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March 8

How do I update OpenOffice2.4 to version 3?

I cannot find anything about this on the OO website. Do I have to uninstal OO2.4 beforehand or what? I'm worried abut losing my documents. Thanks. 89.240.206.60 (talk) 02:08, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

Your documents are not in openoffice. They are files on your harddrive - wherever you saved them (likely on your desktop or in My Documents). You can uninstall OO, which will only uninstall the actual word processor program, spreadsheet program, etc... I suggest just installing OO3. If you like it, you can uninstall OO2. If you don't like it, you can uninstall OO3 and keep OO2. -- kainaw™ 02:12, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

What's that computer virus called that pops up "you have a virus" messages?

They are really realistic but i know it's a scam, and that its a major phisher/spyware etc. More importantly how can I get rid of it? I had it on a laptop i used to have and lost the battle that lappy is dead now and I don't want this desktop to die. What can I do?Troyster87 (talk) 08:13, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

Dead? I don't know of any virus that outright kills a computer. The most common malware that gives this type of message as far as I know is antivirus 2009, which can be a pain to remove. Last I checked, Malwarebytes tends to do a good job of killing it, and there's a guide to using it for this purpose at [1]. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 08:22, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

i saw an article about it on yahoo, isn't there a wikipedia article about it? do you know if the free version works against it?Troyster87 (talk) 09:55, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

The free version does just as good a job as the pro version, it only lacks the scheduled and real-time scanning. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 20:52, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

oh sweet dude, thank you so much. and it did kill my laptop, it has the blue screen of death now. what is real time scanning?Troyster87 (talk) 00:21, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

Our article on the virus is MS Antivirus, and Malwarebytes can get rid of it if one hasn't done the install/Upgrade now thing. The BSOD thing though sounds more like one of the Smitfraud/Winfixer strains - if you move your mouse to the very top of the screen, does it show a title bar that allows you to close it? .. (tricky little full-screen graphic thing they did). If you have files you want to save, but can't get it back to running condition (meaning you have to format - reinstall Windows) try ERD Commander, or one of the Bart PE LiveCD disks - (UBCD for Windows I think) - or even a Knoppix or Ubuntu disk if your comfortable with Linux. Good luck. — Ched ~ ^(yes?) 04:57, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

rename files

I need a free Windows program that can rename loads of files easily from "Word2008 T77th.doc" to "Word2008 77.doc" where the number "77" would be different for each file. Thank you for your' help

Try looking through the appropriate section in freewarefiles dot com, for example. 89.243.46.238 (talk) 13:10, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

You can also hack something together yourself. Pull a directory listing into a word processor, delete all the cruft other than the filename, make it into a table, duplicate the column, do a "change every" on the second column to get rid of the T and th, remove the table structure, use "change every" to put rename at the beginning of each line, and save it as a batch file in text format. You'd also have to add some quotes because there are spaces in the filenames. Ma^t_chups 15:26, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

Or, from the command line, enter

 for %d in (0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9) do ren "Word2008 T7%dth.doc" "Word2008 T7%d.doc"

to rename all the 7* files, then change the 7's in the command to 6,5,4,3,2,1 and repeat. %d acts as a variable, that is substituted with the numbers within the parentheses before the command is executed. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 15:47, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

I've found Lupas Rename and Oscar's Renamer to be pretty powerful. Lupas is quite good, you can replace patterns in the filename, crop any amount of characters from any point in the filename, and many more. Oscar's lists all your your filenames in a directory as if it were a text document so you can literally edit the filenames, copy/paste just as if you're typing in Word. Zunaid 09:59, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

Touch pad turned off

I have a Panasonic CF-T5 notebook. I like to use a tap on the touch pad instead of left-clicking the botton. How do I turn on the touch pad so that I can use a tap?68.237.250.249 (talk) 19:47, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

That is generally an option provided by your touchpad driver. On Windows the option might be available in Control Panel (Start → Control Panel) under either a touchpad-specific icon, or a touchpad tab under the "mouse" icon. If neither location has that option, you may need to download and install updated touchpad drivers for your computer, then check Control Panel again. – 74  00:38, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

Motorola KRZR K1 Custom Ringtone

One of my friends has a Motorola KRZR K1 cell phone, but has no idea how to do anything except phone people. I have downloaded a song for her, and have transferred it to the phone, via the USB cable that came with it. I am wondering how to set it as her ring tone. The instructions here don't work, as she don't have on of the options in the options menu. She live in Canada, and uses Rogers, if that helps. Thanks, Genius101^Guestbook 23:52, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

March 9

Pointers/References C++

Alright, I have been trying to figure out in what circumstances each of the following would be useful and how efficient each is, but in the process, have only confused myself further. One particularly confusing thing is that I know that * represents th dynamic allocation of memory, such as in the case of a dynamic integer array, but what does it mean when used with a class?

int get(MyClass* x)
{
return(x->get());
//Will this cause a memory leak?
}

int get(MyClass &x)
{
return(x.get());
}

int get(MyClass x)
{
return(x.get());
//I know this one is not very efficient, but why would you use it?
}

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Also, what does this do?

int get(MyClass* &x)
{
return(x->get());
}

Nkot (talk) 01:55, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

I don't want to answer your homework questions, but I just want to say a few things. First, * in the type indicates a pointer type. Pointers can point to anything. Sure, this could include dynamically-allocated objects; but it could be anything else. You can take the address of any variable and you would have a pointer. You should really read up on pointers; the topic is very large and one cannot go into all the details here. Second, no code you've posted has any memory leaks. No dynamic memory allocation is done anywhere in that code. You should get rid of this * = dynamically memory allocation notion because those things are completely unrelated. --76.167.241.45 (talk) 07:31, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

As .45 says, you need to do more reading, but I do want to say the fundamental de-mystery-ificating thing about pointers: it's just a number. If you think about all the memory in your computer being a big array, a pointer is nothing more than the index of the pointed-to thing in that array. Obviously just mentioning that index does not create anything new, so there can be no memory leak by just using a pointer. --Sean 13:57, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

How would you recommend organizing digital media (photos, videos, maybe audio in future)

I'm building up a collection of mainly photos and some videos too, and I'm not sure how best to organize them. My home PC is a windows one, and the folder system there is useless because you can only place an image in one folder (or redundantly copy it into many folders). How else can I organize them? I don't think they're all worth uploading online, and it would probably be more work anyway. I quite like the organization of a wiki (to the point that many non-wiki sites annoy me); perhaps having my own offline wiki would be a good solution? It could also be used for other purposes too, like keeping a record of the species I've seen, to-do lists etc. Has anyone had any experience with this sort of thing? Do you have other ways of organizing your files? If I do use a wiki, where should I get one from? Does GNU/Linux or similar systems have better file organization? Richard001 (talk) 07:00, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

Am I completely off-base or are you not simply looking for photo album software? Every one since the dawn of time supports tagging photos (allowing multiple categories per photo). I think Google Picassa should do nicely. As to storing the photos on your HD, I always name my folders as YYYY-MM-DD Event. Doesn't help me to group together photos of e.g. flowers, but then again I'm more interested in keeping photos of events together. Zunaid 10:07, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

Folder-setup is largely irrelevant if you have a good application/operating system. Picasa is highly recommended for photos, not sure if it takes video as not used it for a few years. It also includes decent editing stuff and it's free. Not free, but a professional product and truly wonderful, is Adobe Lightroom but that is not really a 'storage' unit (though it performs the job) it is more a photo-management suite. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 14:26, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm not sure I understand what you mean when you say "...the folder system is useless because you can only place an image in one folder..." You are free to create, move, copy, and delete folders in Windows. You are also free to copy, move, ... etc. individual files to whichever folder you prefer. If you are referring to the hierarchical structure in the MS file system vs. the trend to 'tag' files with 'keywords' - then yes, various software programs can help with that type of organization. Programs like Thumbs Plus, Windows Live Photogallery, (download.live.com) and the programs mentioned above could fill your needs. I got away from Picasa (other than an occasional lighting tweak) because of it's nature to duplicate the actual files within it's own program's file system - but like User:194..., I haven't tried any new versions in a while. As Zunaid mentions, you're free to name your folders in the manner that best suits your particular needs. If you want to clarify a particular need or question, I'm sure someone can help point you in the right direction. ;) — Ched ~ ^(yes?) 17:57, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

If you are still interested in the wiki option, try MoWeS. Instructions are here. I have it et up, and I love it! Thanks, Genius101^Guestbook 19:33, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for your responses, I'll look into these options. Richard001 (talk) 06:41, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

programming a physics engine?

Can someone suggest how one would go about programming a physics engine like those used in computer games? I don't want too much detail, just point me in the right direction. And what program might you suggest is a good place to start learning this subject area. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dbjohn (talk • contribs) 13:33, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

You could do worse than reading the source code of one of the several open source packages listed here. Also, here's a book called "Game Physics Engine Development", which seems relevant. --Sean 14:03, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

The type of physics needed would vary dramatically with the game. Obviously there are some games where no physics is required at all. Then there are others, like those with space ships firing at each other in space, which require nothing more than constant acceleration and maybe collisions. A game set on Earth (or some other planet) would need to account for gravity and air resistance, too. Then we get into really complex physics like fluid dynamics and finite element modeling for explosions. At this point it's likely the game designers would just "fake it" with a small number of fixed explosion clips, rather than actually model them mathematically within the game. StuRat (talk) 23:22, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

And StuRat hasn't even got into model physics. Most games have model animations. The model is a single entity that reacts to the world with preset animations. Ever notice that when you kill the monsters in most games they always die the same way? Other games, like Little Big World for a current example), use sackboy or beanbag models. The components of the model interact with the physics of the world independently, allowing a unique animation for each event. -- kainaw™ 23:25, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

I'll tell you - it's a major undertaking and most definitely not something you should attempt unless you have a ton of experience playing with existing physics engines. The problems are all in the horrible details. Suppose we have a world where the only objects are simple cubes - the ground is dead flat - there is no air resistance, a simple 'school-boy' model of friction - and there is gravity. That's about as simple as it could ever be (usefully anyway). We have very simple and well known classical mechanics equations for all kinds of rigid-body interactions. There is no unknown physics here...it's been well known for maybe 200 years. How hard could it possibly be?

Well, what's difficult is that computer software has to quantize time into whatever intervals the game is iterating at (say 30 times per second - ~33 milliseconds per time 'step'). What you find is that you're going through all of your objects saying "Accelleration = sum-of-forces / mass", "Velocity = old Velocity + Acceleration / 33msec", "Position = old Position + Velocity / 33msec" - this is a bit of a work-out for your knowledge of high-school mechanics - especially if you blanked a bit on coefficients of rotational inertia, tensors, torque and such. Doing arbitary cube-on-cube collision testing is a pain because of all manner of special cases...But you CAN do it without any serious college-level math - it's not that hard. This is definitely not the problem.

But then (because time is 'quantized') you notice that two objects that weren't touching on your last cycle have moved a bit over the past 33msec - and are now beyond 'touching' - they are partially embedded inside each other. In the real world, they wouldn't do that - they should stop when they collide and possibly bounce off a bit with some kind of elastic collision (which we understand how to do). But the laws of physics fail us here - real world solid objects simply don't "overlap" on a day to day basis! So now you've somehow got to work backwards in time to partway through the 33msec time step to the precise instant when the collision happened (not a trivial matter for objects with complex shapes that are tumbling!)...then you 'reverse time' - back everything up to the point of the collision - compute the consequences of the collision and then figure out what happens as a result of that change. But that backing-up of time causes calculations you already did to be incorrect - and you can go round and round fixing things up - and NEVER get to the end of the process! Just imagine something as seemingly simple as a pile of stationary cubes sitting on top of each other. Each one tries to fall under gravity - so it interpenetrates the one beneath with one of it's four vertices on the bottom sticking into the topmost face of the cube below. But all of the cubes are interpenetrated a bit - backing whichever one you first test back to where it's just touching the one beneath it isn't too terrible - but after you fix that up, the one beneath it hits the one beneath THAT....this in turn messes up other things you've already done...it gets ugly fast.

