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

February 22

Double directorys

When unpacking/opening compressed sets of files eg .rar I often get file paths like this:

C:My_Computer\My_name\My_Documents\peter\peter\actual files here

when unpacking a file like this:

C:My_Computer\My_name\My_Documents\peter.rar

when the packed file was called peter - the relevent files are in the second peter - why is a nested peter directory created that contains nothing but yet another peter directory ? Is there a reason for this?87.102.67.84 (talk) 01:06, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Some programs that extract files will create a folder with the same name as the compressed file, then extract all the files into it. Some people that prepare compressed files put a single folder in the root of the compressed file that contains all the other files. If both happen, then you'll get one folder in another. --70.129.132.244 (talk) 02:23, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Makes sense, thanks.87.102.67.84 (talk) 02:25, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

In the world of Unix, it's traditional to create archives that extract into a directory with the same name as the archive. This is so you can drop the archive into, say, your home directory, and extract it without creating a huge mess. You can check the documentation of your extractor to see if it automatically creates those directories, or if the people who made the .rar files are doing things the Unix way. Paul Stansifer 14:09, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks - I'm using 7zip in windows - an experiment confirms that it creates a folder when extracting to contain the files compressed even when the original file was not 'folderised' - this explains it.

Simple when it is explained to you. Thanks both.

Resolved

Sega Master System cartridges

How can you tell the difference between a European (PAL) and a US (NTSC) Sega Master System cartridge? Daram.G (talk) 02:08, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

According to the same article you linked, there is no physical difference between the US and European cartridges. The only physical differences are between Japen/South Korea and the rest of the world. Likewise the console doesn't have any region coding so all US/EU games will run on the SMS with only a few exceptions because of the technical problems with the games themselves. ZX81 ^talk 02:33, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Are the European versions of the carts adjusted to play at 50 Hz? Will the US version of a game at 60 Hz play at the same speed as a European version of a game at 50 Hz? Daram.G (talk) 03:40, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Also, are there no obvious label differences? Daram.G (talk) 03:44, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

I have no source for this, but as far as I understand it with the SMS games it's nothing to do with the cartridge, but the console that's playing it (a US SMS runs the games at 60Hz, an EU SMS runs the games at 50Hz). Because there is no region coding and the cartridges between US and EU are fully interchangeable, I don't think there is any differences. As for the labelling though, I'm unable to tell you that I'm afraid, but since they haven't put in any region information it would make sense that the labels are all the same too. Sorry for not being able to give you a full answer, but I hope this is of some help! ZX81 ^talk 03:57, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

There will have to be a reference for ZX81's speculation, I am afraid. US console programmers always had to do a lot of crap work at the end of every project for the dreaded PAL conversion. Video resolution is different and the 50/60Hz difference is a pain, too. I don't know anything personally about the Sega Master System, but to my knowledge, the first console that supported a worldwide console release, where the same SKU (a disc, in this case) could work on any system was the first Xbox. Comet Tuttle (talk) 05:16, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Normally I'd completely agree with you, but with the Master System it was a bit of a weird system because they really didn't bother. PAL versions of the console literally squashed the screen to fit the native resolution and ran slower as well, there was no adjustment done by the actual developers to handle PAL conversion. A lot of owners therefore "modded" their SMS to put in a switch to convert between 50Hz and 60Hz so they could play the games as intended. Links to this here and here. ZX81 ^talk 23:59, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

This is great information, everyone. Thank you for your help. Daram.G (talk) 04:24, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

daily/weekly PHP code problems?

Other than browsing StackOverflow, is there a way I could get daily or weekly PHP code challenges/problems to think about in my freetime and (hopefully) introduce me to new aspects of the language? I'm imagining a blog/email list or something where they post short challenges & answers on a regular basis... Thank you! 218.25.32.210 (talk) 06:54, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

thedailywtf.com is pretty funny. If you just want programming challenges, rubyquiz.com has a big collection of them, though not PHP-specific. They're intended for Ruby but lots of them are worth doing in other languages. PHP itself is not that complicated and in my perhaps snobbish opinion it's not worth messing with its weirder corners instead of just doing stuff straightforwardly. It -is- worth looking over other people's PHP code to figure out what it's doing. MediaWiki (mediawiki.org) is a big PHP application that we here all use, so it's a possible place to start reading. And of course bugzilla.mediawiki.org has tons of real-world problems that you can work on and for which your solutions would be gratefully received by the wikipedia community. Lots of the open requests aren't terribly difficult, it's just a matter of somebody finding the time for them. Maybe the somebody is you ;-). 75.62.109.146 (talk) 11:33, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

If you want some general programming challenges, Project Euler is a fun resource. The problems are mostly mathematical and computer science oriented in nature, so it may not be what you're looking for, but it will definitely help you become a better programmer. Start with the early ones, the last ones can be crazy difficult. Belisarius (talk) 22:12, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Hardware Diagnostics

Please see [1]. Is there any way to run diagnostics to see if there is a hardware problem? TresÁrboles (talk) 08:39, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

You could try memtest86.com but from your description, I don't see anything suggesting hardware problems. 75.62.109.146 (talk) 11:38, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

I agree. OR here but I have seen my computer freeze thousands of times over the years, and only rarely is hardware at fault. Comet Tuttle (talk) 19:06, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

I really hope that is the case, but I'm worried. I've had the PC freeze up on me on rare occasions before, but it's been happening consistently these last few days now. At first, I thought it might be ads on websites, then Firefox itself, but then I had the problem happen when I was playing a Flash game not on a website (the swf file was on my drive) using Internet Explorer, so I then thought the recent Flash update was the problem. But then I got the problem while watching a DVD and not using any other app (besides PowerDVD). Therefore I don't think the problem is Flash by itself anymore. I'm pretty sure it's exacerbated by Flash though; I was browsing the web all day yesterday without problem, then last night I enabled Flash to browse Youtube, and bam! PC frozen after only 15-20 minutes! My current hypothesis is hardware related to video is flaking out, but works until irritated by Flash or video- or graphics-intensive stuff. Sorry if that's a silly idea; I don't know too much about hardware. TresÁrboles (talk) 01:02, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

videogame processor design idiocy

The Playstation series, of late, has seemed hell-bent on basing itself around "hard to design for" processors. Prior to that, the Sega Saturn was a famous pain in the ass. My question is simple: how is this possible? Processors are not designed overnight by one monkey - they take years and teams of engineers. How could "the system" possibly end up with something difficult to use? Logically, the fact that that processor was chosen implies that other options were found to be less acceptable. It baffles the mind. Isn't usability paramount here? How can you build something to be "fast" if no one knows how to use it? It's like making a bicycle that is allegedly phenomenally fast, but virtually unbalanceable, and then blaming the rider! This makes no sense to me... 218.25.32.210 (talk) 08:55, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

I'm not able to source any of this by the way, this is just put together from things I remember reading, but anyway... The Saturns (unique at the time) dual processor design apparently was actually a very quick decision. The console was going to have a single standard processor for quite a long time during its development, but then Sony released the specs for its Playstation, and sega decided that they needed more power, so added an extra processor or something, making it apparently difficult to program for. The PS3 uses the Cell Processor which is at least partially made by Sony, and because of this it allows sony to make them cheaply. Lots of components in both the PS2 and PS3 are made by Sony themselves if I recall correctly. The cell seems to have been designed for rendering and server applications, and massivly multithreaded things, and does pretty well. I guess this makes it hard to program games for, at least if you're making a game with the intent of making it multiplatform. Gunrun (talk) 09:09, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

The oft-repeated hard to program issue is overblown. It's just that having a single multipurpose processor (such as an x86) is easier to use.

The processors have maximium power for a specific task - in the PS2 (and PS3 cases) this is mostly vector transforms and similar - an 'easy to program' x86 processor of similar power would have been expensive, and full of a lot of extraenous processing ability that wasn't useful, and have a larger die size.

You're analogy is a little overblown - both playstation processors are perfectly workable and stable for the task.87.102.67.84 (talk) 13:20, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

See also http://forums.sega.com/showthread.php?t=313485 (the main Hitachi SH4 processors used in the saturn are simple, easy to use and straightforward RISC processors )

Most of this comes from people who don't really know what they are talking about - eg Saturn - what's so hard about a two processor system? Is a core2duo hard to program?

87.102.67.84 (talk) 13:29, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

The other reason may be lack of easy to use middleware rather than something intrinsically wrong or hard with the architecture; which is designed with a specific task and purpose in mind, and not to be easy to program by untrained persons.87.102.67.84 (talk) 13:32, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Keep in mind who is claiming the PS3 is hard to program for. Is it someone who purchased Sony's development API or is it someone who didn't get the API and is trying to poke through it manually? Imagine trying to write a program for you PC without any compiler of any kind. It would be a pain in the ass. -- kainaw™ 14:27, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

This is the reason game engines and middleware exists, so that the obscure task of writing machine code to drive the graphics chip, or do collision detection doesn't have to be written every time a new game is made. This I think relates to the reference to Yu Suzuki in the link I gave above - out of a development team of 100 only 1 person will actually need low level understanding of the architecture, and be writing code for it the rest will be concerning themselves with graphics assets, scripting, and programming that can sit on top of the 'hard coding stuff'. The days of the single lone programmer are pretty much dead.87.102.67.84 (talk) 14:34, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

87's claims (that this is all exaggerated) are not correct. It is apparent that he or she does not work on these systems. Every single coder in the video game industry bitches about the difficulty of programming for the PS3 architecture, and before that they all bitched about the PS2 architecture, and before that the few who worked on Saturn games really let you have an earful, all of the time. All three really have been pains in the ass. Video game coders — not one low-level guy, but all of them — are always leaned on hard to squeeze out the maximum performance possible, because the content guys always want to cram more data into every frame — larger and more textures, geometry, animation, particle effects. It's true that using the Unreal Engine, or whatever, helps a lot, but you still need coders to do specific low level stuff necessary for your game, because in the quest to become optimal — in order to accommodate more of the demands of the content guys — you're doing plenty of low level coding and optimization for all the systems you do have to write. Anyway, to speak to the original poster's question of why, I heard a similar story about the Saturn, that its extra processors were thrown in hastily and at the last minute. As for the Sony architectures, these came from Ken Kutaragi and his team. He loves high performance and for the PS2 and PS3 was willing to follow a path that got him some interesting high performance, even though it be hostile to programmers on his systems. The PS2 architecture with the vector units was introduced because some benchmarks were promising — although a slower system overall than the (later and more expensive) Xbox, the PS2 can beat the Xbox at certain narrow tasks because of them. And as for the PS3, Mr. Kutaragi stood in front of everyone at his GDC keynote speech a year or two before the PS3 launch, and showed some benchmarks of a prototype system with eight PS2 motherboards operating in parallel. Parallel computing seems to fascinate Mr. Kutaragi, and the PS3 is the result. Comet Tuttle (talk) 18:09, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

The PS3 is really a gaming machine. The end-use begs for parallel processing and (especially) vector processing. A scalar processor simply won't do. It is an architecture argument, not a programming argument. So, as you said, the programmers get left out of the argument and complain about it. If I were to design a gaming system, I'd use a vector processor with a heavily pipelined and parallel floating-point math unit along with associative memory instead of addressable memory. It would be completely beyond the norm for programmers, so they would hate it. -- kainaw™ 18:26, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Internet service after power cut

Resolved

Is there likely to be a delay in the resuming of internet services after a small, localized power cut? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.89.27 (talk) 13:35, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

The internet may not actually be affected by a localised power cut since it usually runs off the telephone systems set of wires (depends on situation).

Otherwise if the local internet did lose power during a power cut - you could expect a delay whilst it restarts - anything over an hour would suggest to me they screwed up their recovery system. Sorry I can't be more specific. I wouldn't expect a notable delay in general.87.102.67.84 (talk) 17:20, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

. References please? Comet Tuttle (talk) 19:05, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Last time our power was cut off the telephones and internet still worked - sorry that's the best I can do.87.102.67.84 (talk) 19:43, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the answers. The internet comes via fiber optic cable, not a phone line. Would that make a difference or do they use the same system? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.89.27 (talk) 20:45, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Fiber optics mean you definitely won't get service during the power outage (since fiber optics only transmit data and rely on wall power to operate). After power is restored, it's a crap shoot and depends on what caused the outage, whether the ISP also lost power, etc. If both the fiber optic and power cables were cut, and only one was fixed, you'll need to wait until they fix the other. If the power outage was caused by a lightning strike, or there was some other source of power spike before the outage (or they caused a spike when turning the power back on), it may have damaged electronics at either end, and they'd need to be replaced before it would work. Aside from those circumstances, I wouldn't expect a significant delay restoring internet service after power was restored. —ShadowRanger ^(talk|stalk) 20:55, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

There seems to be some confusion here. Unless you have some sort of uninterruptible power supply or a laptop with a built in modem which you use to connect to the internet thru the phoneline without relying on any external device, you will lose internet access since you have no power for the devices on your end (it would work if your laptop has a built in Optical Network Unit that connects to your local fibre connection as well although I doubt such devices exist particularly since most fibre connections to the ONU aren't likely to be designed to be removable). I would hope this should be obvious to all, the same way your TV or microwave oven won't work. While normal corded analog phones can operate without any extra external power (getting power from the phone line), others including all data equipment (obviously something like a laptop has internal power so doesn't always need external power) can't no matter whether they connect to the phone line or fibre optic cables.

However the internet service itself may not be affected you just need to provide power to the modem and routers on your side to use it. If you have some sort of UPS for the ONU or modem and routers (if needed) then as long as that has power, your end should be fine (whether you can use it of course will depend on whether you have a UPS for connecting equipement or battery powered devices like a laptop).

It is of course possible that there may be problems on the other end. However most network providers should have decent UPSes and often backup generators too so provided it isn't too long and there isn't some other issue (like cut lines or lightning strikes) the network provider shouldn't go down or at least not for long due to a power failure. (Of course shit happens [2])

If you want to stimulate a power cut on your end and have access to the power supply for the modem or ONU, then just cut the power for a while and bring it back. It usually won't take long for service to work again.

