Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing

June 21

Buying a Computer

Hey, Im looking into buying a new computer. I was wondering what some tips for what I could be looking for. Like, what are some new things that might be good to have on the computer. Im looking into a PC laptop. No Macs.

What will you be using the computer for? Gaming? If so, you'll want a good video card. Simple web browsing and maybe writing an email or letter or two? Then most any laptop will do. Lots of number crunching? Then you'll want to max out your RAM. Dismas|^(talk) 02:54, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

Hate to be commercial but I think the dell.com site is pretty good for checking out PC laptops, to see what's there and what the prices are like. You don't have to buy a dell but the website is a good benchmark for decent laptops at a decent price. From memory all the dell prices include a 2 year warranty which I highly recommend over the standard 12 months most other places offer, it's usually not very cheap to upgrade the warranty. Vespine 03:23, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

It would be helpful if you said exactly what you want to use the computer for. A mac might suit your needs better than a PC, believe it or not. Or heck, even something like System76 might be good if you don't need to run Windows apps. You might not even want a full computer at all, an N800 might be better suited to your needs. We won't know unless you're more specific than "I want a computer". -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 05:34, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

Why not a Mac, they are "idiot proof", even I use one!--88.109.177.178 05:58, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

I argree, Mac's are "idiot proof", however, I preefer to think of them as simplfied Linux. Lapot wise look for somthing with an AMD chip, they tend to give more bang for buck. OS wise, get Win XP if you must have windows but I recomend getting Linux; Fedora 7 and Ubuntu are both good distros. for good priced pc's take a look on price watch. Good Luck. --Lwarf ^Talk! 09:43, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

I use a Mac, and remember that they can boot into almost all of the other operating systems.--67.181.167.227 13:02, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

If you want Windows Vista, make sure your dream computer can support it. --Mayfare 15:13, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

If you want Windows Vista, buy a Mac. (^_^)Gzuckier 17:04, 21 June 2007 (UTC) (windows user)

Save yourself the money and just buy the huge steaming pile of dog crap direct from the manufacturer. --froth^t 02:32, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

Harsh yes, but fanboyism is unavoidable on tah inteerw3bz --froth^t 02:33, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

Laptops have a much shorter expected lifetime than a desktop. Optomistically it will be another few years before Vista is used everywhere, until then XP will remain the most common. You need a significantly more power to run vista than XP, laptops are not well known for having oodles of power.... rather they will always be underpowered when compared to a desktop PC at the same price point. All of these add up to an even strong case of why you should get XP if you are buying a laptop. Mathmo ^Talk 02:25, 3 July 2007 (UTC)

Its not that hard to B.I.Y (build it your self) and then istall linux, i'll take a look for a wikibook on it. --Lwarf ^Talk! 08:28, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

If the person is asking here about buying a computer, then it probably isn't a good idea to build it themselves. Even though in my opinion it is very easy to to, because it won't be for them. Another factor to take into consideration is they want a laptop, which isn't quite as straightforward to build from scratch as a desktop is. Thus, even though I hate that I'm recommending this.... it probably is a good idea for them to consider a dell. Here is a good little article for you to read. [1] I wish I could give the advice to build it themselves to everybody. Mathmo ^Talk 02:22, 3 July 2007 (UTC)

Image effect

What is the name of the effect used to change an image into regions of white and black, looking perhaps not unlike a Rorschach inkblot test, yet in which the subject of the image is still immediately recognizable due to our interpretation of the black regions as shadows? A good example is the alternate album cover of U2's Boy ([our picture of it]), and also one of the two pictures of Bob Dylan in the opening sequence of VH1's program (the name of which escapes me) which plays two consecutive songs from the same artist. I would like to process some of my photos this way. Many thanks in advance. Baccyak4H (Yak!) 03:11, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

First choice would be whatever describes emboss in the 2D sphere. Second, and probably more correct, is reticulation. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 04:04, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

Actually, on second thought, I don't think either of those are correct. However, in Photoshop, the stamp filter gets the most similar effect. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 04:07, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure you can acheive this affect with most Posterisation filters if you set them to 2 tone black and white and fiddle with the settings. Vespine 05:26, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

Try Threshold in Photoshop (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Threshold...). I prefer a different technique which results in an effect similar to the cover of Regina Spektor's Begin to Hope (mainly black and white, but with shades of grey in between). Desaturate the image, add a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer and drag the Contrast slider to around 80. You can use a Levels adjustment layer in place of the Brightness/Contrast if you want more control over the effect. It works best on images with a white or light-coloured background. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk • Contribs)} 12:26, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

(outdent) Posterization does indeed look like the effect I want. I do not have Photoshop, but have GIMP and Graphic Converter (yes, I use a Mac). The former should have this for sure... The Begin to Hope effect is not what I am looking for, although it is a nice one in its own right. Thanks again, and I would still be open to hints/tips. Baccyak4H (Yak!) 14:06, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

It's under Colour/Threshold, and I would load it into Inkscape or something and use the auto tracer to trace it so it's no longer aliased (or just use the auto tracer on the original image and set the threshold there). --antilived^{T | C | G} 06:20, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

In Corel Draw (or I suppose similar programs) you would go Bitmap -> Convert to Bitmap (sic) and click "Black and White" (not to be confused with "Grayscale"). Before you do this I would fiddle with the contrast a bit. Rfwoolf 10:36, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Firefox find

The Firefox find function doesn't search within edit boxes, making it difficult to use when trying to edit a wiki page. Any way to change this, or is the solution to use an external editor? Jooler 07:45, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

At least for me (Firefox 2.0.0.4 on Ubuntu), if you use Ctrl+F, it does search within the edit box. --cesarb 09:55, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

• If you decide to use an external editor, you can boost functionality to make up for the lack of quick buttons. (I use the Vim syntax plugin) -wizzard2k ^(C-T-D) 15:20, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

It works for me, with Firefox 2.0.0.4 on Mac OS X. Maybe try clicking in the box first? Abeg92contribs 21:40, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

Two Computers

Can the motherboards of two seperate computers be connected so that one operating system (from a single hard drive on one of the computers) can use both its host motherboard and the connected one; including all the ram, processors, cd drives etc? Think outside the box 09:20, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

If it is possible, I doubt it's something you could do yourself. There aren't exactly "Motherboard SLI connectors". Why would you want to anyway? I have to imagine such a setup would be more costly and slower than an equal setup with a single motherboard, at least for the tasks you'd want such performance for. -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 09:28, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

I doubt it's possible at all. It would be a lot easier if you just get a dual-CPU motherboard with lots of ram and IDE controllers etc. --antilived^{T | C | G} 09:34, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

Does network booting count? If not, then see above. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 09:37, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

It's possible; what you want is a single-system image like openMosix (and you'll need network boot to boot the second computer, since you want to boot from a hard disk on the first one). --cesarb 09:54, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

I think the questioner would be better off setting up a Beowulf system. It allows you to work at one computer, but make use of other computer's processing power in the cluster. I have note a quote I heard from one of the Beowulf designers when they spoke at a conference I was at. It went something like, "I have been asked if I can turn a hundred or so old 386 computers into a cluster. I have to answer, yes, you can - if you want a hundred or so computers that overall will function slower than a single Pentium computer, but will produce about 100 times the heat and suck up about 100 times the electricity." --Kainaw ^(talk) 12:52, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

The IBM Blue Gene has a high speed interconnect between all its nodes as well. Check out the Supercomputer article about more of this technology. There are a variety of methods of achieving this interconnect, from NUMAlink with the SGI Altix to HyperTransport used in a variety of systems, and to a lesser extent, with Infiniband on Beowulf and other HPC clusters. -- JSBillings 13:40, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

Creating backups of dvds

Hi, i want to copy my dvds onto my computer. Not as disc-images, but as avis or mpegs etc... Can anyone reccommend the best freeware to do this?

A great, open source program to do this is Handbrake.--67.181.167.227 12:59, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

multicore vs. multiprocessor

Dear wikipedians:

What is the difference between a system with one multicore CPU and a system with more than one CPU (multiprocessor) in it.

129.97.225.195 14:34, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

With a multicore, you have one processor - so you have one connection between the processor and the motherboard. With a multiprocessor, you have multiple processors. So, you have multiple connections between the processors and the motherboard. With one processor, much of the handling of multiple code running at the same time can be handled inside the processor. With multiple processors, the motherboard has to handle the handoff between one processor and another - or, as is usual, just ignore one of the processors and waste resources. --Kainaw ^(talk) 14:39, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

Multicore CPUs are lower power and heat than symmetric multiprocessing designs and take up less space in the system. Since they're on the same die, that means faster communication between the cores. I believe they also share cache, which has some speed advantage but I think it reduces the total per-node cache overall. I think one of the biggest limitations now is that most apps aren't written to take advantage of multicore CPUs. -- JSBillings 14:46, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

The above sounds pretty right, I'd only add a couple bits: Multicore tends to be cheaper than multiprocessor, because it's cheaper to produce (essentially) two CPUs on one chip than two chips, and because the motherboard to support the processor is cheaper that way. It's true that many apps aren't written in a threaded way to take full advantage of multiple CPUs/cores. But, this should be improving as multicore chips become more and more standard. Even if a given app isn't taking advantage of it, the system still feels faster because it will slow down less under load. Friday (talk) 14:58, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

Sorry for hijacking here - how well do operating systems handle multiple/multiple core CPUs? If I have two processors and one application which needs loads of CPU time, will Windows give it exclusive use of one of the processors and put everything else through the other, for example? — Matt Eason ^{(Talk • Contribs)} 15:49, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

No. It is not that simple. You don't have two computers in your computer that can run side-by-side. You have two processors (or cores) that can handle very basic functions like shifting some 1's and 0's right or left. There is still only one overall computer that decides which programs can access memory, which can access the processor, which are in a waiting queue, which need to be killed off... --Kainaw ^(talk) 16:02, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

But it's not as complicated as you make it out. The processors can actually handle a bit more. The compiled code will talk to the OS to get permission to have exclusive access to a piece of hardware or memory, etc. A program written with threading in mind will be able to spread its load across multiple processors (whether in a multicore CPU or multiple chips, or in some cases, multiple distributed machines), see multithreading for more discussion. From the CPU's perspective it's all code. There will be periodic hand-offs between an application and the OS as resources are allocated/freed. But it's not uncommon in a 2-processor system to see one processor spiked while the other is mostly idle. Donald Hosek 18:16, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

Either way, a multi-core or multi-processor computer doesn't necessarily speed up processes. Most programs aren't designed to optimized performance with two cores or processors.

