Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing

Welcome to the computing section
of the Wikipedia reference desk.

skip to bottom

Select a section:

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

Want a faster answer?

Main page: Help searching Wikipedia

   

How can I get my question answered?

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

Ready? Ask a new question!

How do I answer a question?

Main page: Wikipedia:Reference desk/Guidelines

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

See also:

• Teahouse
• Help desk
• Village pump
• Help manual

March 25

External hard drive problem

I've been struggling with a problem with an external hard drive for nearly three weeks. It is a 6TB drive with USB 2.0 and eSATA interfaces. It is my first eSata drive, I have only one computer with an eSATA port, and I have only one eSATA cable. It is by a major manufacturer and I got it from a reputable dealer. I use it (at least try to) on eSATA (USB 2 is too slow for 6TB).

The first one had problems - it would get to about 2.19TB and then slow to a crawl. At first it would transfer at 80-120MB/sec, but then it would drop down to under 4MB/sec. I ran their diagnostics and it locked up at about 77%. I got a replacement. It had the same problem, except that this time the diagnostics locked up at about 74%.

I got a third one, and it has problems. It passed the diagnostics 100%. But it drops down to under 3MB/sec for a while and then speed up. It did that a few times, then it dropped the speed down, and did not speed back up. This occurred a lot earlier than the 2.19TB where the problem occurred on the other two.

I've tried copying from a different disk to this one and writing to it from memory only - same problem either way.

I don't have another computer with an eSATA port or cable to test those.

I hooked it up to USB 2.0, and it is slow, but at least consistent. But USB 2 won't give the performance needed for the application.

One thing about the problem at 2.19TB - it has 512-byte clusters and 2^32 clusters is 2.199TB, so I have wondered if there is a design flaw with the eSATA interface when it gets to 2^32 clusters.

The seller will not take back computer equipment that has been opened. The maker thinks it is a "system problem".

So, where is this problem likely to be:

1. my eSATA port
2. the eSATA cable
3. the HD (eSATA interface)
4. Other Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 05:11, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

Do you use Windows XP? This article explains that Windows XP will not handle disks over 2.19TB. Newer operating systems can use the disk, although it may not be used to boot from - only for storage. The article also says 'your system's SATA controller must also be designed to recognize 4KB blocks', but I'm afraid someone else will need to explain that - I'm not really sure what it could mean. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 07:45, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

The bottom post on this page (the one by 'tfontaine') seems to offer a step-by-step solution. I can't verify if it will solve the problem or not, but you may wish to try it. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 07:52, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

I'm using Windows 7. I had done the things there - the dickdisk is partitioned to 6TB and formatted. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 14:36, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

Then I'm afraid I'm stumped. I can't find any more helpful information online. I can only suggest you contact the manufacturer again and, if they insist it is a system problem, make them tell you exactly what the incompatibility is. And I really would recommend not partitioning one's dick. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 20:39, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

Mine is all one BIG partition. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 00:02, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

Since the problem of getting to 2.2TB was with eSATA, right now I'm trying to do it with USB 2. But that is so slow, it is going to take nearly 24 hours. But in about 2 more hours I will see if it is able to go beyond 2.2TB on USB. My only other idea is if I can increase the cluster size so that there are fewer than 2^32 clusters. But I don't know if that can be done. Otherwise I'm going to call tech support again. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 01:31, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

Well, on the USB 2 connecter it got past 2.2TB with no problem. The speed is steady albeit a slow USB 2 speed. So the problem is in the eSATA somewhere. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 02:54, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

Since eSATA is just exposing the SATA controller this may depend on the SATA controller. [1] mentions that certain Intel RST drivers had problems, so I would use Windows update to update your SATA controller drivers (even if you aren't using Intel) if any updates are offered. Nil Einne (talk) 15:55, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

Accessing a web page

On List of municipalities in Rio Grande do Norte, the fifth reference there is a problem accessing; when I open the page it gives me a 505 error. Is there any way I can gain access to the page? The URL is at [2]. Albacore (talk) 16:24, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

ftp://geoftp.ibge.gov.br/organizacao_territorial/divisao_territorial/2008/dtb_2008.zip -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 16:48, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

gif breaking

They say that gifs only can have 256 colors... but I've seen images that have broke that law... they've cheated, so my question is. How there are images (animated gifs) that have 16,777,216 colors (Maybe they can have alpha channel??) and how do I make one?? 190.84.182.165 (talk) 17:34, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

The article touches on that briefly: Gif#True_color RudolfRed (talk) 17:40, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

Ohhhhh so each gif has a cutom palette... I didn't saw that one coming...... thanks.. 190.84.182.165 (talk) 18:52, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

curved writing

I need to write something such that it curves around, it'll have to be saved as part of a background image for a 3D modeling program so just for the sake of simplicity I was hoping to save it in paint, but of course it would likely have to be copied into there from somewhere else first.

So, any thoughts on where I might be able to find a program that can curve writing around to follow a set line?

148.197.81.179 (talk) 18:48, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

The free vector graphics editor Inkscape can do this. There is a tutorial for this exact application here. I don't know how well this works myself - I haven't used inkscape in years as my current workplace has a site licence for Adobe Illustrator. Equisetum (talk | contributions) 19:12, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

Microsoft Word's WordArt tool can produce curved writing, and is probably easier to use for a one-off task than Inkscape. It is considerably less powerful, though, so you may find it won't do exactly what you want. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 21:51, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

Can you better define what you mean by "curves around" ? Do you mean writing projected onto a cylinder, or just words forming a circle, like on the face of a coin ? StuRat (talk) 22:28, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

Openoffice: Alignment in enumeration (within table)

Hello,

I am rather new to Openoffice, although somewhat familiar with Word. I was wondering alignment when using enumerations within tables. I had something like this in mind:

blablablabla

1. some item and then some more

---which does not fit on one line

but I get:

blablablabla

1.--------some item and then some more

which does not fit on one line.

How can I change this? I checked a lot of properties of tables and enumerations. I even found an example in some template just the way I want it, but I cannot figure out what setting I should change?

Many thanks, Evilbu (talk) 20:25, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

This does not address your question directly – but if you have abandoned 'word ' then now go for libreoffice which starts where OpenOffice left off. OpenOffice was brilliant ( no comments please) but a company called Oracle has made LibreOffice the prime default replacement of Word. It will save going through another learning curve in the future and you will end up with a much better word processor with better support. --Aspro (talk) 21:47, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

make a folder impossible to be opened

is it possible maybe in c/c# (i know i can zip with the password but i want the folder to appear to be a normal folder). Thanx! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.0.122.9 (talk) 21:55, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

What operating system are you using? On Linux/Unix you can simply unset with chmod all the permission bits and then no one can read, write, or execute the file (except probably root). On Windows, you should can also set the RWX properties of the file for different users and groups, but I can't recall which control panel it is hidden under. Maybe just right-click on file + properites? RudolfRed (talk) 22:25, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

Programming an application to "make a folder imposible to open" (what you are programming in C or C#, I do not know) will not change the capability of another program from opening it. A PDF reader can be programed to ignore any DRM on the file, just like some other executable can ignore any conventions you put in place. An encrypted file/folder can still be opened, though it won't contain any strings that make sense. You could encrypt it, but that won't stop anything from modifying or deleting it. --Melab±1 ☎ 18:58, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

system info

I have a samsung lcd monitor

and got a few questions about it

when you bring up the system menu and go to information part of it itll say its current resolution refresh rate like this 1920x1080 67.5khz 60 hz PP or the latter could be NP so I wanna know what these two letters stand for and mean and what the difference is any one know??? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.35.21.51 (talk) 22:30, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

When you press the screen with your pinky, does it give a little? If so, I think it just means you a polypropylene LCD type screen.--Aspro (talk) 01:11, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

i dont think it has anything to do with that, cos then when you change the resolution to something that isnt its native say to 720p it changes that to NP. im just curious — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.35.3.109 (talk) 02:49, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

That specification refers to the Sync Polarity (first letter is for horizontal, second is for vertical). Apparently some video cards will let you set those parameters. Beyond that is too technical for me. --LarryMac | Talk 12:29, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

World's longest URL?

I've just come across some URLs that are hundreds of thousands of characters long (>700k) that almost crash firefox. Why could this ever be necessary? They can be found by enlarging the images on this page and then viewing the image (obviously I'm not going to copy one here). They all start with "data:image/png;base64," rather than http - what does that mean? Cheers SmartSE (talk) 23:48, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

It's an image encoded as base64. More info at Data URI scheme 82.45.62.107 (talk) 23:51, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

Perhaps it is a Firefox feature. The URL for this image is only 82 characters long (edit: but is only a small tile from the whole image). The other image URLs are of around the same length. Astronaut (talk) 00:06, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

Thanks 82.45 - that explains it well - seems a bit stupid to use it for such a large image though. Astronaut - I can't see that image anywhere on the page I linked to.... SmartSE (talk) 01:08, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

Yes, what you describe does sound like base64. For me using Internet Explorer, your link led to the site in this screenshot. The image I selected is the middle of the three at the top. Clicking on it gives some Java driven popup with the image at the centre and a caption below. I can right-click on the image and choose properties to see the image's URL. Astronaut (talk) 03:10, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

I've just checked back at the image link I provided in my first reply. That is just a small part of the image. The whole image seems to be made of small tiles of which that is just one. This tile is another, this time showing the guys in the boat. How weird! Perhaps it has been done like that to ease the Java controls to zoom and drag the image around, or maybe to discourage casual copying. Anyway, you can click on the "View full record..." link at the bottom left of the Java popup. The full record offers you the chance to download the image. But not once have I come across a very long URL as you describe. Astronaut (talk) 03:29, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

(Note: The effects on that webpage are coded in JavaScript, which is different from Java. Example of JavaScript: Sudoku. Example of a Java applet: Seventh String Tuning Fork.) --Bavi H (talk) 03:54, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

For the purposes of this question, the distinction is not that important and to be honest I didn't look too deeply into how the popup was actually implemented. Astronaut (talk) 12:14, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

This does not answer your question, but . . . it's clear that some people want long URLs. -- Hoary (talk) 14:38, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

March 26

Blocking time-wasting sites in IE8?

