Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing

July 26

Websites and money

How do you make money by running a website? Heegoop, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

Offer something from your website that people are willing to pay for, or at least accept annoyance of advertising. -- Kainaw^(what?) 02:25, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

If your site does not sell anything and is popular enough then Ads are a good way to bring in money. I've tried google ads and they work nicely, it is your choice what the ads look like (text/image/size). There is many other Ad websites to use. Also you could try dealing with a adveriser directly or partner with another money making site.--64.40.88.131 15:03, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

In general if you want to make money at anything you have to have a business model. What are you "selling"? Why would people visit your site? Think about that for awhile and then try to figure out where you'd be making money. Note that overloading a site with advertisements is a sure-fire way to get people not to come back, unless the content is pretty wonderful to begin with. --140.247.238.102 15:15, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

Mainly, by advertising. Selling advertising is an art in itself. Gzuckier 19:14, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

Proprietary software vs free software

Have we seen any case where a proprietary software company stole code from free software? If yes, how they proved it (cause we can't see the source code of proprietary software)? roscoe_x 06:13, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

Proprietary software companies use free software all the time. You need to define stealing code. There is indeed a problem where companies use free software and do not comply with the license. Most companies do comply with the licensing, but some unscrupulous companies haven't (such as in the PearPC case), or some companies aren't aware of their legal obligations.

Indications that free software has been used contrary to the license requirements involve searching the binaries that the company provides (and are necessary to actually run the program) for strings that describe symbols or particular names of functions that are common to both projects. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 149.135.42.160 (talk • contribs)

If by "stealing" you mean copyright violation (which is actually a different kind of act), there have been several cases, ranging from the CherryOS mentioned above to the Sony rootkit. --cesarb 12:16, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

It's not really stealing code, nor is it FLOSS, but the example sound files in Windows XP have metadata that shows they were made with an illegal version of some Sony product --L^augh! 12:22, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

The GPL Violations project tracks this issue. -Arch dude 02:13, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

Yes, but not all free or open (depending on how the OP uses the word) software is GPL, and hence would not always result in a GPL violation.

Yes but GPL is one of the licenses most frequently violated. For many other popular license such as the BSD one, the vendor would have to be particularly stupid to violate it and even if they do, it's easily rectified Nil Einne 00:00, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

For example, the oft-told tale of Microsoft's use of a BSD variant of the ipstack. 165.234.180.57 16:11, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

Date format in MS Excel

The date format of my system is mm/dd/yy.

I have some data in MS excel in which one of the column has the date in the format dd/mm/yy. I need to convert this to mm/dd/yy format. Is there any way so that I can do this without changing the system date format; like some formula/function in MS Excel itself?

Select the column, Choose "Format Cells", then either select Category "Date" and the "mm/dd/yy" sub-option (if it exists) or select custom and type "mm/dd/yy" into the sub-option box. (Please note that mm/dd/yy is a stupid date format as it doesn't strictly increase or decrease in unit size, dd/mm/yy or yy/mm/dd are much better choices. -- 08:13, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

Note that this assumes you had an actual date format column. If it's just a text column where someone has entered dates, you will need to do something different to fix them. StuRat 14:30, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

If the latter, just create a new column which is the formula: "=MID(A1,4,3) & LEFT(A1,2) & RIGHT(A1,3)" Note that this assumes that you are using exactly mm/dd/yy format (two digits each!). --140.247.238.102 15:12, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

If you just want to format via another column a simpler way would be to do =text(CELL,"MM/DD/YYYY") and it will format it appropriately. So to show A1 it would =text(A1,"MM/DD/YYYY") ny156uk 19:41, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

IP Address v6

How does one use V6, rather then v4?--Honeymane_{Heghlu meH QaQ jajvam} 10:49, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

It is just an addressing scheme. Instead of using the IPv4 address, use the IPv6 address. However, I don't know many people who use either one. They use a hostname that maps to either an IPv4 or an IPv6 address (or usually both). -- Kainaw^(what?) 12:52, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

OK then - Is IP6 up and running now? Is there an example of a guest wikipedia edit by someone with an IP6 address? -- SGBailey 13:58, 26 July 2007 cv(UTC)

Yes, it is up and running. For example, my computer has two addresses:

• 128.23.114.39
• fe80::208:74ff:fe37:7f4f

Of course, if I were to edit Wikipedia without logging it, it would show my address as 128.23.114.39. I've heard, but haven't verified, that strict use of IPv6 (without IPv4 running in tandem) has only been widely accepted in China. -- Kainaw^(what?) 14:04, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

It's not just an addressing scheme, there's more to it than that - the protocol is a bit different. The ipv6 article has more information. You can probably make your computer talk ipv6, but it's unlikely that your broadband router (if you have one) supports it unless you've done some shenanigans, and there are almost no ISPs that I'm aware of that offer it. If you want to use ipv6 you'll probably need to set up tunnelling of one sort or another - the article has more info. --HughCharlesParker (talk - contribs) 14:47, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

Actually, IPv6 addresses beginning with fe80: are link-local addresses; if you only have these, you aren't really using IPv6 (you can use link-local addresses only to talk with other machines in the same link-layer network). If you want to use IPv6, just set up either 6to4 or teredo (teredo in particular is very simple to setup). As on editing with IPv6 on Wikipedia, IIRC only the "test" wikipedia has IPv6 enabled. One major obstacle would be that squid does not work well with IPv6 yet. --cesarb 18:46, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

If you use Windows XP, Open Run from the start menu and type "cmd". This will open a command prompt. Type "ipv6 install". This will turn on ipv6 for your computer. You wont notice a thing (except when you try to see you IP address, then it will show in a different format). That's pretty much all you can do to help further the cause of ipv6 adoption. --Oskar 15:42, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

Video formats

Hello,

I use my pc to record tv programs and films and then use the VideoReDo software to remove the advert breaks to reduce the file sizes. The default setting then saves them as MPEG files but i get a choice of many different file types. Iwas wondering what the best file type would be for me to use. I don't especially want super quality just good quality and able to be written to dvd. thanks Scraggy4 12:43, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

For video I'd recommend Xvid, for audio I'd recommend Vorbis or MP3, and for a container format either Ogg or AVI. --HughCharlesParker (talk - contribs) 14:50, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

WMV work well too. ~ Wikihermit 00:16, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

...but isn't WMV defective by design? --HughCharlesParker (talk - contribs) 12:27, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

Do you suppose a Pentium III @ 1 GHz can run any VM?

Is there any virtual machine software for which a Pentium III @ 1 GHz with 256 MB RAM would be sufficient for? Preferably with windows 2000 host operating system. (with linux being the second choice, especially if it's possible to set up from just booting into knoppix).

Thanks!

-84.0.158.245 22:20, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

256 Mb isn't enough to do anything useful while running one copy of windows- it would only get worse when running multiple OS's. Add more RAM and VMWare should work. Friday (talk) 22:40, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

This does not mean that it won't "run" it. It will run prety much anything but very slowly using Virtual memory so make sure you set your virtual memory to something big to accomodate both the host and guest OSes. If you are looking for specific software try vmware. --racergr 04:53, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

July 27

Norton Confidential error

Hello. I installed a 15-day free trial of Norton Confidential last month. I uninstalled it because it was expired. My antivirus software is Norton AntiVirus. The latest version of LiveUpdate shows that I have Norton Confidential installed on my computer. Recently, LiveUpdate found an update called "Web Authentication Feature Update" that is 2721.2 KB in size and is associated with Norton Confidential. Whenever I try to install this update, error LU1825 occurs. I ran the Intelligent Updater; it claimed that my computer is fine. Symantec says that my second option is to uninstall and reinstall Norton AntiVirus, but I do not want to do this because it takes so much time to do so and catch up on my virus definitions. How can I get rid of this and future updates associated with Norton Confidential? The little window at my monitor's bottom-right saying, "Would you like to run LiveUpdate now to download the available updates?" wastes my time when I only have the Web Authentication Feature Update to install. Thanks in advance. --Mayfare 01:17, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

RAM

I'm using a fairly aged computer (bought it in 2001, I think) and I'm looking to buy some new RAM. I'm running 2x 256 MB sticks of PC2100 DDR SDRAM. Does this mean that when I shop for new RAM, I need to make sure it's PC2100 DDR SDRAM? Or can I use PC-5300 DDR2? A Very Noisy Lolcat 03:24, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

The PC standard is backwards compatible so you can use any RAM as long as it says "PC" and a number higher to 2100 next to it. Read DDR_SDRAM for more info. --racergr 04:47, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

Just to make it clear, DDR2 ist not backwards compatible to DDR, as racergr's answer might imply (unintentionally, I assume). --Dapeteばか 08:46, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

That is right and it is because the newer sticks are wrongly marketed as, for example, "DDR2 PC3200" instead of just "PC2-3200" which is the correct standartisation according to DDR2_SDRAM. Have a look on DDR_SDRAM as well it will help you understand what RAM you have. --racergr 02:22, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

Actually for whatever reason I've seen certain DDR PC3200 sticks advertised as not backwards compatible. I'm not particularly sure why, perhaps they simply lack the SPD because the vendor can't be bothered certifiying it. I can't remember the brand but I don't think it was a very good one so I suspect provided you stick with a half-decent brand there should be no problem Nil Einne 23:55, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

Linux and Network Connection Sharing

How can I make my linux box with share its ethernet connection to its wireless connection without a GUI? Im running ubuntu server. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.195.124.101 (talk • contribs) 15:55, 27 July 2007.

ubuntuforums.org has a useful thread. If that doesn't help, the forums are generally good for both quality and speed of responses if you ask a question. Search first, though, most stuff's been asked already. --HughCharlesParker (talk - contribs) 18:59, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

Saving laptop power.

Out of curiosity, what are some ways to save power on a laptop? Will running less demanding programs, or fewer programs, using less CPU cycles, help? Not accessing the hard disc as often? Would, say, running in TTY, without graphics programs running, save a significant amount of power? PowerTOP has some neat ideas, but how much of an actual return is there? And also, slightly more realistic, what's the longest anyone knows of a laptop running off a battery, assuming it's in a very low power usage mode (like the TTY 'digital type writer' scenario I mentioned above), with power saving techniques? And even less discreet than that, under 500$? --L^augh! 08:59, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

In my opinion, the biggest hit your laptop will take is from running CPU-intensive programs. GUI versus terminal probably doesn't matter much (because, after all, even the terminal window is just a collection of graphical stuff to Windows or Mac OS X), but if the program is contantly busying-up the CPU, that will consume a lot of power. The next biggest hit is the LCD backlight; run the screen as dim as you can stand. Spinning down the hard disk drive is probably a lost cause in modern operating systems because something or other will want the disk soon enough and spin it back up again, but you can try it; this used to be a very effective technique on my old PowerBook 170. Naturally you're not running the CD-ROM/DVD drive, right? And you're not busy listening to music via iTunes or some other CPU-intensive player. And you've turned off the wireless network, wireless mice, etc.

