Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing

July 17

PowerPoint Presentation

Hi, I have recently made a ppt presentation on a Mac, however, when I wanted to open the file on a PC, the pictures can't be opened. It is said that I need a TIFF (uncompressed) decompressor and a Quick Time, well sth along those lines. I am wondering if I could simply save the ppt in a particular format (on the Mac)such that it can be read w/o the need of those applications mentioned above. Thanks in advance!

It sounds to me like the presentation has media embedded into it (movies? sound clips? odd image file types?) which require external plug-ins to render. If the PC doesn't have those plug-ins, it won't work.

If you convert all of the static images to standard formats (JPG, GIF, PNG, whatever) then that should take care of the TIFF issue. As for the movie or sound clip, you will need to know what movie/sound formats will work on the host computer, or carry around with you the necessary files to install the plug-ins (e.g. the QuickTime installer). --24.147.86.187 14:00, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Can cell phones be used for eavesdropping ?

Fox News reported that even if cell phones are turned off, "the government" can turn the microphone on and listen in on our conversations: [1]. Is this true ? And, if so, does it apply to all cell phone models ? Is there a list of which cell phones are safe from this ? StuRat 04:52, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

If the battery is removed they can't do anything to it. I'm pretty sure it is true, although I don't have any sources for this other than what I've read on a couple of forums.

If a cell phone is off, wouldn't it be disassociated with the cellular network? Splintercellguy 06:20, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

What does "off" really mean? Is the phone's microcontroller truly powered down and specific hardware is used to sens the "On' button and turn the phone back on, or is the microcontroller just mostly-sleeping and occasionally scanning for you to press the "On" key? For the former, "Off" might be safe but for the latter, it's all a question of what the firmware is programmed to do. And who controls the firmware? (Answer: Not you.)

Atlant 12:01, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

This is kinda off topic but if Bruce Schneier is not talking BS in his book Beyond_Fear, what the government need is a pointer to where to look for, not more data. The US government had all the information to prevent the 9/11 attacks, which they realised afterwards after processing information related to that. Unless you are really interesting, I don't see why "the government" would want to listen to your phone conversation. --antilived^{T | C | G} 07:32, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

A few thoughts:

• Phones must at some level be "off" when they are closed in the sense that they are not transmitting audio information to the cell network. Why? Because if they didn't then the batteries would run down at comparable speeds when they are "in use" and when they are "off". This isn't true, at least not with any phone I have ever owned — a phone can often be closed and not-transmitting for multiple days on a single charge, but if you talk for a few hours then it needs to be recharged pretty quickly.
• So we assume that the phone is not passively transmitting at any given time. So what would it take to "listen in"? You'd need to have a way to remotely connect to the phone, and to engage its microphone and transmitter. How would this work? And across different phone models? I am no electrical engineer but this seems a bit unlikely to me on the face of it, without a plausible explanation given. Especially when the phone is off, when the receiver is presumably not engaged.
• So OK, maybe the phone manufacturers have built in a back door. All of them? Even though most phones are produced out of the US (and not even for the US)? Would phone manufacturers risk that sort of privacy violation? There would be no legal incentive for this at all, and no economic incentive. The potential scandal would be far too large.

To me it makes very little sense on a technical, political, economic, and practical level. All that means is that I'd want to see some real compelling evidence before beginning to believe it. And as Fox News has been known to feature all sorts of nonsense, rumor, innuendo, etc., I don't consider it a very reliable news source. So personally, I would put this in the "tin-foil hat" category, barring additional information. --24.147.86.187 13:44, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

1. Sending a signal to turn a phone from "standby" to "listen" would be trivial, if the phone had been programmed to do it.Transitioning it from "off" to "listen" would take more effort, since you would have to assume the phone stays connected even in said off state, which would consume quite a bit of energy, if not as much as a standby mode. The more difficult part would probably be making sure teh user doesn't notice, but again, this is simply a matter of coding.
2. The phone probably wouldn't have to passively transmit- as long as it can recieve (similar to the technology in RFID tags, and the above mentioned WOL) That said, it would depend on the phone model, manufacturer, and programmers, but if someone wanted to, it would again be fairly trivial. BTW, This has almost nothing to do with electrical engineering.
3. Phones used in the US must meet FCC regulations- if you believe in conspiracies, who knows that that entails. If this sort of thing were true, it wouldn't really be a choice for phone manufacturers, it would be Government force.

Now, all that aside, even though it is possible, I doubt it actually occurs, at least en masse. Giving someone a bugged cell phone, on the other hand, would be much easier.

It seems to me that this entire discussion is based on the fanciful idea that cell phones are ever turned off. I've never seen a cell phone turned off in a classroom, movie theater, or church. Sure, they might switch it vibrate, but it appears that cell phones don't actually have an "on/off" button. -- Kainaw^(what?) 16:30, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Apart from the technical aspects, what would the Gov't actually get out of this? Back when I worked collections for a wireless carrier I would get 5-10 calls a day from a phone in someones pocket (when you don't pay your bill and your phone gets shut off you can call two people, 911 and your carrier's collections department). I can't imagine much useful info can be derived from the sound of someone's keys scraping against the mic and muffled voices that make a fast food drive-thru sound like a top of the line 5.1 surround sound system. Unless the Gov't has given up on finding translators that speak actual languages and has found som people that speak Mmmf. 161.222.160.8 23:33, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Well i can't answer the exact question but phones require a bit of energy even when they are "switched off" to power the clock thats inside so the phone is still slightly onWiki.user 20:01, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

XP SP2

I recently installed XP with SP2. The Ati-MMC when started gives the error" Atisserv registry access failed to startup" . Also whatever services are automatically enabled in the windows management needs to be manually started when starting the computer. Any help on this one??~~

Did you change any service startup settings from services.msc or msconfig? --soum ^talk 08:47, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

I did not change any settings.In fact they(ATI MMC 8.9) worked perfectly on WINXP before I installed WINXPSP2.~~

Lots of things break when upgrading to SP2. I would check for newer versions of your programs [2]. -wizzard2k ^(C-T-D) 15:12, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

GLUT question on OS X

#include <stdlib.h>
#include </Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.4u.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/GLUT.framework/Versions/A/Headers/glut.h>

int x = 100;
int y = 100;

int main(int argc, char **argv) {
void glutInit(int *argc, char **argv);

void glutInitWindowPosition(int x, int y); 

void glutInitDisplayMode(GLUT_RGB | GLUT_SINGLE | GLUT DEPTH);

int glutCreateWindow(char *title); 

return 0;
}

When I try to compile, I get this message from gcc:

/Users/ryangrasell/Desktop/opengl.c: In function 'main': /Users/ryangrasell/Desktop/opengl.c:13: error: conflicting types for 'glutCreateWindow' /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.4u.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/GLUT.framework/Versions/A/Headers/glut.h:429: error: previous declaration of 'glutCreateWindow' was here

Any help is greatly parreciated! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.195.124.101 (talk • contribs) 05:47, 17 July 2007

I'm no C or glut expert, but it looks like you've redeclared the glut* functions when you should be calling them. For example, the line

int glutCreateWindow(char *title);

where the error occurs declares a function taking a char* parameter and returning an int value. What you want is something like

int i = glutCreateWindow("Window Title");

which calls the function with a value (and, I assume, returns a handle for that window). --Dapeteばか 08:44, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Wow, now that I've looked at it, it looks like you have prototypes in your code. Declaring prototypes is different from actually calling a function. Should be something like this:

#include <stdlib.h>
#include </Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.4u.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/GLUT.framework/Versions/A/Headers/glut.h>

int x = 100;
int y = 100;

int main(int argc, char **argv) {
     glutInit(argc, argv); //Call glutInit, which returns void, with the parameters passed to main.

     glutInitWindowPosition(x, y); //Call glutInitWindowPosition, passing in variables x and y, to set our initial window position.

     glutInitDisplayMode(GLUT_RGB | GLUT_SINGLE | GLUT DEPTH); //Set initial display mode.

     glutCreateWindow("Some Title"); //Need to feed glutCreateWindow a string for the caption.

     return 0;
}

Declaring a function like this:

     int aRandomFunction(int Something, char* Something2);

is different from actually invoking the declared function:

     int returnValue = aRandomFunction(0, "Blah");

You may wish to review your C knowledge. Splintercellguy 09:33, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Thanks everyone, I'm a complete C newbie :) I still have a problem though: With this code:

#include <stdlib.h>
#include </Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.4u.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/GLUT.framework/Versions/A/Headers/glut.h>

int x = 100;
int y = 100;

int main(int argc, char **argv) {
     glutInit(argc, argv); //Call glutInit, which returns void, with the parameters passed to main.

     glutInitWindowPosition(x, y); //Call glutInitWindowPosition, passing in variables x and y, to set our initial window position.

     glutInitDisplayMode(GLUT_RGB | GLUT_SINGLE | GLUT DEPTH); //Set initial display mode.

     glutCreateWindow("Some Title"); //Need to feed glutCreateWindow a string for the caption.

     return 0;
}

I get this problem:

/Users/ryangrasell/Desktop/opengl.c: In function 'main':
/Users/ryangrasell/Desktop/opengl.c:8: warning: passing argument 1 of 'glutInit' makes pointer from integer without a cast
/Users/ryangrasell/Desktop/opengl.c:12: error: 'GLUT' undeclared (first use in this function)
/Users/ryangrasell/Desktop/opengl.c:12: error: (Each undeclared identifier is reported only once
/Users/ryangrasell/Desktop/opengl.c:12: error: for each function it appears in.)
/Users/ryangrasell/Desktop/opengl.c:12: error: parse error before 'DEPTH'

You probably want to use GLUT_DEPTH instead of GLUT DEPTH in the glutInitDisplayMode function. -- JSBillings 18:09, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

That's fixed now with this code:

#include <stdlib.h>
#include </Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.4u.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/GLUT.framework/Versions/A/Headers/glut.h>

int x = 100;
int y = 100;

int main(int argc, char **argv) {
     glutInit(&argc, argv); //Call glutInit, which returns void, with the parameters passed to main.

     glutInitWindowPosition(x, y); //Call glutInitWindowPosition, passing in variables x and y, to set our initial window position.

     glutInitDisplayMode(GLUT_RGB | GLUT_SINGLE | GLUT_DEPTH); //Set initial display mode.

     int window1 = glutCreateWindow("Some Title"); //Need to feed glutCreateWindow a string for the caption.

     return 0;
}

I still get an error though:

/usr/bin/ld: Undefined symbols:
_glutCreateWindow
_glutInit
_glutInitDisplayMode
_glutInitWindowPosition
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status

You have to reference the GLUT libraries so the linker can link your code to them. What compiler are you using? Splintercellguy 22:07, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

GCC —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.195.124.101 (talk • contribs)

You need to tell gcc to link against the GLUT libraries when you compile the software. If you have the software installed, a simple

gcc -lglut opengl.c

will tell it to search for the libglut library. -- JSBillings 14:01, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Switching to another network port ("NIC") on W2K and XP

For testing purposes, I have a PC configured with several different types of NICs (or equivalents), all set to use the same static IP address/subnet mask (10.0.0.1/255.255.255.0). At any given point in time, only one of these ports is actually connected to the downstream system (which lives at 10.0.0.2). During my testing, I need to switch among these several NICs and make sure the downstream system operates with all of the different NIC types.

Windows/2K grudgingly lets me set all these NICs to the same address. But to switch from one NIC to the next, not only must I move my cable, but I find that I must also either:

• Reboot, or
• Manually disable (Status->Disable) the current NIC and Enable (Status->Enable) the new NIC

Is there a more-automatic way of accomplishing this? Is the behaviour essentially the same in Windows/XP as in Win2K?

