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April 18

Email Client

Where is the descendant of Outlook Express in Windows 7 ?  Jon Ascton  (talk) 00:15, 18 April 2011 (UTC)

There isn't one, you need to download it as part of Windows Live Essentials  ZX81  ^talk 00:46, 18 April 2011 (UTC)

Cookies and Google Chrome

Hi,

I'm trying to create a webpage which uses cookies. It works fine on all browsers other than Google Chrome. I'm creating cookies in a php script and attempting to read them in with javascript, using code very similar to this. My page does manage to save the cookie, but can't retrieve it.

After of bit of googling, I can see that chrome handles cookies differently from other browsers. Specifically, it apparently doesn't allow "local cookies." My page is on a server, not running on my own computer. Is that still probably my issue?

In general, could someone please give me an example of a setcookie call in php which should be chrome compatible? Thanks!

137.165.171.130 (talk) 04:30, 18 April 2011 (UTC)

Apologies. I've resolved the problem. I spent two hours trying to figure it out, ask it here, and immediately spot my problem (not at all what I thought). Magic.

Thanks anyways, 137.165.171.130 (talk) 04:35, 18 April 2011 (UTC)

Glad we could help, if only via Murphy's Law (in this case, that you couldn't fix the problem until you wasted your time posting it here). :-) StuRat (talk) 10:29, 18 April 2011 (UTC)

Resolved

Visual Studio 2010 not installing

Hi everyone, I've downloaded Visual Studio 2010 Professional from DreamSpark (a Microsoft academic thing) and it won't install. I've uploaded the log file to my SkyDrive:

http://cid-cf9b0aa66e9b2bfc.office.live.com/browse.aspx/.Public

The installer gets to installing Visual Studio 2010 (the stuff before that works fine), I have downloaded 2 ISOs (at 2.2GB a pop!), burned the ISOs to a DVD, tried to install it from a mounted ISO, I've extracted the ISO contents and tried it locally as well. I have tried it with no anti-virus/other programs running, I have installed an Express version of Visual Studio 2010 without any problems, and I have Googled the HRESULT error in the log file, and tried everything there. I'm absolutely stumped, and was wondering if anyone has done this before/has any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

110.175.208.144 (talk) 08:00, 18 April 2011 (UTC)

Hello Aussie! (from IP address)

Perhaps contact your school administrator? He/she may be able to shed some light. Or have you uninstalled the Express version? Perhaps that will clear some issues. General Rommel (talk) 08:50, 18 April 2011 (UTC)

Compute the SHA-1 hash of your ISO image and compare it against the one published by Microsoft. You can probably find it on the page where you originally went to download the file. If the hash doesn't match then you'll have to download the ISO again. If it does match then I don't know what to suggest... -- BenRG (talk) 09:23, 18 April 2011 (UTC)

The original page does not have the MD5/SHA-1 hash of the original file, so maybe there is something wrong there, I will find an alternate source overnight... Also, the whole DreamSpark thing is done pretty much entirely separately from the school - it is self-registered, etc., all you need is a school e-mail address. And before I installed the express version, I was getting the exact same errors as afterwards. 110.175.208.144 (talk) 09:58, 18 April 2011 (UTC)

If you can't find the official SHA-1 hash, you could also try searching the web for your file's hash (as a 40-letter word). If neither Google nor Bing finds any occurrences of that word, the file is probably corrupt. -- BenRG (talk) 22:52, 18 April 2011 (UTC)

Googled the SHA-1 checksum, and precisely zero results... I shall download a copy from a different source overnight :) 110.175.208.144 (talk) 08:17, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

Blue line suggestion in MS Office 2010

Hi,

Does anyone know how to get rid of the silly new blue line suggestion in MS Office 2010? It keeps trying to get me to hyphenate words (such as take over) which I find incredibly distracting as I'm trying to take notes during a lecture! I mean technically perhaps there should be a hyphen there but I don't really want one and would much prefer not seeing blue lines everywhere

The worst thing is, it doesn't allow an 'ignore all' or auto correct feature so you have can't have it automatically do its thing (which may actually be useful)

Thanks, --58.175.32.140 (talk) 12:11, 18 April 2011 (UTC)

Untick "Use contextual spelling" in the Spelling & Grammar options. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 12:20, 18 April 2011 (UTC)

Thanks! --58.175.32.140 (talk) 11:56, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

Resolved

Extra Rams For Computers

Dear All i have one question abot adding new rams for my pc but i dont want to remove the old one just iwant to increase the ram ( add new rams only ) my question is what i need to check before install the new rams ?

to make sync between tow rams check the Memory clock , Cycle time .......... , CAS latency its should be same or not or what i can check it before installing the new rams with my rams . — Preceding unsigned comment added by Net-order (talk • contribs) 12:23, 18 April 2011 (UTC)

As a general rule, on a modern motherboard, all RAM is clocked at the speed of the slowest RAM module you have loaded on the machine; so you want to make sure your new RAM is at least as fast as your existing RAM. Depending on your motherboard, your performance optimizations will work best if each RAM cartridge is the same size (to be technical, this only makes a difference if your hardware uses naive implementations of virtual memory management and memory access load balancing). So, in order, make sure:

1. The new memory is compatible with the motherboard (make sure it is the correct type of memory and the correct module connector), e.g. "DDR3 in a 240-pin DIMM"
2. The new memory should be ideally clocked at the same speed as your existing RAM module, e.g. "800 MHz", or "800/1066/1333" if it supports multiple frequencies; at least one of those available speeds should match your existing RAM
3. The new module may be any size (in MB/GB), but for peak performance on most motherboards, select the same size as previous modules, e.g. "1 GB"

A lot of the other specs on your RAM will only matter if you are really fine-tuning your system, or doing something very unusual with your hardware. Here's a relatively recent article, Memory Upgrade, from Tom's Hardware, a reputable computer hardware review website. Nimur (talk) 14:19, 18 April 2011 (UTC)

You may have no choice but to replace some of the RAM. PCs only have a limited number of slots into which the RAM can be fitted. For example, my laptop has 2 slots; both slots are occupied by the current memory so if I wanted to add more RAM I would have to replace the memory I already have. Also, some motherboards restrict you to certain memory configurations - check your PC's hardware manual (it either came in the box when you bought it, or you can download it). Astronaut (talk) 17:22, 18 April 2011 (UTC)

Note that there are different form factors for RAM, so you have to get the right shape, such as DDR, DDR2, or DDR3. I suggest you download and run the tool at Crucial.com, which will examine your current configuration and recommend possible upgrades to your RAM. StuRat (talk) 17:33, 18 April 2011 (UTC)

Adobe Acrobat and Data Execution Prevention

An irritating feature has recently cropped up on my laptop. I have been opening (and creating) PDF files using Adobe Acrobat v8 for ages with no problems. In recent weeks though, whenever I try to open a PDF file, I get an error message saying that Acrobat has to close down. When I click 'search online for a solution' I am referred to some security software called Data Execution Prevention (DEP). The notes about DEP instruct me on how to disable it for a specified program, but when I attempt to do this I am told that I am not allowed to do it in the case of this particular program. So I'm in the ridiculous position - alone in the whole world I should think - of not being able to open a PDF file. Can anyone help? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.186.85.177 (talk) 13:12, 18 April 2011 (UTC)

I've heard that Foxit reader is a good lightweight PDF reader for Windows. Unfortunately, given the error that you're getting, it sounds like you may have a PDF that uses fancy (and possibly insecure! Do you trust the source of the PDF?) features that Foxit won't be able to handle. It's worth a shot, though, especially since disabling protection against potential Adobe Acrobat security holes sounds like a bad idea. Paul (Stansifer) 14:05, 18 April 2011 (UTC)

(ec) DEP is a legitimate safeguard, and it "exists for your protection," but it sounds like it's incorrectly identifying either Adobe Reader, or the PDF, as a forbidden file. The PDF may have active script-content, and instead of falling back to a read-only mode, DEP is forbidding all access to the file. Unfortunately, only a computer administrator has permission to enable and disable data execution prevention; if your user-account on the machine is not an administrator, try logging in as one to make the change (or ask your system administrator for help). If you prefer, you can try an alternative PDF viewer; we have a list of PDF software. Foxit Reader and Evince are both well-liked alternatives to Adobe, and may circumvent whatever DEP error you're having by loading the document as a read-only file. (Though, if you're having DEP permission problems, you may be unable to install new software). Nimur (talk) 14:08, 18 April 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for your efforts, much appreciated, but I think possibly not getting to the root of the problem. One thing that puzzles me is that this has only started to happen recently. Another surprising feature is that it applies not just to a single file, but to all of the many files I have tried to open in recent weeks, including those I have created myself (which I hope answers the question about whether I trust the source of the PDFs!) My account is that of an administrator, but that does not seem to be the problem - I'm not told 'you can't do this because you're not an administrator', I'm told 'DEP cannot be disabled for this program'. Any further thoughts would be welcome. I'm reluctant to use an alternative PDF reader because I swap files with other organisations, all of whom use Acrobat, so any files I create need to be in the same format - and I don't want to be in a situation where I create files that I myself cannot read, which is where I am at the moment. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.186.85.177 (talk) 14:17, 18 April 2011 (UTC)

Have you had recent update to Adobe Acrobat ? Perhaps that messed it up. If so, a rollback to before that update may be in order. StuRat (talk) 17:40, 18 April 2011 (UTC)

Foxit reads ordinary PDF files; if it can read something, Acrobat can read it (and vice versa most of the time). But it can't create PDFs; if you need that, I don't have any suggestions. Paul (Stansifer) 18:57, 18 April 2011 (UTC)

Hotmail emails all deleted - why?

