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January 15

In search of the elusive long-tailed mouse....

Does anyone know where I can get a mouse with a 20 foot cord ? I would also accept a cordless mouse with that range, but most only seem good for 2-3 feet. I'm not picky, I like mice either with or without balls. I use the mouse to play videos from my computer on my TV, and I want to be able to use it from across the room. I currently use a PS/2 franken-mouse that's been spliced together from two other dead mice to have a double-length cord. A USB mouse would also work. StuRat (talk) 00:52, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

I doubt you will find a mouse with a 20 foot cable out of the box. What you need is a ps2 mouse extension cable. I would also recommend you consider switching to a trackball, which doesn't need a hard flat surface. It takes a bit to get used to, but once you do, you might never want to go back to the traditional mouse. -- Tcncv (talk) 00:59, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

If you Google around you can find wireless mice that are advertised with much longer range than those meant to be used close to the receiver. There are different wireless technologies as well, with different ranges. BlueTooth mice apparently have a range of around 30 feet. This little one claims to have a range of 65 feet. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 01:10, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

I'm using a Logitech wireless optical mouse and it seems to have about 20 feet of range (total estimate). Beyond that, a quick look at the USB page says USB has a range of 5 m... so you might be able to use a chain of USB extension cables or a combination of extension cables and wireless. I'd suggest ditching ps2 if possible, as any new equipment you buy will probably be obsolete in a few years. DaRkAgE7_[Talk] 01:21, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for all the suggestions. The PS/2 extension cable sounds the cheapest, and also has the advantage of working for the keyboard, so I think I'll go with that. Finding a hard, flat surface is no prob. I've used a trackball for 3D CAD systems, but it seems like overkill for playing movies. If, in a few years, PS/2 becomes obsolete, I will upgrade at that time. (Although being "no longer supported" is probably a better way to describe it than "obsolete", which I reserve for technologies like VHS, which truly suck compared with DVDs. By contrast, I see no inherent advantage to a USB mouse over PS/2, and at least one disadvantage, the way USB connectors allow the cable to sag and become disconnected.) StuRat (talk) 03:36, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

Just for reference, USB mice work on a much more recent and flexible standard. USB mice can have higher resolution, higher update frequencies, and are hot-swappable. In addition, the plug itself on a USB cord is more durable, the mouse is allowed to draw more current (For whatever that's worth) and you're allowed to plug in more than one mouse.

You might not have use for any of these things, but a lot of us do. APL (talk) 19:32, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

Resolved

HDD recovery tools

Hi,

One of the HDDs in our family computer is no longer showing up in Windows (neither in My Computer or in Admin Tools->Disk Management). Does anyone know of some kind of recovery software? Or is this more than likely unrecoverable hardware failure?

Thanks, --Fir0002 06:40, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

perhaps booting with a third-party CD? UBCD is a tool (well, collection of tools) that I've found useful. UBCD. If you can see the drive there, you might be able to recover info. Also a quick test would be to keystroke into your BIOS (F1, del, etc. depending upon make and model of computer) and see if the drive is listed there. If it is listed there, you may be able to recover. Also, if the computer has been moved recently, sometimes cables work their way loose. Ched (talk) 07:21, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

I've checked the BIOS and unfortunately the drive doesn't appear! I've also checked cables so that's not the problem... I'll try put it into another computer and see if it detects it but I guess things aren't looking good --Fir0002 02:04, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

You can try to boot from a Live CD (like Ubuntu's), but if you really need to recover data, I recommend GetdataBack, I already saved me several times... Good luck with that. SF007 (talk) 17:25, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

WP affects my MSWord spelling checker!

Try this experiment. Open a new document in MSWord, and type some nonsense text like kjlkjlkj. A red underline appears informing you that the “word” is misspelled. Now copy some text from a WP article and paste it into that blank document a couple of line down the page. When I do this, something really weird happens. If I type ABOVE the pasted text, the spelling checker works fine. If I type BELOW the pasted text, the spelling and grammar checkers are inactive. If I am editing something on WP, I ALWAYS copy the pertinent text over to MSWord and work on it there, where I can make use of spelling, grammar checkers and other nifty facilities. etc. I do this with all the stuff I work on, but only WP gives me this headache. Text pasted from IMDB and Yahoo QA and many others do NOT have this strange effect. Any ideas on what might be happening? I’m afraid that I ‘m not much of a techie, so keep it simple please. Hand puppets might be needed. 210.1.198.109 (talk) 07:36, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

What version of Word (and of Windows) are you using? I tried on Word 2003 Professional Edition SP1 and the spell-checker worked above and below the pasted text. Have you tried doing Edit->Paste Special->Unformatted Text instead of normal paste? When you post HTML into Word, it tries to convert the formatting to the native Word formatting, so it's possible there's some formatting attached to the HTML that's confusing your version of Word. --Maltelauridsbrigge (talk) 10:53, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

I wonder if the reason for this behavior isn't that for some reason, Word thinks that the stuff you paste below is written in some other language, one for which it doesn't have the proper spell-checking files. You can see the language Word is using for any particular part of the text by placing the cursor on the middle of the text and looking at the status bar on the bottom of the window: it'll display the name of the language there. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 20:49, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

OP myles325 back. Bingo! Maltelauridsbrigge's advice works. When I use Paste Special (Unformatted) I can get the Spell and Grammar checker to work again, which is great. Thanks too to Captain Disdain. You guys have been a real help.

Resolved

Myles325a (talk) 00:58, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

I suspect that Word is applying a style to the pasted text that inhibits spellchecking (language = none). Text typed immediately after the pasted text assumes the same style. If you press enter and then move the cursor up a line before pasting, your original style will be preserved at the end of your document. Recent versions of Word also provide a "match destination formatting" option that also retains your original style and applies it to your pasted text. -- Tcncv (talk) 01:07, 16 January 2009 (UTC) (PS - I entered the editor before I saw the preceding resolution, so this is somewhat redundant.)

Software or data types that don't leave a signature in the file

Resolved

Hi. Without giving too much away, I need to create a picture and a sound file for a contest. However I would like software or file-types that don't embed blatantly obvious headers into the file, as the participants will need to guess the file type from the clues I give them and rename it appropriately (actually it is going to be one file embedded in appended to another). Someone should not be able to guess the file-type by opening it in Notepad for example. I notice that gifs immediately start with gif in the header, and similarly mp3 software tend to embed their names and the word "mp3 ID3" at various places in the file. Is there any way I can get around this? I'd like to use gif or jpeg and mp3, as the combined embedded joined file works with Windows Picture Viewer and Windows Media Player (embedded appended wav does not work on WMP). If necessary I'm willing and able to hex edit the file to remove telltale info, if you could guide me on what to do. Thanks. Zunaid 10:46, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

MP3 files shouldn't have identifiable headers saying "mp3", though it may depend on the encoder. You can chop the start/end off if there's an identifiable ID3 tag, because the decoder can synchronise at any point in the file (they do need to contain synchronisation strings of 0xFFF, however). Most other formats seem to include text tags, e.g. JPEG/JFIF, PNG, GIF, Ogg, MPEG-4/.m4a, 3GPP, WAV, BMP file format. If you want to store audio without headers, raw PCM is the way to go, with no information on number of channels, sampling rate, word size, etc. There are some very obscure audio streaming formats for MPEG-2/MPEG-4 audio (AAC), like LOAS and LATM, but I'm not sure how many decoders actually support them. You could also try one of the more obscure file compression/archiving formats from list of archive formats. --Maltelauridsbrigge (talk) 11:18, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

The whole point of file formats is for them to be standardized and to be recognizable by software using them. If you simply use a Hex Editor to remove file format headers and other essential information, then the file wouldn't be in whatever format it was originally. You could say that these signatures are what defines file formats!

MP3 files do not usually contain "mp3" in them; they usually start with "ID3" because people like tagging their music! You might find "MP3GAIN" somewhere in the file if it has that information, though. You said that software like to "embed their names", and that's easily solved - just delete the tags from the MP3s.

What audience is your contest designed for? I doubt if you remove important file headers anyone would recognize them! -wj32 ^t/c 11:08, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

This is a good idea, though. People have documents in some file types and it'd be nice to be able to rename the files so even if the encryption is broken, people still have to wonder what file type it is. Are you ready for IPv6? (talk) 11:16, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the replies so far. I checked out the MP3 again and you are right, I should have said ID3 instead of MP3, have corrected my post. I can remove any identifiable info from the MP3's by simply editing the properties. WMP does not want to play an MP3 appended to a jpeg, so I might be stuck using gif. It's a pity because the jpeg header actually says jfif which is sufficiently obscure for the target audience (which is just laymen). This is just the first clue and probably the only "technical"-type one. It is actually for a scavenger hunt like that famous "Race" on TV, without mentioning names ;). Oh, and when I say embed I actually mean append one file to another, not as in embedding an mp3 in a Word document. I'm going to try appending it to MS Word or pdf files as well, else I'll just stick to gif, and whoever figures out the correct file extension from notepad rather than the clue, good luck to them. I can't use non-standard codes or formats, it would defeat the purpose if I need to specify which program they need to use. Zunaid 13:21, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

You are basically doomed. Every file type that I can think of has a means for identification in the first four bytes of the file (known technically as the "magic number"). This is a tradition that has grown up around the UNIX 'file' program and the associated '/etc/magic' file which translates magic numbers into human readable filename types. Nowadays it's such a common convention that I doubt there are any remotely 'mainstream' file formats left out there that can't be identified in this manner. In fact, if any of your respondants is REMOTELY hip to the Linux/UNIX scene or knows the Cygwin toolset for Windows - then they'll blow away your silly puzzle by typing:

  file filename.wibble

...and getting:

  filename.wibble: GIF image data, version 89a, 234 x 228

...or whatever. So the 'puzzle' ends up being "Do you happen to know about the 'file' program?". Even zipping up the file and renaming the zipfile won't work. Solving the problem would take me about 20 seconds - and it would go something like this:

  % file frame.wibble
  frame.wibble: gzip compressed data, from Unix, last modified: Thu Nov 30 18:00:00 2006
  % mv frame.wibble frame.gz
  % gunzip frame.gz
  % ls
  filename.wibble2
  % file filename.wibble2
  filename.wibble2: GIF image data, version 89a, 234 x 228
  %

...not much of a challenge. I suppose you could just trash the first four bytes of the file - but in all likelyhood that just makes the puzzle impossible because the header information in binary files could literally mean anything. Sorry - but I think this is a pretty terrible idea for a contest.

SteveBaker (talk) 16:03, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

Hmm well I remember once on 4chan, people uploaded mp3 files as PNG and get a staticy picture out of it and also could share music files but I didn't try it myself. As for SteveBaker's comment, I wonder if removing the exif info from the file and then hex editing the JPG, GIF, etc. at the start of the file to remove that would work. Are you ready for IPv6? (talk) 16:19, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

Also, I have two old games on my computer that use LBX files. I even have some add-ons that can modify those LBX files. I think these LBX are FoxPro database files. Well inside them, there's no way to tell what they are. Maybe you could use a really obscure file format. Are you ready for IPv6? (talk) 16:23, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

Both Motorola s-record and uuencode don't explicitly show their format at the beginning (although anyone at all familiar with them will instantly recognise them by their rubric). So you could SREC encode or uuencode a text file (perhaps the next clue); if you were evil you could encode a binary format file like an image. Mimetic Polyalloy (talk) 17:28, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

Hmmm - sadly, the 'file' program has other tricks. Let's see:

 % uuencode helloworld.txt helloworld.txt > myfile
 % file myfile
 myfile: uuencoded or xxencoded text

OK - uuencode wasn't much of a challenge...what about S-Records?

 % objcopy -O srec helloworld.txt myfile
 % file myfile
 myfile: Motorola S-Record; binary data in text format

Still not too challenging! SteveBaker (talk) 02:36, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

Shew guys, you're making it way too complicated! These are not engineers and computer people. In fact I guarantee that almost none of have heard of *nix in any form. Appending an mp3 to a gif works just fine. Determining the file type is not the final answer, it merely allows them to listen to a clue I give them, they then have to find the location given my clue and carry on with the rest of the race. It might annoy the computer literate amongst us for being way too easy but trust me, it will work. Consider this resolved. Zunaid 07:44, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

Spread Sheets To Standalone

Is there any way that a standard Microsoft Excel spreadsheet can be converted to a format that does not require excel to run? Java, or .exe for example. Thanks Kirk UK —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.82.79.175 (talk) 10:50, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

[1].--K;;m5m k;;m5m (talk) 11:03, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

It depends what you mean by "converted". If you want it to act like a spreadsheet, then you need a spreadsheet program to do the calculations. There are others apart form excel and it is liekly possible to import an excel spreadsheet into those programs. Alternatively if you just want to view the results, print them to a pdf file or to paper. -- SGBailey (talk) 11:10, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

If you're looking to view them on a computer that doesn't have excel, try google docs, or zoho.com. both free and capable of most of the excel, but they are online solutions. for stand-alone, try openoffice.org Ched (talk) 14:35, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

Technically, you can pick "File ... Save as"" and save it as an html file as well. but you'ld lose the bulk of your functionality as far as a spreadsheet goes. Ched (talk) 15:01, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

If your interest is allowing recipients who don't have Excel to view your Excel files, Microsoft provides a free Excel viewer application here. You might also have a save-as-html file menu option which may give you what you need. -- Tcncv (talk) 00:57, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

Save as XLS rather than DOCX or whatever the new filename extension is; then people can open it with OpenOffice, NeoOffice, etc. Not standalone, but no need for Excel either. Morenoodles (talk) 10:13, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

Actually, the latest version of OpenOffice opens ".xlsx" (the OOXML spreadsheet format from Excel 2007) just as easily as ".xls" (the default format up to Office 2003). Indeed, in my experience, it does so more transparently than Microsoft's own compatibility pack for Office 2000.

However, if you want just the data, then for a really cross-compatible file, save as CSV. - IMSoP (talk) 23:25, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Or you can convert them into PDFs. 121.72.172.186 (talk) 09:49, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

January 16

Adobe Fonts - Mac to PC

Hello Wikipedia,

I'm currently doing a Graphic design course, which uses Mac and I want to work from home so dutifully acquired Adobe CS3 for my PC. All is well, apart from the fact that the fonts my school use don't seem to work on my PC =-i have them on USB stick at the moment. Is there a way of getting these to work, ideally without spending money? (Adobe used to have a thing called ATM but that seems to have been discontinued...)

Many thanks, 86.6.101.208 (talk) 10:41, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

Did you try installing the fonts? Morenoodles (talk) 10:54, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

When I first opened them up, windows then asked me if i wanted to install them, so i said yes.. it then came up with error message for certain kinds of fonts (the good ones -helvetica etc), which are the ones i can't use.. I tihnk there might be an issue with Font formatting -my Indesign software only seems to recognise True Type and open type but i'm sure there' another mac one isn't there? 86.6.101.208 (talk) 11:48, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

It's possible that some of them are Mac font suitcases, and won't work with Windows. You'll have to either buy or "find" TTF or OTF versions of them to use them on Windows. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 15:01, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

Find you said? ;-) Killiondude (talk) 20:06, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

I mean, who is really going to pay for a private copy of Helvetica these days? --98.217.8.46 (talk) 02:51, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

Or convert. There are tools out there that will take a Mac-only font and make it Windows-compatible. --Carnildo (talk) 00:22, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

I would personally use such tools with suspicion. My guess is that they end out tossing out some of the proprietary data which can effect how fonts print, are displayed. Better to find a real OTF or TTF version that can be used on both without fear, if you are doing graphic design. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 02:51, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

Connecting two PCs at home.