Atlant 12:35, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

• Check out the article on netsh and its subsequent links. You can make some handy scripts that can do the work for you. -wizzard2k ^(C-T-D) 15:08, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Problems with ubuntu fiesty fawn, screen resolution, on a Dell monitor.

Hi, I've just installed ubuntu 7.04, and can't get the correct screen resolution on my monitor. Here are the contents of my xorg.conf file

 Section "Monitor"
	 Identifier	"DELL SE197FP"
	 Option		"DPMS"
 EndSection

 Section "Screen"
	 Identifier	"Default Screen"
	 Device		"nVidia Corporation C51 [GeForce 6150 LE]"
	 Monitor		"DELL SE197FP"
	 DefaultDepth	24
	 SubSection "Display"
	 	Depth		1
	 	Modes		"1272x1272" "1024x768" "880x704" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
	 EndSubSection
	 SubSection "Display"
		 Depth		4
		 Modes		"1272x1272" "1024x768" "880x704" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
	 EndSubSection
	 SubSection "Display"
		 Depth		8
		 Modes		"1272x1272" "1024x768" "880x704" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
 	 EndSubSection
	 SubSection "Display"
		 Depth		15
		 Modes		"1272x1272" "1024x768" "880x704" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
	 EndSubSection
	 SubSection "Display"
		 Depth		16
		 Modes		"1272x1272" "1024x768" "880x704" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
	 EndSubSection
	 SubSection "Display"
		 Depth		24
		 Modes		"1272x1272" "1024x768" "880x704" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
	 EndSubSection
 EndSection

I don't understand the contents of this file, and the options displayed are nor available under system - preferences - screen resolution. My Dell handbook does not tell me the screen resolution which I am supposed to be working at, but I know it should be higher than 800*600, which is what I am currently set at. What can I do? Please explain in laymans terms.

Maria

Have you tried running sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg? Make sure to backup /etc/X11/xorg.conf before doing so. Splintercellguy 13:55, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

What SCG said, but you will need to know the native resolution of the monitor in order to configure it properly --L^augh! 13:57, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Ok, I've followed splintercellguy's advice, and have got up to a terminal screen which has a series of options for screen resoltuion. These options have boxs which look like this [ ] or [*] , however, I can't seem to edit these boxes, and I need to put a star in the one which says 1280*1024.

spacebar. --L^augh!

Ah lovely, thanks

Maria

Let me explain what you saw in the file above a bit:

1) First, they list various screen resolutions. The first number is the number of pixels (dots) displayed from the right to left side of the monitor, and the second number is the dots from top to bottom. I assume your monitor is physically 4/3 times as wide as it is high, as that's quite standard for computer monitors. That means if it's 9 inches high, then it's 12 inches wide, since 9 x 4/3 = 12. If this is the case, then you would do best to use a screen resolution which also has an aspect ratio of 4:3 or approximately 1.33:1. Of those screen resolutions listed, these have that ratio:

880x704

800x600

640x480

So, you would do best to pick one of those screen resolutions. If you choose a screen resolution with a different aspect ratio you will either have black areas on the edges of the screen or the picture will be distorted (circles will look like ovals). This is especially true of the 1272x1272 resolution, which has a 1:1 aspect ratio, and the 720x400 resolution, which has a 1.8:1 aspect ratio. The 1024x768 resolution has a 1.25:1 aspect ratio, which is fairly close to 1.33:1, so you could probably just adjust the display width and height on the monitor to make that work.

2) The color depth is the next issue. A color depth of 1 bit means pixels are only black or white, not even any greys (which makes horrid black and white pictures). A color depth of 4 is usually greyscale, with each pixel having 2⁴ or 16 possible shades of grey (which makes OK greyscale pictures). I've also seen some computers use 16 different colors (which makes horrid color pictures). A color depth of 8 is either greyscale with 2⁸ or 256 shades of grey (which makes an excellent greyscale pic) or 256 colors (which makes for a poor color pic). A color depth of 15 is 2¹⁵ or 32,768 colors (which makes for an OK color pic). A color depth of 16 is 2¹⁶ or 65,536 colors (which makes for a good color pic). A color depth of 24 is 2²⁴ or 16,777,216 colors (which makes for an excellent color pic). (I've also seen a color depth offered of 32 bits, which, at 4.3 billion possible colors per pixel seems like silly overkill, to me.)

3) So, of the choices listed, I'd go with 24 bit color and a resolution of either 880x704 or 1024x768 (then fiddle with the controls on the monitor to fix the aspect ratio).

StuRat 16:23, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

Safari, OS X and sortable tables

Message posted at Village Pump and it was suggested I try here. Original note with two brief replies follows.Ben MacDui (Talk) 18:23, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

I recently discovered the the sort function on "wikitable sortable" e.g. List of United States cities by population does not work with OSX and Safari. Sometimes clicking in the data fields just toggles the list up and down alphabetically; today for some reason the sort buttons are missing completely. This applies to both OS 10.3.9 with Safari 1.3.2 and OS 10.4.10 with Safari 2.0.4. OS 10.4.10 with Firefox 2.0.0.3 is fine. Ben MacDui (Talk) 19:07, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

Konqueror, which has a common origin with Safari, seems to handle that page fine. I'm running Konqueror 3.5.6 on Kubuntu i386.-203.173.179.215 23:58, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

It seems to work with Safari on Windows XP. DuncanHill 00:06, 14 July 2007 (UTC)

I just looked at the table and found that it kind of works under Safari in OS X. The buttons are there, but regardless of column, it only sorts by population. Donald Hosek 18:50, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Funny they told you to come here from the Village Pump — it is entirely the wrong place for reporting bugs with Wikipedia code. Village Pump/Technical is better; Help Desk might work; or you might try directly to the mailing lists. --24.147.86.187 02:45, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Village Pump/Technical was where the question was originally posed. Where are the mailing lists'? Ben MacDui (Talk) 07:45, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Whoever told you to come here was totally wrong — we don't debug Wikipedia software problems here, that's what VP/T is supposed to do. Anyway, you probably want Wikipedia:Bug reports. --140.247.236.107 19:11, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Many thanks - looks like it has been reported already as bug No 8288. Ben MacDui (Talk) 08:17, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

Total RAM replacement

I was ordering a 1GB RAM upgrade from Crucial, but somehow ended up ordering two of them. I'm running 512MB of RAM in my computer right now, and there are two RAM slots; would there be any negative side effects if I removed the 512MB module and replaced it with a 1GB module? If there aren't, I'll just replace the old module to have a total 2GB of memory. If there are, I'll have to cancel the order.--The Ninth Bright Shiner 20:07, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

No, there shouldn't be any problem as long as you bought the correct type/size ram. In any case, having 2 of the same size ram is better if you motherboard supports dual-channel memory.--GTPoompt(talk) 20:28, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Great, thanks! I just can't wrap my mind around any part of the RAM article...--The Ninth Bright Shiner 20:34, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

If you are running dual-channel then you will lose that as your sticks of RAM are different-sized. It shouldn't matter much for AMD platform (well not as much) but for the older NetBurst based Pentiums and Celerons, performance can reduce up to 10%. --antilived^{T | C | G} 06:04, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Different sized? The way I understand it, TNBS bought 2 identical memmory sticks and will remove the old memmory before insert new sticks. That way he should have no problems, and whats more the dual-channel capabilities will be utilized to its fullest. — Shinhan < talk > 11:28, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Hmm on second look it does seem like the case, as now he/she has 3 512MB sticks lying around with one not used. --antilived^{T | C | G} 04:49, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

Um, actually, I'm running 512MB, and I accidentally ordered two 1GB modules. There's only two RAM ports on my computer, so I have the options of either 1.5GB or 2GB of RAM right now. I'm pretty sure that my computer is capable of dual channel.--The Ninth Bright Shiner 00:55, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

OK then, I suggest replacing the single 512MB module with the two 1GB modules, which should give you the ability to run dual channel. You can try to sell the old 512MB module on eBay, if you wish. Incidentally, the double order problem normally happens when you hit the BUY button, nothing seems to happen, so you hit it again. Each hit of the button then generates a purchase request. Many sites will ship two items purchased on the same day in the same package. StuRat 15:16, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

good antivirus software

what are good antivarius software? i use panda and its pretty good. i'm thinking about buying one. i looked around and bitdefender and kaspersky seem to be best but i know nothing about them!!!--anon

NOD32 is amazing. JoshHolloway 21:41, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Avast! has treated me very well and it is free 161.222.160.8 23:21, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Depends on your usage, if it is not critical than free AV software such as Avast, AVG, or Antivir should do fine. If you really want to keep your system up and running and have better support than professional antivirus software is most likily better. Either way make sure you do regular backups, they are more important than the antivirus software to protect your data.--64.40.88.131 20:03, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

Hard drive space

years ago there was not even 1GB and now there is 1TB why do they wait they know we want more why dont they just make the 1PB now instead of waiting 10 years —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.185.130.11 (talk • contribs) 23:07, 17 July 2007

Years ago there were no cars or TVs and we hunted with sticks. Now there are computers and airplanes and stuff. Why do they wait? They know we want more. Why don't they just make the spaceships now instead of waiting 100 years? -131.215.167.225 23:18, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, and I want a flying car and a robot to do my dishes! Seriously though i don't know about the technical aspect of it but it may be worthwhile to read about planned obsolescence. 161.222.160.8 23:23, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Look at Moore's law. Gutworth (talk) 02:12, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

You can get a PB, by chaining together lots and lots of large drives. They are just expensive at this point. As drive technology gets better, and as demand for such high volumes rises, they'll become cheaper and more common. At the moment there's not a whole lot of demand for them: all of Google takes up "only" 2 PB, according to our petabyte article. Relatively few people can actually use a TB of data; even fewer can use a PB. So there's not a lot of incentive to make them onto small, consumer-sized drives, yet. --24.147.86.187 02:43, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Are you kidding? Even a modest collection of DVDs (fewer than a hundred) fills a terabyte of storage as does a fair-sized collection of CDs if stored with lossless compression; our terabyte-sized disk is starting to look mighty cramped already! Bring on the petabytes!

Atlant 11:41, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

A few hypothesis on why disk space for the average consumer became a larger issue: higher bandwidth (56k -> cable speeds) and its associated demand for larger files and transfer (such as uploading video and downloading torrents/warez), the switch from floppies to CDs and partially now DVDs due to increases in both program complexity and required assets (PC games as the best example of the latter), and the rapidly declining price of HD-based storage. I expect most consumers to max out at about 2TB in the near future. If bandwidth speeds continue to increase (due to network coding and other technologies, or perhaps more consumers using shared fiber lines for some reason), that may go up, but we've gone from Internet text taking up all available bandwidth to pictures and animated .gifs (spinning Under Construction gifs anyone?) taking up the most bandwidth to music and sound taking up the most (Napster era, early P2P) to eventually video (YouTube). And once you hit video, then what? Representations of reality only go higher when talking about technologies such as (the popular/sci-fi use of the word) holography. The irony is if bandwidth limits start to increase and some sort of 3D information transfer and display takes place over the Internet we may need holography-based storage to store it :) -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 06:24, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Years ago they didn't know how to cram 1G on a hard disk and now they do. People learn how to do things and then they do them. They know you want 1PB, they just don't know how to cram it into a little box yet.

Normal PC disk drives come in standard form factors (sizes and shapes) so that they can fit in a standard computer case or laptop. Disk companies usually just release drives of whatever round-number capacity they can fit into a device of that size and shape. They could release a PiB-capacity single-drive, but its non-standard size would limit its commercial success. It all comes down to data storage density, which grows over time as technology progresses. --TotoBaggins 14:45, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

July 18

So, backslashing doesn't allow you to save edits, but...

