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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: [1].) 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: [2]. 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)

I think it's worthwhile to know why this gets warnings. Your

typedef struct {
  struct node * next;
} node;

uses struct node without any such struct type having been declared. (Even after the typedef, there's still no struct node, just node. That's why you use typedef this way, to save the word struct in later use.) This means that struct node implicitly declares an incomplete type that (is never completed and) is forever distinct from node. When you use top->next (which is a struct node*) as an argument to a function expecting node*, you get the warning. It's confusing because, I think, GCC is trying to be helpful: it's interpreting the typedef idiom so that it can describe the expected type more usefully and ends up producing the same name as you gave to the incomplete type. You can trivially write

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

and have struct node (declared before its use, even) and node as a synonym. This sort of thing is common for self-referential structures like linked lists. --Tardis (talk) 15:22, 1 April 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)

You imply you know enough to decompile and use opcodes to find out what is going on, yet you were daft enough to run a "weird exe file"? Unbelievable!!! If the exe file is more than a couple of kb, you are going to have a very hard time finding out anything. It has probably done some unknown thing to your PC and your best bet is to delete it immedately, sweep your PC for virsues and malware, and promise not to run random stuff you downloaded from the internet again. Such programs are very, very likely to be malware. Astronaut (talk) 12:57, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

Lol, It's not gonna be easy to reverse an exe file is it? No, I currently don't know how to read them, thought I'm starting to learn assembly, so I will just give it a try.., yup I got the disassembler here.. bunch of instructions. I just wanted to know if there was a program that just tells you what files are being read, edited, deleted, created. 190.84.182.165 (talk) 21:00, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

Process Monitor from Sysinternals will do this for you. Good luck with that. 31.185.44.119 (talk) 15:54, 1 April 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: [3].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)

I don't understand. That says the problem is that Windows XP lacks native support for writing to a DVD, and suggest either writing to a CD, or using a product which includes it's own support for writing to a DVD. Did you try either of those suggestions ? (It might be necessary to first write the backup to a partition on the hard drive, and then use a product like Nero to copy it to DVD.) Norton backup apparently has the ability to write to DVDs in Windows XP. Another option is to put your backups on USB flash drives. (This isn't good if you want to keep dozens of backups though, as they are more expensive than blank DVDs.) StuRat (talk) 03:29, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

That's a good idea. I happen to have a blank USB flash drive. I'll go try that and let you know how it turns out.

OK, please do. StuRat (talk) 00:15, 3 April 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)

This search reveals there are other people with the same problem. If you add a specific game name to the search, it will find a more specific answer. Astronaut (talk) 12:43, 31 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)

I'm surprised the only answers you got so far were from people who don't use Internet Explorer. Downloading a different browser is a pretty extreme step just to turn cookies on. On IE9, click on the gear on the top right and choose "Internet options". On the General tab, there is a "Browsing history" section with a "Delete..." button. On the "Privacy" tab, there is a slider to contriol the blocking of cookies. There are many other setting that might also affect IE9's ability to record cookies. Take a look at the other tabs for other options and if all else fails click the "Reset..." button at the bottom of the "Advanced" tab. Astronaut (talk) 12:39, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

I did already try a whole bunch of other settings changes as I went, changing the browser is the only thing that has worked, and I'm assured it has a lot of other advantages as well, without losing any of the benefits of IE9, this is something I've been putting off for a while anyway, it took something like this to give me the incentive to ask, what alternative would be best for me. 148.197.81.179 (talk) 09:09, 1 April 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)

http://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/downloads/latest/201/addon-201-latest.xpi 190.84.182.165 (talk) 00:50, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

I have no idea what that link is and no intention of clicking on it. Here is Download Sort and Automatic Save Folder. Those are links that explain what they are rather than a link to something that is going to try and install. CambridgeBayWeather (talk) 07:27, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

I just noticed that 190.84.182.165 is the same IP that ran an unknown exe file they found on the Internet. I've fixed the link so that it can't be clicked on. CambridgeBayWeather (talk) 07:31, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

For the historical record, the link posted by the IP is the install link for DownThemAll, a multipurpose Firefox download experience improver. It's effective but rather complex; CBW's links are much lighter weight. (It's not malicious, though, and actually very popular.) - Jarry1250 ^{[Deliberation needed]} 10:51, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