I am really bad at getting off the "fun" internet (WP included) and getting work done. I use IE most of the time, and I've yet to find a good website blocker for it. I'd like it to be able to allow me to use the websites on the block list for certain amounts of time (like 5 minutes out of the hour or something), and I need it to be able to block something like "http://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/" instead of just "http://en.wikipedia.org" (in this example, this is so that I can read but not edit, because editing's where the time gets sucked). Basically, I'm looking for the Firefox extension Leechblock's capabilities, but for IE. Oh yeah, and it needs to be free. Does anyone know of any good ones? - Purplewowies (talk) 01:33, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

Why not just use Firefox + the extension you like? RudolfRed (talk) 01:42, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

Because I can't get Firefox to work right on this computer. Besides, (on other computers) I never use Firefox to edit WP (I don't know why, I just don't), and this is where I waste a great deal of my time when I'm supposed to be doing other things. Even if I could get Firefox to work, I'd probably just switch over to IE for a lot of stuff, especially stuff like Wikipedia editing (I just prefer to edit in IE :-/). - Purplewowies (talk) 02:02, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

FACESLAP! I just figured out what was stopping Firefox from working correctly and got it working better than it has in a year. Then I almost facepalmed again when it said Leechblock wasn't compatible with my new version of Firefox. But I got it working again. I'm still curious as to if there's anything similar for IE, though. - Purplewowies (talk) 04:13, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

One way to prevent the wasting of too much time on IE is to prevent the running of IE. (I've done this to my own computers.) -- Hoary (talk) 14:34, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

I haven't been able to find a solution to this problem specifically for IE. In addition, though, to Leechblock for Firefox, there is StayFocusd for Chrome. However, for a belt-and-braces approach to this, you could use Get Shit Done. Basically it modifies your computer's 'hosts' file, making it impossible to visit blacklisted sites from any browser on your machine. There's a relatively friendly guide to getting it up and running here, although be warned, it does involve using the command line and Python (programming language). Since it means modifying relatively important parts of your computer's workings, I can only recommend this method if you are confident in 'messing around with computers'. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 19:32, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

Note that this won't help the OP block specific parts of a website. And the OP probably should block secure.wikimedia.org for completeness. One option if they do want to use the hosts it to use some alternative site like the mobile site (and put up with the limitations) for reading. Note howevers it may be possible to overide hosts blocks simply by using the IP with some sites. (You'd also need to make a script or something and then put these in your scheduled tasks or whatever to make the restriction time based.) Nil Einne (talk) 21:50, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

[3] may be of interest although I'm not sure if it allows to block specific parts of a site (I'm not sure how it works since it's able to block for all browsers, it may need to block DNS lookups and perhaps IPs). The site does give other suggestions. I also can't say if the program is safe since I haven't looked in to it. This commercial service [4] may also do this, although I'm not sure what it is or how it works. Some parental control apps also seem to have the feature [5], [6], [7] (4/5 questions), [8], [9] (not sure), [10] (not sure) although again I have no idea if they meet the OPs requirements or how they work or even if they are safe. (Vista and 7 have parental controls but the time limits seem to be limited to login times.) [11] also has some suggestions.

You could also set up a router with a transparent HTTP and HTTPS proxy (or a non transparent one and block all HTTP/HTTPS not going thru the proxy) and then set it up to block certain websites and parts of websites at defined times. You could even install some sort of secure cabinet to put the router in (I'll likely need to be at the point of entry of the internet line so you can't just connect it to something else) and depending on what else you need, perhaps make attempts to block any secure or uncertain traffic not going thru the proxy (to try to stop VPN usage) or anything that isn't detected as HTTP/HTTPS and then also block any HTTP/HTTPS sites which allow proxying. Of course no matter how strict you make it, likely you can still get around it and there's also the risk finding a way around it may become a goal in itself so if that level is necessary, you probably should seek different help.

Nil Einne (talk) 22:28, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

Windows 7 libraries?

Are there enough advantages in the Windows 7 library feature to make it worthwhile to take time to figure it out AND put up with the visual clutter of another level of storage? Or just get rid of them? Advice please. Thanks. Wanderer57 (talk) 05:21, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

Personally I would get to know it. It searches your entire hard drive for simlar types (e.g. Music will look for all music files) and display it all in one place. This is good if you downloaded a song from a friends website, and you cant remember where you saved it. Mrlittleirish 10:01, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

How do I register the domain ear.th?

I was surprised to see that no one has yet registered ear.th so I tried to on GoDaddy. I couldn't seem to find a way to register a .th on there.

Is there a special process to get a .th domain? How much is the cheapest rate for buying new .th domains?

"Ear.th" and other similar sites would be highly coveted by naturalists and environmentalists so I just wonder whether the domain name just hasn't crossed the minds of those behind such causes. --Tergigress (talk) 08:14, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

You can't directly buy a .th address - like .uk, you need a second-level domain in front of the .th address, like .co.th or .or.th. .th is also administered quite strictly - you need to actually run an organisation in Thailand with the same name as the domain you want to buy. Unless you run a company called "Ear" in Thailand, you'd be out of luck. Smurrayinchester 09:00, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

I suspect that publishing the idea hear means that someone in Thailand will be rushing to set up a company and do just that .... -- Q Chris (talk) 09:42, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

It would still have to be ear.co.th (or ear.or.th if it was a non-profit), which doesn't seem like a very useful domain hack. Smurrayinchester 11:14, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

I know nothing of the application process, but it sounds like if you have ~$185,000 upfront and $25,000 per year, you can potentially apply to purchase the .earth (or pretty much any) top level domain. See Generic_top-level_domain#June_20.2C_2011_vote_on_expansion_of_gTLDs. -- 140.142.20.101 (talk) 18:02, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

You could apply but to have any hope of success you need a lot more then just the money [12] [13]. In any case, it sounds like there may be at least one competitor for .earth [14]. (As mentioned in our article, check out [15], [16] [17] to see if anyone else emerges or ICANN in April to see who applied.) Nil Einne (talk) 22:33, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

Movie image distortion

What is the name of the type of distortion seen in the dark areas of the following two images and what causes it?

http://i40.tinypic.com/av29ly.jpg

http://i42.tinypic.com/358nwyc.jpg

Thanks! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.224.66.230 (talk) 15:43, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

That is called quantization distortion, which is caused by a limited level resolution in low luminance levels during video encoding. — Edokter (talk) — 18:24, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

And depending on how trained your eye is, you will also see some motion compensated blocking due to interframe coding. Nimur (talk) 18:34, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

Strictly speaking, blocking is due to block-transform intraframe coding. (In this case, the smallest discernible block size is 8x8, so the transform in question is likely DCT.) Motion compensation has the effect of blurring block edges.--Itinerant1 (talk) 21:02, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

...Right. It can also show up as an offset block; in other words, a clearly-defined block-edge that is not aligned to the (e.g.) 8x8 grid. Those can be hard to pick out from the background, but in pathological cases, you'll see a real boxy-looking glitch that isn't aligned correctly. You can also help train your eye to pick out linear superpositions of the discrete cosine transform basis set; for low-bitrate regions, you will typically see one single dominant component, rather than a well-represented superposition of many elements. This is by design; other-than-principle components are discarded to save bits, which is where we get the "loss" in "lossy compression." Aren't codecs fun?! I think they should begin training students in codec programming by their 3rd or 4th grade math classes - it will leapfrog their understanding of advanced numerical calculus, with an easy-to-understand practical application that everyone enjoys! "Compress this Youtube video... for homework!" Nimur (talk) 17:50, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

Those pics aren't too bad, if I turn the brightness up to max on my monitor I can make out the background. However, I've had some on streaming video so bad that nothing can help them. StuRat (talk) 21:04, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

Full virtualization of x86

Popek and Goldberg's requirements for virtualization are said to exclude x86 from being fully virtualizable but I don't see this as correct because a computer is able to model anything given enough resources and proper programming. What prevents x86 from being fully virtualizable and how does it do it? --Melab±1 ☎ 18:49, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

What does "fully virtualizable" mean? VirtualPC, VMWare, and many others have offered x86 virtualization for 15+ years now. RudolfRed (talk) 19:44, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

