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August 14

GSM and UMTS required bandwidth

How many 200 khz gsm channel pair (DL/UL) and how many umts channel pair do you need to have -all- the channel required to make a single phone call? (and if possible a breakdown of all channel required a minima for making a -single- phone call). I know the list of all the channel type but I wondered what would be the minimal requirement to pass one single phone call (I'm not sure it's the "right" section, but I think cellular is networking related isnt it?) - Esurnir (talk) 00:42, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

One GSM channel can carry 8 phone calls, UMTS uses cdma and because of that (and greater bandwidth (it was 5MHz, if i remember correctly)) can carry more, although i do not know how much exactly. -Yyy (talk) 15:36, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

I know it can carry up to eight user channel but then you also need a certain number of control channel access channel and broadcast channel just to setup one call. I'm wondering how many in total are needed. What is the minimum infrastucture and how many per call. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.114.234.36 (talk) 17:40, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

Use of standalone Google Maps utility

When I try to use the standalone Google Maps utility I just downloaded, it is unable to connect to the server. I have tried the test diagnostics it suggests and it comes up with:

Google Earth Server Test

kh.google.com UNSUCCESSFUL

maps.google.com SUCCESSFUL

auth.keyhole.com SUCCESSFUL

I have AVG on my computer but I can't see an option for allowing access to Port:80 (which has been indicated as being the problem). Other than that, just the Windows firewall itself (again, can't see any pertinent options). Regards -- Alexandr Dmitri (Александр Дмитрий) (talk) 03:10, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

AVG just updated itself and now Google Earth (not Google Maps as I incorrectly stated) now works -- Alexandr Dmitri (Александр Дмитрий) (talk) 15:06, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

Filtered websites

Could people from the UK test whether they can connect to 4chan.org for me, or if it gives a Network Timeout error. I have a horrible feeling the UK is filtering websites again, much like they did to that wikipedia article. Thanks

It works fine for me here in Norwich Zzubnik (talk) 09:35, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

hmmm, any idea what might be causing my problem? I could access it three hours ago and now all I get is a network timeout error. I've tested using a proxy and I can access that way (very slow) so I guess it must be me. I've tried a dns flush and that hasn't helped. —Preceding unsigned comment added by W.Butt ACKACK (talk • contribs) 09:55, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Has the UK filtered Wikipedia articles? --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 12:10, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

I believe the OP is referring to the incident mentioned in this article. --LarryMac | Talk 12:29, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

TrueCrypt, encrypting entire drive on dual boot PC

According to the TrueCrypt article, The version for Windows Vista or XP can encrypt the boot partition or entire boot drive.... If I encrypt the entire boot drive of a dual boot laptop (Xp and Xubuntu), what will the boot sequence be? Will I first get a prompt for the TrueCrypt password, and then get the grub startup menu, or vice versa? Has anyone here tried such a setup? --NorwegianBlue ^talk 09:03, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Encrypting the entire drive won't work since TrueCrypt's boot-time decryption only works in Windows, as far as I know. But you can encrypt the Windows and Linux partitions independently using the TrueCrypt bootloader for Windows and a small unencrypted boot partition for Linux. I recommend searching the TrueCrypt forum for the phrase "dual boot". It looks like one setup has TrueCrypt loading GRUB and another has GRUB loading TrueCrypt. -- BenRG (talk) 17:03, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

That was helpful. I hadn't specifically searched the TrueCrypt forums, and the links that turned up on a general google search were quite confusing. The ideal solution, from a user point of view, would IMO be to first say hello to TrueCrypt, and then select the OS to boot with Grub. But after a bit of thought, I realize that the TrueCrypt bootloader would then have to somehow communicate the decryption algorithm to the OS. There is no layer between the hardware and the OS where TrueCrypt could reside and do its thing, in order to permit OS-independent encryption. Pretty obvious now, but it wasn't, to me, when I posted the question. Thanks, --NorwegianBlue ^talk 19:24, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

There is such a layer early in the boot process: the BIOS disk functions. I'm not certain that TrueCrypt's bootloader hooks them or that that would be enough to support GRUB, but it's not inherently impossible. Ask at the TrueCrypt forum—someone must have tried it before. -- BenRG (talk) 11:02, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

Thanks! --NorwegianBlue ^talk 15:32, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

Weird spam

Just in the past couple weeks I have been receiving increasing amounts of a certain kind of spam, which I am having trouble understanding. It isn't a big deal, since my spam filter for the most part is working pretty well, but they are kind of intriguing. For one, my email address is never mentioned in the 'To:' field. It is always 'sent' to something untrue like 'info[at]mail[dot]com' or 'nothingmuch[at]woobling[dot]org'. Another thing is that these emails don't even have any links in them, so I can't possibly conceive what kind of benefit they are providing the sender, except he's sending me, maybe she's sending me just to see me get irate. Here are some screenies: [1] [2]. Any thoughts? —Akrabbim^talk 12:24, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Well, they might want you to respond—they might be phishing attempts of some sort. Or they might just be Bayesian poisoning. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 12:56, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

The email message may also be an effort to identify whether you are a human or a machine - by opening the mail, you may be loading (transparent) images from a web-server, which can uniquely identify your email address as a valid (and therefore, to-be-targeted) address. Our spam article has a brief mention about this tactic. Nimur (talk) 16:18, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Maybe, but that isn't true in this case. Gmail tells you if there are images from an address that you have not received from before. At this point I'm more interested in how they are even getting to me if I am not in the 'To:' or 'CC:' fields. —Akrabbim^talk 16:31, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

On the last point: that is because they are putting your address in the Bcc field, or rather doing the equivalent thing in their spam-generating software. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 16:39, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Yes, sorry, I thought that was fairly clear. You can send messages quite easily without the address of all the recipients being displayed. Bcc is quite useful for things like mailing lists -- that same message probably went to a hundred addresses, and if someone mistakenly hits "reply all" to say, "Hey, is this spam?" then you're getting EVEN MORE lousy, useless mail. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 17:04, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

I don't think reply all works with bcc. 195.35.160.133 (talk) 11:40, 18 August 2009 (UTC) Martin.

javascript - browser dependent

Is there a reason why this http://www.w3schools.com/js/tryit.asp?filename=tryjs_confirm doesn't work in google chrome? is it valid to use document.write from a popup box anyway?83.100.250.79 (talk) 17:51, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

It doesn't work in Safari, either, for that matter. I'm not sure what you're takling about regarding the popup box -- the fact that it uses the result of a confirm() to determine what to write is not a big deal at all. It's definitely something about document.write, though -- if you change it to document.body.innerHTML = whatever, then it works fine. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 17:56, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

""popup"" meant subroutine called via dialog box .. not very clear..

For some reason, if you don't put a <html></html> around the response text, it displays as blank in Safari. Which is weird and probably wrong. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 18:06, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Both are from webkit - but is webkit wrong? or just not doing undefined behaviour?83.100.250.79 (talk) 19:16, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

using .innerHTML makes sense to me. What I don't get is the use of document.write - I'd expect it to append the document, not overwrite - which is what it does when the <html></html> tags are used (ie it overwrites).

It's not clear to me that document.write is actually defined in this context - ie write to where? But the example is from an offshoot of the W3C standards body - I'd expect it to be right.

Does anyone have a clear idea of what document.write should have done in the above example?

If you call document.write after the document object is written (e.g. the whole page has loaded), it essentially rewrites the entire document—all elements. It's only useful in situations where you are generating an entirely new page from scratch with Javascript (mostly used for outputting new windows and things like that). .write doesn't append unless you call it while the body is still loading (e.g. if you slip in a document.write("hello!") in script tags in the body of your HTML, it will do so); if you want to append text, you have to be more specific than editing the entire document object, generally speaking. What's weird about the webkit approach is that it gives a blank page when it just has a text string -- it should render the text string in the default font (like Firefox), or, at least I imagine it should. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 19:26, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

That makes sense - I was thinking that the .write method continues to append the web page even when loaded (and therefor somewhow infers the current 'caret' of text insertion ie looking for a close </script> and popping back along the call tree until it finds a point where plain text is the context .. clearly fraught with problems)...

I don't understand what webkit is doing either. If I save a text string as .html and open it with the browser it does manage to display it.83.100.250.79 (talk) 20:17, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

It looks like webkit does an initial error checking pass when opening a web page - eg the textfile "Hello" seems to be automatically encased in html and body tags. (it also seems to add closing tags were they are 'optional' and forgotten.)

I'd assume that it doesn't go through this process when re-writing the page after it's been opened - hence the new file "you pressed ok" results in blank since the display mechanism never finds the first html..83.100.250.79 (talk) 20:32, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Well, that sounds plausible. Weird. I imagine this sort of thing just doesn't come up that much in the real world, because you're rarely rewriting entire pages with Javascript after they have loaded (if you are.... you've made some bad developer decisions!). --98.217.14.211 (talk) 04:36, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

Yes :) 83.100.250.79 (talk) 10:40, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

Resolved

Lost in PHP

Hi All,

I'm getting frustrated! Can't figure out this simple line fails with Fatal error: Function name must be a string ?

$txt = $_GET['find'];
$txt = $str_replace(" ","%",$txt); // <-- this line
echo 'Looking for : '.$txt;

the url being passed is test.php?find=abc+def

Note: when I have it just echo 'Looking for : '.$txt; it shows the '+' replaced by space, so I assume in the text to replace I should be looking for spaces.

Someone please enlighten me :( PrinzPH (talk) 18:10, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

You shouldn't have the $ in front of str_replace. See the examples here --LarryMac | Talk 18:15, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Resolved

O.. M.. G.. and to think that was the where I got the syntax from in the first place ^_^" sigh... as Danny Elfman sang: "THE LITTLE THINGS!"... THANKS A HEAP LarryMac! PrinzPH (talk) 18:57, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Facebook Loading Error

When I open Firefox (all software on my computer is up to date) and I log in to Facebook, my home page shows up just fine. But, whenever I click a link (be it through Notifications, or some other Facebook related link) it loads the generic Facebook page (with the Home, Profile, Friends & Inbox bar on top, with the notification and chat bar on the bottom) but then loads nothing else. I have no issue loading any other website, and I can link to Facebook from an external site and load the page just fine.

Why is this?

Hubydane (talk) 19:13, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Try making sure your cache is emptying, first off. (Clear your history and caches out.) See if that fixes it.

If not... I've noticed that for me, at least, many, many, many sites, Facebook included, are really, really, really poor at rendering. I used a debugger to see what the holdup was -- it was in every case scripts being loaded from other sources that were holding it up (e.g. Google Analytics, or advertisements, and things like that). The browser would render maybe half the elements and then wait for these scripts, which often would time-out anyway (god knows why). So I installed NoScript for Firefox and was able to tweak the settings so that ONLY local scripts would be processed. I found that it SIGNIFICANTLY improved rendering time on most pages, though of course it broke some pages as well (though it is easy enough to set NoScript to ignore those pages). Anyway, that might be worth trying, just to see if it helps out. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 14:38, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

Are you running an ad blocker? Sometimes Adblock Plus causes load problems like that. --jpgordon^{::==( o )} 15:34, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

Merging audio channels

I want to create surround audio simply by selecting different audio clips for each speaker. Is there any application that lets me do this simple task? --81.227.70.94 (talk) 21:40, 14 August 2009 (UTC)81.227.70.94 (talk) 19:54, 14 August 2009 (UTC) Try Audacity 88.108.14.227 (talk) 17:54, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

copying from cd

some times i want to copy some simple video from video cd ,i got message ,"invalid Ms dos function -------" how can i overcome this and by which techinique i can copy these videos. Also how can i create cd of videos having this property. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 119.154.20.223 (talk) 20:23, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Video CDs use a strange disc format that's different from the usual data CD format. You need a Video CD ripping program. I don't know what to recommend, but I'm sure you can find something with a web search. The video data once extracted is just MPEG-1, which practically any movie player can handle. For making Video CDs you likewise need software with special Video CD support, but I think most CD burning software does support it. There's probably not much use making Video CDs these days because MPEG-4/"DivX" AVI files are much better and most set-top players now support them. -- BenRG (talk) 21:26, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

HID DATA Has Stopped Working

HP G60t or something like that, brand new. Bought a Windcomm bluetooth thing (little USB plug that let's me bluetooth) and installed it (had to uninstall then re-install because my i forgot my phone's ID), now every time i start up i get this error message "HID DATA has stopped working."

I'm running Windows Vista x64. Bluetooth and everything seems to work fine, I just want the message gone. o_O —Preceding unsigned comment added by Hubydane (talk • contribs) 21:57, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Gravit On Mac OS X

Does anyone know where I can get a pre-compiled Gravit for Mac OS X? --Melab±1 ☎ 22:09, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

It looks like the Gravit developer is planning to release one "soon." I tried to compile this just now, only to learn once again why I hate Mac OSX - it's a confusing mess. It seems that by default, OSX has a system library, a Framework, and an X11 version of the libGL OpenGL. All of these are conflicting with each other; and they conflict with the actual SDL library desired by Gravit. (In short - it's nontrivial to make this program compile on a Mac, though it appears possible). Nimur (talk) 23:24, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

I haven't really tried to compile on Mac OS X and haven't got into its structure, so I can't say anything about it being a mess. All I know is that I like Windows better because I don't have to use complicated button pressing and dragging to copy or move a file in Windows Explorer, I have access to Visual Studio, there's a lot more available software, and a hole bunch of other reasons. --Melab±1 ☎ 03:27, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

nvidia file permission reseting after boot

basically i need to set the user on /dev/nvidia* (two files) to user "boinc" (to get boinc to register my CUDA graphics card) and i do that via chown but i found that the permissions reset after each boot. running "ls -l | grep nvidia" inside /dev shows that both files reload with "crw-rw-rw-. 1 root root..." (so i cant add boinc to the group "video") i edited /etc/security/console.perms.d/50-defaults.perms and removed the line starting with <dri>, and rebooted but still no look, i also have SeLinux disabled and running fedora 11, any help?--90.197.244.113 (talk) 22:20, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

I had a similar problem; Fedora doesn't seem to allow init scripts to chown files in /dev/. I think our workaround was to manually initialize the NVIDIA card with a script, something to the effect of

# Create /dev nodes for nvidia devices
function createnodes() {
   # Count the number of NVIDIA controllers found.
   N3D=`/sbin/lspci | grep -i NVIDIA | grep "3D controller" | wc -l`
   NVGA=`/sbin/lspci | grep -i NVIDIA | grep "VGA compatible controller" | wc -l`

   N=`expr $N3D + $NVGA - 1`
   for i in `seq 0 $N`; do
       mknod -m 666 /dev/nvidia$i c 195 $i
       RETVAL=$?
       [ "$RETVAL" = 0 ] || exit $RETVAL
   done

   mknod -m 666 /dev/nvidiactl c 195 255
   RETVAL=$?
   [ "$RETVAL" = 0 ] || exit $RETVAL
}

This handled our CUDA and non-CUDA cards, automounted them, and set the permissions on them. But we have to manually run this (with superuser permission "sudo"), after booting. Nimur (talk) 23:31, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

(EC) I was going to suggest just adding "chown boinc /dev/nvdia*" to the end of /etc/rc.local, but Nimur says Fedora has the bizarre behavior of not letting you do that in an init script. I personally would give it a shot anyway and try to debug that "feature". --Sean 23:56, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

By all means, I agree with Sean's suggestion in principle - except that it didn't work! If you figure out how to make it work, please post an update, and let us know (it'll streamline our reboot process!) Nimur (talk) 00:08, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

Aren't you supposed to set the /dev/nvidia* files to be owned by root, but with a group of "video" and permissions crw-rc----, then all users that need to access those devices are set up to be members of the "video" group (via /etc/group). That's the right thing for accessing the card as a mere user with OpenGL or whatever...I have no clue about CUDA though. SteveBaker (talk) 03:00, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

