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November 29

OS X mail application

I've been using Mail.app for e-mail on my OS X machine for ages now but it's been driving me a little batty. Basically it doesn't have any ability to do an "advanced search" -- I can either search by to field, from field, subject field, or entire message. What I want is something quite simple, like search entire message by only those with the right from field (there are a few people in my life who send me a ton of e-mail).

So I've been thinking about alternative approaches. One is to set up a smart mailbox for each of those people who send me a lot of e-mail, and use that as a way of sorting out things (I can limit searches by a given folder). Another is to get another mail client, like Thunderbird. I've never used Thunderbird before, and would want to make sure it could do this. I've searched around a bit and it seems like Thunderbird has more advanced search possibilities but nothing as simple as a single "advanced search" screen like one expects out of search engines. Is this correct?

(I'm so frustrated with mail applications in part because I receive maybe 20 e-mails a day, aka 140 a week or 560 a month, and keeping track of all of them in a major, major issue, and yet the ability to search and sort them is so rudimentary on most of them that I've seen...) --98.217.8.46 (talk) 01:02, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

This is not a solution, but what I have been doing with a similar (but in a MUCH smaller scale) problem of mine is that I rank messages by name of the sender. I have been using Mail as an IMAP client and find it satisfactory for my small-scale use (ALL mailboxes combined have less than 11k messages right now). HTH, Kushal (talk) 14:15, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

Having written all that out I thought I'd try the "Smart folders". They work OK for what I want, in terms of being able to find old messages. They don't really help me stem the tide of things in general (it is still very hard to manage the information flow) but they help for making sense of those few high-volume people. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 17:44, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

Thunderbird has a search window where you can add several criteria and use "AND" or "OR" (but not some AND and some OR) - on my system it's under Edit-Find-Search Messages. I also know some people like to use Gmail because of its simple yet powerful search and "tag" system. Gmail can import messages from other accounts and also use their address when sending. Jørgen (talk) 19:20, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

Since all Mail messages are Spotlight indexed, you can search for mail using advanced Booleans in the spotlight window (and then save a Smart search folder using that criteria). Also check out HoudahSpot [1] which takes Spotlight searches to the next level. --70.130.54.91 (talk) 06:11, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Questions about /etc/init.d/network

Greetings. I have a question about the following section of the network script located in /etc/init.d/network, which I am sourcing from a CentOS system.

interfaces=$(ls ifcfg* | \
LANG=C sed -e "$__sed_discard_ignored_files" \
-e '/\(ifcfg-lo\|:\|ifcfg-.*-range\)/d' \
-e '/ifcfg-[A-Za-z0-9\._-]\+$/ { s/^ifcfg-//g;s/[0-9]/ &/}' | \
LANG=C sort -k 1,1 -k 2n | \
LANG=C sed 's/ //')

While I know the final output of this command, and the resulting variable is 'eth0' and 'eth1' on seperate lines, I am unsure if I exactly grasp what it is trying to do, specifically the regular expression parts. The following is what I grasp from using portions of the command within a shell, however as mentioned before, I am unsure exactly what the regexp portions do.

• LANG=C sed -e "$__sed_discard_ignored_files" - Discards files containing extensions specified within the environment variable which was created when /etc/init.d/functions runs (~, .bak, .orig, .rpmnew, .rpmorig, .rpmsave)
• -e '/\(ifcfg-lo\|:\|ifcfg-.*-range\)/d' - Discards the loopback interface file, and anything with 'ifcfg-' any single character, and '-range'.
• -e '/ifcfg-[A-Za-z0-9\._-]\+$/ { s/^ifcfg-//g;s/[0-9]/ &/}' - Outputs a list of the interface files, in the format "eth #" where # is the interface number
• LANG=C sort -k 1,1 -k 2n - sorts the list with a key starting and ending at 1, then at 2n (at least that's what the manual page for sort says), though in my experimentation, this didn't change the resulting list at all.
• LANG=C sed 's/ //' - Removes the space from "eth #", so it outputs "eth#"

Do I have at least a ruidamentary idea of what these bits are doing? And if possible, might I inquire what the regular expressions are actually doing? Many thanks! ~Sincerely, Dani 137.155.2.27 (talk) 08:15, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

Well...

• The ".*" in the 2nd sed means "0 or more of any character", not "any single character", so /ifcfg-.*-range/ matches anything containing "ifcfg-" and "-range"
• The 3rd sed:
  • is limited to lines matching /ifcfg-[A-Za-z0-9\._-]\+$/, which is any line with "ifcfg-" followed by at least one character out of upper- and lower-case letters, digits, '.', '_', and '-'. That's a pretty inclusive set; maybe it's to ignore lines with spaces in?
  • s/^ifcfg-//g removes the "ifcfg-" (if it's at the beginning, which none of the other regexes have checked for)
  • s/[0-9]/ &/ inserts a space before any digit (substitutes anything matching /[0-9]/ with a space followed by the string matched); this is so that it looks like a different "field" to the sort command
• The sort command looks a bit messed up to me, but what do I know? I think it's trying to sort numerically by the second field - so the "1" in "eth 1" - but that would just be sort -n -k2, or sort -nk2
• The final sed just strips out the space that was put in to make the sort work.

Looks incredibly convoluted for the job to me, but without seeing the directory list it's working on, it's hard to know exactly how to simplify it and keep it working for everyone's system... - IMSoP (talk) 19:47, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

Auto complete data

Where are all the data that are automatically filled in computer forms saved in a computer? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 120.89.115.99 (talk) 18:17, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

That depends on the browser you are using. Most modern browsers will keep it within a configuration folder, normally located within your user's application data folder. --Sigma 7 (talk) 19:21, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

Relative vs. Absolute referencing

Is there any way to reference files and foldres address i.e. paths in a relative way ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 120.89.115.99 (talk) 18:20, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

Are you referring to URLs? If so, I know you can move up a folder or two from an address by typing two dots after a slash: /.. for one level and /../.. for two, just like you would in BASH: cd ../.. or in the Windows command prompt: cd ..\..--Rjnt (talk) 18:30, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

You may also be able to use logical variables defined at the O/S level, like "$WIBBLE_DIR/wibble_executables_subdir". StuRat (talk) 18:54, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

In what context? I know it from html, where relative referencing means relative to where the html file is located. So if you want to link to /z/lyrics/kevin_bloody_wilson/kevin's_court_song.html in an html file that is located under /z/lyrics, then it can be referenced with href="/kevin_bloody_wilson/kevin's_court_song.html". If the file is under /z/dirty_pictures, you could access it with href="../lyrics/kevin_bloody_wilson/kevin's_court_song.html", which first goes up one directory (the two dots that Rjnt mentioned) and then down from there. I hope I got the grammar right, because I'm a bit rusty. Why don't we have an article on relative referencing? DirkvdM (talk) 18:58, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

... presumably because its not called "relative referencing". -- Fullstop (talk) 04:10, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Setiing up a lan with two Suse machines

For a quick answer, skip to the bottom, after the underlined "I got NFS to work as well!"

I want to set up a local network, but can't get find much info on that.
First the basics: I have a pc and a laptop (netbook), both running Suse (11.0 and enterprise desktop 10, respectively), wich are connected with ethernet to a Linksys (wireless) router, which in turn is connected to a modem. Both can access the internet, so that's ok.
This being Linux, I sort of expected it to work instantly. I looked up the address of the netbook in the router and tried to surf there, but Firefox says "Failed to Connect. The connection was refused when attempting to contact 192.168.1.113. Though the site seems valid, the browser was unable to establish a connection." Then it suggested firewall settings might be to blame, so I disabled that on both machines and the router (of course not permanently, just to start with as many obstacles as possible out of the way). That didn't help.
So I searched for more info and found that I had to set certain things in yast > network settings / network card (differs on the two machines). On both machines, I set ifup instead of networkmanager, two separate host names, the same domain name, use dhcp, write hostname to /etc/hosts, activate device at boot time and firewall: external zone. Most of that was already set and most of the rest remained empty. I assumed it was the different domain names that were to blame, so I tried again.
However, the result is the same. Note that when changing from networkmanager to ifup on the netbook, it complained that it could not access installation media, so I skipped two files (from ///usr/share/lang, so I don't think that was important). Another thing is that the netbook has a rather odd device name: eth-id-00:21:85:4f:32:1c, where I expected a simple eth0. When I execute ifconfig, I get a normal eth0, with the 00:21:85:4f:32:1c as HWaddr. So just a different presentation, I presume.
So what am I doing wrong? DirkvdM (talk) 18:42, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

I'm no expert at all, but could the error be that you haven't set up a web server? You say you try to "surf to" the computer, but how does the computer know what to show to the web browser? Have you tried to ping it? (then you'd have to set up file sharing if ping works, I have no idea how to do that on Linux but I'd be surprised if it was difficult) Jørgen (talk) 18:52, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

Good question. A ping from the console gives a repeated line with "64 bytes from 192.168.1.113: icmp_seq=<climbing number> ttl=64 time=0.167 ms", with the time varying around 0.2 ms. A ping from the router gives the same, except with a much slower time of 0.9 ms (surprisingly). In both cases 0 packets lost. I can also do a traceroute in the router, which apart from two administrative lines (30 hops max, 40 byte packets) gives only one line, with three timings around 1 ms. As for 'surfing to the computer', I can also do that with my own computer by surfing to / (root). So I imagined the same would work with another computer if I have its address. DirkvdM (talk) 19:17, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

Dirk, I love linux, and don't particularly enjoy going linux-bashing, but your statement "this being Linux, I sort of expected it to work instantly" in the context of wireless networking, gave me quite a a belly muscle excercise. My knee-jerk answer would be try a wired connection first, but if both computers can access the internet, wired vs wireless shouldn't be the issue. You write ..."and tried to surf there, but Firefox says"..., but as Jørgen points out, you can surf only to websites that have a web server running on the target computer, and you haven't written anything about installing one. I suggest that you install ssh (client and server) on both computers, and try to log into one of your computers from the other using ssh.

Regarding the installation media problem, I have no experience with Yast, but if it complains about not being able to access installation media, I suppose there is a configuration file somewhere that says where Yast should fetch new packages. If that file refers to both CD's and web-based repositories, I would try commenting out the references to the CD's, to force it to immediately go to the web-based repository. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 21:04, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

I am trying a wired connnection. It's a wireless router, but note I say 'connected with ethernet' and I'm talking about eth0. Maybe I should have been a little clearer about that. And I sort of expected it to work instantly because networking is the area Linux is best in, I understand. For example, it sets up an internet connection while installing itself and I understand that with Ubuntu you can even start surfing to find help on the installation process - very handy! Anyway....

Both machines have openssh installed. I understand it's text-based (and I'm no hero in that area). So I type that in and then in the list I see ssh needs a hostname, but when I fill in the hostname I gave the netbook ('Netbook', very originally) I get "name or service not known". All the rest are options. Do I need any of those? Such as [-p port]? I haven't a clue.

But is there no other way? Reading the ssh article - it appears to be developed for secure connections. But I don't need that; I basically want the two computers to act like one. So open a program on the one and then with that open a file on the other? Just like I access a cd or a memory stick (or hd or memory, for that matter)? Why would it have to be different when it's over ethernet? DirkvdM (talk) 09:08, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

ssh is invoked like this:

dirk@Desktop:~$ssh Netbook

I assume your username is the same on both machines, if it isn't ssh needs a username argument:

dirk@Desktop:~$ssh -l DvdM Netbook

If the following conditions are satisfied:

1. both machines can access the internet
2. /etc/hosts is set up correctly,
3. the ssh daemon is running,
4. the router is not doing something weird,

Then this really should work. You have already confirmed condition 1. To check if there is a problem in /etc/hosts, check if this works:

dirk@Desktop:~$ssh 192.168.1.113

I'm assuming 192.168.1.113 is the ip-address of your second computer. (To make sure, type 'ifconfig' on the command line, you'll some lines of output, one of these shows the ip address of the computer). To check if the ssh daemon is running type

ps -e | grep sshd

You should get at least one line of output, that ends in "sshd". If you don't, make sure that you have installed both openssh-server and openssh-client.

The error message you quote from firefox is a bit suspicious. It says that the connection was refused. When I browse to an address that doesn't have a web server running, I get the error message "Unable to connect. Iceweasel can't establish a connection to the server at 127.0.0.1." (Iceweasel is firefox under another name). This could indicate that it is the router that somehow is blocking the connection. I have a Linksys router too, and I see that it has a setting (in the "security" tab) called "Filter Internet NAT Redirection", which is explained as follows: "This feature uses Port Forwarding to prevent access to local servers from your local networked computers." It is unchecked in my router, and I have never tried to see what happens if it is checked, but judging by the description, it sounds like something which could cause problems like those you experience.

ssh is usually quite hassle-free, and I wouldn't recommend changing to some other login mechanism. However, ssh won't make the two computers behave as though they were one. It sounds like what you want to do is to mount directories of the remote computer on the filesystem of your local computer. I believe this can be done, but I haven't tried it, and hope someone else comes along, to explain how that is done. But, for the sake of diagnostics and making sure your setup is ok, you really should get ssh working before proceeding. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 13:58, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

I also thought about somehow mounting the partitions of one computer on the other, but didn't know how until I stumbled upon NFS, which appears to do that. And indeed it seems to work! Well, it might if the mount would not have been owned by root and I can't find a way to open a root browser to change the permissions. Aaaargh! A problem I encountered several times before: how do I open a program as root? Anyway, as you say, I should be able to get ssh working too.

"ps -e |grrep sshd" gives a line on the pc (3120 ? 00:00:00 sshd), but not Netbook. But on Netbook in software management I see that openssh is installed, and the summary says "secure shell client and server (remote login program)", so that seems to be ok. When I look for sshd it gives no results. Is that a problem? When I try it the other way around, from Netbook to the pc, after a minute or so I get "ssh: connect to host 192.168.1.103 port 22: Connection timed out".

Btw, what do I get when I get ssh to work? Do I get to control the other machine from the command line? Like I said, I don't know my way around that. And the things I do know take forever, even though I can type blind fairly fast. By the time I have gone down 10 levels in the dir hierarchy I've forgotten what I was looking for. :)

Still, for completeness: The user names are not entirely the same on both machines; on Netbook it's not capitalised. But neither 'ssh dirk@Netbook' nor 'ssh -l dirk Netbook' works. In both instances I get "ssh: Could not resolve hostname Netbook: Name or service not known". When I try the ip address, I get "ssh: connect to host 192.168.1.113 port 22: connection refused". And in the router, the 'filter internet NAT redirection' is not checked. The other three on that page are. DirkvdM (talk) 18:57, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

(outdent)

I'll answer your questions as systematically as I can. Quotes from your previous posts are in italics:

Regarding the ssh daemon on the target machine: When I look for sshd it gives no results. Is that a problem?

• If "ps -e | grep sshd" on the netbook gives no output, that is indeed a major problem. If sshd is not running on the host (Netbook), ssh from the desktop won't be able to make a connection. I'm puzzled that it isn't running when it is installed. To force it to start, you would type "/etc/init.d/ssh start" on a Debian-based distro. I don't know if it's the same in suse.

How do I open a program as root?

• From the command line:

su # su will prompt you for root's password, and you'll be logged in as root
then type the name of the program, with a complete path if necessary.