March 31

downloading a podcast

Hi, I've been interviewed & want to keep/ record the podcast. The link opens into a kind of pdf that says download but turns out to be an archive to that url. Is there any way to do this for personal use only? I have a MacBook Pro. Thanks, Manytexts (talk) 04:55, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

Looks like it's not a free podcast for download so probably illegal. Sorry, Manytexts (talk) 05:08, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

I would contact the person/organisation that interviewed you and ask if you could have a copy - I would imagine most organisations would be happy to give you a recording and in any case it can't hurt to ask. Equisetum (talk | contributions) 09:42, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

Indeed. A local TV station gives out DVDs of interviews to members of the community that they interview on their news show. They may be happy to give you an MP3 of the interview as long as you promise to use it only for personal use. Dismas|^(talk) 14:42, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

Half/Fullwidth

What is the point of halfwidth and fullwidth letters, and why are they only available for Latin, CJK punctuation, Katakana, and Hangul Jamo? Interchangeable|talk to me 17:18, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

See halfwidth and fullwidth forms. Back when computers usually ran in text mode, there was one byte controlling each character cell on the screen. One byte wasn't enough to store all the CJK characters, and one character cell (about 8x16 pixels) wasn't enough to display them, so in CJK locales there were two-byte sequences that were interpreted as single characters in double-width cells of 16x16 pixels or so. I don't know much about Chinese and Korean, but in Japan the full-width ASCII characters were there because they were in the pre-existing JIS X 0201:1997 standard, and, I suppose, because they look better in combination with Japanese characters in some cases. The half-width katakana were useful because, for one thing, MS-DOS's 8.3 file name limit was 8.3 bytes, and four kana characters (and 1.5 in the extension) aren't really enough. It was just katakana and a few symbols because there wasn't room for anything more in a byte (along with ASCII and the double-byte lead values). Both widths are in Unicode so that a single terminal font can include them both, so that they can be distinguished in file names, etc. -- BenRG (talk) 02:13, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

Audio on computer

If I playback a music file using one piece of audio software, and try to simultaneously re-record it using another piece of audio software (or another instance of the same package), is the signal converted to analog then redigitised in the recording process? If so, what is the liklihood of loss of audio quality in the final recording?--[ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.28.76.99 (talk) 18:05, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure the signal doesn't go through analog. Your sound card converts digital to analog, and there is no piece of electronics looking at the sound card's audio-out cable that can sample and re-digitize the signal. You could use a cable to connect audio-out to audio-in, and record that, in which case the signal would go through analog, but you'd know if you were doing that.

If the source file and/or recording program use lossy compression (e.g. mp3), there may be some degradation. For uncompressed or losslessly compressed, and with matching sampling rates, I'd expect little or no change in quality. At least unless there is some DRM involved. 88.112.59.31 (talk) 09:29, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

Borked USB drive

I have a USB flash drive which I forgot to unmount before removing. Now, when I insert the drive, the little light comes on on the drive to indicate it's plugged in but nothing appears on the computer. The light would normally flash if anything is being read or written, but there's nothing.

Following the advice from http://www.dotkam.com/2009/01/06/find-usb-flash-drive-device-in-linux/, and checking tail -f /var/log/syslog, I get:

Mar 31 22:39:09 MyPC kernel: [  150.760222] usb 2-1: new high speed USB device number 3 using ehci_hcd
Mar 31 22:39:10 MyPC mtp-probe: checking bus 2, device 3: "/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb2/2-1"
Mar 31 22:39:10 MyPC mtp-probe: bus: 2, device: 3 was not an MTP device
Mar 31 22:39:10 MyPC kernel: [  151.306220] usbcore: registered new interface driver uas
Mar 31 22:39:10 MyPC kernel: [  151.324645] Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
Mar 31 22:39:10 MyPC kernel: [  151.325010] scsi5 : usb-storage 2-1:1.0
Mar 31 22:39:10 MyPC kernel: [  151.326312] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
Mar 31 22:39:10 MyPC kernel: [  151.326321] USB Mass Storage support registered.
Mar 31 22:39:11 MyPC kernel: [  152.327286] scsi: unknown device type 16
Mar 31 22:39:11 MyPC kernel: [  152.327303] scsi 5:0:0:0: Bridge controller 5        :                E    PQ: 1 ANSI: 1
Mar 31 22:39:11 MyPC kernel: [  152.327856] scsi: unknown device type 16
Mar 31 22:39:11 MyPC kernel: [  152.327870] scsi 5:0:0:1: Bridge controller 5        :                E    PQ: 1 ANSI: 1
Mar 31 22:39:11 MyPC kernel: [  152.328599] scsi: unknown device type 16
Mar 31 22:39:11 MyPC kernel: [  152.328610] scsi 5:0:0:2: Bridge controller 5        :                E    PQ: 1 ANSI: 1
Mar 31 22:39:11 MyPC kernel: [  152.376781] scsi 5:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 16
Mar 31 22:39:11 MyPC kernel: [  152.377196] scsi 5:0:0:1: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 16
Mar 31 22:39:11 MyPC kernel: [  152.377597] scsi 5:0:0:2: Attached scsi generic sg4 type 16