I possess computers, one running Windows XP and the other Redhat Linux. According to me, Windows is a far more advanced OS as equated to Linux. I find it quite difficult to work properly in Linux. Recently, I have decided to keep both of my PCs connected to one another. But can I connect the two PCs just by using ethernet cables, DSL USB modems and Phone cables? If so, how can I do so? And after connecting, how can I set up the remote desktop connection between the two? Can anyone please help me out? Any help is heartily welcome. 117.201.98.161 (talk) 10:42, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

This doesn't answer your question, but if Red Hat is what I think then it's pretty ancient. You might try Ubuntu or something else that's new. Morenoodles (talk) 10:56, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

You can connect two computers using a special ethernet cable from one computer's network card to the other computer's network card. This requires a crossover cable and manually configuring the two computers on the same subnet. Another solution would be to purchase a router (~$50) then connect both computers to the router. The router will supply DHCP addresses to the computers, automatically configuring them on the same subnet. The linux box does not support "Remote Desktop" (the Microsoft program), though there are alternatives that accomplish similar connectivity. You cannot bridge two DSL modems to create a network (the modems are asymmetric). -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 11:51, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

If the two machines aren't remotely ancient, you don't need a crossover cable. Ethernet cards made since around 2000 have auto MDI/MDI-X sense detect, so they'll automatically handle a computer to computer connection with a regular (non-crossover) ethernet cable. Mimetic Polyalloy (talk) 14:34, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

Even if you have a cross-over cable, although you'll be able to connect the two together, you won't necessarily be able to do anything with them. To do normal internet applications you will need to give both machines IP addresses, and also proper routing information. A router (which can easily be found for less than $50) will assign IP addresses and routing information automatically. Otherwise you will have to assign addresses to both computers manually, and that will probably be difficult to do. What exactly do you want to do with them together? If you want to transfer files it would be helpful to know what versions of Redhat you have, and what software (software to do the task you want to do) you're comfortable with on your Windows computer. If you can give each computer an IP address, then you can use them for many internet applications, although this too will require some basic understanding of internet addressing, protocols, etc. It would be helpful if you were more specific in what exactly you are trying to accomplish. LH (talk) 10:06, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

One thing everyone seemd to have missed, it's not entirely clear if both comps have ethernet. The OP only mentioned ethernet cables and DSL USB modems Nil Einne (talk) 03:17, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

Have I killed my USB Flash Drive ?

I have got a Maxell 512 MB USB 2.0 USB flash drive that I had for a year or two (I think)that has worked perfectly until one day I plugged it in and I couldn't access it. It didn't come up in the My Computer or the Windows Explorer screens. Also the little LED light that should light up when the flash drive is plugged stopped lighting up.

But the day before it worked properly, it came up in both the My Computer and the Windows Explorer screens and when I double clicked the little green arrow for the Safley Remove Hardware it was in that screen also.

Have I done something to it ?

Do they only last for certain amount of time ?

Is it possible to recover the date that's on it ? Scotius (talk) 11:42, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

Can you plug a different USB device into that port and see if it is detected correctly? If so, the USB drive is at fault. If not, Windows may have disabled the USB port due to an overcurrent (most likely if you have several devices connected). Rebooting the computer (if you haven't already) should reinitialize the hardware and might cause it to start working again. You might also try plugging the USB drive into a different computer. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 12:19, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

And yes, USB pen drives do have a limited life. The number of read/write cycles would normally make it last for years, unless it's being used for some very intensive purposes, like as paging space (an extremely poor idea for many reasons). A half gig drive is so cheap that it's hardly an issue, though, just pick up another one. StuRat (talk) 14:54, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

I can use any other USB device on any of my computers or any other computer that I can use. If I use that USB device regardless of which computer I am using than I can’t access it. Scotius (talk) 15:03, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

It sounds like your USB drive has indeed failed catastrophically, although the failure mode doesn't necessarily fit with overuse. Was the drive exposed to large variations in temperature, or any handling that could have damaged it? Anyway, as StuRat said the drives are very cheap these days; the only concern would be trying to retrieve any valuable data from the failed drive. If it's really valuable, you can contact a data-recovery service to salvage the contents. If it's not _that_ valuable, you might try opening the USB drive to see if there is any obvious damage to the circuit board inside. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 15:47, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

No the wasn't anything of value, thanks anyway :( Scotius (talk) 16:09, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

I had one do the same thing. Worked fine one day, stopped working the next. Alas. I went out and bought a new one. I always get the $20 model for this reason—every year or two they fail, but you get more space for $20 each year (was 2GB last time I did this). --140.247.248.76 (talk) 16:42, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

I have a 60mb flash drive from 2003 still going good. I use it less these days now I have a 500Gb portable hard drive, but occasionally I boot up a linux from it to hack admin passwords. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 22:18, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

When that Flash drive died on me I started using a laptop hard drive that I got a case for , not sure what the proper name for it is , caddie is it, so that I can use it as a portable hard drive. I think it's only 12GB though.Scotius (talk) 11:46, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

it's called a disk enclosure

High-resolution Windows 9x on Modern Laptops?

Occasionally, I install old Windows operating systems (Windows 9x) on old (ca. 1997) or "quite old" (ca. 2004) computers. (This is not a simple procedure. Because Win 9x installation CDs are not bootable and have no partition manager, I first need to boot the PC from a bootable partition manager, and then I need to boot the system from a bootable DOS CD. Only then can I execute install.exe on the Windows 9x CD.) This usually works fine, but if I try to install Windows 9x on a "quite old" laptop, there is a big risk that I will only be able to use the horrible 640×480 16 colour video mode. Is there any simple way of making the OS run in a "normal" high-resolution mode? I do not need the hardware's all 3D acceleration capabilities; running Windows in perhaps 1280×768 24 bit colour mode would suffice very well. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 14:05, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

It depends on the graphics hardware of he pc more than anything else. The old pc may have a graphics board that only supports 256kB for instance in which case you can't expect anything more than 800x600 in 16 colours. For 1024x768 by 24 bit colour you need 4Mb. I guess most of them could do that if they aren't totally awful. You can download drivers for most display boards off the net. Dmcq (talk) 14:17, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

p.s. use a good modern computer with firewalls anti virus etc when getting the drivers! Dmcq (talk) 14:19, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

No, the problem is that the computer is too new for the OS - or, that the OS is too old for the computer. The computer I am working on now is from 2006 and was designed for Windows XP... However, Windows 9x does not know how to use the hardware, it appears. So, my question is: how to make an old OS (Win 9x) use the hardware of a modern PC. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 14:50, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

It is hard to find drivers for new hardware for Windows 9x... --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 14:51, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

I bet! Unfortunately, I'm not sure there's a solution to your problem: hardware manufacturers simply don't support the older versions of Windows anymore. (Which is pretty understandable, as it's very rare for users to install decade-old software on new computers.) Unless you can locate a third-party driver for the hardware, you're pretty much out of luck. Alternatively, you could install an older graphics card in the computer... with a laptop, of course, that may not be an option at all. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 18:40, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

Which "Windows 9x" are you installing? There are three of them (95, 98, and 98SE), and the ease of getting drivers varies greatly. For any computer more than a few years old, 98SE drivers shouldn't be a problem, while 98 drivers are harder to find, and drivers for Win95 are almost impossible to find. --Carnildo (talk) 00:28, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

(When I speak of "Win 9x", I include Windows ME.) Well, I have CDs for all three of them (95, 98SE, Me), and have tried them all, but have never succeeded in making the screen high-res. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 12:31, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

Vista Updates

How do I know when (or even if) Vista is installing an update or security patch? On XP it was simple. You had a little yellow shield in the bottom right, then you got told to restart when it finished. This has not happened with my new machine so far. I am concerned because of a recent article on the BBC website saying that a critical update (MS08-067) was needed. I don't know if I have it or not. How would I find out? Ok, two questions there, sorry.--KageTora (talk) 20:23, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

Vista is updating software using Windows Update. If you open your start menu (press the Windows button), type "Windows Update" and press Enter, you will open Windows Update. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 20:30, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

Here you can choose "Search for Updates", "Show Update History", "Change Settings" and so on (I have translated the strings from Swedish - they may be slightly different on your computer). --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 20:33, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

While Windows Update downloads updates from the internet, there is a little blue rectangular icon in the system tray (bottom right of your screen). If memory serves correctly, it is animated a little bit as well. Killiondude (talk) 20:36, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

Answer to question 2 (do I have it?): My best guess would be to go Control Panel > Programs and Features > "View installed updates" (on the left hand side). That certainly lists the KB index numbers of all installed updates. - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 20:42, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. I've done all that now. However, this thing begins with 'MS', not 'KB' and it is not listed.--KageTora (talk) 22:32, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

You'll need to cross-reference Microsoft's MS number with a Microsoft KB number. Perhaps the easiest way to do so is to Google 'MS08-067' which leads to this bulletin. On that page, the associated KB number is given as 958644. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 08:59, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

My Vista installation is set up to notify me when there are updates. To get that option, I went to Control Panel -> Windows Update and chose Change Settings in the left hand panel. In the settings page I moved the selected option to Download updates but let me choose whether to install them (it is not the recommended option and IIRC I got a couple of warnings at first). I now get notified about updates every couple of days, usually with a definition update for Windows Defender, but sometimes a security patch or something bigger. I find it's nice to know the update process is ongoing and I get the opportunity to defer a big update like Office SP1 to a more convenient time. Astronaut (talk) 11:03, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

XP Screen resolution

Is there a way to link the screen resolution to the user? Another person also uses my computer and changing the resolution screws up the order of my desktop icons. Clarityfiend (talk) 20:57, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

Well, why not simply use another user profile? I'm pretty sure screen resolution settings are user-specific. (I mean, desktop images and icons and whatnot certainly are.) -- Captain Disdain (talk) 21:38, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

There are two users set up. I just don't see anywhere in user accounts to set it. Clarityfiend (talk) 00:59, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

Microsoft doesn't appear to allow you to have individual display settings. There is an unofficial workaround involving setting the resolution in a bat file executed on each login, but that would potentially still cause your desktop icons to be rearranged before the new resolution was applied. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 01:07, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

Restore Desktop Icon Positions After Windows Rearranges Layout has a utility to save and restore the desktop icon layout. --Bavi H (talk) 04:11, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. That helped a bit, though some of the icons still moved around. Clarityfiend (talk) 08:15, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

Thunderbird Error

I am getting this message: 'An error occurred while sending mail. The mail server responded: 5.7.0. Must issue a STARTTLS command first. 1sm2080490ewy.49. Please verify that your email address is correct in your Mail preferences and try again.' Why this all of a sudden? I sent mail easily about five minutes ago. Anyway, can anyone give me any idea of what to do here?--KageTora (talk) 22:55, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

Addendum - it seems to have happened since I added a new Gmail account to it. I have been using a different Gmail account up until now, and am trying to have both of them work on Thunderbird, which has never been a problem before. I can use the new one with no problem, but the old one is my main one. How do I sort this out? --KageTora (talk) 23:09, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

Don't worry. I sorted it out. --KageTora (talk) 00:29, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

Resolved

January 17

Unicode character not showing up properly across computer

Today, I randomly discovered that the following Unicode character is not showing up properly across my computer: ♡. In some locations it is showing up as the open heart icon, but in other places (where I have several other Unicode characters) it shows up as three horizontal lines similar to the symbol for the equivalence relation: ≡ (although it appears with shorter lines). The item appears in the fonts I have installed that appear here, but nowhere else. Is there a way to get this fixed?—Ryūlóng (竜龙) 00:15, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

It sounds like you are describing the geta character. This is displayed when the selected font does not have an appropriate glyph to display. While you may have an appropriate font, for whatever reason it may not be selected in all cases. Can you elaborate more on the cases when it does not display correctly? Bendono (talk) 11:44, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

Any good free virus protection? Or, which one to upgrade?

I'm on a tight budget, but have this computer with some old virus protection; Webroot and Trend Micro Antirus, each of which expired about a year ago, and a McAfee Security Center. I was wondering if there were good free anti-virus problems which can also get rid of viruses, or if not, which one would be best to renew? I thikn the McAfee is current. Thanks.209.244.187.155 (talk) 00:16, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

Well that can be a loaded question, everyone has their own points of view. You may want to read 2 wiki articles: List of antivirus software, and Anti-Virus. AVG, Avira (sp), and Avast seem to do well in tests for free AV software, I like Nod32, and Norton has made some very good improvements lately. For a comparison of products, you can visit: AV-Comparatives. While it's easy for every editor to provide their favorite solution, it's probably best for you to make a decision based on your own needs, and preferences. All have good points, and all have short-comings. To be honest, you'll probably see that McAfee is struggling at this time for various reasons, but again, it's a choice you should make after some research. I personally like AVG, and NOD32, but my opinion doesn't mean any more than anyone else's either. Best of luck. Ched (talk) 00:48, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

Although somewhat off-topic, you might want to consider web browser security as well. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 01:29, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

AVG is lightweight and fast. Norton is a resource hog. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 02:41, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

Actually, I have AVG on most of my computers (NOD32 on 1), and I agree with the first part. But it appears from all I've read, that Norton has made some very good strides to combat those very resource issues with it's newest 2009 version. Granted, 2006 -2007/8 was a real ahhh... let's use the phrase (less than desirable). I can't say I've tried 2009, but most of the comparisons I've read say it has improved a lot with their latest release. Ched (talk) 07:48, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

windows xp is not updating

windows xp is not updating on my computer.when i ty to open the site "http://update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate " ,404 error appears. and appear as " The requested URL /microsoftupdate was not found on this server " .what should be the problem .how can i over come this —Preceding unsigned comment added by Khubab (talk • contribs) 00:38, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

The link you posted seems to work fine for me. Can you connect to http://www.microsoft.com ? If so, you can try browsing to "Security & Updates" from there. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 01:46, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

I think you have a common issue with some older versions of XP when they're reinstalled. Microsoft has a solution on their knowledge base (try clicking the "help" link when the error comes up), although I can't find the link offhand right now. The solution though is to add the windows update website (the secure one) to your "trusted" list in internet explorers. I don't remember the address for sure, but try adding https://windowsupdate.microsoft.com. LH (talk) 09:57, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

when i want to open "https://windowsupdate.microsoft.com. " i go to the site "http://www.google.com.pk/" similarly, on the site. "http://microsoft.com. " , when i try " "security and upadates " then I go to the site ://www.google.com.pk/. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Khubab (talk • contribs) 23:03, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

What do you see upon accessing http://207.46.18.94/ ? -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 00:10, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

I see:- Geogle Error

not found

The requested URL /windowsupdate/v6/default.aspx was not found on this server. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Khubab (talk • contribs) 02:54, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

Ah ha. Your browser was able to connect to windowsupdate.microsoft.com (207.46.18.94) long enough to be redirected to the full URL, but failed translating the redirect URL. Something is hijacking requests for windowsupdate.microsoft.com and redirecting them to that Google page (which is typical for some computer viruses). Check your hosts file for any malicious entries, and consider downloading an anti-virus. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 03:30, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

you could try "netsh winsock reset" (without quotes) at the command prompt. Also if you can get a search to work, there are several winsockreapir winsockrepair tools that should be helpful. Ched (talk) 06:07, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

Catch on the video card slot

What's with the catch on the end of the video card slots (AGP/PCIe)? What is its purpose? Anyone have a good suggestion on how to remove the card while holding only its edge to prevent static discharge and at the same time pulling out the catch?121.72.172.186 (talk) 09:45, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

Its purpose is to ensure that the card doesn't move and to press it in properly. I don't really have suggestions, but note that there's no reason to get paranoid about static discharges. As long as you ground yourself before touching the components, you're going to be fine. Or if you're worried, you can always get a ground bracelet. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 14:44, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

Removing power plugs?

