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December 22

IRC Channels in Pidgin

How can I connect to #wikipedia-en-help using pidgin? I can't seem to figure it out. —Preceding unsigned comment added by MMS2013 (talk • contribs) 02:04, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

First, you need to connect to an IRC service. I suggest freenode. Make a new account in Pidgin:

• Protocol: IRC
• Username: Whatever you like
• Server: irc.freenode.net
• Password: blank
• Local alias: blank
• Port: 6667
• Encodings: UTF-8
• Everything else, leave as default - meaning don't change it.

Now, connect to the new account. Go to "Join a Chat". Select the freenode account. Enter "#wikipedia-en-help" in the channel box. Leave the password blank. Click "join". I know that sounds like a LOT of work, but it isn't. It is two steps. Connect to an IRC service. Join the chat. -- kainaw™ 02:09, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

"Suggesting" freenode isn't an option, it's mandatory - #wikipedia-en-help is not populated on other IRC servers. Coreycubed (talk) 16:18, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

script help

Resolved

I had the following greasemonkey script that added the page name to the title bar, for example if the url was "http://example.com/page/123.html" the page title would be "example.com - 123". This is the script:

if (location.href.match(/([^/]+)\.html$/))
    document.title = 'example.com -' + RegExp.lastParen;

However, the website seemed to have changed one tiny thing; urls no longer have ".html" at the end, so now it's just "http://example.com/page/123" and my script doesn't work. Please could someone have a look at it and tell me what I need to do to get it working again. Thank you! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.54 (talk) 09:56, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

Well, I'm not sure exactly what you are going for, but it should be trivial to simply optionally strip the .html (or .htm) extension:

if (location.href.match(/([^/]+)(\.html?)?$/))
    document.title = 'example.com -' + RegExp.lastParen;

Is that what you are looking for? —ShadowRanger ^(talk|stalk) 15:12, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

Thank you, but it didn't work :( —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.54 (talk) 15:25, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

Oops. Just realized you used LastParen. That would copy out the .html, if it existed. I don't know JavaScript all that well, but you should change the second line to pull the first capture group. —ShadowRanger ^(talk|stalk) 15:52, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

Could you explain a little more, first capture group?

Each parenthetical expression is a capture group in a regular expression like the one you are using. Because I put parentheses around the .html, I created a second capture group, so the RegExp.lastParen is pulling in the contents of that group, not the one you want. If JavaScript supports Perl-style RegExs (I don't know offhand if it does), you could fix it simply by adding a "?:" in the html capture group, like so:

if (location.href.match(/([^/]+)(?:\.html?)?$/))
    document.title = 'example.com -' + RegExp.lastParen;

If it doesn't, you'll need to change RegExp.lastParen to a different getter that gets either the first capture group, or explicitly allows you to select by numerical index. —ShadowRanger ^(talk|stalk) 16:45, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

YES!!!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!

Got myself into a mess with Domains and Workgroups

My Windows XP PC was on a the domain for my company. I was experimenting with workgroups (so thatI could share a printer) and moved it onto a local workgroup. However, it is now booting into what seems to be the default account for the PC (an IT admin who is no longer with the company). When I try to re-attach it to the domain, it won't do it because it can't contact the domain controller (the PC is not in the office). Now, I am sure that I can eventually figure out how to connect over the VPN and re-connect to the domain controller, but is there a way to go back on the domain without having to contact the domain server? If not, is there way to have the PC boot into my original account (so that I get the same desktop etc) while staying in the workgroup. Any help would be really appreciated, because getting hold of the VPN client at the moment could take a few days (due to company restructuring and Xmas holidays). LooseJuice (talk) 10:29, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

If you just want access to the files on your other desktop, on XP they're usually located in C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Desktop but to rejoin the domain is really going to require access to a domain controller. I don't know if this will actually work (it's a pretty almighty kludge if it does!), but you could try using System Restore to roll your computer back to a date where you were still on the domain. Since you're not actually actively talking to the Domain Controller this may work enough for you to be able to log into your normal account and use it as before, but you may have problems later on when you try and talk to the domain resources/computers. If you try this, please do let us know if this works as I'd love to know! Regarding the later possible problems, when you leave a domain your computer tells the controller that it's leaving and the computer account is then automatically removed from Active Directory and if that's happened then even if System Restore works then your machine won't be able to authenticate with some network resources until it's rejoined to the domain, however since you're unable to connect to the domain controller now I'm assuming it wasn't able to connect at the point you dejoined it from the domain (you get an error message saying about computer account data couldn't be removed from the domain) so this may not affect you. Hope this is of some help! ZX81 ^talk 15:52, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

You may also be able to create a local user account and copy the domain account folder's contents to the new local account. You may need to log in first as the new user to get Windows to initialize the user folder for you. Then, reboot and log in as your first local account and do the copy. That way no files will be locked in the process. Coreycubed (talk) 16:13, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

I've found that XP is so horny to restore the default workgroup settings that I just gave up and let it use the default, and put everything under that. This may be fixed in Service Pack 2 or 3, though, as they seem to have made improvements in this area. StuRat (talk) 23:34, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

Internet browser speeds

As part of it's advertising, Google sometimes refers to it's Chrome browser as 'The world's fastest browser', or so it was said on a billboard I travelled past. My question is, how much of your overall internet speed depends on your browser and how much depends on your connection? As a result, what would be the fastest free browser I would be able to get? Chevymontecarlo (talk) 11:04, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

I happened to have timed six browsers on my computer a few weeks ago to see which started up the fastest. The following are in seconds, followed by milliseconds:

1. Internet Explorer 6: 800 ms
2. Internet Explorer 8: 2400 ms
3. Opera 9: 2700 ms
4. Konqueror: 3100 ms
5. Safari 4: 3200 ms
6. Firefox 3.5: 4200 ms

Another benchmark is how long it takes a browser to complete the Sunspider benchmarks. Those measure the speed with which a browser processes JavaScripts:

1. Safari 4: 615.0 ms
2. Firefox 3.5: 1054.4 ms
3. Opera 9: 4053.8 ms
4. Konqueror: 4756.0 ms
5. Internet Explorer 8: 5536.8 ms
6. Internet Explorer 6: 60788.8 ms

I'm not sure about HTML and image-loading speeds, though.--Drknkn (talk) 12:05, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for sharing that research. Perhaps I'll Google around a bit more and see what I can find. Chevymontecarlo (talk) 12:11, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

Internet Explorer startup speeds are known to be false. Much of Internet Explorer is shared with Windows. So, just starting Windows starts up half of Internet Explorer. The other browsers need to start from scratch. Firefox has some kind of jump-start thing that will start most of it when the computer starts so you can launch Firefox quicker. -- kainaw™ 12:20, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

The IE speeds are hardly false - they are just able to access fringe-benefits by being part of the main operating system. It seems like that's worth noting as a caveat for speeds, but it doesn't make their speed invalid in anyway (the speeds are important in so much as they are about the end-user's experience aren't they?). 194.221.133.226 (talk) 13:50, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

If you include the extra time it takes for the necessary components of IE to start when Windows starts, you have an accurate start time. The user does have to wait for Windows to start up. That startup time takes longer because half of IE is started when Windows starts. So, artificially deciding to start all timings after Windows starts provides a false/invalid value. -- kainaw™ 13:57, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

I don't see how that's relevant though? You have to wait for Windows to start up before you can use *any* application/browser, so by your definition you should be applying that startup time to all browsers? After all the other browsers will also need some of the components that Windows loads whilst starting up... ZX81 ^talk 15:38, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

I don't know how to make it more understandable. Windows startup time includes time spent doing nothing else except getting IE ready to start. If IE didn't exist, Windows startup time would be faster. So, that extra time spent getting IE ready is technically part of the startup time for IE. Just because you are forced to do it when you start windows doesn't mean it magically doesn't happen. Your argument is like claiming that if I spend 12 hours walking most of a marathon the day before the marathon, leaving me only a few inches to run, I can get an official runtime of a second for taking that last step when they fire off the starting pistol. Any time spent working on something counts as time spent working on it. For IE startup, it doesn't matter if it takes place while Windows is booting or after the user clicks the shiny blue E. Time spent getting IE started is time spent getting IE started. -- kainaw™ 16:34, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

It's my understanding that Windows doesn't load parts of IE when it starts up, but rather IE uses parts of Windows that have already started up (for other reasons). For example Trident, IE's layout engine and probably the largest part of the browser, is used by Windows itself whenever it needs to display a HTML Application as well as any other applications that use it. ZX81 ^talk 16:56, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

