Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing

Welcome to the computing section
of the Wikipedia reference desk.

skip to bottom

Select a section:

• Computing
• Entertainment
• Humanities
• Language
• Mathematics
• Science
• Miscellaneous
• Archives

Want a faster answer?

Main page: Help searching Wikipedia

   

How can I get my question answered?

• Select the section of the desk that best fits the general topic of your question (see the navigation column to the right).
• Post your question to only one section, providing a short header that gives the topic of your question.
• Type '~~~~' (that is, four tilde characters) at the end – this signs and dates your contribution so we know who wrote what and when.
• Don't post personal contact information – it will be removed. Any answers will be provided here.
• Please be as specific as possible, and include all relevant context – the usefulness of answers may depend on the context.
• Note:
  • We don't answer (and may remove) questions that require medical diagnosis or legal advice.
  • We don't answer requests for opinions, predictions or debate.
  • We don't do your homework for you, though we'll help you past the stuck point.
  • We don't conduct original research or provide a free source of ideas, but we'll help you find information you need.

Ready? Ask a new question!

How do I answer a question?

Main page: Wikipedia:Reference desk/Guidelines

• The best answers address the question directly, and back up facts with wikilinks and links to sources. Do not edit others' comments and do not give any medical or legal advice.

See also:

• Teahouse
• Help desk
• Village pump
• Help manual

March 17

Creating a strong password, valid characters?

I want to create a password that will be difficult to guess or crack. I would also like to include non-standard characters that aren't alphanumeric, so those that include !,@,#,$,%,^,&,*, etc... However, sometimes I will encounter a website that does not allow the use some of those characters. Some may consider '#', '@', or '%' invalid, but allow '&' or '~' at other times. So my question is, what is the minimum set of characters (beyond alphanumeric) that most websites employ? Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 141.153.215.194 (talk) 04:19, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

That's tough to say when asking what "Most" sites employ, but in my years of experiences it seems that "8" is a common minimum for password strength. (goes back to the bit/byte thing = 64). — Ched ~ ^(yes?)/_© 06:53, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

Number of characters isn't the question. My guess about character set is that the simple ASCII will always be game. You use the typical 26 characters x 2 for case sensitive, plus 10 for numerals, and you're pretty good. With 8 characters you're doing alright with 218,340,105,584,896 combinations. You'll realize that upping the char-set is often more useful than upping the characters. Just make sure you have a random generator that will permit those characters. If you can't do that, then use something that gives you the full character set, then just remove the ones it won't take by yourself. Try a command like openssl rand -base64 128 or dd if=/dev/urandom bs=16 count=1|xxd. Shadowjams (talk) 07:03, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

Instead of a password you could also create a pass-sentence. It can have 40-50 characters, be easily memorized and extreme secure.--Mr.K. (talk) 12:01, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

What special characters are allowed depends on the programmer and system. For example, I work in two universities and I move a lot of files back and forth between the two. So, I wanted to use the same passwords on each. One requires 8 characters with at least one number, one letter, and one "special character" limited to something in the set "._+-!$%&" (a very small subset of ASCII). The other required nine characters, at least one capital letter, one lower case letter, and two characters in the set "!@#$%^&*()_+-=,." (still a subset of ASCII). Knowing the programmers on both sides, I asked about the weird restrictions on the special characters. They said it had to do with limitations on internal programs such as Oracle pitching a fit if you used a @ in your password or some Windows file share crapping out if you used a \. Therefore, it is not possible to have a single set of password restrictions that EVERYONE will use - and you don't want it anyway...

Assume you come up with the biggest badass uncrackable password ever. You use it on EVERY site you access. Well, the admins at those sites will know your password. They don't need to crack it. You've just trashed your security. What you need is a unique password for each site - something that a keyring makes easy to do. There are even keyrings that have password makers so you can have high-security and unique passwords for each site. -- kainaw™ 13:25, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

As another example, Wikipedia is extremely lax when it comes to passwords. They can be thousands of characters long (I forget the limit, but it's something ridiculous) and contain all kinds of crazy characters (I just changed my alternate account's password to 'ῸὸὈὀὉὁὌὄὊ', for example). However, this doesn't add any extra security, since the password is stored as a 128-bit MD5 hash anyway. Algebraist 14:13, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

When exactly is 128-bit MD5 storage (for typically plaintext transmission!) "extremely lax" security? -- Fullstop (talk) 15:32, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, I was unclear. I meant Wikipedia is not at all strict when it comes to what characters you're allowed. None of the restrictions mentioned above apply here. Algebraist 15:34, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

The rules of thumb for "a password that will be difficult to guess or crack" are: a) not a dictionary word; b) not easily guessable (not the name of a relative, pet, phone number, SSN, name of your personal obsession or other personal numbers/names); c) has characters that come from all sections of the character set (numerals, upper case letters, lower case letters, punctuation, etc); d) The adage "longer is better" is often still true.

The crux is always the ability to remember the phrase you used, but you can usually fulfill all the "hard to guess" requirements by interpolating substitution values into an easily-remembered passphrase. E.g. use a couple of l337-speak vowels, or IPA symbols, or even just (from using adjacent keys on your keyboard) replace "q" etc with "12" or "!@" etc. You get the idea. -- Fullstop (talk) 15:32, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

Best approach is to pick two or three words from a dictionary completely at random (i.e. by rolling dice, flipping coins, etc) rather than trying to think up a password, rely on weird characters, etc. You can separate them with hyphens, like "widget-giraffe" or whatever. See www.diceware.com or diceware for an approach to this. It explains how to quantify how random a password is, using the Shannon entropy. The entropy measure you actually want is the min-entropy, but in this specific situation it will be very close to the Shannon entropy, so the Shannon entropy approach will be plenty good enough. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.62.6.87 (talk) 22:08, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

Wouldn't that be susceptible to an advanced dictionary based attack? - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 22:12, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

It could be vulnerable to an offline dictionary attack, if the attacker had (say) a hash of the passphrase. The same would be true of a single word with non-alphabetic symbols. Two or three words should be enough to stop an online attack (one where the attacker has to submit one guess after another to the server) since it would take millions of tries and the server should lock the attacker out long before that. With five or six words, there should be enough entropy to stop all but very large scale offline attacks. This is all explained (including the math) at the diceware site. 75.62.6.87 (talk) 22:20, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

Even "very large" offline attacks would be pretty computationally difficult. I don't remember the limit but at some point you get beyond the ability to computer it in a reasonable (e.g. your lifetime) amount of time—each word you add exponentially increases the number of possibilities. You can think of the random dictionary words bit as using a four letter word, but with an alphabet that contains around 500,000 letters. I would expect that is a lot better than the sorts of "add an extra, non-alphanumeric" character sort of thing where you're just increasing the letters by one each time. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 23:43, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

Google print size

I must have hit some combination of keys because when I search from the toolbar, I get bigger letters than normal. How do I reset it? I'm using Firefox 3.0.7. Clarityfiend (talk) 06:55, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

Try Cntrl+-

Ctrl+0 (that's a zero). --wj32 ^t/c 07:34, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

Or View + Text Size + Normal. StuRat (talk) 14:44, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

Or use your mouse's scroll wheel while holding down the Ctrl key. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 15:17, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. Clarityfiend (talk) 19:39, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

Getting the commit charge limit

Resolved

I'm trying to get the Commit Charge Limit as displayed by Process Explorer. Both GetProcessMemoryInfo (from psapi.dll) and NtQuerySystemInformation (with SystemPerformanceInformation) work fine on XP. But on Vista, both report the peak and limit to be 16EB! Process Explorer still reports the correct value. Any ideas? Thanks in advance. --wj32 ^t/c 08:51, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm such an idiot. The old integer overflow problem. --wj32 ^t/c 09:06, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

Adding five more users to an existing 25 user Novell netware 4.2 version

Novell netware is now not available. I have a 25 user Novell netware 4.2 version running successfully for the last 25 years. Now I am in need of adding five more users to that. But the software for adding additional five users is not available from Novell. Is there any other method or shortcut to add five more users without disturbing the existing network. or If a 5 user adding software available with anyone please help me. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 61.17.229.4 (talk) 09:15, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

Screen quality

Which mobile phone has the best screen in terms of quality? Is it the iPhone? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 116.71.46.119 (talk) 17:24, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

I think you'll have to clarify what you mean by "quality" as that'll change from person to person. Personally I find the higher the resolution of the screen then the better the "quality" because it's sharper and easier to read. The iPhones resolution is 480x320 and there are phones with much higher resolutions that that (for example the very old HTC Universal or the much newer HTC Touch Pro and there are many others). Sorry if that's not a lot of help. ZX81 ^talk 22:31, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

irc help

i made an irc channel on freenode or whatever how do i make mself and friends operators on it? cant figure out how--Raisens2 (talk) 20:40, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

Assuming the channel isn't already registered, the first person to create it should get operator status and from there you can then /msg chanserv help for more information about registering the channel (if you haven't already registered a nickname you'll need to do that with nickserv first). If it's already registered then there isn't really much you can do I'm afraid except pick a new name or ask the channel founder (if known). ZX81 ^talk 22:37, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

Windows Family Censorship - or whatever it's called

I made the mistake of downloading the MS Office add-on called 'Workspaces', only to find that not only did the 'button' in Office only remain for an hour or so, I had also had the misfortune to be stuck with a Family Control Filter which I didn't ask for nor want. Now the damn thing asks me to log-in and approve practically every website I visit, including Wikipedia and even the BBC News, saying that it's blocked. This is not a virus or anything I downloaded from the wrong site, as all my other PCs can use it. I am having this problem only on the one PC I use the most, and it is extremely annoying, true to Microsoft fashion. Can anyone give me any idea how to get rid of the thing? Plus, as an extra, why would a family control filter come with an office workspace? Why would I let kids play around with my office computer? No need to answer that. We all know MS's marketing 'skills'.--KageTora (talk) 23:01, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

OK, I did it. For information purposes, I will tell you that it appears as Microsoft Family Safety Filter as well as Windows Family Safety Filter, apparently to make it difficult to find (as well as the fact that it is in some folder that doesn't appear on the uninstall list). The way to get rid of this is to wait until a website is blocked and click on 'Go to Website', then you get yet another pop-up with a button asking if you want to turn it on or off. Turning it 'off' is the right option. Then go 'Start Up programs' and remove it from the list. You can disable it from their without going to the website, but I made the mistake of removing it first, which meant I had to search around for it again. Bloody labyrinth of crap, MS. Bring me back my Mac!--KageTora (talk) 23:28, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

Resolved

StuRat (talk) 15:17, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

March 18

C#.. how to show a tooltip anywhere on my screen?

