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June 8

VirtualBox and multiple users

On my Windows XP machine, I ran VirtualBox from an admin account and created a new virtual machine and virtual hard disk. (I installed Windows 7 RC1 to the virtual hard disk from Microsoft's download page, but that's not important right now.) I now want to use that virtual machine from a different user account on the XP machine, but it doesn't show up in the VirtualBox window. How can I do so? Or should I just create a different virtual machine, and set it up to use the same virtual hard disk? Tempshill (talk) 03:06, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

You might be able to move the .virtualbox folder from your Documents and Settings folder into 'All Users' and see if that works.

(Move .virtualbox folder from C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\ to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users. The folder may be hidden, so you'll need to disable hiding system folders in Folder Options) Washii (talk) 04:53, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Email with pictures

I noticed when you attach pictures to an email, most email clients or web-email providers show the attached pictures at the bottom of the email. however, when i send an email with emoticons using gmail, instead of referencing the emoticons with html tags and keeping them saved on their servers, they send them as attachments. i find this quite nice, its better not to have an email that depends on images on servers which may change url's someday or get changed if you want to archive the email. what i want to know, is how can they keep those emoticons in the right places if they are just attachments? they place them in-line with text. would it be possible to give them specific co-ordinate locations and wrap text around them for bigger pictures? in other words can you send html emails and reference the img tags to attachments rather than pictures available online? why dont most email companies like yahoo and hotmail do like gmail? its better! 209.148.195.177 (talk) 04:59, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

If I understand the question right, It depends on both the client being used by the sender, and the client software being used by the receiver. I don't think there is an option to use graphics "in line" with g-mail, but other clients do allow that. I believe much of what you're asking revolves around the "send as html" thing. Many email clients now default to send as text, for security reasons. (phishing, malware, etc.). I've probably not answered your question directly, but perhaps there's a bit of insight as to the why and how. Best. — Ched :  ?  10:15, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Add user to FUSE group (Linux - Ubuntu)?

Resolved

What is the best way to add an user to the FUSE group?

I think it is:

usermod -a -G fuse hacktolive

However, I want to be 100% sure this is safe, since I am going to include this code in a program I will distribute (RUNZ), And "playing" with usermod has already broken my current PC. And is the fuse group a "primary group", or "secondary group"? Thanks. _ Hacktolive (talk) 11:48, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

On Ubuntu GNOME you can just do System -> Administration -> Users and Groups -> Unlock (type in your password) -> click your user -> Properties -> User Privileges -> check "Mount user-space filesystems (FUSE)". Alternately, after unlocking, you could have gone to Manage Groups -> fuse -> Properties -> check your user. --128.97.244.41 (talk) 22:10, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, but I really to do that in the terminal (to put that in the script of an installer). Hacktolive (talk) 00:02, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

gpasswd -a <username> fuse

:) --Link ^(t•c•m) 11:06, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks a lot, that worked very well. Hacktolive (talk) 03:09, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

How to put icons on a Symbian desktop

I just got a Nokia E66, and I really love it, but I was wondering one thing: currently the "desktop" (i.e. the screen that is showing when the phone is idle) is nothing but a picture of a big blue ocean. That seems like a waste, and I'd like to have some icons there to frequently accessed programs and services and the like, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to put them there. Can anyone give me some assistance? 83.250.236.75 (talk) 16:06, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Go to - Tools > Settings > General > Personalisation > Standby mode > Active standby (set to "On"), then go down to "Active standby apps." (which is again in "Standby mode") and you should be able to set 7 applications. --Rixxin (talk) 21:18, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Alternative earphones with remote and microphone for iPod touch

moved from WP:RD/S Nil Einne (talk) 17:01, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

I recently bought an iPod touch (2nd generation). I would like to replace the included earphones with ones including a microphone and a remote (for volume control, play/pause etc). Do I have any options beyond Apple's own in-ear headphones? Even better, is there a standalone remote/microphone for the iPod into which I can plug my own earphones (my Sony Ericsson W850 mobile phone comes with one of these, but only compatible with the phone)? Thanks in advance! — QuantumEleven 11:51, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Apple has earphones which are exactly like the ones that came with your iPod, except with mic and remote. These just so happen to be the earphones which come with the new iPod Shuffle. You can find them here. Just so you know I own a pair of these earphones and they are excellent quality. They are $30 USD, but they enhance the experience greatly :D. Sorry, but those are the only one's I know of :( Marx01 (talk) 02:09, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

T2400

Hey guys, I think the answer to this question is a "no" but I am not certain.

Could someone please tell me if the T2400 Intel Core Duo is 64-bit? Thanks. Kushal (talk) 17:43, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

List of Intel microprocessors says it's an Intel Core; and Intel Core says at the top that it's a line of 32-bit microprocessors. Tempshill (talk) 17:48, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

That's what I thought. Thanks. Kushal (talk) 19:48, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Core2 duo is not the same as core duo. Core2 is 64 bit. It is one of main differences between them. -Yyy (talk) 13:28, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

keeping track of computer changes

Hello, is there a program out there that can keep track of changes within a computer comparing the current version to say, a set time ago? Zango has gotten into my computer again but this time right under the nose of both AVG and Windows Defender and I would like to have something to inform me of changes like this instead of having to look at the startup menu every time I turn on the computer. Another question, I can't remove Zango using the typical method of using the Add/Remove Programs menu. I googled other solutions, but they are much too technical and I don't understand them. Could someone help me? --Jeevies (talk) 19:05, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Adaware or Spybot should remove Zango. You can't easily remove it because its creators wanted it to be difficult to remove. 87.112.85.8 (talk) 19:12, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

A couple of great freeware solutions are the following: to uninstall the program use Revo Uninstaller and do a deep search--this will remove all traces. Secondly, a good firewall is Comodo Firewall Pro (released free for non-commercial). This has a "Defense+" setting which will not allow any changes / install to a computer without your express permission. Thirdly, I'm not sure what version of Windows you're using, but if it's XP you can set-up a limited account to log-in to your system with that won't allow any software to be installed. You would need to expressly log-in to the administrator account in order to install anything. If you use Vista, you can enable the UAC (user account control) which will prompt before installation is permitted (a more formal solution implemented in Vista similar to the use of the limited account in XP). If you're using an older version of Windows than that, I don't remember enough to tell you what to do. Lastly, Microsoft has a One Care Live Safety Scanner that's available to scan online, if you use that it should help clean up your registry and other elements of your install as well. Hope this helps! - Geoff —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.58.69.196 (talk) 22:05, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

I have installed Spybot and used it both offline and online to remove the majority of the zango spyware, yet there are still two zango related files in my startup menu, OEAddOn and ZangoSa. So I installed Revo Uninstaller but both this program and Windows Explorer are unable to locate them. Now I'm really stuck. --Jeevies (talk) 04:05, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Although designed specifically against Root Kit viruses, RootRepeal is excellent for finding hidden off-directory nasty-ware.- KoolerStill (talk) 10:02, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Part of Spybot Search and Destroy's install is something called TeaTime (I think. It might be TeaTimer. It has tea in it for sure!) that will tell you if a program is trying to change things. It bugs the hell out of me because I install and uninstall things all the time but it should do what you ask. Gunrun (talk) 10:23, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

A long while ago, I used to have a piece of shareware called InCtrl which did exacly what the OP asked for - it took a scan of the disk contents; you installed your program (plus spyware?); you re-ran InCtrl and it re-scanned and created a log file of all the differences, including any changes in the registry, changes to critical system files, new files, etc. It was a long hunt through a lengthy text file, but it gave me some insight into how the registry works and helped me get rid of some viruses. Unfortunately, it didn't work on the newer (NT based) versions of Windows - ie. 2000/XP/Vista. Whether it would have helped you clean up Zango, I have no idea. It would be nice if I could find something similar to InCtrl. Astronaut (talk) 23:46, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Well, Wikipedia does have an article on InCtrl5 and it is mentioned on several forums. I used version 4 of the program and never found a replacement... until now. Astronaut (talk) 23:51, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Flatbed scanner light moves back and forth several times before the full scan - normal?

I had to replace a duff power adapter on a flatbed scanner that I got via Freecycle before it would work. The new adapter was the same voltage, but the wattage was lower than the previous one. When I use the scanner the light bar usually moves back and forwards about an inch or so a few times before making the full scan. Is this normal, or is it because it does not have enough power from the new adapter and has to have several tries? Its some time since I previously used a scanner, so I do not remember what they usually do. 78.149.238.54 (talk) 19:48, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Mine has done that since it was brand new. I have always assumed that it was some sort of calibration process. I've owned printers that did something similar with the print head. APL (talk) 20:46, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

A scanner needs to "warm up" the lamp. This is typical behavior. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.58.69.196 (talk) 22:00, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Yes they do this, but using a power supply with a lower wattage is not a good idea - you run the risk of overheating the powersupply, alternatively the power supply voltage may drop causing the scanner to malfunction. Alternatively none of the above may happen.77.86.10.194 (talk) 11:26, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

June 9

Undelete, and, searching the Reference Desk

I'm looking for the ideal free undelete software that runs under Windows Vista 64-bit. (I tried searching the refdesk; I would have assumed this is a FAQ; but unfortunately searching for "undelete" seems to come up with a billion entries which do not mention the word "undelete", because it seems to be a keyword embedded somehow in the archives.) Tempshill (talk) 04:40, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

this might work for you. — Ched :  ?  10:24, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

There are a couple things mentioned at List_of_portable_software#Partition.2FFile_Recovery, and a general overview at: Data recovery. Hope that helps. — Ched :  ?  10:28, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Recuva works -- penubag  (talk) 03:29, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Try Glary Undelete, one of a nice collection of freeware in Glary Utilities. Here's the link. Mxvxnyxvxn (talk) 23:11, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

I've posted the search problem at the village pump. Jay (talk) 09:59, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

lsass.exe

how to close lsass.exe savely ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Shoor77 (talk • contribs) 07:38, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

lsass.exe is part of the winlogon process, and authenticates the user logging into that PC. Why are you wanting to close it? — Ched :  ?  10:18, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

See Local Security Authority Subsystem Service. Doesn't look like a particularly good idea to end it honestly. Gunrun (talk) 10:19, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

(ec)lsass.exe is supposed to run the whole time you are using the computer. You can force close it through the Task Manager, but that will cause the machine to restart, see Local Security Authority Subsystem Service. If you have more than one running, one may be Isass (capital I instead of lower case l)which would be a virus. That can be removed with a good virus scanner.-KoolerStill (talk) 10:39, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Asynchronous x86

Is there anything instrinsic to the x86 (or'x64') ISA that prevents an asynchronous version of the processor being made?77.86.10.194 (talk) 12:10, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Could you explain what you mean by "asynchronous" here? What is your objective? Tempshill (talk) 14:38, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

See Asynchronous CPU. I think this is a theoretical question, but an implimentation could in theory give higher clock speeds and lower power consumption. -- Q Chris (talk) 14:48, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Good, so one two persons now knows what asychronous means..