That's a good trick. Instead of calling the HTML layout engine part of IE that Windows uses, call it part of Windows that IE uses. This all goes back to that old anti-trust case in which Microsoft claimed you could remove IE from Windows, but it turned out that Windows was using so much of IE that it couldn't be removed. -- kainaw™ 17:22, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

Kainaw, surely you understand that to any user on Earth other than browser authors, the relevant time is from double-clicking the icon to the browser window being navigable. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:29, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

Windows takes the same amount of time to load whatever browser you are going to use on it once it finishes, so to the end user it makes no difference. You still have to wait while the IE components load regardless of whether or not you intend to use IE. It's a good reason to complain about Microsoft, but it isn't a good reason to reject IE. --Tango (talk) 18:02, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

I wasn't rejecting IE. I was stating that the startup time is not valid. Parts of IE (or the parts of Windows that IE uses) are already started when the user clicks the icon. Starting up those parts of Windows that IE uses makes Windows take a little longer to boot up. That extra boot time is, in my opinion, IE startup time. That is all. -- kainaw™ 21:38, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

I contend you need to step back about 10 paces and reconsider your use of the term "valid". Valid in what way? It's certainly "valid" for the consumer who just wants a browser that launches quickly. The only way it's not "valid" is if you are a browser developer whining about how it's not fair that your browser launches twice as slowly as IE. Comet Tuttle (talk) 23:48, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

By that argument - just add whatever browser you like to the startup folder so it launches automatically when you start Windows. Then, the startup time, once Windows finishes, will be zero seconds. Everyone wins. -- kainaw™ 02:10, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

But then your computer will take longer to load. Having Windows load IE components at start up doesn't make Windows take longer to load in a meaningful way because there is no alternative to compare it to. You should only compare alternatives that actually exist. Two alternatives that do exist are "loading IE at startup and using IE" and "loading Firefox and IE at startup and using Firefox". In both cases your browser loads quickly, but in the latter case your computer takes longer to boot. "Loading only FF at startup and using FF" isn't something you can do so it shouldn't factor into your comparisons. --Tango (talk) 16:00, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

You are now claiming that IE partially loads at startup, which is what I said at the very beginning. So, it appears that you agree. IE partially loads at start time. What's the argument? -- kainaw™ 22:43, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

The argument is (and has been from the beginning) about whether that's relevant in the slightest. No one debates that certain IE componants are loaded with windows. The point is that any measure of browser start-up time that's even remotely useful to anybody at all, will measure the time from clicking on the icon to the time when you can use the browser.

Users (and hence, the question-asker) don't care if IE has a head start. But if it crosses the finish line first, that's a point in its favor. A minor one, though, because page-load is more important than browser-load. APL (talk) 01:38, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

Anyway, I'm not sure that startup time is really all that important. As the numbers above indicate quite clearly, just because something starts up quickly does NOT by any means indicate it will be fast at anything else. IE6 starts up mighty quick, but is a total slouch when it comes to rendering and Javascript and etc. So I do think that much of the above argument is rather moot from a user perspective! --Mr.98 (talk) 17:34, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

I can think of one case where it matters; if you view lots of HTML docs, and it starts up a browser each time you pick one to view (then you close the browser and click on the next doc, which opens up the browser again, etc.). However, most people probably do something more like the tasks measured by the 2nd set of benchmarks, which show IE to be up to 100 times slower. That's huge. As for whether IE's quick start-up time "counts", I'd say it counts when choosing a default browser for viewing docs, but not when IE claims their browser is better. I also find myself wondering about differences in the initial start-up time and repeat start-up times in the same session. That is, do the browsers leave something in memory to make subsequent start-ups quicker ? The downside, of course, would be filling up the computer's memory (behaving much like a memory leak, even though it may be intentional, in this case). StuRat (talk) 23:22, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

The problem is that the benchmarks have to a bit more varied than what we've got on here. There are lots of blogs that discuss this. IE6 is 100X slower if what you are doing is string manipulation in JS. IE6 is especially bad at that (and it is not an uncommon thing to do with a web page, so that is a real problem), but it is not as bad with a lot of other things. Similarly, depending on what you are measuring, even just within the general area of JS activities, you get very different results. (Of course, IE6 is now two versions out of date, and has been notoriously buggy in all respects for ages, so I do think that it's a bit of a straw man, as nobody who really cares about browser performance should still be using it, but anyway.)

Note that some software has the possibility of a preloader if you need fast startup time—Google "Firefox preloader" and you can find plugins that do the exact same thing. --Mr.98 (talk) 15:50, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

failure to recognize DVD disc

My DVD player sometimes fails to recognize a DVD disc, though if I try again, maybe several times, it will load properly. This also just happened on a computer just now with system restore discs. What is happening? How does the DVD initialization process work? Is there something I could do here other than retrying? --Halcatalyst (talk) 20:56, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

Hmmmm....You're question is a little unclear. Maybe you should try buying a dvd drive cleaner disk. What they do is clean the lens and tests the drive for functionality. Most disks usually have a small brush on them. Btilm_{Happy Holidays!} 21:08, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the hint about the DVD cleaner disk. My question arises mainly out of curiosity: How does the DVD initialization process work? I would like to have some kind of idea what is going on in there when it fails. I assume there is a problem reading a particular sector. What might be the nature of the problem and why would it eventually go away? --Halcatalyst (talk) 23:11, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

Warning: I always thought those DVD cleaner discs and CD cleaner discs were a scam that damaged your equipment. Comet Tuttle (talk) 23:46, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

There is probably some risk, I wouldn't expect the bristles themselves to be that likely to scratch the lens unless the designer really screwed up but the dust on the lens may. Opening the drive and cleaning manual is obviously better but not always feasible. The laser lens can definitely get dirty in some cases so cleaning in some way may help if that's the problem. However anything which claims you need to regularly clean the lens or makes it sound like you're going to get better quality audio or video from cleaning is mostly bullshit Nil Einne (talk) 00:54, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

One problem I've seen is if the DVD isn't quite in proper position. This is more common on mini-CDs, since they have to stay in that tiny depression in the center, but can also happen with full sized CDs/DVDs, occasionally. I like to wiggle them around after I set them in the tray, which helps me to tell if they are seated properly (if not, they slide more). StuRat (talk) 23:04, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

The search terms in the Google URL

The long URL that comes with a page of Google search results seems to be split up into parts that consist of "&", some letters, a "=", another text-string. Where can I find information about what these various parts do? I am particularly interested in Image search - in particular I'm wondering if its possible to get Google to do a related image search while still being able to specify the image size. Thanks. 84.13.44.90 (talk) 21:24, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

Well, the key one that controls size is imgsz (e.g. imgsz=l is large). But plunking that on to the end of a "Similar" search does not work. My guess is you can't combine the two methods of searching at all. Whether that is just because Google doesn't let you, or because of some way they store the image data, I don't know. --Mr.98 (talk) 21:41, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

On man's collection of google search parameters, fwiw. --Tagishsimon (talk) 23:10, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

Filenames not displayed in Filmstrip view

I use Windows XP Pro. On my PC there is one folder of images for which Windows Explorer does not display filenames in Filmstrip (or Thumbnail) view. To troubleshoot the problem I copied the images to a new folder; then filenames were displayed correctly in the new folder. But when I deleted the original folder and renamed the new folder to the original name, the problem recurred. So apparently Windows associates the problem with the folder name. Does anyone know how to fix this? (I do want to keep the original folder name.) 76.169.63.170 (talk) 22:27, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

restoring Vista backup to XP

Having a Vista computer with all kinds of problems, I decided to do a system recovery. The original OS was XP, so that of course is what I have now. I have the discs to convert again to Vista, but I was not thrilled with it and would like to remain with XP if I can.