Ideally, you'd want to solve the equations for all motion of all objects to find when the next intersection is - but that's a HORRIFIC amount of arithmetic - for even a fairly simple scene, you could easily be solving 100,000 equations with 100,000 unknowns - and you've only got a few milliseconds to do the math because in that 1/30th second you've also got to draw the graphics, figure out the AI, read the joystick...you name it!! You really can't do it...and as fast as computers increase in performance, game players expectations rise - so when you get twice the compute power, you'll be expected to do physics on twice the number of objects (which is generally four times the number of collisions!)

What most software does is to cheat - abandoning "real" physics and saying that when one object interpenetrates another - we'll simply create a fake force that pushes the buried objects apart as if they were made of jello. A "restoring force" if you like. But if the force is too small, our pile of cubes wobbles and shakes just like jello (well, duh!). To make objects that behave 'stiffly' like blocks made of steel or something - then under these kinds of collisions you need HUGE restoring forces - and the problem with that is that these forces don't obey the laws of thermodynamics! You're injecting 'free' energy into the system. Now if you take your pile of cubes is that they 'jiggle' instead of sitting there in a nice pile - and because each jiggle adds more collision energy, they tend to jiggle more and more until the pile collapses or cubes at the top of the pile get enough energy to be catapulted into orbit!

So now you say things like "if the amount of interpenetration is "small" then we'll ignore it and not bother with restoring forces. But then you get problems like objects refusing to slide down slopes - so you have to tweak these ugly constants to try to compromise between "jello", "free energy" and "super-stiction".

Another thing that helps (although it doesn't FIX anything - it mitigates the worst effect) is to iterate your physics code at higher rates than things like graphics and audio - perhaps 120 times a second. But the math involved in doing this physics stuff consumes a LOT of CPU time - and doing physics on tiny time-steps means that you don't have enough CPU time left to do anything else!

The compromises that are forced on such systems are truly nasty to resolve. I believe that producing physics software that's robust (ie no objects catapulted into orbit or stuck), 'stiff' (ie no jello cubes), efficient (ie it runs in ~5 milliseconds for (say) 1000 objects), easy to use (no special 'tweaking') is the hardest job in game development. I'd go out on a limb and say that the best minds the industry has have NOT solved the problem to an adequate degree. People ALWAYS spend time kludging the physics code at the end of the project! (And I'm a game developer - I know these things!)

This problem I've explained - is just one of a dozen similarly annoying issues. Floating point math precision is another one, use of real-world data values for things like friction-versus-sticktion is another (especially for car simulation where the behavior of rubber tires is notoriously nothing like the physics text books say they are!)....even the best commercial physics engines are temperamental to deal with - they often require all sorts of 'fake' springs and dampers to be introduced into seemingly correctly described systems in order to make them behave.

If you are passionate - I suggest you download the OpenSourced 'Bullet physics engine. It's free - and you get full source code - and there is a developer community that's friendly enough that you can ask dumb questions and they'll patiently explain stuff to you. SteveBaker (talk) 01:50, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

This is the sort of answer that keeps me coming back to the RefDesk! Wow. --Scray (talk) 15:47, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

Hot pixels and Photoshop CS3

I have a question for all the photography savvy wikipedians (I know you are out there.) I have a Canon XTi and just recently noticed a hot pixel showing up in the jpeg output. I know there are photoshop tools to manage this, and that a Canon service center can map out bad pixels to negate them, and I am weighing my options. However, I opened the RAW version of a shot with a very obvious hot pixel into the RAW import tool in Adobe Photoshop CS3, and unless I am going crazy I am convinced that it automatically erased the hot pixel immediately upon opening it up. I thought I was seeing things so I tried another with an obvious hot pixel in the jpeg version, and once I opened it in the Adobe tool and zoomed into the spot, it was completely gone! Now, the question is, does it do this with some knowledge from camera (an onboard hot pixel detector of some sort) that gets passed in with the RAW file, or is it a sort of noise reduction algorithm that can spot an obvious hot pixel in the image through some method like seeing a raw value of 255,0,0 (for a hot red pixel) in a sea of mostly 136,96,7 pixels (brownish background color)? --Jmeden2000 (talk) 15:36, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

Maybe the RAW file is quite OK and it's the camera's JPEG algorithm (or possibly just the camera's LCD panel) that is faulty? Astronaut (talk) 18:07, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

My raw processor, Bibble, has automatic hot pixel detection (by some statistical method, not specific knowledge of hot pixel locations). It wouldn't surprise me if Photoshop/ACR had something similar. I also think dcraw lets you provide a list of known-bad pixel locations. -- Coneslayer (talk) 18:11, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

A quick Google for adobe raw hot pixels suggests that yes, it's built into the RAW converter. I doubt the camera does any of the detection. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk • Contribs)} 21:39, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. I guess I was hoping to find out what methods are actually employed and if they were documented *ANYWHERE* besides internet forums. There are apparently two ways hot pixels will "disappear" in a modern digital workflow. Using the "manual sensor clean" function on newer Canon cameras apparently instigates a feature that can identify and squelch hot pixels from ever re-appearing. This is totally undocumented but observed by many (including myself). Then, in Adobe Camera Raw there is a "simple heuristic" that will forcibly remove hot pixels from a RAW image. I say forcibly because there is apparently no way to turn this feature off. The problem then becomes what happens when this bit of mathematical magic oversteps its boundary, such as in stellar photography where little brightly colored dots are the norm? From one forum, a poster noted: "I have not seen any stars mapped out in [Adobe Camera Raw]!". Duh, of course you haven't! --Jmeden2000 (talk) 20:57, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

It's pretty easy to detect in RAW mode because the camera's optical system is unlikely to be able to natually produce a single bright pixel without some kind of fuzzy blur around it on adjacent pixel - hence any single pixel anomaly pretty much has to be a faulty sensor pixel. However, it is in the very nature of the JPEG compression algorithm that it's not able to produce a single pixel bright spot because the image compression tricks will cause some disruption of adjacent pixels. Even if you have a single bad pixel, JPEG will store it as a fuzzy blob - which could easily be a natural feature of your photograph and not a fault at all. Hence you can't unambiguously discover if a bright (fuzzy) dot in a JPEG image is a bad pixel or not. That presumably explains why they don't remove artifacts automatically in JPEG...but they do in RAW where the risk of misidentification is almost zero. SteveBaker (talk) 01:15, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

Mac/G4 question

Can I plug a new Epson scanner with a USB 2.0 into a 500 MHz Power PC G4 Mac port? Will it run slower or not at all? Or incompatible? Or do I need to change the port internally ? Trav Bickle (talk) 15:42, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

It'll either work from the pre-installed drivers or you'll need to install drivers for it. Here (http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/support/SupportIndex.jsp) is a starting point, you click through to your product and it'll have the drivers you need. It should work exactly the same as through a windows machine provided it is has a supporting driver. ny156uk (talk) 16:50, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

What matters is if there are PowerPC drivers for the Mac OSX version you are using. The USB number does not matter — if you use it with 2.0, it should work faster, but if it is just 1.0, it will probably still work to some degree. But check the scanner specifications. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 02:27, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Equipment found in a DNA Lab

I am trying to find out what the machine that vigorously shakes small vials is called. They have one on the show CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) They use it to shake up DNA samples or unknown substances before putting the sample into another machine that analyzes the sample. I don't want to know what the analytical machine is called. I want to know what the technical term for the shaker is. And where can I get one? ( this is not as important as knowing what the machine is called) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dunvegangroup (talk • contribs) 18:08, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

Would that be a Vortex mixer? --NorwegianBlue ^talk 19:09, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

A vortex mixer mixes by spinning the tube. I would think maybe a microplate mixer would fit the bill?

http://www.scientificindustries.com/pdf/download-microplate-flyer.pdf Livewireo (talk) 20:58, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

The OP said the samples were in vials, not in microplates, hence a vortex mixer. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 21:25, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

This would be an excellent Q for the Science Desk. StuRat (talk) 23:05, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

If you type "laboratory shaking machine" into Google, you will get many different kinds of machines that are designed to shake flasks, bottles, and vials. Both the vortex mixer and microplate mixer will be in the list. -- kainaw™ 23:12, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

Dunno about shaking small vials in labs, but there is a standard machine called a paint shaker that you can get in hardware stores. It is intended for use mixing colors of paints--you put colored paints in a can and let this thing shake the can for a while. They are sometimes used for low-rent electronic assembly testing (you build your electronic gizmo, then shake it with the paint shaker for a while, then see if it still works). One type of lab stirring device that I've seen (different from Vortex mixer) is a magnetic stirrer: you drop a slug containing a bar magnet into your flask of liquid, and set it on the stirrer base. The stirrer base has a motor that spins an attached magnet, and the magnetic field goes through the flask bottom and makes the immersed slug spin and stir the liquid. 207.241.239.70 (talk) 00:50, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

(I've actually done that myself - you don't really need any expensive gear. Take two magnets - drop one into a bottle and clamp the other into the chuck of a regular power drill, put it onto it's slowest speed setting and stick it up close to the bottom of the bottle...it worked just fine on the couple of times I've used it!) SteveBaker (talk) 01:07, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

Firefox login window disappears and reappears

hey guys im having a problem with firefox when a login window pops up it will disappear after a second or two and then reappear after about 10 seconds is there a way to fix this it never did this in firefox 2 its just really annoying me now so is there a way to fix this?--Quickroom1 (talk) 18:31, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

Is this on a website? If so what website? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 19:30, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

its on any website where a popup comes up asking for your username and password, such as this for example. works fine in ie7 but not in firefox!--Quickroom1 (talk) 21:09, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

Don't have any idea what the problem is, but I have Firefox 3.0.7 (which I assume you are using) and the login box behaves just fine for me on your example website. It may be a setting issue, and if so, can probably be fixed by a reinstall.Nkot (talk) 23:02, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

Auto-complete function

These are rather trivial questions and I should be able to find the answers myself, but anyway: my library login screen has two fields, "Enter your Vancouver Public Library barcode:" and "Enter your PIN:". I see no reason why my computer shouldn't be doing this for me, being as how I'm immensely lazy. Questions:

• Windows (XP SP3) starts off offering to remember passwords and I long ago told it to quit. Now I can't figure out how to turn it back on to see if it will fill those boxes in. Does anyone know where this is done?
• Google shows a yellow field for the PIN number, indicating that it would auto-fill, if I chose to turn on auto-fill. I'd like to 1) get Google to recognize the barcode field, since it's a 14-digit number; and 2) figure out what and how it recognizes to make the bold assertion that it can remember my PIN. I don't see any recognition rules in any of the auto-fill options.

