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October 24

Editing my website

So someone saw fit to make me the web-master of an organization's website. The site itself is up and running and they just want me to update the site regularly.

How do I do this?

Sorry for sounding like an ignoramus, but it's only because I have no idea how to do this. Thanks in advance. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.40.50.242 (talk) 02:18, 24 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

That's not an easy question to answer. It depends on a number of factors. Is the site basically just a blog with reports on the recent goings-on of the organization or does it have some sort of content management system? Or, and this is the one option that it doesn't sound like you're ready for, is it all hand coded HTML for which you'll need quite a bit of training? If it's not too much to ask, could you provide the address of the site so that we can look at it and maybe tell a thing or two from there? Dismas|^(talk) 02:23, 24 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Say, here's the page. http://www.umich.edu/~bengalis/ This isn't exactly my page, but mine is similar. I don't feel to comfortable sharing my own page. Sorry about being cryptic and all.68.40.50.242 (talk) 02:29, 24 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

A website is nothing but a collection of text files. You open a text file in a text editor and edit it. However, we don't know WHERE the text files are. We don't know if you have access to the server they are on. We don't know how you are supposed to transfer files to and from that server. Editing a web page is very simple. The file transfer is the hard part. -- kainaw ™ 03:26, 24 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

That site is being served by the Apache web server, and that "~bengalis" feature is an example of the per-user web directories feature. By default apache is configured to take the public_html directory in a given user's account and make that answer to the URL you've given. So, if this were hosted on a Unix machine, you'd typically expect http://www.umich.edu/~bengalis/ to be kept at /home/bengalis/public_html This all depends on how the Apache on that site has actually been configured, and how user accounts are set up, and only the university's system administration people can answer that. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 13:31, 24 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

If you go to your web site in a browser and do "View Page Source" (exactly where this is depends on what browser you're using, but it's sure to be in the menus somewhere), you will see the HTML code that generates the page. The first thing you need to do, if you want to do anything useful, is get hold of an "HTML for Dummies" book, or something on that level, and read at least the first couple of chapters. Without a basic knowledge of HTML you'll be helpless. Looie496 (talk) 21:56, 24 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You will need to get in touch with whomever does the information technology services on your campus and find out their way of accessing the site. Usually student organizations have their own special place to go to for their web support, e.g. at Berkeley it was the Open Computing Facility that did support services for student groups (and hosted the sites). You'll have to ask around to find out what the appropriate office is at your own university. If it is a personal (departmental) webpage, there is probably a totally separate organization for that. You need something like FTP or SFTP access, a program that will let you download and upload files (an FTP program), and then you will need a text editor to edit the files, and some knowledge of HTML to know what you are doing. If you haven't done any of this before, it will be hard the first time. --Mr.98 (talk) 14:24, 25 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

InDesign Middle Eastern Version Fonts

I am using Adobe InDesign CS5 (7.0) middle eastern version to design Urdu-Arabic documents. I want urdu fonts, of type Nastaliq script. Where can i get some nice Nastaliq fonts? (truetype\opentype) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Umar1996 (talk • contribs) 07:32, 24 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Nastaliq has been a script style that is notoriously intractible without special "script manager" support in the operating system (AAT, QuickDraw GX, Graphite (SIL) etc.), or specialized Urdu-specific application programs, so I'm not sure how far just fonts alone will get you... AnonMoos (talk) 16:39, 24 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You mentioned Mac software here, but i use Windows 7. Indesign CS5 has good font support. I found two fonts, jameel noori nastaleeq and alvi nastaliq which work perfectly with indesign ME --Umar1996 (talk) 14:37, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Emacs Follow-up

This follows on from the thread above. I'm working on MS Windows Vista and have a copy of SINGULAR. This includes a "bundled" copy of Emacs. It was an old version, so I downloaded version 23.2 for MS Windows. In this section of the SINGULAR manual it describes how to run SINGULAR in an already up-and-running, stand-alone version of Emacs. It tells me to add the following "lisp code" to my .emacs file:

(setq load-path (cons "<singular-emacs-home-directory>" load-path))
(autoload 'singular "singular"
  "Start Singular using default values." t)
(autoload 'singular-other "singular"
  "Ask for arguments and start Singular." t)

Now, this code looks like Linux code and not MS Windows. It talks about the singular-emacs-home-directory. Isn't that a directory in Linux? Besides that problem, I can't find my .emacs file. I have gone to the lisp folder, but there are 20 subfolders and maybe 100 EL and ELC files (whatever they are). Nothing ends in .emacs. I;ve run a search and nothing turns up.

Does anyone know where I can find this illusive .emacs file?
How can I adapt the above copy so that SINGULAR looks in the right place?

Hopefully someone will be able to help me. This is starting to annoy me! Thanks in advance. — Fly by Night (talk) 12:16, 24 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The code you see is actually Emacs Lisp code. Emacs consists of a basic LISP engine with some specialized primitives, and a whole lot of LISP code. You configure it by writing some more LISP code, in this case telling it to load some libraries, and set some variables. You put this code into your Emacs configuration file, which traditionally has the name (not the extionsion) .emacs. But see the link to the FAQ above ([1], section 3.5) on how to find and how to name your config file (in particular, I'd try the last line of 3.5). --Stephan Schulz (talk) 13:01, 24 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Right, so I did C-x C-f and then ~/.emacs. I pressed enter and a blank page opened. I pasted in the code and then did C-x C-s to save. It saved it to C:/Users/My Name/AppData/Roaming/.emacs, which is a different folder to the one than SINGULAR is saved in, and a different one than Emacs is saved it. I did M-x singular as the manual suggests and it just says [no match]. What should I do next? — Fly by Night (talk) 13:31, 24 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The .emacs file is only evaluated on startup, or when explicitly requested. Have you restarted Emacs after creating the config file? If you want to go the more interesting route, navigate to the buffer with your .emacs and type M-x eval-buffer. Also, I strongly suspect that the <singular-emacs-home-directory> should be replaced by the path to your Singular installation.--Stephan Schulz (talk) 13:50, 24 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I found a folder call Singular which contained a program called Singular. But when I replaced <singular-emacs-home-directory> with <C:\cygwin\lib\Singular> and try to run it with M-x signular it returns cannot open load file: singular. I tried removing the angled brackets but Emacs starts up and tells me there's a Syntax error. If I put them back then there's no syntax error. If I type M-x Singular then it says [no match]. Any ideas? — Fly by Night (talk) 15:08, 24 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

This goes into weird Windows territory. Under UNIX-like OSes, the path is certainly a simple string - no angle brackets. Here is an example from my .emacs:

(setq load-path (cons "/Users/schulz/SOURCES/ELISP/" load-path))

It should be the path to the directory that has singular.el in it, as far as I can make out. I don't know how Emacs works under Windows, but under UNIX file names are case sensitive. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 21:10, 24 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

If you're running emacs for Windows instead of cygwin emacs, then the correct way to enter the directory name in lisp code is "C:\\cygwin\\lib\\Singular" or "C:/cygwin/lib/Singular". Both should work, assuming that C:\cygwin\lib\Singular is the "singular emacs home directory". 130.188.8.15 (talk) 12:02, 26 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Good catch! Of course \ is the escape character used to encode various special characters in strings. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 13:42, 26 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks 130.188.8.15, but I've tried everything and nothing works. I paste the code into my ~/.emacs file, save, close and re-run. Then I do M-x singular and get cannot open load file: singular. Emacs has to be the most un-user-friendly program I've ever used. I downloaded SINGULAR and Emacs at work (on Ubuntu) and couldn't even find where the files had been saved! No icon, no search result; nothing. After using locate singular and sifting through the 40 or 50 locations, I finally found it. From download to running the thing, it took me an hour. Why does it have to be so hard? I'm no idiot and I've had the help of three or four reference desk regulars, and still no joy. I give up. Thanks to everyone for trying to help. — Fly by Night (talk) 21:52, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Emacs isn't exactly unfriendly to its users, but it has such a long history that it cannot quite follow modern interface conventions. Installing packages like the Singular interface shouldn't really take more than a couple of minutes (I just did it myself). Your best bet is probably to find a local Emacs user who can show you where you went wrong and help you with the installation. 84.239.160.59 (talk) 20:44, 29 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Comparing two nVidia cards

I have two nVidia graphics cards (in two different machines, one of which runs Windows 7 and the other Ubuntu Linux). One is an older (but at the time rather expensive) GeForce 9800 GT, the other is a newer (but cheap) GeForce 210. Right now the 9800 is in the Windows machine, where it's used for games (e.g. Bioshock 2, Starcraft 2); the 210 in the Linux box doesn't have much real work to do (a bit of Google Earth is probably the limit of its labours). It occurred to me that the 210 would be the better gaming card. I'm having some difficulty reading the complicated tables in the two articles for them: if I understand correctly, the 9800 has a much higher texel fill rate than the 210. I can't find an online benchmark that reviews both cards (not surprising, as they're from more than a year apart). Some sites quote Futuremark scores for the 210 that are incredibly low, but I don't know if they're comparing like-for-like (as there are so many versions of Futuremark). I'd happily just run a benchmark myself, and swap the 210 in to see if it scores better or worse, but I don't know what benchmark to run. Futuremark now costs money (and frankly I'm reluctant to pay for something I'll run exactly twice) - can anyone recommend a worthwhile Windows graphics benchmark program? It doesn't have to be terribly accurate: I don't care about numbers, or about rating my card against others I don't own, I just want to know which card is the faster. Thanks. 87.115.213.248 (talk) 13:12, 24 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

This article compares the 9800GT's little brother the 9600GT against the 210, and the 210 gets very bad results indeed. It says of the 210 that it can "hardly be of any interest for a gamer." -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 15:34, 24 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Considering the specs, 64 bit memory bus 16:8:4 shaders vs 256 bit memory bus 112:56:16 shaders, you don't have to look at a benchmark to tell you the 9800GT is going to destroy the 210 in nearly everything (the 210 has DX 10.1 support I believe) and I didn't even look at clock speeds. That BTW is another key reason why you have trouble finding reviews comparing the two, it's a pretty pointless comparison. The 9800GT was close to the top of the line of it's time and it's not that old, the 210 was always the extreme budget end and is only really one generation later and not even a major generation change. BTW, the reason any single benchmark is usually fairly useless in properly comparing cards is because cards tend to have advantages in different areas so you need to compare a variety of different benchmarks to get a proper idea of where cards stand relative to each other. Although in this case, any decent benchmark will tell you how crap the 210 is compared to the 9800. If you actually have games you are interested in with some sort of benchmarking and the cards it's probably better to compare with these real world stuff anyway. Nil Einne (talk) 18:40, 24 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I need help on recording sounds...

