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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)

Short answer: VM space is essentially free (i.e. doesn't use actual RAM or disk space) until it's actually used for something, so why be stingy with it? Allocating lots of VM to your program is easier than trying to economize, so that's what everyone does.

Longer answer: I'm not familiar with the gory details of Mac OS X's virtual memory system, but I'm pretty sure it goes something like this: when a program launches and requests lots of VM space, the OS builds it a page table with lots of entries marked "Zero filled". If and when the program actually uses one of those pages, a page of real RAM gets allocated (and zeroed). Most of the pages never get written to, so they never take up any real resource (other than a tiny bit of space to hold the page table). Similarly, the pages that "hold" the program itself (and the shared libraries it uses) get marked as corresponding to the spots on disk where the program (+libraries) are stored; as various parts of the program are actually used, real RAM gets allocated and the relevant pages of the program are loaded into them. Some of the program pages (and probably most of the library pages) never get used, so they're part of the program's VM space, but never consume actual RAM. And then there's shared memory (the same real RAM shows up in several processes' VM space), copy-on-write pages, etc.

If you want to get a little more info about how your VM is actually being used, open a terminal window, enter vm_stat, and look at the entries for "Pages zero filled" and "Pages copy-on-write". On the MacBook Pro I'm writing this on, I currently have 38.2 GB (10010701 pages at 4096 bytes each) zero filled and 2.65 GB (694674 pages) copy-on-write, with only 2 GB of physical RAM (902 MB of which is free, and 210 MB inactive). Activity Monitor reports 47.99GB of total VM, which probably also includes programs and libraries that haven't been paged in, multiple-counted shared pages, etc. Another interesting command is sysctl vm.swapusage, which will show you how much hard disk space is being used to store overflow from physical RAM; mine is currently at total = 64.00M used = 0.00M free = 64.00M, meaning that it's allocated 64MB of disk space, but hasn't needed to use it for anything (despite the programs I'm running being ridiculously profligate with VM space). -- Speaker to Lampposts (talk) 06:02, 15 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)

If I recall correctly the original btdownloadheadless program would download files in roughly sequential order whenever possible. Eventually they changed this and it improved download speeds for both you and everyone else downloading the same file. Sequential downloading also makes it much more likely that a torrent will be stuck with zero seeds. APL (talk) 02:51, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

That client would no longer be following the bittorrent protocol model, which specifically and intentionally downloads file chunks out of sequential order because it is approximating an optimal traffic solution. Consider it this way - if you download sequentially, you have to wait for Chunk n+1 at every time. This chunk might not be available yet (because the server who has it is busy, or something). So... why bother waiting? Your network is doing nothing in the mean-time. Suppose some other chunk is available immediately? You can start downloading that chunk, which is necessarily "not the next sequential chunk." Then, at some future time when the sequential chunk does become available, you will get it - but you haven't been wasting time doing a no-work stall. Nimur (talk) 14:42, 16 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)

That doesn't work. Try this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.72.222.20 (talk) 05:37, 16 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)

Yeah, but I'm trying to avoid downloading the sites :/ I don't know, I guess I'll keep looking for some software that will just search the sites

Specifically, wget and HTTrack are two solutions. (For downloading the sites.) Tempshill (talk) 20:43, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

How can you possibly search the site without downloading it? Even Google had to download it (they save it as their "cached" copy, but that's irrelevant). Unless you can persuade the web server to perform the search for you, you're stuck with downloading the pages and examining their contents. You can then delete the downloaded copies, of course; you could even use wget -O - to write "a website" on stdout and then search through that without it ever being on disk. (You'd have to do some sort of clever analysis to notice which pages contained your hits, though.) --Tardis (talk) 23:27, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

You can read the sites on RSS with appropriate filters to find what you want. If the site does not supply RSS, there is a service called Dapper which works as a Firefox extension, that lets you create RSS feeds out of virtually any site (you have to sign up as a member). Once you have a site set up you can use that feed on future occasions. It takes a few minutes per site, more if the different pages are very different in their layout. This would not be useful to you if you will be searching different sites each time. In that case, go with the refined Google search and take the risk on how old the caching is. The higher on their search ranking a site is, the more often it is crawled; some major sites are visited about every 18 minutes. -KoolerStill (talk) 06:10, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

This might be what you need. It's the Ixquick toolbar, which has a "search this site" feature. The website has to be open in the browser but not downloaded. It looks interesting enough that I might try it myself. - KoolerStill (talk) 16:29, 15 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)

Yes, most 24 pin connectors come with a detachable 4-pin connector so it can be used as 20 pin too. Usually as long the wattage is higher than your old one it should work, but be careful of shoddy brands that over-rates their PSU. --antilived^{T | C | G} 00:52, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Usually you don't even need to detach the 4-pin connector, you can plug the 24 pin plug straight into the 20 pin socket. F (talk) 04:54, 17 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)

It is freed on any sane system, but is it guaranteed for standard C (/ have there been "desktop" systems that lose memory like this)? _{btw I'm not the op} --194.197.235.32 (talk) 20:29, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

The freeing is done by the OS when it breaks down a process, not by the libc allocator, so it's essentially guaranteed. You do get other kinds of allocation (windows has "resources", and most OSes have IPC things); these are allocated by other apis (not malloc), and sometimes are leaked. Older windows (e.g. 95) was noted for leaking resources (from a tiny pool), so eventually the system would grind to a halt, even though no apps were running and plenty of ram was free. 87.115.144.38 (talk) 21:34, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks all, that's essentially what I have guessed too. 70.31.157.47 (talk) 20:41, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

Resolved

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)

thanks! that worked perfectly. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 19:00, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

You don't have to go to an external process for this: if you put that value in a variable dir, you can write ${dir##*/} and get the last piece. (However, if your string could end in a slash, and you want the last part before that slash, you would have to do two steps: d2=${dir%/} and then use ${d2##*/}, which isn't quite as simple.) In any case, be sure to use quotes properly: neither cd $(basename $dir) nor cd ${dir##*/} will do what you want for "my folder" with a space in it. Put double quotes around the expression that might result in multiple words. --Tardis (talk) 23:11, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

Change Network Card

I've discovered that my IP address changes when I connect my router to another computer, but goes back to the previous IP address when I connect the router back my old pc. Obviously the router is detecting that there is a different network card in use, and is allocating IP address like that. So how can I fool the router into thinking I'm using a different network card when I'm not?

This is for ethernet router, and I'm certain the IP address is not just changing when I reset the router because it's been the same for months until I used it on a new computer, and reverts back to the old address when I use the old computer.

Thanks for the help! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Anonymous 20:42, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

A few more details, please. Is your objective to change your computer's IP address, as it sounds? How many ports are in the back of your router? What's the router brand? Tempshill (talk) 20:53, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

Yes, I wish to change the IP address. So far it's only the last three digits that seem to be changing, which is all I need. My router has three slots, one for power, one for the cable coming in from the street and one for the ethernet cable which connects to my computer. The brand is VirginMedia —Preceding unsigned comment added by Anonymous 21:35, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

It sounds like your computer getting a new Network Address Translation (NAT) address leased to you by these different routers via DHCP. Note that this isn't your public address, as is visible to other websites. That's given to your router by your ISP; they may give you a new one if you power off and on the router, but that's up to the ISP. Anonymous (Anonymous) 21:53, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

This is my third IP address on Wikipedia, as seen by my contributions. Yesterday I was Anonymous but after plugging my router into my new computer I am now at another IP. But if I plug the router back into my old computer I become the original IP again. It must be the network card, so is there a way to alter it's ID or something like that so I can keep changing the IP address at will? Really, just any way to change a network cards settings is all I'm after. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Anonymous 22:06, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

No, that is your external IP address which your ISP assigns you to. It's basically random and each time you disconnect (like moving your router) will get you a new IP, maybe it's the same one you had, maybe it's not. It has nothing to do with your internal network, and if you want a new IP just keep on reconnecting your internet connection on your router until you do get one. The fact your IP changed with your new computer is merely a coincidence. --antilived^{T | C | G} 00:50, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

I agree, it is the external address. My ISP assigns me one of three numbers when I start up the modem. If there is a longer break in the signal (it's wireless) it sometimes allocates a different one when the signal is recovered. It's always one of the same 3 numbers.- KoolerStill (talk) 02:51, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

NO. I had the same IP address for months until I connected the router to my new computer, now it's different. If I plug the router into my old computer I get my old IP address back. It does NOT change if I simply turn the router off and then on again while using it on the same computer. This, however, is largely irrelevant. All I am looking for is a way to tinker with my network cards settings or IDs to emulate it to look like a different brand or whatever. I don't really care if you believe me when I say the IP changes ONLY when I use the router on a different computer, I would simply like some help finding a way to alter my network cards settings to make it appear like a different card.

I'm thinking of only a couple possibilities. A) It's not a "router", it's a hub, and it's not doing NAT. B) It is a router, it's not doing NAT (ie. it's bridging or something). C) It's not a router, it's a modem, and it's not doing NAT. D) It's a gateway/modem combo or something, and does assign you multiple IP addresses rather than doing NAT.

In any case, you'd be getting the same IP because whatever is assigning the IPs is recognizing the MAC address of the NIC. You can spoof the MAC with various tools, though I can vouch for none of them. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 05:57, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

And since you are getting your IP address over DHCP, don't count on it being the same forever. Generally, if you don't re-get the IP quickly enough after the lease is expired, it'll be assigned to another machine. The ISP might also just shuffle IPs around or simply not grant the same one after lease expiry. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 06:05, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

This seems to be good in describing how to change it without any additional software, although I distinctively remember that some card drivers allow you to do it in GUI in the card properties dialog. However, the basis of this suspicion is still unfounded: broadband connections are "always on", and you only get a new IP address when you initiate a new connection, therefore it's normal to have the same IP address for a long time, as long as it never disconnects. As KoolerStill said and also personal observation, the pool of IP address that you get assigned are relatively small, perhaps 3 or so IP, and there's probably a policy to give you the same IP as last time as long as no one else took it while you're disconnected. When you move it to another computer the down time is also longer, so there's a higher chance that someone else took that IP address and leaving you with a different one. There is no reason why any ISP would do this kind of client-MAC-based (instead of modem-MAC-based) DHCP assignment. --antilived^{T | C | G} 06:15, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

I've just tried changing the MAC address and I lose all internet connection until I change it back to the original MAC address :( Also, as I said and keep saying, the IP address only changed when I plugged the router into the new computer (a total of maybe 40 seconds transfer time). I have left the old computer off for days in the past and always got the same IP, and continue to get the same IP when I plug the router back into the old computer, so I don't believe it is ever being assigned to someone else. Anyway, since the MAC thing didn't work I guess I'm out of luck. Thanks anyway. -- Anonymous

This might not be the case for all ISPs, but I know of at least two cable ISPs which do it. IPs will be associated with the modem, but also with the computer's MAC; either the modem is assigning IPs over DHCP (and I know some do have DHCP servers, not sure if they're actually used), or the ISP is doing it based on both MACs. It's easy to see too; you can do exactly what the OP said - switch the computer that's connected to the modem without resetting the modem, and then switch back. Assuming you have more than one IP, the second computer should get a new one, and the first computer should keep the same one. If you've only one IP, the second computer shouldn't pull an IP address at all unless you reset the modem. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 14:56, 15 June 2009 (UTC) (revised 15:34, 15 June 2009 (UTC))

Just installed a new network card I had lying about, lets see if my IP address has changed now (from Anonymous ) —Preceding undated comment added 07:47, 15 June 2009 (UTC).

