSS stylesheet (in this case Mediawiki:Common.css) which tell your browser to apply various styles to tables with the "wikitable" class, and to elements of those tables. The relevant rules are as follows:

table.wikitable {
    margin: 1em 1em 1em 0;
    background: #f9f9f9;
    border: 1px #aaa solid;
    border-collapse: collapse;
}
.wikitable th, .wikitable td {
    border: 1px #aaa solid;
    padding: 0.2em;
}
.wikitable th {
    background: #f2f2f2;
    text-align: center;
}
.wikitable caption {
    font-weight: bold;
}

So to make a table display like a wikitable without using CSS, you'd have to style the table with {|style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaa solid; border-collapse: collapse;", and similarly add the appropriate styles for each <th>, <td> and <caption> within the table. Algebraist 17:46, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Nice, thanks. So if I get one of the admins to put that in MediaWiki:Common.css, it'll apply across the wiki? Here's hoping they still have active admins...Cheers! Vimescarrot (talk) 19:31, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Building netbooks

Can u build your own notebook. Like, 4 instance, an Acer Aspire One. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.34.181.72 (talk) 18:47, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

yes. [4] see also Barebook 87.102.67.84 (talk) 19:07, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

ITV Player

Does anyone know how to record a programme from the ITV Player? Only for my own personal use. It is only viewable to people in the UK. I think the most likely route is "video capture" from the screen, but the easier to use freeware can only record for 2 or 5 minutes, and I have not yet got any unrestricted freeware to work. See also the querstion "How to record a streaming video from screen?" above. Thanks. 89.242.43.246 (talk) 20:26, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

get_iplayer, which is primarily targetted at the BBC's iPlayer site, has at various times also been able to download and save content from 4OD and ITV. In the case of 4OD they got into something of an arms race with the 4OD people, and I don't think it supports 4OD any more. Equally it used to be able to work on ITV (per this post), until a redesign. You might be best asking on the get-iplayer forums, incase someone has it working there again. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 20:31, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

I've already got get_iplayer and asked on the forums, and it does not work with the ITV Player any more. 89.242.43.246 (talk) 21:29, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

I think it probably something to do with RTMP or RTMPE although I'm only guessing. 89.242.43.246 (talk) 01:24, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Personal wiki recommendations

Can anyone recommend a free personal wiki? One I can run on my PC (WinXP) without having to have a server or anything like that, and preferably not too dissimilar in how you make links etc to the thing Wikipedia works on. I do tend to regard computers as "black boxes" so if you can avoid mentioning pythons and the like I'll be more likely to understand what you are saying! Thanks, DuncanHill (talk) 23:31, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

You might want to try tiddlywiki, I use it for organising information related to my undergraduate research project. It has very nice interface, active development, easy upgrades, a backup system, similar markup to Wikipedia and plenty of plugins if it doesn't do what you want it to out of the box. 131.111.185.75 (talk) 00:20, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Thank you, that seems to be what I'm looking for :) DuncanHill (talk) 01:39, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

You may as well just use mediawiki. It needs a database (you'll have to install mysql) but does everything that you're used to. There are some other wikis like moinmoin or tiddlywiki that may be a little simpler to configure but nowhere near as featureful. 66.127.55.192 (talk) 02:19, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

You can use it with postgres as well! Marnanel (talk) 02:29, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

I just read the installation instructions for mediawiki and I do not understand them at all. It seems to need lots of other stuff, not just downloading it and starying it up. If there was a way to use it on my pc I would, but I can't see or understand how. DuncanHill (talk) 02:47, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

You could try MoWeS; it sets up everything you need for MediaWiki automatically, just make sure to select MediaWiki in the packages selection download page —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kv7sW9bIr8 (talk • contribs) 12:37, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Would I be able to use that (once installed) without being connected to the internet? DuncanHill (talk) 21:34, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Yes, you could use it offline. Thanks, gENIUS101 21:55, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Alternatively, find a webhost (there are free ones available on google, I use x10hosting.com) with an automated mediawiki installer. The one I've encountered is softaculus. Simply load it up through the cpanel/other admin interface, tell it to install mediawiki, and follow the prompts. It'll sort all the complex stuff for you, and the default options are usually ok. Rich^(Contribs)/_{(Talk to me!)} I can haz review plz? 16:00, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

I'm really looking for something that doesn't need me to be connected to the internet - it's just for personal use as an aid to research and writing, not for something I want published online (and anyway, it costs money to be online!) DuncanHill (talk) 21:34, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Why do you want a wiki? Maybe you're better off just using a text editor, along with a version control system like git. In fact there is even a wiki called "gitit" that uses git as its backend. 66.127.55.192 (talk) 11:09, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Check out the personal wiki article, it lists lots of wiki-like software that doesn't need servers or complicated set-up —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.89.90 (talk) 14:01, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

February 8

Pointers and local variables

If I use a pointer to a variable - and then pass that pointer as a parameter to a function or procedure - and that procedure then makes a local variable of the same name - which variable will the pointer point to? Specifically - as a question - what is the behaviour in different computer languages (C, pascal , others) - and how do I go about finding the defined behaviour for a given language - typically I have to resort to trial and error.87.102.67.84 (talk) 01:35, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Um, to find the defined behavior for a given language you have to check the specification for the language, if there is one. But the whole idea of a local variable is that it's independent of other parts of the program, so the local variable and the function parameter will point to two different places. 66.127.55.192 (talk) 02:23, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

The pointer points to the variable by its memory address, not by its name. Even if the original name went out of scope, the pointer would still point to the variable you originally pointed it at. Marnanel (talk) 02:28, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

If I pass (any variable) to a part of a program with different scope as a function or proceedure parameter is that supposed to retain the old (local) scope? (exceptions? is this generally true?)

Also is it right to say that the situation would change when using a dynamically scoped language (I haven't been able to test this).

(I looked at some specifications for C and pascal and honestly couldn't find the explicit description of scope behaviour - does anyone more expert know where they are in the documents?)87.102.67.84 (talk) 03:10, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

In C, when you pass a pointer as a parameter to a function, what you are passing in is a memory address, and you are giving that address a name which lasts as long as that function is executing. Any other names which may exist in other scopes and happen to refer to pointers to the same data are irrelevant. Scope is about how long a name lasts, rather than how long a variable lasts, although if a language has automatic garbage collection these two ideas may be related. Marnanel (talk) 03:22, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

So the scope of a local variable lasts longer when passed to an external function or proceedure as a parameter (instead of 'ceasing to exist' as it usually would?) 87.102.67.84 (talk) 03:48, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

A function's local variables are in scope while that function is executing. When a function "A" passes a parameter to a function "B", it doesn't extend the scope of the data in "A": it creates a whole new scope which lasts as long as "B" is executing. During this time, "A"'s local variables are out of scope: you can't refer to them. Then when "B" is finished, "A" will resume and its local variables will be back in scope again. Marnanel (talk) 03:55, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Yes, thanks - at the transition between A and B the variables (either pointers or values) passed from A will be copied into B's variables. I suppose this means that there is a requirement for local variables not to overwrite global ones (in memory) (even temporarily) since any passed pointers will end up pointing at the wrong thing. (Can anyone expand on this technically?)

What I'm thinking about is common examples such as:

procedure proc inc_to_ten (x)
  x=x+1;
  print (x)
  if (x<10) then proc_inc_to_ten(x)
  print (x)
  return

called from main with inc_to_ten(1) or similar - which counts 1 up to 10 and then back down again as the nested functions return and exit. What I was wondering was how the nested local scoped x's are stored - would it be normal to use stack to store the previous local x just before calling the proc. and the pop the x's back off the stack around the time the return command is fulfilled? Are there other implementations? (Also I wasn't kidding when I couldn't find the description in the language specifications - can anyone point to the section where it is covered)87.102.67.84 (talk) 04:17, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

In answer to your first question: local variables are allocated on the stack; globals are not. There is no risk of them overwriting one another. In answer to your second question: that would be one way of doing it (especially if x is actually implemented as a register); another, simpler way would be to keep x on the stack the whole time, so there was never any risk of loss or confusion. Marnanel (talk) 04:46, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Type casting an assignment target in C

Why doesn't C (or at least why doesn't GCC) allow

(int)x = 1337;

as a synonym for the following?

*((int *)&x) = 1337;

NeonMerlin 02:45, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Two reasons:

1. Casts of lvalues are not lvalues, according to ANSI C.
2. It's stopping you doing something stupid. You don't know that sizeof(x) is the same as sizeof(int). Your second example works, but if sizeof(x)==1 and sizeof(int)==4, you've just clobbered three bytes of memory. Marnanel (talk) 03:27, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

(int)x is not the same as *((int *)&x) when used as an rvalue. If assignment to (int)x were allowed, it presumably would mean something like x = (typeof(x))(int)1337, since that's roughly the opposite of the corresponding read operation.

In C++ you can say (int&)x = 1337, but you probably shouldn't. -- BenRG (talk) 05:31, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Short term internet service in a rural area?