Kevinwong913 ^{Speak out loud!} 20:49, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

Accidental adding of a misspelled word to a dictionary

I accidentally added a misspelled word to the Firefox British dictionary, how do I undo that. PS: I tried reinstalling, and it didn't work. Thanks, Jeffrey.Kleykamp 16:02, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

Lifehacker has instructions on how to remove words from the dictionary here. If you're on Windows make sure you open it in Wordpad rather than Notepad - the latter messes up the line breaks. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk • Contribs)} 16:10, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, that worked really, really well, so, again, thanks. Jeffrey.Kleykamp 16:15, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

HTML redirect

I have a domain but I don't have a main page yet. I'm setting up the forum right now, so for the time being, I'd like users to get redirected from the main page automatically to the forum. The forum resides in its own directory. What's the easiest way to get the users automatically redirected to this directory? Thanks, Dismas|^(talk) 23:50, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

Make the main page for your domain (index.html on Apache machines) just contain <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url=http://your.forum.address"> Youth in Asia 00:38, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

Cool, thanks! Dismas|^(talk) 01:22, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

A better solution is to ridirect with http headers (in php it's header("whatever");)- Location: http://www.example.org/. An even better solution would be to make apache rewrite the location to the forum directory so it's transparent to the end user. Unless you actually want a "redirecting.." notice to be seen, refresh redirects are generally a terrible way of doing it. Be considerate of those using lynx! --froth^t 02:37, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

Which part of that do I put in the index.html file? Basically, where do I start the copy/paste? Dismas|^(talk) 03:34, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

That you need PHP, but isn't also possible to do <meta http-equiv="Location" content="http://www.example.org/"/>? --antilived^{T | C | G} 06:16, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

Froth's suggestions are fine if you have access to install PHP or change your Apache config file. For normal users, using a meta tag is best. Antilived's "meta location" suggestion is the proper one. Youth's "meta refresh" works, but it isn't the proper tag. You are abusing the refresh by saying "refresh in 0 seconds to..." instead of simply saying "change to location...". As for Froth's lynx concern, I use lynx regularly and it accepts meta tags. It will refresh or change locations fine. --Kainaw ^(talk) 12:04, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

Well, I put Antilived's in and it didn't redirect me at all. So back to Youth's I go. Dismas|^(talk) 13:43, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

(de-indent) Hmmmm the http-equiv=Location way doesn't work at all, maybe because by that time the header is already sent and a Location header is invalid by then? The best way would be either header() or rewrite, but if you don't have PHP or don't know how to use Apache Rewrite (or don't have Apache), http-equiv=refresh is the only way to go... --antilived^{T | C | G} 01:30, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Well, the forum that I put up is written in PHP and it's on an Apache web server, so I would presume that I have what you're talking about. Dismas|^(talk) 01:56, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Then just copy an paste <?php header("Location: http://www.example.org"); ?> into the very top of your index.php and you should be all set. Remember to delete index.htm or set Apache to go to index.php first though. --antilived^{T | C | G} 04:42, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

And to do it fully server side, put this between <directory /whatever/dir/you/want/> and </directory> tags in your httpd.conf:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^/directory/relative/to/the/one/above/filename\.html$ /another/directory/path/filename.html 

--froth^t 16:02, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

June 22

GPU as extra processor

Can a gpu be set up to be an "extra processor"? For instance, could a graphics card be added to a core duo system to make it triple core?--67.181.167.227 00:31, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

Like the AMD Fusion? --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 00:53, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

Yes, but with a "normal" graphics card.--67.181.167.227 00:57, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

Then in a way, you're already doing it with a normal computer. If you mean letting the GPU do non-graphic intensive calculations, it won't be very proficient at it, since it's not a fully capable CPU. So the benefit would be a big chunk of energy fees for running the GPU at full with minimal improvements. You're better off getting a Quad Core or a dual Dual Core or something in that case. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 01:22, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

Agreed- CPUs are so optimized for.. well take a microprocessors/digital logic course, the point is that your GPU would only have a trivial computational contribution compared to the CPU except for graphical operations. --froth^t 02:38, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

Also agree, except for one thing: GPUs' graphical capabilities can also be used for calculations, and by far outperform normal CPUs in some areas. The article on General-Purpose Computing on Graphics Processing Units looks like a good starting point for more information. --Dapeteばか 08:25, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

Well, GPUs can be used for non-graphics calculations, be at least a few (if not a few hundred) times faster than CPUs. But, such performance can be achieved only on certain workloads (data parallel computations, or SIMD). Multimedia data and database data are good prospects. But software has to specifically take advantage. Unfortunately, very few market software is tuned to exploit this power. So, if you use your GPU, the softwares that you have will hardly benefit. --soum ^talk 18:31, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

Router security

I have recently installed a wireless router in my house. However, I have two computers linked up to it by wire. Is my router still sending wireless traffic at the moment? My main concern is that would other people be able to use my wireless signal and gain access into my home network? It is a D-link Gold Series router and it says I can "log into" the router, but how do I do that? I am using Windows XP home. Thanks. 74.111.82.91 03:17, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

Yes the router could very well still be sending out wireless. what you need to do is go to the run command and type in cmd and press enter, that starts a command prompt, in there type ipconfig. Some stuff should come up including an IP Address for your default gateway which is your router. Open up internet explorer and type in that number. That's your router, from there I'd suggest consulting the manual that came with your router. Vespine 03:42, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

You want to disable the wireless antenna. Vespine, not exactly a number :). Splintercellguy 04:47, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

To address one of 74.111's concerns, it is not likely that somebody would be able to access your home network. Yes it is possible, assuming bad intentions on the part of the person using the wireless signal, but it is much more likely that a person would just use the wireless signal to get to the internet.

Once you have determined the IP address of your router as Vespine describes (by the way, typically, D-Link routers use IP 192.168.0.1, so you might try that before using ipconfig), you will probably receive a login screen. The default username is "Admin", just leave the password field empty. You should then see the web-based configuration utility, which will have various tabs. Somewhere in there you should be able to find the option to turn off the wireless portion of your router. If you don't have the manual, you can download one from D-Link; their main support page for D-Link is [2]. You'll need the exact model number of your router, but they have a pretty well laid out site which should answer any questions you have. --LarryMac | Talk 13:32, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

Mac or PC

I have been a PC user all my life. I feel my Pentium 4 is getting too old and am thinking of a new computer. I havent really looked into Windows Vista, but from what I can see and from playing around with them at BestBuy, I find them sort of slow... I have also been looking at Macs. I'm not too worried about the learning curve of a different operating system, but more the software that's available to it. I am a graphic/web designer and I want a computer that is good at that, while able to play games like the Rainbow Six series. As well, many TV commercials demonstrating software uses Macs, such as on G4TechTV. What are some pros and cons of choosing Vista or a Mac OS X? Thanks. 74.111.82.91 03:24, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

WinXP isn't obsolete yet... Why not get a new computer with WinXP that is Vista capable for the future? --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 03:54, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

Ubuntu. See also Comparison of Windows and Mac OS X and Comparison of Windows and Linux. But srsly, Ubuntu. -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 04:04, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

Opinionated me says no to Vista. Ubuntu for sure, perhaps dual-booting with XP. Splintercellguy 04:18, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

Ubuntu, with virtual machine running WinXP for all your web developing needs (Photoshop, IE etc.), and dual-boot for games. --antilived^{T | C | G} 06:12, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

Ubuntu or Mac, run all your windows programs/ games with crossover, or dualboot with win xp NOT vist(Vista has a lot of compatbily problems hardware and software wise) --Lwarf ^Talk! 08:25, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

I'm also upgrading from a P4. I would suggest a middle-line geforce 8 series card like the 8600GT and a Core 2 Duo processor. Vista has some compatibility issues but for newer games they are unlikely to pop up - however if you are concerned simply buy a OEM version of XP. Dual-booting Ubuntu is indeed a good idea. Don't buy a Mac, you'll end up overpaying for a UI and software suite you could use with Windows and a stability component you could have with Ubuntu. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 07:33, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Even one of MAC's recent ads admits this: Macs are good for anything creative, and PCs are good for anything business. Well, that's actually rather simplified. I would say that macs tend to have good screens and graphic cards - so if you're editing a movie, designing animation, or doing anything fine-art, then perhaps a MAC might be worth of consideration. Aside from that, Macs are painful. They're more expensive, they have one mouse button (and no wheel), they have their own file-system (not the end of the world), and there's so much more software and development for the PC - so a lot of the programs you'd like either take longer to get to mac, or just aren't available for mac. It's very much a PC-dominated market.

I've been in graphic design for a while using PCs, and I'll tell you PCs are just as capable as MACs with graphics: you can edit movies, use photoshop, Corel Draw, CS2, etc -- which are all available for the Max (except I think for Corel Draw).

Having said that, there are positives about the Mac OS - less viruses, apparently less bugs, etc. But I have no real problems with XP.

As for Vista, personally I don't think I'm nearly ready for Vista - I'm sticking to XP for as long as possible - I think Microsoft paved the road to hell with VISTA - they've completely overcomplicated the concept of an operating system. Rfwoolf 10:31, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Macs might come with a single mouse button, but any, and I do many any USB mouse you can buy for ten bucks will give it two button functionality. Complaining that macs have a different file system is... well, stupid. Of *course* they do, NTFS is MSonry (not to mention a horrible filesystem). Complaining that a mac isn't like windows is like complaining that 'Channel 7 In The Evening' is different from 'Channel 5 at 5'. Of course they're different, different doesn't mean worse.

The latest Macs now have two mouse buttons (no more ctrl clicking for me!) --Lwarf ^Talk! 10:48, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Just get a PC with Windows Vista. It's a great OS. Mac will lock you into mac software, hardware, service and greatly limit you. Unless you're a huge geek, forget about Ubuntu, it sucks. dell outlet has cheap laptops and desktops.

A problem with the Windows Sound Recorder...

I have Windows XP on my computer, and I like the Sound Recorder. But now, there's a problem. It doesn't pick up a sound when it's recording. It used to pick up a sound, but now it doesn't. How can I make the Sound Recorder pick up a sound in recording again?

• Check your Recording mixer. In Control Panel, Sounds and Audio, click the Audio tab, and click the Volume button under Sound Recording and make sure the proper input is selected, with an appropriate volume level. You may have to make more options available from Options -> Properties. -wizzard2k ^(C-T-D) 14:36, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

¿ʞɔəɥ əɥʇ ʇɐɥʍ

I copy-pasted this from digg. How did he write this upside down? What shud I do if I want to write more?

He's probably in Australia.? 213.48.15.234 13:35, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

Part of it is IPA, it just happens that those chars are available within the common set used on the web. --66.195.232.121 14:13, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

Just clever use of Unicode characters. There's a user script to do something similar to whole pages here, and a list of 'upside-down' characters in this source code (under the comment "# turn ascii text upside-down, using unicode") — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 14:19, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

Ahhh.. thank you. I see it now.

You might also enjoy http://www.ex-parrot.com/~pete/upside-down-ternet.html although it's not what you saw -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 23:33, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

java programming

would you pliz refer me to the best sites for personal learning of java programing language and to start me off would you pliz show me how to draw a rectangle using an applet.

Tutorial; rectangle. --TotoBaggins 17:01, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

The official website from Sun Microsystems (the creators of the Java language) is java.sun.com and should be your primary reference. All the javadoc pages are available online. Also, tutorials exist for the Java Standard Edition (J2SE) language here and elsewhere on the site for other Java technologies. Nimur 17:22, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

Highlight To Copy, Middle Click To Paste On WinXP

Is there a utility that I can install on WinXP that will enable copying by highlighting and middle-clicking to paste? --Seans Potato Business 17:36, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

You're looking for Xmouse copy and paste; that may help direct your web searches. I know that Microsoft's tweakui tool enables some xmouse functionality but I do not think it includes copy/paste features. Nimur 18:16, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

This developer has released a tool to do exactly what you seek. I have never tried it; use at your own risk. Nimur 18:18, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, it works. It includes the annoying feature of focus follows mouse and you have to click on the bar at the top of the window in order to bring it to the top, though. I'll see if I can find a way to activate only the highlight-copy/paste thing. --Seans Potato Business 10:10, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Expansion Card Questions

I recently upgraded a number of components on my PC and I have lost my multiple monitor capabilities. My old motheboard had PCI slots and an AGP, running 2 ATI Graphics cards (1xAGP & 1XPCI). My new MSI K8N Neo4 motherboard, has no AGP slots, but PCIE. I also recieved a newer NVIDIA GeForce 6600 graphics card, which I went with, because it's either that or the PCI one on it's own. But now I want to run 3 monitors again (I believe I can only run two from this card), so:

1. ) Can I run an ATI card with an NVIDIA card?
2. ) Do all kinds of NVIDIA cards run simultniously?
3. ) Would my second card need to be a PCI card or could I run a second PCIE card? My mboard does have small slots named PCIE.