With regard to "how long", my old PowerBook 170 used to get up to four hours if I really worked at it. I think our Sony VAIO with the third-party "big" battery will also achieve that (assuming Windows/98SE lives that long). My modern PowerBook G4 is probably more like 3 hours (which is pretty funny because its battery stores far more energy than the old battery did), but I'm also more spendthrift with its power than I used to be with the PB170.

Other folks may have other ideas, of course.

Atlant 12:18, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

I'm talking about running in TTY mode, which is just the terminal screen, without running any of the window manager elements or anything except the bare minimum, which is whatever is in the terminal and whatever starts on boot. I figure terminal programs should be simple enough they don't take much power, right? And a TTY could look pretty good even when dim --L^augh! 19:54, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

Huh? There is running X and there is not running X, and there is a big difference between the two. Any usual 2D graphics stuff that you run with X will consume roughly the same amount of power as anything else you would run with X running.

Screen brightness plays a big part too. I've got a Lenovo Thinkpad (used to be made by IBM), and I can get around 5 and 1/2 hours with the brightness turned down while using wireless according to the windows battery meter.--GTPoompt(talk) 19:14, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

Yeah - on my Thinkpad, the battery life changes drastically between full brightness and minimum brightness, but CPU power/fan speed/etc. doesn't seem to affect it very much (i.e. I can still get 2-3 hours of battery life, close to maximum, on minimum brightness but full CPU and fan power). ugen64 05:16, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Outlook Express

Can someone please tell me how to leave an automated 'Out of office' message using Outlook Express? It seems unbelievable that there is no way to do this, and yet I have clicked on every menu without finding what I need, and nor can I find the topic mentioned in the system's Help menu. Someone advised me to go to 'Tools' and use the 'Office assistant' tab, but my version of Express does not seem to have such an option under Tools. Have I just got a poor version of Express, or what?

Thanks for any help. Maid Marion 09:18, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

You don't mention what version you have, but this may help — Matt Eason ^{(Talk • Contribs)} 09:27, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for prompt and helpful response. Maid Marion 09:56, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

English-like programming languages

1. What programming languages are there that look english-like? I am already aware of Inform 7, AppleScript, and perhaps COBOL too. I'd like to use one - but I cannot as far as I know use AppleScript as I have Windows Me.

2. Would it be easy to write a preprocessor that converted an english-like syntax into a computer language like Python for example? My thinking is that this would make the language much easier for beginners. After gaining confidence with the english-like version, they could gradually change over to Python itself. Thanks. 80.2.213.139 12:33, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

The problem is that most programming languages ARE English-like. How English do you want them to be? Do you want to parse:

• Draw me a window, please.
• I want a window.
• Open window here.
• This is where the window needs to appear.

English is such a vague language that you can't use it directly for precise programming. You must have exact syntax. Once you apply an exact syntax, someone will come along and complain that your choice of exact syntax is confusing and ask for a plain English version of your language. -- Kainaw^(what?) 13:00, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

Surely you cannot be serious! This http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Python_add5_syntax.svg is hardly english, is it?. Applescript and Inform 7 on the other hand are more like english. What I'm asking is if the same thing can be done for other languages by pre-processing. Or would that be frowned on because making some of them easier to use would mean programmers would get paid less. Anyway, I'd be very grateful if someone would like to answer the two questions. Thanks 80.0.128.223 18:13, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

There is a purposeful balance in programming languages between English and conciseness. Personally, I do not want to type "for every variable I will call X in the array of values named A, please do the following..." when I can type "for X in A do". If you read the code, you will see that it is in English. It is just shortened because nobody wants to pay programmers to spend all day typing all the extra English that is not necessary. In other words, making the language verbose will increase the cost of programming, not lower it. -- Kainaw^(what?) 18:22, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

It's not as simple as the amount of typing. Programmers frown on English-like syntax because it makes programs harder to understand. A more familiar example to most people is mathematical notation. The mathematicians of a few centuries ago wrote out almost everything in longhand. The introduction of concise notation (however badly designed) was a big step forward in readability, because it allows you to perceive the structure of a formula at a glance. I think a lot of progress in mathematics has been driven by improvements in notation. It's the same for programming languages. Most languages could stand to have better syntax, but the ideal syntax wouldn't be English-like, it would be symbolic with improved visual Gestalt to mark program structure. Yes, it's something new to learn, but it pays off in overall productivity. -- BenRG 14:55, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

I note your views, but please could anyone answer the questions? Thanks. 80.0.128.223 18:36, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

I did. I asked "How English do you want it to be?" and I noted why a preprocessor would be very difficult due to the vagueness of the English language. -- Kainaw^(what?) 18:44, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

I don't have a good answer for the first question as I don't know that many programming languages. As for the second question, that is, in essence, what programming is. When people write functions they are writing what you call preprocessors for simple tasks. Writing a preprocessor that understood through english what people want their computer to do would be a nearly impossible task. If you succeed you could easily market something like that and make billions. On the other hand, if you want to help learning, you could start with something like Scratch (programming language). -Weston.pace 19:00, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

It would not be difficult to add more words to preprocessors. In Kainaw's example, you could preprocess for every variable named into just for. I don't why he implies it is all that difficult. It is what Perl is designed to do. Youth in Asia 19:14, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

You can name all the specific examples you want... the point is covering every single possible interpretation would take a long, long time. Specific examples are easy, but an overall parsing of the English language is nigh impossible. Gscshoyru 19:17, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

I'm not suggesting that anybody writes a preprocessor that translates english into a computer language, I'm just wondering if other languages could be made as easy to understand by non-programmers as the three examples I mentioned above. I dimly remember that in Prolog, I think that this could sometimes be done for one or two commands, I think this was referred to as syntax sugaring. I'm also disapointed that there is no list, category, or article about English-like programming languages. Thanks. 80.2.192.76 20:40, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

<joke>The most English-like programming language I know is the Shakespeare Programming Language. Link</joke> --Kjoonlee 21:42, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

Your answers:

1. Look at the article for 4GL and decide for yourself what is more "english-like" for you. SQL is a good candiadate, although not a programming language but a query language. In SQL you can see small statements that are quite like english, for example "insert milk into fridge ....".

2. There is no major technical challenge of writing such a preprocessor. However it would be a time consuming process which would produce something rather useless. Teachers use pseudocode to assist begginers understand what a programming language means.

--racergr 02:09, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

Thank you for the clear answers. I like the promise of SheerPower4GL since its free and its said to be like BASIC, the only language I'm capable of programming in, and preferably GWBASIC at that, although BASIC is not english-like. 80.2.223.138 13:25, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

How about SHRDLU? You might want to look up natural language processing while you're at it.

Descriptive English for C Statements and Subroutines is a restricted-English syntax for C implemented as a preprocessor. -- BenRG 15:02, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

Thank you, but it seems to be be about translating C into grammatical english, not the other way around. 80.0.98.113 16:31, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

Sony DSC-S500 (digital camera)

I got it last Christmas, had a little fun with it, then I wanted to start getting into recording videos. When I recorded one, I found there was no sound. So I looked through all the menus of the camera, played with it, and I couldnt find any option for sound anywhere.

I looked online, and it said it has sound recording.

So then I looked again, and I couldnt find any options or settings to hear sound. I've let other people who know alot of DC's to look at it, and they couldnt figure it out either. PitchBlack 15:16, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

If you are trying to play back on the camera, maybe the camera doesn't have speakers.

How do I know if it has speakers? Is the open dots on the side of the camera the speaker? It said on the site that it has sound recording, so what does that mean exactly? PitchBlack 23:17, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

It means it records sound with your videos. The instruction book should give you details, if it came with one (a lot of the cheaper digicams these days only provide this on an accompanying CD). According to the website it has a microphone, but it says nothing about a speaker (by comparison, the DSCW100S, for example, specifically says it has microphone and speaker (in both cases you need to go to the 'Specs' tab and look under 'Sound')). The 'open dots' on the side would be the microphone. I'd say at that price they've skimped on the speakers. Download a video you've recorded to your PC and play it there - you should get your sound. Note that the video will be pretty minimal as it only records at 320 x 240 for a max 30secs. --jjron 11:38, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

Website growth

When attempting to plan for growth in a web site oriented business, what would be considered a "good" growth rate in terms of usage? The web site will not be selling anything so the potential user base is in theory, very large. I've heard that some website business aim for a growth of .5-1% growth a day (which seems really high to me). Any ideas or experiences? 96.224.17.145 15:48, 27 July 2007 (UTC)AP

I don't know this, but I assume most websites are either big or small. Some will be of interest to some people, filling a niche, and never go beyond that. But others may appeal to a wide audience. At first, growth is likely to be small, but if it is given the right attention in the right place by the right people, links will lead to more links, which will lead to a higher Google rating, which will attract more visitors, who also start linking to it from their own websites, etc. In other words, once past a certain barrier, growth can be exponential. Wikipedia being an extreme example. A major factor here is that a website doesn't rely on physical production, so once the potential is there, there is nothing to hold back the growth. That's why a website can grow much faster than most businesses ever can. DirkvdM 06:37, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

Nintendo Why?!-Fi Connection

I've been trying to get onto Nintendo WFC forever, and my friend successfully used my own equipment the first time he tried. Now, I've got a Toshiba Satellite A105 notebook, an HP Pavilion desktop, a Netgear CG814W wireless cable modem gateway, and the Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector. Now, when I try connecting to the WFC from the notebook and USB Connector, I can never really connect. When I tried this from the desktop computer, it worked quite well. However, the desktop has since been moved away from the cable modem, so my only option is the notebook and USB Connector. I can't figure out what's stopping me from connecting; I even hooked up a direct connection to the modem, to no avail. I checked the WFC site, and it said that the error code I've been getting is related to firewalls. Now I'm pretty sure that the only firewall program I'm running is EZ Firewall (it was provided off the Road Runner site when I got it)...anybody got any ideas? I really appreciate any help...