We all know what "asynchronous" means, you smartass. I was unfamiliar with Asynchronous CPU and thought you were asking some sort of question about motherboards with multiple CPUs. Tempshill (talk) 15:39, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Just to clarify - I would guess the catch here would be if there is any programming mode or method (not non-standard) that requires a set of instructions to always take x clock cycles - my guess is no since cache tends to mess up overall timings - maybe an expert will know?77.86.10.194 (talk) 16:53, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

There will be changes noticeable to system programmers (in a very small number of cases). Code that relies on exact(ish) instruction timing is mostly limited to odd places like bitbanging i2c/spi on bios bringup and pre-os flash operations; for these people will have to rely on an external timer (or maybe the processor will boot initially into a predictable synchronous mode to make this stuff easy, and can be set to async once the bios has run). Cache isn't an issue in these cases, because cache isn't enabled yet (and neither is DRAM), and once the RAM is up the system programmer can control what's in cache (during this early boot phase when there's no great competition for resources). After that there will probably be some weird corner cases where other system level code makes assumptions about how long one piece of code takes to run vs another (perhaps spinlocks or memory barriers), but most device code already has to contend with its devices being desynchronised devices at the end of a lethargic system bus, so as long as on average things can keep up (which is an issue anyway) then they shouldn't care. At least for desktop and server programmers, even in the system, gone are the days when you'd need to stick in some NOPs until the raster is on the next line or the drum head has moved to the start of the track. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 17:30, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks - I hadn't thought of spinlocks - though in general asychronous processors have their problems when trying to access shared resources - I think this would be an example of that case, though I'll have to think about it. <text color="00000> or even wonder what sort of madman ever creates a spinlock in the first place - theres a good chance no one will ever read this</text> —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.86.10.194 (talk) 18:38, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

There was a lot of work on asynchronous processors till about five years ago. Now the only place I hear about them is for things like smart cards or chips in passports. They should be good for a number of things like array processors or power saving or modular computational building blocks but it looks like familiarity has won out and their advantages are just not great enough. And with that I suppose some foundry will just go and prove me wrong by announcing some heavy duty processing application :) Dmcq (talk) 23:01, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

By the way the most interesting case I've come across where the number of cycles taken mattered was in an algorithm where they were able to decode the password one letter at a time because the check bombed out one letter at a time. Dmcq (talk) 23:07, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

What does the second paragraph mean? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.86.10.194 (talk) 04:49, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

I guess you mean about the passwords since I phrased it unclearly. If a password check does a string comparison between the password and what it should be, or even their encrypted forms which is more normal, then the string comparison routine will stop as soon as it detects a difference. Timing the password check will tell how far the string comparison routine went. That way one only need use 256 probes at most per character of the check and so only a few thousand to decrypt the full password. Smaller differences like cache timings can also be used to gain information about passwords but they are much more difficult to exploit. An asynchronous processor for instance might have slightly different timings dependent on how many zeroes are in an operand. Having exactly the same instructions executed in all failure cases of a password check is very desirable.

More relevant to this question though is people do sometimes check a device again a couple of times after a command if it normally responds very quickly in that context. It can be faster overall than returning to user level and then getting interrupted again. There the device self times by its delay in answering. Dmcq (talk) 07:28, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for clarifying - I couldn't make head or tail or the first description.77.86.10.194 (talk) 11:57, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Google Street View UK

Is there a list where the next places in the UK that will be on streetview will be, i cant seem to find one... thanks, --Abc26324 (talk) 12:52, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

They don't publish one; they don't even announce when they do add stuff (people just notice). I've seen the car twice, in two different places that aren't yet covered on the live site, so clearly they're chewing through a lot of data for more places right now. Hopper Mine (talk) 14:01, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

They often announce new Street View cities on the Google LatLong Blog — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 14:25, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

I have a friend who drives one of the Google Street View cars. According to him they've covered pretty much every built-up area in mainland UK. They are mostly doing update work now on places they've already covered. I think Google have a vast amount of data to go through, it's just a matter of time. -Phydaux (talk) 16:40, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

UK vat on computer DVD etc

When buying from online retailers in the UK many ship from Jersey. I have read that there may be a tax avoidance reason for this. Previously I assumed that the goods were often cheaper due to the companies not requiring store frontage etc.

Question what is VAT on computer DVDs etc? How do I know if I have avoided paying tax? Can anyone explain the 'goods under £18' sometimes mentioned?

As this may drift into the legal domain can someone also tell me what goverment department I should contact for specific clarification. If anyone can explain the basics of what is going on though, I would appreciate it - (it's unclear to me if I have broken the law) Thanks.77.86.10.194 (talk) 13:06, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

HM Revenue and Customs is the relevant body and to save you the tortuous task of trawling through their jungle of a website the page you want is this one - X201 (talk) 14:47, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

ok thanks - with your help I managed to find the information I needed. Now all I need is some replies to emails hopefully telling me they have already added the vat to my purchases...

Resolved

using reconstructor withubuntu

I have been playing around with reconstructor and I cant figure out how to modify a ubutnu cd in to a live only cd. can some one please point me to a list of packages that can be removed from ubuntu but still keeping the ones nessary for hardware usage and for the x server . . thank you and sorry for the lack of links and for my bad spelling. I am on my phone right now. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Smileyhill (talk • contribs) 18:42, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Winamp

What's the biggest amount of music I can place into Winamp's library? Kurtelacić (talk) 19:04, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Do you mean, maximum number of songs? Apparently any given playlist can have a maximum of 4,000 songs, but you can have probably an unlimited number of playlists. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 20:39, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

I am looking for a specific number of gigabytes, if there is any. Kurtelacić (talk) 20:48, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Winamp doesn't "contain" the music. The library contains a list of the music files, their location, and perhaps some other info too, but not the music itself. I presume the library has an ultimate maximum size, but I don't know what that is. The number of gigabytes of music is most likely governed by how much disk space you have. Astronaut (talk) 21:37, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

I can list over 5400 songs (about 25GB) with the "Playlist Editor" in Winamp. The playlist performance decreases with this amount of data, it can take a while to scroll and refresh. This is probably affected by hardware performance too. ~~ Ropata (talk) 07:54, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Redirecting yahoo mail

I got yahoo mail recently as I wanted a Flickr account and a yahoo ID always includes email. I am happy with my current email service and would therefore like to know if it is possible to redirect yahoo to my msn account! Thanks. --217.227.100.89 (talk) 20:16, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

You can get Yahoo! Mail Plus (which costs almost twenty dollars a year). More information here. Kushal (talk) 20:28, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

I don't see why you'd want to do this - presumably you're not giving out your Yahoo email address to anyone because you're happy with your current service, so you're not going to be receiving any emails at your Yahoo address. If you're worried about emails from Flickr going to your Yahoo address, you can always change your Flickr contact email here — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 20:30, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

You can set a re-direct on your yahoo mail so that it goes to a Yahoo account (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060812082947AAsNu6h) gives you details of how to achieve this. That way anything that goes to it will get redirected to the address you specify (presumably your MSN account). ny156uk (talk) 21:02, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

As a regular on Yahoo's equivalent of RefDesk, let me give you a workaround. The above redirections work only with the $19.95 Premium Mail. But as long as you don't give the Yahoo email to anyone, you'll only get Flckr-related mail on it. Go to My Account, Edit the email section and put your msn email, then choose that to be the primary email. The Yahoo one will still serve as your ID, but communications will go to the msn. While you are there turn Marketing Preferences to nil. This will redirect in-house mail from any Yahoo property.

You have also acquired a Universal Profile Card. From the Yahoo home page, choose Profile from the drop down under your name (top edge of page). Click Settings (top right) and scroll down to Hide My Profile, select and save. This way nobody will be able to search for you by name, ID or email address. - KoolerStill (talk) 03:28, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Scripting language for image manipulation

Octave is fast but color images and IO are not so fun. PDL works well for color and Perl is good, but (at least PDL::ImageND::convolveND) is slow, > 1min vs Octave < 2s (???), though octave did it only for grayscale. The real question is in the title, can you tell any? It needs to have support for fft/convolution/stuff. --194.197.235.28 (talk) 22:43, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

You might look at Processing (programming language); this example shows image convolution (although written in Processing, rather than part of its library). It seems people have done some pretty impressive stuff in Processing. Hopper Mine (talk) 23:12, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

I personally would try to stick with a general purpose language that has a fast library available. You might find Category:Graphics libraries useful. --Sean 12:36, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Power Converters

Why does a power converter from 110V to 240V have a warning saying not for electronics that use above 25 watts even if the converter is rated from 0-2500 Watts? Is it safe to use with an electronic device (specifically iPods and digital cameras) that use over 25 watts, but less than 2500? Or can those use just an adapter as the products in question are all rated for a voltage of 100-240 despite saying recommended to be used in the US only?--71.165.84.18 (talk) 22:55, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

A very small unit might only deliver 25 watts for something like charging a phone, but I guess you've got a higher end power converter there and that is 25 Amps instead of Watts which is enough for a power tool or microwave oven. I'd reread the spec carefully and see if it really is Watts. Dmcq (talk) 08:31, 10 June 2009 (UTC) Yes a small unit makes no sense, you only get things that small for directly powering small devices. Dmcq (talk) 08:45, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

See this Amazon review. -- Coneslayer (talk) 12:30, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks very much. That's really quite dreadfully horrible. It probably won't even work with some things that aren't normally considered as electronic because they also do switching like a power tool for instance. And I hate to think what it would do to a microwave. Dmcq (talk) 14:30, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

In fact I wonder what voltage they clip it to, I'd guess so the root mean square came out the same or even an iron might overheat. Dmcq (talk) 14:41, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

I'd very much doubt that product is legal if the review is correct - at least it wouldn't be in the UK, I imagine there are laws in the US that prevent potentially dangerous electrical devices (it would make a 'short circuit' in a transformer if the voltage is clipped to dc half the cycle...) Maybe the reviewer got it wrong - I would have guess it to be a switched mode power supply which would be possible and sensible??77.86.10.194 (talk) 16:55, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

For the original question, if the appliances say "100-240 V, 50-60HZ" (like almost all things with trafos such as cellphone chargers), you can just use a simple adapter and don't need a transformer. At least that's what I do... Jørgen (talk) 18:29, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Thank you. That is indeed what they say, so I will travel with them and adapters only. No converter. The packaging should really be more clear for converters.--71.165.84.18 (talk) 00:43, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

June 10

Protective case for Toshiba NB 200

Can anyone recommend a protective case for a Toshiba NB 200 with a 6-cell battery attached to it? Regular 10.1" cases won't do because the 6-cell sticks out and adds another inch to the back of the netbook. I thought about grabbing a 4-cell battery but I'm not willing to give up the battery life and don't want to bring an additional battery around with me, whatever the size. Not really looking for one that can stay on while the netbook is in use, would prefer something that will protect it if I toss it (gently) into a small knapsack or shoulder bag. Thanks!--Silvaran (talk) 00:18, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Video Conversion

I'm trying to convert a .dv file into a different, smaller file that YouTube will allow me to upload while keeping the video a decent quality-I already have a .mov, but it's excessively pixelated. I use a Mac Version 10.5.6, and I have the sub-par iMovie version 7.Tuesday42 (talk) 03:19, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

That should do it. Rgoodermote  00:03, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Address book (email) quota/send to quota

What free webmail services offer address book quotas that can at least reach 250 to 300 hundred addresses? How about a compose screen that offers the same? Vltava 68 06:54, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Are you trying to reach 250-300 or 25000-30000 addresses? There's quite a difference... — QuantumEleven 09:04, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, I meant 250 - 300. Vltava 68 04:04, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Mysql apache

I'm using Ubuntu8.04.

