Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing

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May 1

What is the benefit of more RAM on the video card?

Right now I'm debating whether to buy the Geforce 8800GTS in the 320MB model, or the 640MB model. What benefits would I see with the latter? Many reviews say that the extra RAM is needed for high resolution setups -- does 1680x1050 count? Down M. 07:58, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

If you have like an Apple 30 inch cinema display then yes, you will need all the memory you need. Otherwise I don't see how 320MiB is insufficient for 1680×1050.--antilived^{T | C | G} 08:22, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Inches doesn't matter, it's how many pixels you're representing. I think the formula used to be # of pixels * color depth = the number of bits of video memory you need but video acceleration among other things has complicated it. --froth^t 15:50, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

I really doubt anyone would choose to use 640×480 on their 2 grand US$ displays... --antilived^{T | C | G} 06:41, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

Big thing is the amount and resolution of textures that can be stored in the memory. High resolution textures results in better looking games / 3d apps. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 22:42, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Inches don't really matter except that 1200x1024 looks great on a 19" screen but it starts looking rubbish on a 30" screen. either card will play games at 1600x1050, you may not be able to quite get maximum settings out of the 320, that's what I have, but personally, I'd rather play on almost maximum (which still looks awesome) and save the money to upgrade sooner, like every year. The price diff between the 320 and 640 is pretty high, I don't think it's worth the extra notch, it's hardly noticeable and I play a LOT of games. On the other hand, if you can afford to upgrade every year anyway, then go for it. Vespine 22:55, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

I'm not sure that any games can really take advantage of that extra memory yet. Wait until Crysis and other new ones come out. Again, it's texture quality that will be most affected, and double the memory can make a pretty considerable difference in that regard. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 23:09, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

You need 6.7MB per screen at this resolution with 32bit colors. 4xFSAA increases that amount 16-fold to 107MB. Double buffering gets you to 215MB, excluding textures. If you want to use the 4x setting at that resoltuion, you will need the larger memory size, for 2x or 3x settings, the smaller one should be sufficient.

heys (pre-ATM)

am looking for the name of a machine which was used before atms.it has everything to do with money.its operated using the thumb.

A semi automatic coin dispenser ? like this one handed machine

It is very hard to understand your question. Maybe you are thinking of the abacus? -- Diletante 17:07, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

How do I test Oracle Forms

I am a QC/QC Analyst and will be working on the implementation of Oracle forms, but I have no idea where or how to start testing once development is complete. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Codebuster (talk • contribs) 17:22, 1 May 2007 (UTC).

Um, wouldn't you test it like any other product? Think of use cases, corner cases, typical usage scenarios, testing under load, etc.? --TotoBaggins 22:17, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Send email to instant messenger

Is this possible? (i.e., someone sends a message to email@address.com and it ends up as an instant message.) I currently use Jabber.—Wasabe3543 17:35, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

No, IM and email are separate. --h2g2bob (talk) 17:41, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Yes its possible. I do not know the specifics, but [[1]] may help. YOu may be able to find a jabber server to connect to that already has such a gateway set-up. -- Diletante 18:03, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Sadly, the bulk of a computer programmer's work is teaching two such systems to talk to each other. It's certainly possible, and probably quite straightforward. --TotoBaggins 22:22, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Please read this article. The Jabber Mail Component will have to be enabled on whatever server your client connects to for this to work. Lurker 10:47, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

HTML

Hi, What is the html equivalent of the "nowiki" insert... i.e. if I was on a page that used html and wrote <a href="http://www.sausage.com>sausage</a> it would display it as sausage... How do I get it to show the coding? Thanks!

AFAIK there is no such tag in html. If you view the source of this very page you can see that mediawiki just replaces < with &lt and > with &gt to prevent the browser from trying to parse the html. Of course, web applications may implement their own special markup to do this kind of thing.-- Diletante 19:48, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

<after EC, now with added info!>The xmp tag used to allow this, however it has been deprecated since at least the HTML 3.2 standard and new browsers might not support it. Currently, the only way that I know how to do it is to use HTML entities in place of the angle brackets, e.g. &lt; in place of < and &gt; in place of >. (In fact, if you edit this section, you will see I had to use an entity to make the ampersand). --LarryMac 19:53, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Quick way- Bookmark this handy tool Lurker 10:55, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

Implications of MPAA takedown notices of HD-DVD key.

Ok, so the MPAA are being... well... themselves... and running around the net and removing occurences of the key via takedown notices. My question is this if I had a few years to count, would I have to skip the decimal equilivent of the key? Will the MPAA be forcing Seagate to not allow HDDs to write it?

Intel was not able to trademark 586 because it was only a number, does the MPAA have the right to control this number? Fosnez 22:31, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

ISPs and whatnot usually remove things when they're presented take down notices. If they don't, they lose the whole safe harbour thing, and can be potentially liable for it. It's just less of a pain in the ass if they comply, even if the take down is frivolous. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 22:40, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Well the difference is, 586 IS just a number, but the other is an encryption key, right? I understand the gist of what you are saying but I think you are failing to see the gist of what they are saying. That key to them is worth a lot in revenue, the idea of that key is to stop people making illegal copies of copyrighted work, nothing else, it's not a logo or a trademark. I'm all for open source and all that, but free software means free as in freedom not free as in for no cost. The implication of that is no, if you have a legitimate reason to have that number on your website then you shouldn't be persecuted, and no a hard disk won't be stopped from writing that number. I think you are underestimating the chance of a number which is times ten to the thirty seven actually occurring. Vespine 22:55, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Indeed. Also note that many of the sites getting the takedown notices don't just have that number; they tell the users exactly what that number is and how it can be used to achieve such a goal. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 23:05, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

So much for Wikipedia is not censored - My entry containing only the above enteries of binary and decimal numbers have been removed from Talk:HD_DVD Fosnez 23:14, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Probably because it's obvious what you mean by the context? This doesn't have to do with 'objectionable or offensive' things... -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 23:18, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Actually no, I asked the same question as above... Fosnez 23:27, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Which includes the key, and gives context on it (i.e. explaining that it's an HD-DVD key). Again, not sure what's wrong with it being removed. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 23:31, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Placing the key here is only asking for trouble. It serves no illustrative purpose for it to stay, and I agree with its removal. -- mattb 00:40, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

How is it so different to the extreme example of someone putting up kiddie pr0n on their user page? Do they also have the right to cry foul when it is removed? Surely it too is just a stream of binary on a hard disk.. So much for wikipedia is not censored indeed. Vespine 00:50, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

A famous Windows XP serial key was deleted from Wikipedia articles, because it was unnecessary. Usually, if the passcode is notable, it will have reliable independant sources to verify it. So far, we have forums, Slashdot and blogs spreading the key. Wikipedia can't enter into that game. If CNN, BBC, New York Times and Washington Post all run a story about the number, then it could have its own section in the HD-DVD, Blu Ray or the algorithm article, but without them, we are basically spreading something that is not notable. We are not Wikinews. We don't care if the MPAA issues takedown notices to sites for showing the HD-DVD key. We are an encyclopedia. So much for Wikipedia is not wikinews indeed. -- ReyBrujo 02:42, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

Notable enough? What about the other articles on Google News? Of course this is not in the "mainstreme news" yet... mainstream news is a slow old beast... but I bet it is tomorrow... - Fosnez 04:32, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

What possible purpose does leaving the number itself here serve? Documenting the significance surrounding it, perhaps, but there's no reason to drag Wikipedia into this week's internet subculture drama. -- mattb 07:26, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

See What Colour are your bits? for an interesting take on that. --cesarb 00:49, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

In answer to the original question, the Number is 13256278887989457651018865901401704639 ± 1. So if you can count (on average) one number per second, it'll be something like 420 octillion years before you have to worry about skipping it. —Steve Summit (talk) 22:37, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

May 2

question on.What is the different of driver disabled displayed AND any other device?

What is the different of driver disabled displayed and any other devices?

What do disabled display and what dose any other device have in common? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 206.57.3.154 (talk) 00:12, 2 May 2007 (UTC).