June 15

Track program in Linux?

What is the easiest way to track what a program does in Linux? I want to analyze a program and see what it does to my system: modified files, etc... I wanted something like File Monitor (windows app) or a program that would track the linux app itself and check out what it does. (I don't mind command line tools and I don't mind compiling, but I wanted something as easy as possible...) SF007 (talk)

strace is the basic tool here, that'll tell you all the interactions between the process and the kernel. ltrace gives a higher-level view, but its information is less complete. 67.163.6.213 (talk) 06:39, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

You could also run the program in GDB, particularly if you can recompile it with the debugging symbols turned on. -- JSBillings 17:36, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Time complexity of modified TSP

What is the time complexity of an exact solution to the traveling salesman problem if it is modified so that each city must be visited at least once rather than exactly once? NeonMerlin 00:48, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

It's still NP-complete. Consider TSPs where the distances satisfy the triangle inequality. Given any solution that visits each city more than once, you can get a solution that visits each city exactly once, and which does at least as good. You do this by skipping visits of a city after the first time (since you are not required to visit it again). By the triangle inequality, the distance cannot increase by skipping a city. Therefore you can do no better than the regular optimal TSP solution that visits each city exactly once. So the optimal solution to your problem is the same as the optimal solution to the regular TSP, when the triangle inequality applies. The TSP under the triangle inequality is still NP-complete. --Spoon! (talk) 06:02, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

P.S. You ask for the time complexity. But the exact time complexity for the TSP is not known. (And in any case, for an abstract problem like this it doesn't make much sense to talk about complexities so much as complexity classes, because it will vary depending on what model of computation you are using.) Maybe you are asking about whether it is in P or NP-complete? --Spoon! (talk) 06:04, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

C command to read next line

Is there a C command moves a file stream to the next new line? In other words, is there a command that does something like "while(fgetc(file) != '\n');"? — DanielLC 02:15, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Yep 'fgets' or 'gets'. 'gets' is strongly deprecated though because there is no way to prevent someone causing a 'buffer overrun' and that's the cause of some serious security leaks. SteveBaker (talk) 04:59, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

fgets reads a string. I know it stops on a new line, so I could have it read into a string I don't use, but I don't want to make a string just for that, and there's no guarantee it will finish the line in one pass through the string (it has some very long lines). — DanielLC 05:09, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

As far as I can tell, there isn't anything like that in the standard library. If such a function did exist it would still have to go through the stream itself looking for a newline anyways. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 05:34, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

What is a 1:1 Frame Rate?

Hi. I've seen this option in the rendering options for Sorenson Squeeze (along with 1:2, 1:3, etc,), but I'm not sure what it is. I'd like to match the frame rate of the original movie, but Premiere says it's 28.01 fps?? Thanks for any help.--WinRAR anodeeven (talk) 02:31, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Something like 1:1 or 1:2 is called a ratio. If you are attempting to match 1:1 a movie with 28.01 fps, you would end up with 28.01 fps. By varying the ratio, the raw size of the movie can be reduced by half (1:2), by third (1:3), etc. At least, this is based on my understanding of your question. Hope this helps. ZabMilenko^{How am I driving?} 10:37, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

docx file

is there a way to open docx file if i dont have MS Word 2007?Shraktu (talk) 04:43, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats if you have Office 2003 or 2000. Also, OpenOffice.org can open it. --76.173.203.58 (talk) 05:02, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Even if you had Word 2007 it may not give you good results. If the file was created in an older version of MS Publisher, Word 2007 can open it, but things may be missing or the formatting may be wrong. MicroSuck did not make it so that newer versions of Publisher could open the old files. --69.254.66.245 (talk) 08:09, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Personally, I've never gotten the Compatibility Pack mentioned above to work -- and I couldn't tell you why, it just doesn't seem to do anything (although I think that's a newer version of it than the one I tried to use, so who knows?). If you're in the same boat, there are a number of converters out there that can convert a docx file into an RTF file. I don't remember which one I tend to use myself (and I'm at work right now so I can't check what I have installed on my home computer), but a bit of googling can probably help you out there. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 08:36, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Agree with Captain I have never got the compatibility pack to work either. BigDunc^Talk 08:43, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

The other night, when trying to view a docx file with Office 2003, I installed the Word Viewer from the Microsoft site in the apparently vain hope that it would work. When I tried to open the docx file it realized that it was created with a newer version and pointed me to download the compatibility pack linked above. The file then opened in the viewer and, as I discovered, in Word 2003 itself. Angus Lepper^{(T, C)} 18:14, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

I use OpenOffice. Initially, I had to use the converter, but it is built in now. Just click on the docx file and it will open. Formatting can be messed up sometimes - especially if your computer doesn't have the font used in the file. However, it works good enough for me. -- kainaw™ 12:23, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

(1) Google docs does docx, see [1], I've used it successfully (once).

(2) See some tips here. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 18:25, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Resolved

Universal remotes

While not strictly a computing question, I figured this would be the best place for this... I've never bought a universal remote, so I have no idea if I need to look for anything special to make sure that it will work with all my stuff (home theater, DVD player, TV). So, do I? I mostly want to replace the remote for the home theater system since my Great Pyr destroyed the original when he was a puppy and since then, I've grown tired of getting up to adjust the volume. Dismas|^(talk) 10:53, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

I recently bought a cheap (£10) universal remote to replace broken DVD player remote. I found that as a bonus it could also be programmed to control TV, set-top digital converter and ancient VCR as well - all different makes - so excellent value for money ! I noticed that some more expensive universal remotes were specifially marketed as "home theatre"/"home cinema" remotes - maybe they have additional functions. Gandalf61 (talk) 11:10, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

When I got my last remote, I bought one and found that it didn't have the ability to control my DVR. So, I returned it and got another one. It couldn't control my TV. So, I returned it and got another. It was able to control everything. They were all well under $20, so it isn't a matter of considering investment. If the remote I'm now using breaks, I'll just get another one. It just took a few tries to get one that controlled everything without having to go through and program each and every button one at a time. -- kainaw™ 12:21, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Make sure you get a Universal Remote and not a Learning Remote. Learning Remotes aren't very common anymore, but they need to be "trained" off the original remote, so that won't help you if the original is gone. APL (talk) 16:57, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

If your home theater is nice, most Universal Remotes will not give you every feature. That may not be that big of a deal for you, but things like changing the type of surround sound, or changing the input source. The one's mostly likely to give you the most features would probably be one of those programmed the PC like those by Logitech. Although, I can't afford one, I just want it. --Wonderley (talk) 04:02, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, all! Dismas|^(talk) 04:10, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Some of the fancier universal remotes even include a display and perhaps a touch screen - some of these allow you to create your own touch-screen layout with custom text or even graphics labels. SteveBaker (talk) 04:33, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

At some point, you should just connect a controlling PC/web-server/digital video machine to the home theater. I use Media Player Classic, which has its own scriptable HTTP server built in. Then, stream all commands to it via web; and you can use any modern digital hand-held with wireless internet capabilities to access the system. This will allow you to write custom programs, cron jobs, and defrag your home theater system - from anywhere in the world!. It is very important to have a large screen if you intend to use it from great distances. Volume control is soooo last millenium. Nimur (talk) 15:10, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Alternative to Movie Maker

Is there an alternative to Windows Movie Maker (or Windows Live Movie Maker, or whatever you want to call it) that will work with .movs and .mp4s? I know I can convert them, but if there is a way to skip that step, it would be nice. Contributions/174.114.4.18 (talk) 12:12, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

iMovie?? --69.148.26.115 (talk) 02:36, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Yup, there are a bunch of them out there. See Category:Video_editing_software for ones in which we have articles of. -- penubag  (talk) 08:01, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

JavaScript mouse cursor

JavaScript code to change the mouse cursor on a certain page? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 218.186.10.243 (talk) 14:02, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

You can use the following code to change the mouse cursor for a page. The list of cursors can be found here. Keep in mind you may have to hook it so the page is loaded before it runs, or you may get a null error in some browsers.

document.body.style.cursor = 'crosshair';

Ale_Jrb^talk 17:09, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

iPhone, Podcasts and WiFi

Is there an app or some method by which I can get my iPhone to automatically download all the podcasts I subscribe to via WiFi? Usually I have to sync on my pc or download updates one by one (which requires some backwards store navigation). Ideally, I'd like it to check for updates overnight while it's plugged in and download them automatically. TheFutureAwaits (talk) 14:27, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

I am not aware of such a piece of software - I don't suppose hooking the iPhone up to your PC running iTunes (which can be set to automatically download new podcasts at specific intervals, eg once an hour) is an option? — QuantumEleven 12:42, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

plot .dat files

I have to work for my study with a code that saves the results in files with .dat extensions. Now must make a graph with these results but I can't find any programm which kann make a graph with such files.i would be gratefull if someones who knows told me how to do this —Preceding unsigned comment added by Zzzmith (talk • contribs) 14:38, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

(duplicate question removed. Please only post questions once.) Are you sure that it is important to this exercise to use the ".dat" filename extension? Probably the professor will not care if you use another file extension. If you are saving the data as a bunch of values separated by commas, the .csv extension is the best choice; it can be read by Microsoft Excel and OpenOffice and probably every other spreadsheet program used today (which I assume is what you'd use to graph the data). If the professor is hardcore about making sure you end the filename extension of your data file with ".dat", that's fine, just do so, then rename the file to end in .csv and load it up with a spreadsheet program. Tempshill (talk) 15:27, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

The .dat extension can refer to just about any kind of file, I suggest opening up the file with a text editor and see if it's in any kind of regular format. If so, OpenOffice, Microsoft Excel or even gnuplot will probably be able to use it. -- JSBillings 17:32, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

After reading JSBillings's response: I may have misunderstood; I had thought this was a programming assignment where you'd be writing code that was supposed to output a .dat file. If not, ignore me and do what JSBillings said. Tempshill (talk) 19:46, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

that was exactly the problem.after running the code theresults were given in such format.anyway i found finally a solution to seperate the columns and remove them to excell.my onnly problem now is to find and download a good grapher.thank you both for helping. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Zzzmith (talk • contribs) 20:07, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Excel has very good graphing facilities built in, with a huge range of graph types, and every component editable for appearance. There is no need to get something separate. - KoolerStill (talk) 04:50, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Scale pages in Scribus

I am using Scribus to design my school magazine. I have finished the layout.

