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March 21

net

i'm buying a usb modem to have net at home. Can interconnect 2 PCs using one usb modem. one is downstairs and one in my room. what do i need. And is there a wireless way i can do that? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.220.225.251 (talk) 00:06, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

The easiest way to connect multiple computers to have access to one internet connection is a Router. You can get Wireless routers pretty much everywhere these days - even the supermarket. To be able to be wireless you will need a wireless enabled computer/laptop - though most wireless routesr have at least 4 wired-connection slots too (at least from what i've seen) so you could have a (wired-connection) desktop PC and a (wireless connection) laptop. ny156uk (talk) 00:23, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

To connect your modem to a "router" (confusingly known as either a residential gateway or a wireless router here on Wikipedia) you'll need to have a modem with a network connection. If you have a pure USB modem, you'll need to connect it to one of your computers and have that computer "share" the internet connection across a home network (where a "router" would also prove useful). The latter layout has some limitations (all traffic travels through the "host" computer, so it has to remain on; setting up the connection is somewhat more complicated; and you don't get the security benefit of the router's firewall), so it would be best to purchase a networkable modem instead (many support both USB and network connections). – 74  03:28, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Slow Computer

My computer's gotten slow, both at bootup and while running applications. I have Norton and AdAware running, so I doubt it's a virus. Any idea what could be causing this or how it can be fixed? Black Carrot (talk) 07:00, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

What OS? Ζρς ιβ' ^¡hábleme! 07:37, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

You have Norton running. That's one. Also, try doing Start->Run (or Win + R), and type in "msconfig". Go to the startup tab and see what's starting. May also want to check services.msc to see if you've got any strange services, but don't mess with any entries in either unless you know what they are. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 08:09, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Once you've cleaned out the start-up as Consumed Crustacean suggests, do a defrag ... Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools. — Ched ~ ^(yes?)/_© 08:52, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

I think the most likely reason is because you need more system memory (not be confused with hard drive space). What version of Windows are you using and how much memory do you have? These days if you're running XP with Service Pack 2 or newer and antivirus etc like you are then you'll need at least 1Gb+ and if you're running Vista you'll need 2Gb to run things comfortably. In both XP and Vista you can go to "Control Panel" then "System" and after a short time the first page that shows will display the system memory. ZX81 ^talk 13:25, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

The startup tab of msconfig doesn't show a very long list, and I don't understand any of the names well enough to know what to change. The defrag system says I don't need to defragment. The General tab of the System Properties folder says, Microsoft Windows XP > Professional > Version 2002 > Service Pack 3, and AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor > 3200+ > 2.01 GHz, 1.00 GB of RAM > Physical Address Extension. Does that narrow anything down? Black Carrot (talk) 19:01, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

When the computer starts going slow does the hard drive light flash like crazy/constantly on? Sadly 1Gb in XP is pretty much bare minimum needed these days (with SP2 onwards/antivirus/spyware/firewall running on the computer) and quite likely it's ran out of real memory so it's using the hard disk which is much slower. If you load up Task Manager (Press Ctrl-Alt-Delete) under the Performance tab you'll be able to see memory usage. Although the whole page is quite helpful, if you can tell us what the available/system cache numbers are next to "Physical Memory" that'll help to confirm if you're running low or not (do it when you have your "normal" programs running, having everything closed will give a false reading) ZX81 ^talk 19:24, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

• You can Google most of the executable names; anything exceptionally odd that doesn't come up on Google is suspicious. And like I said, Norton isn't helping. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 05:19, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

A friend's laptop had this problem and it turned out his hard drive was running in PIO mode for some reason. In XP you can view and change this setting in Device Manager, IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, Primary IDE Channel, Advanced Settings. Just another thing to try. -- BenRG (talk) 13:21, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

I suggest you download Antivir's antivirus immediately, then uninstall Norton Anti-Virus with Revo Uninstaller (with an advanced uninstall). Procede to install Antivir. You will notice a difference immediately. Plus, CCleaner can help a little, and it's always useful in freeing up space. --71.98.14.96 (talk) 21:20, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Fork bombs

(source: Fork_bomb#Example_fork_bombs)

I have two questions. First, will someone please explain why

:(){ :|:& };:

is a fork bomb and how it accomplishes it's task. Next, why is

format ELF executable
entry start
start:
	push	0x2       ; Linux fork system call
	pop	eax       ;
	int	0x80      ; Call to the kernel
	jmp	start     ; Loop back to the start

used instead of

format ELF executable
entry start
start:
	mov	eax,0x2   ;
	int	0x80      ; Call to the kernel
	jmp	start     ; Loop back to the start

TIA, Ζρς ιβ' ^¡hábleme! 07:37, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

1. [1].

2. Maybe the push/pop combination takes up less space? --wj32 ^t/c 08:47, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

2. I can't see how that would be as you would have to change both push and pop to their hex equivalents and change eax and 0x2 to their hex equivalents. In the second example, you just have to translate mov and the two operands. Ζρς ιβ' ^¡hábleme! 13:47, 21 March 2009 (UTC) P.S. Is it something about null/non-ASCII bytes?

It is indeed done to save space. PUSH has a form with a one-byte operand that's sign extended to four bytes, but MOV doesn't. The register operands are part of the opcode byte, so the PUSH/POP pair takes three bytes and the MOV instruction takes five. -- BenRG (talk) 18:46, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

For the first question (which I assume is about shell commands), this code:

:(){ :|:& };:

is evidently deliberately obfuscated. First it declares a function called ':'. That's an unusual name for a function - but it's not illegal. It's clearly deliberately confusing, so let's call it something less confusing like "bomb". Now we have:

bomb(){ bomb|bomb & } ; bomb

. That's really two commands separated with a semicolon:

  bomb(){ bomb|bomb & }
  bomb

In other words, it's declaring a shell script function - and then calling that function. So what does the function do? Well, the innards of the function are:

 bomb | bomb &

- which means run the function 'bomb', pipe the output of it into another instance of the function 'bomb' and run the whole mess in background. So this is a recursive function that calls itself twice each time. So you run 'bomb', and it creates 'bomb|bomb' which results in (bomb|bomb)|(bomb|bomb) ...and so forth - doubling the number of backgrounded threads each time. SteveBaker (talk) 18:43, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Oh, dear, that a cue for a song:

(bomb|bomb)|

(bomb|bomb)|(bomb|bomb)|

(bomb|bomb)|(bomb|bomb)|(bomb|bomb)(bomb|bomb)

there's no limit! (sorry) 87.114.29.204 (talk) 21:10, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

question

Can I have a links to free chess games for my windoes computer? thank you. -jonty —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.80.240.66 (talk) 11:34, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

How about WinBoard, or another game from Category:Free chess software? In future questions, please use a more descriptive header than "Question". Xenon54 (talk) 11:40, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

ah well thank you, i am still learning all the pages to this site, it seems there is a page for everything it's finding them that is the problem -jonty

Windows Vista comes with a quite nice 3D chess game. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 12:22, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

By "free chess games" do you mean you want to replay famous chess games, play chess against the computer, or play against a human opponent ? For the last case, Pogo.com does a decent job, as does Yahoo!. StuRat (talk) 05:19, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

You could also try the chess game that comes with the Microsoft Entertainment Pack. JCI (talk) 01:58, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

XP windows update: how to start custom install

Resolved

 – Certes (talk) 20:33, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

I run Windows XP (legally but without WGA) and would like to install some but not all of the updates I have downloaded. Shutting down the computer only allows me to install all or none. What I need is the Custom Install available via the yellow shield in the taskbar or something equivalent. Is there any way to make the yellow shield or the dialog it opens appear on demand? Obviously XP contains a program or service to do this but a long trawl through the search engines fails to reveal its identity.

If not, is there any other way to run a Custom Install? I realise that I can use Microsoft's website if I install lots of unwanted software first but would rather avoid this. I have tried stopping wuauserv, amending registry keys within \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update (not necessarily the right ways) restarting wuauserv and running wuauclt /detectnow, but nothing visible happens.

All suggestions gratefully received. Certes (talk) 12:07, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

For the benefit of anyone else with this problem, someone kindly pointed me at [2] where "ulogic" has a solution. Certes (talk) 20:33, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Stickam.com

How would I go on about & making my stream title/display name like this guy: http://www.stickam.com/tweetybirdluvsu, "hidden"?

I've seen it done on various people's profiles, on this site but I just don't know the exact coding nor fully get it.

Also...

"You may enter HTML/CSS. JavaScript is not allowed." —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kvltgrinder (talk • contribs) 13:08, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Turning things off and on

It seems that there's an old adage somewhere that says to "save electricity", you have to turn things off when they're not in use. So, my question is, would it be more beneficial for me to leave something on, rather then turning it off and then back on after a few seconds? For example, if I were using my calculator for homework, I tend to turn it off after every question (just a habit), but then turn it back on after I finish reading the next question. Does this waste more battery life than if I just leave it on completely? Another thing, my mother used to tell me to turn lights off when I leave a room, even if it were for a short time (usually just a few minutes). Would this cause more electricity to be used than just leaving it on for that short duration? Furthermore, when turning something on, does it use more electricity then it does when it's currently in use? I'm hoping someone can answer these questions. Thanks a lot! 141.153.217.159 (talk) 15:58, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

This has been covered in many (MANY) areas. There is a lot of anecdotal evidence that turning off something for a very short time will save less energy than the amount it takes to get it turned back on. The key thing to remember is that the plural of anecdote is not data. The data, produced by testing, even on rather pathetically scientific shows such as MythBusters, indicates that electrical devices do not require a lot of energy to turn on. Therefore, the rule "leave it on" only applies if you plan to turn it back on within less than a second of turning it off. -- kainaw™ 16:04, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

The problem with repeatedly turning things on and off isn't that it wastes energy, it's that it subjects the items to unnecessary wear and tear. For example, most switches are only good for a finite number of uses, based on what they expect the typical usage to be, and this doesn't include the type of duty cycle you seem to have in mind. StuRat (talk) 05:09, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

They did this on Mythbusters for lamps and for them it showed that it saved the lightbulbs if you turned them off everytime you left the room. chandler · 10:09, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

The OP hails from New Jersey, so this is not relevant, but incandescent bulbs are being phased out in the EU, commencing in 2010. The aim is to reduce CO2 pollution by 30 million tons. This brings up the question if CFLs (compact fluorescent lightbulbs) and other options like halogen or LEDs require more power when being switched on repeatedly.

According to one site Mythbusters gave these data:

• Incandescent: 0.36 seconds
• CFL: 0.015 seconds
• Halogen: .51 seconds
• LED: 1.28 seconds
• Fluorescent: 23.3 seconds for a switch off / switch on to break even. Presumably this refers to energy usage and not wear and tear on the switches. --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 10:53, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

How is the case with turning the vehicle engine off while at a traffic signal where the light is expected to turn green in half a minute or so? Does re-starting the engine burn more petrol than keeping it running for half a minute. Not a computing question, but fits in this discussion thread. Jay (talk) 08:18, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Generally no (though it does depend on the car). Some vehicles are designed to do this automatically as a feature (mostly hybrids), but frequent restarting in vehicles not designed to do so could cause excessive wear on the starter and electronics. – 74  14:28, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Solaris 9 in VMWare

I installed Solaris 9 inside VMWare Workstation 6.5, and I have everything working except audio and ethernet. I'm using the CDE. Whenever I type ifconfig -a no ethernet adapters show up, just lo0. I tried typing ifconfig hme0 up, just for the heck of it, but it said there was no such interface. My NIC is a Broadcom Gigabit Ethernet, and I've tried using NAT and bridging the connection, to no avail. I also typed dmesg, but nothing stood out to me in the output. I'd love to paste the output from that command here, but shared folders don't seem to be working in the guest, even though I installed VMWare tools. Whenever I run the Perl config script I get an error message:

Guest vmxnet fast network interface: failed
Unable to start services for VMWare Tools

That's the only error I see, and I can see the driver:

prtconf -D | grep 1022
pci1022,2000 (driver name: vmxnet)

—Preceding unsigned comment added by () John 44 fhm (talk • contribs) 17:26, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

blocked mediawiki export, api.php - gfdl freedoms

One wiki (not wikimedia related) blocks mediawiki export page, api.php and does not provide any database dumps. How can I download whole wiki (it has hunderdeds of articles) with full edit history? Person who hosts it says that he will block ip range if anyone tries to download too many articles. If a wiki is on gfdl, mustn't it provide a way to download it as a whole, not just parts? 217.75.59.5 (talk) 19:51, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Not all wikis are GFDL licensed, but wikis licensed under the GFDL must provide a machine-readable version of published materials. See WP:GFDL for text of license. --h2g2bob (talk) 20:34, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

I think having per-article source available is enough for that though. Algebraist 20:36, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

The hoster may be worried about performance or cost. You will have to reduce your impact, possibly by downloading the articles slowly, perhaps one per minute, rather than one per second! Graeme Bartlett (talk) 21:24, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

There's nothing in the GFDL that requires you to allow people to download a complete database, or to download it as a whole rather than as parts. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 23:11, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

OK, thanks. So i guess we can only make sure everyone of the editors know that wiki is 100% owned by evil admin (who won't give dumps), and persuade at least some of them to move to another wiki. (last free dump is not too much old). It is not really possible to dump automatically, because admin would easily make little changes to obstruct dump-tool. 217.75.59.5 (talk) 23:58, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Is 10-to-1 still valid?

Back in the days when a 1200-baud Silent 700 was the leading edge of technology, all of us in the Time-sharing business knew that even though a byte contained 8 bits, asynchronous communication added a bit on each end of the data (start and stop bits), so that "1200 bits per second" really delivered only 120 characters per second rather than 150 as might be naively assumed. On the other hand, if you had a big-ass synchronous modem, you could send and receive blocks of 400 or 800 characters at 4800 baud, true 8 bits per character minus some block-level overhead (but much less than the 20% of async "interactive").

Are today's communication rates on the phone line, over DSL and cable and so forth, still 10 bits per character, start + 8 + stop? (I assume the answer is Yes using 56K dialup.) As I sit here browsing the web and downloading photos, does 120KB/s still mean 1200Kb/s?

