Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing

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September 10

Screen recording

What *free* program can I use to make a video recording of my screen? Preferably one that I can select parts of the screen, and one that outputs standard formats such as mpg, mov, avi, or wmv. — [Mac Davis] (talk) (Desk|Help me improve)

CamStudio might meet your needs. 1001001 04:20, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

try using fraps

Making stop-action digital movies

This is related to the previous question...

If I have a series of still digital images, what free (or at least cheap) software can I use to make them into a movie ? These could be computer generated images, stop-action photography, etc. I might eventually like to add an audio track, but that wouldn't be the first step. It would also be nice if there was a way to morph between consecutive images, to add more frames and make a less jumpy movie. It would also be nice if it could accept all images in a directory, in alphabetical order, and make them into a movie, as opposed to me having to individually specify the name and order of each pic (there could be thousands, so this could be very time consuming). StuRat 05:13, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

There's a good rundown of stop-motion animation software here. --Canley 03:37, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, but can anyone give me a specific recommendation ? Also, that site seems to focus mainly on hardware, while I only need software to combine existing still pics. StuRat 05:37, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

If you were looking for software to make animated .gifs, unfreez may be of interest to you. If not, I recommend trying to use Virtual Dub or some other video editing program. - Ridge Racer 19:19, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, those look good ! StuRat 05:12, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

---

Question Status: Answered

StuRat 19:56, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

Linux

Why has Linux become so successful compared to other Unix OS's? --Russoc4 04:47, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

Because of the Benevolent Dictator for Life... 1001001 05:06, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

when did linux become successful? 12:10, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

Compared to the other flavors of Unix, Linux is FAR more prevalent. See Linux adoption for more details. 1001001 17:21, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

I said successful compared to other Unix's, Mr. Noname. Thanks for not answering my question ref desk, assuming you really want me to look for "liunx adoption". Otherwise, I'll assume you meant "Linux adoption" and thank you for the link. ;) --Russoc4 18:41, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

A few of the obvious main reasons are that Linux is open source, (generally) free, and is frequently updated (especially when you consider all of the different distrobutions as a whole).  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  02:41, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Getting started on Linux

I have an old computer that I've successfully installed Slackware Linux onto. What I've run into now is my biggest question, Now what? I'd like to learn how to use it and such but I've never run anything that was a command line interface and I'm rather lost as to where to start actually learning anything. Any ideas? I have the book that Slackware puts out and I have the horse head book (Linux in a Nutshell) and Learning the bash shell from O'Reilly. I just really kind of need a big arrow that points at a page and says "Start here!" I don't mind being over my head as long as I know where I'm going... ya know? Dismas|^(talk) 09:32, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

Well, you could start with a game or two of nethack :) --Robert Merkel 02:56, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

It's really weird that you would suggest that since I was just reading that very article while you posted the above comment. I wasn't going through computer related articles intentionally either. I went from kraken > kraken in popular culture > nethack > Klein bottle > then to check my watchlist where I saw you had responded to my question.Dismas|^(talk) 03:09, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

My recommendation: start by Googling (for instance, "Linux for beginners" or "Getting started Linux"). A quick 30-second browse showed me a number of articles that should help you get started. And always feel free to post more specific questions here or at one of the countless Linux help forums around the 'net... Good luck, and may the penguin be with you! :) — QuantumEleven 08:44, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

graphics card sharing system ramm

I have a Nvidia Geforce Go 7300 with 512mb videoram

I want to know if any of this is being shared off the system ram... and if so how much... is thre a way to do this??

many thanks

pulo 10:13, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

I'm not completely sure, but I'd be willing to wager that your card will use its videoRAM before using the system mrmory. Usually the issue is with integrated graphics controllers, which ALWAYS use system memory. Wooty 02:15, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Correct - unless your video card is in a laptop and specifies that it uses shared memory, it will use its own separate memory (the 512 MB). Once it runs out, it won't use system memory, it simply won't render any more - as far as I know, there is no way for a video card to use system memory once its own memory is full. Hope this helps! — QuantumEleven 08:37, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

origional poster: sory to confuse you but i used incorect termonaligy in my first post It is in a laptop... Toshiba Satellite p100.. what im asking is.... it says it has 512mb graphics ram... in for example system information:

Name NVIDIA GeForce Go 7300 PNP Device ID PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_01D7&SUBSYS_FF311179&REV_A1\4&31B7BFB9&0&0008 Adapter Type GeForce Go 7300, NVIDIA compatible Adapter Description NVIDIA GeForce Go 7300 Adapter RAM 512.00 MB (536,870,912 bytes) Installed Drivers nv4_disp.dll Driver Version 6.14.10.8320 INF File oem15.inf (nv4 section)

how can i find out if the 512mb spevefied her is shated or videorampulo 10:52, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Hey...:p A quick look on the nVidia website shows that it does not produce 512MB GeForce Go 7300s...So I guess not. Another way to check is to look at the nVidia drivers and control centre to see if it is using "Turbocache" a nVidia term used to describe when the GPU utilises the system RAM. Ronaldh 13:27, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

shattered screen

stupid question i know buttt....... does anyone know of a link where i can get a realistic picture of a shattered screen that when looked at...it looks like my screen is shattered/broken thanks

Hmmm, didn't have much luck finding any high-quality shots (most of them, of course, are low-res digicam pics). Would you settle for a BSOD?  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  02:38, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

[1] is that what you mean? [2] is a wallpaper that gives you the effect. ~ct.e 23:01, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

HalfLife2 not working with bootcamp

Hello!

I have just bought a macmini (1.66 Intel Core Duo, 512 RAM) and i have installed a bootcamped WindowsXP on it.

I've installed a few games in the windows partition which work fine (Halo, EveOnline) but for some reason HalfLife2 deathmatch isn't working.

It starts, plays the valve intro fine and gets to the loading screen. As soon as the actual menu options load however the screen goes black. If i move the mouse to where the menu would be i can still hear the rollover sound effects, and clicking one of these menu options makes the 'option selected' clicking noise, so i assume they are there, i just can't see them.

So does anybody have any idea as to why everything works fine up until the point the menu is loaded?

This sounds like a DirectX problem, try running dxdiag.exe (Start-> Run). In addition, you may want to check to see if your hardware has the correct drivers. This is *not* a problem with bootcamp, as bootcamp is merely an automated Windows installer.--Frenchman113 on wheels! 15:18, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

Wow, nice computer man! Are you going to get Halo 2 when it comes out on Vista? — [Mac Davis] (talk) (Desk|Help me improve)

If HL2 isn't working on your computer, it's probably not your fault, or your computer's fault. Steam was made with many bugs and glitches, and a study among gamers (Done by G4) once said that Half Life 2 and Steam actually run on less than 70% of computers for no apparent reason. ~ Porphyric Hemophiliac § 20:36, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Fuel cell batterys

Ive heard rumors about laptops having a fuel cell battery... lasting 23 days before refuling.... is this true or just a rumore???????pulo 11:17, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

Sounds like something that is false at current. Keep in mind that is over 550 hours of run time. — [Mac Davis] (talk) (Desk|Help me improve)

Depends on how big the fuel cell's fuel supply is. Even assuming the most efficient fuel, pure hydrogen, in the fuel cell, you'd probably need at least 600 grams of it to run a laptop for that long, and a hydrogen tank that holds that much would be too bulky and heavy to be practical.

The only thing that would come close to the kind of performance you're seeking is some kind of nuclear battery, but I wouldn't count on seeing those in a civilian notebook computer any time soon. --Robert Merkel 05:56, 11 September 2006 (UT

Origional poster: if they ever did come out with fule cell batterys how long would they last for? pulo 10:50, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

It obviously depends on how big the tank is. A chemist could do you a much more precise calculation, but as I understand it the theoretical energy available from the fuel cell reaction is basically the same as if you burned the material (the initial materials and the end product are the same). It's then a question of how much energy is in the specific fuel in question, and how efficiently the fuel cell converts the available energy into electricity. Judging by our fuel cell article, a typical fuel cell might get roughly 50% efficiency. The energy available from hydrogen is listed in heat of combustion. So, from that, you can figure out how much energy you can get out of a quantity of hydrogen - the unit used is joules.

Then, you need to figure out how much energy you need to run a laptop for the desired length of time. A bit of googling turned up these numbers for laptop power usage. Watts, the power consumption figure, is actually joules per second. So, if you play around with the numbers, you can figure out how much hydrogen you need to run a laptop for the specified period of time.

One other point of interest is comparing the energy density of batteries with that of hydrogen fuel. Lithium ion batteries have an energy density (by mass) roughly 200 times less than hydrogen. What keeps batteries in the game is that a fuel cell needs a bulky tank to hold the hydrogen, and the mass of the fuel cell itself.

In terms of practical fuel cell designs for laptops , thus far the mass of equipment needed for the fuel cell and the tank has been so bulky as to be as big as battery that could run a laptop for a very long time. here's an example of what the manufacturers are working on. --Robert Merkel

Optimal Settings for YouTube videos?

What would be the optimal settings for a video being uploaded to YouTube? I recently uploaded a video in H.264 format at 448 x 336 and it looked very nice. To be quite frank though, it looks like (expletive) on YouTube. Can someone give me some recommendations for settings that will maintain a decent picture after being uploaded to YouTube?

Thanks!

Good question, I am going to be uploading videos on YouTube (H.264 or mov), and I want to know how! — [Mac Davis] (talk) (Desk|Help me improve)

Guess: YouTube downsamples your videos before publishing them. Dysprosia 02:51, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

I'd recommend uploading the highest quality file possible, since youtube is going to resample and reencode your video into their format. H.264 is a rather lossy format depending on the bitrate. Try outputting the largest, best quality file that fits their limits and using that. Night Gyr (talk/Oy) 03:04, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

September 11

Visual Basic 6, INet control, and firewalls

Hi,

I have created a program on Visual Basic 6 that uses an INet control, both to load the source code from webpages, and to upload pages to a server. Although the program works fine with all firewalls disabled, a number of firewalls (including the Windows Firewall) block key functions of the program, but only partially. For example, Norton stops the control loading all of the source code, cutting it off part way through, and a number of firewalls stop the INet control making uploads to the server, in one case allowing the program to delete the file it was supposed to be overwriting, but then not allowing it to replace the file with the new one. While the program works with all firewalls disabled, this is obviously not a very workable solution. I have tried adding the program to the allow lists of the firewalls etc., but this does not solve the problem. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks. TomPhil 00:07, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Some fire wall programs will block traffic on all ports except for ports that you have given explicit permission. I suggest trying different values for the LocalPort and RemotePort properties of the control and see if you get the same results. One possible solution would be to try using port 80 used by HTTP as most fire walls will allow this by default. Also, if you are using a FTP solution the fire wall may be blocking access to ports 20 and 21. Ryan Roos 03:06, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

African Adventure

Can you install the African Adventure and the Endangered Species expansion packs for Zoo Tycoon 2 and get the features of both? 71.30.197.252 00:41, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

I would assume so. Is there some reason why you wouldn't be able to? --Optichan 15:44, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Computer Freeze

I have a modem attached to my computer, and I use dail-up internet. Therefore, my telephones and my computer are connected to the same telephone line that goes through my house. The problem is, that, whenever someone calls, and the computer is turned on (but not connected to the internet) the computer freezes. It immediatly freezes when someone calls. What am I to do to solve this problem? My modem is a ESS ES56H-PI Data Fax Modem.--Codell ^{[ Talk ▪ Contrib. ]} 01:41, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

You probably have the "Wake up on Modem" settings enabled on your BIOS, or modem driver. This can sometimes cause this problem. To access the BIOS and check, you will need to hit a key just when you turn on your computer (when it POSTS)...this key is usually the Delete, F1, F12 or Esc key. Once in the BIOS, look for the "Wake up on Modem" setting and diable it...also disable "Wake up on LAN" if you are not using that as well. If the problem lays in the driver and you are using Windows, go to Device Manager (Press Win-key + Pause/Break; then click on the Hardware tab) and find your modem, and look at the propeties of it. It may have additional configuration options, you will need to find the right one. Ronaldh 13:19, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Do you have call waiting? If so, you should have your modem disable it while it's dialing up. In most cases, this can be done by dialing *70. If you have Windows, it should let you specify numbers to dial before dialing the number. Shardsofmetal [ Talk • Contribs ] 02:06, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

Internal Speaker

Is there any way that I can set my internal PC speaker to be my default computer speaker for anything? By internal PC speaker, I mean that speaker that clicks and beeps while the computer is starting up.--Codell ^{[ Talk ▪ Contrib. ]} 02:54, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

I can remember some utilities back in the MS-DOS days that could handle playing a bunch of standard formats (like .WAV and possibly .midi) through the PC speaker (one of the utilities had a name something like WEPLANE, meaning WE PLAy NEthing) though I've never heard of such a utility for newer Windows systems.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  03:29, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Some on-board sound chips use the PC speaker when no external speakers are connected (e.g. the Fujitsu Siemens computers at my workplace and my Sun Ultra 5). I remember my good old Pro AudioSpectrum 16 could also do that (you had to connect the PC speaker to the card), but I doubt any modern sound cards can. —da Pete (ばか) 08:19, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

I think it would much to do with the motherboard as well as the soundcard, and using the PC speaker as an alternative sound output is a feature not typical to modern components - you'll have your work cut out for little gain here I'm afraid. 62.232.224.36 09:48, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Here's your answer: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q138857/

It's even still supported by Microsoft!  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  10:16, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

It's still supported by Microsoft for windows 95/98/me, not NT/2000/XP/Vista. See the discussion Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing#audio drivers and directsound for a discussion on how it works, why support was dropped, and why it was a stupid idea anyway. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 21:17, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Thanks!--Codell ^{[ Talk ▪ Contrib. ]} 21:10, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

One option to play WAV files through the PC speaker's internal digitized sound is a program called "NuSound", which I picked up from somewhere on the Internet (I forget where, possibly inside a ZIP file listed at http://cd.textfiles.com ).

As it is a DOS program, you will want to get DOSBox to effectively use it optimally. DOSBox has a function that emulates the PC speaker (and AdLib, Soundblaster, Gravis UltraSound, etc. cards). --Guroadrunner 05:51, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

how to develope a non english site

Hi, I would like to develop a web site in Hindi [Indian language]. i would like to use dynamic fonts. so that the visitor are not bothered to download and install the fonts. any help will be appreciated. reply to - (read the notice above about not including your email address!)

You have to assume, at the very least, that people browsing your website have Hindi support installed on their computer. There should be one or more Hindi fonts that are considered "standard" with Hindi versions of Windows, and if there is a handful, you can basically switch between all of them without worrying about incorrectly displaying text on most browsers. Someone else will have to help you if you must include less popular or non-standard Hindi fonts on your page; it is possible to display them "dynamically", but it's a rather involved proccess.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  10:22, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Simple OOT stuff

I've never been that good at programming in good object oriented form, and I've got a very simple question for someone who's more used to organizing class inheritances than I am (basically not at all).

I'll use Tetris as an example. There is a Piece class which inherits from Origin (all pieces have the same origin coordinates) and uses the Block class for each of x blocks in the piece. A lot of the specifications for this implementation of Tetris are loaded from a file when the program is first run, e.g. number of blocks per piece and the configuration of the blocks in each of those pieces.

Piece contains a few functions, like createPiece(int type) and movePiece(Coord xy), and an array of Blocks. When createPiece() is run (essentially initialization of an instance of Piece), the Block array is initialized according to the configuration of blocks for type that was specified in the file that was loaded (and parsed) when the program was first run.

Now, if my problem isn't evident, I'm not sure how to handle the config. settings here; I don't know where they fit in. Should they be global variables for the program (is that the most reasonable solution)? Or should they be inherited, included in some other way that I haven't thought of? Or should the configuration settings be passed as a parameter every time they are needed? Thanks in advance for any help.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  04:35, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

class Piece inherits Origin ()
  Block [cfg.blockLimit()] blockArray;
  
  createPiece (int type)
    blockArray = cfg.stdBlockPos (type)
  end createPiece

end class Piece

Here's some pseudocode where I've used a global class (or structure) to store the configuration settings.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  04:46, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

It seems to me you're doing things in a rather odd way, which might be why things don't quite make sense to you. Firstly - if you're creating a new Piece object, have a constructor (that's what they're for), not a general createPiece method. Secondly your inheritance heirarchy is weird - in general class inheritance is thought to mean an "is a" relationship (not a "has a"). So if you made a subclass of piece that was LshapedPiece then that's a sensible subclass, as LshapedPiece is-a Piece. But Piece isn't an Origin (it doesn't make sense in English, so it doesn't make sense in code). Rather the origin is a parameter that's passed to the constructor. The Piece's current location, its orientation, its colour, and the configuration of its blocks should all be stored in instance member variables (like you have the block array now). In this case I'd question whether there's enough separate info in a block to justify it being its own class instance - it derives most if not all of the info you need to draw it or decide if it's collided from Piece, so making a separate Block class might just be overkill. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 11:18, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the response! I made Piece a subclass of Origin only because some of the literature I used for reference a while ago made a point of creating all shapes as subclasses of points, because a) they are both bound essentially to a single x,y coord, b) they will use the same methods for translation, etc., c) the shapes simply add to the point's methods, which it claims classifies a shape as a "kind-of" point at the class level, and "is-a" point when they're actually initiated as objects. It was general OOT literature mind you, and not an actual programming guide in any real language, so it might be a little weak on the practical side, though it's all I've had to work with, so I have no way of knowing! (yet.)

As for Block... well it's obviously not written in the pseudocode, but I imagine it would have methods like "drawBlock()" and "setBlockColor()", and inherit the DrawableObject class or something like that. Do you think it makes more sense to include these methods too in the Piece class description? I'll admit that I was trying to make this as OO as possible, for no real reason except that's what I expect people would expect me to do, it being implemented in an OO language! But if that's not a good idea, then maybe I'm more confused than I thought I was D  :!

I still have no idea what I should do with all the variables I pulled from the config file : (.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  12:24, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

As to config files whch turn into global data, you probably want a single object (e.g. of class Game) which stores that stuff. So things like score, high score, and preferences that came from the config file would be in there. You can just declare a class Game and remember to only make one instance of it (or make it non-instanciable, and just keep everything in class-member variables) or you can use the Singleton pattern which makes sure there's only one instance of that class. The secret is class-member variables and class-member functions (denoted in the Java and C# implementations on that page with static), which means that they apply to the class and not to a specific instance of the class. Or, if you're using an OO language which isn't as pure as Java, you can just declare a global variable ("pure OO" languages are strict - they don't allow anything to exist outside a class or object). -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 13:37, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

OK, thanks a lot!  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  13:54, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

lilypond code problems

Can someone please tell me whats wrong with the code below? Thanks!

