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November 10

Facebook albums cause WiFi to drop

Whenever I view a photo album on Facebook (since they did the new thing with all the images on one page, and they appear gradually as you scroll down), my WiFi connection drops for about 2-6 minutes, regular as clockwork. Anybody got any ideas or solutions? Thanks! ╟─TreasuryTag►ballotbox─╢ 08:41, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

Can you describe it in more detail? Is it on a mobile site, or in the regular site? Which operation system? Have you recently done something new to the computer? General Rommel (talk) 09:00, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

I'm using a Windows 7 laptop in my home. It's only happened since they changed the way albums worked (on the regular site) – they used to display about fifteen photos at a time, then you clicked to move onto the next page. But now they're all on one page at once. Also, for about two seconds before the connection drops, the little signal-strength indicator, which normally registers one or two, hits five (full). ╟─TreasuryTag►inspectorate─╢ 09:08, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

You may need to upgrade (or even downgrade) the firmware on your router. I used to have a Linksys router that would crap out if I hit any page that had Flash that implemented something it didn't like. Certain sites were guaranteed to crash the router. I found out that the only solution was to downgrade the firmware. Instead, I threw the router away and bought a new one. -- kainaw™ 17:00, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

you're under ahack!! 84.153.247.200 (talk) 11:32, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

Kindle specs

Hi, I am considering buying a Kindle, the choice is between the "new" "Kindle 3G+Wifi" and the most recent "Kindle DX". However, I haven't found anywhere information about whether the hardware and software specs except for the screen size (such as processor, RAM, document format support, operating system) is similar for the two models. As the "Kindle 3G+Wifi" was released later I suspect the specs for it is better, which would increase the probablility that I buy that one even though the screen is much smaller. Thanks, Jørgen (talk) 12:22, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

The Kindle uses a linux based operating system and runs on a 533Mhz ARM processor. According to iFixit, the Kindle 2 had at least 32MB of RAM, so it's likely that the Kindle 3 has more RAM. It looks like the specs of the underlying hardware have remained much the same since the Kindle 1 while the design of that hardware has changed with each revision. From what I can gather, the screen and storage have been the only significant changes in specs since the original Kindle. As far as buying a kindle or eBook reader, Original research suggests having a comfortable size and weight is more important than any hardware or software specs. 206.131.39.6 (talk) 16:01, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

Thank you, that is good advice. However, if anyone has a specific comparison between the "normal" Kindle and the Kindle DX currently being sold, preferrably with some online source to back it up, I'd be even happier.. :-) Jørgen (talk) 22:18, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

My understanding is that the Kindle DX has very similar internal hardware as the regular sized Kindle with the exception of a bigger screen. I am unable to find a current Kindle DX teardown but you can find various teardown coverage from the original 2009 release of the Kindle DX. The Kindle's hardware specs are pretty hard to find, and the most information I can get about the internals (with a few quick Google searches) is that the Kindle 3 uses a Freescale processor. Perhaps asking at a forum or site specializing in Kindle hacking would be your best bet in finding the most accurate information about different Kindle revisions. Amazon definitely doesn't publish the full hardware specs for its device though. I did find a chart with a comparison between the current Kindle models though, but it doesn't show full hardware specs like you want. 206.131.39.6 (talk) 19:10, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

Thank you! Just what I was looking for. Jørgen (talk) 07:40, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

Computer Problems

My computer has been acting funny since last Friday and has been going downhill from there. If I remember correctly, the first thing that happened was that the internet kind of froze up, but the computer didn't. I restarted the computer and the startup process stopped at a black screen with the cursor. I restarted again and it went to the login screen with a popup that said something like: Windows needs to be reactivated in 3 days due to major hardware change. I have not had any hardware changes. So when I logged in I clicked the reactivation bubble and reactivated, but Im still having alot of problems. No reactivation popups have came up since. On Sunday it said the firewall was turned off so I turned it back on. I had never turned it off before.

Here's a list of stuff that is happening....

1.When turning on computer, it often stops at black screen with cursor.

2.Sound won't always work.

3.Sometimes I can't get to my hompeage on the internet. It just says connecting.

4.Popups from various websites now come up.

5.Most internet logins will not remember username/password.

6.Websites freeze up.

7.Tabs usually wont work. It just says connecting.

8.Cities and Topic names on craigslist don't stay highlighted like they used too.

9.Internet will not always close up.

10.A bubble pops up that says Found New Hardware: Infrared.

11.Found new hardware wizard pops up every time I start my computer.

12. A popup that says Generic Host process for Win32 has encountered a problem and needs to clost. We are sorry.

13.The back button on the internet does not always work.

14.When I click a link on google it often takes me to a different website. It is usually some strange search engine or porn.

I ran a virus scan and it says it found malware, so I moved it to the vault, but I still have the problems. I don't know much about computers, but is it possible a virus changed something with the hardware which caused the reactivation thing to come up and now the virus is messing everything else up?

Sorry for the long post, any help would be appreciated. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.119.61.7 (talk) 16:11, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

Try Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware - virus scanners are not the best way to remove malware. Exxolon (talk) 23:51, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

There is also Superantispyware and Spybot search and destroy among others. The free anti-virus Avast! can do a boot-time scan before the malware becomes active. Worth using Ccleaner beforehand too. 92.28.240.244 (talk) 23:56, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

It is likely that the malware affected the software on your computer. When anti-malware software removes malware, it doesn't always repair the affected system software and applications. Items #14 and #4 are probably caused by damage from the malware. The most straightforward advice to give you is that you will be able to fix most or all of these problems by first backing up (probably onto an external USB hard disk) your important documents, e-mail databases, pictures, MP3s, and everything else you want to save; and then erase your hard disk and re-install from scratch your copies of Windows and all your applications, using the guide at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing/Viruses. Then use a malware scanner again to scan that external hard disk, to make sure one of your documents won't be re-introducing the virus to your newly re-created system. Then finally copy all your documents back to your computer's main hard disk. Skimming your list, it seems to me this might fix everything on your list except for #2, but your problem report is very vague and I don't know what circumstances you're referring to. Comet Tuttle (talk) 00:07, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

That is the wrong thing to do, its like setting off a nuclear bomb when you have a burglar; and although making of a back up is a good idea, if you do not eliminate the malware then you are quite likely to re-infect your HD from the back-up disk (and if you are going to scan the back-up disk, why not scan the HD first). Use a series of anti-malware scanners as suggested above. If they do not solve the problems, then find one of the several computer forums that deal with using the HijackThis software, and follow their instructions exactly. As I understand it, only if the malware has irrepairably damaged your operating system should you re-instal it - something time-consuming and difficult for the beginner. I await CT's rebuttal. 92.29.125.32 (talk) 10:27, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

The metaphor of a nuclear bomb vs. a burglar is wrong because once a burglar is gone, he's gone. Malware is more like putting together a dinner plate of yours at a dinner buffet, then inviting a stranger to your table, watching him spit and drool upon several places on your plate, and then shooing him away. Do you choose (a) 92's method, which is akin to casting a weary eye over the plate and removing each food item that you notice has spittle upon it; or (b) my method, which is to throw the dinner plate in the garbage, get a new one, and put together a new plate of food from the buffet? The problem is that you don't know what malware you had or what it was capable of doing, and you don't know what damage occurred, or even whether remnants of the malware remain. You're putting 100% trust in the malware scanner's ability to flawlessly, 100% fix the piece of malware that you happened to install, if you follow 92's approach. The safe approach is to nuke everything and start from scratch, which will be inconvenient for a couple of days but in the end you're certain to be safe. Whichever route you choose, be sure to create and use an account without administrator rights, as mentioned in the Viruses page above, which will greatly limit the damage that malware may do to you in the future. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:36, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

Using your metaphor, you are going to pour some of the burglars drool into a back-up disk, and then pour it back into your rebuilt and sterilized home. If you are going to clean the back-up disk, then you may as well clean the HD instead. 92.15.3.20 (talk) 20:18, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

