Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing

Welcome to the computing section
of the Wikipedia reference desk.

skip to bottom

Select a section:

• Computing
• Entertainment
• Humanities
• Language
• Mathematics
• Science
• Miscellaneous
• Archives

Want a faster answer?

Main page: Help searching Wikipedia

   

How can I get my question answered?

• Select the section of the desk that best fits the general topic of your question (see the navigation column to the right).
• Post your question to only one section, providing a short header that gives the topic of your question.
• Type '~~~~' (that is, four tilde characters) at the end – this signs and dates your contribution so we know who wrote what and when.
• Don't post personal contact information – it will be removed. Any answers will be provided here.
• Please be as specific as possible, and include all relevant context – the usefulness of answers may depend on the context.
• Note:
  • We don't answer (and may remove) questions that require medical diagnosis or legal advice.
  • We don't answer requests for opinions, predictions or debate.
  • We don't do your homework for you, though we'll help you past the stuck point.
  • We don't conduct original research or provide a free source of ideas, but we'll help you find information you need.

Ready? Ask a new question!

How do I answer a question?

Main page: Wikipedia:Reference desk/Guidelines

• The best answers address the question directly, and back up facts with wikilinks and links to sources. Do not edit others' comments and do not give any medical or legal advice.

See also:

• Teahouse
• Help desk
• Village pump
• Help manual

May 13

Are ribbons for dot matric printers still made?

Resolved

Do they still make ribbons for dot matrix printers? The ones I got recently don't seem to last very long, as if they are many years old and mostly dried up. Also, on the box Epson is advertising that they now make inkjet printers. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 02:20, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

I believe so, since there's still a market for them, mainly in businesses. (They tend to be an inexpensive but reliable black and white printer, which is good enough for printing forms.) However, since sales are certainly less than they once were, I can understand why there might be lots of old ribbons out there. Is there a date anywhere on the box ? If so, maybe you can judge how old they are before you buy them. If not, then you will have to guess, based on if they are at the back of the shelf and covered with dust and the people in the pics are wearing bell-bottom pants and tie-dyed shirts with peace signs on them. :-) StuRat (talk) 03:41, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

The only date on the box is a 1992 copyright date. A problem is that I can't see them before buying them. Stores don't carry them so I have to order them. The box also says "Try Epson's new color ink jet printers". So ribbons for this line of printers may be very old. (And they were made in the USA - that is another indication of how old they are.) Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 04:22, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

Both serial and line matrix printers are produced and used; Epson is still making these. Any reputable manufacturer will have a date code on the ribbon— usually a week and year of manufacture, although you may have to contact support to figure out how it is coded. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 04:49, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

Well there is a code stamped on the bottom: 50051690. I don't know what it means. And what I really need to know is if they are making this particular one: Epson 7753. Maybe I should contact Epson. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 05:18, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

Well, they still have them. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 05:22, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

It is also possible to re-ink them. Stamp pad ink is suitable and comes in a variety of colours.Graeme Bartlett (talk) 08:41, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

I was just about to make the same suggestion when Graeme answered above. The result of re-inking can be slightly messy printing for a short time, but it does work. There used to be simple machines for re-inking ribbons. Dbfirs 08:46, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

If you follow Bubba73 link above, the description shows "Lubricating agents in ink extend the life of print head." The actuator wires in the print head need constant lubrication for mechanical action and cleaning. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 12:09, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

This printer was unused for more than a decade, now it is being used again. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 12:39, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

Good point! Perhaps duplicator ink (that contains oil) might be a better option than stamp pad ink (though I think the latter possibly contains some oil also to help prevent it drying out?). Presumably, damage to the printer could also be caused by using old ribbons? I've never had a dot matrix printer seize up through lack of lubrication, but I'll try out a 30-year-old one if I can find it in the attic. Dbfirs 12:44, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

The dot matrix printer I'm talking about is about 25 years old and has been unused for close to 20 years. I gave it to an organization that wanted a DMP. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 00:47, 14 May 2011 (UTC)

SONY ERICSSION K510I

i BOUGHT a sony ericssion k510i phone few years ago. Now I have installed windows 7 on my computer. When I install the software for k510i from the CD, I get the following massage.

Sony ericssion pc suite 1.20.173 requires that your computer is running windows 2000 or windows xp.

I will be grateful to you if you kindly help me to find the latest software to install k510i as a modom on my windows 7 computer.124.43.25.100 (talk) 02:24, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

Try running the setup in compatability mode. To do this, right click the setup, click Properties, select compatability and Choose Windows XP General Rommel (talk) 09:41, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

basics of communication

Difference between ,RS232,TCP/IP, LAN, WAN,IEE ETC —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bml2ban (talk • contribs) 04:48, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

You can start by reading Telecommunication, and we do have articles on RS232 TCP/IP Local area network Wide area network Institute of Electrical Engineers et cetera. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 08:36, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

excel 2007

Hi, how can made excel treat the dot as thousands grouping symbol and not as decimal separator? T.I.A. --83.103.117.254 (talk) 10:35, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

Not sure about Excel 2007, but here is how you change separators in Excel 2003. In the Tools/Options dialogue, go to the International tab. Under "Number handling", switch off the "Use system separators" default option (check box). Then you can enter "," as decimal separator and "." as thousands separator (or whatever symbols you like). Excel then changes its display of values to use these separators - the underlying values stored in cells are not changed. Gandalf61 (talk) 12:30, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

Interesting. The option is not available in Excel 2000. Why did they introduce it? I know the comma is regularly used as a decimal separator in Europe, but is there any country in the world that uses a dot as a thousands separator? Dbfirs 12:37, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

Alternatively you can change your computer's settings in Control Panel / Region and Language (these are the settings that Gandalf61's method overrides). Dbfirs: the European countries that use the decimal comma also tend to use the dot as thousands separator. See Decimal_mark#Digit grouping. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 12:55, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

...e.g. see the prices of the more expensive items here. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 13:29, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

Oh yes! Thanks. Why have I never noticed this before? Dbfirs 21:58, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

Upgrading to Windows 7 when don't have old version installed, only the COA

Hi, I'm looking at 3 old PCs:

• Father-in-law's old laptop which has broken HDD following a fall caused by him tripping over power cable - has a COA for Windows XP Pro, but no installation disks and any new HDD that went in would be completely blank
• My old desktop - has COA for XP Media Centre Edition, but windows install wouldn't boot- but no may have the chance to pick up a used computers - they've all had their HDDs removed, but have the COA/Serial Number sticker on the laptop for Windows XP (most are Professional, one I've seen is Media Centre Edition)
• Laptop I've inherited - has working install of Vista Home Premium

I'd like to put Windows 7 on all 3 (all are OK spec-wise, or at least would be with some more RAM, and I have Win7 on my main laptop and I'm happy with it), so I'm looking at [1] but unsure if this'd work... I think that the COAs means I'd be OK license-wise to buy the upgrade version of Windows 7, but what I don't know is whether it will install on the machines without an O/S on them. Similarly on the vista machine, can I do a clean install, or do I have to install over the top of vista?

Also, if it does turn out there's something wrong with one of the machines (like the laptop that's had a fall, though one of the desktops has been sat in a cupboard of years), is it tough luck as far as the Windows 7 licence goes as it'll have been activated on this machine so won't work elsewhere? Or can I use it for a day or so before activating to ensure the machine is OK?

Finally, how does the rule for "within the same household" work exactly? My father-in-law is planning on getting a new laptop after his mishap so would probably give me the broken one - would I be allowed to give it back to him after doing this for him to have as another machine?

Many thanks, davidprior ^t/_c 11:55, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

You can't do an in-place upgrade from XP to 7— it has to be a clean install. The XP COA doesn't enter into this. You get 30 days trial before you are forced to activate. If you get a new laptop, it will have it 's own license. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 13:36, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

So even though I'm only paying for an upgrade, not the full version of windows 7, it doesn't check that there's an older version of windows installed? I'd hoped it'd only need the number off the old COA, but if you reckon it'll not even need that then that doesn't leave me any worse off.

Anyone got any thoughts on how I stand legally/morally on my father-in-law giving me his broken laptop; then me using the upgrade designed for three PCs "within the same household"; then me giving it back to him? Cheers, davidprior ^t/_c 20:17, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

Afternoon Wikipedians

User blocked
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.
I am a Computer teacher from Tidworth, England. I am introducing using Wikipedia into the curriculum. Is it okay if a my class of 32 children edit Wikipedia and try and create some articles? It is part of the syllabus entitled Wikipedia and Me- The Virtues of Free Speech. Thank you very much. --MrPurcellsClass (talk) 12:01, 13 May 2011 (UTC) Wikipedia:School and university projects and Wikipedia:Guidance for younger editors should get you on track. Your students cannot share an account. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) talk 12:14, 13 May 2011 (UTC) User:MrPurcellsClass has been indefinitely blocked for disruptive editing. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 12:51, 13 May 2011 (UTC) Quote: Wikipedia and Me- The Virtues of Free Speech -unquote. And then he promptly makes sure he gets blocked to pove a point!? --Aspro (talk) 13:05, 13 May 2011 (UTC) Maybe an admin should follow up with an email to the school in case it is another individual that messing about. --Aspro (talk) 13:10, 13 May 2011 (UTC) The user was blocked and has had their talkpage access revoked; it would appear to be a troll.  Chzz  ►  14:02, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

UV Light emitting diodes (LED) introduction year?