CUDA uses the graphics accelerator for non-video computation, so the "video" group is not suitable - user processes also need access. Nimur (talk) 04:06, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

several hours of google latter i've found how to reset the permissions, add to /etc/modprobe.conf,

options nvidia NVreg_DeviceFileUID=0
options nvidia NVreg_DeviceFileGID=91
options nvidia NVreg_DeviceFileMode=0660
and i added boinc to the video group and use the video group GID in modprobe, but boinc doesnt want to play ball--90.197.244.113 (talk) 11:10, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

it appears now, i can set boinc as either owner or group/in a group, for the /dev/nvidia* via modprobe.conf,then after rebotting the pc boinc will only recognise the cuda card if i then restart the boinc service, any ideas either to fix this bit now or on how to automate restarting the service?--90.197.244.113 (talk) 16:43, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

claiming a domain name

When my church acquired a domain name it was registered to an individual, the owner of the small company which was providing the Internet connection. The company went out of business and he could not be found to transfer ownership of the domain name. The registration expired a few days ago. Web hosting companies such as Go Daddy offer to back order the domain name; this actually means that when the name becomes available the company would enter a bid on the customer's behalf. How long would it likely be before the name is released? --Halcatalyst (talk) 23:00, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

It could be on the order of years; top level domain names can be purchased for at least 2 years. It's much easier if you can track down whoever originally registered it and transfer it directly, rather than waiting for the name to expire and "back-ordering." Nimur (talk) 23:26, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

As I mentioned, the registration is now expired. The question is, how long will it take before the name is made available again? Thanks. --Halcatalyst (talk) 23:32, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

If the registration has expired, isn't the DNS name available now? Are you sure you don't mean that the hosting has expired? A DNS name can point to a non-operating server for a very long time. Nimur (talk) 23:38, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

It looks like ICANN allows a maximum of one transfer of ownership within 60 days. If the domain has just expired, there is a 45-day grace-period to allow it to be renewed by the original owner; and then it can be transferred on the open market. Sorry for my earlier comment; the domain is not available immediately. Nimur (talk) 23:51, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, that's the information I needed. One more thing: are the rules any different for .org as opposed to the others? --Halcatalyst (talk) 00:06, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

I've been through exactly this situation recently. http://sjbaker.com became available (I've had http://sjbaker.org for years) - I had to wait 45 days after it expired before I could purchase it. Then I had to wait 60 days before I could transfer it from the domain registrar who sold it to me to my regular registrar. Now, if only the owner of http://stevebaker.com (who has a pretty crappy site) would give it up! SteveBaker (talk) 02:56, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

No telephone provider for the web?

Do you need a telephone provider to have the internet? Once the telephone line is connected to your computer do you need a provider (e.g. AT&T) to have the web in additional to your ISP? • S • C • A • R • C • E • 23:30, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

You can connect to the internet in a variety of ways. A telephone-line based modem is usually called an ISDN or dial-up access connection, and is rapidly becoming obsolete in most parts of the world. There are other technologies, generally called broadband internet. For historical reasons, many broad-band internet providers evolved out of telephone companies; but they also came from cable television conglomerates, as well as other "data-only" network provider companies.

If you choose to use a telephone line for dial-up access, you still need a service provider (usually this involves an hourly- or monthly-fee in addition to the charges for making the phone calls). It is certainly possible to have a separate ISP company providing the dial-up service, and a different company providing the telephone service; but more often, your telephone company will also sell internet service (for your convenience). If you don't have telephone service, then connecting the wire to your computer will not allow you access; conversely, if you don't have an ISP providing a computer on the other end of the phone-line, the computer can be connected to the telephone network but will not be on the internet. Nimur (talk) 23:45, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

It depends on what services are locally available. I use cable internet and have no telephone provider whatsoever—all of my internet comes through my cable television connection. (And before you ask—in my particular situation, I could definitely have gotten internet without television, though the wiring for both is identical and would have had to been installed had it not already been, as is of course quite common in the U.S. at least. As it stands, I get a discount on the television for getting the internet, so it doesn't add up to a whole lot more to add that on.) --98.217.14.211 (talk) 04:23, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

Like 98.217.14.211 I had cable television with Numéricable and the Internet connection was an add on when I lived in Paris. Here in Morocco, Wana offers wireless connection using a receptor connected to a USB port (in French). Reception varies according to location and connection speeds according to the time of day. I'd be surprised if this didn't exist in other countries. -- Alexandr Dmitri (Александр Дмитрий) (talk) 11:19, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

There is definitely celluar wireless internet in the US but it is rather expensive and pretty slow. (You'd be surprised, I believe, at how backwards US cellular infrastructure is compared to Europe...) --98.217.14.211 (talk) 00:50, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

August 15

command prompt

Using windows XP, I have managed to get the command line interface to go totally full screen, unfortunately I can't work out how to get it back to normal.. Please help.83.100.250.79 (talk) 02:48, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

You can toggle between fullscreen and windowed by pressing Alt+Enter at the same time. ZX81 ^talk 03:37, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

Thanks (sigh)83.100.250.79 (talk) 10:39, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

Resolved

how do you check whether

email headers are forged? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.189.57.133 (talk) 06:54, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

If you want to check if a header is legitimate, look a the Received: header. The originating server and IP address (along with other information such as HELO) show the originating source. Later Received headers may be forged, and should only be trusted if you are familiar with the originating mail server. Example. --Sigma 7 (talk) 21:13, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

LCD monitor's optimum resolution is too high for my eyes

I'm looking at buying a new computer and monitor, and it seems that only LCD monitors are available now - CRTs are not. The problem is that I have fairly poor eyesight and typically run my monitor at a relatively low resolution. However it appears that LCD monitors work best at their "optimum" - ie highest - resolution, but that higher resolution causes me significant eye strain. If I switch to a lower resolution, the images is poor, almost as if out of focus. I presume that this is because the computer image pixels no longer match one-to-one with the monitor pixels. I have tried changing the DPI settings to compensate, but it never gives as good an image on anything other than the default values, and it doesn't appear to work correctly with all software. Aside from getting strong glasses, does anyone have any suggestions as to how to resolve this problem. Are there any alternatives to LCD monitors (besides trying to get a second hand CRT)? Are there any LCD monitors that have particularly large pixels? Mitch Ames (talk) 08:26, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

What resolution and size are you on now? The lowest resolution common is X by 768 (X=1024 or higher depending on aspect) These are getting rare, but are still common in many hi-def tv displays - if 768 lines vertical sounds like it might be an improvement then I'd suggest to start looking at some hi-def TV's.

I can't find a software solution that actually works - most leave tiny icons etc.83.100.250.79 (talk) 10:54, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

I'm currently using 1024x768 with a viewable width of 320mm (12.6"), giving me pixels of 0.31mm. I would actually prefer more pixels - just on a bigger screen. Mitch Ames (talk) 11:20, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

You might as well try a CRT because people are giving them away for free or almost free to anyone who will lug them away. I have a very nice (for a CRT) 19" secondary display sitting on my desk that I got for nothing. I doubt you'd find it less fuzzy than a high-res LCD, though. CRTs also have pixels, they just never align 1:1 with the video card's pixels. It's the same as the LCD situation except that there's no optimum resolution. The same goes for any other display technology. -- BenRG (talk) 11:17, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

High-resolution really only makes the image sharper; it is not necessarily true that objects have to become smaller. You can increase the text DPI (dots per inch) in Windows, so that the text becomes as large as you wish, and the higher the resolution is, the sharper the text will become. Also, you can increase the size of visual elements in Windows, and web browsers and word processors can zoom their documents to (virtually) any size. The only effect of the screen resolution, is that everything becomes sharper (less "pixelpasta", as we say in Sweden). --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 11:49, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

Yes, check out the accessibility options in the control panel. There are ways to increase the overall font size, the DPI, the icon and pointer size, etc., in ways that are comparatively seamless. If that doesn't work, then you probably want CRT (which you can get for just about free on Craigslist these days, because there are so many of them and they are being more or less phased out). --98.217.14.211 (talk) 14:34, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

I agree on the advice people give to simply increase text size and Web browser zoom settings, but if you want larger pixels, consider getting a monitor that is twice the size of some accepted resolution each way - in theory, that should mean that one display adapter pixel maps neatly to a 2x2 square of screen pixels. Don't know if it works in practice though, you should ask to test that in the store before you buy (assuming you can still get reasonably priced hardware in "offline" locations). Jørgen (talk) 18:46, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

Bigger monitors have bigger pixels, currently rarely being above 768/1024/1200 vertical lines - a large screen tv with vga or hdmi/dvi input might be cheaper than the equivalent sized monitor (mass production) and have just as good image. eg try a 32" lcd tv.83.100.250.79 (talk) 12:14, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

Key sticking

On my laptop my 'r' key seems to stick quite frequently, so I'll have to press the key several times before it works. If that were it, I'd assume the key was dirty underneath or damaged, but for some strange reason the computer seems to register the key presses and stores them, so that when I occasionally press the 'r' key, previous presses will show up at once so I'll end up with a long string of 'r's like 'rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr'. I don't understand why the computer would seem to store this presses but not display them. To make things worse, I'm not sure why sometimes the key seems to work perfectly, but at others is really temperamental. Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas as to what is causing this? As it does get quite frustrating. Thanks. Regards, --—Cyclonenim | Chat  11:06, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

You may have a process running at 100% CPU from time to time. Try getting process explorer or some other program that keeps track of process activity as well. Also, the application you are running may also get snagged on its background tasks as well, causing the keystrokes to come all at once; an easy way to fix this is to restart or reinstall the application. --Sigma 7 (talk) 21:15, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

Probably some combination of the 'r' key getting physically stuck and the above-mentioned software problem (causing the computer to store the presses but not display them). 69.251.180.224 (talk) 02:35, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

missing deleted e-mail

I use microsoft office outlook for my e-mail. While writing several e-mails at the same time, I accidentally deleted one of them. I thought it was an e-mail I hadd received. In fact, it was an e-mail Ihad received, clicked the "reply" button, and had written a long reply. Nevertheless, I hit the red x button and it disappeared. Is there any way to retreive, recover or restore it?

I looked in my Outlook "deleted" bin but it includes only files that were in othe folders (inbox, sent mail) that I deleted. Once I hit "reply," apparently my e-mail is no longer in a file, so when I delete it, it does not go to the "deleted" file.

I looked in my desktop recycle bin and it is not there either.

I have noticed this with Yahoo e-mail too - if i delete an e-mail I received, it goes into a "trash" bin and is therefore easy to recover. But if I delete a response I have ween writing, it just disappears. At least, i have neve been aBle to find it.

The issue is unsent, deleted replies. It seems that everything else ggests saved somewhere ... but not these?

When I delete an e-mail letter that I have been in the middle of writing, where does it go? is there any way to undelete it? Thanks, Slrubenstein | Talk 14:00, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

I suspect it is on a "file" paradigm where it is not something to be deleted until it is saved. Previous to being saved in some form (as a draft, for example), it just exists in memory and is not committed to a file. So clicking the X then is akin to "canceling," which doesn't delete, because it was never saved in the first place. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 15:37, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

And therefore, iretreivable? Slrubenstein | Talk 17:06, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

Presumably -- if it was just saved in memory, it would be dumped at the first opportunity. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 20:09, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

Some email programs - including Outlook - can be configured to auto-save draft emails. Here is a Microsoft help page for Outlook 2007; you can do a similar search for your particular needs. Nimur (talk) 21:25, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

Okay, thanks! Slrubenstein | Talk 08:18, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

Photoshop CS3 -> MS problem

Not a problem as such, more a feature that I don't have memory for. Most of the time, I make small images in PS, before using them in documents, etc. etc. The problem comes when copying out of PS. In MS Word, for example, it produces a special object, which unfortunately my laptop can't feasibly support. The workaround I've been using for years is to paste into MS Paint and then copy it into the document, which "rasterises" (for want of a better word) it into a usual image. However, recently I've been working to create lots of images, and it's starting to annoy me slightly. Is there a way to turn off? - Jarry1250 ^{[ In the UK? Sign the petition! ]} 14:27, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

Is there a reason you can't just save it as a file (e.g. PNG) and import it into Word? Word is usually find with importing a variety of file formats, and you will have a lot more control that way than putting it on the clipboard and hoping Word knows what to do with the clipboard object. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 14:32, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

I wanted to cut out the time. I've tried it, works very similarly - a little better on image sizing, but requires batching for efficiency. Word usually works out everything fine. - Jarry1250 ^{[ In the UK? Sign the petition! ]} 14:36, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

Well, Word is pretty notoriously bad at image handling (after all, who uses images in documents?)... I'm not sure there is a better answer here. I assume you've tried to "Paste special" which gives you a few more pasting options? --98.217.14.211 (talk) 15:31, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

I hadn't, although it is rather obvious. Changing the setting works, although does involve some more time. Is there a way to get Word to not use Adobe Photoshop Image Object by default? Removing or turning off the ability to handle it, forcing a downgrade? - Jarry1250 ^{[ In the UK? Sign the petition! ]} 15:40, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

I don't think so, unfortunately. Word's pasting abilities leave much to be desired (says someone who often has to a lot of "paste as unformatted text" because Word can't ever seem to bother keeping formatting consistent). This is, incidentally, high on my personal list of "things a Word processor would do if it was actually set up to be useful." --98.217.14.211 (talk) 16:52, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

I think you are pasting as a "Photoshop Object", when you actually want to paste as a picture. Try using "Paste Special" from the word and using one of the picture formats, like "bitmap" or "picture (metafile). This will probably also make your document smaller. --Phil Holmes (talk) 09:43, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

Big TVs and a strange recurring zoom

Forgive me if I sound like a dunce several times within this question, but things like HDTVs confuse me. I'm really only a step ahead of the helplessly confused consumers at retail stores who ask, "1080p? Is that the same as HDTV?"

Keeping that in mind, I've seen a recurring problem with the two widescreen televisions in our house, and often with widescreens I see set up elsewhere. The picture is zoomed in for some reason, and I can't seem to zoom it out. Now, I've read about how widescreen sets with a regular SDTV connection has the black bars on the side, and people zoom in to get rid of them, yadda-e-yadda. However, it's not the case here. Let's take the big TV downstairs for example, displaying the The Weather Channel.

• The logo in the bottom right corner is cut off, displaying only "The Weather." This is typical with many other channels because of this problem.
• I can't see the news ticker-type bar at the bottom, you know, which reports on conditions in your area. The most I can see is the top of the word "now" at the bottom right corner, and the top of the digits for time and temperature in the lower right corner.
• Vital information is hardly ever displayed at the top, left, or right, so I can't really ascertain the effects on those sides.

Now, let's see what messing with the image settings does.

• Set by Program - Not sure, but it looks just like 16:9, which is what I keep it on.
• 4:3 - We get the black bars on the left and right sides, as expected. However, there's still the same amount of material cut off at the bottom and (presumably) top. I'd say things look too skinny and tall here, but sometimes they don't. My visual judgment is terrible, I guess. Have years of online video compression given me a huge tolerance for not-quite-right picture?
• 16:9 - The setting I keep it on, and the basis of my description above.
• Zoom1 and Zoom2 - Yeah, right. That will solve the problem. :-P Things are, of course, more zoomed in. In case you hadn't figured.
• Just Scan - I don't know what this really does, but the problem is actually a little alleviated here; almost all of The Weather Channel logo is visible, the only thing cut off being the actual temperatures and data in the ticker (that is, 3 Day, Air Quality, UV Index, etc. is visible at the bottom, but not the data to go along).

As far as I know, everything is properly connected: the TV is connected with an HDMI cable to a silver cable box provided by Time Warner Cable; we got it for free, upgrading from our SDTV cable box. The box is connected to the wall by a coaxial cable. My mom's TV upstairs, which suffers the same problems, is only connected by a coaxial cable.

