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

September 11

processing power vs clock speed

Hello, from the System/34 article: Clock speed of the CPUs inside a System/34 was fixed at 1 MHz for the MSP and 4 MHz for the CSP. In today's PC-based world, the S/34 was the computational equivalent of a 16 to 20 MHz intel 80386 microprocessor. How is this (same processing power at a fraction of the clock speed) possible? Thanks in advance, Asmrulz (talk) 00:46, 11 September 2012 (UTC)

One thing different is that it was a 16-bit system. Thus, it sends half as much data in the same time as a 32-bit system with the same clock rate and 1/4th as much as a 64-bit system. However, that would seem to lower the 1 MHz speed to 0.5 or 0.25 MHz equivalent, so something else must be going on. StuRat (talk) 00:52, 11 September 2012 (UTC)

That's a horrible article, with no citations. I'd support deleting the article and starting over.

As far as your question goes, I've never heard about control and main store on System/34. But I am familiar with how the terms were used on System/370 and System/390. Most or all of these systems were microprogrammed. Also, IBM didn't like to use anthromorphic language in any publications made available to customers, so what today is called memory was called "store" or "storage". The main store was the main memory, as with modern microprocessors. The control store held the microcode. Since the central processing unit used the microcode to interpret the instructions from the main store, it was necessary for the microcode to be retrieved at a faster rate (4 MHz) than the instructions and data from the main store (1 MHz). Jc3s5h (talk) 01:09, 11 September 2012 (UTC)

The article originally said (in July 2005):

In today's PC-based world, think of the S/34 as having the processor equivalent of two 20 MHz 486s

This was changed the following month, by User:Jessemckay, to read "... two 10 MHz 386s" and considerably later to the current version.

I agree the comparison seems dubious. I'll ask Jessemckay to comment here.-gadfium 02:35, 11 September 2012 (UTC)

7z and wikimedia dumps

I was astounded at the size savings between bz2 and 7z when compressing the Wikimedia dumps. The entire history bz2'd is around 450 GB while the 7z one is about 60 GB. That difference astounded me. Because the XML with the full history is not a series of deltas, but actually the entire page revision, I suspect 7z is doing some sort of processing to find the large blocks of identical text? One clue is the explanation from meta wikimedia says the 7z advantage is only on the full history dump, which indicates there's some advantage between full revisions (that's lost when you just dump current versions of the pages). But it seemed to me that the blocksize the compression works on would be far smaller than the span between two identical article revisions. Anyone who could shed some light on why 7z is so much better in this context would help. Thanks. Shadowjams (talk) 01:20, 11 September 2012 (UTC)

From the Lempel–Ziv–Markov chain algorithm article lead-paragraph, and its reference page, the 7z algorithm uses a dictionary whose size is up to 4 GB. That is considerably larger than some competitors, and is a probable factor. Nimur (talk) 01:47, 11 September 2012 (UTC)

bz2, 7z, and gz all look for repeated blocks of text, but 7z looks much further back. I don't think the window is anything like 4gb though, since the decompressor doesn't use nearly that much memory. 67.119.15.30 (talk) 04:44, 11 September 2012 (UTC)

Bzip2 divides the data into blocks of at most 900KB which are compressed independently. All other widely used compression algorithms are Lempel-Ziv variants using a sliding window. If there are N very similar page revisions each of length L, Bzip2 will re-encode the whole page text N·L/900KB times, while a sliding-window algorithm will encode it only once if the window is larger than L. -- BenRG (talk) 05:37, 11 September 2012 (UTC)

Thank you. I guess the sliding window answer makes sense for serialized data like this. My only follow up question is how the dictionary (which I gather is essentially the sliding window) does this work without using such a large amount of memory (4GB apparently). Tell me if this is correct: because the dictionary is not stored in memory and instead the index is, and it is accessed directly from the original file. Shadowjams (talk) 17:13, 11 September 2012 (UTC)

LZMA may support a 4GB window, but that would require 4GB RAM to decompress and a lot more than that (20GB?) to compress. I grabbed one of the smaller 7z dump files (3 GB uncompressed, 23 MB compressed!) and it uses method LZMA:24, which I think indicates a 16MB window (2²⁴ bytes). The gains from a larger window would probably be small since the longest article is less than 1MB. -- BenRG (talk) 19:09, 11 September 2012 (UTC)

According to the User manual, memory for compressing is 11 times dictionary size, memory for decompressing is close to value of dictionary size (limited table provided: dict - comp - dec: 64k-3M-3M; 1M-10M-3M; 16M-186M-18M; 32M-376M-34M ) Ssscienccce (talk) 19:50, 11 September 2012 (UTC)

…and the "ultra" (maximum compression preset) uses a 32M dictionary. Bonus points if you figure out how xz -9 compares. :) ¦ Reisio (talk) 01:37, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

I don't know what the user manual says but the 64 bit Windows GUI version seems to use a 64MB dictionary for the ultra preset, for both LZMA and LZMA2. You can select up to 1024MB, but of course you need something like 10-11GB for compressing. Nil Einne (talk) 05:22, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

That does sound right. My guess is something generated by a server is using p7zip, but I've no idea really (plus it's configurable, so could be anything, heh). :) ¦ Reisio (talk) 05:57, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

BTW I had a look at the en wiki dump [1] and it seems the dump isn't even in one file anyway. They are different size so I presume not multipart 7z but rather just compressed seperately Nil Einne (talk) 05:54, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

How to activate the text to-speech voice: "Hazel" in Microsoft Narrator?

Hello! :-)
(Windows7 Ultimate 64bit). I believe that I have (a legitimate copy of) the text-to-speech voice named: "Hazel" in a folder named: "TTS_MS_en-GB_Hazel_10.0" which contains the following 5 files:

Hazel.APM 4429KB

Hazel.INI 1KB
HazelT.UDT 2KB
License.rtf 130KB

MSTTSLocenGB.dat 5504KB

Into which folder do I have to put these files? to make "Hazel" replace or become an alternative to the default voice named:
"Microsoft Anna - English (United States)" ?
Which is shown at:
Control Panel --> Ease of Access --> Speech Recognition --> Text to Speech.
I would like "Hazel" to be the standard voice when I start Microsoft Narrator(v.6.1):
Start --> All Programs --> Accessories --> Ease of Access --> Narrator
Or at least to be listed as an option inside Narrator
( --> Preferences --> Voice Settings --> Select Voice )
--89.9.196.12 (talk) 02:51, 11 September 2012 (UTC)

Someone texting and calling using my number?

I have a Droid Incredible smartphone with Verizon. A friend of mine (on my contact list) received several calls from my number (he reported that the caller was breathing heavily into the phone but did not say anything) and then received a inflammatory text message from my number (I am also on his contact list). However, I did not send these texts and had my phone on me the whole time, so it was impossible for anyone to gain physical access to my phone.

Is is possible that someone is possibly "hacking" my phone and using my phone number to dial/text others? If so, is there anyway I can prevent this?

Thanks Acceptable (talk) 06:35, 11 September 2012 (UTC)

More likely spoofing the apparent number, which is not as easy as spoofing the "From:" in mail but not impossible. —Tamfang (talk) 07:15, 11 September 2012 (UTC)

See Caller ID spoofing. I agree with Tamfang that this likely didn't involve your phone. Instead, they fished your info off your friend's phone. StuRat (talk) 07:17, 11 September 2012 (UTC)

Verizon allows you to block spammy callers. If you're receiving harassing calls, you can contact Verizon, who may be able to help. That may be in order here anyway, since the number is apparently being spoofed. Nimur (talk) 16:45, 11 September 2012 (UTC)

If I call Verizon, would they be able to tell me the true phone number of the person who called me? Even if that person is using some third-party app or website to spoof their caller ID? Acceptable (talk) 01:58, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

Linux commands: Unzipping selectively bunch of files in linux, deleting all but two types of file

If you have a series of zip files, all containing pdf files and other stuff, how do you unzip all pdfs from all files into a directory?