\version "2.9.17"
\header {
    title = "Honor Guard March"
    instrument = "Trombone"
    composer = "R.M. GEISLER"
}
\relative c {
}
{ \clef bass\time 2/4\ bes4\accent\ f g8 f8 ees4\accent c'8 bes8 }

Log:

# -*-compilation-*-
Changing working directory to `C:/Documents and Settings/Owner/My Documents/lilypond'
Processing `C:/Documents and Settings/Owner/My Documents/lilypond/honor guard march for trombone11.ly'
Parsing...
C:/Documents and Settings/Owner/My Documents/lilypond/honor guard march for trombone11.ly:9:21: error: syntax error, unexpected "\\C[haracter]"
{ \clef bass\time 2/4
                     \ bes4\accent\ f g8 f8 ees4\accent c'8 bes8 }

C:/Documents and Settings/Owner/My Documents/lilypond/honor guard march for trombone11.ly:9:34: error: syntax error, unexpected "\\C[haracter]"
{ \clef bass\time 2/4\ bes4\accent
                                  \ f g8 f8 ees4\accent c'8 bes8 }

C:/Documents and Settings/Owner/My Documents/lilypond/honor guard march for trombone11.ly:9:0: error: errors found, ignoring music expression

{ \clef bass\time 2/4\ bes4\accent\ f g8 f8 ees4\accent c'8 bes8 }

--hello, i'm a member | talk to me! 05:46, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

• Are those backslashes after 2/4 and accent supposed to be there? Remove them, and it compiles and displays just fine. --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 14:51, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

real VNC

Hi

On the VNC Server there is an annoying little white icon that is displayed down in the taskbar that turns black when soneone is connected to the server.... is thre any way at all i can remove this.... i did the best i could by hiding it so that it would only display if you expand the taskbar (clicking the arrow) yet after a day or two it just came back... ive been told by numerous people that there should be an option in the server properties that removes this icon but i have checked.... there is no option to remove it..... im guessing because this is the main way that that the server is suutdown (right clicking the icon in the taskbar) .... this is not a problem for me though because i hae set a registry string in the run key that makes the server run on startup.... the server is never closed.....if i want it to be closed all i do is delete the key.... anyone have any ideas at all????????? much apreciatedpulo 10:49, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

I haven't used it for a while, but the trick is to enable it as a windows service (you are using windows, correct?). Go to the start meny, find the RealVNC folder, and there should be an option that says something like "Register RealVNC as a service" or something. Oskar 22:25, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Help with AutoWikiBrowser

I am having trouble using AWB. After having set up my procedure, when I press "Start the process", I keep getting the error message "You are not enabled to use this." It then opens a window to Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/CheckPage, on which I am clearly listed as a registered/enabled user. It is not a problem with my .NET framework either, as I just downloaded the most current version. Can anyone help me? --Ginkgo100 ^{talk · e@} 20:22, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

That's happened to me before. I think the problem was that I wasn't using the current version of AWB. Is your version still supported? --Optichan 15:45, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

equation, picture, math symbols not accessible

Pervasive problem, in many but not all articles, eg. article General Relativity no figures or equations are visible. Some technical articles, as well as some of Wikipedia's, print and display distorted tangles of lines (like #, but distorted) for symbols inconsistently, so tangle for "nabla" might take different forms on different lines. Example is lower case "sigmas" on line "Greek" in box below this entry box look like mosquitos. I'm using RH-9 and Mozilla. Default browser settings. I'm computer newby. Thanks- dave ----20:48, 11 September 2006 (UTC)~~

That is indeed somewhat strange - what operating system (Mac, Windows...) are you using? And, pardon my ignorance, what is RH-9?

So if I understand correctly, the greek text in the box below the edit window (characters like α, μ, π and ω) don't display correctly. That would indicate that you have a problem with your installed fonts - do you have a unicode font (like Arial Unicode MS) installed on your computer? (if you're running Windows, go to Start Menu -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Fonts) — QuantumEleven 08:11, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Just for general information, "RH-9" is Red Hat Linux version 9. --Tardis 14:58, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

try going to my preferences --> Math --> Always render PNG. see it that fixes it. Jon513 12:53, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Will a bluetooth mobile phone appear on the mac os x desktop as a drive?

I am going to be buying a bluetooth phone that will probably be compatible with isync and i'd like to know if when the phone is paired up with my mac, will the phone appear as a drive on the mac desktop? thanks! 70.80.66.195 20:59, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Coloured pixels in black text

Supposedly black text contains more coloured pixels than black.

On my computer, under Windows XP, Mozilla Firefox renders anti-aliased black-on-white text using orange, purple, red, blue and beige pixels. What purpose does this serve? When I first noticed it, I thought it was an artifact of my screen (an LCD runnning its native resolution of 1280x1024), but I was able to see it very clearly in a magnified screen shot, part of which is shown at right. If it helps any, the left side of a stroke seems to have a warm cast while the right has a cold cast. NeonMerlin 21:47, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

See subpixel rendering and ClearType. Basically, it increases readability. You can turn it off in your monitor settings (appearance tab -> advanced I believe). Cheers! Oskar 22:19, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Ahh, sorry, not "Advanced", but "Appearance tab" -> "Effects". Oskar 22:22, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

The different colors make it easier to read; it is smoother. Try making something you scan in monochrome—it looks like poo poo. — [Mac Davis] (talk) (Desk|Help me improve)

Very technical term there, Mac :). —Daniel (‽) 19:29, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Wow, cool! JianLi 01:16, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

amaroK not playing

er yay, another linux newbie question. amaroK isn't playing my mp3s. I know I have sound, because the startup and shutdown sounds play. What am I doing wrong? And why isn't the screen changing resolution when I move the slider and click Apply? ~ct.e 22:55, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

and it now doesn't connect to the network! might be a dhcp problem, not sure. ~ct.e 00:08, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

What distro are you using? Have MP3s ever worked? --Optichan 15:43, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

September 12

Dual core VS single core

I judge processor speed stricly by clock speed. that means, i dont consider an AMD 3500+ to be "equivalent" to a 3.5 GHz, but rather 2.something whatever its clock spead is. Similarly, i dont care if a processor is single core, dual core, or even quad core. id rather have a high-end Pentium 4 3.6 or 3.8 GHz than a Core 2 Duo 2.16 or 2.33 GHz. am i wrong?.   00:39, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

It depends on what you're doing. Different architectures have different advantages in different situations. What sort of application are you looking for? High performance gaming? Scientific computing? - Rainwarrior 02:21, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Yes, you're wrong. See Instructions Per Cycle to get some insight into why. As rainwarrior says, it varies according to the task. In general, though, the performance differences between AMD and Intel chips at a given price point is not that large; if it was, word would get out and the sluggard would be forced to drop their prices. See also benchmark for more insight into the difficulties of comparing the performance of computer systems. --Robert Merkel 02:40, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Indeed. Look at benchmarks first. Many would say you are wrong. --Proficient 06:33, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

I'm afraid processors are about more than just clock speed - for instance, the amount and type of cache makes quite a difference too. Different manufacturers build their processors differently, so an Intel clocked at 3GHz is not equivalent to an AMD clocked at 3GHz. Your best bet, as has been said before, is to check out benchmark test results for the applications or tasks you're likely to be using/doing (yes, this is important, as some architectures perform better in certain situations than others). You can get them in many PC magazines, or on sites like Tom's Hardware. — QuantumEleven 08:04, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Yep, definetely. Although the clock speed may seem to be an easy indication on how fast a CPU performs, there are many, many other factors that need to be counted in. Without getting too complex, it is important to know that processors from Intel and AMD differ greatly in architecture, and you may have noticed that the new Core 2 Duos from Intel have had a dramatic drop in clock speed from its older generation Pentium 4s (using the 'Netburst' architecure')...yet perform so much better. This can be attributed to many different things, such as the L1 and L2 caches, FSB, number of cores, as well as the pipeline of the processor and how it arranges instructions to be processed. Additionally, it is important to realise that depending on the tasks you perform on the computer, you will get highly different results. As mentioned by QuantumEleven, it is a good idea to check out various sites and magazines to see how a selected processor performs compared to others. Ronaldh 11:50, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Latex help

Hi. I am writing up a document using latex, right now, everytime I start a new section it starts off on a new page, I was wondering if there was some way to change that so the new section would continue on the same page as the last. I'm using the "article" document class. Thanks. - Akamad 02:37, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

What command are you using to start the sections? \section shouldn't start a new page in that class, but I'd believe that \part (if it's even defined in article) and/or \chapter might. To actually change the commands would probably require an unpleasantly large host of \renewcommand calls. --Tardis 15:15, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

I just figured out what the problem was. I had each of my sections in seperate files and was using the \include command to put them into my main one. So it was actually the \include that was putting them on new pages and not the \section. I changed it to \input and it works fine. Thanks anyway, Tardis. - 08:34, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Free Unzip Program ?

I had a trial version of a Zip/Unzip program, but is there one that's just permanently free with full functionality ? StuRat 05:15, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

FilZip is powerful and completely free.

Is Stuffit only demo/trial for Windows? On Mac it is fully functional. Actually Mac OS X has its own zip/unziping integrated. :P — [Mac Davis] (talk) (Desk|Help me improve)

Windows 98 here. StuRat 07:11, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

infoZIP, the granddaddy of all free ZIP implementations. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 07:48, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

7-Zip supports ZIP (as well as lots of other compression formats) and is free. — QuantumEleven 07:58, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

See also List of file archivers and Comparison of file archivers. Weregerbil 08:04, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Let me back up 7-Zip. Its 7z format is extremely effecient, and it has compatibility with a bunch of other formats. If not that, Winrar is fairly good (see below), but it has annoying nag screens unless you pay up. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 21:47, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Use Winrar. It's permantely free with full functionality.--Taida 22:34, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Since when? Take a look at WinRAR's website, you can download a trial version but are asked to pay for it if you want to continue using it. — QuantumEleven 08:44, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

The key word is 'asked' - it gives you a popup every time you start it, that's it. Still works fine. Tyrhinis 12:05, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the answers. :-) StuRat 10:09, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

---

Question Status: Answered

StuRat 19:55, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

Phishing

I know it's a bad idea to transmit one's credit card details by email, but what about sending one's bank details (account number and sort code) by email? Is this a bad idea? What is the nature and magnitude of the risk involved? --Richardrj ^{talk email} 06:21, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

That's probably even worse. They can likely drain your entire account and you may not be able to get it back. StuRat 07:09, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

I would be even more concerned about possible identity theft.

I think that is messier though—meaner and often reported in the news, but messier and more difficult. The best way is to drain. — [Mac Davis] (talk) (Desk|Help me improve)

Nobody who legitimatly needs that information would ask you to send it in an e-mail. They would want to use a secure method of communications. HighInBC 23:52, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Credit card security

I occasionally see online vendors without secure websites suggesting that the buyer transmit their credit card details by email, but splitting the number into two emails. Is there any point to this? Surely, if a hacker can intercept one email, he can intercept two, and simply put them together. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 06:25, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

It might defeat some automatic filtering software that looks for credit card info in a single email, but doesn't know how to combine two emails to get the info. StuRat 07:08, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Shrug, transmitting insecure email is a crappy way to do it anyway. Even a basic public-key cryptography scheme would have defeated an interception. And with software that automates it, it's not exactly hard to do. I wouldn't trust an online vendor that asks you to transmit emails in the clear. ColourBurst 14:07, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

What it comes down to is that you are interested in purchasing something from a vendor who doesn't want the electronic trail of credit card processing related to his/her website. Why? What is he/she hiding? If the business is shady enough that credit card processing has to be hidden, why trust that you will receive whatever it is you are interested in purchasing? --Kainaw ^(talk) 14:24, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

OK, here is the page I was talking about [3]. It's not a shady business at all, it's a perfectly respected and above-board operation. They say that they are working to launch secure credit card processing, so the suggestion of splitting the card number into two emails is just a temporary workaround. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 14:36, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

They accept PayPal. PayPal accepts credit cards securely online. What's the problem? Perhaps they should pay attention next time they are logged into PayPal. It has a rather cheap online "store" for small businesses. --Kainaw ^(talk) 14:39, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Sure, but maybe they are trying to cater for people who (for whatever reason, and I admit I can't think of one) might not want to use Paypal. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 14:43, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

I know one. I have a senile bastard of a father-in-law. He went to EBay and bid on two items and won. They required payment by PayPal. He went there and saw the login/create an account screen. He did not see that he could submit payment with just a credit card. He didn't want to create an account, so he got mad and refused to pay for the items he bought on EBay. Then, he rebid on another item, which required payment by PayPal. He won it, and refused to pay for it. Finally, he was suspended by EBay for non-payment. Now, he refuses to use EBay or PayPal because he says they are all crooks. --Kainaw ^(talk) 14:46, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

There is a case against Paypal; read this. It's illiterately written but the point made is a good one, I think. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 14:53, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

How can you tell? I'm not even sure what the point is. (Kainaw's father-in-law seems to be a fairly average online shopper, in terms of sophistication.) --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 19:23, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Net mlm

Is this recently-created article about a notable or a not notable neologism? --Dweller 12:32, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

This is the sort of word that is only ever used by mlm companies themselves; just like many other members of the corporate-speak language, especially in the computing biz, no real human uses it. Sourced information could be added to the Multi-level marketing article, though, on how the internet has changed the mlm industry, with maybe a sidenote about the term net mlm (right now this gets only a paragraph though it's probably the best thing ever to happen to mlm). Also, mlm should have a redirect to the article above. Fastfinge

"before" object property and the "Take" and "Give" actions in Inform 6

I've been making an "interactive fiction" game using Inform 6, and I have an animate object that has a before property overriding the Take action, basically along the lines of:

before [;
Take:
move self to Player;
print_ret "You got the object! Good for you.";
];

So that the user can pick up the animate object instead of getting the "I don't suppose [animate object] would like that" message. However, the problem I've encountered is that if the object is on the ground or in a container, and the user types something like "give object to Bill", the interpreter first calls the Take action on that object (so that it's in the player object), then performs the Give action. However, with the Take action for that object in its before property, if the user tries to give the object when they aren't carrying it, they get the object using the before Take routine, but then the Give action is never called as it would be with any normal object. The only way the Give action will proceed correctly if the player isn't holding the object before trying to Give it to something is if I use print "You got ... you."; instead of print_ret. However, then the message for an animate object, "I don't suppose ..." comes up when the player is simply taking the object normally (i.e. "take object"), which I don't want. I've checked all the Inform FAQs I can find, looked through the library files (oddly enough, it doesn't look like the Give action ever calls the take action or is even set up to deal with cases where the player doesn't have the object), and tried using the after property, but I've been unable to figure this out. If anyone has an ideas or has been able to fix this problem in a game they did, I'd greatly appreciate the assistance. Thanks!

hi,

This isn't a particularly good place for extremely spacific language questions; inform is a somewhat rare language, as is interactive fiction a somewhat rare art-form. I think your best bet is to take your question to the usenet group rec.arts.int-fiction. Last I checked google groups carries this group, so you shouldn't need a usenet server. Sorry I can't be of more help, but I'm a tads user, myself. Fastfinge

It's been a while since I worked with Inform, but a quick review of the library reference suggests that you might be able to handle the entire action before it's broken down into Take and Give. The life hook on the recipient seems like a good place, or perhaps trapping Give on the animate carryable. But it might be necessary to override the library's implementation of Give (I'm sure you can find it somewhere!) if none of these traps would run before the Take trap you already have. It's too bad that the before routine isn't trivalent: "process this normally" (currently false), "this action has already failed" (currently true), or "this action has succeeded" (currently not available). Does this help at all? --128.165.123.18 18:32, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Sort of. I've already looked into the library extensively, and the verb definition for Give seems to have nothing to handle the case of the user trying to give an object they don't have to another (animate) object- there's only cases along the lines of held 'to' creature, creature held, etc (I actually went as far as to take the routine for Take out of the verb code library the normal verb library calls, but it doesn't seem to have anything to handle itself being called by Give). Your suggestion of getting into the life routines of the recipient objects might work, but I'd really rather have it handled by the one object with the actual before property for Take itself. Still, I appreciate the suggestions, and I might just check out the rec.arts groups FastFinge suggested. I'm rather surprised that Inform doesn't seem to have something to handle this type of situation, as it seems like something that could potentially crop up quite a bit.

Quick update: I checked the rec.arts.int-fiction group and found a workable solution (there's a variable action_to_be that identifies the next action, if there is one). Thanks for the help, everyone!

You could upgrade to Inform 7, it makes that sort of thing a bit easier. Luigi30 (Taλk) 13:04, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

how do i simulate the vc++ program that i had created for dc motor control?

i had created a program in vc++.this program is used to control the speed as well as direction of dc motor(12v) .Now i want to simulate the program for realization.... how to simulate it?..is there any software to simulate it? refer complete details of program ...etc in "http://www.multyremotes.com/DC-motor-control-in-VC++.htm"

I'm afraid I don't understand the question -- define "simulate the program for realization". If you want to run the program, but have precise control over how fast it runs and what it runs, and be able to see its internal state, you're talking about running the program under a debugger; VC++ has one integrated that probably does everything you want in that regard. If you're talking about simulating the operation of the motor, you probably want to write a separate program that reads and interprets the output of the existing program to check its validity. Does that help? --Tardis 15:27, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

my reply:

sorry i had asked the question wrongly!

tardis said that "simulating the operation of motor"....how it will be?.. can anyone help me?

i had clicked the link "Tardis" for help...but it is not reachable!...help me!

I imagine such a simulation program would need to know the parameters of the motor, such as it's size, and it could then take the inputs from the control program and use those to simulate the motor. If you don't already have such a simulation program, however, then I would think it would be easier to test on an actual motor. StuRat 16:17, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

Also, I've looked at your web site. It's full of spelling and grammar errors. You really need to have somebody proofread it for you. Do you know any native English speakers who could help you with that ? StuRat 16:24, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

Elementary Wikitable query

I'm sorry to ask you really clever guys such a basic question, but I know next to nothing about HTML. I have just made (what I consider to be) a nice wikitable here:

• Scottish_Parliament_election,_2007#Opinion_polls

I nicked it from various other tables of opinion polls for other elections. The problem is that Scotland has two votes (local constituency, plus regional), and thus two parameters are measured in (most of the) polls. How do I break the column for each party into "1st vote" and "2nd vote"?

(If I am asking this at completely the wrong page, please say!) Thanks. --Mais oui! 18:37, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Hmm, try putting "colspan=2" as a parameter in front of the column headers, and replacing semicolons with double pipes where appropriate. The first row would then look like the below table. Hyenaste ^(tell) 18:52, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Poll	Dates	Lab		SNP		Con		LD		Grn		SSP		oth
Sunday Times/YouGov	5-7 Sept 2006	30%	27%	29%	29%	14%	14%	18%	15%	-	-	-	-	10%	15%

Thanks. But I'm afraid that that doesn't seem to work: if I apply that then the table seems to progressively "squash up" towards the right hand side. Also, I was kind of hoping that we might be able to do a little sub-split in the header which said "1st vote" and "2nd vote". Any ideas?

Sorry: I was wrong - it does work! Many thanks! But I wonder if you can tell me how to put a wee split in the header to put in the "1st", "2nd" clarification? --Mais oui! 19:15, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

I've made that change, but you may adjust it if you wish. Hyenaste ^(tell) 19:19, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. --Mais oui! 19:24, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

new itunes

with iTunes 7.0 out now i have heard that if you have an acount one one computer then install iTunes on a different one but then sign in to the account off the first computer; and then you plug your iPod into your new computer that it wont reset your iPod. is this true?

I don't think it use to reset your iPod. I believe that is true (your question). — [Mac Davis] (talk) (Desk|Help me improve)

it never usto reset the ipod... even with the old itunes.... it always prompted you asking if you wanted to copy the music from the new computer to your ipod.... you just simply clicked nopulo 13:22, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

The only problem with all forms of iTunes before a certain version is that JHymn won't work with it. (JHymn extracts iTunes files, strips their DRM, and creates a MP3 file for you to use on, say, WinAmp.) --Guroadrunner 06:03, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

ALi PCI to USB Open Host Controller issue

I recently bought and plugged in a PCI USB2 hub with a total of about seven ports. However, Windows XP says it had a problem during installation, USB devices I plug into it receive power but not data, and Device Manager lists "Ali PCI to USB Open Host Controller" three times, with a Code 10 (This device cannot start) error on each. I've tried uninstalling it and re-running Add Hardware, in which case the same error occurs; I've tried unplugging it and plugging it back in; and I've tried, in desperation, the Help Troubleshooter. As a second question, has anyone ever been helped by one of those troubleshooters?

Any Ideas? Any help would be very greatly appreciated. 84.66.1.88 21:02, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

My guess is the card is defective. If your card is still under warantee, I would reccommend returning it and getting a new one. I purchased a generic ALi PCI USB2 card and it failed(giving the problems you mentioned) about 1/2 year after installing it. After wasting time trying to fix(doing much what you have done) it, I went out and purchased a Belkin PCI USB2 card.

As for Windows Help Troubleshooters, I would say they are useful for people unknowledged about computers. They are the text equivalent of what I believe is usually called, "level one tech support", in customer tech support. In other words, they are common solutions to common user problems. Mitaphane _talk 21:53, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

html: want the code, not the link

I'm looking for the HTML equivalent of Wikipedia's "nowiki" tags. In other words, I want to type the "<a href=..." business of making a link to another page, without actually making a clickable link. (It will be used on a non-wiki site) The goal is that people can look at the code, cut and paste it, and have the link work then. (Too garbled? Or do you see what I mean?) Joyous! | Talk 23:29, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

PRE takes care of formatting, but beyond that you need to turn <, >, and & into their equivalent html entities (lest they be interpreted as html). So really there's no equivalent. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 23:40, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Use &lt; in place of <, and &gt; in place of >. --Serie 23:41, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Here's an example of HTML source:

Visit scenic <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/">Wikipedia</a>.

and here's the way it appears on a page:

Visit scenic <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/">Wikipedia</a>.