I'm developing a C# application, and i need to show a tooltip to the user at the cursor's position. wherever the cursor is, even outside the form of my application. PS:I pay alot of attetion to the performance. any idea? Thanks in advance Supersonic8 (talk) 00:21, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

Put a ToolTip control on your form/whatever control you want. When you call ToolTip.Show (or whatever it's called) it shows the tooltip relative to the control's location. Take a look at the PointToClient function on every control. What you want to do is to convert a screen point into a point relative to the control's location. --wj32 ^t/c 07:44, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

I don't want to show this tooltip to a specified control, i just want to show it at the cursor's position.. it's like a dictionary application; when the user stops at a word on his screen, a tooltip shows with the word's translation. thanks Wj Supersonic8 (talk) 12:03, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

This doesn't force you to show the tooltip on the control. You have to use the control as a reference point because the ToolTip control uses it. --wj32 ^t/c 04:56, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Effect on humans

What is the effect on humans when they work continiously with out a break on a computer for 180days? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.227.88.91 (talk) 01:52, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

Well the worst effect will be sleep deprivation, if you really mean "without a break". (Assuming, of course, they are allowed to eat and drink fluids.) --98.217.14.211 (talk) 02:45, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

Lee Seung Seop. - Akamad (talk) 02:46, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

Forget 180 days, try 49 hours. ←Spidern→ 16:05, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

Problem with software requiring Adobe Reader

I am working with a PC running Windows XP. It is my family's computer. They aren't so good with computers and as I am home for a few days, I am douing some general software maintenance for them. I do certain things out of principle (mostly) such as using Firefox instead of IE and using Foxit Reader instead of Adobe Reader for pdf files. My brother received some proprietary software from his school on CD which I installed for him. This software is reference software. It seems to simply organize a bunch of pdf files. When it is run it calls on Adobe Reader to view these files. So, now that I have uninstalled Adobe, my brother's software does not function (at all). The desktop shortcut it installed calls an ini file. I am pasting the ini file contents below just in case they may be useful (If you are sure it isn't helpful and is just wasting space, feel free to remove it and this reference to it). Is there a way to make this software use Foxit instead?

Click 'show' to view code

[General] Encrypted=1 Title=Airworthiness Directive CD ShowTitle=0 ADs=1 BadPrint=0 Debug=0 HelpFile=avant.hlp SortOrder=0 DisplayWeight=0 Fuzzy=0 ClosePrompt=1 SkipSummary=0 PFAAvoid=1 [DB] DB0=Airworthiness Directives,\ADs,ADs DB1=Federal Aviation Regs.,\FARs,FARs DB2=Advisory Circulars,\ACs,ACs DB3=Service Bulletins,\SBs,SBs DB4=TCDs,\TCDs,TCDs DB5=NPRMs,\NPRMS,NPRMs DB6=STCs,\STCs,STCs DB7=CARs,\CARs,CARs DB8=CAMs,\CAMs,CAMs DB9=MMELs,\MMELs,MMELs [Path] DataPath=E Home=E \title.pdf QueryPath=E Version=E Save=C \Avantext\Reports IndexPath=E \DB AVDPath=E \DB [Settings] [Search] Fuzzy=False SortOpt=False DisplayWeight=False Duplicates=True MaxHits=2000 LineItemHits=1 ShowSupers=1 [Client Info] Name= Addr1= Addr2= Addr3= Phone= EMail= [FormEdit] SavePath=C \Avantext\Forms [Volume] Disk1=E Disk2=C \Avantext\Disk2 [Addon]

Chrissekely (talk) 04:32, 18 March 2009 (UTC)Chris

I doubt it. It sounds like it was made using the proprietary Acrobat control/API and doesn't have the flexibility to substitute with another (which may or may not exist anyway). To put it more plainly, it is looking for a file (one that helps it run PDFs) that calls an instance of Adobe Reader, and it has certain expectations of what that file will look like and how it will operate. Web browsers are often flexible in letting you determine which files it calls, but other programs are usually not. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 12:43, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

When you uninstalled Adobe Reader, did the uninstall leave .PDF files associated with the deleted Adobe program? One way to test, is find a different .PDF, double-click on it - if .PDF files are still associated with Adobe, it should attempt to start it and fail. Try reinstalling your Foxit Reader and see if it associates .PDF files with Foxit.

One thing though, why mess up your family's computer just because you don't like Adobe Reader "out of principle"? It seems very high-handed of you to make that judgement for everyone else. Install Foxit for you to use when you are at home, but what is the harm in leaving Adobe installed for your less savvy family to use? Astronaut (talk) 03:40, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Thank you guys for your help. I did, unfortunately, have to install Adobe after all. I was hoping that maybe there would be some sort of registry fix, or the like, that would allow Foxit to "pretend" to be Adobe. If that makes any sense at all. Now, I'm not being high-handed or messing up my family's computer. Far from it. I'm nearing the end of the long process of backing up files, formatting the hard drive, and reinstalling everything they need. They have a relatively slow computer, though, so I was trying to keep things slimmed down, quick and efficient. As many people feel that Adobe Reader is bloat-ware, it didn't seem to be an optimum choice. Chrissekely (talk) 05:15, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

wii mod chip

is a wii mod chip required to play downloaded games on the wii system —Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.116.45.221 (talk) 04:18, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

If you mean "Pirated" games, then yes, I believe that you will require a mod chip.

If you mean "Homebrew" games, then no, that can be achieved, with some difficulty, by exploiting a glitch in Twilight Princess.

If you mean "WiiWare" games that you pay money for, then no, your console can play those out of the box. APL (talk) 13:03, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

Be aware that I've seen a warning on many of the newer games available in the shops. I can't remember exactly waht it says, but gist of it is that the game might not play on modded consoles. I strongly suspect that modding the console is not reversible and therefore might permanently mess up your future ability to play genuine, purchased games. Astronaut (talk) 03:45, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

While modding involving soldering is unlikely to be truly reversable, many are firmware updateble I believe and I presume it's possibly to remove the mod chip if you really need to. Nil Einne (talk) 12:33, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Lahey compiler (FORTRAN programming)

i am using Lahey 95 compiler,i have run some programmes with this, my one programme is not running. after compiling it tells some warnings but zero errors ( it was running some programmes with warnings earlier) and it is nor creating .exe file, is it creating it somewhere else, can anyone suggest what should i do? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.199.205.25 (talk) 05:45, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

I suggest fixing the conditions which cause the warnings. I've had the problem before that only a certain number of messages are reported, and, if you have too many warnings, the errors at the end get truncated from the error report. StuRat (talk) 15:13, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

"Too many warnings" can be an error condition. (It is also possible to have a compiler handle warnings fatally with a configuration flag.) Generally, you should either fix the warnings or tell the compiler to disregard (useless) warnings. If the compiler fails to generate an executable with zero warnings and zero errors then something is seriously wrong. – 74  21:15, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

That's right, there can be a compiler setting to abort compilation if it gets over a certain number of warnings. StuRat (talk) 19:12, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Databases

How can I test the efficiency of databases in Microsoft Access and the effectiveness of the database and database reports? --124.254.77.148 (talk) 05:51, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

Testing the efficiency of a database is tricky, as there are many different types of efficiencies to measure. For example, there is the lookup speed in a sorted table using the primary key, the lookup speed in an unsorted table using a partial (non-key) character string, the speed to add a record to the end of a table, the speed to insert a record in the middle of a table, the speed to sort a table, the speed to do a table join using unsorted records in both table, the speed to delete a record, etc. You would do best to develop a list of standard tests, and a large amount of standard test data, then try this out on the database systems in question, timing the responses. This is not a quick process, as loading the test data alone can take hours. The closer the test is to your normal business processes, the more useful it will be, for you.

You could also rely on standard tests performed by others, but those won't be specific to the type of things you do, the type of hardware you have available, etc. StuRat (talk) 15:10, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

Lookup table Excel

I want create a structure in MS Excel that allows me to select a value from a table by "addressing" it with the value from a specific cell, just like a lookup table or, in other words, if I was dealing with a database, the SQL query I'd use would be like "SELECT x FROM y WHERE k = m", where "m" would be the value of the mentioned cell that changes dinamically according to some variables, "x" would be the column of the table "y" containing the value I want and "k" would be the value I want to test. Is that possible? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.13.148.4 (talk) 09:26, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

Have you tried using the 'if' command? Googlepeek here. Lanfear's Bane | t 09:35, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

The IF function only allows 10 nestings, however, a few more combinations exist, that's the source of the problem. Along with that, even if I could nest the number of IFs I wanted, it would result in a excessively long formula. 213.13.148.4 (talk) 10:09, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

VLOOKUP/HLOOKUP ? Gandalf61 (talk) 10:33, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

I think that's the function I needed. Thanks a lot! 213.13.148.4 (talk) 10:53, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

Sounds like you have Excel and know some SQL. Have you tried this? I have not (so this is not an endorsement), but it looks like it might be useful, and it says it's truly freeware. --Scray (talk) 03:57, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

computer - DVI-D and VGA

I installed both the VDI-D and the VGA at the same time. My hard drive won't run. Is that why and how can I fix it?204.65.61.203 (talk) 12:44, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

Are you saying you had the computer case open and were installing graphics cards ? If so, I suppose a spark of static electricity could have fried the circuit board on the hard drive, but this type of thing is quite rare. StuRat (talk) 15:01, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

Bluetooth and cell phone interraction

Is is possible that my bluetooth is draining the battery on my cell phone? Both bluetooth and LG said no, but I've noticed evidence to the contrary. Then last night, I laid my fully charged phone next to my bluetooth which was off and the phone was drained this morning.Beach999 (talk) 14:23, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

IMHO, bluetooth is a huge drain on my phone's battery - I leave it switched off except for short periods when I actually need to use it. Same goes for the phone's MP3 player and the 3G network service. Leaving all that stuff on, drains my phone's battery in no time. Astronaut (talk) 03:28, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

How to enable net send

Moved from Miscellaneous desk

how to enable net send service in a network?

when i try to send any message to any pc in the network , it says " An error occurred while sending a message to (PC NAME). The message alias could not be found on the network. More help is available by typing NET HELPMSG 2273."

when i try the help msg: net helpmsg 2273 the following message is displayed: "The message alias could not be found on the network.

EXPLANATION This message alias could not be located.