Sometimes the power plug for old style(IDE) hard drives and CD drives are on really tight. Anyone have a good method of removing them without damaging the hardware or hurting themselves? 121.72.172.186 (talk) 09:47, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

Rocking back and forth is the method I usually use, although a pair of pliers might work well too. You should unplug the CPU from the wall before attempting any of these too. LH (talk) 09:52, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

My goodness and I thought I was the only one with that problem. Pulling out the IDE cable first helps, as that gives you more 'leverage' to tweak the plug to the left and right (not up and down, that might break something). Pliers works too... with care. Sandman30s (talk) 22:09, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

Wiggle gently from side to side whilst pulling. (the plug not yourself)--GreenSpigot (talk) 03:54, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

I sometimes use a pair of flathead screwdrivers. Place one on each side of the plug so that the sides of the screwdriver blades are under the lip of the plug and twist. --Carnildo (talk) 03:41, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Small fonts

Is there a monospaced font smaller than Ariel? -- Mentisock 14:51, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

I have never heard of the font "Ariel" – you are probably referring to Arial. I do not know what you mean by "smaller", for every (vector) font can be used in any size (at least almost). Perhaps you are looking for a monospaced font that is readable in small sizes (many free fonts are very hard to read already at 10 pt). I would recommend Courier New, Lucida Console, and - above all other - DejaVu Sans Mono which is free and supports a big part of Unicode. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 15:03, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, I meant Arial. :-p Silly typo. And it seems that at an equivalent size courier new would be displayed larger than Arial. Certainly when tested here at least:

testing courier new

-

testing dejavu sans mono

Even though the latter has more letters it's smaller in space than courier new. -- Mentisock 15:18, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

OK, now I understand what you mean. The fact that the letters of two different fonts will have unequal sizes even though they are the same "size" can be a difficulty in many software development situations. (The last time I encountered the problem was only a few weaksweeks ago, when I wrote a text editor with a "Unicode fallback" mechanism.) --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 15:37, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

A few 'weaks' ago eh? There you go, everyone makes typos; no need to point them out when they are obviously typos. Sandman30s (talk) 22:05, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

I am sorry. I do not know English as well as Swedish... --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 23:04, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

Besides, it is essential to clarify if the author really meant Ariel. It's possible such a font exists Nil Einne (talk) 03:11, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

There's also Auriol. —Tamfang (talk) 05:46, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

There's a list of monospaced fonts at http://www.lowing.org/fonts/ . From a brief glance at the samples it looks like ProggyTiny or SquareShooter Mono could be smaller than Arial. AJHW (talk) 13:32, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Backup Tape Missing Index

I've got a backup set, made in Windows Backup. It's on 2 DLT tapes. The second tape, with the saved index, is missing. Is there any way to restore data from the first DLT with no index? When I try the basic restore, it reads to the end of the tape, then asks for the second tape. As that one is missing, all I can do is abort the restore. Any help will be appreciated! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.62.100.108 (talk) 17:36, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

Without the index you are not going to be able to run a 'basic' restore. Microsoft provides some instructions for an advanced restore including a catalog (index) rebuild which might work for you. There is also the option of contacting a professional data recovery firm. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 03:47, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

Ichat log files

Hey, i have some ichat binary log files with the .ichat extension,that a friend sent me, i can barely read them using an hexadecimal editor which is not comfortable at all, what do you suggest to me to read those files knowing that i'm on XP, and it is hard to do mac emulation on PC ... all i want is to convert them to normal raw text files ... thanks in advance. 196.217.40.159 (talk) 18:39, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

I did a little searching and found a few programs that might do what you need. The problem, as I'm sure you've found, is that most of them seem to be written for mac. If, however, you have access to a mac (or your friend would do it) you can export the ichat files to a more portable format with some of these programs. If you're lucky though, you might be able to get one of these to compile under XP or linux. I have not used any of these programs myself, and I can't vouch for their safety or how well they work, but you might want to check them out.

• IMlogconverter - [2] On Sourceforge. Convert between different Instant Messenger chat log formats. Supports reading old-style Gaim and Poisoned logs. Supports writing iChat v3.0+ logs.
• iChatExporter [3] extends functionality in iChat so you can export any real-time or saved chat conversation into a text file
• ichatexporter - A chat file to text exporter for Apple iChat.

I don't know the ichat format well enough to know if this will work, but you can try to stip out all the non printable characters and see if that leaves you with distinguishable text. For instance, using this command from any *nix shell might work: cat ichatfile.ichat | strings > ./ichatfile.txt

LH (talk) 19:56, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

All the programs you gave me, i found them earlier, i revisited them, downloaded them, but there is no way to compile them even on Linux, your command helped me a little, but you don't know who sent what ... anyway i'll try to emulate mac on my pc and execute those programs, and why not reading them directly on ichat ;) thank you very much, your command really helped ... 196.217.32.215 (talk) 12:01, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

Resolved

Speaker Problem

What does it mean when I have to pull and tweak the chords that go to my speakers in order to get sound to come out of them?--Elatanatari (talk) 18:41, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

It probably means that the wire strands inside the cables are frayed so that the wire is cut, and when you mess with cable, the ends come into contact with each other again. Typically, this happens when a cable has been bent a lot over time or gets stuck somewhere (jammed between a desk and a wall, for example). Alternatively, but more unlikely, it's also possible that the problem is in the connector on your computer (or CD player, or whatever) or speakers that the cable plugs into -- oxidation, for example, can cause that to occur over time -- and again, when you tweak the cable, you get a contact going. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 18:51, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

Or the connector may just be loose. Many are. StuRat (talk) 01:50, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.246.23.58 (talk) 03:13, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

Print preview in Chrome

Is there a way to do a print preview in Chrome? DuncanHill (talk) 20:25, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

Apparently not... --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 23:02, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

But many (perhaps most) printer drivers offer a print preview feature independent of the software application ordering the printout. This feature can normally be turned on in the printer's settings dialog (in Google, select Print and then Settings). --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 12:31, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

I do not appear to have that. DuncanHill (talk) 13:25, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

It's not a perfect solution, but you can install PDFCreator or something similar to create PDF output for preview. It's not as streamlined or as fast as a built-in preview capability, but at least you can avoid wasting paper on bad printouts. --173.49.15.243 (talk) 18:10, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

Oooh, I hadn't thought of that - I do have a pdf printer. Will give it a try. DuncanHill (talk) 03:43, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Modding an Xbox360

I want to mod my new xbox 360 to play backup/burned games. I've tried to do a little research, but I'm having a difficult time finding any good tutorials. Could someone of knowledge explain it to me, or give me a link to a "noob-proof" tutorial? I've gathered that I'll need to flash the dvd player's optical drive with ixtreme 1.5...but that's about all I know at this time. Thanks for any help and any links! --71.98.10.217 (talk) 22:15, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

I don't know anything about modding a 360, but all I have it say is if you use Xbox Live, I wouldn't advise modding it. Microsoft is known to ban modified consoles. –  LATICS  talk  23:00, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

Yes, I am aware of the risk of being banned from XBL, but it's a risk I'm willing to take. Plus as long as you stealth burn the games properly Microsoft can't tell the difference. And that wave of banning happened over a year ago, and as far as I can tell there hasn't been another wave of banning like that since then. Anyone else have links to TUTs or good information/advice? Thanks for the help. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.117.39.131 (talk) 17:37, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

You are willing to risk banning from XBL in order to run 'backups'? Oh pur-leas...that is *SO* not believable. Be honest - you want to steal software. That's reprehensible and illegal. We're not going to help you do that. SteveBaker (talk) 02:54, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

While still illegal and represensible, the technical term is "infringe copyright", not "steal". And we're not going to help you do that either. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 04:36, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

"Bootleg" works too, if "infringe copyright" sounds to stuffy.

In any case, I'm not sure anything that involves soldering new equipment to an existing motherboard can ever be described as "noob-proof". APL (talk) 14:12, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

No - and in fact, the likelyhood of fsck'ing your Xbox due to lack of wicked soldering skillz is the one good part about this. The more idiots who wreck their Xboxen - the fewer of them will be inclined to do illegal things with them in the future. I use the word 'steal' because that's how it seems to me. Most game designers/programmers/artists earn royalties on every copy of the game that's sold. When someone pirates a game that I worked on instead of buying a copy - that is literally money that is gone from my pocket. So it's personal! SteveBaker (talk) 19:48, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

January 18

Negative memory

Moved from WP:RD/Misc Nil Einne (talk) 03:09, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

Hi,

I recently installed half-life 1 on my computer... but it didn't run because it said: "your system reported only -3824k of physical memory. Half-life requires at least 16mb"... and i'm not too familiar with computers so i don't know what on earth it means... can some one help me? that would be great. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ireallyneedanewsn (talk • contribs) 02:52, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

It would help if you provide your system specs, particularly the amount of RAM and VRAM your system have and what OS you are using. It would also help if you post to the computing reference desk rather then misc as I've now moved it. My gut feeling is you have too much memory and Half-life is not properly designed to support such a large amount of memory and ends up thinking it's negative. Nil Einne (talk) 03:07, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

Er... considering i have 4 gigs of ram i probably have too much memory and it thinks its negative... but is there any way to circumvent that?

Maybe maybe not. You still haven't mentioned what OS you are using. If you are using a 64bit OS (Vista x64, XP x64) then running in a 32bit one (Vista x32, XP x32) may help although I cannot guarantee it. There could also be a user patch, try searching Nil Einne (talk) 03:22, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

Oh also I forgot to mention, temporarily removing one stick, presuming you have more then one or more sticks (likely since 4gb sticks are expensive and would prevent dual channel) to get it down to 2gb may also help. BTW, I had presumed you'd updated to the latest version, but according to this [4] & [5] which I found via searching, may be not. I strongly suggest you update to the latest version whenever possible if you are having problems with an application. In this case you will have to install Steam and I presume register for an account which you may find annoying but it's the simplest solution and will ensure you are less likely to encounter any other odd behaviour. You can uninstall it when you're done after all. If you can't use Steam because you only have a demo or other version then you'd have to try something else. If you can't use Steam because you don't have a valid CD-key then we can't help you (while it is possible to get Steam updated software in other ways don't expect help here for it.) I would point out that HL1 on steam is only like $9.99 or something IIRC. Nil Einne (talk) 03:27, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

thank you very much ^_^ greatly appreciated. I just ended up buying it. 10.00$'s not too much to pay for a great game. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ireallyneedanewsn (talk • contribs) 03:35, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

Maybe HL1 treats 4GB as a signed integer? In that case it would be -2GB, which it... somehow turns into... -3.8GB... --wj32 ^t/c 09:45, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

That would be a pretty surprising bug - most game developers have really high end PC's that are maxed out on RAM, etc. I'm pretty sure someone would have noticed during routine development if it were that simple. SteveBaker (talk) 02:52, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Keep in mind that the development in question took place more than 10 years ago. I'm pretty sure it would have been quite unreasonable (if not impossible) to have 4GB of RAM at that point. In fact, if this site is to be believed, the typical hard drive was around 4GB. So no, this error is not particularly surprising in context. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 03:31, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Yeah - that's true. I guess I'd kinda forgotten just how old that code was. But look closely at what the OP said - the error isn't saying that there is -3.8Gb - it says -3824kb - which is only 3.7Mbytes - not Gbytes. So if they have the error you guys think they have (they used a 'signed' integer instead of an 'unsigned' integer) then -3.8M would represent an amount of memory just 3.7Mb short of the 4Gb that there actually is. Since this is talking about the amount of PHYSICAL memory - we must conclude that 3.7Mb of the physical address space is consumed by something that's not addressable memory. That's not impossible. Certainly, our OP is going to need to drop his memory down to <2Gb to fix the problem. SteveBaker (talk) 19:37, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Gnome equivalent to KATE

Does Gnome have a KATE program? I need a text editor that can seamlessly open a file through SFTP (as though it is a local file) and display the file for editing with context highlighting. -- kainaw™ 02:17, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

Modern versions of TRAMP allow Emacs to edit over SFTP; older versions support editing over SSH (without the SFTP layer), which might also work for you. --Tardis (talk) 03:11, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

What happens if you just open up the remote location via GNOME's "Connect to Server..." and then just opening the file using gedit ("Text Editor")? --71.106.183.17 (talk) 07:20, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

I haven't tried that. Pretty much every task I do is on a different server. So, from KATE, I just type sftp://user@some.server.com/dir into the file dialog and then click on the file I need to edit. A few minutes later, I read the next email, type another sftp location into the file dialog and click on the file I need to edit. The sftp locations I access a lot are bookmarked to make it even quicker. I would prefer to avoid leaving the editor to open a server connection and then going back into the editor to edit the file. -- kainaw™ 15:06, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

gedit will edit a file over sftp if you choose the "Open Location" in the File menu. Unfortunately you have to type the full filename to the server (it doesn't open directories), and it doesn't let you save bookmarks of your favorite sites. I don't know of a gnome editor with those features, but I suppose there could be one. Indeterminate (talk) 20:10, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

Of course, if you really love KATE, you can always just use that. You can still use KDE programs even though you're in a GNOME environment. It's trivial to install KDE programs if you have a distro with a package manager. 90.235.11.149 (talk) 18:24, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

The problem is that the version of KATE that works is not supported by any current version of Linux. The new version of KATE doesn't work anymore. I figure that nobody on the KDE team uses it, so they can happily ignore all the bug reports. Since KATE is the only reason I've stuck with KDE, I have hoped that Gnome would recognize the usefulness of the program and make a competitor. -- kainaw™ 15:41, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

External (USB 2.0) Hard Drive not Recognized as a Hard Drive

I have a laptop with windows xp and recently my hard drive started to fail. So I bought another hard drive and an enclosure that connects to the laptop with usb 2.0. I tried to use ez gig 2 to copy an image of my old hard drive into the new hard drive and the first attempt did not work because the software could not find one of the hard drives. So I goggled possible solutions and tried the one where the new hard drive is put into the laptop and the old hard drive is put into the enclosure. This time the software recognized both drives and formatted the new drive. About half way through copying the partitions the power went out in my house and since my laptop battery is messed up the laptop shut down in a couple of minutes. When I found out what happened I tried to restart the process but the software stopped recognizing one the hard drives. I think it has something to do with the other hard drive being a corrupted copy of my old hard drive. (for now I put my failing hard drive into my laptop) My laptop recognizes the new drive as a usb mass storage device and does not allow me to do any hard drive operations on it. Anyone know how this situation can be fixed? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.171.16.131 (talk) 06:26, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

Sounds like you need to totally reinitialize and reformat the drive at a bare minimum. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 01:57, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

The problem is that I can't reformat it because my computer does not recognize the drive. The backup drive shows up correctly at device manager but does not show up at my computer or disk management. I was thinking of putting the backup drive inside the computer and then using a cd disk to re-format it. However I don't know how to create a cd-disk that would reformat the drive to a format that would be recognized my windows xp. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.171.16.131 (talk) 04:34, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

The Windows XP install disk (or any system recovery disc that came with your computer) is most likely bootable and capable of reformatting a drive. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 04:40, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Uploading using Terrapin FTP

Toby and I live in UK and both use Orange ISP; we each have our own orange username and password; we live 50 miles apart. We both upload files to my website (which I bought through domaindirect), using the same username and password. Or we did. Recently Toby has found he can’t do it. And I have noticed that when he has tried to upload a file (sometimes) it uploads file of size 0kb rather than 525kb. Then nobody can read them. On other occasions he is told the website is trying to connect him but it fails to do so. I am having no problems. We each have our own terrapin password. We have both reinstalled the latest Terrapin and reset to the same password. What else could we try? Kittybrewster ☎ 12:12, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

Is there a device in which USB is enabled with bluetooth —Preceding unsigned comment added by Karthikpanuganti (talk • contribs) 15:41, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

No. Kittybrewster ☎ 17:30, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

How about having him try a different FTP program? That'll at least rule out the program as a problem. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 18:33, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

If you followed my previous advice, what did Orange Tech Support say when you asked whether they had tightened up the security?