Try your cut and paste; satisfaction guaranteed (or your money back). --KSmrq^T 10:56, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Thanks to all! Joyous! | Talk 11:08, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

<xmp> would what you asked, but is deprecated. The suggestions above are better. Jon513 16:38, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

September 13

Clisp library

Hi, I just downloaded clisp and am wondering how I can read the syntax (and possibly the actual function bodies) of the built in LISP functions.

Windows XP how to get back the entrypted files when the owner user is deleted?

Hi, I had some files that were owned by a user. I made the folder private and chose to entrypt. However I moved these files to a different folder and then deleted the XP user. Now I am unable to open these files as they are encrypted. Even though I created the user with the same name, I am unable to uncheck the option of entrypt in the properties of these files. I get a message "Access is denied." How can I fix this issue? regards,

You can't, that's one of the caveats of the Windows encryption system. The key is irrevocably tied to the User ID. See the relevant portion of the EFS article for more. — Lomn | Talk 14:52, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Knoppix? Crazy Fox (T|C|E) 23:59, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Is no use in this case, as the user's private key will have been deleted when the account was. If an account had been set up as a recovery agent (and in XP none are by default, unlike with Windows 2000 where the administrator account is automatically one) then that account could be used to recover the files, but presumably our questioner hadn't done this. There are ways of getting at EFS-encrypted files in Linux, but they still require the relevent user account to exist in Windows. -- AJR | Talk 01:03, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

MathCad 12

I purchased a copy of MathCad 12 just before MathCad 13 was released and installed it under Windows XP Service Pack 2. It installed and worked okay. I stopped using it for about two months. When I tried to run it today it would not run at all even after reinstallation. Does anyone know if recent Windows XP automatic updates could be responsible and if they may have blocked or disabled it and what would be the best way to overcome this problem? Adaptron 15:26, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

ask them. Jon513 16:34, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. Looks like it was the "Installing Windows XP SP2 Disables C_Dilla Service" issue. Adaptron 21:29, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Ant, jrc and classpaths in subdirectories.

I'm using Apache Ant to build a large Java project which includes some Jasper Reports. I'm modifying the project to build the reports and ship them in the resultant JAR archive. The main JAR file contains this call:

<ant dir="report" target="jar"/>

the jar target calls compile-base as well as compile-reports, the new target I just added. compile-reports reads, in its entirety (from report/build.xml:

 <target name="compile-reports" depends="compile-base">
   <taskdef name="jrc" 
            classname="net.sf.jasperreports.ant.JRAntCompileTask"> 
     <classpath>
             <pathelement path="${base.classpath}" />
             <pathelement path="${buildclasses}"/>
     </classpath>
   </taskdef>
   <jrc srcdir="reports/"
        destdir="${buildclasses}"
        excludes="**/test/*.java,**/Test*.java,*.bak">
     <classpath>
       <pathelement path="${base.classpath}" />
       <pathelement path="../lib/jasperreports-1.2.0.jar"/>
       <pathelement path="${buildclasses}"/>
     </classpath>
   </jrc>
 </target>

Here's the thing. If I go into report/ and run ant jar, the reports generate properly. If I run ant build from the top-level directory, which, as shown above, calls ant jar in the report/ directory, it fails with this message.

BUILD FAILED

build.xml:131: The following error occurred while executing this line:

report/build.xml:189: org.apache.commons.logging.LogConfigurationException: org.apache.commons.logging.LogConfigurationException: org.apache.commons.logging.LogConfigurationException: Invalid class loader hierarchy. You have more than one version of 'org.apache.commons.logging.Log' visible, which is not allowed. (Caused by org.apache.commons.logging.LogConfigurationException: Invalid class loader hierarchy. You have more than one version of 'org.apache.commons.logging.Log' visible, which is not allowed.) (Caused by org.apache.commons.logging.LogConfigurationException: org.apache.commons.logging.LogConfigurationException: Invalid class loader hierarchy. You have more than one version of 'org.apache.commons.logging.Log' visible, which is not allowed. (Caused by org.apache.commons.logging.LogConfigurationException: Invalid class loader hierarchy. You have more than one version of 'org.apache.commons.logging.Log' visible, which is not allowed.))

From what I can google up, the above is caused by some malfeasance with classloaders. I'm not doing anything with classloaders. I didn't even know what classloaders do until I had to learn to deal with this, and now I wish I never had...

If I add the following to the top-level build.xml, above the call to <ant dir="report" target="jar"/>, it still fails.

<ant dir="report" target="compile-reports"/>

However, if I add this, it runs just fine.

<exec dir="report" executable="/usr/bin/ant">
  <arg value="compile-reports"/>
</exec>

This is, of course, a grotesque hack. What did I do to offend the build system so grievously as to require this? I've spent the last hour and a half switching around statements mindlessly, to no avail. Am I stuck with this wart in the middle of my master build file? grendel|khan 21:09, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Authentication in Apache

I'm trying to enable digest authentication in Apache, but without any luck (basic authentication works). Could someone provide an example of what a .htaccess (I don't have access to the configuration file) should look like? Also, when creating a password file with htdigest, one parameter is realm. What is that? It wasn't required for basic authentication. Thanks! —Bromskloss 21:31, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

• Is this helpful? --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 21:46, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

• No, unfortunately not. It only touches upon the so-called basic authentication. —Bromskloss 07:52, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

Hard Drive and Virus problems

Well, I've been running Windows after my PSU caught on fire, and it must have corrupted my OS because of the long boot ups, but nothing else than that. So yea, I’ve been finding a lot of trojans and worms on my computer, and I've looked at Symantec's webpages for the specific worm/trojan/virus, and they tell me to look under regedit to see if it edited some of the registry values. All have lead to dead ends... and I've scanned a million times with Nod32 and AVG free edition. Both can never scan the boot sectors or system memory, and Nod once showed errors on all files (either was locked, or there was an error). So, could this be the work of virus sabotage?

I booted my PC around 7 pm MT today, and it was an unusually long boot up. It booted to desktop, but no shortcuts or the system tray showed. It paused, then started to kick in gear, but then I heard my hard drive make some squeaky sounds like a mouse. Is this bad? If so, could a virus have done this? I'm going to reformat, but if this squeak indicates my HD is bad, then... I guess I'm getting a new HD (which had a lot of music I bought via WMP).

Ok, if there isn't a problem, then I'm going to get an external HD, copy my music folder to that (along with some other stuff), and then reformat. But I was wondering, if I'm crawling with bugs like I think I am, is there a high risk one of those pesky viruses or w/e will get on my external HD? If so, it shouldn't be hard to remove with proper anti-virus removal, right? Big thanks to anyone who replies.--Hellogoodsir 02:07, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

That's a good idea. It's probably safe to assume that the virus only affected the OS and had not imbedded itself into your music and such. But scan to make sure. --Proficient 06:06, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

September 14

boosting search engine results

Hello Wikipedia users,

I was wondering if any user knows some tips on how to boost ratings for webpages within a website? it is part of my job to make the product pages on my company's site turn up in the top results on three major search engines (Google, Yahoo, and MSN), how can i do this? I already have organized html coding, used the key words of the products in the search tags, and included these key words in the actual text of the page. I have also read the "Help" sections of the search engines (Google, Yahoo and MSN) and have done my best to follow some of their tips. Nevertheless, this has not seemed to boost the individual webpage's ratings, what else can I do?

Is spnsoring on the search engine my best bet? or are there other tricks?

thank you

Tylercos 00:06, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

A quick 5 second Google search gave me 3 myths about boosting search engine results. This doesn't answer your question, but it shows you what not to do, so hopefully it helps. I'm sure if you do Google searches, you will find what you need to do to boost your ratings. I came across software that costs like $300, so depending on your budget, you can either do something along those lines or see what else you can find by searching the Web. Good luck. (by the way, I googled the header of your question without quotes) —EdGl 00:13, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

• There's scores of info out there on search engine optimization. What I want to know is how you got the job, when you've clearly got no idea what to do. - Mgm|^(talk) 12:49, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

• Most likely because the person who gave him the job has no idea what's involved either, so has no basis for deciding who should do it. StuRat 16:08, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

• Or, like i said in my question, this is only PART of my job. thanks again to those who actually helped. Tylercos 17:10, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

IE Page Flashing

I was asked if I could figure out a web design problem, but it looks like a Flash/IE problem and I don't use Flash or Windows, so it is outside my realm. If you go to http://rawdoggentertainment.com/3/index.php and scroll down to the bottom of the page (in IE of course), the page periodically flashes. Why? It doesn't do it in Firefox, Konqueror, or Safari. --Kainaw ^(talk) 02:05, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

MEPIS deleted my files (part 2)

A while ago I posted here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reference_desk_archive/Computing/2006_September_4 about loosing alot of my files under mepis by failing to unmount my hard drive. I thought I would post a follow-up in case any of my fellow wikipedians would like to know the aftermath. After recieving some advice i decided to run scandisk (which btw took about a day) or my drive to no avail. I had given up hope until today where I stumbled upon the fact that my files had simply been shifted to the my videos folder of the my documents folder on the root of my drive. It appears that the folders got moved around and whatnot but I lost little or no data. I leave this here as a thanks to everyone who gave me suggestions and as a reminder to always back-up your data. Since this is supposed to be a question I will end this sentence with one? - Ridge Racer 05:42, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

New itunes 7

heyy

With the new ituns 7 i have realised that it has a pretty cool feature that automaticly gets tha album art for you, but to do this you need to have an account...... when i went to go make an account it asked for a credit card number... is this so that if you want to buy any music then it uses this or is this because you need to pay for the album art?.......... summerised: is the album art FREE???? pulo 05:51, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

The album art is free as in beer. The reason for the CC # is so that if you buy songs, it charges the card. Dismas|^(talk) 06:07, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

Serious Audio CD Problems!

Sorry for the annoying title, but I've been experiencing this problem for quite a while now and I have no idea how to fix it. Basically, whenever an audio CD is entered into a DVD and/or CD drive, the computer resets itself; i.e. it immediately restarts without any notification whatsoever. When Windows XP restarts, the Error Reporting window pops up claiming "Your system has recovered from a serious error" or something like that. This is true for any audio CD (regardless of whether it is copy-protected or not) and CDs with audio tracks before the data track. I have a generic internal DVD-Rom drive, and a generic internal CD-RW drive, both of which are affected. Please assist me if possible; I'll refresh this page every so often, and I will provide more information if requested. Thank you very much in advance. --Ppk01 11:42, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

Sound like you have malware on you computer. Start by downloading and installing and running Ad-Aware. Do you have any virus protection? Jon513 11:58, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure it's not a malware thing; neither NOD32 nor Windows Defender's realtime scanner found anything wrong. Nonetheless, we'll see what Ad-Aware has to say when it's done. --Ppk01 12:09, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

you can try disabling autoplay using Tweak UI a windows powertoy. it can be found [here]. (the option can be found in "my computer"-->"autoplay"). However, it might still have a problem when you try to load the CD. Jon513 12:49, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

Holding Shift (which disables autoplay) often helps, but whenever the disc is accessed by the system (i.e. an audio CD-compatible program) the crash occurs. Interestingly though, this doesn't happen with Exact Audio Copy, a program with which I can rip audio files. But that's the only exception: Windows refuses to read audio CDs. I think I read somewhere about some form of copy protection that can effect this, but I can't think of anything that could have caused this. I remember a website with a list of PC games that carried this particular form of copy protection, but the only major PC games I have on this machine are Civilization IV and The Sims 2. --Ppk01 13:04, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

Well, the Ad-Aware scan proved one thing: it's not malware. --Ppk01 15:25, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

Not necessarily, it just means Ad-Aware didn't spot it. Heck, it could be a malfunction in one of those odd DRM things that a few CDs include. Not saying that it is or that it's more likely than not -- I have no idea. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 15:33, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

You can tell it not to automatically restart on a system fail. Right click on my computer, properties, advanced, startup and recovery settings and uncheck the box that says Automatically restart. You should then get a blue screen with an error message instead of just restarting. That might give you some clues as to the problem.

From you description, it sounds like this problem does NOT happen if a data CD is used, is that correct? If so, I would first check to see what automatic action is being performed when a CD with audio tracks is inserted. In "My Computer" right-click on each drive and select "Properties", then select the AutoPlay tab. It should show a list of various types of content, and the action that is assigned for each, e.g. for a music CD, it might show "play all tracks with Windows Media Player." Whatever program is being used to play music CDs is probably the one that is causing the serious error. Try running that program from the start menu and seeing what happens. Maybe it needs to be re-installed, or perhaps you want to choose some other action. You might even want to select "prompt me each time to choose an action" in that AutoPlay menu so that you can stop the rebooting. --LarryMac 18:50, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

The problem lies not with any individual program. This is a system-wide problem that occurs when Windows acknowledges a CD as an audio CD. As you have guessed, the problem only occurs with audio CDs, not data CDs (unless the data CDs have audio tracks preceeding the data track; if the data track comes first, the error does not occur). The Autoplay for audio CDs is set to "prompt me each time". I'll turn off the automatically restart option and note the error message, at which point I'll report back. Thank you all for your help so far. --Ppk01 12:02, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

PPP and IPv6

Does PPP support IPv6? -Yyy 12:38, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

Yes. In principle, you can run any protocol you like over PPP; to identify what protocol you're running there is a "protocol" field in the PPP data frame, and IANA maintains a list of assigned protocol numbers, which includes pretty much anything you're likely to want to run (and some that you aren't.) -- AJR | Talk 19:12, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

how do i simulate the vc++ program that i had created for dc motor control?

i had asked like:

i had created a program in vc++.this program is used to control the speed as well as direction of dc motor(12v) .Now i want to simulate the program for realization.... how to simulate it?..is there any software to simulate it? refer complete details of program ...etc in "http://www.multyremotes.com/DC-motor-control-in-VC++.htm"

reply from wikipedia :

I'm afraid I don't understand the question -- define "simulate the program for realization". If you want to run the program, but have precise control over how fast it runs and what it runs, and be able to see its internal state, you're talking about running the program under a debugger; VC++ has one integrated that probably does everything you want in that regard. If you're talking about simulating the operation of the motor, you probably want to write a separate program that reads and interprets the output of the existing program to check its validity. Does that help? --Tardis 15:27, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

my reply:

sorry i had asked the question wrongly!

tardis said that "simulating the operation of motor"....how it will be?.. can anyone help me?

i had clicked the link "Tardis" for help...but it is not reachable!...help me!

I clicked on your link, and must say it's full of spelling and grammar errors. Do you know a native English speaker who can proofread it for you ? StuRat 10:05, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Do you want to A) create a real motor that runs with your program or B) only simulate (pretend) a real situation, so there is no real motor?  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  07:40, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

Samba Alternative

I have a Linux fileserver that users need to store files on. Some users are using linux. Some are using windows. Some use both. I very easily set up NFS so the linux users can access the files. I've tried to set up Samba, but it doesn't work. I've tried to use Samba repeatedly for many years. Never, ever, have I been able to get Samba to work. Is there an alternative that will allow Windows users to seamlessly open, edit, save files on a linux fileserver? --Kainaw ^(talk) 16:46, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

You can get an NFS client for Windows from (gasp) Microsoft - http://www.microsoft.com/technet/interopmigration/unix/sfu/default.mspx But really Samba isn't that hard - the folks on the samba newsgroup should be able to get you a basic smb.conf or fix whatever is wrong with your current, broken, one. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 17:04, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

As an experiment, I just took a fresh Ubuntu install (which comes with a rather sensible smb.conf and stuff already set up). I gave my user account there a samba passwd (sudo smbpasswd fin) and started the smb server (sudo /etc/init.d/samba restart). I made sure the XP clients shared the same workgroup (cleverly the default is WORKGROUP) and browsed their network neighbourhood, and there's the server. Opening that and it prompts for my samba username and passwd (I give it the one I just set with smbpasswd) and it shows the "justtesting" share (the default one that Ubuntu ships with). If you give me an email addr I'll email you the smb.conf, but I'd imagine any modern Linux's samba-server package will ship with something equivalent. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 17:34, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

I seriously doubt a smb.conf file will help. I let all the professors and grad students in the Computer Science dept take a whack at it today. They reformatted the whole drive and reinstalled Debian, Redhat, Fedora, and Ubuntu. Absolutely nothing they did would get samba working. They did the same thing on their own computers - worked fine. On mine, it won't work. As I said, no computer I've ever owned has been able to run samba. --Kainaw ^(talk) 19:45, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

Sounds like you need an exorcist, not a computer tech. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 19:49, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

I'm cracking up laughing here, but I think you could give AFS (Andrew File System) a swing, too.

September 15

Backing up a VMWare image.

How do I back up a VMWare image? Last time, I used qemu-img to convert the vmdk image to a compressed qcow image, but when I converted it back, VMWare complained of corruption, and I had to recreate the image from scratch. What exactly do I need to back up, and where did I go wrong? grendel|khan 01:35, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Ah, I can answer my own question this time: I was backing up a suspended machine. If I shut it down first, it works fine---even if I store it as a qcow image to save space. grendel|khan 04:01, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Real VNC internet

Hi i use the free version of real VNC... i was wondering if anyone could provide a detailed step-by step guide on how to monitor computers over the internet pulo 07:32, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

With or without their consent? Luigi30 (Taλk) 15:28, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

c program for led on/off

i had coded a c program as below:

#include<stdio.h>
int main()
{
 outport(0x378,1);
 sleep(1);
 outport(0x378,1);
 sleep(1);
 return 0;
}

this program makes the led glow and off when led is connected to the lptport with 470ohm resistor.. when i compiled this program without connecting the led in the lpt port...it has got compiled with 0 errors as well as it has executed with 0 errors with a warning "cannot create "some filename.pdr"".......

how do i execute this program correctly or it is necessary to connect led to the lpt port before executing the program or is there any simulator?

You're writing values to the DATA_OUT register of LPT1, and obviously you'll need to connect your LED&resistor (in this case the D0 pin). But you're writing a 1 both times - change the 2nd outport call to outport (0x378,0). Here's some docs on programming the PC parallel port - http://www.lvr.com/files/ibmlpt.txt Middenface 07:50, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

by nivas

Vista Internet Explorer not accessing un-secure webpages

Hi,

I have this problem with Internet Explorer in Microsoft Windows Vista Build 5600 (RC1). I cannot access un-secure pages (HTTP), but can access secure pages (HTTPS). On Firefox, I can access all pages, and I can also sign in on Windows Live Messenger. I have tried everything!...reseting the IE settings, clearing the DNS Cache, HOSTs etc. I have even tried system restore, but it comes back with an error "system cannot find the file specified". I am running AVG Anti-Virus, and the built-in Windows Defender and Firewall. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks, Ronaldh 07:41, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Internet Explorer handles security using what is called "zones". Go and check your security settings and lower the security for the internet zone, that might help (or it might not, but hey, it's an idea ;) Oskar 07:59, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, I've tried that already...and it still didn't work. Ronaldh 08:21, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

• Thanks for confirming Windows Vista sucks. Do you get any error messages when you try to access non-secure pages? - Mgm|^(talk) 10:56, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

I solved it!...it was my fault. Earlier I installed a download manager...that wasn't 'compatible' with Windows Vista. And Vista isn't that bad...its a huge improvement over XP...even with the high sys. reqs. Thanks for your help anyway. Ronaldh 11:24, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

A dual-boot setup

Hi everyone. I'm currently running Ubuntu 6.06 on my machine but I would like to install Windows XP. I've got 15 GB unallocated space on my hard drive where I intend to do it. Since I've never done this before, and I hear it can be tricky, what should I be concerned about? For instance: Ubuntu boots from GRUB, will that be able to handle dual-booting Ubuntu and Windows XP? Will it handle it automatically? And what about the windows setup, is that going to mess with my boot settings and simply over-ride GRUB? Any assistance would be appriciated. Cheers! 83.250.210.255 07:56, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

I am by no means an expert, but in my opinion if you're trying to dual-boot Windows and Linux, you're always better off installing Windows first and Linux second. The reason is that Windows (being monopolistic and evil and designed for idiots) will always overwrite your MBR (master boot record) so you can only boot into Windows. Linux, on the other hand, will let you manually configure your MBR upon installation to take into account the presence of other OSs on the machine.