Is your wifi on Channel 1 or 11, or whatever your nintendo manual says to use? --L^augh! 19:50, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

Um...not sure about that. Would that be the modem? It probably is, because it worked once before...I think there's something wrong with the notebook...--The Ninth Bright Shiner 20:22, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

That would be whatever is creating the wifi signal, which would probably be your router, or in this case the wifi connector (which you'd think would default to it) --L^augh! 22:43, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

Eh, I'm guessing that's a yes. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to connect using the desktop computer.--The Ninth Bright Shiner 02:12, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

eBay.com.au tripping Opera's Fraud Protection

Recently whenever I try to sign in to eBay.com.au using Opera, the browser says that the sign-in page has been blacklisted as fraudulent. Any ideas why this is happening and what I can do? I'm using Opera 9.22 build 8801 under Windows XP Home Edition w/ Service Pack 2. --Lumina83 23:41, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

Check your hosts file (does windows have one?) and check to see if some malicious program redirected ebay.com.au.

Agreed. Make sure you're actually visisting ebay.com.au. Either that or Opera's service is overzealous and not well enough programmed to validate real sites. The Evil Spartan 19:03, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

Never mind, it seems to be working fine now. Maybe someone reported it as fraudulent by mistake. --Lumina83 07:47, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

July 28

Looking for a very specific firefox plugin

Are there any firefox plugins that will rotate through tabs, and refresh the page? Say, I open up My Watchlist, Recent Changes, New Articles, and UAA, turn it on, and press F11, and it will refresh the tabs and cycle through them every few seconds, almost as a pseudo-RSS feed.. Preferably, switching to a tab, refreshing the one after it, and then switching to the newly refreshed page. If not, does anyone care to write one? >.>

I don't know about any Firefox plugin to do this kind of thing, but assuming you are using windows, you can easily write a script using something like autohotkey or autoit to do the work. NoClutter 23:28, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

Linux. And it would be running on a fairly old system, a slot loading iMac --L^ie! 02:52, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

Visual Basic to Python converter

Is the purpose of the Visual Basic to Python converter to provide a means of generating an uncopyrighted version of an author's algorithm? Clem 02:49, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

Do you mean this? http://vb2py.sourceforge.net/ No, I don't think it is, but lots of people who have programmed in Visual Basic would like to convert it to Python without further work. The forum on that site says it has been hacked and all the posts destroyed. I hope this isnt due to luddite Python programmers. 80.3.42.160 13:44, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

luddite Python programmers? Don't you mean luddite Visual Basic programmers, who might now have a legitimate need to protect their algorithms from copyright theft? And for that matter why would anyone want to convert an algorithm from Visual Basic to Python in the first place except to generate a disguised form of the algorithm which can be claimed is original and has no copyright? Clem 14:05, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

What you are saying could be interpreted as paranoia. I expect nearly everyone who uses it will be converting their own code. 80.0.98.113 16:18, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

I don't see why converting it to Python would encourage copyright infringement. If the coder in question has the original source, it can be easily re-used however one wants in VB, Python, whatever. If VB programmers don't want others to use their code, they shouldn't distribute it in the clear, but should put it inside encrypted libraries, etc. --24.147.86.187 22:34, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

It doesn't matter what language is used, the algorithm remains the same. Most copyright notices in source code reflect this. 86.151.216.153 20:45, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

How to set up eth1 to get a connection with an encrypted network?

I'm using Debian Sarge -- the networking applet doesn't really work. I am able to connect to a PPPoE network at home, using pon, but I haven't managed to connect to an ordinary DHCP wireless network (with or without a key). I was able to associate the key to eth1 using iwconfig, but that in itself doesn't get connectivity -- I don't know how get it to make the DHCP requests. --Trovatore 04:35, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

Found the answer myself: the command is /sbin/dhclient, just in case anyone else needs it. --Trovatore 04:42, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

Checking 64-bit processor

How I can check that whether my processor supports 64-bit applications or not?? is there any command line instruction in Windows XP for the same.

just look up the type of processor you have here. That said, it doesn't matter, since Windows XP is 32 bit, unless you're running the 64 bit version, in which case you'd already know. Unless you intend to switch to linux or buy another copy of Windows, you won't be able to use the applications at all. That said, I'm not really sure why you'd want to. 64 bit isn't really all there yet... --L^ie! 05:41, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

Despite the problems, there are numerous advantages to using 64 bit versions of Windows. That said, I'm doubtful anon is aware of any of them Nil Einne 23:51, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

Download CPU-Z and run it, it should open with the CPU tab selected, if x86-64 is listed under Instructions, then your processor supports it. Cyraan 18:25, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

QoS on Thompson SpeedTouch 585

can anyone help me with QoS on this router..i mean i don´t know anything about Qos, but would like to use it to limit user´s bandwith on a network by ethernet port to a certain percentage of overall bandwith, i can log in and look at default policies but that´s about it i read some CLID commands for it and got more confused...we have quite a few computers on network both wireless and eth cabled and would like to really use this and not have to get a server to do our bandwith monitoring and usage stuff

i am using PuTTy btw, if that helps or if it can use scripts to modify this automatically??

Thanks in Advance Roger @ IntraRed 07:51, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

Web programming languages

I know that the three most basic web programming languages are HTML, JavaScript and CSS. What comes next? PHP? I know about AJAX, but I think it's a combination of several programming languages.

HTML and CSS aren't really programming languages. The prominent web programming languages are probably PHP, Perl, JavaScript, and Java. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 17:16, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

SQL is extremely widely used for database interaction. Again, maybe not strictly a programming language — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 20:18, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

I'm fairly sure its Turing-complete, which would make it a programming language. --Oskar 19:54, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

As Wirbelwind stated, HTML is not a programming language. It is a markup language. The monstrous difference is that commands in a programming are expected to be performed exactly as expected. Commands in a markup language are performed (or ignored) however the presentation program sees fit. To add to Wirbelwind's list, Ruby continues to gain momentum. As for Bewildebeast's common on SQL. PostgreSQL and MySQL are two very popular database engines (mainly because they are free). Most big websites require a database to go along with the programming. -- Kainaw^(what?) 20:38, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

Well i've no idea what defines a language V other coding tools but whatever the big ones I hear about are... VB.NET, ASP.NET, C++, SQL and everywhere i turned just lately people seem to want to say 'ruby on rails' (whatever the hell that may be). ny156uk 23:36, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

Someone doing web programming may need to know about XML (and DOM, SAX, XPath, XSLT), XHTML, and web services in general. Much work has already been done with portals and content-management systems, and rather than working from scratch a web programmer may be working with Sharepoint, Joomla, Zope (Python), etc. etc. etc. Java was mentioned but specifically J2EE (JSP, servlets, JSF, JBoss, Tomcat) for some web applications. Knowing about web servers will help too: IIS and Apache in particular. (I guess the Web development article would have been a good reference here. Note in particular the difference between client-side and server-side programming.) All the better if you have some familiarity with Agile software development, code repositories such as subversion, deployment tools like Ant, unit testing. Transaction processing, security, testing, search engine optimization ... and business skills in basic finance, project management and business analysis. I know the context is "web programming languages" but for a web developer, this all can certainly be "what comes next". iames 15:31, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

AVI to DVD

Hi all:

Is there any easy way to burn a .AVI file to a DVD, which could then be viewed by a standard DVD player? I don't think it should be too hard, since it's the analogous process to making a music CD out of mp3 files... p.s. Only free software please! Thanks! --Waldsen 20:12, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

What kind of computer are you using? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.195.124.101 (talk • contribs).

Yes, but you need to have a drive that can write to DVDs. And odds are, if you have a drive that writes to DVDs, it probably came with DVD-writing software. So my guess is that you don't have such a drive. But if you do, tell us what type of computer you are using. --24.147.86.187 00:37, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

I do have a DVD Drive, and I use Windows XP. I have Nero software, however, the option to "burn video" asks for .ifo, .vob and .bup type files. I only have a .AVI. I either need to convert the format or find some other program that can create a video DVD directly from the .avi file. --Waldsen 01:29, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

I recommend DVD Flick, their main site is down at the moment, but you can find it under "Mirror download" located here. Cyraan 19:12, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

The easiest way is to convert your AVI to VOB. Any DVD-burning program that will take the AVI (i.e. iDVD) will convert it to VOB anyway. I'm not sure what software does this for Windows, though. --66.30.5.140 20:03, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

Several versions of Nero support transcoding to VOBs. If your Nero comes with Nero Vision Express then is thould be possible Nil Einne 23:49, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

Resizing partition

I just switched to Ubuntu from Windows XP and I'm trying to move files over while shrinking my XP partition and growing my Linux (ext3) partition. I've successfully shrunk the XP partition but using GParted the resize option is grayed out for the Linux partition. I also tried unmounting it, but I get "Could not unmount dev/sda2: The partition could not be unmounted from the following mountpoints: '/'. Most likely other partitions are also mounted on these mountpoints. You are advised to unmount them manually." No other partitions are mounted on "/", I don't know how to unmount manually, and I am somewhat afraid of what unmounting means for my data. So could someone address that final concern and/or help me figure out how to resize this partition? Someoneinmyheadbutit'snotme 20:18, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

First let's define what "unmount" means: it means that the operating system lets go of the device, and stops providing access to the files on it. All filesystems are unmounted every time you shut down the operating system, and a removable device (like a CD-ROM) is always unmounted before it's removed. It's nothing destructive. The root filesystem (mounted on "/") can't be unmounted, because it's in use. The only way to "unmount" the root filesystem is to shut down the operating system. From your description it sounds like GParted can't resize a filesystem while you're using it. So you need to either run GParted under an operating system booted from somewhere else (like a Live CD), or use a different resizer that works on a filesystem that's mounted. That would be an "online" resizer, like ext2resize. --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 23:01, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

I thought it's possible to umount / ... there's just no permanent storage medium and the OS can do fine without it. You'll have a lot of problems if you try to umount the swap while it's in use though. --froth^t 23:39, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

Every running process has a current directory. You can't unmount a filesystem if any process's current directory is on that filesystem. Therefore as long as there are processes, there must be at least one mounted filesystem. A running operating system with no processes is possible (the kernel could still route network packets - I've heard of this being done with BSD). With initrd there is a time during the boot sequence where the initial root filesystem is moved out of the way and the main root filesystem takes its place, so you could call that an instance of "unmounting the root", but it doesn't leave you with no root, just a different one. Those are the only 2 cases I can think of where you might say the OS is doing fine after a root unmount. They're both irrelevant here. There is an option I didn't mention before though: instead of trying to unmount "/", remount it in readonly mode (mount -o remount,ro /). That might allow GParted to succeed. If not, there's always the Live CD option. --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 00:32, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

I don't think it would work at all: Assuming that you have your XP partition at the start and you've shrunk that, so now you've got a XP partition that goes from 0 - n and a ext3 partition that goes to n - end. Now you've shrunk the XP partition again, say by 1000 blocks, so now you've got XP partition going from 0 - (n-1000), blank space from (n-1000) - n and ext3 partition from n - end. But, you cannot move the starting point of a partition (unless you copy everything out, delete partition and create it again), so now you've got this useless space between the 2 partitions that you can do nothing about. --antilived^{T | C | G} 01:52, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

That's a good point. The filesystem to be grown must be moved down first, so it starts at the beginning of the free space. The move is actually the easy part, from a programming point of view, since the filesystem's internal structure can be ignored - just copy it bit for bit and adjust the partition table to move the "start of partition" to the new location. I don't know if any tool to do it actually exists though. --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 02:30, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the tip about moving it. From Windows I used Acronis Disk Director to move and resize the ext3 partition and it worked fine. Someoneinmyheadbutit'snotme 19:54, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

Verizon vs. Cable

Hello Everyone!