I have used Terrapin before and I know it is quite tightly integrated with Orange's web hosting, however 98.217 's advice is good. Your friend should at least be able to copy something up to the host location with the right credentials, unless he is deliberately blocked. Astronaut (talk) 15:14, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Free software for backing up a disk partition

I would like to create a new partition on a computer's hard drive and install another operating system in it. But I want to make sure that if I make a mistake, or if I don't like the new operating system, I can reliably restore the hard drive to its previous state. Can someone recommend a free utility that can back up a disk drive partition to DVDs or an external drive? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.49.15.243 (talk) 16:29, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

What operating system are you using? What file system is the disk (NTFS? FAT? HFS+?)? These things matter when figuring out things like this... --98.217.8.46 (talk) 17:02, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

Windows. NTFS. --173.49.15.243 (talk) 17:21, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

A Gparted LiveCD might do the trick for you. I don't know if it will let you export a partition as a image file, which might be something you'd like, but it can certainly clone partitions with ease. Unlike most Linux programs it is actually pretty easy to use. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 18:31, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

I've used PartImage and the Seagate DiskWizard for that purpose. The latter is free as in beer only, requires that you're using Seagate disks, and is the easier to use of the two. If you want to backup your master boot record, you'll need do do that separately if you use partimage (I've used dd from a linux live CD to backup the MBR). Whichever tool you use: if you want to be 100% certain that you don't mess up, I'd reccommend buying a second hard disk, clone your disk to the second disk, and then replace the first disk with the second, make sure it boots normally, and proceed from there. If you really mess up, you've still got your original disk. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 18:54, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

Norton Ghost would be the old answer. There might be something new out there that is similar. If you want the bare-bones method that I think works excellently, then use dd with *nix (unix, linux, mac, etc.). dd will read/write bits off of the disk bit for bit. It does not care what filesystem you have. It is available on most live linux cds. LH (talk) 09:33, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

I too have used dd successfully (once) to clone a disk, but I found it unbearingly slow. (Maybe I selected a too small block size? I don't remember the details). --NorwegianBlue ^talk 12:42, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Connecting Thinkpad T61 to internet, turning "on" tower icon?

Recently, my son's computer was exposed to a virus. The computer pro had to remove and re-install everything. We just got it back, but now we can't figure out how to turn on the internet "tower" icon on the lower part of the screen (get it blinking) so that we can connect to the internet? Any help thanks.Williamwinkster (talk) 18:41, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

There is usually a special combination of keys that enables/disables wireless (often some function key + F?). If the combination doesn't work, you probably need to update the wireless drivers. A good place to find them would be the website of the computer's brand. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 19:36, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

Many laptops also have a dedicated button or switch to enable/disable wireless networking that is not on the main keyboard, often on the computer's front, right or left side --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 19:53, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

I have a T61p, which should be pretty close. On this, I have Fn+F5 and a hardware switch on the front-left of the base. If all the drivers were properly reinstalled, then it should work right off.

Do check the Lenovo Support site to make sure it was all reinstalled. There is a utility program that helps control the wireless radio Fn+F5 and the switch too. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Washii (talk • contribs) 20:40, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Buying cheap .ac (ascension island) domains

When buying them directly at nic.ac they are quite expensive (£69 per year). I have heard that domain resellers are sometimes cheaper. Does anyone know of any cheap .ac resellers? Thanks, --217.227.118.94 (talk) 21:02, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

Google knows. The best price I saw was £55 at e3internet, though I have no information on their service. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 03:15, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Videoclip in iTunes/iPod

ok, basicaly, i have a number of movies which format's are (according to Windows (XP)) just: 'Video Clip'. These dont go onto my iTunes (the latest one), which is very annoying, how do i get them to go onto my iTunes (and then my iPod)? thanks, --84.67.191.166 (talk) 22:35, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

The videos definitely have a format other than 'Video Clip' (thank Microsoft for hiding that useful information from you!), but you might try searching the web for something like "convert video for ipod"; Google found these directions on cnet which might prove helpful to you. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 02:53, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Try DVDVideoSoft's converters (they're free) - [6] --wj32 ^t/c 05:34, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Frequency Ranges

Which frequency range does the FCC regulate and is anything outside of that range able to be used without a license? --Melab±1 ☎ 23:25, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

According to IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.11 works on 2.4, 3.6 and 5 GHz spectrum. A google search for unlicensed frequency can be helpful. For a fuller treatment, please study the following PDF document. Hope that helps, (and please come back for any more questions). Kushal (talk) 01:47, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

I think this is what you're looking for. But a minor point: generally the FCC regulates the entire spectrum (I'm sure the precise wavelengths are defined somewhere) and certain frequencies like 2.4ghz, 900mhz, etc. are unlicensed. This is slightly different than unregulated. LH (talk) 09:15, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

The FCC page linked above says they only regulate 9 kHz-275 GHz. Frequencies below that (Extremely low frequency, Super low frequency, etc) are used for a number of applications, including military uses (Communication with submarines) and underground communications. Above the higher limits, you're getting into terahertz radiation; it has a very limited range so there's probably no great need to regulate its emission at present. ITU-R regulates radio globally (including communications with satellites); as an international body it has no power over citizens, but depends on its member governments implementing laws. The article on very low frequency says the ITU doesn't regulate below 9 kHz and this band can be freely used in many countries, although there is no citation given for this. --Maltelauridsbrigge (talk) 15:05, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

January 19

Reinstall OS X

I have here a 20" iMac (A1076). When I turn it on, I get a flashing question mark on a folder. I guess that is because the OS is not installed? So I inserted Panther Install Disc 1, then booted from the disc by holding the "C" key on startup. It boots to a white screen with a grey Apple logo. After a few seconds, the apple logo shifts a centimeter or so to the right, then the computer hangs. What should I do? 118.92.210.37 (talk) 04:18, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Is that the install disk that shipped with that iMac, or just a generic OS X 10.3 (Panther) installer? If I'm parsing my google results right, that's an iMac G5 20" 1.8GHz (original version, not the rev with the ambient light sensor) aka "PowerMac8,1", which means that it needs OS X 10.3.5 or later. An older version (i.e. what you'd find on a generic 10.3.0 installer disk) is likely to try to work, but fail. A lot like what you describe.

If I'm right about the problem, you need to find either the disks that came with that model, or a newer generic install disk.

If I'm wrong, other likely possibilities include:

• a damaged disk: solution is the same as above
• a bad optical drive: if you can find an external FireWire CD/DVD drive (including another Mac in Target Disk Mode), you could use that... I think that model also supports booting from USB, so a USB drive should also work
• Not enough RAM (128MB, I believe) in the computer to fully boot: add more
• An internal hard drive so thoroughly hosed that the OS hangs just looking at it: try disconnecting the HD; if the install disk boots then, you could just replace it, or try to find a way to erase it without ever trying to mount it (maybe one of the Linux Live CDs would help here)

That's what comes to mind off the top of my head, anyway. Good luck. Speaker to Lampposts (talk) 06:00, 19 January 2009 (UTC).

If it is the wrong disk you could try using Torrenting a version a site I like is The Pirate Bay.Xor24 ^{talk to me} 14:41, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

movie graphics standards

If you're doing digital effects for Battlestar Galactica, say, or rendering the next Pixar feature, how many pixels do you generate for a frame? Is it the usual 3×8 bit color model, or something more tuned to film? —Tamfang (talk) 05:39, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

For the colour depth, please have a look at this previous Reference Desk question. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 11:41, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

The Wiki article on digital cinematography has some information on the subject. A few years ago, I've read that some film preservation projects scanned each frame at 4000 pixels of horizontal resolution. A quick web search found this article on film preservation. --173.49.15.243 (talk) 14:41, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Certainly they'll be using HDR (High Dynamic Range) images - which means they'll be using either 3x32 bit floating point or 3x16 bit - or possibly an 'SRGB' mess where S is the intensity and RGB are normal 8 bit colors - different color depths for different stages of the pipeline is also highly likely. The resolution may also vary - but for a feature movie, I'd expect at least 7000 pixels horizontally - for a 'made-for-TV' or 'direct-to-DVD' then they probably go much lower. But it's not a straightforward question because in all likelyhood they'll use different resolutions in different places in their workflow. SteveBaker (talk) 19:14, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

I would love to add that information to the digital cinematography article, which sadly lacks any mention of any format with more resolution than 12 bit 4096×2304 pixels. Also, I would like to put that information into the high dynamic range imaging article, which currently implies HDRI is only used for still photos. Alas, I can't just cram that information into articles without any references. Does anyone have any references that support HDRI being used for video? --68.0.124.33 (talk) 09:28, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Solution Configurations in Visual Studio

I have started using Visual Studio Express 2008 to develop some Windows programs in C#. When I first installed it, I'm pretty sure I was able to build my programs in either "debug mode" or "release mode". However, I've recently noticed that the solution configuration options have disappeared and the Configuration Manager option is permanently greyed-out. I am now only able to produce a release version. Any ideas how to fix this, or should I reinstall Visual Studio from scratch? Astronaut (talk) 15:04, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

I use VS Express too. It only produces a Debug build when you run/debug the program from inside Visual Studio. When you build using F6, it produces a Release build. --wj32 ^t/c 04:12, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

Tools | Options | Show all settings (enable) | Projects and Solutions | Show advanced build options (enable). Bendono (talk) 04:20, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

WTH. I didn't see that! Thanks a lot! --wj32 ^t/c 06:27, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

I was about to reinstall VS, but that's fixed it. Thank you Bendono. Astronaut (talk) 14:26, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

Resolved

Keys suddenly producing wrong symbols

Help! Some of the keys on my keyboard have started producing the wrong symbols - the hash key now produces \ and shift + hash now makes | instead of a tilde. shift + ' now makes " instead of the at sign, shift + 2 now makes @, I get a hash when I should get a pound sign, help! DuncanHill (talk) 16:05, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

OK, it seems to be doing this in Chrome, but not in Outlook, and now I shut Chrome and reopened it, it seems back to normal. Any ideas what happened? DuncanHill (talk) 16:11, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Your keyboard somehow switched to standard American layout. I don't know what it was before, but all of the things you mentioned are normal on the keyboard I use. flaminglawyer^c 16:29, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

It's a British English layout. So, for example, shift+the top row produces ¬!"£$%^&*()_+ and shift+# produces a tilde. DuncanHill (talk) 16:34, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Well on my American keyboard, the top row is ~!@#$%^&*()_+ which isn't extremely different. But I'm surprised that you have a button for #. I have to shift for it. flaminglawyer^c 19:06, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

# is at the far right of the row that starts asdf, and just by the carriage return. You can see the British and American keyboard layouts at British keyboard. DuncanHill (talk) 21:35, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

It is probably not that, but in Windows the Alt+Shift key combination changes the keyboard layout. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 19:48, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

I've found that some Windows installations are prone to apparently spontaneously switching keyboard layouts. My laptop has a british keyboard layout but I prefer to use a US layout external keyboard that I find it easier to use when coding (a hangover to the days way back when my university only had US keyboards). Anyway I had the same problem, presumably due to me accidentally lingering on a certain key combination while typing, until I changed the auto-switching settings and I haven't had the problem re-occur since.

Find the Regional and Language options in the control panel. On that form, there is a tab for changing the keyboard and language settings. In my Vista installation, that tab has a Change Keyboards button which leads to another form listing the default input language/keyboard and a list of installed languages and keyboards. Either delete the unnecessary keyboards and languages combinations or change the key combinations that will switch keyboard layout. Note: in XP I believe the form with the list of keyboards and languages might be only accessible from Control Panel -> Keyboards.

Astronaut (talk) 23:26, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Brilliant! I'm in XP, control panel->regional and language options->languages->details->key settings, then switched off the keys to switch! Many thanks! DuncanHill (talk) 00:48, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

Screen Resoution /Video Card - Re: Pixels are rendered as little squares

Good Day!

I have a question in regards to the images on the computer screen. There are images which are not clear ie: pixels are rendered as little squares. The interesting part is that NOT all images are distorted. One of the websites that I have this issue with is MSN home page, but not necessarily all the images. This is a mystery to me and I have attempted to resolve it to no avail. Is it possible that the video card is not working properly? Is so what are some recommendations? But, why would it affect some images and not others?

Many thanks for your assistance.

Your help is greatly appreciated.

M.M. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.80.246.8 (talk) 17:37, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Can you post a screenshot of the problem you're experiencing? -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 19:09, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Do you have some Web accelerator software installed? This type of software was promoted a few years ago as offering near broadband speeds over dialup connections. One of the ways it achieved this was to compress images in a very lossy way resulting in pixellated images. Astronaut (talk) 23:38, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Defragmentation

My computer will let me defragment on a schedule. The problem is that it says it did it but I never see any evidence it is happening while it is happening.

I don't like to do it manually because I have to just sit there for who knows how long to wait for it to be finished.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 18:26, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

- OS Name Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Home Premium Version 6.0.6001 Service Pack 1 Build 6001 Other OS Description Not Available OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation System Name System Manufacturer HP-Pavilion System Model KT369AA-ABA a6512p System Type x64-based PC Processor Intel(R) + - Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.0.6001.18000" <Social Security Number removed> User Name Time Zone Eastern Standard Time Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB Total Physical Memory 3.99 GB Available Physical Memory 2.15 GB Total Virtual Memory 8.18 GB Available Virtual Memory 6.13 GB Page File Space 4.28 GB Page File C:\pagefile.sysVchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 18:39, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Be more careful next time. You posted your SSN in there... But as for your problem, it might be that Vista is doing it so smoothly that you don't even notice. But we're talking about Vista, so that's not likely... flaminglawyer^c 19:11, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

True, but you see no evidence of it not happening either, right? The benefits of defragmentation have been for the most part vastly overrated anyway, and this is definitely one of the things the operating system should be able to handle on its own. If you must have "proof" that defragmentation occurred, you might try running "defrag c: -s" at a command prompt; if you want to "catch it in the act" you can monitor "Task Manager" for the defrag process. Otherwise, relax and let the operating system do the defragmentation in the background. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 19:21, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. I don't see my social security number anywhere. I would surely have removed it if it had been in that information. But I looked at what I copied from and don't see it.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 19:26, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

I wrote "Just kidding" right after that, but commented it out. I expected you to see it (but you didn't). flaminglawyer^c 23:58, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Meta discussion moved to talk page. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 04:06, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Mozilla Firefox 3 navigator bar's default search engine?