Incidentally, if you rely solely on VoIP for your phone line, you may want to consider installing some sort of UPS for emergencies during power cuts.

Nil Einne (talk) 02:42, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks!

"Hex-based"?

I just stumbled upon the Systemsoft article. What does "hex-based" mean? I guess that it either means that the user has to input a large number of hexadecimal numbers during gameplay (not probable), or that the user interface is based on a hexagonal tiling, as in this screenshot (more probable). --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 14:43, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

For company, hex refers to the map. It uses hexagons to avoid strategy faults in a standard grid map. -- kainaw™ 14:55, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

I have linked hex map in that article. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 16:36, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Make clickable links to HD in a text file or similar?

Is there anything that will allow me to click on for example C:\my docs\mytext.txt in a text file or similar and have mytext.txt open? The freeware notepad-like Metapad will do this with URLs but it does not work with references to the HD as far as I've found. A simple database with this facility would be useful too. Thanks 78.147.192.66 (talk) 16:29, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Have you tried the file: notation? That is used by most web browsers. -- kainaw™ 16:32, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

http://techie-buzz.com/softwares/metapad-free-notepad-replacement.html for an example of using the "file:C:\blah" notation in metapad.

Found better answer ignore ... Notepad doesn't do it, Wordpad sort of does (for certain file types, as OLE objects), openoffice does it properly - use insert>hyperlink and select "document" then select your file - and give a text name as you wish it to appear in the document (annoyingly you need to use CTRL-click to open, not double click).

In general search the documentation or help page of a given program for "hyperlinks".87.102.67.84 (talk) 16:52, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Strange Internet problem

My computer is connected to my d-link router and my modem. The internet on my host computer was working fine, but stopped all of a sudden. My laptops can still connect to my internet and I can browse the internet from there. My host computer cannot browse the internet and I have no idea why. I checked with ipconfig and saw that the dhcp is not enabled. I would really appreciate any help. If you need more info, just ask.--68.210.32.244 (talk) 17:23, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

You could set the IP address to use manually for this simple wired connection - in (windows) network places - select the connection, the open the properties window, then Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) properties - you can then enter the address - though the same window gives you the option to turn on DHCP anyway which should also fix it. (You'll probably need to go through a restart or maybe flush the DNS stuff - if you are using ipconfig in cmd.exe then "ipconfig /?" gives the switch to type to do this.

I'm assuming that the fix is simple (above) - though I don't understand the cause.(below)

What IP address is the connector currently trying to use, and what is your routers address?? (did you connect manually before, and was DHCP on before?) - My guess is something has caused the IP address on one or both to reset - but why - this isn't normal? Hopefully someone else can explain if this is a worrying development..(Any new programs or other odd behaviour)87.102.67.84 (talk) 17:43, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Windows 7 screen saver issue

Is there any way to adjust when the screen saver turns on with Windows 7 Starter Pack? I'm using a Spanish version and I thought I'd changed it under the energy saving menu but nothing really changed. It's set at 2 hours for everything but still there's a 1 min delay before it turns on again... It's very frustrating to try and watch a video on Youtube when the screen saver turns on constantly. Thanks for any help 87.111.102.76 (talk) 17:36, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

I do not know what "Windows 7 Starter Pack" is. Perhaps you mean "Windows 7 Starter"? The amount of inactivity before the screen saver starts is adjusted where you choose the screen saver. Right click on the desktop and select "Adjust" followed by "Screen Saver". Alternatively, you can open the same window by searching for "screen saver" in the Start Menu. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 17:43, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Sounds like you are adjusting the amount of time it takes for the screen itself to turn off (in energy settings)

ie the energy settings turns the whole screen off , but doesn't affect the screen saver.

For screen saver properties http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2109-screen-saver-change.html (scroll down to Here's how) .. right click on the desktop - select "personalise" then click on the screen saver part, and adjust the time it takes to come on (or off?)

To have no screen saver at all see http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2111-screen-saver-turn-off.html

Did it work?87.102.67.84 (talk) 17:52, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

OK, so "Adjust" in my response above should be changed to "Personalize". Why can't everyone use the Swedish version of Windows?! --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 17:55, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

For the benefit of the spanish version using poster - it's the option at the bottom when you right click on a blank area in the screen.87.102.67.84 (talk) 18:23, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for your replies but the big problem is I don't have a 'personalise' feature on the right-click drop down menu... I believe it's mentioned in several places on the net that there is no 'personalise' feature on Windows 7 Starter... But surely there is something that can be done because it seems ridiculous to not be able to watch something for longer than a minute without it switching to screen saver 87.111.102.76 (talk) 18:52, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

ooops - sorry I had no idea the starter edition was that locked down - you can try start>>control panel>>display>>screensaver - but according to some reports the change screensaver dialog appears - but has no effect afterwards - just reverts to default - it's worth trying anyway.

If it's true that you can't even change the time limit for screensaver in the starter edition there might be a solution worth trying (no idea if it will work - it might generate a pop-up error) - and that is to delete the screen saver file so that it can't run at all..

Not sure what it's called but searching for "*.scr" in the hard disk should turn up all the installer screensavers - you could try moving them to a different location, and seeing if that has the desired effect. Hope this works.87.102.67.84 (talk) 19:21, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

According to the above link the files are in C:\Windows\System32 eg C:\Windows\System32\Bubbles.scr

If removing the .scr file works (not sure it will) then you can create the effect of a blank screen saver using the power options to turn off the screen after whatever time you can enter.87.102.67.84 (talk) 19:31, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

I see. But if Windows 7 Starter does have a screen-saver feature, then there must a dialog where the user can choose her screen saver? In the Swedish version of Windows 7 Home Premium, it looks like this. "Vänta 10 minuter" means "Wait 10 minutes", i.e. "do not start the screen saver until the computer has been inactive for ten minutes". --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 19:22, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

If everything else fails, you might want to try an application that simulates cursor motion, such as my own CursorMotion.exe application. But this is a very ugly solution - surely there must be a way of inactivating, or delaying, the screen saver even in Windows 7 Starter? --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 19:26, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

(People are calling windows 7 starter the evil edition...) I wonder if there is a command line switch there could be used to set the time out in the bubbles.scr program - someone else with have to tell since I have no idea - could the bubbles.scr program be replace with a shortcut of the same name incorporating the switch.

Other alternatives seem possible - I think .scr files might(?) just be .exe files by a different extension - perhaps it is possible to create a "bubbles.scr" file from another file eg create a .exe that simple exits rapidly, and rename it "bubbles.scr" don't know enough about their implementation to be sure.87.102.67.84 (talk) 19:41, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Yes, a screensaver is an ordinary Win32 application (*.exe file) with an odd extension (and that responds well to some command-line arguments for "preview", "start screensaver", "show settings dialog", etc.). --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 19:45, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

I've just been experimenting and noticed that the screensaver files in \system32 are fairly well protected - ie can't be straightforwardly deleted - if someone wants to delete them I think some registry editing would be needed - something I don't know how to do.87.102.67.84 (talk) 20:14, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

"Registry editing"? Wouldn't it suffice to run the file manager as an administrator? --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 20:19, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Something more odd is happening - I can delete the file eg ssstars.scr - no problem - but the deleted file is actually replaced by the system a few seconds later - similarily if I manage to rename another file to ssstars.scr (the starfield screensave) overwriting the old one - it automatically re-overwrites with the old file a few seconds later - I've never seen this behaviour before- and don't know what is doing it - try for yourself ???87.102.67.84 (talk) 20:36, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Well, that doesn't surprise me. Windows doesn't want its system files to be altered (and most often that is good)... --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 21:09, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

How to get rid of screensavers (doesn't work for me) found a possible answer should someone really need to delete a screensaver, as maybe the case here - quite why windows is so protective of an apparently non critical component is still a mystery though.87.102.67.84 (talk) 21:22, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Perhaps Windows is as protective of all items in the System32 directory? --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 21:24, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

It looks like it is - not sure if the delete bubbles.scr method will work after all, even with extra effort.87.102.67.84 (talk) 21:30, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Anyhow, I still cannot accept the fact that you cannot disable or delay the screensaver in Windows 7 Starter. I wish I had a W7S machine to try... --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 21:31, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Does help [3]. Did you try searching in the control panel as suggested above [4]? Incidentally Windows 7 Home Basic lacks a personalise tab too [5] although it seems like it may come with more then one desktop background [6]. Incidentally does the Windows 7 Starter EULA allow installation in a VM? If so, someone with the proper MSDN access or whatever could just install it onto a VM and try. Nil Einne (talk) 04:07, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

This page from Microsoft leaves me with the impression that you cannot change your screensaver in Win 7 Starter (see "Applies to these editions of Windows 7" in top right). Further down, behind the "To install a screen saver" link, it says you cannot uninstall screensavers that came with Windows 7. Perhaps you could hack the registry, but then again maybe Win 7 Starter stops you doing that too. Anyway, in my Vista installation the "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop" node includes:

"ScreenSaveActive"="1"

"ScreenSaveTimeOut"="600"

"SCRNSAVE.EXE"="C:\\Windows\\system32\\Aurora.scr"

Seems ScreenSaveTimeOut=600 gives a 10 minute delay. Astronaut (talk) 10:00, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

The same values exist on Windows 7 Home Premium. This looks like a very promising solution for the OP. Try to change the number of seconds to the value you want (ScreenSaveTimeOut). Of course, it is possible that these registry values do not exist on W7S, or that theye are ignored, but my guess is that they are still there, and working. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 13:43, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

This vbs script turns on and off the screen saver it relies on the registry so it may not work if Windows 7 Starter won't let you edit the registry, but as long as it works he could run it whenever he needs to turn the screensvaer off. I'd recommend assigning it a hot key with AutoHotKey or something similar.

Dim WSHShell, RegKey, ScreenSaver, Result
Set WSHShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
RegKey = "HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop\"
ScreenSaver = WSHShell.RegRead (regkey & "ScreenSaveActive")
If ScreenSaver = 1 Then 'Screen Saver is Enabled
Result = MsgBox("Your screen saver is currently active." & _ 
vbNewLine & "Would you like to disable it?", 36)
If Result = 6 Then 'clicked yes
WSHShell.RegWrite regkey & "ScreenSaveActive", 0
End If
Else 'Screen Saver is Disabled
Result = MsgBox("Your screen saver is currently disabled." & _ 
vbNewLine & "Would you like to enable it?", 36)
If Result = 6 Then 'clicked yes
WSHShell.RegWrite regkey & "ScreenSaveActive", 1
End If
End If

Xor24 ^{talk to me} 21:05, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

The internet thinks my computer is a mac

Hi,

My laptop has many viruses, I recently tried to clean it up a bit and now it doesn't open random webpages and play me porn videos when I'm least expecting it - but it's also not completely healthy. I'm going to have to format it and all that, but one of the other symptoms it's now exhibiting (seemed to be caused by the virus scanners...) is that the internet thinks it's a mac - but it's really an off the shelf hp running vista. Sites include download.com, chrome download site, and youtube - they all give me suggestions or downloads suitable for macs. What could be causing this? As I said, I'm not so worried about fixing this problem, I would like to hear theories on how this could work.

Cheers,

Aaadddaaammm (talk) 18:56, 22 February 2010 (UTC)\

Most likely your browser's user-agent string has been modified. The Hero of This Nation (talk) 19:02, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Probably done by the virus or whatever to make it more difficult to download solutions to your problems - good luck with the re-install ..87.102.67.84 (talk) 19:25, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

According to the ads, the internet now thinks you're much more hip than you used to be!-- Flyguy649 ^talk 19:27, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

If you have a bunch of viruses, I would use this free download to help clean things up. [7] I use this, and it scans, and deletes. I haven't had any problems with it. Moptopstyle1 ("I Feel Fine.") (talk) 19:45, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Windows Defender, included in Windows Vista/7, is also good. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 20:01, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

"Get a Mac!" ;-). Or, more seriously, try Ubuntu. It is mostly virus-proof, reasonably friendly, and reasonably capable. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 20:13, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

I doubt it. MAC_address - Kittybrewster ☎ 20:17, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Don't try to remove viruses. You will never get them completely gone. Buy a new hard drive, install it in the laptop, install your OS and software on it from original media, and copy your user files from the old drive being very careful about any file types subject to infection. Anti-virus software is useful because it can alert you to the presence of viruses. But it can never give you any assurance at all about their absence. 75.62.109.146 (talk) 20:26, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

I wouldn't go so far as to buy a new hard drive this IMO is a bit of a drastic action for a little infection. Try the link provided above by Moptopstyle1, I have used it myself with no problems. Mo ainm (talk) 20:34, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

I'm with 75; I would always do a wipe and a clean install. New hard disk is only needed if you lack a 2nd already (in order to store all your infected stuff before moving it onto the wiped hard disk). Comet Tuttle (talk) 21:33, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Supervised and Unsupervised Learning

I was reading the supervised learning article. At the end of the overview section it says that the Gaussian Mixture Model is one of the most commonly used classifiers. But the Gaussian Mixture Model article says that a mixture model can be regarded as a type of unsupervised learning. Can something be regarded as both supervised and unsupervised learning, or are they mutually exclusive? •• Fly by Night (talk) 20:42, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Oops missed your final question ... see Semi-supervised learning (or below for a long discourse that doesn't really answer it...)

Also by picking data associations you think (or know a priori) will be useful, without actually classfying any data sets is an example of a combination of the two - it's not truly unsupervised. eg you might want to classify alien language scripts based on things you already know about writing methods in general - not only does it simplify the process - but also by choosing the 'right questions' you can get answers (classifications) by the right type - eg a totally unsupervised learning method might end up just classifying scripts into those that were written big or small.. (stupid example).87.102.67.84 (talk) 00:27, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

It seems that the gaussian mixture model when used in supervised learning has labels attached to the different properties - without the labels it reverts to being unsupervised. For example in unsupervised learning a set of examples of arabic and chinese text could be separated into two distinct sets 1 and 2 (after much iteration of sets) - based on similarity of near features. In supervised learning the individual text examples are labled - thus a final text example should be classified into either chinese or arabic type. (without the iteration of sets required for unsupervised learning). Both can use (or assume) a gaussian spread of values (the values being association of nearby features).