ACTION: Check the spelling of the message alias. If it is correct, then the computer that is to receive your message may be busy. Try sending the message again later."

when i try the help msg: net helpmsg 3777 "Sending files is no longer supported." message is displayed please provide a solution. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Nag183raj (talk • contribs) 10:01, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

• Would this not be better on the computing helpdesk? I would move it myself, but not yet learnt how to do that sorry... Gazhiley (talk) 11:01, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

WP has an article, Messenger service, which may be of some use. Before you can use net send, you need to start the messenger service. In XP, you can do this by going to the control panel, choosing "Administrative Tools" and then "Services". Find Messenger in the list, right click and click properties, and then you should be able to enable the service. I think you will have to do this individually on each computer. However, this functionality has been used for malicious purposes (hence it is disabled by default), so you probably shouldn't enable it unless it is really necessary. 81.98.38.48 (talk) 17:03, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

This sounds like a DNS issue. If this is on a home network (or one without a DNS server), this may be difficult to fix reliably (at least in the dynamic sense). To determine if this is the case, try using the "net send" command using the IP of the remote computer rather than its name. If this works, let us know and I can tell you where to go from there. The next step would be to edit your "hosts" file to enter a name and static IP. aszymanik speak! 06:06, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

SATA power supply

I am going to add a SATA hard disk to my computer. The only spare power supply connectors I have are a Berg (floppy drive), a 6-pin aux (whatever that is for) and a P4. Would it be possible to use any of these to power a SATA device? If so, does anyone know where I could find an adapter? If this is not possible, I know there are some adapters around to split a Molex connector into two. What constraints are there on this working? Is it just the total power rating of the PSU I need to worry about? 81.98.38.48 (talk) 17:34, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

Yes, the molex->SATA thing is the way to go. Some PSUs are "single rail", meaning that all the devices are on the same circuit, and the total power used is just totalled up vs the power rating of the PSU. Some (generally larger, fancier PSUs) are "split rail" or "dual rail", where there are two (or sometimes three) separate power sections (and each bunch of devices uses up its portion of the total). There should be a sticker on the side of such a PSU, detailing which connectors are on which rail and what the distribution of power is (I think generally the CPU/motherboard/system-fan is on one, peripherals like disks on the other). If you're really worried, connect a multimeter up to an unused molex when the system is operating - if all is well you should see the various pins floating at or slightly above the specified voltages (and if things are overloaded they'll dip down when demand is high). 87.112.22.179 (talk) 17:57, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

OK, I'll try this. Thanks a lot for your help! 81.98.38.48 (talk) 18:11, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

Switching to Linux - some questions before I do

I'm thinking of replacing WinMe on an old computer by Linux. But I'm wondering about maintaining it and the underlying system. Does Linux have a system for installing hardware driver updates? What about Linux updates and fixes? Is it possible to flash the BIOS in Linux? What is the most popular version of Linux (and hence the one with the greatest technical support, most debugged, etc)? Thanks 78.145.16.118 (talk) 22:02, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

Hardware driver updates: yes, it'll do so itself, almost entirely automatically. No more going to the manufacturer's website to download some executable thing.

Updates and fixes: ditto. Almost all the applications (and thus fixes) people run come via the distribution (see most popular, below), so you get stuff all from the same source (like windows update, except for everything on the system).

Bios updates: sometimes, but you only need to do that if something is broken, so it's really very rarely necessary.

Most popular: Ubuntu linux, Fedora linux - although they may be rather too heavyweight to run on a WinME era machine, so Xbuntu or Puppy Linux might be better.

-- 87.114.148.185 (talk) 22:10, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

On thinking further, I think Puppy Linux is the best option (of those listed above; other people may recommend alternative light-weight Linuxes). Puppy is easier to boot from a floppy disk, and a PC from the WinME era may not be able to boot from a CD, which is something the larger Linux distributions will mostly expect. 87.114.148.185 (talk) 22:19, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

I believe that almost all Win ME PC's will be able to boot from a CD. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 22:37, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. My WinMe computer is not so primitive as I think you imagine. It has a 566MHz CPU, 512MB memory, a CD drive than can be booted from, etc. Something important I forgot to ask - will I be able to continue to use my reliable HP Deskjet 930c printer please? Which reminds me - it runs via USB. Will USB attachments like still-cameras and pendrives still work?78.145.16.118 (talk) 23:19, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

Printer: "perfectly" (don't be put off by that page; a modern linux will find and install software for the printer without you setting much of anything)

still cameras and pen drives: perfectly.

87.114.148.185 (talk) 23:28, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

I use HP printers via USB - they all seem to work very well. Mine has a scanner and a fax - and those work perfectly too. I agree - pretty much any USB device that adheres to USB standards - eg "mass storage", "printer" or "human interface" device will work just fine - so cameras, mice, keyboards, joysticks, thumb-drives - all work OK. However, some more obscure USB devices that expect to have their onboard software downloaded to them via some kind of Windows application may not work...or may require more messing around that you could possibly stomach! Good luck - and don't hesitate to ask more questions here - the ratio of Linux experts to Linux questions is ridiculously high here! SteveBaker (talk) 02:33, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

I've setup my old PC (which used to have just WinMe) to be a multiple boot system - WinMe plus a whole load of small linuxes on separate partitions. It works pretty well for basic web surfing and as a test bed for the linuxes. It also works well with my printer. Astronaut (talk) 03:24, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. Are there the Linux equivalents of free anti-virus and spyware scanners and protection please? And the most difficult thing I would have to do is install an ethernet card, then set up my (external) broadband modem even though the ISP only spports Windows. I dont know anything about the technicalities. 78.146.26.220 (talk) 11:47, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Malware: There are, in practice, no viruses or spyware that will run in Linux (in theory these might exist at some point in the future, and again in theory a few examples have been created in the lab, but none are in the wild and you could't be infected with one even if you were to try). Consequently there is absolutely no need whatever for an anti-virus or anti-spyware solution for a linux desktop or laptop machine. There are antivirus programs for Linux (such as Clam AntiVirus) but these are intended to be used on server machine (such as a company's email server) where there is a need to block viruses before it gets to a windows machine. So, in summary, you're all set.

Ethernet: any PCI ethernet card you install should just work with no effort or configuration on your part.

Broadband: As you have an external broadband box, as long as you're using ethernet (and not USB) to talk to it then it'll just work. USB broadband connectors often will work, but they're generally a bad idea (for Windows users every bit as much as Linux ones), and it seems you don't have one of those anyway.

87.112.92.44 (talk) 12:57, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

I wouldn't worry about your ISP only supporting Windows. ISPs don't (can't?) do something to the connection to prevent non-windows computers using it. It will only ever become a problem if you call them with a technical support query; such as how to set up their service for use on your PC - ie. the instructions will be for Windows PCs only. As 87.112... mentions above, it should all work with no additional setup from what you are currently using. Astronaut (talk) 14:37, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

To "Activate" a Comcast account you'll need a windows computer. I spent hours on tech support trying to figure this out. Tech support was unhelpful. ("Linux? Oh. Ok then, I can mail you a CD with Internet Explorer on it." ) APL (talk) 16:00, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Help! Excessive hard drive activity

You were so helpful last time, I thought I'd give you another shot: For the last few days my computer (Windows XP) has suddenly slowed to a halt with the hard drive LED on solid around mid-evening and continues like this for the rest of the evening even after restarts and being left off for half an hour or so, it will then work again the next day. I noticed this time that it was at almost exactly 8pm, which suggested some kind of scheduled scan going wrong. I eventually managed to get Task Manager to load and CPU usage was minimal, I got it to show the various I/O columns and the only processes showing continuous I/O activity were lsass.exe (part of the OS, I believe, so I left it alone) and vsmon.exe (part of ZoneAlarm). So I've gone into safe mode (which works fine) and set ZoneAlarm as well as AVG and SpyBot (the two things likely to do scheduled scans) not to load at startup, but the problem hasn't gone away. It seems very unlikely that it is due to paging since it is happening with virtually nothing running - Task Manager didn't show any massive memory usages, either. There seems to be some issue with network connectivity when it all starts to go wrong - at least, Skype gets disconnected and tries (sometimes successfully) to reconnect. Any ideas? --Tango (talk) 22:35, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

If memory serves, your previous problem amounted to "massive disk errors resulting in very bad performance". Your current problem seems like "massive disk activity resulting in very bad performance". I guess you've checked the error logs as last time, but this time there aren't lots of errors? Anyway, I think you've killed the low hanging fruit the last time (and again this time) - it's my experience that a problem that persists past the obvious virus/update/remove-junk/no-reported-errors phase is probably not worth chasing. If I were in your position, I'd likely feel that the blinking thing had wasted too much of my time, and risked too much of my precious data, and I'd now be backing up in preparation for a restore-to-factory-settings. That's really the only way to definitively reject the hypothesis that the problem isn't infact a failing disk. 87.114.148.185 (talk) 22:57, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

I hadn't thought to check the error logs (duh!), when I did I found some errors relating the Automatic Updates. Turning off automatic updates seems to have fixed the problem. The annoying thing is that it shouldn't have been on in the first place (I have it set to download automatically and then ask me about installing them), but that had been changed to the default "let microsoft break my computer whenever they like" setting - I suspect my university is responsible, via the program that make us run to verify we have up-to-date antivirus software, etc. Had I known it was installing updates automatically I might have worked out what the problem was (my guess that it was some kind of scheduled activity going wrong was correct, I just didn't think to check a scheduled activity I had explicitly turned off!). I will be making an official complain in the morning... --Tango (talk) 23:25, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

Such a complaint is unlikely to be worth registering. Many universities enforce automatic updates, but to mitigate impact they have an internal approval process - they don't accept all updates from Microsoft automatically. This allows critical (security-related) fixes to be applied rapidly, reducing the risk of compromised machines on the network. --Scray (talk) 03:51, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, after my initial anger subsided I came to the same conclusion! This is my private computer, all they did is change my settings to download updates from Microsoft automatically. It's not that they did that that really annoys me, it's that they didn't tell me there were doing it (the program they make you download is supposed to just check you have a virus scanner, etc., it doesn't say anything about changing stuff). Had I known they had done it, I would have thought to check if that was the source of the problems much earlier. --Tango (talk) 14:06, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Any way to tunnel traffic from behind a GET-only (no CONNECT) HTTP proxy?

Is there any way to tunnel traffic through a HTTP proxy server that does not allow CONNECT, only GET, POST, etc.

I have no direct access to the internet, and the only access is provided through this proxy.

Looking to tunnel SSH, which I could then use to tunnel other traffic.

Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Charlieham (talk • contribs) 23:52, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

Do they allow SSL/TLS on 443? If not, you are more or less SOL since GET/POST is all you have. I have never heard of a tunnel tool that can make use of that but there may be one out there. --Jmeden2000 (talk) 13:48, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

Discrete Hard Drive Speeds

I can't seem to see a reason why hard drive speeds seems to vary in discrete steps e.g. 4200, 5400, 7200, 10000 or 15000rpm. While I imagine it relates to the interface speeds I can't see the details anywhere why speeds in-between these are not seen. --Trieste (talk) 23:56, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

It's not the interface speeds, it's market segmentation (that is, it's a deliberate set of speeds chosen by the hard drive companies' product marketing departments). Hardware wise they could choose other speeds (and in practice a given drive doesn't necessarily spin at exactly that speed; they're probably a touch faster). An additional reason is the design of the decoding chip (that processes pulses that come of the read/write heads) - this has to be designed to very (very) high tolerances, and if drives had more variety of speeds they'd have to have a bigger selection of decoder chips, which means more work and more testing . If a given manufacturer only makes drives of three speeds, they only need to have three such decoder chip designs on the go at any time, and an improvement to the design of one (or a cost optimisation) means that benefits all their drives which contain that chip. To keep costs down (it's a really price-aggressive market) even the biggest players only make a handful of different drive designs at any one time (each design having the same board and technology, but with varying platter and sometimes head characteristics). Dog Day Today (talk) 00:23, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Also, the slower drives (4200, 5400) are usually reserved for notebooks Nchalada (talk) 10:36, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