Recently, a Verizon FIOS tech came to my door and explained some stuff about switching from Optimum (TV, Phone, and Internet) to the fiber optic FIOS network. He explained that the internet will be faster, TV will be clearer, and the phone will be more reliable with lower prices. Now I know he was just trying to sell me something, so I figured I'd ask the tech gang at Wikipedia for some advice. Is Verizon's FIOS service better than Optimum's? What are the pros and cons of each one. Thank you very much for the help!

MAP91 22:46, 28 July 2007 (UTC) P.S.- I am located on Long Island, NY (Nassau County) if that pretains to my question.

YES. Yes yes yes yes yes. If you have fios support in your area and you can afford the outrageous price then go for it! If you have a good broadband plan then you can get several MB/s (which is epic speed)- remember though that basically everyone with cable is bottlenecked by their internet service plan, not by their connection, so there could be cheaper room for improvement by just getting a better connection from your cable isp. But cable companies are evil and they suck you dry- easily thousands of dollars per year for a decent cable package and cable internet- for outdated technology and unreliable service. Don't buy his claim of clearer TV though, that doesn't even make sense. Maybe more HD channels than cable but normal tv won't look a bit better --froth^t 23:37, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

Fiber is faster than cable (from the experiential point of view), but be careful that the deal doesn't include any catches. In my area, fios is just rolling out. In the fine print, they literally cut your copper phone wires so you have absolutely no connection to the phone company. This is non-negotiable. Some of their plans require that you buy internet, phone, and tv services from them. Also, the rates may skyrocket after the first 3-12 months. This is coming from someone who wants fios service. 170.115.251.13 15:57, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

beginning networking question

When troubleshooting a network connection, it is sometimes necessary to check to make sure the firewall is not causing problems. My question is, how is it possible to use a firewall to help troubleshoot a network connection? This was an examination question that I chose to skip, and now that the exam is over I am coming here to ask for answers or help on where I can find hints. Thanks. NoClutter 23:49, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

If the firewall logs connection attempts, you can test that an app is working.

July 29

Where can I find linux code?

Linus Torvalds developed the Linux operating system to where I can find of that? (I heard that he has development of the Linux operating system is a heap of code to enable others to develop) Incidentally, If only a heap of code it, then how they develop into a type of operating system?

Read the article on Linux (and the relative articles). They contain the information you want. --racergr 06:44, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

If with your second question you mean to ask how little snippets of code can develop into something as big as an OS, then the answer is modular programming. Make sure that that each snippet is completely separate and clear about its task, ie what are the precise input and output. Then, you can make bigger programs using those snippets, which also abide by the aforementioned rules. So modules are built out of modules etc, until you've made something very big out of lots of little things. DirkvdM 06:58, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

Linux is NOT an operating system! If you're looking for the source code for the Linux kernel, go to kernel.org. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 09:46, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

Yes, which like the first post said, is answered by some reading of our articles on linux. Either way, anyone that doesn't recognize linux is technically the kernel probably won't get any use out of it --L^ie! 11:53, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

If you want to dive into code, you can browse the linux cross referencer --Ancheta Wis 22:37, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

Difference between 2 and 2&3 in a shift operation.

I have come across this code when looking on the XXTEA reference code:

e = sum >> 2&3;

As far as I know it essentialy means:

e = sum >> 2;

So I am wondering why did the developers of XXTEA choose to use an extra AND instruction? What did I miss here? --racergr 06:49, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

It's probably (sum >> 2) & 3, where there's a bitmask involved.

Indeed, because >> has higher precedence than &. This is a great example of why brackets should be used when there's any room for ambiguity; even writing e = sum>>2 &3 rather than e = sum >> 2&3 would have been better. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 13:37, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

System Memory on Mac OS X

When I use Activity Monitor to look at the system memory, it lists the memory used in four groups: Wired, active, inactive, free. I can guess what free means, but what do the other three groups refer to? 69.123.113.89 11:14, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

Try a few of these links. Weregerbil 15:06, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. 69.123.113.89 15:58, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

Router IP assignment

Just wondering, if you have 2 routers connected to each other to form a local network, what happens with address assignment? How is it decided which one gets to assign local IP addresses? My example is: I have a router for ADSL2, but am getting a new one to do wireless networking (but it doesn't do ADSL decoding) so I have to keep them both. So, how is it decided which of the routers assigns addresses? - ^Estoy_Aquí^{(t • c • e)} 11:53, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

Two-part answer:

1. Address assignment isn't a necessary function of a router. Routers do routing; address assignment is done by a DHCP server. (Of course, there's nothing that says that a single box can't act as both a router and a DHCP server, and indeed many home-based "routers" do both, and more.)
2. If your router is a true router, then by definition you have two separate network segments, which it's the router's job to route packets between. If you have two routers, it sounds like you have at least three network segments. Furthermore, DHCP (or indeed any addressing scheme) must be applied to individual network segments individually; indeed one way to define a network segment is "a subset of the larger internetwork having its own unique subset of addresses and its own addressing scheme". So DHCP packets, by design, travel only on individual network segments; they are not passed between segments by routers. So assuming that your two DHCP servers are assigning addresses in two different of your network segments, all should be well.

—Steve Summit (talk) 13:23, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

Ok thanks. So, are you saying that DHCP is what assigns the addresses? As far as I know they both do DHCP. So does that mean, to disable DHCP on one would allow the other to assign all addresses? - ^Estoy_Aquí^{(t • c • e)} 13:27, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

Yes. Well, probably. Well, maybe. A definitive answer would require knowing the details of your "network topology": how these two routers are connected to each other and to your "outbound" Internet connection, and where and how you'll be connecting the computers that need address assignment. —Steve Summit (talk) 13:30, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

mother of computer

we know that charles babbage is the father of computer then who is the mother of computer?

Ada Lovelace -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 13:33, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

Or maybe Grace Murray Hopper. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 13:39, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

I usually say that Babbage and Lovelace are the grandparents and Alan Turing and Grace Hopper are the parents. Or something... --Oskar 19:50, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

Would that make John Von Neumann an uncle? Or can we have more than two parents? --24.147.87.78 20:53, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

He's like the cousin you have weird feelings for that suppress because you know it can never happen --Oskar 22:37, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

Actually, now that I think of it, Grace Hopper and John von Neumann are the parents of computing, because then Alan Turing can be the uncle everyone knows is gay but loves anyway. --Oskar 22:39, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

Cannot apt-get update in Debian

Some problem I'm having, I just installed Debian on an old computer using a 1st generation Pentium 4 (1.5 GHz) and I'm trying to apt-get update it, like some of the guides on the internet I've found said. The main problem is, having to deal with Debian defaulting to some IPv6 protocol, I keep getting this:

Could not connect to ftp.tw.debian.org:80 (1.0.0.0), connection timed out

I ever had this problem on Windows XP; I installed ALL the Networking Services tool on the old computer and then I was TOTALLY LOCKED OUT from the internet!!! Internet Explorer's diagnostic test can ping through while Firefox just shows it's timeout error. Everything keeps resolving to the 1.0.0.0 IP. Checking through ipconfig, there's some strange adapters listed: Teredo Automatic Tunneling Device if I can remember the name and another one. The IP's are some uncommon hex notation, ff28:5a9c:2abc:9256 as an example. I finally did a System Restore operation and I can access the internet like before.

I've searched the internet for this problem and there are many cases listed, but since I cannot find mine with my case, I just decided that I should just post here. I'm using an Aztech DSL600ER router, Linux OS is Debian, and I can access Wikipedia after I changed the network.dns.disableIPv6 value to FALSE. Other than that, to reiterate the topic name, I cannot apt-get update through the terminal as root user. Is there any way to resolve this 1.0.0.0 IP problem? --Bruin_rrss23 (talk) 14:26, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

I'm not really familiar with this, but I'd look up instructions for disabling IPv6 for your distro, that sounds like the problem to me. That hex notation is an IPv6 address, which doesn't really work yet in most of the world. --L^ie! 14:30, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

Looks like it's not a IPv6 problem, but a buggy home router (see [1] for instance). Try setting the DNS servers manually on /etc/resolv.conf; according to that bug report, simply disabling IPv6 is not enough to make it work. The best option would be to either fix the router or change to one which doesn't have the bug. --cesarb 22:09, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

Another option, by the way, would be to (if the option is available on your home router) change it to be only a "bridge", and run the PPPoE (if it's ADSL) stack directly on your host. That way, you'd bypass almost all the potentially buggy software on your home router (and also gain a lot of extra control). Be sure to configure a firewall before doing it, since it usually would make your computer directly visible to the whole Internet. --cesarb 22:26, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

Check your default route.