Do clarify what you are asking about. A disabled device cannot be used, unlike other devices? Splintercellguy 00:39, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

On some OS if you have some particular name for a particular device, whether it is enabled or disabled, you cannot assign a different device of the same type with the identical name, but you can delete the first, then assign the same name to something else. You can use the same identical device name to several different device types. User:AlMac|^(talk) 21:50, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

By example, our security system, where I work, has a certain # of password guesses allowed before it assumes we have an intruder instead of a klutz, at which point the plug is pulled on the ability of whoever to connect the way they were trying, until a security officer reviews the situation, with the option of re-enabling the disabled device connection. User:AlMac|^(talk) 21:52, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Another example. We have a particular communication port that can be used by any one of a dozen different business associates, each of which uses a different set of communication protocos. So when one calls up by voice phone & asks to be "switched on", we check to see if the port is being used by anyone else, then we run a program cluster which enables all the drivers & special needs for their connection. When they done, we run another program cluster to disable all that they needed. We have a pair of program clusters for each such scenario.

We also have interchangeable printers that need different drivers for different places they get connected, so again we have program clusters to turn on & off whatever is relevant to a situation, where we have previously researched what is needed for something to work, in a world which should be plug and play, but has many exceptions. User:AlMac|^(talk) 21:56, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Bookmark datestamps

I was looking through the HTML of my exported Firefox bookmarks, and noticed these datestamps on one of them:

ADD_DATE="1149368722" LAST_VISIT="1173067319" LAST_MODIFIED="1150862454"

How are these deciphered? --zenohockey 03:06, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

I'm tempted to say those numbers are expressed in Unix time. Splintercellguy 03:28, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

It is Unix time. Enter the following into your address bar to see when you last visited that page. --TotoBaggins 04:45, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

 javascript:new Date(1000 * 1173067319)

Wow...neat. Thanks both. --zenohockey 08:17, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

xmms with recover

This topic has gone round and round on every xmms discussion page I can find without resolution. Does anyone know how to make xmms automatically recover if it stops. The problem with xmms is that if you have a processor spike, xmms just stops playing. You have to manually click play again. It would be nice if it realized that it stopped and started back up again by itself. --Kainaw ^(talk) 12:27, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

This is a known problem with XMMS and some other stream based applications. The sarcastic answer would be to learn enough C to fix it yourself ;-).

More usefully, you may want to consider trying other XMMS-like programs like Audacious, or avoiding the problem entirely by changing the priority of XMMS with a tool like renice. Changing the priority of XMMS would mean that it gets first crack at the CPU, before whatever is causing the spike gets processed. --Ptelder 06:44, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. I like that audacious appears identical to xmms. So far it hasn't died while playing mp3/ogg files. However, it won't connect to a streaming source. I'll have to see if I'm missing a library. --Kainaw ^(talk) 20:02, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

Well I can tell you that I occasionally use Audacious to list to SomaFM, and streaming tends to work for me. I'd try their forums for more specific help.--Ptelder 13:35, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

locating outlook.pst

I'm trying to recover from a system crash (XP computer). I have a backup, which I restored, and also reloaded Outlook 2003. It worked after someone helped me locate the outlook.pst file and move it to the proper place on the new (Vista Home Premium) computer. But then I had serious problems with the new computer and had to return it to the store. Now I have restored the files to the second new (Vista) computer, but I don't know how to relocate outlook.pst and what to do with it. Can anybody help? Thanks. --Halcatalyst 12:35, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

Desktop search? --TotoBaggins 12:57, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

As you probably know the outlook.pst file probably contains a backup of your emails and stuff, and thus you could do a search on the crashed system for "*.pst" (without the ""s) by clicking Start -> Run... Rfwoolf 13:58, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

• I did find outlook.pst in a subdirectory of Documents and Settings in my backup. However, when I try to place it in the same place on my new computer, I am denied access to the Documents and Settings directory. Is there a (safe) way I can gain access and place the outlook.pst file in the directory where Outlook will find it? --Halcatalyst 20:43, 2 May 2007 (UTC)
• Maybe there is another way to achieve my goal, which is simply to retrieve my e-mail, contact, and calendar information. If I could do so, would it be possible to convert it for use in other applications? For instance, the e-mail, contacts, and calendar applications which come with Vista? --Halcatalyst 21:45, 2 May 2007 (UTC)
• I actually figured this out by myself! and now have access to my data. Thanks to those who responded. --Halcatalyst 02:58, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

• FYI, here is the path for Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\Hal\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook
• The path on Vista is C:\Users\Hal\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook --Halcatalyst 15:46, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

rovclock

I have a few questions about rovclock (linux tool). It displays my radeon x1600 as having ".15 mhz" core. That's not possible! I thought it had around 450 mhz. Could someone explain this? And also, does overclocking save after reboot? Thanks, I want a little more performance from my card. (And I do have fglrx installed, if that helps.)--Ryan 13:19, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

Using a telephone pickup with my MacBook

I have a MacBook which has an Audio-In jack. The specifications are:

Analog line and optical digital audio input is accepted through a 3.5mm mini phone jack which does not provide power to a connected device, so you must use self-powered peripherals. The sound input jack accepts line-level stereo signals up to 24-bit stereo 44.1-192kHz sampling rate. It also accepts a stereo miniplug-to-RCA cable adapter for connecting stereo equipment to the computer.

Optical digital audio input is S/PDIF format and uses a standard Toslink cable with a Toslink mini-plug adapter, accepting up to 24-bit stereo and 44.1-96kHz sampling rate.

Which is pretty much in Chinese as far as I am concerned. I have a Removable Telephone Pickup which I bought at Radio Shack that I would love to use to record audio directly into my computer; it has a 1/8" plug. I've tried plugging it into the audio in port but I get no response — which I switch the microphone input in Audacity from the "Built-in Microphone" to the the "Built-in Input" I just end up getting absolutely no input. Where does my error lie? Was I wrong to think it would work with this port? Do I need a converter of some sort (it fits in the jack snugly)? Should I try some different hardware/software settings? Any ideas would be appreciated. --140.247.250.12 16:47, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

I think it has to do with a 1/8 pin in a 3.5 hole the plug might physicaly fit but the wires might not line up exactly

3.5mm and 1/8" are two names for the same jack size. They normally come in mono (the tip is neutral and the shaft carries the signal) or stereo (the tip is still neutral, but the shaft has two sections - one for each signal). So, it shouldn't be an issue of wrong plug size. --Kainaw ^(talk) 17:31, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

Hmm. OK. Well I tried it with Quicktime Pro to see if it was the software — it isn't. Setting it to record via the Line-in also gets total silence. I get a blip when I plug and unplug the microphone into the port so something must be wired right. Hmm... I'm perplexed. I guess I could try it on a different computer and see if it is just something wrong with mine... --140.247.250.12 20:45, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

Are you plugging the microphone/input into the wall, like the spec says you must? ST47Talk 23:50, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

Well, it is just a simple microphone, I wouldn't imagine it needs to be powered? I don't know. There is no way to power it that I know of (it doesn't have its own power supply). Maybe that's the issue? Is that normal for a line-in? --24.147.86.187 23:57, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

I think you'll find that a telephone pickup puts out a very small signal (on par with that from a low-impedence dynamic microphone); this is far less signal than the Macintosh audio input requires. You'll need a microphone preamplifier or a different connection method.

Atlant 00:02, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, I see the problem now. OK, no problem. I will get a cheap USB sound input and that should do the trick. Thanks! --24.147.86.187 00:13, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Editing Acrobat reader files

Is there a way to edit Acrobat reader files? IS there a solution to it by using Acrobat writer? Whats the alternatives?

You need to use Adobe Acrobat Professional to edit it. There may be other software available, but I have found this to work very well (and is the official software) JoshHolloway 19:17, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

And even then it depends on what kind of editing you want to do and what kind of file it is (is it a PDF that was converted directly from a word processing or desktop publishing program, or is it an OCRed bitmap?). PDFs are not meant for editing and it is not easy to do, even with Reader and under ideal circumstances. --140.247.250.12 20:48, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

Indeed. Readiris PRO (and I'm sure its many competitors too) does a nice job of turning scanned PDFs into pretty nice editable Word documents. I've never thought to try it on a PDF that actually has the text in as text entries (rather than a bitmap). -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 20:51, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

If the files are not protected, you can also edit them in Adobe Illustrator. — Michael J 21:17, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

May 3

Fastest USB Flash Drive

What is the FASTEST USB flash drive? -68.193.147.179 00:12, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

This is the 3rd question you've asked about flash drives in the past few days. Perhaps you should visit USB Flash Drive and its sources to learn more about the biggest, fastest, strongest, smallest, etc. flash drives. Or better yet, try google: fastest USB flash drive. —Mitaphane _?|! 01:31, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

What will help you is by looking at the read/write speeds which are often marked on the manufactures web site

User:Nerdd 13:06, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Memorex's M-Flyer is pretty fast

M-Fyer

    Read speed 25 MB per second and write speeds of up to 20 MB per second

200.35.168.129 16:48, 7 May 2007 (UTC) Ag for MemTech

Java

How can I create a Java application that runs when an icon is double-clicked; not from the command window? Also, why does my home computer not recognize the "javac" and "java" commands? Thanks, *Max* 01:20, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

As far as creating an application, you need to create a jar file. That article explains how to do it more or less.