1- In this setup, the second card is basically only there to give you another monitor connection, so you should be able to. 2- Again, in this setup, the cards will not run together, the second one is just there for the monitor, 3-Those PCI-e slots are for other things, the ones graphics cards use are PCI-e x16, there might be some very weak ones there but I wouldn't use them overa cheap PCI card. Unless you have something like SLI or Crossfire, you can't use multiple graphics cards at one time (at least, I think so, I can't imagine it's a good use of your time and money anyway) -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 23:49, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

Don't most modern graphics cards support multiple monitors anyway? Getting a decent Geforce 7 or Geforce 8 series graphics card should do it afaik (I'm even less sure about ATI because I've never bought a ATI card), though I might be mistaken (never used more than one). -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 07:29, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Like he said, he wants to run 3 monitors. I beleieve the only graphics card that can do that is a Matrox Triple Head, which won't give very good visual performance. Like I said, a secondary card to use as a dummy VGA port should work fine -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 05:24, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

"Swelled" Favorites Menu Bar

Hello. I installed Norton Confidential 2007 available from my Norton AntiVirus 2007 CD. When I select the address bar and press Alt+a, my Internet Explorer 7 Favorites menu bar swelled. There is space after the arrows and after the last folder. How can I fix this? --Mayfare 18:13, 22 June 2007 (UTC)Screenshot

Are you sure it's to do with installing that software? Can you post a screenshot somewhere please? enochlau (talk) 01:03, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

I am sure. Now that my Norton Confidential 2007 free trial has expired, I uninstalled it. The problem is gone. I tried to upload a screenshot to Wikicommons, but an administrator deleted it. Otherwise, my favourites menu bar is no longer swelled. Thanks Enochlau. --Mayfare 15:07, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Are you sure there wasnt any entry that wasnt taking up the extra space? (Maybe the software used some non standard fonts, so it didnt render). --soum ^talk 18:33, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

Domain-name secondary market

What is the market price of a two-letter .org domain name? NeonMerlin 22:51, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

It would depend on the name. Something like qx.org is probably worth less than something like hi.org, although .org shouldn't be as competitive as .com. Keep in mind you could also go with another country's domain, and save some cash -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 23:51, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

IIRC, all domains under 4 characters before the suffix have been taken, so you'll need to buy them off the company with which the domain is parked. This would cost a few thousand dollars at least for a two letter domain. JoshHolloway 01:09, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

June 23

SD card packs?

Anyone know where I could buy packs of SD cards at a reasonable price? I'd seen a two pack of 2GB cards, for 50$... compare to the 2GB card itself only costing 13$. A pack of five or ten for around 50 or 100$, respectively, would be ideal, but anything would be nice to see. -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 00:00, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

$10 for a 2GB SD card? I really wouldn't use it on any critical work as it may well have been fake ones using chips that are marked as "bad" (ie. can't stand for many rewrites). --antilived^{T | C | G} 01:11, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

13-16$. A microcenter near where I live sells cheap cards, I've never had a problem with them though. They also sell USB sticks, they just have them in baskets near the counter. I think they sell them at cost or with very little profit, since they put their name on them, I'd assume that they're advertising. Anyway, I'm talking about buying in packs, which almost always should make things cheaper, not more expensive -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 03:47, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Fastest Processor

What is the fastest processor made or that is going to be made? 68.193.147.179 00:18, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Nobody can predict the future; but the industry is shying away from faster clock speed in favor of parallel architecture. At present, you can probably commercially obtain processors at a maximum speed of maybe 3.6 or 3.8 GHz. You should also note that in general, faster clock speed does not even mean faster computation; it most certainly does not directly equate to better overall performance. Nimur 00:46, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Yea, the 3.8 GHz don't have that much advantage over 2.8 GHz. Nowhere near a 25% increase in speed. The limit of the current technology is almost at its limits in terms of speed and heat, which is why they're exploring the multi-cores. Of course, the theoretical limits would probably be somewhere around the speed of light, I would imagine, but who knows if we'll ever even get there, much less when. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 02:48, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

At the moment: []http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115021 probably this]. I expect the market to shift to quad-cores within 5 years, and perhaps increase to even more after that. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 03:06, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Last I heard, Intel is getting ready to introduce 8-core processors sometime Soon™, and they've also been working on a quad core laptop that I think should be out this year. I expect now that core speed in GHz is going to become increasingly irrelevant, and the main figures to worry about are going to be number of cores. I read something about intel already testing out a 64-core processor setup; although it had very few performance gains over an 8 core, the fact that they're working that far ahead is amazing. I will eat my hat if, within five years, non-multi core processors are still in popular use. Of course, I don't actually own or wear hats, but it's the thought that counts -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 03:39, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Well yeah, I'm sure they can pack a lot of cores into one processor (the PS3's Cell processor has 8 "Synergistic Processing Elements") and I'm sure gamers will keep buying them up (look at how expensive the processor I linked to is). I think at this point the slowdown will be with software manufacturers forced to keep up with the ever-expanding amount of cores. Widespread adoption of any technology will only happen when a good chunk of new software supports it, and computer manufacturers, often catering to the "i don't want to know how it works just make it work" crowd, don't want to adopt a technology that might not be fully stable and compatible with various applications. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 07:26, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

I agree. Even though I know how to program to take advantage of multi-processor systems, I don't think I would buy something above a dual core at this point. Only best case scenarios can increase performance much, and it's not actually like dual core effectively double the processing power. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 09:14, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

The current best performers in the industry standard SPEC single-core benchmarks are (higher is better, picking the best performers from different processor lines):

IBM POWER6 (4.7 GHz) at 21.6 int, 22.3 fp

Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 (2.93 GHz) at 18.5 int, 16.2 fp

Intel Xeon 5160 (3 GHz) at 18.5 int, 15.6 fp

Intel Itanium 2 (1.6 GHz/24 MB) at 15.7 int, 18.1 fp

AMD Opteron 2222SE (3 GHz) at 14.9 int, 15.2 fp

Fujitsu SPARC64 VI (3 GHz) at 11.3 int, 12.4 fp

The integer (int) score is the most relevant for most tasks, but the floating point (fp) score is important in many kinds of scientific applications, and I suppose current games need some fp performance as well. These are SPEC peak rates, reflecting the performance reachable on a single core after performance tuning. Intel actually has a published score of SPECint peak 20.8 for Xeon X5365 (3 GHz), but for whatever reason they don't show a FP score for that one. 84.239.133.38 10:37, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

How do you create new (winnable) sudoku levels?

Or levels in any puzzle, for that matter. The methods of solving sudoku are complex, so I'm curious how one would go about generating a playable level? Much help appreciated! Xhin Give Back Our Membership! 04:26, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

This is a better question for the mathematics desk, i'm sure they have a simple enough method for it, but I use GNUdoku to generate sudoku puzzles when I'm in the mood for it.

I can think of one approach:

1) Write a program to solve a sudoku puzzle (fairly easy).

2) Start with a finished sudoku grid, then remove numbers and run it through the solver until multiple solutions are found. Then back up one step and remove a different number instead. Repeating this process, you will eventually end up with a puzzle which has only one answer and is solvable, but where removing even one more number would make it have multiple solutions. StuRat 04:51, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

I think you overestimate how "complex" sudoku is. See computational complexity theory; you will find that Sudoku is really just a set of linear equations (off-hand, I would imagine it's probably solvable in time proportional to the grid size. Just because it is "difficult" (for a human) does not mean it is "complex." Nimur 06:35, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

Actually, the article on Sudoku states that it is NP-Complete, and thus it is not likely to be solvable in time proportional to the grid size. Note that Sudoku does not have linear equations, but requires solutions to be integers. 213.237.10.244 13:03, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, everyone. Very helpful. Xhin Give Back Our Membership! 07:02, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

programming

i wanted to design an application that istructs the user to enter inputs for instance marks or income for a period of time then later computes the total.which programming langage does it best suit? and what are the links for the tutorials? unsigned by 80.255.43.45.

Almost any computer language could do this job. You need to be able to display and receive input from a user, and store data in a file or database and retrieve it. Most computer languages have these facilities. Do you know what platfrom you want to run it on, could it be just one PC, or a network of computers around the world? If you have multiple people entering data it is much more tricky! Is this your first program? One simple way is to use a spread sheet such as Lotus 123 or Microsoft Excel, and store the marks for one person in a row, each person can be a separate row. GB 07:25, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Why does it have to have a database? The user's question is very similar to the tasks I've send that students do when learning Delphi (Object Pascal) for example - and they don't use a database. They simply use variables. Yup, that means when you terminate the application all your data is lost - of course you can then store the variables in the registry or an .ini file or something. But my point is, databases are definitely one of the more advanced things to learn for novice programmers - I'd say let them learn variables first. Rfwoolf 10:20, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Spreadsheets!

A Windows analouge to wget?

Is there a something included in windows that does something similar to the unix tool wget? That is, downloads a file from somewhere on the internet without using a browser (either command-line or GUI)? I realise that there are versions of wget for windows, but I'm looking for something that is included with the installation. 217.174.67.69 13:01, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

• wget will work for you on windows. Get cygwin and install wget package. --BACbKA 13:06, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

• • Yes, I realise that, but I meant something that came with windows, as I wrote in my question. If I just wanted wget, I'd just use one of the native windows versions 217.174.67.69 13:13, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

    I'm sorry, but you are going to have to either use the command-line ftp client, the command-line tftp client, or perhaps you could try to do something with the Windows Script Host. All three are often used by malware to download things; I've personally seen one use the ftp client, and I heard of malware using the other two. Unlike most Linux distributions, a default Windows install doesn't come with a lot of useful utilities. --cesarb 13:26, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Ok, thanks 217.174.67.69 13:41, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Upgrade RAM or Video Card?

I run Windows Vista on a Gateway machine with 1GB DDR2 RAM and an Intel Graphics Accelerator 950. I want better performance in general to photoshop, edit video, watch movies and even just run Aero smoothly. Which should I upgrade first, the RAM or video card? Any suggestions? Thanks. 68.39.175.57 15:23, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

I suggest you upgrade to at least 2GB, re-evaluate the applications you're running, and then probably upgrade your video card as well. -wizzard2k ^(C-T-D) 15:13, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Nothing runs Vista smoothly, it's way too needy. You might as well go with a video card, since even 4GB of RAM (the max a lot of motherboards will support right now) won't help Vista run quickly. -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 15:15, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

My point was mainly for his applications, not really Aero (I think thats a lost cause for now). I wouldn't even do those things on XP with only a gig of ram. -wizzard2k ^(C-T-D) 15:23, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

I know that the Intel Graphics Accelerator actually saps physical RAM from your system since it doesn't have its own dedicated RAM. For this reason I thought maybe upgrade video first. 68.39.175.57 15:23, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Upgrade the RAM first. You really want at least 2GB of RAM for Vista to start with. Photoshop obviously likes lots of RAM, as does video editing. A video card actually makes little or no difference to programs like Photoshop anyway. --jjron 17:11, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Political Blogs on the Internet.

Which political blogs (both liberal and conservative) are the most trafficked on the Internet.

It depends on how you define those two terms, which are not mutually exclusive. AllanHainey 11:32, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

It also depends on how you define internet traffic... Nimur 06:30, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Mapquest prints

When I try to print a regular Mapquest map, it doesn't even attempt to print what is actually on the screen, but instead prints "Sorry! When printing directly from your browser your map may be incorrectly cropped. To print the entire map, try clicking the 'Printer-Friendly' link at the top of your results page." This is aggravating in many ways:

1) They wasted a piece of paper and ink, instead of popping up an error message with the same text.

2) They won't even let me try to print what was actually there. The cropping, if any, may have been acceptable to me.

3) It seems they are being dishonest, in that the real reason they want me to pick the "Printer-Friendly" link is to display (and print) more ads.

4) They simply crop the map severely before the print, when you hit that button, there isn't any magic that allows the uncropped map to be printed.

5) Them "taking control" of the print function like that seems like malware, to me. I never gave them permission to change the way my computer works to refuse to print certain pages.