Yes and as our Popek and Goldberg virtualization requirements, Full virtualization and x86 virtualization say, the extensions introduced in around 2005-2006 arguably provide full virtualisation including meeting the Popek and Goldberg requirements. I guess you can come up with some definition that the x86 doesn't meet but we need more to go on then 'Popek and Goldberg's requirements for virtualization' when our own article says the x86 does meet them now. These articles also offer some explaination of why it's held that x86 did not meet the requirements before then, so I think we also need more explaination for why the OP is confused about that point as well. Nil Einne (talk) 20:07, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

What I don't understand is why the x86 ISA without virtualization extensions is not fully virtualizable. --Melab±1 ☎ 02:39, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

Here, we're including only instruction-for-instruction virtualization, in which the real processor executes the same instructions as the virtual processor, only interrupted when the instruction it's executing would interfere with the real machine. It's the reason VMWare, etc. are so incredibly fast. Therefore (apparently), they sacrificed correctness in order to do this, at least until recently. Paul (Stansifer) 02:53, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

I don't think the real processor executes the virtual processor's instructions. Otherwise how would it work when the virtual processor is not running on a x86 system? RudolfRed (talk) 03:10, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

Popek and Goldberg would not count that as efficient virtualization according to their definition. They are talking about a fairly specific scenario that doesn't cover everything that is popularly called virtualization. KarlLohmann (talk) 03:22, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

These programs only work on an x86 machine. If you want to virtualize between different processors, you have to resort to emulation, which is much slower.Paul (Stansifer) 12:48, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

That doesn't make sense to me. "Instruction-for-instruction virtualization" sounds redundant. How can there be any different kind of virtualization? --Melab±1 ☎ 19:49, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

Consider the entire set of steps needed to execute one instruction. Typically, this means "load an instruction from memory, decode its operation code; load its operand values from memory or register; perform the operation; store the result in the correct location." (This is a very "first-order" approximation of a RISC instruction pipeline. In fact, an x86 pipe is much worse). Now let's zoom in on one single sub-part of that cycle: "fetch" - (IF) - the part where we "load one instruction from memory." How do you do this operation? Well, you have hardware that reads the program counter; increments its address by one; sends a command to memory (checking whether the data is available in the L1 cache, then the L2 cache, then the L3 cache, then RAM, then triggering a soft-interrupt to a system-routine to activate the swap); and waits for the result. That's a lot of steps for just the first fraction of one single hardware instruction!

Let's momentarily zoom in on the pointer-arithmetic portion of Instruction Fetch. We can naively rely on the machine to perform pointer; but what if your memory layout is different? (Bear in mind - x86 is a CPU architecture, not a system architecture! Two x86 machines can have different memories). To rigorously model a memory, we must create a software model for memory, and for the memory control circuitry. To perform each IF transaction, we must execute an address-addition, perform a load, and then conditionally branch on the result of the emulated cache. Let's leave aside virtual memory, which must also be virtualized!

If you perform the easy-way-out "virtualization," you are assuming that the virtual machine's fetch-logic is identical to the hardware. If you perform the latter, you require tens, or perhaps (let's be realistic!) hundreds of thousands of actual instructions to correctly model a generalized memory-transaction. That means, perhaps, a 10⁶ slowdown between the true hardware and the emulated hardware, but it allows you to model any arbitrary type of computer architecture. And for the sake of hammering in this point: we still have only virtualized the first portion of an "IF" - approximately 5% of one single hardware instruction - on a simpler machine than x86.

In practice, VMs used for system-virtualization can't afford that. Only computer system designers perform such gate-level verification, to guarantee bit-exactness between the software-simulation and the actual hardware circuitry; but they don't try to use such systems to virtualize application servers. This type of virtualization is bit-exact - this is the "inefficient" (but robust and complete) virtualization Popek and Goldberg referenced. Nimur (talk) 21:08, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

In other words, you have the choice between having a program simulate a processor (slow) and just running the virtualized code and intercepting any attempts to do anything that affects the machine as a whole and only simulating those (tricky, but fast). Paul (Stansifer) 19:07, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

So virtualization is like a process that stands by and watches the "virtual" process execute directly and intervenes when it does something breaks away from its isolated environment. Yeesh, I thought virtualization included the execution of instructions with software. Could such a system be constructed to be a little more flexible in what it emulates/virtualizes? --Melab±1 ☎ 02:38, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

It doesn't run alongside; it sets up traps for the cases where the virtualized machine is about to get into trouble. What do you mean by "flexible"? Paul (Stansifer) 20:28, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

By flexible I mean one that can adapt to the hardware it is running on instead of the single model system described by Nimur. --Melab±1 ☎ 23:57, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

If you want fast virtualization, the answer is no. The reason that it works is that the overwhelming majority of instructions that the guest machine executes go through unimpeded. If the architecture of the guest machine is different than the host, the cost of detecting and managing the differences would be prohibitive. The only hope would be to translate the instructions ahead of time. Due to the nature of machine code, I believe this is impractical.Paul (Stansifer) 00:54, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

Here are a few things you may enjoy reading about, Melab:

• Valgrind, a memory emulator
• OpenRISC, a free and open-source RTL definition of a simple CPU
• VCS, part of Synopsys's Design Compiler; a very expensive tool that you will need if you want to run gate-level RTL simulations of systems (e.g., bit-exact CPU virtualization), on an x86 system.
  • Cver, a free-software alternative to VCS that is, unfortunately, almost completely non-functional.

If you are interested in system-emulation, you may want to research soft microprocessors available for several FPGA and PLD programming boards; I highly recommend the Altera Cyclone DE-2 and its descendants, which are powerful enough to emulate 32-bit CPUs at the gate-level. These hardware boards cost around $300, and come with all the software tools you need to emulate soft-CPUs; these small computer/PLD boards are orders of magnitude cheaper than a Synopsys license that will run on your "PC" computer. Nimur (talk) 21:28, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

Wordpress Question!

Hi, I downloaded my blog from Wordpress.org in my uncle´s computer, and i want to know if i can update my blog from any computer or does it have to be my uncle´s?

You'll need to install wordpress onto a server. Once that's done you should be able to log into it from anywhere. APL (talk) 20:20, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

March 27

Important question regarding Google Voice

I have just started using Google Voice with a friend. They are not local to my but my Google number has the same first digits as theirs, eg (xxx)xxx-???? with x's being the same.

If i text them or they text me, will they be charged? If i call them, or they call me, will they be charged?

I know its free to me but i worry about them. Also, might it depend on the area code and specific location? If so, how do i find this information?

Thanks! 137.81.118.126 (talk) 01:32, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

Google Voice to Google Voice texts and calls are free. Texts to Google Voice are free to the recipient. Texts from Google Voice (provided they go through) are free to the sender. Only calls to destinations outside the U.S. and Canada are charged on Google Voice[18]. It looks like your friend is also on Google Voice, so have fun! If they had a real mobile phone, they would typically pay for usage both sending and receiving, depending on the plan. To use Google Voice paid services, you have to deposit money in advance, so you won't incur a surprise bill. -- ke4roh (talk) 01:49, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

My friend does NOT have google voice. I chose my google number to be in their area code. This is what im worried about.

You seem to be saying a person not having google voice will pay money to receive and send texts? Same for calls i assume? 137.81.118.126 (talk) 02:54, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

Depends on their phone plan. If it's a land-line phone they can probably receive calls for no charge. If it's a cel-phone, it will count against their voice minutes. They might or might not have to pay for those. There's no way for us to know, you'd have to ask your friend what plan they signed up for.

(My own plan gives me unlimited voice and data, but I get charged for texts! Insane.) APL (talk) 03:59, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

strange behavior of facebook

For about the past week when I view facebook.com on either firefox or google chrome on my home computer, it behaves differently from the way it did earlier and from the way it behaves on other computers.

• I click on my own profile and nothing happens. I cannot view my own profile.
• I click on a picture someone posted, and instead of showing me the comments to the right of the picture it shows me a blank white space. But when I'm just viewing my wall, I can see that people have posted comments.
• At the bottom of my wall there's the perpetual moving icon normally seen while it's loading material that will appear within a matter of seconds, but it goes on for hours and nothing more appears below it.

Another strange behavior began at the same time. When I start typing a URL into the bar to point the browser at it, once I've typed "fac", or maybe less, the whole URL used to appear below that where I could click on it. Similarly with other URLs I've been to before. That stopped happening at the same time.

What's going on? Michael Hardy (talk) 03:57, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

And it's only with Facebook? For instance, if you start typing "en.wiki" then it will complete that to come here but trying to get to Facebook the same way, it will not? Dismas|^(talk) 04:19, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

Strangely, this has ceased as suddenly as it began. Michael Hardy (talk) 23:07, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

can SolidWorks 2011/2012 do video export?