The librarian told me to make it A5 size, but has now revealed that she meant A4. Is there any way to scale all the pages (either in the software or when exporting to PDF) without moving and resizing everything?

I want to get this issue finished by the end of the month (or, even better, the week), so please help!

Thank you, Dendodge _T\^C 14:55, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Wouldn't you just change the document size in file->document_setup ? Contributions/87.113.161.82 (talk) 18:16, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

No—that only resizes the page, not the content. Dendodge _T\^C 19:45, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

If you change the size of the page, then ctrl-a (select all), then rescale the group using the corner handles to fit the page, that should scale the entire set of stuff on the page, right? You can hold ctrl while rescaling if you want to keep the aspect ratio. I'm not sure if there's another good way to do what you want... when changing the page size also changes the aspect ratio of the page, there's not an easy way for the software to automatically know how to rescale the contents. You might just have to do it manually. Indeterminate (talk) 01:45, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

It should have that option when you export to PDF, though I guess that depends on the PDF driver. If the built-in PDF driver doesn't have this, you can download a "PDF printer" and see if is has that option. If not, you could consider just setting the page size when you print the school magazine, just set the page size to A4 and choose the appropriate option in the print dialog ("scale to fit" or something like that). I would also consider asking the librarian if she has a solution, after all, she told you to use A5 in the first place... Jørgen (talk) 00:29, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

installing problems

when i want to install some particular programmes,nothing will happen .when i double click usb derive a message appear," Error loading .\RECYCLER\S-5-3-42- ----------------\ the specified module can not be found " It is not a problem of my usb ,but may be of some virus. which type of virus it may be . I have avast antivirus and update it daily,but it can not remove this problem . —Preceding unsigned comment added by 119.154.14.195 (talk) 18:28, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

When you double-click your USB drive, Windows attempts to run an "autorun" program, if there is one on the USB drive's root. I think this is probably what's happening. What happens if you instead right-click the USB drive and choose "Explore"? The \RECYCLER\ pathname means, I believe, that the autorun program is trying to access a file that used to be in your "Recycle Bin" and is no longer present. Tempshill (talk) 20:00, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Always right-click and Explore. Letting USB drives auto-run is how USB viruses get spread around, latching on to the auto-run facility. Microsoft is removing this feature, for this reason. - KoolerStill (talk) 04:53, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Enable "Show hidden files/folders" and disable "Hide system files". What do you see in the autorun.inf file on your USB drive? --wj32 ^t/c 11:48, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

June 16

Determining origin of digital image

Is there some way to determine the origin of this picture? Perhaps some digital watermark? Although it was posted on a forum, I doubt that I will be able to trace it via that route anymore, although I will try. ----Seans Potato Business 01:26, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

I remember that PARADOX won a few awards at some demoparties. One of their winning demos had a scene that looked like that picture. I looked at the metadata for the image inside Photoshop, and it doesn't give any information of value. I imagine, though, that it was created inside a 3D application like Maya or 3ds Max.--WinRAR anodeeven (talk) 01:58, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

TinEye has no idea, just in case anyone else trying to use that. --antilived^{T | C | G} 02:06, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

It looks a bit like stuff from this site. Someone posted that image in this web forum, so maybe you could ask him/her? --Sean 16:56, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

I ran strings (Unix) on the image. It has definitely passed through Photoshop CS2, and contains the following metadata (among others, mostly indecipherable):

...
 <xapMM:DocumentID>uuid:F25F0762751BDA119E97F9D95F65B64F</xapMM:DocumentID>
 <xapMM:InstanceID>uuid:AE0FE5E5751BDA119E97F9D95F65B64F</xapMM:InstanceID>
 <xapMM:DerivedFrom rdf:parseType="Resource">
    <stRef:instanceID>uuid:EE5F0762751BDA119E97F9D95F65B64F</stRef:instanceID>
    <stRef:documentID>uuid:EE5F0762751BDA119E97F9D95F65B64F</stRef:documentID>
  </xapMM:DerivedFrom>

...

 <xap:CreateDate>2005-09-02T07:53:34+02:00</xap:CreateDate>
 <xap:ModifyDate>2005-09-02T07:53:34+02:00</xap:ModifyDate>
 <xap:MetadataDate>2005-09-02T07:53:34+02:00</xap:MetadataDate>
 <xap:CreatorTool>Adobe Photoshop CS2 Windows</xap:CreatorTool>
...

Those document unique identifiers might help, I can't find any google results for them. Nimur (talk) 20:06, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

The image appears here:

• http://www.bio.davidson.edu/COURSES/GENOMICS/2005/Kiley/home.html ...with the legend: "Permission pending,http://www.wpic.pitt.edu/research/sweetlab/Brain%20Bank%20Home%20frame.htm" (ie I asked if I could use it - and they didn't say "Yes" yet but I'm going to use it anyway.) Sadly - that link doesn't point anywhere - but there is an email address at the first link where you could ask about the origin of the picture.
• It also appears on "Desktop Nexus" http://my.desktopnexus.com/zknall/uploads/ - if you create an account there, you can send a message to "zknall" and ask where (s)he got it.
• It shows up on the right here: http://anniebernier.wordpress.com/2008/02/07/en-fait-x-200/ - with the text "Population de la Gélose * 5,461 bactéries * L'hydrogène est un gaz léger et inodore qui, si on lui en donne le temps, se transforme en animaux dotés de conscience * Dr. Robert Lamontagne"...but Lamontagne turns out to be a French-Canadian physicist...I doubt the image is his - and there is no sign of it on any other website related to him.
• http://elementy.ru/lib/430218/430221 has the image - the site appears to be in russian. The link under the image points to http://www.wpic.pitt.edu/ - which was also the location of the "permission pending" link above...so that's probably the original source of this much-plagiarized image.

SteveBaker (talk) 01:28, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

What is Blogging?

how and what is blogging? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kro311 (talk • contribs) 03:40, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

We have an article blog which explains a lot about it. Basically, a blog is a website where someone posts short email-like messages on any subject that he or she feels to be relevent. Some people treat them like a very public diary - others use them to post progress on some project or news about some subject. You don't really need any special software to do it - you're just editing a web page. But most people will wind up using one of the many packages that make the process easier - and allow readers of the blog to receive email notifications and so forth. SteveBaker (talk) 04:28, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Blackberry Curve and the iPhone 3G S

I have done a ton of research and I cannot decide whether one phone is superior to the other. I currently have the BBC 8310 and I use it for

• text people
• surf the internet (especially Facebook)
• use the turn by turn Navigational thing
• take pics and videos
• I have a tendency (not deliberate) to beat things up after a while

Really, which phone is superior? --Reticuli88 (talk) 13:36, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

I can't tell you which is best, but I can tell you how our company fared using both. I'm the IT guy who has to support them.

The iPhone's browser and email client is excellent. The ones we have will not do turn by turn navigation. The camera is acceptable, as is the texting. But phone reception is exceptionally poor; they often drop out in rural locations where cheap nokias get several bars. Of the four iPhones we have, two have broken beyond repair (leaving us with the contract). Everyone who has an iPhone in the company tells me they don't want anther one.

One person has a Curve, bought to replace an iPhone. Its email client seems slightly basic to me, but he's very happy (he says its faster than the iPhone). Its browser seems very rudimentary to me.

If it was my money, only the people who travel a lot would get either; the total cost (when you include the expensive call and data packages you need) is very high, and it doesn't seem like good value for money for anyone else.

One thing you might consider: one person got a cheap nokia for phonecalls and texts, and has an iPod Touch with his email configured. He uses the iPod on public wifi connections for email and web browsing - it's the same as the iPhone in that regard. This way he's getting a good phone (which the iphone isn't), good email (which both do), good browsing (which the iPhone has), and doesn't pay the expensive plans that the smartphones demand. Carmangled (talk) 14:33, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

FYI you can create a nice neat bullet list by using asterisks at the start of a line. Observe the aforementioned post, and enjoy! --Jmeden2000 (talk) 15:04, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

Vandal fighter

Whenever I try to download version 3.3 of vandal fighter, I get this: "Safari can’t open the page “http://hekla.rave.org/vf/3.3/vf33-English.jar” because Safari can’t find the server “hekla.rave.org”. I use Mac OS X, and of course, Safari. Is there any explanation for this? --I dream of horses (talk) 13:39, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

The server is either completely down or just not accessible from your Internet connection. If it is completely down, it may recover some day. If your connection is being blocked, try accessing it from school or work or the library or the local coffee shop... -- kainaw™ 13:48, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Do you think satellite internet is blocked? I use sprint satellite. --I dream of horses (talk) 14:40, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Are you currently in Teheran? Tempshill (talk) 15:26, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

According to this, it is down. -- kainaw™ 15:31, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Thank youNo, I'm in Missouri, but thanks to everybody that helped! --I dream of horses (talk) 16:44, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

proxy server

my internet goes through a work proxy server, but i have need to run a computer program that does not have settings to access to tell it to use the proxy server. So it does not work. How can I make program use proxy settings from web browser (this is port 80 and http) when it has no settings to change and no configuration files? Thank you for speedy reply

Depends on your program/os/proxy. On Linux you'll probably be lucky if you set the "http_proxy" environment variable, eg. 'export http_proxy=http://<ip of your proxy>:<port of proxy>'. If your browser has "automatic proxy configuration", then download that address and pick some ip from the file. There could be smarter ways but it works for me. --194.197.235.32 (talk) 16:07, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

this WIndows XP computer. the browser firefox has proxy settings so I know them, but I can not make the custom program use the proxy settings because there is no feature to specify them. It is just using the internet connection and works ok on home computer who uses direct broadband, by at work it is notworking because they using a proxy server for all traffic. I need way to make it use proxy server

Changing list of words

I have a text and I want to change a list of words. This is the equivalent to changing Am. "color" to Br. "colour". How can I accomplish this? Perhaps only with Open Office.