I can work around this annoyance by using Print Screen, pasting into Microsoft Paint, removing the ads, and printing from there. But, I'd like to know if there is a way to stop Mapquest from taking control of the print function. Any ideas ? StuRat 17:37, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Might not be mal-ware; CSS can be used to print something entirely different from what appears on-screen. Other than that - I always use the PrintScreen method myself Rawling4851 22:55, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Yup, looking at the HTML source, Mapquest uses different CSS for when the page is printed. IE7 picks this up in the print preview. Looked to me as if the whole map was on there, but again, that's IE7's improved (compared to IE6, at least) printing abilities. MapQuest isn't evil, it's the CSS standard being correctly interpreted by your browser that lets something be printed that is different from what you see on screen. At least you get something similar; your computer could be instructed to print something entirely different. Rawling4851 23:28, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, is there any way to ignore the CSS and print what's on the screen without going through the whole print screen method ? It seems quite reasonable to me to expect to be able to print what I see, as opposed to whatever the authors of the web page feel like sending to my printer. StuRat 02:24, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Google Maps is the best.. tru dat.. DOUBLE TRUE..... --froth^t 13:42, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Screeching computer with flashing power light

My computer makes a screeching noise, the power light flashes, and the computer won't turn off.

zerula

That sounds really bad. I'd pull the plug out to stop it immediately, to prevent any further damage, then worry about fixing it later. StuRat 18:08, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Hold down the power button for 4 seconds to turn off. When you switch on your PC, your system speaker will bleep once. Anything else - such as a constant note - indicates hardware failure. Consult your motherboard's manual to see what error is reported. --h2g2bob (talk) 20:24, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Sounds like a PSU is going out to me. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 20:25, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

I was asked to look at a computer that was "screeching" once. It was the "overheat" warning going "beeeeep beeeeep beeeeep". So, it is important to define what "screech" means. Youth in Asia 13:10, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

Agreed- I'd say from the description (at least the first two parts) that it sounds like a hard drive problem, but it could be any number of things if screech is undefined. A screech could be anywhere from a beep to nails-on-chalkboard -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 14:12, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

How to Merge Partitions

Can someone tell me how to merge to HD partitions from windows XP? I have attempted this via a bootable disc, but I am not having an easy time as nothing seems to boot properly, even though it is set to boot from CD/DVD first in the bios.82.153.69.54 18:01, 23 June 2007 (UTC) PS: This is a laptop.82.153.69.54 18:13, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Absolutely impossible without complete data loss on both partitions. And there are no native tools that come with xp to do this, you'll have to upgrade to vista or use the gparted livecd or something --froth^t 13:43, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Pooh. I tried gparted, but it wouldn't boot (like everything else!).82.152.168.118 16:07, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

hi , you can use Partition magic for this its a very good and simple to use.

gop.com

GOP.com doesn't respond when I click on it, does it not work in general or is it because I'm not in America (but in Austria). Thanks, Jeffrey.Kleykamp 19:51, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Works for me (from the UK) Tomgreeny 21:09, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Is it, maybe, because I'm in a German speaking country? Jeffrey.Kleykamp 21:12, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Works from Germany. --Dapeteばか 21:13, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Why doesn't it work here? Jeffrey.Kleykamp 21:44, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Times out here (UK). Maybe the server's experiencing downtime? JoshHolloway 22:34, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

My theory is that the GOP people only want to allow Americans on by looking at the IP addresses but if it works 2/4 times in other countries then... Jeffrey.Kleykamp 22:37, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

(From Australia). GOP.com doesn't work for me, nor does RNC.org, but GOP.gov does, if that's any clue as to what's going on. - Akamad 01:15, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

This article from November, 2004 states that they are blocking international access. - Akamad 01:18, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

GOP.gov probably works in that it is the House Republican Leadership website. An nslookup points to 143.231.169.175, and 143.231.0.0/16 is assigned to the House of Representatives, so it stands to reason the GOP couldn't restrict access on that basis. GOP.com and RNC.org appear to be owned directly by the party, and their IP's belong to what it appears to be a provider based in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

I'm also a little dubious of the justification quoted in the article for disallowing access from abroad. It's not as if the security concerns aren't the same that any other high visibility website wouldn't have to face. Maybe they don't think it's worth the additional bandwidth and utilization costs to provide that kind of access, but it seems a little short-sighted to me. –Pakman044 03:38, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

Works for me (UK). Use a coralized version by adding .nyud.net:8080 after the .com, like this: http://www.gop.com.nyud.net:8080/ Coralizing should pick it up (hopefully in the US) and feed it to you through several proxies. It takes a lot longer than normal to load, and may get strange formatting marks, but probably won't timeout. --h2g2bob (talk) 16:18, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

LaTeX to Powerpoint

I have a large number of equations in Latex that I want to put into a powerpoint presentation. What is the neatest way to do this? deeptrivia (talk) 22:45, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

You can use TexPoint, it's free for 30 days. There's also TeX4PPT (which I believe is free). I've never used either myself but it seems to do the trick. I guess you can also use print screen, but that might not look nice if you have coloured backgrounds on the slides. Hope that helps. - Akamad 01:04, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

All these create non scalable images. Is there a way to get Latex equation to Microsoft Equation Editor format, or atleast scalable image format. deeptrivia (talk) 02:19, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

It's quite easy to get PostScript / PDF output from TeX, either with pdfTeX or by producing a standard DVI file and running dvips / dvipdf on it. However, to make the output truly scalable, the important thing is to install and use vector versions of the TeX fonts instead of the pre-rasterized fonts generated by METAFONT. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 20:35, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

May I suggest Beamer instead of powerpoint? I used it for my Master's thesis, and I was very happy with it. You also might want to reconsider presenting a large number of equations in a presentation, as the audience will have a hard time quickly processing them. Which of the following do you think your audience would prefer? "Since $|\{x\in \{0,1\}^{*}|x\sqsubseteq y\}|<\infty$ we have..." or "Since y has finitely many prefixes, we have...". 213.237.10.244 13:18, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

June 24

Linking a domain name and an IP address

I have an IP and DNS addresses for a local DSL Internet connection. I know I can point a domain name at the DNS addresses but is it necessary for the ISP to add the domain name to the DNS table so that the domain name is linked to the IP address? 71.100.3.132 00:08, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

Most domain name registrars will ask you to give them your IP address, which is then linked to your domain in their nameservers' tables. The only time your ISP would be involved in the process is if you were purchasing the domain from them. Shadow1 (talk) 12:51, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

Just nitpicking... The registrars ask for your DNS server's IP address, not your IP address. Your DNS is what maps the domain name to your IP address. If you do not have a DNS server, you will need to get one (or create one - which is a pain). There are many cheap/free DNS services on the web. Some even allow for roaming IP addresses, just in case your ISP changes your IP address on you. Youth in Asia 13:08, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

Okay how does the domain name know which IP address in the DNS belongs to you? Does it link to it automatically using the IP address your are connecting from to do the domain/DNS setup? 71.100.3.132 18:59, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

A DNS service is specifically designed to take a domain name and return an IP address. It is your job to tell the DNS server what the IP address is for each domain name. When you hire a DNS server (I use secure.net), you have to say, "I just got superglobalmegamax.com and I want it to point to 64.23.54.2." Then, you tell the registrar what your DNS service's IP address is. When joe schmo types in superglobalmegamax, they will initially get the DNS server IP (ie, secure.net) and then the DNS will tell them the IP. Nameservers - the one that talks to the DNS - will commonly cache requests so it doesn't have to go to the DNS every time you type in the same domain name. You can even cache lookups on your local computer to speed things up further. Youth in Asia 19:59, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

Keep in mind that if you do not work with your ISP, that they probably have a PTR_record#Types_of_DNS_records for the IP provided to you, so any time a third party tries to resolve the IP, they'll get the hostname the ISP defined, not your domain name. You'll have to get your ISP involved if you don't like that. -- JSBillings 16:31, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Two NAT related questions

Dear Wikipedians:

I have 2 NAT related questions for which I cannot find answers in Wikipedia's NAT page.

Question 1: If NAT disrupts end-to-end connectivity, then how is it possible for me to initiate an MSN conversation to my friend and to have her see my first message popping up on her computer when both of us are behind our respective ISP's NAT (i.e. worst-case NAT scenario: both ends behind NAT). And how can I use the "MSN" principle to visit her personal IIS web server she has hosted on her MSN computer?

Question 2: How long does NAT keep a (internal IP, internal port -> external IP, external port) mapping available in its memory?

Regards,

76.65.14.155 01:17, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

For the first question, you and your friend are not directly connected to each other. Instead, your MSN clients are both connected to a central server, which relays messages between you two. Not sure about using the "MSN" principle, though your friend should port forward in her router. Second question, dunno. :) Splintercellguy 01:53, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for reply. By "MSN" principle I mean can I call up her personal IIS web server in the same way that I call up her MSN messenger? Particularly if she couldn't do any port forwarding because she has an extremely nasty ISP (like Rogers in Canada) that dumps all of its non-business customers into these NAT pig-pens and refuse them any access to the routers? (But even for my friends who are imprisoned behind Rogers evil NAT I could still initiate connection to their MSN messengers). 76.65.14.7 05:04, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

A kinda bulky and impractical way I can think of top of my head would be for your friend to host the IIS server as a Tor hidden service. Splintercellguy 06:52, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

A less bulky and impractical way would be to use IPv6 on both machines, either using Teredo or another tunnel broker. That way, both machines would get a real IP address, and you could do anything you would normally do with a real IP address. --cesarb 11:50, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

huaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! That is juuuuuuuuuuust what I'm looking for. Thanks a lot cesar and splintercellguy! 76.65.13.119 15:46, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

Is Steam adjusting prices for me based on where I live?

Does Steam automatically convert the listed prices to Canadian dollars, Australian dollars, etc if you browse it from Canada, Australia? On its front page, http://www.steampowered.com/v/index.php , Dark Messiah and Thief are both listed as $19.95. Is it the same for everyone else? 202.10.86.63 17:38, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

I was just reading this the other day- short answer is that no that's USD --froth^t 18:07, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

Linux root filesystem

Can linux at boot time use smbfs as its root filesystem? Can it use image file stored in smbfs as root filesystem (this would be more important)? (It would make possible booting linux from network (using windows server with tftpd32 and somewhere shared (over smb) root filesystem image)). Articles linux kernel and Linux Startup Process did not contain information about root filesystem mounting. initrd has data about use of plain NFS as root FS, but no data about SMB or SMB/loop -Yyy 19:34, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

No - a minimum of the Linux Image and GRUB would need to be on a filesystem GRUB can understand. You might be able to symlink some of the other folders away to SMB. --h2g2bob (talk) 01:47, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Actually, you don't even need GRUB (you can network boot, which is what is being asked about). As to using CIFS as the root filesystem, I don't think anyone ever tried that; it should be possible in theory, as long as you used a Samba server correctly configured to use POSIX permissions with the Linux client. You could also in theory use a loopback image from a Windows server (but it wouldn't be similar to NFS root then, since the root image would have to either be not shared or not writable). --cesarb 09:54, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Yes, i have been able to load kernel through tftp, there probably is possible to use ramdisk as root FS (image loaded through tftp), but it would be inefficient. I intend to use loopback image from a Windows server. Limitations are acceptable (for example ability to boot knoppix (or something similar) to real hardware (not vmware or something similar) without ever writing a physical CD). Thanks for the answer, this question reduces to configuration of initrd to: load network card driver module; load CIFS module; get IP adress from DHCP; mount SMB share into initrd filesystem; mount root filesystem image over /dev/loop (at the end to be moved over to /). -Yyy 15:30, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Lightbulb from PC

I hooked up a lightbulb to my computer but it won't turn on and I don't know why.--71.185.138.224 23:16, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

Last I heard, PCs don't have lightbulb sockets, so I think we need more information. Is it a USB light? A special device (such as some sort of electronics kit)? A 50-year-old valve-powered computer? Confusing Manifestation 23:30, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

X10? —Steve Summit (talk) 02:42, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

June 25

hexadecimal in javascript

Is there any command in javascript to convert a number into a hexadecimal string? — Daniel 00:49, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

• Yah. 54321.toString(16) returns D431 (for example). --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 00:58, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

This doesn't seem to work in my browser. According to w3schools ([3]) that command converts dates to strings. — Daniel 16:12, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

It only converts dates to strings if you use it on a date. This works fine on Firefox and IE for me:

i = 255;
document.write (i.toString(16));

...will write ff. You can change the base too - changing the 16 above to 2 gives 11111111.

— Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 16:22, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. Aparently, it needs a variable (such as i in the second example). — Daniel 18:28, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

If you don't want to use a new variable you could just typecast it - parseInt(255).toString(16) — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 18:53, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Darwine x86

Has the darwine (x86) project gone under? All of the links on all of the mirrors of the x86 version are broken. Can anyone explain why, or give me a link to the newest version?--67.181.167.227 03:19, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

PSP

I really do not know if this is the right place to be asking this question but I will ask it anyways. Does anyone know how to store videos or DVD's on the Sony PSP? I know it has something to do with the memory stick card but can you download DVD's free to this card? Thanks for any responces.68.120.229.30 04:35, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

There's a way to do it manually but PSP Video 9 might just be simpler. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 21:04, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Thank you this will help alot.68.120.224.35 05:03, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

A problem with Windows Movie Maker...

I tried to make an AMV with Windows Movie Maker, but there is an error every time after I drag the first clip down to the storyboard or timeline. I've sent error reports, but there's still an error. I s there a way to fix this problem? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Sirdrink13309622 (talk • contribs).