Not quite. What you miss by simply cleaning the HD is that you still may have damaged applications and system software; and since the original poster probably downloaded and ran an executable, it's possible that any given antimalware software will miss it. The nuke-and-start-from-scratch approach is drastic, yes, but offers a 100% guarantee of fixing both those possible issues. If the user then treats the "poisoned" backup carefully and only moves (scanned/cleaned) documents over and never executables, then that probably keeps his risk pretty low. Lower than simply cleaning the HD. Comet Tuttle (talk) 22:05, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

I have found various pieces of malware on my computer from time to time, none of them have damaged the operating system. If needed, the OP would be better off doing a repair rather than reinstalling everything. Your treatment is too drastic and should only be used when everything else has failed. Most people have probably not got Windows OS disks anyway, so they cannot reinstall. 92.15.3.20 (talk) 22:21, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

If you'd re-read the original poster's post, he wrote that his antivirus software did identify some malware and quarantine it, but he's still having problems. Time to nuke! Comet Tuttle (talk) 23:22, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

He's having problems most likely because not all the malware has been removed. Whenever I've scanned people's computers who are casual about anti-malware, I've always found lots of bad stuff to remove. I just scanned my computer, which I thought was clean, with a different scanner and found two bad things. 92.15.3.20 (talk) 00:53, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

Contrary to the other responses, I think there is a good chance that something is broken at the hardware level. Looie496 (talk) 17:44, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

Some of your problems could be Browser hijacking - see the external link. In fact 9 out of 14 are browser related - you could try uninstalling your browser, then reinstalling the latest version. 92.15.3.20 (talk) 20:22, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

ISPs, privacy, tethering

I tethered my PC to my phone, and checked my IP address. It includes the text "customer{six-digit-number}.kt.cust.t-mobile.co.uk", which kinda concerns the privacy voice in my head. The six digit number (edited out) looks like it could identify myself, and let webmasters know how often I visit their site. (T-mobile is the network.) I know IP addresses are identifiable. That is how record labels snare filesharers on bittorrent; they just keep a list of IP addresses, find out the ISP, who can then tell them who the account holder is. The above info is, however, new. Have I stumbled on anything new, worrying or what not identifiable at all? The difference between this and non-3G connections is that it is my mobile phone in my name, and it might be the same for a long time. Whereas IP addresses change, and where I use a wifi/ethernet connection changes all the time. Cause for concern?--81.98.97.252 (talk) 20:27, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

That information is just what the DNS server at your mobile phone company tells other dns servers so they know who they are talking to. For example, my full address for my regular landline ISP is cpe-***-***-***-***.stny.res.rr.com where the *** is my ip address. Also, your IP address will be registered in your name if you have a contract with an ISP regardless of whether that connection is dialup, DSL, mobile, cable, etc. This is so they can keep track of how much data you are using, make sure you aren't doing something that violates your contract (like running a personal website if your contract forbids you from doing so) and to help protect themselves form liability if you do something illegal. However, ISPs do not give this information to anyone unless they are served with a court order or something (I'm pretty sure they are legally bound to keep this info private but I am not sure). In addition, as a rule, ISPs do not assign you a new IP address very often though a few will give you a new one every time you reset your modem. Most of the time, they will randomly assign you an IP address from a pool of addresses and then you will keep that address for like 2-4 years or so. I have no idea if mobile internet providers do the same thing but I assume they probably do. That being said, even with that information it would be extremely difficult for anyone to do anything malevolent with it. So.. to summarize: 1) its normal for that to show up. 2) people won't be able to find out anything other than your IP address and ISP by looking at that information. And 3) they could already find that out anyway if you're going to their site because they have your IP address they can easily find out a fair amount of info about it. For example this info about your IP address is freely available but it would be almostimpossible to figure out exactly who you are with just that. Thingg^⊕⊗ 21:11, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

November 11

assign programs to network cards

I would like to know if there is a way to assign programs to specific network cards. Example: I have firefox, i want that to use my ethernet connection, then i have iTunes, i want that to use my wifi1 connection, then i have starcraft, i want that to use wifi2 connection. and so on in this manor. I have been googling and googling, and i have turned up only one answer: Not Possible. Knowing computer i know that this is complete bullshit. My goal is to get this to work on windows 7, but any OS is an option. 76.20.35.236 (talk) 05:39, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

One way to do it would be to set up a network proxy for each network card and configure each application to point to the desired proxy. Another way would be to twiddle your routing tables so different cards will connect to different services preferentially. Another way would be to use a dynamic library to intercept calls into your network library and force them to use a particular interface rather than specifying "don't care". --Sean 17:34, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

Converting .ps to .ai on Vista

Resolved

Does anyone know how to convert .ps files to .ai files? I would prefer a way that does not involve using Ghostscript while I struggle to get my head round it. Cheers. --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 12:55, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

Inkscape should be able to do this. Sometimes with complicated images its AI export leaves something to be desired, in my experience, but it's probably the only free way to do it. Obviously Adobe Illustrator can do this quite handily but I'm assuming you don't have it since you are asking. --Mr.98 (talk) 17:13, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

Well, I used Inkscape to get the .ps format. I now need to convert this to .ai. Inkscape won't do this, unfortunately (hence using .ps format as a start point). Inkscape can open .ai files, but can't make them. Inkscape can make .ps files, but can't open them. It's pretty..... weird. --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 17:43, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

Oh. Hmm. Dare I ask why you need them in AI format? AI is proprietary to Illustrator, and if you have Illustrator, you can export them from Inkscape as SVG and open those with Illustrator (or send them to whomever is trying to open them, if that's the case). If you need to insert them into something else, there are probably better formats (e.g. EPS) for doing that than AI. I'm not sure any program other than Illustrator can save native AI files... --Mr.98 (talk) 20:51, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

I need the splines. I am trying to use Japanese characters in a 3D art software that does not support the input of unicode characters. I read somewhere (in a thread on the software I am using - dated many years back, and therefore cannot be resurrected) that somebody used Inkscape to convert to .ps and then Ghostscript to convert that to .ai, then imported that file into the software to get the Japanese he needed. Anyway, thanks. --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 01:05, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

There's an article on the format (Adobe Illustrator Artwork) that lists programs that can support .ai file. That said, most recent versions of Illustrator work with (single page) PDF files just as well as they do with .ai files. The PDF page notes that recent Inkscape versions can edit PDF files. The Inkscape wiki also mentions that there are external scripts to directly import postscript files into Inkscape [1]. There's even a .ps to .ai conversion script listed on that page. -- 140.142.20.229 (talk) 21:09, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

Cheers! --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 01:05, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

mobile network

what is difference between cdma gsm —Preceding unsigned comment added by C2me happy (talk • contribs) 13:35, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

We have articles on CDMA and GSM which may help. --Phil Holmes (talk) 14:46, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

10 Gigabit Ethernet to DDR InfiniBand Converter

Hi Everyone,

   I am now seeking a device which has one 10GbE Port (RJ45 type), one DDR InfiniBand Port (CX4 type), and will convert signals from Infiniband to Ethernet and vice versa. Anybody know any suitable device(s)?

   Thank you, everyone. Rocketshiporion♫ 19:01, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

My isp disconnects my connection

I need a program that can make random connections and google searches or whatever so it seems like someone is using the internet, even when no one is at the computer. My isp disconnects my connection after 10 mins of no activity, and then I have to dial back in over and over and over and it's driving me mad. A program that could fake internet activity would be ace —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.197.232.246 (talk) 18:55, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

Might be as simple as using ping with (in windows) a -t switch? It depends what they're looking for. --Tagishsimon (talk) 19:01, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

(In Windows) you could test this by clicking on "Start/Run", typing "cmd". This will bring up a "dos" prompt. Then type "ping -t google.com" and then hit enter. This will send a "ping" signal to Google.com every second or so. Your ISP might be too clever to be fooled by this, (ping signals are really just used for testing purposes, so they might not count them as "usage".) but it's worth a shot.

