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September 9

Linus without login

Which Linux variants allow you to define a single user environment, where no logon is required ? Is the single user environment the default in any of them ? 68.74.2.210 (talk) 00:51, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

It's pretty easy to change the default runstate from multiuser to single-user in any Linux distro that I'm aware of. In SuSE Linux (for example) you can use the "Yast" setup tool - go to "System Services - hit the "Expert Mode" and select which runstate the system starts up in - and which services run in each state.

If you want to do it "old school" - you can change the default runlevel by editing the file "/etc/inittab" in any system based on Linux (or even UNIX for that matter).

init:5:initdefault

The '5' is the default runlevel - changing that to a '1' would start the system in single-user mode.

The following lines specify which program is run to start the system in each 'runlevel'.

Be really careful though - any error in this file will probably prevent Linux from booting! Make sure you make a safe copy of the original file and have a "Live CD" that you can boot from, mount your hard drive and then restore the default if you screw up!

SteveBaker (talk) 06:13, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. As per the following post, does this start in a Windows-like mode or as a command line interface ? 68.74.2.210 (talk) 16:09, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

what you want to do is probably NOT "single user mode" in the sense that many linux experts use it (i.e. you're dropped to a root command line with no GUI) - it sounds like what you're looking for is more like auto-login, which I think you can set up through the control center in either gnome or kde. --Random832 (contribs) 15:38, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

I do want a Windows-type user interface, but want to have full access without having to switch to "root" or "admin" or whatever. I also don't want to have to enter a username and password. 68.74.2.210 (talk) 16:07, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Installation went wrong, it stopped halfway, now I have only 50 % of the files installed and it is impossible both to uninstall AND re-install !

Hey, I was gonna install a game on my computer - but something went wrong during installation, when I was gonna swap from cd 1 to cd 2 to continue the last half of the installation.

WHen i put in cd 2 it did not start up again and the whole installation thingy crashed and stopped as a message came up; "Program does not answer". And then when the game was only halfway installed, with only half of the files, it seems the install/uninstall program following with the game was among the files not installed(or i don't really know) and now it is impossible to uninstall the game again or to continue installation. And ofcourse, I can't start from scratch either when half of the gamefiles are still lying in the computers filelist in "controlpanel" and on the harddisk. when trying to uninstall, it says the uninstall-file are corrupted or not valid, so...

What must I do??

I really want to get to install the game properly and get to playing but now it seems this computer vs. the game is "locked", and only way for me to play the game would be on another computer. But of course, I have only one computer ...

AND I DO KNOW FOR 100% SURE THAT THE GAME IS COMPLETELY COMPATIBLE WITH THE COMPUTER'S SYSTEM, and vice versa so that really isn't any problem at all. It was simply really bad luck that the program stopped working during installation. Baddest possible timing :S

Must I turn on "safemodus" or whatever it is called on my computer and delete the whole thing from there?? I don't even know how to start "safemodus"... I've only seen it the few times my computer has crashed and when it restarts it asks if I wanna start windows in "safemodus" or in normal modus. I've never been on safemodus before though, don't know if its a complicated thing. ANd I have no idea how to MANUALLY do this or if this is even the right thing that i need to do to fix this. I'm sure you know of what i speak even though i might not use the correct words...

Any kind of help and guidance about how I can clear up the mess, clear up the files and get to start a new installation from scratch again would be GREAT. I really hope to manage to fix this.

Thank you, hoping for help :) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.49.179.208 (talk) 01:19, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

If you can find the files on your hard drive, you could delete them manually, then try to reinstall the game. What sort of computer do you have? If it's a Windows, I could try to help you find the files... I'm hopeless with Macs, though. --Alinnisawest,^{Dalek Empress} (extermination requests here) 01:45, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Ok i'll do as you say, simply deleting the folder with all the files in and then return to see what you have in mind. although, the file/program-list in contropanle for sure still have the name of the game in the list there. that's not good i think.. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.49.179.208 (talk) 01:54, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

In terms of knowing in advance whether the game will work with your computer...No, it's essentially impossible to know for sure. There are hundreds of graphics cards, hundreds of sound cards, hundreds of network cards, dozens of CPU's many amounts of RAM you might have...joysticks, mice, operating systems and revision levels, plugins, disk capacities and configurations, virus checkers...the number of possible combinations is astronomical. The possible interactions between those things is enormous and it's quite beyond the ability of any game manufacturer to actually GUARANTEE that the game will work on any particular combination. We check the most common things - but there can't EVER be a rock solid guarantee. That's why games manufacturers like game consoles. They are certainly slower and harder to program than PC's but because all Xbox360's are one of about four possibilities and all PS-3's are of just a few kinds - and there is really only one Wii, NDS, PSP, etc - it's fairly easy to test exhaustively on all of them and know for absolute certain that your game will work. But with the PC (and increasingly, the Mac) it's just a nightmare. SteveBaker (talk) 02:05, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

To answer you Steve Baker, I know for sure because I have had this exact game installed on this exact computer before, and then uninstalled it again. But I appreciate that you take time to answer me nontheless :) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.49.179.208 (talk) 02:12, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

1. Go to Start, then Run..., then type installer.
2. Go to View and click Details.
3. Go to View and click Choose Details.
4. Check Subject.
5. Click on the Subject column.
6. Find the name of the game and double-click on the file. That will run the installer.
7. Go to Start, then Run..., then type regedit.
8. Press CTRL + F and type the name of the game.
9. Delete anything with the game's name in it and keep pressing F3 until regedit can't find any more.
10. Go to My Computer, then Tools, then Folder Options...
11. Click the View tab, then check the option to show hidden files.
12. Go to My Computer, then Documents and Settings, then your user folder, then Local Settings, then Application Data.
13. Delete any folder belonging to the game if there is one.
14. Restart your computer.--Birdsusing nnn (talk) 02:18, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Anon proxy with POST & HTTPS

Can you recommend a free anonymous proxy on the web that supports POST form submissions and cookies, and supports connecting to HTTPS websites? --71.141.145.85 (talk) 01:51, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Isn't that impossible? Cookies (for example) are there precisely to identify your computer to the server. If you put them on some proxy - then it's not going to remember you as you travel around their site. I presume that similar issues arise with HTTPS. SteveBaker (talk) 01:55, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Why couldn't the proxy keep track of which cookie belongs to which session? It's easy to find anon proxies that claim to support POST and cookies if you have a paid account. (Example : [1] ) APL (talk) 02:22, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

However I strongly suspect that you will have a very hard time finding proxies that offer free POST support. That would attract spammers like moths to a porch light. APL (talk) 02:30, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Oh. Possibly I'm an idiot. These two both seem to support POST. : [2] [3] APL (talk) 02:33, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Proxying HTTPS is not possible: there's no difference between an HTTPS proxy and a man-in-the-middle attack. --Carnildo (talk) 21:03, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Proxying HTTPS is possible: there's no difference between an HTTPS proxy and a port forwarder --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 22:06, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Encyclopedia Dramatica hosts file entry

I was just in Windows command prompt where I used the "ipconfig /displaydns" command. It looks clean, except that I noticed an entry for encyclopediadramatica that somehow referred to 127.0.0.1 (localhosts) - see image. I then found it listed in my "hosts" file. Only once or twice a long while ago, did I ever visit that site to see what it was about. I regret ever going there. Anyway, how did this ever get added? Aside from the hosts file, are there other such issues with encyclopediadramatica, in terms of malicious spyware or changes to computer settings? --Aude (talk) 02:34, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Setting the IP address to 127.0.0.1 is a technique to keep you from connecting to the site. I know Spybot Search and Destroy's Immunize feature does this. That's not your complete hosts file, just the part loaded into the Resolver Cache. Take a look at C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts for the whole story. Sometimes malware will set the IP address of a site to another malicious site inside your hosts file. In that case you'd have a site like Google being resolved to a computer in Russia, for example. But it wouldn't be set to your own computer (127.0.0.1).--Birdsusing nnn (talk) 02:40, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Thank you for the answer. It makes sense that Spybot is doing its job and probably added it. --Aude (talk) 12:53, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

You're welcome.--Birdsusing nnn (talk) 16:39, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Isn't 127.0.0.1 a loopback address? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Schwarzes Nacht (talk • contribs) 01:52, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

That's the trick. Bad sites that you want to block will be directed to your machine...which doesn't go anywhere =) --mboverload@ 07:10, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Plain text in Eudora

I am using Eudora v7.1. I subscribe to a mailing list which supports only plain-text messages (they try to convert HTML, but the moderator tells me it's broken and I really need to send plain text to this recipient). I am unable to find anything about how to do this either under Options or in the program's online help. Ma^t_chups 04:22, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Tools -> Options -> Styled Text -> "Send plain text" and/or "Ask me each time". Saintrain (talk) 12:05, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Computer Lock (physical)

I don't know if this belongs here or in Misc: My computer case (PC tower, specifically a Thermaltake) locks closed. Unfortunately, my case lock seems to have jammed, and I cannot now open it using the key. I can put the key in, but it won't budge. Any ideas on what to do?

• There are no accessible screws in the case door where the lock is nested.
• The case panels cannot be removed without being damaged; they are locked to the case (requiring this lock to open first).

What are my options (apart from sawing through the case)? The Jade Knight (talk) 05:40, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Well, if the lock is useless anyway - you could drill out the lock mechanism. That's not going to damage the case panels. However, I'd be very nervous about getting metal shavings inside the case. I guess I'd try to prop the case between a couple of chairs or something - with the lock facing downwards so I could drill upwards and make sure the shavings fall downwards - away from the circuitry, drives, fans and other bits and pieces. You'd want to put a collar onto the drill bit to limit how deep you could drill - you don't want the bit going through the case and embedding itself in the CPU or something! SteveBaker (talk) 05:58, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

What kind of a drill would I need for this? The Jade Knight (talk) 09:05, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

I would suggest an electric drill with a bit suitable for drilling steel and that is a few millimetres smaller than the lock barrel. However, before drilling the lock out you might want to try lubricating the lock first - something like WD-40 might do the trick. Astronaut (talk) 13:01, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Not sure where I'd find such a drill; I don't own anything of that size, myself. Anyway, how does one go about lubricating a lock (and what does it do)? In case it's relevant: I can access one side of the lock (there's a small hole in the case next to it). It appears as solid metal on the outside, however, and I'm not sure what good it does me. The Jade Knight (talk) 13:59, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Given the cost of a mistake and your lack of experience with the required tools, I would suggest finding a locksmith. Gandalf61 (talk) 14:13, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Can you take the key back out? If so, try a very small squirt of WD-40 into the actual key hole. Matt Deres (talk) 16:56, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Oh - yes indeed - if you haven't already tried lubricating the lock (sorry - I assumed you would have) - then do so. However, don't use oil (even WD-40). It attracts and retains dust and you end up with a gummy mess that'll make it even worse the next time around! To properly lubricate a lock, you need a dry graphite lubricant. Check your local DIY store - they'll have the right stuff. SteveBaker (talk) 17:39, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Next time ? If I ever had a lock that froze up on me, I'd never lock it again, as it might very well freeze up again, no matter what lubricant is used. 68.74.2.210 (talk) 16:18, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

I'll try that; thanks. The Jade Knight (talk) 23:53, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

When using the lubricant, hopefully it comes with a little red tube, which inserts into the spray nozzle. Push the other end inside the lock in all available holes, and spray for a couple seconds. I'd also position the computer so the lock is down for this, so oil won't drip into the "works". Put some newspapers underneath to catch drips, and wear goggles, or at least glasses, so you don't get any spray in your eyes. Open some windows to get rid of the fumes. Once the lock is sprayed with oil, put the key back in and work it back and forth. Also try pulling the key slightly out before turning, as some locks "catch" if you push the key all the way in. 68.74.2.210 (talk) 16:29, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Need advice buying on a laptop

Hey guys its the same guy who posted a question on 3rd Sep. I've spent a few days searching around for the best deal and I believe I've found it. Just wondering what you in the know think of this laptop's graphics card - most importantly is it good enough to play CSS on? Here's the link

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.204-4693.aspx

Many thanks in advance —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.10.188.98 (talk) 10:54, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Most computers nowadays will run Counter-strike: Source fine, and that one will run it great. 193.194.132.78 (talk) 12:54, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

thanks a lot :) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.18.176.84 (talk) 20:10, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Image search

Resolved

Does something like this exists -- A search engine that will take an image as input, instead of keywords, and search the web for exactly same or similar pictures. No, I'm not talking about this. I must be able to upload a picture from my computer and it will look for similar or same picture on the web. Does this exist, or is someone planning to make this? (Google?) -59.95.115.73 (talk) 14:23, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

See Visual Search Engine; I think TinEye (in the links) is supposed to do something like what you want (for the purpose of finding copyright violations). -- Coneslayer (talk) 14:31, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks! And that was damn quick Coneslayer. -59.95.115.73 (talk) 14:44, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Technicolor Effect

Is it possible to replicate the technicolor "effect" using say, video recorded via iphone? If so, what programs would I look into? What processes? Etc... Preferably something that can work within the iphone,without me having to transfer video into my computer, but I'm easy. This was previously asked at the humanities desk, and I was informed I'd probably have better luck here. Thanks!

Kenjibeast (talk) 23:37, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

No. Not very well anyway. The iPhone's camera, along with pretty much every single other camera phone, is crappy. It has low dynamic range and a very small sensor size, which means you will not get anywhere near the shallow DOF effect and will have half your video turned into white whenever the sky is involved, neither of which is (easily) fixable in software. If you have something shot in for example the Nikon D90, which has a sensor size very similar to 35mm film and a dynamic range that's lightyears better than camera phones, it might work with some careful twiddling with levels etc., but what you're trying to do is basically trying to make a bicycle sound like a supercar. --antilived^{T | C | G} 23:53, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Also see filmizing, "Footage that has been shot with the knowledge that it will be subsequently electronically filmized is usually shot in a very different way, with film-style lighting and framing. Regardless, there have been several attempts to process ordinary videotape to look like film, usually with little success.". To look like film is not an "effect", it's superiority. --antilived^{T | C | G} 00:00, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Squeezing the last from a dying HD

I have a 110 GB HD that is edging towards failure. It's already lost some files due to corruption. Everything has been transferred to a new drive, but since the old one is still more or less functional, I thought I could keep it in service and save my other HD from some wear and tear by copying (not moving) all my music to it and playing it from that drive. That's what I've been doing for the past couple of weeks (after reformatting). What are the likely outcomes when this drive finally croaks? Will it matter? ----Seans Potato Business 15:21, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

You're probably not saving the other HD from wear and tear - google released a survey they'd done a while ago (of their enormous population of disks) and they saw little to no correlation between use and failure. Failure is generally either a snowballing degradation of the drive's surfaces or weird electrical failures (due to weird chemical things happening on chips, wiring, glues, and solders). The drive will either take longer and longer to read (and may eventually time out a given read) or (if it has a smarter drive controller) just give up and power itself off ("spindown"). Nice OSes (and drive adapters) take this in their stride (hello Solaris), but some are jerks about it (Windows Explorer has a tiresome habit of saying "that unimportant disk isn't responding; I'm going to jam up in synchronous-io-hell for ages"). I'd bin the drive now. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 16:30, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Before you bin it, I highly recommend a product called SpinRite. I've had a bunch of drives that I thought was dying, and when I used SpinRite on them, almost all of them continued functioning for a significant amount of time (I'm talking 6 months to a year longer than they would have otherwise). I realise I sound like a commercial, but it is almost supernatural how good it is. It's not entirely cheap, but it's worth it in the long run from the money you save on new harddrives. 195.58.125.46 (talk) 18:09, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Old hard drives, unless being used for unimportant backups, should be wiped with something like Darik's Boot and Nuke or physically destroyed. They are a waste of power, add heat to your computer, and are unreliable. Once a hard drive starts going bad you need to get off it ASAP. I say this from experience dealing with supporting computers at the end of their life that have bad sectors, unreadable parts of the disk, etc. Even if I/we repair the bad sectors the hard drives usually come back a few weeks later from the field...dead.