I don't want to change single words, but do it automatically.--80.58.205.37 (talk) 16:54, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Use the "Find and Replace" command, CTRL + F (under the Edit menu). It should let you find and replace all without checking with you each time. It is similar in MS Word, but CTRL + R, I believe. -- Flyguy649 ^talk 17:03, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

That's nice. But this is not the case. I have a list of some hundred words. I want to do it automatically, not manually find and replace each word.--80.58.205.37 (talk) 17:06, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

As Flyguy649 said above, in OpenOffice click Edit in the menu bar and select "find and replace". Enter the word you wish to change in the "Search for" box and the word you wish to replace it with in the "Replace with" box, then click "Replace all". It will take every instance of the word and replace them all 8I.24.07.715 (talk) 17:11, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

• This is simply not the case. I don't only want to change every instance. I have a series of pairs that have to be changed.80.58.205.37 (talk) 17:16, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Assuming you are using Linux (since you use OpenOffice) and assuming it is truly a text file and not a word document... You can use sed. First, create a file of replacements, such as "s/color/colour/" - one per line. Then, assuming you called it "br.sed", you can run: sed -f br.sed myfile.txt > mynewfile.txt. -- kainaw™ 17:11, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks Kainaw. I use Linux and that is exactly what I was searching for. 80.58.205.37 (talk) 17:16, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Now you have two problems. What Kainaw posted is a classic clbuttic mistake, you should modify the lines to say s/\bcolor\b/colour/ What Kainaw wrote will replace "ass" with "butt", and also "assassin" into "buttbuttin" or "classic" into "clbuttic". \b are word boundaries and maybe you do want to replace both color into colour and colored into coloured, but I would recomend you to grep all words containing color and then hand pick every variation that is desirable, so you dont have clbuttic in final document. — Shinhan < talk > 13:46, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Desktop soundsystem

Can anyone recommend a destop speaker set up - I was looking at devices like the JBL spyro but am not convinced they are not going to be crap, despite the glowing reviews - specifically - where is the midrange going to come from. I'm avoiding 5.1 type systems - only need 2. Maybe someone can think up a clever alternative to the set system packages. Also toslink optical in would be a big plus. Can spend more money. Thanks. (Oh and while I'm here - class D audio amps with more than 10W at genuine low distortion levels - should be on the market - but I can't find any separates - anyone know? Thanks again)83.100.250.79 (talk) 18:52, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

You should consider how much money you're willing to spend, how large should the system be, and why you want optical in. Do aesthetics matter? Those JBLs look like they're likely style over function. If you don't mind more size and price, you could just go ahead and buy a less expensive audio receiver, a couple bookshelf speakers, and a subwoofer. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 20:11, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Yep. I already have the bookshelf speakers, but the old receiver gone to heaven - hence the second question - looking at stuff I found available it seems that everyone makes a 20kg 7.1 system the same size as my house - but all I want is a simple amp.. Maybe someone else will know.83.100.250.79 (talk) 20:49, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Size (and pointless power consumption) is an issue, doesn't matter if it's a black/grey lump particularily.83.100.250.79 (talk) 20:58, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

This isn't really a reference question, it's more of a product evaluation request. There are plenty of internet forums and electronics review websites that can do a better job - for example, CNet Home Audio Systems review. Nimur (talk) 20:14, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Powered speakers don't require an amp/receiver. Mostly larger and pricier than computer desktop speakers, but some are small and still sound very good. I have a pair of Event TR8 powered monitors for non-computer purposes mainly, but it is trivial to connect a computer to them. The result is rather amazing sound coming from the computer. For "desktop" use, there are smaller powered speakers/monitors. If money is not a big issue and you want big sound, might be worth looking into. Pfly (talk) 09:05, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

Yes, it's a good option, though I still have working bookshelfs, which are approaching the quality of the speakers you mention.. So if anyone knows of a suitable amp, as I mentioned above, please say - the ones I can find seem to either be ~2W, or a big jump to above 100W, with nothing inbetween.83.100.250.79 (talk) 14:32, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

DDR2/DDR3

I'm considering an upgrade (again!)... there isn't any ionformation in the articles on ram or ddr2/3, how long ddr3's likely to be "the mainstream kind of memory" or what if anything is in the R&D pipeline intended to supersede it.

Does anyone have information on that? Thanks. FT2 ^{(Talk | email)} 21:05, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Since you are upgrading, I'll give a suggestion which in no way answers your question... I upgrade my computer every year. What I do is locate a motherboard that I like. Once I have picked out a motherboard, I get a CPU, memory, power supply, and all to match it. So, I don't choose between DDR2 or DDR3 first. I choose the board and it will support, which may be only DDR2 or only DDR3 or possibly both. Only when it is both would I have to decide between the two. -- kainaw™ 21:13, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

My question is because I might do this upgrade in two steps, and I'm trying to judge the longevity of DDR3 (ie, DDR3 motherboards being mainstream) for step #2 in a year or sos time. Right now it looks like DDR3 will be current "state of play" for a good 2-3 years or more (DDR2 was introduced in 2003 and was still very much "current" in 2008). I'm trying to estimate how long to expect, for DDR3.

A computer repairman friend of mine @ MainPC USA said that DDR3 RAM is not as stable as DDR2 yet. But what does he know. Mxvxnyxvxn (talk) 03:32, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

It should be easy to get some idea where it's at, given that such a standard would normally have quite a long development pipeline (standards development, R&D, production, mass acceptance and price drop) and so on. But there's no information on the status quo for any potential or proposed successor to DDR3, on-wiki. FT2 ^{(Talk | email)} 23:15, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Aha! Found it! DDR4 is indeed covered, but it's brief and in a footnote to SDRAM. Added a link from DDR3 for anyone else looking for "successor technology".

The upshot is that if DDR4 is introduced in 2012, it probably won't be "mainstream" till 2014 or even 2015, so 1600 DDR3 should have a good long lifetime. Which means I can buy a DDR3 775 motherboard with some degree of confidence that the switch to socket 1366 in a while, won't waste the memory. FT2 ^{(Talk | email)} 23:53, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Having trouble viewing some pages

I'm having trouble viewing your question, OP —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.90.144 (talk) 22:02, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, that is because I hadn't posted it yet. I created a section first and then I was editing it to post my questions but you posted before I finished my question. Anyway, here it is. I have been having this problem for a while now and it is bugging me. Basically, there are some pages such that when I click on a link to open them up, I get a completely blank page and the name of the page in the title bar says "something.html (GIF Image, 1x1 pixels)". It seems arbitrary to me. What is causing this and how can I fix this so that I can view those pages? A recent example is craigslist.com. I am using Firefox 3.0.11 on Windows XP with SP2. Any help/advice would be appreciated. Thanks! -Looking for Wisdom and Insight! (talk) 22:05, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Are you by any chance using Kaspersky anti-virus? There is an anti-banner setting (similar to the anti-pop-up one)which is a known cause of the "1 x 1 GIF image" problem. Try turning that setting off. - KoolerStill (talk) 22:23, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Awesome, that is exactly what it was. I am using Kaspersky. I simply added craigslist.org to the whitelist in the antibanner section and everything is hunky-dory. Thanks!-Looking for Wisdom and Insight! (talk) 22:38, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

You're very welcome. You were right doing it the whitelist way, too, as a blanket permission on banners leaves you open to "click-through" code and possible unwanted redirections. A friend caught a very nasty root-kit virus from such a redirection recently. -KoolerStill (talk) 23:05, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Another alternative is to use a browser with a capable ad blocker - opera and firefox have these, probably others do to. In a modern ad blocker, you typically right-click on a banner or advert or you can specify a "mask" that will be blocked, such as *.adserver.com/*, mysite.com/adverts/*, or a specific image. I find that far superior to a banner blocker (and trivially quick and easy) and have disabled the banner blocker in my antivirus program for that reason. Of course I still rely on the AV catching malware, but in terms of adverts, I leave that to the browser these days. FT2 ^{(Talk | email)} 23:18, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

June 17

Toubleshooting in USB pen drive

When i copy a file to my USB pen drive it gives the following error message: "THE FILE CANNOT BE COPIED.THE DISC IS WRITE PROTECTED . REMOVE THE WRITE PROTECTION OR USE ANOTHER DISC." This happens even when i use another pen drive.Can anyone tell me what i should do ?Shraktu (talk) 04:14, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

Hmm, that is a bizarre one. Some USB drives come with software so that you can lock the data on it. Was that installed? Are you positive that you are selecting the right drive letter? If so, I'd try getting anything you want off of it. Then in Windows Explorer, right click the drive letter of it and format it.--Wonderley (talk) 20:37, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

I wonder, is there at all a switch on the USB Pen? Some USB devices have a little switch that you can flick to put it in a read only state. You may accidentally have that flicked on if you have one. Rgoodermote  22:42, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

Are you trying to plug it into a business machine/corporate network? I only ask because it's possible that they simply have the "write" function disabled on portable storage devices. ZX81 ^talk 00:08, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

Well yes it is on my company's network? so can i remove the write protection if i'm not connected to the n/w?Shraktu (talk) 06:18, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

So just to confirm, does it work fine on another (non business) computer? If so then it would seem that the company lock down USB devices (a wise policy!) and physically unplugging it won't make any difference since the software and/or policy have already been downloaded/installed on the computer. ZX81 ^talk 14:54, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

Streaming live video to a large audience?

Hi, what's the best way to stream live video to a worldwide audience of thousands cheaply? The organizers can't afford to get lots of servers. The receiving software should be gratis and run on Windows. The last attempt to stream the 20th anniversary candlelight vigil in remembrance of the Tiananmen massacre (zh:維園六四燭光晚會) two weeks ago to thousands of overseas Hong Kongers wasn't too successful, people have trouble connecting and the quality is horrible. The next large scale event in Hong Kong is the Hong Kong 1 July marches two weeks from now. Oh, and it can't be a Chinese product, we don't want it to be "harmonized". F (talk) 04:35, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

There is a classic saying in IT development and procurement : "Cheap, quick, reliable - pick two of three". In other words, you can get high quality results quickly if you are prepared to pay a premimum; you can get high quality results cheaply if you are prepared to wait; you can get cheap and quick results if you don't mind lower quality. You seem to be trying to tick all three boxes at once. I will be very surprised if you can find a solution that meets all of your requirements; maybe you should start to think about which dimension you are prepared to compromise on. Gandalf61 (talk) 08:33, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

I'm no expert, but I would think

• if it's a happening like Chinese democratic protesters, perhaps secure the backing of some organization abroad that has a big server park / software and can scale up a feed sent from China? I'd imagine there be people/organizations willing to do this in the US or western Europe.
• If not, you could consider some P2P technology, though I'm not sure how well that works in real-time (and the end users might be wary of installing the software on their own computers)

Jørgen (talk) 13:43, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

(e/c) Ustream is a company which provides this service. I've heard several people say it works quite well, although I haven't used it myself. Unfortunately, I can't get on their website at the moment due to restrictions on my connection, so I don't have much more information. I imagine there are other companies which do a similar thing.--Kateshortforbob 13:47, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, it seems Justin.tv and BlogTV are providing similar services. F (talk) 02:43, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

PDF TO WORD

Could you recommend a free software to convert pdf files to word files so I can remove blank pages and reduce the font size. Thank you

124.43.38.246 (talk) 07:46, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

Just google it. 211.30.108.203 (talk) 08:20, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

My Adobe reader actually lets you save the file as a text file. I have just normal adobe. Its an option in the File menu24.171.145.63 (talk) 05:59, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

Chinese

Are there programs that convert traditional to simplified? Are there programs that convert simplified to traditional? For example, does the Chinese version of windows media player convert this automatically? (Let's say you put in a CD written in Traditional (the Artist Name, Song Name, etc. etc.), and then Windows Media Player plays it in Simplified? And then when you rip a song, it becomes written in Simplified?)174.3.103.39 (talk) 08:21, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

Microsoft Word does it, you can also use Google Translate. Don't know about the CD ripping though.F (talk) 08:24, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

Using Krita (image editor) in Windows

Krita is supposed to be cross-platform. Does anyone know how to make it work in Windows? I'm interested in the software but not KDE or KOffice in general; I don't want to compile from source or install unnecessary libraries/applications. --173.49.12.233 (talk) 09:43, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

There's a KDE port for windows at windows.kde.org. Get their installer and choose to install only Krita. --194.197.235.32 (talk) 19:44, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

/usr/bin/nm-applet in Ubuntu Jaunty; other Jaunty concerns

Does anyone know where to find documentation on this gadget? It seems to work behind the scenes without telling you what it's doing, which is sort of not what I use Linux for.