Trouble is, I need to restore user data I backed up using Vista Backup. The XP recover utility doesn't seem to recognize that backup. Is there any way to recover the data other without reinstalling Vista again? --Halcatalyst (talk) 23:24, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

I initially thought there was just no way this would work, but this link discusses how to "rewind" from Vista back to XP on the same machine ... so it may be possible for you to do your system recovery under Vista and then attempt to rewind to XP. Personally I would probably get a new hard disk and start from scratch, changing your current hard disk from the C: drive to the D: drive, and moving its documents over to the C: drive after the fresh install. If you've got money to burn on a new hard disk. Comet Tuttle (talk) 23:40, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

I believe - based on limited experience with Vista Home Basic - that the backup files are mostly zip files, which can be read using any appropriate software (including XP Windows Explorer's built-in handling). Finding individual files might be tedious, but the data should be recoverable. Mitch Ames (talk) 00:08, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

December 23

Accessing another computer's DVD drive

I'm trying to free the Q drive on my Lenovo T400. For those who don't know, the Q drive is a recovery drive. Lenovo has made it so that you can burn the Q drive data onto CDs and DVDs and then delete it, freeing up more space. Unfortunately my laptop does not have a DVD burner and I'd rather not burn 12 CDs. Is there a way to connect it to my desktop (which has a DVD burner) and use that optical drive? --The Dark Side (talk) 02:18, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

I don't know the specific limitations of the application you're using to burn your discs - is it proprietary Lenovo crap or are you using a third party app to simply dump the Q drive contents? If you're using a third party app, all you need to do is "Burn to ISO" which pretty much everyone supports and then copy that file (via USB or whatever) to another burn-capable PC and make your disc. If you're stuck with some assy proprietary Lenovo app, you may not have such a breathtakingly simple option as that, unfortunately. (sign me: guy who hates proprietary crApps) 218.25.32.210 (talk) 02:28, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

Adding onto my original post - it is possible to use a optical drive over a LAN, but I've made an inordinate amount of coasters that way in the past. Burning "locally" always seems to be the best bet, at least on consumer-grade hardware. 218.25.32.210 (talk) 02:30, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

Yes you can just share the q drive over the network but I second the above; I've never successfully burned a disk over LAN. Often it "seems" to work, and the finished disk might even have the correct directory structure, but the files are unreadable, every time I've tried at least. I'd go with the suggestion above, burn the whole disk to an ISO locally then copy it across to burn it to a disk on your pc. Vespine (talk) 23:32, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

reduction algorithm

moved to math desk...

Editing game on YouTube

i saw video on youtube where there was kinda like a editing game but it had zombies with crab heads and it was able to use a gun and you could be a person and you could have awsome weps and contraptions and make other people i just wondered what the games name was and how i could get it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sithmorack (talk • contribs) 05:10, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

Well zombies with crab heads sounds a lot like the Half-Life series, so maybe it had something to do with that? --Mr.98 (talk) 15:44, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

is it Garry's Mod? 207.58.235.243 (talk) 17:32, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

Broken wi´fi card?

I have an old centrino laptop and from one day to the next, the wireless stopped working. I tested it with two OS (Puppy and ubuntu). In both, the result was the same. The laptop is not longer able to find any wirelss net. Can it be that only wireless portion is broken, even if the rest is perfectly working?--Quest09 (talk) 13:57, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

It certainly could be, the WiFi part of the system has a bunch of components that are not used by any other part of the system - so if it failed, there might not be any other adverse consequences. But a lot of laptops have a switch that lets you turn off the WiFi (eg if you're on an airplane or something) - perhaps the switch got inadvertantly set to the OFF position? SteveBaker (talk) 18:15, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

Well, my laptop doesn´t have any hardware switch to turn off the WiFi. However, I found that certain combination of tastes will turn the WiFi off. But would the WiFi still be off if you reboot the laptop with a new OS?--Quest09 (talk) 13:04, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

If you go into the system setup (normally one of the F buttons at the manufacturer screen), you should be able to choose if you want the Wi-Fi to start in either of the following positions: on, off, or (I believe it was) "adapt", where it selects the same state it was in when the computer shut down. So I'd make sure it's turned on there (in the on position) just to make sure.

Using briefcase

I use briefcase for backing up my files.Whenever i try to synchronize, a message comes after which it stops synchronization.It occurs whenever a database file starts synchronization.How can this problem be resolved? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 113.199.165.67 (talk) 14:12, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

What is the error message you receive? This will help in determining the problem. Thanks. JW..[ T..C ] 17:06, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

The error message is: "Briefcase can directly work with Access 2000 or Access 2002-2003 format databases.Use conversion feature in your application to convert the database to the proper format" —Preceding unsigned comment added by 116.90.224.116 (talk) 06:20, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

Auto-hibernating when battery is low (Windows XP)

My computer (Windows XP)used to auto-hibernate when the battery was going down to 3%. For some reason it stopped... Now I changed the options in the power management. And suddenly it only goes on Stand-by (not hibernation) even though the option I chose clearly says "Action: Hibernate" (as oppposed to "Action: Stand by," which I have *not* chosen). Almost equally annoying, I messed with "scale" for the power level ("Activate critical battery alarm when power level reaches: ..."). It used to be on 3%, and out of curiosity (#$^&*=#*& on me!) I switched to 6%. Now I can't switch it back: You can drag the switch below 6 or above 10% while keeping the mouse button pressed, but as soon as you release your mouse button, the switch won't stay but go to 6 (or 10, resp.)! Which means that I have 3% less of battery time available, which I find extremely annoying.

Please, anyone any ideas? Thanks a lot, Thanks for answering (talk) 14:43, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

I don't know why the slider isn't working, but one reason for a computer refusing to hibernate is lack of hard drive space. You need enough free space on your hard drive to contain everything in the memory. Check your hard drive free space - if it is less than the amount of RAM you have, then that is probably your problem. Free up some hard drive space and it should start hibernating again. --Tango (talk) 15:54, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

So far as I know, when hiberation is enabled in XP, a fixed size file (\hiberfil.sys) is created. Thus disk space should be pre-allocated, and running low on space should not cause hibernation to fail. Mitch Ames (talk) 00:45, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

The OP mentioned changing the power options - perhaps hibernation was disabled, the space filled by something, and then it was re-enabled and now doesn't have the space to work. Or perhaps it is something else entirely! --Tango (talk) 14:15, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

Ghost banning

Does wikipedia have an article on the concept of a site banning a user while allowing them to maintain the illusion that they are not banned, allegedly used by StumbleUpon and Reddit and certain blogs? Felis cheshiri (talk) 15:14, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

Hmm, I don't know. We barely have a mentioning of computer banning at all, much less a discussion of different types. Something Awful uses/used this, though. It was called "hell banning"—you could post and think you were participating, but nobody would ever reply, because they couldn't actually see you.--Mr.98 (talk) 15:43, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

I hadn't heard the term before - and a google search turns up at least three or four variations in meaning. That makes the term a neologism - and an insignificant one at that...so probably no article should be written about it until the meaning settles down and becomes more mainstream. FWIW, there seems to be several variations - all using the same terminology:

1. They simply cut you off from the site - but without telling you. You thing the site no longer exists or has gone down or something because all you get is a 404.
2. They let you make posts and such - but they never show up on the site - or, perhaps, are long delayed.
3. They let you make posts and reply to message - but only you ever see them. So you THINK you're still using the site perfectly - but nobody seems to ever respond to you (which is because they aren't seeing you!)

The last one is pretty evil - they are getting your page hits - and you're being advertised at - so they're still making money from you being there - but all of your efforts at typing messages are just wasted. Nasty! The second version is also pretty nasty - but one site uses it because (they claim) you are on probation and they are monitoring what you post to see if you're going to continue to misbehave. SteveBaker (talk) 19:26, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

I can confirm the first one exists, f1y.net does that as part of their auto ban system, which occurs if you fail login more than 3 times. Extremely annoying, and I would never recommend it with how much trouble it causes.

It's similar to the idea of a Honeypot (computing) in the sense that you are allowed to log in and (perhaps) do stuff, but no real effect occurs. If that helps at all. APL (talk) 01:22, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

Web services --> legacy code

We are starting to develop our first web services using .NET on MS Windows to develop the external-facing interface but would like to use our existing legacy code (written in PowerBuilder, which can't act as a web service until we do a major conversion in a few years) to hold the business logic needed to service the request. Our .NET developers tell me that it’s hard to “break out” of the web services environment to talk to traditional code and we were wondering what solutions others might be willing to share. We considered talking through the database, but that is more asynchronous than we’d like. Any suggestions for fast, reliable appraches, particularly that don't require expenditures of money? It would be adequate if the .NET code could trigger a message on a window. Sox1918 (talk) 20:22, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

You mostly can't. I think there is an ActiveX object which essentially runs your windows app in a box in the browser (either as a remote desktop, or the actual windows program, but it would need remote access to the database, and that's a security nightmare). That is a bad way to do it, but might work for you. This was commonly done about 10 years ago, when the web was new(ish). I don't think any of the methods worked well. Ariel. (talk) 08:49, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

That sounds like you're answering a different question, if we wanted to run something on a browser. We don't. This is for a web service running on the back end. Sox1918 (talk) 16:09, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

html

is there either a website that you can show me or a Wikipedia article that you can show me that will tell me how to host HTML? I tried WWW.pastehtml.com, but i want one where i can sign in. If you could at least point me to WWW.pastehtml.com's Wikipedia site, that would be great. Basically, i am asking for a website that i can host HTML code for free. Any answers would be helpful!:) Thanks,

MAS100 (talk) 20:40, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

Googling "free html hosting" turns up many results. On the first page was http://www.freehtmlhosting.com/. I hope this helps. JW..[ T..C ] 22:30, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

Additionally, nearly any free web hosting would work in your case. Google some of those keywords as well if you want a more permanent residence for your HTML documents. --EpicCyndaquil (talk) 20:46, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

WGET question

I am having some trouble with wget and Googling for examples and the man pages does not seem to clarify much. Perhaps someone can help.