Recently I looked at my Hotmail emails and I found that they had all been deleted, apart from one or two hundred recent ones. Luckily I was able to un-delete them. It appears to be the "Windows Live" variant of Hotmail - I don't understand the difference.

Does anyone know why they were deleted? Is this a MS "surprise!" policy? Is it going to happen again? 92.28.241.233 (talk) 18:30, 18 April 2011 (UTC)

This sounds like the sort of thing a hooligan might do if they got control of someone's email account. Change the password immediately (and of any other accounts that share that password). Paul (Stansifer) 18:48, 18 April 2011 (UTC)

Are you using Hotmail's web interface or a mail program? If the latter, check whether your POP3 settings say to leave messages on the server or not. --Mr.98 (talk) 19:06, 18 April 2011 (UTC)

Hotmail recently had some problems with mails being deleted. See here. Astronaut (talk) 10:43, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

Mr. 98, I installed Thunderbird with a view to backing up my emails, but have not figured out how to do that yet. I've used Thunderbird a few times to send emails. Thanks 92.15.24.113 (talk) 21:28, 20 April 2011 (UTC)

harddisk size, is it real

somebody please this question for me. assuming my hard disk is 20G and it is filled with a data of 20G. now, i delete this 20G data and store another 20G data. if there is a software that can retrieve the first 20G deleted then where was it hidden? or my hard disk is not 20G as labeled ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rhaskhan (talk • contribs) 22:18, 18 April 2011 (UTC)

The process you describe is, in general, not possible. Data that is deleted, and then overwritten, can not be recovered. There can be slight variations in the reported size of a disk, related to details of how data is actually stored on the file system, (and whether convention dictates the use of "1000" or "1024" for "kilo"); but a factor of 2x is unheard of. Nimur (talk) 22:28, 18 April 2011 (UTC)

Think of your hard disk like a book with a table of contents at the front which lists where each file is located on your hard disk. When you write 20GB of data to the hard disk, the table of contents is updated for you automatically, to tell you where to look for each file. When you delete the 20GB of data, most operating systems just erase the table of contents, because it's fast to do so. All your old files are left there, untouched, but the table of contents tells you that the book is empty. Now when you start writing new files, the new files will overwrite whatever used to be on all those pages, and the table of contents will be updated to tell you where to look for the new files only. If you write, say, 8GB of new files, then you know that about 12GB of your old files are still there on the hard disk, if you have software that can go and identify them. (The old files may be scattered all over the place, and parts of the files may have been overwritten by the new files; but that's another matter.) This is what undelete software does — it finds the old files and changes the table of contents to point to them. Comet Tuttle (talk) 00:15, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

In some cases it may be possible for a forensic lab to recover data which has been overwritten. In this case, don't think of the bits as ones and zeros, but maybe having any range of values between one and zero. The software then normally considers everything above, say, 0.5, to be a 1, and below to be a 0 (or they could have some range in the middle which is considered an error). So, if you had a zero and overwrote it with another zero, maybe if would be very close to 0.0, while a one overwritten by a zero might be more like 0.1. Now that 0.1 contains some hidden data that it was a one previously. The same also can happen with a zero overwritten by a one, you might get a value close to 0.9. This is a lot like erasing pencil writings then writing over them, they still leave a faint trace behind. However, if you continue to erase and rewrite things, the earlier messages are eventually completely obliterated. Some software will actually overwrite each bit several times to ensure that no record remains of the original. StuRat (talk) 01:06, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

It's often said that someone with good enough technology might be able to read overwritten data. However, there are currently No credible cases of anyone reading any significant amount of overwritten data on a hard drive with any reasonable accuracy. Maybe the CIA and their electron microscopes are doing this without anyone knowing, but even the U.S. government considers one overwrite sufficient to protect against even laboratory attack in modern hard drives [1]. In practice, the armed forces typically use three to four overwrites [2]. Any more than this, and you're into "voodoo incantation" territory. See also Data erasure. Buddy431 (talk) 01:56, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

April 19

Gmail for BlackBerry

So a Google search produces results far too complicated for the likes of me to understand. My question is this: on a BlackBerry, is there a way to set up a Gmail account in the normal email application in such a way that messages deleted or marked 'read' from a normal web-browser are so marked on the BlackBerry and messages deleted or marked 'read' on the BlackBerry are so processed on the normal webmail page? Thanks. ╟─TreasuryTag►voice vote─╢ 08:32, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

I believe this is what you are looking for. Please note that Gmail imap is not currently supported on the blackberry. Make sure you enable IMAP in gmail settings before starting. Please come back if you have any questions. Kushal (talk) 13:06, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

Perhaps you could copy-and-paste a quote from that page which answers the question I asked? "My question is this: on a BlackBerry, is there a way to set up a Gmail account in the normal email application in such a way that messages deleted or marked 'read' from a normal web-browser are so marked on the BlackBerry and messages deleted or marked 'read' on the BlackBerry are so processed on the normal webmail page?" – ╟─TreasuryTag►belonger─╢ 13:11, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

This is how IMAP works, as long as you set it up properly. If I may ask, what version of Bb are you on? What problems are you facing with Google's native app for Bb? Is it just a preference? Kushal (talk) 13:17, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

There are a lot of very confusing suggestions that there is just one-way BB>Gmail sync, which is what I am concerned about.
I'm on BB6, using a Bold 9780, and would prefer to use the 'official' email app because it's integrated into the system, click on online email address links and they open in it etc. It's just better! ╟─TreasuryTag►most serene─╢ 13:22, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

Give imap a shot. From what I've read so far, the issue is inconvenience more than anything else. I like the zero inbox idea but your Bb is built to handle lots of emails. I'd love to learn if imap eventually deletes email on your device. Kushal (talk) 14:19, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

Windows 7

Does Windows 7 Ultimate have a TCP connection limit like Windows XP does? 82.43.89.77 (talk) 10:43, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

As far as I know, there is no limit by default. Kushal (talk) 13:14, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

This might answer your question. It says This limitation has been removed in Vista SP2 and later releases (Server 2008 SP2 and Windows 7) Mo ainm~Talk 13:15, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

Note the limit above is not a limit on the number of TCP connections but on the number of half open connections Nil Einne (talk) 13:19, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

This isn't really what you asked, but I feel it's worth mentioning as it may be of use to you: If you're using a Windows 7 machine as a file or print server, it is limited to a total of 20 connections (one machine might use two connections and you can confirm this limit by running a command prompt as admin and typing: net config server). This is an increase on previous versions of Windows though where it was 10 connections. If this is not relevant to you though then I apologise and please ignore!  ZX81  ^talk 13:56, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

MediaWiki

I've recently installed mediawiki & updated it with the wikipedia dump, &installed some extensions, but I can't seem to activate the interwiki links. How do I do that? Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.176.48.210 (talk) 16:30, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

The last time I checked, various language Wikipedias are actually independently-installed instances of MediaWiki. I'm not sure which data dump you got, but it's probable you only got an English language database. If you're trying to replicate the entire Wikipedia, you should anticipate several other problems: it is a known fact that the size of Wikipedia is too large for MySQL, unless you make custom modifications. You may also find these InterWiki instructions helpful. Nimur (talk) 16:46, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

The second link's instructions didn't seem to work. I created a "mirror" of one of the different Wikipedia, for my personal use, and I want the interwiki links to point to the original wikipedias. Thanks. --79.176.48.210 (talk) 17:15, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

Save yourself, choose a different engine. ¦ Reisio (talk) 00:01, 20 April 2011 (UTC)

Automatic mounting (udev?) and filename case in Linux

Now, apparently, my Fedora 12 Linux system has started automatically recognising my Olympus E-520 camera when plugged in, probably thanks to udev. This is fine, but has led to another problem: the old "filename case" problem has come back. Apparently the files on the memory card are all in upper case, whereas I have been storing the pictures on my hard disk with filenames in all lower case. Because Linux filesystems are case-sensitive, this means that if I mix filename letter cases I end up with duplicated pictures, which would needlessly consume disk space. But how can I make the system see the filenames in all lowercase even if they are in all uppercase?

Typing "mount" after the camera has been automatically recognised displays this at the end of the listing:

/dev/sdg1 on /media/NO NAME type vfat (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=devkit,uid=500,gid=500,shortname=mixed,dmask=0077,utf8=1,flush)

It appears that it should say "shortname=lower". But how can I make it say that? None of this appears in /etc/fstab. Is there a configuration file somewhere where I can set this? And if there is, is it possible to make it apply only to the camera, not to any other media mounted with udev?