How do you delete, for example, all files that are not *.txt or *.jpg files? Is there a rm 'whether txt not jpg' way of doing it? OsmanRF34 (talk) 13:48, 11 September 2012 (UTC)

If the zip file has nested directories, use "find". Otherwise just "mkdir savedir; mv *.txt *.jpg savedir" and delete anything left over. 67.119.15.30 (talk) 16:22, 11 September 2012 (UTC)

That is: for i in *zip; do unzip "$i" -d foo; done && find foo/ -iname '*.pdf' -exec mv {} foo/ \; && find foo/ -not -iname '*.pdf' -delete (just be careful about how & where you run the one with -delete :p) ¦ Reisio (talk) 01:53, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

(ec) There's probably a fancy way of doing this on a single line, but I think it is logically easier to move the files you want to keep to another directory, delete the rest, then move the kept files back again. You can do the same with a bunch of files you extracted from a series of zip files. Astronaut (talk) 16:26, 11 September 2012 (UTC)

Agreed. If you wanted to do it without moving files, you'd make a list of all files, pipe it to a command that removes the files you want to keep, then apply that shortened list to the delete command. StuRat (talk) 16:31, 11 September 2012 (UTC)

A quick-and-dirty Python script:

#!/usr/bin/python
import zipfile, os.path
def unzip_some_files(filename, extlist, destination='.'):
    zf = zipfile.ZipFile(filename)
    for n in zf.infolist():
        if os.path.splitext(n.filename.lower())[1][1:] in extlist:
            zf.extract(n,destination)

unzip_some_files('foo.zip',['txt','jpg'], destination='dest')

-- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 19:53, 11 September 2012 (UTC)

A quick-and-ugly command:

mkdir tmpzip unzipped && for var in ls *.zip; do unzip $var -d tmpzip; done && mv tmpzip/*.jpg unzipped && mv tmpzip/*.txt unzipped && rm -r tmpzip

At the end you'll have all your .jpg and .txt files in the unzipped directory. ListCheck (talk) 21:16, 11 September 2012 (UTC)

Power Control Center ?

I have one of these: [2], and would like to buy more, but with additional features.

Description:

It plugs into an outlet, and has 5 outlets on it, just like a power strip, and also has a surge protection feature. However, unlike a surge protector, each outgoing outlet is controlled by an individual on/off switch on the device, in addition to a switch to turn them all off at once.

Additional features desired:

1) Additional outlets. The more the better.

2) Instead of just on/off switches, I'd also like dimmer switches which vary the voltage (and not the old type that burns out quickly or gets hot/wastes energy).

3) Battery backup. Ideally, I'd like some outlets to have the battery backup feature, such as those running electronics, but not others, like those running a space heater, air conditioner, or refrigerator.

Anyone know of any devices like this ?

I don't think you'll find one device that has all these features in one, and if you do it might be overly gimmicky. Dimmer switches are NOT a common feature on anything AC except a light switch, what would you need dimmer switches for? Maybe you'd be better off with a variable power supply? Battery backup is just another word for UPS, they aren't cheap for a half decent one and I probably wouldn't reccomend one with a lot of "frills". Personally it sounds like you'd be better off sourcing 2 or 3 different devices for the specific features you are after, rather then one frankenstein. Vespine (talk) 22:25, 11 September 2012 (UTC)

Uses for dimmer switches:

A) Halogen and incandescent lights (used in winter only).

B) Electric fans (summer only).

C) Electric space heaters (winter only).

These devices often come with their own power control systems, but, in the case of halogen lights, the dimmer switch often fails, and in the other two cases the switches have 3 positions, rather than continuously variable controls. I also don't want to have to walk across the room every time I want to change the settings. StuRat (talk) 22:34, 11 September 2012 (UTC)

As far as UPS/battery backup, I just want enough time to close down what I'm working on on the computer, not to run for hours or days on it. StuRat (talk) 22:36, 11 September 2012 (UTC)

I don't think it's typically a great idea to dim just anything off an AC circuit, so I'm not sure you'll find something like a power conditioner with a dimmer on a regular power socket, by default. Some devices can be dimmed safely and efficiently, like maybe the fan, but other things, like halogen bulbs (which are designed to run above a certain temperature which is only maintained at something like >85% power rating), don't take to dimming very well, significantly lowering their efficency and life.. My recomendation is separate line dimmers for anything you specifially want dimmed, and a little UPS for your PC and the power conditioner for everything else. If you want it all in one unit, some duct tape might do the job ;) Vespine (talk) 04:48, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

I've already got wires all over the place, I was hoping to reduce the trip hazard, rather than increase it. In this room I have a TV, DVD player, digital converter box, mini fridge, 2 fans, a stereo, an intercom, 3 floor lamps, computer, PC, monitor, printer, external hard drive, cup warmer, 2 sets of speakers (one for TV and one for PC), microwave oven, clock, answering machine, and window A/C unit. That's 23 items with enough cords for a double-dutch tournament, not counting the numerous extension cords and power strips. StuRat (talk) 05:05, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

Wow, lol, that IS a lot of stuff... I wasn't questioning your "need" for such a device :) I just highly doubt one actually exists with ALL those features, I'll happily be proven wrong if someone has seen one for sale. Of course, if you have any friends that are into electronics... Because such a device wouldn't be too hard to build for anyone with minimal experience with mains voltage electronics, the only part I'd even need to research would be the UPS part since I've never built one before, but even if you bought a little UPS unit as the starting point and then just added everything else you wanted into a custom enclosure, it would be a piece of cake. Vespine (talk) 05:50, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

Apparently I'm not the only person to want such a thing. I found a homemade power control center made by a Brit. Type "Bespoke Dimmer Control Box" into Google image search to find it. StuRat (talk) 07:16, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

UPDATE: I just ordered 3 of these dimmer switches: [3]. Hopefully I can wire these in with my existing power control box. Still no UPS, though. StuRat (talk) 08:16, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

A standard light dimmer is not suitable for a fan - the solid state electronics are designed for a constant resistive load, and an electric motor can cause all sorts of issues. Fan dimmers can dim a light and have the extra bits thrown in needed to make sure a fan motor will run fine. Here is some information on the options: [4]. 209.131.76.183 (talk) 11:58, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

Is the model I bought a light dimmer ? It is the slide type, and they do call it a dimmer, but don't give the disclaimer that it's just for resistive loads, not inductive loads, as another model did. Also, 2 of the reviews are from people saying they are using it for fans, and it's working well for them. StuRat (talk) 12:22, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

The manufacturer's description only mentioned lights, and not other applications. It also says "Use with incandescent and halogen bulbs only", but I don't think standard CFLs work right on any sort of dimmer, so I could see putting that warning on a fan dimmer too. I wouldn't have bought it to use with a fan based on just the description, but if people in the reviews are using it for fans, that is a good sign. 209.131.76.183 (talk) 15:09, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

OK, good, I'll try it out that way then. The other two I had in mind for a halogen floor lamp and space heater (both in winter only). StuRat (talk) 20:42, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

Space heaters often require power in the vicinity of 1000 watts; the dimmer StuRat linked to was only rated for 500 watts. Of course the right approach is to hire an electrician to install sufficient outlets so there is always an outlet near each device, and at the same time, install an electric heater with a thermostat to turn it on and off as needed to achieve the required temperature. Jc3s5h (talk) 14:02, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

Yea, but that's thousands of dollars, versus the $30 I spent on the 3 dimmer switches (and I used my credit card reward points for that, so it's "free"). The space heater has low, medium, and high settings, which I guess are 500, 1000, and 1500 watts. I never use it above low, since it gets hot enough to burn you on medium or high. Actually, I'd like even less than low, which is where the dimmer switch comes in. StuRat (talk) 04:56, 14 September 2012 (UTC)

September 12

Google is being rude to me

Most of the time, when I do a Google image search, and pick on an image, it takes me to a page where I can choose to see the picture alone, go to the web page for that image, etc. Here's an example: [5].

If I don't want to do anything else with it, I can always hit the back button.