However painful it may seem, one day you will realize that 1 $100 hard drive will replace four (4) 120 gig drives or eight (8) 80 gigabyte drives and be MUCH more reliable and MUCH faster. I have been though this, as I currently have an assortment of 80 gig and 120 gig drives that I've removed from my computer...replaced by 1 drive that is faster and more robust than anything before it.

However, I am not going to discount 195.*'s recommendations, if you are tight for cash and already have the data backed up. Just realize your hard drive is going to die and it's taking your data with it.--mboverload@ 02:18, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Strong agree - at the first sign of weakness, cull it from the herd. Put it out of its misery - tell your kids it's living on a farm in Iowa. Buy a new one that's ten times cuter and a third the price. (or whatever it is this week). SteveBaker (talk) 20:52, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Showing owner's name on photo shooting info

There is a field in the shooting info that shows up with my photos for "owner's name". Right now this appears blank on all my photos. I would like to know how to make my name show up in this field, but have been unable to find any setting in either my photo software or the camera itself, to do this. I am wondering if anyone can tell me how it's done. I use a Canon Rebel XT (digital), in case this is relevant. Thanks for any help you can offer. 66.183.142.226 (talk) 16:50, 9 September 2008 (UTC)LMacB

Are you looking at JPG files or RAW files? What software are you using? --LarryMac | Talk 18:03, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Following up myself - ExifTool looks like it can write just about any metadata tags you want. It doesn't have a pretty GUI though. --LarryMac | Talk 18:14, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

September 10

graphic design, etc.

Is there an umbrella term that includes subfields like graphic design, branding, non-linear video and audio editing, compositing and visual FX?--Sonjaaa (talk) 01:02, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Artistic design? --mboverload@ 02:04, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Desktop publishing? Sandman30s (talk) 12:45, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Computer graphics? SteveBaker (talk) 20:49, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

motion graphics? --70.167.58.6 (talk) 20:26, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

No! 90.235.12.16 (talk) 11:28, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

New computer?

Hey, it's me from Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Computing/2008_September_4#D:.2F_doesn.27t_read_discs. I had my brother install Spore on his computer and transferred the files over to my external HD, however the game is constantly freezing which is very annoying. Someone put an answer I didn't see:

That won't work. You could copy the entirety of the DVD to the external drive instead of installing it, and run the setup.exe from the external drive on your own PC however the game MIGHT have copy protection to stop that, but Spore runs without the CD so I think the only bit in place is the internet registration. TheGreatZorko (talk) 22:50, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

How would I go about doing this?

Anyway, I plan to get a new computer. What would you guys recommend? I'm reluctant to get Vista, but I don't think they make 'em with XP anymore. I also have one more question: how would I salvage my save files from Spore? It's on my external HD, but I'm not sure if the files are glitched up or what, so I was thinking of installing the program again onto C:/ on a new computer, replacing it with the files from my external HD, uninstalling it to get rid of everything but the save files and installing it again, but this would be time-consuming and kinda stupid. Avnas Ishtaroth _{drop me a line} 01:59, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Quick note - just from a quick reading of your post you will not be able to install Spore without the physical CD in the drive. Spore has nasty copy protection. --mboverload@ 02:03, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

"How would I go about doing this" - Hi. I'm the person that suggested this. It's rather simple really. Create a folder on the external drive (right click, hover over new, select folder), call it spore or whatever. Navigate to the CD in explorer, and select every file on the disc (Ctrl A should work for this), right click and select copy. Navigate to the exteranl drives Spore folder, right click and select paste. Wait a while because the game is about 4GB.

However if the game is actually running I'm going to go ahead and say the freezing is part of your PC issue. With Spore you are limited to 3 installs (unless you contact EA Support who are usually sort of speedy about getting that number reset for you) so I'd recommend not reinstalling unless you have to.

All your saves should be in your My Documents/My Spore Creations folder.

If you do get a new PC don't fret about Vista. It has come a long way since release, and any laptop with 2GB of memory or more should run it more than fine (You may want to turn off UAC once you get it. Google how if you want). Do you want a laptop or a desktop? If it is a laptop you want Dell does a good XPS machine with a GeForce 8600M in it, for pretty good money. If you want a desktop well your choices are huge. Just make sure it has a Core2Duo or Quad (any sort should do really), AT LEAST 2GB of RAM, and a non Intel graphics card if you want it to perform well. I made a list of graphics cards for another game that is still valid for any other game. The list is Here and you probably want a card from the mid high tier or above. Sorry for the forum link but its better than posting a massive list of graphics cards. TheGreatZorko (talk) 08:57, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Thankyou very much. I now have an external CD drive, but will not reinstall Spore via the CD until I get a new computer. There's a good NEC with all the system reqs. selling for $1400AUD, but I hear NEC is unreliable?

@The Great Zorko: Are you saying I should run the installer from the copied files from the CD? This doesn't contribute to the 3-install limit does it? I haven't seen any save files in the My Spore Creations, but I must not have paid attention. The game is actually running, but freezes completely, requiring a hard reset of the laptop, if I play any game in it for ~10 minutes consequtively (sp?), so I have to keep quitting to the main menu: irritating, but not unplayable. Regarding Vista, my younger brother has it and complains it's very slow unless he defrags once a week. Avnas Ishtaroth _{drop me a line} 01:15, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

It's not Vista, it's the way that manufacturers of computers preconfigure Vista. I bought Vista Ultimate (More like you're an ultimate idiot for paying this much money for an OS...) Although I am growing on Vista (as I grew on XP) the problems with it are interface related, not performance. Vista actually outperforms XP in video games. Whodathunkit? Many problems with computers stem from the way they are initially (mis)configured and loaded. Which is why I think computer manufacturers should burn in the deepest depths of Puritan Hell. --mboverload@ 01:35, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Also, UAC is WAAAYYYYYYYYYY better now. Although I would turn it off when you are initially configuring the computer and installing programs once everything is even close to being set turn it back on. Vista should have been shipped like it is in SP1 (it's better). --mboverload@ 01:37, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

E-mail verification

I have a huge address book full of old contacts. I want to make sure that the emails are up-to-date. Instead of bothering everyone with a mass e-mail, is there a safe way to verify that their e-mail addresses still exist? Zepheus <ゼィフィアス> (talk) 02:09, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

No. If you could do that spammers would cream their pants. The only thing you can do is go to the hosting website (ie gmail.com) to make sure it works. I'm positive that a quick mass mail checking in on people and just saying you're making sure you still have their right address won't bother anyone. It's quite nice to have a reason to reconnect with someone you haven't spoken to in awhile. Just make sure you mass mail them in the Bcc field =P --mboverload@ 07:05, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

And, if you're sending this out once, ask for a read receipt. Sandman30s (talk) 12:43, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

That's a great way to discover which of your friends belong in a lunatic asylum in the "I want more spam please" wing. Nobody in their right minds leaves read receipts turned on because it enables email address seekers to know that not only does your email work - but you are also daft enough to actually read their postings! NO! *bad* user! SteveBaker (talk) 20:46, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

This is why I said "once", or in other words, use that in exceptional circumstances. I also HATE getting repeated read receipts from insecure people. Sandman30s (talk) 14:11, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Function return array in C?

How do you return an array with a function in C? Through pointers? I'm new to C and my grasp on pointers isn't very strong yet, so I don't quite understand examples on the net. I'm trying to return an array of time values (seconds, minutes, hours, etc.) from a function that reads the time from a real-time clock through I2C on an embedded system (Atmel AVR). --antilived^{T | C | G} 03:44, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

It is not possible to return an array directly. You must either use a pointer, or return a struct that contains an array (which will probably be translated by your compiler into an equivalent construct involving a pointer). Maybe you should return a struct tm as found in <time.h> --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 03:52, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

This is what time.h is used for - but you can learn by looking at time.h to see how tm is defined. Because of memory management, you'll most likely want to make a pointer to tm in your main program. Pass the pointer as a parameter to your function. Have your function set the values in the pointer and return something like 0 if it works or some other number (ie: 10 = "Couldn't connect to I2C"). Then, your main program will call the function and get the return int. If it is 0, it knows that the pointer to tm has a valid date/time in it. Otherwise, it knows there was an error. This is a very basic C way of doing things that you will see over and over. -- kainaw™ 12:36, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

You have to know pointers to do this...but this is C and you have to know pointers to do almost anything!

In most cases, what we do is to have the calling function pass in an array for the called function to fill in - so, for example:

 // The FIRST way...

 void setDate ( char *dateBuffer )   // This is a pointer to the first character in the array
 {
   strcpy ( dateBuffer, "10/9/2008" ) ;  // Or whatever...
 }

 int main ()
 {
   char date [ 200 ] ;
   setDate ( date ) ;
   printf ( "The date is %s\n", date ) ;
 }

But if you really do want to return a result, you can do it with pointers:

 // The Second Way....

 char dateBuffer [ 200 ] ;

 char *getDate ()
 {
   strcpy ( dateBuffer, "10/9/2008" ) ;
   return dateBuffer ;
 }

 int main ()
 {
   char *date ;
   date = getDate () ;
   printf ( "The date is %s\n", date ) ;
 }

HOWEVER, this second approach is awfully dangerous and makes experienced programmers twitch slightly in the outer corner of their right eyelid.

The reason is that it's awfully easy to write this:

 // The way you don't do it unless you want Steve to come to your house with an Uzi and ritually murde...

 char *getDate ()
 {
   char dateBuffer [ 200 ] ;
   strcpy ( dateBuffer, "10/9/2008" ) ;
   return dateBuffer ;   // <===== EEEEKKKKK!!!!! NEVER DO THIS -- EVER!!!!!
 }

 int main ()
 {
   char *date ;
   date = getDate () ;
   printf ( "The date is %s\n", date ) ;
 }

The problem being that now "dateBuffer" is a local variable of the 'getDate' function and as soon as the function exits, that data is *GONE*. However you returned a pointer to the data to the 'main' function which then passes it on to printf. But printf then follows the pointer and tries to print out data that's been deleted! This can produce an exciting and diverse range of impossible to find bugs!

Since this code only differs by the position of one line ("char dateBuffer[200]" was moved inside the function) this error is incredibly easy to make - and horribly difficult to find in a million lines of software. So we try to do this kind of thing the first way rather than the second way - because we don't want the third way!

Sadly, there is also a problem with the first way - which is that 'setDate' has no way to check that the array is big enough for the data that's going into it.

So the short answer is "use C++ classes" - but that's an entirely different story.

SteveBaker (talk) 20:42, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Although I do agree with Steve on the last bit of advice, it is a bit controversial. Not everyone loves the complexities of C++. So I'll stick with C, and modify Steve's last example:

 // This way, hopefully Steve won't come to your house with an Uzi and ritually murde...
 //
 char *getDate ()
 {
   static char dateBuffer [ 200 ] ;
   strcpy ( dateBuffer, "10/9/2008" ) ;
   return dateBuffer ;   // Safe (sort of)
 }

This is essentially doing the same as Steve's "second way" example, except that the buffer there was in the global namespace, while here it is hidden as a static variable within the function. The problem with both approaches, is that using global (or static) buffers for function return values is a practice that easily leads to errors. An example, assuming the function returns the date and time:

char *t1, *t2;
double d;
// creating a record, need to get the date the task begins
t1 = getDate();
// do the work..
d = do_that_time_consuming_calculation();
t2 = getDate(); // get the time the task finished
// ok, done. Fill in the record
strcpy(myrecord.start_time, t1);
myrecord.result = d;
strcpy(myrecord.end_time, t2);

The error, of course, is that both myrecord.start_time and myrecord.end_time will contain the time the task finished, since t1 and t2 store pointers to the same buffer. To avoid that, you can allocate the memory for the array in your function, using malloc. The problem is, you'll have to deallocate the memory when you're done, something you're likely to forget (especially if there is an error return before the program line where you deallocate the memory), thereby getting a memory leak. Of course, with C++, you have smart pointers,.... Sorry, I said I was going to stick with C, didn't I. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 22:22, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Did either of the C++ pushers bother to read the question? It wasn't about returning variable-length strings. It was about returning a fixed-sized group of integers.

When faced with a problem, some people say "let's use C++". Now they have 2 problems. --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 22:37, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Humble apologies. I wont't write it out, but Please replace char* with int* in my post, char dateBuffer[200] with int dateBuffer[6], and strcpy with whatever mechanism is used to fill the array. My point about returning pointers to global (or static) data remains valid. I would also like to point out that I consider kainaw's suggestion the best C solution to the problem. Sorry, I may have misread kainaw's suggestion. The best suggestion IMO, is

 // Steve's FIRST way, possibly also what kainaw intended
 // NOTE: *** Function name corrected after first being posted. --NorwegianBlue
 //
 int getDate ( int *dateBuffer )   // This is a pointer to the first integer in the array
 {
    // Fill dateBuffer with date and time
    return errorcode; // 0 is ok, other return values for the errors that might occur
 }

 int main ()
 {
   int date [ 6 ] ;
   int errorcode;
   errorcode = getDate ( date ) ; // *** Function name corrected after first being posted --NorwegianBlue
   if (errorcode = 0)
   {
       doSomething( date );
   }
   else
   {
     // Error handling
   }
 }

since this eliminates the possibility of using a pointer to a buffer that has been overwritten with new data. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 23:30, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Uhh I'm not sure why it has gone the other way but I'm trying to read time instead of set time... I've already done the set time part by just passing over the whole array. Should I really do it with pointers instead of just passing the array? I will look into that tm struct in time.h once I have the time. --antilived^{T | C | G} 01:04, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Sorry, late-night copy-and-paste error on my part, of what (to me) appears to be a typo in Steve's post. I have corrected the code directly in my post above. Hopefully, brain working better in the morning. Re your question "Should I really do it with pointers instead of just passing the array?", the answer is yes. When you use an array as a parameter in C, what actually is being put on the stack is a pointer to the array, and if the array is big, doing it this way is WAY more efficient. Probably, this is what is going on in the function you have already written as well, when you are "just passing the array". Hope this helps. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 05:08, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Linpus Linux, Aspire One, etc.