I could, of course, go around this by running:

for $i in *; do mv $i `echo $i | tr [:upper:] [:lower:]`; done

but it would get tiresome having to remember to do that every time, even if I make a script file for it. JIP | Talk 18:02, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

I recommend you use rename to transform all the file names into lowercase. It's a pretty complex command and I don't remember it by memory, but a quick search online gives this: "rename y/A-Z/a-z/ *", without the quote markers. If you know Perl expressions you can probably figure it out way better than me. Happy hacking! Zakhalesh (talk) 18:08, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

Tested it myself, appears to work just the way I said in my last post. Zakhalesh (talk) 18:09, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

Oh yes, forgot to mention: run it in the folder where the files whose names you want to change are. Zakhalesh (talk) 18:11, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

The renaming script I wrote above works just fine. I would prefer not having to rename the files at all, but instead make the system see them already all in lower case. JIP | Talk 18:16, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

I think it is all tied up with the mysteries of udev rules. I tried to do something similar to you but I gave up as I didn't understand the udev documentation. Somewhere out there is a tutorial on how to create device matching udev rules, which I remember reading when I was trying to do it. After getting a severe headache trying to fathom it, I decided it was all too hard and wrote a script to check for duplicate names. --TrogWoolley (talk) 13:15, 20 April 2011 (UTC)

I have asked the same question on www.fedoraforum.org, let's see if I get a reply. I've also noticed that this is happening with my external hard drives too. Previously it only happened with CDs, DVDs and memory sticks. Now it seems to happen with any file system that isn't already present at boot-up. The only problem I have with this is that I no longer get to edit the mount options myself, at least not if I can't find the right place to configure it. My external hard drives get mounted under /media/8 hex digits-4 hex digits-4 hex digits-4 hex digits-12 hex digits, which I suspect is some unique identifier for the drives. I've modified my automatic rsync script to find any mount point confirming to the pattern and rsync to that instead of a pre-defined mount point. JIP | Talk 18:56, 20 April 2011 (UTC)

I think you probably want to be looking at HAL, which afaik does most of the auto-drive mounting. Unfortunately, HAL doesn't actually handle setting the default mount options anymore - it passes that off to your desktop environment (KDE or Gnome). See the "changing default mount options" section here for more. There's a couple ways to do it in Gnome, as they mention on that page, but the situation with KDE is more confusing. It's handled by KDE Mediamanager, and this post pretty well sums up the problem. I couldn't find an answer after a few minutes of searching, so... I hope you're using gnome. :) If you're really desperate, you might have to write a udev rule that cuts HAL out of the picture and does all the automounting itself. Indeterminate (talk) 20:58, 20 April 2011 (UTC)

Yes, I am using Gnome, not KDE. I had a look at the link you provided, and it appears to be possible to change the default mount options for each filesystem type. So I could make HAL mount VFAT filesystems as shortname=lower instead of shortname=mixed. But that would mean that all VFAT filesystems would be mounted like this, when I would like it to happen only to the camera. The article in the link doesn't mention any way to configure default mount options with deeper specification than filesystem type. There is, of course, the question of how would Linux know what kind of thing the mounted filesystem actually is on. I've noticed that the camera always mounts at /media/NO NAME, while CDs, DVDs and memory sticks usually have some kind of name instead of "NO NAME". My external hard drives wouldn't be affected by this anyway, as they are formatted as ext3, not as VFAT. JIP | Talk 19:31, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

microsoft error

Resolved

I'm using Polipo on Windows 7 and every now and then it crashes. There seems to be no pattern to it, nor do I know why it crashes. This is not too much of a problem though because I've devised a simple .bat script that will restart the program when the previous instance terminates. However, when Polipo crashes a Windows dialogue box is displayed which asks if I want to send the crash data to microsoft. This dialogue makes the Polipo instance hang until I click "don't send". How can I disable these crash report dialogue boxes? 82.43.89.77 (talk) 18:30, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

Click the Start menu, then type problem reporting, and click "Choose how to report problems". From the next screen, you can choose whether to do this automatically, or whether to never check for solutions. You can also click "Select programs to exclude from reporting" and exclude Polipo or any other app. Comet Tuttle (talk) 18:58, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

Thank you! Is there a way to do this on Windows XP too? 82.43.89.77 (talk) 19:16, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

I googled disable error reporting "windows xp" and the first entry was this page, and I verified on a Windows XP box that the sequence of steps appears correct. The option is at Control Panel -> System -> "Advanced" tab -> Error Reporting. Comet Tuttle (talk) 19:32, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

Thanks! 82.43.89.77 (talk) 19:41, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

You're welcome! I salute you for working around a crash, which normally isn't something one works around. Comet Tuttle (talk) 19:56, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

April 20

do people get their emails

I sent an email to someone at their work address, having no other contact details for the person, and they haven't replied. Do people at companies get their email, if sent from an address that is not listed in their address book, or is it always fairly sure they have received it? If they always get it (ie. with only the usual spam filtering), how do they deal with the spam that must come from having an email address listed publicly? Thanks in advance, It's been emotional (talk) 03:24, 20 April 2011 (UTC)

We can't possibly know. Maybe they got it. Maybe their company spam filter ate it. There's no generalized rule. Different companies use different spam filters. Different individual have different patterns of e-mail use. Wait a week, send the e-mail again with a "Hi, I'm not sure this got through..." and see if that helps. --Mr.98 (talk) 04:03, 20 April 2011 (UTC)

It would be pretty unusual for a company to dis-allow mail from unknown senders. (It would make it difficult to conduct business.)

It wouldn't surprise me if some company, somewhere has tried it, in the name of security.

It's very likely that the mail will be monitored by someone and an unusual email address might get their attention. Depending on how oppressive the workplace is about those sorts of things, the person you emailed might not want to even acknowledge the email until they could use a personal account, for fear of being accused of misusing company time and resources. APL (talk) 19:58, 20 April 2011 (UTC)

There's also nothing in email that guarantees delivery in any specific amount of time, it could take a week, it may have not even reached their servers at all. If you want to really talk to someone, email is not the way. ¦ Reisio (talk) 09:13, 20 April 2011 (UTC)

An email delivery that took a week would not break any rules. It would still be standards-compliant. ... But I think it's safe to say that if it took more than a couple of hours, most people would consider that a problem. APL (talk) 19:58, 20 April 2011 (UTC)

One of the best comments I've heard about email is that its reliability and security is worse than what you would expect with a postcard sent from another continent while on vacation. HiLo48 (talk) 23:57, 20 April 2011 (UTC)

That's probably true from a strictly autistic point of view, but a whole person knows that postcards are guaranteed to be handled by at least one person - your mail carrier - whereas most e-mails are never read by any human but the recipient. I'd rather e-mail a hundred friends my bank information than open a paypal account; and that doesn't mean that I would rather send a hundred friends post-cards with the same information from another continent while on vacation. Like it or not, e-mail is more like having a phone conversation over a wireless telephone (i.e. landline but with a wireless headset) that anyone can listen in on from across the street. Would you ever dictate your credit card number over such a phone? Obviously yes. 188.157.230.192 (talk) 10:13, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

"a whole person knows that postcards are guaranteed to be handled by at least one person"

And most people do not realize that email is entirely insecure and utterly without any guarantee of reliability, so as a way to put that information into terms people who have mailed postcards will understand, it's pretty good. ¦ Reisio (talk) 10:21, 23 April 2011 (UTC)

also the mail carrier does so under calm and inconspicuous conditions, with good reason to handle the postcard, and plausible deniability should they fail to deliver it to you (human error, e.g. misread name, whatever) along with many easy chances to misappropriate it afterward. In fact, you could even make a thief out of an honest carrier by presenting a real "crime of opportunity", if your postcard happened to include a very large credit card authorization, some multimillion dollar yacht or whatever. There is no real difference between sending an e-mail that probably a human is not going to read with your credit card information and a $30 subscription authorization, and the same e-mail for a yacht and the addition of a bunch of zeros to the sum; unlike a postcard, where this is a very real difference! In short: the analogy is not really applicable for a variety of reasons, and does not serve a useful purpose. 188.157.230.192 (talk) 10:20, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

Firefox 4 Navigation Bar

So I recently got Firefox 4, and it's all good, except for one thing. When you type something without a .com or .co.uk or whatever into the bar it used to try to find you that website, and if it failed would search it. So typing 'google' would get me google and typing 'BBC' would get me the news. But now it just does what the others do, searches for it in Google. So typing Google doesn't get me Google it gets me the Google of Google, and so on (I should have used a better example). Is there any way to change this back to what it used to do, since this is really bugging me now? Prokhorovka (talk) 13:37, 20 April 2011 (UTC)

Read this official guide from Mozilla to configure your Location Bar. This feature (treating the location-bar as a "smart toolbar" instead of a strict URL parser) is a very dangerous security vulnerability, because it is incredibly prone to phishing attacks; for this reason, Mozilla and other major web browser vendors are trying to "un-train" users who have grown dependent on it. Read more about Mozilla Phishing Protection design if you are interested in this topic. Nimur (talk) 18:07, 20 April 2011 (UTC)

