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November 12

how to tweak an entire color pallete at once?

I've got a CSS theme that I like. It consists of perhaps a dozen colors that all go well together. There is a "cornerstone color" that the rest are basing off of - lighter, darker, complimentary, etc. I have all the hexcodes.

What I'd like to do is change the cornerstone color to my color of choice, and have all the related colors follow this "shift" appropriately.

In theory this is just (original color pallete) + (constant shift) = final pallete but I have no idea how one could go about doing this in hexcodes. The Masked Booby (talk) 03:20, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

It would be a waste of time because we already have stuff like http://colorschemedesigner.com/ and https://kuler.adobe.com/. If you chose the cornerstone color those tools will do the rest. Trio The Punch (talk) 03:27, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

Note that your method may exceed the maximum values. For example, if you have RGB values of (200,200,200) on a 0-255 scale, and add 100 to each, that gives you (300,300,300). What would you do then ? StuRat (talk) 07:14, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

You limit them at 255, obviously. --Mr.98 (talk) 13:50, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

Then you end up with a color which was (200,200,200) now being indistinguishable from one that was (255,255,255). Rather than just adding, a more complex method is needed to ensure that each color stays unique. A nonlinear gamma correction histogram is one method used. Finley talks about this below. StuRat (talk) 19:07, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

How to do it: basically you'll probably need to use Javascript for this. Pure CSS has some ability to computed values but support varies by browser and it's probably too much of a pain anyway to worry about. So set up your layout, and give everything an extra class descriptor that tells you what color it should be (e.g. "cornerstone" vs. "cornerstoneplus1" vs. "cornerstoneplus2" and so on). These can just be appended on (with a space) to any other class descriptors you have. Then set up a function that is launched in the BODY's OnLoad event that changes your CSS rules to set your "cornerstone" class to an initial color, then runs through as many variation classes as you want, and uses the RGB to calculate their changed colors. You may have to do things like put limits or cliff on them so they don't go over 255 but this is trivial. If you need more help on this, just ask. A basic primer for changing CSS rules on the fly with Javascript is here. You should be aware, though, that raw adding offset values to RGB is not necessarily going to produce nice results — generally speaking, if you just add equal-ish number to RGB, you just get lighter colors. That might be what you want, but there may be some tinkering involved. --Mr.98 (talk) 13:48, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

Reasoning about colour in RGB space can be counter-intuitive. It may be clearer to convert the RGB points into HSL or HSV, perform the transformations there, and convert back to RGB. Simply changing each point's hue coordinate will rotate it around the colour wheel - you can apply the same change to each point and the system will keep the same perceptual distance between them. If you want to alter the points' other values (saturation and {value or lightness}), you might apply a uniform scaling factor to each - at least as a first attempt; a non-uniform scaling curve might have better perceptual characteristics (cf Gamma correction), as S and L (or V) run from 0->1, so one can blow out the palette (where the clamped values are clustered near 0 or 1) if one isn't careful. This question has some sample code, and links to RGB->HSV->RGB converter code. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 15:43, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

You can script this pretty easily using ImageMagick, particularly its -modulate command. ¦ Reisio (talk) 18:34, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

wifi problem

Hello. I have a wifi and two laptops, one windows 7, one kubuntu linux, in my house (NZ). I use internet banking but when I try to log in to the bank from the linux machine, both machines immediately lose connection to the internet. This happens repeatably. Every single time. Over and over again. Internet banking from the windows machine is fine, AFAICS. Also, I can log in to my other bank account (in the UK) fine from either machine. What gives? Robinh (talk) 06:37, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

SMD mounting

Hi theRE! I got a decent solder station an was contemplating installing an SMD based chip to one of my PCBs

So I JUSt wanted to ask you guys- is it appropriate and ok to do it or do you need some more sophisticated hardware to have SMD chips soldered with no problems???

I havent done any smds before though COuld you fk it up if something goes wrong or something — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.35.14.23 (talk) 11:38, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

There are many, many, many guides for mounting SMD components at home including videos ones etc on the internet. The most common recommendation is using soldering paste and a toaster oven with a fine tip soldering iron for any touch up needed. It's not entirely clear what your decent soldering station consists of, it may be useful for touchups or if any reworks are needed and perhaps also for placing the components initially. Particularly if your soldering stations has a hot air gun, it may also be suitable if you only need to place one component, but longer term if you plan to be resonably regularly working with SMD components you may want to consider another solution. Either way, reading the many, many, many existing guides out there should help a great deal. Nil Einne (talk) 12:32, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

Flashing arbitrary code to firmware chips on modern PCs

I'm curious about upcoming Windows 8 devices and current devices. In general, do many motherboards verify the BIOS or EFI firmware in the chip? This was talked about as a way of getting around the secure boot requirements for Windows 8. --Melab±1 ☎ 22:57, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

Most x86 motherboards which still use BIOS do not verify the BIOS firmware in any way other then via a checksum. This should be obvious since with both Windows Vista and Windows 7, using a modified BIOS to stimulate SLIC and OEM licencing was a very common method of getting around the online activation requirement. I believe it's the same for many UEFI devices. However if Secure Boot is enabled, then I'm resonably sure you shouldn't be able to do this (whether you can in practice I can't say), that's after all one of the points of Secure Point. All in all, it's a moot point since secure boot is not a big concern with x86 devices anyway as you are supposed to be able to disable it there. It's ARM devices where it's a big concern and there have been few ARM motherboards intended to be user customised if we ignore developmental platforms. Nil Einne (talk) 07:39, 13 November 2012 (UTC)

Windows 8 does not itself have secure boot requirements, and you can boot Windows 8 off a current BIOS machine without UEFI or TPM right now, perfectly legally. The requirements for UEFI Secure Boot come from the Windows 8 Hardware Certification Requirements. Those are the standards a PC has to pass in order to display the "ready for windows 8" logo; more importantly, the large OEM pricing deals that companies like HP and Dell sign with Microsoft entail they only ship Windows 8 on certified hardware. The crucial part for this topic is the section entitled System.Fundamentals.Firmware.UEFISecureBoot (which begins on page 121 of the PDF). That mandates UEFI with SecureBoot, shipped enabled, with the Microsoft key in its key database (section 2). Section 8 mandates that UEFI boot device updates must use a cryptographic signature (so you can no longer flash a custom ROM image on to it, like Coreboot). But note that nowhere is there a requirement that Microsoft's key be the only key in the UEFI key database. And crucially section 17 (p124) prescribes this mandatory behaviour: "It shall be possible for a physically present user to use the Custom Mode firmware setup option to modify the contents of the Secure Boot signature databases and the PK." And section 18 says, again for non-ARM systems, that a physically present user can disable secure boot altogether (or, for a server, an admin connected over secure channel to hardware like a Dell DRAC card rather than just "physically present"). So you can disable secure boot, and you can add new keys to the key database. This posting from Matthew Garrett at Red Hat talks about adding your own keys, so you can get a verifying boot chain when you're booting something other than Windows 8 - having this is useful for Linux (etc.) in general, as it greatly hampers rootkits - and it's really important for vertical linux deployments for sensitive devices like voting machines, ATMs, and lottery kiosks. One thing I don't fully understand is verification for UEFI option ROMs (the PE32 binaries present in flash memory devices on adapter cards like graphics and network adapters) - UEFI SecureBoot requires that these be signature-verified too: I'm assuming this means that the ROMs in a Win8-certified machine will have to have certificates signed by Microsoft's RSA key (which is public) meaning that a non-Microsoft bootloader should be able to use that public key to verify the options ROMs (I think). -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 17:54, 13 November 2012 (UTC)

November 13

Keyboard alphabets

Why are keyboard alphabets arranged in irregular way rather than being in alphabetic order ? Sunny Singh (DAV) (talk) 16:45, 13 November 2012 (UTC)

See QWERTY. The design originated with early typewriters, and was somewhat driven by the need to make a separation on the keyboard between pairs of letters that commonly occur together, so as to reduce the incidence of typebar collision and jams. Gandalf61 (talk) 17:00, 13 November 2012 (UTC)

Also note that the arrangement of keys for optimal typing efficiency isn't alphabetical, regardless of the device used. For example, one goal is to use each finger about the same amount, when touch typing. Ideally, if we could have planned it all from the start, we would have arranged the keyboard for optimal typing efficiency, and then set that order as the definition of alphabetical order. StuRat (talk) 18:49, 13 November 2012 (UTC)

See Dvorak Simplified Keyboard. HiLo48 (talk) 21:32, 13 November 2012 (UTC)

Open source, but not for all?