I am trying to make a full download of a given domain -- say, http://mydomain.com. I get get all of the mydomain.com files quite easily using, e.g., wget -r -l 5 http://mydomain.com/.

The problem is, some of the pages on mydomain.com contain links to files on other domains, e.g. http://anotherdomain.com/afileiwant.pdf.

What I need to do is grab all of those other files as well. The recursive link specification that I put up above will not get them. What am I doing wrong? --Mr.98 (talk) 21:59, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

Ah, nevermind, I finally found it. What I want is the "All hosts" designation, I believe -- -H. --Mr.98 (talk) 22:03, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, -H (span domains). You might also be interested in -nd to stop the massive directory trees it'll create, and also -k to convert links to relative local files, in the event you're wgetting for offline access. Shadowjams (talk) 01:49, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

December 24

Windowpanes of hell

Again, I am haunted by these. Some time ago I asked about eliminating unwanted zoom or windowpanes in the picture of an HDTV. But since we got a new cable box, the problem has returned with a vengeance. Windowpane screens are ever-present along the sides of the picture, and no amount of meddling I do with the settings get rid of them. 4x3, 16x9, 480i, 480p, 720p, and 1080i, they do nothing! My TV is rated up to 1080p, by the way. What should I do?--The Ninth Bright Shiner 02:31, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

By "windowpanes", are you referring to something such as a green bar down one side of the screen? If so, that is common with cable boxes. For example, if I use our cable box with an HDMI cable, I get a green border around the entire picture. If I separate RGB cables, I don't get the green border. I checked with the company (Motorola) and they said that I need to get a new model. However, I didn't buy the dumb box. The local cable company installed it and they won't replace it with a new model. So, I just have to use RGB instead of HDMI for the cable box. -- kainaw™ 02:35, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

As their seemingly-outdated support section says, windowpanes are dark vertical bars on the left and right side of the picture (although I can change them from dark, to medium, to light, YIPPEE!). I just tried out what you said, and son of a gun, it worked. At least, I think I did. I connected it with the DVD player's red-yellow-white connectors (I'm not even sure of their actual name anymore). Although, there's more questions; the last box we had didn't do this, even with an HDMI cable. Why not? Also, I don't have any more of these connectors, and I'd rather not switch between the two on every occasion. Are there any other solutions? Thanks for your help.--The Ninth Bright Shiner 02:52, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

The problem is based on the model. Before we moved, we had Comcast and one of their boxes. It worked great. It had two cable inputs. I could record 4 channels at once. I could watch 2 channels at one with either PIP or POP (if both were 4:3 ratio). I used HDMI and got a great 1080i picture. Now, we have Fidelity cable. I have a craptastic box with one cable input. It can record 2 channels. No PIP. If I use HDMI, I get a border on the picture. I've complained every month as I pay my bill in person at their local office (which happens to be 3 blocks from my home). They aren't going to fix it. I bet the people who work for the cable company don't have the same crappy box that they stuck me with. Oh - forgot - a solution they said. I can buy my own box. It is $500-$800. -- kainaw™ 15:17, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

restoring Vista backup to XP, continued

Thanks for your advice above ("restoring Vista backup to XP"), which I followed, but ran into a problem. I wrote to HP:

Bought the computer with XP and upgraded to Vista. Many problems,

so decided to reinstall OS. Backed up data under Vista, used system

recovery to XP, and again upgraded to Vista. Attempted to restore backup

but it failed with the message, "Restore did not complete successfully.

Error Code: [none given] The parameter is incorrect. 0x80070057"

What can I do to complete the restore successfully?

Their response was to rename the backup source (an external hard drive) and try again. Same error. Is there any way I can recover the files? --Halcatalyst (talk) 18:08, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, I can't help you directly, but for such a critical problem I'd advise you to be persistent - keep calling and insisting and asking for help and you will be bumped to a supervisor who has more experience than the front-line support people. Comet Tuttle (talk) 03:43, 25 December 2009 (UTC)

Likely effects of cold temperatures

A friend has an office set up in shed in his back yard. With the recent winter temperatures here in the UK, he has been leaving a heater on in the office to keep the tempertature above freezing. Unfortunately, the heater does get turned off on some occasions. He recently had a problem where his PC (a Dell Hybrid, running Vista) refused to start. After a couple of hours he was eventually able to get it started and could run the various recovery options which claimed to have fixed some corruption on the system volume. Could disk corruption be caused by below freezing temperatures, or should he be looking for other causes such as malware? Astronaut (talk) 19:54, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

By chance, do you know if the computer was collecting condensation when it got cold? -- kainaw™ 21:59, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

That is quite possible. It is also likely that the office was not heated to a working temperature before powering on the PC. Astronaut (talk) 05:51, 25 December 2009 (UTC)

Hard disc drives(HDD) really do need to get up to temperature before using as heat expansion of the platters can (apparently) cause mis-reads and hence difficulty reading data. Condensation would be real bad. Perhaps he needs to leave PC on overnight? If the PC is being used to run a business I hope he has a good backup, ie. external HDD that can be taken to a warmer environment for safekeeping. --220.101.28.25 (talk) 21:54, 25 December 2009 (UTC).

Thanks. I'll either suggest moving the PC to the house during the depths of winter or some kind of NAS device for backups.

As with most electronics - PC's have two critical temperatures - the minimum (non-condensing) storage temperature and the minimum operating temperature. These numbers should be available from the manufacturer's website - or from their tech-support people. If you store the PC below the minimum storage temperature - you'll probably wreck it. If you try to turn it on while it's below the minimum operating temperature, then that can kill it too. Keeping the PC turned on (and not in some 'power-saving' mode) 24/7 should keep it warm enough - but if you're going to turn it off then you definitely need to get the office/shed warmed up well before you turn the computer back on again. Beware that even though the air in the room is warm, the PC will take a while to warm through so that it's all above the minimum operating temperature. Condensation must (of course) be avoided - if there is moisture in the room when it's warm (which there will be if you've been working in there) - then that water is going to condense as the room cools down and deposit puddles of water inside the computer - which is obviously not good. Keeping the computer powered up ought to be enough to avoid that...but it's a risk.

Hard drives are probably the most vulnerable part of the computer (although maybe an LCD display or some battery or other might be even worse) - and a few sites I've checked suggest that the minimum OPERATING temperature is around 5 degC/41 degF. The minimum STORAGE temp is a chilly -40C. So you're unlikely to exceed the storage number. But if you jump into a frozen shed, turn on the heater and computer and start typing - you're going to wreck it for 100% sure. Worse still, a couple of hard drive manufacturers I checked said that you mustn't change the temperature of your hard drive by more than 20 degC per hour. Since a shed has essentially zilch insulation - when you turn off the heater, the temperature could easily drop 20 degrees in a matter of minutes rather than hours - and when you jump into your chilly shed and whack the heater onto max, you're going to wreck the drive then too.

Basically - keeping a computer out in an unheated shed is a bad idea. SteveBaker (talk) 19:57, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

How to get VLC player to play DVD on my computer?