I need help on recording sounds. I have Windows 7 and I pressed the record button in my Windows Sound Recorder, it picked up sound from my microphone on my headphones, but it didn't pick up sound on the monitor. When I play back the file, the sound from the microphone is there, but the sound from the monitor was really low, I could barely hear it. I checked the recording devices and saw the microphone ready, the stereo mix ready, but the Line In was not plugged in. My sister said that it might be because of the Line-In not plugged in. I want to record both the sound from the microphone and the sound from the monitor. Is there a solution to fix this problem. Please answer. Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sirdrink13309622 (talk • contribs) 17:05, 24 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

This depends on whether your sound-card hardware supports "loopback" - in other words, if it can pipe the audio-output to an input signal. If so, Audacity (or Windows Sound Recorder) can select the "stereo mix" or similarly-named input channel (instead of microphone or line-in). If the sound-card does not support this internally, you can always fake it by piping through a male-to-male 3.5mm audio cable from your line-out back to your line-in. The biggest hazard with this setup is analog noise, but it usually is pretty bit-identical unless you wrap the line around a power-cable or something. Nimur (talk) 17:16, 24 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

And FWIW the really low sound from the monitor on your original recording was probably just from your microphone picking up the sound from your speakers, not from something functioning incorrectly. Incidentally this is another (rough and ready) possible solution - crank the sound and keep the microphone close to your speakers, though sound quality won't be great; Nimur's suggestion is preferable. Now, if you find you are unable to record the sound from the monitor and the microphone together, you can record them independently and then combine them in a program like Audacity. Alternatively, as you don't say what the source of the 'sound from the monitor' is, you may already have the sound on your computer such as an MP3 song track; if this was the case you could just record what you want through the microphone and mix the tracks straight in Audacity without re-recording what's coming out of the monitor. --jjron (talk) 13:40, 25 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yahoo Posts

How do you delete old yahoo posts? I clicked on my link when I posted a comment to a news story and I saw my old posts and I was wondering how to delete those? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.147.4.245 (talk) 18:04, 24 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

reading a pen drive

So I have a USB pen drive and a laptop with windows 7. recently I gave the pen drive to someone, I know they read some of what was on it, but is there any way of finding out what? I mean by finding out when each file was last opened, can that be done? Is there any other way? The files are all on microsoft works, if that helps.

148.197.121.205 (talk) 18:05, 24 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Probably not. If you open the drive in Explorer (the file viewer thing, not the web browser thing), view-as "details", right-click on the header (that lists name, date etc.), click on "more...", and then check the "date accessed" field, that will add a "date accessed" column to that view. If you view a folder on your hard drive (which is surely formatted in the NTFS file system) then you'll see the actual dates and times those files were viewed. But flash drives seem mostly to be formatted in the FAT32 file system, which (at at least for me) doesn't store date-accessed data, so you'll just see a dummy value there. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 19:03, 24 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

FAT does store access times, though only with 1-day granularity (ref). You can add "Date Accessed" as a column in Explorer's Details view by right clicking on the column headings. -- BenRG (talk) 19:33, 24 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

How is the access date determined? I have mplayer.exe on my computer which I use every day and it's access date is ‎November ‎2009. NTFS drive 82.44.55.25 (talk) 19:47, 24 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

AFAIK an interaction between program and OS Nil Einne (talk) 01:40, 25 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Alright, thanks for your help. I'm sure it would have worked, but it seems at some point I picked the wrong one up, so now, I have lost all my saved files, which are lying around somewhere waiting for someone else to read them. 148.197.121.205 (talk) 20:00, 24 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The New Windows Live Messenger

I (read: the Windows Live system) just updated Windows Live Messenger to the latest version. I guess a lot of Windows users have done this lately. The new version is OK (I have never really liked MSN); is is a more well-integrated application in Windows 7 (we all know the old msnmsgr.exe was't working well with respect to its taskbar button). However, there is one thing that really, really annoys me: If you press the X button of the main window, the msnmsgr.exe isn't closed, but only minimized. But if you press Alt+F4 (or Alt+Space, Arrow up, Enter), msnmsgr.exe is closed, and you have to restart it. Is there a known solution? --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 21:02, 24 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The Windows Live Messenger forums might be a good place to ask, if you haven't already. Vimescarrot (talk) 23:03, 24 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

October 25

High Quality Digital Audio Setup for a Home Sound System

I am looking for some advice on purchasing a high-quality audio DAC for an antiquated, but high-quality sound system (a suggestion on a nice ADC would be good too for recording vinyls, etc.). What I plan to do with this is route music from a PC to the stereo system, but high sound quality is a must for this system.

I am wondering if the quality of HD audio that is integrated on the motherboard of all modern PC's is such that it will be sufficient for my purposes (note here that this setup is not for me, specifically, but for my father who is a self-proclaimed audiophile, but does not understand digital systems at all and does not care to learn, so it must please his ears and not mine--which is certainly subjective, but something at or above CD audio quality may suffice). I recall in the past when routing audio from an older sound card that electronic noise was a considerable issue at the time and this would be unacceptable here, so I question whether it's possible at all to use integrated audio and not get that electronic noise (I understand it's not possible to entirely do away with it, but if it's practically inaudible then that's fine), or if I will need an external converter which connects to the PC via USB or S/PDIF.

The sound system in question accepts two different physical inputs: a 1/4" stereo plug or the red and white pair of RCA connectors. Is there any difference in sound quality (possibly lower noise?) between these inputs either?

Does anyone here have any experience with this? -Amordea (talk) 04:45, 25 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

What are you going to use as the source of your music? --80.40.144.68 (talk) 09:01, 25 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

As for the source, probably FLAC's or high bit-rate MP3's (MP3's less likely given they are lossy) or perhaps even raw CD audio (a la disk images). Basically any quality digital format that could be contained on a hard drive. -Amordea (talk) 02:09, 26 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Basically, any sound-card (including the one built into your computer) will be sufficient. The phrase "hi-fi" is currently (for the most part) an obsolete description: everything sold on the market today is "hi-fidelity." Let me explain: in the "old days" (let's say, 1950s), an audio amplifier would have "imperfections" in its gain characteristics. It might notch out particular frequencies or introduce a certain noise level or so on. The term "High Fidelity" was coined to refer to those audio systems that amplified the recorded sound with essentially no frequency distortion - "faithfully" replaying the recorded audio. In very old systems, this was a huge engineering challenge - tubes and speakers had all kinds of non-ideal characteristics that would interfere with the sound quality in a very audible way.

Ever since the days of solid state amplifiers, the electronic capabilities of an amplifier are way beyond anything any human could hear. Today, cheap transistors have perfectly flat frequency responses from DC to 20 GHz; noise figures are so far below anything an ear could discern; and 44.1 kHz sampled 16-bit digital audio accurately stores and reproduces exactly the original waveform (far beyond any capability of any human audiophile to distinguish). Now, software tuners and graphic equalizers exist to intentionally add imperfections to alter the tone of audio playback so that it can sound identical to the distortion of an old audio system. Let me rephrase this: every cheap, crappy sound-card you can buy is already 16-bit at 44.1 kHz with a flat frequency response. The worst possible quality digital audio system is already "perfect" and "indistinguishable" from original source. (The low-end models will have fewer features, but it's very unlikely they will actually have poor quality). "Professional quality" sound-cards will try to pitch some extra specs - 96kHz audio (which is useless to you and anyone who has human ears); and better latency during recording and pass-through (a spec which I have never independently validated - every sound card I have ever spent money on has always been limited by my computer's operating-system audio-system latency).

Modern "noise" is much more likely to come from a few sources: first, poor-quality digital sources (such as low-bitrate MP3 files) are the biggest culprit. MP3 is a lossy format; it does not perfectly store the original waveform, but stores a similar version of it. At 128 kbps bit-rate, which is reasonably common, I can tell that the sound is distorted (especially if there are high-frequency instruments or wide-band sounds like applause). My oscilloscope can certainly tell the difference between 128kbps and original waveform. But properly produced MP3 files, (let's say, 192 kbps or higher) are for the most part indistinguishable from an uncompressed recording.

The second possible source of noise is "coupling" - electromagnetic interference, in the form of power line hum, and in some cases (especially if your sound card is cheap and inside a computer) you can hear digital signal noise leaking on to the audio lines. On my laptop, whenever there is activity on the front-side bus, I can hear a faint high-pitched squeal leak onto the audio line. And on some of my speaker-setups, if I am sloppy with my wiring, an audio cable will loop around an AC power cable, and I can hear the 60 Hz hum if I turn the volume up pretty loud. Regarding choice between 1/4-inch and RCA connectors, it is doubtful whether this will make any perceptible difference. (I have used both; I prefer 3.5mm connections because they're small, and 1/4 inch when running long cables because I happen to have a lot of sturdy and long 1/4-inch cabling laying around). Make sure your 1/4 in isn't mono (some old systems, and some current professional-audio equipment, uses 1/4-inch for mono signal exclusively).

It is most probable that the weakest link in your audio system will be software - if you have a crummy sound-card driver, you might hear glitchy playback; if you have poor-quality sound files with sloppy compression, you will probably be able to hear squelchy squealy noises during playback. But I wouldn't spend much money on a sound-card, unless there's a specific feature you need - say, digital/optical audio connection, or 7.1 channel surround-sound. I'm of the belief that 2-channel (stereo) sound is sufficient for most "entertainment" purposes; some movies benefit from a rear or side channel, but most of the time, extra channels are gimmicks. Nimur (talk) 18:06, 25 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Very informative. Thank you!

The "coupling" you mentioned is perhaps my biggest concern about the integrated audio. I personally wouldn't be able to hear it given that my hearing is rather poor now, but my father might and if he does, he would simply not use the system (and I already have to overcome the hurdle of his suspicion of digital audio--even though he listens to CD's, which I have pointed out is digital--and certainly do not want to add to the unreasonable stigma he has against it).

The system is just two-channel audio (it is from the 1970's), so I have no need for the bells and whistles of surround sound. What sound card would you recommend? Do you think the integrated audio (on say an Intel 945G motherboard in an AcerOne netbook) would be sufficient and would not produce any noticeable hum or static?