Can a software be open source for Linux user, but not for Windows users? OsmanRF34 (talk) 18:34, 13 November 2012 (UTC)

"Open sources" means that the source code is openly published. It is not related to how it is used. Ruslik_Zero 18:37, 13 November 2012 (UTC)

I disagree. Since different code is needed to run in the two environments, that code unique to Windows can be kept proprietary, while that code in common and unique to Linux is not. Of course, presumably most of the code is in common between the two, with only small bits needing customization by platform. Therefore, if somebody wanted to, they could take the Linux source and add the missing Windows portions to make it work there. StuRat (talk) 18:41, 13 November 2012 (UTC)

Also depends on exactly what is meant by "Open Source". For instance:

• if something was licensed under the GPL you couldn't release another version containing the original code and also proprietary code as StuRat describes (because the new version would be derivative of the original and therefore would have to be released in its entirety under the GPL)
• if something was released with a Modified BSD license the this would be OK

davidprior ^t/_c 20:50, 13 November 2012 (UTC)

Actually, if it is your own code, you can release both the original version under the GPL, and a proprietary extended version. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 20:59, 13 November 2012 (UTC)

Right enough! davidprior ^t/_c 21:17, 13 November 2012 (UTC)

That is, 100% your own code. :) ¦ Reisio (talk) 23:00, 13 November 2012 (UTC)

Well it doesn't matter if it's 100% your own code, what matters more is you have a copyright release/assignment or otherwise have permission from anyone who contributed code to release it under the other licence. And it's worth remembering that there are plenty of examples of software with both a GPL version and a proprietary version although the difference is usually in stuff other then OS support. Even more when we include other open source licences. And note as StuRat said, while you can do whatever you want with your proprietary version, you can't stop others releasing a GPL version using your GPL code to support Windows users. You could perhaps try to intentionally make this hard but that will often mean your code is poor. And note in case there's any confusion that being open source even GPL doesn't generally stop you selling the software whether for all or only certain users. Although if it is a copyleft licence like GPL, you usually have to include something like support otherwise people will simply fully legally get your software from other sources. Nil Einne (talk) 13:01, 14 November 2012 (UTC)

Indeed, it doesn't matter if it's 100% your own code if you've made every contributor agree to their contributions being licensed the same as what is 100% your code. ¦ Reisio (talk) 01:12, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

If by "open source" you mean "conforming to the principles outlined by the Open Source Initiative", then the answer is probably not. (If you're using a different definition of "open source", the answer depends on what definition you are using.) The Open Source Definition requires "No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor", "License Must Not Restrict Other Software" and particularly "License Must Be Technology-Neutral". I don't know if there is an official pronouncement on the issue, but those terms would indicate that a license restricting use to Linux systems would probably disqualify it from official OSI recognition. You can certainly do things like release a Linux version under an Open Source license and the Windows version under some other license (or not at all), but I don't think you can restrict someone who has the Linux version from making and distributing their own Windows-usable derivative work from it while still being OSI-approved. -- 205.175.124.30 (talk) 23:38, 14 November 2012 (UTC)

Visual basic for MS Access

Due to decisions well beyond my control, a version "upgrade" of Access has been unleashed upon our office. In attempting to fix a different error, I appear to have introduced another one, and now I'm actually having to fix some code in a database I didn't create. I did C++ and Pascal back in the day, so I'm not completely computer illiterate, but I'm no expert. I'm attempting to do something extremely basic, which is have a button preview a report on screen, and having problems with syntax and the help isn't helping.

We'll call the report in question "Foo Bar Rhubarb" for the sake of argument. The system auto-completes:

Private Sub Inspections_Assigned_Click() End Sub I'm polevaulting to the conclusion that any actual code goes between those two statements. Based on MS's website help files (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/317113) I'm getting the following syntax: oAccess.DoCmd.OpenReport(ReportName:="Foo Bar Rhubarb", _ View:=Access.AcView.acViewPreview)

That seems like it should be enough, but the editor immediately whines that it expects an "=" after the statement. I've tried entering just an "=" as well as an "="Foo Bar Rhubarb"" and the first results in a editor error and the second results in an error when trying to use the button.

I'm hoping I'm missing something idiotic, as this really shouldn't be that complicated. 150.148.0.65 (talk) 19:12, 13 November 2012 (UTC)

It's been years since I did any Access/VB work, but do you know what the version of Access it used to use? What version did you upgrade to? The article you referenced I believe shows the 'newer' VB.NET syntax. Really old versions of Access used VBA which has a different syntax. (If this is the case, try removing the parenthesis. If that still doesn't work, I'm not sure if VBA supported named parameters.) A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 22:25, 13 November 2012 (UTC)

Access 2010, which is part of my problem, I was looking at the help file for an old version. The new version has a macro system that allows you to bypass any direct manipulation of code, for which I am thankful because I always managed to mangle syntax. 150.148.0.65 (talk) 01:04, 14 November 2012 (UTC)

I'm no Access expert, but based on my experience with Visual Basic for Excel, I'd suggest the syntax: intReturn = oAccess.DoCmd.OpenReport(ReportName:="Foo Bar Rhubarb", _ View:=Access.AcView.acViewPreview) 80.195.151.245 (talk) 10:10, 14 November 2012 (UTC)

You either need to remove the parens or add a return variable. VB is really picky about when it thinks you are calling a function versus a statement. If there are parens VB expects you to put the result into a variable. So in general it is result = object.Method(blah) or object.Method blah but never object.Method(blah). --Mr.98 (talk) 16:57, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

Portions of videos

A recent work for the university required me to record a video of myself giving an oral explanation of a certain topic. The academic part (the speech, the supporting elements, etc.) is done. However, as I was alone, I left the camera in a fixed place, recording it all, and stopped it when it was ready. Now I would need a cleanup of the video, removing some parts of it (the seconds when I go from the camera to my place, a part where I made a mistake and started the porton of the speech again, etc.) would need a free software to play the video and set checkpoints: from start to here, delete, from here to here, keep, etc; and then get a new video file with the portions I want. Which one do you suggest me? Cambalachero (talk) 23:34, 13 November 2012 (UTC)

What Operating System are you on ? StuRat (talk) 00:38, 14 November 2012 (UTC)

Windows XP Cambalachero (talk) 00:53, 14 November 2012 (UTC)

I love VirtualDub and VirtualDubMod, once in a while I use Avidemux. See also Comparison of video editing software. Trio The Punch (talk) 09:54, 14 November 2012 (UTC)

Done, thanks for the help Cambalachero (talk) 12:36, 14 November 2012 (UTC)

November 14

Changes in emacs to a C file are ignored when tested in the terminal

I've hit a snag while attempting to work on a lab for school, and I can't understand what I am doing wrong. This lab involves producing ASCII art out of sterisks, specifically making a "T" out of stars. My problem doesn't even let me edit my work, it ignores any changes I've made since I saved my first draft of the starT.c file.

I am repeatedly editing starT.c in emacs, yet when I ./starT it does not reflect my changes, though I am doing ctrl-x ctrl-s after every change. I can verify this because I typed gibberish code into the program but it did not affect it in any way.