Which year was Ultraviolet-LEDs introduced commercially? price?, and when were "white"-LEDs introduced? Electron9 (talk) 15:54, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

How to convert a JPG image to PPM (ASCII) ?

Resolved

I have ImageMagick, but it only appears to convert to PPM (BIN), so how can I get it into ASCII format instead of binary ? StuRat (talk) 19:29, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

A quick google yields "Use -compress none to write the ASCII version of the formats." --Stephan Schulz (talk) 19:52, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

It actually said that for the PNM format, not PPM, but it seems to work there too. Thanks, prob solved in record time. StuRat (talk) 20:08, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

I hate being nitpicky about this, but, from the same page linked above, "PNM is a family of formats supporting portable bitmaps (PBM) , graymaps (PGM), and pixmaps (PPM)." (emphasis mine). And you're welcome, of course! --Stephan Schulz (talk) 20:17, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

Xv Solves this problem very fast. Electron9 (talk) 00:17, 14 May 2011 (UTC)

I love XV on Unix, but I'm on Windows. Is there an XV for Windows ? StuRat (talk) 02:27, 14 May 2011 (UTC)

I doubt it, although it just might work under Cygwin with an X server set up. But you can still get a perfectly useful operating system for your computer, of course ;-). --Stephan Schulz (talk) 08:50, 14 May 2011 (UTC)

Video camera for lecturing

I get requests from my students to solve specific math problems and explain them. I am planning to solve the problems on a piece of paper at my home, record them and post it to my website for my students to view. What kind of camera would be best for the purpose? Any suggestions on specific brand or generic type?130.160.161.25 (talk) 20:51, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

I'm wondering whether that would be necessary. I was thinking that if you have a projector inside your classroom, you can use Powerpoint to show how to do the questions. If it requires formulas, you can go to insert-Formula. That's what our maths teacher uses.General Rommel (talk) 23:18, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

Least fuss is likely to use a digital camera that can record to a flash memory like an SD-card. And then convert it to a more suitable sharing format on your PC. Like ogg-theora or mpeg4. I think high contrast is most important. A more slimlined solution is a USB2 webcam with 2 Mpix or more that is converted on the fly and distributed directly. Electron9 (talk) 00:23, 14 May 2011 (UTC)

Writing and designing a program

Pls i need help on how to write and design a program from paper to computer coding using visual basic.pls i wil appreciate if the ans wil be sent to my e-mail box(email reomved) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Chysystems (talk • contribs) 22:24, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

I have removed your duplicate posts of this question. Nimur (talk) 22:55, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

Please do your own homework.

Welcome to the Wikipedia Reference Desk. Your question appears to be a homework question. I apologize if this is a misinterpretation, but it is our aim here not to do people's homework for them, but to merely aid them in doing it themselves. Letting someone else do your homework does not help you learn nearly as much as doing it yourself. Please attempt to solve the problem or answer the question yourself first. If you need help with a specific part of your homework, feel free to tell us where you are stuck and ask for help. If you need help grasping the concept of a problem, by all means let us know.

Removed Email address

If you tell us what the program is supposed to do, maybe we can help. StuRat (talk) 02:13, 14 May 2011 (UTC)

Dead Live USB

I've tried to make a Live USB (with unetbootin), but the pen-drive won't boot. The pen-drive is set with the flag 'boot' and the computer can boot from a USB port. Indeed, another Live USB is working fine. Where could the mistake be? 212.169.186.84 (talk) 23:45, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

To few details to say anything Electron9 (talk) 00:26, 14 May 2011 (UTC)

USB not properly seated ? Also try a reboot. StuRat (talk) 02:11, 14 May 2011 (UTC)

May 14

Free website links checker

Can anyone please recommend a free links checker for my website? Kittybrewster ☎ 10:35, 14 May 2011 (UTC)

Assuming you are using Windows: http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html - don't mind the freaky-looking web site, the software itself works like a charm.

If you're on Linux, I've had success running it under Wine, but since I haven't used it for a while, I cannot guarantee that the latest Xenu and Wine releases still work together. -- 188.99.201.140 (talk) 10:51, 14 May 2011 (UTC)

Link Lint works fine - at least on html and xhtml; I've not used it to verify links in css. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 11:05, 14 May 2011 (UTC)

RAM

I have an old Windows XP computer. According to speccy there is "1.0GB Single-Channel DDR @ 127MHz 2.5-3-3-6", however Windows is only seeing 512mb. What is wrong, and how do I get the full 1GB to be available? Here are the full details;

Extended content

RAM Memory Type DDR Size 1024 MBytes Channels # Single DRAM Frequency 127.9 MHz CAS# Latency (CL) 2.5 clocks RAS# to CAS# Delay (tRCD) 3 clocks RAS# Precharge (tRP) 3 clocks Cycle Time (tRAS) 6 clocks Bank Cycle Time (tRС) 9 clocks Command Rate (CR) 2T SPD Number Of SPD Modules 3 Slot #1 Type DDR Size 256 MBytes Manufacturer Micron Technology Max Bandwidth PC2100 (133 MHz) Part Number 16VDDT3264AG-265B1 Serial Number 1E1128AD Week/year 27 / 02 SPD Ext. EPP JEDEC #2 Frequency 133.3 MHz CAS# Latency 2.5 RAS# To CAS# 3 RAS# Precharge 3 tRAS 6 Voltage 2.500 V JEDEC #1 Frequency 100.0 MHz CAS# Latency 2.0 RAS# To CAS# 2 RAS# Precharge 2 tRAS 5 Voltage 2.500 V Slot #2 Type DDR Size 256 MBytes Manufacturer Samsung Max Bandwidth PC2100 (133 MHz) Part Number M3 68L3223DTL-CB0 Serial Number F20045F1 Week/year 35 / 02 SPD Ext. EPP JEDEC #2 Frequency 133.3 MHz CAS# Latency 2.5 RAS# To CAS# 3 RAS# Precharge 3 tRAS 6 Voltage 2.500 V JEDEC #1 Frequency 100.0 MHz CAS# Latency 2.0 RAS# To CAS# 2 RAS# Precharge 2 tRAS 5 Voltage 2.500 V Slot #3 Type DDR Size 512 MBytes Manufacturer Hyundai Electronics Max Bandwidth PC3200 (200 MHz) Part Number HYMD564 646CP8JD43 Serial Number FFFF6140 Week/year 33 / 06 SPD Ext. EPP JEDEC #3 Frequency 200.0 MHz CAS# Latency 3.0 RAS# To CAS# 3 RAS# Precharge 3 tRAS 8 Voltage 2.500 V JEDEC #2 Frequency 166.7 MHz CAS# Latency 2.5 RAS# To CAS# 3 RAS# Precharge 3 tRAS 7 Voltage 2.500 V JEDEC #1 Frequency 133.3 MHz CAS# Latency 2.0 RAS# To CAS# 2 RAS# Precharge 2 tRAS 6 Voltage 2.500 V

82.43.89.63 (talk) 14:10, 14 May 2011 (UTC)

Perhaps your 512 MB memory card isn't seated properly ? Intermittent contact might behave like that. Or, maybe it's damaged. Did you open up the case and take a look ? StuRat (talk) 21:34, 14 May 2011 (UTC)

If speccy sees it, it must be there. The video system of many Windows computers share the main memory. The video may be taking up 512MB (just guessing). Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 21:51, 14 May 2011 (UTC)

I tried taking the chips out, cleaning them, putting them back, it didn't fix it. What do you mean by the "video system"? The graphics card? I don't think it has a graphic card except the monitor port on the motherboard. 82.43.89.63 (talk) 22:29, 14 May 2011 (UTC)

If it has video on the motherboard, it shares RAM memory (AFAIK). That is, part of the system RAM goes to video. I've seen 384MB of the system RAM used this way, so maybe it could be using 512MB. If you have a real video card (i.e. in a slot), it has its own memory, rather than using system RAM. You might try this - lower the screen resolution as much as possible, and see if Windows sees more RAM than it did. If so, I think that is what is happening. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 22:36, 14 May 2011 (UTC)

See Shared Memory Architecture. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 23:09, 14 May 2011 (UTC)

The computer doesn't actually have a screen attached, I connect to it via remote desktop. Would that make a difference? It's at the lowest color and screen resolution, 16-bit color. 82.43.89.63 (talk) 23:12, 14 May 2011 (UTC)

At that resolution it shouldn't be using 512MB for memory, so my idea is probably wrong. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 23:25, 14 May 2011 (UTC)

Yea, a computer of that age wouldn't use nearly that much for graphics. StuRat (talk) 04:11, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

Is it at Control Panel/System/General tab where Windows shows only 512MB? Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 04:28, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

Yes, the general tab on system properties from right clicking My Computer -> properties. And process explorer shows only 512 too 82.43.89.63 (talk) 10:54, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

Is it possible that the computer is actually running Windows 98 or ME? I realize that it is an unlikely mistake to make, but as I recall the older OSes only supported 512 MB. Dragons flight (talk) 04:44, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

No it's running Windows XP Professional 82.43.89.63 (talk) 10:54, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

It seems no one has mentioned this yet. Does this BIOS actually show 1GB? Or does it show 512MB? If necessary, make sure you disable any boot logo and also turn off any option for quick power on self test (POST). You may be able to see within the BIOS config anyway. It's my experience that with very old motherboards (and chipsets0 there's no guarantee all sticks are going to work completely (you may only get some of the memory). Stuff like whether the sticks dualsided etc can make a difference. Worse then you fill all slots. (SDRAM is even worse.) If the BIOS doesn't see it, I don't think there's any way to get Windows to. You can try moving the sticks around. You may be able to get 768MB if you can't get the full 1GB working.

