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May 30

coding

I know AP computer science material, but if I want to really program, like a professional would, where do I go from there? Books or web resources would be helpful. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.185.132.242 (talk) 01:31, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

There are lots of books on programming. Most of them are not very good. Here's a nice posting from fairly interesting programming blogger about what types of books there are and which ones he's found valuable. It's an interesting blog post, both in its recommendations as well as its general discussion of the question as to whether or not "real" programmers actually read books. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 01:40, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

If you really want to get good at programming, program. You learn alot by just goofing around with code, and instead of relying solely on textbooks you can also learn from coding communities and forums. Computer science texts certainly are useful, but without a guide (i.e. teacher) they can be pretty dense to work through on your own. Just poke around, programming communities are a dime a dozen. --Shaggorama (talk) 07:21, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Help me find a good laptop?

So, I don't know if this is the kind of thing for this page. But if someone feels like jumping on board and helping out, that'd be great :).

Anyways, I'm looking for a laptop, meeting this requirements:

• Brand: HP/Compaq, Sony, Toshiba, Acer
• OS: Windows XP or Vista
• Processor: Intel or AMD. If Vista, able to run it well. Though the Centrino Core™ 2 Duo Processor is nice. 32 or 64 bit.
• RAM: 2GB
• Video: Not an issue (not my game machine)
• Screen: at least 15"
• Optical: DVD read, cd read/write, DVD write is unnecessary
• Wireless: 802.11b/g
• Fullsize keyboard

Other than that, as inexpensive as possible.

Little of this is absolutely critical so if you find a good deal that doesn't meet something here, let me know (except no Dells please). If someone feels like taking on this challenge and finds a great deal I end up picking up I can't really offer you anything, but I'd do 10 "community-service" hours of RC patrolling in your honor :). Thank you.

Peace, Chris M. (talk) 03:43, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Can it be refurbished? If so, here's this one. If not, what is your maximum price? Useight (talk) 06:26, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

I'd like to keep it under 700 if possible, but if there's an amazing $800 one, then that'd be cool too :). Refurb isn't bad, and that one is pretty good. Chris M. (talk) 07:24, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Here's one that's got a faster CPU and more hard drive space for $699 or there's this one for $599 if you don't mind a no-name brand. Useight (talk) 18:40, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

How is the 4th-largest computer manufacturer in the world a no-name brand? .froth. (talk) 19:58, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

You've probably heard of Lenovo's laptop division under another name: IBM. --Carnildo (talk) 20:52, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Okay, so IBM owns 6.7% of Lenovo. I still consider it an inferior good. When I purchase expensive things, I want a well-known brand, not one that'll look like this. I guess I just have to keep up with the Joneses. Useight (talk) 21:55, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

It's not about the 6% ownership, it's about the fact that Lenovo took over all of IBM's personal computer division. What used to be IBM (like ThinkPads) are now Lenovo. It's the same thing. As for what you don't like about that photo, I don't know. It looks like all IBM laptops do/did. They're not bad machines at all. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 00:59, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

What I don't like about that picture of the laptop is that it says "lenovo" on it. If it said "IBM" then that'd be different. If I was carrying that around and someone was like, "Lenovo?" and then I have to explain, "Oh, it's just like an IBM ThinkPad, just repackaged in anther brand." I don't think so. Useight (talk) 16:37, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Dude, if you are so concerned about the looks of the logo, can I suggest that you get a mac? Would you buy an Acer and still call Lenovo an inferior brand?

I personally wouldn't buy a laptop at all. I have my desktop and I've invested quite a bit in it. I built it myself. Useight (talk) 07:15, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

I am not trying to sell you Macs. I plead not guilty on the charge. (I do plead guilty on being an accomplice, knowingly or unknowingly) in the FUD against Vista. I would say keep clear of Vista, unless you get Ultimate. Thinkpad T61s are awesome, just ask User:Froth. I might even choose one over a first generation macbook pro. My second computer these days is a Toshiba Satellite so you might want to take a look at that as well. Kushal (talk) 02:13, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

I agree with avoiding Vista. Besides, Windows 7 isn't too far off. Useight (talk) 07:15, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Well I was going to recommend a Dell just like the one I'm using right now, but it seems the OP isn't interested in Dells. I'm sure you can use a price comparison site like Nextag to find what you want at a price you're happy with - like this Toshiba perhaps? Astronaut (talk) 14:57, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

(reset) You know, if you get a mac, you can press option + shift + k and get the apple logo like this  (which does not show up on a default Windows XP installation). Well, and it shares a few features with Linux. You can buy a Thinkpad and head off to http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkWiki to get your dose of GNU/Linux. Kushal (talk) 19:48, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

computer lore

Found this somewhere on wikipedia:

"Another example is a program's source listing that was formatted to resemble an empty tic-tac-toe board. Each pass through the program modified the sourcecode to show a turn in the game, to be executed for the next move."

This sounds absolutely fascinating to me.. does anyone have a copy of the code? Do you have any idea how jaw-dropping it would be to code a self-modifying ELIZA/figlet? .froth. (talk) 05:33, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Oh found it already. Even more fascinating is that it's self-modifying not only in the sense that it writes its moves onto itself, but also that it apparently uses a changing "strategy" bit mask to learn how best to defeat its opponent after successive games o_o .froth. (talk) 05:58, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Be sure to check out the other IOCCC entries as well. There's a high proportion of amazing ones. -- BenRG (talk) 06:36, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Music Software Titles And Music Making Software

Does anyone know anywhere you can get music software titles or music making softare except these places?

• http://making-music.blogspot.com/2006/01/big-list-of-free-music-making-software.html
• http://making-music.blogspot.com/2006/02/list-with-recommended-commercial-music.html
• http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/win95/MULTITRACK_RECORDING/

I'm not sure if this is the best place to post this, so I'll post it at Entertainment as well. Thanks.68.148.164.166 (talk) 07:50, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

you may find Category:Free audio editors interesting. Audacity is a popular freeware music editing program. If you don't want to download any software, the Beaterator is an award winning music maker that works in-browser. --Shaggorama (talk) 07:09, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

MULTIMEDIA SYSTEMS

What is Macromedia flash as a multimedia tool?41.209.23.34 (talk) 13:07, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Is this your homework? Try reading Adobe Flash. --grawity 14:00, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

telecoms

what is crosstalk —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.36.213.57 (talk) 13:25, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Crosstalk (electronics) --LarryMac | Talk 13:39, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

What's this symbol called?

What is the circle and line symbol seen on many computers called? -- penubag  (talk) 15:52, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

It's a power symbol (or possibly specifically a standby symbol). Algebraist 15:59, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Thank you Algebraist! -- penubag  (talk) 16:02, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Floppy disk of death! (no virus needed)

Hello, I recently found out of a way to supposedly damage your computer (physically) with a floppy disk, and I wanted to hear some considerations on its feasibility. The instructions are simple: open the floppy disk cover, and cover the exposed disk with a thin layer of pulverized match heads and nail polish remover. Reassemble the disk, and try to read it on a computer. The mixture will supposedly ignite and burst your computer to flames (or at least scorch your floppy drive). Is this possible? Thanks in advance, Kreachure (talk) 16:59, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

I found a couple links that describe the method but nothing that seems more reliable than your typical Anarchist Cookbook sort of stuff, which if you've never read it, it's not all that accurate all the time either. Dismas|^(talk) 18:11, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Supposing that it does ignite, it's not going to set the computer on fire, unless you somehow manage to put a lot of nail polish in that floppy, enough to make it leak out of the floppy drive and drip into the computer. I'm pretty sure it'll put the drive in question out of commission for good even if it doesn't ignite, though -- but then you could probably manage that just by lighting a couple of matches and sticking them into the drive through the slot, or by taking a pressurized can of shaving cream and shooting that stuff into the drive. Or just sticking a ruler in and rattling it around for a while. It's not like they're terribly robust pieces of equipment that are hard to break. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 20:23, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Anyway, who uses floppy disks anymore? --98.217.8.46 (talk) 00:47, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

If this were true, I would expect to find videos on YouTube, but I can't. APL (talk) 02:37, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

This was not intended for destroying your floppy drive, but destroying your PC and burning your HD to a crisp to remove data. I.e. a criminal might do this in order to not have incriminating evidance found on his drives. I imagine if this was TRUE, a large number of pedo's would use this method? --203.49.231.99 (talk) 02:50, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

watching TV in a computer monitor?

I want a 15" thing for watching TV. Will a 15" LCD monitor do good? I think TV is 640 X 480 resolution and 15" LCD monitor is 1024 X 768. will watching non high definition TV in a 15" computer monitor be as good as watching TV in a 15 inch flat CRT TV?

what can I choose? a)15" CRT TV b)15" LCD monitor itself —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.92.104.149 (talk) 17:53, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

The issue is that a standard computer monitor does not have a television tuner in it. So, you need a separate tuner. Then, you have to ensure that there is some way to get the video signal from the tuner to the monitor. This is not always easy. Most 15" monitors have basic SVGA connectors. The newer ones are coming out with DVI connectors. Tuners, on the other hand, are commonly from cable/satellite companies or a DVD/Video recorder. Either way, you likely have an RCA and a SVGA source out of those (since you specifically didn't mention HDTV formats). So, assuming the most common equipment found in homes today... you need to figure out how to convert that RCA connector on the cable box to SVGA (yes, there are converters, but they are expensive). -- kainaw™ 18:00, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

I think I can resolve connecting issues because my DTH provider gives LCD TV option. But I am just asking whether watching TV in a 15" LCD monitor will be of good quality, a quality got when watched through LCD TV or CRT TV. Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.92.104.149 (talk) 18:17, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Analog TV is not quite 640x480, depending on where you are check out PAL or NTSC. To answer your question, LCD monitors are interchangeable with LCD TV's which are essentially monitors with built-in tuners to accept a signal, so yes the resolution quality would be the same. Of course there are other factors such as colour depth and so on, but it all boils down to "you get what you pay for", and "size counts"... Sandman30s (talk) 20:16, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

phone security with voip and broadband

Some years back, when the internet was young(ish), and everyone was using dialup, there were various fraudulent tricks where someone would hijack your internet connection, and use the phone line to dial a premium service, charging by the minute. Our beloved phone company, Telstra, of course made the victim pay up. Is this still possible in the days of broadband, or is it bypassed because people aren't using the phone connection directly to access the internet? Does the presence of a voip line make any difference, and is naked dsl different to normal adsl? thanks, 203.221.127.63 (talk) 20:19, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

(There's an article: Dialer#Fraudulent dialers)

Your existing Internet connection actually has nothing to do with that scam, except for being the medium through which the malicious program was given to you. The required ingredients are:

• You have a modem with a phone line plugged in.
• You are dumb enough to run a program you found on a porno web site, or (even worse) in an unsolicited email message.
• Your phone company is unforgiving of your stupidity.

DSL modems generally don't qualify for the first part since they don't have the ability to make or receive phone calls. It needs to be a modem that knows how to dial.

The situation is really not very different from a child picking up the phone and dialing a toll number without parental permission. In one case, you lost control of your kid. In the other case, you lost control of your computer. If the phone company doesn't get the money from you, they're stuck arguing with the toll number operator about whether his business is fraudulent, based on your claim that you were tricked into dialing his number. They don't like doing that. It's much easier to make you pay for your mistake.

If your VOIP service allows you to dial toll numbers (and charges you for them) then it could potentially be used the same way. Having little VOIP experience and no experience attempting to dial 1-900 numbers over VOIP, I'll leave that question open for someone else. --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 21:03, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for that answer. It's a shame no one else contributed to expand on this, but your answer tells me that it is probably pretty much the way I thought it was. Thanks, 203.221.126.29 (talk) 14:22, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Thumbnail cache

I have been given an image, which is confidential, so it's been watermarked. HOWEVER - the thumbnail I'm seeing in Windows XP Explorer has no watermark, so I guess it's the original file showing through or something. Question is - how do I get at it? Thanks. ╟─TreasuryTag (talk ╬ contribs)─╢ 21:13, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

I assume it's showing you the Exif thumbnail. Ask google for an exif thumbnail extractor. You won't find the full-size original in there though. --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 21:44, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Or Try deleting thumbs.db (hidden file) in the same directory as the image to make Windows regenerate the thumbnail. --antilived^{T | C | G} 23:33, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

A little bot job

Hi all,

I don't know whether this would be better here or at WP:BOTR; please move it there if that's where it should be. I was wondering if a bot genius would be able to make a bot complete the task listed at the very bottom of the documentation in Template:Languageicon/Notes.

