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January 26

slow computers

I know that over time, that a computer will naturally get slower, but i would like to know some tips on how to make it go a little faster. I've had this computer for almost four years now, and its starting to get really slow. Opening up programs will take forever, especially when i'm just turning it on. Can you guys give me any tips on making it faster? I've already done things like defragmenting my disk, but i would just like some advice from other people that know a lot more about computers. Thanx in advance. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.230.107.117 (talk) 00:47, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Okay, if you want to boot faster, go to Start, Run, type in "msconfig", and then go to the tab called Startup. Uncheck any items that you don't want to run when the computer boots up. Be very careful not to uncheck anything important to boot up. Knock out items like quicktime. Also, defrag your hard drive. Useight (talk) 00:58, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Also make sure you dont have any viruses adware spyware etc.--TreeSmiler (talk) 01:01, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

And go to the Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs. Then uninstall any programs you don't use. Useight (talk) 01:30, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Or you could go with the slash-and-burn method: back up all your files, erase the hard disk, and reinstall from the system recovery CD. Your computer will be every bit as fast as it was when you got it. --Carnildo (talk) 09:38, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Sorry for top posting, but that means you would suggest against installing MS Windows Vista on a baseline configuration MacBook. Is that right? Kushal^t 20:35, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

jamba juice

jamba juice —Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.169.116.61 (talk) 01:01, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

What about it? Paragon12321 (talk) 01:22, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

My favorite flavor is Mango-A-Go-Go. But I don't see how that relates to computer questions. Useight (talk) 01:28, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Go to Start -> Control Panel -> Jamba Juice and pick your settings from there --f f r o t h 08:37, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Or Apple > System Preferences if you are using OS X. Personally I think the OS X Jamba Juice settings are a lot more sensible than the Vista ones. And everyone knows you can't have Jamba Juice on Linux without spending a few hours hacking it first. --24.147.69.31 (talk) 22:14, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

The vista defaults may not be very sensible but at least you can configure them.. --f f r o t h 23:16, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Runescape

This game is strange can some one tell me the point of it?! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.222.156.191 (talk) 01:43, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

See timesink and weeaboo --f f r o t h 08:37, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

That second link has....issues. Can you tell us directly what you were trying to link to? -SandyJax (talk) 18:03, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

Weeaboo... Sort of like an Otaku. --Mdwyer (talk) 20:39, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

What is the point of any video game? You never gain anything in long run besides better hand eye coordination. Doppelganger (talk) 16:51, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Worm.Win32.NetSky

My PC seems to have caught a virus by the above mentioned name, but my anti-virus program isn't picking up the file. How do I fix this? 75.50.237.22 (talk) 04:11, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Googling for the name suggests that this tool from Microsoft ought to fix it. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 07:56, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the help. You see, I got a new computer for Christmas and have been busy trying to relocate a lot of online data I lost during the switch. I guess my computer got a hold of a codec or active-x file that diagreed with it. In any event, this fixed the problem. TomStar81 (Talk) 23:06, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

ZTE USB Modem

Hello Wikipedian ! I am using ZTE USB MODEM 3100.Are there any deriver for Ubuntu ?I try the ZTE website but cant find any .If any one have please tell from i can download it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.125.143.70 (talk) 07:57, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

What does lsusb say about it? --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 09:06, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

FAT-16 and Long File Names

Dear Wikipedians:

While working with the FAT-16 partitions on my USB stick, I observed something that perplexed me (In a pleasant way):

I thought that old DOS systems only allowed 8.3 filenames. And FAT-16, being the workhorse fs of old DOS systems, should likewise only allow 8.3 filenames. Yet I discovered that I am able to store LFN files perfectly on FAT-16 partitions on my USB stick, and if I boot up under real DOS, then those files show up as (first6letters)~1.txt or something like that.

So how can FAT-16 store long file names for Windows?

Thanks.

76.65.12.133 (talk) 15:06, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

When long filenames came out, every file ended up having two names -- its short name and its long name. Since there's nowhere on a short-filename-only filesystem to store the long names, they're stored in a hidden file in the same directory, which contains the mapping between short names and long names. This sort of technique is known either as a "disgusting kludge", "neat hack", or "elegant engineering solution", depending on your proclivities. —Steve Summit (talk) 15:22, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

You're right, except that the long filenames are not stored in a hidden file, but in additional directory entries (disguised as volume labels so operating systems unaware of them would ignore them). --Dapeteばか 22:48, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Long file names are stored on FAT volumes in the same way regardless of whether it's FAT12, FAT16, or FAT32. The original Windows 95 didn't support FAT32 but did support long file names on FAT16 and FAT12. Windows 95 OSR2 and later shipped with a version of MS-DOS that supported FAT32 but not long file names. -- BenRG (talk) 17:58, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, I understand now, so LFN has nothing to do with FAT 12/16/32, and FAT 12/16/32 has nothing to do with LFN. It's all an elegant hack of mutual ignorance between fs and overlaying OS. Wow, that's very interesting. Now my further question would be: is LFN natively supported under NTFS/ReiserFS? Or is it just another interesting hack? 76.65.12.133 (talk) 03:35, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

The way long file names are stored on FAT volumes has nothing to do with the size of each field in the File Allocation Table, which is what the number after "FAT" means, but it is specific to the FAT file system. It uses weird invalid directory entries which depend on the details of FAT's directory structure. NTFS was designed from the start to support long file names (up to 255 UTF-16 words, I think), and it also supports optional short file names for compatibility with MS-DOS and Win16 apps. ReiserFS is a Unix file system and just has file names (up to 255 bytes, I think). There may be a hack to store short file names on a ReiserFS volume, but if so it's unrelated to the FAT hack. Early Unix file systems had fairly restrictive filename limits (14 or 15 characters), but it was never entrenched enough to require a permanent backward-compatibility hack. -- BenRG (talk) 13:03, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. now I totally understand. 76.65.12.133 (talk) 19:24, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

overconfidence

Well apparently I was too confident in my abilities to mess with computers. I took apart one of my old computers and now I seem to not be able to put it back together again. Is there a source online I can use? Thanks, schyler (talk) 15:12, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Will [1] help? Kushal^t 15:15, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Thank you that will do nicely. schyler (talk) 16:08, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Glad to be of help. Good luck! Kushal^t 06:41, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

 Done

Bridging networks

Hi...I have a laptop with a wireless network card. I use this to connect to other laptops in ad-hoc mode. I also have a wired LAN which I use frequently. Is there any way to bridge both the networks?? I know that wireless and wired LAN can be somehow bridged in XP but I don't know how to do that. Also is there a special way for the same in Vista?? I want to bridge the network so that I would be able to play multiplayer games with users of both the LANs simultaneously. Please help... —Preceding unsigned comment added by Piyushbehera25 (talk • contribs) 16:54, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

For Windows XP, try this: Go to Control Panel, Network Connections. Select the two connections in question (click on the first, Ctrl+click on the second). Right click and choose Bridge Connections. --Bavi H (talk) 00:24, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

my first spam

For some reason my hotmail email account now gets some spam every day - mostly in the junk folder, mostly it appears from someone with dyxlexia with viagra to sell... My question is - is there any way to stop it coming, or reduce the amount - it seems to come from multiple addresses.. ??87.102.89.223 (talk) 17:02, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

If you've put up your e-mail address somewhere - take it down. Don't give your e-mail address out all over the place (like when registering at weird sites). If it really annoys you and you can afford it (if relatively few people know the address and and it's not very important, and it'd be easy to inform them that you're switching) - get a new one. --Ouro (blah blah) 17:43, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

The easiest way to get rid of spam is to just hit "delete" when it comes in. When it gets to the point where that doesn't work anymore, change your e-mail address. Annoying? Sure. Apocalyptic problem? Not really, not on an individual level. (The collective effect of spam is great, the individual effect is not.) --24.147.69.31 (talk) 18:06, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

The apparent dyslexia is an attempt to trick the spam filter. Kushal^t 20:46, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

I have a Pobox address (about $15/year) which relays to a Gmail address (free). Pobox and Gmail each do some automatic spam filtering, and between them they catch nearly everything, with very few false positives (every few weeks I find something in Gmail's spam folder that shouldn't be there). —Tamfang (talk) 20:57, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. Because of stylistic similarities in the spam I'm getting I'm assuming it's all from the same source - I was hoping there would be some way of blocking this source.. I'd like to avoid to having to trawl through a spam junk box just in case something legitimate is also in there. I press 'mark as unsafe' which is supposed to block the sender but messages keep coming. Maybe they'll eventually run out of mail addresses. Thanks for your responses.87.102.126.26 (talk) 21:32, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

I look the leap of actually reading the hotmail help page - realised I wasn't reporting the spam just blocking it.. I'll try the new method I've found and see if that helps. Thanks anyway87.102.126.26 (talk) 21:34, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

They'll never "run out of addresses" because most of the addresses don't exist anyway. Unfortunately, the SMTP protocol (which handles internet e-mail) allows you to send messages and put anything you want in the return address. (see SMTP#Security_and_spamming for technical details). Spam blacklists will never really work, heuristic approaches become just an arms race between programmers and spammer (and sorting through spam boxes to find the few pieces of legitimate mail is about as time consuming as just deleting the spam as it arrives—I see no advantage). Legislation only confines those within their jurisdictions, and even then is hard to prove and prosecute. In the end only universal use of authenticated protocols will probably produce any real results. Until then, just click "delete." --24.147.69.31 (talk) 22:12, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Wait a minute... Does this also mean that it is possible to send mail and pretend that it came from some address that does exist? This can have results much more devestating than spam. -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 20:48, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Yes. In fact, most of the spam is sent with forged address. Spammers have a lists of millions of email addresses. They pick one address from the list to be used as receiver address, and another address to be filled in "from" field. That is why you often get "returned mail" spam. If the original spam was sent to non-existent address and your address was used in the from field, you will get the returned email. Also, this is the reason why you usually can not block the spammer using blacklist. - PauliKL (talk) 13:21, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

I was thinking more about the way organizations use email for communicating. If someone receives an email from an authoritative figure with a request for an action to be made, I think the reported sender address is assumed to be sufficient for determining that the mail is legitimate. Apparently this is invalid since anyone can pretend to be anyone else and give bogus orders. Oh well, one more item to the list of stupendously wrong things with the world. -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 13:51, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Resolved

One solution I enjoy is to pretend that you're signed up to an avante-garde poetry mailing list. "Pyrophosphate melodious ponchartrain pussy / crotchetybegging annex spayed dolomitic ductwork", far out, man! --Sean 23:46, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

You could also try Steven Frank's coping strategy. -- BenRG (talk) 12:19, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

ray tracing hardware

Does anyone have (links) to the ray tracing hardware ARTVPS sells http://www.artvps.com/ I've tried the site but couldn't find much detail - I'm looking for info on what exactly their ray tracing processors do - how much hardware acceleration is built in, as well as technical details..

(Also there's no artvps page here should anyone want some work to do..)