However, I'm not sure if this is a good long-term solution. Google might not appreciate there servers being used in this way. APL (talk) 19:49, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

How about leaving a web-browser open to a page that uses AJAX? For example, Google News runs server-side and client-side scripts to "reload" content on the page. This will generate new network-traffic at periodic intervals. You could also write your own client-side script to guarantee a particular functionality or refresh-interval. Nimur (talk) 19:51, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

Make a .html file on your computer and put the following in it;

<META http-equiv="refresh" content="30" />
<FRAMESET cols="100%">
<FRAME src="http://en.wikipedia.org">
</FRAMESET>

That will refresh the front page of wikipedia every 30 seconds. You can change the time interval and the site it refreshes by editing the code. 1230049-0012394-C (talk) 19:54, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

The foundation would probably not appreciate that at all. APL (talk) 19:57, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

The official policy is outlined at the crawler policy, and current robots.txt does not specify a crawl delay. Common courtesy is to use an "intelligent non-zero delay." I think 30 second update intervals will not harm our servers. But if you're intent on manually refreshing your content, why not use a service (like Google News, as I mentioned above), which is intended to keep a sustained traffic load? Nimur (talk) 20:10, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

I just want to note that a refresh from one user ever 30 seconds will not hurt any website that is being run on a dedicated server. It's not that much bandwidth in the face of things, esp. since the browser will probably cache the images and non-changing content. Nobody at the WMF would even notice if someone was doing that. --Mr.98 (talk) 20:44, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

Searching on Google for "freeware keep connection open" (without the "") brings plenty of results. 92.15.3.20 (talk) 22:26, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

It seems to me any chat client (IM, ICQ, MSN, QQ, Skype, etc) would provide enough constant flow to keep your connection alive, and might provide other positive effects (folks could leave you messages while you're away). The Masked Booby (talk) 01:13, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

Are you sure it's your ISP and not actually your router that's dropping the connection? The reason I suggest this is because a lot of routers default to dropping the connection after 5-10 minutes of idle time and this might be what is happening here. Obviously if you don't have a router then this isn't applicable, but I just wanted to mention it in case! If you do then you need to go into the router's webpage/settings and change the drop inactive/idle connections setting, usually to 0 minutes (making it never disconnect).  ZX81  ^talk 01:40, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

Google News page reloads automatically in 15 minutes. Open this page in one tab of browser and after around 8 minutes open the page in another tab. These two tabs will ensure Internet usage activity once in 10 minutes. - manya (talk) 04:50, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

If you are using Firefox, try [2]. The Hero of This Nation (talk) 22:40, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

November 12

Gmail Offline: still https?

Hi all-- is Gmail offline still over https, as opposed to http? -- 99.228.64.60 (talk) 03:44, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

Gmail as webmail is accessed over a HTTPS connection. If you mean connecting to your Gmail account via IMAP in order to download/transmit messages, yes, that is also conducted (with Microsoft Outlook) over a HTTPS connection. However, I am a user of Outlook and Gmail, so I can only speak for Microsoft Outlook as the email-client. Other email-clients may or may not connect to Gmail over a secure connection. IDK. Rocketshiporion♫ 08:34, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

I'm sure the OP means this, not just an IMAP connection. --Mr.98 (talk) 12:38, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

Sorry but what? If you're using IMAP, you're using IMAP. HTTPS (or HTTP) isn't involved. As our article mentions, there are 2 methods to use IMAP over Transport Layer Security and IIRC Gmail supports one of them. Outlook would use that if it's enabled/set up properly. However HTTPS would still not be involved. Also Gmail is not always accessed over HTTPS. The authentication should be but Gmail itself can be accessed over HTTP if you try to. There is an option to force HTTPS in the general account settings and it may or may not be enabled by default (can't remember). Nil Einne (talk) 15:00, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

Sorry, I should have mentioned at the start, I mean Gmail Labs' offline feature, via the now defunct Google Gears. -- Zanimum (talk) 16:58, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

Dual graphics cards

I am planning on buying a laptop which has an Intel Core i3 processor and an ATI MOBILITY RADEON HD5470 graphics card. The Intel i3 processor has good integrated graphics so I was wondering if that means that I will have dual graphic 'cards'. Games like Call of Duty 4 have the option in the video settings of 'Dual Video cards'. I never enabled it since i didnt have that, but could I do it with this laptop? Does both a dedicated graphics card and integrated graphics mean that my overall graphics performance will be really good? Thanks. --116.71.62.207 (talk) 09:42, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

For laptops, that means "the best of both worlds".

• Integrated graphics = better battery life with mediocre performance
• Discrete graphics = mediocre battery life with pretty decent performance

This is probably one reason why we don't see an argument about this on the desktop market. Being connected to a power supply all the time, these computers do not need to conserve power (well, it is not a top priority anyway).

It all depends on the computer you are getting. From a personal level, the advice I can give you is this -- if you play games on steam and need a computer now, do not get nvidia optimus. I have it (GeForce GT 325M) and it is stupid as far as steam is concerned. Kushal (talk) 03:54, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Let me try to answer your question. My answer is "No". It is (in almost all cases) an either or scenario, meaning you are either using the integrated graphics or the discrete graphics. Newer monkeys like Optimus can do nice tricks (switch graphics card on the fly if it understands a change is needed, without rebooting) but overall, your graphics will not improve from having both. For that, you need something like SLI. See Scalable Link Interface. Kushal (talk) 03:58, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

ATI Hybrid Graphics actually does run both GPUs simultaneously to improve performance, and is available on some laptops. I think it's invisible to games, which just see the equivalent of a faster graphics chip. I get the impression that it doesn't work with Intel GPUs, but I'm not sure. -- BenRG (talk) 06:02, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Master Proxy Server Setting

My school has a internet service for students with laptops, but to use it I have to change the proxy server settings of my browser and any other program I want to use. This is time consuming and annoying, and I have to change it all again when I get home. Also, some programs don't even have proxy server settings so I can't use them at all at school. So in Windows 7 is it at all possible to set a master proxy server setting that every program uses for the internet, rather than manually changing them all individually? Thanks for the help —Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.78.103.160 (talk) 11:42, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

I can't answer this, but I made this question into a new section for you. In future, please do not forget to add a title to your questions. --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 13:17, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

Time Machine restore won't accept my password

The wife got a new computer and I got her old one, a Mac Pro. It's an upgrade for me (old system is a PowerMac G4). I did a fresh install of OS X 10.5 and then used a TM back up to install all my personal files/settings. The old system was running 10.5 as well. Now that I've gone through the install and restore from TM, the system won't accept my password. It's not the caps lock. I've even tried things like 'Admin' and just entering a blank password. Any ideas what's going on here and how I can fix it? Dismas|^(talk) 16:41, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

Got it worked out. The install disc allows you to reset the password. Dismas|^(talk) 02:40, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Ruby Programming Question

Hi:) Is it possible, in Ruby, to make a class whose objects will share data and methods with given object as if it were internal to each; or just to it? For example; suppose I have

class Bag

 def initialize(y)
  @value = y
 end

 def fivetimes
  return @value * 5
 end
end

class Item

 def initialize(x)
  @something = x * fivetimes
 end

 def blah
  return @value
 end
end

Would there be a simple way to set this up so that every time I make an Item object it would use the data and methods specific to some Bag object? I want to do this without having to redefine fivetimes or having to explicitly write attr_reader's etc; I am using this for something much more complicated and if I could share data/methods it would reduce the complexity greatly:) [Essentially, I want to make objects that are related to another object just like subclasses are related to classes] Thank you for any help:-) 71.61.7.220 (talk) 17:14, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

problem in using multiple ask transmitters

There are some interference while using more than one ask transmitters in same locality,even the datas are encoded for each transmitters.How to avoid this problem or what is the additional circuitry which should be used.are there any alternative way of transmitting of signals at nearer distances(10 metres). my mail address: Email-address removed - we will answer your question here. wikipedia logname:vinodhp —Preceding unsigned comment added by Vinodhp (talk • contribs) 17:44, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

These transmitters all are operating in the same frequency? -Yyy (talk) 09:24, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

In case it is not clear, the OP is asking about amplitude-shift keying transmitters. As with any shared communication channel, there is a possibility of a communication collision. Typically, this must be handled with a low-level protocol. This can take the form of either:

1. Carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance - in which the transmitters are hard-wired to never transmit at the same time (like a very simple TDMA scheme); or
2. Carrier sense multiple access with collision detection, in which transmitters may transmit at any time, but must constantly monitor the signal and take note if another transmission starts simultaneously, interfering with the channel. If two (or more) transmitters are active, one or both (or all) must cease transmission and "take turns." This may require a complicated cooperative scheduling technique.