How does one go about modify/editing the desktop/main menu background of the Acer Version of the Linpus Lite installed on the Aspire One? nat.utoronto 03:53, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

WEBSENSE

How will be able to bypass websense to access usefull sites like wikipedia and read online news in my work place. It's solely for beneficial reasons and i'm having a hard time bypassing it .Please assist5. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 196.1.26.35 (talk) 04:44, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Ask your network administrator. If its against their policies to allow certain sites then you should try to convince them. Also, aren't you already able to access Wikipedia? -59.95.99.160 (talk) 06:40, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

If its a legit site they will let it through. We do it all the time (different but the same idea). Depending on the company bypassing filters is automatically assumed as industrial espionage. (not kidding, some will fire you by leaving your computer unlocked) Plus it's an easy excuse to fire someone they don't like. If it's legit just ask the local IT guy. Be nice about it and give a quick reason why you think it would be helpful to your. We're not robots - if we think we can help you out we will. --mboverload@ 07:02, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Sometimes they'll block the ".org" version of the site - but they may forget that www.wikipedia.net and www.wikipedia.com also take you to the same place...it's worth a try. Also, there are a HUGE number of completely legal mirrors and 'forks' of Wikipedia that give you the same content - but without the ability to put your changes back into the site - there is a list of them here: Wikipedia:Mirrors_and_forks - perhaps one of those will get you the content you need. But I agree - you should go to your management and explain that having the whole of human knowledge inside that little box on their desks just might, maybe, be kinda handy for their employees! SteveBaker (talk) 19:43, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

LAN

I am busy doing a project for school and I have to do various things about a LAN. The most info I already have but there is one part that I am battling with. How does a LAN use computer programs? I dont seem to get any info on that. I dont know if I am just looking in the wrong place.

Thanks for a great site. I have used it a couple of times already for projects and I am sure I will use it even more in future. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 196.207.33.197 (talk) 06:08, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

LANs don't use computer programs, computer programs use LANs. LAN. Could you be more specific in your question? --mboverload@ 07:03, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Hi, you can start with Communications protocol (especially Internet Protocol Suite). If you're using windows, check out Network Connections under Control Panel to see the protocols your LAN use. At a very basic level, programs designed to work on a LAN are network aware and the developers would use one of the protocols above. A typical problem in designing a simple network application is how file-sharing/locking would work. Sandman30s (talk) 12:40, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Essentially, the LAN (Local Area Network) is the teeny-tiny part of the Internet that lives within a single building - or perhaps within a company. It's composed of the wires, the switches and routers and such like - and it's job is to pass messages back and forth between computers. So when you are using a computer at work (say) and you want to read a page on Wikipedia, the sequence of events (softwarily) is (very roughly) as follows:

• You bring up Internet Explorer or Firefox or something. That's a computer program that runs on your computer.
• When you enter the Wikipedia web address into the address bar, FireFox asks the operating system (Windows, Linux or MacOS perhaps) to please make a connection to this "wikipedia" place. The operating system sends a message to the "device driver" that drives the "Ethernet interface" hardware on your computer to send a message to another computer that says "Could you please tell me what number is given to the computer called 'Wikipedia.org'."?
• The Ethernet interface hardware is connected either to a cable or to a radio link that sends out the message over the LAN.
• At this point, it's just a message - a string of bytes with a wrapper called a "packet" which (like a postal packet) contains the address that the packet is being sent to and the address it came from.
• The LAN electronics route that packet through the maze of cables, routers and other computers out to the cable that runs off to the "big wide world" Internet proper. The "switches" and "routers" (kinda the same thing) look at the address on the message and make sure it gets sent down the right wire.
• The Internet is sometimes called a "WAN" (Wide Area Network) because it covers longer distances - but the technology is no different in principle to the LAN...so the message continues off across the net until it gets to the place where it's being sent.
• In this case - because we're asking the question "What is the number of the computer called 'Wikipedia.org'" - the message was sent to a computer called a "DNS" (Dynamic Name Server) - which has a long list of computer names ("Google.com", "Wikipedia.org", "ebay.com"...etc)...and the numbers that go with them (eg Wikipedia is 208.80.152.2)...well, that computer looks up wikipedia, finds the number and then looks where the packet came from and sends the answer back in another packet.
• Now the process reverses - the packet goes back through switches and routers and cables in the Internet - and eventually arrives at the LAN - still addressed to your computer.
• The message arrives in the Ethernet interface - and the operating system picks it up and remembers that 208.80.152.2 is Wikipedia.
• Now Firefox sends a message to wikipedia that says "Please send me the page called 'wiki/Main_Page'" - using the 208.80.152.2 address.
• Same thing...the message goes across the LAN, out into the internet, into the LAN at Wikipedia headquarters - and into the computer there.
• The Wikipedia computer finds that page (it's a file on disk) - loads contents of the file into a packet (perhaps several packets if it's a long page) and ships it back to the computer in the "From" part of the address...which is you.
• ANOTHER trip across the wiki-LAN, into the Internet, into your LAN, into your Ethernet interface, into your operating system and then into FireFox...which displays the page on the screen.

In truth, this is an AMAZINGLY simplified version of what's really going on...in reality there are messages sent back from every packet as it arrives at it's destination that say "Thanks! I got your message OK!"...if the sending computer doesn't get that acknowledgement back, it sends the packet again...and again...and again...until it either gets an acknowledgement back or some large amount of time passes and it gives up.

And the "DNS" computer may not have the address you want in it's list - so it goes to another nearby DNS and says "Do you happen to know this address?"...and the request that says "Where the heck is wikipedia?" ripples out across many, many DNS's until one of them really does know the answer and sends it back so that everyone will know next time around.

And Wikipedia isn't really just one computer - there are many and whichever one has time to spare will send you back your page.

And your LAN probably has a "Firewall" computer between it and the big-wide-world Internet who's job it is to make sure that only "approved" messages are passed back and forth - to keep out hackers, industrial spies and such like.

In some cases, for very commonly needed pages, there may be a computer on your LAN that stores copies of the most frequently needed pages - and intercepts requests for them so that you get the saved copy without having to travel halfway around the world to get it.

But that's enough for a simplified view.

SteveBaker (talk) 20:21, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Outlook Express

Bear with me, I'm not good with computers, so answers in words of one syllable please!

I've always used Outlook Express for sending and receiving emails. However, I've recently bought a new computer running Vista, and Outlook Express does not seem to be part of the package. I bought the machine from Dell and it came with all its software pre-loaded.

Is Outlook Express being phased out? Is it possible for me to access it somehow on the new computer, or is it just not included on new machines?

Any help gratefully appreciated. Maid Marion (talk) 14:32, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Yes, Outlook Express has been replaced by Windows Mail. --LarryMac | Talk 14:35, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

You could also consider downloading "Thunderbird" - which is the email client provided by the same guys who wrote FireFox. It's free and has pretty good features and an excellent spam filter that learns from you what you consider spam and what you want to read. The website is here: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/ SteveBaker (talk) 19:35, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

I can't seem to log in today (told you I was no good with computers), but this is Maid Marion, just to say thanks to you guys, very helpful. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.139.174.145 (talk) 09:07, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Loading images

Does firefox provide an option to not load images until requested by the user, like old versions of netscape used to? I couldn't find it in preferences but thought it might be a hidden option like about:config --Random832 (contribs) 15:34, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

tools/options/content/load images automatically (in 3.0.1) Algebraist 15:43, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

The "Image like Opera" extension does this (although it also has much more powerful features). It will show placeholder frames instead of images, you can right-click the placeholder and click "Load image" to load the image in place, unlike the "View image" FF option which loads the image alone in the same window. Basically it behaves like Internet Explorer's "Show image download placeholders" option. It works like a charm. Works well for blocking ads and Flash too as it handles regular expressions and can supplement Ad-block Plus. Zunaid 15:56, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

FF3 actually has a right-click "show image" item that I noticed when an image failed to load. It doesn't seem to work when image loading is turned off though. --Random832 (contribs) 17:39, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Virtual CD burner - free

I'm looking for a simple, free alternative almost identical to programs such as TuneClone - or one with an unrestricted ~10-day trial :-) Anyone know of one? Thanks! ╟─Treasury§Tag►contribs─╢ 16:56, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

To clarify your question, I guess you're looking for a Virtual drive#Virtual Burner, right? -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 17:16, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Pretty much, yeah, but free and simple if poss! ╟─Treasury§Tag►contribs─╢ 18:25, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Ladder logic diagram software

Does anyone here know where I can obtain free (gratis) software to draw ladder logic diagrams. I do not need to perform any type of simulation or PLC programming. I simply want to be able to draw the diagrams. I have searched Google to no avail. 137.148.141.183 (talk) 23:31, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

September 11

boot screen gone

I run a presario with a partition of xp and one of ubuntu. If I don't select xp then ubuntu automatically loads, but I primarily run windows so that my audigy won't give me problems. Sometimes I come home and my screen is on ubuntu because of usually some kind of automatic update that required a restart. No problem, I restart and select xp. Today I come home, same situation at first, but when I restart ubuntu loads without a boot screen. I restart again a couple times, same thing. I shut down and wait a couple minutes, turn it on and it goes directly to ubuntu with no boot screen. I'm not sure if I have a windows boot disk around anywhere, but I might, but I'm hoping the solution involves something else. I'm a sort of a novice on linux, so I can go to the terminal but if it's complicated I need one of those walk-throughs that holds my hand. Thanks. - Lambajan 01:52, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Post the output for 'gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst'. If menu.lst is unaltered you might have to reinstall grub. Link -Abhishek (talk) 02:28, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

That's everything that came up. I hope it's helpful, thanks. - Lambajan 13:20, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

P.S. feel free to delete anything that's not helpful to shorten this section. - Lambajan 13:21, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

I've hidden it, to reduce the visual impact. Please feel free to revert/undo if you object. -- Coneslayer (talk) 16:24, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

No objection. I wish I thought of it, thank you. - Lambajan 16:31, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

I've just removed it entirely because I'm not sure if there's anything personal there or not and nobody posted anything relevant about it since I put it up there anyway. I was tinkering around with things in my own ignorant way and the problem is no longer there. It fixed itself, no doubt. ;-) Thanks for the help anyway. - Lambajan 03:28, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

C library for hash tables and automatically resized arrays

What is the most widely used library in C (not C++) for doing hash tables and automatically resized arrays (that supports push, pop, shift, and unshift functions)? I think Gnome library has these, but what are my options? what is the most widely used? --24.188.247.12 (talk) 02:16, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

For hash tables, it's probably the POSIX facility described here. For resizeable arrays, the most common answer is surely "we rolled our own using realloc()". --Sean 13:57, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

The low-level library GLib is where you'll find these types of functions in gnome programs. Another possible answer for hash tables is Berkeley DB, especially if the hash table is very large and/or the contents need to be saved in a permanent disk file between runs of the program. And yes, all those array operations are just realloc+memmove, nothing to get excited about. --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 20:29, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Digital Mirror

It is possible to have an image on a computer screen that shows one’s reflection? A digital mirror so to speak. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.202.144.223 (talk) 03:28, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

I suppoose one could use a webcam and simply flip the image. - SigmaEpsilon → ΣΕ 04:16, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

But an ordinary mirror works from all angles, like a hologram, and you can't simulate that with an ordinary computer monitor. -- BenRG (talk) 10:49, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

I disagree - aside from the stereographic effect - using a camera and flipping the image should work identically to a mirror except that the camera is not positioned in the center of the screen - so everything is a bit "off-axis". If you closed one eye and could somehow position a pin-hole camera in the center of your screen - then it would be just like a mirror. You could reproduce the stereo/3D effect using two cameras and a pair of LCD shutter glasses...but that's going a bit far! SteveBaker (talk) 03:21, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Videos in Firefox 3 without audio

All of a sudden, the audio isn't working when I try to play videos in Firefox 3.0.1. My iTunes works fine. I closed and reopened the browser, but that didn't fix it. I restarted my computer, but that didn't fix it. I checked all sounds setting in my volume control, but everything is OK. Any suggestions about what might be causing this would be appreciated! — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 03:36, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

What plugins addons do you have installed? - SigmaEpsilon → ΣΕ 03:55, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Plugins: 2007 Microsoft Office system, Adobe Acrobat, DivX Player Netscape Plugin, DivX Web Player, iTunes Application Detector, Java Platform SE 6 U2, Microsoft DRM (apparently two…), Mozilla Default Plug-in, QuickTime Plug-in 7.5 (861), RealJukebox NS Plugin, RealPlayer Version Plugin, RealPlayer G2 LiveConnect-Enabled Plug-In, Shockwave Flash, Shockwave for Director, VLC Media Plugin, Windows Media Player Plug-in Dynamic Link Library. — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 04:41, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

What format videos have you tried? Algebraist 08:55, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

I think they have all been FLV (based on my "DownloadHelper" app), for example this Quantum of Solace trailer. I also (just) just noticed that the videos play for about 2–5 seconds and then stop; I can click the slider ahead and it will play for another 2–5 seconds. — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 22:45, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

I used to have that problem; I think it was because my university connection was dodgy (and it cleared up after a network upgrade of some kind) but I was never sure. I had sound though (except for the one time I lost it and eventually realized that FF remembers you pressing the YouTube mute button). Algebraist 22:49, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

And suddenly it has cleared up! I went to YouTube to see if I had muted anything (although not all videos were from YouTube), but I hadn't. Then I tried the other videos again, and they have sound and play continuously. — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 23:06, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

I was having a similar problem yesterday... weird. But it is also cleared up today, so apparently it'll take care of itself. --Alinnisawest,^{Dalek Empress} (extermination requests here) 13:27, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Default Language of Microsoft-Word under Window-XP-Professional

I am using Microsoft Window XP Professional and Word-2003.

Most of my Microsoft-Word documents contain both English and Chinese fonts. I never type in Chinese fonts with Ping-Ying. They are always copied from other documents and pasted into my files. Whenever I type in, I want them to be English.

Problem#1: Whenever I open a word document, its input is always Chinese Ping-Ying by default.

Question#1: How do I set English as the default language although documents contain some Chinese characters? I tried

Menu/Tools/Language/Set Language/(abc)-English (Australia)

but it never works.

Problem#2: This is independent of the above situation. Files with extension .htm are open correctly by Firefox but the icon on every htm-document is NOT identified by Firefox.

Question#2: How do I attach the Firefox-icon to files with externsion-htm?

Problem#3: I view some video online via internet.

Question#3: Are these video files stored in some temporary folders of Window-XP-Professional? Can I take them out and save them for viewing later?

Thank you in advance for your help. twma 09:18, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

1. tools/language/set language/(select your language)/default
2. Open My Computer. Tools/Folder Options/File Type scroll to HTM and select it. Then click Advanced, then Change Icon. I can't say exactly where you'll find the icon as I don't have FF on this computer.
3. You can get Firefox add-ons which will allow you to save the video files from most sites. For example, Fast Video Download. Please note that many videos, such as those from YouTube, are in the Flash "FLV" format, which can then be played with VLC Media Player. --LarryMac | Talk 14:15, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Thank you for your help.

1) Menu/Tools/Language/Set Language/(abc)-English (Australia)/default

It did not work. Every time when I opened a new or old file I had to change manually from Chinese into English at the selector located at the lower right hand corner of the bottom bar.

2) Following your instructions again, I managed to get a window of lots of icon-pictures but I could not find the icon of Firefox. I do not know how to copy one from other computer or download it from somewhere.

3) I managed to find a web-site of Firefox Add-ons. Will ask my local friends to work together. Thank you again. twma 09:49, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Need advice buying a laptop part 3

Hey guys I've narrowed my options down. Please take a look at this comparison. http://direct.tesco.com/compare/?c=204-4693+204-5811&f=%2Fq%2FN.1999033%24264%2FNr.99.aspx

Not sure which is best, as a Gamer, the laptops perfomance in games is important but not the only thing I will take into consideration. It troubles me that battery life is not included in the specification of the HP dv6907. Does anyone here own one of these laptops or be able to find out how long battery life is? Or perhaps maybe you know of a better deal than either of these two.

