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September 6

SQL server problem

When I try to go to http://www.hscl.cr.nps.gov/insidenps/report.asp?STATE=&PARK=&STRUCTURE=&SORT=&RECORDNO=6534, a National Park Service webpage, I get an error message as follows:

Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80004005'
[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][TCP/IP Sockets]Specified SQL server not found.
/insidenps/global.asa, line 13

Is my computer missing something, or is this a problem with the NPS website? I've accessed pages like this before, including this page just two days ago, and never had this problem before. Nyttend (talk) 01:27, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

Your computer isn't missing anything, theirs is having a problem. My guess is that they keep their database on a specialized server that has somehow crashed or been turned off. (I would wait until Tuesday to expect anyone to look at it again, given the three day weekend and all.) --98.217.14.211 (talk) 01:38, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

As its name implies, SQL Server is a server side product. Nothing is required on the client to run. If you can find the webmaster's or tech support e-mail address, I would inform them of the error. A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 01:48, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the explanations; as all had worked a few days ago, I was guessing that it was on their end, but I wasn't sure. I saw "Microsoft" as a possible indicator that my use of IE was the problem; for all I knew, they had changed settings to something that IE didn't like. If you'd said that was a browser problem, I would have perhaps tried to find a Firefox-equipped computer. Unfortunately, there's no way to find an address for a webmaster; most of the National Park Service website has been down today. Nyttend (talk) 03:49, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

For example — I found that their report-an-error page was visible, but when I tried to submit a report, I received a "page-not-found" message. Nyttend (talk) 03:53, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

You shouldn't see any sort of explanation of the error at all. The web master should have disabled custom error messages in the web.config file. Imagine what a hacker could do by changing the URL and seeing the output from the server. Everything you see is just plain incompetence, and it's more common than you think.--S1kjreng (talk) 05:41, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

Honestly, just wait until Tuesday. I bet it will work again. Nobody is there right now and nobody is going to get to it before then. It's a government website, not a for-profit dot-com that cares about its uptime. They'll get to it. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 14:05, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

Intel E4300 vs. Intel T3400

I am about to buy a low-cost laptop. I have a choice between Intel E4300 and Intel T3400. Which is better? Intel has a comparison at its website. The E4300 has a faster FSB and larger L2 cache, but the T3400 is newer and has a lower "Max TDP". Which is better? Thanks! --Masatran —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.92.36.231 (talk) 10:39, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

Are you sure you saw E4300 on a laptop? I thought the E-series is for desktop? --antilived^{T | C | G} 11:18, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

What redirects here?

How do I find out what articles redirect to another article? In this case I'm interested in Female ejaculation ?Rfwoolf (talk) 12:49, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

Use the "what links here" option - [1] -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 13:59, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

Not not the What links here, cos how do I distinguish between which terms links there, and which redirect there?Rfwoolf (talk) 16:27, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

Ahh okay I see you can then filter out the links... Got it. Thanks Rfwoolf (talk) 16:28, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

Copying text from an Acrobat Reader PDF document

Acrobat Reader has something called their Text Select Tool. When I use it to select and then copy text, and then paste that text into, for instance, TextEdit, the results are strange. The results require a lot of cleaning up. Here is an example of how something comes out:

Consult the ser onsult servic vice and suppor e support inf t information that came with y ormation your i our iMac f ac for or

inf information about ho ormation how t w to contac tact A t Apple f pple for ser or servic vice.

I have an Apple computer.

What is causing this? Is there a way to overcome this? Bus stop (talk) 14:57, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

What's causing it is how PDFs store text sometimes. Instead of storing it as a sentence, it stores it as a bunch of glyphs (letters) with specific positioning information (letter "C" goes here, letter "o" goes there), and doesn't necessarily know how they fit together. So in your case you have things like "inf" on one line and "ormation" on another, because the PDF doesn't actually realize that those are part of the same word and are sitting on the same line. My understanding of it is that it varies depending on what tool was used to make the PDF. Some programs do better than others. There's no way to overcome it that I know of. It's a problem with the PDF, not the reader. (This is assuming, based on the content, that it is not an OCR problem.) --98.217.14.211 (talk) 15:00, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

The problem seems to be much less pronounced with PDFs produced in 2009. I should have mentioned, that the PDF that I was trying to copy and paste from, was made in 2006. Maybe the problem has been to an extent addressed since then. Thank you for your help. Bus stop (talk) 15:51, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

I'm told another issue is that in a PDF file, the program that created the file may write out the text "information about ho" and then stop what it's doing, skip lower on the page to write unrelated text, then skip back to where it was and resume with "w to contact...". If this is so, it sounds difficult for programmers to write a PDF reader to reliably copy and paste text that happens to be contiguous visually. Tempshill (talk) 01:44, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

The easiest way, in that case, would be to dump the page to an image file (PNG, for example), and then run OCR on that. It might work or it might not (or, most likely and even worse than not working, it will work with an accuracy of 98% or so...). Jørgen (talk) 08:58, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

Believe it or not it is now working. I went to Adobe's website and downloaded an updated version of their Adobe Reader. I guess I should have tried that in the first place. Thank you all for your input. Bus stop (talk) 16:21, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

Microsoft Excel Mode function

Is anyone familiar with the Microsoft Excel 2007 function called "Mode"? It is supposed to return the mode in a set of data. Sometimes, however, a set of data has more than one mode. Nonetheless, Excel returns simply one (and only one) result. That is, Excel returns only one of the modes, but not all of the modes. Does anyone know which of the several modes it reports? Is it the highest numerical mode? The lowest? I can't seem to find any rhyme or reason in how Excel computes the mode in a situation where the data set has several modes. One of my thoughts is that it goes through each data point, one by one. As soon as it finds one mode (any mode), it simply reports that. And any subsequent additional modes that it finds, it simply ignores. But, that is just a guess on my part. Does anyone know? Thanks. (Joseph A. Spadaro, 6 September 2009)

Here is the official documentation for the function, but it does not explicitly answer your question. Maybe the best solution is to test on a few known data-sets to see if the behavior is consistent? In this case, the best programming practice would be to assume that the value is "undefined" on such a data-set (or at least, that the selection of which mode is undefined), unless you can guarantee that it is always (e.g.) the lowest of the possible valid choices. Nimur (talk) 21:20, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

Fiddling about in Excel 2003, I see there is the same problem. If there is more than one mode, it looks like Excel reports the first mode in order of the position of the first element of that mode in the array - not necessarily the first mode. For example:

• mode(2,5,3,5,1,2,1) = 2

The "first mode" would be 5 but it reports the 2. Do you get the same result in Excel 2007? Zain Ebrahim (talk) 10:56, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

Thanks to both of you for the input. To Zain Ebrahim ... I think that your theory is correct. Yes, I do have the same problem and the same results in Excel 2007 as you do in Excel 2003. To test your theory ... I tried the following functions and got the following results (among several other trials):

• mode(700,333,8,8,8,700,111,555,700) ... Result = 700 (as your theory predicted).

Using the same exact data set, in different order, yields:

• mode(8,700,700,700,333,111,555,8,8) ... Result = 8 (also, as your theory predicted).

Now, this leads to my follow-up question (below). Thanks. (Joseph A. Spadaro, 7 September 2009)

Follow up question:

I thought that the Mode function also works on text data (that is, words) ... in addition to numerical data. In fact, in the Remarks section of the official documentation, it states: "Arguments can either be numbers or names." Therefore, as a test, I tried the following data set:

• egg, star, star, star, tree, orange, frog, egg, egg.

And I expected to get a mode of "egg" ... but I got an error message instead (specifically, #N/A). I tried formatting the above list of words as "general format" and also as "text format" ... both formats returned an error message for the mode function. What am I doing wrong? Thanks. (Joseph A. Spadaro, 7 September 2009)

I'll think you'll find that Names in this context refers to Named Ranges. 86.165.115.70 (talk) 15:50, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

MPEG-2 and AVCHD Video Files

Dear All,

Can anyone tell me a way to convert to either of these two file formats if you have a camcorder that doesn't use them? Mine will only record in a strange format for which the file extension is .mt2s

If someone could recommend a program that would convert (especially for free) I'd be very grateful.

90.218.48.56 (talk) 20:22, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

Avidemux and Handbrake both support .mt2s files —Preceding unsigned comment added by Avrillyria (talk • contribs) 20:42, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

Sites - copyright

What's the best way to tell if a site is legit? Specifically [2] (popups!) Is it a no brainer that this site is circumventing copyright (I don't want an angry letter from my ISP...)83.100.250.79 (talk) 21:20, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

When you say "legit", I think you mean whether accessing a particular website violates any laws. Since we don't know where you are or what you're doing, it's impossible to know; and we can't give you any legal advice (see our legal disclaimer at the top of the page). If you're interested in learning about digital copyright law in general, we have numerous articles you can read. In the United States, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is the applicable legal standard; typically, Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act explains the liability of one party for the infringing acts of a second party. Again, we can't interpret whether these apply to your particular scenario; or make any guarantee about the accuracy of the articles at any given time. Nimur (talk) 21:37, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

obviously my intended activity would include downloading stuff via this site, what I'm asking is suppose I want to download a Rhianna (or Shakira song) (as examples), and I don't entirely trust that everyone using the site has read and digested the DMCA etc - so there might be some non 'legit' stuff on there.. How can I find out if a music label has released a song for free (as does happen - for publicity reasons etc I suppose) - is there a simple way I can find out the copyright status of a song.?

83.100.250.79 (talk) 22:14, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

No, there is no simple way. Everything must be assumed to be copyrighted unless you know otherwise fairly explicitly. Anyway, that site is almost certainly violating copyrights. Whether they are breaking laws depends on their jurisdiction. (You can tell this pretty easily by reading its disclaimer, which is a standard "we're not violating copyright, our users are! nothin' we can do about that!" that all sites who habitually violate copyright have posted. In this case I'm not sure it is even true; it sure looks like the content is hosted on their server, which makes them liable.)

Now the upside for you, as a user, is that the only people who know, at the moment, that you've downloaded anything is the skeezy site. It's not the same thing as the P2P software where one of your "peers" might actually be a copyright watchdog. So the odds of getting a letter from your ISP are pretty low. But I am not a lawyer, yo. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 23:53, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

There is an easy way - if the site says something like "this song is provided copyright-free" then it is - if not, not. Everything that anyone writes, draws, paints, composes, sings, publishes, sculpts, etc is automatically copyrighted. There is no need to put a little 'c' in a circle or register it someplace. So unless there is a specific statement (such as at the bottom of every Wikipedia page) that says that there are some special terms and conditions, then it's safe to assume that the work is indeed copyrighted and that you need permission - or some kind of license - in order to be able to copy it. Even if you ARE allowed to copy it - you may be required to accept some additional terms and conditions (as is indeed the case with the Wikipedia GFDL and CC-BY-SA 3.0 license terms) - which may prevent you from giving copies to your friends or putting the thing on your website or whatever - even though you were allowed to download it for free. SteveBaker (talk) 15:56, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

September 7

Fonts

I have multiple computers in my home, and I have recently used one (not the one from which I am typing now) to view a user's signature. I thought it nice, and decided to copy some of the code for my own. Unfortunately, it seems the computer I am on now does not have the font I want installed, so all I see when I look at that user's signature on this computer is regular text. Could someone tell me how I can install, download, or otherwise acquire the font "Monotype Corsiva"? Intelligentsium 00:03, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

P.S. - I have a feeling my new signature looks a lot better to those of you whose computers can show Monotype Corsiva - to me it only looks like italicized text. Intelligentsium 00:03, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

You mean that it looks like this? I have the font of which you speak, and it looks quite similar to that font. Sorry, but I can't help you get it; the only time that I tried to download a font, it failed without my understanding why. Nyttend (talk) 00:53, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

Going off topic but it's a really bad idea to rely on fonts for your signature. If you want a proper signature, include an image; if you want to have your name printed clearly - use a normal font. Script-font-signatures are generic, unreliable, and very 90's :p --antilived^{T | C | G} 01:23, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

To install a font, download the font file(s) (typically *.ttf files), and then copy them to the C:\WINDOWS\Fonts. You have to copy them to the Fonts folder from another, uncompressed, folder, on the computer. If I remember correctly, it is, for some reason, not possible to copy them to the Fonts folder directly from a compressed foler (*.zip) in (at least) Windows Vista. You can download loads of highly interesting fonts for free (see "free fonts"), but I believe that Monotype Corsiva is not free, but included in either Microsoft Windows (Vista) or Microsoft Office (2007). --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 09:21, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

I've got Monotype Corsiva and the signature doesn't display in it... when I paste the signature into Word it says it's in "Decorative". If you delete the <font face="Decorative"> and the matching </font> you end up with Intelligentsium (the code is <font style="font-family:Monotype Corsiva; font-size:15px;"><i>[[User:Intelligentsium|<span style="color:DarkGreen">Intelligent</span>]]<b>[[User_talk:Intelligentsium|<span style="color:Black">sium</span>]]</b></i></font> ) , which I'm seeing in something that looks like Monotype Corsiva. Re downloading the font, http://www.newfonts.net/index.php?pa=show_font&id=130 claims to be a free-to-download Monotype Corsiva and the filename looks plausible - I can't get at my fonts folder to check at the moment. AJHW (talk) 11:23, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

Mac on PC

How do I do it? I heard it's called Hackintosh, what exactly do I do —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.99 (talk) 11:28, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

That article links you to resources, such as they are. Apple claims that doing so violates their EULA and that it's illegal, and they make strenuous legal and technical efforts to keep breaking Hackintoshes. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 11:57, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

And it depends on your hardware; hacked distros such as iDeneb are a bit easier to install, but still your mileage may vary, as it may not work as well as it should. And obtaining an ISO image of it may be illegal in most jurisdictions, too. Blake Gripling (talk) 12:02, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

int in C++

What are the benefits of having a type "int" in C++ that can be a short, a long, or even a long long? Should a programmer always use definite types, such as short and long instead? -- kainaw™ 11:39, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

I guess it made sense to Ken Thompson and Dennis Richie and those guys back in the day, to have a type that was the size of the machine word, although in practice it's pretty hard to think of a programming case that having that adaptive int makes for easier programming of a given task than using a fixed-size. My only guess is that, while modern compilers can treat values from 8 to 64 bits with facility, things were harder and less efficient with DMR's first C compiler (and they couldn't afford the space or time to have the compiler invisibly insert a bunch of instructions to complement arithmetic ops on a size the architecture didn't natively support). Without exception, every single serious systems programming job I've ever worked on has used uint32_t (et al) or something very similar. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 11:55, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

What I mean by that is that, particularly with a rather basic compiler and a very slow and instruction poor CPU,

       int x;
       for (x=0; x<10000; x++) {
         *p=x + x/2 + x%5;
       }

would be much faster than if the type of x was short or long, because all those ops on a non-native-wordsize x would require lots of masking and shifting to get them to work. More modern CPUs have a rich enough instruction set that this isn't a major issue right now (except for long long). -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 12:07, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

In addition, C99's stdint.h has some nice types that encode the idea of minimum-width and fastest-minimum-width integers, so you'd probably code the above example with the type of x being uint_fast16_t, so you get the advantage of using the CPU's native int if that's appropriate, but without prescribing a possibly suboptimal type. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 12:36, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

I understood the question, and so did Finlay, who answered it well, but make no mistake: an int can never "be" a short or a long. Even if int has the same representation as another integer type, the types remain distinct. It is also impossible for "int" to provide as much storage as "long long", unless "long" and "long long" are the same size, because an int can't be larger than a long. My advice is to not worry too much about short and long, and just stick with int, unless there's specific reasons to worry about those things. decltype (talk) 13:05, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

Correct. I was referring to bit-size, not type. I do not see why a compiler couldn't use 8 bytes (long long) for an int and still be ANSI C/C++ compliant. I know that "long long" hasn't been completely adopted, but 64-bit machines are common enough that an optimized system could opt for 8-byte ints. -- kainaw™ 14:13, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

When working with hardware acceleration, using a generic name for the "standard" floating point or integer representation allows for easy portability. In reference to your original question, this means that I can compile the same code for two different machines, (e.g. a 32-bit and a 64-bit system), and get all the benefits/hassles of immediate conversion to the new bit size. For complex applications, this would be undesirable; but for numerical algorithm kernel code, this is extremely helpful in improving portability. Nimur (talk) 15:06, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

True. My point was that on such a system, sizeof(long) would also have to be exactly 8. decltype (talk) 06:42, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

The original specification for C said that 'int' was the most efficient word-length for the hardware and only guaranteed that it was no smaller than a 'short' and no longer than a 'long'. Small microcontrollers and ancient C compilers for things like the 6502, 6800, Z80 and 8080 families often used 16 bit 'int' but so many programmers of larger-scale computers assumed that an 'int' was 32 bits that there were severe portability problems with these systems. Nowadays, some microcontrollers still use 16 bit int's because it's rare to be able to port anything from (say) a PC with a couple of gigabytes of main memory to a microcontroller with 512 bytes! However, even the compilers for those systems often have a compile option to always compile 'int' as 32 bit. Hence we now have a 'de-facto' standard that char is 8 bits, short is 16, int is 32, long is either 32 or 64 depending on whether the underlying hardware is 32 bit or 64 and long-long is 64 (if it's implemented). I would be rather surprised if any compilers ever broke that 'standard' in the future because it's so widely assumed to be true - even when the language specification doesn't guarantee it.