As far as javac and java not working, you need to make sure that your classpath environmental variables are set correctly, as well as the running path environment variable. Generally speaking, in my experience, the frequent errors will be because you have not included the . directory in your classpath, as well as that the directories of javac and java are not in the running directory path (in Windows, that's the %PATH% environmental variable). –Pakman044 02:23, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Sorry for stating the obvious, but make sure you have a Java compiler (e.g. Sun Java Development Kit or others) to compile Java; and a Java virtual machine (e.g. Sun Java Runtime Environment or others) to run Java programs. --Spoon! 04:04, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Create a batch file. in that use javaw instead of java. you can avoid dos shell this way. also you can doble click on the icon to open the java application —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 61.246.232.126 (talk) 11:06, 3 May 2007 (UTC).

Also - there are development tools you can purchase that will take the java program and compile it into a Windows executable so it no longer requires Java to be installed on the computer. They work rather well, but the end result is always more bloated than an identical-functioning compiled C/C++ program. --Kainaw ^(talk) 15:14, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

is it possible to run code on the stack?

is it possible to run code on the stack? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 165.228.95.126 (talk) 04:32, 3 May 2007 (UTC).

Yes and no. Without NX protection, then of course, that's how buffer overflows are exploited. With NX protection, this can't happen. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 129.78.64.102 (talk) 04:49, 3 May 2007 (UTC).

(ec) Sometimes, yes. See NX bit for a discussion. --TotoBaggins 04:59, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Depends on the processor architecture and how the memory protection is set. Most real computers (hardware+OS) never allowed execution from the stack as that's one of the main methods that malware uses to hijack the processor. Intel architecture PCs did allow this for a long time though, and it's still an option (for compatibility with poorly-designed programs that depend on that capability).

Atlant 12:49, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Trampolines are implemented using an executable stack. --TotoBaggins 15:40, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Multilayer Circuit Diagrams

Hello. What's the process used to create multilayer circuit diagrams that make up the microchips in computers? Thanks. --Mayfare 04:37, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

If you're asking how the wires are allocated to the various metalization layers and routed, it's done by software that processes for a very long time to achieve a near-optimal layout. Prior to that, floorplanning software placed the various functional units of the chip so that the wiring problems would be minimized. It's essentially the same problem faced by printed circuit board layout software, but in miniature.

Atlant 12:53, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Unicorns

Does anyone know any facts, percentages, know-how or other miscellanous knowledge on how to aquire the unicron in elder scrolls: oblivion. (i am assuming it is the same on all platforms but i have a ps3, just in case it affects anything)

Thank You --89.241.1.180 09:01, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Check out www.gamefaqs.com - one of the top free sites for that sort of thing. Do a search for the game, then look at FAQs or Codes (you'll find what you're after in one of the FAQs/Walkthoughs) Rfwoolf 12:12, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

The Internet

If the internet was converted into 1sq mile for every 500mb of data on it, how big would it be?

Thanks

--89.241.1.180 09:02, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

http://www2.sims.berkeley.edu/research/projects/how-much-info-2003/internet.htm according to this, 1,117,566,009 Miles squared. For reference, earth is about 316,940,070 square miles of surface area, including water surface area., or 1/3rd the size. I think a square mile could hold more than 500MB though. 500MB sounds about the same as a movie, although I haven't downloaded any in a looong time, but I have to imagine a film reel is nowhere near a square mile in width*length dimensions -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 10:02, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

500MB is quite small for a square mile, I think. If we encoded the (2003) internet by black and white squares on paper, and made each square one millimetre across (say), then each square mile would encode about 300GB, so the internet would take about 1.8 million square miles, or about the are of the european union plus norway. Algebraist 12:34, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Okay, how big would the internet be if you wrote it out in binary in size 10 arial? I'll work this out when I get home if nobody else has (I guess we can assume 50/50 distribution of 1/0s. - since arial isnt fixed width. --213.48.15.234 14:57, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

The proportion of 1s and 0s is irrelevant - assuming you're viewing this in Arial, these two lines should be the same width:

00000000

11111111

To answer your question, I calculate it to be around 865,155,330,000,000 (865 trillion) sheets of A4 paper. Using the default OpenOffice.org settings, I can fit 5418 bits on a page in 10pt Arial. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 15:39, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

The internet is not a data storage device, it is a data transfer network, so it doesn't really make sense to talk about the size of the internet in terms of storage. It would be more meaningful to talk about data transfered over time. I also don't think that converting this value arbitrarily into spatial dimensions like area renders any useful comparisons. -- Diletante 15:31, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

A good point. I remember reading at one point that the bandwidth of the entire internet was less than a hatchback full of 8 tracks travelling down the highway, however that was very much over a decade ago, so you can consider it fiction now. -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 17:55, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

I can fit 2,849 characters on a page in size 10 Arial, single-spaced, alternating 0 and 1. --TotoBaggins 15:35, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

I think that depends on your margins, I have a full a4 page of 1s and 0s with no margins, all the way to the edges and I have 6360 bits. Vespine 00:48, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Awesome, I completely forgot about this by the time i got home :D 213.48.15.234 06:50, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Opensource Java Barcode Image Reader

Is there an opensource barcode image reader in Java? I want to give an api a jpg or gif from another java app and get the barcode number from it. I have seen the Tasman.bars thing but it is too expensive, i need something free. --68.154.107.171 15:04, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Why not just decode the barcode in word with a free converter ..and then just copy and past the number ! It would be helpful to know the application for which you plan to use this for.--Nerdd 20:55, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

The answer appears to be "no". An alternative would be to use a non-Java open-source OCR package that handles barcodes, and write a Java interface to it with JNI or whatever. --TotoBaggins 15:04, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Username changing over the Internet

A group of friends and I don't understand why most companies don't allow you to change your username on their sites. It makes sense, but we don't understand why.

--Ian 17:36, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Two reasons:

1. Changing username will require the site to update your username everywhere it is recorded.
2. Changing a username will cause any place it isn't updated to show the wrong username.

So, it is a database issue (in the first case) and a responsibility issue (in the second case). The database issue is just a programming issue. The responsibility one is now. For example, what I wrote about how much Wikipedia sucks and then changed my username so I wouldn't have to accept responsibility for the statements made by me previous username? --Kainaw ^(talk) 17:41, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Well if your username changed everywhere, we would see the new username as the author of the troll comment, right? I think the answer is simply that even though it's not awfully difficult to include this feature, it's even easier not to include it. —Bromskloss 20:42, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

It's certainly not due to technical restrictions - any good database will have a separate unique field such as a user id number that's transparent on the frontend. But it's confusing for users if peoples names change often, especially in community-based apps like forums or wikipedias. --froth^t 02:04, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

It is true that a database will likely use a key other than the username, but, if I were to say that Ianweller asked this question and both Bromskloss and Froth answered it... how would a database key know to look through this comment and update those names? That is what I was referring to by having the old username present and difficult to change. --Kainaw ^(talk) 02:12, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

As most readers of TheDailyWTF will know, a lot of databases are not good databases... --cesarb 17:03, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Backwards in GarageBand

Is it possible to play things in reverse in GarageBand? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.34.38.123 (talk) 20:18, 3 May 2007 (UTC).

Have you tried Apple Garageband support? also this Apple Forum might be what your talking about.--Nerdd 21:04, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

No, i'm looking for how to make sections (primarily vocals) backwards so when i play it that section is reversed. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.34.38.123 (talk) 21:40, 3 May 2007 (UTC).

You could import the vocal (assuming its in WAV or the like) into Audacity, reverse it there, and reimport into GarageBand. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 00:31, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

May 4

Backing up my hard drive

I know the importance of backing up one's hard drive, but I find the process using Windows XP's file explorer to be tedious and buggy.