Alternatively

sudo programname_with_path_if_necessary # provided sudo is installed.

I don't know what the xauth setup in suse is like, but you might get problems with gui programs using the first method, and not with the second. If you run into problems with the display not being accessible, the easiest solution is to install sudo if it isn't installed, add your username using visudo (copy the permissions of root), and use the second method.

When I try it the other way around, from Netbook to the pc, after a minute or so I get "ssh: connect to host 192.168.1.103 port 22: Connection timed out".

• This one has me stumped. It indicates that the address is valid (otherwise you would have gotten the error message "no route to host"). It also indicates that sshd is running (otherwise you would have gotten "connection refused"). You have also confirmed on the target computer that sshd is running. What you should be seeing, is a prompt for the password of the username that sshd on the target machine thinks you are intending to use. Since there is a difference in usernames, remember the -l option. But even if you try to log into an account that doesn't exist, you should be prompted for a password.

Btw, what do I get when I get ssh to work? Do I get to control the other machine from the command line?

• Yes, exactly.

Regarding the differences in user names: The user names are not entirely the same on both machines; on Netbook it's not capitalised. But neither 'ssh dirk@Netbook' nor 'ssh -l dirk Netbook' works.

• To keep the number of things that could go wrong to a minimum, I would stick with ssh -l correctly_capitalized_username_on_target_machine ip-address.

You write (when connecting from desktop to Netbook): In both instances I get "ssh: Could not resolve hostname Netbook: Name or service not known".

• Please doublecheck /etc/hosts on the desktop machine. The error message says that the desktop is unable to translate the name Netbook into an ip-address. And as said above, stick with ssh'ing to the ip-address until at least that works.

Regarding router settings: And in the router, the 'filter internet NAT redirection' is not checked. The other three on that page are.

• That is the same setup that I have.

Regarding "browsing" to the target computer, you wrote : Well, it might if the mount would not have been owned by root and I can't find a way to open a root browser to change the permissions. And above: As for 'surfing to the computer', I can also do that with my own computer by surfing to / (root). So I imagined the same would work with another computer if I have its address.

• If you type "ftp://192.168.1.113" in the address bar of firefox, you should get a prompt for your username and password on the netbook. If /etc/hosts were setup correctly, "ftp://Netbook" should have the same effect. root access using this method might be disabled, but you should be able to log in with your ordinary username. You will then see the files of your home directory (and its subdirectories) only, not the root directory. You can get around that by creating a softlink to the root directory in your home directory. However, mounting the filesystem is probably what you want to achieve. AFAIK there are three methods, NFS, Samba and sshfs, but as I wrote above, I haven't tried this (although I have made a directory tree on my linux server accessible from the windows machines in my network using Samba).
• When you write that NFS appears to work, but that there is a problem with permissions, what exactly is happening? Are you able to mount the filesystem on the netbook as read-only? And which username on the remote computer (netbook) are you using?

Regrettably, linux programs don't always work out of the box, but ssh using a wired connection is one of the things that really ought to work. There appears to be at least three issues: (1) your desktop is unable to translate "Netbook" to the correct ip address. (2) sshd is not running on the netbook. (3) something is blocking the ssh connection from the netbook to the desktop. The last one is what's bothering me most. That same "something" might also block the connection the other way once you sort out the other issues. I can think of only two possibilities, a router setting, and a software firewall. Here (ubuntu) and here (suse) are threads that discuss similar problems, that might be helpful. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 22:27, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

If all I get with ssh is a command line, then it is not for me, I suppose. Still, I can't stand it when something doesn't work, so I tried a little more. Here's the results, but if that doesn't give you a clear hint, then let it be. I'll try NFS instead.

When I said that when I look for sshd I get no results, I meant in the software manager. That that gave no results is odd, since 'which sshd' (one of the commands I remember because it can be extremely helpful) gives me /usr/sbin/sshd (and ssh is in /usr/bin/ssh, so without the 's'). So it is installed, but the software manager does not know about it?? Anyway, I typed '/usr/sbin/sshd start', which results in 'Extra argument start'. No idea if that is good or bad. So I tried the ssh command with the other machine's ip address on both machines, but with the same results.

On both machines, in the network settings, 'write Hostname to /etc/hosts' is checked (which was the default). On both, in etc/hosts I don't see 192.168.1.1x3 (or anything like it) and the machine's name only in the last line, behind the address 127.0.0.2 (actually two entries there, the other being the machine name followed by a dot and the group name (which of course is the same on both machines)). So I tried connecting to that ip address (I know nothing, so I'll try anything), but now the connection is refused.

When I try ftp, on the pc I get "Failed to Connect. The connection was refused when attempting to contact 192.168.1.113." And on Netbook the connection times out.

About starting a gui as root from the command line - I already tried that by typing 'Konqueror' in a root console, which didn't work. And when I look for it with 'which Konqueror' it tells me it can't find it (in the standard paths). But it is installed. What I really want is to be able to switch to root within Konqueror. In 'properties > share' there is an option to login as root, but that doesn't work. And now the computer freezes on me. This is the sort of thing that made me switch to Linux (never crashed on me once in three years, except for X once or twice), but strange things happen with this computer. Either this Suse version (enterprise desktop) or the computer is buggy. I hope it's the former, so I can install a better version, but fear it's the latter.

Anyway, with NFS, I can view everything on the pc now, but it is mounted as root. Ah, of course, I ran the whole thing as root, so I should have done that as a normal user. Silly me. But I'm very tired now (been a very long day at work), so I'll do that first thing tomorrow. Thanks for your patience with me so far. :) DirkvdM (talk) 20:08, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

First, yes - ssh does give you a command line, but it does a lot more behind the scenes in various protocols, to make connections work smoothly. I definitely recommend not giving up. The problems you experience do not suggest a "buggy" machine to me (i.e. a machine with deficient hardware). These are setup problems, and to use linux efficiently, you need to be able to handle such tasks, even when they involve a little command line work.

I'm not familiar with software management on Suse, but you need to make sure that the ssh server is installed and running. Google found this, which to me suggests that it needs to be installed and/or configured in your setup. If the software manager of Suse is anything like its gui counterpart in Debian-based distros (Synaptic), then searching for a package name will show it, with an icon indicating whether it is installed or not. The package containing sshd is called openssh-server, not sshd, at least in Debian. Googling also tells me that there is a software firewall in Suse, and I strongly suspect it to be the culprit when a connection is refused an attempt to make a connection times out. The second link in my previous post gives (hopefully correct) instructions as to how to make sure ssh connections are allowed in Suse. Here is another link that appears to be relevant to your problems. It says that you start sshd in Suse simply by typing its name, without any arguments. Thus the "start" argument was superfluous, hence the error message. And it doesn't take ip-address arguments, it sits there and waits for incoming connections. That's the sort of thing daemons do.

If there's no mention of the 192.168.1.1x3 guys in /etc/hosts, there's simply no way you can access the other computer by its name. There may be a menu-driven way to do this, but the easiest thing to do would be to edit /etc/hosts by hand. Easy - that is - if you use a console based text editor (like vi, emacs or nano). You'll need to be root, and will probably run into the x-authority hassle I referred to above if you try to start a gui editor like kwrite as root. You can probably get around that by using sudo if that is installed, se above. (A google search for disable xauth gives 35,000 hits - on a secure network xauth is a true PITA).

Your /etc/hosts file needs to contain lines similar to these, taken from the /etc/hosts of my desktop (pluto):

127.0.0.1	localhost
127.0.1.1	pluto.Mydomain  pluto
192.168.3.49	atlas.Mydomain  atlas

127.0.0.1 is the loopback virtual network interface, a generic ip-address that your computer can use to access itself. The second one, 127.0.1.1, is something similar, as is your 127.0.0.2. It is the line beginning with 192.168.3.49 that tells the desktop that atlas (my server) is a synonym for 192.168.3.49.

Regarding "which Konqueror" failing, linux is case-sensitive, remember? And I'm pretty sure konqueror shouldn't be capitalized. Try "which konqueror", and I expect you will find it, probably in /usr/bin.

Hope this helps! Don't give up. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 22:14, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

(alternating indent)

On the pc, yast has an sshd server configuration, but on the netbook it hasn't. Also, many things work differently on the netbook, which can be very confusing. Yet another reason to do a new installation. But it has no dvd player, so I'd have to buy an external one first. Or install from hd, which brings me back to copying from the pc. Possibly with NFS But first look at ssh once more.

In sshd configuration on the pc, 'supported ssh protocol versions' is set at '2 only', which I changed to '2 and 1', as on the page you linked to. The rest is the same as on that page.

I am sure I had stopped the firewall on both machines and the router, but now it is active again on the pc. So disabled it and tried again. Now I get "The authenticity of host 192.168.1.103 can't be established" Then it tells me the rsa fingerprint and asks me if I want to continue. So sort of a snag, but it seems to work. To see what was the cause, I say no, change ssh protocol to '2 only' and try again. And I get the same. So it was the firewall? I'm very sure I disabled it. Except I did that not in yast's 'security and users > firewall' (as I did now), but in the network card setup. Are there two firewalls or do the two entries conflict (which would be stupid, although I've seen something like that before)? Ok, so now I do 'ssh 192.168.1.103' again and say 'yes' and then it tells me it permanently added that address to the list of known hosts, but then 'write failed: broken pipe' and back to the prompt. Damn.

You're right, I should have written 'konqueror' without capitalisation. So now I can find its location and start it. But then it turns out it is mounted read-only, which means I can't change ownership, but also not permissions. Not even as root!? I suppose I need to change fstab, but I'm only vaguely familiar with that. The relevant line consits of source dir on the pc, the mount point and then 'nfs defaults 0 0'. How do I change that to mount it as a normal user ('dirk')? Or do I need to do that in some other way?

This very simple operation (or such I imagined it would be) has now consumed many hours of my precious time (almost two full days now) - I also try to lead an offline life (no, really), and I have quite a lot of things to do recently (such as shopping now if I want to eat this evening :) ). So I'll have to leave ssh (for now) and use NFS. Could you help me with this last bit? (which I hope it will be). DirkvdM (talk) 13:33, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Damn, I thought I had it. http://www.troubleshooters.com/linux/nfs.htm looks very handy. I haven't read it completely yet (and it's too late to do that tonight and tomorrow I'm working), but it seems that all that is needed is /etc/exports on the server and /etc/fstab on the client. So in the former (on the pc) I changed 'ro' to 'rw' and to make sure restarted it and on the netbook switched to root (log out and back in - first time I found a use for that) and executed mount -a. Then I tried to change ownership for the dir mounted over nfs. But still I don't have permissions to do that. Btw, I should change to user 'dirk' and group 'users', right? Not that that matters yet, because I get 'access denied'. Hold on, I can't get even view anymore. That is, I can view the dirs directly under the mount point, but no further down. All firewalls are down, so that's not it. I can't think of anything that is different from when I viewed them before except the change in /etc/exports on the pc. Oh, headache....

Btw, I had a look at your userpage and now you're NorwegianPurple. :) DirkvdM (talk) 19:33, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

(ec: I wrote the paragraph below before reading your last post, the old version of the page must have been cached)

Well, at least now we have a complete diagnosis:

• The reason why you couldn't connect from the PC to the netbook, was that there was no ssh server on the netbook.
• The reason why you couldn't connect from the netbook to the PC, was that the connection was blocked by the PC's firewall.
• In addition, you couldn't connect using the names that you had given your machines because these had not been written to /etc/hosts.

The first time you connect to a new host with ssh, you get the message "The authenticity of host 192.168.1.103 can't be established", you're shown an rsa fingerprint, and are prompted whether you want to continue. This is normal behaviour. If you are making a connection between two of your own PC's you can safely answer yes. The client then saves this information about the host, and uses it as part of the verification process when subsequent connections are made. If everything works when you use ssh protocol 2 only, this is the safest setting (see the article).

I googled error the message 'write failed: broken pipe' in the context of ssh, and found two suggestions: (1) you have permitted ssh connections in the firewall on the PC, but not in the firewall on the netbook. (2) Using ssh protocol 1 (or "1 and 2") might resolve this issue.

You repeat that the netbook has no dvd player, and that this prevents you from installing packages. I addressed this above when I wrote: I have no experience with Yast, but if it complains about not being able to access installation media, I suppose there is a configuration file somewhere that says where Yast should fetch new packages. If that file refers to both CD's and web-based repositories, I would try commenting out the references to the CD's, to force it to immediately go to the web-based repository.. Did you try that, and if so, what happened?

I'll comment mounting of an NFS disk on your talk page.

--NorwegianPurple ^talk 20:26, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

GOT IT! Well, sort of. A new thing I tried (leaving out as many things as possible that can get in the way) was to make a direct connection, without the router. I also logged into the netbook as root to avoid permission problems. And when I type 'ssh 192.168.1.103' I get prompted for the password. I used the root password (because I specified no user) and I'm in! At least I can surf around the hd's. But now comes the problem I mentioned earlier: I have precious little experience with the command line. Only system administrative work. I tried viewing a text with '/usr/bin/firefox lamp.html', upon wich I get 'Error: no display specified'. So I tried a copy with 'cp lamp.html /home/dirk', but of course that refers to the pc, not the netbook. So why did I not get an error, without a capitalised 'd'? Well, I forgot the trailing slash, so now I have a copy of that file under /home with the new name 'dirk'. Which goes to show my point. I know enough to figure this out, but with my lack of knowledge even the few things I know how to do I still do wrong. And I really don't have the time now to learn working with the command line. As long as the grammar is logical I can figure it out (that's what I'm good at in general), but I lack everything but the most basic knowledge.

In the ssh man file I read something about X11 forwarding, which I don't follow. Can I access the remote computer with a gui using this?

But one thing I really want to know now, even if nothing else works, is how to copy from the pc to the netbook (and later vice versa, I suppose). That would help me a lot. Now that I'm logged into a remote computer, how do I refer to the computer itself? I tried 'cp lamp.html 192.168.1.113/home/dirk' and the same with 127.0.0.1, but neither works (cannot create regular file .... no such file or directory).

Btw, I also tried 'ssh -l Dirk 192.168.1.103' after I logged out and back in as a normal user and that works. So I won't have access problems after I have copied files.

ftp://1092.168.1.103 still doesn't work. Nor with just plain the address (the very first thing I tried)

Inserted by NorwegianBlue: There's a typo in the url above, but I'm sure you typed the correct address when trying this out. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 19:59, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

And now something astounding. I sometimes try something I know won't work, but then what do I know. I made the connection through the router again, with the remote login open, and tried navigating though the pc. And it works! So somehow the router gets in the way of setting up the connection, but not after that. Weird. Or is it?

Exciting new attempt: set up the firewall on the router. Still works. Firewall on the pc back up. Still works. I even started the firewall on the netbook for the first time. And it still works. Next test: close the connection and try again. Damn, doesn't work. Times out. Anyway, I can make a connection, even if it's not in the most convenient of ways. And that's the main thing.