In both cases the gaussian distribution is used as a statistical method to compare sets of data.

There are some fairly clear explanations of the difference between the two using http://www.google.co.uk/search?rlz=1C1CHMA_en-GBGB367GB367&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=supervised+vs+unsupervised+learning

It's possible to explain more about the differences between the two learning methods and how they differ algorhythmically (the implementation) if you want.87.102.67.84 (talk) 22:32, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

eg consider text stored as the series of pen strokes required to express it: defined by length, curvature (1/radius of curvature), curve angle and start and end position - see how the two writing types will consist of a mixture (gaussian? probably) of lines of zero and finite curvature (in different proportions for the two scripts). (assume that curved strokes can be approximated by arcs of circles..) - clearly you would expect the range of values of curvature for arabic script to be gaussian about an average position (eg O B Q etc) - but not with chinese script. Noting that both will have data that has an average around zero curvature ie from L I F etc.

In both types of learning gaussian distributions are used - but in supervised learning the two sets are already described - it's a simpler averaging proceedure to find the gaussians describing each set. In unsupervised learning the sets are not known - so some algorhythm must be used to find the organisation of script examples into sets that produces sets with mimimum gaussian spread (variance). (Placing items in the wrong set will increase the spread) - one way is to iterate over all possible sets that can be constructed - but this is extremely compute intensive. 87.102.67.84 (talk) 23:29, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Bondi Reader convert to epub?

I have the Rolling Stones Magazine collection, 'Cover to Cover'. Reading happens using the Bondi Reader, which is installed on my XP desktop, and came with the RS collection. Is there a way to convert material from the RS discs to EPUB, so that I can view them on my epub reader? It seems the RS files are in a format called .djvu . On my first try, Calibre did not easily convert the djvu file to an epub file. Thanks if you can advise. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.98.238.113 (talk) 22:15, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Rolling Stone website

I can't access http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily . Is anyone else experiencing this or is it just me? 24.189.90.68 (talk) 22:30, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Can't see it either.87.102.67.84 (talk) 22:32, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

I can see it, but "it" means "Error: Page cannot be displayed. Please contact service provider for more details. (5)". --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 22:41, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Amusingly, if you hit refresh, the number changes. I wonder what it specifies, exactly. --Mr.98 (talk) 22:49, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Seems to be back up.Smallman12q (talk) 02:02, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

Running Pocket PC software on a Windows XP computer

I would like to run a particular program that is only available for the Pocket PC. I do not have a Pocket PC, only a WinXP desktop computer. Is it possible to run it on that please? If so, how is it done? Thanks. 89.242.98.70 (talk) 22:45, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Try an emulator: [8] [9]. F (talk) 00:30, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Ubuntu Hardy Heron, Kernel 2.6.24-27-server, trying to get module snd-pcsp to work

Hi,

I'm trying to play audio files through the PC speaker, as this should be possible with the module snd-pcsp.

I can load it with modprobe snd-pcsp without any errors, and aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Noise.wav will output some noise. However, aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav sounds almost like the Noise.wav file - it shrieks like a Fax machine trying to use a Mickey Mouse voice changer for its connection handshake signal. In other words, I can't hear anything that would sound like the voice saying "Front Center" that I can hear when playing the file on my sound card. At first I thought that the 48kHz of that wav file might be too much for the poor little PC speaker, so I tried it with an 8kHz file as well - with the same result. :-(

I also tried alsamixer to change the setting labeled "BaseFRQ" from 18643 (default) to 37286 (the only other option), but that didn't help either. What else can I try?

I'd really like to be able to use that feature as it would allow me to notify nearby users of certain error situations when there is no screen or speaker set attached to the computer. -- 78.43.93.25 (talk) 22:59, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Update: After setting the master volume to 100% using alsamixer, the voice can be heard, but there still is an ugly overlay of (white? pink?) noise - way louder than the barely audible voice. Any suggestions as how to fix that? -- 78.43.93.25 (talk) 23:19, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Try converting the file to 8-bit samples (sox infile.wav -1 outfile.wav), that might help if it's a byte ordering problem. 98.226.122.10 (talk) 01:31, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

I followed your suggestion and tried an 8kHz mono 8-bit file. Sadly, the noise is still there. -- 78.43.60.58 (talk) 10:57, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

February 23

Tabs help with latest version of firefox?

Hi there! I have a quick question regarding tabs in firefox. I'm using the latest version (3.6). It's pretty much the same as 3.5, except for one noticeable difference. When I right click on a link and select new tab, it opens a new tab immediately after the tab that is currently selected. In 3.5, it would open the new tab to the right of all currently open tabs. How do I change this to the 3.5 version functionality? I've checked Tools>Options>Tabs, and it doesn't have an option there. Thanks!--70.122.117.52 (talk) 01:11, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Sorry for the very general advice, but if you type "about:config" in the URL bar and hit Enter, there will be a cute warning that you are voiding your "warranty", and then a vast number of little config items you can tweak. Type "tab" for the filter and see if anything looks useful. (I don't have 3.6, sorry.) Comet Tuttle (talk) 01:20, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Yes, this new feature can be reverted to the 3.5-style "open new tabs at far right" by following Comet Tuttle's suggestion in the about:config manager. The key is browser.tabs.insertRelatedAfterCurrent. You can see some discussion on the topic at MozillaZine. Nimur (talk) 04:08, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

The Troublesome Ubuntu Netbook: Two Cases of a Linux Newbie Flailing Around

Situation:

I have a somewhat new Asus Eee PC 900. I got it off of Woot.com, and it has only a 4GB hard drive. Normally, this would REALLY suck, but the price made me just shrug it off. I removed the manufacturer's OS and replaced it with the Ubuntu 9.04 Netbook Remix.

Everything went really well, until about a month ago, when I totally, totally ran out of space. Every personal, nonsystem file was deleted. Nothing is on the computer anymore, except for what came with it, and Google Chrome.

But still, I only have about 200MB free at the most, after running "sudo apt-get clean", clearing the cache, and removing some Braille-teletype program thingy, which I don't need.

This is a huge problem now, because I keep getting nagged to install the new update, Karmic Koala. And I don't even have enough space for that. Or the updates to the other programs I have.

I need to:

1. Remove Firefox entirely. Every package that's there. I need all the space I can get.
2. Remove anything else unnecessary that you could possibly think of.
3. Fully uninstall OpenOffice.
4. It'd be nice if it could support Flash...well. Well enough to play videos on Youtube.
5. Find a way to clear some other stuff up. Just...pretty much anything that isn't essential to web browsing that got installed by default

My ultimate goals are to:

1. Have room to install update 9.10
2. Get it working to the point where I can play Youtube videos.

Thank you all so much for the help!

Saeb(talkjorn) 02:51, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

To remove all traces of something you can purge it. From a terminal run "sudo apt-get purge [packagename]", or if you use Synaptic I think it's a right-click and "Mark for Complete Removal". You can go through a list of installed packages in Synaptic and remove everything you don't need. In addition you can head to System -> Administration -> Computer Janitor which will suggest unused packages to be removed and other changes to save space. Be very careful, though, as this Janitor has a reputation for being a bit...overenthusiastic. Once you're done removing you can "sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree". However this may not be required as YouTube is betatesting an HTML5 player which would be supported by Chrome without any additional plugins. It's worth a look if you don't mind losing fullscreen. Xenon54 / talk / 03:01, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Why choose something as big as Ubuntu - even Ubuntu Netbook Remix is quite hefty for a small disk and small memory system. There are plenty of lightweight linux distros available which would still play YouTube videos, if that's all you want to do with it. Astronaut (talk) 09:28, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Breaking an Easy Cipher

In an effort to teach myself more about cryptography, I came across the following cipher in a paper. Let $k_{1},...,k_{100}$ be one hundred randomly and independently chosen round keys of 128 bits length each. They have nothing to do with each other. So one round of the cipher is that I take the input (128 bits in binary) xor it with the round key and then find its multiplicative inverse in the Galois Field GF(2^128) with the modulus known (zero maps to zero). I do this 100 times and I get the ciphertext. The paper says that it is easy to break it. I searched around and I find the same answer but no one actually says how do you break this or why is this easy. Can someone please point me in the right direction? Any hints? Is it really obvious how to break this cipher? How would you do this? Thanks! 174.29.98.151 (talk) 07:24, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Hint: think about interesting chosen plaintexts that you can send through the cipher. 75.62.109.146 (talk) 07:39, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Depending on what you mean by "I do this 100 times", it can be real easy or mostly easy. If you mean you perform 100 iterations on each character in the plaintext, you have created a 1-to-1 cypher. A simple character replacement algorithm will easily work out what character maps to each element of the cypher text. If you mean that you perform an encryption using k1 on the first character, then use k2 on the second character, and so on... it is the same thing. Step 1, guess how many keys there are. Assume that I guess there are 20. I break the code into 20 chunks. The first contains characters 1, 21, 41, 61, etc... Since they all used the same key, I can do a simple frequency analysis to guess at the 1-to-1 map. If I don't find anything, I try a key length of 21, then 22, then 23. It will take a matter of seconds to analyze each key length. So, it will be trivial to step up to a key length of 100 and then get good values for a frequency analysis of every 100th cypher-text character. -- kainaw™ 07:49, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

PS3 component cable with second stereo audio outpht

My Playstation 3 will shortly be moving to a room where the TV ([10]) doesn't have an HDMI input, the TV does have a component video input though.

There's loads of PS3 component cables out there - however, I'll sometimes want my PS3's audio to come out of the TV's speakers, and sometimes from a set of external speakers, so I'm looking for a component cable with a second stereo audio out. Does anyone know if such a thing exists?

I can find loads of PS3 SCART cables with extra audio outs (e.g. [11], [12]) but none for component, and from what I've read online, with SCART I won't be able to get 720p video out?

Cheers, davidprior ^t/_c 10:57, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

SCART doesn't do 720p - standard (old) definition only.

I can't find a dual ouput component cable either - cable splitters exist and are cheap - eg try search "stereo phono splitter" - eg two of these would do [13].

Using these actually halves the output impedence - but that really shouldn't be an issue (the input resistances are usually very high) - it's unlikely that there will even be any audible difference.87.102.67.84 (talk) 16:12, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

If you really need one you can use a switch box [14] or maybe you have an old amplifier you can use to switch the audio (an old one won't even need to be turned on to operate)87.102.67.84 (talk) 16:24, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

It may not be necessary to split them. Many televisions and receivers have both audio-in and audio-out. You can run audio into one and then run from the out to the in of the other. It will allow you to have one, both, or none of the audio devices active. -- kainaw™ 16:23, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Accorfing to the manual linked above there is a RCA stereo out which can be either fixed or variable output (p36) - I guess fixed output (not related to TV volume) is the one needed - set in the TV's menu (p14) Shown on p8 (called AV OUPUT).

This would mean that the TV would have to be on though...87.102.67.84 (talk) 16:33, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks everyone for their input. At least now I know that I ain't going mad when I couldn't find this. I think I'm going to go the splitter route - I was unsure if it would degrade sound, but hopefully it'll not be noticeable.

Should've said that I don't want to use the TV's audio out; one of the reasons for wanting to play sound though the speakers instead is that I use my PS3 to listen for the radio (via PlayTV) and want to be able to do this with the TV off - partly due to power use, but also 'cos when tuned to a radio station, PlayTV displays a fixed image on the screen... I like BBC 6 Music but not enough to burn their logo onto my telly ;-)

Thanks again, davidprior ^t/_c 20:54, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Good hosting for static files?

I have about 10 gigs of personal files I want to be able to access from any computer with internet. Low bandwidth costs-- just me. No dynamic content, just a simple password-protection http .

Let's assume I don't want to host the files out of a home server. Who should I go to for cheap static file hosting. --CreedShandor (talk) 11:05, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Does you ISP have an inclusive hosting package? Astronaut (talk) 11:20, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Dropbox or something similar might do what you want. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 11:44, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

If it's 10GB that you only need a little bit at a time from (access more important than total redistribution), checkout http://nearlyfreespeech.net/ ¦ Reisio (talk) 11:59, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

From that site: "Storage charges apply at $0.01 per megabyte-month" -- so hosting 10GB would be $100/month, I reckon. But bandwidth is pretty cheap. Compared to Amazon S3, another scalable host, 10GB would be $1.50/month. 198.161.238.18 (talk) 19:29, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

See File hosting service and Comparison of online backup services for some options. 198.161.238.18 (talk) 19:49, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Skydrive is free and holds up to 25 GB.--Drknkn (talk) 06:17, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

Mediafire —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.44.55.204 (talk) 13:52, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

Mp3 to MIDI converter

Is there any free full version mp3 to MIDI converter? Thank you! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.183.172.203 (talk) 12:56, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Midi doesn't work in the same way as MP3. MP3 is an audio recording that has had unneeded data removed to allow it to be compressed. Think of it as a recording of a person reading something. Midi on the other hand is a language to tell a soundcard to play specific sounds at specific pitches, think of it more like a script which is interprited by a person who then reads it. It would be possible to convert MIDI to MP3 quite easily although it would sound different depending on the sound hardware that played it, but it is probably impossible to automatically convert music to midi, especially if it contains vocals. Gunrun (talk) 13:20, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

The first result you get when you search on google for "convert mp3 to MIDI" explains why it isn't easy, but gives an example of of to use a program that tries to do this. Cheers, davidprior ^t/_c 13:54, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

MP3 relates to MIDI as BMP to SVG. You can always convert from SVG to BMP, and from MIDI to MP3, but the other direction is (in almost all cases) impossible. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 13:57, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

This has been discussed here before: see [15][16][17][18]. The consensus was as above: it's very difficult; there is some software that claims to do it but the software is error-prone and not very effective. --Normansmithy (talk) 16:49, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Playing a sound in C/C++

Is it possible to play a sound that is stored in the computer's RAM instead of hard disk? Is there a function like this?

void playSound ( int * sound, int length, int sampleRate ) ;

I'd need suitable functions for both Windows and Linux. 88.148.207.106 (talk) 13:57, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Simple DirectMedia Layer can do this on both platforms. Here is an example, and in general, see the "audio" section of this list of SDL APIs -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 14:16, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

If you're looking for the native sound API, for Linux you do (or did) just open /dev/dsp for write, configure it with the SOUND_PCM_WRITE_BITS, SOUND_PCM_WRITE_CHANNELS, and SOUND_PCM_WRITE_RATE ioctls, and write raw PCM data at it. That breaks on platforms which use PulseAudio (such as Ubuntu Karmic), as PulseAudio owns /dev/dsp exclusively; in this case you either use the PulseAudio API or use the padsp wrapper around your /dev/dsp software. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 15:10, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

On Windows, it can be done with PlaySound[19], or waveOutOpen/waveOutPrepareHeader/waveOutWrite[20]. Alternatively it can be done with DirectX. --Normansmithy (talk) 17:01, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

To make explicit something that was implied by Finlay McWalter and Normansmithy, the C and C++ languages do not have any sound playing functions as part of the languages themselves, or as part of the C Standard Library, or the C++ Standard Library. Sound playing is platform-specific and you have to use a sound library (plenty having been mentioned above), and every API will differ a little. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:25, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

I know it doesn't answer OP's question, but strictly speaking it is possible to "play a sound" with ANSI C (in a console application) using printf("\a");. (Disclaimer: I don't have a C compiler available to test this specific code, but I have used the concept before.) According to K&R2, '\a' is an "audible alert". Mitch Ames (talk) 01:17, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

Faster than Gigabit, cheaper than Fibre Channel?