Does anyone know of a free program that makes it easy to choose what to back up, divide it into the proper number of CDs and burn the data? Thanks -- Mwalcoff 00:05, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

There's a big difference between backing up the disk and just backing up the data. The former copies everything (including the OS, applications, and lots of incidental and temporary junk) making a large archive that can restore your machine to its current state (but that's not so useful for just recovering the data on a new machine). The latter just copies the important data you want (mostly stuff you made yourself, and maybe email). The former process is called disk cloning, and that article links lots of software that can do it. Our backup software and list of backup software articles describe a variety of solutions for backup. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 00:22, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. I don't need to clone the disk -- just back up data files. Thanks for the link -- Cobian Backup looks like it might do the trick. -- Mwalcoff 01:06, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

A lot of external HD manufacturers include "1-button" file-backup software w/ their products (so you can just press the button on the hard disk whenever you want to do a backup). I don't use it personally, but I know my external HD has it. NByz 20:35, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

Excel

Hi - Is there any free source of learning MS excel in very simple manner ? I have tried number of books and online tutorials, but have been unable to explore the full potential of excel.

67.180.49.99 00:26, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

My sugestion is just jump in and start trying to do things. If you are doing something relevant to your life or job it is easier to learn something. For instance you could create a budget spreadsheet each row could be a seperate expense, and the columns could be category divisions (groceries, utilities, entertainment etc) that are summed up into a total column. When you have a specific problem you are trying to solve it is often very useful to do a google search. If you are trying to figure out how to use the SUM function you could search "excel sum". If you are interested in macro programming here are a couple of sites with some basic reference information to get you started. I found these site myself just through general problem solving, and have them bookmarked, because they have a good overview of common programming topics in excel. Excel Faq and Julian's macros -Czmtzc 12:30, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Mr excel (http://www.mrexcel.com/board2/index.php) is a great site for finding out answers to wanting to achieve a specific thing. You have to sign-up (free) to post questions but the people there are friendly and often have very good responses to requests for help. ny156uk 16:16, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Airport Express

I've been trying to figure out how to set up my Airport Express as a bridge but can only find mentions of using it as a wireless bridge and I want it to be both wireless and wired. There's an ethernet port on the side but I can't get it to handle a wired connection. Basically, I have an ancient laptop with Linux on it that I want to be able to use in my living room where the AE is. If I plug an ethernet cable into each, I can't get online. I've tried it with another laptop that is newer and has Windows XP on it and that doens't get online either but they do if I plug them direct into the router downstairs, i.e. not in the living room. So, I know it's not the computers. Any ideas? Dismas|^(talk) 00:29, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Adobe Premiere

How do you stretch the timeline out so that there's more than 40 seconds to work with? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.82.135.128 (talk) 01:27, 4 May 2007 (UTC).

At the bottom of the timeline window there should be a drop down box that displays the current length of the timeline. Select the arrow next to it and choose the timeline length. This page has a good visual reference. —Mitaphane _?|! 03:26, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Qos Mapping

Hello,

What is Qos mapping(in relation to WiFi networks) I saw a program that offered to do this, and was curious about what is was.

Thanks, Nathanww 01:55, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

When talking about computer networking, "QoS" means quality of service. I think "QoS mapping" is just allocating your QoS budget (e.g., how much guaranteed bandwidth you get) optimally, but I dunno. See Differentiated services. --TotoBaggins 02:47, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Hashcash and P=NP

The Clay Mathematics Institute article describes the P-versus-NP problem as to determine "whether there are any problems for which a computer can verify a given solution quickly, but cannot find the solution quickly." Isn't outgoing hashcash such a problem, in theory, or is the quoted description inaccurate or woefully incomplete? NeonMerlin 03:20, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

I'd never heard of hashcash before, but reading our article on it makes it clear that it is not. The P/NP/NP-complete complexity classes deal with what is called decision problems, yes or no answers to questions. An example is the travelling salesman problem: Can a travelling salesman visit every town in America and only use X amount of fuel? What the Clay-text is referring to is that if you are given the answer in advance (called a certificate), you can quickly check that it is the right one. For instance, the subset sum problem is this: "Given a set of numbers, does any subset of them sum to N?". If someone provides you with an answer (i.e. a subset that sums to N), you can quickly check it, you just sum the numbers and see if they do, in fact, sum to N. The point is, NP and NP-complete problems are really hard to solve, but if someone can find one algorithm to solve any of the NP-complete problems in a fast way, then every single NP problem (and there are thousands of them) would be solvable using a fast algorithm. If someone finds that algorithm, it would be the single greatest milestone in the history of computers since Alan Turing invented the Turing-machine. --Oskar 05:46, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

You know, when I look at it a second time, you might be correct after all. The decision problem "Find a string which has a SHA-1 hash starting with N zeroes" is exponentially difficult, O(2^n) which would put it, I think, in NP. It's almost certainly not an NP-c problem, but you are probably correct that that sort of problem is exactly what P vs. NP is talking about. My Bad :) --Oskar 05:56, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

The description of the problem is very poorly worded. I'll fix it up just now. Yes, hashcash is hard to compute, but quick to check; there are *many* such problems (public-key cryptography depends on one of them). The Millenium question is whether P = NP, which is to say, "does there being an quick way to check the answer imply that there's a quick way to compute it?". --TotoBaggins 17:46, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

The point of the wording used by Clay is that we don't know whether there are hard problems of the kind whose solution can be verified quickly (in polynomial time) --- this point has not been proven. Even without proof, it is widely believed that there are such problems, and much of cryptography, like hashcash, is based on this belief. But at the present stage of computer science and mathematics, the possibility cannot be ruled out that there is a fiendishly clever algorithm that would efficiently solve NP-hard problems. If there is such an algorithm, current hashcash schemes would turn out to be based on wishful thinking only. 84.239.133.38 19:33, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Dial-up internet connection with wireless router

I have recently had a separate BT telephone landline installed for two 2 oversea students who reside in my house. The students both have wireless lap-top computers that they wish to use. I am the subscriber and responsible for the line at BT.

For the students to use their laptops do I merely have to buy a wireless router? Would there be a charge by BT for every time the students use their laptop and the internet?

Technologically underinformed Landlord

86.129.150.56 07:27, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

^{I've split your question into its own section — Matt Eason (Talk &#149; Contribs) 09:25, 4 May 2007 (UTC)}

This would likely depend on the company's service plan, although if you're going to be using wireless internet, you really should have broadband. Wireless internet tends to be slower than a wired connection, and dial up is unbearably slow nowadays. You can probably get DSL for under 40$, which shouldn't be too much more than dialup. If you can't afford it, you could ask the students to chip in. Broadband internet, again you'll need to check your service plan on this, is usually "Always On", so you don't spend extra money just for them being connected like you do on some dial up, although you should see if the service plan has a Fair Access Policy, or FAP, and check it very carefully, to see if you'll be charged for downloading more than a certain amount of content (I've heard of some plans that penalize users for downloading more than 1GB in 4 hours, for reference, I've downloaded over 4 GB in one hour before, easily). But yes, for your basic wireless internet, you plug your landline/cable into a modem, the modem into a wireless router, and the router into any wired computers. Usually your ISP will help you with this. -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 09:41, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

You'll need a computer to do this, wireless routers don't take what a standalone modem will give you. The computer will need an ethernet port. You will need to share the outgoing dialup connection with the Ethernet connection using NAT (in Windows, it's called "ICS", Internet Connection Sharing) with the Ethernet connection. Plug the router into the ethernet port and set up the router to use DHCP. This should be the basic setup you need. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 149.135.28.77 (talk) 07:52, 5 May 2007 (UTC).