If there are simple answers for these, please just point me to where I should have RTFM'ed. Thanks! Franamax (talk) 21:20, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

You need to explain what web browser you are using. Windows XP is not a web browser. Do you mean Internet Explorer? Google is not a web browser. Do you mean Chrome? -- kainaw™ 21:23, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

From what I remember, Google Toolbar highlights auto-completeable fields in yellow, so OP is probably referring to that. That would narrow the browsers down to IE and Firefox. In IE: [2]. In Firefox: Tools > Options > Security > Remember passwords for sites — Matt Eason ^{(Talk • Contribs)} 21:46, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

Oh yes, ha - I thought the default would be assumed, especially when I noted my laziness. :) IE7 (7.0.5730.11) - the standard browser that comes with XP, + updates; and the Google toolbar add-in GoogleToolbar3.dll v. 4.0.1601.4978 which loads to IE (I've suppressed toolbar updates on my FW, so it will be a little OOD).

Matt, thanks for the first link - that was the brain-gap I suspected, I was checking Control Panel rather than the browser settings. D-o-hh!

However, IE7 form completion doesn't seem to work either (though two days and two power cycles often do the trick for Windows config changes, so we'll see). If anyone has tips on how to tweak the Google toolbar completion rules to include that "barcode" text, or however else the hypertext is picked out to spot the fillable box, still most appreciated! Franamax (talk) 03:21, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

Bit Torrent

I just went to BitTorrent.com and downloaded BitTorrent. I've just started playing around with it. Can anyone tell me where my completed files will go when they have finished downloading.91.111.86.221 (talk) 22:50, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

Chances are you are using Windows. If so, chances are the files will either end up in My Documents or on the desktop. -- kainaw™ 23:01, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

It's been a while since I switched over to uTorrent, but you can set the preferences to your liking (a temp folder while d/l - and a completed folder where the file gets moved to when completed). By default - I would look at what the settings are now, they be a folder in your "My Documents" or a folder in the Program Files\BitTorrent. (look for keywords like: Settings, Options, Preferences, Tools, etc.) — Ched ~ ^(yes?) 00:40, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

March 10

Modular network security software?

I'm pulling my hair out. Somewhere in the last few months I've seen on Lifehacker, TechCrunch, Delicious, TechRepublic, or somewhere a piece of software that is sort of an all-in-one network monitoring and security package. It includes several open source packages that it treats as appliances that you activate or install in a virtual rack (that's shown on-screen). It's got packages for bandwidth monitoring, spam, virus protection, etc. There were also commercial appliances that you could purchase/license.

This software would run on a single machine using only one network adapter (which was not recommended) or on a machine using two network adapaters. I really think this was windows-based (or would run in windows), but I'm not sure. It had a great video demo showing the features.

This isn't Cobia.

Anyone have any clues? I would really appreciate any help!

Thanks, -70.145.200.110 (talk) 03:45, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

search engines and multiple domains

Hypothetical: I operate birds.com and I have a page in it called birds.com/sparrow. I just purchased the domain sparrow.com. Does using them together have any benefit to search engine ranking? Basically, sparrow.com has high relevancy for someone searching "sparrow." Can I add that relevancy value to the popularity value of birds.com? websites do multiple domains all the time - is there SE benefit or merely the benefit of having people who directly to sparrows.com land on my site? Thanks --Ephilei (talk) 04:18, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

I doubt the URL itself matters to ranking engines anymore as it is so easy to fake (e.g. whitehouse.org). IIf you have a lot of sites that link only to each other I'm pretty sure Google ranks you down for that (looks like a link farm). But having one or two that have alternative names... I would imagine the only effect is that if 50% of sites link to one and 50% link to the other, you are diluting your pagerank as Google will likely not recognize them as a single site. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 02:25, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

That's what I've come to think as well. Thanks --Ephilei (talk) 16:20, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Viewport area below BODY in Firefox

If you give a small BODY element a border in Firefox (but not in MS IE or WebKit/Safari/Chrome) you see a rectangle around the text at the top of the viewport/screen with a large empty area below it empty. The question is: to which DOM element does this "nowhere land" belong and how can you associate styles to this area (I am especially interested in setting the cursor property). Please also see my Mozilla Bugzilla entry. Thanks in advance, Cacycle (talk) 04:28, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

It appears to me that you are talking about the area outside the body's box-model. Normally, people ask how to ensure that the body will take up the entire viewable area. If you set body's height:100%, it may only take up half the screen. That is because body is constrained inside the html box-model. You must set html's height:100% because body is inside of html which is inside of the viewport. Therefore, the "white space" you are referring to is outside the html box-model. Since html is the root of the DOM tree model, it is outside DOM. My suggestion is to set html's height:100%. Then, set html's cursor. Let body be whatever height it likes, but ensure you set body's cursor. Now, the html box-model will fill the viewport, but you didn't specifically ask the body's box-model to fill html completely. That white-space will be inside the html box-model, which is inside DOM, and you should be able to change it. I haven't tried this, but it theoretically should work. -- kainaw™ 19:17, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks a lot, that makes sense and would exactly do what I want. I will try it tonight and report back. Cacycle (talk) 19:47, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

In order to blow the body up to screen size and to get get rid of the empty area that does no belong to any DOM element the following settings worked:

• Normal html page: setting the height of either HTML or BODY to 100%
• Iframe: setting the BODY height to 100%, HTML settings had no effect

Thanks again, Cacycle (talk) 03:20, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Apache Tomcat and Apple

Resolved

 – User:BigDunc

I am having a problem trying to run Apache Tomcat on my Apple laptop. When I install and try to run it I am getting an error that I don't have permissions and I am asked to enter a password. Any ideas?? BigDunc^Talk 11:58, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

It sounds like you are being asked by Mac OS X to verify as an Administrator. You should be able to put in the username and password for either a user with administrator powers or root, the super-user account. In BSD (the background of OS X), many network-related things need passwords for security purposes. Since tomcat is essentially a network server, it might need to bind to a low-numbered port. Ports under 1024 (I think) are reserved to the system and an admin must give permission to bind to such a low port. Freedomlinux (talk) 17:00, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

Freedomlinux is correct. Assuming that you have edited <Connector port="nnn" ... > in {installpath}/conf/server.xml such that the port is 80 (and not the default 8080), you will run into the permissions issue you describe. See also List of TCP and UDP port numbers#Ranges. -- Fullstop (talk) 18:06, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, that sounds reasonable. I've never had a problem getting tomcat going on a macbook, but I'm running it on a high port number. Friday (talk) 18:08, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks folks you got it in one sorted now. BigDunc^Talk 14:59, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

Free Photoshop-Like Website?

I used the one month trial version of Photoshop but sadly the trial ended. I cannot afford to fork over the amount of money they are asking for to purchase it. Also, I am in no way a professional at photography. I used it for my photo of my friends to alter red eyes, remove any pimples on faces and to whiten the eyes and teeth a bit. Just general light cleaning up. Is there a free website that offers this same service? If so, how much would you trust it? --Emyn ned (talk) 13:45, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

It's not a website, but I believe that GIMP can do everything you mentioned (and more). --Aseld ^talk 13:52, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

I use Picnik via my Flickr page; I've also heard good reviews of SUMO Paint. There's even Adobe Photoshop Express. --LarryMac | Talk 13:56, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

Google's Picassa also has red-eye and similar tools for photos. The newest version does not make a duplicate of all your photos, which I noticed an earlier version doing. -- kainaw™ 17:30, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

I second Picnik which you can also use with Picasa Web and many others. The Picasa desktop client is more powerful and does syncs between local and the cloud, but does require an install. --70.91.110.41 (talk) 18:46, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

You should definitely check out GIMP. It's an awesome tool. I do computer graphics as my full-time job - and I actually prefer it to Photoshop - and it's completely, 100% free. There are a gazillion plugins too - so if you happen to find something it can't do - look for a plugin. SteveBaker (talk) 01:00, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

Name the font

Could somebody name this font? -->

Thanks --217.227.85.200 (talk) 14:43, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

It's a typewriter font. Something like Courier new or American Typewriter should work fine. It won't look quite the same though unless it is somewhat distressed, which is pretty easy to do in photoshop. --140.247.251.34 (talk) 16:10, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

Courier would be very wrong. —Tamfang (talk) 21:36, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Or try some of these.91.111.86.221 (talk) 16:49, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

In the year of Nineteen Hundred and Thirty-Six, it probably was a typewriter. APL (talk) 13:25, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Wow - that's a seriously low-rent way to abdicate the British throne! You'd think there would be some fancy calligraphy and parchment and stuff - preferably with a big wax seal and a ribbon or two! SteveBaker (talk) 00:56, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

This was not the abdication itself: the King has no power to do that on his own, because the law says the first (living, not disqualified) person on a certain list is the monarch. This is a hasty memo asking Parliament to alter that law; I imagine that the resulting Act was a bit fancier. —Tamfang (talk) 22:50, 13 September 2023 (UTC)

screenless display

can i get information regarding screenless displayPri3naik (talk) 14:59, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

Do you mean a computer which projects the screen's image on a surface ? StuRat (talk) 17:00, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

Or do you mean "display" in the Linux usage where a display is the graphical output that may or may not be bound to a physical image like a LCD or CRT. --Ephilei (talk) 18:49, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

Or do you mean some type of holographic display technology, à la Paycheck? – 74  03:36, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Authentication using Mobile Phone / Sim card

Hi. I am wondering that is it possible that a mobile phone can be used as a key in an automated identification process, in a way that you just simply put the phone into a close proximity of a certain device, and it automatically identifies you (well of course not you, but your phone) without using any SMS service, or infra, or bluetooth. Thanx —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.1.59.156 (talk) 20:51, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

I have seen demonstration technology, where a 2D barcode is used to identify the phone. A normal barcode reader is used to read the image directly off the phone's screen. Of course you need to have got the barcode from somewhere, usually through a MMS message. I have also seen news reports of phones being used for contactless payments - in Finland I think - but I'm unsure how that might work. Astronaut (talk) 21:56, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

Or Japan: see here Astronaut (talk) 22:02, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Well, a cell phone is a radio transmitter, so sure, it's possible. There are plenty of reasons why it could be a bad idea, at least if implemented badly, though -- the simplest one being that simply stealing someone's cell phone would give access to everything the owner is supposed to have access to via this system. But yeah, it could be done. There are applications that can track your movements through GPS, for example, and they can be triggered to do things like send information to your phone, or even unlock doors when you enter an area. Versions of this kind of technology have been in use in some experimental pervasive games, for example, in which the players have moved around a large area and completed various tasks with the help of customized hardware and software like this. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 22:08, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

You might actually be looking for something like an RFID badge. More generally, see authentication token. 207.241.239.70 (talk) 00:56, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

On a similar topic, a phone can be the source of identification. I remember this as being from Finland, but I travelled a lot and I've been told that Finland never had anything like this, so I'll explain what I saw in some European country (where everyone tended to be whiter and taller than me): From McDonalds to the Coke machine, everything had a phone number on it. Just dial the number on your phone and it is the same as paying with cash. I assume it turns up on your phone bill. Even in the Internet bar, the computers had phone numbers. Dial up a computer and it gives you credit. Since you dialed from your phone, it knows who you are and would restore your session. So, in this scenario, the phone is used as a form of authentication since you have to call the computer (or any other machine) from your phone. Now, if I just had a good enough memory to know where I saw people doing this... -- kainaw™ 01:20, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

We have Coke and snack machines that work with a mobile phone like that over here in Finland, sure. (Typically they work by SMS message rather than by dialing a number, but same principle.) There are also numerous other services that work on the same principle, such as buying time on an internet terminal, buying subway tickets, etc. I mean, the platform for the process is freely available from all mobile phone operators, all you need to do is make an application that takes advantage of it. Especially for machines that usually accept coins, it's a fairly attractive proposition, because you don't have to worry about someone breaking into the machine and stealing the money, you don't have to send someone around to collect the money, and the mechanism to dispense things or services on a single-item basis is already in place. I don't think they do that at McDonald's, though. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 08:48, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

So, it could be that I'm correctly remembering it as being Finland. I never looked to see what people were typing into their phone, so I didn't realize it was just SMS messages. As for the McDonalds, it was a very fancy one that even had two token Americans working there. I only noticed because I had been in Northern Europe so long that I was speaking in terribly broken English and it took me by surprise when one of the guys responded in perfect (though American) English. I just need to find some way to get back - Finland, Sweden, Norway... I don't care which. Doesn't any University around there need a Computer Science professor? I promise not to complain too much about your toilets being way too tall.-- kainaw™ 13:31, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

I would be surprised -- shocked, even -- if no university around here had any use for a computer science professor. C'mon over, man. Enjoy the high standard of living combined with the high cost of living! (Essentially) free medical care! Cold winters! Long winters! Long, cold, winters! Casual nudity in the sauna! More than two political parties! Woo! -- Captain Disdain (talk) 15:37, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Pfft. Why go all the way there when he can get the same stuff just north of his border? We prefer topless women to casual nudity in the sauna, but ymmv, of course!