That is, to add template documentation to all of the pages in Category:Language icons (except obviously the first two). Also, to remove [[Category:Language icons]] from the template. Then, to create /doc subpages for all of them with the same, uniform text, this:

{{Documentation subpage}}<!-- PLEASE ADD CATEGORIES AND INTERWIKIS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE -->
==Usage==
{{Languageicon/Notes}}


<includeonly><!-- CATEGORIES AND INTERWIKIS HERE, THANKS -->
[[Category:Language icons]]
</includeonly>

Well, if it could be done, that'd be great. An example's at {{es icon}}. It might be a bit tricky as some of the templates have empty template documentation at the moment. Thanks, Drum guy (talk) 23:14, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Fixed the redirect from Category:Language_icons so it's not in the category anymore. .froth. (talk) 02:34, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

May 31

Multi-core motherboard

Are there any motherboards that include slots for 4 core 2 processors? And preferably with at least 3 pci slots. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.126.229.235 (talk) 00:49, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Core 2 processors are designed for uniprocessor operation. You'll need an Intel Xeon for multiprocessor systems. Rilak (talk) 07:46, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Actually, there are Core 2 Extremes in LGA771 format..See Intel Skulltrail. Of course, the Core 2 Extreme QX9775 is little different from a Xeon really, but then again, AFAIK so are the other Core 2s except for the fact that they are LGA775 with MP support disablled and not perhaps tested as extensively Nil Einne (talk) 14:29, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Yes, I am aware, but note that the question says, "...for 4 core 2 processors?". Skulltrail supports two. Rilak (talk) 07:50, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

Good Fonts to Use?

I'm writing a story intended for pseudo-publication online, and I because of the division of continuity it involves, I came to the decision that I should render different characters' perspectives in different fonts. Thus, Chapter 1, which is written from the perspective of Alpha, would be in Font A, and Chapter 2, in the spirit of Beta, would be in Font B. There are other more artistic reasons I came to this decision, but further elaboration isn't relevant to the question. Anyway, I was wondering: What fonts should I use? I could use standard fonts, like Times New Roman, Arial, Courier New, and Comic Sans, but frankly, I'm not comfortable with those; I've never been comfortable using Comic Sans, and as for Courier New, I'd rather none of the fonts be fixed and save those for specific circumstances as is usually the case according to major manuals of style (to indicate a computer readout, for example). Furthermore, Times New Roman is the only one with the "attention" (serif, attention to kerning, heights of the base line and descenders, support for slightly obscure characters) that I feel comfortable using; although, I sometimes wish it had better Unicode support. Is anyone aware of any repository or guide to professional fonts that I can use that provide a distinct "flavor" to each, a wide(-ish) range of support in terms of characters, without each being too "different" or "unique" to the point of being distracting (which is all too easy to achieve when choosing a font)?

Deshi no Shi (talk) 04:26, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

In books I've read with a "division of continuity", the different narratives have been indicated by a differing chapter title scheme (eg. "Chapter 3", "Chapter III", "Chapter 4", "Chapter IV", etc...), or they have used normal font for one narrative, and italic for the other.

If you pick distinctive but unusual font, you stand the chance that people will not be able to read your story because the required font is not installed on their computer. It is probably best to stick with the same fonts that appear everywhere else. When I've written reports, I've generally followed the advice I was given long ago - keep the font changes to a minimum (ie. preferably one font family plus a fixed-width font for code samples; bold, underlining or italic for emphasis; larger point sizes and bold for headings), try to avoid colour either in the text or as a background (it doesn't photocopy or print well), never use flashing text (it gives some people headaches). You also need to consider that the readers may have a variety of accessability issues (eg. colour blindness, dyslexia), or may use other operating system and browser combinations which don't have some fonts installed.

Astronaut (talk) 14:43, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

All browsers fail pretty gracefully when it comes to font changes. At worst they'll see them all as Times New Roman. Not so bad. Still readable. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 01:07, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

How about using different background and/or font colors instead of different fonts? Seems much simpler and much easier to make to work. --72.78.237.206 (talk) 17:01, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Making sure that you use a fot color that contrasts with the background well enough and so on, of course. Kushal (talk) 17:35, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

You might play with different forms of serif fonts. They can have very different feels to them. Italics changes them quite a bit too. Some common Serif fonts that nearly everybody has are Times New Roman, Garamond, Palatino, and Georgia. All four have very different aesthetic characteristics—Times looks bureaucratic, straightforward; Palatino is small and rounded, slippery; Garamond has an older, formal look to it; Georgia looks new, extremely upright, bold. Palatino and Garamond both have very distinctive italics as well. Just a thought. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 01:07, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. I've taken a look at all of those fonts, and actually like them a lot. However, one thing I did notice was that the support between the fonts isn't very regular; many glyphs are supported by one font but not the others, or by all the fonts except one, etc. I was wondering if there's some commonly used font(s) that provide more or less comprehensive support for standard English characters? I've tried looking through Unicode Fonts, but they either have many characters that are entirely unnecessary (like Armenian) while lacking certain basic Latin glyphs, or they're not supported by any standard operating systems or browsers. Any advice? Deshi no Shi (talk) 23:54, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

Extra Tool Browser

How can I get rid of an extra toolbar from my web browser, you know the ones that attach on that are called Seekmo and give extra options like freescore.com and playphone? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.127.166.184 (talk) 12:47, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Depending on the browser you are using, you might have the ability to right click on your menu bar. You can uncheck any toolbar you want to hide from there. However, in your case, it seems to be a sign of a larger problem (hint:spyware). Please make sure that your computer is safe and secure. I would recommend a full virus scan (with ClamWin or AVG Free) and a spyware search (with Spybot Search & Destroy or Lavasoft's antispyware software). These resources are available free of cost on the Internet. If you have any more questions, please don't hesitate to ask. Kushal (talk) 13:05, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Seekmo is an adware product by Zango, a well-known adware vendor that promises you free content in exchange for displaying ads. The standard anti-spyware programs should work against this, and I even think Zango themselves offer an uninstaller (maybe, though given their track record, I wouldn't trust any software from them, even if it is an uninstaller). bCube _{(talk | contribs)} 23:33, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Adding videos to DeVeDe (software)

hello, I am using DeVeDe on Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Wubi installation) on a Toshiba Satellite MM55-S135. I am using DeVeDe to create iso of a video dvd which will be full of very short (about 10 MB to 50 MB each) videos that we shot in family events. I have around 200 of such files to put on the iso. However, adding each of them manually is a pain. Ctrl-A, Shift-click, and control-click all do not work. What should I do? Is scripting the only way? If so, how can I do it? Please let me know. Kushal (talk) 13:16, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

PS: A few days after installing Ubuntu (Wubi), Windows XP miraculously recognized my DVD-RAM drive (which I was having issues with earlier).

Any takers, please? Kushal (talk) 00:23, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

Please? Kushal (talk) 14:54, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Pretty please? Kushal (talk) 13:52, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

Displaying the gradient when optimizing in R

I am learning Program R primarily to find maximum likelihood estimates of parameters in statistical models using optim(). I am not specifying derivatives or partial derivatives. Instead I am letting R approximate them. However, I would like to know the values of those approximations at the maximum value of the likelihood.

Is there some way to tell R to display the approximations of the derivatives or partial derivatives at the maximum value of the likelihood?

An example of an optim() statement in my code might be:

fit = optim(par=c(0.5,0,0,0), fn=negLL, method='BFGS', hessian=TRUE)

I tried following that statement with:

fit$gradient

but that only returned the word ‘NULL’ regardless of whether I remove ‘hessian=TRUE’ from the optim() statement.

Thank you for any help with this.

Mark W. Miller (talk) 13:40, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Explorer

Is there any way to save or back up my last few weeks of History in Internet Explorer? Black Carrot (talk)

I don't know if there is any particular way to do that or not, but perhaps you could visit all the sites in your history and one by one add them to your favourites? Adam (Manors) 16:54, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Because of the proprietary formats Microsoft uses, if you want to be able to restore the history later, your best bet is probably to use some third party software. Try this one: [1] If you just want to save or browse your history, check out this page: [2] Indeterminate (talk) 20:50, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Firefox can. Select History/Show All History/Import and Backup. --Ephilei (talk) 18:23, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

In IE6, you can simply copy the history folder, or its sub-parts, into another folder. Then copy it back into the history folder when you wish to view it.

I would like to keep my history for ever, but I've found if it goes back too far, the history folder becomes corrupted and stops working, but resumes after the history has been moved or deleted. I wish there was a utility to automatically copy the history folders, so that you would have a continuous record going back years. Another improvement would be to keep the history in seperate days, rather than lumping them into weeks as IE6 does. 80.2.205.84 (talk) 23:45, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Concatenated SMS

Does anyone know more about concatenated SMSes (1 long message sent as multiple SMSes). According to the article (and it's sourced) there is a 5 byte header in the user data leaving you 135 bytes, enough for 153 7 bit characters. The 153 seems right from my own experience, but if you have 135 bytes, that's enough for 154 7 bit characters (135*8=1080; 1080/7=154.29) so there must be something else. Is an extra byte needed to tell the phone to start 7 bit 'mode' or something? Note that a normal 140 byte SMS is 160 7 bit characters, as we would expect (there is an additional non user-data header) Nil Einne (talk) 14:20, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Some possibilities:

• Data-integrity Checksum
• total number of parts,
• or some kind of ‘part X of Y’ scheme
• character encoding used in message.

Try reading the GSM specs (you’ll have to Google for them, I’ve had no need to find/read them personally). If that proves fruitless, perhaps ask the Wireshark folks about it, they’re rather skilled at dissecting protocols [wink]. — Lee Carré (talk) 06:27, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

TV PC

Does watching TV through a tv computer card mean you don't need a license? I read somewhere that portable battery tvs don't need a license (it would very hard to enforce, wouldn't it?) so what if your tv card was in a laptop. I live in England. Eff wone (talk) 15:28, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

This page is pretty informative about the requirements for a TV license on a computer. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 15:41, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Yes, you need a TV License even if you watch through a TV-card in your PC, but you might already be covered if your household already has a TV license for the other TVs there. The official site here has all the information. The penalty for not having a license is a £1000 fine - but they have to catch you first :-) Astronaut (talk) 16:02, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

You always need a license or you will be fined - in a perfect world. The chances are you won't be found for a long time (if at all) and as you don't have a TV they still might have no case to get you. Not that I'm condoning anything. Adam (Manors) 16:53, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

A note of caution (a little off topic): The TV Licensing people are VERY, VERY persistant, as my TV-less friend found out. If your address does not have a TV License, they will keep coming back to make sure you're not watching TV surreptitiously and you haven't bought a TV. Apparently, they have a hard time believing anyone doesn't have a TV in the 21st century and can be pretty unpleasant dishing out the legal threats, even with no evidence of TV equipment in the house. Astronaut (talk) 13:27, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

Wow, you Brits need a license to watch TV ? So Big Brother is even taxing your telescreen, how ironic. What's next, a fee each time you use your own toilet ? StuRat (talk) 03:10, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

Wow, are you concussed? The TV licence isn't a tax. It funds the BBC, who provide advert free high quality TV across tens of channels, as well as national and local radio stations. You may as well complain about your TV stations having 5 advert breaks across an hour, which in my opinion is far worse than a £100~ licence charge. TheGreatZorko (talk) 13:57, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

shell script

(Running Linux) What would a shell script look like, that would prevent a user from being logged in between certain hours of the day? I want to make computer unavailable for use from between, say, 9pm and 9am. Any ideas how to do this? Thx —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.110.174.74 (talk) 15:47, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Adding the following to /etc/profile would do it:

 hour=$(date +%H)
 if [ $hour -lt 9 -o $hour -gt 21 ] && [ $USER = badusername ]; then
   echo "Sorry, you can't log in now"
   sleep 1
   exit
 fi