Hi. When one uses a borrowed IP and it makes a backslash (due to some kind of misconfiguration), and tries to "Save Page", why does it always say,

Sorry! We could not process your edit due to a loss of session data. Please try again. If it still doesn't work, try logging out and logging back in.

Why does it make such an ambiguous message? Trying again won't work, and there's nothing to log out of because the user would attempt to edit from an IP.

Instead, why doesn't it say,

You are attempting to edit from a misconfigured open proxy. Please only edit from your real IP address. Thank you.

Moreover, how does all Wikimedia and Wikia wikis "know" not to let you save edits from open proxies like that? Thanks. --70.179.170.119 00:17, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

I think some web proxies mishandle the session data and/or cookies, not because they're proxies per se, though of course proxies are barred. Splintercellguy 01:11, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

That message shows up because the detection of broken "backslashing" proxies (those written in PHP with magic_quotes on and no code to compensate) is a kludge based on the addition of a single backslash at the end of a required hidden field. On these broken proxies, the backslash is doubled, causing the contents of the hidden field to no longer match (thus the "loss of session data"). This is better than letting these edits go in (they tend to corrupt the article's text with lots and lots of spurious backslashes). --cesarb 12:08, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, basically it's because I was lazy and couldn't be bothered to add a special message for such a peculiar case back when I put that kluge in last year. In fact, one could argue that adding a separate message would really just make the code more complicated for little or no gain to legitimate users: you use a broken open proxy, it's your problem, not ours. But thanks for confirming that the kluge in fact works — not knowing any such proxies myself, I could never test it fully myself. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 19:23, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

No POST! No POST!

700W power supply. Motherboard is on a box. Power supply, RAM, CPU, GPU are all plugged in firmly and according to all directions. Motherboard standby light comes on. When in case with headers connected, or when out of case and shorted with a screwdriver, does not boot at all. PSU might be making a nearly-inaudible noise when power's on, might be my imagination. Is this a power supply failure? That's my only guess at this point. I don't have another one lying around I can use either, unless I cannibalize my old PC which'll take a lot of time. Should I RMA the power supply? -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 03:53, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Multi-meter? Test the voltage across MOLEX plugs? Or try just booting motherboard alone (ie. without anything on it. It surely won't boot, but hey at least it will make a sound to complain). --antilived^{T | C | G} 05:50, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

I don't have a voltmeter. I'll try the other solution tomorrow, and I guess if that doesn't work it'll be time to return the PSU. If the PSU is bad, though, why would the standby light..light? -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 06:11, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

You can try plugging your new power supply to your old PC and see if that boots, and also check for connectors not plugged in (the 4pin 12V connector?). -antilived^{T | C | G} 08:01, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

4pin is in. I'll just take apart my old computer and switch PSUs and see how it goes. Thanks :D. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 18:12, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Layout

Hello there. I recently created a portal subpage, Portal:Roman Empire/Selected picture/Layout. I'm attempting to get it to work so that it the picture shows up in the middle when the templates used. Any other words, I would like the portal subpage which functions as a template to instruct a picture to be aligned in the middle of the page when I use it on another page. Go to the subpage to better understand what I'm talking about. Thanks. --Tλε Rαnδom Eδιτor (ταlκ) 04:27, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

I don't quite understand your question: Do you want the picture to be vertically aligned to the template/section or vertically aligned to the whole page? Vertical alignment is quite bothersome under CSS, this and Google search provide some hacks which you can use but otherwise it's much easier to do with tables. --antilived^{T | C | G} 07:58, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. You gave me some links I needed. --Tλε Rαnδom Eδιτor (ταlκ) 21:14, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

HELP with a network?

can anyone help me out a bit.... I would actually like some more personalized help...but i figured i could post here to at least get a figure...or someone to talk to constantly

i just became a new IT admin at a new company the company is new so it doesnt have a lot of money to invest just yet... i need to setup a network with the following

FTP,VNC,SMTP,PHP,My SQL,Web Server,Domain

and it´s going to be working with a PBX (3COM NBX) and Call Center type of programs (InConcert, Asterick)

what would be the best setup on how to go about doing this for example

PHP,SQL,WEB on same server (machine) ? or how...i got 1 F60 Firewall,2 Internet connections 1 that is 256kbps with public IP the other is 1 mbps without public IP i got 2 24port switches

basically right now the LAN is already made but i would just like some help on how i should set up the servers or what programs to use,etc etc, just basically some tips and once i get into the thick of it...ill ask whatever detailed questions i may have

so far we are running MySQL,InConcert,Sigma 7, and Simple File Sharing all ok on 2 servers right now InConcert (call center program) and SQL are on same server due to the fact that InConcert needs access to the DB

we are going to change to cat 6 and new switches soon, should we switch any other hardware as well any and all tips are appreciated 200.30.176.170 23:51, 18 July 2007 (UTC) Roger at New Company

PS any sites that you can recommend for help in doing this would be appreciated

It would be helpful if you give us the size of your company and what you use the PHP and SQL things for. If it's just for WAN access (although it's quite slow with only 256kbps), I would suggest a DMZ around your web server(s) and completely block inbound access to the LAN (except needed services like VNC etc.). --antilived^{T | C | G} 06:38, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the response, i´m at work right now so it makes it easier to specify anything necessary. The company size so far is about 40 and they want to grow to about 200-300 in the next couple o months. We have 2 Inet connections. 1 Public IP that is 256kbps, and 1 Non-Public IP that is 2 mbps now (they just upped it). The 2 Inet connections are not being used side by side though. We have a Fortek F60 Firewall, but the firewall is really problematic, it has 2 WAN ports but doesnt work with both Inets? I am not familiar with Hardware Firewalls, is this normal or is there a way to have them both running on the Network somehow. Also the PHP is going to be used to pull up DB info from the SQL server to generate reports and whatnot. The VNC is going to be internal only, for when I need to troubleshoot something from desk. We are currently running SQL Server 2000, because it is only version that the call center program will work with correctly. Any other suggestions would also help, and feel free to ask questions so I can provide more detailed info. 200.30.176.170 23:51, 18 July 2007 (UTC) Roger

Do you want your PHP server to be visible from the internet, or is it internal use only, like VNC? When configuring firewalls you need to know who and what (which services) needs to see the internet from inside, who and what needs to see internal network from outside internet, and which serverices/servers need to be seen from both outside and inside. Everything that does not need to access internal network put into DMZ. Also, why are those two internet connections not being used side by side? Network security is much harder when there are multiple points of entry. — Shinhan < talk > 13:09, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for all the help, in order to avoid getting this subject moved back into the archives...if you can continue to help me please visit my talk page [[3]] Roger @ IntraRed 15:46, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

But Fox said it, so it must be true!Mix Lord 00:02, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

Oh boy...

Man, am I in trouble now...something's up with some treasured files. They're kind of invisible, or something. Here's how it goes. I have a 256MB USB flash drive and a 2GB Memory Stick PRO Duo. I carry around the flash drive to have most of my files and such with me. I use the Memory Stick as a general backup source, and as memory for a digital camera, replacing a ridiculous 16MB Memory Stick. Now, I just got back from a vacation in Calgary, and I took a whole gaggle of photos (318MB worth). Now, I've got Briefcases set up in both the flash drive and the Memory Stick. I'd finally finished renaming all the picture files and moving them to the appropriate folder, so I figured I'd hook up my flash drive and Memory Stick to update the Briefcases. I hadn't realized that I'd taken so many digital camera photos, and they were being uploaded to the flash drive. I was a bit taken aback to hear the flash drive was full, so I decided to delete the folder "Digital Camera" from the briefcase on it. When I clicked "Update All" again, the dialog box said it was going to upload the digital camera pictures again, for some reason. So, I decided to cut and paste the entire "Digital Camera" folder from "My Pictures" to the Desktop, then back again. Afterwards, the flash drive's briefcase made no mention of the folder. Then I moved on to the Memory Stick, which, as my brother claims, "is a piece of crap." I clicked "Update All" in the Memory Stick's briefcase, and I noticed that it was deleting files that had the names of many of my digital camera files. I figured they were duplicates that had been somehow created, so I didn't think much of it. Then I took a closer look. I have the "Digital Camera" folder divided into eleven sub-folders, and all but one sub-folder was empty (it was the batch of new pictures). I checked the hard drive, and they were gone from it, too. But when I hovered over an "empty" folder, it showed an atrocious file size for being empty, one that could only be comprised of my lost photos. Perhaps the files are hidden, or something? I have all of the lost files scattered in other places, but that doesn't quite solve the problem. It would probably result in the same thing happening again. So, to all those still actually reading this, do you have even the foggiest idea as to what could have happened? Thanks for everything.--The Ninth Bright Shiner 04:51, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Stop messing with the flash devices. Run PhotoRec and be prepared to supply some media to save the recovered images. Splintercellguy 06:10, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Well, I downloaded, I ran, and I got what seems like all of the files, but I'm a bit confused as to what to do next. Can I or can't I re-save the recovered files to the flash devices? Thanks again.--The Ninth Bright Shiner 20:22, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Also, what should I do about the "ghost" folders in the flash drives, as well as the hard drive? Delete them, and create new ones? Put the recovered pictures in them?--The Ninth Bright Shiner 20:27, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Well, once you've recovered the images and saved them to alternative media, then I suppose you could reformat and copy back. Just be careful next time :). Splintercellguy 22:26, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Reformat?! GAH! Ah well. I also lost all the names of those files...well, at least I have them! Thanks a bundle!--The Ninth Bright Shiner 00:49, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

If you want to keep using a disk after suffering data loss on it, the only safe thing to do, after copying all the files you want to keep somewhere else, is to reformat it and run ScanDisk on it afterwards (preferably in the "thorough" mode) just to make sure. It might not be necessary if you just deleted some files accidentally, but if you did anything else silly — like pulling the disk out of while it was being written to — or if the loss was caused by an OS bug, the file system might've become corrupted. Until you reformat it, there's no guarantee that the disk won't be messed up in some way that might cause it to keep losing or corrupting files in the future. Even if it's not needed, reformatting before reuse is always the safest option. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 19:10, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

DVD/TV question for Japan

Hi, I need some help fast. I am an exchange studetn to japan. I leave in two days and have decided to make a video of my hometown to show my host family. So, I have a mini dv tape, and have an avi on my computer. I can make it a mpeg or something else quite easily and burn a standard dvd. I live in the united states. Then I wondered if a DVD from teh states would play in Japan. Should I take any precautions when burning this movie?

Both the US and Japan uses NTSC so it shouldn't be a problem. Just test the DVD on a 'dumb' DVD player (ie. one that doesn't play all the other new formats and improper DVD's) to see if it works and maybe also burn the original avi (and maybe transcoded to others like mov and ogg) to a disc so if all else fails you can still play it from a computer. --antilived^{T | C | G} 07:53, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Private DVD makers shouldn't burn a region code, so it should work. I'd personally just put the .avi on something like an SD card or USB stick though- It's usually much easier to make something play on a computer than another device. --L^augh! 11:56, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

osi layers.

why a router operates in layer three(network layer) 220.225.129.125 06:58, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Try reading the Network router and Network switch articles, and maybe the OSI model article. -- JSBillings 13:29, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Could you clarify what is confusing you? A router, by definition, works at layer 3. Do you think it should do something else? Howard C. Berkowitz 20:24, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Screenshot with its Alpha channel?