Presumably because Canada isn't "Finland, Sweden [or] Norway". -- Captain Disdain (talk) 22:10, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Well, you need to compare the beer, not just the bitter cold. I still have some friends ship me some now and then. I'm usually nice and share it with the locals, but it is hard to let go of a real beer in a country that revels in fermented rat piss. -- kainaw™ 18:51, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

March 11

Skype problems

Please help my microphone wont work with Skype on my laptop but it works with the Skype on my other computer. Skype used to work with my old microphone and I didn't change the settings so I assumed its broken so I got a new one and it won't work either! The test call doesn't say its muted or any other error message but I can't hear the message playback at all. My laptop is a Compaq, I'm running Windows XP, I have Skype version 3.8.0.188 and I have a Logitech headset. Can anyone help please? --124.254.77.148 (talk) 03:42, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

This is from the "blindingly obvious" department, of course, but have you ensured that your microphone's volume setting on the computer isn't turned way, way down? It wouldn't show up as muted then, but if it's turned down low enough, it won't pick anything up, either. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 08:50, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

This happens to me once in a while. Go to the Control Panel and open Sounds and Audio Devices. Click on the Audio tab and ensure that your microphone is enabled for the Sound recording. Mostly like it has been replaced by another device. Regards, Bendono (talk) 14:18, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Gnome Sort

Hello. Can someone tell me how the Gnome sort can have a best case performance of O(n)? Also, how do you find the average case complexity of such an algorithm?--202.88.229.115 (talk) 04:34, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Best case scenario is when everything is already sorted. It will check n-1 items, which is O(n). -- kainaw™ 04:38, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

okay,thanks. so the average case is also o(n*n)?--202.88.229.115 (talk) 04:53, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

It is, in my opinion, just insertion sort. Instead of a nested loop, they mess around with the list pointer. The average case for insertion sort is O(n²). So, gnome sort would be the same. -- kainaw™ 06:06, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Even the ultra-crappy bubble sort is O(n) in the best case. Best-case isn't usually very interesting. We're mostly interested in worst case (if we know nothing about the data and are in need of finishing within some known amount of time) - or average case (especially if we know something about our data - and if we'll be doing a lot of sorting so that the average is likely to be statistically correct).SteveBaker (talk) 00:52, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

/stalk for pidgin

On Chatzilla, you could type /stalk some phrase and it would stalk that phrase or user. If that phrase was said, you would get the notification as if your name had been mentioned. Now that I've switched to Pidgin, it seems there is no such function. Is there any add-on, extension, etc. that will add this feature? flaminglawyer 06:32, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

I think this function is often called "highlight" or "hilight".... (but I don't think Pidgin has it. It's far from a real chat client (but is awesome for IMs.)) --grawity 21:05, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

PNG in PHP problem

Recently, I've been trying to teach myself PHP. I have a free domain at X10hosting.com where I am trying to make a PHP-based website. According to X10hosting, GD is already installed, but when I try something like:

<html>
<body>
<?php
    $img=ImageCreate(300,300);
    
   //Do stuff to the image...
                                                            
    ImagePNG($img,"images/test.png");
    ImageDestroy($img);
?>
<img src="images/test.png" border=0>
</body>
</html>

it doesn't display anything at all. And it isn't just this particular example, it seems to be more specifically the "ImagePNG" statement, I have tried it in various ways but it doesn't seem to work. Thanks in advance, Jkasd 07:50, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Have you tried checking the return from ImagePNG? I suspect your problem might lie in the image paths—the path used by executing code is *rarely* the same as the URL. But a better approach (assuming you don't need the images after the users' requests) would be to have a php script create the image and send it directly to the browser. You can accomplish that using the same ImagePNG command, just drop the filepath (see example at php.net). You could then just pass the URL of this image-processing php file as the src of the img tag. Not only will it be faster for single-use images, but it also conveniently avoids the problems of cross-session corruption and temporary file removal. – 74  08:40, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Ok, I've tried that (I think). I've put something like:

<img src="image.php">

in a different html file. But it will just display the browser icon for an unreadable image. The image.php file is more like:

<?php
    $img=ImageCreate(300,300);
    
   //Do stuff to the image...
                                                            
    ImagePNG($img);
?>

this time. Is that how you mean, or am I still doing something wrong? Jkasd 02:27, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

Take a look at the "unreadable image" — it might be an error message. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 03:56, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

The correct image header needs to be attached to the image. Here is the php.net example code:

<?php
$im = imagecreatefrompng("test.png");

header('Content-type: image/png');

imagepng($im);
imagedestroy($im);
?>

Note the header "Content-type"; that's what tells a browser how to handle the byte-stream that follows. Essentially, you should be able to point your browser at image.php and see the image. – 74  08:14, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

Java programming - how do I do this...

Hi,

I am currently writing some code which runs a loop, and in each run of the loop it creates an object (CD, say) - but I want it to create a differently named object each time, by incorporating the loop number into the name. How do I do this? Here's roughly what my code looks like:

for(int q = 0; q < database.size(); q++)     // where database is an ArrayList
{
   CD myCD* = new CD();        //where * is, insert the varible q
}

I want this loop to produce varibles myCD0, myCD1, myCD2 etc.

Anyone know how to do this? Or point me in the right direction?

Any help is much appreciated.

Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.156.58.73 (talk) 10:29, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Let me point you in another direction. The name of the variable is internal to your application and in itself is fairly meaningless. Thus, if it your intention to store a number with each instance of a CD for whatever reason, then you need to store that within the CD object itself. For example, you could define CD as such...

class CD
{
	public CD(int number)
	{
		this.number = number;
	}
	
	public int GetNumber()
	{
		return number;
	}
	
	private int number;
}

In your initial code, please recognize that all of your CD objects will go out of scope (ie, become inaccessible) immediately after each iteration of the loop. Finally, you could use it like...

public static void Foo()
{
     // Suggest parameterizing this with a type
     ArrayList database = // ...
		
     // Need a place to store CDs
     List<CD> cds = new ArrayList<CD>();
		
     for(int q = 0; q < database.size(); q++)
     {
	// Create CD instance; store loop number.
	CD myCD = new CD( q );
	   
	// Add CD to list.
	cds.add(myCD);
     }
		
     // Test: Output the stored numbers for each CD
     for (CD cd : cds)
     {
	System.out.println( cd.GetNumber() );
     }
}

Hope this helps. Regards, Bendono (talk) 11:02, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Note that in Java, it is very uncommon for a program to have variable names like cd0, cd1, cd2, cd3... If that is desired, you should (at a minimum) use an array like:

CD[] myCD = new CD[database.size()];
for(int q = 0; q < database.size(); q++)
{
  myCD[q] = new CD();
}

It is nearly what you asked for - just the addition of a [ and ]. -- kainaw™ 12:57, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Certainly a typo, but if not obvious to others you will need to remove the type CD preceding myCD[q] in the for loop. Bendono (talk) 14:24, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Correct - changed code. Luckily, that's a typo the compiler would complain about. -- kainaw™ 17:05, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

digital pen/stylus

Would this work on my HP Compaq 4400? I want a cheaper alternative to this, which the tablet originally came with. ~EdGl (talk) 15:42, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Since my laptop screen isn't touch-sensitive, I guess I need to use the pen that comes with the laptop :\ I can't find any for less than $40 though, which sucks. Guess I'm outta luck, huh? ~EdGl (talk) 19:42, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm afraid so. If your tablet using magnetic tracking you absolutely need a stylus specifically designed to work to work with that tablet. APL (talk) 13:20, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

Incorrect behaivour or mailicious code?

Moved from misc desk

Hi,

I'm using Internet Explorer version 6.0.2009.2180.xpsp_sp2_qfe.080814-1242. When i search on Eliot Ness and press go. I get a file download. This does not happen with other search word as e.g. apple. And not in FireFox. I dont know what the file is I did scan it with symantec antivirus but that found nothing.

Just tought that I should inform you of this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.31.11.24 (talk) 15:02, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

The problem is almost certainly at your end. There is no known behaviour in the wiki software that would allow a file to pop up when you are just searching for an article. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 15:26, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Sync Evolution and Collanos

How can I synchronize Evolution (software) with Collanos? Is there any way of exporting Collanos' data and importing them into Evolution? Is there a general format for task data? Mr.K. (talk) 17:23, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Finding the same text in two different files

I have this Boston_Celtics_all-time_roster, and this Los_Angeles_Lakers_all-time_roster. Now, how can I find players that played in BOTH teams (if there's such a player)? I'd need something like diff or cmp but I'm not sure. Thanks! --Taraborn (talk) 17:56, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm not on a unix machine, so I can't test this, but here's what you do: say you have two text-files, "players1.txt" and "players2.txt", concatenate them, sort them, and then look for duplicate lines (using uniq). So something like this:

cat players1.txt players2.txt | sort | uniq -d

But as I said, I can't test it right now, but that would be a way to do it. 195.58.125.47 (talk) 18:38, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Thank you! --Taraborn (talk) 20:03, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

What you should use is join. Assuming that both players1.txt and players2.txt are sorted,

join players1.txt players2.txt

will give you what you want. --173.49.15.165 (talk) 02:29, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

What you want is comm. The problem with comm is that it requires both files to be sorted. So, sort both files (sort will do that easily). Then, use comm -1 -2 boston.sort lakers.sort. The -1 suppresses entries only in the first file. The -2 suppresses entries only in the second file. What is left is entries in both files. -- kainaw™ 03:37, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

Google Currency Converter to Only Two Decimal Places?

Is there anyway to get Google currency converter to display the result to only two decimal places, unlike the current way it's shown?

--91.104.49.185 (talk) 19:02, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

I think you can set that in your preferences (if you have a Google account). I'll check it out and get back to you. — Ched ~ ^(yes?) 19:49, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

hmmmm ... couldn't find anything in either basic preferences or the calculator. Maybe one of the links it provides with result would give you more the output you're looking for. Sorry — Ched ~ ^(yes?) 19:49, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

An easy solution would be to use a bookmarklet: just create a new bookmark on your browser's toolbar with the name as "Currency" and for the location paste this in:

(code hidden to prevent widening page in browser)

javascript:(function() { for (var i = 0, h2s = document.getElementsByTagName('H2'); i < h2s.length; i++) { var h2 = h2s[i]; if (h2.className == 'r') { h2.innerHTML = h2.innerHTML.replace(/( = \d+[.,]\d\d)\d+/, '$1') } }; void(0); })()

Now when you are looking at the ugly decimals, just click on "Currency", and they'll vanish. Greasemonkey basically does the same thing, but spares you having to click anything, at the cost of some complexity in setup. --Sean 21:12, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Speex audio from Adobe Flex / Flash Player 10 .flv via Red5 to .wav PCM?