So, my steps are:

1) reach /cs/student/myname/cs16/lab03

2) type "emacs starT.c &"

3) edit the code and ctrl-x ctrl-s

4) in terminal type "./starT 3 3" (I've been using 3 by 3 for my default test)

5) It ignores any changes I made in step 3.

Do you know why? 128.111.43.43 (talk) 02:35, 14 November 2012 (UTC)

In Emacs do M-x compile and for the compile command do

gcc starT.c && ./starT 3 3

Hcobb (talk) 03:03, 14 November 2012 (UTC)

Hcobb is right. Your starT.c file is a plain text source file, and you need to compile it to obtain an executable file which will finally print out your art. (Please look at articles I've linked in the sentence above.) --CiaPan (talk) 06:32, 14 November 2012 (UTC)

Compile and link, that is. Hopefully the above command will do both. StuRat (talk) 07:38, 14 November 2012 (UTC)

You'll need to do

gcc starT.c -o starT

to create an executable named "StarT", you'll probably end up with "a.out" if you just do "gcc starT.c". Hopefully, since you seem to have an executable that you have made at least once, we'll have refreshed your memory enough on what you did to compile it the first time. 209.131.76.183 (talk) 13:28, 14 November 2012 (UTC)

Would a killer whale in the clouds have saved Romney?

Has any Cloud computing vendor written up how their services would have kept ORCA (computer system) from beaching? Hcobb (talk) 03:05, 14 November 2012 (UTC)

Not as far as I know. Cloud hosting might have solved the server capacity / bandwidth issues, but from what I've read the problems with ORCA went far beyond that. The people responsible sent out the wrong passwords, forgot to redirect www.whatever.com/orca to https://www.whatever.com/orca, didn't tell volunteers that they needed to pick up certain documents, only sent instructions the night before the election, performed no live testing etc etc. "If you used our services, the project would only have been a big disaster rather than a huge disaster" isn't a particularly compelling ad. 59.108.42.46 (talk) 03:55, 14 November 2012 (UTC)

The oddest part to me is that the American nominating process should have been the perfect test ground to build up and test such a system. First test it in the straw polls, then use it for the first few small states, building up to Super Tuesday, etc. So what was Romney using for tracking during the primaries? Hcobb (talk) 04:48, 14 November 2012 (UTC)

It didn't matter. Romney never won a primary with multiple contenders. For a mathematical analysis of his candidacy see Safe + Moderate ≠ Electable, Low-beta isn’t always better. μηδείς (talk) 05:24, 14 November 2012 (UTC)

For a party that supposedly stands for business their marketing skills and control of their systems just sucked. As to having a high beta candidate if that meant a Tea Party one then the demographics are against such a person winning. It would have reduced the mean and I'm not at all certain it would have increased the standard deviation anywhere near enough to compensate. Dmcq (talk) 12:12, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

One of the main problems with ORCA was that it was thrown together far too quickly. The Arstechnica writeup makes it sound like they were editing the documentation up until two nights before the election. Nobody, not even a really accomplished software company, can make something like that work in that small of a time window. The whole project was marked by a clear lack of appreciation of the real-world technical difficulties of such a thing. But it doesn't seem like it would have affected the overall election too much anyway. Even if, by some miracle, Romney had gotten enough extra turnout to win Florida, Virginia, and Ohio — the closest states — Obama still would have had over 270 electoral votes in far less competitive states. You'd have to imagine ORCA delivering all three of those plus Colorado for it to have tipped it — an extra 5% pro-Romney turnout. That's a lot to ask for from a piece of software. --Mr.98 (talk) 16:54, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

More broadly, what will IT do for campaigning in the future? Are we going to see a unified smart phone social media app that brings all volunteers for all candidates of a given party together and then has a two-way link to each campaign office? Hcobb (talk) 16:48, 14 November 2012 (UTC)

Take a read of the RD header. Nil Einne (talk) 02:13, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

randomly changing fractal wallpaper

How can I get wallpaper that is a dynamically changing fractal composition that doesn't just repeat a loop? I use an NV78 Gateway running Windows 7. Thanks for any and all close answers. μηδείς (talk) 07:16, 14 November 2012 (UTC)

Do you want it to randomly pick from a large group of fractals, or actually generate it's own, by varying parameters randomly ? StuRat (talk) 07:35, 14 November 2012 (UTC)

I'd like one fractal that would slowly evolve but not in a loop, which is why I said "random". An occasional change of underlying form would be okay, but I want the moment-to moment evolution to be organic, not just a bunch os flashes from randomly collected still to random still. Basically, I want a programy like those of basic screen saversm bu for my desktop. μηδείς (talk) 07:46, 14 November 2012 (UTC)

Is this what you had in mind (only fancier, with color and shading): [1], [2] ? Here's a screensaver that does leaf forms: [3] (do a find on "Paprotka"). StuRat (talk) 09:14, 14 November 2012 (UTC)

Use Winamp visualizations (AVS or Milkdrop) in desktop mode. Try googling the words "winamp fractal visualization". Activating desktop mode for MilkDrop: Preferences (Ctrl-P) > Plug-ins > Visualization > Select "MilkDrop vx.xx". Click on configure and select Render mode: "Desktop Mode (using overlays)". Trio The Punch (talk) 12:16, 14 November 2012 (UTC) p.s. Watch this if you want to use a fractal screensaver on your desktop.

Was more looking for what Trio has linked to, Stu. But thanks because you have reminded me of the fractal lifeforms from Richard Dawkin's book--I'll have to look for those and see if I can get the program off the internet. As for Trio's links, I will have to mess around for a while, so I'll get back if I need help or when I succeed. Thanks. μηδείς (talk) 17:33, 14 November 2012 (UTC)

November 15

Trespassing by "Registry Mechanic"

A few months ago I looked at the web site of some proprietary software called "registry mechanic". I did not intentionally download anything. Ever since then, at 7:00 PM each evening, all processes on my computer get shut down so that the registry mechanic software can run. If left to itself, it generates a report saying something's wrong with my computer and I should buy something from them to fix the problem. Tonight I was typing a comment on facebook when registry mechanic came along and shut down the page. There's some software that's supposedly intended to delete the registry mechanic software from my machine, but there can be little doubt that that's a fraud. The idea that they should be polite to people they're trying to sell stuff to exceeds the comprehension of whoever did this. This is clearly a criminal trespass.

Is there a safe way to delete this software? Michael Hardy (talk) 01:27, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

Unless it has replaced core executables, you can delete it as any other software: via Programs & Features or simply by deleting its exectables and files. You might start by running msconfig and making sure it is not set to run upon bootup. ¦ Reisio (talk) 03:02, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

See also Registry Mechanic#Criticism.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 08:34, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

Use computer monitor for TV

I have an extra computer monitor with standard (VGA) input only and I want to use it as a TV. Is there an inexpensive way to do this?

I googled for this, and found ways requiring a TV tuner. However, I shouldn't need a tuner. I want to connect the computer monitor to either:

1. a digital cable TV box with a coax output, or
2. a DVD player with HDMI, component, S-video, coax, and video output.