My engineer has a detailed 3D model in SW 2011/2012 (we have licenses for both) and I would like a video clip of the model revolving 360 degrees around its vertical axis. The current approach is to export a series of PNG renders at fixed intervals and stitch them together using ffmpeg. I was wondering if such a simple "revolve once" video could instead be created entirely within SW. My engineer is not a SW expert and does not know. Wading through the massive online help for SW was inconclusive. Can this be done? Rendering time is irrelevant, we have good hardware... The Masked Booby (talk) 14:24, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

Can you rotate the object 360 now, at full resolution, but can't export this ? If so, perhaps some type of screencasting software could grab that. StuRat (talk) 21:26, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

Sort of. You can rotate freely of course but to produce (nearly) photorealistic exports there is a special plug-in that, in this instance, requires about an hour to render one PNG. So manually rotating and using screencapping software would get you a very low-res version of what I want, as it would be capturing the "working" model not the rendered model with shadows, reflections, and what not. The Masked Booby (talk) 23:33, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

If SolidWorks won't do this, another option might be to export the solid model to another system which will. StuRat (talk) 23:56, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

Problem with SOAP used from C#

Today I ran into a rather difficult problem at work. We are developing a C# application which communicates with an external web service, written in Java, developed and maintained by a third party. When the C# application sends a SOAP message, using a C# client class generated by the computer from a WSDL description, it throws an exception with the message "No deserializer registered", followed by the name of the root element in the body of the SOAP message, and the WSDL description's root namespace. I have verified both of these are mentioned in the WSDL description. However, when I sent the same SOAP message that the C# application generated through SoapUI, I got a proper response from the web service. I set up a mock web service in SoapUI to always return a direct copy-paste of this response, and changed the application to use that instead. Then everything went smoothly. What possible difference could there be between contacting the real web service directly and contacting a mock web service that returns the exact same response? JIP | Talk 19:05, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

Install wireshark on one of the machines, and add a capture filter for the other machine, then start capturing. Rerun the WSDL query, stop the capture, right click on a TCP packet, and select "Follow TCP conversation". You can then see what the client and server sent to each other. Wireshark makes protocol analysis a breeze. CS Miller (talk) 19:19, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

OK, I might give it a try. There is the problem that neither of the machines are exactly owned by our company. The client is our customer's on-site test machine, which we have access to. The server is the third party's test machine, which we don't have access to. This means that I will have to e-mail a contact person at the third party and instruct him what to do. JIP | Talk 19:31, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

You can also install wireshark on a third machine. You'll need a network tap, a hub (good luck getting one), a smart switch with a network-monitor port, or set the third machine to act as a bridge. However, some ADSL/wifi/four-port-ethernet home routers do use hubs; turn off DHCP/DNS on it. SOAP/WSDL are XML formatted request/replies, so as you surmised, white space shouldn't matter, but buggy implementations are a different matter. CS Miller (talk) 20:06, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

Alternative to Finder

Finder sucks. I can deal with it most of the time, but dragging files to move them is VERY annoying. Is there a free alternative to Finder that has a "move to" option up in the application menu like Windows File Explorer? --Melab±1 ☎ 20:11, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

mv is available on OS X. Nimur (talk) 20:47, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

You can use automator to create an action applicable to all files that matches this functionality, and add it to the right click on file[s]. Remember to test your programming. Fifelfoo (talk) 02:43, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Looking for free Java editor

Does anyone here know free Java editor that can debug Java script which is embedded in HTML? --Gilisa (talk) 21:03, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

You should clarify: are you seeking a JavaScript or a Java programming language utility? Despite their similar names, and some historical legacy, JavaScript is essentially unrelated to Java. It sounds like you want a JavaScript debugger: we list several in the Development Tools section of our article. Nimur (talk) 21:33, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

Answering machine which requires hitting a button to save a message

I recently asked what appears to have been an overly ambitious question: Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Computing/2012_March_13#Interactive_voice_response_recommendation_.3F. Let me lower my standards considerably to see if I can get a recommendation (and thanks to everyone who tried last time):

1) I'd like an answering machine that will not record a message unless the person on the other end hits a button on their phone.

2) If they don't have a touch-tone phone, I'm fine with them not being able to leave a message. The object is to avoid having to listen to anything from a robocalling politician or telemarketer.

3) Alternatively, the answering machine can record such messages, so long as they go into a separate mailbox and do not use up space from the other mailboxes. I will then just let the robocaller mailbox overflow and ignore it.

Any recommendations ? StuRat (talk) 22:42, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

I'm not sure where you live, but trueCall had a brief time of high profile in the UK after featuring on Dragons' Den (UK). It doesn't seem to be internationally available or compatible, though. 77.97.198.48 (talk) 23:10, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

I live in the US. I wasn't aware that the UK and US had different formats for phone lines or caller ID (which is apparently required for that product). StuRat (talk) 23:18, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

We have an old GE machine here at work lke this. It has three different boxes. I can't find the instructions but I think if you don't press a button to one of the other boxes it defaults to #1. So with something like that and your message sending the robocaller or telemarketer to the default (they don't press a button) and your friends and family to box 2 or 3 might work for you. CambridgeBayWeather (talk) 01:34, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

I've seen those, but thought that all mailboxes share the same allocation, so that box 1 overfills not only itself but also boxes 2 and 3. StuRat (talk) 03:29, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

I think I suggested this before - why not register with a do-not-call list? I am very pleased with the results on my phone. Alternatively, my sister has a useful method. Her machine is permanently full and she never picksup the messages. Unknown callers listen to the message and try to leave a message (I'm not sure it tells the caller that it is full - maybe messages just get dumped). Anyone who actually knows her, knows not to leave a message and instead to call back later or call her mobile. Astronaut (talk) 12:34, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

Politicians exempted themselves from Do Not Call regulations in the US. --LarryMac | Talk 15:24, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

Exactly, which is why I need to get this settled well before the general US election in November, when my phone will once again become unusable, due to robocalling politicians, as it did during our primary. (Actually, they will probably resume robocalling as soon as a the Republican candidates are decided upon.) StuRat (talk) 18:09, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

Why not relocate to Europe until all the Chads have been scrutinized and counted? You will also get the chance to meet all sorts of interesting people, non-people and life-forms that we don't yet have a term for. It'll be fun! --Aspro (talk) 18:37, 28 March 2012 (UTC)--Aspro (talk) 18:37, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

Perhaps I should move to Chad ? I wonder if Chad Everett lives there. StuRat (talk) 18:40, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

How about the GE 29869? The user manual is found here, which states "You can direct callers to leave messages in a specific mailbox by having them press the desired mailbox (1-4) after the greeting plays. If no mailbox is selected, the incoming messages automatically go into mailbox 1." This seems to meet the requirement of directing robots into a 'junk' mailbox. The only thing I can't ascertain is if the capacity is independent of the other 3 mailboxes. There is a 40 minute capacity, but I can't find anything that says if it's shared or not. However, it is possible to empty mailbox 1 without having to listen to the messages and without deleting messages in the other mailboxes, so maybe you could just incorporate dumping the junk messages once a week or so into your routine. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 15:06, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

Yes, if I can't find any answering machine which does exactly what I want, that's what I will end up doing. StuRat (talk) 18:07, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

There's stuff like this (and, since that is apparently discontinued, the page links to alternatives). A better solution would probably be to connect your phone line to an ATA and then use Asterisk or the like to implement a challenge & response system, or perhaps something meaner. :D ¦ Reisio (talk) 23:24, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

March 28

ps3 superwihte option

I have my ps3 hooked up to my 23 hp monitor over hdmi-dvi and been wondering as to what this option is better set to (that is Y Pb / Cb Pr / Cr Super-White (HDMI)) I got that RGB should be set to full if it's to be connected to a pc monitor, deep color hdmi- also should be auto, but this(Super-White ), is it better off being left off or on???

thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.35.25.237 (talk) 06:19, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

The only thing I can recomend is trying it and seeing what you like the best. Mrlittleirish 08:05, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

i just wanna know whether deep color output and that superwhite shit affect games if theyre only there for bluerayss and other media video than i could care less what they do

If I understand it correctly, it shouldn't affect games either way. If I'm wrong, and superwhite does require extra graphics processing, and you see a lag while playing games with it on, then turn it back off. StuRat (talk) 18:04, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

TMP???.EXE issue

Since I did a full OS reinstall, my temp directory is crawling with EXE files, named tmp100.exe, tmp163.exe, and so on. Only some 3-digit numbers appear, but it goes on and on. Is that a virus?

The TMP EXEs degrade performance and occupy more RAM than the OS itself (XP). They keep popping up after deletion if at all possible; they are quite malicious in that they seem to trick Explorer most of the time into displaying nonsensical message boxes. For example, that TMP100 (rather than TMP100.EXE!) "cannot be deleted... check if the drive is neither full" (it's only half full btw, nothing more) "nor read-only" (it's an ordinary HDD, even Bill Gates knows that they aren't read-only media) "and if it is in use by another process" (so even the OS can't say which one is the process which keeps hugging the file -- WTF???) I can reboot and delete the files then, but what I really want is to kill the process which keeps downloading EXEs without my say-so, even if it's not a virus. 217.251.154.175 (talk) 11:24, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

Did you reinstall from official Microsoft media, or from something you got off the internet? 87.114.248.222 (talk) 12:00, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

That error message is uninformative, but common, and consistent with the files being legitimate. When you say that they're taking up RAM, do you mean that they're actually running, according to Task Manager? Anyway, don't randomly delete files in system directories; you should run a reputable anti-malware program instead. I believe that some people here have good suggestions. Paul (Stansifer) 18:58, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

This says it is malware. Run a good anti-malware program. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 00:27, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Uh... that site is an obvious scam. If you download the proffered "Fix-tmp100.exe" and run it, then you'll probably have malware. -- BenRG (talk) 02:41, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

[19] finds a very old malware with such a file name. However I agree with 87 here, you need to work out how you got this rather then just trying to kill a few of the symptoms, particularly if you don't know enough to work out how to delete the files or find the process spawing the files yourself. If for example you install Windows XP from some random media you got off the internet and didn't in any way try to verify the authenticity of what you downloaded, then it's easily possible the installation was screwed from the beginning and it's unlikely to be a good idea to try to save it. Nil Einne (talk) 04:10, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

87.114.248.222: XP from genuine Microsoft CD, and most programs (VLC, Winamp, Firefox and OpenOffice) from magazine DVD.