I think I got the logic for the hours right. It's not foolproof, since they could hit ^C to kill the script, but it's simple. --Sean 17:07, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Really, what I wanted with this was to make it so that I can't turn on my computer (I'm the only user) between certain hours so that I get to bet on time. So I suppose I could replace exit with /sbin/shutdown -h now and get that sort of effect. Or is there something that can be done to make it difficult to turn on the machine in the first place? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.110.174.74 (talk) 18:35, 31 May 2008 (UTC) Now that I think about it, couldn't I just use crontab? That would be the easy choice, that I think should have been obvious to me! :) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.110.174.74 (talk) 18:48, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Rather than using a shell script, you ought to use the PAM module called pam_time. The functionality is built into every linux system I know of. -- JSBillings 19:20, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

error importing movie into iMovieHD 06

Hello, when I want to move a video from a handy cam on to iMovie HD in my Macbook with OS X Tiger, I get the error "The file could not be imported: The file “Macintosh HD/Volumes/NO NAME/Documents/Videos/DCIM/M2U00145.MPG” can’t be imported; QuickTime couldn’t parse it: -2048" How can the issue be resolved? Thank you. Kushal (talk) 18:02, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Try to watch it via VLC, and watch out if VLC gives any errors. 88.217.56.36 (talk) 21:46, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

No error messages in VLC whatsoever, 88. Moreover, I was able to make a DVD iso with DeVeDe and then the default application burned it on a DVD-R which played on a standard television dvd player. I don't know why  iMovie HD is being so stupid. Any ideas? Have you gotten a similar error message in iMovie? Kushal (talk) 01:22, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

Do you have Perian (perian.org) installed? I don't have any specific experience with that particular error message, but it might help - Perian is a QuickTime component that adds support for lots of otherwise unsupported audio, video and container formats to applications that use QuickTime, as iMovie does. --alien2k (talk) 19:28, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, I will do it rightaway. brb. Kushal (talk) 20:42, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

wrong 'drive'

hi....major yet apparently 'small' problem

i have an external hard drive......which was the E' Drive' (as in computer HD is 'C' and CD Roms are 'D' etc) yet someone has someow managed to make it into the 'G' drive. The Ex hrd drive works fine but the problem is that any files on my computer linked with them (and there are a lot!) are looking for the link with the 'E' drive not the 'G' as it now is.....eg: its looking for: 'E:\[name of file]'......how do i change it back to the 'E' and not the 'G'

i am on windows Xp......

thanks, --81.77.2.11 (talk) 19:34, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

After the fixed devices on your PC have been identified during boot, drive letters are allocated dynamically. Probably some other devices have "taken" drives E and F. Have you plugged in a card reader, USB drive, external CD/DVD, phone, or other such device? Use Windows Explorer to find out what drives E and F currently are. Alternatively, have you installed any new drives in the computer case, or repartitioned any existing drives? Astronaut (talk) 20:05, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

XP comes with a program "Computer management" (On my PC it is down "Start | Programs | Administrative Tools | Computer Management", but I probably moved it to that when I got the PC.) Select "Storage | Disk management". Look at the list of volumes and change as required using "right click | Change drive letter and paths" -- SGBailey (talk) 21:21, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Another way into Computer Management is: right-click on "My Computer" and select "Manage". (SGB, I took the liberty of correcting a typo in your answer.) AndrewWTaylor (talk) 16:11, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

Super NES question

Today I bought a Super NES at a yard sale and installed it. I used the "multi output," and made sure red was plugged into red, white into white and yellow into yellow on the TV. I turned it on with a game called Xardion (I don't have any other cartridges to test at the moment). I made sure the cartridge was plugged in as firmly as possible, but I couldn't get it completely tight. The image I got was a mess of mostly magenta blocks and lines on a black background, and only a small part of it in the upper left corner responded to buttons on either controller. Should I blame the SNES or the cartridge? NeonMerlin 19:39, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Well, the easiest thing to do first is to clean both the SNES and the cartridge. Use a q-tip and a little rubbing alcohol if you have it, and make sure the connectors are clean (let them dry before running it again). A bad connection can produce things like what you described. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 19:43, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Update: I plugged in the Super UFO (a diskette-drive extension for the NES) and its menus show up just fine. NeonMerlin 20:17, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

My bet is still that it's some kind of dirty component. It's a classic thing for those cartridge machines—if the connectors get dirty (which is easy) they give you all sorts of gobbledygook. A little rubbing alcohol and a Q-tip on the copper ends works wonderfully. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 21:34, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

I second the suggestion to clean the connections. I think it may also be a problem in the power supply. If that fails - can you contact the person from whom you bought it? Perhaps he has some cartridges you can try the console on.

I'm sure ZSNES will give you less trouble. -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 23:05, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Windex and a q-tip is also a good way of cleaning the contacts on the cartridge. And emulators are illegal unless you own the cartridge. Useight (talk) 16:09, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

Actually even owning the cartridge doesn't make it technically legal in the US. In any case, the legality of ROMs and emulators can vary depending on exact use—but enforcement has always been focused on the distribution end of things. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 16:18, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

What's your point? I suggested the use of an emulator as a replacement for the console, not for the ownerships of cartridges. Of course, if the OP does use an emulator, he might feel stupid (justly, in my opinion) chasing cartridges not manufactured anymore just to be legally entitled to play 15 year old games. -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 16:49, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

I've cleaned the cartridge, the cartridge connector on the SNES, and the connectors at both ends of the output cable (including the ones on the TV set) and it still doesn't work. NeonMerlin 16:48, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

Call Nintendo. They actually do still try to support the old consoles. Perhaps they can give you some more ideas. The phone number is 1-800-255-3700. Useight (talk) 01:30, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Javascript question

I have a bit of Javascript for a little web app I am doing that intercepts keystrokes and, if they are of a certain type, sets the focus on a given INPUT control.

Here's the guts of it:?

function keypress(e) {
	var keynum;
	var keychar;
	if(window.event) // IE
	  {
	  keynum = e.keyCode;
	  }
	else if(e.which) // Netscape/Firefox/Opera
	  {
	  keynum = e.which;
	  }
	keychar = String.fromCharCode(keynum);
	if(!input_author_hasfocus&&!input_to_hasfocus&&!input_date_hasfocus) {
		if(keychar=="A"||keychar=="a") { document.getElementById("input_author").focus(); }
		if(keychar=="T"||keychar=="t") { document.getElementById("input_to").focus();  }
		if(keychar=="D"||keychar=="d") { document.getElementById("input_date").focus();  }
		if(keychar=="F"||keychar=="f") valselect(1);
		if(keychar=="P"||keychar=="p") valselect(2);
		if(keychar=="N"||keychar=="n") valselect(3);
		if(keychar=="S"||keychar=="s") submitdata();
	}	
}

In Firefox this works fine (called from the onkeypress even of the BODY element). When I hit "A", it goes to my INPUT with the ID of "input_author" and just gives it focus. However in Safari it does that and then types the character "A" in the input line. I don't want it to do that.

Which of the two is being standards compliant? And how should I work around the issue in Safari? --98.217.8.46 (talk) 19:40, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

I'd guess Firefox is more standards compliant - I've noticed problems with JavaScript on Konqueror (which uses the same html processing code). The best way to do this is to use access keys instead. --h2g2bob (talk) 20:21, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Funny story... apparently the standards for key events are basically a mess [3] [4]. However, the specifications give two ways to stop events from continuing after you've handled them (preventDefault() and stopPropagation()) [5]. Unfortunately, Safari is (or at least used to be) buggy and would happily call those methods, do nothing, and return success [6]. So it looks like you might have a hard time working around the issue, unless Safari has fixed the issue. You can test it on that last page I linked to. Indeterminate (talk) 20:30, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Opera has problems with CSS at nearly every site

Somehow, my Opera install has now **** up CSS rendering, so that sites are unusable, for example the Wikipedia sidebar is at the bottom of the page, ect. Bringing up the Error Console will show a host of CSS related problems. --86.6.44.95 (talk) 20:13, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Did you change the stylesheet? It does let you select your own... 24.76.169.85 (talk) 03:44, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

I'm not getting you. --86.6.44.95 (talk) 12:41, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

Opera allows for a user-specified stylesheet, which will override any existing stylesheets on the pages you visit. To undo this in Opera 9, click View, then Style, then Author Mode; then go back into the Style menu and make sure none of the other things below that are checked off. If that doesn't do it, backup your bookmarks, uninstall Opera, nuke the Application Data folder for Opera (with the profile data), and reinstall. 24.76.169.85 (talk) 20:35, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

C: Int to string

I want to do a string from different integers. I was going to use sprintf but I would like to make the string of the same size, for example int 1 becomes "001", 12 becomes "012" and 123 becomes "123". How is it done? Bastard Soap (talk) 20:52, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

sprintf(yourbuffer, "%03d", theint) will add enough leading zeros to make the number at least 3 digits long. --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 21:06, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

PHP & socket_accept & annoying problem

Hi all,

I run php5 on cygwin (yea, it's a shame^^); and I want to do some stuff with socket binding (I want to create some test server); but somewhere in the code there must be a problem, but I can't spot it:

<?PHP
$sock_l=socket_create(AF_INET,SOCK_STREAM,SOL_TCP) or die ("Socket creation failed!\n");
socket_bind($sock_l,null,31337) or die ("Socket bind failed!\n");
socket_set_nonblock($sock_l) or die("Unblock socket failed!\n");
while (1) {
	if($sock_t=socket_accept($sock_l)) { socket_getpeername($sock_l, $raddr, $rport); }
}
?>

It fails in socket_access: " Warning: socket_accept(): unable to accept incoming connection [22]: Invalid argument in /cygdrive/c/Dokumente und Einstellungen/Marco/Eigene Dateien/dev/spd/spd.php on line 9".

Any idea what causes this mess? Thanks, 88.217.56.36 (talk) 21:49, 31 May 2008 (UTC) PS: Using debug print's (which I removed here for the sake of length, WP is not pastebin), I know the socket is valid after socket_set_nonblock($sock_l) and there are no errors up to this one. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.217.56.36 (talk) 21:50, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

I don't know PHP, but in other languages when using the Berkeley socket API you have to do a "listen" before you can "accept". --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 22:30, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

socket_create_listen() --Sean 00:39, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

June 1

Displaying UML on the net

is there a program that renders UML graphics in html? (they need to be clickable) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.168.0.151 (talk) 04:58, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

It's not UML, but doxygen does something along those lines with class hierarchies. --Sean 12:35, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

yeah, that is in the direction. I'll take a look on that. 217.168.3.246 (talk) 14:19, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Sonar 6

Hi, I bought the Sonar 6 music program a little while ago, and kind of gave up on it after hours of trying to figure out how to work the program. I have my roland synthesizer connected to it, with speakers connected to it. I installed the preamp and set up the midi-cables like it says in the instructions, but I can't get the program to play from the PC (thought it plays through speakers connected to my synthesizer) and can't even get vocals to get recorded into it at all! There is nothing wrong with the mic or the cables...was wondering if there was anything else I can check. The people at customer support weren't very supportive, so I have turned here for some advice. Can anyone help?! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.22.57.231 (talk) 07:03, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

You might want to check the volume levels settings on your computer. I assume it's a Windows computer, so double-click on the speaker icon in the system tray (typically in the lower, right corner). You can go to Options + Properties and make sure that every type of volume setting is turned on under Playback. Then go through each volume type and make sure Mute is NOT checked, the slider is all the way up, and the Balance setting is in the middle. (If all the volume settings don't fit in the panel at once, try increasing the screen resolution or only display a portion at a time.) Next go back to Options + Properties, select Recording, and repeat the process. StuRat (talk) 02:55, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

Pre - "Art of Computer Programming" topics

What should you already known before you start to read the Art of Computer Programming of Knuth?217.168.0.192 (talk) 14:53, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

You don't need too much. He's pretty straightforward, a clear writer, a clear thinker. Just jump on in; if you get totally lost, that'll be more informative about what you should read up on, rather than a list of prerequisites. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 16:09, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

From the preface :

a) Some idea of how a stored-program digital computer works; not necessarily the electronics, rather the manner in which instructions can be kept in the machine's memory and successively executed.
b) An ability to put the solutions to problems into such explicit terms that a computer can "understand" them. [...]
c) Some knowledge of the most elementary computer techniques such as looping (performing a set of instructions repeatedly), the use of subroutines, and the use of indexed variables.
d) A little knowledge of common computer jargon -- "memory," "registers," "bits," "floating point," "overflow," "software." Most words not defined in the text are given brief definitions in the index at the close of each volume.
These four prerequisites can perhaps be summed up into athe single requirement that the reader should have already written and tested at least, say, four programs for at least one computer.
[...]
The material has been organized so that persons with no more than a knowledge of high-school algebra may read it, skimming briefly over the more mathematical portions; yet a reader who is more mathematically inclined will learn about many interesting mathematical techniques related to discrete mathematics.