I recently installed Ubuntu Jaunty after a long and reasonably happy experience with Gutsy, because you can't get updates for Gutsy anymore. So far I haven't come across anything that strikes me as obviously better, and some things are worse, although maybe just because I haven't figured them out yet. One of them is this nm-applet, which seems to be the only way I can now get my wireless to work, even though I was using it from the command line just fine in Gutsy. Also, it keeps telling me that the "keyring" is "locked", but it doesn't tell me where the keyring is; bizarrely, it seems to be locked with my old password, which makes me wonder where it found this thing, given that I reformatted the root partition. (I did keep the /home partition, but it would seem odd to put it there.)

I haven't been able to get KDE working to my liking in Jaunty, either, though there are just two deal-breaker issues left. One of them is the wireless, since my command-line approach no longer seems to work. The other is that I can't figure out how to turn off the triple-damned tap-to-click feature (who was the genius who thought that would be a good idea?). Previously I had turned it off in Xorg.conf, but that no longer seems to have any effect. In Gnome it doesn't tap-to-click, so that's alright, but I'd rather use KDE. --Trovatore (talk) 09:52, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

nm-applet is the network manager from gnome(very specific name, eh?), similar to knetworkmonitor in kde, they both do the same thing. As for tap and click... idk, try in the system settings somewhere, in the mouse section. Mile92 (talk) 16:26, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

But I want to be able to do it from the command line, with iwconfig and dhclient. For some reason that isn't working in Jaunty. So I want to know what nm-applet is doing, at a low level, so I can reproduce it.

I've already looked in the system settings, obviously. --Trovatore (talk) 17:18, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

Newer versions of xorg don't use xorg.conf for input configuration (that made hotplugging hard or smth), they use HAL (software) which stores it configuration in *.fdi (xml) files. 'xinput' command might also help. --194.197.235.32 (talk) 19:32, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, I'll look into that. Any idea why iwconfig/dhclient would stop working? It seems that I have to call the interface "wlan0" whereas before it was "eth1", but other than that nm-applet seems to configure it pretty much the way I would do it manually, but when nm-applet does it it works, and when I do it it doesn't. --Trovatore (talk) 21:22, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

xinput was a good hint; thanks. The magic formula (on my system) is:

xinput set-int-prop 5 255 32 0

which sets the integer property on device 5 (the touchpad), property 255 (tap time), to a 32-bit 0 (presumably milliseconds?) I still don't know who ever thought tap-to-click was a good idea, though.

However I still can't get the wireless working in KDE. That's a bit frustrating. I did install the network-manager-kde package but it doesn't seem to work; don't know why. I'd still prefer to do this from the command line so I know what's going on. --Trovatore (talk) 08:38, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

eah4870

What is the difference between the eah4870 512 mb and the Radeon HD 4870 512 mb ATI graphics cards? --81.227.68.117 (talk) 17:26, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

http://www.custompc.co.uk/reviews/222096/asus-eah4870-top.html - it's pre-overclocked, it's also got a slightly different name. Did you want more insight? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.100.250.79 (talk) 18:04, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

It's just the ASUS brand, they label all their "Radeons" EAH. Mxvxnyxvxn (talk) 19:39, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

(Ooops, yes my mistake - the EAH4870TOP is the pre-overclocked one, the EAH4870 is practically identical except maybe some stickers etc) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.100.250.79 (talk) 19:46, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

Replacing the motherboard in my old computer

Would it be practical to replace the motherboard in my Pentium III computer with something more recent please, and still have the XP Sp3 operating system accept it after replacement? I'm wondering if its a way of upgrading the computer. I would not mind not having the very latest motherboard, but just something better than the 733MHz CPU 750MB (maximum) memory that I currently have. 89.241.37.231 (talk) 18:58, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

Windows is installed on the Hard Drive, so switching the hard drive to a new motherboard will have all the same things. Just make sure the new mb is compatible with everything else. SD RAM or maybe DDR, the IDE or SCSI, etc. Seems like a whole lot of bother. In my opinion, replacing a mb is replacing a computer. Buy something cheap and install the old HDD as a slave if you must, or back it up and toss it. Mxvxnyxvxn (talk) 19:46, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

You might have to redo the Windows activation and if the XP install disks are OEM supplied you might have some other problems. Astronaut (talk) 20:21, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

Pentium 3's generally used SDRAM with some using RDRAM and I don't think you'll find a modern motherboard that supports either of those with a modern processor, not that RAM is very expensive anymore. Likewise I think it doubtful your PSU is going to have the required connectors for newer motherboards and if you've got a graphics card it's probably AGP and they don't make motherboards with AGP slots anymore either. So basically adding to what Mxvxnyxvxn said above, it sounds like you'd be replacing the motherboard, the processor, the RAM AND the PSU (you could get away with onboard graphics if performance isn't important to you) and you might as well just throw in a bigger harddrive and you've got a whole new PC :( ZX81 ^talk 00:00, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

Sorry I got so carried away I forgot to answer the actual question! Windows XP activation will certainly throw a wobbly because you can get away with changing 1 or 2 bits of the hardware, but this would be a completely new system (the motherboard carries a lot of weight) and if it's OEM it certainly wouldn't reactivate and Microsoft wouldn't help you either (an OEM licence being for the machine it was purchased with). If it's retail though you SHOULD be able to reactivate it though as those licences can be transferred. Although if you're purchasing so much new kit, you might just want to look at an OEM Vista licence as the OEM versions really aren't that expensive (easy for me to say, I'm not buying it!). Hope that helps! ZX81 ^talk 00:04, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

Telco Cylinders

What are those cylinders that say "Call Embarq before you dig" or "Always notify the local telco before you dig" that you see everywhere? Some of them are plastic cylinders, and some of them are metal rectangular prisms about the same size. PCHS-NJROTC ^(Messages) 20:18, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

Not sure about cylinders or prisms - I guess it depends on your location, but "call local telco before you dig" is usually put there to warn you of underground cables and/or pipes. In other words, call someone before you accidentally dig up the phone/electricity/gas services causing massive explosions or cutting off whole neighbourhoods (and probably landing you with a huge bill and/or expensive lawsuit). Astronaut (talk) 20:27, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

(Edit Conflict)Googling reveals that Embarq is a provider of telecomms (i.e. telephone/cable/internet services), and "the local telco" means the local telephone company. These are therefore warnings that telephone/internet cables are buried beneath or closely nearby, and anyone wanting to dig there (so as to install or repair other buried services such as gas or water pipes, lay building foundations, etc) should first check with Embarq/the local telco to find out exactly where and how deep their cables are, so as to avoid damaging them, and perhaps also blocking access points to them. 87.81.230.195 (talk) 20:34, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

Further to Astronaut's answer, someone once did exactly that on an industrial site that was being levelled, next door to the operating site I worked on. Huge bang; all our power lost. Someone had hit a buried electricity mains cable with the bucket of his Excavator, which instantaneously melted a large hole in it. 87.81.230.195 (talk) 20:42, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

Yes, I know this. But I'm pretty sure these are a little more technical than just "signs" since they're wired into the telephone network. I'm just wondering what purpose the cylinders serve; the reason for the "call before you dig" signs on them is obviously because where ever they are there's wires that could be potentially broken. PCHS-NJROTC ^(Messages) 20:39, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

Photo? Tempshill (talk) 21:20, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

What leads you to believe they're actually wired into the phone network? I can see that they might have a cable or wire leading from them, but that's possibly just a dead finder wire (the utility guys follow that down to find the buried cable itself; it spares them from digging a bigger hole than they need to). Now in the UK at least you'll see a weird little tic-tac shaped pod on the side of most telephone poles, with cables running in and out of the bottom; these are just weatherproof junction boxes. Could Embarq somehow be leaving their junction boxes on the ground? Anyway, there doesn't seem to be a wikipedia article on the no-dig markers (maybe there is, and we've just not figured out what it's called). A related thing is a pipeline marker (which is mostly for larger pipes bearing gasses and liquids) - that's described a bit in this page, and this page says they're US DOT mandated (and presumably standardised). This page shows a colour scheme for buried-stuff markers, but it's not clear if that's also a standard, or just for that one region or company. 87.113.134.218 (talk) 22:11, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

Ah, there a utility location article. 87.113.134.218 (talk) 22:13, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

They're probably the points where the different customers hook into the telephone network. They look just like those CATV things where the customers hook into the cable tv system. We actually had neighbors that unhooked our CATV connection at one of these things and connected it their house. That's called cable theft, and we had to notify our cable company about it. You only see them where the phone or cable lines are underground because something similar to the cylinders are on the poles. Sorry, I don't have a picture, although if there's an article that I could add a picture of one to, I'd be happy to get a picture. I was wondering what they're officially called, and if WP had an article about them. Also, is they called the same thing on phone networks and catv networks alike, or are they called something different on catv networks than phone networks?Are they something as simple as a spliter? PCHS-NJROTC ^(Messages) 19:57, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

Air manifold? The large bundles of phone lines are run in a sheath that is pressurized with air to keep out moisture.[2] ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 11:55, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Or it could be a pedestal— the term the telcos used for a junction box. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 11:58, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

(outdent) As 87.113 said, these are most likely just the marker posts that are sometimes used - samples can be seen on this page, about half-way down. Orange ones, which indicate phone or CATV, do not contain any circuitry or wiring, they simply mark the location of underground wiring. The only function is to be seen and to give the message "hey, DON'T DIG HERE!". --LarryMac | Talk 13:17, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