The keyword.URL value you'd want would be something like this: http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&btnI=&q= ¦ Reisio (talk) 22:12, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

Cheers, that's exactly what I was looking for. So it's dangerous to have the auto-complete, but not the auto-search you say? Good to know. Prokhorovka (talk) 18:14, 20 April 2011 (UTC)

Well, if you understand how to read a URL, there's very little that a phisher can do to "fool" you; so it doesn't matter what the browser delivers to you (you will be able to determine whether the delivered content is malicious or trustworthy). The problem is, most internet users have no idea how to read a URL, and tend to be very trusting of "whatever the browser returns," which could be a Google "I'm Feeling Lucky" search result, or could be anything else. Safe browsing will always require a little human-side intervention. The "danger" is breaking the one-to-one mapping between what you typed, and what you got; the "smart URL bar" does this for convenience. Nimur (talk) 18:17, 20 April 2011 (UTC)

As to how to teaching someone how to read a URL, some Carnegie Mellon researchers wrote a game that teaches you to discriminate phishing links from genuine. Their (regrettably rather minimal) demo is here now. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 18:27, 20 April 2011 (UTC)

That looks a little dangerous itself. Yes, a funny URI can tip you off, but a perfectly ordinary looking domain can have malicious intent, too, and what makes it phishing is when they go after your personal data, not just visiting the site. ¦ Reisio (talk) 22:12, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

I should be OK so long as I always type it in myself if I'm logging into my banking, look for https if possible and generally read properly any sensitive sites addresses right? Prokhorovka (talk) 18:31, 20 April 2011 (UTC)

Sure. I mean, phishing isn't going to break your computer - it just lulls you into a false sense of security. If you are careful about which sites you use when you enter your financial and personal details, you will generally be okay. Nimur (talk) 18:34, 20 April 2011 (UTC)

You should consider using keyword bookmarks instead. Bookmark every page that you want to access by keyword, and in the "keyword" field of the bookmark properties, enter something like "bbc" or "google", or even "b" or "g". Then typing the keyword into the address bar will immediately take you to the bookmarked page. Keywords can also take arguments. For example, if you bookmark https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=%s and give it the keyword "g", then typing "g keyword" in the URL bar will immediately take you to the search results for that keyword. You can attach a keyword to http://www.bbc.co.uk/search/news/?q=%s to search for BBC articles, https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=site:en.wikipedia.org+%s to search Wikipedia using Google, etc. -- BenRG (talk) 20:48, 20 April 2011 (UTC)

Then you're trusting your bookmarks database instead of your eyes. I'll take my eyes. ¦ Reisio (talk) 22:12, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

Huh? If you don't trust the keywords you created (why?), you can still look at the URL, which replaces the keyword in the address bar as soon as you press Enter. -- BenRG (talk) 22:26, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

Because anyone who has access to your computer for just a few minutes can change a bookmark keyword. Yes, you can still look at the address bar, if you haven't developed a habit of relying on your bookmarks being invulnerable. ¦ Reisio (talk) 22:50, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

But why would anyone do that? Do you really believe that phishers wander around modifying bookmarks on unattended computers? They don't, because the cost and risk would far outweigh the expected reward, but even if for some unclear reason they decided to do so to your computer, why wouldn't they just install a keylogger instead? -- BenRG (talk) 09:02, 23 April 2011 (UTC)

To exploit you. Phishers exploit people who aren't paying attention, people who click random links and assume the page that opens is what it appears to be, which is what most people do when they click (or otherwise open) a bookmark. Mmmm, and why not just rob a bank to get rich? I think you're underestimating the variety of exploitation people embrace. :p ¦ Reisio (talk) 10:25, 23 April 2011 (UTC)

Again: phishers do not go around modifying the bookmarks on people's computers. That threat exists only in your head. -- BenRG (talk) 04:34, 24 April 2011 (UTC)

All threats only exist in someone's head before they are actualized.* ¦ Reisio (talk) 15:20, 24 April 2011 (UTC)

Blender 3D Rendering Problems

I am able to render a movie in whatever format I would like to in Blender 3D 2.56, but only the "AVI RAW" format works in Windows Media Player. By that I mean the other formats do play, but the screen is black like if it weren´t a movie I tried to play? 83.183.172.203 (talk) 17:02, 20 April 2011 (UTC)

It sounds like you have a problem with Windows Media Player and installed codecs on your system that is unrelated to Blender. You may find the tool ffdshow helpful; it installs ffmpeg on Windows as a DirectShow filter, (and usually solves most common codec problems). Instructions and a tutorial are available here: FFDShow on VideoHelp.com. Nimur (talk) 17:36, 20 April 2011 (UTC)

Simpler and more useful to you in the long run to switch to VLC media player for all your media playback needs. ¦ Reisio (talk) 22:44, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

The mysteries of .NET appdomains

Today at work, I had the following problem:

The application I was working on creates several appdomains running concurrently. I was developing a piece of code that is used by each appdomain, but is the same regardless of which appdomain it's used by. It has an initialisation method that only has to be run once in the entire application, so I tried to make initialisation checking code to prevent it from being run multiple times. This turned out to be more difficult than I thought.

I first tried a simple class-level static flag and a monitor statement to check and set that flag. That failed miserably, because it appears each appdomain has its own private copy of the flag, which makes it useless. Then I discovered we already had a class that was intended to be shared across several appdomains, which inherited from MarshalByRefObject. I added the following code to it:

private Dictionary<string, object> attributes = new Dictionary<string, object>();
public Dictionary<string, object> Attributes { get { return attributes; } }

However, when I then tried to check and set flags via the Attributes property, this didn't work any better. I changed the implementation to:

private Dictionary<string, object> attributes = new Dictionary<string, object>();
public void SetAttribute(string name, object value) { attributes.Add(name, value); }
public object GetAttribute(name) { return attributes.ContainsKey(name) ? attributes[name] : null; }

And then it worked. But why did the first version not work when the second one did? JIP | Talk 19:07, 20 April 2011 (UTC)

I have no experience with this, but I imagine the dictionary is returned by value to the caller (since it doesn't inherit from MarshalByRefObject) and any subsequent changes by the caller affect only the copy. In the second case the dictionary stays on the callee's side and name, value and the return of GetAttribute are the only things that go over the wire (and they will be silently copied unless they inherit from MarshalByRefObject). -- BenRG (talk) 20:30, 20 April 2011 (UTC)

I showed this code, which I had written, to my boss:

SharedObject o = GetSharedObject();
lock (o) {
  if (o.GetAttribute("flag") != null) {
    return;
  }
  o.SetAttribute("flag", true);
}

and he said the code is not thread-safe. Why not? Is it because the statement lock (o) is in fact locking the appdomain's own reference to the object, not the object itself? Would it be better if I wrote it like this?

/* inside the shared object */
public bool CanEnter() {
  lock (this) {
    if (GetAttribute("foo") != null) {
      return false;
    }
    SetAttribute("foo", true);
    return true;
  }
}
/* in the calling method */
SharedObject o = GetSharedObject();
if (!o.CanEnter()) {
  return;
}

JIP | Talk 18:11, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

49 7/8' cable

I was doing a search for Ethernet cable on Best Buy's web site when I ran across this. It's 49-7/8' long. Why such an odd measurement? It's not even in meters either. Dismas|^(talk) 23:08, 20 April 2011 (UTC)

A look at the specification tab doesn't help much. I got this...

Product Height 1"

Product Width 1"

Product Weight 2 lbs.

Product Depth 49-7/8'

I see it as just further evidence that the USA MUST metricate. HiLo48 (talk) 00:03, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

My guess is that they cut off 50-foot lengths of cable, and the process of putting the ends on it uses up 3/4 inch on each end. Why don't they just cut off 50-1/8–foot lengths of cable, you ask? Probably because the spools of cable they get from the cable manufacturer come in even multiples of 50 feet, so if they used slightly more than 50 feet for each cable they'd have an odd length of cable left over at the end. —Bkell (talk) 00:08, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

By the way, metrication wouldn't make a difference—you'd just have, say, 14.96-meter-long cables instead. —Bkell (talk) 00:13, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

True HiLo48 (talk) 00:46, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

What exactly would be the advantage of having the cable length be a round multiple of either feet or meters? It is how long it is. If you want longer, buy longer. If you want shorter, buy shorter. It's not as though it's going to be pulled taut anyway. --Trovatore (talk) 00:31, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

I see the question more as one about human behaviour. How did such a length come about? Why mention it with such precision? Why not, as many salesmen over many centuries would have done, describe it as 50'?