I am searching for a workable solution to a slightly odd technological conundrum. I have a friend that is running a somewhat impromptu, small scale IT convention in a rural Central New York State area that would like short term internet service (like 1 month tops) that would preferably provide a minimum of 5 Mbps for at least 5 computers. I was sure that the new-ish "MiFi" wireless, portable hot-spots would suffice but they only provide roughly 1.4 Mbps at best while most other options require long term contracts. Any recommendations? Thanks! 74.71.73.29 (talk) 05:31, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Satellite internet, or tether some cell phones. Investigate Link aggregation, and have multiple MiFi (or cell) connections. Even if your ISP does not offer it, you can setup a server somewhere to act as the other end of the links, and route everything through that server. Ariel. (talk) 06:00, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

As a WildBlue customer, I wouldn't bet on satellite internet being a good option. At least for normal residential service, the installation and equipment costs are substantial (hundreds of dollars) and require a contract of at least a year. The largest package is 1.5 Mbps download, but I find that my throughput is often well below the stated 512 kbps that I pay for. The latency is very poor, which is annoying and excludes some applications (real-time video, audio, gaming). There is a monthly cap on data transfer (17 GB/month for the largest package), which may also be an issue. My feeling is that anyone who "needs" 5 Mbps is going to be dissatisfied with satellite internet, even if you technically manage to cobble together the bandwidth. -- Coneslayer (talk) 12:59, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

This reply reaches you from a rural area via a relay of miniature microwave transmitters and receivers. All that is required is line of sight between each pair. Such systems are not unusual in rural UK, and I would think that something similar could be hired in the USA, but I don't know about licence requirements. How far away is the nearest fast conventional connection to the internet? Dbfirs 18:11, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

There's a number of companies that offer short-term internet connections for events: try googling. Alternatively, contact a local ISP and ask their advice - many offer temporary or short-contract services. --Normansmithy (talk) 11:48, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

SMS files into text files

So I have a cell phone where from I can download SMS files on my vcomputer. Sadly, no program but the Nokia synchro thingamagum can read those files. Is there a program or a nifty trick to convert hundreds and hundreds of important text message (fileas) into text files (like .txt)? Copy-pasting is a pain, I've tried. Any software should be compatible with Windows 7. Pitke (talk) 13:41, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

What file format does it come in? I mean, the file extension (filename.extension). Samwb123^{Please read} 18:27, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Which model is your phone. If it is NOKIA, you can use their Nokia PC Suite to download messages to PC in CSV format which can be opened by spreadsheet program. It also offers to save it in TXT format. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.227.79.2 (talk) 06:36, 9 February 2010 (UTC) --220.227.79.2 (talk) 06:37, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for help, my phone is Nokia and I have access to the Nokia PC Suite. I'd known of the CSV format exporting but could not imagine what I could do with it. I'll try it with Microsoft Excel, problem resolved. Pitke (talk) 15:03, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Two versions of Firefox?

I have been using Firefox with Windows XP for a few weeks. I am using an Add-On (a particular "Persona" I think) that makes it look similar to Internet Explorer. However, a major drawback with this is that the drop-down menu for saving Bookmarks is very narrow and also of a very short fixed length, so that it is impossible to see what Bookmark folders you have already.

Would it be possible to either a) run another version of Firefox on my computer without the IE "persona", for example having both versions available to start from their respective desktop icons, or b) alter the IE persona I have to make the Bookmark menu larger? Thanks 92.29.142.75 (talk) 13:48, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Sure, you use as many versions of Firefox as you want. I regularly use the latest release (installed) and have several dozen daily builds that I also use. The daily builds are easiest since they are just a folder without an installer. However, if you just install to a different directory is should work as well. Then rename the shortcuts to the FF in a way that makes sense to you. The issue that you may encounter is each FF asking you if you want to make it the default browser. This can be disabled in the settings though. 124.214.131.55 (talk) 13:55, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

You can create different profiles that each have their own addons and bookmarks etc, this explains how. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kv7sW9bIr8 (talk • contribs) 15:13, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

I'd alter the persona if that's the only problem you have — link to it and someone can explain what you'd need to do. ¦ Reisio (talk) 23:18, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, its "Internet Explorer 8 Aero for Firefox", created by Dinnerjoe, available here http://www.getpersonas.com/en-US/persona/55635 I've no idea how to alter it myself. Correction: the Add-on is called myFireFox, version 3.0.0.87. 89.240.202.189 (talk) 00:14, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Neither of those alter my Bookmarks menus. Could you provide a screenshot? http://imageshack.us/ ¦ Reisio (talk) 05:35, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

When I click "Bookmarks", then "Bookmark this page", I get a comparatively small pop-up at the top of the screen middle-right. This is the problem as it is narrow and of fixed length. 92.29.127.70 (talk) 12:40, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Perhaps you could contact the author of the IE theme addon and let them know about the problem, they might fix it and release a newer version —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.89.90 (talk) 14:08, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Generating sound of specified pitch and duration in browser.

Hello guys. I need to generate a sound of a specified frequency and duration using something like generateSound(frequency,duration) function in my browser using javascript (i don't have any other scripting or development platform on my pc). Can you please help? Is there any applet on the net to do this. I looked everywhere but could't find. Thanks. ReluctantPhilosopher (talk) 16:55, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Guys? ReluctantPhilosopher (talk) 18:29, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Sorry, I don't know how. But as a regular internet user, please consider very carefully whether your readers/customers really need that sound. Astronaut (talk) 18:31, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

I actually need it for myself, not to put on the web. After I posted the question i downloaded tcc compiler and used the beep() function but it is not producing sound (through the system/internal speaker). I know it is getting executed by the time it takes (the duration parameter I set). The beep device seems to be working in the device manager. I'm really flustered :( My laptop is Compaq presario c700 (c702tu) btw. ReluctantPhilosopher (talk) 18:44, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Your laptop might not actually have a PC Speaker. Lately I've seen more and more computers coming without one and although the connections are still there on the motherboard (hence Windows "sees" a speaker), since there's nothing connected you hear no sound. ZX81 ^talk 19:25, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks. Yeah I guess that's the problem. If only my clunky old laptop had a stupid system speaker all this trouble could have been avoided. Now I first have to find drivers for my audio (which, i have found out, is next to impossible), and install java on my deathly slow machine :( ReluctantPhilosopher (talk) 20:12, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Update: I was able to install drivers. Now will use java or flash! Thanks again :) ReluctantPhilosopher (talk) 22:02, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Hmmm... I don't know of any, but you can see this page to see how to play a sound file is javascript. Samwb123^{Please read} 18:34, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, I was able to install sound drivers, and my purpose can be served by using javascript and simple wav files ^_^ ReluctantPhilosopher (talk) 22:02, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

As far as I know javascript doesn't have the ability to make sounds - I assume you want to play frequency x Hz for y seconds ?

Yes that's what I want to do. And yes I now realise you can't do it using only javascript. thanks! ReluctantPhilosopher (talk) 22:02, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Java can 'synthesise frequencies' - and you could put that in a java applet (needs java installed) - would that be acceptable.?87.102.67.84 (talk) 18:54, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

here's a simple beep using a java applet [5]

Thanks very much, that was very useful ReluctantPhilosopher (talk) 22:06, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

For different notes I think you need to use MIDI - not sure.87.102.67.84 (talk) 19:16, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

That's an amazing piece of info, I'll use it in future too, thanks ReluctantPhilosopher (talk) 22:06, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

This appears to be a frequency generator - http://www.jsresources.org/examples/OscillatorPlayer.html

Wow, that's really cool! Thanks :) ReluctantPhilosopher (talk) 22:06, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

For what it's worth, I think a lot of developers use a simple Adobe Flash script for any sound functionality. (And please don't poke the Desk with notes like "Guys?". It doesn't speed us up.) Comet Tuttle (talk) 19:20, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

I'm sorry, it was just a friendly poke :[ It had been two hours (I edited the original question, hence the timestamp), and i was thinking it was something straightforward (i was mistaken). ReluctantPhilosopher (talk) 19:33, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

You had to wait a whole two hours for a bunch of volunteers to provide an answer to your question? How distressing for you! ╟─TreasuryTag►UK EYES ONLY─╢ 22:11, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Aw let it go man!! :D I told you I thought it was straightforward, and I saw later questions being answered, and it was just a friendly "Guys?". I have myself volunteered on the refdesk in the past, so I know how it works :) 220.225.87.66 (talk) 11:20, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

And yes using flash script would be best if I don't want to use java I suppose. Thanks! ReluctantPhilosopher (talk) 22:06, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

If you already had sound files: http://www.schillmania.com/projects/soundmanager2/
Horrors: http://www.google.com/search?q=flex%20generate%20sound ¦ Reisio (talk) 23:21, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

PDA or phone plan with only internet?

Is there a PDA or phone plan that offers no phone or text messaging, but internet access? I do not mean Wi-Fi, but access to their 3G network. And does it cost less than $50/month to access their 3G internet service? Thanks! Samwb123^{Please read} 18:25, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Many providers supply USB dongles for internt access via their 3G network. If you told us in which country you want the service, you might get more accurate help Astronaut (talk) 18:28, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

I live in Spokane, Washington, United States. Samwb123^{Please read} 18:31, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

T-Mobile offers a data only service for Windows mobile devices for $40/month, Verizon seems to offer one for $50, and I can't find any info on an AT&T data only plan for smartphones. I have heard that it runs around the same as T-Mobile though if you ask. Many cell phone companies do like to place restrictions on what other services need to be purchased to be eligible for certain data plan price rates. Caltsar (talk) 20:46, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Thank you. I was wondering, though, is there any sort of thing for the iPod Touch? Thanks. Samwb123^{T (R)-C-E} 20:56, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

The Ipod Touch can't access 3G, but it can use WiFi hotspots. T-mobile recently offered a $5/month plan that allowed unlimited use of their WiFi hotspots by a single device, that could be an Ipod. EdJohnston (talk) 21:04, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

The Kindle does 3G and offers web browsing. Is that what you are looking for? -- kainaw™ 02:06, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

But doesn't the Kindle only navigate to some sites? If it does browse all sites, that would be WONDerful. Samwb123^{T (R)-C-E} 03:02, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

I just went to my own website (which I am positive would be off-limits if it Kindle was limited). The deal is that you only get to go to some sites for free. Others require you to pay a 3G access fee, which has never been much for me, but I don't go to tons of sites. Also, I just realized that if you want more than black-and-white, you will want to wait for the iPad, which I believe also does 3G. -- kainaw™ 03:11, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Ubuntu boot problem

I've got a Pentium 4 Ubuntu server that usually freezes during the boot process. Frustratingly, sometimes it gets all the way to the GNOME desktop, at which point it'll run fine for weeks, until I have to restart the server (usually because I have applied some updates via the update manager) and it then usually freezes on boot again. The freezing point is generally on the black screen that has the white Ubuntu logo on it. I generally hard-power-down the computer and turn it on again. Just now it booted in some sort of safe mode (I am guessing), with a screen full of text mode text that appears to be listing timestamps and system calls; here are the last three calls that it's listing:

mprotect_fixup+0x226/0x280
sys_mprotect+0x140/0x200
syscall_call+0x7/0xb

Then it locked up forever. Any hints on how to approach the problem? Comet Tuttle (talk) 18:39, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Not a real solution, but in case it's a problem with the hardware/bios settings it might go away if you use kexec instead of a hard reboot. In any case you should have a look into /var/log/* and dmesg. --194.197.235.240 (talk) 20:25, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Also are you sure the hardware is fine? Linux seems to be more picky about unstable hardware (my CPU overclocked to unstable frequencies will boot into Windows fine but will freeze while booting Linux), and exploding capacitors were a big problem for computers around Pentium 4's time. --antilived^{T | C | G} 10:00, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

On Fedora 11, most of my boot issues stem from a kernel update where other (usually graphics) software doesn't have an updated version yet. The way I get around this is I boot into the kernel version that's one behind until the update comes through. Falconus^{p t c} 12:39, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll try "rebooting" with kexec next time the Update Manager nags at me to restart; and maybe I'll look into previous kernel versions. As far as whether the hardware is fine: Well, I can't be sure the hardware is fine, but memtest86 didn't come up with any problems. Other peripherals, I'm unsure, of course. Thanks - Comet Tuttle (talk) 16:40, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

February 9

polymorphism and its types

what is polymorphism(exact defination) and its basic types ?