Thanks a lot —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.19.46.67 (talk) 10:24, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

The 8400M is an abysmal card for games. If you want to play ames at all you're going to want an 8600M minimum 88.211.96.3 (talk) 12:11, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

To the poster above, this poor person has been asking advice for days about his laptop and now you go and contradict everything we've said. Besides he only wants to play Counter Strike Source. Does Nvidia even make an 8600 for laptops? To the OP, I think you're over-analyzing; you should really think about using your laptop near a power source as batteries will only last for a few hours at full usage. I have a dell laptop and it lasts for four hours. Sandman30s (talk) 14:21, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

I'm sorry I wasn't aware he just wanted to play counterstrike source. The card will be fine for that but you'll be running at medium to low settings. And yes, there is an 8600M. It is one of the standard cards on the Dell XPS series of laptops. And to the poster of the question, gaming shouldn't be done unless you're plugged into the power as running 3d graphics presents a massive strain on the computer so it uses more power. Anything other than that and possibly video and you're going to get at least 4 hours probably more on a fully charged battery if you're careful. 88.211.96.3 (talk) 14:31, 11 September 2008 (UTC) Edit: Oh by the way since you're asking for a comparison get the first one. The A200 has a graphics card that isn't even going to be particularly good at running Vista on its own let alone Source. It's also a really old model and it has awful speakers according to a CNet review I found. So to reiterate if those are your 2 choices go for the HP. 88.211.96.3 (talk) 14:44, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks and agreed. My last post was in a great hurry so I neglected to mention that many (if not all) laptops decrease the CPU speed when you switch to battery, to conserve power - not a good idea for gaming. Without checking the specs of your last laptop choice (the Dell), I agree with the 8600M. Oh, and please make a choice now, and happy CSSing! Sandman30s (talk) 20:40, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

virtual machines and operating systems

I just want to try plan 9, inferno and other things, but I don't want to partition my hard drive any further. I don't know which virtual machine to choose, there are simply too many options. I am ready to clean up everything and install everything fresh, if required. I have AMD Athlon x2, x86-64 system. Any help regarding this would really be appreciated. --V4vijayakumar (talk) 18:28, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

I'm going to assume Windows: I'm partial to VMware. It's always seemed a bit faster to me, though I've not used VirtualPC in a version or so. Both products should have something free to use. Washii (talk) 21:25, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

I use VirtualBox which is free and easy to use. x42bn6 Talk Mess 00:26, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

QEMU is also worth a try. Also check out Qemu Manager. JessicaThunderbolt 15:05, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Text in Windows Vista

Uh, this is kinda weird, but suddenly today the text in webpages in firefox turned italicized and in some other program windows as well (Trend Micro for example). I restarted twice and now the text in firefox is bold while the text in the Trend Micro control box is still italic. Can anyone help and tell me what's going on? Much thanks for any help. --RedStateV (talk) 19:15, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Now the text in IE is italicized too. What the heck?! RedStateV (talk) 19:20, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Ok new update. It's not all web pages that do it. The Google home page, gmail, the ref desk page, any Wikipedia page is along with most other web pages. Facebook and TG Daily seem fine. It's still bold in FF and italics in IE. Plus, when I go into MS Word 2008 and select Arial, it comes out italicized and the selection box for italics isn't checked. Also, when I copy say, some bold text in FF off of the ref desk and into word or notepad, it shows up fine (i.e. clear formatted Times New Roman). RedStateV (talk) 21:24, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

A friend of mine had this problem on a forum. It should go away on its own, hopefully. Avnas Ishtaroth _{drop me a line} 01:33, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

I remember I had such problem in Windows 98 when I installed VirNET "Regional Settings Changer". Try to copy the font files from Vista install CD. --grawity 14:43, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Windows Live HotMail

Why the bloody fsck does Windows Live HotMail claim that "This version works better under your browser. For the full version, you need to upgrade to Internet Explorer 6. The full version also works with FireFox 2.0" when I am using it under FireFox 3.0? Is Windows Live HotMail simply too stupid to realise FireFox 3.0 is more advanced than FireFox 2.0, or is this a clever ploy to finally get me to install Windows? JIP | Talk 21:25, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Yes, to "simply too stupid." I've run across websites that barely support Firefox 1.5, let alone 3.0. Washii (talk) 21:37, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Well, IDK, I find 2.0 much prettier and more useful than 3.0, but that's just my two cents… Admiral Norton ^(talk) 21:38, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

For me (using Windows, mind you, and using FF3) it tells me it runs good under Firefox 3. ...I AM using Firefox 3! --Alinnisawest,^{Dalek Empress} (extermination requests here) 22:25, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

You can always get your browser to identify as something else. My guess is that it could work perfectly well under Ff3/Ie<6, they are just to stupid not only to have not released it yet, but perhaps not even confirmed if they need to.78.149.67.250 (talk) 23:49, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

It's been programmed to recognize the Useragent string from Firefox 2, but not Firefox 3. That's it. 24.76.161.28 (talk) 23:50, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

September 12

64-bit OS compability

Are most 32 bit DVD ROM computer games able to operate on 64-bit systems like windows vista 64 bit edition.--logger (talk) 00:52, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Maybe. Some game use a copy-protection scheme that is basically a driver (SecuROM? Others?). Those kind likely would not work unless you could get a 64-bit version from the copy-protection maker's website. I'm not sure about the likes of SafeDisc (I know of very few DVD-based games that actually use SafeDisc, though). Washii (talk) 02:55, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Yes, most will be fine. As stated above, older versions of SecuROM may be an issue, and StarForce is an even bigger one (it will force its driver to install on x64 Vista even if it shouldn't be able to, which you have to watch out for; it obviously won't work, but Windows will complain about having an unsigned driver installed when you try to boot); however, you can download updated versions of these from the company's website so it's not a huge problem. Some games have other minor issues on 64-bit Vista vs. 32-bit Vista for some odd reasons, but I haven't run across any issues personally. 130.179.33.33 (talk) 15:18, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

mouse

why does the cursor move when mouse is moved —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.92.244.6 (talk) 07:19, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Because that is the purpose of the computer mouse? What use would the mouse be if it didn't? Or do you mean 'how' does the cursor move? 194.221.133.226 (talk) 09:03, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

The physical movement of the mouse (around your desk) is converted into the movement of your cursor on the screen, as the computer mouse article describes. The manual for the first Microsoft mouse included instructions for programming this yourself; the unit of distance for mouse movement was (I swear) the "mickey."

Some mice (or their drivers) also have programming so that the faster you move the mouse over a given distance, the further you move the cursor on the screen. --- OtherDave (talk) 10:31, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

They're still called mickeys: <google search>. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 10:54, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Specifically: Moving the mouse causes a pair of numbers to be transmitted to the computer describing how far it moved in the left/right and up/down directions. As others have pointed out - these numbers are in units called "Mickeys" - and the size of a mickey depends on the sensitivity of your mouse. Precisely how those numbers are arrived at depends on the kind of mouse you have.

• The old fashioned mice with the ball inside have a pair of rollers that the ball pushes against - as the ball spins, the rollers are rotated and those in turn rotate a pair of disks with little holes cut into them all around. As the disk spins, it interrupts a light beam and the teeny-tiny computer inside the mouse counts the number of times this happens in each direction and turns that into mickeys.
• Modern "optical" mice actually have an amazingly cheap/tiny camera inside them that looks down at your desk top and takes a picture of it many times a second. When you move the mouse a small amount, the next picture is shifted a bit to one side compared to the previous one - and by figuring out how much it has to move the next picture to line up with the previous one, it knows how far the mouse moved. This is why your mouse doesn't work on really smooth, uniformly colored surfaces...the pictures are all the same color all over! The red LED underneath the mouse just provides enough light for the camera to see by (it's pretty dark under your mouse otherwise).

The mickey data is sent along with the current state of the mouse's buttons and scroll wheel(s) to the computer either down a wire or over an infra-red or short-range radio link into some circuitry inside the computer proper - where it can be read by the operating system software. The windowing system knows where the cursor is pointing at right now - and when the mouse says it moved (such-and-such number of mickey's to the left or right and such and such upwards or downwards), the software simply adds those numbers to the last position the cursor was at to get the new position. If you change the mouse's sensitivity - then it may multiply or divide the number of mickeys by some number to convert it into pixels on the screen.

The cursor can be drawn in one of two ways - it can just be rendered as graphics onto the screen (a "soft cursor") or the graphics chip may have special cursor-drawing hardware that can render a cursor at a specific place on the screen that the operating system can change.

Application programs can also tell the operating system to move the cursor (typically used to "jump" it into a dialog box it just popped up or something) - this is called "warping the mouse" and it's generally frowned upon by user interface experts. Programs can also load up different cursor shapes and tell the operating system what shape to use in which parts of the screen.

SteveBaker (talk) 03:16, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

IE 6 vs. 5

'sup, bud.

I have a legacy computer running Windows 2000. I updated it as much as possible, installing Internet Explorer 6 SP1 and making Firefox 3 the default browser. However, PC World´s "25 Worst Tech Products of All Time" says that any browser is better than IE 6 ... So, does that mean that I should uninstall IE 6 and replace it with the default IE 5? I ask because viruses -- even if they don't arrive through the browser -- usually attack IE. In terms of security, which is better?--Welcome Home Cover 56 (talk) 10:58, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

IE6 is better than IE5, but why are you using such an old IE? Does IE7 not run on Win2K? Even that has security vulnerabilities.

• IE5.5
• IE6.x
• IE7.x
• FF3

If you have FF3 you don't need IE at all. - Phydaux (talk) 12:33, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

And if you have IE7 you don't need FF at all. Hey, i can do it to, absolutely nothing todo with what the original poster was asking but I forced my misguided and childish opinion into the debate too! On topic, in terms of security, a fully patched IE6 is definetly more secure, and usefully, standards compliant than IE5. You don't have anything to worry about that you wouldn't with any other Browser. - Jimmi Hugh (talk) 12:49, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

It's not childish or useless to point out to the OP that, since they have already chosen FF3 as their default browser, they don't actually need to worry about IE updates, or about IE at all. Algebraist 12:55, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Many 3rd party programs were written depending on features installed with IE, so un-installing IE will break them. (I don't know your setup, so ???)

MS update only works with IE. Also some website only work with IE (the websites are broken, not the other browsers).

Keep IE6, it works fine and you might need it some time. Use FF3 'cause if you're a MS corporate drone you sound silly when you say "'sup, bud". Saintrain (talk) 14:02, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

'Sup, bud. I'd install IE 7, but MS says it doesn't work in Win 2k. I primarily use IE 7 on my XP box because developers design their sites to look good inside of IE. (The Win 2k setup is for a friend.) I hear IE 6 is less secure than IE 7. Site layouts also seem to get broken more often inside of IE 6 than IE 7. I just have bad memories of viruses displaying pop-ups even when I wasn't using IE. They would install ActiveX plugins into IE, even though the virus entered the computer as a malicious EXE, for example. But, as Jimmi mentioned, IE 6 is better than 5, so I'll just stick with that along with FF 3. Thanks, guys! (Especially Jimmi and Phydaux.)--Welcome Home Cover 56 (talk) 03:06, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

A little nitpick: good designers design their sites to look good inside standards compliant browsers, and spend sleepless nights trying to fix it to work with the quirks and incompatibilities of IE6. Microsoft is now experiencing the consequence of their failed EEE tactic, needing to include 3 different rendering modes for their Internet Explorer 8 just to keep those tag soup IE only websites working. --antilived^{T | C | G} 04:27, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Monetize open source software development

Besides consulting and web-ads, what other ways of monetizing OS software are there? Mr.K. (talk) 11:52, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

There's:

• Hosting - say you write an open-source timesheet-management program: your customers could download it and run it on their own servers, but you can offer them hosted service where you set it up and configure it for their requirements, host it on your (enterprise grade, redundant) servers in a secure data centre, and take care of stuff like security and backups for them.
• Hardware - you could be developing firmware for an embedded device like a storage array or a network device (like a firewall or entireprise spam filter). By using open-source software you can get a lot of the basic stuff done fast, but you retain your advantage because much of your business's value-add is the hardware, which you own.
• Ancillary products - e.g. you write an open-source database which grabs some of Oracle's market, then you sell add-ons like backup systems and management programs and additional storage providers. The degree to which you can do this is contingent on the open-source or free-software licence you choose, and the kind of linking you employ.

And remember that with most OS/FS licences you can make money from your and others' OS/FS software by offering them as a web-service you can make changes and not release those changes back to the originating products (as you're allowing access to the software but not disseminating the software itself. That's largely how Google does things, and is something that licences like the Affero General Public License are designed to prevent. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 12:19, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

• Money and Source status are completely separate issues, and there are many many situations in which open source software is sold. Whether or not you choose to release the source code for a product has no bearing on the commerical, monetary or "moral" aspects of the software. - Jimmi Hugh (talk) 12:45, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Well, let's not pretend it doesn't have some bearing from a practical standpoint. Obviously if I can download the code for free and compile it myself (or someone can download it, compile it, and have the binaries available to download), I don't necessarily need to pay you for it the same way I would proprietary software. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 14:52, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

True, but you won't get any enterprise-level support, unless you pay a separate fee. That is basically how RHEL works. They build you their core system, and for buckets'o'money they will keep those systems running, and even work on patches to make those systems perform better (to a certain extent). Washii (talk) 16:50, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Right but how many people actually use "enterprise-level support"? I mean, I don't even use that on the proprietary software I have. I'm just saying, your ordinary consumer is not going to pay for something they can get for free. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 22:12, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Actually... it depends first upon the license. If we accept that the terms Open Source and Proprietary Source are more than the definitions as controlled by the FSF and OSI respectively (the argument people here used to keep the Proprietary Software article when I wanted to move it,) then we can't stipulate about any single license. More Importantly, correct me if i'm wrong but doesn't the GPL say that the only people who are required to have the source distributed to them are people who correctly gained the binaries? So companies can very easily limit it, the consumers ability to then pass on their own modified source code aside. So actually, it doesn't have any bearing unless you just want to make up arguments why Open Source is better than Closed Source. I don't have an opinion either way because it's silly to think about outside to context of each individual product, and i've released as many open source tools as I have closed source. More importantly though, proprietary products can be open source. It may be a shock to find out the opinions you're copying, without having ever considered them, are wrong, but look up the word proprietary, and you'll see that there is no justification for the idea that a proprietary piece of software cannot also be open source. - Jimmi Hugh (talk) 17:07, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

"correct me if i'm wrong but doesn't the GPL say that the only people who are required to have the source distributed to them are people who correctly gained the binaries?" That really only helps if you're making a web application. Once you've actually given someone the code they can redistribute it to their heart's content. APL (talk) 18:32, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Exactly as i said immediately after that quote... however in terms of open source, as opposed to "free" software, that doesn't have to be entirely true either. - Jimmi Hugh (talk) 21:02, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Well, right, I was simplifying things a bit by using open source to refer to free software primarily, though I'm well aware there is proprietary open source. Assuming the OP was talking about free software, then it definitely puts bounds on the practical moneymaking opportunities. If you just mean it as a business model, it still can have some practical implications, though for most people compiling binaries is more difficult than just pirating the thing from a torrent. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 22:12, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Help with source code and compiling (bash)

I am trying to modify some source code for a .deb package of flash plugin. That .deb package is a metapackage that dowloads and install the flash player, and what I wanted to do was to modify it/compile it so I would already include the "full" flash installer (for offline use), so my questions are:

• Do I need to modify the source code? (It already contains references to "flashplugin-nonfree/local", so it seems to be looking for a local file...)
• If I need to modify it, what exactly to I need to do?
• Then, how do I then compile it, including the full flash installer? (can I just drop the .tar.gz file in the folder where the source is?)