--DaHorsesMouth (talk) 20:17, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

For ADSL things are rather complex, as the spectrum used is divided into "bins" that have different characteristics; the ADSL article notes "The total maximum capacity derived from summing the bits-per-bins is reported by DSL modems and is sometimes termed sync rate. This will always be rather misleading as the true maximum link capacity for user data transfer rate will be significantly lower because extra data is transmitted that is termed protocol overhead, a reduced figure of around 84-87% at most for PPPoA connections being a common example". Much of that is due to the structure of ATM frames, which have 5 bytes of overhead for every 48 bytes transmitted. Over and above that (in ADSL, cable, and the earlier dialup solutions you mention) have additional overheads for IP and TCP packet headers (overheads that are per-packet, which means end-to-end efficiency differs greatly between bulk transfers and smaller packets). 87.114.29.204 (talk) 20:49, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

The encoding schemes on DSL and cable don't remotely resemble those old dialup modems. Modern dialup modems (that use V.42 and so forth) don't work like that either. They delete stop/start bits and do fancier data compression as well. 75.62.6.87 (talk) 10:35, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Intel Core 2 Duo processors vs Centrino 2 Duo

Good Morning and thank you for being available to ask questions. Laptops are being sold with either Intel Core 2 Duo processors or Centrino 2 Duo processors. Could you please tell me which is better in a way that an end user will notice. I did look at the article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Intel_processors. It lists processor features but not Centrino or how each new model is better than the last. Many thanks Cadbury29 (talk) 21:38, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Centrino isn't a processor, but rather Intel's chipset for laptops - the Centrino article says "There is usually a lot of confusion with Core 2 Duo and Centrino Duo. Centrino Duo is the combination of Core 2 Duo and Intel Next Gen Wireless Systems." 87.114.29.204 (talk) 21:47, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

My apologies for missing this on the Centrino article. Does the combination improve the user's computer usage experience whilst improving battery life or does it slow the computer down in comparison with a standard Core 2 Duo? Thank you again. Cadbury29 (talk) 21:57, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

You're still not seeing what Centrino is. It's a brand of chipset. All PC CPUs need an accompanying chipset; you can't run a Core 2 Duo without a chipset; if you didn't install Centrino you'd have to have the equivalent offering from nVidia or VIA (or you'd have an AMD processor with an AMD chipset). So you can't run a "standard core 2 duo" alone; there's no comparison to make. We don't have articles comparing mobile chipsets from different vendors, it seems, but there's generally not a lot in it between Intel and nVidia at least. 87.114.29.204 (talk) 22:14, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

It's like saying, a Windows PC vs. a Dell PC, which one is better? --76.167.241.45 (talk) 23:42, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Assuming, of course, that the Dell PC runs Windows (they do have some Linux versions now). Thanks, Genius101^Guestbook 15:26, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Centrino is simply a marketing "certification" All it means is the devices has an approved A) CPU, B) Chipset, C) Wifi Card. All Intel laptops will have core 2 processor and perform the same, however some may include a dell other brand wifi card instead of an intel one, for example, or maybe use a different chipset, perhaps one from nVidia. That one change will make the laptop no longer "centrino" but other than that it's all the same. 204.16.236.254 (talk) 22:28, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

March 22

HD camcorder with emphasis on microphone jack (and budget)

So I need a camcorder. I would like to record a singer/songwriter friend of mine for an upload to youtube in HD quality. The 720p video recommendation from youtube is very easy to find. Flip's minoHD, or Creative's vado HD, or Kodak's Zi6, are all compact, handsome options but none of them have a mic jack to emphasize sound quality (please correct me if I'm wrong!). Giant brains of the reference desk, I beseech thee: tell me of any low cost, 720p, compact camera with extremely high audio quality, or preferably a mic jack. And, of course, if I'm posting this in the wrong place, please flame me as I deserve. 96.255.205.141 (talk) 00:01, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Would you consider doing it in two pieces, then cutting it back together? I'm thinking the Zoom audio recorders. That said, I suspect getting the audio to sync back up will make you pull your hair out. --Mdwyer (talk) 01:55, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Thank you so much! Zoom is an awesome option. I only wish it was a little more inexpensive. I'd like to plug in an inexpensive mic into an inexpensive 720p hd camera. I don't know if it's possible. Sappysap (talk) 02:35, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Personally - I'd record the audio with a separate digital recorder (you could use a laptop for this) and stereo mike and then sync up the video and audio in a post-production step. That way you can adjust the audio balance and do noise filtering and other adjustments using high quality audio tools (I recommend Audacity - it's a great tool and it's free) - then marry together audio and video using the crappy video recorder's sound track to help you get them in perfect sync at the end. It's more effort - but if you're serious about wanting a quality result - that's the only way to go. SteveBaker (talk) 21:20, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Just a random tip to the OP... I have found that if you disconnect your laptop from the power supply, it eliminates a lot of hum. If possible, run an unpowered mic through a battery-powered preamp if you're not getting enough gain from your line-ins on your soundcard. Plus don't overestimate the benefit of sinking money into hardware. If you are new, its tough to understand how setting mic levels and input levels and mic positioning and all those simple things make a huge difference. I even learned that different rooms of a house record better in, maybe something to do with electrical wiring (maybe the cheap wiring is in bedrooms?) or the way a house's electrical circuits are drawn. I've been waiting a long time for prices to come down in the HD cams. Last time I seriously studied them, they were over $1500. My biggest complaint was that you couldn't use an XLR jack, and that those inanely expensive cameras required you to use their $3 high pickup built-in mic. 71.54.173.193 (talk) 09:08, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Skype Data Consumption

A friend is considering purchasing a new laptop mainly for the purpose of communicating with friends overseas using Skype. The model in mind comes packaged with a 3G connection (Huawei E220, SIM Card Based, operating on the local mobile network) which is capped at 500mb per month. Question 1: Is a 3G connection suitable for Skype ... despite its high speeds would latency on the mobile network not degrade the Skype experience ? Question 2: How much data on average say per minute does Skype consume when making calls and will the 500mb cap be sufficient (answer obviously dependent on how long they actually talk for) ? Does it also consume data when not making calls due to its peer-to-peer model ? What other VOIP software would be better ? Thanks in advance !--41.16.218.139 (talk) 05:24, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

1) Latency on 3g networks varies a lot, from 100ms to 800+. Some people report 1 second delays in their skype calls, but for other people it works fine. Depends on where you are, I guess.

2) Skype uses 70kbps during a call according to this one guy [3], so 500mb will come out to about 1000 minutes. Although they say that the average is ~20kbps [4], which would be 3x as much. But yeah, skype can also use bandwidth while not actively calling (especially if you become a supernode), so watch out for that.

Maybe someone who actually uses Skype on 3g will know more. Indeterminate (talk) 05:16, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

I've used skype on a 3g connection many, many times, and it almost always works just fine. A tiny bit of latency perhaps, but not much more than you'd get on a wired internet connection. 90.233.134.63 (talk) 02:31, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

While connected to your wired/wireless connection, make a call to a friend or echo123. When in the call, if you hover your mouse over call timer on the pop-out window, a tooltip will appear with call statistics. On the top 'paragraph,' the last line reads:

BW (avg/60 secs): upload =  2 kBps; download = 3 kBps

You can use this number to gauge how much you are using in real time as an average over a minute. Note that this shows the usage in bytes per second rather than bits per second.

Edit: If you do not have a tooltip popup, go to Options -> Advanced -> Connection. Check the box that says "Display technical information during calls" aszymanik speak! 06:18, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Scheduling/alert application in Windows Vista

Resolved

I want an application that will allow me to set up half-hourly reminders/alerts on my computer. Does anyone know of one that is both free and compatible with Windows Vista? 99.245.16.164 (talk) 06:35, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

It may not be what you want, but I remember a site from years ago: http://www.gregorybraun.com/ that had a nice little alarm thing called reminders. I haven't tried it with Vista, and I'm sure if you wait a little longer someone may be able to point you to something better - but I always liked Braun's stuff - small footprint, etc. — Ched ~ ^(yes?)/_© 09:17, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

That's quite good actually, thanks. 99.245.16.164 (talk) 15:02, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

IE8 vs. Chrome

Chrome has the function where if one tab crashes, freezes, or, malfunctions in some other way, it will not crash other tabs, or the whole Window, or other Chromewindows, or tabs in these other or the other Chromewindow(s). In other words, independent events is incorporated into the browser.

Does IE8 have this, or is IE8 like this?68.148.145.190 (talk) 07:43, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

I don't have any refs to back me up on this, but I don't think IE8 does at the moment. I use Chrome, and Firefox (which is also sandboxing some processes, but not to the extent that Chrome does). So ... "No", but that's just "IMHO", "FWIW", "IIRC" stuff. — Ched ~ ^(yes?)/_© 09:20, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Again, I don't have the links, but apparently the newly-released... ehm... release version of IE8 does run tabs in separate processes... but only up to 3 tabs, after which they start sharing again and stop being independent. Microsoft decided people generally didn't use more than 3 tabs, so they "optimised" for this. Rawling4851 09:47, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

It doesn't sound like they're optimizing for 3 or fewer tabs, it sounds more like they're optimizing for more than 3 tabs. I mean, people who have 3 or fewer tabs open will never encounter the limit, so it's not optimizing anything in that case... -- BenRG (talk) 16:30, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Geez, I have 10 tabs open in Firefox right now, and this is typical for me. StuRat (talk) 15:00, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

I have 108 tabs open, all faviconized. Beat that! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 21:03, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Microsoft are engaged in this peculiar "we know how you work and we won't give you more things than we think you need" thing right now. Windows-7 will limit you to three user-tasks running at once in the most basic 'home' edition...why? Well, that's all they think you can get your tiny little heads around. Given a limit of only 3 user-tasks, it makes sense to optimise IE8 to deal with just 3 tasks and get people used to the idea before Windows-7 hits the streets. It's also possible that they are leading up to the IE8 'pro-edition' which allows more tab-threads but costs actual $$$. Who knows? They've gone quite off the rails in the last year or two since the Vista debacle. The worst part of all of this is that it shouldn't be necessary. The need to recover from crashed tabs shouldn't happen because tabs shouldn't crash. The problem is that we have flash plugins with bugs that the browser writers can't fix because it's in the hands of Adobe - who either can't or won't fix it. When the plugin crashes - it takes the browser with it. The obvious thing would be to fix the stupid flash plugin and leave it at that. SteveBaker (talk) 21:15, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

"Gone off the rails" = "gone nuts" ? As for making apps that never crash, it's a nice dream, but I'd also like to see a system that can minimize the damage if a crash occurs, just in case. StuRat (talk) 03:57, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

The concept of "crashing" is nothing but a way of minimizing damage in the first place. What really happens is that the processor encounters a sequence of code bytes that doesn't represent a valid machine instruction, or a read or write to virtual memory that isn't mapped to physical RAM, or a write to memory that's marked as read-only, or an array access that's out of bounds, or something of that sort. The processor doesn't go crazy when that happens, it simply saves information about the problem and jumps to a predefined exception handler. The infamous "this application has performed an illegal operation" box isn't put up by the system, it's put up by the default exception handler in the process itself. An application can replace that with something else. NT allows a lot of versatility in this: you could make a read of unmapped memory return 0 instead of crashing, for example. The problem is that it's generally nearly impossible to figure out the right thing to do. The code that directly caused the problem is often not the code actually at fault. It might have been correctly dereferencing a pointer that was corrupted by some other piece of code much earlier. If you return 0 and pretend nothing happened you could be opening the way to further damage—for example, the user, oblivious to the trouble, could save a corrupted document, destroying the copy on disk. Immediately terminating the application is considered the least-worst default behavior. -- BenRG (talk) 16:30, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

The ideal situation would be if every app (or even every tab on a browser) had it's own chunk of memory allocated, and couldn't possibly write to any other memory. Basically every write to memory request should go through a control program that rejects any attempt to write beyond the allocated zone. In this case, any app that tries to do that could terminate, but there would be no need for it to take down any other applications with it. StuRat (talk) 05:19, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

You appear to be mistaken about Windows 7 Home Basic. According Windows 7 editions it doesn't have the limitation. I suspect you're thinking of Windows 7 Starter. But the Starter editions (both Vista and XP) have always have the limitation and I have never heard the explanation offered that they think it's all that people can manage. Even if this explaination has ever been offered, which I somehow doubt, I think it's quite clear this is not the reason. Starter has always been intended to be a very low cost option offered by Microsoft for developing countries so they limit it very severely (e.g. it only supports one core and I believe for a while something like 512mb RAM altho this may have changed with Windows 7 and IIRC 1024x768 was the resolution limit). Also given the sort of hardware it's intended to run on and the fact that it's still Windows with all the associated overhead, I personally wouldn't recommend trying to run more then 3 tasks anyway :-P Now whether it makes sense to use Starter as opposed to something else is of course an interesting issue but clearly one that is OT. Now the 3 tabs thing is I agree a dumb thing (and Microsoft does tend to do that we know better then you thing a lot) although I would expect it is in fact the case for perhaps 95+% of users. P.S. Ironically even though the 95+% thing was a number I made up as a random guess, Microsoft says exactly the same thing (See Tuesday, July 29, 2008 4:25 PM by AndyZei [MSFT)] Nil Einne (talk) 11:31, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

They probably made it up, too. Nice round numbers like that always raise my suspicions. StuRat (talk) 15:42, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

While I would agree it's easily possible the number is made up (and it's also easily possible it's not, I'm pretty sure Microsoft does a hell of a lot of market research) I don't think it being a 'nice round number' is any indication. Obviously any research would have come up with a better figure, e.g. 3.15% of users use more then 3 tabs but it's normal practice when quoting numbers for a general audience to round them to 'nice round numbers'. That would presuambly why they said 95%+ not 95.00000000000000000% exactly. Nil Einne (talk) 06:27, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

To answer the OP, I would definitely go with Chrome. It's a lot faster than IE. But if I were to choose, I'd get Firefox over Chrome any day since every inch of the browser and websites are customizable. A few off the bat that make me love firefox so much are Ad blocks, speed enhancers, stylish, my list would continue for miles but I'll stop. -- penubag  (talk) 06:15, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

How is that answering the OP? The OP didn't ask whether to choose Chrome or IE nor didn't he/she ask which one is better (unless you count the header but that seems a bit of a stretch given that the post itself was rather clear about what was being asked). And Firefox was never brought up at all. The question simply pertained to whether one feature was available in IE8 which has already been answered more or less and your reply seems a case of needless advocacy that in no way pertains to the question or any discussion that has since started. Nor if you were saying Firefox had this feature, that might be relevant even if not specifically asked but as it stands I'm starting to understand why people are getting annoyed at the advocacy Nil Einne (talk) 11:31, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Where and How should I write this code?

where and how should i write the code in this page: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb760252(VS.85).aspx
I tried it with my VS2008 C# application but i cannot be compiled which compiler, language, libraries or tools do i need? thanks in advance Supersonic8 (talk) 12:42, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

The code that you have linked to is code for a native Windows application, which cannot be run in the .NET Framework. If you are looking for the .NET counterpart of what it does, that's here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.tooltip.aspx . If you still want to compile this code, you need a C or C++ compiler (such as VS2008 for C++, free Express edition available, I think) and the Windows SDK which provides the libraries needed (may be included in the IDE). 84.174.102.84 (talk) 13:11, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

That's C++, using the Win32 API. Visual C++ would work to compile it. Whether you could use those functions from C# I don't know, but it's definitely not worth it. If you have a C# .NET program then look for C# .NET examples. -- BenRG (talk) 13:06, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

"New mail" notifier for IMAP

Hi! I'm looking for a small application, that just connect to my IMAP mail account and print something if there is a new mail. I dont want any mail client or anything that run as a process in background, just check new mail and end. Do you know about something like that? Thanks! Lukipuk (talk) 13:05, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Googling for "IMAP notifier" finds a couple (for Windows), but I've not used them so I can't make recommendations; his is a Linux one (I've not used it either). You might find that "new mail" is a concept that doesn't quite map to IMAP as you might expect - IMAP knows the difference between read and unread mail, but "new" mail is generally "mail that's been received since you last checked", and "since you last checked" is something that a mail client knows about, but that a simple notifier doesn't. 87.114.147.43 (talk) 13:37, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Crysis sandbox2 Sound

How do I add sound from my own computer to the game editor?--81.227.64.85 (talk) 16:07, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Inkjet Printing onto Canvas (Epson Stylus Photo R2880)

I have recently purchased an Epson Stylus Photo R2880 and would like to print photos to canvas-style paper but have found it difficult finding an appropriate style of paper. I plan to print to the canvas then attach it around a wooden frame to achieve a canvas painting style photo. Specifically of course I need to know which paper, if any, will work with the R2880.