The reason not to always use the maximum word length is performance. Even though a 64 bit machine may be able to add two 64 bit numbers just as fast as a 32 bit one - it's really quite rare to actually need 64 bits in most of the situations where integers occur - and the additional memory storage requirements and RAM bandwidth demands of using 64 bits tend to completely outweigh their usefulness. When I worked at L3 Simulation, we had over a million lines of code in the application I was in charge of - and there were only (I think) two places where we used 'long' - and that was for date-fetching functions as mandated by the Linux kernel API. We were careful to do that precisely because of 32/64 bit portability issues.

The major benefit of transitioning to 64 bit processors is nothing to do with integer calculations - but rather that of improved double precision floating point performance and the ability to address more the 2Gbytes of RAM without kernel slowdowns and other ikky problems.

SteveBaker (talk) 15:43, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

Improved floating point performance? Are you talking about the extra XMM registers? But there are extra GPRs too and that improves integer performance... -- BenRG (talk) 19:45, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

The ability to perform fast bitwise operations on 64-bit integers has a tremendous impact on the performance of chess engines and other board game implementations that make heavy use of bitboards, such as Othello. decltype (talk) 06:42, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

Use the stdint.h ones instead, or for big projects set up your own include file which defines you own names for the types you want. That'll make it easier to port. By the way you do sometimes get funny sizes like 18, 24 or 36 bits in embedded work. The other thing I'd warn against is assuming that int is the same size as a pointer, use intptr_t instead, same with things like file sizes. Dmcq (talk) 16:36, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

If you're not using C99, here's some portable C89 code to generate fixed size types. "Portable" meaning that it does not make any assumptions about the size of char, short, int or long. Similar definitions can be made for signed types. (Although personally I believe that if you want portable code, you should just use int, or long if the value might exceed 16 bits.) Mitch Ames (talk) 11:50, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

/*  Portable definitions of fixed size integer types */
#include <limits.h>

/* 8 bit */

#if UCHAR_MAX == 0xff
    typedef unsigned char u8;
#elif USHRT_MAX == 0xff
    typedef unsigned short u8;
#else
    #error No 8 bit type available.
#endif

/* 16 bit */

#if UINT_MAX == 0xffff
    typedef unsigned int u16;
#elif USHRT_MAX == 0xffff
    typedef unsigned short u16;
#elif UCHAR_MAX == 0xffff
    typedef unsigned char u16;
#elif ULONG_MAX == 0xffff
    typedef unsigned long u16;
#else
    #error No 16 bit type available.
#endif

/* 32 bit */

#if UINT_MAX == 0xffffffff
    typedef unsigned int u32;
#elif ULONG_MAX == 0xffffffff
    typedef unsigned long u32;
#elif USHRT_MAX == 0xffffffff
    typedef unsigned short u32;
#else
    #error No 32 bit type available.
#endif

DV handycam

If it possible to capture video in .MOV, Windows .AVI, or .MPG files using DV Handycam? --AquaticMonkey (talk) 13:38, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

When I import video to my Windows machine from my MiniDV camcorder, the video is in an AVI file. Not sure what codec. Tempshill (talk) 15:30, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

No, you can't capture in those formats, but you can convert DV files to them pretty easily with something like ffmpeg. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 20:04, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

Can Wikipedia please add a 'share' facility for Facebook and myspace users etc?

Hello,

I am not sure where to send my request for the idea of Facebook and myspace share buttons to be added to Wiki? Sorry if I have wasted your time, please can you forward on to the right place, or instruct me where I need to send this idea to?

Thank you

Why can't you simply use the hyperlink? It's the most general way to "share" a web document. Wikipedia's architecture has been conveniently designed so that its URLs are human-readable. I think the best place to ask about this sort of feature would be the WP:Village pump, where technical issues and policy suggestions are discussed. Nimur (talk) 15:09, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

I should warn you that I strongly suspect this suggestion will get a resounding no Nil Einne (talk) 19:39, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

I'm sure this was discussed on VPT recently when someone from Wikinews showed off n:Template:Social bookmarks which is now enabled there, but can't seem to find it in the archives. Nanonic (talk) 20:13, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

And we already have User:TheDJ/Sharebox for those with accounts. Nanonic (talk) 20:16, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Binding application window to a particular monitor

I recently added a second monitor to my Windows Vista computer and am looking for a Windows equivalent to devilspie (UNIX). My primary concern is iTunes - the Library window is maximized on the 2nd monitor, but the Get Info insists on opening on the 1st monitor. I am thinking of something like devilspie so I can pattern match by windows name / parent application name / etc to convince iTunes to keep on its own monitor. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Freedomlinux (talk) 16:02, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

GIMP/PSD text layer problem

Greetings. Am gonna be terse today, because I'm getting sick and am tired, so here's the problem.

User is using GIMP 2.4.3 running on Zenwalk Linux. User does the following:

1. Open old PDF as single-layer graphics and edit out certain portions (text). What remains is one layer of graphics.
2. Save so created document as .psd (user's customer wants .psd).
3. Open so created .psd on following day; introduce text as layers into document. Save (as .psd still).

Now, when user tries to edit the text in the .psd, he can't. Is this:

a) impossible b) easy, but user doesn't know how to do it c) complicated, but user also doesn't know how to do it.

I thought .psd was a useful and editable format. Is it the GIMP that doesn't fully support it? What gives?

I can share the incriminated .psd file to show what I mean. Thanks in advance. Gonna get some tea now. Cheers, Ouro (blah blah) 16:35, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

When you import into Gimp, you are converting the PDF into an image of the PDF. When you save as PSD, you are saving an image, not text. Gimp (even through the latest version, as far as I know) does not save a PSD text layer. It saves it as an image. -- kainaw™ 16:43, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

One down. Thanks, Kainaw. Have to look for another tool, then... Ouro (blah blah) 16:53, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

Try importing the PDF in Inkscape, remove the things you want, and then export. Inkscape won't write to PSD, but will write to SVG, PS, EPS, and AI (adobe illustrator) formats. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 17:17, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

If you're ever going to open .svg files created with Inkscape in AI, be sure to save it in plain .svg or AI will have problems. 142.20.146.226 (talk) 20:09, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

I'm probably forgetting something obvious here... but can't the user save the interim versions as .xcf (which should keep the layers intact) then save the document as .psd when it's finished? AJHW (talk) 11:04, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

The user can. But the user's customer can't handle xcf (or for whichever reason prefers psd). --Ouro (blah blah) 07:34, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

powerpoint

Which type of the following screen elements is displayed below the slide pane and allows you to type additional slide information. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.166.18.43 (talk) 16:57, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

There's a 'slide notes' that you can add lots of notes -these don't appear on-screen but you can print them off so that you have the notes that relate to the appropriate page (you can also send the doc to people so they can see it with the slide-notes for further reference). Is that what you mean? ny156uk (talk) 17:21, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

System freezes with nvidia geforce 9800

Hello there, I am having trouble with system freezing issue. I have bought a new card nvidia geforce 9800. Whenever I try to play crysis or other game it freezes within 10 minutes. I recorded temperature.

• In idle 49 Celsius and 3d load it is 83 Celsius (Graphics card)
• Processor 27 Celsius
• Mainboard 36 Celsius

What is the problem and how can I rectify it? I am planning to buy a processor cooler. Will that solve that issue? I have full tower chasis with four fan inside.

My specs:

• Core 2 Quade 9400
• nvidia geforce 9800
• mobo: 750 SLI nvidia geforce
• 4 gb ram (800 MHz)
• Full tower chasis

Any advice would be appreciated.--119.30.36.53 (talk) 17:25, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

The processor temperature sounds good to me. The nvidia temperature running the game is higher than I'd like though still below when they'd slow it down. The fan should speed up a great deal at that temperature - do you hear it doing so? Freezing though sounds to me more like a possible power supply problem. Dmcq (talk) 17:52, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

I agree - if it's not overheating then you're almost certainly overloading the power supply. You need a more powerful one. SteveBaker (talk) 03:41, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

• My PSU is Thermaltake 750W. I have increased the fan speed from 35% to 40% by using Riva Tuner. Still I don't hear fan noise. What should be the ideal fan speed at 83 Celsius? Will it reduce fan life span (If I increase)? Thank you —Preceding unsigned comment added by 119.30.36.53 (talk) 12:05, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

Is it a GT or GTX or GTX+? My friend has a GT with a single slot cooler and it gets really hot, whereas the GTX+ with dual slot cooler is considerably cooler. If you have the former, you should improve the ventilation in your case or your card will just keep recycling hot air around. --antilived^{T | C | G} 12:14, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

It's funny about you not hearing a change in the nvidia fan, I'd have though it was probably the loudest part of what you've got. If the system lasts much longer or doesn't crash with the side off then it's probably overheating. You have to be careful about airflow, it's usually best to keep everything clear but sometimes a baffle to ensure the air goes the way one wants can help if there is a particular problem. Dmcq (talk) 18:20, 8 September 2009 (UTC).

Are you sure the GeForce's fan is actually working/spinning at all? I know it sounds a bit obvious, but as you've said that you don't hear it I think it's worth verifying and it certainly would explain the overheating. I used to have a 7950GT which suffered similiar issues and that was because my fan had seized up and stopped and like Dmcq above said, I would also expect it to be quite noisy. Try loading a game and "playing" it so the card is working hard and then placing your ear next to it should be enough to hear if it's on. ZX81 ^talk 19:17, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

• After increasing the fan speed to 50%, I am hearing a little noise from card. I also tested with "furomark" software. When temperature goes to 85% the fan speed increases with huge noise in it. I have tested my system with another card but same thing is happening. Can it be motherboard or processor? bit worried :(--119.30.36.55 (talk) 19:31, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

Symptoms of processor overheating

Hello there what are the symptoms of processor overheating? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 119.30.36.53 (talk) 17:40, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

Other than the computer's CPU temp alarm going off, the most common symptom is apparently random system restarts. That is not always a CPU overheat. Just about any part of the computer can overheat and produce enough heat to cause the computer to reboot. What makes it complicated is that a faulty fan can cause a perfectly cool system to reboot. -- kainaw™ 18:49, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

Many CPU's use clock-throttling (aka Dynamic frequency scaling) to try to keep cool - so if your PC seems to run slowly when doing CPU-intensive tasks, it's worth checking the temperature. Some GPU's can do that too. If this happens a lot - if it's happeneing then it's a sure sign that your machine is inadequately cooled and may crash under more extreme loads. SteveBaker (talk) 03:40, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

• Can system freezes because of processor overheating? --119.30.36.55 (talk) 19:17, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

Probably, yes, and definitely crashes followed by restarts. I've been having problems with my 2005 AMD Athlon64 PC recently, which turned out to be caused by processor overheating. The symptoms were: during CPU-intensive tasks, during file copying, and during any activity which involved USB traffic, the fan sped up, becoming much more noisy. It was instantaneous and highly reproducible, move the mouse, and the fan speed increased. I tried to hear whether it was the fan of the PSU or the fan attached to the CPU, and first thought it was the PSU. Since I had installed two extra hard disks, I found that reasonable, and replaced the PSU. Same symptoms. Then I read about the Cool'n'Quiet feature of the Athlon 64 CPUs. So I removed the fan that cools the CPU, and saw that the cooling paste had gone dry, and that there were patches where it was simply gone - there was air between the metal block to which the fan was attached, and the CPU. So I bought cleaning liquid (two components) to remove the cooling paste, new cooling paste, and fastened the fan again. That fixed the problem completely. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 19:46, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

• I have freezing issue with my system. I thought it was my graphics card but when I tested system with another graphics card, same freezing problem is happening. Is it processor or motherboard or what else? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 119.30.36.47 (talk) 09:57, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

Ubuntu

I've been a Windoze guy for a long, long time. However, when my box recently died, I thought I'd give Ubuntu Linux a try. With my old 'puter now pushing up daisies, I got an old junker off a friend and tried to install Ubuntu 9.04 on it. As installation begins, Ubuntu craps out, saying that the BIOS on the computer is too old (1999, and it needs 2000) and proceeds to give error number 16, which I assume is related to the BIOS date issue. So, what's my best option? I've never updated a BIOS before; I don't know if such a thing is practical/possible. Should I instead look for an older version of Ubuntu? What release would I need? Or should I just try a different distro? I'm willing to do some learning, but Linux is brand new to me. Matt Deres (talk) 17:50, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

Try Damn Small Linux. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 18:43, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

You could try an older version of Ubuntu, but that would expose you to bugs/security holes which have since been patched. Your best bet is to talk to Ubuntu experts to see if there isn't some simple setting that you can change to get it to work (the unofficial forums (ubuntuforums.org) is probably the best place to do that - they are remarkably beginner friendly). Failing that, you can look for another linux distribution which may work better with older equipment. (Again, the Ubuntu forums may help to point you in the right direction.) -- 128.104.112.179 (talk) 18:51, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

Ubuntu is more forgiving of an older machine than, say, Vista, but asking a decade old machine to run it is unlikely to be fun. It may very well be possible to get it to run, but the stuff it installs by default is (comparatively) memory hungry. DSL is a better fit, as is Puppy Linux. Knoppix might work okay, depending on the machine's specifics. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 19:04, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

Errors during installation might be caused by errors in the burning of the CD; make sure to verify it first. Xubuntu is a version of Ubuntu that is intended for lower end computers. --Spoon! (talk) 20:13, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

Puppy linux will boot off a cd without needing to be installed - try that for a start. There are probably other variants of Linux as well that will boot off the cd. 78.149.167.102 (talk) 23:48, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

I assume it's a GRUB error 16, which is usually a file-system issue. Updating your BIOS is a trivial task, and I haven't had any problems doing so. That's assuming that the BIOS is actually the problem. I've learned to avoid the bi-yearly Ubuntu releases. They're very buggy. It's ridiculous that Ubuntu releases a new version every six months. That's not enough time to fix the bugs. Windows Vista was in beta for 1 ½ years! And even then, it wasn't ready. I use Ubuntu 8.04 -- the long-term support release. They've patched that one too many times to count, so it's very stable. The latest version is 8.04.3, meaning it's on it's third "service pack" (that's what I call it) after only 1 ½ years. There's also Debian, which is what Ubuntu is based on. That is very stable. If you mess around with any of the new Ubuntu releases, you're frankly asking for trouble.--S1kjreng (talk) 03:52, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

Thank you all for the replies. I burned a CD of Puppy Linux and that also is failing to install. In the case of Puppy, it appears to be starting correctly, and even allows me to access the boot options with <F2>, but will go no further - it just freezes. Both Ubuntu and Puppy fail to either install or run from disc, so I'm beginning to suspect the problem is more... complicated than an out of date BIOS. Discs are cheap, so I'll give one of the other options above a crack at it and then perhaps haul the box out to the curb for the weekly pick up. Computers are not my friends this week it seems. Matt Deres (talk) 18:42, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

I had a lot of trouble a while back installing Ubuntu on a relatively old secondhand computer: the problem turned out to be the CD drive - out of my four second-hand drives, the Ubuntu CD was only happy to install using one (counter-intuitively, the oldest). 213.122.39.88 (talk) 22:20, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

External drives that appear to be internal

Dear Wikipedians:

This has been a problem that bugged me for a long time:

At times I find opening up the computer, put in new hard drive, etc, to be a major hassle. Unfortunately, so far all the "canonical buses" are internal -- by which I mean the PATA and SATA interfaces. I know that Linux can be installed and booted off of external devices such as USB stick. However, I googled and found that it takes a lot of hacking to isntall Windows XP on a USB stick.