How do screenshots like this retain their alpha transparency? Is it something new on Vista? Or is it just someone painstakingly adding alpha channel back to the screenshot? --antilived^{T | C | G} 08:06, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

It's not a standard Vista thing, no. It was likely done with Window Clippings or a similar tool. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 11:02, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Hmmm OK thanks. --antilived^{T | C | G} 05:24, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Difficult SD card recovery

Hello,

I was unfortunate to have an untimely card-reader unplugging event, while my 1 gig SD memory card was inside. Ever since, it became corrupted.

I'd like to try to recover the pictures, but all of the card recovery software I've come across presupposes that windows can actually detect the card! When I plug in the card, the computer does the usual USB 'beep' but never materializes in windows explorer.

Is all lost?

Thanks! Cacofonie 11:32, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Yep, you should never remove a storage media without properly unmounting it. The drive is probably unusable now, sorry --L^augh! 11:54, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Actually, it's probably a corrupted FAT (which tends to get corrupted quite easily), and because of it Windows is not being able to read its contents. The disk management console (forgot what it's actually called) might be able to see it, and from there you could ask for a disk check. Since you only want to recover the pictures, you could try TestDisk and PhotoRec first. You could also try using a Linux live CD and see if it can recognize the card (it probably will have the same problems as Windows acessing the filesystem, but you could try its FAT filesystem checker too, and it's a way to run TestDisk/PhotoRec if Windows get too confused). If the card doesn't get recognized even in Linux (check the kernel messages after inserting the card), then the card is probably lost. --cesarb 12:23, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Under Linux, you may be able to obtain a disk image (using dd) even if the data on the card is too badly mangled for the file system header (usually FAT) or even the partition table to be recognizable. You'd have to determine (or guess) the device name your card reader appears under (something like /dev/sda), though.

You'd also need to know a bit about using Linux on the command line, or get help from someone who does. If you don't, it may be easier to look for a Windows-based recovery program with such capabilities built in — I'm sure there are some. Or take it to a shop that does such stuff; high-end data recovery is really expensive, but as long as there hasn't been any hardware damage, I bet there are computer repair stores that could extract at least some of the data for a reasonable price. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 18:49, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

Confusion with LCD resolutions and 720p/1080i

Hi, I am asking this question here since I feel you might the most qualified to answer. I am researching LCD TV's (40") and the difference between the horizontal resolutions of 1366 vs 1920 is about $1000! So I am thinking about buying the one with 1366. The 1366 supports 1080i and the 1920 supports 1080p. My first confusion is that the 1366 TV supports scan rates of 720p and 1080i. What do these mean in terms of resolution? In other words, if I am NOT using a laptop device on the TV, but only DVD and let's say a PS3, do I need the top-end 1920 resolution? What resolutions do DVD's and PS3's output to LCD TV's? What scan rate should I set my DVD player to - 720p or 1080i? What is the difference in resolution between the two? Hope you understand my dilemma. Thanks. Sandman30s 13:12, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Very brief explanation of 1080i/720p... 720p shows 720 rows of pixels on the screen for 1/30 second. That is a full 30 frames of video every second. 1080i shows every-other line of video (a total of 720 of them) for 1/60 second. Then, it shows the other lines of video for 1/60 second. Your brain merges the two frames into one (that virtually appears every 1/30 second) and you get a full 30 frames of video every second.

What does this mean to you? The "i" in 1080i refers to interlacing - showing all the odd rows then all the even rows. Experience with interlacing on computers has demonstrated that it produces better images when there is little movement. However, if there is a lot of fast action, it gets a weird stair-step effect. So, what do you plan to watch on your TV? If you are going to have a lot of action, the 720p will produce a slightly better picture. If you are going to watch regular TV shows, a 1080i will produce a slightly better picture. -- Kainaw^(what?) 13:32, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, I actually already kind of understand all this from the 720p and 1080i articles, what I am trying to determine is for example if I set my DVD player to play at 720p, what resolution would it play at on the TV? The highest resolution possible? Would I get more detail from my DVD's from a 1920 resolution TV rather than a 1366 TV? The same question for the PS3 which I think scans at 576p - how does this equate to resolution? I KNOW that resolution matters for my laptop which has a default of 1920x1200, but what about my DVD player and my potential PS3? Sandman30s 14:25, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

The PS3 goes up to 1080p - like 1080i without the interlacing. So, you get 1080 lines all at once instead of every other row. If your DVD player only does 720p, you'll get a good picture on either a 1080i or 720p display. In fact, you'll get a good picture on a 1080p display. However, the 1080p display from the PS3 (which I believe is only available when playing blue-ray disks) will be slightly degraded on a 1080i or 720p display. -- Kainaw^(what?) 15:01, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

The highest (and by far the most common) DVD resolution is 720x480 pixels for NTSC or 720x576 for PAL. Any additional resolution your screen might have beyond this won't make much difference for DVDs. -- BenRG 08:09, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

MySQL setup help

i installed mysql and an instance is started, network is disabled, i dont know the username or password, i went thru config wiz and left current pass blank and filled in toor for new pass and it went fine, still cant log in to localhost, error 2003. how do i log in to create a db and add users? i am using mysql gui tools. any help appreciated--65.222.152.28 14:29, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

I assume you are using Windows since you neglected to mention what operating system you are using. Hit ctrl-alt-del and look at the processes that are running. Is the mysql server actually running? That is normally the problem. -- Kainaw^(what?) 15:08, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

most of the time you have an icon in the tray on the bottom right that looks like a server with a green play button or a red stop button 200.30.176.170 23:48, 18 July 2007 (UTC) Roger

I dont think there is a root pass set, you actually have to go in and set it if you want to do anything. Go into the console and type SET PASSWORD FOR root@localhost=PASSWORD('rubberchicken');

Using computer as a sound recorder

I've got a WinMe computer with a microphone socket in the back. I've also got a cheap microphone. What else do I need - preferably freeware please - to use the computer as a sound recorder please? 80.2.221.87 23:26, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Just get Audacity it´s a great audio manipulating freeware tool 200.30.176.170 23:50, 18 July 2007 (UTC) Roger

Absolutely nothing hardware wise. The above poster is correct, Audacity is good for software. But just plug it in like you would a speaker and it's good to go. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 00:35, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Keep in mind that if you want to use it to record anything like music or sound effects, you'll want a better microphone. Otherwise, Audacity --L^augh! 00:40, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

July 19

Way to tell age of an AIM account?

Hey, I was asked earlier how long I've had my AIM account for, and I honestly can't remember. I seem to remember there being a date somewhere on accounts that showed you how long they had been using AIM, but I can't seem to find it. Any help with this? Or will I have to mail AOL and ask if they know? --L^augh! 02:10, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

When I check info on an AIM account in Pidgin (software), it shows me when the account was activated. -- Kainaw^(what?) 02:14, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Ok, I had to use "get info" and put in my own username, it wasn't on the right click menu. GAIM Forevar! --L^augh! 02:20, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

do iPods know what color they are?

I just noticed that in both iTunes and the Finder, the icon for my (blue) Nano is... blue. With any other company I'd unhesitatingly assume this was just a lucky coincidence, but with Apple... well, that's just the sort of neat hack they'd actually pull.

Does anybody reading this have a different-color Nano to confirm whether its icon is blue, or the right color? —Steve Summit (talk) 04:11, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

They do. My black nano appears black. It has something to do with the serial number.

If you see the Uncyclopedia page about how to attach a 20GB SATA Hard drive to an iPod Nano it says that it can only be done on the black ones because of a different type of connection, which suggests that they have different hardware too.Mix Lord 23:27, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

In case someone doesn't know what Uncyclopedia is, take a look at its article here. --cesarb 09:51, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

Right now (well, at least, "last time I looked"), of course, the black Nanos are also the only ones with an 8GB Flash ROM; the other colors are all 4GB units.

Atlant 11:54, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

Thunderbird and IMAP

Is there an option/extension/whatever so that IMAP will not perform all its changes offline and then sync them up to the server on quitting? Or is this something fundamental to the IMAP protocol?

Yes, it's really pretty fundamental to the IMAP protocol. Thunderbird does have (now built in, used to be an extension) the capability for making a folder available offline (right-click on folder, properties, offline, select this folder for offline use. In this mode (when you're offline) you can do stuff like moving mails around and deletw them - but I've found this to be unreliable, at least once rendering a folder into a permanently broken state. Tbird isn't a great IMAP client; but I don't know of a better one. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 10:32, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

I presume Tb maintains a connection to the IMAP server until the user quits: is it possible to convince Tb in some way to close the connection quicker? (perhaps we're going outside the scope of the refdesk here).

What I am doing is migrating across mail clients -- I want to use Tb's filtering and spam filtering and use the other client as well, but it's becoming tedious to quit and restart Tb every time some new mail arrives that needs to be filtered. Thanks for your response, regardless.

I think what you're trying to do should work already, without offlining; I've certainly had two tbird clients open on the same inbox, and when one saw new mail it ran the spam filter over it and deleted the spam - the second client saw the new mail arrive, and then saw the other client delete it. IMAP is, in essence, a (rather specialised) network filesystem protocol. If your other IMAP client isn't seeing the changes tbird does automatically, I guess it's not a very good IMAP client (hopefully one that you're migrating away from, not toward). -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 22:39, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

You might cringe. It's the IMAP backend to Lotus Notes.

I don't intend to use the Tb multiclient solution for long, just as a temporary thing.

cant use bit torrent

im not able to use bit torrent in my LAN.. how do i download movies using bit torrent..??Yohann paul 06:44, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

While we don't exactly condone copyright infringement, if that's what you're trying to do, what client are you using and what difficulties are you facing? Keep in mind that if you're behind a router you need to port forward the BT incoming port. Splintercellguy 07:18, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

No, you don't need to forward the incoming bittorrent port... It makes for faster downloads, however. --cesarb 09:40, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Which is basically a need, but true :). Splintercellguy 09:46, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Delete corrupt file

On an ext3 system (mounted via NFS), I have the following files...

[kainaw V_2006_03_02]$ ls -al
ls: cannot access lab.csv: Input/output error
total 12
drwxrwxr-x 3 kainaw kainaw 4096 2007-07-18 14:47 .
drwxr-xr-x 7 kainaw kainaw 4096 2007-07-19 13:30 ..
?????????? ? ?      ?         ?                ? lab.csv
drwxrwxr-x 2 kainaw kainaw 4096 2007-07-18 14:47 V_2006_03_02

Notice that the directory is the same name as the parent directory. If I cd into it and ls, I get the same results (it is the same directory inside itself). So, how do I remove the broken file (lab.csv) and then delete the directory that has itself inside itself? I've tried rm -Rf V_2006_03_02, but that obviously didnt' work. -- Kainaw^(what?) 13:54, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

What happens when you do each of these commands? --TotoBaggins 16:20, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

rm lab.csv
rmdir V_2006_03_02

I get...