I'm a bit surprised Speccy (no experience with that specific program) sees it. But I don't really know how those interacts since I've never tried anything like that (once the BIOS doesn't report the full amount I stop trying). It's possible even if the computer can't handle it's still visible and the SPD can be read. And it's possible something like 128MBx2 comes from each of the 256MB and 256MB comes from the 512MB or something in which case all sticks are being used and so it's not surprising they are detected by Speccy which is going to report what the SPD reports.

Incidentally for a computer that old I strongly suspect the amount of RAM used by any internal graphics is set by the BIOS. It seems very unlikely 512MB is going to be used but 256MB is not impossible which would make the only some is seen by BIOS scenario more likely. For example it could be 256x3 i.e. only 256MB is used of the 512MB stick and the full amount of the other sticks.

Nil Einne (talk) 12:09, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

Speccy is a good program. I'm perplexed as to why it sees a different amount of RAM than Windows sees. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 15:22, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

On the Windows XP home system I'm on right now, Speccy shows 4 GB (which is what I have installed). Windows shows 3.62GB, because Windows XP home has that artificial limit. But that should not affect you. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 15:32, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

For a third opinion, try Belarc Advisor, free download at http://www.belarc.com/ - on mine it show 3712MB. It shows what is in each memory slot and how much Windows sees. One thing - when it gets to 54% done, it appears to lock up. It hasn't - just give it a couple of minutes. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 15:37, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

Being a good program is somewhat moot. If it's just reading the SPD which I guess it is, it isn't going to tell you anything about whether the motherboard is having problems working with the specific memory config you have. Nil Einne (talk) 01:39, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

Throwing out a new idea, but have you ever had the full 1Gb working on this computer> (with the current hardware configuration) The reason I ask is because some computers require the memory to be installed in matching pairs so although Speccy is seeing the RAM that's in the socket, your motherboard can't actually use it until the matching slot is also filled up.  ZX81  ^talk 15:59, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

Which is a good reason for running Belarc Advisor - let's see what is in each memory slot. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 16:32, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

That's in the original post (expand the green banner). Slot 1 and 2 are 256Mb each and slot 3 is 512Mb.  ZX81  ^talk 17:51, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

Sorry, I didn't look at all of those details. It might be a good idea to run Belarc Advisor anyway, to see what it says is the total memory. Also, it might be a good idea to go to www.crucial.com (on that computer) and run their utility on your system, and see what it says. You might need the same type in all slots or something. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 18:27, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

And memory is pretty cheap these days. I just got 16GB for under US$200. I'd replace those two 256MB sticks with 512MB sticks, on general principles. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 18:31, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

Well memory that old isn't very cheap. The 512MB sticks cost about $25 - about the same as 2GB sticks. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 18:38, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

By and large the only reason you need matching pairs (or triplets) is for dual channel (or triple channel) memory. Generally speaking all memory should be detected sand work fine if you have sticks that lake a pair, just not in dual or triple channel. This does depending on the motherboard chipset, bios and processor (if it has a IMC) of course. If it doesn't work because of lacking a stick, the motherboard usually just won't POST. (If you have unmatched sticks either this or you may have major stability/memory problems.) While it's possible lacking a pair could cause some RAM to be undetected, as I said above I expect it far more likely a compatibility problem due to the specific RAM config you have. In such a case, adding another stick probably won't result in it all detected. In fact, you may get no more RAM visible to the BIOS. or some more from the new stick. Or you may even lost memory. Or it may just break things and the computer won't even POST (particularly if it is dual channel/triple channel and you are adding a stick which doesn't work well with its pair). As I said above, I would always start at what the BIOS sees. One thing I forgot to mention, if the BIOS is only detecting a reduced amount, a BIOS update is always worth looking in to although it obviously carries risks. For something that old even a beta bios is also worth considering if you can't get it to work. This is true even if there's nothing in the update list which would suggest it would help. Nil Einne (talk) 01:39, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

Windows May be only showing 512 M.B. since its using some RAM.Cjc811 (talk) 14:48, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

Software to correct video color and exposure

Photoshop does a great job of correcting still photographs as far as correcting color changes and underexposure or overexposure. Is there some software that can do that for video? (Also having the ability to change the speed is a plus.) Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 21:46, 14 May 2011 (UTC)

Photoshop (at least some versions of it) works with video too. For free software try VirtualDub - there is a bit of a learning curve there though, with codecs and bit rates and all. There are others at List of video editing software and Comparison of video editing software. I would imagine the range of functionality varies greatly depending on whether you want to fix up a couple of home videos or do more professional work. 88.112.59.31 (talk) 09:01, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

Thanks. I have Photoshop Elements (the cheap version). Do you know if that does it? Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 15:17, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

Will overheating power adapter shut down laptop?

I've been having issues with my laptop suddenly shutting down. I was already following all the advice from [2], except for keeping the power adapter on a hard surface. I've moved it from the carpet to the desk; is this likely to make a difference? NeonMerlin 22:25, 14 May 2011 (UTC)

Most laptops have a separate "power brick" and this is expected to get hot. The advice from Yahoo is about keeping the internal circuitry of your laptop cool enough to avoid shutdown. An overheating power brick might possibly shut itself off, but this will not shut down the laptop if it has an internal battery. Are you sure that the shutting down is caused by overheating? Dbfirs 07:38, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

This flow chart is so complete I can't think of anything to add, other than it sounds as if now is a good time to find out how to open it up and clean the fluff off the heat sink -which is a good thing to do from time to time.--Aspro (talk) 08:26, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

Wiki cookies

How come Wikipedia wants to set a cookie on my computer even though I am not logging in? It didn't used to... Are they tracking users now? 66.23.238.101 (talk) 22:35, 14 May 2011 (UTC)

I guess it depends on what you mean by "tracking".

Web applications are not normally allowed to read and write information to your hard drive for what I hope are obvious security issues. A cookie is a string that a web application can have your computer store and allow it (and possibly other web applications) read later.

I do not know what Wikipedia is trying to store for you: it could be the last date you visited, or what language you normally log in with so it can show you the correct home page, or whatever. The mere fact that it is storing a cookie is not malevolent or dangerous, it is just one of the ways that web sites "enhance the user experience".

I daresay Wikipedia will continue to work even if you don't allow the storage of any cookies, if you just don't like the idea.

rc (talk) 02:14, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

To answer the question of "are they tracking users", one of the cookies Wikipedia stored on my browser is called "clicktracking-session" while another is called "mediaWiki.user.bucket%3Aext.articleFeedback-tracking". So yes, it does appear as though they are tracking you. But then again, even if you disabled cookies they could still track you via the server request log. 82.43.89.63 (talk) 09:24, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

How do I stay logged into Google Chrome?

In recent days I've noticed Google Chrome has started logging me out of some of my accounts whenever I shut it down, meaning I must sign into everything on my next session. This started with my Google account, but has now spread to my BT Yahoo account, taking me to the sign in page whenever I go to my homepage. I've tried all the suggestions I can find (enabling cookies, reinstalling Chrome, etc) but none seem to fix the problem. Some readers will know I use a screen magnifier and have had a couple of problems with this, but I don't think that is the problem on this occasion as everything worked fine up until a week or so ago. Does anyone know of a remedy for this as it's becoming a real pain in the arse? Cheers TheRetroGuy (talk) 22:59, 14 May 2011 (UTC)

I should just add that it seems to work ok with IE7, Firefox and Opera. TheRetroGuy (talk) 13:20, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

OK, guys, this is a bug and nothing to do with my software, and I've found a solution.

• Go to settings - options - under the hood - content settings
• Manually check the box that says "clear cookies and other site data when I close my browser"
• save/close the browser
• Open Chrome again and go into the same settings, then uncheck the box.