Thanks87.102.89.223 (talk) 17:15, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Slow Startup

Hey Guys. I have a HP desktop, and when I start it up it goes to a black screen with a flashing underscore for a while. It then boots Vista. If instead of letting it go to the black screen I go to the boot menu and select the hard drive, it goes straight to loading Vista. Is there anyway of telling it to do this by default? Thanks for your help. Tiddly-Tom 19:57, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

It seems you need to change your boot priority. Can you say what order the boot priority is in your BIOS? Kushal^t 20:25, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

How would I tell? Tiddly-Tom 22:10, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Ok, I think I found it. It is 3rd in the list, after floppy and CD, I tried to move it up but it would not move! Tiddly-Tom 22:31, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

I haven't changed the boot menu of an HP in a while, but if I recall correctly, you just hit enter or space and move it up and down... If that doesn't work you could try and de-select the other two so that the hard drive is the only option left. --((FLYINGNINJAMONKEY)) ^((BANANA!)) 23:06, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

I don't mean to be demeaning but if moving hard disk up does not work, try moving floppy disk down. Maybe that will work. Kushal^t 03:35, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Gimp or Inkscape bug?

I followed the tutorial here to make a nifty radial pattern in Inkscape but when it's opened in the GIMP, some of the stripes appear dark red instead of with their gradient. This is a link to the SVG (you can open it in Inkscape or GIMP to see what I mean} This is a link to a screenshot of the GIMP with my file open

Is this a GIMP or Inkscape bug? The image displays correctly when opened in Firefox AND, interestingly, when I rotate the radial spokes around, the dark part moves as well. There's something about those particular radii. ----Seans Potato Business 21:25, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

It looks wrong in Safari—a lot of the spokes don't render at all. It looks fine in Firefox. My guess would be something strange in rendering the SVG. --24.147.69.31 (talk) 22:07, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

I don't know what's wrong, but here's a remake: new.svg

I deleted all the clones (except for the "main" spokes), then I grouped the four spokes, then rotated them (with Ctrl to snap angles) and stamped them with the space bar. (You have to let go of the Ctrl key to stamp. Just remember to hold the left mouse button.) --Kjoonlee 10:02, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Ubuntu demo cd

i tried booting from an Ubuntu demo cd, and this is my first ever experience with linux. how come .exe files don't work in ubuntu? —Preceding unsigned comment added by A MC' asdf (talk • contribs) 22:16, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

.exe files are intended for use in Windows. If you download WINE for Ubuntu, you can run .exe installers and use some .exe programs (check here for compatibility information). --((FLYINGNINJAMONKEY)) ^((BANANA!)) 23:01, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

"executability" of a file really shouldn't be described by file extension- even plain text can be executed with the proper interpreter. That's why in linux, any sort of file can be executed.. it's a filesystem permission called +x that you set on executable files like scripts and binaries. --23:15, 26 January 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Froth (talk • contribs)

RAM stuff

Okay, so I'm going to update my computer's RAM eventually and had a few questions. The Dell that I'm currently using has 512 MB RAM (it has two separate slots, though, and only one is being used), and I'd like to bump it up to 1 or 2 gigs. I found this on Newegg and like the looks and price of it; however, I know absolutely nothing about RAM except that I'd like more. How can I tell if it would be compatible with my computer? And how do I know if it can actually handle two gigs? According to the hardware information I could find (I'm running Ubuntu 7.10 and I'm a first-time user, do I don't know exactly where to find the type of RAM and all that), I've got an Intel Celeron CPU 2.60GHz processor. Could it handle this type of RAM? Or do I need more information? I'm lost. Thanks in advance, --((FLYINGNINJAMONKEY)) ^((BANANA!)) 22:59, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Newegg. Rules. --f f r o t h 23:13, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Ah... Well that certainly helps. :P Thanks a bunch. Can you think of any recommendations for good brands? I got a bunch of results (all slightly more expensive and a little slower that the one I was looking at), and I'm not entirely sure if any one brand trumps the others. --((FLYINGNINJAMONKEY)) ^((BANANA!)) 23:16, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

The brands don't matter much. Every once in awhile you'll get a dead chip but I don't think that has to do with the brand at all. In any case you can usually exchange it if it doesn't work. Just get the cheaper offerings—you're just throwing money away if you don't. --140.247.11.35 (talk) 23:20, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Cool, thanks everyone. I think I'll go with this one, as it's cheap and bumps my RAM up to a gig, which is just right. --((FLYINGNINJAMONKEY)) ^((BANANA!)) 23:25, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

The danger with bad memory isn't outright failure, it's dodgy bits. If none of the bits work it's only a minor hassle, but a single bad bit can cause significant loss of data and hair before you figure out the problem. It's probably worth running Memtest86 on new RAM. It is (or used to be) included on the Knoppix live CD, which is a generally useful thing to have around. I don't know whether the big names like Kingston and Crucial are actually any more reliable or whether the extra cost all goes to advertising. -- BenRG (talk) 00:57, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Hold your horses, you do NOT want to buy cheap RAM. If you don't get solid, name-brand memory like Corsair then you're looking at a significant risk of major system instability resulting in widespread data loss and your system generally getting borked. Buy quality RAM. --f f r o t h 01:31, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Eh, I've never seen anybody have trouble with cheap RAM, at least any more trouble than they had with name-brand RAM. I'd want to see solid independent evidence that "cheap" RAM was any less reliable before I start believing the advertising of the "name brand" guys (who of course are happy to claim there is a difference). --24.147.69.31 (talk) 19:07, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

"EVERYBODY KNOWS" that cheap ram is the worst thing you can do to an otherwise solid rig. You wouldn't buy a cheap PSU would you? --f f r o t h 20:33, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Haha, well, if you think "everybody knows" is going to be convincing to me, well, let's just say that "everybody knows" quite a few things that aren't true. In all of the tech support work I've done over the last decade-and-a-half, I've only once ran into a problem that ended up having buggy RAM as the culprit. I don't think it's a big issue these days, to be honest. The comparison with the PSU is quite inadequate—PSU architecture can very widely from manufacturer to manufacturer; to my knowledge RAM architecture does not, as long as you've got the same type and all. --24.147.69.31 (talk) 03:16, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

By the way, wintec is cheap so don't build a killer rig out of it, but it's generally pretty stable memory and you shouldn't have a problem --f f r o t h 01:32, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

dealram also has a system selector and will let you comparison shop, though you're unlikely to find anything much cheaper than Newegg. crucial.com also has one, and there are probably many more. You typically have many more options than these system selectors will show you. I just tried looking up my Thinkpad T40 2373-xxx on Newegg's and it gave me only two options, both of them 512MB PC-2100 SODIMMs costing $30. It didn't show me the 512MB PC-2700 SODIMMs which cost $25 and work just as well if not better; it also didn't seem to know that this system can accept 1GB DIMMs (I've got one in there right now). In general I would check your system's official specs (you can probably download this from the manufacturer's website) to see what it supports. Recent systems take either DDR (with names like PC-2100 and PC-2700) or DDR2 (with names like PC2-4200) and either DIMMs (desktops) or SO-DIMMs (laptops). Only the SO- and the PC- or PC2- part matters; the four digits are the speed, which doesn't affect compatibility and probably won't noticeably affect your system's speed either. -- BenRG (talk) 00:57, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Okay... Lots of stuff to think about. Thanks all, you've been very helpful. --((FLYINGNINJAMONKEY)) ^((BANANA!)) 03:31, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

January 27

online sex robot

is it possible to make a robot so that two people have sex over the internet here is the plan:

• woman has penis bot
• man has vagina bot
• they have sex with the bots, which collect data about what their doing and then send it to the partner bot that then does what the person did —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.185.129.228 (talk) 01:41, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Teledildonics. —Steve Summit (talk) 01:46, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

The article doesn't mention it but bear in mind latency is always an issue when you have real time communication devices. For some purposes, e.g. normal vocal communication 500 ms or so latency isn't a big issue. I would imagine it could be an issue in something like this Nil Einne (talk) 15:01, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

it could also be used for game controller! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.185.129.228 (talk) 01:51, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Integer Variables

Hello. In the Turing programming language or maybe other programming languages, why must font variables be assigned as integers? To draw a font in graphics mode, the syntax must be

    var font : int := Font.New ("Arial:10:bold")
    Font.Draw ("Say what you must", x, y, font, black)
    Font.Free (font)

x and y are coordinates where the font is drawn. Thanks in advance. --Mayfare (talk) 02:19, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

It is common for the "font" variable or argument to be either a pointer to a font or an index in an array of fonts. Both pointers and array indexes are commonly represented as integers. -- kainaw™ 03:53, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

More generically than Kainaw's answer, it's common in programming when you have a bunch of things that have no natural order to just number them from 1 to X and refer to them by that number. This is done in real life, too, like when they label menu items with numbers for easy reference. --Sean 13:25, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

pdf creator for Apple

Is there some ready-to-use software for Apple that allows to create pdf files--possibly out of any programs? I'm thinking of something along the lines of pdfcreator, but it seems pdfcreator exists only for Windows. Thanks! Thanks! Thanks for answering (talk) 11:18, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Saving a document as a PDF file --Sean 14:02, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

As the article Sean links to indicates, every "Print" menu in OS X has a "Save as PDF" option on it. --24.147.69.31 (talk) 18:47, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

follow-up: extracting pictures/ graphics from pdf files

And the opposite question: How do I extract pictures, tables etc. from pdf files (using Windows or Apple)? Are there tricks to receive a good resolution? I'd like to use them in a printed document (obviously including proper citations). Thanks! Thanks! Thanks for answering (talk) 15:08, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

"Proper citations" do not change the fact that if you are copying images without permissioin, you are commiting a crime. You must have permission from the copyright holder. - PauliKL (talk) 20:47, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Are screenshots good enough? Command + Shift + 3 for whole screen and Command + Shift + 4 for selection (drag the pointer across the place you want. Apple Mac OS X (mine is 10.4) outputs the image as a PNG on the desktop. Hope that helps.

Regards,

Kushal^t 16:11, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, I know how to do screenshots, but they're not really the quality I'd need for the document. I assume they'll the best possible way for tables... but is there some trick to extract pictures without such a loss of quality? Thanks for answering (talk) 16:51, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

In the newer versions of Adobe Reader (e.g. Reader 8) you can select the images with the normal select tool and then "Copy Image" by right clicking on it. Then you can paste it into an image editing program at full resolution. Sometimes I've had this not work correctly—it'll paste the image in with a very incorrect aspect ratio—but usually it works. --24.147.69.31 (talk) 18:47, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Authenticated protocols

What are they? Will they ever become universally used? If not why not? If so, when? MrsBucket (talk) 11:22, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

I assume this is in reference to the "my first spam" thread above. See E-mail authentication. Another potential defense against spam is Hashcash. -- BenRG (talk) 13:29, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Basically SMTP-AUTH is like SMTP except that the server requires a password in order to let you send mail through it. With regular SMTP, I can claim to be anyone and usually the server will be fine with that; with SMTP-AUTH, the server makes sure you're actually who you claim to be. Pretty dopey that they never did it that way to begin with, but oh well. Will they ever become universally used? I'd be surprised—aside from being a pain to set up (for reasons I do not understand), in order for their use to be "universal" you'd have to shut down all support for SMTP. I can't imagine how you'd ever implement that at this stage. --24.147.69.31 (talk) 18:52, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

More DIY computer help please!