One last thing: this problem is only limited to the cable. That is to say, the Wii and DVD player (both connected by humble RCA connectors, by the way) in no way suffer from this zoom-in problem.

So with this mammoth block of information, can someone help this poor HDTV noob?--The Ninth Bright Shiner 16:05, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

It sounds like your cable box is doing the zooming in too and there is no way your TV can recover what it doesn't see. Can you change the settings on your cable box? Try tinkering the screen-fitting mechanisms there or turn it off altogether and let your TV do the zooming instead. --antilived^{T | C | G} 23:14, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

Oh, I knew that there was a simple solution that could be expressed in a mere three sentences or less! Thank you greatly!--The Ninth Bright Shiner

Fax number

Dear Wikipedians:

If someone lives in Hong Kong and has the following fax number:

12345678

and I'm trying to reach her from another country (say the States), what would be the full number that I would use? I know it starts with 011, but am not sure what follows.

Thanks,

70.31.159.125 (talk) 16:14, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

First thing I'd do is go to some Hong Kong sites, click for "contact us"--they usually have an address, phone, and fax number.

If the numbers are 8 digits, then I'd try the 011-(8 digit number)74.15.87.114 (talk) 16:31, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

(International calling code, often written as "+") - (852) - (the number). Our article Telephone numbers in Hong Kong says that numbers are eight digits, and that landlines start with 2 or 3 - hence I'd expect a fax number to start with 2 or 3 as well. From the US you dial 01185212345678. Sometimes you have to dial another number to get an outside line first. Jørgen (talk) 18:40, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

Thanks Jørgen, that's exactly what I was looking for. Sorry the telephone number is not a real one, I did it to protect the confidentiality of the original number. The original number does start with a 2. But at least I got the 8 digits right ;-) 70.31.154.245 (talk) 14:42, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

Good to hear - I did get the point about 12345678 being an example, just thought you could verify that it was a fax number if it started with 2 or 3 (which it did). Good luck faxing :-) Jørgen (talk) 17:20, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

Thanks again Jørgen, I think the main problem for me will be trying to fax over a pre-paid calling card, which could get tricky. If it was straight-dial using my regular phone company's lines then I have nothing to worry about. Fingers crossed... ;) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.29.25.184 (talk) 20:33, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

Resolved

I’ve never created a website—how much does it cost (time effort)?

Should I even bother if there are better alternatives?

Okay, I’ve had accounts on other sites, and I know a little hmtl, and thus maybe, xml.

(1) I want about 100 pages—mostly text, and maybe the ability to create more.

(2) Could I cheaply store lots of pics, audio, and video—like 1 000 files each?

(3) I’ll likely do most of the art and design—i.e. what it would look like.

(4) Can I alter the site it at a distance—via other computers?

(5) Can I be anonymous—or have it in another’s name—consenting, though maybe a bit of a patsy? No I’m not going to use it to say, traffic drugs, send messages to the sleepers, post hardcore sick kinky internet porn, or violate copyright laws—at least not so obviously (“Click here for your favorite Beatles, Rolling Stones, Metallica, Gene Simmons, Dr. Dre, and Disney tunes!”)—I mostly likes my privacy—and maybe post counter-revolutionary essays.

(6) how about forums like this “phpbb” forum?

(7) how about wikis—Media Wiki wikis? No, I’m not going to use it to yammer on about “liberal bias” or anonymous edits = edits with no credibility—I still love ya’s Wikipedia and will continue to contribute—perhaps even monetarily, if I can find a way to do so anonymously.  :-)

Thank you all for comments and help, and reading my question.
:-)
.74.15.87.114 (talk) 16:31, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

Cost: if you want to have control over your site, host lots of pictures, have total control over the content, you'll probably want to purchase some dedicated hosting. That's not very expensive—$9 a month or so (Google dreamhost or bluehost, for example). You also need to register a domain name--that's around $10 a year. So total straight-up cost you're talking about $120 a year. Which is pretty cheap, as far as things go. This is assuming that you don't become WILDLY popular, in which case bandwidth becomes an issue and prices can go up.

That's just straight money. The rest is time and opportunity costs. Here things go up a LOT if you don't have a lot of experience with this sort of thing. Think about how long you think it would take to put up your 100 pages, now multiple that by, say, ten. That's probably how long it will take. It takes a long time, unless you are just throwing things up like one of those Geocities nutjobs, with no care to whether it makes sense, looks sane, etc. I sometimes get paid to make very small sites for people -- maybe 7 or 8 pages total. Getting the design right takes me maybe a week or two; once I have a fixed design, it just takes a few hours or so to drop in all the text and make sure it is working right. But I have been using HTML, CSS, and Javascript pretty continuously for the last, I don't know, six years. All of these things have a learning curve, especially if you are designing new things from scratch. It is an entirely different exercise than just editing something else that has already been constructed, and a lot harder, usually.

You can be anonymous to a degree. That is, you don't have to put your name on the site anywhere, and you have your domain name registered "privately" so that all anyone sees is the name of your domain registrar. Your host will, however, reveal your name to authorities if forced to, so it isn't truly anonymous. But it's good enough if you are not doing anything illegal and just want to be discreet.

Forums, MediaWiki, etc. -- these things range from "easy to set up in an hour or so" to "you are going to spend a week trying to get this working right." MediaWiki is on the "hard" end of the scale unless you are already familiar with setting up MySQL databases, PHP, and server configurations. How long anything will take, how easy it will be, this all depends on your own knowledge and familiarity with the software, and whether your host provides the necessary tools (like a MySQL database, which is needed for MediaWiki). --98.217.14.211 (talk) 17:08, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

Untraceable cell phones, external drives, and that “wii” laptop

Okay, lets say I was in Iran or Red China. I’m on a cell phone and/or laptopping on the internet and/or using an external drive on a desk top, miles from my home. The content of my conversation and/or internet posts are so un-Islamic and/or counter-revolutionary, it’d make Khomeini and Mao—maybe even Deng—spin in their graves.

or maybe the CIA and NSA are after me,

or maybe I’m a paranoia who has lined the walls of my house with aluminum foil as a means to deflect the mind control rays,

or maybe I’m the type that Interpol would be interested in, and perhaps should be monitored,

or maybe, just maybe, I’m a not-too-abnormal person, living in a not-too-abnormal country, with a not-too-abnormal government, but if there were simple ways to insure a degree of privacy and anonymity in an age where we are losing a fair amount of it, I think I should avail of it.

Should I take the batteries out? What if there was an internal one, and/or one of these “transducers”? Should I perhaps wrap it in aluminum foil—I did so with my AM-FM radio, and I still got reception. What about this “faraday” cage? Would I have to make a box of lead, lead glass, or brick, and lug around a +50 weight?

Will it not matter as when put the external drive, or even CD-ROM or floppy disk, into my computer at home—the one not on the internet—some program will tell my computer to send out rays of its own—gosh am I paranoid or what?
:-D

Again, comments are appreciated.
:-)
74.15.87.114 (talk) 16:54, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

Your computer already sends out detectable rays of its own... see Van Eck phreaking. But, um, yeah. It's hard to be really, really private. If you were seriously serious about total paranoid security, you need a lot of physical apparatus, a lot of understanding of security principles, some familiarity with cryptological software, and so forth. There are books and books written on this kind of thing. You can't just wrap an antennae in tin-foil and expect that to do anything useful. Security is not about one little technical trick (which change at a ferocious rate anyway); it is an entire state of mind, a philosophy of interacting with the world. Instead of reading a bunch of security books, read the rather entertaining Cryptonomicon, which plays with these questions in a very fun way. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 17:16, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

You can get more or less good security and privacy by installing stable Debian, encrypting your whole hard-drive, using Tor for all your Internet and maybe something like privoxy to ensure your browser doesn't leak anything unnecessary. TrueCrypt might also be interesting. As per above there are obviously many other things to consider and you can never know too much. -194.197.235.43 (talk) 17:41, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

Such good answers in under an hour! Keep 'em coming.
Gotta go soon, though.
(((((Wikipedia))))74.15.87.114 (talk) 17:56, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

See Faraday Cage as per your idea of lugging it around. Luckily for you they aren't huge cages made of lead. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.133.202.209 (talk) 20:50, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

See also TEMPEST. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 23:41, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

None of this will protect you from an agent (or private eye) with a camera. (In fact, a heavily modified notebook will make you easier to pick out in a crowd of notebook users.) No need to use a TEMPEST attack when a telephoto lens would work as well. APL (talk) 18:36, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

Here's [3] a nice little essay on the security mindset, if you haven't got it naturally you'll have to work hard at it. It is people like these who you have to contend with if you have some reason behind your paranoia. Dmcq (talk) 13:12, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

That's a fun essay. I think I'll give his book a spin.... --98.217.14.211 (talk) 20:45, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

disconnecting servers during Power Mac G5 bootup

I acquired a Power Mac G5 when a company went out of business. When it boots, it looks for two servers which are not now available. How can I turn off the search for the servers? Also, when I attempt Software Update, it tells me it can't find the update server and that I should connect to the Internet. I am connected to the Internet through an Ethernet port. What can I do? Thanks for your help. --Halcatalyst (talk) 20:26, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

What are the 2 servers it is attempting to access, and how do you know it is accessing them (for example, does some message pop up on the screen)? Also, what version of Mac OS is running on it? What happens if you boot with the "shift" key held down? 69.251.180.224 (talk) 02:42, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

Apparently there is only one server, called BDXserve. This was undoubtedly a server at the company where the computer came from. The OS is Mac OS X 10.4.9. When I hold down the shift key while booting, a safe boot menu comes up. It requires a password to continue; I may be able to get the password from the last user (my wife worked at the company, which went out of business, and she may know the person). The first message is "Connection failed: The server may not exist or is not operational at this time. Check the server name or IP address and try again. [OK]" I click OK, and soon after, another message appears: "AFP connection status: looking up "BDXserve. [Cancel]" If I don't cancel, after a while the "Connection failed" messages comes up again. The system reties one more time, and that's it. --Halcatalyst (talk) 21:00, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

These are dialog boxes that come up while the computer is booting? Does it at least get to the "Welcome to Mac OS X" screen (the one with the progress bar at the bottom) before it displays the error messages? Also, what happens if you hold down the shift key only after the "welcome to Mac OS X" screen appears – does it behave any differently? 69.251.180.224 (talk) 06:55, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

I don't see a "Welcome to Mac OS" screen, just the Apple symbol and a spinning wheel, then the main screen. That is when the "Connection failed" message comes up.--Halcatalyst (talk) 14:35, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, I meant "Starting Mac OS X..." which should be immediately after the Apple symbol with the spinning wheel. Anyway what you could do is, after you boot the machine, go to System Preferences, then Accounts, then Login Items and see which programs start up when you login. If there is anything in this list, then to remove it you will probably need the password from the last user. And likewise booting with the Shift key held down should bypass whatever program is accessing the server in question, if you know the login password. This password is also necessary for authentication whenever you install new software or critical security updates, so please talk to the last owner of the computer. 69.251.180.224 (talk) 03:28, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

I was able to cancel all the login applications and now the connection failures do not appear. Thank you! --Halcatalyst (talk) 17:09, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Text from PDF to Word

Using Adobe Acrobat Professional, I've converted a significant number of Word files from .doc to .pdf, always deleting the .doc file after the conversion is completed. I just discovered that I'd like to add a Word-style comment to one of these converted documents. On a Windows-based computer, is there any way to open the text in Word? I've tried rightclicking-"Open With"-Microsoft Word, but that yields nothing but gibberish. I can copy/paste the words, but this just yields the words themselves; as I have this file as part of a personal archive, I don't want it to deviate from the original, and I don't want to redo every little formatting detail if I don't have to. Nyttend (talk) 20:38, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

Short answer: not really.

Long answer: if you Google around you can find lots of bits of software that purpose to convert PDFs to Word files. Most of them work by just stripping out the text (as you did when you copied and pasted it). If formatting is important, then there is almost surely not anything that lets you do that. PDF is primarily a "write once" format.

Hopeful answer: Acrobat has rather extensive commenting features of its own, which I presume you know about. Perhaps one of these could substitute? There are also features that let you add text to PDFs. You might look into the Advanced Commenting menu and see if there is a substitute. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 21:15, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

I just realised something that I'd not explained — I'd like to open this file in a format that Word can produce, either .doc or something else. I'm not talking about trying to edit the PDF. Nyttend (talk) 22:49, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

You have just realized one of the intents of PDF: to be able to distribute documents that can't readily be changed. See Gizmo's Freeware for some tools that might help. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 23:11, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

Hmm, I never realised that that was part of the goal of a PDF: I knew that it wasn't supposed to be easily changeable, but I didn't know that it was supposed to be difficult to copy. If I'd known that, I wouldn't have asked; thanks for explaining! Nyttend (talk) 00:13, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

If you Google "convert pdf to word" you will find lots of programs whose main purpose is doing what you ask. I don't think they will exactly recreate your text (for example, any styles that you had will be lost and they may not handle headers/footers to well) but I have used a fore-runner of these with considerable success. And at least you've learnt that disk space is so cheap it's not worth deleting things :-) --Phil Holmes (talk) 09:37, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

Actually, it's not that big of a deal: I keep documents that might be extremely important; these are papers from when I was in college. I've always kept all my college papers, and I've added with Word's "Comment" feature the professors' comments on the hard copies; the thing is that I forgot to note the comments from a couple of papers. As the IP suggested, I simply used the Acrobat commenting feature. Nyttend (talk) 21:35, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

I have a related question. I want to convert a .PDF, which contains data in a tabular format, to an Excel file. When I use the OCR text recognition of Adobe Acrobat, it does not recognize the white space as delimiting the fields (columns) in the records (rows). Ideally I want to be able to do it using Acrobat itself without having to download new software. 69.251.180.224 (talk) 03:32, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Blender texture problem

I am using Blender 3d and I have a problem with Blender Game Engine. When I start the game the textures are not visible. Nodes doesn´t work either. Does anyone know how to fix it? --81.227.70.94 (talk) 21:00, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

August 16

The power of IP addresses

Out of curiosity, what is the most someone can do with your computer's IP address? (assuming that someone is incredibly good with computers) I'd both like to hear technological answers (i.e. how that person could 'hack'/'crack' your computer using only a computer) and also social engineering answers (i.e. 'hacking'/'cracking' your computer by maybe locating your Internet service provider, calling the company and asking for the owner of that IP address... something like that). I keep hearing that there isn't much one can do with an IP address so I thought I'd ask here --BiT (talk) 00:54, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

Just a guess — if you have a dynamic IP, perhaps nothing? And if you don't: I seriously doubt that you could get any information by calling the company, as privacy laws would likely prevent them from telling that kind of thing even if they wanted to tell it to you. Nyttend (talk) 01:09, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

The whole point of social engineering is acquiring information you shouldn't be able to. But the best hacker in the world couldn't do anything to you or your computer if you're not using a static IP? What if you are using a static IP? By what means would the hacker do this? --BiT (talk) 02:05, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

You could probe the address, which might get you something. Windows, for example, has a lot of random open ports that it uses for various Windows-y things (and are in most cases not used at all). Assuming the "victim" has an old, buggy, never-updated Windows install, and doesn't use a firewall, there are various tools one could use to totally compromise the machine, execute arbitrary code, etc. If they have a firewall, if they are patched up... not so much, unless you happen to know about unpatched Windows exploits (which are probably out there). (This is how the Blaster worm was able to spread through networks very quickly.) --98.217.14.211 (talk) 04:03, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

The things you can do with an IP address pretty much divide into two categories: sending network traffic to that address, and looking the address up in various sorts of lists.

All forms of "probing" or "scanning" fall into the first category: they involve sending traffic to the IP address and analyzing what comes back. This can include pinging to see if a computer responds, or scanning for open ports to attack them or just to determine what operating system is running. Of course, accessing a Web site or other network resource also involves your computer sending traffic to the IP address of the server or other resource. Another thing that can be done is to traceroute the IP address, which will discover the addresses of Internet routers between you and that address.