but I'm not sure what to do next - my output doesn't match that at the link above. Is there anything I can do to get this back? I don't need any of the data on it, so it's not a concern if it gets formatted and loses all my stuff, it'd just be good not to have to go and buy a new one. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 21:56, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

What filesystem has been on it, NTFS? If so connect it to a Windows computer and see if it automatically runs an fsck. If you don't have a Windows computer you should consider ceasing to use that FS for your USB sticks, and probably switch to FAT (if you want to still be able to use it with Windows computers) or ext4 (without a journal). If you really don't need the data on it, the quickest route to having it working again (if indeed it isn't physically broken), might be to just repartition/reformat it. http://webchat.freenode.net/?nick=usbtrouble&channels=#unix ¦ Reisio (talk) 02:07, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

Filesystem choice doesn't even become a thing until the device is at least identified as being storage. The usb-storage driver is loaded in the above log, but it didn't actually find a "disk" like it should have. Instead it found 3 "bridge" controllers (device type 16) and punted them to sg because the kernel doesn't know what the hell a scsi bridge is for. And neither do I. I can't find any evidence that device type 16 is supported by anything. To gather more information I recommend lsusb ; cat /proc/scsi/scsi but I'm not optimistic. It really looks like that poor USB stick has had its brains thoroughly scrambled.

Also, if the device was working with the same computer before, look in the older portion of the /var/log files to see what a successful mount looked like. If it never said "device type 16" until after the incident, that's bad news.

A remote possibility is that the device has gone back to a "factory newborn" state where it is trying to communicate with its Windows driver's setup program. In that case usb-modeswitch might be able to convince it to start behaving normally. But as far as I can tell that usually happens with communications devices that register themselves as storage devices, not with storage devices that register themselves as generic weirdness. 68.60.252.82 (talk) 06:45, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

April 1

Issue with Java (PJIRC) and fullscreen games

I use PJIRC to communicate to friends on my IRC server. The problem is if i play a full-screen game, i come back to see my IRC applet is all black and unusable. This is very annoying as i have to refresh the page, and i might have gotten unlogable private messages while i was playing. Is there any way to stop this black/unusable applet issue?

137.81.118.126 (talk) 03:04, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

I know this doesn't answer your question, but a good IRC client should be able to log private messages so if your IRC client does not allow that, you may want to consider another one. That IRC client may also not suffer from such a flaw when you use a program in full screen. Also unless you are using Direct Client-to-Client, all messages go thru the server, even ones between users. So if it's your IRC server, you could just get the server to log messages, although I strongly suggest you inform your users. Nil Einne (talk) 12:19, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

I prefer to fix the problem before switching clients, if possible. Also, it is not my server. 137.81.118.126 (talk) 14:34, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

Windows XP laptop battery

the machine is a Advent 4211 (ie MSI Wind U100 clone which has some reported issues with "flashing orange light" - some obviously idiot user, some not..

I have an orange flashing led on a computer, which the manual informs me indicates "failed battery" - however when I check controlpanel>power options it tells me I have a 95% full battery, which is "on line". I have no way of telling if the battery is dead or not. I would like to find out if the battery is the problem, or the laptop.. and why XP doesn't seem to know that the battery is dead when the computer itself thinks it does.. Can anyone explain the difference?213.249.187.63 (talk) 12:43, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

"I have no way of telling if the battery is dead or not."