Though maybe it's worth noting that the other three dimensions above are not so odd. Maybe the 2 lb weight is very precise and is the real defining measurement, with the length being a consequence of the weight. I'd have no idea why that would be the case though. HiLo48 (talk) 00:46, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

I assume they manufactured whatever is most convenient that is of approximately the correct length, then reported that length to available precision. What is strange about that? --Trovatore (talk) 00:50, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

Why not describe it as a 50-foot cable? Likely because knowingly selling a cable as a 50-foot cable when it is measurably shorter than 50 feet runs afoul of some product labeling laws. —Bkell (talk) 01:08, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

That sort of thing seems to happen in the auto industry all the time. Everyone knows that engine capacities are rounded up, when we all know that the manufacturers definitely know a more precise measure. HiLo48 (talk)

They're rounded up for model names. It's not like the manufacturers keep the real capacity a secret; you can easily find it in the owner's manual. --Trovatore (talk) 01:22, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

Also, as far as I'm aware, automobile engines aren't sold by capacity in the same way that Ethernet cables are sold by length, gasoline is sold by volume, food is sold by weight, and so on. If a cannery produced cans of corn labeled "15 oz" that contained only 14.75 ounces, or a filling station charged you for 10 gallons when you only pumped 9.9, you can bet they'd find themselves in trouble pretty quick. —Bkell (talk) 02:51, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

The reason for the precision is that, in the US as well as most other countries, consumer protection laws require that products be labeled accurately, or else it's considered false advertising, and fines can ensue. It certainly seems to me that a 1/8th-inch error across a span of 50 feet wouldn't count as false advertising, but maybe somebody in the legal department thought that since the "shortage" compared to 50 feet is consistent, they'd better be as truthful as possible on the packaging. Comet Tuttle (talk) 18:24, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

The difference is 1/8 foot, or 1½ inches, not just 1/8 inch. —Bkell (talk) 22:25, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

Aside: I found 49-7/8' very hard to interpret. Is this a standard method? I presume that this is parsed as 49 (- separator meaning "and" or "plus") 7/8 (' feet) more conventionally known as 49.875'. It was the - sign that threw me at first. -- SGBailey (talk)

That's a common convention in the United States when measurements include a whole number and a fraction, though it's more often seen with inches (e.g., 4-3/8″) because non-integer inch measurements are commonly expressed with fractions rather than decimals. (Most rulers and tape measures mark off eighths or sixteenths of an inch rather than tenths.) It's unusual to see a measurement that uses eighths of a foot. —Bkell (talk) 15:27, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

Just a thought. It could be a typo, intended to read 4' 9-7/8" i.e. 57.875" or 1470 mm. This might be 1.5 m of cable, less whatever is lost in making the connections. AndyTheGrump (talk) 19:42, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for all the responses. There are a few things that could be in play here. Labeling laws, cord length with connectors vs. without, etc. As I said, I was doing a search for Ethernet cable and these are the results. You'll find the 49-7/8' cable near the bottom right above another cable that is labeled as 25-3/8'. Anyone care to explain away the 5/8'? That's more than enough to put connectors on the end. What drew my attention to it so dramatically is the fact that these two "odd" (for lack of a better word) cable lengths are after several other cables whose lengths are even (not partial) number of feet, 6, 14, 50, etc. Dismas|^(talk) 19:58, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

One further thought. Most metals and I assume plastics expand and contract slightly with temperature. How much is 50 feet of cable likely to vary in length over the usual range of temperatures it's likely to be exposed to? Maybe the length is actually measured at, say, NTP - "Normal Temperature and Pressure" - which stipulates 20C, but for legal reasons has to be quoted at, say, STP - "Standard Temperature and Pressure" stipulating 0C, at which temperature it would be slightly shorter: I remember the difference being mentioned as important in Physics and Chemistry classes, with the added joke that the US favoured higher-temperature standards because many of its labs are in sunny California, while impoverished UK scientists found zero Celsius closer to their everyday reality. It would be reasonable for there to be a minimum standard of accuracy, which length variations for cables shorter than 50 feet might not exceed. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.197.66.111 (talk) 00:12, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

I suspect that they tried for exactly 50', but it fell short, possibly because they didn't include the connectors in the calculations, were measuring at the wrong temperature, etc., as mentioned previously. After they determined that it fell short, they either had to revise their processes to increase the length, which could have been expensive, or just update their packaging to indicate the actual length. They chose the later. StuRat (talk) 07:07, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

Facebook info page

Hello. The "help" page at Facebook is virtually useless, so I decided to come here and talk to real people. When I set up my Info page, I entered the name of my employer. At the time, the company did not have a Facebook page, so it linked to a blank generic site with the employer name at top. The company has since started a Facebook page, but I can't seem to get the old link to go away. I deleted the employer from my info page, and tried entering it back in as a new employer, but it still takes me to the generic page. How do I make the proper link? Thank you kindly. — Michael J 23:48, 20 April 2011 (UTC)

I can only think the employer is not deleting properly. I don't mean to tell you how to suck eggs, but I'll go through step by step.

1. Go to your Profile.
2. Go to 'Edit profile' (at top).
3. Go to 'Education and work' (at left).
4. At the right of your 'Employer' click the cross next to where it says 'Edit' (don't click Edit, click the cross beside it which will delete the employer)
5. A dialogue box will come up and you must then click 'Confirm'. Your employer field should then be blank.
6. At this point I would return to your profile; there is a 'View my profile' button just above the employer field to do this, or click the usual 'Profile' link at the top of the page - note that this step should not be necessary, but it's worthwhile to do to confirm that the employer is definitely deleted.
7. At the top of your profile it should now have an 'Add your current work information' link, where it used to list your generic employer. If so, this is good - click the link and continue below; if not, it hasn't deleted properly and you need to go back and delete it again.
8. Now back in the 'edit profile' screen, start typing your employer's name again. A list of possibilities should show up. Keep typing the exact name of your employer's page and it should eventually show up in the list. If it doesn't show up, chances are you're making a typo somewhere. You need to go and find your employer's page and check the exact name they're using. They do have to match.
9. Once you see your actual employer click on the name and it will add to the Employer field. A blue button should then show up that says 'Add job'. You must then click on this to actually add the new job.
10. If you now return to your profile the proper employer should be listed.

This should work, but it seems with FB there's no guarantees. --jjron (talk) 15:07, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

April 21

Font fallback

I know that in html and css I can specify a font fallback list, but where does Windows 7 get its fallback list from please? When I do some maths characters and set default serif and nothing else then I notice that Internet Explorer and Word on my machine seem to choose in order from Times New Roman, MS Mincho, Arial Unicode MS. Dmcq (talk) 08:04, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

Provide a web font with the characters you require and you won't have to worry about it. ¦ Reisio (talk) 22:15, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

Making a function that returns a dynamic array in C++

After having spent many years programming in higher-level languages, I've finally decided to buckle down and learn a lower-level one, specifically C++. I've just started and I've run in to some trouble already. I was making something where I needed a function that returned a dynamically generated array, where I wouldn't know going into it how big it would be, so that I would also have to return the final size of it. Since a C++-function only returns one value, I figured that I would have it return the size of the array, and one of the arguments would be a pointer to the array that I passed by reference, so that that pointer would point to the start of the array when the function would finish.

However, no matter how much I tried, I couldn't make it work. I couldn't figure out the right configuration of asterisks and ampersands in the pointer to have it do anything other than segfault. What I finally did is that I reversed the size-variable and the array; the function now returned the array pointer and the size-variable was passed by reference as an argument. I pasted some code showing how I did it below.

It works, but it doesn't seem to me to be the best solution. Or maybe it is, and I'm just kidding myself. I figure since this is something that proper grown-up C++ coders presumably must handle all the time, there's probably a "standard" way to do it. If anyone can enlighten me as to the best way to solve the problem, I'd much appriciate it!

Some code

#include <iostream> #include <stdlib.h> #include <time.h> #define ENDL "\n" using namespace std; int* make_array(int*); int main() { int* a; //The array int s; //The size of the array a = make_array(&s); //Printing the results for(int i = 0; i<s; i++) cout << a[i] << ENDL; } int* make_array(int* s) { srand(time(NULL)); int size = rand() % 10 + 5; //Making the size of the array random int* v = new int[size]; //Filling it with something for(int i = 0; i<size; i++) v[i] = 2*i; *s = size; return v; }

By the way, feel free to comment on anything else you might think of with this code. I'm just learning, maybe I'm doing something else really stupid or something, and I'd appreciate the feedback. Thanks! 83.250.233.57 (talk) 11:42, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

That's fair enough (I'm sure "real" C++ programmers, which I am not, will feel you should use a datastructure like a Vector rather than a native array). If you want to have make_array return the count and change the data called, you'd say

int make_array2(int** data)
{
    srand(time(NULL));
    int size = rand() % 10 + 5; //Making the size of the array random
    int* v = new int[size];
 
    //Filling it with something
    for(int i = 0; i<size; i++) 
        v[i] = 2*i;
 
    *data = v;
    return size;
}

which you'd call with s = make_array2(&a); -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 11:57, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

Your code is fine, really. You don't need to #define ENDL because there's already an endl manipulator in std. And if you put main() at the end, you don't need to forward-declare make_array() -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 12:03, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

You know, that solution seems so damn obvious now, I don't know how I couldn't figure it out! Thanks! 83.250.233.57 (talk) 12:08, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