Lunchtime. I'll look at my user page for what you wrote about NFS in an hour or so. DirkvdM (talk) 10:40, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

• I'll be back later tonight, but just a clarification: you wrote: "I made the connection through the router again, with the remote login open, and tried navigating though the pc. And it works!". I didn't understand exactly what you did. Did you unplug and replug some of the wires, or what? Could you please have a look and doublecheck which wire goes where, and explain exactly what your setup looks like? I imagined it was something like this, the names in parentheses are the labels on the connections on the router:

                               Linksys router
                              +-----------------------+
 broadband_connection ------> |(uplink)               |
                              |                       |
 PC 192.168.1.103 ----------> | (1)                   |
                              |                       |
 Netbook 192.168.1.113 -----> | (2)                   |
                              |                       |
                              | (3)                   |
                              |                       |
                              | (4)                   |
                              +-----------------------+

Is this what your setup looks like? What did it look like when you made a direct connection, and what did it look like when you switched back to going through the router again, while leaving the connection open?

• You don't use ssh to copy files, you use its cousin sftp, which is part of the openssh package (at least in Debian). Have a look at the manpage. If you have a connection where you're able to use ssh (whatever the wiring looks like), you type sftp 192.168.1.103. You get a prompt, in which you among other things can type "help". I'm not on a linux machine now, so the following is from memory: it accepts "dir" and "ls" (which are more or less synonymous) to show you the files of the remote machine. To copy a file from the local to the remote machine you use "put". There's also an "mput" to put multiple files using wildcards in the filename, and a command "prompt", which toggles whether you'll be prompted or not between each file in an "mput". To copy the other way, you use "get" and "mget". You can move between directories, I'm not sure if the command is "cd" or "chdir". You can delete and rename files. If you want to change the working directory on the local machine, the command is "lcd". To see the directory on the local machine: "lls" or "!ls". Preceding something with an exclamation mark, means that it will be executed on the local machine, and typing an exclamation mark only, lets you escape to a local shell, from which you can return to sftp by typing ctrl-D or "exit". And finally there are the commands "ascii" and "binary". If you are transferring between two linux machines, you should use "binary" (I think that's the default, but I'm not sure). If you are in ascii mode, you'll get a carriage return character inserted before every linefeed character, something which would ruin a binary file. The striked-out commands are not used by linux sftp, but by windows ftp. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 15:47, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

I'm on the linux box now, so I've made a couple of corrections above. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 19:59, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Re your question: In the ssh man file I read something about X11 forwarding, which I don't follow. Can I access the remote computer with a gui using this? The answer is "yes", but you won't be able to drag-and-drop files or anything unless you mount a directory tree of one of the computers in the file system of the other. What happens is that you start a shell, which is able to spawn new gui processes that run on the remote computer, but use the screen of the local computer. When I first met unix (in 1990), remote X was real easy. However, this was in the good old days, when there were only good guys on the internet. So they had to make it more secure, and I don't think you'll want to spend the time it will take to learn how to make a modern implementation work. I addressed exactly this question in a previous post. If file transfer is what you want, I think you'll be happy using sftp. Once you solve the technical issue that's blocking the connection, it'll be real easy. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 19:59, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

See at the very top, the second line, starting with 'first the basics'. Indeed, I have a setup as you drew it (except with Netbook in 4, but that immaterial, I suppose). Then I took the netbook plug out of the router and plugged it into the pc. For which I had to unplug that too, because it only has one ethernet connection. In that setup the ssh connection worked. And then I put it back the way it was and it still worked to my surprise. It's a workaround, but provided I don't have to do this too much it will serve the purpose. However, more good news:

I got NFS to work as well! This means I can work with a gui, which is much more convenient. Just in case you wish to do this one day, and of course for other readers, here's how I got it to work:

On the server (the pc), go to yast > network services > NFS server. Firewall open on all interfaces, accept the defaults. In the next window select the partition (or whatever part of the filesystem) you want to mount. Then when you get shown the options, change 'ro' to 'rw' if you also want to be able to write to the partition. Now, on the client maybe first make a dir under which you wish to mount, then go to yast > network services > NFS client. Click 'add' and enter respectively the ip address (or name, if that works) of the server, the partition you just selected on the server, the dir under which you wish to mount that and leave the 'defaults' options as they are. Possibly do the same for more partitions (which you must then also have set up first on the server) and click 'ok'.

Some mistakes I made: I wanted to mount (on the client) partition 7 on hd S500. On the server, I have that mounted on /z/S500_7. So the thing to do was select that and any other partitions I wish to remotely mount. On the client, make a /z/ dir somewhere (as a normal user, to avoid access restrictions) (not sure if this is strictly necessaary), then open the NFS client setup and there do the chore for every single partition. But I have 11 partitions, so I tried to mount /z/ and get it over with in one go. Which doesn't work because it is not a 'physical' partition. Am I saying that correctly? Another mistake I made was to edit a file remotely, open it on the server to check if it had worked, jump around the room in excitement because it had, forget to close the file on the server, do some more experimental stuff, try editing again and notice it opens read-only. Bummer. Until I realised I had left the file open on the server. Makes sense that I can't edit it then, of course. I also wonder if mounting the same partition (or part of it) on different locations on the client is a problem. That should work, I suppose, but can also be an invitation for complications.

In short: I am satisfied now. I can copy files from the pc to the netbook. Thanks a lot for your help! DirkvdM (talk) 19:19, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Well done! It's been a pleasure, and I'm glad you persisted. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 20:38, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Cellphones in the United States

Hi, I'm going to stay in the US for some time, and am looking to have a local cellphone number, and, in the longer run, buy a new mobile phone. However, I'm not used to the American cellphone/calling market structure. I would appreciate if anyone could help me with answers to some of the following:

1. Can I go into a shop and buy a prepaid SIM card that I can just put in my phone and call instantly? Will I pay a high markup over the minute / SMS fees to get this? (my phone is not locked to anyone and is GSM1900 compatible)
2. Do "minutes" on the operators' web sites refer both to calls placed by me and calls received? What should I assume about SMS if nothing is said about that?
3. Is it economically feasible to buy a cellphone without at the same time signing up with a new operator (and promising to stay with them for some time)?
4. In particular, can I get an iPhone and use it without paying for an expensive AT&T subscription?
5. Is there any website comparing the prices and entry costs for various operators?

Thank you! Jørgen (talk) 19:00, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

2. Usually they mean all minutes, called and received. The best thing to assume about cell phone terms is the best possible definition for the company. Cell phone companies are rather rapacious out here.

4. Not officially. Unofficially you can "unlock" it. (see IPhone#SIM_Lock_removal).

Only ones I know the answer to, sorry! The American system is slanted very heavily towards year-long contracts, as you probably know. If you will be here for around a year, it's best to just do one of those. For less amount of times, there will probably be a trade-off between prepaid and contract service. Specifics no doubt vary from carrier to carrier. US cellphone system sucks. :-( --98.217.8.46 (talk) 19:34, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

Look at the amount of time you'll be using it, or at least try to guesstimate it; if it's very little, a tracfone (sp?) might be advantageous, as you pay a very small fee compared to a yearly contract plus phone bill. You simply buy extra minutes when you need, I think. You might be out the contract amount if you don't stay a year, but you won't have used as many minutes.209.244.30.221 (talk) 19:39, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

With a Tracfone, you don't have any subscription. You buy the phone and then go to a store like Walmart and buy a phone card (check to make sure it's the right one, though!). Then I'm not sure of the process, but you have to put in the pin number on the card and it will unlock the minutes on your phone. Very easy and very good if you aren't going to use as many minutes as on a normal plan or won't be there as long as a contract would want you to be. EDIT: also, it's cheaper because you ONLY buy minutes you need. 24.180.87.119 (talk) 23:31, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

Since we're talking about brand names here, I'll throw my 2¢ in about T-Mobile pre-paid. I believe it's the cheapest of the pre-paid. There's no daily "Access Fee" if you use the phone or not. Normally the service is 25¢ a minute and they expire in 90 days. But if you buy more than $100 in minutes at once, the prices plummets to 10¢/min and they expire in a year. I don't think any other pre-paid service can beat 10¢ a minute. Technically any phone can be made pre-paid by a T-Mobile service center -- they just need to program the SIM to recognize the pre-pay codes. But you can buy pre-packaged pre-paid T-Mobile phones in any Target or Wal-Mart (I think there are four models to choose from). Not sure what the pricing structure is for data and smartphones like Blackberry. --70.130.54.91 (talk) 06:05, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Thank you all! Of course, if anyone wants to add more, I'd be grateful. Where I live now the notion of having to "use up your minutes", ie paying for anything else than what you actually call, is quite unheard of, however the operators have started to try to push it... Jørgen (talk) 18:34, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Back button not there first time I open a page, is there after

Not always, but often on AOL, I will open a page, do some clicking on links, and be unable to get back becasue the browser's back button isn't cluckable. However, if I open the same page and do the same thing, it is there.

It's not limited to AOL searches, either; on Wikipedia, that set of 4 tildes to indicate signing my query can't be clicked on to automatically link to it and thus insert my signature; it has to be copied and pasted. And yet, if I go back to it a 2nd time, it is.

Is this some weird, freaky virus? It's really only an annoyance so I'm nto to concerned, but still, it would be nice to know what's going on. Thanks.209.244.30.221 (talk) 19:03, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

Sounds less like a freaky virus than it does a bad browser, one that is getting awfully confused or not implementing javascript correctly (in the case of the signature button). --98.217.8.46 (talk) 19:28, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

What browser do you use? (Note: I am so tempted to make a chicken joke, but shall refrain...) 24.180.87.119 (talk) 23:34, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

If you won't, I will, even if I risk running a fowl of the OP: "What kind of chicken-shit browser has a back button that isn't always cluckable ? Those programmers at AOL must all have egg on their faces.". StuRat (talk) 03:21, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

AOL has their own browser, which is basically just Internet Explorer with some additional bugs added in. StuRat (talk) 03:23, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Beware that some links open in a new window, which lacks a back button since there is no previous page in that window. In such cases, you must close, move, or minimize the new window to see the previous page on the old window. StuRat (talk) 03:21, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Could I draw the OP's attention to a free and open source web browser that is Mozilla Firefox? Kushal (talk) 14:21, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

What is the easiest way to save Hotmail emails to hard disk?

Please? 78.144.244.16 (talk) 23:24, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

I'd just copy and paste it into a text file (using Wordpad or even Notepad) and then save it normally. I don't know of any way you could possibly do it more easily. 24.180.87.119 (talk) 23:28, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

Manually, for all 5000000 of them? Sorry, I should have said I want to back up all of them, too many to do individually. Thanks. 78.144.244.16 (talk) 00:21, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

How about forwarding a whole load of them to another account? Turns 50 mails into one mail. Astronaut (talk) 00:27, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Checking out my Hotmail, seems you can't attach a mail to another. Sorry. Astronaut (talk) 00:35, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

According to Hotmail#Desktop mail client access, Windows Live Mail has the ability to access Hotmail, and it presumably should have some way of saving emails; also if you have Microsoft Outlook, you can install the Microsoft Office Outlook Connector and use your Hotmail with Outlook. If you pay for a Hotmail Plus account, you can access it with any POP3 program, and then it would be easy to save stuff. --128.97.245.72 (talk) 00:31, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Help with .emp file format.

OK, so I downloaded some music from eMusic.com and it's in this weird .emp format. How can I play it or change it to, like, mp3 format? Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.180.87.119 (talk) 23:25, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

It looks like .emp is a playlist of the music, not the music itself. You should install the official eMusic download manager or an unofficial alternative (like [2]). F (talk) 08:35, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

OK, thanks... I have the download manager now, but the three files in .emp format I have won't show up. I got some free downloads, so I don't really want to waste them redownloading the music. I guess I can try to mess around with it more and see if I can get it to work. 24.180.87.119 (talk) 05:31, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

November 30

Now whenever I want Google I get iGoogle - annoyed!

A few minutes ago out of curiosity I clicked on iGoogle at the top right of the Google screen, as I wondered what it was. Now whenever I a) click on my desktop shortcut to Google, or b) type google.co.uk or c) type google.com I get redirected to http://www.google.co.uk/ig?hl=en where I am invited to "Create your own homepage in under 30 seconds". I am not interested in doing this! How can I stop getting redirected to this unwanted page and instead just get plain google.co.uk as before please? I have used CCleaner to delete all cookies, but it still does it. I am using WinXP and IE7. Thanks. 78.144.244.16 (talk) 00:28, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Try typing the "www" in front, and even the "HTTP://", if that helps. If neither of those work, try following this link: [3]. Once you get to the proper Google, create a bookmark/favorite. StuRat (talk) 03:06, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Click the "Classic Home" link in the top-right. §hep • ¡Talk to me! 05:07, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

http://www.google.com/ncr might do it as well. — neuro^{IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!} 15:19, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

trouble with slowdowns

Hello all. Over the last little while, I've been running into issues that may or may not be related. When I click on video files, they don't open and if I try opening the same file again (sometimes I don't double-click quite fast enough, you know?), I find that WE is not responding. I heard the fans running pretty hard, opened Task Manager and saw WE was chewing up 50% of my CPU resources. I restarted the computer and was asked to click on a user name to start Windows, which I've never had to do. I shut the box down completely, gave it a good dusting (just in case the fans were really fuming due to gunk build-up) and re-started. Again with this "Click on User Name" thing and vids still don't open. I've been running Avast! for quite some time and never found anything on board. The only software I've installed recently was Roxio Easy Media Creator 9, but it's a full, legit, program and actually apparently working as of the last time I checked. The internet also seems to really be dragging, but obviously that could just be traffic. Any of this making sense? If I heard someone else having these problems I would assume some kind of malware, but Avast! says no and I haven't been doing any high-risk behaviour. Could it be the hardware? Any help would be appreciated. I'm running Windows XP sp3. Matt Deres (talk) 00:48, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

mysql query question, merging SELECT results

I have two or more SELECT statments of the form:

mysql> select dayofweek(date), count(*) from games where tag="GOOD" group by dayofweek(date);

+--------------------+----------+
| dayofweek(date)    | count(*) |
+--------------------+----------+
|                  2 |      120 | 
|                  3 |      127 | 
|                  4 |      109 | 
|                  5 |      152 | 
|                  6 |      133 | 
+--------------------+----------+

and

mysql> select dayofweek(date), count(*) from games where tag="BAD" group by dayofweek(date);

+--------------------+----------+
| dayofweek(date)    | count(*) |
+--------------------+----------+
|                  2 |       58 | 
|                  3 |       69 | 
|                  4 |       57 | 
|                  5 |       62 | 
|                  6 |       61 | 
+--------------------+----------+

What does my query have to look like to get output like this: The column headings aren't as big a deal. I mostly just want to get the results all together. Thanks.