These systems have different best, worst, and average efficiency. In collision-avoidance schemes, the full channel capacity is not used unless all transmitters are active at the same time - so it suffers from worse average-case performance; but it has much better worst-case-performance (no bandwidth is ever wasted due to collision and retransmission). In collision detection schemes, the channel suffers worse worst-case performance; and if poorly implemented, communication can deadlock. But because the channel allocation is dynamic, it is possible to achieve far better peak-performance if only one transmitter is requesting access at a given instance. When interrupted by another transmitter, a collision is detected (and hopefully resolved). Many sophisticated algorithms exist for collision detection; exponentially-weighted random retransmit delay is the most straightforward and commonly-implemented system. Nimur (talk) 20:07, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Most compact programming language

What programming language is the most compact, and can do the most with the least number of words? I know that at least one language uses single-characters rather than words, but I do *not* mean compact in that sense. Thanks 92.28.248.229 (talk) 17:55, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

The Lambda Calculus has only three forms: abstraction (creating an anonymous function), application (applying a function), and variable reference (using the argument of a function). The usual notation requires just lambdas, periods, parentheses, and identifiers. At first, it's not obvious how it's possible to represent all computation in it (all values are functions), but it is possible, and its simplicity makes it an ideal subject for programming languages research. There's also something really pleasing about it that I can't quite explain.

There's also itoa, which has only two symbols, but it's just an esoteric language.

If you're interested in programming languages that people write software in, then Smalltalk and C are both candidates. Paul (Stansifer) 18:11, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

I don't think it would be a contender in the sense that you asked, but BBC Basic, with its mixture of abbreviated commands and direct memory operators, could be amazingly compact in the sense of compressing an enormous amount of code into 32KB of RAM. I don't suppose anyone uses it these days, but I'm still intending to resurrect an old BBC (Acorn) when I have nothing else to do. Dbfirs 18:21, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

Are you sure the Lambda Calculus is a programming language? It does not have any entry here: http://99-bottles-of-beer.net/ Where would I get an interpretor or compiler for it from? Wouldnt the 99BOB task be very long-winded and un-compact? 92.28.248.229 (talk) 19:37, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

Perhaps my question has been misunderstood. I don't mean which programming language has the least number of words, I mean which language could you write a program for, for example, the "99 bottles of bear" task which would require the least number of words to be used. So for example "for n = 1 to 99" would be six words, and "& " £ ~ _ $" would be six words as well. A language which required you to write something like "Define an entity n Define number 1 Define number 99 Do for every n from number equals 1 to number equals 99 increment equals 1" would be far less compact.

In effect I'm asking something like: which of the programs in the 99 bottles of beer website is the shortest (disregarding the length of the words used). Thanks 92.28.248.229 (talk) 19:46, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

A lot of the programs on that site are written in a non-minimal way. I would still say something like APL can be the most terse, even leaving aside its single-character keywords. As for languages in widespread use I would put Perl up against most contenders. Perl programmers have even made a game out of it in Perl golf. --Sean 20:48, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

The problem with this question is that most programming languages are "functional" - meaning that they are designed to allow users to expand on the language by writing their own functions. As such, many people write libraries of functions to expand on the functionality of the language. So, this question is basically asking which language has the most functions written such that anything you want to do can be done in one function. Well, tell me what you want to do and I can write a function to do it in just about any language. Then, in your program, you include my library and write a single function call. That is pretty compact for you. If you try to argue that the function I wrote is not very compact, then I can argue back that any function you try to use in any programming language is eventually going to become machine language - which is not compact at all. In the end, this just becomes a matter of rationalizing what functions are considered part of the language and which are not. -- kainaw™ 21:35, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

(That's not what functional language means. Every practical language supports software libraries, even imperative languages. Paul (Stansifer) 22:28, 12 November 2010 (UTC))

That is the reason "functional" was put in quotes. It is not being used to define functional languages. It is being used to define languages with allow functions - pretty much every programming language. -- kainaw™ 15:42, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

I think you're still talking about libraries, not functions, though. Consider FP, an impractical programming language that has functions, but not libraries, and then consider the scene description language for POV-Ray, which lacks functions (as we ordinarily understand them), but has a Turing-complete macro system, whose macros you can import via libraries. And they're not called "macros" for nothing; they are really a textual abstraction instead of an abstraction over values. It's wonky, but it works. Paul (Stansifer) 16:56, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

The solution to your problem is to include the writing of the function within the total program size. 92.28.248.229 (talk) 22:22, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

Simplicity of language is a totally different goal from compactness of programs. It's also quite hard to define, except for specific problems. So, for your example, HQ9+ is the obvious winner, since the program that prints the lyrics is just one character long. The language accomplishes this by sacrificing other problems; most languages choose to use the character 9 for something more generally useful.

That said, compactness in general is something quite desirable. Languages renowned for compactness include Lisp, Perl, and (although this is one that I'm more skeptical of) Forth, and all their relatives.

The reason that the Lambda Calculus doesn't show up on that list is that it's a theoretical language. There's no such thing as output, just computation (though it's not hard to imagine tacking output on). (Actually one of my professors would kill me if I didn't mention that, technically, it's not a language until you choose an evaluation strategy for it. But this is a minor detail from the perspective of this discussion, since many programs behave the same regardless of evaluation strategy.) Paul (Stansifer) 22:28, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

I would disagree. From reading the comments [3] which doesn't require any character is surely the real winner. Nil Einne (talk) 13:08, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

Did you overlook the second word in the question? 92.28.248.229 (talk) 22:32, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

Sorry, I have a tendency to just say "language" when I mean "programming language". I actually managed to make the reverse mistake today, too, when I made a comment about the language Lojban without saying that it was a human language, not a programming language. Paul (Stansifer) 01:08, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Would you consider the 4GL and 5GL languages in your equation? If so, they can be remarkably compact, as they don't need to focus on control flow and the higher level of abstraction can be a major advantage. The question is also a tad dependent on the task. For example, if I wanted to do text manipulation, then Perl's regular expressions allow very complex tasks in very few lines. Languages tend to be good at particular tasks, so to some extent the task determines the compactness. (For example, you could do a GUI in BASIC, and I have, but it is much more compact to do it in Java. But Java is pretty complex for simple console output, while BASIC is quite good at that). Is there a specific type of task you have in mind? - Bilby (talk) 22:53, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

Yes, what languages did you have in mind? 92.24.191.57 (talk) 12:39, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Microsoft's contract with purchasers/users

When Microsoft says things like "We are not going to support Windows 99 any more" or "We're closing down the online games server for WinXP" (GrrrRRRH!!!) isnt this breaking their contract with the people who bought their software/OSsystems? If not, why not? Thanks. 92.28.248.229 (talk) 18:01, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

It's impossible to answer this without actually reading the license agreement for the particular software you're asking about. (Technically it's not a contract.) Microsoft's attorneys are smart enough to craft the license agreement to say things like "Microsoft only guarantees until December 31, 2005 that such-and-such online features will be operational." The license from any software publisher is generally crafted in order to maximize the publisher's "wiggle room" to do things like cancel online services. As far as support goes, Microsoft is more explicit about this than any other company I can think of: this page mentions their "lifecycle information", so you can find out things like: Windows 98 support started 6/30/1998; the "mainstream support" ended 6/30/2002; and the "Extended support" (paid incident support) ended 7/11/2006. What I find interesting, and a legally untested area, is what happens if Microsoft finally ends Windows XP support, including security updates, once and for all, while a very large base of Windows XP machines remains out there, and Microsoft will be seen as doing nothing to stop botnets when it finally stops issuing security patches. Comet Tuttle (talk) 18:27, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