Resolved

I am having trouble converting a .flv audio-only file uploaded from Adobe Flex / Flash Player 10 to a Red5 server using the Speex voice coder:

http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/langref/flash/media/Microphone.html

http://jira.red5.org/confluence/display/codecs/Speex+Codec (which references an "official patch" to ffmpeg at the end)

Questions:

1. How do I extract the audio track out of such a .flv file?

2. How do I convert it from Speex to .wav PCM?

Thanks. 69.228.87.198 (talk) 21:54, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

This is resolved; I needed the speex-1.2rc1 tarball instead of the debian/ubuntu libspeech-dev package, which is too old to link up with current versions of ffmpeg's --enable-libspeex.

cd ~/src/speex-1.2rc1/
./configure --prefix=/usr
make; make install
cd ../ffmpeg
./configure --enable-libspeex
make; make install
ffmpeg -i SpeexQ6R16Efalse.flv foo.wav

...worked. 69.228.87.198 (talk) 06:59, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

Access 2007 and autogenerated form fields

Hi, apologies if this is covered in the archives. My basic problem is that I don't know enough Access jargon to Google the answer, and the same goes for searching on Wikipedia.

I'm looking for a way to make Access 2007 create blank copies of a group of fields within a record, as soon as data is entered into any field of the original group. The idea is to use a database to track each action taken on different parts of a work project, and when details of an action are entered, to have the database automatically create blank fields for the next action. Ideally using a form to enter the details, with the form's target fields being autoupdated at the same time. Can this be done while keeping all the data within one record - actually, can it be done at all?

Love the refdesks btw - so far you guys have answered every dumb question I posted here, both as an IP and when logged in :-) — FIRE!^{in a crowded theatre...} 22:02, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

I was under the impression that Access already behaved in this manner (though I may be confusing it with one of its SQL siblings). When you create a new record, all the fields in the record should be created as well. You can set these fields to a default value, but I think the default default value is blank. When updating a record, new fields should *not* be created (they should already exist). You might try using some sort of status indicator to determine which actions have and have not been completed. – 74  08:26, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

iPhone and Blackberry

This may be a dumb question... can you surf the internet like you would on a normal computer on an iPhone or Blackberry? Alientraveller (talk) 22:37, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

(ec):Yep! The method is quite awkward, in my opinion at least, and some pages don't display properly, but it is possible. Note: You would want a data plan from your service provider, otherwise it could get quite expensive. Thanks, Genius101^Guestbook 22:53, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

The browser on the iPhone (I've never used a Blackberry, so I don't know about them) is extremely good and uses topical zooming to display large pages on the small screen. THis is different from other small-screen targeted browsers, which either just had a small pagesize (which breaks pages that assume a given screen size) or which tried to do clever things to pages (which inevitably breaks lots of them). It's let down by the network connection - even on 3G it's frustrating to use because of the network speed. So really "yes" in theory, but you probably wouldn't want to do (for long) in practice. 87.115.143.223 (talk) 23:20, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

So, to summarize, yes, you can "surf the internet", but no, it's not "like you would on a normal computer". StuRat (talk) 01:22, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

To add more detail, yes and no. Right now the iphone safari doesn't support flash, so those page elements will unviewable. But the iphone safari browser is a huge improvement over the old internet explorer mobile (have not used a recent version). Also, many pages, especially google pages, will default to a iphone specific version that may limit some features but fit better on the screen, and with the navigation elements. Sometimes you can override these page versions, but that depends on the site you're visiting. The iphone does not replace a computer-based browser, but it can certainly fill in a lot of holes. If you have some specific page you're concerned about, or concern you're getting at, you should ask about it. Shadowjams (talk) 05:55, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

When does a MAC Address Change?

Resolved

Would I be right in assuming that MAC Addresses only change if some hardware change (which hardware by the way?). Will my MAC Address be the same if I switch OS (XP -> Ubuntu)?

TIA. PrinzPH (talk) 22:51, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

The MAC is generally encoded into the ethernet adapter. In times of yore it was fixed (either by pull-up resistors or jumpers) on the ethernet card. Now it's generally kept in non-volatile (flash memory, generally) storage alongside the ethernet firmware. That means that it won't change when you reboot your machine or boot to a different OS, even if you blank (or replace) the disk entirely. You can, however, change it yourself if you want (or need) to (although there's rarely much point) - on linux there's an option to do that in ifconfig (ifconfig eth0 hw ether ab:cd:ef:01:23); I don't know of a standard way to do the same in Windows. 87.115.143.223 (talk) 22:59, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Oh, I didn't answer the "which hardware" part of your question. On old machines there was a separate ethernet card (and you might still have a separate wireless ethernet card or USB adapter) - the MAC address belongs to that, so changing that would result in a new MAC. These days most machines have the ethernet adapter built into the motherboard, so you'd have to change motherboard to accidentally get a new MAC. 87.115.143.223 (talk) 23:10, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Ahh thank you... I used to think that the MAC address somehow had something to do with being an identifier for your computer's current setup (what memory, hdd, etc)... Maybe I confused it with how windows recognizes your computer and if you change too many components it will refuse to boot (into windows)? PrinzPH (talk) 00:24, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

Microsoft have, at least in the past, used the MAC as part of the algorithm to determine your Globally Unique Identifier; in addition Microsoft does use the MAC as part of the scheme for Windows Product Activation. So you're right. 87.115.143.223 (talk) 00:58, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

We have instructions for changing your MAC address under different OSs in b:Changing Your MAC Address. If you have changed the MAC address in one OS but not the other, or changed them differently in different OSs, then your MAC address would indeed change when you switch operating systems. --76.167.241.45 (talk) 04:21, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

What? How can a value that's stored in a chip on a card vary depending on what OS you've booted? 93.97.184.230 (talk) 09:15, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

On startup, the ethernet card loads its default MAC from flash and stores this in RAM. It uses this value when generating ethernet frames. When it receives the "set your MAC" instruction (e.g. from ifconfig) it changes that RAM copy, but not the flash copy. So the change lasts only until the card is reset or powered off. For a change to be almost-permanent, in the way 76.167.241.45 suggests, you'd put that ifconfig line into the OS's startup scripts. That said, some cards do allow you to permanently change the MAC stored in the flash. Note that changing the MAC is not without risk; factory set MACs are guaranteed to be unique, but if you set your own you risk duplicating an existing MAC on your network (in practice that's almost impossible if you pick a truly random MAC, but quite likely if you idly decide just to change one digit). In that event your local switch with get utterly confused, and the resulting network anarchy will be extremely difficult to diagnose. 87.115.143.223 (talk) 12:52, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

March 12

Hibernation Mode

Is it bad for your PC to be always kept in hibernation mode, and never shut down ecxept only about once or twice in a month?? La Alquimista 06:36, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

Bad as in likely to damage something? No. Bad as in potential instability and possible OS errors? Maybe. Basically, if you don't experience significant problems doing so then there's no real reason not to. – 74  08:17, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

It will not harm anything directly by being in hibernation mode. But inevitable program errors can become increasingly problematic the longer a computer goes without restarting. These problems will be things like software/OS crashes, not physical computer damage. Also, in modern desktop OSes, programs that are assumed to be closed may continue to run or maintain pieces of themselves in RAM (memory, not to be confused with hard drive space), which may over time contribute to higher memory usage. You should also be aware that hibernation mode (opposed to "suspend" mode) writes data to your hard-drive, which means that anything you have open may be recorded on your hard-drive at one point or another.

As a very general rule, perhaps you should consider fully shutting down your computer on a regular basis. Perhaps once a week (although you could go much longer or much shorter). Shadowjams (talk) 09:30, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

Applications will not stay resident in memory unless they're supposed to stay resident in memory (ie., if I quit Firefox, it's gone), and even then there shouldn't be any higher memory usage over time unless it leaks memory or has some funky memory fragmentation issues. Something is wrong with your software if 'inevitable errors' pile up and cause issues over time, especially considering that you're essentially forced to reboot occasionally for updates regardless; if you're having issues like this, you should reevaluate what you've chosen to install. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 00:54, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

You're absolutely right, programs shouldn't leave threads running, or leak memory, but this is a simple fact of life in any moderately complex OS. Particularly if this user's running a windows OS, these things happen. Even firefox will have issues from time-to-time. Telling a user to uninstall teh offending software is not a realistic option. Shadowjams (talk) 19:24, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

No, it isn't a "simple fact of life in any moderately complex OS". Firefox will not even do that. At worst, Firefox suffers from memory fragmentation leading to a larger memory footprint than it ought to have. As soon as you close it, however, the OS frees all associated memory and the problem goes away. Uninstalling the offending software is absolutely the appropriate solution, unless it's a driver or something similar from their OEM. This isn't Windows 98, memory doesn't just disappear into the ether. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 03:03, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

Hibernation simply pages out everything and shuts down your computer. It's that simple. You can unplug your computer if you want, unlike with "sleep" which puts your computer in a low power state. The only problems that may occur are with programs that depend on time - timer programs? --wj32 ^t/c 10:01, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

On my Dell M1330 laptop, with 2GB RAM, it takes longer both to go into and to restore from hibernation than it does to make a clean shutdown and restart. So I only hibernate if I have to power off the laptop while doing something I can't save. Your mileage may vary, but I imagine copying 2GB of data to and from the hard drive takes quite a while on any PC.
Also, hibernation can't keep a server session alive, so when you power on again you'll find yourself logged out of most websites you were using. Your data will be lost unless you copied it into a Notepad window before hibernating. — FIRE!^{in a crowded theatre...} 18:42, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

Well no wonder my computer has been acting unusually slow lately. The only time I bother to turn off my computer is when it freezes and I have no choice but to restart it or if I click Turn Off Computer by accident. I'm glad I read this thread, because it's a question I've been pondering myself. --Whip it! ^{Now whip it good!} 21:19, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

That should not be happening even on Windows unless you're using ME/9x. I never do a full shutdown or restart of my Windows box unless I've patched something and need to do so. No issues. You've probably got some crappy or malicious software installed. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 00:48, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Extract the constant term from a polynomial, with Maple9

Hi, excuse this naive question. I'm doing a computation with Maple9. As a result I have a huge trigonometric polynomial, and I want to extract the constant term. As a mathematician, I would just integrate over [-pi, pi], but this can not be the right answer. How can I just make it find the constant term? Thanks --131.114.72.215 (talk) 14:15, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

You might try asking at the math desk if you don't have any luck here. --Sean 17:59, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

Security Software

I just bought a new Dell Inspiron 1525 and it came with Trend Micro Internet Security and I have Windows Defender on it, too. Reason is that I have installed Stumble Upon and now I'm addicted. But I don't want to leave myself vulnerable. Is this enough security? I think I might be missing something. --Emyn ned (talk) 14:44, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