Actually you can simplify the above further, by simply saying *data = new int[size]; and dispense with v altogether. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 12:12, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

I always forward-declare everything, because I figure I might at some point change the code so that it calls a function before it's defined, and it's less work to write the declarations than to recognize the error messages and rearrange the function order. Don't know if this is "proper" style or not. I too get paranoid about doing things properly.  Card Zero  (talk) 13:58, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

There is no right way to write in C, only an endless variety of wrong ways. :) -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 15:27, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

If you meant C++, then I disagree. Even if you meant C, I disagree. -- BenRG (talk) 22:16, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

Don't use new. Use a vector, like this:

      vector<int> make_array()
      {
          srand(time(NULL));
          int size = rand() % 10 + 5;
          vector<int> v(size);

          for (int i = 0; i < size; i++) 
              v[i] = 2*i;

          return v;
      }

If you're learning C++ from a tutorial or book that tells you to use new, find a better tutorial or book. Fortunately, it's easy to tell the good ones from the bad ones: the bad ones mention new early on. (And the really bad ones mention malloc.) -- BenRG (talk) 22:16, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

As a way to teach C++ that makes sense, but the learner should be aware that this code copies the whole contents of the array, which can increase the big-O of an algorithm. new/delete are painful, so avoiding them for demonstration purposes is justifiable, but in the "real world" (assuming that C++ is being used for performance reasons), they are unavoidable in a situation like this. Paul (Stansifer) 05:20, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

No, the code does not copy the array, because of return value optimization. In principle compilers aren't required to implement that optimization, but in principle they aren't required to support function inlining either. In practice, I think they all do. Anybody learning C++ does need to learn under what circumstances objects are copied, because, all efficiency concerns aside, changes made to one copy won't affect another. When objects are moved, though, as here (from make_array's local variable v to wherever the caller puts the vector), you don't have to worry about lingering copies, and you also don't have to worry about efficiency. (At least now that C++ finally has move semantics.)

If an object has an owner that knows when it should be deleted, then the owner can simply incorporate the object by value instead. That will usually be faster than new/delete. It's one of the primary reasons C++ is fast in the first place, compared to languages that require every object to be heap-allocated. If an object has no clear owner, new/delete based code is very bug-prone and shared_ptr is better. It might be slower, I admit, but there shouldn't be many objects without an owner in the first place. It's a recipe for aliasing bugs of the sort that can exist even in type-safe garbage-collected languages (which effectively wrap every object in a shared_ptr). -- BenRG (talk) 08:34, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

Do the high level chess AI programs use Bayesian networks?

Subject says it all. 20.137.18.50 (talk) 14:18, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

Not that I know of. Chess is a perfect information game. Bayesian networks are good at dealing with uncertainty. One can imagine some use of them, but it would be fairly contrived. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 14:23, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

I see, thanks for pointing out perfect information. Maybe with the AI card game programs like poker (assuming the computer opponent thread doesn't have access to the player's cards). 20.137.18.50 (talk) 14:40, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

Thinking about it again, though, Stephan Schulz, if the computer were playing against someone with a reviewable history, like Garry Kasparov, the computer could identify a style and calculate probabilities of how often a player does so and so in such and such situation. The other player's mind is an unknown, and maybe their proclivities will lead them in other directions than that of a completely logical move. I think I read somewhere that Kasparov did anticipate that the computer would think he would take a certain move (that he could see a computer would calculate as better at the moment) and used that knowledge to his advantage. 20.137.18.50 (talk) 14:57, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

I don't think there's enough information to train it. What you're interested in is not a general summary of how Garry Kasparov plays chess in general, but how he'll play in this specific move. So you'd need lots of examples of this specific position, or one very very like it. He's played a lot of chess, but it's quite varied (problem space is very divergent), and not yielding the huge amounts of info that say a spam filter sees. You might end up with some rule that "knows" that Garry Kasparov likes using knights in the 6th file, but that just gives you a (probably) slight statistical weight, and isn't much use for formulating a strategy. Bayesian inference really isn't that powerful, anyway - the most obvious case is in filtering spam: it does a pretty good job, but it's still a poor substitute for you or I (that is, it only rejects spam we humans would trivially identify as such). Figuring out what move to play isn't a trivial task for anyone, so I doubt Bayesian analysis would really help. I suppose if your expensive tree-traversal algorithm was running out of time (and couldn't afford to do another layer of traversal) then a Bayesian guess to pick between candidate moves might be worthwhile - but it'd be statistical icing on a very brute-force cake. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 15:53, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

Where does Firefox 4 store its bookmarks?

Resolved

My PC at work has been re-imagined from Win XP to Win 7. I neglected to export my bookmarks from Firefox before the re-image but I have a back up of my whole hard drive that I can access. I thought that all I would need to do is copy my bookmarks.html file from my backup to my computer but apparently Firefox doesn't store my bookmarks in this file. Anyone know where they're stored? I know its my fault for not doing an export before the re-image but the data has to be stored somewhere where its recoverable. A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 14:28, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

places.sqlite (in the same profile dir as the old bookmarks.html). You can browse it with the sqlite-manager plugin. I think Firefox 3 used sqlite too. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 15:39, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

Yep, it did. More information on Profiles and how to recover them here. --jjron (talk) 15:47, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

You can just copy the contents of your old profile directory into and over a new profile directory. ¦ Reisio (talk) 22:16, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

Thanks! A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 16:45, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

Backing Up A Computer

Right, I have not addressed this before, simply because I think that backing up a computer (i.e. copying the entire hard disk) is going to take up double the amount of space that your hard disk has, because by definiton, copying something means reduplicating it, and if you only have one hard drive, then where do you copy it to? Thing is, I'm very interested in why there are so many softwares out there (yes, I use plural for this) blerting out that they will help you backup. How? I mean, I have 20GB left from a 250GB HDD. I would like to ask once and for all, are these 'backup' thingies only for instances when you have an external drive (of the same size or bigger than your partition)? An example of what I am being told is here.

We have a whole article on this: backup. Your intuition about disk space is not quite correct. If you simply copied all the files, then the backup would take up as much space as the original files (not as much space as the whole hard disk). But every decent backup program also compresses your files while copying them, so the backup will take a bit less space than the original files. Another reason there are many backup programs — we've got a list at list of backup software — is whether they support convenient features like incremental backup, or a mirror backup, sector by sector, of the hard disk. Also, lots of backup software lets you back up your hard disk (or your "My Documents" folder only, or whatever) to optical discs like DVD+R discs. Having a second hard disk is much more convenient for backups, of course, than inserting 50 DVD discs in a row. There are also services like Mozy that cost like US$5 per month which back up your computer's data to servers located God-Knows-Where on the Internet; this is even more convenient. You should definitely back up your important files, though. The correct attitude to adopt is: It's not a question of whether your hard disk will fail and lose data. It is a question of when. Comet Tuttle (talk) 18:15, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

I suggest you buy an external USB hard drive for backups. (You can get a 2 TB drive for $97 [3] and fit 8 full backups on it, at least.) StuRat (talk) 06:18, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

how to monitor cumulative bandwidth - windows vista

I use T-Mobile stick (MF100 web stick) which comes with connection software that just so "happens" to not work when it comes to tracking usage (the data record window is blank). Obviously this is T-Mobile wanting to keep its customers from seeing their data usage and changing their habits accordingly.

But anyhoo, is there some free Windows Vista software I can install that just lets me see all cumulative uploads and downloads? Or do I have to keep waiting to get the next SMS through the software, saying I've again used up my top-up allowance.

Thanks. 79.122.79.3 (talk) 18:44, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

Windows Task Manager can show your cumulative data transmitted up and down on each network interface. You may need to enable "cumulative statistics", explained in our article subsection. Windows can report total bytes uploaded, downloaded, and other more technical network diagnostics.

If you need more detail, or want cumulative data across multiple system reboots, you can use Network Diagnostics in the Windows Event Log, explained here. Nimur (talk) 19:41, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

Custom Cursors in HTML5

If you do

<html>
<head>
</head>

<body>

<div style="background-color:red; cursor:url(pen.cur)">Test</div>

</body>
</html>

where "pen.cur" is a standard Windows cursor file, this cursor will be used when the mouse is hovering the DIV.

But if you insist on the document's being a HTML 5 document, that is, if you write

<!DOCTYPE HTML>

<html>
<head>
</head>

<body>

<div style="background-color:red; cursor:url(pen.cur)">Test</div>

</body>
</html>

it doesn't work anymore. I have tried this in Internet Explorer 9 and Google Chrome 10. What's going on here? --83.183.172.203 (talk) 19:54, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

It's not uncommon for browser engines rendering in a legacy quirks mode (because of a lack of a doctype declaration, for example), to be more forgiving to malformed CSS. This includes things like omitting required units in code like height: 200; which should be height: 200px;, and also things like this, omitting a comma separator and value name. The W3C CSS validator would have pointed this out to you. What you probably want is something like cursor: url(pen.cur), default;, and to always, always use a doctype declaration that validates properly, which has no characters whatsoever before it. ¦ Reisio (talk) 22:33, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

Thank you! --83.183.172.203 (talk) 13:06, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

Resolved

research question related to Apple product history?