An alternate solution may be to forget the second line entirely, and encourage your tenants to go really wireless with a GPRS (as in mobile phone) modem. The modems aren't the cheapest devices ever, but depending on where the students are from, they may be able to take the devices home and use them there as well. If they already have mobiles (intercultural note: that's what they call cellphones in the land of BT) of their own, it may be worth checking them for Bluetooth. Many Bluetooth phones will allow thier data conections to be shared with a laptop, a practice refered to as 'tethering'. In the US I just recently bought a USB Bluetooth adapter for approximately $25. One warning though - not all mobile plans allow data usage, and some charge by the kb. --Ptelder 07:18, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

Animated gifs

How does one go about making an animated gif file like the ones shown here? I assume it's a matter of getting a number of sequential still images and stitching them together somehow, but if someone can tell me the basics I'd be very grateful. Many thanks. Oh, and just out of curiosity - why are these small animated files always gifs? Is there any such thing as an animated jpg? --Richardrj ^{talk email} 07:41, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Yes, you take a series of images and put them together in a program such as ImageReady or GIF Construction Set. I'd imagine there are also freeware alternatives available. The last paragraph of the 'Alternatives' section of the GIF article gives some alternatives to GIF for web animation. As far as I'm aware there's no such thing as an animated JPEG. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 09:21, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

As always GIMP is one of the free alternatives. Make each image a layer and select "save as animation" when you save your GIF. --Kainaw ^(talk) 13:12, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

There is such a thing as a motion JPEG, but it's not very common. Eventually, PNG's derivatives will support animation; it can be used to make more "natural-looking" pictures than GIF, although it's not as good (in terms of compression, particularly) as JPG for such things as photographs. --Tardis 16:01, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Lenovo Laptop

How do you switch the bluetooth on on a ThinkPad R60? Zain Ebrahim 13:05, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Fn+F5 [2], assuming your laptop has bluetooth in the first place. You need the system software thingie. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 22:23, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Google Web Accelerator & Wikipedia

Wikipedia does not allow edits when using Google Web Accelerator. Is this because the IP address changes (or does it, even?). Incidentally, I've stopped using it, as, even though my internet searches, etc., get faster, it slows my computer down considerably, defeating the whole purpose of the thing. Scouse Mouse - 日英翻訳 13:17, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

It's a vandalism prevention thing apparently. There's a page on it at WP:GWA. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 14:15, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Credit card data - where does it go?

Im about to buy a product off steam, but im paranoid about giving out my credit card information over the internet to an American company, i trust valve but im so far away if anything went wrong theres nothing i could do, but anyway my main question is how does it all work?, i mean, what happens with your credit card number? Does valve read it and take money out of it, but wouldn't that mean they charge you whenever they want even if your not buying anything, i know it probably doesnt work like that but im a student and cant afford to be getting hit by fraud like bills for $3000 or something.... thanks. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Bwa32123 (talk • contribs) 13:55, 4 May 2007 (UTC).

The general process is described in credit card, although the emphasis there is on person-to-person transactions.

To charge your account without authorization is fraud in most places. Were you in the United States (which you've noted you aren't), the Fair Credit Billing Act would allow you to dispute unauthorized credit card charges. Since you aren't, you government may or may not give you some consumer protections. You should check your credit card agreement to see what rights you have against unauthorized transactions, if any.

There is a risk, as always, of credit card fraud, especially of unscrupulous companies misusing your credit card number. You have to decide whether or not the company is trustworthy enough to risk giving your credit card number to. If you are concerned, you should monitor your monthly billing statement (you should anyway!) for any kinds of unauthorized transactions. –Pakman044 14:48, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

I would note that steam (content delivery) are a large respected online company and that it would be extremely unlikely that they (as a firm) would take money other than when you bought a product/subscribed to a service. Sending information over the internet does have a risk of fraud (internet fraud) but so does non-internet transacations for all types of credit card fraud. I have purchased products on steam from the UK and had no problems at all. ny156uk 16:13, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

The problem you note about an unscrupulous company reusing your information for a later purchase is a real one. Here's a story about giving credit cards a built-in one-time password to fix that issue. --TotoBaggins 18:22, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

You never know what establishment will have a computer security data breach so perhaps you should use one credit card for higher risk e-commerce and another to use where you have high confidence in the retailer due diligence. User:AlMac|^(talk) 22:06, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Internet Explorer 7

Here's the problem: the "File Download" window. I accidently unchecked the "Always ask before opening this type of file" option in that window and now i now have to view Word documents directly from IE (which on my monitor resolution show most of the words one on top of the other), rather than downloading them.

So anyway, how do I get IE to prompt me to open Word documents again?

And where on earth is that option? It doesn't really do anything besides annoying me, but I've realised I could have had a serious problem if I had unchecked the "Always ask before opening this type of file" for .exe files. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 82.36.162.32 (talk) 18:35, 4 May 2007 (UTC).

A quick browse of IE preferences and help doesn't reveal the answer, but according to the help entry on 'downloading files' (in IE 6, I assume this has stayed), there is no such option for .exes: IE always asks. 131.111.8.104 22:06, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Not sure about this either, but surely you can right-click on the given hyperlink and say "Save As...". One place you can check (but I don't think will help) is if you click Tools -> Manage Add-Ons -> Enable or Disable Add-ons. When that loads, you could look at the various add-ons you have and maybe disable on for Microsoft Word if you see one - but doing it on my computer doesn't show any such addon. Other than that I'm sorry I don't know. Rfwoolf 14:06, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

Open My Computer. From the Tools menu, select Folder Options. Click on the File Types tab. Select the file type you're interested in from the list and click Advanced. Check the box for Confirm open after download. Bavi H 06:09, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

How can I retrieve data from my old hard drive?

My computer bit the dust recently, and I have no desire to repair it (I was planning to buy a new one in June anyway). However, I had a lot of stuff on the hard drive that wasn't backed up, and I'd like to retrieve it somehow. As far as I know, the hard drive itself isn't damaged. Is there anyway I can get the data off it somehow? Any help would be highly appreciated. GhostPirate 19:42, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

You'd just plug it into the new computer, or into a friend's computer (and copy the important stuff onto DVDs or whatever there). Or, if the dust-biting was due to its Windows install just going wonky then you can boot the machine from CD into something like Knoppix and burn/copy the data directly. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 19:44, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

So I can just put it in a different computer? I wondered about that. Now to convince someone to let me crack open their computer and preform a "brain transplant"...GhostPirate 19:49, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Yep. Assuming it's an IDE disk you may have to flip a jumper on its rear to 'slave' (from 'master' or 'single'), and you might have to temporarily evict an existing IDE device (like a DVD drive) if there aren't enough free connections. Another alternative is to buy a cheap USB-IDE disk enclosure. You put your old IDE disk in that and it becomes an exernal USB disk for any computer you plug it into (and this way you don't need to perform surgery on someone else's machine). -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 19:59, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

It doesn't have to be a whole "transplant". Instead of thinking of it as taking out one brain and replacing it with another, think of it as taking out one brain and then making it a slave to someone else's brain. Or something like that. In any case, you can hook up multiple hard drives to a computer at the same time, as long as you specify one to be "in charge" (the master), and then you can copy files off of the other one (the slave) with impunity. It's pretty easy and the worst that generally can happen is if you don't have the jumpers set right it won't start up until you change them. In fact, when you get your new computer you can hook up your old hard drive in it as well as the new one and just use both of them, if you wanted to. --24.147.86.187 21:45, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

See this article for more information. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 22:27, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

May 5

Information technology in society

what are the positive and negative impacts of information technology in society?60.228.150.165 05:42, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

One negative impact is that students look to the internet for other people to do their homework for them. Why don't you have a look at information technology and come up with some of your own ideas... Dismas|^(talk) 05:48, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

Please make it sound like something other than a homework question.--Ryan 14:51, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

Going to be building a new computer soon..

..and it'll be my first. I've got roughly $1300 invested in this thing, huge 8800GTX, C2D, 2GB ram, you get the picture. I'm wondering if anyone has advice on doing this or links to tutorials that reference installing a 8800GTX- I'm pretty scared of doing something wrong (short or something) and ruining everything, the extent of hardware stuff I've done is replacing an laptop LCD and installing RAM. Second question: should I be using the case's stock 500W PS? it'd save me about $100 and it's more than required for the card (450W). I plan to be using this case (may change to something with more fans if needed, I don't want to roast my computer) and this card. Any advice would be appreciated :) EDIT: also, should I save my money and get a GTS instead? Is there a substantial difference worth the price (two times as much for the GTX)? I could invest that money in 4g of ram, a monitor, etc etc. -Wooty Woot? contribs 06:01, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

Do not skimp on the motherboard and powersupply (which seems to be how you're getting it for only 1300$, half of that cost would be the graphics card), they are very important parts of your system. Especially do not skimp on the case or motherboard as they will be the longest lasting parts of your computer. Keep in mind you'll also want a new hard drive (better transfer rates = faster gaming) and other media options. http://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/wishlist/PublicWishDetail.asp?WishListNumber=5225486 is what I bought recently, motherboard was DOA and is being sent in for RMA, but it will be a nice system when it's working. Big pieces of advice, when you get your case, make totally sure that the spacers are in before you install the motherboard, installing the motherboard directly on the case can short it out. Other than that it's fairly plug and play. Keep in mind that even though the stock supply SAYS 500W, it might not actually be 500W because of the way some companies rate theirs. -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 10:16, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