Make sure that the internet gateway (DSL router, cable box, etc.) that you're using to access the internet (assuming you're doing so at home) has a firewall and that the firewall is enabled (with as few inbound ports open as possible; ideally none). If you're using a wireless connection to it, make sure the connection is secure (and uses WPA, not the earlier and much less secure kind). Have a spyware scanner (like Spybot Search and Destroy) and run it occasionally. Many people (myself included) will recommend that you use a browser other than Internet Explorer (such as firefox, safari, opera, or google chrome). If you do choose to run IE, adding the Yahoo! toolbar (which can catch some fishing and spyware sites) is a good idea. Always make sure your Windows Update is up to date, and that browser plugins (particularly Adobe Flash and Adobe Acrobat Reader) are up to date. 87.115.143.223 (talk) 15:42, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

yes, I use Firefox but I don't have any Spybot Search and Destroy. How do you know if I am using WPA? My landlord has the wireless connection set up and I am allowed to use it for free. --Emyn ned (talk) 15:48, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

You can get SD&D via the Spybot - Search & Destroy article; it's very good (and free). If you double-click on the little icon that appears when you wirelessly connect, you should get a little box that gives some details of the wireless connection (I don't have a windows machine to hand right now to confirm). I think it says "secure connection" or "WPA secure connection" or something like that. If you didn't have to enter a security code the first time you connected to the wireless then the connection is "open", and thus unsecured. If that's the case you should talk to said landlord and suggest enabling WPA security - that way only people he approves can access his network (and not Joe Pederast across the street). 87.115.143.223 (talk) 15:55, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

finding pixel with RGB in visual basic or visual C++

is there some code in visual basic or in visual C++ with which i could find a pixel with a specific color values(red, green, blue) at a particular Y- coordinate or X- coordinate? please post that fully.--harish (talk) 15:42, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

A pixel in what - in an image, on the screen, on a video? 87.115.143.223 (talk) 15:43, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

In Java, the AWT Robot can do this, either by creating a BufferedImage of the screen (allowing you access to a "copy" of that screenshot), or by returning the current color of the pixel at the mouse-coordinate. The AWT Robot can get screen information from anywhere rendered by the operating system (not just in the Java application window(s)). There's probably an equivalent feature in .NET Framework or Visual C++. Nimur (talk) 17:01, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

This article describes the WinAPI calls that capture the screen in VisualC++ (I guess they're also exposed to VB by the same names). 87.115.143.223 (talk) 17:22, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

Sure, just use GetPixel and get a handle to the whole screen. (Replace with another HDC if you need something more specific.) Here is a quick sample:

#include <cstdlib>
#include <iostream>
#include <windows.h>

int main( int argc, char* argv[] )
{
	if (argc != 3)
	{
		return EXIT_FAILURE;
	}

	int x = ::atoi( argv[0] );
	int y = ::atoi( argv[1] );

	HDC hdc = ::GetDC( 0 );
	COLORREF color = ::GetPixel( hdc, x, y );

	::ReleaseDC( 0, hdc );

	BYTE red   = GetRValue( color );
	BYTE green = GetGValue( color );
	BYTE blue  = GetBValue( color );

	std::cout << "Red: "     << (unsigned int) red
		  << ", Green: " << (unsigned int) green
		  << ", Blue: "  << (unsigned int) blue
		  << std::endl;

	return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

Regards, Bendono (talk) 18:01, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

Why does YouTube add black vertical black bars to my (windows movie maker) videos?

I create them is WMM and when their uploaded no less than two different types of bars. The one outer ones are YouTube and the inner ones are WMM... How can I avoid them both? --217.227.127.109 (talk) 19:02, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

It sounds like you are not correctly setting the aspect ratio when you save the video. It also sounds like you are making this mistake twice, in both Windows Movie Maker and also during the upload step. What aspect ratio is the original video? Make sure you use that value all the way through the process. Nimur (talk) 19:08, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

it create them videos to convert to flash and that alters them s —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.80.240.66 (talk) 13:07, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

March 13

after burning a dvd-r

May the disc then be too hot for the drive to read? I think this is happening now...--Open24HrsMotorwayStop (talk) 00:05, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

According to DVD recorder the write laser is no more powerful that 400 mW (some google searches I've done suggest that 200 to 250 mW is more normal). That's about 1/1000 th of the total power expenditure in your entire system. That seems much too low to raise the temperature to anything worth worrying about. 87.115.143.223 (talk) 00:27, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Ok thanks. I'll try it again.--Open24HrsMotorwayStop (talk) 00:45, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

I do find that freshly burned dvd's are pretty warm. That's probably from the general amount of heat in the drive when it's burning, rather than directly from the laser. I haven't noticed unusual problems reading the discs immediately after burning. I do notice a significant rate of failed burns (whether caused by defective discs or what, I don't know) no matter what I do, both with cheap discs and expensive name-brand ones. 207.241.239.70 (talk) 00:57, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

What's really happening here?

My home computer system has a middle-aged Dell flatscreen monitor. Of late, it has been "color-shifting", for lack of a better or proper term; what I mean is the entire screen, not just areas or lines or pixels, shifts to a bluish tint, or pinkish, or something else. Usually this is sudden, not gradual; also, usually it is not permanent -- although it doesn't always revert to correct colors, sometimes it just changes tint. It is also not a flicker in the electrical sense.

Apart from telling me that my monitor has mere days (if not hours) to live, what's really happening here at the hardware level? Alternatively, since slapping the side of the computer case also causes this color shift (sometimes back to normal, sometimes not), perhaps the monitor is fine and it's a graphics card issue?

Thanks in advance to hardware gurus, --DaHorsesMouth (talk) 01:36, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Have you jiggled the video cable? -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 01:49, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Definitely sounds like a loose connection at one end of the cable or the other. The fact that it changes when you whack the computer case suggests it's at that end...but maybe not. If not - then try to borrow a video cable from someone and try swapping out the cable...if that fixes it then buy a new cable. If THAT doesn't fix it then I'd want to try the monitor on another computer - again, it helps if you either have another PC or a friend who doesn't mind you trying it. If you find the monitor works OK on another computer then it pretty much must be the graphics card...but this is not the usual symptoms bad graphics gives you. So first suspect the cable - that's by far the most likely thing. SteveBaker (talk) 02:49, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

It isn't necessarily the cable itself, but just it's connection to the computer and/or monitor. Is it loose ? Does it have screws to tighten it down ? Are they tightened fully ? StuRat (talk) 04:55, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

I'd give it 90% odds that it's a bad/loose VGA cable. I've had that pink-tint thing happen before and it's always that. What's likely happening is that the signal on a particular RGB channel (or whatever color scheme the output uses) is dying, while the rest come through, hence, the tint to the screen. Another option might be something faulty in the monitor, and that'd also seem more likely with a CRT monitor rather than an LCD. I'd seriously doubt it was a software issue or an issue with the video card internals. Shadowjams (talk) 19:34, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Gmail offline

Hello Wikipedia,

I've just downloaded Gmail offline but it doesn't seem to be doing what i thought it could. Whilst its great for when i lose my internet connection mid-session, when I'm just no connected, it doesn't load up (so i can't read old emails for example). Have i mis-understood what Gmail offline is supposed to do or is there a bug in the system somewhere? Thanks, 81.140.37.58 (talk) 10:45, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

I don't know about Gmail offline but as Gmail supports IMAP you can easily set up any IMAP client, e.g. Thunderbird so that you can read your mail while offline Nil Einne (talk) 11:47, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

To expand on that answer a little: With 'normal' email (using the IMAP protocol, for example - as Nil Einne explains) you can choose whether you'd like your mail to be downloaded onto your own computer, stored there and deleted from the server - or to have it remain on the server. If you choose the latter (as you evidently have) then when you disconnect from the web, you obviously can't read your email anymore because it's not stored on your computer! The trouble with going the other route is twofold:

• If you have more than one computer - you can't read mail that you downloaded onto computer A while you're using computer B!
• If you get a lot of junk mail, it all has to be downloaded onto your computer before you have a chance to delete it. If you have a slow connection, that's a bad thing...but I suppose it might also expose you to more risk from malware...I use Linux, so that's not something I know much about!

Anyway - if you are using a web-based email client, then you don't have a choice. Because the email software is running on the server and displaying your email as a web page - then obviously, your mail remains on the server. But if you use an email client such as Thunderbird - you can set it up either way.

SteveBaker (talk) 12:16, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

No, you haven't misunderstood; you should be able to do what you describe. The last message in this thread may help. If not - what browser are you using? When you activated offline Gmail it will have asked you if you want to place a shortcut to it in the start menu or desktop - if they're there, do they work? — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 13:35, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

question

if a softwares works is there any real reason to get newer version if you'res works ok? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.80.240.66 (talk) 13:24, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

It's always wise to keep up to date with security patches and revisions. For a whole new version (costing more money) then you only need to update when the new version has features you want (that the old one doesn't). But software vendors want you to update, and by means of Planned obsolescence (e.g. no more support, no support for modern platforms) will try to persuade you to upgrade. 87.115.143.223 (talk) 13:48, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

I go with the old standby: "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". Thus, I don't update working software unless absolutely necessary, as it's more likely to introduce new problems than help in any way. This is especially true of companies I just don't trust, like Microsoft. They are likely to sneak something in like a digital rights management system which makes it impossible to do what you could with the old version, or a bomb which disables the software if they think it isn't registered. Even if they don't do any of this, new software is often bloated with silly, useless features which makes it run slowly and lock up my computer. StuRat (talk) 15:22, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

You should be very careful saying things like that. Sure, if you like your version of Minesweeper, sure, go with that, but if we're talking things like web-browsers, servers, operating systems, Acrobat Reader, security software or anything that connects to the internet, it is imperative that you at least get the security updates. I'd say this especially applies to Microsoft, you have to have Windows Update running, you're a fool if you don't. When in doubt, update. Belisarius (talk) 23:50, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

I'd say my same logic would apply to those programs, as well. Sure, they may patch some security holes, but they probably create just as many with each new patch. Otherwise, Windows has had so many patches that it would be completely impenetrable by now, wouldn't it ? And is it ? Heck no. StuRat (talk) 06:44, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

I need a boot disk

Can anyone recommend a free downloadable boot disk that will allow me to restore the master boot record for Windows XP? My MBR is currently trying to load from a boot loader that no longer exists (I forgot it was still being used and deleted it...), I need to get it to load from the standard XP boot loader (which I'm 99% sure is still where it should be and in working order!). Thanks. --Tango (talk) 13:41, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

If you won't have a Windows CD already (fixmbr in the recovery console), you can do it with this Ubuntu recipe. 87.115.143.223 (talk) 13:44, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, unfortunately I left my Windows CD at home (I'm at uni at the moment). I don't have access to a CD burner (the only one I have is on the computer that doesn't work!) so it needs to be a bootable floppy. I've found shareware boot disks online that would do it, but it seems to need to pay about $20 to unlock the part of the program that actually writes the new boot record to disk. I'm wondering if anyone knows of a free one. --Tango (talk) 13:53, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Is a Pendrive Linux an option for you? 87.115.143.223 (talk) 14:10, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Unfortunately not - my computer doesn't seem to have an option to boot from USB. --Tango (talk) 14:12, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Then try FreeDOS: fdisk /mbr FreeDOS doesn't support NTFS volumes, but I guess its fdisk command is smart enough to recognise one and fix the mbr accordingly. But you're into data-loss territory if I'm wrong. 87.115.143.223 (talk) 14:22, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Or TomsRTBT (same caveats as freedos) 87.115.143.223 (talk) 14:48, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