Paul: They are not in the system directory, but in the temp directory. Timestamps indicate they are downloaded while I'm dialed-up. Some appear in the process list, and I can kill the processes with no noticeable effect (except RAM and CPU usage, which is quite noticeable).

Oh, and if the OS cannot even pinpoint if it's running out of HDD space, experiencing a write error, or the file is already open (which would be detected before there is an actual access on the media), I doubt that the EXE files are anywhere good at all. They don't give the correct file name either.

Bubba73: What to say about that, besides Wikipedia:WHACK! ;)

Nil Einne: the media were genuine. The only EXEs I downloaded were Povray, Fractint, and some drivers. I'll have a look at the link you provided.

217.251.166.4 (talk) 05:25, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

For the record, I have the following files from yesterday: tmp166.exe tmp168.exe tmp163.exe tmp167.exe tmp161.exe tmp165.exe, in that order. I could delete all of them without any issues, probably because they are from yesterday's Windows session. None were running today. 217.251.160.76 (talk) 05:31, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

"When I was dialed up". You're on dialup then I take it? Is your XP fully up to date? Do you have a decent firewall? An out of date copy of XP will be compromised within minutes of going onto the internet, without you having to do anything, and the updates you will have to download are probably quite huge for a dialup user. If I were you I'd try and get a copy of Windows XP with SP3 preinstalled from somewhere reliable. 192.84.79.2 (talk) 10:33, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

You should run an anti-malware program. The error message is perfectly normal, but the fact that executables with those names are running is a bad sign. There's no point in attempting to fix the problem manually unless you're an expert. Paul (Stansifer) 20:23, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Isn't there anything in-between? Like something to keep programs creating EXE files unless the user tells them to do so (which will amount to blocking all non-setup programs -- I don't code on my machine, or even ALL programs once the installation is complete). I'll try to get SP3 rather than SP2, but from what I've noticed, Bill Gates doesn't seem to close security holes anyway, just replace them with newer holes which the hackers don't know. One week later, they find out, and the process repeats itself...

"The error message is perfectly normal"? I'd say we used to have better error messages in the DOS years. At least we were asked if we wanted to "Retry/Abort/Ignore", rather than to press a nonsensical "OK" button for something that's not at all OK. If that's "normal" behavior, I have to wonder if Micro$oft ever uses its own products... but i digress...

I'll reinstall from a SP3 CD and see if that helps. By then, the topic will probably have fallen off the top of the reference desk. Will I have to start another topic or add to this one?

217.251.152.159 (talk) 05:30, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Having malware on your machine is a serious problem, often in non-visible ways. Don't treat just the obvious symptoms. Also, service packs primarily consist of security refinements, so it is prudent to keep up-to-date, even though it is annoying. Paul (Stansifer) 14:26, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

name of deciding input for a logic gate

What is the name for the logic input which decides the o/p of a logic gate? for example, a logic zero effectively decides the o/p of an and gate irrespective of other inputs. 117.230.35.251 (talk) 15:56, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

Image processing- Applying a gradient of defocus through an image

Hi,

I'm looking to apply a blurring of an image so that the top appears sharp and in focus and the bottom blurry with a nice linearity in-between.

I understand that blurring can be performed by applying a Gaussian blur kernel, however I'm not sure how to weight this like I mentioned.

Would anyone know how or know of any resources which discuss how this may be done? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kingstonjr (talk • contribs) 17:27, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

Are you looking to write your own program to do this, write a macro for an existing app, or use an existing tool ? And is this a one-time thing, or do you need to do this regularly ? StuRat (talk) 17:58, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

Sounds very much like your requiring the techniques used in sudo-tilt -shift. [20]. The best free software for doing this is GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) [21] Does Gaussian blur, and everything, other than make you a really good cup tea (or coffee).--Aspro (talk) 18:18, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

Hi, well at the moment I'm using a combination of Python and ImageJ, ideally I'd like to code my own program for this in python as part of an existing program, but I won't be turning out high volumes of images so this doesn't need to be done at high frequency. KingstonJr (talk) 18:28, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

OK, for a high volume I was going to suggest an editable graph where you can adjust the exact rate of blurring as a function of vertical distance (similar to how many systems allow you to adjust brightness, colors, etc.), but for a low volume I'd just hard-code the rate of blurring and rewrite it when you need to change it. StuRat (talk) 18:35, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

OK thanks, so how exactly do I do that, I have a depth map varying vertically from 0 to 255 do I apply a Gaussian convolution kernel on that and then multiply onto my sample image? KingstonJr (talk) 18:44, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

I'm not familiar with the "Gaussian convolution kernel", but I'd assume it has variables for both the amount of blur between adjacent pixels and/or the distance at which pixels are blurred together. So, each of those variables would then change linearly. Not sure how they handle edges and corners, though, as there you lack some of the neighboring pixels to blur with. Cropping the pic a bit on all sides might be needed there, with more blurring requiring more cropping. StuRat (talk) 18:50, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

More theory than you ever wanted! On non-stationary convolution and inverse convolution. Because the gaussian kernel is so trivial, you probably won't have stability issues, but as always, check the math to ensure whatever algorithmically-generated coefficients you create are sensible. Nimur (talk) 18:57, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

And, an efficient implementation in FORTRAN. Source code is available. If you don't care about efficiency, you can avoid the helix, and use a simple 2D FIR filter with a gaussian kernel with a 2-dimensional python array. In truth, it's debatable which will run faster, on modern hardware, due to memory locality and caches. Nimur (talk) 19:07, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

And, for the less-technical user, here's a cheat, from a GIMP user's forum post: duplicate your layer; use a strong blur; and alpha-blend it on top of the original un-blurred layer, using a gradient alpha mask. This is not identical to a position-weighted blur; but it's visually similar, and easier to make happen without writing a GIMP plugin. Nimur (talk) 19:48, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

Is there a phone app that detects being inside polite areas, and auto-silence the phone?

How such an app would work: The app works with your phone's GPS to detect that you're inside a symphony hall, school building, church, or other structures where higher manners are expected. Once you are, it automatically switches your ringer to vibrate (or silent, depending on preferences set.)

Is there such an app in existence out there? (Preferably for Android phones?)

If not, what would it take to program said app? What new advances would it require to make this possible? --129.130.18.69 (talk) 21:09, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

Sort of. Apps exist, such as Tasker, Llama and Locale that allow you to manage aspects of your Android phone based on predefined locations. So, if you want your phone to turn the ringer off when you get to work, you set 'Work' as a location, and tell it to be silent when you are at the location 'Work'. With this function, you could set all the places you might be likely to visit and need to be quiet, and set the phone to be silent when you are there. But if you wanted to go to the next step, and pro-actively determine the type of location you are in, and manage the phone based on that, these apps won't help. However, Tasker is slightly more powerful than the other two listed, and allows a large amount of customisation. If you have some coding knowledge, it might be possible to design some system that polls the location, checks the coordinates to see if your location includes any 'quiet places', and then mutes the phone. You can get information on developing with Tasker at http://tasker.dinglisch.net/. I suspect, though, that this might be a rather ambitious project! - Cucumber Mike (talk) 21:41, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

(ec with Mike) As to the last part of your question - I made the same complaint back in 2006. Potentially, things are better now, because so many people carry smart phones for which apps like the one you describe could reasonably be written. A modern smartphone usually has Bluetooth and WiFi capability, so one could implement a scheme where a given Wifi SSID (or something comparable on Bluetooth) could be taken as a signal to mute. There's always the risk some prankster uses that to disable ringing in other, non-quiet locations, or some business like a mini-mall with daft ideas misuses it or mis-installs it (so you miss a call because some crank who owns a laundromat is bleeding the "go silent" SSID out over the shared parking lot). A better regulated system (say with a cryptographic exchange) where the senders were available only to institutions with some reasonable need for one (after all, if you don't trust the system, you'll uninstall the app) might be sensible. Say you rent out the "go silent" emitters, and the proceeds go to some worthy charity. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 21:47, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

And someone in that Slashdot discussion (ah, back when Slashdot was worthwhile) linked to this 2000 article about the Q-Zone technology, which is pretty much what you're after. I can't find any mention of (that) Q-Zone (at least under that name), suggesting it didn't fly. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 22:01, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

I had an idea. How about using Tasker in conjunction with Foursquare to give you nearby venues in specific categories. Then, if you are <100m from a venue whose category = 'school', 'church', etc, it will mute the phone. Here's a script to allow auto-checkin - you might be able to modify that to check for a venue's category. Documentation on Foursquare's api is here - I'm afraid you'll have to get someone else to help with the coding if needed - that's a bit out of my league! - Cucumber Mike (talk) 22:53, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

One issue I see is that this is likely to depend on time, location within the building (if you're even within the building) and person. For example, a priest or minister in their office or whatever may not want their phone to be on silent unless they're meeting someone or if there is a mass or similar in progress even if that is part of the church. And while a student or parent may want their phone to be silent most of the time, and a teacher may want it on silent while in a classroom, depending on the the etiquette they may not want it while in the teachers lounge or their office, let alone a principal. Even a student may want it on at some times. Nil Einne (talk) 23:52, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

GNU/Linux: ln -s dereference "."