1. My phpinfo() doesn't show any info about Mysql, eventhough mysqld is running. Also, in the apache folder there is no mysql file in 'available modules'. How do I install mysql module for apache so that i can LAMP on my PC.
2. Supposing that I'm ready to remove/uninstall PHP, apache and mysql, is there any package for ubuntu that installs all three together without complications.

59.93.17.176 (talk) 11:57, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Download and install LAMP Server see here for instructions. BigDunc^Talk 12:03, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

TiLP-II

I downloaded and successfully installed TiLP-II for Windows XP, along with the GTK+ thingy. I had GIMP previously installed, and I read somewhere that the GTK thing required for TiLP is compatible with GIMP, but the one that comes with GIMP isn't compatible with TiLP. So I uninstalled the one that came with GIMP and installed TiLP's. So I am thinking that I'll just have a wonderful time connecting my calculator to my computer and checking out all the stuff on the RAM and ROM.

BUT, that didn't happen. Every time I try to run TiLP, I get an error: "The procedure entry point g_filename_to_utf8_utf8 could not be located in the dynamic link library libglib-2.0-0.dll." I also got errors reading that I was missing "libglib-2.0-0.dll", "intl.dll", and "iconv.dll", so I downloaded them manually to the system32 folder (this isn't the issue anymore, I fixed it. I just need to find out how the procedure entry point can be found.).

I tried reinstalling TiLP and the GTK+ thing. Nothing has worked. I even tried reinstalling Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable whatever it's called. What am I doing wrong, and how can I fix this? Thanks for the help! --72.69.145.197 (talk) 15:45, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

June 11

WinXP notebook throttling

Hey all,

does anyone know a software for Win XP 32bit which reduces CPU frequency on modern Intel C2D (a T7250 here) for real instead of just applying some "soft throttle" like NHC does?

Thanks, HardDisk (talk) 01:33, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

PS: Bonus points for a software also capable of throttling NV 8600 M GT - the NV CPL is not able to.

What do you mean by "soft throttle"? It should already throttle clock rate out of the box (at least SP2 does), try using CPU-Z to view the clock rate. Setting your power management settings in your control panel to "Minimum" might also help. --antilived^{T | C | G} 01:34, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

help with a userbox

I'm working on a userbox for Wikipedia. Since I don't know html, I do this by editing the colors and words of existing userboxes' source codes. My (not yet published) user box currently looks like this:

DOGGY!

This user enjoys reading the webcomic Freefall (webcomic).

I would like to do two things:

1) Add a thin yellow box around the square containing the word "Doggy"

2) Turn the white box on the right into blue

Could you help me do this? --Ye Olde Luke (talk) 02:40, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

I modded your code according to what you want.93.104.111.161 (talk) 03:46, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

Cool! Thanks! --Ye Olde Luke (talk) 04:33, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

I'm surprised you can find a long enough ethernet cable to read a webcomic freefall. I suspect you really ought to link your userbox to Freefall (webcomic) instead. SteveBaker (talk) 01:19, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

Oops, you're right. Thanks! --Ye Olde Luke (talk) 00:13, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

Download Wikipedia

I tried downloading wikipedia 3 times from two different locations, I get "corrupt media" error, while trying to extract the file.

I got the download information from this place [1]. Please let me know if there's a known resolution to this problem.ceo 06:24, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

Possibilities include:

• you're storing it on a volume formatted to FAT32 - FAT32 limits file sizes to 4GB, so trying to put any file bigger than that (and most of the dump files are much bigger) will fail. Using an ancient version of windows, like 98 or ME (which don't support NTFS) thus will always fail. Storing the file on an intermediate storage like a USB flash drive or a DVD may also fail, depending on the filesystem type.
• the file has been truncated for some other reason - check that the size your computer reports reports the file is exactly the same as shown on the website. If it isn't, it's either been truncated by the filesystem or by the program (browser, probably) that you're using to download it
• the file has been corrupted in transit; verify that the md5sums shown for the file downloaded match the md5 checksum you calculate on the file you downloaded

87.112.85.8 (talk) 10:18, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

How to put save file on Wii

I'm trying to transfer a save file (LoZ: Twilight Princess) to my Wii, following the instructions here. I've downloaded the file as a .bin file, and I've verified that it is a North American file; then on my SD card I made a folder called "private", then in that a folder called "wii", then in that a folder called "title", then in that a folder called "RZDE", and then I put the file in that. But when I put the SD card in my Wii, the file doesn't show up; it's as if the SD card is empty (but it's not). What am I doing wrong? --Lazar Taxon (talk) 06:44, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

Are you trying to use the Twilight Hack? If you've upgraded your Wii to the version 4.0 software (the first version to include support to play games off the SD card) then I'm afraid the Twightlight Hack simply isn't possible anymore as 4.0 will remove the file automatically if detected before you have a chance to copy it to the Wii's internal storage. Bannerbomb is supposed to work as a replacement for the Twilight Hack (depending on your needs), but I have no experience with that I'm afraid. ZX81 ^talk 11:20, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

No, it's just a regular save file from wiisave.com. It downloaded as "data.bin". --Lazar Taxon (talk) 16:35, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

Hope this helps. Rgoodermote  00:00, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Eh, not really. I've followed all the standard instructions, but my Wii just won't recognize any files on my SD card. --Lazar Taxon (talk) 01:10, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Not all saves work, I believe they are encrypted for the Wii they come from, some homebrews will let you transfer the saves regardless. Rgoodermote  03:18, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Touchpad freezing

Hello all. For no discernible reason, the touchpad on my laptop has suddenly stopped working; both for clicking and moving the cursor around. Is there any reason why this would happen? How can I fix it? I have restarted the computer a few times but no change.

If it helps, it is a VR6oI, and I'm using XP Home edition. Many thanks =)114.77.68.9 (talk) 07:40, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

Have you checked the settings to make sure it hasn't been 'turned off'? Should be in the control-panel. Similarly some have an option to "ignore trackpad whilst typing" - if you have a key that is inadvertently lodged-down it may be that it is that causing the issue. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 09:15, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

I've checked the control panel and my keyboard. I don't seem to have any of those problems, and the touchpad is still frozen =(114.77.68.9 (talk) 09:36, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

I would look in Event Viewer (Control Panel, Admin Tools) for messages at boot up. --69.254.66.245 (talk) 21:18, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

I looked through the errors and there is no (relevant) errors in event manager. Does anyone have any other ideas?114.77.68.9 (talk) 05:29, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Go to "My Computer" and open up "Device Manager". There might be a hardware fault or address error. That would be harder to fix. Possibly a recently installed program is causing a problem. ~~ Ropata (talk) 08:06, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

The device manager doesn't show a touchpad under 'mouse and other pointing devices'; it only shows my USB mouse. Is it supposed to show? I otherwise cannot find an error.114.77.68.9 (talk) 09:21, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Yes it SHOULD be in that section. You could try and install a generic touchpad, if Windows has one (Use the New Hardware wizard). Or get the manufacturer's driver software from their website. ~~ Ropata (talk) 09:40, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

I would be inclined to crack the case and reseat the cable to the touchpad. But I'm that kind of guy. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 13:08, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Another drastic step would be to re-install windows wtih the manufacturer's CD. ~~ Ropata (talk) 03:14, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

I'm really not that good at fiddling around with the wires... But if I was to reinstall, would it have to be a clean reinstall (Format everything then install) or just a reinstall? Another thing(which may be a clue, I don't know) is that the laptop's keyboard has been ocassionally 'crashing' since the touchpad problem began. It will suddenly stop working (on all keys) even while the rest of the computer is running fine. Also, thanks for all the input so far. You're all being a great help =) But the problem still remains =( 114.77.68.9 (talk) 07:14, 13 June 2009 (UTC) Forgot to mention-I tried installing a (Synaptics) driver, and that had no effect.114.77.68.9 (talk) 07:17, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

Favicons in IE8's InPrivate mode

I've noticed that favicons (the little icons in the address bar and on tabs) do not work in IE8's InPrivate mode (but the icon in favourites still works). Does anybody know if this problem can be fixed, and does Microsoft know about the problem? Thanks. 144.138.21.133 (talk) 09:43, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

Well presumably, when you're "InPrivate", you don't want the favicons of all the nasty pr0n sites you just went on to be cached by the program ;), and have people work out from those images which sites you went to. ~fl 07:23, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

Folders of JPEG to PDF

I have folders of JPEGs with names like IMG_8333.JPG, IMG_8334.JPG. I have many folders each with JPGs like such in them.

What I'd like is to be able to run a quick script (OS X) that takes the JPGs and makes them into multi-page PDFs. So each folder would result in one PDF with all the JPGs from the folder in it, in the order as they would be sorted by their filename. The PDF would the name of the folder plus a .PDF extension.

Is there an easy way to do this? I've been doing this with Acrobat, Create PDF from Multiple Files, but doing that 80 times is going to drive me crazy. Any thoughts? I am using OS X 10.4.11 on an Intel processor. I don't see any way to do this with Automator. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 13:47, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

For each folder, use Imagemagick: convert *.jpg foo.pdf 87.115.156.60 (talk) 14:14, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

And for several folders in one go, for v in `find . -type d `; do convert $v/*.jpg $v.pdf ; done 87.115.156.60 (talk) 14:30, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

This last one doesn't seem to work for me because the folder names have spaces and periods in them (e.g. "Joe Schmoe to John Doe (12.1.90)"). Is there a way to modify it so that it will work with that? Thanks so much, this seems like it will save me a lot of time. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 15:57, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

...OK, I got it to work. I had to change the IFS variable and now it works. hurray. thanks. It almost seems to work but it's not actually processing the full wildcard? It's just making a PDF with the first image in it. help? --98.217.14.211 (talk) 17:12, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

I ended up doing this and just pasting the output back in again. Annoying that I couldn't get it to work any other way but this method worked... for v in `find . -type d `; do echo cd \'$v\'\; convert *.JPG \'$v.pdf\'\; cd ..\;; done --98.217.14.211 (talk) 17:30, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

Adobe Photoshop Elements 7

Hi All,

Does anyone know if a mac version of Photoshop Elements 7 is planned or will be available soon? When trying to download from the adobe website, Photoshop Elements is available for PC only, unlike its bigger brother CS4. I assume that if you can't get it from the adobe website it isn't available at all.