Many thanks. Lukerees1983 (talk) 22:39, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Epson.com lists two types of compatible "canvas" paper, both in roll format, 13 inches by 20 feet. --LarryMac | Talk 12:26, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

March 23

Windows EXE's on Mac OS x x86

How can I run .exe's on Mac OS X x86. I downloaded the Mono Project for a .NET framework for Mac OS X. Is it all I need? And what about WINE, it says on some pages on its site that it can be used for Mac OS X, but on the downloads page I can't find the one for Mac OS X. I'd really like some help with this. I'm looking for a free way to do this. --Melab±1 ☎ 01:31, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

The Mono tools will only let you run .exe's that were built with .NET. But for those .exe's, it should work pretty well. According to here: [5] you just have to type "mono myprogram.exe" and if it's a .NET program, it'll run it. I'm not sure how you can find out whether an .exe is .NET compatible or not.

Installing Wine on OS X - [6]. Wine can have trouble with newer software, but if you're really dedicated you can probably get whatever you want to run. Indeterminate (talk) 05:04, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Bump for Wine. Your milage may vary but I've had success several times with this software. aszymanik speak! 06:19, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

See also Darwine. --76.167.241.45 (talk) 08:42, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Anyone else have one of these stupid things?

I got an InCharge for PS3, made by TeknoCreations. Here's a pic. The stupid thing didn't work (I'd place a controller in it, the controller lights would blink once, then stay unlit). I managed to take it back and get a new one several months later. The new one still doesn't work, and the behaviour is similar. Anyone had any success getting this thing working, or should I take this one back and stick to USB cables? --Silvaran (talk) 02:36, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

I have to say that inductively charging lithium batteries in a form-factor that fits inside a standard battery bay sounds like a really 'iffy' idea. I'm not surprised they don't work well. But it's surprising that they'd stay in business if they didn't. SteveBaker (talk) 05:45, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

The induction pack clamps onto the back of the controller. It's hard to see in the pic, but it plugs into the USB port on top of the controller and there's a clamp on the bottom of the controller to keep it attached. The pack fits into the base where it's supposed to charge. --205.174.162.243 (talk) 13:58, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

I've got a pair of induction charged headsets, and it's a bit touchy about where I place the base unit. I *wanted* to place it right on top of my projector, but it kept turning itself off. (Probably an important safety feature.) I've found that I really can't place it near any other electronic device. It's now sitting on top of a cardboard box on top of my projector until I find a small table for it.

I wonder if you're having a similar issue with your PS3 controllers? APL (talk) 16:02, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Maybe... though encasing the whole thing in a faraday cage kind of defeats the convenience of having charge by induction :).--205.174.162.243 (talk) 18:15, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

recovering CD data

So I've got some CDs that were probably not "finished" properly, and I'm attempting to recover any data that might be whole on the CD-Rs. I've come across a program called PhotoRec which claims it can recover data from unfinished CD-Rs, but I'm not having much luck figuring out how it works, or it's just not responsive (it just opens a console and says "Please wait..."), so I'm wondering if there is anything else (free) that I could try. Thanks! 210.254.117.186 (talk) 08:22, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Search for a program called "ISOBuster" - it will probably do it (it will bypass the Window's "please wait" console and go directly to the actual data that is on the CD). There is a free version with some restrictions on its functionality. The program's instructions are very complicated though, and recovering data from a CD that is damaged or only partially readable may take, quite literally, days. Meowy 15:56, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Hidden files aren't shown

Recently I can't unhide my jpg files in the folder. I click "show the hidden files and folders", then ok or apply, but nothing changes. The folder shows that the files are there though. 91.135.251.174 (talk) 10:06, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

"Show hidden files" merely shows the files, It won't "unhide" them. To do that you need to either go into the properties of the file and untick hidden or go into the properties of the folder they're in to force everything to unhide in one go. Hope this helps! ZX81 ^talk 15:05, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

This question isn't clear enough to give a helpful answer. What Operating system are you using? What application are you using to show files and folders. Where are you finding "show the hidden" upon which to click? You say "nothing changes" - What would expect to happen?. How does the folder show they are there? You may mean Windows Xp with Windows explorer and "Tools | Folder options | View". If windows explorer says the file is there, then it is there, otherwise it isn't. Please clarify what you are eeing. -- SGBailey (talk) 15:06, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

I agree it's a little bit unclear, but I can guess from the question that the user is using XP/Vista from the "show hidden files and folders" dialog, and from the fact that xe can see the image files from the preview of the folder contents (i.e. the folder icon includes a little preview of the images in XP/Vista). By "unhide", xe probably means "make visible", i.e. the user knows the files should be there from the previews, but explorer doesn't show any files within the folder. I don't have any answer mind you, other than that the preview might not have been refreshed properly. 210.254.117.186 (talk) 15:33, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Yep, make visible, I'm using Win XP. I don't know whether it's a temporary issue or something actually has happened. Additionally, it takes too long for my antivirus to download at start now, may be the things are connected. Recent scanning revealed no viruses. 91.135.250.125 (talk) 20:00, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Copy a binary file in C/C++

I'm trying to copy a binary file containing random binary characters using a C program to another file. In the process, I want to append some extra data to the file at the beginning and end. Can someone point me in the right direction here, please?--117.196.133.136 (talk) 13:39, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

fopen the input file (with mode "rb") and output file (with mode "wb"), fread big blocks of data from the input and fwrite same to output, and keep freading and fwriting until fread returns 0 (or either function returns an error). Then fwrite the stuff you want to append, and then fclose both files. Dog Day Today (talk) 13:51, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

I end up with just a small part of the original file. Somehow the whole of abc.exe (around 3.25 mb) doesnt get copied. After running this, test.exe is only around 360 bytes. Can you please see if I'm doing something wrong?

FILE *ptr1,*ptr2;;
char c[500];
ptr1=fopen("c:\\abc.exe", "rb");
ptr2=fopen("c:\\test.exe", "wb");
while(fread(c, 500, 1, ptr1)!=0)
 {
  fwrite(c,500,1,ptr2);
 }

--117.196.133.136 (talk) 14:31, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

I don't immediately see what's wrong with your code, other than you're assuming the read will always get 500 bytes (and you don't check errors). Anyway, this works:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

#define BLOCKSIZE 500

int main() {
  FILE*  inFile,
      *  outFile;
  char   data[BLOCKSIZE];
  size_t readsize;

  inFile=fopen("in", "rb");
  if(!inFile){
    perror("opening input file");
    exit(1);
  }

  outFile=fopen("out", "wb");
  if(!outFile){
    perror("opening output file");
    exit(2);
  }
  do {
    readsize=fread(data,1,BLOCKSIZE, inFile);

    if(readsize) {
      fwrite(data,1,readsize, outFile);
      if(ferror(outFile)){   // need this for stuff like media removed or space exhausted
	perror("writing");
	exit(3);
      }
    }
  }
  while(readsize);

  fclose(inFile);
  fclose(outFile);

  return 0;
}

Dog Day Today (talk) 16:32, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Actually, on thinking about it, the above code is wrong - I should be checking ferror after every fread too, as an error (say media-removed, network-down) will cause the thing to emit a truncated out file - instead it should close the output file, unlink it, and then die with an error. Dog Day Today (talk) 16:56, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

... which means the fread section look like:

    readsize=fread(data,1,BLOCKSIZE,inFile);
    if(ferror(inFile)){
      perror("reading");
      fclose(outFile);
      unlink(argv[2]);
      exit(5);
    }

Dog Day Today (talk) 17:52, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

You also need to check the return value of fclose(outFile) because it flushes leftover data from the stdio buffer, and that write may fail. -- BenRG (talk) 23:30, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Yes, good catch. I wonder how, in practice, one could test that? For testing the failed writes above I simply wrote a large file to a smaller volume, and for testing the failed reads I read from a usb stick and yanked it mid way through. Getting just that fclose to fail is a challenge (bar a dynamic-linking shim, which is cheating). Dog Day Today (talk) 13:56, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Keep in mind that unlink() is POSIX, not ISO C. Thus it might not be supported by all operating systems. From the original poster's posts, I assume he/she is using Windows. I don't know whether Windows supports unlink(). It would be safer to use remove(), which is ISO C. Also, if you want to be picky about it, the only ISO standard exit() values are 0, EXIT_SUCCESS and EXIT_FAILURE. 0 is guaranteed to mean success but need not actually be the same as EXIT_SUCCESS. JIP | Talk 20:47, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Making a PDF of a Book

There are a certain number of books I have, of which I would like to scan and make a .pdf of, basically because they are very old books and some are very valuable to me (personally, not monetarily). Now, what I want to do is make a .pdf of these books by scanning, but with each page kept within one file (i.e. as an acrobat file that I can peruse each page without opening another .jpeg). How do I do this? All I can guess about this is that I may need to scan each individual page then try to sew them together as a .pdf. Is there a free software that eliminated the 'sewing' bit?--KageTora (talk) 15:18, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Basically, "is there a free alternative to Acrobat"? I don't think so. If there is, I'd like to know... yandman 17:12, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

There are a number of free programs that can do a bunch of things Acrobat can do (although some do some things, some others, and some things aren't done well by anyone, so there isn't a full replacement for Acrobat). Inkscape will open and edit PDFs (which Acrobat really won't). Ghostscript and ImageMagick will convert things into PDF (and sometimes vice versa). PDFtk will do other stuff like merge and split. Dog Day Today (talk) 17:34, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Use ImageMagick's convert program: convert mouse.jpg cat.jpg dog.jpg output.pdf takes three jpgs and makes a pdf. Dog Day Today (talk) 17:34, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Some scanning software - eg Canon can do this built in, but it has limited editing, so you would have to get the scan correct first up - ie not skipped pages. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 20:39, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

I think the others have basically covered you, but if you'd like to try something a little different, you could: scan each page and save it as a jpg, zip all those jpgs into a standard zip file with a name like goodbook.zip, then rename that file to goodbook.cbz'. That file can be opened with various types of freeware, like Cdisplay. That scenario is typically used for comic books, but works just fine with any kind of jpg. Matt Deres (talk) 19:55, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

I really like "PDFCreator" - it adds a printer to your computer and anything you print to that "printer" will be saved as a PDF. Very handy for quick and dirty PDF creation. ---J.S (T/C/WRE) 16:11, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

Why are console games more expensive?

The specs are identical. The hardware is (almost) completely identical and the functionality is certainly the same. You've got NONE of the configuration issues that you have with PCs. It must SURELY be simpler to develop for a fixed/known hardware platform like a console than the chip/motherboard/graphics card/memory/Windows zoo that is your "average" PC. And yet console games are about double the price of PC games. Why? (enter SteveBaker, stage left...) Zunaid 15:54, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm no SteveBaker, but I would guess licensing fees, development costs and price agreements. Anyone can release their own computer software, but an "official" PS3 game requires approval from Sony, including expensive development kits, a per-disc licensing fee and possibly even requiring a minimum price. Here's a discussion on the topic. Also, at least a few sources think console game prices might decrease in the near future. – 74  16:23, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

And another answer is simply, "because people will pay those prices". --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 16:40, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

No - that's absolutely not the reason. ("Trust me - I'm a game developer") SteveBaker (talk) 00:10, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

That is, in fact, the only and complete answer. There is virtually no unit production cost (you burn a CD/DVD, print a label, put it all in a case and transport it, that's all - for the numbers they are producing that probably comes to a few cents per unit), so they determine the price simply by working out the demand/price curve (they have lots of data from previous games, so they should be able to do that pretty well) and pick the price that maximises revenue. The cost of development only determines whether it is profitable to make a game or not, it doesn't determine the price. (I'm grouping the whole games industry into a single entity here, which isn't entirely realistic - there may be per unit licensing costs for the games producer to the console producer, but that's all just money moving within the industry so doesn't make much difference to those of us on the outside.) --Tango (talk) 19:30, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

That's not true though - we have to pay Microsoft or Sony or Nintendo for every copy we sell. Then there is the profit margin for the store that sells it to you. Those are both per-unit costs - and they probably add up to more than half of the shelf price. But the other thing you're missing is that making the game is outrageously expensive. Consider the last game I worked on - we had something like 60 artists, a dozen level designers, a dozen programmers, story writers, motion-capture performers, voice artists, a handful of musicians and audio guys, translators, managers, human resources...about 100 US workers in all, then add another 100 to 200 people 'outsourced' in places like Mexico, India, Singapore churning out 3D models by the bucket load. Our game took three years to build - and for much of that time, it cost a million dollars a month to develop - perhaps $36 million. We had to sell about 5 million units just to break even (that's actually a LOT - sure the GTA VI's and the Halo III's sell in the hundreds of millions - but most games count themselves lucky to hit 2 or 3 million. We also have to pay millions to advertise the damned thing. Then - it's a fact of life - but only about one game in three ever makes it to the store shelves and only about one in thirty actually turns a profit at these supposedly "inflated" prices. I agree 100% that the cost of making the DVD is about 50 cents - and the packaging about the same - so about a dollar is the cost of the media. But even when amortized over millions and millions of copies - development costs in the hundreds of millions are not trivial! Think instead of the movie business. It costs hundreds of millions to make a movie - but the cost of shining a light through the film onto the screen pretty much pays for itself from the money you spend on a soda and a medium popcorn. Why aren't movies free? Same deal. SteveBaker (talk) 00:10, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Yep, and in addition to the lower costs of developing for a nearly uniform platform (in practice it's not quite fixed, as modern consoles have varying firmware and very occasionally hardware revisions are material) that gives then a similarly simpler support burden. And the piracy rate for console games is much lower. Dog Day Today (talk) 17:14, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

For the same reasons as Nespresso capsules, ink cartridges etc. It's a business model made possible by complete vertical integration. I'm guessing that Sony et al. make relatively small margins on consoles, knowing that this will seduce users ("Consoles are so much cheaper than PCs", "The printer came free when I bought the computer", "It costs far less than a real espresso machine"). As they have complete control over the "ecosystem" (something that is not the case for PCs), they can make their profits by taking their cut on every game/capsule/cartridge you buy instead of having to make it all in one go. Console games are as "overpriced" as the consoles themselves are "underpriced". It's just a different way of making money (more adapted to kids, with their regular weekly income and aversion to saving). yandman 17:29, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

I think, in addition to the above, it's something to do with copy protection. PC game makers, although some of them still try, have mostly accepted that that is going to be a crack and pirate copy on the net. A PS3 game, on the other hand, is almost impossible to copy - therefore they can charge more, knowing people are forced to buy these games. PS3 games are so overpriced that rentals are becoming popular (where I live at least). Also, the average person that buys a "TV Game" (as they fondly call it) knows a lot less than the average PC enthusiast, and would have no idea how to copy an xbox or PS2 game anyway. This person would see no alternative but to buy games. The price of games is a shame, as I know kids who have to save for months to buy their favourite game. Sandman30s (talk) 19:59, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

The dirty truth is this. When you buy a PC, you pay what it costs to make - plus some profit for the manufacturer. When you buy an Xbox or a Playstation, you're buying approximately the same 'stuff' - but you're paying a LOT less for it. An Xbox essentially IS a PC - the original Xbox particularly.

