Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2008 November 10

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November 10

windows xp services

any way to turn off unneeded windows xp services programmatically?

You can stop or disable services using the sc command in the command prompt or by using the ControlService() [1] or ChangeServiceConfig() [2] API functions. As for the unneeded bit, I don't know how you can determine "unneeded" services. --wj32 ^t/c 08:41, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

There are lists online about which ones are really "unneeded" for 99% of users—there are a few in that list that can have a drag on the system that in many cases are totally unnecessary (e.g. services that only are useful if you are having someone remotely control your desktop, which most people never do or even know they can do). I recall there being something that allows you to disable services under the Account Management control panel? --98.217.8.46 (talk) 00:22, 11 November 2008 (UTC)

PNG vs TIFF

I just want to make sure: when storing digital photographs in PNG and TIFF format, there will be no difference between the two right? Both will offer 100% lossless storage of the photos, but PNG files are smaller? If so, what is the advantage of using TIFF over PNG in storing photos then?

As well, when I burn either format onto a recordable CD or DVD, no data will be lost either right?

Thanks. Acceptable (talk) 00:13, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

PNG format can be lossy, it depends on your compression level. PNG can comprFess in a lossless way, but a standard TIFF will be totally uncompressed. For storage smaller would be better, but it could be easier to write a program to operate on a TIFF or bitmap. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 02:52, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

TIFF can use either lossy or lossless compression. To see what I mean, save an image inside Photoshop as a TIFF and a dialog box pops up asking whether you want to save it using no compression, LZW (like a GIF), JPEG, or ZIP. Most of the time, though, TIFFs are not compressed at all. On the downside, it's not a sure thing whoever you send a TIFF can view it. Windows is pretty good with them, though. One advantage of TIFFs over PNGs is that they support layers and animation! Many people don't know about that last feature of TIFFs.--Account created to post on Reference Desk (talk) 07:22, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

PNG can't be lossy (unless you mean using a smaller color depth or something). PNG only offers deflate as a compression method (which is better than TIFF's LZW). So, if you really want to store photographs in a lossless format, then use that. I think TIFF supports more metadata tagging than PNG, but I don't really think you would need that anyway. However, for archiving photos, I would recommend using JPG at 99% or "100%" quality - lossless formats don't compress photographs well. --wj32 ^t/c 08:31, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

If he plans on modifying his photographs after he takes them, then he probably should save them in a lossless format, like BMP, uncompressed TIFF, or a digital negative. Every time you save a JPEG, the quality of the image is reduced. Once he is done modifying them, then he might save them as JPEGs if space is an issue. Personally, the only time I make JPEGs is when I upload to the web, since space isn't an issue on my HDD.--Account created to post on Reference Desk (talk) 09:47, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

PNG is a lossless format. Superm401 - Talk 16:32, 15 November 2008 (UTC)

PNG is absolutely not lossy. TIFF is a bit of a crap shoot - it's a "wrapper" format that can encapsulate other formats and may or may not have added fields that some programs will ignore and others will use in hard-to-predict ways. You could easily have a lossy JPEG-compressed image inside a TIFF wrapper and not the lossless format you hoped you would get! BMP suffers from some of the same problems as TIFF (especially on non-Windows computers) and it doesn't have proper transparency - it's internal structure is a typically Microsoftian pig's breakfast of headers and subheaders with duplicated field that could contradict each other...URGH! I strongly recommend using PNG whenever quality is important. If quality isn't important and small storage space is vital - then use JPEG. If you have super-amazing "high dynamic range" photography (you almost certainly don't) then the RGBE format is the only game in town. All of the other file formats should pretty much "just die" because they don't really have advantages over intelligent use of PNG/JPEG/RGBE. The one kinda-sorta exception is GIF - which is in every regard a sucky format...but it allows a kludgy form of animation that's widely used on websites for small, simple, cartoony, animated/flashing/whatever images. SteveBaker (talk) 01:45, 12 November 2008 (UTC)

And just to make it clear because I don't think anyone addressed it yet, burning the pictures onto a CD makes no change to the file so it can't introduce any loss of data. Assuming the CD burned correctly ;-). Matt Deres (talk) 17:20, 13 November 2008 (UTC)

Youtube

Do Youtube videos last just 3 years on the site? Because I can't find any pre-2006 videos on Youtube. JCI (talk) 00:22, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

Keep in mind that Youtube was founded in only February of 2005. Acceptable (talk) 04:58, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