What error do you get, exactly? And does it happen with all clips or just with specific ones? --Dapeteばか 10:02, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, asking a computer person to fix your problem without giving an error number is like telling a car mechanic that a light won't turn off. What light is it? -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 10:04, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

My Windows Movie Maker is on Windows XP. The error said that if I was in the middle of something, the information I was looking for might be lost. It didn't say the number but I told you what it said. Now, is there any way I could fix the problem?

Go to tools -> options -> compatibility and uncheck every box there. See if you can still play your clips. If not, go one by one and check one box at a time, checking each time to see if you can play your clips (audio and video). Once you get playing clips, stop. Basically, there's usually a bunch of codecs sitting around in WMM and WMM doesn't like all of them. So you need to narrow down which ones are absolutely vital (playing your video) and leave the rest off. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 21:03, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Well, in the WMM situation, I clicked Start, then I went to System Tools but didn't see options to further solve the problem. What Tools are you talking about?

The Tools menu in Windows Movie Maker. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 16:58, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

All in one computers?

I know we used to have an article on this, but I can't seem to find it. Does anyone know of companies that make all in one computers? Obviously there's apple, and if you consider that HP monstrosity a desktop HP, there's also cybernetman and that weird sony thing, but there don't seem to be any others from what I can see. By desktop, I mean a computer that cannot feasibly be used as a laptop. Say, if it would be impossible to reasonably take it out and use it in an airport. Also, it preferably would conform to some standard, such as ATX or ITX. By all in one, I mean the computer has at least the monitor and motherboard/tower components as one unit. I'd also like to see keyboard computers, like some of cybernetman's, and the old C64s, but not as much. Mainly I ask because I'd like something that's somewhat stylish (like an iMac), but I don't want to pay Apple's hardware prices and then overwrite the OS with linux anyway -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 10:03, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

A laptop computer? There isn't any commercially produced desktop computer that integrates the keyboard AFAIK. Also does it have to be small sized? Does a side panel-mounted LCD on a normal sized computer count? --antilived^{T | C | G} 10:11, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Did you... read... my...post... at all? Really now, I made it very clear. -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 10:18, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Yes I did, and I clearly said there isn't one that integrate the keyboard on the market (at lest not one that I know of). It's relatively easy to cut apart your side-panels on your tower and stuff your LCD monitor behind that, does that count as an All in One computer? Does the iMac G4 form factor count as your "All in One?"? Please clarify what you actually want. --antilived^{T | C | G} 10:35, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

I did, very clearly. If you don't know of anything on the market, you obviously don't have the answer to my question do you? I know they exist, I'm just looking for more. -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 10:45, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

I dont remember the model numbers, but Dell has a few where the mainboard cabinet is hung behind the monitor. And I saw some Sony models (there were calling it tabletop or something, I dont remember now), which was basically an 21 inch LCD monitor with a laptop kbd and touchpad hinged from the bottom of the monitor. The cabinet, in this one also, was hung benind the monitor. Better check some Sony World outlets out. --soum ^talk 11:08, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

I remember those dells too, the cabinet was really small like the size of a first-generation tablet pc and was hung behind or next to the lcd monitor. Keyboard not integrated though, that would be kind of dumb --froth^t 13:46, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

There are still some I-openers out there, but that's pretty under-powered. I thought I saw eMachines or Compaq systems that fit your description, but I can't find anything like it on any stores, and I seem to recall they had integrated CRTs. I think a bunch came out after the iMac, but not since. -- JSBillings 12:33, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

I have seen pictures of computer built into keyboard, but not the actual device, so i am not sure if these are mass produced. It had a DVI port on back and optical disc drive in side. Inside there were some ITX or smaller form factor mainboard. There also were PC type computers shaped like iMac computers (if i remember correctly, these were even mass produced for some time, i cannot remember company name, which produced them, though.) -Yyy 12:37, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

You both are thinking of eOne, and Yyy you're thinking of Cybernetman which is what I talked about first. -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 13:14, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 DIPLOMA

I need to find a diploma work on Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Powerdesa 10:22, 25 June 2007 (UTC) I am allso doing one and would like to compare with more of them. Are there any links to diploma library? Powerdesa 10:22, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Using sftp with a public/private key pair from the command line.

Hello!

I have generated a pair of keys and am able to

• use WinSCP to sftp files with my private key
• use PuTTY to ssh into my account with my private key

However, when I try to use sftp at the command line, I get

$ sftp -oIdentityFile="/cygdrive/e/my_key.ppk" username@host.com Connecting to host.com... Enter passphrase for key '/cygdrive/e/my_key.ppk': Enter passphrase for key '/cygdrive/e/my_key.ppk': Enter passphrase for key '/cygdrive/e/my_key.ppk': username@host.com's password:

Is IdentityFile not the right thing to pick? If I choose a non-existent file, it jumps straight to

username@host.com's password:

So it must have some idea of what's going on. Could it be because my passphrase is about 30 characters long?

Use this script from the command line. Save it as publickey.sh instead of publickey.txt. Run it from the command line with the syntax like "sh publickey.sh kainaw@wikipedia.org". It will ask for the password to the remote server, log in, set up your keys, set permissions properly, and then quit. After that, you can "ssh kainaw@wikipedia.org" or "sftp kainaw@wikipedia.org" without a password. -- _(¿ʇɐɥʍ) ʍɐuıɐʞ 15:58, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

I am already able to log in without a password. I know that my keys are set up correctly. I can tell this because when I use GUI clients like PuTTY for SSH and WinSCP for SFTP, I can do so using my private key, passwordless. My real question is how to tell the standard command-line sftp client to use the key I specify. My guess was sftp -oIdentityFile="/cygdrive/e/my_key.ppk" username@host.com which seems to be wrong. Thanks for the help, by the way!

Norton Confidential 2007

Hello. My Norton Confidential 2007 free trial has expired. I uninstalled it via Add/Remove Programs and restarted my computer. However, whenever I run Liveupdate in Norton AntiVirus 2007, Liveupdate shows that I still have Norton Confidential installed. I double-checked Add or Remove Programs in my Control Panel; Norton Confidential is gone. Is Norton Confidential 2007 actually uninstalled off my computer? Thanks in advance. --Mayfare 15:26, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Hmm i can't give you a full answer here but i think that liveupdate did not update its list. If it has gone from your computer form the romove programs list then the computer sees it has gone and it is uninstalled. I would recommend looking throught the c drive and delete and files from this and then see live update otherwise its just liveupdate being silly and just ignore it.Wiki.user 11:59, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Adding urls to del.icio.us

Forgive my tone of voice; I'm feeling a tad irritated. My question: is there a way to simply add bookmarks to del.icio.su without sticking those buttons on the browser I'm currently using? The other bookmarking service I use, a more obscure one called MyBookmarks, does this by default. If del.icio.us doesn't offer this feature, why the **** not? (TO be precise, I just want to be able to stick in a bookmark by pasting the url and giving it a name; I don't need any other song and dance.) $\sim$ Lenoxus " * " 17:05, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

http://del.icio.us/post — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 18:58, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Sorry, the sub-page seems to have gone, unless you mean that the answer is right on the front page. $\sim$ Lenoxus " * " 00:47, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Never mind it works (I wasn't logged in). Thanks so much! Wonder why the delicious help doesn't make that clearer… $\sim$ Lenoxus " * " 00:49, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Setting up a link between an IP address and a web site on a personal computer

I purchased a domain name and hosting service but the hosting service turned out not to be Full Trust as required by the starter kit I was installing. Although I cancelled the hosting service I still had the domain name. I wanted to point the domain to the personal webspace provided by my ISP since it at least had one canned cgi script I could use to get responses from visitors to the site. Although the domain name provider offers a direct link from the domain name to any IP address it does not seem to be working. An arbitrary domain name generated by a DNA service, however, will point to any IP address I select and is currently pointed to the personal webspace provided by my ISP.

However, I would like to point the domain name at a website I have created on my personal computer although I realize the connection will be slow. What I need are step by step instructions as to how to setup my DSL modem, router and computer so that this can be done.

Are there any instructions on the Internet for doing such a thing?

71.100.3.132 17:34, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

There aren't any specific instructions because what you need to do depends on what kind of services and products you have. Here are the basics:

1. Register the IP address provided to you by your ISP with the DNS registrar.
   1. Okay, my domain name provider (registrar) does have an option to point my domain name at any ip address I want. I think they check it out first but in the case of it being pointed at the IP address for the web space provided by my ISP it has to be followed with the username and that's all. So that part is up and running. 71.100.3.132 23:18, 26 June 2007 (UTC)
2. Configure your Router/Gateway to forward port 80 to your personal computer. How this is done depends on what device you have. Check the documentation.
   1. I recall doing this part a long time ago when I had cable insted of DSL so to make it less complicated I've replace the router with a hub. I'm already getting BOT hits since the modem's firewall is not yet enabled. After configuring such preliminaries then all I need to do is to tell the DSL modem which LAN address to forward hits on WAN port 80 to, right? 71.100.3.132 23:18, 26 June 2007 (UTC)
3. Run a webserver on your personal computer.
   1. Next its just a matter of configuring my website control program to accept hits on port 80 and I'm all done or should I be aware of things like bad guys using my computer to declare war on France? 71.100.3.132 23:18, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

-- JSBillings 00:08, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Downloading speed question

Hi, I have ADSL broadband with around 3 Mb/s max speed however I've noticed that when downloading files from the internet I'm only reaching, at the most, around 50 Kb/s. Does anyone have any ideas of what the problem is as I can't see anything on the settings or elsewhere to get the download speed up a bit closer to 3MB/s My operating system is windows XP. Thanks AllanHainey 11:48, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

there are too many problems with pipeline,overhead,etc...to get a perfect speed the provider or place where you are downloading from would have to have a 3MB connection as well and close to you to not be processed by that many routers,switches,gateways etc. and then you would have to have no packet loss at all...basically if you're asking why it's so slow...blame the place you're downloading from...i have a 2 mb connection and i sometimes get over 2 mb's...in spikes anyways...it just depends...some old diablo servers i connect too i get crazy lag and bad connection, you gotta remember the game diablo was not optimized for this type of connection speed and...again...it'd have to be my next door neighbor running the server for it to be better connection and we'd have to be on the same router from the same ISP and basically...you just need to see if it's the place you are downloading from try an online speed test...2 sites i recommend are DSL Reports and SpeakEasy 200.35.168.129 20:44, 25 June 2007 (UTC) Ag for MemTech

Thanks, I'm doubtful that the problem is just the distance from the download location but I'll check out the 2 sites you give when I get home, what should I expect them to show if the problem is as you suggest? AllanHainey 11:52, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Also does it matter which server you select as all the options are a few thousand miles away (I'm in the UK)? AllanHainey 11:57, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Ok I've had a chance to run a few speed tests now & it looks like the distance from where I'm downloading is reducing the download speed a good deal but it isn't accounting for all the loss. The speakeasy speedtest (NY server) shows a download rate of 1009kbs (126.1 kbs transfer rate) while http//sod.ms/fast/ shows download of 1.3921Mbs. The UK site speedcheck.ispconnect.co.uk shows my bandwidth at 2.76Mbps but download at 353.3kbs and speedtest.bulldogdsl.com says my download speed is 280kbs.

There seems to be a lot of variability between these download speeds but all are a good bit higher than I'm getting at the moment (less than 50kbs)so does anyone have an idea of what else could be the problem?

Also anyone know the difference between the download speed and the transfer rate?

Thanks AllanHainey 11:54, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

Windows Speed vs mac Speed

This may have been asked on the help desk a few months ago, but I was unable to find a conclusive answer. I have 3 computer with identical technical specs, one with Windows XP, one with Windows Vista and one with Mac OS X Leopard. Which of the three computer would be the fastest in a) normal everyday browsing, b) graphic/web design and c) games? Thanks. Acceptable 18:09, 25 June 2007 (UTC) EDIT: sorry, I didn't realize Leopard wasn't out yet. Please use the newest version of of Mac OS X instead.