One problem I've noticed with this particular setup (routing audio from the netbook to the stereo amplifier) from what I can hear is that the bass is too much, which I can compensate for by turning the bass volume way down, but that is a rather inelegant solution. I am wondering if it has something to do with having to route the sound through the headphone/speaker port. Would I need a sound card with a line-out port for this purpose? I frankly don't know the difference between the speaker port and a line-out. -Amordea (talk) 02:09, 26 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I would suggest that your integrated audio on the netbook is perfectly fine for these purposes; test it out and see if it's suitable. Regarding "too much bass," I use WinAMP. WinAMP is zero-cost (but not open-source) software; it has an interesting historic legacy and a spectacular user-interface. Among other features, it provides a software graphic equalizer that you can use to set the bass-levels and other tone quality to your liking. If you prefer free software (as in Linux), Rhythmbox, Amarok, and others exist to provide the same functionality. More technical audiophiles may enjoy Audacity, and jackd. The software I listed above will range in user-friendliness and expertise-requirements from "trivially easy" to "professional audio programmer", so you and your father can decide where you fall on the spectrum. Nimur (talk) 02:30, 26 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

And regarding "speaker" vs. "line-out" - on many computers, the difference is that "speaker" is amplified, and "line-out" is not; but the amplification is usually pretty small to the point of nonexistence. See our article on line level for more on this detail. "In theory" a line-out should never be connected to headphones; but in practice, modern electronics protect against this with digitally-controlled impedance matching (so you usually have nothing to worry about). Nimur (talk) 02:33, 26 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I recommend for you to use a digital audio editor instead of a media player. I simply connect my XP desktop to my stereo system and use this player/editor. Sometimes I connect RCA connectors to a TV's audio line outs, record the sound of a concert program, keep it in my PC as an audio file and listen to the file on the stereo. Oda Mari (talk) 07:55, 26 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

VBA Question Part 3

If I want to run multiple SQL INSERT INTO queries, in VBA; What should I write to distinguish between queries? I've tried newline but that doesn't work in VBA. I've tried running the queries like this;

strSQL = ""
strSQL = strSQL & " INSERT INTO [CCF Static]([Main Table ID], [Integrations Team Member1], [Sales Team Member1], [Merchant Name1], [Merchant Type1], [Partner1], [Tier1], [Merchant Sector1], [Date Entered Into System1])"
strSQL = strSQL & " SELECT [ID], [Integrations Team Member], [Sales Team Member], [Merchant Name], [Merchant Type], [Partner], [Tier], [Merchant Sector], [Date Entered Into System]"
strSQL = strSQL & " FROM [Master Query beta 1]"
strSQL = strSQL & " WHERE [Master Query beta 1].[ID] = DATE() & "" & DATE()-1;"
MsgBox strSQL
DoCmd.RunSQL strSQL

strSQL = ""
strSQL = strSQL & " INSERT INTO [Brands]([Customer Name], [Merchant Sector])"
strSQL = strSQL & " SELECT [Merchant Name], [Merchant Sector]"
strSQL = strSQL & " FROM [Master Query beta 1]"
strSQL = strSQL & " WHERE [Master Query beta 1].[Date Entered Into System] = Date() & "" & Date()-1 AND [Master Query beta 1].[Merchant Type] = [PSP] OR [Merchant] OR [Reseller] OR [Sole Trader];"
MsgBox strSQL
DoCmd.RunSQL strSQL

But I get the following error: 'Run-time error '3075':

Syntax error in string in query expression '[Master Query beta 1].[ID]= DATE() & " & DATE()-1;'.

Any idea why? Panyd^{The muffin is not subtle} 10:35, 25 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Well, this is just a problem with how you've formatted the SQL string, or maybe rooted in a misunderstanding about how to use SQL. (It's not a VBA problem.) Look at what it's spit back at you: there is a single, unmatched quotation mark that you've added there. Why? That's not going to be valid SQL. A general rule with this stuff is to first just have the SQL string output (e.g. with a MsgBox or by using Debug.Print) to see if it makes sense to begin with, before worrying about the VBA side of things. As it is you have a malformed SQL query, and I'm not at all sure what you think it shuld be doing. DATE() & " & DATE()-1 doesn't make any sense to me at all.

If you are trying to add a space, you need to properly format the question marks in the string so they are passed (as escaped characters) to the query. In VBA this is through double-quotations, so "" will produce " in the final query, and """" will produce "". --Mr.98 (talk) 14:20, 25 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Note that building up SQL commands in plain strings is dangerous; see SQL injection. Paul (Stansifer) 16:03, 25 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Though I don't see any opportunities for injection attacks in the above. And it's not too hard to protect against said attacks — it just requires passing the strings through a screening filter first. Though I will agree that not knowing SQL very deeply and also building up SQL commands in plain strings in a language you are not terribly comfortable with probably is a good recipe for danger! Assuming that you are going to have other users using it, anyway. --Mr.98 (talk) 16:26, 25 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Just as an aside, and to reiterate what I said above -- I assume you are using MS Access. If you are not totally comfortable with SQL, work out the SQL statement (with dummy date if necessary) first in Query view, and then, after you're sure that the SQL works, translate it into the VBA strings. Otherwise you are entangling two very different possible sources of error (VBA and SQL) together in a way that is hard to tease out, especially since Access gives extremely cryptic error messages regarding SQL statements (as you've seen). Just a suggestion from a long-time Access programmer. --Mr.98 (talk) 18:57, 25 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you guys so much. You've hit the nail on the head, I don't know what I'm doing, your advice is appreciated. I'll go back to building this in Query view. Thanks again. Panyd^{The muffin is not subtle} 09:41, 26 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

what are functions of DATABSE SERVER..??

what are functions of DATABSE SERVER..??—Preceding unsigned comment added by Lokesh.mavale (talk • contribs) 17:34, 25 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

See database server.—Emil J. 17:47, 25 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Od Dear - i'm scared to ask but - how do I choose what new PC or Laptop to buy?

Please understand - I am not a techie. I am 63, and have used IT in Scotland for about 20 years. I can use the whole Microsft Office Suite - professional - and use the PC daily, mainly for storing digital pictures (also copied to external hard drive), plus the Internet to keep in touch via e-mail but notsomuch facebook etc. I buy and browse online and have never had a problem. I bank and invest and study the markets online. I also like to convert digipics and music to picture vids for which I have the software. Trouble is - like me - my kit is getting old - and slow - and I keep getting messages that such and such a file is missing or corrupted - which leaves me cold. So the question is - and please forgive me - which Santa Claus do I trust? I am mid 60's, reasonably put-together, not wanting to waste my life on video games, but wanting to stay informed, avoiding hard mail and bugs, worms, trojans, viagra, and anti-death-offers, store pictures and music, and not sit around any longer than the kettle takes to boil. So do I shop online, buy a second-hand system (I don't need all the accessories such as keyboards etc.), and I will NEVER use a laptop on the Beach as I saw some youngsters doing last weeek in Spain - (sad Bar Stewards), or do I walk into PC World and say, "Please help me" - and then get ripped off? Thanks. Oh - Budget? Middle range I suppose - I don't want anything I will never use during the next 5 years or so. Thanks again. 92.30.211.53 (talk) 19:32, 25 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

There are online buyers' guides — if you google desktop computer buyers guide then a number will appear — I would ignore the buyers' guides that are more than about 9 months old. Computer Shopper is a US publication with a "Desktops" section that might be useful, and Consumer Reports is a respected US nonprofit that does computer reviews, though its detailed ratings are behind a paywall. Personally I would get a machine from a large commodity PC maker like HP or Dell that stands behind their product (or claims to, anyway) with a year of free technical support. Comet Tuttle (talk) 20:33, 25 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

One question is: do you want a desktop or a laptop? Your keyboard and mouse will probably work with the laptop. (You would want to confirm this before choosing the laptop.) The laptop is lighter in weight. It will allow itself to be more easily set up in more than one location, if that seems a plus. I am assuming of course that your present computer is a desktop—I could be wrong about that. Bus stop (talk) 20:43, 25 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

go to your local Apple Store and ask for advice there <smirk> --Ludwigs2 21:13, 25 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Except you can't use Microsoft Office Professional on a Mac. (And the Office 2008 software is exceptionally buggy on a Mac.) I say this as a Mac user, not a hater. --Mr.98 (talk) 22:56, 25 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

ludwig2's suggesion is good for getting ripped off in my opinion, as you're leaving it up to the salepeople to help you decide, which often resultes in them steering you to the most expensive items, with not neccessarily the best value. look at recent consumer guides for an idea of what to get, as well as for reviews. 70.241.18.130 (talk) 16:11, 26 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not convinced that you need a new computer. Computer hardware doesn't normally get slower with time; it works like new until it fails completely. If your computer has gotten slower, it's almost certainly a software problem, and those can be fixed for free. Your computer probably came with a "recovery CD" or "recovery partition" or something of that sort, and after you run the recovery process it will be just like new. That means that all of your personal files will be gone—so move them to the external drive first!—and you will have to reinstall any software that you installed yourself. It's a hassle, but you'd have the same hassle with a new computer. -- BenRG (talk) 21:59, 25 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It's true that all Windows computers I have had do tend to slow down over time — but the original poster may feel that his or her computer is slower because the demands of his or her favorite Web sites may be increasing. Comet Tuttle (talk) 22:54, 25 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

What exactly do you mean by "middle" budget range? 500 USD? 2000 USD? To do what you want to do (use Microsoft Office, edit photos, and access the internet) will not take a terribly expensive computer. How well you can use the internet will be more a function of your internet access than your computer. Your ability to avoid viruses and Viagra ads will be a function of your Antivirus program and Spam filter, respectively, not your choice of computer. I really can't see any value in buying a second-hand system. You can get new computers today at a very reasonable price, and you can be pretty confident that they're going to work well (and, as Comet Tuttle recommended, there are many companies that will offer free tech support and a year long warranty). To be honest, I think that walking into a computer store and telling them what your looking for might be the best bet. In my experience, most people at such places are actually helpful and knowledgeable, and are more interested in getting you to buy a computer that you'll like, rather than the most expensive one. That's just my experience though. I would recommend Microsoft over Apple; not only will you be able to use Office, it will also be cheaper.

I would probably be expecting to pay about 500 USD for a machine (if you get a desktop; laptops will be a bit more expensive) to do what you want; get yourself something with 4 GB of RAM, an Intel Pentium processor, maybe a 500 GB Hard Drive, a DVD read/write drive, and an Integrated Graphics Processor. On the other hand, it's not really that expensive anymore to get a PC that's more or less "top of the line". For under 1500 USD, you could probably get something with 8 GB RAM, an Intel Core i7 processor, a dedicated graphics card, a 1 TB hard drive, and maybe even a drive that can read Blu-ray Discs. This will be a lot more than what you currently are using your computer for, but it will also stand a better chance of being useful for a lot longer. More memory will help speed things up, and will also allow you to do more things at once without as much slowdown (the better processor ought to help with this too, to some extent). It's likely that webpages are going to continue to get more and more complex as time passes (Wikipedia is really the exception to this rule; it's sickening how much junk is on so many sites these days). In addition to requiring a better internet connection, such pages will also demand more memory and processing power. I think that Blu-ray is going to become more and more prevalent in the next few years, so I would strongly recommend getting a computer with a drive that can read Blu-ray discs. Buddy431 (talk) 00:58, 26 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Pretty much any PC will do all the things you mentioned above. Prices for new PCs start from around £300 for the lowest specification. It is actually quite difficult to buy an off-the-shelf system from a retail store like PC World, without a keyboard, mouse and monitor. If you can spend a bit more, it is worthwhile getting Microsoft Office bundled in with it. Buying from PC World does seem expensive and you are never sure if you are getting a good deal, especially when you notice their prices are identical to other stores like Comet, but the alternative is to buy from a small independant (perhaps on a local industrial estate), or buy online. Even though they often go on about the latest equipment, computer magazines can be useful sources of information about other suppliers even if you don't buy the exact model being reviewed that month. I've bought many Dells and have been pleased with every one of them, though other people here will tell you they would never buy a Dell.