+--------------------+----------+---------+
| dayofweek(date)    |count BAD|count GOOD| 
+--------------------+----------+---------+
|                  2 |       58 |   120   |
|                  3 |       69 |   127   |
|                  4 |       57 |   109   |
|                  5 |       62 |   152   |
|                  6 |       61 |   133   |
+--------------------+----------+---------+

Thanks in advance. --Rajah (talk) 00:51, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Just join the results. For example: select dayofweek, badcount, goodcount from (select dayofweek, count(*) as badcount from games where tag='bad') b join (select dayofweek, count(*) as goodcount from games where tag='good') g on b.dayofweek=g.dayofweek; -- kainaw™ 01:03, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

thanks, but i get: ERROR 1140 (42000): Mixing of GROUP columns (MIN(),MAX(),COUNT(),...) with no GROUP columns is illegal if there is no GROUP BY clause when I do that. can you recommend a tutorial where I can read how to build up a join like that? --Rajah (talk) 01:23, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Correct. Using count(*) requires a group by clause - which you had in your queries. I was just typing quickly and skipped over it. There is nothing special or weird about the query I wrote. First, do you know what a join is? It joins two tables on a specified field. Second, you do not need to type a table name every time. You can type in a query that will temporarily become a table. That is what I did. Just use YOUR queries that you typed above as your tables. Put the query in parenthesis and give it a name after the closing parenthesis. I just used b and g as the table names. -- kainaw™ 01:36, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

I got it. Thanks for your explanation! --Rajah (talk) 02:02, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

A word of caution if you use the above join syntax: If either of the counts (good or bad) is zero, you will loose the entire row in the results. A solution would be to select ... from (select distinct dayofweek(date) from games) ... and then left join each of the good and bad sub-selects. However, I think the syntax below is simpler and more efficient. -- Tcncv (talk) 02:25, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

You might also try something like:

select
  dayofweek(date),
  count(case when tag='GOOD' then 1 else null end) as countGood,
  count(case when tag='BAD' then 1 else null end) as countBad,
from games
group by dayofweek(date)

This works in Microsoft SQL server. I'm not sure about mysql, but looking at its documentation, it looks like it should support the above syntax. The value 1 is arbitrary. The count will count any non-null value. Also, the "else null" part is technically not needed, since null is the default value for the case expression. -- Tcncv (talk) 02:10, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, Tcncv, that works as well and is a bit easier to do. --Rajah (talk) 04:07, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

For MySQL, a simpler way to write the same thing is

select
  dayofweek(date),
  sum(tag = 'GOOD') as countGood,
  sum(tag = 'BAD') as countBad
from games
group by dayofweek(date)

This works because, when used as a number, true becomes 1 and false becomes 0. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 21:37, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Firegestures

I recently made the switch from Opera to Firefox. One of the features I loved in Opera was Speed Dial and its ease of use; a simple gesture of the mouse made it magically appear. Browsing around the add-ons for Firefox, I saw Firegestures and Speed Dial and had to try them out. They work quite well, but the only thing is that I can't get Firegestures (I have no scripting knowledge) to open Speed Dial in the current tab, emulating Opera. I can get it to open Speed Dial in a different tab, but not the current one. Can anyone with scripting knowledge help me? I searched around google but couldn't find anything that worked. Thanks! --71.117.47.180 (talk) 03:50, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Program for determining primes

Here's the source:

#ifdef HAVE_CONFIG_H
#include <config.h>
#endif

#include <iostream>
#include <cstdlib>

using namespace std;

int main()
{

 long long int m = 2;
 long long int c;
 cout << "Enter a number to check for primality." << endl;
 cin >> c;
 if ( cin.fail() )
 {
   return 0;
 }
 loop:
 while ( m < c)
 {
   if ( c % m == 0)
   {
      cout << c << " is divisible by " << m << endl;
      return 0;
   }
   else
   {
     m++;
     goto loop;
   }
 }
 if ( m >= c)
 {
   cout << m << " is prime." << endl;
   return 0;
 }
 return 0;
}

(Written in and for Linux) I have several large composite numbers (16 digit pseudoprimes) and the program compiled from this code will tell me that they are divisible and what will divide them very quickly. However, I have several large probable primes (such as 7237443274373237) and the program hangs indefinitely and will not say if they are prime or not. However, for small primes (such as 61) it will very quickly tell that they are prime. So, how can I make this program stop hanging up? Thanks, Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 05:21, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

The first step is to only check numbers up to the square root of the value you are checking. That will help dramatically, but with huge numbers like you have, it may not be enough. You can also only check for 2 and odd numbers starting with 3; this should cut the time by a further factor of 2. The ultimate goal, though, would be to only attempt to divide by prime numbers up to the square root of the value in question. Since around 4% of all numbers are primes 6% of all numbers in this range are primes, this reduces the number of checks by 25 times (or 12 times if comparing with 2 and odds only) further. However, this requires that you have access to a massive list of prime numbers, so may not be possible for you. One more hint, don't put taking the square root in the loop, only calculate it once, for best performance. StuRat (talk) 07:04, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Here's a chart for comparison:

  Number of checks
  ----------------
  7237443274373235 Checking every number from 2 up to the target-1
          85073164 Checking all numbers to the square root of the target
          42536532 Checking 2 and odd numbers to the square root
(estimate) 5000000 Checking primes to the square root

StuRat (talk) 07:15, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

'Around 4% of all numbers are primes'? I hope you mean 'around 4% of numbers less than about 100 billion are primes'. See prime number theorem for the real result. See also primality test#Fast deterministic tests for some less crude approaches to testing for primes. Algebraist 12:52, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Yes, that's a good clarification. In the range of the square root of that big-ass number the original poster gave, it may be more like 6%, so I've corrected my estimate accordingly. StuRat (talk) 15:30, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Remote thread injection, weird failures

I've made a remote thread injector at [4] which can either get the command line of a process (1) or force the process to start any program I want (2). However, both functions only seem to completely work when I'm either debugging it using Visual C++ or OllyDbg. Using the Release build crashes the injector for both (1) and (2). Using the Debug build works for (1) but crashes the target process when trying (2). Additionally, when using IDA Pro, the injector crashes for both functions at wprintf.

I think this may have something to do with me running COMODO Firewall - in a Windows XP VM without any security software, (1) always works with the Release build but (2) crashes the target process. I'm running Windows Vista. Any ideas? Thanks in advance. --wj32 ^t/c 05:56, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

I've narrowed it down to GetWinStaDesktop(), but I still don't know why it screws up the program... --wj32 ^t/c 07:18, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Possibly the security software (virus scanners, too!) detect your injection attempts and deny them.HardDisk (talk) 13:26, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Untitled

Hi!currently i am some troubles, i downloaded a game from (Nokiasymbianthemes.com)which is Star War,the force unleashed.it is in .rar format and i have Nokia N82 Mobile. I posted the a query on the same website but nobody answeres yet.please any tell how can i extract the .sis file from this.Any idea please, Thank you.

You have to use a program like WinRAR or 7-Zip [5] to extract the RAR archive. --wj32 ^t/c 07:20, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Yes Wj32, I know that but when i extract the file through winrar it comes with a .zip file and yes this too a compressed file again by extracting the .zip file it gives me .ro1 etc like file format , so what next i do?

In that case the RAR archive is split into multiple files. Extract all the .r* files and open the one named *.rar. --wj32 ^t/c 05:41, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

binary packages on Linux: what am I missing?

I have a Mac, but I'm curious about Linux. When I want a new version of software (like OpenOffice.org 3.0, for example), I can just download the latest binary and install it. And on the download page, there are Linux binaries right next to the Mac and Windows binaries. Yet, apparently, Ubuntu users are frustrated because Ubuntu 8.10 only includes OOo 2.4. According to our reference, they can get OOo 3.0 from a PPA or from the Backports repository (neither of which I know anything about). But why can't they just download the .DEB file sitting on the OOo download page?

Again, these are just examples... if I were interested in OOo 3.0 or Ubuntu in particular I'd be asking on their forums. But I think I'm missing something basic about how software distribution works on Linux. Thanks for any help! --Allen (talk) 07:38, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

You can download their .deb-file and install it using dpkg -i openoffice.deb. But it may be that dpkg warns about unmet dependencies, in this case you need the Backports repo. Backports is a repo where new packages get compiled using older libs, so systems using these older libs can run the new package w/o problems. HardDisk (talk) 13:55, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

The main difference between downloading the software from its maintainer and having a package "in" the distribution is that most modern Linux distributions include complex package management systems which allow the software to be cleanly integrated with the OS. They will generally handle issues such as the dependencies of the new software on new or updated libraries, and managing configuration, help files, and menu entries in a consistent way across all applications.

Another point is that different distributions will generally place different constraints on the stability of a piece of software (and its dependencies). So software considered ready for release by its creators may not be considered ready for installation on stable systems by the maintainers of a distribution, until certain defects have been resolved. (Or unless it can be "back-ported" to use older, stable versions of its dependencies.)

By downloading a standalone .deb file, a user is "opting out" of all these benefits, and taking on the complexities which the maintainers of a distribution spend their time working on. - IMSoP (talk) 15:52, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

This is a rather general problem. It's to do with how software is distributed. When (essentially) all of the software for the entire system is free - there are generally two ways to get the software you need:

1. You can download it from the author's web site (www.openoffice.org for example)...OR...
2. You can get it with (or upgrade it from) your Linux 'distro' (ubuntu for example).

Both ways work - and if you are happy to do this the first way on your Mac or Windows machine - then you can do the exact same thing under Linux and be happy.

However, under Linux, it's generally more convenient to upgrade your distro because the software is 'packaged' in the right form - all of the associated libraries are managed to be the correct versions - any other packages that depend on those libraries will be carefully checked...and so on. It's generally a very smooth operation. However, there is a time lag between the author of the software pushing out a new version and the distribution folks 'noticing' and updating and testing their package system...so it's very often the case that the version you can grab via 'apt-get' or 'yast' or 'rpm' whatever is several versions behind the cutting edge release.

Hence, you may be tempted to download directly from the author's website - that way you have the hottest release. Typically, you'll have to compile it yourself (although you may get lucky and find that there is a pre-built binary suitable for you) - and sometimes you'll find that some of the libraries it depends on are either not there or need to be updated. Now you get into a messy situation - if you don't pull the latest library version from your distro's packaging system, everything gets out of step and other packages that rely on that library may possibly stop working because they need to be upgraded too. Alternatively, the new software may install itself in someplace like /usr/local or /usr/share instead of in /bin or /usr/bin - now you have two versions of the software installed.

Basically, it's a little harder to get the latest version of a package like OpenOffice by grabbing it off their web site. Hence, when new versions of popular packages appear - users of systems like Ubuntu get really anxious for the Ubuntu packaging folks to include that new version in their packaging system so that it can easily, cleanly and smoothly be updated.

SteveBaker (talk) 16:09, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the answers! It makes me wonder why things are so easy on a Mac, then... is it that mac binaries made for, say, OS 10.4 and later, are already effectively backported by using libraries that are that old? (And on the compiling-from-source end, I take it that useful systems like MacPorts are uncommon in Linux?) --Allen (talk) 18:30, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Not a definitive answer, but one difference is that MacOS X is a very distinct and clearly defined target: whereas Linux comes in dozens of distributions, each with dozens of flavours and supported versions, and huge scope for customisation, a lot of information can be summed up simply by saying "requires MacOS X 10.4". So in a sense they're "already backported", but more importantly, such packages can have a fairly decent picture of what the target system will look like.

As for things like MacPorts, that is exactly the role played by the package repositories of distributions like Ubuntu - with all the trade-offs that we've been discussing. Compiling from source is less common (although portage, used by Gentoo, does exactly that) but doesn't necessarily solve the problems anyway (recompiling against an older version of a library might make something run on your system, but it might make it not run at all, because the software actually needs features from a newer version). - IMSoP (talk) 19:58, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Coding in VB6 for Windows CE 2

Hi all,

what plugin for VB6.0 do I need to be able to create applications for a Windows CE 2.0 device?

Thanks, HardDisk (talk) 13:23, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Coding Today screen applets in VB.NET

Hi all,

again a coding question, this time on WM6-based devices...how do I create Today screen plugins within VB.NET? The only things I found in Google are for eVC and C.net :(

HardDisk (talk) 13:37, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

router rebooting

When my broadband connection goes down I'm told to unplug the router from the mains electritity for 20 seconds, then plug it in again. This usually works, but what is happening during those 20 seconds? Why, given the high speed of electricity along a copper wire, does it take so long?--Shantavira|^{feed me} 17:33, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

The usual reason, for purely electrical devices with no mechanical components (unlike disk drives, for example) is that a capacitor must discharge in order to "start the system from scratch". StuRat (talk) 18:21, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

I've wondered this too, and people have told me that it takes a while to make sure nothing is still stored in RAM. (Perhaps because of the capacitor Stu mentions?) But why wouldn't a device re-initialize its RAM or something when it boots up? It seems strange to me that a device would look for, and use, the ghosts of some previous state in its RAM. (And perhaps something about these questions should be added to our article on power cycling.) --Allen (talk) 18:57, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

The reason is that it's incredibly annoying to have your equipment reboot on you when there's a short power glitch. These are quite common in many areas (I lived in one), and I appreciated those devices which used this capacitor system. If your lights ever flicker, then likely you live in such an area, too. They don't have to "search for ghosts", either. As long as there is power to volatile memory, whether from the outlet or capacitor, it still contains the same data. They could physically disconnect the capacitor during a reboot to save you the 20 sends wait, but that would involve extra moving parts and a potentially harmful spark. StuRat (talk) 19:48, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Or maybe is it possible that if your modem goes down for long enough the broadband company decides to drop the connection and when you turn it on again it gives you a new one? I dunno. --71.106.183.17 (talk) 19:55, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

The time required before turning the router back on can vary depending on who you ask. From my experience in tech support, I'd say any specific time frame is likely a common rumor among tech support staff. Tech support reps often pass along bogus information to their peers that doesn't really help, but doesn't really hurt, either.

I usually ask people to turn off their routers for a few seconds, or to check that the power light actually goes off then turn it back on. I find it a waste of time to leave it off longer. However, I can't say with certainty there's no valid technical reason for waiting a certain time before turning the router back on. Here's what some various ISPs tech support help pages say:

• AT&T DSL - DSL modem direct to PC: after all devices are fully powered off
• AT&T DSL - DSL modem and router: about 30 seconds
• Verizon DSL - DSL modem: 15 seconds
• Comcast cable internet - cable modem: 2 minutes
• Road Runner cable internet - cable modem: 30 seconds or 1 to 2 minutes
• Verizon FiOS internet - router: 1 minute

--Bavi H (talk) 05:05, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

If you turn it back on right after you turn it off, you might increase the chance of damaging the device. 121.72.170.238 (talk) 08:25, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Java Exception Handling - logic error?

Hello all - Am writing a simple Java program to display an i*j character matrix but have been having a big headache with handling non-integer input. I'm trying to get a catch block to restart a do loop in the following way, on testing given a deliberate input mismatch exception it just ends the whole program rather than restarting the do:

import java.util.*;
//...
int i, j;
do
{
   //... 
   //...prompt to enter ints...
   try
   {
      i = sc.nextInt(); j = sc.nextInt();
   }
   catch(InputMismatchException io)
   {
      System.out.println("I/O error: please enter integer values.");
      continue; //was expecting this to restart do loop
   }
   //...
}while(i*j !=0); // data terminator
//...