Next time you re-open Chrome it should keep you logged in. I've just done it and so far so good. Hope this helps anyone who's having difficulties with the browser. Cheers TheRetroGuy (talk) 19:13, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

Incidentally, I now realise my question was somewhat deceptive. It should have said "How do I stay logged in WITH Google Chrome?" TheRetroGuy (talk) 19:15, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

May 15

Digital cable mystery

Dear Wikipedians:

I have an Insignia HDTV that is capable of directly receiving digital channels (CDTV channels). I get my TV through cable from a Canadian company called Rogers.

Normally I get my digital TV from Rogers' set-top box. However, recently I have successfully rented the basement of my house to a family, so i have given the set-top box to them. As a result, I am now directly connecting the original input cable for the set-up box directly into the "coaxial" port of my Insignia TV. After I let my Insignia TV scan the cable in its unfiltered and unprocessed state, I got some very interesting results:

Insignia TV picked up some 45 analog channels and 81 (!) digital channels. I wasn't expecting my TV to pick up any digital channels. When I go through the digital channels themselves I found the following channels:

78-764

This is the Rogers OnDemand preview channel.

78-765

This is one of the Rogers OnDemand channels with the logo permanently on. It keeps telling me to press the B button, but I press the buttons on my Insignia TV remote to no effect.

133-2292
133-2293
133-2294

The above three channels are "6-in-1" channels. I've never seen channels like this before and find them fascinating. Each channel has six small screens, each with its own content, the screens are arranged into two rows with 3 screens on each row. The audio track is set to the upper left screen initially. But I find that by pressing the "SAP" (2nd audio programming) button, I can actually cycle through each of the 6 sound tracks to listen in on each of the 6 channels. I feel like I'm becoming the Architect of the Matrix, overlooking everything with omnipotent power ;-)

The rest of the 81 digital channels that were picked up were all audio only channels with a black screen and continuously streaming music, like the variety heard before the start of movies at a theater.

MOST INTRIGUINGLY, I found these channels:

125-1551
126-1
127-2011
128-1631
131-1821
132-1

When I tune into these channels, the TV would wait a while, and then display a "Scrambled Video" message on screen. I am pretty sure that there must be more channels like this out there. More intriguingly, I am starting to develop a disturbing hypothesis that these channels (and other undiscovered ones) MAYBE the same channels that I got over my set-top box!

However, when I tried to Google this stuff I found nothing, absolutely nothing. I find this to be quite unusual. My hacker nature is now dying to know more about these channels, and perhaps to do something interesting about them. Yet I can't even begin to study how the nomenclatures of the channels on my TV came about (the number dash number channel format). I always thought that there are a maximum of 124 analog channels (channel 2 to 125), yet now I am seeing channels 131, 132, etc., popping up? Where did these channels come from, did the federal radio authority or CRTC allocate new bandwidths to the UDF region of radio waves?

If any of you could kindly provide me with some pointers to reading materials or forums devoted to this stuff I would appreciate it very much!

Thanks,

L33th4x0r (talk) 02:11, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

Search for QAM channels for more information about these types of channels. Search for Rogers QAM and maybe add the name of your city or region to find if other people have already documented the channel numbers for your area.

North American digital cable uses QAM to transmit channels. If you connect a cable outlet directly to a digital TV with a QAM tuner, you can receive unencrypted digital cable channels. However, your TV won't receive the virtual channel numbers (they're encrypted or transmitted in a proprietary format?), so the TV displays a physical channel number. Also, none of the special features of the set-top box will work (guide, video on demand, interactive buttons). You'll only get unencrypted channels. The channels with the "scrambled video" message are the encrypted channels.

Older analog cable-ready TVs only go up to cable channel 125, but modern cable tuners go up to channel 135. Cable channels are only transmitted over a closed cable system, not transmitted over the air, so I suspect there's less or no need to allocate channels with any authority. From light investigation on the subject, I understood that as long as the STB tuner and cable office equipment are able to handle the higher frequencies, the cable provider can keep going to higher channels, but a digital TV will probably only go to channel 135.

--Bavi H (talk) 05:00, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

Thanks to all. The QAM model really made everything very clear to me. L33th4x0r (talk) 02:47, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

Wonderful! I found just such a site: [Rogers Digital Cable - Clear QAM Free Channel List|http://www.remotecentral.com/hdtv/rogers.htm]. There is also a brief explanation of the differences between digital channels in the States and in Canada. Many thanks to all of you who responded to my post with helpful suggestions and to the author of the site I found. 174.88.35.164 (talk) 00:14, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

Resolved

A website displays my copyrighted material. What should I do?

Today I learned of the existence of a website, Jerk.be .

It appears to be some kind of content mill that harvests personal information (names, photos) from "searching free open internet searching databases" (their words) and displays them. They then claim to give information about whether or not the people listed on their site are jerks. To my surprise, I found myself on this website, complete with my name and facebook picture.

I have always been careful to not allow public search listings for my facebook profile (You will not find that photo by googling my name). I do not know how they got that information. Perhaps a friend of mine who could access the information used an untrustworthy app. It hardly matters.

According to facebook, I retain the copyright to all photos I post there (and thus also to the one now visible on the jerk.be site). Furthermore, I am an inhabitant of the country in which the jerk.be site is hosted (Belgium).

I am not listed as a jerk on jerk.be, in fact it claims I am not a jerk, but I still oppose this on principle. Of course the jerk.be site does not offer any contact information and their "remove me" button is useless.

What should I do? 83.134.145.57 (talk) 08:00, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

(by the way this is a request for general information. I don't intend to sue them (yet) so this is not a request for legal advice.) 83.134.145.57 (talk) 08:01, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

The terms and conditions appear to have double-binds built in. I wonder if it would be worth asking on somewhere like Groklaw to see if this is some sort of scam. I'd find that out first. --Aspro (talk) 08:48, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

Why do you believe jerk.be is hosted in Belgium? A traceroute [3] and geolocation for the server shows the US for me. Do note the ccTLD often does not tell you where a site is hosted. I'm not aware of any TLD which requires a site be hosted 'locally' (not saying it doesn't exist). Some ccTLDs do require registrants have some connection to the country (while still allowing them to host their site wherever they want) although it's usually possible to get around this by using a local agent (although in that case the agent's name will be in the registry and any disputes over control will depend on the agreement you have with the agent and local courts). In any case this doesn't seem to be the case for .be from a quick look at the T&C [4] or the FAQ [5] (which confusingly mentions stuff in the UK) which from what I can tell can be registered by anyone. A whois [6] gives a Romanian PO Box and suggests it is connected to or the same thing as jerk.com [7] and owned by John Fanning or NetCapital [8] none of which suggest there's any real Belgium connection by any of the parties involved other then the .be domain name. Nil Einne (talk) 12:39, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

Many copyright owners file a DMCA takedown notice with websites that happen to host the copyrighted data. Reputable sites that have seen these before generally take down the infringing material immediately. Some indie game developers file several of these per week (and have found it effective). Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:17, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

Mumble

I recently installed Mumble onto my home PC which is running Windows Vista 64 bit, but when I attempt to run the software it freezes my computer. I have un installed and re installed it but it still wont work. I installed it onto my laptop using Vista 64 and have no problems and it runs perfectly. Any ideas what I can do to get the software to run on my PC, thanks Mo ainm~Talk 16:10, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

have you tried updating the firmware? do everything: board, HD, audio, video...even the optical drives just to be sure

http://mumble.sourceforge.net/FAQ#Mumble_gives_me_a_BSOD_.2F_crashes_my_PC_when_I_try_to_start_it. VulpineLady (talk) 09:44, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

graph in excel

I should be able to get my head around creating a graph in Excel 2007, but I can't. Please help me.

I want a line graph, and I want two lines on it, for, say, reaction with X and reaction without X. For each line there are five data points, I want v on the vertical axis and v/s on the horizontal axis (so ten figures to table for each line). It would be super simple to do this by hand but I need to do it in Excel, and I can't work out how to set up the table so that Excel has any clue what I'm after. How do I table this data so Excel's graphing function can make sense of it? Thanks a lot. Howie26 (talk) 19:00, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

Also was posted to Wikipedia:Reference desk/Science, already attracted my and another answer there. DMacks (talk) 20:55, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

Are you trying to produce a Scatter graph? If so this guide should help - http://phoenix.phys.clemson.edu/tutorials/excel/graph.html. ny156uk (talk) 20:59, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

Sorry just re-read your question - line graph!! Sorry. ny156uk (talk) 21:00, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

Intel 82865G driver for Windows XP 64-bit edition

Dear Wikipedians:

I have recently discovered that my 4-year old computer is actually capable of 64-bit computing! I have installed Windows XP 64-bit on it, however, the driver package that came originally with the motherboard (P5PE-VM) is refusing to install the display driver under the 64-bit environment, complaining about files missing. Both the Asus and Intel sites have no drivers for 64-bit XP, which is very surprising! So I am wondering if you have any idea where to find Windows XP 64-bit driver for the Intel 82865G graphics controller.