[kainaw V_2006_03_02]$ rm lab.csv
rm: cannot remove 'lab.csv': Input/output error
[kainaw V_2006_03_02]$ cd ..
[kainaw V_2006_03_02]$ rmdir V_2006_03_02
rmdir: V_2006_03_02: Directory not empty
[kainaw V_2006_03_02]$ rm -Rf V_2006_03_02
rm: cannot remove 'lab.csv': Input/output error

I assume I have to delete the inode directly. -- Kainaw^(what?) 17:21, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

You'll probably need to unmount and fsck the original volume on the NFS server. You might want to try remounting the NFS share on the NFS client, in case it is a case of the NFS client getting very confused. -- JSBillings 17:57, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Agree with the above: unless it's a confused NFS client, it's best to run a fsck on the server. On most distributions I've seen, you can create a magic file (/forcefsck IIRC) which will make fsck run on next boot. Or, if it's not the root fs, you could try unmounting it and running fsck by hand. --cesarb 18:43, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

I guess that's the best. I'll have to back it up first. It is a 30TB JBOD that has the bad file on it. So, it will take a while. -- Kainaw^(what?) 19:00, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Ouch. Running a fsck on that much data will take a bit of time... --cesarb 19:58, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

(not an answer to your question, which does look like a corrupt inode, but a suggestion for the future) Rather than that mondo JBOD, you may find aggregating at the filesystem layer (rather than the block layer) advantageous. So you'd have a separate filesystem per physical disk, and you'd aggregate them into a single volume with UnionFS and you'd share that over NFS. The advantage is obviously that you only have to fsck one disk, not the whole kaboodle (and indeed all the other guys can be up while you're doing that, with only micro interruptions to add and remove it). This is a nice solution of the volume is essentially read-only (like a movie collection), with only occasional writes (the writer needs to write to the underlying filesystems, and needs to worry about what will fit where). -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 23:17, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Google

What is the difference between google.co.uk and googler.co.uk? Are they the same company? Hyper Girl 14:25, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

No. Google owns google.co.uk. Jon Richardson owns googler.co.uk. It is not uncommon for people to buy names similar to popular websites in the hopes of profiting off typos. -- Kainaw^(what?) 14:37, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

vista vs xp

a friend of mine installed vista and the graphics of his comp are super.can someone make his xp lets say wallpaper or his dexktop look really cool.as in make the images sharper —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.49.89.235 (talk • contribs)

Vista isn't making the graphics sharper. Graphics are handled by the video card (regardless of the operating system). What Vista does do is hog up a lot more memory so they can add more shadows around the fonts to make them look cleaner (instead of the pixelized look often seen in XP). You can go into the display properties of XP and add anti-aliasing to your fonts - and watch the computer slow down. As for the wallpaper, just get the image file and use it as your wallpaper in XP. -- Kainaw^(what?) 14:47, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

what is anti-aliasing?howz it done —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.49.89.235 (talk • contribs)

This is an encyclopedia. You can type anti-aliasing into the search box and hit go to learn about what it is and how it is done. -- Kainaw^(what?) 15:00, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

The method of anti-aliasing used in Vista is called ClearType. It's also available in XP in the display properties. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 19:49, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Problem with hibernation

Can I change the swap space for my Ubuntu 7.04 without reinstallig it again?(I have problem with hibernation.My computer does not hibernate while running Ubuntu and shows error low swap space).If yes,how?Is there any other way I could enable hibernation? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.68.145.230 (talk • contribs)

You can use a tool to resize the partitions to increase the swap partition size, but this can be somewhat complex. If you're using LVM, you can resize one of the logical volumes and create a new swap logical volume. It really depends on how you've got your system set up. -- JSBillings 16:10, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

What is the best way to use Python under both Windows and Cygwin?

I want to use Python on a computer with Windows and Cygwin, but I'm not sure what is the best way to do it. I can install both the Windows version of Python and the Cygwin Python package, but I will have two separate installations that may or may not behave identically. I want to use Python IDEs written for Windows for writing and debugging scripts, and have the scripts work under Cygwin in conjunction with utilities written for Unix. Any advice?

I would just install both and use the Windows one to run your IDE and the Unixy one for use with your Unixy scripts, since it would presumably be built to be expecting a Cygwin environment. Disk space is cheap. --TotoBaggins 16:24, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Java linking FORTRAN

Hi Wikipedia Community:

I would like to migrate a program used for neutrino mass calculations in particle physics. It is written in FORTRAN, and has dozens of subroutines in many different files. I'd like to translate it to Java, which is a much more structured language.

However, I'd like to translate it just one subroutine at a time, so we can test them as we go. My plan is the following:

We place all the FORTRAN subroutines into files, compile them to objects (*.o), and place them all in a library file (*.a). Once our FORTRAN library is ready, we write the main() method of the program in Java, and we call the low-level compiled FORTRAN subroutines in the Java code. Then, we link this Java/FORTRAN hybrid and compile, generating one executable file.

I need guidance in the following: Once the FORTRAN library is ready, how can I manage to call a FORTRAN subroutine in the Java code? I believe it should be possible, since the FORTRAN library is already compiled into low-level linux code...

Thanks a lot, people!--Waldsen 16:12, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

I assumed you'd need JNI, so I googled JNI Fortran and found this. -- Kainaw^(what?) 16:23, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

I wouldn't recommend translating numerical code from Fortran to Java. Take a look at How Java’s Floating-Point Hurts Everyone Everywhere. It will also probably be slower. It would be best to keep your numerical code in Fortran (if your problem is that it isn't structured enough, perhaps you might be using an older version of Fortran), and only call it from Java. --cesarb 18:35, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

How much slower is Java? We usually have a FORTRAN code running for aproximatedly 72 hours (on a PC). How much longer would the same calculation take with Java? You say Java has problems with floating point operations, what about C++? --Waldsen 19:16, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

I have no idea how much slower Java is for numerical code. IIRC, the Fortran compiler is able to do some optimizations that the C++ (and Java) compiler cannot do (in C/C++, function parameters can alias each other, and in Fortran they cannot by default), but C++ libraries can use metaprogramming tricks (see for instance the blitz++ library) to gain extra speed. The best way to know would be to try implementing it and benchmark (and also compare the output to see if it agrees). If the new code is slower, keep the old one. You could also take a look at OpenMP to speed things up. --cesarb 19:56, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

When concerned about speed of Java, two important things: (1) always remember to use the optimizing compiler, i.e. run your program with "java -server". (2) Benchmark your application instead of trusting rumours and guesses. When benchmarking, remember "java -server". 88.112.43.205 20:33, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

21" or 22" LCD Monitor

I'm trying to find a 21" or 22" LCD Monitor with a traditional 4:3 aspect ratio, from a respectable manufacturer, for a reasonable price. I've searched Yahoo!, NexTag, PCConnection, and Staples with no success.

I will be using the monitor primarily for text (program) editing, with aging eyes, so sharpness, contrast, and brightness are more important than refresh rate. I am in the US (near Boston), and the monitor will be hooked to a machine running Windows Vista (not my choice). Matchups 17:11, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

I have two 21" monitors. They are acceptable. I just kept checking WalMart, Target, Office Depot, and Staples online every week or so until WalMart had a sale on some ($299/each about two years ago). That was dirt cheap at the time. So, there's a burnt out pixel on the top right of one display, but it was cheap. As long as you don't have to put it side-by-side with a much better monitor, you'd never know the difference. Being LCD, the contrast/sharpness beats the hell out of my old CRT monitors. -- Kainaw^(what?) 17:32, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

I'd like to emphasize that my search is specifically for a 4:3 aspect ratio. Matchups 19:30, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Newegg's listing of 20". Higher than 20", the price goes up spectacularly - do one or two inches really matter so much? (if they do, consider buying two smaller monitors for the same price). As I've sure you've noted, widescreen monitors are much better price-wise and are vastly more popular for some reason. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 19:42, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

No, they don't matter that much, but they matter a bit and I was hoping that the price would be more in line with 21" wide or slightly more than 20" normal (the latter of which I'm about to get) and that maybe there was a good one hiding somewhere and I just couldn't find it. I guess not. Thanks. Matchups 02:04, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

Editing Linux

Okay, i have been developing in VB for a while, and started the C Family a year or so ago. I would like to now have a go with the Ubuntu soure code, and modify it a bit. Whats the best way to edit Ubuntu, as im guessing there is no GUI Program that will do it... Adamlonsdale 17:23, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

What part of Ubuntu? It isn't a "program". It is a collection of programs, wrapped up in a pretty bow and called "Ubuntu". Do you want to edit the kernel, the network drivers, KDE or Gnome, Firefox...? Whichever it is, they are almost all open source. Go to the homepage for the project and join the development team. Download the source from the CSV and have a whack at it. -- Kainaw^(what?) 17:30, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

I was thinking more of the general GUI. Then compiling it onto a CD, sort of like small edits of ubuntu, building up to a bigger one. Ill take a look! Thank Adamlonsdale 17:35, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

The GUI is controlled by X.org with either GNOME or KDE handling window management. -- Kainaw^(what?) 17:46, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

A lot of linux programmers use emacs or vim to edit their code. Eclipse is also a fairly common IDE for people who want the whole integrated environment. You'll also want GCC to (re)compile the software. -- JSBillings 17:53, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

untitled question

I have a 'homepage' in one of the many chat rooms around today, and I would like to install a media player for playback of a few favorite songs. I am being asked to provide a " url "for the songs and I'm afraid that I don't know what that it! Could you provide me with an answer please. Thank youMtnbum51 23:48, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Next time, please create a new question instead of piggybacking on an existing one. What media player are you using, and where are the songs stored? Splintercellguy 01:40, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

First, you have a website, not a homepage in a chat room. Second, the URL is the address of the file. For Wikipedia, the URL is en.wikipedia.org. It's what you type in your address bar. You'll need to either upload the songs somewhere or, if they're already on the Internet, provide their URLs. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 02:32, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

Technically, a URL (or URI) has to include a scheme, such as http or ftp or gopher. The URL for Wikipedia would then be

http://en.wikipedia.org/

. -- JSBillings 13:51, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

July 20

DVD to youtube

How do I transfer something from a DVD to youtube? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.111.190.135 (talk • contribs) 01:56, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

You have to rip it off the DVD first. Then edit out the clip you want (I recommend using QuickTime Pro, as it makes this sort of simple editing really easy and can deal with a million formats, but that's just me). Then upload it to YouTube. --24.147.86.187 02:02, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

Before uploading it to YouTube, I'd suggest resizing it and encoding it in Xvid or something similar. It will massively reduce the time it takes to upload. A Very Noisy Lolcat 07:24, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

WinXP SP2 object block when downloading

Any idea how to overcome the "object block " problem when downloading an exe file in WINXP SP2??59.92.241.163

Right click on the information bar and choose download. Or hold down CTRL+ALT when clicking on the link. --soum ^talk 08:04, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

Digital Camera Lens Lens

Compact digital cameras nowadays seem to come with a variety of lens sizes. For example, this camera from the Sony T-series has a very small lens, whereas this one has a much larger lens. However, the difference in picture quality is negligible. How does this work, and what advantages do bigger lenses offer?

Also, what do people think about the Samsung NV3 vs. the Samsung NV10.

Many thanks,

--Fadders 08:57, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

It depends what type of lens. For example, a telephoto lens is alot bigger then others, but has alot better zoom, and therefore can make flowers etc. really stand out. Other lenses have different zooms etc. For effects, there are a wide range of filters available. Hope this helps. Adamlonsdale 09:25, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

The T10 has internally zooming and focussing lens which are much harder to make than the conventional lens that the W35 and hence higher price. Also the W35 has larger maximum aperture so it will perform better at low light levels than the T10. --antilived^{T | C | G} 10:42, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

ASCII compression?