The second category, looking the IP address up in a list, includes a lot of different kinds of lists. The WHOIS system is a global directory that includes information on who owns IP addresses (and domains), and can be used to find out what ISP or company controls an IP address. This sometimes also gives you the geographical area. There are both public and private geotargeting databases which can give you the geographical area of an IP address. There are also lists such as DNSBLs which contain IP addresses reported to be involved in spam or other bad activity. --FOo (talk) 06:36, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

Skype lowers the volume on other programs

Whenever I receive a call on Skype, the volume of every other programs (in the Windows 7 Volume Mixer) goes down to almost nothing. How do I stop it? It's annoying. Digger3000 (talk) 02:15, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

In your Skype, select Tools then Options. On the window that appears, under General, select Audio settings, then untick the box that says Automatically adjust speaker settings. Should fix it :) 88.105.90.106 (talk) 16:36, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

Help modifying AutoIt v3 sample script?

Resolved

Using a mobile phone / cell phone as a pocket computer only

I have never had a mobile phone / cell phone. I do not like them, do not want one. But there are lots of old mobile phones knocking around. If I removed the SIM card, would it be possible to use any of them as a pocket computer? Is removing the SIM card enough to make incoming or outgoing calls impossible? Is it just the newest mobile phones that could be used as a pocket computer, or would some older ones that could be obtained free or cheap do this? Functions I would like to use would be using a simple basic-like programming language, reading Project Gutenberg texts, playing puzzle or board games against the computer. Thanks. 78.144.207.41 (talk) 17:24, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

If you have no mobile-telephone service subscription, you will not be able to receive calls (except that in some locations, 9-1-1 emergency service calls are available without a subscription). Your phone may also provide a hardware or software "mode" switch to turn off all its radios (many new phones call this "airplane mode"). You should consider what operating system you want to run on the mobile device - some will be more suitable for operation when not connected to the mobile-phone data network; some devices will also have Bluetooth or 802.11 capability for networking independently from the cellular tower network. Also, have you looked at Netbooks? Some of these new devices are nearly as small (and cheap) as a "telephone" device. Nimur (talk) 18:27, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

I think there's a mismatch between the OP's "lots of old mobile phones knocking about" and Nimur's "Netbooks . . . these new devices": my interpretation was that the OP wishes to cheaply repurpose an essentially free resource, not spend serious money on a new gadget. Actually, as someone who has also eschewed mobile phones, I'm intrigued by the OP's idea and will be interested in the answers. 87.81.230.195 (talk) 23:27, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

I only mentioned netbooks because they are very cheap - new units can be below $200. A quick web search seems to indicate that even a refurbished/used smartphone will start at around $50 if you want something with a QWERTY keyboard (this puts the two classes of devices into overlapping price ranges). Nimur (talk) 00:26, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

Sounds like you should be buying a used PDA. PDA's have somewhat gone out of fashion with fancy modern phones - but they are actually pretty well suited to your needs. SteveBaker (talk) 00:35, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. the PDA article says that the first mobile phone / PDA hybrid was in 1996, and that now most PDAs sold are mobile phones, called "Smartphones". I am looking to get something at very little cost, really just as a toy to play with during long journeys. 78.144.246.133 (talk) 13:21, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

Yes - exactly. Hence, look for a used PDA on eBay. It should be cheap (because they aren't trendy anymore and everyone (except you!) wants a smartphone) - and it should still be able to do all the things it did when it was new. So long as the screen is intact, it should give you years more service. Looking on eBay right now - you could (for example) pick up a used/refurbished HP Ipaq for $40 (the new ones are still $450!). It has Windows Mobile, a bunch of apps, MP3 player, etc. Used Blackberries are on sale for $10 to $25. SteveBaker (talk) 02:40, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

My Windows XP computer makes very quiet creaking or birdsong-like noises

I only use headphones with the computer. When I scroll an Internet Explorer page up and down using the side bar I get a very quiet creaking noise. When nothing is happening I can hear what may be very quiet tropical birdsong noises. What is this and how can I stop it please? 78.144.207.41 (talk) 17:44, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

I have noticed the same sort of behavior. I believe it is EMI (electromagnetic interference) leaking to the input of the audio card's amplifier. The probable source of the signal is bus transactions (data moving from the processor to other components on the motherboard, particular the graphics card). I don't think there is much you can do to prevent this; it's an unfortunate side-effect of the closely spaced components and the complicated intermodulation distortion resulting in audio-frequency signals leaking across wires. Hopefully the next generation of computer design standards will require more stringent RFI and EMI attenuation and testing. The real trouble is, your audio card has a powerful amplifier designed to take weak digital signals and put out enough energy to drive speakers or headphones - so even very very small interference sources get amplified up to audible levels. Nimur (talk) 18:20, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

Potential solutions include

• Higher impedance headphones (I think) - may totally fail to solve the problem.
• Use wireless (eg bluetooth) headphones - the separation of the analogue stage from the computer should eliminate it completely. (not wireless headphones connected via a base station to the audio out)83.100.250.79 (talk) 22:47, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

If you have wireless headphones then there may not be much you can do - but if you have wired speakers or headphones then wrapping the cable through a ferrite bead should fix the problem. You can probably buy those in Radio Shack or your local equivalent. SteveBaker (talk) 00:32, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

I doubt that would work - unless the actual downmixing is happening at the headphone speaker, which I think is unlikely. I'm pretty sure the interfering signal's already been mixed down to baseband by the time it hits the audio card's amplifier, so you'd need a giant ferrite bead to stop the ~kHz signal - and it'd also cut out a lot of desired audio as well. Still worth a shot, though... 83.100's idea about bypassing the soundcard altogether with a 100% digital bluetooth headset seems like a more suitable workaround, albeit more expensive. Of course, this is largely speculative - it's also possible the OP's interference noise is totally unrelated to my original hunch. Nimur (talk) 00:38, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

I too have experiences such issues friends...But my case is different. I use my Memory card reader to transfer data to my SD-Micro card(8GB). recently it's started making sounds like this when ever I copy some data from or to device. And the frequency seems to be in KHz range like a bird chirping. But that sound is generated only when there is any access. It stops as soon the writing\reading is over.Also I have heard the same sound when using blueetooth USB Dongle too.Whenever I connect,speaker starts sounding like this..So this is all due to this EMI?....The thing is I have external video card too...Does this make any issues to my PC life?.... —Preceding unsigned comment added by Balan rajan (talk • contribs) 10:08, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

It's certainly EMI - the important question is - Is the noise quite and you have just started noticing it, or is it a new noise that didn't exist before.

I've had devices that did similar things, though I didn't actually notice the noise until I had had them for 6months - they continued to work for years after.. However there is a possibility that something has malfunctioned - but I suspect it is small.83.100.250.79 (talk) 20:22, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

The noise from using bluetooth was right from the first day of it's use. I thought it might be RF interference. But this noise arising from using USB-Memory card readers started recently and it's of different frequency than the noise from bluetooth one.Interference is interference,but why different freqs?....Is it EMI and RFI?...If's it's EMI,then it should be 60Hz freq buzz,but what we hear is aroud Khz...What's this issue?... —Preceding unsigned comment added by Balan rajan (talk • contribs) 04:48, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

Strange behavior in Firefox

I'm using Firefox 3.5.2 on Windows XP. When I click on a tab, then quickly click on the "web page" area of the browser, that tab opens in a new window. I have disabled all of my add-ons, and this still happens. Is there some sort of "mouse gesture" setting that I have inadvertently activated? How do I disable this behavior? - SigmaEpsilon → ΣΕ 19:49, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

Firefox 3.5 allows you to 'rip off' tabs (drag them between windows, or drag one off the tab bar to create a new window). If you're moving quickly away from the tab bar you may be inadvertently dragging the tab and creating a new window. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 20:10, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

This add-on [4] should allow you to disable this "detach tab" behaviour. 84.12.138.49 (talk) 22:28, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

Handwritten font

Are there any programs that allow you to input your own characters into a scanner to create a font that is your own handwriting? In other words, you basically input every character into a scanner using a stylus or something, and then the computer scans your stroke and uses that as the character. And in order to make it more natural, it can ask for multiple inputs of the same letter, and then when you are typing something, it randomly chooses a glyph assigned to that letter and uses it, so it looks more natural in that you don't have the exact same glyph every time you type the letter "e" (just like in actual handwriting). Has this been done?--12.48.220.130 (talk) 20:45, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

There are lots and lots of programs, services, websites, etc. that do this. I think I even saw this advertised in SkyMall once. Google it up, you should be able to find all sorts of things like that. (Here's one site, for example.) I just want to note that while this sounds like a good idea, in practice, handwriting fonts sort of suck, and custom ones, well, you can guess what I think about them. It's unclear to me what situation they would ever really be appropriate in. But hey, it's your money! --98.217.14.211 (talk) 20:51, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

They are appropriate for lettering a comic book and other situations where hand lettering is expected. (Certain types of engineering drawings are still done in specialized handwriting fonts, too.) APL (talk) 18:24, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

Even then, I would say, go with a professionally-done handwriting font, like the kind Blambot provides. Those are waaaaay better than most people's handwriting. I'm just saying. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 19:08, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

I agree that Blambot has great fonts, but for all we know the original questioner might be a professional letterer. APL (talk) 23:40, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

Sure, but the odds are against it. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 16:23, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

Lifehacker covered this awhile back. — QuantumEleven 12:51, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

The lifehackers article is out of date. Yourfonts.com is no longer free. Strangely, YourFonts.com and FontBay appear to be using the same templates, offering the exact same service, and charging exactly the same amount. APL (talk) 18:21, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

I've never seen software that will randomly vary glyphs. The closest I've seen are comic-book style All-Caps fonts where the upper case and the lower case are subtly different versions of the same glyph. I suppose you could randomly pound on the shift key. But fonts like that are rare. APL (talk) 18:27, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

Theoretically, a font that provided a lot of ligatures and character variations (see Zapfino for examples) could do this really well. But I don't know of anyone who's done this, and it would be a buttload of work. --FOo (talk) 01:56, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

August 17

Does using Memory Card ruggedly as compared with Pendrives reduce it's life?

Hello friends!, I've been using my Micro-SD (8GB) Transcend memory card for all purpose data copying or for backups instead of pen drive Mass Storage device...But some of my friends keep telling me that using memory card as a substitute of Pen drive is not advisable. They say it will worn out soon,because it's not meant for such rugged data storage. But what I believe is that we use MEMORY CARD READER to read\write data to memory cards.Then how does that reduce the life of the card. Is this true?.Does anybody know if this is true or not?.Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by Balan rajan (talk • contribs) 10:15, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

All Flash memory technology has a limited life, measured in the number of times that a given page is written. It doesn't matter much whether it's in the form of a USB stick "pen drive" or an SD card. Probably a bigger issue is whether you will lose it, drop it in the sink, etc. --FOo (talk) 16:15, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

The amount of erase-write cycles before it becomes an issue is generally quite high (usually around 100,000+); you're more likely to physically break it first. HalfShadow 23:49, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

No...The issue is,for small form factor memory cards,the read\write cycles could be considerably less!...That led to this question...Because Pen-drives are rugged because of it's size and safety form factor... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.164.62.13 (talk) 04:43, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

It sounds like you are asking whether the two devices use MLC Multi-level cell or SLC Flash Single-level cell - as far as I know both use MLC in general (though some do use SLC) - but you could take them apart to check. Thus the memory would be identical. Given the very low price of USB memory I wouldn't expect it to contain a superior product. Though this information isn't final, it depends on what you bought. 83.100.250.79 (talk) 21:17, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

Clarify - this press release [5] states that "Transcend insists on only using original SLC (Single-Level-Cell) NAND Flash chips in its microSD™ cards". That was in 2006 and refered to 256MB cards, a web search shows that SLC chips are available in microSD format at least up to 8GB. Any more would be speculation.

However features and specifications may change from country to country, and over time. An USB memory stick may also use SLC too. Other factors may be an issue. I can't say for certain - though it definately doesn't sound like the microSD card you got is at any disadvantage - this does not apply to all, obviously. 83.100.250.79 (talk) 21:31, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

Let's be honest here. Whether one technology happens to have a longer life than the other – and that is likely to depend on the manufacturer far more than the form factor – either one will last far longer in the type of use you describe than you'd ever want to use it. For 'data copying' and 'backups', that sounds like fairly intermittent use. Let's assume that you completely overwrite the device with new data three times every day (which ought to be a serious overestimate). That's about a thousand writes per year. Further, let's assume that you only get one-tenth the life out of your device as you should: ten thousand erase-write cycles, instead of one hundred thousand plus. In this worst-case scenario, your memory card should be expected to fail in ten years, sometime in 2019. You'll be able to replace your current device using change you find in the couch — if you could even find one for sale. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 21:53, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

I first interpreted your question as asking whether memory cards were physically more fragile (breakable) than USB pen drives, and it seems to me that maybe they are. As for write wear, I don't think you'll come anywhere near having it affect you as long as you're just copying files around between computers, rather than using the memory card as a substitute for a hard drive in a busy system that is writing and reading a lot (e.g. a database). 70.90.174.101 (talk) 09:06, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

Balan (talk) 11:39, 19 August 2009 (UTC) Thanks for your suggestions and answers guys. I've been using my pendrive for USB-OS previously.Yes!,I use my Mass Storage more for USB-Version of linux such as Puppy,Ubunto. Well!, So in this case, Read or write cycles happen all time. Since recently I have changed to Memory cards rather than pendrives because of it's cost-effective nature and more compact so that I can have as many handy cards for different OS or purpose....I have started using it already...Since Transcend's latest Memory card format like this "http://www.cdfreaks.com/hardware/product/75381-Transcend-microSDHC-Card-8GB--MicroSD-Adapter.html" offers bulk transfer speed. Practically I have seen speeds over 34 to 40 MB\sec,which is simply amazing. So is the reason for opting this. Now along with this came this troublesome doubt!....

Windows Vista Explorer

Is there any alternatives to the Windows Explorer shell in Vista? Windows Explorer keeps crapping out on me, not responding and being generally slow. It's just Windows Explorer that's got this problem, everything else works perfectly. I remember years ago being able to use the Windows 95 shell on 98 and ME, but Vista doesn't work with that. Any free alternatives? Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.44.55.97 (talk) 12:16, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

When you say "free alternatives" Linux springs to mind, but I don't think you quite meant that... Kotiwalo (talk) 18:38, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

It's probable that you are talking about Windows Aero (and not Windows Explorer, properly). Windows Aero requires a fast computer with good 3D video acceleration; if your computer is old (or not top-of-the-line) it is common to have trouble running Aeoro smoothly. There are many tutorials on disabling Aero and using the "Classic" Windows theme - the process is very easy. Here are some tutorials: How-To-Geek - Disable Aero, and Microsoft Help Troubleshooting Aero. Nimur (talk) 20:11, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

No, I have everything set to the absolute minimal, including disabling all fancy look and feel features. This is actually explorer.exe in the C:/windows directory which is causing me trouble. I often have to end task it from task manager and start a new instance, which fixes the problem for a few hours. I'm looking for a shell replacement —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.44.55.97 (talk) 20:38, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

I remember looking for an Explorer replacement in WinXP a couple years ago and stumbling upon this list. Perhaps one of the programs listed there would work for you (none worked for me, so I stayed with my beloved FAR Manager).—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 20:52, August 17, 2009 (UTC)

(ec) I think your options are then fairly limited. Most likely, you have accidentally (or intentionally) installed some shell extensions (which I have found to be consistently the most common source of trouble in Windows, period). Windows does not let you replace Explorer; it's really embedded into the entire graphic user experience. You can use other programs for file-browsing; but it's not recommended to run without explorer.exe (although it is certainly possible - by killing the process manually and not restarting it. If you're willing to deal with the consequential compatibility problems this can cause, then you might be okay). Norton Commander and similar software may be suitable for replacing your file-browsing needs. Nimur (talk) 20:52, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

There are actually quite a few Explorer replacements for XP, and some of them work for Vista as well. Check out this list & review of 10 Windows Explorer replacements. Out of the ones listed on there, Cubic Explorer, Free Commander, and File Matrix look the most promising for you.

edit - looks like Ëzhiki already posted that link. Well, whatever. Indeterminate (talk) 02:14, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

Disable Windows Media Player video conversion

Windows Media Player keeps trying to convert videos when synchronising, despite me knowing that the videos work at their current state (I can manually copy them to device and they play fine). I wanted to use WMP's auto-playlist function for Syncing videos, and all help pages on the net indicate how to turn it off, but it doesn't look like the option is there for my device. By the way, I am trying to sync to a Creative Zen X-Fi 16gb player. Jwoodger (talk) 14:13, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

Digital Electronics

This question has been cross-posted on the Science Desk. You can read responses there. Nimur (talk) 20:47, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

Nokia E63 caller id Display

Hello everyone,

This is regarding my phone I brought from Asia to use in the United States, if some caller is calling me my phone displays for example : +12346789023, how do i make it to display it like +1(234)-678-9023 or even 234-678-9023 there has to be some way, frankly i have been digging into it for quite sometime now, and finally decided to hand it over to you guys! Its really annoying to be using the number in that way, frankly i loose track of them! Hope to receive help!