But, occasionally, I go to an image preview and it seems to hijack my browser, taking me immediately to the web page, like this one: [6]

The worst part is, I can't just hit the back button, or it goes right back to the same web site. If I hit the back button many times really fast, sometimes I can go back, but maybe too far.

So, what's going on here and how do I stop this behavior ? Does it do this for everyone else, too ? I'm on windows XP SP3 using Firefox 15.0.1. StuRat (talk) 06:35, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

AFAIK it's just poor website design of that particular page, nothing to do with Google. Best way to go back is to right click the back button and select the page you want from the drop down list. Even better, go into your Google search settings and check the box that says "Open each selected result in a new browser window" then you can just close the window when your done.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 08:11, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

Those are both good hints, thanks. But is there any way to stop it from doing this in the first place ? StuRat (talk) 08:54, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

The way I have always understood it is that the page itself has code designed to "escape" from Google, implemented in Javascript. An extension like NoScript will stop it, but I'm not sure if you can configure its filters to apply to just the situation of previewed pages in Google image search. 209.131.76.183 (talk) 11:39, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

I don't know if this is relevant, but the name of the webpage gives something away: ... The framebuster bit suggests the code is called from the url itself, or something like that. I don't know if that helps, and maybe someone can enlighten me as well about what exactly a url can control. Btw, I tried pasting the whole site name, and got spam blocked, because the site is on Wikipedia's blacklist IBE (talk) 04:31, 14 September 2012 (UTC)

Yea, I found a way around that in my 2nd link. Wikipedia spam-blocks "squidoo", so change it to "octopusoo", which apparently is a mirror site. :-) StuRat (talk) 04:40, 14 September 2012 (UTC)

Code and explanation (and claim of being the original creator) . Ssscienccce (talk) 07:34, 14 September 2012 (UTC)

Thanks. Now how do I prevent this from working on my PC ? StuRat (talk) 18:04, 14 September 2012 (UTC)

Device Names in a Computer with 48 HDDs

In a computer with 48 SAS HDDs, the device names for the first 26 HDDs would be /dev/sda to /dev/sdz. What would be the device names for the remaining 22 HDDs? Now I don't actually have a computer with four dozen HDDs, nor am I planning to buy or build such a computer (presuming such a computer even exists), but I'm very curious to know. (Presuming that all the 48 HDDs are directly connected via HBAs, and there is no hardware RAID.) 08:04, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

Can you actually connect 48 hard drives ? I doubt that any normal PC has the ports, power supply, etc., to support anywhere near that many. I suspect you'd need to go to network attached storage at some point. StuRat (talk) 08:10, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

I know Dell sells rackmount computers with 24 HDDs, and Supermicro has a chassis for 36 HDDs, but I've never actually come across a computer with 48 HDDs, but my question still stands. Although I think 36 HDDs is probably the upper limit for a single computer, as no PSU could provide enough power for more than 36 HDDs - the chassis I've linked above has two PSUs because one probably isn't enough to provide enough power for 36 HDDs. 27.104.34.139 (talk) 08:40, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

Beyond the standard few, device nodes are created by whatever thing is managing the large scale storage. The names typically follow the pattern: sda, sdb, sdc, ..., sdz, sdaa, sdab, sdac etc. ref. What the kernel cares about is device nodes, and the storage manager would have to create nodes in a fashion (with mknod/makedev) that the kernel and its block device drivers will recognise. For basic SDx, the major number is 8, and you have 256 entries for minor, but as that document shows, it reserves 16 minors for each physical SDx (for its partitions, SDx1, SDx2, etc.) and so has to use multiple majors to handle >16 physical disks. It's up to whatever enterprise-y storage manager and its drivers (for e.g. the FC fabric HBAs) to agree between themselves what majors and minors they'd use. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 09:56, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

By the kernel's standard counting, the system can just keep adding letters forever - the relevant piece of code is here. But I think we still have 8 bits each for major and minor, so you won't get very far with actual dev nodes. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 10:51, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

Improving WINE compatibility

If a program does not run well under WINE, what can you do to improve it's compatibility? I'd like to run PDF-XChange Viewer, which is said to work well for some people, but I crashed with some specific pdf files or some commands (like find). OsmanRF34 (talk) 13:16, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

Determine which DLL seems to be the source of the crash. If you have access to do it legally, you can replace the WINE project's version of the DLL with one from an actual Windows system. If you know enough about software development, you could figure out which specific API call is causing the problem and try to debug the WINE source for it, improving the project for everyone. Comments on the winehq entry for PDF-XChange Viewer seem to imply that you may have luck running the portable version of it. 209.131.76.183 (talk) 15:02, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

You should consider the possibility that it might crash on those files in Windows as well. I'm not asserting that it does, but if it does, trying to fix the problem in WINE would be a waste of time. Looie496 (talk) 18:12, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

Look at the appdb.winehq.org page on the application, note the application (viewer) and Wine versions. For more problematic applications (that are also somewhat popular), there are also often detailed instructions for making things work. ¦ Reisio (talk) 01:01, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

Struggling to display images (showing broken links)

Hi all,

I'm having a bit of trouble with my private wiki (personal server) at the moment. im currently trying to get some images to display on one of my articles. i have edited the local settings.php which means i can successfully upload images, but when i try and display them using the [[file:blah.jpg]] code the image doesn't display, it just shows up with a broken link icon ><

it seems to me its a problem with authorization but i cant seem to find where, is it a server problem? or do i have to authorize the use of images somewhere? any help with this would be fantastic as im really stuck.

Nix

Nixxy00 (talk) 14:21, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

A good first step would be to confirm that the URL for the broken image file seems to match up with where your images are uploaded. That should help narrow down possible causes of the problem. If you try to open the image file directly via that URL you may also be able to get an HTTP error code. Right now I think the most likely problem is that there is a path configured wrong somewhere, so the links don't point to the same place the images are uploaded to. There could also be a file system level permissions issue, but I doubt it since the server should have uploaded them with permissions that allow it to read the file later. 209.131.76.183 (talk) 14:58, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for the advice, i just tried that, when putting complete file path into the URL e.g. blah.com/wiki/images/9/imageiwant.jpg i get a server 403 error, saying i don't have permission :S BUT if i ftp an image into the file above e.g. /images i can access that though the a URL and it display fine, its weird because wiki uploaded the images (with correct height/width and image size) and put them in folder images/9 or images/9e etc but now cant seem to pull them out :S — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nixxy00 (talk • contribs) 16:06, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

That makes it sound like the file permissions are being set wrong by the uploader. You should see what your FTP client says the permissions are on the file. I suspect that there is no read access. 209.131.76.183 (talk) 19:34, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

ok i have checked the ftp and all the images folder and all sub folder incl image have read access for owner/group/public, i have unchecked and re checked but still no luck, is there something i have to do like authorize the image or something? it just seems weird that wiki can pull all the details about the image (filesize etc) but wont display the image itself

• on a side note every time i try and upload a new image it puts it in a sub folder of a sub folder (images/9/9e/image . png) is there a way i can set all uploads to a specific folder? this may not solve my original problem but it will make it easier to check file permissions etc. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nixxy00 (talk • contribs) 09:34, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

I just realized I missed something before - it looks like you can ftp files to /image, and the wiki uploads them to a subdirectory, where they break. I think the file system permissions are fine - the PHP code for the wiki can open and inspect the files to get the information you mentioned. You probably have an .htaccess file or some other webserver-side access control preventing files from being hosted from subdirectories of the image directory. I bet if you dropped a file in a subdirectory via ftp it would give you the same error. 209.131.76.183 (talk) 14:36, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

yea it seems to error whatever i do, but i did a test, if i change the permissions on the folder (incl all containing folder) so that they can read/write AND execute on the owner, group and public level i can access the image on wiki, this is even more strange considering you cant execute an image so i have no idea why this should make a difference, but maybe i'll have a look into server settings see if its something on that side affecting it like u say (htaccess file or something) thanks again for your help :D Nixxy00 (talk) 08:04, 14 September 2012 (UTC)

That actually makes sense - here is the relevant article explaining what execute permission does for a directory: Filesystem permissions#permissions. I'm not sure why your wiki software created the directory with the wrong permissions, but it sounds like you're on the road to getting things going. 209.131.76.183 (talk) 12:31, 14 September 2012 (UTC)

September 13

OpenDNS disable?