Many thanks Lukerees1983 (talk) 16:01, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

Adobe does make Photoshop Elements for the Mac. That software is on a different track than the Windows version, so the most recent version of PS Elements for Mac is v6. The full name of the product is Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 for Macintosh. --Zerozal (talk) 18:12, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

EU, Antitrust, Browsers

Why is the inclusion of IE with Windows considered antitrust by the EU, but the inclusion of Firefox with most Linux distributions isn't? Why doesn't the EU sue, for example, Canonical for including Firefox with Ubuntu? Is it because Windows is more widespread? Is it because Linux is free? But that wouldn't make sense. You can't add free software to commercial software but you can add free software to free software?
Another question, why is only the EU concerned with antitrust but no one else in the world is? 95.84.64.174 (talk) 17:54, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

Linux does not have a near monopoly in the desktop operating system market. Antitrust is about abusing a monopoly in one area (in this case, the operating system market) to gain advantage in other areas (in this case, the browser market). I don't know why the EU is the only jurisdiction that seems to be taking any action in these matters, but US law is generally more friendly to big corporations than European law. I don't exactly know why - cultural reasons, I guess, whatever that means. --Tango (talk) 18:15, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

You seem to be mistaken that the EU has taken the lead on this issue. The US has been on Microsoft's case regarding bundling IE for antitrust reasons since the 1990s. See United States v. Microsoft. They have additionally be involved in antitrust suits in South Korea. See Microsoft litigation.

But anyway, yes, as Tango says, it's about market share, not about the practice of bundling a browser per se. It's of note as well that it is EXTREMELY easy to uninstall and remove Firefox and other browsers, and for ages it was nearly impossible to uninstall IE (I believe this has changed to some degree because of the US suits, but I haven't tried it myself). --98.217.14.211 (talk) 18:31, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

It's simple (now) to uninstall IE, however I think one of the issues was that if you did do that various other things broke. Can't confirm this , and not trying either..77.86.10.194 (talk) 19:11, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

IE exposes parts of itself like the HTML rendering engine and URL fetching as libraries that other programs can use. Deleting it will break any software that uses it, just like, say, deleting Direct3D or the Crypto API. -- BenRG (talk) 20:35, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

I think when MS says (in stories like this) that they'll ship a version of Win7 without IE, or allow IE to be uninstalled, they're only talking about the Trident shell that we call "Internet Explorer" (the user interface). I don't think they're seriously talking about not shipping the MSHTML component, as that would break too many things. 87.113.129.162 (talk) 21:53, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

And similarly, also for antitrust issues, when MS says it distributes a version of Windows without Windows Media Player I don't think that means they also rip out the underlying Windows Media/Media Foundation stuff on which it (and a bunch of 3rd party media players) rely. I can find very little real info about the neutered XP-N/Vista-N versions to know if they've really torn this out; I really doubt it. 87.113.129.162 (talk) 22:10, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

A lot of the trouble here is that these court cases have been dragging on for too many years - when they started, there was no FireFox - there was Netscape's Mozilla. Microsoft were doing all sorts of extremely nasty things to try to kill Netscape at all cost - and they undoubtedly abused their monopoly in so doing. They'd previously done utterly egregious things in order to push WordPerfect out of it's number one slot in favor of WORD (the put code into the operating system to prevent WordPerfect from running - later claiming it was an innocent bug - they made scrolling of large quantities of text excruciatingly slow and put undocumented 'back door' tricks into the OS so that Word would scroll text more smoothly and efficiently than WordPerfect could via the documented interface. There have been hundreds of cases of this kind of thing. The company who invented (and patented) the idea of doing runtime compression and decompression of disk partitions was making good money selling their Windows application - Microsoft came along and infringed the patent and when the little guys tried to sue, Microsoft simply bought their company and shut it down in order to avoid what would have been a sure-fire loss for them in court.

Microsoft were very lucky indeed that the Democrats didn't make it back into power after they lost their monopoly case against Netscape and the Republicans quietly dropped the whole thing during the sentencing phase of the trial. Had that not been the case, the company would have been split into two or three parts for sure. What you're seeing now is the final end of a legal process that's taken over 8 years to unfold. In the meantime, Netscape dropped Mozilla and Mozilla became FireFox - and somehow the process resulted in FireFox becoming much more powerful. If those court cases were started now, Microsoft wouldn't have a case to answer. However, Microsoft's abuse of it's monopoly continues in other ways.

The solution is what we should have done 8 or 9 years ago - which is to split Microsoft into a purely operating system company and an entirely separate applications-oriented company. The applications company - rid of the corporate pressures to run only under Windows would almost certainly provide better ports for the Mac and new ports for Linux. Similarly, the near-monopoly of the operating system domain by Windows would be tempered by their new-found inability to lock people into the operating system by tying them down to specific file formats such as WORD and Windows-Metafile. Both applications and operating system would have to compete on a level playing field. An application-neutral Windows wouldn't have a monopoly on Microsoft applications - and they would have to start producing solidly reliable, efficient operating systems that people actually want - rather than the junk they produce right now. The applications house - now having no ability to crush their competitors by changing the operating system to prevent their programs from running well - would also have to start competing for real.

If you think for a moment that Microsoft have mended their ways - consider the DirectX-10 situation. Windows XP has DirectX-9 and even if you buy a DirectX-10 capable graphics card - it'll be forced to run in DirectX-9 compatibility mode. Why? Because Microsoft refuse to release DirectX-10 for Windows XP. Why on earth would any sane company prevent the latest and greatest graphics techniques from being used on their most popular operating system? Because they are trying to FORCE people to upgrade to Vista/Windows-7 against their will. They may make claims that DX10 can't run under XP - but that's an outright lie. Many people have seen Microsoft's internal port of DX-10 running under XP - and there is a 3rd party port of DX-10 to WinXP - so it's certainly possible. The decision not to release it is simply an abuse of their monopoly. It cripples people like me - who are trying to write video games for the masses (which means Windows XP) because a huge chunk of the capabilities of modern graphics cards is simply unavailable to me through DX9. It's just pathetic.

This makes the whole legal situation a little ethically difficult. Their original crime had been and gone - and the world has managed to recover. Sure, they put Netscape out of the browser market and came close to shutting down their entire company - but fortunately the OpenSource/Linux crowd pulled the world away from the awful specter of Microsoft "owning the Internet" by taking over Mozilla and calling it "FireFox". Fining MS for doing that today is pretty pointless. However, they have not learned their lesson - and they STILL need serious punishment for their exceedingly nasty behavior.

Linux has Firefox as it's most popular browser - but it's NOTHING like a monopoly. You can not bother to install any part of Firefox - and everything else runs just fine. About half of Linux installations use the KDE desktop - and on those systems, the Konqueror browser is installed by default. My SuSE 11 machine has probably half a dozen browsers that came with the 'full' install. That's about as far from a monopoly as I can imagine.

Being a monopoly isn't illegal. Abusing your status as a monopoly by cross-linking one product to another, locking people in, deliberately making changes to your system to unfairly prevent further competition, dumping product at below cost in order to push out your competition....that's illegal.

SteveBaker (talk) 03:23, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

I don't think that splitting up Microsoft into Baby Bills would create the rosy situation you imagine. An independent Microfice Inc. would probably make an independent and rational decision to continue to support only Windows and Mac OS, just like Adobe does with Photoshop. Word would still dominate the word processor market and DOC format lock-in would not be affected in any way I can see. Windowsoft could bundle third-party applications instead of first-party applications (they've done that often enough in the past) and it would give the same unfair advantage to the company involved, because Windows would still control the desktop market.

Microsoft not releasing DirectX 10 for XP is clearly bad, and it would probably change if Windows and DirectX were split into separate companies, though I don't know if that particular split was ever on the table. But why are you using DirectX in the first place? Is OpenGL an inferior platform for cutting-edge games? If so, aren't you basically blaming Microsoft for making a superior product? You'd be even worse off if they hadn't released it for Vista either. Or is the problem not the OpenGL spec but the Windows drivers? Then you should be blaming ATI and Nvidia. Microsoft doesn't write the drivers. The problem isn't Microsoft, it's everyone. Everyone is lazy. Microsoft doesn't try to make Windows the best it could be, just good enough to convince people to upgrade. ATI and Nvidia don't bother to make OpenGL a viable alternate gaming platform. They have no reason to care because gaming companies don't bother to put the pressure on them. You'd rather write games for Linux and OpenGL, but not enough to quit your job and work for a company that does. The Justice Department can't fix human nature. If you want to render future versions of DirectX meaningless, just do it. It's not that hard. -- BenRG (talk) 17:52, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

"But why are you using DirectX in the first place?" Because you want your game to run on X-Box? APL (talk) 19:46, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Emailing a file

Is it possible to email a file that is printable but not copyable? The program the file belongs to is Excel. 90.221.255.251 (talk) 20:30, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

Depends on what you mean by "copyable". You could, for example, download PDFCreator, print to a picture format like PNG, and email the PNG file. But I would add that this could be considered unfriendly/rude and there is always a way people can get the data - OCR or just punching it back into the computer. You could also look into the "protection" features of the PDF format, but I do not know if there are any free programs that support generating documents with that feature. If you mean "not copyable" as in "the receiver should not be able to pass it on", I would say that is near impossible. Jørgen (talk) 20:59, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

Some companies sell plugins for Office that support enterprise wide rights management for MS Office documents, allowing pretty fine-grained control over who can do what. Unless you're in a large organisation that has such a setup (it's intended for outfits like insurance companies and hospitals) then there's not much degree of control you can practically exercise. The mere act of emailing someone a file is giving them a copy, and there's nothing to stop them duplicating it similarly. 87.113.129.162 (talk) 21:44, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

You can use something like Adobe Digital Editions. Basically you create a PDF or EPUB file that is registered on an internet server. Each person who downloads the file is registered and the rights are managed on the server. If set to no copy, the file won't open on a different PC. You can also set to no print, or a number of pages in a period. It will cost you to manage all of this, and there are other ways to do this, but they are similar. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 13:05, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Querying an Access database for upcoming deadlines

I'd like to set up an MS Access query that will return deadlines within a week from the current date. I've created my database and filled it with events, each of which has a deadline for further action. The deadline is a separate field in each record, of course. I know how to query the database for a fixed date range, by putting the following in the "criteria" field" of the query:
Between #1/1/09# And #15/1/09#
but I don't know the syntax to use for "today" and "seven days in the future". Can anyone help please? 86.166.68.203 (talk) 23:30, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