So I've looked round the web, but am still at a loss; how does one decide how big a PSU is required, I can list the components used if required. MHDIV ɪŋglɪʃnɜː(r)d(Suggestion?|wanna chat?) 12:25, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

If you can find enough documentation, you should be able to find the power usage for the major components (the CPU, the graphics adaptor, optical drives, and hard drives). Add these up, then multiply by some handwavy fudge-factor to account for the other stuff, and you're done. It's best to err on the upside (although this will generally make for a louder PSU) rather than underestimating the requirement (which can cause all manner of weird post-boot crashes and reboots). With a built system you can verify that all the power lines are at their requisite levels with a voltmeter - you need to test the system when everything is really cranking (a modern graphics-intensive videogame which cranks the CPU and graphics, and ideally is running the hard drives too); it's a common mistake to test the system at boot (when the CPU and GPU aren't working very hard) and then wondering why the system locks up (due to something undervolting) when its asked to do something heavy. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 12:42, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Start at 300 Watts and move up from there if you're connecting a lotta stuff. Cheers, Ouro (blah blah) 13:15, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Most graphics cards require at least 400 watts, so don't go less than that. Useight (talk) 22:36, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Graphics cards power dissipation 400W???? I dont think so. --TreeSmiler (talk) 23:23, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

OK maybe one or 2 do, but most only use about 50W--TreeSmiler (talk) 23:26, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

No, no, I wasn't saying that the graphics card itself uses 400 watts, but if you look at the system requirements on a graphics card box, it will list 400 watts as a mininum and usually 600 watts if you're using SLI. Of course the 400 watts powers the graphics card, motherboard, hard drives, optical drives, PCI cards, and whatever else you have in the machine. Before you add the graphics card, you should be fine with the ~300 watt PSU that came with the PC, but after adding the video card, you'll likely need 400 or more. Useight (talk) 00:02, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

And also beware that the generic brands will probably unable to deliver the full rated wattage for very long time. My generic 400W power supply couldn't take it anymore 2 weeks after I put my 250gig drive in. Now my 430W Thermaltake PSU is doing fine with the new drive, overclocking and a new array of fans. --antilived^{T | C | G} 23:59, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Short-term broadband?

Does anyone know whether I can get a short-term broadband, with no installation charges, in the UK? I will be between jobs so I only need a connection for a few months, and everything I need is already installed. Most companies seem to require a minimum one year contract plus an installation charge. Thanks.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 19:45, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Freedom2surf do not have a contract (I use them, they are very good but not the cheapest around). I have also looked at The 3-network's mobile-broadband (http://www.three.co.uk/personal/products_services_/mobile_broadband_/index.omp) they do a pay-as-you-go system that is £15 for 3GB and you get a month to use that quota (or 7gig for £25). It uses the mobile-network and gets broadband speeds (though not as quick as landlines). The pay as you go has no contract but you need to buy their dongle-modem which costs £100... I'm moving to that system soon to trial it, see whether it works - because it has the added benefit of letting me take my laptop with me anywhere and as long as I have a mobile-signal I can access the net. The price is a bit high but I don't do a whole lot of 'high Mb' surfing. ny156uk (talk) 22:36, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

You could look at the guide at http://www.thinkbroadband.com for this, as well other information and user feedback on suppliers. You could also try the knowledgable people on the newsgroup uk.telecom.broadband. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 22:40, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

January 28

Different graphic cards

Why do some graphic cards have different company names in front of them. For example, "PNY GeForce xxxx" or "BFG GeForce XXXX". Isn't the GeForce line of graphic cards made exclusively by nVidia? Acceptable (talk) 00:13, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

BFG seem to use the nVidia technology. I would image they have licensed its use from PNY--TreeSmiler (talk) 00:31, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

Both nVidia and ATI license their graphics processing units to other vendors. For example, I have a Dell at work that has a motherboard apparently from Via with an ATI graphics processor on it. It comes up as a Dell Radeon or Via Radeon (depending on the program used to check it). It is not 100% compatible with the official ATI drivers. Of note, Via and IBM also license their own graphics processing units. I know I had a hell of a time with the i810 chip from IBM on a few motherboards. I personally haven't seen any Matrox chips licensed out - but I'm sure they do it also. -- kainaw™ 01:37, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

When looking at different brands, I would recommend XFX or eVGA. Useight (talk) —Preceding comment was added at 02:49, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

nVidia makes the GPU chips. Other companies buy these chips and make video cards out of them. APL (talk) 03:46, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

You could think of GPU vs. graphic card as being similar to CPU vs. a motherboard. The processing unit is a small device which does all the hard-core number crunching, and the mobo\G.card provides the conditions necessary for its operation. There are many brands producing mobos and G.cards (and I think it's roughly the same brands for both), but the processors are made by specialists (for CPUs you have Intel and AMD, and for GPUs you have Nvidia and ATI which now happens to be a part of AMD). -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 13:41, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

Essentially Nvidia or AMD design the chip, and either allow the chip design to be made by a 3rd party company for a fee, or ship the chips to the 3rd party. Then they create the board (including the chip) to conform with Nvidias design. Occasionally the 3rd party may increase clock speed of the memory. Most of the cheaper boards are a carbon copy of Nvidias stock design including the fan and whatnot. Companies like XFX, BFG, or Gainward will deviate on designs of the cooler and memory clock, making the graphics card run faster or whatever. There should be no compatibility issues between an Nvidia stock board and a 3rd party one, and they should run using Nvidia's drivers, and I personally have never seen this being an issue. TheGreatZorko (talk) 13:34, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

The most convenient library search interface?

Is there a library providing such service:

• Catalog search: By author, date, publisher, category (fiction, science, ...), catalog number, ...
• Full text or partial text search: If the book is in public domain, you can look up a book by using full text search. If the book is copyrighted, the search engine searches abstract and available text.

If I know a book's author, I can enter the name. If i want to look up a book about "King James Version", I can search the book's keywords, abstract, or full text. What is your most favorite library search interface? -- Toytoy (talk) 02:54, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

There's no single library out there that contains full text search of books yet. You'll have to rely on Google Books for that at the moment. But in terms of catalog search, every library system out there that I know of allows you to do that. The problem is, of course, that in libraries with LOTS of books, you are going to get TONS of results for any search unless you are very, very specific. For libraries with not so many books, you'll get more manageable results, but from a much smaller set of books. Personally I have never found a good library interface (at many universities and etc. that I have been at) that really found a way to bridge that gap -- to allow for more targeted searches but with depth. I imagine that Google Books will someday probably outperform all existing library catalogs (simply because the people at Google are much more thoughtful about how searching should work than any library IT staff I have met, and I've met a few!), though it currently is still growing. --24.147.69.31 (talk) 03:11, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

This is why I ask this question. Project Gutenberg and many other projects allows us to search inside books. Amazon.com provides search inside as a way to sell more books to confusing customers. I may not know any WW2 author, but I can always search ... . Public libraries need to have a better system to lead people to books.

However, Amazon.com does not seem to have a good enough catalog search interface. Are there any similar search system working under this logic? I mean a business may keep millions documents. You may want a business document, you may want to search by bibliographical data (e.g., 2001 national dealership blah blah ...), or by full text search (e.g., "japanese market"). Are there any system? -- Toytoy (talk) 03:27, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

Public libraries don't have a profit motive and not much money so it's not surprising they haven't invested in the expensive task of digitizing books (Google is reportedly spending $100 million on is endeavors, not including any legal fees). Additionally there are many copyright issues that come from mass digitization, as both Amazon and Google have learned. Project Gutenberg would be very expensive if people were charging them for their time. All in all I think it is a bit unreasonable to expect public libraries to try and pick up that slack, especially when these other resources already exist and are growing on their own accord. It's no great task to use Google Books to look up the citation info for a book and then to plug that into your local library catalog to see if they have it.

To my knowledge, as someone who has worked on such systems, most document retrieval systems are highly specialized to the documents in question -- custom built databases specific to the task. It is not hard to write a system that is searchable by any given number of fields (assuming you have those already entered in somehow -- data entry, in all of this, is the most difficult and prohibitive factor because it requires direct human action) and if you have already scanned things in with OCR is it trivial to make that into a very simple search engine (it is harder to make one like Google Books, of course). --24.147.69.31 (talk) 13:23, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

Video editing/compositing software with music sync?

So I came across this video on YouTube recently: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nhizo7KrZrw

And going by the sheer speed of the song and how perfectly Ronald McDonald pantomimes to the music, I'm pretty sure this was made with some video editing software that had the ability to sync up video events with notes in a midi file, or something similar.

What specific video editing software out there for the PC has this capability? If it's a rare feature seen in video software, is there a "likely" software that was used in this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.165.32.244 (talk) 16:13, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

I doubt it was done in any way other than just by hand in a non-linear editor. It would take just as long to indicate where in the video file you wanted it to sync up with the MIDI events ?(and inevitably having to fix things that didn't work as planned) as it would be to just do it all that way from the beginning. But maybe I'm wrong. --24.147.69.31 (talk) 00:19, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Note also that just because it is long doesn't mean that it's hard. The various segments of the music all have the same timing and there is a lot of repetition of actions. Once you set up one set of "Ronald falling backwards on the bench" it's a simple matter of copying and pasting to make it a second time. I counted only about 5 or 6 different elements in my brief watching of it. --24.147.69.31 (talk) 00:23, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Clear reasons why employees need to use their work email accounts

This is a question not about technical specifications but computer usage. A friend of mine works in a small college, part of a larger group, where until recently most staff were freelancers and so used their personal email accounts (webmail such as hotmail or ISPs to their homes). Now most of them have been "hired" by the college and a directive has come down that they should use their work accounts. Some of them cannot see the reasons why: they are comfortable doing what they have always done, including giving their home addresses to students. This friend asked me how to persuade her staff to change and all I could think to say was, "If they don't look in their work in-boxes, they will never see the stuff that is sent from within the organization." She seemed to think that might be perceived as a benefit. Can any of you come up with persuasive reasons? "You have to" is not good enough! I tried searching for terms such as "email policy students" but didn't get anywhere. A similar policy in another company or educational institution would be great, but any ideas are welcome. Thanks! BrainyBabe (talk) 17:29, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

I know of a similar policy at a university. Twenty years ago, it made good sense to issue email addresses to students- they were not otherwise easily available. These days, students mostly come in already having an email address which they're comfortable with. I've argued that we should give them a way to tell us what their email address is, and only issue them a new one if they want it. However, it's difficult to get people to move away from tradition. The best answer we've come up with is "if you use our email system, we can guarantee delivery, and those other guys can't." This isn't a particularly valid reason, but it's the best I've heard. Friday (talk) 17:39, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

It allows for consistency. If I have had email conversations/requests through, say, Thomas.Jeffersion@madeupcompany.co.uk and he refers me to his colleague William Shakespeare, I can often 'assume' their email address will be the same setup. It also ensures that you can have consistent branding of your organisation making it easier for people to see the email is from a 'reliable' source. If I got an email from a company like Shell and it came from DaveMadeUp@hotmail.com I would be suspicious - it might not even make it through my spam-filter. Additionally it appears more professional when people are using corporate-accounts as they are often more likely to be Firstname.Surname@company.nationalwebidentifier rather than something stupid such as DaveMadeUp1956@hotmail.com etc. ny156uk (talk) 17:44, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

Good reasons. Another: it allows for sensible handover if a member of staff leaves. If I email fred@localcollege.edu, but Fred has left and Bob has taken over, then the email can be set up to send the mail to Bob instead; or, at worst, bounce, then the user knows their mail didn't get through and can resend it to a generic address. If in the same circumstance I email fred@myhomeisp.com, then it goes to Fred even though he doesn't work there any more, perhaps with confidential information.