Are there any technologies that are faster than Gigabit, but cheaper than Fibre Channel? My Gigabit network isn't fast enough for multiple video streams, and Fibre Channel is crazy expensive. 10ge looks like a contender, but still seems rather pricey. Is there anything else? While not yet a shipping product, could Light Peak be used to networking? It seems to promise low cost/high throughput --70.167.58.6 (talk) 16:52, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

List of device bit rates has a pretty comprehensive list of networks and communication channels of various kinds. Light Peak does seem like a candidate, but it's not available right now; Light Peak's inventors clearly intend it for a consumer price range (not the eyewatering costs of Infiniband or Fibre Channel). In the short term, if I was setting up something like a high-quality video-server I'd consider multiple point-to-point ethernet connections (that is, that the server has several Gigabit ethernet cards each with a single cable direct-connected to a single client without an intermediating switch) - that way you get a dedicated 1Gbit connection to each client. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 17:15, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Or link aggregation. -- Coneslayer (talk) 17:40, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

I can't find enough (heck, any) hard technical information about how Light Peak actually works, in order to answer the "could Light Peak be used to networking" part of your question. It seems like it's a single-initiator multi-drop wire protocol, suggesting that only the PC can be master. If that's true, I guess you could have an intermediary box (like you can in USB) to build a naff point-to-point connection; for a genuine network, then surely 10 Gigabit Ethernet will make much more sense. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 18:27, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

(off) As I understand it light peak is just a wire (or pipe) for connecting devices - and will allow multiple communication protocols to be sent down it (eg ethernet, hdcp video etc) - it's definately physically two way, daisy chaining of devices was also mentioned. Beyond that, as you say, information is scarce - I assume the different protocols would be packetised and sent then un-packetised. I've no idea if there will be a new 'light peak' protocol as well. It's a complete mystery how the wildly different signal protocols will be collected together on a device. (I'm guessing something like optical ethernet)87.102.67.84 (talk) 21:53, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Are you sure that its a case of Gigabit Ethernet not being fast enough per ce, rather thanyour current network card/switch/etc having a GbE interface but not being able to actually handle anything like a gigabit of data (from every port) each second, or some other link in the chain such as the video streaming app not being able to feed the data to the network card fast enough (bearing in mind that it'll have to do this while your CPU also has the overheads described here

In other words, would a better Gigabit network be what you're looking for, rather than a different standard entirely?

The reason I ask is that even for good quality video, bandwith requirements are a lot less than 1Gbit/sec - DVD is 10.5MBit/sec, a Blu-Ray's is 36 (this is a 1x player's read speed - so an upper limit), DVB-T uses about 5 for an SD television channel. So a network capable of 0.75 Gbit/sec after overheads could carry many simultaneous streams (71/20/150 at the bitrates above). If that still ain't enough, you could use link aggregation as suggested above - or if the multiple streams are actually multiple instances of the same stream, is some form of Multicasting an option?

Hope this helps, davidprior ^t/_c 21:45, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

He may not be dealing with compressed video, as you referenced; uncompressed DVD quality video weighs in at about 180 Mbit/sec and high definition video would of course be much higher than that. Just look at FireWire standards (mostly driven by digital video needs) and you find a bandwidth of 800-3200 Mbit/sec in use on that format. More to the point (you made a good one), a lot of gigabit equipment does peak out at 200-300mbit/sec without proper optimization. Using jumbo frames on all devices (a property of the network interface), a good quality Gbit NIC and switch, and an application with low overhead (so that the CPU does not limit it) is the only way to get close to the theoretical limit of 1000Mbit/sec. It would behoove the question asker to take a close look at exactly how much bandwidth and CPU time is in use (through the Windows task manager or similar tool for your OS) and establish exactly what is limiting you, then simply add more. The cheapest solution, if you are only a few multiples away from your goal (say 2 or 3 Gbit/s) is to simply add more Gbit NICs and use the OS tools at your disposal to 'bond' them so they can aggregate the bandwidth. A higher quality switch may also be needed, but these are had for far far less than the price of 10Gbit or other more obscure hardware. --144.191.148.3 (talk) 15:56, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

It may be helpful to specify what sort of circuit length you require Nil Einne (talk) 01:52, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

Gigabit is fast enough for dozens of video streams, even at 10 megabits per second each. Are you sure it is your network that is limiting you and not your storage? You may have to change your style of presentation to multicast on a schedule, rather than video on demand. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 20:53, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

What is the metric measurements for a 1/2" CMOS HD sensor?

What would be the length and width (in mm) of a 1/2" CMOS chip with a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels? --70.167.58.6 (talk) 17:46, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Well, if it's half an inch, that would be 12.7 mm, and if that's the height, the width would be 16.93 mm, assuming it's 4:3. Belisarius (talk) 19:03, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

I think we can assume from the pixel dimensions that it's a 16:9 sensor. But generally speaking, "inch-sized" sensors don't have the direct relationship between their nominal size and their physical dimensions like you would expect them to. See Image sensor format#Table_of_sensor_sizes. The typical size listed there for 1/2" is also for a 4x3 sensor, so it's not going to be quite right for 16x9, either. Usually the physical size of a sensor is listed in the device's specifications. -- Coneslayer (talk) 19:15, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Both kodak and aptina have detailed specifications of their sensors on their sites - but don't appear to make the type you mention. Kodak seems to make that type - but I can't find any tech documents - anyone else better at finding stuff on canon's website?87.102.67.84 (talk) 21:17, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Is it a safe assumption that all sensor chips have the same aspect ratio (4x3)? Or because the one I'm asking about is for an HD video camera, it would the sensor be 16x9? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.167.58.6 (talk) 22:12, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

16:9 sensors definately exist - ie 1920x1080 pixels - I found them for 2/3" and 1/3" size formats eg see [21] 87.102.67.84 (talk) 22:40, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

I've written the company (Sony) and I hope they reply. It's funny that so much importance is placed on sensor size, yet I can't find out the actual measurements! --70.167.58.6 (talk) 18:17, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

Another very common DSLR sensor ratio is 2:1. --Phil Holmes (talk) 14:48, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

Most DSLRs are 3:2, after the 24x36mm image area of 135 film. -- Coneslayer (talk) 14:53, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

how do I get to a different iPhone app store? (nationalized)

I got my phone in France, and so the store, notably the top apps in each catagory, on the phone is set for France... is it possible for me instead of seeing all French billboards and discriptions, to somehow set it to the US so that I can see the things that are relevant for me, e.g. radio apps for the US market rather htan the French market, etc. THanks! 84.153.231.223 (talk) 21:43, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

[22] [23] Sounds like you need to connect to iTunes on a PC (or mac!), make sure that's for the right country, and then sync the jesus iPhone to the PC - which then makes PC iTunes country the default on your phone. Did that make any sense, or even work??87.102.67.84 (talk) 22:02, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

cameras that take 720p or 1080p photographs

hey guys are there any cameras that take 1280x720 or 1920x1080 photographs? thanks--Copr89 (talk) 23:15, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Most modern digital cameras have resolutions higher than that, and it is trivial to crop or downscale a photograph, so if you simply need to produce images of those sizes, almost any camera will do. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 23:48, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Also, it's incorrect to attribute 720p and 1080p to still pictures. Our articles state that they are for progressive scan lines and frame rates. With cameras, it's correct to talk about resolution and the number of (mega)pixels needed to store uncompressed images at those resolutions. Sandman30s (talk) 06:53, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

Monitor resolution stuck at 640x480

A few years ago I bought a PC that came with Windows XP. About 6 months ago I did a major hardware upgrade where I changed almost every component. I guess Windows XP didn't like that and wouldn't let me use it until I reactivated it. Instead of going through all that, I've been using the Windows 7 Release Candidate up until now. But that's expiring soon, so I wanted to go back to using XP. I managed to reactivate it, but now it seems the screen resolution is stuck at 640x480. I go into display settings and drag the slider to 1280x1024 and hit apply, but nothing happens. I've tried installing the latest video card drivers (for an Nvidia geforce 8800 GTS, if it matters) and updating the monitor drivers (for an HP vs17e). Is there anything else I can try, or should I give up and buy Windows 7? (Which in this economy, I'd really rather not do.) Digger3000 (talk) 23:29, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Do you have a KVM switch between the PC and the monitor (or something else like that)? KVM switches sometimes eat the VESA signalling where a monitor identifies itself (and its capabilities) to the graphics card, leaving you with a "Generic Monitor" reported rather than what you actually have. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 23:37, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

I don't have the thing you mentioned, but there is an adapter type thing between the monitor and the video card. I guess I can't plug my monitor directly into the card. Digger3000 (talk) 23:45, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

What kind of "adapter"? Perhaps a white DVI adapter? Take a look at [List of video connectors]] and see if anything catches your eye. Astronaut (talk) 04:06, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

Yes, a DVI adapter. Digger3000 (talk) 04:24, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

If you can drag the resolution to 1280x1024 in XP then this means that the computer has recognised the available resolutions. So the monitor probably has identified itself. Is there a nvidia "control panel" where you can set resolutions? This might be overriding the windows method.?87.102.67.84 (talk) 11:17, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

There's an example of using nvidia's control panel instead of windows here [24] 87.102.67.84 (talk) 13:09, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

There is an Nvidia Control Panel, but I can't change the resolution from there either. Digger3000 (talk) 20:07, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

February 24

Color of computer case

When did the standard color for a computer case change from beige to black? Why? F (talk) 00:49, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

Alas, our Beige box article has not much on when and why it changed. My feeling on "when" is not earlier than 1999, and not later than 2003, just judging on computers I have had. As for why, it is just marketing, I am sure. --Mr.98 (talk) 01:47, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

Dell has predominantly used black computer cases for at least 8 years. Why? I don't know. From memory, Dell was the first computers we started getting at the hospital/university I worked at that weren't beige. Gateway was still beige for a while. It then switched to a choice of white or black. From my personal experience, I attribute the majority of the switch to Dell. -- kainaw™ 03:50, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

I believe one reason was when PCs were touted as being an all purpose media device that could interface with your TV and audio equipment (perhaps around the time that Windows Media Center was introduced in late 2002), people were reluctant to put a beige box in their living room. A black box was more in keeping with a piece of entertainment equipment.

It is worth noting, audio and video equipment seems to alternate between black and silver finishes every few years. I've always though that it was to do with marketing, promoting the idea that people could boast they have the latest and greatest equipment ... "you can tell its new 'cause it has this year's black finish rather than the old model's silver finish", then in a few years "you can tell its new 'cause it has this year's silver finish rather than the old model's black finish". Astronaut (talk) 04:42, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

Here in the Uk the switch from Beige to black seemed to happen around the same time that PCs changed from being simply boxes that hold components to being boxes that had a bit of design/style applied to them (not necessarily good style but nonetheless). This seemed to coincide with the (media) success of the original Apple iMacs which were in those bright colours and made PCs look 'dated'. I suspect that this was also in part linked to the point where PCs became 100% mainstream and that every home in the land had one - rather than being more the preserve of businesses and enthusiasts. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 09:50, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

Definately around 2000 (same period as the PS1(cream-grey) >> PS2(slate) switch) - reason - It makes them go faster [25] ! 87.102.67.84 (talk) 11:34, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

LOL! Did they test beige cases that were painted black? Was there a placebo effect? I think a more scientific approach is warranted. Er. Um. Nevermind. --144.191.148.3 (talk) 14:22, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

Also blue LED+beige box = fashion disaster...87.102.67.84 (talk) 11:41, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

I agree that 2000 is probably the best guess. The first black box I recall seeing was for an Aptiva, which was discontinued in 2001 (though note that the photo in the article is of a beige box). Normally, I wouldn't be able to recall a detail like this, but the commercial was also distinctive because it ended with the computer saying "Hello, I'm Aptiva" in such a way that viewers were supposed to think that the computer was literally greeting them rather than simply playing a sound file of a pseudo- computer generated voice. And... it was black and therefore modern and capable of such things as sentience. Matt Deres (talk) 17:32, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

You can't beat the Apple aluminium MacBook Pro case!--88.109.166.197 (talk) 08:46, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

PC is running on battery but it's still plugged in

Well, what the title says. But it's plugged in on both ends, yet the battery icon is present. And the battery is running out faaaaaaast. Can anyone tell me why is that so? And what do I do about it? 24.189.90.68 (talk) 05:55, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

When this happens to me, it is always because the cord from the wall has fallen out of the power brick. What model laptop is this? Does it have some sort of LED next to the power plug indicating that it is plugged in? Is the 'battery icon' a light near the computer keyboard, or do you mean it is on the screen? Comet Tuttle (talk) 06:01, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

It's a Dell Inspiron 6000, yes there's a light in the plug indicating that it's plugged in, and the battery icon is on the screen. I've got less than half an hour left before it shuts down on me (don't worry, I'm typing this on another computer, though). 24.189.90.68 (talk) 06:12, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

I just figured out the problem is with the adapter, because I switched it with another, and it charges fine. 24.189.90.68 (talk) 06:16, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

Do they sell Dell adapters in stores or must you order them? 24.189.90.68 (talk) 06:45, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

I think dell will sell their own (via their website - try customer support > spares), or you can get an equivalent one usually very easily - you would need a match for the plug, voltage and current/wattage. (I just had a look on Dell's website and it will be a lot cheaper to buy elsewhere.87.102.67.84 (talk) 11:23, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

Database integration

what is the effectiveness of databse intergration in hospitals? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.203.179.235 (talk) 09:41, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

The effectiveness depends on the implementation - I'm guessing you meant "why use a database in a hospital"? -- the answer is the same for the use of databases in other applications - for discussions of why see:

[26] , [27] , [28] 87.102.67.84 (talk) 12:49, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

It is highly possible that this is asking about integrating clinic data with hospital data. The clinic data is stored in an outpatient clinic system. The hospital data is stored in a hospital system. When you see your outpatient doctor, he will have access to your hospital data. When you go to the hospital, the doctor there will have access to your outpatient data. The benefit is more health information used to make better decisions.