My recommendation: back up your Ubuntu installation (another hard disk, DVD...), install Windows, and then either reconfigure your MBR (I have no idea how to do this, try searching the internet or wait for someone more knowledgeable to answer) or just reinstall Ubuntu. Good luck! — QuantumEleven 11:22, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

You might also be better off running the XP machine as a virtual machine image under something like QEMU or the free VMWare player. Creating the image takes a bit of doing, but an advantage is that there's no risk of it clobbering your Ubuntu system. I've been running Abbyy Finereader in a Windows 2000 virtual machine here, and it performs perfectly fine. I'd think it would be fine for anything short of gaming. Of course, if you're installing Windows XP, you're probably doing gaming anyway... grendel|khan 13:38, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

I've done this before when my MBR became totally screwed, installed Debian and created a FAT32 partition, then installed Windows, it saw the FAT32 partition (and nothing else :P) then formatted it to NTFS and installed, but didn't touch the MBR. I then had to tell GRUB how to boot the partition, a quick search on google can help you find that information, and it was all hunky-dorey. Though i certainly would suggest installing Windows first, then your Linux installer (should) set up everything including your boot loader for you correctly. Benbread 15:26, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Yes, if you install Windows after Linux, Windows will dominate the MBR and make it look like there is no Linux on your harddrive, even if it is clearly installed on another partition. --Russoc4 20:21, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Thank you all for the help, I actually tried installing it before reading all of your neat comments (sorry 'bout that, I got tired of waiting ;) It wasn't actually that hard when you knew the tricks. I backed up my MBR (expecting it to get messed up) using the "dd" command on windows (thank you writers of MBR!), then installed windows. I then booted up from my LiveCD, mounted my Linux file-system, and restored the MBR from there. I soon realised that that wasn't the best idea, since the MBR also contains the partitioning table, so my computer then thought that my NTFS partition was unallocated space. Realising that, I backed-up only the first 446 bytes of it (ie, the bootstrapper, but not the partitioning table), tried it again, and now it boots perfectly. Configuring GRUB was a breeze, all the information necessary was in the menu.lst config file. I'm now writing this from a grub-booted windows XP. I'm thinking about writing a short guide on how to do it (on the Ubuntu wiki, perhaps), because I couldn't find any good links for it (they all assumed that you had Windows on first). As for using a virtual machine, one of the reasons I wanted windows was the games, so that one was out. The other reason being iTunes, there is literally no good program for handling podcasts and transferring them to an iPod on Linux. Many can do it, but none can do it good (which I realise is apple's fault). Thanks for your assistance though! Oskar 22:09, 15 September 2006 (UTC) (yes that is me, I forgot to log in)

Computerized business Information

What is the impact of computerized business information in business management today?

Check your textbook, the answer should be in there. Luigi30 (Taλk) 15:34, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

September 16

Exploded CD

Peice of Exploded CD

Exploded CD

My CD disk literally exploded inside my CD drive. I had just installed Windows XP and from the kitchen heard a brief a crash that sounded a small water glass or mirror breaking on the tile floor. A popup window was saying XP had installed a driver for new hardware it had found and needed to restart. When I looked at the computer the CD drive bay was stuck open about 3/4 of an inch. I tried to close it but it would not budge so I removed the drive from the computer. As I turned it sideways I heard pieces of the CD moving inside.

What is going one here??? I thought that CD's were supposed to last at least 20 years. This is a Verbatim brand DataLifePlus Recordable CD. The silver coating on top of the plastic is also cracked in many places and peeled away. Some of the adhesive is still active and many flakes are now "glued" to other pieces of plastic. Is this a Verbatim problem or what? The coating on all of my old Verbatim 8 inch floppy diskettes disintegrated many years ago as well. Adaptron 11:39, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

Wow. I'd say those CDs are defective, all right. I'd avoid using them. If you haven't already destroyed the CD player you likely will if you try to use those again. I'd contact the company and see if they will give a refund. If you give them a batch number and they know that was a defective batch, they may very well take them back. If they are a recent purchase (which somehow I doubt), you could try returning them to the retailer. StuRat 12:04, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

No they were as I recal purchased around 2000 but the real issue is the trust I placed in a CD and the data that was lost. Since I've had a similar experiience (disintegration) with Verbatim 8 inch floppy disk I'll stay away from Verbatim. Adaptron 13:52, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

This is actually not unheard of, though the Wikipedia article isn't very elaborate. —Bromskloss 13:48, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

Good. I'll add links to these images to that page. Adaptron 13:54, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

MythBusters explored this a while ago and found that normal CDs will not shatter in a conventional CD drive (the spin speed isn't high enough). However, the stresses on a spinning CD are considerable, and a defective CD (a small crack, a weak spot, manufacturing error...) could shatter under normal operation. — QuantumEleven 19:55, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

It only takes a very small amount of flutter in a 40x CD-ROM drive to create a whole lot of friction, and it's pretty easy for that to happen if your CDs are poorly balanced (you can actually slightly unbalance CDs by writing with some types of ink on only one side of the CD) or if the CD-ROM motor is starting to get old. Once the fluttering starts (you can usually hear it, though CD-ROM drives often flutter with no concequence) a CD can explode with even the slightest bump, or like Quantum said, a small crack or weak spot. These things used to be very common back when people were trying to manufacture rediculously fast CD-ROM drives, though it seems that everybody has settled for about 40x nowadays.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  07:35, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

Wow. That's some abuse right there. --Proficient 08:53, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

No joke. I had no idea this could occur! It's rather amazing. --Fastfission 13:49, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

What does this mean?

In our tar (file format) page, we have this line of code here:

tar -cf - file_to_pack1 file_to_pack2 ... | gzip -c > packed_files.tar.gz

What does this mean, particularly the second hyphen on the line? This to me means something like this:

tar -cf

Make an archive of compressed files

-

Well, I don't know what this is.

file_to_pack1 file_to_pack2 ...

All the stuff I want in my tarball

|

pipe the output of the tar thing

gzip -c > packed_files.tar.gz

to our nifty gzip program which compresses the output and sends it to the file packed_files.tar.gz

More or less right? But I have a feeling these things need to be a bit more precise. Help appreciated :-) --HappyCamper 12:12, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

The -c flag tells tar to create an archive, and the -f flag tells it where to put the results (or more precisely, which tar archive to use---the same flag is used to select the source when extracting files). The trick is that the -f flag requires a filename as an argument, and giving the filename "-" selects the standard output (or the standard input, whichever is appropriate). Also, unix commands are expected to parse multiple flags together, so that -xyz is equivalent to -x -y -z. This is why the GNU long options such as --create are preceded by two dashes. 84.239.129.42 13:48, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

computers field

i am starter in the computer field. how should i decide my direction?

Don't. You are just starting. How could you possibly have any idea what your favorite area of computing is? Dabble in everything until something seems enjoyable enough to stick with for a long time. --Kainaw ^(talk) 19:33, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

I'd say look at what else you like for a clue:

• Typing: Be a data entry clerk.

• Writing: Be a technical writer.

• Drawing: Do computer aided design.

• Games: Write video games.

• Organization: Be a database administrator.

• Giving directions: Be a computer programmer.

• Electronics: Be a computer engineer.

• Finding flaws: Perform software testing.

In addition, there are many other fields where computer usage is critical. These include jobs in the medical, legal, scientific, and humanities fields.

StuRat 05:53, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

Indeed. Get to know the field first then narrow it down slowly. What are you interesting in right now? --Proficient 08:53, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

Firefox doesn't recognize Windows Mediaplayer plugin

When I try to run streaming Windows Mediaplayer videos in Firefox, it says I'm missing a plugin. When I set it to automatically finding it, it can't find one. Reinstalling WMP 9 (for Windows 98) has fixes a file that didn't run previously in IE6 due to a missing codec, but when I installed it, I didn't get any plugin options for Firefox. How do I get Firefox and WMP to work together? =- Mgm|^(talk) 16:31, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

This page might be able to help. --Mitaphane _talk 21:33, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

Is there a way to alter the WinXP welcome screen?

So I can, for example, make the user images larger or change the background colour/image?

I don't know about changing the SIZES of the user images, but it IS possible to change the background image as well as text and locations. On my laptop, I've used Logon Loader to change it to a POKéMON-themed one.

There's a selection of login screens at http://www.themexp.org/listings.php?type=login, and I believe there are links to programs that can be used to create your own if you don't like any of those (or want something unique). --Pidgeot (t) (c) (e) 18:22, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

This isn't relevent but anyone who is able to use the internet and Wikipedia shouldn't realy like pokemon anymore. In short get a life!

Program

Whats a free program to use to make an avi movie of image slideshow and maybe add some music? 216.58.51.189 18:25, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

I think iMovie offers something like that, Windows Movie Maker(for Windows) probably offers something similar as well. --Mitaphane _talk 21:30, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

Windows recovery CDs

Yet another Windows/Linux question: I am taking the plunge into Linux (Ubuntu, to be specific). Currently, my PC has a single hard drive with one partition on it running Windows XP. I am planning to wipe it (having first backed everything up), reinstall Windows, partition the hard drive, and then install Ubuntu on another partition to set up a dual-boot system. However, I only have the recovery disks for Windows from the manufacturer of my PC (Acer). If I understand correctly, these rely on a hidden partition somewhere on my hard drive in order to reinstall Windows. My question is, can I inadvertently delete/damage/modify this hidden partition, and so prevent myself being able to reinstall Windows after I format the disk? What steps or precautions do you recommend I take to prevent this from happening? I don't feel like shelling out another 100 Euros or so for a 'retail' version of Windows, given that I already have a copy on my system. Thanks in advance for any advice! — QuantumEleven 20:05, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

The first thing I'd do is verify that there really IS a hidden partition using Disk Management. If there isn't one, then it's no problem, and you can go ahead and do what you want.

If there IS a hidden partition, however, you'll likely want to save it, or you could end up messing things up badly. If there's an option to create CDs that can be used instead of the hidden partition, you might want to do that.

That being said, even if there is a hidden partition, there's always the option of only messing with the Windows partition, doing so will leave the hidden partition perfectly safe and working.

Additionally, you should note that if the only reason you're formatting is to partition the drive, there's no need to do so - tools like Partition Magic and ntfsresize can be used instead. I've used the latter one when I tried installing Linux in a dual-boot setup on my laptop, and it works very well (as long as you follow the instructions). --Pidgeot (t) (c) (e) 20:33, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

My thinking exactly, GPartEd that comes on the Ubuntu live CD should be able to handle that fine. No need to remove and reinstall windows Oskar 02:59, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

Ah, I hadn't thought of that! I checked and, yes, there is a hidden partition which shows up in Disk Management. I'll now go ahead and repartition with GParted, we'll see how ot goes. Thanks very much for the help, you people saved me potentially a lot of trouble! :) — QuantumEleven 09:07, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

Recent Acers ship with an application (which I think is called Acer System Recover) which is really a rebranded Norton Ghost. One of the functions that has is to allow you to burn the recovery partition to a DVD; you should certainly use that before undertaking any repartitioning efforts. But really, given how cheap a modest sized hard disk is now, I'd just install a new drive and put Linux on that. Then you don't need to mess around with the Windows drive at all. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 09:12, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

September 17

iPod and iTunes questions

I'm as pretty much a computer illiterate as someone with a computer can be, so please bear that in mind as you answer these questions. It all relates to buying a new iPod, unloading the old one, and backing up iTunes.

1. I've put a lot of work into my iTunes library, including album art and lyrics. What is the easiest way to back this up so I won't lose all of my work? I'm willing to spend a little more money for the sake of simplicity. I have the ability to write DVDs and CDs, but I'll get an external hard drive if that is better.
2. If iTunes 7.0 is downloaded as an upgrade, will all I've added (lyrics especially) be saved? I'm currently using iTunes 6.05.20.
3. Will someone else be able to use my old 20 GB iPod if I sell it to them? Obviously they would want to completely reset it.

--Joelmills 03:50, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

1. Depends on how much you have. If it's less than 4 GB, then you could easily use a dvd, but if it's more, you should probably invest in an external drive. They're very simple to use, just plug them in and copy over the files.
2. Couldn't say for sure, but I'm fairly certain it will.
3. Absolutely

Hope it helps Oskar 04:23, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

Well, I'm at about 13.3 GB now. If I save to DVD, will that also save the lyrics and artwork? --Joelmills 07:09, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

[after edit conflict] iPod 7 apparently has some backup routines to help automate backing up your music, though I'm not sure if that just makes a copy on your computer, or automatically copies your data to a CD or DVD. Regardless, I've backed up my entire music collection at least once (the only time I did a full backup it took me over 100 CD-Rs) and that's a good temporary solution (i.e. less than 10 years) though it's relatively easy to damage CDs if you're not careful. It's a lot easier to just take care of your computer and make sure that nothing bad happens to your harddrive.

About backing up your files to DVD, it depends on how you do it. If you just copy a huge folder encompassing every song you have, chances are that all the information, lyrics, pictures, will be copied as well. iPod 7 might have an option to backup "music only" but I'd be willing to bet "copy all" is a default option. Why don't you take some time to look at the mp3 format and other popular music file types to familiarize yourself with the way these things work. It'll save you worries in the future!  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  07:18, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

You can do a little experiment: copy one song and change the name of the file and move it somewhere else on your hard-drive. Then import it into iTunes, and check if all the meta-data is intact (that is, if the new file contains all the lyrics and things, you will know that the information is stored in the file, and you can safely backup by simply copying the files). Tell us how it goes.

As for the back-up thing: 13.3 GB would take 4 DVDs which isn't very much. Make the call yourself, it would most likely work fine.Oskar 07:49, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

Why Does My Flash Drive Keep Disconnecting?

Every once in a while, I'll be on a computer - any computer - and I'll suddenly hear that noise that comes up when I take out my flash drive. All of my Portable Gaim icons disappear, and sure enough, that "Safely Remove Hardware" button on the toolbar isn't there anymore and the light on my flash drive is off. I physically remove it and put it back in, and I hear the noise that comes up when I put it back in, and everything is fine again. This has happened at least once on every computer with which I've used the flash drive, a Cruzer Mini 512MB, and it's recently become a problem when my Portable Firefox tries to update itself. It takes so long when it tries that the drive inevitably disconnects at some point, and then I end up having to reinstall Firefox. (I know I could turn off the automatic updates, but I'd rather just fix the flash drive problem.) --Maxamegalon2000 04:52, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

I've had this problem, too. Can you wiggle the flash drive while in the USB port ? If so, the weight of the flash drive can cause it to "droop" in the USB port, and break contact. Use a short USB to USB (male to female/female to male) extension cable to relieve the tension on the plug, laying the flash drive flat on a surface. This worked great for me. I suggest leaving the extension cable plugged into the computer, and only unplug and replug things into that cable. This will have the advantage of preventing your computer's USB port from going bad from repeated plugging and unplugging. StuRat 06:19, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

The flash drive I used at school stuck out of the front of the computer, which was right in front of my crotch and I used to smash it by accident all the time with my knees. The chip board inside repeatedly fractured (I've been through a couple of them actually, little cheap ones for documents) and I suspect you're having the same problem. What StuRat suggests should work fine, and I think I'll look into an M/F adaptor myself.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  07:02, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

LOL @ "M/F adapter", are you rather upset ? :-) StuRat 07:15, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

As a matter of fact, yes! And I won't tolerate their blatant heightism anymore!  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  07:19, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

That could be it - the drive seems to wiggle vertically and horizontally, so I'll look into the cable. Thanx! --Maxamegalon2000 01:30, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

You're quite welcome. StuRat 05:04, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

VOB to M4V

Does anyone know of a free (gratis is fine) converter that can convert VOB to M4V (an iPod compatible M4V), and can either pan and scan, or at least recognise when it's meant to be 16:9 (and output as such). I have one now but it doesn't recognise when the file is 16:9 even though all the players do, so when it outputs the M4V, it's been stretched to 4:3. So does anyone know of one that can recognise it properly (and pan and scan, but at least recognise it)? - ^Рэд_хот 12:37, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

MagicDVDripper, which isn't free but which has a free (and apparently fully-functional) trial, claims to do this. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 13:06, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. I'll try it. It's actually a 5-use limit but maybe I'll buy it if it's good (unless I can find something free with similar functionality) - ^Рэд_хот 13:11, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

science and technology

countries talk about inter continental missiles having ranges say up to some thousands of km .But when you can launch satellites in to space you can also drop nukes anywhere on the earth. please clarify this.

Satellites are harder to protect than nuclear weapons in deep silos. A satellite containing a little bit of TNT and some iron filings / ball bearings could disable lots of other satellites at the flick of a switch. An accurate .22 rifle in space could do it more selectively, and much cheaper than Star Wars. Rentwa 13:30, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

If you really mean "if we can put satellites up, why don't we use the rockets that launch satellites to fire nuclear weapons?" then the answer is we do, and the US and USSR's space programmes were built on their ICBM programmes - Sputnik 1 was launched on a R-7 Semyorka rocket, the world's first ICBM, and indeed the modern Dnipro launch vehicle is a modified SS-18 missile. Now if you're asking "why don't we put nuclear bombs in space premptively, so we can quickly deorbit them onto our enemies, with much less warning?", that's perfectly possible, but it's prohibited by a number of treaties (see [4]) - the reason being that the signatories didn't really like the idea of holding knifes quite that close to oneanother's throats (and the big guys all had SLBMs, which are quite sufficient for sneaky attacks and less accident prone that spaceships). -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 13:43, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

Any country which can move a reasonably large satellite into orbit can also generally convert that missile into an ICBM, pretty much. --Fastfission 13:47, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

We're so accustomed to orbital rockets that we've forgotten how difficult it is to build them. Launching a payload into a stable orbit, or an unstable orbit that ends at a predetermined target on the surface, is no small feat of engineering. Furthermore, those countries that have built these rockets guard the technology closely, so any country that wants to build its own rockets has to either develop it independently or try to steal the secret. North Korea, for instance, is probably trying to do both right now. --Smack (talk) 17:09, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

Password-protected data

I want to be able to write down all of the passwords that I use in a special file protected with a "master" password. I'm using Windows XP Home, and I have Office 2000 and WordPerfect Office 11. Is there a way to do this? --Smack (talk) 17:09, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

Use Password Safe, it does what you want, only better. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 17:11, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

I agree with Finlay McWalter. Also, Password Safe is free. --Gerry Ashton 20:03, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

Sweet! Thanks. --Smack (talk) 00:48, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

Alternative to Apple AirTunes

I was thinking of buying an apple AirTunes to be able to play my iTunes library in the kitchen. However, it is a bit pricey at $129. Is there any good alternative doesn't cost as much that does the same thing (ie play music over wifi). Also, is there a unit which integrates this and a radio (so you can use one machine to listen to itunes an the radio) Oskar 17:11, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

These devices come under a number of names, often "network music players". Two popular models are the Roku Soundbridge M1000, and the SlimDevices Squeezebox, but I don't know how cheap they will be in your market. I've also heard good things about the Magic Box IMP Wi-Fi radio. All three devices feature internet radio, but I don't think they have FM radios. The Roku SoundBridge Radio has FM/AM though. As I said, I don't know if these devices will be any cheaper, but hopefully they should be a starting point. (I was going to get a wifi music player but settled for plugging my MP3 player into my hifi, which is much cheaper, just not as cool!) Sum0 21:39, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

Linux system backup

After an update a while ago Suse wouldn't start anymore. I haven't managed to fix the problem yet, so I thought about making a fresh installation. But I want to keep the old one on dvd, just in case. Does it make sense to make a system-backup this way? I used to do that with Win98 - just make a copy (using another installation) and when it gets screwed up, just copy it back again. Worked fine. But will it work for Linux? Also, when I tried this, it turned out many files were inaccessible, especially under /dev and /etc, but also loads more. So my questions are:

• Will this trick work with Linux the way it did with Win98? (in case I get a good one up and running again)
• Does it matter that I put it on dvd in stead of on hd?
• Is the inaccesibility an indication of the problem?
• How might I use the backup to get the newly installed system the way the old one was, most notably concerning installed programs (software-installation is one of the major problems with Linux, so I don't want to go through that again)

Thanks. DirkvdM 18:35, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

You wouldn't really use cp -R (the unix equivalent of xcopy /s) to backup linux (and equally that wouldn't work for a modern Windows install either). Not least because what appears to be files under /dev aren't really conventional files (in the sense that you mean), ditto for /proc, and probably a few other places. To make a full system backup you'd typically dd your partition to backing store (having safely unmounted it first), which will take an exact image of the drive, bit for bit. Absent another hard drive to marshall that into DVD sized chunks prior to making ISOs, I've no idea how you'd really do that with DVDs as the backup medium. But really this isn't a sensible, or necessary, way to backup a unix system. Practically you'd just back up the files you really need to save (just the stuff you personally actually made), and surely that'd be a sensible DVDs worth or two, and you'd trust to the success of a reinstall to get you a fresh system. Every revision of each major Linux distribution gets easier to install with each iteration. On the other hand, one continual hazard about most unix (including linux, but apparently not MacOSX, about which I know little) is the way a single program's install is spread over a regrettably wide collection of locations - so backing up an individual application install meaningfully is essentially impossible. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 19:16, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

What I would do is back up my home partition and get copies of all the packages of the programs I used to install the system. That way, you can make a fresh reinstall, and your personal files and programs will be easy to restore. If I'm not mistaken, most programs put configuration data in your home partition, so this shouldn't be a problem.