March 19

Two questions in one

1. Is this website safe? Web of Trust says it isn't.
2. I use the add-on Download Video Helper to download videos off of sites, such as YouTube. But when I try to convert the videos, I end up getting a sub-par quality version of the videos. Do I have to register to fix that? And does it cost money to register? --Whip it! ^{Now whip it good!} 00:54, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

1. Site is now down - even at the root: www.vistabase.co.uk (probably a good call on WoT - I trust it .. so to speak).

Number 2 I don't know - have a converter somewhere for that - but haven't used in months. — Ched ~ ^(yes?)/_© 01:12, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

You'll lose quality going from any lossy codec to another lossy codec, though the amount of loss you're ending up with might be because of some encoder settings. Anywho, what are you converting it for/to? You can play FLVs and whatnot directly with VLC media player. You might have luck reencoding with HandBrake, but I've not tried it with FLVs. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 02:12, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

I want to convert it so that it can be played both on Windows Media Player and iTunes, as well as being successfully synced to my iPod. --Whip it! ^{Now whip it good!} 02:23, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

See [1] --wj32 ^t/c 05:51, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Not working. :( --Whip it! ^{Now whip it good!} 06:38, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Can you give more details? It works perfectly for me. --wj32 ^t/c 09:42, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

I drag it to the links bar, like it tells me to, I click the bookmarklet, but I don't see the download link. I'm using Firefox 3.7, if that helps. --Whip it! ^{Now whip it good!} 22:04, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Go to a YouTube video page, click the bookmarklet, and a download box should appear. --wj32 ^t/c 22:24, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm not exactly sure what kind of website you were trying to download the video off of, but for future reference, don't use apps that nag you to upgrade or pay. There's Firefox addons out there :). [2] [3] I like the preceding one better than the ladder since it's so clean, neat, and non-obtrusive, where-as the second one comes with too many fancy shortcuts, icons, and useless capability. If you're going to use the first one though, after you install the add-on, right-click on a default icon up on your FF toolbar (say, the refresh button) and click Customize in the context menu. Then drag the addon onto your toolbar and click on the grey box in the UI to download. Doesn't work on YouTube though.-- penubag  (talk) 00:54, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Sites such as YouTube work by supplying a file to your browser, which you can retrieve from the browser's cache without extra software. Find the cache (In Firefox, go to about:config, heed the scary warning about not changing anything and search for browser.cache.disk.parent_directory; your browser may vary) and look for a large file created at the right time. Copy it to a permanent directory and give it a name and suitable suffix for the type, e.g. myvideo.wmv. This technique does not work for streams such as BBC iplayer, and legal issues such as copyright may apply. Certes (talk) 14:25, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Every Single Hardrive Fried?

I usually consider myself to be pretty savy with computers..however i have run into a puzzling problem.

Due to recent bushfires, heat (overloading the grid) and power issues all my internal drives have suffered damaged from power surges. (or me plugging something in the wrong way..50/50)

I was quoted 1000-3000 (Australian Dollars) for recovery untill i found a firm that would do it for 500 ( http://www.payam.com.au/ ). I am happy to wait the 4 weeks it will take them and pay this cost.

In the mean time i need an up and running system.

Full specs off drive casings are below:

Drive 1: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320 Gigabytes S/N: 5QF0SVH4 ST3320620AS P/N: 9BJ14G - 305 3.AAD Date Code: 07092 Site Code: WU

Drive 2: Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB WD5000AAKS MDL: WD5000AAKS - 65YGA0 DATE: 27 DEC 2007 DCM: HBRNNT2MAB GPN: XXXXXX - PX2 P/N: 5188-2517 CT: 2815001VZVI87S WD P/N: WD5000AAKS - 65YGA0

[Both drives do not spin up/ show in bios/ make noise/]] [Drive 2 has most of the important files off drive 1 backed up (i didnt really expect both to fail) + additional files, so id prefer drive 2 be fixed)

I came into the possession of a new hard drive today.

Plugged it in..it didnt not turn on.

Im 100% confident i plugged it into the correct power connector (its not brain surgery). So, it can not be that..

So maybe its brought me back to wondering before i pay for recovery..maybe the drives arent damaged at all..maybe its something else inside my computer that is broken.

(all drives run off a singular power line comming from PSU which branches off into several different connectors and such)

Any help solving this would be appreciated.

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 138.217.69.59 (talk) 08:33, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

I think the odds of both drives failing at the same time are pretty small to begin with, and if a third drive also refuses to respond, it's pretty safe to say that the problem probably isn't with the drives. I think the culprit is most likely a failing PSU that can't provide enough power to the drives. A new PSU is pretty cheap, so it's probably worth testing. Alternatively, you could take the hard drives to a friend's computer and plug them in just to see if they'll spin properly. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 09:54, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

I plugged my *new* drive (forgot to try the old "broken" ones..doh!) the new drive functioned perfectly in his PC.

I am actually using the computer right now..on a linux live cd.. hardware systems seem to be functioning perfectly. Im staring at a hungry graphics card and cpu.. do hard drives draw that much power?

In the mean time ill look into new PSUs if you think that is the problem.

138.217.69.59 (talk) 10:53, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Well, hard drives need to spin pretty fast in order to work, and that means a motor has to do the work to spin them up, and that does take a fair amount of power. But really, if the problem is with your PSU (and since the drive works fine in your friend's computer but doesn't even spin up in yours, that seems likely), it's not so much that the hard drive takes a lot of power, it's just that your PSU isn't giving out enough. As your PSU starts to fail gradually (as opposed to just giving up the ghost in one bang, which is another popular choice!), it gives out less and less power, and at some point, it's not enough to run all of the components in the computer. I've had that happen to me, as well as a couple of friends. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 11:53, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

It may be that just part of your PSU is fried, I agree it is much more likely than that the heat has caused the drives to fail. The PSU provides a number of different voltages and sometimes on high power systems even has different bits for different supplies even at the same voltage. Dmcq (talk) 13:16, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

iPod touch jailbreaking

Is there a way to jailbreak an iPod touch without completely restoring the iPod, or without deleting music and videos? Or do the tools do that already? I've read that PwnageTool erases everything while QuickPWN doesn't - is this true? Thanks in advance. --wj32 ^t/c 10:31, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Hi, this is completely not true. All "JailBreaking" is done by uploading a re-written firmware, and part of the involved process is formatting your iPod (much the same way the doing a "Restore to Factory Condition" restore does). Easiest way to ensure that you do not lose all your music / videos / photos / AppStore applications is to sync them back to iTunes prior to doing the JailBreak, and then once you have the iPod running, and have rebooted it at least once, re-sync all your music / videos / photos / apps back.

How to identify SDRAM memory exactly for compatability reasons

My old Windows computer only had 128MB memory. I obtained another 128MB memory card. This second card works perfectly when installed on it own. But when both cards are slotted in the computer becomes unusable, so they are obviously incompatible. I have tried swapping the cards between various slots in several different ways - still no joy. I also got a 64MB card which is now giving me a total of 192MB without problems.

I want to buy some more memory off eBay or somewhere. For compatibility reasons, how can I excatly identify the spec of the particular cards so that I'm sure to buy something compatible? The 128MB card currently inside this computer has a proper label on it - I'd have to open this computer and remove the card to look at it. The 64MB card does not have a label. The label on the other card only says "1100 12341 Warranty Voild If Removed 06 133".

Is there any software that can exactly identify memory please? Everest does not go into enough detail. Thanks. 78.144.206.211 (talk) 13:15, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

I've always found aida32 to be a good program in providing information about a computer and it's various components. You can d/l a copy from Major Geeks here. Hope that helps. — Ched ~ ^(yes?)/_© 15:47, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Aida32 seems to be earlier version of Everest, wtitten by the same programmer. Neither of them provide enough information about the memory - I've just tried them both. 78.146.49.11 (talk) 18:12, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Have a try of Belarc Advisor can be found here. BigDunc^Talk 18:16, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

No, no, no. You need to look at the shape of the memory. Memory types can be identified by the placement of the notches and the number of pins. The memory you put in your computer must be completely identical (same manufacturer, same frequency, and same connectors) as the old memory. And since it's old, good luck finding some it unused. It might also say on the boot screen or in your BIOS. SDRAM is 168 pins, DDR SDRAM is 184 pins, and so on. More info about your computer would help me tell you what kind you need, but if it's very old (10 years or more), then you should rebuild your computer with a new motherboard.--K;;m5m k;;m5m (talk) 18:28, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Ideally, the manufacturer is unimportant. While there are some cases where memory from multiple manufactures won't "play nice", in my experience that is the exception, not the rule. As long as the specs (type, connector, frequency) match you should be able to use memory modules from different manufacturers. – 74  03:28, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

I had similar concerns with my old PC. I found the technical specs for it on the manufacturer's website (Compaq in my case), which provided all kinds of details like the type of motherboard, jumper settings, and the various memory options (type, number of slots, maximum memory supported, etc.) I have now successfully upgraded the memory from 128MB to 640MB. I found the (new) memory I needed in a small independant computer supplies shop close to where I live (ask me on my talk page and I'll give you their URL and UK phone number) - K;;m5m k;;m5m is obviously not looking hard enough :-)

If you can't find the machine specs, examine the memory chips and motherboard carefully. They usually have various ID numbers written on them. Try googling some of the numbers you find. You might also find the following articles helpful: DIMM, SO-DIMM and maybe SIMM. Astronaut (talk) 01:09, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

Odd connector

I brought old LP-player and it has this connector. What is it called as I need cable to connect it to computer?

89.166.36.103 (talk) 13:24, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

That looks like a DIN connector. CaptainVindaloo ^{t c e} 13:47, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

I've not seen anything that could be used to directly connect a DIN connector to a PC. You could in theory cut off the DIN connector and solder a replacement 3.5mm jack plug in its place, but a specialist Hi-Fi shop might have (or be able to make) an adapter or you. You could then connect it to the audio-in port on your sound card.