I found references to "flashplugin-nonfree/local" in 2 files, postinst and config (in case that helps). By the way, I think the language is bash. I hope someone can help me out... Hacktolive (talk) 15:41, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

What are some words that I could easily type with one hand?

The word needs to be at least 8 letters long, and all the letters should be very close together on the keyboard.--The Fat Man Who Never Came Back (talk) 15:49, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

The full chemical name of Titin at 189,819 letters, typing very slowly with one finger. Is that cheating? JessicaThunderbolt 16:12, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

not helpful.--The Fat Man Who Never Came Back (talk) 23:31, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

rewarded? 207.58.235.243 (talk) 16:26, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

helpful.--The Fat Man Who Never Came Back (talk) 23:31, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Stewardesses. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 16:32, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

helpful.--The Fat Man Who Never Came Back (talk) 23:31, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Right hand or left? qwerty keyboard? - Lambajan 16:33, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

at least attempted to be helpful.--The Fat Man Who Never Came Back (talk) 23:31, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Here's 280 words you can type with your left hand. (That are >= 8 letters long, with a qwerty keyboard.)APL (talk) 16:36, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

most helpful of all; You get the prize! (that was a real question, but if anyone would like to hire me to be the Reference Desk mystery shopper, let's talk turkey).--The Fat Man Who Never Came Back (talk) 23:31, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Rearward, rearward and REARWARD, Refreeze, refreeze and REFREEZE. I got six left-hand words without even trying, I should get a consolation prize.

And of course, why would one have a need to type 8-letter words with just one hand? You can see where that sort of question might draw unhelpful replies. (and it's OK, we get lots of mystery shoppers here!) :) Franamax (talk) 23:39, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Curiously, I'm stumped for right-handers. Plominik? Kopility? ETAOIN SHRDLU is well-distributed across the Qwerty keyboard (by design), but the right side has got me beat right now, and I notice that all the answers so far have been left-side. Franamax (talk) 23:48, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

The longest I find in Ubuntu's /usr/share/dict/words is "polyphony". It's nowhere near the longest left-handers like "stewardesses" and "aftereffects", which kind of makes sense: there are fewer letters on the right-hand half of the keyboard, and also the two most common vowels and the most common consonant are all on the left-hand side. The full lists, if anyone's interested, are here and here. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 05:02, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Hmmm, if you say there are fewer letters on the right-hand half of the keyboard, my first instinct would be to ask how you define "half". But that brings up a meta-question - why the paucity of useful stuff on the right side? All the punctuation is over there - do we need our (for most people) dominant hand for dots and braces? Qwerty typewriters were designed to slow down the key rate, since the mechanical key escapement only worked so fast and no faster - but am I now seeing an additional lowering of the right-hand typing frequency? Most cunning if so. Franamax (talk) 06:18, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

QWERTY wasn't actually designed to slow down the key rate. It were designed so that certain commonly used combinations would not conflict with the mechanics of the original machine. See QWERTY. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 17:54, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Now we have all we need to log in as the Fat Man :) ... password-entering efficiency is it? Whiskeydog (talk) 01:50, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Here's my secret password strategy: you want both hands to be making small motions, almost simultaneously, and in directions where the hand obscures the finger motion. This makes the hardest possible task for anyone watching your keystrokes when you login. For instance, try this "poasl23l" - natural finger movements, very hard to pick up if you're watching for a scoop. Of course, you have to make sure you're typing that at the Password: prompt, if you do it at Login:, you're left pleading with someone to not reveal your ultimate perfect password. :) :( Franamax (talk) 06:18, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Serious looking free web-page

What free hosting provider would you recommend for a self-employed consultant? I thought about Google Pages, but the service was discontinued as Google Sites kicked in. The problem with the latter is that the adresse structure (http://sites.google.com/site/username instead of http://username.googlepages.com) gives the impression that the site is not independent of other similar sites. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mr.K. (talk • contribs) 17:00, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Serious looking and free is rather difficult. A consultant in any serious field (i.e. no motivational, success or intercultural consulting) should be able to pay the (historically) ridiculous low prices of web-hosting and domain register. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.12.16.56 (talk) 17:25, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

I'm a fan of 110MB.com. It has a lot of junk-sites floating around, but all the available upgrades are really quite awesome. Washii (talk) 17:56, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

I've not actually done this myself, but couldn't you register your own domain and sign up with a redirector? When I clicked on mr-K.com/awesomepage.html, it would get passed on to sites.google.com.site/mr-K as an HTTP GET for awesomepage.html.

I'll chime in with the questions here, does it actually work the way I just said? Franamax (talk) 06:34, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Kind of ish. One way of doing this is to register a domain name, then sign up with Google Apps (free), and set up a Google Site that way. Google Apps will give you instructions on setting up a CNAME entry, so when one goes to http://www.yourdomain.com it will pull up the Google site you've created. You will still be paying money for the domain itself, though it's usually only a few dollars per year. There is no way to look professional without spending any money. 24.76.161.28 (talk) 23:48, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

I strognly agree that you should pay to get proper web hosting - having a page on a 'free' site says to potential employers that your business is so shaky that it can't afford $9.95 per month - so you probably won't be around for long. When they visit your site it'll be laden with adverts - which just screams "Amateur!". They will conclude that you are a not a serious consultant and that you may not stay in business long enough to complete their contract. So find a decent web hosting company (I use and recommend 'dreamhost.com' but there are a gazillion others) - register a nice domainname, set up your web site AND your email address to refer to that domain and build yourself a super-professional-looking web site. You'll get more disk space than you'll ever need - you'll be able to set up things like Wiki's and document control systems (Subversion, for example), forums and blogs - you can also have multiple email addresses ("info@yoursite.com", "abuse@yoursite.com", etc) all sorts of services that'll improve your business and give the impression that you are in this for the long run. SteveBaker (talk) 14:19, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Splitting commands in Python

In Python, is there an easy way to split input like commandline shells do? For example:

• Input: command arg1 arg2 "a long arg3" arg4 "arg5 \"still arg5" arg6
• Output:
  • command
  • arg1
  • arg2
  • a long arg3
  • arg4
  • arg5 "still arg5
  • arg6

--grawity 17:55, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Here is probably the worst python program ever written -

import sys
s = sys.stdin.readline()

# HACK: change escaped quotes into a magic string that we hope will never arise
s2 =s.replace('\\"', 'COWABUNGA')

# split the command into blocks along " edges - this leaves quoted params
# as the odd elements (HACK: assuming the line doesn't begin with a quoted param)
s3 = s2.split('"')

# HACK: undo the horrible hack above
for i in range(0, len(s3)):
    s3[i] = s3[i].replace('COWABUNGA', '\\"')

# build the final output array
s4 = []
for i in range(0,len(s3)):
    if i%2==0:
        # a bunch of unquoted args, so split 'em out
        for x in s3[i].strip().split(' '):
            s4 += [x]
    else:
        # a quoted arg, so append without splitting
        s4 += [s3[i]]
    
for y in s4:
    print y

but it (kind of ) works. Boy I shoulda used a regexp :) 87.114.18.90 (talk) —Preceding undated comment was added at 19:18, 12 September 2008 (UTC).

Nah, it's wrong, it doesn't handle escaped escapes properly \\" 87.114.18.90 (talk) 19:22, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

try:

import sys, shlex
print shlex.split(sys.stdin.readline())

-- Finlay McWalter | Talk 19:55, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Website help

At my current location, I can only access dicionary/reference websites. Like Wikipedia, dictionary.com, books.google.com and even Urban Dictionary. I cannot access any other website outside of these types of websites. Even informative websites like CNN.com. Is there a website that can help me get around this problem? Is there a dummy site that fits the dictionary/reference criteria to help me get around our firewall?--Endlessdan and his problem 18:49, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

There are several methods. A web proxy would be best but these are probably blocked for you also. Try https://tor-proxy.net/, which uses the SOCKS protocol; but be warned it is very, very slow and unreliable. If you can get into your web browsers proxy settings you can route your traffic through a SOCKS connection, which might bypass the firewall. Personally I recommend Tor which will bypass most firewalls, however you would need to install it on the computer. Do you have administrator rights or is it a restricted workstation? If you're unable to install, can you use USB Flash dives? If so, on an unrestricted computer install Portable Tor onto a USB drive and you should be able to run it on the other computer. Also you'll need Portable Firefox as the computer's web browser will probably not allow you to change the settings. In Firefox change the proxy server in advanced settings to "localhost" and port "8118". JessicaThunderbolt 19:25, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Thank you for your response. I am on a restricted station. I tried using a web proxy, but that was a no go. The website you recommended, tor-proxy did not work. I got a 'page cannot be displayed' message. --Endlessdan and his problem 19:38, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Can you access Google Translator? If so, try this for CNN - http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com&hl=ar&ie=UTF-8&sl=ar&tl=en Here, I have Arabic to English, though of course CNN.com is not in Arabic. It's already in English, and that's what you get, but indirectly. --Aude (talk) 22:19, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Is Coral Content Distribution Network allowed? You can use it just by adding .nyud.net to the website address. Also, try Google cache. — Shinhan < talk > 12:21, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Linux recognition of wireless card

At the suggestion of members of this board, I recently installed Ubuntu to make my system dual boot. However, when I pull up Ubuntu, it's unable to recognize my wireless card. I am currently using a Dell 1505 802.11n, and I cannot find any drivers for Unix. Additionally, I believe Ubuntu may be able to read the network to some degree, because when I installed it, it (incorrectly) reset the time to GMT, indicating it had network access to the time. Any suggestions? Magog the Ogre (talk) 19:49, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

If you cannot find any native drivers you can always install NDISwrapper and go here to find what windows driver you need. Then install the Win driver with NDISwrapper. Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 20:04, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Try this. --antilived^{T | C | G} 22:51, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

QBasic

In Qbasic, I have

PRINT "The answer is"; firstNumber; +  secondNumber; =

firstNumber and secondNumber are variables. How do you get QBasic to add the two variables? Wiki131wiki (talk) 20:36, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

PRINT "The answer is"; firstNumber +  secondNumber; =  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.86.164.115 (talk) 20:42, 12 September 2008 (UTC) 

The semicolon in there makes the compiler view the variables as separate, so it has to be removed. I'm not well-versed in QBASIC (I learned with JBASIC, myself), but you could also just have

thirdNumber = firstNumber + secondNumber
PRINT "The answer is "; thirdNumber

That way, you could leave the equation straight out of the text. I'm pretty sure that would work in QBASIC; it would in JBASIC, at any rate. The syntax may need to be played with a bit, but try something along those lines. --Alinnisawest,^{Dalek Empress} (extermination requests here) 20:52, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks! Wiki131wiki (talk) 16:35, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

What should I learn when I outgrow MS Excel?

In my work, I have to manipulate a lot of data. The datasets are not unusually large and the math involved is rarely anything more complicated than arithmetic. But, I find Excel very limiting and oftentimes I have to piece together convoluted solutions to force Excel to do what I want it to. I end up with lots of formulas such as:

=AVERAGE((INDIRECT("'Normalized mass'!R[8]C["&(COLUMN()/2)&"]", FALSE)):(INDIRECT("'Normalized mass'!R[8]C["&(COLUMN()/2+2)&"]", FALSE)))

or

=SUMIF((INDIRECT(R[6]C[-10]&RC21)):(INDIRECT(R[6]C[-10]&R[1]C21)), ">0")

I can usually make things work, but if there is a mistake or if I want to make a change a month down the road, it can be difficult to go back and figure it out again, because it just looks like gobbledygook. So I think I need to learn a new method for manipulating datasets, but I don't know what that method is. Do I need to learn a programming language? Would something like MatLab be good for me? Any other ideas for tools I should learn about? ike9898 (talk) 22:02, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Python is pretty easy to learn and one generally produces programs that are much more legible than that scary formula. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 22:45, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Excel is extremely limiting. If you are dealing with large datasets and wanting to perform manipulations on them, you probably will want to look into database programming. For example, it is pretty trivial to get Excel data into Microsoft Access, and from there you can pretty easily (with VBScript) perform systematic manipulations of the data that are custom-tailored to your need. Personally I find dealing with data in Access pretty much the bee's knees as long as you don't struggle with trying to creating custom user interfaces (forms, etc.) for all of it (which is where Access at first appears convenient but quickly becomes burdensome).

Just as an example, here is some sample VB code that goes over a given table (the equivalent of an Excel worksheet), extracts the data from certain fields, does something with them, and then outputs everything into a new field:

dim rst as DAO.Recordset

dim runningTotalOfJohns as Integer;

set rst = CurrentDB.OpenRecordset("SELECT * FROM myTable")

while not rst.eof

if rst("name") = "John" then runningTotalOfJohns = runningTotalOfJohns + 1

if rst("name")="John" and rst("birthday")="09/12/2008" then

rst.edit

rst("message")="happy birthday, John!"

rst.update

end if

rst.movenext

wend

rst.close

As you can probably grasp, this gives you a lot more control over dealing with the data and allows you to express your intentions in a much more logical fashion, rather than making dense little lines like in Excel.