Sure you have, just unplug the power cable and see how the battery performs. If it performs as expected, your only problem is an annoying LED. ¦ Reisio (talk) 15:52, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

It doesn't work - I still don't know if it is dead, or alive with a dodgy battery control chip.. Also wisecrack doesn't answer my question either - which was why does XP give a different reading?213.249.187.63 (talk) 16:23, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

I don't believe that was a wisecrack - it was a legitimate response to the first part of your question, and the result suggests the battery is indeed dead. It could be a hardware fault in the laptop itself, but you'd probably have to try using the battery in another machine to rule this out. However, I think the former possibility is more likely.

As for the second part of your question, I can't help much there, except to note anecdotally that battery indicators seem to me typically unreliable, especially when the battery is faulty. I had a damaged battery in an old XP laptop that could only barely hold a charge - when the machine was plugged in it would report 95-100% charge, and give me estimated usage time of 2-3 hours. If I unplugged, the indicator would drop to <5% instantly and I would lose all power within a minute. However, I've also observed misleading figures on iOS and Android smartphones, and PCs running both Windows and Ubuntu, even when the battery appeared to be in good working order. AJCham 18:09, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

I should note in addition, that the anomolous battery readings usually occur when the device is charging. My Android, for example, will indicate 60%+ charge immediately after plugging in, even if the battery was almost entirely depleted. I suspect the specific answer to your question lies in this fact. AJCham 18:15, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

I can understand that the battery level indicator level is plain wrong - but windows is still reporting that the battery is "good to go" despite the fact that the rest of the laptop has admitted that it has given up the ghost... Does anyone know enough about the "battery drivers" or whatever they are called to reason this one out.? (If I unplug it dies immediately - there's not even a minute of charge - I suspect the laptop is refusing to even try to use what may or may not be left in the battery..)213.249.187.63 (talk) 19:23, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

Have to ask: did this laptop even come with Windows XP on it? It's quite an old version of Windows, and a lot of new hardware is designed utterly without XP in mind. ¦ Reisio (talk) 07:10, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

(No I decided to upgrade to XP - joke) - Yes it came with XP on it.213.249.187.63 (talk) 19:48, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

How many single-sided Blu-Rays would the YouTube Collection require? Double-sided?

Have you seen http://www.youtube.com/theyoutubecollection ?

So allegedly, you can watch all videos ever placed on YouTube, on DVDs. I wish they had the option for Blu-Rays because they store more hours of video and have overall, other better features.

Here are the questions:

1. How many single-sided DVD discs would the entire YT collection take up? (That is just the collection as of 4-1-2012, 12 PM GMT, because the constantly-increasing uploads would render any other answer obsolete.)

2. How many double-sided DVD discs?

3. How many single-sided Blu-Ray discs?

4. How many double-sided Blu-Ray discs?

5. How many 1 TB external hard drives?

6. How many of the largest external hard drive available (in terms of storage space, not physical size) to home-users today, would be needed to store the entire YT collection (the collection as of 4-1-2012, 12 PM GMT)?

I selected "send entire collection", and it said it would be 579,840 DVD discs, but it did not specifiy if they use single or double-sided DVD discs in that calculation. A DVD can hold about 4.5 GB per side, and a Blu-Ray can hold about 5x that amount, so the rest of your calculations can follow from that. Largest consumer HDD is probably 3TB, but availabiity may be limited due to the manufacturing capacity lost in Thailand. RudolfRed (talk) 20:34, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

I rammed Wolfram Alpha on this issue and let us round it to 580,000 DVDs, and assume they're each one-sided. (To double-side anything, just divide by 2 and that's the # of discs you get.) Wolfram Alpha has the versatility to love and endear ourselves to; it gives 110,000 single-sided Blu-Rays in the conversion from 580,000 one-sided DVDs.

If there was an option to ship the 3-TB external hard drives, 900 would be. Wow, 2.7 Petabytes is what the sum of YouTube's videos are! We've come a long way! OH, moreover, I just found that LaCie has 4 TB external hard drives. With that option, 675 would ship. --Tergigress (talk) 21:18, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

http://www.youtube.com/t/press_statistics claims that one hour of video is uploaded to Youtube every second. One year's worth of uploads at that rate is 3600 years of video; supposing an average rate of 200 KBps that's about 20 petabytes. The upload rate was presumably lower in the past; on the other hand, Youtube has been around for much more than a year. So it seems likely that 3 PB is a substantial underestimate. -- BenRG (talk) 20:32, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

Side questions

It said my order would arrive on June 16, 2045. Where would I find a change-of-address form? =)

(How much would it cost to resend to my new address in Sariwon, Reunified Korea, where I may work as a consulate employee or humanitarian agent?)