Most (though not all) of these advantages still apply if you insist on staff using their company email addresses for work purposes, BUT allow them to set them up to forward to a home address (this is what I do at work). This brings most of the advantages while dealing with most possible objections. Might this be an option? TSP (talk) 18:10, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks guys, keep them coming! The institution's policy, after some enquiry, turns out to refuse staff the right to forward their work email to a home address (not sure whether their technies do anything to prevent this, or it's just that staff aren't supposed to). The directive I referred to is something that came up in a meeting she attended -- "staff should give their work addresses to students". I will make suer she gets all the ideas listed here. Any more? BrainyBabe (talk) 18:23, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

Hotmail and other webmail services may be vectors for spyware, viruses, worms, etc. Are these staff members using computers provided by the institution, and/or connecting to a network provided by the institution? If so, then the network administrators have a responsibility to safeguard if from any/all potential problems. Depending on the nature of the emails being sent and the jurisdiction that the college falls under, there may also be requirements for retention of emails. When one accepts employment with an organization, that doesn't simply mean "oh hey, I get a paycheck now." There are lots of legal policies and requirements that fall onto both parties. If these staff members don't like "you have to" as an answer, then I'm sure they are free to pursue employment someplace where the policies are more the their liking. --LarryMac | Talk 18:52, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

In my experience, most webmail clients have better automatic virus/spam scanning than do most university e-mail services. University IT departments, even at very well-funded universities, are notoriously underfunded, and thus understaffed, underpaid, and underqualified, compared to private companies. --24.147.69.31 (talk) 23:51, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

I was in a situation a bit like this a while ago as an I.T.-based temp worker. My manager decided not to give me an organisational address because it was a bit of a pain to get one. I ended up working there for 16 months with a Hotmail, then Yahoo address. I missed out on departmental email, I got things later than everyone else, I had to make my own backups, my Hotmail address went haywire and started sending 6 copies of every email to any organisational address, and while dealing with urgent problems, I found myself explaining to other members of staff who I was and why I why I was harrassing them. Plus my unprofessional email was not the best thing for communicating with students. By the end of it, I would have killed for a organisational email. --Kateshortforbob 20:48, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

I don't understand why they all need to use it. My university gives everyone an e-mail/computing account, but doesn't require you to use the e-mail, as long as you leave some valid e-mail contact with the university. I have to admit I think it's a pretty stupid policy. Let people use whatever they want, as long as you have someone to e-mail them. It doesn't sound to me like there is a great justification for it, other than, "it pleases management, even though it probably doesn't please you." That's not a good reason. --24.147.69.31 (talk) 23:51, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

I don't mind having to keep a organizational email address. However, it makes no sense to me to not allow forwarding. Hold on, do they allow POP access? If so, you can use Gmail or something to forward it to your proper/default address. Kushal^t 00:45, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Does the policy disallow this use? Kushal^t 00:49, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Ugh quit whining about having to use the company/school mail server. In case you forgot, the "@domain" part is supposed to be common for everyone on the domain. It makes no design sense to go through other networks to get your email when you have an account on the local domain. Also it's just stupid to have to ask someone their domain when you're both using the SAME NETWORK. Yeah it sounds restrictive but once you're comfortably in the fold, it's nice only having to remember someone's name to email them. And microsoft has some wiggidy-wack enterprise stuff that's fun to play with if your university is microsoft-addicted enough to actually pay for it :D\=< (talk) 03:43, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

People should not have to switch around their mail programs and addresses if they don't want to. My university, for example, has shitty e-mail servers that can't take large attachments, are often down, offers only a very poor webmail client, and will revoke the account the second one graduates. Should one be forced to use them if they'd rather use Gmail? Why? As long as they have an address on file with the university, the university can still get in contact with them. As for other people finding their address, it's actually NOT always desirable to have a firstname.lastname@domain sort of system, because that lets anyone--inside the system and out of it--e-mail you to their heart's content, whether they know you or not. In many situations that is not desirable, hence most universities have multiple levels of privacy settings for that sort of thing. There's no good justification for it, and "quit whining" is a pretty stupid way to justify something that doesn't make a lot of sense. --24.147.69.31 (talk) 17:06, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Fair enough, but remember my OP is about employees, not students (who may wish to be seen as clients). There are operational and legalistic rationales for these policy decisions; I'm interested in how different organizations codify or explain these. The policy, as I understand it, forbids authomatic forwarding of email, so I would imagine that includes POP. Most of what's been posted above is indeed food for thought, and I am grateful. Any more contributions are very welcome. BrainyBabe (talk) 17:31, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Where I work, users can freely send emails to each other within the company's domain. However, if you want to send an email to someone on the outside, you have to attach a statement that the contents are of a non-sensitive nature. Emails to the outside world are automatically scanned, and bounce back if they lack this statement. The point is to reduce the danger of sending sensitive information to the outside world. An example of the dangers involved surfaced in the Norwegian press a couple of years ago when an advisor to the prime minister's office sent a memo to the prime minister before a TV duel with an opposition leader. However, instead of using "post@smk.dep.no", the memo was sent to "post@smk.no" (Smk is an abbreviation for "Statsministerens kontor", the prime ministers office). The problem was that the domain smk.no belonged to a small company, "Skandinavisk Miniatyr Kulelager" whose owner was a local representative of the opposition party. The Norwegian government has since bought the domain, "smk.no". --NorwegianBlue ^talk 19:14, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Freenet: tracing the source

If I insert a file to Freenet, is it possible for someone to trace who (from what IP) inserted the file? --grawity ^{talk / PGP} 19:42, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

Not intentionally — it anonymizes everything. Depending on how that is done (if it just uses simple hashes, for example), it might be possible to later re-discover it (e.g. with rainbow tables) but assuming the people who set it up were serious about the project I'd guess that isn't easy and/or feasible at all. --24.147.69.31 (talk) 23:58, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

That's one of the things that Freenet is designed to make difficult. My understanding of it, based on the 2002 IEEE paper, is that the difficulty of tracing an insertion request comes from two things: (a) connections between nodes are encrypted a la HTTPS, and (b) it's hard to tell whether a request originated at your node or is merely being forwarded for someone else. If your node has low activity (e.g. you start up Freenet, insert something, then shut it down again), then traffic analysis may be able to pin a request on you with high probability. If your adversary controls all the nodes that your node knows about, then they can see all requests going in or out and figure out which ones belong to you. Otherwise I think it'd be rather difficult to do this within the network. There are other lines of attack, of course. If your adversary controls your internet connection, they can feed you a compromised version of the Freenet software. If they can get into your home and install a keylogger, all bets are off. If you wrote the document you published, forensic linguistics might be able to tie it back to you. -- BenRG (talk) 17:09, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

My node is running as a service (the default way), and my computer's up for about 5-8 hours a day. And all communications between nodes are encrypted (AFAIK). --grawity ^{talk / PGP} 19:06, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

UPS software

Hi, I am looking for some generic UPS software that above all, tells me how much battery life is left on my line-interactive UPS. Monitoring VA usage etc. would be nice. My UPS is a no-name brand and comes with some crappy software that doesn't tell me much. I downloaded WinPower but it refuses to detect the UPS and I think WinPower is limited to certain UPS's anyway. I am using Windows XP. Thanks. Sandman30s (talk) 19:45, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

I assume you have already tried the built-in Windows Power Management UPS features? It supports a very broad variety of UPSs, right out of the box. --Mdwyer (talk) 20:36, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

You mean the UPS Tab of Power Options in Control Panel? I fiddled with the polarity settings there a bit, but it kept on shutting down my PC. Unless there is a bit more than just that tab? Sandman30s (talk) 21:25, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

Yep, sorry. That's all I can guess. Incidently, cheap UPSs usually don't do true serial signalling. They're unable to report things like their load and status. They will often just raise or lower handshake lines. They're only able to report one or two digital statuses. They can say, "I'm on battery", "The battery is dying" and that's it. --Mdwyer (talk) 21:59, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

meta.xml

Both Microsoft Office and OpenOffice now use XML-based file formats. Are there tools that allow me to batch convert text or other files to XML-based formats and then append file properties to each file?

Foe example, can you download books from Project Gutengerg and compile a catalog using a spreadsheet (e.g., file name, URL, book title, author, date, ...) and then convert the files to .odt and append each book's bibliographical data to the .odt file so each file becomes a self-contained source of data?

• File name: 120.txt
• URL: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/120/120.txt
• Title: Treasure Island
• Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
• Date: ...

The .odt format saves files properties in meta.xml. I think it is possible to write a too to generate meta.xml files and then replace the original meta.xml with user-generated meta.xml.

I can use a desktop search engine to retrieve books.

Are there any available tools? -- Toytoy (talk) 19:58, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

January 29

Google Talk compatible program on Mac

What program can I use to Voice chat with Google talk users? I am on Mac OS X 10.4. Kushal^t 00:05, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Google Google? --24.147.69.31 (talk) 00:40, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

What are you kidding? Use Pidgin :D\=< (talk) 03:46, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Can I use it for voice chat? I tried it but was unable to ... Kushal^t 01:52, 29 January 2008 (UTC)ß

Froth, Pidgin recommends that Mac OS X users use Adium instead^{[Citation needed]}. Neither Pidgin nor Adium seem to support VoIP (in main program or via plug-ins). I have a macbook and I want to talk with people who are on MS Windows XP^pro. Since Google is using open standards^{[Citation needed]} in Google talk, I am interested in supporting it.

Do you use VoIP between Windows XP and Mac OS X? If you use any software other than Skype please let me know. Thank you. Kushal^t 04:40, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

PS: I do have Adium installed and I like it very much. However, I was looking for a program for Voice Chat.

Oh adium right. Well I use google talk in windows (voice chat supported) and pidgin in linux (no voice chat). Google Talk's voice chat is not a real part of jabber, it's just something Google made up. The Jabbin project (link if that other one is red) seems to be able to work with google's libjingle. The mac version is "in development," though I'm sure you can get a nightly or something. --:D\=< (talk) 09:48, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

If I remember correctly, Jingle is already a part of Jabber (or at least is going to be). --grawity ^{talk / PGP} 14:40, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Well whatever, point is you need google talk or jabbin to use it :D\=< (talk) 22:48, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Telepathy_(software) looks promising. Any ideas? Kushal^t 21:42, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Another is Decibel_(KDE). I hope KDE decides to make Kopete a cross platform application. Kushal^t 23:43, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Any ideas on when a mac OS X version of VoIP capable Kopete will be available? Kushal^t 06:33, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Web proxy that will support flash?