Note however, the analog output from a turntable is pretty weak - Hi-Fi amplifiers often had special connections just for turntables which included an additional pre-amp stage to boost the signal. Therefore, an alternative solution might be to get a separate Hi-Fi amplifier to sit between the turntable and your PC. In that case, you will probably need a different set of connectors called phono plugs to replace the DIN connector, and to take the output from the amplifier to a 3.5mm jack plug for your PC - again a specialist Hi-Fi shop might help here. Astronaut (talk) 15:25, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Yes, it's a five-pin 180-degree DIN plug. The other aspect of the 'phono' input of hi-fi amplifiers was that the pre-amp had a built-in RIAA equalisation filter. The audio, as recorded onto vinyl was not suitable for direct listening as high frequencies had been artificially boosted - and need to be reduced again (along with hiss, crackles and surface noise) for correct reproduction. What you need is an RIAA phono preamp between the plug you have and the computer, or maybe someone now does a software equivalent. The RIAA filter was designed to be very simple to implement, just a few capacitors and resistors around an op-amp, so this needn't be expensive item. Of course, I think it was rare, but there may be an RIAA de-emphasis filter built into the deck you have - it's not possible to tell from a picture of the plug! --Nigelj (talk) 16:06, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Are you sure? It's ages since I've used it but I've got an adaptor lead that is a 5-pin din leading to a left and right phono plug. Which suggests that as long as you have the right plug at the end of the din cable, you can take the signal straight to a speaker, or straight into a computer. Meowy 16:21, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Apostrophe

How can I make it so that my keyboard writes curly apostrophes instead of straight ones? JCI (talk) 23:44, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

You need special software for that. It is probably quite easy to make such software. However, I cannot think of any right now. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 00:21, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

Many word processors provide a feature called "smart quotes" which automatically replaces straight marks with the appropriate curly marks. If you have Microsoft Word then you could use that; if not, OpenOffice provides a free word processor with "smart quote" functionality. Just type up your text in your word processor of choice, then copy and paste it wherever you need it. – 74  03:19, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

Of course. This is especially important if you write texts in different languages. For instance quotation marks look quite different in different languages: ”Svenska”, “English”, „Deutsch“. However, I got the impression that JCI wanted a solution that works independent of the application accepting the text input. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 13:40, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

Whatever you do, please don't use the grave accent as an apostrophe. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 04:03, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

DOS

Are there any DOS emulators besides DosBox? I know of one - Dosemu - but sadly it's unique to Linux. Is there a version of Dosemu for Windows? Or are there any other DOS emulators? JCI (talk) 23:44, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Dosemu isn't an emulator; it's a compatibility layer. Doesn't Windows already have a DOS compatibility layer? --76.167.241.45 (talk) 03:59, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

Is there any particular problem that you're having with DosBox on Windows? Only problem I remember having with it was sound synthesis issues, which have probably improved since I last gave it a shot. ←Spidern→ 15:51, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

This is probably the 'Captain Obvious' answer, but you could just install DOS in your favourite virtualization environment - VMWare, QEMU, etc. --Monorail Cat (talk) 21:06, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

FreeDos. Not exactly an emulator, but similar. Shadowjams (talk) 04:24, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

March 20

SLI in 8x?

Hi,

I remember reading on a motherboard specification (don't fully recall the model, but it was a cheaper Foxconn one) had 2 16x PCIE slots, but mentioned that using SLI would run both slots as 8x... Doesnt that defeat the purpose of using SLI? Or does the bus speed not matter as much as the combined computing power?

TIA PrinzPH (talk) 01:05, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

Well, there are many things going on when measuring graphics performance - bandwidth into the card is only one of them So, sure, you lose out on the amount of data you can send to the card per second...but if you are trying to (say) drive three high-resolution monitors from the system, the limiting factor is more likely to be the rate that the system can push pixels - not the rate that vertex data can be fed to the GPU. So in that case, doubling your pixel throughput rate by using SLI is more than worth the cost of reduced geometric complexity. It's a tricky business - a lot depends on how you are using the card - and what software you are using. SteveBaker (talk) 04:35, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the response. I was looking at it strictly from a gaming standpoint. How does it affect a title like Crysis for example. 119.92.84.120 (talk) 11:24, 20 March 2009 (UTC) Forgot to login :s PrinzPH (talk) 11:26, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

I assumed you were talking about games. But as I said "it depends" - mostly it depends on whether you're running multiple monitors at high resolution or not. But still - no two games are alike. It's tough to know in general. SteveBaker (talk) 02:05, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Turning off a computer on a network via dos

Are there a set of DOS commands that can turn off a computer other that the one being used on a network? SHUTDOWN attempts to give help but I can't make much scene from it. -- penubag  (talk) 05:45, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

Just to confirm, is this DOS within Windows? Also what operating system is running on the computer you are trying to shutdown? If both are running Windows then yes the "shutdown" command will work: shutdown /m \\COMPUTER /s /t 30 /c "Shutting down" /f /d 0:0 would shut down COMPUTER (change the name) with a 30 second warning and force applications to close (/f). The /c is the comment to display on the machine and /d is the reason code just for logging purposes (0:0 is unplanned other). You will however need to have access on the other machine so if it says access denied you could send a net use \\COMPUTER /user:domain\username first to authenticate it. Hope this is of some help! ZX81 ^talk 11:01, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, from what I can tell, you can use the "shutdown" command to turn off a computer on the network. For example, if the computer's name was PENUBAG, you could type "shutdown -s -f -m \\PENUBAG" to turn it off. ("-s" is the command to shut down, "-f" forces all programs to terminate -- otherwise, all it takes is an open document in Notepad to hang the process -- and "-m \\PENUBAG" is the command to the remote computer.) I'm not sure about what kinds of access rights this would require to work, though. You probably need to be a network administrator, and of course you'd need to be in the same LAN with the target computer. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 11:04, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

...huh, didn't get an edit conflict. Had I know that ZX81 was on the case as well as he was, I wouldn't have posted my response at all! -- Captain Disdain (talk) 11:05, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm running MS Vista and the target is an MS XP, which are connected by a LAN. Both ZX81's and Captain Disdain's method returns "Access Denied. (5)". ZX81, could you elaborate more on the "net use" command? Would I do this on the Vista? The target computer's name is DININGROOM so is this correct? net use \\DININGROOM /user:domain\Kevin (Kevin is my username on the target). Thank you for your help so far. -- penubag  (talk) 22:50, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

I have actually tried this command and fell foul of the access rights. In the end I downloaded a remote boot/shutdown utility. I would provide a link, but can't remember what it was called. I found it by googling for "remote boot" or "network boot" (the shutdown bit usually came as a bonus with these remote utilities). Astronaut (talk) 12:47, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

You may want to check out PsShutdown, a tool which is part of PsTools. I also use PsExec frequently. ←Spidern→ 15:48, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

I downloaded this on my Vista but it doesn't seem to work. The help file (Pstools.chm) says "Navigation to the page was canceled" and any of the .exe files briefly show the command line before closing without any noticeable effect. -- penubag  (talk) 22:50, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

The PsTools utilities are all for use on the command line and they all expect parameters (so they can be used in scripts etc if needed) which is why you see them popup and vanish so quickly. If you open up a command prompt and run them from that you'll be able to read the text and see the parameters you need to specify. Regarding the .chm help file, it's likely you need to unblock it - see here for more information on that. ZX81 ^talk 04:17, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, I'm not that well versed in all this but when I typed psshutdown.exe in the command line it says psshutdown.exe isn't a recognized command. Could elaborate on that bit? Thanks, ZX81 -- penubag  (talk) 06:08, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Well, in order to run a program, you have to be in the folder where that program is located. You can also copy the program to a folder in your path, like C:\WINDOWS, and then you'll be able to evoke it anywhere. You use the cd command to change directories (folders). But it's not as if any of this will actually work, because you need to disable most of the safeguards against attack on the other machine first. For example, if the firewall is on the victim's machine, turn it off (or at least open a hole for NetBIOS). Likewise, if you want to evoke the net use command, you need to share the root drive of the victim's machine, from the victim's machine. You also need to type secpol.msc in the search or run box on the victim's machine, then go to Local Policies, then User rights assignment and allow "everyone" (literally, that's the user name) to access the computer, shut down the system, etc. In other words, you need to make the computer a sitting duck on the network. This is what some viruses do, so just make sure you don't have anything important on that computer before you do this (like tax returns) because it's about 20 minutes before a vulnerable networked machine is "owned" by a worm nowadays. If I understand you correctly, you also have a router (or switch). Some routers will help protect you against external threats (using their default configuration), so just be careful not to connect directly to the Internet.--K;;m5m k;;m5m (talk) 11:51, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

I hate to directly disagree with another Wikipedian, but because of the security implications of this I feel I should say something. There's really no need to allow "everyone" access and it would be far more secure to create an admin user on that remote machine (if one doesn't already exist) so you have a specific username/password, but if it is a home network the user may not mind this lack of security. Likewise you don't need to create an open share on the root of the drive, if file sharing is turned on then Windows itself will already share the root of the drives as hidden admin shares like \\computer\C$ and only users with admin access on the machine will be able to access it. Finally, the net use command doesn't need to be used to map a drive which I think was what you meant with regarding to sharing the drive, you can use it simply use it as in my example above to authenticate to the remote computer (so that you can perform other activities like shutting it down). ZX81 ^talk 13:45, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Really? You don't need to share the drive? You just wrote "C$", which is the root of the drive. I turn off sharing and this is what happens:

C:\> net use \\192.168.1.101\ipc$
System error 67 has occured.

The network name cannot be found.

C:\> net use \\192.168.1.101\C$
System error 67 has occured.

The network name cannot be found.

So, now I right-click on the drive and select Properties, then Sharing and create a share:

C:\> net use \\192.168.1.101\ipc$
The command completed successfully.

C:\> net use \\192.168.1.101\C$
The command completed successfully.

And no, it's going to be difficult to get complete access to that computer if the username on the local machine is different from that on the remote machine. Hence, you allow everyone access. And this is with "Simple file sharing" disabled, given you need to edit the ACLs to specify what they can access, anyway.--K;;m5m k;;m5m (talk) 14:58, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, but I'm not really sure what point you're trying to make. As I said above if folder sharing is turned on then Windows itself creates the hidden shares (and from your examples you've demonstrated this). "net use" isn't used ONLY to access a specific share and you can leave the share name off if you just want to authenticate with the computer itself net use \\COMPUTER /user:domain\username and that's what this question was about (turning off a remote computer - once you've authenticated to it). You've started talking about access lists on the filesystem and folder shares and I don't see how that's related or required. ZX81 ^talk 15:18, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Whichever method he chooses, it's not as simple as executing a net use command. He'll have to allow other users to shut down his computer via the secpol.msc snap-in or via the registry. Settings for the firewall, services.msc, sharing, and ncpa.cpl (to enable netBIOS) also usually have to be tweaked. I'm not sure if we'll be able to walk him through the steps to allow a specific account, but you can try.--K;;m5m k;;m5m (talk) 15:46, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

The original poster has already confirmed that the error message they get is "Access denied" so we know there's no firewall/connectivity issue and likewise we know NetBIOS is turned on to be getting that error (the Windows default) so the problem is purely an authentication one and with all due respect you seem to be making it over complicated. By default Windows allows local administrators to shut the computer down so there's really no need to change any of the policies IF the user has administrator access on that remote machine and although it's an assumption, if this is a home network they more than likely do. Penubag, you wrote above about "Kevin" being your username on the XP machine to be shutdown, I assume that Kevin has admin rights (and isn't a limited user) do they also will have a password? (built in XP security stops authenticating over the network with a blank password so you will need to give them one). If so you can use the following: net use \\DININGROOM /user:DININGROOM\Kevin If needed it will prompt for the password or optionally you can add the password on the end of the net use command and it will return The command completed successfully. if it worked. After this you should be able to re-run the shutdown command without a problem. ZX81 ^talk 16:46, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks guys for all your help so far. Yes, I am and administrator on both computers and not a limited user. I tried what you said net use \\DININGROOM /user:DININGROOM\Kevin but the command line returns: "System error 1219 has occurred. Multiple connections to a server or shared resource by the same user, using more than one user name, are not allowed. Disconnect all previous connections to the server or shared resource and try again." Perhaps this is because my user name on the Vista is Kevin Duke and not Kevin? I don't know. I appreciate your support.-- penubag  (talk) 23:56, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Yes it's because the Vista machine has already tried to access the XP computer since you last rebooted (probably via filesharing?) so it's already picked up the "Kevin Duke" name. If it's an option the easiest way to fix this would be just create an additional user on the XP machine called "Kevin Duke" with the same password as you use on the Vista machine. It doesn't have to actually be logged in/used, it merely has to exist. ZX81 ^talk 00:52, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