Resolved

When you enter a string in the navigator bar of Mozilla Firefox 3 it either redirects you to a similar website or automatically redirects you google search results. However, after I downloaded a Ask.com toolbar, which I later uninstalled, FF is now still trying to search through the ask.com [7]. Now any string I enter Firefox tries to search the string through the uninstalled toolbar, thus giving no results!! I hate ask.com! Please advise me how to fix this so that FF navigator bar works the way it used work earlier! --Sanguine learner ^talk 18:36, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

This isn't so much a quick fix as a diagnostic: Bring up Windows' "run"; type "firefox -P" (minus quotes); create a new profile; load that. If the problem persists, well, it's quite serious, but if there isn't a problem with the new, clean profile, then post here and we'll see what we can do. - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 19:01, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

This one isnt too destructive: [8] outlines how to change it to either google, yahoo, or google's I'm feeling lucky, which is the one I think you want back. --omnipotence407 (talk) 21:35, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Hi! Omnipontence the link info is for FF 2.0 and does not work for FF 3.0! --Sanguine learner ^talk 18:02, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

If you follow the same instructions, but use this http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q= as the string, it should work, at least it does on mine. It looks like google has replaced the link. Oh, ignore the whole voiding your warranty. You might also try right clicking on the row and selecting "reset," that might work. --omnipotence407 (talk) 20:34, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

When I type about:config it displays

XML Parsing Error: no element found
Location: about:config
Line Number 1, Column 1:

-Sanguine learner ^talk 20:56, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, but you are out of my league. The best I can suggest is as follows. First, just try reinstalling firefox overtop of the current version, like a manual update. Then, if that doesnt work, uninstall and reinstall firefox. Just backup your bookmarks and passwords (using the password exporter addon). If you dont want to do that, I would recommend opening a ticket with Mozilla as this seems to be a known bug. --omnipotence407 (talk) 00:48, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Yes it worked! The about:config feature did exist but due to a sidebar addon i didn't realize that it was showing me the filter bar in the sidebar! THANKS!! YES!! --Sanguine learner ^talk 18:33, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

why would i only be able to connect to wikipedia.org and not other sites

i know this is the wrong place to ask this but it is the weirdest thing. I am only able to connect to wikipedia.org and i can search it completely, but i cannot access any other sites and this goes for my computer as well as my wifes any help would be great adam —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.188.174.175 (talk) 18:46, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Do you get any error messages trying to connect to the other sites? What sort of problems do you encounter? - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 18:57, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Sounds like some "child protection"-type software might be set to block all sites except those in the whitelist, and Wikipedia was added to that whitelist. StuRat (talk) 19:17, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Another possibility is that DNS name resolution is, for some reason, not working. That you're still able to connect to wikipedia.org might be the result of cached name resolution result prior to the failure. --173.49.15.243 (talk) 19:28, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

(ec) What he said. Try: http://64.170.98.42/html/rfc920 . -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 19:31, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

HuffingtonPost.com login

Resolved

I have an account at HuffPost.com. The login at that website works a bit differently from everything I've encountered so far: A field appears (within the tab/window), hovering over the background of the page where I clicked on Log In. The huge drawback is that Firefox cannot seem to remember the login data, and I have to enter them manually each time. Is there any workaround? I only ever access that account from home and don't really need any additional security (which, I suppose that login mechanism is designed to provide). 78.34.154.49 (talk) 18:47, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

More likely it's only designed to "look cool". Anyway, with javascript disabled the login link redirects to http://www.huffingtonpost.com/users/login/ . Presumably you can bookmark that page and Firefox will remember your login details. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 19:42, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Yes! Wonderful, thanks a bunch! Now I can just swiftly drive by and unload my anti-liberal rants to the target audience... :D 78.34.154.49 (talk) 19:47, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

YouTube issues

I'm trying to create an account there, and I keep getting this message: The verification code was invalid or has timed out, please try again . This message appears every time I try again. I type the CAPTCHA and my password properly, so what's the issue? I figured it out. --Crackthewhip775 (talk) 21:07, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Resolved

Displays on Dual Monitors

Is it possible to have two different backgrounds on my dual monitor setup? --omnipotence407 (talk) 21:28, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Yes. The easiest way may be to open the two backgrounds in a photo editor and paste them together into one double-sized background which can then span both monitors (recommended by Microsoft, even!). It's probably also possible to use some "Active Desktop" magic to cause a different image to appear on each monitor. Finally, you can plug the second monitor into a second computer, and use that computer to set a different background image on that monitor. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 21:54, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Really, you can set the displays to have different backgrounds on two different computers ? And here I was spray-painting the monitors to change the color. Thanks for the hint, those fumes were killing me. :-) StuRat (talk) 22:10, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Also look into if your video card has any special software. Nvidia cards have "nview" for instance, which is the little icon in your tray. It has options (under "Desktop" if I remember right) to have two different desktop wallpapers. It's easier than installing other software or cutting and pasting together a photo everytime you want to change a desktop. LH (talk) 09:10, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

January 20

Links in email signatures

I use Outlook 2003 for my emails. In the signature for one of my accounts, I include a link to the Google Maps entry for my Scout Group. This is a very long and ugly-looking link, but it is very useful to help people find our building. Is there any way to make the link just appear as something like "Find us on Google Maps"? (Like we can do with links on Wikipedia). DuncanHill (talk) 00:35, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

You could use one of the URL shortening service (such as TinyURL) to make it something that's shorter, but it'll still be a URL in your signature. -- JSBillings 01:48, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks - I've done that and it looks a lot better. DuncanHill (talk) 02:02, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

If you are using HTML email (which most everything supports these days) then you can just stuff in an HTML link, like so:

<a href="http://www.mysite.com/page.foo?whatever">My link text</a>

(You might also need to tell Outlook to use HTML mail by default.) -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 02:40, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

Cool, thank you. DuncanHill (talk) 03:12, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

Note that this is fine for private emails. For serious emails (at least say in acedemia, which I am familiar with) HTML emails are at least frowned upon, and worse increase the chances of your mail being gobbled up by the spam filter. Not sure about businesses, but I wouldn't be surprised if similar rules operate.193.109.51.50 (talk) 23:05, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

HTML emails are generally accepted by marketing and management, frowned upon by engineering, and forbidden by IT. --Carnildo (talk) 23:45, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

That's really a rather... outdated view. Suggesting businesses that often choose clunky, bloated, and insecure email software would condemn HTML email is rather humorous. I personally don't care for HTML email (never have) but the world marches on. Nowadays nearly every mail client can handle HTML email (many users get their email in HTML form regardless), and short of "not impressing" some old-school computer geeks and being *marginally* more likely to get caught in a spam filter, there isn't a real downside. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 00:13, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

One annoyance is that when someone sends me a link as cleartext (i.e. not as an <a> tag) within HTML mail it's not clickable in Thunderbird. —Tamfang (talk) 20:37, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Difficulty in Installaing Windows XP.

Hello everybody. I've recently bought a Compaq Laptop with Linux pre-installed. But recently I've decided to install Windows XP as an additional operating system on it, for efficient coordination with my Windows XP Desktop. But each time I enter the Windows XP SP2 CD into the disc-drive of the laptop, a message appears as "Please press any key to boot from CD". After I press any key, another message appears "Setup is inspecting the hardware configuration of your machine" and the screen turns black and remains unaffected until I switch of the laptop and Windows XP is not installed. The CD is also not corrupt, since it is original and I used it to install XP successfully on my Desktop. What can be the problem? Is there any solution to this? Any help is gladly accepted. 117.201.97.215 (talk) 13:54, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

How long have you waited ? It may take several minutes to inspect the hardware configuration, which might involve doing things like turning the monitor on and off. StuRat (talk) 15:39, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

Actually, I've waited for about 2 hours but nothing has happened. 117.201.99.83 (talk) 16:00, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

You may need to connect (or disable) an external monitor. Windows can be somewhat "flighty" when it comes to choosing a primary monitor. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 16:09, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

Oh. Thank you, but is there any other way (a bit easier) to solve the problem? (I have not enabled any external monitor yet, so it is not quite a difficult task for me to connect any external monitor to it). Whatever it may be, thank you for rendering your kind help of cooperation. [To be noted that 117.201.99.83 and Anirban16chatterjee are the same, i.e I am now logged in].Anirban16chatterjee (talk) 16:23, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

Take a close look at the install CD. Are there any scratches or delamination ? I've had install disks go bad on me before. This isn't very likely, given your symptoms, but still worth a check. StuRat (talk) 17:40, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

• What model of Compaq is this? The first thing you'll need to do is look in your BIOS for the problem by pressing F10 at boot time. Check your hard-drive settings, because Windows XP doesn't support SATA drives by default. It needs to come pre-installed with the drivers for those. If that's the problem, you'd need to change the configuration inside the BIOS to use IDE instead of AHCI, over-write Linux with XP, install the drivers, partition the drive, and re-install Linux. If that doesn't help, unplug any external devices and try disabling some more features in the BIOS.--K;;m5m k;;m5m (talk) 18:04, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

Have you made space (ie. a partition) in which to install XP? If all partitions are configured as ext3 Linux partitions, the XP installer may be struggling to identify a partition it can use. However, the lack of any display is the most worrying aspect of this problem - you should at least be able to see something, even if it was a message about not being able to find a usable partition. Does the laptop still start up in Linux OK? Astronaut (talk) 18:32, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

AWB on WINE on Ubuntu 8.10

My main problem is with AWB, but I'm not sure my .NET 2.0 is installed properly - it thinks it is but it seems to generate a load of "fixme"s when repairing. Basically, AWB loads, I can see everything, but then dies (read "exits itself") whilst "Initialising" - am I missing something simple? (I got WINE specifically for AWB, so it isn't tweaked, patched or anything.) Any help appreciated. - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 18:59, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

If "AWB" is AWB then you might find this quote from the article helpful:

AWB works with Wine; you have to do "winetricks gecko dotnet20" to install the correct .NET framework first.[9] If you find any problems running AWB on Wine, please file a report at bugs.winehq.org.

-- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 20:13, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, I saw that (hence why I tried it in the first place really); I haven't reported a bug yet though. Wine has known problems emulating IE, I now suspect that to be the problem in my case. - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 20:52, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

Software mirror sites

I've made a program (licensed under the GPL v3) and submitted it to Softpedia and MajorGeeks. Suddenly it's appeared on all these other websites. I expected that and I don't really care. There's one site at softwaredragon.info which has bundled my program with an Ask toolbar installer. Great way to make money off free software. Is there any way I can stop these people from mirroring my program? One way might be to say that they're violating the GPL by not providing/offering source code with the download, and since I've given the first two sites permission, they can do that... --wj32 ^t/c 20:48, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

Good luck with that one ;) Seriously though, the bigger the provider the more likely they are to read your complaint, so target the bigger ones / the ones with most to list first, and hope the other websites don't matter. - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 20:52, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

Perhaps gpl-violations.org can help you. --128.97.244.84 (talk) 22:58, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

It's not that big... Anyway, does anyone know of any sites similar to softwaredragon.info? I mean, are there any sites which take free software and bundle it with adware/spyware, then submit it to download sites claiming that they wrote the program? It's just greedy and unfair. --wj32 ^t/c 23:54, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

I have to ask - why did you license it under GPL if you didn't want people to do that? The WHOLE POINT of GPL is to allow people to do that kind of thing. You've already given them permission! If someone is making money - then the people they are making it from are idiots. They could be getting your software for free - yet they are paying for it. I don't think there is anything you can do...nor should you. Learn a lesson and read the fine print of the license you use before posting your code to the web with it!

The GPL says (in the chatty prelude section): "For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether gratis or for a fee, you must pass on to the recipients the same freedoms that you received. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their rights."

So they are certainly allowed to charge people for your software...but they DO have to say someplace that it's under GPL and they have to point to a place where people can get the sourcecode (although they are allowed to charge people 'a modest fee' for the source code too). If they aren't doing that - then the correct thing to do is to remind them of this fact and ask that they fix that. SteveBaker (talk) 03:37, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

I just emailed them with a cease-and-desist type letter saying that they didn't even display the license and that they didn't offer source code. I know that the GPL allows people to do that, I just didn't think anyone would do that! --wj32 ^t/c 08:48, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Closing tabs in Firefox -- switch to next unread?

Hi all,

Firefox has recently started behaving differently than I'm used to, and I'm trying to work out whether it's some extension messing with the defaults, or if I'm now on the defaults and an extension was messing with it before...

If you open up two or more tabs in the background (e.g. by ctr/apple-clicking), then switch to the first new tab, and then close it, which tab do you now see? Up until last week, I would get the next tab to the right, i.e. the next unread tab. Now I go back to the tab that I originally clicked on the links from.

1) Which is the default? What happens when you try it on your Firefox? 2) Does anyone know what might cause this change?

Thanks!

Sam 146.115.120.108 (talk) 23:59, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

There are several extensions which do this - I use Tab Mix Plus which has an option to do exactly what your talking about. I don't think it's like that by default, though. --wj32 ^t/c 03:41, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

"Next tab to the right" is (or atleast was) the default (my relatively unmodified Firefox behaves that way). There seem to be a significant number of people who prefer that behavior [10]. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 21:32, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

January 21

video file

Is there a way to or a free download tool that lets me keep video files I play on my computer? I'm running WindowsXP. I was trying to find a downloadable copy of Obama's inaugural address, but all I could find were commentaries. It's already being cut down to sniplets at most news sites. I'm afraid if I don't save a copy now I'll never get to watch the whole thing again. --76.97.245.5 (talk) 09:06, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Try searching for '<your browser name here> cache path' or something like that and you might be able to find the things you want from there. There also seems to be some "flash video resources downloader" plugin for firefox, but I haven't tried that. --194.197.235.61 (talk) 09:22, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Ten years ago, on Windows 9x and IE, this was really simple. You just had to copy the *.avi or *.mpg files from "C:\WINDOWS\Temporary Internet Files". Today, it is slightly more complicated. Although browsers still store files in temporary folders, many (perhaps most) videos are Flash based and/or streamed, and cannot be saved and played in common media players that easily. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 10:41, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Not really a technical matter, but I believe the recordings of Obama's speech will be available for a long time. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 11:04, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Yea, but probably at sites like YouTube. News orgs always seem to want to edit things down to sound bites, making them essentially useless. StuRat (talk) 13:35, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

• It depends on the format of the video. For YouTube, you use a site like this to download the .flv file, which you can then play in VLC player. If it's Quicktime, you can just examine the source code (View... --> Source) for the .mov file link, or right-click on the movie if you have Quicktime Pro to download it. You can also look in the cache, as was mentioned above. In XP, the path is C:\Documents and Settings\<your user name>\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files.--K;;m5m k;;m5m (talk) 11:28, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

I would skip the keepvid site and go right to here, which will convert the file to something useful and download it for you as well. Matt Deres (talk) 16:09, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. I had meanwhile managed to capture one, but it will only play with a lot of distortion. I'll get to work on feeding it though the site Matt suggested today. --76.97.245.5 (talk) 00:08, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Be sure to check the file(s) carefully. I checked through the files I'd downloaded and about a third had no sound in them. Sorry for the red herring; the first two or three I'd tried came through perfectly so I thought the site was good. Matt Deres (talk) 11:41, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

I personally find the original files far more useful then crappily recompressed ones. You don't actually need KeepVid or any website, Orbit and other tools are able to download mostly anything you throw at them and able to find the URL too. Really if you have VLC you should have no problems with most files you download, except perhaps RM files for which there's RealPlayer Alternative, if you're using Windows Nil Einne (talk) 12:12, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

If all you want is Obama's speech, then you should go to the whitehouse.gov. Below each youtube video on whitehouse.gov website is a download link to a high quality MP4 file. Much better than using special youtube downloaders and converters. For other Youtube videos, VLC media player will play .flv without converting. — Shinhan < talk > 07:38, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

gnuplot with XCode

How can I use gnuplot with XCode (programming in C) on Mac OS? If I have an output file with data in, how do I plot it from within C? Is it something to do with a makefile?