(Any typos mine.) He later goes on to say that a good knowledge of calculus should be sufficient for the majority of the mathematics portions. (The ones he previously mentioned you could skim over.) APL (talk) 16:33, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

lexmark cartridge reset

Hi i have been searching for days on how to restet my lexmark No 33 and 31 ink cartridges with no joy can anyone please help its a lexmark P915 printer. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mat30m (talk • contribs) 14:54, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

What exactly do you mean by "resetting" them? --saxsux (talk) 09:15, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

Web Formatting with HTML or CSS?

I'm writing a story (the same one) for pseudo-publication online, and have run into a bit of an issue. I'm very knowledgeable and conscientious (Read: OCD) of formatting, and pay slightly rigorous attention to style guides. For example, for fully justified text, I generally only allow hyphenation of line breaks twice consecutively. All of this sounds needlessly trivial, except that I use OpenOffice.org which allows me to set most of these minor settings to occur automatically. However, for the "web", is it possible to set such niceties to occur automatically (via CSS or something?) or would I need to do it all manually? If it's not possible, is there some other open-source program or language or something that would allow me to? Because while I like being "correct" (and as a college student, such trivialities usually require me to be a perfectionist) it's just not worth it if I have to do it all manually. As an afterthought, are there any reputable style guides specifically for websites that are used in lieu of sophisticated software or editorial staff?

Deshi no Shi (talk) 18:39, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

If you could be more specific about which "niceties" you'd like to occur, I can try help you come of with the CSS to do those things. - SigmaEpsilon → ΣΕ

Automatic hyphenation, indentation, spacing control (double/single), kerning (though I doubt this is possible?), tabs (based on inches or relativity to the rest of the text), control of non-breaking characters (spaces, hyphens, etc.) Deshi no Shi (talk) 20:01, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

This is a very common problem with moving from print to web. For hyphenation - forget it for now. The web doesn't hyphenate. If you are concerned about it, you'll need to learn to program JavaScript for all popular web browsers and add hyphenation on the fly whenever text is loaded or the page is resized. Even then, you are assuming the person has JavaScript running - which many people opt to turn off. For justified text, it is possible with CSS, but not all browsers support it. Tabbing in inches is possible with CSS - but what the web browser considers to be an "inch" is a bit vague and rarely equal to an inch. Using "Ems" is far more likely to get something relative to the text. The main root of the problem is that you don't appear to realize that the text will layout differently for every person that views it. There may be 23 words on the first line of text when you view it on your computer. On mine, there may be 54. Your letters may be 0.13" wide. Mine may be 0.24" wide. The same goes for everything else. Your line spacing will be different than mine. Your kerning will be different than mine. Your entire font will be different than mine. It all boils down to the web being a "markup language". Basically, you are suggesting how the page should look. My web browser can accept the suggestions, ignore the suggestions, or treat the suggestions in an entirely different way than you expect. -- kainaw™ 21:26, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

Hyphens can be done by inserting a soft hyphen, but not all web browsers support them (the normally reliable Firefox doesn't, for example). Sizes can be defined in terms of pixels or em-spaces. Kerning will be available when CSS 3 is released.[7] But kainaw is right - the web doesn't work like this. You can request that I display it your way, but I may decide to have a stupidly large font size, to ignore your colors in favor of high-contrast black-and-white, or I may be using a screen reader or lynx. Follow the reccomendations of the Web Accessibility Initiative and everyone will be happy. --h2g2bob (talk) 21:59, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

Am I missing something? If you already use OOo, you could create PDF copies of your documents for the 'paper-like' feel. Of course, you would be assuming that the person has a pdf viewer/reader but you will have done something to help PDF proliferate. Kushal (talk) 03:28, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

June 2

Keeping music on an iPod after removing the music from the computer

Hello, my question comes from the fact that I have a 60GB iPod but my computer's harddrive only has 20GB of space. Using the "manually manage music" feature, would it be possible for me to have music on the computer, drag it on to the iPod, and then delete it from the computer? Would the iPod know to keep the music on there once I re-connect it to the computer and the music has been deleted from the computer? I don't want to use it as a portable harddrive; I want to be able to listen to the music I put on there, and I would like to be able to take advantage of the 60GB that my iPod has. I hope this isn't too difficult to understand. Thanks. NIRVANA2764 (talk) 01:30, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Sure, you can put music on your iPod and delete it from your computer. It's just when you plug it back in, it'll ask you if you want to transfer it back to your computer. Don't say don't transfer, or else it'll delete it from you iPod. Just say transfer and delete it afterwards. --Randoman412 (talk) 02:36, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

What if the OP transfer if (s)he has 40 GB of songs on the iPod and just 20 GB in the computer? Kushal (talk) 03:25, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Randoman, you're slightly mistaken — iTunes will only transfer content purchased from the iTunes Store from an iPod back to the iTunes library (see the penultimate paragraph of iTunes#Synchronizing_iPod_and_other_players). There's no way to copy imported (ripped, usually) media back to the computer, without using third-party software. So it depends on how much purchased music the user has as to whether it will be a problem. --alien2k (talk) 12:11, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Yes, just manually manage it. Once you've copied it to the iPod you can delete it off of the computer and it will stay on the iPod. Note, though, that it's tricky (but not impossible) to copy music back from the iPod onto the computer. So for example I've copied all my own CDs to the iPod and deleted them from my computer, because if something happens (the iPod fails) it won't be hard to re-copy them again since I have the original CDs. Music that I don't have any easy way to replace, though, I kept on the computer. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 15:00, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the advice. No I do not really have any intention of importing music from the iPod back to the computer. You bring up a valid point however - if the iPod fails, the music is gone forever. So maybe I will want to import music from iPod back to computer if I get a bigger harddrive. NIRVANA2764 (talk) 20:12, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Yup, hard disks are cheap. For example, this piece of *rap will set you back by less than USD 100.00 Kushal (talk) 00:26, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Seeding

Please don't say it's illegal and not answer my question. I only use torrents for free stuff. I made a torrent and i want to know how to seed it for the first time. Again, don't bash me for asking. --Randoman412 (talk) 02:34, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Randoman412, I don't know why anyone would be bashing or anything. BitTorrent is just a transport protocol and it is 100% legal. To answer your question in just a word, it would be "Depends." If you are using uTorrent, I believe there is an option under file menu to seed your own torrent (other clients should have similar options too). Just be sure that you either use a public tracker and/or ensure that the swarm catches the complete file so that the file continues to be available in case you need to turn off your computer. I am pretty sure you have read BitTorrent and associated articles. Hope that helps, Kushal (talk) 03:23, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

I don't have uTorrent, and i'm using Azureus for torrents. Can you seed with Azureus or was it too late since i uploaded it onto a diffrent tracker? --Randoman412 (talk) 19:34, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Yes, you can seed with Azureus. The Azureus wiki is a good resource- seeding is listed on the FAQ. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 20:26, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

laptop USB power

I'm trying to get a USB mouse working thats plugged into a PCMCIA usb/firewire combo card . Unfortunately no life from the mouse - i've tried an SD card adaptor and it works ok; mouse works on another computer . Do PCMCIA connections supply a low-current thats not powering the mouse ? Or something else ? Boomshanka (talk) 09:51, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

I am not sure but I don't think that the power sufficient for the sd card reader to function properly is insufficient for a mouse. I agree that the situation is rather strange. We know that both the computer has a functioning usb port (tested using an sd card adapter) and the mouse is working (tested on another computer). The thing that comes to my mind is "Does the computer recognize the Mmouse and can they talk to each other?" If you are on a Microsoft Windows, you could open Device Manager and look for anything that needs attention (with the mouse attached physically prior to booting). You have probably done that already. In that case, please ignore this edit. I am sure other wikipedians will come up with other [hopefully, better] answers. Kushal (talk) 14:50, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

To check, go to control panel/printers and other hardware/mouse/hardware and check if the mouse is listed there; then you can fool around with troubleshoot and/or properties. Gzuckier (talk) 14:57, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Import avi/wmv files into iTunes so works in FrontRow

Hi. I am trying to find a program that will convert or make it possible to add .avi (or dvx) format video so that I can add them to iTunes. The "import" doesn't allow it, and neither does add to library. I assume it will mean converting to an iTunes friendly format so is there anything free out there to do this into an iTunes friendly format. I am a mac-user on a intel-mac using Tiger (I think tiger - the one before the current operating system). Any help greatly welcomed. 14:55, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

ffmpeg can convert files from a bazillion formats though I have found it to be pretty buggy at times (like most open source software). VLC can transcode to and from a bunch of formats as well, but it's also mondo buggy (like, sigh, most open source software). Anyway, what you're looking for is a transcoder to MOV or MP4 format. You're going to lose some file quality while doing so but that's your decision to make. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 15:14, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the info - will give it a whirl tonight, hoepfully that'll work! Thanks again 194.221.133.226 (talk) 11:31, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

Also, MPEG Streamclip can convert AVI to MOV, I believe. I've had better experiences with it in the past than those other programs (it is easier to use, less buggy). --98.217.8.46 (talk) 15:25, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

replacing dell laptop lcd screen

can anyone direct me to an article regarding dell laptop lcd screens breaking for no apparent reason and cost to repair? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kplossl (talk • contribs) 15:36, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Breaking for no apparent reason? Not quite as bad as exploding batteries but if I see it correctly, someone at Dell would beosleepless if this were true. I know that LCD screens can be replaced at home with some some money, some googling, price comparison, an online merchant, and a lot of patience and free time. Kplossl, I don't understand how an lcd screen would spontaneously break. If you are aware of such an incident, could you alert Dell and also write here about it? Kushal (talk) 01:17, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

When I typed replacing a broken lcd screen on a laptop in the search engine, the result was Notebook review¹. Google also gave me another website². The replacement unit should cost you between USD 100 to USD 300. Make sure you equate the cost of a broken lcd screen vs buying a new laptop. A price comparison website will come handy as well. Kushal (talk) 17:38, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

KDE4 Dual Head Display

I have been using my computer's on-board ATI chip with a dual-head SVGA display for a long time. The ati driver no longer supports mergedfb. Instead, xrandr is used - which means that I cannot do dual 1280x1024 display. I can only do dual 1024x768. I'm interested in getting a dual-head AGP board to correct this problem, but I cannot find a dependable page that lists which cards work with Linux without any weird issues. I'm using KDE4 on the latest kernel, so I'm leaning towards an nVidia card. Any suggestions? -- kainaw™ 18:20, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Office Forms Server 2007 with WSS 3.0 without MOSS - Is it possible?

Okay, I'm at my wits end with this. I've searched for this answer everywhere and some places say yes, some say no. If my question was unclear I am asking if it's possible to run the free Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 with Office Forms Server 2007, which I understand to be a separate component of the Office Suite, without having to purchase the grossly expensive Microsoft Office Sharepoint 2007 Enterprise Edition. I am trying to run web-based InfoPath forms and, to my understanding, the Enterprise Edition of Sharepoint is the only one able to do this. --Ouzo (talk) 18:27, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

How can you create your own photoshop filter?

I would like to create a simple photoshop filter, I know it is possible to make a photoshop plugin that you can import, I just have no idea about e.g. what software to use... would notepad be suffiecient? 85.233.178.213 (talk) 21:29, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Here's a good page describing what one needs to do and how. Basically to do a real plug-in you have to know how to program C++, as well as have a good knowledge of bitmap graphics and color theory—not easy stuff, even if what you want to do is "simple" (is it programmatically simple, or conceptually simple? With things like graphics the latter does not equal the former—often what is very easy for a human eye to see or a human mind to imagine is VERY hard to turn into a reliable computation, because machines have nothing like human sight capabilities) In my opinion, you might find it easier to use the Photoshop "Actions" menu which allows you to build basic "macros" out of existing Photoshop commands. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 22:12, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

where would I find the actions menu? I'm using elements 3.0 . I can code in python, would that be useful? I wouldn't know how to refer to the pixels though, since there are no guides for coding a filter... If I could see an example of one it would probably help, I just want to get started by creating one that brightens or darkens an image, I can go from there. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.233.178.213 (talk) 12:08, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

Python won't help, I'm afraid, though you can, I think, write plug-ins in GIMP with Python, but that's a whole different program. But if you're game for it, I'm sure it's better documented than writing Photoshop plug-ins, and is totally free (and more powerful than Elements, anyway).