More info ... based on this Google search, if there were to be an article, it might be called "utility marker". Not sure if it would survive as a standalone, though, maybe it should just be a section in utility location. I could not find any images for cable markers in Wikipedia articles, but there are photos of pipeline markers in Columbia Gas Transmission and Central European Pipeline System. --LarryMac | Talk 13:37, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Reset Router

Is it possible to reset routers without unplugging them from the electric? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.91.128 (talk) 20:59, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

Most routers have a small button on the back that can be pressed with a small implement such as a pen, toothpick, or unfolded paper clip. Consult your manual, or the manufacturer's website if you don't have the manual. Xenon54 (talk) 21:04, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

That button usually has to be held down for more than 2 seconds in order to reset the router (or switch), for what it's worth. Tempshill (talk) 21:21, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

Why is the OP asking about unplugging it? Unplugging it never returns it to factory settings. I think the OP is actually asking about rebooting/restarting the router, which you can do by power cycling it. The reason for power-cycling it is usually to discharge the capacitors, which you must unplug it from the electricity to do. Otherwise, there is not much reason to reboot your router at all. --76.173.203.58 (talk) 21:30, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

Routers occasionally get confused, and need to be rebooted. Most router's have a web interface, and the possibility of rebooting the router via a menu choice from the web interface. When you type the ip-address of the router in the address line of your browser from a PC that is connected to the router, you'll get a login screen. (If you don't know the ip-address of the router, open a dos prompt and type "ipconfig". The router's ip address is shown as "gateway", and is usually something like 192.168.x.1, where x is 0 or 1). A typical username/password combination is admin/admin. Check the manual of your router, or google your router name + "default password". Example search: [3]. If you want to restore to factory settings, Xenon54's advice is the way to go (although some routers might permit even that from the web interface). --NorwegianBlue ^talk 21:55, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

How do I go about powercycling my router, as 76.173.203.58 suggested? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.90.51 (talk) 22:02, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

The intial sentence of the article: "Power cycling is the act of turning a piece of equipment, usually a computer, off and then on again." To do this manually: simply pull out the plug of the router, wait a minute or two (giving capacitors time to discharge), and put the plug back in again. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 22:38, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

You pull out the plug and count to 10. Rgoodermote  22:38, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

Yes but my original question was specifically for doing this without disconnecting the router from the electric

There is no other way. To power cycle you must let the capacitors drain, to let them drain you must disconnect them from a source of power. Now if you are talking about reseting your router to factory settings you should be able to do so using a paper clip and a little button on the router some where. But a power cycle requires you to unplug it. Rgoodermote  23:09, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

I've got to question that there is no other way - the capacitors I assume hold charge representing bits - eg things such as IP address etc. They get their value through software I assume. So surely there must be a software method - of doing a 'refresh' eg literally poking the original set up values into the relevent registers. ie a soft reset —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.100.250.79 (talk) 23:17, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

<undent>A capacitor holds an electrical charge. The data is held in a chip, most likely flash memory. Rgoodermote  23:29, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

With regard to the reset button on the back, I believe that button will typically reset all settings back to factory defaults – the administrator password, the SSID, the security codes, and any other customized settings. I would not recommend using this as a substitute to cycling the power. -- Tcncv (talk) 00:18, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

That depends on the router. A Linksys that I had previously did do a simple "reboot" when the button was pressed in momentarily. If it was held for ~30 seconds, however, it did a factory reset. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 05:09, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

Electromagnetic interference - 'stealthy shielding'

I was wondering if there were any home consumer examples of using a semiconductor eg such as silicon powder in an injection molded case, to block or attenuate electromagnetic waves escaping from an elctronic device? Specifically as an alternative to grounded faraday cages (a lot of devices aren't earthed - and connecting to zero would 'inject' the EMI onto the ground line (made more difficult because we don't use transformers as much nowadays which act as natural chokes). Would the method even work?

Also in the article electromagnetic interference can someone expand on what exactly is a RF gasket. Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.100.250.79 (talk) 23:14, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

Connecting the case to 0V and then adding a choke onto the cable would be a lot cheaper than "injected silicon", which is why you see USB cables with chokes nowadays. --antilived^{T | C | G} 01:03, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

Well yes, but if you think about it that doesn't really answer my question at all since there are many sources of radiation inside any device, most of which I would expect would not benefit from being choked or having a capacitor connection them to ground (would degrade digital signals, and possibly mess up timings in synchronous device?)83.100.250.79 (talk) 15:25, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

You may be interested in TEMPEST. I have done a bit technically with TEMPEST and have done some RFI testing on missiles and printers. An RFI gasket simply ensures there is conductivity between devices. If you have a shelter where all of the incoming and outgoing signals are filtered, then the filters are attached to the shelter using a gasket made of silicone with a wire mesh in it. Any doors on the shelter will have a wire mesh gasket around the edge to mate with the fram to ensure a conductive seal. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 12:55, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

That's interesting - though I was thinking of much more mundain applications - such as stopping my CD player interefering with FM radio :)

Thanks for explaining RF gasket - I was expecting something a lot more complicated.

83.100.250.79 (talk) 14:59, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

June 18

HTML page shown as webpage

I'm trying to alter a webpage (actually just a Google Search page) to add some humorous links/words/and other stuff to send to a mate as a joke. Just experimenting with HTML and stuff. However, I can't get the page I've made to load as a webpage. I have copied and pasted the source code and done my little edits, but when I try to open them in Chrome they just display as source code. I have actually done this before but can't see why my method is not working anymore. Anyway, does anyone have any idea of how to do this? --KageTora - (영호 (影虎)) (talk) 08:21, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

Are you sure the document is saved as .htm or .html? If you are sure it is, try opening it in Firefox or Internet Explorer. 144.138.21.83 (talk) 09:04, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

I think the 'save as HTML' bit might be the problem, even though the file shows up with a Chrome icon. Firefox and IE both display the source code when I try to open it. --KageTora - (영호 (影虎)) (talk) 09:22, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

Have you verified that the basic structure is there - opening and closing html tags, surrounding a head section and a body section? Those are the fundamental pieces that have to be there. --LarryMac | Talk 11:37, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

What are you editing it with? Right click on it, choose 'Open with...', selected 'Notepad', check it has stuff in, go to 'Save As', type in 'filename.htm', change 'Save as type' to 'All files' and click 'Save'. Then try again. What happens? Ale_Jrb^talk 11:52, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

Sounds like it is being saved as a txt file. Windows likes to hide extensions, so you save it as "myfile.html" and it actually saves it as "myfile.html.txt" and then hides the txt from you when you view the files. 67.43.242.174 (talk) 02:04, 20 June 2009 (UTC)

Force to use proxy

I'm looking for program that allows me to set a proxy for a program that does not support proxies. Basically the program does not have proxy settings page, but I need the program to connect to the proxy —Preceding unsigned comment added by Flamefireforcefield (talk • contribs) 10:39, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

If the OS is Windows and the proxy is SOCKS, you can use SocksCap. -- BenRG (talk) 11:43, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

What's the program you're trying to use and what's the type of proxy (or the port number it runs on) that you're trying to use? ZX81 ^talk 14:51, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

Another option is Proxyfirewall. It is currently in Beta, but i found it to be a great help when i needed to route different programs over different connections. Excirial ^{(Contact me,Contribs)} 08:02, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

.svg file

how to open .svg file(images)??Shraktu (talk) 11:06, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

Firefox, Inkscape, CorelDraw, GIMP. 87.113.134.218 (talk) 11:31, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

Opera (web browser) and Google Chrome will do dynamic svg. Even MS IE can be got to display it but you've got to download a plugin and it tries to make life difficult. Dmcq (talk) 13:45, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

Power cycling to drain the capacitors

In a recent thread someone mentioned unplugging a router to discharge the capacitors. I've also heard that advice—if you're having problems with your home connection, unplug the router, wait 30 seconds, then plug it back in. Major ISPs advise people to do it. But I can't for the life of me imagine how it would help. Are the power supplies on home routers so cheap that they go into some kind of failure mode that can only be fixed by draining the capacitors? And how exactly does that lead to connection problems? Or is it just a rain dance? -- BenRG (talk) 13:41, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

There is actually a difference - at least in some routers. If you reset a router without removing the power - or if you remove the power just several second, the router will perform a Warm reboot, also known as a soft reboot. Most routers will behave as if the power accidentally fell away, or as if someone fell over a cable. It will not do a full reboot cycle, and instead act as if it never has been shut down

If you wait longer, the router will perform what is known as a cold reboot, also known as hard reboot. The modem will then act as if it has only just been started after having been offline for an extended period of time. Most times this means a full system check and a full boot cycle.

The difference? It varies per router. Most times it will involve the router using its stored RAM which is much faster then reloading the settings from flash memory. In easy terms: The router will come back up in the same state as it went down, so if there is a software error it will still be there. On a cold reboot the modem will reload the settings from flash memory. This is slower, but it means it will start completely anew, as opposed to keeping its old status. Excirial ^{(Contact me,Contribs)} 14:26, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

To illustrate this: Shut down your router and quickly start it again (press the power button fast, or un- and replug as fast as possible). If you time the time between pressing the power button and it being online again - Most routers have indication lights -, you will see that it is marginally shorter as compared to cases where you leave the router down for extended periods of time. Excirial ^{(Contact me,Contribs)} 14:30, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

I guess I can believe that a shorter power outage would lead to a "warmer" reboot, but I still don't see how a cold reboot would help resolve problems. I promise you it has nothing to do with reloading data from flash or battery RAM. That will happen on any kind of reboot. -- BenRG (talk) 10:45, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

I think the reason ISPs tell their users to reboot their router is literally to make sure that the router hasn't crashed and to restart it if it has. I've personally seen that the cheaper the router is then the more frequently it will hang/lockup. It's just the old IT solution "Have you tried turning it off and on again?" ZX81 ^talk 14:58, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, many cheap routers have a tendency to crash and often lack mechanisms to reboot themselves. Some have a little reset button on the back, but asking the customer to just unplug it is usually easier. This applies to Cable / DSL modems too, though the reasons for their being reset may be more than just a simple crash (ie. my response to an above question; if you connect a new computer to a cable modem and you've only got one IP address, you generally have to reset it in order to get an address for that second machine). -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 18:34, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

I heard from someone who used to work at the helldesk that it also bypasses the need to ask "Is your router plugged in?" to a customer. Asking that is equivalent of telling the customer that he's an idiot and puts him in hostile mode, so asking someone to power cycle forces a check of the mains power connections with no anger. Another way of asking the same question is "Is your router connected directly to the wall, or through some sort of power strip?" Titoxd^{(?!? - cool stuff)} 18:42, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

As someone with experience there, that was definitely a benefit. Routers are definitely capable of crashing though, and I've had personal experience with two crappy routers which needed to be reset far too frequently, so it's not strictly a trick. And because you can't really see the status of a customer's router, this one would kill two birds with one stone. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 18:50, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

I wasn't really wondering about the power-cycling part, I can imagine various reasons for that. It's the "wait 30 seconds" part that I don't understand. -- BenRG (talk) 10:45, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Another reason (speculating here) might be that 30 seconds makes sure the modem at the other end notices the connection has been dropped so it'll reset itself. 62.78.198.48 (talk) 11:05, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Because users can't count— 30 seconds ensures they turn it off for at least ten seconds. You want the power off long enough for the RAM to clear so that you get a clean boot on power-up. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 11:45, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Do you have a source for the assumption that RAM is in a specific state when power is turned on, instead of containing random bits? This theory also assumes the modem's programmers were pretty poor coders; a programmer wouldn't assume freshly acquired memory (either on the stack or on the heap) to have any particular value. 62.78.198.48 (talk) 06:03, 20 June 2009 (UTC)

Simple MIDI Software?