I'm wondering if there is a solution that would allow me to install Windows XP (and all operating systems for that matter) transparently (i.e. no hacking) onto an external storage device that lies OUTSIDE the system chassis and is powered independently.

What I mean is that as far as I'm aware, there are three external buses used for storage devices:

• USB
• Firewire
• eSATA

I'm wondering if :

1. Are eSATA drives recognized and treated in the same way as internal SATA drives? (That is, can WinXP be installed onto eSATA devices with no hacking necessary).

2. Are there any other alternative bus architecture that I'm unaware of that would allow me to accomplish the effect of being able to install and boot OS off of external devices?

3. Is there a way of plugging in an expansion slot device (like extra USB port hookup) that translates internal IDE cable signals into an external USB/Firewire signal so that all my USB sticks transparently become USB devices (because the system has no way to tell what's at the other end of the IDE cable, as far as it's concerned it's a perfectly legal IDE hard drive).

4. Or, better yet, is there someway of FOOLING the system/OS into thinking that a USB/Firewire device is a proper internal PATA/SATA device?

Thanks.

174.88.240.61 (talk) 22:17, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

There are probably some hacks, but you probably need to check if your motherboard will boot from these devices. Many new BIOS will boot from USB. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 23:42, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, I also did some digging aruond myself and found out that eSATA does exactly what I want to: internal and eSATA appear EXACTLY the same (i.e. as internal) to the system, and therefore to WinXP and all other OS. As a perk, eSATA also has beat all other external buses (USB, 1394) in speed by roughly one order of magnitude ;) I'm going eSATA! 70.52.150.227 (talk) 01:56, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

Resolved

September 8

Algorithmns to measure how closely two short sections of text match

I want to write a program that parses downloaded bank statements. This would include comparing text strings of up to about 50 characters long with another similar text string, or perhaps a whole group of similar text strings. What algorithmn could I use to measure how similar the two compared text strings are? The result would be a number scale that at one extreme means an exact match, at the other no match at all. Perhaps such an algoithmn may be similar to those which match mispelt words - how do they work? 78.149.167.102 (talk) 00:04, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

Levenshtein distance is a good article to start with; there are several articles in the same area linked to at the bottom of that article. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 00:26, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

Hamming distance is another - but a lot depends on what your desired kind of similarity is...if you look for precise binary differences - then a single letter missing from one string towards the start will make the strings totally different from that point onwards - when from a "human" perspective, they are almost identical. Two interchanged letters is another common typo that you might want to consider to be a 'minimal' change. Two strings might be identical but one is in uppercase and the other lower - not one character matches! You might also want to consider using a Soundex approach - which makes two strings that SOUND similar come out similar in comparisons...handy when a message has been relayed by phone and typed by someone who doesn't spell so well! But it depends on what you want and why. SteveBaker (talk) 03:29, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

For things like bank statements it may also be useful to compare similarity of numerical values, for example saying $100 is closer to $99.99 than to $1000 or $900. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:18, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia

I'm not sure where to ask this question so I picked this section. How much data is stored in Wikipedia? I'm curious to know. Thanks for any information. NeoJustin (talk) 07:50, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

Text only, or including media (e.g. pictures)? Only en.wikipedia.org, or *.wikipedia.org? Do you want to include wiktionary.org, and other projects as well? If you only count the pure textual content (with formatting) in en.wikipedia.org, you might use the last dump of the database as a measure. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 07:53, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

I was thinking en.wikipedia.org and everything including pictures. Any breakdown would be nice. I was thinking it must be like trillions and trillions of bytes of data. I'll look at the link. NeoJustin (talk) 08:08, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

The dump doesn’t seem to provide a total byte count, only 17,449,963 pages of which 2,404,861 pages are in English. If a “page” is, on average, about 10KB (this is just a guess – someone might have done some research on article length?) then the total in the English Wikipedia would be around 2.5 GB, but the last dump on September 4th was 9.7GB compressed, which could expand to nearly 200GB including talk pages and user pages. Can anyone narrow down the discrepancy?

By way of comparison, The U.S. Library of Congress Web Capture team has claimed that "As of May 2009, the Library has collected almost 100 terabytes of data", and, according to Kevin Kelly of the New York Times, "the entire written works of humankind, from the beginning of recorded history, in all languages" would amount to 50 petabytes of data. Google processes about 20 petabytes of data per day. The big advantages of Wikipedia are its ready accessibility and its relevance (usually) Dbfirs 08:55, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

So all the articles on the English Wikipedia would be less than 200 GB. Interesting... I could download it all onto my computer (if I had a reason). NeoJustin (talk) 17:49, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

I'm not sure whether that dump included pictures (probably not if they reside in commons). Are there any Wikipedia experts reading this who can check on my guesses? Dbfirs 22:54, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

From Wikipedia database dump, the dump of all current articles is 5 GB, and all current pages (including talk pages etc) is 10 GB. However, this doesn't include page histories or images. Just the full article histories are 2.8 TB, not counting images. — QuantumEleven 09:36, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

Is this the compressed size? What does it expand to? Dbfirs 21:44, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

That is the compressed size. Uncompressed it's a lot larger, but remember it's XML, which is an inefficient representation. It gets even worse if you try to install it on your computer (which means expanding it into MySQL tables), but that doesn't really count as Wikipedia itself using the space. I think if you include all the static pictures that you see in articles, Wikipedia is a few hundred GB, but if you include all the media in Commons, it's tens of TB heading towards hundreds of TB. It might be better to ask this question on meta. 70.90.174.101 (talk) 18:03, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

The August 2009 wiki dump of current page article text only uncompressed is 22.4 GB. Look at Wikimedia technical blog and some of the links off of it. They have good info about the size of the commons, which doesn't do dumps. Also [3] and [[4]]. Shadowjams (talk) 01:48, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

Turn the Windows search index off

how

Load Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services - Scroll down to "Windows Search" and double-click to open. Click stop and then change the startup state to "Disabled" to stop it from restarting. This will obviously have a knock on effect on the performance of anything trying to use Windows Search. ZX81 ^talk 19:11, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

Vision client

Is there any way to turn it off without my teacher knowing?Accdude92 (talk) (sign) 13:21, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

Probably not, if they've set it up reasonably intelligently. (I'm assuming they don't give you access to the Program Files, Control Panel, or an unencumbered Task Manager). And even if you could, if you got caught, there would probably be severe penalties regarding computer "hacking" and other such things. You'll have a whole, long life to goof around on the computer — surely you can make it through a few months of school. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 13:52, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

As 98.217 mentioned, unless there is a serious flaw in the software and setup, you will not be able to circumvent it while it is running. But there are other ways to work around such software locks. As mentioned above, try not to get yourself in trouble; schools sometimes overreact to any minor digital deviance with legal threats and a variety of other hassles.

The following advice applies in general to a machine you wish to unlock, which you have physical access to. A common adage is that "physical access to the machine" trumps every software security methodology, but this is not strictly true. A skilled systems engineer can set up so many levels of protection.

You could conceivably reboot the machine with a Live CD. This will circumvent almost every software protection on the local machine. But, a few technical caveats come to mind. But, if the machine is running a Trusted Platform Module, or some other pre-boot hardware lock, (including certain setups with encrypted hard disk drives), the machine may refuse to boot any unauthorized software. In fact, there may be a pre-boot BIOS password at power-up, which will deny you the ability to boot from disk or CD. Even if you successfully circumvent these and boot a Live CD, you're not in the clear yet. The network may be configured to deny access to any machine which isn't running exactly as it was configured.

If such draconian technological protections were actually in place, attempting to circumvent them would be technically challenging and would certainly not win you any points with your teacher.

As always, though, the best way to circumvent a computer security system is social engineering. See if you can volunteer to work with the computer or IT department as an extra-curricular activity. It will be a good learning experience, and you will probably gain fuller access to the computers and the network. The "best way" to "break in" to a system is to politely ask permission and earn the privilege to use it. Nimur (talk) 15:04, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

Short answer to your question is "No" As a Computer teacher, I use vision, and I've had students try to disconnect... if they are sucessful I see an indication on the classroom overview so I can check on that student personally. 206.131.39.6 (talk) 16:25, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

My college teacher uses Vision as well (in fact he's probably watching me type this right now...), and it isn't possible to turn it off without them knowing. If you did, they would most likely see that your computer isn't connected. This could easily be justifiable if the computer was actually turned off, but if the lights are off in the classroom, the glow from the monitor onto your face would be a dead giveaway as to what you're up to... Do you go to high school or college? I personally don't highly recommend it, but if it's college, and it has wireless internet access, you could probably bring a laptop to do... whatever it is you want to do. Until It Sleeps ^alternate 15:41, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

php html

I have a php script that generates a page from it's flat file database when I visit a url such as "example.php?page=2". I would like it to also create a .html page on the server so that the php is not being queried constantly to view the page from the php. What would be the best way to do this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.99 (talk) 14:15, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

Why? If you save an html page, it's no longer dynamic, which is the point of that setup. And you could have it automatically generate one, but it would be easier to load it and copy the HTML source code from the browser, then just upload that. Ale_Jrb^talk 15:13, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

I think the OP wants to cache the generated pages for a time, perhaps for performance reasons. This is precisely what Wikipedia does. Wikipedia's caching is done using the squid proxy. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 15:18, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

I am aware that caches exist, and indeed that Wikipedia uses one ;). However, while you could technically call saving a static page in your web directory is a form of caching, it really isn't. It would be completely useless to simply save the page - you would have to direct users there. To do that, you would need a dynamic script (or a separate caching server/program) to direct requests there - in most cases, this is no more efficient than simply retrieving a page from the database in the first place, and databases are often (usually?) more efficient than file writes.

It might just be worthwhile if the page in question is performing lots of complicated calculations, but it would still then be better just to cache results in a database and display them directly. And the question says that the original script is just displaying a page - as in '?page=2'. PHP is efficient enough that doing this dynamically is superior in most standard situations to periodically performing a file write to save the HTML, and then redirecting users there.

And for the example of Wikipedia, it generates everything dynamically - it is the separate server software, squid, that performs the caching. Imagine if the Wiki web directory (SVN) had a static HTML page for every article... Ale_Jrb^talk 15:46, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

I do this for sites similar to Wikipedia. Users edit content. When they edit the content, I don't just update the database. I generate the entire HTML and replace the html file on the main website. The public hits static HTML pages. However, the site is dynamic in the sense that it is easily updated online by the users. Of course, these pages do not have truly dynamic content that changes based on time of day or browsing history of the user. -- kainaw™ 15:40, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

Honestly, that sounds like pretty bad practise to me - you're merging several jobs into one. If you feel the need to have a cache, which only really improves performance on extremely busy sites, you should have a proper cache server - or failing that a cache script that stores requests and responses, and redirects users. Dynamically re-saving HTML pages when someone changes your content isn't the way I'd do things, though I suppose if it works for you, that's fine :). Ale_Jrb^talk 15:49, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

Caching is very good practice for sites that don't update constantly. It can save a huge amount of processing on the back end. It's not very hard to develop good caching procedures. I'm not sure where you got the idea that caches are bad, but they aren't, and nearly everybody uses them. Dynamically generating a complex page for each user is not a good idea if you can avoid it. (Does taking up processing power matter? Yes, if you have a lot of users, and yes, if you are co-located, where processes that go over 1-2% of the total CPU can get you disabled temporarily. Running multiple MySQL queries, for example, can easily do that if you are not careful about optimizing them.) Complicated scripts like WordPress can be sped up dramatically with caching, for example.--98.217.14.211 (talk) 15:56, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

Yes, caching is effective. That's why large sites invest significant resources in cache servers. But if you update your site so infrequently, and it has so few pages, that you consider a script that dynamically saves static HTML pages directly into your web directory for people to view a good thing, then your site would be fine being solely static. A proper cache acts as a proxy between the content server and the user - for most sites, it's on a different machine. Wikipedia is an excellent example - the squid (cache) servers are most definitely not PHP scripts that recreate static HTML whenever you perform an edit. Is that how you would cache wordpress? If so, yikes.