Having said that, an alternative might be to refurbish your old PC. Back-up your documents, photos, emails, etc. Locate all the installation and driver disks. Add some more memory and replace the hard disk drive with a larger capacity one. Then reinstall the Windows operating system and Office and all the driversand other software you need. Download and install all the updates you're offered and put your backed-up data back. You will be amazed how much faster your PC seems. Astronaut (talk) 06:55, 26 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks to all above responders - I really appreciate all your advice. I am going to print them off and consider all the options, and hopefully, will make the right choice. Cheers 92.30.6.212 (talk) 16:49, 26 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

A reliable source for information about my mobile phone's software

My Sony Ericsson K850i mobile phone recently failed with a problem described in many places on the internet as the "blue ring of death". My research suggests I need to update the phone's firmware if I am going to try to fix the problem. However, all the information I have comes from various forums and fan-sites and seem mostly concerned with overcoming percieved shortcomings in mobile phones. Some sites also offer links to software tools to help with updating the firmware, but the software is usually home made, of dubious provenance and often lacking in basic usability or any guidance on how it should be used. Replacement firmware can also be downloaded, but once again it seems to be of dubious provenance.

What I'm looking for is a reliable source, perhaps from Sony Ericsson themselves, which details the file system, software and possible solutions, and perhaps provides software tools and firmware. The source of the software/firmware should give me confidence that my PC is less likely to be infected with malware and convince me that my phone is getting some proper updated firmware (rather than some home modded firmware put together by a fanboy in his bedroom).

Particularly important in my case, is to find out how I can recover my list of contacts, which everyone so far has said will be destroyed by the firmware update. Astronaut (talk) 23:22, 25 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

How about the shop you bought the phone at, or your mobile-phone contract provider? They may be able to repair the phone for you. Nimur (talk) 23:34, 25 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Forgot to mention, the shop where I bought it said they couldn't do that if it was out of warranty. Astronaut (talk) 23:42, 25 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Here is the page for your phone on the Sony Ericsson website. I believe you are supposed to run a particular type of cable from your PC to the phone; you can then back up your contacts list and upgrade the firmware. I have had a Sony Ericsson phone (different model) and bought the cable for that model over eBay for under US$5.00. Disclaimer: I never updated that phone's firmware; I used the cable to copy files back and forth. Comet Tuttle (talk) 23:40, 25 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Mobile phone unlocking

As a consequence of the problems outlined in my question above is that I have found lots of websites offering SIM-lock removal services. As far as I can tell, all these sites will sell you a way to unlock your phone, but none will tell you how to unblock your phone for free. Strangely, I've not seen anyware where I can buy software to unlock phones. My local phone unlocking shop seems to be able to do this in just a couple of minutes with one small laptop. So, if I wanted to go into business unlocking mobile phones, where would I get the software from? Astronaut (talk) 23:36, 25 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Phone_unlocking#Unlocking_technology suggests various methods, such as leaked unlocking codes, rewriting the firmware, and spoofing SIM data. It's possible the unlocking software is custom made by each person doing the unlocking, and not available for download, certainly not for free or these people would be out of business very fast. I don't have a mobile phone so I don't know if that's a helpful answer or not. 82.44.55.25 (talk) 13:37, 26 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

October 26

iSCSI over DDR InfiniBand

Hello everyone,

I'm aware of the iSCSI protocol being routed over 10GbE networks, but I want to know whether it is possible (not where to get such a product) to send and receive iSCSI CDBs over DDR InfiniBand networks. And if so, whether this has actually been implemented.

Thanks as always. Rocketshiporion♫ 02:55, 26 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Compatibility Concerns: Old Games and New Operating Systems

Age of Empires: Because Age of Empires was released during the time of Windows 95 and 98, there is a possible risk that trying to install and play the game on later Operating Systems such as 2000, Me, and XP might cause serious incompatibility problems.

Shogun: Total War: It is said that the upper limit of compatibility for this game is the Nvida 8 series of graphics cards and that the game is incompatible with the Windows Vista Operating System. Trying to play the game with a graphics card later than the Nvida 8 or with an Operating System past Windows XP will cause compatibility issues.

Can someone verify any of this? --Arima (talk) 04:00, 26 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Considering the minimal differences between some 9 series cards and some 8 series cards, I would be surprised if a game really doesn't work with them but works with all 8. I'm not saying it's impossible just that it would be surprising to me. A perhaps more likely possibility would be the need for old drivers that don't work with 9 series cards (at least theoretically). Alternatively and even more likely to me would be 7 series cards as the limit with 8 not working. Nil Einne (talk) 10:00, 26 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I can confirm that AoE works fine on XP (and therefore almost certainly also on 2000). 81.131.40.42 (talk) 11:07, 26 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

And also that Shogun: Total War runs on XP (at least for the first ten minutes of play, because I took an immediate dislike to it and then discovered Heroes III), but I couldn't tell you about its compatibility with recent graphics cards. 213.122.39.199 (talk) 11:25, 26 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The first Age of Empires worked on my Windows 7, 32-bit. Also, Windows ME is built on DOS the same as 95 and 98 are (unlike 2K, XP, etc which are NT) so it should work fine. 82.44.55.25 (talk) 13:42, 26 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

And you can always right-click on the exe and run in compatibility mode in Vista or preferably Windows 7. Win98 has such a small footprint anyway that you can run it in a virtual or dual-boot if you are so inclined. Sandman30s (talk) 11:13, 26 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The reason why I mentioned Shogun: Total War is because of this Video. The player can only issue orders with the mini-map because of an apparent clash between the game's programming and the graphics card of his computer. --Arima (talk) 01:29, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

technology about a browser called “Spacetime”

i found a 3D browser called “spacetime”，it‘s cool，but somehow not very popular........ i wonder how this browser works or some details else about it. thank you~！~ —Preceding unsigned comment added by Cedric.ye (talk • contribs) 14:13, 26 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

SpaceTime seems to be a wrapper around Trident (layout engine), the layout engine of MS Internet Explorer, putting individual Trident views on different little floating boxes. Bar some wow-factor, I don't see the added-value. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 14:46, 26 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

asp.net

I think it's not only the .net version of asp, like instead vb and vb.net, but I cannot understand the difference. --217.194.34.103 (talk) 16:21, 26 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Active Server Pages was the old thing. ASP.NET is the new thing; only ASP.NET runs on the .NET Framework. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 16:25, 26 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes but I think the relationship is not the same that there is between vb and ab.net, the gap is broader but I cannot understand why. I think ASP.NET presence is deeper in .net stack (clr and so on). --217.194.34.103 (talk) 17:01, 26 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Protection of code in cgi-bin

Is the code there protected against copy, if random users can still use it? If the code is accessing a DB, is this DB protected against being copied? --Quest09 (talk) 17:18, 26 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

If the cgi-bin directory is in your web directory, protecting it requires setting up your web server to disallow that directory. A more popular method of security the cgi-bin directory is to place the cgi-bin directory outside the web directory. Then, set up the web server to execute cgi-bin requests on the external directory. The user cannot actually browse to the cgi-bin directory and view the code (or copy any of the programs). The user can only see the output of the cgi-bin execution. -- kainaw ™ 17:45, 26 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

How much can a typical Windows computer see about the AC power?

I remember seeing a Windows computer display the current line voltage at some point, and I remember that there's actually an interrupt that the computer does when the power fails. But how much data (especially, how much temporal resolution) can the computer actually get about the input power?

Can it measure the waveform of the AC power and look for voltage spikes from other equipment? (i.e. see if the surge suppressor is really working, and warn you if it isn't)

Can it measure the phase of the current precisely and compare this result to other computers with clocks that you've somehow precisely synchronized, so that you can (?) estimate the length of the wiring connecting them?

Sniff for data being transmitted over the electrical wires, or check for reflections of the power waveform from places where there are partial breaks or poor connections?

Probably most if not all of this is impossible, but it'd be neat to know for sure. Wnt (talk) 19:46, 26 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The PSU (power supply unit) on some servers can report some AC conditions (sending data on the SPI bus), but most normal PCs can't see anything. Most likely the PC you were looking at was hooked up to an uninteruptable power supply. A UPS can insulate the PC behind it against some weird conditions on the line, such as voltage sag, spikes, and some kinds of weird waveform, but they're not interested in any of these tests you're talking about. UPSes often have a USB or serial connection, which allows them to report some basic conditions to the PC, but mostly that's whether they're on mains or battery, the condition of the battery, and maybe the UPS temperature. I don't think any of what you want is impossible, but it's not in the interest of a normal PC or server PSU maker to implement any of it, so they don't do it. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 19:55, 26 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

bash and idl

I've just started using IDl and one of things i'd like to do is combine it with my existing bash scripts so i can press one button and go for lunch and all my works done! But i found if a call idl as "idl someFile.pro" that in someFile.pro i cant define extra functions/procedures, they end up having to be saved in individual files. Is there a way round this? either having them in someFile.pro or could i combine them say into a library-like file to keep them altogether? Thanks--86.162.141.190 (talk) 20:45, 26 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Do you mean IDL or IDL? Or maybe ICAD's IDL? -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 20:49, 26 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The programming langauge--86.162.141.190 (talk) 21:10, 26 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

IDL (programming language) uses .pro files. Here's an introduction to program- and batch-modes from the DoE PPPL lab. You may need to manually "load module" to include and call code in other source files. See also, registering routines and loading modules dynamically. NASA Goddard has a nice online IDL help-system too. IDL is not free software; its documentation and help-files are proprietary, so you may find that the best source for finding information is the program's online help files installed at your site, rather than searching the internet at large. ITT has published an IDL reference manual online as well. Nimur (talk) 21:16, 26 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