I cannot get VLC media player to play a DVD on my computer. The DVD drive is active for a while, after a while the slider on the slider bar of VLC quickly moves from one end to the other, but nothing else happens. What do I need to do please? The DVD I've tried is dated 2000, and I am in Europe. Thanks 89.243.45.81 (talk) 20:58, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

Might sound dumb, but are you sure your drive can read dvds? Also make sure it's not scratched. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.44.55.43 (talk) 21:21, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

Yes, I am sure that my DVD drive can read DVDs. And the DVDs are not scratched either. I'm hoping someone is going to explain what codecs or CSS decoders I would need to download and what exactly I do with them. 78.151.145.153 (talk) 01:49, 25 December 2009 (UTC)

Update: I've found that it works perfectly if I 'open' the DVD disk, then click on the VIDEO_TS folder, then click on the VIDEO_TS.IFO. VLC then starts and plays the whole movie - even the menu options work! If I merely click on the DVD drive then a Microsoft player starts up and, in short, asks for money. If I choose VLC to open the DVD drive then it will not play. I'd be interested to know if I can set things up to get the movie to play just by clicking on the DVD drive. Thanks Update2: after changing the region of my computer to Europe, I am now able to play movies by right-clicking on the DVD drive and choosing 'Play with VLC'. I wonder how I change the default DVD player from Microsoft to VLC? 78.151.96.82 (talk) 20:46, 25 December 2009 (UTC)

Problems and etc

Deleting it--Jessica A Bruno 22:37, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

This question was removed by the OP. (Diff). Nimur (talk) 01:35, 25 December 2009 (UTC)

December 25

Flickr

How do I get it so my friends can see my photos? They say they need a password to view them.Accdude92 (talk to me!) (sign) 02:20, 25 December 2009 (UTC)

http://www.flickr.com/account/prefs/photoprivacy/ lets you set your default privacy settings for all your Flickr images (of course you have to be logged in to your account first). The privacy settings can also be set on a per-image basis; when viewing an image, below where you can add a tag is an "Additional information" section which includes copyright and privacy settings for that image. Astronaut (talk) 06:07, 25 December 2009 (UTC)

Again briefcase

Sorry for repeating the question, because i did not get any answer. I use briefcase for backing up my files.Whenever i try to synchronize, a message comes after which it stops synchronization.It occurs whenever a database file starts synchronization.How can this problem be resolved? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 113.199.165.67 (talk) 14:12, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

What is the error message you receive? This will help in determining the problem. Thanks. JW..[ T..C ] 17:06, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

The error message is: "Briefcase can directly work with Access 2000 or Access 2002-2003 format databases.Use conversion feature in your application to convert the database to the proper format" —Preceding unsigned comment added by 116.90.224.116 (talk) 06:20, 24 December 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 113.199.153.208 (talk)

The Briefcase (Microsoft Windows) article specifically mentions using it as a database replication tool for Microsoft Access. To do the replication, it will need to look in the Access database file (a file with the extension .mdb) It sounds to me that you have a file in the briefcase with a .mdb extension which is not an Access 2000 or Access 2002-2003 database. If the file is from a previous version of Access you might be able to convert it using Access 2000 or Access 2002-2003. If the file is from a newer version of Access I doubt it can be converted back to an older version of Access. If the file is not an Access database at all you could rename the .mdb extension to something else (of course, changing the extension will break its association with the the application it works with). Astronaut (talk) 06:33, 25 December 2009 (UTC)

Does a Macbook need an antivirus program?

Hello everyone, I have a Macbook running OS X 10.6.2 (If that helps). Does my Macbook need an antivirus program like a Windows computer or is it fine without because it can't get Windows viruses (I'm not running Boot Camp)...If it turns out I actually need an antivirus program any recommendations would be greatly appreciated..Thanks Chevymontecarlo (talk) 20:39, 25 December 2009 (UTC)

If you google Macintosh virus you'll see various news stories about Macintosh viruses. Yes, you should get antivirus software. More importantly, you should set up your computer with one account that has administrator privileges, and you should try to never use that account unless it's necessary (for example, to install some software you trust); and a second account with no administrator privileges, and try to just use that account for all your computing activity. This reduces the probability greatly that a virus will be able to infect your system. Comet Tuttle (talk) 21:42, 25 December 2009 (UTC)

Thank you for the account tips, but I'd really appreciate any recommendations of some good antivirus software, preferably free. On my previous computer, which ran Windows XP, I used a great program from AVG Industries called AVG Free Edition which fulfilled all my requirements brilliantly. The only trouble is that it only works with Windows computers, so if anyone knows any good antivirus programs for Macs I will be very grateful. Chevymontecarlo (talk) 21:50, 25 December 2009 (UTC)

List of antivirus software should be helpful--Jac16888^Talk 21:52, 25 December 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for pointing that link out me - I've found a program online called iAntivirus. There's a review of it on Macworld and from the looks of it it does pretty much the same thing as AVG did on the Windows computer. Macworld also rate it quite highly so I'll think I'll go and check it out a bit more. Chevymontecarlo (talk) 21:58, 25 December 2009 (UTC)

Theoretically, yes, you should get one. And especially people who do not have Macs will recommend you get one, both because of the theoretical danger, and in part because they resent the fact that Macs really don't have a virus problem.

But in practice... you won't get any viruses any time soon. I have run Macbook for years now—years!—and have never needed antivirus at all. The fact is, Macs do not have a large enough market share for virus makers to target it, or for it to be a good vector for viruses. It is not because Macs are magically immune, mind you, though they have some features that make them more inherently secure than old Windows machines. But in the end, it is about market share—about the number of Macs in world versus the number of PCs. The sheer number of PCs (most of them running improperly secured, often legacy operating systems) makes them a far easier and productive target than Macs. The only people who are writing viruses for Macs are those who resent the "Macs don't get viruses" creed—that's the only glory in it, because the numbers are just not impressive by themselves.

Now, this could, imaginably, change. Especially since Mac-based devices like iPods and iPhones and etc. are becoming so prevalent—one can easily imagine those being the real vectors in some future virus world. But at the moment... use your firewall, and don't execute weird code, and your odds of getting a virus on a Mac will be so low as to be negligible. Back up your data regularly, as you should anyway (there are worse problems that viruses out there for that!), and in the rare chance you DID get a virus, you'd be fairly good off anyway. Don't bother wasting your time, money, or computing resources on antivirus software that looks for Windows viruses.

The reason Mac viruses have news stories about them is because they are rare enough to be newsworthy. Bruce Schneier has a saying that is something along the lines of, if it is the news, it is probably not actually much of a threat. And unprotected PC will get viruses in literally minutes. An unprotected Mac will get viruses... well, it hasn't happened yet. --Mr.98 (talk) 17:14, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

December 26

Computer, mini computer, and etc

Whats the similarities and differences both of them? Is it worth it or if not what?

Have been wondering about this ever since first Apple Mini came out. As for me I have recently broke my computer and it isn't first time that I done it. At the moment unsure if it can be fixed, but going try again when I get back the disc that has everything that I need to try to fix it. The computer itself is working, but not the connection. Messed stuff as well on it as well. If that doesn't work I'm out of luck with getting a new computer. Since in the past I always got my way with getting a new computer. At the same time unsure if I want new one since I still live with my parents. Can easily use the main computer (my dad's work computer as well) and my iPhone as well. Also, I'm not the only one in my family whom has broken a computer and my dad did more then once as well. Anyway, my dad has totally switched from Microsoft Windows to Apple Mac. Somewhat don't understand why my dad in the family whom has already made switched isn't allowing me to. That also goes for my mom and twin sister as well.

Believe this is it for now. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jessicaabruno (talk • contribs) 01:31, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

A bit unsure about exactly what your question/s are here. Seems your internet "connection" is down? Try Personal computer for general info on computer types. Don't use dads work computer! He may not be happy if you stuff it up, though perhaps less likely to if it's a Mac. But not worth the risk! ps. If the PC is broken, this is a good time to learn how to fix it. Wikibooks may help more than Wikipedia. If you can be more specific about "broken"?--220.101.28.25 (talk) 04:49, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

I haven't heard anything bad about the Mac Mini's hardware. By the way, in the old days, there were (in order of size) supercomputers, mainframes, and minicomputers (small mainframes). That's what I've always thought minicomputers were. Sorry if that was off topic.--Drknkn (talk) 05:00, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

I agree - the term "minicomputer" is a sort of out-dated terminology for machines from the late 1970s, like the PDP-8 and its successors. According to this nomenclature, almost everything we use today is a microcomputer; but as technology and markets have evolved, almost everybody refers to today's machines simply as computers. The Mac Mini throws a wrench into the works, because its description is comparative to other desktop systems (which are, technically, microcomputers); this is just a description and a brand/trademark, it has no real specific technical meaning. Nimur (talk) 11:42, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Little computers like the Mac Mini generally have less memory, smaller hard disks, less powerful CPUs, and less powerful video cards than larger desktop computers. You know, your computer is probably fine, and when you reinstall Windows from scratch, you'll probably be able to get it running. When a person says "I broke my computer" they are almost always overstating the problem. Usually, in my experience, the problem is just a software configuration problem, relatively simple compared to the user's fear of a computer that has somehow been entirely broken. Comet Tuttle (talk) 05:51, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Thanx for all your responses to my question. For the first responder its not just his, but he allows others to use it as well. Thinking about donating it and his old one then having spend money on Microsoft Windows. Had it up to here with Microsoft Windows and prefer to have Apple now.