Caching properly is a good thing. That method of caching is (usually) not. See the difference? In a situation where the potential bottleneck is lots of database queries, a far better method would be a system like memcached. Ale_Jrb^talk 17:50, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

It depends on the usage. Many of the projects that I work on have one or two changes per month. The entire point behind the PHP-based online admin is to keep them from calling me to change a phone number or add a new employee name to a list. Of course, they still call and ask how to make the change. -- kainaw™ 15:53, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

Heh - the danger of the layman. :) Ale_Jrb^talk 17:50, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

You could easily write a function that, before being called, would check if there was an existing HTML file in the directory, and if so, output its contents, and if not, generate it, and then output its contents. Whenever you updated the flat file, you'd just delete (either manually or algorithmically) the existing HTML file to clear the cache. Depending on the complexity of generating the page, this could easily deliver higher performance. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 15:56, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

woah! lots of answers :) But how exactly do I do this? What is the code I have to enter into my php file to make it do this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.99 (talk) 18:56, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

It is not a line of code. It is an entire program (possibly hundreds of lines of code). I seriously doubt anyone is going to flood this page with tons of code. As for caching - that is separate from PHP. You install a caching mod in your webserver. As for writing web pages, you just use fopen and fputs. -- kainaw™ 19:36, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

ok, sorry. I am absolutely clueless with php, I thought it would just be a simple matter of telling the script to make a actual .html file out of the html code it sends to the browser when a page is viewed. my bad —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.99 (talk) 19:43, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

Screenshots From Games

I'm thinking of making a blog/diary based on some of the wargames I play regularly. It's more of a private account of certain scenarios I've played and how certain little dramas within those scenarios played out (e.g. defense of a certain building by a certain unit; assault on an enemy position using a particular combination of forces; etc). and I was wondering if it would be possible to get multiple screen shots without leaving the game. I would take a bunch of screen shots, then organize them after the battle and post them on the blog. Is there any software that does this (i.e. run side-by-side with a game, with hotkeys to take screen shots, and said screen shots will be saved to a clipboard or auto-saved)? TIA!! --KageTora - (영호 (影虎)) (talk) 18:21, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

Fraps. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 18:29, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

Excellent! Just what I needed, thanks! --KageTora - (영호 (影虎)) (talk) 18:55, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

Processor comparison

As per my previous posts detailing my recent bad luck with computers, I've decided to throw in the towel and simply buy a new system. The place I normally buy from (www.neutron.ca) allows me to customize my system piece by piece and I'm out of step with how processors are compared. On the system I'm looking at, the cost will be about the same for either of these two setups: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.00 GHz, 6 MB, 1333 MHz and Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 2.66 GHz, 4 MB 1333 MHz. My computer gets intermittent heavy use (graphically intensive games, multitasking between videos, web, other progs), but is not a work machine. That is, when it gets used, it tends to get used pretty roughly, but it also lies fallow most of the day. Which setup can handle that kind of work better? Or is the difference between them more subtle than that? Matt Deres (talk) 19:17, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

If you do more multitasking, the Quad core processor will allow your system to feel more responsive while the Core 2 Duo has more raw "horsepower." Either way, you can't go wrong, and both will be plenty fast. (Personally I'd go for the quad core). When dealing with games, your graphics card is going to pull all the weight, so go for something reasonably new (GTX 200 line for nVidia) and you'll be relatively futureproofed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.131.39.6 (talk) 19:34, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

They only offer ATI cards, so mine will be a Radeon HD 4670 (1 GB), which should also have lots of horsepower. Given that it's a higher end graphics card, would that make the quad core the smarter choice? Let the quad core work the multi-tasking and let the Radeon handle the games? Matt Deres (talk) 19:44, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

Modern games are surprisingly well multithreaded; I think you will see a strong performance boost from the quad-core, even if it is mildly weaker in "raw horsepower" per core. Nimur (talk) 20:22, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

The ATI card you picked is plenty good, I'm just more familiar with the nVidia line (hence my example before I signed in). Nimur also makes a good point in that many games are multithreaded, though any modern dual or quad core CPU won't have any problems as the CPU isn't used as extensively as the graphics card in gaming. You will mainly see a difference in the fact that you can run relatively CPU intensive tasks behind the game while seeing a negligible performance hit to the game. I've encoded video while playing games on my similarly configured computer, and it's done just fine. No matter what processor you ultimately choose, you will not be disappointed. Caltsar (talk) 20:34, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

September 9

help me make my keyboard quiet please?

I live in a dorm and sometimes stay up late. I worry that my typing might bother my room mate. Is there a way to make my keyboard quieter without buying a new keyboard? (eg: would sticking paper between the keys soften the impact of the key on the back of the keyboard?)

I googled this and all i got were keyboards to buy and one ps3 forum that told the person asking my question to just buy a keyboard!

Any thoughts would be great! Thanks!

137.81.113.21 (talk) 06:03, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

I don't know about modifying your keyboard (I guess it depends on how the keyboard works), but there are a couple of free alternative ways to type. Windows has an On-Screen Keyboard included, which you can set up so that leaving the mouse over a button for a specified time will "press the key", and I'd be surprised if OSX and Linux didn't have something similar. There's also a free program called Dasher with which you can "type" by moving the mouse through a set of letters - it takes a bit of getting used to, but with a little practice you can get good speeds. Either of these would be almost silent. AJHW (talk) 10:56, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, I would also suggest to just buy a keyboard. If you have a thrift store in the area, you can probably get one for less than $5. The noise of a keyboard is caused by the mechanical switches under each key, and there's not much you can do about those. Maybe you could take off all the keys and put a layer of foam down, with holes cut for the keys. Sounds like a lot of trouble when you could buy a cheap quieter keyboard. ;) Indeterminate (talk) 04:49, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Installing Minitab

I needed to learn this statistical software in order to ace an interview so i rosorted to install the demo version which had expired (30 days) no as i still have the exe file but when i initate the install process aftrer i have uninstalled the previous one it pops a message, a version of minitab was alredy installed ,please call the customer service to buy the real version, i can't afford it, what do i do now? anyone please help....

Im afraid theres not alot you can do. Im not an expert but companies are pretty good at making sure you cant use their stuff after the trial period. Im sure you can do it anyway, but its usually complicated and illegal! sorry! :)

Try finding a free/open source program thats similar? thats all i can think of.

137.81.113.21 (talk) 07:32, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

Disconnect from the Internet, set your system time back to when you still could install, then use a debugger or equivalent, eg strace, to see what files/other stuff the installer accesses and delete them (not blindly everything of course). It's nowhere near 100% guaranteed it will work even then. --194.197.235.240 (talk) 08:57, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

Software to make image of contours from grid of data

What software, preferably freeware, can do this please? The data would be for regular x.y coordinates. Thanks 78.146.183.185 (talk) 09:29, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

Gnuplot can do that. --Sean 16:17, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

So can GNU Octave: with the ContourScript extension (usually installed by default, I think). The image is graphically displayed with GnuPlot, but this method also gives you access to the contours data. Nimur (talk) 17:41, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

You may also want to look into the GNU Data Language (GDL) at [[5]], and in particular the CONTOUR routine. This is an open source clone of the popular IDL software developed and commercialized by ITT Visual Information Solutions [[6]] Michel M Verstraete (talk) 21:11, 9 September 2009 (UTC).

Overlaying semi-transparantly on another image to make final image

I anticipate having an image of contour lines that I want to use with a map image to create a map-with-contours image. The contour line image would need to become semi-transparant so that the map image shows through. Also the images would have to be moved around and enlarged and reduced so that they register correctly. What software could I use for this please - preferably freeware? Thanks. 78.146.183.185 (talk) 09:35, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

Inkscape. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 10:43, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

Or GIMP. --Sean 16:19, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

Archive request script

Would it be possible to write a script in php that could take the url of a webpage and download the complete page (.hmtl, images, css etc) onto the server where the script is hosted? The url would be entered via a submission form by the end user, they'd click submit and the page would be saved. Something like that. I'm absolutely clueless with php, so if anyone's feeling really kind I certainly wouldn't say no to someone writing the script for me ^_^ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.99 (talk) 16:16, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

Yes, but why use PHP for this? There are lots of server-archiving programs out there already. See e.g. HTTrack. If you wanted to do it with PHP, I'd recommend using a pre-developed spidering class library (like Snoopy), it will save you a lot of trouble. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 16:53, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

I know, but I would like this script to enable someone viewing my site to enter a single url and have the script save it, server side —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.99 (talk) 17:23, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Maybe you could shell out a call to wget -r. Note it is getting harder and harder to archive stuff as the user sees it, due to javascript/AJAX, flash, streaming media, etc. on the pages 70.90.174.101 (talk) 18:06, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Live Player

What is "Live Player"? An ad for it says "Watch over 1,000 TV channels for free on your PC". The FAQ on its website says it is "ad supported" and uses something called "Favorit Advertising Component". Is there a catch to this? The name reminds me of some common video player software, cannot quite remember the name - quickplayer perhaps? - that is too intrusive when used. I have been using something called Freez online tv - I laugh at the shameless hard selling of very overpriced rubbish on the shopping channels. 84.13.49.79 (talk) 16:58, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

Realplayer was notoriously intrusive. My anti-viral software will not let me see the Live Player home page. Not sure what that tells us :) --Tagishsimon (talk) 17:33, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

Are there any free programs which would do the same thing please? YouTuibe does not do "live" streaming video as far as I know. 89.242.155.121 (talk) 11:57, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

I watch Justin.tv sometimes. Calling what they have "TV channels" might be a bit of a stretch, but it's live. There used to be some software that I used for a while where you could watch all sorts of weird stuff like ESPN China, semi-legally, for free, but it wasn't very reliable and I don't remember the name. Recury (talk) 17:00, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

There are a lot of P2P TV programmes, mostly from China which allow you to watch live TV. They usually aren't that reliable. Most commonly they're used for sporting programmes. There's a website which can help give channels on the live P2P TV programmes for specific events and which should also help you find and use the live P2P TV programmes, I won't mention it here but it should be easy to find with Google. In many jurisdictions you'd probably be infringing copyrights if you are using them particularly as they are P2P Nil Einne (talk) 19:36, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Make a touch screen using a webcam.

I've seen some software that can use a projector and a webcam to make a makeshift touch screen... but that isn't feasible for me, since I don't have a projector. Is it possible to use a webcam to turn an ordinary LCD monitor into a makeshift touch screen? Until It Sleeps ^alternate 17:05, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

I don't think it'd work very well - crappy VGA webcams like mine are low resolution, have slow refresh rate and quite a noticeable lag. If it's feasible I don't think it'd be a very pleasant experience. --antilived^{T | C | G} 02:15, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

...and add to that, ordinary LCDs are probably not meant to be touched all the time. I imagine that would degrade them pretty quick. My understand is that most touch-screens have specialized coatings on them to reduce wear-and-tear. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 16:56, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Delete file - access denied windows XP

See title - probably familiar to those skilled in the craft..

Specifics - downloaded video file .mp4 , using a downloading program - downloading terminated (using program - usually not a problem) - additional - file type not supported, attempted to play partial file using separate program - successful - probably this sequence of events cause the issue. Fixed using cmd.exe + task manager , terminated processes until cmd.exe allowed deletion - probably not a good way to do it.

My question is: is there a way to find out exactly what program still thinks it is using a file, and then to persuade it that it is not?83.100.250.79 (talk) 18:08, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

As far as I'm aware, the answer to that is 'no', but it's possible I'm wrong. Ale_Jrb^talk 18:36, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

I find this link useful Unlocker by Cedrick Coulomb. Jan1nad (talk) 19:18, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, I'll bear that in mind in the future.83.100.250.79 (talk) 21:06, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

There actually are ways to do that. SysInternals' Process Explorer has a function to search all open handles (including but not limited to open files). You can use it to close those handles too. --grawity 12:49, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Torrent problem

I am using uTorrent on Vista-64 Home Premium, over my home's wireless network. On my old laptop (Vista-32) I had no problems with torrents, especially after I set a static IP and had uTorrent port forwarded. Since I got my new laptop, I got through most of a torrent, but then after ten minutes or so (sometimes less), my whole internet connection goes down, and my network is set to local only. I have to disconnect and reconnect to connect to the internet again. Since that first torrent that worked, I have had to connect to the router with an ethernet cable if I want to download any torrent. When I am connected with the cable, I never get kicked like that. What is going on, and what can I do to fix it? Thanks —Akrabbim^talk 18:33, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

If you can connect your computer to the router directly, I'd have to ask why you are using wireless in the first place. Strong electromagnetic signals are damaging to health and should be avoided if possible. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.99 (talk) 22:02, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

Tin foil hats are great as far as reducing damage to health is concerned. To the OP, I doubt that the router is the problem for you. Also, you do NOT need to have your port forwarded in order for uTorrent to work. I would assume it is a configuration issue somewhere. I have never tried uTorrent on wireless myself, (or on Windows Vista)so I cannot say anything for a fact ... Kushal (talk) 22:55, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

You imply that there is zero health risks from electromagnetic radiation. I suggest you read this and this —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.99 (talk) 23:33, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

Those articles, incidentally, don't actually describe much if any actual health threat being found. On a scale of threats, your proximity to a local McDonald's is probably worse for you. Anyway, this has nothing to do with the OP's question. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 16:58, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Thank you 82 for sidetracking my question (how can artificial EM radiation be any more harmful than light?). Kushal, what kind of configurations would it be? I have the exact same wireless settings as I did on my old computer, for all I can tell. And the uTorrent website advises users to forward the port for best performance, and I have observed better connections with it forwarded (but the router etc. doesn't seem to be the problem). I guess it rests with my wireless. —Akrabbim^talk 00:26, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Do forgive me for being concerned for your well being. Feel free to microwave your brain if you like.

I had one issue a couple years ago where my wireless would drop out whenever I tried to transfer a lot of data over an encrypted connection. I eventually figured out it was the drivers - I updated them and the problem went away. It's possible that the 64 bit drivers for your wifi card are just less stable than the 32 bit drivers you were using previously. You could try getting the most recent drivers, but aside from that, I dunno. hrm. Indeterminate (talk) 04:35, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

I know Akrabbim might be angry at me for this but I will start with the obvious... Does resetting the power supply in the wireless router when your computer drops dead out of the network help? I know that my uncle has a Linksys that just dies every once in a while. All we needed to do was to press the yellow wi-fi soft button and it would flicker white for a couple of seconds and restart. (I know I am backtracking from my previous position but I want to make sure that we cover all our bases before going into 64-bit driver zone. There is little we can do if the 64-bit drivers are finicky and the lazy programmers have not bothered to write updates so far but let us stay optimistic for now.) Kushal (talk) 07:53, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

If I reset the router, I get reconnected when it comes back up, but then the connection drops out again if the torrent is still running. I am pretty sure that it is not the router though, because all the time that I am losing and gaining the connection, the rest of my family is happily connected without a problem. I'll check the drivers, see what's up, Indeterminate. 11:46, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Blue area moving

I copy and paste a lot. When I move my mouse while holding down the button, with Explorer, sometimes the area that is blue changes in a way that I don't want it to. The text has turned blue, but that's misleading.

On one computer with Firefox, sometimes the text is gray when I've selected the text to copy, but when I do copy, that gray text didn't get copied. It should, of course, have been blue.

If it's doing that and I enter Ctrl-C, I get nothing when I enter Ctrl-V.

I'm trying to duplicate what happened so I can explain it, and I'm not having any luck.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 19:30, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

In Firefox, selected text is highlighted in blue when Firefox is the active window, but highlighted in gray when another window is active. Try clicking on the Firefox button in the taskbar to activate Firefox, then see if the selected text highlight turns blue and the copy works correctly. --Bavi H (talk) 23:34, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

These color descriptions only apply to default color settings for certain operating systems. In general, though, most modern window-managers use a modal selection-mechanism (for all selection behavior, including copy/paste). This means that "highlight" and "select" behavior depends on which window is active. Nimur (talk) 00:21, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

It's not the actual color so much as what it represents. I've been on some computers when it's gray when it works. I still haven't figured out how to explain my problem.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 14:17, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Success! I experienced the phenomenon. I was not holding the mouse button down at the time, but somehow part of a box like this was blue, and as I moved the mouse the part that was blue changed. That's not really the situation I was experiencing, but however it usually happens, that's what it's like.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 22:35, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Boolean addition/subtraction in C++

As some have guessed in emails sent to me... I have been posting questions here from my class. My intention is to allow the class to get answers from many intelligent people rather just my answer. If this offends anyone, I will stop doing it.