Also, NVIDIA recently announced a new 8800 card that's above the GTX, called the Ultra, which is a GTX with faster clock speeds, so if you wait a few weeks you might make a significant savings on the other 8800s going down in price. -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 10:17, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

What are spacers? Down M. 11:34, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

A spacer is a piece of hardware that rises something above a point where it would be naturally screwed in. For example, one would put a spacer on the screw behind the motherboard so it doesn't come in direct contact with the case. 12:17, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

Little thingies that go between motherboard and casing. So, when you are screwing your motherboard, screw goes through the motherboard first, then through the spacer and only then to the casing, so there is always space between motherboard and casing. Little googling found [3] from [4] and [5]. Shinhan 12:19, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

Right, if you screw that up I heard Bad Things happen :) I was planning to use [6] as my HD (I don't need a lot of space, I don't have many large files, and I'm currently using 2% of my 160GB on my file server) and [7] as my mobo. Both seem relatively well-priced and well reviewed so I should be OK in that department. I'm going to be waiting at least two weeks anyway so I'll watch the prices. Who needs better than a 8800GTX!?!?! Crazy gamers, I guess. Thanks. :) -Wooty Woot? contribs 18:34, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

Hey:) I play a lot of games, save your money and get a GTS, never buy the best card, it's a waste of money since nothing uses the technology yet anyway, it's MUCH better to stay one step from the top, save the money and upgrade more often. Also, why that mobo? It's not a big brand and has SLI, look up gigabyte DS3, it's a great board and even cheaper then the one you chose. Vespine 00:37, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

The EVGA board is the nVidia reference board for the 680i chipset and does perform well, however, the chipset used for the dual gigabit ethernet isn't exactly smooth, so you'll notice a spike in cpu usage when hammering the lan, this can be an issue if you plan to game online. Personally, I'd put a dedicated NIC in your bundle and disable the onboard stuff, go for a decent 100mb card unless you NEED gigabit ethernet at home (and have a gigE switch of course). —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 81.86.38.170 (talk) 16:23, 10 May 2007 (UTC).

Massive Ext. Hdd mess!

Over the pass 2 years i have been backing up my windows xp pc to a 300GB External hard drive. Every time my pc stopped working i would copy everything onto the Ext. Hdd and clean wipe the pc clean (format C:). This worked great for a time....until my hdd filled up. So i found alternative ways to fix my pc (i.e Bartpe and Norton Systemworks) but now unfortunately i am left with a really messy hdd. Many files duplicate multiple times (of course in different directories) and many are important work files and home photos that i can not afford. And In a attempt to clean the Hdd up i have made it much worse.

Question: Can anyone recommend any software (i.e. File Explorers) that would aid in the recovery process of my hdd? Or any advice? Thanks heaps! :) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by I.scheme.a.lot (talk • contribs) 09:47, 5 May 2007 (UTC).

Depends on whats wrong, spinrite from grc.com is good at recovering unreadable sectors from hard disks, recovering them to somewhere spare and marking the sector as bad (so it wont be re-used in the future). A company called OnTrack produce data recovery tools which will help recover deleted files (ontrack.com). Finally, as for helping with your massive deleting mission, its not going to be easy, you have to be CERTAIN that the files are the same before deleting them, and I can't think of any tools which will do this. The last time I did the job, I created a folder on my main hard disk (e.g. My Documents) and then copied all the other My Documents backups into the 1 folder, this made windows ask me which to keep when duplicates were found, but you are likely to spend many hours clicking Yes and No. The only other method is to write a script which creates an index of everything on the hard drive (path, filename, date modified) then parse the file to find duplicates to create a list of files to discard and then delete them for you. 81.86.38.170 16:30, 10 May 2007 (UTC)Phill Upson (support@expertrepair.co.uk)

XP Remote Desktop

In my computer the Remote Desktop Option when I see the other desktop (my friend) can I copy or

cut any file(any size) from my friend desktop and paste on my computer normally as inside

my computer ? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 195.229.236.215 (talk) 12:02, 5 May 2007 (UTC).

Nope. You need to use Samba or set up some file server on one computer. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 149.135.28.77 (talk) 12:12, 5 May 2007 (UTC).

I remember that if you tinker with the preferences you can mount your own harddrives onto the remote computer and copy and paste between them. --antilived^{T | C | G} 12:21, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Yes, you can copy files to and from a computer you're Remote Desktop'ed into. Before you connect, click the Options button, go to the Local Resources tab and check Disk drives. The disk drives on your computer will show up on your friend's computer when you connect. You can then copy and paste to and from them as you would normally. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 12:26, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

This obviously won't work with rdesktop, however. 12:36, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

Yes it does. Have you read the man page? -r disk: option --Spoon! 21:25, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

No parallel port for dongle

Can a USB/parallel port adapter be used for a dongle?Kmk57 12:54, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

In your question you say "adapter", so do you mean that you want to know if you can have say a parallel port dongle and use an adapter to make it work with your USB port? (Or visa verse?). I'm not sure, but I think it depends on how the software is programmed to detect the dongle. If it's programmed to specifically communicate with your parallel port and you offer it a USB (with the dongle attached) I don't know if it would have the intelligence to check the USB instead. Hmmm... Rfwoolf 14:00, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

The device drivers that USB/serial and USB/parallel adapters supply will implement the legacy PC serial/parallel IOspace/IRQ interface pretty well, so most legacy software that thinks it's talking to an old piece of hardware will be perfectly happy talking to what is in essence a software port. But dongle implementers are twitchy paranoic psychotics, who sometimes try to implement weird features meant to thwart both software emulations of dongles and mapping/reverse-engineering of dongles. If they try to do some weirdism that exceeds the reasonable-but-basic emulations the USB adapter's drivers provide (nonsense like timing-based stuff or walking around in the IRQ handler to see if they like the look of it) then they might decide there's something fishy with the dongle and refuse to work. Such cleverdickieness also explains why dongles were never very reliable even on real parallel ports with unmediated access to the hardware (i.e. DOS), and why you always had to contend with stupid conflicts between dongles and printers, for example. So the answer is a very strong "maybe". -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 17:59, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

SHA-1 hash time vs. input size

How is the number of CPU cycles taken to compute an SHA-1 hash related to the size of the input file, if the entire file is loaded into memory first? NeonMerlin 14:26, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

SHA-1 algorithm indicates that it's linear with the size of the input. Reading from memory rather than disk will make it faster, but not change the complexity. --TotoBaggins 17:04, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

Google Sketchup and Blender

Does anyone know of a way I can take a scene I've constructed in google sketchup and import it into blender for animation and rendering? Thanks!--Ryan 14:50, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

You can export the models from SketchUp into .obj files (or other files, not sure which particular one though), import it into blender and voilà. Beware though that the models will be very very messy and unbelievably big in blender. --antilived^{T | C | G} 01:47, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

I don't have Sketchup pro. Exporting to .obj isn't available, and I definitely don't have

$500 for this.--Ryan 03:00, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

Use a real graphics program, www.gimp.org - free, open source, windows and linux, with the power of photoshop, manuals and tutorials are available online also :) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 81.86.38.170 (talk) 16:33, 10 May 2007 (UTC).