Anyone know of a web based proxy that would support flash, etc? I want to be able to watch video restricted outside of original broadcast country. Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Onionbubs (talk • contribs) 05:28, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Most web proxies should do it automatically, but your main problem is going to be bandwidth.. watching video is a spectacular waste of bandwidth and a lot of proxies probably cap you at some point --:D\=< (talk) 09:50, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Tor-Proxy.net appears to support flash, however, as with most of the tor network, its very slow. Think outside the box 13:52, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Typedefs in a hurry

Given this C++ snippet:

#include<vector>
template<class T> void foo(std::vector<T> &a,std::vector<T> &b) {
  typedef std::vector<T> v;
  v vec(a);
}

is there any way to avoid spelling out the templated type name of the arguments? I can, as demonstrated, avoid using the long type name more than once inside the function. But what I want is something like

#include<vector>
template<class T> {
  typedef std::vector<T> v;
  void foo(v &a,v &b) {
    v vec(a);
  }
}

which just doesn't work at all. (At this point, it sounds like I want the fabled template typedefs that may be added to the language soon, and I know how to fake those. But what I want can be done for a single function — at least, for uses within the function's block — so I maintain hope that some declaratory trick might let me have the typedef in effect when the function's arguments are declared.) --Tardis (talk) 18:59, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

And I guess you don't want to use a #define for that? Awful, yes, but would work. -- ReyBrujo (talk) 19:15, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

secure pseudorandom number generation

Prof just blew through a completely BS answer to my question.. anyone have any insights?

I know that the DH key exchange depends on 2 randomly generated numbers that both parties keep secret. But how do you make a non-predictable pseudorandom number generator out of open source software? Nobody uses those fancy X pixel-tester rand seeders, and only the NSA can afford to point high-resolution cameras at plasma and hash the image stream.. how do the brains behind encryption libraries solve the problem of an evesdropper predicting their random number seed based on the general time of the observed connection?

:D\=< (talk) 20:26, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Generally, all pseudo-random number generators are predictable. So, you can fight this by hiding your PRNG implementation, or by hiding the inputs. Open source software does the latter. They preturb the random number stream by mixing it with sources of entropy. They take precise time stamps from 'random' events, like keyboard and mouse movements, or network packets. If you've got a linux box, try experiementing with /dev/random and /dev/urandom. One will spit out millions of random numbers, that suffer from predictability. The other mixes with entropy, but will stop spitting out numbers once the pool of entropy dries up. --Mdwyer (talk) 21:54, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

That sounds like a terrible idea- how does my encryption library have access to my mouse/keyboard? Thanks for your answer though, it's a lot better than "encrpytion protocols are kept secret" :D\=< (talk) 22:44, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

It's a great idea - has been since the Apple II or, I'm sure, earlier. "You - yes you there, you piece of code - count upward as fast as you can and wrap around and repeat until the user hits a key." "OK, boss, I got 4,002,199,939." Tempshill (talk) 22:50, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

As Tempshill said, it's a great source of random data. The least significant digits of the exact time when you hit a key on the keyboard (measured in, say, milliseconds, or less). It has high entropy, and you can generate as much as you need by simply typing a few sentances. 83.250.203.75 (talk) 23:15, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

The crypto library doesn't have access to those devices. Anyone implementing a device driver for a device that produces reasonably random outputs (such as "what is the low-order bit for how long my disk drive took to seek?") can add it to an O/S entropy pool, which anyone (including the crypto library) can later ask for bits from. It is good that you're thinking about separation of concerns, though. --Sean 00:11, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

As long as you don't need a massive amount of it, entropy for making unpredictable random numbers is not hard to come by at all. As other people have said, many (most?) unix based operating systems stockpile it from various sources (like keyboard/mouse on machines that have them) to be used later whenever a random number is requested from /dev/random.

Here is a very cheap opensource device for creating "Cryptographic quality randomness" by charging and discharging a capacitor, measuring it's voltage, and then using only the last bit of that measurement as a source of entropy.

There's also whimsical, but probably still perfectly solid, ways of generating entropy like lavarand, (and its less-whimsical spiritual successor LavaRnd.)

I don't have a link handy, but as I understand it radioactive decay and a geiger counter is one of the most theoretically strong sources of entropy. APL (talk) 23:56, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Hey, look! Hardware random number generator I'm rather fond of the "lock a web cam in a dark place" source of random. --Mdwyer (talk) 18:21, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Two steps, if you want to stick with PRNG instead of getting out hardware. Firstly, use a Cryptographically secure pseudorandom number generator algorithm. Secondly, don't grab a seed as you do the connection. The whole point of PRNGs is to obscure the seed over successive iterations, not to pick the first transformed number. For example, load a seed as the final few bits (i.e. the seconds, or microseconds, or whatever) of the time of the computer's boot up. Then, it would be impossible for an interceptor to guess the seed - and more importantly, the current state of the PRNG, unless he has something like physical access to your computer. In which case, no encryption in the world will save you.--Fangz (talk) 02:12, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

About the RD itself...

Each section has a "ask a new question by clicking here" link in the header/instructions. I have used that link, here. However, I want to ask a question ABOUT the Reference Desk, on the RD's discussion page, and I just don't see how to add a new entry there. What am I missing? -SandyJax (talk) 21:43, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Little bitty plus-sign (+) in one of the tabs at the top. --LarryMac | Talk 21:46, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

No, I'm NOT gonna say "Duh!" That wasn't exactly obvious. Thanks! -SandyJax (talk) 21:47, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

wince.. mm no I'm going to have to go with yeah that was pretty obvious :D\=< (talk) 22:46, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

I don't think it's obvious at all, but it is standard across all Wikipedia talk pages. I think "Start new topic" would be better, but there are competing concerns, I guess. --Sean 00:04, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Horror of horrors, "edit this page" is already large enough. We don't need that. Kushal^t 01:19, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Spell-checker algorithm

I was wondering how spell-checking algorithms usually work (like in Firefox or Word). I mean, the obvious answer (that seems to be correct) is that it selects a few dictionary-words with the smallest edit distance from the misspelled word (I'm guessing that it first looks up the word in a huge-ass hash table of the dictionary to see if it's misspelled at all). But how does it do that, exactly? I mean, I just checked my /usr/share/dict/words, and there's around 100,000 words in there. Does the program check all those words for their edit distance to the misspelled word every time you press space? I realize there is a fast dynamic programming algorithm, but it still seems mightily costly. I guess you could do a space-time trade off, and simply generate all the misspellings with an edit distance less than 2 or 3 and put them in a huge dictionary an list the words they are misspellings off. But as with all space-time trade offs, instead of being mightily costly, it would be mightily big. Am I drastically underestimating the speed of modern computers, or is there some algorithmic quirk I'm missing? 83.250.203.75 (talk) 23:09, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

I think you're underestimating the speed of modern computers. The naive edit-distance algorithm requires filling out a table of size mn where m and n are the sizes of the words being compared. For an average word length of 5 letters that's around 5·5·100000 = 2,500,000 table entries total. I don't know how long each table entry would take to calculate, but say 20 cycles (keeping in mind that everything will fit in L1 cache). That's around 50 million cycles or around a fortieth of a second. That would be too slow to use on every word, but you only need suggestions when you're about to put up a UI and wait for user input. Even a full second per suggestion list on a 486DX-33 wouldn't be too bad. Nevertheless I'm sure all real spelling checkers do something more sophisticated. It looks like GNU aspell converts words into a phonetic representation called "soundslike" and then does iterative deepening edit distance on that, with an index for small edit distances (1 and 2).[2] -- BenRG (talk) 15:18, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Finding misspellings and creating suggestions are two separate tasks. I've implemented a basic (very basic) spell checker before using a tree. For example, the word apple: you start with the letter 'a' then there would be a link to the letter 'p' and from there another 'p' -> 'l' -> 'e' -> end of word. If a word is misspelled you reach a letter that isn't linked. This is fast enough to take place every time you press space. There's probably a better way but I know this works. Mad031683 (talk) 22:41, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Google searching without calling up maps - possible?

When I've tried to Google a city for various information (jo search, standard of living, etc.), I keep getting something thta annoys me because it freezes my computer up - Mapquest maps. Nothing in my Internet access will work till the map loads, which wastes time and is really annoying. I haven't been able to figure a way a Google Preferences to turn maps off - is there one right in front of me I'm not noticing?

And, yes, I know someone will suggest it, and thank you, I've actually searched for city names I wanted on wikipedia and gotten great results with links to the cities, basic info, etc.; so I could keep doing that, but it'd be nice to be able to Google.63.3.19.129 (talk) 23:52, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

That is not normal Google behavior. (Google runs a competing service to mapquest, it wouldn't make sense for them to force you to view a mapquest map.) When I do a google search, For example Boston, I do see a small thumbnail of a maps.google result, but it's only 4.2 kilobytes (less than the logo), which shouldn't be enough to "freeze up" a computer.

Perhaps you've installed some additional software on your system? Some sort of "search bar" or similar?

If it is the maps.google thumbnail that's causing your problem, I'm not sure if there's anything you can do short of using an ad blocker to block all images from Google.com. However, they may be interested in hearing about your problem. Try clicking on the "Dissatisfied?" link at the bottom of a search results page that causes this problem. APL (talk) 00:19, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

If it is the Google map that is a problem, add "-site:maps.google.com" to your search string. Or, if it's really mapquest, try "-site:mapquest.com". Those additions tell Google not to return any page where the address is from the specified domain. --LarryMac | Talk 00:39, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

How many simultaneous connections to the Internet does your computer have? If you are using Windows XP, I believe the default is 4. If you are on a fast enough connection, you might want to increase that. However, i It does not make sense how mapquest would be able to do anything like that. Kushal^t 01:16, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Wel, it's actually AOL search enhanced by Google, which makes me think it's using a Google search engine, but with the link provided, it was a Google search that came up with the thumbnail and no freezing. So, it must be AOL that's acting flaky - but typing "-site:mapquest.com" didn't help. I do have Windows XP, so that might be a good place to start. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.3.19.1 (talk) 01:34, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

You might consider just going to http://www.google.com and doing a straight Google search without whatever additional stuff AOL has added to it. APL (talk) 13:39, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

XP doesn't limit the number of open network connections, or if it does the limit is much much higher than four. The Internet API that ships with XP does have a limit of two or four connections, but that's per server, so it would only affect the OP's ability to access mapquest.com. This limit is not so much about your connection speed as about being a good 'net citizen; the intent is to avoid overloading web servers. Browsers like Firefox that don't use the Internet API implement a similar limit independently. -- BenRG (talk) 18:35, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

A couple things going on here . . . AOL search "enhanced by Google" is not Google, so the fact that the "-site:mapquest.com" option doesn't work isn't too surprising. In fact, I can't really find a good definition of what "enhanced by Google" actually means. They might as well be saying "now with Techron 57". Also, Mapquest is owned by AOL, so AOL Search forcing a Mapquest map into the results is just what I'd expect them to do. APL has the best suggestion, I think. Ignore AOL search completely and just use Google directly. --LarryMac | Talk 18:38, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

you might also want to Get Firefox. is there a specific reason you need to use AOL search? Kushal^t 20:24, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Nah, just force of habit, since I'm on it anyway. :-) I think I'll just search with www.google.com from now on as was suggested.63.3.19.1 (talk) 21:40, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Removing email addresses

Whenever someone posts their email address here, some well-meaning soul will remove it and say "I'm helping you not get spammed". My question is: how would that help? Presumably spambots are pointed at en.wikipedia.org and spider down from there. If they make it from the Main Page to Wikipedia:Reference_desk to Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Computing, surely they'll take the next step to the page history and harvest the addy from there. Is this just a WP superstition, or is there evidence that spiders are programmed to ignore the history pages? Bonus question: why isn't WP:RD/C linked in my post? Thanks! --Sean 23:55, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