Thanks everyone! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 123.252.229.186 (talk) 20:07, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

As far as I know, you cannot influence the format the caller's number is displayed in. --Ouro (blah blah) 06:37, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for your reply!! Agreed but is it possible to have add ons or other third party software that can influence it to do that, I've been so restless ever since i have got this phone, only on this matter, otherwise the phone is doing great! Please let me know if there is any software or add ons for this matter. Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 123.252.230.93 (talk) 10:44, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

Hard disk problem: Hitch, hitch, hitch

I have a PC which until 2 days ago had one SATA hard disk and one SATA DVD-RW drive. I've now installed a second SATA hard disk that's nearly identical to the first SATA hard disk. The BIOS reports that they are, respectively, the master on bus 1, the master on bus 5, and the master on bus 0. Upon starting up the computer, I noticed that upon displaying the Windows desktop for the first time, Vista would "hitch" continuously for about ten seconds, by which I mean that the mouse cursor and all other screen updates would lock in place; then about 1 second later the mouse cursor's position would update, then another 1-second hitch where everything's locked up, then another mouse cursor position update, then another 1-second hitch, etc. After around 10 seconds the system returned to operating completely smoothly. I then formatted the new hard disk and have mounted it as the E: drive. I get this hitching behavior for 10 or 20 seconds every time the system seems to survey what devices are connected: as in, when I double-click "My Computer", or use Vista's backup utility and it looks for target hard disks. I have not yet tried disconnecting any devices or swapping the cables around to different buses; I wanted to ask first whether this is known behavior of a bad hard disk, and if I should return the new drive. I seem to be able to write to it OK, and I ran the "Check Disk" function from the "Properties" window and it didn't report errors. Tempshill (talk) 20:31, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

Do you have the same file system type on both drives? (e.g. NTFS)? I've had trouble when mixing file system types. Nimur (talk) 21:31, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

Yes, both NTFS — my assumption has been that the file system could not be the issue, as the hitching was also seen to occur while the drive was installed but unformatted. Tempshill (talk) 21:36, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

AutoItv3 Script Adjustment

I was wondering if anyone could help me with a script i am trying to write in AutoItv3. It involves moving a GUI with WM_NCHITTEST. My script is here:

http://pastebin.com/m8c4afe7

Basically the script works and all, but i need it to update the variables $x and $y when the user drags the window. any ideas? Thank you for your time!

4.252.131.153 (talk) 21:28, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

strange packet delays

I have a program split across two linux (Ubuntu 8.10, I think) servers in the same rack, communicating by http via 1Gb ethernet through a switch in the rack. The http server end has to do some database operations and usually responds within 1-3 seconds but occasionally the response time is 12+ seconds. It is rarely higher than 3 seconds without being higher than 12 seconds, i.e. something is occasionally inserting a delay of 10 seconds or so. Any idea what this could be? I'm wondering if there is (for example) some tcp retransmission timeout in that range, i.e. the delay could be caused by some kind of tcp congestion within the rack. Grepping through the linux kernel constants doesn't find that (just the 3 second default RTO). I haven't yet found out whether there are congestion stats available from the switch (have to ask the ops guys about that). Does this sound like anything familiar to any of you? Thanks for any advice. 70.90.174.101 (talk) 21:37, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

Are you sure it's the network latency, and not (for example) swapping to disk or some other algorithmic slowdown that creates such a quantized jump? Nimur (talk) 21:49, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

Not sure at all. It could be anything. I'm casting around for ideas. 70.90.174.101 (talk) 21:50, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

You should consider instrumenting the server code with some profiling tools - at the very least, printing out timestamps and function calls to a log file for analysis. You can use a variety of free software performance analysis tools like gprof to generate graphical representations and find out which program elements are taking up the time. Nimur (talk) 23:34, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

TCP retransmission timeouts last milliseconds - not seconds. That's not it. More likely, you have an incipient hard drive failure and some disk activity is retrying over and over again. That's the only thing I could imagine that would cause random delays of that magnitude. Are there any disk retries in your kernel log? SteveBaker (talk) 01:53, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

You can detect TCP retransmits within your application with the getsockopt(2) system call -- see tcp(7) in the manual for details -- though this may be tricky if your app is not written in C. But yeah, profiling is more likely the right approach. If you're in C/C++, you might also look at using a linked-in profiler such as this one. --FOo (talk) 01:53, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, I may try a profiler, but I don't think this is cpu activity (it happens randomly including with what should be lightweight queries). Steve's suspicion of the hard drive matches up with mine. I don't see any disk errors in the syslog, but we're using Seagate disks notorious for freeze-ups. I will look into upgrading the disk firmware. 70.90.174.101 (talk) 02:12, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

Need more info on what your doing. By database operations are you doing SQL insertions or queries etc? 1-3 seconds response seems rather terrible... you might have some underlying problems. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 155.144.40.31 (talk) 02:57, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

They are mostly SQL read queries but the server is heavily loaded and disk bound, so the 1-3 second response is par for the course. 70.90.174.101 (talk) 03:59, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

Run your program with "strace -o log.txt -T myapp" on both sides. It will output lines like:

08:53:28.483783 read(3, ""..., 1024)    = 0 <0.000011>
08:53:28.483844 close(3)                = 0 <0.000013>
08:53:28.483900 munmap(0xb7f88000, 4096) = 0 <0.000019>
08:53:28.484019 ioctl(1, SNDCTL_TMR_TIMEBASE or TCGETS, {B38400 opost isig icanon echo ...}) = 0 <0.000013>

where the bracketed numbers are the time spent in each system call. If it's a network issue, you should see a write() or send() that takes a long time and you can run ethereal/wireshark at the same time and correlate timestamps to see what the holdup is. If it's not a network issue, you can run strace with "-r" to get delta times on each successive call. If you see a large gap in the same place every time, either move on to ltrace, a debugger or your source code to understand what's going on there. If the gap happens at different places every time, suspect an external issue like a bad disk, system load, gremlins, etc. --Sean 13:04, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

Thanks!!! I have thought of that approach as being messy and complicated but I guess it's really not so bad. I will look into it. 70.90.174.101 (talk) 09:08, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

Transmit video signal 10m

I need to transmit a video signal (1024x786) from a PC to a projector over a distance of 10m. I can use either a VGA cable or a DVI (technically, a DVI cable with a DVI -> HDMI adapter at one end) cable. Would either of these work, and what would be better? How do meetings rooms and suchlike run the cabling to projectors (often mounted in celings, which can be quite a distance)? Thank you in advance! — QuantumEleven 22:01, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

I've never seen a 10 meter vga cable but maybe they exist. There are certainly hdmi cables that long from the usual vendors. Similarly for cable routing, there's all the usual conduits, cable ties, and such gizmos. See cable management. Another approach is to put a small computer (e.g. Mac Mini) close to the projector and run the projector from it. You'd communicate with the small computer by wifi. 70.90.174.101 (talk) 22:24, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

I haven't ever used a VGA cable that long, either. There are powered VGA amplifiers that can boost the signal for long stretches. I don't know if there's such a thing as a DVI amplifier. Tempshill (talk) 22:32, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

I have personally used VGA cables and DVI cables of 50 foot length (about 15 meters). The DVI shows zero signal degradation; the VGA shows virtually no signal degradation. The DVI cables were about $50 or $60 on the web. Nimur (talk) 22:36, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

DVI-D - being digital - is an all-or-nothing thing. Either it works and you get perfect picture quality - or it doesn't and it fails utterly...or at least is disasterously intermittant. Both DVI-A and VGA are analog systems - and they are a much poorer choice - the longer the cable, the worse the picture quality - period. SteveBaker (talk) 01:50, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

August 18

How to implement password based security in Windows LAN Network ?

I use windows XP and as I click on fellow computer in Network Neighborhood it ask for a username and password !

Where to change these settings about the password on LAN access ??

Plz.... reply........!!

Yugal Jindle —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.173.254.52 (talk) 02:15, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

Either goto the shared folder on the computer and right click and choose properties and you set a password their, or goto start->control panel->users and add a new username and password that you can use. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 155.144.40.31 (talk) 02:54, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

HDD Led indicator glowing all time

I use two HDDs.One 160GB Sata and one 40GB IDE type(Master). I use IDE HDD for data Storage only. All OS are in SATA HDD. After a long time use with SATA being the primary boot device,I once removed my IDE HDD out without updating or logging into BIOS. I thought my PC will automatically detect and change the BIOS settings or whatever. But right from that boot, my HDD indicator LED keeps glowing all time. And it never turned off except at standby and power off situations. I didn't know why,but just left it. Now yesterday I again added my IDE Hdd back,And now the LED works fine.Why is this case?.Thanks for your help. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.164.62.13 (talk) 05:03, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

It depends on the BIOS if it will completely detect the hard drives or if you need to manually turn them on/off and although I've never heard of this exact problem (usually it refuses to detect any drives if one of them is misconfigured, but this can vary), going into the BIOS and disabling the drive is probably your best answer and it's the only way to see if it fixes it. ZX81 ^talk 14:00, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

How to block youtube ads?

I have been noticing that some youtube videos have google text ads on the bottom of the video. Is there a plug-in for Firefox that automatically gets rid of these ads. They are extremely irritating. :3) 70.171.24.164 (talk) 07:01, 18 August 2009 (UTC)UberKewlHaxor007

Try AdBlock Plus with the Element Hiding Helper. Once it's installed use Ctrl + Shift + K when on the offending page, highlight the part you want to disappear and press Enter. Be sure to preview the page first just in case it makes other page elements also disappear that you may not want. Zunaid 08:34, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

I believe the OP is referring to text ads within the Flash video, which I don't think AdBlock Plus handles. --Sean 13:06, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

If they are actually within the SWF file that plays the video, then no, you won't be able to block them. (Oh well. The price of a gigantic, free website might just be that you have to click off the ad each time.) --98.217.14.211 (talk) 15:44, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

Here is a Greasemonkey script that claims to block these video ads. --Sean 16:15, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

Demise of online file storage services

Over the past few years, many online file storage sites/ services were Launched and all of them which were launched had failed since all of them have turned themselves into Paid services. What I want to know is - is there any interest in these online storage services from common public? I am asking this because I want to launch my own service like that. If the real reason the existing services shut down was lack of consumer interest, I would not start a service. But if consumers die for such services and ready to give their kingdom for it, I should work out a business plan that somehow will work and start such a service. So please tell me whether consumers are not interested in such services or is it they are interested but not viable. If you say they are not viable, it is my challenge to make them viable. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.96.137.139 (talk) 13:29, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

Yours friendly.

The problem was never interest, or use to be made from them, but in figuring out how to pay the bills and make money (where bandwidth is the major cost). Much of the story of the web is the gulf between things that people want and things that people will pay for. Plus there's the problem of micropayments - if someone only wants to host a few files, for which you'd like to charge them only a few cents, you can't economically charge them that, and the bother of setting up an account with payment info is too much for them. So for your service to make money, you need to figure out what people will pay for, and how to collect those payments in a way that's economical both for you and for the customer. Some companies in the space of remote backup, storage for web services (like Amazon S3), and network-smart content delivery (like Akamai) will make money, but they offer a more high-level service - it seems just storing stuff for people is becoming a bulk utility where only big players with low margins will prosper. As a small, agile startup you need a novel idea that solves a real but unmet need; retreading someone else's failed ad-supported file storage idea will just bankrupt you as it mostly has them. -- 87.113.69.234 (talk) 13:46, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

Sorry that I can't directly answer your question about demand, but companies like Microsoft and their product of Windows Live SkyDrive are still very much in existance and offer 25Gb for free to anyone that simply gets a Windows Live ID so unfortunately adding to what the above person wrote, you would need something very good to actually make any money since they're giving it away for free already. ZX81 ^talk 13:59, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

For the home user, a number of ISPs now offer 5gb of storage for their own users as part of their contracts and upto 50gb for a small monthly fee, so I would imagine there is still a demand for this type of thing. Nanonic (talk) 14:07, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

The trick is the business plan. How will you make money from it? The problem with the 'net is everyone wants stuff for free (or very cheap), but once you start scaling up these services, they cost quite a bit. Ads by themselves are usually not enough for a full business model. So how will you make money? You need to really have that ironed out if you don't want your thing to go belly up in a month. It is not uncommon for a small startup of any type to cost a couple million in the first year (for people, for machines, for advertisements, etc.). How are you going to make that back? If you can answer that question, then you're fine. If it's a "we'll just try it and then figure out how to make money off it," you're basically gambling. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 15:55, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

Why do checkout card readers ask me to confirm my signature before I've provided it?

At supermarkets and other retailers self-service gizmos have me slide my credit card through and then take my signature, to be provided by me with the gizmo's stylus. It also asks me to confirm my signature. What's really strange is that the confirmation field invariably appears *above* the signature field. Why?

A secondary question is why I'm asked at all to confirm my own signature. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Richard Odin Johnson (talk • contribs) 15:21, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

- - - -

Thanks to Tempshill for the response [below]. Here are my answers to Temphill's questions: 1. I live in the U.S. but this is really not pertinent. I cannot presume that *all* retail card readers are configured as described. The fact is that all I have encountered are configured in that manner, and it seems strange. I was just wondering what the rationale might be. 2. Yes, it's an on-screen button. Tempshill has provided a plausible explanation. Assuming this is correct, however, I'm dismayed that sofware providers and/or manufacturers would seem to think nothing of conveying lies to those who use these machines. Why not tell the truth and just ask the user to tap the button when done? Oh well... —Preceding unsigned comment added by Richard Odin Johnson (talk • contribs) 04:33, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

First question: In what country do you live? Systems differ. Second question: By the "confirmation field", do you mean an on-screen button that you tap? If so, in my experience the on-screen button is usually below the signature field. As for the reason for the button's existence, I am not in this industry, but I imagine that the guy who wrote the software would far prefer to have the user tell the program "I am done signing" than write a lot of logic in order to have the software attempt to discern whether the user is done signing. I think that is a more likely reason than any legal or liability requirement. Tempshill (talk) 15:41, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

issues with google searches

I accidentally clicked on a web site that pretended to show a legit spyware warning. It turned out that instead of protecting my computer from spyware, the web site actually added spyware. I ran Microsoft's safety scan, and all of the issues were removed. I also started a scan through McAfee, and no more issues were found.