In C++, there is a bool type that can only hold the value 0 or 1. By rule, any integer besides 0 becomes 1 when represented as a bool. Therefore, bool x=1+1; will result in x=1. Does this mean that if I have three boolean variables (x=1, y=1, and z=1) and add them together, it will do special boolean arithmetic? For example, (1+1)-1 in boolean will be 1-1 which becomes 0. However, when I put that in a C++ program I get 1, not 0. It seems like it is casting the bool to an int during all math and back to a bool when I grab the result. -- kainaw™ 21:05, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

(clarifying) If x, y, and z are all bool types and set to 1, (x+y)-z comes out as 1, not 0. -- kainaw™ 21:25, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

small-ify since question clarified It's almost certainly what the compiler decides to do. It will evaluate the right hand side first (which is 1), and then apply that to the assignment (in your case to a boolean), this is all almost certainly because despite being binary logic machines, processors are set up to handle strings of binary..

In fact it makes sense not to treat (1+1) as a boolean , because "true+true" is meaningless, or undefined (does + mean or or and or concantentate ?)

If you try

boolean keith = 1+1
boolean george = keith-1

It will probably do what you want. It's certainly a very good idea to test this stuff out (avoids being caught out later on with mysterious bugs") Similar things to try is to see if the compiler allows int chris="a" , or char mike=89 . Many do.

I've no idea if the compiler has infered an integer type because of the "+" sign, but would guess that's the case.

Also note that 1 (or 0) isn't a boolean value, "true" and "false" are, of course many compilers make no distinction, some will even swap the representations round.

Far better to write somrthing, like "bool susan = (true AND true) AND false", or whatever the logical meaning you had in mind was.83.100.250.79 (talk) 21:17, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, but this and your followup below are incorrect. It is not undefined behavior to do math on bools: section [expr.9] of the 2003 standard ("usual arithmetic conversions") says, "operands of type bool, wchar_t, or an enumerated type are converted to some integral type". That promotion makes bools into ints. What's happening with "bool w = (x + y) - z; assert(w);" is that x and y get promoted to ints with value 1, added up to 2, then z gets promoted to an int with value 1, and subtracted from 2, leaving an int with value 1, which then gets converted back to bool and stored as true in w. --Sean 21:37, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

I meant undefined in a mathemtical sense - hence the necessity for the compiler specifications to decide how to treat with them.83.100.250.79 (talk) 21:47, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

respond to clarification If a,b,c are boolean (eg bool d=(a+b)-c ) then the basic error here is to try to add them, this will have to be typecase to an integer, or it will result in an error, since, as mentioned above "true plus true" has no defined meaning, since 'plus' is a numerical operator, not a boolean one.

As an aside I recommend the birch for your class, they learn much quicker and tend not to make as many simple mistakes, in my experience..83.100.250.79 (talk) 21:34, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

d=(a XOR b) XOR (a XOR c) might be an answer here, depending on what was originally intended, it might even be faster.83.100.250.79 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 22:00, 9 September 2009 (UTC).

or (a OR b) XOR c for the intended but unobtained result.83.100.250.79 (talk) 22:10, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

You'd probably want an AND 1 , after these results to truncate.83.100.250.79 (talk) 22:13, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

I'm not sure this is clear from the thread so far, so let me reiterate: the C and C++ standards require all compilers to convert booleans to an integer type before doing arithmetic. It's not something that some compilers decide to do, it's something that you can rely on all of them doing—not that there's much use for it in this case. Likewise, int chris='a' and char mike=89 will work on all compilers, not just some. -- BenRG (talk) 14:05, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Replacing a macbook hard drive

Is it possible to remove the T screw that is on the hard disk sleeve without a T screwdriver? If not, where would I find a screwdriver of that particular dimension? I think the 2006 Intel Macbook takes a T-2 but I am not entirely sure. Could you help me find the cheapest way to replace the drive? Thank you... Kushal (talk) 22:47, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

Did you mean Torx ? (you can file down a flat head screwdriver if you want) - but torx screw sets, including the security type are soo cheap - somewhere like http://www.conrad.com/ will have them, try your local hardware store - the bits are cheapest - they are literally £2 for 50 different types. eg [[7]]search term = "screwdriver bit sets" 83.100.250.79 (talk) 22:57, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

I have been able to work them off in the past using a pair of needle-nose pliers (to get past their initial tightness) and then just my fingers. It's probably a better idea to get a torx one... though I was never patient enough to do that. It can be done, but it takes some work. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 23:53, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the help guys. I guess I could check at Walmart. The problem is that I read on some website that it is a T2 and I don't see T2 in those lists. T6 seems to be the smallest that these sets contain... I am tempted to try the pliers ... Kushal (talk) 07:23, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

The only downside to the plies is you end up stripping the paint from them. I don't think that makes a whole lot of difference, though (it hasn't in my case, anyway, some years later). --98.217.14.211 (talk) 12:46, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

I have a nice set of the small size Torx drivers in a factor like jewelers screwdrivers. Picked them up at a local hardware store. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 13:25, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Why not try searching for "torx t2" in the US the price seems to be ~$1083.100.250.79 (talk) 13:28, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

The driver you'll need on the macbook hard drive screws is a T8 or T9 iirc. If you get a set that has as many as bits as you can find, one of them will work, and it's a fairly standard bit too.Caltsar (talk) 17:29, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

That makes a lot of sense. the T20/T15 was too big but I could not find a T2 online. ... :( sadly, the lutz 13 in one is the only thing that I have http://www.flickr.com/photos/hadakushal/3873472539/ . It would be really sweet if I could find a bit that works on it. :) I think I should stay away from anything magnetic as the bolt seems to be plastic anyways and the hard disk may notlike magnetic tips ... any ideas? Kushal (talk) 02:19, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Buy a T8 and a T9 then - which puts you back in 2$ territory.83.100.250.79 (talk) 12:42, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, 83. I guess that is the best thing to do. My only complaint is that it will be one more piece of clutter that I will not use for anything else... oh well, I am complaining over a non-issue now. It would be great to hear from someone who has replaced a macbook hard disk before. :) Kushal (talk) 02:26, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

Mac v. PC

So, I have a HP G60t-200, and I like it pretty well. However, I have the opportunity to get a new laptop soon, so I thought I would ask for some input. I've heard several things about macs, some of which are probably myth, so please dispel any misconceptions, and help me out. I checked out the Apple site and I think I'm leaning toward the MacBook Pro 15" if I go Mac. Some things I've heard:

• Macs are more physically durable
• Macs have better built-in protection from viruses
• Macs generally outperform PC in computing
• Macs are NOT as easily compatible when it comes to presentations and word documents

Also, what's the situation with the "unmoving" hard drives or whatever. Pros? Cons? Have at it. Hubydane (talk) 23:42, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

I have recently been through this road too and I'll write up some of my thoughts at the time. The MacBook Pros are made of out a single block of aluminium so yes they are quite durable - the reason that didn't sway me too much though is that what good is a durable case when the insides will be outdated in 3-4 years? My laptop is almost 1000 NZD cheaper than the equivalent MacBook - and all the difference I'll get is the a working piece of junk instead of a broken piece of junk after say 5 years, so the Apple tax wasn't worth it for me. Mac OS X is more secure than Windows, but as long as you don't be stupid and have antivirus it's quite rare to catch a virus (this point was irrelevant to me since I'm going to put Ubuntu on it either way). Outperform PC? No. Just No. Compatibility? Microsoft makes Office for Mac so it should work quite well, but there probably will be some tiny incompatibilities that will only affect 1% of the users. The unmoving hard drive you referred to is SSD, which is faster, less sensitive from shock, but still outrageously expensive even if you buy a small one (especially if you get it from Apple). Unless money's no object for you you're probably better off saving the difference. --antilived^{T | C | G} 02:11, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Antilived seems to have covered most stuff but i'd just add

• I have 2 Macs (a maybe 7 year old iBook and a Macbook that's a couple of years old). Both boot up and run pretty much exactly the same as they always have. They have not slowly ground to halt like many PCs my family and friends own. I know (because I have a PC too) that a lot of the grinding-to-a-haltness is not the PCs fault, but the fault of the end-user, but it does seem to be a general thing that PCs grind to a halt more quickly than Apples do (I suspect due to the sheer volume of malware/software that gets installed and never fully gets removed). 194.221.133.226 (talk) 08:26, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

1. Macs are LESS secure than PCs. I don't know about Leopard, but Tiger Macs came with their firewalls turned off. They all have web servers pre-installed (Apache). They come with the least-secure web browser on the Internet (Safari). There's an annual "hacking" competition called PWN 2 OWN. Macs have been the first to be taken over the last few years because of Safari. I find it strange that people see Windows as insecure. One of the biggest complaints about Windows Vista is that it is too secure! You need to read up on Windows Vista, Windows XP Service Pack 2, and the large number of security innovations they have brought. Windows Vista was a complete rewrite of Windows XP to improve security. Microsoft releases security patches every week for Windows. And most of the "vulnerabilities" they find were discovered by employees at Microsoft--not criminals. By contrast, Apple took many months to patch the vulnerabilities discovered at PWN 2 OWN. Microsoft does a much better job than Apple at securing their operating systems.
2. I don't know what you mean by "Macs generally outperform PC in computing" but Macs have a lot of eye-candy and services that run automatically. I've seen speed comparisons between Mac OS X and Windows XP, where Windows XP greatly outperformed Mac OS X in terms of speed.
3. In response to your first point, Apple is both a computer manufacturer and a software maker. Microsoft just makes the software. So, Apples are durable, but so are Sonys, and so are Toshibas. If you buy a counterfeit Chinese netbook with Windows installed, you're technically also buying a PC, so it's hard to generalize. I could probably write a book comparing Macs and "PCs," but suffice to say that I think they're over-priced and OS X is not nearly as sophisticated as Windows 7.--24.9.113.111 (talk) 09:12, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Adding to the comments above, whether Macs or PCs are more secure depends greatly on the behaviour of the user, it's hard to make a blanket statement "Macs are more/less secure than PCs". The same goes for robustness, there are very solid PCs and there are PCs that will fall apart when you look at them wrong, it's hard to generalise, although you mostly get what you pay for. As, for Macs, the software and hardware is built by a single company, they tend to be more tightly integrated, but at the cost of less choice in software. I should also note that, most software (games are particularly bad at this) tends to get written for PCs, but thanks to Boot Camp and Parallels, Macs can (mostly) run it as well. — QuantumEleven 09:57, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

It's worth noting that whether a computer is theoretically more secure (e.g. can hold up under sustained attack by full-time hackers) or practically has less security issues is a different thing. The reason Mac users don't worry about viruses, spyware, or other malware, is not because the OS is so rigorous, but because nobody really bothers making malware for the Mac. If the market share gets large enough, this will certainly change. But at the moment, a Mac user doesn't even generally need to run anti-virus to stay uninfected, no matter what kinds of crazy programs they download. (Has there ever been a case of a Mac user with spyware they couldn't get rid of on the Ref Desk? I see at least one PC case now.) When I recommend to my parents that they get Macs, it's not because I have some unending faith in the strength of Macs, it's because on a day to day level, if they have Windows, they will quickly lose the ability to use their computer (because they are not so hot at avoiding spyware, because they are old), but if they have a Mac, it will still be fine for the next few years. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 14:10, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Whether you choose to get a Mac or a PC, you will need to know which one is right for you. Off the bat, I'm going to say that when buying a PC right now, it will be easiest for you to wait until Windows 7 comes out in roughly a month, so you don't have to deal with claiming the upgrade and installing it. That said, all the "unibody" mac laptops are very durable compared to most PC laptops. However, Dell and many companies also offer laptops with comparible strength, but the price will be similar to a Mac. Mac OS X is in fact more secure against viruses due to the fact that it's built like many unix operating systems where everything is a file, and to oversimplify what this means, things can't run unless you tell them to. This doesn't mean that OS X is immune from viruses, but it means that all attempts at malware so far are those that require you to enter an admin password and manually install (usually bundled with a pirated installer). This doesn't have a lot to do with marketshare, but with the default security settings that OS X ships with. These settings are much better with the newer OS versions than those that came with Tiger. As far as Microsoft Office is concerned, almost complete compatibility is available, and you should be able to open almost any office document you want. I know many people who prefer Office for Mac 2008 over the latest Windows Office suite. I personally get a lot of Publisher documents and it is very difficult to open these on a Mac, but I find that to be the exception to the rule. If you do a lot of gaming, all of the above if moot, and you will want a Windows computer unless you wish to use boot camp. Modern Macs have pretty good graphics, and can run games quite well when you boot into windows, but they are not high end gaming machines by any means. A Mac laptop will cost you about the same as a comparable Windows laptop (taking into account build quality and features like multitouch), so the ultimate factor in deciding whether or not you want a Mac laptop is if you want t run OS X or not. GO to an Apple store and play around to see if you like it. If you don't, go and search for an appropriate Windows machine Caltsar (talk) 17:45, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

I don't think multitouch costs too much extra money - my friend's old Toshiba laptop (came out before unibody MacBooks) has two-finger scrolling out of the box on newer Ubuntu releases, and probably on Windows too with the appropriate driver. --antilived^{T | C | G} 12:05, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

Web emails

How come on most web emails, there's no way to preview your mail besides saving it as a draft then sending it? I find it quite annoying, and I would've thought that a preview function would be pretty basic.