I don't know about webcrawlers and the page histories, but your WP:RD/C link doesn't link because you can't link to the page you're on. Useight (talk) 00:30, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Good question. When I remove e-mail addresses, I am not thinking about automated scripts. I am thinking about humans. I assume it would be possible for administrators to remove the edit from page history but I am not sure if automated scripts will be able to pick up the traces after the deletion (I presume that traces of undoable actions of administrators are logged). Kushal^t 01:10, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

I mostly just remove with a comment saying "see the rules up top." It's more of an educational "no that's not how we reply here" kind of thing. Of course, if somebody posts and then just waits around for an email and never comes back, then they'll never see the message. C'est la vie. --LarryMac | Talk 01:15, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

If you post your email address here, it can be harvested, either via a web spider or via downloading the database. If you don't post your email address, it can't figure it out from the history. The history shows your Wikipedia username. This is not your email address. Marnanel (talk) 01:48, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

The point is that the history will show the email of the person whose email was removed by a helpful editor - as in this diff. --LarryMac | Talk 02:09, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Oh, I see, sorry. Marnanel (talk) 02:16, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

I am fairly certain that administrators can only delete pages, not edits. For pages, the record of the deletion taking place is publicly available, but the deleted content (such as an email address) is not. -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 13:09, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

They can (and do) delete edits by the cumbersome procedure of deleting the page and undeleting some but not all of the edits. The deleted material is then available to all admins. Since this is still fairly public, serious problems (such as libel) are dealt with via oversight. Algebraist 16:38, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Can users with oversight see what other users with oversight have deleted? Kushal^t 20:21, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

yeah --:D\=< (talk) 21:22, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Not if they do the delete-then-undelete-a-limited-number-of-edits trick. That makes it so that even admins can't see it. --24.147.69.31 (talk) 23:31, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

January 30

MS power point 2007

I am a beginner with computers, any tips or links how to get started with ms power point 2007 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Abhinav52rr (talk • contribs) 04:58, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Go to Google and do a search for powerpoint 2007 lessons.-- kainaw™ 13:00, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Windows My Music song attributions

In the "My Music" folder on Windows XP, how does one change the band name on a song? Because for some reason one of my songs is listed as by a band it isn't, and it's weird because you can change the names of songs but apparently not the band. Vitriol (talk) 13:36, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

If I recall correctly you right click on the file, click properties, click the second tab, click Advanced and put the band name in the Artist field. TheGreatZorko (talk) 14:11, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Age of Empires 3: Asian Dynasties

When I try to load the game it says the handle is invalid. What does this mean? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.119.61.7 (talk) 14:26, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

You could try re-installing the game. A handle is usually a 'user name'... perhaps it's something to do with that? On the off chance that the game is pirated - it's bound to have bugs etc. in it? Scarian^{Call me Pat} 15:52, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

I didn't see anything that specifically mentions the "invalid handle" error, but this page is the Microsoft's Solution Center for AoE III. --LarryMac | Talk 16:03, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

The "handle" referred to in the error message may be a reference. If so, the error was caused by a scenario where some object was created, a reference was made to it, the original object was deleted, and then the reference was used but was no longer valid. That is, the game is trying to use something that is missing. The original object could be lots of things, so the error message by itself doesn't provide much help as to what went wrong. --Bavi H (talk) 05:59, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Converting a series of JPG pictures to MPEG

Is there a way to have a folder of say dozens of JPG pictures and make a slide show with a stop at each picture of 5 seconds and convert this whole thing into a MPEG video movie? Could this then be uploaded to YouTube (within their limits) to show to others (public or private).--Doug ^talk 15:30, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

If you have Windows XP (or maybe Vista?), the Windows Movie Maker can do this. --LarryMac | Talk 15:37, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Great! I have a computer that is about a year old using Windows XP. It also has a DVD burner. However I do not see a version of Windows Movie Maker already there. Should I then download Movie Maker 2.0? Is it then an upgrade to Windows XP (free)? How long would it take to download using AOL dial-up? With this new software then could I burn DVD's that could be watched on a regular television DVD player?--Doug ^talk 16:01, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

According to the Microsoft pages, MovieMaker was included in XP service pack 2. If your computer is only a year old, it should be running SP2. If for some reason you're not on SP2, you really should invest the download time and/or request an update CD from Microsoft. On the computer I'm using right now, WMM shows up on the Start/All Programs list. I am pretty sure you can create DVDs from WMM, but personally, I use other software for that. You might also be interested in Photo Story, which is a free download from Microsoft, specifically made to do slide shows. The download page indicated 13 minutes for 56K dial-up. --LarryMac | Talk 16:13, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Great! Thanks, again!! Found it. It says WMM is version 2.1.4026.0 which probably will do this slide show MPEG thing I want to do - as soon as I learn how to do it. I will also download that Photo Story software, as that also sounds like it will do the trick. On the DVD thing, what software do you use and does it cost much? I will also try to figure out if WMM will do approximately the same thing (with no cost - I'm cheap!). It then looks like I already have this Service Pack 2 installed, doesn't it?--Doug ^talk 16:29, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, things seem to be working out. I have downloaded Photo Story. Looks like a great program also. I am having pretty good luck in doing exactly what I wanted to do - make slide shows into videos that can be used in You Tube. It looks like it saves the video in WMV format, which is something You Tube accepts. I noticed perhaps Photo Story videos are smaller sizes. Am I right on this assumption or maybe I just haven't played with it long enough to confirm this. Don't see where either program saves in a format acceptable to play in a DVD player for television. What format is this? Do you know if either of these programs will do it? What program do you recommend for this? Can the WMV videos I made be converted then into this format for playing onto a television with a DVD player?--Doug ^talk 20:12, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

You've gone past my knowlege base, Doug. In answer to your previous question, I've been using a program called Sonic MyDVD for writing DVDs, which I don't do very often. It gets the job done, and works with my TiVo files (damning with faint praise . . . ). This page at Microsoft says that you can get a Sonic "Add-In" for Photo Story that will allow you to create DVDs. This MovieMaker page talks about saving WMM files to DVD, but specifically mentions that you need DVD burning software. Their example uses Roxio MyDVD, which is actually a newer version of the Sonic program I use, since Sonic bought Roxio, or vice-versa or something. Basically, I'd say, just poke around at those Microsoft sites; as much as I hate MS, it looks like there is decent information and some good tutorials scattered around. --LarryMac | Talk 20:40, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Bingo! I have Sonic on my computer and looking it over it looks like I can also make a "video slide show" here also. Actually I believe I can make several in a "Project" since there is 4.7 GB of space per DVD. Those were most useful answers and I do believe I am on my way on these projects. Thanks.--Doug ^talk 22:08, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

No picture shown from Samsung SyncMaster 913N monitor on nVidia GeForce 8600 GT graphics card

I have two graphics cards in my computer: an nVidia GeForce 6100 nForce 430 built into the motherboard, and an nVidia GeForce 8600 GT on a PCI-E bus. The motherboard has one VGA and one DVI connector, the GeForce 8600 GT has two DVI connectors. My Samsung SyncMaster 913N monitor has only a VGA connector. If I plug the monitor into any of the DVI connectors using a VGA-DVI adapter, I get no picture. If I plug it into the VGA connector, I get a picture from the GeForce 6100 nForce 430. Fedora 8 Linux recognises both graphics cards but only attaches an X screen (number 0) to the GeForce 6100 nForce 430. Why am I not getting a picture from the GeForce 8600 GT? It can't be broken, because otherwise Linux wouldn't have recognised it. Is my monitor incompatible with it? JIP | Talk 19:32, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Might be that the input is DVI-D and only supports a digital signal (see DVI)87.102.33.230 (talk) 07:53, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

I'd very much doubt Nvidia are building graphics cards that only take digital DVI anymore. Have you tried both ports on the graphics card? Have you tried a different monitor? TheGreatZorko (talk) 09:03, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

It's the monitor that would only have dvi-d...87.102.33.230 (talk) 10:05, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

according to the web GeForce 8600 GT has dvi-i meaning it should have vga output.

Looks like your linux has found the cards - but has not turned them (the the GeForce 8600 GT) on...

Ask a linux expert about doing this..87.102.33.230 (talk) 10:17, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

You will need to change a setting in the BIOS which selects where to try finding the graphics card first. It's currently set on the onboard graphics so only the onboard graphics is available, once you switch it to PCI-E your 8600GT should work fine. --antilived^{T | C | G} 10:28, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

I did find a setting in the BIOS to select the preferred video device. This launched me to one hell of troubles - gdm would only work in single user mode, not in normal mode, and I had no idea how to make it work in normal mode. I even tried to reinstall Fedora 8 Linux (it would have been safe, as all my personal stuff is on a separate partition), but I somehow ended up in a state where the computer would not boot up a Linux kernel, no matter where it was loaded from. I reset my BIOS and now everything is working, even when the monitor is connected to the nVidia GeForce 8600 GT card. Do I need a monitor with a DVI plug instead of a VGA one to take full advantage of the card? JIP | Talk 21:40, 31 January 2008 (UTC) You shouldn't need to use DVI at all. You're problem is strange to say the least, as linux shouldn't really care what it's outputting to. Have you tried asking you're question on the official forums for your linux distro? TheGreatZorko (talk) 08:51, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

MSN Live Messenger

hello,

basically i had live messenger....then removed it form my computer (via control panel > add/remove programs).....but now im trying to get it again....basically i downloaded it from the MS website...and now i need to install it.....BUT when i open 'Windows Live Installer' it says it couldn't install 'Messenger' (although it managed the toolbar).......help!...what can i do to make it live?

--81.79.201.21 (talk) 20:15, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Well, you can always use alternative programs such as Pidgin or Miranda IM. They lack such functions as voice chat, but they're free, open-source and support many protocols (MSN/Live, AIM, ICQ, IRC, Jabber/XMPP/Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, QQ) --grawity ^{talk / PGP} 19:48, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

can you see the messenger application on the add/remove programs list? If no, what error message do you get when you try to install Messenger? Kushal^t 21:50, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Cash Box

Does anyone use Cash box [3] on a mac os x? I want to try it (and probably start a stub on it too but I wanted to have someone's opinion who is already using it. Kushal^t 20:40, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Oops, no. I have not forgotten that we have WP:NN. I am not sure how notable cash box is. Kushal^t 12:16, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia from the MS Office Research task pane?