UBCD 4 Windows ? — Ched ~ ^(yes?) 14:37, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Unfortunately, I don't have access to a working CD burner, so I need a floppy disk version. --129.234.4.76 (talk) 14:41, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Which UBCD doesn't seem to have - http://www.ubcd4win.com/faq.htm#floppy 87.115.143.223 (talk) 14:42, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Missed that part: bootdisk.com would probably be your best hope then — Ched ~ ^(yes?) 15:00, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

A FreeDOS boot disk fixed the MBR, so thanks all of you for you help! However, it turns out the XP install isn't in working order after all, so I guess I'm now on a quest to find someone with a repair CD... --Tango (talk) 15:56, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Linux and Torvalds original source code

I've been using Linux exclusively as a desktop OS since November 08. I was just wondering, what, if any, code is still in the kernel from Linus Torvalds original version that he started spitting out on a keyboard attached to a 386 in a cold apartment in Helsinki back in 1991? Not really a useful question, but I'm curious. I think it'd be neat if there were still tiny bits of code from all those years ago still surging through my CPU right now...63.245.144.68 (talk) 15:28, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm sure many of the POSIX standard header files are the same, since they have usually no reason to change. --Sean 16:31, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

The POSIX standard headers are part of glibc, not part of the linux kernel (and so were mostly authored by Roland McGrath, and none by Linus). The kernel does contain a very minimal version of some of the C standard library for use by kernel code only (which bears only a passing resemblance to POSIX). We have some pretty good evidence that even that has been overhauled - witness modern Linus slagging off 1991 Linus's coding of the (apparently simple) ctypes.h here. 87.115.143.223 (talk) 17:05, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

I don't know how much survives from his university days (I do know that the very first version he posted has been lost in time, the earliest version of the code is 0.02 I believe), but our article on Linus states that about 2% of the code in the current kernel was written by the man himself. That's pretty staggering, considering that the entire kernel is a little over 10 million lines. That's 200,000 lines of code. Isn't that cool! Belisarius (talk) 23:43, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

200kloc isn't that much - I write about 100kloc/year. What's somewhat remarkable is that he reads and checks every line of code that everyone else writes too. Pretty much nothing gets into the kernel without Linus checking it out first. SteveBaker (talk) 01:54, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

Google toolbar and Firefox 3.0.7

Resolved

 – ukexpat (talk) 19:24, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Folks, this has been annoying me for days and I just cannot figure it out. I recently upgraded to Firefox 3.0.7 from version 2.something. In v2 the Google toolbar was below the Yahoo toolbar, but in v3 the positions are swapped and I have been completely unable to figure out how to put them where I want them, Google on the bottom. Anyone know the magic for this, or is it an issues with v3 itself? Thanks in advance. – ukexpat (talk) 16:07, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

An issue with v3? Heresy! ;) Right click near the awesome bar (the address bar) and click "Customise". Then just drag and drop. - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 17:27, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

That doesn't work for me. I can move individual buttons but not the whole toolbar. Your suggestion works for IE but not for FF, at least for me. – ukexpat (talk) 18:20, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Fudge. - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 19:02, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Thank you! That worked and all is good in my Firefox world! – ukexpat (talk) 19:24, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Xlib fullscreen window sample

Can you give me a link to a minimal program that creates a fullscreen x window? Something along the lines found here but complete (the code there doesn't work for me or I miserably fail copy-paste). --194.197.235.29 (talk) 16:39, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

I've fused a nice Xlib tutorial with the code you describe, making the following (which works on my Ubuntu machine):

// code a fusion of:
// http://fixunix.com/xwindows/91585-how-make-xlib-based-window-full-screen.html
// and Ch. Tronche (http://tronche.lri.fr:8000/)'s xlib tutorial
#include <X11/Xlib.h>
#include <assert.h>  
#include <unistd.h>  
#include <string.h>
#define NIL (0)     

// compile with:
//   gcc -o foo foo.c -lX11 
int main (){
  Display *dpy = XOpenDisplay(NIL);
  assert(dpy);
  XEvent xev;
  Atom wm_state = XInternAtom(dpy, "_NET_WM_STATE", False);
  Atom fullscreen = XInternAtom(dpy, "_NET_WM_STATE_FULLSCREEN", False);

  int blackColor = BlackPixel(dpy, DefaultScreen(dpy));
  int whiteColor = WhitePixel(dpy, DefaultScreen(dpy));
  
  Window w = XCreateSimpleWindow(dpy, DefaultRootWindow(dpy), 0, 0, 
				 200, 100, 0, blackColor, blackColor);
  memset(&xev, 0, sizeof(xev));
  xev.type = ClientMessage;
  xev.xclient.window = w;
  xev.xclient.message_type = wm_state;
  xev.xclient.format = 32;
  xev.xclient.data.l[0] = 1;
  xev.xclient.data.l[1] = fullscreen;
  xev.xclient.data.l[2] = 0;

  XSendEvent(dpy, DefaultRootWindow(dpy), False,
	     SubstructureNotifyMask, &xev);

  XSelectInput(dpy, w, StructureNotifyMask);
  XMapWindow(dpy, w);
  GC gc = XCreateGC(dpy, w, 0, NIL);
  XSetForeground(dpy, gc, whiteColor);

  for(;;) { // wait for MapNotify
    XEvent e;
    XNextEvent(dpy, &e);
    if (e.type == MapNotify)
      break;
  }

  XDrawLine(dpy, w, gc, 10, 60, 180, 20);
  XFlush(dpy);
  sleep(10);
  return 0;
}

87.115.143.223 (talk) 17:34, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Thank you, works very well on my ubuntu machine too. --194.197.235.29 (talk) 18:32, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

How backwards compatible is Windows 7?

What's the earliest software I can run on Windows 7? Can I run software originally written for Windows 95? 3.1? --70.167.58.6 (talk) 17:30, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

I think that almost all applications that could run on Windows Vista will also work with Windows 7. Simple applications for Windows 95 did work on Vista. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 18:12, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Are stored procedures considered part of the data layer or data access layer?

In reference to business applications where you have data, data access, business and UI layers, are stored procedures considered part of the data layer or the data access layer? I used to think the data layer, but now that I think about it, stored procedures do access data. OTOH, stored procedures are physically located on the database server whereas a data acess layer can (and often is) located on separate machine. A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 17:44, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

How games use CPU cycles

In a typical video game, assuming the computer or console has video acceleration with a separate GPU, how do the CPU cycles break down between graphics, sound, AI and mechanics? NeonMerlin 20:07, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

That is impossible to answer because you aren't providing any reasonable construct of a "typical game" by saying "typical". Do you mean a typical shooter? Do you mean a typical real-time wargame? Do you mean a typical platformer? Do you mean a typical puzzle game? Do you mean a typical computer chess game? There are far too many choices of "typical" to begin to narrow down an answer. -- kainaw™ 20:38, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Yeah. A game like Half Life 2 will spend relatively little effort on AI, because it only has to move a few actors over a pre-computed graph toward a single target. For something like Starcraft 2 they have to move hundreds of actors against a range of targets, and they have to rely more on dynamic pathing because all those actors get in one another's way and (ideally) are supposed to behave in concert and move in formation. 87.115.143.223 (talk) 21:14, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Everything really varies intensely, ESPECIALLY over genres. shooters and sports games are much more likely to have large complex physics engines, whereas RPGs (a la Final Fantasy, that is, not MMOs) will have a limited physics at best. An RPG like FF would probably use most of it's CPU cycles for graphics, mostly because i can't imagine it really uses many CPU cycles at all. Evan ¤ Seeds 21:22, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Well, it is pretty widely variable - and what with multiple cores - sharing RAM bandwidth, GPU's doing things other than graphics using CUDA...it's difficult to ask what it even MEANS to express these things as percentages. On the whole, we try to push the graphics off onto a separate thread - and hope that on a modern PC, it'll get its' own CPU Core. (The project I'm working on right now will do exactly that - and coincidentally, separating the graphics thread from the rest is my job for the next week or two!) On Xbox360 and Playstation-3, the graphics will almost certainly be off on its own processor. So in a sense, graphics takes 100% of one CPU core. For the rest - it's much more variable from game to game. On the last game I worked on at Midway (which was essentially a 3rd person shooter), we were aiming for a 30Hz update rate - and seeing perhaps 30% of our 33 msec going on collision detection and physics, 20% on AI...then lots of teeny tiny hard-to-catagorize things taking up the rest. There is a big overhead when you split things up into separate threads where the separate processes have to interlock their access to various resources - and that can easily blow 20% of your time if you aren't super-careful. The time consumed by actual "Game mechanics" is usually completely negligable - and I guess audio might eat a few percent. If we can push physics and audio off onto their own threads - sharing another CPU, then we will. On Playstation-3, it's a lot more complicated because they have the "SPU" processors that are somewhere between the CPU and GPU of a 'classic' computer. Generally, they are such a pain in the ass to deal with (because they aren't like PC's and XBoxes and Wii's and anything else) that we'd use them for audio mixing and to offload graphics processing from the GPU - which is comparatively wimpy compared to the Xbox360 and modern PC's). I haven't worked on Wii. SteveBaker (talk) 00:37, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

Partition problems lead to extremely slow computer

Ok, follow on from my question above: With your help, I got the MBR sorted out. I initially thought that something was wrong with the Windows XP installation and it wasn't loading, it turns out it was actually loading almost imperceptibly slowly, and continues to run at that speed once it has loaded. It takes 5 to 10 minutes from clicking on an icon to it becoming selected - that slowly! I am currently using it in Safe Mode (with networking), and it is running reasonably well. For some reason unknown to me, my C: drive reports a gigabyte extra free space is Safe Mode than in normal mode (That is, it reports 1GB rather than 10MB).

In case it helps, allow me to explain how I broke it in the first place: Some time ago I tried to set it up to dual boot with Linux, this failed due to hardware incompatibilities and I gave up on it. A partition for Linux was then left dormant on my hard drive (well, several actually). Recently my main Windows partition has been filling up and it got to the point where there was less than 10meg free and nothing more I could delete or move to a different drive/partition. I realised there was still this Linux partition there so tried to use Partition Magic to delete it and redistribute the free space between the other. It got half way through moving one of the other windows partitions up the drive when it failed due to an apparent bad sector and said no change had been made. This wasn't actually the case, it had already deleted the Linux partition(s). It was only when I rebooted that I realised the MBR was set to use GRUB on the Linux partition, which was now gone, but with your help I fixed that problem. I am now left with a slower computer than I have ever encountered and have no idea why. It may be to do with the drastic lack of hard drive space, but it got down to 500k just before I decided to try rearranging the partitions (I got it up to about 10meg first, but then ran out things to delete - most of the space it taken up by Windows itself). I could try and free up some more space while in Safe Mode, but it won't be easy... Is there a way to move programs from one drive to another without breaking everything (other than uninstalling and reinstalling - I don't have most of the install media with me)?

Any ideas what is wrong with my computer? Is it just the free space issue, or is there something else? Please help!!