PS: Laws override license agreements and contracts, so if Microsoft had claimed on the Windows XP box that Microsoft will run some Windows XP online games server forever, then if Microsoft were to shut it down, consumers could sue Microsoft in their state's courts for things like false advertising. The strongest remedy in that case would probably be a refund of the purchase price. But, again, the lawyers of most any large software publisher are canny enough to avoid making unbounded promises on their product packaging. Comet Tuttle (talk) 18:32, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

How do I force a window (e.g. Notepad) to float on top in Microsoft WindowsXP

Resolved

(I am using Microsoft WindowsXP,Home Edition, Version 2002,Service Pack3).
Sometimes I would like to "pin down" another window (Notepad or an open folder etc.) such that it stays floating on top of the other open windows – especially my active web-browser window.
How do I do this?
--Seren-dipper (talk) 18:33, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

I do not remember any sort of functionality like that in WinXP. I do remember a program called "Nail It" that provided that functionality. I Googled and there are many hits for a program called "Nail It" that claim to keep windows floating on top of all other windows. -- kainaw™ 18:53, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

Google search for "always on top" in quotes returns a lot of programs that claim to do what you want, many of them free. I tested this one and it works as advertised 82.44.55.25 (talk) 22:16, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

Thank you both! :-)
--Seren-dipper (talk) 04:25, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

Strange infection/virus/bot?

I have a potentially long question but will try to be brief. Without me even being at my desk, my computer seems to be typing things, or making random keystrokes, or even worse, clicking my mouse. I`ve found my mail open, control Panel open, My Computer open, and at least twice, my WEBCAM ON!!!! I`ve changed hard-drives several times. I have even changed computers. Not one of my anti-virus programs seems to be able to find anything wrong. I have "AVG-FREE", "AVAST", Windows Firewall, whatever AOL has running, etc... This problems is not with AOL, as the problem was occuring before I installed AOL on a 'new' hard-drive. I`d really love to rid myself of this problem, as you can probably imagine how disconcerting it is to find one`s WEBCAM on, for no reason. Thank you for any help you might be able to deliver. If more information is required, please don`t hesitate to ask: I`ll be watching. TY, DAVE 24.138.176.63 (talk) 20:05, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

Could you explain what exactly you mean by saying your webcam is on? My Webcam has a green light that's turned on whenever the Webcam is plugged into the machine; that just means it's powered on, but doesn't mean it's capturing any frames of video and sending them to the bad guys. Comet Tuttle (talk) 21:37, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

What operating system are you using? --Belchman (talk) 22:12, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

I`ve reverted to Windows XP sp2, but HAD sp3. No change. ty, Dave24.138.176.63 (talk) 22:14, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

I'm sorry, but I did not know how to add to your question, and, as such, had to reply as another question.

What I meant by 'webcam on' was my built-in webcam, in my Dell SP2008WFP monitor. The tiny blue light is only on when I`m capturing. I tried to keep my original post brief, but many other strange things have happened. ONE good example is my sound being muted. Another is being shutdown, as though one went through the process of doing that by clicking on <Start> <Turn Off Computer> <Turn Off>, with the associated loss of color on the screen. VERY weird. TY again, DAVE24.138.176.63 (talk) 21:59, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

You would hit the "Edit" link to the right of their question and put your response at the bottom. You can use colons : to indent your response. I have done this for you. Dismas|^(talk) 22:16, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

You might have very strong electrical interference which creates false results. I had this problem when a central heating system would send out "spark" interference (from the thermostat?) when it heated. 92.28.248.229 (talk) 22:28, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

I`ve been at the same station for about 5 years. I very much doubt that ONE "spark" could perform a proper shutdown procedure? Said "spark" also seems to like opening my calculator and Windows Media Player. Sorry,,,,I ju8st don`t think it`s a "spark". Please pardon the sarcasm. Thank you just the same, 92.28. DAVE 24.138.176.63 (talk) 22:49, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

Further, I have decent surge/electrical protection. This problem started about six weeks ago, on multiple drives, and on two separate computers. I`m no longer using my Dell monitor until this is solved. I sure hope this helps someone to diagnose this pesky malware. TY, DAVE 24.138.176.63 (talk) 22:53, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

The sparking I had would continue for several seconds and sends out strong radio random interference on all frequencies, not a sudden "snap", some of which your computer would interperate as commands. Six weeks ago - did your heating come on then? If you are using a wireless mouse and keyboard its even more likely. 92.15.7.155 (talk) 15:35, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

Does anyone else have physical access to your pc? this could be some sort of VNC or possibly a rootkit. Try using MS Rootkit Revealer and also check your startup programs for anything suspicious (start -> run -> msconfig or maybe go into the registry \\hklm\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\run) PrinzPH (talk) 01:03, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Noone has physical access. I`ll try your suggestions. Tyvm, Dave 24.138.176.63 (talk) 01:14, 13 November 2010 (UTC)u

RootkitRevealer, umm, revealed these two 'things':

HKLM\SECURITY\policy\secrets\SAC and HKLM\SECURITY\policy\secrets\SAI. Should I be concerned? If so, what should I do next? I didn`t quite understand what a read about the 'revealer' on its page. TY, Dave 24.138.176.63 (talk) 01:49, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

I should have probably added this additional information about above:

Timestamp: 11/9/2010 10:47 AM for both. Size: 0 bytes for both. Description: Key name contains embedded nulls [*] for both. Sorry for failing to recognize my omition in previous. Dave 24.138.176.63 (talk) 01:55, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

As far as I know those two keys (with the embedded nulls) are normal and not a sign of malware. This sounds to me like a dodgy keyboard (or possibly a dodgy mouse or other hardware). All of the effects you've seen could be triggered by keypresses. For example, some keyboards have a key that's dedicated to opening your email program, and even if yours doesn't it might be mistakenly sending that key code to the OS. Pressing Alt+F4 with the desktop selected will open the shutdown dialog, there's probably a key combo to enable/disable the webcam, and so on. Do the two computers with this problem have any hardware in common? -- BenRG (talk) 05:42, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

It's a longshot, but are you using wireless keyboard/mouse? If so, try switching to wired ones. APL (talk) 08:46, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

if u are using internet someone could be controlling your desktop remotely i dont have much information on this but if you want you could read about it searching on Google. a site as i was told helps you to do it ie logmein.com this piece of information i got from Youtube _{take ur comp to some bot completion n u will get Ist prize, really awesome if its happening all by itself}--Myownid420 (talk) 17:23, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Thank you all. A couple of more clues: First, I AM using a wireless mouse (will change, as per instruction) and further, the receiver 'accepts' keyboard commands also. (Keyboard went kaput after a beer accident!) Second, all suggestions regarding remote-controlling are inapplicable as this problem occurs even when removing my Ethernet line, and completely offline. Third, and last for now, my keyboard DOES have a few Special Keys. I`ll change k/boards. Both computers shared said mouse and keyboard. Thank you all for your help. I`ll keep you apprised. Ohh,,,The webcam was built-into the monitor. I`m no longer using it, and therefore no more webcam until this problem is solved. I swear Myownid, all by itself! It shutdown on me overnight, while scanning with SpyBot. Thank you again, Dave. 24.138.176.63 (talk) 17:41, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Could this be one of those well-known office pranks? Someone has probably plugged a wireless receiver into one of your rear USB ports and is controlling your PC from their wireless mouse/keyboard. Is your PC in an office environment? Check who's sitting behind you and trying very hard to contain their laughter. They could also have installed AutoHotkey or some scripting program or even just messed around with Task Scheduler to run applications at certain times of the day or based on certain triggers. Zunaid 13:43, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