There are other database and code solutions other than Access and VBScript (MySQL is a common free database backend, and you can couple it with PHP and other scripting languages, and there is also OpenOffice.org Base, which is supposed to be a free analog to MS Access, but frankly I find it pretty unusable at the moment), I'm just using it as an example. The point is, this seems to me like the graduation you are talking about in regards to dealing with data—something of this sort. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 23:36, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

I love Matlab and it's well suited to all sorts of data-manipulation problems. Unfortunately, it's also quite expensive. Even companies that have a clear business case for it can be stingy with licenses (he says, with the cynicism of experience). If you're a student, the situation may be better. There are free programming languages like Octave and R that can do a lot of the same things, but I found the Matlab IDE a lot nicer to work in, especially for interactively playing around with arrays of data. -- Coneslayer (talk) 01:46, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Thank you all for your thoughtful comments! ike9898 (talk) 01:49, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Try Stata or SAS. Brusegadi (talk) 09:01, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Funny nobody mentioned it, but I would have thought a natural progession from Excel is SQL. This is data manipulation after all, and SQL was designed to work ideally with two-dimensional data. You can of course work with Access, but if you want to stick with Microsoft, go with SQL Server. I'm an Oracle person myself. SQL is just the tip of the iceberg, it should open you up to a whole new world of possibilities... Sandman30s (talk) 09:11, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Well, that's what I was getting at. The thing about SQL is (in my opinion) you do better to skip most of the "trying to painfully use SQL to do everything at once" and jump to the "I use SQL as a tool to enhance my programming" which is something a bit different. That reflects my own issues with SQL, though—if you can use basic SQL with a scripting language you can do a million things as once, in a much more comfortable syntax, with only a slight performance hit over doing it all at the same time with raw SQL. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 15:38, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

If you're happy with Excel's performance but just frustrated with how complicated it gets, I'd suggest sticking with it but writing new functions in VBA rather than by combining existing functions directly in the sheet. You'd be able to develop a system of very general and reusable functions, so that when you looked back over your work, you'd see things like getSumOfNormalizedMasses or whatever and know exactly what they did. You'd still have all the convenience and flexibility of Excel. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.86.164.115 (talk) 16:49, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

The problem is that VBA runs pretty slow under Excel, and trying to use VBA with Excel is usually more trouble than it is worth. It's very poorly integrated with Excel, in my opinion—even doing simple things is very tough. By comparison, in Access, the VBA is extremely well integrated, very straightforward by comparison. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 17:48, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

September 13

Wireless in Linux

Hello everyone at WP:RD/C. I am having trouble with my wireless internet connection in Kubuntu/Ubuntu (installed the Ubuntu desktop on Kubuntu KDE4). I am dual-booting Win XP pro SP3 and the afore mentioned. I have encryption on the network so I have a security key. In Win, it asks for the key, I type it in, and everything is good: I'm connected. In linux, however, when it says I need to enter a security key, I enter it and it acts like it's connecting and then pops up and asks again. This is the same key I gave Windows and it connected. Any ideas on what I should do to connect? TIA, Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 00:49, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Did you put in the correct encryption standard (WEP, WPA, WPA2, etc.)? Is it asking for your wireless key or password for your keyring? Does your wireless work with an unsecured network? --antilived^{T | C | G} 02:41, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

I tried all of the encyption standards so yes. It seems to be asking for my key. I don't know if it works with an unsecured network. I haven't had the chance to try that yet. Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 02:49, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Also, just on an off-chance - which encryption algorithm are you choosing? Some of the protocols (WPA in particular, I think) let you choose between (again, I think) DES, 3DES and AES. Most cards will auto-negotiate the encryption - so there again, where do you see "auto-negotiate" in your settings? And what other options are there in the click-box? Franamax (talk) 06:51, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Testing Question

Hai Every one, This is Ganesh, i faced one interview question on Testing.Tell me one bug u found which is high severity,low priority and low severity,high priority?please send me solution —Preceding unsigned comment added by Anjaneyaprasad (talk • contribs) 06:46, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Even if we would help you with what is essentially a homework question (and we wouldn't), we couldn't -- we haven't tested the software in question. (Or, if this is in fact a hypothetical homework question that you're just calling an interview, see "we wouldn't".) -- Captain Disdain (talk) 10:07, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Why the heck are your applying for a job you obviously can not do?--mboverload@ 18:27, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

What could that question possibly be measuring, other than "familiarity with the quirky definitions of severity and priority used in our bug-tracking system"? That's not a skill, that's a trivial factoid you could learn in a few seconds the first time you need to use it. Sign of a narcissistic interviewer who's not really interested in the interviewee's abilities. --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 20:33, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

These terms are widely used and understood in a standard fashion across the software QA industry (largely following a simplifcation of MIL-STD-882), and are adopted as a general schema used in most bug and issue tracking software. It's a basic way of communicating defect information that anyone in SQA should understand; it's no "factoid". -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 22:36, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Ganesh, your question is a bit hard to understand. If you're confused about what "priority" and "severity" mean in the context of bug reports, and you're understandably confused about how a very severe bug could still be a low priority, I'll try to explain that.

It depends on a given company's bug-reporting policy, but generally "severity" simply means how bad a bug is - data-loss is the most severe, crashes are severe, whereas stuff like spelling mistakes or minor screen-formatting problems are generally of low severity. "priority" is a measure of how urgently a fix is needed; priority is often changed by product-marketing or engineering people (in some companies priority is left blank by QA staff and is set by PM or engineering-management).

So how can a serious bug be low priority? Surely fixing crashes and stopping customer data being lost or damaged is the highest priority? Usually that's true (and usually bug severity and priority end up being set to much the same value). But occasionally you get weird ones where that's not true - imagine you're testing a database program, and you get it to crash - but the crash only happens when you enter an impossibly long sequence of keystrokes and will only happen on a specific date in the distant past. You'd probably create the bug with a high priority, but (after examining the exact details under which the crash can happen) engineering might set its priority to low, figuring that it will never actually happen in the field.

Now, conversely, how can a very un-serious bug nevertheless have high priority? Imagine the splash screen of your database program somehow manages to misspell the name of the company that makes it. A simple typo rightly has very low seriousness (it doesn't really cause any harm at all - users can do whatever they want as if the bug wasn't there). But this bug gives the product marketing guys apoplexy - "we'll be laughingstocks", they wail (like they're not already...). So they set the priority to super-high, higher than the dataloss bugs and the crashbugs. So they stamp their dainty marketing-guy feet and furrow their low marketing-guy brows and insist that this bug, however trivial its actual consequences to the user really are, must be the first one fixed.

In most organisations, as a tester, you'd generally just either not set priority or set it equal to severity, as deciding which bugs to fix first is rarely a decision QA makes. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 21:02, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

pluggin

Is there a pluggin like NoScript for IE7? If so where can I get it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.128.190.49 (talk) 06:53, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

I wouldn't be surprised if there is a script for IE7Pro that does this. Nanonic (talk) 15:04, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Firefox/Minefield browser version

When I go to some sites, I see a message saying something like, "upgrade your browser to ie7 or firefox," then it has a like to where I can download them. I use Minefield, the pre-beta version of Firefox, so I am actually ahead of them in technology. I am assuming that they are reading my browser version using some html script/code/thingy. I found where to change the version name in about:config, but what should I change it to (so I can get sites to thing I am using "firefox")? flaminglawyer^c 12:55, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Open about:config. Add a new string entry:

name = general.useragent.override

content = Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008070208 Firefox/3.0.1

This will make your browser identify itself as Firefox 3.0.1.

--grawity 15:25, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Foreign languages in office

I bought Microsoft office 2003 bundled with my computer, and as far as I can remember I did not receive any office disks with it, however I would like to use the foreign language spell checker, which is apparently not installed, and when I try to install the programme just requests the original disks to be inserted. Is there another way to get the foreign language data, or should I have been provided with the disks? 92.10.180.245 (talk) 14:39, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

You would usually get the disks with your computer, even if you have an OEM copy of the software. It's possible that your copy of Office might have been pirated or installed illegally. Try http://office.microsoft.com where you may be able to download what you are looking for. Stifle (talk) 22:31, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

If all else fails - you could download and install OpenOffice - it's free and so are all of the spell-correction dictionaries in a bazillion languages. SteveBaker (talk) 02:47, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Chrome source code size - why so huge?

The recently released Google Chrome (Chromium) source code was recently released and i was shocked at how much space it took up - 1.5GB, that's enormous! I can understand things like webkit are extremely complex but how can a web browser source code take up so much space? It must be mostly text with very little in the way of images, so why so massive? Thanks - a confused amateur programmer -Benbread (talk) 16:47, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

A lot of it is because it doesn't just include the source code for a given package that you need to build chrome, but the entire distribution for something, often including substantive test suites. Included in there is cygwin, a Python (programming language) dist, lighttpd, webkit, ICU (which has a massive distribution), libxml (which has a very substantial test suite). There's 32M of network-cache test data. There's all of Google Gears (which is distributed two large binary files totalling 15M). There's 6M just in unit test data for the V8 virtual machine. There's 330M in webkit layout tests and expected results (including some 4563 test-result PNG files). So you didn't really download the sourcecode for a browser, you downloaded a browser, a couple of dozen major open-source projects, and a huge automated test suite for all kinds of things. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 15:05, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

PHP from the command line (CLI)

Hi y'all. I'm trying to use PHP to create a command line program to run in Terminal on my OSX MacBook. I need it to batch process a bunch of images, and when I've run the code in a browser it works perfectly. But trying to adapt it to run in PHP CLI (command line) has driven me bonkers. In particular, it doesn't seem like any of the GD (Image) functions are supported! I tried looking at the PHP CLI phpinfo information and it doesn't include any image functions there, and even simple things like var_dump(gd_info()); fail ("Call to undefined function: gd_info() in .../crop.php on line 4"). The GD library is not included the "PHP modules" listed when I run php -m from the command line.

So yeah. What do I need to do so that PHP CLI can use the GD library? I haven't really used it as a command line program before. And I really need those image functions (they're the heart of this piece of code). I could re-write it so that it all runs from a browser but this seems like a defeatist approach to it. Anybody have any advice? I haven't been able to find a Google search that enlightened me, and looking over the PHP manual pages relating to both GD and CLI haven't really helped... thanks! --98.217.8.46 (talk) 17:00, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Some more poking around seems to imply that PHP CLI doesn't compile with GD automatically and to get it to work I'd have to recompile all of PHP... which I'm not interested in doing. So a web version of it, it is... ---98.217.8.46 (talk) 19:48, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

I think the CLI and CGI versions of PHP use different config files (php.ini) - one is in Apache's folder, the CLI one is in PHP's folder. You probably need to edit the CLI config to load GD's module. (Just a guess.) --grawity 09:37, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

OS equivalent of mathematica

What free OS alternative do I have to a package like Mathematica?--Mr.K. (talk) 17:47, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Look here: Comparison of computer algebra systems --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 20:18, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

A personal favorite is Maxima. It's not entirely as powerful as Mathematica, but it's a fine product nonetheless. 90.235.16.176 (talk) 09:57, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

The comparison link above doesn´t give further information about which one is equivalent. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mr.K. (talk • contribs) 12:10, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

What do you mean by equivalent? Are you looking for an open-source implementation of the Mathematica language? I'm not aware of any. Wolfram does sell Mathematica for Linux. -- BenRG (talk) 19:23, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

I meant one with so much function, graphical display and with a scripting language (could be Python). Mr.K. (talk) 08:42, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

I'm telling you, Maxima! It's exactly what you're looking for! 90.235.12.16 (talk) 11:18, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

How Can I FAX?

I have a hp psc 1315 all-in-one little printer attached to my home desktop. It can print, scan and copy. It can also FAX, but I understand that pages to be FAXed have to be in a certain format. On my "printers and FAXs" page I have a picture of a FAX machine which is ready, and the properties device name is evidently my modem. I believe it has a driver that works, but I can't send or receive. The device tab page says "send yes, receive auto". Upon trying to learn about this I saw something that said the format of a FAXed page has to be something like *.CO??? but when I try to "save as" a page I only get the options *.htm, *.html, *.mht or *.txt, no *.CO something. I can get a page of a letter I've written to go to the FAX on "printers and FAXs" but I can't get it to go to another FAX machine which I know to be available. My connection to the internet is fast cable DSL which includes my telephone, so phone and desktop computer can both be used at the same time. Please help.Wiki asker (talk) 18:18, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

I don't know about your specific printer, but in general windows views fax machines as printers. It sounds like this has been correctly installed, as you're seeing a "printer" named fax in the printers-and-faxes screen. To send a fax you send a normal print job to that "fax" device, as if it was a regular physical printer. At that point a special dialog pops up, which gets you to enter the fax # you want to send to (I forget, and it varies, but I believe it also asks you a bunch of other stuff, and optionally generates a simple fax cover page). Give that a try. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 19:53, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for replying so quickly Finlay. I can generate a cover page with the special dialog, I had made my FAX "printer" the default, and hit send. I know the FAX machine I am sending to is OK but I get the error message "Phone in use or not connected". It keeps trying every 5 minutes until I delete the message in the FAX console outgoing folder.Wiki asker (talk) 12:22, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

That sounds simply as if it's not plugged into the phone line. The fax port on the fax machine has to be plugged into the voice port on your DSL microfilter (not the broadband port). Try getting it to dial your mobile phone; if it can't make your mobile ring, it's not connected to the analog phone line properly. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 12:27, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

HI Finlay I'm back. I think you are right. I created a cover letter and sent it. I got a small pop up window labeled FAX Monitor which said "Ready to send FAXes" I clicked "send now". It says "Keep this dialog visable at all times check box, Hide, Answer, More/Less; I got: 8:37 Dialing (number) 8:37 No dial tone The phone is in use or not connected. My cell phone is sitting on my desk right next to me and turned on and working and not in use.It's not ringing. Since it gave me the option to answer an incomming FAX I tried "Answer now" just to see what would happen. I got: 8:37 The call was answered 8:37 An error occurred while receiving the FAX I know nobody was sending me a FAX. Since I only have one line from my computer to the modem now and that must be going to the broadband port, how can I make a new line and have only FAXes go to that line? I have a landline phone connected to the modem and I could pull that plug out and plug something else into that receiving hole in the modem but where would the other end of that line go? and what's a DSL microfilter? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Wiki asker (talk • contribs) 13:01, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

A microfilter is a little box that plugs into your phone socket and that splits off the signal for the DSL from the ordinary analog phone line. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 14:33, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

If I were you, I would avoid Windows Fax. It's notoriously buggy. Fax machines are kind of buggy, too. I happen to still have a dial-up modem inside my computer, so I could hear it dialing when I would fax someone. I sent a few faxes, and Windows would often display a confirmation page. But it turned out that they actually weren't going through. Other times it would keep trying to reach the fax machine, and I didn't know if it was my machine or their's (it was usually a problem on their end). So if you have a lot of money, you might want to buy a fax machine.--Welcome Home Cover 56 (talk) 15:06, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

He did, he bought an hp psc 1315, which is a fax machine (among other things). Wiki asker: make sure you really have that analog line connected to the appropriate port on the HP, not on your PC or broadband modem. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 15:09, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Hello Welcome Home Cover, Welcome to the conversation. I found the DSL filter little white box. It has two holes on end A and one on end B. On end A, one line goes to the phone outlet on the wall and the other goes to the phone. On end B the only wire goes to the modem. There is another line from the modem to the PC and another line which goes from the PC to the hp printer. It appears that having the "FAX printer", which has as it's device name the modem, and also having a "printer" which has as it's device name the hp 1315 means that FAXing doesn't actually use the hp at all, so how can it be a FAX machine? I think if the FAXing were working I would hear a dial tone and the other phone ringing, which I don't, so maybe it has something to do with the driver? I think I read somewhere that the incoming and outgoing "letters" are stored in a regular folder, but the FAX console looks just like Outlook Express format. So far I'm just trying to send a cover letter, sending a message and receiving comes next.