Thanks for your replies, but since I'm using BitTorrent on another computer connected to the same router, I just tried all the software solutions without any success. It just shows the normal IP, then reverts back to 1.0.0.0. It manages to get through but I get cannot connect to host. I just kept modding the files as the instructions asked me to so I can get out of the 1.0.0.0 situation but Debian cannot get into the root account, so I just had to do a complete reinstall. Maybe the developers at Debian.org should make the next release have IPv6 DISABLED by default. Thanks for your replies anyway. I'll keep trying to solve this annoying issue. Any help would be appreciated. --Bruin_rrss23 (talk) 09:27, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Having IPv6 disabled by default wouldn't help in this case; the problem is with the buggy DNS proxy on the router, which runs over IPv4. There's another thing you could try; install BIND on the machine itself (apt-get install bind9), and point its /etc/resolv.conf at 127.0.0.1 (nameserver 127.0.0.1 and remove all the other nameserver lines; note that it might be automatically recreated with the original contents via DHCP). As long as the router doesn't try to be even more annoying by doing transparent proxying of DNS requests, that should be enough to give you a clean working DNS setup. --cesarb 23:46, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Office 2007 Save As glitch

Hello. Sometimes when I am working on a Word document on Office 2007, I save my file. It is not a read-only before I enter it. The Save As window appears. When I try to replace my file with the same name, Office says the file is a read-only and must be saved under a different name. How can I fix this problem? Thanks in advance. --Mayfare 15:23, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

ActionScript 3 question

How can I get the color of a given shape object in Flash using ActionScript 3? That is — I have a timeline with nothing on it but a single shape which shape tweens between two colors (say, red and blue) over the course of 25 frames or so. How can I, say, get the color of the shape at an arbitrary frame setting? The shape is not an object — it is just a vector shape.

My feeling is that I could somehow just grab a reference to the shape by playing with this.stage.getChildAt(0) but I don't think that does what I think it does. Any thoughts?

The reason I'm trying to do this is that I'd like to be able to assign a color to a different object based on the colors generated in this other movieclip via tweening, etc. There are a number of reasons why I can't just tween the original object itself (the main is that it is already shape tweening and that shape tweening must be independent of the color change).

Does this make any sense? --66.30.5.140 20:00, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

OK — I've figured out how to point to the objects in question (by using this.getChildAt(0)), and they are MorphShapes while tweening. Now I see that interactions with MorphShapes are pretty limited — but is there any way to get its fill color? --66.30.5.140 20:26, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

OK — I think, after much searching, that the answer is definitely no, so I found a different approach to my issue (not as elegant as I would have wanted, but it works) that avoids this method entirely. --24.147.86.187 00:53, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

DirectX 10

Does anybody know if there's any chance of DirectX 10 being offered for XP? Vista hasn't exactly set the world on fire so I can't help but think that keeping it as a Vista exclusive until 7's release will only hurt DirectX 10 as many developers may not feel the need to include features that the majority of customers will never see. --Kiltman67 20:14, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

Seems unlikely to me, particularly given that DX10 exclusive games are still a very, very long way away given that DX10 cards are still very new Nil Einne 23:46, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

Microsoft develop DX10. Microsoft want to sell Vista. Put those 2 together and it's obvious that it's unlikely to happen. Capuchin 08:04, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

I believe there's a company that's selling a product that will allow you to run Halo 2 on XP, although I don't think that's a DX10 game anyway. It could go either way for MS, having a tight monopoly has worked pretty well in the past for them. Personally, I'm rooting for Mt. Evans --L^ie! 08:11, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

Picking A GPS

Hello everyone!

I am going to purchase an automotive GPS system, and I've narrowed it down to four units, all Garmin: StreetPilot c550, Nuvi 350, Nuvi 650, and Nuvi 660. I couldn't find any difference between the Nuvi 650 and the 660, except the Bluetooth compatibility and the price. How about the traffic situation? I know that some, traffic is included, just with a monthly fee. Others require costly equipment. I didn't consider any of the Magellans after hearing many horror stories, and the Tom Tom 910 was quickly thrown out. I am looking for basic functionality with some perks. I also couldn't find out which ones had which basemaps. Which one is best suited to me? Thanks!!! Location: Long Island, NY

MAP91 21:00, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

July 30

Finding where an IP is...

Can you give me some sites so I can figure out where an IP address is from? 24.2.61.202 01:55, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

Try googling it. However, some sites tell either the location of the receipient's house or the location of the ISP's server. Don't you live in Folsom, California? If I am correct, google IP address locator and click on the first site. --Mayfare 03:09, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

I'm sure that there are many sites that will give you this information, my personal favourite is http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/index.jsp. --Credema 06:34, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

In general, you are looking for a WHOIS service, such as the site User:Credema mentioned. - Akamad 11:26, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

Maxmind GeoIP. Google for it! (this keyboard is...poor...otherwise iàd type it out.)JoshHolloway 09:01, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Slideshow questions

Help!!I want to find a product which can do all these things for me! 1.add my own voice in slideshow? 2.trimming background music in slideshow? 3.add background music to slideshow? 4. add licensed music in slideshow? 5. add multiple music files to the slideshow? 6 create slideshow in a minute? 7 add text to slideshow? 8.add same text to all photos in the slideshow? 9 add the same transition to photos of a slideshow? 10.modify the transition time between photos in slideshow? 11 modify the show time of a photo in a slideshow? 12. revolve photos in slideshow? 13. resize photos in slideshow? 14. make slideshow on cell phone? 15 make slideshow for web? 16 burn slideshow on DVD which can play back on TV? 17 add multiple music files to the slideshow? 18 make slideshow for e-mail? 19 burn slide show on DVD/CD/SVCD/VCD.2.0 which can play back on TV 20.make slideshow for Apple™ iPod, Sony™ PSP, YouTube™, MySpace™

In the future, please keep your questions contained to one thread. Read WP:TALK page guidelines, and do not remove other people's comments. Anyway, the answer for any of this will depend on what program you're using, what type of computer you have, and any number of other things. Please see the manual or guide that came with your product for instructions on using it --L^ie! 06:50, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

I don't mean to sound flippant, but it really sounds like you may need to go and take some lessons on the use of slideshow software. --jjron 07:28, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

vista

is it really bad when u install visual styles like vista blinds on an xp computer.

Well, in the sense that it means you're using XP, yes. Really though, it will change your Window Manager's effects, but it shouldn't affect the system itself, in the same way that using Compiz doesn't change a *nix system. It depends on what you mean by really bad though. --L^ie! 07:39, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

If you're not using kol's vista skin (which was the best vista lookalike, and was aggressively fought by microsoft- you won't find it easily anymore) then yes it'll look really bad. There are dozens of terrible skins out there trying to look like vista.. things to remember 1) Crapware like windowblinds will take up as much memory as dwm.exe on vista so you might as well take the performance hit and upgrade to vista. 2) If you want to use unsigned msstyles in xp you need to patch/crack utxtheme.dll.. search neowin --froth^t 15:21, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

help

i tried burning an audio cd but my nero is programmed to burn at 52x speed.i dont think my machine can handle that speed.anyways it refused to burn.how do i change to something like 32x or 16x.am using nero 7. then i tried burning using windows media player 9 series.it was on the process of burning and when it reached 97 percent i got a message which told me to check whether my cd drive is connected properly and that it had encountered a problem.the empty cd i had is damaged.its RAW.am not sure what is means but on its properties tab it says it contains 0 free bytes and 0 used bytes.what am i doing wrong?my machine is a pentium 4,3.2ghz os is xp service pack 2 ram is 512 mb.

ps immediately the error message that i check whether my cd drive is connected properly appeared my cd drive icon disappeared.after restarting the computer it appeared again.

Sign and type better please. Nero Burning ROM should let you pick what speed to write the files. Splintercellguy 09:44, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

JPEG to PDF

Hi! I have a JPEG image which I need to have as a single-page PDF file instead. How can I achieve this without losing the JPEG compression (so as not to make the file unnecessarily large)? Thanks. —Bromskloss 08:01, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

By definition, PDF="unnecessarily large", so there's no getting around that. The easiest method is to create a new PDF document, add your JPG to the page, and save it. A much more complicated way would be to convert the JPG to a SVG and then convert the SVG to a PDF. -- Kainaw^(what?) 14:13, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

You don't say, but on Unix-y systems like Linux or MacOS a simple "convert image.jpg image.pdf" will do it with minimal overhead. --TotoBaggins 14:28, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

$ convert image.jpg image.pdf
$ ls -l image.jpg image.pdf
... 139K  image.jpg
... 140K  image.pdf

If you have Photoshop simply open your jpeg, go to File>Save As... and choose Photoshop PDF as your output format.

It'll give you a compression option and some other options when you go to save, and you could also downsize your image first before saving as a PDF to keep the filesize down. The file sizes aren't that bad and it's pretty simple to do. I'm guessing some other photoediting programs would possibly do this too. --jjron 15:12, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

And if you are on OS X, you can open it in Preview and Save As.. to a PDF as well. Only adds a few KB to the original size, presumably because PDFs can actually have JPEG images embedded in them if I recall correctly, so you're really just adding a tiny bit of PDF coding around that. --24.147.86.187 23:17, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

PS3 price drop

when will there be a price drop of the PS3's current price in the UK?

Sure. --L^ie! 13:28, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

really?! which retailers are selling it the cheapest? and what future developments will be happening for the european and PAL PS3's?