Now THAT would be absolutely hilarious, Zunaid, but I`m not in an office, I`m at home. Follow-up though: I have isolated the 'malware' to my receiver. Having un-plugged it, no more 'hits'. The only problem left now is to find what is, since about 6 weeks ago, sending the 'commands' that my receiver is picking up. I suspected a remote thermometer, but I was still getting 'hits' after removing its batteries. I suspected that these cheap radios do not have the best selectivity and thought maybe installing batteries into the broken keyboard might 'lock it in', and stop spurious hits. (The keyboard still transmits, in case someone was wondering. Just a few keys no longer work. "ZXCV" specifically.) I still continued to get 'hits'. Knowing the frequency this wireless set operates on would certainly help me find the culperate. Does anyone know where I might find that out? It is not printed on any of the pieces, and I bought used, so, as such, no written information. I know 6 weeks sounds coincidental with heat being turned-on, and a thermostat could be causing the problem, but I`ve been here for over 7 years, and it never happened before. Unless my neighbor installed a new thermostat, or the thermostat has gotten 'dirty', or whatever, I have to think it must be something else. I`ll check. Thank you ALL for your input. I`m very happy to know this is NOT some sort of virus. Maybe my receiver has begun 'accepting' too much. Apologies for being so wordy. Sincerely, Dave 24.138.176.63 (talk) 21:02, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

Want MORE browser history

Searched the archives and the browser history wikipedia page, no answer there. Unlike most folks, interested in cleaning out their browser history, I'd like the history to be 'more complete; maybe you've noticed that a lot of times when you open the history, many pages you've accessed are not listed. Not just that it's one page with a bunch of frames that change or some sort of JS that changes the contents, but the whole site does not get saved in history. Makes it harder when I want to look back at something particular I saw that morning on somebody's blog, etc. that doesn't really popup on top of a Google search among a zillion pages on the topic that don't address what I was looking for. This seems to be true in IE and Chrome, anyway. What's the deal?

Gzuckier (talk) 22:36, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

Me too. I would also like the history to be saved categorised by date, so that you can go back to something you saw five weeks ago on a Tuesday. And I'd like History to be back-upable and reloadable. And I'd like it no longer revealed to websites either. Can any Firefox extensions do this? 92.24.191.57 (talk) 12:46, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

November 13

FTP running on CentOs, allow upload but disallow delete

Hi All,

I was wondering what I could do to allow specific (non-anonymous) users to upload files but not delete them.

TIA PrinzPH (talk) 00:48, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Program memory size

if i have written a code to load a given program on to the specified size of memory. but the specified size of memory not available in a single stretch to load the program. this problem has to be solved. to solve this problem what input and output will i have to get. 117.204.3.99 (talk) 01:33, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

It appears that you are learning about fragmentation. Have you read this article and do you understand the concept? -- kainaw™ 15:39, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Illustrator's equivalent of Photoshop's Twirl Filter

In Adobe Photoshop, there is a filter called Twirl where I can adjust by how many degrees I want to twist a an image. I was wondering if there was something close to this effect in Adobe Illustrator CS5 because its Twist effect does kind of the same thing but it comes out jagged and I want a smooth twirl effect for image. The image kind I want to work with is vector so I can't use the filter in Photoshop. --Melab±1 ☎ 02:32, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

"Himem.sys", a 'software driver' for use in personal computers.

This is a request for help. The subject of memory management using such drivers as Himem.sys is covered well by other pages accessable by the search engine of Wikipedia. However, some versions of Hymem.sys allow the use of a 'switch' which obviously modifies it's operation in some way. When the command: Himem.sys is set as the first command in the Config.sys file, then at boot time for the computer the operating system is loaded into upper memory and run from there. This is a necessary prerequisite for such operating systems as Windows 95 and 98, although it is not mandatory for using the early versions of Dos. The 'switch' is: ... "/ testmem on|off" ignoring the quote marks. Thus the command is either - Hymem.sys /testmem off or Himem.sys /testmem on. What Himem.sys does is obvious, what the other does is not.

My question is this. Since nowhere in Wikipedia can I find the function of this switch defined, nor can I find it defined in any Dos book either, would someone who knows please reply and attempt to explain. I have two dos books that clearly list the switch with Himem.sys without explaination.

Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Old Radio Searcher (talk • contribs) 03:27, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

I can't seem to find any reference for himem.sys on any of microsoft's sites, which is irritating, but if I recall correctly, the /testmem switch controlls a memory test that occurs during boot-up. If you have a lot of ram, and you're certain that there's no problem with it, it's worth turning that off to shave a couple of seconds off your boot time.

That's my recollection, but I could be completely wrong, I can't find a reference to back me up on this. APL (talk) 03:45, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Google search for "himem.sys command line switches" finds several references, including [4] [5][6]. Mitch Ames (talk) 09:52, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Search for a file called MSDOSDRV.TXT. The file, which is included with Windows 9x, describes the functions and switches of various MS-DOS device drivers (including HIMEM.SYS) under Windows 9x. An excerpt from the file relevant to the switch in question:

    /TESTMEM:ON|OFF
       Determines whether HIMEM performs a memory test when your 
       computer starts. By default, HIMEM tests the reliability 
       of your computer's extended memory each time your computer 
       starts. This test can identify memory that is no longer 
       reliable, and unreliable memory can cause system instability 
       or loss of data. HIMEM's memory test is more thorough than
       the standard power-up memory test performed by most computers. 
       To prevent HIMEM from performing the memory test, specify 
       /TESTMEM:OFF. Disabling the memory test will shorten the 
       startup process. The default setting is /TESTMEM:ON.

118.96.167.169 (talk) 01:56, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

Saving short texts online

Is there a free service that provides me with the possibility of saving short texts online for later access? When I need to do this I use drafts in my email account, but is there another way? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jib-boom (talk • contribs) 09:05, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

I am using google docs. -Yyy (talk) 09:25, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Pastebin 82.44.55.25 (talk) 12:08, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

delete program from the list of programs for spec. file types (and generally: delete!!)

How do I delete a program from the list of programs to be used with certain file types? (Where is that list anyways?)

After deleting a computer program (a test version of Microsoft Office 2003), it still appears in the list of programs with which to open some file extensions (e.g., docx): When right-clicking on a docx document & then clicking on "Open with," the first list item is the deleted Office version, even before the [older] working Word version is listed. 1.) How do I delete it from that list?

When I click to open the docx document with this (deleted!) program, I get two error messages, but then the basic Word (-> Office 2003) layout opens. 2.) Why is that still on the computer at all? How can I delete it?

Thanks for answering, Thanks for answering (talk) 12:40, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

You could try Revo Uninstaller http://download.cnet.com/Revo-Uninstaller/3000-2096_4-10687648.html Before using that, see if Ccleaner can fix it. If Revo does not fix it as-is, you could get Revo running, re-instal MO2003 (with Revo monitoring what was being installed), the get Revo to uninstall MO2003. Edit: there is also ZSoft Unistaller to try. 92.15.30.196 (talk) 16:29, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Better algorithm?

I've just been given some code written in fortran that does something like this:

IF (x > 1 .and. x < 2)
A=1
GOTO 10
IF (x > 2 .and. x < 3)
A=2
GOTO 10

..repeated many times...