I don't use Linux, so I don't know if this applies, but you may be able to reinstall things but tell the installer not to touch your home partition; you may still need to get copies of the packages though if the Linux install wipes /usr instead of overwriting it. Dysprosia 02:06, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

I do basically the same as Dysprosia except I back up to CD (allowing for major cock ups on reinstall) and I keep a paper note of all the steps I take during the install to make it simpler each time (there are so many options for the KDE desktop). Rentwa 12:47, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

September 18

iPod

My sister unplugged a video iPod from it's USB port, after the computer froze, while it said "Do Not Disconnect" The iPod is now stuck in "Do Not Disconnect" even when plugged into and out of the USB port after going into iTunes safely. What should she do? 71.230.34.245 00:19, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

You should reset the ipod. See http://www.apple.com/support/ipod/five_rs/ Note: this does not remove the music, it just reboots the iPod. Oskar 01:10, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

Better link: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61705 Oskar 01:10, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

DVD-R vs. DVD+R

Hello. I bought a DVD burner to archive some of my videotapes. It can burn both DVD-R and DVD+R formats. In your opinion, which of these formats is better overall? Wikipedia and some technical websites suggest DVD+R is better. Agree or disagree? Thanks in advance for all of your comments!--El aprendelenguas 00:52, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

A couple of years I also googled around to decide which disks to use, and I found the same as you: like DVD+R suggests + is a bit better than -. Didn't found anyone saying the other way round. The quality of the blanks is also important. I've bought a box of DVD+R's that gave 20-25% coasters — all blanks aren't compatible with all burners. Don't buy the absolute cheapest "B grade" disks, and don't buy a huge box of disks you haven't tried first. Weregerbil 10:22, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

If I remember right, DVD-R is for only video, while DVD+R is more for "data." I don't know how to say it clearer. — [Mac Davis](talk) (SUPERDESK|Help me improve)05:49, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Typing

How do you type with boxing gloves on? NeonMerlin 01:23, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

Can you handle a mouse? There are accesability tools which provides on-screen keyboards. Oskar 01:25, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

I know how to answer this one: DELETED!! --Maxamegalon2000 01:32, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

I think you'll find it's actually BALEETED! -Canley 03:14, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

I can't believe that's an article. --Maxamegalon2000 05:02, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Lord of the Rings MIDI

Where can I find a good MIDI with the (main) theme from the Lord of the Rings trilogy movies? --hello, i'm a member | talk to me! 06:19, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

You can use this link to figure out the title of your song and then plug it into this page. If it exists, there's a good chance of finding it. --Russoc4 11:58, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

Did you read my comment? Anyways, I checked it again and didn't find it. --hello, i'm a member | talk to me! 02:26, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Where I can find information?

hello...i need more information about the software "PRINT STUDIO and QUICK TIME" ....Where i can find this?

For the second, take a look at QuickTime. For the first, I'm afraid I have never heard it... — QuantumEleven 06:36, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

Print studio is an archaic Mac program. I can't even remember what system it was on. — [Mac Davis](talk) (SUPERDESK|Help me improve)05:54, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Follow-up question

... to the "Windows recovery CD" question above: More out of curiosity than anything else, why do PC OEMs ship their machines with recovery disks instead of OS disks? In the end, the software is the same (so no less license fees for them), and I have to admit I don't see the advantage of storing the backup data on a hidden HD partition when it could just as easily have been put on a CD or two (my hidden partition has just over 1GB of data, so a measelly extra two CDs). And it just makes things difficult for the end user if they mess around with their partition table. What am I missing? — QuantumEleven 06:35, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

No-one is saying, but I'll bet MS does charge them less for a licence which doesn't include the capacity to install the OS on another machine - they certainly do for Office licences - BIOS-locked Office licences (Office installers that only work on a specific OEM's machines) are a good bit cheaper. Secondly it's a big support gain for the OEM - when someone screws something up, their helpdesk people just tell the customer to boot into the restore program and restore the OS - that's a huge amount easier for them than talking people through a whole new XP install followed by the ten reboots they'll go through as they install each of the platform-specific device drivers. That's also the reason its in a special partition (it's much easier) and there's no danger you'll not be able to find the disks (which, after a year or two, seems to be inevitable). They don't care if this inconvenciences more advanced users who repartition machines - they figure that if you're technically minded enough to repartition the machine, you're technical enough to get yourself out of any problems this way of handling OS images poses. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 07:49, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

How did it go btw? Not really answering your question, but Walter McFinlay (or whatever your name is ;) did it so well. Oskar 12:04, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

I agree with Mr. McWalter. There is also the fact that you can't install Windows yourself on a another new computer with no OS installed with just a restore disk, which would probably translate into more money for Microsoft (or more repeat customers for the computer manufacturer).  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  14:44, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

There is software "print studio" in apple.com website...i need more information about that

Couple of things I've noticed... this is speculation, but a friend of mine just bought a new computer from HP. It was loaded with garbage. 9 gigs compressed of it. Utterly ridiculous. But hey, if they can make a few dollars selling ad space on brand new computers, they can lower their MSRPs... or raise profit margins (if there is such a thing on PCs :). In order to guarantee that ad space is actually going to be there, they can't just give you a stock copy of an XP install and let you install a bare bones OS after purchase. Also, from hunting around in the drivers on the recovery partition of this HP, it looks like they use DOS (!!) to prepare these machines. So it's possible that any modifications to the partition table might mess up DOS enough that it won't be able to find the recovery partition during a later recovery attempt. Just a warning. Anyways, the recovery partition on this HP DID include a Windows MCE install, but they had modified a few of the files to streamline the recovery process. Fortunately, they left original copies of the modified files in a DIST subfolder, so I was able to copy those back an install fresh, without all the ad garbage. Good luck with your Linux experience :). --Silvaran 05:44, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

Pentium 4

I have computer pentium 4 , 3000Mhz , 1 level cache , 1 GB RAM

when i start FIFA , when FIFA 2002 loading , the screan is stop. and give me the Desctop?

whats the problem?

It seems that your computer is actually too fast for the game. That's EA for you... anyway, try this link here. --Russoc4 11:52, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

That's the most rediculous thing I've ever heard : ). Well at least they'll give you a free version of FIFA 2003, as long as you have a warranty.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  14:41, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

Utterly unacceptable - I thought this had died out a decade ago. I guess there are still too many lasy programmers about... Robmods 21:42, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

hidden fields

Can u clearify the usage of hidden fields in passing of parameters between pages in asp.net?

Icons are not visible on desktop

I purchased a new e machine and cannot see any icons on my desktop. When I go to my computer and check desktop, they exist. Is there a feature that hides or prevents me from sending so that they may be viewed?

vinniedej

If you're using Windows XP, right-click on the desktop and go to Arrange Icons By -> and click Show Desktop Icons. That should do it.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  14:38, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

where does a file go when i delete it from my computer?

where does a file go when i delete it from my computer?

Assuming you are using a common operating system, the file doesn't go anywhere. It is still there. All you are deleting is a little note in a special area of the disk that says where the file is located. Eventually, since that area isn't reserved anymore, it is possible for space to be overwritten. This concept is clouded by the concept of the "trashcan". You delete a file and it goes to the trash. That is not true. It doesn't go anywhere. It is just relabeled as being trash and, if necessary, it is deleted so another file can use the space. So, you can also see that when you copy a file from from directory to another on the same drive, it doesn't go anywhere. It is just relabeled. --Kainaw ^(talk) 12:22, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

A little clarification. When you delete a file in Windows, like Kainaw said, it goes into what's usually called the trash bin. This effectively does absolutely nothing except mark the file as "ready to be deleted". Not only does the file still exist and store space in your hard-drive, the marker pointing to it still does too, although it has been hidden from view unless you look inside the "trash bin". When you delete the contents of your trash bin, the marker pointing to the file is deleted, and doing that tells your computer that the space is no longer needed, so space is freed up on your drive as well. Since a hard-drive doesn't swipe clean automatically, the arrangement of code representing the file still exists on it, although most modern operating systems give you no method of accessing that data, so it can usually be considered to be "deleted".

Problems happen when hard-drives get stolen, and people use specially made tools to recover the previously deleted "files" on the hard-drive, by applying arbitrary labels to them using special tools. If you use the space on your hard drive a lot, the files will eventually get scrambled up and over-written by other files, but other than by using special programs, the only way to really completely and securely delete the data on your hard-drive is to reformat it, which is not something you'll want to do all the time. Most people don't store that kind of top secret information on their hard drives though, so simply removing the label suffices.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  14:36, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

However, as noted in the Disk format article, that is not secure; the data can be recovered (sometimes very easily). A Disk wipe is necessary to be really safe. --LarryMac 14:55, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

I keep suggesting that our MRI dept put boxes on the sides of the MRI machines for us to put hard drives in. A couple days sitting next to an MRI and the drives should be completely wiped of any and all patient info. --Kainaw ^(talk) 23:27, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

You can't still use magnetic fields can you? What about the neodymiums in the harddrive? — [Mac Davis](talk) (SUPERDESK|Help me improve)05:56, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

can firefox 1.5.0.7 and IE 6.0 be simultaneously used?

recently i dwnloaded Mozilla Firefox 1.5. i also use IE 6.0 and don't want to reject it yet. can i use them simultaneously? also, if i use them separately one at a time would there be any problem (i mean, is it safe to keep them both?)? i have a P4-2.4GHz chip with 126 MB ram and 40 gb hdd.

You can have both installed at the same time, you can run both at the same time. One of them will want to be your default browser (i.e. the one that opens when you click on a link in an email or some other program), but other than that, they co-exist quite peacefully. --LarryMac 14:58, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

You might also find this FireFox extension useful. It will allow you to open up a Firefox browser tab with internet explorer running. Mitaphane _talk 21:35, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Q's about firefox

thanks, Larry. i dwnloaded firefox couple of minutes ago but when i 2clicked the Firefox Setup 1.5.0.7 icon an error msg generated :- Extraction Failed

              File is corrupt

I dwnloaded it in D:\ and IE is stored in C:\ what seems to be the problem?

Your download was corrupt. Download it again. When given a list of servers, pick a different one. There is absolutely no connection or relationship between Firefox and IE, so if IE was installed on a P: drive during a full moon on Tuesday at 11:43pm while balancing a half-cup of grape juice on an 18-inch ruler, it will have absolutely nothing to do with a Firefox install. --Kainaw ^(talk) 17:15, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

Native windows xp video format

Recently I have started using a dvd camcorder to make videos (for school and for fun). However, a problem I have been encountering is that when it comes time to present videos in class, my teachers computer never seems to have to correct codecs, being that they never download additional codecs. (I usually convert the mpeg-2 files into H.263 avi's so that i can edit them in open source editors) This is no problem at home, since I use the k-lite mega codec pack, which has virtually every codec out there. I am wondering if anyone could provide me with a list of video codecs/formats that come standard with windows xp so that i can convert my videos accordingly so that they will be compatible. I have already attempted to search google, but the results seem slightly too cryptic to me. (I have little to no experince with digital video) - Ridge Racer 21:24, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

The Microsoft Knowledgebase has a list of default codecs in Windows Media Player 9 and 10 here. --Canley 00:53, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

September 19

Software for translations of huge lists of vocabulary

Hi. In Wiktionary one can find huge lists of words in, for example, German; but no translation is given next to each word and translating by hand using a software such as Babylon would need unlimited time, I guess. How could one build an application to do so (or whatever method of getting around manual translation)? Thanks.

I'm not sure what you want to do: translate a list of words on Wiktionary from German to English? Why not use Google Language Tools? Paste the Wiktionary URL of the list of words and Google will translate as many as it can. --Canley 01:02, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Thank you fella, didn't know google would work that well here ;)

Home WiFi Networks

I'm too damn busy to figure it out for myself, and it should be too simple to justify paying someone to do it for me, so I'm asking here: I want to network my desktop, my laptop and my PDA at home. The PDA runs windows mobile and the PCs are both XP. I use a wireless ADSL modem (siemens speedstream 6250) for my broadband access with the desktop, via a USB WiFI dongle thingy (Netgear WG111). I'm told it should be a simple matter of using the wireless connection doodad on the laptop and the PDA's Wifi thing (its an O2 XDA Atom) to have them both be able to see the ADSL modem as a wifi router and then have all 3 of them talk happily together, share files, print, access the net etc - without ethernet cables etc. So how do I do it? Using the network wizard on the PCs tells me a network cable is unplugged on both PCs - (there is no cable so there's nothing to be unplugged!), and I've got no clue what the PDAs trying to tell me. Any help will be most appreciated. Mattopaedia ^talkto_me04:25, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

I'm not entirely sure you can manage this without a dedicated WiFi router. Are you using the Network Setup Wizard or the Wireless Network Setup Wizard? If that doesn't do it, try setting up an "ad-hoc" connection with your wireless setup/configuration software on the PC with the ADSL connection. The other devices should be able to see it and connect: if not, it's often a problem with your firewall, if you've got one running. If you can't get it to work, it's probably a lot less hassle in the long run to get a dedicated wifi router. Sum0 14:29, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, I think the solution is $$$. The speedstream 6250 is a WiFi router and ADSL modem (so acts as a gateway), and can supposedly support up to 11 devices (4 ethernet, 7 wireless) if I'm to believe what I'm told. I've read around a bit since making this post and found some bloggers who believe the hardware is junk, and document multiple problems related to the device acknowledging wireless devices other than the WG111. They say the ethernet bit works fine, BUT I DON'T WANT WIRES! I tried all your suggestions - both wizards, the ad-hoc connection, configuring the gateway for shared access and managed to lose my internet access temporarily - but no other device saw the network (other than the desktop). Oh well... thanks anyhow. Mattopaedia 13:59, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Running a home server and virtualisation

Hi, I am about to purchase a home server, with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2x512MB of RAM and 3x320GB HDD. I would like to use it for a centralised storage for all my media files as well as my documents, and running several different servers. I have heard of virtualisation, and have got a copy of Microsoft Virtual Server 2005. I am wondering, for instance, if I make a virtual machine, and make it a web server, how would I access it externally? (over the internet or network). Is it possible to set a DMZ (de-militarised zone)for a virtual machine from my router? Or port forward to a virtual machine? Also, what would be the best (and free) FTP Server program available, that offers security and is easy to use? I was also wondering if it would be a good idea to run RAID5, with my three HDDs and how much more chance of data corruption would I get if I were to use RAID0(striping)? Finally, though this is probably this is a stupid question, can I use a Cat5e cable to connect a computer with a Gigabit ethernet port to a switch that only supports up to Fast Ethernet (100MB/s)? Or would I need a 10/100 Ethernet card? Any answers would appreciated, as I am getting this system in just a few days. Thanks, Ronaldh 05:02, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

I'll take a couple.

• In terms of virtualization, you can do NAT networking, where your machine behaves like a private router and all the virtual machines get a private IP and masquerade through your computer. If you do bridged networking, the VM will get its own MAC address, so whatever DHCP server you have running on your network (including the server machine itself) will assign a separate IP address to the VM. You can then port forward on your router.
• RAID0 is just going to make your 3 hard drives appear as one big 960GB disc. You'll get better performance, as writes can be scattered across drives in parallel, but if one drive fails, that's it. With RAID5, if a drive fails, you can shut down, replace the drive, start back up and get back on the go (after replication, obviously). You'll have less available space, but still get some of the performance, and be able to recover from a single failed drive. You might also look into hot swapping if you want that extra uptime. A lot of mobos come with built-in RAID support (many with hot swapping capabilities), and while it's not true hardware RAID (a la expansion card), you can still take advantage of the hot swap capabilities if it's set up right. You'll need to depend on the drivers, however. You might be safe in Windows, but with all the different faux-RAID motherboard chips, you might not get the support you need in Linux.
• IIRC cat5e can be used to service 1gbit over short distances (one end of the room to the other I guess). If your switch only takes 100mbit, then the gbit port will drop down to the same speed. No need for an additional 100mbit network card. HTH. --Silvaran 05:34, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

What exactly does HDCP do?

I took a look at the article on it, and a few other websites, but I'm still confused. HDCP is supposed to end piracy? I don't see why current piracy methods wouldn't work with it. Rip blu-ray or hd-dvd to a hard drive, then upload those files to the internet. Someone else downloads them and views them. What am I not understanding here?

The trick is that to read a HDCP-protected disk you need to give the DVD disk drive a password. And only licensed display devices have those passwords. So you can't simply make a bit-by-bit copy of the disk because your ripping program can't get the raw data out of the DVD drive; the drive refuses to give any data from a HDCP disk without a password. New televisions and computer graphics cards will have passwords, allowing them to get protected data. Also, a ripping program can't eavesdrop between the DVD player and the graphics card because the data stream is encrypted; the graphics card decrypts the image only just before painting the pixels on the screen. No doubt someone will defeat the protection eventually (hack the firmware of a graphics card or whatever) but at least for some time it should prevent casual ripping. High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection has the gory details. Weregerbil 12:17, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

GOOGLE EARTH AND SKETCHUP

Right i say i have created a model using google sketch up, and now i want to put it onto my version of google earth, just to personalise it. I know how to get it onto google earth but how do i choose where it goes??? Also how do you keep it there for when i go on google earth again. Do you just save the image (File; save: save image)???

thanx, --William dady 11:17, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

flash drives

Can you please tell me how to access a flash drive? I have a flash drive attached to a usb port on my computer with a file I need to download and I don't know how to access the drive. Thank you for any help you can give.

First, you have to be root. Then, create a directory to mount it to, such as "/mnt/flash". Then, you have to have to know which usb device it is. Try /dev/usb1, /dev/usb2... I've also seen /dev/media1 used. Finally, mount it: mount /dev/usb1 /mnt/flash.

Now, if you aren't using Unix/Linux, perhaps it is a good idea to mention what Operating System you are using. --Kainaw ^(talk) 13:27, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Modern linux(tm) will usually tack the drive on to the scsi namespace, in /dev/sd[a,b,c,d][1,2,3]... Although they also tend to automatically mount the drive to a newly created dir in /media or /mnt, so its often not necessary to know the /dev location. --Jmeden2000 15:13, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

...if you're using a recent version of Windows like XP, it will appear as "Removable Drive" under My Computer. With Windows 98 and previous versions, you may have more trouble getting it to work. Sum0 14:18, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

You may need to download a driver for it, too. StuRat 22:23, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

JUST GO ON 'START', 'MY COMPUTER' AND THEN CLICK ON THE FLASH DRIVE ICON (IT IS 'E', AS IN FLOPPY IS 'A' AND CD'S ARE 'D')

extending internet cable

can you get anything to extend the yellow internet cable? thanks --86.142.208.253 17:43, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

There is no such thing as an "internet cable". What kind of cable is it? RJ45? Cat5? USB? --Kainaw ^(talk) 18:59, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

What kind of a cable? "Yellow" doesn't quite nail it down. Perhaps you mean a Cat5, the one that has RJ45's at the ends? Buy a longer cable. You can also ask your local computer shop for female/female RJ45 adapters (aka Cat5 couplers) but it's easier to buy a longer cable. Weregerbil 19:07, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

I suspect they mean an Ethernet cable. They are frequently yellow. StuRat 22:25, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

TRY LOOKING IN THE ARGOS CATALOGUE OR SPECIALIST COMPUTEING RETAILERS, EG PC WORLD, BELKIN, IBM ETC.