Thanks,

76.68.6.215 (talk) 20:27, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

Is it not available on Windows update? Nil Einne (talk) 06:33, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

MS doesn't typically provide third party drivers. Was this system built with XP or rolled back from Vista? If the latter you may want to take it back up as some hardware with factory Vista's didn't have XP drivers available...though I would say just get a new machine as support for that controller ended 4 years ago: http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/intel865g/sb/CS-028056.htm

but you want "10/16/2007 v.14.​17" from http://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchResult.aspx?lang=eng&ProductFamily=Graphics&ProductLine=Desktop+graphics+controllers&ProductProduct=Intel%C2%AE+82865G+Graphics+and+Memory+Controller+Hub+%28GMCH%29 select XP Home (or Pro) from the first menu and Drivers from the second, save the .exe to your HD then install from there.

Best I can do, hope it helps! VulpineLady (talk) 11:17, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

Actually I've come across plenty of third party drivers on Windows update including for modern graphics cards from Nvidia and ATI/AMD. Microsoft even recommends manufacturers do it [9]. Because of Microsoft requirements/time taken and/or the manufacturers willingness means these are usually a lot older and less commonly updated then drivers direct from the manufacturer (and if you regularly update drivers using ones from manufacturers you might never see/be offered them) even if we only count WHQL ones. But when you have no other drivers it's an obvious option. For Intel and a relatively old chipset like that (at the time of XP x64 release) it wouldn't surprise me if they may have decided just to distribute the drivers via Microsoft and OEMs using their chipsets (but most motherboard manufacturers are slack at providing that sort of stuff). BTW the 865G is so old that it obviously was supported on XP. Since support only ended 4 years ago which was after XP x64 release by about 2 years I would have thought Intel would have provided XP x64 drivers too but can't say for sure. Nil Einne (talk) 00:01, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

May 16

Hardware piece on my laptop misbehaving

I took apart my laptop tonight due to a problem. After I fixed it, an unrelated problem appeared for me: a little piece on the side of my laptop isn't working like it's supposed to. There's a picture of it to the right. Its function is to allow me to open and close the lid, so it's supposed to work like a hinge, with the little piece on the upper left of the image moving on an axle that goes through it and the rest of the piece. Mysteriously, after opening my laptop, it's become essentially immobile, however. I tried putting in copious amounts of WD-40, but that's only allowed movement with an excessive amount of force (meaning I *really* have to push on it).

Is anyone familiar with how I might fix this problem? I don't know if I can get a replacement either, and I really don't want to buy a new monitor for this stupid little non-functional piece.

On a separate note, the piece on the upper left is broken anyway; you'll notice only one screwhole is left on it that will work. This problem has been around for a while and is unrelated to the problem I'm reporting tonight.Magog the Ogre (talk) 04:55, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

Note that you have a much smaller lever arm with the hinge disconnected. Thus, using the torque formula τ = rF, if the radius at which you apply the force is 1/10th what it normally would be, then you would need to apply 10x the force. Also, you might be pushing it off-center, causing the parts to wedge together. Try reconnecting to the laptop case, to see if the problem persists. StuRat (talk) 05:30, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

I don't understand what you're asking. The piece was kinda broken before, but it all still worked with some duct tape around the case. I put it together, and it's not working. Unless maybe I accidentally popped out a screw... Magog the Ogre (talk) 05:53, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

I didn't ask anything, I made a suggestion. And you said it did work, but just took more force than expected, so I explained why that might be. If you don't understand the lever arm description, think of a teeter-totter/see-saw. If you push at the end of the plank, it's far easier to lift a person on the other side than if you push near the middle (fulcrum). StuRat (talk) 17:00, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

Believe it or not, your description above helped explain it; after jiggering with the thing for a while, i understood the force idea, and it helped me fix it. Thanks :) Magog the Ogre (talk) 11:54, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

You're welcome ! StuRat (talk)

Resolved

Independent Publishing on iBookstore?

Is it possible to publish a book on the apple iBookstore without an ISBN? --CGPGrey (talk) 10:34, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

I don't think so. But it's not that expensive to get an ISBN — $125 or so. Self-publishers need to get ISBNs if they are planning to sell their books, too. --Mr.98 (talk) 15:31, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

If it is something you have written, don't forget to make it available for future scholars to peruse. See Legal Deposit in the British Library and they provide contact info for ISBN.--Aspro (talk) 17:40, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

These two links might also be of help regarding e-books and “apps”: [10] , [11] --Aspro (talk) 18:03, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

Octave GUIs?

Resolved

Have you used an Octave GUI (under Windows 7)? Can you recommend one? I've looked through GNU_Octave#Graphical_user_interfaces_.28GUI.29, but trying each one in turn seems laborious. This is for a student of mine, so stability and ease-of-use are our most important factors. Thanks! SemanticMantis (talk) 13:52, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

QtOctave is the best option for Windows, as of the last time I checked. The official version is in Catalan or Spanish, and the English translation has a few rough edges; but if you must use a GUI on Windows, this is the best shot.

Alternatively, consider a few options (as a regular Octave user, here's my usual set of workflows):

• using a Linux or Unix distribution (not just as a matter of principle; the native *nix provides an X-server as well as a native implementation of GnuPlot for Octave, so graphical display is much much cleaner).
• If you can't live without Windows, consider installing Wubi or a virtual machine to host a *nix, and run Octave inside it.
• MATLAB, for Windows - non-free, but excellent.

Ultimately, what do you plan to use the GUI for? If you just want an IDE, there are also excellent text-editors for Windows, including tools that provide syntax-highlighting for Octave; and you can simply run the programs from the Octave command-line. (This is sort of like "rolling your own" IDE, and is less effort than it may seem at first glance). If you actually want all of the graphical toolkits that MATLAB provides, you may need to purchase a student license; Octave does not implement every MATLAB feature, and the GUI widgets are particularly lacking. Nimur (talk) 15:32, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

Thanks Nimur. You're right, we don't especially need extensive GUI features, but I thought that this would be easier than the roll-your-own IDE. Along those lines, what (ideally free) text editor for windows do you recommend, in terms of Octave interoperability? I am currently using MATLAB on OSX, so (if we keep the code cross-compatible) I don't need a high-functioning GNUplot/ *Nix install for my student. SemanticMantis (talk) 16:09, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

In one word, "gVim"; free software, supports MATLAB syntax highlighting out of the box; and the graphical Windows port takes the "edge" off the oft-cited difficulty of using vim (by providing menus, mouse interface, and a lot of "familiar" Windows shortcuts). Your student can open n gVim windows for each .m file, and one console running Octave, and move the windows around any which way they like; and presto: instant IDE. Alternatively, you can write a MATLAB script that can be run from the command line, and use vim's native "run program" utility to execute the Octave code as a command-line program:

:!octave --eval mainprog.m

Not everybody likes Vim; so here's some other options that I recommend. For lightweight text-editing, I'm a huge fan of the KDE editor, KATE a Text Editor, because it has two features I care about (and ... fairly little else): a functioning in-editor console (so I can execute shell commands and run programs without closing my editor window); and syntax highlighting. (In a sense, those two are the most important MATLAB GUI features for most users!) Unfortunately, Windows ports of Kate tend to be too laggy, for my preferences; though it works great if you're ssh`ing to a *nix or OS X system. I also use the following text-editors on Windows: gVim (built-in Octave syntax highlighting); UltraEdit32, (though I see that new versions cost money); and of course, Eclipse, which is usually thought of as a Java IDE, but is actually a very versatile, configurable, scriptable tool with excellent text-editing support and syntax highlighting. It has the added bonus of cross-platform project compatibility, and a built-in console, though it may be overkill for your needs. Other Windows programmers swear by Notepad++, Programmers' Notepad, and so on; but I don't really like those tools. Nimur (talk) 16:32, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

Thanks, you've saved us much time and frustration! SemanticMantis (talk) 19:05, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

Partitioning help when dual-booting Ubuntu and Windows 7 on a Dell Inspiron

I have a Dell Inspiron laptop on which I wish to install Ubuntu. I used to use Ubuntu all the time, but for some reason I've been using Windows for the last few years, but I've reached the end of my tether and want that glorious Linux-feeling back. I don't want to remove Windows 7 completely, I still need it to sync my iPhone and it has a few other things I want to keep around. Here's the problem: the computer comes with three partitions on the hard-drive already. The Windows 7-partition, and a 12 gb-partition which I assume is that MediaDirect crap, and a tiny 40-mb fat16-partition (yes, fat16). I think that's used for some sort of restoring or something. Even though I don't care about these two things, I'd prefer it if I could keep it intact, I don't know if it'll mess up my warranty to remove them or if the BIOS will freak or something if they're not there. So, I'd like them to stay.