I just bought a very nice MIDI keyboard (like a USB keyboard, but with piano-like keys), and want to create music. The software that came with the keyboard is rather complicated, so I am searching for a simpler application. I want a easy-to-use Windows Vista compatible application that

• plays tones using the computer's speakers when I press the piano keys, and
• is able to save these sequences of notes as MIDI (SMF) files.

I could make one myself, but I would prefer not to (to save time, for surely there must be such a simple application available already). --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 15:04, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

Is that all? Surely you'd like to do multi-track recording, no? Anyway, the program you're looking for is called a sequencer, we have a List of MIDI editors and sequencers, and I have used Cakewalk a lot some years ago (which now has changed name to Sonar). And if you're able to write a sequencer, I wouldn't be surprised if you managed to figure out how to use the software that shipped with your keyboard ;-). --NorwegianBlue ^talk 17:31, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

No, one single track is enough for me (a beautiful melody needs only one single track). The point is that I am quite used to (for instance, multimedia) programming, which I know almost nothing at all about music... So all these features in the usual software, that I will probably never use, prevent me from simply recording my sequence of notes... --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 21:49, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

I have found Anvil Studio to be sufficient. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 14:09, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Resolved

Greasemonkey

• When is Greasemonkey first appearing in internet? I know version0.2.5 is released on 20050328[4], but that is not the first version. --Shyangs (talk) 18:00, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

I'm not entirely sure, but I can't seem to find any info on earlier versions. It's possible they were never publicly released 8I.24.07.715 (talk) 19:06, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

There is an external link(CNET News) in the Greasemonkey article. The publish time of the news is earlier than 20050328, so I think the earlier versions have been publicly released. --Shyangs (talk) 19:42, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

Java Programming: Dividing up and Image

Hi. I need to divide up a BufferedImage (or just a regular Image) in java into multiple images based on my discretion. I can provide the coordinates to divide them at, but how do you suggest I divide up the Image? (The images will be of different sizes, but all will fit together (no part of the image will be left out).

For example (the image could be divided up like this) (view it in edit mode):

__________________
|  |        | |   |
|__|________|_|___|
|__|________|_|___|
|  |        | |   |
|__|________|_|___|
|  |        | |   |
|  |        | |   |
|  |        | |   |
|__|________|_|___|
|  |        | |   |
|__|________|_|___|

Thank you. --156.40.92.164 (talk) 18:11, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

I just fixed the layout so it is visible in regular, not just edit mode. -- kainaw™ 18:55, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

(it's been a few years since I did this kind of thing in java, but) I think you'll need to create a bunch of new BufferedImages, one for each slice. Then obtain the WritableRaster for the new image you've made (and keep another WritableRaster around for the parent image). Then call the destination WritableRaster's setRect method, to blit image data from the parent to the child. 87.113.134.218 (talk) 19:08, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

My explanation was overcomplicated - you can just call .getSubimage() on the loaded image, which makes a fresh BufferedImage, than you can write out (so there's no need to rake around with WritableRaster). 87.113.134.218 (talk) 10:36, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

This Perl script does what you want, which should give you an idea of how to do it in Java. --Sean 20:41, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

use Image::Magick;

my @x_coords = qw(0 100 200);
my @y_coords = qw(0 90);
my $source_image = Image::Magick->new();
$source_image->Read("source_image.gif");

for (my $x = 0; $x < @x_coords; $x++)
{
    my $x_at_right = $x == $#x_coords
                     ? $source_image->Get('columns')
                     : $x_coords[$x + 1];
    for (my $y = 0; $y < @y_coords; $y++)
    {
        my $y_at_bottom = $y == $#y_coords
                          ? $source_image->Get('height')
                          : $y_coords[$y + 1];

        my $x_coord = $x_coords[$x];
        my $y_coord = $y_coords[$y];
        my $width   = $x_at_right  - $x_coord;
        my $height  = $y_at_bottom - $y_coord;

        my $sub_image = $source_image->Clone();
        $sub_image->Crop(x      => $x_coords[$x],
                         y      => $y_coords[$y],
                         width  => $width,
                         height => $height);

        my $section_fname = "sections-x$x-y$y.gif";
        $sub_image->Write($section_fname);
    }
}

Thanks guys, but can you help me translate it to java? I'm not too familiar with perl. --156.40.92.164 (talk) 19:22, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Confused about my graphics card resolution

Can my Matrox G450 video card do a 14400x900 resolution or not? The list of resolutions that my computer gives does not include that resolution, but this quote from a forum suggests it can: "The native resolution of this monitor is 1440x900, but that resolution is [currently] not available to me. The video card is a Matrox G450, and I know that it can do that resolution because I was running it under Windows XP once I found the right driver for it (from ViewSonic, I think)." From http://www.techsupportforum.com/alternative-computing/linux-support/201818-solved-cannot-get-right-resolution-lcd-monitor.html

How is that explained? Is it that the list of alternative resolutions my computer shows are those which are suitable for the default CRT monitor that is currently plugged in, and that when I replace that with 14400x900 native resolution LCD, then another set of resolutions will be available? I have XP sp3. 78.147.130.36 (talk) 20:56, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

Usually the list of resolutions displayed (in XP SP3) depends on

a. the graphics card (even the simplest ones nowadays will do practically any resolution)

b. the monitor you have plugged in - eg if you have a 1024x768 monitor plugged in XP will display resolutions upto but not exceeding 1024x768..

This link http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/graphics_cards/g_series/g450pci/ suggest a matrox g450 pci can exceed that resolution,(maybe not in digital)

So yes - plug in a 1440x900 monitor and that resolution will turn up. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.100.250.79 (talk) 22:30, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

(By the way the graphics card can usually detect the specs of the monitor using Extended display identification data which is carried by pins 12 and 15 on a VGA connector - if you were suprised that the computer knew about the monitor - I was)..83.100.250.79 (talk) 22:42, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

Two Vista issues

(Note: I have not used Windows for much more than a few minutes of looking over someone else's shoulders since Windows 3.1)

My wife has Vista on her laptop. I connected it to the television for her to see a big display. I have two problems and Vista doesn't make it easy to figure out how to fix either one. First, the TV hates it when Vista does the black-out every time it wants to print a warning message. Can Vista display a warning box without blacking out the screen first? Second, the monitor is wide-screen. Vista is certain that it is 4:3 and leaves a wide black bar down the left side of the screen. Where do you tell Vista that the monitor is wide-screen? -- kainaw™ 21:30, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

Vista will go to the 'secure desktop' when prompting for UAC to prevent other applications/malware from hiding or affecting the popup. However, you can turn secure desktop off. This site tells you how. The possible screen resolutions are managed by your graphics card, not by Windows. Try downloading your manufacturers control software (Catalyst for ATI can't remember for nVidia) and changing it from there. Ale_Jrb^talk 21:38, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. That stopped that dump screen blinking thing. It appears that the laptop only has a 1024x768 output. The television wants 1920x1080. When I tell the computer to do 1920x1080, it does it, scaled down and letterboxed, in a 1024x728 display. -- kainaw™ 22:42, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

Most laptops have a control that sets where the video output goes (screen/vga/both); if you're trying to run it in "both" then it will generally choose the resolution that favours the onboard screen not the TV on the VGA port. So set it to output only to vga, then try to readjust the resolution. Carmangled (talk) 23:10, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

On the off chance - have you tried right clicking on a blank area of the screen to get the right click dialog box - this might contain a graphics set up link, if it doesn't - then back to Control Panel (Windows) - don't forget to plug in the TV before when checking that otherwise certain options might not appear. Often the manufacturer of the display chip will supply a set up program for dual monitors.

I'm assuming that your machine supports dual monitors - I can't imagine this not being true.

Isn't there something very odd about this - when you ask for 1920x1080 where does the ouput go TV or laptop?

Are you seeing in the display options two monitors, and an 'identify' button? eg like this http://www.techidiots.net/notes/vista-how-to-get-back-a-tabed-display-options ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.100.250.79 (talk) 01:00, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

If it doesn;t resolve itself you might want to emntion the type of graphics chip. To be honest what you have described doesn't sound like the right behaviour under any conditions I can think of. 83.100.250.79 (talk) 01:07, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

UPDATE. I've managed to minic what you've been getting - I think you're using what my computer describes as 'dual display clone' - which has the same image on both screens - it looks like the down scaling or boxing is inevitable in this mode since the laptop can't display 1920x1080 so it defaults to the lesser. The thing to do is as described by Carmangled above - either turn off the laptop screen, or use 'extended desktop' where the two displays act as separate 'sheets of paper'.83.100.250.79 (talk) 01:32, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

I'm using a single (monitor) display. The laptop display is disabled. The VGA output is what goes to the television. Regardless of what the resolution is set to, the television reports that it is receiving a 1024x768 display. 800x600 is just scaled up in the display. Widescreen is just letterboxed. The computer is a Vaio VGN-NR180E. It has an Intel chipset. The standard display on the television (Westinghouse TX-42F430S) is 1920x1080. -- kainaw™ 13:29, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Where I think the fix should be is in the monitor settings in Vista. Somewhere, there should be a place to tell Vista that the monitor prefers a 1920x1080 display. Apparently, it is currently set to 1024x768. I have faint memories of doing this in XP. In the advanced display settings, you could select the monitor and set the display size of the monitor. Of course, it would be so much easier if all I had to do was edit the xorg.conf file and set the preferred display to 1920x1080. -- kainaw™ 14:56, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

You see the link above or this [5] first image - from control panel like XP I think - In the first drop down box it should have already selected the VGA monitor since you have the laptop screen disabled - check anyway - the next step will be to move the resolution slider to the right also here [6] Because the computer can detect the type of monitor the resolutions available should match what your display can do. It's much the same as in XP.

Note I've got an intel graphics chip, there's some intel software that helps a bit, and has some extra options, and lets you save settings, I'm fairly certain it comes with the drivers.