Issue with debootstrap and preseeding wrt/ non-us keyboard layouts?

Hi,

I installed a minimal Linux system using debootstrap and chrooted into it. In the chroot, I run:

debconf-set-selections <preseed.txt && apt-get dselect-upgrade -d -y && apt-get dselect-upgrade -y

The problem I'm facing is that even though preseed.txt contains all the necessary info to preseed console-setup and console-data, the keyboard layout remains the standard US one, even after logging out and back in again. This happens in Debian Lenny as well as in the Ubuntu releases I had at hand for testing.

dpkg-reconfigure -fnoninteractive -pcritical console-setup && dpkg-reconfigure -fnoninteractive -pcritical console-data doesn't change the situation either, so the system seems to firmly believe it is doing the right thing with keeping the US layout. Only when I run dpkg-reconfigure manually on those two packages I am prompted with the options to change the keyboard layout (with the default options being the US settings, again), and the changes are finally taking place.

Surely there must be a way to preseed keyboard settings for an unattended install? What is the proper, "Debian" way of doing this? -- 78.43.60.58 (talk) 12:16, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

Internet 1995

How many internet user in 1995 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.82.92.31 (talk) 12:30, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

[29] or search google for "internet use 1995" , "historical internet use" "internet use statistics" etc.87.102.67.84 (talk) 12:40, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

ISO image...

A friend gave me an ISO image which is apparently of a software CD. However, when I burn the image to a disc, it only has the individual folders and files, which obviously are of little use without the software package itself. Any hints or tips? Thanks! ╟─TreasuryTag►sundries─╢ 14:14, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

How are you burning the disc? You need to use a specific tool for ISOs. --LarryMac | Talk 14:22, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

I used the Roxio "burn image to disc" tool... ╟─TreasuryTag►quaestor─╢ 14:58, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

It is possible that your friend didn't understand what he was doing and just did a drag/drop from his C:Program Files/ folder - thinking that would copy the whole program. You can show him how to rip a CD and then burn it so he can do it correctly in the future.

Curious google result

I was checking to see if anyone had a blog about the city in which I live - so I did this search http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=kingston+upon+hull+blog&btnG=Search&hl=en&rlz=1C1CHMA_en-GBGB367GB367&sa=2 (the answer seems to be no - non of any note..) - but the first result returned is one http://schizomuslim.blogspot.com/ ?? Looking at that page I can't find any reference to the location - can someone explain why this is the very first result google turns up>87.102.67.84 (talk) 18:34, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

Not clicking the link but just reading the name of the blog I think it looks like one of those hate-monger sites and probably it is first on google because some people do some trickery, like guiding other people to this site. 95.115.158.3 (talk) 19:07, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

No. The blog is very moderate and peaceful, it's also via google's own blogger software which I would guess limits any misrepresentation by meta-data spamming.87.102.67.84 (talk) 19:19, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

Just to clarify for those who don't want to click the blog link - the blogger has only ~4 follows and barely a page of posts - and nothing about kingston about hull in it - so wtf is it doing at the top of my search results??87.102.67.84 (talk) 19:52, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

Viewing the page's source, there aren't any relevant meta tags. Comet Tuttle (talk) 19:56, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

It looks like the blogger (or someone else, perhaps without his knowledge) has registered this blog as a "business" at that address, using the Google Local Business Center system. Note, incidentally, that if you zoom in on that specific address, it resolves exactly to the offices of Humberside Police. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 19:59, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks - didn't notice that. I though the map was appearing because I typed a city name - didn't notice the marker or give it a second thought. very very strange (and quite funny looking at it obtusely enough). So some joking around has got this site onto the search results by the sound of things.87.102.67.84 (talk) 20:28, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

java.lang.IllegalStateException: getOutputStream() has already been called for this response

I'm building a web application that runs on tomcat. At a point, I need to generate a zip-file (containing many individual files) and send it to the user's browser for download. It works (file can be downloaded and unziped) but whatever I try I get the above error message. I do a outs = response.getOutputStream(); and use this stream to create a final ZipOutputStream zout = new ZipOutputStream(outs); . Obviously the framework has some built-in jealousy on other people calling getOutputStream(). How can I avoid this?

And yes, I did a google search. And yes, I found many answers. And yes, I have tried them. And no, none of it worked. And again no, I can't use the JspWriter out that is availabe in the response-Object because I have to write bytes, not chars.

95.115.158.3 (talk) 18:53, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

Is this in the context of a servlet? Or is there something else that might be trying to create (say) a Writer that would call getOutputStream() ahead of you? Moreover, what do you mean that "it works" but "whatever I try I get the above error message"? Surely if an exception is being thrown in your servlet before you actually compress and send the files, then they aren't being sent and you can't download and unzip the result. Are you saying that message just somehow appears on the console without a backtrace or anything? Or that it somehow gets transmitted to the client (along with the file, perhaps)? Is it (to your knowledge) associated with one of the two lines of code you quoted? --Tardis (talk) 23:55, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

Somewhat after posting the question I realised that I probably have a double problem. On a jsp-generated page the user selects options and on pressing ok a post-request is sent to that page but forwarded to a servlet that does part of the processing. The resulting zip-file is transmitted to the user's browser correctly, can be unziped and contains no garbage. The error message looks quite like any java error written by printStackTrace() and appears either in the tomcat logfile or (if called from eclipse) on the console. As far as I can debug the last line of source code it passes is "_jspxFactory.releasePageContext(_jspx_page_context);" within the generated *_jsp.java before it drops out of sight in the framework. Lately I tried response.reset() at the beginning and end of the doPost() of the servlet: now the error message is doubled and origines from those response.reset() lines in the servlet, somehow without breaking the flow. It gets me crazy and I really wonder how other people are doing this. 95.115.141.196 (talk) 06:11, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

It's gone! There where new line chars in the first jsp between the <%@page ..> tags. But this is no real solution because whenever the jsp is automatically formated the error will be back again. 95.115.141.196 (talk) 06:56, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

My guess is that it is because you are writing to the output stream (the new line) before using it for the zip output. Try doing a reset on the output stream

outs.reset();

before passing it to the ZipOutputStream. -- Q Chris (talk) 08:19, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

As far as I can see neither the class OutputStream nor ServletOutputStream has such a method. 95.115.141.196 (talk) 08:55, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

You could try reset or resetBuffer on the HttpServletResponse —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.38.213.226 (talk) 11:11, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

Done that, see above. No use. 95.115.141.196 (talk) 11:20, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

It sounds as though formatting without newlines is the only way to go in .jsps; see [30]. You could use s servlet instead of a .jsp, I think this is more usual when dealing with non character based data. -- 213.38.213.226 (talk) 13:49, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

Thank you for the link. Actually, as stated above, I am using a servlet but also a jsp which initiates and forwards to the servlet. I belive this is the main source of trouble. 95.115.141.196 (talk) 13:58, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

Can you use response.sendRedirect() from the JSP page? I know that this has limitations, i.e. not working with POST, but if you can use it then the sevlet will have a completely new request and be unaffected by the JSP. -- Q Chris (talk) 20:40, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

Three copy/paste problems

Problem no. 1: Narrow emails

I used a different email address than usual at a library to copy and paste the text of several newspaper articles, intending to print them out in a long email later. This morning, I discovered that the email I sent myself was narrow, meaning that I had to waste time using the delete key at the end of each line. I normally use Hotmail but only after copying and pasting from a notepad. The quirks of Firefox explain why that's my normal procedure, but I have numerous email addresses and need to use them all. Yahoo and Gmail have the same problem with narrow emails, both those received and those sent. Lycos has announced changes that I hope won't affect its ideal behavior where this is concerned. Full-width emails in the printable version will use less paper, and these can only be produced from full-width emails that I have sent myself.

Problem no. 2: Looks blue but isn't?

It looks blue, so I copy and paste. I get either nothing or something I already copied and pasted. Why does it look blue if I can't use it?

Problem no. 3: How did it turn blue? I didn't do anything

I deleted an email and then when the next one came up it was completely blue as if I was copying and pasting not just the text, but all the headings, lists, ads, etc. The same strange phenomenon happened in another situation where I merely clicked the mouse without doing anything to make the text turn blue.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 20:01, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

Problem #1 is a "word wrap" problem. Somewhere along the line, most likely when sending the e-mail, your e-mail client decided to insert newline characters in your e-mail in order to (it thought) make it more readable. You are having to use the delete key to get rid of the newline characters so that the text will flow like a normal paragraph. I just did a little testing to send e-mail back and forth to a Yahoo Mail account, and found the following: (a) no newlines were added when sending a "Rich Text" e-mail (that's what Yahoo Mail calls it) from Yahoo Mail to Microsoft Outlook 2007; (b) no newlines were added when sending a "Plain Text" e-mail from Yahoo Mail to Outlook; (c) no newlines were added when I used Outlook to reply to the "Rich Text" e-mail; (d) newlines were added when I used Outlook to reply to the "Plain Text" e-mail. You might want to test Yahoo Mail a little more, and make sure you're set to "Rich Text" if possible; it looked to me like Yahoo's e-mail client is not the culprit. Comet Tuttle (talk) 20:23, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

On the subject of wasting time, you can get a better text editor than Notepad and then you'll have less trouble when something like that happens. For instance, in Emacs, to re-wrap a paragraph of text is just M-q. (Meta is often the same thing as Alt.) You can choose the width to which to wrap it with a few more keys; setting a very large value for that will cause all the newlines to be deleted at a stroke. --Tardis (talk) 20:56, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

Based on VChimpanzee's previous posts, I would say he or she is as likely to use emacs as to win the gold in snowboarding on Saturday. Comet Tuttle (talk) 21:36, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

Emacs is just an example of how much easier it can be. Perhaps I should have linked list of text editors; I hear (from this desk) that people like Metapad, for instance, which is supposed to be a Notepad replacement and might be more appropriate in this case than Emacs. --Tardis (talk) 23:48, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

I use plain text for most of my emails to myself. As I said, I'm trying to save space. Plus there are numerous problems with not using plain text to copy newspaper articles. Such as photos I don't want and even video, which causes serious problems. I don't even use an email client. Yesterday I used AOL because I can use a pop-up screen for what I type. Not that I would have to. But at the library where I'm on Firefox, it's a requirement. Excite is what I use there. Not Notepad software, but Excite in this situation is no better than a notepad. But when I copy and paste to Hotmail, I get the result I want.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 21:16, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

(a) It sounds like you've found a solution, so you don't need any further info on #1; is that correct? (b) You might want to re-evaluate whether you really need to 'save space' — GMail, for example, gives every user over 7.4GB of storage, "and counting"; and you're never going to fill that up with photo thumbnails inadvertently copied from news websites. I agree that the extra junk is annoying when attempting to copy and paste many web sites' text. Comet Tuttle (talk) 21:36, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

I'm not referring to a solution. I'm wondering why these things happen. As for "saving space", it costs money to print pages. I don't have a printer at home because it took me long enough to have the courage to just use a computer on my own. Not to mention the expense and problems a printer would add. Actually, I just realized a printer would be cheaper than all these printouts. But having a printer would produce its own new problems.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 22:00, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

No.1 Bit fiddly - I see why you need to use plain text - to get rid of 'stuff' - it sounds like (from the experiments above), that if you then copy the plain text into wordpad (or whatever) and save it as richtext (.rtf) - it can be sent without adding newlines, definately fussy to do - maybe theirs an option in the e-mail client to fix this - though I definately can't find one in hotmail - maybe another mail client will do better.

No.2 You were using an unfamiliar computer - did you use a method that definately copies the text - or a keyboard shortcut - sometimes different pieces of software use different keyboard shortcut for copy. Maybe that's why it didn't work.

No.3 Just a bug by the sounds of things - can't think of a proper reason why this would happen. (all these problems are on the library computer ? not your home one?)87.102.67.84 (talk) 22:29, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

Normally, I use plain text with Excite email and copy to rich text Hotmail. This is done at a library and works fine.

At home inbox.com does the same thing, but after problems with rich text I began using Yahoo plain text as a notepad. The original question explains why I can't just send Yahoo plain text. Actually, inbox.com does have a plain text option I keep forgetting about, but I don't know whether I'd end up with the narrow text. Why not use hotmail at home? Well, I haven't yet. And hotmail is a pain these days. I just happen to have my inbox username and password saved at home.