When I type

ln -s ./Interface ~/.wine/drive_c/Interface

I get a symlink that points to itself. How do I specify to ln that by "." I mean the current working directory (meaning that it should resolve "." before building the symlink, rather than leaving it to be resolved when the link is followed)? NeonMerlin 23:26, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

You can't do that with a "." because the symlink target is always interpreted relative to the directory that holds the link. The symlink as stored on disk won't remember where you were sitting when you created the link, so you have to include that path to "get back here from there" as part of the symlink target. The easiest way is to use the absolute path of your current directory, which you can get from the shell variable $PWD.

ln -s $PWD/Interface ~/.wine/drive_c/Interface

If you don't like that, you have to imagine that you're already in the ~/.wine/drive_c directory, and write the path you'd use to get back to where you are now. If you're currently in ~/foo you could do

ln -s ../../foo/Interface ~/.wine/drive_c/Interface

That can be easier to understand if you cd to the ~/.wine/drive_c directory and run

ln -s ../../foo/Interface Interface

which you can abbreviate as

ln -s ../../foo/Interface .

68.60.252.82 (talk) 01:15, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

March 29

Digital TV question

I finally have propelled myself out of the Stone Age and bought a DTV-compatible television. Right now, I'm using regular rabbit ears (ones I used back in the '90s) to catch a signal. It looks good, but I can't tell whether or not it's HD. So, must an antenna be "HDTV-compatible" to catch an HD signal? Or will any antenna do? 75.162.160.104 (talk) 01:30, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Pretty much any antenna will work, to some extent. However, normal TV antennae have both a loop for UHF and rabbit ears for VHF. Most digital stations are on UHF, so that loop is the more important, but your really should have both. If you tell me where you live, I can tell you if you have UHF or VHF stations there (you can't just go off the channel numbers anymore).

The biggest clue that you are watching digital TV is that the channels are now like 7.1 or 7-1, instead of just 7. Also, when you get a weak signal, the behavior is quite different. Instead of getting "snow" on the screen, it freezes up, forms big blocks, goes black, and says "No signal". Another way to tell the difference is when reading text, like the credits at the end of a movie. If they are fuzzy, it's probably analog. If they are sharp, it's digital. StuRat (talk) 01:33, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

I live in Salt Lake City. I know I'm receiving digital channels—I just don't know if they're showing up in HD (because of the age of my antenna). The aspect ratio is what one would expect with HD, but I can't tell if picture quality is to that level (I believe it is, but you know how we can all start second guessing sometimes). 75.162.160.104 (talk) 01:40, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

In Salt Lake City, it looks like all the stations are on UHF now, so you can toss out the rabbit ears and just use the loop (unless it's an integrated unit with both). You seem to be lucky, living in a flat city surrounded by mountains, which is about ideal for broadcasting. You should get the following stations there:

 2-1 CBS
 4-1 ABC
 5-1 NBC
 7-1 PBS
 9-1 PBS
11-1 PBS
13-1 FOX
14-1 MyTV
16-1 ION
20-1 Independent
24-1 Independent
30-1 CW
32-1 Univision

This lists the first sub-channel for each station, but there might be others, like 2-2, 2-3, 2-4, 2-5. With digital TV, you can have up to 5 sub-channels for each station. Some stations may elect to show programming from other networks, such as RTN, on some of their subchannels. Others may offer duplicate programming at either different times, or in different formats (1080i vs. 720p).

As for the picture quality, I still suggest trying to read the tiny credits at the end of a movie.

I'm also curious, since analog TV has been shut off for quite some time now, does this mean you've gone without a TV since then ? StuRat (talk) 01:50, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Also, if you do have reception problems, you might consider a directional antenna, since all stations seem to originate from the same area, SWS of the city (with the exception of Univision, which is almost due south). StuRat (talk) 02:13, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for the response. For whatever reason, I'm not receiving KSL-TV (NBC) at all. All other channels work except that one. Hmm. Perhaps I might consider getting a directional antenna.

To answer your question, I was using a digital-to-analog converter box to view television (on a non-HD-compatible television).

And I switched between an HD and non-HD newscast, and I'm almost positive I'm viewing true HD. Thanks for your help! 67.2.250.140 (talk) 04:20, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Regarding the missing station: This should be a strong signal, as it's from the same location as the rest, the highest power level of any of them, and at the frequency of old UHF channel 38, which is right in the middle of the group. (Here's where I got that info, just enter your city in the upper, left corner, then click on the call letters for more info: [22].) So, a directional antenna probably won't help. Did you get this station with your digital-to-analog converter box ? If your TV works by initially building a list of available channels during a scan, then just flips between those on the list, this system has a major flaw: any station not broadcasting during the scan is then permanently blocked. So, if they were doing maintenance or otherwise down when the scan occurred, your TV will never find it. Better TVs have an "EZ add" option which will rescan, and just add any new channels found, or allow you to type in the broadcast channel (38, in this case), and add it that way. You might also be able to type in 38 on the remote and see it jump to the virtual channel 5-1 without changing the list. Some TVs, unfortunately, make you rescan the entire list, meaning you might add the missing channels, but lose any others which are down for maintenance now. If none of this helps, you can report the problem to the station, here: [23]. StuRat (talk) 05:37, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Age of antenna or quality of signal has nothing to do with resolution in DTV. A bad signal makes pictures freeze and go blocky, not fuzzy. Many 21st Century TV sets have a "Menu" button whose menu shows technical information about the signal you're watching including such numbers as "1080i" for resolution. Jim.henderson (talk) 04:55, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Are there still any over-the-air that aren't HD? I assumed that the DTV switchover would have coincided with an HD shift as well. (I know they aren't the same thing). Mingmingla (talk) 23:58, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

In the US, major network channels are HD, and sometimes have one or two SD subchannels. Other channels sometimes choose to fit 4, 5, or 6 SD subchannels (and no HD channels) into their channel stream. --Bavi H (talk) 05:24, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

No, there are still over-the-air networks that aren't HD. Two that I can think of off the top of my head are my local ION and TBN stations. Heck, I even still get two analog channels (SkyTrak weather and an analog version of ION). - Purplewowies (talk) 14:55, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

> I can't tell whether or not it's HD.

As Jim.henderson said, most digital TVs will have an Info button on the remote that will show information about the current program. This information might include the format currently being broadcast (like 480i, 720p, or 1080i), or maybe just an HD icon (if the resolution is 720p or 1080i).

You can also find resolution information for over-the-air digital channels at SiliconDust channel list or RabbitEars.Info lists. For RabbitEars, click on the city name (NOT the rank number), then click on the channel call letters. Or type a channel call sign in the search box at the top. --Bavi H (talk) 05:37, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

> Must an antenna be "HDTV-compatible" to catch an HD signal? Or will any antenna do?

As Jim.henderson said, the antenna has no effect on if you get an SD or HD resolution. As a rough analogy, imagine viewing an image on a website over your home wireless network. The image resolution might be small or large, but the quality of the wireless signal doesn't affect the resolution of the image. In a similar way, your TV antenna and the quality of the TV signal doesn't affect the channel resolution format. The resolution is just a format flag encoded in the channel's digital data.

The same kinds of antennas are used for analog and digital TV signals because they're transmitted on the same channel frequencies. However, when digital TV signals get weaker, the picture will get blocky or go out completely, whereas analog TV signals remain visible with much weaker signals. If you can't get a certain digital channel, try repositioning your antenna then rescanning. For example, you might move the antenna higher, rotate it 90 degrees, or move it further away from any appliances. Instead of rescanning every time, you can try a process like StuRat mentioned. For KSL, try entering 38.1 on the remote and see if you get a black screen with a "no signal" message. If you do, you can also try turning on the signal meter, if your TV has one. Change the antenna position, then wait a few seconds to see if the signal meter or picture improves.

If that still doesn't help, you might look for a higher quality antenna. Some antennas marked as HD or digital are designed to pick up weaker signals or have amplifiers to help improve the signal. But in general, "HD" or "digital" marks on an antenna are misleading, because an antenna can't tell if it's getting analog or digital, HD or SD. An antenna just receives signals in the frequency range it was designed for, and it's up to the TV to tune/filter to a single channel frequency and decode if the signal is analog or digital, SD or HD. --Bavi H (talk) 05:37, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

It still doesn't sound like an antenna issue, for the reasons I mentioned previously. If that station was farther away, broadcasting at a reduced power, at a different frequency distant from the rest, or in another direction, then I might agree. Similarly if the symptoms were macro-blocking, freezing, and a periodic "No signal" message. But none of this applies in this case. StuRat (talk) 20:20, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Remembering logins in Firefox

Here is the landing page for a web-based financial application called MoneyGuide Pro. In their latest rework of the website, the login ID/PW are now behind/under the green oval dropdown box on the right side.

Can I make Firefox remember this login? I've been unsuccessful with my limited efforts...