Also, is there anyway to embed (not attach) images on Yahoo mail? Thanks. 24.6.46.106 (talk) 23:32, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

Because e-mails are usually WYSIWYG. There's not need for a preview when it's just a body of text. Darrenhusted (talk) 23:37, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

Back up my computer

My keyboard messed up, so I need to send my computer back. I need to -completely- back up -everything- from my computer--files, applications, bookmarks, pictures, etc.-- before sending it off. So 2 questions. 1) How do I find out how much space (and therefore how big a flash drive) I need to perform this total backup? 2) How do I perform this total backup? (I'm using Vista x64 on an HP G60t-200)

Thanks Hubydane (talk) 23:41, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

Why don't you just replace your keyboard? Intelligentsium 00:46, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

I'm assuming it's a portable which does not invite casual tinkering. --Tagishsimon (talk) 00:54, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Right click on your hard drive icon and select properties, and that will tell you how much space is being used by all your files. Check out this website for information on free hard drive imaging software, which would be the easiest way to back up your entire hard drive, files, applications, settings, and all. —Akrabbim^talk 01:12, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

If this is a warranty repair, you should send them as little hardware as possible. If the hard drive isn't part of the problem, remove it. You can remove the hard drive from any laptop without voiding the warranty. On my laptop the keyboard is also easy to remove, but I don't know whether that voids the warranty. Call them and ask; you might save a lot of money on shipping. -- BenRG (talk) 11:11, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

This is a warranty repair, so I might take out the hard drive, but to check the space needed... I opened my computer (I'm running the latest version of vista x64) and held my mouse over the "Recovery" icon, and it said something along the lines of 1.95 free of 12.2 available. Is this what I need? Do I need my Local Disk (C: drive?)? Hubydane (talk) 01:09, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

September 10

Youtube

On Youtube, why do some users post replies saying "Oh" or "Thanks" or any other word that shows they understand? It's pointless to do that. Jc iindyysgvxc (talk) 05:42, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Oh. Zunaid 09:15, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

I don't think this is unique to youtube. On the internet, it's not easy to tell whether the person you're talking to understands what you're saying. So it's a courtesy to let you know that they do. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 09:27, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Expressing gratitude is a normal part of social behaviour in many cultures. Indeed it's often expected behaviour in some situations. Saying 'thanks' is a common way to express gratitude and it may not be intended simply to convey that they understand what was said. Nil Einne (talk) 19:25, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

realistic images

I have seen a 40 minute section of the last film made by Marilyn Monroe that stops halfway because she died. Isnt technology able to finish the rest of the film off realisticlly? that would be great —Preceding unsigned comment added by Payneham (talk • contribs) 06:29, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

No, technology is not yet that far advanced to create a photorealistic moving image with virtual human characters.83.100.250.79 (talk) 16:43, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

The uncanny valley is even worse for performers we already "know" than for a generic person. Of course, you don't actually need high technology to finish a movie when the star has died, if you're willing to make a few artistic compromises. --Sean 19:50, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

The hardest part at this juncture is not that Monroe is dead, but that probably everybody else is as well. If it is just one person, you can get pretty creative. A whole cast is a lot harder, though. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 03:51, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Not even Crysis or that tech demo from Naturalmotion can do such a convincing portrayal of Monroe. It'll take years before we see such effects, as CGI technology is still a bit far from perfect. Blake Gripling (talk) 06:09, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

As Plan 9 from Outer Space shows, finishing a film after an actor's death can wind up in uncanny valley even without technical help. -- Q Chris (talk) 12:42, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Mobile dictionary

I have Nokia 6630. I want a free English dictionary for it. Also, it doesn't have reminders, stop watch, and countdown timer. Where can I get these? Thanks. --Siddhant (talk) 07:05, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Website Hosting Provider

Hi, How can I find out who the Hosting Provider for www.rvis.edu.bh is? Thank you. 80.88.241.94 (talk) 09:13, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Whois services don't seem to work for .bh, but a traceroute says cox.net --Tagishsimon (talk) 12:49, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Looking for a paper forms designer

I'm looking for some freeware that can design paper forms that can be printed out. I have found one or two programs to do on-screen computer forms, but that is not what I want. Does anyone know what software can be used to easily design paper forms please? 89.242.155.121 (talk) 11:54, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

How about OpenOffice Word Processor or Spreadsheet? Nimur (talk) 14:16, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Which side of printer paper best to print on - shiny side or matt side?

The printer paper I've used has one side which is somewhat smoother or shinier than the other side. Which is best to print on? Thanks 89.242.155.121 (talk) 11:55, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Depends on the type of printer and the paper. The paper packaging usually has an arrow or other instructions to show the printed side or first printed side. Since the sides are not the same, this appears to be other than plain bond. Or; you can use the empirical method and try both sides. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 12:21, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

If it's photo paper, you want to print on the side which has been treated to reduce ink absorption and bleeding. Usually this is the smoother, glossier side (the surface treatment fills in cracks in the paper, and photos normally have a slightly glossy sheen), but as Gadget850 says, you want to look at the packaging for your specific paper. -- 128.104.112.179 (talk) 15:57, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

You are making the assumption this is an inkjet printer. I have special paper with a glossy side for my color laser for high quality printing. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 17:46, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

The paper is just cheap paper mostly used for black and white printing of text, on an inkjet. I rarely print in colour. I've never seen an arrow on the packaging. The difference between each side is only moderate. The two or three different brands of paper I've used all have this difference between sides. 78.145.31.35 (talk) 12:06, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

BASIC-like languages to use on a PDA and a PC

I anticipate buying a PDA. Which BASIC-like languages will run on a PDA and a PC also please? (BASIC = Beginners All purpose Symbolic Instruction Code). Which PDA I buy depends upon which languages and software will run on it - I know nothing about PDA operating systems. Thanks. 89.242.155.121 (talk) 12:02, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

If I recall correctly, Windows Mobile devices (including cell phones and PDAs) support almost the full set of Microsoft's Visual Basic (which, as you may know, is derived from the original BASIC architecture, with some significant changes). Most Visual Basic designed for the mobile platform can be seamlessly ported to the PC (you may need to recompile or slightly modify your code, depending on features you use). You can download a free version of the Visual Basic compiler from Microsoft here. Microsoft's MSDN Developer Network also hosts a portal with a bunch of tutorials and help for Windows Mobile Development with Visual Basic. Nimur (talk) 14:00, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Cheap and safe batteries for my TI_89 Titanium

I just saw the BATT sign in light letters over a dark background. It only appears when doing calculations but I guess it is a warning that I should replace batteries (hopefully only the AAA cells). I would normally just buy non-rechargeable alkaline cells but I wanted to know what you guys suggest? Should I even consider rechargeables instead? Are my batteries supposed to die within a year? I have Duracell pile alkaline right now (the ones I got with the calculator). I also have another calculator that I use. The older Casio fx-991MS that I had since about five years ago has not had a battery change for the last three years. (Oops, forgot to sign.) Kushal (talk) 12:30, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

You're seeing a dynamic power load - which means that when the calculator's microprocessor is operating for an intense calculation, it consumes more power than when it is idle. During calculation, more parts of the CPU's internal circuit are on; this typically means a larger current is drawn from the batteries. Normally, that's not a problem, but as batteries age, they are less able to deliver their full dynamic range of current at a constant voltage; so as the CPU demands more current, the battery starts lowering its voltage. The warning indicator is exactly that - an early warning. The next failure-mode is hopefully a LDO - a circuit protection mechanism that sense the voltages are too low, and shuts down the CPU entirely. In the literal sense, the batteries are not dead - there is still chemical energy in them, and there is still a voltage and a capacity to drive a current - but digital devices prefer to operate only if the voltage is guaranteed to be high enough for a guaranteed correct answer. So, if your calculator refuses to turn on, you might still measure voltage on the batteries - but they still need replacement. Usually, LDOs exist to prevent any permanent damage to the circuitry, so in general, it's possible to run that calculator until it simply refuses to turn on anymore without any risk of damage. From the reviews I'm seeing online, it looks like TI added a backlight to the calculator, and a lot of people are saying that it reduced the battery life. My old TI-85 ran for some ten years on 4 AA cells; my TI89 ran for about 2 years or so; and they keep releasing new models with beefed-up processors and memory each year, probably at the expense of battery life. I now use my TI calculators fairly intermittently; I haven't needed to replace their batteries in at least four years. Nimur (talk) 14:12, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

I guess the calculator tries to avoid using the backup battery as much as possible so is using the AAA batteries for pretty much everything, if possible. Kushal (talk) 11:21, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

The button cells are to power the NVRAM, which stores things like your last-entered commands, stored variables, certain programs, etc. However, the button cell doesn't ever power the CPU on the calculator. Nimur (talk) 13:22, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

I suggest Energizer L92 lithium cells (non-rechargeable). They are expensive and in this situation the extra energy they hold isn't important. The reason to use them is that alkalines are more likely to leak goo all over the insides of your calculator if you leave the same set in place for a whole year. If you use rechargeables, get the kind that are already charged when you buy them (Sanyo Eneloop is the best known brand like that). The pre-charged cells have lower capacity than the non-pre-charged ones, because they use a different formulation that stops the charge from leaking out ("self-discharge") within a few months. In general they are more reliable than the non-pre-charged cells too, and they cost about the same. Their only disadvantage is you have to recharge them a little more often. 70.90.174.101 (talk) 18:12, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Thank you for the response. My big brother eBay has http://cgi.ebay.com/New-Ultra-AAA-850-mAh-Rechargeable-Battery-4-Pack_W0QQitemZ230376349954QQcategoryZ48621QQcmdZViewItem as a daily deal. These are five dollars and free shipping. Kushal (talk) 20:01, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

PC problems

I downloaded something a few weeks ago an now every time I switch on my computer I have to close several windows that are asking my to clean my registry. There is nothing wrong with my registry. I have tried to delete every file I can fin concerning Winferno, but to no avail. Any sugestions? also, I have pretty much filled both of my hard drives. Mostly with music, so now I want to buy an external harddrive and move all the music there, how will this affect Itunes? can I just move Itunes to the new drive? how will I do this? Any sugetsions? Thanks alot, you people are great! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.18.35.133 (talk) 13:01, 10 September 2009 (UTC) This query transferred from Misc. Desk.86.4.181.14 (talk) 13:12, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Try Superantispyware— it gets the highest ratings in several tests, it has a free version and it has killed some very bad rootkits for me. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 13:21, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

TVs as Monitors

How well do modern flat-screen TVs function as computer monitors? Years ago we had a TV out card for our computer hooked to a CRT television, and while graphical programs like games looked decent, text which was legible on the monitor was unreadable on the CRT. I'm assuming this was due to the low resolution and the analog nature of the CRT TV. However, HDTVs are much higher resolution, and are intrinsically digital. If you hook up an HDTV to a computer with a DVI->HDMI converter, how well does it work? Would it be possible to use an HDTV as a computer monitor, or would you still have unreadable text, fuzzy resolutions, etc.? -- 128.104.112.179 (talk) 16:06, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Yes it works, minimum resolution is ~768 x 1024 , which is fine for the destop. Using a digital connection will mean that the signal has no problems.83.100.250.79 (talk) 16:23, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

It looks fine, just like a monitor, more or less. You can usually set the computer output to be the same as the TV's native resolution, so it looks just like a regular LCD screen. Many new LCDs come with VGA and DVI ports on them to plug into computers. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 16:37, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Yes, it works. Couple of things to keep in mind - most HDTVs are widescreen, so you'll need to adjust your aspect ratio (Windows does do this semi-automatically, but you'll need to select what resolution etc. you want). Also, TVs are generally a lot brighter than monitors are. That makes sense as you typically sit much further away from a TV. The solution there will depend on where you plan to sit - if you're going to use it just like your old monitor, you'll need to adjust your brightness settings or risk some eyestrain. Matt Deres (talk) 16:53, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

98 is correct, but you will find that the vertical dimension of the TV will be frustratingly small. When viewing Web pages you'll be scrolling up an down a lot more than you did when you used a monitor. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:15, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

I have a PC connected via HDMI to a 50" flat screen in the family room. Works great for music, videos, games, webcam conferencing, internet video like Hulu and YouTube. The resolution is great, but it is too large for continued comfortable use in word processing and the like. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 17:35, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

I set up a PVR for a friend. They use it with their 42 inch Samsung LCD true HDTV (i.e. 1080p native resolution) as their sole computer, including internet access and whatever wordprocessing needed. While they've only had it for about 1.5 months I haven't heard any complaints yet and have even used Google Sketchup with it to sketch their garage and other things. Obviously a decent wireless mouse and keyboard are needed. You may also need to increase the font size. Note that even with a SDTV you can get acceptable results (I wouldn't recommend it for continuous use but acceptable for some browsing etc) if you use component ideally with the thing closest to the TV's native resolution (720x576 or 720x480) and a larger font size. Nil Einne (talk) 19:20, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

My experience from setting my wife's computer up on our 42" HDTV is that the pixels on the television are not crisp. They bleed into each other just a bit - which is outstanding for watching movies. It makes it hard to read small text. My monitors on my computer are different. If I look closely, I can clearly see each pixel. That makes reading text much easier. I believe it to be by design. Televisions are designed to optimize movies. Monitors are designed to optimize text. -- kainaw™ 04:02, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

I don't think it's supposed to do that. PC inputs on TVs should bypass all the post-processing (at least it does on mine), perhaps your resolution is wrong or there's overscanning? --antilived^{T | C | G} 11:47, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

Darkening a PDF file

Is there anyway to darken a PDF file? The way in which the text was initially scanned resulted in the PDF text being too light to read when printed. DRosenbach ^{(Talk | Contribs)} 16:47, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

There should be and option in adobe...if not there should be a program that can help.Accdude92 (talk) (sign) 17:03, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Update: Try photoshop.Accdude92 (talk) (sign) 17:05, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Alternatively, when you print, check the printer settings in those printing dialog boxes. Most printer manufacturers' drivers have a "darken" setting where you can darken the printout by a certain percentage. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:34, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

It is unfortunately harder to edit the PDF images that one would imagine; the tools are all there but few can do more than one page at a time. If you have access to OS X, you can save PDFs with a number of quartz filters, including one that is "lightness decrease", which can help improve contrast. But I don't know of any Windows software that lets you do the same thing in one easy step. Photoshop will work if it is only one page, it doesn't handle multi-page well (it doesn't really handle one page well, either). --98.217.14.211 (talk) 03:47, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Partitioning and dual-booting

Okay, I know this is kind of a long and detailed question so I'll give a quick summary here so people will know straight off if they can just skip this. I'm getting a new computer with no OS installed. I have a legal Windows XP disc and I have an Ubuntu disc. In the end, what I would like is a dual-boot system with, if possible, equal access to the various files (mp3s, pictures, etc.). I have a variety of questions about how best to achieve this.

First, which comes first - Linux or XP? Does it matter? I assume that I'll need an OS running before I try partitioning, etc. I'm leaning toward XP first because it's what I'm familiar with.

Second, what is the most reliable/best way to partition? In the past, I've used PowerQuest Partition Magic without any complaints, but I've heard grumblings here that it's no good. If it's no good, what's a better choice?

Third, PowerQuest also makes a program for setting up dual-boot systems called Boot Magic. My default plan was to try that, but if PowerQuest is shaky, what's a better option for setting up the boot options? Upon start-up, I'd just like a screen presenting me with the choice of OS or something equally simple.

On my previous computers, I had made up three partitions: one for Windows, one for applications and games, and one for files. That's always worked fine for me and I believe that setup has reduced the amount of fragmentation. With two OSes, I assume I'll need a fourth partition for Ubuntu. With this setup I've described, would both Windows and Ubuntu have access to the "files" partition? If not, is there a better way?

I know this is a lot of questions. If there's a website that walks me through this stuff, please just direct me there. My access to the web is very touch and go right now, so combing through a lot of sites is not really an option at this point. Very many thanks in advance. Matt Deres (talk) 17:45, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Assuming your computer can boot from CD (which if you bought it from any reputable manufacturer it should), then I would boot from the XP CD and install that first. Don't bother partitioning or installing a bootloader, as Ubuntu will take care of that during the install. The Ubuntu installer has a built-in partitioner. By default, it takes up the whole hard drive, but it's very easy to enter manual mode, leave the XP partition in place, then create additional partitions for Ubuntu. You need at least two (and probably 3) separate partitions: a partition mounted as /, a swap partition, and (recommended, but not necessary) a partition for /home. You can also mount the Windows partition in Ubuntu as (for example) /windows, making for easy access to Windows files. Be sure, however, that you are not formatting the Windows partition. It's recognizable as the one with a file system of NTFS, so triple-check that you are leaving that partition alone (there should be a box option to format it, you should untick it if it's ticked, then mount it if you would like). Once Ubuntu is finished installing, it will install the GRUB boot loader which will automatically detect XP and configure everything in that area. Then everything should be set up - just remember that GRUB settings (default wait time, default OS, etc.) can only be changed from Ubuntu. Xenon54 / talk / 19:38, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

first: xp first, then ubuntu. XP has a bad habit of thinking it owns the whole disk, and is prone to overrighting the boot sector (and so hiding ubuntu's boot option). While you can do it the other way around (which often involves changing windows' boot.ini) it's easier to go XP then ubuntu

second: ubuntu has its own partitioner; it'll safely resize the XP partition, create its own two partitions (a normal partition and a swap partition), and will set the boot sector up correctly

third: stick with what ubuntu installs

fourth: ubuntu will read and write to ntfs and fat32 partitions as well as many unix-flavour type partitions (ext2, ext3, reiser, etc.) XP will only read and write ntfs and fat32. So a shared partition between the two has to be either fat32 or ntfs. NTFS is mostly the better option (better pathnames, better filename-charset, more efficient and less fragmentation) but occasionally I've had XP complain about NTFS volumes that linux touched last. FAT32 is safe, but a bit dumb.