Also here's a link to check the drivers http://support.intel.com/support/graphics/detect.htm

I can't see whats going wrong - though it sounds like the computer doesn't think the laptop display is off and is cloning the display to both. Double check that there are two display options in the control panel graphics wizard.

There are certain things that aren't supported as far as I can tell in the standard windows screen setup - in control panel look for the file named "Intel(R) GMA Driver", or search for it. I think it should be in your computer somewhere.

(By the way desktop screen backgrounds may need to be reconfigured if you have increased the resolution - since they tend to stick at the old resolution, and don't automatically update when the display resolution changes).83.100.250.79 (talk) 15:42, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

AND DON'T FORGET TO PRESS APPLY As I recall windows isn't particularily good at remembering the settings of secondary monitors - it tends to forget if you unplug them - however the intel software fixies this.83.100.250.79 (talk) 15:46, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

If that still doesn't work, as an experiment try enabling both displays, setting the tv display resolution to 1920 in the control panel, selecting 'extend my desktop' as well, and making sure that that works with both resolutions working correctly - if it does there is hope, if it doesn't then time to call sony customer support or start looking for the receipts...83.100.250.79 (talk) 16:05, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

By the way the intel driver software I mentioned looks like this [7] (first image) - I'd recommend using this for the reason given above about windows not remembering settings - the easiest way to do it would be to save a display scheme.(which is the equivalent of editing the xorg.conf file)83.100.250.79 (talk) 16:20, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

One last go - in the intel driver make sure you have not selected 'dual display clone' in the mltiple display options.. You probably want to select monitor ie see this page [8] image, for some reason the display does not default to the max resolution, so you need to select 'display settings' select resolution, and bit colour depth, then apply, then press 'scheme options' and give it a name and save. You should be able to select different schemes from the destop via right click. For additional displays only saved schemes seem to be remembered, other options default to non perfect settings. If you shut down the computer when in a certain scheme, restarting will cause that scheme to be used again. That should fix everything.83.100.250.79 (talk) 16:44, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks all. Turns out that that specific model of Vaio is hard-set to an external display of 1024x768. Setting a different display will either scale to 1024x768 (if it is a 4:3 ratio) or letterbox into 1024x768 (if it is 16:9 ratio). -- kainaw™ 03:11, 20 June 2009 (UTC)

June 19

Need MPEG to OGG converter for videos

I have videos but Wikipedia won't accept them in the current format of MPEG.

Can someone send me a link to an easy-to-use free MPEG to OGG converter to my Talk Page?

Thank you. -- Guroadrunner (talk) 07:49, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

I don't know which OS you're using, or what you consider to be 'easy-to-use'. commons:Help:Converting_video has much information and a few suggested programs for different OSs. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 07:56, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Simple regular expression

I'm using Ubuntu with Sed and grep installed (I think is standard). I have a text file and I want to extract from it all occurrences of the following structure:

"word1 word2 MYKEYWORD word3 word4"

and save it in a different text file. The result would be a series of "word1 word2 MYKEYWORD word3 word4".

How can I do it? PS: I don't know anything of programming, but I suppose this is easy. There must be something like: "sed RE file1 file2" Or grep RE file1 file2 --Quest09 (talk) 15:11, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

If I understand you correctly, "MYKEYWORD" appears in every line, but the other words might differ. If so, this:

grep '\<MYKEYWORD\>' input.txt > output.txt

will do what you want. The "\<" and "\>" make sure that MYKEYWORD is a whole word, so you won't match "NOTMYKEYWORD", for example. --Sean 17:05, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

If I interpret the question correctly, Quest09 wants the output to be only lines containing exactly five words, where MYKEYWORD is preceded by exactly two words, i.e. a subset of what your (Sean's) regex will return. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 20:16, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

It's not clear whether the output line has exactly those five words, or contains those five words in part of a line. Moreover, the code to match that pattern depends upon what characters can be in the "words" and what spacing appears between words: one blank, a tab, or arbitrary numbers of whitespace characters. A "word character" (alphanumeric) is specified as \w. A string of consecutive word characters (with at least one of them) is specified as \w+. A whitespace character is \s, and a string of one or more whitespace characters is \s+. So in the most generous interpretation of a matching string, try this as your regular expression in a grep command:

\w+\s+\w+\s+MYKEYWORD\s+\w+\s+\w+

This does not care what comes before or after the pattern of 5 words. If you want the line to match this pattern exactly (nothing before or after the pattern), you want to specify the beginning of line ("^") and end of line ("$") codes.

^\w+\s+\w+\s+MYKEYWORD\s+\w+\s+\w+$

and for exactly one blank between tokens, leave off the + after the s each time. 24.0.97.201 (talk) 12:56, 20 June 2009 (UTC)

MS Word 2003 has started checking spelling in American-English, not British-English

In the past my MS Word2003 would check the spelling in British-English, since I am British. Today its suddenly started checking the spelling in American-English. I ran a Windows Update yesterday, so perhaps that's why. How can I change it back to British-English spelling please? 89.243.192.190 (talk) 15:21, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Tools / Language / Set Language. --LarryMac | Talk 15:32, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, an excerpt from a webpage I've just found says: "...open a new Microsoft Word document, cut and paste some text into it from somewhere, and then click on Tools/Language/Set Language and select English (UK). Next, whilst English (UK) is highlighted, and the option Detect language automatically is selected, click on the Default button. You should get a message indicating that the template.dot template will be changed and that all new documents from now on will use the UK dictionary by default." 89.243.192.190 (talk) 15:33, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Linux equivalent of Windows Update?

Windows Update looks at your hardware and automatically finds the latest drivers for it. Similarly, when you add or change some hardware Windows recognises what it is and integrates it more or less automatically with the rest of you computer - I don't know what the name for that process is. Are things as easy when you use Linux, or does it require a lot more technical knowledge and initiative? 78.149.190.223 (talk) 20:15, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

This is not an exact answer to your question, but it's related: I've had to reinstall two PC's from scratch recently, for my kids who have gotten their PC's so malware-infested that they just won't boot (asked a Q here recently about some XP related problems). Installing Ubuntu is a breeze, works straight out of the box, wifi and all. Installing windows from anything but the DVD that shipped with the PC is a true PITA. I haven't tried to do exactly what you ask, though, so I don't know. However, Knoppix, which is a no-risk introduction to Linux, boots just about anything from a live CD, i.e. with no prior knowledge about your hardware. Nevertheless, I won't exclude the possibility that a Linux installation might get more confused by a given hardware configuration change than a windows installation would. As far as I know, the Linux installation managers (apt-get etc.) are more application-oriented than hardware-oriented. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 20:37, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

(edit conlfict) That's good news because my last experience with linux (2003) resulted in a damaged hard drive because I expected it to park the disk heads when I performed an electronic (soft) power down.. That's just an interjection,,

I really came here to say the name of the thing you didn;t know the name for is probably Plug and play also see the links in the 'see also' in that article.83.100.250.79 (talk) 20:41, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Operating systems, of whatever ilk, haven't been responsible for parking the heads on a hard drive for well over a decade. Even late MFM disks would autopark. 87.113.134.218 (talk) 20:56, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Well something was wrong there, especially since I later discovered that I was supposed to issue a park command (can't remember what it was called) before powering down. It's all water under the bridge for me now anyway.83.100.250.79 (talk) 21:00, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

(ec) : On Ubuntu linux, software updates are managed by Update Manager, and you add and remove software with Synaptic; these are installed and configured when you install, and they both just work. Most drivers are part of the Linux operating system itself, and just work. Printer drivers are part of the CUPS printing system, which is supplied, and just works. Video drivers are supplied as part of the X.org window system, but that's supplied too, and just works. All of these things are setup automatically on install and are kept up to date automatically. My recent experience has been that it is considerably easier to set up Ubuntu Linux on a given machine than Windows Vista on the same hardware. The only special thing I've done, on one machine, is to install Nvidia's own video driver, rather than the (perfectly good, but rather slower) driver that came with Ubuntu. Installing that was much as its Windows counterpart: visit nvidia's website, pick the latest driver, download, install, done. The nicest thing is that Ubuntu (and other Linux installs) come as Live CDs (which means they'll boot and run off a CD or DVD without installing on your hard disk), so you can verify all your hardware is supported before taking the plunge and zapping the old OS you have installed. 87.113.134.218 (talk) 20:38, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Just a gentle correction/clarification. On Ubuntu, it's probably better to add and remove software using the "Add/Remove" program. While you can also add and remove programs with Synaptic, Add/Remove is organized by application, whereas Synaptic is organized by "package". A single application would use multiple packages, and there are a number of packages (development libraries and the like) which aren't really part of any end-user application. For a novice user, the Add/Remove application presents a much simpler and straightforward user interface, with fewer "what the heck is this for" confusions. Conversely, Synaptic allows the power user to tweak the system - assuming they know what they're doing. -- 128.104.112.114 (talk) 20:54, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

June 20

Web Templates

Who has the largest selection of free Flash websites? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.180.160.77 (talk) 01:41, 20 June 2009 (UTC)

My edit to an article got changed back

I edited the article for Syphon Filter 2. I changed the word "en" to "on". But I just checked it again and it is back to en again. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Destroyer2000 (talk • contribs) 04:31, 20 June 2009 (UTC)

To investigate yourself, go to Syphon Filter 2 then click the "history" tab at the top. About 40 minutes after your edit, you can see that a user named Geoff B made an edit with the helpful edit summary, "'en route' is correct". Looking at the edit diffs (by clicking the word "prev" before each edit), it appears that he is correct; en route is the correct spelling. Tempshill (talk) 06:39, 20 June 2009 (UTC)

That is because, while we pronounce it as "on" we write it the French way, which is "en", because "en route" is a French expression that has passed into English usage. Destroyer2000, when you make a posting to a talk page, finish it with four tildes ~ (far left key on top row, on most keyboards) to make your signature automatically appear on your post. (Which desk is this?), - KoolerStill (talk) 06:58, 20 June 2009 (UTC)

We pronounce it as "on"? I've never pronounced the phrase "en route" as "on route".... Dismas|^(talk) 07:03, 20 June 2009 (UTC)

It's a very nasal "on",the French way. I don't know the official way to write it. It's certainly not "enn" to rhyme with "hen". The "route" rhymes with "root" not with "rout". - KoolerStill (talk) 07:48, 20 June 2009 (UTC)

En route is pronounced /ɑ̃ rut/. The English word on is pronounced /ɒn/, /ɑn/ or /ɔn/, depending on accent. Algebraist 11:14, 20 June 2009 (UTC)

A large number of English speakers aren't familiar with the sound /ɑ̃, so they pronounce it with more of an English 'n' sound. —Akrabbim^talk 12:52, 20 June 2009 (UTC)

rESET

Does using the reset button on the CPU of my PC cause any damage to my Motherboard or any part of the system???