I renamed my XP name from Kevin to Kevin Duke so now I have the same names and passwords on both computers, but the same problem persists. I've already tried restarting both computers. net use \\DININGROOM /user:DININGROOM\Kevin_Duke returns the same "System error 1219..." but this time it took much longer if that means anything. Do I need to enter a password? I also tried combining both the commands on one line in this image and File:Net use cmd.png tried showing some net use syntax which shows a password. I really appreciate your support so far. -- penubag  (talk) 04:03, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Li-ion battery

Is it healthy to leave a li-ion battery (as for a laptop) plugged in at all times when not in use and only unplugged when away from a power source as long as it's kept cool? Our Wikipedia article says to recharge often and to avoid complete discharge, which is the complete opposite ideology I've had with Nickel-cadmium.-- penubag  (talk) 05:53, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

This depends heavily on the design of the laptop. Each of the following designs are valid and exist:

• Laptop always uses the battery. Plugging it in only causes the battery to charge up slightly faster than you discharge it by using it. So, leaving it plugged in all the time is just charging it while you discharge it.
• Laptop will disconnect the battery completely while you have it turned on and plugged in. It only charges the battery if you turn off the computer and plug it in. So, leaving it plugged in and on all the time has nothing to do with the battery.
• When plugged in and turned on, power comes from the wall outlet to run the computer. Some power is split away to charge the battery as needed. When the battery is fully charged, it just stops charging it.

Since I have no way to know what kind of laptop you have, I have no way to know how it is designed. What I can say is that any respectable charger will not overcharge your battery. So, once it is charged, leaving it plugged in does nothing except waste a few watts of electricity. -- kainaw™ 15:25, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm using a Dell Studio laptop and when I plug it in the battery status says "idle" instead of "discharging". So how would you interpret this? Would it be reasonable to leave this plugged in and charging for weeks on end without discharging a little? -- penubag  (talk) 22:56, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

As kainaw mentioned above we have no way to know how it was designed, but personally I would suspect that due it is constantly being "topped" up to make sure it remains fully charged. Although it's more a workaround than answering your question, you could always just remove the battery and run the laptop without it? Most laptops that are plugged in will run quite happily without one and if anything it'll be a little cooler without the heat from the battery charging. If you do decide to do this for long periods of time I would recommend making sure the battery level is around 50% to help extend the life of the battery - There's more information about this in our Lithium-ion article. ZX81 ^talk 04:31, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

If working without a battery, beware that a power outage (or carelessly pulling the plug) may lose your work in progress. Certes (talk) 13:32, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

"Looking glass" for SMS routing

Hi,

I'd like to know if there's a service similar to the Looking Glass services provided on the IPv4/IPv6 Internet, but for SMS routing instead. If not, how can I discover how a SMS is routed from its source to its destination? I'm aware that there are SMTP-to-SMS gateways, but I'd like to know how a new CLEC telephone provider would implement SMS into, say, an existing VoIP system. (The internal part of the CLEC's implementation is assumed to be a simple SMS-to-SMTP mailbox.)

Props to those who can shed some insight. Thanks for all who read this.

jdstroy (talk) 15:41, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

To clarify, here are examples of two Looking Glass servers: Level 3 LG, Qwest LG jdstroy (talk) 19:01, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

Unbearable low screen resolution on Vista which is impossible to alter by normal methods. Help!

I was playing a full-screen game on my Vista laptop (you know, one of those games trhat changes your screen resolution), and got stuck in an infinite loop, which there was no way to get out of, due to a bug.

I pressed Ctrl+Alt+Del, but the screen resolution was too low to reach the task manager (because of that stupid screen Vista brings up with options no-one uses), so I logged off (it was either that or cancel).

Unfortunately, it retained the screen resolution settings of the game, which is the lowest I have ever seen. It has rendered my laptop almost completely unusable.

In fact - it's so bad, I can't get to the screen resolution settings in the control panel.

It works perfectly in safe mode, if that's any help, and startup repair doesn't change anything.

Is there any way out of this without losing all my files?

Please help! Dendodge Talk^Contribs 21:01, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

You can change your resolution even though you cannot see all windows on the screen. First, start the control panel by using Win+R, typing "control desktop" and pressing Enter. Now, press Tab six times, to select the "Screen settings" (or whatever it is called in English) option. Press Enter. Now you need to set focus to the resolution slider, by using Alt+AccCh, where AccCh is the underlined character in the slider's text label. Because I have a Swedish Vista, I do not know what character this is. However, you can press Tab a few times (probably two times is the right number), and hope you have focused the right control. Now, select the highest supported resolution by pressing End. Finally, press Enter. To be sure, it might be an idea to press Tab a third time after having pressed End, and then press End again, and Tab a fourth time, and End yet again, to make sure that the resolution slider really has been set to the right-most value. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 21:27, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

In English, the key combo to access the screen resolution slider is Alt+R. After that, simply press End then Enter to set the screen resolution to max supported. Once you can see waht you are doing, you will probably have to go back and reset your video settings properly.

If that situation is repeated in future, bring up the Task Manager. Then press Alt-Space followed by "M", you should now be able to move the task manager around with the arrow keys to bring it into sight so you can resize, kill your game, and so on. Astronaut (talk) 23:01, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

Old-header (Windows 1.0 and 2.0) bitmaps

Where can I find old Windows Bitmaps, using the old headers from Windows 1.0 and 2.0? I am writing a high-compatibility image viewer, and would like to test some old files. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 21:29, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

March 21

net

i'm buying a usb modem to have net at home. Can interconnect 2 PCs using one usb modem. one is downstairs and one in my room. what do i need. And is there a wireless way i can do that? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.220.225.251 (talk) 00:06, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

The easiest way to connect multiple computers to have access to one internet connection is a Router. You can get Wireless routers pretty much everywhere these days - even the supermarket. To be able to be wireless you will need a wireless enabled computer/laptop - though most wireless routesr have at least 4 wired-connection slots too (at least from what i've seen) so you could have a (wired-connection) desktop PC and a (wireless connection) laptop. ny156uk (talk) 00:23, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

To connect your modem to a "router" (confusingly known as either a residential gateway or a wireless router here on Wikipedia) you'll need to have a modem with a network connection. If you have a pure USB modem, you'll need to connect it to one of your computers and have that computer "share" the internet connection across a home network (where a "router" would also prove useful). The latter layout has some limitations (all traffic travels through the "host" computer, so it has to remain on; setting up the connection is somewhat more complicated; and you don't get the security benefit of the router's firewall), so it would be best to purchase a networkable modem instead (many support both USB and network connections). – 74  03:28, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Slow Computer

My computer's gotten slow, both at bootup and while running applications. I have Norton and AdAware running, so I doubt it's a virus. Any idea what could be causing this or how it can be fixed? Black Carrot (talk) 07:00, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

What OS? Ζρς ιβ' ^¡hábleme! 07:37, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

You have Norton running. That's one. Also, try doing Start->Run (or Win + R), and type in "msconfig". Go to the startup tab and see what's starting. May also want to check services.msc to see if you've got any strange services, but don't mess with any entries in either unless you know what they are. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 08:09, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Once you've cleaned out the start-up as Consumed Crustacean suggests, do a defrag ... Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools. — Ched ~ ^(yes?)/_© 08:52, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

I think the most likely reason is because you need more system memory (not be confused with hard drive space). What version of Windows are you using and how much memory do you have? These days if you're running XP with Service Pack 2 or newer and antivirus etc like you are then you'll need at least 1Gb+ and if you're running Vista you'll need 2Gb to run things comfortably. In both XP and Vista you can go to "Control Panel" then "System" and after a short time the first page that shows will display the system memory. ZX81 ^talk 13:25, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

The startup tab of msconfig doesn't show a very long list, and I don't understand any of the names well enough to know what to change. The defrag system says I don't need to defragment. The General tab of the System Properties folder says, Microsoft Windows XP > Professional > Version 2002 > Service Pack 3, and AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor > 3200+ > 2.01 GHz, 1.00 GB of RAM > Physical Address Extension. Does that narrow anything down? Black Carrot (talk) 19:01, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

When the computer starts going slow does the hard drive light flash like crazy/constantly on? Sadly 1Gb in XP is pretty much bare minimum needed these days (with SP2 onwards/antivirus/spyware/firewall running on the computer) and quite likely it's ran out of real memory so it's using the hard disk which is much slower. If you load up Task Manager (Press Ctrl-Alt-Delete) under the Performance tab you'll be able to see memory usage. Although the whole page is quite helpful, if you can tell us what the available/system cache numbers are next to "Physical Memory" that'll help to confirm if you're running low or not (do it when you have your "normal" programs running, having everything closed will give a false reading) ZX81 ^talk 19:24, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

• You can Google most of the executable names; anything exceptionally odd that doesn't come up on Google is suspicious. And like I said, Norton isn't helping. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 05:19, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

A friend's laptop had this problem and it turned out his hard drive was running in PIO mode for some reason. In XP you can view and change this setting in Device Manager, IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, Primary IDE Channel, Advanced Settings. Just another thing to try. -- BenRG (talk) 13:21, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

I suggest you download Antivir's antivirus immediately, then uninstall Norton Anti-Virus with Revo Uninstaller (with an advanced uninstall). Procede to install Antivir. You will notice a difference immediately. Plus, CCleaner can help a little, and it's always useful in freeing up space. --71.98.14.96 (talk) 21:20, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Fork bombs

(source: Fork_bomb#Example_fork_bombs)

I have two questions. First, will someone please explain why

:(){ :|:& };:

is a fork bomb and how it accomplishes it's task. Next, why is

format ELF executable
entry start
start:
	push	0x2       ; Linux fork system call
	pop	eax       ;
	int	0x80      ; Call to the kernel
	jmp	start     ; Loop back to the start

used instead of

format ELF executable
entry start
start:
	mov	eax,0x2   ;
	int	0x80      ; Call to the kernel
	jmp	start     ; Loop back to the start

TIA, Ζρς ιβ' ^¡hábleme! 07:37, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

1. [4].

2. Maybe the push/pop combination takes up less space? --wj32 ^t/c 08:47, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

2. I can't see how that would be as you would have to change both push and pop to their hex equivalents and change eax and 0x2 to their hex equivalents. In the second example, you just have to translate mov and the two operands. Ζρς ιβ' ^¡hábleme! 13:47, 21 March 2009 (UTC) P.S. Is it something about null/non-ASCII bytes?