Believe this is for now.-- —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jessicaabruno (talk • contribs) 15:30, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

All of this nomenclature is really ancient history. But basically, all desktop and laptop computers are "microcomputers". Anything from about the size of a microwave oven to a large refrigerator is a "minicomputer" and anything that's from the size of a couple of refrigerators to a roomful of stuff is a "mainframe". But the terms have changed meaning slowly over time and using any of them with confidence over the last 20 or so years has become difficult. SteveBaker (talk) 19:16, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Side-by-side config screwup

OK, so I performed a repair install on my Windows 7 system. After that I noticed that my Google Sketchup no longer works and is nagging me regarding my SxS configuration. The same goes for a Nokia PC Suite component. Tried installing the needed runtimes a dozen times (i.e. Visual C++ 2005, the SP1 revisions, etc.), but still they won't run at all! Any workarounds to this problem? Blake Gripling (talk) 03:36, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Dare I suggest re-installing any software that is now not working? Or (shudder) a full re-install of the Operating system (drastic!). Try everything else before doing this, but it was very frequently suggested to me by others for 'weird' problems. Do you have a full backup that you could 'roll back' to. Did you try Restore first?. Q, Why did you need to do a "repair install" --220.101.28.25 (talk) 04:57, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Reinstalling did the trick. Although that means I have to reconfig all them apps. Blake Gripling (talk) 07:57, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Well I'm glad you're happy. I must admit I'm still using XP, so I'm not up on the differences in the 'restore' set-up on Vista and Win' 7. I'd suggest that when you have everthing up and running to your satisfaction, create a restore point, or if possible make a full backup of your "system" files at least. Good idea to make a restore point before software upgrades, hardware/driver installs, or similar. If anything 'breaks' then you should be able to "roll back" to before the change and get your PC running again. --220.101.28.25 (talk) 12:01, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

iPhone tethering situation Germany

Hi, can u pls give me a Brief summary of the official and de facto iPhone tethering situation in Germany: do you have to pay extra per month to officially enable it, what happens if u use a jailbroken device and just tether with moderate data usage without paying, etc. Thanks! 92.230.66.35 (talk) 11:44, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Hi! Welcome to Wikipedia. The official provider of iPhone in Germany - T-Mobile claims they do not officially support tethering, although Apple claims they do. You will need to talk to your carrier about how to go about official tethering. If you use a jailbroken device to tether, they may have systems to detect this or they may not. Usually the carrier is more likely to detect this from the User agent and access point name in use at the time of the connection - not just the amount of data. Cheers, — Deon^talk 16:37, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Keep Laptop Plugged After Charging?

In order to maximize battery life, should one unplug a laptop once the battery has been recharged when not in use? Acceptable (talk) 14:35, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

I'd have to know what model laptop (and therefore what kind of battery) is in use, but it's safe to assume that it'll make no difference. Almost all devices have a cut-off switch that will divert power away from the battery and to the actual unit (so the battery is not being used at all) when the battery is full. This goes for iPods and mobile phones as well. — Deon^talk 16:39, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Yes, but what about the heat of the laptop harming the battery? I suspect it has an effect on some types of battery.--88.1.118.193 (talk) 18:00, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Most batteries are happier warm than cold (though not too hot). A battery will be harmed and will get too hot if it is being over-charged, but if the cut-off circuitry is working correctly, then little harm will be done, and very little heat will be generated in leaving the laptop connected. The instructions for my (Acer) laptop advise that the power should not be left connected permanently for best battery life. I have ignored this advice for over two years and my battery life is now much shorter, but this might have happened without leaving it connected. It would be interesting (but expensive) to undertake a comparative trial. Presumably Acer have done this and found a slight difference in battery life, but it is probably small. Has anyone used a laptop for two years (with the battery permanently installed and occasional discharge) without a deterioration in battery life? Dbfirs 19:25, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

HUAWEI

i remember sometimes back i posted my imei number on this page and it was later deleted. What damage can someone do remotely with my imei number, it was for my E160 modem or is it that it's just a rule. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.49.88.34 (talk) 14:53, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

I am guessing that no one can ascertain whether you actually own the modem. 67.243.1.21 (talk) 15:59, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Pretty much nil. In fact in most online transactions, such as eBay listings, you are generally required to include an IMEI. Most countries allow the public to enter an IMEI to check if it might be in the database of stolen phones. — Deon^talk 16:29, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

If I recall correctly it was me who removed the IMEI number. I think I was under the assumption that your IMEI number could be "spoofed" on another device by someone with ill intent. I vaguely recalled something about SIM card spoofing and may have gotten the two confused. Let's see if this link is blue, it is a SIM that you can use whereby you can use the network provider and are basically untraceable and do not get billed: ghost SIM card. At least, that's how I half-remember it being explained to me. Zunaid 16:40, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

A while ago there was a bit of a scare about IMEIs being cloned, but the expertise/time required pretty much makes it a thing of the past. Having ones ICCID would also be required for SIM cloning, I assume. — Deon^talk 11:47, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Should I turn off the monitor before turning off the surge protector?

The only other device connected to the strip is the netbook. Thanks. 67.243.1.21 (talk) 15:29, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

It probably makes no difference, but if the monitor power-down sequence does anything other than just shutting off power (i.e. saving your monitor's internal firmware settings), it may not trigger the shutoff sequence properly unless you use the main power button interface. Nimur (talk) 21:36, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Well, this is a decade-old CRT that's probably going out soon, if that helps. Imagine Reason (talk) 12:36, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

I don't know what is the correct answer, but personally I always turn off my surge protector instead of turning off the monitor and surge protector. Save time turning it back on. Never had any monitor-related problems I am aware of. Smaug 05:46, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Reducing picture size in e-mail?

Please could someone help me? I recently accepted an offer from AOL to have my AOL Broadband service upgraded to include my telephone service at a single all-inclusive monthly charge and so far, I am very happy with both aspects. But the AOL service (called Platinum 2) changed the way my screen works and I have lost a lot of the options I used to have with AOL when sending e-mail. I find that I cannot make any pictures I attach to my e-mails "Fit to Window" as previously. And I cannot reduce any that I receive so that I can see the whole picture on screen. I also used to be able to "frame" each picture and add sub-text to them but no longer. AOL have been unable to help and so I am hoping someone here will be able to help. Thanks in anticipation. 92.30.88.20 (talk) 15:36, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Old Computer/s

Is there any possible way to donate it/them?--Jessica A Bruno (talk) 02:05, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Have been thinking about donating my current computer and my dad's old computer. Rather switch from Microsoft Windows based to Apple Mac altogether. As for the computers that I want to donate. Both of them are Dell and are almost 3 1/2 years old and one has Microsoft Windows Vista Business on it. At the same time one of them is in good shape. Expect some what messed because of security and etc. Another one is messed up big time because it has Ubuntu and no longer has Windows on it.

Believe this is it for now. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jessicaabruno (talk • contribs) 17:56, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Do you have a question? I'm not sure what your saying--Jac16888^Talk 17:59, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

My question is in the subject line of here.--Jessica A Bruno 18:07, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Well who do you want to donate the computers to? --Jac16888^Talk 18:09, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Have no clue whom to donate them to. Expect Apple Mac if I do indeed get a new one and which is a mac.--Jessica A Bruno 19:10, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

May I suggest that you advertise them on Freecycle?. Dbfirs 18:37, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Interesting, but no thank you. Please see above your answer to my question concerning whom I would prefer to donate them to. --Jessica A Bruno 19:10, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

sorry but you're making no sense at all. Do you want to know who to donate them too? How to donate them?--Jac16888^Talk 19:13, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Questions in the reference desk should consist of a title plus a question plus optionally some explanation. You have a title okay but no question. Questions in general start with something like 'What', 'Why', 'Where', 'Who', 'When', 'Is there', or 'How' and end with a question mark '?'. The following is both an example of a question and a question: Have you got a question? Dmcq (talk) 23:56, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

This being Wikipedia, we have a whole article devoted to what a question is! Mitch Ames (talk) 00:37, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

+1, Dmcq. Comet Tuttle (talk) 08:19, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

I'm going to assume you are thinking of donating these two computers to some charitable concern but are unsure how to go about this. There are small charities which will accept computers as donations, for example googling "computers for the disabled" quickly led to this UK based charity. I'm sure you could come up with some search terms to find something to suit your location and favourite charitable cause. That said, some charities are reluctant to accept any electrical appliance for resale out of fear of the potential liability should that appliance electrocute someone.