How do i disable OpenDNS on my PC? When i go to certain websites it pops up and the site is blocked so i need to know how to get around it. Can anyone give me details on how to get rid of this Program? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.16.47.115 (talk) 00:59, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

OpenDNS is not a program, it's a name server. If this is your own internet connection, you can call your ISP and ask them to walk you through resetting your name servers. It's a common question and they'll know how to do it.

Note that OpenDNS probably isn't blocking anything (the web sites where you get the popup probably just don't exist), although according to the article they do offer a "FamilyShield" service that blocks some sites. -- BenRG (talk) 02:56, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

Also, note that OpenDNS does claim to block malicious sites. So if you are getting actual pop-up windows with the block message, then OpenDNS may actually be blocking malicious pop-ups for you. --Bavi H (talk) 03:51, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

Here are instructions for setting up OpenDNS: use.opendns.com. To remove OpenDNS, you would use the same instructions, but typically change the DNS settings to "obtain DNS server address automatically" or similar. There are DNS settings in your computer and your router, so check both places. Also see How do I Disable OpenDNS Completely?.

More information: As BenRG said, OpenDNS isn't a program, it's an alternative DNS server. A DNS server is like a directory assistance operator: Any time you go to a name address (like en.wikipedia.org), you computer asks the DNS server it has on file what the correct number address is for that name. You computer then connects to the number address to access the site. Usually your computer and router get DNS server settings automatically from your ISP. But you can override the automatic settings with any DNS server you want. --Bavi H (talk) 03:51, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

I've seen OpenDNS used at some places that have public wi-fi, and they used it to block stuff like porn sites and proxy sites. I've seen it block sites that weren't "adult content" that were incorrectly labeled as "adult content" (specifically, Uncyclopedia is labeled as such, yet Encyclopedia Dramatica is not, and they don't change anything when you fill out the unblock request. If you're using a mobile phone, you can evade this by using the Opera Mini browser. 68.56.137.137 (talk) 23:28, 14 September 2012 (UTC)

Can I do this in Microsoft Word?

I know it's often said that most people don't use 95% of the features in Microsoft Word. I'm one of those people so I assume what I'm thinking of is actually a feature unknown to me.

Is it possible in Word to fill in the blank or insert a word in 100 different places in an instant? I mean I have a long document I often use and need to change the name of the person in the document in 100 different places. Is it possible to set the document up in a way that allows me to change the name in all places by just doing so in one place?

Thanks in advance

Globalistcontributor (talk) 05:00, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

Have you looked at ms word mail merge? [7] This may possibly be what you are after, though you haven't really explained what you are trying to do. AndyTheGrump (talk) 05:06, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

There is the global search and replace ability (Control R). However, it might have problems changing "Smith" to "Jones" if there is also a "Smithers" (which would become "Jonesers"), or if "Smith" is misspelled somewhere. If there is an "entire word" selection box, that should avoid the first problem, but not the second.

Something else you might want to do is set up a template, with some unique character string like *LAST_NAME* wherever a last name belongs. Then you can do a global search and replace on that name whenever you need to put in an actual name, and save the document under a new name to preserve the template for next time. (From experience, it's best to make a backup copy or two of the template, too.) StuRat (talk) 05:10, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

You should always check the document after a global search and replace, though, as it can cause problems (in addition to those listed above):

A) There can be grammar problems, like if you replace "We purchased a computer" with "We purchased a X-ray machine" (here it should be "an X-ray machine").

B) There can also be spacing problems, if a longer word forces an illustration to jump to the next page, etc.

StuRat (talk) 05:23, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

Mail Merge and Fields in general seem to be the built-in features you're looking for, rather than StuRat's ad hoc methods. --Mr.98 (talk) 13:23, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

Do they avoid the problems I listed above ? StuRat (talk) 04:51, 14 September 2012 (UTC)

I'm on Linux, so no MS Word to test it, but my impression is that Fields are limited to certain special functions, and Variables would be the preferred solution. See this, or this: Variables make it possible to: Change text once and automatically update it everywhere.. Ssscienccce (talk) 07:55, 14 September 2012 (UTC)

Problem with attachments

Hello, everyone. Since yesterday, every single time I try to send an e-mail attachment, the program I use crashes. I've tried it on Firefox, Thunderbird and Internet Explorer (yes, I actually tried IE) with the same negative result, which makes me think this is a Windows problem. I've scanned my computer for malware and viruses and found nothing. What could be causing the problem? Thanks! Leptictidium (mt) 09:10, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

Okay, it just solved itself "magically". I deleted an MS Word file and it started working again. The weird thing is that the file was perfectly malware clean and functional, the only special thing about it is that it had quite a long name... Leptictidium (mt) 09:14, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

Maybe you have a shell extension installed that can't handle the filename. That would explain it happening in all three browsers and magically going away when a specific file is removed. The most obvious shell extensions do things like add extra options to the right-click menu, but you may have a more subtle one that came along with some piece of software on the system. Unfortunately Shell Extension is pretty useless for simply explaining what one is and giving examples of them. 209.131.76.183 (talk) 11:55, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

Most versatile laptop backpack?

My SwissGear Airflow (if "Airflow" is the model name) gave out after about 2 1/2 - 3 1/2 years of service. The straps are still together even though they look like they're about to snap apart, and a hole has already formed in the laptop compartment. I was troubled that it rained last night because I need the backpack's protection for my laptop.

I need a sturdier replacement backpack that will hold a 17" laptop, cushion it from falling shock, protect it from weather, and do an overall better job than SwissGear's pack did.

So do you know of laptop backpacks that will do it one better than the SwissGears? How much better, and how much would they cost? Please post more than one option as you know of them. Thanks. --70.179.167.78 (talk) 10:05, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

I've made excellent experience with using Tom Bihn's BrainCell inside normal, decent quality day packs (and bicycle paniers). Tom Bihn also offer backpacks specifically designed to clip in the laptop case, although I have never used them. Prices range from US$60 to a lot more, depending on what you need. However, I like the BrainCell so much that I even had it shipped to Europe the last time I needed one. I currently have two, one 10 years old and in perfect shape, the other ~5 years old and like new. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 14:34, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

Do you two know each other? Your Username 21:14, 13 September 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Hayttom (talk • contribs)

Sir, why do you ask? How could we know each other? --70.179.167.78 (talk) 00:49, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

Note that you don't necessarily need a backpack designed specifically for a laptop. A general purpose backpack may well be cheaper, and one designed for campers may be sturdier. You may also want to add you own padding, such as bubble wrap. StuRat (talk) 04:47, 14 September 2012 (UTC)

Exactly, a neoprene sleeve and a normal backpack is protective enough. OsmanRF34 (talk) 01:17, 17 September 2012 (UTC)

Head First Java

What do people think of this as a book for learning Java? I am not a novice programmer and have done some work with Java before but want to develop my skills properly. Thanks. 188.223.81.244 (talk) 15:57, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

Here are some reviews of the book. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 16:16, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

Thanks but I guess I should have been a little more 'to the point'. While I realise that I can easily check reviews on the internet, these will quite often be posted by people who aren't in a position to judge whether or not the book is any good. In contrast to this, on the Wikipedia Computing refdesk, there are plenty of people who know what they're talking about and can offer an informed opinion on the subject. That's why I brought the question here. Has anyone ever read it? Thanks. 212.139.212.71 (talk) 19:02, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

I understand. However, we're currently having a little discussion about providing our own personal opinions in response to questions. Whilst your question is typical of many of the questions we've answered in the past, if it can't be answered by providing you with a reference it's not strictly a question we can or should answer. (In fact, as it says at the top of this page, "The reference desk does not answer requests for opinions".) I would argue that a) a review written in a respected magazine by someone who has read the book is more likely to be useful than some random nutcase like me who happens to have rocked up at Wikipedia claiming to know about computers, and b) if we told you the book was great, but when you bought it you found it wasn't suitable for you in some way we hadn't thought of, you'd be cross with us for wasting your money. Hence we offload the potential blame onto Google...