Well history (and logic) suggest that the PS3 will reduce in price as its time on the market lengthens. Many consoles that are sold are sold at a loss (even at £430) and so the firms are slow to reduce the price until the economies of scale/money from games makes it viable. Now Sony have reduced the price in the US and other countries so I would expect it to reduce in the uk in the medium-term. You could look at ebay for purchases, or some of the major sites like game.co.uk or gamestation. Good luck, the console looks like - long term - it will be worth the money. ny156uk 17:43, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

voice-activated web browser

I'm looking for a voice-activated web browser that will allow the user to fill in web forms using voice only. For example, they will see a page that says Name, Address, City, State, Zip. They say "Name John Dow, Address 123 Street, City Kansas City, State Missouri, Zip 64154, Submit." The form is filled out and submitted. I am having trouble finding such a beast. All "voice-activated" browsers I can find only allow you to use voice to navigate links, not enter data. Does anything like this exist? Cheaply? Free? -- Kainaw^(what?) 15:08, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

Dragon NaturallySpeaking claims it is compatible with Internet Explorer. My guess is that for something like you describe you're going to have a hard time, since you're really asking for a high-quality voice transcriber that happens to be hooked up to a web browser. I'm not going to inquire as to why you need it to be voice only (Maybe Stephen Hawking is having trouble ordering things from eBay?) but I don't think it is a terribly usual request, which is probably why you aren't finding much out there. I can't imagine this being a very common requirement. --24.147.86.187 23:24, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

There's a extra download for Opera that includes voice, but I've never used it, so I can't tell you how well it is. Our article does mention being able to control Opera with voice only. Might want to look into it. Furthermore, Opera has a feature where you can store information to be filled out on forms, so you can maybe use that and fill out the blank stuff with voice. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 20:54, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Virus that makes computer/hardware explode

I read about a virus that can make computer hardware explode. Is it real or a hoax? If it's real, how does the virus make hardware explode? I think they could change the hardware settings and make the hardware become so hot that there's a fire. --Kaypoh 15:27, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

Possible, maybe... but implausible. It could make stuff overheat -- perhaps -- but actual explosions are extremely unlikely. Most likely a hoax. Gscshoyru 15:34, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

not unless the hardware and drivers were extremely poorly designed, and definitely not as a virus that would be able to fool much of anyone. The only way I could think of to do this that would actually do something would be to find a way to disable the mainboard's Fan slots, and then hope you overheat it, but there's no way to make it explode, and even just turning off fans would destroys the insides and the computer would shut itself off --L^ie! 15:39, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

It would be unlikely to make such a virus, except maybe when you write one that activates a bomb wired to your PC... Blake Gripling 06:33, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

See our article on killer poke. --cesarb 23:17, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

Algorithm for solving f(x) = x

(Not sure if this goes in Computing or Mathematics) What is the name of the algorithm for solving f(x) = x by iterating x_{n+1} = f(x_n)? Is there a criterion for when it is guaranteed to converge? 212.203.98.213 17:32, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

I could be reading this completely wrong, but it appears that you are asking about a computer algorithm that uses a function F with a parameter x. The function F solves the problem by calling F(x_1) where x_1 is some new value of x. This is called recursion. It is a very powerful form of computing that, unfortunately, too many programmers don't feel comfortable enough to use much. -- Kainaw^(what?) 18:16, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps you are thinking of some variant of or some algorithm similar to Newton-Raphson? But that's for $f(x)=0$, not for $f(x)=x$. --cesarb 23:15, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

The process is finding fixed points, so I guess you could say it's a fixed point algorithm. See fixed point (mathematics) for more; your algorithm is essentially the definition.

For your second question, iirc it is guaranteed to converge if the (absolute value of the) derivative of f(x) is less than 1 at all values between your guess and the solution, correct me if I'm wrong though. 75.58.182.206 00:34, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

Way to speed up wikipedia load times?

Is there any way to speed up the load time on wikipedia pages in firefox? I notice a lot of times it will load the main body of the page, then spend another five seconds or so loading the side bar- are there grease monkey extensions or something of that sort that could skip over the stuff that doesn't change from page to page, or that allows it to load quicker at least somehow, to allow the page to load faster? --Longing.... 18:05, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

It used to be that if you weren't logged in, Wikipedia loaded much faster. I don't know if that is still the case. -- Kainaw^(what?) 18:13, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

I can't answer this question specifically, but I have found the best way to make web pages load instantaneously (in your perception, at least) is to use Firefox's "open link in new tab in background" option. While I'm reading, I just middle-click links I want to read, and then continue reading the current page. When I'm done, I kill the current tab, and the page has already loaded and rendered in the next tab. I only wait for pages to load when they're broken. --TotoBaggins 18:35, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

That doesn't work so well when you're juggling five tabs and you REALLY NEED TO SEE THAT DIFF NOW SO YOU CAN MAKE SURE IT'S OK TO UNDO and then you have to wait fifteen seconds for a page to load, and it feels like you're on 56k again. /rant --Longing.... 19:02, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

You can also tweak Firefox's settings to load pages faster (if you havn't already done so) [2] --Worm 23:01, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

Free web hosts

Does anybody know any free web hosts that are reliable and free of ads? --hello, i'm a member | talk to me! 21:23, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

"Reliable", "free", "no ads": choose two. Sorry. --TotoBaggins 22:04, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

There are some hosts that give free or discounted service to non-profits (within the USA probably only to 501(c)(3) corporations). One example is Dreamhost. I have worked with several Dreamhost accounts and have generally been happy with their service. I won't endorse their reliability given some problems they had over the past ~year however, FWIW, I have no plans to move my hosting elsewhere. (A glance at the main space page on them has some coverage on my concerns wrt endorsement and some good external links) HTH --Jeremyb 22:32, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

If you are willing to spend even a little money (say , $10 a month), you can get pretty good hosting services. But you'd probably need a credit card, which is what I imagine your difficulty is, judging by your user page. --24.147.86.187 04:10, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

110MB.com is a nice host; I'm not spamming here in this reference desk, it's that I hosted my site there for free, with 2GB of space, no forced ads and provision for server-side apps like MediaWiki. The only things that you have to pay are the optional/premium features and make sure that you abide to their rules... Blake Gripling 06:37, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

I can give you 100mb of space (ish) on my dedicated server if you would like. Direct Admin control panel. Message me on my talk page. JoshHolloway 08:58, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

It's all about the gigbytes, baby!

I was just thinking:

1) How much storage would you need to store every piece of information ever produced by humans? I'm talking about every spoken word, every printed letter, every film, every painting, everything. Of course, only an approximate guess can be made but are we talking in orders of exabytes or zetabytes or what?

2) Approximately how much new information are we creating annually? Is this increasing and, if so, by how much?

3) Assuming current trends in storage capacity hold true, when will we have more storage in our PCs than all the information all humans have ever produced. When will we be able to carry it all on our key chain (i.e. thumb drive)?

- Pyro19 21:49, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

Note on part 1: the uncertainty principle precludes us from making perfect copies of analog artifacts like sounds and paintings and such, so you'll have to specify how decent a copy you want for this question to have meaning. --TotoBaggins 22:08, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

Does the store have to be indexed? It all goes a bit quantum.... I suspect it mainly depends on your definition of 'information' --Worm 22:55, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

I have heard that is more data online than in the world's libraries already, but this is pretty difficult to prove (or disprove) so i'd take it with a pinch of salt. I would expect you are talking into the ridiculous numbers for data-storage aof all digitalizable information. Wikipedia which of itself will represent a stunningly tiny portion of the web is (according to this link - http://www.webaroo.com/webpack/wikipedia/wikipedia) about 5gb when zipped up/compressed, but that size will be increasing daily. Plus that's only the English version (and probably from some time ago). See Yottabyte for an idea of storage already in existence and IBM predictions. Obviously the world's worth of information would be even bigger. I wouldn't be so foolish as to suggest a pen-drive would never hold such an amount (after all how many people would envisage a chip smaller than a postage-stamp can hold gigabytes of information when something this size (see Early IBM disk storage for a mind-boggling understanding of the speed of development in hard-drive capacity. ny156uk 23:10, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

Man, that IBM article is mind blowing. - Pyro19 00:02, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

I'm not talking about exact replicas or quantum states. If we consider a narrower question, you might get a better idea of what I'm thinking: How much information did I produce yesterday? I spoke to some people and I wrote some things, that's about all. I didn't create any videos, build anything, take any photos, etc. So at most I produced very little, maybe some KB of information.

That's the sort of thing I'm talking about but on a much larger scale, that is, for every human and from all time. - Pyro19 00:00, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

There are a LOT of articles and theories about these kinds of questions, doubling every year is something I have heard thrown around more then once http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue3_10/coffman/. Vespine 02:15, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

You still haven't defined how you would quantify that information. Are you considering your speech to be valuable for its language content or its audio content? Those are two different types of information (one might be stored as a text string, the other as an MP3 file, for example; the difference in bytes would be between less than a KB to hundreds of MB, depending on compression). It's the difference between the written data "C-flat" and a second-long recording of that note on a piano. That's essentially what the quantum states question is about — it takes the quantification question to the extreme (by asking what the ultimate level of quantification of the world can be; the uncertainty principle sets the lowest theoretical limits for quantification), but it's still an important question you would have to answer before you got an answer as to "how much" information you are talking about. --24.147.86.187 22:38, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

July 31

a home printer for business cards?

Is there such a thing as a printer for my home that I can load with blank business cards, and it will print them out in duplex (double-sided)? If so, what brands or models are currently the most popular or highest-rated in the "low budget" category (maybe black and white ink jet, etc.)?--Sonjaaa 00:31, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Almost any printer will suffice. You can purchase pre-printed or just pre-perforated paper just for this task. are a few. However, these will not have the quality and features of a professionally-printer business card. For instance, you won't be able to get raised print on a laser- or inkjet- printed business card.

No I don't want pre-perforated paper. I find the quality poor, and there is too much work in detaching the cards. I want to load blank business-sized cards into the printer and it print on both sides.--Sonjaaa 02:12, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

That will likely require a custom printer. Consumer printers are unable to handle paper that small. It appears that Canon might have a solution, however: [3].

Canon says CX320 is the cheapest version whose price, and according to this source its price is 3100$... and can be found only in Japan. I couldnt find any price quote from Canon website, Google Product or eBay. It seems there is no low budget variant for card printers if you ignore pre-perforated paper. — Shinhan < talk > 12:08, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Might want to try printers from Fargo Electronics (I am suprised there is an entry for them). Anyway, they sell ID card printers that are Thermal Transfer I believe. Might be out of your price range though. --GTPoompt(talk) 12:13, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

I have had very successful results using "Pro Edge" business cards which are cut rather than perforated and have thin adhesive strips which hold the cards together in an A4 sheet for printing [4]. I have a Hewlett Packard Laserjet 2300d (the d stands for duplex) which prints the card-sheets with no problem. -=# Amos E Wolfe ^talk #=- 12:14, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Web browser switching problems

My user page and user talk page worked great under IE 7, but I use Mozilla Firefox on my new computer and have problems. I need the pages to look great on both browsers, how can I do that? There are also a few problems with IE 6.  Tcrow777  talk  01:56, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

I'd like a solution towards World Peace, but I'm not gonna get that, either. Seriously, this is a gigantic question, and there is no short answer. I would probably start by reading at Quirks mode, though. --Mdwyer 02:07, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Is there any way that the fancy stuff would automatacally not be included when someone is not using IE 7?  Tcrow777  talk  02:41, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

For that you would want to look at Browser sniffing. --Mdwyer 02:51, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Those are articles detailing stuff that cannot be done on Wikipedia. I need something that works.  Tcrow777  talk  02:55, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Ah. I misread your question. I'm afraid I probably can't help you with your userpage, aside from just a recommendation to try to stick to techniques that work well with both (all?) browsers. I'm sorry I'm unable to help you more. --Mdwyer 02:59, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

I will wait for someone else to answer my question. Thank you!