--Cash4alex (talk) 12:24, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Google is your friend. (I understand, however, if you don't yet know the keyword API to search for. In this context, "a Y X API" means "a library for controlling program/system X from language Y".) Makefiles are certainly irrelevant. --Tardis (talk) 15:40, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Sound doesn't work

I am running Damn Small Linux on an eMachines T5010 computer. How would i go about setting up the sound card so it works in Linux? Step-by-step would be nice; i am relatively new to Linux.  Buffered Input Output 13:58, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

1. Figure out what sound hardware you have. "lspci" is useful for this.
2. Configure the kernel. Assuming you're using menuconfig and a 2.6-series kernel, you'll want

   Device drivers ->

   Sound->

   <*> Enable sound support

   Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ->

   <*> Advanced Linux Sound Architecture

   Find your hardware under either USB devices or PCI devices and enable it

3. Build and install the new kernel
4. Install the ALSA libraries and utilities
5. Run "alsamixer" to un-mute the sound on your system

There are additional steps for programs that only support the older OSS API, and for MIDI support. --Carnildo (talk) 23:23, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

DSL uses a 2.4.31-KNOPPIX kernel. There is no menuconfig.  Buffered Input Output 13:44, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Excel

Hi

Is there a way to apply a forumla to a cell location? I have a list of 100 values, repeated 4 times on one above the other. I'd like to average each position over all 4 repeats so I'd like to write a formula like:

=average(Bx,B(x+100),B(x+200),B(x+300)).

I can't do this, is there another way I can achieve the same thing?

Thanks!

Aaadddaaammm (talk) 14:21, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

You probably want =average(B1,B101,B201,B301). If you place this formula in a separate column (D, for instance) and then auto-fill from D1 to D100 you will have a column of 100 averages. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 14:43, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, new question: I've copied and (special) pasted formulas I made with the concatenate command, and now they are not calculated. If I double click on each and hit enter it calculates them, but I've got several thousand and I don't want to click on them all. Any hints here? Is there a "calculate all formulas" button, or something? Thanks Aaadddaaammm (talk) 15:16, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Pressing F9 should recalculate everything. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 15:33, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

I would so love for it to be that easy, but F9 does nothing for me. Excel doesn't seem to understand that they are formulas until I double click them... Any other tips? I've been trying macros, but they are not working for me. Aaadddaaammm (talk) 15:47, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Why is it necessary to "(special) paste" the formulas? You should be able to accomplish most everything with standard "paste" or the auto-fill feature. To create a constant formula (one that doesn't change cell identifiers automatically) either use '$' to specify invariant terms or complete three cells manually, select them all, then use auto-fill. If it still isn't working we're going to need more information on what exactly you are trying to do. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 21:19, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Total size of all Wikipedia articles

Hello RD. Quick question, what is the total size of all Wikipedia articles in TB if summed together? -- Samir 14:24, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Does this help? Cycle~ (talk) 14:45, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

And this. Cycle~ (talk) 14:46, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Rock on. You are awesome. For some reason couldn't find it when I searched. Take care -- Samir 14:51, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

You can even download the entire wikipedia DB if you want, see WP:DD. :) -- Aeluwas (talk) 17:46, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Not even close to a terabyte. How about this oldie for a real challenge "I want to download the Internet. Do I need a bigger hard disk?" :) Dmcq (talk) 23:53, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

If you go here: [11] you'll see raw files - available for download. The relevent file is enwiki-latest-pages-articles.xml.bz2 - which is the raw text for all of the articles. No Talk: pages, no WP: pages, no User: pages and no pictures. So the raw text of the English-language Wikipedia articles is only 4.1Gbytes. That's using BZ2 file compression. That's actually the October 2008 version - it'll have grown quite a bit since then. But even allowing for some growth - you could fit it onto a single DVD-ROM (indeed a single-sided, single layer DVD-ROM). Unless you have a very old computer or your hard drive is very full - you should have plenty of space to download it onto your computer and if you have a decent net connection, you should be able to download it all overnight. SteveBaker (talk) 03:25, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

ipod shuffle (clip version) with old USB (1)

Does the iPod shuffle (the clip version) work with a very old computer that only has old USB (USB 1)?

Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.120.227.136 (talk) 16:14, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Yep. As long as the computer can run iTunes, then the iPod should work with it. flaminglawyer^c 22:19, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Yes, all USB 2.0 devices should work on 1.1 connectors (at a lower data rate, of course). --69.151.28.135 (talk) 05:16, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Inkscape fire

Does anyone know a way to make fire lettering in Inkscape? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.219.228.172 (talk) 18:13, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

It depends on what you want "fire lettering" to really look like. Options include (combinations of):

• turn the text into a shape, and then manually manipulate the top vectors of each letter to resemble a stylised fire effect (that's a lot of heavy lifting)
• turn the text into a shape, copy, expand, and repeat a few times. Then overlay the resulting forms with a roughly common baseline, and colour in a fire-like way
• a firey gradient fill in the text object

87.113.74.22 (talk) 20:02, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

I think I'd paint the effect I wanted in a paint program (GIMP, Photoshop, etc) at really high resolution - perhaps with a limited color palette - then use Inkscape's capability to convert raster images into vectors. Do a couple of letters first to make sure it does what you want. SteveBaker (talk) 03:01, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Conficker virus/trojan whatever?

So, I come back from a month abroad in Europe (to the UK); I switch on my PC and find a dirty big but incomplete message that has no Close button obliterating a large part of my screen telling me in part that my automatic update has failed. So there I am wondering what has happened whilst I was away and I decide to bypass the message and log on to AOL and then on to my Windows Protection Suite as provided by McAfee via AOL telling me my PC, Files, EMail and Internet are unprotected so I click on FIX and nothing changes, so now I worry. And then I decide to delete McAfee from my Program list and then I re-install it successfully and do a full Scan and then my McAfee tells me I am fully protected again. Phew. But now I am wondering why do I pay AOL/McAfee/Windows XP £2.99 per month for protection if I am exposed to viruses such as Conficker in my absence (I only learned about this from Wiki's Main Page today). And why wasn't I told about this by AOL - I did try their Live Help Desk but got a message telling me that in order to improve their customer service to me AOL had discontinued that facility??????? And having done all of that, why do I still get the incomplete message at startup telling me that the automatic update has failed despite McAfee telling me my PC etc., are all now fully protected? Thanks for letting me rant and thanks in anticipation of any helpful responses to this novice PC user. Oh - and is anyone ever traced who has initiated these viruses worms and trojans and are they ever prosecuted? 92.21.251.196 (talk) 19:42, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Well, with AOL, that's kind of what a lot of people would expect; it's not exactly a universally beloved service. Still, as reviled as AOL may be, in this instance, it's not necessarily their fault. McAfee is probably a little more to blame here, since they're the ones who provided the software that was supposed to keep this from happening. But even then, it's a little hard to say it's their fault: they can only prevent what they can catch in time, and if the worm slipped under their radar, well, that's that. It can be argued that their software should have caught it, but, well. Can't catch 'em all. I'm sure their software did tell you that your computer is fully protected, but any piece of software that tells you that is lying -- at least if by "fully protected" you expect it to mean that "it cannot be breached or infected by malware". It simply means that there are no security problems the program is aware of. There are always going to be bugs that can be exploited, and a piece of malware can always avoid detection if its creator is clever enough.

Perhaps a tiny bit of the blame could also be said to fall in your own lap: a patch for the bug in Windows that enabled Conficker to work was released three months ago, and if you'd installed that patch at the time, chances are that your computer wouldn't have been infected.

But that is blaming the victim. The malware's author is obviously the person who really should be blamed -- and to answer your question, yes, sometimes these people get caught, but a lot of the time they don't. Usually, there's not a lot of evidence to go by, but sometimes these moral cripples do get caught: David L. Smith, who wrote the infamous Melissa worm, for example, was caught and got a ten-year sentence (which was reduced when he turned stoolie, but still). Likewise, Sven Jaschan, the author of the Netsky and Sasser computer worms was caught and convincted, though he got off relatively easily since he was a minor. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 21:04, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

January 22

basic C++ help

I'm new to programing, and it's really frustrating. I need my program to read from a file (groceries.data) and then output it. I just can't seem to get it to work. This is what I have, based on textbook examples and handouts.

#include <fstream>
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;


int main(){
  string groceries;
  ifstream groceries ("groceries.data", ios::in);
  groceries>>...
    cout << groceries; << endl;
}

It keeps giving me errors. Where am I going wrong? Thanks for your help, whoever helps. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.82.78.80 (talk) 01:19, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

I wrapped your source inside a <source>..</source> for readability. I see a couple of problems. First, I would suggest naming your ifstream object something different from your string (both are currently named "groceries"). Next, when reading from the stream, the stream object should be placed to the left of the >> operator, and the object (string) to receive the data to the right. That statement would be terminated with a semicolon. Finally, you have an extra semicolon in your output statement. It's okay and quite common to have multiple output items strung together with multiple << operators in a single statement.

Try updating your code to see if you make any progress. If you still have problems, post your next version and we'll try to help. -- Tcncv (talk) 01:41, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

standard tetris game, windows?

can anyone recommend a free STANDARD tetris game I can download for Windows XP. I just tried like 5 of them, and I tried all the top results for "java tetris" in my browser too and none of them are good, standard tetris.

Do any of you play one you can recommend for me? Please only answer if you've actually, seriously played it for a long time. Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.120.227.136 (talk) 01:31, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Well, I haven't "actually, seriously played it for a long time", but perhaps you can find some helpful information on a Wiki devoted to Tetris. I suspect at least one person there will have "actually, seriously played it for a long time". -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 02:07, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Okay, you don't have to have "actually, seriously played it for a long time" but even if you haven't "actually, seriously played it for a long time" do you know of a specific one you can recommend for me? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.120.227.136 (talk) 02:19, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Technically, no. But this list of "fan games" probably has something to suit you. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 02:45, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

The definitive tetris for windows came with the excellent Best of Microsoft Entertainment Pack. It's the one that Peter is playing in Office Space. BOWEP isn't sold anymore but it's been available here for a long time. You might also want to look at TetriNET .froth. (talk) 18:58, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

€

Does anyone know what symbol occupied the place of the euro sign (option-shift-2) on U.S. Mac OS keyboards before the euro was introduced? Lesgles (talk) 04:37, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

According to the apple support website it replaced the currency symbol. Nanonic (talk) 07:56, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks! Lesgles (talk) 06:04, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Download Wikipedia.

Very soon i will be visiting a relative in a third world country. Among other things i will be bringing a laptop to give to the relative. My relative does now have internet and has no way of getting access to the internet, so I would like to put a full (or nearly full) copy of the English Wikipedia on to this laptop. I would like it to be in the same format as it is online. What would be the easiest way of going about this?

Thank you 98.238.145.2 (talk) 06:43, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

[12]. Note that the English version is around 14 gigabytes, and there's no way to choose which articles you want. If you want a smaller version, you'll have to set up a local web server like Apache, get PHP and MediaWiki, and import pages-articles.xml.bz2. That one's 4.1 GB. --wj32 ^t/c 08:54, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

(edit conflict) If I am not mistaken, the Wikipedia article database is a (huge) XML file. It should not be that difficult to write a Windows application using a Internet Explorer component for viewing the pages from a database file. (Do not try to read from the original XML file, though – reading a 4 GB file to RAM is still highly inadvisable.) Has no one ever tried this before? Are there no Wikipedia EXEs already compiled? --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 08:59, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Is there a way to download the complete 14gb? ceo 09:41, 22 January 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ceo (talk • contribs)

You might be interested in WP:Wikipedia-CD/Download, a good selection of articles in 2006. Hopefully a new version on DVD instead will come sometime soon but I don't know any details of that. Dmcq (talk) 10:51, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

I don't know what you mean by "is there a way to download the complete 14gb". It's here. --wj32 ^t/c 22:47, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Wizard (software)

What is the etymology or reasoning behind the name of this? thanks, --Molten Epidermis (talk) 12:20, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

My hypothesis: The application (wizard) makes all sorts of "strange and complicated" things for you (e.g. installing an application), like a wizard, after asking you a few questions. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 15:15, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Some time ago (10-15 years) I worked on a project where I needed to use the Spanish version of Microsoft Excel, and noticed that it used the word for "Assistant" instead of "Wizard". I never found the reason for this - some cultural sensitivity perhaps? - and I don't know if it's still the case. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 13:31, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

RAR or 7zip

what's the best archive format for storing large numbers of file? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.80.240.66 (talk) 12:28, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Acording to http://www.kikizas.net/en/apps.7z.html there is not much difference though anecdotally you are more likely to recover data from corrupt RAR archives. -- Q Chris (talk) 12:42, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Sorry i should have been more specific. I'm not too bothered about the compression, i'd like to know which works best for large numbers of files, recovery (as you said), cross platform implementation etc. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.80.240.66 (talk) 13:03, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

(A little off topic) One issue for us tightwads is that the 7zip software is a free download, but winrar is only a 30-day free trial. 7zip also a supports a wide range of archive formats including RAR. Astronaut (talk) 18:54, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

I duno about 30-day trial, works for me no nag screens or nothing. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 20:47, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

TBH I hadn't checked recently but just now I got a nag screen saying that Winrar is not free and after a 40 day trial period I must buy a license or remove it. However, considering the wide range of free alternatives, I'm in no rush to splash out 30 Euros. Astronaut (talk) 23:42, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Safe Games?

At my school, I have two periods in which I have no class; I attempted to play Antari's Impossible Quiz, which is completely innocent -and- FUN! But, my school is somehow stopping it from loading. So any suggestions on some game sites that wouldn't be blocked? —Preceding unsigned comment added by EWHS (talk • contribs) 14:24, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

How should we know your school's internet blocking policy? The best advice I can give is to google for gaming sites and try them until something works. Algebraist 14:36, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Another advice is to follow your school's rules, and not use computers for gaming at all. (Indeed, there might be reasons for why some sites are blocked.) --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 15:18, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

But that's not fun!  Buffered Input Output 17:16, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

How do you know that his school's rules state that computers are not to be used for gaming at all? (They might! But the original poster doesn't say anything of the sort.) I mean, I don't think it's at all unusual for schools to just block sites en masse and not worry too much about sites that wouldn't violate the school's policy getting caught in the wave. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 17:25, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

I'm guessing that you have much better games at home, so my suggestion is to use that time at school to do your homework and study, so you will have two more hours at home each day to play the really excellent games. This will also keep you from getting in trouble for playing games on the computers at school, if that's not allowed. StuRat (talk) 18:40, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

It's possible to bypass some blocks using anonymizers. In high school, one of the guys in my computer class set one up so we could play games and browse humor sites. If you don't have a friend who knows computers, a site like [13] might work. I don't recommend using that, since there's probably rules against it, but it's something to think about. As far as finding sites that won't be blocked, I doubt it's possible. They probably just block every site with any kind of animation on it. Black Carrot (talk) 16:03, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Xcode on two Macs-discepancy

I have written a program in the Xcode environment. I can run it on an iMac (Power PC) with no problem, but when I try to run exactly the same program (I just copied and pasted the code between environments) on my macbook, it launches a gbd debugger, and when I run it in terminal it says 'floating point exception.' Why is this happening when it is exactly the same code? The versions of Xcode are 3.1 and 3.0 respectively, but the code is a very primitive C program, so I don't see how that should be a problem...