So, then, here's my problem: since I want to keep my Windows 7, that's three partitions, and Ubuntu makes it four. But don't I also need a swap-partition for Ubuntu? It's been a few years, but I seem to remember that being a pretty important thing. So that's five partitions. And you can only have four primary partitions. So you see my problem.

I suppose I could create a new extended partition with two logical partitions for Ubuntu and the swap-space, but I'm not sure if that's something you should do (shouldn't an OS be on a primary partition?) Can you skip the swap-partition? Anyway, any suggestions would be helpful. As I said, I'd prefer not to remove those two crap partitions, but I suppose that I could if I had to. 83.250.236.46 (talk) 17:56, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

If I read Dan Goodell's excellent site on the weird stuff that ships on Dell PCs correctly, that fat-16 partition is probably the Dell Utility Partition. He doesn't talk about what they ship on Windows 7 native machines, but he does talk about the layout (including the post-Ghost recovery strategy) for Vista here. He also talks about the hidden partition for MediaDirect here. I think your first order of business is to run whatever utility they have to generate recovery CD or DVD images (I think that may be a program called "DataSafe Local"); for safety's sake make several. From there, you have options:

• if it were me (and I am a bit gung-ho about these things) I'd then boot into a Linux liveCD and annihilate all those ur-partitions, resize the Windows partition as I needed, and then let the Linux installer's partitioner have its way with the rest.
• If you were more cautious, you could boot into a linux livecd, connect an USB disk, and dd those partitions (and the boot block and MBR, or maybe just the whole disk) off to it - so if your subsequent works did harm, you could dd it all back
• given all those partitions, and Dell's weird use of them, I would share your reticence to add more.

Strictly speaking you don't need a swap partition at all. In normal happy operation the swap is idle and useless. Swap only comes into play when various applications try to allocate more memory than the RAM will allow; with swap the OS uses a chunk of disk (which, compared with RAM, is glacially slow) to keep pages of memory that won't all fit in real RAM. If you get into this condition, with swap enabled, performance nosedives into the pit of suck (the system becomes barely responsive, the disk grinds like crazy). With swap disabled, applications that request more RAM than the system can provide are told "no"; most applications either quit or crash at this point. So enabling swap is choosing between "performance so bad you'll take the battery out" and "applications unexpectedly crash". But mostly you don't get into this circumstance unless something has gone wrong or you're asking a laptop to a job that's beyond it. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 20:00, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

Slightly off-topic, regarding swapping... No operating system likes to use swapping; it's merely the least-evil-of-all-available-evils. Here's a good anecdote, regarding the use of the Out-of-Memory Killer utility built into Linux Kernel: Respite from the OOM killer. As the article explains, operating system designers have to choose from two unpleasant options: either, malloc() returns null, causing unexpected program-crashing; or memory is over-committed, causing unexpected program-crashing. This is a fact of allowing user-space programs to ask for memory. The only alternative is to require every programmer to be a kernel engineer; or to require that every program is validated and certified to only run on trusted hardware configurations, guaranteeing that no configuration could ever run out of memory. Real-time operating-system designers actually take that route, and have complete authoritarian control over every program-counter and pointer in their software systems. Everybody else, who runs a regular operating system, has to throw a proverbial passenger off the proverbial plane every now and then. Nimur (talk) 20:57, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

I like the dd solution, that sounds like a good precaution in any case. I might have a USB-drive laying around with a few hundred gigs on it, somewhere. Probably best to just dd the whole drive. I would very much like to wipe those partitions from the face of the earth, but I'm not sure that I am that brave. By the way, am I right in my supposition that I shouldn't install the OS on a logical partition? Because that would seem to be the easiest solution. As for skipping the swap partition, I suppose I could try it out for a while, but I'd really rather prefer to have it. If I felt it necessary, I suppose I could just add it later. 83.250.236.46 (talk) 20:13, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

Some Google searching suggests that GRUB will boot fine to a logical partition (but I've never done it). I daresay you could leave NTLDR and edit Windows' boot.ini to add a boot option for Linux on the extended partition (again, Google suggests NTLDR can do this). -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 20:23, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

This is all a bunch of ancient and no longer relevant worries. When you do the Ubuntu install, it will work, and it will take care of figuring what sort of partition each partition should be. I have the same sort of setup you do (dual-booting Ubuntu on top of Win 7), and the install (including swap) was completely straightforward. Looie496 (talk) 21:28, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

Same here: I just installed Ubuntu 11.04 alongside a Windows 7 installation (which already had took up 3 partitions). It made a swap partition, so the Ubuntu installer presumably handles the extended partition nonsense, and GRUB presumably doesn't mind. As an aside, you can totally use a swapfile with Linux, as opposed to a swap partition, and with today's large hard drives, you probably don't need to worry about fragmentation as much. (And, with today's large memory, you ideally don't need to worry about swapping as much, either.) Paul (Stansifer) 06:24, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

May 17

Dell PowerVault TL4000 Tape Library - Maximum Power Consumption

Good Morning, Everyone!

  I've been looking at the Dell PowerVault TL4000 Tape Library, but haven't been able to find its wattage-rating anywhere on the Dell website. All the specifications except wattage are stated. Does anyone here know what's the TL4000's wattage?

  Thanks as always. Rocketshiporion♫ 01:03, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

Watts = Volts * Amps, so from the figures they gave it's between 130 and 168 watts depending on your input voltage.  ZX81  ^talk 01:30, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

AFAIK Ultrium tape drives consume around 70-80W of power each, so it seems unlikely to me that a tape library with four half-height LTO-5 drives in it would consume just 168W of power, but I could be mistaken... Rocketshiporion♫ 09:21, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

This product spec (page 32 / 36) shows a variety of Ultrium drives running at 20-40 W under typical usage (30-55 W at max load), so I suspect your intuitions are wrong. Something about 130-170 W seems reasonable for a 4-drive system given those single drive numbers. Dragons flight (talk) 09:43, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

Can anyone recommend any books about Gynoids which are female robots with a human appearance

Removed duplicate question. Answers on science desk. Please do not double post.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 07:00, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

Laser mouse WITH a mini-trackball? Does it exist?

Has anyone ever seen a laser mouse with a built-in trackball for extremely fine pointer control? I'm visualizing your regular Logitech-style mouse with a smallish trackball embedded under the thumb. You'd be able to mouse normally with your wrist, but use your thumb alone for tiny motions. Seems like the best of both worlds, but I can't find evidence one has ever been sold? The closest I can find is this Kensington SlimBlade, which kind of toggles back and forth between regular and trackball mode. The Masked Booby (talk) 02:14, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

Are you sure your thumb makes finer tiny motions than multiple fingers dragging an object resting on Teflon pads? This is OR, but I just tried to imagine using the device you describe by moving my thumb around, and it's jerky as hell. In my individual experience, the combination of several of my fingers on my mouse seems to produce more accurate small motions. Comet Tuttle (talk) 16:49, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

I think the idea is that the sensitivity on the ball would be set so that even large movements of the ball only produce tiny pointer movements. I've never seen this done, either. I think I'd prefer separate horizontal and vertical wheels, which could either be configured to make fine horizontal and vertical movements of the pointer, say when trying to draw lines, or could be used to scroll vertically and horizontally, or could adjust brightness and contrast, or volume and right/left balance, etc., depending on the application. StuRat (talk) 16:59, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

If I might make a suggestion: I've found that extremely small mouses give one a huge amount more control over the pointer than larger ones do. I use an adorable little iHome optical notebook mouse (a whopping $15 or so). I got it as an extra, laptop-only mouse, but I use it exclusively now, whatever computer I'm on. I hold it in my fingers, not my palm — this is what allows me to have much more precision than with a regular mouse. It also needs a lot less desktop space than a full-sized mouse. Just putting that out there. --Mr.98 (talk) 17:53, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

This sort of idea is usually handled by mouse acceleration. If set properly, you move the mouse to the position on the screen you like. As you move there, it accelerates. Once in the general area, you stop moving the mouse. Then, you move it again and the pointer will move very slowly. If you overshoot the spot, you stop moving the mouse. When you start moving it again, the mouse will move very slowly again. By using short movements with pauses in between, you get extremely fine-tuned accuracy. By moving in one continuous movement, you can quickly shove the mouse across the entire screen. -- kainaw™ 18:49, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

I've had a similar problem with digital clocks that use one "time set" button with acceleration. They tend to be very difficult to adjust precisely. Different buttons going at different speeds (say one for hours and one for minutes) solves this problem, and might also solve it for a mouse, too. StuRat (talk) 20:36, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

Junk computers

Hiya. I've got two computers that I have no use for myself, so I'm putting them to a good use and giving them away to a child welfare organization for education and entertainment purposes. The problem is that I don't have hard disk drives for these computers, and since the very point of giving stuff away for free is giving them away FOR FREE, I don't wish to cause unnecessary expenses to the receiving organization. As the computers are only needed to host a little space for files, some drawing and writing programs and a few games, even the cheapest HDDs of today seem oversized. So it would be swell if I could somehow have a HDD only on one computer, and have the other one use the same HDD for loading the OS and saving the files etc. Thanks! 212.68.15.66 (talk) 10:55, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