It is indeed done to save space. PUSH has a form with a one-byte operand that's sign extended to four bytes, but MOV doesn't. The register operands are part of the opcode byte, so the PUSH/POP pair takes three bytes and the MOV instruction takes five. -- BenRG (talk) 18:46, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

For the first question (which I assume is about shell commands), this code:

:(){ :|:& };:

is evidently deliberately obfuscated. First it declares a function called ':'. That's an unusual name for a function - but it's not illegal. It's clearly deliberately confusing, so let's call it something less confusing like "bomb". Now we have:

bomb(){ bomb|bomb & } ; bomb

. That's really two commands separated with a semicolon:

  bomb(){ bomb|bomb & }
  bomb

In other words, it's declaring a shell script function - and then calling that function. So what does the function do? Well, the innards of the function are:

 bomb | bomb &

- which means run the function 'bomb', pipe the output of it into another instance of the function 'bomb' and run the whole mess in background. So this is a recursive function that calls itself twice each time. So you run 'bomb', and it creates 'bomb|bomb' which results in (bomb|bomb)|(bomb|bomb) ...and so forth - doubling the number of backgrounded threads each time. SteveBaker (talk) 18:43, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Oh, dear, that a cue for a song:

(bomb|bomb)|

(bomb|bomb)|(bomb|bomb)|

(bomb|bomb)|(bomb|bomb)|(bomb|bomb)(bomb|bomb)

there's no limit! (sorry) 87.114.29.204 (talk) 21:10, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

question

Can I have a links to free chess games for my windoes computer? thank you. -jonty —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.80.240.66 (talk) 11:34, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

How about WinBoard, or another game from Category:Free chess software? In future questions, please use a more descriptive header than "Question". Xenon54 (talk) 11:40, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

ah well thank you, i am still learning all the pages to this site, it seems there is a page for everything it's finding them that is the problem -jonty

Windows Vista comes with a quite nice 3D chess game. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 12:22, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

By "free chess games" do you mean you want to replay famous chess games, play chess against the computer, or play against a human opponent ? For the last case, Pogo.com does a decent job, as does Yahoo!. StuRat (talk) 05:19, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

XP windows update: how to start custom install

Resolved

 – Certes (talk) 20:33, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

I run Windows XP (legally but without WGA) and would like to install some but not all of the updates I have downloaded. Shutting down the computer only allows me to install all or none. What I need is the Custom Install available via the yellow shield in the taskbar or something equivalent. Is there any way to make the yellow shield or the dialog it opens appear on demand? Obviously XP contains a program or service to do this but a long trawl through the search engines fails to reveal its identity.

If not, is there any other way to run a Custom Install? I realise that I can use Microsoft's website if I install lots of unwanted software first but would rather avoid this. I have tried stopping wuauserv, amending registry keys within \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update (not necessarily the right ways) restarting wuauserv and running wuauclt /detectnow, but nothing visible happens.

All suggestions gratefully received. Certes (talk) 12:07, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

For the benefit of anyone else with this problem, someone kindly pointed me at [5] where "ulogic" has a solution. Certes (talk) 20:33, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Stickam.com

How would I go on about & making my stream title/display name like this guy: http://www.stickam.com/tweetybirdluvsu, "hidden"?

I've seen it done on various people's profiles, on this site but I just don't know the exact coding nor fully get it.

Also...

"You may enter HTML/CSS. JavaScript is not allowed." —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kvltgrinder (talk • contribs) 13:08, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Turning things off and on

It seems that there's an old adage somewhere that says to "save electricity", you have to turn things off when they're not in use. So, my question is, would it be more beneficial for me to leave something on, rather then turning it off and then back on after a few seconds? For example, if I were using my calculator for homework, I tend to turn it off after every question (just a habit), but then turn it back on after I finish reading the next question. Does this waste more battery life than if I just leave it on completely? Another thing, my mother used to tell me to turn lights off when I leave a room, even if it were for a short time (usually just a few minutes). Would this cause more electricity to be used than just leaving it on for that short duration? Furthermore, when turning something on, does it use more electricity then it does when it's currently in use? I'm hoping someone can answer these questions. Thanks a lot! 141.153.217.159 (talk) 15:58, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

This has been covered in many (MANY) areas. There is a lot of anecdotal evidence that turning off something for a very short time will save less energy than the amount it takes to get it turned back on. The key thing to remember is that the plural of anecdote is not data. The data, produced by testing, even on rather pathetically scientific shows such as MythBusters, indicates that electrical devices do not require a lot of energy to turn on. Therefore, the rule "leave it on" only applies if you plan to turn it back on within less than a second of turning it off. -- kainaw™ 16:04, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

The problem with repeatedly turning things on and off isn't that it wastes energy, it's that it subjects the items to unnecessary wear and tear. For example, most switches are only good for a finite number of uses, based on what they expect the typical usage to be, and this doesn't include the type of duty cycle you seem to have in mind. StuRat (talk) 05:09, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

They did this on Mythbusters for lamps and for them it showed that it saved the lightbulbs if you turned them off everytime you left the room. chandler · 10:09, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

The OP hails from New Jersey, so this is not relevant, but incandescent bulbs are being phased out in the EU, commencing in 2010. The aim is to reduce CO2 pollution by 30 million tons. This brings up the question if CFLs (compact fluorescent lightbulbs) and other options like halogen or LEDs require more power when being switched on repeatedly.

According to one site Mythbusters gave these data:

• Incandescent: 0.36 seconds
• CFL: 0.015 seconds
• Halogen: .51 seconds
• LED: 1.28 seconds
• Fluorescent: 23.3 seconds for a switch off / switch on to break even. Presumably this refers to energy usage and not wear and tear on the switches. --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 10:53, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

How is the case with turning the vehicle engine off while at a traffic signal where the light is expected to turn green in half a minute or so? Does re-starting the engine burn more petrol than keeping it running for half a minute. Not a computing question, but fits in this discussion thread. Jay (talk) 08:18, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Solaris 9 in VMWare

I installed Solaris 9 inside VMWare Workstation 6.5, and I have everything working except audio and ethernet. I'm using the CDE. Whenever I type ifconfig -a no ethernet adapters show up, just lo0. I tried typing ifconfig hme0 up, just for the heck of it, but it said there was no such interface. My NIC is a Broadcom Gigabit Ethernet, and I've tried using NAT and bridging the connection, to no avail. I also typed dmesg, but nothing stood out to me in the output. I'd love to paste the output from that command here, but shared folders don't seem to be working in the guest, even though I installed VMWare tools. Whenever I run the Perl config script I get an error message:

Guest vmxnet fast network interface: failed
Unable to start services for VMWare Tools

That's the only error I see, and I can see the driver:

prtconf -D | grep 1022
pci1022,2000 (driver name: vmxnet)

—Preceding unsigned comment added by () John 44 fhm (talk • contribs) 17:26, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

blocked mediawiki export, api.php - gfdl freedoms

One wiki (not wikimedia related) blocks mediawiki export page, api.php and does not provide any database dumps. How can I download whole wiki (it has hunderdeds of articles) with full edit history? Person who hosts it says that he will block ip range if anyone tries to download too many articles. If a wiki is on gfdl, mustn't it provide a way to download it as a whole, not just parts? 217.75.59.5 (talk) 19:51, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Not all wikis are GFDL licensed, but wikis licensed under the GFDL must provide a machine-readable version of published materials. See WP:GFDL for text of license. --h2g2bob (talk) 20:34, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

I think having per-article source available is enough for that though. Algebraist 20:36, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

The hoster may be worried about performance or cost. You will have to reduce your impact, possibly by downloading the articles slowly, perhaps one per minute, rather than one per second! Graeme Bartlett (talk) 21:24, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

There's nothing in the GFDL that requires you to allow people to download a complete database, or to download it as a whole rather than as parts. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 23:11, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

OK, thanks. So i guess we can only make sure everyone of the editors know that wiki is 100% owned by evil admin (who won't give dumps), and persuade at least some of them to move to another wiki. (last free dump is not too much old). It is not really possible to dump automatically, because admin would easily make little changes to obstruct dump-tool. 217.75.59.5 (talk) 23:58, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Is 10-to-1 still valid?

Back in the days when a 1200-baud Silent 700 was the leading edge of technology, all of us in the Time-sharing business knew that even though a byte contained 8 bits, asynchronous communication added a bit on each end of the data (start and stop bits), so that "1200 bits per second" really delivered only 120 characters per second rather than 150 as might be naively assumed. On the other hand, if you had a big-ass synchronous modem, you could send and receive blocks of 400 or 800 characters at 4800 baud, true 8 bits per character minus some block-level overhead (but much less than the 20% of async "interactive").

Are today's communication rates on the phone line, over DSL and cable and so forth, still 10 bits per character, start + 8 + stop? (I assume the answer is Yes using 56K dialup.) As I sit here browsing the web and downloading photos, does 120KB/s still mean 1200Kb/s?

--DaHorsesMouth (talk) 20:17, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

For ADSL things are rather complex, as the spectrum used is divided into "bins" that have different characteristics; the ADSL article notes "The total maximum capacity derived from summing the bits-per-bins is reported by DSL modems and is sometimes termed sync rate. This will always be rather misleading as the true maximum link capacity for user data transfer rate will be significantly lower because extra data is transmitted that is termed protocol overhead, a reduced figure of around 84-87% at most for PPPoA connections being a common example". Much of that is due to the structure of ATM frames, which have 5 bytes of overhead for every 48 bytes transmitted. Over and above that (in ADSL, cable, and the earlier dialup solutions you mention) have additional overheads for IP and TCP packet headers (overheads that are per-packet, which means end-to-end efficiency differs greatly between bulk transfers and smaller packets). 87.114.29.204 (talk) 20:49, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Intel Core 2 Duo processors vs Centrino 2 Duo

Good Morning and thank you for being available to ask questions. Laptops are being sold with either Intel Core 2 Duo processors or Centrino 2 Duo processors. Could you please tell me which is better in a way that an end user will notice. I did look at the article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Intel_processors. It lists processor features but not Centrino or how each new model is better than the last. Many thanks Cadbury29 (talk) 21:38, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Centrino isn't a processor, but rather Intel's chipset for laptops - the Centrino article says "There is usually a lot of confusion with Core 2 Duo and Centrino Duo. Centrino Duo is the combination of Core 2 Duo and Intel Next Gen Wireless Systems." 87.114.29.204 (talk) 21:47, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

My apologies for missing this on the Centrino article. Does the combination improve the user's computer usage experience whilst improving battery life or does it slow the computer down in comparison with a standard Core 2 Duo? Thank you again. Cadbury29 (talk) 21:57, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

You're still not seeing what Centrino is. It's a brand of chipset. All PC CPUs need an accompanying chipset; you can't run a Core 2 Duo without a chipset; if you didn't install Centrino you'd have to have the equivalent offering from nVidia or VIA (or you'd have an AMD processor with an AMD chipset). So you can't run a "standard core 2 duo" alone; there's no comparison to make. We don't have articles comparing mobile chipsets from different vendors, it seems, but there's generally not a lot in it between Intel and nVidia at least. 87.114.29.204 (talk) 22:14, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