I don't think you'll need a tutorial for this; ubuntu will do the install and things will just work. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 19:41, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Wow, thanks very much for those detailed (and reassuring!) replies. A couple of follow-up questions: Will the partitions Ubuntu creates show as different logical drives? That's the definition of "partition" that I'm familiar with, but the use above of / has me thinking that these are just directories. On my current machine (before dying), I had C: for Windows, D: for the various programs, and E: for the files. If Ubuntu works best with three partitions, am I looking at C: through H: kind of thing? Or is it more like C: through F:, with, say, the E: drive for Ubuntu being split into the home, swap, etc. I'm completely okay with multiple logical drives; I just want to make sure I'm not misunderstanding the situation. Along that same vein... if Ubuntu can simply make the partitions as needed, will it be okay to use it to create the partition for the Windows-based applications and games, or will XP not like that? Thanks again! Matt Deres (talk) 20:51, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

The drives ubuntu creates won't be visible (as drive letters) in Windows at all (they're visible in the disk admin plugin, which helpfully calls them "unknown"). When you're booted into ubuntu, drives aren't given drive letters at all; there's only one big disk heirarchy, and different disks are mounted into it. So / is the root of the heirarchy, and will be where your main ubuntu disk will be mounted. A CDROM will be mounted (as needed) somewhere like /media/cdrom, a usb stick as something like /media/disk, and the windows partition as something like /media/localdisk (I can't remember the last one specifically). Ubuntu should set all these mounts up automatically. I don't agree with Xenon54 on one point; I don't think that you, as a beginner, should create a special /home partition, just stick with a regular / only. I don't understand your last question - XP will make its own partition, and ubuntu will just resize XP's partition (making it smaller, so that there's space for ubuntu). Personally I'd recommend you do just the basic XP install, then the ubuntu install, and verify both are okay and bootable before you install lots of apps and stuff in XP (so that way if you somehow mess up entirely, you've not zapped lots of work). -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 21:07, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

I'm probably not using the correct terms. On my previous systems, I split my physical hard-drive into three logical drives. So, while my old floppy drive was the A: drive, and Windows was on its customary C: drive, I also had a partition to make a D: drive, which is where I installed all my games and applications, and a partition to make an E: drive, which is where the media files (music, video, pictures) were. My DVD-RW was mounted as the F: drive. By default, I believe it was lettered as the E: drive, but got automatically reassigned when I used PartitionMagic to remap the other two drives. (For that matter, and this is besides the point, I also had drives F: through J:, which were DVD images created using Daemon Tools). What's slowly sinking through my skull is that this is all just Windows-based thinking and that I'm probably best off to take your advice to not install too much and just try using it for a bit and see how things operate. Should I mess it up entirely, a wipe can always be done. :-) Matt Deres (talk) 00:15, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Here's a couple things to keep in mind: disk partitions are the same in Windows and Linux. But they put different file systems on the partitions: Windows uses NTFS these days, and Ubuntu usually uses Ext3 by default. Each OS can only boot from its own partition type, so the Linux system partition should probably be ext3. But if you're dual-booting, you'll be able to open up your NTFS partitions in Ubuntu as if they were just another folder. (On my computer, my Windows "C:\" drive shows up in Ubuntu as "/media/disk") You can even use an NTFS partition as your Home directory. But Windows doesn't have very good support for other filesystems besides NTFS and FAT32. You can give ext3 partitions a drive letter in Windows and open them normally, but you need to install some software. Anyway, if you're going to create a partition that both OSes will use (like one for Windows apps and media), I'd recommend formatting it as NTFS. Indeterminate (talk) 11:19, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Software diversity and the spread of malware

Have any studies been done, with real networks or simulations, on how using a mix of different software configurations with different immunities and vulnerabilities affects the spread of malware through e.g. a large corporate office or a college campus? NeonMerlin[8] 18:18, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Here's one: Key Factors Influencing Worm Infection in Enterprise Networks. Is that the sort of thing you're looking for? Indeterminate (talk) 10:36, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

A worm can only spread if it can run on both the source computer (an infected computer that is trying to spread the worm) and the destination computer (a vulnerable computer that the worm is trying to infect). If the source and destination computers are running different OSes, or different processor architectures, this is difficult.

However, it can be done. Some security vulnerabilities can be exploited without knowledge of the underlying machine architecture: for instance, if a Web app has a bug that allows an attacker to execute a shell command with the Web server's privileges, you don't need to use a buffer overflow to break in. In such a case it would be possible to write a worm entirely in a high-level language (such as Perl, Python, or shell) which would affect any compatible OS regardless of processor.

That said, in the real world, most worms are non-portable, and writing portable worms is much harder than just writing a worm for the most prevalent OS and architecture (which is to say, Windows on x86). This means that diversity is a practical security benefit, even though theoretically it can be defeated. Of course, in the real world there is pretty much only one processor architecture these days (even Macs are x86 now!) and only three OSes (Windows, MacOS, and Linux). So anyone running on something different benefits from security-by-unpopularity. --FOo (talk) 06:01, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

Spinning and spinning

I am on an computer with Internet Explorer. I copied and pasted a URL that just left the circle spinning and spinning. I tried clicking on "Back" because I wanted to go back and look at something I was looking at before. Nothing. I tried copying and pasting a new URL. It's still spinning. I copied and pasted the URL that was there to begin with and tried it somewhere else, using a search function, and that worked. I went back to the other screen and typed hotmail.com, and got "http://hotmail.com is currently unavailable."

Now, if I do that here ... Okay, now this one is spinning.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 21:01, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

This is a typical symptom of a bad Internet connection. Try disconnecting and reconnecting. Comet Tuttle (talk) 21:06, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Nothing wrong with the connection. I got here just fine on this screen.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 21:09, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Now the circle is rotating more slowly on the two screens. The text above is still on that other screen. Copying and pasting the addresses the computer is trying to go to on those other screens gets me the result I did with hotmail. I got there, though, on another screen.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 21:11, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

I decided just to click on the red X in the upper right corner. I got a message saying "busy" and that closing might cause problems. Do I want to anyway? I did. No problems. Everything is normal. I'm going home.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 21:20, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

OK, the "Busy" message indicates that Internet Explorer is, well, busy. I have seen this occur a lot on computers that don't have enough RAM memory and the machine basically sits and spins for a while as the hard disk thrashes. Have you tried installing more RAM? Try running with fewer Internet Explorer windows - each one consumes memory and makes less memory available for the system. Comet Tuttle (talk) 22:37, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

I'm running 64-bit IE on 64-bit Vista with 6 Gigs of RAM and some very long pages still give me this. I normally have to kill the process. I think it's just a problems with IE sometimes. --Phil Holmes (talk) 08:37, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

The computer is fairly new, but it's not mine. I am aware I should have fewer windows, but I'm doing a lot of different things at once and I need them all. In one case, I had a PDF version of a magazine article from the library databases, and then I discovered I could get to the same article on the magazine's web site (meaning my citation of that article on Wikipedia could be made more useful; I was also contributing to Wikipedia at the time), so that's where I was when I decided to try a web site I hadn't seen before. My guess is there was something wrong with the site, and next time I figure out how to get there, I'll tell you.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 15:41, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

September 11

Camera Angles on Company Of Heroes

Does anyone know how to control the camera angles on Company Of Heroes (the first one)? TIA! --KageTora - (영호 (影虎)) (talk) 00:09, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Dun't matter. Dunnit! --KageTora - (영호 (影虎)) (talk) 01:19, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Win on Mac is ok, Mac on PC = lawsuit, why?

What are the legal reasons behind it being ok to run Windows on Mac hardware, but not run Apple OS on PC hardware? They seem to be the same situation to me, but Apple will slap you in the face with a lawsuit if you try it... what gives? 218.25.32.210 (talk) 01:24, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

The EULA for Mac OS (here, section 2, subsection A), which you must agree to to install the software, says it cannot be run on "non-Apple-labeled hardware". Meanwhile, the Windows EULA has no such clause, because it isn't tied to one specific type of hardware. So even though it's possible to install Mac OS on a non-Apple machine, it's illegal to run it, because by violating the EULA, you lose the privilege of running the software. Xenon54 / talk / 01:35, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Not "illegal". In the US, and I assume in most countries, it is not actually a violation of any law to breach a contract. (You could get sued, but not sent to prison.) Also see our EULA article for a brief list of how the different federal appeals courts have ruled different ways on how enforceable EULAs are in the first place. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:16, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

The difference is because the two companies take different legal stances on the control of their intellectual property. They do so as part of different business strategies—with Apple you are roped into buying their specific hardware, which subsidizes the price of the software, while Windows primarily sells the software and allows any hardware vendor to use it, aiming for a higher overall market share. The distinction between the apparent legality is just based on the respective company policies (as expressed in their EULAs), nothing else. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 03:44, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

It makes a big difference in development and support costs for the companies. Apple know fairly well what they are developing for and have to support. Microsoft is lumbered with weird hardware and users aren't always content with them saying it's a vendors problem. It's apples and oranges, erm no strike that, well you know what I mean. 12:14, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Apple makes it's money out of hardware, they don't want you to get the benefit of Mac OS without paying, microsoft makes it money out of licences, they don't really give a monkeys what you put Windows XP on as long as you have paid for a licence. --Cameron Scott (talk) 17:18, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Yahoo homepage

The new yahoo homepage is god-awful. Is there any way for me to get the old one back? 76.211.105.155 (talk) 03:24, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

You can switch to compact view (in the options on the right) or make your own layout using the My Yahoo option on the left. -- kainaw™ 03:59, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

DNS servers needed

I'm in a bind here. My ISP's DNS servers are out and I'm only connected to Wikipedia because I added WP's IP address to my hosts file (happily, I have the ShowIP extension on Firefox and was able to get it from that). Could someone possibly be kind enough to post the IPs of two public DNS servers for me? I have no clue as to when my ISP will get this fixed. Thanks in advance. howcheng {chat} 04:24, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Here's a list of public DNS servers. [9] I've never used them so I don't know how well they work but it's worth a try if you're in a bind. RxS (talk) 04:29, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Something like OpenDNS? --Spoon! (talk) 04:35, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for that, but the problem is because I have no DNS, I can't actually view that site because my computer can't resolve the domain name. :( I'm asking for some kind soul to look up some DNS server IP addresses and post them here... howcheng {chat} 04:37, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

lol....doh, of course. Glad it worked out! RxS (talk) 04:43, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Oh yes, OpenDNS should work. Let me try that. howcheng {chat} 04:38, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Sweet sweet DNS! Thanks so much Spoon!! (there are two exclamation points because your username already has one) howcheng {chat} 04:40, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Mobile phone colour

How common are mobile phones that support downloaded apps but aren't capable of at least 15-bit colour? NeonMerlin[10] 05:30, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Um... not terribly common. In the US, PhoneScoop only lists 1 currently available phone without a color screen that also supports "games". There are more discontinued b&w/grayscale phones still in use, but their number is dwindling. Looking for something specific? Indeterminate (talk) 09:03, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

I wasn't talking about being without colour altogether. Haven't there been, at some point in the past, phones with 8-bit colour? NeonMerlin[11] 20:37, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

cmmi level 3

what are the processes we should implement to go in for cmmi level 3 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Radsri 2006 (talk • contribs) 06:24, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia has a useful page on Capability Maturity Model Integration that should get you started on this. --Phil Holmes (talk) 08:34, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Matlab function input query

Hi there all,

I'm new to Matlab so I hope the answer isn't too complicated, but I was wondering whether it's possible to define a function within another function. I want have a function f(g,a,b) where g is something like 2*x-7*sin(x), for example, and then evaluate the given function g at various points in the code of f - for which I gather I need to use feval(~,a) to evaluate at x=a, with ~ the appropriate function. However, as far as I can surmise, ~ needs to be a function name or function handle (whatever that is) but when I input 'g' into f, it is treated as a variable. If I input g as something like 'sin' (with the apostrophes) then it works, but I want to be able to input 'unnamed' functions like the one above without having to define them separately in a new M-file every time I want to use f for a different function - so is there a way I can input a function like 2*x-7*sin(x) into another function and have it evaluated at points a, b and c, say, or alternatively define a function name for g 'within' f so it works with feval, or any workaround of somesort which isn't too complicated for a beginner?

Hopefully that makes sense, and many thanks!

Spamalert101 (talk) 06:56, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Yes, you want to learn about and use function handles. Function handles are used to pass a function as an argument, i.e. to dynamically switch which function is called by your code. If you are interested in background theory, function pointer is a useful article (but it is written for/by C-programmers, and much terminology will be unfamiliar to a MATLAB programmer). Fortunately, there is no shortage of MATLAB documentation. Here is the official Mathworks documentation for MATLAB Function Handles. This will give you some options; but in general, you will need to define your function somewhere (otherwise, how can you pass it as an argument?) This typically means a separate .m source file defining each function, but there are other options for defining different types of functions, including anonymous functions. You might want to really read these documentation pages very well, because different types of function declarations in MATLAB have subtle effects on behavior, variable scoping, and function handles. You may find anonymous function handles the most suitable for your needs. Nimur (talk) 11:40, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Excel printing problem

In Excel 2003, how do I get the text in a worksheet to print out on successive pages so that no text is suppressed and I don't have to glue extra pages to the right hand edge?

This tip from the Web turned out not to be what I was looking for. It made text so tiny even a magnifying glass would not have made it legible.

What I want is for text in each cell to be wrapped, if necessary, to show as several lines right below each other in the cell. That way the entire row would fit onto a single sheet of paper. In other words, instead of

Title	Director	Actors	Gen
1960
Los Acusados	Antonio Cunill Jr.	Mario Soffici, Silvia Legrand, Guillermo Battaglia, Alita Román, Julián Bourges , Mario Danesi ,Osvaldo Terranova	Crime REST CUT OFF

I want this

Title	Director	Actors	Genre	Notability
1960
Los Acusados	Antonio Cunill Jr.	Mario Soffici, Silvia Legrand, Guillermo Battaglia, Alita Román, Julián Bourges , Mario Danesi,Osvaldo Terranova	Crime drama	Based on Marco Denevi play, March 10

where everything fits onto the width of the page due to text in cell no. 3 being wrapped.

--Goodmorningworld (talk) 07:45, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Format... Cells... Alignment... Wrap Text. --Phil Holmes (talk) 08:32, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Thank you! It is an improvement... text is in normal size now... But the row with the most text is only a few characters wide and that makes each of its cells impossibly narrow and tall... Wish I could somehow convert the worksheet into a Word file. In Word I am comfortable fiddling with column widths and point sizes to make stuff fit and look good. However when I tried to copy the content and paste it into Word using the Office Clipboard I got only a jumbled mess. :( --Goodmorningworld (talk) 09:37, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Just increase the column width of that column in Excel. Then you can decrease the row size. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 10:08, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Thank you! --Goodmorningworld (talk) 11:01, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Another option you may find useful is on the page setup dialog. If you select the option "fit to 1 page(s) wide" and then blank out the "by () tall" option, Excel will fit the content to fit the available page width, but will still use whatever pages are needed to hold the length of the spreadsheet. -- Tcncv (talk) 01:43, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

MIDs, tablets, android...