Here's one from 2005. The #1 reason you are having trouble finding videos from before 2006 is that YouTube did not "take off" until late in 2005/early 2006, I believe, and then you have to factor in how many of that earlier, smaller pool of videos were copyright violations and other such things. As a result the odds are highly stacked in finding post-2005 content, and since YouTube gives you no way to search by date, that makes it all the more harder! I found the above one by searching Google Groups for posts containing "youtube.com" from 2005. It was actually harder than you think it would be -- as people were talking about YouTube then, but rarely was anyone linking to it. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 14:22, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

This is supposedly the oldest video on Youtube. - Akamad (talk) 01:23, 11 November 2008 (UTC)

Information on CNC

I'm doing a research paper on CNC, and one requirement is a ridiculous amount of 4x6 index cards (54, to be exact). These cards are meant to contain all the information we cite from our sources. At only 20 cards, I've gotten all of the information I can possibly find. I've cited the only two books from my school's library that had any information on the subject, conducted a lengthy interview with a professional, and cited Wikipedia itself. This site is the only other Web site I've found so far to actually provide information about CNC; all the other sites have been forums for discussion or commercial sites. The local public library was closed, so I'm at a deadlock for information. Currently, I'm scouring CNC Information for what I can, and that isn't going to get me another 34 cards.

I need some online source of information about CNC. Anybody know of any sites?

And by the way, I posted this request here because CNC has to do with computing; anyone knowledgeable about CNC might know of a few Web sites for it, no?--The Ninth Bright Shiner 00:52, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

Have you talked to your instructor? In either case, you may have wrote too much information on each notecard. Most instructors will tell you to put one or two key pieces of information on each card, rather than fill it up.

I hated these kind of research requirements for this very reason. I could craft a good research paper from 15-20 cards full of information, where I was supposed to have 60+ with a fact or half a fact each. Washii (talk) 03:23, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

Well, yeah. I originally packed each card to the limit, but of course that didn't work. Currently, I'm placing bullets of information in sentence form on the cards, while not trying for them to be too lengthy. After one bullet, there's a blank space, then another bullet, etc. I get the feeling that only one or two pieces of information would be really fudging it...as if that's not enough, I persuaded my teacher to let met turn in my cards Monday (they were due Friday) for a reduction of 5 points from my total grade. And yet, over the weekend, I've found about two or three bullets of information. So I've pretty much lost five points for nothing. Oh, fate, why hast thou conspired against me?--The Ninth Bright Shiner 04:46, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

I don't have any specific sites to point you to, but the terms NC and DNC (digital? NC) may lead to other sources. I'd recommend searching in combination with other terms such as "manufacturing". -- Tcncv (talk) 05:05, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

I have no helpful hints for your quest, but I can say that you should start asking for help with projects before midnight on the day they're due. flaminglawyer^c 20:55, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

Using old printers on windows XP

Are there printer drivers around for old dot matrix printers for Windows XP? For example the Epson mx-80 was widely copied, so a driver for this could work on many printers. I remember with win 3.11 there was a manual set up for printers where you gave escape sequences to get bold, italic etc, is there anything like that in XP? These printers could be parallel or serial connected. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 03:21, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

Guess what I can answer my own question, the Epson MX-80 is still there, and aslo the generic printer, which I can set strings under properties. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 03:26, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

Switching between soundcards

I have two soundcards on my PC (running XP), one M-Audio soundcard for recording, etc. and one for ordinary pc use (gaming etc.). I have to switch between these cards very often, so my question: Is there maybe software to easily switch between soundcards. Another solution would be to make icons on my desktop which would execute some (commandline) commands to make the switch to another soundcard for the output of audio. Does anyone know if there's a way to switch to another soundcard through the commandline? Emil76 (talk) 10:02, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

I found QuickSoundSwitch, so this question is solved. Emil76 (talk) 19:18, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

I can't sign in to MSN or get to msn.com

Other websites and programs work fine.

I tried ping msn.com and all 4 packets timed out.

I tried telnet msn.com and apparently there is a problem with port 23. The connection troubleshooter also identified "key ports" as the problem.

Now how do I fix the port? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.189.57.48 (talk) 13:59, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

Run tracert and see where it gets hung up. It'll tell you if it's on their end, your end, or somewhere in between. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 14:23, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

Times out after 5 consecutive Level 3 Communications IPs. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.189.57.48 (talk) 14:44, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

Search for someone's MSN skydrive

Me and my friend signed up for MSN live. and uploaded files on SkyDrive. Without knowing each other's homepage's address how can we access each other's sky drive. (without inviting each other to view folders) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Muhammad Hamza (talk • contribs) 17:06, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

This may seem extremely obvious and stupid, but you could just give each other your username/password. I don't recommend it, though. 75.66.48.112 (talk) 20:49, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