However, my Google searches are still being redirected to fake sites. For example, I searched "wikipedia" on Google, and I got these results. I clicked on the first result (wikipedia.org), and I got redirected to this website (the link is apparently blacklisted, so here it is unlinked: http://www.couponmountain.com/search.php?searchText=wikipedia). Is there a way to fix this?--Edge3 (talk) 17:16, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

You could try re-installing your web browser, and see if that fixes the problem. Otherwise it may be more embedded than that. —Akrabbim^talk 18:08, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

Reinstalling firefox didn't help. Should I reinstall IE as well?--Edge3 (talk) 18:43, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

It sounds like you aren't completely rid of the bad stuff. Try installing and running malwarebytes. Gigs (talk) 18:48, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

I already ran multiple scans. How effective is malwarebytes?--Edge3 (talk) 18:56, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

Ok, I've downloaded malwarebytes, and it found 23 additional issues, which is pretty good since my other anti-spyware programs didn't find anything. However, I still have the same problem with the Google searches. Any other suggestions?--Edge3 (talk) 22:32, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

At this point, I'd have to suggest going to a site like Major Geeks and posting about your situation there. The people there specialize in helping users who have compromised computers. --LarryMac | Talk 23:57, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

Get Spyware Search & Destroy. In its advanced mode it has a lot of features that help you avoid browser hijacking, HOSTS file manipulation, things like that, which are behind your woes. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 01:09, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

User Identification

The website we run is paying members for reading emails. We need to accept user registrations from public. But we need to see that no one registers twice. What can we do for that? If we do email verification, one person may have 10 email ids and may register with us 10 times. Can we ask for TIN number? Is asking and storing TIN number legal in USA? Is there any other way like IP address recording? Do all Internet connections in USA have Static IP (non-dynamic)? Or what are the other ways? Can we try facebook because facebook allows only one profile per person? I don't know much about facebook. If authentication through facebook is possible, can you say how authentication can be implemented through facebook? Can something be done with credit cards? say, verify credit card numbers with some credit card verification provider? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.92.113.69 (talk) 17:51, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

Since you are setting up payments, I would assume that you would need to establish some sort of payroll system, which would require, besides simply email addresses, full names, mailing addresses or direct deposit information, and possibly something like a SSN. I don't know what is required legally, with tax issues, etc., but I would think that with at least some of these bits of information, with some minimal verification to make sure that people are not committing fraud, you could keep track and limit one account per person. —Akrabbim^talk 18:05, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

No-one is going to be stupid enough to type their SSN/TIN into some website for the highly dubious privilege of looking at ads. So the only ones that are added will be stolen ones run by id-thieves looking to outsource "reading" your stuff to automated systems and third-world labour, and so to siphon off all your advertisers money into their bank accounts. Luckily no advertiser will be stupid enough to pay into this scheme - advertisers want to advertise to people with disposable income, not the kind of sad desperates that have to spend time being paid to read stuff, even if you could somehow avoid all the money going to scammers. All those other schemes you describe won't work (even credit cards - real people won't tell you, and once there's money to be made you'll attract scammers with stolen cards). I'm sorry to be so negative, but it's better than you discovering the hard way (when the FBI drag you away and accuse you of running a money-laundering operation, which organised criminals try to do with every internet payment system that doesn't spend great effort preventing that) that this is a daft business model. 87.113.69.234 (talk) 21:33, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

Why should a user be prevented from registering twice? Clearly your payment model is flawed if doing the same amount of "reading" through two separate accounts results in higher payment. You should probably investigate better ways to verify that the user is actually reading anything at all; rather than trying to force them to have only one account. If you can ensure that fake accounts are unprofitable, then you won't even need to worry about multiple-accounts-per-person. If you are paying people salary, you should be collecting TIN numbers anyway (and deducting income tax). Nimur (talk) 22:14, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

This is basically not a business model that is going to work out for you. It's been tried before many times -- see AllAdvantage.com for the classic failure. Here's why:

1. You're putting yourself in the position of attracting users who want something for nothing ... but you're expecting them not to sneak around and rip you off.
2. Or, alternately, you're trying to buy something intangible (attention) from the general public when you have no way of actually measuring whether you're receiving what you paid for. You are cheerfully offering to buy a pig in a poke; it would be astonishing if they didn't rip you off.
3. You're expecting online advertisers, who are much more savvy than they were in the '90s, to pay a premium for the attention of people who have nothing better to do with their lives than get paid to read ads. I'm guessing there aren't many reputable businesses interested to do that ... and when you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas.
4. As you've noted, you're severely exposed to scammers setting up multiple accounts. What you haven't noted is that they can do this with botnets and clickbots using stolen identities. Malware and online fraud techniques have advanced hugely since the '90s, too. You're handing out free money -- sure, I'll sign up, and so will my ten thousand close friends who happen to have my virus on their computers. Make out the check to Constance Ash, or C. Ash for short.

Why not instead spend your time and effort developing a product or service that its consumers are willing to pay for? Running a highly exposed scheme like this is dangerous and probably a hell of a lot more work than getting a real job making useful things that people want. --FOo (talk) 07:00, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

I'm really confused about this and can't find out much anywhere I tried so please help.

Can someone please tell me (no offence) in plain English and exactly how I can access Nintendo WFC (at home) , for DS but any info regarding the Wii if rather different would be welcomed too, given that my circumstances are the following (please tell me it's possible D: )

My ISP is O2.

(if this makes any difference) I live in ROI.

My connection is via a "Mobile broadband Modem" (just plugs into your PC/laptop without any other wires going into anything else)

Else if I can't do it with what I have is there something I can buy that will let me connect?

Please answer ASAP :) Thanks, PalkiaX50 (talk) 19:54, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

No offence either, but for someone who wants answers in plain English you use an awful lot of jargon. WFC DS ROI XYZ I have no idea what you are talking about195.128.250.16 (talk) 21:45, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

Lol, well I only said "in plain English" so that I would avoid being bombarded with technical computer-related jargon I would not understand (btw they are initialisms [the latter two being relatively common at that too] not exactly jargon; jargon is more like rfc, rfd, rfv, etc. ) and it seems to have worked ;) PalkiaX50 (talk) 14:13, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

For your benefit:

Can someone please tell me (no offence) in plain English and exactly how I can access Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection (at home), for Nintendo DS but any info regarding the Wii if rather different would be welcomed too, given that my circumstances are the following (please tell me it's possible D: )

My Internet service provider is Telefónica Europe (also known as "O₂").

(if this makes any difference) I live in the Republic of Ireland.

My connection is via a "Mobile broadband Modem" (just plugs into your PC/laptop without any other wires going into anything else)

Else if I can't do it with what I have is there something I can buy that will let me connect?

Please answer 'As Soon As Possible'  :) Thanks, PalkiaX50 (talk) 19:54, 18 August 2009 (UTC

What's a 'PC'? :-P SteveBaker (talk) 02:56, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

See this. Boy, You have been away from home too long, haven't you, Steve? 87.81.230.195 (talk) 07:37, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

It sounds like you need a wifi modem - if your "mobile broadband modem" doesn't have an aerial then it doesn't have wifi. If your computer has wifi that will be suitable too. To check go to "network connections" in the "control panel" on a machine running microsoft windows software. If your machine runs another type of software you will need different instructions so ask if this is the case.

Basically - have you got a device with an aerial that looks like the black thing on this image

Black thing at bottom is aerial - it may be a different colour

If you have one we can proceed, if not, go and buy one.83.100.250.79 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 22:33, 18 August 2009 (UTC).

(edit conflict; guess I was too late :) Sounds to me like you'll need to set up a WiFi-network which the DS can connect to the Internet through. The Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector seems like exactly what you're looking for if you can find it or one of the similar third party products, but if not you'll need to set up a wireless router yourself and use your computer as a gateway to the Internet (which can be somewhat complicated if you don't know what you're doing). --aktsu ^(t / c) 22:42, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

Tragically that device (N-WiFi-USB-C) has been discontinued since 2007...83.100.250.79 (talk) 23:47, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

This is assuming you are actually connecting to the Internet through a mobile network (e.g. 3G/UMTS) and not an existing WiFi. If you are connecting through a wireless network, you're good to go as the DS and Wii should support it. --aktsu ^(t / c) 22:46, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

Ok thanks for the info but since Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector doesn't seem to list any of them (perhaps it should?) could you direct me to one of these "third party alternative products". A website link perhaps? Oh and just to make sure you have figured out what connection I am using (to make sure I have not confused you or anything) It says this in a little "bubble" when I connect to the 'net "HUAWEI3G.O2 IE Open Internet is now connected". And in the window that shows all the stuff like how long the connection has been on for my signal is listed as "UMTS" at the moment, but I have sometimes seen it to be "HSDPA(?)" and "EDGE", possibly "3G" too but if so then not very often. PalkiaX50 (talk) 10:35, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

I assume that you haven't got a WiFi device built in or attatched to your computer then.

I would recommend contacting your ISP (O2) and see if they recommend or supply a wifi router. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.100.250.79 (talk) 12:26, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

Ok I'll try that when I get a chance. :) PalkiaX50 (talk) 14:13, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

If they don't have any recommendations, then there are at least three ways you can add wifi to your computer

• A device that fixes internally to the computer (as shown in the image above)
• A usb connected device
• An ethernet connected device

As far as I know the first method is the most difficult - since you have to unscrew the computer, of the other two I believe the ethernet connected device is the best bet. It would probably replace your mobile broadband modem and maybe cost ~30-40 euro.

It would probably be best to ask for recommendations though, if you need to choose a device. I am not the expert on this subject.83.100.250.79 (talk) 17:57, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

do they make more durable laptops today?

My wife has an old Dell laptop (an inspiron 1150 to be exact) that worked great for her needs: after pressing the power button it would come back from hibernation and load the web browser within 30 seconds. But now the thing won't recongnize the power adapter, and won't charge the battery. Now as I see it I have a few options:

• have it repaired, which probably means replacing AC jack, soldering and whatnot - estimate around $100-$150,
• buy a refurbished motherboard for this machine for about $160, in which the AC jack has either been replaced or reinforced,
• buy an equivalent used or refurbished laptop (I'm looking at the Dell D600) for around $250
• buy an equivalent new laptop for $500 (or $350 if I'm willing to switch to Acer or something).

I'm hesitant to fix the current machine as it'll just break again (I did the second option above two years ago), but I'm also hesitant to buy a new laptop if the AC jack is gonna break on it as well. So my question is have they improved the methods they use to construct these things? thanks mislih 22:09, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

It no doubt varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. Dell isn't especially known for its rugged, durable manufacture. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 23:14, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

You can buy very durable laptops (e.g. Panasonic Toughbook) but they are outlandishly expensive. There are places that will do flat-rate repairs of stuff like AC jacks (a common repair) in the $100 range. The used laptop route has worked pretty well for me but I'm somewhat of a techie. I've bought a few laptops through craigslist, which gives an opportunity to physically inspect the machine before buying. There are also some good web forums for buying and selling laptops, though I'm hesitant to post urls here. I'd stay away from ebay, if that's what you're thinking. I did buy one ebay laptop but it was from a local seller and I picked up the machine in person and it worked out ok. Finally, there are some very good deals around right now on mid-brand laptops that are reasonably solid. Again I'm hesitant to post urls but you can find them with a bit of surfing. 70.90.174.101 (talk) 02:27, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

If you aren't adverse to getting a Mac, all of them (the notebooks, that is) now sport MagSafe power connectors. These don't tend to break or get damaged unless you really try hard to do so. ···日本穣^? · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 09:50, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

Youtube video downloads

How can I download all videos by a Youtube user on Linux/Ubuntu? --194.197.235.64 (talk) 22:22, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

http://www.google.com/search?q=download+youtube+ubuntu mislih 22:56, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

August 19

Difference between Torrent and BitTorrent

What's the difference between Torrent and BitTorrent? Do torrents refer to the .torrent files while BitTorrent refers to the file-sharing protocol itself? --BiT (talk) 03:35, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

I don't think either of these have dictionary definitions yet. What you are saying sounds fairly right, but I don't think it's incorrect to use them synonymously. Vespine (talk) 04:49, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

Is it maybe possible that the term "torrents" is used for the files themselves while "torrent" and "BitTorrent" may be used synonymously when referring to the protocol? The Wikipedia article doesn't mention this, so I was a bit confused after reading it. --BiT (talk) 05:18, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

BitTorrent can refer to a specific application (as well as a network application), the protocol, and a company. ···日本穣^? · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 05:29, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

What about simply torrent? Are they completely synonymous? --BiT (talk) 06:13, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

A torrent file is used with BitTorrent software, just as a DOC file is used with Microsoft Word, or an HTML file is used with a Web browser. --FOo (talk) 06:38, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

Basic Java

I was wondering if you have create an object with the following code; classA B; B = new classB(); I know that the methods would be overridden but I was wondering how much memory is allocated for object B. I thought the object decleration told the compiler to allocate space in the memory for a new object of classA so does the memory allocated for class A contain the methods in classB or classA or both? Since if both classes have a method randomMethod() and you call it the classB one will override the classA method. 66.133.202.209 (talk) 03:49, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

Let's say 'A' has two fields that are 'int's. One 'int' is four bytes, so that makes eight. There is an object header which is another 8 bytes (I'm assuming a 32-bit Sun JDK). So an 'A' object is total 8+8 = 16 bytes. If 'B' adds another 'int' field, a 'B' object will be 16 + 4 = 20 bytes in size. Methods are not copied for each object, they exist once in memory. If a method overrides another method, there will be two methods, even if you allocate a million of each kind of object. The object header I mentioned above contains a pointer to the object's methods, so the runtime will know whether to call the original method or the overridden one (something like a virtual method table). 62.78.198.48 (talk) 05:29, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

I thought the object decleration told the compiler to allocate space in the memory for a new object of classA No. You have to recognize that classA B; declares a reference (called a pointer in some languages). It does not allocate space for any objects. --Spoon! (talk) 05:58, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

WD My Passport Essential

Hi all; I just bought a Western Digital My Passport Essential external hard drive [6] and I'm wondering if anyone know what type of hard drive it is? Solid state like a USB flash drive or is it magnetic? Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.249.132.110 (talk) 05:12, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

Based on the MSRP, I would guess it's a standard platter drive, not solid state. a 500GB solid state drive would likely be more expensive than about $150 USD. ···日本穣^? · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 05:32, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

I should note that the specifications on the page you link to do not indicate which it is. ···日本穣^? · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 05:33, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

Well a hard drive is by definition... a hard drive. If it were anything they'd call it something else. --antilived^{T | C | G} 06:20, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

Yes, you're technically correct, but whether a drive is a platter system or uses solid-state memory, people will still call it a "hard drive". Marketing people aren't known for being all that tech savvy, and consumers are even less so when it comes to nitty-gritty details like that. All they care about is if it works; not so much about how it works. ···日本穣^? · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 06:31, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

It is a laptop-style 2.5" SATA hard disk (the exact Western Digital model number shouldn't be hard to figure out) in a SATA to USB enclosure. 70.90.174.101 (talk) 09:13, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

Beating a Keylogger

The scenario is this: Your internet connection is disconnected. The library and any other publicly accessibly locations where there are computers are closed. You have only one friend.

Today is the day that the Advent Calendar on Neopets is giving out free Super Magical Faerie Double-Bladed Scimitars and hence, it is imperative that you log onto your account and obtain one of these rarities. Your friend is willing to let you use his computer, however, it is installed with a Keylogger.

He wants to steal your account. He already has your account name, but not your password.

As you go to type your password, you type a random garble of letters, then using your mouse, you highlight a portion of the letters, then write over them. You do this continually for, say, 5 minutes until you have entered in a total of several hundred letters and numbers. Your password is formed from the leftover letters that you did not erase. Since your friend does not know how long your password is, nor which letters you've erased, nor which portion of the inputted letters/numbers you have erased, will this be an effective strategy to combat a Keylogger?