Since Apple's MacOSX Leopard isn't out yet, it'd be hard to make these estimates unless you were using one of the developer seeds. Also, in the case of a), it depends on the browser, comparing the default browser of Explorer on windows to the default browser of Safari on macosx, you're going to see vastly different speeds depending on the test. It might be worth comparing the same browser (say, Firefox or Opera) on each. b.) You can check some of the benchmarks done on the MacPro running MacOSX and Windows XP, [4]. For c.) I can't think of any cross-platform games that are CPU intensive. I know that some games were announed recently for MacOSX, but they're all running under API emulation provided by TransGaming Technologies. -- JSBillings 18:48, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

It will depend on a lot of things. A- this will depend on your browser. SwiftFox or Fasterfox will be better than firefox, for example. B- it will depend on what apps you want to use for this again. MS Paint Vs. Photoshop would obviously make Paint faster, but photoshop more powerful. C- Again, depends on the game. Chances are, any game you can play on a mac and a PC on any reasonable computer nowadays won't have much of a difference between OSX and XP. Vista of course takes much more resourced. The less powerful your OS, the faster it will run on hardware, but it could also limit your choices in applications, or security in the case of Win95/98. If you really want a lightning quick computer, try out Damn Small Linux, Puppy Linux, and DeLi Linux, which are all meant to be very small and run on very old systems, but should still be capable of running modern apps. The entire OS should be able to run inside your RAM, which makes loading things like web browsers and programs incredibly quick.

I think you are kind of barking up the wrong tree, processing speed isn't really a selling point amongst modern operating systems, maybe booting speed, but not browsing or photo editing speed. There are other factors differentiating the operating systems which far outweigh the negligible difference in speed, which is far more dependant on your hardware and the specific applications you are running rather then the OS. If you look at it that way, Linux is probably the fastest, because the money you save on not having to purchase windows you can use to buy a better processor. ;) Vespine 22:44, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Export windows network drive mappings.

I routinely work on multiple PCs throughout the day, but on our network, the only default network drive mapping is for the personal dirctory. If I create drive mappings on a PC they stay, but they are not imported if I log onto another pc. Is there a way to export the drive mappings to a file so that I could import the drive mappings on any PC hat I wanted to use?

Thanks! -Czmtzc 19:50, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

• It sounds like you want a Windows Logon Script. Use the command net use drive \\computername\sharename\ to map each of your desired drive letters in your script. You can attach the script to your domain profile, or simply run it every time you log into a computer. -wizzard2k ^(C-T-D) 03:34, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Blocking access of computer on router

I have two computers linked to my D-Link Gold Series Router. Is there anyway that I can block the internet access of Computer B using Computer A? Acceptable 19:56, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

For some routers you can block/allow access for special ips. Don't know if this is possible with an D-Link Gold Series Router. 84.160.217.154 21:01, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

You could do MAC filtering. Splintercellguy 22:39, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Apple Pages Page Numbering

I am using Apple Pages, and want to create a document with the page number for left-hand pages at the bottom left and vice versa. I have followed instructions and selected 'Facing Pages,' but still it formats the footers the same... What do I need to do? It's driving me mad!

Many thanks,

--Fadders 20:47, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Installing Linux --- difficult case

I upgraded my old box with a new hard drive and a second ethernet card and now I'd like to install an up to date linux version.

The problem is that the new linux is on dvd while the box can only read cd, so I need to install via nfs from another machine. Now that I've never done that before this would be enough of an adventure, but, to make it really interesting, the old linux version refuses to recognize any of the ethernet cards (error "SIOCSIFADDR: No such device") which worked fine up until today.

I can boot with an ancient version of knopix and access the internet fine and easy, so it's not the hardware that's wrong.

All valuable data have been saved to the other machine yesterday so special care is not a point.

Any ideas what could be done? And do you think the old version is alive and in fear of death?

84.160.217.154 20:57, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Most major distros come with a bootable live CD from which you can download the necessary stuff. CD, not DVD. --User:Krator (t c) 22:34, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Yes but I have only the dvd. And it's suse (for historical compatibility with the other machines) and I don't want to pay for Microsoft Linux). I should add that the machine in question is old and I intend to use it for experimenting and testing, kind of real life chips and disks adventure game. 84.160.217.154 06:14, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Output of ifconfig -a? Is anything picked up in the dmesg?

ifconfig sees only lo, no eth0 nor eth1. /var/log/boot.msg shows an attempt to set up both eth0 and eth1 (known from the config?) each followed by the "SIOCSIFADDR: No such device" message and then "eth0: no such device". It would be interesting, too, how the ethX devices come into existence before ifconfig binds them to an ip. 84.160.217.154 06:14, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Strangely, when shutting down, an error message reads "eth0eth0: no such device" 84.160.217.154 06:29, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

You probably have the wrong kernel driver set for the interface. Check to see what driver is being loaded, and whether it is the appropriate one. -- JSBillings 12:19, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

These messages only mean it couldn't find any network card. Since you say the network cards were being recognized until today, I'd suspect either one or both of the cards are not seated properly on the slot (I've seen that happen several times). Try running lspci and see if it shows the network cards (and if their type is shown correctly); if they don't show, it's a hardware problem, and the first thing you should try is to remove and reseat both cards (and also any other PCI card you might have). --cesarb 12:34, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

It's not easy. Somewhere in my dungeon I've found an ancient disk of floppy and managed the half forgotten spell of mcopy. That way I've got the output of lspci to my other old computer and from there to the next one which has internet access:

janus:~ > /sbin/lspci -vv
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX - 82443BX/ZX Host bridge (rev 02)
	Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
	Status: Cap+ 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort+ >SERR- <PERR-
	Latency: 32
	Region 0: Memory at e0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable)
	Capabilities: <available only to root>

00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX - 82443BX/ZX AGP bridge (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
	Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B-
	Status: Cap- 66Mhz+ UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
	Latency: 64
	Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=64
	I/O behind bridge: 00008000-00008fff
	Memory behind bridge: 80200000-802fffff
	Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 80300000-820fffff
	BridgeCtl: Parity- SERR- NoISA- VGA+ MAbort- >Reset- FastB2B+

00:07.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB PIIX4 ISA (rev 02)
	Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle+ MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
	Status: Cap- 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
	Latency: 0

00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82371AB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01) (prog-if 80 [Master])
	Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
	Status: Cap- 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
	Latency: 32
	Region 4: I/O ports at 9030

00:07.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82371AB PIIX4 USB (rev 01) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
	Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
	Status: Cap- 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
	Latency: 32
	Interrupt: pin D routed to IRQ 11
	Region 4: I/O ports at 9000

00:07.3 Bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 02)
	Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
	Status: Cap- 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-

00:0d.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139 (rev 10)
	Subsystem: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RT8139
	Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
	Status: Cap+ 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
	Latency: 32 (8000ns min, 16000ns max)
	Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 10
	Region 0: I/O ports at 7000
	Region 1: Memory at 80100000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable)
	Expansion ROM at 80120000 [disabled]
	Capabilities: <available only to root>

00:0e.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139 (rev 10)
	Subsystem: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RT8139
	Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
	Status: Cap+ 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
	Latency: 32 (8000ns min, 16000ns max)
	Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 3
	Region 0: I/O ports at 7400
	Region 1: Memory at 80100400 (32-bit, non-prefetchable)
	Capabilities: <available only to root>

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc 3D Rage Pro AGP 1X/2X (rev 5c) (prog-if 00 [VGA])
	Subsystem: ATI Technologies Inc 3D Rage Pro AGP 1X/2X
	Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping+ SERR- FastB2B-
	Status: Cap+ 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
	Latency: 32 (2000ns min), cache line size 08
	Region 0: Memory at 81000000 (32-bit, prefetchable)
	Region 1: I/O ports at 8000
	Region 2: Memory at 80200000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable)
	Expansion ROM at 80220000 [disabled]
	Capabilities: <available only to root>

janus:~ > 

Now I'm looking for a luckstone and a scroll of help. (At least I could avoid to start playing nethack on the old box right away ;-)

Thanks so far. 84.160.223.83 18:47, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

These are both RTL8139, and are being recognized; check lsmod to see if either 8139too or 8139cp is loaded (if not, try using modprobe to load them), and check the dmesg output for errors (they will probably either mention the module name or the interface name, or be just before/after a line which mention them). --cesarb 00:48, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

There is none of these modules loaded, but locate 8139 shows 8139too.o exists. modprobe 8139too runs ok and lsmod lists 8139too as unsused. ifconfig still knows only lo but neither eth0 nor eth1.

Next try with ethernet physically connected, no difference (well, as expected, but I wanted to be sure). Now I used yast to change the ip for eth0 and afterwards ifconfig showed both eth0 and eth1. I should be happy now but I don't understand what happened. How did yast manage to create eth0 and eth1? 84.160.200.172 08:32, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Conversion

Hi, does anyone know of a good program to convert DVD video files into MPEG-1 files? 24.19.234.96 22:21, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

MediaCoder is a nice and good program for just about any conversion. --User:Krator (t c) 22:35, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

VLC --h2g2bob (talk) 02:09, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

SUPER converts anything to anything :) -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 13:17, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Your download will start in several seconds ...

Many websites use a page that will pop up a download in several seconds, with the ever-present "if your download does not start, click here" link. Why do these website use such a method? I would think that direct links or something that does not delay the download works better. Is this a security/bot prevention thing? --User:Krator (t c) 22:53, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

They may want to keep your eyes on their web-page for a few extra seconds so you see their sponsored ads. Or, their web-server may actually be querying a database, running a background program, or other "slow" process, to deliver the file to you. Nimur 23:02, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

The page will redirect to the actual download link, instead of getting you to the actual link. Some browsers don't support automatic redirects, so clicking the link will initiate the download.

Along with what Nimur said, it also prevent people from giving direct links. So if I want you to download a file from www.example.com, and that file is called program.exe. It stops me from linking like this: www.example.com/program.exe. The benefit of this (from the website's point-of-view) is that instead, I'll have to link you to this page: www.example.com/program.html (where the download will begin after several seconds), thus allowing your eyes to witness their sponsored ads. If I gave you a direct link, it stops you from visiting their webpage altogether.- Akamad 04:52, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Javascript and long variables

Hi.

I am trying to make a website to host some recipes and photos of mine. My plan was to have thumbnails of the food arranged in a bar on the left side of the page, and when you click on the thumbnail, a photo and the recipe pops in the main part of the page.

I wrote a very simple javascript to do this:

function ChgPodium(freshpod, captiont) {document.img_podium.src=freshpod; document.getElementById('captiontxt').innerHTML=captiont; }

See? When you call the function, you give it the location of the image and you type in the recipe in captiont. The problem is, the recipe has to be written out all in one line (if you line break, it screws everything up). And, although it worked great on my computer, when I tried to upload it, it looked like lines could only be so long. What should I do? 65.94.220.211 23:10, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

I would avoid doing it that way completely. What if someone wants to link to a specific recipe of yours? If you're switching the content like that, they won't be able to. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 23:51, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Why try to put everything all on one line?

This:

foo("abcdefghi")

is (I think) equivalent to this:

foo("abc"+
    "def"+
    "ghi")

Installing Linux --- Level Two

This is the continuation of "Installing Linux --- difficult case". I have an old linux box with no dvd drive and want to install a newer linux from dvd. This is not a vital task, it's just like playing a "chips and disks" adventure game instead of dungeons and dragons, so I'm not going the much easier way of investing the time in earning some money and simply buy a new computer with dvd drive.

The old box has (now) access to the local network where an installation dvd with suse 10.2 is exported from a second box. I can mount that directory from the old box all right. Now I insert the boot cd from the old linux into the old box and reboot. Aborting the installation takes me to a menu where I can load module 8139too and from there on there is an option to boot via nfs with a menu where I can enter all necessary network information, that is mainly the ip of the box, the ip of the server and the directory from where to install. Finishing that, I get a big red window telling me "Cannot find the image". Here I am at loss because, from the other box, I can see that there really is no such thing as, say, suse102.iso or something like that. 84.160.200.172 12:10, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

June 26

Video Games Consoles and Storage

I've been thinking about the storage provided for consoles recently (in particular for the Xbox 360) and I've encountered a couple of things that don't make sense.

Firstly, why is the capacity of the hard drives so low? My Xbox has a 20GB HDD, if I wanted to buy one it would cost about £65, but for the same price I could get a 160GB HDD for a PC which would spin at the same speed and use SATA. So why are the hard drives so small when they could be much larger for the same price, is there something specific about the Xbox HDD that makes it more expensive or is it merely a case of Microsoft trying to take advantage of the fact they're the only people making the HDDs in order to make more money?