What is a good compression method for compressing ASCII text (less than 50characters) on an extremely slow network (maximum 5 byte/s) and is relatively easy to implement and doesn't require much (decoding) hardware? --antilived^{T | C | G} 11:09, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

For less than 50 characters, a dictionary based compression system seems overkill. How about delta encoding? --soum ^talk 11:17, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

Some kind of delta scheme might work, if the individual messages are very like one another (say the outputs from a remote weather station, which follow a fixed rubric). Dictionary compression might just work if the messages have a very fixed set of symbols (again the weather station example, if messages look like "WIND:20.4;WINDDIR:NNE;TEMP:13.0;HUM:66"), such that the dictionary can be fixed (cooked into both parties, rather than being generated dynamically and transmitted - obviously the dictionary, like the huffman tree below, would be bigger than the message). If that's the case you'd probably have to figure out the dictionary manually. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 12:29, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

Assuming the data is natural language (e.g. English) text then a simple variable-length coding scheme should reduce that down to around half (but with such small packets, probably less efficiently than that). You can analyse a reasonable test-corpus of representative messages and produce a fixed huffman tree which both ends use for encoding and decoding. The nice thing is that the (marginally more) complex stuff is in the initial analysis, which you do on your desktop machine just once. The code the two parties to the actual live communication have (to encode and decode) is pretty trivial. This all falls apart, however, if your packets don't exhibit the jaundiced letter distribution that a natural language has, or if the distributions in the actual packets differ markedly from those in your test corpus. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 11:35, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

Yes the data is natural language (song informations actually) and the Huffman coding seems quite good. However I don't quite get what Huffman encoding does except maybe using a dictionary to reduce the amount of bits used for commonly found symbols? Also how can I generate a Huffman tree, what software do I use (on Linux?)? --antilived^{T | C | G} 21:55, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

Yes, all the Huffman coding does is assign short bit sequences to the most common letters, with longer sequences for uncommon letters - that's in contrast to the regular ASCII coding, which assigns as many bits (7) to '<' or '$' or 'Q' as it does to 'e' and 'a'. [Note incidentally that the Huffman article rightly talks about "symbols", rather than just "letters"; I don't know of a straightforward way whereby you'd deal with symbols longer than a letter, for this particular problem.] The process for building the tree is straightforward - you perform a frequency analysis of your test corpus (just count how many of each letter), sort them into frequency order, and then go through the queue-based algorithm described at Huffman coding#Basic technique which builds a binary tree. Later, encoding using the tree just means finding the desired letter in the tree and reporting the sequence of 0 and 1 ("go left", "go right") steps necessary to get it (in practice you'd probably build a lookup table, like the one in the righthand box in the Huffman article. The decoder is just a simple FSM where you push each bit in and it makes a "cursor" descend that tree - when it lands on a letter node it emits the letter and resets the FSM cursor to the root (in practice there are lots of fancier implementations, depending on how you represent the tree in the decoder). On thinking more about your test data, I'm not sure you'll see compression that's really worth the bother. In cryptographer's-english (that language that consists only of 'a..z' and maybe a space) you'd hope for something around 50% compression - but the more additional letters you allow in the input, the less effective the compression will be. There's obviously cost for allowing uppercase (not an entire bit's worth, on average, maybe 0.5 bits), and more cost for newlines, punctuation chars, digits, etc. The more restrictive the input set (e.g. discard punctuation and convert all chars to lowercase) the better the resulting compression. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 22:30, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

Yes I would probably just limit the charset to a-z 0-9 and maybe a few punctuation like "'", """, "/", "." and "()". Also, is LZW basically Huffman encoding that also operates on more than 2 characters? --antilived^{T | C | G} 06:21, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

No, LZW produces a single output symbol from a varying number of input symbols. Huffman coding produces a varying number of output symbols from a single input symbol. Most general-purpose lossless compression these days uses a hybrid of the two (Lempel-Ziv-Huffman; I'm not sure if this has a Wikipedia article, but see deflate). But LZ-Huffman won't work for your application because it's fundamentally adaptive.

Your best choice depends on how important bandwidth is compared to encoding/decoding complexity on each end. You will probably get substantially better results by using a so-called order-1 model, which means that instead of encoding each symbol using a fixed Huffman tree, you encode it using one of several fixed Huffman trees, with the tree selected based on the previous encoded/decoded symbol. There's a lot of correlation between adjacent characters in English text. You will also get substantially better results if you use arithmetic coding instead of Huffman coding. -- BenRG 16:48, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

I think I should just do a single fixed huffman tree out of a sufficiently large sample of data, since I have no idea what arithmetic coding is about or how it works. However how should I go generate a huffman tree? What command should I use to count all the characters? --antilived^{T | C | G} 06:22, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

Why no $2 computers?

I recently bought a "6 in 1 Casino Game" for one pound - about two dollars. It plugs into the TV and offers six different games including Texas Hold'em with computer opponents and 'music'. The hand-held console has ten different buttons in total.

Now if that game can do all that for £1, why cannot I buy a computer for a pound? Or at least a programmable calculator for £1? Thanks 80.2.192.45 11:19, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

One can now buy new for a pound a scientific (not-programmeable) calculator which cost £30 twenty years ago. DuncanHill 11:21, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

The game probably has very little or no memory or storage capacity, and it's instructions are burned on to a chip that can be mass-produced cheaply. A programmable computer needs to have both storage capacity and a more complex interface, which would increase its price. Plus, you have economics working against you. The demand for the casino game is (sadly) higher than the demand for programmable calculators. -- JSBillings 11:37, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

So why cannot we have $20 pocket computers? I saw a USB flash drive with 512MB of memory for a few pounds recetly, LCD displays are common, small keyboards are common. This reminds me that we do have little programmable computers in some mobile phones, but it would be nice to just have the computer part. 80.0.108.224 15:41, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

It also depends on how little you want to pay the workers. A coworker purchased a tool set for $1 (I don't know how many pounds that is). It included five common tools (philips head, flat head, pliers, etc...). It said "Made in China". So, we discussed it. Retail markup is 300%. So, assuming the dollar store paid a huge amount for it, we can estimate that they paid 50 cents. For that 50 cents, someone was paid for the metal/plastic supplies, someone was paid to stamp the plastic case and the metal tools, someone was paid to box up the tools, someone was paid to take it to the ship, someone was paid to ship it across the ocean, someone was paid to drive it across the U.S. and finally someone was paid to put it on the shelf in the store. Obviously, a lot of people were paid almost nothing so he could buy those tools for $1. -- Kainaw^(what?) 12:03, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

Comparative advantage? Automated production lines? Economies of scale? A million product items shipped in one container? Personally I think buying cheap goods from China is a way of moving western wealth to the third world - twelve hours on a production line is a marginally better job to choose than twelve hours in a muddy field in the cold. 80.0.108.224 15:42, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

A (presumably US?) dollar is about 49p at current prices Algebraist 13:56, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

File:In9-32x-max top 500.jpg

If you open up your game, it will probably look something like the top image at right, with just one or two microchips on it. If you open up a standard PC, it will look something like the bottom image, with dozens of components. Each item costs money, and you have to pay designers to figure out how to connect all those bits together, and you have to pay a sophisticated manufacturer to create the multi-layer boards, and the complexity means that the designers probably won't get it right the first time, so you have to get the manufacturer to do it again, etc. It's the complexity that's expensive. With single-chip systems, a guy could wire it up by hand in his basement. --TotoBaggins 16:19, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

I'm still sceptical that a pocket computer couldnt be produced as cheaply as a transistor radio, especially when you consider things like a computer on a chip. 80.0.105.59 19:02, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

The One Laptop Per Child people made an enormous effort to put their machine out at US$100 each, and didn't manage. You really have to define what a "pocket computer" is (e.g., a $1 calculator certainly qualifies under some definitions), and go from there. --TotoBaggins 19:26, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

I think a pocket computer could have an LCD screen, flash memory, a USB socket, and a minature keyboard. You can buy for a few pounds cheap 'personal organisers' that record appointments and adresses and have most or all of these features, so it shouldnt be a difficult job to upgrade this to a programmable computer of some kind. I believe you can buy things like what I've described already, I just dont see why they need to be so expensive. 80.2.202.130 20:32, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

Any MP3 player you buy is a computer. They are available for US$5 around here quite often. The key to the costs right now are really the I/O devices- especially the screen- and the human costs (you want a general purpose one instead of an MP3 player- imaging the tech support calls you'd get!) --206.79.158.100 22:47, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

This does not seem to be a problem woth mobile phones / cell phones. I would expect to have a built-in operating system rather than one you can change, perhaps a built-in programming language too. Something like one of the early personal computers such as the Commodore 64 with a lot more memory would be fine. 80.0.133.53 09:08, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, but cell phones are not free either — the components all cost money, the tech support costs money, all of it costs money. The only reason you often get them for free is because you lock into plans with the companies. I think you don't seem to have a very good grasp as to how economies work. You can't just wave away the start-up costs, the capital investments, the R&D, the labor force, etc. etc. etc. These things all factor into the cost of the final product and are why something as tiny as a CPU chip can cost hundreds of dollars. --24.147.86.187 15:08, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

I do understand how economies work, thanks, and I've got the degrees to prove it! You could have the same arguements regarding transistor radios, yet you can buy those for £1. 80.2.201.9 09:26, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

Google search for webservers on a chip. Like [this]. As far as I know these are pretty small, cheap and rather programmable. You can also check Wireless Sensor Networks but these are not yet released to market so they are still expensive. racergr 18:52, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

Bandwidth of wikipedia

I am trying to provide my employer with examples of the bandwidth used by large web sites in an attempt to prove to him that our server requirements are fairly minimal no matter how large of a site he intends to build or even how many users we anticipate. I was able to find that the total database of wikipedia is 1.2 TB and that there are 120 servers. Does anybody have even an estimate of the bandwidth usage of a site like wikipedia?

Thanks 96.224.27.39 15:17, 20 July 2007 (UTC) AP

Wikipedia:Statistics has some graphs that may be useful. The traffic graphs under "Automatically updated statistics" show how many bits are served by all Wikimedia clusters (it's around 1-2 Gbits per second, which equates to between 7.5 and 15 gigabytes per minute). — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 15:36, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

Woah! 15 gigabytes a minute! Good thing there are so many servers... -Mary

Assume 100 million people use Wikipedia regularly, and that they visit on average 10 pages per day and that such a page is on average 1 MB in size (just one full-size photograph would cause that). That would be 1 petabyte per day. With about 1000 minutes in a day that would be about 1 TB per minute. A bit of an overestimate. I suppose there are not that many regular users ... yet. Plenty room for growth. DirkvdM 09:47, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

To the original question - are you sure Wikipedia is a good example? It's one of the busiest sites in existence. Might even be bigger than Google in this respect since Google doesn't usually deliver content (only when cached pages are viewed). DirkvdM 09:47, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Google's (and Yahoo's) descriptions of Wikipedia pages

If I search for, e.g., "France" on Google or Yahoo, I get a description of the article, instead of a snippet of the article which is what used to show (I believe). The descriptions are not always the same: to wit Google: "Hyperlinked encyclopedia article covers the country's history, government and politics, geography, economy, demographics, language and culture." Yahoo: "Entry covering the western European country of France. Shows its flag, its coat of arms, demographic information, and information on its government and military."

Where are these descriptions coming from? If I look at the wiki text I don't see this stuff written. Are admins writing this? And if I veiw the webpage's source, I see a bunch of keywords (e.g. "France,Basse-Normandie" -- where did those come from?), but I don't see this description. How does Google know what to put in?

Thanks! --Mary

I think they come from the Google Directory. Splintercellguy 19:20, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

Probably Metadata in the HTML code, or Google/Yahoo have people write the definitions for the highest ranking webpages for popular searches, to give the impression of more accurate results --L^augh! 20:20, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

It seems to be doing for country pages only. --soum ^talk 15:13, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

Linux and Razr

I recently purchased a new phone, and I'd like to expirement with Linux on my old razr. I understand it won't make calls anymore, but that's not important. And help is greatly appreciated :)

If there's isn't a project to run Razr on linux, you'd have to basically do it yourself from scratch. You could try using iPod linux as a base, but I doubt you'd get anywhere from it. in other news, according to google, the company that makes the RAZR is planning on making a smartphone version that uses linux --L^augh! 20:24, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

I heard about that, but i just bought a new phone. How would i go about putting the ipod linux on my razr? They use the same type of processor right?