What I want to know is how to fix my user page to work right in browsers other then IE 7.

 Tcrow777  talk  03:18, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

What exactly is wrong with it? If you're using some sort of code that seems to work only on IE7, then the standard procedure would be to use something that works in IE5 instead, which should display perfectly in IE7 as well, as well as FF and all the rest. There's nothing on your UP that would require the use of recent modifications in IE7s code. I recommend you don't use templates to separate the parts of the page as you've done right now; that's probably the number one culprit for screwey layout. 58.156.47.154 04:07, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

And, the system here doesn't take that well to pure HTML, because there are a handful of restrictions. Rewrite the tables in wikicode. 58.156.47.154 04:09, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

It is in wikicode.  Tcrow777  talk  04:20, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Dude, no offence, but looking at your editor review request, you've made about 800 edits, 200 are your user pages, and the rest I can't even find a single decent mainspace edit which isn't just a minor or formatting. Wikipedia isn't facebook, maybe you should worry less about your user page and worry more about what you are actually contributing? Please feel free to commence flaming reply. Vespine 04:56, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Actually, I think your right, that's why I have been looking for advice on fighting vandalism, but no one has given me any.

The problem code line appears to be in User:Tcrow777/main style:

<div style="text-align: left; width: auto; height: 100%; padding: 8px; background-color: #FFFFA4">

 Tcrow777  talk  05:27, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

You call that wikicode? Just putting a page full of HTML into a template doesn't make it wikicode dude. 58.156.47.154 05:32, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Apparently, firefox is having trouble with "100%" in the "line of trouble".  Tcrow777  talk  06:06, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

All bugs appear to be fixed!  Tcrow777  talk  06:30, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Congrats to having a beautiful page now... :o( ... I'm always stunned by how much people care about their (or their user pages') looks rather than what they're actually doing! ... --Ibn Battuta 13:51, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

You said no-one had given you any advice on vandal fighting - have a look at Wikipedia:Vandalism. That should get you started. If that doesn't help, then the Community Portal has plenty of things to do. If you have problems with any of it, then the Wikipedia:Help desk will help. --HughCharlesParker (talk - contribs) 16:53, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

GFX laptop in Asia

I live in Japan, and I've always loved the configuration of Alienware' laptops, though shipping one from the US to Japan would cost a lot of money. I've tried to go around to a few dozen "little guys" to see if they could make me a laptop of considerable power and price, but the market is just so different here in Japan when it comes to quality systems, and I usually just get laughed at, never mind the fact that I probably wouldn't trust any Japanese laptop manufacturer even if they did give me a good price.

Alienware US doesn't ship to Asia at all, but Alienware.uk does. A 700 EURO (which is more than I planned on spending) machine ends up costing more than 1200 EURO (which is way over budget) after shipping.

My house is in Canada, and if I send it there, it costs me only about 1400 CAD (1100 US?), which I can handle. But I'm still in Japan, and if I send it overseas, I have to pay shipping again, and I presume customs? would hit me again.

I've looked hard for some comparable gamer-ish computer manufacturer in Japan, but the only one I found is just an extension of the company that laughed at me in the first places when they couldn't supply a system with a reasonable price. I'm kind of at a loss here... have I missed anything? Must I give in and deal with it? 58.156.47.154 03:54, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

You can't find a good laptop in Japan?? Are you serious? I find that very hard to believe. Isn't that like saying you can't find a lay in a brothel? ;) Have you been to Akihabara? Maybe it's a cultural difference that's preventing a successful transaction, I'm pretty sure you are in just about the best place on earth to find any kind of laptop, as long as you know where to ask. Do you speak fluent Japanese? If you don't, maybe you need to make friends with a tech nerd who does. Another reason not to import is that laptops are not as robust as desktops, many components on them can fail, and unlike a desktop, they are usually the opposite of "modular" meaning you can't just swap out the broken component with a generic one you bought at the market, most laptop warranties are NOT international unless you pay a premium for international warranty.. Vespine 04:28, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

I do speak fluent Japanese, and yes I've been to Akihabara, though I try not to. There's no reason to believe that buying a laptop would be cheaper in Japan. Have you ever studied economics? Electronics are big business here, which means they charge high prices, and people will pay because a) they have the money b) they believe that there is a need to keep up with all the newest trends. I could probably find cheap memory and other components in that one section of denkidai, but laptops are a brand commodity, and demand for laptops is really high here. 58.156.47.154 05:09, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

I'm still confused, you say 700 Euro is more then you wanted to spend, the cheapest laptop I can find even on the US alienware site is US$1000 which is also about 700 Euros. Unless someone can come up with a better idea, I think you have to deal with it, I'd recommend upping your budget and sourcing locally, perhaps a VAIO. Vespine 05:25, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Just a little miscalculation, sorry (trying to work with 4 currencies here -__=). 700 is right about my range, it's just the shipping that screws me over. VAIO is pretty much the last option on my list... with a 3D card there are few laptops in Japan more expensive, never mind all the bloatware. 58.156.47.154 05:30, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Yeah I'll pay that, fair call... I just remember getting a steal on a digital camera and a MD player back in the days, obviously laptops are a completely different kettle of fish. Sorry, don't know what else to suggest, apart from the obvious: if you take a laptop with your hand luggage you won't pay import tax, regardless of how new it is. So if find someone travelling to Hong Kong or something:) except I'd still personally not recommend importing a laptop because of the before mentioned warranty issues. Vespine 06:05, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Cantralized Wikipedia geographic database?

Based on the recent visibility of Wikipedia geographic coordinates on Google Earth, I have collected a set of 600+ significantly incorrect geographic references. For example, 300+ of them are communes in the Calvados department of France which were placed east of the Prime Meridian, instead of west.

I have been told on the general help desk that there is no central database for such information. That would imply that the Google Earth presentation would be wrong in other languages, even if I manually fixed the English pages.

Surely, there must be a way to introduce a centralized geographic database which could be automatically referenced by templates for each language translation, and for any other georeferences.

Equally, I would expect that the multilingual links on the left-hand side of each page should be derived from a links database, so that when a new language translation were to be created for a page, all of the pages for the existing variuous translations would get the new link, and the links would always be in the same pseudo-alphabetic order.

Can you direct me to a forum where these database questions could be explored?

Fairfax Geographer 04:18, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

The central servers of the Wikimedia Foundation is in Florida, USA.  Tcrow777  talk  04:28, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Village Pump? Splintercellguy 04:32, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Problem with WMM / downloading YouTube videos

The first question can be summed up with this pic. M$ didn't have anything on it. MY OS is XP SP2, and it's WMM 2.0

[5] O_O.

For two, how do I do that? I downloaded Video downloader for FF, but it doesn't work. I don't knwo how to play .flv files. Can Windows Movie Maker read them?

Much appreciated. --67.66.232.120 04:36, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

• I don't know the answer to your first question (although the same thing has happened to me before - you can just move the "error report" message to a corner of the screen and ignore it). To your 2nd though - there is a program called "FLV player" that can run flv files. Also, I believe VLC player can run them as well (though you need to download ffdshow, a codec package). Maybe we have an article on FLV? ugen64 05:05, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. Although I really want to know how to get the .flv into WMM. --67.66.232.120 05:25, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Use VLC to convert to .avi or some other format supported by WMM. — Shinhan < talk > 12:16, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

There are instructions here. —Wayward ^Talk 00:40, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

Overwriting of geographic coordinates

The article Lambach exhibits a rather rare problem in the double overwriting of the geographical coordinates in the upper right-hand corner of the page. Can someone describe the problem and a solution, so other articles with the same difficulty can be fixed? Fairfax Geographer 05:31, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

The problem seems to be that coordinates have been entered twice - in the infobox at the top, and using Template:coor title dm. Removing one of these should fix the problem. Also, this probably belongs at WP:VP. ugen64 05:50, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Enquire about computer projects

I am a Polytechnic student studying in Computer Technology branch & I want to know the sites where I can get free computer based projects with their implementation detalis.

You'd think college students would be able to ask better questions... Anyway, what type of project are you looking for? Off the top of my head, sourceforge has a lot of programming stuff you could work on. If you want something more low level, take a look at this. You're going to have to be more specific with what you want, though. A computer project could be anything from making a power point, to distributing thousands of PCs to the third world --Longing.... 12:01, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

It sounds more like a student who is asking for a pre-made project with already written code and paper that can be slightly altered and turned in as his/her project assignment. -- Kainaw^(what?)

I really don't understand that. Why is this kid studying computer technology unless he wants to learn how to do it? This sort of cheating is the exact opposite of learning. And then when he gets a job, he'll be quickly fired as his incompetence becomes apparent. Better to skip the polytechnic and go straight to the burger flipping. It'll be better financially. 65.91.98.102 23:03, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Summer of code --Russoc4 00:17, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

to convert a pdf file to word/excel file

Is there any free software to to convert a pdf file to word/excel file? thank you for your help.124.43.245.95 12:08, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Generally speaking PDF is a "write-once" format — it is easy to convert Word/Excel into PDF, but going the other direction is hard. Converting something to a PDF is basically like printing it; once out of its original format it doesn't quite fit back in the same way.

That being said, if you google "PDF to Word Free" you'll find some options. All basically work by extracting the text and then trying (usually poorly) to replicate some semblance of the layout. Generally speaking it is not a whole lot better than if you copied-and-pasted the text from Adobe Reader into Word or Excel yourself. --24.147.86.187 13:55, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

If the pdf will allow you to select text, you could try highlighting the entire document (maybe less one sentence...) and pasting it into a new word document. Crude and may not be all you want, but I have done this occasionally. -- SGBailey 20:14, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Further I have noticed that even in some PDFs if you do not have a "select all" or "copy" option in the edit meny, the keyboard shortcuts CTRL-A and CTRL-C still work. If the PDF has been 'flattened' there is no way to extract the text, short of printing it and scanning it using OCR. Vespine 01:53, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

Safari Flash Problem

Does anybody know what I must do to fix my Flash plugin in Safari? One day, I went to YouTube and no video would load. I checked some other flash sites and I had no success with them either. I was using Safari 3 BETA. First I tried re-installing the flash plug-in and nothing changed. Next I decided to uninstall Safari 3 BETA and move back down to Safari 2.0.4 (419.3). Again, flash objects would not load. I tried re-installing the flash plug-in again with no success. It is interesting to note that other users on my computer have no problem with Safari, though it is the same application. I tried resetting Safari, deleting all of my settings for it and re-installing, but I had no success.