Are the leather Smart Covers the first leather product Apple has directly sold (as opposed to third-party leather products) in its history? I'm having difficulty finding an answer to this question. It seems that there are maybe a couple of niche cases, but I can't decide if Apple made them. Anyway, my question relates mainly to mainstream products that Apple is targeting at a lot of people: is the smart-cover in leather the first such leather product? Thanks. 188.156.7.193 (talk) 20:14, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

The Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh had leather wrist pads. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 21:36, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

Nice one, Finlay McWalter! I forgot about that machine. Comet Tuttle (talk) 16:55, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

Thank you, nice response. The article states that it was a "limited-edition" personal computer, and further, that it was delivered by a door-to-door concierge service. It's still a good example though! Anything else like that, anyone? Maybe something a little more "mass-market"? 188.157.186.22 (talk) 23:43, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

It appears Apple sold leather cases for the Apple Newton. I googled Apple Newton leather and saw this expired eBay auction showing one off. The top search result was a set of Flickr photos for a weird Newton prototype which had a similar leather case with the Newton logo. I am not 100% sure Apple sold these directly, but it's very probable, because of the existence of the Newton logo on the leather. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any non-Apple vendors who were ever allowed to put the Apple logo itself on their hardware, and I figure Apple would have been similarly protective of their Newton logo. Comet Tuttle (talk) 16:55, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

StartManSvc.exe

How can I get StartManSvc.exe off my computer? Corvus cornix_talk 21:49, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

Searching Google suggests it's part of the install of several PC Tools products, including their Spyware Doctor system. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 22:05, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

If it is a service, as the file name suggests, then you can stop it and set it to "Disabled" to prevent it from starting in the future. The article Windows service explains how. Uninstalling PC Tools would also work, and might be a good idea, since there are probably free programs that will do a better job of whatever PC Tools is doing. -- BenRG (talk) 22:44, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

I don't have Spyware Doctor or PC Tools in my list of programs, and I don't have Windows service in my Control Panel. Corvus cornix_talk 01:11, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

OK, I ran "Services.msc" and stopped PC Tools. Thanks. Corvus cornix_talk 01:14, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

April 22

Shared internet connection bandwidth management problem

I live in a residence with 8 other members all sharing one unreliable, low-bandwidth internet connection (either 512 kbps or 1024 kbps down, uplink unknown). We all are constantly downloading videos and music which saturates the internet connection and causes latency to skyrocket, and interactive tasks like ssh or loading a web page timeout or take forever (several minutes per page load). Besides changing our behavior or getting faster interent service, what solutions are there to throttle/shape/manage the traffic so the internet connection quality remains "usable" for everyone?

I’m thinking about something I can load on a Linux based box with two Ethernet ports that sits between the cable modem and router+switch. I need to find a solution that requires no effort on the users’ part (such as reconfiguring their computers/software) other than some kind of initial device registration on the network, and so forth. Condensation333 (talk) 02:58, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

From your description it sounds like you are exceeding the total capacity of your connection, so no software fix is possible. I suggest you limit each person to a scheduled half hour of downloads per day. That should make the network unusable for anything else for only 4 hours day. Outside that time, if should be usable by all (except for downloading, of course). StuRat (talk) 05:44, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

Obviously there are software solutions to managing bandwidth and quality of service. Like I said I'm trying to find a solution that doesn't rely on users (and the politics required) to actually do anything on their end. There must be a slew of linux router distros, but doing research via google on a 2500 ms latency internet connection is one of the ultimate tests of patience. Condensation333 (talk) 06:20, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

I think you're talking about giving mass downloads a lower priority than, say, loading (small) web pages or sending (small) e-mails. That could help, but only if your total daily capacity is far more than you are using, and it doesn't sound like this is the case. This would delay the mass downloads until there's no other traffic, which is essentially doing what I suggested before, but would have the added annoyance of having downloads start and stop, potentially for hours. StuRat (talk) 06:47, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

I'm thinking I want to give each current user a slice of total bandwidth. Two current users get it split 50%/50%, 5 get it split into fifths. So I guess a dynamic cap of sorts. That way users are evenly throttled instead of all competing for max available bandwidth and saturating the connection, driving latency through the roof. Now, in conjunction with that, it would be nice to prioritize/throttle bulk transfers like bittorrent, iTunes, large http downloads, etc. to basically halt or trickle when someone hops on and browses the web or uses ssh or anything else interactive. When it already takes days to download anything large, having it delayed a few extra hours isn't even noticeable. It would be easy to identify users by IP, but I don't know what software to use to easily shape traffic like I want to. Condensation333 (talk) 07:39, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

Your first option would likely make things even worse. This is a form of hoarding, meaning keeping an excess of a scarce resource, even when you don't immediately need it yourself. In your example, if there were 5 people online, 4 of whom were doing minor things, say taking up only 10% of the bandwidth in total, this means that the 5th person doing a download would be restricted to 20% of the bandwidth, instead of the 90% that's available, slowing him to a crawl. The other 70% of the bandwidth would be wasted. This is an attribute of hoarding, it leads to inefficient distribution of resources. The prioritization scheme might help, but probably not enough to solve the problem. Also, I should ask, have you considered upgrading your Internet service ? For an extra few dollars a month each, you could probably solve the problem that way. StuRat (talk) 08:10, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

I'm with StuRat, if there's 8 of you, the cost per person of getting a faster more reliable connection is likely to be trivial against the benefits. If you can't get your connection upgraded due to techinical limitations then I don't know how you can resolve this - trying to coordinate downloads between 8 people is tricky, unless you have 1 person who doesn't download and everyone else is restricted to 1 day per week. Exxolon (talk) 11:32, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

I'm in west Africa, and like I said we have no option of getting a faster or better connection. Bandwidth is insanely expensive and unreliable here, even with the WACS and other undersea fiber cables recently laid. Condensation333 (talk) 18:27, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

After some more research it looks like prioritization is actually what I need to look in to. I need to figure out how anyone else in the world (businesses, colleges, etc.) manage bandwidth when there are a large number of users sharing one connection. The actual speed of bulk downloads aren't a concern. It's managing all the connections so the internet connection as a whole doesn't become saturated and causing latency to go from the baseline 350ms to 2500~10000ms. I think the hardest part is classifying traffic, especially when using encryption over non standard ports, just like ISPs have to do to manage P2P file sharing. That's what I'm currently looking at finding some software for. Condensation333 (talk) 18:27, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

m0n0wall has traffic shaping as do most software-OS firewall/router distros like pfSense and also the Linux ones. I think most of these popular ones are in our list (other then the FreeBSD ones I've mentioned a look at the list tells me ClearOS, SmoothWall are two you might also want to look at it's been a while since I've looked in to software-OS firewall/router distros) . I've never used these in a relatively hostile environment (I use m0n0wall in a benign environment) but they may work, at the very least giving some priority to TCP acks should help things. You will need to work out how much your maximum upload and download is for maximum efficiency though. Note that you should set these up to function as your router, you can still use any router as a switch and a wireless access point but the routing functions become unnecessary. Note also that most of these are designed to sit on a stand alone box, you could perhaps hack one to work with an existing box doing other things or also run one under VMware but I wouldn't recommend it except while choosing what to use (many may have live CD/DVDs). Other then just trying those which seem to fit your bill, I would specifically look in to the traffic shaping component if you are having problems choosing. If you have 8 users, you can easily buy an old computer or even a new nettop without each person spending too much I would hope. Nil Einne (talk) 12:05, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

Thanks these are actually what I've been looking at today. I'm now looking at finding a distro which main featureset is traffic management, or figuring out what software these distros are using for these tasks so I can look further into it. Condensation333 (talk) 18:27, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

Upgrading laptop hard drive

I'm suffering from information overload, so... I came here. I need to upgrade my laptop's hard drive. Unfortunately, there is no way to replace some of the software on it without spending quite a bit of money, assuming I can even figure out how to backup the settings. I have a desktop I can plug one hard at a time into. Is it enough to just copy every byte manually off one drive onto the desktop, and then onto the new drive? Or do I need some sort of software that works from the boot menu? Much obliged in advance. Mxvxnyxvxn (talk) 05:08, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

No, that will cause you licensing and linking problems. You need to plug both hard drives in at the same time and "disk copy" the entire drive over. Or, if you can just get some big USB flash drives/pen drives, maybe they can provide the extra capacity and you can stick with the current hard drive. (I would also suggest an external USB hard drive, but presumably you want more portability than that.) Use the external devices for data (like pics, movies, etc.), and leave the operating system on the original hard drive. This all assumes that the original hard drive still works fine, but is just too small. This should save you lots of money, assuming you planned to have a professional install the new hard drive (and it's easy to ruin your laptop if you do it yourself). StuRat (talk) 05:25, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

I can't plug in both without some molex-to-sata or sata-to-usb converters(and I'm currently in the desert of computer parts- I was lucky to find someone who sold bare drives!) ... Can I use something like EASUS using a external drive as an intermediary, and copy the image from there onto the blank one? Mxvxnyxvxn (talk) 06:12, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