--DaHorsesMouth (talk) 02:50, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

That form has the autocomplete=off attribute set. This Greasemonkey will fix it for you. --Sean 14:18, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Cannot access Google groups when logged in

When I try to view any google group I get a box saying "An error occurred while communicating with the server. Reload". Reloading just gives the same message again. If I log out or use an incognito window I can see public groups. This happens at work and at home, on Windows and Linux so it is not a problem with my local system. Any ideas what's wrong or where to report it? -- Q Chris (talk) 15:04, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Do you have a Google Apps account? This page (sorry, but it's a Google Groups page!) has a collection of people having problems with viewing Google Groups from a Google Apps account. It sounds unlike what you're experiencing, but I haven't been able to find anyone else with the problem you're having. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 19:34, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

No I have an ordinary google account. On the web I have found other people report the same thing, but no solution. here is one group I cannot access when logged in.

Packet

What are packets?? exatcly?? I mean on thewikipedia article of packet it says that packets are bits transfered from 1 computer to another, so an HTTP get request can be considered a packet??? Let's say I somehow got 1 raw packet, if I open it with notepad, would I see gibberish?(binary) or would I see something human readable, or both?? 190.60.93.218 (talk) 17:38, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

I'd expect a mixture, unless it's encoded for security, then it would all be gibberish. StuRat (talk) 17:40, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

My question is kinda.. How computers understand them? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 190.60.93.218 (talk) 18:07, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Because computers can understand binary? One of the reasons certain files look like gibberish is that they're encoding numbers as binary numbers, rather than the ASCII code for the symbolic representation. For example, say a computer wants to store a value of "nine". If it's storing it as just a binary number, it would be as 00001001. On the other hand, if it wants to store the character "9", that would be 00111001 in ASCII. But if it tried to interpret 00001001 as an ASCII character, it would be as the horizontal tab control character, and if it tried to interpret 00111001 as a binary number, it would be as the quantity fifty-seven. That's why binary files look like gibberish when you open them with a text editors. The file is storing numbers as binary numbers, but the text editor is trying to interpret them as ASCII codes, resulting in undecipherable noise. -- 140.142.20.101 (talk) 18:53, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Binary files are compiled in such a way that they tell the processor (or the os) what to do, they're made with compilers. etc...

They also have information about IP and stuff, Where is it stored? For example when you are downloading a file, they're divided in packets. I suppose they got a header, and a piece of the file you are currently downloaders, (like HTTP requests) Are HTTP requests packets too? for example

GET /enwiki/w/Packet_sniffer /HTTP/1.1
Host: http://en.wikipedia.org/
User-Agent: None lol
Accept-Language: en-US
Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate,sdch
Connection: keep-alive

Well, that's an http request. It would be like a packet??? 190.60.93.218 (talk) 19:09, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

A packet is like a postcard with an addressee, a return address, and a "payload" (the message written on it). On the Internet all data is sent in packets. However, almost all data, including HTTP requests and downloaded files, is sent using TCP, which treats the data as a continuous stream (breaking it into packets internally, but not in a way that's visible to the program that uses TCP). So that HTTP request might be sent as a single packet, or split into several packets, or bundled with other data (such as POST data) in a single packet. -- BenRG (talk) 19:28, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Exactly. What you define as a packet depends on which layer of abstraction you're talking about. TCP packets may not be the same as Ethernet packets. You should think of packets as a way of breaking up data into chunks, and then to apply certain things to those chunks... things like destination address, checksums, maybe other flags. Each protocol that deals with the underlying data will do this itself. You might investigate Wireshark as this will show you the actual packets themselves. Shadowjams (talk) 00:44, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

One issue is that there isn't a single thing as a packet - at least for network communication, there's typically several layers. See the figure in Internet Protocol for an example. In a typical web request, the network card on your computer will emit an Ethernet packet which wraps an Internet Protocol packet which wraps a Transmission Control Protocol packet which wraps Hypertext Transfer Protocol data. Your IP address is technically part of the Internet Protocol layer. For IPv4 (the dotted quad addresses), the form of the packet header is detailed at IPv4#Packet_structure. As you can see from that section, the information is positionally encoded in binary form in the header of the packet. For example, the IP address of where you're sending it to is bits 192 to 159 (effectively bytes 16 to 19, inclusive) of the header. As you can see from the size, it's not sent as a text representation, but as four binary encoded bytes (that's why each part of the quad always falls between 0 & 255). So, you may ask, how do you know which bit is the starting bit? Well, for IP, that's determined by the surrounding link layer. For example, on ethernet, there is an Ethernet frame specification which specifies where the inner packet starts. On DSL, there's a different encoding. These are all typically binary encoded, so if you looked at the raw captured bit stream with a text editor, it'd all be gibberish. If you have a program that's intended for inspecting packets, it may be able to do the decoding and can display the information in human-readable form - but the packets themselves as they exist on the wire aren't transmitted as text. -- 140.142.20.101 (talk) 19:41, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Odd compiler warnings.

GCC gives me the following warning, repeated a couple dozen times (with variations for other functions), every time I compile my latest project. I can't make heads or tails of what's causing it.

main.c:63:7: warning: passing argument 2 of 'addNode' from incompatible pointer type [enabled by default]

main.c:53:5: note: expected 'struct node *' but argument is of type 'struct node *'

The program seems to run fine despite the warnings. What's causing it, and am I safe if I ignore it? Horselover Frost (talk · edits) 19:53, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

If you can cook it down to the minimal example that generates this (surely a handful of lines) it'd be much easier for us to comment. GCC can be picky, but doesn't generate warnings out of spite, and if you don't understand what the warning means for your code, it means you don't really understand your code. Most C warnings can be ignored, but a tiny handful signify catastrophic errors that kill people; it's easier to fix the problems that the warning indicates than to find the evil ones amid the trivial crowd. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 20:17, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

All right, how's this?

#include <stdlib.h>

typedef struct {
  struct node * next;
} node;

void addNode (node * top, node * new);

int main()
{
  node * node1=(node *)calloc(1, sizeof(node));
  node1->next=NULL;
  node * node2=(node *)calloc(1, sizeof(node));
  node2->next=NULL;
  addNode(node1, node2);
}

void addNode (node * top, node * new)
{
  if (top->next==NULL)
    top->next=new;
  else
    addNode(top->next, new);
}

This code is similar to what I'm using, and causes the same warnings I'm getting. If it matters, I'm using gcc 4.6.3, and targeting x86-64. Horselover Frost (talk · edits) 21:25, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Try this:

typedef struct n {
  struct n * next;
} node;

Which is probably what you mean. Tangentially (and not the cause of your warnings) you don't need to cast the returns from calloc -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 21:40, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

I recommend getting clang, at least for when gcc messages fail to be sane. --145.94.77.43 (talk) 06:52, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

sketchup modelling

So, I'm trying to make a simple 3D model in sketchup, which it turns out is pretty much the worst modelling program ever, but it's what I've been told I have to use. I have a larger block and a smaller block, and I need to make a shallow indentation in the larger block the exact same shape as the smaller, so I coped the smaller block and moved it into position on the larger, and tried to drag the shape down, but it refuses to work. Anyone know any other way I can get it to do what I want?

148.197.81.179 (talk) 20:02, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

I don't know how to use Sketchup, but what you are trying to do is a shape "subtraction" operation (where you subtract the area of one shape from another). This page discusses how to do it. --Mr.98 (talk) 23:18, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Pretty sure I tried that, but I can give it another go. 148.197.81.179 (talk) 00:46, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

It appears that subtraction is a "pro only" feature. If you aren't using sketchup pro you can get a free trial just for this assignment (it gives you eight hours of use), or if you are a student you could buy an educational licence for US $50. Otherwise it might get expensive! The way to do this in the free version (or at least it was several years ago when I last used it) is to draw a 2D projection of the smaller block on the surface of the larger block (e.g. draw a rectangle if the smaller block is a cuboid) and then use the push-pull tool to do the indentation (you can click on the shape and then type in a displacement if you want to be precise). If you need a more complex shape you need to build it up in this way (e.g. by drawing lines and using the move tool to create angled surfaces etc.). If you need a curved e.g. spherical indentation I think you are pretty much out of luck in the free version. If you give some more indication about the geometry of both blocks and how you want it to look in the end I can try to give you some more specific ideas. I agree this is an awkward way to work for anything more than the simplest shapes but that's exactly the point - they want people who need it for more than messing about to get fed up with it and buy the pro version! Equisetum (talk | contributions) 10:06, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Oh, it just suddenly started working. That's computers for you. Had a bit of trouble with a shape in the middle that was supposed to be left at the original height, but randomly drawing just one line on the edge of that put it back. strange program, I hope I never have to use it again. 148.197.81.179 (talk) 18:35, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

SQL - Multiple joins

I've got some tables which have the following columns (and others which aren't important for what I'm asking):

• Employee (Id, Name)
• Tool (Id, ToolType_Id, Code)
• ToolType (Id, Key)
• ToolLoan (Id, Tool_Id, Employee_Id, LoanDate, ReturnDate)

As part of a sort of PHP/MySQL application I'm creating I want to be able to show all Tools currently on loan (so ReturnDate would be NULL) in the following format:

Tool Code | Tool Type | Employee Name | Loan Date

I believe this is done using an SQL JOIN but I don't know what the structure is for multiple JOINs --TuringMachine17 (talk) 21:46, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

While we wait for a sql-wallah to suggest some syntax, what is *ToolType (Id, Key) all about? I'd have imagined tooltype.id would itself be a key; and if it is not, then the foreign key tool.tooltype_id is in big trouble :(. --Tagishsimon (talk) 22:44, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

This sounds like a homework problem. Per our WP:HW guidelines, I will not give you a full answer, but I will help get you started. I assume that Employee, Tool, ToolType, and ToolLoad are the table names, and that the names in parentheses are the column names within each table.