October 27

AVI on a xbox 360

When I try to watch avi or other video files on my 360 using a portable hard drive, it always wants to connect to the internet to download a file required to view the video. This is a problem, because my xbox's ability to connect to the internet is very moody, and some days it won't recognize that it's got a cat-5 plugged into the socket. The wire is fine, it works no problem for my computer, so the issue is with the old 360. I was wondering if there was a way to save the codec files or whatever it's downloading on the xbox so that it doesn't always have to refer to the internet?129.128.216.107 (talk) 03:07, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hopefully someone more knowledgeable than me will stop by in a moment, but maybe I can help a bit. First, a question: have you ever gotten your 360 to play a video in this way? Second, a large percentage of the AVIs out there are encoded with DivX (which see). I no longer use Windows Media Player, but when I did, the DivX codec always had to be downloaded manually and installed manually - it could never be acquired the usual way. Maybe there's a reasonable technical problem there, but I've always assumed that it had something to do with DivX originally being "stolen" from Microsoft and them not wanting to support it. If I was in your place, I would assume that the 360, which is also made by MS, had the same antipathy towards DivX and was intentionally not downloading the codec. So, the first thing I'd recommend is to download the codec yourself and try to install it on your 360 manually (note: I have never done that; I don't play videos on my 360 and have no idea how that works). Hence the reason I asked if you'd gotten anything to work - AVIs encoded with other codecs are more likely to work okay (or at least the 360 will download the codec seamlessly). Matt Deres (talk) 19:17, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Modern DivX is MPEG-4 Part 2 ASP compliant sometimes with a DivX FourCC. (Nowadays DivX also supports H.264 but when people refer to DivX they almost definitely mean the ASP variant. In my experience DivX is relatively uncommon anyway XviD predominates by far. Microsoft surely has no concern that one codec had a somewhat questionable history, it doesn't relate much to the development of the MPEG-4 Part 2 standard itself which is really what they're supporting, after all it was what they were working on when they developed the codecs that were used in the original DivX.) The primary reason I expect why Microsoft doesn't provide any codec is because of licensing issues i.e. Microsoft didn't want to pay whatever royalities would be asked of them. The lack of much content of interest obviously didn't help. (Being defined as legitimate content that people may actually want to use, since I don't think Microsoft is that much affected by the illegitimate content.) Sure there are some trailers, and I think a few camcorders used MPEG-4 and some independent and other free stuff was distributed in that way but it never really took off probably partially because of licensing issues as well (see MPEG-4 Part 2#Criticisms. It was largely skipped by the industry for H.264/MPEG-4 AVC instead. Remember many versions of Windows didn't even come with an MPEG-2 codec. Windows 7 Ultimate supports ASP, AVC/H.264 and MPEG-2 I believe. Microsoft also has a vested interest in promoting VC-1 instead. Nil Einne (talk) 12:50, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I think the "xbox 360 2007 Fall update" is what you need to read , see http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/how_to_play_avi_files_on_xbox_360.cfm and http://blogs.msdn.com/b/xboxteam/archive/2007/11/30/december-2007-video-playback-faq.aspx

As I remember the XBOX360 should get the codec from the MS servers (assuming the servers have a codec) and then automatically save the codec to either a MS memory card or the MS hard-drive. You should be able to see the codec on the MS storage device once downloaded, and not need to download it again. So you need to download it once and also need a MS flash or hard disk drive. It should be sutomatically saved - it's called "Optional Media Upgrade" see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_40xLn8uymo Sf5xeplus (talk) 18:09, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

As for the CAT5 issue - this sometimes is a DHCP issue - ie the DHCP not working right.(bug). Assuming you've got the settings right for the xbox360, one solution is the "turn off both devices, and then turn them on again" - which often results in the network connection being made correctly. Alternatively manually setting the IP address on the xbox360 for the computer also works, but is fiddly. That is another issue though.Sf5xeplus (talk) 18:48, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

There's a download link here http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Optional-Media-Update/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d802fffe07df that might help.77.86.42.103 (talk) 19:13, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Oh and it looks like the update is tied to an xbox account - so if you downloaded it in your xbox account you need to be signed in to use it..Sf5xeplus (talk) 19:19, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Pause batch file execution on file/folder not found?

Hello, I'm creating a batch file to run on Windows' commandline/Command Prompt which will move items to another location when executed. My batch file is executed in one folder and checks sub folders, moves the files in the subfolders to another folder, then cd's back to the original folder to move on. While creating the batch file, I noticed a serious flaw: If the subfolder does not exist (and it sometimes doesn't), it would execute the move inside the original folder and not the subfolder. Luckily, I noticed this before executing it. For an example, my batch looks somewhat like this:

cd 20101001
move a* (a folder)
move b* (a folder)
move c* (a folder)
[...]
cd "C:\My Folders\Programs\TheFolder"

It goes through that subfolder then moves onto the next subfolder (20101002, 20101003, etc).

My question now is this: Is there a way to have the batch file pause if a file/folder not found error pops up? Then I can handle the situation manually. I wish as much automation as possible; I realize I could just insert a pause after each "cd ########" to manually ensure the folder exists before the move executes. -- 24.251.101.130 (talk) 06:49, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Instead of pausing, tell Windows to check for the folder:

cd 20101001
if exist TheFolder (
move a* (a folder)
move b* (a folder)
move c* (a folder)
)
[...]
cd "C:\My Folders\Programs\TheFolder"

And, if it cannot find the folder, you can have it complain to you:

cd 20101001
if exist TheFolder (
move a* (a folder)
move b* (a folder)
move c* (a folder)
) else (
echo TheFolder could not be found.
)
[...]
cd "C:\My Folders\Programs\TheFolder"

--Best Dog Ever (talk) 06:57, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You can separate commands on a line with && to execute the second only if the first succeeds, or || to execute the second only if the first fails, or & to execute the second always. You can use parentheses to establish precedence. For example:

    :retry
    cd 20101001 || (echo Directory 20101001 doesn't exist & pause & goto retry)

If you just want to skip nonexistent directories, you could also write

    move 20101001\a* (a folder)
    move 20101001\b* (a folder)
    move 20101001\c* (a folder)

or

    cd 20101001 && (move a* (a folder) & move b* (a folder) & move c* (a folder))

-- BenRG (talk) 07:01, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for your help, Best Dog Ever and BenRG; both of you have helped solved my problem. -- 24.251.101.130 (talk) 07:13, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Black bars on YouTube videos

I've just uploaded a youtube video which I made in wmm, and now it has vertical black bars either side and the quality is awful. When I view my video in wmm, it doesn't have the black bars and the quality is quite good. When publishing I clicked "120p", is that not correct? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.60.246.201 (talk) 09:17, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Caveat: I don't deal with video much at all and can't remember the last time I uploaded a video to YouTube. That said, Display_resolution#Current_standards would suggest that "120p" is very low resolution and likely not the best choice (ie it's lower than 480 or 720). What are your other choices? Dismas|^(talk) 09:51, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The quality will improve slightly as the video is processed further; I don't know how long that takes, it's normally no more than a day (I think...I haven't uploaded in a while). The pillarboxes are affected by the aspect ratio and video format, found in Tools -> Options. The only combination of those which I've found to produce an acceptable result is NTSC format and 16:9 aspect ratio. Note: I'm no expert - this is all based on personal experience of videos turning out badly pillarboxed on Youtube, and the solution that I found. Vimescarrot (talk) 11:40, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Clustered Computing - Booting & Cluster Shared Volumes

Hello Everyone.

In a cluster of computers, do each of the servers have its own boot volume, or do all servers in a cluster boot from the same volume? The Wikipedia article on clustered computing doesn't make this clear. I'm aware that all nodes in cluster store data on on the same cluster shared volume, so my question is only about where each node's operating-system is stored.

Thank you to all respondents. Rocketshiporion♫ 09:25, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Facebook friend search

I've never really fully understood how Facebook's friend search works. I realize that they don't reveal just exactly how it works and so on but still, parts that would seem obvious aren't. I'll provide examples to explain what I mean.

I've sent a message or two back and forth to an old friend's little brother. The brother and I aren't FB friends and he keeps his friend list private, so I can't find my friend by looking through his friends. The brother says that my friend is on FB. When I search for my friend's name, I only get two people (I didn't think his name was that uncommon but whatever) and neither of them are my old friend. A) Why can't I find my friend directly with a search?

Another example which is similar to the one above... I have about a dozen people that I work with in my department. One of the people, I'll call him "Joe", does not come up in a search. We all were talking about FBs strange search results tonight and started trying to find one another through the search. We're not all friends with each other on FB. None of us could find Joe even though we were typing his name in correctly. And Joe has said that he has not activated any sort of privacy setting to keep people from finding him. In fact, he said that just this week a friend of his from another state was able find him just fine when they don't have any friends in common. I don't believe he is misleading us.

Another person I work with, I'll call her "Cindy", comes up in a search but she comes up as the seventh result in a list. Cindy's name is not all that common at all. The first six results are all mis-spellings of what I searched for. I searched for "Cindy Doe", which is what she goes by though on FB she is registered as "Cynthia Doe". The first few results are for "Cindy"s with other last names. Then the list goes into "Cynthia"s and, even though I spelled her last name correctly, she is still the second or third Cynthia. Considering Cindy is short for Cynthia and I spelled her last name correctly, I would think that my Cindy would be the first result. Add to that the fact that we have the same company listed as our employer and it's more confusing. And then on top of even that, she is friends with a friend of one of my friends. And finally, although due to privacy settings, I can't see Cindy's "current city" (remember, we're not FB friends) though I know where she lives (roughly) and her home is not that far from my own. So wouldn't this kick her even further up in search results?

So, in summary (and I'm sorry this is so long), FB's search confuses me. It can suggest friends that I knew 30 years ago but not show any evidence of people that I currently work with. I don't see any setting to hide myself from search results, so I don't see how someone could do just that. Besides which, that would run counter to the point of FB which is connecting with other people! Dismas|^(talk) 09:44, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

When searching by name, the person has to use that name EXACTLY. There are a few things it will do, such as look for "Charles" if you type in "Chuck". But, if you search for me with my first name, you won't find me. My Facebook profile uses my middle name. Facebook won't instamagically search DMV records to find out what my first name is and then add me to your search results. As for the recommender, it is a fairly simplistic "friend of a friend" algorithm. If you have friends in common with someone else, it will suggest that person as a friend. -- kainaw ™ 12:19, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Where did I say anything about it making leaps such as going with a middle name? The example that I gave had the correct spelling of the last name and a derivation of the first. Wouldn't it be more natural to match last name first and then list a derivation of the first instead of giving me mis-spellings of the last name? After all, last names normally don't have derivations whereas Charleses do go by Chuck, as you point out. Dismas|^(talk) 14:07, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, you can hide yourself from searches, so it's possible your first friend has done this. You say 'Joe' says he hasn't done so, but it is possible he has done so unknowingly if he's not entirely sure what settings he's activating (not all the options are that clear what they're doing, although FB's recent improvements to the privacy settings have made things clearer, but he may also have set this before the recent improvements). The other thing you can do is to hide yourself from being found by specific people - it's possible for example say that if your first friend does not want to renew his friendship with you (especially if he knows via his little brother that you're looking for him) that he could have already found you and put a block on you finding him in a search (I've never done this myself, but I have seen sometime back where you could set it). Re the Cindy/Cynthia thing, I'm not sure I follow exactly - you say you search for Cindy... but are surprised that FB lists Cindys before Cynthias? Unless I've misunderstood, I don't see what's odd about that at all, I would expect a search to find the exact term I'd searched for before finding variations on it. Having said which, yeah, I have seen odd things in FB searches too. For example I was finding it almost impossible to find one old friend (I was typing in his name exactly right, and ultimately exactly as he had it on FB, yet couldn't seem to get him), finally I did a search on his employer rather than his name and he came up. Hmmm... --jjron (talk) 14:41, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

What I mean about Cindy: Let's say that her name is Cindy Doe. It doesn't seem intuitive to me that Cindy Dole would come up first and Cynthia Doe would come up several names down. Yes, the first name is exactly right but the last name is off. I would think that the programmers of the search would realize that people shorten their first names, switch the spelling around, etc. a lot more often than they would do the same for their last name. I would think that the probability of me spelling the last name right and using a derivation of the first is a lot higher than the probability that I've misspelled the last name.