No. 2 would more than likely be at a library, but if the nearest one is closed and I wouldn't have been driving anywhere, I do it at home. With Internet access 3 times dial-up speed, looking at newspapers is fun. No. 3 is at home.

I doubt I could use emacs at a library, and I certainly won't at home.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 17:57, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

On #2, this happens to me sometimes, often when copying and pasting graphics, and I find it incredibly annoying, too. Occasionally it's because I hit ctrl-C to copy when my window is not actually the selected window — some other app has made Windows de-select my window, which you can only tell because the window's title bar dims and changes its color gradient a little; so when I hit ctrl-C, I'm sending that keypress to some other app. But sometimes it's for reasons I don't know. Sometimes ctrl-C won't do anything even on repeated presses when the window is clearly selected, which I attribute to a bug in the program I am using. My workaround has been to use the "Copy" and "Paste" items in the "Edit" menu when this occurs. I know this isn't a very rigorous paragraph and if I cared deeply about it I would have narrowed down the circumstances of the bug and reported it to someone. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:59, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

This phenomenon usually causes the color to change to gray. I find I can use Ctrl-C after time has passed, but it's frustrating because I have to back and fix what I pasted, and sometimes the blue area isn't even the same area it was.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 21:54, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

can one iPhone concurrently run apps from different App store account users?

Say I log in on my account on somebody's iPhone, download an App after paying for it, then log out again. Can they then proceed to log in to their own App Store account, which will not include the purchase, while coninuing to enjoy the Use of the app I bought them (unless or until they delete it of course). THank you. 84.153.235.131 (talk) 22:26, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

Like all great plans this seems to be flawed - bought apps are tied to a user account (using Fairplay DRM I think) - so no, unless...you're married 87.102.67.84 (talk) 23:36, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

February 25

Disabling mobile facebook site on iPhone

Is there any way to permanently disable the mobile site on facebook the way you can here on wikipedia? I absolutely abhor it and am always pressing site complete / full site whatever at the bottom of the page and always it just reverts back after a page or two. Is there a way to hide the fact that you are using a phone? Please!! :) Saudade7 03:38, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

One solution would be to change the user agent of your mobile browser so that it identifies to Facebook as a normal browser like firefox or IE, then Facebook will serve the standard pages. I don't have an iPhone so I don't know how to change the user agent, but google search should have the information —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.44.55.204 (talk) 14:16, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

thanks! I will try that! Saudade7 00:59, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Dell Inspiron keyboard from hell

I've got a company-issued Dell Inspiron which has the charming default setting of the function keys only being active when one holds the "Fn" key placed between Ctrl & Win, Alt in the lower left of the keyboard. To make things even more entertaining, the function keys are dual-purposed with things like brightness, battery, volume, and wireless. End result? When I instinctively hit F2 to rename a file - you know, because I'm computer unretarded and don't need to use a mouse to do that - I turn off my wireless card. HOORAY! Seeing as how this is exactly OPPOSITE all previous laptop keyboard convention that I've seen, would some kind soul please endeavor to identify a way to make my function keys ACT LIKE FUNCTION KEYS by default?

PS - F5 to refresh my webpage instead ups my brightness! YAY! unless I hold the Fn key, you know, because most people change their brightness MORE OFTEN than they use F5 to refresh webpages... or something... /me dies 218.25.32.210 (talk) 07:34, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, I had this on my Dell Inspiron. Press Windows Key + X. In the box labelled Function key row, select Function key from the drop-down list. That should do it.

It can also be done via the BIOS if the above doesn't work, but it did fine for me. Hope that helps! ╟─TreasuryTag►prorogation─╢ 07:46, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

Hmm, that doesn't seem to do anything (WK + X). I suppose I should add that I'm running a Simplified Chinese version of XP. Perhaps if you told me what sort of window WK + X opens on your laptop, I'd be able to find it another way? Otherwise I'll try the BIOS route next time I reboot... (and thank you for the prompt reply!) 218.25.32.210 (talk) 07:51, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

I couldn't take it anymore and went the BIOS route, which worked painlessly. Thank you for the tip, TT. The Dell clown(s) that thought it'd be a good idea to launch with that as the default setup should be demoted to workstations running TabWorks for the next 3 years as punishment. 218.25.32.210 (talk) 08:03, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

Glad you got it sorted. For reference Windows+X opened up the "Windows Mobility Centre" whatever that is, but if it works, it works! ╟─TreasuryTag►constablewick─╢ 12:17, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

Why does Wikipedia keep thinking I'm "Doughnuthead"?

Question moved to WP:AN/I by User:Mo ainm —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.44.55.204 (talk) 14:36, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

Hard drive size discrepancy part 2

A few months ago, I asked this question, Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2009 December 19#Hard drive size discrepancy, and the general consensus seemed to be that it was down to my computer. However, I've looked at a few more computers, and it seems to be more than just me, take a look at [31], different computers, different users and different operating systems, yet they all have the same issue. Does anybody have the same thing? Why is this? Thanks--86.181.75.145 (talk) 16:53, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

This has some information on the problem —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.44.55.204 (talk) 16:59, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

Your "selecting all files" method (right window in every screenshot on your flickr link) is actually flawed because it won't show all the files/directories. Although by default it won't show hidden/system files (which 82.44.55.204 mentions in their link), there's also a few Windows directories that you don't actually have "permission" to view and there's no quick checkbox to enable this. One big one is the hidden system directory "C:\System Volume Information" (it's on other hard disk partitions too). This restriction is by design because poking around in there can seriously corrupt your Windows installation (and potentially the whole partition/lose all your files) and as such it's restricted to the SYSTEM user account only. These permissions can be changed/overriden, but I wouldn't recommend it. Because the "properties" window is unable to look into these directories it just skips over them hence more of a disk space discrepancy to what you expect. ZX81 ^talk 17:26, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

(EC) It's not clear to me that you accounted for the factors I mentioned on all those computers. System restore i.e. whats in the System Volume Information could easily be a big factor, the vast majority of people would leave it on and unless you grant access or delete the directory you're clearly not account for it. It would be the first area I would look at. Windows does not display hidden files & directories OR system files & directories by default and while advanced users may turn this off, most people won't so unless you turned it off you won't be seeing these. An advanced computer user may have made some directories inaccessible to the default user or even to all users so people are less likely to stumble across them by accident (these files may or may not be encrypted themselves), and as I mentioned if there are multiple users on the computer this would often mean that no one has access to all files and directories on the computer without taking control as an admin and granting access. It's also not clear you accounted for the recycle bin. I also wouldn't consider [32] particularly relevant. A ~2 GB difference isn't much and could easily be accounted for by file system data and various other things (which I admit I neglected to mention in my previous post). Nil Einne (talk) 17:26, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

Depending on the kind of files you're storing, filesystem cluster size can consume a surprisingly large amount. On a typical (see later) filesystem, a 1 byte file will consume a whole cluster (which can be several blocks - 4Kbytes or more). This microsoft article has more, and includes the telling line "On the typical partition, this means that on average (cluster size)/2 * (number of files) worth of space is lost in this way." Depending on the filesystem, a single directory (even if it contains just one file, or even none) will also consume a cluster. Now some filesystems try to make more efficient provision for lots of small files (although almost always for reasons of performance rather than storage efficiency) - ReiserFS stores several small files together in a single cluster (ref); I'm sure other advanced filesystems do likewise (I think Veritas does). But note the central tenet of modern filesystem design - "time is money, disk is cheap"; the breakneck pace of storage economy (which sometimes exceeds Moore's Law) means that the next disk you buy will probably be three times faster than the last one - but not three times as fast - so they optimise for read and write efficiency at the expense of the most space-efficient model. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 19:05, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

Which language was used for this?

http://earlsfieldpractice.co.uk/garbage/76/762348/big_7323786_0_300-225.JPG

Judging from the fact that I've now seen three different doctor's surgeries use this exact program to arrive their patients, I assume it's a pretty widespread thing, at least in the UK. Does anyone know how to find out what language it was written in? Vimescarrot (talk) 17:27, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

This PDF file is a sales brochure for the system. Like almost all software marketed to consumers, the company doesn't talk about what language the software was written in, mostly because consumers don't care. You could contact the e-mail address in the brochure and ask, if you remain curious. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:36, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks. Vimescarrot (talk) 22:37, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

The PDF file does mention that the computer runs Windows XP Professional. Naturally, if it were some sort of specialized operating system, the choice of programming language would be somewhat more limited. On XP Pro, it could be any of the popular languages. decltype (talk) 21:03, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

High-available internet service

Outside of the local telcos and cable companies, where else can I go for high available internet service? What do hospitals, big corporations, universities, and/or TV stations use? --70.167.58.6 (talk) 18:03, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

Larger users of internet buy one or several leased line using a variety of technologies, including optical SONET connections. Depending on circumstances, the actual line itself may still be supplied by (directly or under contract) the local telco, although the underlying internet connection may or may not be. There are any number of business telephony and connectivity suppliers (that cater to large users like you list, rather than consumers). While these connections are generally very reliable, a single line is always a single point of failure, so organisations that depend on continuous service will typically buy several concurrent leased connections (maybe from different suppliers); the enterprise-grade network swithing equipment they use is capable of handling load balancing and failover, to bind these together into a very reliable connection. Note that small(ish) users can do the same - SME-grade routers (e.g. some of those made by Draytek) allow failover to another port in the event of a failure of the primary WAN connection (e.g. failing to a second ADSL connection, or to a usb 3G cellular connection). -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 18:49, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

Python Code Issues

What is wrong with my code? I wrote it in Python 3.1.1. The purpose of the code is to write all the lyrics to "99 Bottles of Milk on the Wall"

b = 99
f = open('F:\Bawtlez.txt', 'r')
f.read()
f.write(str(num))
f.write( ' bottles of milk on the wall,\n')
f.write(str(num))
f.write(' bottles of milk\n')
f.write('Take one down, pass it around,\n')
f.write(str(num))
f.write(' bottles of milk on the wall.\n')
f.write(' \n')
while b != 1:
 b = b - 1
 num = b
 f.write(str(num))
 f.write(' bottles of milk on the wall,\n')
 f.write(str(num))
 f.write(' bottles of milk,\n')
 f.write(' Take one down, pass it around,\n')
 f.write(str(num))
 f.write('bottles of milk on the wall.\n')
 f.write(' \n')
f.write(' bottle of milk on the wall,\n')
f.write(' bottle of milk,\n')
f.write('Take it down, pass it around,\n')
f.write(str(num))
f.write(' bottle of milk on the wall.\n')
f.write(' \n')
f.write('No more bottles of milk! :(')
f.close()

When ever I run it, I get this error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\Mitch\Documents\Randomtriangles.py", line 4, in <module>
    f.write(str(num))
NameError: name 'num' is not defined

Help please. MMS2013 19:09, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

Well, line 4 of your code is "f.write(str(num))", but you have not defined num to be anything. You want to use b there, as that's the name of your loop variable. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 19:12, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

(repeat answer - not paying proper attention) Change the first line from b to num - notice you never used b despite it being the "99 bottles on the wall", but you used num instead. (Also what are these lyrics - I'm familiar with "9 green bottles" or "1 man went to mow" but not "99 milk bottles"!!)87.102.67.84 (talk) 19:15, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

I made the adjustment and got this error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\Mitch\Documents\Randomtriangles.py", line 5, in <module>
    f.write(str(num))
IOError: not writable

BTW, the desired output would be something like:

99 bottles of milk on the wall,
99 bottles of milk,
Take one down, pass it around
99 bottles of milk on the wall.

98 bottles of milk on the wall
98 bottles of milk,

...

No more bottles of milk! :(

MMS2013 19:24, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

See http://docs.python.org/tutorial/inputoutput.html section 7.2

f = open('F:\Bawtlez.txt', 'r')

should be

f = open('F:\Bawtlez.txt', 'w')

or

f = open('F:\Bawtlez.txt', 'r+')

using just 'r' means that the file can only be read from, and not written too.

Also you definately don't need two variables - you could just use 'num' all the way through.87.102.67.84 (talk) 19:29, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

XD My code failed because I missed one letter. Thanks! MMS2013 19:33, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

If you are only ever writing to the file, why do you need f.read() at all? And isn't it supposed to be bottles of beer? Astronaut (talk) 03:20, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Files might be missing- ExFAT Flash Drive

So I got myself a couple of Kingston DataTraveler 150s, with 64GB of space. Until I looked up ExFAT, I didn't understand why my netbook couldn't read it and my W7 desktop had no problem. So I installed the update from Microsoft, and emptied about 40GB onto the drive in preparation for a clean install of XP. I plugged it back in later (on the same netbook before the install), and it's only reading empty folders! Properties reveals that the drive has the info on it, but I can't get to it with Windows. Any ideas? Mxvxnyxvxn (talk) 20:32, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

To clarify, the data on the drive was from the netbook, not the desktop. Mxvxnyxvxn (talk) 20:35, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

Before you pull a flash drive out of its USB port, Microsoft wants you to use the "Safely remove hardware" icon that appears to the right of the taskbar. This makes sure that the computer has completely finished writing everything to the drive, and so you don't yank it in the middle of, say, writing sectors that are critical to its directory. Did you use the "safely remove hardware" icon? (By the way, I would be surprised if this were the reason for the problem; I am under a vague impression that Windows Vista and Windows 7 are better about handling this bad user behavior than XP and previous. But I could be wrong.) Comet Tuttle (talk) 21:11, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

I usually do that, but I'm not sure if I did in this instance. Note that 2 files stayed on, and other files that were already on have dissapeared. The netbook is running XP, by the way. Still, the data is obviously on the drive, is there any (easy) way to get it back? Mxvxnyxvxn (talk) 22:45, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

Sorry to not be specifically helpful to you with this comment or my last one, but it is not "obviously" on the drive — in one bad scenario, Windows could have marked ~40GB on your flash drive as occupied and copied over all the data, but the flash drive was pulled out while a write cache holding the directory sectors was being flushed, so the directory currently on the flash drive is missing or corrupted. Have you tried the "Tools" tab on that Properties window to check the volume for errors? Comet Tuttle (talk) 22:51, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

Nothing. I'm going to try playing with it on my W7 computer. Mxvxnyxvxn (talk) 23:08, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

Okay, at least I know what I did wrong. I succeeded in determining that the files got corrupted. So you were of help. Mxvxnyxvxn (talk) 05:05, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Sorry this disaster happened to you. Comet Tuttle (talk) 14:49, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

There is freeware which says it can recover deleted etc material from flash drives, perhaps they would help. At least you will know if there is anything truely on there. 78.146.242.196 (talk) 13:50, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

I agree with 78 — you shouldn't give up just yet if that is your only copy of your data. Products like Norton Utilities or a competitor may be able to scan the sectors of the flash drive and discern what sectors comprise files, and recover your files. The Norton Utilities article has a "Competitors" section, too, and we have a list at Category:Utility software which may be useful. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:27, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

How does my browser remember what links I've clicked?