Thanks --Cash4alex (talk) 14:47, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

C (source code) programs are not entirely portable between architectures. Issues about endianness, alignment, packing, memory layout, and pointer type can all vary. Even a very trivial C program can work on one architecture and coredump on another. Equally the foibles of one architecture can hide problems which are exposed on another. What you need to do is to reduce the problem to a minimal case (just a few lines) - if you post that here someone may be able to help - but please don't post the whole big program. Mimetic Polyalloy (talk) 15:22, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

And keep in mind that a Macbook and an IMac have totally different processors (PowerPC vs. Intel); it's worse than just running it on two slightly different computers. I'm no C programmer but it strikes me that you could easily have some PPC-specific library included without realizing that you need to replace it with an Intel one, or something like that. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 15:35, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

It may help to note that the message "floating point exception" can actually be generated without any floating point calculation: often it's generated by integer division by zero. It should perhaps be called "arithmetic exception" instead. --Tardis (talk) 16:11, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

I don't now about the iMac but another possible problem is that floating point exceptions are normally enabled for C programs but disabled for other environments like Java. Perhaps Xcode disables exceptions? Dmcq (talk) 18:33, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Looking at Apple my guess is that endianess is the problem. The powerPC is big enian and I guess your macbook is an Intel little endian version. You may be reading or writing data a bye at a time or using union. Dmcq (talk) 18:37, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Can someone help me fidure this out?

I am now nearly 100% sure that my home desktop has that conflicker worm that we have been hearing so much about. I downloaded that tool that Microsoft says will fix/remove it, but my computer won't run the program. I found out only recently that the desktop at home isn;t set to reconginze me as the admin on the computer, so I want to know if I need admin privilages to run the MS tool to get rid of the worm. Can someone help? 129.108.224.255 (talk) 16:03, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

What operating system are you using? Do you have an anti-virus message that says you have this worm? Do you have the ability to make yourself the administrator or have access to the admin account?Livewireo (talk) 20:45, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Respectively: Windows XP, Not conflicker directly, but all the symptoms match what I am experiencing on the desktop, and I have no idea how to make myself the administrator since the only account on the computer is mine. 76.192.80.133 (talk) 02:33, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

ctrl-alt-delete 3 or 4 times at the login area when Windows finishes loading. (this is if you have a password protected account) then type in "Administrator" and then hit enter. Rgoodermote  21:19, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

ASCII

Why does ASCII start with null and go into things like form feed and bell first instead of starting out with numbers or even letters first? I have a theory that it is because early computers weren't used as word processors, so there was less of a need for ASCII than there was for things that would punch cards, light lights, and ring bells. Dismas|^(talk) 21:49, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

All those early characters were important for the operation of the teletype machines that ASCII was originally designed for. The articles ASCII and ASCII Control Characters have a lot of info on this. APL (talk) 22:16, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

The way ASCII is arranged allows for some neat shortcuts for programmers, all printable characters are in a contiguous range, substracting 30 from the ASCII code for a number results in the value of that number, adding 32 to an upper case letter results in the lower case equivilent and the reverse. My pet theory as to why ASCII starts with null (and thus to keep all non printable character together at the start) is that in the C programming language, strings are terminated by null and the numeric value 0 evaluates to false, so when traversing a string one can use a construct like "while(str[i])" which would stop looping when it encounters the null terminator (Disclaimer: This may be bad practice, I am not a professional programmer). 90.219.129.24 (talk) 23:18, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

The C programming language came along much later than the invention of ASCII, but the reasons for the layout of ASCII is explained in the ASCII artile. Astronaut (talk) 00:17, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

In the specific case of NUL, it's assigned value 0 because ASCII is designed around the needs of punched tape and transmission over teleprinter connections, and 0 corresponds to a blank tape or no signal. --Carnildo (talk) 22:26, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Outlook backup

How do I do this please? Kittybrewster ☎ 22:13, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

The data files used to store messages, appointments etc. are stored in *.pst files in C:\Users\<User Name>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook. Usually the interesting file is called Outlook.pst. Just copy this file (or, these files) to a safe location. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 22:34, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

That's the location in Vista. It is somewhere else in XP - I'll try to find out the location. Astronaut (talk) 23:46, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

On XP, Outlook Express files are stored here: C:\Documents and Settings\<user name>\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{...}\Microsoft\Outlook Express\ Astronaut (talk) 11:59, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

There is a backup addin that does exactly what you want: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=8B081F3A-B7D0-4B16-B8AF-5A6322F4FD01

computing,email attachments

Both my computers (Desktop Vista and Thunderbird, notebook XP and Outlook express) are connected to broadband through a common mdem/router and phone line. Both fail to send any email including an attachment of any size. Any info/doc. on the subject?Passwordedout (talk) 22:45, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

What type of attachments are you trying to send (programs, music, images)? Astronaut (talk) 00:19, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Although some email clients "helpfully" remove some attachments, the more likely scenario here is that the mail server you are connecting to doesn't allow attachments. Configuring your email client to authenticate to the server for outgoing email *may* help. You might also try contacting technical support for your email provider (likely your ISP). Also, an error message or description of the failure would help us provide meaningful assistance. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 01:13, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Do you have trouble downloading or uploading large files or webpages (like, bigger than 1.5K)? If so, your MTU may be set incorrectly. --131.179.33.138 (talk) 01:55, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

January 23

3rd Generation iPod Nano

I own a black 8 GB third-generation iPod Nano. It's about a year and a quarter old. It often freezes up. Occasionally, it will not turn on, or freeze at the screen saver, where it shows the time, and battery level(that's what is happening now). This has been happening for a while, and I am now sick of it. Thanks in advance, Genius101^Guestbook 00:28, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Okay. Do you have a question? Supposing that it's just "how do I fix this?", I suggest you try a reset. If that doesn't do the trick, I don't think you have many options besides contacting Apple's support -- unfortunately, iPods aren't very user-serviceable devices. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 01:17, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

This has been happening with every generation since the original, and there's really no way to fix it. You just wait for it to run out of battery (that means don't plug it in to charge it), then you just plug it into your comp, wait for it to charge, and it's fixed. Yay. flaminglawyer^c 02:23, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Is the battery really the problem??

I've got a several-year-old (meaning, out-of-support) Dell 8300 (WinXP SP2), which apparently has a battery of some type in it. Over the holiday break, I powered my system down at the surge protector, and it stayed off for about 15 days. During startup, I got a "system battery is low" message, but bootup completed successfully -- except that the system no longer knew what time it was :-).

Since then (and after manually resetting the clock), I now get a one-line message at bootup: Press F1 to continue, or F2 to enter Setup. Continuing seems to work fine; entering setup, doing nothing, and exiting also seems to work fine. I assume that the battery eventually recharged, as there are no more messages about it.

What else happened, and how do I make that message go away?

P.S. Googling for "System Battery is low" gives a plethora of horror stories. I am certainly hoping that I don't *really* have a battery problem!

--DaHorsesMouth (talk) 04:44, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Your experience is consistent with a CMOS battery failure. The only way to resolve the problem is to replace the small 'coin' battery on the motherboard. This is generally a relatively simple procedure, but I wouldn't recommend attempting it if you don't feel comfortable doing so. Nearly any computer repair business should be able to replace it for a reasonable charge (less than an hour of work). Alternatively, you can simply press F1 to continue each boot. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 05:06, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

As far as I know, CMOS batteries are alkaline and do not "recharge". As long as the AC power is plugged in, it can use a small amount of power from that to preserve the CMOS settings (like the time), even if the battery doesn't work, so that's why you haven't seen the time get reset again since. But if you unplug the AC power again, the settings will be lost again. --131.179.33.138 (talk) 05:23, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Linking via an image

On my Wiki, I want to place an image called Image:Gofaffiliateimage.png and insert the relevant code so that, when someone clicks on the image, it links them to an external website. Is there a way to do that? --Ye Olde Luke (talk) 05:17, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Something close can be accomplished using layers. Essentially, you place a "link" layer on top of an "image" layer, with the result that clicking on the image actually triggers the link instead. Here's an example:

    

<div class="plainlinks" style="position: relative; width: 128px; height: 128px; overflow: hidden">
<div style="position: absolute; top: 0px; left: 0px; font-size: 128px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 128px; z-index: 3">
[http://en.wikipedia.org/ <span title="Visit Wikipedia!">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span>]</div>
<div style="position: absolute; top: 0px; left: 0px; z-index: 2">[[Image:Wikipedia-logo.png|128px|Visit Wikipedia!]]</div>
</div>

The code I butchered for this example originally came from Malcolm's userspace. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 11:31, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

• Here's an example using the ImageMap extension:

<imagemap> Image:Example.png|150px|Alt text here default [[Main Page|Title text here]] </imagemap>	Alt text here
<imagemap> Image:Example.png|150px|Alt text here default [[Main Page|Title text here]] desc none </imagemap>	Alt text here

—AlanBarrett (talk) 17:51, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks AlanBarrett and 74.137.108.115! I've decided to use 74's since Alan's only seems to work with internal links. One last question, how do you make the image either 1) stay on the same line as the text, or 2) move to the center of the line it's on? 70.179.52.204 (talk) 00:12, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

You've got several options:

    

• Option 1: add "float:right" or "float:left" to the outer div (it'll appear on the same lines as the text)

• Option 2: add "margin:auto" to the outer div (it'll appear centered in its container; IE may not honor this)

    

Option 3: wrap the whole

thing in a wiki table

(it'll appear wherever you put it in the table)

I'm sure there are other ways to position it as well, but hopefully one of these will work for you. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 01:02, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Windows Live OneCare back up issues

I ran the regularly scheduled Windows Live OneCare tune-up on my computer (I use Windows XP SP3), and when I tried to back up my files on DVD with a disc I had already used from previous back ups, it got rejected with a message telling me the data was corrupted and to enter a blank disc, which I did. That disc also got rejected for being "corrupted", so I inserted another blank disc. Same deal. The error message told me I should try another brand of DVDs for back ups, but the brand I've been using (Memorex) has been working fine for every back-up I've ever had until now. I've had previous discs rejected for being corrupt, but inserting a brand new disc usually solved the problem, only not this time. What's the deal? --Crackthewhip775 (talk) 06:25, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

I'd say it's your DVD drive. It probably always was borderline at being able to write to DVDs, such that sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. It sounds like it just got a bit worse, and now they don't work at all, at least not that brand. It is possible that another brand will work. If not, you may need to replace your DVD drive. StuRat (talk) 16:20, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

laptop and notebook

To concerned

Please provide me details regarding difference of laptop and notebook both technically and commercial viewpoints with application basis.

Im interested in buying one and have limited domestic personal use only.Please guide. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Raje786 (talk • contribs) 10:22, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Really the words "laptop" and "notebook" mean the same thing. Mimetic Polyalloy (talk) 10:31, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

I suggest you compare Laptop and Netbook. manya (talk) 10:42, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Internet Explorer version 8

Hello Dears!I have currently downloaded Internet Explorer version 8.but i cant install it ,all the steps go just untouch.Yes i have Net connection active .It saya could not install and restart your computer and see a troubleshooting shortcut on desktop.Any help please! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 119.154.30.31 (talk) 10:47, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

What operating system do you have ? Windows XP ? StuRat (talk) 16:14, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

I don't mean to sound snotty, but did you restart your computer and see the troubleshooting shortcut on the desktop? Livewireo (talk) 20:01, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Keyboard mapping.

Hello.

the 'r' and '1' keys on my laptop are broken. Is there and option in Windows, and/or a program I can download, that I can use to assign o1her keys (like '[' and ']')for these keys, so I can press 1hem instead of 1he broken ones?

thanks a lot in advance!220.237.140.75 (talk) 11:00, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

I've had success remapping keys with KeyTweak. Still, if you do much typing you might want to consider replacing your keyboard--they generally aren't *that* expensive. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 11:54, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

I agree with replacing the keyboard, they only cost around $20 for a basic one. However, you might want to try cleaning yours first. Turn it upside down over a trash can and shake it vigorously to dislodge any crumbs. If that doesn't work, pry the bad keys off, clean off anything stuck underneath, then replace them. If the keys still don't work, replace it. StuRat (talk) 16:12, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

A replacement laptop keyboard will probably cost more than $20 and require some disassembly of the laptop for install. If you generally don't move your laptop then an external keyboard (for $20) would be an option. I would not recommend prying keys off a laptop keyboard--they tend to be attached differently than stand-alone keyboards, and there is the potential for damage to the screen if the keys are seriously messed up. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 16:40, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Damage to the screen from prying on keys ? StuRat (talk) 17:29, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

There's generally not a lot of space between the keyboard and screen when the screen is closed; a botched attempt to remove the broken keys could leave something sticking up which would impact the screen. It doesn't take too much force concentrated in a small area to crack an LCD panel. (I admit it isn't all that likely, but I've seen the results of closing a laptop screen on a pen before.) -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 17:51, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

I did miss that it was a laptop, but would agree with the idea of an external keyboard, in that case. StuRat (talk) 17:26, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Your "T" key shouldn't buy any green bananas, either! --Sean 12:58, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Dial Tone but no Internet

If I have a phone dial tone, but my router shows 0 up and downstream speed, what does this signify about my connection? I'm in the UK. 82.111.24.28 (talk) 12:00, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

The dial tone is unrelated to ADSL (which I'll randomly assume you have). The ADSL modem's signal is a high pitched screech at a low volume; the dial tone can drown it out. Keep the receiver off the hook for a couple of minutes; the phone center might stop giving the dial tone after a while and you'll hear the modem. Or dial one digit on the phone and (at least where I live) the dial tone shuts up.