Thanks. Acceptable (talk) 07:19, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

Depends if there is a mouse and screen logger as well, or an internet or browser data logger. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 07:26, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

This is a pretty artificial situation, but I'll take it at face value and suppose that there is only a keylogger and nothing else. In that case you can certainly hide your password. For example, for every possible password character in some canonical order, type that character, copy it to the clipboard, then paste it back in the appropriate location(s) using mouse actions. -- BenRG (talk) 09:17, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

There is no way to prevent your "friend" from logging every input event (keyboard, mouse, screen) that goes through the computer so he can later replay everything you saw on your screen and everything you did. If Neopets lets you log in with (say) OpenID, you could enroll beforehand with an openid service that uses one-time passwords, or otherwise lets you lock out your account (say by attempting 3 logins with the wrong password) after you have ordered your scimitar. Higher security sites like Paypal will let you enroll a hardware authentication token (keychain gizmo with an LCD display showing a number that changes every 30 seconds, that you type in instead of a re-usable password) but these aren't widely deployed. Basically your best bet for this scenario is to carry your own computer that you've somehow assured yourself is free of loggers, and also be sure that Neopets uses an encrypted (TLS) socket to receive your password, so that your friend can't sniff it from the network connection. 70.90.174.101 (talk) 09:24, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

If your friend is not around, boot into safe mode, disable the keylogger, reboot. I know, boring. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 01:39, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

What you need is to find a website with a high turnover of text...the Wikipedia "Recent changes" page for example. Open one browser window there and the other to the NeoPets site. Use the mouse/keyboard to cut/paste individual characters from the Wikipedia page into the NeoPet's password area to spell out your password. Neither keylogger nor mouse logger can store what was on the web page at the time you did your cut/paste operation - so replaying your mouse moves and keystrokes won't work because the Wikipedia page now has different text on it. I suppose you should flush the browser cache at some point...just to be really sure. SteveBaker (talk) 02:47, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Character map? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 148.134.37.3 (talk) 15:03, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

Float

I need an help with the float comand. In a project external to wiki but based on wiki software I need to float a table with other taables around it but it doesn't run. Is there a solution? Thank you very much.--F.noceti (talk) 12:30, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

"float" in this context is the cascading style sheets float property. That's a powerful, but often difficult to use feature (when you have more than very basic requirements). I'd recommend you work through a css-float tutorial like this one. It's not specific to Mediawiki. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 12:33, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

You might also read Wikipedia:Reference desk/How to ask a software question to help us help you better. --Sean 15:26, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

Thank you very much. Iwrite as single person (with my real name) but i work with an equipe and I think that we've found the right way for our target. Thank you very much for your help! --F.noceti (talk) 20:14, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

Light spreadsheet tool?

Is there some kind of 'light' spreadsheet tool, focusing solely on manipulating data structurally? I mean, I only use excel and openoffice for some really basic purposes: to clean up spreadsheets, convert between formats, and visually do text-to-columns conversion. So it'd be really cool if I have something fast, and memory sparing, to do just that.--Fangz (talk) 13:29, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

Visicalc was very light and can be downloaded for free. --80.176.225.249 (talk) 20:54, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

custom url

In Firefox, I need a way to automatically change a specific url to another one when a page loads. So for example instead of wikipedia loading http://en.wikipedia.org/skins-1.5/chick/main.css it would load http://mysite.com/custom.css when I view the page. Any ideas how to do this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.89.136 (talk) 13:47, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

I imagine this is the sort of a thing a greasemonkey script could do, but which would work only for you. I guess there are a range of scripting method to do this from the server. --Tagishsimon (talk) 13:57, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

I only need this for me. The problem is the website I wish to view is having trouble and it's css files aren't loading. I have a offline copy of the css file, I just need a way to implement it when I view the page. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.89.136 (talk) 14:03, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

Then greasemonkey is your friend. I've never used it so cannot offer advice on operation, but it sounds as though it'll be at the very simple end of GM's capabilities - it's just an on-the-fly string replacement in an HTML file. --Tagishsimon (talk) 14:05, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, but I don't know how to put my .css file into greasemonkey. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.89.136 (talk) 14:27, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

I'd have thought that the CSS would stay on your drive, and you'd have a greasemoney script amend the CSS references in the incoming HTML files to point at your CSS. Here's a manual for GM which might help to orientate your thinking. --Tagishsimon (talk) 14:31, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

Here's a GM script that does what you want:

// ==UserScript==
// @name           ChangeCSS
// @namespace      http://greasemonkey-question.com/
// @include        http://the-site-you-want-to-modify/*
// ==/UserScript==

(function() {

    // The format is:
    //      "bad-URL"
    //          : "good-URL"
    var url_map = {
        "http://en.wikipedia.org/skins-1.5/chick/main.css"
            : "http://mysite.com/custom.css",

        "http://en.wikipedia.org/skins-1.5/chick/some-other.css"
            : "http://mysite.com/my-other-thing.css"
    };

    var links = document.getElementsByTagName('link');
    for (var i = 0; i < links.length; ++i)
    {
        var link = links[i];
        var new_url = url_map[link.href];
        if (new_url)
            link.href = new_url;
    }
})()

--Sean 16:03, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

You are my hero Sean! You always come along and help me with this sort of stuff! Once again, thank you :D —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.89.136 (talk) 16:16, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the nice compliment, but I only do it because I'm supposed to be working. :) --Sean 16:37, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

Rotating PDF pages

Hi. Is there a free tool (preferably graphical) for Windows that can rotate PDFs? It only needs to do 90 degree rotations, typical use would be for portrait/landscape orientation of single page graphs. You would think this would be the most obvious task in the world, but Googling for "rotate pdf" brings up a crapload of rubbish and some expensive PDF editing software. On a second point, why don't the standard PDF readers (Adobe, Foxit etc.) support page rotation AND SAVING? The documents always open up in their original orientation even if you choose to "save as.../save a copy..." after rotating it. Regards, Zunaid 13:58, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

pdftk can rotate 90º... it's command-line but pretty easy to use.

As for why they don't support it... Adobe doesn't because they want you to buy professional. Foxit, I don't know. They ought to. I'm still waiting for the open source people to decide that a lightweight, free version of Adobe Professional is worth their while—something that would let you easily rotate pages, OCR them, move pages around in files, etc... the code to do all this is out there (e.g. pdftk), but nobody's put it into a useful GUI, as far as I know. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 14:31, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

Thanks! Got it and it's working perfectly, after a bit of tweaking and hassle. For anyone else who hates the command line and JUST wants to rotate pages (clockwise) from the comfort of Windows Explorer, follow these instructions:

1. Download pdftk.
2. Extract pdftk.exe to your favourite directory (let's call it "C:\Windows")
3. Create pdftk.bat in the same folder as above with the following contents:

@echo off
pdftk.exe %1 cat 1-endR output poknmihytfx.pdf
move /Y poknmihytfx.pdf %1

In the above code, the poknmihytfx is simply a place-holder name since pdftk doesn't allow you to overwrite files (in the next line you move poknmihytfx over the original file anyway). The %1 refers to the input file (the PDF you want to rotate), cat is the pdftk command for catenate, 1-end means "select page 1 to the last page" and R means "rotate the page RIGHT i.e. clockwise".

Now comes the tricky bit:

1. In Windows Explorer go to Tools --> Folder Options. Then click on the "File Types" tab.
2. Find you pdf file type in the list, click on "Advanced", then click on "New".
3. For "Action:" give it a descriptive name like "Rotate Clockwise".
4. Under "Application used to perform action:" enter the following: C:\Windows\pdftk.bat %1, where the C:\Windows refers to the folder you initially create pdftk.bat in.
5. Click on OK all the way out. You should now be able to right-click on any PDF file and to rotate it clockwise from the pop-up menu.
6. The above WILL NOT WORK if you are using Adobe Reader 9 as your default PDF viewer, its screws up the PDF file associations, I managed to get it working by deleting lots of PDF stuff out of the registry, but I see I've lost the PDF preview in the explorer window as a result. YMMV.

I'm leaving this open for now, would still like to know if there's a graphical tool out there. Zunaid 18:20, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

My forward button is no longer blue

The details of my computer are in a previous question I asked. This [7] is where the question was answered but the link to the question doesn't work now.

I clicked the back button many times since I've been doing a lot. The forward button just turned gray and wouldn't let me go back to where I was, so I had to just keep going back.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 16:46, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

The "forward" button will turn gray and cease to function if you click anything on a web page other than the "back" and "forward" browser buttons. Tempshill (talk) 17:10, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

I know, but I'm pretty sure I didn't. Do you know how to find the previous, related question?Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 17:35, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

The two best ways are to search for "Vchimpanzee" using the search box at the top of this page, and, alternatively, to use Google and search for vchimpanzee reference desk site:en.wikipedia.org and see if that comes up with anything better (I see 104 results). I think your previous problem had been that the Back button had turned gray, which is a different problem (it occurs when a new page or tab is created, for example). Tempshill (talk) 18:06, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

There was a way to search for my questions on Wikipedia, but I made a mistake and ended up with a search engine that couldn't find the address starting with http, and then when I tried again, all it would give me was http://http://[url].

But the back button turned gray even when there was supposedly something to go back to. It's the same thing here and I'm trying to understand what happened.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 19:18, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

It worked. Here is the information about my computer:[8]

Sorry, does that mean that the problem is now fixed? Tempshill (talk) 19:24, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

And here [9] is my older question on this subject.

No, I'm trying to figure out why what happened this morning happened.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 19:25, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

I have to assume you clicked something within the web page (or possibly hit a key on the keyboard, which can count as a mouse click to the web designer). When working on Wikipedia or elsewhere, I try not relying on the Forward button remaining viable; it is a fragile way to work. If you need specific pages to refer to, did you know you can create a new browser window by hitting ctrl-N ...then you could copy and paste the URL from the first window to the second window, and then you can switch between the two windows as needed, and not rely on the Back and Forward browser buttons as much. Tempshill (talk) 21:05, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

Assuming you are using Internet Explorer then you could press Ctrl-H which will bring up the list of web pages viewed. Choose the "View by order visited today" option. Find the page you want and click on it. 89.241.32.157 (talk) 19:19, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

HP Notebook running Vista won't shutdown

My new HP Pavilion Notebook PC running Windows Vista Home Premium won't shutdown when on AC power. It simply restarts instead. I have found that it will shutdown normally only when on battery power. HP Tech Support seemed not to be aware of this problem, thought my OS was corrupted and had me do a complete Windows Restore. The symptom remained after the restore. Is there a fix for this? --Thomprod (talk) 16:59, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

How are you shutting down? Are you hitting the physical power button on the laptop, selecting the turn off button on the start menu, or are you specifically selecting "shut down" from the submenu by the turn off button? —Akrabbim^talk 18:20, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

I have tried the two latter options, both of which result in a restart rather than a shutdown. --Thomprod (talk) 18:24, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

Is this a brand new laptop, or has the problem just recently cropped up? System restore would only work if the restore point was set up before the problem emerged. A fresh reinstall may be necessary if that is the case. If that doesn't work, I would guess that the problem is in the hardware or bios or something, where a 'shut down' command is being interpreted as a 'restart' command. —Akrabbim^talk 18:31, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

This is a brand new laptop. --Thomprod (talk) 01:06, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

Simple Answer: Unplug the notebook before shutting down.

That's my current workaround. --Thomprod (talk) 01:06, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

Long and Complicated Answer: I have had this happen before on XP. Most likely, an HP-provided driver for some AC power management is causing Vista to crash on shutdown. If you had XP, i would tell you to go to the Control Panel>System>Advanced and click on settings under "Startup and Recovery" and uncheck the "Automatically Restart" box. However, I have no experience with Vista. Try googling "automatic restart on shutdown in Vista."  Buffered Input Output 22:27, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

Dell Startup Problem

Resolved

I have a Dell Dimension 8250 desktop computer (it's ~5 years old), and when I turn it on it displays a black screen with a command prompt cursor in the upper lefthand corner, and that's all it can do anymore. No Dell or Windows XP startup screens. What's causing the problem, and what is the solution? All the diagnostic lights are green ("no problems"), and the manual doesn't address this problem. Tried putting in a Windows XP reinstall disk but the computer doesn't run it. Bonus question: what's a fair price to sell this computer if I can't get it to work? How about if I can? Thank you very much for any help you can give. ~EdGl ★ 19:08, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

Try unplugging any USB devices you have and see if that makes any difference. Possibly it's a bad USB device, but I believe the Dell code for that is Yellow/Green/Yellow/Green which you're not seeing. As for selling it... no offence intended, but a 5 year old, non-working computer... I'd be surprised if you could even give it away :( ZX81 ^talk 19:55, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

Finally got Windows XP to reinstall, woohoo! Anyway, as for resale, I assumed at least some parts/accessories (e.g. monitor) would be worth something... ~EdGl ★ 22:04, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

You could have tried selling it on Ebay (with honest description of the problem) - I've spend some time earlier this year trying to find a replacement screen for my (4.5y old Dell Inspiron 510m) that way. Going price for a dead laptop with working screen was about £40.195.128.251.195 (talk) 22:22, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

C/C++: optimal use of fread() and fwrite()

I'm writing a program that splits huge files into suitable chunks, and a corresponding program that reassembles these. Doubtlessly, others have done this before, but there are a couple of tweaks that I want to include, and I think I'll spend less time writing my own than finding a program that does exactly what I would like it to do.

I first tried the naive approach, fputc and fgetc, thinking the compiler would take care of the buffering. The files are pretty large (40Gb and upwards). I was absolutely amazed at how long time this took - ten to twenty times as long as a simple file copy to the same USB device. The program was compiled in release mode with Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0.

So obviously, fread and fwrite are the way to go. I want the program to be as fast as absolutely possible, and did some experimentation with fread and fwrite, with encouraging results.

fread and fwrite have the syntax:

size_t fread( void *buffer, size_t size, size_t count, FILE *stream );
size_t fwrite( const void *buffer, size_t size, size_t count, FILE *stream );

I will allocate the buffer using an std::vector<char>.

I am writing here to ask for advice on what values to select for size and count in each read and write operation, in order to archive optimal results.

• Does it matter whether I ask for one block of 1048576 bytes, 1048576 blocks of one byte or 1024 blocks of 1024 bytes, and if so, which choice is preferable?
• I assume that it's a good idea to avoid that the data being read is swapped to the hard disk before it is written to the device, so I suppose the size of count * size should be smaller than the amount of available RAM. Correct?
• Is there a simple way (with the MSC++ 6.0 compiler) to determine the amount of free RAM?
• What would be sensible choices for count and size on a Windows XP PC with 520Mb RAM, 1Gb RAM and 2Gb RAM (assuming no other applications are running at the same time)?