As an aside, giving away two relatively new computers simply because you think you have messed up the operating systems or you just don't get on with that operating system, is a pretty expensive and drastic solution. In my experience, Dell always supplies the necessary disks to let you reinstall the operating system, and there are plenty of free alternatives out there. Astronaut (talk) 02:02, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

I don't understand the question either, but would echo Astronaut and my own previous response to one of your threads: Your computer with Ubuntu is not "messed up big time" because it has Ubuntu on it and not Windows; all you have to do is reinstall the operating system. If you're insistent on getting rid of them, then I'd also echo Astronaut and recommend you make some phone calls before driving over to a charity; some US charities specifically say they don't want PCs — I have assumed this is because of the high likelihood that they are misconfigured in some way, and the end user will be unhappy with the computer; and no charity has enough donated volunteer time from skilled IT workers to configure computers for this purpose. Comet Tuttle (talk) 08:17, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, for all of the trouble that I caused and fixed everything that needed to be fixed.--Jessica A Bruno (talk) 02:05, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Don't worry about any trouble - you didn't cause any - and you don't need to delete your questions (out of embarassment?) as you have previously - just ask very clear questions in the future, and you're likely to get good answers here. Comet Tuttle (talk) 04:25, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

December 27

Router ports in stealth mode

Hi. I need to open a bunch of TCP and UDP ports on my router due to the requirements of a PS3 game. I believe that I have opened the ports, but a scan on ShieldsUp! indicates that all the ports are in stealth mode. I think that a port can be open, but be in stealth mode, so that it receives data but does not give a response, and I assume that is what is happening in this case. Is that right? Also, I am forwarding the ports onto the static IP of my PS3. By doing this am I reducing (or removing) the ability of an intruder to connect to the other machines on the network? BTW I have a Netgear DG834G router. Thanks in advance for any help. AnyPortInAStorm (talk) 02:57, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

No. "Open" means the router sent a SYN/ACK flag to the scanner. "Closed" means it sent a RST flag. "Stealth" means the connection timed out, and the router is dropping the packets without responding. So, the router did not accept those connections. By the way, TCP connections will not work without a response. UDP is connectionless, but not TCP.--Drknkn (talk) 03:23, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Well, the router could be forwarding the packets to the PS3, but the PS3 might be the one dropping the packets. I think that's what the OP was asking, although their terminology wasn't quite right. OP, see our article on port forwarding if you haven't already. Indeterminate (talk) 05:35, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Wireless connection on Xubuntu

Ok, so I just installed Xubuntu on my (sister's) laptop, because her laptop was fubar and the only way I could see to fix it was to reinstall Windows (which I don't have a CD for) so I installed Xubuntu instead. Since this is pretty much the first time I've ever used Linux, I'm having some trouble figuring somethings out. Namely, how to connect to my wireless router. It connects automatically when I plug it into the router with just an ethernet cable, but since it's a laptop I'd like it to be able to work wireless. On Windows there's that list of available wireless networks, but I can't seem to find anything like that on Xubuntu. Could someone give me a hint, please?

Extra info: The laptop is a dell, and the router is Netgear. Digger3000 (talk) 05:31, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Did you install the latest (9.10 aka karmic koala) version? See here for everything else, especially for troubleshooting. . --88.194.194.181 (talk) 18:12, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Using a TV to hook up to a Projector - TV requirments for resolution, quality, size, etc?

There is a room in which I want to watch TV. It has a cable out and a projector, but no TV. I want to use a TV primarily as a means so that I can watch TV with my group of people using the projector. So I plan on buying a TV, hooking the cable up to the TV, and then hooking up the TV video-out to the projector.

I assume, and correct me if I'm wrong, that a lower size and lower resolution TV will result in a worse projected picture.

So what minimum size (in inches) and resolution do people reccomend I get? The projector is nothing special but it will blow the picture up. The TV will serve no other immediate purpose than to be this conduit.

Thanks for any advice you can give. Smaug 05:43, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

I'm not sure whether I am understanding your question correctly, but are you just wishing to project cable TV? If so, then you don't actually need a TV, just a cable decoder with suitable output (which might be contained in a TV). The quality of the projected image depends on the output of the decoder (and on the projector of course). This output might or might not correlate with the picture quality of the TV. I would first determine what resolution your projector can achieve (should be stated in the specifications), then make sure you can match this from your chosen video-output. I assume that your projector has only Composite video input (where you lose quality because of analogue modulation of an RF signal). If your projector has a modern digital input, then using this will avoid loss of quality. Dbfirs 08:14, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

USB mouse stops working when new camera is plugged into alternate USB port

I'm not sure why this is happening, but whenever I plug my Nikon Coolpix S570 into my computer via the provided USB cable, my mouse stops working. This problem only happens when I plug in the camera. I've tried countless configurations (mouse in port 1, camera port 2, etc...) any suggestions or thoughts? Thank you.161.165.196.84 (talk) 05:45, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

There is a limit to how much power can be drawn from USB. Do you have many other things also plugged in to the USB? ... for example a USB hub, card reader, external disk, etc. Astronaut (talk) 10:18, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Nope, when I am experiencing this problem the only things plugged in are the mouse, keyboard, and camera. At times I may have the aforementioned components (excluding camera) plus an iPod and a flash-drive plugged in, and everything works fine. the problem only exists when the camera is plugged in.161.165.196.84 (talk) 11:23, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Have you installed any drivers that may have come with the camera? Have you looked at the "Device Manager" utility when the camera is plugged in to see if there is any 'conflict' with the mouse? May help to say what operating system you are using ie. Widow XP/Vista other?. --220.101.28.25 (talk) 14:54, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

What make/model of mouse do you have? I ask because I think Astronaut has the right idea and that it's a power issue and some mice (especially "gaming grade" ones are rather power hungry. I used to have a Razer mouse that was very insistent (in the product literature) about where you had to plug it in because they said about needed lots of power. It could be that your mouse and camera combined want more power than your computer can supply (is this a laptop or a desktop?). If it's a desktop you could try one port round the back and one round the front (sorry I know you said tried lots of configurations). If it is a power issue then you would need to buy a powered USB hub which should be able to provide for the camera without an issue. ZX81 ^talk 23:00, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

There are numerous USB-related issues discussed on the http://www.nikon.com tech support forum. I suggest you first download and install their latest drivers - and if that doesn't help, call their tech support. Obviously, what you're doing SHOULD work seamlessly. SteveBaker (talk) 18:16, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Absurd calculation error?

While copying a large number of files to an external hard drive, I noticed an absurd calculation error: although I had less than 4GB to go, and although the transfer was going at about 15MB/second, the computer said that completing the transfer would take nearly fifty minutes. Since 4GB/15MB yields a time of less than 300 seconds, why does the computer think that it will take so much longer? Nyttend (talk) 18:39, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

I've noticed similar glitches in estimated time. I assume that the estimate is recalculated based on the files being copied at that time, and if there is some glitch in the copying process (possibly a large number of very small files, or the processor slowing because it is doing something else?), then the calculation assumes that the problem will continue for the remainder of the batch. Dbfirs 19:02, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

You are not the only one. This is the relevant xkcd cartoon. Comet Tuttle (talk) 01:06, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Haha, I too was reminded of the xkcd comic :) — Deon^talk 08:41, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Maximizing a window

I want the main window of my Win32 application to enter fullscreen mode when the user maximizes it. To this end I read the WM_SYSCOMMAND message and scan for the SC_MAXIMIZE parameter. When found, I perform my own code to enter fullscreen mode. This works perfectly when the user maximizes the window by pressing the button at the top-right corner of the window, or when he selects the Maximize system (or taskbar) menu item. But if the user double-clicks the title bar, the window is maximized the normal way instead. How do I capture this event as well? NC_HITTEST? --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 19:45, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Would this be of any use to you? I hope this helps. JW..[ T..C ] 23:12, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

That solved it! Thank you very, very much! --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 23:19, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Please consider making this behaviour a user selectable option in your program. Some users (myself included) prefer our software to follow the standard Windows conventions, ie "maximize" means maximize, not full screen. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mitch Ames (talk • contribs)

Resolved

December 28

IE and absolute positioning divs

I have a div that I place with absolute position using top:1em; left:1em; right:1em; bottom:1em;. So, it should be centered in the window with a 1em margin all the way around. If I set overflow:auto, it will have scrollbars inside the div if the contents overflow. It works fine in Firefox, Konqueror, Opera, etc... I checked it in IE and it vertically expands the div. Instead of placing "bottom:1em" at the bottom of the window, it places it at the bottom of the virtual window that has been expanded to fit all of the content. Is there some bastardized trick to convince IE that by "bottom" you mean "bottom of the damn window" instead of "bottom of the stretched out crap you just did"? -- kainaw™ 00:48, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Sounds like a z-index & nested DIVs problem to me. Can you post some code? 218.25.32.210 (talk) 03:40, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

There isn't much to post...