Hi,

how can I add Wikipedia to the MS Office Research feature so that I can search Wikipedia directly from the Research task pane?

thanks. AJUK ^Talk!! 20:52, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

January 31

Freeware Cartoon makers

Does anyone know of some simple easy to use freeware cartoon makers? Possibly that would allow me to put it on youtube? --Gary123 (talk) 00:22, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

If you are talking about 3D animation projects, Blender (software) will blend it! Kushal^t 00:27, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Visit the english Wikibooks for free books to jumpstart your animation career! Click here to begin ... Kushal^t 00:28, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Assuming you mean cel-based cartoon art, I'm not sure if there is any freeware way to do it that is simple and easy. A non-freeware approach would use Adobe Flash. Looking through Category:Animation software (which I found by looking at what categories Flash was in), Express Animator seems to have a free two-week trial, and KoolMoves has some sort of shareware version too. I've never tried it, but Synfig seems to be totally free, though from its Wikipedia page it seems to suffer a number of open-source plagues (not enough developers, no attention given to binaries, etc.). The free pickings seem pretty slim. --24.147.69.31 (talk) 02:51, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Default font for notepad in vista

What is the default font in vista's notepad on installation? Wiki seems to imply that it's (still?) lucida console or lucida sans, whereas some other sites seem to imply consolas, but neither of those looks quite right... is it just me?? 210.138.109.72 (talk) 01:00, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

You know that you can always change it, right? Kushal^t 02:03, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Anecdotal evidence: it's definitely lucida console. I just logged into an unused account and checked the font. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 07:55, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

OK thanks. I know it can be changed... I'm just the kind of guy who can't sleep at night when I've changed the settings but can't simply reset them to the defaults > <210.138.109.72 (talk) 09:02, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Personally speaking, I very much like Arial Narrow. Kushal^t 12:20, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia freezes Internet Explorer

Strangely, I can browse/edit wikipedia with no problems when I am not logged in. As soon as I try to Login on my user name, wikipedia will freeze my browser, every time. This has been going on for several months. Any ideas?? 69.124.194.70 (talk) 01:13, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

I know this may be cynical and not really helpful, but it's not Wikipedia that is freezing IE, it's the other way around. 210.138.109.72 (talk) 01:22, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

If you have access to another computer/web browser, can you try logging in from that? Please let us know. Kushal^t 02:02, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

OK, I tried intasalling FireFox, and here I am (69.124.194.70). However, if I experience any crashes I will come back and report it. Mrprada911 (talk) 22:00, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Had this problem also. Go into task manager and look for a process called "ctfmon.exe" and kill it (right click - end task). Should solve your woes. 195.194.74.154 (talk) 15:22, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Nope, that didn't do it. 69.124.194.70 (talk) 21:56, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Get Firefox AJUK ^Talk!! 00:49, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Formulas

Why when I type $\hbar =$Dirac's constant$={\frac {h}{2\pi }}$ it is in big print but when I type $c=$ speed of light it comes out in little letters? and how could I make the latter big? Zrs 12 (talk) 03:09, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

It is your web browser, not the math module. In the first example, PHP is turning the formula into an image on the fly and sending the image to you. So, you get the font size used by PHP on the Wikipedia server. In the second, there is no need to use an image, so it is just sent as code-style text (usually fixed-width). Apparently, your web browser is using a small font for fixed-width text. -- kainaw™ 03:32, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

If you're logged in to wikipedia, the "preferences" page has a few choices for math rendering which will affect the way those things look. --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 04:29, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

If you add \,\! to the formula, it will force it to render as an image for all users, no matter their preferences. For example : $c\;\!$. You can also use \textrm to write text inside a formula, for example: $\hbar ={\textrm {Dirac's\ constant}}={\frac {h}{2\pi }}$. -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 12:31, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks Zrs 12 (talk) 13:00, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

How do you make a WYSIWYG Editor for websites?

I want to make a WYSIWYG Text Editor (to replace <textarea>) but I can't find any information on how to do it. Thanks, 86.41.136.50 (talk) 13:35, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Um, it's a huge amount of work to write your own text editor from scratch. Perhaps you mean, "Is there some sort of WYSIWYG Text Editor applet that I can just drop into my website?" I don't know the answer but I'm pretty sure WordPress has something like that inside it, so you could take a look at their source code, I guess. But you'd have to have a pretty good understanding of both Javascript and PHP to make something like that work. --24.147.69.31 (talk) 14:23, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

No, I need to make one myself because 1. I want to learn how to do it, and 2. none of the WYSIWYG editors I found do what I need them to do. For example, I make hyperlinks using a <link> tag (which gets converted to <a> tag when you view the page), obviously no WYSIWYG Editor available can handle that. I have looked at the source code for a simple one, but it is so long and complex I don't know where to start. What I need is some info on how they are made. Thanks, 86.41.136.50 (talk) 14:38, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Check out the source and developer docs for WikED. --Sean 14:47, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Well, first you need to spend a few years to learn how to program. Then spend next 10 years working full time coding the WYSIWYG editor. Or hire a few programmers, then you may be able to finish the task in just 4 to 5 years. Creating software at that level of complexity typically requires at least 10 to 20 man-years of work. - PauliKL (talk) 23:53, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Pushy web pages

Is there a way to keep Safari from allowing web pages to push themselves to the front when they load? I normally have several tabs open at once and it's annoying to me that various sites feel the need to show themselves once they start loading. Right after web pages with sound, this is the most annoying thing in the way of web page design. Dismas|^(talk) 14:33, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

• Just FYI, Firefox can do this, under Preferences => Content => Javascript => "[] Allow raising or lowering page". --Sean 18:46, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Hard drive max

What is the theoretical maximum size a hard drive can be? 195.194.74.154 (talk) 15:19, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Well, with memory becoming cheaper and with flash drives becoming bigger, I'd assume that the "limit" would be huge... Possibly many terabytes in size? I don't have a definitive answer, but would assume that there is no limit as memory is so easy to expand nowadays. Scarian^{Call me Pat} 15:43, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

There are a lot of variables that would need to be defined before attempting to answer that. What form factor? 2.5" "notebook" size? 3.5" "desktop" size. IBM mainframe DASD? How many platters? Strictly within the personal computer universe, there might be BIOS and operating system limitations, which are artificial, but then again, there's no use in having a gigantic drive if you can't access all of it. So, my answer is Big. Really really big. Like space. --LarryMac | Talk 16:10, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

There used to be a limit of 137 GB. The software couldn't handle anything bigger than that, but that was 10 years ago when hard drives were in the 20 - 40 GB range. When XP got Service Pack 2 (or was it 1?), it corrected that problem that allowed single drive partitions to be greater than 137 GB. Useight (talk) 16:14, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

I think the biggest, standard/cheapest commercial one (available to the average Joe) I've heard of is around 320gb... but, yeah, they can definitely/will definitely get bigger. Much bigger. Scarian^{Call me Pat} 16:33, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

When you throw in terms like "standard" and "cheapest" it muddies up the waters a bit, and strays away from the original question; however there are terabyte+ drives available at most large electronics stores. --LarryMac | Talk 17:30, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Formats have limitations. FAT32 has them. even ext3 has limitations (just outrageously HUGE). But we are not talking about format limitations, are we?

I read in Scientific American quite a while ago that they went from recording data directly on the platters to a form somewhat perpendicular to the platters. SciAm said this bumps up the "size" or capacity of the hard disks considerably. Kushal^t 17:28, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Yes, they have perpendicular recording now, which is what finally allowed standard 3.5" internal drives to increase up to the current 1TB. But a drive of that size will cost $300 to $400, depending on the brand. Useight (talk) 17:49, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

In Currys in the UK i bought a 500gb HD for £90...so about $180.....which i thought was pretty cheap...(its a 'SUMO' one thats all i know) :) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.79.76.110 (talk) 18:06, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

As with most technology, if you don't purchase the absolute best, in this case 1TB, and go down a notch or two, there will be significant savings; my semi-recently purchased 750GB cost $170 (but it's an external USB drive). You can still get it for the same price here. Useight (talk) 18:14, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

1) 1TB is not the "best", there are plenty of larger drives already available (albeit with large prices). 2) You got 3/4 the capacity from the guy above you, for only a $10 savings, that's not significant. 3) As with most electronics and computer gear, wait a week, prices will change. --LarryMac | Talk 19:09, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

The guy above got 500GB. No-one's yet mentioned less than $300 for 1TB. Algebraist 19:37, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

I could swear that used to say 1TB from Currys, although the page history is clear. My bad. However, on the newegg page I linked, there's a 1TB Western Digital drive for $282, which I know is pretty close to $300, but if you poke around that site there's an internal 1TB drive for $255. Anyway, this is way off-topic from the original question regarding the theoretical maximum size of a hard drive. Which I'll once again say is "big. really big." --LarryMac | Talk 19:57, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Theoretical size of a hard drive is limitless, because you could (in theory), just make the platters larger, which would raise the capacity.techguyss (talk) 20:51, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Yes, but I assume we're talking about 3.5" drives. I guess they do have larger drives than 1TB, I thought all the 1.5TB and 2TB were actually multiple drives inside a single enclosure. Useight (talk) 23:13, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Extracting part of movie file

What free (speech) software for Linux command line is there that would allow me to extract individual frames of a portion of a movie file (Quicktime) into PNG images? Mplayer seems to be useless for this [4]. Thank you! —Bromskloss (talk) 16:16, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Just extract them all and delete the ones you don't want.. --:D\=< (talk) 16:44, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Unfortunately, that would use too much disk space and computing time. The size of the movie file is 170 GiB. —Bromskloss (talk) 17:25, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Well you can split it first using transcode. --Kjoonlee 18:26, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

I have never gotten it to compile (lacking root access). :-( Anyway, I'm weary that it might perform just as badly as ffmpeg, on which it relies (like Mplayer, mentioned above). I did get ffmpeg to compile, but just as described in the Mplayer link, it doesn't output the frames I want! It seems it can't be trusted. —Bromskloss (talk) 18:47, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

biggest memory

hi,

basically what computer/hard drive etc has the biggest memory in the world and where is it? (in gb please ;))--81.79.76.110 (talk) 18:12, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

You say hard drive, but you also say memory, which refers to RAM. Which are you actually asking about? Useight (talk) 18:16, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

What I've found so far, supercomputers are normally measured by teraflops and the number of processors it has, as opposed to its hard drive capacity or RAM. I'll keep looking. Useight (talk) 18:20, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

A problem is that you can always make a bigger storage facility by giving your supercomputer more hard drives. I don't know how big the biggest single hard drive is, but the biggest digitised data stores seem to be of the order of a few petabytes (see article for a partial list). A petabyte is either a million gigabytes or 2^20 gigabytes depending on who you ask. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Algebraist (talk • contribs) 18:33, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

btw, see question 'Hard drive max' above: apparently 1TB (=1000 or 1024 GB) drives are readily available. Algebraist 18:36, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

i meant what is the biggest memory storage 'place' in the world, eg i have a 40gb laptop/300gb external HD...but what the biggest in the world, im guessing a supercomputer of some sort. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.79.76.110 (talk) 19:06, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

In that case see my answer above. The largest listed there is 15PB; the true largest probably isn't a whole lot bigger. Algebraist 19:33, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

When did Brussel change their telephon numbers from 6 figures to 7

Wel, anybody who knows when they changed the amount of figures? Very thankful for answer! Al the best, Charlie —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.247.50.178 (talk) 19:31, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Seems to me I put this question in the wrong forum - but with all you smart computer people maby someone of you know where to find the answer........................ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.247.50.178 (talk) 19:39, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

1. No bold text here, please.
2. This is not a forum.
3. Maybe they just ran out of phone #s?

--grawity ^{talk / PGP} 19:54, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Also 4. Please do not crosspost questions. They obviously ran out of numbers - Poland moved from 6 to 7 digits a few years ago just because of this - but the OP asked for a date - which I cannot provide. --Ouro (blah blah) 21:38, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Appears to be 14 September 1996: See [5] and [6], about a third down the page (search for "Belgium"). x42bn6 Talk Mess 14:07, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Advice on Information Technology Degree and employment opportunities it may offer in France

Hello,

I'm a 24 year old Irishman living in France and I'm seriously considering taking the following course from Oscail, Dublin City University's distance learning programme.

http://www.oscail.ie/it.php

I have some questions that I hope someone can answer for me.