Now clearly the guy who wrote didnt seem of heard of a switch statement so he could of used break rather rather GOTO. Now after profiling the code (this bit plus the rest of the code) the program does seem to spend alot of time in this function, so it does seem sensible to do some optermisation here if possible. Would switching the code to a switch statement have much of an effect? or turning into IF..ELSE IF..ELSE? The code seems to be effectively a search over 3 planes (x,y,z) so would a search algorithms (some sort of tree i think?) work better? I'm not really an expert in these things so most of what i know i've picked up in its and pieces of the web, Thanks--81.147.110.238 (talk) 12:47, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

To me that seems just like an extremely awkward way to convert a float to an integer. Mind any special cases like x = 2.0, though. A binary search would be a lot better than what you have now but by no means the proper solution when INT(x) works just as well. --85.77.180.190 (talk) 15:02, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Throwing it all out and replacing with INT is the correct solution according to what is shown here:

A=INT(x)
GOTO 10

However, that is not identical to the code shown here. According to what you have typed, functionality is undefined for x=1 and x=2. It needs to check if x "is greater than or equal to" 1. Further, using IF-ELSE would be better than just a lot of IF statements. As such, a switch wouldn't necessarily be any better once compiled. -- kainaw™ 15:33, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Sorry should of been clearer, the numbers i used where just randomly picked from my head when i wrote it into wikipedia, I'll have a look at binary search though, thanks--81.147.110.238 (talk) 15:49, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

Random Numbers

I'm looking for a simple program which can generate random numbers between 1 and 100 and list the frequency which each number comes up. I searched with google and found plenty of random number gen erators, but couldn't find anything specific to this, ie the listing of frequency. The computer operating system is Windows 7. Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.44.55.25 (talk) 14:45, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Use an array. The program will look like this in PHP (since it is pretty much a prototyping language):

$a = array();
for($i=1; $i<=100; $i++) $a[$i]=0; // Preset all values to zero.
for($i=0; $i<999999; $i++) // Generate 999999 random numbers.
{
  $r = rand(1,100); // Generate a random number 1 to 100
  $a[$r]++; // Increment the count for $r
}
for($i=1; $i<=100; $i++) print $i.": ".$a[$i]."\n"; // Print the frequency of each index.

It is rather simple to rewrite this in any common programming language. -- kainaw™ 15:27, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Note that the frequency distribution can hypothetically vary a lot depending on how good the pseudorandom algorithm is. --Mr.98 (talk) 21:29, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

C++ header file problem

hi all,

i had been writing programms in C++ that was kept in C drive of my computer (it contains files of window), later i had to re install the windows,after doing so i putthe folder ie TC in c drive again. Now whenever i am making a programm and compling it a error shows up { actually every function is flashed as undefined or nut having a prototype but i know root error}

      Unable to open include file 'IOSTREAM.H '

this error shows up with name of every header file. When i press F1(help), under Possible Causes it shows :

The named file does not exit ---i know it exist i checked it out

An #include file included itself ---- i didane understood what it means please explain.

You donot have files set in CONFIG.SYS on your root directory. --- this i suspect most

Under solutions it shows:

Verify that the named file exists -- that i checked

set FILES = 20 in CONFIG.SYS --- could you please tell me how to do this

TAnx :) very much good night --Myownid420 (talk) 17:13, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

• Unable to open include file 'IOSTREAM.H' - note that C++ syntax has changed somewhat from the early days. Modern convention is that C++ standard library headers are specified without the ".h" e.g. #include <iostream> (new way) vs. #include <iostream.h> (old way) - I don't know what your compiler is expecting.
• The named file does not exi[s]t - even if the file exists, the compiler may not be looking for it in the correct location. You may need to update the search paths where your compiler is looking for header files (how to do this varies based on the compiler).
• An #include file included itself - Circular includes (a circular dependency) occur when you, e.g. have the line #include "example.h" in example.h itself, or in another header file which is itself included in example.h. This is the main reason for "include guards", the #ifndef/#define/#endif constructs that most C/C++ programs use in their header files.
• set FILES = 20 in CONFIG.SYS - CONFIG.SYS is a DOS configuration file, usually located in the root directory of the boot drive (i.e. C:\). For recent versions of Windows, it is completely superfluous, and may not even exist. The only reason for it to exist is for legacy support of DOS applications.

My impression is that you are either using a very old version of DOS/Windows, or you are using a very old C++ compiler. Unless you absolutely need the legacy support that an old compiler provides, I would highly recommend getting a modern C++ compiler. GCC is a well-regarded, free compiler available for multiple operating systems. Cygwin and mingw are Windows versions of GCC. -- 174.21.243.119 (talk) 19:39, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

the problem is that we are being tought C++ in school, i can use new versions of compiler but that will not be the as in our school, so i may feel incompatible .i am using version 3.0 and using windows XP service pack 3. i am open to all suggestions thanx--Myownid420 (talk) 02:45, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

Version 3 of which compiler? Also, how are you running the compiler (GUI/command line/etc.)? -- 174.21.243.119 (talk) 19:35, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

Did Google have first data-center cooling towers?

I've heard that Google's data centers were the first ones to use cooling towers. Is that right? 209.42.105.74 (talk) 18:17, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Nope. Water-cooling has existed for a very very long time in the computer industry. Cray-2 is famous for its unique shape, designed to facilitate water-cooling. Even before this, chilled water systems have been used to cool mainframes; and water coolant was commonly used even for pre-digital electronics (like RADARs and power stations). So, if anybody wants to claim that Google was the first to use a cooling-tower, they'll have to come up with some pedantic definitions of "first", "water", "cooling", and "tower." They might be able to make a claim for "biggest" towers specifically for cooling computers, but even that is a bit hard to back up; this New York Times article Google's not-so-very-secret weapon describes their cooling towers in an Oregon data center, but it isn't clear from the article how large they are. Nonetheless, massive chilled water plants are a common part of any large building or infrastructure, especially one that uses massive quantities of industrial equipment or electronics. IBM Poughkeepsie just installed 1700 tons of water-cooling capacity. And, the City of Toronto's cooling system will blow Google's towers out of the figurative water: they use deep lake water cooling, with all of Lake Ontario as a cold reservoir, to provide 270 megawatts of thermal relief for most of their downtown. Nimur (talk) 20:25, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

To be precise, the CRAY-2 was not directly water-cooled. The processors, memory, and power supplies were immersed in Fluorinert. IIRC, the Fluorinert was also circulated at low speeds from the bottom of the chassis to the top to ensure that it flowed between the densely packed circuit boards. The Fluorinert was then pumped to chilled water heat exchangers, where the heat was ultimately removed by radiators.

To answer the OP, Google was not the first to have data centers cooled by air conditioners. These have been around for a very long time, and I would imagine that these large air conditioners would have cooling towers (according to our article on cooling towers) so the claim that Google was the first to use this equipment in a data center is unlikely. Rilak (talk) 00:19, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

ipv6 and ipv4 question

hello

i need to view ipv6 website by mein isp not work with only ipv4. how to convert ipv6 to ipv4? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 188.72.107.117 (talk) 21:51, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Section header added for the above question. Comet Tuttle (talk) 23:58, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

As I understand it, and as I understand your question, it's probably beyond your control. Assuming your operating system and browser are IPv6 compatible (and if they're relatively recent they probably are), it's probably either your hardware or possibly your ISP that isn't compatible with IPv6. If it's your hardware you can upgrade, but if it's your ISP, then there's not much you can do other than change ISPs or access the site via one that has upgraded. Maybe the site you are trying to view has an IPv4 version though? --jjron (talk) 05:22, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

Not really true. There are various ways to get IPv6 working even if your ISP doesn't have native IPv6. 6to4, Teredo, tunnel provider. There will depend on your OS, internet config, router/firewall if any and ISP (although I don't think it's often the ISP itself will be a hinderance unless youre behind a NAT or something). In some cases they may automatically work, but not all or always (and that's of course assuming they are enabled, simply enabling IPv6 may not be enough in some cases). Nil Einne (talk) 11:09, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

MP3 Download

I was looking at this website which allows one to generate a Morse code translation and then turn that into an MP3 file on this subpage. Has anyone any idea how I might download that MP3 file from the site to my computer? — Fly by Night (talk) 23:08, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Where is says "Click here for the mp3 file", that's the link. To download it, right click and select "Save link as..." in Firefox, "Save Target as..." in Internet Explorer, or "Save linked content as..." in Opera. Then a dialog box should appear, selected where you want to save the file, and click save. 82.44.55.25 (talk) 23:48, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

November 14

How do I restore all extensions and tabs on my Google Chrome?