In fact, consoles are so cheap that you're almost certainly paying less money than it costs to make the thing! Both Sony and Microsoft lose money every time someone buys one of their consoles! They make their money back (in theory, at least) by charging the game manufacturers (or their own game manufacturing groups) a certain amount of money for the privilage of making games - and a certain amount for every game they sell. Hence, so long as everyone who buys a console buys a statistically reasonable number of games, the console manufacturer makes a profit. However, in PC land, there are hundreds of manufacturers and anyone can write software for any of them. The manufacturers make their profits by selling their hardware at a profit. Hence there are zero licensing fees for game manufacturers - and generally, they pass those savings on to the consumer. There are some other issues at play - but that is far and away the largest. Of course there are exceptions - Nintendo makes a small, but significant, profit on the Wii console (despite being sold so cheaply - it has no hard drive, very much less memory and a smaller, cheaper CPU+Graphics system). However, Nintendo are still able to charge people for the privilage of making and selling Wii games - so they make profit both ways! There are other small savings for the PC game makers - one is that when you make a game for Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo, you have to pass fairly strict quality guidelines and they may also require that certain advertising rules are met. If you write for the PC, you can push out any old crap and get away with it.

One interesting side-effect of that is the perpetual shortage of new machines when they first come out. Remember those L-O-N-G lines to buy the new Xbox? You might ask yourself: If their big market is just before Xmas - why on earth don't they make enough machines for everyone? Well - here's the reason...because they lose money on every machine they sell - the more they sell over Xmas - the more money they lose! They can't make the money back from game sales because there aren't enough games on the market yet. The game's manufacturers don't want to put out a new game on a new console because there aren't enough of them out there yet to justify the development cost. So you have this giant "chicken and egg" situation. The console manufacturers only want to sell just enough machines to pursuade the game developers to make games for it...only when they've got some money back from game sales can they afford to put more machines out there. So as game revenue comes in - they can afford to lose more money by selling new machines to boost game sales and allow them to make more machines! The whole market isn't driven by making huge numbers of machines to turn a massive profit - it's about rationing machines so that only the most fanatical game players buy them...the ones who will buy the most games. The last thing they want (and one of the big problems with the PS-3 launch) is people buying the machines just to surf the web.

This pricing model is a bit odd - but it's becoming more commonplace - when you buy a printer, you're paying quite a bit less than it costs to make - and the manufacturer hopes to make money by charging through the nose for ink. We get cellphones for much less than cost - providing we sign up to use them for a couple of years on just one network. It's a rather nasty practice IMHO. I'd rather pay what things cost. The idea is that they make something look amazingly cheap - so you rush out and buy it - without a thought for how much it's going to cost you in ink/minutes/games over the life of the machine. But if you are that rare individual who buys a console and only one game - or a printer and prints so rarely that they never need another ink cartridge - then you're onto a good deal. The downside (IMHO) for the games business is that it effectively rewards the person who hardly ever buys a new game - at the price of ripping off your core demographic - the person who buys 20 or more games over the life of the console.

So - how long will it be before you can buy a car at half price if you can only run it on gasoline from one manufacturer at $10 per gallon? I think it would happen if they could figure out a way to stop you putting regular gas into it instead.

SteveBaker (talk) 23:49, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

I would point out the mobile thing is far less common in many countries in the Asia Pacific region where prepay is common and locked phones often unheard of. Nil Einne (talk) 10:50, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

Priority over wifi network

Hi, I regularly have to download large files over a wifi network for work. Every time I'm downloading, and even when I limit the rate, it blocks access to the internet for the computer that is plugged directly into the router. Is there any way to give it priority so that its internet access is not affected? Thank you 190.17.201.142 (talk) 17:21, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

It shouldn't be able to block access completely...the ethernet just doesn't work like that. I wonder whether your router is limiting the number of simultaneous connections - or the number of DHCP addresses it hands out? SteveBaker (talk) 23:12, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

The feature you're looking for is called Quality of Service (QoS). Some consumer routers support basic QoS settings; others can be upgraded with third-party firmware (like dd-wrt) to add QoS. You can simply increase the "priority" of the second computer to prevent starvation. – 74  01:48, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

I'll have a good look into it, thank you very much. 190.17.201.142 (talk) 02:46, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

This link from the article seems to say that the only place where QoS can be applied in an ethernet/wifi configuration is in the upload part. Anyone know how to give download priority to the ethernet connection? Thank you. 190.17.201.142 (talk) 02:58, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

You can't control your ISP's routers, but if your router is prioritizing certain connections and dropping other low-priority packets then the low-priority connection will effectively be throttled. This is necessarily a reactive, not a proactive, strategy, mostly useless for low-latency applications (like internet telephony) but perhaps acceptable for your specific application. You might also read Bandwidth throttling; if you directly throttle your download speed on your first computer (by using a download manager, for instance) then the second computer should have no problem accessing the internet. – 74  03:55, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Be sure and check out DD-WRT's supported devices before flashing it to your device. Some newer Linksys routers require a stripped-down "mini" version, due to memory constraints. They do still make a special version called the WRT54GL which works well for custom firmware, though. ←Spidern→ 13:11, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

WEP Key

Alright, can somebody please tell me (in simple English, please ;D) how to find my WEP Key? 86.41.90.174 (talk) 17:36, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

If it's your WEP key, there's usually a sticker on the underside of your ADSL box. And if there isn't, just plug in an ethernet cable and access the config page. yandman 17:49, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

If it's not your WEP key look up Backtrack 3, it contains lots of tools for getting keys —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 18:08, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

yandman is right that the default wep key is often pasted to the newer routers. However, if you want to make sure that it is still the actual key being used, or if you're looking at an older box - you can login to the router (192.168.1.1 is common but not absolute). Depending on the brand and model, the config page you'll want to look at is the wireless settings, and perhaps a security sub-tab to find the current WEP encryption key. — Ched ~ ^(yes?)/_© 21:09, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

With many wireless boxes (but not all) you can connect your computer up using an ethernet cable (it WON'T work via wireless) - and point your browser at http://192.168.1.1 - this is usually a tiny little 'mini-website' that's running from inside your router/wireless box (this somehow never ceases to amaze me!). If it demands a password to log into it - and if you don't know that password either then you'll have to do a 'master reset' on the box - which will probably set it back to factory defaults. Don't do that unless you are reasonably confident that you know enough about setting up such things. Anyway - you need to find the reset button on the box (it's usually in a little round hole underneath somewhere and needs to be pressed in with the tip of a ballpoint pen or something - and perhaps held in for 10 seconds or something). That should allow it to come up without a password - and probably resets the WEP password too. Either way - you can now get into the box - and you should find a whole bunch of menu options on the web page. One of these will let you set up the admin password (I strongly advise you to do that) - another lets you set the name of the router, the encryption scheme you want and the WEP passkey (assuming you decide to opt for WEP as your encryption scheme). Be sure to write these things down and put them somewhere secure so you can find them next time! (And sticking them on the underside of the box isn't really a security risk since anyone who can get at the underside of the box can reset it just like you just did). Running the box with the default encryption key is probably a bad idea anyway. SteveBaker (talk) 23:10, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Just a quick note : The password might be a blank password. I mean that leaving the password box completely blank might actually work. Some routers default to that. (Possibly with "admin" as the log-in name.) APL (talk) 13:39, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Am I misparsing you, or are you claiming it's impossible to log into a router via wireless? I can certainly log into my Netgear WGR614v9 router without a wired connection. Algebraist 23:04, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

There is no reason why it would be impossible, but it is disabled (or only optionally enabled) on some routers as a "security feature". Similarly, configuring the router from the WAN uplink is usually disabled. Considering many owners don't bother to change from the default password (if they even access the router at all), I'd have to say that it's a reasonable precaution. – 74  02:23, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Well, you CAN enable 'wireless admin' but I strongly advise against it. It only takes for someone within radio range to do a successful dictionary attack against the password and you're doomed. SteveBaker (talk) 03:50, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Right, because once they've cracked your ultra-secure router configuration they can… use your internet connection? Reconfigure your router to reject your connections, forcing a reset? Eavesdrop on "private" wireless communications? The thing is, to be able to access the configuration page they would have had to crack your wireless encryption key, which means they already have access to your internet, your private network, and your wireless communications. "Doomed" would seem to be a bit of an overstatement here. – 74  04:15, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

One thing they could do is change the default DNS server to one they control. That opens up various MITM attacks which they can conduct at their leisure from a remote location. -- BenRG (talk) 16:35, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Fair enough, but that's going to a lot of trouble to capture the internet accounts of someone who uses dictionary passwords. Quite frankly, if someone is truly paranoid about their network security then they should disable wireless access entirely, not just wireless configuration. Meanwhile, everyone who doesn't believe the world is out to get them would be better served by using a strong router password than disabling wireless configuration. (It is, however, best to disable wireless configuration if you know you aren't going to use it.) – 74  23:45, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Online services request email password

I signed up for Facebook, and am unhappy to see that the service repeatedly asks for my email password. Access to my email would grant access to any passwords emailed to me by other online services. The excuse that they want to search my email to see who I might wish to befriend seems pretty flaky. Has there been any discussion of this as a possible identity theft or password stealing ploy? I have never seen any reputable online service ask for my password for any other service. Edison (talk) 19:21, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

There is absolutely no reason for Facebook to require your email password. Either you are misunderstanding them or it isn't Facebook that is asking. It is probably a phishing scam. --Tango (talk) 19:23, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Facebook does have a 'find friends' feature which works as you have described. I've never used it and (as far as I can recall) Facebook has never spontaneously suggested it to me. If Facebook keeps asking you to use this feature, then you should report this as a problem. Algebraist 19:25, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

It does? Well, there you go. I have always resisted signing up to Facebook (I must, by now, but the only student in the world that doesn't have a Facebook account) - I've never liked the idea. Sites that help you communicate with people you rarely see in real life are one thing, but most people use Facebook to communicate with people they see in lectures several times a day. The only useful feature is events invites, and my friends have long since got used to the fact that whenever they send out a Facebook invite they have to let me know separately (and they've long since given up complaining about it, too!). --Tango (talk) 19:34, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

It becomes more useful when you are out of school—it lets you find folks you went to school with but have since parted ways with. --140.247.240.243 (talk) 20:21, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Quite a few of them do it - Twitter's another. Google even provides an API for accessing contacts data. They're not demanding it, and you can sign up without providing it. Facebook also lets you upload contacts as a CSV file if you want to find your contacts but don't want to supply your email login details. (But yes, in general it's sensible not to use login details from one service on another. A password management program like KeePass may be a better idea than keeping passwords in your email inbox, though) — Matt Eason ^{(Talk • Contribs)} 19:36, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Google's approach is much better—the API allows you to grant access to your contacts data without giving access to your e-mail or your password. Whether you want a site trawling through your contacts is another question entirely than whether you should have to give them access to your entire e-mail account to do so. --140.247.240.243 (talk) 20:20, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

It's really really really irritating that sites do this. Just say no. For those who don't know about this, here is a nice blog entry on the practice, which lots of sites now utilize. --140.247.240.243 (talk) 20:18, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

It's silly to assume that I would want an online service to issue a "personal invitation" in my behalf to everyone I have ever emailed to join that service. Much better for an individual to issue invitations to those few individuals who might remotely be considered "friends." Edison (talk) 03:14, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Agreed 100% but remember that their primary demographic are students who aren't using e-mail for, say, professional life. Obviously if one's e-mail is part of a formal professional network you don't want to invite everyone to be your "friend", but if you're in high school... --98.217.14.211 (talk) 13:18, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

The occasionally interesting blog "Coding Horror" did a post on the topic a while back, here.

To me it feels like a dangerous practice. System administrators spend a lot of effort trying to educate users that it's never OK to give your password out, and that no one but yourself has a legitimate need for it. And then this comes along and confuses people. Worse, think of how many passwords must be stored, in cleartext, in the databases of these social networking sites!

It's a stupid solution to a problem, but people will accept it until it causes a disaster or two. APL (talk) 13:37, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Be careful when anybody asks you for your password, especially by email. It's possible that it is a phishing scam which was brought on by a virus or malware that is running on your computer. Do a virus check (see AVG Antivirus) and a malware check (try Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, they have a free version) to ensure that your system is clean. ←Spidern→ 13:06, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

DVD audio selection

My TV has a 2.1 speaker system (right speaker, left speaker, and subwoofer). Most DVDs have the choices for 2.0 or 5.1 audio. Which would be best for a 2.1 speaker system ? What happens if I choose 2.0, do I get nothing sent to the subwoofer ? What happens if I choose 5.1, do I get 3 of the speaker channels just dropped ? If so, which 3 ? StuRat (talk) 20:34, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

I believe that 2.1 audio only contains two channels (stereo); the subwoofer merely produces the low-frequency content of these channels, i.e. the tones the two normal speakers cannot produce. Thus, a 2.1 speaker system is designed to work with stereo (2-channel) audio, i.e. 2.0. If you choose 5.1, I guess (but I do not know) that the channels merge to stereo. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 20:44, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Btw, have you read Surround sound? --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 20:50, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

That just made things more confusing, since there are apparently 4 different types of 5.1 audio, and I have no idea which the DVDs use. StuRat (talk) 21:32, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Yes, I see now that the article might not be the right one for you. Nevertheless, the answers to your questions, I believe, are

1. The low-frequency content in the two stereo channels will be produced by the subwoofer. Probably your 2.1 speaker system is designed to work with 2-channel (stereo) audio sources, automatically sending the low-frequency content to the subwoofer.

Of course it would be possible to have three distinct channels for left, right and subwoofer, but I think this is very uncommon.