What I can't quite figure out is how an 'internet tablet', one with Android OS for example, connects to a 3G network? It's not a phone, does it use a simcard? Does it require a 3G modem dongle? Does it require a fee based subscription of some kind? I realise there are few of these devices out yet, but several are pending (SMiT MID-560, Archos A5S). Thanks if you can inform...

3G modems have a SIM card, just like a 3G phone. The difference between a 3G phone and a 3G internet device is rather blurry (things like the iPhone are a bit of both, as are Android tablets). How the connection is paid for just depends on the calling and data plan that you buy for (or that is packaged with) the device - you can already get unlimited-data, metered data, and pay-as-you-go data packages. The only difference between a phone and an internet device is voice calling, and it's a somewhat artificial distinction; carriers for high-end phones are trying desperately to prevent VoIP applications being run on them, but I guess sooner or later they'll fail to keep that partitioning, at which point all that's different between the devices is how big they (and their screens) are. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 12:26, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

All Keys

Is there any computer program for windows that has an assigned function for every key on the standard microsoft keyboard and the combinations of ctrl, alt, and shift? TheFutureAwaits (talk) 14:33, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

No. I believe Ctrl-Alt-Delete is a secure attention key and can not be intercepted by an application. There may be other combinations that are reserved to Windows. As for the ones you can map, no practical application is likely to have that many user-oriented functions (around 800), but it would be straightforward to write a program that detects each and says "you pressed Ctrl-Alt-Q" or whatever for each one. --Sean 15:10, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Nethack takes a good shot at it, though: it uses the entire alphanumeric area of the keyboard both with and without "shift", and has a variety of control-key sequences. --Carnildo (talk) 22:29, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

about absolute decoding technique

Could you please give me the theoretical explanations regardng the interfacing of 74138 decoder with absolute decding technique —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.161.69.211 (talk) 14:41, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

This Google search gives links to pages on Google Books where you can read about it. They're all bizarrely similar. --Sean 15:20, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Is there anyway to get Google to do a literal search?

If I search on ": IEnumerator" (with the quotes), Google strips the leading colon and space from the search string. But I want to do the colon and space as part of the search string. Is there a way to get Google to do this? If not, does anyone know of another search engine that will actually search on what you want to search. Bing and Yahoo have the same problem (at least with default settings). 204.2.252.254 (talk) 15:31, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Google (and I guess the other two) discard punctuation (with a couple of odd computer-guy exceptions) when they index pages. As this page notes, colons are one of those things they discard (the table on that page is slightly complicated to read, because colons have special meanings in Google's interface, but aren't recognised parts of search terms). So no. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 15:37, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

I just tried 20 (or so) search engines listed on our Web search engine article and all behaved the same way (with default settings). However, the following will work: "Implements IEnumerator". ;) Anyway, if anyone does know of a way to do a literal search, please post a reply here. 204.2.252.254 (talk) 16:07, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

code.google.com may handle that differently--try there. 70.90.174.101 (talk) 18:17, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

(EC) Google Code Search allows full regular expression searches on a large body of source code. It might be suitable for you. Here are the results of your query. --Sean 18:27, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

CAD-TV channels

I live in Carrollton, GA outside of Atlanta. Some of my digital television channels are what they should be on the RF channels. ABC is channel 39-1 and cw is 43-1. Others are way off: Fox is 103-2, NBC is 101-2, CBS is 103-1. Why do some conform and others not? Is there anyplace I can get an accurate listing on the HD broadcast channels in my area? 160.10.98.106 (talk) 15:41, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

It appears you are receiving your digital channels via cable. The list you linked to is for over-the-air RF channels. Digital channels over the air and over cable use different sets of RF channels and different modulation types, so RF channel lists will be different. A cable company usually doesn't provide its RF channel mapping to the public, but you may find other people in your area have documented the mapping and posted it in an online forum or website. --Bavi H (talk) 03:42, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

Intel Pentium Dual Core compared to Intel Core 2 ?

which one is the best of the Intel Pentium Dual Core and the Intel Core? If a program/game's minimum specs are a Intel Core 2 with 1,6 Ghz (or equivalent) and the recommended specs are Intel Core 2 with 2,4 Ghz (or equivalent) will my Intel Pentium Dual core 2,5 Ghz computer be good enough to run it satisfactory?

Of course, there are other deciding factors too, but if one only compares the two Intel systems how will I fare?

=)

What's the game? But since *most* games now use the graphics card to do the majority of the processing/gameplay I would think your computer would be just fine as far as raw processor goes and I'd worry more about your graphics card. ZX81 ^talk 16:38, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

A Core 2 Duo processor will outperform a Pentium Dual Core processor of the same clock rate. That is, a 2.0Ghz Core 2 Duo is faster than a 2.0GHz Pentium Dual Core. However, with many new games, the processor is used far less than the graphics card, and if you have a sufficiently powerful graphics card for the game, you should be able to get away with using a processor below the minimum requirements. Keep in mind this varies depending on the game, so if there's a demo available, try it before investing money into the game. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Caltsar (talk • contribs) 16:59, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Thank you :) The game I'm waiting for is "Dragon Age: Origins".

VISTA MINIMUM SPECS OS: Windows Vista with SP1 CPU: Intel Core 2 (or equivalent) running at 1.6Ghz or greater RAM: 1.5 GB or more VIDEO: ATI Radeon X1550 256MB or greater NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 256MB or greater DVD ROM (Physical copy) 20 GB HD space

RECOMMENDED SPECS CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4Ghz Processor or equivalent RAM: 4 GB (Vista) or 2 GB (XP) VIDEO: ATI 3850 512 MB or greater NVIDIA 8800GTS 512 MB or greater AMD Phenom II X3 Triple-Core 2.8 GHz or greater DVD ROM (Physical copy) 20 GB HD space

What graphics card I have, I do not know... however, going to the control panel, then "system" there is something called "clasification" (at least in my language, directly translated) and there the computer have a computer-performanceindex of 5,3 which seems to be quite high from what I read and understand. The computer's game-graphics score have a 5,9 score though, even better, and the only thing that drags the score down is RAM(memory) which is 5,3. The average of all the underscores is probly around 5,75. It seems good, but I've been wondering if I need to invest further to improve my computer a little bit. But from what you tell me it is probably no need to worry because I think I have a good graphics card even though I know not the name of it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.49.182.144 (talk) 17:24, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

If vista gives you a 5.9 score on graphics, your system should be at or above the reccomended requirements for graphics on that game. The CPU should also perform well enough to play as well. You may not be able to hit the maximum settings, but you should have no problem with that particular game, and your computer probably doesn't need an upgrade for quite a while yet.Caltsar (talk) 17:45, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Thank you ! :D I'm not playing that much but when I do find a game like Dragon Age which I've been looking forward to for a long time I want my computer to be up to date so that's nice to hear. You've been very helpful :) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.49.182.144 (talk) 18:09, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

BIOS Password

I recently read my BIOS password can be removed just by moving a jumper on the motherboard. I don't want that to be an option. Is there a way to prevent this from changing anything at the software level? Or could I just throw some solder on top of the jumper? TheFutureAwaits (talk) 17:47, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

In the old days (1990's) that trick usually worked, but I think in recent years its gotten less common. Anyway, the low tech solution is probably to put a physical lock on the computer (desktop enclosures often have little clips that you can put a padlock through), and if possible, lock up the whole computer (e.g. if it's a laptop, lock it in a desk drawer). If your security requirements are higher than that, you probably want to move to a class of hardware that's much less generic and more expensive than PC's. 70.90.174.101 (talk) 18:21, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Resetting the BIOS password using the jumper on the motherboard will also clear all BIOS settings. This jumper is there to "reverse" any changes you may have made that can't otherwise be reversed (overclocking the CPU far too much seems to be the most common issue I've come across for this). Clearing the BIOS password is just a side effect. If you don't want people accessing your motherboard, using tamper-resistant screws or otherwise preventing the case from being opened will do just as much as soldering the jumpers together without the risk of damage to your motherboard. This will provide the additional benefit of securing your computer physically, especially if it has no way to padlock it shut.Caltsar (talk) 18:28, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

If you are worried about your privacy and not about making a thief's life harder, then imo the best way to be secure for sure is to encrypt your whole hard-drive. Unless you run a lot of both processor and hard-drive intensive programs the performance hit should be unnoticeable. --194.197.235.240 (talk) 18:38, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Windows 7

Is Microsoft having trouble counting or is Windows 7 supposed to be called Windows 7? The way I work it out, after Win 3, the next one was Win 95 (which would be Win 4), then Win 98 (which would be Win 5), followed by Win XP (let's call this one Win 6) and then Vista (which would be Win 7) - and all this after leaving out Millenium and NT and 2000.... How did Win 7 get to be called Win 7? --KageTora - (영호 (影虎)) (talk) 18:28, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

No, they have no trouble counting. The consumer versions of Windows (and Windows 2000, based on the old Windows NT versions, and upon which XP, Vista and 7.0 Windows 7 are based), have the following numbers. Windows 95, 98 and Me were very similar to each other, and all share the 4.x version numbers. It is a bit of a surprise, though, that only the minor version number is changed between 2000 and XP.

Windows 1x

Windows 2x

Windows 3x

Windows 95 (4.0)

Windows 98 (4.10)

Windows Me (4.90)

Windows 2000 (5.0)

Windows XP (5.1)

Windows Vista (6.0)

Windows 7

--Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 18:38, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

(e/c) It has to do with Windows' internal version number. After Windows 3.1, Windows 95 was version 4.0, 98 was 4.1, Me was 4.9, 2K was 5.0, XP was 5.1 and Vista is 6.0. As with any other software product, version 6 of Windows would naturally be followed by version 7, hence Windows 7. Xenon54 / talk / 18:42, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Actually, Microsoft does have trouble counting, but this isn't one of those times. 204.2.252.254 (talk) 19:09, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

The list above isn't quite right. Windows 7 is descended from the NT series of Windows, so it goes as follows:

Windows 1.x

Windows 2.x

Windows 3.0

Windows 3.1

• At this point, Windows split into two versions: Windows 95 (based on Windows 3.1), and Windows NT (a new product). Vista is derived from Windows NT, while the 3.1 line ended with Windows ME.

Windows NT 3.1

Windows NT 3.5

Windows NT 4.0

Windows 2000 (5.0)

Windows XP (5.1)

Windows Vista (6.0)

Windows 7 (6.1)

So yes, Microsoft is having a bit of trouble counting. --Carnildo (talk) 22:43, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

My list is correct. I explicity wrote "The consumer versions of Windows (and Windows 2000, based on the old Windows NT versions, and upon which XP, Vista and 7.0 Windows 7 are based), have the following numbers.". --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 11:43, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

But you overlooked the most important part, which is that Windows 7's internal version number is 6.1, not 7.0. -- BenRG (talk) 13:32, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

OK, I give you that. Indeed, it is strange to call Windows 6.1 "Windows 7". --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 14:28, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

Official counting here. NT 4.0 isn't in the list and at a guess it's because it was the "NT" version of Windows 95 (Windows 4). ZX81 ^talk 23:28, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Hmm, so I was right, but for the wrong reasons? Or was I not? Thanks for the clarification (and subsequent declarification), guys! I'm sure we'll come to a consensus soon. --KageTora - (영호 (影虎)) (talk) 11:56, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

Copying large files without overloading the processor

I often have to copy large files to removable flash memory. It always grabs 70-80 per cent of processor resources and brings all other running programs to a standstill. How is it possible to copy large files without overloading the processor? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.8.52.98 (talk) 19:56, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

That should not happen in a modern OS, such as Windows Vista. What is your OS? --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 20:40, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

It's Windows XP SP2 and it's not strictly speaking my computer so I cannot change the hardware ( 213.8.52.97 (talk)

Try TeraCopy —Preceding unsigned comment added by Avrillyria (talk • contribs) 20:58, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

September 12

Producing an optimal route on Google Maps

I'm planning to visit a specific group of locations in the near future, but as I've never visited most of them before, I don't know the shortest order in which to visit them. I have coordinates (all are National Register of Historic Places sites, with coordinates taken from lists such as National Register of Historic Places listings in Mercer County, Ohio), so I'm interested in a way to put coords into Google to produce a route map. I know how to put coords into Google and get a route between them, but is it possible to give it coordinates for all sites and have it give me an order in which to visit them? If not, are there any free websites that have this option? Nyttend (talk) 03:38, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

In case it's at all helpful — I've put together a list here, and Toolserver is working fast enough that the geogrouptemplate is plotting everything properly on Google Maps. Locations, but not the shortest roads between them. Nyttend (talk) 05:19, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

What you're asking for -- an optimal route to visit n different destinations -- is an instance of the Traveling Salesman problem, which is one of the classic examples of an NP-complete computation problem. These problems become intractable fast as n increases. However, they can frequently be approximated efficiently. I would be astounded if anyone is offering a service to find the optimal route between n points, but there may be someone out there finding reasonably-good ones. --FOo (talk) 05:42, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

On modern computers solving the problem for up to something like 20 points can actually be done by a relatively simple dynamic programming algorithm. As long as we're talking about actual traveling between cities, a limit of 20 cities should be enough for just about anyone. Unfortunately user-friendly implementations of optimisation algorithms are a lot more expensive and rare than many other applications of computers. 84.239.160.214 (talk) 11:19, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

Country Specific Versions of MSN

My mate in the Gulf wants to download the Japanese version of MSN, with all of its emoticons and winks that are specific to the Japanese version. How does he do this? I already have the Japanese version, but the reason I do not know how to download it, is because I actually had no choice. I got it automatically, even though I am using a British PC, downloaded it from the UK, and used an email address that was created in the UK. Anyway, I don't mind, but my mate really wants to get it. How can he do this? --KageTora - (영호 (影虎)) (talk) 11:19, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

Have you tried downloading from the Japanese messenger website? --antilived^{T | C | G} 11:32, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. He just tried that (after I told him your advice), and after a successful download and installation, he can't login. Does he need to make a new account? --KageTora - (영호 (影虎)) (talk) 13:20, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

MIDI playback in Python with real time MIDI events?

I'm trying to code a MIDI visualizer in Python (on Windows) using pygame, but I can't find anything helpful out there. There are a bunch of MIDI classes, but they're pretty damn old, very undocumented and as far as I can tell they're pretty much meant for dealing with controllers and synths. What I want is to get a local MIDI file, play it and have the means to "get" the events as they happen in sync with the music.

Am I asking for too much? I'm almost trying to code it myself using two different MIDI libraries I found, but that won't be much fun. Any light on this topic is much appreciated. Thanks! — Kieff | Talk 13:01, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

What does writing 'this' mean?

Often when I make a comment in an online forum someone replies with a "this". Only "this". I don't know what it means. What does it mean? From the context it seems like a good thing but I can't be sure. ReluctantPhilosopher (talk) 15:07, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

Can you link to an example? --KageTora - (영호 (影虎)) (talk) 15:10, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

I think something like

UserA: "We should all be worshipped as gods"
UserB: this

yes they are complimenting or agreeing with you, - similar to QFR "Quoted for truth". At least that what I think it means.83.100.250.79 (talk) 15:16, 12 September 2009 (UTC)