Any suggestions or solutions?

free graphics program

Which program can you recommend for designing relatively simple graphics (out of geographical forms etc.)? I'm usually using the Gimp, but it's not really meant to design in this way, and even Microsoft Word and Microsoft Powerpoint give an easier time drawing and moving circles, rectangulars, arcs of a circle, etc. and especially keeping those objects seperate, so that you can go back later and easily change their sizes, move them, etc. (I'm not saying it's not *possible* with the Gimp... I just can't believe there shouldn't be a software out there with which it's easier, i.e. less time-consuming.)

I'd appreciate all recommendations for free programs, currently esp. for "easy to learn" software, but generally also other stuff. Thanks a lot, Ibn Battuta 13:43, 31 July 2007 (UTC) PS: Photoshop doesn't seem to be able to do it either, or does it? I'm currently using a computer that has it, but I'm not familiar with the program; but if there should be a menue or stuff I've overlooked, I'd be interested in that, too.

Inkscape is good for drawing multiple objects. It is like adobe illustrator and is free. Try it. Very useful program [6]--64.40.88.131 13:47, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Google's SketchUp might be useful, too. --Mdwyer 14:17, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

If you are really just using circles, squares, and lines - are you making flowchart type things? If so, dia is a better tool because you can link the objects and they stay connected as you drag them around. -- Kainaw^(what?) 14:19, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for all tips! As I'm more thinking in the direction of things like this image, I'll try Inkscape, but I'll keep the other two suggestions in mind for future projects... One follow-up question: To get 3-D effects (esp. on round objects) - is there a particular "trick" or is it just skill using the ordinary features (colors, gradients, ...)? Thanks, Ibn Battuta 15:48, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Adobe Illustrator has some (not terribly useful) 3D rendering features; I don't know if Inkscape has anything similar. I usually manage faux-3D with gradients, blurs etc but if you're going to be focussing on 3D you might want to check out Blender. The hollow sphere image you linked to was almost certainly rendered in 3D. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 16:09, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Anim8or is a great 3d program for beginners. Inkscape is a 2d vector program so I don't think it will do 3d easily. Using both exported images from anim8or and inkscape would be good for what you want. Although I am not sure if inkscape can remove backgrounds to make it transparent for layering so you may need a image editing program to save it with a transparent background before opening it in inkscape.--64.40.88.131 16:32, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Automatic Computer Power On

Hello. After my aunt fixed and returned my computer, my PC automatically turns on at 8 PM (Eastern Standard Time) everyday. If I turn off the power supply to my computer for a few days (I use my comupter once in a few days) and then turn on the power supply and the computer, AwardBIOS appears on the startup. How can I avoid all this? --Mayfare 14:30, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

It's possibly a bad Wake-on-LAN joke. Far more likely, however, you have your system set to turn on, such as for updates, at a set time every day. Check your system settings and see if it has a section on power management, check there first, that is the most likely place for this. After that, check your system update settings, and see if it has a selection to automatically start the computer at a certain time to update. --Longing.... 14:34, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Thank you. However, my Automatic Updates are set at the recommended setting to download and install them everyday at 3:00 AM (Eastern Standard Time). My PC does not turn on at that time. I am unsure of what you typed after checking when the updates are set at what time every day. --Mayfare 18:12, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

I'd like to request more info about what is actually happening when you say your "PC turns on" (or doesn't). If the computer is not powered on, then it certainly can't be retrieving automatic updates at 3AM, or at any time for that matter. Also, when you refer to turning on the power supply, what exactly do you mean. To us computer geeks, the power supply is a component which sits inside the computer, and is not something you would turn on separately. To help us get to the same page here, the box that all the cables connect to we can call "the computer." The screen is the monitor. Can you give more details on what is happening?

Also, you would almost always notice the BIOS screen on any PC when it is first switched on, among other things, this gives you a chance to access the BIOS configuration screens before the operating system starts up. --LarryMac | Talk 18:31, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure one of my motherboards in the past had auto turn off and on at certain times.... This is in the BIOS and I don't think a program outside of the BIOS can do anything like this. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 20:44, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Programs outside the BIOS can do it quite easily. On Linux with ACPI, for instance, you can simply use /proc/acpi/alarm. --cesarb 23:32, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

I meant power supply as my power bar. When my power bar is on and the time is 8 PM (Eastern Standard Time), both my Intel Pentium 4 computer tower and my LCD monitor turn on. My computer was bought on about 2003 or 2004. (I do not exactly remember.) --Mayfare 02:28, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

Flash CS3 question

In Flash CS3, I have a situation where I need to have two instances of the same MovieClip with the same instance name next to each other, which I then set to a given frame number using gotoAndStop() in Actionscript.

Even normally this does not work perfectly. Despite being basically identical instances of the same movie, they often end up out of sync. This seems to happen even when I give them different instance names (which is not as desirable for my situation but if it is necessary I'd be happy to do it).

So that's the first problem. Why do they get out of sync? Even when I compare them in the Actionscript (are they are the same frame?) and they say, happily, "no, we're not." Then I try to put them at the same frame. But it doesn't reliably work, and I can't figure out what's going on here.

The next problem is when I make the layers above those two objects a masked layer. (Basically these layers are allowing me to do color shifting for something which is also shape tweening, independent of its tweening because the shape tweener is acting as a mask). Then all sorts of hell breaks loose; the instances are often null for no reason I can discern. After a second or two they stop being null. It is as if they aren't initializing correctly? I have no clue why they should be null there.

Any thoughts/suggestions? I'm really scratching my head here since logically what I'm doing ought to work but for some reason it isn't, and there isn't really any indication why it isn't working. --24.147.86.187 15:27, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

hardware

Can you please define the term Hardware in terms of computer science?

It's a long shot I know, but try hardware. Lanfear's Bane

If you really want to get wild and crazy, you can try computer hardware. That's only for professionals though. I wouldn't try it at home. -- Kainaw^(what?) 16:46, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Hardware is real stuff you can pick up. Software is information without physical form. (Yes I know you get software on a CD, but the CD is hardware and the information on the CD is software). -- SGBailey 20:10, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

And the stuff inside your skull is wetware ;) Vespine 00:48, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

CAN bus

On the Controller Area Network bus, the article (& Bosch) say that the MS 7 identifier bits must not all be 1. Why? What happens if they are? -- SGBailey 20:08, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia Page Traffic

I am not sure if this is a question appropriate for this Computer Reference Desk ... if not, please redirect me to the appropriate forum to ask this. Thanks. Is there any way on Wikipedia to see how much traffic any given article gets? Sometimes, on websites, you will see a counter that says "This page was visited 723 times" or so. Are there any indications on Wikipedia that tells us how often (or infrequently) a given article is accessed (moreso to be read, than to be edited -- since we can see all edits in the History log)? Ultimately, when I create an article, I would like to know if no one has ever read it ... or a million people have read it ... or whatever the case may be. How can I do that? Thanks. (JosephASpadaro 20:40, 31 July 2007 (UTC))

Not really. While the Mediawiki software does have a page-counter functionality, we keep it disabled for performance reasons. Anyway, there are several layers of cacheing between the software and visitors, so most of the pages are served straight from cache without there being any opportunity for counting. There are (but I can't remember where) some statistics somewhere, based on an analysis of the squid proxy logs. But these only count the 1000 or so most popular; frankly if your article isn't on List of sex positions then it won't make it to that cut. So, for the great majority of articles, there's no way of knowing. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 21:01, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

I have access to a number of servers that are linked to from a few articles. The traffic coming from Wikipedia is not particularly high, indicating that 1. those particular articles are not viewed with great regularity, and/or 2. those links on the articles are not clicked with great regularity. That doesn't at all help you, but it would give one some sort of information if you had something like that. (And how, pray tell, do you come up with a good reason to have an external link in an article you made go to your website? The easiest way is to scan some sort of historical document—a source for your article, for example—that is not elsewhere on the internet and then link to it from Wikipedia. Just make sure the copyright is kosher enough for your own safety. I get absolutely nothing out of people coming to my server from Wikipedia; it is just a way to help out and also spy on the statisitics a bit.) --24.147.86.187 22:29, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Wait ... so we can send a man to the moon ... but we can't count hits on Wikipedia pages?!?! Oy, vay ... (JosephASpadaro 23:43, 31 July 2007 (UTC))

It takes a lot less computing power to put a shitton of rocket fuel in a giant tube and hope for the best than it does to track millions of operations every minute. Technically, we could, and smaller wikis do, but it would be incredibly costly to us --Longing.... 00:08, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

But you don't need to track every page view, just a sample. Surely that would be cheap enough.

... and it is. Check this out. I never knew it existed until just now. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a way to query a specific page. -- BenRG 01:10, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

access from alternate locations

I have several pictures I uploaded to a site that I want now to delete. My access to the site, however, appears to be blocked from my home computer but a friend says that he can still access the site from his location and that my user name and password are working. Also the librarian tells me that she can access the site from the library. Is there a service that will allow you to access a web site from the service's location like the ones for doing a trace route from a services location instead of from your own? Clem 23:55, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

August 1

backup software and external hard drives

At work I have an Iomega external hard drive on my computer and I really like it because it came with some simple software so that everytime I modify a document file, it automatically saves a copy on the external drive as a backup. Now I want an external drive for backing up at home. Do many of these external drives come with software like what I have described above? If not, what are popular methods for automatic backing up of documents (not necessarily whole system). ike9898 01:26, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

It shouldn't be unusual to get some kind of software unless you are building your own external drive, i.e. buying a drive case and putting a hard disk in it. If you don't get software, and assuming you are running windows since you have not specified, "My Briefcase" is quite simple and basically does what you describe synchronising documents between more then one location. If you don't know how to get "My Briefcase" just google the term along with your version of windows and you'll find how to enable it. Vespine 01:46, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

The short answer: most external drives don't come with any software, but there are many, many backup software packages out there which can easily use whatever type of external drive you would be buying. Windows XP even comes with its own backup software, if that is what you are using. See this article for information on how to use it. --24.147.86.187 01:54, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

Thanks guys, ike9898 02:11, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

Mozilla Thunderbird Signature Question

In Mozilla Thunderbird when a signature is attached, it automatically ads a '--' above. Is there any way to disable this feature?

--Grey1618 02:50, 1 August 2007 (UTC)