Is there a simple, relatively inexpensive way to do this? (I see adapters to use a TV on a computer, but I want to go the other way.) Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 01:40, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

1. With a tv tuner, you can get them for very little
2. With a simple converter/adapter, you can get them for very little
3. With something like Netflix with an existing computer and VGA cable

¦ Reisio (talk) 01:58, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

The tuners I've seen are pretty expensive, and I don't think I need one anyway, since if I use the digtal cable box, the tuner is in the box. And if I connect it to the DVD player, I don't need a tuner. I've seen inexpensive adapters with the right connectors, but they only say that they allow you use use a TV connected to a computer. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 02:19, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

Well I found this and this. A little more than I wanted to spend. If I spend that much, I might be better off putting it on a cheap TV instead. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 04:33, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

Or a new monitor with HDMI in. ¦ Reisio (talk) 04:38, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

Yes, I hadn't thought about that - that would work. I have a small TV hooked up to the DVD player in my audio system that I use for selecting from the DVD menu. I have an extra VGA monitor. I want to have a small TV in the kitchen. I'm thinking about ways to either use the monitor as a TV in the kitchen; or move the TV from the DVD to the kitchen and use the monitor on the DVD player. But a monitor with HDMI should be cheaper than a TV, I think. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 05:43, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

How do you want to get the signal for the TV in the kitchen ? With rabbit ears ? Also, do you have any computer monitor with inputs beyond VGA ? If so, perhaps you can swap this monitor with that one, giving you a spare monitor with the inputs you need. StuRat (talk) 17:38, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

A coax cable outlet in the kitchen. I checked all of the monitors, and there is only one with an additional input, and I use it for my main computer, and I'm not giving it up.Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 19:16, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

Does that co-ax cable contains a digital cable TV signal converted to analog, to plug right in to a TV ? Or is it still in digital form, requiring a cable converter box ?

As far as swapping monitors, you can check if any friends or relatives have an old monitor with more inputs, and perhaps they will be willing to do an exchange. Failing that, buying a cheap TV is probably the most economical solution, especially if you don't mind a used analog TV (it doesn't matter with cable, since it converts the digital signal to analog for you). I inherited so many analog TVs as a result of the digital transition, that I now have TVs in my living room, bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom. :-) StuRat (talk) 06:37, 16 November 2012 (UTC)

The cable signal is digital. But I called yesterday and I can get a converter box (with analog coax output) from the cable company for free. (HD ones with more outputs cost $10/month.) Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 15:55, 16 November 2012 (UTC)

laptop hard disk swap

I stupidly flew with my Sony Vaio laptop in a soft checked-in bag, thinking I didn't want to work on the plane and didn't want to bother with it at security. The screen got crushed enough to display its own abstract pattern Jackson Pollock would have admired but almost none of the desktop is visible. The authorized Sony repair shop here in Amman said that a new screen would cost 290 Dinars and they conveniently had the same computer for 430 Dinars and there aren't many other alternatives so it was a good day for them: I bought a replacement computer (but black, instead of pink, so my ex-wife won't tease me so much), comforting myself with the thought that I would at least end up with a spare charger, battery, and, potentially, a hard disk. But they told me that swapping the hard disk in would void my new warranty.

I've put the old computer's hard disk into a USB enclosure and the new computer sees it but it won't allow me access to my account. (I see various technical looking folders and under users, I see public and I see my account.) I follow some options and try to get ownership of my old account's folder but then it goes into hours of tweaking files, often interrupted by a failure where I can click skip, and then a crash, which requires me to swear and start again.

Question a): Is there an easier way for me to get access to my files on the old drive, and if so, how?

Question b): Apart from voiding the warranty, what should I expect if I put the old drive in the new computer? If it works, I'll copy some stuff to another working external drive, and then either put the new drive back or not even bother.

178.77.141.183 (talk) 13:08, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

I should know the answer to (a), but am apparently not awake enough to give you useful advice on it... For (b), I would expect the computer to boot up and run just fine off of your old drive. There is also a good chance your warranty won't be voided. I recommend reading through the warranty - generally competent third-party service can't void a warranty, unless the service can be shown to be the cause of the failure. (At least in the US, I don't know how the warranty will vary since you purchased it somewhere else.) Worst case, as long as you don't break any "warranty void" seals, you should be able to swap the old drive back in when you have warranty work done on it and they won't be able to tell the difference. 209.131.76.183 (talk) 13:34, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

a) You should be able to access the files just fine from the enclosure. Actually logging into the old account on the old drive is another matter that I wouldn't bother with.
b) It might work, it might not (due mostly to the nature of Microsoft Windows). You don't need to do this just to copy data off the old disk, your enclosure will suffice.
¦ Reisio (talk) 17:21, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

Windows isn't going to care about the drive being swapped, so I think the old drive can just be dropped right in. However, you mentioning the enclosure again gave me the idea of booting to a USB device with imaging software installed. You could clone the old drive onto the new drive, so you have the install from your old system without taking apart your old system. I'm not sure what the best free software to use is anymore, other people here probably will have good suggestions for that. Reisio, I think the problem he is seeing is with Windows file permissions on the old disk - the files belong to the user on the old pc, not his new one. Running explorer as administrator gives access to them, but changing the owner is a recursive process that sounds like it is giving him trouble. 209.131.76.183 (talk) 17:37, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

No, it really might care. ¦ Reisio (talk) 19:00, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

The OP claims that the new laptop is the same as the old one, so the hardware sohuld be identical. Mismatched disk IDs could cause a problem if the imaging software doesn't preserve the ID, but physically moving the old disc into the new computer doesn't cause any issues there. The MAC address will change, but Windows won't care about that. If for some reason the new system refuses to boot on the old drive, it could always be moved back into the old PC. Connect an external monitor and sysprep the system, then move the drive back to the new PC. I shuffle Windows Embedded Standard 7 disks between identical (or near identical) systems somewhat often and have never had an issue, and they are basically a stripped down version of Windows 7. 209.131.76.183 (talk) 20:11, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

That's where might comes into play. ¦ Reisio (talk) 20:32, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

OP again. OK, I swapped the drives (which looked the same - both Hitachi - but the old one said it was made in Thailand and the new one China.) (Also I added the old RAM to the new computer.) When I booted up it said somemthing about 'Preparing your desktop' and then a popup message said something like "you have logged in with a temporary profile, you won't be able to access any files, this profile will be removed, try again later". I've booted up three times and that message reappears and yes, I cannot access anything. When I open C:/users/MyName I have the same access problems I had when this drive was in the enclosure. I am currently trying the whole 'Setting Security information' process I orginally complained about, which is bothersome not only because it looks as if it will takes hours but also because it halts and askes me to press 'continue' so much. Any advice or encouragement? 80.90.168.182 (talk) 06:22, 16 November 2012 (UTC)

You can boot your old system with a pc monitor and connect it to the new one by lAN and then copy the files… Iskánder Vigoa Pérez 10:12, 16 November 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Iskander HFC (talk • contribs)

Is it auto-logging into this temporary account? Does it let you log out and then back in as your regular user? 209.131.76.183 (talk) 13:01, 16 November 2012 (UTC)

I don’t fully understand this last part, I’m just telling you a way to get access to your files on the old drive… besides the broken screen, your old laptop present another problem?

What I wanted to tell you initially was:

1 - put each hdd in its respective laptop.

2 – boot both laptops. (in the old one you should not see anything because the broken display, but your things like user account, privileges etc., will still be there)

3 – connect each laptop by LAN (a cable that fix in to the rj45 port)

4 – from the new laptop access by the LAN to the old one and copy all the files you need — Preceding unsigned comment added by Iskander HFC (talk • contribs) 14:44, 16 November 2012 (UTC)

Thanks everybody. I wish I'd known of the last suggestion before I, er, threw away the older laptop. Lesson learned.

I'm now using the new hard disk in the new computer and still wondering about an efficient way to access the old drive.Your Username 08:53, 17 November 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Hayttom (talk • contribs)

Again, using the enclosure will suffice. If you're having trouble accessing the files, it's probably a simple software configuration issue. ¦ Reisio (talk) 22:48, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

Well… you could try with some bootable image, like “ACTIVE BootDisk” Iskánder Vigoa Pérez 14:27, 17 November 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Iskander HFC (talk • contribs)

Find a text editor that can highlight MediaWiki syntax.