(Or if we increase our space-faring momentum, big-time, how much would it cost to resend the collection to my new address in the Jim Wales Colony on Beta Aquilae IV? And how much longer would it take to get there?)

(Or if I decide to stay a little close to home, how about the cost to resend to my dome-villa on the Obama Colony on Mars? And how much more time would it take to get there?)

Thanks, you guys, gals and extraterrestrials. --Tergigress (talk) 19:39, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

I'd presume by then, Trekkie influences aside, that we'd have matter/antimatter replicators and apart from the most unstable of matter, you would receive a digital blueprint at hopefully faster-than-light ("subspace") speed to replicate in the safety of your own dome :) Heck, we're on our way there with talk of 3D Printers now, with working prototypes. Sandman30s (talk) 12:35, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

Why not just download all the Youtube videos and burn them to DVD-R? A gigabit net connection is about four petabytes per year, so you should be able to finish well before 2045, as long as you don't try to keep up with new uploads. -- BenRG (talk) 20:32, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

Installing Android SDK on Ubuntu

I need some help installing the android SDK on Ubuntu. I believe I need to first install JDK and Eclipse before installing the SDK. I've downloaded the JDK (the .rpm not the .tar.gz. I would like to know what the difference is). Now what do I do? --TuringMachine17 (talk) 21:30, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

There are some instructions here: [4]. Instead of downloading the JDK, you can use the package manager to install it with apt-get. RudolfRed (talk) 22:42, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

April 2

MP3 player to PC USB cable

http://i42.tinypic.com/141jktc.jpg

What is that bulb on the cable? Thanks.

193.224.66.230 (talk) 08:34, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

Ferrite bead. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 08:57, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

Extracting hi-res image from Adobe Flash

Is there a way to extract a full-resolution image file from Adobe Flash viewer like this one (at the maximum magnification offered by zoom)? 46.205.97.233 (talk) 11:35, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

In this specific case, click the icon labelled 'Save Image' at the top-right of the picture, then right-click on the image that appears and save the image. (On my particular combination of browser and operating system it's called 'Save Image As...') This produces a file named NSARM200715624.jpg which is at the highest resolution possible for that picture. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 11:47, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

That method seems to produce a pic at much lower resolution than it can be displayed. One option is picking the "Print" option above "Save Image", and check "Print to file" from the panel. Unfortunately, this seems to lock up my computer, so I can't tell what res it produces. This option may not exist on your computer. StuRat (talk) 17:54, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

Another option, for any image which fits on the screen all at once, is to do a screen grab. You may need to set the monitor's resolution to max to fit a large pic. Assuming you are on a Windows operating system, next hit the Print Screen button on your keyboard, above the Insert and Delete buttons (might be different on a laptop). Go to an application like Microsoft Paint, then do Edit + Paste. Some editing of the pic is often needed after, to remove ads and such from the edges. You can then save the image in the desired format using File + Save. StuRat (talk) 16:43, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

I just took a look at your example, and, since zooming only lets you view it through a tiny window, this method wouldn't work very well in your case. However, zooming in on the page increases the size of the frame (View + Zoom + Zoom In, repeatedly, in Firefox). Then, using the + at the bottom of the pic, repeatedly, will increase the image size within this frame. This will allow you to capture the entire pic at moderate resolution, or the pic at full res as a series of panes, after panning to show each portion at max res. StuRat (talk) 16:45, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

And you could do it programmatically fairly easily via http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/zoom/zViewer.swf?zoomifyImagePath=/nsarm/zoom/titanic/200715624_img&zoomifyInitialX=0&zoomifyInitialY=0&zoomifyInitialZoom=100&zoomifyNavigatorVisible=false&zoomifyToolbarSkinXMLPath=../../zViewer.xml (where zoomifyInitialZoom=100 is 100% zoomed in, and the X and Y values are exactly what you'd think they are). ¦ Reisio (talk) 19:20, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