If you want to discuss this policy, please join the conversation on the talk page. We're still ironing out the best way to go about things, so your comments would be valuable. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 20:19, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

No offense, but I strongly disagree with your position. Reviews are often bought and paid for, canned and packaged by PR or people close to the subject or publisher, and authored by people with little to no experience with the topic. It is far more valuable to get an opinion about the book by someone who has experience in the real world with the material, not a reviewer. Viriditas (talk) 23:35, 14 September 2012 (UTC)

For what it's worth, O'Reilly is a well known tech publisher with a good reputation. If you like the style of Head First Java and the level of the material, you can probably buy it with the assurance that it won't contain serious technical errors or omissions (which is more than can be said for books from many other publishers). -- BenRG (talk) 06:15, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

Star Control II on Linux via emulator?

If I can't get The Ur-Quan Masters working on my Fedora 17 Linux system, would it be a good idea to actually buy the original Star Control II from eBay and try to get it working via an MS-DOS emulator? I do have both a CD-ROM drive and an HD floppy drive in my computer. Is there a working MS-DOS emulator for Linux? Do I need some copyrighted ROM images, like I needed the Amiga KickStart ROM images for E-UAE, which I was able to provide because I have legally bought the Amiga Forever CD-ROM? JIP | Talk 17:26, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

DOSBox would seem to be the working MS-DOS emulator you're looking for. There's even a Fedora specific download. I'm not familiar with either of the games you mention, so I'll have to leave someone else to help you with the specific files you need, but I'll note that Star Control I and II are available together for $5.99 on GOG.com (a site which normally ensures that the games they sell are compatible with DOSBox). - Cucumber Mike (talk) 17:37, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

(EC) DOSBox which in various forms is likely the first several results for simple search for 'dos emulator' is the DOS emulator everyone uses for DOS games. I haven't personally tried Star Control II, but it's a popular enough game that there should be compatibility reports. As our article mentions, DOSbox is in the software respository for a number of Linux distros and has been ported to many different OSes. As our article mentions, it emulates most essential hardware (including the x86 CPU) for running games so works on a wide variety of hardware. Of course since it emulates, it's possible the game may be a little slow if it was one of the last few games released for DOS and was fairly demanding, on some of the more obscure hardware; but this is unlikely to be a problem on any modern desktop or laptop computer, and is unlikely to be a problem for Star Control II in any case. As our article mentions, the only copyrighted ROMs that are likely relevant would be those of some of the sound hardware it can emulate, in particular the MT32. P.S. [8] is a decent site for help with running generic old games. Nil Einne (talk) 17:55, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

The reason DosBox doesn't need a binary dump from a real BIOS ROM is that DosBox emulates the binary interface a PC BIOS presents to subsequent programs. That is, it implements the same interrupt handlers (the IBM PC's primitive API/ABI, essentially) which are hooked by a real BIOS. So it emulates a BIOS (and VBE, I think) but doesn't run one. This is different from virtualisation solutions like VmWare and VirtualBox, which actually run real BIOS images (and I assume adapter ROM images for their fake video devices too). I don't know whence VirtualBox' one comes, buy VmWare's seems to be an actual licenced Phoenix BIOS. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 20:10, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

I have now installed DosBox. (yum install dosbox was all that was needed.) I have also bought an original copy of Star Control and Star Control II on CD-ROM from eBay. Once the CD-ROM arrives, can I just copy its contents to some directory on my hard disk, start up DosBox and run the game from there? JIP | Talk 09:39, 16 September 2012 (UTC)

34-Pin FDD to 40-Pin IDE

I recently bought a 3.5" Floppy Disk Drive and installed it in my PC's chassis, but when I proceeded to connect the cable, I found that the FDD side has a 34-Pin port and my motherboard has only 40-Pin IDE ports, is this possible to connect the FDD to the motherboard, do i need some kind of adapter and where to get one, thank you for any help you can provide. 27.104.166.178 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 19:30, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

The two standards are completely incompatible (despite their connectors looking similar) - compare the pinout described in the Parallel ATA with the floppy pinout. As you've discovered, few recent motherboards have FDD connections any more, and while some people (supposedly) sell PCI adapter cards with floppy drive controller interfaces and the appropriate header, I don't know if I'd be confident that you'd get those working. I recently found myself in a similar situation like you, with a couple of old but probably functional internal 3.5" floppy drives sitting around, and no machine that would take them. When I had to read and convert a bunch of ancient floppies a family member found in a box somewhere, I bought a new USB floppy drive and used that. It worked as flawlessly and as painlessly as you can imagine reading 200 glacially slow disks could ever reasonably get. Even though you've just bought that drive, the USB way is still probably the path of least suffering for you. In the worst case, you might be able to find an older PC that someone is discarding, and using it (assuming it does still have a FDD riser) to read that box of floppies I imagine you've just been handed. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 19:54, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

27.104: The similar-looking ports are utterly incompatible, even the voltage levels are way off. Trying to convert between them using pure copper (as opposed to an interface with a chip on it) will only fry the drive and probably your mobo.

If you want a cheap solution, try to get your hands on an old PC (late 90s/early 2000s should be decent), install an OS (Windows 98 or XP - chances are you'll have a genuine license for one of these which is not in use), and hook it up to your LAN. (Many mobos have a LAN connector on-board - otherwise chances are you can get used LAN interface cards for free, too)

Install the floppy drive there, and share it to the LAN - read access should be fine for retrieval.

If you don't feel like screwing around with hardware and OSes, get the USB solution, but you won't get the chance to boot from there (FWIW). And (grapevine - could anyone else add on this?) most USB FFDs suck at error correction too. If you have a lot of faulty floppies, having to wait for 30 seconds until the drive gives up is a pain.

Finlay: Don't underestimate the value of old floppies.

3.5" floppies are quite easily fucked up (usually they develop waves and bumps near the sheet-metal part), but I have some good 5.25s from the late 80s. When I did a scan of these last year, ALL of these (~80) were fully readable. So, cause I don't trust USB flash media in their fullest, I save small files which don't need multi-megabyte volumes anyway (batches, boot.ini, WP articles, etc) to floppies. Works like a charm, and inserting a floppy is not that much slower than inserting a flash drive anyway. - ¡Ouch! (^{hurt me} / _{more pain}) 08:55, 14 September 2012 (UTC)

I have a USB 3.5 drive and can boot my computer from 2008 using floppy disks just fine, except MS-DOS doesn't natively recognize the NTFS file system and therefore can't read the hard disk. To get it to work, I just had to change the boot settings in the BIOS. By the way, are there any USB 5.25 drives? Not that I have any of those old disks around anymore except one or two, but as someone that used 5.25 disks when I was really young, I've always thought they were cool. PCHS-NJROTC ^(Messages) 14:14, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

Back in the mid 2000s, before flash media really took off and 3.5 disks were still being used, a teacher gave us a homework assignment on the computer and instructed us to bring the assignment in on a floppy disk. So smart alack that I am, I brought in a blank 5.25 inch disk along with the 3.5 inch disk that actually had the assignment on it. The initial reaction was priceless, the other students (middle school aged at the time) were like "what the F is that thing" and the teacher was like "uh, I don't think I can accept that, I didn't know they even made those anymore" (this was a brand new school at the time, they didn't have anything old that could read the disk). PCHS-NJROTC ^(Messages) 14:35, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

(EC) I've had 5.25" floppies go moldy within 1 - 3 years (possibly less) in Malaysia so it doesn't seem that great to me.... Also from memory it's easier for the drive to scratch the disk if something goes wrong. On the flip side, it is easier to clean a 5.25" floppy then a 3.5" one although using a modified floppy drive does help either way (but you have to be careful not to press too hard else you will be to the one scratching the disk). While CDs can go moldy, from memory it's a lot less common with CDRs. But anyway a simple search shows people have evidentally developed USB to FDD interface adapters (primarily hobbyist) [9] [10] [11].