--Tango (talk) 21:23, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Perhaps your swap file got damaged in all that process (it should just tell you and/or fix it itself)? 87.115.143.223 (talk) 21:38, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

It hasn't told me any such thing. It can't have been doing much swapping before hand, anyway - I've had a gig of RAM and a few hundred meg of hard drive space for a while now (unless the swap file is somehow on a different partition than the one windows is on - is that possible? How would I find out?). --Tango (talk) 21:42, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

The swap file is controlled in the system control panel plugin (I think there might be a "performance" or similar tab to go through). The control panel (or is it the administrative tools thing? I'm afraid I don't have windows to hand...) also has the system even log, which might have a slew of errors in it (from when things were running slow). 87.115.143.223 (talk) 21:52, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

I couldn't find anything useful about swapping, but I found a system log that is full of errors about bad blocks - I will run scandisk (or whatever it is called in XP) and see if that helps. Thanks! --Tango (talk) 22:00, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

God, Windows is annoying! It said it was "unable to complete the scan" but didn't think I might want to know what had gone wrong... So I've downloaded "Ariolic Disk Scanner" (it appeared about 6 times on the first page of a google search for "Windows XP disk scanner", so I thought it must be good!) and am running that now. No errors so far... --Tango (talk) 23:14, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

You said most of the remaining space is taken up by Windows. Since Windows has many optional components, you may want to delete some of the fluff until this problem is resolved. If you still have the install disks, it should be easy to add those Windows components back in later. Once you get some free space, try a defrag, as fragmentation is a problem when disk space is low. If you have a way to run Windows directly off a boot disk, that will allow you to do all these things at a reasonable speed, since you won't rely on Windows on the incredibly slow hard disk. StuRat (talk) 23:04, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

That's not a bad idea. I'm currently typing this in Safe Mode, which is running at a decent speed, so I should be able to uninstall some windows components that I don't use from here. --Tango (talk) 23:14, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

So much for that plan - the total size of all the optional components I have installed is 56MB, and only 20MB of that looked like something I could remove, and it wasn't entirely clear what was included with that component so I decided it wasn't worth removing it. I'm still baffled by why I seem to have a gigabyte extra free space in Safe Mode than normally... any ideas? --Tango (talk) 23:46, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

The extra gigabyte could be swap space perhaps? Anyway, two ideas (if I recall correctly from above you say your disk now has some unpartitioned space): 1) If Partition Manager works in safe mode, run Partition Manager and increase the size of the partition. 2) If your CD burning software works in safe mode, download GParted, boot from CD and repartition from there. If this doesn't work and you still want to free up disk space, you can remove any free software you have installed, such as Firefox (if you use that) - you can just re-download these things after everything is fixed. Jørgen (talk) 02:39, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

It was trying to do just that with the partitions that caused this mess in the first place! Unfortunately the partition with windows on it is at the beginning of the drive and the now unallocated space is at the end, which means I can't get more space in the main partition without moving the other partitions and that was what failed - apparently due to a bad sector in the unallocated space. I've managed to free up about 200meg (which has been enough for the last few weeks - I've been gradually deleting/moving more and more things as it fills up trying to keep it above 200meg, which is the point where Windows starts complaining), but it doesn't seem to have helped. If the extra gig is swap space then a) why doesn't Safe Mode need a swap file? and b) is there any way to tell it to use less swap space? I think the answer to my space problems is to buy a new hard drive, but I'm not convinced it is lack of space causing the problems (not directly, anyway). Thanks for your idea, though - any more? --Tango (talk) 13:50, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

Though I've never used XPLite, I suspect that it would be useful for junk removal. -- Hoary (talk) 05:35, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

Program

I couldn't think of a better title for this question: what I want is something where I would type in several words, for example, Fred, Cooper, and Smith, and it would spit out something like: FredCooperSmith, FredSmith, CooperSmith, FSmith, FCSmith, FCS, and so on. I was recently regestering some .tk websites, and was thinking that this would make things a lot easier. Thanks, Genius101^Guestbook 21:54, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

I just made you an application for this purpose: try FSCCalc.exe --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 22:46, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Thank you very much! Genius101^Guestbook 13:29, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

VNC client

Hi

Can someone suggest a good vnc client for windows, specifically one the may have a LAN browser, and tabs like Vinagre in ubuntu?

TIA PrinzPH (talk) 22:48, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Check out TightVNC and RealVNC. They are two of the more common varieties. Shadowjams (talk) 00:55, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

March 14

what is the best free antivirus program?

Are there any ones which are on all the time? So when I download a file it automatically scans it immediately?--75.187.113.105 (talk) 00:43, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

There are three major free anti-viruses. They are:

• avast! Home Edition
• Avira AntiVir Free
• AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition

All three have resident/real-time protection against threats (That is, files are scanned upon opening and such). As for your second question, avast! has a Web Shield module which will scan almost everything (Certain content such as music files are excluded by default from Web Shield scanning to prevent slowdowns of your browsing speed) as they stream to your computer (Website content; avast! picks up a lot of malicious JavaScript) or as files download. (It creates a transparent proxy and redirects all web traffic through it to scan it for threats)

In personal tests that I conducted within a sandbox it successfully detected rogues (Fake software that bring along a lot of malware and that try to scan you out of your money) mid-download. With other threats it often detected them before I even got a download prompt! (Temporary files are scanned automatically and the threat(s) was/were detected)

avast! Home Edition (The free version) however lacks PUSH updates (Initiated by the avast! servers rather than by the user), a script scanner (Scans scripts executed on the local computer; more importantly though it scans websites in web browsers for malicious content), command-line scanner (used by those who prefer the efficiency of the command-line and those that wish to execute batch commands), automatic actions to be taken when a threat is detected (In the free version a popup appears with cool [But loud] siren sound effects showing the threat detected and giving the options available. In the Professional version; an action can be set to be taken automatically when a threat is detected), and finally the Enhanced-User Interface. (There are many complaints about the avast! Simple User Interface [I have no problems with it and love it for its simplicity] for looking too much like a media player etc)

However, avast! is the most fully-featured of the free anti-viruses with features such as the Boot-Time Scan (Scans your computer before Windows boots up to kill off threats before they can defend themselves against removal), the Virus Recovery Database (Stores copies of critical system files to allow easy repairs if they get infected), and the Virus Chest. (Same as the "Quarantine" area of most other anti-viruses but avast! allows you to scan files in it [As many times as you want] to check for false positives. In addition, you can add your own files to the chest. -- I recommend avast! but note that it lacks heuristics (Behavior analysis, this is regarded by some as just advertising though that creates too many false positives, making it difficult for the user to determine what is a threat and what isn't)

Avira AntiVir Free is also highly popular like avast! (Which has 75 million registered users+). In tests by independent companies such as AV Comparatives; it had the highest detection rates (But not for rootkits as discovered by other testers) beating out even GDATA which uses the BitDefender and avast! scanning engines for very high detection rates. Avira AntiVir Free though lacks anti-spyware and anti-adware; a major weakness. Like avast! it also prompts you for every threat detected (Can be annoying if you want to clean up a heavily infected machine). It has heuristics. -- I recommend it but be sure to use a good anti-spyware application alongside it and a good HIPS application as well.

Lastly, AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 8.5. It is probably the most popular of the three.

I know this will cause controversy but I do not recommend it. The 7.5 version of AVG Free was excellent but the 8.x series lost too many features. No anti-rootkit is very bad as rootkits are becoming more common and ever more dangerous and difficult to remove. The reduced priority updates are also bad as AVG has usually had pretty bad detection rates for threats with old signatures. (Other anti-viruses can do rather well with out-of-date signatures but always keep them up-to-date. Even so, a recent study by Panda Labs shows that 35% of infected computers HAD an updated anti-virus. Having an anti-virus alone is not enough.) Its detection rate is describable as decent. If you want an AVG product, get the paid version not the free one.

If you are willing to spend a few bucks: (I suspect not as you asked for recommendations for free anti-viruses)

I most highly recommend the Kaspersky 2009 and Norton 2009 versions. (Yes, I know, "Norton sucks!"; yeah, well, not the 2009 versions, they are light and have demonstrated excellent anti-malware capabilities. However the following is true: "McAfee sucks!" :P)

Hope this helps. :) --Xp54321 ^{(Hello! • Contribs)} 02:54, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

Firefox URL window doesn't work

And can Canon [?!] be to blame?

Here's an odd one. Yesterday, a Mac (Intel, 10.5.4) here had no printer attached but -- irrelevantly, I'd have thought -- Firefox, Safari and Opera all worked as expected. This morning, I plugged in a Canon laser printer and installed the necessary ("CAPT") software for this but haven't made any other change to the system that I can think of (and I've thought hard). Safari and Opera work just as they did yesterday. (And the printer works fine.) Firefox, however, now ignores anything I type in the little window at the top for the URL (or in the smaller Google window to its right). No error message, nothing: it's as if I hadn't made the final hit on the Enter key. However, if, still in Mozilla, I click anything within the "history", I can see it and go wherever I want from it by clicking links within it.

I upgraded Firefox from 3.0.6 to 3.0.7. No error message during (or after) installation, no difference after installation: I can go where I've been, and surf therefrom, but I can't specify a new URL or do a Google search.

The obvious solution is to ignore Firefox and use Safari and/or Opera, particularly as they are excellent and already installed. But as long as I don't know WtF's going on with Firefox, I worry that some other function of some other program will mysteriously crap out on me. Ideas? -- Hoary (talk) 04:35, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

PS I suppose that the scientific method (?) demands that I should experimentally uninstall the printer. But before taking that extreme (not!) measure, I thought I'd ask here. -- Hoary (talk) 05:30, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

Best way to upgrade a Windows Millenium computer

This was my main computer but now sits on a shelf unused ;( as I had to get an ancient second-hand XP computer so that I could get broadband. It is an "etower 566cd" and has a 566mhz Intel Celeron Processor and I have installed 512MB of memory (the maximum possible) and a CDRW. It does not have an ethernet card though. It is a better machine that my ancient XP computer which has a pentium III and currently only 126MB of memory, although it does have an ethernet card. The ancient XP computer was upgraded from a lower Windows operating system before I got it, and the motherboard no longer seems supported, and the video card is probably defective too.

The two choices see to be a) Linux or b) upgrading to XP. I hestitate with Linux as my broadband provider does not support it, and I expect there is still far less freeware and other software for it. How much would an XP upgrade cost please? 89.241.151.22 (talk) 10:49, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

I think it would cost more than Linux would; clearly, just how much you'd pay would depend on the nation in which you bought it, etc etc. My own broadband provider doesn't mention Linux either; but for all that company cares I could be using Plan 9. You'll find plenty of freeware for Linux, and all in all enough software to keep you busier with the machine than you are now with it. Hoary (talk) 11:29, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

Remote saving of pages

I'm looking for a way to remotely save a specified web page, such as a thread on a message board, updating it every 5 mins to ensure all new content is saved and stopping when the html source of the page has the following "<h2>404 - Not Found</h2>" (otherwise it will continue to save the page once the thread has died and the content has gone, saving only the error message). What would be the best way to accomplish this? The system would also need an interface where multiple people via the internet could specify the urls to be saved. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Cally012 (talk • contribs) 12:45, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

Xubuntu Loading Problems...

Hi,

I have a very slow laptop (256 Mb RAM, 1.5 GHz Celeron M Processor). I heard about this lightweight operating system, Xubuntu. So, I downloaded it from the official site, wrote the image on a CD. When I tried to install Xubuntu by booting from the CD, I went through a couple of menu and then some Desktop Environment came up and it promply hung there. It didnt even take me through all the process of allocationg space in a partition and everything. I even tried to Install it as an Application from Windows, the installation went well. But, when I tried to get in Xubuntu from the boot menu, it hung up at the desktop sceen. And in the desktop theres an bar of discoloration or a multi-colored bar just aboce the main taskbar on the bottom. Can someone please tell me what went wrong?

Thanks! Jayant,20 Years, India • contribs 14:09, 14 March 2009 (UTC)