I don't think there is an Action menu in Elements—it's only in the full Photoshop. Sorry... --98.217.8.46 (talk) 16:09, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

I tried to use GIMP but its interface was too clunky, I really can't get used to having a seperate window for the tools, and why the selected colour is in the background while the inactive colour is in the foreground, still, I started followeing a tutorial athough I doubt I will go though with it, thank you anyway... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.233.178.213 (talk) 17:24, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

"why the selected colour is in the background while the inactive colour is in the foreground" I use both Gimp and Photoshop and I have never noticed their behavior. I assume you're talking about the two overlapping square swatches that indicate your current working "foreground" and "background" colors? In both programs the square in 'front' of the other is the foreground. APL (talk) 19:41, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

Removing Partition

I have two partitions on my computer. One with windows and one with Ubuntu. How can I format the Ubuntu partition and merge it back with the windows partition. (sorry fanboys) --69.127.64.22 (talk) 21:37, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

I'd recommend using a GParted LiveCD. If the Windows partition is not a system partition, Window's built-in Disk Management should be able to nuke the other partition and then resize the Windows one, but otherwise you'll want something you can launch outside Windows (such as a GParted liveCD) -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 00:32, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

May I recommend Wubi (Ubuntu) for your next attempt at scaling the Unix-like architecture? Kushal (talk) 01:11, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

June 3

Internet Problems Following Failed Ubuntu Installation

Hello, I'm having problems accessing the internet which are pretty strange to me. Here's the situation:

I attempted to install an 8.04 Ubuntu release using a CD and got a short ways into the installation before I got a few error messages and a lot of lagging. I already knew my system only had a little under 256 mb of memory when more was generally required, and I was going to install Xubuntu instead so I didn't give it much thought. I unfortunately did a hard reset (which I know is always a stupid idea, but I couldn't get the system to pause or close by combinations of escape and other keys) and tried to start up Windows. This was generally fine except for Windows asking to check the disk, which I allowed. This also went fine, but there was some message following the 3rd step that I couldn't really follow because it closed quickly.

When I signed back on to my account, all my files were in order but the internet was, and still is, acting up. I'm pretty sure I can access sites without a problem- given enough time. As I type this the icons for different buttons are still loading, and internet browsing in general seems to be rather slow to work. At first it was, strangely, only Wikipedia that didn't load. In fact, quite a few sites are still rather quick to load, but others just hang for a long time almost without rhyme or reason.

My real question is, what could a hard reset during the attempt at installation (I should note that I chose to install Ubuntu without changing the existing configuration) mess up that would leave internet access, files, and the like, while slowing down only certain sites at certain times? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.54.42.126 (talk) 00:53, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

Request for more informationHow are you connected to the Internet? Dial-up? Ethernet Cable? DSL? Wi-Fi? Are you a poweruser (admin) on Windows? Are you sure it is the Internet connection, and not the web browser, that is acting strangely? AFAIK, if you are not a poweruser and some of your browser files accidentally got corrupted during a hard boot, Windows XP SP2 would not allow the browser (most probably, Mozilla Firefox) to set it correctly. Of course, I could be off a tangent with the question, too. Kushal (talk) 01:09, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

Sorry that I wasn't specific:

1) I have a cable connection and I'm using a router, but it hasn't been changed at all by the setup, and a computer in another room actually seems to be fine.

2) I'm pretty sure it isn't the web browser (Firefox) because I tried accessing sites on Internet Explorer, too.

3) Someone in my house said it might be a system settings problem too, which I'm starting to think it is. I tried to quickly fix the internet connection by doing a Windows repair but nothing changed...

Is there any way I would be able to figure out the source of the problem and fix it? On another note, when I tried to access this page to edit it I opened another tab, assuming that it might load faster. When the page in fact loaded, both of the windows reached the website at the same time. Could this mean that the internet is working in bursts or something?

Also, I am connected to an instant messaging program with absolutely no problems. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.54.42.126 (talk) 01:20, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

As far as I know, Internet access always works in bursts. Kushal (talk) 03:59, 3 June 2008 (UTC) Are you a poweruser (or administrator) on your computer? Kushal (talk) 04:01, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

IPhone or IPod touch?

I'm not sure if this is the right section but anyway... I'm thinking on getting either and Iphone or an Ipod touch. Which one do you think I should get?

The Iphone has more app. (like the phone, camera ect.) but, the Ipod touch is faster, cheaper and comes with more memory. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.66.12.129 (talk) 02:09, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

If you want a phone, consider the iPhone, otherwise the iPod Touch. Or just get a Razr or some other cheap/decent phone and a Touch. Or whatever your heart desires. Though some might criticize the Touch's low capacity, I know one guy who loves his. It fits more than a day's worth of music anyways, you just need to swap it out every once in awhile (and if you had a particularly huge collection you would be doing this anyways) -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 03:02, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

I wonder if a 3G (HSDPA or otherwise) iPhone with 16 GB or more storage capacity is coming this July. I agree with Consumed Crustacean. If you do not want a phone, save the money that you would spend on a phone. If you need a phone and not an iPod, get yourself a phone. Before you decide the iPod Touch over the iPhone, make sure you understand that there are certain things that current generation iPod Touch devices can never do (and that do not seem to matter yet, vibration may be one of them). There are many rumors, and according to one, you might get an iPhone for as little as USD 200.00 as an initial payment.

Oh, by the way, have you heard of Android (mobile device platform)? maybe that could be your next phone in two years time after you get your iPhone 2 this fall? Kushal (talk) 03:57, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

What to learn next in programing

I've been on and off with programming - a little PHP and HTML, and some Perl from a while back - like loops, variables, functions. I worked a lot with Visual Basic and access, and I know a good amount of how do use: databases, OO programming(with VB- easy stuff), using IDEs, and well, basic stuff in VB). A couple of weeks back, I picked up PHP again, and I've learned quite a bit with PHP/MySQL: arrays, function, databases, post/get, cookies, date, and file manipulation. I was considering on taking up a project with PHP and MySQL, but I've been having second thoughts about it, because It's a really time consuming one, requiring AJAX (javascript + php - really a pain to use), which might teach me a lot about AJAX, but I don't think it would teach me things any deeper than I know already.

So, I'm at the point in programming where I feel that I could do a lot of things in a programming language (using tons of reference), but I'm not sure exactly what to learn/pursue next, however, if it makes sense.

So, I have a couple of questions, if you don't mind (sorry to make it so long!):

1) Would I still be considered "new" to programming based on the stuff I learned?
2) Should I drop my PHP project, and learn other stuff?
3) Is it bad to be skipping from programming language to programming language?
4) What should I learn next (Java/C++/Python, etc.)?
Thanks!
—Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.62.238.80 (talk) 04:46, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

It is more a software design approach than straight programming, but I would suggest learning UML and Design Patterns if you haven't (doing both together would probably be a good combination, but start with the basics of UML to help make sense of Design Patterns). Using them to design your Javascript -> PHP -> SQL project would be a great help and a perfect learning experience in my opinion. And as far as the actual programming goes, I wouldn't say jumping between languages is a bad thing as long as it doesn't confuse you too badly, so that'll have to be your call. --Prestidigitator (talk) 05:52, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

If you're interested in doing more with web programming, Django is a beautiful system based on Python, which itself is a nice language to learn. Django is object-oriented and deeply integrated with SQL, and it has some modules that do AJAX for you, so this could solve your PHP woes. Of course, there's also the ever-popular Ruby on Rails for that purpose -- it has more AJAX magic, but I've been burned by its inconsistency.

It's also never a bad thing to skip from one programming language to another -- it will eventually let you spend more of your brainpower on general, useful programming patterns and less on the mundane specifics of each language. On that note, if you want to become really good at programming, you could try a language that's very different than the ones you've learned, to expand your repertoire. A functional language such as LISP or Scheme would do well for that purpose. (I was almost going to suggest Haskell, but I realized that it is frankly a difficult, mind-bending language, and would be prone to making you give up and return to the comfort of PHP or VB.)

Finally, here are some good programming books that you can read online for free:

• How to Think Like a Computer Scientist -- teaches Python, along with design patterns from basic to less basic.
• Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs -- teaches Scheme and how to understand programs at a high level and (later) at a low level. Only a bit dated.
• Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby -- ridiculously entertaining. Perhaps not as useful as some other books because it spends so much time being ridiculously entertaining, but that's not entirely the point. It may never be finished.
• The Django Book, for writing nice web applications.

rspeer / ɹəədsɹ 09:47, 3 June 2008 (UTC)\

Thanks for your replies! So, I'm wondering which language to move onto. C++, Java, or Python. I'm not really sure. I liked the "How to think like a computer programmer", but i was thinking about doing Java/C++ also. Would you reccomend OO/GUI programming for me? I'll be sure to check out some of the other links everyone has posted. Thanks again.

At the risk of being a bit too opinionated and starting a Wiki flame war, I'd say there's currently no reason to learn C++ unless you have to work with other people's C++ code. It's a language that tries to do everything with nothing, and ends up just doing everything in confusingly idiosyncratic ways. For example, C++ was designed to add the object-oriented paradigm to C, but we have a much better understanding of object-oriented design now than when C++ was created, so its templates and pointers look and feel positively hackish now. C++ will bite you in unexpected ways, because it has so many unexpected things in its specifications, which themselves fill a 1500-page book.

Java is fine. It's a very practical language, especially for the business world. It's the most portable of any of the languages you've mentioned, so if you want to write things for other people to run on all kinds of computer systems, it would probably be your best choice. But I have also found that it makes some aspects of programming quite dull. You may find yourself typing the same lines of boilerplate over and over and generally feeling like a corporate drone.

So, if you're programming on your own terms, I would definitely recommend Python out of those three. Python can be very intuitive to learn and fun to use, and once you've learned it, you can also learn Django and start making web applications with it. rspeer / ɹəədsɹ 22:20, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

Just to step in here, I agree with the above, but I'd put Java above Python. Depends a lot on what you want to do, but Java sticks to the c-type syntax that PHP uses (which makes the syntax easier, at least), and will force you to learn OO. OO is one of those big steps you really need to pass through in order to get good skills at software design. Python uses it, but Java insists. :) We teach Java, and my argument is that we don't teach it because Java itself is a good language (it is ok, but there are better languages) but because of what it forces you to learn and because of its application. Get some better OO design skills, and your Python/PHP/.Net etc programming will leap ahead. :) But, as Rspeer mentioned, Java is a hoop you should jump through for professional programming, while Python is better for hackers and others who want to code on their own terms, and is a beautiful language in its own right (noting that Python is used professionally, but not to the level that Java is). I'd add that knowing some C or C++ will help career-wise, but depending on where you want to go it might not be essential. - Bilby (talk) 04:05, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

Ok. Thanks! Between Scheme and Lisp, what do you recommend I learn? Are there any good IDEs/interpreters worth noting for either of them? I now plan on learning Python(most probably), along with Lisp or Scheme (basically, any low level languages), to get some experience with it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Legolas52 (talk • contribs) 23:16, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

Ultimately, you will probably want to turn your talents into a career. I suggest you take a look at some IT recruitment websites and see what programming language skills employers are looking for. Astronaut (talk) 01:00, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

Scheme is more modern than LISP, and DrScheme is a good interpreter for it. But neither Scheme or Lisp would typically be considered low level, as in running things on the bare hardware, since modern computer hardware is really designed for C-like languages. So if you want to squeeze raw speed out of your programs, you probably want to know some C eventually. (Using C and Python together can be a particularly powerful way to program.) I recommended Scheme because it's useful to see a different perspective on programming -- Scheme is based on a paradigm where the fundamental unit is the function rather than the command. rspeer / ɹəədsɹ 03:03, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

The only thing I had to use Scheme for was a course based on recursion. Other than that, I've almost forgotten about it. I'm not sure I'd recommend it myself though, because although it is very good for some things, it's also a very small slice of the whole, imho. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 03:49, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

Python sockets - sending from a specific IP address

I'd like to send some data in Python from a specific IP address, but want to let Python automatically choose a port to send from (because I could have many of these running at once). This is what I have so far - this sends from the IP address fine:

from socket import *
s = socket( AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM )
s.bind(( 'x.x.x.2', 2020 ))               # Sending data from a specific IP address, using a specific high port
s.connect(( 'example.com', 80 ))
s.send( 'GET / HTTP/1.1\r\nHost: example.com\r\n\r\n' )
while True:
	d = s.recv(100)
	if d:
		print d
	else:
		break

But if I bind with an IP address only with s.bind(( 'x.x.x.2' )) it sends it from the default IP address (x.x.x.1), not the one I specify. Is there any way of automatically allocating an IP address but not a port a port but not an IP address? --h2g2bob (talk) 11:02, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