As for 3.5" floppies, evidentally some of those superfloppy attempts like the SuperDisk, Caleb UHD144 and Sony HiFD evidentally could read normal floppies and also used an IDE interface (for the internal version) so this may be another option (IDE is dying, but adapting to SATA is usually fairly simple and very cheap). Of course drive issues may be another matter, but I presume it's dosable with Linux. The Zip drive, which I'm pretty sure was the most successful attempt, didn't support 3.5" floppies (our article suggests this wasn't entirely coincidental). It also suggests perhaps using the 3.5" floppy compatible super floppies etc won't work as well as I suggested, I'm not sure if they're ATAPI (but the ATAPI article suggests SuperDisk at least was).

Nil Einne (talk) 15:46, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

BTW, funnily enough you can also get memory stick to floppy disk adapters [12] for old computers which don't support USB card readers (or whatever, I didn't quite try to understand why you'd want one) although their support is evidentally a bit hit and miss. (I may have seen some other sort of floppy disk adapter before but can't remember.) For CNC and other devices which connect to a floppy drive, you can alsog et devices which expose a USB memory stick to a floppy interface [13] [14] (including as a 5.25" drive although only '1.2 MB' not 360k). Nil Einne (talk) 15:51, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

I don't know if you really need to go that far back. A fair number of motherboards from 2008 still had floppy connectors, I'm using one now, something like [15]. So does one I used in a computer I put together in 2009 (something like [16]). A quick check confirms even some socket 1156 motherboards had them as well [17] [18] and AM3 ones [19] [20]. I'm pretty sure these will work fine, they don't look any different from a 2005 motherboard which I have used a flopp in. (Actually I may have used a floppy in either the 2008 or 2009 motherboard but I'm not sure.) Evidentally the chipset [21] is also one commonly used for fan speed monitoring and PWM control so if they used that specific chipset, they just have to do the wiring and enable support in the BIOS. IIRC Asus also uses ITE chipsets. It does seem like this practice has finally died with AM3+ and LGA 1155 motherboards from my quick looks (at least with Gigabyte), but still no reason to go so far back. Of course if you're using a microATX motherboard (although even then .... [22] [23]) or an OEM one, you're far more likely to be SOL, but that that primarily suggests you just need to be a bit more careful. And I do distinctly remember in 2004 or I think even 2005, new Dell computers at the University of Auckland either had floppies or recordable CD.

And I'm pretty sure Windows 7 supports 5.25" floppies (it definitely supports 3.5" ones), I strongly suspect Windows 8 does as well. (I think I've used an internal floppy in either Vista or Windows 7, I've definitely never used a USB one.) There is some discussion here indicating some problems with Windows 7 and GB AM3 mobos and floppies [24] [25] (yes the later is usenet but I'm lazy to try and find it in better form) but the second discussion also mentions problems with USB floppies. (The discussions also indicate you might have more luck on Linux.) Although some of the people asking questions don't seem that competent, I wonder whether Windows cares about the floppy being enabled in the BIOS and the person doing it didn't know about this because nowadays for normal configs you rarely need to visit the BIOS. (I note no one mentioned the BIOS except for disabling HPET, I presume the person doing that did make sure everything else was right. Well ignoring irrelevent stuff like floppies for BIOS flash.) I wouldn't be as confident as FMW that a USB floppy would just work. It's perhaps worth remembering Windows Vista took so long to come out after XP, in particular late 2006 and with Windows XP, if it didn't support your hard IDE/SCSI/whatever HD interface chipset, you either had to slipstream drivers into the media or use a floppy, Windows XP was not capable of loading drivers from anywhere else.

In other words, since you obviously don't plan to run the stuff of the floppies, I don't know whether you really need to go so old. You can be fairly guaranteed of floppy support in such an old computer whereas it's less guaranteed in a newer one, but you could always do a small amount of research/checking. Unless things are very odd in the US or whatever location you're referring to, finding a 2005 or so computer isn't going to be much harder or cheaper then a circa 2000 one.

Nil Einne (talk) 15:46, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

To clarify things, I suggested 98 or XP not because the new OSes couldn't handle floppies (they can) but becuase you want a snappy little OS on a PC that old, not a slow-moving Jabba of an OS. And because the WGA thing is a royal ain in the pass.

"I've had 5.25" floppies go moldy within 1 - 3 years (possibly less) in Malaysia so it doesn't seem that great to me..." High humidity can be an issue. (Won't it make 3.5 disks rust at the edge of the metal hub?) I remember vaguely that floppies are for <80% RelHum only. Unfortunately, I don't have the package here, only the individual disks and their paper slips.

As to "The Zip drive, which I'm pretty sure was the most successful attempt, didn't support 3.5" floppies", I think they are mecanically too different. Floppies are flexible disks about 1/64" thick, while Zip disks are massive 3.5" slabs about 1/8" in thickness (guesstimating by Mark 0 instrumentation). The a: drive (aka LS120) was another popular super-floppy. - ¡Ouch! (^{hurt me} / _{more pain}) 07:43, 17 September 2012 (UTC)

September 14

How do you use Dia?

Just kidding. This is of course not the kind of question that should be posted here -- though it's not so different from many that are posted, and then even get polite and helpful answers.

Well, half kidding. I've just encountered "Wikipedia:How to draw a diagram with Dia" for the first time. This started off as a (terrible) article in mainspace, as far back as 2003. I have just now fiddled with it so that in various, mostly trivial ways it's perhaps rather less obviously terrible than it was an hour ago. (Sample: "I like Dia".) But it's still terrible. I neither have used Dia nor have any pressing need to do so, but if you, reading this, do know Dia and are in a pedagogic/altruistic mood, then Wikipedia:How to draw a diagram with Dia might be worth some of your time. -- Hoary (talk) 08:43, 14 September 2012 (UTC)

The page probably doesn't belong in WP space either. It should be moved to wikibooks or wikiversity. Taemyr (talk) 13:44, 14 September 2012 (UTC)

please how can i compile a kernel which can be used in the cdrom:/isolinux

Question moved from the misc reference desk. --ColinFine (talk) 11:13, 14 September 2012 (UTC)

if i have nothing,but i want to generate a cdrom with linux system,such as fedora 16. then i get the kernel source from "kernel.org".now,i need to compile a kernel for isolinux/,and i saw it's name usually called "vmlinuz",and i need initrd.img too,actually more,such as isolinux.cfg,isolinux.bin and so on. but the "vmlinuz" is different from i compiled before which be put on /boot in the exist system. i really want to know how can i compile it.please help me.thanks very much. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Huluobo007 (talk • contribs) 08:31, 14 September 2012 (UTC)

It sounds like you're trying to figure out how to make a bootable CD on your own. Instead, I suggest you look for one of the many bootable Linux disk images already out there, such as Damn Small Linux. One thing to be aware of, however, is that a CDROM version of Linux can't be changed, meaning you can't store preferences, get upgrades to software, etc. You might want to use a CDROM in conjunction with a flash drive, to store those type of changes. This also allows you to go back to the CD alone, should any of those changes mess things up. StuRat (talk) 20:42, 14 September 2012 (UTC)

See http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Building_a_custom_kernel. But I agree with StuRat that it's probably a bad idea for you to try this. Looie496 (talk) 23:31, 14 September 2012 (UTC)

Google Reader not working with Google Alerts feeds

Hi,

Today, for the first time, Google reader tells me that I am not allowed to display feeds from Google alerts. However, feeds from other providers are displayed as usual in Google Reader. Moreover, if I copy the feed URL from Google Reader and paste it into my browser's address bar, the feed content is displayed normally. Any ideas?

Thanks. Apokrif (talk) 12:56, 14 September 2012 (UTC)

It works again (with a different browser on a different machine, though). Apokrif (talk) 19:05, 14 September 2012 (UTC)

Can you test it out on the old machine and browser, to see if it's fixed there, too ? StuRat (talk) 20:35, 14 September 2012 (UTC)

Can I disable double-click on title bar ?