Thanks, --NorwegianBlue ^talk 19:44, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

You might consider reading mmap(). Our article covers mmap and its Windows alternative, MapViewOfFile(). These methods will allow the compiler (rather the operating system's runtime library) to do the buffering for you. When you use low-level standard IO calls like fputc(), you are specifically requesting unbuffered reads and writes - so the compiler should not optimize those with a buffering scheme. In Java, the New IO (java.nio.*) package, (documentation) and its Channels methodology, allow you to do the same - with the VM overseeing the demand paging and swapping of buffers into and out of memory. I have yet to find a more efficient method for reading gigabyte- and terabyte- size files than Java NIO. (I attribute this to intelligent pre-buffering based on the VM's reasonably accurate assessment of when and where you will leap to in the file next). Nimur (talk) 20:17, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

[f]getc and [f]putc are buffered. I assume the speed problem comes from the constant checks to see whether the buffer is full/empty, combined with the inherent inefficiency of a byte-by-byte memcpy(). -- BenRG (talk) 20:58, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

My mistake - I was confusing the memory copy, which is single-byte-at-a-time. It seems BenRG is correct. Nimur (talk) 21:07, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

Hm - I can't find a good standard library call to determine the amount of available physical memory in C (and I don't even remember ever learning it!) In Java, you can call Runtime.getRuntime().freeMemory() - with the caveats that (a) this is an estimate, and (b) this is only the maximum memory allocatable to the JVM (not total free system memory). In C, the convention I have always used is to malloc() and check for NULL; if failed, wait-and-retry or exit. I don't know if it's good design methodology to try to allocate exactly as much memory as is reported available - so be sure to use some "margin of error". Nimur (talk) 20:30, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

In C#, or C++ .NET, you can use a PerformanceCounter - MSDN documentation and example in C#. Nimur (talk) 20:39, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

Ah - here's what you want - Win32 API GlobalMemoryStatusEx(). This is the most portable version (for Windows computers) and works at the lowest level of abstraction. Nimur (talk) 20:44, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

It seems like the standard way to get the current memory status on linux is to check the values in /proc/meminfo (which can be accessed like a file, although it is not a regular file). I'd be curious if some more expert linux systems guys have better insight - surely there's a system call? Nimur (talk) 20:55, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

You shouldn't be allocating huge buffers. The buffer just needs to be large enough that the system call overhead (some constant * file size / buffer size) is negligible. 64K should be more than large enough for that. It doesn't matter how you split it between count and size—the C library just multiplies them together. What's really important when copying between different devices is that the reading and writing happen in parallel. If they alternate it will cut your speed in half. On the read side, you want the OS to do readahead; on the write side, you want write-back caching, not write-through. There's probably nothing you can do about the write-side caching. Windows uses write-through caching on USB devices by default, because people have a tendency to yank them out as soon as Explorer says their files are copied. I seem to recall that reading large chunks can cause NT to disable readahead, so this is another reason to use small chunks (but maybe I'm thinking of Win9x). Annoyingly, there is a reason you might want to write large chunks: it will decrease fragmentation because NT will search for a large contiguous region of free space when you use large writes. You can avoid this problem by preallocating the file, but you only want to do that on NTFS: on FAT I think it will cause the whole file to be written twice (the first time with zeroes). I would stick to small chunks.

If you want to get fancy, the fastest way to do disk I/O in NT is overlapped I/O. The idea is that instead of the read/write function returning when it's done, it returns immediately and then later you get a completion callback. Between your request and the callback the OS owns your buffer and you can't touch it. The advantage is that when you have several requests pending the OS can schedule the I/O better because it knows what's coming; it doesn't have to guess. To use overlapped I/O, allocate two or three buffers (maybe a megabyte each?) and start read requests on them, then go into a wait state (using SleepEx). When you get a read completion callback you trigger the corresponding write; when you get a write completion callback you reassign the buffer to another part of the file and trigger a read. Everything is single-threaded, so you don't have to worry about synchronization. It's actually quite easy and it will perform optimally regardless of FAT/NTFS and caching and so on. The main problem is that it's NT-specific. -- BenRG (talk) 20:58, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

Java NIO also implements a platform-independent asynchronous IO: [10]. Nimur (talk) 21:03, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

If I was committed to getting the best performance out of vanilla reads and writes, I would use a binary search to get the biggest chunk of memory malloc() would give me, and then do another binary search on the best buffer size (benchmark each). The second number is probably pretty stable on a given platform, so I'd cache the result in a file somewhere. --Sean 01:47, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

Using large blocks and multiple asynchronous I/Os allows the system to do good disc scheduling. This means it may read or write the blocks in order of where they are on the disc rather than logically in the file, this cuts down seek time which is a major component of file copy times. Dmcq (talk) 08:54, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

Thanks everyone for lots of good input! I think the OS-dependent simultaneous read-and-write calls will require too work much for this job (I will need to port this to Linux afterwards), and be risky, because removable media are involved. My reason for wanting to select as large a buffer as possible, was exactly what Dmcq pointed out, but the buffer still ought to be smaller than the available RAM, no? I didn't understand Seans suggestion for using malloc to estimate free RAM, I thought malloc used virtual memory, not necessarily physical RAM. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 12:11, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

Oops, you're right of course; too much time in kernel land.  :( --Sean 14:56, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

Asynchronous I/O is not risky. If the output device is configured for write-through caching then the writes won't complete until they are done. It's no different from an ordinary synchronous write. In fact, when you do a synchronous write on NT it just does an asynchronous write and then waits for it to complete before returning. But stdio will work fine if you want to stick to plain C. You may as well try benchmarking different buffer sizes as Sean suggested, but large buffers (more than a few megabytes) are a bad idea; they won't help performance and probably will hurt it. -- BenRG (talk) 19:04, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

Boost has a cross-platform asynchronous I/O library: Template:Websearch. --Sean 14:58, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

GPU Clock and Memory Clock

Hello there, I want to know something graphics cards clock. what is the differences between GPU Clock and Memory clock? Which one increases the temperature of Graphics card? In order to avoid overheat issue which one should be decreased? GPU clock or memory clock or both? (Please do not ask me to use diagnostic tool to check overheating). Thank you--119.30.36.36 (talk) 20:25, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

Overclocking your GPU will cause the GPU to heat up more. Overclocking your graphics memory will cause the graphics RAM to heat up more. Since your RAM probably does not have a thermal shutdown safety, this is more likely to permanently damage your hardware. As far as which overclocking scheme will improve performance, it depends whether your graphics operations are memory- or compute-bound. This will depend very heavily on the specific game, tool, or application you are running; and the ugly nitty-gritty details like your current graphics card, GPU series and core model, current device driver; and CPU load and bus load. Nimur (talk) 20:41, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

• I dont want to overclock. My GPU Clock is 850MHz and Memory clock is 975MHz. So which one is responsible for system overheating and freeze while playing game and browsing net (I have freezing problem in both)? You said "graphics operations are memory- or compute-bound". I don't understand it. Can you please elaborate which application requires memory or computer bound? thanks--119.30.36.36 (talk) 21:06, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

What evidence is there that the graphics card is the cause of the problem? And why bother asking questions here if you refuse to use the obvious diagnostic tool to determine if it is? 87.113.69.234 (talk) 23:27, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

You haven't told us what graphics card you are using, so there is no way for us to know whether those clock speeds exceed the norm for those chips. You also haven't told us whether you have already tried to overclock the GPU or the GPU memory, or whether this is merely a concern of yours based on something you read. Tempshill (talk) 00:01, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

• My graphics card is XFX ATI Radeon 4890 1 GB. I have never tried overclocking GPU or GPU memory. I have freezing issue and tried ALL (using diagnostic tools, blowing fan, changing chasis etc. etc) the necessary steps to prevent it. Unfortunately, I have come to know that GPU Clock or Memory clock increases this heat issue which causes freezing. My other devices are ok. There is no way to get the card replaced. If I reduce GPU Clock do I also need to reduce memory clock. I am planning the following activities:

• Reduce GPU Clock from 850 MHz to 800 MHz (5%)
• Reduce Memory Clock from 975 MHz to 925 MHz (5%) (if required)

Should I only stick with GPU clock in order to get rid of overheating problem?--119.30.36.54 (talk) 15:12, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

Those are the stock frequencies according to this page. If your card can't run stable at stock frequency you should go and exchange for a new one. --antilived^{T | C | G} 20:09, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

Mac Apps on Windows

I like Windows the best and I"m running it on my Mac with VirtualBox. But there are some Mac apps I like. How can I run Mac apps in Windows like how one can run Windows software on a Mac with Parralell's Coherence? --Melab±1 ☎ 20:31, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

You can't, basically. Apple doesn't allow emulation of Macs on non-Apple hardware. The closest you can do is a thing called Hackintosh... but it's not the easiest thing to set up, and not really what you are asking for (which isn't "how do I install OS X on a Windows machine"). --98.217.14.211 (talk) 01:24, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

I think that OSx86 (same link as Hackintosh) will run in VirtualBox and VMware and the like, but it's probably illegal. -- BenRG (talk) 10:38, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

Archive of some sort

I might have posted something like this earlier, but i don't remember and now i have more information.

The file is named main.cat and is used by a game. No tools are given to open the file and the game is pretty much nonexistent. When opened in a hex editor (HHD Hex Editor Neo Free), the first four characters come out to be "CAT1". This is not the same as a Security Catalog header (I checked) and HHD Hex Editor Neo identified it as a possible RAR archive. But neither WinRAR nor 7Zip could open it as an archive, and Game Extractor Basic couldn't do it either.

The characters near the end of main.cat correspond to files that are used by the game (like NAPALM.WAV, TITLE.XM, and so forth) with some offset bytes between them. I am assuming that the middle section of the file is some sort of compressed data (it's gibberish, btw) but i cannot identify the compression scheme.

I've tried to extract with several programs, with no luck. If anyone with knowledge of the "CAT1" header or knows what i'm rambling about, please don't hesitate to respond! ANY help at all is appreciated! Thanks!

 Buffered Input Output 22:20, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

I gather that you are trying to get some kind of data from the file. What is your objective here? What is the name of the game? Tempshill (talk) 00:02, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

If the game authors had wanted you to get at the data, they'd have made it easy. Since they didn't, they obviously don't intend for you to mess with this file - and almost certainly made it virtually impossible by writing the file with some kind of unpublished custom tool. SteveBaker (talk) 02:35, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

I don't know why you'd call it "virtually impossible"; you must know that people routinely reverse-engineer these formats for modding purposes. This one doesn't even sound very difficult, given that the filenames are in plaintext. If it does use compression there's a good chance it's zlib, since rolling your own data compression is a lot harder than rolling your own archive format. If it uses some other compression then you might have to disassemble the game executable to figure it out. -- BenRG (talk) 10:59, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

Midnight ana/cron job

Is there any way to ensure that a cron job, which is also checked by anacron, takes place at midnight if possible? The reason is that I need to update dynamic tables in a database that depend on the date but not on the time of day. NeonMerlin 01:23, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

Macintosh code merging tool?

Can anyone suggest a Macintosh code-merging tool, something like Emacs emerge-mode if you're familiar with that? Basically something that diffs two source files, and puts up a three-pane window, with files A and B side by side, and the merged result underneath. It highlights the diffs between A and B and lets you move through the two files choosing which side to take each diff from, copying your choice to the merge window, and eventually you save the merged result in a new file. This is for use by my officemates who use Macintoshes. I don't use Macs myself so don't have much idea what's out there but I'm pretty sure such things exist. Thanks. 70.90.174.101 (talk) 02:01, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

There are Unix tools such as tkdiff which can do this, and which should run fine on the Mac. --FOo (talk) 03:20, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

I like Meld the best. Here is a Mac package of it. --Sean 15:10, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

Tool for writing (wiki?)

I'm a bit overwhelmed by the availability of various tools and not really quite sure how to pin this down - I'm torn between thinking it should be a text editor (OpenOffice Writer, SciTE) or a wiki (MediaWiki?) or a web service (scribd?). I'd like to non-collaboratively write a story with some sort of logical break (chapter, page) but utilize a lot of wiki-esq features - versioning, and more importantly what I understand to be backlinks (?) and hopefully some form of *auto*link (so, for example, every instance of "Harry Houdini" automagically substitutes itself to (link to Harry Houdini notes page)Harry Houdini(/link), whose page has those backlinks ibid, and "diff". Setting up an Apache/MySQL/PHP stack isn't a challenge - finding the right tool is. Or even the search terms to sift through, as "authoring wiki" and vice versa conflate in meaning. Pointers would be appreciated. 69.255.26.5 (talk) 03:49, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

Perhaps you should look at using DocBook as the markup language, and keep all the files in Subversion or CVS? It has all the formatting features for writing a book, and has the ability to include links to references. -- JSBillings 11:40, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

Printing a mail with no Header

I'm trying to print a message from my Microsoft Outlook inbox, I want the print out to contain only the body of the message and none of the fields such as To, From, Name etc. Just wondering if this is Doabl? Thanks - Foz 80.88.241.94 (talk) 09:09, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

I'm guessing there's a reason you don't want to do this in another application? If you don't care you just need to highlight the text copy (Control+C) and then open up Word/Notepad/Whatever and paste it (Control+V). You can then print it with only the information you want. 09:19, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

Actually there is a good one, Copy-Paste for some reason is not working properly, it's cutting out some lines.. have tried everything i could think of to fix this, with no success. So now trying to think out of the box! Foz 80.88.241.94 (talk) 09:58, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

Perhaps rather than copy/paste you could do some kind of "save as text" (I don't have Outlook, so I'm guessing), and then edit the text file? --Sean 15:13, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

How to connect to localhost using putty ?

How to connect to localhost using putty (telnet / ssh session) in windows / cygwin environment ? thanks in advance. --V4vijayakumar (talk) 14:14, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

Same as any other host; just use "localhost" as the hostname. You'll need to have an SSH server running, of course. --Sean 15:13, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

Using games software for animation

Some users have tweaked games software to create "3D" video animations, shown on YouTube. I do not play those kind of games, and I know nothing about animation. What software can I use to create similar animations please? 78.149.149.64 (talk) 14:56, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

See Machinima. --Sean 15:15, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

Specific question about wikis

A wiki I made running Semantic MediaWiki has a page with an #ask function that creates a sortable table. The page in question is here. Now, if I choose to sort the list by the property "Debut", the Guard article is sent to the top, even though its property should place it after Zay-Kessa. This seems to be because the page its property links to does not exist. Short of creating the page, how can I stop this happening? (Note that stopping the property from creating links will not work, as I need the links.) Anthrcer (click to talk to me) 15:48, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

Unexpected restart and error log

Hello there, suddenly my system restarted automatically when I connected my usb modem to usb port. When desktop appears a message pop up which is something like "The system has recovered from a serious error. A log of this error has been created. For more information about this error, click here". I clicked on the link and following message appeared: BCCode : fe BCP1 : 00000004 BCP2 : 89B2A008 BCP3 : 8933CA74 BCP4:00000000 OSVer:5_1_2600 SP:2_0 Product : 256_1. I clicked on technical information about the error report and it showed following 2 files which will be added to the error report:

• C:\DOCUME~1\nahid\LOCALS~1\Temp\WER5eb2.dir00\Mini082009-01.dmp
• C:\DOCUME~1\nahid\LOCALS~1\Temp\WER5eb2.dir00\sysdata.xml

What was this sudden restart and what about this error report and files?--119.30.36.39 (talk) 18:41, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

High Resolution Settings and Browsing

I have a 1920x1200 display and while browsing the internet I notice I have to increase the text size a lot to make things legible. However when I do this the formatting of the pages tend to get screwed up and I can't see a lot of the text. What's the best way to browse full screen web pages on a high resolution display?

I use firefox if that makes a difference. TheFutureAwaits (talk) 18:45, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

Try increasing the font size(DPI) of your operating system...it's generally available in the advanced section of your display properties(os dependent)Piyushbehera25 (talk) 19:26, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

Newer versions of Firefox (I think 3 onward) have an option where instead of just increasing the text size (which throws layouts out of whack), it will zoom the entire page (so the images increase in size as well). I don't know if that is advisable but it's an easy thing to play with. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 19:34, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

Research Issues in Routing

Hi,

I'm a final year B-Tech(undergrad degree) student in Computer Science...i'm intrested in carrying out research in the Computer Networks field(esp in Routing). As i'm from a small college there isn't much exposure to currently undergoing research in the above said topic. If any one can suggest me any research issues(in routing) to work on I would be very grateful to them...Also it would be very helpful if you could point out any sites or other resources which are related to the Routing...Thanking you in advance...Piyushbehera25 (talk) 19:22, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

Privacy when using a PC

I'm currently using an XP computer attached to an old CRT monitor. I'm in the UK - not sure if this means the monitor works using PAL like UK non-digital tvs, or NTSC like old US tvs, or something else. But my question is - could someone in the next room with little or no equipment pick up the image from the monitor or elsewhere, even if a very noisy image? Years ago I think I remember I could get the ghost of an image from my computer on a nearby tv if I fiddled with the tuning - not sure if that still holds. 89.241.32.157 (talk) 21:22, 20 August 2009 (UTC)