See type polymorphism. Your question appears to be homework. Because nobody here is likely to be in your class, it is not possible for anyone here to know the exact definition that your teacher wants. -- kainaw™ 13:31, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Password protected IRC channels

Resolved

Is it possible to automatically reconnect to password protected IRC channel when the connection is temporally lost? Currently when this happens it asks for the password again before it will reconnect. I'm using ChatZilla —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.89.90 (talk) 13:57, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

See the ChatZilla FAQ on passwords. —ShadowRanger ^(talk|stalk) 16:02, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Thank you! I found out how to do it using ChatZillas "auto-perform" feature :)

Core i7 vs. Centrino Core 2 Duo --- which is better?

1. Are the two processors equally good?

2. Is one of them good only for laptops or notebooks and the other for desktops? or Are both of them for laptops and desktops?

Thank you very much for any clarification. I will be expecting for answers. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 119.93.229.179 (talk) 14:34, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

In general, a Core i7 is more powerful than the Core 2 line (there is some overlap between the high end Core 2 Quad and the low end Core i7). If the Core 2 Duo processor is a Centrino, that simply means it is bundled with a specific set of wireless technology which implies that it is made to be used in a laptop. There are also differences in price between an i7 and a Core 2 processor and system with a Core 2 system usually being less expensive. So depending on what angle you approach the view of better from, you may get different answers. Assuming you are talking about raw speed, a Core i7 processor is going to outperform a Core 2 Duo. Caltsar (talk) 15:58, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Thank you for the reply. How about corei5? Is that as good as core 2 duo? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 119.93.229.179 (talk) 11:57, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

Some Core i5 processors benchmark faster than some Core 2 Duo processors. The biggest benefit you will get from a Core i5 or Core i7 is the ability to use faster memory than you might be able to use on a cheap Core 2 motherboard. This site has charts of the top CPU benchmarks. Keep in mind that CPU speed isn't the only factor in making a fast system. Caltsar (talk) 15:54, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

Laptop screen banding

I have a 5 y.o. laptop that I'm replacing this weekend, but with the intent of putting a slim Linux distro on it. But the screen has developed a couple 'bands' over the last 6 months or so that would be really annoying - for example, the worst of these is a couple inches at the left hand side where the contrast is noticeably reduced. There's another band of a similar width to its right, and then the rest of the screen looks to be normal. Has anyone got any suggestions for getting these all to be the same? (In case it's not clear: I don't mind so much if it's all going to be the 'contrast reduced' version, since it'll be primarily used for a bit of coding and displaying text.) 131.111.248.99 (talk) 15:06, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Browsing Wikipedia on a PSP-2003

I was told by the user 'A Quest For Knowledge' that I'd get some answers if I posted this question on the Computing section of the reference desk I'd get more relevant answers. However, please don't think I'm impatient because I've posted the same question on two different sections of the reference desk...I'm not, I just thought this section is more relevant than the misc section.

When I occasionally browse wikipedia on my PSP when I'm away from my computer, I can only type so much before the little triangle to the right of my cursor prevents me from typing any more. Why is this? It's fairly annoying, as I can't edit text longer than a few hundred words or so. Maybe I should stick to my computer, although my PSP is pretty handy for just viewing and making basic edits of short sections of articles. Chevymontecarlo (talk) 17:01, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

I have often exceeded the PSP's memory. I figure you are hitting the memory limit, not a hard-set number of characters. -- kainaw™ 17:03, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

OK, I guess the PSP just wasn't designed to handle that much data. I'll stick to my computer! Chevymontecarlo (talk) 17:27, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

It's an awkward interface. I wouldn't even try. Even my iPhone is barely passable. A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 21:09, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

I'm going to disagree with Kainaw — the input line of text cannot possibly be maxing out the PSP's RAM; it's much more likely to be some hardcoded limit on the amount of text that can be input by that PSP text input widget — but agree that editing Wikipedia with a PSP is a horrible task that should be reserved as punishment for prison inmates. Comet Tuttle (talk) 19:35, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

Make a text file with clickable links?

I would like to have something like a simple text file on my computer's hard-drive, which I can open and click the links on (that I've previously prepared) as well as reading the text. How could I do this please? (I'd prefer not to have to start up an enormous slow program like OpenOffice). Thanks 92.26.29.37 (talk) 17:28, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Have you considered creating an .html file locally? You would open it with your Web browser. The main disadvantage is that when editing it you'd be editing HTML tags, which looks much messier than something like a Word document. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:46, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

A WYSIWYG HTML editor might be in order then (to avoid the tags), although I don't know how their speed compares with OpenOffice's. --Tardis (talk) 17:54, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

(ec) You can skirt the rules of well-formed HTML, (which is not really a good idea, but if you want to avoid messy tags... and the document is for "internal use only", you can use a severely reduced/simplified set of HTML). Ideally, you really should use proper HTML. But it's worth knowing that almost all web browsers will render a document even if it only contains part of the header. For example:

<html>
<pre>
Here is some text.  <a href='file:///c/docs/test.dat'>This</a> will link to a file in my home directory.

That rendered fine in Firefox on a Mac and Windows; and the hyperlink worked (when pointing to a valid file). The "pre" tag has the advantage of escaping any HTML-rendering that would rearrange or reformat the text. Nimur (talk) 18:02, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Surely there's some text editor that detects URL-looking things in the text and makes them clickable (like some web forum software, email readers, etc.)? I tried to find a way in Notepad++ but failed. -- Coneslayer (talk) 18:32, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

I knew it had to be in there: In Notepad++, go to Settings -> Preferences -> MISC, and there's an option for clickable links. -- Coneslayer (talk) 18:43, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

It would be nice to have something where you could just type in an URL, without all the code, and be able to click on it. 92.26.29.37 (talk) 18:48, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Please see my response regarding Notepad++. With the setting I indicated, you can get the behavior you want. -- Coneslayer (talk) 18:50, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

I just found that a small freeware editor called Metapad which I already had on my computer can do this. Type in a simple www URL and click on it. Thanks all! 92.26.29.37 (talk) 18:53, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Is this true?

One pierce of information required during domain name registration is the number of pages in the web site.Accdude92 (talk to me!) 17:31, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

I have registered a few domain names without even having a website running yet, and this information was never asked. Perhaps you are referring to domain hosting, not just domain registering. 92.26.29.37 (talk) 17:36, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

No. It is conceivable that a website host may want to know this, but most only want to place a limit in MB or whatever on storage. You can register a domain without actually having a host I think. Anyway, I've never done this on my site. -- SGBailey (talk) 17:38, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

I have, in the past, heard of CBS Radio registering a bunch of "red herring" domain names in advance of a format flip. For example, before WJFK-FM flipped to sports talk, CBS registered five or so domains, eventually only using one and "returning" the rest. It seems to me that domain registrars don't really care what you do with names you register once they get their money. Xenon54 / talk / 17:49, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Nope; it is quite untrue. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:45, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

In fact, you can get a domain name even if you have no web server. The domain name is simply an alias for an IP. Any device that can support IP-based networking can have a domain name - toaster ovens, automobiles, mobile telephones, forklifts, (really, IP-based computers inside all of those devices). But still... the "number of webpages" related to such domain names is either zero or irrelevant. Yet, they are still perfectly legitimate globally qualified DNS names. Nimur (talk) 18:06, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

In addition to all the previous responses, "number of pages" on a web server isn't even a concept that makes sense if you have dynamically generated content. How many pages does Wikipedia have? (Think of all the different ways to generate history and diff pages, the fact that an article nobody's written still comes up as a "create-a-new-article" page, etc.) -- Coneslayer (talk) 18:16, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

While I agree that "number of pages" is a silly metric, it is not an uncommon one. This is similar to MIPS (millions of instructions per second) used in CPUs. It is a silly metric that doesn't mean anything, but it is used a lot. However, I've never seen a registrar require knowledge of the number of pages. The registrar doesn't care unless the registrar is also a webhost and wants to know how much room will be used by the website. -- kainaw™ 20:57, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Macros for both Windows and Ubuntu

Is there any macro recorder and player that works with both Windows and Ubuntu please? I mean something that records your keyboard and mouse activity, puts this into a file which you can edit, and then you can play it. (If not one for both, what would people recommend for Windows? I am of course looking for some no-cost software that's easy and intuitive to use. I have done a lot of Google searching already, but it is difficult to know what may be best). Thanks 92.26.29.37 (talk) 17:34, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

There are some projects but nothing comparable to Autohotkey, I think, so we'll have to wait, I guess... I'm also looking for a good macros program for Ubuntu. --Belchman (talk) 20:08, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

I create my own macros by hand for Windows using Windows Script Host. It supports VBScript and JScript. It's not hard at all to do. For example, this script opens Notepad and types Hello into it:

var wsh = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell");
wsh.Run("Notepad");
WScript.Sleep(250);
wsh.SendKeys("H");
wsh.SendKeys("e");
wsh.SendKeys("l");
wsh.SendKeys("l");
wsh.SendKeys("o");

You'd then save the file with a .js extension and double-click on it. This is easier, in my opinion, than installing another program (e.g., AutoHotKey) on your computer, because Windows already includes extensive scripting support.--Drknkn (talk) 20:26, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Hey, this is a great tip and a great starting point; but when I double-click test.js on my Windows XP SP3 machine, I get the dialog complaining that Windows doesn't know what app created it, and do I want to use the Web service to find the appropriate application? (And the subsequent web page says it doesn't know what the hell a .js file is, FWIW.) Comet Tuttle (talk) 21:35, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks. Such scripts normally open automatically using the C:\WINDOWS\system32\wscript.exe file. If you click the "Browse" button inside the "Open With" dialog, go to that folder, and choose that file, it should work.--Drknkn (talk) 23:53, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

OK, tried that — now I get a "Windows Script Host" error dialog saying, There is no script engine for file extension ".js". Comet Tuttle (talk) 23:58, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Try this: [6].--Drknkn (talk) 00:16, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

Did that work? That file extension is for JScript (AKA JavaScript) files. VBScript files have a .vbs extension. Another program must have messed with the settings for WScript. I got that message once after installing Dreamweaver. I don't think I had to go through all of the steps mentioned on that page, though. I think all I had to do was use that regsvr32 command.