After restarting from my computer freezing up, all my Chrome extensions and tabs were gone. The bookmarks were there, but the History was erased as well, so I can't reload the 38 tabs manually either.

My SessionBuddy has a saved session of all my tabs, but first I need to figure out how to put SessionBuddy back on there. (I downloaded it, so the folder is someplace.) Then I'd also appreciate putting back all the other extensions I've had. Please help me get them all back. Thanks. --Let Us Update Wikipedia: Dusty Articles 08:42, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

internet homepages and tabs

I have currently Internet Explorer 8, and was wondering, is there any way of setting it such that, without changing my current homepage, when I open a new tab it comes up with Wikipedia straight away, rather than the usual page of options? The only way I can see from a quick look around the toolbars is having the site open as a second tab every time I start the internet, which I do not particularly want.

148.197.121.205 (talk) 11:28, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

Set Wikipedia as a shortcut in your Favorites Bar. Then to open it in a new tab middle-click it, or right-click and chose Open in New Tab (assuming you're on a PC). --jjron (talk) 12:08, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

Desparately needed drivers for the ethernet contoller

Hola..! I have searched for the needed drivers but couldnt find any link to download for free. Anyone if help me , it'll really be appreciated. Some of its specifications are: Ethernet Controller .... Unknown device from Dell Computer Corp .... Chip: Intel Corporation 82544XT PRO/1000 MT Gigabit Ethernet Controller Full Details PNP ID VEN_8086&DEV_100E&SUBSYS_01511028&REV_02 Windows Detective Device .. Ethernet Controller Detected Chip Vender ...Intel Corporation Detected Chip ... 82544XT PRO/1000 MT Gigabit Ethernet Controller Detected OEM Vender ....Dell Computer Corp Detected OEM Device ...82544XT PRO/1000 MT Desktop Adapter

I also have PCI Simple Communications Controller drivers missing... It's specifications are: ..Unknown Device from Intel Corporation ..Chip: Intel Corporation 536EP V.92 PCI Modem Full Details PNP ID VEN_8086&DEV_1040&SUBSYS_10008086&REV_00 Windows Detected Device PCI Simple Communications Controller Detected Chip Vender Intel Corporation Detected Chip 536EP V.92 PCI Modem Detected OEM Vender Intel Corporation Detected OEM Device PRO/Wireless LAN 2100 3B Mini PCI Adapter I'll be really greatful..--119.153.56.37 (talk) 13:11, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

Assuming the PC has not been radically changed from the time it was purchased from Dell, the Dell website should be able to provide all the drivers used in their computers. Go to their website for your country (maybe this page) and enter the Service Tag (it should be on a small sticker somewhere on the computer's casing). That should give you access to the available support information including driver downloads, user manuals, memory upgrade options, etc. Astronaut (talk) 01:51, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

Ping Localhost

I asked a question a while ago about why pinging localhost on my own Windows 7 computer suddenly stopped working (old question). The answer seemed to be that Microsoft doesn't like ping and disabled it, and that there's some arduous and undocumented method you have to go though to enable the "echo server". However I discovered today that pinging my ip address from this site works as expected so my computers echo server must be online and working. But I still can't ping localhost from my own computer. Does anyone have any idea how to fix this? 82.44.55.25 (talk) 16:07, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

Are you sure it's your computer responding to the ping, and not a modem/router ? Unilynx (talk) 16:44, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

Yes, I followed the instructions from the last thread on blocking ICMP packets with the firewall. When I do, pinging from that site fails. 82.44.55.25 (talk) 17:28, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

RAmos T9 and Android

Does the RAmos T9 portable media player run Android? If not are there any good portable media players out there running android with a screen that is at least the size of that of the iPod Touch? --Melab±1 ☎ 19:10, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

html

In html, I know how to specify alternative text. But how can you specify an alternative image? 82.44.55.25 (talk) 22:43, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

Why don't you tell us what you think an alternative image would do? Alternative text is there for people with text-only browsers. It's not clear to me what an alternative image would be for then, if that's the analogy. (In Netscape Navigator, there was an IMG attribute called LOWSRC that let you designate low-res versions of images. But it's not standard and probably no modern browsers support it, as far as I know.) Depending on what you want, there might be a Javascript work-around. But there's no standard "alternative image" option. --Mr.98 (talk) 23:01, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

I was thinking that if an image displayed on a page became unavailable, for example the site it's hosted on being down or the image being deleted, a different image could be displayed in its place. Perhaps the same image hosted on a different server, or a "this image is gone" image placeholder. 82.44.55.25 (talk) 00:42, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

(What if the alternative image is not available?) You could do this with Javascript, but it isn't standard HTML at all. Here's one such implementation. It could be modified to be more general (e.g. to have every image have its own unique fallback), pretty easily, if you wanted.--Mr.98 (talk) 01:08, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

November 15

What ever happened to German Murder Case against Wikipedia?

What ever happened to German Murder Case against Wikipedia? Wired. Did the lawsuit ever happen? The Resident Anthropologist (talk) 00:19, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

Not really a Computing question and probably better asked on the Miscellaneous desk. However, we have articles on Walter Sedlmayr (the victim) and Wolfgang Werlé and Manfred Lauber (his murderers). The latter article contains a section about the cases against Wikipedia. Astronaut (talk) 01:42, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

External SATA + operating system

About 8 months ago, I bought a used computer which came installed with Windows XP or Vista (I can't remember which; probably the latter). You can actually read about it here (although I ended up buying a d620 not d520). As such I have two SATA hard drives:

• One 250MB, which I use primarily and run Ubuntu on
• One ~80GB, which is collecting dust in storage

I have a few questions about this setup:

1. If I place my secondary hard drive into an external USB like this[7], will it work?
2. Is it possible to run Windows from a USB while I have the first hard disk still attached? Windows is pretty pissy about sharing a computer with another OS. And is it wise to run Windows from a USB? I'm only doing it because there are games that can't play on Linux (Wine is utterly resistant to fixing the bug plugging up Sims 2 [8], and I don't have enough knowledge of remote programming - let alone modern 3D graphics - to fix the bug for Wine).
3. Will I run into any sort of issues with the Software Protection Platform locking me out because the hardware configuration has changed (the product key was activated by the vendor before they shipped me the laptop)?

Magog the Ogre (talk) 05:28, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

For Question 1 : While yes it seems to work (All SATA drives) Are you sure it's two drives or is it just 2 separate partitions? Just check if you are not sure (Seems you don't have XP. If you do, go to Disk Management)

For Question 2 : Yes, but it may be laggy. It depends on the disk speed (most likely 7200 rpm) of the hard drive, but I don't think there would be any problems. Just make sure the hard drive is not one of those eco ones that just go to standby and takes a few seconds to spin again, or you may see lag. But that's unlikely.

No idea for Question 3, sorry. Good Luck! General Rommel (talk) 06:01, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

Well, considering that the other disk is collecting dust in the basement, yes, I'm quite sure it's not a virtual drive. ;) Magog the Ogre (talk) 06:05, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

Also some searching finally turned up [9], but I don't think I have the CD. Magog the Ogre (talk) 06:34, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

List of College/University IP Allocations

In thinking about this year's fundraiser I thought it would be an interesting exercise to attempt to target colleges and university students by the IP blocks assigned to colleges and universities. For example, The University of Tulsa has 129.244.0.0/16 and MIT has 18.0.0.0/8. However, I was unable to find such a list online or through any of the registries. Does anyone know if such a list exists? Thanks, In2thats12

Airlines fare search; full URL

When I search an airline's website for fares, with places and dates selected, is it possible to get the full URL of the search result? I mean the unique URL that will reproduce this search result. Usually I see only the URL of the airlines in the address bar even when the search results are displayed. 180.149.48.245 (talk) 06:44, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

That depends entirely on how they've got their site set up. Which airline? APL (talk) 07:35, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

Batavia Air, TransNusa, Sriwijaya Air or Merpati.180.149.48.245 (talk) 10:16, 15 November 2010 (UTC)