1. If you try to play multichannel (e.g. 5.1) audio on your 2.1 speaker system, the most reasonable thing to happen is that the five audio channels merge to only two channels: your left and right channels. For instance the right stereo waveform will probably be a linear combination (perhaps with coefficients ~1/3, ~1/3, ~1/3) of the center and the two right channels in the 5.1 arrangement, and the corresponding is true about the left stereo waveform. Consequently, no audio information (no channel) is really "lost"; no channels are "dropped" or ignored. This is the reasonable way of playing 5.1 audio on a 2.1 system – how your system is implemented, I do not know, though. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 22:35, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, it sounds like the 2.0 is the best choice, then. StuRat (talk) 23:33, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm not sure all the advice here is 100% accurate. I always thought 5.1 meant six discrete channels, and each channel is encoded separately on a DVD using 5.1 AC3 encoding. Look at the article Dolby Digital - this says that if you choose 5.1 on your DVD player, it should use downmixing (or downsampling) to transfer the relevant channels to your 2.1 system. Therefore, 2.0 is not the best choice for a DVD as you will miss out the LFE (subwoofer) sound from the ".1" channel. Sure, if you played an audio cd and chose surround sound, you would get upmixing or upsampling to get the full range of sound on all your speakers. So, I think 5.1 is the best choice as most DVD players support downmixing. Sandman30s (talk) 22:01, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

I do not see where I have been mistaken. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 23:00, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

...although I did not mention (or even think about) the fact that the possible LFE channel in 5.1 may be used in the downsampling to 2.1, to give a slightly different (and, hopefully, more appropriate) subwoofer signal than what would be the result of automatic extraction from a pure stereo signal. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 23:06, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

OK, then I'm back to picking 5.1. I wish they had a test sample (with subwoofer and all other channels played sequentially), so I could easily determine which is best. StuRat (talk) 14:44, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Computer soundcards normally come with a utility that tests each channel. This would mean connecting your computer to the audio-in of your DVD player (or amp) though - not sure how comfy you are with that. Sandman30s (talk) 12:06, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Assembler syntax

I have a ARM/Linux hello world:

.global _start
_start:
mov r0, #0
@ no '#' next line?
adr r1, msg
mov r2, #msglen
mov r7, #4
swi #0
mov r0, #0
mov r7, #1
swi #0

msg:
.ascii "hello arm\n"
msglen = . - msg

Why is there no '#' in front of msg on the "adr r1, msg" line? I think it has something to do with the label being "derefenced", but I can't find any instruction that wouldn't cause a syntax error both with and without a #, not that I had tried very hard. So, a) is something similar common in other architectures and b) is there some general rule for when a # should be used? I'm using gnu assembler. --194.197.235.58 (talk) 21:10, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

If in doubt - write the same thing in C and compile it with the '-S' flag ("Stop after compilation - do not assemble") - and look for a '.s' file containing assembler source. SteveBaker (talk) 22:53, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

In ARM assembly language, the # denotes an immediate operand, i.e., a fixed value that is actually stored with the encoded instruction. The numbers 0, 1, 4, and even msglen (which the assembler will calculate to be 10) are fixed values that can be stored with the instruction. In contrast, msg refers to a location in memory which is not fixed at the time the program is assembled. Each time the program is run, it might be loaded into a different location in memory, so the address of msg would change. -- Tcncv (talk) 01:12, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

adr is a pseudo-instruction or macro. It can map to a variety of instructions and possibly an out of line literal but always means get the address of the operand into the register. The mov instruction on the other hand has a variety of different possible operands, # would mean the operand is a literal rather than a register. so 'mov 1,2' means load the contents of register 2 into register 1 whereas 'mov 1,#2' means load the literal value 2 into register 1. Dmcq (talk) 08:38, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Translation

If I have a list of words in English, is there a way I can translate them in one go. I have them on excel and in html format. The language I wish to use is Polish but even as a general enquiry about other languages. 90.202.109.206 (talk) 21:24, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Have you noticed Google Translate? It might not translate all of them with one go if there are many. --194.197.235.58 (talk) 21:43, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Just a general note: you probably shouldn't rely on machine translation for anything important. Its reliability is kind of iffy at best, and can have misleading or embarrassing results. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 22:50, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

But the advantage a human translator has is in being able to use the context to provide a custom translation. When you are just given a list of words, there is no context, so a human translation may be just as bad as a machine translation, in this case. StuRat (talk) 23:30, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Well, I've done a lot of translation work (some of which has included cleaning up confusing messes made by machine translation), and the problem here is that there tends to be a lot more ambiguity between words than people think. You're right in that context is everything, but unless the list is a list of truly random words, there's probably more context there than you might think. If you've got a list of video game-related words, to pick a random example, and one of the words is "controller", that's context right there, but what the automatic translation spits out probably won't be the correct Polish translation for that, but another translation for the word. Also, when you have a list of words, in my experience a lot of the time that won't be a list of single words. It may include things like, oh, "action game" or "power-up" or things in that vein, which is likely to confuse the translator program even further, and it'll spit out one word for "action" and another for "game", but the end result may not be even remotely comprehensible. A practical example: "game", in English, refers to both a game (as in video game) and something kids do outside, but in Finnish the word is not interchangeable -- the former is "peli" and the latter is "leikki". For all I know, Polish has a similar situation. I'm not saying that you can't produce something reasonably understandable with machine translation, but you shouldn't rely on it to be accurate, and to a native speaker, it's probably going to be painfully obvious that you don't know what you're doing. If that's not a concern for some reason, then what the hell, it's a quick and easy fix, but no one should rely on it in a professional or academic context unless you're prepared to take the credibility hit. I guess the underlying moral here is that if you don't know the language and still translate it without any input from someone who does, the end result is likely to be bad. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 09:08, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm Polish and a translator. I could have a look at your list if you want. Is the word list long? --Ouro (blah blah) 08:20, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for th offer but the list is very long. I was hoping to translate it all in one go. As for context, my girlfriend is Polish and is currently studying for exams but she will be able to check my translations anyway, manual or computerised. I thought a quick method would be better. I guess its not possible but I'm getting through it. Thanks 90.197.204.133 (talk) 10:31, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Directory after remaming a user

File:Directory after remaming user.png

I renamed my account (Kevin Duke -> Kevin) but none of the directories are changing. How can I fix this? (screen shot to right) -- penubag  (talk) 22:34, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm afraid there's not really a perfect solution here as the directory/registry entries are only created at the point the user account is first logged on and it's never updated. Basically it involves renaming the account back, creating a new profile of Kevin, logging it on once (to create the correct directory) and then copying the Kevin Duke profile on top (using the Control Panel|System|User Profiles function to do this, not just copying the files in Explorer). Technically you could do a lot of registry editing (both both current user and local computer so the location changes and the directories still work) and just rename the directory on the disk but I've personally never tried that and it might make things really bad. Either way it's very messy and I'd totally advise against it as not all settings will migrate correctly and could cause you serious login problems if it goes wrong. To make it even more complicated you'll need a 3rd account to do the copying as you can't copy to/from a profile if you're logged into either account and likewise you'll need to reboot first to completely "unlock" an account to allow you to copy it. I know you renamed your account because of your earlier problem on here, but I would recommend simply renaming the user account back and creating the Kevin account (with the same password as on your other machine) and simply not using it as a login account (this was actually what I posted in the thread). You only needed to create the account so it would exist/authenticate again, you don't actually need to log in with in on the machine itself although with hindsight if you have the XP friendly logon screen showing you probably don't want the other account showing, but there is a way round that/hide accounts if needed. Sorry for any confusion caused. ZX81 ^talk 16:51, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Thank you, I will try this tomorrow. -- penubag  (talk) 05:17, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

I believe MS's TweakUI can do this in XP (Change system / My Document folders), but have not tried in vista yet, but its worth a shot. PrinzPH (talk) 17:39, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

March 24

Network Adaptor

I am trying to add a computer to a wireless network that has been set up, when when it looks for a list of wireless networks, it says that 'No network card' has been detected. Yet when i look in device manager under network devices it says there is a realtek network adaptor that is working properly. I have tried to uninstall the network device and restart the computer, but that hasnt made any difference. I really cant figure why it cant detect it, but i reckon it is something extremely obvious that i have completely overlooked! It is on windows Vista.

Thanks in advance. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.168.87.199 (talk) 01:15, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Are you sure the realtek network adaptor is not a wired LAN device? --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 05:50, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Check Start/Setting/Network Connections. Is the device listed under "Device Name" & what does it say? What is its Status column (if disabled, click Name column, right click, select Enable). Also in the device manager, can you find a dialog that says "Device status: This device is working properly" and "Device usage: Use this device (enable)". 88.112.62.225 (talk) 06:21, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

It is a Realtek RTL8169/8118 Family PCI GBE NIC, which i am sure is a wireless network adaptor. Under the Network Devices it says it is enabled, but the 'Network Cable is unplugged', and when i try to diagnose it says please plug in a network cable. 86.129.215.180 (talk) 17:13, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Umm... everywhere on the Internet says that that is not a wireless network card. So I don't know where you are getting this idea from. --76.167.241.45 (talk) 19:25, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Oh, it isn't —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.129.215.180 (talk) 21:43, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Is it a laptop? I spent a good hour trying to get my sister's laptop to connect to a wireless network only to finally find there was a teeeny-tiny switch on the front of the laptop (where no other buttons/ports are) which turned the wireless-card on/off. I would have happily thrown the thing out of the window at that point - what kind of insane company puts an on/off switch on the outside of a computer for wireless?! Grrr makes me mad just thinking about it! (p.s. I know it's pretty common but up until then all laptops i'd used were Macs which have the on/off capability in an icon on the menu-bar...in the OS). 194.221.133.226 (talk) 10:42, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

It is a desktop computer 86.129.215.180 (talk) 17:13, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Freeware software alerts

How can i get freeware software alerts —Preceding unsigned comment added by RevathiCh (talk • contribs) 11:02, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

I don't understand your question (what is a "freeware software alert"?), but I added a heading for it so it'll stand out properly. I bet you're going to get better answers if you explain what you mean. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 13:05, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

It sounds to me like they want to be notified whenever any new free software becomes available. I suspect that they'd need to limit the search to a few specific areas, or else they'd get notices of hundreds of free games each day. StuRat (talk) 14:55, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Yes, something like that you're better just signing up with download.com or majorgeeks.com or whoever your favorite d/l site is: Sign up for the email newsletter on a couple, that should keep you busy with the new stuff fairly well. — Ched ~ ^(yes?)/_© 16:51, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Hourly check for updates on Ubuntu

Resolved

Does anyone know if it is possible to change some configuration file, to allow Ubuntu to check for updates every hour? I know you might think it is a bit overkill, but I really like a secure system... SF007 (talk) 16:02, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

This wee script would update your system

 #!/bin/sh
 apt-get update
 apt-get update

and you could then schedule it using cron or some front-end to it (e.g. gnome-schedule). Hope this helps, 80.192.24.24 (talk) 22:30, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm not 100% sure, but it seems that /etc/cron.{daily,weekly,whatever}/apt does the actual update fetching and the graphical update notifier is only reading the results. So you should be checking for updates hourly if you arrange the /etc/cron.foo/apt to run hourly. (apt-get update should be enough but probably the cron script deals better with some special cases) --194.197.235.58 (talk) 22:28, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Personally I'd just save the script 80.192 mentioned (i.e. /usr/bin/updsys.sh), type chmod +x /usr/bin/updsys.sh, and then type crontab -e to access the cron settings. Add this line to the bottom:

0 * * * * /usr/bin/updsys.sh

←Spidern→ 13:02, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

How could I be so dumb? Of course, I can simply use "sudo apt-get update" in a scheduled way. Thanks, I might try it some day. Thanks to all SF007 (talk) 01:31, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Oprea tabs

When I open a local html or mht film in Opera web browser, it opens the file in a new tab. How can I set Opera to always open new files in the current tab, or even better turn tab browsing off temporally? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 18:26, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

You can disable tabs by checking "Tools → Preferences… → Tabs → Additional tab options… → Open windows instead of tabs", but I don't know if that will do what you want. Opera doesn't appear to have any options for handling externally-opened files, doesn't support advanced Dynamic Data Exchange options, and doesn't appear to have any command-line options that would help here (except possibly kiosk mode, which most likely isn't what you want). I'd say Opera probably isn't the right tool for this particular job. – 74  02:37, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

MS Word tables

I have a dozen or so MS Word documents, which heavily rely on tables. Unfortunately, the creator of those documents did not know about the tables feature being available in Word, so he created bunches upon bunches upon bunches of pseudo-tables, utilizing fixed fonts and extended ASCII characters 179-218 (such as ├─). Does anybody know of an easy way to convert these into proper tables?—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 20:03, March 24, 2009 (UTC)

Copy/paste into Excel may work, with a bit of stripping out of duff characters. If you're lucky they've used a consistent character for every 'column separator' - if that's the case maybe a find/replace with a comma would help - then you can copy/paste all the rows into excel and do a data-conversion from CSV (comma separated values). Those are your best bets i'd say - it depends on how complex the tables are though. ny156uk (talk) 20:21, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Oh wow, what a pain! I was hoping for maybe a macro or whatnot—surely this problem was pretty common in the 1990s, with all those documents converted into Word from various other text formats which did not support any tables other than ASCII?

The solution above works when one just needs to produce a Word table (I've just tried it), but my needs, unfortunately, go beyond that. See, I have this exact same set of documents from years later, and those use proper Word tables. What I need to do is to document the differences between the old documents and the newer ones, and the "compare document" feature in Word would not properly compare ASCII-based tables and normal tables (I need to see the changes line-by-line, and I very much want to avoid doing it manually!). Converting an ASCII table via Excel is too time-consuming for that (there are just too many little extra tweaks that need to be done in the process). If anyone knows a better solution, please, please, please, let me know; it will be greatly appreciated!—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 20:49, March 24, 2009 (UTC)

I feel your pain. It depends on the level of messiness. I would first use search/replace to strip all ASCII funnies, then output the entire mess into an editor like UltraEdit which has column editing and a macro feature that actually works (it also has a nice compare utility). If then I achieve anything readable, I would write a little Delphi app to output that into a comma-delimited file that can be imported into Excel and then pasted into Word tables. Sandman30s (talk) 21:50, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Hire an intern? – 74  02:39, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Actually there are a lot of ways to handle this situation, depending on the level of inanity the person used when making the tables. The first question is, how consistent is everything? Is there a consistent delimiting character for all the columns, and then a different delimiting character (perhaps even a carriage return) for the different rows? If that's the case then text to table feature in excel should handle them pretty easily. If not, then maybe something more complex like sed in *nix would work well. Even without getting into linux, complicated "replace all" approaches in word can handle a lot of scenarios. Provide more information and maybe I'd have some sed ideas about how to handle it. Shadowjams (talk) 04:13, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

So long as the tables are pretty normal with just one line of text in each cell and without too many merged cells, I think this could all be done in Word with a series of find & replace operations like this:

• Replace all line junctions with "+"
• Replace all horizontal line segments with "-"
• Replace all vertical line segments with "\t" (the search & replace special character for <tab>)

Then use Word's "convert text to table" function with <tab> as the column separator. You can then delete any rows with only "+" and "-" in them and eliminate any empty columns. It might be helpful to print out the document first to use as a guide to see when you have it about right.

Astronaut (talk) 11:39, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Thank you all, folks, who pitched with recommendations. Unfortunately, every single one proved to be too time-consuming, so I went the other way. Instead of converting ASCII tables to Word tables I simply converted the Word tables from the newer documents to plain text (Table→Convert→Table to Text...). After that it becomes possible to compare the old and the new versions using the "compare and merge documents" feature. Granted, it still shows a lot of cruft (extra spaces, ASCII pseudo-border symbols, etc.), but the changes to the actual content are still easy to spot...—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 19:08, March 26, 2009 (UTC)

March 25

Game Maker Help

Moved from Miscellaneous

Using Game Maker, How do i make the screen follow a powered up, or down, version of my player? I am trying to make a Mario-like game, so when the player gets hit by one of the enemies he shrinks, and i found out how, but the screen stands still when i move the shrunk player around. Also, how do you make power ups, like the fire shooter in mario, and what should i do Path-wise for the fireball? Thank you.DruhDrizzle (talk) 19:31, 24 March 2009 (UTC)82.45.1.217 (talk) 20:41, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

You would be alot better off asking on the Game Maker Comunity forums: Gmc.yoyogames.com Although you will need to register yourself a free account, they have thousands of members just buzzing to raise their post counts by debating every aspect of your problem. good luck82.45.1.217 (talk) 20:41, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

DVD drive woes

Well..to make a long story short..all my hard drives stopped functioning i was about to pay for them to get recovered when someone on the reference desk suggested it was the PSU. Installed a new PSU now alll but one of the drives are fine (dead due to other reasons).