Even after restarting my computer and having purged it with Ccleaner, both Firefox and Windows show links that I had previously clicked even days ago in a different colour. How do they do that? Would they remember a link I'd clicked six months ago for example? Is it possible to view the list of clicked links they must be keeping somewhere? Thanks. 78.147.93.182 (talk) 21:12, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

I am not familiar with Ccleaner, and you should not need to use a third party utility like that to wipe your browsing history in any browser made in the last 7 years. In Firefox (3.5.8, anyway), choose "Clear recent history" from the "Tools" menu. The browser's differently-colored links come from the history. Comet Tuttle (talk) 22:29, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

Ccleaner is only able to clear browser history when the browser is not running. Make sure you've completely exited Firefox and IE before running it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.44.55.204 (talk) 22:32, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia has an article on CCleaner. It's basically a tool for cleaning errors in your Windows Registry. More info here.[33][34][35] A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 00:03, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

The question is not about Ccleaner, which I only mentioned in passing. 78.151.155.128 (talk) 01:08, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

As Comet Tuttle said, this information is kept in the browser's history file. If Ccleaner does not change the link behavior, you are either using it wrong, or it is not deleting the history correctly. There are other ways to purge the history file—use one and it should change this. --Mr.98 (talk) 04:58, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

So does the browser scan through my History everytime I look at a new page? 78.146.242.196 (talk) 13:52, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Yes. It's a trivial operation for it to compare the links on your page to a list of links in your history. It's not look at the content, just the URLs. --Mr.98 (talk) 14:24, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

I'm not sure, but I think it has nothing to do with clearing browsing history. Try to change colors. FireFox:Tools→Options→Contents→Colors and change it. Oda Mari (talk) 14:18, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

You are mistaken, sorry. Whether a link is colored as "visited" depends on the browser history. You can change the colors of how it tags things as being "visited" or not, but that doesn't change that it does it. --Mr.98 (talk) 14:24, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Safe to delete Microsoft Office?

I have WinXP. This is an old second-hand computer and Microsoft Office was rather mangled when I got it. After spending/wasting a lot of time on it I managed to partially repair it, but it still has problems. Yes, I do use OpenOffice. Would it be safe to delete Microsoft Office without any problems? Thanks 78.147.93.182 (talk) 21:51, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

Yes; an uninstallation won't screw up Windows or anything. Be sure to remove it by means of the "Add/Remove Programs" Control Panel in order to make sure you get rid of everything (rather than just deleting the appropriate folder within "Program Files"). Comet Tuttle (talk) 21:55, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

I had an old computer like that, and even when uninstalled it left enough to double the start up time. It may better to format the disk and start with an XP reinstall. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 20:34, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

February 26

Clearing the history of Internet explorer without starting the program

I'm trying to help my father-in-law with getting internet explorer working. Symptoms: the program starts, tries to open ~10 tabs and crashes. Chrome works fine. I suspect the problem is that something on one of the pages that IE tries to load causes the crash. So it's a catch-22 situation. To get IE working, i need to clear the history and cache. To clear the history and cache, I need to start IE. How do I get around this? Thanks, 85.200.133.168 (talk) 08:52, 26 February 2010 (UTC) (NorwegianBlue, not logged in)

You could try http://www.nirsoft.net/web_browser_tools.html - these tools will delete a variety of caches - this might fix it.87.102.67.84 (talk) 10:09, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Because it's opening the last browsing settings you might want to turn that off (temporarily) http://www.mydigitallife.info/2009/07/21/how-to-disable-reopen-last-browsing-session-in-ie8-internet-explorer-8/ (last resort)

The location of the files you want to delete are alledgedly here (I haven't checked for correctness) If this works I think it will be your first choice. http://www.mydigitallife.info/2009/07/21/ie8-last-browsing-session-history-storage-location-for-backup-restore-deletion-or-cleanup/ 87.102.67.84 (talk) 10:16, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks. Meanwhile, I found out about the iexplore -extoff option (starting with extensions disabled), and it turns out than internet explorer starts when extensions are disabled. There was nothing that stuck out as being the probable culprit, so I'll disable all, and reactivate them one by one. --85.200.133.168 (talk) 10:35, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

...and after re-activating everything, everything works (in the process, there was both an avg update and a vista update). So, whatever caused the problem, appears to be gone now. --85.200.133.168 (talk) 11:20, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

For the record, you can get to "Internet Options" via the Control Panel, which then gives you the ability to delete history, cookies, etc. --LarryMac | Talk 13:19, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Install and run Ccleaner. Will do eaxactly what you want very easily. 78.146.242.196 (talk) 13:57, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Simplest solution: Pull the cable or disable WiFi, start the browser, wait for timeouts, delete the tabs and/or history. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 18:06, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, everyone! --85.200.133.168 (talk) 20:29, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

MPI

Is there anything I need to take into consideration when choosing an MPI? I have set up a Beowulf cluster and I will be doing some work on the 2D Ising model. Is there benefits to different types of MPI like LAMMPI or OpenMPI, thanks. Mo ainm (talk) 13:23, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Angles in computers trivia

For storing and computation on angles (0 to 2pi) on a computer I've found it useful to map the range of values onto 0 to 1 ie (000000000000000 to 1111111111111 etc) (with 1 not included since 2pi=0) . ie using a single register. (I'm using a combination of lookup for the most significant n bits plus euler's formula for the rest of the 32-n bits dependent on accuracy required and formula for sin(a+b) cos(a+b) as well etc to join the two results) . I imagine the same mapping could be used for other trig. algs. such as CORDIC.

Enough about me, my question is: is this mapping of 0 to 360 onto 0 to 1 commonly used in computers, if at all; if so do we have an article on it.??87.102.67.84 (talk) 13:47, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

This article about the source code for Doom says it used fixed-precision integer math (16.16 bits), a scheme called Binary Angle Measurement. This excerpt has more details about BAMs. This article at MSDN also discusses an integer angle where 0xFFFF+1 is a full rotation, which seems to be the scheme you're talking about. These integer schemes made sense on the 80486 microprocessors for which Doom was targetted; later iD games use floating point (mostly). -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 14:39, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks (again :) ) , I almost started writing a new article based on the links you gave me, luckily found in time that there was a short mention at Binary scaling#Binary angles so I expanded that and created redirects from places I would have expected to find an answer.

I'm familiar with software components that use milliarcseconds in their internal representation of angles. A circle = 1,296,000,000 milliseconds, so angles of 0 to +/- 2pi can be neatly represented in a 32-bit int. decltype (talk) 21:18, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

Follow up "brads"

Brads and Angle#Units mention "brads" - (google isn't helping) - one section states that 1brad=1/256 degree - but I can't find any examples of use. Anyone got a good reference. Thanks.Shortfatlad (talk) 16:25, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Also List_of_unusual_units_of_measurement#Furman mentions "furman" being 1/65536 of a circle - anyone got a ref for that too.Shortfatlad (talk) 16:32, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Searching for "binary radians" (the expansion of brad) finds quite a lot, including this. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 16:37, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks again, (removed cite tag) I think google must be censoring my search results - I did look..87.102.67.84 (talk) 16:50, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Pocket device to watch old films on?

I like watching old b&w films, and many of them are out of copyright and available to download. I have some long train journeys coming up. What device would be the best or cheapest way of watching them? A laptop would be too big. I'm unfamiliar with recent gadgets. Thanks. 78.146.242.196 (talk) 15:09, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

I recently got a 3rd generation iPod Touch. Its screen is large enough to see the picture pretty clearly, but the device is small enough to go into a pocket or (as in my case) to be worn on an armband (when used as a music player while exercising). I use HandBrake to reencode movies to the correct size and format. There are a number of players, from various manufacturers, that compete directly with the iPod Touch (and are likely a bit cheaper). -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 15:30, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

If a iPod is too small a netbook might be big enough - they are typically 1/2 the size of a laptop - ie half size as A5 (paper) is to A4. Also bigger than a iPod and (and cheaper than either) is a portable DVD player - nowadays these are relatively cheap with a good viewing size - all you need is to convert and burn the film to a blank recordable DVD.87.102.67.84 (talk) 15:41, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Oh and I think the recent (and still cheap) portable DVD players will take SD cards - which are a lot more compact than DVDs - they'll probably play other media formats too (eg wmv)- but you'd have to check the instructions.Shortfatlad (talk) 16:38, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

If you want to go down the portable DVD route one thing to watch out for is the screen resolution which in some cases can be quite poor - best to see one first, or check the specifications before buying.87.102.67.84 (talk) 18:01, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

An older and possibly cheaper solution might be a PSP, which uses Memory Stick Duo cards and can play .mp4 movies. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:25, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, and the PSP would be a good device to use for films because of it's widescreen. Chevymontecarlo. 08:49, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

Perhaps a netbook would be small enough? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.44.55.204 (talk) 00:50, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

mcods.exe

Resolved

I am frustrated an average of 3 or 4 times a week with slowness and lagginess on my Windows XP machine. When I check out the currently running processes with Windows Task Manager, I notice that mcods.exe is generally running and taking up around 40% of my dual-core CPU, meaning almost a whole core. This is apparently a McAfee virus scan. How do I tell it to get lost without just killing the process? I wanted to do this nicely via the McAfee GUI but I don't see any indication there that the virus scan is even running. This link suggests I use services.msc to set it to run only manually, but, oddly, McAfee Scanner is already set to run only manually. Comet Tuttle (talk) 20:52, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

I may have answered my own question in record time. Like any security minded fellow, I normally use an account with no administrator rights. I switched over to my admin account and the McAfee icon was right there on the Start bar, in the lower right, animating to show that a scan was ongoing. I launched McAfee from that icon and there was a nice Cancel button which halted the scan. Comet Tuttle (talk) 21:02, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

For the future, you might try checking McAfee's configuration to see if you can run the scan at Below Normal priority; it will still take CPU, but should relinquish it to user programs. XP doesn't support prioritized I/O so you might still have some slowdowns due to the file scan, but it shouldn't be quite as bad. If McAfee doesn't have a setting to configure, you could follow the steps given in the very last post in this thread on service priority. If you were on Vista or later, you could prevent it from interfering with other startup processes by changing the setting from "Automatic" to "Automatic (Delayed Start)", but that only deprioritizes the task's CPU and I/O during initialization, and wouldn't help once the service was up and running.

Alternatively, if you're comfortable mucking about with Windows settings, you could create a Task Scheduler task that runs the same program as the service, and the Task Scheduler will default to Below Normal priority (and with some mucking about with exporting, editing, and reimporting the config file would let you set arbitrary priorities). Then you can either set the services.msc entry to disabled, or if you're feeling daring, change the definition of the service so that it triggers your scheduled task.

Of course, this is all open to problems if McAfee does startup fixes to its services (not unreasonable for a virus scanner) or relies on communicating with the running service in a way that only works when the service manager is in control (quite likely). If that's the case, I'd consider looking into replacing McAfee with another scanner; in my experience most of the reputable virus scanners are roughly equally effective (they'll miss anything really new, but they'll catch a lot of the older stuff) and the primary differentiation is in their resource footprint. I've had decent experiences with AVG and Trend, bad experiences with McAfee and Norton. Your mileage may vary.

Of course, if you're as security conscious as I think you are, upgrading to a 64 bit OS (whether XP x64, Vista or Win7) would remove a large part of your security concerns, and if you've got a hardware firewall (e.g. most routers act as such), you might be okay with an on-demand scanner for specific files and skip the real time and scheduled scans unless you really want them. The 64 bit upgrade vastly improves your security profile: most buffer overruns (the source of worms, which anyone is vulnerable to, as opposed to trojans, which a security conscious user can avoid with on-demand scans) rely on filling a null-terminated string with executable code, but any memory address on current 64 bit machines contains two nulls, making it much harder to do anything useful with the overrun. —ShadowRanger ^(talk|stalk) 21:28, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Japanese and similar characters in Firefox

When I look at pages with what should be Japanese characters, instead of each character I get a small box with four very small letters or numbers in it. Is there something I can download to show the Japanese characters? I do not understand any of them, but they look nicer. 92.29.32.229 (talk) 21:20, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

It is attempting to show Japanese (unicode) characters, but you don't have the font installed. For starters, install a basic CJK font (Chinese-Japanese-Korean). How you do that depends heavily on your operating system. -- kainaw™ 21:26, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Help:Multilingual support (East Asian) is our help page on this subject. It has instructions for several different operating systems. Comet Tuttle (talk) 21:30, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

RAR vs. 7z

Resolved

I need to store many thousands of .html files. They don't need to be accessed often, but occasionally they do or I might like to search them. Which is the better archive format for this task; RAR or 7z? I know from my own tests that 7z has slightly better compression results than RAR, but RAR supports searching archives without extracting. I realize this is a more of opinion than absolute facts, but any input, insight into other solutions etc would be appreciated. Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.44.55.204 (talk) 21:38, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

All depends on how often you intend to extract/search them, vs. how much the compression really saves. I'd suggest compressing a representative sample of your files to compare real world compression ratios; the compression ratio for general files will differ quite a bit for HTML, given that HTML is much more structured than "typical" data. You might also try stuff like tar combined with bzip2 or gzip to see if they get better compression or faster searching. Or you skip tar entirely, and just bzip2 or gzip compress the individual files, so you can still index them by name efficiently, and decompress individually without the complexity of a full on archive+compression solution. —ShadowRanger ^(talk|stalk) 22:04, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Addendum: HTML compresses well enough that even a solution like NTFS compression will get some decent results on it, and you can continue to use them transparently without the need to deal with manual decompression at all. —ShadowRanger ^(talk|stalk) 22:05, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

You don't say what OS you are using, but if it's a recent Windows, you might want to just tell Windows to compress that folder. On Vista, you'd right-click the folder, choose Properties, then Advanced, then click the appropriate check box. Since hard disks are US$110 for 1.5TB these days, I suspect that the number of bytes saved is probably not the actual priority here, so just having Windows compress the folder may be the winning solution for simplicity and search capability. Comet Tuttle (talk) 22:11, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

FYI, Windows's built-in compression *is* NTFS compression. It's not an OS feature, it's part of the file system spec. So you can't copy it to a non-NTFS drive and keep the compression, but at the same time, a non-Windows OS with a good NTFS driver could still read it. —ShadowRanger ^(talk|stalk) 23:02, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Thank you everyone for all the helpful answers. I just did another test with 3gb of files; 7z compressed them down to 350mb (with solid compression) whereas WinRAR compressed to 530mb. So it looks like I'm going to go with 7z. I did consider NTFS compression but it doesn't compare at all to the space savings achieved with the archivers. Again, thanks for the help :)

February 27

Freeware app like Camfrog?