Just like in straight C sockets, binding to port zero means "choose a port for me": s.bind(( 'x.x.x.2', 0 )) --Sean 13:37, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

When I do that, it goes back to the default IP address too :( Is there any way to fix the IP address but have the port allocated automatically? --h2g2bob (talk) 14:53, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

It works for me on my Linux machine, using the following server and client scripts to verify what IP the client is coming from:

# Server:
from socket import *
s = socket( AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM )
s.bind(( '10.2.1.148', 9001 ))
s.listen(5)
print "Waiting for clients ..."
while True:
        cli = s.accept()
        print "Got client:",
        print cli


# Client:
from socket import *

server_ip  = '10.2.1.148'

client_ip1 = '10.2.1.148'
sock1 = socket( AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM )
sock1.bind(( client_ip1, 0 ))
sock1.connect(( server_ip, 9001 ))

client_ip2 = '192.168.2.1'
sock2 = socket( AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM )
sock2.bind(( client_ip2, 0 ))
sock2.connect(( server_ip, 9001 ))

# Running gives:
# Waiting for clients ...
# Got client: (<socket._socketobject object at 0x4037a2d4>, ('10.2.1.148', 60709))
# Got client: (<socket._socketobject object at 0x4037ee8c>, ('192.168.2.1', 60710))

If it doesn't work for you, I'd suspect something wrong with your underlying sockets implementation. What system are you on? --Sean 19:25, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

P.S., the following C client will do the same thing as the Python one above. If it does not set your client interface correctly, your sockets implementation is borked:

#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <netinet/in.h>
#include <arpa/inet.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>

#define die() do { perror("error"); abort(); } while (0)

int main()
{
    char *client_ip = "192.168.2.1";
    char *server_ip = "10.2.1.148";

    int fd = socket(PF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0);
    if (fd < 0)
        die();

    struct sockaddr_in server = { .sin_family = AF_INET,
                                  .sin_port = htons(9000) };

    if (inet_pton(AF_INET, server_ip, (void *)&server.sin_addr) < 1)
        die();

    struct sockaddr_in client = { .sin_family = AF_INET,
                                  .sin_port = htons(0) };

    if (inet_pton(AF_INET, client_ip, (void *)&client.sin_addr) < 1)
        die();

    if (bind(fd, (const struct sockaddr*)&client, sizeof(client)) != 0)
        die();

    if (connect(fd, (struct sockaddr*)&server, sizeof(server)) != 0)
        die();
    return 0;
}

Amazon

Why doesn't Amazon have an Australian version? Interactive Fiction Expert/Talk to me 11:49, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

maybe they are waiting for a strategic partner like you who sees long-term value in the online merchant beyond the fact that Amazon has not been able to generate a lot of profit since the dot com bust. No kidding. 67.173.249.88 (talk) 13:42, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

Your comment doesn't make sense. Amazon.com was unprofitable during the dot-com boom, and only became profitable after the bust. -- Coneslayer (talk) 14:45, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

Amazon.com is profitable? Sign me up for 100 shares! Just kidding, Amazon.com's cumulative profits continue to remain negative. There is a lot of long-term value in Amazon, I agree. Many people idolize its customer service and Amazon Prime is a great idea. I also agree that the future looks bright for Amazon. Amazon Prime in Australia would probably make as much sense as it would in a small town in Wyoming. I don't care what happened during the dot com boom. Anything that happens in a crazy boom, stays in the crazy boom. :) Kushal (talk) 17:25, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

I think I'm using "profitable" in the most common way, considering a year (or a quarter, etc.) at a time. This is how it's used in our article, and in this sense, Amazon is profitable, and General Motors is not. While you certainly can integrate over the lifetime of the company, I don't think that's how most people define profit or loss. The impact of Amazon's past losses would be reflected in its outstanding debt. -- Coneslayer (talk) 19:26, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

Coneslayer, I think we can agree that in a few years, Amazon could be "profitable" from either point of view. Kushal (talk) 23:28, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

I can fully appreciate why you would like to see an Aussie Amazon; the postage from the UK or USA is quite high. My friends in Oz, will order books, etc and have them sent to my place here in the UK. I them post them on, in exchange for them getting me something from home (eg boxes of Cherry Ripes) or often Australian releases of DVDs are way ahead of those that come out in the UK and are often superior. I have obtained a full set of CountDown DVDs this way.--80.176.225.249 (talk) 19:28, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

Does that mean Amazon.com overcharges for shipping for its downunder customers? 80, is it cheaper for your friends to have you ship it to them instead of have Amazon ship it directly? I thought it was something that only the cheapskates at the auction website did that. If this is true, it is very sad. I thought Amazon.com tried to do things right. :( Kushal (talk) 23:26, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

It may be that by going through a friend you avoid declaring the item's proper value or avoid paying tariffs in some other way. APL (talk) 01:38, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

You will always get cheaper postage from amazon.co.uk to the UK than to Australia. Sometimes I can post items to Australia cheaper than amazon. For instance, it you purchase a talking book, amazon will charge you a book rate rather than a CD rate. Also, I can mark the item "gift" and wrap it in pretty paper which removes tariffs. Finally, I can get things from home (Oz) that I can't get here in the UK. Everyone wins, apart from the taxman! --80.176.225.249 (talk) 23:14, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

I thought book rates are cheap. Huh. I think I need to look at the postal service's list of fees. Kushal (talk) 00:22, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Matlab Question !

In Matlab How to save and retrieve a multidimensional array from a text file? --203.199.213.67 (talk) 13:51, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

According to this and this, it would be something like:

multi_array = cat(3, [2 8; 0 5], [1 3; 7 9])
save my_data.out multi_array -ASCII

to save it, and:

multi_array_again = load('my_data.out','-ascii')

to load it back in. --Sean 14:33, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

Yahoo mail

I use Yahoo mail, and also subscribe to the en.wp mailing list. The problem is, the mailing list is ass-trociously huge and I get ~7 e-mails a day from the list. I usually end up moving them all to a designated folder, but surely there must be an easier way to do this. Can I automatically move all e-mails with subject X or sender X to a certain folder? Ziggy Sawdust 16:36, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

Yahoo! Mail has a filtering feature that does what you want. In Yahoo! Mail Classic, filter configuration is under Options -> Mail Options -> Management -> Filters. --71.162.242.23 (talk) 17:05, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

The thing is, I tried that before and then all wikien-l messages didn't get through at all. Ziggy Sawdust 18:01, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

Maybe, just to give it a try, please add a new filtering criterion. Maybe the subject line? Maybe the sender domain? Do you have Yahoo! Plus? Kushal (talk) 23:22, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

Populous: The Beginning demo install error

I recently tried to install the above program and got the following message: "An error occurred during the move data process: -1" I googled the message, and came up with a bunch of different sites discussing similar errors, only every site listed a three digit number, instead of a just -1. I checked my temp files and hard drive space as suggested, and both have room to spare. Any help? Thanks in advance for your efforts. You may reply here or on my talk page. --AtTheAbyss (talk) 16:59, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

The number is usually an error code, that the program spews out if something goes wrong. The programmer can then debug by looking up what the code means. (e.g. ran out of hard disk space, etc) -1 sounds like a generic 'unknown error', though, so it isn't helpful. I can't really think of any advice than the usual. Run a scandisk? Make sure everything else is switched off? Check the place you are installing to, and delete anything left in it?--Fangz (talk) 22:47, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

I've tried the above ideas to no avail. Thanks for the effort.--136.247.76.213 (talk) 04:09, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

IP address of sender in google group

Hi, I am a part of a google group.. Is there a way to trace the ip address of another member of google group who has replied to a posted message on google group?? If yes , how?? Its important for me to know somehow..... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 137.132.3.7 (talk) 17:24, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

No. You don't get the actual sender's IP info in the message. At most, you get the email address the sender is claiming to be using - which may or may not be true. Google purposely masks that information and you'll have to take Google to court to force them to hand over the IP address. Even then, it will likely be a dynamic IP that doesn't belong to the user anymore after you go through all that trouble. -- kainaw™ 19:40, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

If I understand correctly, then many "Google groups" are just mirrors of usenet. If someone has posted to usenet directly, the message headers may contain some usefull information, if not an exact IP address. APL (talk) 19:44, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

even then, what if the user in question is using proxy or something like Tor? If you think the person is genuine, please write to him/her/them/it directly. If you suspect malice, expect that they have taken steps to hide themselves from you. Kainaw, if Google were to give up personally identifiable information without a fight, we would not have a template that lets us search Google like {{Google|this}}. Kushal (talk) 23:14, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

AT&T early termination

If I have a wireless plan with AT&T for about six months and I have to cancel my contract, I will need to pay the early termination fee and any monthly fee due. However, do I need to return my cell phone? I am pretty sure I don't have to. Please let me know if you have been in such a situation. Kushal (talk) 17:58, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

That depends on what kind of an agreement you have made with AT&T. Did you lease the phone from them? What does it say in the paper you presumably signed when you signed up for the plan? Really, all you need to do is call up their customer service and ask them, they can undoubtedly tell you how it works. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 18:17, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

Thanks a lot. I dialed 6-1-1. It appears that all I need to do is to call them on the day I want to have the service canceled and tell them to IMMEDIATELY cancel the contract. The representative said that my contract would then be canceled. I would not need to return anything. My bill would show the early termination fee and the prorated monthly fees. Kushal (talk) 18:29, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

Versace typeface

What typeface is the word "VERSACE" in this image written in? Also could you please give me instructions on how to download the typeface and apply it to Windows Live Messenger --Hadseys 21:32, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

It's Radiant URW T Bold. I'm pretty sure that fonts applied to Windows Live Messenger conversations only show up on the other end if the other person has it installed too (so if the other person doesn't have Radiant they'll see Arial or some other font). — Matt Eason ^{(Talk • Contribs)} 15:37, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

(could also be Radiant RR Bold - they're very similar faces) — Matt Eason ^{(Talk • Contribs)} 15:39, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

iTunes: flag mp3 as audiobook?

Is there a way to tell iTunes 7 that an arbitrary mp3 file is an audiobook and should be classified in the library as such? I've at least tagged it as "remember playback position" and have it filed as "books and spoken", but iTunes still sorts it as music. Only Google references I've found have been for legacy versions of iTunes. — Lomn 22:39, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

Well, for MP4 files, you could change the extension to .m4b (the default is .m4a) and re-add them to library. But MP3 files are of different format, so renaming them to .m4b probably won't work. But you can convert your MP3s to MP4. --grawity 12:04, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

Google Pages

Hello. Can a website master implement RSS Feeds into a Google Page website? Thanks in advance. --Mayfare (talk) 23:52, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

I don't know why you cannot. You have a fairly good access to the underlying html code. I think it is very possible. I need to do more research to find out how to do it, though. Kushal (talk) 00:18, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

June 4

MediaWiki Page Protection

Suppose that there are three users 'Alex', 'Bob' and 'Chad' whose user pages are 'User:Alex', 'User:Bob' and 'User:Chad' respectively. Is there any way to configure MediaWiki such that only Alex can edit the page User:Alex, only Bob can edit the page User:Bob and only Chad can edit the page User:Chad? That is, no one can edit a user page except the user who owns the user page. As I know, users in some group have rights to protect/unprotect arbitrary page but it doesn't work for the case I described. Does MediaWiki provide such advanced protection? Or any extension available? Thanks! - Justin545 (talk) 02:08, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

The extension UserPageEditProtection ([8]) does that —Dvyjones ^{(t • c)} 20:16, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

opengl crash

Hey I started off opengl programming recently but I got a crash in my first program itself -

glClear( GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT);

Commenting this line makes another crash at glFlush(). I have already created a render context and activated it using wglMakeCurrent() which returns a TRUE. I have also set the clear color to black and clear depth 1.0. Please help. 59.93.175.90 (talk) 05:43, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

It would be nice to have the code you are trying to use. Leeboyge (talk) 08:03, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

I have a question in ADVANCED COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE.