Hello! WikED (or AWB) can highlight syntax, and I want a local editor that can do that. But I found UltraEdit seems do not support MediaWiki language...--Anonymous 15:26, 15 November 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.117.145.246 (talk)

Have a look at Wikipedia:Text_editor_support. If you don't want to dive in to world of hard-core text editors (emacs/VI families), TextMate might be a good alternative. SemanticMantis (talk) 15:39, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

BTW, I started searching for mediawiki syntax highlighting, which wasn't working well. Searching for /wikimarkup text editor syntax highlighting/ took me straight to the link above. SemanticMantis (talk) 15:40, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

Bluetooth peripherals in OSX

Hello, I use an Apple magic mouse and a magic trackpad on OSX (10.7.5). The trackpad automatically syncs / reconnects each morning when I wake up the computer and turn on the trackpad, but the mouse does not. I have to manually add the mouse again each day via system preferences. Is there a way I can make both peripherals automatically reconnect when powered on? Thanks, SemanticMantis (talk) 15:34, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

Help with upgrading PC.

I'm helping someone upgrade a computer that they are using & need some help in getting a list of what parts we will need. From a manual I found, it has a K7S5A Socket A motherboard & I was trying to find what components (ie CPU, Graphics Card, Sound Card, etc) I need to get to "max it out" but when I've googled the motherboard details all I get are lists of every component that compatible with that board. Could someone help & narrow it down for me please ?
PS I know that its an old motherboard & I've offered to get a brand new one for them but thats the one that they want. Scotius (talk) 15:36, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

Socket A was back in the AGP days, right? "Maxing out" the video card will cost $40ish for an ancient GeForce 6200, assuming it takes AGP 8x. On Newegg, 4x cards are closer to $60. If they're looking for gaming performance, it is time to update the whole system. The motherboard is going to put very low limits on what you can do. Just to give an idea of what you can do with a new system, this TigerDirect kit [4] is $150 ($200 before rebate) and comes with everything but a hard drive and videocard. A $60 modern videocard, although at the low end of the performance spectrum, will still greatly outperform a $60 AGP 4x card. 209.131.76.183 (talk) 15:49, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

Actually, it looks like the motherboard has onboard video. According to [5], the onboard video (Radeon 3000) outperforms the GeForce 6200 that is the best you can put in the old motherboard. It is definitely low-end, but it is better than a "maxed-out" card in what they currently have. 209.131.76.183 (talk) 16:43, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

So for the list of components, what CPU will I need ? Scotius (talk) 11:37, 16 November 2012 (UTC)

Win XP SP3 won't boot

There's no error message displayed, and it won't boot in "safe mode" or "last good boot" mode, either. I'm able to boot it into Linux, using a flash drive, and can access the hard drive that way, so it doesn't appear to be a hardware issue, although there could be a bad sector where a critical component of the O/S is stored, I suppose. Also, the Puppy Linux boot seems buggy. In particular, either Firefox dies with no error or the screen goes black, with nothing but a non-moving pointer. When I reboot, it's good for a while longer. I haven't used this Linux install on this PC enough to know if it's always like this or if this is new behavior. So, short of reinstalling the O/S, what can I try ? StuRat (talk) 16:27, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

Can you elaborate a little more on what is displayed when you boot? Is it just a black screen with a cursor, or...? What's the full sequence of what you see — does the BIOS boot up? --Mr.98 (talk) 16:47, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

No black screen in Windows. It goes through the normal boot sequence until Windows should appear, then, instead of doing that, it gives the standard, "Windows could not start normally, selected one of the following choices" panel, with each choice producing the same results. StuRat (talk) 17:30, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

Did you check the BIOS? Oda Mari (talk) 08:06, 16 November 2012 (UTC)

No. How do I do that ? StuRat (talk) 18:29, 16 November 2012 (UTC)

Support representatives of my computer always say to check BIOS and select "default" when I have booting troubles and, if my memory serves me right, I can check it from the standard, "Windows could not start normally, selected one of the following choices" panel. Or maybe I should press F? key. My XP is an OEM and I have no idea what you should do with yours. I don't think your trouble is related to static electricity, but try to pull out the plug and leave it for a while. It works sometimes. Oda Mari (talk) 07:20, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

I tried both restoring the BIOS defaults and unplugging it, with no change. StuRat (talk) 23:33, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

You could try booting a Windows XP install image and running its error checking stuff. ¦ Reisio (talk) 17:24, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

Error logs ?

Let me ask where I can read error logs which might tell me what the problem is. (Even though no error is displayed to the screen, that doesn't mean it wasn't logged.) StuRat (talk) 06:31, 16 November 2012 (UTC)

Any other suggestions ? If I can't figure this out, I may need to buy a new computer to finish my online classes. StuRat (talk) 22:37, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

One physical, two logical printers?

Is it possible to configure the same physical printer as two logical devices? Clearly, it would have to have two names; my reason is to have two different default value sets so I'm not clicking on and changing Properties 50% of the time.

Primary interest is for Win7 in a corporate environment -- and I'm not the network admin. We have a big-ass copier/fax/scanner/printer configured as a B&W printer (free) and also as a color printer (for which we charge), but I'd like to install two variants of the B&W device. At my level using Add Printer -> Add Network Printer won't show any other device which I have already added, so I can't "reselect" it and do this on my own. Any other suggestions?

--DaHorsesMouth (talk) 17:40, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

It can be done, but I'm not sure if Windows and other operating systems support it. You might have to do something messy, like printing to a file, then send that file to the printer. StuRat (talk) 17:47, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

You may have some luck with the "net use" [6] command. 209.131.76.183 (talk) 18:15, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

Nothing prevents you from creating two or more logical printers for the same physical printer (including network printers) in Windows. Ruslik_Zero 19:30, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

Good! But, can you suggest HOW exactly? Like I previously said, Add Printer -> Add Network Printer doesn't seem to be the right path; perhaps you can link me to some more specific instructions? --DaHorsesMouth (talk) 23:00, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

"Add Printer -> Add Network Printer doesn't seem to be the right path". Why? You should just proceed with creation. Ruslik_Zero 11:39, 16 November 2012 (UTC)

Can you suggest HOW exactly? Perhaps you can link me to some more specific instructions? This is getting frustrating.

--DaHorsesMouth (talk) 16:22, 16 November 2012 (UTC)

Exactly the same as with the first instance of this printer. Just repeat the installation the second time. Ruslik_Zero 19:24, 16 November 2012 (UTC)

I would recommend using AutoIt or something similar to chose the desired configuration. Trio The Punch (talk) 21:41, 16 November 2012 (UTC)

Given the glaring absence of any real instructions or usable suggestions, I conclude that this cannot be done by an end user of this system.

--DaHorsesMouth (talk) 22:03, 16 November 2012 (UTC)

That conclusion is wrong. [7] Trio The Punch (talk) 14:02, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

November 16

Activity Monitor downloaded on an old Windows XP ?

Hello, Learned Ones ! That unknown (to me) thing kept knocking every day at the door of my old (2002 version) but otherwise well-running Windows XP (+ Free 2013 AVG) , so I yielded and let it come in. But I see on the WP article Activity Monitor that it is an Apple device... Haven't I let the wolf enter my pigsty ? Must I eradicate the foreigner, or let it go on living its life peacefully ? Thanks beforehand for your answers (but please be explicit, mind I'm not a geek at all, I first knew of info. after my maturity went away, & am still trying to defragment my HDD, it was so easy on Windows 95...) . T.y. Arapaima (talk) 07:16, 16 November 2012 (UTC)

The Activity Monitor you linked to simply will not run on Windows. If you are running something called Activity Monitor on Windows, you need to find out what you're actually running. The fact it's not made by Apple is actually likely a bigger concern. For all the concerns with some of their Windows software, at least Apple software does not normally function like malware, but this is easily possible for some random Activity Monitor you got from some random unknown source. If it actually suggests it's made by Apple in the Help, About or somewhere else this would be an even bigger concern. Nil Einne (talk) 08:31, 16 November 2012 (UTC)

Windowssoftware with the same name exists. Trio The Punch (talk) 10:32, 16 November 2012 (UTC) p.s. Step by step instructions to defragment harddrives with Windows XP.