And, although it seems to run counter to the purpose of social networking, I guess that there must be a setting to keep oneself out of searches since there is not only my old friend but also two of my co-workers who don't come up at all. I work with these guys every day and they seem pleasant to me otherwise, I have nothing but my own paranoia to give any hint to the idea that everyone is simply trying to avoid me. :-) Dismas|^(talk) 21:24, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I would argue you are thinking of a few specific examples and failing to consider the complexity of human naming customs, social interactions, memory and typing ability. For starters you're primarily thinking of a Western European naming custom POV. While it's true many websites do follow POV of that sort and Facebook started from that POV and must still have some bias there (I can't remember whether Facebook asks for your first name and last name specifically via those terms which is obviously a Western European naming POV and I'm also not sure how well they handle other character sets), they do have a global focus so probably don't want to be completely from that POV and I suspect many of their programmers, as is common nowadays are from India and similar places.

For example if you have a patronym rather then a surname, specifically following your fathers name (i.e. where it therefore varies from generation to generation) there are surely as many possible different spelling of the patronym (on average) as there is for the person's name as there is no difference. It may still be that the person may have used a shortened personal name, it may not. To use an example, Mahathir bin Mohamad. Mahathir is not a particular common name so were it not for him being famous (and even with it being) it may be easily misspelled (although given the relative phoentic nature of Malay I'm not sure). Mohamad is a common name, but there are plenty of different spellings and the Mohamad spelling isn't even the most common in Malay AFAIK. For some of his children like Marina Mahathir I would expect (again ignoring the famous aspect) people would be easily more likely to misspell Mahathir then Marina.

Even for those with surnames, if it's transliterated there are often plenty of spellings and it's not unresonable to expect people to not remember which specific one. For example Lee Kuan Yew, even though Lee is a simple and common surname there are several different transliterations depending on the precise surname and dialect. See Li (surname). I don't think it's unresonable people may not rememeber if he's Lee or Li. Kuan Yew is of course also has many possibilities (and there's also the complexity of whether you hypenate, don't seperate at all or seperate as in Kuan Yew the personal name).

Indian names are a complexity I won't even try to get in to (in Malaysia many use a son of/daughter of where you get the same issues as patronyms).

Even in the West, I don't think things are always as simple as you suggest. Barack Obama is perhaps a bit of a cheating example since it's not what you would consider common although I would expect many would agree Barack is more likely to be mispelt as Barak then Obama (again let's ignore that he's famous). But Martin Bryant for example. Bryant is a not uncommon given name, but even when it's a surname I can easily see people confusing or missremembering it as Bryan or Brian (or vice versa). Martin could be Marton of course.

Then of course there's the fact that in the modern Western world, one's surname may not be mentioned much at all. So 20 years later it's easy to imagine someone can barely remember it. Was it Cindy Doe? Cindy Dole? You may remember what you called the person better, e.g. Cindy although as you said, it could be Cindy was short for Cynthia and she has that in her FB, or it could be Cyndi. In other words, while the probability may very well be higher, how much is not clear and would obviously vary depending on the circumstance, the name and other things.

Nil Einne (talk) 06:53, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Back @Dismas. Just to pick up on a few points. You seem doubtful of being able to alter who can find you or being able to block people. This page pretty much explains the privacy settings that let you control how easy it is to find or contact you: privacy. Then here's the FB help page on blocking individual people: block. Your search question seems to miss how FB search works - as you type in a name it immediately starts the search, it doesn't wait till you've finished typing or hit enter. Now if you want to look for surnames first, then just start typing in their surname from the start. Your reasoning is valid enough about changes in names etc, but I guess the search has to work somehow and to provide that interactive functionality of searching as you type it simply has to use whatever you type first. I would disagree with your argument about being more likely to misspell firstnames than surnames - at least in English speaking countries first names are generally simpler and easier to get right, for example most people, say 90%+ get my firstname right first time, every time, but, at a generous estimate, maybe 20% get my surname right even though it's not that hard and is the conventional and traditional spelling of a not particularly uncommon name. But really it's probably neither here nor there as it will vary so much from name to name. And, hey, at the end of the day if you are friendly with these people in real life can't you just tell them of your searching woes and ask them to find and friend you instead? :) (FWIW I generally avoid friending people I work with until we no longer work together; nothing personally against them, it's just a bit of a prudent step to take, and I'm usually more than happy to friend them once we no longer have that 'professional' relationship - maybe the people you work with think likewise). --jjron (talk) 11:19, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you everyone. The last couple responses have been very thorough, not at all snarky, and had very valid arguments. The "instant search" lends a lot of credence, for me, to the argument of looking at the first name *exactly* as it's typed rather than derivations. And finally, just a note to jjron, I didn't send a friend request to Cindy since A) the three of us in the office that were discussing this were doing just that, discussing the search and not looking to add friends B) I keep my work related FB friends to a minimum anyway and C) judging by the relative absence of work related friends in her friend list, she keeps her friend list rather work-free as well. Dismas|^(talk) 21:03, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Backing up mp3s

I currently keep my ~30 gig MP3 collection on a Western Digital 250 USB External Drive. However, I'm worried about the device becoming disconnected or power failure occuring when my computer is accessing the disk for playback. What are some of the more reliable ways to back your music up? I was thinking that DVDs or other disc media might be prone to scratches or decay after some time, so perhaps buying another external drive is worthwhile? Or are there any consumer storage platforms / devices with decent integrity that will provide a reliable backup platform? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.194.244.64 (talk) 10:36, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

If you have 2 Hard drives, or if you have plenty of space in one, you can just keep copies there. If you have a network (Anything with a router) you could consider getting a Network storage HD, so you can access it from anywhere in your network (handy for laptops), or you can get an external desktop hard drive, or you can back it up online, if there is any service willing to do so. If you do that however, it will probably take you a long time as upload speeds are slow. It depends on what else you may want to put on, or how much money you have. I don't recommend DVD's, I'd rather stuff everything in a blu-ray disk. General Rommel (talk) 10:52, 27 October 2010 (UTC) Oh and for anyone wondering, I'm Sir Stupidity, renamed myself[reply]

I don't think there's any risk of data corruption during a power-cut if you're only playing back the files. I would recommend a hard dive for backups, you can get 1TB drives very cheap 82.44.55.25 (talk) 11:23, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Over here a large chain is advertising 1 TB hard drives for EUR 49. That's ~0.5 ct per GB, or ~2.5 ct for the 4.7 GB of a DVD. I don't know what a DVD-R costs nowaday, but I'd also suggest going with a spare hard drive. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 11:50, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

"How do I back up reliably" is a recurring question with no silver-bullet answer. DVD+R discs, the articles say, can spontaneously fail after as few as two years' time. Hard disks do fail eventually; the safe attitude toward a hard disk isn't "will this disk fail", but "when will this disk fail". One solution is to keep your local hard disk backup, but also to use an online backup service (here's our comparison article) and trust them to keep the data in two places, assuming they use a RAID 1 system of some sort. Comet Tuttle (talk) 16:43, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I wouldn't regard mp3's as critical data as you can always get them back... but this is what I do for data I can't be bothered to find on the internet again. Firstly, get a USB drive like suggested above and make a copy there. If you have multiple internal drives, you can always backup there too if you have space. Then back them up onto DVD's anyway (bluray still too expensive)... use something like WinRar that can write recovery records and you can even create a few par2 files with quickpar. In my experience DVD's get a few bad sectors and you can copy (with retry) most of the bad files off of them and recover with quickpar. Now with critical data (for example your personal home videos and pics) - you need to put them onto external drives, DVD's, and make sure they are OFFSITE also (for example online backups or give your mum a copy)... in case your home catches fire or something weird. Sandman30s (talk) 10:21, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

what does a message like this mean

fsck from util-linux-ng 2.17.2
/dev/sda1: clean, 159694/7143424 files, 2635033/28562944 blocks
 * Starting AppArmor profiles       �[160G Skipping profile in /etc/apparmor.d/disable: usr.bin.firefox

  � [154G[ OK ]
 * Setting sensors limits       �[160G 
   � [154G[ OK ]
Unable to start guarddog firewall - /etc/rc.firewall does not exist
speech-dispatcher disabled; edit /etc/default/speech-dispatcher
 * Starting Mail Transport Agent (MTA) sendmail       �[160G

i had installed guard dog but this message is keeping me confused?Metallicmania (talk) 11:33, 27 October 2010 (UTC) in a ubuntu OS is it serious? or some random stuff?Metallicmania (talk) 16:45, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The important thing the message tells you is that the guarddog firewall is not being started because a configuration file that it needs (a file called rc.firewall in the directory /etc) is not present. Looie496 (talk) 21:33, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Natural Language Programming

Is programming gradually moving towards a more intuitive interface (it seems like it has historically with the progression FORTRAN-->BASIC-->C-->PERL-->VB (seperate debate, I know)) and will we eventually get to the point where you could type build a program to do x, y and z and the computer could compile an effective program? TheFutureAwaits (talk) 12:27, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Natural language is too vague to express complex technical concepts with sufficient accuracy. This problem isn't confined to computer technology, and has nothing to do with a computer being on the receiving end of a communication. When one human mathematician wants to speak to her peers, she writes a mathematical discourse using a complex set of symbols and words; her meaning just can't be conveyed in everyday language, no matter how smart she and her interlocutors are. When an electrical engineer wishes to communicate how an electrical circuit works, she draws a circuit diagram, another complex language that's unintelligible to anyone except other electrical engineers. So it is with chemists, astronomers, molecular biologists, information theorists, and the makers of springs. Computer programs are the specialised language for describing computation; even if computers were still rooms full of people, you couldn't tell them what to do just with a paragraph of ordinary English. There's nothing "intuitive" about how a string of nucleotides is written, how an echo-canceller circuit is drawn, how the Riemann Hypothesis is described, and there definitely nothing intuitive about Visual Basic programs. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 12:53, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Computer! Develop an Algorithm! --Stephan Schulz (talk) 13:00, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I have to disagree with you there, ultimately technical concepts can be explained in a natural language because that is how they are taught in the first place. Sure it might not be the most efficient way to present a concept but it's always possible. For example we have an article using thousands of english words to explain E=MC^2. It may take a lot more space but the info is there. It doesn't matter how complicated the program is - you can ultimately explain the variables and operations in english and the computer can run it. It's all computable it's just a matter of efficiency. TheFutureAwaits (talk) 16:05, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It's possible to go the COBOL route and write ADD ONE TO X GIVING X instead of x += 1 (disclaimer: that might not be real COBOL code), but I don't think that extremely more verbose is what you want (and being extra verbose doesn't do anything about the AI-complete problem of understanding English sentences). "Sort a list" is shorter than a written-out algorithm to sort a list, but that's because the English is ambiguous. Is it going to be a stable sort? A sort that performs really well on almost-sorted lists? Should the list be sorted-in place? What key should the list be sorted by? Part of the art of writing programs is expressing oneself clearly in a programming language, but another, larger, part is making all these decisions in the first place in a way that keeps the complexity of the problem under control. Most of the time, making the wrong decision doesn't mean a broken program, it's just the difference between making the rest of the program ugly and hackish or not. Paul (Stansifer) 19:26, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You've drawn a "progressive" line that actually makes no sense. C isn't more "natural language" than BASIC at all, Perl doesn't lead to VB, etc., and in any case, unless I'm mistaken, C and its variants are still used for far more "serious" programming than is VB or Perl. It's not a case of language "evolution" like you're showing — there are different languages that are developed often for different tasks, and work better for different situations. (Note as well that VB.NET vs. VB6 was actually a decrease in the natural language aspect.) When I'm mocking up something quick that doesn't have to be clever, a language that has lots of pre-defined functions in it (like PHP) can be great. But if I were trying to make something that was extremely memory efficient or compatible with multiple systems or took advantage of very specific hardware configurations, I'd probably want something more powerful (and less language-like) to do it. This is why when we draw evolutionary trees, they usually are not linear. OCTOPUS-->FISH-->REPTILE-->HUMAN is equally ridiculous; different types of critters evolve, simultaneously, for different niches. --Mr.98 (talk) 14:07, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