By the way, if anyone wants to automate anything else, I can write a macro for it. It's relatively easy. At least, they're easier to use than a lot of other languages out there.--Drknkn (talk) 01:55, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

I didn't actually try it because regedit simply asks me if I want to add the contents of that file to my registry. There's no way I am going to load the unknown contents of a .reg file from an untrusted website into my registry. If you happen to know of a site that lists the specific registry entries that I'd need to modify, I'd love it (I didn't find anything with my Google skim). Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:57, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

Like I said, I had the same problem once, and I fixed it simply by typing regsvr32 %systemroot%\system32\jscript.dll in the Run box. In that case, you wouldn't need to download anything. You could simply type that command. If that doesn't work, you can view the contents of the .reg file by right-clicking on it and choosing Edit. It's a plain-text file and lists all the registry changes.--Drknkn (talk) 18:33, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

I never knew that! The regsvr32 command didn't have any apparent effect, but after inspecting the registry file provided, I installed it, and your script just Hello Worlded in Notepad. Thanks! (Note, of course, that I am not the OP, just a bystander.) Comet Tuttle (talk) 22:48, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

How would WSH deal with mouse clicks? Including moving the cursor to click on buttons? 89.243.177.67 (talk) 00:56, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

The best option for that might be to send tabs via sendkeys. Controls in a form almost always have a tab index which allows them to be accessed from the keyboard:

wsh.SendKeys("{TAB}");

Then, you could send the enter key:

wsh.SendKeys("{ENTER}");

When you send key strokes, you also should focus Windows on the window for the app. For example, if you wanted to bring Internet Explorer to the front before typing, you'd include this code:

wsh.AppActivate("Windows Internet Explorer");

The text in quotes is the title of the window shown on the title bar. You can also perform alot of tasks without sending keystrokes. For example, if I wanted to start Word and create a new document, I don't have to go to the File menu. I just use this code:

var word = new ActiveXObject("Word.Application");
word.visible = true;
var doc = word.Documents.Add();

Each app is a little different. If you tell me the app and task in question, I can write a macro to automate them.--Drknkn (talk) 01:15, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, I will write something on your talk page. 92.29.136.128 (talk) 14:38, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

ebuddy MSN sounds

I'd like to shut ebuddy's sounds for MSN Messenger forever. To do that in MSN Messenger Live, for example, I'd just edit the .WAV files and make them silent. Since ebuddy is a Flash application, I'm not sure how to do that. So, how can I directly edit the sounds of ebuddy? Thanks. --Belchman (talk) 19:56, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Unless there is a configuration for that specific Flash program, you're stuck with workarounds. —ShadowRanger ^(talk|stalk) 20:06, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Why would you edit the wav files for this purpose? Go to Tools | Sounds and check Mute All Sounds. Or pick and choose which sounds you want in the Messenger Sounds frame. A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 21:08, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

I have a good reason but it's too difficult to explain, trust me. --Belchman (talk) 00:59, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

IIRC you can right click on a Flash object and adjust the audio settings. Maybe try that? --219.88.201.83 (talk) 02:53, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

Free OCR software for Windows

Is there any no-cost OCR software people would recommend please? I have looked at the list of Optical character recognition software. Has anyone experience of using it please? 92.26.29.37 (talk) 21:54, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

I use ABBYY, but as for free/open source, there really isn't anything good out there yet for OCR. Sorry.Smallman12q (talk) 03:09, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

Might try Tesseract. ¦ Reisio (talk) 05:49, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

Not technically free, but many scanners throw in OCR software with the hardware. From my experience, most of this works reasonably well. Often it is a slightly cut-down version of commercial software. Dbfirs 10:07, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

I gave up trying to get HP scanner software to work, nasty pieces of take-over-your-computer bloatware, with two different scanners. On the other hand, the Umax software was good despite the poor english translations. But I do not have a working Umax scanner anymore, and as far as I recall it will not work with an HP scanner. 89.243.182.24 (talk) 20:30, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

There's a very good list at OCR_software#OCR_software ╟─TreasuryTag►duumvirate─╢ 11:10, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

"I have looked at the list of Optical character recognition software." says OP. 89.243.182.24 (talk) 20:26, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

I know they said that. I read the opening post. That's how I understood what they were looking for well enough to provide a comprehensive reply. They appear to be looking for recommended free OCR software for Windows. That article provides a list of free OCR software for Windows. What a normal person would do would be to Google "ocrsoftware#1 review" "ocrsoftware#2 review" and so on.

But pardon me for breathing! ╟─TreasuryTag►draftsman─╢ 22:07, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

So basically you directed them to a list they had already read and expected them to google the entries this time, even though you didn't suggest to? —Akrabbim^talk 22:54, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

Yes, I expected them to do what a reasonable person could normally be expected to do, before coming here and demanding free labour, yes. ╟─TreasuryTag►hemicycle─╢ 07:44, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

I use an HP scanner (OfficeJet G85) with OCR program that works acceptably well. However this ended when I changed from Win ME to Vista. In Vista the HP program no longer runs and instead the scanner images are imported via the MS Paint menu. It seems that Vista brings a new driver for scanners and I have complained that the function of rotating the image in small increments (i.e. less than 90 degree steps) has been dropped. The reply from HP customer support was "Try to find a 3rd party program". I suspect that the OCR function is also downgraded (or removed - I haven't looked hard enough). In my case it seems I must keep a spare PC running an earlier Windows version to get the best out of the HP scanner. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 20:48, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

would my painfully slow windows 7 netbook improve if I booted windows xp?

i tried tweaking as much as I could, optimizing for performance/no visuals, etc, but this netbook (asus eee pc 1005h) is just painfully slow. Would I see any marked improvement by installing, or maybe booting (off of an SD card) windows xp instead? Thanks. 82.113.106.88 (talk) 23:06, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Although it's not the question you've asked, how much memory does your Netbook have? If it's less than 2Gb (and it probably is?) then that's the cause of your speed issues and upgrading to 2Gb (or more) would certainly help with your speed. As for XP, it could help, but again it really depends how much memory you have. XP's memory requirements are less, but by the time you've added on AntiVirus/Spyware/Firewall products then the memory requirement is a lot larger. ZX81 ^talk 02:09, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

Well a clean xp boot would be around 300megabytes memory, whereas a clean windows 7 boot would take at least a gig.Smallman12q (talk) 03:06, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

Netbooks where not built for speed. If your looking for something fast you may consider getting a gaming laptop (or desktop). As for booting Winxp, You would see a noticeable improvement for 2 reasons: 1.) You are doing a fresh install, this will (most of the time) speed up the computer as you are getting rid of programs pre-installed or were installed during the netbook's life. 2.) Windows XP uses less RAM and CPU power than Win7. – Elliott(Talk|Cont)  05:43, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

You can also try ReadyBoost, which works especially well in computers with little RAM. --Belchman (talk) 01:00, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

February 10

Firefox - disabling / uninstalling addons to make the browser faster

Hi. I am having a problem with Firefox being too slow. It needs just too much time to get started. Also, navigating around the browser (opening/closing tabs and such) is much slower than for example in Chrome. I have quite many addons installed, so I guess that is the problem. Now my question: Does it help if I just disable addons, or do I have to uninstall them in order to make Firefox slimmer and faster? Thanks for your help! --Tilmanb (talk) 01:33, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

Disabling them should release pretty much all the resources they would take up whilst running. The overhead for having them still installed, but not running is pretty negligible. ZX81 ^talk 02:11, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

What's the fastest browser for the internet?

Hi. I have another question... I have been using Firefox, Chrome, and Opera, but I find them all similarly slow, i.e. I don't experience any differences between them (except that Chrome feels a little bit faster). Is there a browser which starts up clearly much faster than all of those mainstream browsers? Thanks. --Tilmanb (talk) 01:35, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

Well in a theoretical situation the fastest one to startup is pretty much always going to be Internet Explorer (which you didn't mention, but because it uses a lot of Windows components which are already loaded this enables it to load up very fast), but in a real world situation it varies per computer and what your hardware is as well as what software you have installed and what plugins/extensions are in each browser. Sorry not a very helpful answer I know. ZX81 ^talk 02:13, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

They're pretty close,opera should have lower system requirements, whereas firefox is a little better at executing javascript. As for chrome and safari...they're pretty good too. Only IE which is a resource hog is bad=/.Smallman12q (talk) 03:01, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

You could try links or lynx. -Craig Pemberton 03:21, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

Firefox and Chrome are probably the fastest. I'd recommend that you not install too many addins, pluggins and toolbars. A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 03:45, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

See Comparison of web browsers and try some. I personally recommend SeaMonkey. Not the latest version 2.02 but the second latest 1.1.18 version. Or the latest version of K-Meleon. Oda Mari (talk) 05:02, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

Google's Chrome is a lot faster than Firefox or Opera in my experience (never really gave Microsoft's IE a try) --Belchman (talk) 01:02, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

Extensions for Chrome - Clicking on a tab switches to another tab

Hi. Does anyone know an extension for Chrome which would enable me to switch to another (previous) tab by clicking on the currently active tab? I have not been able to find such an extension but I am desperately needing one, as I got used to this in Firefox. Thanks again for your help :) --Tilmanb (talk) 01:38, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

Laptop brightness

Whenever I plug in my laptop, the screen brightness goes up way too high for my comfort. I have to go through the trouble of reducing it manually. I've looked through Power Options Properties and there's no option to just leave it as is when the cord is put in. Is there any way to fix this? Thanks. Vranak (talk) 01:39, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

Depending on your laptops brand/model or OS, there might be an option somewhere in the BIOS or hidden somewhere else in the OS. – Elliott(Talk|Cont)  05:36, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

Frequently, there will be some kind of "power saver" settings, which will let you control the default brightness (and other things), for when your computer's on battery or on AC. Paul Stansifer 13:44, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

What OS are you using? Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:54, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

P2P filesharing behind a firewall - Alternatives for Fileai.com

Hi. I've fallen in love with fileai.com as it enables very easy file sharing of big files directly without the need of having to upload them first to a server. However, unfortunately it does not work behind the firewall of some of my clients. Does anybody know a similar service like fileai.com but with less requirements in terms of firewalls? I would appreciate any ideas! --Tilmanb (talk) 01:41, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

How secure is Dropbox?