IP Routing

Hi, all...

Does anyone know what happens when a static IP route is added to a routing table, even if there is no direct connection to the gateway's network? For example, let's say that I'm attached to the 192.168.0.x/255.255.255.0 network, and a NAT (192.168.0.1) handles the traffic at the border:

Me(192.168.0.4) <--[cloud of 192.168.0.x]--> NAT(192.168.0.1, 10.1.1.6) <--[cloud of 10.x.x.x]--> NAT(10.0.0.1, external IP: 66.230.200.19) <--[cloud of "Real Internet"]--> backbone gateway, (3.4.5.6) <--> (host / destination 116.2.4.8)

(obviously, most of these IP addresses are made up.)

So, what happens if I add a static route for 116.2.4.8/255.255.255.255 using gateway 3.4.5.6? Does it tunnel on top of 192.168.0.1? If not, how can I achieve something like this? (In short, it'd be bypassing the dynamic routing on 192.168.0.1, the local NAT, and doing the routing locally.)

I appreciate any help I can get.

Update:

I think that the wording that I used may be unclear. To summarize:

How can I locally manage the route that my computer's packets use for a specific TCP/IP or UDP/IP connection?

Jdstroy 19:32, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Your device should refuse to let you do something as foolish as assign a gateway beyond the local network. The whole point of IP routing is to avoid the need for such things. The simple answer is that you cannot put more than one destination address on a packet, so if you send it to your local gateway bound for an off-network address, it can only do its default action (which is NAT in your case). You might accomplish it with a special exception on your router. --Jmeden2000 15:09, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Jmeden2000, thanks for the response. I'm actually working on a Microsoft Windows XP computer that is connected as a client to the network. So, there isn't a way for me to specify the route? (The issue is that the border Cisco router has a few invalid routes that I would like to override.) Jdstroy 19:29, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

Downloading Wikipedia

I'm having some trouble trying to download the wikipedia database. I'm trying to download the text version of the latest articles. I don't know what program i need in order to download the material, or what program i need to setup a usable version of wikipedia offline after i get the material downloaded. I tried to download the text version of the articles at this link: [5] but it only downloaded a 2kb file which my computer didn't recognize and wasn't able to look up. Is this the right file for text only?, and if so, how do i download it.

I had read a Make DIY magazine vol 2 article[6](this is the link to the article but you need to have a subscription to read it) from august 2005 that gave step-by-step instructions on how to make a portable encyclopedia using wikipedia and something like a palm pilot. The article is in depth on how to modify the electronic device,(how to add more memory, what software you need to tranfer files from your computer, etc), but it just glosses over how to download wikipedia, basically saying "then i downloaded wikipedia". The article had mentioned MySQL, and Apache but didn't give any details about them. From the wikipedia database download page it mentioned that SQL would no longer be supported, I went to Apache where they have tons of programs and code available to download but i have no idea what any of it does, or what specific program i need. Would MediaWiki work for something like that?

download.wikimedia.org/enwiki/latest/

Can anyone expand on how to download Wikipedia here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Database_download

Any information anyone has about this would be great.

-thanks

You will need a webserver, PHP-enabled, a database backing (MySQL, I believe), and the MediaWiki software, along with these data files that you mentioned. See: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Installation

Advised is apache2, MySQL stable, PHP, and the pages-articles file.

I hope I didn't specify something incorrectly. But I'm trying to do this as quickly as possible. I hope it helps. Jdstroy 20:00, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

thanks for the reply jdstroy, i think mediawiki might not be what i'm looking for as i'm not looking to post an editable wiki, and don't have a server, i was just looking to set up an offline wikipedia/encyclopedia.

i just did a search at http://makezine.com/ ,they published the magazine the article was in, and came up with a similar article, this link is for an ipod, http://encyclopodia.sourceforge.net/en/index.html

but i don't need the encyclopedia to be portable, just basic instructions on how to download the database, and what program i need to use the material on my computer.

You might want to see Wikipedia:Reference desk archive/Computing/2006 August 31#Downloading Wikipedia Robmods 21:48, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

I see. It would be more like a snapshot of Wikipedia, then, I presume? I searched Make, and I saw the reference to the article as well, but there was no fulltext (as you wouldn't be here if there was, right?). I'm afraid that I don't know of anything else that can actually work with the database dumps of Wikipedia to show you the latest pages, or generate the latest pages, only. ... The best I can offer is running a local copy / mirror of Wikipedia, and then locking it from changes. Jdstroy 00:17, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Hi, you might like to try using Webaroo, and download the wikipedia web-pack from that. You can grab webaroo from www.webaroo.com and it is a program used to download web-sites, and their own 'web-packs'. I have been using it for several months now, and it features many options, such as exporting it to a PDA etc. You will need a good connecion to download the wikipedia web-pack though - it's about 5.5GB! Ronaldh 01:42, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Splitting of audio file

I would like to split a very long audio file into multiple parts of a given length. That is, I do not wish to manually set the break points, but have the program split it into chunks of, say, 15 seconds. What tools (preferably command line) are there to accomplish this? —Bromskloss 21:06, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

SoX. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 21:16, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the tip, but I couldn't find the possibility to do what I wanted in its documentation. However, mp3split seems to be capable of it. Contrary to its name, it claims to handle also Ogg files (Ogg Vorbis, pehaps they mean?). —Bromskloss 22:18, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Um, SoX can do it, in combination with a shell script, or maybe you could write a short Perl script that repeatedly invokes SoX to do the job. --Robert Merkel 06:09, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

buying a pre-existing domain

Has anyone ever bought a domain from someone who has one for sale? There is a domain that I'd like to use but someone has already squatted on it and they're looking for offers. How much would they typically be looking for? How shady (for lack of a better word) is this? What are some considerations to make? Dismas|^(talk) 21:26, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

It's pretty shady, but no worse than those who buy land or anything else on speculation. StuRat 22:33, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Twice, clients of mine have had domain names stolen. It didn't expire. They just tricked Network Solutions into transferring the domain name. One was in San Diego. He asked for $2,000 to give the domain name back. The other was in New Orleans. He asked for $6,000 to give the domain name back. So, if you are dealing with a squatter, expect to pay thousands of dollars. --Kainaw ^(talk) 01:01, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

I would expect them to change the price based on what they perceive as your ability and willingness to pay. Obviously most private users aren't going to spend thousands for a domain name, whereas some corporations might even be willing to pay millions for the right domain name. StuRat 11:10, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

I personally like that they ask for thousands of dollars because my attitude both times was that I was willing to spend twice as much as they asked for to make them give the domain name back for free. It worked both times. I don't care about the money. I only care about the punishment. --Kainaw ^(talk) 14:05, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Ghetto computer cooling

I recently read an article about computer modding here where one of the steps mentioned includes covering the side holes/vents on a computer with foil (aluminium) tape to enhance front to back airflow. I was wondering if I were to cover all the vent holes on my computer (excluding the ones in front of the fan of course) if this would give me a cooler computer. (temperature-wise) For example, my computer has 3 general spaces for venting, a circular grill for the fan in the back, a second slightly smaller circular grill under that one, (no fan) and then a rectangular grill area near the bottom of my case on the front. If I were to cover the last two of those areas, what would be the difference in temperature inside my computer? - Ridge Racer 23:18, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

This sounds like a very bad idea to me. Some safer ways to increase cooling are to leave the cover off the computer and/or point a fan at it. Are you sure you really need additional cooling ? StuRat 11:08, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Well, I don't need the additional cooling, but I thought it would be nice to try a cheap mod to boost my cooling. Why do you say to take off the cover? Once I left my cover off for about an hour and the floppy stopped working, due to overheating. - Ridge Racer 11:45, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

The combination "take the cover off" and "point a fan at it" is a good way to cool off the computer. Just taking the cover off will make things worse

.

Another mod I did when I was working in a hot office: I used ductwork to redirect the AC register straight into the back of my computer. The case always stayed nice and cold. I assume the components were cool as well. --Kainaw ^(talk) 14:08, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

I suppose my "and/or" was a bit vague, let me restate things:

• "Either point an external fan at the computer with the cover still on, or, for additional cooling, point an external fan at the computer with the cover removed." StuRat 06:14, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

September 20

Ethernet wiring

My Linksys wireless router has made it clear that I want to take the effort to make my network connections wired. To that end, I want to wire my house with ethernet cable. I was thinking of using Cat 5e but after reading the article for that as well as Cat 6, I'm now wondering if there is any advantage to using Cat 6. Will I be putting myself ahead of some standarization curve by installing the higher rated cable? Or will the next gen cable more than likely not be compatible and therefore I should just use standard Cat 5e? Dismas|^(talk) 05:32, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Linksys, lolz. Try a DLINK you noob. All kidding aside there are better wireless router makers out there, and unless you plan on using the network to move very large files or have a very large house, I personally would never recommend pulling cable instead of using an appropriate wireless device. But, to answer your question, you will want CAT6 if you plan on implementing gigabit ethernet over a distance, and 5e if you can settle for fast ethernet. If you want to beat the curve, pull some multimode fiber. --Jmeden2000 15:01, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

The hard part of wiring is getting through the walls and ceilings. If possible, try installing the wiring in non-metalic conduit so it will be easy to change the cables if whatever you put in becomes obsolete. --Gerry Ashton 21:41, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the attitude (really appreciated that part) and the answers.... Dismas|^(talk) 06:03, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

Computer game, drivers, failures to load

I've been having trouble running Half Life 2 on my laptop. The game starts up fine, but when I attempt to actually play it, the game (and the whole computer) freezes halfway through the loading screen. I'm running a 2.0 Ghz AMD, 1024 RAM, and 128 MB ATI Radeon Xpress 200 notebook. I've tried looking for updated drivers for the video card, but ATI's website doesn't seem to offer any. Could anyone tell me why this might be happening and what I could do to fix it? --Impaciente 07:02, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

If you don't have updated video card drivers the first thing I would try is going to the laptop manufacturer's site to find some updated ones, as ATI usually does not provide laptop drivers directly. However your specs seem to not be the problem, so I would attempt to track down those drivers if I were you. - Ridge Racer 11:49, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

I've got a similar problem with HL2, where the game freezes at the loading screen, and yet I haven't discovered how to fix it, despite a lot of research. The best advice I can give is to search the Steam Support section [7] or search/post on the Steam forums [8]. Good luck. Sum0 16:04, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

I've also heard that blasted Steam is a horrible application. Damn Valve for coming up with that thing! But anyway, thank you guys for your advice. --Impaciente 18:54, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Wildcard searches

I have an odd task.

I know the first letter of a four letter word, but I only have clues for the next three letters.

I know the second letter is one of four possibilities; third letter is one of five possibilities, and last letter is one of seven possibilities.

I have a dictionary word list.

Is it possible to use some sort of finder (IE, Mozilla) to wildcard search for those conditions?

Is there some sort of random generator feature of Excel that allows me to randomly generate those conditions?

Can anybody think of any idea of how I could get a list of conditions?

Thank You,

lots of issues | leave me a message 09:19, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

I think you need a crossword puzzle solver for this type of query. StuRat 10:29, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Where can I find a puzzle solver? lots of issues | leave me a message 11:29, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

140 possiblities is pretty managable. make a program to print all of the possiblities, then copy them into Open Office (or equivant) and see how many don't have red lines under them. Jon513 11:30, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Use any text editor that offers a full regular expression search. It will allow you to search for a string whose first letter is exact, whose second is one of your four, and so on. For example jEdit will work, as this page documents. (See the section titled "Character Class Operator".) --KSmrq^T 12:38, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

"Go away or I will replace you with a small shell script"... This problem is easy to solve with a simple regex, and a list to compare to. I would do this: grep '^l[abc][def][xyz]$' /usr/share/dict/american-english to search for a 4 letter word starting with L, and having one of the 3 letters for those 3 positions. The solution provided by this command: lady. --Jmeden2000 14:50, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

I fixed your command. You don't need commas in a character class, unless you want to match commas. --Tardis 17:10, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Thank you all so much. You directed me to a solution! -- Lotsofissues

CSS Skin

Is there any way to submit a CSS Skin for use in the preferences tab? Thanks in advance! -ENIAC (Talk) (Current Projects) 17:16, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

That's really a Help Desk question if you're referring to Wikipedia, but one way to do it is to pick a skin similar to the one you're aiming for (or MySkin if you want to start from scratch), and edit Special:Mypage/monobook.css for Monobook (likewise for the other skins). You can preview your CSS with the 'show preview' function; however, after you save it, you will have to bypass your cache. Hope that helps. --ais523 17:33, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

If you mean "I've designed a great skin and I'd like others to be able to use it too", then your first port of call is m:Gallery of user styles, where you can upload a link to it and a screenshot. I'm not aware, however, that any skin there (even my breathtaking MonoClassic skin) have been included in the source distribution or made generally available on any of the wikimedia sites. Folks can always grab a skin from the gallery and use it themselves. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 17:48, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Q Demographics

Two sections moved from WP:VP/T :

Hi! I'm wondering if anybody has a free! program to create those nice population charts. I mean where you have the ages 0-100(?) in the middle (y-axis) and the data as bars from the middle to the left or right (girls in red, left; boys in blue, right). I couldn't figure out how to do that in Excel. Maybe that works too? Thanks! --Hedwig in Washington ^(TALK) 02:20, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

If I'm wrong HERE, please give me a little hint! 8-) --Hedwig in Washington ^(TALK) 11:13, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

The HINT is there = WP:RD/C, general computer / IT questions (Wikipedia related stay here at the Village).

HINNT n° 2 = the same applies for the next section. -- DLL ^{.. T} 18:20, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Man, a program? The best I know that you could do is call the US Census bureau (they make just about all of them here), or just make a bar graph for each side, then turn 'em ninety degrees if you couldn't get a program and really needed it. — X [Mac Davis] (SUPERDESK|Help me improve) 06:09, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

Yep, a program. I'm a spoiled little puppy 8). And I can't do it with Excel. 8( Census is fine, but only for the US. Excel would be nice, but I really don't know how. Some help would be wonderful!??? --Hedwig in Washington ^(TALK) 11:52, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

What is a reply path SMS ?

JJ5358 10:05, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

I fear you are in the wrong forum here. This forum is about technical issues regarding Wikipedia. --Ligulem 11:27, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Not quite, Ligulem, the reference desk is for factual questions about anything BUT wikipedia. - Mgm|^(talk) 10:29, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

If you followed your original question here, there's more chances ... good luck. -- DLL ^{.. T} 18:31, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Embedded videos

On my old computer when I opened a video off of a link whilst on the internet, the video would open in a miniture version of quicktime embedded in the page. This was useful as you could have many videos open, and paused at various points, without them interfering with each other. On my new computer, it tries to open every single one in WMP. This is quite annoying as not only does it open a lumbering ram hungry application, but I can only have one video running at a time, so how can I alter settings so that they open in a new window of IE with an embedded media player of some sort. Thank you. Philc _T^E_C^I 23:34, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

If you like Quicktime a lot, go to Apple's site and download quicktime. I believe the installer also installs a plugin in for your web browser. Once you've installed the program you can run it and tell the program to associate itself with the media file types(MOV,MPG,MP3,etc...) you want it to play. From there on your web browser should have the QT embedded player. —Mitaphane _talk 03:30, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

September 21

Microsoft excel question

Ok so I have 2 long lists in Excel, in columns right next to each other. The first list contains all the information I need, and the second list is a partially complete version of the first. How can I sort the lists to seperate out what is in the second list but not in the first list?Xcfrommars 03:15, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

What type of data is it? Anchoress 03:20, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

Just several thousand cells with text names Xcfrommars 03:22, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

Well if I understand you correctly, turn on the Data, Autofilter option, then filter the second list for 'blanks' and that'll leave you with the remainder. Or just sort the second list and it'll show the empty cells at the top. Anchoress 03:29, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

Let me get this straight - you have two lists. They are in two columns. If the two lists are in different columns, then isn' it already sorted? Or do you mean the two lists are mixed together, and spread over two columns?

It really depends on what information is on the lists. Whether it's text, numbers, combination of both...etc. But two things you can try are:

the SORT function. In which case you should put everything into one column. Then go to data-->sort. If the information is text, this will sort all the columns and arrange them alphabetically. If the data is numbers, this will sort them into order.

conditional formatting. Go to format-->conditional formatting. This allows you to tell excel to format all cells that fit a certain condition. So in the conditional formatting box, you can choose conditions and have excel do something to every cell that has those conditions (so for example, highlight every cell that fits those conditions.) You can also use the add button to add additional conditions. If the information in your cell involves numbers, then there is a lot of options you can use (like cell value is "between", "not between", "greater than"...etc). If it's text, use cell value is "equal to" and type in the text. So "cell value is equal to x" means any cell that says "x" will get formatted.

So if you're wanting to use conditional formatting - you should find something that is common to the first list but not in the second list. Then use conditional formatting on it to pick outeverything that's in the first list (things in the second list will not be affected.) Or find something that's common to cells which are ONLY in the second list, and use conditional formatting on it to pick out everything that's only in the second list. Yaksha 03:28, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

Scorewriter/MIDI problems

I am having problems with MIDI. I opened a MIDI with WMP 11 then I subsequently opened it in Sibelius (scorewriter) but playback wouldn't work. Then I opened it in MIDINotate Musician and playback still wouldn't work. I have done almost everything I know (checked my speaker, reset the MIDI driver, reset the sound sets in Sibelius, de-affiliated WMP 11 with MIDI, uninsalled WMP 11, etc.) Please help me! Thanks. --hello, i'm a member | talk to me! 03:36, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

Responses? --hello, i'm a member | talk to me! 02:55, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

Programming exercise

I read in an article that a common programming exercise given to undergrad students is to write a program that prints its own source code. As a novice programmer I'm very interested. I guess the answer is recursion of some sort, but I have no idea_{don't laugh} how to implement it. Hints, Wikipedia? - 219.93.29.135 04:45, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

It's not really recursion, as they want you to print the source code, which is a distinct file from the executable that actually "runs". (An exception would be if you were running thru an interpreter.) So, in the normal case of running an executable, it would simply have to read a file line by line and print out those lines. Quite a simple program, really. StuRat 06:02, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

Generally, the task is interpreted to specifically exclude you doing that. It has to be a self contained program. Here's a hint: consider what facilities your programming language has in it for embedding string constants in the program, particularly with regards to escape characters. -

All that said, I've taught beginning programming, and I'd never set such a task; it's a) too tough for most beginning programmers, and b) it doesn't teach the kind of skills that are actually desirable for students to have after taking "introduction to C".

There is more information on this in the Wikipedia, but on the basis that the individual concerned asked for a hint rather than the answer I'll refrain from linking to the relevant article. --Robert Merkel 06:07, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

I've had a reverse problem which is trickier, how to allow users to enter text at runtime, which then becomes part of the computer program (specifically a math formula that the program is to plot). StuRat 06:04, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

See our entry on quine for a lot of discussion of these types of programs. --Fastfission 15:49, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

moving my windows slave in my mac?

can i use my windows xp origanated ntfs filed slave drive as a slave in my osx mac computer (essentially using the slave as a big flash drive to move picture files etc back and forth) or is there an easier way to do this? (these are huge picture files... not conducive to an actual flash drive)

OSX is basically Unix/Linux. To my knowledge, NTFS drives can only be safely mounted as read-only. If you try to write to them from Unix/Linux, you risk terrible file corruption. For a common format, I still use Fat32. Both Windows and Linux safely read/write to that format. --Kainaw ^(talk) 19:23, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

information technology

give me examples f use of information technology|?