Thanks, but I think we need a bit more. I copied that URL, and it gave me the image at 100% zoom, without the tiny frame around it. However, how do we save it from there ? A screen grab will take many panes, and require stitching together, as discussed below. The right click on the pic, which normally has an option to save the pic, doesn't, in this case, at least in Firefox. It does have an option to print, and, at least on my computer, this includes a "Print to file" option, but that locks up my computer, and I'm not sure if it would provided full res, in any case. The "File + Save Page As" option wants to save it as a SWF file, and it's size of 49KB indicates it's not full res (which I estimate around 5000×3000 pixels), although my computer doesn't know how to open an SWF file, in any case. StuRat (talk) 00:09, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

My apologies. I think I thought this was simpler than it was. In order to try and make up for it, I found a Python script called Dezoomify that will do what you want. Details about it on Commons are here, and the code itself is here. Unfortunately, having spent a little while faffing around with it, I can't actually make it work, but I think that's just my incompetence rather than a fault with the script. Maybe one of our Python wizards can help out if you get stuck. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 20:12, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

It looks like the Sourceforge version of Dezoomify will losslessly stitch the tiles together (using jpegtran), so it's not only easier than the alternatives but also avoids generational loss. I was able to get it working on Windows with Python 3.2.2 after a few changes:

• It expects a file named jpegtran in the same directory as dezoomify.py... even on Windows, where it's named jpegtran.exe instead. Work around this by specifying -j jpegtran.exe on the command line.
• Replace urlConcat(url, imagePath) with urllib.parse.urljoin(url, imagePath). (The author was apparently unaware of urllib.parse.urljoin and wrote a buggy replacement that doesn't work for this site.)
• The stitching takes much longer than it should, so be prepared to wait.

But I now have a stitched version of that Titanic image on my hard drive, and it looks fine. -- BenRG (talk) 05:27, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

Stitch panes together to form large pic ?

Related to the above Q, is there a program that will accept multiple panes, find where they overlap, and stitch them all together to form a single, large pic ? StuRat (talk) 18:16, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

Hugin and a number of others. ¦ Reisio (talk) 18:25, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

Does it have an automatic option where it will find the overlaps and stitch them together without the user having to tell it which pane goes where ? (This should work with screen grabs, but not so well with separate photographs, as slight differences in scale, exposure, etc., would make the panes not match exactly.) StuRat (talk) 18:31, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

It does, though it also works surprisingly well with real photographs: it'll even extract properties of your lens from the way that the images fit together. Paul (Stansifer) 18:37, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

Excellent. Is it free ? StuRat (talk) 18:44, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

Hugin is free software. It is both free of cost to use, and its source code is available and free to modify. You can download it at http://hugin.sourceforge.net/ - including its source and binary installation programs for common platforms. Nimur (talk) 19:01, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

Regarding your above comments: real photographs are stitched together by sophisticated software. Among the corrections necessary, exposure must be compensated (using an autoexposure algorithm); color must be matched (using white balance algorithm); and geometric distortions of the lens must be corrected (e.g., as explained in our barrel distortion correction mathematical overview). Exposure and color must be adjusted in pure software, as (obviously) the photo can not be re-shot with different shutter-speed, sensor gain, and so forth. If I recall, Hugin is able to stitch extended dynamic range images ("raw" files), but this requires quite a lot of technical knowledge and effort, because the user-interface is set up for "most common" usage workflows. Hugin's algorithmic implementation of each of these systems is quite complicated; there is a graphical utility to assist you with feature point extraction, and the photos are precisely aligned using cross-correlation. Because each photo may be exposed differently, colored differently, and geometrically distorted, this is actually quite mathematically intense and nontrivial; that is why Hugin's source-code is so much larger than, say, Image Magick, another tool that can stitch images together. Nimur (talk) 19:22, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

For the interested: Photometric alignment and vignetting correction. Nimur (talk) 19:44, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

What does ImageMagick do, as far as stitching ? StuRat (talk) 00:13, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

It rasterizes, appends, and re-encodes. See Appending Images. It can also composite, Composite Operator. Nimur (talk) 01:35, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

In this specific case, I recommend Dezoomify (see above). -- BenRG (talk) 05:27, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

How does UnoTelly work?