As far as I know, not only there is no Linux for the Razr, but also the bootloader (which probably is in a builtin ROM) only accepts signed binaries (IIRC, I saw this info on some site which had the layout of the Razr flash files, a long time ago). This was probably done because AFAIK the operating system runs on the same CPU which runs the GSM stack, and they do not want you messing with it. The phones the OpenEZX people run Linux on have two processors, the one which runs the GSM stack (which AFAIK is the same as the RAZR's only processor!), and a common ARM CPU which runs the operating system. --cesarb 01:17, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

Java Complex Matrix Class

Hi all:

I'm looking for a Java Class that handles Complex Matrices. Mainly, I need eigenvalues and eigenvectors, basic operations like multiplication, etc. I found a class for real matrices here, but it's not enough, sadly. Anybody know where I can find one? Hopefully from a realiable source. Thanks! --Waldsen 21:15, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

Subclass and extend your own. If you know the concepts, you may be able to implement them.

July 21

TRR 2: Electric Boogaloo!

I previously asked a question about replacing all of my RAM, but now it seems there's another issue. I think Crucial might have screwed up my order. You see, my laptop is a Toshiba Satellite model A105-S4021. My order for two 1-GB RAM sticks has arrived, but the receipt paper gives the description as follows:

Upgrade for a Toshiba Satellite A105-S4342 System 1GB 200 PIN SODIMM 128MX64 DDR2 PC2-5300

I'm pretty sure that I selected "S4021" when purchasing the upgrade, but the paper says "S4342." Do you think the RAM will still work? What would happen if I took out my existing RAM and replaced it with the new RAM, only to have the new RAM not work? I'm hoping that I haven't just lost $100.--The Ninth Bright Shiner 01:02, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

A lot of laptop models just have a base type and variation doesn't matter, for example, my HP DV13-something is still in the DV-1000 series. I suspect it's fine for that reason (A105), the fact that most laptops use SODIMM, and that if you bought your laptop in the last few years it uses DDR2. The worst that could happen is that the speed is off and your motherboard doesn't support 5300 and beeps at you, in which case you send it back. I give it a 95% probability it'll work fine, though. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 03:04, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

Weeell, if you say so. Here goes!--The Ninth Bright Shiner 03:24, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

Awww. I can't find anything to unscrew the memory cover. I've tried all of the knives in the kitchen, along with some other miscellany, to no avail...what? Like I'm expected to actually have a No. 1 Phillips screwdriver? Anyways, anybody have a suggestion as to how I can get the cover off?--The Ninth Bright Shiner 04:34, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

Your laptop should come with instructions on how to get to the internals. If it doesn't check the site for manuals. And you're doing computer work without a screwdriver!?!? -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 04:58, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

Well I have like three identical booklets detailing what I have to do, but I realized that I don't have a No. 1 Phillips screwdriver! But I have a No. 2...oh, the irony. I thought I could use some big knife! Their edges are usually just the right size to unscrew tiny Phillips screws. Sigh...to the garage! Maybe I could find something there...--The Ninth Bright Shiner 18:52, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

Yesss! Go me! Go me! It's my birthday! I found a screwdriver in the mysterious "tewl-bocks," pried the cover open, and quadrupled my RAM. It's like defusing a bomb, one mistake and you could lose it all. Thanks for all the help, Wooty! But one more thing: what should I do with the old 512MB module? eBay, perhaps?--The Ninth Bright Shiner 19:34, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

Since it's DDR2 and 512MB, someone'll probably buy it at a high price. eBay is probably your best bet. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 21:21, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

Yay! But how am I going to ship it? It's obviously sensitive, and the only static-free bags I have are the ripped ones the new modules came in. Right now the old module's just sitting uselessly on the desk. Know I'm asking a lot of questions...--The Ninth Bright Shiner 02:15, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

RAM usually isn't too sensitive compared to, say, the CPU as far as static goes. I'd put it in the ripped static bag and tape around the rips and the memory inside with duct or electrical tape. Really, though, don't be too concerned, most of the memory I've bought actually comes in plastic cases. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 05:57, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Alrighty then! Thanks for everything!--The Ninth Bright Shiner 02:28, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

Just in case you don't know, be sure to ship it in a rigid box, not in an envelope. StuRat 03:50, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

Faking a real Bsod

Contrary to what you may believe, I intend this for something other than pulling a prank.

I'm using XP. I need to figure out a way to make a Bsod occur. As in, I can schedule when exactly it will happen. I would like to emulate a Bsod what would occur if they're was trouble reading drive C: (the main drive on my computer). Also perhaps things to do with Hard Disk errors, and the worst possible Bsod ever (can't really think of the worst kind of error). The only way to make it go away would be to press and hold a certain key combination (like Shift + Tab + Enter + Alt, then it would go back to the desktop). Is this possible?

Cheers. --4.227.2.16 05:16, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

I think SysInternals has a BSoD screensaver. Splintercellguy 10:16, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

Here — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 11:32, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

2000 and XP contain a registry key that you can create that will allow you to force the system to crash. I don't know if this is what you want... It's called "CrashOnCtrlScroll", so Google should explain the rest, I don't remember it that well. 68.39.174.238 15:12, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

Why NAND and NOR and not AND, OR and NOT?

This always seemed like some implicitly accepted reality in college, that while building simple PCBs and such we had to deal with NAND, NOR and NOT logic gates. Why not AND, OR and NOT? Would there be some technical reason why, in addition to NOT, the chips we were given were NAND and NOR and not AND and OR? --156.34.212.150 05:39, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

The articles on NOR gate and NAND gate hint at some of the reasons: NAND and NOR are functionally complete (you can produce any logical function from them), easy and compact to implement at the transistor level (two transistors in a typical NAND gate vs three in an AND gate), and with a little bit of thinking and design cleverness require relatively few gates to produce desired functionality. Weregerbil 09:16, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

Mame

How do you run mame and play a games on it? I tried using command prompt and my documents and settings keeps on popping up on command prompt. --124.183.189.64 06:46, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

You can navigate in command prompt using the "cd" command: "cd C:\Program Files\MAME", or wherever. David Mestel^(Talk) 07:55, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

You're better off using the Windows version: MAME32. (Get the one marked MAME32b.) It lets you run games from a menu instead of a command prompt. --jh51681 21:26, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

Fonts in firefox

I would like to use Firefox, but lettering looks worse with it compared to viewing the same page with IE. I searched for the answer to this, and found many related complaints, but not a clear, quick solution for a non-IT person like myself. (my OS is Win xp and firefox v2.0.0.2) ike9898 15:14, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

What do you mean by worse lettering? Can you maybe provide us with a side by side comparison screenshot of what it looks like in IE and Firefox? --antilived^{T | C | G} 21:33, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

Diagonals in letters and italic fonts look 'pixelated' or jagged, rather than smooth. It isn't awful, it just looks sort of low-budget. ike9898 22:16, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

Turn on ClearType. Right-click on your desktop and select Properties. Click the Appearance tab then the Effects... button. Make sure the second checkbox is ticked and select ClearType in the dropdown underneath. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 22:40, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

The fonts should be the same on FF as on IE. It's on the new Safari browser you want to watch out for: they import the font types from the Apple. The Evil Spartan 22:42, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

IE7 uses ClearType by default even if it's not set in the control panel, so Firefox/IE text rendering isn't necessarily the same — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 22:45, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

You are right,problem solved! Thanks, ike9898 03:08, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Windows Media Player 10 - 1 song, 2 albums

Let's say we have one very popular song, this song is on a bunch of different albums, is there any way in WMP10 to make that one song appear on all those albums without having to copy the song a few times. --de_matthew 17:19, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

AIM screen name problems

For over a year now I've been using a clone of AIM called AIM Ad Hack without any problems, but just last month I've been getting this message within a minute or two after logging in:

AOL Instant Messenger: You have been disconnected from the AOL Instant Message Service (SM) for accessing the AOL network using unauthorized software. You can download a FREE, fully featured, and authorized client, here
< http://www.aol.com/aim/download2.html >.

So I went ahead and uninstalled AIM Ad Hack, installed the standard AIM, and logged in. After a minute it kicked me off again with the same message! It does this with both the stable and beta versions of AIM 6.1, AIM 5.9, AIM Express, and with Trillian too. Is my screen name flagged now or something?

I've posted about this at two of the AOL boards (here and here) but I haven't gotten a solution yet.

Has anyone heard of this happening before? My computer lets me use other screen names but something is wrong with my jh51681 name. I've checked my AIM.com email but never received a message saying the name is banned. I've scanned for viruses using Norton and AVG with the latest definitions but nothing came up. I've had a friend try connecting with the name and he got disconnected too.

AIM.com has a "Report a Problem" page but it requires you to acknowledge that you won't get a reply. I need to contact AOL directly but I'm not a member anymore so apparently I don't have access to the live support section. The FAQ and support pages don't help either. Any ideas?

--jh51681 22:40, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

Can you still talk to people even after receiving the message?

No, within seconds of receiving it I get disconnected. --jh51681 03:59, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Is there an alternate server I can use to connect, other than login.oscar.aol.com or toc.oscar.aol.com? --jh51681 08:29, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Try using AIM Express and see if you get disconnected from there. If so, it's definitely their end. 68.39.174.238 18:28, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

To quote myself: "It does this with both the stable and beta versions of AIM 6.1, AIM 5.9, AIM Express, and with Trillian too" and Meebo and Pidgin. --jh51681 19:23, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

July 22

Excel copy and paste

Hi all:

I have a text file with value, formatted like the following:

0.0, 0.0, 0.0,

6.6, 0.0, 0.0,

1.9, 2.2, 0.0,

3.3, 6.9, 0.0,

I would like to do a simple dispersion graph on excel. I copied and pasted the whole thing onto excel. It recognized the line breaks as new rows, but it doesn't recognize the commas as new columns. Does anyone know how I can format text so excel puts one value per box? Thanks! --Waldsen 02:56, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Use the Tab key instead of a comma. --jh51681 03:54, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

If your file is long, you can copy a tab, use Edit → Replace (or something similar) and then paste it into the Replace box to replace your commas, instead of replacing them manually. --jh51681 04:01, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Copy and paste it into Excel. Select the column of data. Then go to Data -> Text to Columns. Select "Delimited", click Next. Select "Comma", click Finish. Ta-da. --24.147.86.187 04:05, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Or just save the file as CSV? Excel should prompt for the correct formatting and voila.

Instead of copy-paste try openning the file from excel (using File -> Open menu). It will then ask you to provide information on how the content on the file is organised. --racergr 21:01, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Halo Aimbot

Hello,

Does anyone know of where to get a working aimbot for Halo 1 (Combat Evolved)? I've got this one: http://www.haloaimbot.zoomshare.com/ but it only comes with the exe and not the info and it doesn't work at all. Perhaps I'm not running it correctly or something... --124.181.248.216 05:36, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

I have no idea, but if you're using one online, I would strongly advise against doing that. Splintercellguy 07:42, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Nah just using on a school network were pretty much everyone has one... --124.181.248.216 08:33, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Did you read the "Help" section of that page? It explains how to use it. --24.147.86.187 20:21, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Making a fake Bsod (continued)

Many thanks for the Control + Scroll Lock (x2) command. I did it and it worked, but I found it to not be that scary and rather unrealistic ("dump generated by end-user", "0000000x00", and so forth). I'm looking for something that makes a Bsod that's a lot more realistic and scary. I'm not really sure what exactly is the worst kind of XP error, but I would like some kind of SOD that has something to do with a chipset, memory, or hard disk error. Once again, this is for educational purposes, and I am using XP. --4.226.138.198 06:41, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Preferably DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE, UNEXPECTED_KERNEL_MODE_TRAP, UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME errors. But still some more ones though. --4.226.138.198 07:00, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

KERNEL_INPAGE_ERROR is pretty good.