I'm having real trouble finding the error in the logic here - could anyone point me in the right direction? Any help gratefully received. Psymun (talk) 18:40, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Hmm, first of all, I don't get what the i and j in the loop's condition are. They can't be ints declared earlier because that would make the (int i, j;) line illegal - also they can't be the very same i and j because the ones declared inside the loop are local to the loop. Also note that the "continue" will make the thing check the loop's condition before restarting it (not just restart it blindly). I'd advise separating the "checking user input" bit (fiddly and annoying and not very interesting) from whatever you're trying to do with the numbers entered. -ie write your own MyScanner with a safe int nextInt() method.

i, j were declared outside the do, excuse me. Have updated code extract to reflect that. Psymun (talk) 19:35, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

So continue goes to the end of the current iteration of the loop, evaluates the condition, and then if true, goes on to the next iteration. The problem is that the condition evaluates to false. i and j are initialized to 0 (the default value for ints), so if at least one of the inputs fail, then at least one of them will still be 0, and i*j will be 0, and the condition will fail. --71.106.183.17 (talk) 19:52, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Ahh, fantastic! Thank you! Yes, I initialized i, j to 0, so necessarily the do was ending. Implemented the following:

import java.util.*;
//...
   catch(InputMismatchException io)
   {
      System.out.println("I/O error: please enter integer values.");
      i = j = 1; //while now evaluates to true
      continue; 
   }
   //...
}while(i*j !=0);
//...

Thanks for help!Psymun (talk) 19:58, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Compaq ports

Hi - I'm installing a printer driver, and have got to the point where it's asking me what port I've plugged it into - I have to choose from a list of about 15. I've plugged it into one on the left side of my compaq laptop - what does that correspond to in the list?

Thanks, and please forgive my ignorance.

Adambrowne666 (talk) 21:49, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

What sort of printer is it? If it uses a "printer port", it will probably be LPT1. If it uses an RS232 port, it will be COM1 or COM2. If it uses a USB port then the PC ought to locate it itself - especially if you follow the instructions that came with the prionter on how to install its software. My printer is connected to port USB001. -- SGBailey (talk) 22:31, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

In many cases, if your OS already has a driver, it'll auto-install even with LPT1/parallel ports. My DeskJet 952C does this on Windows XP. Of course, it came out around Windows 98 and it was fairly popular too. Washii (talk) 05:29, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks all - I tried it again, and this time the Install Wizard kicked in and did it for me. Adambrowne666 (talk) 10:56, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

December 1

Midtown Madness 2 Free?

where can i get midtown madness 2 full version for free—Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.207.66.104 (talk • contribs)

• You can download a demo from the official website [6]. The game is copyrighted and Microsoft have not released it under a free license so we cannot help you otherwise. Exxolon (talk) 00:58, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Converting sound files

Is there any way I can convert some of my MP3 files to .wav files? I want to have Christmas songs play when I log in and out of my user account (I use Windows XP SP3). --Crackthewhip775 (talk) 01:54, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Yes. You can do it with Audacity which is downloadable free. Open the files into Audacity, then do Export as .wav in the File menu. --GreenSpigot (talk) 03:38, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. --Crackthewhip775 (talk) 04:37, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

I think iTunes does this also. --69.149.213.144 (talk) 05:38, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Foobar2000 does this. — neuro^{IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!} 15:16, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

a good antivirus that dont need windows installer

i have a virus that dont let me install windows installer programs. I have kapersky here but it needs windows installer. Exdeathbr (talk)

Have you tried booting into safe mode, and installing it that way? If Kapersky doesn't allow it I'm almost certain NOD32 does. Gunrun (talk) 11:26, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Windows Installer apps cannot be installed in Safe Mode AFAIK. Have you tried running a malware remover (that is, because it sounds like you know what it is that is on your system) — neuro^{IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!} 15:15, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Well I installed avira free editon, just to remove some virus, then I was able to install nod32 again, and scan for virus and fix the virus that he found, now i will remove nod32 and install kapersky.Exdeathbr (talk) 21:53, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Dictionary/Spell Checker Problems in OpenOffice.Org

Howdy y'all. I recently uninstalled MS Office Home and Student 2007 Trial(Ran out of time) and I now plan on using OpenOffice.Org only. Unfortunately, for some reason its English USA dictionary is completely out of whack. All the words are missing from the standard dictionary????(standard.dic) I'm on the 3.0 version. Can someone help me out? Thanks.--Xp54321 ^{(Hello! • Contribs)} 03:37, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Unfortunately, OpenOffice.org has bugs and problems in it. You'll need to find a way around it. Oh, and it has NO grammar correction.--Editor510 ^{drop us a line, mate} 17:26, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Most all software has "bugs and problems in it". For the dictionary problem, have you tried re-installing just the English USA dictionary? As far as grammar checking, there are extensions available that can use the grammar API that is part of OO.o 3.0 --LarryMac | Talk 18:17, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Tsk, tsk. :P The problem was that some downloads of OpenOffice.Org didn't install the US English dictionary by default. :P All I needed was the file location of that extension which I found in an online forum. The dictionary(With spell-checker) is found here:C:\Program Files\OpenOffice.org 3\share\extension\install. And Editor510, your comment was not in the least bit helpful. Thank you LarryMac. I will check out those extensions some time. :)--Xp54321 ^{(Hello! • Contribs)} 23:39, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Resolved

Uninstalling from Ubuntu

I'm a (nearly) lifelong Windows user and one of the things that's always bugged me about Windows is how, after you uninstall something, you still keep finding bits and pieces of the program all over - temp folders, start menu, registry keys, sometimes even the main directory folders, etc. etc. If/when I finally make the switch to a Linux distro, will I still find the same thing? Or is the issue I'm talking about program specific, and not much could be generalized about it? Matt Deres (talk) 04:26, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Most programs you will install on Ubuntu come in packages (DEBs in Ubuntu's case) - they contain information about which files get installed. When you uninstall a program, it will remove all the files it installed. Since the programs you use will be running under a normal user account (yours), they simply don't have the permissions to write to any system-wide "registry" or any system library locations. However, they will leave behind configuration files in your home directory (etc. /home/wj32/.mozilla for Firefox). System services create configuration files in /etc/, but you can purge those as well. Additionally, shared libraries are almost always contained in separate packages which other packages can depend on. So for example, both Firefox (firefox-3.0) and Nautilus (nautilus) (the file browser) depend on the GTK libraries (libgtk2.0-0) (the user interface). Programs won't install their own libraries everywhere like in Windows. --wj32 ^t/c 05:55, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

It won't delete config files by default (which I think is probably a good idea), but there is a "completely remove" option. Downgrading a package is hard (eg from firefox 2.0.3 to 2.0.2), but upgrading is easy. More info on the synaptic package manager at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SynapticHowto --h2g2bob (talk) 12:45, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

All this is true, but to make it a little more clear: it's MUCH better in Ubuntu than in Windows. When you remove a program, it's gone, you don't notice it anymore. The files are removed, the process isn't running anymore. There might be a few configuration files left, but they're in a hidden folder in your home-directory, and it's trivial to remove them if you want to. There's no burrowing adware or spyware, there's no programs that just wont go away even if you try and uninstall them. It is absolutely much better in Ubuntu. 83.252.172.146 (talk) 14:51, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

You might be interested in Zero Install and Application directory. These are associated most with the ROX Desktop but can be used otherwise as well. Dmcq (talk) 14:26, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Or Portable apps for linux

Thank you very much for the info; these are the kinds of answers I was looking for. Matt Deres (talk) 15:24, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Mac: software update needs to quit before restart

I have updates to install on my Mac (Leopard). Now it needs to restart, but the error:

Logout has timed out because the application Software Update failed to quit. To try again, quit Software Update and choose Log Out from the Apple Menu. You can use the Force Quit menu item in the Apple Menu (or press Command+Option+Esc) to quit an unresponsive application.

Software Update isn't even open, it has quit by this stage, so I can't force quit it. Then if I click OK and restart it myself, it doesn't install the (already downloaded) updates. I can go through the whole process again (check for new updates, licence agreements, etc.) and find myself back where I began again.

It won't restart until Software Update has closed, but that's the same application it needs to initiate the restart - at least, a restart which will install updates. Any suggestions?My name is anetta (talk) 14:43, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

You can do one of two things. One is to open up the Activity Monitor (Applications > Utilities), try to find the process that is running wild, and force quit it from there. The other is to just force a shutdown (hold down the power button for about 10 seconds) and reboot, which is easier, and really has basically the same effect. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 14:53, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Neither help, I'm afraid. Forcing a restart (or a restart any other way than initiated by Software Update) simply restarts and nothing more - as opposed to installing updates when it starts up again. The only process I can find related in Activity Monitor is "Update" - even when I force quit it, it reappears immediately.My name is anetta (talk) 17:49, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Never heard about it before. Sounds like a bug. Could you tell us which version of Leopard and which update you were trying to install? Thanks. Kushal (talk) 20:56, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

OSX10.5.5, updates for:

1) Airport Extreme Update 2008-004 v1.0 2) Quicktime H.264 Compatibility Update v7.5.5 3) Itunes 8.0.2 4) Java for Mac OSX Update 2 v1.0 5) Safari v3.2.1

It doesn't upgrade to OSX 10.5.6, which I understand isn't out yet. I had it on a previous installation, as well - but then it didn't logically stop be updatng (Catch-22 situation). My name is anetta (talk) 22:03, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

OK it works now, after a while. I forced quit loginwindow (which logged me out rightaway), logged in, restarted, quit all, ran Software Update, quit System Preferences and let it go. Anon and Kushal are appreciated.My name is anetta (talk) 22:42, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

I would love to learn more about this issue. I have no idea why it happened. Kushal (talk) 18:36, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

Blackberry applications

I just purchased my first Blackberry. A Storm. I'll be using it for personal stuff, but some work. Is there a website where I can download free applications? I had many useful apps for my Iphone and was wondering if there was a similar website out for Blackberry users. Thank you in advance.--209.183.190.77 (talk) 16:44, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

lan problem

I have a windows vista laptop, which I use to connect to my hostel LAN. Recently it has stopped showing any computer in the network folder and stopped being shown on ther computers too. Our lan needs manual ip address assigning for each computers. I have noticed that my comp uses 2 ip addresses (using ipconfig), one of which is already being used my another pc. Going toNetwork Connections -> Local Area Conn->Properties->IPv4 and modifying the address only shows the second one, and I can, in no way stop my pc from using the other address. Please help. 218.248.70.235 (talk) 16:46, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Max Headroom intrusion incident

What is he wearing on his middle finger?--Editor510 ^{drop us a line, mate} 17:23, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

It would appear to be a dildo. SN0WKITT3N 17:59, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Ew...thanks.--Editor510 ^{drop us a line, mate} 17:24, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Why are object files necessary?

Hi. Why are object files necessary? I understand that with C++, a compiler creates a .o file? That file is then converted to a .exe file via a linker? Why doesn't it just create an executable directly? I used GCC to create a test application and all I got was the executable.--Rjnt (talk) 18:40, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

You can indeed skip the creation of .o files with something like:

g++ -o my_executable file1.cpp file2.cpp

The purpose of creating .o files is speed. If you have 100 source files, and make a change to only one of them, it will be enormously faster to just recompile that one file and then relink all the object files, rather than recompiling all 100 files. It's basically a caching system. --Sean 20:25, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

How do I get Google to search on an exact string?

I want to do a Google search on "RAISERROR(@Error" so I put it quotes. This usually works but I think the parens and/or the @ is messing it up and Google is returning hits that don't match my search string. 216.239.234.196 (talk) 19:41, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Certain searches do not work in Google no matter what, this is one of them. — neuro^{IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!} 20:06, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

You might be interested in Google Code Search, which allows the use of regular expressions. You would use "RAISERROR\(@Error" in this case, and indeed there are quite a few hits: [7]. --Sean 20:28, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

no skype feedback???

Why is there no feedback on skype whatsoever? Those guys are geniuses!

I mean, I can have my call on a speaker and have the Mic RIGHT NEXT TO IT and there is no feedback or echoing for the person on the other end WHATSOEVER (or for me)! How do they do it??? 82.120.107.213 (talk) 23:11, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Feedback can theoretically be eliminated electronically, using "noise canceling technology", by removing an outgoing sound signal (with a slight delay) from the incoming signal, but actually pulling it off is quite difficult. Maybe they've figured it out. StuRat (talk) 00:57, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Here's the basic concept. Take the outgoing waveform, let's use a nice simple square wave:

 ****
 *  *
 *  *
**  **

Now reduce the magnitude:

 ****
 *  *
**  **

Now introduce a time delay:

  ****
  *  *
***  **

Now invert the waveform:

***  **
  *  *
  ****

If you take this and electronically add it to the incoming waveform, you can, theoretically, eliminate feedback. However, there are some complexities:

1) The outgoing waveform is far more complicated. In fact, there are many waveforms at many different frequencies.

2) Figuring out how much to reduce the magnitude and delay the waveform is tricky, as it depends on many factors, like the frequency, the distance from speaker to microphone, the sound resonance and absorption properties in the room, etc.

3) There isn't just the direct path of sound from the speaker to the microphone, there are also echoes off walls to consider. These would likely have more of a time delay and magnitude reduction than the direct path.

I'd suggest starting each call with a "test" signal, consisting of many frequencies, to judge the magnitude and delay at various frequencies, so those parameters could be set for the call. Presumably those parameters won't change much during a call, but, if you walk around while talking, they could. StuRat (talk) 01:10, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

uTorrent woes

So, I am downloading torrents, and this error came up. I have received this message before, but that was on another PC, oddly enough, and I have never heard of it before.

Error: The requested operation cannot be performed on a file with a user-mapped section open.

Any ideas? — neuro^{IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!} 23:36, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

first click the "Help" menu -> "Check for Updates". Are you running the latest version?

There's a forum thread on the issue on the uTorrent site: http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?id=41702 . - Akamad (talk) 03:08, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

if i upload a video on google video does the video shows on youtube??

if i upload a video on google video does the video shows on youtube?? Exdeathbr (talk) 23:39, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

I don't believe so. But they are run by the same company, so, you never know. flaminglawyer^cneverforget 23:49, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

It will not show up on Youtube. But if you uploaded it to Youtube it would show up on Google Video as it searched more than one video sharing site.--Xp54321 ^{(Hello! • Contribs)} 03:58, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

PHP include()

Is there a way to change the directory when using the PHP include function? i.e., I use <?php include("header.php") ?> for index.php at URL example.com/index.php, which includes example.com/header.php. How would I include the same header from a file at example.com/folder/file.php? When I use include("header.php"), it says it doesn't exist. Same thing happens when I try using the url: include("http://example.com/header.php"). w3schools, from which I've obtained all of my PHP knowledge (limited though it may be), doesn't cover this specifically. flaminglawyer^cneverforget 23:46, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Two dots (..) moves up to the parent directory (as it does in most other contexts), so your example would be include("../header.php"). — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 00:46, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Right. So if it is example.com/header.php, if you are in a folder one deep (e.g. example.com/blah/yourfile.php) then you have "../header.php", if you are two deep (example.com/blah/blah/yourfile.php), you use "../../header.php", etc. Each ".." means "one directory up from the one I'm currently in." --98.217.8.46 (talk) 01:21, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Resolved

That solves it. Thanks. flaminglawyer^cneverforget 03:06, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Mac: Xgrid distributed computing - called without first being authenticated

My second post today! I'm using OSX Intel 10.5.5, and I've been careful to set up Xgrid according to [8], but the fans never rev up high enough to be doing anything, the CPU is hardly ever busy. The log reads:

...System Preferences[551]: Admin.xgridAgentControllerPassword: called without first being authenticated.