The function Now() returns a date representing now. You can use the function DateAdd to add some number of days to Now(). For example, the criterion could be that the deadline is

<= DateAdd("d",7,now())

This will return rows where deadline is not null and contains a date that is less than or equal to 7 "d"ays added to now. Outriggr (talk) 00:00, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

More specific to your example, try

Between Now() And DateAdd("d",7,Now())

Outriggr (talk) 00:04, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

June 12

Externalize a video card

I am considering converting my desktop computer into a dedicated server, and my laptop into a portable desktop. If I do this, can I turn my desktop's GeForce 7600 card into something external that I can plug into my laptop, ideally in addition to its existing video accelerator? Will USB latency be an issue? NeonMerlin 01:08, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

No. USB provide a meager 480mbps (60MB/s) bandwidth while a PCI-E x16 link used by graphics card provide 4GB/s bandwidth. USB video adapters exsit but they do not provide hardware acceleration, mainly due to the bandwidth limit of USB. --antilived^{T | C | G} 01:29, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

There really aren't any external ports on a laptop that can provide the speed you need to keep a graphics card fed at anything like the speed you need...but even if you were to suffer USB performance (it would be AMAZINGLY slow) - I very much doubt you could find a way to get the card interfaced to USB - or the graphics drivers to recognise the board as a USB device. When you buy a laptop - what you have on the day you buy it will pretty much be what you have on the day you throw it out. You can often replace the hard drive with something bigger - and perhaps increase the amount of RAM - but that's pretty much it. SteveBaker (talk) 02:49, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

What about the PCMCIA slot? ~~ Ropata (talk) 04:45, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

The laptop has an ExpressCard slot as well as a regular PC Card slot; I expect I'd want to use the former. NeonMerlin 20:40, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

Count lines in file (bash - Linux)?

Resolved

What is the easiest/cleanest way to count lines in bash? I have:

 grep -c "" ~/info.txt

But I just got this working by chance and I'm not sure is there is a "better" or "canonical" way of doing this. I know there is wc -l ~/info.txt however, that also prints the filename, and I only want the number of lines. Thanks _ Hacktolive (talk) 03:08, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

wc -l < filename -- the redirection will make the file name not appear. 62.78.198.48 (talk) 06:18, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks a lot, that worked! I have already included that in my program! __Hacktolive (talk) 21:57, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

Supercomputer today, Desktop tomorrow

I'm having some trouble working out computer benchmarks. The way I figured, an off the shelf computer bought today (with an Intel Core i7) is roughly equivalent to the Cray-2 supercomputer of 1985. A five year old computer (2004) with a Pentium 4 would have the same computing power as 1982's Cray X-MP. I realize it's difficult to compare, what with FLOPS, Instructions per second, etc., but am I roughly correct? Also, is there a trend (say, a supercomputer to desktop in 25 years) that can be measured? The question came to me as I was trying to figure out in what year the computing power of the IBM Roadrunner will be available as a laptop. Of course, you never know what will happen in the future, the singularity, quantum computing, etc, but a rough estimate would be nice. Taggart.BBS (talk) 09:27, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Yes there's a trend, it's called Moore's Law. ~~ Ropata (talk) 09:44, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

This question was asked recently. According to Supercomputer#Timeline of supercomputers the 100 GFLOPS mark was reached around 1993. A current SiSoft Sandra benchmark list shows the top Intel CPU's (i7 ~4Ghz etc.) at around the same GFLOP rating. This makes a difference of 15 years. According to the supercomputer timeline, Moore's Law has been superceded by a long way, no doubt due to the massively parallel systems with thousands of CPU's. However, it is not only the CPU that makes a fast system; it is the overall I/O achievable between CPU, memory, cache, storage, the busses/interconnects, and of course the low level software that drives all these things. Because of these variables and the advent of quantum computing (which will be the first revolution of computing, as opposed to the evolution of Von Neumann architecture), and goodness know what else afterwards, it's impossible to predict or maintain a 15 year gap. Read up on what futurists like Raymond Kurzweil think about what's going to happen in the next 100 years. Sandman30s (talk) 20:40, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

imacros

What do I type to make iMacros run a script at a specific time, say 10pm? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Obakfiames (talk • contribs) 11:53, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Windows 7 IE to Ship w/o IE in Europe

According to this BBC article Windows 7 will come without IE, supposedly to make it easier for people to choose another browser. How will this happen? If Windows doesn't come with a browser, how will the average non-techie download a browser without having a browser to download it with? Will there be a special program which lets people browse for software downloads or something? --KageTora - (영호 (影虎)) (talk) 12:08, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

I assume that manufacturers will load new machines with a browser - either one the user can choose or a random browser. I know several manufacturers have been offering this option for some time. The entire lawsuit against Microsoft was due to IE being integrated into Windows, which made removal hard to impossible. By making it stand-alone (User removable) it would cover the issues raised by the lawsuit. Excirial ^{(Contact me,Contribs)} 12:56, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

(edit conflict)I would guess that is only an issue if you buy the box version. OEM PCs with W7 will probably come bundled with some sort of browser— probably customized for the vendor. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 12:58, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

A new laptop

My Alienware has died again, after 2 years of constant problems which have led me to conclude that there are inherent problems in the system due to poor manufacturing processes, and I have asked for a refund. I want to get a new one with:

• Good reliability.
  • Stable.
  • Good or better cooling systems.
  • A reputation for solid components - I don't want to be replacing RAM chips, daughter cards, heating elements and motherboards within two months like I did with this current rubbish system.
• Faily good specs
  • Capable of handling my workload at university and novel writing
  • Good capacity for significant internet use
  • Can handle its own when it comes to PC games - not a mammoth machine required byt something that could handle two or three fairly intensive games like Red Alert 3, Empire Total War and my beloved.

I do not want another Alienware, or a Dell (as I hear that Dell make poor laptops, and they now own Alienware - hence my problem!) are there any good suggestions? SGGH ^ping! 12:31, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

My HP G60 laptop is all of the above, so I could recommend it. Empire Total War plays well enough on it, too. Off the shelf for £340, it was. --KageTora - (영호 (影虎)) (talk) 12:41, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Actually, Dell products are quite good these days. Dell used to be low quality in the past but that improved a lot in recent years. In the three years i had my Inspiron i only had to open it for cleaning once - and that was because i was stupid enough to spill a glass of coke onit. Regardless it would be difficult to advice a specific vendor, as it would always be user opinions. We have a list of manufacturers that create laptops that could be used as a guideline.

Personally i would advice looking around for various offers. Sometimes it is possible to find an excellent deal on a laptop that would normaly be much more expensive. If you aren't in a rush it is worth looking around a bit before buying anything. As for the laptop itsself, watch the specs. Especially make sure that the laptop has sufficient memory to handle its operating system. On Windows XP laptops i would advice a minimum of 1 GB for any form of perdormance, and for vista based laptops i suggest 2GB.

As you state you want to play games on it as well choose a laptop that actually has a dedicated video card and no on-board graphics. Video cards from NVidea and Ati outperform on board graphics by several miles. Other then that there should ve fairly little pitfalls. Wireless and networking is standard, and most vendors seem to add enough CPU consistently to make a laptop tick along just fine. Excirial ^{(Contact me,Contribs)} 12:49, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

It was opinions I was after :) yes I was planning for 2gig and dedicated cards. I had heard such bad things about Dell, are they ill-founded now then? SGGH ^ping! 12:51, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

I am of course completely biased in my opinion as i actually like the Dell brand. So far i had two PC's and a laptop build by them and i had no major issues whatsoever. The only time i actually had to open my old PC was due to an issue with the cooling. The PC was 2.5 years old then and had been standing on the same dusty place for all the time - without ever really taken time to clean it. I am still looking for a reason to open my new PC which is 3/4th of a year old now, simply to see what it looks like inside; Yet it does not give me any and i do not want to void the warranty for mere curiosity. Excirial ^{(Contact me,Contribs)}

I've had bad experiences with a HP (Pavillion, I think) - overheating leading to broken components and other things. No problems at all with my Dell Latitude D620. In my experience, "professional" laptops, like the Thinkpad, are more robust and less prone to failure than the bloated "consumer" models, but if you want to do gaming these might not be an option perhaps. Jørgen (talk) 13:13, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

I spotted a 2 gig Dell with a non-integrated graphics card for about £759. How is the cooling system on yours, Excirial? Also, Jorgen, I am not looking so much for a "gaming" laptop, merely one that one be comfortable running a couple of games every now and then. I want it for good internet connection and University work primarily, but with a 2 gig'er and a good graphics card so it can play games if I want to. SGGH ^ping! 13:47, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

The cooling system on mine worked just fine, and some analysis shows that even now it managed to keep the CPU temperature in more then acceptable levels. The only issue i had with mine is that i put it on the floot often, which caused an empty compartiment to fill with dust and therefore blocking the cooling airflow. Since i moved it to a higher area it has never been a problem again. Dust collecting inside a laptop is easily detected due to CPU temperature rising. The CPU automatically compensates for the increased temperature and therefor causes the laptop to operate at sub par speed - If you ever think that the laptop uses the blowers to frequent on top speed with little effect its a good idea to see if it collected to much dust. Excirial ^{(Contact me,Contribs)} 19:20, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Well I am off to some outlets today to see what they have. Gulp SGGH ^ping! 10:02, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

First two:

Samsung R710

• Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T6400 6 gig, 800Mhz, 2mb Cache
• 3gb memory
• 320gb hard drive
• nvidia ge force 9300

HP DV7-2050

• AMD Turiojn Ultra Dual Core Processor 2.3 Ghz 1600MHz 2mb chace
• 4 GB memory
• 320 GB hard drive
• ATi Radeon HD4530 graphics card

Any thoughts? Both similar prices. SGGH ^ping! 12:43, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

It's very difficult from just the specs like that. You have to consider what's important to you. I got two different Dells recently and the cheaper lower spec one was fine and did everything required right absolutely no problems whatsoever. The dearer one had rough edges round the plastic I sanded off, the keypad and DVD drive had problems, the controls were hard to see, the wifi had a stupid switch that moved on its own and there was a silly lit up power cable and I removed much of the software to stop it chundering on the disk. Good spec though. So what do you really want? Read reviews. Dmcq (talk) 13:04, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

Images organized in folders to PDF (a freeware)?