Precise Determination of Graphics Card

I need to know exactly which graphics card I have in my PC but don't fancy the hassle of extracting it from its slot. I know it's a PCIE Leadtek PX6600GT (from Windows Hardware Manager) and uses DDR3 (from an old forum post that listed all the hardware I was going to use (£108.37 Novatech GeForce 6600GT 128MB DDR3 128bit SLI PCI-E TVO/DVI Grpahics Card)) but Leadtek have produced a few variations of this card, and stupidly in my opinion, havn't named this card precisely. SiSoft Sandra gave me the same name as Windows Hardware Manager. Is their a WinXP or Linux tool that might give me enough info to discern exactly what card it is? --Seans Potato Business 16:29, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

Probably not. PCI devices are identified by poking around in the PCI config space (with OUT cf8H) which gives a bunch of really obscure info (the vendor ID and the subsystem ID, both numbers). Windows and Sandra (and other PCI-smart programs) then look this info up a big database (that's how windows figured out which driver to install). The PCI bridge's interlocutor in that PCI config discussion is the PCI-capable device on the graphics card (in this case a GeForce 6600GT), which in many cases has no idea what the brand name or product name of the board its installed in. As you say, there are lots of cards that have that part, and the PCI info doesn't distinguish one from the other, nor the specific buildout on the card (the type and amount of memory on the card, for example). For most devices all you can find out is the basic PCI stuff. For fancier devices (particularly graphics adapters) the driver can interrogate registers in the device's own IO space to recover more info, which the driver typically uses to fine-tune its expectations of the card. So you might find out more if you look in nVidia's specific control thingy (the rather complicated thing that lets you set all kinds of obscure parameters and OpenGL defaults). That said, looking at the equivalent for my ATI card and it still only identifies the card generically. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 17:46, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

I threw the BIOS version (5.43.02.16 in the nvidia config thingy and 5.43.02.16.00 in SiSoftSandra) into google and it appears that the only Leadtek PX6600GT with this BIOS is the TDH non-extreme version. I'm actually quite annoyed now, 'cause Novatech tried to pass it off as their own but it came with a Leadtek driver CD but the nvidia utility-quoted BIOS implies that it was made by ASUS. I just checked the Wikipedia page on SLI and it says that they only need to use the same chip to operate in SLI so all this fretting was actually unnecessary? When I was first deciding on my components, I was told that they had to be the EXACT same card... I just checked it out on the nvidia website and seems Wikipedia is right... this is good news but I still wasted a chunk-o-time! Thanks for your insight (although config space and cf8H goes a bit over my head) :) Seans Potato Business 19:14, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

See PCI Configuration Space for the "config space". As to the I/O port 0x0cf8, it's one of the methods used to do configuration space reads/writes. --cesarb 15:56, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Search Engines

How do you create a search engine like Google and Ask? Do you know any books that help/teach you on the language script that needs to be learnt? Please could you tell me:

- Either there are any books

Also could you tell me what software to use pleae :) Thank You, Email at —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 80.43.112.229 (talk) 19:26, 5 May 2007 (UTC).

I believe googlebots run a mix of C++ and py, although I could be wrong. Trying to make your own search engine is like trying to find the next digit of pi though, it takes a lot more resources than your single PC has. -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 20:17, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

There are plenty of books on search engine theory in the computer section of your local chain bookstore. As for software, it doesn't really matter. You need a programming language (any major one can do this sort of thing, though some would be faster, but if you are asking about how to do it I don't exactly picture you creating the next hot thing on the first try) and a database schema. If you were just trying to figure out how it works and how to do it, PHP and MySQL would work fine for a small experimental project. --24.147.86.187 13:32, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

See Search engine#How search engines work --h2g2bob (talk) 13:57, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

I threw together a basic search engine after dinner one evening using a mixture of sh, awk, and a few C programs I had lying around. It's really not that hard. Once you understand the concept of an inverted file (also known as a full text index), everything else follows easily. —Steve Summit (talk) 15:08, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

IPod Syncing

I know how to get songs from a computer to an IPod. But is there a way to transfer songs from an IPod to a computer?

--70.228.84.67 19:34, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

Through navigating hidden folders on the ipod, kindof, but it's such a PITA it's not really worth it unless you have to. It's easier to turn your ipod into a USB flash drive to carry data. -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 20:18, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

For a Mac, try Senuti--Ryan 21:19, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

The .MP3 or .AAC files are stored under /iPod_control when you view the iPod in Windows Explorer, you just need to enable the "See hidden files option". If you want to pull the songs off while keeping their original filenames and tags intact, though, you'll need Yamipod (which is freeware). Down M. 02:52, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

May 6

Clearing Internet Explorer Cache?

I am running system X on Apple Mac G4 power book and wonder how to clear the cache on Explorer. It's easy on Safari, but I cannot see a way to do it on Explorer. Any advice will be much appreciated. Thanks.--88.111.80.198 09:36, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Asuming it's simmilar to the Windows version you go to Tools -> Internet Options. There should be a section for "Temporary internet files" and a delete button there. Not that it's any of my business, but why use IE on the Mac though? Microsoft stopped developing the Mac version after version 5 or so I think, so it's hoplessly outdated. Unless some of your favourite sites absolutely do not work in either Safari, Opera or FireFox (I belive all of them have ways to get around silly old "you need internet explorer" scripts) it seems odd to still be using it in this day and age. --Sherool (talk) 09:56, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Bypass your cache may also be of help. --h2g2bob (talk) 13:35, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Thanks h2, (if I may be so familiar), this looks useful. Regards--88.111.80.198 15:14, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Better MySpace Blog RSS

Hello. I've been importing my MySpace blog into my Facebook notes, but when the entries get to Facebook only the first few lines show up in the notes. I know next to nothing about RSS, but it appears to me that this occurs because only the first few lines show up in the actual feed. This has been fine for me; anyone on Facebook who wanted to read the note could just click on the link to the MySpace blog. But I've decided that I'd like to make some of my MySpace blog entries only visible to friends (my Facebook notes already are). I'm willing to let these entries stay public until Facebook imports them and then make them private, but that would only be effective if the full entry got imported; otherwise my Facebook friends without MySpace profiles would get the first few lines in Facebook but not be able to access the full entry at MySpace.

Would there be a way to import the full text of my MySpace blog entries into Facebook? Is there a way to make a better RSS feed? Am I completely wrong about the problem? If push comes to shove, in the future I could just copy the text of my MySpace entries and put them on Facebook manually, but I'd like to maintain the timestamps on my earlier entries. --Maxamegalon2000 15:20, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Securing a wireless network

I'd just like to preface this question with an immense apology for asking it - I'm convinced it must've been asked in the past, and a sufficient answer been supplied, but various searches using Google yielded no relevant results. I've found an article on wikiHow that explains how to secure my home wireless network, but it speaks far too technically - I'm a bit of a dunce when it comes to computers. I've also tried using the Windows XP set-up wizard, however this appears to involve the use of USB memory sticks, and the PC the modem is connected to is quite old, and doesn't seem to recognise the memory stick. I'm just really looking for the most important things to do, explained in idiot-proof language. Thanks, Icthyos 15:21, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

What you want to do is to access your router configuration, go into its wireless section, and give it a WEP/WPA password. Specifying brand will help me give you specific instructions. Splintercellguy 15:55, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

The router is a Buffalo AirStation G54. I tried to find reference to it on the PC by searching for both buffalo, and airstation, but nothing actually came up. Isn't that...surprising? I definitely remember having to "activate" the router somehow when I first connected it, but I think it just involved going on a section of the AirStation website. Icthyos 16:22, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Typically you configure these access points by connecting to their configuration interface with your browser. (This seems a little strange at first: normally you think of "the network" as being a way to connect your computer to somebody else's computer, e.g. your web browser to somebody else's web server. Normally, you think of routers and wireless access points as being just "part of the network". But they've got little miniature computers in them, of course, and often these little miniature computers are also running little miniature web servers, just so that you can connect to them and configure them.)

I did a web search on "Buffalo AirStation G54 WEP key", and some of the hits I found (especially this one at IT Week) suggested that yours does indeed use this web-browser-accessible technique. There's also an indication that they have their own security and/or set-up protocol called "AOSS". It looks like if you run the AOSS software (downloadable from their website?), and push a little red button on the base station for three seconds, the software finds the base station and helps you configure it. —Steve Summit (talk) 17:52, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the help - I managed to get it done using the Buffalo website. The hard manual that came with the router was not helpful. I've disabled the SSID broadcast (should I change the SSID from the default, to something meaningless, or does that not matter?), but had to settle for WEP encryption, since that was all that supported by some of my wireless devices. Oh well, I feel better! Thanks again, Icthyos 21:43, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Ah, good. Adding the WEP key, as you have done, is the most important part. It's not perfect (it is breakable), but it will protect you well from casual intruders, who won't bother to try to crack your WEP-protected base station when there's such easy pickings among all your neighbors whose wireless networks are wide open. (Don't worry about your SSID; that's not nearly so important.) —Steve Summit (talk) 01:34, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

For a while, all the kids computers kept latching on to the neighbours, rather than my secure network. I had to go in and manually close them out. I still think the computers are doing it when I'm not looking.. :) --Zeizmic 11:50, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

Bad news: WEP can be broken in a matter of minutes with the right tools. --h2g2bob (talk) 11:57, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

I know that, but I think you overstate the threat. (In particular, it's only high-traffic networks that can be broken so quickly.) —Steve Summit (talk) 12:26, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

Which DSLR

Canon EOS 400D or Nikon d40x? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Colinjr (talk • contribs) 16:14, 6 May 2007 (UTC).