This doesn't answer the question but it may be useful to you; you could make a LiveCD for the computer without a hard drive. A LiveCD is an operating system which runs from a CD and doesn't need a hard drive to work. But anything people wanted to save like drawings or typing would have to be put onto a floppy disk or usb flash drive as you can't write to the LiveCD 82.43.89.63 (talk) 11:14, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

Hmm... an external USB-hard drive and a Live CD could be a feasible combination, whaddya think? And thanks for the great answer! =) 212.68.15.66 (talk) 11:18, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

It's perfectly possible to install Linux (depending on the old machines' capabilities, perhaps Puppy Linux) on a USB flash memory stick (which, with some deft wiring, you can locate safely within the machine's casing) and get a basic, reasonably performant machine that can do web browsing and email and stuff. But before you spend any time on this, I'd recommend you talk to the organisation you're intending to give the machine to. My experiences with trying to donate perfectly good machines (with a full complement of hardware) haven't been very successful - I've found:

• organisations don't want machines older than 2 or 3 years (they get so many offers of free machines they can pick and choose) and they're wary of businesses passing on old machines to them (as, if they don't use a machine, the organisation still has to pay a recycling fee)
• one organisation only wanted Windows XP (or above) machines; their volunteer technicians didn't know Linux, and they didn't want a machine with a blank disk (I imagine they didn't have a Windows site licence)
• some organisations didn't care what software is on the machine, as they just wiped it and put whatever they wanted on it

Every time I've tried to find a good home for a machine I was ready to donate, I found that no-one wanted it. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 11:39, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for the tips, I've already contacted the organization and they're interested. I'm closely affiliated with the organization (over 5 years of volunteering, and I'm not even 20 yet!) and we've discussed getting some old computers for kids to play Solitaire and draw stuff with. Now the opportunity presented itself. I'm a computer hobbyist and am likely to find use for the machines myself if the organization, for some reason, decides not to take them. 212.68.15.66 (talk) 11:53, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

An anecdote... Beginning in 1993 and every year until 2008, I bought a new computer in September. I donated my old one to a needy family with a young promising student. They were always happy to get the computer - even though it was a year old. Then, in 2003, I added my name and phone number on the side of the computer to call me if they had troubles because I realized that they probably don't know what to do with a computer. Each year from 2003 to 2008, I got a call from someone other than the family I gave the computer to. The person who called me always said that they purchased the computer from a pawn shop just a few days after I gave the computer away. Five years of that and I quit giving my old computers away. I didn't even buy a whole new one anymore. Each year, I buy one rather expensive component such as a larger hard drive or better monitor or faster CPU. -- kainaw™ 12:24, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

Try Freecycle or your local equivalent for either obtaining old computer parts such as HDs after people upgrade, or for giving computers away. My computer is many years old and cost £50 second hand. Ebay could be another option. 92.15.1.9 (talk) 13:38, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

The organizations and computer recycling places that I have donated to (US) really don't care about the "whole computer" idea anyway. They accept the donated computers at their center or at special events, and then they are disassembled into their basic parts (drives, cards, power supplies) and tested. So they don't care whether a computer has 0,1,2 or 5 hard drives; they are going to be removed, tested, and then reassembled into computers to be provided to schools, charities, families, etc. This is desktops, I'm sure it's different with a laptop.--Romantic Mollusk (talk) 22:18, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

Redhat cluster suite alternative

I was reading an article discussing Redhat cluster suite and it made a reference to "popular alternatives". I searched for what those alternatives may be and I found recent articles referring to a Redhat cloud - which I don't think exists. I'm sure you can run a cloud on Redhat, but there isn't a specific Redhat cloud suite that I know of. Am I wrong? Is there a popular alternative to the Redhat cluster suite for general process load balancing (not just website traffic balancing)? -- kainaw™ 12:18, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

OpenMPI; Sun Grid Engine (now free and open-source software); Hadoop; Java Enterprise Edition (or OpenJDK). What sort of "general process load balancing" are you looking for? Do you intend to compile and execute a native binary program and parallelize by simply running the same program on multiple machines, or are you looking for coherency between the processes on each node? EJBs are probably your best bet if you intend to implement node-to-node parallel programming. If you prefer to code in C, you can write inter-node communication in MPI; or if you just want to "script" the execution, GridEngine fires off processes on each node and expects them to manage themselves (mostly). Hadoop allows you to write programs that run "in a cloud"; you simply register each server as an available Hadoop node. (See startup-wiki for the scripts to register nodes, particularly the slaves file). None of these "cloud" programs require Red Hat, or "Cluster Suite."

Regarding "Red Hat Cluster Suite", it looks like it's nothing more than some sample configuration scripts for Samba and maybe inetd; I don't see how it actually provides a "cloud," in the sense that the software above does. Information on "Cluster Suite" is sparse. I have generally concluded that "cloud" is a meaningless and useless term to describe "several computers" for marketing people who don't want to discuss actual implementation details (or even basic features and functionality). Nimur (talk) 14:08, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

Thanks. I don't think that any of those are specifically adopted by Redhat (yet). So, I think that by "alternatives", he is referring to the general Unix/Linux alternatives, not Redhat alternatives. I also suspect that the author of the article is heavily confused when it comes to what Redhat cluster suite is usually used for (failover protection for network services - not computing on demand or parallel computing), but that is an entirely different issue. -- kainaw™ 14:09, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

I believe that Red Hat's MRG is closer to what you're talking about with distributed computing. The Grid part of MRG is based on Condor, which is open source. If you're interested in RH's Cluster Suite, it is documented here. -- JSBillings 15:56, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

Asking a question at the Mozilla Thunderbird "Community" forum

Mozilla Thunderbird keeps doing weird unpredictable bad things to my Hotmail email account, such as deleting all my emails, downloading the same emails over and over again, not archiving recent Hotmail emails to my HD (which is the only reason I installed or use Thunderbird), and not archiving sent emails. I would like to ask some questions about how to stop this at the Mozilla Thunderbird Community forum.

After filling in the question box, I next had to register. Fair enough. But it wasnt simply registering with the forum - I was only offered options for using other accounts such as Facebook or a Google account. The only option I have is "Windows Live", which seems to be another way of describing the Hotmail account. It seemed to say that my account information will be shared. I wasnt able to find out from a help link what information will be shared.

My questions are 1) Will logging in via Hotmail/"Windows Live" mean that my email address will be visible on the forum? I get enough spam already. 2) Is there any simpler way of registering with the Mozilla Thunbderbird "Community" forum that does not require giving them any information apart from an email address? 3) Will they be given my private Hotmail account information such as my date of birth?

Nothing happened when I tried to register via "Windows Live"/Hotmail - I dont know why. The $64000 question is - are there any other programs which can download and back-up to HD Hotmail emails without requiring so much finessing? I have thousands of them and thus I cannot do them manually. Thanks 92.15.1.9 (talk) 13:30, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

Yes, you can use Microsoft Outlook to connect to Hotmail. It works incredibly flawlessly. The software is not free. Nimur (talk) 14:12, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

Thanks. My quibbles are that I deleted MS Office, which appears to include MS OUtlook, from my HD as I did not like it. I'm also intending to change over to Linux some day. 92.15.1.9 (talk) 14:29, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

Both Windows Mail (free with Windows - you've already got it) and Windows Live Mail (free with Windows Live Essentials - you've probably already got it) work well with Hotmail/Live/MSN mail accounts, and will archive everything for you. Personally, I use Thunderbird, and get everything from my WL (hotmail) account forwarded to a Gmail account which I use on Thunderbird. Works perfectly. I don't use a mail client on my Linux partition, so I can't help you with that part of your question. --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 12:29, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

ACPI and sound when running Linux

With every linux distro I've used, I always have to add acpi=off to the kernel options in /boot/grub/menu.lst. However, in some laptops, the sound doesn't work with this option. How can ACPI have any relation to the sound card?

Many peripheral devices are integrated to save cost. I went looking for a good introduction to the economics of the semiconductor industry, but the best I could find was semiconductor consolidation. Suffice to say, costs are dramatically reduced (by orders of magnitude) when multiple features are integrated on to the same device; so, sometimes, seemingly unrelated features are actually managed by the same chip. Audio and power management actually seem logical (both are low-latency, small die-area devices) compared to some integrated features I've heard of.