Googling for a freeware that converts lot of images to a pdf resulted in a software that lets you a drop a lot of images into it and it generates a pdf document. This is a nice way to do it, except that there are no table of contents for the document. The images are arranged in alphabetical order. As a result, the document looses the intended structure and it cannot be navigated with a table of contents. Anyway to get around this?. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 131.220.46.24 (talk) 14:13, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

What's the name of the software and the URL where you found it? What does the manual say, and how did the "Support" or "Contact Us" e-mail address respond when you asked them this question? Tempshill (talk) 14:34, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

You should first tell us what software you are using. In any case, the odds are it can't do what you want it to do. What you want it something that allows you to arrange the images within the PDF arbitrarily—there are programs that will let you do this (like Adobe Acrobat, which is expensive), or you can just arrange the filenames ahead of time in an order so that the will sort "alphabetically" in the order you want them to (e.g. adding 0001, 0002, 0003 before the filenames to denote page number). But there is unlikely to be anything that automatically creates a table of contents for you—metadata like that has to be entered in by hand. Acrobat lets you put in "bookmarks" which is something like what you want. I don't know what free equivalents might exist that replicate that, though. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 15:36, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

You may also find that the PDFTK, an open-source PDF tool kit, is useful for automating these types of tasks. It is a command-line utility, but there is very good documentation on how to use it. Nimur (talk) 15:47, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

The freeware is called i2pdf 1.0 and i downloaded it from http://luis.no-ip.net/i2pdf/i2pdf.php. From what I gather from the help manual, the software cannot do what i intend to do. My objective is to create a pdf document using images, the document would have a table of contents, clicking an entry there would take it to the page containing that image. i2pdf certainly does well what it is supposed to do though (ie, creating a pdf doument from images). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 131.220.46.26 (talk) 09:48, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

Excel API

Dear Wikipedians:

I'm thinking of making an Excel data input wizard for a Win32 application I'm developing. But I am loath to wade through 230+ pages of Excel file format material supplied by openoffice.org.

Since the excel files I work with are just tables of straight numbers, with no formulas, no macros or anything else. I'm wondering if there is an API that Excel supplies that would allow me to easily extract these numbers. I am developing my software using Dev-C++.

Thanks.

70.31.157.47 (talk) 15:39, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Yes, you should not access the raw file, but you should instead use one of the Office API libraries. These are official APIs and library implementations provided by Microsoft. I'm not sure if they are part of the standard Visual Studio compiler package; you might have to pay a license fee or purchase the IDE pack. This Microsoft Knowledge Base article, How to extract information from Office files by using Office file formats and schemas, gives a good introduction. Nimur (talk) 15:50, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

If the only content you are interested in is numbers held as cell values, you could use "Save As" to export spreadsheet contents to an ASCII text file, either CSV format or tab delimited, then upload to target application from there. If your data is in several worksheets, you will need to export each worksheet individually. Gandalf61 (talk) 16:00, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Thank you both Nimur and Galdalf61 for your help. 70.31.157.47 (talk) 18:29, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Resolved

Best way to downgrade quality of .ogg files

Resolved

 – Apparently the newest version of Audacity has a quality setting. decltype (talk) 19:14, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Hi, I am currently in the process of producing some .ogg files for Wikipedia. Of course, to satisfy our NFCC, the files have to be lower quality than the originals. Around 64kbps seems to be the norm. What would be the best way to do this? I'm using Audacity. Thanks, decltype (talk) 17:02, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Using scanner software with different scanners?

I have one working scanner, a HP ScanJet 3300C. I have three scanner software CD discs: the HP ScanJet 3300C disc (dated 1999, non-XP), an HP ScanJet 2400 disc (dated 2004), and a Umax Astra 2200 SCSI disc (dated 1999, non-XP, non-USB). These were either given to me, or survive from hardware which burnt out and stopped working. I have spend a few days trying to get the ScanJet 3300C driver including the latest versions downloaded from the HP site to work with XP Sp3, but it will not - that is a dead end I have fully explored. The HP ScanJet 3300C is currently using WIA which can do plain scans only. WIA does not do OCR or even photocopying, although the latter can be done in a long-winded way.

My question is, might it be possible to get any of the OCR software on the software discs working on its own? That is, without the rest of the HP or Umax software, and perhaps using a different scanner than that envisioned? Similarly with photocopying software. As an asside, while my HP printer works very well and is very robust, the HP scanner software I've come across has on both ocassions been very bad and would not work, and my previous HP scanner hardware stopped working quite soon too. 78.151.118.12 (talk) 17:14, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

SilverFast is a scanning application that will work with multiple scanners. It is popular with professionals because it gives you control over what type of mode the image is in, the gamma, levels, curves, etc.--WinRAR anodeeven (talk) 22:22, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Silverfast does not seem to cater for my scanner. But I have found the freeware SimpleOCR although I have not tried it yet. 78.147.243.144 (talk) 19:32, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

Where are they getting the (presumably cleared) private data from?

I like to use Firefox's "Always clear my private data when I close Firefox" option to delete cookies, cache, passwords, histories, etc. However, I notice that data pertaining to my usage is somehow being saved. For example, when I go to this site: <http://www.goroo.com/goroo/index.htm>, it remembers things I typed in the past under "Your Recent Locations". Perhaps it saved that data to its own database and associated it with my IP address. But would they really do that for every instance of someone using their site? Especially when I didn't ask to them save any info? And what if I don't have a static IP? Another possiblity is that it somehow saved data to the Windows system?! That seems even more intrusive.

Similarly, I have DownloadHelper, a Firefox extension which somehow remembers how many times I used it (even though it has a "Disable download count cookie" option which is checked). It may not be doing it in a cookie, but it's counting in some way.

Neither of these examples are a big deal, but it is kind of aggravating that they seem to try to sneak around behind your back. I would appreciate any ideas on how they do this (and how I could stop it, if I wanted to). TresÁrboles (talk) 21:16, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

I have to say this site does indeed use a rather interesting method to store data. Your suspicious is likely to be correct - it seems that the site couples an IP adress with a specific session ID. Forcing my connection trough a proxy made the site "Forget" everything about me, even though i did not clean cookies or any other information. When i used a high anonimity proxy it would still store the session data even though cookies, cashing and referals were disabled. On top of that the javascript code(!) seems to indicate it receives values from a database. Since i only did a cursory inspection i cannot be completely sure, but tests seem to indicate it works this way. Excirial ^{(Contact me,Contribs)} 23:02, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Good thinking! I tried that myself, and I got the same results. Wow, I can't believe they're actually doing that. Their privacy policy doesn't mention this. They'll probably say that addresses aren't personal info, even though it could be your home address, an address to the local AA meeting, your mistress's address, etc., all linked to your IP. (Personally I only type in an intersection close to my home, not my exact location.)

Just for giggles, what do you all see under Your Recent Locations when you go to (blacklisted site!) ViaProxy.info and surf on http://www.goroo.com/goroo/index.htm ? This is where I went to do the test mentioned above. TresÁrboles (talk) 18:17, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

P.S. When I first tried to save this page with a link to the proxy site I used (which I got from a random Google search), I got a Spam Filter Notice "The spam filter blocked your page save because it detected a blacklisted hyperlink ..." and when you click on the link "Return to Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing." your changes are lost! But I think you can use your web browser to go back to your editing session and copy your changes. TresÁrboles (talk) 18:22, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

I've noticed that even after I've deleted all cookies etc with a Ccleaner scan, Windows Live still knows who I am. On the other hand, I have to keep resetting my Google preferances, even though I've told Ccleaner to not delete the google cookie. 78.147.243.144 (talk) 18:00, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

Can't start up my Sony Vaio laptop!

(Yikes, it looks like I typed out a whole story. I apologize for the length, but I hope that someone somewhere can read it and give me some good suggestions.)

My Sony Vaio SZ780 is useless right now. When I try to bring it up, the power lights come on, but the screen remains black; it doesn't even bring up the Sony /Intel / Phoenix Technolgies splash screen which comes on before I would normally get the option to boot either Windows XP or Ubuntu (which pretty much indicates it's a hardware problem). I don't hear the startup sounds for either Windows or Ubuntu, so I'm positive it's not just the screen that has the problem. So I brought it to a Sony Style store to have a service person look at it, and of course what happens but it starts up right away with no problems! He doesn't give me an explanation, just suggests taking the battery out and then putting it back in. So I take it back, start it up again at a restaurant during lunch, take it home and start it up, so far so good, but I leave it alone the whole day since I was using another computer. When I finally look at it later, it looks like it's suspended. Nothing unusual, but then I discover that I can't unsuspend it. I have to power off by holding the power button down, and then when I try to power up again, it won't work! But wait, the craziness continues! After a couple of days of trying, I come back to it after a week or so, try it again on a whim, and it works! And it continues to work until I take it to a meeting and show off stuff on my laptop, when it of course fails again. Someone there has a suggestion: take out the battery and the AC, hold down the power button for 20 seconds, and then try again (with battery and/or AC back in obviously). It sounds like a strange idea, but it works! I'm confused as to what is happening, but at least I have now have a workaround. Or so I thought up until the point when I got back home and tried my laptop again. Same problem, even after trying the new "solution". And this is the point where I am at today. Power does get delivered to the laptop since the power and Bluetooth lights come on, and the fan, but that's the only thing that happens. I have to hold the power button down to turn off the power.

Even though this is a laptop, I had used it pretty much as just another home computer, and I've never really taken it outside and around with me. So I'm pretty suspicious that the first time this problem occurred was after I had taken it to a meeting (it worked well there though) and back home. Also, after working for a while, the problem manifested itself again after taking it away to another meeting (as detailed above). I wonder if the traveling jiggered something loose? (But this is a laptop; it's SUPPOSED to be taken around with you!) It has only been a few months since I've gotten the laptop back from Sony Service for another problem!! (FYI this heinous one: <http://vaio.wikidot.com/rationale>)

Thanks for reading! Signed, Desparate For A Solution! TresÁrboles (talk) 22:13, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

This actually sounds like a loose contact somewhere. Picking up the laptop and moving it might prove to be just enough to shift the contact back into place, or nudge it out. It could also be that one of the internal components is on the edge of dieing, or that the laptop ends up being overheated. The first issue could cause this "Strangeness" due to the component working only part of the time. Since you state you hear no sounds i assume that it is the motherboard, since you would hear diagnostic beeps over the laptop internal speakers otherwise. The latter suggestion Is related to a failure in the cooling of your laptop. If the CPU coolers are malfunctioning the temperature of the CPU rises incredibly quickly (Laptop might not even feel hot, as its the chip, not the casing). Once that happends PC's shut down automatically to prevent further damage. From you statement i assume that a loose contact is most likely, though this behaviour can actually be caused by masses of issues. Excirial ^{(Contact me,Contribs)} 23:10, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

I guess the very first thing I'd try would be to look carefully at the copper contacts on the battery and on the laptop. Are they dirty or corroded - discolored? If so, you might very gently polish them with the finest grade of emery board or sand paper...VERY gently. You might also find that the contact is maintained by the springiness of the metal - if so, VERY gently bend them outwards - use something like a wooden toothpick or cocktail stick to get behind them (nothing metal - nothing fat!)...I can't over-emphasise how gentle you need to be. The problem (if I'm right) is - that if the contacts are bent a bit flat - fixing it this way won't be a permanent solution - once they get bent - they get soft and lose their springiness - so in a few weeks it'll probably do it again. SteveBaker (talk) 00:11, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

If it is still under warranty I wouldn't attempt a DIY repair; instead send it off to the service centre with a very clear explanation of the intermittant nature of the problem (you don't want he service guys thinking you are wasting their time). Astronaut (talk) 09:15, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

Printing onto Canvas with an Inkjet Printer

Hi all,

I wrote a query a while ago about printing onto canvas using an Epson R2880. Having got it working, I find that the prinouts are much darker on the canvas than onscreen (much darker!). I take this to be because of the absorbency of the canvas. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Would it suffice to brighten up the image considerably using the levels tool in photoshop to get better results?