Do you know / do you have any experience with dropbox? How secure is it? Can I be sure that the files that I upload to their servers are not seen by Dropbox employees? Can I use Dropbox for confidential data? Any feedback appreciated! Last question for today ;-) Thanks, Tilmanb (talk) 01:43, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

If the data is really confidential, why risk it? Even if Dropbox promised to be secure and not let people snoop and etc., you're still just trusting them to have adequate security protocols, the ability to track employee behavior, etc. If the files are really something you'd rather others not see, there are better options out there for sharing confidential files.

Alternatively, just encrypt the files before uploading them to Dropbox. Then it doesn't matter quite as much how secure they are. --Mr.98 (talk) 01:53, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

I agree with the above. Although we don't know for sure, when it comes to security of the Internet, unless it's your own server and the files were transmitted there securely, then it's better to think from the viewpoint that whoever owns the server can view the files (and unless the files are encrypted then they most certainly can). ZX81 ^talk 02:04, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

Adding to my own post, the Dropbox security information is here. It does specifically say that the files are encrypted during transfer and employees can't access them, however this is completely up to you if you trust them. Personally I don't trust anything I didn't write/own myself, but I'm also a bit paranoid [:)] ZX81 ^talk 02:06, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

You could use dropbox with truecrypt portable volumes. (It's not 100% secure as people will be seeing which encrypted bytes are changing...but its better than nothing). Here are two articles to get you started: Maximumpc and a blog. Hope this helps.Smallman12q (talk) 02:47, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

Hmmm.... I'd like to hear some other opinions regarding this issue. Would you move for example your instant messaging histories to Dropbox for backup purposes? The whole thing about encryption... no idea how that works :D But thanks for the links! Oh and Mr.98, what other options are you referring to? --Tilmanb (talk) 02:55, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

Well the encryption is pretty simple. Basically you create a virtual hard drive of x bytes. you put this virtual hard drive in drop box and it gets uploaded. Now whenever you add/delete stuff from your virtual hard drive, only the bytes which you have changed by adding/deleting stuff will be uploaded again. So if you have a 1gb virtual hard drive and you add a 2 megabyte file, the first upload is 1gb, and then after that it uploads those 2 megabytes which changed. It's a simple concept once you get it.=P.Smallman12q (talk) 03:04, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

(ec) The fundamental idea behind encryption (and our article is the best place to start) is fairly simple. The idea is to "lock up" your data, (digitally, in this case) - so that even if somebody can see and read it, they can not decipher its meaning. There are loads of strong, secure ways to "lock" the data - see encryption algorithms for some examples. To the best of our knowledge, these so-called "strong encryptions" are impossible to crack, if the system is set up properly. (Rather, to be technical, they are only possible to crack if the attacker/snooper has a ridiculously long time to wait, e.g. on the order of the age of the universe). However, be aware that many encryption techniques exist that are not strong - and the data can be read because of inherent flaws in those systems, or due to operator-error (i.e., your fault for use the system incorrectly). You can read up on encryption techniques here: Microsoft's encryption technology and PGP for Linux and Unix-like systems (or Gnu Privacy Guard, a totally free-software alternative). Many other technologies and implementations exist. Nimur (talk) 03:09, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

"Other options": if you are just backing things up, you can make local copies (burn them to CDs/DVDs, put them on external harddrives). If you are trying to distribute information to other people, but consider it confidential, using encryption (as described above) to "scramble" the data is much more ideal. If it is a large project where encryption of the sort mentioned above is too cumbersome, it may be a better idea to set up your own secure server than to use a third-party. (Though, on the other hand, if you don't have the ability to set up your own secure server in a way that will make sure it actually is secure, then that's not much of an improvement.)

For encryption, I find TrueCrypt easy and reliable. Nobody is going to be breaking into your TrueCrypt files anytime soon if you do things right (e.g. don't pick an obvious, dictionary-based password). A number of ZIP programs now use professional-grade encryption (like AES), which would also suffice. Remember that security is only as good as the weakest link, though. --Mr.98 (talk) 14:30, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

Anything you store on the Internet, or transmit over the Internet, is vulnerable to snoopers reading it, unless you use strong encryption, such as the TrueCrypt idea suggested earlier. E-mail over the Internet is another type of data that is sent "in the clear" (that is, it's unencrypted plaintext) and can be snooped by employees of the companies who own the wires. Similar hair-pulling debates happen often regarding web-based e-mail services like GMail. There are Google employees who have the ability to read all of the e-mail on the service. Do they? Who knows. At my work there is a client of ours who stopped using Google Wave over this concern. It's up to you to make some sort of assessment of (a) how much you would be ruined if your confidential data were read, multiplied by (b) the probability somebody is going to care enough to read it. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:53, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

It's also worth noting the important distinction between random, brute-force, computer-automated snooping; and specific deliberate targeted attacks against your data. This throws a few additional variables into Comet Tuttle's risk multiplication estimate. It's almost certain that at some point, some of your data will be randomly targeted by a brute-force snooper. If the data is plaintext, that snooper will have it. If it is weakly encrypted, he might have it. If it is strongly encrypted, it's safe to say he probably does not have it. A targeted attack on your data (for example, if you are subject to a major federal investigation) will really change the threshold for "maybe" into "definitely". The same is valid for GMail snooping. Are your emails being scanned by an automated system? Absolutely and indisputably, yes (see email for technical details). Are the personal data being processed, deciphered, and used for generating a you-specific profile? Again, absolutely and indisputably, yes (see their targeted ads policy. Does any human ever see the results? Maybe. We're trusting their good faith that they do not. Nimur (talk) 18:47, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

I endorse everything Nimur has said in this thread. Comet Tuttle (talk) 18:54, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

Water simulations

Does anyone know of some good (large scale, if possible) water physics simulation software for macs? Thanks, Shannon^talk _contribs 05:26, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

Are you looking for some real-time simulations? if so have a look here.– Elliott(Talk|Cont)  06:01, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

By large scale, do you mean hydrogeology, hydrology or reservoir simulations? There are a lot of open-source and commercial packages for aquifer, reservoir, and fluid flow simulation. What exactly do you want to simulate about water? We have articles on the Groundwater flow equation, the Theis equation, and so on - these link to a bunch of references which might get you started. Our groundwater model article has a very comprehensive list on groundwater modeling software. Many of these packages have their own articles too. MODFLOW is used around these parts, and it is available for free from the United States Geological Survey. Nimur (talk) 06:27, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, reservoir simulations, flood simulations, etc. Shannon^talk _contribs 15:08, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

In that case, this list really has a lot of options. Note that these are numerical physics programs - they don't all have a "fuzzy user interface." If you need help with setting up a FORTRAN compiler, feel free to ask. You can use these precompiled binaries for GFortran. As far as simulating "floods", those are just simulation results that yield above-normal water levels. Finally, since you're interested in streams, this list has a lot of useful software for stream-like flow. Nimur (talk) 15:37, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

Well, I was actually talking about simulating surface water (e.g. dam breaks, floods, levee breaches, etc.) Something like this (see #13 on that page). My main point for asking was actually because I know about a lot of software already, but I couldn’t find anything for Macs, but sorry for the confusion. Shannon^talk _contribs 21:45, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

The link you provided is for commercial software that simulates smoothed-particle hydrodynamics. We have a list of software there, too. All of those C++ and FORTRAN programs can be compiled and run on a Mac. Since the Mac operating system is overlaid on the BSD kernel, it's likely that it will be totally compatible with these codes. If you are running large simulations, though, be aware that your desktop or powerbook probably doesn't have the computational power or RAM to handle them very well; consider looking into a Mac Pro. Even still, it's generally easier to find support for such things on more conventional platforms. Our research group uses Macs as dumb terminals to our unix/linux clusters for this reason. Nimur (talk) 03:13, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

Excepting certain cookies - Firefox

I just got logged out because Firefox crashed. I have it set so that all history is not saved, which includes cookies, but I was wondering if there's a way to keep this feature on but except cookies from certain sites I visit often: this one and maybe four others. Thanks in advance.--162.84.166.253 (talk) 05:35, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

Ah, I should mention that I spent twenty minutes before asking trying to figure out a way by going to options and poking around (I obviously found squat).--162.84.166.253 (talk) 05:37, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

CookieCuller, it's quite nice. ¦ Reisio (talk) 05:51, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

You want Firefox to only save cookies for certain sites? In Windows, you'd go to Tools --> Options, then under "Firefox will:" choose Use custom settings for history. Then, under "Accept cookies from sites," choose "Ask me every time." That's for Firefox 3.5. By the way, I had to read your post five times before figuring out what you wanted. It doesn't matter in this case whether it crashed or not. Keep a clear link with the subject. What is "This feature?" "Oh," I said, "He means site-by-site cookie preferences. I get it now."--Drknkn (talk) 06:05, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

Preserving timestamps of folders when moving folders and files

On Windows XP, when I move a folder containing files and other folders to an external hard drive by cutting and pasting, the files' timestamps are preserved, but the folders' (both top folder and subfolders) timestamps get changed to the current time. I thought I could get around this by zipping up the folder (I used PeaZip) and then moving the zip file and unzipping, but it didn't work. What can I do? TresÁrboles (talk) 07:31, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

robocopy should do that; on XP you need to install the WIndows Resource Kit to get it. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 12:04, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

But check that you have the latest version - see Robocopy#Known_flaws. Mitch Ames (talk) 00:46, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