You are correct that the SQL JOIN is the mechanism for combining information from multiple tables. Our JOIN article much detail, but for your problem, you can review the section on INNER JOIN. The "explicit join notation" is preferred over the older-style (but still valid) implicit notation, so I recommend that you follow that explicit join form. Using the explicit join notation, a query with a single join between two hypothetical tables AAA and BBB might take the form: "SELECT * FROM AAA INNER JOIN BBB ON BBB.id = AAA.bbb_id". Additional joins may be included by simply following one join with another. The ON condition for each join normally defined the required relationship between a column in the newly joined table and a column any of the preceding tables. For example "SELECT * FROM AAA INNER JOIN BBB ON BBB.id = AAA.bbb_id INNER JOIN CCC ON CCC.id = BBB.ccc_id". You can keep adding joins until you have all the data you need. You will also need a WHERE clause to limit the results to the tools still on loan and will need to replace the "SELECT *" with a result formatted specifically to your needs. SQL statements are more readable when split across multiple lines, like

SELECT CONCAT(B.partno, ' - ', C.descriptiuon) 
FROM AAA A 
JOIN BBB B ON B.id = A.bbb_id
JOIN CCC C ON C.id = B.ccc_id
WHERE A.category = 1

Note that the above example defines aliases (A, B, and C) after each table reference, so that the shorter table alias names may be used in place of the full table names in the ON conditions, WHERE clause, and SELECT expressions. I expect your solution can be patterned after the above.

If you have problems or some follow-up questions after giving the problem a try, please include your work-in-progress with your post. -- Tom N (tcncv) talk/contrib 01:06, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

older special effects graphics software

Hi, I remember someone using a graphics software for the Mac that offered a range of flames, shiny balls or bubbles (& their transparency/size could be adjusted), and other effects in or across an image. Don't know the name & it was expensive at the time - about 2002? In any case if it's not around now, is there an equivalent? Thanks in advance, Manytexts (talk) 22:35, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Photoshop or Adobe After Effects would be my guess. RudolfRed (talk) 00:30, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

GIMP Can do the trick. 190.84.182.165 (talk) 01:39, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Thanks so much for your help, you guys are so prompt! It would have been an add-on to Photoshop for sure so I think that's it. And if GIMP can do it, I'll go there too. Much appreciated, Manytexts (talk) 08:16, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

March 30

Registry?

I was sent a weird exe file, it was a kind of a creepy pasta, and it says you can play once and only once.. Well I knew that it has to do something with the register.. So.. I played the exe.. when it was over I replayed it, it didn't played liek the first time.. so I cleaned the registry with ccleaner, played it again.. and no luck.. Well.. I don't really like having unuseful keys on my registry.. so.. how can i remove it? 190.84.182.165 (talk) 00:59, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Try Regedit. You might need to google (or whater your favorite is) to search for info about the program and see if something will identify which key you need to modify/remove. Also, you really shouldn't run wierd exe files, that's how malware and viruses spread. RudolfRed (talk) 01:15, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

The executable file is not famous. I don't even know if I can give you like for download. though I was excpecting if there was any program that tells you what files the executable is reading, editing, deleting etc. Well there is process explorer but when you open the exe, it goes full screen and locks mouse.... so... 190.84.182.165 (talk) 01:28, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Can you copy the same exe to a different computer where you've never played the file? If it doesn't work there, it's possible the exe just breaks it self after playing once. Vespine (talk) 03:44, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Yes... actually I played from a zip file (It unzips it into the %temp% folder) so I can get as many copies as I want (Unless the exe file is extremely smart and actually changes the zip file where it originated, (i doubt that), And I can download the original copy from internet... (The conclusion is... that it doesn't self-edit) It changes something on my pc, maybe on a very creepy folder, or registry....)190.84.182.165 (talk) 04:32, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Now I see that the program never prompts UAC, editing registry always prompts UAC... So the registry is probably clean. Now I have to check all my hard drive... for any "strange" file.. 190.84.182.165 (talk) 10:43, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

If you were going about this in a systematic way, you'd run it in a virtual environment (e.g. VirtualBox) which you could just re-image after every run. Searching your harddrive for a random, purposefully hidden file is going to be pretty fruitless if you ask me. Your hard drive has a lot of files. --Mr.98 (talk) 13:33, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

You are right, then I guess I'm going to have to decompile and just search the bunch of opcodes. 190.84.182.165 (talk) 00:51, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

Can't write to DVD in Windows XP

I'm in Windows XP and trying to create a backup on a DVD. I get "Unable to create new folder" and "file system error 16389". Tried Microsoft fix it Center and Astroburn lite to no avail. I was able to do it just using Norton backup before but don't have that any more. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.77.185.58 (talk) 14:45, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

It's a problem with Windows XP not offering native support for writable DVDs. Here's the solution: [24].StuRat (talk) 15:18, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

I went to that site and didn't find anything even remotely related to my problem. Can you think of something else? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.77.196.167 (talk) 21:21, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Prevent applications from changing cursor

Hiya,

My mate's been having trouble with his computer, and i'm trying to fix it but am very confused lol, and thought you lovely, lovely people may be able to help me. Basically every time he opens a full screen game the game's cursor is offset from where the click happens: everything else works perfectly fine and i think its probably just Dell weirdness combined with Vista weirdness, but i'm stumped. Best solution i can think of is preventing the cursor from being changed from the default, as I'm pretty sure its the cursor itself that is the problem, though i am very open to suggestions lol. so yeah, is there a way in Vista to prevent programs from changing the cursor?

Thanks much, Dan Hartas (talk) 18:02, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Does this happen with all full-screen games, or just specific ones? If it's only specific ones, you might be able to find a better answer by searching for other people with the same problem with those games. 151.163.2.8 (talk) 18:15, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

It's certainly more than a few, pretty sure it's all of them, and I've looked through all that sort of stuff lol, nothing that worked Dan Hartas (talk) 18:33, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

One workaround I can think of is to leave it in windows mode, and adjust the monitor settings so the window frame edges slide off the top, bottom, and sides of the screen. This will hopefully look like full screen mode, but without the cursor problem. StuRat (talk) 20:15, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

so, how do I really turn the cookies back on?

I was told by one site I was on that I needed to enable cookies, and was given a set of instructions to do so, which changed nothing and the site still refused to work, however, on getting bored of all the little pop up messages asking about these cookie things, I reset to the default settings again, and since then it seems they have been permenantly disabled. Sites no longer record any information about what I have done on them, in particular links I have been to stay the same colour as they were before, and now I can't access my emails either. I have tried every set of settings I can in the cookie options page, and none of them make the slightest bit of difference. I was told by my email page that I have to turn them on, so I go, exactly as it instrusts, to the control panel, open up the internet options, go to advanced, and check the allow boxes on both sides. Nothing. I tested it with the session cookies option both on and off, neither made the slightest bit of difference.

So, what do I really do to get this fixed? is there a box I can check or a button to push that actually makes a difference?

Oh, and if it helps, I'm running windows 7 on IE9 here.

148.197.81.179 (talk) 18:42, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

I don't use IE9, but here are some things that come to mind: Have you tried clearing your internet cache? Do you have javascript enabled? (Some sites try to set cookies with javascript.) Are you at home or at work? (At work, you might be going through some kind of proxy that's messing things up.) 130.76.64.109 (talk) 19:57, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

OK, so where's this internet cache and javascript to be found? 148.197.81.179 (talk) 20:05, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

You should be able to clear your cache and enable/disable javascript through your browser's options. I'm not familiar with IE9, but on IE8, go to Internet Options under the Tools menu to clear your cache (it bundles it all together with "Browsing history", but it includes the cache/temporary files). You can also disable/enable javascript from there, on the Security tab. 151.163.2.8 (talk) 20:31, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Fixed now, downloaded google chrome (which doesn't recognise google as a word, silly spellchecker) and it's all gone back to how it should be, thanks to smraedis and yunas for the ideas. (yep, wikipedia was beaten by a bunch of furries, even with a substantial head start. guess I know where to go for computer help now) 148.197.81.179 (talk) 22:51, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

You may not understand that Internet Explorer uses the Trident Rendering engine, and from what has been seen, it does follow different standards so some pages will work with Gecko (Mozilla) and Webkit (Safari, Chromium), and some will work with Trident... 190.84.182.165 (talk) 01:27, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

Download helper for Firefox that's customizable by filetype

I'm looking for a download helper or utility for Firefox that would let me customize it by filetype. For example, if I download an mp3 file, it would default to putting it in my Music folder; if it was a jpg, it would go to my Pictures folder; and so on. Does anyone know of anything out there with that functionality? 24.247.162.139 (talk) 22:20, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

I should mention that the ability to customize settings based on where the file is coming from would be nice too. 24.247.162.139 (talk) 22:26, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

[25] 190.84.182.165 (talk) 00:50, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

March 31