The hp printer only has two openings, one goes to and from the PC and the other suplies power from the wall. Also, people who have FAXes have a seperate phone number just for their FAX. I use the same line for both the landline telephone and the PC? If I bought another machine just to do FAXing how would it get messages to and from the PC? I think I could us my PC to send and receive FAX messages just like e-mail.Wiki asker (talk) 19:07, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Your printer doesn't support fax at all, at least not mentioned on the specifications. It seems that you have a modem installed on your computer, so you should plug the phone line into the back of your computer instead. --antilived^{T | C | G} 22:28, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Since there have been serious responses, I feel obliged to link: Dragnet (series) 98.169.163.20 (talk) 01:54, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Storage

Question was dual-posted at Science desk. Redundancy removed, existing answers teleported. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 19:52, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

September 14

Videos from Picasa2

How do I put videos on youtube from picasa? and I don't mean the picture slideshows, i mean the actual videos that I filmed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.119.61.7 (talk) 00:26, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

You don't use Picasa, that's how. Just go to Youtube, choose the upload function, and find the file on your harddrive. Why would Picasa be involved? 24.76.161.28 (talk) 23:40, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Dragging Messages in Windows Live Mail

Hello. When I drag sent messages into a folder within Windows Live Mail and log out, the same message appears in the Sent Items folder as if I never moved the message. I would have to redrag that message into the folder to have it there permanently. How should I fix this? Thanks in advance. --Mayfare (talk) 04:33, 14 September 2008 (UTC) I don't use Windows Live Mail but in Outlook Express I just right click the message and click "send to" and the folder I want a message to and it's moved. They can come from anywhere to anywhere.Wiki asker (talk) 12:31, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Flickr "all sizes" option

Hi; I've been trying the numerous API 'hacks' to get the full-res versions of this image, this image and this image. Could someone else try to see what I'm doing wrong? :-( Thanks! ╟─Treasury§Tag►contribs─╢ 08:08, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

The article you linked links to Flickr documentation which says that the full-size image uses a different secret from the others. I assume this change was made sometime between 2005 and now to thwart the hackers, and it's no longer possible to get the full-size images without authorization. -- BenRG (talk) 19:17, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Bar (form factor)

I noticed that Nokia handset has different physical structure. Such as slide bar, candy bar. But what can be the exact name of handset that has folding system? Should it be folding bar or something else? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.168.229.245 (talk) 13:23, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Generally they are called Clamshells or flips. Nanonic (talk) 15:31, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

microprocessor

In about 1981, I recall doubling the memory of an Atari ST512 personal computer by placing additinal memory chips on top of the existing chips and soldering the overhanging pins to the pins of the chips below. (It helps to be disparate to do this.) Is there currently a PIC processor which would allow physical stacking in a similar manner to build a multi-processor PIC based computer, cheaply? 71.100.10.11 (talk) 14:14, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

No - definitely not! You have forgotten something about the way the RAM expansion on the Atari ST worked (I know - I did it too!). All of the pins EXCEPT ONE would be soldered together like that - the other had to be wired up to a different address line or something. If you wired up all of the pins together - and the chips were identical then they'd both be given the exact same data and would produce the exact same result...so the two blocks of RAM would contain identical data at all times - which is not very useful. What's needed is to have the new RAM decode to a different range of addresses - and typically you do that by bending up a pin and wiring to a different address line or a different chip-select or something.

This works for RAM chips because they are designed to be "bussed" together - so that each chip's outputs are turned off when it's not being spoken to.

Microprocessors aren't like that - they have lots of outputs (like the ones that talk to RAM for example) that are "always on" and piggy-backing them together results in the outputs of two chips trying to drive outwards at the same time. This is the kind of thing that makes circuits blow up...and that's exactly what would happen if you piggy-backed your PIC chips.

Worse still - back in the days of the Atari ST, chips didn't get very hot (there were no fans in the ST remember!) - mostly because they worked V-E-R-Y S-L-O-W-L-Y by modern standards. Most modern computing devices generate significant heat and they rely on having decent airflow around them. Piggybacking traps the heat from the bottommost chip - and may well be another reason why it would be damaged...although the PIC (being fairly slow and designed for low power applications) may not have that problem.

SteveBaker (talk) 02:33, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Harddrive Crashing?

I've recently (past week) been experiencing quite a few crashes on my computer. Programs, especially Firefox, crash randomly. Pidgin was having some problems with the MusicTracker plugin. Random BSODs too (stop code 0x000000C2 was the most recent). It's a Dell 9300 with Windows XP SP2. It's 3 years old. I tried reformatting and reinstalling Windows, and during the reinstallation, Windows had difficulty copying one file to the harddrive. I don't remember which file it was, but after retrying twice, it seemed to have copied correctly. Could my harddrive be failing? Is there anyway to check? Should I just buy a new hard drive to prevent any data loss? --Russoc4 (talk) 15:43, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

You might be right - but if I were you I'd do a comprehensive RAM test first. It could just as easily be a RAM fault. Try to find a RAM test program that you can boot straight from a CD=ROM direct from the BIOS without loading Windows first - that allows the test to be performed without the Hard drive being involved at all...which makes for a more conclusive test. SteveBaker (talk) 02:37, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Hard drive capacity corruption

I've recently had a problem with my hard drive. Some of the metadata seems to be corrupted (model number, serial number, firmware version, etc. show up with some correct characters and some random "&" "%" ")" characters). One of the things that seems to be corrupted is the capacity. This is a 45GB drive, but shows up as having 6GB under Linux and under most hard drive utilities. It seems to be reporting the wrong number of cylinders(?). However, IBM (the drive maker)'s own DFT program as well as Seagate's SeaTools see it correctly as a 45GB drive (maybe this is because they use LBA or something?). The SMART info seems to indicate that the health of the drive is good; and reading on the first 6GB doesn't show any errors. I believe that the data on the drive is intact and accessible, if I can only somehow convince the operating system to see it as a 45GB drive. i.e. I think that if the OS was convinced to read past 6GB, that it would still work perfectly. Is there a way to somehow override the drive capacity in Linux or other OS, so that I can, for example, use "dd" to copy data off of it, past what it thinks is the end, to a capacity that I specify? Thanks, --71.147.13.131 (talk) 18:59, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

You may find that the cable is not plugged in correctly or that there is noise appearing on it. Make sure that the connector cable is not running too close to other electrically noisy cables in the PC. When I saw this before myself the hard drive was close to failure. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 02:10, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

It's a laptop. The connectors are not extended by wires. --Russoc4 (talk) 02:47, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Did you install the OS recently? Going back and forth "the automatic partition thing" could cause something weird, along the lines of using only the half of the space allocated last time. --194.197.235.221 (talk) 08:08, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Upload

Sometimes when I'm uploading a file somewhere, the site lists me as uploading at speeds which are impossible to achieve. Recently it list me as uploading at 14MB/sec. What gives? --76.29.116.172 (talk) 23:49, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

"The site lists me"—what site? The site you are uploading to, or your browser, or what? --98.217.8.46 (talk) 01:53, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

The site may be telling you how fast the packets of data came in to their machine, and if they have a higher speed link, perhaps 100 meg, then the data may come into them in a burst, particularly if you are uploading a small file. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 02:07, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

September 15

Opening a file via the context menu in Windows Vista

On previous versions of Windows, there was an option to edit how clicking on a file with a certain extension would allow it to open. This option exists under Windows Vista under a program called Default Programs. However, it only allows an edit to change which file it opens on double-click; it completely wipes out any other options available under the right-click context menu.

For example, I have svg files on my system, as well as Inkscape. I had the default to open under Wordpad to allow manual edit, another option to open with Inkscape was added by the said program. But when I told the system to make Firefox the default program (to allow quick viewing), it wiped out all the other options.

Help. Magog the Ogre (talk) 03:27, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Webdesign for dummies

I recently had an idea for a website, but I have limited coding experience and almost no webdesign experience. I won't go into the details of my website because, well, quite frankly I'm sorta paranoid about my idea getting jacked, but in any event after poking around I found Drupal and I think I want to use it to implement my project. Do I need to learn SQL or PHP to play around with Drupal? Should I try to maintain my own local server and database, or can I design the site locally and run it off a hosted server? My old computer is burnt out so I've been thinking of reformatting for use as an Apache server/MySQL database for use in this project, but I don't know if I need to go that far. --Shaggorama (talk) 08:21, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

My (limited) experience is that it'll be handy to learn some PHP with Drupal; that's true for WordPress, where I have somewhat more experience. That said, since you say you have little experience, WordPress has many, many themes (for overall appearance) and plugins (for various kinds of customization), such that you might not need to get into the PHP code, or might be able to get by with examples from WordPress forums. I imagine it's similar with Drupal.

For overall appearance of your site, you can do a great deal with CSS (cascading style sheets). As a simple example, a WordPress theme set the H2 tag as 18point blue italic centered text with 15 pixels of padding above and below. You could edit the CSS to change any or all of those to suit your taste. If you're serious about learning this, I recommend Head First HTML -- there's even a sample chapter at that link so you can see their approach.

I myself would not want to run my own server; hosting is a commodity business, so you have many options that should not be expensive. Again, WordPress.com will give you the specifications that a hosting service would have to provide; some services advertise on the WP site. And for starters, you could begin your site at WordPress.org (though the number of themes is smaller, and you'd still have to pay a bit to have the ability to edit the CSS); later, you could find host companies who will move your mySQL data to a hosted site for you. --- OtherDave (talk) 12:07, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

I've looked into WP and I don't think it's right for my needs. I want my users to write articles, yes, but I want the articles to be associated with both the users and more global categories, sort of like the architecture of a product review site. Could this work within wordpress? I got the impression wordpress is really for straightforward blogging, so I thought Joomla or Drupal would probably be better options. --Shaggorama (talk) 19:50, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Well, as I said, I don't know much about Drupal, and I'm not trying to sell you WP (since it's free). You could give regular writers the ability to write posts (which you could treat as articles) without publishing them (leaving you as the final authority). You can assign both tags and categories to posts. E.g., you could have a category for REVIEW (or one for SOFTWARE REVIEW and one for HARDWARD REVIEW); you could have tags for vendor names or product types (a Microsoft tag, an open-source tag). That means with very little technical knowledge, you could have a site where I can easily find:

• All the articles written by Fred Frack
• All the reviews of hardware (in general)
• All reviews of 4-gigabyte berm divots (assuming you had a category "4-gigabyte berm divot")
• All content tagged "MicroPro," or tagged "office applications," or tagged "predictions."

You can assign more than one tag, and more than one category, to any item. This is not hard stuff; I'm not a computer wizard.

My point is only that there are a number of ways to control how your content appears in WP (and I'm sure in Drupal as well). If I can tell you any more about WP, send me an email. My impression (this is only an impression) is that the administration of Drupal requires more technical knowledge than does WordPress -- but I'm sure some Drupal expert will address that.

One thing you might consider is using either WP or Drupal (are there free Drupal hosts?) to build a small version of the site you're planning. You don't even have to make it public, but messing around with the software will help you see how things work, and will probably give you ideas for how to organize your eventual site. Throw together three dummy pages for each type of content you plan to have, and see if you can link the stuff together. --- OtherDave (talk) 23:56, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Line spacing in CSS

Generally, two paragraphs are separated by one additional line. How do I do single line spacing using CSS?

What I need is:

<p>Line 1</p>
<p><blockquote>Line 2</blockquote></p>
<p>Line 3</p>

There shall be no additional lines between two paragraphs. -- Toytoy (talk) 11:37, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

The p-tag is a block container. It has padding and margin spacing (see "block container" rules on any of the millions of CSS introduction sites). So, you want the rule p { margin:0px; padding:0px; } to ensure there is no margin or padding around your text. -- kainaw™ 12:06, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Roxio Streamer

I'm trying to use ROxio Streamer to stream my videos to my iPod Touch. However, when I try to go to the address it gives me to view my video, the browser says it can't find the page. I tried enabling UPnP, NAT-PMP and TCP but none of those work. I still cant see the webpage for some reason. Please help. --Randoman412 (talk) 11:43, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Perl

What programme do you use to write a perl script, and to run it?

Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.84.118.226 (talk) 12:18, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

That would depend on what operating system you are running. Most Linux distributions come with a Perl interpreter pre-installed, and you could use vi or EMACS or a specialized editor and/or development environment. For Windows, you'd have to install a Perl interpreter and could use notepad. For Macintosh, I dunno. Lots of links in our handy Perl article. --LarryMac | Talk 12:47, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Normally you'd use any old text editor. I like to use vim. I usually run perl scripts from the command line, like this:

$ chmod u+x ./my_perl_script.pl
$ ./my_perl_script.pl

--Kjoonlee 13:35, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Or you could run the script using the perl interpreter.

$ perl ./my_perl_script.pl

--Kjoonlee 13:36, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

vista directory explorer loses IE icon for .htm files

well, that about says it all.... all of a sudden, the vista explorer gives me a blank page icon for .htm instead of the little blue e icon for IE. what did i change just before that? umm... I reinstalled Real player... but the .htm files are still associated with IE, double clicking opens them up in IE; IE itself still has the blue e icon; I tried rebooting, I even tried going into control panel and associating the .htm files with IE again; no dice. ???? any advice will be gratefully appreciated. TIA. Gzuckier (talk) 15:07, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Computer Woes

I can open none of the drive-folders when I double-click the icons in the My Computer window. I use Windows XP Professional SP2. Can anyone help?? 117.194.224.253 (talk) 18:54, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

If you can still open other folders, you should be able to navigate to your drives from there. Type the address of the drive in the address bar of the folder, or you can try right-clicking a folder and selecting "explore" to get a map of your computer, including drives. --Shaggorama (talk) 19:53, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

I ran into a similar problem and found the solution on Microsoft's help site. Your problem may be the same. --Bavi H (talk) 02:23, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Well, now the problem is that when I double-click the icons, the folder opens in a new window, instead of in the old one itself. Help, please. 117.194.227.36 (talk) 11:49, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Compression by generating sequences of data?

You could compress the first billion digits of pi in a normal zip fashion, which would likely generate a large-ish file, or you could compress it down to almost nothing, just a few lines of code to generate the whole sequence, if you knew or discovered the pattern in the input data. So the question is this: is it useful, or even possible, to compress data by looking for patterns and trying to create algorithms that re-create the correct sequence of bits? You don't of course need to generate the whole archive from one algorithm, but perhaps try to identify sections that can be successfully attacked this way. How might this be implemented? Zunaid 19:12, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

As a start I can come up with one "blunt instrument" approach: try many different algorithms (with different parameters) to see what sequences they generate and see if it matches any sequences in the data. This can be sharpened up by starting on sequences in the data that initially look promising by some prior test or knowledge. Zunaid 19:12, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

The problem here is that without prior knowledge of the data, there is an infinite amount of "patterns" you could look for. Generic lossless compression algorithms are relatively crude, they look for one type of "pattern", ie repetition of bits or bytes or sequences thereof, which are then stored with sufficient information to recreate the original data through an algorithm. They work well enough for data commonly encountered such as text, machine code, pictures with large blocks of the same color ... much of the data we use is repetitive by nature. An advantage of this method is that the algorithm to recreate the original sequence can be externalised, saving further space, something that would not be possible with generated algorithms (though this is not so much of advantage on large amount of data). Prior knowledge of the data to compress makes it possible to come up with better schemes (for instance, it would be possible to externalise an "english language" sequencer based on the most common repetitions of characters and words).

Anyway, I digress. What we have here is basically an optimization problem with a very complex solution space. Given the complexity of the solution space, a brute force approach searching for a global optimum is not reasonable. We might however, want to search the solution space for local optima. An appropriate scheme here would be a genetic algorithm, where each individual is an algorithm and the fitness function is a factor of the length of the algorithm and ability to generate data close to the original data (and also to terminate in a reasonable time). This is no simple task to implement, you would most likely want to set up a virtual machine with an appropriate code set (prior knowledge of the data to compress would be very useful here), and the evolutionary scheme of a genetic algorithm is always a tricky part. Both lossless or lossy compression would be achievable. Now of course, there's no guarantee such a compression process would ever produce better results than common compression schemes, and it might take a very very long time to run. Equendil Talk 21:19, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

This is more of a practical approach than a theoretical one: check your sequence against all the ones at the On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences. This isn't really a compression question so much as a math one: "given a sequence of numbers, can one deduce the function that generated them?". I suspect the answer is "no", but perhaps the folks at WP:RD/Math might know better. --Sean 20:28, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

It would work, but it wouldn't be too effective: given the infinite number of potential algorithms, you could never be sure that there was one or not. As a specific example, try finding a pattern in the following base64-encoded data that will let you compress it:

Kln7j02PJpB59GqXW3zoX3fhPNaILd4srZw25cw0hNHtzOjB+lkSd2BQ75AVKjbfc+2ZS0/ODN6j

vgLNRtz9Sq47YvxuE1rJHdznm5SwGJv0ScR14LBPuCx+FoK3i+E+T2LA6dh8YvQz2bsBf8yscExz

EtqmllGnw1ITdn9RwuARTqNcYHTkNJq3cmpGhT6kQdqyrTLtoTjZiz8mif075VpwhJzQCn/YpwBQ

Xuy9Iy2Xp95ooh9Fpp055yjvJyo6lopcMdvbQhROOjZCJ1T35Kofi6QII9F4W2TYLkUt1GOQqnIp

lDmuWaObrjMsyGbdQrBkw211EsmWWzdhgFV2FQ==

(Hint: it's impossible. This is 256 bytes of truly random data.)