Firefox tabs

Resolved

Is there a theoretical limit to the number of Firefox tabs you can have open at any one time? I've managed to successfully open just over 800 tabs, but any more than that seems to crash the browser, regardless of the amount of RAM still available. Is this an imposed limit by Mozilla? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.89.27 (talk) 14:25, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

I suspect that you have run out of memory in a way that the Firefox programmers never expected - perhaps overflowing some statically allocated internal stack or something. Normally such actions are checked - and display an error message instead of crashing - but opening so many tabs is unusual behavior, and the designers probably never completely protected against it. Thus, you crashed the browser, instead of receiving an error message. It you want to consider that a "theoretical limit", you can. The total addressable memory space of your machine is another limit. Finally, at some point, it will be impossible to render all the tabs in a reasonable amount of time, so that would be another limit. Theoretically, one could read the scalability article to find out how computer engineers think about this sort of problem - i.e., what design changes are needed in order to enable an arbitrarily large version of the original idea. Nimur (talk) 15:26, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

Ah thank you. So it's me pushing the program too far rather than a pre-defined limit. Thank you

By the way, original poster, you can help the Firefox project by filing a bug on this crash, here. They'll want as much system configuration information as you can provide. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:42, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

I realize that this is a few days old and thus probably forgotten, but I'm curious. What reason did you have for opening 800+ tabs? Was this an experiment to see how many you could open or did you have a good reason beyond that? Dismas|^(talk) 17:51, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

Choosing MS Word print range

Hello,

I'm using Word 2007. I have a long document, separated into many sections, from which I am trying to print (or, more specifically, print to PDF) a number of separated pages and ranges. What I would like to do is use the page number that appears in the bottom-left of the window (e.g. 'Page 24 of 198') to choose a range. However, when I use this, the software interprets some of the numbers entered as actual page numbers from the sections.

For example, typing '24' into the print range box would not print page 24 of 198, but 24 of the main section, i.e. page 44 of 198. This, however is inconsistent.

Is there a way to force word to recognise the numbers in the print range box as global document page ranges? Alternatively, is there a way to tell which section number (and page number of that section) any page in the document is? (to use this method

Thanks for any help, Mike 84.9.145.45 (talk) 15:08, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

I may be suggesting the obvious here, but you could select the part of the document that you want to print, then use Print -Selection instead of Print - Pages. Gandalf61 (talk) 15:17, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

Hmmm... Yes that would definitely work if I were printing just one range, or using a physical printer. However, as I am PDFing, I want all the separate ranges to print together. Your thinking has led me to the potential workaround of cutting out the bits of the document I don't want to print, in a new document. I'll try that. Thanks. 84.9.145.45 (talk) 15:23, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

The page numbers in the print dialog are the physical pages and may have no relationship to the numbers that print on the page. If you have Adobe Acrobat, you can print chunks, then assemble them in Acrobat. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 15:26, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

How To Find Out When I Started My Current Ubuntu Session?

Is there any way that I can find out how long the computer has been on for? I've been having problems with my laptop suddenly powering off but recently it hasn't happened at all. I've left it on for a while and would like to see when it was last switched on (i.e. the current session start time). TIA. --KageTora - (影虎) (A word...?) 17:24, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

From a terminal, type last and that should help. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:40, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

And uptime will tell you when the system booted. Nimur (talk) 17:49, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

gdm and gnome-session make some temporary folders in /tmp when you start a new Gnome session. So, if your username is kagetora, look at the timestamp for /tmp/orbit-kagetora -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 18:03, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

Excellent, cheers! 8 days it says. Looks like the problem may be sorted. Thanks. --KageTora - (影虎) (A word...?) 23:10, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

Problems using Firefox

Does anyone have any solutions to any of these please? I am using WinXP. 1. On revisiting a page, it does not show new content. (Particularly a problem on these pages.) Even refreshing the page is not enough, I have to press Cntrl-F5. 2. Clicking on the X at the top right of Firefox often does nothing, even when clicked two or three or more times. 3. When I move the cursor away from the slider to the right, sometimes the page still moves up and down with the cursor. 4. After not using the computer for several minutes, Firefox cannot connect with the internet, even when I retry. But when I then try Internet Explorer it always makes the connection, and when I close IE and try Firefox it makes a connection too.

When using the SAVE AS box: 5. When trying to save something, clicking on a folder to open it often does nothing, just highlights it. 6. If the cursor is over a file name for more than a tiny fraction of a second, then the name of the file I'm saving is changed to it. 7. When scrolling from side to side, sometimes the scrolling suddenly accelerates greatly. 8. Similarly, sometimes part of the box window goes black. 9. Sometimes I have to click the "Save" button again after the page has been saved, to get rid of the Save As box. Thanks 89.242.159.40 (talk) 22:03, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

What version of Firefox is this? It sounds frustratingly, horribly wrong — I don't have any of these issues using Firefox 3.5.7 under Windows XP. Comet Tuttle (talk) 23:35, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

It says its 3.5.7 - "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.9.1.7) Gecko/20091221 Firefox/3.5.7 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)" 89.243.177.67 (talk) 00:04, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

Have you tried running Firefox in safe mode (if you install normally, there should be an option for this from the start menu). If problems go away, it may be an add-on giving you grief (do you have add-ons/plug-ins? have you tried disabling them?) --Normansmithy (talk) 12:52, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

Do you mean run the whole computer in Safe Mode, or just Firefox? If you mean just Firefox, how do you do this please? 89.243.182.24 (talk) 14:26, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

If you google "firefox safe mode", it's the first link with instructions by platform. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:37, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

I think at least problem number three was caused by having turned on ClickLock in Windows Mouse Properties, which seems to do more than described. I have now turned it off. 92.29.82.48 (talk) 20:23, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

Mac OS X keyboard backlight drivers

Hello.

Ever since Mac OS X Snow Leopard made the [keyboard backlight quartz composer patch|http://kineme.net/wiki/ThirdPartyQuartzComposerPlugins] stop appearing in the list of patches, (not a clue why, because the screen backlight one still works fine), I've tried to make my own plug-in.

I've been trying to adapt some of the code from [7], [8], and [9] to work on Snow Leopard.

Because the IOConnectMethodScalarIScalarO function has been deprecated, I replaced the line

kr = IOConnectMethodScalarIScalarO(dataPort, kSetLEDBrightnessID, scalarInputCount, scalarOutputCount, in_unknown, in_brightness, &out_brightness);

with

kr = IOConnectCallMethod(dataPort, kSetLEDBrightnessID, &in_brightness, scalarInputCount, nil, in_unknown, &out_brightness, &scalarOutputCount, nil, 0);

Even though it will now compile, all it does is turn the backlight off. Is there something that I'm forgetting? Am I not using the IOConnectCallMethod function correctly? Here's the information from the file "IOKitLib.h" from the IOKit Framework, if that's helpful at all.

kern_return_t IOConnectCallMethod(
	mach_port_t	 connection,		// In
	uint32_t	 selector,		// In
	const uint64_t	*input,			// In
	uint32_t	 inputCnt,		// In
	const void      *inputStruct,		// In
	size_t		 inputStructCnt,	// In
	uint64_t	*output,		// Out
	uint32_t	*outputCnt,		// In/Out
	void		*outputStruct,		// Out
	size_t		*outputStructCnt)	// In/Out
AVAILABLE_MAC_OS_X_VERSION_10_5_AND_LATER;

I know that it's possible to adapt, since the developer of [Lab Tick|http://labtick.proculo.de/] has found a way to do it, and credits Amit Singh (the author of the "osxbook.com" link) for some of his code. Does anybody have any advice?

Thank you very much. 71.247.130.225 (talk) 22:28, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

If this were Linux I'd recommend you run ltrace on Lab Tick and see what he's calling, but it doesn't seem there's a direct equivalent of ltrace on OS-X. You could install dtrace taps on library calls, which should achieve the same thing. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 23:01, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks. I used Instruments (application) from Apple's Developer Tools, and it looks like Lab Tick does use the IOConnectCallMethod. So I'm guessing I screwed up somewhere with my code. I still haven't got a clue what I need to do, but I'm a bit closer now. 71.247.130.225 (talk) 23:24, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

I'm really guessing here (I haven't written a Mac app since System 6) but it sounds like there's an existing daemon or cronjob or something that runs in the background, checks the ambient light level, and sets the brightness accordingly. If that's the case, then maybe it's still running when your program is, so you're really succeeding in changing the level, but the daemon comes along a fraction of a second later and sets it back to what it thinks best. In that even then surely Lab Tick either kills or otherwise inhibits that daemon, so the two aren't fighting over the brightness knob. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 23:31, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

Just tried it with the lights out, Lab Tick not running, and the keyboard lights on. It still turned them off, and they didn't come back on until I pushed the button to adjust their brightness again, upon which they returned to their previous setting. So it doesn't look like the daemon controlling them would or could adjust them immediately after I ran the program. I'll try running the program and then turning the light in my room on and off again, to see what happens. 71.247.130.225 (talk) 23:39, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, they turned on when I turned the lights off again. 71.247.130.225 (talk) 23:39, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

And it kills the brightness when Lab Tick is on as well. It looks like Lab Tick only updates the brightness when the user adjusts it. 71.247.130.225 (talk) 23:43, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

VBA Outlook

Can VBA Macros be used to perform tasks in other applications? For example, I would like to explore the possibility of an email coming in with a specific email title that would trigger actions in other programs and maybe in outlook itself, such as sending a response with a specific attachment. Does anyone know if this is possible? 90.221.202.1 (talk) 23:32, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

I don't know much about macros in Outlook, but VBA can certainly call other programs, most simply if they have a COM interface. For example you can call Excel like this:

 Dim XL as Excel.Application ' This requires a reference to the Office Object Library
 Set XL = New Excel.Application 
 Dim wb as Excel.Workbook
 Set wb = XL.Workbooks.Open ("C:\log.xls")
 ' wb has all the proerties and methods
 ' of a Workbook object in VBA for Excel 
 ' so for exanmple you could log the email there 
 '.. etc
 wb.close SaveChanges:=True
 XL.Quit
 Set XL = Nothing

AndrewWTaylor (talk) 12:42, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

As above, The VBA macro in OUtlook could be used, to for example, call a program with a COM interface, or more old school, construct and execute a Command line. Where to start placing your code is in the Application.NewMail event (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa171307(office.11).aspx) Microsoft Outlook does also have 'rules and alerts' that could be used to do some automatic tasks without programming experience.Cander0000 (talk) 07:28, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

February 11

Manipulating photos with fractal generating software

Hi,

I've been using various fractal generating programs to create art, and one which I've used a lot is an old form of Spangfract (v1.98beta6). this allowed the importation of non-mathematical images (such as photographs), which could then be manipulated mathematically. Unfortunately, this version was only for classic Mac, and later versions for OSX (such as Spangfract X) - though they claim to be able to do the same process - are very crashy whenever I try to import any photos.