The dead drive had windows, so i had to reinstall onto another drive. I consider myself pretty decent with computers and every time ive reformatted same process..install windows..pop in motherboard driver cd..install drivers.

I can see the DVD drive in hardware devices and my computer but as soon as i pop in a CD it doesnt change..like the icon..and when i do click it every single time explorer crashes. I've been running a linux live CD off the drive for a week off and on..so i know its not the actual drive hardware. (usually the drivers make everything work..but the drivers are on the cd..which i cant read..)

I tried installing firmware..to no avail.

Any ideas?

Drive is 111D Pioneer and motherboard is 965p DS3 Gigabyte (Rev 1.0) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.220.48.94 (talk) 11:39, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Try checking the event log for insight into why the computer is crashing. To get to the event log, right click on "My Computer" and click "manage". Then click the little "+" sign next to "Event Viewer" and check the Application/System logs. I've seen explorer crash with a faulty autorun, or even certain video files. If we access your drivers without triggering the autorun we just might be able to get it to work. One thing you could try is to access the drive from command line (start, run, cmd, then type the driveletter and a colon). ←Spidern→ 12:57, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

The driver detected a controller error on \Device\CdRom0.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.as

Not very helpful log eh. Ive tried it in someone elses laptop and the cd works fine.

Ive tried dvds and other discs in my drive to the same result. (crashing) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.220.48.94 (talk) 13:13, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Maybe the faulty PSU fried the controller. Try moving the DVD to the other connector on the IDE cable or onto the other IDE port if it is spare (making sure you get the right master/slave jumper settings).

Maybe the Windows DVD driver or controller driver got lost somewhere. Visit the websites of the manufacturers and see if you can download the latest drivers. Astronaut (talk) 18:08, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Citing works from the Commons in a research paper

I have several questions.

1) If a picture or something is licensed under multiple identical licenses (such as the CC-BY-SA 2.0, 1.5, and 1.0), do i need to cite all the licenses or just the most recent one?

2) If a picture or something is released under the GFDL, would i be required to release my paper under the GFDL and include a verbatim copy of the license with the paper itself?

3) Would not citing the licenses constitute plagarism?

Any help would be appreciated...my teacher frowns on plagarism (and by frowns i mean suspension or worse). Thanks.  Buffered Input Output 13:31, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

1) If a picture is multi-licensed, you may comply with whichever license you wish, ignoring the others.

2) You would certainly have to include a verbatim copy of the license to comply with the GFDL. I think that you should be able to leave the image GFDL-licensed and the rest of the paper not, but I'm not sure. The GFDL is even less well-suited to licensing images than it is to licensing Wikipedia articles, and it's hard to interpret.

3) To my mind, plagiarism (note spelling) is the passing off of another's work as your own, so as long as you're attributing, you aren't plagiarizing. You teacher may disagree, and even if you aren't plagiarizing, you may be in violation of copyright (I am not a lawyer and I know nothing about the copyright status of class research papers).

Algebraist 13:43, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Whoops on the spelling. Thanks.  Buffered Input Output 16:23, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

2. You need a verbatim copy of the GFDL to be included (which is lame and why images shouldn't be licensed under the GFDL), but you don't have to license the whole paper if the GFDL content is easily segregated out (in which case your paper becomes a collection of separately copyrighted works, which is fine under the GFDL and CC). So putting an image into a paper — no problem, don't have to license the whole thing. Putting a bunch of text into a paper — cannot be easily separated out, thus the whole text must be licensed that way. Make sense? 3. No, it's not plagiarism. Not citing the source would be plagiarism. Not citing the license is a matter of copyright law, not academic conduct. In any case though using such a thing in a class research paper almost certainly counts as fair use so you don't likely need to stress about copyrights too much here. (If it is a paper between you and your teacher, and not, say, being published, then I don't think anybody cares about the copyright stuff.) --140.247.240.69 (talk) 18:42, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Don't take this as legal advice because the law is untested and this is Wikipedia, but in answer to questions 1 and 2, if you are including the commons-licenced work for the purpose of review or academic/educational/scholarly purposes, you have the same fair use rights as you would with commercial material, regardless of whether you obey the specific terms of the licence (for including copies of the licence etc). Commons licensing gives you the copier additional rights, over and above the statutory provisions for fair use or fair dealing (note these will vary from country to country and may be more limited than you require for your purposes). GPL v3 explicitly states "This License acknowledges your rights of fair use or other equivalent, as provided by copyright law."[7] --Maltelauridsbrigge (talk) 15:57, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Viewing the MFT

I noticed that Defraggler[8] can very quickly go through the MFT and list every single fragmented file. I'm interested in viewing every single file regardless of fragmentation. Are there any programs or commands I could use to do this? Thanks, --VectorField (talk) 15:51, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

HDView may do what you want. -- BenRG (talk) 17:59, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Running Applications over a Network

Is it possible to run applications such as games etc on a terminal where they haven't been installed onto, from a terminal where they have been installed onto? For example, could i run MS Word from the computer that has it installed, onto my computer that doesn't have it installed?

Thanks in advance. 86.172.124.73 (talk) 16:36, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

There are Thin Client setups that do this, there is (forgetting the term exactly) streaming-programs that run 'in browser' or 'on the network'. Things such as google-docs are access-anywhere word-processors and a version of excel is avaialble 'in browser' online (again I forget the name). In short, yes it is very possible to run a whole host of programs from a 'thin-client' terminal. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 16:42, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

See VNC and other entries in Category:Remote desktop. Astronaut (talk) 18:00, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

You will want to look at VNC, like Astronaut said. If your server is running linux, bsd, or even, i think, mac os x, you can use X11 forwarding to view the application. If your client is windows, you need a ssh client like PuTTY and a X host like Xming. -Zeus-^u|c 19:19, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

You don't have to have putty or any other ssh software. You could open up the VNC ports and connect directly. It's just a little risky to do over an insecure network (like, the internet). Shadowjams (talk) 19:03, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. I am not trying to remotely control the other computer, but just use a program that is stored on it on my computer without installing it on my computer.86.129.218.220 (talk) 17:19, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

.NET HTML table problem

This problem has come up at work. I need to make this kind of HTML table using Microsoft .NET:

<table>
  <thead>
    <tr>...</tr>
    <tr>...</tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>...</tr>
    <tr>...</tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

The important thing is the thead and tbody elements around the table rows. I can't just type the table statically into the page because the rows are dynamically generated. I don't even know in advance how many of them there are. The ASP.NET Table control doesn't seem to be able to do this. I have read that in .NET 3.5 the HtmlTable HTML control has child objects HtmlTableHeadSection and HtmlTableBodySection, but they don't seem to exist anywhere on my .NET 3.5 installation, and the Microsoft .NET online documentation doesn't even mention them. Is there some unofficial .NET extension I need to install to get access to them, or do I have to resort to writing the entire HTML rendering myself? JIP | Talk 20:12, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

There are probably a few ways to do this. I don't know if this is the best way to do it, but this should work. First, create an ASP table:

  <asp:table id="Table1" runat="server">
  </asp:table>

Then in your code-behind, code something like this:

  TableRow newRow = new TableRow();
  TableCell checkboxCell = new TableCell();
  checkboxCell.Controls.Add(checkBox);
  newRow.Cells.Add(checkboxCell);
  Table1.Rows.Add(newRow);

This works in at least .NET 2.0 and 3.5. A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 16:28, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

This doesn't generate the thead and tbody elements around the table rows. JIP | Talk 16:27, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

About top university's in "MIS" Major

Hey guy's

i want to ask you about the top university's in mis major "management information system's" (master)

and i have another question,

am graduated with information system major "Bachelor"

what do u PREFER for major's in master , for the future market needs

regards —Preceding unsigned comment added by Saleh1986 (talk • contribs) 23:31, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

If you specify where you want to study that might help. Here are the world's top for Engineering and IT[9], which should be a start. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Maltelauridsbrigge (talk • contribs) 16:09, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

i would like to study eather in USA or Canda —Preceding unsigned comment added by Saleh1986 (talk • contribs) 17:53, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Tunebite

When using a program like Tunebite, will using a higher bitrate than the original file make it sound better?--Bluehippo (talk) 23:57, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Nope, that is impossible. No matter what format you use. (audio/video/etc). If the source is low quality, the output will never be high quality. SF007 (talk)

Yeah I know, it will never be as good as the original, there will also be quality loss. However, will using a higher bitrate minimize quality loss? For example lets say the original file is 192 kbps. Will there be a difference if I convert to 256 kbps instead of 192 kbps? Or are they both the same? To be honest I can't even tell with my own ears, but I just like to make sure :) --Bluehippo (talk) 02:46, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

I think what SF007 was saying is that you cannot re-encode a file with a higher bitrate to improve quality. An example would be if you started with an .mp3 file encoded at 128kbs. If you took this file and re-encoded it at 192 or 256 kbs, you will hear no difference in quality yet will have created a file significantly larger in size.

Your best bet is to take your source CD and rip-encode it at a higher bitrate of your choice (ex 192kbs or 256kbs). Since you are directly encoding from the source, your output file will have more definition than a similar file re-encoded from a low bitrate mp3. You may also want to check out some of the Lossless codecs which promise no detectable audio degradation in the encoding process. A few examples of lossless codecs are available here. Hope this helps. aszymanik speak! 19:25, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

March 26

Floppy

I'm trying to get some files onto a computer that only has a floppy drive. No CD drive, no USB drive, only a floppy drive. Unfortunately, my main computer doesn't have a floppy drive and the target computer doesn't have an Internet connection. So what can I do? JCI (talk) 02:17, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

You can try taking the hard disk out of one of them and putting it in the other. By the sounds of the floppy only computer, it'll have an IDE drive, which isn't compatible with modern PCs. In which case you can get an IDE enclosure. Take the hard disk out of the floppy-only machine and using the enclosure, connect it to the new computer. Then copy away and replace the hard disk. - Akamad (talk) 02:22, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

The vast majority of modern computers still have IDE ports because amongst other reasons, SATA optical drivers have only started to really take hold over the past 2 years or so. Even though some recent chipsets (the Intel ICHR10 for example) don't have native support for IDE, most manufacturers add it via PCI or PCIe chips Nil Einne (talk) 10:31, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

We should probably back up and ask what type of data you are trying to transfer. If the files are too large for a floppy or the total would take dozens of floppies to transfer, then the solution above might be best. If you only have a few small files, and expect to occasionally need to transfer a few more, then another way to go would be to get an external floppy drive for the new computer. It can plug into a USB port. It won't be very expensive, and this won't require any tinkering with the insides of computers. Floppy drives are going out of style, but you can still find them around now. In another few years, probably not. StuRat (talk) 05:05, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Or find another computer with a floppy drive and a USB port and put the data on a floppy disk via that 3rd computer. --Tango (talk) 05:19, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Do both computers have ethernet ports? You could network them and transfer the files that way. --Tango (talk) 05:19, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

A computer too old to have a CD drive is unlikely to have an Ethernet port, meseems. —Tamfang (talk) 16:47, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Just thinking out loud here .. but if the files aren't too big, and the old computer can connect to the Internet, I might try to just email them to myself. Just a thought, path of least resistance and all. (in other words, I'm lazy) — Ched ~ ^(yes?)/_© 06:28, 26 March 2009 (UTC) (and connect the target computer once you've done the email with the source PC) — Ched ~ ^(yes?)/_© 08:57, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

"the target computer doesn't have an Internet connection" —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.80.240.66 (talk) 09:06, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

It used to be possible to make ZIP files that spanned multiple floppies. Presumably this can still be done with WinZip etc. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 09:23, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Before the days of USB - a COM port

In the old days (1990s) we also sometimes would use a null modem cable. That would work if both computers have COM ports (look a bit like VGA screen port but with fewer pins). (However, I suppose both an USB floppy drive and a new network card for the old computer would be cheaper. In addition, you'd have to dig up some legacy software to actually make use of the null modem cable). Jørgen (talk) 13:19, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

You don't need legacy software really. Windows up to XP supported null modems. Unfortunately Vista drops it Direct Cable Connection. See below for more details. Nil Einne (talk) 10:42, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

There are a bunch of ways you could do this.

*An add-on USB board, might be impractical depending on how old the computer is.

*A Null modem cable.

*An actual modem and a pair of phone lines.

*An old-style parallell-port Zip Drive. (Be careful not to get the SCSI kind.)

*Yank the hard-drive from the old PC put it into a USB enclosure and connect to the new computer.

*Find an old NIC that will work in the old computer, and connect the old computer to your router.

* and of course, getting a USB floppy drive for the new PC.

Null modem cables are pretty cheap. Unless you have some of that other stuff laying around, the cable might be your cheapest way of doing this. (However, if the new computer doesn't have a serial-port, you may need a USB-to-serial adapter.) But the USB enclosure for the old harddrive might be an easy way to copy the entire drive at once onto your new PC. APL (talk) 14:34, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

One more way: Sony and SmartDisk made adaptors to use a memory card in a floppy drive. Amazon have information about them: Sony and SmartDisk. It looks as if they might be rather scarce now, but there seems to be one stockist: [10]. (Or you could try your local eBay or equivalent.) So you'd need a USB memory card reader to get the files from the main computer to the memory card, and the adaptor to get the files from the memory card to the target computer - and the memory card itself, of course. AJHW (talk) 15:08, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

One problem with nearly all of the above suggestions is that without an internet connection or CD drive, any new software for the machine has to be gotten on floppy somehow. For example, adding a USB card almost certainly won't work because it'll need drivers - and those will come on CD-ROM. Using a null-modem cable to the serial port...same problem...you need software.

I wonder whether you can remove the Floppy drive from the old computer and plug it into the new one. All of the modern motherboards that I own still have floppy drive ports...but yours may not. You can certainly chop up ZIP archives into floppy-sized chunks.

Depending on what software this old machine runs - I'd scour eBay for an an old ethernet card...they can't cost more than $5 at that vintage...and you stand a chance of the computer already having software onboard. If the ancient machine has a modem - then perhaps it can still dial-out to the internet. SteveBaker (talk) 05:10, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

The target computer OS wasn't stated however. But for example, Windows 95 and onwards should be able to support a null modem connection without extra software (can't remember about Windows 3.1). If the OS is something like DOS, there's a slight chance the comp may come with Laplink or something although I'm not certain if Windows will be able to connect to that (i.e. you may need some other software on your modern computer to connect to laplink on the old computer). The other problem is that Vista drops support for Direct Cable Connection so if the modern computer's OS is Vista your going to need to look for something. It looks like Linux should do the job [11] [12], so you may be able to do this from a live CD. Of course if the modern computer's OS is Linux all the better. From the sound of it, most BSDs and Solaris should be possible too although I don't know about Mac OS X. Also if you have the software to use a modem, you likely (but not definitely) have the software to use a null modem. IMHO we really need more info to answer the question. As I've already mentioned, knowing what the OS of the target comp as well as the modern comps you have access to would help a lot. Also is the floppy drive a 3 1/2"? Is it 1.44MB/HD? Does the target computer have a spare IDE port (presuming it even uses IDE)? Nil Einne (talk) 10:31, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

This Can't be Good can it?