It's like saying, a Windows PC vs. a Dell PC, which one is better? --76.167.241.45 (talk) 23:42, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Assuming, of course, that the Dell PC runs Windows (they do have some Linux versions now). Thanks, Genius101^Guestbook 15:26, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

March 22

HD camcorder with emphasis on microphone jack (and budget)

So I need a camcorder. I would like to record a singer/songwriter friend of mine for an upload to youtube in HD quality. The 720p video recommendation from youtube is very easy to find. Flip's minoHD, or Creative's vado HD, or Kodak's Zi6, are all compact, handsome options but none of them have a mic jack to emphasize sound quality (please correct me if I'm wrong!). Giant brains of the reference desk, I beseech thee: tell me of any low cost, 720p, compact camera with extremely high audio quality, or preferably a mic jack. And, of course, if I'm posting this in the wrong place, please flame me as I deserve. 96.255.205.141 (talk) 00:01, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Would you consider doing it in two pieces, then cutting it back together? I'm thinking the Zoom audio recorders. That said, I suspect getting the audio to sync back up will make you pull your hair out. --Mdwyer (talk) 01:55, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Thank you so much! Zoom is an awesome option. I only wish it was a little more inexpensive. I'd like to plug in an inexpensive mic into an inexpensive 720p hd camera. I don't know if it's possible. Sappysap (talk) 02:35, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Personally - I'd record the audio with a separate digital recorder (you could use a laptop for this) and stereo mike and then sync up the video and audio in a post-production step. That way you can adjust the audio balance and do noise filtering and other adjustments using high quality audio tools (I recommend Audacity - it's a great tool and it's free) - then marry together audio and video using the crappy video recorder's sound track to help you get them in perfect sync at the end. It's more effort - but if you're serious about wanting a quality result - that's the only way to go. SteveBaker (talk) 21:20, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Just a random tip to the OP... I have found that if you disconnect your laptop from the power supply, it eliminates a lot of hum. If possible, run an unpowered mic through a battery-powered preamp if you're not getting enough gain from your line-ins on your soundcard. Plus don't overestimate the benefit of sinking money into hardware. If you are new, its tough to understand how setting mic levels and input levels and mic positioning and all those simple things make a huge difference. I even learned that different rooms of a house record better in, maybe something to do with electrical wiring (maybe the cheap wiring is in bedrooms?) or the way a house's electrical circuits are drawn. I've been waiting a long time for prices to come down in the HD cams. Last time I seriously studied them, they were over $1500. My biggest complaint was that you couldn't use an XLR jack, and that those inanely expensive cameras required you to use their $3 high pickup built-in mic. 71.54.173.193 (talk) 09:08, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Skype Data Consumption

A friend is considering purchasing a new laptop mainly for the purpose of communicating with friends overseas using Skype. The model in mind comes packaged with a 3G connection (Huawei E220, SIM Card Based, operating on the local mobile network) which is capped at 500mb per month. Question 1: Is a 3G connection suitable for Skype ... despite its high speeds would latency on the mobile network not degrade the Skype experience ? Question 2: How much data on average say per minute does Skype consume when making calls and will the 500mb cap be sufficient (answer obviously dependent on how long they actually talk for) ? Does it also consume data when not making calls due to its peer-to-peer model ? What other VOIP software would be better ? Thanks in advance !--41.16.218.139 (talk) 05:24, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

1) Latency on 3g networks varies a lot, from 100ms to 800+. Some people report 1 second delays in their skype calls, but for other people it works fine. Depends on where you are, I guess.

2) Skype uses 70kbps during a call according to this one guy [6], so 500mb will come out to about 1000 minutes. Although they say that the average is ~20kbps [7], which would be 3x as much. But yeah, skype can also use bandwidth while not actively calling (especially if you become a supernode), so watch out for that.

Maybe someone who actually uses Skype on 3g will know more. Indeterminate (talk) 05:16, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Scheduling/alert application in Windows Vista

I want an application that will allow me to set up half-hourly reminders/alerts on my computer. Does anyone know of one that is both free and compatible with Windows Vista? 99.245.16.164 (talk) 06:35, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

It may not be what you want, but I remember a site from years ago: http://www.gregorybraun.com/ that had a nice little alarm thing called reminders. I haven't tried it with Vista, and I'm sure if you wait a little longer someone may be able to point you to something better - but I always liked Braun's stuff - small footprint, etc. — Ched ~ ^(yes?)/_© 09:17, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

IE8 vs. Chrome

Chrome has the function where if one tab crashes, freezes, or, malfunctions in some other way, it will not crash other tabs, or the whole Window, or other Chromewindows, or tabs in these other or the other Chromewindow(s). In other words, independent events is incorporated into the browser.

Does IE8 have this, or is IE8 like this?68.148.145.190 (talk) 07:43, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

I don't have any refs to back me up on this, but I don't think IE8 does at the moment. I use Chrome, and Firefox (which is also sandboxing some processes, but not to the extent that Chrome does). So ... "No", but that's just "IMHO", "FWIW", "IIRC" stuff. — Ched ~ ^(yes?)/_© 09:20, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Again, I don't have the links, but apparently the newly-released... ehm... release version of IE8 does run tabs in separate processes... but only up to 3 tabs, after which they start sharing again and stop being independent. Microsoft decided people generally didn't use more than 3 tabs, so they "optimised" for this. Rawling4851 09:47, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Geez, I have 10 tabs open in Firefox right now, and this is typical for me. StuRat (talk) 15:00, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

I have 108 tabs open, all faviconized. Beat that! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 21:03, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Microsoft are engaged in this peculiar "we know how you work and we won't give you more things than we think you need" thing right now. Windows-7 will limit you to three user-tasks running at once in the most basic 'home' edition...why? Well, that's all they think you can get your tiny little heads around. Given a limit of only 3 user-tasks, it makes sense to optimise IE8 to deal with just 3 tasks and get people used to the idea before Windows-7 hits the streets. It's also possible that they are leading up to the IE8 'pro-edition' which allows more tab-threads but costs actual $$$. Who knows? They've gone quite off the rails in the last year or two since the Vista debacle. The worst part of all of this is that it shouldn't be necessary. The need to recover from crashed tabs shouldn't happen because tabs shouldn't crash. The problem is that we have flash plugins with bugs that the browser writers can't fix because it's in the hands of Adobe - who either can't or won't fix it. When the plugin crashes - it takes the browser with it. The obvious thing would be to fix the stupid flash plugin and leave it at that. SteveBaker (talk) 21:15, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

"Gone off the rails" = "gone nuts" ? As for making apps that never crash, it's a nice dream, but I'd also like to see a system that can minimize the damage if a crash occurs, just in case. StuRat (talk) 03:57, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

To answer the OP, I would definitely go with Chrome. It's a lot faster than IE. But if I were to choose, I'd get Firefox over Chrome any day since every inch of the browser and websites are customizable. A few off the bat that make me love firefox so much are Ad blocks, speed enhancers, stylish, my list would continue for miles but I'll stop. -- penubag  (talk) 06:15, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Where and How should I write this code?

where and how should i write the code in this page: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb760252(VS.85).aspx
I tried it with my VS2008 C# application but i cannot be compiled which compiler, language, libraries or tools do i need? thanks in advance Supersonic8 (talk) 12:42, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

The code that you have linked to is code for a native Windows application, which cannot be run in the .NET Framework. If you are looking for the .NET counterpart of what it does, that's here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.tooltip.aspx . If you still want to compile this code, you need a C or C++ compiler (such as VS2008 for C++, free Express edition available, I think) and the Windows SDK which provides the libraries needed (may be included in the IDE). 84.174.102.84 (talk) 13:11, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

That's C++, using the Win32 API. Visual C++ would work to compile it. Whether you could use those functions from C# I don't know, but it's definitely not worth it. If you have a C# .NET program then look for C# .NET examples. -- BenRG (talk) 13:06, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

"New mail" notifier for IMAP

Hi! I'm looking for a small application, that just connect to my IMAP mail account and print something if there is a new mail. I dont want any mail client or anything that run as a process in background, just check new mail and end. Do you know about something like that? Thanks! Lukipuk (talk) 13:05, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Googling for "IMAP notifier" finds a couple (for Windows), but I've not used them so I can't make recommendations; his is a Linux one (I've not used it either). You might find that "new mail" is a concept that doesn't quite map to IMAP as you might expect - IMAP knows the difference between read and unread mail, but "new" mail is generally "mail that's been received since you last checked", and "since you last checked" is something that a mail client knows about, but that a simple notifier doesn't. 87.114.147.43 (talk) 13:37, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Crysis sandbox2 Sound

How do I add sound from my own computer to the game editor?--81.227.64.85 (talk) 16:07, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Inkjet Printing onto Canvas (Epson Stylus Photo R2880)

I have recently purchased an Epson Stylus Photo R2880 and would like to print photos to canvas-style paper but have found it difficult finding an appropriate style of paper. I plan to print to the canvas then attach it around a wooden frame to achieve a canvas painting style photo. Specifically of course I need to know which paper, if any, will work with the R2880.

Many thanks. Lukerees1983 (talk) 22:39, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

March 23

Windows EXE's on Mac OS x x86

How can I run .exe's on Mac OS X x86. I downloaded the Mono Project for a .NET framework for Mac OS X. Is it all I need? And what about WINE, it says on some pages on its site that it can be used for Mac OS X, but on the downloads page I can't find the one for Mac OS X. I'd really like some help with this. I'm looking for a free way to do this. --Melab±1 ☎ 01:31, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

The Mono tools will only let you run .exe's that were built with .NET. But for those .exe's, it should work pretty well. According to here: [8] you just have to type "mono myprogram.exe" and if it's a .NET program, it'll run it. I'm not sure how you can find out whether an .exe is .NET compatible or not.

Installing Wine on OS X - [9]. Wine can have trouble with newer software, but if you're really dedicated you can probably get whatever you want to run. Indeterminate (talk) 05:04, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

See also Darwine. --76.167.241.45 (talk) 08:42, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Anyone else have one of these stupid things?

I got an InCharge for PS3, made by TeknoCreations. Here's a pic. The stupid thing didn't work (I'd place a controller in it, the controller lights would blink once, then stay unlit). I managed to take it back and get a new one several months later. The new one still doesn't work, and the behaviour is similar. Anyone had any success getting this thing working, or should I take this one back and stick to USB cables? --Silvaran (talk) 02:36, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

I have to say that inductively charging lithium batteries in a form-factor that fits inside a standard battery bay sounds like a really 'iffy' idea. I'm not surprised they don't work well. But it's surprising that they'd stay in business if they didn't. SteveBaker (talk) 05:45, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

recovering CD data

So I've got some CDs that were probably not "finished" properly, and I'm attempting to recover any data that might be whole on the CD-Rs. I've come across a program called PhotoRec which claims it can recover data from unfinished CD-Rs, but I'm not having much luck figuring out how it works, or it's just not responsive (it just opens a console and says "Please wait..."), so I'm wondering if there is anything else (free) that I could try. Thanks! 210.254.117.186 (talk) 08:22, 23 March 2009 (UTC)