I still want to be able to maximize windows in the other ways, but not by this method, as my tired old mouse often double clicks when I try to click once. I'm on Windows XP SP3. StuRat (talk) 18:29, 14 September 2012 (UTC)

I doubt that there is. Looked around the menus and control panel in an XP virtual machine, nothing relevant. The question has been asked before: [26], but got no answers as far as I can see. Googling for registry hacks returned this, in which some answers refer to the choice of using double or single clicks to open a folder (which is selectable by opening explorer, selecting tools, folder options), which I realize is not what you're asking, others suggested searching for third party mouse management software, and others suggested experimenting with the double click speed in the control panel mouse applet. The last suggestion might be worth a try in your case. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 11:23, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

Thanks. How about if I want to globally disable maximize everywhere. Is that possible ? (I can always resize the window to be as big as I need.) StuRat (talk) 14:20, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

My interpretation of the answers to the second link was that that too would involve some add-on program which can globally intercept mouse and windows events, and perhaps intercept the WM_MAXIMIZE message, using global hooks (???) I'm not sure if this makes sense at all (someone please confirm or refute!), and if if does, maybe no-one has invested the time it takes to create such a program, for which there may be limited demand. If it makes sense, and you have the programming tools and skills, maybe you'd like to try and write such a program yourself. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 20:06, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

Thanks. Sounds easier to just replace the mouse, though. StuRat (talk) 20:13, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

Note that the double-click speed setting in the Mouse control panel sets the maximum interval between clicks that is still considered a double-click. (Beyond the maximum interval, clicks are considered as two separate clicks.) StuRat would want to set a minimum interval between clicks where the double-click recognition starts. (Below the minimum, the fast double-click is considered a single click.) The closest idea like this I know of is a FilterKeys option in the Accessibility control panel. There's an option there to ignore repeat keys under a minimum interval, but that's only for keyboard keys, not mouse buttons.

When my mouse buttons at work started triggering double-clicks when I pressed once, I made a temporary solution using AutoHotkey. I mapped the mouse buttons to nothing to disable them, and mapped number pad / and * to generate the left and right mouse buttons. (This was inspired by MouseKeys, but I only needed the mouse buttons.)

LButton::
return

RButton::
return

NumpadDiv::LButton
NumpadMult::RButton

However, this quickly grew tiresome and I got the mouse replaced. --Bavi H (talk) 21:18, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

Yea, that could get annoying. StuRat (talk) 23:42, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

I did have one mouse once that was giving extra clicks that I managed to fix for a while by opening it up and cleaning out miscellaneous stuff from. But... if you're not really picky a new mouse is like $10, and if you are picky, it's probably still less than $100. :) ¦ Reisio (talk) 05:53, 16 September 2012 (UTC)

How to download a video from a website to then upload it onto YouTube?

When there's no "download" option on the video? Thank you. Timothyhere (talk) 21:58, 14 September 2012 (UTC)

What website? 87.112.131.17 (talk) 22:43, 14 September 2012 (UTC)

^ ¦ Reisio (talk) 05:58, 16 September 2012 (UTC)

And what video? It's possible you shouldn't be doing that because the video may be copyrighted. - Purplewowies (talk) 06:37, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

Downloading Torrents on Wi-Fi

I went to a restaurant that I knew had wi-fi specifically so I could download torrents, but it's not working. It was working earlier today at McDonald's via Wayport. Are places blocking torrents these days some how or is it more likely something wrong on my end? 68.56.137.137 (talk) 23:20, 14 September 2012 (UTC) Additionally, they're using Comcast, so could it be Comcast blocking it? I know they used to throttle P2P downloaders. 68.56.137.137 (talk) 23:22, 14 September 2012 (UTC)

Many free anonymous wi-fi hotspots block torrent downloads. I wouldn't suppose anything wrong at your end. I just wonder that not all block them. OsmanRF34 (talk) 12:09, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

Ignorance :) ¦ Reisio (talk) 06:03, 16 September 2012 (UTC)

Check if your torrent client uses a new random port each time you start it; you may have just lucked out and gotten a bad port. Alternatively, check if your torreent client isn't using a new random port each time you start it; you may be using a super popular port for torrenting that's bound to more frequently cut you off.
They definitely can block you though. Even if they aren't trying to block torrenting specifically, they might be implementing bandwidth quotas per connection or any number of other things. ¦ Reisio (talk) 06:03, 16 September 2012 (UTC)

Using Siri with other languages

I really dislike the default United States language configuration for Siri so I played around by switching the language to UK and Australian English in the settings. I discovered that as a result of this change, Siri will only do web searches unless I switch it back to my default language. So, in order to find map directions to a business, I had to change it. Does anyone know why this is and if there is a way to modify the horrible US default so that it works in either UK or Australian English? This is the kind of nonsense that makes me think twice about buying another iPhone. The user should be able to have the freedom to modify these types of features. Viriditas (talk) 23:25, 14 September 2012 (UTC)

Step one would be to jailbreak it, since that's the only way you can modify the iPhone in any way. 68.56.137.137 (talk) 23:45, 14 September 2012 (UTC)

I have an old 3GS lying around that I don't use. Can I run Linux on it? I would like to program with python on it, but I think the PythonMath app might be limited due to the same interference from Apple. 166.147.89.145 (talk) 00:15, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

On your last point ("The user should be able to..."), Apple Computer disagrees with you about 80% of the time. The reason for their products' success is largely because THEY design and control the entire "user experience". In order for you to muck around with it, they would have to give you some control over your experience. Capice? 184.100.91.176 (talk) 23:54, 14 September 2012 (UTC)

I understand how the ecosystem works; it's just that not allowing the user to change the sound of Siri's voice, and then disabling the features when they do change it, goes too far. You should not punish a user for trying to improve the user experience, and yet pretty much every computer company does. Viriditas (talk) 00:08, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

I doubt if they are intentionally punishing you. Most likely they disabled that combo because they didn't have time to test out every combo before they released it. This is the type of problem you should expect when you live on the bleeding edge of technology. If you want more stable software, wait 'til it's perfected. StuRat (talk) 01:41, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

You're better off asking at an Apple Store than here. The Computing Desk is a known haven of anti-Apple partisans (for good or ill reasons) most of whom don't have the technology in question and don't actually care about finding the answer (unless the answer is "don't buy from Apple"). --Mr.98 (talk) 02:46, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

Without getting into the arguments above, our very own Siri (software) article links to [27] which while from the 2011 launch appears to confirm there are a number of limitations if you either aren't located in the US or don't use US English. (I found this out via a search for 'australian english siri web searches', while the results weren't clearly helpful, I decided the main Apple Siri FAQ and our article looked interesting enough to check out to see if they had useful info.) I presume this hasn't changed. Of course if you follow the iPhone or Apple's developments at all, you probably know iOS 6 is due out soon along with the iPhone 5. These [28] [29] results, also found with a simple search ('siri ios 6.0 uk english'), seem to suggest the limitations would be reduced with iOS 6. This source [30] seems to suggest you'd be told the same thing by Apple support so I somewhat doubt you're gain anything fruitful from going in to an Apple Store. This source [31] does recommend a sort of work around in the mean time (use Siri to use Google).

Incidentally StuRat is likely part way to the truth. I suspect this has more to do with what Apple decided to support (based on the amount of testing, coding and database development needed) rather then primarily for testing reasons. Historically with the iPhone, Apple has tended to concentrate on the US first (other companies also do that to some extent in some cases). While they could have enabled UK or Australian English for people in the US and US businesses, most likely they thought it unimportant enough not to worry about. I expect they would likely want to do more work on the voice and/or the database info (that is sent to the TTS engine) before enabling it. (I don't know the details of the TTS engine or database info, but it wouldn't surprise me if it's slightly more then pure text and the voice files even though they're TTS do have some optimisations for saying the business info.)