One better way to phrase what you are trying to express is that our definitions of low-level languages and high-level languages have shifted over time. C was once considered to be "high-level" (lots of abstraction), when compared to something like Assembly language. Today it is considered fairly "low-level" when compared to things like Perl or PHP or VB or whatever. Even in its time, Assembly is "high-level" when compared to machine code. There are, as the article on high-level language points out, some trade-offs between using higher and lower level languages. I think though that one could say that as hardware becomes more powerful, we require a lot less of the low-level programming to get basic things done, and can specialize almost entirely in high-level programming as a result. That's an entirely different axis to be thinking about this, though, than natural language. I don't think the latter will be terribly popular, and the trends are against it. What programmers like are well-structured, intuitive languages. Natural language is not well-structured and it is not logically intuitive (even native speakers are constantly making errors and using irregular grammar and trying to figure out what other native speakers are trying to say!). --Mr.98 (talk) 14:32, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes but a person is able to figure out the meaning through context and followup questions. I see no reason why a computer could not do the same? TheFutureAwaits (talk) 16:05, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

A person is sometimes able to figure out the meaning via context. Computer programs are sets of instructions: they must be completely unambiguous so that there can be no question about intent. Consider communication between two humans in technical areas where ambiguity is unacceptable, such as between a pilot and a control-tower. The language used is not ambiguous; the tower never says "Go ahead and land soon on the longer runway." (When is "soon"? Which runway is longer?) Instead, technical, unambiguous, and declarative instructions are given, ("Aircraft #1, land on Runway 31 at 12:24"). There is no room for question about intent. Computer programming is similar: we are giving instructions to computers, not speaking conversationally. So we need a language that allow concise delivery of instructions. The grammar is straightforward and usually involves subject verb object statements. There is no need for lyrical flourishes in computer programming. Nimur (talk) 16:18, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Just to emphasize the example: There are actually strict rules about the language use by ATC controllers and pilots. There may be some chit-chat in low-stress situations, but the actual instructions and replies are very much in a standardized and quite limited subset of English. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 16:40, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Online song editing

Hi,

I really like picnik, the online image editor. You can edit an image from your computer without having to jump through any hoops, like downloading software, registering, etc. Do you know of something like this for editing songs? I have a song on iTunes that I'd like to edit out the middle section for when I play it at a party. I've done lots of editing in the past but I no longer have the software. I just want to do an easy snip. Any suggestions? 71.72.151.162 (talk) 13:01, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Audacity is the usual suggestion for this sort of thing. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 13:04, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, but that appears to be a program that you have to download, which is not what I'm asking about. I'm hoping to find an online editor. (I'd rather not download because I'm not at my own computer now.) 71.72.151.162 (talk) 13:10, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Not entirely sure how you're going to upload a song from iTunes if you're not on your own computer? Anyway Tubechop does the sort of thing you're looking for with Youtube videos, I don't know of a comparable thing for music/iTunes, but it's likely the song you want is on Youtube and you could edit out of that perhaps if you can't find anything better... --jjron (talk) 14:24, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

http://www.audioexpert.com/ or http://aviary.com/online/audio-editor --Umar1996 (talk) 14:48, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Those are nice, though the first requires registration for using and the second requires registration for saving. There may not be a audio version of picnik after all. Thanks for your responses everyone! 71.72.151.162 (talk) 00:32, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

rss

I am using Windows. I would like an rss program that could download the linked articles (.html files and images) that are listed in an rss feed. Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 188.176.96.178 (talk) 13:29, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

check out http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/News-Newsgroups-Blog-Tools/Daily-RSS-Download.shtml . i hope it fits your needs. --Umar1996 (talk) 14:43, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

audioboard

whar's the difference between the mic in and the line in? t.i.a. --217.194.34.103 (talk) 13:33, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Probably they expect different Line_levels, and the mic (probably) uses a Pre-amp. Sorry for the vagueness; clarification will show up soon :) --SemanticMantis (talk) 14:20, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

If my memory serves me right, the mic in is mono. I assure you the line in is stereo. Oda Mari (talk) 14:35, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It might vary; my mic input is stereo. Sound card doesn't mention any difference, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. Aside from the possible pre-amp on the mic, I don't think you'll find a big difference between the two. It's just a way to have more than one audio input. Indeterminate (talk) 14:41, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Really? At least mine is mono. See TRS connector#Uses, TRS connector#Computer sound and the section below. Oda Mari (talk) 15:21, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

A standard Mic-In input is 600ohm/2.5mv. A standard Line-In input is 75ohm/150mv. Both can be stereo or mono. If you mismatch ohms or voltage, you will get substandard sound quality. -- kainaw ™ 14:48, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

installation help

im tryin to install capitalist (a game) in my lappie .the instructions say "cd' to the directory containing the package's source code and type

    `./configure'

to configure the package for your system." what does that mean ? what should i do to install the game? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Metallicmania (talk • contribs) 18:50, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Something like:

    cd /home/metallicmania/placewithgamesource
    ./configure
    make

and then you run the game

    ./thegamesname

and if you're super-happy that it's okay, you generally make it available to everyone with

    sudo make install

But are you confident that the game isn't already available via the package-distribution system (Ubuntu Software Centre or Synaptic, on Ubuntu)? -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 18:56, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I'd say step one is to check if the user is on a UNIX-like OS supported by the game. Assuming that the package has already been downloaded and unpacked, the next recommended steps after the cd would be more README and probably more INSTALL ;-). Assuming the game is Kapitalist, it apparently requires KDE/Qt 3.X libraries. If it is in any distributions standard repositories, installing it via RPM/YUM or APT/Synaptic will be much easier than manual installation. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 19:54, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

i run ubuntu .i couldnt understand how to execute ur instructions @finlay mcwalter im a n00b so could u simplify it?Metallicmania (talk) 04:18, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

i have some ubuntu experience. you run these commands by opening root terminal( alt+F2 look for terminal), typing in the commands one by one and pressing enter. --Umar1996 (talk) 11:49, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

How does Omegle work

I'm not a programmer, so this might be difficult for me to understand, but can someone explain how those random chat sites like omegle and chat roulette work? When I log into one, I'm I assigned a number that gets randomly paired with other numbers or what? Thanks : ] ?EVAUNIT^{神になった人間} 21:00, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The server has a list of everyone signed in and who each person is chatting with (or if they are not chatting with anyone). When you sign in, you are assigned a random person from the list of people who are not chatting with anyone. There is nothing particularly complex about it. -- kainaw ™ 21:09, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Assuming that people are immediately eligible again once their session ends, why would there ever be more than one person not chatting? --Tardis (talk) 21:51, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Latency. It is possible to have more people go into the site than the site can pair up at any given moment. However, if I were to do it, I'd just use a FIFO queue. Pair up the next two in the queue and then pair up the next two and the next two, etc... No random calculations needed. -- kainaw ™ 12:21, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict) Well, the pairing of people up is the easiest aspect from a programming point of view. Every user that logs in gets put into a quick database. Any user not yet connected with another is assigned a user who is also not yet connected. They are connected. When they are done, the process repeats. This is easy. What is harder from a programming standpoint is facilitating the actual connections, making sure that the messages are properly relayed, detecting when someone has stopped connecting (e.g. closed their browser window), etc. --Mr.98 (talk) 21:11, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict)That's about right. Both sites act as a finder-service (they find someone for you to correspond with). Once the connections are established, it seems the traffic between you and the other party flows directly, rather than being intermediated by Omegle/Chatroulette (the Chatroulette article says that this is the case for it, and this ServerFault article claims that the same is true for Omegle, gives some info about the underlying technology). To my mind these "stranger chat" sites are missing a big opportunity: I really don't understand why people would want to just chat to some random stranger, but if you could limit the chat to someone who registers interests in the same kind of stuff that you're interested in (Pokemon, aeroplanes, Cambodian gangster movies, whatever) then that actually sounds (vaguely) worthwhile. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 21:22, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

There have always been specific interest chat sites. The entire point of these sites is that they are random. People like them because it's a goofy, totally-non-committal place where the results will be unpredictable. There is always someone to chat with (unlike your hypothetical site, which may not have enough lovers of Cambodian gangster movies to have more than a couple die-hards on there), and there is a "dangerous" element of not knowing who (or what) you'll be chatting with. I don't think it's a lost opportunity at all — it's actually a very clever idea in and of itself, to provide "random" encounters of this sort, rather than the traditional encounters one expects in like-minded communities. --Mr.98 (talk) 22:09, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

October 28

3-D graphic video design

does any one know how are the graphics in films like UP created and what is the technology \ framework behind them? --Umar1996 (talk) 12:01, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Pixar films are rendered using PhotoRealistic RenderMan, which uses the Reyes rendering scheme. Pixar typically write dozens of new plugins for that for a given movie (adding new features like better hair, clouds, skin etc.). I don't know what they use for modelling and painting (that is, what the animators use to create characters and paint them with colour). -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 12:09, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I believe they use Pixar Marionette, an in-house software suite. However they sell the tools to export to RenderMan from more standard 3D suites, like Autodesk Maya. --Mr.98 (talk) 13:59, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

If you're looking for software that you can use, consider trying Blender (software). Blender is free software designed for 3D modeling, animation, and rendering. You can use for any purpose, including to make video-game characters, full-length feature-films, and explore the theory and practice of computer animation and rendering. Though Blender lacks some of the advanced features that an expensive commercial software package may provide, it is still capable of producing impressive pieces of art - for example, Elephants Dream and other movies. Some major commercial studios even use Blender for some or all of their special-effects work. Nimur (talk) 14:51, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, and it will certainly get you into thinking about how to use 3D software, the concepts involved, etc., which are a little counterintuitive if you have not used them before (or are only used to 2D graphic programs like Photoshop). The downside of Blender is that it has a notoriously idiosyncratic interface (which is evident by the fact that people will tell you that once you've learned it, you wished every program worked that way — i.e., it's a huge investment of your time to use it, and it's too bad it has absolutely nothing to do with the interfaces of any other computer program you have ever used), and in my opinion pretty poor documentation (the "community" manual and tutorials often leave huge things unexplained or poorly explained), but with some perseverance you can make nice things with it, skills that are presumably (I have not tried to do this) transferrable to programs like Maya or other "industry standards". --Mr.98 (talk) 21:25, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