Only one result on Google [9].My name is anetta (talk) 23:52, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Xgridagentd and Xgridagenthelper are both running in Activity Monitor, even if it is at 0% CPU and 5MB of real RAM (Firefox is now on 120MB RAM).My name is anetta (talk) 23:59, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

December 2

DeviantArt's Drop Shadow

How does DeviantArt [[10]] give each their image thumbnails a drop shadow? What specific chunk of code is responsible for this effect?

Acceptable (talk) 03:11, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps the CSS? bibliomaniac15 03:47, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

It is possible that the shadow effect is the result of borders placed around the images with a color slightly darker than the background. It also appears that the top, left, right, and bottom borders are different widths. Looking at the page source, each of the images is nested inside three span elements with class names "tt-a", "tt-w", and "shadow". I tried looking in the .css file located here for an entry with some combination of "span.tt-a", "span.tt-w", "span.shadow" and "img" qualifiers, but was not able to locate the specific lines which set those shadows. However, it is a big .css file, so I might have missed something. -- Tcncv (talk) 04:20, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

I am by no means an expert on CSS or web-design, but here's what I think is happening: if you look at the code for an image, you can see that each image is surrounded by this span-tag (or some variation of it):

<span style="background-image: url(http://sh.deviantart.com/shadow/alpha-000000/2.6667-0.35/86/150/small2.png);" class="shadow">

So that's what I think it's doing: it's simply using the image at the URL as the background for the span, and since the span is slightly larger than the image, the shadow "leaks" out around the edges. It's really very clever. Belisarius (talk) 12:33, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

The image is dynamically generated - you can have a fiddle with the URL to generate different shadows. The format is [blur size (0-200)]-[opacity (0-1)]/[width (0-5000)]/[height (0-5000)]/[small|small2].png — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 15:18, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Decompile PDF to LaTeX

Hi, I had a paper that I wrote in LaTeX and compiled to PDF. But then I lost the original LaTeX source, but still have the PDF file. Does there exist any tools out there to somehow "reverse engineer" the PDF (knowing that it was compiled from LaTeX) back to the LaTeX source, or even approximately? Thanx --128.97.245.152 (talk) 06:58, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

I'm fairly certain there's not. I think the best option you have is to simply select all the text, copy it and paste it in a new document. It's a terrible solution though (you lose all the formatting and if you have equations and things it will be tricky). Belisarius (talk) 12:40, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

You have several options. You can use pdftk (a free program) to uncompress the PDF to plain-text PDF. It's a command-line tool. PDF is similar to PostScript, so it's very wordy and complex. You could then do a find-and-replace on the text, replacing the PDF keywords with LaTeX ones, but it'd be tough. Another option is opening the file in Adobe Acrobat Professional (available as a free trial) and saving it to another format, like RTF (Rich Text Format). RTF is very similar to LaTeX, and you can open an RTF file in OpenOffice.org's Writer (also free) and then export it as a LaTeX file.--Rjnt (talk) 13:40, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Sharing an internet connection between a windows box and an ubuntu box

For Christmas, I'm going to be spending some time in my vacation-house, and I have some questions about setting up a good internet connection there.

See, it's in a pretty rural area, so the wire-based internet connection options are not very good. It does, however, for some reason have very good 3G coverage, so I've used one of those dongles that you plug into a USB-port that lets you surf using HSDPA (one of these). Here's the issue, though: I have two computers there, one Windows XP-box and one Linux-box (Ubuntu, specifically). I much prefer to use the Ubuntu one, but setting up the dongle to work with it is an enormous pain in the ass, I gave up trying after like two hours of trying to get it to work. And even if I could get it to work, I would also really like both computers to be connected to the internet at the same time.

So here's what I'm thinking: I know windows xp has this internet connection sharing thing, where it would act as a bridge and let other computers on the same LAN use its internet connection. I would really like to get that working with Ubuntu. How would I do it? I have a router there (a Linksys WRT54GL with the fancy custom DD-WRT firmware), so I can easily set up the computers to be in a LAN. The Windows part should be pretty easy, right? I mean, you just use the wizard it has and tell it to turn on internet connection sharing? But how would I convince Ubuntu to use the Windows machine as a bridge to the internet? Do I turn off DHCP on the Ubuntu and configure the standard gateway manually to use the Windows machine? Can I somehow configure the router to route its packets through the windows machine?

I should point out that as I am not there currently, I can't test it out right now. But I'd really appriciate any advice any of you smart people can give me. Cheers! Belisarius (talk) 12:18, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

If I remember correctly, the Windows Internet connection sharing actually acts as a router already. So you wouldn't need another one. You can just connect the two computers using a crossover cable, or connect them both to a switch or something. Also, it is interesting that the dongle that you linked to actually says that it works well with Linux. --71.106.183.17 (talk) 19:48, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Huh. That's very interesting. How about this: could I connect the network port on the windows machine directly into the WAN port on the router and then connect to my router using wi-fi? If the connection sharing thing in Windows really does act like a router, it should work, right? That'd give me wireless around the house. I'm no fan of Microsoft (I'm a Linux-hippie, fer chrissakes!), but you have to give them props on that Internet Connection Sharing thing. That's real easy to set up.

As for the dongle issue, yes, there are functioning drivers for it for Linux, but that doesn't make it easy to use. The dongle I have is specifically made to be easy to use with windows, so in addition to being an HSDPA modem, it's also a virtual cd emulator. Why, you ask? So that when you plug it in, you can easily access the software needed to run it. The downside is that when you plug it in, Ubuntu doesn't see anything but the cd-emulator, so you have to do some hacking to actually disable that part. And then, since there's only software for windows on it, you have to use deep voodoo to make all the configurations right (you have to enter some super-weird init string to make it work). Even if you do get everything to work, it's still incredibly buggy. It would take an annoyingly long time to connect (like, minutes), if it even connected at all. I guess the phone company and the manufacturer couldn't be bothered to develop some simple software to just make it work on linux. Belisarius (talk) 00:06, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

firefox and excel

1)i have firefox and IE latest version installed in my pc (win xp prof).. i just reformatted it ...and used the net yesterday without any anti virus installed... now, a virus is here which would not let me open firefox by any means... it commands the user to use IE... and IE is having no problem .... also, the machine is running slow a bit.what would be the first step i should take now ?

2)my 2nd problem is : how do i plot a - O.D vs time graph using excel 2000 ? I don't want to have separate graphs for series 1 (time-x-axis) and series 2 (O.D - y axis), but a single line of graph combining the two values.

1)You may as well reinstall operating system again, otherwise use an antivirus program to clean the machine. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 20:08, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

2)Use XY scatter chart. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 20:06, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

thank you very much. i got the graph.. will reformat the system again.. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.93.211.90 (talk) 18:55, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

VirtualBox with Windows 98 problems

I am trying to install Windows 98 on Sun xVM VirtualBox 2.2 and it will only work up to the "Setup is detecting and installing any Plug and Play hardware you may have." message. It then remains on this screen in excess of 5 hours. I only have 256 MB of RAM allotted to this virtual machine and only 256 MB available to my host machine. I have no plug and play hardware attached to my computer; all of it requires a driver to be installed. I am thinking of three different solutions to this problem:

1) Get more RAM for my Host machine (4 GB) and allot 2 GB to the VM.
2) Unplug all non-Plug and Play hardware from my Host machine before installing Windows.
3) Tweak settings of my VM to allot more RAM to my VM and temporarily disable non-Plug and Play hardware connected to my computer.

Any help at all would be appreciated.
(PS: I am doing this to play old Windows 98-specific games that no longer work on XP)

 Buffered Input Output 14:05, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

This sounds like a plug and play problem rather than a shortage of memory. 256meg is generous for windows 98. Probably the VM will be interfering. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 19:54, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Setting up wireless but have different laptop/router brands

Hi, can I set up a wireless network when my router is Dell but my laptop is Toshiba?

Yes (as long as you have a wireless network card in your laptop, which you almost certainly do if it was made in the last few years) — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 15:06, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

MCSE or CCNA which is better....Who is paid more? is it CCNA candidate or MSCE candidate? which will help me to earn more?

Which would be better?

Hi please help me out I'm really confused........Is it MCSE or CCNA is best to be done for more earnings?

Your earnings will depend how good you are and how quickly you get a good reputation and get promoted. Either qualification could prove that you can learn something. It is best to pick what you are interested in so that you have more motivation. If you like Microsoft and their operating systems you know what to pick. If you are interested in sticking things together then pick the CCNA. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 19:50, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Really simple bash(?) script

Hi all,

On my Mac OS X terminal (using bash), I frequently need to curl a xml file from a url, format it with xmllint, and then pipe it to bbedit, my text editor. The command I use is

curl http://blahblahblah.xml | xmllint --format - | bbedit

How could I easily transform this into a single command, so that I could write, say,

xmlcurl http://blahblahblah.xml

? Thanks for any suggestions! — Sam 63.138.152.238 (talk) 17:20, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

#!/bin/bash
curl $1 | xmllint --format - | bbedit

Graeme Bartlett (talk) 19:43, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Character encoding question

Suppose a Unicode text file is sent off to someone who edits it. What could cause it to come back still in Unicode (I think), but unreadable. And is the information lost? Here are the original and edited files if you are interested in seeing what happened. Louis Waweru  Talk  18:37, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

the editor will have to support unicode. Older or simpler editor programs may not support it, or smart Alec editor programs may convert it to some other format. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 19:40, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

And some of the info might be lost, if it converts multiple characters into the same character. StuRat (talk) 22:37, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

There seem to be several problems, the most immediately noticeable being that while the second file identifies (BOM) itself as UTF-16LE but encodes some, but not all, of the bytes as UTF-16BE. See Endianness. Bendono (talk) 23:44, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Ugh, I think I can actually see what you are describing Bendono when I open a copy as Unicode (Big-endian) and another as Unicode. Both preserve either some English or some Japanese. Going to go ahead stop trying to rescue this file. I will try to find out what text editor was used and how it was saved. Is there a "best practice" for Unicode files? When saving files in Notepad the options are Unicode, Unicode (Big-endian), and UTF-8. I usually go with the first. In the .NET Framework you can also chose which type of Unicode format to use (there are a few more options) but I again go with the plain "Unicode". Is that the safest one? Louis Waweru  Talk  00:06, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

All of the Unicode encodings are created equal. The only differences are in file size and software support. You may pick an optimal encoding if you know in advance what type of data your file will contain. Since your file uses both English and Japanese, then I would recommend either UTF-16LE or UTF-16BE. Modern Windows OSes use UTF-16LE internally, but the conversion between both is trial. Please note that the endianness needs to be constant for the whole file, though. UTF-8 is interpreted as a sequence of bytes so endianness does not matter (although it may optionally have a BOM). (Whatever created that second file seems to have, among other things, endianness issues.) Pick an encoding that suits your needs and software support. Take a look at this for some more info. Bendono (talk) 01:59, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

Memory for a 2006 Macbook Pro

What type of memory should I buy for a 15" Macbook Pro I purchased new in late May 2006? (By this, I mean it was the only Macbook Pro model available at the Apple store at the time). Obviously, they'd like me to purchase Apple retail memory, so they make it difficult to find the equivalent memory from other sellers. For some context: I'm trying to play the new World of Warcraft expansion and, even on the lowest settings, I get an extremely low framerate. (older game content runs fine, at higher settings, at 30fps, as do instances) --Sarcasticninja (talk) 18:42, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Go to this page on the Apple Store and look up your model. But it looks like all the 15" Macbook Pros use 667MHz DDR2 PC2-5300 SO_DIMM. I have no idea what most of that means, but it should be enough to buy the right memory from some other store. --Allen (talk) 23:38, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

what is the best degree for making money in computing (UK) ?

Say I wanted to change into a computing job , what would be the best degree for me to do as a mature student...

I can't speak specifically for the UK, but in Canada, Computer Science and Electrical Engineering are the only typical university degree programs that would apply specifically to a job in Computers. If I were you, though (depending on how 'mature' you are!:) ) I would consider a pursuing a professional designation rather than an undergraduate degree. Microsoft Certified Professionals are still a widely-accepted standard. I'm sure there are other networking and programming designations as well. My point is just that degrees are long and boring. You may want to pursue a specific skill.NByz (talk) 00:28, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

Electronic Publishing (with a minor in Criminal Justice, so you can stay one step ahead of the Treasury Department authorities). :-) StuRat (talk) 18:24, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

Defragging

I'm using WinXPsp3. How good is the disk defragmenter that came with Windows? Is it worth it to install a different program? My Windows drive is about 20GB, if that affects anything. Matt Deres (talk) 22:25, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Some of the programs you buy are definitely better. For example, PerfectDisk not only defragments the drive but also puts the most-commonly accessed data where it's more accessible. PerfectDisk also doesn't need 15% free space like the Windows defragmenter. Finally, it defragments system files by running once at boot time. When I had a smaller drive, I never had 15% free space, but it'd still reduce fragmentation to around 0%. ;) Also, Diskeeper defragments your drive in real time, that is, as you modify files.--Rjnt (talk) 00:33, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

PerfectDisk seems to have a 30-day trial, so it's definitely an option, but a free use one would obviously have an advantage. Are any of them particularly good? Any really poor ones? Matt Deres (talk) 04:18, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

I've always trusted Norton Utilities to do mission critical jobs like these and they haven't let me down yet - and I'm talking over 15 years here. Sandman30s (talk) 14:49, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

Poor USB HD performance on Mac

I ran across this story [11] comparing file copy speeds via USB 2.0 on Mac and Windows. Just curious if anyone might have an idea why USB hard drive performance is so terrible on Mac OS X. --70.167.58.6 (talk) 23:23, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

The Mac was using HPFS and the PC was using NTFS, compeltely different file systems. Basically the reason is that IBM and Microsoft were creating a file system together, but disagreed over a number of important factors, so they split and we ended up with HPFS and NTFS. NTFS is clearly faster on every system I have ever seen (I believe HPFS requires an extra seek every time it has to find a new sector). Few people like to admit this because it implies microsoft made the right decision ;-) ----Dacium (talk) 02:53, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

December 3

No interface to Parse method in C#

Why aren't methods such as int.Parse() and double.Parse() in C# (each of which takes a string as its only argument, is static, and returns an instance of the class it belongs to) part of an interface so that they can be invoked with generic type? NeonMerlin 01:30, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

That's easy: because they are static methods. Interfaces are contracts for instance methods. Bendono (talk) 01:46, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

Then why aren't there any contracts for static methods? On a related note, is it possible to specify that a method's return type is the class it belongs to, and that this must be true of all overrides as well? NeonMerlin 03:54, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

DIAS

Please add content about.Direct Internet Access System(DIAS).Thanks

Put your request at WP:RA. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 02:24, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

Requested Article is not currently the correct place. Direct Internet Access System exists. It's just too short to be helpful. Taemyr (talk) 04:27, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

Try asking at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Internet. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 06:44, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

cheapest ICANN registrar

I am looking to register a domain name with an ICANN registrar. Does anyone know the site/registrar that charges the least amount of money? I've Googled this a bunch, but all I found was like 20 different sites all claiming to have the cheapest domain registering service. flaminglawyer^cneverforget 06:57, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

.tk? --Ouro (blah blah) 12:26, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

That's a domain name, not a registrar service. I think he wants to be able to register his own arbitrary domain names. Personally I don't think haggling over domain registrar prices is worthwhile unless you are planning to buy in bulk. GoDaddy is pretty cheap, as far as they go, and often has "specials" if you are registering in bulk (e.g. 20% off all domain names if you register more than $50 worth, or something like that). --98.217.8.46 (talk) 14:51, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

Oh, you might be right there. Well, in this case I wouldn't know where to start outside of Poland, I'd turn to my local registrars for this I guess... Cheers, Ouro (blah blah) 20:32, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

One and one^link seems to have it for four dollars. I have never tried them and cannot offer any recommendations, though. Kushal (talk) 23:32, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

I'd avoid the cheapest companies: they're often not as cheap as they appear to be. Either they add on fees, or they don't give you ownership of the domain you register, forcing you to stay with them if you want to continue using your domain. --Carnildo (talk) 23:45, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

turing machine and ucon model

HELLO,

I WANT TO ASK ABOUT HOW TURING MACHINE IS UNDECIDABLE AND HOW THIS DECIDABILITY IS SIMULATED WITH UCON UNDECIDABILITY?