MY QUESTION IS : (1) EXPLAIN DIFFERENT PAGE REPLACEMENT POLICIES WITH EXAMPLE. (2) WHAT IS BLACKPANE BUS SYSTEM? (3) WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A LINEAR PIPE LINE PROCESSOR & NON-LINEAR PIPE LINE PROCESSOR? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.98.57.143 (talk) 06:05, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

Sounds like homework. You will find some relevant information in the following articles: page replacement algorithm,backplane (note spelling !), pipeline (computing), instruction pipeline. And please do not type everything in capital letters. Gandalf61 (talk) 10:08, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

ScanDisk

In Windows XP, why doesn't ScanDisk pop up when you turn on your computer after improperly shutting it down? Interactive Fiction Expert/Talk to me 06:23, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

See journaling file system. NTFS is journaled. FAT isn't, and Scandisk probably will still pop up for FAT partitions. -- BenRG (talk) 09:19, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

Australia ripped off with internet.

I've heard from people visiting here in Australia that in their countries they pay a flat rental fee for broadband access, whereas we pay more money the more we download. I'm fairly new on the internet, but I remember using it a few years ago and it wasn't like that here. It seems to go against the whole idea of the web - it's as if you had to pay more to a public library the more you visited it, even if you didn't borrow a book! Not very progressive, especially for children of struggling families. My question is: Is it true that Australia is unusual in this way, and how did it happen? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Wikwot (talk • contribs) 07:45, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

Here in the UK Many people have a bandwidth limit on their broadband connection. I used to pay £18 a month for broadband and that got me 20gb of transfer activity. I could have paid £25 a month for 'unlimited' bandwidth, or £13 for 5gb. Obviously the package gives different users different price points. Almost all providers work on this same sort of system of either a set monthly bandwidth or unlimited amount. On old dial-up connections we used to pay a per minutes-online price (like a phonecall) but that's pretty much gone these days with broadband takeup in the UK being so high. Your way may be the same, or it may be that you pay $2 per GB or something - which would be similar and perhaps (for many consumers) actually a better deal. I'd be surprised if you can't get the same setup in Oz as you do in the UK (and vice-versa) - I guess there's a large number of providers to choose between? 194.221.133.226 (talk) 10:18, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

Nobody gets truly unlimited bandwidth. You pay for bandwidth. In an "unlimited" plan, you are actually limited by the maximum bandwidth of the connection. To get a higher bandwidth connection, you have to pay more. Using your library example, you pay more for more just the same. If you want a tiny truck with a handful of books that parks down by the grocery story to be your library, your taxes to support it will be minimal. If you demand a four-story marble building with every book, movie, and music album ever made and a coffee shop and a cafe and a large supply of high-bandwidth internet connections... you will pay a lot more in taxes to support it. -- kainaw™ 12:23, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

Then there is the advertisers concept of unlimited broadband with a "reasonable use policy", i.e. it is unlimited but you are not allowed to use more than a certain amount! -- Q Chris (talk) 07:25, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

This is normally related to how far you are away from a world tier 1 ISP and also how monopolistic your local tier 1 telecomms provider is. It is also normally related to the policies and ethics (yeah right) of your Government Department of Communications. Here in South Africa we get royally ripped off; we pay among the highest rates in the world. It is due to our government-owned "Telkom" owning the local infrastructure as well as the lease on the undersea cable running across the Atlantic to AT&T infrastructure in New York (I think). Sure, other providers own satellite portions but they still have to pay Telkom for something (like upload bandwidth) down the line. Our government has the moronic policy of not allowing foreign competition to Telkom. There has only been one competitive tender awarded in the last (forever) years, and they (Neotel) are at the mercy of Telkom too. Unbundling the local loop has been pushed forward to 2012. The minister owns shares in some comms companies. It goes on and on, and who suffers? We the consumer, while Telkom shareholders smile. Yet there could have been a simple policy to subsidize bandwidth in our developing country, where education for the masses is sorely needed. Not to mention business growth and innovation. Do the politicians care? Line their own pockets, and to hell with their comrades, where just over a decade ago they were all in the fight against apartheid. Sorry for the bleak comments but this is reality over here. And, you are not alone in your gripes against the high cost of bandwidth. Sandman30s (talk) 19:32, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

Australia's pipe out to the rest of the world is pretty damn narrow, which doesn't help prices, and much of the infrastructure is owned by one company. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 22:08, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

When I first started using the internet the pipe from Australia was 256K, and guess what, international access was sluggish. Nowdays one user would not be satisfied that that for themselves. A 9600bps permanent link cost several thousand dollars per year. It has improved. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 12:08, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Mac G4 question

Will my Mac G4 be enough to run Sonar 4 or do I have to get more sonar applications? Will I need two computers or is one sufficient? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.57.94.131 (talk) 09:06, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

I don't see Sonar as being a Mac compatible program. --70.167.58.6 (talk) 20:46, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

Perl regexp

This is pretty close the first thing I have ever tried to do with Perl so it might be obvious, but with

 $str =~ /<li><a href="(.*)" class="option" title="([^"]*)"/;
 print "Option 1: $2\nAddress 1: $1\n";

what should I do if the $str can contain more than 1 match for the expression? --212.149.217.163 (talk) 11:02, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

As written it will just match the first one. You can also do:

while ($str =~ /<li><a href="([^"]*)" class="option" title="([^"]*)"/g)
{
    print "Option 1: $2\nAddress 1: $1\n";
}

to get them all (note the 'g' modifier at the end). Note that you want to do the '[^"]*' thing rather than '.*', or you could get a single match starting at the first 'href="' and ending at the last one. --Sean 13:01, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

PROJECT TOPICS

I NEED SOME INFO ON TOPICS FOR A FINAL YEAR PROJECT.ASAP!!!IM STUDYING COMPUTER SCIENCE —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.229.90.43 (talk) 14:38, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

Hi. Please don't type in all capital letters, it is perceived as shouting. We'll be happy to pool ideas for you, but you have to give us a little more information about what you in particular are studying, what languages you know, what type of school this is, what the requirements for the project are. Realize that everyone on this desk comes from a wide variety of educational backgrounds, countries, etc., and your idea of what it means for a "final year project" might be something totally different than ours. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 15:22, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

Here is a list of enhancements people want to the software that runs this wonderful website. Choose one of a suitable scope for your time and abilities, do a great job implementing it, get an A, and be a Wiki Hero! --Sean 16:10, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

If you are looking for a programming project, how about developing an AI for strategy games. Start with 3x3 noughts and crosses - very simple case. Then generalise to 4x4, 5x5 noughts and crossses, 3-d noughts and crosses, Connect 4, draughts/checkers, Reversi/Othello or even, if you are really ambitious, Thud. Plenty of scope for many projects there, and lots of fun too. Gandalf61 (talk) 16:28, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

Looking for a special image applet

Hi, is there an applet that I can add to a website, that will let me add captions to the images, and show a new random image everytime the page is refreshed? Thanks in advance, Kreachure (talk) 15:05, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

You can do this very easily with Javascript (better than an applet).

Here's some sample HTML page that demonstrates an easy way to do this:

<html>
<script language="javascript">
<!--
var filenames = new Array (); //image filenames
var captions = new Array (); //captions

filenames[0] = "image1.png"; 
captions[0] = "This is image #1.";
filenames[1] = "image2.png"; 
captions[1] = "This is image #2.";
filenames[2] = "image3.png"; 
captions[2] = "This is image #3.";

function loadimage() {
	var new_index = Math.floor(Math.random() * filenames.length);
	document.getElementById("img_filename").src = filenames[new_index];
	document.getElementById("img_filename").title = captions[new_index];
	document.getElementById("img_filename").alt = captions[new_index];
	document.getElementById("img_caption").innerHTML = captions[new_index];
}

-->
</script>

<body onload="loadimage()">

<div style="float: right; text-align: center; border: 1px solid black; padding: 5px;">
<img id="img_filename" src="image1.png" border=1 alt="This is image #1." title="This is image #1.">
<br>
<span id="img_caption">
This is image #1.
</span>
</div>

</body>
</html>

So what are we doing here? First we have a javascript block that creates two arrays (collections of items), one full of image filepaths and the other full of captions. Make sure the array indices are numbered sequentially from 0 onward as I have done above (from 0 to 2 in this example). In the HTML, we have one of the images and captions displayed by default (it will be displayed even if Javascript is disabled). In the BODY tag of the HTML, in the ONLOAD attribute we have a reference to a function that will pick one of the images in that array of filenames at random and then replace the default image and caption on the page with the information from the array. (It finds the image and caption in the HTML based on their ID attributes, so make sure you take note of what those are). It also changes the ALT and TITLE tags of the IMG element to the caption.

I put the image and caption in a DIV element (with some CSS applied to it) just so you can see an easy way of adding captions using just HTML/CSS. The image and caption will be surrounded by a black line in this example and is made to "float" on the right side of the page but that is not mandatory.

Make sense? It should be pretty easy to modify as you might need it. Let me (or others here) know if you have any questions about it. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 19:30, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

Um, holy crap? :) Thanks, I'll see what happens with this. Kreachure (talk) 19:47, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

bash script

Is there a way to run a fragment of code for each line in a given file?

eg for i in $(each line of foo.txt) do ... done

Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.110.174.74 (talk) 15:09, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

Try something like this:

while read i ; do
    ...
done < foo.txt

(untested, sorry) -- Coneslayer (talk) 15:18, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

This works:

$ cat /etc/passwd | while read; do echo "The line is ($REPLY)"; done
The line is (root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash)
The line is (daemon:x:1:1:daemon:/usr/sbin:/bin/sh)
The line is (bin:x:2:2:bin:/bin:/bin/sh)
The line is (sys:x:3:3:sys:/dev:/bin/sh)
...

--Sean 16:23, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

Some software needed

I'd like to ask for a few recommendations. I need a couple of software for 1) converting .wma, .m4a (and some other Apple formats) and mp3 (and some other formats) files, like Easy CD-DA extractor 2) shutting down my pc automatically (freeware would be ok), 3) something that can be substituted for Peer Guardian (I don't why, it often crashes!), and 4) something that can download everything of a web site, like Teleport Pro.

I hope I haven't exhausted the list yet. :)--61.92.239.42 (talk) 16:27, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

audacity, scheduled tasks and %windir%\system32\shutdown.exe, ProtoWall, DownThemAll! .froth. (talk) 17:18, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

Awesome. You surely deserve a barnstar for this one, Froth! Kushal (talk) 01:06, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

annoying high pitched sound

Please help. I have annoying high pitched sound coming from my computer speakers and headphones. It only there when I use hard drive with Serial ATA. When I use AT Attachment it not there. But I only now have Serial ATA hard drive with windows on so I get the noise all time. Nothing rids me of it, I tryed volume controller and it only go when I mute sound but then I no hear my music. How can I make it go away? Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.75.156.95 (talk) 19:45, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

I don't know if this will help, but usually when I have seen that problem, it is the "line in" channel that gives the problem. Muting that channel usually solves the problem. Leeboyge (talk) 07:59, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Script for X-chat

Hi there. I use X-Chat Aqua 0.16.0 on Mac OS X running 10.5.3. I put the script in ~/.xchat2, quit and restarted X-Chat, but no love when people send a wikified link to the channel. Might anyone be able to assist? I also tried loading it as a plug in and got syntax error messages. Thanks. P.S. Might you be able to reply on my talk page as well as here? Sincerely, Bstone (talk) 20:51, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

replacing the MOD function

I am using the MOD function to decode each primary color value of pixels which are stored as base 256 bit integers by adding using the following formulas:

color_integer = blue_integer x 256^2 + green integer x 256^1 + red_integer * 256^0. 

The primary colors are decoded using the MOD function as follows:

First pixel:

r = pixel1  Mod tf6
g = (pixel1  \ tf6) Mod tf6
b = (pixel1  \ tf6d) Mod tf6

Second pixel:

R2 = pixel2  Mod tf6
G2 = (pixel2  \ tf6) Mod tf6
B2 = (pixel2  \ tf6d) Mod tf6

The difference in primary color values is then compared with a tolerance value for each primary color using the following formulas:

rc = Abs(r - R2) - Tolerance 
gc = Abs(g - G2) - Tolerance 
bc = Abs(b - B2) - Tolerance

A decision is then be made based on a positive or negative value resulting for each primary color.