I was reading about what a good (safe) temperature for a GPU (graphics card is) and I read that a good temperature (under load) is around or below 70C. Well, I downloaded "SpeedFan" to monitor the temperature. And while my GPU was "under load" (I guess you could say) the temperature got up to around 78C. One of the things that was suggested was to turn my GPU's fan up to 100%. Well...it IS at 100%. Even so, it was still getting up to 78 degrees with a 3D game running, and now that I've closed that, it's still running at 70 degrees. So...that can't be good, can it? What can I do about it, and what could happen if I do nothing about it? (i.e. will my PC blow up.)

Graphics card is an Nvidia Geforce 8800GTS

Digger3000 (talk) 07:14, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Have you tried to clear the inside of your computer of dust? Be very careful doing it but I found that my fan on my desktop computer was quite heavily clogged with dust - I suspect that would've impacted running temperature. Also perhaps look for unrequired processes running on your computer - on my Macbook a print-driver/printer process was constantly running and had forced my fan on to 6000rpm and made my laptop sound like a mini turbine engine. Once I got rid of that process it quickly slowed as the temperature dropped - so maybe check your task-manager processes tab. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 09:08, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Stick a really large fan like coolermaster into your case. If you can't afford that, put two cheap ~60mm fans in, one sucking the air in from the back and the other expelling air from the front (so you get unidirectional airflow). If that's too difficult for you, open your case and just put an ordinary $20 room fan next to your computer, blowing cool air in. That did wonders for my son's computer. 80 degrees is WAY too high... my 9600GT GPU runs at 50 and my cpu at 40, and that's with a coolermaster. At that temperature your computer won't blow up (lol) but components will get damaged over time. One last thing to check - your sensor could be wrong - so with your hand properly "anti-static-ed" just feel your graphics card quickly and you can tell if it's really hot - if it's too hot to touch for over a second then your sensor is correct. Sandman30s (talk) 12:00, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Get a can of compressed air (sometimes called an air duster). You can often get them in office supplies shops (WHSmith for one, if you're in the UK). Give it a good blast into your PSU, processor fan/heatsink, graphics card cooler, case fans and anywhere else you see dust. I'm not sure (sanity check on this, please!), but I think fan motors don't take too well to being turned by anyone but themselves, so you may want to stop fan blades turning somehow. Don't use a vacuum cleaner - they throw off static which screws around with the electronics (you can use it to clean any dust up once you've sealed up your PC again). CaptainVindaloo ^{t c e} 12:46, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Simply opening the case may do wonders, without the need for an external fan. A computer that was properly designed to convey air flow would actually do better with the case on, but, in my experience, they rarely are. StuRat (talk) 15:32, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Opening the case does seem to cool it down. It's a tiny little case that I doubt was designed to hold an 8800GTS (which barely fit in it.) Digger3000 (talk) 20:15, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

"Tiny little case" is your problem. There's just not enough air-flow in that for something that generates as much heat as an 8800GTS. I would still use an external fan. Sandman30s (talk) 08:16, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

How much does just opening the case help ? StuRat (talk) 17:27, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

ls -tr | sh foo

for FILE in $PATTERN
 do
  dostuffwith $FILE
 done

Pretty simple, right? But I want it to take the files oldest-first (as listed by ls -tr) rather than in alphabetic order. Is there a simple way? —Tamfang (talk) 16:51, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Is this what you want:

for FILE in `ls -tr`
do
  dostuffwith $FILE
done

87.114.147.43 (talk) 17:34, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, thanks! —Tamfang (talk) 19:37, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Or ls -tr | xargs -L1 dostuffwith 87.114.147.43 (talk) 17:36, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

I like the for version better because the loop also has a sleep that I didn't mention. —Tamfang (talk) 19:37, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

I like:

find -name $PATTERN -exec dostuffwith {} \;

As given, it's recursive down into subdirectories. SteveBaker (talk) 05:04, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Transferring email adresses from cableone.net to aim mail .com or yahoo.com

I have stared traveling and take a laptop with me. On this ,I can use win explorer to pull up some of my cableone email, but I cannot access my address book. I use "firefox" and "Google"for sending some emails and would like to have my addresses when traveling67.61.12.158 (talk) 18:27, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Convenient Contribs Lookup

Resolved

Does anyone know of a script that I can import into my default monotype.js theme that will give me a link to a user's contribs on the top tab bar? I'm currently using Twinkle and like all the extra tabs it adds for my convenience. I think a contribs tab would be super handy to see what people are up to when I am already on their user page. Thanks aszymanik speak! 19:13, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Don't you like the link of the left side for user contribs?

AHH!! I was once blind and now I can see! Hahah thanks! aszymanik speak! 01:59, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Audio on DVDs in Windows Media Player

I'm trying to watch a DVD on Windows Media Player on Windows XP (I've never done this on my PC before) but there's no audio, and I've been clicking around and reading the help pages for half an hour and can't for the life of me work out what's wrong. I've tried a few other DVDs and it's the same problem. Can anyone help? --AdamSommerton (talk) 20:12, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Does the audio of anything else work? Try listening to some music or go on youtube to see whether this is a problem with the DVDs or the computer overall. --BiT (talk) 20:34, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Everything else is fine. I'm listening to music right now on WMP. DVD quality is perfect but there's just no sound. --AdamSommerton (talk) 20:41, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Does your sound card have a separate volume for CDs and DVDs? The input volume for other devices is often muted or set to zero. Have a look at the volume settings in the control panel (or try right-click on the volume icon in the system tray first - there could be a separate "settings..." or "advanced..." option). Astronaut (talk) 02:45, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

If the audio for other stuff does work, try installing VideoLAN. DVD playback on XP depends on which DVD media decoder is installed (these can come from a variety of sources, and some can be of wonky quality); DVD playback in VideoLAN skips this, and has its own decoder; I've found it to be very reliable. 87.114.147.43 (talk) 20:41, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Sending e-mails and surfing the net anonymously

I use Linux, since it may matter in the latter question. I was wondering whether or how this is possible. First the e-mail part, is it possible to send e-mails without you using a specific address or even using a fake e-mail address that is randomly generated? (on a side-note, is it possible to send an e-mail via the terminal?) Also, what ways are there to surfing the net anonymously, I know about proxies but I'm not sure how to utilize them (I've tried Tor, but that's just for the web browser right?). How do you use proxies and is there any other way? Thank you. --BiT (talk) 20:15, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

For anonymous emails see anonymous remailer. 87.114.147.43 (talk) 20:39, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

You can set up numerous disposable email accounts with yahoo, gmail etc through tor, which as long as you send then while using tor the referrer ip address will be that of tor and not your own —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.75.188.83 (talk) 20:53, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Yes, you can send email from the linux command-line. You wanna guess what the command is? 'mail'. So:

steve@gnosis % mail

No mail for steve

steve@gnosis % mail obama@whitehouse.gov

Subject: Wow! This actually worked!

Hello! Lol! R U really teh prez?

^D

steve@gnosis %

Easy! :-) SteveBaker (talk) 04:36, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Ok cool (that was only a side-question) but what about anonymous e-mailing and surfing? I tried mixmaster (is it possible that it takes a long time to deliver the e-mail with mixmaster, because I sent several letters to my own address and I haven't gotten them) to send an anonymous e-mail after checking out the 'anonymous remailer' article but what about anonymous web surfing? Is there any other way of doing it besides being behind proxy and what's the best way to to it (use a proxy/something else) in Linux? --BiT (talk) 08:30, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Mixmaster is slow by design. Each intermediate node introduces a random delay to make it harder to statistically correlate incoming and outgoing messages, so messages can take hours or days to arrive. Tor is basically mixmaster without the delays (and with a two-way TCP connection instead of one-way message passing). It's plenty secure unless you have powerful enemies. If you want fast delivery or you want people to be able to reply to you (without revealing your identity) then webmail via Tor is the way to go. -- BenRG (talk) 23:43, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Tor isn't only for web browsing - it can anonymize almost everything that works over the internet. (It's a little slow though, and I'm not sure if it's enough anonymous for sending mail.) As for anonymous mail, I've heard Cypherpunk remailers work good - but you need to know some basics of using GnuPG (gpg). --grawity 18:21, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

iMovie HD

At my high school we're working on a video project. At school I've been using a version of iMovie HD-I assume it's version 6.X, but I'm not certain. I need to be able to edit the files at home at well, but my copy of iMovie (v. 7.1.1) is significantly inferior and refuses to recognize files from my iMovie HD project. I've tried downloading iMovie HD v.6.0.3 from http://support.apple.com/downloads/ to no avail, because it requires a copy of iMovie v 6.0.0. Does anyone know how/where I could get that? If I upgrade to the newest edition of iMovie, will it be compatible with files from iMovie HD 6? 63.229.210.11 (talk) 22:52, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Does anybody know if this site is reliable? http://en.kioskea.net/telecharger/telecharger-1238-imovie-hd 63.229.210.11 (talk) 03:25, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Vista, firefox

Resolved

Help! My screen has turned 90 degrees anticlockwise. The text now streams on its left side starting at the bottom. How do I undo this? Kittybrewster ☎ 23:34, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

That's usually a screen (display) setting. Right click on the screen background and go through the properties thing. Or buy a neckbrace. 87.114.147.43 (talk) 23:39, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Got it. Ctrl alt up-arrow. Kittybrewster ☎ 23:41, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Ports and Sockets, .logs and e-mail

I have two completely unrelated questions.

1. What is the difference between a socket and a port?

2. I wrote a .bat (in Windows Vista Home Premium x86-64 SP1) to clear all .bat and .log files from the system. The person who owns this computer (I was trying to help them out by opening up some disk space) uses Windows Mail. Now, this .bat will clear every accessible/permissible .log or .tmp from the system. Could this have deleted this persons e-mails? If so, how and why?

TIA, Ζρς ιβ' ^¡hábleme! 23:44, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

A socket is an open, ongoing communication channel (they're ephemeral - once the communication is over the socket is destroyed). A port is part of the address you connect to (often when establishing such a socket); the rest of the address is typically the IP address of the destination machine. 87.114.147.43 (talk) 23:49, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Strictly a socket is the local software object that describes such an ongoing communication, but people generally use the term socket for both, saying rather "I opened a socket to that http server" rather than "I created a socket object that corresponds with an ongoing TCP session to that http server". 87.114.147.43 (talk) 23:51, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Also a socket can correspond with communications over a variety of networks and protocols - you can get a TCP socket, a UDP socket, an IP (datagram) socket, or a Unix domain socket. Unix systems also allow you to create sockets that allow you to send and receive raw ethernet frames (SOCK_RAW). Ports are only found in TCP and UDP communications - there's no such concept in IP or ethernet. 87.114.147.43 (talk) 23:57, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Your .BAT question: it depends on the file (and directory, and access control list) permissions for the other guy's files; if those were set to allow you to delete these files, then your BAT file can have done so. Whether that's the case in your actual system depends on how it's set up. It's always wise to be very careful when writing recursive deletion scripts, as they'll find and delete files you didn't know about, but might well really miss when they're done. 87.114.147.43 (talk) 00:00, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

The files is located at C:\[file]. It is set to execute every time the computer starts up (I added it to startup in the registry). The person is set as an administrator on his computer. Why would the script delete e-mails? Are they .log or .tmp files? Ζρς ιβ' ^¡hábleme! 00:31, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Probably not, but if you don't know for sure (and need to ask here) then such a script is a very bad idea indeed. For example, what happens if someone makes a folder called "my.weekly.log"? 87.114.147.43 (talk) 00:44, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

You have no idea how un-tech savvy this person is. They couldn't change a file extension if it were required of them. They wouldn't create a .log or .tmp file. Also, I knew deleting all .log and .tmps wouldn't be system critical so taking out all of the cruft was worth the risk of losing something valuable. Ζρς ιβ' ^¡hábleme! 01:40, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

FYI, Windows Mail saves emails as .eml files in "C:\Users\(username)\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Mail" Indeterminate (talk) 07:58, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

I've gotta say - recursively removing '.bat' files is madness. Firstly, you have no idea what bat files may be system-critical or important to some piece of newly installed software - or just generally some small useful thing that someone deliberately installed or created from scratch. On the other hand, bat files are typically VERY short text files - and it's rare to find them more than a few kbytes long...on disk drives edging into the terabyte range - you're not saving 1% of your disk space - you're not even saving one part per MILLION of disk space...it's more like one part per billion. It's a quite utterly negligable benefit for an extremely high risk. So considering the risk/benefit ratio here - it's nothing short of crazy! SteveBaker (talk) 04:29, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Um, Steve, I think you misinterpreted what I said. I wrote a .bat to remove .tmp and .log files. 67.54.238.193 (talk) 21:50, 27 March 2009 (UTC) (this is Zrs_12 by the way)

Actually, on the first part, you said it would remove all .bat and .log files, but as you gave more detail, you said .tmp and .log. Thanks, Genius101^Guestbook 22:49, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

March 27

A way to guard against identity theft?

Reading through Template talk:User committed identity, I realized it isn't what I was looking for. Namely, I would like to post on Wikipedia and elsewhere using my real-life name. However, what stops me from doing so is the risk that someone could impersonate me elsewhere on the Internet using my name and post ugly things under that name. Then any time someone googles my name, they would find those posts.

Are there any schemes that would ensure that postings using my name can be independently verified that they come from me and no one else?

My initial very crude idea would be a website where you could download a "scratch pad" with a list of one-time codes, similar to the transaction numbers used in online banking. Every code could be used only once. For every post I make anywhere on the Web, I would copy one code from the list into the post and then strike it off my list. A reader could then click on the code, which would lead to the repository and allow verification.

It sounds cumbersome and it is. My question is, would it be workable at all? Has it been implemented anywhere yet? And is there a less cumbersome method to accomplish the same goal?

There are other concerns besides identity theft when posting under a real-life name. For example, verification would not protect against stalkers harrassing me in real life, but I would be wiling to take that chance.--Goodmorningworld (talk) 02:35, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

I believe you are looking for digital signatures, which are available in many public-key cryptography applications. – 74  03:58, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Thank you. Here is the first paragraph from public-key cryptography:

Public-key cryptography is a method for secret communication between two parties without requiring an initial exchange of secret keys. It can also be used to create digital signatures. Public key cryptography is a fundamental and widely used technology around the world, and enables secure transmission of information on the Internet.