What company rates website builders

i have a business that needs a website with domain name,search engine etc.l am ignorant about the process and want to go with the best company that helps build websites for businesses and gets you a domain name,search engine,help with advertising etc.i would like to know about some company s that rate these types of company's to determine which will be best for me like consumer reports rates all sorts of things but not this.please help me. I am going in circles and getting nowhere. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.162.240.114 (talk) 18:33, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

It has to do with cost. It sounds like you want a publicity firm that includes Internet publicity. A web design company just designs a website and walks away, leaving you with the files and a hope that you know what to do with them. A webhosting company can host your website. There are companies that can do both. -- kainaw™ 19:45, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

Since you have a business, I would advise hiring a web developer/designer. If you can get a good one, he will design a good-looking website and find somewhere for you to host it. If you don't want to hire someone, there are free website designs all over the 'net and gazillions of sites like these, along with lots of comparison sites. flaminglawyer^c 22:42, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

Automated diagramming for Netware partitions/replicas

Now that Microsoft has killed Visio Enterprise Network tools, is there another tool that can semi-automatically map/diagram servers/partitions/replicas for Netware and eDirectory? Thanks in advance! --198.162.133.101 (talk) 19:11, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

windows games

Hi, my mom called me and is looking for this program on her old computer that she really wants. I don't even know if it is a program. It was on her desktop and I am told it may be an interface. She says it was a livingroom that also had a kitchen you could cook in and a gameroom that you could click on games on a bookshelf and then play them. Has anyone heard of this or even know if it's available out there or is there something like it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ruthmetz (talk • contribs) 19:29, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

From a distant memory... Back in the Bob days, there was an experiment for Windows which made your desktop look like rooms, with a desk, file cabinets, bookshelf, and such. It wasn't popular and was killed off (with Bob) - probably to make room for Clippy. -- kainaw™ 19:43, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

Some screen shots here APL (talk) 20:23, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

What is BOB and what is clippy? is there anything similar to this available? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ruthmetz (talk • contribs) 20:24, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

I honestly have no idea what Bob is, but Clippy (the Paperclip) is/was the default "helper" for Microsoft Office on Windows 2000. 75.66.48.112 (talk) 20:46, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

Microsoft Bob was the somewhat predecessor of Office Assistant; Clippit or Clippy was the default assistant. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 21:46, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

More screenshots here. You can see the "family room" with the desk, bookshelf, and such. -- kainaw™ 15:19, 11 November 2008 (UTC)

Definately Microsoft bob, I remember playing with it when I was a kid. 66.216.163.92 (talk) 02:07, 12 November 2008 (UTC)

Need Excel fundtion help

I'm struggling with a nested IF statement in Excel, and would much appreciate any insight from the RefDesk. Can I actually upload a minispreadsheet for others to look at and work with? If not, you have to use your imagination :-)

Sample:

C	M	N	P
2001	100	0	Pay from NQ
2001	125	500	NQ
2001	275	0	Pay from NQ
2049	50	0	Pay from NQ
2049	100	0	Pay from NQ
2049	400	600	NQ
2049	50	0	Pay from NQ

We are computing client invoices from this data; this sample data contains two clients (2001 and 2049 in column C) who have seven accounts between them, one per row. Column M contains the "raw" number, which may or may not be paid from the account on this line. Column P contains text which drives the test conditions. (Other conditions exist as well, but this is the one that's making me crazy!)

The formula in column N represents this explanation:

• IF col P contains "Pay from NQ", the amount paid from this account is zero; ELSE
  • IF col P contains "NQ", the amount paid from this account is the sum of all amounts in M for this value of C; ELSE
    • (failing both of those conditions) N = M.

The IF-statements aren't really the problem, it's the SUMIF function that's proving obstinate. As far as I can get is:

=IF( P14="Pay from NQ", 0, IF( P14="NQ", SUMIF(M4:M24, C14=C$14), M14 ))

(P4:P24 comes from "Nobody has more than 10 accounts, so +/- 10 from the current row should catch them all")

Problem with this is I still have to go in and manually enter "$14" where needed -- I can't figger out how to parameterize or genericize this. C14=C14 doesn't do it! Any suggestions?

Thanks!! --DaHorsesMouth (talk) 20:20, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

Fixed typo in formula --DaHorsesMouth (talk) 20:23, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

I'm not 100% certain what you are expecting to achieve so not sure if this is going to be right but it seems like you'd want it to be

=IF(D2="Pay from NQ",0,IF(D2="NQ",SUMIF(A2:A8,A2,B2:B8))) Where D2 = the 'p' cell you are assessing where A2:A8 = the range you are assessing to see whether or not it = the C-column in your row where A2 = the value you want to assess 'c' against where b2:B8 = the values you want to sum (i.e. the 'm' column).