Geez, how hard can this homework question be...think of a random business or other organization. For instance, consider a school. Think of all the different ways that a school uses computers . Pick another type of organization - say a supermarket. Count the ways you can see they use computers (and modern cash registers are essentially a type of computer). Repeat until you have enough examples. --Robert Merkel 10:02, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

Antivirus on multi-OS setup

I recently got more and more problems on my computer and couldn't even re-install Win98, so I bought a new hd, connected only that and everything installed just fine. So I think I've got a virus on the other hd's. So I want to install antivirus software, but the manufacturers rarely give any info on which OS's and file systems they will work on. I use different OS's (various Linux distros, Win98 and WinXP) and file systems (reiser, ext3, fat and ntfs) to prevent the spread of viruses, eg original files on fat and backups on ext3. Does this make any sense? And do all antivirus software programs cover all file systems (and which OS had I better run it from?) or do I need to install more than one? Also, are commercial programs any better than free ones? Normally I can judge for myself, but here I can't. DirkvdM 12:44, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

From what I can understand, of your question, no, not all AV software can cover all file systems, as it has to have those file-access routines provided by a lower layer of the system, the operating system. On Windows NT based operating systems, this is handled through "IFS." On Linux, I think it is handled through modules, but I can't be sure about that. So, the problem wouldn't be finding an antivirus program that can read your hard drives, but it would be finding a driver for your operating system to allow the virus scanner to read the files. I would say that it doesn't matter which OS you use, but certain fanatics will choose an OS for you. I have heard high ratings for both BitDefender and Kaspersky, both of which have free versions. (BitDefender has BD8 for Windows free for personal use, LinuxDefender with BD8, and BD8 for Linux. Kaspersky is being distributed by AOL.) Generally, almost all virus scanners are considered "commercial." The only "free" (as in speech) ones that I know of are OpenAntiVirus (which looks like a dead project) and ClamAV. As for "free as in beer," no, generally, for your purpose of finding and / or cleaning a known infection, "free" and "commercial" are the same. Versions of virus scanners which have "free" and "commercial" branches just differ in "advanced functionality" such as realtime scanning, scheduled scanning, and pattern updates. I hope this helps! Jdstroy 19:42, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, I'll give those a try. But I suppose I'll have to use the Linux versions because Windows doesn't see the ext3 and Reiser file systems (right?). DirkvdM 10:47, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

Probably. John Newbigin created Explore2fs and EXT2IFS, so in Windows NT/2000/XP (and the entire family of Windows NT), you can use EXT2IFS to read ext2 partitions. A quick search on Google for "Reiser IFS" reveals interesting projects going on, but I don't know if anything will work. Standard disclaimer applies. ;) Short of installing an IFS driver in Windows NT or using Explore2fs, you can, as you said, use Linux virus scanners. Hope this helps! Jdstroy 19:32, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

Electronic document storage

We are in the processing of scanning our files into the computer so the paper can be stored off-site. Some people are very nervous about this process in case the server goes down.

What is recommended as far as backing this up? Someone suggested backing up these files to DVD so they can be pulled up if there are server issues.

Any help is appreciated.

Thank you.

DVD-Rs aren't the worst way to backup files if you are not planning to change the backups much, and you are talking about backing them up primarily for the relatively short term (i.e. the next 5-10 years or so). I'd make numerous copies and store them in different places, personally. There are lots and lots and lots of ways to do data backup, depending on how much data there is, what sort of resources you have to spend, how valuable the data is to you, and so forth. If you primary concern is about having access in case of server malfunction, having backups on DVDs would probably solve it, as would having the capability to turn another computer into a backup server. What you are proposing is a somewhat unstructured repository, which for a relatively small operation (esp. one which would not need constant updating) might be sufficient (it would certainly be cheap, though whether it is easy depends on how you plan to update the backups, if you need to do that). --Fastfission 15:41, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

SQL Query

Consider the following two tables:

• Patients: MRN (Unique ID), Patient Name, ... (the rest of the fields don't matter)
• Visits: ID (Unique ID), MRN (FK to Patients), Date, SBP, DBP, ... (the rest of the fields don't matter)

I want to get a list that looks like:

MRN	SBP	DBP
C12	120	90
A33	132	105
C97	118	92

Where MRN is a list of the patients - each patient listed only once. SBP and DBP are the last value of SBP and DBP. By "last value", I mean that there are many Visits per patient and I only want the last one - the one with the most recent Date.

I've been trying to write an SQL query (postgres) to do this, but it turns out to be a very hard problem. For example, a patient may see the doctor twice in one day if he/she is in the hospital. So, you can get two SBP/DBP visits on the same day and I don't want to list any patient twice. In that situation, I just want one of them (it doesn't matter which). I have figured out how to get the last SBP/DBP for a given patient:

• select SBP, DBP from visits where ID in (select ID from visits where MRN='C12' and SBP>0 and DBP>0 order by Date desc limit 1)

As you can see - SBP/DBP is zero if it is not checked. So I had to add the SBP>0 and DBP>0 check. But, that is as far as I've been able to get. Any help will be greatly appreciated. --Kainaw ^(talk) 14:01, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

Here's a guess: SELECT MRN, SBP, DBP FROM patients INNER JOIN visits ON visits.MRN=patients.MRN INNER JOIN visits AS v ON visits.id=(SELECT ID FROM visits.MRN=v.MRN WHERE MRN='C12' ORDER BY Date DESC LIMIT 1)

Or, if that won't work: SELECT MRN, SBP, DBP FROM patients INNER JOIN visits ON visits.MRN=patients.MRN AND visits.id=(SELECT ID FROM visits WHERE visits.MRN=patients.MRN ORDER BY Date DESC LIMIT 1)

No idea if they'll work, but that's the best I've got. --Pidgeot (t) (c) (e) 17:35, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

Are you sure you don't want to list patient names in the output ? StuRat 17:50, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

The second example worked, but I had to alias patients as "a" to use it in the subselect. Of course, the subselect quardupled the time for the query compared to a simple join between the two tables. I got it on a tiny version of the tables. Now, it is running on the real tables - should be done in about 3 hours. Thanks. --Kainaw ^(talk) 18:07, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

where can i get the software for capturing a flash video from a web page to save into my hard* disk for linux ?

i wish to take a video screen shot or to capture the screen (that has video or flash) whatever i am doing in the screen.

please anyone help me to get that software for linux? or send the link!

Skype and music

Hi! I have my main audio out hole taken by my speakers. WHat can I do to simultaenously listen to music and skype, on 2 different "channels" (music:speakers, skype:headphones). Thanks! PS This is not from my CD drive, where I could use its own audio-out socket. -R.

In skype: tools -> options -> sound_devices, and pick the devices that correspond with your skype headphones and their attached mic. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 17:14, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

How about this: What music player (Winamp?) would let me choose my output device, in this case my CD-ROM - possible? Roughly a "splitter". -R.

I think the CD-ROM's phono port is hardwired. For Skype I bought an ultra-cheapo audio card, but you can just as easily use a cheap USB phone device. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 18:41, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

ISP Costs Around the World

Since I have the opportunity here to get info from around the world, I'm just curious as to how much both dial-up and high speed dsl costs in other countries compared to here in Canada. In fact, for all I know, one of the two (dial-up or high-speed) might be so unpopular in certain parts of the world that one is completely favoured over the other, or perhaps even that only one is even available. (I'm saying that because of my experience with renting a car in Europe...here in North America, automatic transmission is the norm, and manual is reserved either for sports cars or really, really low-end economy cars, whereas in Europe it's virtually (but not completely) impossible to rent a car with automatic transmission. I'm not sure why that's the case, but for some reason that's how things are. I'm just wondering if the same phenomenon might apply for high-speed vs. dial-up.)

In any case, what I'd really like to find out is how much it costs in various places. Here in Canada I get dial-up for about $3 a month (our dollar is worth about 90¢ US so that would amount to about $2.70 US). High speed dsl is generally about ten times that price. Something like $30-$35 US/month.

I'm just curious if there's any major difference in cost where any of you folks live. What kind of ISP service do you guys have and how much do you pay? (I'm pretty familiar with most of the major world currencies, so I can probably calculate the equivalent in Canadian dollars, but if you can, it would be great if you could express it in US$, just to save me from having to make a few dozen calculations!) Thanks! Loomis 17:49, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

In Detroit, USA, it's $10 a month for dial up via AOL (was $24 until just recently !). Yahoo! DSL is from $13 (1.5Mb/sec) to $28 (6Mb/sec). You've got us beat on dial-up, but we have you beat on DSL, it seems. StuRat 18:33, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

Good thing you clarified which Detroit you were speaking of Stu. For a moment you almost had me believing you were actually from Detroit, Khazakhstan. :-) Loomis 19:11, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

Well, not all people who read this post will know that Detroit is in the USA, so I clarified it for them. StuRat 19:41, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

This is my first time on the Computing RefDesk, so I'm sort of a newbie. Is everyone always so serious? Where are all the smiley faces? :-) The Detroit thing was a joke. I'm feeling some serious culture shock. I think I should go back to where I belong (sort of) at the humanities Refdesk. :-) Loomis 23:11, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

this ain't the friendly misc. desk loomis, things are digital here, black/white, Vulcan. There are no jokes so straighten up your act. Jasbutal 04:58, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

In the UK, the best deal I could find is 2Mbps ADSL unlimited broadband for £15 a month or US$28.22 according to Google. For higher speeds prices are similar but can go up to around £20 a month (US$37.63) and include a download cap (see later). The highest speed in most cities is 8Mbps with rural areas are usually restricted to 1 or 2Mbps with some restricted to 64Kbps dial up. However, most broadband ISPs will give you a download cap of normally 1, 2 or 3 GBs per month although some are unlimited, however, if you want to go unlimited then you usually need to pay quite a bit more (£28 for 8Mbps unlimited (US$52.68) is not unusual). Dial-up is only slightly cheaper than low speed broadband (1Mbps) in most cases £14 a month or similar but there are also pay as you go dial up packages where you pay the cost of the telephone call to the ISP per second and nothing else. Also, something I've noticed is that the term "broadband" doesn't seem to be used outside the UK. It basically refers to higher speeds than dial up (but not ISDN). In the UK there are 2 main ways of getting broadband. If you live in a big city you can get DSL broadband through your cable TV and if not, the you get ADSL via the BT telephone network. 88.110.142.138 19:03, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

Ok, apparently there are a bit more variables than I had anticipated. I just want to make sure I'm comparing apples to apples here. And please indulge my ignorance of certain terms because I'm only semi-computer-literate. The dial-up that I get is about 46kps. I know, it's really slow, but you just can't beat the price. Am I correct in assuming that when you guys are talking about dial-up, you're talking in that speed-range? As for high-speed, I really have no clue how fast it is because I've never been a subscriber. Another thing about what the above poster from the UK said: "there are also pay as you go dial up packages where you pay the cost of the telephone call to the ISP per second and nothing else". It's been I while since I've been in the UK, so I don't remember, but are you saying that local calls aren't free? (as long as you pay a flat fee for the phone line of course). Maybe I misinterpreted what you said. Loomis 19:29, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

I just took his comments to mean you can pay a per minute rate for dialup, as opposed to a monthly charge. On the other hand, AOL has an 800 number (toll free) with a per minute surcharge, in ADDITION to the monthly charge for dial-up. I used this once, when I was in a town with no local dial-up number. StuRat 19:41, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

For dial-up, you need to take into account the cost of calling the dial-up as well as the service. When I was in Germany, there was no such thing as a free call. Just calling from one phone to another phone in the same building incurred a cost similar to long distance here in the U.S. - but, that was a good 15 years ago. It probably changed due to public demand by now. As for this topic, perhaps Wikipedia should have an article on Cost of Internet Access. --Kainaw ^(talk) 19:37, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

Shoot, I'd trade with all of you folks. Local numbers exist in South Carolina, but all the service charges are a bitch. DSL costs ~$28/month (not sure the speed) for basic service (BellSouth), dialup is ~$10-14/month (again, BellSouth), but can be as low as $5/month. Cable costs ~$47/month from RoadRunner, while from AOL (yes, same company, strange policy; 768k down) it is $25.90. In the north-east region, serviced by Verizon, DSL is ~$15/month for basic service (768kbps?). Also, in the urban regions, dial-up is ~50.6kbps at best, usually ~40.3-50.6kbps, with lows in ~14.4kbps. BellSouth is making a killing. :( Jdstroy 19:53, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

The theoretical top speed for dial-up is 64kbps but in practice this is never achieved. When I was on dial-up the top speed I could get was 32kbps so lucky you in that case. So yes, when I talk about dial up I talking about everything up to that speed. Telephone packages vary from provider to provider. In all cases, you have to pay a company for line rental (normally BT) which is the flat rate you are referring to. In general, local calls are not free, but they are very cheap (supposedly). If you use a "pay as you go" dial-up service the number that is dialed is a special "local rate" number (like premium rate numbers which I'm sure exist everywhere and charge you everything under the sun). Local rates will vary depending on who provides your telephone package but are normally around 1p per minute (US 2¢) during weekends and evenings at 3p per minute (US6¢) during the day. With these packages you only pay for the time you are online, so if you were online for 10 minutes at the weekend that may equate to 10p (US 19¢). So effectively, StuRats interpretation is correct, you pay per minute to the ISP and not a monthly charge. 88.110.142.138 20:04, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

line breaks

within the wiki software what is the code to perfom a line break? I am referring to the type of break the will prevent a new section from starting until the bottom of a captioned picture is reached.

Use <br clear='all'> --Kainaw ^(talk) 19:49, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

Thank you 158.106.50.3 20:14, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

ZIP 2.0 encryption

Hello,

Does anyone know where I can find the specification for ZIP 2.0 encryption, or a Java library for managing it? It's hard to find Java libraries for ZIP encryption, as it's usually not implemented due to the known weaknesses (yet it still takes forever to crack! ;) ). Documentation is also somewhat troublesome to find, as it's usually obscured by commercial password crackers. (Also, extra kudos to anyone who can tell me the implications that the ZIP 2.0 encryption weakness entains in terms of password recovery. I didn't find any documentation on it.) Jdstroy 19:57, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

Max Open Window Limit in Win 98 Running AOL

I'm getting an error that says I have too many windows open and must close some if I want to open more. This isn't true, however, as I only have a small number open. This error occurs after I've been on the comp for a while, so I suspect it's not "clearing" the record of open windows when I close them. A reboot fixes the issue, for a while. As a workaround, I'd at least like to set the max window number as high as possible. I can't seem to find that in the help files, though. So, how do I set the max open windows limit ? Also, if anyone has advice about what's the root cause of this, I'd appreciate that info, too. Thanks. StuRat 20:08, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

I think that this is related to Windows 98's handling (pardon the pun) of handles. I don't know of anything that can help with "recycling" or "garbage collecting" handles and their IDs, but usually, as you have done, restarting will help with the issue. When you use components that have many widgets or accesses to files, Windows 98 will create one handle per object, and ... well, the problem is that the handle IDs don't get recycled. At least, that's what I think happens; my knowledge of Windows 98's inner workings are fading. Jdstroy 20:32, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

It's not windows as such that's the problem, but "resources" in general. Win98 has a limit of around 16,000 active resources at any one time. These resources include concrete things like icons, menus, buttons, windows, and so on, as well as more abstract things like device contexts and font handles. If a program is well-written, closing a window will free up those resources that the window was using. Quitting a program will always free up all the resources that the program was using; the reason you need to reboot is that Windows itself isn't well-written, and you can't quit it except by rebooting. The only fix is to upgrade to a NT-based operating system: NT4, Win2k, and WinXP have essentially no limit on active resources. If you still need Win98, 98SE does a better job of managing resources than regular 98. --Serie 21:10, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, I'm running Windows 98SE. I have seen an explicit open windows limit setting in Unix, however. Are you sure none exists in Windows 98SE ? StuRat 05:42, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

I find (I'm running NT4.0) that sometimes I close all the windows but they're still in the taskbar processes, and closing them there frees up a lot of space. Also, I find sometimes one or two of my IE windows (I tend to run 10 or 15 at the same time) will be using an inordinate amount of resources, and it helps to close that. Anchoress 06:37, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

Freespace?

Does anyone know of a remotely-located ("hosted") file repository system that is free? I've looked at box.net and Xythos/Sharemation, and Streamload, but there are many limitations:

• Box.net - Downtimes are often, file size limit is 10 MB.
• Streamload - Maximum file size is 25 MB, storage quota is 25 GB, limited bandwidth quota of 1 GB/month.
• Xythos/Sharemation - Total storage quota is 5 MB, bandwidth quota is 5 MB/hr.

I really like the way that Sharemation works, and, to an extent, Box.net. Sharemation provides full DAV access, while Box.net provides some support for DAV.

I want something like like DAV or iFolder, where I can connect to the service as if it were a native drive. (Too bad iFolder demo died.) I really don't like file size restrictions, but I'm not too picky with storage quotas. Bandwidth quotas are rather annoying as well, but I'm sure I can manage.

Does anyone have some good finds? (I thought about using Catacomb's databased-backed DAV, as I know of several unlimited MySQL hosts... but it's slow, and I don't have Apache httpd, even though I do have Tomcat5.)

Kudos to those who read, even more to those who answer.

Jdstroy 20:26, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

This was a while back, so I don't know if it's still available, but I used to use a site called freedrive.com for that sort of thing. You might want to take a look. But again, this was a while back. Loomis 22:57, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

Yes, I used to use that, too, but they closed. There used to be something called "isavix" that provided gzip-compressed and encrypted storage, with SSL, but they vanished, too. Thanks, no less, though. Jdstroy 23:59, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

September 22

Name that Game

I'm trying to find a computer game that I played several years ago (around 2000, I think). When I played it, it was a beta, so I'm not sure if it was ever finished.

Things I'm sure about:

• 4X space game for Microsoft Windows.
• 2D map.
• Instantaneous communication (FTL) for a set distance
  • Upgradeable with research.
  • Can build ships/stations to act as relays.
  • Delayed orders and information beyond that distance.
  • Leader can be shipped as cargo to change where the player "is".
• Around 6 resources that you need, some in larger quantities than others.
• Can build space stations to handle micromanagement of various tasks.

Other features I remember:

• Research labs
  • Can be built on ships and space stations.
  • Tech level is upgradeable
• Remote mining
• Technology is on a per-planet/ship basis, can be transferred somehow.
• All ship parts could be upgraded by technology.
• Ships needed power.
• Engine efficiency was given as a percentage. (% reduction in cost of movement?)
• Huge universe, on the order of thousands or even millions of systems.
• Designed your own ships by using components.

Anybody else remember this game, specifically what it was called? I was just telling a friend about it, and it's driving me nuts that I can't find it anymore, or even remember its name. -FunnyMan 00:47, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

about price of laptop in different model

sir i want to know the price chat of different models of laptop,and what are the features it has?

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "price chat". But if you want to check on prices of different laptop models and get their specs you can got to Froogle or pricewatch.com. Both should be good for those needs. —Mitaphane _talk 03:53, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

I speak RefDeskia, and can interpret that into English as "price chart". :-) StuRat 04:15, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

How much are you looking to spend? Do you want the latest technology or a laptop that can suit specific needs? --Proficient 06:38, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

Windows 2000 server not booting from first switch

Hi there,

If I have windows 2000 server and some times it is not booting from first switch on and I need

to do that again after some time then will work fine and after many hours or minutes will shutdown without notifying me.

What can I do regarding this problem??

Cheers,

Abdullah

Just to be sure on this problem, is Windows locking up when it boots(i.e. you see notification that Windows is loading but never loads), or when you turn on the computer you get no computer screen activity at all?

If you're computer is shutting down sporadically(without any notice from windows shutting down automatically), I suspect your power supply could be faulty and might need to be replaced. —Mitaphane _talk 01:13, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

wiki - firefox

I've been experiencing a strange phenomenon when using firefox to edit the ref. desk pages. Ther eis a significant delay (~1 sec) when I type on my keyboard and when it shows up in the box. I'm sure ther eis a faq about this? ANy ideas? I'm forced to use IE!! Jasbutal 05:02, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

Are you clicking the edit links on the side, or editing the whole page? Dysprosia 05:12, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

I occasionally get this, too. I don't know the cause, but a reboot cures it. StuRat 06:20, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

Firefox is known to have issues with being memory intensive. Next time this happens press (I'm assuming Windows here) Ctrl+Alt+Del and look at the memory usage for FireFox compared with amount of free RAM you have. —Mitaphane _talk 01:06, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

PDF printing - slow and fast

I've noticed that when I convert Word docs to PDF using any kind of converter and then print them, the printing is very slow. However, if I print out the same Word doc and then scan it back in as a PDF using a Fujitsu ScanSnap, and then print it, it is much faster.