You can access US only content from outside the US, but it's not a VPN service. All you do is set their servers as your DNS server. I don't understand how that works. Anyone know? Thanks. - Akamad (talk) 22:47, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

It appears to be an open proxy. Providing a DNS server simply makes it a transparent proxy. Nimur (talk) 01:46, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

They must support only certain high-profile services like Netflix and Hulu. For those, they identify the servers that actually check the originating IP, allocate a separate proxy IP address for each one, and return that address through DNS. For all other servers, they return the real IP address. In at least some cases, the servers that actually send the video don't check the originating IP address, so don't need to be proxied. This would make UnoTelly's service a lot cheaper to provide than a universal proxy (and in practice probably faster). -- BenRG (talk) 03:28, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

Ahh yes, that all makes sense. They do claim faster speeds than VPNs, so they probably do only route certain traffic through their systems. Thanks Nimur and BenRG. - Akamad (talk) 04:14, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

April 3

Copyright rules for the UK

I'm somewhat familiar with the rules about copyright as applied in Wikipedia, but these of course reflect US law. I'm helping out with a small UK-based wiki, and wonder if anyone can point me to a document or site that would summarise the relevant law for the UK? I'm mainly concerned with images: I'm assuming I can freely use Wikimedia Commons images, and any that I have the copyright for (for instance photos I've taken myself) but I wonder if there's an equivalent for the various "fair use" provisions as used on Wikipedia. --rossb (talk) 13:40, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

Very roughly, the equivalent to fair use is fair dealing. The UK Copyright Service has a fact-sheet here. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 13:46, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

The UK law on fair dealing is generally considered significantly more restrictive then US fair use exceptions. A simple search should find many resources, e.g. 'fair dealing uk advice' [5], [6], [7], [8], [9] but I can't vouch for their usefulness or accuracy. Generally, theoretically you can freely use wikimedia commons images provided you obey the licences (which may require attribution and that you make the image available under the same licence) but bear in mind the commons doesn't vouch that all their copyright information is correct, in fact if you work in commons you'll find there are definitely plenty of stuff where the copyright information is dubious. See also Commons:Commons:Reusing content outside Wikimedia. Also the commons generally only considers the copyright status in the US and in the country of origin of the work, it may theoretically be possible that something is in the public domain in both of those but not the UK. Another consideration is the commons always considers accurate reproductions of public domain 2D artwork (e.g. photos of old paintings) to be in the public domain which is supported by legal precedent in the US but whether this applies to the UK remains unclear. To put it a different way, there are plenty of exceptions which may be of concern and it's something you (and the others involved in the wiki) would need to consider themselves. As this is obviously not legal advice and there is definitely plenty of other issues I've failed to consider, you may want to see if there is anyone who can offer appropriate legal advice for free. (I presume your wiki is a non-profit one.) Nil Einne (talk) 14:03, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

One important thing to consider is safe harbor; US wiki hosts like Wikia and WMF rely on this to limit their exposure to copyright-related legal problems. US law treats them as carriers (like the telephone company) and they're not held to be liable as long as they don't exercise editorial control over the content, and take care of their responsibilities to respond to copyright complaints (and don't deliberately set out to facilitate wholesale copyright infringement). I don't think the UK has a copyright safe harbour ([10]) per se. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 15:22, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

Windows XP - Documents and Settings Folder - Rename a User's Folder

Hi, I broke my laptop, so I'm using an old laptop, running XP. It was my dad's, so the username was his name; I changed the username of the account, but my documents are still stored under a folder of his name, in the Documents and Settings folder. For example, my desktop is located at C:\Documents and Settings\[his name]\Desktop instead of C:\Documents and Settings\[my name]\Desktop. I can't simply change the name of the folder in the Documents and Settings folder because it's a Windows system folder and it cannot be renamed. How do I change this, so it's my name instead of his? Thanks 134.83.1.243 (talk) 15:42, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

First create a new use (administrator) with your name. (control panel>user accounts>create new account)

Log off the old account.

Log in the new account.

From the new account you can (optionally) delete the old account.

Now you have a directory with the new account name.

Note if you delete the old account it offers to save the old account files. However this is not perfect - it will not keep old programs that were installed only for the old user -an example of a program that does this is google chrome. If you had files stored in "odd places" these will be lost too. So backup and make sure the new user account has all the files and programs you want before deleting the old. Also the new account will be a "fresh slate" so other tweaks such as screensaver etc may be needed.213.249.187.63 (talk) 16:09, 3 April 2012 (UTC)