I went for a Pentax K100 personally and it has been fantastic so far. The site (http://www.dpreview.com/) has very detailed and excellent reviews. Canon review (http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Canon/canon_eos400d.asp) and Nikon review (http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Nikon/nikon_d40x.asp), hope this helps. ny156uk 19:47, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

PDF Compression quality loss?

Hi, I have a 8.5x14 graphic that I am putting on an USB to bring to a palce to get printed. If I save it as a PDF file, will the quality be reduced? I am looking to get it printed with 200 DPI. Thanks. Jamesino 17:01, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

What program are you generating the PDF from? The answer depends on the resolution of your image 'as-is' in your program, and then the settings used to generate the PDF from within the program - your program (or PDF generator) may give you options on image compression and in your case you would want a higher-quality image compression. Rfwoolf 19:16, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Large equations in Latex

Hi! I have a really big equation which spans a several lines. I am trying to typeset it using Latex but I am unable to. I have tried using \begin{equation}, eqnarray, align, multline, split etc. but all of the them seem to work for multi-euqations and not multi-line equation. Please help! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 129.69.36.89 (talk) 17:36, 6 May 2007 (UTC).

The basic problem is that there is a \left( very early in the equation and it is closed on the last line. Using any template, whenever I change the line using "\\", latex gives the error that \left( is not closed.--129.69.36.89 17:54, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

I suggest 1) posting this question on the math desk, since there are a lot of LaTeX weenies over there, and 2) posting the shortest version of your input that gives the error so others can give it a try. --TotoBaggins 18:10, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Hmm.. Thanks... then I am heading to the Math section.--129.69.36.89 19:39, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

LAN configuration

I'm trying to set up a wireless LAN at home using a Belkin Wireless-G (802.11g) router with ADSL 2 modem. My laptop has an Intel PROSet 3945ABG WiFi chipset and associated software, and I simply cannot get Windows to recognise it as a LAN adapter. Letting Windows run the wireless network by Windows Zero leads to countless error messages, and I vastly prefer the Intel software... if only I could get it to behave like a LAN adaptor.

Things get easier when I connect directly to the router with a yellow LAN cable, but this defies the purpose of wireless LAN :-(. My other machine is wireless equipped with a Belkin USB Wireless-G adapter that easily identifies as a LAN adaptor.

What on earth do I need to do here? Have tried everything. Please crosspost to my talkpage (I have no watchlist). JFW | T@lk 19:26, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

RCT3

Hi there, has anyone got an answer to my troubles. I installed rollercoaster tycoon 3 on my computer but when i try to play it, it comes up with C+++ visual thing and i don't know how to fix it. I think i've got all new stuff. I'm operating on windows vista.Wiki.user 20:00, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

What's the specific error message? Vague solutions would be to run under compatibility mode and run as Administrator. Splintercellguy 20:35, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Google Toolbar

Hello. Google Toolbar enables a user to type a search term or phrase in the web address bar. If lucky, Google Toolbar will load the most relevant website. If not as lucky, Google Toolbar will redirect the user to the Google search engine with hits. I uninstalled Google Toolbar because of errors that prevented me from accessing Internet Explorer. Now, I can still type in a search term or phrase in the web address bar and have Google redirect me to their search engine with hits. Is it an unclean uninstallation or something else? --Mayfare 20:44, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

The program is probably fully uninstalled, but its change to the default search engine is still there. To modify this option in IE7: Tools -> Internet Options -> (Search) Settings -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 21:32, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, but I use Internet Explorer 6 on Windows XP Media Centre. --Mayfare 22:32, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Why? IE7 is more secure and whatnot, despite looking completely idiotic. Anyways, in IE6: Click the search button -> Change preferences -> Change Internet search behavior -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 22:37, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

RAM questions

Recently I installed a second stick of RAM to my computer, and now I have some questions about RAM.

RAM types

Before installing the second stick, I compared what type of RAM it was with my existing stick. However, they seemed to present their respective RAM types differently. One was "DDR DIMM PC3200", and the other was "DDR DIMM 400 MHz". According to DIMM#Speeds, these are the same types of RAM. My first question is, when installing a second stick, what must be equivalent? Can one be PC3200 (400 MHz) and the other PC2700 (333 MHz), all else being equal? Can one be DIMM and the other SIMM, all else being equal? Can one be DDR and the other DDR2, all else being equal? I assume they both must be DDR and DIMM, but I am less certain about the PCxxxx part.

DDR2 and DDR are physically different, and DIMM/SIMM are as well. There is no backwards compatibility. If you install two different types of RAM, they will both run at the lower-speed of the two (e.g. one 3200 stick and one 2700 stick: they will both run at 2700). They will work, but run slower - it is best to match speeds (and get dual channeL) when you can. -Wooty Woot? contribs 23:16, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

RAM volumes

My second question is about the volume of RAM on the sticks. Both sticks are 512 MB, but when only the first was installed, my System Properties (Start → Control Panel → Performance and Maintenance → System) said I had 448 MB. After installing the second stick, the System Properties tells me I have 960 MB. Why is there an apparently constant 64 MB of unaccounted RAM? − Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 22:50, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

I believe that is due to part of the RAM being reserved but I'm not sure. -Wooty Woot? contribs 23:18, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Your "missing" 64MB of RAM may be because you have integrated graphics, where the graphics processor uses an allocated portion of the RAM as its memmory, rather than having dedicated graphics memory.

The compatibility of the RAM, I am less sure about. I believe that the system will clock to the lowest memory speed - so if you have one stick of PC2700 and one of PC3200, both will run at 333MHz. DDR2 is not backward compatible with DDR. Neither are SIMM and DIMM compatible. →Ollie (talk • contribs) 23:20, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

May 7

why does windows sometimes resurrect deleted photos?

My boss uses Windows, and once she complained to me that the more she tried to delete JPEGs from a directory, the more new copies appeared. I didn't believe her until I saw it for myself, and today I saw it on another Windows computer. It happens whether one is deleting, or just moving to another folder. At first it seems to work, and then about five seconds later new copies of the pictures, with successively higher numbers, pop back into the original folder. Maybe the weirdest thing is that it doesn't happen 100% of the time, so that my solution to the problem is simply to keep deleting, like whack-a-mole, until they're finally all gone. Why does this happen? As a Mac user, I don't really care if I find a practical solution to this; I'm just curious to understand it because it's one of the oddest things I've ever seen a computer do. --Allen 01:22, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

I've seen that too. I think it happens because they are loaded into memory in a program which is currently running, which then recreates any pics that are deleted. The solution, then, is to close any running programs before attempting the move. StuRat 03:04, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

I've seen this happen in a corporate network and it has been to do with file synchronisation. Without analysing the network specifically I don't think there is a standard fix you can apply. Keeping things neat and tidy or getting a profile reset once in a while can help, as can not using the off-line file feature, as long as you understand what that means. Vespine 03:13, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

Japanese language in Windows

Its Windows XP btw. Usually, when I installed Windows it was enough to check the "Install files for East Asian languages" checkbox in Regional and Language Options in Control Panel to get full suport for Japanese language. That means I was able to both type japanese language and read japanese language. The current version of Windows Im using now seems to be screwed up. When I check that box I still cant add Japanese to keyboard layouts, and when reading I can read only hiragana, no kanji. [8]. Oh and I also cant choose Hungarian language in Keyboard layout options (Input languages). Can this be fixed short of reinstalling Windows XP? Shinhan 08:12, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

Usually it takes some sort of Office is well to have full support of complex languages. This is one of the reasons I switched to Linux. You can try uncheck that box, ok, restart, and then check it to do a reinstallation of the East Asian pack. --antilived^{T | C | G} 10:03, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

GCC register allocation

Is there any way I can get GCC to tell me which variables are in which registers (e.g., by annotating generated assembly)? Can I do this without going through the assembly and working it out myself? --User:Taejo|대조 08:25, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

You could compile with debugging (-g -S) and look at stab debugging entries in the assembly file, though that isn't particularly easy... One problem is that a quality register allocator will split live ranges. This means that a variable doesn't reside in the same register all the time. At one place in the program a variable can be in one register, then in another register, then on the stack, ... There is no unambiguous simple answer "variable 'x' is in register '%r7' in this procedure". Weregerbil 12:12, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

Downloading Webpages

Is there a firefox plugin that can be used to download an entire website to use for later offline viewing?

--Grey1618 13:50, 7 May 2007 (UTC)