Lukerees1983 (talk) 22:32, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Well, there are really three ways to "lighten" a picture. I'm not really familiar with photoshop - but in GIMP there is a tool that shows a graph of how you are altering the brightness.

 |          *       |            *      |     ********   |                *
 |        *         |        *          |    *           |           *
 |      *           |    *              |   *            |      *
 |    *             |*                  |  *             |   *
 |  *               |                   | *              | *
 |*___________      |______________     |*____________   |*______________
    No change         Less Contrast      More brightness   Gamma adjustment

(Within the limits of ASCII art!)

The "No change" situation has the graph of input-brightness (along the bottom axis) to output-brightness (on the vertical axis) at 45 degrees.

The other three represent three common ways in which you might "lighten" the image...and unless you understand why your image is dark, it's hard to guess which one is the right thing:

• Less contrast gives you less black blacks and tends to make the whole image look "foggy"...I suspect it's not what you want...but who knows?
• More brightness might be what you need - but if there is any white on your canvas right now, it'll tend to "blow out".
• Gamma adjustment is often the right answer - but it's hard to know with ink on canvas. What it does is to brighten the mid-ranges without either washing out those solid black or blowing out the white.

If the canvas isn't too expensive, I would try all three and see which one looks best. If you're trying to save the stuff - I would try the gamma adjustment first. SteveBaker (talk) 23:57, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Test prints on ordinary paper, even on a draft quality setting, will give you a fair idea how much to lighten it. Don't forget the screen has luminescence, which the printed version lacks. This makes the image look brighter and lighter. The best image on paper is going to look too light on the screen. "Electric" colours won't transfer to printing at all because they depend so much on luminescence.- KoolerStill (talk) 08:03, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

The above answers are nice but they misunderstand the fundamental problem here: your printer uses a different color model than your screen and unless you set things up to account for that they will not match up very well given the same color values.

If you are doing work on your computer and want high fidelity to your output you need to set your OS (or at least Photoshop) to have the right color management profile. If you have Photoshop you should have a program called Adobe Gamma on your computer that will help you coordinate things so that what you see on the screen will give you some indication of what you will see when you print it out. Otherwise you are just fishing around in the darkness with two totally different color schemes. You should be able to set things up in a way that will let you see, on screen, what things will look like when printed. The medium you are printing on will have some effect on it but in most cases it should be that dramatic in terms of making things darker or lighter unless the medium is itself colored (which changes the white point, obviously).

Color management is a big pain in the neck when you are new to it, and even then it has many apparently mysterious things (you can easily get totally strange results, in part because not all programs deal with color management as good as others), but it is worth looking into. The problem is almost certainly related to the gamma settings you are using for your monitor -- most people prefer in a monitor a much brighter "black" and "white" than you can get on paper. Depending on your computer there are different ways to manage this but Googling "photoshop color management" should point you in the right direction. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 01:18, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

June 13

What can I do...

Block quote

I think I deleted something that I shouldn't have...and ow my mouse goes crazy...making it hard to click on anything...what can I do???

Not sure what you are on about specifically - but a crazy mouse can be a sign of either:

Damaged cable in a wired mouse - probably need to replace mouse or mend the cable

Electromagnetic interference in a wireless mouse - one solution is a wired mouse.77.86.10.194 (talk) 08:51, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

Low battery is more likely to cause a wireless mouse to go "haywire." Nimur (talk) 16:21, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

The OP said that he/she had deleted something - so I'm guessing some file. My suggestion would be to reinstall (uninstall, then reinstall, heck, it's windoze) mouse drivers and see what happens. G'night. --Ouro (blah blah) 21:04, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

You might have set the sensitivity really high (so the mouse goes really fast across the screen). You can change that by changing the mouse settings in the control panel. But if you want us to help you, can you give us more than "crazy". What mouse, what causes it to move, at what speed, and what does the cursor look like? --h2g2bob (talk) 14:16, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

What's the problem

I have a strange problem. The thing is, all of my Video players sometimes just don't play the video! I get the sound but just a big black screen. This happens to players like VLC, EM Total Media Player, ALL PLAYER, etc. whatever the file i play, be it avi, mkv or anything. This happens even to files which have been played by the same player just a couple of days back very well. So it can't be a codec problem. All the players face the same problem, except Real Player, which always plays well. Whatever i do - shut down, restart, reinstall, the problem persists. I have found merely by trial and error that if i abruptly switch off the power and Windows Disk check launches, it says it has made corrections, and then everything is back to normal again. Now all files are played properly by all players. Why is it so? What is the cause of this problem? And how can i launch Disk Checking without abruptly turning off my computer? Rkr1991 (talk) 08:02, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

On the video part, have you tried updating your video drivers? It sounds like your hardware acceleration is not working correctly (see hardware overlay, which sounds like the black boxes you are seeing), which is probably fixable by drivers or could be a sign that there is some sort of video card problem. You could try turning down hardware acceleration and see if they suddenly work—it's not a long-term fix (hardware acceleration is a good thing!) but it could help you diagnose what the exact problem is. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 12:54, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

I have only an Intel(R) Extreme Graphics card (my computer is over 5 years old). I haven't got any option to turn down hardware acceleration. Can you tell me how ? Rkr1991 (talk) 12:59, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

Can't anybody help me with this problem? Rkr1991 (talk) 08:45, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

Another Strange Problem

My computer has another strange problem, in addition to the one above. It just doesn't read pirated dvds. If i insert one into my computer, it acts as though nothing has been done. At the same time, it plays original dvds perfectly well, be it games or be it movies. How the heck does the computer know if the dvd is pirated or original? What is the cause for this problem, and is there anyway to rectify it ? Rkr1991 (talk) 13:02, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

Depending on who you ask, this is not a problem at all... Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 14:37, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

Ok if you don't consider it a problem (it is for me - heck i'm paying money), consider it as a query.... Rkr1991 (talk) 15:13, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

You're paying money for what? Not the extra DVD. Anyway, most commercially produced DVDs have copy protection that indeed prevents copied DVDs from working, whether it's in a DVD player or in a computer's DVD drive. Tempshill (talk) 18:18, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

All depends on how the DVD was created. DVDs store title ID information and key information in an otherwise unwritable sector (except with specialized equipment) which is why you can't straight copy a DVD.

To others, please don't provide a smart ass response to every copy-protection related question. Shadowjams (talk) 03:10, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

I would hazard that the optical drive in your machine is sufficiently old that it will not read all modern types of DVD media. Some older drives will not read DVD+R, many will not read DVD-RAM, and some will not read rewritable media (DVD-RW or DVD+RW). Older standalone DVD players also sometimes have problems with unfinalised disks, although I don't know if that affects PCs much. 87.112.85.111 (talk) 14:49, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

Downhill Jam

What do the green and later red jewels on the crowns mean? I know they must be for better-than-gold performances, but I can't find anywhere what they actually mean. I'm on Wii. - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 14:40, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

Embedding Applets Online

Hello. Can someone explain in simple terms how I should embed my Java applet into my webpage http://sites.google.com/site/superaec? Thanks in advance. --Mayfare (talk) 15:07, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

This official tutorial from Sun (the creators of Java), is called Deploying Applets - "This section explains to HTML authors how and when to use the applet, object, and embed tags to add Java applets to Web pages, and provides guidelines for deploying applets on the Internet and Intranets, and for use with different browsers." This should be your reference for Applet and other Java-related information.

To briefly summarize the process, there are a few steps. First, you need to design and write your Java code and make sure it compiles as an applet (in other words, its main Class must extend Applet or JApplet). Next, you must place all of the needed .class files somewhere accessible on the web (presumably, on your web server, via FTP or some other file upload method). Last, you need to create or edit an HTML page, and add some code to load your applet from the webpage:

<applet code="YourAppletMainProgram.class" width="200" height="200"></applet>

Then, you can test it by loading the web page. If you are not familiar with editing HTML documents, you might want to brush up on that as well. If you want to package your applet in a JAR file, there is a tutorial for that on the Java website I linked above. Nimur (talk) 15:46, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

I attached the .class files to my site and tried to add the applet tag. Google Sites says "Your HTML either contains unsafe tags (iframe, embed, styles, script) or extra attributes. They will be removed when the page is viewed." If I try Webs.com, where can I upload my .class files and how can I make my Webs.com homepage access the bytecode? --Mayfare (talk) 02:01, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

libticables2-2.dll

Hello, I am trying to install TiLP2 on my computer, but I am missing some DLLs. I have located most of them, but I cannot find where to download libticables2-2.dll. Please help me find it!!! I've searched Google for it and my hard drive as well, but it is nowhere to be found. Any help searching for it would be greatly appreciated. --72.69.235.79 (talk) 19:26, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

Can I use a new flat TFT monitor screen with an old computer?

I have a computer that is a few years old, although it has been upgraded to XP. It currently has a CRT monitor. If I unplug the CRT monitor and plug in a flat TFT monitor, should I have any problems? In other words are they compatible please? I assume the plugs that attach to the rear of the computer are the same. 78.147.243.144 (talk) 19:43, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

Yes. Most flat-panel monitors still come with a VGA connector, which your old computer will (almost certainly) have. Many flat-panel monitors will also have a Digital Visual Interface connector, but they're smart enough to figure out which one to use for themselves. I'm not aware of any that only feature the DVI connector and not VGA. I say "almost certainly", because there's a vanishingly small number of old, high-end machines (used for CAD and video, in particular) that had Component video output instead, but I really really doubt that's what you'll have. 87.112.85.111 (talk) 20:04, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

There is a second question that you should answer before purchasing a flat-panel monitor: Can your old computer output video in the native resolution of the monitor? Unlike CRT monitors, flat-panel monitors' output looks pixellated, blocky, and overall really bad, particularly when displaying text, if the computer is outputting video whose screen resolution differs from the flat-panel's native resolution. Tempshill (talk) 20:35, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

You can, incidentally, usually look up the possible resolutions that a given card supports. It's a good thing to do before getting a new monitor -- make sure it is supported. Often updating old video card drivers, if possible, opens up a lot of possibilities. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 22:38, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

The resolution of the LCD screen I was thinking of buying is 1400x900 (1.555 aspect ratio), whereas the resolutions my computer can put out are 1280x1024 (1.25) and 1024x768 (1.333). I suppose this means I would have large blank areas on the screen? 78.151.102.179 (talk) 12:02, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

No - the resolution you output will scale to fit the entire screen, but as it's previously been said scaled output on an LCD monitor looks horrible. Two options :- One, upgrade your graphics card at the same time to one that can output 1400x900. Two, buy a cheaper LCD 1280x1024 screen. Exxolon (talk) 13:16, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

The 1400x900 screen is the cheapest available to me. The other ones have a higher resolution. Just how easy would it be to get a cheap video card capable of 1400x900 please? 78.147.147.146 (talk) 16:42, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

• Your IP address suggests you are in the UK. Try Novatech - a card from them that looks like it supports that resolution and more is at [2] for £23.23 - check with their sales/tech support if you're not sure. Exxolon (talk) 16:51, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

Screen resolution of LCD - follow-up question

Quick question inspired by the above: machine runs Zenwalk Linux, is a P3/850 MHz with _some_ Nvidia with 32 megs (a little younger than the machine itself). User (self) recently bought new flat panel LCD just because. Now, he read somewhere that he may just simply add the native resolution of the LCD to some conf file or other (I can't really remember which one), and that it will run. User did that, and everything ran, and had been running nicely for half a year now just as user wanted. Now, which of the following had happened:

• graphics card is able to run at native resolution of LCD (1440x900) and thus forms a nice pair with the LCD, or
• graphics card was effectively forced to accept what it had been told to do (i. e. the screen resolution).