Is there a freeware app available that has features similar to Camfrog? I'm in China, my brother is in one state in the US, and the rest of my family another. I'd like to be able to participate in and/or host video conferencing with more than 2 accounts. Camfrog allows X accounts to all video conference together, but at the hefty fee of $45.95 per account and $200 for a server license. 207.7.138.117 (talk) 04:06, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

ekiga --194.197.235.240 (talk) 19:44, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

VirtualBox RDP

I am using VirtualBox for virtualization. The host OS is Windows 7 (Ultimate, 64-bit) and the guest OS is Windows Server 2008. I am trying to enable RDP connections through to the guest VM. At the moment I only have one physical system to test this on, but ultimately I will need to do enable this for external IPs. Within VirtualBox, I have enabled the Remote Display server. I have changed the port to 3390 since the default 3389 is already being used by Win7; authentication method is null to keep things simple for now. The VM network adapter is NAT. From within the guest OS, I can confirm that a class A IP is being created. (According to the VirtualBox documentation, ping does not work over NAT, so I am unable to ping the system.) The setup seems fine, but I am unable to determine the IP to connect to in RDP. Documentation indicates that this should be the host IP (not guest IP), suffixed with the defined port (:3390). I am able to successfully connect with the loopback 127.0.0.2:3390. However, as my goal is to enable external connections, this will not suffice. I checked ipconfig /all and tried all IPs given there, but none of them seem to work. Also, when I check online sites for my IP, it is yet different than what is given in ipconfig (given in signature); this also does not work. I have been looking at this for several hours but am stumped; any ideas for resolution? 124.214.131.55 (talk) 09:33, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

Nevermind. After much frustration, I ended up just installing it on another partition and was able to use RDP without any problems. I'll figure out the problem another time. 124.214.131.55 (talk) 12:49, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

PrtSc (Print Screen)

Hi

If I have multiple windows on my screen, how do I print the one on the forefront only?

Thanks, NirocFX

41.193.16.234 (talk) 12:17, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

Try Ctrl Alt & PrtSc at the same time. --220.101.28.25 (talk) 12:25, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

That is incorrect. You press Alt+PrtScr. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 13:21, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

Aargh. How did I make that mistake! Corrected!. Here's the text of the relevant Windows help section in XP
"To copy the window or screen contents

• To make a copy of the active window, press ALT+PRINT SCREEN.
• To copy the entire screen as it appears on your monitor, press PRINT SCREEN."

Note that all the "forefront" screen has to be visible (not off the edge of the monitor), any part not visible won't be copied--220.101.28.25 (talk) 14:13, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

The Print screen article discusses this, and covers environments other than Windows. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 14:41, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks Guys

I'll remember that next time.

Thanks, NirocFX

41.193.16.234 (talk) 09:06, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

Shortwave 6

I was just mucking around with my grandad's Roberts R 9967, when I flipped into SW6, or Shortwave 6. This particular shortwave makes a noise like a robot or computer from Lost in Space...beeps and boops and bops. Does anyone know why it is making this noise, it's really fascinating! The noise comes when I get near electrical equipment or ferrous metals. Please answer back!--Editor510 ^{drop us a line, mate} 14:11, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

The noise comes also after 15.70 MHz. Hope that also helps.--Editor510 ^{drop us a line, mate} 14:54, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

Shortwave is fully of communications channels - often digital - it's almost certainly one of these.

I would guess that the signal is being picked up by big metal objects, and the object acting a sort of passive boosting transmittor (like an earphone Ear trumpet except electrical).

I don't really know what you are listening to but the shortwave article mentions a time signal at 15,000kHz (that's 15MHz) (in the USA) and probably within the accuracy of your old radio. - that's the sort of time signal used to control radio controlled watches/clocks etc.

Or it might be something else completely.87.102.67.84 (talk) 17:06, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

See Time signal and the related articles WWVH , WWV , CHU (radio station) etc - see if the descriptions of the signals match what you're hearing. (like electronic birdsong ?)

87.102.67.84 (talk) 17:09, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

PC to Home stereo

I am having a sound issue when I connect my PC to my home stereo amplifier. I get an annoying hum. I have tried different cables, different inputs on the amp, even a new sound card for my PC. I did some research about ohms matching transformers but, am not sure what to get or if that is even the answer. This problem does not exist on anything else I send PC audio to.[self amplified speakers, TV monitor, even my DeWalt work radio]What could solve this problem? Please help, I have been struggling with this for more than a year.74.47.146.203 (talk) 22:27, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

Most soundcards have several sound outputs, including the normal stereo speaker output, the headphone output, and sometimes a surround-output (the rear channels). Make sure you're in the speaker port (which is usually coloured green) and not the headphone one. Also make sure the PC's sound output level is set at or near maximum (both the OS's general volume control, and that of the specific application you're using) and have the amplifier's own volume setting very low. Make sure you're not plugging the cable from the PC into the "phono" inputs on your amplifier (sounds like you've done that). Make sure the cable between the two isn't running near an obvious source of interference (cordless phone base-station, wireless router, microwave oven). -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 22:34, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

Sorry, when I say "sounds like you've done that" above, I really mean "sound like you've already tried and rejected that possibility" -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 22:52, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

If you have the two plugged into different power outlets, you may have a ground loop. -- kainaw™ 22:49, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

(edit conflict - long answer, may not add much) It's also possible that you are getting a hum loop (I think the article Ground loop (electricity) may be covering the same thing), also induction from a 50/60Hz source on the loop of wire that goes from PC mains plug <> PC <> Audio out <> Audio In <> Amp <> Amp mains plug can cause hum (like an aerial).

The second can usually be fairly well elimanated by moving wires - as described above - make sure no audio wire goes near mains cable or transformer (better cables can sometimes help - ie coaxial or twisted pair, avoid cables with bare metal end plugs ie the chrome plated type)

A matching transformer might should be a solution - though it will also act as a low pass filter - removing low frequencys - so not a very good solution for audio. Other solutions include using a digital connection, or better still an optical digital connection (toslink) - I realise your amp might not have these as an option. If you get a matching transformer (aka audio isolation transformer) - get the cheapest - the devices are flawed at low frequency - it's not work spending a lot - for what you get.87.102.67.84 (talk) 23:59, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

Question: are either or both of the devices earthed (ie 3 pin connector) ? Sometimes a fix is to connect an extra earth between the two devices (this isn't an option if one of the devices is unearthed) If both devices are earthed - a fix can sometimes be to remove an earth connection - you may see this suggested on the internet - it isn't a safe thing to do..

Another Question - can you test the amp to see if it works ok with other things - a CD player or whatever - it's possible that the amp is gone bad? Also check the amp connections - eg plug - if possible rewire it just to make sure that you have a good electrical connection.87.102.67.84 (talk) 23:04, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

Also the amp - is it very old or obscure - if so can you say what make, or better - the input impedance on the inputs? (This is unlikely to be the problem unless the amp is over 50years old)87.102.67.84 (talk) 23:09, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

The best set of advice I found was here http://www.audioholics.com/tweaks/connecting-your-system/ground-loops-eliminating-system-hum-and-buzz (unfortunately it may have a dodgy flash animation that is blocked. otherwise the advice is good - but US centric)87.102.67.84 (talk) 23:59, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

February 28

File transfer from Drive C to Drive D—is that OK?

(1)Will it be OK for me to transfer all the files from drive c to drive d or will my computer not work properly if i do that?

There are important files in drive C, such as those of Windows and Microsoft which I think should remain, but I think since the drive C is running out of space, my computer seems to work so slow and so I thought perhaps transferring all the files from it to drive D would speed up the computer performance since drive D has lots of space available. What do you think about this? Am I making a good conclusion? I am hesitant to do this simply because I am afraid that my computer might break down if files are not where they ought to stay.

(2)Will there really be a difference if Windows and Microsoft files are saved in Drive C or Drive D or it doesn't matter where it's saved. Please answer these questions.. Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 112.202.148.167 (talk) 07:21, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

Your computer will be fine, but Windows won't be.

The advice depends on the situation. You could reinstall everything. Or you could stick in a bigger hard drive and reinstall everything on that. Or you could buy a new hard drive, format that, and then use Clonezilla to copy everything from C: of the older one to C: of the newer one, etc. Or you can pay money for a shrinkwrapped box containing some alternative to Clonezilla that has no advantage over it, and use this instead of Clonezilla. Or you could move on from Windows. -- Hoary (talk) 07:34, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

I don't like the two editorializing pieces here, especially the "move on from Windows" alternative, which I believe we have all decided not to do here on RD/C. Comet Tuttle (talk) 15:40, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

You can move all of the files that you have created or downloaded, but you should leave all of the Windows files and software (unless you reinstall). I have done exactly this for exactly your reasons. Increasing the size of your page file (pagefile.sys) might speed things up. I'm not sure whether creating pagefile.sys on the D drive is an advantage or not. I tried it and it didn't seem to make any difference. Perhaps a Windows expert can advise here? Are your C & D drives just partitions of the same physical drive? Dbfirs 08:11, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

If the D: is a different disk (of equal or greater speed) then yes there's a (slight) performance benefit to putting the pagefile on that disk instead of C: where the main Windows installation is. If it's just a different partition of the same physical disk there's no performance difference except that you can free up some disk space by moving it to the other drive. ZX81 ^talk 09:56, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

If the computer is running slowly it could be because a lot of things are loading at start up. For my computer I only have the anti-virus loading at start-up. The freeware StartUp Control Panel by Mike Lin is one way to control what runs at start-up. 89.242.47.252 (talk) 15:01, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

320GB Hard Disk Drive space—inaccurate?

I wished to ask why my the sticker on my ASUS K40IJ laptop says that it has a disk capacity of 320 GB, but the total GB actually sums up only to 282.5 GB (74.5 for drive C and 208 GB for drive D). I was really confident that I would be able to store many files in my computer. That's one of the reasons why I purchased this product. Perhaps the reason why it's like that is simply because some other files are stored in other drives, but which one? I am hoping for a reply. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 112.202.148.167 (talk) 08:07, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

See Hard_disk_drive#Capacity_measurements, specifically the 'Formatted disk overhead' section "the operating system's file system internal usage is another, although minor, reason why a computer hard drive or storage device's capacity may show its capacity as different from its theoretical capacity" —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.44.55.204 (talk) 11:16, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

Not really inaccurate, but more to do with marketing. You might think 320GB is 343,597,383,680 bytes (ie. 320 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024), but it is very likely to be only 320,000,000,000 bytes which is only 298GB. Astronaut (talk) 12:10, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

If you're using Windows, you can look at disk partitions in the Administrative Tools in the control panel. That'll show you if your 320gb disk is divided up into smaller partitions. A lot of OEMs add a small recovery partition that take up a bit of space. Indeterminate (talk) 15:03, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

How do I change the user agent on iPhone?

How can I change the user agent of my mobile browser (Safari) so that it identifies to Facebook, Wikipedia, etc. as a normal browser like Firefox, Chrome, regular Safari on my laptop? Basically I hate hate hate mobile versions of pages and I can't seem to keep certain sites from constantly reverting to the mobile page no matter what I do. Nota bene: I am a computer idiot so talk down to me. I only know how to even ask this question because of someone else on this page. I Googled looking for information but couldn't find anything, probably because I don't really know what I am looking for. love, Saudade7 09:09, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

I don't think it's terribly easy. In OS X it's much easier, but the only thing I can find for the iPhone OS is this guy's solution. It looks like it might work, but you'll need a rooted phone, comfortableness with a hex editor, and willingness to probably make a terrible mess of your system. :) Indeterminate (talk) 15:00, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

IRC funding

How exactly are networks like rizon, quakenet funded? Who pays for their server costs? --Drogonov 10:08, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

Insidious MSN messenger startup

I sometimes use this multi-user Windows XP machine. I don't use MSN messenger so I have clicked the "Do not launch at windows startup" and removed the entry from HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run in the registry. Yet, several times I have had MSN messenger launch when I have logged in and had to go back through the hiding process again. How can I convince MSN messenger to be gone from my user and stay gone no matter what the other users might do. Astronaut (talk) 11:32, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

Hypervisor

Is there any lightweight linux or any other platform, by which I can run a virtual machine? The platform should be very lightweight, low on system resources and no other capabilities than running virtual machines.

Have you investigated all the products mentioned in our Hypervisor article? Comet Tuttle (talk) 15:37, 28 February 2010 (UTC)