Thanks a lot pals ! Since I'm retired now & don't work anymore for NKVD, I'll try to erase that "soft"ware ! (while defragmenting my HDD, if possible) T.y.Arapaima (talk) 08:09, 18 November 2012 (UTC)

Clipboard/prntsc logger?

Hello, saving images for me it's really slow so I wanted to know if there's any clipboard logger or something that saves images automatically when the Print Screen button is pressed. (I've searched for print screen logger and no relevant results) 190.60.93.218 (talk) 13:11, 16 November 2012 (UTC)

Try searching for screen capture tools. There are programs that take over the functionality of the print screen button, usually enhancing it by letting you select specific parts of the screen or other simlar tasks. A quick search shows several sites with screen capture tools or lists of suggested ones. Looking through their feature lists you may be able to find one that automatically saves images. 209.131.76.183 (talk) 13:21, 16 November 2012 (UTC)

I like to use Tinyresmeter for that. Right-click the tray icon and chose "Screenshots". Everytime you press the printscreen button it creates a file. If you want to share the screenshot online quickly you can use SceenSnapr, it automagically uploads the screenshot you've made and puts the URL on the clipboard. Trio The Punch (talk) 21:08, 16 November 2012 (UTC)

⊞ Win+S should work if you have Microsoft OneNote. Also take a look at Category:Screenshot software. ⋘HueSatLum ? ❢⋙ 02:35, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

Mail

In AppleMac's Snow Lepard it was possible to "bounce" emails, how is that possible in Mountain Lion please?85.211.134.39 (talk) 16:58, 16 November 2012 (UTC)

November 17

An inexpensive video game gameplay capture device?

What are some particularly inexpensive (under $30) gameplay capture (audio and video) devices? Or do they not exist at a price this low? Nicholasprado (talk) 18:27, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

Console games? Which console? Or do you mean PC games? Fraps is free has a free trail version! Trio The Punch (talk) 12:38, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

Fraps is shareware... AndyTheGrump (talk) 14:07, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

Oops. Andy is right, just because I downloaded a torrent doesn't mean it is free. Trio The Punch (talk) 14:16, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

I mean for console games, yes. Nicholasprado (talk) 18:27, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

for best quality wise- you need to look for an hdmi based pci-e card or possibly a usb card, like those by Avermedia and BlackMAgic. Although they aint under the 30 bucks price range level, but do give you almost uncompromising 1 to 1 quality to what you actually see on the tv screen when playing console games. There are also kinds of cards like the Hauppauge HD PVR and cheaper ones such as dazzle and easycap(crap really) but all of those though to a different degree in terms of the extent they impair the original quality of the signal, they all perform a digital to analog and back to digital conversion which is really something unnecessary and undesirable since you want digital to digital, not some extra converting which adds impurity to the signal and making it less precise and crisp. So if your goal is to have as best quality as possible then go for an hdmi capture card , if money is an object, then you might consider cheaper solutions but again the end quality would be far less superior than with an hdmi card. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.35.43.160 (talk • contribs)

Which is better? Windows 8 or Ubuntu 12.10?

Which one should I use? Write English in Cyrillic (talk) 05:34, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

They both have pretty silly default UIs, but you can change the one on Ubuntu more easily, and the base system should be comparatively more reliable, secure, etc.. ¦ Reisio (talk) 06:19, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

If you want to play first person shooters... use Windows. If you want to edit video, buy a Mac. If not, use Ubuntu (or any other *nix distro). Trio The Punch (talk) 12:56, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

Wow wow!! Only for shooters? And if you plan to use Premiere? Or Composite? Or Lightworks ? or 3ds Max???

And no, win8 is not silly… its very very silly, I don’t understand why they do it this way, I even had to input some stupid code in the cmd to get the netframework 3.5 installed (I need it from my old and expensive autodesk software)

the result right now I have 1 machine with win8 and all the others with 7

my modest opinion:

If you want to see movies, listen music, web browsing etc. ->Ubuntu (and there is no way somebody tell you that is as silly as win8)

If you need to work with adobe, autodesk, solidworks… (and play shooters/cars/anything) -> win7

Lastly if you want to spend a lot quantity of money in a system… say welcome to Mac, and congratulations! now you “think different” 

Iskánder Vigoa Pérez 15:05, 17 November 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Iskander HFC (talk • contribs)

Refresh rates of 59 and 60 Hz

I've noticed that many modern computer display drivers and graphics-intensive applications (including but not limited to simulations and video games) offer exactly two refresh rates: 59 Hz and 60 Hz. I can understand the 60 Hz: 60 is a nice "round" number (more precisely, highly composite number) and 60 cycles per second nicely fits the pattern of 60 seconds per minute and 60 minutes per hour. So, two questions:

1. Why is the other option always 59 instead of, say, 61 (that is, why always 1 under 60 instead of 1 over 60), or some "rounder" (more composite) number like 30, 50, 80, or 120?
2. Why is this option offered at all? Under what circumstances would you want to choose 59 Hz over 60 Hz, or 60 Hz over 59 Hz?

—SeekingAnswers (reply) 06:38, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

I've never seen 59 and 60... I've seen 50 and 60 though. If you're seeing 59 it could just have to do with how the equipment is measuring the input Hz more than it has anything to do with it actually being actually technically pegged at 59. You would need an oscilliscope to know for sure, but if you're using North American power I'd suspect it's at 60, and Europe, 50 (although sort of a moot point with modern LCD monitors and DC run equipment). Shadowjams (talk) 09:37, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

I find it strange that you've never seen 59 and 60, as they are extremely common values (Googling 59 Hz 60 Hz will return 13.4 million results as of this writing, and those top results all discuss how screens and software offer the choice between those two values, though the top results don't really explain very well why those two values are so commonly used). And the hardware isn't measuring and reporting the refresh rate back as 59 Hz; instead, hardware (multiple different systems by different manufacturers) and software (by many different developers and publishers), are offering the choice between setting the refresh rate to 59 Hz or 60 Hz. —SeekingAnswers (reply) 19:54, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

This is discussed in numerous forums (example). 60 Hz is a common refresh rate for computer monitors, presumably because it corresponds to the North American mains frequency. 59.94 Hz (approximately) is the NTSC refresh rate. As explained in our NTSC article, in the early days of colour TV they discovered that 'dot crawl' was a problem so they had to move the refresh rate slightly away from the mains frequency. Your graphics driver is helpfully offering you the standard monitor refresh rate and the television refresh rate. Presumably (that word again) Windows rounds 59.94 Hz down to 59 Hz, but if you select it you will actually get 59.94 Hz. --Heron (talk) 11:47, 18 November 2012 (UTC)

ATX start up

IS there any difference for an ATX PSU and all of the associated hardware in the PC if you turn it on and off just by pushing the power-switch on the back of the PSU(most have them) - and when you leave the switch always on and just plug/unplug the mains cord from a plug socket extension adapter or a wall outlet directly??

Could there be any damage done to the hardware in the latter case?? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.35.43.160 (talk) 07:57, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

Basically no. The switch at the back just interrupts the mains. However, the switch is usually equiped with a capacitor to prevent arcing between the contacts when switching off, which may prevent nasty spikes that could damage the PSU or PC. — Edokter ( talk) — 09:52, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

Well, when you just plug-unplug the mains cord leaving the psu switch on, does that capacitor which protects from electric arcs also take effect or it doesn't get to do its stuff to deter those arcs from happening and potentially damaging your pc parts? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.35.43.160 (talk) 10:31, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

That is true, it still offers some protection. But using the plug to switch the PC on and off is still not advisable; when not seated properly, it may still cause trouble due to poor contact between the socket and the plug. — Edokter ( talk) — 11:00, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

But then what about those PSUs that don't have a power-switch on them, how are you supposed to turn them completely off-on if not by the power-cord??? I mean would that risk damaging your pc still be there?