I decided to take this course because I have no third level education at the moment and it has been difficult to find work in France . I have an interest in computers, Internet and generally in technology. But what jobs would this qualification allow me to actually do?

Also what would be the French equivalent of this course or the qualification it offers?

Does anyone know the types of jobs that would be available in France if I was to finish this course with the diploma and if I was to finish with the BS?

Thanks for any help, David —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.7.72.178 (talk) 20:17, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Say, if you understand French, perhaps turn to the French Reference Desk on the French Wikipedia, located here. I'd say you could be a system administrator or something, but ask them, maybe? --Ouro (blah blah) 13:04, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Slideshow software for very large number of files

Hi, Wikipedians :)

I'm having some software trouble, and was hoping someone could advise me. I'm trying to set up a slideshow of random images from an extremely large collection (tens of thousands. Potentially eventually hundreds of thousands)

I had been using Irfanview for this, but the problem is when adding images it uses a listbox control to hold the filenames. As the OS I'm using is Windows 98 (I know, I know), the listbox, and therefore the slideshow, is limited to around 32,767 entries, and I can't find any software that will do a better job.

It seems the ideal thing would be some kind of slideshow program that will just read a random line from a very large text file of image names and display it, thus not having to hold the entire list in memory.. but I can't find anything to do that (I'd write my own too, but I'm having a hell of a time getting smooth image resizing in Delphi)

So.. basically, any ideas for a slideshow program on Win 98 with the ability to display from an unlimited collection of images?

Also, I know that the practicalities of putting together such a slideshow can be argued, especially that it'd probably take years to see all the images, but this is a part of a larger project I'm working on.. there are reasons to my madness :)

Any help greatly appreciated. --Monorail Cat (talk) 22:26, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Irfanview has command line options to start a slideshow from a folder or a text file listing, see Irfanview's help for details. I tested it and it uses the options selected in the Slideshow dialog box, so you can select the random ordering there. I'm unable to test if this will alleviate the limit or not.

If that doesn't work, maybe you could make a program to make sub-slideshows. For example, it could create a random list of 100 images, send that to Irfanview as a slideshow, wait for it to finish, then repeat. The disadvantage is there might be a noticable change when one slideshow finishes and the next begins. --Bavi H (talk) 07:46, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Linux on SONY VAIO VGN-NR21M/S

Do you have any experience with any Linux distro running on notebook SONY VAIO VGN-NR21M/S? Thanks for info. --147.229.206.243 (talk) 23:17, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

I don't but can give you a pointer - rather than asking here, turn to a Linux support forum for any particular Linux distribution you favour and ask there. I personally wouldn't touch a sony laptop, and have asked a similar question a few months ago, and one of the top suggestions for Linux-friendly laptops were IBM/Lenovo. Hope this helps a bit. --Ouro (blah blah) 12:58, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Just some peripheral data - I have successfully booted an Ubuntu Live CD on my Sony S150, although I did not do an extensive checking of capabilities. But live CDs are easy to get or download for Ubuntu and other distros, so why not just give it a try? --LarryMac | Talk 14:13, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

February 1

3.5 floppy

i have successfully saved articles from the wikipedia online reference and now i can't seem to find a way to recall the information from the disk. it shows up on the "my computer" element of the desk top, but i havn't found a way to see it in its entirety. lookin for characters on tool bars or icons in the desk top.63.215.29.80 (talk) 00:15, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

After seeing your questions on the Help Desk and then here, I can only assume that you put a floppy disk in your drive, told AOL to save the page on the floppy, and now you can't find it in the My Computer window. There are many possible problems. First, are you certain that you saved it on the floppy? If you don't select a place to save, AOL likes to put things in some weird place called a file cabinet or something similar. Technically, it is not on your computer at all. It is on AOL's server. Assuming you actually saved it to your computer, did you specifically select the floppy drive? It should be marked as either an A: or B; drive. If not, it is most likely saved either on your Desktop or in your My Documents directory. Assuming you did save it on the floppy without problems, is the floppy any good? Is the drive any good? Floppies are not dependable anymore because they are not in high use. About 5 years ago, I was involved in purchasing floppies for the University I worked at. We purchased them in lots of 10,000. A third of them were completely unusable right out of the box. Another third would fail after a little use. The floppy drives were no better. Half the computers on campus had bad floppy drives. The quality surely has gone down since then. So, let's assume you saved it on the floppy and the floppy works. Is the floppy still in your floppy drive? If not, there is no way your computer will be able to pull up the file. If it is in your drive, what do you see when you click on My Computer and then the A: drive? You should see the file. If you double-click on it, Internet Explorer will attempt to open it and show it to you. It is very likely that it will look funny because it probably didn't save any of the images or style sheets. But, the content of the page should eb visible. If none of that has anything to do with your problem, please explain in detail what the issue is. -- kainaw™ 04:08, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Code Question

Could someone please give me the code for the "not equal" sign? (i.e. "=" with a mark through it) Zrs 12 (talk) 01:55, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Still working on the code, but here's one: ≠ Useight (talk) 02:06, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Well, in Unicode it's 2260, and in programming languages it's often referred to as <> or !=, but I doubt any of those helped. Useight (talk) 02:12, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

U+2260 in hex equals 8800 in decimal, you could use &#8800; in HTML. List of XML and HTML character entity references shows &ne; also. And Help:Math leads me to \neq for TeX. Any of that helping? --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 02:19, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

No, thanks though. I need the LaTeX code for it to type a mathematical formula with it here on Wikipedia and the symbol at the bottom of the screen (≠) gives me an error message when I try to use it. Zrs 12 (talk) 02:23, 1 February 2008 (UTC) Oops srry reposted after an edit conflict and didn't see where you gave it in LaTeX. So, yeah, thanks, that's it. Zrs 12 (talk) 02:25, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Are the Wikimedia servers still in Florida?

I know Wikimedia mover to California. Did they move the servers? Jet (talk) 07:21, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

MacBook, Black MacBook, or MacBook Pro

Should I get a MacBook, a Black MacBook, or a MacBook Pro? Jet (talk) 07:32, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Well what do you want it for? If you just want a cheap laptop that runs OSX then I guess get a MacBook, although you might find the MacBook Air more to your suiting. It isn't out yet though I don't think. If you need a powerful work laptop (that runs OSX) then a Macbook Pro would be what you want. You should know that you can get a laptop that is quite a bit more powerful for the same amount of money a Mac costs, if you don't care about OSX TheGreatZorko (talk) 08:45, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

In fact, The MacBook Air seems to be available now: [7] jeffjon (talk) 14:33, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Embedded images to attachments

Can I make Gmail convert an embedded image in an incoming mail to an attachment, particularly if it can't find where the image is embedded? NeonMerlin 08:16, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Download mails as POP using the free software, Mozilla Thunderbird? Kushal^t 12:11, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Tape Drives

Hi. I was reading 81.79's 'biggest memory' question, and in the Petabyte article that Algebraist linked to, in the 'Petabytes in use' section it says that CERN has 10 PB of data stored on robotic tape store. I thought tape backups were an old, slow, unreliable technology and generally no longer used. Or, is this kind of tape store different to the one I'm thinking of? -Joe^Talk_Work 08:28, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Tape is still used as one of the more common backup medias, actually. Mostly for the reason that per megabyte it works out quite a lot cheaper than hard drives, and can be more compact. The fact that it is slow to access doesn't really matter when being used for backup purposes.

See the article on Magnetic tape data storage TheGreatZorko (talk) 08:41, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Tape also allows for inexpensive off-site, fire-safe storage. There's an old joke in computing:

Q: What data transport method has the highest aggregate data transmission bandwidth?

A: An 18-wheeler full of magtapes!

Atlant (talk) 13:02, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Is this joke actually true? If so, in what sense - What is it that we are measuring? Is it ${\frac {Data\cdot Distance}{Cost}}$? Would a cargo ship be more effective? -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 13:38, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

If one ignored the time spent creating and reading the magtapes and merely considered how long it took the truck to move (in the good old days) a terabyte of data from, say, Boston to Waltham, the joke certainly could have been construed as "true". Nowadays, when a truck probably holds a petabyte of data easily, it's probably still true in the same limited contexts as originally.

Atlant (talk) 15:07, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

I've heard similar jokes. We IT guys are a laugh riot! But anyway, cost isn't usually a factor in bandwidth calculations. --LarryMac | Talk 14:15, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Hm? Surely with unbounded resources you can get virtually unbounded bandwidth? -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 14:18, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Well yes, of course, but that's the point of measuring bandwidth - the resources are not unbounded. Of course the strict definition of bandwidth is all about analog frequencies and such, but as most commonly used, it is a measure of capacity. cf. flow rate. Still, cost does not play a part. --LarryMac | Talk 15:05, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Did they mean 'resources=memory capacity' or 'resources=money' here. And shouldn't that last sentence read 'cost is a major factor'?87.102.12.64 (talk) 15:25, 1 February 2008 (UTC) Oh hang on I've got a cold - understood first joke though - wheelbarrow of SD cards. Ignore me.87.102.12.64 (talk) 15:27, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Early computer displays

Why were green monochrome displays used in the 1970s and 1980s? Was to due to its supposed improved reading visibility? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 60.242.27.213 (talk) 10:34, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Cathode ray tube says:

An oscilloscope trace can be any color without loss of information, so a phosphor with maximum effective luminosity is usually used. The eye is most sensitive to green: for visual and general-purpose use the P31 phosphor gives a visually bright trace, and also photographs well and is reasonably resistant to burning by the electron beam. For displays meant to be photographed rather than viewed, the blue trace of P11 phosphor gives higher photographic brightness; for extremely slow displays, very-long-persistence phosphors such as P7, which produce a blue trace followed by a longer-lasting amber or yellow afterimage, are used.

-- Finlay McWalter | Talk 11:45, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

There were multiple driving forces. Vector graphics systems were green for the reasons cited above. When raster-scanned character cell terminals arrived on the scene, I'm not sure why IBM settled on green for their ubiquitous 3270 terminals, but the reasons cited above are still reasonable and maybe it was just market expectations from the vector-scanned days. Digital Equipment Corporation, on the other hand, used cheap television monitors for their VT05 that, by default, had P4 (white) phosphors. Later, European health-and-safety regulations led to a lot of terminals with amber phosphors. but these were actually terrible screens; images "burned in" to the amber phosphor very easily. And after that, full-color terminals became very affordable so the whole thing became a "user preference" item.

Atlant (talk) 12:59, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Customized context menu search

In Firefox, if I select text and right-click, I get the option to search for that text using whatever search engine is active in the upper-right-corner search menu. I search frequently with Google, Wikipedia, and WordReference. Is there a way to directly add all those links to the context menu? I've found this: [8] which, is pretty good, but it would be even better if I could directly place all those options in the root menu instead of selecting from a second-level menu each time. Thanks, jeffjon (talk) 14:30, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

SearchWith was suggested to me in a similar situation just over at the RefDesk a few weeks back. I recommend it, even though it too operates from the second level. But it does its job fine. Cheers, Ouro (blah blah) 15:20, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Links

In Wikipedia, how would one provide a link to a specific part of another page and not just to the heading of another page? Zrs 12 (talk) 15:04, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

You can link to a section using #. For example, I can link to this question using [[Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing#Links]]. -- kainaw™ 15:08, 1 February 2008 (UTC)