I think you are looking for the Halting problem article. -- Tcncv (talk) 08:01, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

A suitable wiki for an Insurance company's internal manuals?

Hello, I work for an insurance company and I am trying to persuade my bosses to move to using a wiki for our insurance manuals. I’ve got agreement to look into this in more depth and to make an argument for it so I am exploring the technical requirements and trying to find a wiki software which contains those features which we would require inorder to overcome management’s likely objections and concerns. As such I wanted to ask here for some suggestions and advice.

The wiki would be used as an underwriting manual (though I also plan that it can be used to give users contact & personal info, general discussion like the refererence desk, and recording underwriting authorities for users) and would be used regularly by I estimate about 300 people who would require different levels of access/editability.

First of all the main requirement is that it be available at no cost and able to be used for commercial purposes, as if they have to pay for it I doubt if I’ll be able to get it agreed. Similarly it should be capable of being modified & tweaked by our IT guys. I don’t think this should be a problem but the other requirements are:

• Only logged in users should be able to edit, so that all edits can be traced if necessary.
• It should be purely internal to the company and unable to be viewed by those outside.
• It should be able to run on Windows 2000, if possible through our group intranet (which runs through windows explorer)
• It should be able to support categorisation of pages
• There should be the ability to restrict ability to edit pages – that is to restrict the editpower of particular users or groups of users (eg sales people shouldn’t be able to edit pages containing rating data). I’m thinking of categorising users & pages & restricting access based on this. I believe this would require Access Control Lists.
• There should be the ability for authorised users like admins to lock certain pages, like on wikisource.
• It should be able to support the use of templates and bots to facilitate rapid & easy multi-page changes.
• It should be able to hold pictures and other files

Also, though we could probably get by without it, I would like one which can also do the following:

• Use PHP scripting language like on wikipedia, if not some easy or well known language would be required without a lot to learn by casual users.
• It would be handy to have the ability to be able to set certain users or groups of users to be able to make edits but to require these to be checked by higher authority users before they go live
• I would also like it to have the same functionality as wikipedia does, including history pages, talk pages, what links here, related changes, watchlists, ability to easily revert edits, compare different versions of the same page & if possible the same visual format as wikipedia.

I realise that a lot of these requirements go against the general ethos & principles of a wiki, full editability by everyone, though due to the nature of the insurance industry and my particular company, and general management and regulatory concerns I’d never be able to get agreement for a completely wikipedia style wiki manual (and there would be too low a user base to ensure vandalism/self-serving edits to insurance rates were corrected speedily) so I want to try to get as many benefits of a wiki as I can while addressing our concerns over the security & integrity of sensitive date (like rates).

I’m currently only in the exploratory stage and I would appreciate any advice, or suggestions as to the best software and features to meet our needs. I would also appreciate any info you may be able to provide on the benefits & problems experienced by other companies in going down this route. Much thanks in advance AllanHainey (talk) 09:07, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

You can use MediaWiki along with compatible server software. I tried it via XAMPP, although you need to tweak the settings to make it more secure and easier to manage. Blake Gripling (talk) 09:56, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

I had seen on http://www.wikimatrix.org/wiki/MediaWiki:ACL that MediaWiki doesn't support Access Control Lists, is this inaccurate or is there a way to get the required access/edit restrictions on MediaWiki without ACLs? If so how would I do this? AllanHainey (talk) 11:36, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

I heard TWiki is pretty good -- better than MediaWiki. It's free, has ACLs, better watchlists, better page histories, a much better page editor, and works in Win 2k. It uses Perl, but doesn't need mySQL. The support is better, too.--Rjnt (talk) 12:03, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

I don't have a specific recommendation, but none of your requirements seem particularly problematic. Wikipedia (and hence to a great extent Mediawiki) is rightly very big on fully-open editing, but ACLs, permissions, types of users, etc are the norm in business wikis and so fairly well supported. The wiki software my company uses has a very configurable permissions system that's hooked into our LDAP server, but unfortunately it's commercial (paid-for) software and therefore outside your scope.

To be honest, I strongly suspect that your biggest problem is not technical but social. It's easy to set up a wiki, but it can be very hard in a traditional business to get people to use it in the way we who are used to wikipedia expect them to. Some people will be flat-out scared of change, and object to it on principle. When they do look at it, early on, and find there's not much content, they'll consider their reactions proven, and refuse to change them forevermore. Most people probably won't bother to write anything (the ratio of readers to editors at Wikipedia is huge too, but we have so many of both it doesn't matter), and then when they find there's not much to read they'll stop checking. I do wonder who you think will be answering questions on your version of the RefDesk - and will their bosses think it's time well spent? (It probably is, assuming most of the questions are business-related, but bosses probably don't see it like that). You're unlikely to get any significant amount of "wikignoming" or "wikigardening" - the quiet background actions that keep pages up to date. My team has embraced its wiki really quite well, but even so most of it is out of date as there is no culture of correcting things or even marking them as obsolete. I don't want to paint too dark a picture here, but you really need to put the social and political aspects of effective wiki adoption in business at the top of your list, with the actual technical implementation an easy second. 93.97.184.230 (talk) 00:46, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Javascript checkbox, input text, text area

I need to write a very simple javascript program in which the user inputs their name, number of objects they wish to order in a text input, then 2 checkboxes for additional options for their purchase. Then I need the name to appear in a text area with the total price added up from the text inputs and check boxes. I have very very basic knowledge of javascript so I just need a basic bare bones description of how to get started to I can work out this project. I have all the check boxes, inputs, and text area layed out on the page I just need to know how to make the code work. Thanks --143.200.137.158 (talk) 19:16, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

you will need to use something like an onchange or onclick tag on your form items that tells the javascript to execute. Build up a text string from the input values. Then set the form.textboxname.value to what text you want there. You may want to put your script as a function rather than just code in quotes. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 20:21, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

Reading in XML in Google Maps

I am trying to create my own google maps from scratch using Javascript, HTML and XML. What i want to do is create maps that automatically update themselves by reading from an XML file. One example of this would be weather information I am not the most code-savvy person, as this semester I am taking my first computer programming course (C++) Any help is much appreciated Jastman (talk) 19:34, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

Well you really need to dig into the Google Maps API. They have examples for this sort of thing. I would go about piece by piece. First write something that shows Google Maps. Then write it so that it'll load a static XML file (something you can make in Google Earth, for example). Then see about loading dynamic XML. Each step will have a little learning curve, but the main trick of programming something complicated is to break it into component parts and tackle them individually. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 22:56, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

The part I'm having trouble with is DISPLAYING the XML file 67.194.159.149 (talk) 00:00, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Total win/loss records

I suffered a brain injury 22 years ago after being hit by a drunk driver. I mention this because I'm having major trouble navigating this website. I'm looking for the all time win/loss records of The Washington Redskins and San Antonio Spurs. My local paper gives a brief box every gameday of the football matchups ie. date, time, who's favored, the score of the last meeting and the all time win/loss records. These stats are always inaccurate. If someone can please help me find this info. I'd be grateful. Thank you!

Greg Tattini

You can check out the Spurs record at San Antonio Spurs seasons (the total record is at the bottom of that pretty table). The Redskins are at Washington Redskins seasons and that is actually a Featured Article, which means it is among the best articles on the site. If you're looking for in-depth historical stats for teams, I doubt you can beat Football Reference and Basketball Reference (and there are related sites for Baseball, Hockey, etc.). Matt Deres (talk) 21:05, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

Unfair bandwidth distribution?

My internet connection is ridiculously slow right now; is it possible to determine whether one of my housemates is getting more than their fair share of bandwidth? ----Seans Potato Business 21:59, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

Sure, but you'll need a device or something capable of doing so. A router with some sort of QoS and traffic monitoring, probably. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 22:12, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

Wireshark, but I think your housemates won't like it as you can intercept both passwords in cleartext and their favourite porn site. HardDisk (talk) 23:18, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

I used to use wireshark (ethereal) back in the day, when our house network was based on a hub. But assuming the OP's network is switched, none of the other users' packets will be going anywhere near his NIC. My former ISP used to produce usage graphs per IP address (and every machine in the house had a public IP...) - very very cool, but also highly unusual in home networking. So the best bet, as the crustacean said, is monitoring in a router of sufficiently high specification. 93.97.184.230 (talk) 00:52, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Correct. Ethereal doesn't work anymore because all those "hubs" for home connections are actually switches. All you get is your traffic. Even in work places, everything is usually switched. You're lucky to see 3 other computers. I used to run ethereal with webcollage as a screensaver. It showever every picture that passed my nic. But, it only shows pics I view now since there's no other traffic going past my nic. -- kainaw™ 02:15, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

I am not sure of this (someone else ought to confirm whether this is the case), but I've been told that the tomato firmware can do this. So you may want to check to see if the router you use can run it.--droptone (talk) 00:56, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

December 4

Port Assignment reg,

can well known port be used for other services

for example can i use 21 for HTTP ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by R.srinivaas (talk • contribs) 12:22, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

yes. -- Fullstop (talk) 12:38, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

but firefox does not allow to access these ports when i type http://12.0.0.1:21 ;it reports an Error. why ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by R.srinivaas (talk • contribs) 12:48, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

You can't just pick a port unilaterally; the server at 12.0.0.1 must be running something on port 21 that can respond to an http request. Ports are "well known" so that services can be used without any specific knowledge of the configuration on the server. --LarryMac | Talk 13:08, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

yes, the server at 12.0.0.1 is listening to 21 , but still firefox reports error ! —Preceding unsigned comment added by R.srinivaas (talk • contribs) 13:16, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

It's a problem with your server, obviously. I just used telnet to connect to 12.0.0.1 on port 21, and didn't even get an error message. If the server worked, it'd at least give me an error message. Are you hosting a page on the site?

C:\>telnet 12.0.0.1 21

GET / HTTP/1.1

_

Nothing.--Rjnt (talk) 13:25, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

pc not being able to use internet

I have a network in my house, in this network we are using now 2 notebooks and 1 pc. With the notbooks I am able to use the internet, but with the computer its not possible, this started 2 days ago. The computer is able to see other computers of the lan and the others are able to see then (a example get use the printer of this computer). My notebooks are connected by wires and not wireless. What can be the problem?? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.79.92.244 (talk) 13:34, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Is the "network" wireless or wired? Is your desktop comp connected by wireless or wired? What OS is it using? What OS are the laptops using? All of these would help us answer your question. flaminglawyer^cneverforget 23:30, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

one laptop is using vista, the other is using xp, the computer with the problem is using xp. all the pc and notebooks are connected to the nertwork by wires. the network is wired only i dont have the need hardwares needed to make wireless only things connect to the network. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.79.168.112 (talk) 01:23, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

This is pretty obvious but: Have you tried using different ethernet cords? The one you're using could be faulty. And, it may be that the Internet is working fine, but your browser setting are weirded up. Take a look at your network/offline settings in FF/IE. flaminglawyer^cneverforget 02:26, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

Low-level protocol for international Internet connections

Hello.

Sorry for my bad english; my mother tongue is french.

When I read about the low-level protocols of Internet, I usually read "LAN" + "Ethernet". But nobody talk about the low-level protocols used outside the LANs: for exemple for nationnal or international communications. Do you know which protocols are used for these networks ? For exemple, in a country, the Internet wires between two towns do not use Ethernet...

Thanks in advance, A.C. from Belgium. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.166.19.61 (talk) 13:53, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Actually, it often is Ethernet (see Metro Ethernet, for example), but there are others listed at WAN. --Sean 19:13, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Downloading an ISO without it taking 2 days

I would like to download Fedora 10 onto my computer, but my internet connection goes all wonky about halfway thru. It starts out at 2 MB/s and then drops to around 433 KB/s. My computer is now bogged down with downloading this ISO image. Last time i checked, it was at 75% completion with 2 days remaining at a transfer rate of 104 KB/s. I know there are other ways to download ISOs without just downloading it. Can anyone help me with this? (PS: I do know about BitTorrent, but it is a sucky program and I hate it, so don't suggest it please.)

BTW, is it possible to extract the files from a .torrent file without using any special programs and NO connection to the internet?