I guess there is a low risk to broke the psu or the system by doing that… at least if the psu is high-quality, if the psu is generic, or low-q there are greater chances of troble, (having or don’t having the switch)

Once I had a 300watts ASUS that doesn’t had power switch, and erroneously put it in a 220 volts outlet with the volt selector in 115… the thing make a strident noise that make me think that the whole system was fried… but the psu had some kind of protection and I didn’t even had to go to an electrician, just switch a fusible, put the selector in 220 and everything fine

I had this pc for a while and resolve the switcher problem by buying a extension cord that had one, but I did it just for convenience, not for fear or avoiding risks

Iskánder Vigoa Pérez (talk) 15:45, 18 November 2012 (UTC)

What is more "expensive" in Java, memory operations or arithmetic operations?

Say I want to write a Java program that involves computing powers of two with even exponents like 2², 2⁴, 2⁶, 2⁸, 2¹⁰ and so on for all exponents in some interval, like say [2, 1000000] or something. It is clear that once I have computed the lowest such power, I could compute the next one by simply multiplying the previous result with 4. So lets suppose I want to compute the powers of two for all even exponents in the interval [10⁹, 10¹⁰]. Which of the following two methods will be faster?

1. computing 2² and then multiplying the result with 4, multiply that result with 4 and so on or

2. computing all powers separately, thus computing 2², 2⁴, 2⁶, etc.

Of course there might be no significant difference when the exponents are small, but if I am using very large exponents (using a package for large integer arithmetic), which will be faster? -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 17:51, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

Firstly, it's not especially relevant that you're talking about Java; it's much the same problem in C or assembly or anything else that compiles down (by one path or another) to concrete machine instructions. In general, you won't get concrete answers to specific questions like this without reasoning about the real characteristics of implementations of algorithms, and the concrete characteristics of the real microprocessor you intend to run this on. To understand the relative costs of procedures, you need to know the relative costs of the primitives that comprise them. For your example, you'll need to figure out:

1. the cost (in instructions) of calculating the nth member of the sequence from whole cloth
2. the cost of calculating the nth member when you already know the (n-1)th member
3. whether these operations can be achieved solely in the register set of the target machine, and if not how many load/store operators (moving data between registers and cache) are involved, per iteration
4. to what extent the working set of your program fits into the (data) cache of your target processor
5. and if it doesn't fit, figure out how many put/gets between cache and system RAM the process will take
6. and, from the concrete characteristics of your given CPU and its memory interface (and actual memory) you have to figure out the cost of those reg-cache and cache-ram operations

Hopefully, from this you'll end up with two equations, one for the time taken for your first method and one for the second, and the answer to your question (with I think will be unique, but needn't be) will be the point at which the two cross. In practice, as CPU cores have gotten faster, they've progressively outpaced their caches, and the caches have in turn outpaced RAM, so the breakeven point between calculating and storing has moved outward with time. But where they cross right now, for your algorithm on your cpu, will take a more thorough calculation. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 18:49, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

Thank you. I have indeed a concrete mathematical problem that I am personally interested in and want to write a Java program for computing solutions to that problem. In particular, I want to compute solutions of the congruence $2^{n}\equiv 1{\pmod {(n+1)^{2}}}\,\!$ -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 19:40, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

I know this is a digression but — why would you want to use Java for that? If you're writing a program to solve a problem for yourself personally, you don't need platform-independence, and you should get better performance in C or C++. (Of course, it could make sense if you just know Java better.) --Trovatore (talk) 19:46, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

Mainly because I am unfamiliar with C and only know little C++. -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 19:50, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

I already thought about possibly using Python. I haven't done much with Python so far, but from what I read on the web it seems to be relatively easy to learn and has built in arbitrary precision arithmetic for integers. -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 19:54, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

If you only want to go up to 1000000 (and you're using something later than an 80386) I suppose you really shouldn't much have to worry about speed anyway. But if you are worried about it, which your question seems to suggest, then an interpreted language like Python should be the last choice, even worse than Java.

You don't need arb-precision arithmetic to solve this problem (again, assuming you're only going up to 1000000). --Trovatore (talk) 20:01, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

Well, I planned for the program to be able to also search intervals with larger bounds. For example, if I want to be able to still use the program when I am somewhere around 10¹⁵ for n then I would indeed need arb precision arithmetic. -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 20:13, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

In any case I don't think either of your proposed algorithms is anywhere near optimal. What I would do is, for each value of n, compute $2^{n}{\pmod {(n+1)^{2}}}\,\!$ by successive squaring mod (n+1)^2, using the binary representation of n. There are even better algorithms but that one is very easy to implement. It does mean that the work that you do for n=17 is irrelevant to the case n=19, but that's a small price to pay. --Trovatore (talk) 20:21, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

Thanks. I think I will have to study this problem more thoroughly before implementing something. At least I've got some good ideas now that I can investigate. -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 21:17, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

What language you use doesn't matter much, since most of the time will be spent in your bigint library, so use a fast one like GMP (library). The python wrapper for this is gmpy (www.gmpy.org). Java's bignum library is also reasonably good, though possibly optimized for cryptographic-sized numbers. The arithmetic will be slower than the memory transfers once the numbers start getting big. 67.119.3.105 (talk) 21:56, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

Well, not up to 10000000, it won't. You don't need bignums at all for that; you can do everything with 32-bit ints 64-bit long long ints. --Trovatore (talk) 22:37, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

To store 2^1000000 you will need 1000000 bits. So you would need bignums. Which is another argument for calculating the modulo value directly. Taemyr (talk) 19:20, 18 November 2012 (UTC)

overflow of box in html

Hi folks, I'm using SimpleModal with jQuery for dialog boxes, as found here, but I'm using it for a simple, general alert box, to override the ugly standard one you get with javascript/ html. But because I use it to add my own custom messages, the text overflows the alert box, and for some strange reason, the browser/ html standard doesn't get that I don't want text hovering in mid-air. How to I make a box resize itself when the text gets too long? The css currently has {height: 140px}. I know I could allocate size on a case-by-case basis, but it strikes me as frightfully simple, so surely there must be an option in standard css. I really can't believe it isn't already the default functioning. Every single google search takes me to an absurd array of things that are not connected, such as the function to allow the user to resize a window, when I want to make html do the automatic resizing. Setting "height: auto" simply doesn't work, and neither do any clearfix workarounds that I've tried, and I've been hunting for at least two hours, so this is driving me mad. Any help appreciated. IBE (talk) 21:11, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

Can you link to the specific code you're using? ¦ Reisio (talk) 22:52, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

Certainly: the link for demos is here, and the demo in question is the "confirm override" section. However, I think I know what's happening. Based on using Firebug, it seems that the program itself is asserting the css style, that is, Firebug shows the css as @element.style, rather than giving the original css file. I was thrown by the fact that the css contains the height data, but presumably, the javascript takes that css and applies it directly and forcefully, which is absurdly annoying. If anyone can either back this or refute it, I would be interested, but it's probably something like this, rather than a misunderstanding of css rules of precedence, or html/dom manipulation. Any insights welcome, but save yourselves the time if you think I'm right about the basic cause. I'm solving the problem by allocating the height as a parameter, which is easy enough, I just hate not having a general solution. IBE (talk) 14:14, 18 November 2012 (UTC)

In fact, I think I've found it: here is the code fragment, where i.b.e. refers to my own comments:

	$.modal.impl = {
		/*
		 * Contains the modal dialog elements and is the object passed
		 * back to the callback (onOpen, onShow, onClose) functions
		 */

		//blah blah lots of stuff

		update: function (height, width) {
			var s = this;
			//...
			// reset orig values
			s.d.origHeight = s.getVal(height, 'h');
			s.d.origWidth = s.getVal(width, 'w');

			// hide data to prevent screen flicker
			s.d.data.hide();

			//[i.b.e.] this seems to be the offending bit
			height && s.d.container.css('height', height);
			width && s.d.container.css('width', width);

			//...
		},

		//...