<html>
<body>
<div style='position:absolute;left:1em;right:1em;top:1em;bottom:1em;overflow:auto;'>
Put more than a full screen of text in here.  It *should* create a scroll inside the div.
In IE, it stretches the div out vertically.
</div>
</body>
</html>

What is expected is that this code will make a div in the center of the screen with a scroll down the right. -- kainaw™ 03:48, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Well I can reproduce your problem and can't come up with a way to fix it. I suggest you post the question & code at Stackoverflow.com - they should set you straight within 30min. 218.25.32.210 (talk) 04:59, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Readyboost

I have a computer with 2 GB of ram running Windows Vista and was wondering about Readyboost. I have a 1 GB flash drive, USB 2.0, that I am not using so I just hooked it up and set it up to do Readyboost. My question, I guess, is how much will this help? I also saw a 2 GB flash drive at Walmart for $6 so I thought about buying it. Would it make the amount of help noticeably better? I know my hard drive runs at 7200 rpms. I know you can't say with 100% certainty and you'd probably need more information, but in general do you think this would help and how much? I read the Wiki article Readyboost and it says things such as Windows recommends you use a flash drive 1 to 3 times as large as your ram. I didn't do this obviously. I also read some article that said Readyboost can actually slow your computer down in Vista, but the problem is fixed in Windows 7. So, with things like this, I just want to know more. Thanks for any help. StatisticsMan (talk) 04:22, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Interesting. Have to admit I'm not expert here as I still use XP!. 2 GB isn't all that much RAM nowadays. I think you are always better of having more RAM, (which is comparitively dirt cheap to what it was a few years ago) up to a certain point as 2x ram will NOT give you 2x PC 'performance'. But I suppose flash drives are even cheaper. To measure 'help' I think you would need a HDD benchmarking utility. According to the article Readyboost only helps with HDD caching. 7200 rpm drive sounds a bit old, is it SATA (Serial ATA interface)? If you are using older Parallel ATA interface, it's possible you may get better results from a small SATA HDD. Though BIG drives are much cheaper per giga-byte. Theoretically I don't think you would get much difference for a 2GB over 1 Gb flash drive. The particular drives seek time, as per the Readyboost article are probably more important. It appears also that the flash drive must be marked as "ReadyBoost-capable". --220.101.28.25 (talk) 06:31, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

My recommendation would be to take out a stopwatch and time how long it takes for your computer to start up with and without ReadyBoost enabled. I enabled ReadyBoost on someone else's computer that was running Vista and noticed a significant improvement. He had 1 GB of RAM. There are different types of flash drives, though. Some are fast enough to use ReadyBoost, and others are not. Windows will not let you use a slow USB flash drive for ReadyBoost. Here are some drives that support ReadyBoost: [1]. Also, although you can never have enough RAM, Windows will always write some temporary files (virtual memory) to the disk drive. This is where ReadyBoost comes into play. It writes that data to the flash drive, instead. Thus, your hard drive won't be tied up while Windows writes data to virtual memory. If your USB flash drive is fast enough, I bet you will notice an improvement.--Drknkn (talk) 06:49, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Events based on UI elements or on functions?

In Visual Studio programs, when multiple events (e.g. selecting a menu item, clicking a toolbar button and pressing a keyboard shortcut) all have the same effect and are handled by the same method that doesn't distinguish among them, is it considered better to replace them with one event? If so, does this remain true even when not all of them are directly caused by the user interface (e.g. a display that refreshes once per minute and can also be manually refreshed)? NeonMerlin 04:24, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Array-of-functions declaration

Would the following be a valid way in any programming language to create the functions operation[0](), operation[1](), operation[2]() and operation[3]()? If not, what is the closest construction in an existing high-level language?

void operation[](int& x) = {
  {x++;},
  {x--;},
  {x*=5;},
  {x/=5;}
};

NeonMerlin 04:33, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Once a function is created in the normal fashion in most languages, you can refer to it by reference or callback or name (depending on the language). I will just call it a hook here to keep the confusion down. So, you make a function in your language and you have a hook to refer to it. Make an array of hooks and you have an array of functions. You just have to define the functions separately from defining the array. If you have a language of preference, I can give example code. These "hooks" are rather different from language to language. -- kainaw™ 04:46, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

That's not valid in any language I know, but this Perl does something like it:

my @ops = (
 sub { $_[0]++ },
 sub { $_[0]-- },
 sub { $_[0] *= 5 },
 sub { $_[0] /= 5 } );

my $x = 10;
foreach my $func (@ops) {
  $func->($x); 
  print $x;    # prints 11, 10, 50, 10
}

--Sean —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.182.94.172 (talk) 20:49, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

.Mac

I have 'lost' the .Mac icon from my Desktop . How can I recover it please? With thanks in anticipation.--85.210.188.64 (talk) 08:58, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Disc won't leave drive, although computer thinks it has

When I try to eject a CD from my Macbook drive, it shows up on the computer as if it's left but although it makes the usual whirring noises before the CD leaves the drive, the physical disc doesn't come out of the slot but it goes away on iTunes as if the disc has left the drive's sensor but hasn't come through the drive slot. Please help! Chevymontecarlo (talk) 11:17, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

If you're brave...try this http://www.silvermac.com/2006/dvd-stuck-in-macbook-pro/ and good luck. ny156uk (talk) 14:03, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Here are some less-brave options: [2]. If the drive is just confused, it is easy to get the disk out. If it is truly mechanically stuck in the slotless drive, that is a lot harder to deal with. --Mr.98 (talk) 16:46, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

ENIAC described in modern terms

What would the CPU speed and memory be for the ENIAC computer described as modern computers are? I read that ENIAC took seventy hours to compute pi to 2037 decimal places in 1949. I was curious to find out how long it would take on my old home PC with a CPU speed of 1.8GHz, memory 1GB. Using PiFast, it calculated 2037 decimal places in 0.03 seconds - that's over eight million times faster. And I wonder how much time the world's most advanced computer now in December 2009 would take? 89.242.213.201 (talk) 13:29, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Haven't found any specifics yet but this from the ENIAC article may give an indication: "As of 2004, a square chip of silicon measuring 0.02 inches (0.5 mm) on a side holds the same capacity as the ENIAC, which occupied a large room" --220.101.28.25 (talk) 14:33, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

From History of Computing Hardware: "It could add or subtract 5000 times a second, a thousand times faster than any other machine. High speed memory was limited to 20 words (about 80 bytes)" So 2 Gb RAM ≈25,000,000 times ENIACS memory in bytes. If we assume one tick of the computers clock per operation (probably took several) a typical PC(Several years old!) might run at 2Ghz+. 2,000,000,000 / 5000=400,000xfaster (conservatively) on clock speed alone. And todays computers can carry out more than one operation per 'tick'. These are very rough & quick calculations, but in the ballpark(I hope)--220.101.28.25 (talk) 14:56, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

there is any gaming website that has a recommender system

There is any gaming website (other than gamespot) that has some recommender system? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.78.151.130 (talk) 17:33, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Is it possible...

To have a computer with the best of both worlds or what? Mean with closed source and open source. Have been wondering about this as well. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jessicaabruno (talk • contribs) 18:48, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Short answer: Yes.

Longer answer: Even within the same project, there are ways to multi-license code that allow different licensing/sourcing schemes to coexist. Much less in general on a computer.

Recommended reading: The Cathedral and the Bazaar is an interesting read about what the "best" of the different development models are. --Mr.98 (talk) 20:17, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

programming for beginner

I'm a complete newbie, so what is the best tools or programming language to use for making extremely simple little programs that can do things like download urls and stuff? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.44.54.127 (talk) 18:49, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Perl or Python are both good languages to start with for that sort of programming. Just jump on in! I recommend working through one of the many "tutorials" you'll find on the web for either, just to get a sense of how the grammar works, and then jump right in to specific programming tasks, looking up functions and asking for help whenever you hit a brick wall. --Mr.98 (talk) 20:20, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

For simple tasks, scripting languages (like Perl and Python suggested above, along with PHP, Ruby, and many many others) is nice. There's no compile time. Just script and run. Of course, you can even do shell scripting (even on DOS - or whatever Windows calls their CLI now). Learning any language for a "newbie" is tough. Just pick up a book on whatever language seems of interest and start. Once you learn one language rather well, jumping to other languages is rather easy. I started with assembly language and since then I've only had to struggle with one language, Mumps. Every other language has been very easy to pick up. -- kainaw™ 20:26, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Is Visual Basic a good thing to start with? I heard it has a gui which makes building programs very easy for beginners —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.44.54.127 (talk) 20:36, 28 December 2009 (UTC)