If you know your motherboard manufacturer and model, we can help you find exactly what features are provided by each chip on the board; and determine whether this audio glitch is a "bug" or "known feature" as a side-effect of disabling ACPI. Nimur (talk) 21:09, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

Yes, in my present laptop it's a known issue. Quest09 (talk) 12:32, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

Google left navigation

Hi, like nearly everybody, I don't like igoogle's left navigation tabs (firefox 3.6.13). I have installed greasemonkey and a thing called "stylish" which worked for a bit (thanks!) but google have evidently installed some kind of update to spoil it again and now the left navigation tabs are back, unwanted as ever. Does anyone have any advice? I'm just going to have to move to netvibes or similar, the new igoogle is intolerable. Thanks, Robinh (talk) 20:28, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

http://kb.mozillazine.org/UserContent-example.css http://karmatics.com/aardvark/ ¦ Reisio (talk) 07:39, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

(OP) Hello Reiso, that's excellent! I managed to download and install aardvark, and it worked precisely as advertised. I can get rid of that stupid left hand navigation and then hit the 'Q' to exit aardvark. Do you have any idea how to do this *automatically*, each time I visit igoogle? Very best wishes, Robinh (talk) 08:40, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

(replying to self, after fiddling round with aardvark). I *think* I've figured it out. By installing R.I.P. ("Remove It Permanently", another firefox add-on), one can highlight the left navigation and hit the "K" key. And then it disappears! AFAICS, this seems to work perfectly. That is one big kia ora! Robinh (talk) 08:51, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

Was rather suggesting @-moz-document domain("www.google.com") { #leftnav { display: none !important; } } (or something like that) in userContent.css, but whatever floats yer boat. :) ¦ Reisio (talk) 10:23, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

I looked at the mozillazene webpage but didn't "get" it. I must be missing something basic. Presumably one cuts-and-pastes your code into a file somewhere and restarts firefox. What file is it? (macosx 10.5.8). Thanks again, Robinh (talk) 10:36, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

The link says what the file is and where it is (or should be). ¦ Reisio (talk) 11:24, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

Is it possible to have and use two or more editions of IE or othern browsers in one OS?

eg. could i download ie 9 without overwriting (not sure if this is the technical term) IE 7, and then choose the one want i want from the programs? what about OPs? can one have vista and win 7? --24.228.127.187 (talk) 23:32, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

IETester, VirtualBox 87.113.171.230 (talk) 23:51, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

May 18

looking for a word that covers an action or task

is there a word for the action of using something that has no earthly way of being proven, such as God is used to promote Christianity? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.216.38.216 (talk) 00:12, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

Faith ? (BTW, this should have been posted on the Language Desk.) StuRat (talk) 03:54, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

False pretense. Something that cannot be proven true or false is assumed to be true to justify the action. -- kainaw™ 12:18, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

QAM vs ATSC tuner

Dear Wikipedians:

I have an Insignia 42 inch TV. I know it has a QAM tuner because I can watch some clear digital channels transmitted through the cable. However, I am not sure if it also has an ATSC tuner capable of receiving HD signals off the air. How do I find out?

Thanks,

174.88.35.164 (talk) 00:41, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

Two methods:

1) Read the manual (if you've lost it, you can probably look it up online using the model number).

2) Try it. You'll likely need a basic pair of rabbit ears, which you can hopefully borrow from a friend for the test, although, if the signal is strong enough, you might even get a channel or two without it. On the other hand, if you live in a sparsely populated area, then a roof antenna is likely needed, and that's too expensive and too much trouble for a test. StuRat (talk) 01:11, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

Also, if it has a coax jack on the back, it probably accepts over-the-air signals of some type, but you don't know just from that whether it accepts analog, digital, or both. StuRat (talk) 01:19, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

Thanks so much StuRat! I am enlightened! Basically HD signals are transmitted in the same fashion as old analog channels, and only TVs with an built-in ATSC tuner will be able to decode HD signals. The rabbit ears will grab all signals indiscriminately. Sort of like modern browsers versus ancient browsers, the HTML data transmitted is the same, but only modern browsers may act on tags that are specified in later HTML versions, while ancient browsers just ignore those tags. Am I right? 174.88.35.164 (talk) 02:18, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

Pretty much, yes. They may only use a portion of the analog band for the digital signals, since each digital signal requires less bandwidth. Also, there are set-top boxes to convert the digital TV signals into an analog signal for older TVs. Those boxes cost $40-$70 around here. BTW, there was an apparently legal scam here of people being sold "HD antennas", which were just the same old antennas sold at 10x the price. StuRat (talk) 04:00, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

Resolved

Hacktool message on website

From Cary Tennis (permanent link here), I visited the first webpage listed under "Links". Within a few seconds, the web address changed, and I saw a suspicious page and a message about a hacktool. I immediately closed the webpage. Has there been a breach of computer security?
—Wavelength (talk) 01:46, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

I found a pop-under window with the following information, which I copied before closing the window.

• MacKeeper
• 911 for your Mac
• Instant Mac cleanup
• High-level security
• Mac performance boost
• (Clean your Mac)
• Click here to clean your Mac
• #1 System Utility for MAC in the World

Then I did a Google search for mackeeper, and I found https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2779849?start=0&tstart=0.
—Wavelength (talk) 02:04, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

Well I opened it and nothing happened. Perhaps it was Adblocker. General Rommel (talk) 06:46, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

Normal annoying website ad, nothing to be alarmed over. It served you a Mac-related ad because your user agent string or something equally benign tipped it off. I got a netflix ad, not interested in checking what will show up next. ¦ Reisio (talk) 10:06, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

Diff b/w solid works and catia v5

What is the difference b/w solid works and catia v5 preferably in Aerospace Domain?? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ambuj 542 (talk • contribs) 06:02, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

About ten grand. (BRL-CAD) ¦ Reisio (talk) 10:16, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

Anti-spyware and anti-adware tools

With advances made by Internet Explorer and traditional "antivirus" programs (things like Norton, F-Secure, and Kaspersky) in recent years, and with adware and spyware programs getting rarer and rarer, is supplemental anti-adware and anti-spyware tools (e.g., Ad-Aware and Spybot) largely redundant for protection (not cleaning) purposes nowadays? 118.96.156.241 (talk) 09:01, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

To put it other way, do I still need to install specialized anti-adware or anti-spyware program (Ad-Aware or Spybot) in addition to antivirus program (Norton, F-Secure, or Kaspersky), now that antivirus programs can also prevent, detect, and remove adware and spyware? 118.96.156.241 (talk) 10:54, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

Don't you have to have it installed (at some point) to clean even if you aren't going to use it to protect? (that is: semantics? :p) ¦ Reisio (talk) 10:09, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

I added a paragraph above to (hopefully) clarify the question. 118.96.156.241 (talk) 10:54, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

Should you acquire adware and spyware, it is still quite likely ane anti-adware or anti-spyware app will do a much better job of detecting & removing it; they AV apps haven't improved that much. Plenty of people get by without having anti-adware and anti-spyware apps installed, however, by using common sense for the most part. ¦ Reisio (talk) 11:26, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

Wireless External HDD

I'm planning on getting an external HDD at the end of this month, but, as I use a laptop and am generally not in the same place in the house for more than a few hours, I would like one which has a wireless connection, accessible from anywhere in the house. Basically, I need one which:

• Is wireless and accessible from anywhere in the house.
• Can be password protected to stop anyone other than me from accessing it.
• Can be plugged into a mains supply.

Does anyone have any ideas?

--KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 11:19, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

That amounts to "Wireless NAS". Several manufacturers make these (Iomega, Lacie, Netgear, D-Link); I've no personal experience of them to make a recommendation. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 11:24, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

To me it amounts to an ordinary hard disk... with an encrypted filesystem... connected to a network that has a wireless router. Ordinary hard disks and wireless routers are cheap and prevalent, filesystem encryption is free and simple (and smart for personal data). ¦ Reisio (talk) 11:30, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

Edit conflict twice :(Well the only sort of practical thing that springs to my mind (could be wrong) is a External HD hooked up to a Router with a USB port so you can share it. That means if you have a router already, you won't need another wireless device. Or, if you are more serious, you could consider a NAS, but that wouldn't be that good as large data files are slower over wireless. So if you have a Router with USB functionality, I'd suggest you connect a USB External HD to it, then you can make it so it can be shared only with you. Not sure how to do that, but perhaps others think this would be a good solution. Good luck! Now it's night over here General Rommel (talk) 11:34, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

Ah, thanks. Unfortunately, our wireless router does not have a USB port. How would I go about connecting the External HD to it, wirelessly? Also, which would be faster for data transfer - wireless over a home network, or Bluetooth? --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 12:22, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

You will require an external harddrive that supports this feature: specifically, it will need to run a small server that delivers the files in a standard protocol (HTTP, NFS, Samba, or something like that). A bare external-drive does not supply the needed software to make its data available over a network (wired or wireless). A few drives now support this feature out-of-the-box. Nimur (talk) 15:28, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

Odd problem with sound icon in tray

When I double click on the sound icon, the window with the slider (which was usually static) disappears as soon that I move my mouse. Another issue as well, it often takes 3-4 clicks, while it took about two in the past to open. Any ideas? I tried disabling it and re-enabling it. Raskolkhan (talk) 15:32, 18 May 2011 (UTC)