Apparently it has something to do with the way the program recognizes the text. Is there any way I can skip the step of having to physically print out the document?

Thanks, 150.174.104.75 12:51, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

You're actually looking at two different kinds of file here. When you convert a Word document to a PDF (using somehting like CutePDF with GhostScript, highly recommend) the pdf file contains text and vector graphics - you can zoom in as much as you like and it'll stay sharp. When you scan a document to PDF, it's saved as a raster image file, like a JPEG - if you zoom in, it'll get blurrier. It'll also almost always be a far larger file if scanned in like this. This exact activity used to be my job, and I once made a CutePDF version of a report that was 10MB to replace the archive copy which had been scanned - it was 150MB! 84.71.169.89 14:31, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

Yes, I've also noticed that scanned documents are bigger, but this isn't a big problem for me (yet). Can CutePDF convert a Word file directly to a raster image file without having to print it out and re-scan? 150.174.104.75 14:54, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

Have you tried printing to a (generic) Postscript file from Word, then dropping the resulting PS file into CutePDF? This sometimes makes for a cleaner file.--Shantavira 18:14, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

Actually, what I'm trying to do is convert the PDF files to PocketMod (booklet) form using the free convertor. This results in printing the text extra-small (but not too small for me to read). After scanning a document with the ScanSnap and making up a PocketMod that way, there's no problem. But if I convert from Word to a PDF, and then make up a PocketMod out of that, it takes at least 50 minutes to print 1 page. (Using PostScript didn't work for me...) 150.174.104.94 20:01, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

I don't know why it should be printing so slow as a vector graphic. You might try using a different printer driver; it might be having difficulty translating or downloading the fonts as it is. It also might be that whatever you are using to encode the Word doc as PDF is not doing a very good job. When I export from Word to a PDF in OS X, it makes a very bloated and nasty file. If I run Optimize PDF in Adobe Acrobat, though, it shrinks it considerably and makes it much swifter to use. Just a thought. --Fastfission 19:16, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

I have read, but can't verify, that upgrading the PDF reader does not always work well, and it is safer to uninstall the old version and install the new version from scratch. --Gerry Ashton 17:24, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

Hotmail attachment issue

OK... I've got a Hotmail problem, thought I'd bring it to you guys.

I need to download attachments (Word files) to an email that I've received, but Internet Explorer says it has an error retrieving the file (long URL) from a remote IP (presumably the Hotmail server). It's really important that I get this to work.

Some points:

• The problem applies to all standard (non-WLM) Hotmail accounts accessed by my computer.
• The problem applies to all emails in those accounts
• The problem has developed in the last week, I'm not aware of anything which has changed
• It does not affect my account accessed from another computer.
• It does not affect a corporate email account accessed from my computer.
• My computer is accessing the Internet through a cable modem, I don't have a network so can't tell if it's the computer or the modem.

Some suggested solutions:

• Windows Live Mail - I haven't tried it yet, but it's been suggested that if I upgrade to it then that might work
• Get Firefox - I don't really want to put any more software on my machine if I can help it
• Get an alternate account, Gmail or similar, and use that - I don't want to change addresses as I've had my current one for ages and it's my name, but forwarding stuff to Gmail when I need to download the attachment might be a workaround.

Any ideas? Tyrhinis 14:40, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

I would try either using a different browser (Firefox is worth putting on your machine) or forwarding it to a different e-mail service and seeing if that improves things (in other words, the last two options you had). The first option will tell you if it is a problem with IE and Hotmail; the latter will tell you if it is just a problem with Hotmail. Once you've narrowed down where the problem is, you should be able to figure out the solution. My guess is that it is a problem with Hotmail's own servers — if you haven't changed anything on your own end of things then it is probably a problem on their end. --Fastfission 19:19, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

Which type of RAM to buy?

I want to buy some RAM for my desktop PC but there are so many different types available. What's the simplest way to find out which type of RAM I need for my computer? --Ukdan999 14:50, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

DDR2 A Clown in the Dark 16:48, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

Find out what motherboard you have, and check at the manufacturer's website to see what type of memory your motherboard accepts. Make absolutely certain of this, sometimes different versions of the same basic motherboard take different types of memory (for example, the Intel 845E takes up to PC2100, whereas the 845GL takes up to PC2700, as I found out the hard way recently). For a desktop PC, do NOT buy SODIMM RAM, which is for laptops (I also found this out the hard way once). It should say which motherboard you have in your PC's manual. Alternatively, it can be displayed when you boot your PC up, and the model is often printed on the motherboard itself. If you want to cheat a bit, the RAM chips you currently have installed may have a label on them stating what type they are. Hope that helps. CaptainVindaloo ^{t c e} 17:31, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

I suggest running this program here. Report back here with the information you find under the "Memory" tab. This will be info on what RAM you currently have. It may also help to tell us a bit about your CPU ("Clocks" and "Cache" data). --Russoc4 17:34, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

I suggest taking the ram out of your computer and walking into the store with it in hand. Then, say you need more of whatever type it is. --Kainaw ^(talk) 00:34, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

Good idea. Just make sure your computer remains powered off while the RAM is not installed. --Russoc4 01:55, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

My brain has random access memory. For example, if I try to recall the largest city in Sri Lanka, I come up with Peter Falk. :-) StuRat 05:37, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, I downloaded that CPU-Z program and it says "Max Bandwidth" = PC3200 (200MHz). When I search dabs.com for PC3200 RAM (1GB) it still shows me over 30 different items ranging from £60 to £110. Will all of these do the same job and if so why the huge range of prices? --Ukdan999 12:31, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

I'm not sure what the differences are, to be honest. Maybe the most expensive ones will have some kind of flashy technology on them that enables them to make tea and coffee, or something? I suppose the cheaper ones will be older models made with older manufacturing techniques, therefore theoretically more prone to failure, but still highly unlikely to. Or maybe all the different memory manufacturers are in a huge price war with eachother. I recommend shopping around a bit, use Google. Amazon and http://www.lowestonweb.com have reasonable prices on memory, too. CaptainVindaloo ^{t c e} 13:55, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

Try walking through the Crucial Memory Advisor to see guaranteed compatible options. It's hard to find memory these days that is unreliable; most comes with a lifetime warranty. --KSmrq^T 18:12, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

September 23

Lists of names for download

I understand Wikipedia has List of people by name, but is there anywhere where I can download a list of male names as well as last names? I am making an online football name and because I am not EA, I don't have a complete list, so I want to generate random names. Ladies' football won't be available, sorry.  :-/

The problem with List of people by name is that it doesn't actually list first names and last names. I thought of grabbing each name and using a regular expression to separate them, and I have software to remove duplicates and manage the files. But my regular expression coding sucks, so I'd rather find some lists online.

If the lists could be separated by nationality, that would be great, too.

x42bn6 Talk 03:54, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

iPod rumours

I keep hearing these horrible rumours from people about my iPod nano, such as that it will break down after a million songs are played, or that it will explode if left in a certain degree of coldness. I have no way of knowing if these are true, or if my friends are simply attempting to scare me. Anyone have any input? Russian F 04:00, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

A million songs ? At 3 minutes a song, that's 3 million minutes. Even figuring for continuous play, that would still be 5.7 years, by which time you will no doubt have bought the new nasally insertable iPod femto, which can store one trillion of your favorite songs. :-) StuRat 05:30, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

Any flash memory based device will have a limited number of read/write cycles. None of the articles I've read around on wikipedia address this the issue very well. From what I've read, that number varies around 10,000 - 100,000 cycles. So yeah, your nano will break down eventually but that depends on your use. Let's say, on average, you listen to 9 songs a day and put 1 new song on it a day. That would mean your nano would last somewhere between 2.5 and 25 years(I'd shoot some around 10-15 years before it crapped out). If you want more accurate number(instead my postulation), I'd go check Apple's website.

As far as the explosion thing, that's rubbish. There is nothing combustable on iPod Nano, and even if there was it would probably need a very hot source to ignite it. —Mitaphane _talk 05:44, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

Some thousand degrees for that good ol' anondized aluminum. — X [Mac Davis] (SUPERDESK|Help me improve)07:21, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

AFAIK, there's no limit to the amount of read cycles on flash memory; the limit is only on the write cycles. There's also wear leveling, which helps increase the limit if you do not rewrite the whole memory all the time. So, even if it writes a counter every time a song is played, if it uses wear leveling, it should last for much longer than that.

As to exploding, iPods (like almost every portable electronic device these days) use a lithium ion battery, which can explode if exposed to high temperatures or mistreated. (We seem to be missing an article on exploding battery.) --cesarb 14:26, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

Transfering Data From an Old Computer to a New One

I just recently bought a new computer to replace my old, outdated one. There are quite a few extremely important files and a couple of small programs stored on the old hard drive that I really need to transfer onto my new computer. It's not really much, under 100 meg. The problem is my old computer doesn't even have a CD burner, so I can't do it that way. I suppose another option would be to upload it all to my Yahoo account, and then download it all to my new computer. But with my dial-up access that would probably take an eternity.

I know that "technically" I can remove the hard drive from the old computer and install it into the new one temporarily and then just transfer everything I want. I'm pretty sure I know how to do that, but my experience has been that every time I've ever tried to do something like that, though I may solve one problem, I inevitably create like seven new ones, so I've learned my lesson and I don't dare fiddle around like that.

I've gone to a few computer shops asking how this is usually done. I had expected it to be a pretty simple matter since it seems that almost everyone replaces their old obsolete computers with new ones every several years or so, and that they'd have a pretty simple answer. The really strange thing though is that at every shop I went to all they had was the same blank stare in their faces as if I was asking them for the answer to the meaning of life. It's really weird. I would have thought this type of thing is done all the time, whenever someone buys a new computer. Doesn't everyone do this when they get a new computer? Isn't this a pretty routine thing to do? It really doesn't make any sense to me.

Does anyone have any comments or suggestions about the whole thing? Thanks. Loomis 04:44, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, that is odd. Any tech person worth a damn should be able to tell you how to do this in a couple of minutes. Since it sounds like you have reservations with cracking open your new computer, one way you can do this is buy a USB hard drive enclosure and put your old hard drive inside it. From there, you can plug it into your new computer's USB port. Not only will it transfer the data quickly, you can use the old hard drive for extra storage. Another way, if your new and old computer both have ethernet cards, is buy a Ethernet crossover cable and hook up the two computers together via their ethernet cards. Or, if your old computer has a USB port, a USB flash drive is good too, I just recently perchase a 1GB drive for $25. I'll let you decide the best options on your needs Mitaphane _talk 05:12, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

I agree with those options. Another is to set up a LAN so you can transfer files at will. You would need a network card or USB port on both computers to do that. StuRat 05:24, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

A possible cause for the blank stares is that, in my experience, shop attendants are more and more often salespeople in stead of experts, a very regrettable development. Consumers are largely to blame for that, going for the cheapest seller, based on commercial blahblah. But not knowing how to install a harddisk is very extreme. This is a good way to find a good computer shop. Ignore the shouting high street shops and visit some small shops where they build computers themselves until you find one where you get some decent assistance and reward them by doing all your computer shoppping there in the future. That will in turn make them more helpful, etc etc. I make it a point to make friends with shopkeepers this way.

As to the solution, this is a good opportunity to get to know the innards of your computer. Excepting Macs, computers are designed to be tinkered with. It is (always?) physically impossible to make damaging connections. Shut down the computer, open the case and look at how the present hard disks are connected (learning by example is another one of my favourites). Two complications. One is that there are three types of hard disks (excepting notebooks): ATA, SCSI and SATA. Look at the images to see what you have. SCSI is unlikely for a home computer. SATA is easy - just plug in (it's even hot pluggable, meaning you don't need to turn off the computer). But your old one will most probably be ATA, in which case you may have to fiddle with the jumpers. If there already is an IDE hd present, just one at the end of the cable, then you could connect your new one to the connector in the middle of the cable, with a jumper setting for 'slave' (should be shown on the hd or else in the manual). You could also connect it to the second connector on the mb (there usually are two), but you'll need a cable for that (no idea what they cost). In that case the jumper should be set to 'master' and the hd should be connected to the end of the cable (maybe that is no longer true, but it's better to be safe than sorry). Make sure to remember (write down!) what you have done. If it doesn't work, just reverse what you did and try another option. DirkvdM 08:32, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

Laptops also are not made for easy maintenance. I disagree that changing hard disks is safe, as a stray static electricity spark from your finger can damage the circuitry. A more common problem might be bending the pins when installing the drive. Thus, if the asker is uncomfortable with changing the hard disk, we shouldn't force him to do so. StuRat 08:48, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

I would never not force anyone to do anything (don't do unto others ... ). I've done that several times per day recently, because I'm rearranging my computers. Maybe I'm to dynamic a guy to be statically charged. :) Anyway, I've heard from people who should know that this static charge risk is very exaggerated. And one solution is to touch a radiator pipe or such just before you reach for anything in the computer. DirkvdM 09:17, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

Burning ISO image - data verification error

I just downloaded an ISO image of Suse 10.1 and the checksum checked out, but when I used K3b (under Suse 9.1) to burn it, with verification of written data, I got an error twice, not during the burning but after the verification ('data differs'). Is this a consequence of K3b comparing the ISO image with the 'unpacked' written data, which are of course not the same? If so, why does K3b offer the option? DirkvdM 07:39, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps you are getting buffer underrun error. This would be particularly likely if the computer is busy unpacking it while you are trying to do the burn. Have you tried lowering the burn rate ? StuRat 08:40, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

I need programming help with a program on my TI-84 silver edition calculator

I'm trying to write a program for the quadratic formula, but it's not working properly:

I'm a Java programmer, so I know the concepts of programming. But not this particular programming language. So through trial and error, I have written this so far:

0→A

0→B

0→C

Prompt A, B, C

0→X

(-B+(sqrt(B² - (4AC)))/(2A))→ X

0→Y

(-B-(sqrt(B² - (4AC)))/(2A))→ Y

X

Y

My first problem is that when I use example values when running the program (such as A=1, B=2, C=1, which is the polynomial x² + 2x + 1), it does two things.

First of all, it only returns one answer. Second, it returns -2.

So I have two problems, one is, I need to know how to make it display both roots. Second, I need to know how to make it display the correct roots. (-2 is obviously not a solution, since it evaluates to 1)

Help? It has stumped me. --Ķĩřβȳ♥ŤįɱéØ 08:11, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

• It appears that your parens don't divide -B by 2A. Fix that.

• There is sometimes only one root, when B² = 4AC. You can check for that in the program or just print out two identical answers. This is the case in your example.

• The roots are sometimes complex or imaginary, when B² < 4AC. Check for that and either print an error or add code to give imaginary and complex solutions.

• The quadratic formula can't be used if A = 0. Check for that and solve by other methods, if true.

• I would call the variables X1 and X2, not X and Y, that's confusing.

StuRat 08:25, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

*It appears that your parens don't divide -B by 2A. Fix that. fixed.

*There is sometimes only one root, when B² = 4AC. You can check for that in the program or just print out two identical answers. This is the case in your example. I want both to be printed out.

*The roots are sometimes complex or imaginary, when B² < 4AC. Check for that and either print an error or add code to give imaginary and complex solutions. My calculator is already set to a+bi form, so this is not a problem.

*The quadratic formula can't be used if A = 0. Check for that and solve by other methods, if true. There's no reason to do so, because I'm only going to be using this program myself, and the scope of the program should only be quadratic equations.

*I would call the variables X1 and X2, not X and Y, that's confusing. I don't know how to do that. The closest I can get is Y₁ and Y₂.

And I still need to know how to print out both roots and not just one of them. Thanks for your help though. --Ķĩřβȳ♥ŤįɱéØ 09:31, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

I was assuming that both the values you had called X and Y were printing out, but they were both the same. Is this incorrect ? Have you tested with a value that gives two different roots ? If so, I don't know specifically how to print two values, but can guess. If the display only has room for one value, then perhaps it prints the first value, then the second, so quickly that you can't see the first. Is there a "wait" function that can pause it for a couple seconds in between ? If not, perhaps it can wait until some input from you, before displaying the next result. We need a real expert on that particular calc here, I see. StuRat 10:34, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

To print out a value, you need use the Disp function:

:Disp X
:Disp Y

--Pidgeot (t) (c) (e) 10:40, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

Aside from fixing the low-level programming errors, it would be wise to fix the algorithm as well. As already advised, check that a is non-zero, and test the descriminant. But numerical robustness demands more. Quoting from the quadratic equation article:

Assuming the discriminant, b²−4ac, is positive and b is nonzero, [a careful floating point computer implementation] will be something like the following.

$t:=-(b+\operatorname {sgn}(b){\sqrt {b^{2}-4ac}})/2\,\!$

$r_{1}:=t/a\,\!$

$r_{2}:=c/t\,\!$

Here sgn(b) is the sign function, giving +1 if b is positive and −1 if b is negative; its use ensures that we always add two quantities of the same sign, avoiding catastrophic cancellation. The computation of r₂ uses the fact that the product of the roots is c/a.

To see why this matters consider (a,b,c) = (1.0,−10000.0,1.0). Then b² is 100 000 000.0, 4ac is 4.0, and the descriminant, b²−4ac, is 99 999 996.0, with square root almost exactly equal to b. When the numerator takes the negative square root, the subtraction of large and nearly equal quantities in the familiar quadratic formula destroys almost all numerical significance in the result. --KSmrq^T 18:53, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

Firefox

How come Firefox has suddenly decided to display web pages (Wikipedia, BBC) incorrectly, as in it's only showing the bare bones. Is it not recognising css for some reason? How can I fix it? I have redownloaded Firefox but it still doesn't work properly.

IE is working fine. — Dunc|☺ 10:33, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

Have you tried a reboot ? StuRat 10:36, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

Yes. Didn't make a difference. — Dunc|☺ 10:43, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

Did you try running it with a new profile (use firefox -ProfileManager to open the profile manager)? Usually firefox problems are tied to the profile, which isn't overwritten when you reinstall it. You can also try the safe mode (firefox -safe-mode). --cesarb 14:11, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

Yes, it's better now I've reset my profile. — Dunc|☺ 14:27, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

How does a processor work?

When it is working what is happening inside the processor?

Have you tried reading Wikipedia's CPU article? --Ukdan999 12:47, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

It doesn't do a very good job of explaining how it actually does anything. See Sheffer stroke and Sole sufficient operator --froth^{T C} 18:18, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

I would start out with Logic_gates, and then look into Flip-flop_(electronics), and Clock_signal. A CPU is a collection of digital circuits which form many, many logic gates. Many of these gates are arranged in a configuration which can keep state (i.e. a flip-flop and its variants). "State" in this case means that the current electric configuration of the system is dependant on the current input as well as the previous input. For example, it is possible to arrange flip-flops in a chain and add logic which will cause the chain to "count" upwards (each flip-flop can have the state of either "on" or "off", which correspond to a 1 or 0, thus a series of them can be made to count in binary numbers). The clock is used to synchronize the action of all the components, i.e. all the circuits move "forward" one unit during each clock pulse. If one can get ones mind around the idea of digital circuits performing a simple "computation" like counting, it isnt too much of a reach to imagine a CPU as working in essentially the same manner, but much more complex. By adding more and more gates to the design, features such as a turing-complete instruction set, registers, random-access memory, caches, etc. are implemented. --65.105.3.194 18:33, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

Globals as functions (C++)

Since functions are in global scope, would it be a bad thing to do something like:

string getABC() { return "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"; }

instead of just puttng a string declaration outside of a function?

--froth^{T C} 18:15, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

The "bad" thing here in reference to scope would be that you're worried someone else may also define a function with the same name? There are differences between a function (which can cause symbol conflicts unless they are not exported from a module) and a constant, which would only cause a conflict if the header file was included, but why spend time thinking about this kind of minutia? C++ has features such as namespaces and the preprocessor which are very effective at resolving name conflicts. Use good naming conventions in your own code, and concentrate on getting the overall design correct instead of spending too long dwelling on trivial things.

On the other hand, maybe you're referring to returning a std::string from a function which is automatically constructed from a const char *. In this case I'm not sure what "bad"ness you're referring to. Returning or declaring a variable of type const char * would be slightly more efficient, but would break binary compatibility later if you wanted to return a non-constant string.