My question is whether I can use logic functions instead of the MOD function to get the same results? -- Taxa (talk) 22:23, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

In C, you could do:

r =  pixel1 &     0xFF;
g = (pixel1 &   0xFF00) >>  8;
b = (pixel1 & 0xFF0000) >> 16;

(It took me a moment to realize you're using tf6 = 256 and tf6d = 65536.) --Bavi H (talk) 23:55, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

I added some parentheses above. And just to clarify, & is a bitwise and, >> is a logical right shift. --Bavi H (talk) 01:05, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Seems like VB6 does allow something similar but its 3 times slower....

j = Hex(i)
b = Val("&h" & MidB(j, 1, 4))
c = Val("&h" & MidB(j, 5, 4))
d = Val("&h" & MidB(j, 9, 4))

-- Taxa (talk) 05:14, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Another way may be to redefine the variable as an array of bytes and then access it as an array element. This is easy to do in C. I have no idea about VB6. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 05:21, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

VB6 only offers the HEX function to convert an integer to a byte string. -- Taxa (talk) 10:10, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

translation of the C code to VB would be

r = pixel1 and $FF
g = (pixel1 and $FF00) shr 8
b = (pixel1 and $FF0000) shr 16

Although the VB6 AND function will process and convert and integer value (pixel1) and a hexadecimal value (&hFF) the only way to do a bitwise shift is by using the leftb, rightb or midb functions. -- Taxa (talk) 17:22, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

software for speakers-to-mic

Does anyone know of a software that will take any incoming sound that is playing on my speakers and play it on my microphone? i.e., people that play music on Ventrilo music channels must have something like this software. Thanks, 75.66.58.122 (talk) 22:37, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

Audacity has a Preferences > Software Playthrough "(Play new track while recording it)", that's what I usually use, but there's certainly other ways. --Underpants (talk) 23:11, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. 75.66.58.122 (talk) 20:38, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Font containing Sogdian and Middle Persian glyphs

Does anyone know of a font that contains glyphs for the six characters in the Syriac Unicode block for Sogdian and Persian? Specifically, these are the characters U+072D, U+072E, U+072F, U+074D, U+074E and U+074F. -- Gareth Hughes (talk) 22:47, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

June 5

Windows Vista or DOS?

Hello. I was considering replacing my operating system. I have narrowed it down to two choices: Windows Vista Ultimate and MS-DOS, version 1.0. Which is the better choice? Thanks.--O4irtj (talk) 01:29, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Go with Linux, sir. You can't go wrong! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Duomillia (talk • contribs) 01:30, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

What is Linux?--O4irtj (talk) 01:33, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Here you go, it's the best of both worlds! --antilived^{T | C | G} 06:14, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

To answer the original question, which is best depends on hardware and requirements. -- Q Chris (talk) 07:22, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

I think it's safe to assume that the original post is a joke of some sort, but I'm not sure what the point is. If it is that Vista has a bucketload of issues, then yeah, we know. But I'd bet so did MS-DOS in its first version, and it is clearly inadequate for most forms of modern computing. Even if the OP insists on a minimalistic, no-nonsense platform, I'm sure there are much better possibilities (MS-DOS 6.22 comes to mind, as well as Unix-like command-line builds). Ultimately, the joke is on the OP, since he allegedly "narrowed it down to two choices" without really being aware of the possibilities (e.g. Linux, the BSDs) and ignoring those he probably knows (Windows XP, Mac OS). -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 08:08, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the replies. That "Linux" Duomillia mentioned looked good, so I decided on the first version that I could find: Slackware. So, I installed it and it's working like a charm! I ported all of my Windows applications over to it. I never knew that I could be so productive. Thanks again guys.--O4irtj (talk) 08:30, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

I was considering this (DOS or XP) on an old computer with no working hard drive, but a working floppy, DOS started looking attractive. Is there a linux that can boot off a 1.44 meg floppy on a PC? Graeme Bartlett (talk) 12:13, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Coyote Linux. BTW- I have MS-DOS 3.3 on a 5¼ floppy. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 12:20, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

The OP found a hyperdrive across the learning curve and got productive in using Slackware Linux (GNU/Linux) in seven hours and a minute [my bad, cut that down to less than six hours and fifty seven minutes] from not even knowing what it meant. I want to recommend that the OP for the Guinness Book of World Records. (jk) Kushal (talk) 13:42, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Sniff, sniff, I smell troll. Sandman30s (talk) 14:00, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Way to track info of person viewing the web page

Is there any way to track the information (location or ip address ) of the person visiting my homepage ? If yes, how? I have learned that there is a way to keep track of number of persons visiting the homepage.But don't no if the other thing is possible.... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 137.132.250.10 (talk) 04:30, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Yes, there are ways of tracking the ip/location of visitors. I can't tell you how exactly, but people have already written code that does just that. A simple google search gave this, this and this. Leeboyge (talk) 07:55, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

If you want really nice and pretty statistics, Google Analytics is a lot of fun and easy to use. It can draw a whole map of the world and show you how many visitors come from what country, what pages they look at, how they find your page in the first place, etc. For my own use I installed BBClone on my server (need to have PHP on the server), which is a simple little way to look at individual users (shows you how they get to the page, where they go on the site, etc.). It's harder to use and set up than Google Analytics, though. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 14:06, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Google

I dislike Google's new feature: when you enter a phrase with quotes and if there are no results, it just shows the quoteless results. How can I turn this feature off? Interactive Fiction Expert/Talk to me 23:20, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

Your observation that "it just shows the quoteless results" is not accurate. It displays a warning icon and a message indicating that the search returned no results. The unquoted results are displayed below the warning message. I do not know of any way to turn it off. -- kainaw™ 00:58, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

I don't think you can turn it off. Google says it did not find the results you wanted and tried its best to come up with the results that seemed most relevant. Kushal (talk) 15:29, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

A possible workaround is to append something like -madeupwordthatgetsnohits1234dfsdsdtgdc to your query; it shouldn't affect the results (assuming the word you pick doesn't get any hits, which this one of course will as soon as Google next indexes this page), but it confuses Google enough that it won't automatically remove the quotes even if there are no hits. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 04:20, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

madeupwordthatgetsnohits1234dfsdsdtgdc does not give any results ... so far. Kushal (talk) 03:56, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

However since the reference desk is indexed it does now Nil Einne (talk) 13:54, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

You could also try adding a trivial word like a or the to get much the same effect, so long as your target pages contain any reasonable English text. A silly but more reliable workaround is to use the OR operator: "foo bar" OR "foo bar". --Tardis (talk) 20:10, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

Please just tell me how to turn this feature off. The -madeupword strategy is silly - how am I supposed to know that there will be no results until after my first try? And the "this" or "this" one - it don't work neither. Please help me turn the frigging feature off - I don't need "help" finding results with those words "scattered" across the page. Interactive Fiction Expert/Talk to me 11:17, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

What makes you believe that the Google developers answer questions here? This is a reference desk. The answer to your question is not in Google's online instructions. Therefore, nobody here can provide a reference to the answer. The answer you seek is at Google. You have two sane choices: Stop using Google or call Google and try to find someone there to give you an answer. You have many insane choices, such as demanding that people who don't know the answer give it to you. -- kainaw™ 12:03, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Try the Google Web Search forum at http://groups.google.com/group/Google_Web_Search_Help --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 12:09, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

How DARE you personally attack me!?

• "What makes you believe that the Google developers answer questions here?" I believe nothing of the sort.
• "This is a reference desk." Yes, and just about anything can be asked here, except maybe questions whose answers no RD users know. As far as I know, this is no such question.
• "Therefore, nobody here can provide a reference to the answer." As above, maybe one person can.
• "You have two sane choices: Stop using Google or call Google and try to find someone there to give you an answer." 1. Google is the most recognisable search engine. No way are you stopping me from using it. 2. What is Google's phone number? Besides, since I'm from Australia, it'll probably cost heaps to call Google. And I'm 15 years old, for God's sake. I'm not the type who is supposed to talk to a bunch of high adults.

Unless you do not want to use a proprietary protocol that probably has security holes the size of football fields, you can use Skype to call Google's 1-800 number. (Maybe Goog411 will help you find Google's number.) However, I don't think you can get an answer to your question on the phone. Kushal (talk) 13:36, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

"High adults"? Is the implication here that Google employees are all stoners that answer their phones high? This is an amusing, but unlikely image. APL (talk) 15:50, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

• "You have many insane choices, such as demanding that people who don't know the answer give it to you." As above, I'm not addressing anyone in particular, just hoping that there is someone here who does know the answer.

Interactive Fiction Expert/Talk to me 12:35, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Both of you— please stop. Either someone will come up with an answer or the question will go unanswered. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 12:38, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Out of curiosity, why is this feature a problem anyway? As it tells you it's done the quoteless search, what possible harm does it do? ~ mazca ^talk 14:07, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

I hate to admit to agreeing with IFE, but this 'feature' bugs me too. I often don't notice the warning. (Who reads the text before the results?) Since I sometimes google for something just to see if it exists, this is very slightly annoying. Nothing to get angry about though. APL (talk) 15:50, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

You'll need to substantiate your claim that my suggestion (the "this" OR "this" one) doesn't work, because I have evidence that it does (as of this writing). Perhaps you didn't know that (unlike search terms) Google's "OR" operator is case-sensitive? I gave it in the correct case in my suggestion. For that matter, my "trivial word" suggestion also seems to work. Please realize that I would not have suggested these things if I hadn't already tested them myself; I wouldn't need to speculate about the behavior of a publicly available service. I also fixed your quote of the previous post to be legible. --Tardis (talk) 15:19, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

This is a handy trick. I notice that it also works when the first string is a null string. (Compare "" OR "The anyone Encyclopedia" "" OR "The Free Encyclopedia" "The Anyone Encyclopedia" ) I may have to look into modifying my Firefox search box so that it always does that when I search for something quoted. APL (talk) 15:50, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

You don't even need the quotes: OR "The anyone encyclopedia". Algebraist 15:57, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

From Google's suggestion that you use "OR" as an operator when you send that search, I surmise that you're actually using my other trick of including a trivial word. I realize now that Google actually entirely ignores those words; you can use "+or" to require such a tiny word, but it's hard to even find an example where that changes anything. But that's good: the trivial-word trick will thus never hurt you (by missing a page that happens to lack the addition). --Tardis (talk) 17:07, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

It seems like you're absolutely right. I just edited line 43 of the XML file for Firefox's google widget to say <Param name="q" value="the+{searchTerms}"/> instead of <Param name="q" value="{searchTerms}"/>. Now this won't ever bug me again. If IF Expert uses Firefox I recommend that he do the same. Thank you, Tardis. APL (talk) 19:59, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Join & split videos

I need a good free or open-source application to join and split video files, mostly AVI format. At work, I use Adobe Premiere on occasion, but this is a home project and I don't need anything that heavyweight. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 11:50, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

You might try VirtualDub, but it's a bit weak for any sort of editing. APL (talk) 13:43, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Threading on talk pages

Why doesn't MediaWiki have any better system to auto-indent discussions on talk pages? It's easy enough to prefix a paragraph with a colon, but counting out four or five colons in threaded discussions gets tedious. You can outdent, but you might not want to, and if you do you should probably indicate such to show that your comment is meant to be nested under another one. Am I missing something? It seems like a button could be added to the toolbar or some such to indent your comment under the one above. Fletcher (talk) 14:26, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

I think questions like that are better suited for WP:Village Pump, but when I am writing an extremely indented reply, I just highlight the colons from the prior section and copy/paste them to the start of my reply, then add a single colon. --LarryMac | Talk 15:15, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

The Wiki format is not primarily intended as a "discussion forum"; here on Wikipedia we use it extensively as one, with talk pages, ref desks, etc. Unfortunately this secondary use has some usability issues (as compared to, say, PHPBB, which is far less versatile but makes for cleaner messageboarding). Perhaps you could discuss or contribute to the MediaWiki development platform? Nimur (talk) 15:45, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

A threaded system is probably the best solution, see mw:Extension:LiquidThreads, although I believe there's opposition to it. x42bn6 Talk Mess 20:32, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Can't map network drive

When I try to map my who.hasfiles account to a network drive (in Windows XP Pro, SP2), I get this error:

The drive could not be mapped because no network was found.

What should I do? By the way, it worked just fine before I reinstalled Windows. (Reason for reinstall was corrupted %windir%\system32\config\system file, if you're interested.) Do I need to install an update or something? --grawity 17:51, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Addition: While trying to add the folder as a "network place", I get:

The folder you entered does not appear to be valid.  Please choose another.

The "official" mapper tool says:

Cannot map the storage. Wrong name and password, or network problems.

No proxy set in Internet Explorer (7). (Which can access the site just fine, by the way.) --grawity 18:00, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Addition: Windows eXPee inside a VirtualPC does exactly the same. I even tried disabling the firewall (KIS 7), nothing changed. HALP! --grawity 18:15, 5 June 2008 (UTC)