I'm not sure if this is right as not sure what you are trying to achieve. Using the above code the code would result in '500' for the answer to the first row of data 194.221.133.226 (talk) 11:18, 11 November 2008 (UTC)

The SUMIF clause you want in, say, N14 is SUMIF(C:C, C14, M:M). This will sum the values in column M where the value of the corresponding cell in column C is equal to the value in C14. Copy and paste this up and down column N, and the C14 relative reference will be updated automatically. Gandalf61 (talk) 11:34, 11 November 2008 (UTC)

Resolved

Gandalf, that's obviously a well-chosen handle. After I realized that C14=C14 was just incorrect syntax, I tried =C14 and "=C14". Who'da thunk that -C14-, no equals, no quotes, was a legal comparison expression!

Thanks! --DaHorsesMouth (talk) 21:01, 11 November 2008 (UTC)

Numbering in NeoOffice

I can't get the hang of numbering in NeoOffice. When I start a main point, say '1', then press enter, it starts the next main point at '2'. All well and good up to now. But, when I put a subset of points in for '1', such as (1), (2), etc., when I try to start the next main point (which should be '2') it starts off at '1', again. Is there any way to sort this out? I have ended up doing it manually, with the pain of having to delete auto-numbering and auto-tab, etc., leading me to want to switch the damn auto-numbering thing off altogether. Which leads me to my next question. Is this possible, too? Can I switch it off completely (without using the little button AFTER the auto-numbering has already numbered back to '1')? This is really annoying sometimes, because half an hour later, I will start a new main point, and it will number itself at '4' or something else annoying.--ChokinBako (talk) 21:02, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

Your second question first - if you turn it off completely, you would have to manually set the margins and stuff, which gets annoying after a while. First question - I don't know, I use MSOffice flaminglawyer^c 22:11, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

I can't remember if neo-offic does this but usually when you are in a numbered-list if upon entering from 1 you get 2 but what you want is 1.1/ 1 (1) (or whatever) you usually just press 'tab' and it will indent the numbered list and automatically change to a sub-point rather than the next main number. That's how it works in MS Office anyways. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 15:02, 11 November 2008 (UTC)

Sorry i was being daft - it's the "increase indent" button you'd need to press. Here's a forum discussion about indents on Neo-office (http://trinity.neooffice.org/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=6478&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=) 194.221.133.226 (talk) 15:08, 11 November 2008 (UTC)

Using someone else's unsecured wifi

<request for legal advice removed>

Paypal = credit card?

From reading microlot's support's relevant palpal FAQs, I can't come to a conclusion about whether they will or will not accept PayPal as a method of deposit/withdrawal. [3], they say they only accept credit card/bank wire. [4], they say they accept a PayPal credit card. I have a Paypal acc, so I guess my question turns into: Is a regular PayPal account the same thing as a Paypal credit card? flaminglawyer^c 21:54, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

No. The PayPal Plus Credit Card is a credit card that the service PayPal offers. Like most of these "store" credit cards (e.g. Macy's Credit Cards, CostCo Credit Cards, etc.) it is a regular credit card (with a balance of credit you can take out, with interest rates, fees, etc.) except you get some sort of store specific benefit for using it (in the case of PayPal, you get "exclusive PayPal offers" and "Rewards"). It is mailed to you as a regular credit card. I think the reason they have a clarification regarding the specifically PayPal credit card is because they don't take PayPal—and they're just emphasizing that that doesn't mean they don't take the PayPal credit card (which is the same as any other credit card). They even bother to specify that it should have a Visa logo on it (making it clear that it's a real-deal credit card, although I believe the PayPal Plus Credit Card is a Mastercard, but whatever..). --98.217.8.46 (talk) 00:15, 11 November 2008 (UTC)

Subset symbol doesn't render on Wikipedia

How come the subset symbol doesn't seem to be working for me right now: $\subseteq$ --128.97.245.127 (talk) 23:35, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

Server problems/general weirdness? When I view the image by itself it still doesn't work. flaminglawyer^c 00:46, 11 November 2008 (UTC)

It appears to require something following it. "<math> \subseteq </math>" yields "$\subseteq$", but "<math> \subseteq A</math>" yields "$\subseteq A$". The bug seems limited to this particular symbol. Others similar symbols appear to work correctly - for example, "<math> \supseteq </math>" yields "$\supseteq$". (I'll add a cross reference to the Math desk where it might get the attention of someone more familiar with the inner workings.) -- Tcncv (talk) 01:15, 11 November 2008 (UTC)

Somehow that particular image was broken. A kind server admin deleted the broken one, and the image has been regenerated. — Carl (CBM · talk) 01:33, 11 November 2008 (UTC)