That could work, but some software may still detect that it's on a new hard drive and complain about licensing. How much capacity does your current HD have and how much more capacity do you need ? StuRat (talk) 06:32, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

I have a 120, and I need at least triple that. I was planning to get somewhere between 320 and 640.Mxvxnyxvxn (talk) 06:42, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

Would an additional plug-in external USB hard drive be totally unacceptable ? It certainly would be inexpensive and simpler, although admittedly it makes the laptop slightly less portable. StuRat (talk) 06:50, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

I don't see why you couldn't dd everything to a file on the desktop's hard disk, if you have the space, and then dd it back from the file to the new disk. The only potential problem I think would be if for some reason the new hard disk requires more drivers than the laptop's installed OS currently has installed.
http://mark.koli.ch/2009/05/howto-whole-disk-backups-with-dd-gzip-and-p7zip.html
¦ Reisio (talk) 06:28, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

Unfortunately, I have no experience with Unix. Mxvxnyxvxn (talk) 06:44, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

You don't need any, the commands are all there on the page I linked. There's even dd for Windows (which would allow you to continue using your ordinary [presumably Windows] desktop OS while you do this), though the device selection syntax changes slightly (see download page). ¦ Reisio (talk) 07:29, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

Don't letim fool ya! Every time someone says "you could do it in Linux with like 1 command" that means you will spend a weekend booting into Linux, the next week on IRC channels figuring out things they assumed you would have already known, and the third week undoing everything you've done, giving up, and on a whim doing one more quick Google search, downloading a piece of Windows shareware from 1997 that does it in three clicks, and being done with it. 188.157.230.192 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 10:03, 22 April 2011 (UTC).

Stu- short answer, yes, It would be a huge pain to deal with an external. And the truth is, I don't expect the important programs to complain about licensing, and the rest aren't as important. Reisio- Even though you are probably right, I'm a bit nervous to try it before attempting my original plan, but in Stu's worse-case scenario, I will give it a shot. Worse comes to worse, I can use the extra drive inside my desktop and switch it with the external I am currently using as backup. 188- There are whole communities of us that don't assume computer illiteracy until proven.

Thanks, guys. Prompt and spot on, as always. I love the reference desk. Mxvxnyxvxn (talk) 11:16, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

Disk cloning and List of disk cloning software will probably help if you don't want to try using dd. Norton Ghost is an example that I've used a lot. It can save the bit image of your hard disk to a file (compressed, if you'd like). Personally I've only cloned drives that were both connected at the same time to the computer, but you ought to be able to (a) clone disk to a file, (b) swap hard disks, and (c) copy file to the new hard disk. Then Ghost should be able to expand the size of your new hard disk's partition so you can actually use all that extra space. Again, I've personally only done this when both drives were connected; but I suspect this will work for you. Comet Tuttle (talk) 16:38, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

Starflight

Can I play this game on a modern pc? Kittybrewster ☎ 08:33, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

The DOS version should work on DOSbox. Very likely the other versions would work too using some emulator although you may need ROMs and/or OSes for some of these emulators in the first place in addition to the game for that system. Nil Einne (talk) 11:27, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

Sikuli

I'm using Sikuli and would like to simply set a script to loop. I can't for the life of me find instructions on how to do this. Any advice? ╟─TreasuryTag►Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster─╢ 10:24, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

A python developer could probably tell you a thousand different ways and the advantage/disadvantage of each (in fact I've used several myself in my simple Sikuli scripts) but for a simple infinite loop "while True:" with appropriate indenting of the rest of the script should work. See also [4] or any discussion on looping in Python. Nil Einne (talk) 11:47, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

education

i want to know the high scope engineering courses — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jagan.sankaran (talk • contribs) 12:08, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

This will differ depending on the school and the exact type of engineering you are interested in. Most universities probably have course listings and descriptions on their web sites. Assuming you are interested in software engineering (since you posted this on our Computing desk), I googled MIT computer science and found my way to this page, which has links to the course descriptions for MIT's computer science degrees. Comet Tuttle (talk) 16:34, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

On the other hand, if "high scope" was intended to mean "material that is relevant across a broad range of engineering topics," you might want to take a look at material related to:

• industrial engineering - the study of how to manage large systems and projects
• control theory - the mathematical study of how to make a technology system do exactly what you want it to do
• optimization theory - the mathematical study of how to find the provably-correct answer to a quantitative question
• engineering economics - the study of how to finance and control the costs in engineering projects
• systems theory - which ranges from very fuzzy high-level things to very numerical, quantitative analysis.

And, of course, you will need to have a solid grounding in the more applied disciplines of modern mathematics - calculus, differential equations, linear algebra, and computer programming. Nimur (talk) 17:26, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

Cannot save in Microsoft Word

I use Microsoft Word to write long documents (including a lot of graphics and formulae). Very often, maybe once a day, when I try to save a document (Ctrl+S), the "Save As" dialog appears (which is unexpected, since the document is already saved as a file). And, then, no matter if I choose to overwrite the existing file, or to save as a new file, which are my only options, it fails with error message "A file error occurred" [translated from Swedish: "Ett filfel uppstod"]. Thus, I cannot save the document anymore! Is there any cure? I have experienced this problem since Word 2007. Now I use Word 2010. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 12:58, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

Some clarification:

This has happened for a very long time, and with many different documents. And on different computers. My hypothesis is that Word is buggy, and that formulae and/or Word illustrations sometimes "mess up" the document so that it cannot be saved any more. I just removed all equations and illustrations from the file, and then it was possible to save it. But when I undo (so that the equations and illustrations come back), I can no longer save. We are talking about many, many hours of work, so I am a bit annoyed... --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 15:07, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

That's pretty horrible. Does the same error occur when you attempt to save it as a different format of document? On a different hard disk? Comet Tuttle (talk) 16:28, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

Well, I haven't tried any other format, because any conversion from DOCX would make the equations uneditable, and there are hundreds of them! I have tried all disks there are, and the problem is the same. But I did solve the problem. I went through all the equations and illustrations, one by one: I deleted the equation/illustration and tried to save. It turned out to be a single illustration that was the problem, namely this one. So I removed it and redraw the image from scratch. And then I saved it. [At the very least, it would have been polite if Word had pinpointed this illustration for me instead of giving me a nonsense error message!] --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 18:39, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

Resolved

Nearly everybody I know who has tried it advises against writing long, technical documents in Word. Most advocate LaTeX instead. This advice may be to late if you are already this far down, of course. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 07:41, 23 April 2011 (UTC)

internet street cabinets

Approximately how wide of an area and how many houses are covered by one of these internet street cabinets in the UK? pic —Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.103.209.253 (talk) 19:43, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

It appears to be a fiber cabinet. According to fiber to the x, there is a range of fiber architectures, each serving a different size area from one fiber cabinet. The largest-area architecture, fiber to the node, says "The area served by the cabinet is usually less than 1,500 m in radius and can contain several hundred customers." So I guess those are the typical maximums. If you're thinking of a certain provider or region, we may be able to find more specific numbers. --Bavi H (talk) 01:55, 23 April 2011 (UTC)

Firefox 4 URL popup

Using Firefox 4, when I mouse over a link, a small popup appears in the lower left displaying the URL. However, if I have the find bar open, this popup appears in the lower right. Is there any way to make it always appear in the lower left? I am not looking to restore the status bar via the "Status-4-Evar" add-on; I only want the mouseover popup to be consistent. - SigmaEpsilon → ΣΕ 23:53, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

If you just want consistency and don't much care what the consistent behavior is, Status-4-Evar has the option to display the link target in place of the current URL in the address bar (in a different, selectable color). I've been using that and I'm happy with it. When I set the display location back to "Popup", the popup always shows up in the bottom right, with or without the find bar open. I don't know whether this is Status-4-Evar's influence or something else. -- BenRG (talk) 08:52, 23 April 2011 (UTC)

April 23

Bash - deleting recursively

• OK, so I have a lot of folders on my Ubuntu machine that have files in them that I don't want. Namely, desktop.ini and thumbs.db (thanks Windows). However, I really really don't want to surf through every folder on my machine. What is the bash (i.e., terminal) command for deleting a file recursively? When I do rm thumbs.db -r, it simply responds with m: cannot remove `thumbs.db': No such file or directory. Magog the Ogre (talk) 05:52, 23 April 2011 (UTC)

find -name desktop.ini -exec rm {} \; (but I just woke up, so test it on a copy first) -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 08:23, 23 April 2011 (UTC)

find needs a path to search. If you really want to delete every desktop.ini and thumbs.db on your entire system (or, at least, on every file system presently mounted read-write), try something like this:

sudo find / \( -iname 'desktop.ini' -o -iname 'thumbs.db' \) -delete

(With -iname meaning "case-insensitive name"; it will nuke any files named Desktop.ini or THUMBS.DB or any other case-variations as well. If you don't want that, use -name instead of -iname.) --Link ^(t•c•m) 08:57, 23 April 2011 (UTC)