So this more or less resolves it, but since I'm here, if anyone has come across similar problems and knows good workarounds, please share them. I get that I could just fiddle with those lines, or even comment them out, but some gurus here might know a better way. Also, for other dummies who are following this for interest, the lines "height && " and "width && " are apparently just to ensure conditional execution of the second part of the line. This took me a while to figure out, so I thought I'd share it. IBE (talk) 14:42, 18 November 2012 (UTC)

Mouse repeatedly click when button is held down?

I have a Logitech G500 gaming mouse with the SetPoint software. Is there any macro I can do to program my left click (or another button) to repeatedly register left-clicks when the button is held down? For example, when playing a shooting game and using a semi-automatic weapon, this allows me to continuously fire the weapon just by holding down the button, rather than repeatedly clicking. Acceptable (talk) 22:50, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

There are many different programs who do that, if you Google "auto clicker" you'll find quite a few. Do you want a fish, or do you want to learn how to catch fish? I would recommend learning AutoIt. I wrote this script for you based on an example I found somewhere:

This discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.
HotKeySet("{F2}", "ToggleOnOff") HotKeySet("{ESC}", "Terminate") Dim $On = 0 While 1 if $On = 1 Then MouseClick("left") Sleep(0) ;you can control the click interval by increasing this number, which is the amount of waiting time between clicks (in milliseconds) Else Sleep(100) EndIf WEnd Func ToggleOnOff() If $On = 0 Then $On = 1 Else $On = 0 EndIf EndFunc Func Terminate() Exit EndFunc

This is just a quick example, you can customize it however you like. The advantage of learning AutoIt compared to simply downloading a program made by someone else is that you are not restricted to mouseclicks. You can move the mouse and use the AutoIt function Send to send keystrokes. If you want to you can even make the script detect the amount of health your character has by checking the color of a couple of the pixels in the healthbar, if they are red you know you have at least that amount of health left. Trio The Punch (talk) 00:19, 18 November 2012 (UTC)

Updated version:

This discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.
;I used F2 and F4 because F1 is Help and F3 is Search ;I used two different methods to detect keypresses (HotKeySet for F2 and _IsPressed for F4 so if you want to change them both you have to look in two different lists so I added the URLs of the lists in the sourcecode #include <Misc.au3> #include <EditConstants.au3> #include <GUIConstantsEx.au3> #include <StaticConstants.au3> #include <WindowsConstants.au3> Opt("GUIOnEventMode", 1) #Region ### START Koda GUI section ### Form= $Form1 = GUICreate("MagiClick", 366, 77, 192, 124) GUISetOnEvent($GUI_EVENT_CLOSE, "Terminate") $Label2 = GUICtrlCreateLabel("Press F2 to start the AutoClicker. Press F2 again to stop.", 8, 32, 269, 17) $Label1 = GUICtrlCreateLabel("How many milliseconds should I wait after each click?", 8, 8, 257, 17) $Input1 = GUICtrlCreateInput("0", 280, 8, 73, 21, $ES_NUMBER) GUICtrlSetLimit(-1, 10) $Label3 = GUICtrlCreateLabel("If you hold the F4 button the software will keep clicking until you release it.", 8, 56, 353, 17) $Label4 = GUICtrlCreateLabel("0 - 2147483647", 280, 32, 79, 17) GUISetState(@SW_SHOW) #EndRegion ### END Koda GUI section ### $hDLL = DllOpen("user32.dll") $delay = 0 $guidelay = 0 HotKeySet("{F2}", "ToggleOnOff") ;You can find the list of keys you can use with hotkeyset here: http://www.autoitscript.com/autoit3/docs/functions/Send.htm HotKeySet("{ESC}", "Terminate") ;You can find the list of keys you can use with hotkeyset here: http://www.autoitscript.com/autoit3/docs/functions/Send.htm Dim $Active = 0 While 1 = 1 ;loop If _IsPressed("73", $hDLL) Then ;Is someone holding F4? You can change the key by changing the number, 73 is F4, here is the full list: http://www.autoitscript.com/autoit3/docs/libfunctions/_IsPressed.htm WinSetTitle ($Form1, "", "MagiClick - Clicking!" ) CheckDelay() While _IsPressed("73", $hDLL) ;Repeat the following actions until the F4 key is released MouseClick("left") Sleep($delay) WEnd WinSetTitle ($Form1, "", "MagiClick" ) Else ;Is the autoclicker toggled on or off? if $Active = 1 Then MouseClick("left") Sleep($delay) Else sleep(100) EndIf EndIf WEnd Func ToggleOnOff() If $Active = 0 Then $Active = 1 WinSetTitle ($Form1, "", "MagiClick - AutoClicking!" ) CheckDelay() Else $Active = 0 Local $a = AutoItWinGetTitle() If $a = "MagiClick" Then Else WinSetTitle ($Form1, "", "MagiClick" ) EndIf EndIf EndFunc Func Terminate() DllClose($hDLL) Exit EndFunc Func CheckDelay() $guidelay = GUICtrlRead ( $Input1 ) If $guidelay <> $delay Then ;delay must be under 2147483647 (less than 24 days in milliseconds) If $guidelay > 2147483647 Then $guidelay = 2147483647 GUICtrlSetData ( $Input1, "2147483647" ) EndIf $delay = $guidelay Endif EndFunc

You can use something like this to count the clicks. If you want to test it without installing AutoIt you can download the compiled version here. Trio The Punch (talk) 04:53, 18 November 2012 (UTC)

Thanks! Acceptable (talk) 18:17, 18 November 2012 (UTC)

November 18

Gadgets in 8

How can I install a gadget in win8??

Somebody told me that the gadgest for win7 will still work in win8…

Iskánder Vigoa Pérez 13:51, 18 November 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Iskander HFC (talk • contribs)

I think you need something like 8GadgetPack to run Win7 gadgets in Win8. Trio The Punch (talk) 14:22, 18 November 2012 (UTC)

since I may find myself in the same position soon enough, what do you mean by gadgets? My Apple wireless keyboard (which works perfectly with Vista)? Wireless mouse? Or something more speccy? IBE (talk) 14:45, 18 November 2012 (UTC)

Well, its a bit confusing. Microsoft first introduced gadgets in Windows Vista, as part of Vista's Sidebar. In Windows 7 the Sidebar was removed, it enables you to place gadgets directly on the desktop. After a while Microsoft released a security advisory that suggested to disable Windows Sidebar and Gadgets to protect the operating system against security vulnerabilities that exploit the feature. Nowadays (in Win8) Microsoft wants us to use these things, they are called tiles, but many people call them gadgets as well. Some of the tiles are "live". A live tile is basically the same thing as a gadget. Microsoft removed the support for Win7 gadgets in Win8, but stuff like 8GadgetPack solves that problem. But why would you want to run a gadget anyway? You can use a tile. If you don't like tiles and you want useful but ugly system statistics you can use Tinyresmeter and if you want to make your desktop look "cooler" you can use Rainmeter. Trio The Punch (talk) 15:13, 18 November 2012 (UTC)

A former programmer of our group made a scheduler that we use for specifics proposes, I guess the GadgetPac is what I need.

Thanks for the link

Iskánder Vigoa Pérez (talk) 15:56, 18 November 2012 (UTC)

Idle computer power

Can you offer the relatively underused processing power of your PC for some sort of distributed enterprise for cash? If not possible, can you offer it to some scientific endeavor? Comploose (talk) 17:41, 18 November 2012 (UTC)

Click on some of the links in the See also section of the SETI@home article, BOINC & Folding@home. You can also run a Bitcoin miner. Trio The Punch (talk) 17:44, 18 November 2012 (UTC)

cf List of distributed computing projects. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 17:44, 18 November 2012 (UTC)