The BSoD screensaver didn't work out for you? Splintercellguy 07:41, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Mounting partitions after the system has started

I have had some problems with Suse (10.2) not starting due to problems in fstab, for example when there is some problem with the filesystem on a partition, but also when I have simply installed a different hard disk. To avoid this, I am thinking about deleting these entries in fstab and writing a script that I can run after the system has started. But now I wonder why this is not the standard way of doing this. Or is there such an alternative, so I won't have to go through the trouble of writing it? Or is there a good reason it is not done this way and am I asking for trouble if I write such a script? DirkvdM 09:29, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

You can have disks in fstab that are not mounted automatically on boot. You can then mount them later, individually. And if you wanted to always mount two or three, with the same names, you could encapsulate the two or three mount commands in a little script, that would neither be hard to write, nor asking for trouble, nor inappropriate.

Some Linux distros have reasonably-functional "automount" schemes which automatically mount removeable media (CD-ROMS, USB thumb drives, etc.) as they are detected.

—Steve Summit (talk) 12:52, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Ok, I'll give that a go then. As I understand it, such a script would simply be a text file with #!/bin/bash at the top then a list of all the possible commands, one for each possible mount (turned on and off with a # in front), right?

I want to mount the partitions read/write for me (user 'dirk'). So the ownership should be for 'dirk' (of group 'users'), and permissions should be rwxrwxr-x (I don't really care about the last three because I am the only user). And all that for the entire tree under it (or is that automatic?). Also, does this differ for different file systems? I use reiser, ext3 and (v)fat (I've got about 30 partitions on 5 different drives). These are just some things I picked up while looking around on the internet. Do I have the complete story now, or is there more to it? I could also try for auto-detect of partitions and auto-run after boot, but only if that is simple enough for an absolute beginner. DirkvdM 13:32, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Oh, and does it matter if I run this script as root or simply as 'dirk' (the latter being simpler and thus preferable). DirkvdM 13:46, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

For that last question, I would expect that you would need root access, which either means using "root" directly or another account with root access. StuRat 03:38, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

Another problem...

Well, the thing with the Sound Recorder worked, but now, it's back to no recording again. I followed the steps to look up the Recording Control, but there is nothing listed mute, nor is it turned down. What should I do? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sirdrink13309622 (talk • contribs)

Help me transfer my Outlook Address Book to my new computer

I have bought a new computer and want to transfer or migrate my old outlook 2000 address book to my new computer, without having to input and re-type each entry...is there any way to do this? I can load the old version of outlook, but I wanted to use outlook 2007 now...can this be done? or must I type everything again? Thanks. replies to: <email address removed to protect editor from spam> Walker33333 10:53, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Check in Outlook or Windows help for "Export address book" or a similar phrase. 68.39.174.238 18:29, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

bit torrent files from www.piratebay.com

i want to download an ebook from pirate bay but all the files are in a weird format which my acrobat reader cant read ,i have a win 98se is there any program which can read this format what are seekers and leachers --Angelofwrath 15:48, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Have you looked at our Bittorrent article, which explains how the whole business works, and lists software you can use. I suspect you may have been downloading the "torrent" file and trying to use it as the final PDF file - but a torrent is just a description of a downloadable file (or files). You'd typically feed that into a BitTorrent Client program, which would actually download the file(s) you want. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 15:56, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Another possibility is that you have correctly downloaded the eBook file, but it is not in the PDF format that Adobe Acrobat Reader uses. It may be in a different format (see Comparison of e-book formats). You'll usually be able to tell the file format by looking at the file extention at the end of the file name, such as .pdf. Good luck. TreeKittens 23:42, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

System full (Suse 10.2)

Sometimes when I copy large amounts of data, I get a message that the system is full or there is no more hd space and the copy is aborted. But that refers to the root ( / ) and the copies are between partitions that I have mounted not on /home but on another directory ( /z/ so it's conveniently at the bottom in Konqueror). But when I copy data, that amount of data is also 'taken from' the system, which is on a partition that is 'only' 10GB in size. Of that, about half is taken up by the system itself. So I can only copy a few GB and then the 'system' is 'full'.
Another funny thing is that after a reboot with all the mount points in fstab 'commented out', the partition I have copied to is mounted. Which shouldn't happen afaik. How can a partition be automatically mounted other than through fstab? None of the other partitions are mounted. I have only just formatted this partition (as ext3 - it was fat). I'm not aware that I have given it a different treatment than other partitions during the formatting. What might cause these two things and are they related? DirkvdM 18:04, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

I don't understand your first problem. You have two devices (are they indeed separate partitions/devices?) mounted under /z (say /z/disk1 and /z/disk2). Copying from /z/disk1 to /z/disk2 between them fails complaining about disk space. Is there indeed enough free space on /z/disk2? How much can you copy, relative to the size of the partition? Don't forget that there is a chunk of space that is reserved for the root user, so while there may be physically some space remaining, the reduced amount may be all that you can use as a nonprivileged user.

Re the second problem, there are such things as automounters. fstab is not a list of filesystems to automatically mount, but a list of static information about filesystems, such as what filesystems to mount on boot, storing regularly-used mountpoints, that sort of thing.

Video Editing Program?

I was once told by a person that theres actually a really good free video editing program for windows that allows you to add in audio clips either on their own or mixed in with the already existing audio track and then export it back in its normal format....

Is there actually such a thing thats free?

Edit: I should mention that im using Windows 2kPro, so giving me names of brilliant apple applications wont help much! ;)

172.164.158.139 21:48, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Windows Movie Maker?

while im at it....

I was aloso looking for a good program to CAPTURE video on scrreen. i looked all over and found something like 'Windows Media Player Codec Series 9' or whatever it was called o.0..... nice program but it cant even capture all the colors, i need something that captures in high color, or preferably true color (32 bit) any ideas?

172.164.158.139 21:53, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

If the video is in a DirectX app, then Fraps is good. Splintercellguy 22:01, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Im actually not sure how to distinguish directx applications, even though i kinda know what directx is. im mainly looking to capture a video thats on a webpage. :)

172.164.158.139 22:39, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

If the video on the web page is Flash, then I suppose one of the many FLV downloader sites or manually downloading it using Firefox and View Page Info -> Media -> Save As... could do. Splintercellguy 02:41, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

ill be quite specific. Im after the nelson mandela clips at http://www.cbs.com/cbs_cares/ :) ... the format is.... actually it seems to use a flash loader and the video itself is in i dont know what.... one of those things where it seems to use your currently existing program? o.0 well take a look if you dont mind? if you think i can actually pull the vid from the firefox plugin ill go download it. :) but atm i don even have firefox.... and my intuition tells me that this might not be flv.

Thanks for your help so far though! 172.164.158.139 04:10, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

Cancel the Bugzilla account

Can I cancel my Bugzilla account at bugzilla.wikimedia.org? It's giving me troubles. Can I do it? Jet (talk) 22:19, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

July 23

Chapter Splitting in Handbrake.

I ripped the ISO file from a DVD with DVD Decrypter. I would like to encode it to mpeg-4(using the Windows version of Handbrake). I want to would like to have each chapter split to a new video, but I don't know how. Any help is appreciated. Thannks. QWERTY | Dvorak 00:38, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

You could rip it into one file, then use Windows Movie maker to take it apart?

I don't think wmm can work with mp4. I fiddled with the settings and figured it out. QWERTY | Dvorak 04:31, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

SD cards and whatnot

I wasn't sure when I read the article, so I just wanted to confirm a couple of things...now, is SDHC only compatible with the products listed there? Is any old SD card compatible with the Wii? And what's the highest-capacity regular SD card (that is, not SDHC) being manufactured? Thanks.--The Ninth Bright Shiner 02:37, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

(q1)There could be other compatible products. GB 04:49, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

(q2)Looking at the Nintendo information, old SD cards are compatible with Wii, but newer bigger cards may not be. They say that cards 2 GB or less could work, as long as they are not too slow[4]. GB 04:43, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

(q3)2 GB or 2,147,483,648 bytes (its 2.147 GB!). There are bigger 4GB SD cards that are not SDHC, but they are not regular or standard. They will not work with the Wii. GB 04:49, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

I wish manufacturers of storage would begin differentiating between gigabytes and gibibytes (and all other similar prefixes). It's a horrible historical hangover that is becoming more of an issue with the vaster storage capacities we have nowadays. Capuchin 08:39, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

Perl Code

With the replace command in perl s/what is find/what to replace it with/; how do you tell perl that the forward slash is meant to be there (eg. s/Bob/Larry/Bob or Larry/; ). --Chris ^g 05:28, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

s/Bob\/Larry/Bob or Larry/, or s#Bob/Larry#Bob or Larry#.

Thanks I'll use s/Bob\/Larry/Bob or Larry/ becouse in my IDE s#Bob/Larry#Bob or Larry# would come out as a comment. --Chris ^g 06:50, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

Hi Chris G, you can use any characters you want. For example:

   s^find this^replace with this^;
   s@find this@replace with this@;
   s{find this}{replace with this};

all of these will work as you'd expect. For more details, go see Delimiter#Regular_expression_syntax. HTH. dr.ef.tymac 07:52, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

Please do see Leaning toothpick syndrome. As explained above, if your expressins include a lot of literal "/" characters, an alternate delimiter character can be much more readable.

Atlant 12:31, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

Mame play

How do you play roms on Mame?--124.184.126.8 09:16, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

有没有华文的 LexisNexis?

--59.189.64.229 12:07, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

http://research.lexisnexis.com.cn/ — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 14:22, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

List of OS' while booting How do I change this?

When turning on my computer, I've got a choice of two operative systems to choose from before loading up windows. I had to reinstall Windows Vista after having a problem, and it looks like the old one is still in the menu. So when I turn on my PC, I've got an option to load into "Microsoft Windows Vista" and "Microsoft Windows Vista"... and the second "Vista" doesn't work and just hangs the computer. How do I go about removing this second "Vista"? It auto-chooses the first one after 30 seconds, but honestly it's really annoying. I had this problem on a windows XP system, but I don't know my way around Vista and was hoping I could get some help. Thanks, --GTPoompt(talk) 12:10, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

Start > Run, "msconfig". Boot > select old version, "Delete" and then restart. XP et al. had a text file you could edit for this (\boot.ini), but Vista's is this miniregistry you have to use BCD or msconfig for. 68.39.174.238 13:12, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

having trouble with microsoft window popping up.

On my computer everything works fine except that the microsoft window keeps popping up saying that Windows Explorer has stopped working, then another box says Windows Explorer is restarting, so it acts like it is and the desktop and the start window goes away for about 5 seconds then comes back and the cycle repeats itself. Do you know what has caused it and why it keeps happening? It just started and I scanned for viruses and it says I have none. I did spy sweeper and it found a Trojan Horse, I guess that was a virus and quarantined it. Do you think this is happening because of that? Please Help.

Recycle Bin

The 'Recycle Bin' on my PC is unable to store any deleted files/folders ... It's always empty ! What might be the problem ? How to fix it ? (OS : WXP) Thanking you in anticipation --Pupunwiki 15:18, 23 July 2007 (UTC)