Secondly, why are the capacity of memory cards so low? The official Xbox 360 memory card is 64MB but nowadays 1GB USB pens are extremely common and cheap so it's not as if it's not possible to make much larger (in terms of space), while still physically small, storage devices. Do Microsoft not believe there is a need for larger cards? Is there a hardware issue about the possible size of a memory card (or from another POV, is USB deemed too slow a transfer method for saving games?) or is it again a case of Microsoft trying to give a little for a high price since they lack rivals? --Kiltman67 01:31, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

1- Cut costs, also remember that the Xbox is rather old now, my computer is around the same age, and only has an 80GB HDD. 2- Again, you have to remember that memory has come a long way since the 360 was released, it's been nearly two years. But in general, since the bulk of save games are on the console itself, memory cards still don't need to be very large. -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 01:39, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Can't you plug external USB hard drives into the 360? -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 01:42, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

As far as I know the 360 is designed not to allow you to use a USB hard drive, probably so they can keep a monopology over HDDs. --Kiltman67 03:18, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

It's purely a propriety/marketing strategy thing, there is no reason why there couldn't be a 120GB drive for seemingly the same price, except for the fact that Microsoft then couldn't screw you for the 20GB version. Vespine 04:31, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

The problem is, you are trying to compare two seemingly similar but quite different markets. The PC and 'generic' electronics market thrives on constantly delivering newer, cheaper, better goods to consumers. Most markets do not move nearly as fast, especially when they are wholly proprietary. There are plenty of examples of this in the electronics industry, including Sony, MS, Apple, etc. The examples in other industries are endless. The bottom line is, you don't get rich by lowering prices, and until there is true competition that impacts sales, they will charge whatever they want for as long as they want. --Jmeden2000 17:37, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Notes replication question

We have two Notes servers set up temporarily where mail files are replicated between each other. Mail is sent to only one server (say server1), and mail is read on the other server (say server2). The problem is that some messages in the mail file on server1 never end up on the mail file on server2, even when replicated.

How can one force that every message in the mail file on server1 must be replicated/copied to the mail file on server2? Notes replication seems to be stubborn in that it won't reliably do this!

linux

what the basic linux commands for managing files and what the prerequisite programs during first installation so that it will allow dual booting choice. Lawrete

It would help if you told us what distro you're using, ubuntu can set up dual boot very easily, whereas another distro might give you trouble. As for commands, http://www.linuxcommand.org/ -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 08:03, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

In Fedora Install Windows (making sure you leave some free space for Fedora) then Install Fedora when it comes up with the partitioning menu select use free space. There you now have dual boot computer (Note: This works on just about every main distro(SUSE, Fedora, Ubuntu the lot)) Hope this helps! --Chris ^g 11:03, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

For any linux distribution (or any Unix too), you're going to know several commands for file manipulation, explained here: List_of_Unix_programs#Files_and_texts. As for dual-boot support, all linux installers will come with a bootloader, something like GNU GRUB. This utility installs a very special program in the boot sectors of your boot disk, and will give you a choice of boot options. Keep in mind, that a windows install writes over the bootloader, so the above suggestion to install windows first, then linux stands. When you install windows, make sure that you leave unpartitioned space for linux. If you do not leave unpartitioned space, you will have to use a tool like PartitionMagic or GNU Parted to resize your windows partition. -- JSBillings 11:48, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

One more thing...

^{I've moved your reply up so it's in the same place as the rest of your question (under the heading "A problem with Windows Movie Maker..."). You don't need to create a new heading every time you reply. — Matt Eason (Talk &#149; Contribs) 16:56, 26 June 2007 (UTC)}

Object Oriented Programming(OOP)

What are the merits and demerits of OOP? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Preethikrish (talk • contribs)

See Object Oriented Programming to start. To be so overly-simplified as to be only partially correct, the key advantage to OOP is reusability. -- _(¿ʇɐɥʍ) ʍɐuıɐʞ 16:05, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

NAT Help please

Hey guys, i have some problems with my starcraft computer game and I found this reply to the same question on some forum: "I fixed the problem, turned NAT off in the modem and had my router assign ip address to my computers." What does this mean? Can someone give me instructions please. 69.156.52.236 17:51, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

NAT is Network address translation. "router assign ip address" sounds like using DHCP, that is, your computer(s) don't have fixed ip address(es) but are assigned these numbers dynamically by your router.

Depending on your router you can probably login as admin using your browser (probably by something like http://192.168.0.1) where hopefully you'll find a menue where you can switch dhcp on or off. Before changing anything, be sure to have your id and password for your internet provider written down somewhere as there is a chance you might screw up the router so you need to reset factory defaults and reconfigure your internet access. 84.160.223.83 19:15, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

I think what you want to do is port forward the StarCraft ports to your computer's private IP. Splintercellguy 23:17, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Supercomputers & Protein Folding

I was wondering how long it would take a teraflop/second computer to simulate 100 microseconds of protein folding.

According to IBM:

The computational effort required to study protein folding is enormous. Using crude workload estimates for 
a petaflop/second capacity machine leads to an estimate of three years to simulate 100 microseconds.

I know that a petaflop is 1,000 times faster than a teraflop, does that mean I simply have to multiply 3 years by a thousand? That doesn't sound right and 3000 years seems like an awfully long time.

- Pyro19 18:38, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

You've got the math right. Just change the scale if you want to make it easier to comprehend. If the job on a one petaflop/s system takes 3 seconds, then on a one teraflop/s system it would take 3000 seconds. -- JSBillings 18:54, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

I found this article which says that scientists were able to simulate 800 nanoseconds of protein folding in two months on a Cray T3E. That supercomputer operated at about a teraflop/second.

To figure out how long the T3E would have taken to calculate 100 microseconds I tried this:

60 (days) / 800ns = .075

0.75 * 100,000ns = 7500

7500 / 365 = 20.5

If the math is right, and I have no idea whether it is, it would take about 20 years on the T3E. Is that right?

- Pyro19 19:29, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Because of Moore's Law, there are many such computations that will finish sooner if you insert into these steps:

Step 1. Buy fastest machine on market

Step 2. Start your computation

the following optimization:

Step 0. Wait 20 years

Strange but true. --TotoBaggins 19:19, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Another way you can do it is by buying the fastest machine on the market, start a specific problem, and when you're done buy a new machine to begin that next set of problems. That way you progress faster and faster each time. Probably expensive though. - Pyro19 19:29, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

A good programmer can write code that will checkpoint their data, so they can stop a certain calculation and start it up on a faster computer, just make sure you use a portable data format like HDF5. -- JSBillings 11:58, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Be careful with these calculations; the speedup often isn't what you would expect. See Amdahl's law for the details. --cesarb 00:42, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

The actual time is less. From Folding@Home:

In fact, it takes about a day to simulate a nanosecond (1/1,000,000,000 of a second). Unfortunately, proteins fold on the tens of microsecond timescale (10,000 nanoseconds). Thus, it would take 10,000 CPU days to simulate folding -- i.e. it would take 30 CPU years! That's a long time to wait for one result!

— http://folding.stanford.edu/science.html

--h2g2bob (talk) 04:22, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

MS Word

I worked on a very long document today (an appellate brief) and wanted to insert page numbers in two sections plus a cover page like this: cover page, section one page number in small letters (i, ii, iii, iv . . . ), and section two with regular number (1, 2, 3 . . . ). I followed the instruction provided in the help, but it didn’t work. Question: In WordPerfect, the program allows me to read codes so I can understand why program is behaving the way it is behaving. When I worked on the web site, using the html language section, I could see the codes in there so I have some idea what is going on. Does MS Word have anything like that available? In the other word, how do I get under the hood to investigate the problem?Chailai 21:07, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Can't help you with the first problem, though it dose sound pretty rudimentary and I've found the help files to be pretty good in general, have you tried to look up indexing tutorials or something in Google? Maybe just try again, or start a test document from scratch? I've seen large documents become strangely corrupt where something won't work, but you simply copy and paste it into a new blank document and it is all fine. As to "how do you get under the hood of a Microsoft application?" short of actually being a Microsoft employee, and probably quite a senior one, there is no way, Microsoft is closed source. Vespine 22:30, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

A right click on code fields gives options including reveal codes. Is that what you're looking for? Donald Hosek 22:58, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

As for actually fixing your problem, if you want a suggestion for that, make sure that you have a section break between the small letters section and then numeral section pagination. Then, if you are paginating in the header or footer, make sure the "same as previous" button in the header/footer toolbar is turned off in the first header or footer in the numeral section. I was actually doing a similar thing with a formal report last night! –Pakman044 23:35, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

I did the section break, page break, and all that. I firmly believe the file is corrupted.Chailai 16:00, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

That's one advantage of OpenDocument; once you know it's in fact a JAR file, you can easily see (and edit) the document internal structure. --cesarb 00:36, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Thanks you very much for your suggestions. The document is 50-page long, and I ended up breaking it into three documents. As I understand it, every time we press a keyboard, it writes something to the file, and if I can’t see what I write, it is like working in the dark. I will look into the OpenDocument and be sure to report back. Thanks again for your help.

To response to Donald Hosek, yes, the reveal codes are what I’m looking for. Chailai 15:50, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

project management tool?

Which free project management software or website can someone use on WinXP to keep track of their goals? For example, I want to give myself the goal of finishing task X by Friday, and task Y by the next Monday, etc. etc.

And I can then update it every day and say that "today I have completed about 40% of task X", and it will then tell me how "behind" or "ahead" I am overall.--Sonjaaa 21:54, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

For something like that, you might want to set something up in Excel or any other spreadsheet application. Donald Hosek 22:59, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Can't vouch for it but Open Workbench claims to be the free open source alternative to MS Project. If so it can do what you want and make all sorts of nifty charts and graphs to show you how much of a frood you are. 161.222.160.8 23:42, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Linux install

I'm considering installing a version of linux (Ubuntu) from a liveCD onto my computer but I'm not sure about one thing. I currently have XP on it, and I know that uses an NTFS system. If I install linux over it (I don't have anything installed that I wouldn't be willing to replace with something else, so I don't mind reformatting), will it automatically change the HD into FAT32 or something else compatible with linux? Or will I need to repartition before I try to install? I know at least the liveCD runs OK on my system as it is now.

Thank you for your time. 76.192.5.108 23:32, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

If you go with dual-boot option, the NTFS partition will remain, but will be resized to accomodate ext3 and linux-swap partitions. If you choose to wipe the disk, you get an ext3 partition and linux-swap. The Ubuntu installer can take care of this. Splintercellguy 00:14, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Also, I believe Ubuntu 7.04 has native NTFS read/write capability. - Akamad 00:48, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

I think the CD I have is 6.90 though I could of course DL the new one if I wanted to. Thanks for the responses. Mattb112885 01:27, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

I'm quite sure that Ubuntu 7.04 can't resize NTFS partitions on install (but do give it a try). Instead, you'd have to resize the NTFS partition from within Windows, and then allow the Ubuntu installer to place itself in "the largest free continuous space on the drive". The installer will then create two partitions there: one Linux-swap partition, which will be about 1GB at most and one ext3 partition, which will occupy the rest of the drive (and will be where the files are stored). In reality, in terms of partitioning, if I wanted to dual boot, I would resize in Windows first - this is because I don't think the installer can resize NTFS partitions (it might be able to, but even if it can, the Ubuntu installer partition manager takes a very long time to run, because it seems to have an obsession with rescanning the partition table every time you click anything - I should say that a fix is being created for this bug, which we may see in 7.10).