If you're wondering how they make the characters move like people, skeletal animation describes the basic idea. Pixar animators adjust the positions of various control points frame-by-frame, and the software positions the skin, clothing, and hair. It's a lot like stop-motion animation, though the computer dolls are more flexible. I think even Elastigirl from The Incredibles was animated this way, and I remember the commentary track mentioning that the principal and the teacher in this scene are actually the same doll ("universal man"). Sometimes the control points are placed by motion capture instead of manually by animators, but I think Pixar never uses motion capture. -- BenRG (talk) 05:01, 29 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Greasemonkey for IE interface

I don't have Windows/IE, so I would like to know from others if this is possible... I was asked if it would be easy to write a program to make a button in IE that a user can click on. When he does so, a modular window pops up where he can type in a keyword. When he does that, it hides all of the monstrous (50+ page) webpage he is viewing except the sections around the keyword he types. Optimally, he wants to be able to set how much before/after the keyword he wants to be seen. Can Greasemonkey for IE do the user interface thing? I know it can hide content on the fly. -- kainaw ™ 17:24, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Scrap

I remember in Windows ME, if you copied an image or text or whatever to the clipboard, then tried to paste it like a file, a "scrap" file would be produced with the contents. What was this called? Why did Microsoft disable the feature on later versions of Windows? 82.44.55.25 (talk) 17:41, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Here on Wikipedia, our coverage of this is pretty poor; it is touched on at Microsoft Windows library files#Shscrap.dll. That article does have an old reference from microsoft.com entitled "What is a Scrap File?" Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:44, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It is called scraps (or shell scraps). As of why the feature was removed, this article might bring some light. 118.96.156.101 (talk) 23:12, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Audio playback skipping when a program crashes

A strange question that you all might be able to help me with. Under some circumstances, when a program or system crashes, the audio that was being played back will repeat the same ~1/4th second of playback repeatedly. This can occur, for example, when a game freezes, or the OS freezes while playing back audio in Winamp/iTunes, etc. Typically, when such a freeze occurs, the video will also freeze, but it will only display a single frozen frame (instead of repeating the last ~5 frames). What causes audio "freezing" to differ in this regard?

I suppose I would expect the audio to playback the single note that was being played at the time of the freeze, but it will instead repeat that same 1/4th second. Does this have something to do with the way that audio cards handle audio playback? Does it depend on the amount of audio data stored in RAM? Thanks! Sutarion (talk) 21:04, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Devices like audio cards and ethernet cards have a buffer (often a ring buffer) which stores the data they're currently sending. When streaming data, the hardware takes data from this and squirts it out the relevant port and decreases a counter. When that counter (which counts how much data is available in the buffer) gets too low, the hardware signals the operating system (and thence generally a software application) that more data needs to be written into the buffer. That application should respond reasonably promptly by adding more data. If the application is defective, or has crashed, then it might not be available to refill that buffer. This condition is often called a "buffer underrun". Different hardware deals with an underrun in different ways - ideally it'd detect that there's no more data, and just go quiet (that's usually what an ethernet card will do); you'd really hope sound hardware would also just stop doing stuff, but some seem to just replay the ring buffer's contents over and over, until someone (often the operating system) closes them down. The duration of that repeat will vary (for a sound device) depending on the size of the ring buffer and the format of samples stored in it (if the audio is using high-resolution samples at a fast sampling rate, it'll run out of samples quickly - if the samples are smaller and less frequent, you'll hear a longer fragment of audio before the repeat). -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 21:13, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

If you're wondering why a buffer is used (why the program just doesn't play the sound data as it's needed) consider this analogy - say you owned a small shop, and you employed a worker to stock the shelves with cans. You could give the worker a can, have them go put it on the shelf, and then come back to you. But they have to interrupt you constantly, because they need another can, so you can't easily get on with your own work. This used to be the case with simple UARTs (the chips that drove serial ports). As the ports got faster (the worker got quicker) the pace of interrupts built up so the boss was overloaded just giving the worker one can each time. The solution is to give the worker a box of cans, and the worker only comes back when the whole box is gone. This makes for far fewer interrupts, but requires that the worker be a little bit smarter. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 21:18, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the quick response! That makes perfect sense to me. Thank goodness the ethernet ports typically go quiet, as that could be quite messy if the application wasn't prepared for it. I suppose audio repeats (while annoying) don't cause any major problems. Sutarion (talk) 21:22, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

If the software instructed the hardware to play notes then you probably would hear the most recent note played forever. You might hear that if you were playing a MIDI file and the player crashed. But most software these days sends PCM audio (like CD audio) to the sound card. Sound effects, background music, voiceovers etc. are mixed together in software, not sent to the card as instruments.

With video there's also usually a ring buffer of frames, but the software explicitly signals the hardware to switch frames. There are a few reasons for the difference. The video frame rate is probably 120 Hz max, and different frames may take significantly different amounts of time to draw. The audio sample rate is probably 44,100 or 48,000 Hz and needs to be kept constant, since a variation of even a few percent would be noticeable as a change of pitch. Occasionally a software malfunction will lead to the video ring buffer being visible. An example is the hall-of-mirrors effect in DOOM. -- BenRG (talk) 21:26, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Mail.app sending phantom duplicates

My mail.app on OS X (10.5.8) is behaving strangely. Sometimes, *but not always*, when I use the reply button to respond to an email (to a single address), the mail activity panel shows two messages being sent in rapid succession. The 'sent mail' folder only shows one. Can anyone explain this? I think it might have something to do with the way nested/threaded replies are handled, but could it be some type of malware? (None of my contacts have complained about spam from my address.) Any thoughts are appreciated; thanks! SemanticMantis (talk) 22:20, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I've seen this as well: I always put it down to IMAP synchronization or cross-checking (Mail.app's efforts to make sure that everything on the remote machine is duplicated properly locally, and vice-versa). It's unlikely to be malware (OS X still doesn't have any native malware in the wild, and the problem's been around for a couple of years now, so someone would have screamed about it if it were). It might be (insert your favorite conspiracy/space-alien theory here), but if it is there's not a damned thing you can do about it, so why worry?

--Ludwigs2 22:50, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! Good to know it's a known issue. SemanticMantis (talk) 00:07, 29 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Installation of x8 PCIe 2.0 Card in x8 PCIe 1.0 (x4 Electrical) Slot

Hello.

I have an Intel S5520SCR Workstation Motherboard, which has the following expansion slots.

two x16 PCIe 2.0 (x16 Electrical) Slots
one x8 PCIe 1.0 (x4 Electrical) Slot
one x4 PCIe 1.0 (x1 Electrical) Slot
one PCI 32/33 5V Slot

Both of the x16 PCIe Slots are occupied, and I want to install an Intel RS2BL080 RAID Controller Card, which has a x8 PCIe 2.0 interface, in the motherboard's one x8 PCIe 1.0 (x4 Electrical) Slot. My question is whether will this configuration work - will the motherboard enumerate the card, will I be able to set up a RAID 6 array using this card, and is there likely to be any problem?

Any and all help is appreciated. Thank you very much. Nasi.Lemak.Kastari (talk) 22:44, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

PPT font

Resolved

I would like Garamond to be my default font in PPT but no matter how many times I select it, the default remains Ariel. What am I to do? DRosenbach ^{(Talk | Contribs)} 23:38, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Edit the design template (slide masters) by following these instructions from Microsoft. Then (and this is critical) ... specify your new template as the default template by following these instructions from Microsoft. This is the trick - you have to save your template as blank.pot. Nimur (talk) 23:53, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Woohoo!!! Thanx so much! DRosenbach ^{(Talk | Contribs)} 03:25, 29 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

October 29

Hi I'm trying to figure out this bit of IA32 disassembly from a C function. The function is entitled Blip, and it has the disassembly below:

Block quote

Blip:
push %ebp
mov %esp, %ebp
sub $0x10, %esp

mov 0x8(%ebp), %eax
imul 0x8(%ebp), %eax
sub $0x7, %eax
mov %eax, -0x4(%ebp)

addl $0x8,0xc(%ebp)

mov -0x4(%ebp), %eax
mov 0xc(%ebp), %edx
mov (%edx, %eax, 4), %eax
add $0x3, %eax
movb $0x41, (%eax)

leave
ret

void Binky(int x, char **y) { // Line 1
// Line 2
// Line 3

} —Preceding unsigned comment added by Legolas52 (talk • contribs) 08:47, 29 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

@@ Line 304: / Line 304: @@
 = October 29 =
-The following IA32 instructions are the disassembly from the Binky function:
+Hi I'm trying to figure out this bit of IA32 disassembly from a C function.  The function is entitled Blip, and it has the disassembly below:
 ----
+<blockquote>
+Block quote
+</blockquote>
+Blip: <br />
+push	%ebp <br />
+mov 	 %esp, %ebp <br />
+sub	         $0x10, %esp<br />
+mov	         0x8(%ebp), %eax <br />
-Binky:
-push	%ebp
+imul	0x8(%ebp), %eax <br />
+sub	         $0x7, %eax <br />
-mov 	 %esp, %ebp
-sub	         $0x10, %esp
+mov	         %eax, -0x4(%ebp)<br />
+<br />
+addl	$0x8,0xc(%ebp)<br />
+<br />
+mov	-0x4(%ebp), %eax <br />
+mov	0xc(%ebp), %edx <br />
+mov	(%edx, %eax, 4), %eax <br />
+add	$0x3, %eax <br />
+movb	$0x41, (%eax)<br />
+<br />
+leave<br />
+ret<br />
+<br />
+----
+void Binky(int x, char **y) {
-mov	         0x8(%ebp), %eax
+// Line 1<br />
-imul	0x8(%ebp), %eax
+// Line 2<br />
-sub	         $0x7, %eax
+// Line 3<br />
-mov	         %eax, -0x4(%ebp)
-addl	$0x8,0xc(%ebp)
-mov	-0x4(%ebp), %eax
-mov	0xc(%ebp), %edx
-mov	(%edx, %eax, 4), %eax
-add	$0x3, %eax
-movb	$0x41, (%eax)
-leave
-ret
-----
+}
-void Binky(int x, char **y) {  <small><span class="autosigned">—Preceding [[Wikipedia:Signatures|unsigned]] comment added by [[User:Legolas52|Legolas52]] ([[User talk:Legolas52|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/Legolas52|contribs]]) 08:47, 29 October 2010 (UTC)</span></small><!-- Template:Unsigned --> <!--Autosigned by SineBot-->
+<small><span class="autosigned">—Preceding [[Wikipedia:Signatures|unsigned]] comment added by [[User:Legolas52|Legolas52]] ([[User talk:Legolas52|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/Legolas52|contribs]]) 08:47, 29 October 2010 (UTC)</span></small><!-- Template:Unsigned --> <!--Autosigned by SineBot-->