I think the first one, but just to make sure. If anyone wants, I'll have a follow-up question to this one later. Thanks in advance and cheers, Ouro (blah blah) 21:02, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

If the graphics card was not able to run at the resolution settings you specified in your Xorg.conf file, then it would fail to switch the video mode when X is initialized (a few moments after the system "boots" but before you log in). Then, you would have either seen nothing (black screen, error message, etc), or a "failsafe" text-only console mode at a default resolution like 640x480 @ 60 Hz. Because you added a standard resolution setting which (modern) graphics hardware is able to generate and the (modern) monitor is able to understand, there were no problems. Most graphics cards are able to generate the correct clock signals for many standard resolutions and refresh rates. Nimur (talk) 21:37, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

xorg.conf, right! Oh, and thank you for the (logical) answer. Cheers, Ouro (blah blah) 05:17, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

Checklists

Recently I noticed that each of the medical clinics I visit now use checklists exclusively before doing anything.

There is even a hand washing checklist with entires posted in the bathroom that covers the use of water, soap, motion of hands, duration, drying, etc.

What I am wondering is if the checklists have been made public not only so they can be scrutinized by the public but in the event of major overwhelming disaster a lay person could have a checklist to follow, barring extra ordinary circumstances which one checklist might have to defer to another checklist. After all were are storing seeds in the event of such a disaster so why not practical procedural knowledge to include the legal system in addition to surgical procedures?

-- Taxa (talk) 22:28, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

You do get this is a reference desk? Not a "let me propose a random idea and watch people debate it and hopefully say I'm smart because I pointed something out". If you believe this is a valid idea, tell people who can do stuff. It's like all your questions on the physics desk; they aren't questions- they are you trying to prove some half-baked idea that you get from reading a Wikipedia article. As has been said there- get a book and research stuff.24.171.145.63 (talk) 23:02, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

So basically then you are saying I need an entry in my checklist that asks if I know this is a reference desk and another one to ask if this is a random idea and another one to ask if I want to watch people debate a random idea and another to ask if I can point something out and one to ask if anyone here can do stuff and another one to read the Wikipedia or a book to prove a half-baked idea from researching stuff. Okay. -- Taxa (talk) 23:47, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

(e/c.)

I don't like to answer a question with a question, But why would such emergency stores of knowledge be in checklist form? That doesn't seem practical. I know that I could not teach a lay person to do my job (computer programming) entirely from checklists, but some well written textbooks can and have taught many people the profession.

Incidentally, what makes this a Reference question? Are you looking for copies of these checklists? APL (talk) 23:06, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

It is quite common in developing countries I believe to have people with only a little training handle straightforward medical conditions using a big book of checklists. The main problem is teaching them to refer the problem when it says refer rather than treating more complex problems. I suppose we could all follow checklists like that when the apocalypse comes. And by the way I rather like answering questions with another question but I won't in this instance. Dmcq (talk) 23:21, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

edit conflict...Flight checklists have been around ever since the first airplane crashes in which the flaps were locked or something like that so basically whenever you get in an airplane your life is in the hands of a checklist. Same with surgery. You might have a heart attack during surgery which a surgical checklist would hopefully catch. Since they are already used to protect life its a good bet they have some value. -- Taxa (talk) 23:28, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

Some value ... to surgeons, that is, the people they're designed for. It does not automatically follow that they would be useful to people with no training.

Besides, you seem like you've already made up your mind on this issue. What's your reference question? APL (talk) 02:00, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

The essense of the OPs question is: have medical checklists been made public? Probably, if you look at the appropriate textbooks. Checklists are also used by aircraft pilots and in business. This reminds me of Mycin, and you could consider expert systems to be a kind of smart checklist. The Checklist article led me to Medical guideline.78.151.102.179 (talk) 10:49, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

June 14

Virtual memory

My MacBook (OS X 10.4.11) seems to use an astounding amount of virtual memory according to Activity Monitor (11.6 GB total). Safari uses 1.5 GB of Virtual Memory itself, where little, dinky applications like MenuCalendarClock (basically puts a little iCal data thing at the top of the screen) and have no major interface to space of take up over 500 MB. Programs that are doing nothing 90% of the time (Snaps Pro X) use some 390 MB. This strikes me as sort of crazy, given that the actual RAM these programs take up is usually a LOT smaller (Google Desktop takes up only 2.19 MB of Real Memory but 356 MB of Virtual Memory). What's the reason behind this? Are these programs just leaky or what? I have no processes other than very "low level", Unix-y like ones (e.g. httpd, mds) that use less than 300 MB Virtual Memory. What do these numbers really mean? The "Real Memory" usage seems about right (2MB for small programs, 20MB for bigger ones, as-much-as-it-can-handle for Safari) but the Virtual Memory numbers seem fantastical (can Snaps Pro X really need 390MB of Virtual Memory when it is idle?). --98.217.14.211 (talk) 01:06, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

Bittorrent play while download

Is there a Bittorrent client that will download a file from start to finish instead of downloading randomly? That way I can start viewing the file while it is still downloading. F (talk) 03:01, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

That would be very very slow. I doubt it has been made. Rgoodermote  03:05, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

I sometimes wish for an utility like that but agree that it would be impractical and kinda not in line with the workings of Bittorrent itself. Maybe try downloading from a different source (provided there is one). Or-- have a cup of tea, patience, the file will be there soon. --Ouro (blah blah) 05:20, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

eztv has some sort of modified bittorrent protocol/client that lets you stream a bittorrent download. I haven't used it so I can't tell you how well it works though. --antilived^{T | C | G} 11:19, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

It's going to be really, really slow and except in situations where there are huge numbers of seeders it will completely screw up the economy of BT (you won't be getting your files from the peers, just the seeders). The whole reason people can afford the bandwidth to host torrents is because of the way BT distributes it intelligently, which is not sequential. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 14:22, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

I can't read East Asian Languages

I've tried the >Control Panel>Languages option but I don't have my original XP installation CD. Are there alternative methods of installing Asian characters?

Mooselogic (talk) 06:36, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

Have you tried Windows Update and looking in the Optional section? Tempshill (talk) 16:30, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

Search whole site

Hi, I need a way to search an ENTIRE website for keywords, say "Robot Brain" and it'll give me a list of every page on that site that features "Robot Brain". I guess sort of like a web crawler, although I don't want to actually save the pages, just scan them. Many thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.90.144 (talk) 10:10, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

You can do this via Google. To search wikipedia.org for robot brain enter site:wikipedia.org "robot brain" into the Google search box. Quotes are only necessary for a phrase search i.e. everything after the site:... bit works like a normal google search. Note that there is no space after site: (if it has worked properly you should see something like "Results 1 - 8 of 8 from wikipedia.org for "robot brains". (0.27 seconds)." near the top right).131.111.8.98 (talk) 10:51, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

Yes but that's not a live search, stuff from google search can be weeks old —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.90.144 (talk) 11:22, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

You could download the entire site using a software utility, then search your local copy? Exxolon (talk) 13:13, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

Norton Internet Security and Anti-Spam

I do not myself use Norton Internet Security, but I need the following information to advise correspondents who use that software and who need to receive my mail.

I know that Norton Internet Security includes Norton Anti-Spam. My question is:

If a user of Norton Internet Security has never opened the Anti-Spam component, will Anti-Spam still filter incoming mail, requiring that user to whitelist senders in Anti-Spam to be assured that mail from those senders will always come through? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Richard Odin Johnson (talk • contribs) 13:41, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

I just upgraded to NIS 2009 and can tell you that AntiSpam is off by default. I believe this is the same for NIS 2008, but I don't know about older versions. This means that, no, AntiSpam will not filter mail if a user has never touched it (since the user has to turn it on). Xenon54 (talk) 13:53, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

That may not be true for users of the network-managed corporate edition. Such systems will phone home during install (and frequently thereafter) to pick up the site policy file. If Richard's correspondents are inside large medium-sized organisations then this might very well be enabled (one would imagine large organisations will tackle spam centrally, rather than using Norton). 87.115.144.38 (talk) 17:39, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

ATX SMPS question

My olde computer's power supply got burnt and I am looking for a new one. The old one had 20 pin output and if I buy a new 24 pin piece, will it fit? The burnt one is 300W. The machine is a P4 with intel mobo (845 Glly). Will a 400W piece work with it? --Quntimodum (talk) 15:31, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

malloc and free

Dear Wikipedians:

Sometimes I would forget to free() the memory I have malloc()'ed. I'm wondering:

Would this memory eventually be returned to the system when the entire program ends? Or is it lost to the system forever until I reboot the computer?

Thanks.

70.31.157.47 (talk) 16:45, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

Malloc() allocates small chunks of memory from the individual process heap, which is a bunch of pages that are owned by your process (if you're interested, your process gets those as needed either by calling sbrk or mmap). Like all other pages owned by your process, those are returned to the system when the process ends. It is, in some systems, possible to perform mallocs() that do persist even after your process ends - such shared memory allocation operations are something you need to tell your malloc implementation specifically about; it's not something that'd normally happen, and it's not for the faint hearted. 87.115.144.38 (talk) 17:19, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

bash question

Let's say I have a directory path in bash that is being stored as a string, something like "/Users/myusername/Documents/stuff/foo/bar/my folder". What's the simplest, most reliable way to take that string in bash and have it just give me the last folder name, assuming the path in question is not fixed (that is, it can't just be "trim x characters off the end")? --98.217.14.211 (talk) 18:33, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

basename 87.115.144.38 (talk) 18:41, 14 June 2009 (UTC)