 Buffered Input Output 14:23, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

With that kind of bandwidth, you might be better off purchasing a Linux CD. Here's a list of vendors. I used to use CheapISO.com

Extraction from the .torrent file would not be possible. It contains a checksum, but that does not contain sufficient information to re-create a larger file—otherwise it would be compression. / edg ☺ ☭ 15:07, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Instead of downloading the full ISO (which is a DVD image, not a CD image), download the Fedora Live CD. It is rather small and fits on a single CD (with plenty of room left over). Once you burn the ISO and boot from the CD, you'll go into a functioning Fedora run completely from the CD. On the desktop will be an icon that says "Install to Hard Drive". Click that to install Fedora. Then, you can run "yum update" to download the latest packages. Then, you can use yum to install anything else you want that wasn't on the live CD. -- kainaw™ 15:16, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Use a different torrent downloader if you don't like BitTorrent. Really, if you want to download it, and have connection problems, a torrent download is better than a direct download, because if something gets wonky in between you and one server there are a million other routes it can take to get to you. There are a lot of other torrent programs out there and many of them are not "sucky". --98.217.8.46 (talk) 15:26, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Ask a friend with a better connection to download for you what you want and burn it to a CD/DVD - back in the days of old I used to do this. Also, when I didn't have a CD writer we used to have burn parties at a friend's place - imagine, just one day to burn ten to twenty CDs. --Ouro (blah blah) 20:48, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

I had the same problem when I tried Fedora. But I think I downloaded the CD, so it slowed down a lot (which was depressing), but it still finished within a couple of hours. Once you get it installed finally, then you have another 250 MB or so of updates to download File:Rolleyes.gif. And then you can download your apps ;-).--Rjnt (talk) 21:31, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

You can also do a network install of Fedora (just get the small 114MB net install CD image), but if you have a bad Internet connection then it is going to suck too. --128.97.245.91 (talk) 01:33, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

Using USB flash drive in win98SE

Im trying to attach a 16GB USB flash drive to my OEM win98SE version 4.1. The computer installs it as a Plug and Play drive which shows up as E: on the My Computer screen. I downloaded the win98SE version 3.3 drivers from the net, it installed with no errors, and the device manager said that it has no errors. When I look at its proprties, it sometimes shows it as completely full and sometimes completely empty. In either event if I try moving anything to the drive it crashes the operating system. What can I do? Phil_burnstein (talk) 15:37, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Try these drivers - I've used them to access my Creative ZEN Stone Plus and other USB mass storage devices under win98se and got them to cooperate nicely (and Creative says that the said device will only work well with xp or that other recent OS, which turned out only to partly be true). One thing that didn't work well was when a particular USB device's battery was charged from the USB port - but data transfers worked fine. Try this and tell us if it worked for you. Cheers, Ouro (blah blah) 20:44, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Translating code from one programming language into another programming language

How easy is to 'translate' between programming languages? I am mainly interested into 'translating' from Python into Perl, PHP or Java. Is it possible to do it automatically?--Mr.K. (talk) 17:24, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

It's going to depend heavily on how similar the languages are. A sufficiently "weird" language may require rethinking the problem in order to translate to a more conventional language. There have been automated tools in some cases to do this, but I don't know how good they usually are. To go from python to java, you may want to look into jython. It's not a translator per se, but it may be useful to solving your problem. Friday (talk) 17:35, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

O, yes, this jython thing looks nice. I suppose Python - Perl should be even easier. However, I didn´t find the appropriate tool. --Mr.K. (talk) 18:26, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

I mean, it depending on what you accept with the definition of "translating". If you just mean you want a program that computes the same result as the original program, then it's trivial to do it automatically. Just get an interpreter for the original language in the new one, and include the original program as a text string or something, and run it through the interpreter. (Or if you can't find such an interpreter, get an emulator for the type of binaries your computer runs, and run the binary for the original program through it.) This follows from the fact that all programming languages are Turing-complete. --71.106.183.17 (talk) 20:10, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Something is wrong with my iPod

Here's whats going on. My friend got a new iPod and gave me his old 4GB. I was using it, and i plugged it into my computer, and it did nothing. So i unplugged it, and now its been stuck on for quite some time now. The screen is locked up, and i cant shut it off. Any suggestions?71.223.209.11 (talk) 20:06, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

I don't have any specific advice for iPods, but, in general, for other devices, holding down the power button attempts a reboot. If that fails, trying pulling the batteries out and putting them back in. StuRat (talk) 20:19, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

I, and many other people, have experienced this same problem. There is no solution. You have to wait until the battery runs out, then plug it into your comp. It'll charge then, and should work. flaminglawyer^cneverforget 22:02, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Does that mean the batteries aren't removable ? That would mean they disabled the final reboot option, assuming their product would never lock up. And how'd that assumption turn out ? :-) StuRat (talk) 23:07, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Well, sure, the batteries are removable - if you want to void your warranty and risk screwing up the internal workings of your iPod by taking it apart. And I do think that they thought it might freeze up, but they thought that it wouldn't happen very often (they were right, too!); so they gave it some thought and decided, "Hey, maybe our buyers are smart enough to realize that it's solvable by just letting the battery die." flaminglawyer^cneverforget 23:12, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Did you try resetting it? Basic, but often the solution. Hold down the power and center buttons. I seem to recall this happened to my sister's iPod, and letting the battery run dead was the only solution that worked. DaRkAgE7_[Talk] 00:38, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

Thats what i ended up doing. thanks anyway 71.223.209.11 (talk) 02:41, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

Don't make me kick my Puppy....

I have Puppy Linux on two computers, and Windows XP on two others. I'm able to communicate via the network hub between XPs or from Puppy to XP, but not from Puppy to Puppy. I also have 2 Windows 98s on the hub, and a Damn Small Linux, to boot. So, how can I get my two Pups to talk to each other (or bark, as the case may be) ? StuRat (talk) 20:28, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

What does "communicate" mean? --71.106.183.17 (talk) 20:38, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

I'd like to be able to send files back and forth between Pups. StuRat (talk) 21:40, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

FTP should work regardless, using IP addresses. You can also set up NFS mounts between Unix filesystems. Franamax (talk) 21:43, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Sounds like your systems are using Windows domain discovery to "communicate", the XP's can find each other and the puppies can find the XP's. Do you have DNS set up somewhere? The puppies will need that to name each other.

In any case, you should be able to telnet between the Linuxes, using their IP addresses. Franamax (talk) 20:51, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

You may find some useful information in the "Setiing up a lan with two Suse machines" topic higher up on this page. --LarryMac | Talk 21:27, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

You say you have these seven (2 puppy, 2 XP, 2 win98 and one DSL) computers connected to the internet via a hub??? Where do the ip addresses you use come from? Is there a device in your network that acts as a DHCP server? Is your ISP providing them?? Are you using static ip-addresses??? (if you don't know, the answer is "no"). We need more precise info to give a complete answer, but please examine the /etc/hosts files of the puppies, to see if they reference each other. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 22:44, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

(Please try to be less scream-ish; it hurts the ears of others, and is sometimes interpreted as "Go away, n00b!" by the receiving party.) flaminglawyer^cneverforget 23:08, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Please accept my apologies. I'll reconsider my use of repeated question marks and bold fonts. However, StuRat has been around here for a while, and has contributed a lot to the refdesks. StuRat is in my mind no n00b, and that is why I perhaps was a bit careless in the way I worded the response. You are right, of course, that it is unnecessary to be noisy. However, I'm confident that it'll take more than this to scare StuRat away :-). StuRat, please give us a bit more info, and we'll be happy to help. And I promise, I'll be more gentle on true n00bs. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 23:45, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Good. I don't consider Stu a noob either, so I'm glad we agree. So on with the show. flaminglawyer^cneverforget 00:17, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

actionscript question

My Actionscript 3 is a little rusty.

I have a Flash CS3 project with, say, 50 movieclips on it of the same thing, called CLOCK. They do not have individual instances.

What I'd like to do is first apply the .stop() command to all of the CLOCKs, and then one by one enable the CLOCKs in a random order.

The basic coding of this I know, I just don't know the best way for referencing all of the CLOCKs one by one. They don't have individual instance names and I'd rather not key that in by hand. I can't have them generated on the fly programatically because their positions are rather important.

Best approach to this? Point me in the right direction? It's been quite awhile since I used Actionscript so I'm having a hard time figuring out what I'm looking for... --140.247.237.64 (talk) 22:19, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

I don't know about this language in particular, since I have never used it, but I can say that (like in most languages) it seems reasonable to assign each clock a number, then use some form of random number generation (your language probably has one) to stop each one individually and randomly. I realize that this is vague, but at least it's some form of idea. flaminglawyer^cneverforget 22:51, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps I wasn't clear... let me reiterate. I know how to set up the basic loops and random number generators. That's not hard. What I need is know how to reference the movieclips even though they don't have instance names. --140.247.11.38 (talk) 23:11, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Try giving each clip an "instance name" by assigning it to a variable (a rather short variable name, since you said you didn't want to key them in seperately). flaminglawyer^cneverforget 23:16, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Actionscript doesn't work this way. I think I might have to wait for someone with more specific knowledge of the language. "Instance name" is a technical term. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 23:37, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Proxy

What is the deal here? I just downloaded FoxyProxy for Firefox, then went to whatismyip.com , and the website correctly told me my IP address. Is there a point to this? I mean, if websites can still see my IP, then I am not exactly 'anonymous'.--KageTora - the RefDesker formerly known as ChokinBako (talk) 22:30, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

FoxyProxy is not an addon that is a proxy. It just allows you to set up a proxy, much easier-ly than just with standard Firefox (because Firefox's proxy options are very minimal and bare-bones). flaminglawyer^cneverforget 22:43, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Ah, so that means I need to download Tor's Vidalia Bundle as well? Okeedokee.....--KageTora - the RefDesker formerly known as ChokinBako (talk) 22:50, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

C++

I realize that this questions sounds extremely noobish, but I'm OK with that, since I'm a programming noob. So - I know that C++ is a programming language, and I've looked at some tutorials on it, but I still cant figure out: What's it used for? It seems like a useless language to me... (and) how would I execute a file written in C++ script (and what's their file extension)? flaminglawyer^cneverforget 23:29, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Um, C++ isn't a scripting language. You would need to compile the source code before you have any executable program. The C++ article says what it's used for, but just as an example, the Firefox web browser I'm using is written in C++ (along with some other languages). I understand a lot of the heavy lifting in major applications is done in C++, although the C Sharp (programming language) may be replacing it in some areas, I'm not sure to what extentFletcher (talk) 00:13, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

(ec) C++ is one of the most frequently used programming languages today. You seem to think that it's a scripting language. It isn't - it is a compiled language. Its number one advantage is that programs written in C are usually also valid C++ (or at least, can easily be linked to a C++ program). Java (programming language) and C Sharp (programming language) are similar to, and inspired by C++. C++ was inspired by Simula (programming language). It is an object oriented language, that is statically typed. It also has support for generic programming, i.e. you can write code that deals with containers (sets, maps, arrays) of a certain type, without specifying the type. The template mechanism has spawned an entirely new programming paradigm, template metaprogramming, leading to marvellous stuff like the Blitz++ library. Several file extensions are used: .cpp, .CPP, .cxx, .CXX, cc, C. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 00:16, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

So... I write a C++ file, then use a "compiler" to execute/use it? Ok, I get it... kinda... (and yes I looked at compiled language) flaminglawyer^cneverforget 00:22, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

Almost, but not quite. You write a C++ file, which is a text file. You use a compiler (with a built-in linker) to convert it to an executable file (an .exe, if you're a windows user). That is, a binary file which contain's machine code, packaged in a way that allows the operating system to easily load and execute it. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 00:40, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

[Edit Conflict] Yeah, what they said. DaRkAgE7_[Talk] 00:45, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

OK, so here's what I've heard: I write a text file that contains C++ code, then I convert it to an EXE file using a compiler. My computer can execute the EXE file. (correct me on anything if I'm wrong) flaminglawyer^cneverforget 02:20, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

Nothing to correct, you've got it right. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 08:27, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

December 5

Firefox forcing re-enter of password

Using FireFox 3.0.4 on a Mac, whenever I go to change my enwiki preferences FireFox forces me to reenter my password (even when I'm logged in). For example, I can't change my skin without reentering my password; when I try to save the new skin, it tells me my password is too short. I have to go into the User Profile tab under the Change Password section, enter my password once and again for confirmation, click back to the skin tab, save, and only then are my preferences saved. (I do not actually change the password, just retype it). Any other FireFox users have this happen? It does not happen in Safari. Fletcher (talk) 00:00, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

This is a result of FireFox's password autocomplete feature, I believe. It enters your current password in the change password field, so mediawiki thinks you're trying to change to the empty password and gets annoyed. I've never had this problem myself since I don't use autocomplete. Algebraist 01:16, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

This seems to have helped. I did not want to turn off auto-complete; however, I logged out, logged in again and at Firefox's prompt, told it to never remember my password. This created an "exception" to the auto-complete feature. Hopefully the cookie will keep me logged in for 30 days at a time, even if Firefox doesn't remember the password. Thanks for your help, Algebraist. Fletcher (talk) 01:44, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

Youtube

I don't like Youtube's new look. How can I view Youtube in its original state? 60.230.180.175 (talk) 01:12, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

One of these maybe? Fletcher (talk) 01:50, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

Don't be silly. Please give me a proper answer. I really want to see the original Youtube. It changed very recently and I don't like the change. Please help. 60.230.180.175 (talk) 02:12, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

This might end up being like the old-facebook thing... No one liked it at first, but after a month or two, everyone was OK with it. flaminglawyer^cneverforget 02:23, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

It's kind of a silly question as you can't control how they want their web site to look. But they do let you customize the home page a fair amount if you are logged in, apparently. Go to Add/Remove Modules and Customize Home Page. You can stop some components from showing and move them around a bit as you please. Fletcher (talk) 02:46, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

You might be able to find a userscript for Greasemonkey. I am not sure if any stable script would be up yet, since the changes are so recent ... Sorry, I wish I had better news. Kushal (talk) 02:56, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

Please! I hate the new look! It's much more awkward to use with that new look! 60.230.180.175 (talk) 03:34, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

How do I install winxp

I bought a used IBM Think Center 3Ghz with no o/s.How do I install winxp ? I have the xp disk but the pc doesn't seem to boot up this way, I get a msg of no o/s. I have minimal knowledge of this,should a novice attempt this? Thanks in advance ```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````` —Preceding unsigned comment added by Oldskooloutlaw (talk • contribs) 02:25, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

(please don't put all those things, it's really annoying) Anyway, back on topic: check your BIOS (when the comp starts up, it should have options like "press F1 for setup"). Make sure the CD drive is the first on the list. Next, make sure your CD drive actually works, and that the CD isn't scratched up or anything. If none of these work, I suggest downloading a DSL Linux iso and burning it onto a disc, and seeing if that is able to boot. flaminglawyer^cneverforget 02:31, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

Refrain from staining your pure machine with the vermin that is xp, choose a better OS! --Ouro (blah blah) 06:31, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

In SNMPv3, what's the relation between contexts and views?

In SNMPv3's view-based access control model, there are the concepts of "context" and "view". Views are subsets of objects and object instances in a context. Contexts are also themselves subsets of objects and/or object instances. What's the motivation for basing access control decisions in terms of a context and then a view? Why not just define views directly as a subset of all managed objects (and/or object instances)? --173.49.9.141 (talk) 03:19, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

asm/semaphore.h

In the newer Linux kernels, asm/semaphore.h was removed. Many programs require this library. I know that I can simply use an older kernel to build programs, but when I'm building a module, I need to use the current kernel. Is there any online resource to aid in updating code that still uses asm/semaphore.h? I can see that the library moved to linux/semaphore.h. What functions changed? What structs changed? I'd like to have a list that says "search and replace the following to create buildable code". -- kainaw™ 03:54, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

Is a MacBook Air better than a MacBook Pro?

If I'm considering a Mac laptop, would a MacBook Air be a better choice? Does the fact that it's super thin make it less reliable than a Pro? --Crackthewhip775 (talk) 05:09, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

I don't know that a lot of reliability data exists yet. The Air is thin- if thin is very important to you, it's a good choice. Otherwise, it's less machine for the money. Friday (talk) 05:12, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

There is no 'better' in an absolute sense. Their specs are different, with the Macbook Pro having quite a bit more power (and firewire, an expresscard slot, and an optical drive), and the Air being lighter/thinner. There are also more competitively priced alternatives to the Air from other computer manufacturers. Which is 'better' depends on what exactly you're looking for. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 05:14, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

If portability is your main concern, then the Air is "better". If having more features and greater power is a priority, then the MBP is better. --70.167.58.6 (talk) 06:17, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

The RapidShare servers

What are these RapidShare servers?

Advanced download settings Download via:

• Cogent
• Deutsche Telekom
• GlobalCrossing
• GlobalCrossing #2
• Level(3)
• Level(3) #2
• Level(3) #3
• Level(3) #4
• Teleglobe
• Teleglobe #2
• TeliaSonera
• TeliaSonera #2

Are they server-hosting companies? -- Toytoy (talk) 09:42, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

MSN Live Messenger

hey guys I had a simple doubt, I dot know if this is possible or not, but I heard its possible to tell which contacts are appearing offline in msn live messenger using some softwares or so. Something to do with the status called idle or something, not very sure, but is it possible to tell anyways if one of my contacts is appearing offline by any chance?