Of course it's also possible that Apple make the unfortunate assumption (and will continue to do so in iOS 6) that if you're using UK English you must live in the UK and if you're using Australian English you must live in Australia. These sort of silly assumptions aren't exactly unique to Apple, although as some of the earlier contributors said, with Apple that if they decide it should be that way, you often have no choice but to go along particularly with iOS devices where the amount modification with jailbreaking is limited. (I should mention I've never used an iPhone but have used an iPad 2 a decent amount.)

Nil Einne (talk) 14:27, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

Thank you. According to your links, this limitation has been known about for almost a year. So what has Apple been doing this whole time? I'm starting to look seriously at Android now. I can't handle this kind of incompetence. Viriditas (talk) 00:08, 16 September 2012 (UTC)

Be sure you research Android first, to make sure it doesn't have similar limitations. StuRat (talk) 00:17, 16 September 2012 (UTC)

All I'm asking for is to be woken up in the morning with the voice of Karen Jacobsen. Is that so difficult? Viriditas (talk) 00:29, 16 September 2012 (UTC)

Probably. This company is trying personalised speech synthesis i.e. primarily for people to get synthesers to sound like themselves [32]. And Microsoft Research is evidentally trying it for different languages [33]. But while some companies have use celebrity voices for stuff like GPSes this isn't usually in the form of TTS. I'm not aware of any company bothering with celebrity voices for TTS, I'm guessing given the cost issues, quality issues, etc, no one really thinks it really worth it. What's the use a Karen Jacobsen TTS, if your Australian English TTS is so obviously to the listener not a real person but a TTS? Nil Einne (talk) 05:51, 16 September 2012 (UTC)

FYI...the Australian voice on Siri is Karen Jacobsen's. That was the voice I was trying to use. Viriditas (talk) 06:31, 16 September 2012 (UTC)

Oooops, sorry.... Hmm per Siri (software) and [34], it sounds like you're right. But I didn't check out her article properly, it seems she is known more for her voice work then anything else rather then being a true celebrity TTS as I thought you were asking for. From the article on her and also [35], it seems both the Australian and British voices were recorded in 2002 by Scansoft which probably highlights another reason why you're unlikely to see a full featured real celebrity TTS for a long time. A tremendous amount of work goes in to refining the engines with the recorded voices after the recording, starting with a new voice rather then an existing one will take quite a long while to get up to scratch. BTW, the Venturebeat source confirms something highlighted in the earlier sources. The recording sessions are incredibly long and boring, and being a good classical voice actor (like those used for games, animated shows etc) actually probably isn't much help (they don't want you to be able to give good expression in to what you say, they want you to say it in a flat, neutral and even manner); i.e. another two nails in the idea of a true full featured celebrity TTS. Nil Einne (talk) 07:25, 16 September 2012 (UTC)

It's 2012 going on 2013. We've been promised a virtual personal assistant for a long time now, and I'm sick of waiting. All I'm asking for is technology we already have and use—the ability to wake up with Siri out of the box (no add-on apps) as an alarm, get out of bed with her informing me about the weather and any major headlines, and then telling me about what e-mail I have waiting and whether she should read it, etc. I want Siri to contact me throughout the day with information, not act as a glorified voice assistant who helps me write a text message. She should announce my calls and ask me if I want to take them or let them go to voice mail...as a default feature. She should be able to perform tasks for me in the background, such as checking on flights, announcing when they board or when they land, order a pizza for me (hold the anchovies) and even make an appointment with the dentist. What can Siri do right now that will save me time? Nothing. She should even interface with Wi-Fi-enabled devices. If I weigh myself in the morning, and she notices that my weight is off when compared to my exercise app, she should make a comment and suggestion about the day's meal plans. The medical applications for this kind of virtual nurse is endless. She should be able to interface with the car's computer and tell you when your next oil change is needed, and set a calendar date for an appointment with the mechanic. Etc. The list goes on for pages. And let the user choose the voice! The default American English voice is terrible. Apple has really, really dropped the ball on this. Viriditas (talk) 10:21, 16 September 2012 (UTC)

September 15

Dictation

My new AppleMac allows me to dictate a letter etc. But I do not know how to verbally instruct the programme to 'return' to make a new paragraph. Is there a way to do this I wonder? --85.211.136.133 (talk) 08:59, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

Doesn't it recognize commands like comma, new line, new paragraph? OsmanRF34 (talk) 12:06, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

Don't know, had not thought of trying those!--85.211.136.133 (talk) 13:14, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

Or maybe "blank line" ? Such a program may have an escape sequence to allow you to specify a command, versus adding the text "blank line" to the text. It might actually require hitting the escape key on the keyboard, or may recognize a rarely spoken sequence as an escape sequence. If you give us the name of the dictation program, perhaps we can research it. StuRat (talk) 14:17, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

I found a list of "shortcut words" here [36].  Card Zero  (talk) 16:51, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

If it doesn't use an escape sequence, you could have trouble with sentences like this: "We need to question Mark on his new line of all caps, and underscore our need for a quote from him." StuRat (talk) 19:43, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

Thats was brilliant 'CardZero', many thanks. Trying to remember that lot is going to be fun!.--85.211.199.83 (talk) 18:06, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

Memory leak in lsass.exe, windows xp SP3

The critical process lsass.exe uses an enormous amount of virtual memory - after a few hours it can go up to 1Gb. I've tried every method I could find on the internet, including this hotfix (when installed it said it's not needed). What causes this? What can I do? --85.65.26.75 (talk) 18:12, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

An upgrade to Windows 7 might be considered. Of course, any upgrade carries it's own risks, but a problem this severe may warrant taking those risks. StuRat (talk) 19:26, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

Also, how do you know it's that process filling the virtual memory ? StuRat (talk) 19:28, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

Task manager -> Processes. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.65.26.75 (talk) 04:33, 16 September 2012 (UTC)

I looked at this [37] Microsoft blog post, and at a lot of confusing questions and answers on Q&A sites and forums. I gather that the active directory database, called NTDS.DIT, is involved, and yours is probably huge. For what it's worth, I too have XP, SP3, and my lsass.exe only ever uses slightly more than 1 MB, and I don't seem to have an NTDS.DIT file (or an ntds directory) at all. Does your computer act as a server for a home network, by any chance?  Card Zero  (talk) 15:13, 16 September 2012 (UTC)

RealPlayer Downloader - works in IE, but not in Chrome

The title basically says it all. I have Windows 7 Enterprise, Chrome 21 and IE 9, plus RealPlayer Downloader, downloaded just yesterday. The Downloader works fine in IE, but not in Chrome. It doesn't display the "Download This Video" button at all in Chrome. I prefer Chrome. (Apart from this problem.) Ideas? Suggestions? HiLo48 (talk) 23:38, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

I think it's only supposed to work in IE. I don't remember it working for Firefox or Opera when I used it. - Purplewowies (talk) 06:10, 16 September 2012 (UTC)

In the Download & Recording part of Preferences, it has an option (which I have selected) that says "Enable Web Download & Recording for these installed browsers:", and lists both browsers, even with their pretty icons, so.... HiLo48 (talk) 06:36, 16 September 2012 (UTC)

Huh. I was likely using an old version, since I haven't used it in about a year. - Purplewowies (talk) 06:57, 16 September 2012 (UTC)

September 16

Windows 7 logbook?

If you wnated to know what program run in W7 and when, is there a logbook somewhere installed? — Preceding unsigned comment added by W7q (talk • contribs) 12:29, 16 September 2012 (UTC)

buying internet

Just moved into a new house and I want to connect to the internet but no idea how. The last people had some virgin media thing, there's some internet cable sockets under the stairs and a black box with light on wired up to them somehow. So who do I contact to get things organised so I can get internet to my computer, and how do I do so?

82.132.244.35 (talk) 13:56, 16 September 2012 (UTC)

Uk electricity

having fitted two mini powerline adaptors,in order to link my PC Router to my Tv(in another room)and to discover that it does not work... I refer to an instruction page which informs me that the non -connection may be due to the possibility that I am operating within "different phases of a four-wire three -phase system" How can I confirm this ,is there a way around it176.24.143.105 (talk) 15:30, 16 September 2012 (UTC)