--Carnildo (talk) 20:35, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

If only we knew the pattern for pi... It's irrational; I think that means there's no real pattern. So I doubt you could compress it in the manner you're discussing here. --Alinnisawest,^{Dalek Empress} (extermination requests here) 20:46, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

The way to do this is to generate a sequence of algorithms, and test if they make the result. The type of computation is NP complete, or computationally difficult, so you probably cannot use it. For particular applications you could probably improve the compression, eg XML, HTML, English text. In practice you don't often want to compress algorithmically generated sequences like pi to a billion decimal places. And yes there are methods to generate π decimal places. There is a classification of a number in the form of a bit string that asks if the string can be represented by a description shorter then writing out the bits. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 21:13, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

You may be interested in procedural generation. When I was younger, about the era of the 14.4k baud modem (and dinosaurs roamed the Earth), when downloading a few megabyte demo was an all-night affair (and hope your phone didn't get disconnected!), there was a very "demo scene" game that had the look, polish, and engine (more or less) of - let's say, Quake - and the entire thing about about 27kb in size. Every asset was procedurally generated - in playable form, on the order of a few megabytes. Spore (2008 video game) would be a recent, commercial example of this. Now, arbitrary, post-facto, discrete algorhytmic compression? I believe above responders mostly cover it, although for real data, Benford's law may be a bit of a catch. 98.169.163.20 (talk) 01:51, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

There is actually an error in the question. The equation for calculating pi does not in fact expand out to the first billion digits of pi - it expands to ALL of the digits of pi. However, you could fix that by saying how many digits you'd like it to decompress to.

Anyway, we can easily PROVE that you can't compress every arbitary string of data:

1. Let us suppose you could take every possible sequence of N bits (binary digits) and using your algorithm, compress it into something representable in M bits (where M is always less than N) such that you could then take your M bit number and uncompress it again to get the exact same N bit number that you started with.
2. There are 2^N possible N bit numbers. If you took every single one of those and fed each one, individually into your compression algorithm, getting strings that were at most N-1 bits long. You'd have 2^N sets of compressed results - one from each of the possible inputs.
3. However, if the outputs only have at most N-1 digits then we must remember that there are only 2^N-1 possible N-1 bit numbers.
4. Since we got 2^N N-1 digit numbers out of our compressor - but there are only 2^N-1 unique N-1 digit numbers possible - it follows that some of those N-1 digit numbers we got back are actually completely identical.
5. If we take two of those identical N-1 bit numbers and feed them into an algorithm that decompresses them back into their original strings - then there is a problem. How does the decompression algorithm "know" which of those two different N digit strings to produce since it's being fed the exact same N-1 digit string to decompress in both cases?

The answer of course is that it can't. Hence lossless compression of all N digit inputs is flat out impossible - no matter how your algorithm works - no matter how clever it might be.

Knowing that - it can only be that your approach cannot possibly work. However, it clearly does work for some numbers (like PI and e and 0.3333333333333333333...). What that means is it must fail for many other numbers - which leads you to the rather interesting conclusion that if your approach doesn't work - then some numbers are so "random" than every possible equation in any possible mathematical representation must result in an equation that's at least one bit longer than the number itself!

We need a name for these numbers (Darn! "Complex number" has already been taken!)

That's a very cool conclusion! SteveBaker (talk) 02:11, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Also, finding the shortest algorithm that would generate a piece of data is not possible in general, because that algorithm would have size equal to the Kolmogorov complexity of the data, which is incomputable. --71.147.13.131 (talk) 09:15, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Wireless network control

What is a good free replacement to the wireless network control feature in Windows? 79.75.190.211 (talk) 19:21, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Usually computers or wireless cards come with one. It's rarely better though. What's wrong with the Windows one? 24.76.161.28 (talk) 23:36, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

The CAPTCHA problem

I am trying to prepare a pywikipedia bot for use on Catalan wikipedia. I have followed all the instructions, but when I try to login I get the message "wrong password or CAPTCHA answer". I am completely sure the password is correct, but I don't know what the CAPTCHA problem is. I've added the solve_captcha = True to the user-config.py file, to no avail. What should I do to solve this problem? Thanks. Leptictidium (mt) 19:40, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

I'm failry certain that the captcha only appears when you are adding external links, so if that's not fundamental to how your bot works, maybe remove that functionality. Also, the captcha goes away when a user is autoconfirmed, which takes ten edits and four days. Why don't you edit manually using your bot-account for ten edits, and wait a few days :) 90.235.12.16 (talk) 11:03, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

XML comment trick

Hi, when i do a comment in xml instead of <!-- and --> , i just do <!--> on both sides and like that i just copy past it around. Do anyone here used this method also? 212.150.162.66 (talk) 21:55, 15 September 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jobnikon (talk • contribs) 21:50, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Presumably a good reason for not using this is that it makes code harder to read: you can't tell which <!-->s are starts of comments and which are ends. 84.12.252.210 (talk) 13:20, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, just stick to the regular kind. The more standard your XML the better. Easier for other people to read. 195.58.125.46 (talk) 15:02, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

September 16

Processes on start up

How do i stop annoying programs from automatically loading when I start up my computer? for example 'itunes helper' or 'adobe speed launcher' hiding in my processes list. I just don’t want to open at all is there a way to stop them loading? (Other then uninstalling the programs altogether). I am running Vista. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.202.144.223 (talk) 02:44, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

See http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/stop-an-application-from-running-at-startup-in-windows-vista/. --194.197.235.221 (talk) 05:18, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

As a simpler answer: Start -> Run -> msconfig, choose Startup tab when it opens. Basically, if it says 'Updater' in the path, you can generally disable it. jusched is a big one too (the Java auto-updater). Generally you can't mess up too much, though try to stay away from anything that you know is associated with your anti-virus (Symantec, AVG, Norton, long list there). Also, iTunes helper and Adobe speed launcher? Totally unneeded. Washii (talk) 05:51, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Fixed to say "can't mess too much up."

Sweet thanks a lot. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.202.144.223 (talk) 05:54, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

There is actually a better way: msconfig isn't able to stop everything. A MUCH better program is AutoRuns from Sysinternals. It'll show you everything that goes on a start-up and gives you the option to stop it. 90.235.12.16 (talk) 11:13, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Can't install an important Vista update

After installing Vista on a "Vista Ready" HP Pavilion desktop, I downloaded the available updates but got a 643 error on one of them. It turned out to be for Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 Service Pack 1. But the Microsoft download website says this service pack was published in August 2004. If I download this version, wouldn't it clobber any later version of .NET Framework I might have? This is supposed to be an important security update. What do I do? --Halcatalyst (talk) 02:48, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Don't worry about it. It's probably installed in some form already. The Windows Update site is relatively dumb. However, if you'd like to check it anyway, grab the .NET 3.5 Network Installer (or Redistributable) and install that. It should install .NET 1.1 SP1, .NET 2.0 SP1 and .NET 3.0/3.5. You can also grab the .NET 3.5 SP1 installer and run that. Then you can make triply sure they're all up-to-date. Washii (talk) 05:56, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

where do i buy kudzu?

(Moved to science desk -- OP meant plants, not software) --- OtherDave (talk) 10:58, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

internet history

Hi There,

Is there any programme to clean internet history for good.

P.P.80.254.93.170 (talk) 08:46, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

You can clear your internet history for Internet Explorer by clicking tools > internet options, then clicking 'clear history'. You can also clear temporary-history-files within the same area (Tools > internet options > Delete files > tick 'delete all offline content' and click ok), in the same area you can also delete Internet cookies (tools > internet options > delete cookies... > 'ok'). The information should be then pretty much 'deleted' from the view of most everyday people. Clever people could still perhaps access information - and certainly recovery-specialists could potentially get information from your hard-drive, but realistically unless you're doing something illegal/highly dubious the above should be more than enough to remove your history from everyday viewing (i'll assume you are buying a present for someone and don't want them to look at page-history and find a link to the gift selling website...) 194.221.133.226 (talk) 09:30, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Every browser I know of lets you clean out the cache. For something really drastic: (1) save the bookmark file, (2) uninstall the browser (a bit difficult if it's MSIE), (3) install a newer version (there always is one available) of the browser, (4) copy back the bookmark file, (5) tell your parents (if they notice) that you upgraded as a "security measure." That's because "security" always sounds good. (But don't over-egg it with talk about "Islamic extremists" or other piffle too obviously borrowed from US electioneering.) Tama1988 (talk) 09:37, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

I use, [4], just because it's so easy to use... but there's probably some free tools available too for those who know what they're doing with them. It also allows you to see deleted files, which i suppose some people might find useful, i've never used it. - Jimmi Hugh (talk) 09:43, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for your help, the main reason is that I am selling my pc, and I would like to clean it from all internet history,web sites, coockies etc. I don't want anybody sneaking on me, such as, on which web sites I hit.

p.p.80.254.93.170 (talk) 10:36, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

If you're selling your PC, you should wipe the entire hard-drive clean (not just the browser history) using something like Darik's Boot and Nuke. That will remove any trace of what was on there before (and it's free!). Then, if you want, you can just reinstall the OS clean or just sell it without an OS on it. 90.235.12.16 (talk) 11:06, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

I should make something a little bit clearer: Darik's Boot and Nuke will wipe your ENTIRE hard-drive away. I mean, nothing on there will ever be recoverable, and you will not be able to boot it up because the OS has been wiped. So fair warning: if there's anything on there you want to save, be sure to save it before nuking it. And if you want your computer to start again, you'll need a Windows XP Install CD so you can reinstall the operating system (which will also be gone). 90.235.12.16 (talk) 11:10, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

That's a little excessive... unless you think there is a serious shortage of computing power at a Major goverment or scientific institute, the chances of anyone with the ability to recover past a single layer of format and caring about the data they find is unlikely. Windows 98 Boot floppy, "format C:". Sorted, sell it and mention it doesn't have an OS unless you reinstall it. Also, some computers (I love Dell, so they're probably the only ones) come with a reinstall system mentioned in the manual that sets the computer back to the state it was in when you first got it. If you run this, it won't format your drive, so you should run a program like the one I mentioned above or cyberscrub to clean the unused clusters before selling it. - Jimmi Hugh (talk) 12:18, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

I'm under the (possibly mistaken) impression that DOS format doesn't overwrite the contents of the drive even once. If you do a quick format (/Q) it never even looks at most of the disk surface. If you do a full format it tests the whole disk for bad sectors, but I think this is done by reading, not writing. It's easy to recover files from a formatted disk using software like PhotoRec. Probably the most convenient way to securely wipe your C: drive is to install TrueCrypt 5.0 or later and enable boot-drive encryption, choosing a nice long passphrase. You can keep using your computer while it scrambles the disk contents, and in fact up to the moment you give it away. Then you simply power it down and wipe the passphrase from your mind. -- BenRG (talk) 13:16, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

BIOS with embedded OS

Why don't BIOS have an OS embedded? Flash memory is cheap enough and OS like Puppy Linux only have 128 MB....Mr.K. (talk) 10:36, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Some do - SplashTop, HyperSpace (software), and I think Dell are making a few machines with this (whether its their own tech or one of these I don't know). -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 10:42, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Dell's thing is called "Dell Latitude ON" - http://www.engadget.com/2008/08/15/dells-latitude-on-instant-os-detailed-screenshooted/ I don't think they're actually selling it yet. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 10:45, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

The disadvantages out weigh the advantages. While there are some executive system programs being embedded in some BIOS to cover those advantages (resident recovery system etc.), given the longevity of some system's, the constant upgrading of software features and the size of hard drives, there are few good reason's to stick it all in ROM. While you can of course Flash ROM, it still limits the Operating System. Also note, that any speed advantages ever seen from ROM have long gone, and nearly all ROM is now shadowed into RAM before executing. - Jimmi Hugh (talk) 12:13, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

There are versions of Linux that can be burned into a BIOS ROM too. Coreboot (which used to be called "LinuxBIOS") does exactly that. SteveBaker (talk) 13:59, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Camera / memory card

Will this type of memory card work with my camera - a Polaroid I633. If not... what type do I need? Thank you in advance! --Endlessdan and his problem 14:26, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

No. According to that Walmart page (assuming it's correct), the camera takes SD and MMC cards only. That is a MicroSD (actually MicroSDHC) card, which is a smaller version of SD. You can buy adapters, but there's no mention of the camera supporting SDHC; in that case, even an adapter would not allow the card to work. If the camera doesn't support SDHC then what you're stuck with is plain SD/MMC cards. Keep in mind that anything over 2GB is an SDHC card. 24.76.161.28 (talk) 14:46, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

I can't get to the ebay link but based on the title it suggests that the type is 'micro SD'. Based on the information on the walmart link the camera takes an SD Card. These are cheap and available pretty much everywhere. There's no need for you to get micro-SD - although the SD Card article suggests it is possible for micro-sd cards to be used in SD card slots...but there's no point. You can find SD cards everywhere. The listing doesn't say whether or not High-capacity SD cards (SDHC) work so I would get a normal SD Card (say 1gb or 2gb) - that should provide plenty of storage at a reasoanble cost. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 14:48, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Two concerns, one minor

1. Minor issue: Some^[who?] have suggested that using an SD card might give you faster performance. I am not sure about it.

2. Major issue: Most^{[citation needed]} older consumer electronics do not support SD cards with a capacity greater than 2 GB. It might be that your camera falls under that category. As the eBay seller cautions, "Please make sure your devices can support microSDHC, we do not responsible for any compatibility problem." I am sure someone more knowledgeable about digital photography and flash storage will come by to answer your question shortly. However, in the meantime, yYou might want to read Secure Digital card#SDHC . (If your camera does not support SDHC, your only solution would be to get a card of 2 GB or smaller capacity.) Have a great day! Kushal (talk) 14:54, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Thank you everyone for your help. I am a complete clod when it comes to computer junk. So, would this kind of card be okay? I'd prefer a 2GB, but every time I do a search... it comes up with a micro card. Can someone kindly just point me in the direction of a cheap, non-micro 2GB card? --Endlessdan and his problem 15:00, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

I think I found one. I just used -micro in my search. Would this card be suitable for my camera? Again, many thanks. --Endlessdan and his problem 15:01, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

html help for tables

border=" 3px solid #DFFF00" creates a border around all the cracks and crevasses of my table. What can I do make it go only round the very outside. Thanks, html noob --217.227.85.122 (talk) 14:57, 16 September 2008 (UTC)