I doubt we can diagnose the problem over the Internet. Unplug and re-plug all the wires (sounds trivial advice, but a loose connector is so often the problem.) Then call your Internet service provider's tech support. 88.114.222.252 (talk) 13:22, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

I wouldn't say they're totally unrelated. If you have no dial tone, you probably have no Internet either. That's a relationship. StuRat (talk) 16:07, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Some things you can try: Reboot your modem/router; move the modem's connection to another phone socket; try a different ADSL filter; check the rest of the wiring (eg. make sure the ethernet cable is still pluggesd in, check for damaged cables, etc.); phone your ISP to find out their current service status; phone BT and ask if there's a problem with your line; have you paid your bill? Astronaut (talk) 13:51, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Also reboot your computer, both before and after you try the steps above. If something like moving to another socket doesn't work, then move back to the original, as you could otherwise end up with two simultaneous probs, which is far more difficult to diagnose. StuRat (talk) 17:20, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

All links

I need a website or program that can list all the links contained within a website, including all the images urls, download files etc. I don't want to download the links i simply want them listed in a very simple way to i can copy them into a notepad file for later. thank you for your help. jemaru —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.80.240.66 (talk) 12:45, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

By the look of it, http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/link-extractor.shtml can do that (separately for links to other webpages, and src links suchs as images) Rawling4851 13:02, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.80.240.66 (talk) 15:58, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Browser addon visual update checker

Does anybody know of a browser tool (or any tool actually) that can check for updates visually? For example, it would alert you when a video changed, or when something changed in a flash applet. Obviously the window has to be open, but I'm talking about firefox tabs here, so it would probably be in the background (hence the need for an alert). It's not so much that it has to respond to visual changes, just that the contents of this flash applet are updated off site, and the flash applet itself doesn't change, so I can't think of any other way to verify when it changes. Thanks in advance! 210.254.117.186 (talk) 13:06, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Update Scanner will check the page contents. It won't check the actual videos, and doing that would be rather a lot of effort as it would have to download each video you wished to check, them run some sort of comparison of them. Doing that many times would not be worth just checking manually. But when the videos are updated wouldn't there be a little text message update on whatever website, saying there is a new video or whatever? It could check for that. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 21:23, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

If you only want to ensure that you have the most recent version, Opera supports automatic page reloading based on a configurable delay, which likely means there is a Firefox plugin for the same functionality somewhere. (Automatic reloading can be quite handy when a webmail provider decides to implement a 5 minute inactivity timeout.) -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 01:38, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

better crash course

I'm planning to create a niche startup company in bioinformatics. However, I have little knowledge in programming and web design. I found inexpensive crash courses that might help me but I have no idea which would be better. The criteria for choosing which is the better course are:

1. Money spent on applications (legally downloadable programs are preferred, I don't like to pay royalties :))
2. Target flagship program (I'm still researching the demands of the bioinfo world) for my startup would probably be online with the user typing variables (genetic code, amino acid sequence) while the program produces a text based output.
3. Skills earned should be on the demand on various computer jobs just in case my future start-up folds.

The courses are:

• $200 (50 hours) Database programming: visual basic, C++, C#

• $170 (40 hours) Webpage development: HTML w/ CSS, JAva Script plus ASP.NET or PHP

--Lenticel ^(talk) 15:49, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

I would expect you'd want to set up a web site before setting up a database, so I'd think you'd take that class first. StuRat (talk) 16:02, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

HTML/CSS and JavaScript won't need anything more than a simple webbrowser. However, the second portion either requires you to get a copy of IIS for ASP.NET (which costs money past the evaluation period), or Apache for the PHP. For Database programming, it looks like you'll need a copy of Microsoft Visual Studio, but the IDE limits interaction to SQL Server Express and Microsoft Access. Overall, you won't have to pay for additional software for Database programming, but you'll need to get the IIS Evaluation just as soon as you start the ASP.NET section. --Sigma 7 (talk) 17:27, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

huawei c5330 virgin mobile

how to connect net to pc from huawei c5330 virgin mobile —Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.200.0.51 (talk) 15:54, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

adblockplus

how can i disable adblock plus on only one website? i want it to work everywhere else except for on never at all on one website. thanks you, sorry if i asked more questions than is allowed. jemaru —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.80.240.66 (talk) 15:59, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

I haven't tried this yet but it might work. Go to the website that you want to disable Adblockplus. Click on the drop-down list next to the ABP icon. You should find options that tells "disable on (site name)" and "Disable on this page only". Click "disable on (site name)". See if it works.--Lenticel ^(talk) 16:16, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Yep, that's definitely the right thing to be doing - the icon should go green. Just remember to refresh to see the effects (i.e. the "ads"). - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 18:03, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

However, this method will only work for addresses below the main domain you select as an exemption. For example, disabling Adblockplus on wikipedia.org will not disable it on en.wikipedia.org or fr.wikipedia.org etc etc. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 20:05, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

It merely requires a little tweaking to ensure complete (e.g. Wikipedia) exemption. If you exempt en.wikipedia.org and want fr, de and so on also to be exempted, click on the arrow again and select "Preferences". On the dialogue that comes up , you should see a line beginning @@| then a web address (eg. @@|http://en.wikipedia.org/ ). To make the exemption more flexible, change any areas where difference might occur to an asterisk. Mine ends up as @@|http*://*.wikipedia.org/ - thus working on all versions and security levels of Wikipedia. Hope that helps! - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 20:39, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Hey awesome! Thanks Jarry1250 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 21:52, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Java Pics

In java, is there a way to import a bitmap as an array of numbers, and save an array as a bitmap? Black Carrot (talk) 16:41, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

It's possible. java.awt.image.BufferedImage has two methods, getRGB and setRGB that allow using an array for input or output. They also work for individual pixels if you prefer (but importing and exporting is faster using the array version.) --Sigma 7 (talk) 17:18, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

why is fanboi spelled with an i

why is fanboi spelled with an i if it is fanboy —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.120.227.136 (talk) 19:03, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

See Meme. Also, this is more suitable for the Wikipedia:Reference desk/Language. --Sigma 7 (talk) 19:06, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

The spelling with the "i" is typically used when implying the fanboy is annoying or immature. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 20:02, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Gradients on Inkscape (or GIMP)

How is it possible to make a gradient on a photograph on Inkscape or GIMP? I can do it with 'drawn' objects, but I have not been able to do it with photographs. I found some websites with tutorials, but the best information I got told me to 'select' the object, which I am unable to do. I am using Inkscape Ver.0.46 and GIMP Ver.2.6.3. Can anyone help? If possible, a step-by-step walk-through would be very much appreciated.--KageTora (talk) 21:01, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

In inkscape: first add the photo, then draw another rectangle. Set a gradient in the rectangle, then set the alpha of the rectangle to (e.g.) 50%.Resize the rectangle to be the same as the photo, and drag it over the rectangle. Mimetic Polyalloy (talk) 22:07, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, so far so good, until 'setting the alpha'. Now, how do I do that? Sorry to be a pain.--KageTora (talk) 22:18, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

In its "fill and stroke" sheet, use the "opacity" slider. 87.113.74.22 (talk) 23:05, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Ah! Now it becomes clear! Thanks, both of you!--KageTora (talk) 23:13, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

How to Disable the Hard Drive Temperature Sensor

Does anyone know how to disable the hard drive temperature sensor on the compaq presario v2000 notebook? Or if that is not possible how to override the overheating fail-safe? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.171.16.131 (talk) 21:47, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

The temperature sensor was probably included for a reason; overriding it wouldn't seem to be in your (or your hardware's) best interest. Anyway, this is most likely a BIOS feature, so you might be able to modify/disable it in your BIOS setup. Alternatively, if the sensor is implemented as seperate hardware, you may be able to disconnect it, move it away from the hard drive, or replace it with a circuit that behaves predictably. If it's implemented internally to the hard drive then replacing the hard drive with a model that doesn't support temperature sensing would probably disable it. Again, I don't think any attempt to circumvent the computer's built-in hardware protection is advisable. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 01:20, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

So can you please be more specific on what I have to do? My laptop does not allow me to finish installing windows xp because it keeps shutting down at a random times during the installation. I think this might is most likely a temperature sensor error. When I took out the hard drive after trying 10 installations it was much cooler than my normal hard drive and the laptop case was not that hot as well. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.171.16.131 (talk) 11:42, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

location of Mac OSX *.keylout file

New keyboards can be added to Mac OSX by dragging an XML based file to the "Keyboard Layouts" folder. They end in the extension ".keylayout". Is it possible to find where it keeps the equivalent files for the default installed ones? My name is anetta (talk) 22:25, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Well, if you have dragged it to the 'Keyboard Layouts' folder, I would assume it was there. This would be found in one of the two libraries that you will have. One will be in your Home folder, and the other in your Macintosh HD folder. It should be in one of those.--KageTora (talk) 22:52, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Failing that, use Finder to search for them, by typing in '*.keylayout' (without quotes) as the search term.--KageTora (talk) 22:54, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Neither of those seem to work out. Both of my "Keyboard Layouts" folders are empty; the search turns up nothing. I don't see them anywhere, which is odd... --98.217.14.211 (talk) 00:48, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

They appear to be in a different format, in /System/Library/Keyboard Layouts/AppleKeyboardLayouts.bundle. It's a "bundle" (aka "package"), which means it's actually a directory but the Finder displays it as a single file. If you want to look inside, right-click on it (or control-click) and select "Show Package Contents". The layouts themselves seem to be in a pair of files named AppleKeyboardLayouts-B.dat and AppleKeyboardLayouts-L.dat.

Just in case you're interested, there are actually 4 different Library folders on Mac OS X:

• The System Library (/System/Library), containing resources that're supplied by the core OS
• The Network Library (/Network/Library), containing resources that're shared by all computers on a network (actually, a Netinfo or LDAP domain) (this is intended to be mounted from a network server) (it's almost never used anymore)
• The Local Library (/Library), containing resources and settings that are installed/configured on a per-computer basis
• The User Library (~/Library), containing resources and settings specific to one particular user

-- Speaker to Lampposts (talk) 06:54, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Thankyou, it's the Local library. Spotlight doesn't seem to search this folder, and as Speaker to Lampposts rightly says, the pre-installed layouts aren't kept in the folder I asked about. It seems to be exclusively for user added ones. How do I open the *.dat file, even in Windows or Linux? I have seen this [14]. Hopefully, it will be stored in a similar fashion. I tried TextEdit, which makes gibberish.My name is anetta (talk) 12:04, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Download speed limiter

Hi!

Where can i find an utility to allow me to download (microtorrent) at full speed when i'm the only one to use my network, but to decrease this speed when somebody else on my network is trying to connect to the internet, to allow him to have a decent speed?

Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.5.187.241 (talk) 23:21, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Adjusting your maximum upload and download speeds should really be a built-in feature of your BitTorrent client, it's such a basic thing. μTorrent, for example, has that functionality, and it's a cinch that it's not the old one. Old one? Only one, I meant to say. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 00:26, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Or -- and this just occurred to me -- do you mean that it should do that automatically? -- Captain Disdain (talk) 00:27, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

I would also like to be able to make μTorrent do this automatically. At the moment I have to make sure μTorrent is either turned off or manually restricted to slow downloading whenever any of my housemates is using the internet. Algebraist 00:30, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

I think that would be pretty difficult to do. μTorrent really has no easy way of knowing whether someone else is using the same internet connection at the same time. In order to be effective, it wouldn't be enough to be aware of another computer's presence in the network, it would actually have to know whether that computer is actually transferring data at the time and vary its own transfer rate accordingly. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 01:06, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

It should be possible to do that (since I have admin access to the wireless router), but it's well beyond my puny programming skills. Thanks. Algebraist 01:13, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

You're right; you'll want to look for "QoS" (Quality of Service) settings which allow you to prioritize non-torrent traffic. If your router doesn't support such settings (and many basic ones do not) you might try DD-WRT; it supports many advanced routing features (including QoS). -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 01:28, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

It's certainly not impossible, but it'd be very difficult to do it with a program you install on the computer that runs the BitTorrent software. If it's something a router does, that's another story -- or, alternatively, it could be a piece of software that runs on every computer in the network and makes sure that they're all in sync, for example. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 01:51, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

January 24

PPPoE Password

For an unknown reason, my DSL modem (2Wire 2071) stopped working this morning. The error message stated that PPP authentication had failed, and that the username and password were incorrect. It was quite strange, considering I've never had to enter any username or password before, but here it was, all of a sudden this morning. Now the problem is, I have no idea what the username or password might be. I've accessed the modem via browser and found the username, but the password shown was simply "XXXXXXXX", which did not work when I entered the login credentials. I've contacted my ISP to inquire about this problem and if I could reset or retrieve the PPP password, but no luck. So I'm stuck to using dial-up for the time being until I can get this resolved. Any suggestions on how to find out the correct username and/or password? Running Windows Vista if that matters. I appreciate it. Vic93 (t/c) 02:52, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Your particular modem is also a router. Let me get this straight: You can still log into the modem, but you can't change the PPP password? Or are you locked out of the modem entirely? What did your ISP say, by the way? They should have your PPP password. The password for the router/modem is another story.--K;;m5m k;;m5m (talk) 03:11, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Second natural language of open source

English is clearly the main language used by the FSF, OSI, Linux distro vendors and developers, etc..., but what is the movement's second language? German and Spanish are clearly the primary secondary languages, but Japanese and Italian also seem to be prevelant. --hello, i'm a member | talk to me! 03:42, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

I'd say German, due mainly to the Knoppix distros. StuRat (talk) 06:26, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Outlook Web Access security

Hiya. I'm thinking about running OWA, just a couple of quick questions:

1. It always says that when logging out, you should close all open browser windows. Would not doing that (or forcing users to do that) compromise security?
2. Is it possible to monitor access (accounts, times, IP addresses etc.)?
3. Does it have access to the "Outlook" options-menu, for altering signatures etc., or must that be done from the actual computer?

Thanks! ╟─TreasuryTag►contribs─╢ 08:42, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Regarding 1, I think this is mostly (justified) paranoia about cross-site scripting and cookie-theft.

Regarding 2, this info is available in the server logs, but I don't know of any way for regular users to see that

Regarding 3, OWA has its own settings (which means you need to set the sig again in OWA).

Note, incidentally, that there are virtually two different OWA clients. If you're using IE you get a very full featured (really very nice) client that's a lot like the Outlook client. If you're using another browser like Firefox you get a pretty basic webmail (entirely inferior to Gmail). They're so different that one might as well consider them unrealted programs. Mimetic Polyalloy (talk) 10:15, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

I'd assume 1 actually refers to session cookies, which may hold sensitive data, or even keep you logged in. Whilst logging out should have dealt with these, it seems a reasonable idea to close all windows and hence manually wipe them all. - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 10:45, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Diode Differences

First off I'm no electrician! I would like to make a very simple box that takes seven 3.5mm stereo connectors and outputs the whole lot to one 3.5mm stereo socket. I tried a quick mock up just using headphone splitters but sound 'leaks' from one device into another causing a drop in volume. I'm assuming that if i use a diode on each of the input terminals I can stop this from happening. A quick look at diodes and there are rectifier, signal, zener, schottky and bidirectional transient voltage ones. Can anyone advise, or even inform if this crackpot scheme will work? thanks Kirk UK —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.82.79.175 (talk) 09:15, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Drawing trees with OpenOffice Draw (or some alternative)

Here you see a syntax tree. I want to create something rather similar, although with unlabeled nodes. Donald Derrick's "TreeForm Syntax Tree Drawing Software" (explanatory video here) doesn't seem designed for this. Consider this diagram and imagine that "AgrP", "VP" and the rest were removed to form an unbroken line from the top to the bottom right with lines branching off it to the left: that's the kind of thing I want to do. Having all the lines at a default to form an equilateral triangle would be a welcome bonus.

Surely this kind of thing ought to be possible with OpenOffice Draw but (maybe because it's a program I'd never tried till today) I found that if I had two points that were (pretty much) horizontal I couldn't even get Draw to draw two lines from them to form an equilateral triangle. (After much trial and error I could get two lines that met at a point and stopped there. But there was no obvious way to move the point to make the result equilateral.)

Does OpenOffice suck, or am I approaching it in the wrong way? (I even have Haugland's OpenOffice.org 2 Guidebook at hand and that doesn't help -- it's full of laborious explanations of how to produce visual gimmickry.)

If there are suggestions for other software, I can use a Linux, Mac OS X or Windows computer. Thank you. Morenoodles (talk) 10:49, 24 January 2009 (UTC)