Are there any freeware fractal generating packages other than Spangfract - either for OSX or for Windows (preferably XP) which allow users to import and manipulate photos?

TIA, Steego (talk) 02:28, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

TomTom and GLONASS

Hey everyone, I was just wondering if anyone knows whether or not my TomTom satnav (bought in January) can make use of the Russian GLONASS system as well as the US GPS system, or if I need a software change or something to make it do so? Ditto for the future European Galileo and Chinese Compass systems? Thanks, Colds7ream (talk) 09:06, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

You need more than a software change - those other systems operate on different radio frequencies (among other technical details). You would need a separate piece of hardware to handle that, unless your handheld unit specifically says it already contains electronics to decode those systems. Such multi-system satellite navigation devices are pretty uncommon and expensive. Nimur (talk) 15:29, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

Fair enough, thanks. Colds7ream (talk) 17:36, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

HP 5940 printer info

I have an HP printer (5940) an would like to know the cartridge number for the color black for my printer. Can you help? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.207.249.23 (talk) 09:26, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

Compatible HP 96 Ink Cartridge (C8767WN) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.89.27 (talk) 14:20, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

Double-clicking with Firefox

Does firefox require or expect any double clicking? How can I turn it off - I've looked through the variouis firefox menus, and searched on the web, and I cannot find any mention of this. I'm wondering if Firefox's eexpectation of double clicking is responsible for some of the problems listed above. I loath double clicking, it is horrible. 89.240.198.212 (talk) 11:54, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

Could you give more detail? What operating system? Double clicking to start Firefox or double clicking when navigating the web with firefox? Most OS use the double click system for starting programs. I'm not aware of any options in Firefox that you could change to enable double clicking of hyperlinks, perhaps this is an OS issue also. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.89.27 (talk) 14:15, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

WinXP. As I said, I do not like double-clicking. I have re-checked that I already have double-clicking turned off in Windows (by looking at where it is hidden, in start/settings/folder options). So if Firefox expects double-clicking, and my computer is set up not to do double-clicking, might that be the cause of the problems? Thanks 89.243.182.24 (talk) 14:30, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

I apologize for sounding like a Dell customer service person on this one, but have you tried a Firefox uninstall and then a re-download-and-install? Actually, a Dell customer service person would end up asking you to format your hard disk and reinstall everything from scratch. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:34, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

I can't think of any action in Firefox that would require double-clicking. APL (talk) 22:52, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

Some of the problems previously listed may have been due to turning on ClickLock in Windows Mouse Properties, which does more than described. I have now turned it off again. 92.29.82.48 (talk) 20:26, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

Killer graphics card drivers & Ubuntu recovery

My graphics card:

NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT

When I install the drivers from the CD that comes with the card, it's all fine - there are no problems. However, any time I download drivers from online, my computer can't reach the desktop; it crashes shortly after the screen with all the "press F to..." information. This has happened every time I tried updating it since I bought the card in late 2008. I recover Windows (Vista) by using System Restore and carry on as before. For the most part, I've lived fine with my ancient card drivers, but now that I'm trying to switch to Ubuntu, it's a bit more of a problem.

I thought it might be a Windows problem, so I rushed straight in and installed the newest drivers for the card from online...and it crashed Ubuntu same as it crashes Windows. Luckily, I had an older version of Ubuntu in my GRUB menu (due to a mistake I'd made a few weeks ago) so I tried using that to get a working version of Ubuntu just without the drivers. Long story short, I rendered all three versions of Ubuntu on my GRUB menu unstartable.

So...

1. Any idea why my Graphics Card of Death won't let me update its drivers, or anything I could do to solve that problem?
2. How might I go about recovering Ubuntu to make it useable again?
3. ...This one should be easier. Once all of this is sorted, how might I go about deleting the other two Ubuntus from my GRUB menu?

In case it wasn't obvious, I'm not hugely technically minded (I struggled to use Ubuntu, having been a Windows user for ten years). Please bear that in mind :) Vimescarrot (talk) 12:25, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

If it doesn't make sense, the following comment is something of a continuation of a discussion KageTora and I had about this very issue before I came here. Vimescarrot (talk) 12:36, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

Ah, something I didn't mention to you before. I'll write it here in case it is relevant, but my Vista laptop never updates the drivers for my 'came-with-the-machine-and-stays-with-the-machine' graphics card. I went to the Intel site to do it myself and this made my system unstable so I had to fall back on System Restore to fix it. There may be a reason why graphics cards are not updating their drivers automatically. --KageTora - (影虎) (A word...?) 12:31, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

Getting this working again: rename /etc/X11/xorg.conf to some backup name, and if there's a backup or failsafe or whatever file then rename that to xorg.conf (if necessary you can boot from a livecd and change the file that way; you can also copy the xorg.conf from the livecd to the hard disk. Your new xorg.conf shouldn't have special nvidia lines in it. If things still fail, then you may be running into problems with the nVidia kernel module (but I don't think so, as you're getting pretty far into the boot); if that's the case, boot into single user mode, discover the nvidia module(s) with modprobe -l | grep nvid and then remove them with modprobe -r -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 14:30, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

Incidentally I've had no problems, on several machines, with the closed-source Ubuntu nvidia driver (which is now at v185 (185.18.36)) installed using Ubuntu's "Hardware Drivers" application (from the Canonical repositories). I've never found the need to install the driver binaries from nVidia's own website. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 14:35, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, I'll be trying this out later tonight if I've got time, or tomorrow if not. I did use the Hardware Drivers application to get my drivers. =\ Vimescarrot (talk) 18:02, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

I agree with Finlay's assertion - the closed-source binary that is distributed by Canonical (through Synaptic) has been more stable for my system than the newer versions available at nvidia.com. However, if you need particular features of the newest drivers (or CUDA support), the default Canonical binary is not sufficient. Nimur (talk) 22:54, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

Photo gallery plugin for Wordpress

Hi guys. I'm looking for a decent gallery/photo album type plugin for Wordpress for our non-profit's website. We've searched Google and several Wordpress plugin pages to no avail. It seems like the free ones are extreme crippleware and the good ones are quite expensive. It's also been a frustrating 2 months installing and testing one plugin after the other. The best we've come up with is the current gallery on one of our articles here, using the SimpleViewer plugin. It is about 50% of what we need, however once the gallery is created it cannot be edited, so we cannot add/remove/re-order pictures, nor does it do captions. You can't even bulk upload or bulk link pictures to a gallery (it only does it one by one).

Long story short, we need something as follows:

1. Free (beer) or very very cheap
2. Photos uploaded and linked in bulk
3. Image captions
4. Auto thumbnails
5. Gallery can be freely edited after creation
6. Gallery can be embedded anywhere in a post. Multiple galleries per post must be possible.

Basically something like the current SimpleViewer but less crippled. All good recommendations appreciated, particularly if you have personal experience using one. Zunaid 13:07, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

multiple files with awk

Hi, if i have multiple awk scripts attempting to write to the same file at the same time, is there anything in the awk/bash/linux specification that would guarantee that each script completes its write before the next script starts, i dont care about the order that each script writes in, just that each can print its line of text without messing up the previous/next line? ie is there any kind of file locking mechanism in place either implicitly or could be passed as a parameter? Thanks--86.27.192.94 (talk) 23:38, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

*nix has (at least) two file-locking mechanisms, detailed at File locking#In UNIX. But I don't believe awk has access to them, nor that there's a (standard) command-line access to them. So your options include:

• use a regular file as lock; your script checks to see if the "lock" file exists, and if it does it sleep-waits and polls again; if it doesn't then create one. But that has a nasty race condition; you can (mostly) avoid that by creating a symlink named lock that "points" to a (non-existent) "file" named for the PID of your script (that way a script can check if it created the common lock). Doing this properly, particularly on NFS, is rather tricky.
• wrap your awk scripts in little C programs (or whatever language you like that does support file locking) as suggested here
• convert your awk script to a more featureful language - a2p will turn it into a perl script and pyawk does some awk-y things in python. Both languages can use fcntl and flock.
• hack: prepend each line of the output of each script with a prefix (e.g. script1 puts "0001", script2 puts "0002", etc.) and then postprocess with sort --key to order 'em.

Hope this helps. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 23:56, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

(edit conflict) If the files are open with O_APPEND (which includes the ">>" in the shell), and the file isn't on NFS, and the amount written per call to write(2) isn't too large (my guess is a few kB), then you are guaranteed to get the lines out intact in some order without loss or duplication. However, awk will probably not call write(2) for each line separately, but will buffer them until they reach some size (4 KiB is common) and then write that much at once (which will not be an integral number of lines, so you lose). But if each process writes out very few lines, then all of them will get written in one write(2) when the process exits and you win (except that it may look odd that the output has blocks of lines from one process each even though they ran concurrently). --Tardis (talk) 00:04, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

Essentially the same assumptions predicate my hack, above, so if Tardis' case doesn't work, my hack won't either. Forget my hack. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 00:07, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

If you can avoid the problem altogether, you're less likely to run into trouble mucking with file locking. Consider, for example, having all the awks write to different files, and having cat come along afterwards and concatenate them into the same file. (This, of course, requires making sure cat runs only after everything is done, but that might be easier to arrange.) Paul Stansifer 02:45, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

One way to avoid the locking would be to use a program that does the locking, like a logger. If all the awk scripts are just writing text, have them log it instead of write it. The logger will lock the file as necessary. -- kainaw™ 03:10, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

February 12

What is this anti-pattern re pointers called?