Once you've installed Ubuntu, the packages "ntfs3g" and "ntfs-utils" (the former is installed by default, I think) will allow you to mount and mess around with NTFS partitions. Read-write functionality is also included, but is deemed experimental - that said, I have used the functionality and had no problems, and have discovered that if a possibility exists that data loss or corruption may occur when the Ubuntu driver tries to write to the NTFS, it will simply refuse to do so. Martinp23 11:24, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

You won't be able to read the linux filesystems when running windows, at least with the default set of drivers that comes with windows. If you intend to share data between the two OSs, you might want to create a FAT32 partition that both OSs can mount, or rely on the ntfs read-write support (which may or may not corrupt your data). -- JSBillings 11:54, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

You can also use something like Explore2fs. --cesarb 23:57, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

June 27

Undeletable directory in Win XP

I recently migrated a machine from Windows 2000 to XP. A user's My Documents folder ended up partially inaccessible: the user could only read it, while the admin was completely blocked. The user's problem was easily solved: from the user's account, copy all the files to a new My Documents directory. But now the old copy is still around, it's huge, and NO ONE can delete it, not the user, not the admin, no one. I've tried using the MS-DOS prompt, and I've tried Pocket Killbox. Neither works. Any ideas how I can get rid of this thing? (And, while we're on the topic, why, oh why, did MS remove access to the wonderful NTFS permissions structure in Win XP? And how can I get at it again?) --Tugbug 00:25, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Are you able to delete individual files from the folder? Have a look at this Microsoft support page, it might have a solution for you. Another option is to kill explorer.exe using the task manager, open up the command line and try to delete it again, apparently that can work. Yet another (possible time consuming, depending on your internet connection) is to boot up a live CD (such as Ubuntu), mount the drive and delete it that way. - Akamad 00:45, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Maybe it's a matter of enabling/disabling simple file sharing? Nimur 00:46, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. I have an Ubuntu Live CD sitting around; didn't think of using it. And getting rid of simple file sharing looks like the answer to my last question. --Tugbug 01:16, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Have you tried taking ownership of the files? Right click the file, Properties, Security tab, Advanced button, Owner tab, change owner to the current logged on administrator, and click the checkbox to replace owner on subcontainers and objects. -wizzard2k ^(C-T-D) 01:26, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Inventory of installed codecs

How do I get a list of what audio and video codecs I already have installed (a) under Windows and (b) under Linux, across multiple media players? NeonMerlin 02:31, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

• a) Control Panel -> Sounds and Audio Properties, Hardware tab, choose either Audio Codecs or Video Codecs and click Properties, then on the properties tab it will list installed codecs. -wizzard2k ^(C-T-D) 02:47, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Note that some things are "codec-like" but are not installed as system codecs. These things may be DirectShow filters, Audio Compression Managers, or other application-layer compression/decompression utilities. Nimur 06:52, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

• b) For linux media players, each one can have codecs in different places, there doesn't seem to be a universal definition. MPlayer, for example, defines all codecs in file called codecs.conf. -- JSBillings 11:51, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Software used by Formula One teams

Hi,
What kind of software is used by Formula One teams to analyse telemetric data and do aerodynamic modelling etc? --Fir0002 02:32, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

LCD native resolution

I want to buy a LCD with 4:3 ratio, but all the 19-inch ones have a native resolution of 1280x1024, which is 5:4. If I buy one of those and change the resolution to 1280x960, to get a 4:3 ratio, will it be as sharp as the native resolution? --Masatran 06:00, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Clarification: If the LCD ignores (1024 - 960) horizontal lines, then it will be as sharp as native...but will it do that? If it will not, how can I get it to do that, in X11? --Masatran 06:10, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Some LCD have a menu to change its action when the signal is not at native resolution, for example letterboxing. NVIDIA control panel in Windows can also alter that, not sure about on X though. Why do you want 1280×960 anyway? Minus the toolbars it will be roughly 1280×960 usable resolution anyways. --antilived^{T | C | G} 06:29, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

I wouldn't buy an LCD with such a low res anyway. Most LCDs on the market today go much higher. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 22:18, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

"OP", "GP", in mailing lists

What do "OP", "GP", etc. mean when used in mailing lists? --Masatran 06:03, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

On the reference desks, "OP" often means "original poster" (the first person who started a topic/question). I don't know if that carries over to your mailing list... Nimur 06:54, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

"GP" means "grandparent post". This post will be referred to as a grandparent post. --TotoBaggins 14:46, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

No, it won't. --TotoBaggins 14:46, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Yes, it will. I'm referring to the GP as a grandparent post now. --TotoBaggins 14:46, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Touché! --TotoBaggins 14:46, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Thus showing what we all knew: Toto is insane -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 15:00, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Downloading wikipedia

Sir I need to download and install wikipedia on our company's intranet.Though there are various web pages available explaining the methods , none of them completely work.Even the wikipedia site doesn't explains it clearly .I am following this link http://www.yafla.com/dennisforbes/Many-Ways-to-Skin-a-Wiki-Hosting-a-Wiki-on-Windows/Many-Ways-to-Skin-a-Wiki-Hosting-a-Wiki-on-Windows.html . While following the Option1 and reaching step 9, the following error is generated

Creating tables... using MySQL 3/4 table defs...Query "CREATE TABLE user ( user_id int(5) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment, user_name varchar(255) binary NOT NULL default , user_real_name varchar(255) binary NOT NULL default , user_password tinyblob NOT NULL default , user_newpassword tinyblob NOT NULL default , user_email tinytext NOT NULL default , user_options blob NOT NULL default , user_touched char(14) binary NOT NULL default , user_token char(32) binary NOT NULL default , user_email_authenticated CHAR(14) BINARY, user_email_token CHAR(32) BINARY, user_email_token_expires CHAR(14) BINARY, PRIMARY KEY user_id (user_id), UNIQUE INDEX user_name (user_name), INDEX (user_email_token) ) TYPE=InnoDB" failed with error code "BLOB/TEXT column 'user_password' can't have a default value".

If somebody could look into this matter and explain the probable reason of error and explain the correct method I will be highly obiliged.

Anand202.54.110.19 09:09, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

I have downloaded Apache,Mediawiki,PHP and MySQL. I need to install and run wikipedia on an intranet. Can somebody explain the sequence of steps. Mohan202.54.110.19 09:21, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

• Try this link. EliminatorJR ^Talk 11:33, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

I've merged your two sections since they're the same question. Keep in mind, that even if you get Mediawiki up and running, you won't have all the content of Wikipedia. -- JSBillings 11:47, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Have you got Apache, PHP, MySQL and MediaWiki installed? See also Meta:Data dumps and Wikipedia:Database download. --h2g2bob (talk) 00:32, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

Mac USBWireless Utility

Hi there, I'm having some problems with my internet connection on my iBook G3. When I open the USBWireless Utility, sometimes it scans and connects for a few seconds, sometimes it scans but doesn't locate my Buffalo Wireless signal but finds others in my immediate area, and sometimes it just says "No Device!!" and refuses to do anything. I have never had any problems since I got the USB a few months ago and my windows laptop is working fine with it's wireless card, connecting fine to the Buffalo signal. I have reinstalled the driver and still no improvement. I have been experiencing this problem for several days after updating to 10.4.10 (but not immediately after so I suspect this is not the problem). Everything else seems to be OK, but just no internet. Can anyone help? Manga 12:19, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Panorama creator

Hi! Do you know about any software that will take six images, representing the six faces of a cube, and turn it into a QuickTime VR file (example) or a similar format? I was thinking about processing images like Escher's Hand with Reflecting Sphere and NASA's image of the day to create views of the world as seen from inside the sphere. —Bromskloss 12:52, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps I should clarify: The six images depict what you see from the inside of the cube. Other ways of specifying what can be seen are also OK. —Bromskloss 15:12, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Instructables has a tutorial on creating Quicktime panoramas using free software which might be useful. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 15:18, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Connecting Cable

I have a digital diary SF-4990 How can I link my Diary with my laptop for transfering the data therein to the laptop and consequently edit them?

Where can I find the connecting chord in the UAE?

In the UAE? That's a large place to search! Hopefully you intend to buy it; if it's lost somewhere in the UAE it's going to be hard to find. You can buy a cable in an electronics shop, but you can probably directly order from the manufacturer's website or some other online shopping service. Froogle, by Google, is a good comparative shopping source. Here is a website which might be helpful... Nimur 17:20, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

php

How can i run my php code?

I have some php code that has been done at school, and is run on the school server, but from home this doesnt work. How can i run my php code when i am on my home computer?

You can download PHP from php.net; they have a Windows .exe installation tool which will set up a command line interface. If you want to use your PHP to create web pages, you will also need an http server such as Apache HTTPD. (Install the http server first, and then when you install PHP, the installer will automatically detect and configure). Nimur 17:16, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Could you go into more detail on how to do this?

thanks

There are Instructions for installing PHP on windows on the PHP web site. -- JSBillings 18:53, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Rebooting

I have my Win XP restarting immediately after user accounts appear. I don't know neither the cause, nor the way to fix it. The only strange message I've found is on traditional opening black background: "Primary IDE channel no 80 conductor cable installed". The option of last known good configuration didn't help. Any thoughts? --Brand спойт 18:37, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Not sure how it gets that far, but the message sounds like your hard drive cable fell off? Gzuckier 18:59, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Its possible your hard drive cable is bad, and its getting through the boot process only to crash on a more thorough check when Windows is starting. It would boot up because a few of the conductors are ok, but some may be damaged/shorted. It should be an inexpensive thing to check. -wizzard2k ^(C-T-D) 01:49, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

micrsoft outlook / linux

ok i have two problems 1) when trying to configure outlook 2003 on my xp, sp2 home edition pc i can get it to work with my email address from uni but when attempting to access my hotmail account i keep getting please enter passwword and username box and regardless of what username or password i put in it wont connect, and i set it up to connect to a http server which is what it says to use for hotmail 2) while using virtualbox to run ubuntu on my xp machine i set up a shared folder on my xp machine and went through and set up a folder in the ubuntu desktop that would connect to my ip address but it just says it cant access the folder and none of the files are visible. i'm thinking firewall problem? or incompatibly with ntfs file system?--Colsmeghead 23:11, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

June 28

How can I view my own website on the Internet?

I have setup a website on my personal home computer under IIS.

The website is managed using IIS Manager (found by going to /controlpanel/admistrative tools/internet information services manager)

The IIS manager shows a tree structure starting with "Internet Information Services" under which the first folder is named "chipmonk" (the name I gave my computer when I installed the operating system).

Under CHIPMONK (local computer) there is a folder named "Web Sites" and then a folder named "Default Web Site" or CHIPMONK (local computer)/Web Sites/Default Web Site.

By right clicking on "Default Web Site" and selecting "Virtual Directory" from the drop down menu I was able to create a "Virtual Directory" of a regular folder on my computer found on drive c:\ named "Julie" or c:\Julie

By making the folder named "Julie" a "Virtual Directory" IIS then designates it to be the default website on my personal computer.

An Internet browser can be used to view the files in the folder as web pages using any one of the following addresses:

http://localhost/Julie/index.htm
http://CHIPMONK/Julie/index.htm
http://192.168.1.115/Julie/index.htm
http://127.0.0.1/Julie/index.htm

Now here is what I want to do... the IP address associated with my home computer is something like 66.230.200.100 and I want to be able to set things up so that I can replace "localhost" or "CHIPMONK" with my IP address in an Internet browser and be able to view the website from places besides my computer.

How can I do this? Julie Dancer 00:11, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

You are behind a NAT router. You need to have the router forward incoming port 80 to your computer on the internal network. --Spoon! 00:35, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

I am connected to the Internet with a Westell 6100 DSL modem provided by Verizon when I opened the account. Julie Dancer 00:41, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

Bear in mind that essentially what you are trying to do is host a website from your home computer which is expressly forbidden in the majority "home" broadband plans I've come across. Vespine 00:54, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

What is the reason a provider would not want you to do this? Julie Dancer 01:12, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

Many do not want you to soak up the upstream bandwidth. Your provider may or may not regulate/enforce the operation of a web server. They may also sell a "commercial" package which costs more, but provides more bandwidth. Or, you may luck out and find that your provider does not care if you run a web-server (I have had no problems with most of my various service providers, but I do not generate huge amounts of traffic either). Nimur 01:15, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

Verizon does offer 10 MB of web space with the account but does not provide for ASP. Most of the ASP hosting services I have tried do not know how to configure permissions that will allow you to write to a file in the _private folder and do not provide a user console or control panel that will allow the user to set these permissions whereas they are easily set under IIS. Julie Dancer 01:29, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

Also bandwith is next to nothing since both frequency of access and file size are minimal. Julie Dancer 01:45, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

A search on the Internet turns up this page about port forwarding for your router. You can try it; I do not know the correctness of this information. --Spoon! 02:03, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

Content Managment Systems

Hi, im looking at creating an internet directory similar to dmoz. It is going to be for my business and need it to handle a fair amount of pages. What would be the best CMS (Content Managment System) to do this? Ive already checked out http://opensourcecms.com/ but am having trouble finding a good system that may work for me. The best ive found so far is drupal.

) thanks for any help :)