I'm not sure this helps me as I wasn't looking for "secret communication between two parties" but a way to post anywhere in a public place – message board, discussion forum, Wikipedia – such that anyone reading my posting can easily verify that it came from me.--Goodmorningworld (talk) 04:14, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Digital signatures can do what you want, but it might be a lot of effort, and people who wanted to verify your posts would have to install the relevant software to do so. A lower-tech solution would be simply to maintain (on you Wikipedia user page, say, or some other personal page more under your control) a list of all the websites on which you post and the usernames you use, along with an explicit disclaimer of any posts made under your name on any other site. Algebraist 04:42, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Thank you. I just realized a major flaw in my idea. A reader could not know with certainty that a posting made under my name but without the special authentication code was in fact not made by me; perhaps I left out the code on purpose. In other words, even if I can ensure that no one but me can add an authentication traceabe only to me, I haven't solved the issue of getting the public to trust that I would never make postings without it. Of course this problem applies also to your otherwise useful low-tech idea. Hmmm…--Goodmorningworld (talk) 05:15, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

I don't see how and why it matters that people can't verify posts made under your name but without your signature weren't made by you any more then they can know whether a post made under Nil Einne was actually made by you. People who trust you, will only trust posts made by you and signed. If you forget to sign, they will presume that it's not you or ask you in which case you can clarify with a signed post if you forgot. People will grow to trust your online identity if they feel there are reasons to trust it. They're obviously not going to presume they definitely know everything about you from your online identity just as knowing someone in real life doesn't mean you know everything about them, haven't you heard how many times people describe how criminals "seemed such a nice person". Nil Einne (talk) 11:07, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

Just be anonymous —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.80.240.66 (talk) 10:55, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Nag, nag, nag

Resolved

 – Martinship (talk) 08:09, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

My Vista PC wants me to create some recovery disks. Should I use DVD-R or DVD+R or does it not really matter? Clarityfiend (talk) 04:51, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

The short answer is: "It doesn't matter". At one time +R and -R were not always available to all DVD writers, but today most (if not all) DVD writers will accept either disk. I would suggest getting decent quality DVD blanks for this particular chore though, rather than the cheapies. You never know when you may need to use them to restore a computer, or replace a HD - also, some PC's only allow 1 backup copy to be made. — Ched ~ ^(yes?)/_© 07:34, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Using Clonezilla, make as many backups as you want, and whenever, from wherever, and to wherever you want. The price is unobjectionable too. -- Hoary (talk) 07:48, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

JDBC

How do you set up JDBC to work with SQL Server 2008? Black Carrot (talk) 06:17, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

ISP

Hiya , I'm looking for a good isp to go with in the uk. i currently do not have the internet at home, or a bt landline phone. I've been looking at Tiscali broadband and it seems to offer what i want, especially their fair use policy of 100GB a month.

My question is, for a heavy internet downloader such as myself, what is the best isp to choose in england? Is it Tiscali? I don't want cable television or phone calls, just the internet. Thanks for your help and any suggestions you may have for me. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.80.240.66 (talk) 09:08, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

I use 'Freedom2surf' and find they are good, they offer it without a 12-month contract and the prices are quite reasonable: around £16 for unlimited 'up to 16mb' downloads (1mb uploads) or around £23 for their '50kbps download guaranteed, up to 16mb' product. Both of which state usage is 'unlimited'. Personally From a really quick scan I don't see anything in the T&Cs about a cap on that 'unlimited' but in reality i'd be amazed if there isn't. Honestly though 100gb? Do you just spend the entire month seeding/leeching on Torrent files? It always amazes me - what do people do that uses that much per month! I feel like a heavy internet user and I get through maybe 20gb a month. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 11:01, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

I really do need 100GB a month. In one day alone I've downloaded that much, but that was on a public computer with an extremely fast connection. Since I'm not going to have access to that computer any more, I need an alternative home internet solution. The 100GB limit was the highest I could find in my searches, but any less will simply not be enough. Download speed is not so much of an issue as I can leave the computer on overnight. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.80.240.66 (talk) 12:00, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Out of interest...what do you download? I just can't imagine downloading that much stuff and actually ever using the stuff. Anyhoo as I noted Freedom2Surf don't offer an upper-limit on their account, you could probably contact them to see whether or not they have a 'fair use' policy. To be honest the amount of bandwidth you're using i'd expect is getting towards business-lines usage from a ISPs perspective. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 12:07, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

100GB a day? That seems almost implausible to me from a bandwidth standpoint of any public computer I've used (lets say you get the full 24 hours -- you're really getting a full 1MBps consistently? Much less in a less amount of time?). Are you sure you have your MB and GB right? --98.217.14.211 (talk) 16:01, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

I've downloaded 70GB in a day, mostly from megaupload. But that was a one off and actually got me banned for a week :( Also I don't think OP wants 100GB a day, he was just giving that as an example. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 18:51, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Without going in to legalities and practicalities, I can easily see 100GB/day if you download several HD movies. Actually if you are talking about entire Bluray disks unrecompressed etc it may only be 3 or so. 100GB/month is definitely resonable without even going in to HD movies. Presuming you are referring to P2P and you are a fair downloader, that means only 50GB of content. Less when you consider overhead as well as the fact your likely to have general web browsing, you tube videos and perhaps also streaming TV, windows updates, driver updates et al. Let alone if you are a generous uploader (i.e. upload more then you download). 50GB/month isn't really that much particularly if there are multiple people involved. It may not be every month but having the option is likely to be useful Nil Einne (talk) 10:10, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

So does anyone have some suggestions of ISPs in England that would be good for me?? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.80.240.66 (talk) 12:38, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

Black bar appearing either side of you tube videos!

I seem to be getting not one but two black bars, either side my youtube videos. I assume one is by youtube the other by windows movie maker, but how can I avoid one (or both!) of these black bars. When saving it with wmv I clicked Widescreen which said suitable for 16:9 which in turn is suitable for youtube (or so I was told)... I'd be really grateful for any help on the matter! ; - ) --217.227.121.117 (talk) 18:15, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Youtube have recently (November, according to YouTube) changed the size of their video player to be in 16:9 format, rather than 4:3. The black bars allow 4:3 videos to be played in the 16:9-size player. Use 16:9 to avoid black bars. --h2g2bob (talk) 02:02, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

SQL optimisation

If I want to run a count, is "select count(col1) from table2 where col2='x'" the quickest way of doing things? I've now got access to a very large read-only table, and this seems to be grinding to a halt. Thanks! - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 18:23, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

If there is no specific need to COUNT col1, you can COUNT(1) and that helps things a little bit (it doesn't have to retrieve any data for that, and assuming you are not worried about NULL fields it will count exactly the same way as putting a variable in there). But other than I think your options are limited unless you can do tweaks to the database itself, e.g. having indices of the right length and etc. --140.247.240.77 (talk) 20:16, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

I agree with the above comments, provided you are only doing the single query shown. However, if you are also planning on doing a count for col2='y' and col2='z' and col2 = every other value present, then there are much faster ways to do that. StuRat (talk) 03:20, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

As .77 mentioned, an index on col2 is the first tool of efficiency. Not only does it quickly identify what records need to be accessed (eliminating the need to scan the hole table), but since the only column you are referencing is already in the index, the index functions as a covering index, and there is no need to access the main table at all. As an analogy, suppose you were given a list of 1,000,000 phone numbers and had to find out how many were owned by households with last name of Wales. That would be very time consuming. Now what if you had a phone book? Looking up Wales would allow you to significantly trim your list. Better yet, you don't even need to call any of the numbers because the phone book already tells you the household name. That's what a covering index gives you. If you wanted to count the number of Wales households that lived on Wikipedia lane, you would want a phone book (index) that had both name and address.

The other thing you can do is to ignore all database locks when executing the query. Do this only if you are not concerned with transient records that may be added, updated, or removed while the count is being performed. The syntax may be different for different database systems. For Microsoft SQL server, you can either execute the command "SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL READ UNCOMMITTED" before the query, or you can add "WITH(NOLOCK)" after the table name. Normally, database management systems are very careful to use various locking mechanisms to ensure the accuracy and consistency results. This generally means locking the records or tables being accessed so that nothing changes in the middle of a query. If some other process has a lock (such as an uncommitted insert) your query may wait. All this has some degree of lock-management overhead and causes delays (and in some cases deadlocks) when other processes are manipulating the same data. Disabling locking effectively says "I don't care what else is going on, just give me what you have as fast as you can, even if it's changing." It also prevents you from unnecessarily delaying other processes. For example, if you actually ended up calling 1,000,000 phone numbers, it would be unreasonable to demand that nobody change their phone number during your three-year survey.

One last note: Make sure that the data types are consistent in your query. For example if col2 is an integer and you search for the text string "42", the database server may have to convert every value checked to a string before comparing, making the indexes virtually useless. Better to search for the number 42. -- Tcncv (talk) 03:53, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

.net on mac

Will windows programs written in the .net framework run on a mac with Mono installed? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 18:48, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Electronics: Logic processing: How to feed D type flip flops from parallel ...

I am creating a complex logic system, part of that system takes an 8 bit boolean value stored in 8 D type flip flops.

The Q gate of each flip flop is linked to an AND gate. Each of the eight AND gates are also linked (in parallel) to another trigger (which i will refer to as a button), the AND gates output into the 'set' inputs of another 8 D types, which are aranged to count down.

The system is designed to take the 8 bit number, move it to the seperate D flip flops, and subtract another number from it, as the flip flops are aranged to count down, and then replace the origional 8 bit figure in the first 8 flip flops.

The flip flops count down as they are aranged as displayed in this image: http://www.softwareforeducation.com/electronics/notes/AS/ttl/binary-down-counter.gif

However, when I set the second set of flip flops, the set causes pin Q to be taken high in relevent flip flops, which is counted as a clock pulse by the next flip flop in the counting set, causing unwanted bit generaton.

I cannot fathom a way in which to stop this happening and retain the ability to reduce the value stored in the second set. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.45.1.217 (talk) 20:34, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm no expert and it's been a while since I looked at this stuff, but I can't think of a way to do this using D-type flip flops. However, I think you can make a working circuit using JK flip-flops. This article show how they can be wired up to form the count-up circuit. Count down would be similar. You can wire up additional logic to transfer data between the count-up and count-down circuits using the S and R inputs. (Extra credit if you can figure out how to wire a single set of JK flip-flops to perform both the count-up and count-down functions.) -- Tcncv (talk) 04:29, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

The following 2 responses were originally added to the WP:RD/S and were moved here as the question was cross posted. Nil Einne (talk) 10:01, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

I am not implying this is at all nonsense, but this is an awesome example of jargonese, so extreme, that to some people like me, it's impossible to tell whether it's nonsense or not, and that's why I'm copying this and going to use it as an example, and yes, I know this is a run on sentence. 173.52.36.16 (talk) 21:27, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

I have only studied electronics at a quite elementary level, and I recognize all phrases used, so it is not particularly extreme. Also, that is not a run-on sentence. However, if you had removed any "and" after the commas, then it had been a run-on sentence. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 10:45, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

(The terms that the OP uses are comprehensible to any electronic designer.) You mention 16 flip-flops and you show a diagram of 3 flip-flops connected as a ripple-through binary counter. In the counter the S and R (set and reset) inputs can overide the other inputs (D and CLK) so you can force the counter to any state you want by controlling all the S and R's You will need some gates and inverters to drive high only the right S and R's. Catalogs of standard logic integrated circuits are a source of diagrams of many varieties of presettable counters, which seems to be what you want to construct. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 21:46, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

I have removed your post to the science desk. Please do not post the same question in two different places. If you are unsure which desk is the best, just choose one at random or whatever Nil Einne (talk) 10:01, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

March 28

SolidWorks

Applying a cosmetic thread to a shaft part, should it be visible as such ? Swactive (talk) 04:03, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

I don't know about SolidWorks, but in solid modeling in general, you would need to add the thread material with a union, or remove material with a subtraction. It would be more complicated if you needed to do both to create the thread (in that case you might do better to start with a smooth shaft which is either smaller than the entire thread or larger than the entire thread, so a single union or subtraction can do the whole job). Now, as for visibility, I would expect it to show unless one of the following applies:

1) You are in a simplified display mode that doesn't show that level of detail.

2) It's an internal thread and can't be seen from your current point of view. This would also depend on the display mode. A hidden line removal view, for example, would hide those threads when viewed from the far side. StuRat (talk) 04:57, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

Dispose and Finalize

In the .NET Framework many classes have a Dispose method but do not have a finalizer or their finalizer does not call Dispose. This is especially true for GUI components like Button or MenuItem. Programmers should remember to free resources by calling the Dispose method, but if they forget the resources would be leaked. Why do GUI components not implement a finalizer? Thanks in advance. --wj32 ^t/c 06:04, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

A finalizer shouldn't be used to free resources, because an object might never be finalized, or even if it does, it might be a long time until it does. --76.167.241.45 (talk) 06:42, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

No. Programmers should always call the Dispose method, but if they forget there will be a resource leak. Even Microsoft says [13]:

Note that even when you provide explicit control by way of Dispose, you should provide implicit cleanup using the Finalize method. Finalize provides a backup to prevent resources from permanently leaking if the programmer fails to call Dispose.

The problem is that Microsoft does not follow its own guidelines; they don't implement finalizers for most GUI components. --wj32 ^t/c 07:24, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

Flash and Java on 64-bit Linux

Flash and Java plug-ins do not load for me on Firefox. Tonight I started Firefox from the command line and noticed the following output, which doesn't normally appear when I start from a K-menu or quick-launch icon:

LoadPlugin: failed to initialize shared library /usr/lib/adobe-flashplugin/libflashplayer.so [/usr/lib/adobe-flashplugin/libflashplayer.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32]

LoadPlugin: failed to initialize shared library /usr/java/jre1.6.0_12/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so [/usr/java/jre1.6.0_12/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32]

LoadPlugin: failed to initialize shared library /usr/lib/firefox-addons/plugins/libflashplayer.so [/usr/lib/firefox-addons/plugins/libflashplayer.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32]

LoadPlugin: failed to initialize shared library /usr/lib/adobe-flashplugin/libflashplayer.so [/usr/lib/adobe-flashplugin/libflashplayer.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32]

How do I fix this error? I'm using the 64-bit version of Kubuntu 8.04, and my processor is a Core 2 Duo, so I suspect I need to set the plug-ins to run in a backward compatibility mode. These are closed-source plug-ins of which no 64-bit version exists. NeonMerlin 07:15, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

If really no 64-bit versions for those plugins exist, then you would have to use a 32-bit version of your browser to use those plugins (you can install 32-bit programs in a 64-bit system, you know). However, this is not the case for those plugins. You can download the 64-bit Flash plugin for Linux here. And for Java, if you get the x64 version of Sun JRE (Java Runtime Environment) 6u12 or later, it will have a Java plugin. Alternately, other open-source implementations of Java like IcedTea also have plugins. --76.167.241.45 (talk) 07:31, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

It looks like those plugins are 32-bit. --wj32 ^t/c 07:42, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

Installing Microsoft Office without a CD/DVD drive

My friend has bought a new netbook (an Advent with Windows XP) to replace their old, broken laptop. They now want to install Microsoft Office but the netbook doesn't have a CD/DVD drive. Is it possible to copy the contents of their MS Office install disk onto a USB stick and install it from there? Astronaut (talk) 11:50, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

IIT

Moved from Miscellaneous

I am doing my third year Bachelors in technology in mechanical engineering in some crappy college in Hyderabad,India.I have a lot of technological aptitude but due to my low thinking nature and laziness I couldn't make it to Indian Institute of technology.Now my Btech aggregate may be about 50%.I may at the most raise it to 65% by the time I complete my fourth year.I dearly want to work hard for GATE and get into IIT and do my MTech in IC engines.But will IIT accept a candidate with such a low score in BTech even if I pass GATE with an excellent score.Will it sideline me for a candidate with a good BTech score and a good GATE score? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.63.109.14 (talk) 11:12, 28 March 2009 (UTC)