I'm curious if there is a name for a certain programming idiom I see occasionaly in C where a particular object is looked up through a series of pointers and data structures. For example, in systems programming where the machine might have to search through arrays or lists to find the object they're interested in. After a pointer to the object is located, several of the member values are read and some result is set in the object. However, instead of handling the struct pointer locally, it is re-computed again and again. Example:

Instead of this sensible code:
obj *pstr;
pstr = j->k->l->m->n->o->p;
pstr->result = pstr->x + pstr->y * pstr->z;


you get this mild exaggeration:
j->k->l->m->n->o->p->result = j->k->l->m->n->o->p->x + j->k->l->m->n->o->p->y * j->k->l->m->n->o->p->z;


Squidfryerchef (talk) 00:32, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

I don't have a name for the act of writing code like that, but please note that, on some compilers, both pieces of code will run at the same speed, due to common subexpression elimination. (The Law of Demeter is probably being violated in both examples, but that's a concept from OO, and very little systems stuff is written in OO style.) Paul Stansifer 02:33, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

Looking for a program/software

hey guys.. Can anybody tell me if there are any programs that records whatever's coming out of your speakers?? And I mean programs as in softwares, not actual recording devices. And it would be a huge plus if that software was a free one. Thanks in advance. Johnnyboi7 (talk) 00:41, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

Audacity can do it if you sound card will let it. If not, it may take getting a cable. --Mr.98 (talk) 01:02, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

ffmpeg question

I run into the same problem with ffmpeg a lot. I have a set of photos and a sound file. I need to make a video that fades from one photo to the next for the length of the song. I am left doing a lot of calculations to guess at the frame rate. Then, I have to keep increasing or decreasing it little by little until it actually matches the length of the song. To avoid this, is there a way to tell ffmeg that I want the photos to be evenly dispersed over a specific time period? -- kainaw™ 01:08, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

I'm not aware of a method to do that automatically; perhaps you could write a pre-processor script (python, e.g.), to perform the calculations you want and generate the arguments to FFMPEG explicitly. Alternatively, maybe you could investigate other tools, such as Kino (software), which has neat features for this sort of video editing. Nimur (talk) 05:35, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

There's a -vsync option that nobody really knows how to use. :p It would probably really hurt quality though.
s=$(mplayer -identify -frames 0 input | grep LENGTH | sed s/.*=//); p=$(ls *.jpg | wc -l); secondsPerPhoto=$((${s%.00}/$p))
¦ Reisio (talk) 10:45, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

Richard Stallman and Proprietary Software Keywords

I'm looking on Google for articles that talk about how or if Richard Stallman wants proprietary software "banned" or "outlawed" or "repealed" or "not protected" through law. I've tried searching using each one of those terms in a separate Google search:

richard stallman wants proprietary software <insert one of the terms here>

I have not gotten all that good search results I've also tried:

richard stallman codified gpl

but I want to use a more common word than codified. Is there any common word that is more appropriate or applicable than "banned" or "outlawed" or "repealed" or "not protected" that I can use, in the form of:

richard stallman wants proprietary software <insert one of the terms here>

--Melab±1 ☎ 01:38, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

I don't think you'll find anything along those lines. Stallman's position has always been that there should be a free alternative and that people should choose the free alternative. The non-free alternative should be left to die off due to lack of support from the community. He does not suggest banning or outlawing non-free software - just undermining the profitability of it. -- kainaw™ 01:54, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, I don't know why you'd think he wants it banned, outlawed, or repealed... none of those are really his sentiments at all. I have never heard him suggest that non-free software should have any kind of legal action taken against it. It is one thing to not approve of something, it's another thing entirely to say it should be banned. --Mr.98 (talk) 02:41, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

The closest Stallman has come to this sort of thing is saying that software patents are wrong (e.g., GPL3). — Man in shack (talk) 05:14, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

I agree with the above three, and that's the reason Googling isn't helping you. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:32, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

Probably not the place but...

Alright, here's my situation. I have AOL, but it's very slow (especially on Wikipedia), and often freezes. Today, I started to use my Internet Explorer 8, however my mouse has broke on me so I cannot scroll at all. Instead, I tend to click the scroll button and scroll with the mouse. However, when I click the scroller down to stop scrolling, I often click the Rollback button by accident (has happened twice so far today). A new tab then opens and says that my rollback was successful. Is there some way I can change the settings so a new tab does not open and I do not rollback quality edits? Any help is appreciated. Thanks, Eagles 24/7 (C) 04:29, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

Yes, the help desk is probably a better place for this sort of question. I personally use User:Ilmari Karonen/rollbacksummary.js, which, as a side effect, will prevent accidental rollbacks from happening. decltype (talk) 07:44, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the advice, but that script seems to only work when you physically click the rollback button, not when you click with the scroller. Thanks anyway, Eagles 24/7 (C) 14:08, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

Analysis of Quicksort

This is a question related to quicksort why is in analysis of quicksort running time of partition function arbitrarily assigned running time theta of n i want a detailed explanationSb122010 (talk) 07:57, 12 February 2010 (UTC) prefix:Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives

The partition operation hits each element once and only once. That is n operations, which is Θ(n). That is not an arbitrary assignment, it is a value based on analysis of the algorithm. If you explain why you believe it to be different, we may be able to provide more of an answer. -- kainaw™ 14:18, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

Quake 3 Arena

I've just started playing Q3A again after a long hiatus, and I'm a little bit lost. I'm not really interested in getting all the best and newest mods, I just need enough so that I can try out most of the public servers on my list. So... basically, what do I need other than the latest updates, and team arena? And are there any "necessary" map packs that I should get for either? Thanks! 210.254.117.185 (talk) 09:25, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

power efficiency of 27" iMac processor options (core2 duo @ 3.06 GHz vs. quad core i5 @ 2.66 GHz vs. quad Core i7 @ 2.8 GHz)

If I got a 27" iMac I could get it either with 3.06 GHz Core 2 Duo, or either of two quad-core options: quad-core Intel Core i5 at 2.66 GHz or quad-core Intel Core i7 at 2.8 GHz.

What would the power efficiency difference be between the three models?

(I don't know if it makes a power efficiency difference, but as far as I can tell the only other difference is a 512MB ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics with 512MB in the i5/i7 options versus a ATI Radeon HD 4670 graphics with 256MB in the Core 2 Duo option - you can see the options here by clicking "Buy now" above-right of the pictured iMac.)

Thank you for any information you might have. 84.153.242.184 (talk) 12:42, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

(ps. is there a huge difference in power efficiency compared with the 21.5" option due to the screen size?) 84.153.242.184 (talk) 12:48, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

can someone explain what the i7's hyperthreading (HT) means in practice?

So, I have bad memories of hyperthreading, from the Pentium 4 era I think. Back then, it was in many ways WORSE than having a single-core computer WITHOUT the hyperthreading, I think largely because many, many programs, including maybe even windows itself, were not threadsafe. But has that all changed? In reality, what does the quad i7's 8 virtual cores mean compared with the i5's four physical cores? If I write a threadsafe number-crunching app for some parallel problem that easily divides into 2, 4, 8, 16, whatever number of nodes, it's just a linear divide, then would THAT app be twice as fast on an i7 (where 8 threads could each be on a virtual core) versus the i5 (where four threads could each be on a core)? Or, would it be something less than twice as fast? Thank you for any information you might have... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.113.106.96 (talk) 16:18, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

Before symmetric multiprocessing was common (i.e. when Hyperthreading first came out, before single systems with multiple cores were remotely popular) the Hyperthreading feature was certainly a niche, you could only really benefit from it if your programs were fully SMP capable, and the time wasted managing two virtual cores was not recovered in speed improvements for many practical tasks. Now, however, since HT has been around a while and full blown SMP has even been in the mainstream for some time, software is really ready to take advantage of it. That being said, back to the benefit of HT. The chief gain is when two threads are running and neither can fully utilize the CPU due to bottlenecks elsewhere such as cache loads from RAM or the HDD. Since these will never be quite as fast as the CPU (especially when considering very high clock CPUs) you can get more out of the CPU during heavy load because HyperThreading gives each thread a very fast way to give work to the CPU.

However, there are a number of other technologies to consider when estimating the advantages of HT. In the past (i.e. when HT was first available), power/frequency scaling was very hard to do at the CPU level, and not terribly effective. So, you wanted to get the most out of that one CPU that you could, since adding a second would not only be costly but it would double your power consumption. Now, frequency scaling is very effective and multi-core chips with low power envelopes are common. This means that having four cores instead of two cores and two virtual, hyperthreaded cores is not very costly. --Jmeden2000 (talk) 17:44, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

Thre is any program that i can use to get the average Amplitude of a song?

Thre is any program that i can use on a sound file to get the average Amplitude of a song?201.78.204.108 (talk) 16:19, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

I don't know if it has the average amplitude feature, but Audacity will show you the waveforms of a song. Ks0stm ^(T•C•G) 16:40, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

If by "amplitude" you mean "volume", normalizers are used to calculate the average volume of a song. Then, the song is increased/decreased in volume to move the average to the volume that the listener wants. -- kainaw™ 16:53, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

can I force windiows 7 into a VERY low resolution (e.g. 640x480)

I have an eee pc 1005H and would like to force it into go to 640x480 (windows 7). can I? how? thanks. 82.113.106.96 (talk) 17:26, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

Possibly. Go into Control Panel -> Display -> Change Display Settings -> Advanced Settings and click on List All Modes. The list will show all the modes that your graphics card/driver supports (which will include 640x480 if supported). However, your EEE PC has a widescreen monitor so 640x480 is going to look stretched on it! ZX81 ^talk 17:50, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

yeah, thanks, it "worked" - only it doesn't look stretched, instead there are super-thick black borders with a small 640x480 window in the middle (typing on it now). man, with such thick borders screen looks just like an iPad :) anyway thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.113.106.96 (talk) 17:59, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

Scan cancelled; no items to scan

This refers to [10].

I emailed Norton about this and was told to use chat support. I was quite busy last week with the weather and didn't take the time to do it. This week when I did, the person, after taking control of my computer and watching the scan I started manually and looking at other things, asked to see the error message.

There was only one way to do that without waiting a week. I scheduled a new full system scan. Well, that didn't work. The scan started normally. Which solved the problem. Like Dorothy, had the power all along. I just didn't know. The scheduling was done with the old software, but this new scan was scheduled with the new software. Problem solved!Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 20:14, 12 February 2010 (UTC)